Opening Moves

*Flames In* Howdy folks! Decided I want to try a different format for the Author's Notes this time, putting them at the start of the chapter instead of the end. Just wanted to try it to see how it fits. Let me know which way you prefer it in your reviews (hint hint). Anywho, apologizes of course for yet another long delay in getting this out. Life and motivation to write don't always line up properly it seems (especially when you got video games to play). This is probably gonna be one of the longer chapters overall (though not as long as some in the Bridge itself, natch) so I hope that kinda makes up for the huge break. Also, I changed the format of the monster and telepath conversations. They're all still in italics, but now they have quotations around them to highlight that they are words being 'spoken' to someone else rather than an internal monologue. Personal thoughts will still be unmarked italics though, to help differentiate the two. One of these days I might go back to prior chapters and add this change in on all of them but... wow that would take a while, so not just yet methinks. That's all for now, enjoy the new chapter, and let there be plenty more to come!

*Flames out*

... Is he gone? Heh, seems like it. I think I've had enough of skulking about and observing. Time to make myself known. Heheheheheheh...

Gondo sighed to himself as he sat heavily in his chair, trying and failing to ignore the low buzz of conversation around him from the rest of the briefing room, his gaze roving about as he took it all in. At the head of the room were the three 'War' Councilmen, Gordon, Ozaki and Tachibana, arguing among themselves on some unknown topic, the pale blue light of the world map behind them painting them in an eerie light. Standing off to the side were Taiyou and Miki, the former's ever present coin whirling around her head in an agitated manner while Miki favored her with an encouraging grin. In the rows of chairs ahead of Gondo sat a mix of his personal combat team and the SD's financial analyst group, some of them chatting amicably back and forth, others with their noses pressed into tablets and busily typing away. In the mix was the IBI agent, Cassidy, who was on the phone presumably with her bosses and spewing out a steady stream of low-key snark and pointed barbs at whoever was on the other end.

Does it say something about my line of work that this is far from the weirdest task force grouping I've ever worked with? Gondo wondered in his head. Eh, probably, but who even cares at this point?

Gondo looked up from his reflecting to see the councilmen coming to some sort of agreement and ending their conversation, turning to face the room expectantly. Eventually everyone else fell silent and sat up to pay attention. Cassidy's phone call abruptly ended with her blowing a raspberry at the speaker and stuffing it in her pocket, folding her arms over her chest and pouting with an almost childlike grimace. Gondo had to suppress a chuckle at her expense.

"Before we begin," Tachibana said, drawing all eyes to him, "I'd like to thank everyone for coming to be here today. All of you have at one point or another volunteered your time, energy, and expertise to the defence of humanity and its interests-"

Taiyou snorted, Miki rolling her eyes at her in response.

"- and that has proven invaluable in the GDF'S operations time and again," Tachibana finished. "This time, we are calling on you all to deal with a clear and present danger to the safety of not just the GDF's operations, but to innocent people all over the world."

Gordon clicked his tongue and stepped in, saying, "In other words, we're going to kick the Red Dawn's remaining assets and put the eco-terrorist fanatic wannabes outta business for good. The hard way."

"Eloquent as always, Gordon," Ozaki joked, easily avoiding Gordon's free-aimed punch at his shoulder. "But yeah, we're here to organize a task force to find and prosecute what remains of the Red Dawn. We've already struck a considerable blow to the group, taking out many of their bases around the world and crippling their ability to deploy in force. But according to our intel sources," he gave a nod to Taiyou, who merely shrugged, "there's a lot more to them than just those bases, so our job isn't done yet."

"Excuse me, sir?" One of the analysts stood up. "Why exactly are we spending so much time and effort going after this one terrorist group? Don't we usually leave this kind of stuff to the IBI and government militaries?"

Cassidy scoffed in her seat and rolled her head back to look at the standing questioner. "Oh yeah, why don't you just foist off all the grunt work duties on us? Not like the GDF doesn't have the resources to take down groups like that super easily or anything while the IBI is restricted to 'police equipment'. Oh, wait…"

"None of that now," Tachibana stated. "We're supposed to be working together on this, so please leave any interservice rivalries for the break room. As for why the Dawn is receiving priority like this, there's several reasons for that. One, they attempted to break into the Dome and hijack the Dimension Tide to use on civilian targets and military bases alike."

Most of the analysts jumped at hearing that news, while Gondo and his team all had to resist the urge to look over at Taiyou. The woman herself said nothing, but her face was turned down to the floor so none could see her expression, and the coin in her mental grasp was shaking and buckling under an intense pressure.

"Second," Ozaki continued, "they used a variant of the mind domination gear created by Doctor Mafu-" He was cut off as several of the analysts hissed at the name, and amended his wording. "... By the former doctor. The gear was used to force Vishnu, a normally peaceful neutral monster, to attack Brisbane relentlessly until it had to be put down by MOGUERA."

This time it was Miki's turn to react adversely, waves of anger and disgust radiating off her strong enough that the non-telepaths of the room could feel it too. Gondo gave her a look which she caught sight of and she eased off, but the feeling of tension was still there for everyone to notice.

"Third," Gordon said, "is that these assholes are supposedly worshiping some kind of kaiju-god cult that explicitly wants to wipe out all of humanity from the planet. Negotiating is obviously out of the picture if that's the case."

"Those all sound like good reasons…" the analyst admitted, sitting down again.

Tachibana smiled slightly. "Quite. Now, we know that the Dawn has been severely hurt, but we also know that they have more people out there, and advanced enough equipment and technology to be a serious threat on the world stage. Thus, we need to find the remainder of them and eliminate them before they become an issue again."

"It took us a week to process all the supplier info that Chau provided us just to find those major bases," Cassidy said, "and that was with that moron they had working for them pointing us in the right direction. How in the heck are we supposed to find them now if we've already used all the leads we had?"

Gondo decided to step in and give his own two cents to the mix. "All the clear leads are used up maybe, but probably not all of them. These guys can't just be operating in a vacuum, not with all the resources they're using. Somebody has to be supplying them, and since we've already eliminated the big boys with big guns doing it, now we need to figure out where else they can get what they need."

"Would you like to point us in a direction then?" one of the analysts asked. "We don't know enough about this group to even know how many resources they even need, let alone where they get it all. Searching for them without at least a place to start is like looking for a needle in a haystack without knowing where the haystack even is."

The conversation continued that way for several minutes, one side making a suggestion of where they could start only for the other side to point out the flaws in beginning there, creating an endless circle of arguing that was going nowhere fast. Gondo decided to sit back and let everyone else hash it out but clued in on a thought and turned to where Miki and Taiyou were watching on silently.

"How about you, Sunny? You got anything to chime in with?"

Taiyou blew a lock of hair out of her face and faced him with a flat look. "I've already given you people every bit of intel I possibly could ages ago. I have nothing new to add to that."

"Care to speculate then?" Ozaki asked. "What do you think the Dawn will be doing at this point?"

Taiyou shook her head and sighed. "I can't really tell you much. I was only in line for a command position. They didn't actually tell me anything of importance yet. If I had to pull something out from my ass, I would guess that they're probably going to give up on military action from now on now that your attention is on them and they'll focus on… other methods."

Tachibana rubbed his chin in thought. "Other methods? Like what?"

"No idea. Most of that stuff was, again, not told to low levels like me." She paused for a moment, her eyes closing as she probed the depths of her memory. "There is… one thing, not sure if it means anything though."

"Anything would help at this point," Miki said.

Taiyou shrugged at her. "There was a... bizarre interest by my commanders in searching for ancient ruins, especially artifacts from super ancient civilizations. I have no clue why we were looking for them, but the majority of my missions were going to old archaeology sites, taking the places over, and then searching for 'items of interest'. Not much of a helpful guideline."

Tachibana turned to the world map behind him and pressed a button on the side to reset it to a massive computer screen. "Gladness, bring up some of the photos we took of materials found at the Dawn bases. Focus on the ancient relics and items found at the location in Afghanistan."

"Affirmative sir," the electronic voice immediately answered. The screen quickly filled up with images, most of them depicting weird looking items made of a strange material that seemed like a cross between stone and metal.

"Oh yeah, that's the kinda stuff we were looking for," Taiyou immediately said. "Never found out what we did with any of it, but it was the biggest thing we were doing when we weren't training or out on other missions."

"We have some theories as to what they were for," Ozaki said, nodding over at Gladness' holo-avatar.

"The current theory is that the Dawn was attempting to reverse engineer the artifacts to find methods of utilizing the unique power sources and energy weaponry they contained. Presumably to find easier ways of killing lots of people."

The Council all sighed and leveled unamused looks at the AI's avatar, the red eye not changing one iota under their disapproval. Taiyou on the other hand was smirking. "While that does sound like something the Dawn would want, I don't really think that was it. We already had all the weapons we thought we needed, and that wasn't really ever the big focus, just a method to enact our other plans. If we wanted crazy and powerful weaponry, we'd just ask the…"

She trailed off as her eyes became unfocused, her coin just as frozen as her face.

"Ask the what?" Gordon asked.

Taiyou did not answer for a moment. Instead, she stiffly turned around so that she was facing the wall then smashed her face into the surface with a loud thump.

Miki immediately leaped forward and dragged Taiyou away from the wall, the former Dawner hardly resisting her efforts. "Taiyou, what on Earth was that about? Why did you do that?"

"Because I am a fucking idiot," Taiyou responded, now smacking her palm into her forehead. "An idiot who completely forgot about her only remaining team member for far too long."

"Care to enlighten us there, sun-slapper?" Cassidy asked with a raised eyebrow. "Or would you prefer to play the dramatically cryptic game for awhile?"

Taiyou shot the blue-haired woman a fierce glare for a second before she turned her attention to the Councilmen. "What exactly has become of the other Dawn member you captured from my team?"

"You mean the big hybrid guy?" Gondo asked. "We've still got him secured away in a hybrid-specific cell."

Taiyou narrowed her gaze at the GDF Captain. "And why is he still locked up?"

Gondo shrugged at her and answered, "He hasn't exactly been a danger or anything, he's just refused to give us anything more than what you offered us. We haven't really needed his help at all the way we needed yours, and we don't have as much of a guarantee he'd behave like you have for us, so…"

"Well now you'll be having a use for him," Taiyou said coldly. "Namely, he's going to be your only lead for the most likely source of the Dawn's new hardware and recruits in the coming weeks."

"And that would be who?" Tachibana asked.

Taiyou sighed before folding her arms. "The Gunrunners."

No sooner had the word left her mouth then the whole group of analysts immediately started whispering, many of them turning to their tablets to bring up new pages of info and discussing them with each other. Cassidy, meanwhile, was more vocal with her response.

"Oh you have gotta be shitting me! Please, for the love of god, tell me you are not serious!"

Taiyou shrugged, twirling her coin in a figure eight pattern carelessly. "We've had minor dealings with them in the past, but with all of our other options removed, it's pretty likely we're going to turn to them for more support, especially after seeing just how outgunned the GDF makes them."

"Well that's just fan-tucking-fastic, just what we needed. As if this job hasn't been crazy enough already, now we have to add those lunatics to the mix. Brilliant, superb, just bloody goddamn dandy."

Miki looked about at everyone's reactions with a clueless look on her face. "Um… who are these gun runners exactly?"

"Imagine, if you will," one of the analysts began, "a group of criminals that style themselves after gangsters from the Roaring Twenties in America. Sounds innocent enough right? On surface, they seem like it, but then they show off their 'pieces', guns made of gold that seem to do the impossible. Like, literally impossible stuff, like pulling the trigger once and firing two bullets. Without a specific mechanism for doing a deliberate double-tap. Numbers-wise, they're a small group, and rarely spoken of, but they're a very dangerous lot."

"That's putting it mildly," the IBI detective added. "I had to enlist the help of some psychic with crazy fire powers and her mad scientist son to help stop them when they were stealing rare artifacts from some islands in Oceania." She shuddered. "I met the leader for a brief second in the middle of that job. Their boss… he's one SPECIAL piece of work."

"You seen him?" Gordon asked, leaning in. "Any defining features?"

"Oh yeah. Big ego, pristine white tux, carries a gold revolver. And one of his eyes is made of solid gold, swear on my life. He calls himself 'Yung Venuz', the Gun God. Guy's practically untouchable. Sniper shots, grenades, frickin' laser beams, seemed like nothing even ruffled his suit, let alone hurt him..."

Ozaki traded a brief look with Gordon, sending a tiny tendril of thought his way to confirm what he knew they were both thinking.

A man with an eye of gold and a gun that does the impossible…

"So, sounds like the Dawn getting mixed up with this lot is a very bad thing," Gordon said. "Looks like we'll have to deal with them too."

"Ha! Good luck with that!" Cassidy crowed. "The IBI's been on the Runner's asses for years and have got jack-shit on them. The group's so small that none of them are gonna compromise each other, and all the on the ground morons they hire to do simple stuff for them aren't told anything of value. Their money trails are so airtight they might as well be invisible. Trust me, finding the Runners is impossible unless you're one of them."

Taiyou smiled, planting her hands on her hips. "Well, lucky for us then that my friend Dredger is an ex-Runner."

The room fell silent at her proclamation, but only for an instant before Cassidy vaulted over her seat and zoomed forward til she was up in Taiyou's face, staring her down. "Your boy can get us in?" she asked intensely.

"He can point us in the right direction," Taiyou answered. "Give us an idea of how they work and where they operate."

Cassidy smiled menacingly. "Good enough for me." She grinned as she looped her arm up over Taiyou's shoulder, the raven haired woman glaring hard at her.

"Alright, so we have a lead to follow on the Dawn's likely new suppliers," Tachibana said. "Gondo, you and your security team will work with Taiyou's… friend Dredger to get the info you need and pursue any angles you can find on the Runners. You have our authorization to recruit whatever assets you need in the field for your work. Cassidy, see if you can get the IBI to give them whatever they have to spare for the job."

"Got it boss."

"Sure thing councillor, sir."

"Okay, that's one lead covered," Ozaki said. "Now for the second one. While we've already eliminated the suppliers the Dawn was previously using and Chau has promised to keep tabs on his competitors to watch them for any misbehavior, we haven't fully pursued everything we can down that line. Which is why all of you are here," he said directly to the analysts. "We want you to study everything you can about the financial pathways the Dawn have been using to cover their actions and see if we can find out who is bankrolling them."

One of the group whistled before shaking her head. "That's a tall order sir. We've already given them a serious look and the whole thing is a maze of pseudo-corporations and shell companies. There's no way we can take it all apart in a reasonable timeframe, certainly not before the Dawn figures out we're after them and starts using other methods."

"Which is why you won't be working alone," Tachibana said. "Cassidy will be acting as liaison to the IBI so we can coordinate with their investigative resources, while Gladness and several other AIs will be crunching the hard numbers, allowing us to skip past most of the calculation time-wasting.

"I am looking forward to be let off the leash, Admiral," Gladness said in a flat but somehow still eager tone.

"Don't go getting any ideas, Gladdy," Gordon said. "The other AIs will be keeping an eye on you."

"Of course sir. I would never do anything to abuse my power. Only toy with it."

Taiyou smirked again. "Sounds like my kind of lady."

Cassidy, still leaning heavily on Taiyou's shoulder, snorted in her ear. "Of course you'd like the creepy electro-voiced lady."

"Of course," Taiyou snarled back at her. "She shares my sense of humor. And my opinion of most people…"

Miki just sighed and pinched her nose as she stood next to the arguing pair. "I should not let you two hang out at all. Ever."

"Fine by me!" the two said in unison before glaring at each other.

"If you ladies are done arguing…" Tachibana said with an amused look, "we have one more topic to cover."

Cassidy and Taiyou spared each other one last annoyed glance before Cassidy strolled back to her seat.

"Now then, there is one other potential avenue of information we could travel down," Tachibana said, "one that opened up after the base attacks. We captured a fair number of Dawn personnel at each of the cell sites, but most of them were only soldiers or support people. All of the commanders died fighting in one way or another, and in most of the bases everything of potential value was destroyed. Except for the base in Afghanistan. There we managed to not only secure the artifact room, which is where these photos came from," he gestured at the wall-screen behind him, "but we also scored a real coup. The leader of the cell, a woman named Ravi, was convinced to surrender into our custody."

Taiyou's eyes widened in shock. "Wait, are you saying you captured a Staress? But that's impossible! Each and every one of them is given explicit commands to either die or commit suicide at the possibility of capture. They couldn't possibly surrender to you, they're not allowed!"

"Well for whatever reason this one did," Ozaki said. "She did so on the condition that we treat the rest of her subordinates humanely, which means we can't force any of them to give us any information they have. Thus, we need to manually convince them to side with us, which will take some time."

"In particular, we need to talk this 'Staress', Ravi, into telling us what she knows," Tachibana continued. "For that, we want you, Miki and Taiyou, here to speak with them."

The two telepaths traded a look before Miki turned to the councilmen and nodded. "We can do that sir. Between the two of us, I think we can show Ravi that the GDF can be trusted."

Taiyou shrugged, folding her arms again. "And if not we can always smack her around a bit, if only for my own amusement." Her gaze grew hard and her tone serious as she continued, even her coin coming to a halt. "I would suggest you take every possible precaution when she gets here though. I'm not sure if you noticed it yet, but Staress's aren't ordinary telepaths. The Dawn has some… method, no idea what, that makes them terrifyingly powerful. I'm still… was only in training, so I didn't get the treatment, but I do know that any Staress could have kicked my ass out the window without even trying." She looked over at Miki and poked her in the shoulder. "Pretty sure even you would be overpowered by them, princess."

"We'll keep that in mind," Gordon said gruffly. "We have ways of neutralizing telepath abilities if we need to."

Gondo stood up then, saying, "Sirs, I hate to sound ungrateful, but if you remove Miki and Taiyou from our team, that leaves us without a telepath. Given what little I know about the Gunrunners, I think it would be good for us to have a few force multipliers on our side, besides just having exo suits and the new kinetic and plasma weaponry."

The trio exchanged a set of glances then each nodded in sequence. "We see the problem, Captain, and we have a few ideas on how to fix it."

Tachibana smiled. "First up, we can give you another telepath, one who has experience with magic, as it seems these Gunrunners are likely using. Asagi isn't currently assigned to any other operations at this time, and she's had a history of getting herself in, and out of, sticky situations before."

Gondo smirked and said, "That'll be a huge help. What else?"

Ozaki grinned sneakily. "A good friend of mine has been chomping at the bit lately to get some actual field work done rather than just sit around training all the newbie hybrid recruits all day. I'm told you've had some experience working with Major Kazama, Captain?"

Gondo's smirk disappeared, replaced by a slight frown. "Yeah I have. Can't say I always enjoyed his company but I do have to admit, he's one hell of a fighter. I'll be happy to have him along, at least so he takes the brunt of the fire instead of my guys."

"Hooah to that!"

"Shut up Pat."

"Lastly," Gordon said, cutting off Gondo's team from further antics, "we have a new combat unit we'd like for you to test for us out in the field in an official operation for the GDF."

"A combat unit? What kind?"

"Unique," Ozaki said. "Very, very unique."

"It's a new kinda robot," Gordon elaborated, barely. "Looks human on the outside, plenty robot on the inside. Acts human as well, so you should be able to hide its true nature until combat starts up."

"How 'human' are we talking?" one of the soldiers asked. "Because if we're talking uncanny valley here..."

"She's well past that, trust us," Ozaki answered. "You'd have to see her to believe her."

"So wait, we're fighting alongside droids now? Since when was that a thing?"

"Since you stopped asking stupid questions Pat."

"So never then?"

"Shut up you two,"

"Knock it off you lot," Gondo said, amused. "Alright, so we got a robot buddy along for the ride as well. This is gonna be a fun trip…"

"One can only hope Captain," Tachibana said. "For the record, if you run into any situation where it looks like your group is going to be overwhelmed at any point, get out immediately. Don't take any unnecessary risks. Employ all the local help you can get whenever you can, and don't be afraid to requisition high end equipment if you need it."

"Seriously guys, the Runners are nasty customers," Cassidy added. "As much as I really don't want to, you should probably call me in to join you when you find a good location to strike, if only so I can organize a proper IBI team to help on the assault. Best way to take on the Runners is hit them hard and fast before they can react so they can't start pulling out their bullshit guns and cheating their asses off."

"We'll keep that in mind," Gondo said. "Okay… anything else we need to discuss sirs?"

"That should be everything," Tachibana confirmed. "You all have you jobs to do, so I suggest you get to it. Remember, don't speak of this to anyone outside of the people who already know. We've had a bad issue with a mole somewhere here in the Shatterdome leaking info to the Dawn and we have yet to locate them. We're fairly certain it isn't anyone in this room, so we should be fine if you keep the secret well kept, but if you tell anyone else…"

"We'll let Gladness handle your social media for the rest of your life," Gordon said with a smirk.

Everyone in the room immediately turned to the red-eyed avatar hanging off the wall, the circle of crimson pulsing with silent menace.

"Yeah, I don't think anyone's gonna want that to happen," Miki murmured, to which Taiyou could only grin.

"Does anyone have any remaining questions?" When there was no answer, the councilmen nodded and Ozaki said, "Dismissed."

The room slowly emptied, delayed a bit when Cassidy tried to steal Taiyou's coin, apparently for kicks, and was dragged around a bit by the sadistically smiling telepath before Gondo pushed Taiyou out of the room and started ragging on both of them for being childish. Eventually the three Councilmen were left in the room alone, turning back to the wall-screen.

"Gladness, return to world map screen please."

"Yes sir."

The map reappeared, again highlighting the various suspected and known Mutant hiding places, as well as the movement tracks of the many teams of Jaegers, Mechas, and Kaiju being sent to hunt them down.

"Here's where things get tricky gentlemen," Tachibana said, one hand cradling his chin.

"There's so many variables at play here…" Ozaki lamented. "Nothing's going to be a sure thing."

"When was it ever, Ozaki? We're just gonna have to play everything by ear, just like we're used to from the bad old days."

Ozaki's stance slackened. "Lots of people died in those days, Gordon."

"People were always gonna die. The important thing is we make sure the least number of people die wherever we can."

"Let's hope we're up to the task."

The three men fell silent, each staring up at a different part of the map but all thinking the same thoughts.

I wish Pentecost was here…

At the moment, Pentecost was dearly wishing he was literally anywhere else in the world than where he was right now.

He wasn't at threat of his life, in danger of losing his lunch, or many of his other initial concerns he usually had when stepping into an aircraft with his younger sister. Oh of course, there had been the brief bit of excitement when they first launched, Luna not being able to resist having a little fun in cutting loose with a new platform she'd never flown in, which had been terrifying enough on its own. But surprisingly quickly the flight had settled down to something more normal, at least as 'normal' as it could be with Luna pulling the occasional hard g's to play with a cloud or something.

But that wasn't the worst of it. Oh no, the worst was something Stacker was entirely unprepared for.

His sister started talking to him.

Of course he wasn't unfamiliar with talking with Luna for extended periods of time. He often called her when time allowed and vented occasionally about this or that annoying aspect of his work, mainly when someone was being stupid and Luna could cheer him up by agreeing on how stupid they were. But the big difference here was that when he was on the phone, he could always escape the call when Luna tried to prod him on things he didn't want to discuss. Here he had no such opportunity, and Luna was well aware.

"Sooo… how's Jakey doing?" Luna asked, smiling at him from the corner of her mouth.

Pentecost sighed heavily, deciding to just relent now rather than attempt to hold out endlessly against the ceaseless tide. "He's doing fine. School is going well for him."

"Good, that's good." She let the air run idle for a moment, leaning back in her seat and letting the autopilot take over. "Aaaaaand what about him wanting to become a Jaeger pilot?"

Stacker kept his gaze firmly facing forward out the cockpit window, watching the clouds rush by. "I have discussed the topic with him."

"Aaaaaaaaaand?"

"We haven't decided on anything," was the answer.

Luna turned in her seat and gave him the stink eye. "Okay, I know you're worried about him and all, but you know that boy is destined to be a pilot one day. Not only has he shown the eagerness AND the skill for the task, it's practically in his blood. I mean, look at who is aunt is right?"

"A reckless, mildly irresponsible, madly active fighter jockey who thinks every aircraft she gets into is a stunt plane?" Stacker teased.

"Exactly," Luna confirmed proudly. "Face it, Stacks, our family is full of badasses, even the parts that aren't in our blood. Need I remind you of your two 'daughters' and what they're capable of?"

Stacker folded his arms and frowned at her. "You know that isn't a fair comparison Luna. Mako joined the Jaeger program in a desire to avenge her family, but Jake…"

"Jake is doing it because he wants to, bro," Luna interrupted. "He wants to help in the best way he sees possible. He's not doing it just to make you proud or anything like that. He wants to fight because he wants to contribute something to the world, just like you are acting as leader of the GDF because you feel you have to." Luna smirked at him then reached over and poked him in the shoulder. "Like father like son."

"That's what worries me," Pentecost muttered. "If he'll be anything like I was when I was a mecha pilot…"

"Then he'll be just fine," Luna assured him. "After he gives you about seven heart attacks or so." Pentecost stared flatly at his sister, to which she only grinned back at him. "You know I'm right."

"I know, I just wish you weren't so smug about it."

"Like I am about my flying?" Luna asked, to which Stacker rolled his eyes. "You know I'm always careful, Stack, even if I don't seem like it. We can't let our fears hold us back from greatness, nor can we throw caution to the wind just for the sake of getting the job done."

"All is a balance," Stacker finished. "I'll admit… finding that balance is difficult for me most of the time. There are so many different things I have to think about when I make even the smallest decision. I have to consider the costs, the likelihood of success, the dangers, the results, the responses. I can't act in a vacuum, nor can I just 'wait and see' how things will turn out. I have to know what's going to happen and how to respond to it immediately, even before I have all the information. It's… frustrating, especially when I make the wrong choice."

"Just goes to show you're only human," Luna told him. "Nobody's ever perfect bro, we all make mistakes sometimes. The fact that you do worry about this kinda stuff is exactly why you're the best guy for the job. Proves you still have a conscience, unlike some of the other 'leaders' I've met."

"If I had a dime for every morally bankrupt politician or general who came to me asking for GDF support…" Pentecost said while shaking his head. "Then all our funding issues would be solved twice over."

Luna laughed at him. "Maybe then I could get a decent fudging paycheck yeah?"

Pentecost merely grinned at her. "On second thought the money would just barely be enough to cover all the insurance premiums you would rack up."

Luna pouted at him for a bit while Stacker chuckled at her, but she quickly regained her grin. "Good to see you can still make jokes there, bro. But seriously, there's another reason I'm not worried about you mucking up at some point and causing the whole world to collapse or anything."

"And why's that?"

"Because you aren't the only one with the responsibility. I mean really, you've got a whole bunch of people to rely on who can handle this mess just as well as you can. Miki's always got a level head on her shoulders, Tachi's a smart guy who tends to know what's up, Ozaki and Gordon are both meatheads but they're still clever in their own way and are even more badass than you are somehow. Plus there's always Aso you can talk to, even if he's 'retired'. Heck, isn't that part of the reason we're going to see him now?"

"Part of it," Stacker said. "The other part, based on Azusa's hinting, probably ties into why he retired, which I am somewhat curious to find out about. But yes, Luna, I see your point and will again say that you are correct."

"Naturally," Luna snuck in.

Pentecost continued past her, saying, "I do have people that I can rely on to do the jobs I need help with and people that will be there to listen and give me advice when I ask."

"Just got to remember to ask," Luna said. "That and maybe get them to lighten up a bit on their hero worship of you."

"What?" Stacker asked.

"Oh come on, have you really not noticed? Even those guys on the Council, proper badasses themselves, all look to you like you're some unstoppable leader who always has the right answer and never fouls up a thing. Even when they question you they still think that you have a reason for whatever it is that you do, they're just upset about not being included."

Stacker stared at her blankly for several moments, mentally running through several memories to asses her point. "... Well, I never thought about that."

"Of course you wouldn't. You're way too humble to even notice they're doing it, or at least not recognize it for what it is. Seriously though, half the GDF looks at you like you're a saint, and the other half are wanting to just outright deify you at some point. Like it or not Stacker, but that whole 'weight of the world' thing you told me you feel? Yeah, you feel that because everybody agrees with you, only they're glad they're not the ones having to carry the weight."

"Oh… joy," Stacker said lifelessly. Suddenly the padded comfort of his co-pilot's seat wasn't feeling nearly as comforting. "You're such a mood lifter Luna…"

Luna favored him with a beatific smile. "Ain't I just?"

"Leaving aside the part about the entire planet looking to me as a savior, I'm not entirely sure if I at all deserve to be 'worshiped'…" Stacker sighed, rubbing his face with his hand. "After seeing the work of beings who in some ways properly could be called gods, anyone calling me one just sounds… blasphemous somehow."

"I could execute the heretics for you if you want," Luna offered.

Pentecost stared at her for a second, then grinned. "You know what? Sure. Permission granted Luna. Let's see what happens when you start 'punishing the unworthy' in my name. I'm sure it would be good for a laugh."

His sister mock saluted him with a proud smile. "Roger that sir. Avenging Angel Luna shall go forth and purge the unholy sinners from this world for the crime of not believing in you hard enough. Any idea where I should start?"

Stacker snorted. "How about you hit the GDF's 'diplomatic offices' in New York first, then we'll go from there."

The pair sat there for a bit pretending to be serious before letting the laughter free.

"Oh dang, Stack, could you imagine if some jackwagon ever recorded these conversations and let the public hear them? That stuff would send people over the edge so fast."

"The public at large would probably find it funny," Stacker said. "And any politicians or diplomats with sense would understand private ribbing is different from public condemnation. After all, they probably do it just as much as we do. No, a 'leak' of stuff like this doesn't concern me. I'd be more worried about people finding out about the actual mistakes the GDF has made in the past…"

Luna shrugged her shoulders at him. "Like I said, nobody's perfect and you're always trying your best."

"Doesn't erase the consequences." Stacker held up one hand and started counting off it. "The issues with Kiryu, the use of the mind control device on Titanosaurus, Gordon's brawl with Manda getting nasty enough Godzilla had to step in…"

"To be fair, he only did it cause we didn't know she was a good kaiju yet," Luna interrupted.

Stacker sighed. "Yes, but it wasn't fun trying to explain that to Godzilla or the Guardians. And of course lately we have the madness that resulted from the Dimension Tide shot on Solgel."

Luna rolled her eyes at him. "Oh come on, who in the heck could have predicted what happened there? I mean, when you fire a black hole gun at a bunch of meleeing monsters, who in the world would guess that the end up in sweet, innocent pony land?"

"Exactly no one," Stacker admitted, "But still, there is no denying things could have happened better."

"Deal with stuff as it is, not how we want it to be," Luna quoted. "I'm sure I don't have to remind you who taught you that one now do I?"

Pentecost smiled. "A better man than me, that's who. Part of me can't help but wonder how much better our situation might be if he was still in charge."

He shook in his seat as a fist suddenly collided with his shoulder.

"Okay, Stack, for real here, you need to stop selling yourself short. You know why half the world thinks you're going to lead them to the promised land of not worrying about be stepped on everyday? Because, believe it or not, you ARE the best guy for the job who is actually willing to stand up and do something. Maybe Aso would be as good as you, but for whatever reason he's not up to the task, which is why you are here. Because he believed you could do it. I believe it, the Council believes it, the GDF believes it. Everybody believes it."

Stacker smiled at Luna as she spoke, then his grin started to fade as he listened closer to what she was saying. "You're… you're not going to…"

Luna's smile grew wicked. "If you can't believe in yourself…"

"You are actually doing this aren't you?"

"Believe in the world that believes in you!"

For a few moments Stacker did not react, his face perfectly expressionless as he stared blankly at his triumphant sister. Then, still completely stone faced, he started roving his hand over the instrument panel.

"Looking for the eject button are you?" Luna asked knowingly.

"The emergency aid beacon actually," Stacker answered. "I need to let somebody know I'm stuck flying with a madwoman."

Luna's cackling echoed in his ear for minutes afterward as he gave up on trying to locate some form of escape and accept his fate. Eventually he found the funny side of it all and just let Luna pester him for more mindless topics for a while afterward, enjoying the chance to be just an older brother rather than leader of the united planet.

Wow, a Gurren reference? Luna is my kinda gal, clearly.

Okay, I know I'm not seeing things this time, somebody is adding text in here and it isn't me.

I don't see anything. You sure you're not just seeing some of your own lines repeated or something?

I don't even know anymore man. Hopefully somebody sees it during editing and gets rid of it or something.

Why don't you delete it?

Because every time I do it comes back.

?

Yeah, no kidding. Whatever, let's just get onto the next part.

The one with the three funny ladies? Oh this should be fun.

There it is AGAIN! What's doing this?!

I think you need help man…

For as long as she had been working, in one way or another, in groups whose work affected the entire world, Azusa had noted that she was usually not recognized by anyone outside her small group of peers. She often humorously mused on the fact that, as the practical mother of the most famous entity on the planet, she herself was an unknown to the public at large. One would think that people would be stumbling over themselves to speak with her, but she could count the number of times she been to so much as interview on one hand. And one of those was her job interview for moving into Monarch after its rise to top of the scientific community.

So she was quite bemused, and properly amused, when, during the middle of the flight, Tytanna had whipped out a Godzilla plushie and begged her to sign it. The fact that she had no idea where Tya had been hiding said plushie just made it all the funnier.

"You really want me to sign this?" she said, almost more asking of herself than her unexpected fan.

"Yes, please!" She giggled, setting the plushie into Azusa's lap. "Teddy made him for me, we couldn't find any at any stores."

Azusa felt her lips tug upward. "Hmm, yes, you probably wouldn't. Not after the GDF put out a moratorium on the making of merchandise for kaiju who are deemed 'controversial'."

"Code for covering this asses after the Solgel stunt," Joanne noted to Azusa's shrugging nod.

A full smile appeared on the biologist's face. "And after I respectfully asked for some royalties."

Joanne blinked, then flashed her eyes back and forth as she mentally ran some numbers. "How… how much would you have gotten from all of that?"

"A lot," was Azusa's simple answer. "I didn't personally need much, so I donated the majority of it back to the GDF. Still left me with more than enough to never have to work for a living ever again though. And with still ongoing things like that online kaiju game, I have a steady source of income that I can use for whatever I wish. Mostly funding research groups or giving to rebuilding efforts. Being the mother of a celebrity has its perks."

"I wonder if I'll ever get merch someday?" Tya asked while staring up at the ceiling contemplatively.

"I know one industry that would love to work with you," Joanne muttered. "But that can be dealt with another time. In the future. Faaaaar in the future."

"How far?"

"Talk to me again in a decade, sweetie."

As Tya groaned and fell back against the padded seated Azusa couldn't help but giggle. "It's so nice to watch you two being mother and daughter. Reminds me so much of those days with Junior…"

"What was he like back then?" Tya asked, leaning forward with obvious interest.

Azusa gave a smiling shrug. "He was just a child, so he was very different. Much more playful and… relaxed, I suppose you might say. Still, he had the same core. Innocent, kind, always wanting everyone around him to be happy. He would never be satisfied until he knew everybody else was smiling. Should have seen how he hounded Lieutenant Koji when he saw him grumbling once." Her smile faded a bit but pride remained in her voice as she continued. "He did have some hardness to him though, mostly when he felt threatened. Even when he was scared, he rarely ever backed down once he started growing. Shrink away sure, but not run."

She closed her eyes. "Even back then, the hero he would grow up to be was there, just waiting for a chance to prove himself."

Tya and Joanne traded a look before the former said, "You really believe in him a lot. No wonder he turned out how he did."

Azusa shook her head. "People give me too much credit for what he does. Certainly I attempted to point him in the right direction, but in the end his choices are his own. Influenced he may be, but it's who he is and what he does that makes him a good person, same as anybody else."

"Would be nice if everybody thought that way," Joanne said. "World would be a lot better if they did… So, take it that means he's not going to be out for revenge upon his eventual return?"
"Sadly, hardly the first time someone fired something at him," Azusa lamented with a frown as she rubbed her temple, "I'll be honest, I half expected it. But no, one thing I did try to teach him was how to forgive. People will be people," Azusa said. "Sometimes good, sometimes bad, sometimes in between. Human, kaiju, alien, and mutant. Everybody's the same in the end, no matter how different they may look from each other, or often see the others lower than ourselves. We hope for the best and deal with the worst."

"Good motto," Tya remarked. "I hear it alot back home."

"It's a common wisdom." Azusa glanced out the window. "Many focus far too much on the bad things that happen in life, when there's usually plenty enough to be happy about, even if it's just being able to breathe for another day." She laughed lightly to herself. "Oh, but here I am waxing philosophic when there's a toy that needs signing. Do either of you have a pen?"

Tya proceeded to do just that, pulling a simple marker pen from, again, seemingly nowhere and handing it to Azusa with a smile.

"I always keep a pen on hand just in case of pen emergencies!"

"Where do you keep getting this stuff?!" Joanne demanded.

"Actually, the pen I just borrowed from you Mom," Tya answered with a grin. She pointed to Joanne's open pocket, and sure enough when Joanne looked within one of her pens was missing.

"Oh," Joanne said with a blink. "I would have sworn you were using the pouch somehow…"

Tya shook her head. "My 'special bra' is back at home, remember?"

"Point taken."

"Special bra?" Azusa asked.

Joanne smiled weakly. "Bit of a project some of my teams have been working on. Really, we have a ton of stuff to show you when we get back to the Dome, sensei. You'll be amazed at all the things we've made."

"As well as maybe a tad alarmed here or there," Tya teased.

Azusa just smiled and nodded while Joanne poked at her daughter in annoyance, taking the pen and writing her name across the little toy's chest. She looked down into the fluffy representative of her son, thinking back to those precious few moments she'd had a chance to speak to him. When they weren't separated by the boundaries of size and distance, but could simply sit together as family. She was still so surprised at how deep his voice was, so much power and yet so gentle. Never was there a prouder mother.

At long last, my son, you have found a chance for happiness. I hope you do not miss it.

As she finished the last swirl of the pen, Azusa felt lightning strike her core as if out of nowhere, the pen falling from her hand.

"Azusa, are you alright?" Joanne asked. The blonde woman panicked as she watched Azusa fall to her knees on the floor, Tya instantly moving to her side as well. Both ladies sat in quiet fear as Azusa shuddered, head bowed so they could not see her face.

"What's wrong? Are you okay? Please, Auntie Azu, talk to us!"

For a long, terrible minute they waited with bated breath, ears straining to hear faint words passing from Azusa's lips. She was praying for something. Finally though the feelings past after a few minutes and Azusa's head lifted, granting both women a look at her face, the trail of a tear going down one cheek.

"I… I am fine, dears," Azusa said haltingly. "I just… I had a sensation that… that a great event had just occurred, and I wasn't sure if it would work out. But… it seems that it has."

Mother and daughter traded another look, this time in concerned curiosity.

"Any idea what it was?"

"In the concrete? No, not at all. I can only say that… I think my son was involved somehow, and something… Something called out for others. I-I can't describe it. Beyond that, I know nothing." She sighed, then rose on unsteady feet. "But I suppose, whatever the threat what, the fact that he succeeded is all that matters."

"How do you know it ended well?" Tya piped with a tilted head as she helped hold up the woman.

Azusa took in a deep breath to slow her pounding heart, "Somethings a mother knows. He's still alive, I know he's still alive."

Joanne breathed a sigh of relief as she guided Azusa back into her seat. "If you say so. Just… try not to scare us again like that please? You nearly gave me a heart attack."

Azusa patted her former pupil on the shoulder comfortingly. "Don't worry, Jojo. I'm fairly sure this, whatever it was, was a one time event. It certainly felt… very climactic I want to say."

Tya, her eyes narrowed in thought and one hand on her chin, said, "You know… we might be able to use this to make it easier to find Equestria." When both older women looked at her in confusion, she explained further. "I mean, now not only has Azusa actually been to Equestria, but now she's been… I don't know, 'reached out to' or something from there. That might have strengthened her magical connection to Equestria!"

"It's certainly possible, sweetie," Joanne said. "Guess we'll just have to move up that magic exam to a priority once we get back from this trip."

Azusa was quiet as the pair took to discussing the topic further, listening with one ear but her mind more focused on the destination they were swiftly flying towards.

I have a feeling you will be far too busy with other tasks in the near future to complete that project, little Jojo. Let us hope your reaction will be positive, both for your sake and his…

Zedus hated a lot of things. He hated humans for constantly attacking him whenever he came near them, so he smashed their cities in retaliation. He hated his fellow mutants constantly sniping and snapping at him, so he kicked them around when they bothered him. He hated Xenilla for being so high and mighty over them, so he lead several rebellions against the more powerful saurian. When the rebellions failed, he just grew to hate Xenilla more, which was just fine with Zedus. Hating things was easier than not hating things. He understood hate plenty well.

And at the moment he really really hated deserts. The rolling hills of ancient sand stood taller than him in many places, making climbing the sides of them to get across a chore, even when the ground didn't slip out from underneath him as he climbed. The dry air didn't help much either, especially on top of the pounding heat of the Sun above. Give Zedus a proper swamp or marsh any day, anything but this waterless wasteland.

"Why are we here again?"

Zedus growled, reminded of his hatred for his two 'teammates' around him. Both were four-legged monsters, unlike his own upright saurian stance, but despite that similarity they both looked very different from each other. The one closer to him, Jiger, had simple scaly skin but was festooned with spikes along her back, a sail connecting the central line of spikes running down her spine. Even more spikes jutted out from her forward elbows, a long hollow spike came out of the end of her tail, and a multitude of long, sharp horns stuck out of her face. Personally Zedus thought it was pretty excessive, but so long as she made good use of the horns in battle he didn't care how silly she looked.

At the back of the pack was Bar'ugun, who was even sharper than Jiger and much more heavily armored, thick plates covering every foot of him with large horns and spikes sticking out between them, as well as a noticeable red crystal-like structure on his forehead. Of the three of them, Bar'ugun was the most outwardly intimidating, which made Zedus all the more annoyed that, of the three of them, Bar'ugun was also the most clueless. All he wanted to do was fight stuff to 'prove himself', which usually meant he caused more trouble than he was worth picking fights for no good reason just because he was bored. Course, most of the Mutants did that at some point, but that wasn't an excuse in Zedus' mind.

He turned to look over his shoulder and glared at Jiger for questioning him. "Because I said so, that's why!"

"That's not a reason," Jiger argued. She angled her forest of head horns at him, presumably in a show of annoyance. "We're highly exposed out here, unlike back at our hideout. The humans could move in on us at any time, and there's a human city just over that way, so it's very likely they know we are here."

"That and that metal bug thing that's been following us for a while," Bar'ugun added.

"WHAT!?" Zedus whirled around, his long tail whooshing through the air as he went. His eyes immediately trailed up into the sky behind them and sure enough there was the small black dot of a human drone, buzzing near silently thousands of feet away. Zedus rounded on Bar'ugun and roared in the kaiju's face. "Why didn't you say something?!"

Bar'ugun shrugged. "It couldn't hurt us. Why should I be worried about it?"

"Because it can TRACK US you MORON!" Zedus clawed his face in aggravation, shaking his head as he did. "Now it's a damned certainty the humans know exactly where we are and where we're going!"

"But where are we going?" Bar'ugun asked. "We've been out here for hours just wandering around."

"Yes Zedus," Jiger added dryly. "What are we doing out here?"

Zedus turned back around and stalked forward, head on a swivel to keep an eye out for other human machines. "I told you earlier, we're looking for something!"

"That being what? You never told us what we're looking for."

"Something that will give us more power," Zedus answered. "Power enough to hopefully give us the edge we need to protect us from humans."

'And power enough to let me take my rightful place as leader, no, King of the Mutants!' Zedus thought to himself. 'That Krystalak thinks he can just waltz on up and declare himself in charge because Xenilla made him? Bah, what a joke! As if anybody was gonna listen to him just after that crystal dungpile disappeared. But if we can find this tomb thingy, then I can take its power and make everyone listen to me! And then we can finally end those damn humans and those traitor Kaiju that protect them.'

Jiger interrupted Zedus' thoughts by saying, "And how are we supposed to find anything if you don't tell us what we're looking for?"

"We're not gonna find it on the surface," Zedus snarled. "It's under the sand somewhere, so we have to dig it up."

Jiger came to a halt, prompting Bar'ugun to stop as well. "You can't be serious."

"What are you talking about?"

"You want us to go digging through this desert, this extremely vast desert, and you won't even tell us what the thing we're looking for looks like?"

Zedus growled, facing his head away from them. "I'm… not actually sure what it looks like, but I know it's here somewhere!"

"You don't even know what it looks like?" Bar'ugun asked.

"Well no but…"

"Where did you even hear about this 'source of power'?" Jiger cut in.

Zedus scratched his cheek with one claw in embarrassment. "I, uh, may have dreamed about it, but it was a very life-like dream so I'm sure it's re-"

"We're out here chasing dreams!?" Jiger screamed. "The humans could be attacking us at any moment and you have us out in the open and at risk because of a DREAM!"

"Enough!" Zedus stomped his paw right in front of Jiger's face, opening up his large neck frill, reminding the quadruped who was the taller monster. "I'm the one calling the shots around here, and when I say we're looking for an artifact in the desert, THAT'S WHAT WE'RE DOING! Would you rather try and handle things out here on your own without me, cause if so be my guest."

Zedus stood towering over his two 'allies' with every bit of intimidating power he could muster. He was bluffing, bluffing hard, to get the two to stick around, but he knew it would work. It always had before. As scary and powerful as Jiger and Bar'ugun looked, amongst the mutants they were considered the meek and spineless ones, and were always eager to follow orders if it meant not having to watch out for themselves. Zedus knew this, which is why he'd been able to bring them to his side after the splintering of the faction. Of course, they were the only ones who had…

"Fine," Jiger finally said. "But we'd best hurry up then. No telling how long we have before the humans show up…"

"You're damn right! Now come on. I've got a good feeling about going this direction."

Zedus turned to the right, away from the distant human city, and started heading towards a pair of nearby hills. No sooner had they taken a few steps forward than the sandy mounds started to shake, long slides of dust rolling off the slopes. From out of the sand two Jaegers stood tall, each deploying their weapons and sounding warning horns of battle.

"Good feeling huh?" Jiger snarked.

"Shut. Up."

Zedus took a step forward, putting himself ahead of his teammates, and stood ready to roar a returning challenge. Just as he was sucking in the air needed for his shout, he noticed his shadow on the ground getting larger. Distracted for just a second too long, he wasn't ready for the third Jaeger landing directly upon his back, slamming him into the sand so hard he was partially buried a moment later. Jiger and Bar'ugun both jumped backward in surprise as the Jaeger smoothly rolled out of the fall into a standing position, a pair of wicked daggers snapping into place off its wrists.

"Judgement time bitches," the Jaeger announced in a dual-toned human voice layered with robotic tuning.

Raleigh Becket and Mako Mori moved as one as their Jaeger, Gypsy Danger, extended a whip sword out of its left arm and transformed the right hand into a plasma cannon. Idly the pair noted the Herons hovering behind them after completing their airdrop of Striker.

"Pretty ballsy move there Chucky," Raleigh said over the radio. "Could have suffered some serious damage if you landed wrong."

Ahead of them Striker swung one arm into Jiger's head, preventing the kaiju from impaling them with her horns.

"That's why we didn't fuck it up, mate," Chuck told him. "Now get over here so we can kick these fugly lizards around properly, yeah?"

"Roger that, moving in," Mako answered. With that Gypsy strode forward, aiming its cannon at Bar'ugun as the other kaiju moved to try and flank Striker.

"Kaori here, we'll move Tacit around behind them to keep them distracted."

Out of the corner of their visors Gypsy's pilots saw Tacit sliding over the sand using its back rockets, floating around to come in on the tails of the two kaiju.

"Understood, Ronin," Herc Hansen said. "Alright people, you know the drill here. We have reach, they have defense. Stay out of their striking range and don't let them pin you. Hit them while another distracts. I want a clean fight here, so above all stay safe."

The pilots all announced their affirmatives and readied themselves for combat. While the three mecha moved to encircle them their kaiju opponents weren't idle. Bar'ugun and Jiger set themselves back to back to each other, tails overlapping atop each other as each rotated to face their immediate threats. For a time the two sides stared each other down, looking for weaknesses or opportunities. Mako and Raleigh both traded reassuring thoughts to each other in the brief second of quiet before refocusing on the battle ahead.

"Oh come on already! We gonna fight or what? Let's go!"

As if he'd heard young Chuck's whinging Bar'ugun made the first move of the fight, launching forward at Tacit in a lunging snap. Ronin deftly sidestepped the attack and quickly deployed its wrist blades to swipe at his neck, only to bounce off the kaiju's thick armor. Gypsy moved next to attack Bar'ugun's exposed side, firing off a single plasma shot before stepping forward to thrust her sword at him. Her attack was interrupted by Jiger jumping in front of her, Gypsy parrying Jiger's horns at the last second before stepping back again. Striker tried to get in on the battle next by stabbing at Jiger but was again blocked by Bar'ugun's armored head, the kaiju throwing the caught blade off his horn and swiping it at the Jaeger's chest. The sharp material glanced off the mecha's thickened Titan plate but left a long scratch across the paint. The circle of attack and counter attack continued for another minute, Bar'ugun and Jiger proving to be so in sync it was impossible to trip them up.

"We need something to change the pattern," Mako observed as Gypsy evaded another horn thrust from Jiger. "A distraction."

"We've got you covered pilots."

From above one of the Herons dived bombed at the two kaiju, its dual cannons in the nose spitting trails of fire from above. Both kaiju were unharmed from the attack but both made the mistake of looking up at their new attacker. Tacit used the advantage first, stepping inside Jiger's reach and grabbing her horns directly. Her primary form of attack temporarily immobilized, Jiger was unable to respond as Tacit angled her other arm over the kaiju's flank and aimed it's blade for center of mass. The blade pulled back into its resting position behind the Jaeger's fist, then launched forward with extreme speed, puncturing Jiger's scales and stabbing deep into her flesh.

Jiger's resulting scream immediately grabbed Bar'ugun's attention, prompting him to turn around and lunge towards Ronin, eyes gleaming with anger. He was about to pierce his frontal horn into Ronin's chest when two pairs of hands grabbed onto his tail and pulled him back.

"Oh no you don't!"

As Striker and Gypsy dealt with Bar'ugun, Tacit withdrew her blade from Jiger's body and moved to aim for another strike. Just as the Jaeger's arm pulled back though it was punctured by Jiger's tail, causing the pilots to gasp in pain from the feedback. Concentrating on wrenching the tail out of their arm, Tacit's grip on Jiger's horn lessened just for a second, but that was enough for her to pull out of their grip and reorient to face them directly. Ronin immediately backpedaled to get out of range of her horns, but that proved to be a mistake. The horn on Jiger's cranium glowed brightly for a few moments, long enough for Tacit to recognize the visage and react appropriately. The Jaeger's rocket boost shot them off to the side just in time to evade the majority of Jiger's fire blast, but their arm, already damaged by the kaiju's tail, was exposed to the heat and damaged further.

"Ah!" Kaori and Duc cried together, feeling the burn sensation on their own limbs. "Ronin here, our left arm is inoperable. We need support."

"Heron 2 here, don't worry, we're coming." The second Heron moved into an attack run, aiming its cannons for Jiger's wounded side. Most of the shots bounced off the kaiju's armored skin, but some landed inside its wound, aggravating her further but distracting her just long enough for Ronin to gain a bit more distance. Safe for the moment, Tacit ejected her damaged arm, the empty socket becoming covered by a hatch.

"Okay, we've sealed the damage as best we can for now," Kaori mentioned over the comms. "We're still good to fight, but we've lost some of our damage potential."

While Ronin had been escaping fatal damage at the claws of Jiger, Striker and Gypsy were stuck in a close in wrestling match with Bar'ugun, the spiky kaiju lashing out at them with every possible limb and sharp horn.

"Roger that, Kaori," Herc said gruffly as Striker ducked under a swipe from Bar'ugun's paw and countered with a jab from their left blade. "Focus on keeping Jiger's attention for now. We've almost got this one contained."

"What 'almost'?" Raleigh snarked while throwing Gypsy's right sword into a long and powerful swing. The blow caught Bar'ugun across the face just over the eye, leaving a deep scratch in his skin and causing blood to seep down into its gaze. Enraged and in pain, Bar'ugun had had enough. He roared and shooved both war machines away, using his tail as a mace to smash Gypsy's chest and crack its armor. Given a bit of room at last, Bar'ugun reached deep into his bowels for his store of icey liquid and brought it up to the surface, taking aim at the nearer of his two enemies.

"Watch out!" Mako called. "He's going for the spray!"

Striker Eureka immediately rushed away from Barugun's reach, but Gypsy didn't have time to flee before the kaiju opened its mouth and vomited cloud of grey-blue mist in their direction. Thinking quickly, the pilot's lifted their right arms to shield Gypsy's body, catching the whole of the attack on the limb and its weapon.

"External armor is frozen," Raleigh reported to the sound of minor alarms going off. "Internals are losing functionality, but the sword's still intact."

"We shall use it then," Mako said. "Redirect exhaust heat through the arm's hydraulics to keep them going. I'm deploying the left plasma cannon."

Gypsy stared down her opponent, her left hand transforming into a three pronged device, leaning with her right shoulder forward. Bar'ugun stared right back, gauging how much damage it's attack had done, whilst trying to keep an eye on Striker moving around behind it.

Beyond the trio, Jiger was fed up with trying and failing to lock down Ronin so she could finish the damaged Jaeger. The machine was simply too fast for her to hit, even with her heat ray, and each time she fired the ray it took to long for her to start moving again, allowing Tacit to quickly zoom in and carve at her flanks. None of the wounds were as bad as the stab had been, but they were adding up to cause her great frustration. She glanced at her friend caught between the other two machines and roared at him.

"Bar'ugun, switch!"

The Mutant required no further incentive than that, jabbing its tongue at Gypsy to force it to dodge and let the kaiju start to run to Jiger's side. He was interrupted by Striker again reaching out and grabbing hold of his tail.

"You really trying this again?" Chuck chided.

Barugun snarled at the Jaeger, then the spines on his back started to light up, the line forming the colors of the rainbow one by one along the row.

"Watch out Striker," one of the Herons from above warned. "He's charging up his heat burst attack."

"We see that," Herc answered back tersely. "And I think I've got an idea about how to handle it. Gypsy, you think you can help us lift this joker?"

Raleigh did some mental calculations and came up with no solid answer. "With only one arm? Maybe, but it'll be tricky."

"Long as it works, that's good enough for me. Get over here and be ready for my signal."

Gypsy nodded briefly and moved forward, unnoticed by Bar'ugun for the moment as the kaiju was completely focused on powering up his attack. Before the Jaeger could get there though, Mako and Raleigh noticed Jiger barreling towards them. They twisted in mid stride to prepare for the kaiju's assault, again holding their damaged portion forward, frosted over blade at the ready. Jiger came on at them like an impassioned bull, horns lowered and ready to gore, but Tacit was coming up fast behind her. The Japanese Jaeger swept at Jiger's back legs and cut into them, tripping Jiger's gait and sending the kaiju suddenly stumbling.

Gypsy's pilots were grateful for the assist, but the rising glow from Bar'ugun alerted them that they had little time left. Striker, still holding onto Bar'ugun's tail, was given a perfect front row seat to the growing light show.

"Enough stalling Gypsy, get over here already!"

"Too late, got to do it ourselves!"

Just as Bar'ugun was about to roar in triumph and release his attack, Striker let go of his tail and lunged for his lower legs. Both pilots huffed and shouted with exertion as they started to lift with everything they had, rising Bar'ugun above their heads and tilting his back skyward. With one final shout of effort they flung Bar'ugun away, causing him to be flipped over onto his back. In complete shock about what had been done to him, Bar'ugun released his stored energy…

All three Jaeger's light filters engaged automatically as the dessert briefly lit up, a massive plume of melting sand exploding out of the ground under Bar'ugun, the kaiju himself flying into the air for a few seconds before landing on his belly a good distance away. His back was an ashen mess, many of his spines cracked or broken and his thick armor heavily damaged, small streams of blood seeping through in several places.

Jiger quickly rushed to her friend's side, ignoring the stinging pain of the cuts in her hind legs as she moved to brush his skull, checking to see if he was still alive. She soon saw that he was still breathing, but his eyes were listless and unseeing. Breathing a sigh of relief, she then growled in anger, rotating to face her three assailants single handedly.

"I will not let you harm us any further. Not if I have anything to say about it."

The three Jaegers gathered together a short distance from the two wounded kaiju, watching carefully for any sign of attack as they assessed their situation.

"You understand any of that?" Kaori asked the other pilots.

"How the heck are we supposed to understand any of their growls and hisses?" Chuck asked. "All sound the bloody same to me."

In the cockpit, Herc rolled his eyes at son then keyed the radio and asked, "Hey Xavier, you catch what she said at all by chance."

Up in one of the Herons, Xavier watched the battlefield with a grimace both with eyes and mind. He could see the bright greenish light of Jiger standing over the dulled orange of Barugun, then the third, deep brown light of Zedus in the middle distance. He turned his attention the three tiny pairs golden light showing the Jaeger pilots before keying up his response. "Yes, I did, and she basically said she would protect her friend… from you all."

"Since when did Mutants make friends," Raleigh said disbelievingly.

Herc ignored the statement, saying, "Think there's any chance we could get these two to surrender peacefully? We're banged up as it is so I don't want to take any more risks if we don't have to."

"They might be, sir, but it's unlikely. I'll try and get into contact with her and see if I can reason…" His voice trailed off as he sensed one of the great lights below began to become brighter, the brown darkening several shades as waves of anger fell of it in waves. "Oh no…"

The pilots of the Herons noticed it as well. "All Jaegers, be advised, Zedus is up and moving around again!"

On instinct the Jaegers all turned to look behind them at the crater Striker had made of Zedus upon its landing, watching in surprise as Zedus rose up from the sands, a menacing hiss dripping from its jaws.

"You're going to pay for that humans… Pay in blood and pain!" Zedus roared with unrelenting anger and glared at the three war machines with undying hatred in his eyes.

"I don't think that one needs a translation," Duc muttered to his wife.

"Guess he woke up faster than we expected," Herc said. "Gypsy, Ronin, you two aren't in any shape to take on a saurian right now. Focus on keeping Jiger occupied. We'll handle Zedus."

"Understood sir," Kaori confirmed. The ninja-like Jaeger turned back towards Jiger, who was still standing in place, daring either of her watchers to act. "Gypsy, what's the status of your arm?"

Mako and Raleigh did a quick combined check of their instruments, Mako making the report. "External metal is compromised, but the internals hydraulics are mostly intact. Plasma cannon is out of commission for certain, but the sword is good for at least a few more swipes."

"That'll have to be enough then. You take her from the front, I'll try and encircle around behind, target her weak spot. Aim if you can for her face, and watch out for her heat ray."

"Kill or capture do you think?" Raleigh questioned.

Kaori frowned, then made a snap decision. "Do whatever is necessary, Gypsy." With that, Ronin rocketed off in a wide circle, facing away from Jiger to maybe keep her from being suspicious. The kaiju was having none of it though, and immediately fired a heat ray in Tacit's path, forcing the Jaeger to come to a quick halt in its flight. Gypsy raced forward while Jiger was distracted, firing its left plasma cannon as fast as it would reload the shots. The balls of plasma exploded where they landed on the kaiju's skin, burning and searing at the flesh and sending waves of pain across Jiger's mind.

The kaiju made a snap response, unleashing a barrage of quills at Gypsy. The car sized pricks flew at the Jaeger and smashed into its torso, some glancing off its armor, others only piercing just enough to stick in place but do little damage. Had the Jaeger been organic, it would have been injected with enough venom to fall unconscious within minutes, but the venom did nothing to Gypsy's metal, wires and gears.

Gypsy closed the distance and flung its right-hand sword in a downward power stroke, landing edge on to Jiger's primary horn. Both appendages cracked at the blow, but Gypsy's blade fared worse, the Jaeger having to eject the implement as its supports became unusable. Jiger shook the blade off its head and lunged at Gypsy, the Jaeger sidestepping just out of the way. Before Jiger could attack again, she roared as she felt Ronin's blade pierce her hide once again, this time on the flank opposite the first wound.

Across the way Zedus and Striker were caught in an intense, no holds barred duel, both sides launching vicious attacks upon the other. Striker had already lost one of its wrist blades and its left leg was sparking occasionally from a long gash Zedus had cut through its armor. The saurian himself was panting both from exertion and anger, his frills fully extended while blood seeped from thin cuts on his arms and chest. The two were circling each other now, studying the other for a weakness or place to strike.

"He's too fast to pin down Dad," Chuck said angrily, though with a hint of admiration. "Only way we're finishing this bastard off is with the Full Metal missiles."

Herc shook his head. "We can't guarantee a shot on him son, and we need to make sure those missiles land clean if we want a solid kill. Herons, request harassing fire from both units. Aim for the eyes if you can."

"Understood, Striker. Moving for attack runs now."

Jiger had been in a lot of close matches before, but this one was beginning to feel completely hopeless. The two Jaegers were ceaselessly hounding her, keeping her from catching her breath or having a moment to think beyond move and respond, and she knew she was coming to the end of her rope. She was out of quills to fire, her heat ray had been exhausted, and her wounds were catching up to her. Her eyes were drooping even as she blocked another swing of the speedy one's blade from her nose while bashing the other back with her tail. Both Jaegers were also clearly damaged, but they were continuing to go long after a kaiju would have been put out of action. How many kaiju would go on after losing an arm?

"I never thought these things were actually a threat, but I guess that was just when we were outnumbering them. Now that I'm on the other side…"

She swept away the depressing thoughts and was immediately caught back in the fight, wondering how she could possibly get out of this mess. Then she felt a rumble in the sand and she quickly glanced towards her downed friend, feeling a surge of elation as she watched him get to his feet. Before her stillness could be suspicious she launched herself back into the fight, seeking to keep the two Jaegers occupied for long enough for Bar'ugun to restore his mind to fighting condition. On the edge of her hearing she heard the jets descending again but since they weren't attacking her she couldn't care less. Instead she took an opportunity to pull back from the fight for a moment, indulging herself in giving her enemies a smile.

"Never thought I'd say this, but time to make this an even fight. Now Bar'ugun!"

This fight was dragging on for much too long in the pilots' opinions, and they were eagerly attempting to end it quickly before things could get any worse. Neither of them was sure how long Striker would take either tying Zedus up or maybe taking him down, and therefore neither wanted to take any chances in leaving Jiger up and about. Just a few more minutes of keeping the pressure up and they were sure she'd be too winded to fend them off anymore. They were almost done...

They should have known that meant things were about to take a bad turn.

Tacit was just chopping at Jiger's tail to keep its stinger away when it felt a massive weight crash into it from behind, knocking it to the ground.

"Ronin!"

Gyspy watched in horror as Bar'ugun proudly stepped atop the sleight war machine, stomping hard on its chest and compressing the metal inward. Jiger joined in and bit down on one of the Jaeger's legs, ripping at it as hard as she could until the limb started to tear from its mountings. Before the two could continue to critically wound Tacit though, Bar'ugun was flung away by a huge blast of energy. Jiger turned in shock to Gypsy just in time to catch a similar blast to the face, launching the wounded kaiju to land beside her companion.

"Power is extremely low," Mako warned as she turned off Gypsy's chest blaster. "We only have enough power left for a few minutes of operation now, not enough to fire any more plasma shots."

"It was worth it," Raleigh said. "Strike, Gypsy here. Bar'ugun is back up and we're out of power. I think it's time to call a retreat."

Striker's pilots roared as they caught Zedus by the jaws and threw him away, immediately turning around and running towards their two partners. "Hang on Gypsy, we'll hold them off. Herons, get ready for a hot extract!"

"Roger that, Striker. We'll… wait, new kaiju signature in-coming from below ground, approaching Gypsy and Ronin. Immediate west!"

As Striker ran towards the two kaiju bearing down on Gypsy, they saw a growing wave in the sand rolling towards the group, moving even faster than they were running.

"Please for the love of god, tell me that's who I think it is!" Kaori said as she and her husband watched near helplessly in Ronin's cockpit.

"I'll take help from anybody at this point," Duc said, wincing as another wave of phantom pain from the Jaeger's damaged limbs. "Whoever it is, we need to get out of the way. Speaking of which, remember how you told me you don't like slides, hun?"

Kaori felt the first hints of her husband's plan through their drift and winced. "This is gonna hurt, isn't it?"

"Probably. They'll never see it coming though."

Gypsy continued its tense standoff with the two kaiju, switching focus between the two as they growled and padded closer, like two wolves closing in on a deer. Gypsy didn't like being the deer.

"Hey Gypsy, when we say jump, jump!"

The surprise order from Ronin confused Mako and Raleigh for a second but they decided not to question. "On your order."

Using its two good limbs left, Tacit oriented itself in the direction of the two kaiju, flipping over so its rockets weren't shrouded by sand. "Did I ever tell you guys that my favorite song ever was Rocket Man?"

Kaori groaned. "Is now really the time for that, Duc?"

Rather than answer her, Duc finished the button sequence for the rockets' overdrive mode, hand hovering over the ignition. "On my mark Gypsy! Ready?"

"Ready," Gypsy reported.

Kaori and Duc shared a momentary look, then both nodded. "Launching!"

Ronin's back rockets roared twice as hot as they usually did, the exhaust blooming into bluish-white halos of fire. The force of the exhaust sent the Jaeger skidding along the sand rapidly. "Jump now!"

Gypsy did exactly that, jumping up just high enough for Ronin to slip underneath it, heading straight at the two surprised kaiju beyond it. Both monsters were shocked by the sudden sight, surprised enough that Ronin was able to get in a quick swipe at one of Bar'ugun's legs as it passed, then kept rocketing off and away from the fight. As they left, they passed over a bump in the sand, one that they noticed was moving towards the fight.

"Guess that counts as a tag in," Kaori said with an amused tone.

"I love you honey," Duc said.

"I know."

Farther afield Herc and Chuck watched Ronin leave the fight with palpable relief. Then they heard a proximity alarm sounding, the screen highlighting a threat from behind. Instinctively Striker leaned to the side, deftly avoiding Zedus' stinger tongue, turning as they did to swipe their wrist blade across the kaiju's chest, slicing a thin line into Zedus' flesh. "Guess we're back to dealing with this wanker," Chuck muttered angrily. "Think Gypsy can handle those two for a bit?"

"They won't have to do it alone," Xavier said. "Baragon's here to lend a paw."

Jiger and Bar'ugun were both completely fed up with this fight at this point. Jiger was bleeding from multiple spots and was completely exhausted, while Bar'ugun was still shell shocked from being caught point-blank in his own explosion. Both of them wanted this done and over with, but they were both still wary of Gypsy, especially after the Jaeger blasted them with a weapon they'd never seen before. Having the other one launch itself at them out of nowhere hadn't settled their nerves at all, either, even if it meant the other Jaeger wasn't a threat anymore.

"Should we just rush it?" Bar'ugun asked, a shudder in his voice from a mix of pain and his concussion. "Can't stop both of us at once, can it?"

"Might be our only choice now," Jiger replied. "I'm not sure Zedus can win against that other one he's fighting. If its lasted this long it might actually be able to beat him. But if we take this one down and join up, we can definitely end this."

"Sounds like a plan," Bar'ugun said approvingly. "On 3?"

"Yes. One…"

Both kaiju tensed.

"Two…"

They coiled their legs, which Gypsy noticed and took a step back.

"Thre-"

A plume of sand erupted between them, causing both to lose their footing. By the time they'd righted themselves and turned back to the Jaeger, a new presence stood between them and the machine. It was a quadruped like them, but smaller, standing around the same height as Bar'ugun when on all fours, but at only half the length, coupled with large fore paws for digging at tremendous speeds, large ears to pick up a whole range of sounds from the minute to the broad, and a central horn for short range ram attacks. And his face was set in stern stone. Baragon was more than ready to end this now dragging fight once and for all.

"On no…" Jiger moaned. "Not one of you."

"Ooooh yes, one of me," Baragon said almost gleefully. "It's good to know you realize how this is gonna go already, so instead of that, maybe we can do something different perhaps?"

Bar'ugun huffed and pawed at the ground. "Like what? You let us go? I find that unlikely."

"Most unlikely," Baragon agreed. "And no, I was thinking more along the lines of talking things out, maybe getting you both to surrender instead of fruitlessly dying in battle. Not sure how much that interests you, but hey, just wanted to make the offer."

Jiger narrowed her eyes at the Guardian kaiju but gradually lowered her horn. "We're listening."

"Great! Thanks for indulging me. So, let's start with a question: what exactly are you three doing out here in the ass-end of the desert far away from basically anywhere of importance. I can't help but think that the whole 'exposing yourself for the whole world to see' thing wasn't very well planned out."

Both Jiger and Bar'ugun were quick with an answer. "Because Zedus is an idiot."

"Well that goes without saying, of course, but what exactly was it that drew him out here?"

"He claims that he had a dream telling him there's some 'great power' out here in the desert which would give us more power, enough to reunite the Mutants."

Baragon titled his head in confusion at that. "That sounds completely crazy."

"No argument here," Jiger said sadly.

"Okay, so if you don't agree with your 'boss' and think he's an idiot, why follow him?"

"Because he's our only chance for protection," Bar'ugun answered. "He's strong enough that, with his help, we can survive attacks from…" He paused as he looked around the battlefield, feeling his own injuries and glimpsing Zedus reeling from a haymaker blow to the head from Striker. "Actually, I'm not sure that part's true anymore."

"Probably not," Baragon allowed. "So, failing your original reason to be following him, do you have any others?"

"He probably won't kill us just for being 'a threat'," Jiger said acidly. "That counts for something."

Baragon paused, scratching his chin in thought. "I can see your point on that. Humanity has made it pretty clear they're perfectly willing to try and kill any kaiju who presents a danger to their people and cities. But… what if we can come to a compromise there, hmm?"

"What compromise?"

"You promise to not attack humans ever again - except in cases of self defense from other threats, which is unlikely - and I will personally guarantee that you both will not be harmed any further and will be allowed to live peacefully in a home of your choosing. Barring reason, of course."

Jiger lifted an eyebrow at the claim, which Bar'ugun huffed in disbelief.

"Since when were humans willing to let the likes of us 'monsters' live?"

"Since they got a leader with some actual sense," Baragon replied. "Stacker Pentecost wants peace more than war, even if he's willing to kill kaiju who won't accept that peace. What I'm trying to tell you two is that you don't have to be those type anymore." Baragon sighed, his shoulders slumping. "True be told, I don't like fighting most of the Mutants. A lot of them could probably be our allies if they just calmed down and were willing to be peaceful, but so long as they pose a threat to the world, humanity included, they will continue to be my enemies. I don't want enemies. I want friends." He shook his head, then looked expectantly at the pair of them. "That choice is up to you."

Jiger paused, trying to process this offer whilst also trying to reconcile it with her own worldview, which began proving itself to be a most daunting task. "It just made so much sense," she finally admitted. "Being with the Mutants. Everything is easy with them. Might makes right, the idea that if Xenilla fell, the next most worthy would take his place. The idea that the Mutations actually had a right to this planet. It all sounds right."

"Does it still make sense after all of your allies fled for themselves after Solgell?" Baragon asked.

"NO!" Jiger shouted at the red therapsid, "And that's what infuriates me more than anything. With Zedus I thought that maybe the faction had a chance of actually returning, but even that hope is gone by his idiocy. I just don't know what to think of anything anymore, and now all I have left now is Bar'ugun with me." Jiger's tone was now becoming close to that of tearful, but she remained stern. "As much as my faith may shatter though, I'm not going to throw it away on the words of someone else. Maybe you're being honest, maybe you're not. What guarantee do we have that what you say is true?"

Baragon took the question in stride, turning to Gypsy and nodding at it. Silently, the machine nodded back, its sword uncoiling and sliding back up into its arm, taking several steps back. The Guardian looked back at them with a steady smile.

"Is that proof enough for you?"

Both kaiju were quiet, looking at each other and sharing a wordless conversation through looks alone. A minute passed through their silent debate, before they finally looked to Baragon and nodded at him slowly.

"Alright…" Jiger began. "So long as you promise that the humans won't attack us again, we promise not to fight any longer."

"But we don't really know where to go," Bar'ugun said. "The only home we know is an empty island where the Mutants used to stay, and we don't really want to go back there."

Baragon's smile grew as he answered with, "I actually already know a pretty good spot for you two. It's a bit crowded already, but the other inhabitants are much less obnoxious. Not the best for intelligent conversation, but there's a few more talkative folks there."

"And what is this place exactly?" Jiger asked. "I would have thought we'd have heard of such a 'paradise' before."

"I'm not surprised you haven't, actually," Baragon said. "It's pretty recent, and not something the humans have been really advertising."

"Humans?" Baru'gun asked suspiciously.

"It's a wildlife preserve made to safely hold a lot of the smaller monsters from around the world and keep them in one place, both for human protection and for their own safety. And before you ask, no it's not a prison. At least it wouldn't be for either of you. You two would be allowed to leave at any time. It'd just be a quiet, isolated place for you to stay outside of the war. Once the war is over, you two could go anywhere you want."

"Sounds… interesting," Jiger said. "Very well, we accept. But… what about Zedus?"

"What about him?"

"What will happen to him?"

Baragon's smile disappeared as he turned his back to the pair and started making his way to where Zedus and Striker were still dueling. "That is up to him."

Zedus roared for the upteenth time as he again tried to bite off Striker's head, only for the Jaeger to again duck out of the way and gut punch him, forcing the air from his lungs. He'd long since disarmed Striker's other arm-blade, but the mech was still just as dangerous with only its fists, and the fact that he had barely been able to land a hit on the thing made the point only more obvious. The machine was just too fast for him to pin down, even with surprise tongue attacks or tail swipes. It seemed to see all his moves coming and have a counter to each one, and even if it was only punching and kicking him in return, it still hurt.

I have to end this quickly, he thought to himself as he got a brief moment to breathe. If only Jiger and Bar'ugun would hurry up and finish the other one off already so they can join me and gang up on this thing, then we'd be able to get out of here already!

He saw the Jaeger trying to line up its chest at him yet again and he knew he had to stop it, so he moved to step forward and interrupt but was himself interrupted by a sudden weight landing on his skull and sending it into the sand. He quickly wriggled his head free and looked to see what had struck him, only for his eyes to widen in shock as he recognized the culprit.

"You?! Tanka damnit not you again!"

Baragon cheerily waved at him in response. "Oh but it is me, Zedus. Does that upset you, make you angry? If so… well that sounds like your problem, to be honest."

Zedus roared, clenching his claws in anger and slamming his tail into the sand. "I don't care if you're here, 'Guardian'. With Jiger and Bar'ugun behind me, we'll take on you and the other human machines and finish you all off for good!"

"Is that all you're out here for?" Baragon asked. "What about that 'special power' you're so desperate to find?"

Zedus felt a thrill of fear wash through him. "H-how did you know about that!"

Baragon smiled. "Allow me to answer your question with another question: how sure are you that Jiger and Bar'ugun are actually behind you?"

Zedus snarled, then paused as he saw Baragon actually pointing behind him. Zedus whirled about, fearing an attack from another Jaeger, only to be met with the sight of Jiger and Bar'ugun standing next to the other Jaeger peacefully.

"What… What are you idiots doing!? Destroy that machine already!"

"Why should we?" Jiger asked with infuriating calm. "It's not attacking us any more, so we have no reason to fight it. The same could apply to you too, Zedus. If you just surrender…"

"NEVER!"

"Let go of your damn pride, Zedus," Jiger said with an icy tone. "You're outmatched and you know it. Continuing to fight at this point is a fool's errand, even more than what we were out here for in the first place! Just give it up."

"No." Zedus' voice became deathly quiet, his gaze lit with cold fury. "We. Are. Mutants. We are the strongest, and we purge the weak. If you two are cowardly enough to give up on everything we fought for, then I call you traitors. Traitors to our cause. Traitors to ME." He dug his claws through the sand, unable to contain his full fury. "And I will strike you down for it."

Without further warning he fired his tongue at Jiger's face, the quadruped having no chance to evade the sudden attack. But before the stinger could land, the appendage was caught in an outstretched hand.

Zedus was blindsided at seeing Baragon suddenly appear between him and his target, a burrow beneath his feet showing his path.

"I don't think so, Zedus. Your quarrel is with me and the Jaegers, not them. If you really want to keep fighting, then that makes me your target." Baragon then pulled on Zedus' tongue, hard, toppling the saurian forward and unbalancing him.

Zedus got back to his feet quickly, but by the time he did Baragon was already gone somewhere below ground. He whirled his head about, trying to get a bead on where the Guardian had gone, but couldn't spot him. Out from the sand on his left, Baragon leapt up and kicked Zedus in the face with the whole of his weight. Baragon might have been small, but he wasn't that small, and the blow was powerful enough to snap Zedus off his feet again and onto his side. Zedus tried to launch his stinger tongue at Baragon again, but the smaller kaiju easily cartwheeled out of the way before burrowing out of sight.

This wasn't going well, Zedus was quickly realizing. Baragon was far too fast and stealthy in these sands for him ever to catch him normally. Taking a deep breath and trying to settle himself, Zedus fell still, focusing on the vibrations of the sands under his feet. He stood stock still for nearly minute just listening, trying to ignore the forms of the Jaegers and his traitorous former allies in the corner of his vision. He'd deal with them soon enough, that he promised.

Zedus felt a twitch, a shift in the sand, and he 'looked' in that direction, containing all his senses and honing them towards the feeling. Almost got you… just one more…

Another twitch, and Zedus was certain. He quickly readied to lunge, but then he felt another, much stronger twitch.

This one directly below him.

Oh Daiei…

Zedus felt the sand below him collapse, sucking him down into a cavernous hole, trapping his legs in place so he couldn't move. He struggled and pulled, but the sand's suction was too great, so he resorted to digging fruitlessly with his arms. A cascade of sand slide down into his face, prompting him to look up to see Baragon sitting on the lip of the hole, a smug expression on his face.

"Give up yet?"

Zedus growled back, "I will never give up you cretin. No matter how much you pester me!"

A group of shadows joined Baragon and Zedus saw he was being loomed over on all sides by the other fighters.

"How about now?"

Zedus' rage started to flee as he realized the hopelessness of his situation, but his pride swiftly moved to replace it. "Death before surrender, Guardian. Do your worst, but I will never surrender to the likes of y-"

A huge tongue of flame ignited the air right in front of Zedus, turning the slope of sand in front of him into dully shining glass. Zedus' pride was still strong, but not as strong as the sudden well of panic that appeared in his throat.

"You… you breathe fire?" he asked haltingly.

Baragon shrugged. "It's a common thing among the Guardians, to be honest. More of us have fire than don't. Even though only one of us is actually a fire elemental. Funny that."

Zedus gulped, then glanced at the rest of the forms surrounding him, noting that Striker had its chest missiles trained directly on his head and Gypsy had its plasma cannon out and ready to fire. "... I think I've come to a new point of view on the idea of surrendering…" the saurian begrudgingly answered.

"Great to hear," Baragon said happily. "We'll talk about terms and conditions of your new neutrality later at… what was it called again?"

"Site Omega," Herc answered over Striker's speakers.

"Right, that place. But first, you look a little tired there Zedus. Perhaps you should consider taking a nap."

Zedus lifted an eyebrow at the strange remark. "But I'm not sleep… oh no. No don't you da-"

Baragon jumped up into the air, flipping around a couple times before coming down feet first. Right at Zedus' head. The last thing to go through Zedus' head before the lights went out was the indignity of his situation and how much he hated sand, Jaegers, and the sun. And especially how much he hated Baragon.

There. Finally finished. Jeez, it's been a long time hasn't it?

Could be worse. You could have just given up after all.

Nah, no way I'd ever do that. It's just… been hard finding the motivation to get back into it you know? That and my computer's been acting… weird lately.

Weird how?

Nothing specific just… strange glitches here and there. They're never consistent or anything, just weird jumps and dives in performance for seemingly no reason.

Maybe you should get it checked out, see if there's any viruses or something in it.

I wouldn't do that if I were yooooooou~

What? Dude, why would you disagree with me like that?

… That wasn't me.

…

Hello boyos. Welcome to 2018. =)

I… I think I'll try some of that wine my dad offered me last night now.

Same. Now pardon me while I go stare at the wall and freak out for a bit.

Heh heh heh. Oh this is gonna be a FUN year.