Sorry it took so long, couldn't get the right inspiration for this one. But I've got it. I'm not going to keep you very long, I promise. Here's chapter 3!
I don't own anything in here...except for Romani, his siblings and any unrecognizable name from Pacific Rim and Godzilla (2014).
Chapter 3
The little boat bobbed on the waves, Steven's gaze was turned towards the land while Romani's roved over the water and to the old reactors. What was it that his father was so obsessed about?
What was he hoping to find?
The two carefully and quietly made their way inland, into the flooded streets where Steven raised his hand for Romani to cut the engine.
"We walk from here," he stated, his voice muffled by the gas mask.
"Sounds good to me," Romani mumbled as he moored the boat, jumping out, his feet making a splash in the water, "C'mon Dad,"
Steven took his son's hand and was pulled out of the boat.
"Thanks," he nodded.
"One hour," Romani reminded him, "Then we get out,"
"One hour," Steven replied, nodding.
The two wandered through the silent city…just seventeen years ago they would have gotten run over by a bus or a car…heck even a rickshaw.
Every step they took echoed, Romani didn't like it…at all.
"This is like how they say Oblivion Bay was in the Kaiju Wars," he murmured.
To his surprise, Romani saw his father shudder violently…like that place evoked some feeling of terror or revulsion in him.
"Do not mention that place ever again," Steven ordered, still trembling, "Do y' hear me?"
"Yeah…?" Romani started, blinking unsurely, "Dad…what's gotten into you?"
"Jus'…jus' don't," Steven pleaded, "That place…ya don't understand Romani…y' never will…"
Romani blinked again.
"Come again?" Romani asked as a pack of dogs came tearing around a corner, making his father jump sky-high.
"What spooked them?" Romani asked.
"Bloody menaces!" Steven spat, shaking badly, "Scare the livin' daylights outta me!"
Romani rolled his eyes and kept going. He'd get his answers when they were on the plane back…that was for sure.
"Dad, c'mon, let's go. It's only another two blocks," he urged.
The sooner he got outta here, the better.
But Steven didn't move, the older Hansen was staring at the Geiger Counter in his palm.
"Dad? Are we going home or what?" Romani repeated…right as Steven ripped off the gasmask, exposing his copper head to the air, "WHOA! WHAT ARE YOU DOING!? Dad!?"
Steven's blue gaze locked with his son's.
"It's clean," he stated, "I knew it! The radiation in this place should be lethal, but there's nothing!"
"You idiot!" Romani snapped, yanking off his own helmet, "You could have told me before you ripped off your mask!"
Steven gave a sad smile.
"I'm sorry," he apologized, "Y're right, I should have. But, Romani…"
"What?" Romani snarled.
"Y' look just like your mother right now,"
Romani had to kick down the door to get into the house it was rotted and rusted. The young man almost didn't recognize the mildewed and moldy walls that made up the former Becket-Hansen house.
"Y' go find anything you think you'd want," Steven said gently, "I'll get the disks,"
Romani nodded and wandered off into the house while Steven walked into his and Gipsy's old bedroom. The older man looked over his shoulder to make sure Romani wasn't watching and he went to a loose tile in the wall. He hooked his fingers into a small groove and yanked the hidden door open, revealing a small alcove.
In the alcove were pictures and souvenirs from the past. A picture of a halfway armored Gipsy sparring with an equally armored young man who resembled Steven greatly, two blades, one segmented like a chain the other having two prongs, locked together as they grinned at each other under amber visors…
"That was when your hair was long, Gips," he thought fondly, "I remember Jazmine an' Mako chasing ya down to get it cut…y' pulled some of those crazy ninja moves just t' get away…"
There were more pictures, but Steven paid them no mind. Something else had caught his eye. For right in the center, were two silver pendants, one of a bulldog biting down on a rocket, the other of a winged star.
Steven's breath caught as he gently picked up the star, letting the untarnished silver metal gleam in the half-light as it twirled on a leather chain.
"Y' left it here," he murmured, "Ya must have known ya weren't going to make it back home that day…ya never took that thing off…"
He closed his fist over the metal and brought it to his mouth, pressing his lips against the cold metal before looping the leather chain over his neck, letting the winged emblem fall to his chest before grabbing the other pendant.
"An ol' name for an ol' time," he said bitterly, "Eh Striker? Fastest Jaeger alive an' yet ya couldn't save your own wife,"
But he looped the pendant over his head in any case.
Steven grabbed all the other photos and souvenirs and stuffed them into his bag, then he walked into his study. He heard Romani in the boy's old room, puttering around and looking at all he'd left behind. Steven gave a sad smile and looked at the room, picking up pieces of fallen metal that had been dislodged during the resulting shockwave from the reactors' collapse. He picked up one more piece of metal and gave a smile of triumph…for he had found the disks he'd been looking for.
He scooped the disks up and stuffed them into the bag, grinning like a madman.
"Now they'll know I'm not crazy Gips, now they'll realize ya weren't a casualty of some malfunction…something came in an' killed ya,"
He was about to move…when his foot brushed up against glass. Steven looked down just to see a broken picture frame. He knelt down and freed the photograph from its shattered prison, revealing Gipsy's smiling face, with him and their three children by their side. Angel had to be about six in that picture, so that meant Romani was four and Sylph was just two years old…He felt tears stream down his face as he tucked that picture in his bag too.
Steven looked up, his blue gaze landing on an old, dimly colored from age, banner displaying 'Happy Birthday Dad!'.
Angel, Romani, and Sylph's sign.
He gave a smile…which quickly faded as the leaves outside began to rustle and his keen hearing picked up a helicopter's rotors…
"Romani…we have to go, now!" Steven warned.
The boy picked his way into the room, dropping a toy soldier in his back pocket.
"Charlie might want it," he shrugged, making his father give a slight smile.
"I've got the disks," Steven replied, "They've got Birds flyin' around out there…they'll see our boat if they haven't seen it already,"
"Then let's go," Romani said, deadly serious all of a sudden.
The two hid behind a car as a helicopter flew over the city. As soon as it left, the two men wandered into the open…stopping to see where exactly the chopper was flying…
The plant.
"Are they rebuilding the plant?" Romani asked.
"I dunno," Steven shrugged, turning around, "I haven't seen…"
His words died in his throat as a police vehicle pulled up. Four men got out and jabbed weapons at the two men, their voices garbled by their masks…but Romani and Steven could pick out the gist of their angry orders.
They raised their hands and two of the men stormed forwards, grabbing them by the arms and basically throwing them into the back of a truck, handcuffing them both to the railing and driving off…towards the plant.
"What do you think they want?" Romani asked as they stopped at a gate.
"I don't know," Steven murmured even softer…but he was half-way listening and/or paying attention to his son.
His focus was more on this giant, curved structure in the middle of the plant.
It looked, but he wasn't for sure, like something that had come out of the past…his past. When he was more than just Steven Hansen.
Whatever it was…it seemed to have sensed him just as he sensed it. The humming sound it emitted throbbed even louder as Steven looked at it.
He was so absorbed watching that thing that Steven didn't even notice that the men had uncuffed him and were dragging him out of the van.
"Dad?" Romani started, "Hey! Dad! Where are you taking him!?"
Steven turned towards his son.
"Romani, it's going to be ok," he promised, "I'll come find ya, I promise!"
"Ten seconds!" a voice over the PA system called, "Ten seconds!"
"Ten seconds…to what?" Steven asked.
He didn't get an answer, he just got shoved into a building right as the lights flickered dangerously.
"You're not foolin' anybody when you say that what happened seventeen years ago was a natural disaster," Steven growled, "Not an earthquake, it wasn't a typhoon. Ok? So stop…look, I'm tired of talking to ya about this. I want my son. I want to see my son! I wanna know that he's alright!"
He turned his frigid blue gaze to the standing man.
"This guy…this guy knows. He knows where he is," Steven growled, voice gaining a heavy metallic overtone, "I. Want. My. Son. An' I want my bag an' I want my disks. An' I want to talk to whoever's in charge…"
"Mr. Hansen…" the seated man started.
"No not you ya wanker…" Steven growled, "I'm done talkin' to ya!"
He turned to look at the mirror…knowing exactly what it was.
"All right? You're lookin' at me right now like I'm in a fish tank eh?" Steven snarled, "Fine! Because I know what happened here! An' ya keep tellin' everybody that this place is a death zone but it's not! You're lyin'! Because what's really happenin' is that y're hiding something out there! I'm right aren't I?"
His fists clenched and his face turned a brilliant shade of red.
"My wife DIED here!" he roared, tears streaming, "Something killed my wife, my Huntress, my Gipsy! AND I HAVE A RIGHT TO KNOW! I DESERVE ANSWERS!"
From the other side of the glass, Octavia bit her lip as she watched Steven practically lose it out there.
"Gipsy's dead?" Ryan asked, walking up behind her, "I…I don't believe it. And you're sure that's Eureka?"
Octavia pulled out a few pictures and showed them to Ryan.
"I managed to get these out before anyone saw them," she said as Ryan looked at the picture of the man in front of them and Gipsy…both in armor, "It's him. And if the Huntress is dead…no wonder he's just about lost it,"
"They said there were two men in the Q-zone, 'Tachi," Ryan said slowly.
"Their son, Romani," Octavia murmured, "I don't know where they took him though,"
"See anything of interest, Mrs. Yvern?" Vivienne asked.
Octavia cleared her throat as she handed the disks to Ishiro.
"All these items were found on him," she stated, looking sidelong at Ryan and mentally pleading that he didn't lay the pictures back down on the table.
He didn't.
"Look at the date," Vivienne murmured, "Seventeen years ago!"
"I thought you said all the data from that day was lost," Ishiro muttered.
"Guess not," Octavia said dryly as the lights flickered again.
"You see!?" came Steven's voice from the room, "There it is again! That is not a transformer malfunction! That is an electromagnetic pulse!"
"And he'd know better than anyone," Ryan muttered to Octavia, "Well…other than Levi,"
"Hush," Octavia hissed.
"It affects everything electrical for miles an' miles an' it is happenin' again! This is what caused everythin' in the first place!" Steven shouted, going to the window and seemingly staring right at the group behind them, "Don't ya see that?! An' it is gonna send us back to the Stone Age! Y' have no idea what's coming!"
The room shook and the lights flashed on and off repeatedly.
"Get back to the control tower," Ishiro ordered, running back.
They made their way into the tower and into complete chaos.
"The pulses are seconds apart!" a scientist yelled, "They're getting stronger, it's affecting the power grid!"
"Any radiation leakage?"
"Gamma levels are still zero!" a third replied, "It sucked all three reactors dry,"
Octavia stared at the thing, eyes wide as it began to pulse faster and faster, it's light burning and searing.
"I don't think this is a good idea," Ryan started as a piece of whatever it was broke off.
"It's done feeding," Ishiro started, handing the seventeen year old readouts to another person.
"What's this?" he started before pausing, "It's the same pattern!"
"Seventeen years ago," Ishiro stated, "It's what caused the meltdown,"
"An electromagnetic pulse," Vivienne added, "That's what it's building to. Converting all that radiation until it hatches,"
"We have to shut down," Ishiro ordered.
"Secure the grid!" Whelan yelled, "Wildfire protocols!"
A scientist grabbed the PA microphone.
"All personnel, clear the first perimeter immediately!"
A few minutes passed and the scientist looked up from a phone.
"Grid secure," he nodded.
"Kill it," Ishiro ordered.
Suddenly, the area was bathed in harsh white light, lightning arched through the area, biting and ravaging the pod in the center of the building. A wild, screeching keen rose from the area, making Octavia and Ryan both cover their ears. They both had heard something like that before…and neither liked that sound at all!
And there was silence.
"All readings have flatlined," someone stated.
"Get a visual," Whelan ordered.
Someone sent the order down and Octavia sank to her knees, still holding her head.
"Octavia?" Ryan asked softly, kneeling down next to her, "'Tachi?"
"I…I'm fine," she stammered, "Really…Raij…Ryan, I'm fine,"
Ryan's lamp-like golden gaze narrowed slightly.
"You're not," he stated, "Something's not right…"
And the pod exploded, revealing a long, bony leg that burst out of the rocky cocoon.
"Is that…" one of the scientists breathed, "No…it can't be…they're gone, they're dead!"
Ryan and Octavia shot each other a look. They knew what it was…but it wasn't exactly themselves that they were worried about. Because whenever there was a monster…
The Hunter wasn't far behind.
Meanwhile in the cell, the guards were about to fall asleep. The prisoner was quiet, no longer ranting but sulking of all things. If all he was going to do was sit there…there really wasn't much to do. Steven Hansen just basically watched them with his too sharp blue gaze.
Suddenly, their prisoner gave a loud roar of pain, grabbing his shoulder, face screwed up in agony.
The men in the room with him came towards him…but the pain-struck man sent them flying with just a brush of his hand. He lifted his face, opening his eyes…
Revealing brilliant golden irises instead of bright blue.
He gasped in pain, his shoulder felt like it was on fire…
And he looked down at said shoulder…just to see a stark black call-sign seemingly burned into his skin, the same mark that was engraved on a pendant around his neck.
He, out of curiosity, held up his hand, brow furrowed in concentration…
And his smooth, pale skin turned a bright silver, armor plating covering his arm. He could barely breathe as he let the silver armor return back to pale skin.
He was a Jaeger again…no longer purely human…
No longer Steven Hansen…but Striker Eureka.
The Jaeger staggered to his feet, reaching out for the door…and ripped it off its hinges.
"I'm comin' Romani," Striker started as he walked out the door, feeling his strength returning with each step.
Romani was in bigger trouble. The boy was doubled over, gasping in pain as his human inner workings were replaced with metal and wire. His eyesight sharpened…like he was looking through the scope on a rifle. He felt strength flood him…right as his forearm burned painfully, like someone was branding him. Romani clawed at the cloth of his sleeve, nearly destroying it as he finally manage to roll it up enough to see a stark black mark…a winged sword…burned into the soft, pale flesh of his arm. He looked up and if there had been anyone in the car watching him, they would have gotten a bigger shock…
For Romani's blue eyes also turned a brilliant golden color, just like his father's.
"What…is happening?" Romani gasped, right as a clicking sound rumbled far, far above him.
The boy's golden eyes flared brightly as he jerked his chained arm, trying to get free…
And the handcuffs snapped in two, throwing Romani to the floor. Romani sat up, rubbing his head. He had to get out of there…
Angel was singing to herself as she was washing the dishes. Her little Gipsy was taking a nap and today was her day off. So that meant getting housework done. Suddenly, Gipsy gave a scream and Angel sprinted towards her daughter's room…just to nearly collapse from pain as a burning, branding sensation entered her right shoulder. Right as her eyes burned brilliant gold.
Sylph was tapping on the desk during an exam, she'd finished ages ago…but the professor wouldn't let her leave! Maybe skipping out yesterday wasn't such the best idea…
She didn't get much time to think of it…as a burning feeling branded itself above her heart. The youngest sibling bit down her scream surprisingly well, clamping her hand to her heart as spots danced before her eyes…her bright amber eyes.
"Mommy, it hurts!" Charlie cried, tears streaming as he rubbed his right arm.
"Let me take a look at it," Gwen said gently, reaching for it.
Charlie jerked his hand back.
"No! Don't touch!" he yelped.
"If you don't let me see then I can't help," Gwen reasoned, then patted the metal railing of the stairs, "Here, you can squeeze this if it hurts when I touch it, ok?"
"Okay," Charlie murmured, putting his little hand on the railing.
Gwen carefully rolled back the sleeve right as Charlie gave an ear-piercing shriek. There was an awful crunching noise and Gwen's eyes shot up…just to see Charlie holding a piece of the stairwell that he had ripped off!
The boy's frightened green…no… gold gaze looked up at his mother while a stark black mark of some sort seemed to have appeared on his arm.
"Mommy…what's happening?" he whimpered.
Striker tore through the ranks of people who were running in the opposite direction. The Mark V didn't care…all he cared about was getting to his son, who was who knows where. He sprinted out onto a walkway…and froze.
"You'll remain perfectly human until the day comes where humanity will be at its greatest need against your old foes,"
It seemed that day had come.
His visor snapped down and his blades flickered out as he slipped from human to half-way. A low, threatening, metallic snarl ripped from his throat as he saw what was in the pit.
Kaiju.
A big one. Bigger than Leatherback, bigger than Slattern…
But he couldn't take it out…he needed to get Romani out of here!
Then he could find the others and they'd all take it down. If they were lucky of course.
Striker watched as the monster reached up with its spindly legs and ripped the wire grid above itss head down.
"Great…it's a smart Kaiju," he deadpanned as cranes started to fall in a domino effect.
He watched as a crane came crashing down in front of him and he tried to yank back some of the terrified humans that raced past him, to save them…but the one he managed to grab twisted out of his grip and joined his fellows at the bottom of the pit. Striker closed his eyes in sorrow…right as a loud scream knifed through the area. The Jaeger's head shot up…he knew that yell.
"ROMANI!" Striker yelled, watching as the van that had brought them there was flipped over.
Romani leaped out of the van, golden eyes wild as he stood, poised to run, by the van's wreckage. He looked up right as the twang of wire sounded. He saw his father's tall, lean form on the wreckage of a crane and his eyes widened.
"No…" he breathed, right as the wreckage twisted, sending Striker into a mess of metal and wire with a scream that was too quickly cut off, "DAD! NO!"
A low, but loud roar sounded from behind him, and Romani slowly turned around as the monster dragged itself out of the pit. Romani's hands burned but he paid no attention to it. He was too focused on the creature in front of him than his hands. A primal urge rose up in him, he wanted to rush out and take on the beast by himself…but he fought it down. There was no friggin' way he was going to take on that thing! He was just a little squishy human up against a monster that seemed to have come right out of his mother's old bedtime stories.
He closed his eyes…this wasn't possible…the Kaiju were all dead and gone, there was no way one survived!
But by the time Romani opened his eyes again…
The monster was gone.
Remember that little tidbit about the Jaegers being human until humanity needed them again? Guess they need them now! Romani will find out what exactly happened to him and the others...he gets a little bit from Striker next chapter, but not much.
Anyway, hope you liked it. If you did, please let me know!
Qui vállë tóquetë, ván tecë (If no review comes from y'all; no story comes from me)
Máriessë ar mára tecië
Farewell and fair writing
Elhini Prime signing off.