When you only own a copy of the movie you're basing this off of on BluRay and the only player in the house is being used by your little sister...who does not like the movie...it take a little longer to get this done. Little sis is back in school so I've got a few days to myself before I head back to college...and that means more writing!
I don't own anything in here...except for Romani, his siblings and any unrecognizable name from Pacific Rim and Godzilla (2014).
Chapter 4
"I hate feeling like this, I'm so tired of trying to fight this. I'm asleep and all I dream of is waking to you!"
"What are you doing?" a doctor asked.
"She likes this song," the intern protested, cranking up the volume on the stereo.
"How could you possibly know that?!"
"I asked her brother. I mean she can hear everything…right?"
"Auditory functions are the last sensory faculties to degenerate," the doctor admitted, checking on her patient.
The woman on the cot was still comatose, even after all these years. She'd tried to urge the family to pull the plug on the life support the woman was hooked up to…but they had shot her down repeatedly. She was tempted to just take out the life-giving instruments at the moment. It wasn't as if the patient was brain-dead…but it was like her mind was in an eternal state of sleep. She was hooked up to more wires and tubes than one of the Mark I Jaegers…it would have only been a mercy to take them out rather than have her live in an endless sleep.
"Comatooooose, I don't wanna wake up with out an overdooooseee..." the intern sang, and rather off key at that…
Right as the patient shot up, gasping for breath, clawing at the tube that pumped oxygen through her nose. The heart monitor shrieked for a few seconds before stopping all together…but the patient was still up, eyes wild and scared.
"Oh my God!" the intern yelped, jumping backwards and nearly knocking over the table behind him.
"She's up!" the doctor sputtered, coming over to the patient and fussing over her, "Call him!"
"Where am I!?" the patient demanded, struggling as the intern spoke into a phone and the doctor checked her vitals, "Get your hands off me!"
She shone a penlight in the patient's eyes, getting a dark, metallic snarl from her.
"Pupils are equally reactive to light…" the doctor started, picking up the patient's arm…only to get grabbed and hoisted about a foot or two off the ground by the collar.
"I said…" the patient repeated, "Where. Am. I?"
"Gipsy!"
The patient froze, breathing heavily for a few heartbeats and shaking badly. She knew that voice! She looked towards the door to see a familiar, tall man. His hair had a few more streaks of grey in it since she last saw it, and there were a few laugh-lines on his face…but the lively, mischievous blue eyes remained the same.
"Put the nice doctor down," Raleigh Becket ordered with a faint smile.
Gipsy's hand released and the doctor dropped to the ground like a sack of potatoes.
"R-Raleigh?" the poor Jaeger stammered, her golden eyes wide and afraid, "What…where…"
Raleigh came and sat next to Gipsy, brushing the woman's long black hair away from her face.
"You've been asleep for a long time, Gips," Raleigh told her softly, "C'mon, let's get you into some real clothes and out of that nasty hospital gown ok?"
Gwen held the phone up to her ear, listening to the airport personnel as they tried to locate her husband.
"Could you please give me his name again?"
"Yeah, it's Romani…Romani Hansen," Gwen told them, "Japan to San Francisco?"
"I'm sorry Ma'am, but there hasn't been anyone by that name check in,"
"Ok, could I at least…"
There's nothing, Ma'am,"
"If you could let me leave you my cell…" Gwen tried again…
But the line went dead.
Gwen cursed, throwing the phone away and putting her head in her hands. A soft footstep caught her attention and Gwen looked up to see her son padding softly towards her, golden eyes looking at her.
"I'm sorry, baby," she murmured, pulling her son into her embrace, "It's ok…Daddy's going to be ok,"
Charlie nuzzled into her shoulder and Gwen could have sworn she heard the boy purr…like an engine or a cat…
She released him and held him at arms-length, gently touching the area where that black mark was.
"It still hurt?" she asked.
Charlie shook his head and took his arm from his mother's hands, scratching at the mark.
"Itches," he muttered, golden eyes flicking up to her.
Gwen frowned and took his arm again, gently sliding back the sleeve…
She could have sworn she saw something shiny flashing in the light, but there was nothing but Charlie's smooth, creamy skin and that black mark.
"Mommy?" Charlie asked.
"Yeah baby?"
"Am I sick?"
"I don't think so,"
"Gipsy has it too…and so does Aunt Angel,"
Gwen froze, looking at her son.
"They have what sweetie?"
"They got the mark too," Charlie told her, "An' their eyes turned yellow…like mine,"
Gwen blinked, putting a hand on her son's shoulder.
"You go get ready," she told him, "I'm going to call your aunts. Ok?"
"Kay,"
Something wasn't right around here…
Raleigh, Yancy and Mako watched as Gipsy bolted down the food they had gotten her. They didn't blame her for eating like she was starving…for someone who had spent the past seventeen years eating liquefied food, something solid had to taste good.
"…So the last thing I remember was the ceiling coming down," Gipsy finished with her mouth full, "I dunno what happened after that,"
"It seems El's still watching over you, Gips," Yancy said, "Because for some unknown reason…it was Romeo and Brawler who pulled you out of the plant and brought you to us,"
"You still haven't told me how long I've been out," Gipsy pointed out, taking another bite of her sandwich.
The three Pilots looked at each other uncertainly.
"Well…" Raleigh started.
"Mom, Dad," came a man's voice as a tall, blond haired, brown-eyed boy came into the room, "Uncle Stacker said…"
The boy stopped, staring at Gipsy, who's golden gaze stared back…not recognizing him.
"Aunt…Aunt Gipsy?" he asked, hushed, "You're awake?!"
"Just woke up," Gipsy said warily, "Who are you?"
The boy…young man…blinked rapidly and looked at Mako and Raleigh, both of which were looking anywhere but at him and Gipsy.
"I…I'm your nephew…Andrew," he stammered.
Gipsy's golden eyes flared brightly and she looked like she had been slapped.
"Raleigh. James. Becket…" Gipsy started slowly, a low metallic rumble starting up in her chest, "How long have I been asleep,"
"Gipsy…" Raleigh started.
"HOW LONG HAVE I BEEN IN THAT GODDA-"
"GIPSY!" Mako yelled.
"-MN COMA!?" Gipsy shrieked, ignoring her female pilot, gunmetal blue armor shining on her now clenched fists…much to Andrew's shock.
Raleigh sighed, looking at Andrew.
"Go," he ordered and when Andrew opened his mouth to protest, "Now Andrew!"
Andrew left and Raleigh put a hand on Gipsy's, feeling the smooth, warm metal.
"Seventeen years, Gips," he said softly, "You've been unconscious for seventeen years,"
Romani picked his way through the debris. Since that thing went away, everyone was going crazy trying to salvage what they could, find and help the wounded/missing…Romani was among those trying to find the missing.
The boy walked around the rubble, trying to find any sign of his father…and then he heard a soft moan.
Romani dashed over to the mess of steel and stone and feverishly began to pull the mess apart…revealing his father's bloodied face.
"Dad," Romani breathed, putting his hands on his father's cheeks, making the older Jaeger open his eyes slightly.
"Romani…" Striker groaned, his golden eyes rolling upwards as he cried out from the pain.
"Hey, hey, stay with me," Romani ordered before turning around, "WE NEED SOME HELP OVER HERE!"
The medics that were swarming the area rushed over to them, carefully prying apart Striker's prison. They managed to get the Jaeger freed and gently put him on a stretcher. Romani followed them, keeping his hand around his father's at all time.
"They'll take care of you, I'll be right next to you," Romani promised as they loaded Striker onto an ambulance.
"Okay," Striker murmured, eyes fluttering shut.
"Hey, stay awake Old Man," Romani ordered.
Striker cracked open a golden eye and half-heartedly glared at his son.
"I see…why Dad…hated bein'…called tha'," he grumbled, wincing as some of his inner workings grated harshly against one another.
Striker took Romani's hand and squeezed, pressing something warm and smooth into it.
Romani blinked and opened his palm, revealing a metal pendant…a winged star.
"It was…your mother's," Striker rasped, "Her…call sign,"
"Call sign…" Romani murmured, "Dad what are you saying?"
Striker groaned again from the pain, weakly brushing his hand against his neck, trying to pull something off.
A man in navy fatigues walked into the ambulance.
"Mr. Hansen?" he asked.
"Which one," Romani asked.
"Either, both…" the man shrugged, "I need you to come with me,"
"In case you haven't noticed," Romani growled, metal lacing his voice, "My Dad need medical attention. Now,"
"We're going to give it to him," the man reassured Romani, "but on a chopper headed towards our aircraft carrier,"
"'Mani," came Striker's weak voice, "Let him do it,"
"You sure?" Romani asked.
Striker gave a weak nod.
"Fine then," Romani sighed, "Let's move,"
They took Striker's stretcher onto the helicopter, a few medics came on with them, settling around the badly hurt Jaeger and beginning to work on him.
"Let's get his vitals," one started, poking around one of Striker's wounds.
The Jaeger hissed, a low, rumbling growl thrumming from his chest.
"Shhh," Romani soothed, putting a hand on his father's arm, "Dad…"
"Radial pulse is weak, I'm counting 125," the other medic warned.
"It's ok," Romani started, taking off the oxygen mask and smiling sadly, "You were right, I'm sorry,"
"Go home t' your family," Striker told him, "Y' keep them safe. Okay?"
"Okay," Romani promised and Striker gripped his hands, matching sets of golden eyes looking into each other.
"Whatever it takes," Striker ordered.
His eyes flickered dimly and Romani renewed his grip on his father's hands.
"Hey, stay with me," he started.
"'Mani…" Striker whispered, "I'm sorry…I…I should have told ya. Don't…don't hate me or your mother…"
"Hate you?" Romani blinked as Striker closed his eyes, "Dad…"
No answer.
"Dad?!" Romani panicked.
"Radial pulse is weaker," the medic stated, "Barely feel it…"
The heart monitor shrieked a warning as Striker flatlined.
"Dad!" Romani screeched, shaking his father's hand, not registering the babble around him, "NO! DAD!"
It was no use…
Striker was gone.
They didn't issue that Striker was gone until they landed at the USS Saratoga. Romani was given some time alone…and the boy wasn't taking the news well.
Romani gave a blood chilling roar, something mixed between metal tearing in two and a human scream. The boy fell to his knees, sobbing. He had lost his mother…why in God's good Earth did he have to lose his father too!?
A few minutes on the floor, Romani's tears stopped. The young Jaeger pushed himself up to his feet and held his father's hand one last time.
"It's still warm…" he thought bitterly as his eyes flicked to his father's completely still face.
He noticed a thin, leather chain around his father's neck and immediately thought back to the ambulance. His father had been trying to pull something off his neck…
Romani gently put his hand under his father's head and lifted up, taking his other hand and pulling the chain free…
Just to reveal a second pendant. This one with a bulldog crunching down on a rocket.
Romani frowned as he dug in his pocket, pulling out the pendant his father said belonged to his mother…
Her call sign.
"Where have I seen these before?" Romani murmured.
He didn't get more time to think and he hurriedly shoved the pendants in his pocket as two attendants, a tall dark-skinned man and a smaller grey-haired woman, came in.
"Sorry about your loss, kid," the man started, his voice deep and warm…just like his odd red-amber gaze, "Str…"
The woman elbowed him in the side.
"Blue, shut it," she growled before turning to Romani, her blue gaze sad, "Steven was a good man,"
"You knew my dad?" Romani asked, "Who…"
A knock on the door saved the two from answering.
"Lieutenant Hansen?" an officer asked.
Romani turned around.
"I need you to follow me, please,"
The young Jaeger gave a sigh, but he followed the officer down the hall and into a conference room where a group of people sat, stood or leaned on something, studying a bunch of papers…and there were two faces Romani recognized.
"Dr. Serizawa," the officer started, stepping out of the way and letting Romani step through.
Ishiro stood up, walking towards Romani.
"My condolences," he murmured quietly.
"We are deeply sorry for your loss, lieutenant," Vivienne said, "But I'm afraid we need your help,"
Romani looked past them, his golden gaze locked onto two other people, who looked back at him.
"Hello, Romani," Octavia said with a faint smile, "It's been a while,"
"Octavia, Ryan," Romani nodded, "good to see you,"
They ushered him in, sitting him down and starting up a grainy, black and white film.
"In 1954," Ishiro started, "The first time a nuclear submarine ever reached the lower depths…it awakened something,"
"The Americans first thought that it was the Russians. The Russians thought it was them," Vivienne stated, "All those nuclear bomb tests in the '50s? Not tests,"
"They were trying to kill it," Ishiro said, freezing the film as something burst out of the water, "Him,"
An unexplainable urge rose in Romani…something feral and wild…and he could stop the low growl that rumbled in his throat as the scaly thing appeared on the screen.
"An ancient alpha predator," Ishiro explained, at a loss and very curious by Romani's reaction.
"Millions of years older than mankind," Vivienne added, "From an age when the Earth was 10 times more radioactive than today. This animal…and others like it…consumed this radiation as a food source. As the levels on the surface naturally subsided, these creatures adapted to live deeper in the oceans, further underground. Absorbing radiation from the planet's core. The organization we work for, Monarch, was established in the wake of this discovery. A multinational coalition formed in secrecy to search for him. Study him. Learn everything we could."
"We call him Gojira," Ishiro stated.
"The top of a primordial ecosystem," Vivienne continued, "A god, for all intents and purposes,"
Neither of them noticed Ryan and Octavia both snorting before looking at each other.
"A monster," Romani growled.
"Then, twenty seven years ago, they came back," Ryan stated, "Not exactly Godzilla there but a lot of them were close,"
"Kaiju," Octavia corrected, "First one was Trespasser…"
"K-Day," Romani stated, "I remember learning about that during school…they made the Jaegers to combat them. The first being Brawler Yukon, the last being Striker Eureka…"
"And then began the first Kaiju War," Ishiro nodded, "With the detonation of the Jaeger Gipsy Danger in the interdimentional portal, the 'Breach' was shut down for a year or two. Then was reopened, starting the second Kaiju War,"
"Mom's story," Romani thought to himself.
"We believe that the Breach might have leaked some radiation from their world into ours…forcing the MUTO to wake up," Ryan stated.
"Seventeen years ago," Ishiro began again, taking the 'talking stick' from Ryan, "We found a fossil of another giant animal in the Philippines. Like Gojira. But this creature died long ago. Killed by these,"
He gestured at the screen again, revealing the cone-like structure that they had found.
"Parasitic spores," Vivienne explained, "One dormant, but the other hatched. Catalyzed when a mining company unknowingly drilled into its tomb. The hatchling burrowed straight for the nearest source of radiation, your father's power plant in Janjira, and cocooned there for seventeen years, absorbing its radioactive fuel to gestate, to grow,"
"Until it hatched," Ishiro growled, "Like a butterfly into the creature you saw today,"
"Wait, you knew about this?!" Romani demanded, "This thing? The whole time!?"
Octavia and Ryan both looked at each other, watching as metal started threading up the boy's hands and into his voice.
"Why didn't you just kill it when you had the chance!?" Romani yelled.
"It was absorbing radiation from the reactors," Vivienne tried to placate the young Jaeger, "We worried killing it might release that radiation and endanger millions,"
Romani rolled his golden eyes, shaking his dark head.
"That's why our mission was to contain it," Ishiro said, "To study its biology, to understand it,"
"We knew the creature was having an electrical effect on everything within a close proximity," Vivienne continued, "What we didn't know was that it could harness this same power in an EMP attack. But your father did, he predicted it,"
"No one knows EMPs like Steven Hansen," Ryan muttered under his breath.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Romani growled.
Ryan blinked, genuinely surprised that Romani had heard him.
"Nothing," Ryan stated.
Romani didn't look like he believed him, but couldn't question him further because Ishiro and Vivienne had turned to him again.
"What else did he say?" Ishiro asked.
"Please try to remember, Mr. Hansen," Vivienne pleaded, "Anything that would help us…anything at all…"
Romani closed his eyes, digging his hands into his pockets and squeezing one around the smooth metal of the two pendants, so hard he was sure he was drawing blood from his mother's.
"I didn't listen," he stated, "I just thought he was crazy. He was obsessed with all this…said something about an animal call. Something talking…"
"Talking?"
"Said he was studying something," Romani admitted, "Echolocation,"
"If the MUTO was talking that day," Ishiro reasoned, "Your father must have discovered something talking back…"
He turned to Vivienne.
"Check again," he ordered.
She nodded and left.
"Search for a response call," he called after her.
"This parasite," Romani started, "It's still out there…where's it headed?"
"The MUTO is young…growing," Ishiro stated, "It will be looking for food,"
"Sources of radiation," Vivienne explained, "We're monitoring all known sites, but…if we don't find it soon…"
"Then what?" Romani asked.
"Nature has an order,"Ishiro said slowly, "A power to restore balance,"
He turned towards the picture of the monster again.
"I believe he is that power,"
The picture flickered again, showing some of the Jaegers from the second war in action…specifically the two rebuilt from those who closed the Breach.
Striker Eureka and Gipsy Danger.
But that wasn't what got Romani stunned…
It was two emblems emblazoned on the Jaegers' armor.
They were the same as those on his parents' pendants.
He woke up, gasping for breath and feeling his chest, trying to find the blasted holes those metal bars had left in it.
"Easy there, tough guy," a soft, familiar voice soothed, "You're gonna be ok,"
His vision cleared and he saw golden eyes and red-streaked black hair. His throat closed as the woman kneeling next to his bed smiled softly, brushing his copper hair away from his face.
"Hello, Striker," Gipsy smiled, "It's been a long time,"
"They're all reverting," his subordinate announced, "Even the third generation,"
He leaned forwards in his chair, his many medals and ribbons flashing in the light.
"Good…" he nodded, "Now…find them…and make sure they stay out of the way,"
"Yes sir,"
"I've waited too long to have the Jaegers mess this up," he murmured, closing his eyes and leaning backwards in his chair.
Did I just change how this was going a bit? *looks back at chapter* Huh...looks like it. Who knows where this will take us...as for this guy...he's human, not this supernatural baddie like the first book.
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.