Before I start, many thanks to Tel Nok Shock, Winged Pyro, Prophet21, Meta Nui, Xahraxs, Bladeninja, and Eilif for reviewing the last chapter. Many, many thanks to you :D And as always, read, review, and enjoy :3
Midnight, roughly two weeks after Striker Eureka and Gipsy Danger managed to tape that nuke to Slattern and kick him back into the Breach.
Stacker Pentecost's dark chocolate eyes snapped open. " Mr. Choi, what is it?"
Tendo stood in the entrance of the Marshal's cabin, hair an inky black mess, his bow tie hanging loosely off his neck as he tugged nervously at his bagel-print pajamas. "Boss, it's an emergency," he panted, face sweaty, "something's ….something's wrong with the jaegers."
The plaid covers were thrown off the bunk as Pentecost's bare feet hit the cold cement floor. He wasted no time in pulling a crisp white t-shirt over his grey sweats, "show me, now."
"Around ten minutes ago we started getting massive power surges from all four conn pods, " Tendo babbled as they raced underneath the red glow of the emergency lights.
"Mako and Dr. Gottlieb instructed that all the conn pods be unplugged for maintenance, who gave the go ahead for them to receive power again?" He growled.
"That's the thing we don't know, before the surge, something hacked into the mainframe and re-routed all power to the pods. The entire base is out, even the comms. That's why I had to run and get you," he wheezed as they barged into the control room.
The circular room was dark, lit only by the emergency lights. Smoke drifted overhead from the fried consoles, the entire place smelling of burnt circuitry. Outside, the hanger was pitch black, with the pulsing orbs of the four conn pods flickering inside their bays as the only sign that the jaegers were still there. The Marshal scowled, "give me a gun and lets go find who's responsible for this."
"Avariynyy! Avariynyy! nam nuzhna pomoshch! " A young man stumbled into the room, flashlight in shaking hand as the building rumbled. His half-shaved brown hair was slick with sweat, his green striped shirt covered in grease. Pentecost immediately recognized him as one of the Russian engineers hired on to help maintain the jaeger. "Marshal, sir! It's Cherno Alpha!"
The metal behemoth of a jaeger of finally stopped shaking the walls once they finally reached it. Pentecost stood amongst Cherno Alpha's crew as they clustered together on the catwalk, staring at the access hatch in the jaeger's chest.
"Who did this?" The Marshal's cold gaze seared into the cluster of wires and tech haphazardly pushed through the hatch. The worn wires pulsed, barely able to contain the amounts of energy surging through them.
"Whoever it is, they won't live much longer," beside him, Sasha let out a low growl, her face icy underneath the bandages that she had received at the hands of leatherback. Beside her, Aleksis scowled in his wheelchair. They both wore matching dark green pajamas, and were very unamused to learn of the late night tampering going on with their jaeger, especially since that it was still undergoing repairs. "I want this out of here, now," pursing her lips, she took hold of one of the wires.
"Hold on Mrs. Kaidonosvky! Hold on!" More scampering down the catwalk, this time it was Dr. Gottlieb in a floppy brown bathrobe and fluffy blue slippers, "I wouldn't pull on that! Massive power surge! Very dangerous! It's most like re-routed through the pod and into the core! " He panted breathlessly as he nervously rubbed his cane, "sorry, Marshal, I got here as quick as I could."
"Do you know how to fix this?" He inclined his head at the scientist as Sasha let go of the wire, hissing in disgust as a strange purplish film broke off of it, sticking to her fingers. The engineers around her gasped and took a step back.
"What the-" Tendo popped his head out from behind Pentecost. "Oh god, look up, look up."
As one the crew directed their flashlights upon the organic horror seeping out of the hatch, of the slime seeping off of the purplish vines that were slowly growing across Cherno's conn pod. The smell was suffocating, like rotten fish mixed with eggs and shoved underneath a skunk to bake.
Gottlieb curiously poked at the growth with his cane, "I've seen this before….in Newt's side of the lab. It's kaiju origin so it has to be his work. "
That was enough for the Marshal. "Get the hatch open all the way, I'm going in," somehow, Pentecost had acquired a pistol.
"So are we," Sasha added, cracking her knuckles.
"You? Maybe." Pentecost looked over his shoulder at Aleksis, "but your husband is unfit-"
Giving a snarl, Aleksis pushed himself out of the wheelchair, kicking the contraption over the side of the catwalk. His bones cracked as he stretched. Tendo gave a small squeak. The Russian man wasn't supposed to walk for another three weeks.
A waft of fetid air hit their faces as the hatch was opened, and they stepped into the shadows.
The conn pod had been transformed. Grey and purple growths of slime and flesh littered the place like a fungus, pulsing purple veins and wires running to the cocoon like sack that hung in the middle, right between the places where the pilots hooked in. The sack, a mixture of organs and technology, writhed like a lung gasping for air, a glowing form moving inside of it.
Suddenly, it began to ripple and shudder.
"We might need backup," Gottlieb shouted from his position from the hatch, his mind alight with the horrors Newt had told him of the kaiju baby. "We might also need to run!"
But before anyone could do anything, the sack burst in a shower of water and red fluid as it's occupant slid limply out onto the floor.
They were expecting a kaiju baby, but instead they got a naked teenage boy.
Immediately Sasha and Aleksis were by his side, poking and prodding him curiously as one of them took off his shirt and laid it over him like a blanket.
"What…" Pentecost could only stare at the pale-skinned, yet already incredibly well muscled, lad. Freckles covered his face, his hair was a pale blonde. In fact….he almost looked like he could have been the offspring of two certain kaiju killers that sat before him.
"maintaining miracle mile…vrag! ubit' ikh! ….kaiju….punch, punch, punch…."the kid mumbled, his frosty blue eyes slowly cracking open.
"Who is he?' Pentecost asked, surprised.
"He's Cherno Alpha," Sasha whispered, grey eyes alight as she ran her fingers through his slimy blonde hair, cradling him on her lap, 'our Cherno Alpha."
The Marshal took one look at him, then went striding out the hatch. "CHECK THE OTHER JAEGERS! NOW!"
Hermann Gottlieb stood in the doorway, a strange sadness on his face as he watched the two Russians. 'Newt….what have you done?"