008: The Miracle Mile, 2020

Two months felt like they barely passed before they were roused by the sound of alert system in the Shatterdome. Yancy argued with himself to get up and move, but he couldn't find it in him to do it. His shoulders and side were still aching from the Kaiju fight in Manila.

Dry runs reworking their connection made it difficult not to latch onto everything his brother had seen from his perspective: Electricity firing out from his suit as Umbra tore at Gipsy's right arm, his expression before he passed out. They worked through it, but he wasn't sure his body was going to want to handle the stress of Gipsy Danger again despite all the rehabilitation he suffered through to get back into fighting form.

Raleigh's hands were pounding the mattress and slapping him in the face the next instant. "Yo, Yance, we're up," He gripped his chin, eliciting the expected response from his brother. "Movement in the breach!" Yancy was sitting up in an instant, falling back on instinct; he blocked the offending hand, pushing Raleigh away from his face as he fought to focus. "Right. Breach. Got it."

He heard fragments, something about the biggest Category III recorded, Knifehead, Raleigh's general excitement; but the only thing he was worried about was the time. What kind of Kaiju had the balls to attack two in the fucking morning? Raleigh didn't care, though; they were getting back into the fight and his little brother could think of nothing but a good scrap.

Gipsy was ready and waiting, after all.

Pulling his shirt over his head, he checked his shoulders and waist. The marks left behind from Umbra were beginning to fade, unlike the memory. An impatient pound on the door startled him. "Yo, Yance, we ain't got all day, Romeo Blue missed the sucker, we gotta get moving," Raleigh's voice, muffled by the door, brought him back to the present. Another yawn escaped him. "Gotcha, I'm coming out," He grabbed the door and pulled it back open. Raleigh was dressed and ready to go. His eyes were on his shoulder and back in the reflection of the mirror. "That getting any better?" He asked.

"Yeah, barely hurts," He yawned shuffling past him. Raleigh moved to prove the assertion; Yancy slapped his hand away without so much as missing a beat. "Don't try it, kid."

"Just checking," Raleigh grinned. Yance jumped into his clothes in under a minute and followed his brother as he bounced through the door. They fell in sync, a shoulder's breadth apart, swagger and all. Drivesuit techs were ready and waiting, Raleigh greeting them with the usual bravado.

This was it.

Between the two of them; it was a toss-up; depending on the situation, Yancy would and could break a rule of authority like nobody's business. For all the responsibility that came with being the older brother, he was no Scott Summers, but he wasn't Wolverine either. The moment he brought attention to the ship out on the gulf, there was going to be a situation. Pentecost, he played by the rules of collateral damage. There wasn't anything they could do for the fisherman, not when their primary concern was a city of thousands (or millions, whichever came first).

The Beckets, on the other hand? The one thing they did not deal with was collateral damage when it was avoidable. And it was completely avoidable this time.

"You know what I'm thinkin'," Raleigh declared confidently once he switched the communicators off.

The question had been rhetorical, but it elicited the same reaction nonetheless. "I'm in your brain," He deadpanned. "I know."

"Then let's go fishin."

Good to be home again, eh, Yance?

Always a pleasure to be with the lady, Mr. Becket.

Yancy took a couple of breaths as his body readjusted to moving in tandem with Gipsy Danger. She was feeling great; a little sore from the repairs, but great nonetheless. They rocked back and forth with the motion of her legs fighting against the waves that battered against her body. Exhaust ports closed up as they dove further into the raging sea of the Miracle Mile.

There was no back up this time; no Herc Hansen to pull them out of the fire, no Horizon Brave to sucker punch a Kaiju into submission. Just them and Gipsy Danger battling the storm. The PPDC had long since decided Mark-3s were obsolete Jaegers and moved on to work on more Mark-4s and Mark-5s; rumors about their expenses were wild, but the upgraded specs were enough to make anyone with a rational mind vaguely jealous. They'd never be truly phased out, but their necessity on the battlefield would become less of a priority once MK4 and MK5's were in full swing.

Lookin' pretty quiet under da sea.

God, you're not about to sing are you?

I dunno, I just might.

Raleigh's excitement was infectious; it was hard to keep a focused mind when the guy next to you was practically leaping out of his boots with anticipation of the fight barreling toward them. He was literally failing his own advice. Raleigh teased him about his pace, tried to get him in the mood of verbal back and forth while they marched below the raging waters above them.

How it's looking on your end, Yance?

Clear as a whistle, Rals. No movement detected.

And your shoulder?

Fine, just like the last time you asked.

You sure? 'Cause I'm getting' some feedback-

And?

"The Drift doesn't lie; your shoulder's still bothering you, man."

"Focus, kid. You let me worry about my shoulder."

"That's impossible and you know it." A sigh escaped Yancy as he conceded with his brother's defense. Anything he felt, Raleigh was going to feel and that meant Gipsy Danger was going to as well. "I'll work through it, I've done it before."

"You sure?"

"Positive, now get your head back in the game, kid."

After a Category IV, III should've been an easy meal for Gipsy Danger. But it wasn't.

Knifehead slapped them around like a cat tearing at the belly of a fish, blocked every counter offensive attack they made against it after playing them for fools like a possum in the first round. The Conn-Pod was flashing from every hit, their harness was as unsteady as he'd ever could remember it. Why the fuck hadn't they listened to Pentecost?

He could hear his brother screaming, watched as his device went red and his suit overload from the data feedback. Gipsy Danger was screaming right along with him as her arm crashed into the water below. Every parental instinct kicked into overdrive, forcing him to focus his energy on retaliating against the Kaiju. The Plasmacaster fired, the Kaiju ducked out of the line of fire. Knifehead slapped them again and without the balance of the other arm, they were stumbling through the sea.

The tip of its head rammed the inner part of Gipsy's Danger's only arm. Raleigh stopped focusing on his pain long enough to hear Yancy howl, both in agony and anger as Knifehead fixed to remove the other arm from the Jaeger. Yancy smashed the hard shell of Knifehead's back, fury motivated his arm, strategy completely abandoned. Knifehead slapped the arm away and slashed its chest. The Kaiju bashed its head against the side of Gipsy, throwing her back another couple feet. Yancy felt his arm - Gipsy's arm- go numb. "Goddamnit!"

Everything from the shoulder down was burning, Yancy, falling back on his left control, swung wild and missed the Kaiju again when it sidestepped them. This fucking monster was too smart for its own good. "I can't a shot-" The Conn-Pod was slapped again; the force of the blow knocked them silly, their bodies go limp for a second and the harness locks up. As sparks begin to fly all around them, the large intention just above his head began to split apart.

Both their eyes went wide with the realization of what was happening when Yancy's side of the Conn-Pod blacked out and the top of the head was torn wide open. Raleigh was shooting a millions questions at him; all of it was wrapped up in a terror he'd never thought he'd ever experience from his brother again.

It knows we're in the Pod!

Raleigh-

How the hell does it know we're in the Pod?!

Raleigh- "Raleigh, listen to me!"

What?

He had no idea what the hell he was going to say.

Yancy, what?!

Maybe it would've been something inspirational or smart, but his mind went blank and his brother was screaming for him to respond. "You have to-"

And it was enough time to feel the harness attached his back go taut following the awful screech and moan of iron behind. One minute he's staring his brother in the face, the next he's being flung about like a ragdoll in midair. The world that surrounded him literally fell away like the shutter of a camera closing in on itself and plunged him into the black.

"No!"

Knifehead didn't pay him the courtesy of staring him in the face like an enemy come to respect his opponent; he was flung aside like waste plucked from the entrails of its prey and continued to gorge on Gipsy Danger. The cold of the atmosphere hit him immediately; rain and thunder hit him from all sides, confusing his already lost sense of direction. He could hear himself screaming, he couldn't right himself, he could only kick and flail his arms as the weight of his harness dragged him faster and faster down toward the water; water contaminated with Kaiju Blue.

Yancy!

Raleigh!

Oh, God, they were still connected.

Raleigh, help!

Just hang on!

The harness hit the water; the icy waves swallowed him whole, flowing through the tears in his suit. He couldn't do anything to stop himself from sinking. His fingers struggled to get him free of the harness; tearing and pulling at everything he could grab hold of. Nothing was giving and the surface was getting further and further away. Just hang on! I'm coming, Yance! Raleigh's mind was on repeat; between his and his brother's pain, there was no room for error in what he was doing.

Yancy, whether he consciously believed it or not, was a dead man; but he continued to fight against the weight pulling him beyond the point of return; the deeper it went, the foggier his mind became. He could still feel his brother fighting, even as the pressure began to batter down on his ears and split the visor of his helmet.

I don't wanna die.

You won't!

Raleigh… Raleigh…

Yancy, no!

I don't… Raleigh…

A light flashes overhead, but it's too far away to make a judge of what it was. God, the storm or the canon going off in the face of a Kaiju. Yancy feels his head fall in sync with the water around him as his helmet cracks his hands float away from his chest. Yancy!

Author's Note: So I've seen conflicting accounts about what Yancy says exactly before he gets yanked out of the Conn-Pod. I've seen others think he says "Only listen to me!" (which really makes for an interesting perspective into his character; probably knew his ass was doomed and wanted his brother just to focus on him and not the shit around them). I've heard "[Raleigh-] Raleigh, listen to me!" - in the Drift, it sounds like he's saying the aforementioned "Only listen to me!" and "Raleigh listen to me" - and the Novelization has him saying "Raleigh, listen to me!" and trying to speak right before he gets KO'ed by Knifehead (screw you, Knifehead). I'm a confuzzled bunny, but I fell back on what I heard and now I wait impatiently for the Blu-Ray/DVD release with subtitles and the vain hope of a Japanese Dub instead of French/Spanish audio options.