Wow, it's been over a year since I last touched this…didn't think I'll be gone that long but I am here and I fully intend to not just post this chapter but another one now that my exams are over and this new variant of the Goddamn Coronavirus killed my family's plans to gather for the holidays, so I'm stuck at home by my lonesome as even my friends managed to travel. Anywho, as I set up in the last chapter, this time around the kaiju didn't have some kind of EMP but rather, a refined and much more potent version of the Gefjun Disturber and while yes, they'll figure out countermeasures for it in time as they did in the show, that is quite a ways off. This chapter will be mainly about Gipsy Danger and its fight, but I will try to add more to it now that both the Russian and Chinese units are still around, if badly damaged.
However, while I won't go into spoilers about it, there is something from the second movie that I incorporated into the story which will make an appearance either in this chapter or the next one so keep on the lookout for that.
Chapter 13:Throw-down in Hong Kong-Part 2
(Previously)
"Gerfjun Distuber, in theory, the emissions from such a device can interfere with the sakuradite that powers the jaegers, but I never used it on anything that large, nor did I think it was possible to create a single blast wave that could take a machine that large out of commission." Rakshata explained as she had heard all she needed to as they entered the place, that along with the evidence all around her allowed her to realize that this was just like her own experiments with Gerfjun Disturbers back in India, but on a much…much larger scale.
"Can you fix them?" Stacker asked her as they came forward to join them.
"If they were in docks, yes but right now, I can't do a thing." She replied as she knew that there was no way for one to fix this, not unless the source of the wave was taken care of but this was different as while her work always relied on continuous emissions from whatever device she created, this was worked much better than anything she made in that like a standard EMP, it was a one-shot deal. Secretly, she wasn't even sure she could get them back online with this limited information.
"So, we don't have a machine to fight right now?" Tendo asked her as he looked out the window and saw how the ground crews couldn't even start up Alexander and had to resort to using small, battery-powered torches to find their way around. That also drove home the fact that the base's defenses from their cannons, missile turrets, V.A.R.I.S. cannons, and Hardon guns were also out of commission as there was no way to even get them started up like this.
"Not all of them, Marshall. Gispy doesn't use sakuradite, it's nuclear so it should be good to go." Raleigh step forward to them, getting into the discussion as this was their chance. Stacker didn't look pleased by his statement in the slightest but they both wished to protect the city and the people in it and both also knew that Gispy might just be the only one that could do it.
(And now)
"There's no emergency power, whatever that monster did, it left us dead in the water." Viktoriya stated as she shook her head to try and get rid of the stars she was seeing, this was why they never just cut the drift as it always left you feeling like crap.
"What the hell was that?" Lelouch asked as he removed his helmet, the sting from their violent disconnect from the drift leaving a sore spot between his eyes, almost like a migraine.
"I have no idea, best guess it was some kind of EMP." Viktoriya replied as she saw that everything was dead, even their radio so they couldn't even attempt to call for backup, this is if they were anyone left to send as if they got taken out by that attack, who's to say the others fared any better?
"I don't even want to know what kind of sick and twisted world these things come from where developing such an ability is even remotely evolutionary sensible." Lelouch muttered as he shivered at the thought.
"We can focus on that later, right now we need to try to re-establish communications. We have no clue what happening outside, for all we know, they're on their way to the city." Viktoriya replied as with everyone offline, they could hear the rain pelting down in their machine but not much else, which meant that their foe had moved on to destroy the city or was currently murdering their comrades, and she wasn't sure which of those was worse.
"Not like we can do anything else, not like this." Lelouch said as he looked down at his helmet, he knew what was bothering them and how he was scared to ask but it wasn't something they could run from.
"Vicky, did you hear what I heard?" He asked her, his mind jumping back to what that…thing had said.
"I rather not think about it right now, as you said, we have other things to worry about." Viktoriya answered though he could tell she was just as confused and terrified as it was about the prospect of their mindless, destructive enemy not being as mindless as they originally thought.
"Heh, pretty sure a kaiju capable of speech or…whatever the hell that was is something to worry about." He replied before looking away, trying to see through the now clearer view of their jaeger's 'eyes', trying to use the darkness and the sound of the rain to keep himself composed. "What…what did it mean by true masters?"
"I have no clue. Some kind of alpha male or something." Viktoriya suggested that while they never knew why these monsters were coming to their world, none of them ever thought it had something like that involved. Hell, the best theory was that they were just wondering beasts that kept finding the breach in increasing regularity.
"What in the hell would all these kaiju consider to be an alpha? They're literal monsters from another reality or dimension or whatever the hell they come from." Lelouch asked as the first ones took entire armies, days to kill and these newer ones were seemingly stronger than the last. If they applied video game logic and each new one was a stronger mob, what in the hell awaited them as the final boss? Seeing that they'll learn nothing staying here and waiting for their death, he decided that they needed to act.
"Dammit, we need to get outside and see what's going on." Lelouch said as he disengaged himself from his harness and stepped off it, rolling his shoulders to get a little extra feeling in them.
"Hold on," Viktoriya said as she followed suit but went over to the side of their cockpit where they kept some of their emergency provisions, in this case, she walked up to him carrying two bright white and yellow inflatable life jackets. "In case we fall, at least our chances of dying would be marginally lower." She joked as she put on one and handed him the other.
"Thanks for the encouragement." Despite the dark humor, Lelouch couldn't help but crack a smile at that as he took the jacket and also put it on. After that, the two of them exited their unit via the escape hatch on the top, which got them out of it but also meant they found themselves drenched in the rain. Vickoriya was the one who brought out the binoculars so it meant only one of them had a good view of things, but Lelouch could make out that whatever that wave was hadn't affected the city as its skyline was still bright and filled with an assortment of color.
That light also meant he was able to make out the shapes of all the jaegers still in the field and see that aside from Cherno which was on its knees, he could see of them. Which also meant that he could see that Leatherback was still very much there as it circled Striker, for what purpose, he didn't know. However, they couldn't tell where the other one went, which could only mean they split off with one staying with them and the other heading into the city to wreck shop.
"Looks like she lost interest in us." He mentioned as Vicky used the binoculars to get a closer look at things.
"She?" She asked him, keeping her eyes on Cherno as she tried to assess the damage but it was proving to be hard in their conditions but she could tell that it was barely standing as most of its torso was melted, leaving its interior mechanisms open to the elements or damaged themselves.
"What? Who's to say it's not a she?" Lelouch asked back with a smirk, getting the Russian girl to smile a bit at the humor before she moved on to the others. "Hold on, looks like we're not the only ones who decided to get a little wet."
"Who else?" He asked as she pointed towards Guren Trickster where she could someone also climb out to get a better view on things.
"I can see Gino's also out top and hold on, so are Herc and Chuck." He wasn't even the only one as despite all having the beast right next to them, she could see Herc and Chuck to the same.
"What the hell are they doing? The kaiju's right there?!" Lelouch asked her, not yet yelling but concerned about this act of blatant stupidity. Before she could think of a possible reason for this, they both picked up a flash of light from Striker hitting Leatherback right in the face. What Lelouch didn't know and what Vicky saw was that the two of them in an act that she could only describe as a last act of stupidity, had fired their flare guns at the beast which was as effective as a BB gun was against a bear.
"They wanted to soot it in the face…with some flare guns, apparently." Viktoriya told him, just as dumbfounded as he was at the news of that.
"Are they insane?!" Lelouch yelled out as he pulled at his hair, as anyone with a brain could have told you, all they did was piss off the kaiju as it roared at them, lifting its massive arms to crush them.
"Oh no!" Vicky gasped as Lelouch turned away, not wanting to see their end but it seemed to be a blue moon out as for once, luck was on their side as they picked the blinding lights from multiple choppers. Like then, the beast turned to see its source and to their relief, those same choppers weren't alone as they had with them, reinforcements.
"Hold on, is that…Gispy?" Lelouch asked as Gispy was dropped into the water, as it faced down the threat, raising its arms and prepping for a fight. The sight of this new threat didn't sit well with Leatherback as it roared at them as they all spotted it charging up for another blast, even from this distance.
"It's going for another EMP!" Lelouch yelled as Gispy looked ready to try and stop it but the distance between them was too great and they all knew it.
"Shit, get down!" Vicky tackled him to the ground as the blast wave shot out once more in all directions, striking their machines again and while they felt a tingly sensation, nothing else happened to them, much to their relief. As the two of them got up, they were surprised that Gispy was still up and running, giving them a feeling of hope as at least one of their units was seemingly immune to the EMP attack.
"Is anything damaged?" With Gispy itself, it had stopped once the wave made contact but everything hadn't shut down, so that was a plus. Still, Raleigh asked his co-pilot for a damage report as while they knew their core wouldn't be affected by that, it wasn't like their entire machine was nuclear powered, some sub-systems used sakuradite in them.
"Only some of the lesser systems, but we can still fight!" Mako replied as she saw some things were unresponsive or off-line but everything, they needed to kill this thing was still ready to go. Hearing that, Raleigh couldn't help but smirk.
"Gotta love Gispy's nuclear heart." He stated as they moved to engage the monster as it roared at them once more, seemingly caught off guard by their continued advance.
"You…!" At that voice, they came to a halt as the two pilots starred wide-eyed at one another before they turned to face what they thought was the source.
"Hold on, did…did you hear that?" Mako asked, looking as scared as he felt but before he could give an answer, the kaiju 'spoke' once more.
"How…how are you still glowing?" It asked them, somehow looking angrier than it did a moment ago at the apparent failure of its weapon. "You're not supposed to glow when I use it!" The beast yelled at them, though its mouth wasn't the source of the voice, everyone still present on the field felt it shake their bones at the power behind those simple but terrifying words.
"Kallen? Am I going crazy?" Gino asked as he had knelt when the blast had it, with Kallen ducking back into their machine as she now stuck her head back out.
"If you are, then I'm not sane either." Kallen replied as she didn't recall ever hearing about anything close to what was happening right now. First EMPS and now it speaks? What in the hell was happening?
"Raleigh. Is…is this normal?" Mako asked as she found herself shaking from this, she always wanted to fight, to take up arms but that was before all this weirdness made her want to back away.
"…No…" This was a feeling Raleigh couldn't blame her for, he had a similar reaction when he was still green but now it was made worse by the knowledge, they weren't fighting some mindless beast, but they couldn't let that stop them. "But we got no have time to ask. We're here to fight!" He yelled as he charged it, the beast roaring at their challenge as it charged them as well. Knowing that it had the bulk advantage, Gispy dodged to the side at the last moment. Throwing a punch that connected along the way, this dazed the kaiju long enough for them to grab onto the strange EMP sack it had. The beast struggled against them, trying to get itself loose but they didn't give it any quarter and while they couldn't hear their fellow pilots cheering for them, they didn't let up the attack as at last, they managed to rip the thing clean off and throw it aside.
Without its secret weapon, they could now engage it with more passion, safe in the knowledge it couldn't try it again. Not amused by this, Leatherback managed to get the jump on Gispy and grab the mech in a bear hug, swinging them around for a bit before tossing them towards the harbor. This was no short distance so everyone felt their eyes nearly pop out of their skull as Gispy was thrown as if she weighed a fourth of what she did.
Gispy nearly missed a large bridge but they still crashed right on through it before landing in the freight container section of the harbor. They slid for a bit before they managed to right themselves and slow down. Their weight and momentum had them grind to a slow halt as they looked up towards their opponent who climbed out of the water and onto not so dry land as it roared once more. Seeing them still standing and ready for more, the kaiju started to charge them once more, fully intending to crash them and move on to its mission.
"Come on, let's do this, together!" Raleigh told Mako was they made it their mission to ensure that they killed this as they ran to meet this threat. To give themselves an edge, they activated their rocket boosters as they jumped, giving themselves some air time as they came down, slamming their fist onto the beast's head, dazing it. Taking the Initiative, they grabbed onto its head and started to punch it, each hit being harder than the last one before they pulled back their right arm for something even stronger.
"Elbow rocket!" Raleigh commanded as their right arm moved to open itself up to reveal the thruster built into the elbow joint.
"Elbow rocket, engaged." The IA replied as the jet of flame shot out from the thruster, said jet started as red and orange before it grew in power and intensity, taking on a blue color. They waited for the kaiju to raise its head and when it did, they struck.
"Now!" He yelled as they let loose, driving their fist right into its face as the beast roared out in pain as it was pushed back by it.
"You hurt me…I hurt…you!" The beast roared out in its weird telepathic voice as it gripped a nearby crane and swung it around, striking them in the chest and arm. They tried to block the second strike but they still found themselves feeling as they were knocked to their knees.
"This is nothing." Mako spoke up for the first time in the fight as they gripped some freight containers in their hands, before quickly getting back up to their feet and slamming the first one into Leatherback's face, then doing the same with the other hand as they used their improvised weapon to try and break its face it. Before they let them be destroyed, Gispy slammed both handfuls of containers into the sides of the kaiju's face, causing all of them to all but explode as they were reduced to bits, their cargo long since destroyed as they fell to the ground between them. Wanting to move the fight to a more open area, they took the beast's dazed amount as a chance to grab it from behind.
'Hang on Mako!' Raleigh told his partner as they struggled to keep the powerful and extremely angry creature from escaping as they tossed it over to an area of the port which had less infrastructure for them to destroy. They chased after it as quick as they could, but it recovered faster than they thought and tackled them. It took everything they had not to fall but they found themselves being pushed back, right back towards the water and they knew that if they took the dip, that moment of lost footing could spell their deaths, they couldn't let that happen.
'Plasma cannon, now!' Raleigh called out through their link, their right hand moving away from trying to keep Leatherback from crushing them and shifting into its weapon form, which meant that they were only keeping the beast back with a single arm as their left forearm braced against the creature's chest.
"Plasma cannon, engaged." The AI barely had time to confirm it was active before they fired a shot, though despite blasting a sizable chunk out of its lower torso, Leatherback wasn't stopping so neither did they as they fired a second and then third shot, the third one blowing a hole clean through as its muscle and bone were blown to bits.
'Empty the clip, empty the clip!' Raleigh yelled through their link as they didn't stop squeezing the trigger as even though the monster was slowing down, it was still moving as its need to see them die overpowered anything else. It had forced them through another portion of the bridge they destroyed when they got thrown here but by then, they had fired off their sixth shot which blew off its entire left arm and revealed that the left side of its chest cavity was a bloody mess.
Thankfully, the trauma finally managed to catch up with the monster as its strength left its body, meaning that they managed to stop just a few inches short of the pier's edge. Both feeling winded by that, they tossed the body aside and watch as it fell to the ground, the creature unmoving as its blood poured from its massive and horrendous wound onto the cement and into the water. Gispy moved to walk away, to find and kill the other one but then they paused as they turned to face the carcass. This felt familiar and he wasn't going to make the same mistake twice.
'Wait…' Raleigh said as he turned to Mako. 'I think this guy's dead but, let's check for a pulse.'
'Okay.' Having seen parts of his memories, and read the AAR from that fateful day, Mako readily agreed to ensure this one wasn't getting back up as they fired off another three rounds into its open and unmoving chest, the third and final blast blowing open its chest, absolutely destroying its ribcage and any vital organs that law within, their fourth shot was admittedly just for fun as it blew clean through to the cement.
"No pulse." Raleigh noted as they moved away, towards the city where the half a dozen choppers gave a pretty good idea of where their next target was.
(Meanwhile)
As this was happening, Newton was in one of the many public bunkers the city had constructed for the populace in an event such as this. He would have still been with Hannibal Chau but the damned smuggler/dealer had kicked him out after he told him that he drifted with a kaiju brain, saying something about how when he did it, he made them aware of it, and now they wanted to find and most likely kill him. But considering that there were bunkers closer to the waterline and yet the monster was right above them made him reconsider if he thought that opinion was horse shit. "He knows I'm here," The scientist/kaiju fan muttered to himself as he nearly crapped his pants as they all heard the beast above them move around. "He knows I'm here!"
"He knows we're all here!" A woman in the crowd cried out in response, one of the few English speakers there as the rest of them whimpered, begged, or cried for mercy from whatever God they worshipped, he didn't know and at the moment, he didn't care.
"You don't understand, he knows I'm here and he's trying to get me!" Newton started to lose it as he jumped around, almost as if he was both on a coffee and crack. Now, normally people wouldn't listen to this as he wouldn't be the first nutcase you would encounter, more so for them as they lived in a city that had a well known and surprisingly large cult of people that saw kaiju as either gods in their own right, or instruments from the heavens sent to punish them. But right now, people were just desperate enough to buy it, it didn't help things that he was a foreigner though.
"The kaiju wants the little dude!" Someone called out in mandarin as they all started to move away from him, giving him a wide margin almost as if that merely touching him would make them targets as well. When he noticed this, he tried to get someone to help him as maybe losing his shit and making himself out to be a target wasn't the smartest idea, but now it was too late as one person pushed him away a bit too hard and he fell over, his glasses flying off his face as he new had to scramble for them.
"Dammit, where my glasses, I really should have got those damn contacts." Newton said to himself as he looked around for them with his limited vision and guesswork of where they could have gotten. He had just found them when he and the rest of the terrified people heard the beast thumped its feet above them and with that, a voice that will haunt all of them for the rest of their natural-born lives as they didn't just hear a roar or a screech. They heard something far worse.
"Found you.."
Before any of them could even begin to comprehend the voice they all heard in their heads and then panic, they all got an entirely different reason to panic as a section of the ceiling just caved in as the kaiju smashed its way in. Newton was the only one close to it as he knelt there, trying to push his glasses on so he can at least face his death and see it for what it was. As everyone else panicked and cried out for mercy, the beast kept up its efforts, increasing the size of the hole before it stuck its face into it, letting its freaky multi tongue-like organ out of its mouth and into the space.
Its glowing, blue, white, and green tongue showed off more of its alien biology as it opened up to reveal tentacle-like arms which reached around, as if they were tracking some kind of scent before they focused on Newton, reaching towards him as they for a lack of a better word, watched him. It was as it did this, but it spoke once more. It's deep, raw, and wild voice shaking them all their very bones despite not a single word being spoken.
"You…you came…with me" The monster spoke as one of the larger tentacles opened up to reveal an eye, it wasn't human-sized as it was the size of a cricket ball but it was a human-looking eye. It was only by his sheer instinct as a scientist that Newton was able to pick up that within the eye, there was this strange red sigil, one that looked like a bird in flight. "…Masters…want….you." And with that note, the rest of them started to move in, their intent to capture him and do God know what to him clear.
"Oh my god, he's was right! The beast wants him!" Someone screamed out as they tried to move further away from him.
"Get outta here before it kills us all!" Another yelled at him, but they didn't do so in English so he didn't understand a word of what they said, but the hostile air they were giving off more than hinted towards his decreasing welcomeness here. He didn't know what to do as he knew these people wanted him gone, but even if they didn't-what could they do to help. He was about to bite the bullet and walked into this monster's tongue…embrace and hope that by doing so, it would leave the city but lucky for him, another option was made available as the tongue withdrew from the hole.
On the surface, the kaiju turned around to face whatever was approaching it, surprised that something was coming towards it as it thought the other one was supposed to destroy the others after looking them over for anything the masters could use. Imagine its surprise and anger at seeing not its; fellow monster, but one of those giant metal men the tiny fleshy men make coming towards it, dragging something with it.
"You! You…one of….metal things…Why y still moving?!" Otachi demanded they tell it what happened. It didn't understand why they were moving, masters said that they added something to stop them moving, and to use it when things got bad, things got worse when they killed one of them and hurt it by taking its arm and tail, so they used it and then they all stopped moving. But why is this one still moving?!
"Trust me, buddy, you have bigger problems to worry about." Gispy, not being in the mood to explain anything to this monster, only swing around the cargo ship they had been dragging with them, bringing it up like a baseball bat.
"No! I have…mission…must take human…master want it…I will kill yo-!" Gispy didn't even let it finish as they swung towards Otachi, slamming it into the kaiju over and over-aiming for its face, its neck and arms trying to break something and weaken this beast and end this fight as quick as they could.
"You talk too much." Mako spoke up as they brought up the ship for another strike and slammed it down right onto its face, drawing blood as its jaw nearly snapped in two but it managed to run into them, slamming into their midsection. As they fell over, the beast roared at them and run off to try and come up with another attack plan. It was already injured from fighting the others and even lost its tail and left arm. It couldn't afford to fail. Gispy managed to get back to their feet pretty quick and started to scan for their opponent as they moved around looking for it, their ship club held at the ready to bash its skull wide open.
"We can't pinpoint it; it's moving too quickly. Keep your eyes open." Raleigh told Mako as the two of them moved Gispy around, being careful to not destroy any more than they needed to as they looked for the damn thing.
"Choppers, do you have a visual, over?" Raleigh asked their air support if they saw anything, but before they could receive an answer, Otachi came out of nowhere, crashing through a building to get the jump on them as he tackled them through another. Gispy managed to recover and slam their improvised weapon into its mid-section, getting it to back off long enough for them to turn around and bring down their club on its head, Otachi screeched at them as it went for the ship, knocking it out of their hands before it jumped them, trying to use its acid spray on them, forcing them to stick their right hand into its mouth and grab onto the gland. This put them in a tough spot as it tried to fight them off as they tried to pull the damn thing out, but even then, they could feel the acid burning into their hand from what little flow was escaping which meant they couldn't do this for long.
'I'll hold it, vent the coolant on the left flank!' Raleigh instructed Mako who nodded her head as she quickly did as he suggested, opening their release valves on their left side, which meant they were directly facing the beast's right side and arm.
'Venting coolant.' The AI reported to them as their coolant vented from their unit and while their internal temperature started to slowly raise, it had the desired effect as Otachi's exposed right side started to freeze over. Seeing this, it tried to pull back but the latch to it, bringing it even closer to them. With this decreased distance and increased exposure, its right shoulder area started to rapidly freeze over till the entire thing was frozen deep enough that Gispy shoved it and then punched it as hard as they could, shattering it and taking out a limb. The loss of its other limb just as hurt as the beast screeched even harder from the pain, an agony they added to when they finally managed to rip its acid sack out.
"You…I will kill you…" Otachi threatened them, but they had the upper hand as it tried to pull back but they weren't going to give it the chance as this time when it tried to run, they managed to grab the remains of its tail still attached to it, tripping it as it fell over. Before it could get up Gispy came in and jumped onto the down, armless monster, kneeling on its as they started to lay into it with punch after punch after punch. After some time of this brutal beatdown, they got up and looked at their defeated foe.
At their feet, the kaiju lay on its stomach, its many wounds bleeding its lifeblood onto the streets of Hong Kong as it whimpered like a beaten dog for mercy. Its head was a bloody mess, half the crest lay broken to the side as even one of its eyes seems to have been smashed by their assault. Its side wasn't frozen through gushing out blood and giving them a view of its internal structure, letting them see the damaged muscles and broken bones. Still, even after all that, even with the pain that must surely be shooting through its system from their battle, it tried to crawl away, reaching forward with the left arm which was nothing more than a bloody stump, but they noticed that was some kind of membrane attached to it, almost like a Bat's wing which made them glad that they took the other one, it meant this one may have been the first kaiju to could fly, but it would remain grounded.
"Sorry pal, you're not the type of animal that gets to live past the beating." Raleigh told the thing as they stomped down on its back, holding it in place as it sniveled as it looked up to them through its one remaining eye.
"Sword deployment, engaged." The AI reported as he looked towards his partner, surprised that they even had such a weapon and that she was using it. But he could tell she was pissed off as their left sword deployed. First jetting out like a metallic whip but then moving into place as the latches and bolts locked into place. Leaving a sharpened instrument of death at their disposal. Otachi seeing the weapon, increased its efforts to escape as it whined for mercy but that was something Mako refused to give.
"For my family." She said in her mother tongue as they brought down the blade, right into its skull to the road underneath it. Destroying anything else their blade come into contact with as the beast let out one final cry before but fell silent. They pulled their blade out and to be sure of their victory, they decapitated it, holding up its severed head if a trophy for their choppers to see.
"Mako, talk to me." Raleigh called out to her as the girl looked a lot more winded than he was by this as they dropped the severed head to the ground. "Mako." At the second call, she turned to face him but while exhausted from her first ride into battle, she was content and proud of herself.
"I'm fine, are first rides always this fun?" She asked him, getting him to laugh as she soon joined in. Happy that their battle was over, at least for now, and that it had ended with a victory for them.
(4 hours later)
Hours later, after the jaegers had all been recovered and transported back to the shatterdome, the ground crews were giving the two a hero's welcome as they walked through the halls. They would have returned sooner but had aided in getting the still dead jaegers back but once they disembarked, you would think they had just returned with the holy grail. "Raleigh, Mako!" Herc walked up to them, his right arm in a sling. "You really came through there. Saved all our asses." He said as he looked both of them in the eye before offering them his left hand to shake.
"Looks like you aren't as rusty as I thought." Lelouch said as he patted Raleigh on the back, getting a smirk outta the guy as Vicky did the same for Mako.
"What he means to say is, we're grateful. All of us." She said as they turned to the rest of the present pilots, all of whom gave them grateful and welcoming smiles, even Chuck who then realized he was smiling and then looked away.
"Mr. Beckett. Ms. Mori." The Marshall started he walked to them, the crowd parting ways for the man as he walked right up to them. "In all my years fighting, and I've never seen piloting quite like that. Well-done." He said as he looked at the two of them, his gaze having something else as he looked to Mako, something she judged to be relief and pride but as quick as it was there, it was gone as he turned to the rest of them, having to be the bearer of bad news. "But as harsh as it sounds, there is no time to celebrate. We lost two jaegers, no time to replace them. Reset that clock!" He ordered them after he rained on everyone's parade with that reminder but it was a necessary evil as he wasn't wrong.
However, as he was speaking, he noticed some of them looking at him funny which drew his attention to the sensation of a liquid moving from his nose to his lip. He touched it with his hand and it came back with a red smear.
"Reset the clock." He repeated himself as he took out his handkerchief to wipe it away as it walked away.
'What was that?' Raleigh asked himself as he watched their commander leave in a hurry.
(With Newton)
"I still can't believe what you tried to do me, I mean, I could have been eaten." As this was happening, Newton was still in town as he and Hannibal walked through the site of the kaiju remains. All around them, the dealer's people worked to get as much of the valuable remains packaged and taken away while also working to take care of the remains.
"Well, that was the plan, lucky for you it didn't come to that." Hannibal didn't even bother to hide it as it patted the scientist on the back.
"Remind me to never trust you." Newtown told him with a blank face, if this was earlier, he might have been a little more respectful but right now, he wasn't in the mood.
"Good, you'll live longer." Hannibal told him as they walked cover to the actual corpse which was an odd sight as neither have ever seen one with a missing head.
"Hmm, by the way, you mind telling me what's taking your workers so long to obtain the brain? They're supposed to be fast." Newton asked him as while a severed head might have proved useful to them, letting them get to the brain quicker, they both had seen the state of it and knew they weren't going to get anything worthwhile from it.
"They are fast, anyone else and they'll be cutting their way in or some other bullshit but we run into some complications." Hannibal took offense to that as he turned to see the cut that his team had used to enter the carcass, and both noticed these large tubes as well.
"What complications?" Newton asked.
"They punctured a cavity fill of CO2 just like with any other laparoscopic surgery." Hannibal told him as it was a double edged sword for them.
"Yeah, which is good as it means the CO2 will delay the acidic reaction." On the one hand, it helped them as Newton pointed out but…
"And? It'll slow down our harvest, our people need oxygen pumped into their suits, slows them down." On the other, it slowed down their people so it was debatable whether or not it even helped. One of his people walked up to them and handed him a walkie-taker which he used to communicate with his people already inside.
"What's going in boys?"
"We've reached the upper pelvic are. Unh," They heard someone answer, Newton believed he was the frontman he met when he came looking for Hannibal. "Moving to the 25th vertebra. I gotta tell you, boss, even though the suit, it smells like dead catfish in here." He could only imagine the scene as even refrigerated kaiju remains had a nasty scent to them. The two of them waited for a little longer as the team searched for their prize but they soon got their answer.
"Boss, the secondary brain. It's damaged. It's ruined!" The man reported back as Newton felt like ripping his hair out at the news. They had banked on this one but it seems like it was all for naught.
"Dammit! That was our one shot, no way he'll get to the other two in time to get anything good." The tried, angry, and still very much scared scientist raged as even if they got people to the harbor, it would take too damn long to get close to the secondary brain before it rotted away.
"Wait!...wait."
"Did he say "wait"? Why wait?" Newton grabbed the walkie-talkie there to listen in deeper, much to Hannibal's annoyance as he grabbed it back.
"It's like a heartbeat, but…it supposed to be dead, right?" The man reported back as Newton could make out the steady rhythm coming from the kaiju but that was impossible, it was dead and hadn't moved for two hours before they got here. The only way they could still be a heart beast would be….oh. Newton grabbed the walkie-talkie again to listen in and started to move away from Hannibal as he tried to take back the thing but he kept him back as he tried to make sure his assumption was correct.
"Oh my God. Oh, my God. This can't be." Newton started to mumble as he listened in.
"Give me that!" Hannibal yelled at him, close to just drawing his knife and stabbing the fool.
"Ho-hold on for second." Newton, aware of that danger, still pushed on as he tried to get the man to listen to him.
"You don't give orders around here." Hannibal rebuked him before Newton just pressed the damn thing to his ear to get him to do it.
"Shh, shh! Listen, listen to that." He told him as the two of them listen in and sure enough, there was a steady heartbeat coming from the creature.
"What the hell?" Hannibal asked as Newton walked away from him, looking at the deceased creature in a new light.
"It's pregnant." He answered him, stunning the dealer at the news.
"Haaaaa!" He was about to call him crazy but then they heard their inside team screaming out at…something before they went silent. They looked towards the opening in trepidation before another monster appeared, this one a near spitting image of its mother even in its underdeveloped form. The afterbirth-covered, slimy newborn might have just come into the world, but it was still a wild animal and the size of a bus.
SKREEEEHAAAA!
Its appearance didn't need any further information or instructions as everyone dropped what they were doing and ran, running as fast as they could from the monster that could easily kill any number of them. "Run, run!" One of those was Hannibal himself who had bounced even before the creature had burst out of its mother's body.
"I almost died once today; I'm not looking to do that again!" Newton yelled as he run from the damn thing. But as was his luck today, he tripped on the rubble and found he couldn't get up in time, so he started to crawl away as fast he could from the beast. "No please, I don't wanna be a meal." Newton begged for his life as he crawled up into a ball and awaited his demise, but the beast never got the chance as the cord around its neck went taught and it couldn't go any further as it struggled for a bit before falling, unmoving. After a couple of seconds of not being eaten, Newton turned to face the creature and saw that it wasn't moving despite his eyes moving wide open.
"I knew it." Newton had gotten up and walked towards the silent beast before Hannibal made himself known, getting the man you jump out of fright.
"The hell, don't scare me like that." Newton yelled at the older man who was breathing heavily from his little escape as he tried to gather himself and act like he was in full control the entire time.
"Lungs not fully formed, umbilical cord around its neck, no way he could have survived," He started as he gestured towards the dead creature. "Outside the womb for more than a minute." He finished it off by flashing his switchblade and throwing it into its snout, the blade going handle deep into the flesh.
"One look, that's all I needed." He told the man who didn't look all that impressed.
"Nice try, but you ran before the damn thing even…birthed itself out." Newton answered with a shiver as liking Kaiju was one thing, seeing one give such an unconventional birth was quite another.
"Keep your opinions to yourself." Hannibal told him as he pulled his blade free and took out a cloth to wipe it clean.
"Facts aren't opinions." Newton shot back as he looked around and saw that most of the crews were still gone, it was going to take time for them to return.
"Last I checked, they are so long as you need me to get you that kaiju brain. Now-!" Outta nowhere, the baby they thought was dead spring back to life and gobbled up the smuggler, yelping, and babbling as it swallowed the man whole before it screeched at him and once more, fell. Hopefully, it was dead this time for real. Once that was all over, all that was left of the man was his custom-made shoe which Newton picked up as he looked at the creature.
"…I suppose…I'll have to figure it out…myself?" He asked as he looked around and saw that he would have to do this himself. "Great." Well, he had to get to it, not like he had a lot of time to waste.
(Back in the Shatterdome)
"How sick are you?" Raleigh didn't pull any punches as he watched his superior wash his face. They were in Stacker's quarters as the man had returned to clean up and get a fresh shirt to wear now that the one, he was wearing had bloodstains on it.
"More importantly, why didn't you tell us?" Herc was with them as the fellow veteran was just as surprised as Raleigh was at Stacker's health. Stacker for his part, grabbed a towel to dry his face as he walked towards his closet.
"What's the tell? You know those Mk Is? We scrapped those bad boys together in 14 months. It was only 3 months in when we found out that we didn't have a powerful enough sakuradite engine to power one." Stacker told them, giving them a summary of the panic that set in when their plans for supersized knightmares engine fell through.
"Hence the change to nuclear." Raleigh added in as this was common knowledge for the first three generations of jaeger.
"Correct, but what they don't tell you is that we barely understood it at the time, sure we discovered it and have been doing research into it for a few decades now, but no one ever thought to use them as power sources." Stacker told him that mankind had discovered the theoretical power of nuclear energy long before any of them were born. They just barely touched it as its research was insanely expensive and for the longest time, none of the three superpowers could fund it, Britannia had a succession crisis which nearly spilled into an all-out civil war, the Federation lacked the scientists and researchers due to their lacking education sector, and the EU had to fend off revolts from their African colonies.
"Though credit where credit is due, they came through in the end, designing the building something workable in the time they were given, shame no-one was thinking about radiation shielding." Stacker finished as he removed his old shirt and put on his new one. At that point, he and Herc were on the same page in terms of information.
"I ran over a dozen missions, but each time I was exposed to a small dose of radiation." Stacker told the two of them but Herc didn't buy it.
"What changed? I run missions in Mk Is as well, I didn't get sick." He told him as he only had to say under the medical radar for a few months afterward before he got a clean bill of health.
"Tokyo." With that single word, the two of them backed off as Stacker took a deep breath, his mind traveling back to that day and its events.
"Our unit was damaged, my co-pilot out of commission, radiation leaking from the core into the cockpit." Stacker told them how things went to shit and for him, what marked the turning point in their war. "I finished the fight, but for three hours, I burned." He turned his gaze to the younger man present, walking up to him and putting a hand on his shoulder.
"They warned me if I ever step foot into a jaeger again, the toll may prove too much. You and I are the only ones that have ever run solo-combat. That's why I brought you here." Stacker finished.
KNOCK KNOCK
"Sir? We have news." They heard someone speak through the door.
"Enter. Not a word." Stack told the two of them as the soldier informed them that they were needed on the bridge to get a full debrief of the situation. After that, the three of them went to hear it, with not a single word spoken between them even as they entered the now back in operation bridge. "How are things?" Stacker asked as Tendo walked to finish up rebooting their system.
"The engineers just finished looking them over, Cherno Delta's too badly damaged. Even if they did the bare minimum to get it back out there, it would take them a good three weeks and supplies would have to be brought in." Tendo told them as they looked out towards the hanger where they could see the unit in question. Much like how it looked when it was first brought back, it was a mess as its right arm had numerous deep gashes and cracks in it while its torso was a melted mess. It was a miracle that the whole thing didn't kneel over yet which seemed like an actual threat as they could see the engineers attaching dozens of ropes, chains, and anything else they had on hand to help keep the jaeger standing.
"And the pilots?" Stacker asked as, unlike the triplets, he hadn't been made aware when they reached the med-bay.
"They got off lucky, minor injuries and Aleksis as some minor acid burns but they should be out and about in a day or two." Tendo reported back, giving him something close to good news as while they lacked a machine for them, it was easier to find something for them instead of just getting some green pilots who might not have even finished the academy.
"Typhoon?" Herc asked with that one, he had seen that its main body was largely intact, so they could at least get something from it, right? But before Tendo could answer Lloyd, Cecile and Rakshata walked into the room and the weird man took the chance to answer the question.
"It'll take a week to repair the damage to the head module, but all three pilots were injured pretty bad. Doctors say they need at least two weeks on the bench." Lloyd told them all as even with the miracles of Britannian medicine and Rakshata's own extensive knowledge and skills with cybernetics, those three weren't going anywhere like the one that piloted the right side was lucky he wasn't torn in two, but it came close to happening.
"With the other jaegers, minor damage that can be fixed in around a day. But it'll take a while for Rakshata and Lloyd to look over how they got shut down by that Gefjun Disturber and come up with some countermeasures for them." Cecile gave them the final report of their other four machines.
"Something tells me we'll need it. If these things are being made, who's to say the next won't have a similar ability?" Lloyd asked them all, his gaze lacking its usual playful aloofness as this wasn't something to be joked about.
"And that leads us to what you all reported." Stacker said as he turned to the gathered pilots who up till now had been silent. "Are you sure you heard them speak?" Stacker asked them all, wanting to be sure of what they had reported once they got back.
"Positive. No way all of us heard something that wasn't there." Gino replied as they had even compared what they had heard and they all confirmed it couldn't have been some kind of malfunction in their drift systems, maybe for one of them but all of them? Impossible.
"Sir. When we fought Otachi. H-it said that it was there to take Newton." Mako told her superior and father figure as she nearly called it he, even if they getting reports from Newton about how it was a she, she didn't wish to give those monsters such courtesy.
"Newt? Why would it want to take him?" Kallen asked as this was the first time, she had heard about it. Why would they hunt for one person?
"We don't know. It said that it had a mission from its masters to get him." Mako replied as she was still in the dark about it, but some of them had a clue.
"This is troubling." Stacker thought aloud as he could only think of one possible reason, one way Newton was different from every other person there.
"Dr. Geiszler had a theory that they are controlled by whoever creates them. That they are somehow all connected." Rakshata explained to them, getting a surprised reaction from the pilots and she couldn't blame them, she was skeptical of the idea till recently.
"Hold on, didn't he drift with a kaiju brain not too long ago?" Lelouch asked as he had heard about that during Raleigh and Mako's disastrous simulation. If they were all connected much like a cellular network, then by connecting into it…oh no.
"Seems to me he must have connected to whatever network they use, and they want him dead before he can spill any more secrets." Rakshata finished as she took a puff of her pipe. It made sense really if these masters were truly sentient beings that ravaged entire worlds for their resources, that could create monsters and travel dimensions, it would only make sense that they'll want those targeted worlds to know as little about them as possible.
"But then why not just kill him? If they're scared of us learning more through his work, wouldn't it make more sense to just get rid of him?" But then Vicky pointed out the one issue with that. She was happy he was alive, she liked the guy but she wasn't stupid. This didn't add up.
"There is too much we don't know happening, so we can't say for sure either way. All we can do is prepare for the worst." Stacker finished as they were missing too many pieces of the puzzle to fully understand what they were up against. But there was a silver lining here, now that knew there was a puzzle, and that they had a good place to get the pieces they needed.
17th July 2025
Pendragon Imperial Palace – Pendragon
"V.V" Charles zi Britannia started, his voice as powerful as ever even for a man in his who was soon turning 70. Within his throne room, most of the lights had been shut off, leaving him and only other people present in the light. "You have lied to me."
"What are you going on about, brother?" V.V, his immortal and forever a child older brother asked him. His expression showed his annoyance which to those who didn't know, would find cute on his pre-pubescent face.
"Do not play coy with me. You told me that you had ceased any activities in other countries and within Britannia, and were focusing on recruitment and research." Charles started as his frown only grew deeper, along with his disappointment and heartache at the overwhelming proof that he couldn't trust his brother, not anymore.
"And I have. When this threat passes, the rest of the world isn't going to play nice with us, and we still need control of those thought elevators." V.V told him but Charles didn't buy it.
"Another lie." Charles didn't accuse, he spoke as if it was an already known fact. "After all we've been through after we promised to be truthful to one another, you have become such a liar. First with Marianne and now with this." He said, catching his brother off guard as he didn't expect to ever hear that woman's name from his brother ever again. What did she have to do with this?
"What about that wre-that woman?" V.V caught himself as while his brother knew of his dislike of the former empress, he did have to still at least pretend to be civil with it as his brother did love her.
"I know V.V. I know you killed her." Charles's words sent a jolt of electricity down his spine, while he felt sweat form from the look his younger brother was giving him, it was the same one he had given many of their more friendly siblings before he killed them. One that spoke of both sadness of fury. "I have always known, she survived the attack and told me everything." At that, V.V nearly panicked as if that was true, no, it couldn't be! He filled her full of holes, Charles even helped cover things up despite not knowing who was the culprit!
"Impossible." V.V denied it, but Charles kept up the pressure.
"But I wanted to believe that you a reason, that perhaps you had some just cause for striking down my wife, our partner in our plans." Charles told him, reminding the two of them of how after the fateful night, he had spoken with his brother and while V.V didn't know it, it was Charles trying to see why he did what he did but instead.
'I heard, what a tragedy. I shall miss Marianne.'
"But instead, you lied about it, acting like you knew nothing." Charles finished; his expression as hard as stone. Seeing that face, and knowing what it meant, V.V gave up the act.
"She was distracting you! Drawing your attention away from our plans, from Ragnarök! She NEEDED to die!" He screamed at his brother, pointing at the ground like a petulant child, and in some ways, Charles supposed he still was.
"Distracting me from the plan, or distracting me from you?" Charles asked him as she flinched back as if the accusation as visible struck him. This was what he should have seen, what he should have known but he supposed he was lying to himself, hoping this brother would be capable of sharing his affection but it seems much like a child, he took any new things that took the spotlight off him as a threat.
"I would have never guessed you would allow something as petty as envy turn you against our pact." Charles said as he got up from his throne and walked down to his brother who took a step back for every step forward that Charles took.
"Then why am I still here? Why are you only acting on this supposed truth after almost 15 years, brother?" V.V demanded, if he truly knew he had been responsible for that whore's death and that he had lied about it, why not end him then?
"Because you were essential to the plan. Even if C.C stayed with us, we needed two codes, and I couldn't take your power at that point, not without jeopardizing everything." Charles revealed him, seeing no point in hiding the fact that he had known where C.C was this entire time. She regularly spoke with Marianne and at present, that pizza-loving witch was traveling through Australia, keeping three steps ahead of anyone V.V could have looking for her.
"Y-you wouldn't…" However, that wasn't what grabbed the child immortal's attention, it was rather the fact he brought up his code. He wouldn't do that unless…unless he planned to take it for himself.
"And now, you made one final mistake. One I couldn't believe for its sheer lunacy till the OSI started to pack on the evidence." Charles finished as his geass started to flare, the twin red birds in flight appearing in his gaze and while V.V was immune to it, he knew his brother would only show them if he was serious about killing him!
"The OSI was able to uncover that the Geass order hadn't been as inactive as you claimed," Charles started as he had ordered them to look into the dealings of the Geass Order for the last three years now, and after all that work, they had given him a file as thick as a dictionary filled with their findings, and all of it was nothing but damning to the immortal in front of him.
"So before anything else, I want you to tell me the truth. Why did you have agents influence world leaders to cancel the jaeger program, and rather support the wall of life program?" That was what he wanted to know, why his brother had put so much effort into disrupting the PPDC? Why he had flexed his influence through his agents to sabotage jaegers and get factories shut down. Was he hoarding that information? Planning some kind of Britannian takeover of the war efforts?
.
.
.
"He," What Charles wasn't expecting from him was a little giggle, that only grew as time went on. "Hehehe." Before long, the child immortal was laughing his head off as if he had heard the funniest joke in the world.
"HAHAHAHAHAHAA!" By now, V.V was laughing so hard, he threw his head back as he held his sides, seeing all this happening, Charles figured that he was having some kind of break. He looked to the sides where he had some of his people on guard.
"Restrain him!" He ordered them as all-around V.V, 4 people in hoods and spears came out of the shadows running towards him.
"Yes, your majesty!" They spoke in uniform as they charged the immortal, grabbing into him and easily wrestling him to the ground as they reached for their cuffs.
"Don't touch me!" But using their physical contact with either him or someone touching him, V.V flared his code, sending shock imagery through all of them as they all nearly flew off of him, yelling and screaming in fear from whatever the hell he had just done to them.
"What? What are you doing, V.V? Have you lost you-!" Charles was stunned, he knew that C.C could do that, but from what little she divulged over the years, she told them it took her centuries to learn how to do that, how in the hell did his brother do so in mere decades? He wasn't about to get an answer as V.V rushed him, tackling him to the ground as his hands found their way to his neck, strangling him.
"I was hoping that I would be able to continue my mission a little while longer. But looks like things will have the change." V.V's tone shifted, sounding as if he was a different person as he strangled his brother but acting like he was merely brushing his teeth. Charles tried to fight back but found that he couldn't overcome his brother's strength. He was an old man but he knew for a fact this shouldn't be possible! Then there was the fact the men he had laying in wait hadn't done anything yet, not even Bismarck had rushed in like he had instructed him to if things got hairy.
'Why haven't the rest of the guards burst it?!' Charles thought to himself as he went red in the face from the ever-increasing pressure around his neck. 'And how in the hell is he this strong? He has the body of a literal child?!' It seemed like V.V had done what he wanted to as he got up, but in a feat of strength that no one could have seen coming, he kicked his brother across the room.
"Ba!" Charles coughed up spit and blood as he came to a rough stop, his hair coming undone as his body ached from the pain of this assault. V.V, not caring for the sight of the old man in pain on the ground, merely walking forward, up the short stairs towards the throne, the seat of power within Britannia, but he didn't even seem to care. He looked disappointed in it as he moved a finger across its surface.
"Humans, you age so quickly. Your only in your so-called prime for what, 10, 20 years before you reduced to," V.V asked him, his code flaring a bit as his eyes took on a red haze as he looked towards his brother with amusement and pity. "This?" He asked as he gestured towards his brother, the most powerful man in the world, an old man that could barely get himself off the damn floor after such a measly kick.
"What in the hell are you talking about, V.V?!" Charles demanded of his brother, wanting to see him dead after all his tracheary and now this. "Guards!" He bellowed out, he didn't care if the entire palace heard him, he would deal with that after he dealt with this but no one came. Leaving alone with his…brother.
"I wouldn't bother, after all, by now they'll just corpses." V.V laughed at the look on Charles's face as he revealed that it was, he that was caught in a trap. A fact made all the clearer as agents of the Geass order entered the throne, mane of them holding blades and silenced firearms.
"Are you trying to take the throne? Is that what this is all about? You could never rule Britannia." Charles asked of his brother, wondering if he truly managed to kill all his people, that they defeated Bismarck. If that was true, he only hoped Marianne would learn of this quickly and move to protect herself. At his question, V.V laughed as he avoided sitting on the throne and instead walked away from it, not sparring it a glance as he approached his down and surrounded younger brother.
"Who said I want to rule? All I want is to serve, the real masters of this planet." V.V asked him, his answer once more surprising Charles.
"Masters?" He repeated as he finally noticed the red rings around his brother's normally dark pink eyes and that could only mean-but he should have been immune! What in the hell was happening here if not his brother deposing him for power?!
"Don't worry, you'll know their wonders soon enough." V.V. told him as he placed his hand on his forehand, his power once more flaring as he fed him shock imagery that knocked his brother out, all the while a single tear slid down his eye before he blinked it away, all traces of who he once was gone as he turned to his people. "Take him." He ordered them as two of them nodded their heads and silently dragged off Charles.
"Is the body double ready?" He asked another as looked towards the ceiling, starring at the painting that their great grandfather had commissioned decades ago. The human hadn't lived to see it completed and to be frank, what V.V was now didn't see the appeal but it wasn't like it would be there much longer.
"Yes, the humans shouldn't be able to tell the difference." One of his people responded as another stepped forward, allowing him to see the lookalike. Sure, there was some difference but not enough to notice from a distance.
"Even if they did, they just need to be fooled for a little while." V.V responded as he knew that Charles rarely made an appearance, to begin with, so long as the double's acting was good, it would be a while before anyone noticed.
"How goes the evacuations to the safe zones?" V.V asked, switching the topic.
"Preceding as we predicted, they'll soon be full in around three days." Someone spoke up, the news of which getting V.V to smile like a devil as he knew that even the smaller so-called 'refuges' could care for over 63,000 people. If Euphemia's numbers were right, that would mean that tens of million humans were about to be easy picking to anyone who knew how to strike.
"Then in three days, we strike. And soon," He started as the rings around his eyes flashed from their scarlet red to a nuclear blue, same as the rest of the Geass order members present.
"Soon it won't just be the pacific that our masters can send the hounds through." He finished as the first phase of their plan was complete at last. It took two years but they had managed, now all they had to do was wait three more days for the second phase to commence.
And ladies and gentlemen, that is that! Once more, sorry about the long delay, 2021 was a real doozy of a year but I finally managed to finish this and get it posted. As with previous chapters that take place in the movie's timeline, whatever wasn't shown still happened, it just happened off-camera as if you're reading this, you most likely wouldn't want me to just waste time by repeating it. Funny enough in the drafts for this chapter, I completely forgot that Otachi lost an arm and couldn't fly so I still had the scene where she grabbed into Gispy and took the air. It was only while reading the previous chapter that I remembered that and made the change which I think suits this story better as of course, events would happen differently if there are other jaegers involved.
And I've given you all more info on the kaiju, and their mysterious masters as Leatherback speaking wasn't a fluke, oh no. These newer kaiju can seemingly speak but they are limited in that as they weren't built to be complex thinkers anyway. Still, from that, they're were able to learn more about them as Otachi says that they're looking for Newton which is a nod to Uprising and how he was turned into a double agent. Of course, he isn't one here-but they still wish to acquire him. Why? That will be revealed in time.
Another thing I've brought in is the fact that it was V.V who both killed the Jaeger program and influenced leaders to pick the stupid wall of life program. Or rather I should say the precursors who have somehow gained control over him and all his agents and used them to weaken humanity's defenses and thus make them that much easier to destroy. Only time will tell what will become of this little surprise plot point as there was no way I couldn't incorporate geass into this, so believe that it will play a role in the story. Anyway, I'm going to have to look over the older chapters and rewrite them to get rid of errors…so…fun( I guess)
Reviews, let's get to that.
Blaze1992: That is one of the few good points.
Vein Bloodborne: Yup, that is something that will happen in the future, and with the whole thing about Charles's power, that is something I'm surprised isn't brought up more often.
ewertondragon10: Well, I didn't want to just make her xenophobic, and rather, I wanted to give her something more, even if it's pretty standard as I don't hate or love her. I couldn't comprehend what you meant with the second line. I highly doubt he would let his kids anywhere close to danger till they were 18 and no longer under his legal care. Yes, Euphemia could have been a formidable force if she was allowed to learn and grow. Shame her plans seem to be playing into the hands of the precursors.
Ramos: That is a change I made some time back, but because I was somehow dumb enough to miss such a mistake in the first place, I'm going over the rest of the story to look for mistakes and get rid of them. Thanks for pointing it out though.
omega9028: I have been thinking about it but it's been some time since I considered it.
Guest: Well, the long(very long) wait is over. Hope you liked the chapter as another is coming out this month as well.
Pkd: To be honest, I even forgot about it. I'll have to look it up.
Akuma-Heika: I know, but here they are partly for story reasons and partly due to the fact Raleigh refers to being nuclear as 'analog' after Tendo referred to every other one present as 'digital'.
loyal fanboy: Thanks for that, hope you enjoyed this latest chapter.
Guest: I was posting for other stories in the last year you know…but no, I'm very much alive.
cassnova5424: I like my references.
iHeartMecha: Thanks for the kind words, but I managed to finally get this done. Hope you liked it.