Adrian walked into his lab to see Shane standing in front of the whiteboard showing all of Adrian's notes.
Adrian kept his composure. "You wanted to see me?"
"Yes" Shane said, not even turning around to face Adrian, "I'm curious about all these."
"What about 'em?"
Shane's voice became eerily calm. "How long have you known?"
"A few years. Why?"
"Because information like this is dangerous. There's no telling what kind of trouble this will get you in."
Adrian was starting to see Hayley's point more, and he was starting to get fed up. "I disagree."
Shane turned to face him. "Do you now?"
"Knowledge of the Titans gives hope. Jaegers can kill kaiju, but the Titans WILL kill them. They are the dominant creatures on the planet."
"Which is why we need to reassert ourselves as dominant." Shane argued.
Adrian began to chuckle. "You really don't get it, do you? Why do you think the Precursors stayed away from Earth for so long? It was never because of the climate! This planet never belonged to us; ancient species owned this earth LONG before we ever did. We've kept our heads in the sand of our arrogance for far too long and now with the Precursors back and the kaiju attacking, they've risen to take it back, and it's only a matter of time before they set their sights on Australia, assuming they haven't already done so. The question is: which side are you going to be on when the hammer comes down?"
There were a few tense moments of silence between the two; Shane wasn't expecting this kind of talk from Adrian at all and it made him uneasy. Then, maintaining his composure, he straightened up and simply said, "We'll speak more of this later. Right now I have other things to attend to."
With that he left the lab, but Adrian suspected Shane wasn't letting him off that easily; he went over to the door and listened through it. It seemed Shane was talking to one of the mercenaries.
"Looks like Adrian's gotten into things he shouldn't be getting into." Shane said, "The way I see it, he's become a threat. Make sure it's dealt with."
Adrian realized what was about to happen and immediately ran to one of his desks, grabbing the pistol concealed there. He then inserted his hard drive into the computer next to him and hit a key, downloading everything from it into the drive before ducking behind the table. Just in time too as the mercenary entered the room.
"C'mon, Adrian" he said, "Shane just wants me to keep an eye on you."
Adrian realized he needed to keep the man distracted until the drive could finish downloading.
"I overhead your talk" Adrian replied, "I don't think he and I have the same idea when it comes to 'taking care' of something."
"Hey, sometimes you just gotta do what has to be done." The mercenary replied, "All I have to do is follow orders and get the job done."
Just a little more time!
"You ever stop to think you should?" Adrian asked, "What if you're preventing something that will actually save everyone?"
"Well, I think I would know that when I saw it." the man replied, "And this is not one of them."
Little did Adrian know that the mercenary was walking towards the table he was hidden at and was now about to turn the corner and shoot. Suddenly, Adrian heard a loud thud as the man got hit in the back of the head and fell to the ground, unconscious. Confused, Adrian peeked out to see Mei standing there.
"Got in a bit of trouble?" she sarcastically asked.
"Yeah, well, what else is new?" Adrian replied. Mei simply shrugged and helped him up. "Grab what you need. We're getting out of here."
Adrian noticed Mei looked more tense than usual. "Are you ok?"
"I'll explain later, let's just go." Mei replied. Adrian decided not to question further and grabbed a nearby backpack, rolled up the mecha blueprint and world map, then unplugged the drive as it had finished a few moments ago. Then the two ran out of the building, where Atlas Destroyer was seen escaping its restraints while multiple soldiers attempted to contain it.
Hayley and Boy met them as they ran outside.
"Everything ok?" Hayley asked.
"We're fine." Adrian replied, "Where's Taylor?"
Hayley pointed to the Jaeger, "In there with Joel."
"I thought Joel couldn't drift anymore?"
"Who said he was?" Mei sarcastically asked. Adrian quickly realized what was going on. "Talyor's ghost piloting?! Is he crazy?!"
"We don't have much choice right now, so come on!" Mei shouted. With that the four ran after the Jaeger, which had now stood up and was walking around, looking for them. Once Taylor saw them, he lowered the Jaeger's hand to lift them up. Hayley and Boy promptly jumped on, and Mei and Adrian were about to do the same.
"Wait!" Shame shouted from behind them, "You don't know what you're doing."
Mei turned around and glared at Shane. "Thanks to you, I don't even know who I am."
Adrian looked confused, "What?"
"I'll explain later." Mei said before returning her attention to Shane. Adrian realized that was all he was going to get for an answer at the moment and then looked at Shane with a glare of his own. "And I won't work with someone who decides to just off someone who discovered something possibly useful."
Shane narrowed his eyes at Adrian. "If you let them in here, there's no telling what they'll do."
Adrian shrugged. "Well, then I'd probably feel bad for the kaiju." He then turned around and jumped onto Atlas's hand, "You coming, Mei."
Shane tried to plead with Mei. "Please, Mei, remember how I gave you a home? I trained you to be who you are. You would be dead if it weren't for me. Adrian may be your friend, but he's in over his head. He's blinded by his work. Don't go down the same path he is."
Mei was hesitant before she remembered what Joel had told her about Shane messing up her mind through a drift. She then gave Shane one last glare. "Up yours." and then climbed onto the waiting hand, which lifted them up to the head, where Hayley opened the hatch for them all to dive inside. Once inside, Hayley immediately hooked up with Taylor at the controls. "Are you okay?"
"I'm fine." Taylor replied, "But we need to go."
"Not yet" Adrian said, "If we leave now, Shane will follow us. Let's make sure he can't."
Taylor saw the reason in this and nodded before diverting his attention to the transport vehicles. Atlas then raised a hand and swiped them away, effectively destroying them before straightening up and walking away from the now enflamed camp. Shane only stared in mild scorn as it left; he had just lost his top fighter and scientist…and one of them knew something that threatened everything he and his superiors, the Kaiju Sisters, worked for.
The Jaeger wasn't completely unseen as it wandered the desert. The camera pans back a bit to see a hidden creature watching from the caves in the cliffs: a massive, purple, dragonfly-like Titan with spikes all over, a mount full of jagged teeth, and red eyes. Megaguirus.
As it watched, it heard a call out in the distance and recognized it as Anguirus; he was calling any other Titans nearby. Megaguirus hesitated, then silently flew off in the direction of the call; the Jaeger did have its interest, but it would have to wait. Right now, there was work to be done…
I know this isn't how the escape completely went down in the anime, but just roll with it.
Let me know what you think so far!
