First Drift.

[dontchaserabbits]

Pentecost is an idiot. It's the only truth that keeps coming back around to Raleigh's mind as he's getting suited up for his first test run with the new and improved Gipsy Danger.

It won't just be him, though - it'll be Raleigh plus whatever half-witted Academy 'prodigy' who passes all the tests without an ounce of combat skills --

"Am I piloting this by myself now?" Raleigh asks the air, running through all the pre-Drift procedures for a test run. Even as he asks not expecting an answer, the computer's robotic female voice intones, "Pilot Two onboard."





"Mako?"

Maybe Pentecost isn't an idiot.

"You look good."

Comments

[co_pilot]

The kaiju fills the alleyway. There is nowhere else for her to go.

She raises her arms to protect herself.

WEAPONS SYSTEM ENGAGED.

Then something snatches the kaiju out of sight. From where she crouches, the street is empty, and she slowly gets to her feet, covering her ears at further deafening sounds.

[dontchaserabbits]

Mako does not know him here.

(A million miles away, he can hear Tendo and Herc and Stacker yelling in the LOCCENT, trying to disengage power.)

All he can do is be a specter over her shoulder, and follow her when the tiny (she's so tiny) moves out from behind the dumpster.

[co_pilot]

There's a flash in the street like lightning, and then everything goes quiet seconds before the kaiju falls into her line of vision, hitting the street with enough of an impact to send her sprawling.

When she rises to her feet again, she walks out of the alley, towards the street.

The kaiju is dead, its wounds still smoking. And then she sees the giant robot towering above it all, larger than even the kaiju.

One of its arms is damaged, and she gasps as a hatch opens at the top of its head, a man crawling out to look down on her -

Sensei.

[dontchaserabbits]

Pentecost?

It all makes sense - out of everything else here, this makes the most sense.

And then out there - someone pulls the plug.

WEAPONS SYSTEM POWERING DOWN

[co_pilot]

Her father had said there was no such thing as monsters.

The neural handshake breaks apart, and she slumps to her knees, arms limp by her sides.

[dontchaserabbits]

Raleigh practically throws his helmet off in a whiplash-effect jerk, disengaging from the pistons and machinery all around him.

Gipsy Danger is shutting down (again) around him.

But that's not the problem.

Raleigh springs over to Mako's hemisphere controls, pulling her (still tiny) body into his lap. He doesn't even notice he is rocking back and forth.

"It's okay, Mori-san. Come back. It's okay."

[co_pilot]

When she wakes, when she realizes what she's done, she won't be able to look any of them in the eyes.

But she's still coming out of the Drift, overwhelmed by sense and memory, and she just blinks up at him.

It is not okay.

[dontchaserabbits]

"Mako." It comes out in kind of a wheeze, like Raleigh can't quite breathe easily until just now.

"Don't move just yet. Please?"

[co_pilot]

Only now does she realize she's trembling, full-body shudders that make her grit her teeth with the force of it.

She eases onto her side and closes her eyes against the pricking of tears.

[dontchaserabbits]

"I'm sorry."

For a million little things.

"It's my fault - you shouldn't have had to see that. You shouldn't have had to see Yancy -- "

Or what could happen to either of them, when and if they ever get deployed.

[co_pilot]

He is as much a part of the Jaeger as they are, Yancy, his ghost felt here.

She would've had to be naive not to realize that, and yet the suddenness of the memory, with its grief and death, still grips her tight.

[dontchaserabbits]

They don't have much more time to themselves here; Raleigh can hear the tech crews moving the gangplank into place to enter the Conn-Pod where they are.

"I saw." She has to be aware of that, at least. "Marshal and Onibaba and you. The red shoes.

"Don't regret me seeing it."

[co_pilot]

She can't manage anything in the way of words, but she shakes her head once, a slight movement.

No regrets. But if she said she wasn't apprehensive about what lies ahead, it would be a lie.

[dontchaserabbits]

Raleigh doesn't get a chance to speak again before Tendo comes in, along with two different tech crews and a medic.

The medic gets glared at; Tendo waves him off.

"Marshal wants to see you ASAP."

Of course he does.

It's going to be a long day.