TBVF: Chapter 17: Baby, Break a Sweat!

Title: The Blue Vast Future
Author: Ariel Chew
Genre: Sci-Fi, Humor, Friendship, Family
Summary: A SB#187 team aged-up to be in a Kaiju battle. Ariel’s merely a 21-year-old supervisor of Gamma Rapper, but with all the training of the Academy she has, will it prepare her for the biggest turns of events of the century?
~*~

One week has passed.

Now that the traitors have been uncovered and the higher-ups involved in the scandal has ben removed, the Johor Bahru Shatterdome has finally switched gears to a more important issue.

“Your arm seems to be healing much faster.” Dr. Shah commends, removing the cast from Talha’s arm. “You’re now free from wearing a cast, but try not to put too much strain on it. Even so, you would still need to come here everyday for check-up. Are we clear?”

Talha nods, while Amirul further reassures Dr. Shah. Iris lets out a breath of relief; at least the two of them are ever closer now thanks to the incident, which meant that Drift compatibility is not affected. All that’s left is whether Talha can keep up physically.

“Eh? Isn’t that great to hear?” Ariel questions, slurping from her juice box noisily as she peers in curiosity at Iris. Iris reluctantly nods.

“I know. It’s just… I worry, you know? Two Jaegars versus two Kaiju, and at the same time trying to use a nuclear bomb to destroy the bridge.” Iris melancholy sighs, rests her head in her arm as she stares up at Ariel. “How long did they say it’ll fix Gamma?”

Ariel shrugs. “It’ll finish before the time limit. Though…” Shadows creep into the younger supervisor’s eyes while she continues. “I’m not sure when will Eric wake up, you know? Dr. Shah says that Eric’s injuries have mostly healed, all that’s left is the guy himself coming bac to conscious. Aaron is also doing his best to wake Eric up…”

Iris stretches a hand, gently patting the top of Ariel’s head. “He’ll wake up. You and I know he’ll definitely come back for Aaron’s sake.”

Ariel wordlessly smiles.

Ashleigh walks away from the cafeteria, glad to know that all hope’s not lost for the two Jaegar teams. She should feel bad for eavesdropping on them, but when Iris caught her up on the latest state of affair, Ashleigh was worried that Ariel could break under the pressure. Now that she heard the conversation, Ashleigh laughs to herself, she feels relieved.

“Guess that Storm Dragon has to work even harder to keep up with the others!”

Elsewhere, three superiors are in a coffee house. Achik frowns down at her cup of coffee, while Zul and Asyikin are quietly sipping theirs. It’s been ten minutes already, and the person that they were waiting for has not arrived yet.

“Are you sure this is the place he comes often?” Asyikin looks up at Achik, turns to Zul who shrugs back at her, before facing Achik with a nod.

“Well, yes. He does come here every Tuesday and Thursday. And since today’s Tuesday, he’s bound to be here soon.” Just as she finishes speaking, the store bell chimes as the front door is open, a man holding onto a motorbike helmet entering the store. He has a distinctive scar on his left cheek that cuts diagonally from the bottom of his left eye to his jaw, where there is a little stubble seen, as he waves cheerfully at the barista while he places his order.

“That idiot… Still as carefree as ever.” Zul chuckles, rising from his seat. Asyikin and Achik watches him approach the man, and a few seconds later, all four of them are seated at the same table.

“Ah… It’s been a while hasn’t it, Achik? I guess thing’s running pretty well for you guys, with all the rumors that you guys are able to destroy the bridge and all circulating in public.” The man grins, idly stirring his glass of iced milk coffee. Asyikin and Zul share a concern look when Achik scoffs at his nonchalance.

“Good to see that you’ve been keeping up with us, Nazri. Though I’m sure you can tell this is not the reason why we’re here.” Achik shifts her chair so that she’s facing him directly, body language making clear that there’s no way for the other to escape, not when Zul is directly across and Asyikin right next to him should he attempts to move. Nazri puts both of his hands up in nervous laughter.

“Aw, come on, Achik~ You know that I’ve been retired, right? There’s no way that I can help you guys with anything Jaegar related-“

“We need you to pair up with one of our Rangers and pilot a Jaegar.” Achik cuts in bluntly. “I understand that you were honorably discharged after the death of your co-pilot, and that has caused you trauma to ever Drift with anyone else, much less getting into a Jaegar. However…”

“We now have the potential to close the bridge that links us to the Kaiju. Out of the other pilots of your batch, you have the highest compatibility rate with everyone, meaning that you can Drift with just about anyone who can have high or low experience in Drifting.”

Achik takes a sip of her coffee, setting the cup down before she continues. “One of Gamma Rapper’s pilots suffered a direct hit from the Kaiju. You should know them.” Her eyes meet Nazri’s, wordlessly challenging him to look away. “Eric is in a coma, and Aaron has a strong personality to make him one of the hardest pilot to find another compatible pilot for. As much as I want to place my bet on sending out two Jaegars against two Kaiju, I much prefer an option with lower risk.”

She stands, and her two assistants does likewise.

“One week from now, we’ll take the battle to them. We will be waiting, Ranger.” They leave, as well as leaving conflict emotions to war in Nazri’s mind.

~*~

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