TBVF: Chapter 20: This is going to be a good life

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?
~*~

“A Category V?! Are you saying that Kaiju can go above Category IV?!” Leo shouts, but Bel’s mind is on another matter, otherwise he would’ve tell his cousin to stop shouting and do something.

“LOCCENT, was it the Kaiju that deflected the payload? Is that why the payload did not detonate in the throat?!”

“No. The package clearly detonated before the Kaiju entered the throat.” Joey’s crisp, professional voice comes into the conversation. “I won’t be surprised if the throat of the Breach has something like our ID card recognition, except it only recognizes Kaiju imprint and rejects other foreign particle.”

“So this means that we should try pushing the bomb into a Kaiju carcass through the Breach, and then detonate it.” Nazri replies, his voice mingling with the background noise as they keep Takoyaki at bay. “Do we have another nuclear payload back at the base? Maybe if a JumpHawk delivers now, we can still make it-“

“No need!” Bel blinks in stupor when he realizes the loud voice was that of Talha. “Beta Strucker is a walking bomb; we’ll finish the mission!”

>-<

“What are you guys saying?! If you guys go down there-!” Amirul cuts Iris’ indignant words with a soft sigh.

“Out of the three Jaegars, Beta is the only one who can destroy the Breach. We’ll use one of these Kaiju as a pass, sneak into the Breach, and switch on our nuclear reactor. That’s the only way.”

Silence reigns all around them and in LOCCENT, before Achik speaks.

“Very well. Storm, Gamma, you two are to support Beta for the pitfall.” As to Talha and Amirul, she says: “I hope you two do not regret this.”

Amirul laughs. “It’s our utmost pleasure to be of service to the world, Marshall.”

“Now that that’s made up, time to finish this!” Talha nods, and together they activate their plasma cannon and finishes off Onibaba. They’ve wasted too much time, it’s either now, or die trying.

“The Category V is here! And this thing is really huge!” Bel’s cringe-worthy high pitch voice draws Beta’s attention, and both of them watch as humanity’s first Kaiju opponent surfaces from the other world.

A monster that is easily twice the size of Onibaba appears, its face like that of an angler fish gapes its massive jaws, snarling at its opponents. The Kaiju smashes its webbed claws into the ground, a spiky tail whipping back and forth rapidly as its erratic eyes dart around.

Nope, this is clearly not what Amirul has in mind for a nice evening.

Save the regrets later! Here it comes! Talha reprimands, Beta ducking low as the tail come swiping across where they formerly stood.

“Beta! We’ll hold this guy off! You guys go on ahead with the corpse! Quickly!” Storm unsheathes its oxtail swords once more, blocking the massive beast from reaching Beta.

“Alright! Let’s do this!” With one hand around the calf of Onibaba, Beta drags the corpse across the ocean floor, their goal ahead of them.

No regrets, the mission is the only thing on their mind.

“Go and kick their ass, Beta!!” Aaron shouts, his voice join by the others in roves as Beta gets closer and closer to the Breach.

>-<

“Oi, oi! Let’s finish off this guy already!” Nazri reminds his junior sharply. “What weapons does Gamma have that is useful to turn this guy into mush?!”

Aaron laughs.

“Not into mush – Takoyaki’s made from pieces of octopus meat!”

Gamma draws their chain sword, and wields it as any beginner to kendo would: Both hands clasped around the hilt of the sword, they swing and chop at the tentacles. In due time, they reduce one tentacle into three segments; two into six segments; and so on. Takoyaki rears back in fury, its remaining four rushing in to tug away the sword from the Jaegar.

“Not so fast!” Gamma pulls away their left hand, readying the plasma cannon that lasers off an entire tentacle, firing another to free their sword to hack away at Takoyaki.

This is for Eric, you jerk!

Nazri grins. Just two more tentacles, then we’ll deliver the final blow!

“Uwoh!!!” Slicing away the last two tentacles, Gamma ends the fight by separating the head from the body, leaving Takoyaki is scattered remains.

“Well, let’s just hope this guy doesn’t come after us headless.”

Aaron shrugs.

>-<

Even though that’s what we said, how are we going to stop this guy?!

Storm looks awkwardly out of place in contrast to the opponent’s beastly form. Just by standing in front of the monster, Storm Dragon is dwarfed by the massive height difference.

We’re going to defend our country to the end! Don’t forget our mission! Leo not so gently chides Bel. Beta is putting their lives on the line; the least we could do is not let their sacrifice go to waste!

The Kaiju turns, uninterested by the Jaegar before it, instead its attention is drawn by the slowly approaching Beta Strucker.

“You lumpy Nimrod! Your opponent is us!” Storm unleashes its Anti-Kaiju missiles, a few embedded and exploding in the Kaiju.

“Ooh! So this Kaiju’s name is called Nimrod? That sounded better than Darth Vader for some reason…” Aaron wistfully says, before Ariel cuts in and tells them not to take their attention off their enemy. Now that Takoyaki and Onibaba is dead, all that’s left is the Category V Kaiju.

“Gamma! You’re just in time!”

“I know right?! Just in time for the party to get started!” Aaron elatedly replies Leo. “Let’s finish off Nimrod for good!”

“So I guess this guy’s name is Nimrod…” Bel trails off with a resigned sigh. Leo nudges him through the Drift. Don’t be so sad! If my sister has another new puppy, I’ll let you name the puppy, alright?

“I’m not exactly upset about naming… But I’ll take up your offer.”

The light-hearted conversation over, everyone focusing on the battle before them as Nimrod turns to them with an angry glare, snapping its ugly jaws at them for challenging it.

Please tell me you have a plan of attack.

Yeah: Attack! Bel mentally jabs Leo’s carefree reply. That doesn’t count, idiot!

Storm moves first, its two swords slashing at the Kaiju. Closely following them is Gamma, holding onto its chain sword as they both come head to head with Nimrod.

“We’re taking left, Gamma, you’re flanking right!”

“Leave the right to us!”

“That had better not be a pun, Aaron!” Leo jokes, half-heartedly as Nimrod response in kind by also rushing forward to meet them.

“Let’s get this party started!”

>-<

Amirul, if you don’t want to do this, I can do this alone.

Nonsense! I’m not leaving my partner! We’ve been together for three years – And in each other’s heads for so long! Amirul shoots imaginary daggers at his co-pilot. If we’re going to close the Breach, we’re doing this together!

I’m serious, don’t you want to live a normal life?! Surely you want to survive!

“If I want to survive, you’re also going to survive! But if the path to living is only open to one person, I will not take it.” Amirul firmly looks over at Talha. “We’re both in this together: If we live, we live; If we die, well, so be it!”

Talha smiles widely. Let’s go then, partner.

With a last heave, they reach the edge of the Breach. Looking down into the swirling lights before sharing a look with each other.

I’m glad we’re partners.

Yeah. Amirul chuckles at Talha’s reluctance at admitting the truth. If there’s an afterlife, let’s meet again.

Letting out a breath, Beta disappears into the Breach together with the carcass. Falling into the Breach is an experience in itself; Like Alice going down the rabbit hole, Beta Strucker and its pilots let themselves be pulled along by their impending weight. They make sure to keep Onibaba’s body close, especially when some laser lights shine along the tunnel, as though they were being cross-examined.

So this must be the check-point…

I wonder if we’ve reached the throat already…?

Talha squints his eyes together. Possibly we’re in the throat, but just in case, let’s wait a little longer.

Amirul prods questioningly through their headspace. What is this idea you’re hiding from our headspace?

Talha grins. Wait a little longer; I see something down there.

The descend didn’t seem like it took a long time, maybe a few minutes, but then suddenly they’re in another world. They’re no longer in the ocean, but rather some grotesque setting of a hideout with many alien faces staring at them.

Kinda like that old movie of Terminators, doesn’t it?

You mean, Alien versus Predators? That was, what, 2004?

“That one looks like a Predator then, all slim and scary.” Amirul comments. Talha blinks.

“Maybe it’s the leader. I mean, it looks like it’s angry…”

“Activate nuclear reactor?”

Wordlessly, both of them reach for the manual switch at once.

>-<

“Beta’s in! I guess we better work harder then.” Aaron wheezes out. Nazri shakes his head in silent disapproval.

“Obviously. Storm, you guys alright? That was a pretty bad knock-out in Jaegar history, I think.” To their left, Storm is on his knees, the Jaegar got a clean hit by the Kaiju’s tail. On the other hand, Gamma has been stuck in dodging – Unable to do much, other than avoid getting their core clawed.

Okay, obviously us taking turns to land a hit is not working.

Actually, since Gamma is better at bending, why not we hold Nimrod still and let Storm chop him up?

Aaron must have obviously let that fact slipped his mind, judging by the upwelling emotions of incredulousness and awe through the Drift. Great idea!

“Hey Storm! Why not we hold it down, and then you guys go crazy on chopping him up? Just try not to hit us in the process: It’s a pain to try to pick up the Conn-pod and all.”

Bel agrees. “Great idea! But we need to take Nimrod by surprise.”

“… I don’t think Gamma is up to dress a drag and do the hula.”

“Was that a reference to Timon from Lion King?”

Aaron cackles. “So you do pick up a few things! I mean, Hong Kong Disneyland is only 10 km away from the Hong Kong Shatterdome, and since sound travels fast over water…”

Leo groans. “If someone sings ‘It’s a small world after all’ one more time, I’m going to punch them.”

“So that’s why you guys readily transfer over to our Shatterdome. But we do have Legoland…”

“Well, Legoland just doesn’t have songs that are just as good as Disney, you know what I’m saying?”

“Can we stop the whole Disney conversation and focus on taking Nimrod down?!”

“Exactly as Ariel says! Take down the globalist movement!” Aaron cheers, for reasons unbeknownst to everyone else but Nazri and himself.

The blast in the Breach goes off at the same time.

“So I guess that’s the surprise?” Aaron asks, watching Nimrod retreating in favor of reaching back into the Breach. Gamma takes the lack of guard in stride, running on their power move to chop off the offending tail before putting Nimrod in a head-lock. “Storm! Do your thing!”

“[Martial arts: Secret technique – Dragon Claw!]” The pair of oxtail swords moved so fast, making the onlookers look as though they had claws rather than hands wielding swords. Their attack slashes open Nimrod’s chest, the Kaiju giving Gamma enough leeway to finish it off with a chain sword through the chest, the blade sticking out of the remains of the Kaiju’s chest. Gamma then pulls their sword out of Nimrod, the two Jaegar standing over the fallen monster.

“Just in case, we’re going to check for a pulse.” Leo says, Storm lifting an arm and shoots plasma cannons three times through the body.

“Okay, Confirmed no pulse.”

“But why three times though?” Aaron sighs at Nazri’s question.

“Obviously – ‘Three time’s the charm’.”

“I thought it’s ‘The third time’s the charm’.”

“No Bel, this is expert Aaron you’re talking to-“

“Hey look! What’s that coming out of the smoke?!” Leo’s panic voice washes out Aaron’s, and both Jaegar turns to the source.

Nazri is the first to recover. “Those are escape pods! There’s two of them!”

“Gotta catch ‘em all!”

“Aaron, please…”

“Alright, sorry. LOCCENT? We’re all done, so you guys can probably send over a few JumpHawks, because I don’t think any of us could move our legs, except to get those stray pods.”

<->

And so, the Breach is destroyed. Joey has no explanation on how the escape pods managed to escape (so much rhyming!), other than the Breach simply ejecting all foreign matters from the bridge.

A few hours the fight is over, everyone is in the medical bay, Dr. Shah and Dila busy patching everyone up. Eric is awake, and is immediately assaulted by an overjoyed pair of Ariel and Aaron.

“Eric still needs to rest!” Dr. Shah is obviously concerned, though happy that his patient is awake. Eric listens to Aaron’s babble about the whole fight, Ariel interjecting with a few lectures, and Nazri occasionally joins in with his side of the story. In another corner, Iris tearfully berates Talha and Amirul, before giving up trying to make any sense and resorts to just hugging them tight. Ashleigh huffs over Bel and Leo, the three chatting animatedly over the adrenaline of things.

Achik watches the scene unfold before her with a smile. Asyikin nudges her.

“Now that it’s over, what are you planning to do, Marshall?”

Achik looks over and shrugs.

“Maybe I’ll start a café with my husband, who knows? Now that threat is eliminated, it’ll be great for us to return to normalcy.”

Asyikin sighs.

“Normalcy, huh? With external threat gone, the nations are going to go back to fighting with each other.”

Zul interjects. “Yeah. But if the world ever need us again, they’ll know where to find us.”

Achik laughs. “Yes. After all, we’re only best at dealing with aliens.”

Asyikin turns to face Achik with a serious look. “But speaking about café, what are you planning?”

“I’m thinking something along the lines of a drive-thru café…”

~*~

THE END

~*~

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