#wayne rigby
TAG Rewatch - S3, E5, Growing Pains
The Rim c23: The Final Fight Part Two
Warnings: MCDs
~
Striker Eureka stood facing Slattern. Water was now pouring into the cockpit, but both men paid that no heed. Instead, both Kaiju and Jaeger found their attention was diverted up to the sea floor.
Scunner came swimming over the cliff at a rate of knots, landing to Eureka’s right.
‘What can we do, Sir?’ Rigby asked, although the quietness in his voice told that he already knew.
Taylor looked at the boy who he’d taken under his wing and helped grow into a man. A man, while having faults, a man that he was damn proud to be sharing this final moment with.
‘We can clear a path. For the Thunderbird.’
In Thunderbird Five John turned to Casey. Behind her stood Taylor’s nephew, Berrenger. The boy was around Alan’s age, and had kept himself to himself, but John was gratified to see him now surrounded by Alan and Gordon. John glanced over to Virgil and Brains, on the other monitor, and the two engineers gave sad smiles back.
‘They’re going to detonate the payload.’
The room was suddenly quiet as Rigby’s voice came over the comms.
‘Well, my father always said, he said, “if you have the shot, you take it!” So let’s do this!’
Wayne turned to the man he’d considered a second father for years.
‘It was a pleasure, Lee.’
‘Likewise, Wayne. Likewise.’
Outside, Scunner swum around them, preparing to attack. Slattern stood facing them. One was still up on the sea floor, having not yet reached the cliff leading to the Breach.
They flicked the switches together, arming the bomb. The lights prompted both Kaijus into attack mode, swimming straight at them.
The two men looked at each other. Nodded and waited a heartbeat.
‘Goodbye, Lee,’ whispered Val Casey, discretely wiping away a tear.
Just as the two Kaiju reached them they detonated the bomb.
The light was blinding, sending out a bright yellow shockwave-bubble. Scott and Jane, with only seconds to prepare, crouched One down and plunged the sword into the ground for purchase.
It still took every ounce of strength they had left.
Once the wave had washed over them One stood back up on dry land. The water had all gone, and there were fish flopping about around them. The area around them was flat, all the chimneys had disappeared.
And then the water came back, hitting the Jaeger and almost pushing her back into the ground.
‘All systems critical,’ EOS warned. ‘Fluid loss…’ She carried on intoning while Scott pushed buttons and let Loccent know. ‘Code Red.’
‘Systems are critical! Fuel is leaking! Our right leg is crippled.’ He turned to Jane. ‘Let’s finish this.’ She nodded.
Fischler turned to John, confusion clear on his face.
‘What are they doing?’
‘Finishing the mission,’ replied a hoarse Marshal Casey.
‘Thunderbird Five, we have the Kaiju carcass. We’re heading for the Breach.’
Thunderbird One would have been an impressive sight right now. The giant Jaeger limped along the seabed, right arm missing, right leg dragging and barely useful, left arm pulling along the remains of Scunner as they headed for the mouth of the Breach.
‘You guys better be right, because one way or another we’re getting this thing done.’
They had just reached the edge of the cliff, preparing to jump, when Slattern rose up before them.
Thunderbird One didn’t stop though.
‘On my count. Rear jets!’ Scott commanded. Jane nodded and the two placed their hands on the console ready.
‘Three.
‘Two.
‘One.’
‘NOW’
The jets fired, hurling One into the Kaiju. They dropped the remains of Scunner and held their left fist out, contacting solidly and driving the sword completely through Slattern’s right chest.
‘Hold on!’ cried Scott.
He could hear Jane’s breathing and it didn’t sound good, all raspy and uneven. But she was determined, and they held onto the Kaiju as they fell through the mouth.
Slattern wasn’t done yet, using its tentacles to pound the Jaeger and piercing One over and over. Still One clung on.
‘Jane’s oxygen is down. Half capacity!’
John’s voice jolted the Loccent, particularly the Marshal. So intent on watching the two falling that the hadn’t been keeping a close eye on the stats of the two pilots. Casey sucked in a breath.
‘Can you reroute it?’
‘I’m trying, sir!’
John skidded over to the other monitor, flicking switches and saying a quiet prayer to his Mom.
‘Hold on, Jane,’ Scott said, as he reached across and pressed the button for One’s reactor weapon.
‘Heat shaft purge,’ EOS intoned.
‘I’m gonna burn this son of a bitch!’
Holding the button down for an exhaust purge, a flame shot out of One’s chest, burning through the Kaiju. Slattern tried desperately to disengage, pushing One away, but they had a tight hold on it.
The exhaust burnt right through the beast, and with a last scream the Kaiju’s blue light faded and its head lolled.
Blue-white electricity crackled all around them and touched them, and they fell.
With a flash of yellow Thunderbird One fell out of the Earth and disappeared.
~
Taylor and Rigby turned to look at each other, and in One Scott and Jane did the same. This was not looking promising, and Scott could almost hear his two youngest brothers swearing because Three had been damaged too badly to come and help immediately. He could envision Virgil and Brains rushing down to try and get the Jaeger into some kind of shape, but he also knew it wouldn’t come in time.
‘How big?’ queried his Godfather. ‘What category?’
In Thunderbird Five John turned to the Marshal. He was pale. The two scientists looked at each other grimly as he spoke quietly to them.
‘Category Five.’
Casey didn’t waste time. There wasn’t any. As calmly as possible she told the waiting pilots.
‘Striker. It’s a Category Five. The first ever.’
Taylor’s arm fell to his side and he looked to his co-pilot and a man he had come to regard as a son. Wayne smiled at him. Together, in their Jaeger at the very mouth of the Breach, they stood and watched the biggest Kaiju ever seen ascend.
It towered over them.
Head like a v-shaped hammerhead shark. A pair of arms and legs, plus three pairs of long, thick tentacles. A thick tail. It opened its mouth and roared, displaying huge teeth and the usual blue phosphorous glow.
Striker moved into a fighting stance, swords out and ready.
‘Taylor, we see him.’ Scott’s voice came out clear over the comms. ‘We’re right behind you, about 100 metres. We’re gonna come around your three o-clock, try to flank him. Standard two-team formation. Just keep him busy for a few…’
But Scott didn’t get to finish what he was saying as Thunderbird One was attacked from the left, the Kaiju codenamed Scunner swimming fast and colliding with the Jaeger. This one had giant spikes of armour jutting out either side of its head and it was aiming to spear them.
Using both arms to try and hold it back, One grabbed the protrusions and proceeded to headbutt the creature. Once, twice, before the Kaiju tried to back off. In a move Scott had seen pre-Breach days when watching wrestling, One followed through by pushing it aside and leaping on it, hands now grasping the same places but the other side, pinning Scunner to the floor.
While all this was happening, Striker Eureka was being engaged in her own battle.
The Kaiju spun all six tentacles together until they were one spinning mass, and as Taylor yelled ‘Brace for impact!’ they shot out, knocking the Jaeger several feet and onto her back until she skidded to a halt against a chimney.
‘Chain sword deployed,’ EOS stated, her calm tones at complete odds with the chaotic scene around them.
One stood over the fallen Kaiju, about to deliver the killing blow, when the third Kaiju, Raiju, came out of nowhere, tearing her arm off completely and spinning them round.
Their screams echoed around Thunderbird Five.
The spin sent them around full circle, and they immediately deployed the chain sword on their left arm, thrusting it into the downed Kaiju’s head even as Raiju bit the torn-off arm in two and roared in victory.
‘Let’s get this son of a bitch!’ yelled Scott, and One dragged the beast along the floor to a chimney, holding its head over the vent as the Kaiju screamed. It wasn’t done yet, though, and it pulled back and away from the damaged machine, turning to face them as One fell to her knees, the support from the sword the only thing stopping her falling completely.
They slowly got to their feet, face to face with Scunner, only for John’s frantic voice to ring out:
‘One, coming up on your twelve o’clock! Full speed!’
The Kaiju suddenly turned aside as Raiju came charging at them, three-pronged maw open wide.
‘Scott! Get out of the way!’ John screamed.
But instead of getting out of the way, Scott and Jane thrust the left arm out straight ahead, sword still engaged, and grunting with the effort.
It ran straight into the sword, and as One’s fist pulled down a little, the speed it had been travelling did the rest of the work.
The Kaiju split into two halves and floated down to the seabed.
Rigby was frantically checking over the control system. Taylor, looking at his own readouts, sighed as he got himself together. He wasn’t as young as he used to be.
‘The release is jammed! We can’t deliver the payload.’
The Jaeger stood up. Eureka, the one and only Mark Five ever made, looked a little battered – certainly nowhere near as damaged as Thunderbird One was, but they were taking on water. Rigby continued to fill the Loccent in.
‘We’re still armed. But the hull is compromised!’ He turned to Taylor.
‘Half our systems are offline, sir.’
‘We need to override the…’ Taylor stopped midsentence.
He’d glanced out the viewport and the Category Five was charging at them.
There was barely any time to get prepared, and the Kaiju grabbed hold of Eureka around the waist, lifting them up and pushing them backwards, until eventually they crashed into the seabed and the beast flipped them both over.
Facing each other, the Kaiju’s clawed hands still around Eureka’s arms, there was a second of nothing before Slattern released them and wildly swung one paw and then the other before once again latching on to both of the Jaeger’s arms and swinging them around.
Eureka had managed to take a slice at Slattern’s throat, a small spray of blue liquid the only indication they had done some damage, before the hand enclosed their arm. But the Kaiju didn’t have a good hold, and they managed a similar slice to the same area with their other hand.
Slattern backed off a little before reengaging, and it was the pause they needed. Both knife-swords extended in front, they thrust them into the Kaiju’s upper chest just by the armpits. The forward momentum carried the beast onwards, and with a final thrust they had almost severed both arms.
With its blue blood streaming out, Slattern backed off. And roared over and over.
Scunner, about to once again charge One, turned at the sound and went to the aid of the larger Kaiju.
Watching intently in Thunderbird Five, John let everyone know what was going on.
‘Both Kaijus are converging on Striker fast!’
The Loccent team gathered around his screen, dreading what the news would mean for the pilots.
Thunderbird One barely managed to make it back to her feet, and they were having to use the sword as a crutch to walk.
‘Hang on, Striker! We’re coming to you!’
‘No!’ shouted Taylor. ‘No, One! Do not come to our aid! Do you copy?’
‘Hang on!’ Scott replied.
‘Stay as far back as you can!’
‘We can still reach you. We’re coming for you. ‘
‘No. Scott. Scott, son, listen to me. You know exactly what you have to do! One is nuclear! Take her to the Breach!’
‘I hear you. I hear you, Uncle Lee. I hear you.’ Scott looked to Jane. They were both crying. ‘Heading for the Breach now.’
Taylor removed his helmet and hit the comms.
‘Scott. Listen to me. You can finish this. I’ll always be here for you. You can always find me in the Drift.’
~
Fischler and Reeves were as ready as they were going to be, strapped into two drift units that Fischler had cobbled together. Langstrom picked up the power unit.
‘You ready for this?’ he shouted over his shoulder.
‘Oh, yes, yes,’ mumbled Reeves.
They turned to the baby Kaiju.
‘Initiating neural handshake in five…four…three…two…one.’
He pressed the button.
The Drift showed images of them as children…playing with a model aircraft, working at school, getting laughed at, hiding in a corner, college, getting a tattoo…
An eye.
The eye was a slit, rather like a reptile’s eye, and then the images were of machines, the sounds of cutting and guttural growls, flesh being cut into and pulled apart…
The Breach.
The two men came out of the Drift with a gargled scream. Both were bleeding from the nose, sweating and pale. They coughed and groaned.
‘Are you ok?’ Fischler asked, unstrapping his helmet.
‘Yes, of course,’ replied Reeves, removing his helmet and breathing heavily. ‘I’m completely fine.’
And immediately he ran across the clearing to a toilet basin and threw up.
Fischler handed him a cloth, and Reeves got himself clean. He turned to his fellow scientist. There was urgency in his voice.
‘The Drift . You saw it?’
‘Yeah.’
‘Did you?’
‘Listen, we have to warn them. The Jaegers…The Breach…The Plan…’ Fischler was struggling to get his breathing under control.
‘It’s not going to work,’ Reeves finished for him.
~
The helos carried both Jaegers into the sea just off the breach. The bomb strapped to Striker Eureka’s back was large but didn’t affect the balance of the machine.
‘Disengaging transport,’ John’s voice came over the comm. And Scott was once more grateful that his brother could be so calm under pressure.
They fell into the water, and Taylor confirmed they were ready, followed by Scott.
‘Loccent – Thunderbird Five – all ports sealed. Ready to submerge.’
‘All ports sealed. Ready to submerge.’
‘FAB,’ John replied.
In Thunderbird Five John had been joined by his brothers, with Virgil taking up the usual extra station.
‘Both neural handshakes at 100%,’ Virgil stated.
‘Neural handshake confirmed, sir,’ John added.
Marshal Casey strode over to the microphone.
‘Two actives still in circle formation in the Guam quadrant,’ she told the four pilots. ‘Codenames Scunner, Raiju. Both Category Four.
‘Roger that,’ replied Taylor.
The Jaegers were striding across the ocean floor, and Taylor decided now was as good a time as any to go over the plan.
‘Half a mile to the ocean cliff, we jump! It’s 3,000 metres to the Breach.’
‘Half a mile? I can’t even see a damn inch ahead!’ replied Rigby, flicking switches to try and increase the light outside. ‘How are we supposed to deliver the bomb?’
‘Visibility’s zero. Switching to instruments now.’ Scott flicked some switches in One, hoping that they could use them to see where the lights could not go.
They strode hard across the ocean floor, kicking up dirt and trying their hardest to keep an eye out for the two Kaiju awaiting them.
Neither saw one swimming beside them, until John cried out ‘Sir!’ and Casey directed them.
‘One, you have movement on your right. Three o’clock! Three o’clock!’
Thunderbird One’s head turned but they continued moving forward as EOS spoke.
‘100-feet radius clear.’
‘Right flank’s clear. I got nothing,’ Scott confirmed.
In the Loccent John, Virgil and Casey were tracking both Jaegers and the one Kaiju that was showing up.
‘Left now! And moving fast! Fastest Kaiju on record!’ John shouted.
And then they heard it. The Kaiju let out a cry, but still they couldn’t see it on either screen or visually.
‘I don’t see anything. It’s moving too fast!’ Scott shouted.
‘Eyes on the prize, One. 600 meters from the drop,’ Rigby sounded.
They moved ever forward.
Fischler and Reeves had managed to get one of the transport Helos to come and pick them up, and the door had barely begun to open before they were trying to climb out.
As the two Jaegers powered across the ocean floor the two scientists were running for Thunderbird Five.
As Striker Eureka jumped down the cliff they were sprinting up the stairs.
As Thunderbird One landed beside her sister they made the Loccent level.
‘Four hundred metres and closing,’ confirmed Taylor.
‘Bogeys are stopping,’ replied John, showing all four on the holoscreen.
‘Striker! Bogeys are stopping. One o’clock,’ Casey stated.
Taylor stopped walking.
‘Taylor, what are you doing?’ yelled Rigby.
‘They’re stopping. Why the hell are they stopping?’
Both men were yelling.
‘I don’t give a damn, sir! We’re 300 metres from the jump!’
‘Something’s not right!’
‘Striker, the bogeys aren’t following,’ Casey confirmed. ‘Take the leap NOW!’
And the two men burst into the Loccent.
‘Don’t do it! Don’t do it! It’s not gonna work!’ shouted Fischler, waving his arms around and pushing Casey out of the way of the mike. He spoke nineteen-to-the-dozen as Reeves came to stand beside him.
‘Blowing up the Breach, it’s not gonna work!’
‘What do you mean? What’s not going to work?’ Taylor demanded.
‘Sir, just because the Breach is open does not mean you’re able to get a bomb through.’
‘The Breach genetically reads the Kaiju,’ continued Reeves. ‘Like a barcode at the supermarket and then lets them pass.’
‘Okay, so you’re gonna have to fool the Breach into thinking that you have the same code!’
‘How are we supposed to do that?’ interjected Scott as they continued getting into position.
‘By making it think you are a Kaiju,’ replied Fischler.
‘You have to lock onto the Kaiju, ride it into the Breach,’ added Reeves. ‘The Throat will then read the Kaiju’s genetic code, and let you pass.’
‘If you don’t do it the bomb will deflect off the Breach, like it always has andthe mission will fail.’
There was a beat of silence, both in Five and in both Jaegers, as the import of what was being said sank in.
Casey snatched the microphone back.
‘All right. Now that you’ve heard all that, Striker, take the leap!’
Before anything else could happen, John made an announcement that all could hear, his usually calm voice betraying more than a hint of fear.
‘Sir, I have a third signature emerging from the Breach!
‘It’s a triple event,’ whispered Fischler.
‘Oh, god. I was right,’ Reeves sighed.
~
On the mainland Reeves was talking to John while Fischler was setting up the machinery to drift with the baby Kaiju.
‘Two signatures? Two?! There are…there are two Kaiju signatures in the breach, not three like I predicted?!’
‘Tycho! I haven’t exactly had a very good day, okay?! I got about five minutes before brain death occurs here!’
‘Should be three Kaiju!’ the man muttered even as he came over to help Fischler.
‘I don’t want to talk about your theories!’
‘This is all wrong! There should be three Kaiju coming through, not two!’
‘Oh, there should be three and there’s two? I’m sorry, it hurts to be wrong, doesn’t is, Tycho?’
‘I am not wrong, but there is something here that we don’t understand.’
‘Ok. Tycho, hopefully we can argue about any mistakes you made in your predictive model in the future! But in the meantime, the neural interface is way off the charts! If you want to help, help with that!’
Fischler grabbed the helmet and set about getting it ready. Time was running out, and with each passing second his panic showed in his jerky movements and the speed at which he was talking. Reeves put on his glasses and turned to the computer, fingers flying over it almost as fast as John Tracy’s did.
‘Langstrom, I am not wrong. There is only one way to make sure, and that is to do this together.’
He turned to Fischler, who still had his back to him, although he had paused at Reeve’s words.
‘I’ll go with you.’
Fischler turned to face him.
‘That’s what the Jaeger pilots do, share the neural load.’
‘You’re serious? You – you would do that for me? Or…you would do that with me?’
‘Well, with worldwide destruction a certain alternative…do I really have a choice?’
But he was smiling as he said it, and Fischler’s heart rose. They used to be friends, maybe they still could be.
‘Then say it with me, my man: “We’re gonna own this bad boy!”’
‘By Jove, we are going to own this thing for sure!’
They shook hands, and Fischler laughed.
~
Taylor, Berrenger and Rigby disappeared discretely while the Marshal was still talking. There wasn’t much time to talk about anything, everything, that they all wanted to say, and none of them were much for talking about feelings anyway.
Lee stood before his two boys. They had always done him proud, even if he wished Wayne wasn’t such an ass sometimes. He put it down to needing the strength to drift, first with himself and then with Brandon.
‘Hey now,’ he said softly. ‘When you drift with someone, you feel like there’s nothing to talk about. I just don’t want to regret all the things I never said out loud to either of you.’
‘Don’t,’ replied Rigby.
‘You don’t need to,’ added Berrenger, looking first to Wayne and then to his uncle. ‘We know them all.’
‘Always have,’ finished Wayne.
‘I am so proud to have had this time with you, boys. Thank you for indulging this old man.’
They laughed and broke apart, unshed tears in all their eyes, and then the moment was broken and Taylor and Rigby moved, Taylor striding over to the Marshal and Rigby to the lift.
Everyone watched as Lee Taylor and Val Casey briefly embraced, and unheard words were spoken before Taylor moved over to his Godsons and hugged each and every one of them.
Brandon watched as he joined Rigby in the elevator that would take them up to Striker Eureka. Red eyed and lip trembling, he was a true Taylor, no tear falling until he was alone.
A similar conversation was being had between Scott and his brothers. He was encircled by them, hands on shoulders and heads touching.
No words were spoken. Nothing needed to be said, they knew how much they meant to each other, how much Scott meant to them all. If Alan clung just little bit tighter, if Gordon and Virgil squeezed just a little harder, if John lingered in his touch just that little bit longer…well, they knew.
They all knew there was a good chance that this was a one-way trip.
Jane and Casey watched them, standing shoulder to shoulder, until the Marshal couldn’t help herself and slid an arm around the young woman she’d cared for like a daughter.
‘I could not be any prouder than I am now,’ was all she said, but those ten words carried the world in them.
Then it was time for Scott and Jane to get fixed into Thunderbird One. They entered the lift as Casey, Berrenger and Scott’s brothers all scattered to their various tasks in preparation for what was coming next.
As Scott and Jane were plugged into One, he turned to the woman he’d only known for little over a week but who had become his closest friend.
‘You know, Jane, all those years I spent living in the past, I never really thought about the future. Until now.’
Jane watched him.
‘I never did have very good timing.’ He snorted softly.
Nothing more was said as the Jaeger’s head was dropped into place and they powered up.
It was time.
