A little wear and tear
Aug. 13th, 2013 12:39 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
watching_uranusBrutus knew he was tough. His speed never was a match for Striker, he never had the experience of Tango, but Brutus knew he was tough. He took blows better than most Jaegers and knew how to give them right back. Since childhood he found he could take a beating and keep trucking. His brothers taught him how to take a punch the old fashioned way. Maybe he never fought quite as well as them but he outlasted them. After his enhancements, while wearing his suit, Brutus felt certain he could shrug off an oncoming jeep without suffering more than a numb arm. Today that endurance was being put to the test.
It towered over him. The Kaiju he faced was no less than a category four. Its codename? Goretusk. The boys back at the Shatterdome wouldn't be winning any awards for originality with that one. If someone decided to mix a gorilla with a tyrannosaurus, Brutus felt sure this would be the end result. Then that person decided to throw in all the ferocity of a feral boar on top of that, along with the tusks to match. Twenty minutes of fighting later, Brutus's body throbbed from battle. His armor remained intact but he felt certain something was bleeding right now. He only hoped that it wasn't something vital, or internal. The Kaiju looked little better than him, but seemed to be handling its wounds far better. Dozens of wounds wept alien blood. Its right eye no longer rested in its skull. Brutus managed to break one of its tusks and burst its eye with it earlier in the fight. That barely even slowed the creature. In fact Brutus thought it might have just pissed it off more.
His chest heaved. So did the Kaiju's. For a moment, they faced each other, catching their breath while the gained strength for round two. Or was it round three? Maybe even four. In fights like this, minutes had a way of stretching into hours. It reminded him of the last fight he ever had with his brothers. The fight that let all three of them know he was better than them. This was just like that moment. It was a do or die situation and Brutus would not die.
With a roar that matched his own, they charged each other. They collided like twin juggernauts. Fists made of steel sought alien flesh as monstrous claws raked against metal armor. He forced the Kaiju back with each thunderous blow. Any pain he felt was pushed from his mind from sheer adrenaline. Teeth clinched so hard that he could taste blood. Maybe it was from a blow to the head that he couldn't remember. It didn't matter. This thing would die even if he had to choke the life from it. Then fist like a car engine smashed against his skull. He briefly wondered where that came from before pain exploded across his head and Brutus saw stars flash across his vision. He felt the touch of metal against his cheek as his helmet crumpled against the blow. The information across his HUD winked out of existence. Another blow to his chest sent him skipping down the street on his back.
His world spun around him. Blood gushed from the wound on his head and he was dully aware that the ground seemed to thump beneath him. There was something he should be doing right now but for the life of him he couldn't remember what it was. He knew it was important though, so he tried to focus. The massive clawed hand that seized him put a quick end to that. His head snapped up and suddenly he saw two Kaiju in front of him. Was there always two? He couldn't remember. Just as Brutus began to focus his vision again, Goretusk heaved him off his feet smashing him against the pavement beneath him. It smashed him again and again, the concrete cracking with each blow. Mercifully, the concrete gave before Brutus did. The road beneath them cracked, then caved spilling them into the dark below.
For a brief second, Brutus thought this might be it. This was his spirit shuffling off the mortal coil. Soon he'd feel nothing at all. Then his body crashed against the railway below. Though his brain still shook from the constant assault, he figured they fell into the subway tunnels beneath the city. Then he heard the stomping of heavy feet behind him. Brutus whirled and saw Goretusk reaching for him. He kicked, trying to knock its arm away or break its hand, anything to keep it from grabbing him again. One of its oversize digits snapped beneath his boot. It roared, more out of frustration than any real pain, then reached for him again. Brutus kicked again, pulling himself away from it as he did. This time the Kaiju batted his leg aside, grabbing for his other one. He couldn't pull away fast enough. It hauled him towards it and if Brutus could read the facial expression of a Kaiju, then he'd call the look on its face manic glee. For a moment he thought it would pluck his limbs off like a bug until it pulled him into a bear hug from hell.
Thick cords of muscle tightened around his body and he screamed in pain. His fists lashed out, beating the creature in the face breaking its other tusk in the process. It refused to let go. The Kaiju had him and in that moment he knew nothing short of death, his or its, would free him. Frantically, he pummeled its skull trying in vain to crush it. It was like someone slapping the side of a mountain with a stick. The strength sapped from his blows with every second while its grip around him tightened like a vice. In a final act of desperation, he drove his fingers into its other good eye. It screeched a high pitch squeal as the fleshy globe burst but that only caused its hold on him to tighten further. Now that it couldn't see him, it refused to let him out of its grip. Brutus had to think of something. The pain tore through him like a tidal wave. Only moments remained before his body gave. He needed a plan. He needed to do something. He needed...
Then it happened. A crack in his back that echoed up and down his body. People normally liken pain to stabbing or burning. His pain was like a scream. His whole body screamed with pain. In a brief moment of clarity, Brutus realized he was screaming too. Then his body overloaded. Everything went black.
Brutus felt nothing. He felt nothing. There was no fear, no anger, no sense of duty, and most importantly, no pain. Wherever he was, it felt nice. Something told him that all he had to do was accept it and he'd never feel anything again. He could finally rest. Before he accepted it, an image flashed through his head. A young boy, blonde, scruffy, and far bigger than anyone else his age, stood on a small hill. Three other boys appeared to join him. For a moment he thought they were playing. Then he saw the other three children were shoving the blonde boy. They pushed and punched, and when he fell they kicked him on the ground. Brutus wanted to help the boy. He wanted to run up the hill and protect him, but his body wouldn't move. All he could do was watch.
Then he heard a shout. One of the boys fell to the ground clutching himself. The other two looked dumbfounded. They didn't notice the blonde boy rising to his feet. He threw himself at the other two in a storm of fists. It lasted less than a minute before the other two boys fell to the grass, holding broken noses and bruised stomachs. The boy watched them for a time, never speaking a word, before he turned and left. Brutus felt joy for the child. He earned his victory. Too bad he couldn't say the same for himself.
Another image came to him. There was no blonde boy this time. The figure was blonde yes, but it was woman. She seemed so familiar. Her name stood at the edge of his tongue but he just couldn't place it. She looked sullen, almost defeated. It hurt to her like this. Brutus wondered what happened to make her look like that.
Suddenly it hit him like a slap to the face. He knew what happened. Someone left her. Whoever it was quit right when they were needed. His joy left, replaced with anger. Not towards whoever this person was or even the Kaiju, but at himself. Brutus knew what he had tried to do. Things got hard and he tried to quit. In that moment he knew two things. If a child could get up and keep fighting then so could he. More importantly, he couldn't leave things undone. Brutus refused to leave his friends behind. He refused to leave her behind.
Just like that the darkness disappeared. Brutus was back in the tunnels and his body was screaming in pain. Was he still screaming? He didn't know. More important things needed his attention, like how he was going to kill the thing crushing him to death. After a quick assessment his eyes focused on the tunnel supports. His shoulder mounted machine gun could punch holes straight through smaller Kaiju. These concrete supports stood no chance against a concentrated blast. The gun whined as it spun to life, firing blasts at each of his targets. Bullets ripped through concrete like cardboard. More bullets rang out until he felt the slight tremor of rock, the structure already weakened from their fall into the tunnels. Now he needed his escape. Maybe he should have thought about that a little more.
Goretusk was still squeezing the life out of him. Brutus knew no strength remained in his limbs. Overpowering the creature was impossible at this point. One option remained open to him though: the thrusters on his back. Much of his fuel he spent already, but they held enough for what he needed to do. Brutus felt certain of it. If not, then at least he'd drag this thing to hell with him. A small consolation when he looked at it.
With a sudden roar, his thrusters fired. The burning fuel shot straight onto the Kaiju's hands. It snarled and spat, but tried to hold on like the dumb beast it was. What happened next happened in only a few seconds but it played like slow motion in Brutus' mind. The fire ate through Goretusk's flesh and bones. Brutus tore free of its grip, pulling most of its arms along with him. It thrashed blindly, searching for its missing prey. Then the rock gave. Stone and concrete and rubble crashed down around them. It buried Goretusk in seconds. Brutus continued to shoot down the tunnels thanks to his thrusters. He pushed them as far as the fuel in them took him. A cloud of dust followed in his wake. Finally his thrusters took him no further as they sputtered and died. The cloud of dust ran over him and he found himself thanking that his helmet was still in place. Then the final wisps of strength left him. His body could no longer comprehend the pain. Everything went black for a second time.
A beep tugged at the edge of his awareness. He ignored it. It beeped again. Brutus felt the urge to smash it. The damn thing forced him to accept his consciousness. That meant dealing with the pain that came with it. He didn't want to do that yet. Unfortunately it was already too late. His nerves took their chance to let him know every little thing that was wrong with his body now. He hated that beep.
Slowly his eyes peeled open. Drugs addled his mind making everything slow, or maybe he was still reeling from being tossed around like a rag doll. He took a breath, then winced. His throat felt like it was on fire. Clearly something had been forced down it that it didn't want there. Had he been in surgery? Brutus didn't want to think about that.
As the blur left his vision, he looked around the room. It took him only seconds to recognize it. It was the med-bay of the Shatterdome. Every Jaeger that ever lived knew this room. Something else quickly caught his attention. Someone else actually. A chair sat immediately next to his bed and in it sat Striker Eureka. She slept beside him, though not fitfully. If he had to guess, her body forced her into it after exhaustion. A smile crept onto his face as it did almost every time he saw her. He didn't want to move for fear that he would wake her. One of her hands lay on the armrest of the chair, only inches away from him. Before he knew it, his arm was already moving. His hand took hers and held it softly. Brutus peered at her to see if she woke. She still slept, her chest rising and falling slowly as she did. His smile grew a little wider. As he closed his eyes to rest just a little more, Brutus felt her fingers gently close around his hand.
It towered over him. The Kaiju he faced was no less than a category four. Its codename? Goretusk. The boys back at the Shatterdome wouldn't be winning any awards for originality with that one. If someone decided to mix a gorilla with a tyrannosaurus, Brutus felt sure this would be the end result. Then that person decided to throw in all the ferocity of a feral boar on top of that, along with the tusks to match. Twenty minutes of fighting later, Brutus's body throbbed from battle. His armor remained intact but he felt certain something was bleeding right now. He only hoped that it wasn't something vital, or internal. The Kaiju looked little better than him, but seemed to be handling its wounds far better. Dozens of wounds wept alien blood. Its right eye no longer rested in its skull. Brutus managed to break one of its tusks and burst its eye with it earlier in the fight. That barely even slowed the creature. In fact Brutus thought it might have just pissed it off more.
His chest heaved. So did the Kaiju's. For a moment, they faced each other, catching their breath while the gained strength for round two. Or was it round three? Maybe even four. In fights like this, minutes had a way of stretching into hours. It reminded him of the last fight he ever had with his brothers. The fight that let all three of them know he was better than them. This was just like that moment. It was a do or die situation and Brutus would not die.
With a roar that matched his own, they charged each other. They collided like twin juggernauts. Fists made of steel sought alien flesh as monstrous claws raked against metal armor. He forced the Kaiju back with each thunderous blow. Any pain he felt was pushed from his mind from sheer adrenaline. Teeth clinched so hard that he could taste blood. Maybe it was from a blow to the head that he couldn't remember. It didn't matter. This thing would die even if he had to choke the life from it. Then fist like a car engine smashed against his skull. He briefly wondered where that came from before pain exploded across his head and Brutus saw stars flash across his vision. He felt the touch of metal against his cheek as his helmet crumpled against the blow. The information across his HUD winked out of existence. Another blow to his chest sent him skipping down the street on his back.
His world spun around him. Blood gushed from the wound on his head and he was dully aware that the ground seemed to thump beneath him. There was something he should be doing right now but for the life of him he couldn't remember what it was. He knew it was important though, so he tried to focus. The massive clawed hand that seized him put a quick end to that. His head snapped up and suddenly he saw two Kaiju in front of him. Was there always two? He couldn't remember. Just as Brutus began to focus his vision again, Goretusk heaved him off his feet smashing him against the pavement beneath him. It smashed him again and again, the concrete cracking with each blow. Mercifully, the concrete gave before Brutus did. The road beneath them cracked, then caved spilling them into the dark below.
For a brief second, Brutus thought this might be it. This was his spirit shuffling off the mortal coil. Soon he'd feel nothing at all. Then his body crashed against the railway below. Though his brain still shook from the constant assault, he figured they fell into the subway tunnels beneath the city. Then he heard the stomping of heavy feet behind him. Brutus whirled and saw Goretusk reaching for him. He kicked, trying to knock its arm away or break its hand, anything to keep it from grabbing him again. One of its oversize digits snapped beneath his boot. It roared, more out of frustration than any real pain, then reached for him again. Brutus kicked again, pulling himself away from it as he did. This time the Kaiju batted his leg aside, grabbing for his other one. He couldn't pull away fast enough. It hauled him towards it and if Brutus could read the facial expression of a Kaiju, then he'd call the look on its face manic glee. For a moment he thought it would pluck his limbs off like a bug until it pulled him into a bear hug from hell.
Thick cords of muscle tightened around his body and he screamed in pain. His fists lashed out, beating the creature in the face breaking its other tusk in the process. It refused to let go. The Kaiju had him and in that moment he knew nothing short of death, his or its, would free him. Frantically, he pummeled its skull trying in vain to crush it. It was like someone slapping the side of a mountain with a stick. The strength sapped from his blows with every second while its grip around him tightened like a vice. In a final act of desperation, he drove his fingers into its other good eye. It screeched a high pitch squeal as the fleshy globe burst but that only caused its hold on him to tighten further. Now that it couldn't see him, it refused to let him out of its grip. Brutus had to think of something. The pain tore through him like a tidal wave. Only moments remained before his body gave. He needed a plan. He needed to do something. He needed...
Then it happened. A crack in his back that echoed up and down his body. People normally liken pain to stabbing or burning. His pain was like a scream. His whole body screamed with pain. In a brief moment of clarity, Brutus realized he was screaming too. Then his body overloaded. Everything went black.
Brutus felt nothing. He felt nothing. There was no fear, no anger, no sense of duty, and most importantly, no pain. Wherever he was, it felt nice. Something told him that all he had to do was accept it and he'd never feel anything again. He could finally rest. Before he accepted it, an image flashed through his head. A young boy, blonde, scruffy, and far bigger than anyone else his age, stood on a small hill. Three other boys appeared to join him. For a moment he thought they were playing. Then he saw the other three children were shoving the blonde boy. They pushed and punched, and when he fell they kicked him on the ground. Brutus wanted to help the boy. He wanted to run up the hill and protect him, but his body wouldn't move. All he could do was watch.
Then he heard a shout. One of the boys fell to the ground clutching himself. The other two looked dumbfounded. They didn't notice the blonde boy rising to his feet. He threw himself at the other two in a storm of fists. It lasted less than a minute before the other two boys fell to the grass, holding broken noses and bruised stomachs. The boy watched them for a time, never speaking a word, before he turned and left. Brutus felt joy for the child. He earned his victory. Too bad he couldn't say the same for himself.
Another image came to him. There was no blonde boy this time. The figure was blonde yes, but it was woman. She seemed so familiar. Her name stood at the edge of his tongue but he just couldn't place it. She looked sullen, almost defeated. It hurt to her like this. Brutus wondered what happened to make her look like that.
Suddenly it hit him like a slap to the face. He knew what happened. Someone left her. Whoever it was quit right when they were needed. His joy left, replaced with anger. Not towards whoever this person was or even the Kaiju, but at himself. Brutus knew what he had tried to do. Things got hard and he tried to quit. In that moment he knew two things. If a child could get up and keep fighting then so could he. More importantly, he couldn't leave things undone. Brutus refused to leave his friends behind. He refused to leave her behind.
Just like that the darkness disappeared. Brutus was back in the tunnels and his body was screaming in pain. Was he still screaming? He didn't know. More important things needed his attention, like how he was going to kill the thing crushing him to death. After a quick assessment his eyes focused on the tunnel supports. His shoulder mounted machine gun could punch holes straight through smaller Kaiju. These concrete supports stood no chance against a concentrated blast. The gun whined as it spun to life, firing blasts at each of his targets. Bullets ripped through concrete like cardboard. More bullets rang out until he felt the slight tremor of rock, the structure already weakened from their fall into the tunnels. Now he needed his escape. Maybe he should have thought about that a little more.
Goretusk was still squeezing the life out of him. Brutus knew no strength remained in his limbs. Overpowering the creature was impossible at this point. One option remained open to him though: the thrusters on his back. Much of his fuel he spent already, but they held enough for what he needed to do. Brutus felt certain of it. If not, then at least he'd drag this thing to hell with him. A small consolation when he looked at it.
With a sudden roar, his thrusters fired. The burning fuel shot straight onto the Kaiju's hands. It snarled and spat, but tried to hold on like the dumb beast it was. What happened next happened in only a few seconds but it played like slow motion in Brutus' mind. The fire ate through Goretusk's flesh and bones. Brutus tore free of its grip, pulling most of its arms along with him. It thrashed blindly, searching for its missing prey. Then the rock gave. Stone and concrete and rubble crashed down around them. It buried Goretusk in seconds. Brutus continued to shoot down the tunnels thanks to his thrusters. He pushed them as far as the fuel in them took him. A cloud of dust followed in his wake. Finally his thrusters took him no further as they sputtered and died. The cloud of dust ran over him and he found himself thanking that his helmet was still in place. Then the final wisps of strength left him. His body could no longer comprehend the pain. Everything went black for a second time.
A beep tugged at the edge of his awareness. He ignored it. It beeped again. Brutus felt the urge to smash it. The damn thing forced him to accept his consciousness. That meant dealing with the pain that came with it. He didn't want to do that yet. Unfortunately it was already too late. His nerves took their chance to let him know every little thing that was wrong with his body now. He hated that beep.
Slowly his eyes peeled open. Drugs addled his mind making everything slow, or maybe he was still reeling from being tossed around like a rag doll. He took a breath, then winced. His throat felt like it was on fire. Clearly something had been forced down it that it didn't want there. Had he been in surgery? Brutus didn't want to think about that.
As the blur left his vision, he looked around the room. It took him only seconds to recognize it. It was the med-bay of the Shatterdome. Every Jaeger that ever lived knew this room. Something else quickly caught his attention. Someone else actually. A chair sat immediately next to his bed and in it sat Striker Eureka. She slept beside him, though not fitfully. If he had to guess, her body forced her into it after exhaustion. A smile crept onto his face as it did almost every time he saw her. He didn't want to move for fear that he would wake her. One of her hands lay on the armrest of the chair, only inches away from him. Before he knew it, his arm was already moving. His hand took hers and held it softly. Brutus peered at her to see if she woke. She still slept, her chest rising and falling slowly as she did. His smile grew a little wider. As he closed his eyes to rest just a little more, Brutus felt her fingers gently close around his hand.
