Chapter Text
[Opening: Sorairo Days/Gurren Lagann OP 1 - Shoko Nakagawa]
“Is everyone aboard?” A tall man wearing a black leather trench coat’s voice called out on the bridge of the ship. Not a ship meant for sailing the seas, but a gargantuan space ship even bigger than the Earth itself. The planet could be seen it its orbit a fair distance away.
The man walked down the aisle, flanked by his allies on both sides and reached the front of the pack, everyone behind him. The voice of an especially tall woman spoke out from right behind him.
”So, this is really it, huh? The endgame.”
”Yup! We’re gonna get our father back and show those stupid gods what’s what!” The shrill, childlike voice of the man’s brother rang out in his head. He might not ever get used to that.
”Mhm.” The man grunted in response to both his brother and the tall woman, who shouted out a command to the others on the bridge in response. “Alright! Everyone, to your stations, Now!”
The man spoke out as his comrades began running to their positions.
”Helios! Set course! It’s time for us,
to Rise Above!”
Haylen feels like he might actually die of boredom if he stays at this meeting a second longer. Is he drooling? Yeah, probably.
The words of his superiors, of the project managers and those idiots from the government just seemed to blend together as he thinks of ways to tweak his prosthetic left arm when he finally gets home.
”Morgan.”
Should probably check the taser prods in the hand…
“Morgan!”
Maybe I could add some kind of knife on a chain? Like some Toji type-shit? Dunno how I’m gonna fit that tho…
He was rudely awoken from his daydreaming by one of the people he could not for the life of him remember the name of.
”Morgan, are you listening to me?!”
Haylen stammered over his words as he tried to come up with a convincing enough answer. ”U-uh yeah, Sir! Was definitely paying attention!”
Shit! The fuck was that, Haylen?!
”Really? Then repeat to me what the main points I just went over were.”
Haylen internally breathed a sigh of relief. He at least knew this stuff before the meeting even started.
Even if they are lying their asses off about the government’s true intentions with this crap.
“Yeah, I know ‘em. Gotta contact Anne Boonchuy, Sasha Waybright, and Marcy Wu, successfully get ‘em on board with going back to Amphibia so we can establish relations with the natives. Sound about right?”
“Yes. And you are sure you can get them on board easily, right?”
”Yes sir. Knew the three of them since the end of middle school, even if we weren’t that close. Shouldn’t have a problem.”
Haylen saw that the expression on the man’s face was something kinda like suspicion? Or maybe incredulity? Something like that. Even so, they let him go off to do his job. He’d have to note down that the guy seemed kind of suspicious of him. It’d be a danger to his work if that suspicion actually materialized into something.
Haylen pulled out his phone and shot off a few texts to Anne, Sasha, and Marcy, asking them to meet up at his place to talk about something.
Good, looks like they’re all done with work and they can come over, and - shit, there’s traffic all along the freeway. Looks like it might be a while before he actually gets home.
2 hours later…
Haylen pulled the car into the driveway of his house, groaning as he stretched the tension out of his muscles ‘cause he had to sit in LA traffic for 2 hours. Thank you, 1950s urban planners for making every goddamn city a car-centric shithole. He certainly appreciates it.
Haylen walked up to the front door, and with a quick use of his keys he opened the door and put his shoes on the rack. He heard his wife’s voice call out to him from the living room.
”Honey! You home?”
”Yuuupp. Don’t go out tonight, there’s traffic like crazy on the I-10.”
She chuckled at the thought. “Wasn’t planning on it. This reading’s beating my ass right now but I’m almost done with it. Plus, got all I want right here.” She gestured to her husband and Haylen let out a sigh as he plopped down on the couch and cuddled up next to his wife, his head still barely reaching her shoulders despite his height.
God, he really hit the jackpot with Kimberly, didn’t he?
”What kinda case does your professor got ya reading this time?
“Drug charge case. Guy was caught with like 3 grams of crack but his defense was saying it was planted on him. Guy has a clean record otherwise with no history of drug use, but looks like they did end up sentencing him to like a year in jail.”
”Damn. Always thought it was stupid that crack and powder have such a huge sentencing disparity even though they’re like, almost identical.”
Kimberly scrolled a little more and hit the end of the file, sighing in relief and closing her laptop. She picked up the remote and turned on the TV to put on some anime or whatever they felt like watching that night. She heard Haylen try to say something from right next to her.
”So, uh, some of the big shots at work said I need to talk with Anne, Sasha, and Marcy to get them onto the project. I texted ‘em earlier and they’re probably on their way now,” Haylen blurted out in a tone that made it sound like he really did not want to do it.
“Yeah? When’re they coming over?” Oof, he didn’t know the answer to that one. Haylen fished his phone out of his pocket to see if any one of them told him when they were coming
”Hmmm…. Looks like Anne n’ Sasha are getting here in like 10 minutes and Marcy in 15. Should I set the table or something? ‘Know, make the place look nice ‘fore they get here?” Haylen’s mind started going through a bunch of random scenarios in which, in hindsight, really gotta stop overthinking shit.
”Ehhh, probably not? Don’t seem like the type of people to care ‘bout that sorta thing.”
”’Kay. Looks like it’s just me ‘n you, then.”
The two snuggled up against each other and sifted through a bunch of shows, deciding to forego more poorly written live action drama in favor of some anime that just got added back onto Netflix.
They were 5 minutes into an episode before there was some knocking on the door.
”Coming!” Haylen jumped off of the couch and went to open the door, seeing all three of his friends were here.
”Good, You’re all here, come in.” He ushered them inside and closed the door behind them.
Sasha spoke up first. “So big guy, what’s the deal with you calling us over?” Marcy next. “I know we hang out a bit, but this seems kinda out of the blue.” Anne last. “We’re done with work for today so you’re not interrupting anything at least.”
Haylen decided to answer all three of them at once: “That’s the reason I called you all over here, you’re not going back to work if you go along with what I’m gonna tell you. You’re, uh, probably gonna want to sit down for this.” He sat them at the dining table and spoke.
”Y’know all that biz with the invasion ‘bout 10 years ago? How you guys went back to Amphibia for like a day then came back, but you haven’t been back since?”
Anne raised an eyebrow. “So, what, they’re making a portal back there or something?”
Haylen decided to be a little sarcastic today ‘cause he still needed to vent out the sheer boredom he experienced at today’s meeting with the higher ups. “You’ll NEVER guess what I’m about to tell you then. But, yeah, there’s a secret government lab at UCLA where they’re building a portal back over there with all the research Mrs. Terri did on the calamity box like 10 years back.
”It’s actually why I’ve called you all over here. The higher ups, well, know, that you 3’re the only humans that have actually, like, been there, so they want you on board for this whole thing.”
All three of the girls tried speaking at once. “Woah, really?!” “We can actually go back??” “The Plantars.. I’ll be able to see them again?”
Haylen really wanted to tell them what he was thinking, so he decided to just move the conversation forward. “Yeah, yup, mhm. You guys’ll be able to do whatever you want when you go back there, but there’s another thing I wanted to talk about. Something that, uh, my superiors would probably deny if me or any of y’all try to question them.”
Kimberly perked up from her spot on the couch. She knew her husband well enough to know that if he starts talking like that, then oh boy is he gonna get into it.
“What? Those FBI assholes getting involved in this crap again? I Thought Terri and Mr. X were trying to keep their project on the down low.” Sasha said while fiddling with the tablecloth in front of her.
“This goes way higher up the food chain than the FBI, I’m afraid. Some really important people from the government got wind of their little project and basically, completely took the whole thing over. The ‘stated purpose’ is that the US Government wants to ‘establish peaceful relations’ with Amphibia, and they want your help doing so.”
Anne thought for a second then decided to speak up. “So? Doesn’t sound too bad. Other than Terri getting her research taken, that is.”
Haylen had a sad, knowing look on his face as he answered her. “Well… I’ll just say this: If you know your history well enough, then you know what the US did to Hawai’i. I know the government is gonna do the exact same thing to Amphibia if we don’t work to stop them before shit gets outta hand.”
Neither Anne nor Sasha really payed much attention in their boring-ass history classes in middle and high school, but Marcy definitely did and she got the message.
”Oh boy. Yup, definitely see what you’re saying. I’m on board, then. Dunno ‘bout these two though.”
Anne and Sasha shared a glance before Sasha spoke. “Hmm… I think me and Anne just wanna go see our friends again… but I think we’ll accept your offer.”
The grim, serious look on Haylen’s face did a complete 180 as a big, shit-eating grin spread out across his face, the man’s tone also lightening by a lot. “Oh, wow! Thanks guys, didn’t know what I was gonna do if you weren’t gonna help me out! So, onto business…”
The four talked mission details for a few more hours after that, where Haylen outlined that they’d probably have to quit their current jobs so they could actually go on this mission. He also said the mission was probably gonna take a few months on the short end to 1 or 2 years on the long end, without knowing when they were gonna get home. Haylen had a small, knowing feeling that they’d return back alright, though. Something in the back of his head was just telling him that things would be alright.
About 3 hours after they first arrived, the three women left Haylen’s house with the knowledge they were to meet him at the back gates of the UCLA campus at 8:00 A.M. the next day.
Kimberly called out to her husband as he closed the door behind his friends. “Honey, are you serious about this? You’re really gonna go through with this whole thing?”
Haylen held a somber look towards the love of his life. “Yeah, I’m certain. If I don’t take it upon myself to help Amphibia before their world gets taken from them again, then who will?”
Kimberly exhaled and her frown contorted back into a small smile. “Well, I’m just worried that your arm and legs are gonna stop working. All of your tools are here, so what are you gonna do if they break down somehow? Am I gonna have to be one of those crazy old widows, my hair getting grayer than it already is, living with a dozen cats cause my husband never came home?”
Haylen looked down at his shiny metal left arm, then further down at his metallic legs. “It’ll never come to that, Kimmy. I Promise. I’ll walk through that portal and come back someday. You and Mom will be the first people I visit when I come back. Besides, even if my prosthetics get stupid, I’ll figure something out.”
Haylen looked at his opened left hand, his eyes scanning the metallic limb and the motorized joints of his own making.
”I always have.”