Chapter Text
He was a legend, his name known by everyone, everywhere, all across the world. The only known pilot to be able to control a Jaeger solo, with no co-pilot. He was one of a kind. And he was Dave’s brother – his idol. Since the very first time he had seen his bro return from fighting one of those beasts, dubbed the Kaiju by the people of the world, and step out of that robot in his metal breasted suit, Dave had known his goal in life. He was meant to follow in his brothers footsteps; live up to the Strider name.
He was meant to be...
A Jaeger Pilot.
“Ugh...” Dave groaned as the alarm clock beeped from his small bedside table, flopping onto his back and blocking out the filtering sunlight with his pale forearm. Damn, he hated mornings. Taking a deep breath and slipping out from underneath the warmth of his covers, the blonde reached around for his shades before slamming the alarm clock off with his fist once the familiar aviators were situated over his eyes. He yawned. The clock read 7:30. Great. Stretching, Dave jumped out of bed and padded over to his wardrobe, grabbing his favourite shirt – a old white thing with long red sleeves and a record print in the middle of the chest – and a pair of jeans before quickly showering in the small en suite and getting changed, leaving his pyjama bottoms and old sleeping shirt in a pile on his bed. He then ruffled his hair, somehow managing to get it to fall flat and perfect – a skill John always envied and called impossible. Dave just called it Strider Swag.
The halls were as busy as usual, with workers busying themselves with carrying bits and bobs back and forth from storage, helicopters and the main base for holding the Jaegers – colossal robots invented and devised for one objective only: To stop and kill Kaiju’s – alien beasts that enter this dimension through a rift in the sea bed known to all humans as ‘The Breach’. The Jaegers belonged to the Pan Pacific Defence corps, and were two man machines which required skill and intense compatibility to work.
And Dave? Dave was a pilot.
Or, was. He wasn’t at the moment. Not since two years ago when a Kaiju slashed through the head of their Jaeger – Red Storm – and almost killed both Dave and his partner. Dave had got off lucky, with just a broken arm and a small wound on his head. His co-pilot, on the other hand got off much worse, having been exposed to the blinding light of the Kaiju’s gums as it built up an attack – an onslaught of acidic spit. Terezi could no longer see.
She could also no longer pilot, and Dave couldn’t pilot on his own. Unlike his brother, who had been the best pilot known to man – the only solo pilot to ever exist.
Dave missed him.
Sighing, Dave stuffed his hands into his pockets and turned a corner, heading towards two large metal doors. He stopped just outside of the army green entrance and slipped his I.D card from his pocket, swiping it down the length of the small pad situated to the left and letting the doors open before him, creaking and whining as they went. The cafeteria was buzzing with life – Pilots and workers all together as they enjoyed breakfast. Almost all of the pilots were missing, though, and had been for days as they travelled round the coastlines on missions. Only two teams had been at base for the last four days, and two of them were now missing from America’s main base. Those were Equius and Nepeta, the two pilots of ‘The Lion’, a huge Jaeger with unique claw like swords jutting out from its knuckles. Dave called it ‘Daddy Wolverine’. They were probably the team that answered the alarm a couple of hours ago.
Skimming over the small food selection, Dave selected a pre made bowl of cereal, poured in about fifty gallons of milk (Ok, maybe not that much, but it was a hell of a lot) and then grabbed a spoon before slinking over to a pretty crowded table and pulling out a chair. It screeched across the concrete floor as metal scraped against cement, and Dave plonked himself down, tucking the chair in just as noisily as he pulled it out.
“Morning.” He greeted, stirring his cereal with his spoon before raising a spoonful to his nose and sniffing it. The blonde cringed. Damn, stuff smelt nasty. A black haired boy laughed from across the table and Dave frowned at him. “What?” He asked.
“Nothing, just your face is all!” The boy replied. John Egbert, pilot of the ‘Steel Hammer’ and partner to Vriska Serket. They made a good, if not weird team. John was great though – one of Dave’s best, and longest friends. “And a warning: That stuff tastes like shit.”
Dave looked down at the spoonful of cereal. It couldn’t be that bad... He hesitantly raised it to his lips before taking the whole spoon in his mouth. He coughed and spluttered not a moment later, spitting the disgusting lumps back in the bowl and wiping his mouth.
“Damn, stuff tastes like shit.”
John laughed.
“I did warn you!”
Dave grimaced and wiped his mouth clean on his sleeve.
“Gross, Dave!” John said, though there was a huge grin on his face, adorable buckteeth peeking out. Whoa, adorable? Dave coughed, pretending he still had a piece of cereal stuck in his throat. Stupid brain. Stupid hormones. Stupid John.
Dave was suddenly snapped out of his thoughts by a load exclamation from a nearby hallway, the one leading to the massive pen for the Jaegers. Dave and John, as well as the others sitting at their table all looked round to see who the outburst had come from. Although it wasn’t hard to guess – no-one else was as loud as that guy. No-one.
“KK, I said NO!” A tall, somewhat built boy replied to the shout, light glinting off his dual lens glasses. He had black hair styled in a kind of messy do, with a bit of a pinched face. He was a bit tanned, a nice glow to his skin. Sollux Captor – one of the two main mechanics in charge of designing, programming and fixing the Jaegers. There was a boy behind him, standing with his fists clenched at his sides. This boy was skinnier than Sollux, and shorter too. Quite a lot shorter – the top of his head probably just reaching the mechanics shoulder. His hair was messier than Sollux’s – a tangle of bright blonde. His skin was also remarkably pale and he had incredibly light blue eyes – an albino, from what Dave could gather.
“And why the fuck not?” Karkat Vantas was the shorter boy’s name – a feisty Australian with a vulgar mouth. He was quick to anger and had a hell of a vocabulary. He was just an ordinary worker around the place, mostly helping out in the lab with dissections and other such experiments.
Sollux stopped and took a deep breath, obviously trying to calm himself as he turned to face his small friend, face hard.
“KK – Karkat – I said no, and I mean no. I am your superior, I don’t need to give you any reason behind my decision. Are we clear?”
Karkat growled, a low throaty noise at the back of his mouth, and Dave could see him shaking, cheeks flaring red against pale skin.
“You don’t treat anyone else this way! You always give them a chance! It’s just me! Why, Sol?” His words were loud, but there were underlining hints of pain. Sollux’s eyes just narrowed, contradicting the way his body deflated in... pity? Sadness?
“Look, KK, I’m not going to have this discussion with you again – especially not in front of a whole cafeteria full of people. You are not going to be a Pilot – EVER. Realise that now.”
And with that, the mechanic walked off towards the food trays, leaving a fuming Karkat behind him.
“I BLOODY HATE YOU!” Karkat yelled after him before darting past everyone and out of the mechanical sliding doors that Dave had entered through.
“Wow, I’ve never seen Sollux angry like that – he’s usually a pretty chill guy.” John muttered, and Dave nodded in agreement, eyes shifting to watch as Sollux served himself some food from the trays. He didn’t know much about the boy, only that he was only a year older than Dave, and that he was from Canada. Dirk also said he incredibly clever, but that was a given. Anyone who could design those huge ass robots had to be clever, otherwise they’d crumble to pieces.
Dave knew even less about Karkat. He had seen the boy around a few times, usually practicing on the Simulator, and they sometimes teased each other, but they never really talked. He knew they were the same age though – pretty much all the Pilot’s were decently young at this base. A lot of the older guys had been sent off to defend bigger bases, or had fallen a long time ago. Like Dave’s bro.
“Dave?” The questioning tone to John’s voice jolted Dave out of his thoughts and brought his attention back to the black haired boy across from him. John’s eyebrows were furrowed and his lips were curling downwards as if Dave had been trapped in his own thoughts and ignoring him. Shit, wait, Dave HAD been lost in his own thoughts and ignoring him. Oops?
“Yeah?” Dave replied, and John’s face relaxed a bit.
“I hate it when you do that.” The bucktoothed boy replied. This time it was Dave’s eyebrows that furrowed.
“Do what?”
John made some vague gesture with his hands that Dave for the life of him could not decipher.
“Get lost in thought and blank the rest of the world out! You and Dirk do it all the time!” Oh, that. “It’s like you just snap in and out of consciousness, but your eyes are always open. Or are they? I can’t tell because of the stupid, pointy shades.”
Dave frowned.
“They’re ironic.”
John rolled his eyes behind thick framed glasses.
“Fine, stupid, pointy, ironic shades then. Happy?” Dave’s frown just deepened. He had called his shades stupid. His shades weren’t stupid.
“They’re not stupid.”
John gave Dave a deadpan look, expression flat.
“Dude, they’re a little stupid.”
“They were Bro’s.”
There was silence, John’s mouth hanging open and his eyes wide as if he had just witnessed a murder. Dave winced. Damn, why the hell did he go and say that? Now all he’d hear for the rest of the day was apologies. ‘Dave I didn’t know!’ and ‘Oh God Dave I’m so sorry!’ were the ones he was expecting the most. They were John’s most common apologies. John’s mouth closed, and then opened again and oh god here we go.
“Dave–” His words were cut off as a loud beeping filled the cafeteria, causing many workers to jump from their places. A mechanical voice soon melted into the cacophony of sirens as it blared from the speakers.
“Level 3 detected – John Egbert and Vriska Serket please report to Steel Hammer. Level 3 detected – John Egbert and Vriska Serket report to Steel Hammer. Level 3 detect–” It was on repeat. John gave Dave a long look that was so sad it resembled that of a puppy trapped outside whilst everyone enjoyed a family meal.
“Dude, it’s fine.” Dave said, just stopping his voice from catching. “Go already.”
John nodded and gave a weak smile before he jumped up from his seat and darted off through the back entrance of the cafeteria and towards where the Jaegers were held. Dave watched him go and sighed, standing and following suit, falling just behind Sollux as the other boy cursed and dumped his breakfast in the bin, jogging towards his station.
By the time Dave reached the Jaeger control station, Vriska and John were already decked out in their suits, the metal, robotic spines already in place. The blonde watched through the glass as the two entered their Jaegers head. Dirk was sitting in a chair in front of a bunch of control panels just in front of Dave, and Sollux slid into place next to him, fingers instantly beginning to tap against keys. Dave barely even noticed when Karkat slipped in through the door and stood at the side, watching in fascination and want.
“John, Vriska, we’re about the start the drift, you guys ready?” Dirk asked through the receiver, getting a bit of static before a solid reply from John and Vriska.
“All clear here, Dirk” John’s voice, so easily recognisably chipper even though he was about to go out and fight a huge fucking monster. That boy was impossible.
“We’re ready to go, boss!” Vriska – she sounded confident, as usual. Dirk nodded to Sollux, who turned on his microphone and began fiddling with dials.
“Starting Neuro-handshake in 5... 4... 3... 2... 1...”
He tapped a key.
Dave remembered the drift – hardest thing to get used to out of the whole fighting in giant robots thing. Pilot’s had to be one with the machine, but also one with each other – it was essential that they could predict each other and work as a unit without speaking. Think as one. Which is where the drift came in. It linked their minds – they become one, and could see inside each other’s head. Read their thoughts, and see their memories. It was difficult to adjust to – not being alone in your own brain was a strange thing to feel, but soon you got used to it, and being alone in your brain became the foreign feeling.
“And we’re ready to go.”
The Jaeger was lifted from the floor, and flown out of the base by about a million and one different helicopters. They would then fly them over the ocean, where either Vriska or John would press the controls and drop themselves down into the sea, ready to fight. It all seemed pretty strange and movie-like now that Dave actually stopped and thought about it.
Behind them, a door opened, a worker bursting in.
“Mr. Captor?” The man was obviously out of breath. Sollux spun round in his chair, raising one eyebrow in reply to the man. The man gulped. “You’re needed over at Base 232 – Mr. Zahhak and Miss. Leijon have returned but their Jaegers have had some damage. They need to be repaired before they can be transported back here.”
Sollux muttered some curses under his breath before spinning to face Dirk.
“Can you handle this on your own?” He asked, and Dirk scoffed.
“Of course I can.” The blonde replied. Sollux smirked and then stood from his seat, walking towards the door hurriedly. As he passed Karkat, the short Australian grabbed hold of the mechanics sleeve, eyes soft and pleading.
“Sollux...” He said, voice uncharacteristically gentle. Sollux just sighed and shook off Karkat’s grip, continuing on his way. Dave frowned, eyes trained on the other blonde before a crackling voice came through the intercom.
“We’ve spotted the first Kaiju – moving in for the attack now.” John informed, and Dirk made a small grunt of acknowledgement before fiddling with more dials and switches.
Dave couldn’t see the fight, but he sure as hell could imagine it. Vriska and John had a technique – lure it in close, left hand (John) punch, Right hand (Vriska) punch, and then they’d bring out their ultimate weapon. Their hammer. From there, they’d bring the thing right down on the bastard’s skull and hopefully crush its brain. Either way, they’d repeat this a few more times until it cracked and died. Obviously they didn’t get it right on the first try – that’d be ridiculous. It usually took a lot of improvised moves, a few blows to their Jaeger and skilful dodging before they were able to get within enough range to pull of their technique successfully.
They always succeeded though – it’s why they were still alive.
They were a good team. Unstoppable probably. One of the bes–
“Ugh!” A pained cry filled the room and Dirk jerked, instantly moving over to some other monitors where a red light was blinking rapidly.
“John!” Vriska’s voice called, and Dave’s stomach dropped. Oh no. Oh no, no, no, no! He lunged forward to watch Dirk’s screen, desperately trying to make out what any of this scientific shit meant.
“What’s happening?” He yelled, panic apparent in his voice. Not John, not John, oh please not John!
“The Jaeger’s left arm has been torn off.” Dirk replied, eyes darting around frantically behind his shades – which were identical to Dave’s – obviously trying to read something on those modified specs of his. He grabbed the microphone and held it close to his mouth whilst his spare hand jabbed and poked at various buttons. “John, Vriska, what happened?” There was static before finally a reply broke through.
“There’s two of them Dirk. I think they’re both level 3’s but you’re the smart guy! What’s happening here?”
XxX
It had been going well, oh so well – they were so close to delivering the final blow, hammer poised and ready when another one had lunged out of the water, shrill cry sending ripples through the ocean as it opened it gaping mouth and latched on to the left arm of the Jaeger with its rows and rows of sharp pointed teeth. John cried out, smoke rising from the suit around his arm, eyes squeezed shut in pain and sweat rolling down his face. His breath began to fog up the glass of his helmet. He cried out again when the Kaiju let go, dragging the left arm with it, tearing it free from the main body. Blood dripped from John suit, long gashes and teeth marks trailing down the length of his arm. Vriska gasped shortly and cried out for her partner.
She then narrowed her eyes and screamed, aiming straight for the new Kaiju. The old one was back on it legs now, and they both stood dangerously, the first behind them, the second in front of them. Vriska grit her teeth.
“John, Vriska, what happened?”
Dirk’s voice was muffled and barely understandable, and it took a while for Vriska to reply.
“There’s two of them Dirk. I think they’re both level 3’s but you’re the smart guy! What’s happening here?”
She heard Dirk mutter something on the other end, but she couldn’t understand what. She could only think of one thing at the moment. Their left arm was gone, John was pretty much out of action, there were two Jaegers and they needed back up. Now. She hated that – they’ve never needed back-up before and they never should’ve needed it but shit, she didn’t want to die, and unless they got another Jaeger out here soon, that was what was going to happen.
She gulped, her throat dry, as she tried to deflect all oncoming attacks one handed, grunting and crying out every time they were hit or bitten.
“Dirk! We need another Jaeger! NOW!”
“There’s just one problem, we don’t HAVE another Jaeger!”
XxX
“That’s not true.” Dave said to himself before turning and running out of the room, leaving Dirk alone as he panicked to try and contact Sollux, or any of the other Pilots. He cursed some more, apparently having no luck. It was strange seeing Dirk so riled up, his usual calm facade falling out of place and cracking – Dave had only known one person who could get Dirk to slip out of his Strider act. He guessed the fact that Dirk was falling into disarray was proof that this was a bad situation. Never before had two level 3’s been in the same place. Hell, it was rare for 2 Kaiju’s to be in the same place at all!
Dirk spun around to face Dave, words already tumbling out of his mouth.
“Dave, go and get Roxy–” He froze. Dave wasn’t there. He looked around the room frantically before a loud mechanical voice filled the air.
“Red Storm, Activated.”
“Oh you’re kidding me!” The blonde exclaimed, darting out of the room and jumping down the creaky metal steps two at a time. When he was at the bottom he stopped and looked back up to the control room. “Vantas! Go and get Roxy!” Then he was off again.
Dirk dashed down the corridor and into the wide expanse of room that held the Jaegers. Only one was still docked – Red Storm, Terezi and Dave’s old Jaeger. And it was activated, workers busying themselves with getting it ready. Dave entered the room behind Dirk, donned in his old suit, blonde hair standing out against the black of the outfit. His shades were still in place. Dirk growled and marched up to his cousin, orange eyes ablaze behind his own glasses.
“Dave, what the fuck do you think you are doing?” Dirk hissed, voice sharp. Dave just furrowed his eyebrows.
“What does it look like I’m doing? I’m going out there to save John and Vriska’s asses is what I’m doing.”
Dirk growled, a noise that was so uncharacteristic Dave’s eyebrows rose to extreme lengths, and his lips opened partially in surprise.
“You can’t pilot alone, Dave.” Dirk bit, face slipping back into its solid state. “Pretty much every pilot who has ever tried has died and there is no way I’m sending you on a suicide mission that won’t even leave the base.”
Dave prickled.
“Bro could pilot solo.”
“You’re not Bro, Dave. You can’t pilot solo, you need a partner, and the only one you had is blind.”
Dave frowned.
“I could try – we’ve never even attempted it! Maybe I can pilot like Bro – maybe it’s in a Striders blood!”
“It’s not!” Dirk yelled, voice echoing through the hall. “It’s not and we both know that – I tried remember Dave? I tried and it almost killed me. I can never step inside a Jaeger again because the stress it put on my brain almost caused me to have an aneurism. It is NOT in a Strider’s blood, and there is no way I’m letting you ride solo. I’m still a year older than you, Dave, and I’m still your superior. Now get out of that suit.”
Dirk then pushed past Dave and back towards the entrance to the docking station, most likely heading back to the control station to see what’s going on with John and Vriska. Dave spun round on his heels.
“Then find me a partner!”
Dirk stopped and sighed, turning around once again to face his younger cousin, light glinting off his glasses.
“Who? Who can I possibly find on such short notice?”
“Me!”
Dirk turned to face the doorway he was just about to head through, orange eyes locking onto the thin, short form of Karkat Vantas. The Australian had his fists clenched at his sides and a determined look glinting in his pale blue eyes.
“I thought I told you to go and get Roxy, Vantas?” Dirk asked, voice flat.
Karkat scoffed and moved his arms to cross over his chest.
“I don’t take orders from you, Strider.” Dirk bristled but said nothing on that matter. “I can pilot – you’ve seen my simulator results. I can do this.”
“No you can’t – one, Sollux would never allow it–”
“I don’t give a fuck what Sollux does and does not ‘allow’ – I ain’t his fucking puppet!”
“– and two, even if he would, we don’t even know if you two are compatible to drift together. We’ve done no tests, no trial runs. It’s too risky. No.”
“Sometimes you have to take a risk, Dirk.”
Dirk looked back at Dave and narrowed his eyes.
“And right now it seems that you don’t have a fucking choice – It’s either we do this, or another team dies, and can you really afford to lose more pilots?”
Dirk looked back and forth from Dave to Karkat, hands clenching into white knuckled fists at his sides.
“Dirk, this could work. It’s worth a shot, right?”
Finally, Dirk deflated and gave Dave a final, semi-venomous glare. He addressed Karkat without looking at the blonde, orange eyes trained on Dave and Dave only.
“Karkat, go and suit up and meet back here as soon as you are done.”
“Now that’s an order I can obey.”
There was the sound of hurried footsteps as Karkat disappeared into the halls. Dirk removed his gaze from Dave and looked towards Red Storm.
“I am so getting fired for this.” He muttered. Dave smirked.
“Not if it’s successful, you won’t.”
“It better be successful, Dave, because there’s only one possible outcome for failure, and that is two damaged brains and two deaths.”
“It’ll be fine, trust me.”
It was ten minutes later when both Karkat and Dave were standing perfectly still, waiting for the metal spines to connect with their suits and set. Their helmets were then lowered over their heads, and they headed towards the head of Red Storm, taking a lift up to the top of the body. Followed by a few workers, they headed into the two places inside the head, also known as the Conn-Pod, Karkat on the right and Dave on the left. They placed their feet in the holders, feeling the bottoms of their suits connect and lock. Their arms also connected to the robots control system, and then screens, dials and buttons before them flickered to life in a bright red. The workers exited the Pod once both boys were fully integrated, and the doors closed behind them. The Conn-Pod, the head of the Jaeger, was then lowered onto the main body and secured, clicking into place.
“Are you two ready to start the Neuro-Handshake and put this batshit insane plan into action?” Dirk’s voice called over the intercom. Dave looked at Karkat.
“Are you ready for this Bro?” He asked the other albino, causing him to turn his head to face Dave. “In just a few moments I’m going to be inside your head – I’ll be able to see all your memories, and you’ll be able to see mine. Your head will no longer be your own private space.”
Karkat visible gulped but nodded.
“Yeah, I’m ready. I was born ready.”
Dave smirked.
“Good. Dirk, start it up.”
“Starting Neuro-Handshake in 5... 4... 3... 2... 1”
Everything turned white.