Jake climbed into a grime-filled window and entered a building inside the shipyard. He looked at the room around him. There was a dirty mattress in the corner and food wrappers littered the floor, but the space was mostly full of junky old machine parts. The walls were plastered with images of Jaegers and Kaiju. Whoever lived here also had a thing for Shao Liwen. Clippings on the wall tracked her career from young computer genius to the head of the multibillion dollar company named after her: Shao Industries.
Jake’s eyes fell on a faded Time magazine cover with Raleigh Becket’s face on it, and the years of his birth and death: 1998–2026. Jake stopped the sadness from rising in his chest. He was here for a reason.
He reached the main floor. There, in the middle of the room, was some kind of machine. It looked like a . . . like a homemade Jaeger. It was nearly four stories tall and cobbled together with mismatched parts. Jake’s tracker pinged loudly. Nestled in a hatch on the mini Jaeger’s computer, the plasma capacitor caught his eye. But Jake couldn’t think about that anymore—this little machine could be the real score! If he broke this little Jaeger down and sold off the parts, he’d have enough money to stop scrounging through scrapyards for good. He’d never have to deal with people like Sonny again.
Suddenly, a hooded figure jumped out from the shadows and swung a pipe at him. Jake wrenched the pipe away and slammed the figure into the ground. He raised the pipe and almost swung, but then stopped short.
“What! How old are you?” he stammered.
The figure pulled the hood back—revealing a fifteen-year-old girl.
“Old enough to kick your ass,” said Amara. She started to get up but Jake nudged her back to the ground with the pipe.
“Let’s take a minute. You build this thing yourself?”
“No, I gave my staff the day off. What do you think?”
“I think I could sell your toy for a whole lot of money,” said Jake.
“Scrapper’s not a toy, and she’s not for sale!” Amara shot back.
“The man holding the pipe says she is, so—”
A siren screamed through the air.
“You led them here?” Amara asked.
“What? Nobody follows me! It must have been you.”
Jake looked toward the sound of the sirens. Amara kicked the pipe out of his hand. Then she kicked the plasma capacitor hatch closed and scrambled up Scrapper’s leg.
PPDC vehicles swarmed the shipyard warehouse. Jake looked at the young girl and her makeshift Jaeger, then back at the vehicles. It was time to either take a gamble on this stranger who was clearly out of her mind, or stay and get arrested by the PPDC.
Amara connected into a gyroscopic cradle and powered the Jaeger up. Jake scrambled into the conn-pod just as Scrapper’s chest plates slammed shut.
“Hey! Get out!” she screamed.
“Where’s the other one?” asked Jake, confused.
“The other what?”
“The other cradle! Jaegers need two pilots!”
“Scrapper is small enough to run on a single neural load.”
“Then move over and let me pilot!”
“No way!” Amara punched another key.
BOOM! Scrapper smashed out of the warehouse.
“Woo! Told you she’s not a toy!” Amara beamed.
“You’re gonna get us hurt. Now, come on!” said Jake. He tried to uncouple her from the gyroscope.
“Stop it!” she warned.
“I can get us out of here,” said Jake.
“I just got us out! Get off! Hey!”
Something appeared on the display. It was November Ajax! The Jaeger loomed over Scrapper, blocking out the sun. Amara looked up with respect and awe.
A voice boomed over the speaker: “Pilots of unregistered Jaeger. This is the Pan Pacific Defense Corps. Power down and exit your conn-pod.”
Amara raised her hand in apparent surrender.
“That’s it? You give up way too easy kid,” said Jake.
“That’s what they think.” Amara clenched her fists. Smoke canisters shot out of Scrapper’s arms. The smoke engulfed November Ajax’s feet, so that the giant Jaeger couldn’t see Scrapper beneath the smoke.
WHOOSH! Scrapper barreled out of the smoke and took off down the street. Jake grabbed hold of a cable to balance himself.
November Ajax turned. He needed only one step to catch up to Scrapper.
“Hang on!” Amara shouted. She touched a final command, and the world spiraled around Jake.
Scrapper had curled into a ball! She crisscrossed between Ajax’s feet, confusing the mighty Jaeger.
Jake jammed himself in the alcove to keep from getting tumbled. He couldn’t help but be impressed at what this girl had engineered. Scrapper was doing these moves on a single neural load! The little Jaeger careened off palm trees and burned out cars. She rolled up the side of a pile of rubble, flew into the air, and crashed back down the wall of a collapsed building.
“See? I just out-piloted November Ajax,” said Amara.
“You didn’t,” Jake smirked.
“Did!”
BOOM! November Ajax’s giant hand peeled back a wall of the collapsed building.
“Okay. What do you got?” said Amara. “And I’m not getting out!”
Jake looked around the conn-pod. He rushed over to the set of twin ion cells on the wall.
“One of these ion cells redundant?” he asked.
“No,” said Amara.
Jake primed the eject sequence.
“Is now. Get us close to Ajax’s head. Go!”
Amara shot Jake a dirty look, but she hit the gas. Scrapper scrambled up November Ajax’s arm and over the metal Goliath’s head. Jake ejected the ion cell. It bounced off November Ajax’s head and ruptured! A mini electrical storm surged above Ajax. This would disrupt his systems alright.
Scrapper darted through the Santa Monica slums. The little Jaeger jumped onto the rooftop of an abandoned building, but the structure was old and weak. The roof collapsed under Scrapper’s weight, and Scrapper fell into the building. Scrapper ran full tilt and smashed through the walls in front of her. Then a warning flashed on the display: RESERVE POWER AT 12%.
“Told you we needed that!” said Amara.
“It worked, didn’t it?” Jake said, refusing to admit it was risky.
“How long before Ajax can reboot his systems?” she asked.
THOOM! November Ajax’s foot crashed down into the building. Scrapper’s path was blocked by a shower of sand!
“About that long,” said Jake.
A voice boomed over November Ajax’s loudspeakers: “Power down and exit your conn-pod. This is your final warning.”
Amara wasn’t about to give up. Scrapper turned and ran.
November Ajax raised a fist and cables shot out from its knuckle. Grapple hooks latched onto the little Jaeger, and an electric pulse surged through the cable. Scrapper convulsed. Her circuits fried. Smoke rose from the top of her head.
When the hatch slammed open, Jake walked out first. He shot a sour look up at November Ajax and raised his hands in the air. Amara followed. “Look what you did to my Jaeger!” she screamed up angrily.
Inside the holding cell, Jake and Amara waited for the PPDC. A tense silence grew between them.
“Should’ve let me pilot,” Jake said.
“Like this is my fault?” She looked bewildered. “You compromised my command center!”
“Command center?” mocked Jake. “I’m not talking to you.” Jake bit down on his cheek. The silence grew heavier. He couldn’t help it. He had to know more.
“Why’d you build it?” he asked.
“What happened to the not talking?”
“Said you weren’t going to sell it, so what? Rob a bank or something?”
Amara gave Jake a hard look. “I built her because one day they’re gonna come back. The Kaiju. And when they do, I’m not gonna be stuck waiting for someone else to come save me. Not like before.”
Jake considered the answer. It wasn’t what he expected to hear. He studied Amara, but before he could ask anything else, two PPDC officers walked into the cell.
“You. Let’s go.” They grabbed Jake.
The two officers roughly shoved Jake into an interrogation room and slammed the door shut behind him. His eyes swept over his surroundings—nothing but an empty interrogation table. Then, holo emitters flared to life.
There, in colorful pixels dusted across the air, was Mako Mori. She was secretary-general of the PPDC now. Her hologram sat at the far end of the table.
Jake grinned in relief.
“There she is! My sister from another mister! You make some calls, pull some strings, I gotta sign some paperwork?” he asked.
“I was really hoping to not see you like this again,” answered Mako.
Jake shrugged. “Just a stretch of bad luck, I’ll figure it out.”
“Father used to say we make our own luck,” said Mako.
“Yeah, dad said a lot of things,” said Jake.
“You were arrested in a rogue Jaeger built from stolen tech, Jake.”
“Wasn’t mine.”
“You have priors. This is serious,” said Mako.
Jake’s smile fell. “Which is why I need my big sister to get me the hell out of here.”
“They’re not going to let you just walk. But there might be another way . . .” said Mako.
“Great. Love it. What do I gotta do?” asked Jake.
“Reenlist. And finish what you started,” said Mako.
Jake eyed Mako in surprise. Then, a laugh escaped him. “I’m a little old to be a cadet.”
“I don’t want you to be a cadet. I want you to help train them.”
Jake glowered. “What’s behind door number two?” he asked.
“The transport is standing by to bring both of you to Moyulan,” said Mako.
“Both of us?”
“You and your new recruit.” Mako smirked. “Enjoy your flight Jake!”
Mako’s hologram winked off.
“Mako? Mako! Son of a . . . !” said Jake.
He knew he was trapped, and officially out of options.