Inception

Chapter 41: Nuclear Power

Once finished, they nodded to each other, and Ichikawa disappeared behind the mirror-like globe of his helmet. The younger took the lead again, this time giving Soshiro a little run for his money as he decided to switch on the combat force to make sure it actually still worked. There was a worrying crackle over their radio line, but so far so good. When the wind stopped beating back the sweat on Soshiro's brow, he began wondering if the 70s Russians had the right idea about combat suits. Especially when on their dinner break Ichikawa pulled out water bottles from the crevices of his suit.

"Hot diddly damn, there's junk in your trunk."

"I must not be going fast enough if you can still talk, sir."

"Gotta. If I don't I'd be half-way in the ocean now cutting through half the sea-life."

Because that's where the radar had been pulling them. The faint bing of a distant kaiju had sent their blood hot and the combat force of their suits shooting up. Dinner actually consisted of Soshiro switching his suit to cool down mode so they could make the last jump to the sea.

They were close now. The faint blip had turned into a solid dot. And according to Ichikawa, it was a big one. Whatever they were heading to was no yoju.

They'd been going all day now, and Soshiro could feel the wear. He couldn't remember the last time he'd been in his suit for this long. His muscles kept twitching, a good sign he'd be hating himself in the morning.

Ichikawa looked particularly soaked. His light silver hair had turned to dark grey, and Soshiro had the unfortunate thought that it would be like Lena's hair straight from a shower.

And thinking of Lena started up the wailing along every neuron. It made his limbs shake from something entirely other than exhaustion.

He snapped up, cracking his neck. "To the sea?"

Ichikawa sighed and dumped the rest of the water over his head. Bits of steam floated up from where they hit the torso of his suit. "To the sea."

They had run out of buildings to leap over and now sprinted down broken asphalt streets. Cliffside bushes and trees blurred into a wall of green and brown as they ran. The occasional traffic would swerve and honk as they passed. If the Defense Force hadn't tracked them down yet, they would soon.

Night crawled over them, gray and navy. Out here he could see the stars, as well as the faint glow from Ichikawa's chest plate.

"Hey, you're glowing. Is that a bad thing?"

"It's a bit hot, but still good. I can cool it off in the sea."

"Is that think water tight?"

"It was built to be."

"Hot damn."

"But I don't know when the last time the rubber seals were replaced..."

"Still—"

Ichikawa stopped so quickly, the feet of his mech-suit dug a long broken skid into the asphalt, piling up the broken pieces up to his knees. Soshiro almost died crashing face first into its metal black.

"Shit! Warn a guy!"

"Kaiju. There."

Ichikawa turned and leapt off the cliffside road.

Soshiro cursed before leaping after him, a fire he'd been fighting down all day bursting to life in his chest.

"It was hidden in the big one's signal," said Ichikawa landing through an unfortunate tree with a crack like thunder. "Big one's not far behind."

"You stopped like that for a little-kaiju?"

"I have a feeling."

So did Soshiro. He had lots of feelings. Ones that put his teeth on edge and made his lips curl behind his mask and pull at his wind chapped face. Weakling or not, he had a world of pent up aggression to get out.

And hopefully, maybe, just maybe—

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I, personally, hate short chapters, but I asked my readers and the majority said they preferred them, so whatever.