The Monsters In Men: Pacific Rim [On Indefinite Hiatus]

Chapter 2: Drift Compatible

Chapter 2: Drift Compatible

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Misha knew that there was going to be an Aguinaldo among the new batch of recruits in Jaeger Academy, and he only discovered it very soon after he himself had signed up.

There was a list of recruits available online. When the Jaeger Program was new, practically anyone, from couch potato to star athlete, could sign up for the Jaeger Program as long as he or she had the determination and iron will. However, in the end, that wasn’t enough. You also needed stamina that hardly depleted—mentally and physically.

“Driving a Jaeger is like solving a rubix cube while being in the middle of a boxing match,” the Mark I pilots—the very, very first batch of Rangers, including Marshal Stacker Pentecost—had let each hopeful volunteer know early on.

Thousands used to sign up at a time. It took serious cost to get batches of a thousand recruits into Jaeger Academy from all over the world, only to have more than half the number dwindle in less than ten weeks of Ranger training.

So came in the online initial screening.

Take a medical, post your results, answer some questions, let your IQ among many other things get measured and results handed out in the comfort of your own home before actually stepping out of it, and into the next plane to Kodiak Island.

Names of qualified recruits were posted online, very much like how passers of an entrance exam during the old, better days when a teenager’s main source of worry was getting into a good college went.

Misha took note of the letter A’s among the surnames; he might as well since his last name was of the next letter. And then he saw Nathanial Loius Aguinaldo’s name. He had passed along with him.

Misha, now nineteen years old, was born as Mishael Gerard Bonifacio, direct descendant of Troadio Bonifacio, who was Andres Bonifacio’s youngest brother who went into self-exile in France during the perilous days after the Bonifacio execution. Misha wasn’t very dissimilar in looks with his forebears: he had high cheekbones and expressive almond-shaped eyes. He had a stubborn jaw. Misha could be considered a handsome young man, but right now, he cared little of his looks.

All he cared right now was to be a Ranger, just like hundreds of hopefuls which had come and gone the years past.

He won’t let an Aguinaldo—or anyone for that matter—get in the way of his goal. Calling it a “dream” made it sound too adorable. He didn’t need to dream. Misha needed reality to cling unto. He made it a goal, and it was going to be so. Being a Jaeger pilot will happen in its sweet time.

He never let his family know that he would be among the batches which Nathan Aguinaldo would be part of.  Misha was very much aware of how the Bonifacios took to the Aguinaldos, after all these years. Should his family know, they’d refuse to let him attend Jaeger Academy, and have him sit out this batch and wait for the next.

Absurd, Misha thought. He made it into this batch, and he’ll pull through.

But when Misha actually saw this Nathan Aguinaldo—practically eye to eye, even as they were many feet away, with rows of recruits in between the distance—he felt something boil in him. It was definite resentment. Perhaps one day he’d even have to sit in one table with Nathan, but it would for the sake of duty. Misha didn’t feel obliged to love every single day while he would be in Jaeger Academy.

The world seemed to understand for a while. For the first three weeks when all the recruits did was listen to grueling lectures and look at data on Jaeger Tech and Kaiju anatomy, take exams on theories and go to sleep with those theories swimming in their heads. Misha and Nathan, not once, saw each other again within those three weeks. They were in different classes, even if some classes had the same teachers.