“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.”
