this isn't g o d z i l l a. [ banks x sync. ]

[hernameisbanks]

The day was promising to be a big one for all of them.

The government was going through with plans they had known about for years, because it was now or never, another do or die situation. The plane ride in itself was something precarious, the large black military plane flying over the ocean so tentatively, there was always the underlying fear of the ground shaking and a Kaiju erupting out from below to knock them from the sky. But, with science and technology, they had begun charting vibrations in the ground the same way they charted earthquakes, and declared it safe enough to bring in their pilots to the central hub of it all. Or rather, the well hidden central hub of it all, the plane landing and their journey in America beginning. The dark haired woman had been here before, before the initial attack and after it, vacations with family to maintain some sign of balance and normalcy despite many being shaken up from that reminder that there were things bigger than them in this world. It was terrifying, and for years, and even more years, people thought nothing more of it, putting it on the back burner until every anniversary of the most recent Kaiju attack, until the world seemed to erupt again. The first attack of the new wave settled into a city that hadn't been entirely rebuilt, almost like a warning or a rather rude greeting from the monsters themselves. A 'we're back', if you will.

This was where all the government's secrecy and their hard work came into play like a child who had come to class with extra materials. The world's underlying government had come together out of fear, and when the first two Jaegers arose and beat the first Kaiju back into the ocean, this was no longer training. This was real. The drive to the very well kept secret was littered with chatter, a few of them talking among one another, accents littered with accents clearly from different areas of France. Clicking her tongue behind her teeth softly as they drove further beneath the ground, it wasn't long before they were pulling into the underground structure that reminded her of the one similar back home, however this one was clearly much bigger. Big enough to house the solutions to their monster problem. " Now that you ladies and gentlemen are here, we can start figuring out more drift partners. " Apparently the French were the last to be brought into the American base, the brunette rolling her eyes softly at the thought of them basically being late, the squad of six stepping out of the SUV and into the base, her eyes moving up as she noticed the flutter of people on floors above, moving around. Pilots and engineers, constant conversation and several pairs of eyes, nothing she hadn't expected.

" Get settled into your bunkers, then meet in the training room. "

The command was simple, turning her light brown eyes from the sights around her before her black boots began to guide her toward where she would be sleeping for the next. . .Well, God knows how long. It wasn't long before she was settling, or at least changing clothes, in the small space that she would eventually share with someone else, clothing tossed onto her bed, the quick glimpse of her back proved that it was also covered in tattoos, flowing along with the bright colors permanently placed on one arm and one leg, they were all covered aside from the few on her hands when the black one piece was pulled onto her frame. It looked like it had been painted onto her curves, obviously that way for the sake of mobility and quick movements, her boots were placed back onto her feet and her hair was pulled into a loose bun. The bustle of conversation was what drew her toward the training room, another large, open space with slightly padded flooring, her head turned to one of her colleagues just in time for him to grin when his name was called up against a girl from the American division. The timer counted down from five, soon the fight began, light brown eyes following the pair as they moved across the floor, counting silently before the hard thud was heard, the girl taking him down.

It gained several laughs from those among them, a few more rounds of their shuffle before the interaction was ended. " Fleur Valeraine and Franz Schroeder, " Perking a brow up softly, the young woman easily knew that this guy wasn't about to be her drift partner, watching the overly built German move forward onto the mat. Removing her shoes as she was handed a pair of battle staves, the male grinned as he stretched out his full length stave, " I'll take it easy on you Frenchy. " Rolling her eyes up and wanting to roll them into the back of her head, the female moved into her stance as the countdown began, shaking her head faintly. " Your loss. "

 

[Sync]

This was promising to be a big day for all of them.

Today was the day that they started trials, Cassandra Dylan knew. She’d arrived the day before, one of the handful of Australians who’d made the cut. She knew what she was in for; she knew what the score was. They all did. The half-dozen Australians – four males, two females – had arrived at the compound mid-afternoon the day before the trials started: they weren’t the first to arrive, the Americans had that covered on the fact that it was their country; but the Australians weren’t the last, either. More were coming, mainly from Europe, they’d been told. Lots would be arriving; not many would succeed.

Ten years ago, when the first kaiju came, Cass had been living in Sydney with her family. The kaiju attacked Sydney, and Cass was one of the millions that had run for safety while the Striker Eureka landed and fought the kaiju off. For many, that day was the beginning of the end; for others, life went on, if somewhat more cautiously; for Cass, it was a turning point. Like so many others, she knew what the Jaegers were – huge mechanical robots, operated by a pair of pilots who worked in unison to drive the machines. Cass wanted to be one of those pilots. She dreamed of being up there, piloting a Jaeger, defending her home…but she was too young to even join the army. At fifteen, they wouldn’t have her; that didn’t stop her from working hard, both physically and mentally, to make sure she’d be accepted. She was tough, rough, hard-nosed; she fought hard to earn every promotion she’d received. She joined the Australian Army as soon as she could after her eighteenth birthday, did her basic training, took her deployments. She took her specialisations, took up with the SAS when she turned twenty-two, did a couple of tours in regional hot spots, earned a few citations and commendations, did her officer studies and exams. Combat areas made promotions go faster, and Cass had just received the rank of Captain when news came…that the kaiju were back. The call for Jaeger pilots was coming out, broadcast to all nations, and Cass answered that call. She was given leave to attend Jaeger pilot trials.

That was a week ago, when she’d answered that call.

After permits and visas were signed, transfers were arranged, transport organised, Cass found herself on a flight to the USA. Five other Australians joined her: Vicki Taylor, the black-haired martial artist; three other soldiers named Adam Miles, Jack Marshall and Ian Blake, and some tech genius named Sebastian Drane. Cass really hoped Sebastian would end up in the support teams; it would be an insult if the nerd proved capable of piloting a Jaeger. Still, the nerd was there, so he must have had something that made him worthy of including. Cass had largely kept to herself during the flight, although she had periodically engaged in lively chatter with her compatriots; she outranked them, but this was not a strictly-military operation. When they finally landed, they were told they had twenty-four hours to stow their gear and settle before their trials began.

That was yesterday.

After a very solid sleep, Cass was up and ready for trials. She’d dressed for the action or combat – it was non-contact combat, but still to be hard-fought, and injuries would likely occur – and she’d worn a sports-bra and firm tank-top on her torso, and loose shorts. It revealed the toned, near-muscular physique of the young woman, the slender figure, the pale and un-marked skin. Battle staves, little more than an updated version of the time-old quarterstaff, were given out, and Cass took hers with a small grin. Trials were started, even though a few stragglers were still to arrive; Cass found herself on the mat, facing a muscular American, when the last of the candidates turned up.
He was cocky, over-confident, and Cass had made short work of him, putting him down quickly to a flawless victory.

“Cassandra Dylan, 5; Ty Marks, 0.” Cass grinned and took her place, as one of the newcomers was called to face another American, this one female…and the girl also won. Then a girl called Fleur was called to take on a German named Franz…Cass was idly intrigued by the amount of tattoos the girl had. At least the bravado and confidence was present.

They’d be fighting most of the day, Cass knew. Combat with a kaiju could take hours, so stamina was vital. The Jaegers were being rolled out; the trials wouldn’t stop until all Jaegers were crewed.

It was going to be a long day.

 

[hernameisbanks]

The sound of the starting second rang out around them, the brunette lightly tapping her staves together apparently seeming to trigger Franz into moving first, making the first strike with his chosen quarterstaff. Blocking him quickly with a careful placement of her feet, the woman's movements throughout their fight were each quick and graceful, showing signs of prior training in something other than preparing for war. It was a common question among everyone to ask what they were doing before the Precursors decided to make a mockery of Earth, different stories being told here and there. The young woman had spent her younger years in ballet, graceful footing a shining light to her past of dancing, past of twirling on her toes and avoiding invisible obstacles. Or, the ground. This grace had transcended well into military combat, already used to rigorous training as it was. The cracking of each hit placed against the training weapons, Fleur had mentally associated Franz with that of a bull. Franz, the German bull, was clearly a tough young man, strong and easy to see why he had been chosen for the program, his size matching well with his stamina. He towered over the woman who only stood at a mere five two, though both seemed as though they showed no real anger toward the other.

This wasn't about embarrassing one another, it was about being equally matched to help literally save the world. The smooth placements of her feet, and the way her figure moved in comparison to the brute force that Franz was, it was only a matter of time that this brute force was brought down onto the mat, thighs wrapped around his neck and staves holding his staff down beside them. " Looks like we're going to have a lot of female Jaeger pilots. " She heard someone say, laughing softly as she released him after the final count, " Fleur Valeraine, 3 straight wins. " The two standing up now, caramel colored eyes watched the man now as he grinned broadly, offering a hand to her, " I like you, Frenchy. " The calm expression on her face cracked when her lips parted to laugh, shaking his hand as the airy sound filled the space between them. At least he wasn't a complete asshole. After all, how could they? Europe's part in the attacks had been in the likes of science, being that none of the Kaiju had made their attacks toward them until recently, the majority of France's participation alone being that of new designs for the Jaegers. Different materials for the suits, different defenses, Europe had only provided a few pilots, thus it being a surprise when there was a handful of actual people training to be pilots, and not in the support team. Fleur was only one of two from her group with no interest in being on the ground.

It had almost been a surprise to her family, not using the fluid brain of hers within the support room to call out to Jaeger pilots, instead preferring to be the one fighting them down. Perhaps it was all those years of being sweet and docile, maybe that was when getting tattoos had become a constant itch for her that was only occasionally fixed, until she realized that the itch was for something much bigger.

" Fleur Valeraine and. . Cassandra Dylan. "

Her mind snapping out of the faint daydream she had let herself fall into, the woman shook her head to regain her focus in the situation at hand. Franz leaving the mat left place for another, watching the set of suits as they moved calmly through their sets of papers. Judging by the faint whispers, it had been a while since two women were matched to fight. It caused her no distress though, the female tucking a dark curl of hair back behind her ear. Vision following the stares toward the blonde, she had come in just at the end of her fight though showed no frustration in not being aware of the fighting style of the other woman. Char raised her arms above her head in a gentle stretch as she awaited the beginning of the next match, nodding her head in a faint greeting to the other as the countdown began.

 

[Sync]

Cass’ eyes snapped open at hearing her name being called? Surely she hadn’t been dozing. How long had her eyes been closed? No matter, she hadn’t missed anything. Couldn’t have been long, though – no-one had nudged her to wake her, and no-one was looking at her with that “have you just been napping?” expression. The blonde twitched her head around, sighed softly when she got a small ‘click’ from her neck, smiled and slowly stood.

She was now paired up with the dark-haired tattooed girl. Cass had to remind herself that this was not a contest to see if you could beat your opponent into submission, but instead a contest to see if you were drift-compatible; if you were compatible, then you wouldn’t gain the ascendency over your opponent; if you were not compatible, then one would be knocked on their ass fairly quickly. So far she was not compatible with any of her opponents, proven by the fact that they were nursing a few bruises; Cass hadn’t gotten away bruise-free, but she’d fared a lot better than her opponents had so far.

She took her place, returned the nod of greeting as she stood on her mark, brought her staff to a ready position as she watched this Fleur girl do the same. Then the countdown ended, and their match started.

Cautiously, at first – neither knew how the other fought. The caution only lasted a few seconds before they were going hard…and it was soon clear that they were more-or-less evenly matched. Fleur got the first point by driving the end of her staff into Cass’ sternum; Cass got the point back by dropping Fleur onto her back and pressing her staff against the other girl’s throat. But what became clear to the onlookers, though…for all that these two women had never fought each other before, neither was dominant; when one attacked, the other moved smoothly to defend, and they often went back-and-forth that way before one was able to take a point…although any point advantage didn’t last long. The two may have been from different countries, different backgrounds, different lifestyles…but they thought alike, and that had the potential to make them drift-compatible.

How long were they sparring for? Five minutes? Ten? Cass didn’t know…all she knew was that she couldn’t get a break over this Fleur-girl – she was being put down by Fleur as much as she was putting Fleur down…

 

[hernameisbanks]

It was always pleasantly unexpected when something like this happened. When a trial went so efficiently, so swimmingly well that the result gained exactly the outcome necessary. How many times had their been a set of people matched as quickly, it was rare and often made the process tedious, having to sit and watch sets of people train to even get to this point. So, when one could see a pair so evenly matched by trials and errors, it wasn't long before it was noticed, initially by the dark haired woman within this fight. Neither appeared as though they would be kept down by the impact given by the their blows, though Fleur knew that taking any more time than the split seconds available to review miss Cassandra Dylan herself would result in an unfortunate twist. And while their fight wasn't listed as anything more than training, the underlying fact of the matter still very much remained, the faint twinges of stubbornness rising up between them as whether they truly were fighting to the best of their abilities or simply would not let the other get the best of them any longer. Once was enough, or at least it was for Fleur, the drop having pushed her loose curls of hair from the bun she once wore, with a habitual flex of her fingers, the woman was bracing for another set of swift actions before her eyes flickered upward at the call.

" Enough! "

Among the set of people with tablets used to take notes and record stats of the fight stood a man, his suit completely buttoned and tie not an inch out of place, his dark blonde hair combed back with great detail and his jaw clenched for a moment. Whether it was out of habit or not, Fleur was momentarily curious of until he spoke again, clearing his throat just in time for the brunette to remember who he was. She had seen him numerous times, popping in and out with other suits that went through the Jaeger program, the American man being the eldest son of the infamous Becket family, Fleur was caught in her own trance for a short moment until she found herself blinking softly. " . . a match. . Suit them up, and get them ready for drift training. Set them up for Echo Raptor. " Returning to the tail end, just in time to hear him break from what was actually being said to them, hearing what she had already confirmed in her head. A match, for now anyway. The true test was how well they both handled the drift between one another.

Each of them had already been mentally braced to deal with the drift, in simulations that were simply by themselves, as drifting pilots with nothing connecting them was all too risky. The staves set down onto the floor for another person to take when their trial began, her bright eyes then shifted to the blonde who for now had been her match. Of course outwardly, they were absolute opposites. Blonde and tan, with no obvious signs of rebellion traced into her skin, though were it not for the tattoos on her hands, one would say the same for her. Come to think of it, she looked like a Cassandra. It almost made her laugh the way things managed to work out in such a way, shaking her head faintly as she moved to pull her hair back up, speaking now as they were guided from the training room behind a pair of men in clunking boots. " Fleur, " It was only fair and polite to properly introduce herself, the French lull lacing her words as she turned her vision from the back of a man's head to the woman beside her. " Since we haven't been properly introduced. "

The accent thick, lacing her S's with the whispered sounds of 'Z's, her bare feet guided her along the hallway with her boots tucked underneath her arm. " Glad this didn't take as long as I thought it would. " Fresh off the plane and already getting fitted for a suit, she called that an accomplishment in her book.

 

[Sync]

The ending of the trial was as sudden as it was a relief. Not so much because Cass was getting annoyed that she couldn’t get one-up on this girl, but…well, she was starting to wonder just how much longer they had to go before it was obvious that she and this girl – Fleur – were potentially drift-compatible. But end it did, and she and Fleur were declared a match, and then they were being led out to suit up and try a drift-simulation… Cass had enough time to set her staff down and grab her boots before they were led off. The man who’d called their bout to an end…she didn’t know the voice, but the face was familiar…Raleigh Becket, possibly? She’d have to check that…later.

She finally got a chance to look Fleur up and down – briefly, admittedly – as they walked away from the trials room. They were nothing alike, on the outside: Fleur’s dark hair to her blonde, Fleur’s pale skin to her slightly-darker complexion; the tattoos Fleur sported where she had none. Cass doubted they’d be much alike in outlook or background, either. That was irrelevant, now – they had to be drift-compatible to handle a Jaeger. They’d have to learn to get along, if they didn’t initially. Jaeger piloting was more important than personal disagreements.

“Cassandra,” she replied politely, offering her hand to the other girl. “And, yes, I’m glad it didn’t take too long, either. Although I have to admit I was getting a bit annoyed at the end of our trial, there…I was wondering just how much they wanted to see two girls fighting.” She grinned faintly. Fleur was, going by the accent, of French descent – whether directly or indirectly would be found out later. She knew the Australian accent was generally broad and lazy; like most Australians, Cass barely moved her lips when she spoke, the end-result being something close to a drawl. When the handshake was taken, Cass’s grip was strong and firm.

The pair were led down a long passageway, then around a corner into another long passageway. Cass could only presume they were being taken to get suits fitted for them so they could test their drift-compatibility.

“So…what’s your story Fleur?” Everyone had one…Cass was curious enough to know what her partner’s was. She’d find out soon enough, but she wasn’t sure she wanted everything to be gleaned through drifting.

 

[hernameisbanks]

There was always that sudden reminder, that sudden rush that came with thinking of what happened after fighting trials. It had crossed her mind many times, as she was sure several others had, the image of themselves inside a Jaeger, but more importantly, inside a Jaeger fighting a Kaiju. Like anyone, you imagined yourself in the position of any of the pilots during the first invasion of the monsters, you imagine yourself in their shoes, how they were fighting with the knowledge that things could quite possibly go far south.