Adventures of an Employed Planeswalker

(Pentecost's POV)

Everything is going well so far. Bering's Sea, East of Japan, Marshall Islands, and now Hawai; all those Rifts are now closed with no casualties.

I should be happy, I should be jumping with joy, be damned my position. We're fighting back and winning!

But... what Matt said has some weight. If the time dilation he reported is true - and as I have no other sources of information, I have to assume it is - then they had 15 days to prepare while Matt was unconscious. They can't possibly be this ill-prepared for a counterattack?

Unless... Matt is just that strong.

Not knowing what happens inside those Rifts, I can't accurately tell how strong, fast, resilient, and clever Matt truly is. If only we could get that armor...

I shake my head - not happening. Don't give reasons for the weirdly friendly alien to turn not-so-friendly.

"General, the Jaegers on the Gulf of California were slightly delayed due to the request for more tactical nukes. They will be at the Rift in 15 minutes."

I nod towards the operator. Yet another reason for worry.

Before now, Matt dealt with whatever was on the other side by himself and only used the nukes to close the Rifts. That was until after the Hawaii Rift when he asked for as many as 10 tactical nukes to be delivered to the last Rift. It was a surprise request but doable due to how old the plan to nuke the Kaiju was; we had these nukes prepared for a while.

Some people might call me crazy or paranoid, but when an Operation this big and important goes too well, I can't help but become wary.

I've already stationed as many able Jaegers ready to be deployed along the coast of California, just in case whatever Matt is fighting against spills to this side.

"You can never be too safe..." I rub my pendant with the photo of my daughter, Mako. "If all goes well, we win this war today..." I grip it tighter. "No. Even if something happens, we'll deal with it. We have to."

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(Matt's PoV)

The plan is simple: blitz everything, get to their standing army, and drop the nukes there. Simple, right?

Yeah, these motherfucker prepared a veritable army. The second Lab server I invaded had a few more reports and hugely increased production of the Kaiju.

The lovely information I got was that only a few Labs had their priorities be the making of Kaiju and maintaining Rifts. A few others only produced Kaiju with different characteristics, researched further into their space-faring (or would it be dimensional-faring) travel, or even opened one-way Rifts to look for future targets.

As soon as the first counter-attack was made, all able Labs turned to making Kaiju as fast as possible. The result? They have a standing army just outside one of their Labs (I can only guess it's the Rift near California since it's the last one we know of) waiting for their prey to send their best into their trap, only for their army to stomp it out and invade back when they least expect.

It would be really awful if someone knew about it in advance and prepared for it, heh.

'Caby, all the contingency plans online?'

|Absolutely.|

'You already know but I'm counting on you with the absorption. That's the crux of this plan.'

|Understood.|

Ok... Ok, let's do this.

I did see a friendly face in the Hawaiian Rift: Hawaiian Comeuppance. Who would've thought?

They seemed very pleased with the closing of the Rift and thanked me profusely, especially Kelani. At the time I was still a bit shaken because of the information I had just gotten, so I only half-heartedly nodded back to them and made my way here.

Here we have the same situation, but instead of being shaken, I feel excited, scared, adamant, and a whole host of things.

"So here we have, the alien of the moment! How's it feel to be a hero, Matt?"

"Well, well, Gypsy Danger themselves will be my escort. I feel honored!"

"I see you are well-learned in the human art of Sarcasm! Well done!"

"Shut up, Yancy." I enjoyed the banter this time Yancy, even if it was cut short by your brother.

I nod toward them and the five other Jaegers who came to carry all the nukes I asked for.

"This time it'll be a bit different, gentlemen and women. I'll need a few minutes to mess with the nukes here. You shouldn't be needed, so even if just for old Pentecost's sake, you can participate in his failsafe plan."

A few of them look at each other in confusion, before Gypsy Danger laughs for a bit and then turns and starts walking away.

"Come on, people! We aren't needed here anymore. Let's make sure our city is well-defended!"

Most of the pilots become even more confused with this statement, but eventually, they all put their nukes on the ground near the Rift and start to leave.

As they leave, I touch the nukes and a few minutes later they are all modified. Instead of a timer, they'll all explode when a certain frequency is pushed through them. A frequency that Caby assured me would not be messed with even in the other dimension.

Finished with the nuke tempering, I deployed all the tentacles and appendages I could to lift them and pushed them first through the Rift, going right after.

Just as I thought, I saw no Kaiju here and the Lab made no noise as I entered. A few seconds after I was in, the Lab AI said chilling words.

[Intruder inside the Lab. Turning off Portal systems, engaging maximum defenses.]

'Welp, there goes plan A.'

Boosting faster than my mind could process, I gave all the control to Caby as we navigated the corridors with the nukes in tow, dodging all the lasers by sheer speed. We only stopped once we were outside the lab.

The buzzing in my head began again with a higher-than-ever strength.

|Adapting to negate mental interference-|

'No. Take control of the Armor, but let this mental thing through.'

{Matt-}

'I have a theory. And I have you guys here, I'll be fine.'

I felt it as soon as our little conversation ended.

The weight of several thousand minds pressed against mine. I felt like I wouldn't snap outright, but it was agonizingly painful to think and only my Protections maintained who I was intact.

All these voices, all these minds, they were all demanding I submit and let them take over.

'Give up.' 'You are inferior.' 'You will perish to the might of our army.' 'You are only a puny lower race, you ask to be dominated.' 'Know your place, trash.' 'Let us take over, everything will be fine.' 'We are stronger.' 'You know you will fail eventually.'

'Yeah, fuck you too!'

The voices stopped for a second, then redoubled their efforts.

I felt more and more disconnected from my body as their minds, their wills pressed into me. I was trying to fight back, but they were all trying to press me down, to take over.

'Is this even necessary? Are there even any anomalies here?'

I tried to push them back, only to be pushed against my bottom line time and time again.

'Am I stupid? Why am I fighting these guys?'

Whenever they pushed me against my bottom line, I felt weaker and more tired.

'Why am I doing this anyway?'

They ground me down like minced meat, trying to erase who I am to take over.

'Why am I still alive?'

I opened my eyes and screamed.

I felt all the minds pressing down on me being scattered around, some vanishing entirely. The weight no longer shackled me. I was now the one pressing down on the entire battlefield.

Blood trickled down my nose and I was smiling despite it.

"I always knew a True Emperor needed some motivation to be born."

'Now, to commemorate the rise of my Will: Caby, the fireworks.'

Only now did I notice I was above the center of their army. All the Precursors further back looking in my direction, some down on the ground. I laughed out loud as the nukes were dropped.

|Engaging omnidirectional absorbing shield. Sending frequency.|

As the nukes fell, I rejoiced. My gamble paid off.

"FUCK YOU AND YOUR MIND MANIPULATIONS!"

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM

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|Energy estimated at 1000%. Targets are set to: artillery locations. Energy usage patterns are set to: Doomsday. Firing.|

Several different explosions coursed through the planet as their artillery deposits exploded. I was only flying around and enjoying the explosions, Caby dealt with the aiming and firing. Knowing that these guys are major assholes makes it all much better.

I still felt a major headache, but I knew it was only a matter of time until it vanished. Symby was taking care of the bodily damage and my Will was stronger than ever.

'We take this problem down at the roots. Now.'

Inside, I still felt weird. Here I am massacring an entire race. They have females, children, and elderly just like humans. They did some bad stuff, but so did humans.

I think what broke the deal for me was that they had the chance to redeem themselves when they got to this dimension... but they decided to find more ways to get stronger and dominate other races.

I don't think it's a genetic thing either; they might have just known this forever. Tradition is hard to break away from when you have no different stimuli. I could have been more diplomatic, could have tried talking it through... I even learned their language, it's not like it would be a barrier either.

'... in the end, I was scared.'

I was scared of not being able to bail if talking about it didn't work. I was scared that they would somehow trap me here, either with their mind control or with some spatial tomfoolery or whatever. I let my fear cloud my eyes and went with the easier option.

I don't regret it per se, just... I could have handled this better.

Seeing the Scarab Armor's potential in person, I know I can do better. And even thousands of minds tried putting me down, to no avail.

'I'm... stronger than I thought. Actually, not me.' I smile wryly. 'We are stronger than I thought.'

{You bet!}

|Your realization is correct if delayed.|

'Shut up, Symby! You didn't even do anything!'

{HEY! Who do you think has to clean up your mess when you push your brain this much, huh!?!? And you DARE say I didn't do anything! I'll have you know-}

I smile, 'Thank you both. Let's finish this and after that, I need a break.'

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(Pentecost's PoV)

"The last Rift closed? But they informed me he was just going in!"

"Sir, our readings stopped coming! All the Rifts are closed!"

I look at the operators around me. They are all young and have been working here for some time, the best the army could send me. They've been here with me for this whole day monitoring all we could, organizing the pilots and resources around the Pacific.

I can already see the beginnings of smiles all across the room. We've won.

"I can't even believe it..." Another operator mutters, even as she flips to another set of comms, and says a few words, "Hold your position for now, we are confirming details."

Hell, I can't believe it. In all of our projections, we always had concerning amounts of casualties, and losing a few cities was... not unexpected.

Everything to fight back and win against them.

And now...

"General." I look at the young operator. He seems so hopeful, so happy, and relieved. They want confirmation, a final word that this several-years-long nightmare just might be finally over.

"Double-check it once again. If it all reads negative... send the word." They nod and start asking question after question to the responsible division.

I breathe deeply and sit back on my chair. It's been a few hours that I've been standing but I can barely even feel the discomfort as the knot on my stomach threatens to untie itself.

'Is it over...?' Should I dare hope?

"General! The readings are still negative. We've won!"

Tamsin, Luna... it's over. We've won.

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(Yancy's PoV)

"YEAHHHHH." Ahh, the party doesn't stop, does it?

Where is Rayley anyway?

"I think ya drank enough, ya muppet. Let's go back." Carina!

"Carina! How'veyou beeen girl?? Enjoying it all?? Bytheway, have you seen Raleigh?" I lost my brother a while back, he might be moping in a corner even though we've won the fucking war. He should learn to loosen up.

"He's the one who called me to get you out of 'ere, dumbass! Now come on." But why though? We gotta commemorate! Ohh Carina, if only you'd let me I'd show you a good ti-

"Yeeeoouch!"

"If you finish that sentence I'll lop your thing off, Becket."

I said that out loud?

"I said that out loud?"

"Yes, you imbecile!" Why are you dragging me around, I can walk perfectly fine I'll tell you.

"Yancy, I can't even understand ya now. Shut up and let me carry you."

Ok ok, my princess charming~

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"Ugh, dude... my head is killing me..."

"That's what you get for drinking that much."

Rayley!

"Rayl- ouch ouch ouch. Ok, quiet now."

Raleigh passes me some pills and throws a bottle of water at my face.

"Take that and recompose yourself. General Pentecost wants to talk to us."

I nod numbly and hurriedly take two of the pills and drink half the bottle. If the General wants to talk, then it must have been an attack-

"Wait... we've won."

Rayley turns to me like I'm an idiot... which I might be sometimes, but whatever.

"I believe that is exactly why he wants to talk to us. Wash your face and get dressed, I'll be waiting outside." And he gets up and leaves.

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"Yancy and Raleigh Becket reporting, sir!" We both salute General Pentecost.

"At ease. Good morning to you both. I've heard at least one of you had a great time yesterday?" I start sweating a bit, expecting a reprimand.

Pentecost smiles as he looks at me, "It's good to see you haven't changed, Yancy." He smiled.

'Did he just smile?'

"Yes, sir." I must still be a bit drunk.

"Well, you deserve it. You all deserved a break after the last few years. Congratulations."

"Thank you, sir!" We say in unison.

"Now come here, sit." He gestured to the chairs in front of his table. We both sit down and look at him, expecting something big.

Pentecost is not someone to waste time on useless meetings.

Seeing our serious demeanor, Pentecost slowly dropped his smile and adopted a more neutral expression.

"I'm here to ask you a few questions about Matt." I steal a glance towards Rayley, who does the same.

"You were the last ones to talk to him. Did he mention anything? Say what he wanted to do with the nukes or some plan for the future?"

"No, sir." We speak in unison.

"The last thing he said was that we were no longer needed and that he had to mess with the nukes, for some reason," I report truthfully.

He keeps looking at us for a few moments, then readjusts his position on his chair. "He hasn't been seen since yesterday."

"Do you think he?" I widened my eyes.

"Got stuck on the other side? Yes, that is the most likely theory." He looks at me specifically for a while, then says, "You were one of the closest to him in the base. What do you think?"

"Well..." Shit. I don't know if he's stuck or not. I only met the little guy a few times in the field and the mess hall. "Sir, I can't say for sure. He did not say anything to me or Raleigh about any of his plans."

"That's what I feared..." He interlaces his fingers in both hands and leans forward. "You have heard the commotion that happened when he first got here. My superiors are satisfied that the Rifts are closed, but they are now pressuring me to give them the Alien."

I look at Raleigh again as he says this and a few seconds into the stare, he shakes his head and I grimace. "Do you have to give him to them, sir?"

Pentecost looks me in the eye, "I wish I didn't, Yancy. What that alien did possibly saved our planet and all I can do for him is smile and wave as they come to take him away." He seems genuinely upset over this.

"The worst part is that I've put him under my jurisdiction, which means they're coming for me now that he's missing. It won't matter what I say, I'll be court-martialed unless I can show them something. I don't want to betray the one person who saved my whole species, but if I say he escaped using force I'll "only" receive harsh punishments, not the death sentence."

My grimace hardens. This situation doesn't sit well with me. He took things into his own hands, solved our whole goddamn mess and that's how they treat him.

"Sir, I understand he is an alien, but he helped us big time. Is there nothing that can be done?" Surprisingly, it was Raleigh who spoke up for Matt.

Pentecost smiles bitterly, "He asked me to hide his participation in the Operation himself. I can't even claim he was the one to end the Kaiju threat as only the people in this base know of his armor's appearance and all of you are under my direct command..."

"So they could claim you threatened us... why did he want to hide himself?" Raleigh asked.

"He didn't want to deal with the aftermath of being an alien saving the world, especially one that so blatantly offended the General of the Army."

"Are there no cameras, no recording, or anything about him? Showing his appearance. So we can ask the pilots from other bases if it's the same thing. Anything like that?" I ask, a little agitated.

This time Pentecost barks a laugh, "The little rascal wiped anything we had on him. Even the hidden camera in his room had its stream looped and recording corrupted so badly it starts to corrupt other data in any computer that tries to recover anything."

"So what can we do, sir?"

"That's what I've been thinking for a while now, Yancy."

I hope Pentecost manages to come out of this one and that Matt's fine, wherever he is.

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(Matt's PoV)

Is this... New York?