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Things didn’t pan out how Chuck’s younger self would have imagined it. His uncle was no longer a Jaeger pilot, and the sense of shame the man had caused meant that it had been years since Chuck had last heard from him.
So instead of Mako being his comm-pod partner (something which had been easy to picture with each training session with Waimarie and Evan), he was filling that empty spot where his uncle should have been… but in a new Jaeger. His old man was his co-pilot, and he didn’t know if the drift made their relationship better or worse. There wasn’t really any secrets, but they never spoke since the drift did that for them. In the end, all Chuck had was Max, and that was all he needed.
He didn’t need friends, and he definitely didn’t need heroes and idols.
Heroes were not untouchable – most had fallen by this time, leaving him and only a few others with the mess to clean up. The younger him was a fool to idolize a fair few of those pilot, mediocracy wasn’t acceptable and there were too many lives at risk for mistakes to happen.
And in the end, there was no point in sugar coating things and putting a nice gloss on it. The UN had betrayed them, their situation only worsened, no issues were resolved and he was left dealing with a decaying situation from day one as a pilot. So he didn’t need to make friends. Not when he probably wouldn’t survive this. The Plan. That one last ditch effort to save the world.
All of this accumulated though to mean that the moment the ginger-haired Australian sighted Raleigh Becket waltzing into the Shatterdome (after disappearing into the night all those years ago), a scoff had escaped Chuck before turning his on Max. Was there any point in having a has-been around when they couldn’t risk anything going wrong? It had been years since he was in a Jaeger for one, and who knows what issues he has for two.
Whether the Australian noticed or not, Mako had found a sense of familiarity in that sight. The wary, insecure and agitated boy was back, holding on to the one thing he had unconditionally – and it seemed to only grow with each friendly moment Herc shared with Raleigh. In some ways, Chuck had not strayed too far from his younger-self, insecurities and issues hidden behind walls of anger.
Despite everything though. There was one point which Chuck could find enjoyment; Mako tearing into Rah-leigh. The instant Becket had challenged the Marshal, Chuck was struggling to hold back a smirk, the man had no clue what he was getting himself in for.
Each loud smack of Hanbo colliding made the Australian’s smirk grow a little bigger as he inched closer to the front of the crowd. For each hit Raleigh landed, Mako made sure to give as much as she got, it echoed all those moments where he was on the receiving end of Mako’s fierce moves. Where some days one wiped the floor with the other, or they were on equal footing. Regardless of how it went, at the end of it all, there was always that taste of chocolate-mint ice cream on his mouth.
The nostalgia of remembering Waimarie and Evan, mixed with that bitter feeling of thinking of the road untraveled surfaced for a bit, only pushed down partially with witnessing Mako seem to grow only more feisty after Raleigh had thrown her.
A deflect of the Hanbo with a swift move back.
‘Remember Mako-San, break and regroup.’ Chuck could almost hear Evan say.
A bob of her head mixed with a controlled position, ready to strike, gave off the same ‘bring it on’ vibe as Waimarie’s tilting her head to the right paired with that tiny smirk.
And like with the latter, the former resulted in a spectacular move being played, as Mako delivered a round of swift attacks and blocked before taking Raleigh down and pinning him.
Chuck may have fallen out of touch with Mako a bit since he became a pilot, but it didn’t stop that feeling of pride at seeing someone who was like a sister both whoop ass and prove herself. And he couldn’t hide that smirk as he watched her walk away. Even if the Marshal says she wasn’t going to pilot, something told him that decision wouldn’t last long.
For better (that being Mako finally being the pilot she aspired and deserved to be) or for worse (the idea of pairing a new pilot with a veteran with who knows how many issues).