Bullies

Bullies
(Oolong Tea: One)
24 November 2016
Kodiak, AK, United States
After Raleigh rescues Hermann from the black ice, he and Yancy come across something that technically isn't allowed. Some other pilot Cadets (three guys and a girl) are harassing a much smaller guy with a LOCCENT patch on his shoulder.
"Hey! What the hell are you doing?!" Yancy barks out the challenge, both Beckets marching straight over. Sometimes it helped being six feet tall and having a military bearing.
"Nothing's going on here, Beckets," one of them mumbles.
Raleigh straightens his shoulders and cracks his neck. "You sure about that?"
Yancy grins while cracking his knuckles, loose-limbed and waiting for one of them to throw the first punch. Everyone knew that both of them had taken to the Kwoon more easily because they were scrappy fighters. "Maybe you might wanna go, y'know, save yourself the trouble of facing the marshal for harassment."
"What, you gonna rat us out?"
"Damn straight," Raleigh growls as he reaches between them to tap the guy's shoulder. "C'mon."
"Can't let you do that, Becket. He's got a mouth on 'im. Thinks he's better than us pilots." The guy isn't pay attention to the signs and the LOCCENT guy tenses under Raleigh's hand.
"Oh shut up. We aren't going to be pilots until another Jaeger's ready, you idiot," Yancy quips sarcastically, his stance almost taunting.
The first punch is easily dodged since it’s telegraphed throughout the guy's frame.
Raleigh encourages the LOCCENT Cadet to crouch as he elbows the second guy in the solar plexus. "Stay down for now," he mutters as he ducks the haymaker and misses the left hook, the girl's fist driving into his ribs. He grunts as he grips her wrist and twists her arm until it dislocates.
Yancy knocks out the first guy with a calculated kick to the head and rounds on the second guy.
The girl hisses through her teeth, backing off and running but not before Raleigh memorizes her nametape.
Raleigh turns for the third guy but he’s also bolting.
Yancy puts a choke-hold on the second one and the guy turns purple before passing out.
«Rals, you okay?» Yancy pants in French, lowering the idiot to the ground out flat next to his pal.
«I'm fine. More worried about the guy we rescued from a beating,» he snorts as he helps the guy up. Raleigh switches to English to reassure the guy. "Hi. You okay?"
"I'm fine. Got a bit roughed up but nothing I can't recover from, brother." The man shrugs as he brushes off the snow.
"Raleigh Becket an' that's my brother Yancy," he introduces himself and his brother easily with a roguish grin.
"Tendo Choi. Does that happen a lot around here?" Tendo asks as straightened his shirt and jacket, pulling a comb out of his back pocket to put his hair back into place.
"Nah. Those guys have been causin' trouble for a while now. This is just the excuse the instructor needs to boot 'em. You sure you're okay?" Raleigh asks as Tendo sways dangerously to the side.
"They smacked my head against the wall," he slurs carefully, his words tumbling together so that Raleigh has to listen closely.
"Okay, time for Med Bay." Yancy scoops the guy up and Raleigh taps his cheek to keep him awake.
"Hey, Tendo, where you from?" he asks, knowing that if Tendo goes unconscious he might not wake up again.
"San Francisco."
"Any family?"
Tendo shakes his head no and winces at the pull on the bloodied skin on his forehead.
"Favorite food?"
"Dango. Comes on little sticks. Dim sum but only if my Yeye made it." The man probably realizes what Raleigh's doing and is trying to keep up.
"Mine's hot-chocolate cake made by my Mémé. What about sports?"
"San Fran teams all the way, brother. You name it and we had it." Tendo lolls in Yancy's firm grip and they share a look over the man's head.
Raleigh continues his questions as Yancy picks up his speed.
"You?"
"Me? Alaskan born and bred, Tendo. Same with Yan and my sister."
"Is she pretty?"
"Uhh, I guess. Black hair, blue eyes and, uh, a good figure. Do we have to talk about Jazzy?" he mutters uncomfortably.
"I like to flirt. She sounds pretty."
Yancy and Raleigh bristled silently so Raleigh changed the subject.
"Mmm. Uhhh, favorite drink."
"Coffee. Used to not like it but Yeye did and I enjoyed the quiet time with him as he got older. Damn Kaiju Blue got him," Tendo growls as they set foot in Medical.
"We just had the idiots who thought it would be good to mess with the pair of you—Oh. Hello, Mister Choi. How are you feeling?" The doctor on-call starts speaking before she spots Tendo and her expression softens minutely.
"Bad. These guys are pretty cool. Kept me awake, y'know." The amusing thing is that he gestured casually while still in Yancy's arms.
"They did? Well, Cadets, good job. You can set Mister Choi down now."
Yancy reluctantly sets the man down and he lurches over to the side of the bed and vomits.
"Orderly! Mess to clean! Pick him back up." She wipes off Tendo's face carefully with a clean cloth.
Raleigh picks him up this time and slowly paces the length of the Med Bay, continuing to ask low questions until Tendo's eyes flutter shut.
"Umm, he closed his eyes," he calls back to the doctor. Raleigh gently sets Tendo on a clean bed and tucks the sheets around him, at a loss for what to do; his mother-henning instinct kicking in.
"From what I managed to get before he yarped, he's not in the clear yet. How willing are you two to stay here and wake him up every two hours?" she asks quietly.
"Gotta get the—" Yancy starts to point out that they need their instructor's permission only to be cut off.
"Done. Not many would do a kindness nowadays, boys. You're something else," she states as she casts an experienced eye over Tendo. "Sit. Relax. I know they drive you all to exhaustion."
Both of them do as they're ordered and take two seats next to the LOCCENT Officer. When the timer the Doctor set up goes off, Yancy shakes Tendo awake and checks his pupils.
"Hey. Didn't think you guys would stay."
Raleigh feeds Tendo ice-chips with a shrug.
"Eh. We stuck around because you had to be rocked to sleep in our arms. The second we set you down, you vomited and a poor intern had to clean it up," Yancy teased lightly, a small smile tugging his lips up.
It's been a while since Raleigh'd even seen that much from his brother. Their deadbeat donor had left them in the lurch and even Uncle Charlie couldn't bring back his brother's smile. Maybe it was a good thing they'd stumbled across Tendo at just the right time. Yancy liked to poke fun of Raleigh's habit of picking up strays but he was just as bad if not worse because he would always keep in contact with the human ones.
"What?"
"Ask the doc when you're a little more awake."
"Mmkay." Tendo rolls back over and curls into a ball, out within seconds.
Yancy and Raleigh end up scootching their chairs together so that they can prop their feet on the arm rests.
"Two rescues in two days. I think that's a record," he comments quietly, his mind mapping out exits and the intricate details of the Academy they'd passed. "This is good, y'know, for us."
"The pay helps cause it's decent," Yancy remarks as he tilts his head back to examine the Med Bay ceiling.
"I mean, what were we going to do if there were no Kaiju?" He knows the question's one they've tossed back and forth quite often if they hadn't aced the tests from the beginning.
"Probably doin' tours for rich people or somethin' as natives of Alaska." Yancy shrugs. "You're pretty good with planes and stuff. Might've ended up running the Base Museum."
"Jazzy'd still be doin' fashion." He snorts dryly at all of her attempts at men's wear with them as the models. "Or owning her own shop. Never know."
"Yeah. Kaiju brought humanity together even if that wasn't what they intended," his brother murmurs as the intern who had cleaned up Tendo's sick passes them by with a sour look at the sleeping man. Both brothers glare back and the intern scurries away.
It’s going to be a long day.
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