#threw mako into a shonen mecha au haha okay

[yell0wsalt]

New Fic: More Than You Know

Rating: T

Characters: Mako (gen)

Word Count: 2045

Summary: Get in the robot, Mako

full fic below:

Buzzing cicadas rang in people’s ears, the air thick with humidity, and the ground was so hot, if someone looked close enough, they could almost spy waves of heat emanating from the sidewalk. Without a question summer was at its peak. A heavy drop of sweat trailed down Mako’s back that he futilely tried to blot away with his t-shirt. It was already disgustingly damp.

Silently pondering to himself as he shielded his eyes from the sun, Mako found the idea of getting something refreshing to be an enticing one. The icy chill of the drink contradicting the blazing summer heat... He could picture it already and licked his chapped lips in anticipation.

Luckily, he didn’t have to go too far as there was a shopping square nearby. Dragon Flats Market. Dragon Flats was a pop up marketplace in downtown Republic City on the weekends that had a slew of both random and regularly scheduled vendors who serve all sorts of local treats, goods, and knick knacks.

He didn’t have to consider any more, feet moving of their own volition to the nearest stand. 

A purchase of a frosty blood orange strawberry blended drink later from The Misty Palms, Mako was brought back to life and in the mood to mosey about the rest of the shopping square to see what kind of curios piqued his interests today.

Halfway through his stride he paused in front of a stand. A Shrew Corvid’s Collection. Mako raised a curious brow before taking a long draw of his smoothie, polishing it off. Haven’t checked out this stall before. I wonder what they’ve got…

“Your curiosity here can only be satisfied from so far, young man.” The old shopkeeper perked up from behind the table in greeting and extended a weathered hand, beckoning him closer. “Come, come! Would you care to see what A Shrew Corvid’s Collection may have for you?” 

A quick hum in thought before shrugging his shoulders nonchalantly. “Sure, why not.”

“Are you looking for anything in particular?”

“Not exactly. Mainly wandering the marketplace to see what’s available today.”

“Well, be my guest and see what resonates with you.” They swept a hand to gesture to the several bins laid out on the table between them.

Mako scoped out the baskets and trays full of random oddities laid out in front of him. There was no structure in their organization. Just chaos. It made one of his eyebrows twitch. Regardless, he decided to take a breath before reaching a hand into one of the bins ahead of him to pull out… 

“A watch?” Mako turned his head curiously.

Structurally speaking it seemed like one of those retro digital watches. But it was bulkier than typical, appeared to be non-functional based on how old the parts looked, and to be frank, it had an unappealing decades old design. Yet, Mako couldn’t convince himself to put it down, suspending it mid-air in front of him to inspect it all around.

“Ahh, I see you’ve found a little treasure,” the shopkeeper remarked in appraisal.

“Treasure?” shifting his head to the side, breaking his object of focus from the watch to the shopkeeper. “What do you mean by that? Is there anything special behind it?”

They snickered. “That is something you’ll have to find out for yourself. Just as much as you find items of interest, they also find you.” Punctuated with a sly smile and an exaggerated wink.

Eyes narrowed suspiciously at the shopkeep before returning his gaze back onto the watch. “Oh-kayyy. How much for this, anyways?”

A hand wave dismissed his question. “For you? On the house. Even better if you can get it functional.”

He smiled politely. “Well then, thank you very much. I think I’ll take it.”

They bowed their head courteously. “No, thank you.”

****

Back at home in his office space, after too long of a time fiddling around with the watch’s buttons, wires, and screen, Mako pushed himself away from his desk in a bout of frustration. 

“Gah, this thing is a hunk of junk, I don’t even know why I bought the stupid watch.” Well, it was for free, but that’s besides the point. Impulse buying is not the move. 

Still, he couldn’t keep himself away, deciding to return back to his latest purchase and drape it over his wrist. “It looks so odd on me. Wearing it out and about would stick out like a sore thumb, even if I did get this to work.”

It was a second later that the face of the watch began to flicker on and off. Mako pinched his eyebrows, taking note of the change and he tried tapping at the screen with an index finger.

He was greeted by a humanoid mecha of red, black and white which boomed, “I am Power.”

“Ahhh!” Dropping the watch on the desk out of shock, Mako distanced himself to come down from the shock, gingerly picked the watch back up, and found the humanoid mecha still staring back at him.

“I guess the watch works somehow, but this is the oddest startup screen–”

“And I need you to defeat the Kaiju, Mako,” it– the watch– Power continued.

Hold on. Mako’s thoughts ground to a halt. “The what? Kaiju? What on earth is this thing talking about?” And how does it know my name?

In an answer to his rapid fire of questions, there was an earth-rumbling roar coming from outside his house. The walls surrounding him quaked; lights flickered on and off.

Dread made Mako’s blood immediately still and his face paled. He scrambled towards the window to find the source of the thundering cry.

What looked to be nearly 100m in both height and length, a prehistoric beast was running rampant in the middle of the city.

Mouth agape and eyes bulging out in shock, Mako tried to make sense of the madness. “A Kaiju? Those things are real? I thought they were something you’d only see on movies and shows? How on Earth and when did it get here?”

“No time to answer your questions, Mako!” Power snapped. “Now, we must merge as one to defeat the Kaiju before it continues its onslaught of destruction!”

He turned to his talking watch. “Merge as one? What do you mean by that?”

“What did I just say about having no time to answer your questions?!” 

He pinched his brows and pouted. Sheesh, so hasty.

“I need you to do as I say. Fasten me onto your wrist. Start off with making your left hand into a fist and bringing it to your chest above your heart. Then, cover the face of the watch with your right hand.”

Reminded of the piercing roars and the monster wreaking havoc, Mako followed suit.

“Focus all your life, all your energy onto me. Then, repeat after me, ‘Ultra power sequence, start!’”

Mako broke his pose to cock his head to the side and raised a skeptical side eye. Seriously? That’s so embarra–

Another thundering outcry and crash made him flinch. He squinted to the far off distance checking in on the situation. In addition to the monster swiping at buildings with its claws and tail, powerful laser blasts began to erupt from its mouth for long distance attacks.

Bearing heated cheeks, Mako took a moment to center himself before assuming position once more. “Ultra power sequence, start!”

A blinding white flash forced him to squeeze his eyes tight. When the light faded and Mako felt ready to open his eyes once more, he found himself at ground zero. Face to face with the Kaiju only a few kilometers away. It stared him down in a challenge.

Assessing his surroundings and perspective, Mako felt a shift. More than being larger than life, more than being physically capable to go head to head with the raging monster, more than all of that.

When he looked at the world from a higher place, he felt full of promise. Full of hope. He felt invincible.

He brought a hand in front of his face, met with the red, black, and white armor he recognized from Power in his watch.  

He clenched his fist with an assured grin. 

This is what it must be like to be merged with Power.

The Kaiju continued to roar deliriously, razing buildings in its vicinity. The monster paused its rampage to lean its head back, mouth hung open, for a beam of light to start growing from within.

“Mako!”

Snapping out of his reverie, Mako needed no further words. He charged towards the beast, ramming his shoulder into where he assumed the solar plexus would be.

Cut off from its attack, the monster let out a piercing cry as the momentum Mako carried had them tumbling to the ground. Mako landed on top, working to pin it down.

Although the Kaiju’s movements were slow, they held a lot of power behind them, making Mako work tooth and nail to hold down the arms and legs. He still needed to be mindful of its jaw and the blasts it was capable of producing.

“You need to go for the nape of the neck! That’s its weak spot!” Power advised.

Huffing and panting from the rush and struggle, “You wouldn’t happen to know if there is a weapon of any sort that comes with this thing, would you?”

“Squeeze your right fist.”

Directly above Mako’s right hand, a short wrist blade materialized. Perfect. Just what I need.

Mako couldn’t get distracted by the blade for too long, feeling the monster start to gain more strength in its writhing. It attempted to lunge forward and snap its jaws at Mako.

Mako readjusted his position, working to firmly secure the beast’s limbs once more. Before it could open its mouth for another attack, knowing it was capable of shooting laser blasts, Mako loaded his hand back and thrust the wrist blade into the neck with all the strength he could muster to pierce all the way to the back.

A long sputtered howl on its last breaths, the kaiju thrashed weakly for a few more minutes before it ceased to fight back. Time stood still for Mako while he held his breath hovering over the monster, hoping and praying it was actually dead. Sure the fight was over after a drawn out pause, Mako finally sat back on his heels, chest heaving in fatigue and disbelief at what he just did. 

Before he had any more time to process the events of the day, he was hit with another white flash of light that brought him back to his garage once it faded. Knees buckling in the adrenaline crash, Mako fell back on his butt down to the floor, propped back on his hands.

“I can’t believe that just happened,” he breathed. “I… fought… a kaiju? And won.”

“Congratulations on your victory today, Mako. A small step forward; you’re learning.”

Mako brought his hand up to face the watch and look at Power incredulously. “‘Small step forward’? Wasn’t that it? You told me I needed to defeat the Kaiju.”

“There is more than what meets the eye and this is just the beginning.”

Overwhelmed and at a loss for words, he dumbly nodded before dropping his hand.

In the background he vaguely caught onto the sounds of wailing sirens and people crying over the devastation.

****

Heading out the next day didn’t do anything to help sort through the confusion and questions in Mako’s mind, but only made it worse.

Nothing had changed.

Events of the night before wiped clean, it was as though there was no evidence of a Kaiju running rampant about Republic City the night before. Roads were undamaged. Once destroyed buildings, intact. Passerbys went about their day to day business as though the most mind-boggling events of anyone’s lives didn’t happen less than 12 hours ago.

Mako could have chalked it up to a fever dream he couldn’t shake off, but the only evidence that still kept him grounded of the events from the day before was the watch– Power– Mako absentmindedly fiddled with.

Blankly staring as his eyes swept the scenery, Mako could only come to a single conclusion.

“Something is off here…”

And he needed to find out what.