Disclaimer:
Series referenced include Guyver and Neon Genesis Evangelion. Guyver is referenced from a postulated future based off a combination of TV and manga continuity, while NGE is based off the Rebuild continuity.
This author sees no part of ad revenue related to and this is written for fun rather then profit. The following fanfic intentionally breaks away from continuity to avoid issues related to plagiarism or excessive lack of originality.
[-]
It was swimming. The others had told it to go. It had asked why it should go first. The others had said that there'd be people to play with.
It looked around. It thought that it had seen something.
[-]
Shinji looked around the abandoned rail station wondering if he'd made some sort of mistake. This looked like one of those abandoned cities. There wasn't so much as a stray cat wandering around.
He flipped open the cheap prepaid phone that his Uncle had bought for him, again. It once again informed him that there was no service. He glanced at the instructions that had came with the package from his Father again, noting once more that as least in terms of following the directions it didn't appear that he had made a mistake. He looked again at the bank of pay phones.
His Uncle had told him about such things, but this was the first time he'd seen one and he had a sneaking suspicion it wouldn't be in working condition. It wasn't like he had any better options though. He walked over and picked up the receiver. Just as he was about to feed it some change, like his Uncle had talked about, a voice informed him that service had been cut due to an emergency. He spent a long moment staring at the phone wondering why they'd remove people's ability to call emergency services during an emergency.
Shinji sighed. He'd almost forgotten about his father in the ten years since he'd been sent away to his Uncle. His adopted family had always treated him as an outsider, and the first time that his father showed any interest in him it was apparently to… yank his chain by sending him a perverted picture from the internet and stranding him in a abandoned city.
Why had he bothered? He knew his father didn't care.
[-]
It looked curiously at the numerous small flying things and that had greeted it. They were throwing things at it that exploded into pretty colors. They must be happy to see it. The others had insisted that it go to the place. So it couldn't play with them.
It kept walking.
[-]
Shinji heard the scream of jet engines, and turning towards the sound watched as a giant made of some unnatural black material walked into the city preceded by a swarm of blockish aircraft. He could hear the scream of missiles, and the loud subsequent explosions, followed by one of the aircraft almost landing on him only to be followed seconds later by a gargantuan black foot crushing the aircraft not even three meters in front of him.
He ducked bringing his hands up to ward off the metal fragments as the metal screamed, tore, and ultimately fragmented and exploded towards him. He was going to die. But the screaming pieces of metal didn't hit him.
Cracking open an eye he saw a car that had interposed itself between him and what remained of the aircraft. The door was open, and the women from the picture's lips were moving. She pulled him into her car, and it was only thanks to some quick and fancy driving that they weren't stepped on.
[-]
The problems associated with actually making an Evangelion work had been numerous before they'd found out the hard way that if precautions weren't taken that they'd eat their pilot. Most of the past decade had been spent trying to come up with, test, and certify measures to prevent that.
Two weeks ago they'd finally been confident enough to try to do a full test of the systems, only to find that they'd made it so the pilot didn't have control which resulted in the Eva running wild and severely injuring the Pilot. Today they were pulling the Eva that had made them aware of the risk of an Eva eating its pilot out of cold storage, and were in the process of trying to refit it with the control system they'd developed over the past decade plus some modifications that hadn't even been properly peer reviewed yet.
To make matters worse, part of the newer control system involved a tuned "core" with rather thorough profile data about it's pilot. Something they didn't really have beyond out of date data from the Marduk report. They didn't even have enough to calibrate a Plug Suit, and the Commander's son was supposed to somehow pilot this thing in combat?
Ritsuko finished pulling on her wet suit, and checking her diving equipment. At least she was going to insure that it was properly defrosted and as ready as possible.
[-]
Shinji wasn't quite sure what was going on. The ringing in his ears had started to abate, but that didn't explain why the woman had parked her car and was now leaning over him with a rather expensive pair of electronic binoculars.
"It's an N2 mine." She declared from above him, before tackling him down. He just barely caught a blinding light over the mountain she'd been looking at before the sky was on fire and the car was picked up and thrown like some kind of toy.
[-]
It hurt. Smash.
[-]
His body ached from an uncountable number of impacts and he felt thirsty and tired as he opened an eye and realized that somehow he wasn't dead. He pulled himself up on the seat and tried to open the door only to find it didn't want to budge. Shoving with all the strength he could muster he managed to get it open. Pulling himself he'd almost pulled himself out of the car when he realized a few things.
First was that contrary to his previous notions the car was on its side. Second was that the door wasn't staying open. Third was the realization he should do something about that just before the door smashed into him sending him to the bottom of the car in a heap.
He landed on something soft that groaned under him. It took him a moment to realize it was the woman from before, bruised and bleeding from a number of small cuts.
"What happened?" She asked while trying to pull herself up, which wasn't that simple in these cramped quarters. Shinji went ahead and moved to the back seat.
"We somehow survived getting nuked." He answered.
"I see." Her voice was dry and slightly strained.
"The car's on its side. We're going to need to pull ourselves out." Shinji allowed himself to sit down despite the glass as he was feeling whoozy.
The woman looked like was about to say something, and then the car shifted. Were they one a cliff? Before either of them could do anything the car flipped back onto its wheels. Shinji caught sight of some black armored thing before it rocketed away engines screaming. It must have been some kind of JSDF power suit.
The woman opened the door, and Shinji followed. "Well at least there's nothing obviously broken."
Shinji's personal assessment wasn't quite so optimistic. The front bumper looked like it was about ready to fall off. "Uh can't you call a helicopter or something, ma'am?"
She looked at him curiously. "Ma'am?"
Wait she was...
"My name's Misato Kitsuragi, I told you that you could call me Misato. There's no need to be so formal."
"I couldn't hear what you were saying after the explosion."
She thought about that a moment and then stuck out a hand. "Let's start over. Hi there, I'm Misato Katsuragi."
"I'm Shinji Ikari." Shinji said uncertainly. He didn't so much shake her hand as failing to avoid her grabbing his hand and shaking it vigorously.
She let go of his hand and pulled out her keys marching towards the driver side door. "Let's see if this thing turns over."
[-]
Ritsuko pressed the contact switch on her headset, and requested verification. Misato and the new pilot had just gotten onto one of NERV's high speed underground rail lines. According to Maya's projections they would arrive only a matter of minutes before the Angel.
Based on the ETAs they were going to need to pick up the pace just to finish defrosting and installing the new control systems. There was no time to properly certify any of it, so they were just going to have to do what they could on the fly.
[-]
"That's what NERV is for, gentlemen." Gendo said confidently. Afterall they were the only ones who possessed the Evangelions and the Evangelions were the only thing that could counter and Angel's AT field.
[-]
Misato remained tight lipped about why he'd been called here, instead making it sound like somehow he was supposed to already know about the inner workings, purpose, and organizational structure of the clandestine, secret organization his father apparently worked for. It left him with a sneaking suspicion Misato didn't understand what the word "clandestine" or "secret" meant.
[-]
Ritsuko toggled the contact switch to confirm. It figured. Misato had only been assigned to NERV a week, and she didn't have a good sense of direction at the best of times. At this point everyone was finishing up what they could before launch, and knew what they had to do. Their chances would be better if she could stay, but there would no chance if the thing never launched because the pilot got lost and never arrived.
[-]
The blond woman that had introduced herself as Ritsuko Akagi seemed nice enough. They fussed at each other while they crossed a red lake that had a distinctive and odd odor. Up ahead was something that looked like an arm with a large wind attached to it, sandwiched between a pair of gargantuan metal plate cut outs.
"So how do you feel?"
Shinji looked at Ritsuko for a long second. Had she just talked to him? "Okay, I guess."
"It's a big responsibility." What was?
"I'm sorry, what's…" He was cut off by the boat finally arriving at the set of compact stairs.
"You'll see." Ritsuko said cryptically.
[-]
Opening the metal hatch revealed Evangelion Unit 01 in all it's glory. It sounded like her techs had just about finished. Now if they could just spend a few minutes calibrating the core with actual readings from the Third Child. Someone had even managed to find Yui's old plug suit, which while hardly optimal for use by her son would be able to be calibrated to give that slight additional performance edge. They might be able to actually win this.
She gave the boy the short version of the spiel about how this was the most awesome combat robot ever. At least it'd inspire enough confidence for him to possibly succeed unlike telling him it was a hacked together prototype that ate his mother and hadn't been properly tested since.
"It's been quite a while." And there was the Commander. Out of her eye she could see that the boy was clearly emotionally touched by the reunion. Time to knock it out of the park.
"We're moving out." It… wasn't the best sell, but it'd work.
Of course that's when Misato had to step in. Way to support the united front, Misato.
Given no one else seemed to be getting with the program she went ahead and informed Shinji about being the pilot so he could start getting used to the idea. Hopefully without the others screwing things up.
Shinji seemed to contemplate that before looking at his father imploringly. "Dad, why did you send for me?" Okay good opportunity.
"I thought that was self evident at this point." Was the Commander's dismissive response. Wonderful. Not only was this wasting time they could be spending getting the systems calibrated enough to give them a fighting chance, but the Commander seemed determined to insure their only viable pilot wouldn't want to.
And it rapidly went downhill from there, with the Commander stopping just short of demanding he leave this instant.
As if to punctuate why this was a horrible idea, their alien friend up stairs started blasting things causing a number of alarms to go off. She tried to salvage things. It was clear that the boy was already shutting down, but if she could swing this they might be able to salvage something.
"There's not much time, Shinji."
Misato seemed to get with the picture, as when he turned towards her for a second opinion she told him to get in. He was too far into panicking though, which Misato took the entirely wrong approach with.
"Why did you come if not for this?"
"How was I supposed to know you had a giant robot?! I just wanted… I thought that my father might actually care about me." She got lucky in that Shinji was to focused inward to send her into the LCL for that.
The Commander not satisfied with this, could be heard ordering Fuyutsuki to prep Rei. Which of course would require resetting the control system core to work with her. Despite the fact she was in no condition to take care of a cat, let alone pilot. Even if this was some kind of gamble of his to convince his son to pilot, after throwing away the easy leverage handed to him, that still meant they'd lose significant time insuring the Eva itself would not be as combat ready as possible. Not to mention rapidly switching core units like this significantly increased the likelihood of something going wrong.
[-]
Ritsuko sighed. All the needless drama had insured they were way behind schedule, and Rei was even more badly injured. It looked like they might get away with that nonsense of rapidly changing the core unit, but Shinji was going to launch with neither plug suit, core unit optimization, or any time to get a feel for the uncalibrated control systems.
They were doomed, and all for whatever petty nonsense the Commander had decided to screw everything over. Now however wasn't the time to be focusing on that. Now was the time to try to salvage this.
"Wait what is this?"
Any normal day _that_ would be one of the bigger issues. Today? Today it was an opportunity to try to calm down and focus the pilot enough to insure they weren't utterly screwed. Maya, bless her, was using this to try to make at least an attempt at calibrating the core unit.
"Synchronization rate, 41.3%." Maybe this would work afterall. The control systems seemed to actually be working, and his synchronization rate was solid.
[-]
Ritsuko allowed herself to hope this was actually going to work out. The Evangelion was working, and they managed to launch successfully. While on the fly calibration was far from optimal, if they started with walking they might get far enough to allow him to succeed.
Then on the second step he fell. The Angel a short distance away in terms of the relevant scale reached down and picked up the helpless Eva and drove an energy spike through its skull. They were, screwed. Their only line of defense was about to be taken apart.
Then the lights went out.
[-]
The arm I had been holding the purple giant with dropped with an arm that was no longer attached to it. It looked to see something black and deformed from burns walking towards it. Green and yellow crystals were prominently displayed, cracked and sparking while pulsing irregularly with energy. It took a step back.
Something in its forehead glowed in an irregular, but familiar pattern. The thing closed, and it raised a field only to have it crack as a fist exploded into it. It then realized the dark one wasn't before it. Before it could find the dark one, the dark one found it blades penetrating its flesh before a hand closed on its core.
[-]
Shinji woke up staring at a bare, unfamiliar ceiling. Looking around he noticed a man dozing in a chair, his long dark hair obscuring his face. On his other side was a bunch of medical equipment he didn't understand that was hooked up to various electrodes that he suddenly realized were starting to itch. He resisted the urge to pull them off, the hospital staff wouldn't like that.
"Good morning." A voice said pleasantly.
Shinji tuned to see the man was looking at him, or at least appeared to be through a pair of dark sunglasses.
"Who are you?" Shinji asked, inching away due to finding something unsettling about him.
"It's probably better for the both of us that you don't know, Mr. pilot." He seemed to be mildly amused. "I suppose you want to know what happened?"
Shinji nodded dumbly. "Well after the two big guys were done I found you in that capsule thing. It was clear something was wrong with you, so I brought you here." He paused, and then started to get up. "I should be going. I paid your medical bill in advance."
Shinji wanted to say something, to at the very least thank the anonymous man, but was at a loss for exactly what to say. Just as the man was about to open the door he paused. "There is a question I'd like to ask." Turning back in his direction he asked. "Why did they have a young kid like you piloting that thing?"
"No one else could do it." Shinji said and then immediately questioned that statement. What had the other "big guy" been? Had Rei somehow been able to overcome her injuries and fight off that monster? He started to ask, only to find the man was gone.
[-]
It'd been a very long day. All of the computer, sensor, and electrical systems were being checked and rechecked, the battle site itself was under a ridiculous level of scrutiny, and they'd only found Shinji an hour ago. All the security personnel they could spare were out helping to look for the witness that had checked Shinji into a local hospital. And the worst part is that Ritsuko was personally overseeing investigation of the battle area and trying to figure out what had happened to the Angel while she was stuck at her console.
She was just about ready to scream when her monitor turned red and a siren began going off. Apparently someone or something had just unsealed an entrance to Central Dogma. Well there went her break.
[-]
"Are you sure there's not a Code Blue?" Fuyutsuki asked for the twenty-first time, while hovering over her shoulder. Keeping track was the only reason she hadn't yelled at him yet.
If there was more any more active sensor scrutiny in Central Dogma, they'd be able to fry eggs. The Angel detection system hadn't so much as gotten a ping since the power failure, and yet there was no way whatever broke in was human. There were disabled cameras and opened doors, which according to the reports coming in had been done while managing to avoid being recorded in the process. They hadn't detected it when this was going on because the guys supposed to be monitoring the cameras were among those who'd been sent out.
Whoever or whatever had gotten in there had unsealed another entrance, and there was a debate on whether the intruder had actually left, and whether it was some kind of covert Angel attack or some kind of super operative.
"Are you sure the sensors are working properly? Could they be malfunctioning?" Fuyutsuki asked for the twenty-fifth time.
"The technicians did a full inspection and they checked out, sir. " She kept her voice level.
"Well have them check it again."
She just managed to avoid screaming at him that doing an inspection would require taking the system offline, and that they'd been constantly running diagnostics since they'd regained power. She desperately needed a break. Standing up she said. "Sir, I need to use the facilities."
Standing up she walked off the bridge, a guy with long dark hair in a NERV maintenance uniform that was working on one the Magi cores turned slightly in her direction and caught her eye on her way out.
[-]
She sighed as she left the restroom. While screaming at the wall proved to be cathartic , recognition of what she was headed back into was negating most of it. Not only was this going to keep going, but Command wasn't going to let them leave until they'd combed the place.
"It looks like you're having it pretty rough." The maintenance guy from before offered her a canned coffee. Was he trying to pick her up? He was kind of cute.
"Yeah." She taking the still sealed can. The chance of him having messed with it was small, and it'd be nice to have a conversation that didn't involve Fuyutsuki asking the same questions over and over again with slight variations. She could lower her standards a little bit for a few minutes, it wasn't like someone who could work on the Magi could have a sack of bricks for a brain.
"You're holding yourself together rather well."
She waved him off. "I'm not doing that well. I was about ready to scream at old Gray Hair."
"But you didn't and that's what makes all the difference." It wasn't the best compliment she'd received, but under the circumstances she could lower her standards a little.
[-]
"Did you hear? They traced this guy's point of entry to a maintenance hatch in one of the gun elevators."
"Really?"
At least command had let them eat in the mess hall in shifts, instead of forcing them to eat at their consoles. Of course that might just be because Hyuga had almost shorted his console out with one of those high caffeine sodas. Regardless it was nice to have a break, and someone who was at least mildly competent to talk to.
"Yeah, Hyuga thinks that whoever this intruder is must either be able to fly or stick to walls, because they somehow managed to get from a above ground maintenance hatch to a maintenance tunnel in the base without leaving so much as leaving a single climbing harness."
"I guess that is a little too far for rope. From what I heard the base is locked down through tomorrow because of something to do with a intruder and some monster in the basement that's all hush, hush."
She shrugged, she'd been up for almost twenty four hours. "I don't know anything about that. All they ever told us is that if an Angel gets into our basement then." She slammed her hand down on the table for emphasis. "Boom, end of the world."
"So nobody speculates on why whatever is down there is so important?" The maintenance guy asked casually. He'd peeled back the top of the coveralls exposing his not exactly dry undershirt, and she couldn't help but notice he was built. His shoulder was looking awfully inviting, even though she knew it wasn't her turn to take a nap yet.
"Well it's got to be an Angel, or something like that, in order to be that much of a threat, like Second Impact."
"Why not just kill it then?"
She shrugged. "Maybe we need it for something. Could I lean on you a moment?" Maybe she could just rest her eyes for a few minutes.
[-]
He'd been happy when he'd been hired by NERV. It paid a lot more then his previous work as a contract security guard, and the air of secrecy around the place allowed him to almost feel like he was James Bond. Of course, the few women that worked here didn't pay him any mind, although having Captain Misato as a superior helped.
"Hey there." He looked up at the figure towering over him. He must have let his mind wander. "Apparently the cooling systems are out of whack."
It was another one of those maintenance guys, only this guy was both big and built. "When do you think they'll find the guy?" He asked trying to make conversation.
"Maybe you're looking at him." The towering maintenance guy said with an amused smile.
He laughed, and the towering maintenance guy joined him. "Go on." He said waving the guy through.
[-]
Shinji sighed. NERV had made arrangements for him to stay at an apartment building, where Rei was apparently his neighbor. Or would be if she wasn't under observation in NERV's medical ward. He couldn't even go to school to get his mind off things, as he wasn't registered.
[-]
Ritsuko checked her phone. It was Fuyutsuki again. She pinched her nose in irritation before accepting the call.
"Any news?" Fuyutsuki asked. That was oddly straight to the point for him.
"Nothing that can't wait until I'm able to properly write it up in my report."
"Good job, Dr. Akagi." That wasn't like him at all. Suddenly the voice changed to one that was clearly synthesized. "So just what exactly do think you have in the basement?"
She went to end the call only to find that the screen was unresponsive.
"Don't bother, I have root access."
"We're going to catch you." She shot back with confidence she didn't feel. To crack into her cell phone that fast and this thoroughly meant he had to know the backdoors in the custom operating system they were using.
"And if you catch me, then what?" The amused tone made it clear he was completely and utterly not intimidated. Or at least putting on a strong front.
"What about you? What are you intending to do next?" She signaled one of her aides to try to do a backtrace. If they didn't get this guy it wasn't going to be because they didn't try.
"I'll let you decide." That didn't come from her phone. A large dark haired man stood in the doorway dressed in a maintenance uniform.
[-]
"You infiltrated our base as a maintenance man, and set up that whole thing with the gun elevator access just to throw us off." Misato declared while pointing accusingly over the interrogation table.
"You seem to have it all figured out." The man said while smiling in a way that was making Ritsuko very concerned. Whoever this guy was, he was taking this far too lightly. Factoring in the only reason they'd managed to catch him, and she was very concerned that this guy's friends were up to something while Misato fell into the trap of focusing on him.
"Who do you work for?" Ritsuko interjected, not expecting a straight answer.
"Zeus' Thunderbolt." Was his immediate response. She wasn't familiar with any organization by that name. Given how cocky he was maybe she could get him talking.
"What were you hoping to accomplish?"
He kept smiling that unnerving smile of his and countered her question with a question. "Tell me, what do you think that thing in the basement is?"
"Why ask us? You were down there weren't you?"
He made a point to look around the armored interrogation cell and wave at the Commander behind the one way glass. "Is it the fact you have that thing in the basement, or what you're planning to do with it that you think you're guarding?"
"You're bluffing."
"Am I? I had hours to read all the sordid little details of 'Human Instrumentality' off your mainframe."
The commander's voice spoke up in her ear. "We're not going to get anything else out of him."
Their intruder reached up to one of his eyes, and popped out a contact... A bluish-grey iris with a slitted pupil regarded her…
[-]
Maya seemed to be disappointed about something before she'd fallen asleep mumbling something about a sempai. The analysis of the tissue samples from their intruder didn't have any indicators of Angel biomatter being present. Whatever he was couldn't really be called human though, and he was amused and evasive about her inquiries on the subject. She was becoming increasingly uneasy about how cavalier he was about whole thing, and that persistent sense that they were playing to someone else's game.
The intruder's computer was rather sophisticated and heavily encrypted piece of custom kit. The only identifying marks was a weird logo composed of a pair wavy lines and a collection of dots. So far there were no matches for it or any of the component's serial numbers. She'd put the Magi system to analyzing and trying to break the encryption, but it was sophisticated enough she wasn't expecting that to go anywhere. None of which explained how he'd been able to so smoothly get into their system. He might be some kind of professional hacker, but she was the only one that knew the Magi system that well, and that only because of her Mother's notes. Unless...
Unless their mysterious backers who her mother had given the ability to build other Magi systems had spent the intervening years analyzing one of the later systems. The thought made her go cold as it meant that they had to potential to be aware of exploits she would never be able to adequately track down and eliminate. While she'd helped finalize the system, most of her career had been spent developing the control and piloting systems for an Evangelion. And while she'd focused on that the Magi system had remained a static target.
With it's unique architecture and intended usage, having a staff of programmers working on closing security holes had been deemed more of a security risk then a boon. It also would have consumed too much of their already overstretched budget. Especially with Fuyutsuki's insistence on having the city be retractable, and buying those surplus warships.
Wait… Ritsuko went over the Angel biomatter test again. He was clean. Completely clean. The normal trace levels of the Taint weren't present. There was something very weird going on here.
[-]
"Why are you free of the Taint?" Ritsuko asked, not expecting a real answer.
"And what is the 'Taint'? " He asked calmly
"When we discovered the first of these beings we call 'Angels' it blew up taking most of Antarctica with it. The surviving population was contaminated by exposure to the resulting explosion. This exposure effectively rendered the entirety of Earth's population sterile. Even when someone managed to beat the odds and become pregnant the child is born dead."
"And hence Instrumentality is one of the plans you're pursuing to try to insure that humanity will have a future." Their intruder observed.
"Using that thing in the basement is the only way we've been able to create new life, but you're not Tainted." It was a small bit of information she didn't see him being able to get much out of, and bait to hopefully make him more cooperative. While they'd been able to produce Rei she was a dead end. Something new needed to be brought to the table if they were to survive as a species.
He stood up, the door opening of it's own accord. "You're not making a case why I shouldn't vacation on Io. You're doomed as a matter of course, and the only defense you could muster against your imminent demise was an untrained child in an untested mech that was defeated in a matter of seconds."
What? That door was electronically controlled, and hooked up to the… Magi. Security must of missed something when they'd frisked him, and like a idiot she'd left his computer hooked up to the system. She wasn't going to let herself be awed by his parlor trick. Picking up her radio, she clicked the button.
"Security, the prisoner is trying to escape his cell."
He paused and looked in her direction. "I'd advise against that."
"Why? Do you think you can intimidate us with your hacking parlor tricks?"
In response he... smiled that unnerving smile. Those bluish gray slitted pupils regarding her with amusement. His earlier comment caught up with her.
"What do you mean vacation on Io?"
"Oh, just recharging my batteries somewhere they aren't going to come looking after you or the Nephilim activate that thing."
"So I'm guessing this is the part where your friends come in and attack our base while we're focused on you?"
His look became dour. "Everyone I cared about is dead." He paused for a second. "Unlike you they sacrificed everything so we would have a chance at saving the world... but then Mars decided to stop over for a visit." She could see that he was clenching his fist.
She almost didn't hear what he whispered next. "Bio-boost."
Ritsuko shielded her eyes from the explosion that followed. When she looked what was standing in the man's place was some kind of spiky black armored creature with dimly glowing white eye panels and some kind of spiked ports something was hissing out off. As she was trying to make sense of it the security guard opened fire, only for his bullets to ricochet off in a stream of distinctive twangs before he suddenly exploded coating the command room with gore.
Ritsuko paged her assistant. "Maya, are you detecting a Code Blue?"
Her assistant's confused voice responded back. "No. Why do you ask?"
Their intruder meanwhile had pointed an open hand at the ceiling, and was currently holding a rather malicious looking spacial disturbance. "Oh nothing, our intruder just turned into some kind of armored superweapon and…"
Ritsuko dodged back into the cell as she noticed a subtle bounce, which turned out to be justified as she'd just barely passed the threshold of the door when there was a large boom. After a moment she glanced out to see a rather substantial hole through the armored sheet that made up the roof…
[-]
Misato couldn't tear her eyes from the hole. It was roughly a meter across and had tore through a thick slab of armored plate like so much paper. Everything below it was a mess of reddish-blackish-brownish goo. According to forensics the Sergeant's skeleton had shattered into a zillion little fragments shredding his body in the process. The thing that had done it had once more managed to elude them and disappear.
"What the fuck is this thing?"
"The instrument array we've been using to detect the S2 engine of Angels is actually rather broad spectrum because we weren't sure quite what we were looking for originally. One of the experimental detectors in that array picked up something when he activated that armored suit, which we've had the Magi flag as a Code Black for now."
Misato looked at Ritsuko making a point to try to avoid looking at the gore that was trying to turn her stomach inside out. "What kind of instruments?"
"They're one of a few types of sensors that theoretically would be able to detect dimensional distortions. The theoretical basis behind them is so dodgy that we only picked them up because the Commander wanted to cover all the bases. So really, we don't know what it is we're really detecting. It could just be a false positive that happened to occur at the same time."
[-]
Misato had given him orders to come in, in order to do a calibration test. Apparently it had something to do with making it easier to pilot the Eva. It was nice to just get out the apartment, as NERV had been locked down for the past few days.
"Hey there."
Huh? The man from the hospital was there, wearing a dark pair of sunglasses. Maybe he worked for NERV?
"So do they want you to keep piloting?"
"Yeah." He said quietly. He wasn't sure he supposed to be talking about that.
There was something that looked like a mixture of guilt, regret, and pity on the man's face. "Don't let them kill you too easily." The man stumbled and collapsed not ten meters from the entrance to NERV.