Some Do Not Like It Hot

Chapter 2: "That isn't supposed to be there!"

What... Where am I?

As Asuka woke, memories ran through her head of the battle that had just occurred. Despite her best efforts to slay the Angel, it had thrown her off. She had landed in a heap with Shinji and Rei, who likewise had been tossed like rag dolls. The Angel had disappeared in a flash of light, and all she remembered after that was agonizing pain, as if being plunged into boiling water, and then nothing.

I...feel… different.

The battle had gone disastrously, all thanks to stupid Shinji. Why did he have to panic when the Angel saw him? Why did he have to let her down all the time? Ooh, he and that stupid blue-haired doll...

Asuka groggily opened her eyes. Misato was standing over her, brows furrowed and anxiously staring at the girl.

"What..." Asuka groaned, her vision still cloudy. Regaining her voice, the girl said, "What happened?" As she spoke, she noticed that something was wrong. Something was very, very wrong. Her voice was a lot deeper than it should have been.

"Oh thank goodness, you can talk!" gasped Misato. "We were worried the physical change had ruined your vocal cords."

Wait, what? Physical change?

Asuka gave Misato a puzzled stare. "What are you talking about? What physical change? I mean, I feel funny, but…" Asuka trailed off.

Misato took a deep breath, bracing herself for the inevitable outburst that would undoubtedly come once she had imparted the news to the redheaded girl in front of her.

"Asuka, we don't know how. But when the Angel escaped from the area... Well, it did something to you and the other pilots. Asuka..." Misato paused, fidgeting. "Well, you're… somehow, you're male."

Asuka burst out laughing. "Pahahahahahahahah! Ha ha ha...Ho hoooo...good one, good one..." Asuka coughed, coming out of her giggles. "You had me going for a second, giving me some gas to deepen my voice and telling me I'm a boy. Oh, you crack me up... Hahahahaha..."

She noticed Misato's totally straight face. Asuka's eyes widened. "You're not serious... Mein Gott... This can't be..." she stuttered. Asuka ran her hands over her face and body. Her hair was a lot, lot shorter than normal. Her face was more angular, and her eyes smaller. Her chest was completely flat, and a lot broader than before. Her arms appeared to have become bigger, with more pronounced musculature.

Wait, then that means... Oh, no.

Shaking, Asuka reached down under her covers, and her fingers came into contact with something horrible. Something limp, fleshy, and soft. Something sensitive, ugly, and something that Asuka loathed with every fiber of her body. Something that made quite clear that Asuka should no longer be referring to himself with female pronouns.

The color drained from Asuka's face as he was struck dumb with what had happened. His mind rapidly switched through emotions, switching from distress to fear to sadness to confusion to white-hot, violent rage. Asuka had always hated boys, and now... now, he was one. Asuka's eyes ran around the room, until they locked onto the only other human being inside of it. He needed an outlet for his rage, and he needed it now. With a roar of anger, Asuka leapt out of his bed with fists balled and teeth bared. There was no time to call for backup before the frenzied boy landed on Misato. The pair landed on the ground, Misato under the furious Asuka's weight.

An echoing thump resounded throughout the corridor. Ritsuko ran towards the doorway, surmising the source of the noise almost immediately. "Shin-chan, I'll be right back. I have to sort something out," she said. Ritsuko was attempting to sound calm, only partially succeeding. She rushed out, slamming the door behind her.

The sound of a rather one-sided brawl emanated from the room opposite. Shinji tried to block it out, clasping her hands over her ears, but to no avail. She tried putting her pillow over her head, but it would not drown out the noise. Somehow, she felt even more timid and easily frightened than when she was a boy. Maybe it was something to do with hormones. She wasn't sure.

Then a horrible thought dawned on Shinji. If Asuka was now a boy (and judging by the angry bellows coming from next door, he probably was) and Shinji was a girl, the fiery redhead was of even more of harm to her than before. When they had been the correct gender, Shinji at least was at least of slightly less risk of injury from his housemate. Asuka had frequently beaten Shinji up, but it was motivated more by (albeit misplaced) defensiveness and general crankiness; whilst she was quite strong, she didn't have a huge amount of power.

With all that testosterone running through her- or rather, him- and all that strength, he would no doubt be even more aggressive than before. If Shinji said as much as one poorly judged thing to Asuka, then the ginger devil could seriously hurt her, or worse still, force himself upon her...

Shinji began to cry again. It was too much. She wanted to see Misato, for her to keep Shinji safe. She wanted to see Toji and Kensuke, and tell them all about what had happened.

Most of all, she wanted to see Rei.

The bottle blonde dashed out of Shinji's hospital room in a state of extreme panic. Judging by the sounds coming from the room across, Asuka had not taken the news very well.

She burst in through the door to find an enraged Asuka attempting to strangle Misato, who fortunately was just about holding the enraged boy's hands away from her throat.

"THIS IS YOUR FAULT! AHAHAHAHAHAHA! SHOULD HAVE THOUGHT HARDER ABOUT THAT PLAN, MISATO! AHAHAHAHAHAHA! BECAUSE NOW I'M A BOY, AND I'M GOING TO KILL YOU!" Asuka cackled. He had completely lost his mind. Both his eyes were glazed over, and spittle flew from his mouth. Ritsuko stared at the boy. She had expected some level of distress from the now male Asuka, but nothing like this.

"Oh, thank god you're here, Ritsuko! Help me get him off of me!" Misato grunted as she wrestled with the insane Asuka. Ritsuko entered the fray, grabbing hold of Asuka. "Asuka! Stop! This isn't you! You need to calm down!" she shouted, as the Second Child writhed and bucked in her grip.

"No! I'm going to... I'm going to kill you, and then I'm going to kill Shinji!" Asuka gibbered in response. "And then Wondergirl...I'm...Kill..Rtghgllghhglt...KILL!"

Ritsuko sighed. While it was morbidly amusing to watch, this had to stop. The blonde tried to restrain Asuka with one hand, and pulled out a syringe filled with green fluid from her lab pocket. "Asuka...I'm sorry. I have to do this, for your sake and ours," she sighed. She swiftly jabbed the screaming boy in the thigh with the instrument and depressed the plunger.

Asuka quivered and convulsed, and then went still. "Thanks...I needed that..." he gasped, before falling asleep on top of Misato.

The purple-haired woman managed to crawl out from under the supine form of Asuka, wiping the sweat off her brow. She exhaled heavily and put her head in her hands.

Ritsuko rushed to her side and put her arm around her. "My god...Are you all right?" she asked, holding her good friend up.

Misato sighed. "Yes, think so. I'm more worried about Asuka though. I really hope this isn't the result of brain damage..."

"No, I don't think this is brain damage," responded Ritsuko. "I knew that something like this would happen, just not quite that extreme. This should be a one-off case of severe stress- I can assume that he'll be okay once he wakes up."

She turned away from Misato and directed her attention to the sleeping Asuka. He was roughly the same height as he had been when he was female, but he was a lot bulkier with well-built muscles, a rather angular frame and a fairly broad chest. His features were well defined, his jaw quite square and his nose aquiline. He somehow managed to look a great deal more masculine than Shinji had when she had been male.

He makes rather a good boy, thought Dr Akagi. Here's to hoping that his little... outburst... was a one-off.

Holding her finger to the side of his throat, Ritsuko carefully checked Asuka's pulse before gently placing her hand on his chest. All seemed normal, physically anyway. She turned back to Misato. "Well, his pulse is fine, and I can't detect any irregularities in heartbeat or breathing. I think he should be OK to leave once he wakes up, provided you're all right with that. I mean, it looked like he came at you pretty bad-"

"Oh, it's fine, don't worry!" insisted Misato, smiling and clapping Ritsuko on the shoulder. "I'll take him home and keep him out of trouble. If it's like you said and that was just a fluke stress attack, then I think I'll have no problem with him. I can deal with a cranky teenage girl, I'm pretty sure I can deal with a cranky teenage boy!"

Ritsuko did not look convinced. "I don't think this is just any cranky teenage boy, Misato. I mean, I'm pretty sure that he should be OK, but if he flips again...are you sure you can handle him? If you want, I'll keep him in the psych ward for a while..."

"No, no, no!" Misato shook her head. "She- sorry, he needs care and attention, not a padded cell! If he's going to have to go through this I want to be able to support him any way I can. And if that means having him at home with me then I will!" She sighed and slumped her shoulders a little. Today was becoming quite taxing.

Dr Akagi hesitated for a few seconds, but then smiled. "Well, if you think you're up to it, then I'm in no position to tell you otherwise. Go right ahead, but please, do be careful. I'll discharge him as soon as he can walk," she said, her usual personality shining through.

"Thanks! I think it's best if we don't tell the higher-ups about the, ahem, incident." responded Misato. Ritsuko nodded. The two women grinned and shared a friendly hug.

"Urgh...My thigh hurts...Am I still a boy?" came a drowsy voice.

Ritsuko and Misato turned to see that Asuka was now sitting upright, still bleary-eyed but a lot more awake, and thankfully, a lot less homicidal.

"Ah, Asuka-kun, you're awake!" replied Ritsuko, dryly but cheerily. "And yes, I'm afraid you are still male."

The ginger boy groaned and crossed his arms, somewhat disappointed. "Ugh, I hate this new body. It's so... crude, so inelegant," he grumbled, examining his arms. "Still, at least stupid Shinji won't be lusting after me any more."

The two women couldn't help but snigger.

"Yeah, about that..." snorted Misato, just about holding in her laughter.

"Speaking of which," interjected Ritsuko, "I think that a certain Miss Ikari would like to see you both."

"Ah, yes! I'll go and see her now! Come along, Asuka! Ritsuko will help support you if necessary," the purple-haired woman giggled. She got up and walked out of the room.

Ritsuko took Asuka by the hand and hauled him up onto his feet. "Come on, I'll help you walk if you need me," she said.

Asuka's face had gone a shade of red not unlike his plugsuit. "...Miss Ikari?" he shuddered.

**TO BE CONTINUED**

A/N: This chapter is a little more polished than the first, mainly due to the awesome beta-reading skills of Nuclear Lunchbox. Many thanks, Nuke-kun, for your wonderful assistance and proofreading!

Also, the next few chapters will probably be a bit shorter than the first, as the original chapter 2 has been broken into 3 separate chapters.

Sorry for the delay, and thank you for your readership!