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Reload of ARSENAL
That's it, you're on my list

Shinji Ikari, the new HNIC

[2.]

Curbstomp Battle: Slang, derived from the film American History X, defined as a battle, generally the victim of hype, between two equally powerful opponents that ends in a spectacularly one-sided manner. Example: The battle between the Third Angel, Sachiel, and Evangelion Unit-01 in the center of Tokyo-3.

From the moment it left the gates, Unit-01 dominated the Angel, breaking and tearing off its arms before crushing its legs and pummeling it into an unrecognizable mess of flesh, bone, and a shattered S2 core. When it was all over, there was blood all over the streets, buildings, and Unit-01, which sported not even a scratch for its trouble. Given the circumstances and its pilot, for the personnel within the Central Dogma, this was particularly disconcerting.

"E-Evangelion Unit-01 is… is…" Maya Ibuki murmured as the Eva seemed content with eating some of the remains of its kill. "N-Nevermind."

She needed to go cry, and she got up to do that. While Makoto Hyuga and Shigeru Aoba silently tried to wrap their heads around the violence they had witnessed. Behind them, Ritsuko was still struggling with the sudden crush of events that came with the Third Child's arrival and his coup. On one hand, he was dangerous beyond measure, but on the other hand he got results.

Then there was the fact that she was incredibly attracted to men with power, and Shinji had displayed enough confidence and swagger in his grab for it to convince her that maybe it was something in the Rokubungi gene pool that made them naturals at getting women inappropriately aroused.

This blossoming attraction was no small influence on her conflict, as she found herself wondering what she would do if Shinji did gain control of Nerv, and how much she would enjoy it if she played her cards right.

Misato was already waiting in the cages for Shinji's return, along with two platoons of JSSDF Soldiers and Nerv's own internal security force. When Unit-01, restrained and unpowered, slid down into its gantry, guns of all varieties and caliber were trained upon the cowling that protected the entry plug. Inside, Shinji lounged in his seat with his hands folded over his waist, not at all surprised by the "Hero's Welcome".

With a hiss and groan, the Entry Plug was drained, extracted, and automated commands opened it for Shinji to find Misato waiting on the edge of the catwalk, with at least six JSSDF soldiers all aiming rifles at his face and neck. Her own pistol ready, she trained it on Shinji as she stepped closer.

"Get out of the Entry Plug with your hands up and out. If you comply, you will not be harmed," she spoke to him, all business in her tone.

Shinji did as told, climbing out of the plug and onto the dry catwalk before spreading his arms out. The fear in the room was palpable, as if they were expecting him to conjure up an AT-Field and go to town on them. Man wouldn't that be awesome? Shame he was just a normal boy outside of his majestic monster of a robot.

"I don't have your trust yet, do I?" He complained to Misato, before addressing her backup, "Do you really need all this help taking me into custody?"

"Do I?" Was he going to make this harder for her? Shinji scowled.

"Right now, you have specialists working to disarm Hiroshima-kun with the help of the MAGI." A beep sounded from his pocket, and Misato could see the edge of a smart phone sticking from it. "And there it goes. Well played, Father, you ran a tight ship."

Misato didn't like that he wasn't concerned. "You planned for that, didn't you?"

"I expected that you would disarm it, this is the most advanced military organization on Earth," Shinji replied to her. "Do you play Shogi? Chess? In those games, you have to plan your moves, calculate your gains and losses and use both to further the ultimate goal."

"So losing the nuke is part of your plan."

"I can afford it, I have more than one suitcase nuke."

Misato's breath left her in a long wheeze. "What."

"I have more nukes, hidden somewhere in the city. After the Second Impact, Russian-built suitcase nuclear weapons the GRU placed at their predetermined deployments were lost due to the anarchy. GRU Agents, some of which were inducted into Section 2 after Gehirn's reorganization into Nerv, had managed to reacquire some of them to sell illegally to whoever wanted them. I had managed to get a hold of one of those agents, and he had a fantastic stockpile of eight in total, ready for sale to any bloodthirsty maniac who wanted a bit of power at his disposal."

He pointed to himself. "He gave them to me, and they are all connected to my Dead Man's Trigger."

Misato's hands trembled. "Where are they?"

"I won't tell you. I need those to make sure people don't get the idea to knock me off, they're my insurance policy until I convince all of Nerv to accept me as their leader."

Misato grabbed his collar, yanked him close, and placed the barrel of her pistol against his chin. Shinji blinked, and stared at the gun before looking at glowering face. Briefly, fear of mortality bubbled up, but he repressed it as he returned her stare.

"What are you going to do when you have control? What can you do that your father already isn't doing as Commander?"

Shinji answered. "I'll tell you what I won't do. I won't turn around and wipe out the rest of mankind in some grief-driven delusional effort to reunite with my dead wife, like he intends to."

"What are you talking about?"

"It's my father's goal for Instrumentality, to use Unit-01 to trigger the Third Impact and reunite with my mother."

At Misato's disbelieving look, Shinji continued, "It's why he chose me to be Unit-01's pilot, to be his unwitting pawn in the scenario."

She tightened her grip on his collar in response. "I don't believe that."

"You have every right not to, all you have to go by is my word. But I'm telling you the truth, the dreams all end the same way and they haven't been wrong yet. I know what his plans are." He pointed at the cross that hung around her neck. "Just like I know your father gave you that cross, when he dropped you in that escape capsule during the Second Impact."

Misato dropped Shinji and took a step back. She stared at him, as though he had become an Angel right in front of her. She looked down at the cross, and then back at him. She hadn't told anyone exactly how her Father gave her the cross. No one else could've possibly known that, not even Kaji.

"Captain Katsuragi…?" One of the soldiers asked as she suddenly holstered her pistol.

"Stand down!" Misato ordered, before she grabbed Shinji again. Quietly, she hissed to him, "How do you know that?"

"I already told you, the dreams haven't been wrong. I can tell you more, but I need your trust."

"And how do you know I won't betray you the moment you've told me anything?"

"Because if you were that kind of person, I never would've told you a thing if I had no reason to trust you," Shinji said as he reached up and grabbed her arms. "Besides, you want revenge against the Angels, don't you? I can give you that, and revenge against the people who caused all of this to happen too, including my father."

"What do you mean by the people who caused all of this?"

"Do you really think this ends at my father? His version of Instrumentality is just one of two scenarios."

Misato's eyes widened. "…The Committee?"

"I have a list of names of people who all have their hands in the cause of the Second Impact, and are all currently working towards triggering the Third Impact so they can control Human Instrumentality to gain the power of God."

He tightened his grip. "The Human Instrumentality Project Committee and Gendo Ikari killed your father and billions of people to get this far, and they're now ready to use you, me, and everyone in Nerv to achieve their ultimate goals. Two Billion obstacles have been removed and fourteen remain–thirteen as of my battle with that Angel."

Misato released him, her entire body numb. Internally, she was wrestling to denounce him on the spot, but she couldn't bring herself to. No, there was just no other way he would know, they had just met.

"Oh my God… y-you're telling the truth," she whispered back, her voice shaky.

"Captain, what's the matter?" The soldier called back. When the boy had begun talking specifically to her, everyone in the room grew concerned by her reactions.

Misato looked back to them. "Lower your weapons and stand down, that is an order!"

The soldiers stopped. The same soldier spoke out. "What? But our orders from the Sub-Commander were-!"

Shinji snorted.

"I said, stand down!" She turned back to Shinji and slowly picked up her pistol. "I swear to God, if you are only doing this for your own selfish agenda, Shinji Ikari I will kill you on the spot. Do I make myself clear?"

"Do I have your trust, Misato Katsuragi?" He asked, plainly.

Closing her eyes, Misato slowly nodded. "For now, yes, you do."

Shinji smiled to her. "Then it will be unwavering."

Again, Misato nodded. "Now, tell me. Did Gendo leave me and my father to die there in Antarctica?"

Shinji nodded. "Yes."

"What of Sub-Commander Fuyutsuki?"

"He is on the list, but a lesser evil. I need him," Shinji replied.

Misato looked aside to the hesitant soldiers, resolution blooming within her. "This is a heightened alert! As of this moment, Nerv is to initiate a state of lockdown and Gendo Ikari and Kozo Fuyutsuki are both to be placed into custody immediately!"

Shock enveloped the soldiers and personnel, as Ritsuko arrived on the scene. A soldier immediately called out. "Under whose authority, Captain?"

Misato thought quickly. "Under the authority of the UN, now do as you are instructed immediately! Go! Go! GO!"

Her anger was stifling, almost robbing her of her rationality as she stormed down the catwalk towards where Ritsuko had emerged, Shinji in tow. One of the soldiers, noting this, raised his rifle. "What about the Third Child?"

"He is in my custody!" Misato snapped as she grabbed the soldier and shoved his rifle aside. "And he is not to be harmed, is that clear? Now stop standing there like a moron and do as you have been instructed, soldier!"

Panicking, the soldier quickly nodded. "Y-Yes ma'am!"

Misato looked back to Shinji brandishing her pistol. "Come with me, we're going to have words with ex-Commander Ikari."

As everyone seemed to run around in a panic of a most fearsome Captain Katsuragi, Shinji again could not help his smile. It would not be long now, before it was all his.

First things first, it was time to check on dear Father to see how he made out from his shooting. When the two of them walked past her, he cast a look to Ritsuko, who shared the wide-eyed expression of all the others along the catwalk, and winked to her.

When he passed, Ritsuko looked back after him, and felt her knees grow weak.

The bullet wound, as Shinji had so proudly stated, was non-fatal. Despite being fired from long range at an angle, it had passed completely through Gendo while missing his internal organs and vital arteries. That did not make it any less painful, in fact, it hurt like a motherfucker even more when he realized that his son was an excellent shooter and this had somehow escaped his notice.

Section Two had been blinded, and when he found out by who, he was going to punish them swiftly.

When the door opened and Shinji walked in with a brooding Misato, Gendo immediately realized something was wrong. The Third Child wasn't in jail, and Katsuragi looked like she was about to choke a bitch; that her glare zeroed in on him made his dread all the more palpable.

"And the meaning of this is?" He asked, looking at both with an unmoved expression.

"Ikari Gendo," Misato said to him, "I have arrived here to officially place you under arrest."

Silence reigned, Gendo looking at Misato with an utterly shocked expression. "What do you mean by 'under arrest', Captain?"

"For treason against humanity, by willfully colluding with individuals who seek to initiate the Third Impact and utilizing UN appointed and funded resources to achieve that goal," Misato answered.

Gendo's eyes widened slightly, before he looked to Shinji. "You did this, didn't you?"

"Yes, I showed Katsuragi-san the truth, and now she will help me in Nerv's restructuring, starting with a changing of the guard type thing," Shinji said with a smile.

"I see. Captain, what proof does Ikari have for any of his claims being the truth? How do you know that he is not being a madman as his previous actions have indicated?" Gendo asked, conversationally.

Drawing her pistol, Misato pointed it at Gendo, her eyes narrowing as she placed Gendo's face right in her sights. "Irrefutable proof, Shinji has told me things in no way he should know."

"They're the delusions of an angry child," Gendo dismissed them.

Misato reached up to grip her cross in her free hand. "No… there are just some things no one could possibly know."

"So you would execute me here, on the word of a child who has taken this entire facility hostage with nuclear weapons?"

"No… I should execute you for killing my Father, my friends, and so many other people, Ikari." She cocked the hammer and squeezed the trigger.

The shot never came, as Shinji placed his hand on the pistol and pointed it away from Gendo. Surprised by his sudden intervention, she looked to the boy. "Shinji…?"

"Killing him now will not give either of us any satisfaction. The ex-Commander is much more valuable to us alive." Shinji smiled to her, an expression that grew markedly sadistic that she read plain as day, seeing the smile's metamorphosis immediately brought Gendo to perspiration.

Misato nodded to him her own unpleasant smile forming. "Oh no, I wasn't going to kill him now, Shinji. Ex-Commander Ikari is going to be confined to a hospital bed for a while due to his serious, serious injuries."

"Serious? What happened?" Shinji asked, with mock apprehension.

She looked back at Gendo out the corner of her eye as she opened fire, the gunshots tearing into both his arms near the shoulders. Turning to face him fully as he stared back at her in muted agony; she pointed the pistol at his left knee and fired twice, shattering his kneecap.

"Some clumsy woman's gun went off, and broke his leg and shoulders. A weapons malfunction, but at least he was close to the medical ward when it happened," she explained to Shinji.

"Oh, I see. That is awful! Someone will have to take over for him while he recovers!" Shinji exclaimed.

He looked to Gendo. "I guess I'll nominate and instate myself as the new Commander. There, now there's no problem at all."

Once again, Gendo's ten-ton balls came into play. Despite his horrible agony, he looked his son right in the eye, and adjusted his now blood-stained glasses… with his middle finger. "Your impressive displays will get you only so far. Your resolve will wane, and then you will be crushed."

Misato, not at all surprised that the man could maintain such composure after being shot, walked over and pressed her gun in his face, snatching off his sunglasses as she did. "I swore to kill those responsible for my father's death, and I have six rounds left."

"Consider yourself lucky, Father, my Captain is showing a disproportionate amount of restraint by not killing you right now. But don't mistake mercy for weakness; she will fulfill her vow, just like I will mine to take care of you and all of your accomplices." Shinji patted Gendo on his good leg as he scooped up the sunglasses off the bed. "You get well soon now, okay Father?"

He got up, turned around and walked for the door, his face a mask of disgust from just touching him. "Shoot his other leg out."

"With gusto." Misato got up and fired twice more; tearing apart Gendo's other knee before shooting his dominant hand for good measure.

Satisfied, she followed Shinji out and past the shocked doctors and nurses who stood gathered around the doorway. "Don't just stand there, treat his wounds and make sure he's well restrained. Now go."

As she left them to work and followed Shinji, Misato briefly wondered if she were going insane, before she decided that it did not matter. Everyone here at Nerv already had some weird issue, and now it appeared the new self-appointed Commander Ikari was going to be hard at work turning this entire operation inside out… messily.

Bleeding from multiple, severe wounds, Gendo appeared strangely serene as the medical personnel rushed to his aid, before his mangled shoulders drooped and he let out a loud, bellowing roar. He did not scream from the blinding pain of his injuries, it was the striking realization that his scenario had, in the course of only a few hours, crumbled into nothing.

Outside the room, Shinji slumped against the wall as he heard his Father's telling scream. Misato was at his side immediately as he slid down to sit with his back against it. "Shinji, what's the matter?"

Shinji looked up at her, his face serene from the release he had experienced. To her surprise, however, she could see the sadness radiating off him, why?

"I've waited and planned for years to do this, Misato. I had to hide every movement and plan for every single contingency, do you have any idea how much this anger has eaten at me?"

"Shinji…" A strange compulsion roused her, and she leaned forward to hug him, which he returned tightly as he let out a long sigh. It felt natural doing this, and déjà vu washed over her, like she had done this before, in another life. She squeezed him a little tighter.

"Let's go meet with Fuyutsuki, then. I promise to be a little more civil," he said as he pushed her away to get back up.

She helped him to his feet. "More civil, you say?"

"He's a lesser evil, but a necessary one for what I need," he answered; he appeared much less manic now that his Father had been dealt with.

However, when both turned to find a more properly dressed Ritsuko standing before them, anger returned to give his features slight color. "Hello, Doctor Akagi."

"Hello, Shinji." She was understandably wary of him; she had clearly read the subtle changes of his expression when he turned to her, as had Misato.

She looked at the glasses he held in his hand, and then between him and Misato. "Nerv is in chaos, no one knows what's going on, and Section 2 is telling me that you ordered Fuyutsuki and Gendo to be put under arrest. As the Director of Project-E, I'm third in line under the command structure, but I've been told nothing since you ran off with Shinji. What is going on here, Misato? Where is Commander Ikari and what's his condition?"

"Gendo Ikari is no longer in charge, I am," Shinji said as he held up the glasses, before dropping them to the floor and stepping on them. "The scenario has been changed, there is no more scenario, there is only ensuring that the Third Impact and Instrumentality does not occur, under any circumstance."

Ritsuko looked to Misato with wide eyes. "You're with him on this?

"Yes," Misato answered bluntly, causing Ritsuko to turn her attention back onto Shinji slowly.

"He… he… you are in charge?" She asked him. "For what reason should I even acknowledge your leadership then, Shinji Ikari?"

Shinji's smile slowly returned as he answered Ritsuko's stare with his own, and she froze like a mouse in the eyes of a snake. He stepped closer to the woman and brought finger and thumb to her chin, capturing it and pulling her face close to his.

"You're attracted to men with power, aren't you?" He asked.

Ritsuko's face colored, and she quickly swung her hand to slap him. He caught her hand before it reached his face in a grip much stronger than she expected. "It's why you lust for my father, isn't it?"

At her spellbound look, he clarified. "Yeah, I know."

He pulled her hand away from his face. "I'm not my Father; I'm younger, better looking, and far more powerful than he ever will be. I'm the only one who can pilot the Eva, after all. What reason would you have to not acknowledge me?"

Releasing her hand, he stepped inside her personal space. He rested his hand on her cheek, as he stared her down once more. "At the very least, I won't say 'Yui' when it counts."

He drew his hand away, caressing her down to her cheek as he walked past her.

Misato was now completely dumbfounded to the point of numbness; Shinji's limitless explicitly was wholly baffling. She turned to Ritsuko, and her numbness turned to horror that chiseled itself into her visage when she saw that her long time friend and co-worker was not shocked or angry, but staring at Shinji visibly aroused, her face flushed, hand on her chest over her rapidly beating heart, and her breath coming out in soft, rapid pants.

Shinji called to Misato from the end of the corridor. "My office is this way, right?"

Before Misato could answer, Ritsuko spoke up, her tone completely changed. "Yes, wait for me Commander; I'll take you right to it. I have a report to issue anyway on your battle with the Angel."

"Excellent!" Shinji returned, happy to have earned his second follower.

She still had a few rounds left, she could kill Ritsuko right now, Misato thought. As Ritsuko took a step towards Shinji, Misato grabbed her by the shoulder and whirled her around to face her before grabbing both of them. Her face was a mask of gravity and death as she stared down the Project-E director.

"W-what?" She asked.

"Ritsuko, why are you staring at him like he's a piece of meat?"

"I am not!"

"You're soaking through your panties."

Indeed, Misato could look down and see the hints of arousal running down the insides of Ritsuko's thighs. Ritsuko grew indignant, puffing her cheeks. "Okay, so I am? It doesn't mean I don't have a report to give."

"Don't you find jumping from one Ikari's cock to another morally reprehensible at all!?" Misato sure did, and anyone with a degree in common sense would agree with her.

Ritsuko pulled away and turned to walk down the hallway, only pausing to look back. "Misato, I'm going to ask you very slowly. Are you questioning the morality of my seducing a terrorist who just an hour ago threatened to kill us all with a nuclear weapon?"

"Yes!"

"Are you questioning the morality of my seducing a nuclear armed terrorist whom you just assisted in taking over the entirety of Nerv?"

"That's not my point…"

"Are you questioning the morality of my seducing a nuclear armed terrorist whom you, without hesitation, followed a direct order from to shoot his injured father with intent to further grievously wound?"

Misato was silent.

"I thought so." Ritsuko went skipping down the hall. "If you need me, I'll be under Shinji's new desk~."

"God damn it, Ritsuko…"

The doors to Gendo Ikari's former office opened, and Shinji walked in with Misato and Ritsuko in tow. A great expanse of bare, dark room with walls, floor, and ceiling all black, and devoid of furniture save the desk and chair near windows currently shuttered. The tree etched into the ceiling was a tad gaudy, it would have to go, as would everything else…except for the desk, he kind of liked it.

"Nice," Shinji said as he ran his fingers over the wood surface in his stroll around it to the chair. He took a seat, and immediately propped his shoeless feet up on the desk, toes wiggling inside his socks as he sank into the chair. His father sure knew style; he'd give him that as well.

The drawers on his side of the cabinet were all easily opened and explored. Inside he found what he'd expect, a handgun with ammunition and magazines, a few photographs of Yui and himself, official documents filed under "pretend to give a shit but really don't", a few photographs of Rei after her nasty accident, and finally the prize of his search. He leaned back into his chair, feet up on the desk again, and opened the wire-bound notebook he had absconded from its place of storage.

"What is that?" Misato asked.

Ritsuko walked over to the desk, under the other woman's hawk-like gaze, and stood beside Shinji. He regarded the Doctor with only a glance before flipping a page of the book. "It's a log of his personal thoughts. Oh, what's this? A rough draft of the letter Father sent me."

"Oh?" Misato folded her arms.

Shinji began to read it, his expression darkening. "He put so much thought into this; he even said he was sorry a few times."

Misato grimaced in disgust, while Ritsuko offered an explanation, "I imagine he wrote it to get his feelings out of the way. I suppose even Gendo has his insecurities."

"A whole journal full of his true feelings, that's almost worth sympathy, almost." Shinji picked up a lighter from the drawer, flipped it open and set alight a corner of the journal before tossing it over his shoulder against the wall to burn.

The doors opened, and Fuyutsuki walked in to the sight of Shinji sitting at Gendo's desk, Misato standing passively before it, Dr. Akagi next to it, and… was something on fire? Frowning considerably, he approached the desk, joining Misato's side. "Shinji Ikari."

Section 2 had delivered him right on schedule, Shinji smiled to him. "You're not going to fight me on this too, are you Fuyutsuki-sensei?"

Kozo Fuyutsuki was a shrewd, well learned man, with a degree in Having Half a Brain and a PhD in Common Sense. Therefore, when faced with a violent maniac who usurped the control of his military organization around him in less than an hour, he acted appropriately. Ergo: He went along with it, to see where it was going. Shame he could not impart this lesson onto his now severely crippled pupil, but oh well.

"It's been a while since I've been a teacher," he said to Shinji calmly.

"Well, consider this your first assignment; I need to know everything about how this base is run, nouns in particular," Shinji explained bluntly, his nose twitching from the irritating smoke behind him.

Fuyutsuki managed a humorless smile. "Are you sure you wouldn't prefer shooting me as well? If you know about Gendo, then you know about me."

"I need you around because you still have a shred of human decency left in you. Kind of like what my Father needed since he wrote all of his off in that little notebook of his."

Shinji waved his hand by his mouth derisively. "What a loser, am I right?"

"It was a habit of his since college; you should see some of the things he sent to Yui that she left with me."

Shinji blanched. "I'd rather not; the one love letter to me has scarred me for life."

"Very well, so what do you need from me other than my 'shred of human decency' and my knowledge of Nerv's operations?" He asked.

Shinji laughed again, gaily, before he violently slammed his hands on the table, causing Ritsuko and Misato to jump. His demeanor had suddenly changed, becoming deadly serious. "I'm exterminating The Committee, and I need you to get to them."

"I can't see why you would, The Committee will find out about this situation soon enough. It'll be impossible for them to not."

"I know they will, and when they do, they'll do everything in their power to stop me, which is why I need you," Shinji replied. "As long as there are Angels, Nerv is needed, once this organization has served its purpose…"

"They will eliminate us," Fuyutsuki finished.

"The Committee will know that Gendo is disposed and I'm running things. What they need is misdirection and misinformation to keep them from suspecting that I'm after them next until it's too late. From here on out you will tell them what they want to hear," Shinji replied.

"With no change of our modus operandi, I assume?"

"Precisely, well, aside from a few projects."

The humorless smile remained, as Fuyutsuki nodded. "Understood, I will take my post immediately. What shall I tell The Committee of Gendo's disposal?"

Shinji raised a finger to his chin thoughtfully. "Hmm… tell them that he fell down an elevator shaft."

"Onto some bullets, I presume?" Fuyutsuki's dry response drew a sharp, manic laugh from Shinji that caused Misato to close her eyes and remind herself quietly, repeatedly, that this was for the good of humanity.

"No, that I pushed him down one because he's getting in the way of Grandpa's plans."

Fuyutsuki's brows rose in surprise. Reaching to The Committee to get close to them was both dangerous and brilliant. They'd never trust him, but if he removed Gendo from the equation for them, and played closer to their scenario, then he had his foot in the door at least. At any rate, he doubted he was going to get out of this alive.

"However, you try to sell me out and you'll be in worse shape than my Father is, got that Fuyutsuki-sensei?" Shinji said as he dropped back into his chair.

Fuyutsuki nodded. "I will make a note of that."

Shinji beamed and made a shooing gesture. "Good, now get out of my sight."

The impudence of Shinji's tone actually ate at Fuyutsuki less than Gendo's monotone arrogance. Perhaps it was because he saw it for what it really was, or because he truly disliked his student, but his smile became a bit more genuine as the old man nodded and excused himself.

Naturally, the overtones were not lost to the others in the room, but for Misato grasping it was out of reach, she was of course more surprised that Fuyutsuki in no way protested this violent takeover. Was he planning something? The old man was supposed to be cunning in his own way; it was why Gendo chose him as his second-in-command.

Ritsuko was on a wildly different wavelength altogether, a long, bone-deep shiver ran through her body the very second Shinji had ordered Fuyutsuki out of the office. It went without saying that the good Doctor was now unashamedly basting in her own juices, and Misato was ready to stick a fork in her. Forks. Forks with tungsten tips.

"I feel kind of bad, talking down at him like that," Shinji said suddenly, catching the attention of both. "But then I remember he wants what they all want, just with different ideas on how it should happen."

"So, what do you want, Commander?" Ritsuko licked her flushed lips slowly, and swallowed.

"That none of them get what they want."

Misato nodded in agreement, and felt a little more confident with the overtone of his statement. Ritsuko only again shivered in delight, and it did not escape Shinji's notice.

He frowned; it was time to put this one in her place. "Misato, could you step out?"

An electric shock went through Ritsuko, and Misato raised her hand in protest. "Shinji, I don't think that's…!"

Shinji gave her a pleading look. "Please, Misato?"

She stopped at that, and with great reluctance she stepped to the door, her eyes not leaving Ritsuko until the door shut behind her. The other woman watched the door close, and turned predatory gaze to her new Commander as she licked her lips in anticipation.

Shinji stared impassively back, issuing his challenge.

"So then, Commander…" She walked to the desk, and boldly climbed onto it directly in front of Shinji, sitting on the edge as he pushed himself back from it, and spreading her legs partly. Naturally, he looked down and his face turned a light red. "What would you like for me to do for you?"

"Issue your report," he replied as he looked up from the obvious fact that Ritsuko forgot underwear when she dressed.

Ritsuko just smirked and, ignoring his request, she slid down from the table and to her knees in front of him. She looked up to his face briefly, before she looked downward, her hands seeking to undo his pants.

Cold steel rested against her forehead the second his fly was undone. She looked back up at him, and the pistol he held to her head. "You're on the list too, Doctor Akagi."

She just smirked and replied, "I figured."

Ritsuko proceeded to deliver a different kind of oral presentation.

Shinji did not pull the trigger.

Damn hormones.

A/N: Damn hormones, indeed!