Episode Three, Eva Revolution
Part Four
A Superspy in Battle
by Jared Ornstead
aka Skysaber
OoOoO
Jared looked up as the sirens began to wail. He checked his watch. "Well, bang on time. This alien's on schedule at least. Let's hope it doesn't cut my arms off like the last one."
Rei looked up from among her circle of friends, and he had to grin, remembering their conversation a little while back.
OoOoO
Flashback
OoOoO
Jared walked up and stopped, looking at Rei.
"Rei, diagnostic procedures are proceeding. Observation indicates your dominant emotion to be loneliness. Lack of alternates and substitutes have led to lack of recognition of this condition by your own internal diagnostics. Suggest remedial steps be taken."
Rei turned to him an expression that had some humanity in it. "Explain?"
Jared turned his head to the side. "Loneliness: an encroaching emotion capable of displacing all others when its germination requirements are met. Universally despised as an inhibitor of all useful functions. Also described as a feeling of pain. Footnote: Pain of all sorts can be tuned out, yet still exist. Pains with extended duration can go unnoticed until they are relieved. Loneliness, removal of: Since loneliness is an emotion that arrives from a state of solitude, often involuntary, it is best remedied by the close presence of others. Note in this case that the mere proximity of others is not enough, closeness in an emotive sense is mandatory."
Rei merely blinked at him.
He answered the question. "Closeness, the measuring of bonds between people, be they positive or negative. The greater the strength the bonds, the greater the closeness exhibited. Note that closeness in a negative sense is always destructive and harmful, while that of a positive nature is constructive and rewarding. Recommended test case of positive bond samples: Affection, Concern for the well being of, Regard for, Curiosity concerning a person specifically, and Openness Toward. All are easily intermingled and thrive best when combined rather than separate."
He blinked once for her. "Special Note: All are precursors to Love."
She looked at him curiously. "Explain the expression on your face."
"A smile, external evidence of internal store of positive feeling." He continued to grin.
OoOoO
End Flashback
OoOoO
The girls of the class had been going all out to make Rei feel included since she got back, and they were gratified by how fast they'd been having results. Of course, a big part of that was Jared privately explaining to Rei what was going on, with some recommended courses of action, and replacing her medication without anyone knowing.
Still, it was good to see her face no longer as expressionless as it was.
Gendo, of course, was having kitten fits.
The siren once more grabbed their attention, and they both got up. Kensuke gloated from where he sat at a flight simulator. "Well, it looks like our two pilots are off, needed to go save the world again."
Jared grinned as they both dashed out. Kensuke had been on cloud nine ever since they'd given Misato the recommendation that he be allowed to pilot, and their classroom had been replaced nearly a week ago with training facilities that were to die for. The military otaku was just in heaven, while the other students were adapting. Their class rep was one of those having trouble adapting, but at least she was enjoying the gymnastics.
He helped Rei grab hold of the reverse fireman's pole that took them to the roof. It was a never-ending belt of footholds and handholds that rose at a steady rate, was a ton faster than elevators or stairs, it could even serve as a ladder in an emergency. It took them to the base of the school's new landing pad and Jared assisted Rei into the rear seat of their areodyne while he took the cockpit.
Sylia had given him a counter-rotational areodyne not unlike what the AD police had. Where a helicopter was basically a prop engine pointed upwards, an areodyne was a jet turbine done the same. That was the only real difference, though the physics made things possible that on an ordinary helicopter couldn't happen, for example the turbine was built into the fuselage where a prop engine had to hang above. For another, air maneuverability was above any conventional helicopter, and in this case, being counter-rotational made their operating noise virtually nil. Add in a little vectored thrust and it was a nimble little thing, not to mention stylish.
Jared got the fans turning and lifted off.
OoOoO
"Status of the dark warrior?"
Maya recited just where the invader was, its trajectory, and how little effect the UN forces were having, which was nil save to get slaughtered.
"Status of the pilots?" Gendo asked, not moving.
Maya just keyed open the right radio frequency as an answer.
Jared's voice came through. "Hello! This is Skywing One, we are lifting off from the school and headed your way. Please make Launch Tube Three ready for our arrival." The monitors were brought up to show their areodyne flying toward one of the Eva Launch rail buildings where the giant bio-mecha were delivered to do battle.
Gendo's glower darkened. "What is that thing, and what are they doing?"
Misato turned toward her subordinates. "Ready Launch Tube Three." Then back to face her commander. "They're using the new pilot delivery system put in place by the head of the Marduke institute, sir. I was told you were aware of it."
Gendo scowled, for *two* reasons, besides the habitual.
On the screen, Jared piloted the areodyne into the building that had just opened its side to them, then carefully buckled his craft into the cradle that Maya had launched there to greet them. Docking mechanisms sealed, and the birdcage that held their airship descended at a rate approaching that at which Evas were launched.
It accomplished in seconds what might have taken hours if vulnerable land lines were damaged; getting the pilots from class to their Knights, inside the geofront and preparing for battle.
"Impressive," Fuyutsuki noted.
"So you didn't know about this either?" Gendo asked him softly. A minuscule shake of the lackey's head, too minor to be noted by the command crew, was his reply.
"Is the Thunder Knight ready?" Came Jared's voice over the radio.
"Negative," came Dr. Ritsuko Akagi's reply. "We're going to use the Muscle Knight. There are too many unanswered questions about the other as yet."
"Understood, but may I respectfully protest? The Thunder Knight is the best robot we have, and Rei isn't suitable to send into combat with her injuries still not well."
"Our orders stand." Ritsuko told him. "But Rei is not going to be the pilot. Sky Lord, we need you to take Unit Zero into battle. Is this understood? You know it well enough by now with all of your practice."
OoOoO
Jared turned to look at Rei, both in their new pilot suits that were a little sleeker, more stylish, and not to mention more flattering, though bulky and heavy with internal electronics. He wore a loose jacket and knee boots over his to achieve that 'cool and dashing' effect.
"I don't mind." Rei told him. "You are the better pilot anyway."
He groaned aloud. "Oh, great. Now I know I'm going to get creamed. You only say things like that at life-critical moments of great climax when the fate of the world is about to be made or broken, to resolve long standing rivalries. Otherwise they herald the so-called great one getting humbled."
She cocked her head at him in conscious imitation of the gesture he used. "I'm sorry."
He nodded his thanks, and left the side of the ice-blue clad Rei, running off in his own costume of white with yellow and orange highlights that still somehow managed to avoid clashing with his hair.
The blue ribbon still tied around his arm flashed as he ran along.
OoOoO
Gendo, watching this now on the security monitors, frowned even more. "What are those things they're each wearing?"
Maya blinked from her control board without looking up. "The new standard issue plugsuit, sir." She went on fiddling with her controls.
Watching the boy race along to the Knight cage, Gendo's eyes grew hard, noting the colors and style of his costume. "Since when did we become a sentai series?"
Fuyutsuki braved a thin smile. "I think it was when we brought your son in to pilot an Eva. Or should I say Muscle Knight?" He asked with some irony.
Ritsuko spoke across folded arms. "I have to admit, his influence has been pushing us that way."
Gendo's currently ill-humor degenerated.
OoOoO
Jared ran into Eva Unit Zero's hangar, where Misato's voice came over the speakers and told him. "Jared, I want you to be serious about this fight. Alright? Obey my orders and don't do any unnecessary flashy stuff."
He paused, before addressing the speakers. "So you want me to go into a Serious Soldier mode, then?"
"Right!" Came back Misato's clarion call. "Just as serious as you can be. Remember to obey orders, now."
He thought for a second, then nodded. "Right. Gotcha." And with that he removed a micro cd player and pressed the play button, turning his back on the camera for a minute while the music built up. When he turned around, at the very first vocal note, he'd changed appearance almost totally, going from the carefree, good-hearted mecha pilot to something decidedly grim. Even his plugsuit had darkened, going from bright, cheery colors to a dark silver chrome, with bronze and copper accents.
With a sharp jerk, he tugged on a glove, his eyes hidden by dark glasses and his face something that would make Rei's formerly typical expression seem open and inviting.
OoOoO
"Mad Machine!
How on the battle plains, a blue raging firestorm embraces me.
Mad Machine!
We will accept our pains, two screaming fists are my destiny!
Mad Machine!
There's just no logic to, this fire that burns in my heart for you!
Mad Machine!
Whenever I'm with you, fights to the death are all too few!
Cold angry child, wounded and wild, seeking the blood of our rivals!
Time's not a friend, nearing the end, each precious hour is vital!"
OoOoO
Misato's jaw dropped about three feet as the decidedly grim-faced youngster rode the lift to his waiting entry plug, hearing his battle music playing.
"It seems that you've triggered another episode, Misato. Let's hope this is a useful one, at least." Dr. Akagi taunted her perplexed friend.
Fuyutsuki, regarding the screen, remarked. "Didn't he once say that the professional soldier type doesn't survive combat?"
Captain Katsuragi looked stricken up at him, then sick back viewing the monitors. "Do you really think so?"
"Undoubtedly." Ritsuko observed, watching the monitors.
"Commit him into battle anyway." Gendo made the statement a command, trying to hide a grin unsuccessfully.
Ritsuko gave him a studied glance. "Are you sure about this? He'll spike his own performance, even unwittingly. Committing suicide, if you will, in order to make his prediction come true."
Gendo raised his face from his hands long enough to say. "Do it."
Misato and Ritsuko both gave him glances that were doubting and stricken.
OoOoO
Down in the Eva cage, during a stirring line, Jared got a tickle in his nose, was too cool to scratch it, and promptly sneezed hard enough to pluck him off of the rising platform and fall into the drink, making a big splash in the pool of fluid.
He began sinking due to the weight of the plugsuit.
OoOoO
"Call out a diver!" Ritsuko shouted at everyone in general. Then, when it became clear there wasn't one waiting, ran herself out of the room and rushed over to where her underwater breathing apparatus was left, casting her lab coat aside as she did so.
Misato's turn to look puzzled. "Why's she getting so upset? I mean, he breathes that stuff all the time in practice and running the Evas."
Maya had the answer to that one. "That's because the fluid inside of the cockpits is specifically oxygenated, while in the pool it's not. Even Doctor Akagi herself wears scuba gear inside the holding tanks."
"Oh." Misato said softly. "At least that music has stopped. She'll be able to rescue him, right?"
"It would be ignobious if our star pilot were to drown in a freak lift accident." Maya replied. "We'd never live it down."
Gendo scowled more than usual.
"Gendo?" His henchman asked, but received no answer.
The long haired technician, Shigeru Aoba, turned to ask of Maya. "So how did he get his suit to change color? That was a really neat effect."
Misato wearily shook her head. "I have the answer to that one. It was a camouflage device built in for their protection, to darken them for night operations. But it looks like a total flop. I'm going to have that circuit ripped out of there."
"Good." Gendo said. ~Reduce the cheap tricks and theatrics while you're at it.~
On the monitors, Ritsuko soon hauled out Jared's limp body and began to press softly on his back, emptying his lungs of fluid. She looked up at the camera and called for some help, a medical support team, and a respirator.
OoOoO
"You CAN'T send this boy out into combat now!" Ritsuko screamed at Gendo while the latter waited on his platform. She was standing beside a medical gurney and a boy currently breathing with machine support.
Gendo's face was flat, as usual. "Nevertheless, we will do it. Wake him up."
Doctor Ritsuko Akagi just folded her arms. "This child has just finished drowning. His *life* is in jeopardy, and you want me to put him back in the fluid that nearly killed him?"
Light glinted off glasses.
"You seem to have adequately summarized the situation, doctor Akagi." Behind him, Gendo heard Misato gasp in shock at his callousness. He ignored her.
With a scowl, Ritsuko turned and began to obey orders. Receiving the stimulant, Jared woke up, turned and vomited gouts of pink amber fluid over the side of the gurney, then smacked his lips and said. "Remind me never to obey orders again."
Ritsuko had no real response to that.
Misato came running up, cradling Jared in her arms. "Are you alright?"
He rubbed his nose. "I think that I'm allergic to being serious. I'm certainly not very good at it." ~Not to mention that it would involve obeying orders that would get us all killed. And on that note I think it's about time that I do something off the script and get this timeline changed.~
Jared leaped up out of bed. "I've GOT it! I finally know what series we're in! This is one of those where everyone's a bad guy and we're doomed to an utter destruction! That would explain, in your design logs, why you're *always* referring to this Eva stuff as the Oni project, and why your enemies are angels. Heck, you've probably had to sacrifice the souls of young women just to get these things running!"
Ritsuko's hair had spiked out.
Misato was making calming gestures. "Now, calm down..." ~Of course, his father is so careless of Jared's life... Maybe we *are* the bad guys. If commander Ikari can do this to his son what does that mean for the rest of us? Is anyone safe?~
The redhead turned on her. "No, to obey the workers of iniquity is to join darkness yourself. I can no longer obey your orders, for knowingly or not you serve evil." He swung back to face the Eva Unit Zero. "Muscle Knight! Take me aboard, for we can no more allow the destruction of this city than we can trust the leader of this hive of thieves!"
"Now wait just a darn minute, there..." Ritsuko was interrupted by the giant hand of Unit Zero tearing free of the cage restraints and lifting Jared bodily into the air. As the doctor sprawled she looked up, mad with fear. "No way! This can't be happening! It *can't* move without an entry plug inserted! It doesn't even have power!"
Jared stared down at her disparagingly. "You don't know the first thing about these, do you?" He hopped from the palm into the seat of the entry plug. "Muscle Knight, block out all external commands, prepare for launch, and give Gendo the finger, would you?"
The massive arm tore free of the cage more fully and jammed a very rude finger gesture against the glass behind which Gendo waited. The man didn't even turn to face his companion. "Controlling this pilot has become even more difficult, it seems."
Fuyutsuki nodded. "We appear to be pushing the wrong buttons."
Gendo tilted his head to convey the maximum amount of contempt. "We cannot rely on him any longer. Begin searching for a replacement pilot."
The villain's henchman nodded.
OoOoO
The secret, of course, to controlling Rei's Eva was to dislike Gendo, an act which came so naturally that his synch rate was quite far up there, enough for the maddened soul of Ritsuko's mother to obey him almost as smoothly as his own.
It also explained why Rei never got that much performance out of it.
Still without plugging into a power cable, the Muscle Knight stared upwards, and began to fly toward the surface, launch rail doors withdrawing as Maya frantically granted them passage. On the surface he finally grabbed a power cable and inserted it, then keyed open communications.
"Ritsuko, get me the status of the target. Misato, get the Thunder Knight's sword and shield up here."
Misato sweatdropped, looking back over her shoulder at Gendo's observation post that looked almost like the command center's throne. "Err, well... Uh, commander Ikari didn't like the idea of preparing such medieval armaments, so we don't have them to give you. I'll be sending you a rifle."
A *very* long sigh came from the pilot. Jared mumbled something too low to hear, though the phrase "no class at all" came through quite clearly.
Ritsuko filled in the gap. "The fourth dark angel is nearing your position. Get ready."
"Waaait a minute! Fourth? I only defeated one. What happened to the other two?"
Gendo's voice came unexpectedly over the speakers. "Second Impact was caused by an angel, you need not be concerned about the other."
"Uh huh." Came a disbelieving reply. "Knowing you, you probably have it locked in a basement somewhere, while you and a hunchbacked manservant try and use pieces of it to create life. In fact I wouldn't be surprised if you had plans to go to bed with it. That would make it one of the few life forms on Earth that you hadn't slept with... yet, mister Ikari. Mother knew you were unfaithful to her, you know."
"I am not hunchbacked!" Ritsuko yelled back, then promptly sat down and hid her face in her hands, unable to believe she'd risen to the bait like that. ~Where did this pilot learn such things? It was unbelievable!~
Gendo snarled, while the rest of the staff stared dumbfounded, for differing reasons.
"Uh, sending a rifle." Misato tried to break this tension somewhat.
Another weary sigh and muttered comment about "not only lacking any class, but rifles just don't have any *style* to them..."
The pilot's voice returned. "Oh, and Mr. Gendo Ikari, do you have any explanation *why* it is that you managed to return from the antarctic expedition that *caused* Second Impact by playing with that alien, just exactly ONE day before it happened, coincidentally just happening to return with all of their research material packed in your luggage?"
Casual business was forgotten as the command staff turned to STARE at Gendo. This being something that many of them had wondered themselves.
"Or why," the pilot's voice returned. "After you'd killed your wife, you had such a change of heart and actually missed her? So you plan to be reunited by transforming the Earth into cosmic sludge, exterminating every man, woman and child for your own attempt to rejoin the wife you were never faithful to in life?"
Gendo's gaze was steely hard, as even Fuyutsuki had retreated from him a pace. "And just *where* do you claim to get this information?" Commander Ikari snarled.
The redhaired pilot came on screen, looking totally and innocently shocked. He held up a book. "Why, from your autobiography, of course! Where *else* do you think I would have learned it? The scriptures?" He paused and flipped through pages. "No, I saw this in the bookstore and just had to pick it up. Here's a good quote on page ninety-three: Even though she knows that I have lied to every other person on this planet, including Rei, doctor Akagi still believes that she is the one being I am truthful to, this in spite of the fact that the last two women to hold that opinion are both dead - by my hand, I might add. I even slept with both of the others, too, just like Ritsuko. She may even have seen me kill her mother, I don't know." The pilot closed the book and shrugged. "The book's chock full o' stuff like that. If you didn't want people to know, why did you PUBLISH it?"
Gendo ordered the link to be closed, but everyone was too stunned to comply.
Doctor Akagi was having a minor heart attack as facts were hitting home. "Genchan..? But, but, none of the others called you 'pookie-bear', did they?"
Various bridge crewmen got ill at the imagery suddenly summoned to their minds. Hyuga very calmly reached over to Aoba's copy of the Ritsuko Swimsuit Calender and penciled 'pookie bear' in a word balloon over her face, then broke up and fell out of his seat laughing.
Maya was three shades redder than Jared's hair at the information.
Misato, in her stunned daze, trying to ignore how her mind reeled from the revelation that her best friend was having sex with the commander, noted that Rei had entered the command center in time to hear that earlier quote. The young girl was looking with unfriendly eyes toward Ikari.
NOT that she was alone, by any means.
Aoba carefully looked around, breaking the silence by opening a drawer. From it, he removed a book entitled 'Advanced Backstabbing, and how to betray...' The technician had a helpless gesture as he displayed the volume. "I though it was a joke book. I was going to read it on my way home."
Misato's voice was very dry as she asked. "Where did you get that?"
Aoba could only shrug, turning some pages. "At the bookstore, they had a pile of them. They were all up front in this big promotional display. I thought for sure that it had to be a gag." ~Of course, I also wanted to check out the pictorial section. Hey! How about this! He's never had an affair with Maya, Rei *or* Misato! They're still unblemished!~
"That was no joke." Ritsuko whispered.
"Pookie bear?" Misato repeated, still in shock.
Maya mouthed the phrase herself, looking terribly nauseated.
Jared shrugged on their screen. "Yah, it was right next to a smaller pile of How To Destroy All Life In Three Easy Impacts by some guy called Keele. In fact I think that you mention him here in *you're* book. Yah, here it is under People I Most Hate: Keele Lorenz, also suspected to be the Wandering Jew, head of a vast secret government in control of the UN and most industries, this man was instrumental in my own rise to power, offering in return a controlled Third Impact on his own terms. Betraying him was a tricky exercise, but well worth rising to the challenge. First I got control of the predecessor organization to Nerv, then created a half angel clone of my dead wife..."
As the command crew got paler and paler, two things were noticed. Rei lunged for the upper command desk, only to be beaten to the punch by Fuyutsuki, who was bodily slammed aside by a desperate Ikari, who then activated the lift function of the throne to sink out of sight.
The second thing to happen was the dark warrior coming in to town. Jared turned his Knight to face it. A completely unexplained gust of smoke drifted across the intervening space between them.
Harmonica music played a western gunfight tune.
The redhaired superspy in the Muscle Knight noted several differences in the dark angel from what it had appeared in the series. Where in the show it had appeared leathery with just a hint of slime, like a sea creature, it now appeared rubbery.
Insulation, he realized. It was adapting, or rather it came armed to defeat the last way he'd used to defeat them. These things were smart after all, and he could throw much of his precious series-obtained knowledge about his opposition to the breeze. It wasn't true any more. These things would be adapting to defeat *him*, not Shinji.
The creature deployed its laser arms... err, forget that. Its main weapon had changed too. It was still waving about two flexible tentacles, but the ribbons left behind them trails of frost and snowflakes in midair. They probably had a chilling attack.
Well, he had a way he could fight that, too.
Jared cracked his knuckles, then forgot that he couldn't do that anymore and searched real quick for another method just as good for preparing for combat.
Ah! The perfect thing!
He shook his head as the insectoid creature with the frost arms approached. "Listen closely, Rei. For piloting a Muscle or an Elemental Knight depends strictly on your own will and emotional control, acting in accordance with its own. Observe!"
He arced his back and cried out. "Elemental Power! Charging Up!"
This time there *was* a huge, elaborate transformation scene, mostly an effect of a visible AT field, but hey, you take what you can get. The Muscle Knight rose abruptly, with spread arms, and twisted in midair while surrounded by flashy motes. Electrical blasts went around it, forming a globe, then turned to a pivoting sphere of frosty lace. Frost covered the entire Evangelion, which then flexed and destroyed the soft coating, leaving it painted an ice blue like Rei's new plugsuit.
A gem with a tiny snowflake on it appeared on the unit's breast.
Rei watched this with every display of interest. Fuyutsuki had run off after Ikari and Misato was calling for Nerv security to apprehend Gendo. Ritsuko came to herself enough to question. "Just what *is* it this guy knows about Evas that we don't?"
"I'll tell you what." Aoba quipped. "I really AM starting to feel like this guy's the star of an anime series involving the rest of us."
Hyuga, the technician with glasses, regained his seat and straightened his eyewear, having just finished laughing. "Well, he does act like the main character, doesn't he? I notice events kind of revolve around him."
Maya's head fell into her hands. "Oh no, this means one of us will get kidnapped by the villains in an upcoming episode!"
Aoba blinked at her. "Why?"
Maya only groaned. "Because it's *in genre*!"
OoOoO
Out on the battlefield, Jared had the Eva pose to his satisfaction while the dark alien reared. He had the Unit stretch forth its left hand and flex it. "Behold, hellspawn! For I face you in the wondrous Frost Knight! And if that evil madman won't provide decent weapons for me, I'll make my own. Frost Shield, Appear!"
Within his stretched forth hand, bands of blue came together into a blue kite shield made of ice, which stopped the enemy's first blow, and the flurry of snowflakes that came with the attack not harming the shield at all.
OoOoO
"How is he *doing* that?" Ritsuko yelled out, stressed well beyond her capacity.
Maya blinked several times at the command readouts, bringing herself back to the priorities of battle. "It appears to be a modulation of the AT field, condensing water vapor out of the air into a desired form, and strengthening it considerably."
The other two techs merely shook their heads in wonder.
"Heroic methods?" Aoba offered, to Hyuga's agreeing nod.
Rei watched Misato run off to help apprehend Gendo, and stepped up into her station, keying a comm line open. "Sky Lord, Frost Knight is ready for battle. Destroy the dark warrior."
"Uh, well, I'd kind of like to do that. There's only one problem." Jared's voice came back.
Rei paused for a long instant. "Explain the nature of your difficulty."
The scene switched back to Jared, as he was struggling to get the Eva to move from its defensive posture. A quick glance revealed a cable hissing and sputtering around the Frost Knight's ankle.
"The unfair villain cut my power cord during the transformation sequence! I exhausted the Knight itself with the change and, oops..."
The Frost Knight went dead. The dark angel wrapped its chill arms around its neck.
Rei turned calmly to Aoba. "Activate the Emergency Eject. Contact Eva Rescue."
Aoba tried the controls, then shook his head. "I can't. He's locked out all external commands."
"Eva Rescue has been notified." Hyuga put in efficiently, straightening his glasses.
Misato came running back in, having found no trace of their commander, to see the one-sided battle going on on their screens and hear the last comment. She rounded on the plugsuited Rei. "You've GOT to go out and save him! Take Thunder Knight." She whipped about to order the techs. "Release it from cryostasis!"
Maya quickly hit sequences in her controls, but Rei was frowning sadly to Captain Katsuragi. "I am unable take the Thunder Knight into battle."
"Look, I know that you're injured, but Jared's *life* is in danger!" Misato tried to help reassure the girl.
Rei once again shook her head calmly. "I cannot. I have not yet received permission from Sky Lord to command his Knight. It does not know that it can trust me. Nor can such permission be given except by him in its presence."
"That's hogwash, just get in and pilot." Ritsuko sobbed from where she was curled up crying in a ball, sitting on the floor with her back to a wall.
The First Child directed her gaze that way. "It should be obvious Jared's knowledge of the inner workings of Knights exceeds your own. I will trust his judgment. I believe this scenario was planned by Jared's enemies, putting him in battle in our least effective Knight, with no possibility of another coming to his aid - as our only Knight left, he is the only able pilot for, leaving no reinforcement in this circumstance."
"That makes a scary sort of sense." Hyuga muttered, watching his boards.
"I can't believe you are all accepting his version of reality." Ritsuko muttered from with her fetal position.
Rei again directed her look that way. "It is the only one to have borne up under trial. Yours was noticeably fragile. Ikari's was lies. Jared's has withstood the test of operation, in spite of how little you esteem it."
Misato tried *not* to look at her friend. "Sanity is determined by the majority, after all. And what better for the majority to believe in than the stuff that obviously works?"
Hyuga mutter softly to his boards, but one comment came though quite well. "Well, for one thing that would make you his sidekick, Misato."
There came a flash from the monitors as the back of unit zero opened up and the entry plug ejected, firing off jets that hurtled it a far distance away, the dark angel pausing in strangling its foe to watch the trajectory.
"Status of the pilot!" Misato yelled, suddenly business all over again.
"He's landed practically at the feet of entry gate number eleven!" Maya reported. "It seems he was able to trigger the auto eject manually!"
"Eva Rescue?"
"On their way!"
Aoba turned from his boards. "The dark warrior is abandoning the Frost Knight and is pursuing the capsule!"
"Activate all city defenses!" Misato shouted. "Slow it down!"
"Captain Katsuragi," Rei suggested. "I think that we should launch Thunder Knight to lift eleven. Sky Lord will be able to have it install the entry plug manually, then continue the fight."
"Impossible!" Ritsuko stood up. "An Eva *cannot* perform those type of functions! It has to have an interface!"
Rei cocked her head. "He controlled my Frost Knight externally."
Misato thought about it for a brief instant. "Launch Thunder Knight!"
OoOoO
On the surface forests of missiles, dozens launched every second, came down as a mighty hail on the hellspawn. Maneuvering battle platforms, cannon, and all manner of built up hidden artillery systems spoke from every recess and crevice, thundering down shells and explosives on the invader.
None of it slowed the enemy down at all.
Jared had opened his entry capsule and staggered to safety, still weak from recently drowning and weighed down by who-knows what gear they'd stuffed in his overdesigned plugsuit. The sneeze had been his choice, drowning had not been considered. It had come unexpectedly, but trying to swim in this thing had proved impossible.
The angel lashed out with a frosty tentacle and snagged up the empty entry plug, crushing it in its grasp. The pod shattered, each piece rimmed with ice.
~Let's see, closest cover is that way. I'm already well within its weapon range. The alien's speed outpaces mine by an order of magnitude, and when it comes down to it all that cover can do is get destroyed along with me.~
Jared hardened, reciting lines he'd generated under life-threatening circumstances so long before he'd even began all this dimensional business, back in what he was beginning to call Real Life. ~Whether I live, or die, it is the same. But I've a mission to complete.~(1)
He began to run.
The enemy menace sent two freezing tentacles sizzling at him, whipping through the air. There came a flash before the slash, then the rubble exploded.
Jared found himself cradled in the arms of Priss' hardsuit, bounding over nearby roof tops. He hugged her as she ran. "..." Obviously, he could not read their scrambled communications with his toys safely tucked inside his pouch, nor could he see her features. But he imagined her smiling and promising in some amused way to collect on this debt at a later date.
He didn't mind that much.
Priss deposited him near the foot of an Eva cage, while the alien was busy dealing with a large amount of napalm that had suddenly been delivered to it, no doubt having something to do with Sylia's ingenuity.
The launch cage slammed open and revealed his Thunder Knight. The back opened up and Priss began leaping up to deliver him there. Standing on the Eva's shoulder next to the pit ready for an entry plug, Jared delivered to her helmet a quick kiss.
She'd earned it, and he might not live to give her another.
Jared began climbing down into the black maw where an entry plug ought to go.
OoOoO
"What's he doing!" Misato screamed. "Withdraw the Thunder Knight. We should never have sent it out once the entry capsule was destroyed."
"It was already en route." The tech with glasses reminded, without *perfect* accuracy but close enough. The emotional sequence of the launch had begun before the last button had been pressed.
Maya blinked in wonderment at her controls. "Thunder Knight is coming online. Synch ratio is rising, climbing past 50%."
"Get me a readout of those other participants in the battle!" Misato demanded.
Aoba shook his head. "They've disappeared again! One blast with a tanker truck full of napalm and they were gone!"
Hyuga loyally stood by his controls. "Withdrawing Thunder Knight." The screen showed the Eva unit getting withdrawn and pulled back into the geofront, following the launch rails.
"I'll get an entry plug ready for him." Rei volunteered.
A very quick scramble, involving some troops to get various things straightened out, and Jared was seating within an entry plug that was inserted into the Thunder Knight as it was preparing for a second takeoff.
"Are you ready, Jared?" Misato asked him across the communications monitors.
He took a deep breath, and replied. "These things adapt to our last efforts. They've been set up to defeat this unit. We've got to adapt swiftly too or next time they'll beat us."
"Aren't you worried about this time?" Rei asked him.
He closed his eyes, contemplating. "I think I can do it. There are still some tricks up my sleeve. If nothing else, I'm the hero. I've got sheer guts to rely on."
Rei nodded as if absorbing that for future reference.
Misato was getting shook up. "Thunder Knight, Launch!"
Ritsuko raised a tear streaked and world-weary head, blasted and disinterested in all she'd cared about at this point. She had enough left in her to wonder. "How's he doing?"
The command crew watched, horrified, as Jared's Knight reached the surface only to be instantly and cleanly beheaded by a mouth beam from the dark angel.
"Not good." Maya gave the empty reply.
"Grrr!" Came the pilot's reply to the enemy. "The only reason God created demons was for virtuous heroes to run around defeating them!"
"Then again?" Misato's hair had toinged.
OoOoO
(1) This quote comes from a Real Life experience that truly happened to me, and I did not know whether I would live or die from one moment to the next, the circumstances were that dangerous. But I did what I had to do, and I am alive.
So I know what I am like under fire.
