Disclaimer: I own no characters in this story. They are property of Gainax/Anno etc.
Past
"Speech"
'Thoughts'
CHAPTER 4
Another World
"AVE units 00, 01 and 02..."
"LAUNCH!"
This was where Misato Katsuragi's authority ended and Ritsuko Akagi's own one started.
"Powering up Scorcher"
"Engaging primary connections."
"PrimCons opened, no bugs detected. Deploying anaesthetic."
Inside his capsule, Shinji felt another familiar faint smell mix in to the scent of blood of the LCL. It smelled of spirit and medicine, and it took only seconds before it started taking its effect - he felt his body relaxing and his mind slipping away. He shifted his body into a more comfortable position in the leather seat, and saw a familiar screen light on the right side of his "cabin". Yellow text of the several-thousand page-long program enabling his mind to bend the Interim to his will faintly lighted up the otherwise-dark tiny metal prison. He was supposed to know it off by heart, what each function and each void did, to be more efficient at his job, but to be completely honest - he only knew the basics, which Ritsuko herself outlined to him in emails and meetings that they had in his first month of piloting AVE. Unlike Asuka, who already got a university degree in Germany at 14, and Rei, who used to spend all of her free time battling with heavy programming textbooks and studying the lines of her own program's code, he was never any good at it. By the time his father called him up to the HQ to help get rid of the fourth angel, Shinji had never done any programming at all, he was not even that good with computers. The latter had changed by now, but his programming was still sub-par by the standards the other two girls set, and he still relied on Ritsuko to run tests on it, debug it, and improve it whenever possible.
"00 response nominal. 01 response nominal. 03 response nominal. Scorcher ready for deployment."
Ritsuko Akagi had a final look at the telemetry they were getting from the three children. Their vital signs, heart rates and projected synchrographs were all within expected limits, and it looked safe to link them up to the first angel.
"Remove bandwidth limiters."
"Removed, Senpai."
"Program start."
"Start engaged."
Detecting no anomalies on the sensors, the blonde doctor leaned back in her chair nervously and took another sip of the coffee Maya brewed for her several minutes prior. It was still hot, just the way the doctor liked it.
'Good luck, Shinji. Rei. Mana.'
1. #include "ScorcherUnit01Hook.h"
2. #include conio.h
3. / Initialize static members
4. /
5. bool CHook::debugInitialized = false;
6. DebugHooks ScorcherUnit01Hook::debugHooks;
7. ScorcherUnit01Hook * ScorcherUnit01Hook::threadHook;
8. mapfarproc, farproc="" ScorcherUnit01Hook::int3hooks;
9.
10.
11. / Constructor
12. ScorcherUnit01Hook:: ScorcherUnit01Hook ()
13. {
14. m_hookFrom = NULL;
15. m_hookTo = NULL;
16. m_target = NULL;
17. memset(entryStub, 0, sizeof(entryStub));
18. bHooked = false;
19. stubLen = 0;
Shinji saw the text on his right begin to scroll rapidly, which could only mean one thing - they will be engaging the angel very soon. After a two year break, he felt the familiar burning sensation on the top of his skull - the neural clips, now hooked up to thick wires going out from the top end of the capsule, opened up a path for Adam to hook into his brain, and the third child, in turn, to hook into his. Now, compounded to the sensation of his mind slipping away, it felt as if his whole body was being lifted up. Up and out of the capsule, all the way into a different dimension. The pain in his temples got too intense, and he passed out. The last words from his own world he had heard were those of Maya Ibuki.
"Transfer complete."
The first child, Rei Ayanami, opened her eyes and slowly rose to her feet, helping herself up by thrusting her dark-blue staff against the ground, and looked around. Dusting off her floor-length blue dress, she started looking around for the other two children. She could see Shinji and Mana propped up against a thick-trunked tree at the edge of the forest outside Tokyo-3. They looked like they were still unconscious, so Rei set off towards the forest and her two comrades.
This time, their objective was on one of the tall hills surrounding Tokyo-3, where, according to sensor data, it had arrived two nights prior, but has taken no further action. Behind Rei, the tall buildings of the mirror image of her home city rose into a clear blue sky, in front of her - a vast green forest spread itself out. The hem of her aquamarine dress dragged along the dirt of the path she was proceeding on, she had to take care not to step on it. She had done it once before, tearing her dress apart, revealing half of her naked body, and the mission had gone horribly astray since they had to bring the third child out of Adam in order to treat him for a severe nose bleed.
The voice of Misato Katsuragi was tearing through Shinji's head.
"You only have to hold out for 29 seconds, got it? It is possible Rei will kill him on her first hit, but the chances of that are less than 10 percent, so don't count on it! It is going to hurt, so be prepared, all right?"
'Got it, Misato-san.' - He looked up from his position at the fake Tokyo-3, as he called it. Just above the tallest building he could see a tiny blue speck - the sixth angel. They did not know what armament he had but yesterday he had left both Rei and Shinji with gaping holes in their bodies. Right after Shinji felt a searing pain through his chest, he saw the albino's beautiful head get split in half right in front of him, as she kneeled to check on him. Dying was not a good feeling. Not at all. He was still feeling an itch where his chest was penetrated yesterday - his sync ratio was particularly high, so, even today, he had still trouble breathing in the real world. Quite a nasty mark was left on his chest as well. As for Rei, she never complained, but Shinji saw her taking tons of painkillers, her head must still be feeling like it is splitting in half.
But overnight, Ritsuko had made significant changes to both of their programs. Shinji's shield was now seven point three times stronger than usual - but he had to sacrifice his only weapon in exchange. He now was a fully-defensive unit, who had to protect Ayanami, in the likely case the angel would retaliate in response to her shot. Rei's task was shooting the angel down. The changes in the coding made her staff significantly longer. Now, instead of being just shorter than her body length, the blue weapon was several times that. It was so uncomfortable to hold that they would have to find a safe place outside Tokyo-3 where they could set up a position to shoot it from a prone position. The angel would attack anything approaching the city in the Interim with some kind of high-energy pulse beam, which the two pilots experienced on themselves first-hand. It was not affecting anything in the real world, which was obviously good news, otherwise a full-scale massacre could well be expected.
"Ikari-kun." - Shinji's musings were interrupted by the first child's calm voice. A tiny bit startled, the boy turned around to face his comrade-in-arms. The blue-haired fourteen year-old was struggling to keep her staff upright, holding the twisting middle part with both hands, while the double-edged tip that held up a seemingly weightless blue ethereal orb stuck up high among the leaves and treetops. "I am ready to begin."
Shinji did not reply. He froze in place, mouth gaping open in silence.
"Ikari-kun? What is wrong?"- The albino was unsure of Shinji's reaction and of what brought it on. The weight of her weapon was weighing down hard on her joints and muscles, and she wanted to get into position as soon as possible. But the brown-haired boy's only reply was an outstretched arm, index finger pointing towards the girl. His mouth still agape, no explanation was offered to Rei. She looked down at where Shinji had been pointing and noticed that the dress appeared to be torn, which must have occurred when she was hauling her staff through the dense growth of the forest.
"My attire will not be a problem. We must hurry up and finalize our sniping position." - But the third child had already passed out. Rei, oblivious to the effect her torn dress and half-exposed chest had on her fellow pilot, did not hesitate to contact the HQ.
"Katsuragi-san! The third child is injured, the angel might have increased its radius of effect, I am observing heavy blood loss from Ikari's face."
"Get them out of there NOW, Ritsuko!" - the familiar voice roared through her head.
Twenty minutes later, Rei was closing the door of Doctor Akagi's office back at NERV HQ, where the blonde doctor was finished explaining some stuff to the first child. Ayanami shut it very carefully, as if to avoid anybody hearing her or taking note of her. Her gaze was lowered to the floor and her face bright red. Who would have known that a girl's exposed chest could have such a completely mission-impairing effect on boys!
'Why are my cheeks burning?'
Keen to avoid a repeat of those events, this time Rei redesigned her dress herself, making it more modest and sturdy, and this time adding undergarments - an absence of which was an oversight she had not noticed at first. Now that she knew the importance of those, Rei could not help but wonder at times why doctor Akagi would leave those out of her initial programs.
Busy reminiscing, she didn't notice the time pass until she was already next to the other two pilots. Shinji, clad in his usual white armour from head to toe, was leaning unconscious against a tall pine tree, his double-edged sword with the inscription "Suscéptor" lying down a few feet away. She has seen Shinji's Interim body countless times, so instead, Rei turned her attention to the newcomer.
Mana Kirishima, who was lying down on the other side of the tall tree, right hand under her cheek, was breathing peacefully. Her other arm, or rather the front end of it, was hidden underneath a giant colourful thick metal pipe. Her chest and legs were hidden by similar constructions. The albino noticed that just like Asuka's, Shinji's and her own weapons, Mana's pipe similarly also had an inscription.
'Machinatum' - The first child read it silently. She then looked back on the form of the brown-haired teenager. Indeed, she did look like her Interim form was ,in fact, engineered. Remembering a handful of sci-fi movies that she had watched along with everyone at one of Shinji's parties, she decided the colourful mix of blue and green metal parts did, in fact, look like some kind of machine or mecha limbs.
Rei looked up at the clear, blue sky. Both of the others looked like they were still unconscious, and from Ritsuko's constant lecturing, she knew that waking them up before they crossed over themselves could lead to incomplete transfers, and needing to start the process over. She sat down next to the same tree, taking care to fold the bottom of her blue garment properly. Then Ayanami proceeded to take off her gold helmet-like crown and shook her head from side to side, letting her blue bangs free. She had always wondered whether her Interim clothes - a long dress, golden headgear, and the inscription on her spear-like staff - "Regina" - had any connection. It seemed obvious that they did, but could there be more to it? One peculiar thing about the pilot's appearance was the code's inability to drastically change the pilot's appearance. For several years Ritsuko had been running tests on Rei's AVE codes, and any significant changes were met with a reset. It was as though Adam was not letting her change the appearance. The code would simply reset to its old version and execute that. But smaller changes that did not affect the look too much could still go ahead. For example - Rei's own changes to her dress structure. At one point last year, Asuka went through a stage of dying her hair blonde, and tried to change her code to match her real-life hair. If only the base could see the resulting mess of different shades of bright orange, she would have been the butt of countless "ginger" jokes at the HQ for days.
So was what they looked like now what the angels wanted them to look like? Was it the way Adam saw them? There should not even be any kind of feedback at all, since all the Scorcher was just a bunch of brain cells with no consciousness attached.
Back in the Hangar, Ritsuko connected her own monitor screen at her post to the giant LCD hanging on the hangar's wall, which was usually used for emergency broadcasts from the bridge, or for other general purposes, via a thick, long cable dropping all the way down from the bridge. This time, instead of Gendo's unpleasant face, the screen would offer the world something which the scientist hoped would be more pleasant. With all the equipment and technology that the dozens of military trucks hauled from the NERV airport outside Tokyo-3 this morning, new possibilities presented themselves. Part of Mana's new code allowed a neural connection to be attached to her skull, and then information would be decoded to allow a very crude video stream. It had to be without sound, but NERV scientists already had that covered. Today, for the first time ever, non-pilots would be able to see what the Interim looked like. And if any Seers happened to be in the room, they could even catch a glimpse of the next angel.
On the bridge, most of the technicians and staff were relaxed. Misato was resting her head on her bent arm in her seat - half-awake and half-asleep, she lazily scrolled through the data the telemetry sensors were picking up. After all, getting up at seven was not her usual modus operandi, and she could hardly be blamed. Misato did not know half of what the numbers and readings meant, and hoped that the little show Ritsuko was preparing will keep her awake.
Just in front of her, a girl whose hair colour could be debated to vary from light red to auburn, now sat with her knees brought up to her chin, both feet on the chair with her. The red plug suit she was wearing was half-unzipped at the back. It was not fit to be worn outside capsules with LCL inside, the tight-fitting latex made it too hard to keep oneself from sweating. Misato, however, had ordered her to keep it on at all times today, so the girl would rather show a bit of skin, instead of smelling like a serf.
'But I swear, if that perv Hyuga stares at my arse again...' - Asuka's thoughts trailed off as she remembered the G36 she kept in the closet of her apartment. Yeah, that's what she could do. Unleash hell in return, upon everyone who has given her hell over the years. All pilots had to go through compulsory marksmanship training. They were valuable assets and were required to be able to defend themselves. Out of the three original NERV pilots, the German was probably the best shooter, and the girl had no doubt - if she could follow that four-eyes home, and scout for a suitable position in the nearby buildings, his next walk home would be his last. Then she could go for that baka-Shinji. No, she would not hurt him too bad, just put a bullet in each of his knees, and watch him drag himself on his arms through the pain. He would probably cry and scream like the coward he is. She had felt pain way worse than mere bullets to the knees, and she had never cried. 'And after the cry-baby - hmm. Tight call between Gendo and Fuyutsuki...' - She suddenly stopped herself. Was she really thinking about disturbing things like that?
'Ugh, I guess the psychologist was right, there really is something wrong with me...' - Asuka started to nervously fidget with her phone, when she saw a tiny number 1 in the left upper corner. She opened the message immediately, hoping it would get her mind off sinister things.
"I completely forgot! We have to finish the science project as soon as you are done! So please rip the angel's throat out as soon as possible, Asuka-chan! Good luck (≧∇≦)/" - The number told her it was from Yuuna, the only person outside NERV who knew about her piloting AVE.
'Oh great. I forgot as well.' - But she was terribly happy to receive it even if it meant staying up late on a school night just to finish a useless project for something as pointless as school. It reminded her that there was some good in this world. That she still had some friends.
"How is this, senpai?" - on the hangar floor, a blonde and a brunette with same-length shirt hair were tangled up in dozens of wires of different sizes and colours. The brunette was inches away from blushing - her thigh had been brushing against her superior's butt for the last several minutes.
"Now plug in the other cable, Maya" - Ritsuko's head was the only part of her body sticking out from inside of a metal container with wires, connections and circuit breakers. Maya's head was sticking out on the opposite side, where the business end of the large screen was.
"Done." - Moments prior, the screen had lit up, albeit still dark, now it had the NERV logotype in one corner and the words '03 FEED VIDEO ONLY' in the other. Job done, the duo could finally drag themselves out from underneath the oversized television.
"S-senpai!" - the blonde heard her colleague call out nervously - "I.. think I'm stuck!"
"Great." - the scientist replied sarcastically - "I told you we should have gone on that diet together, no?" - Even though this situation was something trivial and completely undangerous, she knew she had to keep Maya's spirits up. Panicking people could turn a mundane mishap into something really bad. That TV was really heavy. And expensive.
"It's not my fault, Akagi-senpai! I told you I'm losing weight already, please just pull me out!" - the stress in her voice was audibly replaced with embarrassment. Satisfied, Ritsuko grabbed hold of the brunette's ankles.
"Hang on! One, two, pull!" - with one last strain and a weird tearing sound, Maya came flying out from inside the mess of wires. But something about her was different. Her skirt, having been snagged by a cut wire, traded its usual position around her thighs for a rather unorthodox location - her face, revealing her frilly white underwear to the world.
"Ah, there is something around my face, senpai.." - oblivious to her own exposure, lieutenant Ibuki reached for the material obstructing her view. - "What is wrong, Akagi-san?" - puzzled at blonde's amused look she had seen when she freed her face and stood up, she glanced herself over and immediately realized the problem.
"UWAAAA~" She jumped back onto her knees, effectively exposing even more of herself as she bent down, and reached for what she now realized was her skirt. "I'm so sorry senpai!" - hastily pulling it back on around her legs, she was thankful that the tear the metal made was a tiny one. Maya contorted herself in a deep bow, trying to hide her crimson face in the gesture.
"Don't worry." - Maya lifted her gaze back up, in hopes that her display of indecency was forgiven. - "They're cute." - The two words that came next was the last thing the brunette heard. She fainted to the floor with a dull thud.
As the on-screen picture changed into a mix of blocky colours, the quality worthy of a pre-impact internet video, the employees on the bridge perked up. The Interim was something they were all eager to see. Even Asuka, who did her best to seem uninterested before, put her expensive cell back onto the table, and sat up straight, paying attention to the feed. What appeared before them was a blotchy view of a forest. The picture shook up and down, in rhythm with what must have been Mana's walking pace. The children seemed to be proceeding along a well-trodden path in between dense leafy growth. None of the children could be seen, so it could be safe to assume they were walking side-to-side.
The three pilots walked gingerly to where they were told their mission objective was. Assuming a one-to-one terrain correlation, the fact of which was ascertained by NERV scientist with 98% certainty, the angel must be on the very top of this hill. Neither of the trio had said anything for a while now since they left the tree where they awoke. As she struggled to keep up with the pace of her fellow pilots, Mana tried her best to sneak in a few glances at Rei and Shinji without them noticing. The brunette knew they were both experienced pros, with hundreds of hours logged both in the Interim and in test environments. They looked the part too, on the faces of both were looks of concentration, without any kind of anxiety or fear. They knew what they came here to do and they would not hesitate when the time to do it arrived.
Rei looked regal and distant in her winter-coloured attire. Even her azure hair and pale skin matched the pattern of blues. With her perfect upright posture and elegant, careful walk, she looked like some kind of ice queen.
Shinji, on the other hand, looked like one of her valiant knights. The third child's Interim body was encased in white armour from neck to toe, a matching eye-blinding white shield hung from his back. The only exception to the rule was his weapon attached to his hip, a giant sword with a dark hilt and a silver blade. But even there, bright white lights pulsed along the steel edges, forming intricate patterns of white and disappearing as suddenly as they appeared, only to repeat the pattern a few seconds later. With her mind occupied on her comrades' looks, Mana jumped a bit when she heard the boy call her name.
" Kirishima-san?" - Shinji, who knew next to nothing about their new pilot colleague, decided to strike up a conversation. While his own and Rei's, and even Asuka's bodies looked like they were modelled with a medieval style in mind, Mana's one had a completely contrasting fashion. Immediately, what came to Shinji's mind, was some kind of robot, the brunette's colourful armour on her limbs and torso reminded him of mecha anime he used to watch when he was just a bit younger. The only things missing were two giant twin engines on her back, and then she would look ready to take to the stars, and bring the battle to the disgusting aliens' own home world.
"Y-yes?" - Hoping they did not see her covert glances, Mana looked at her feet, praying that this was not a dressing-down about her stalking them through their files earlier.
"Is your Interim body a ranged-type like Rei's?" - Mana was not expecting him to take even the slightest interest about her, so the question left her at a loss for words.
"Umm.. Yes!" - Surprised at the loudness of her own voice, she immediately toned it down for her next line - "My left arm shoots, but if you need me to, I could fight in close-quarters as well, my chest armour should be enough to.." - as she kept talking, her voice got quieter and quieter, until eventually, it trailed off so much that Shinji could not hear her at all. 'No, I can't brag or anything! I better stop talking this instant...' - Deciding that he would not get much else out of the timid girl, Shinji decided to end that branch of the conversation.
"It looks cool." - As soon as the brunette heard the compliment from the boy's mouth, Her face lifted up instantly, her hesitation to talk long-forgotten.
"Really? You really think so, Shinji-kun?" - A smile as radiant as the designs on Shinji's sword lit up her slightly flushed face. It was now Shinji's turn to feel awkward and embarrassed.
"Yes.. It's very.. colourful, Kirishima-san." - He thought he had to follow up on his previous comment, but nothing else came to mind.
"Ah, I am so glad that you like it!" - Suddenly, she was the opposite of what Shinji made her out to be - "And please, just call me Mana, okay?" - The unexpected forwardness of the strange girl had turned the tables on the third child. It was now his turn to lower his gaze and blush like an embarrassed kid.
Then, out of nowhere, someone grabbed his right arm and folded theirs into his, much like a couple on a date would. Shinji was suddenly scared. The girl was too forward. He looked up to his right, gathering up his own will to tell her that this was too sudden but what he saw made him forget the speech he had prepared completely. On his right, blocking Mana out of Shinji's view, and leaning against his arm, entwined with her own, was Rei, who had apparently left her walking position on Shinji's left side, and quietly slid in between him and Mana, gently pushing her away. Her expression was as steely as always, but a hint of pink on the cheeks, which Shinji was too mentally exhausted by the new development to notice, betrayed her true emotions.
"I have calculated that if the angel were to attack us first, its vector of approach would be from our left side. Therefore, it is most advantageous for us to have Ikari-kun on the far left of the group."
Back at the HQ, Asuka was staring at the screen with a stern expression etched onto her face. Looking at what Mana's vision telemetry was relaying to the real world, she tried to make her own sense of it. Misato, who, along with the Commander, had the only sound link, which was configured to interact with and only with the Commander and the Director of Operations, never shared any information with anybody, leaving Asuka guessing about their speech.
'She is staring at Shinji and Rei. Why is she doing that so obviously? Oh look, the idiot noticed. What did he say? Ugh, why didn't I learn to lip-read... Now she turned her head back down. Ha, "Don't talk to me, baka-Shinji!" - that's what she told him, yeah. Hm, now she turned back to face him.. Looks like he's trying to say something but can't.. Why is he blushing? "Why are you so stupid, baka-Shinji?" - "I-I don't know, military bitch-san! I am completely retarded! I had Asuka wrapped around my finger and I had the insolence to turn her down! I am so stupid!" Stupid! Stupid!' - she started banging her clenched fist on the control panel, earning her weird sideway glances from the technicians.
Back on the screen, Rei thrust into the picture out of nowhere, nearly making the camera - or Mana, in this case - topple over.
'What's Wondergirl doing now? Is she holding him by the.. Are they flirting?! At a time like this?!'
The last few words must have been said aloud by the riled-up redhead, because right after she finished, she could feel playful fingers tickling her sides.
"Ooh, sounds like somebody is je-ealo-ous~" - Misato's unmistakable voice and manner of teasing would have probably made Asuka explode with anger, if she was not already laughing so hard from Misato's skilled hands, which had gotten loads of practice with tickling Shinji over the years.
"Ha Ha! Misato-o! Ha Ha! What are you doing sto-o-ha-ha-p!" - When she eventually did, Asuka tried hard to regain the stern look she had earlier, but all she managed was a half-laughing grimace - she was still suffering from the after-effects of Misato's assault. - "Nobody is jealous of anything Misato! Just go tell them to hurry up and get it over with, I have no desire to be bothered with synching and piloting today, you hear?"
"All right, all right, in that case, I will tell Rei and Mana that they have competition!" - Misato winked. Asuka could not believe that was their Head of Operations . Did anybody here ever take their job seriously?
"The angel still has not moved. When you get to the summit, be prepared to engage at once." - Misato's voice sounded in the minds of all three pilots at once, relaying through the programs. The first and third children were already used to the harsh sensation, but this was a first for Mana, who whimpered when she felt it. - "Its signature is static, and by far weaker than the angel you defeated on the rooftops. You should have no problems with this one, just be careful about possible ambushes, the forest can give it plenty of places to conceal itself."
"I told you so." The albino, who still had not let go of Shinji's arm, looked around triumphantly.
Nobody replied. What greeted them atop the mountain was more interesting. At the very summit was a clearing, one that looked like it had been man-made, or, in this case, angel-made. The ground was absolutely flat, and yellow roots of different sizes stuck out, giving off an impression that someone had just run a giant knife across the top, leaving the surrounding trees alone, but separating the whole of the hilltop. In the middle of the large flat surface of about a hundred meters across, a single stone pillar stuck out. A pillar that looked extremely smooth and even, but the unmistakable grey texture pointed to the fact it had been made of rock. Large purple Latin letters went from the top to the bottom, forming one word - "Intentator". At the very top, sat a woman.
Her dress - if you could call her dressed - was very revealing, thin strips of blue material, or, at most, a bra, covered up her most private bits, while most of her skin was left exposed to the elements. Around her legs, three thick leather belts held a half-skirt, that went around only her right thigh, in place. Her most decent element of clothing was a body-length cape that was purple on the outside and red on the inside, topping off in a high collar, which blocked her head completely from somebody looking at her from behind. On the woman's head was something akin to a crown, a three-pronged gold plate, starting off as a single piece on her forehead, and splitting off into two more branches further up. It looked like it was held in place by nothing more than a red jewel wedged inside the plate, right on her forehead. Her face, framed by long, purple hair, was contorted in a satisfied smirk. As her deep blue eyes, framed by dark eyeliner playfully scanned the three children, she started to speak.
"None of you the red one." - Her sultry voice sounded double in the pilots' heads - once on the inside, like Misato's did, and one on the outside, like a normal voice would. Adding to the fact that they were already on a high enough hill, the effects from her voice compounded with the height into a severe vertigo for Shinji. "I have no quarrel with you. Bring me the red one and I will leave you unharmed."
"Blood pattern blue, terminate command confirmed!" - Another voice tore through the teenagers' heads, and probably not only theirs, as the strange woman said something in direct answer to the Major.
"Fufu~. How amusing, so the lilim did find a way to break through the barriers after all." - Shinji had no idea what the woman was talking about, all he knew was that this was his enemy and they were supposed to terminate the enemy. "Lilith's gift certainly was most useful. So please, don't let it go to waste. Use it - I have asked you to bring me the red one."
"Do you mean pilot Soryu?"- The woman did not seem threatening at the moment, so Rei thought it harmless to engage in conversation.
"How must I know, you lilim all look the same to me. Isn't "red one" enough of a description for you, blue one?" - She looked back at the children like she was teaching 1+1=2 to a bunch of particularly slow children.
"Why, what do you want with her?" - Something about her unsettled Shinji. This was an angel, and the fact that it was so much more human-like than the others was disturbing. The first two angels him and Rei fought were not of human shape at all. They did not even get to see Ramiil up close, but automatically assumed he was also some kind of beast, based on their first two encounters. Were all angels like this? Were they all almost human? Had Shinji killed them?
This was enough to make the woman finally uncross her legs, which were covered at their ends with long leather boots with heels, and stand up on the grey pillar, straightening her back proudly.
"I am Ishrafiil, the Temptress!" - Her previously calm and seducing voice now thundered through the surroundings threateningly - "I have come to exact revenge upon the killer of my beloved brother, Gaghiil! I shall take the red one into captivity and take her into captivity and bring her back to Mater, where she will face justice for her crimes against him!
"I have also killed others like you." - Rei tensed up, sensing that the woman - no, the angel - had stood up in preparation to engage them - "Do you also not want to take myself with?"
"I have no quarrel with you, blue one." - She gave the teenager a look of contempt. "Your dealings with other families do not interest me, I work for mine and mine alone. " - With that, she jumped of the three-meter high column and landed gracefully on her feet, spreading her arms like a bird would wings. "So, will I get what I wish for, or not?" - She stuck out one of her gloved hands with the last word, and a purple staff with a crescent at the end shot out from underneath the wet ground, right into her hand. She gripped the weapon firmly, and a purple light, much like the one in the First Child's staff lit up menacingly inside the crescent tip. She pointed it at the trio in a threatening gesture. - "I shall not wait any longer."
The children looked at each other, nodding in understanding. Rei signalled to the newcomer in their team to stay back.
"Kirishima-san. Me and Ikari-kun have worked together a long time, and we have several strategies. It would be wise for you to remain back. Use your ranged weapon if you have a chance, but do not hinder Ikari-kun in the front." - Mana gritted her teeth at the unexpected bossiness of the blue-haired girl, who, at first sight, appeared reserved and shy. But she did understand that if what Rei said was really the truth, it would be best to do as she says. Taking up a position to the right, she powered up her cannon and pointed it at the angel, which she could see thanks to the nature of the Interim itself, achieving a lock-on. Mana knew it would be useless against an AT-field, and not being a natural Seer, she had no AT-field of her own, so she would have to wait until Shinji broke through it himself.
Rei pointed her own weapon at Shinji, at which point the blue orb in between the prongs of her blue sceptre glowed bright and enveloped the boy in a soft warm glow. She had artificially covered him in her own AT-field from the staff, which "hardened" into dark blue hexagonal shapes that arranged in a 3-D oval around Shinji, who then charged at their target.
But even an action as threatening as that produced no reaction from the woman slash angel. Instead, she allowed her arrogant smile from earlier to creep back onto her lips. Shinji noticed this at once but paid no heed. He would destroy her, and make his father, Misato, and the rest, proud! Rei was a particularly gifted Seer, so her AT-field was strong. Counting on that, he focused his own in his sword, which he gripped tightly in his drawn-back right arm, ready to strike. In just two seconds, he would reach the target, his AT-field would neutralize the angel's own, while the first child's field would protect him from any counter-attack. The plan was perfect.
Was. The brightly-shining sword that now had a white hexagonal energy field perpendicular to its blade, reached the woman's ample chest and tore into it.
'No AT-field?' - was the only thought Shinji had time for. The woman, whose chest was now impaled on his weapon, grinned even wider. Before Shinji could voice his surprise, she disappeared. Her body literally exploded into thick purple smoke, that burned Shinji's eyes and parched his throat, making him gasp for breath. Immediately, the smoke dissipated, revealing none other than Ishrafiil herself, who was now several meters further.
"Don't worry, you did not really hurt me, that was just a decoy. An Interim body of an Interim body. Cool, huh?" - her tone could even be considered friendly, if not for the fact that she held up her own staff right up to Shinji's face, its purple orb had been pulsing for a while already.
The staff's owner put on a mischievous smile, unleashing a wide blast of purple light at the trio.
"Boom~"
Now sitting upright in her comfortable seat at the control panel, the redhead tensed up as soon as she saw the angel sitting on top of the giant stone pillar. She may have looked like a beautiful woman, but Asuka's Seer instincts screamed 'danger'. It was hard to see with the quality of the feed, but the woman's mouth opened and closed as if in conversation.
'Mein Gott im Himmel, are they talking with it? Are they complete idiots?!'
The German girl stood up, her hands slammed flat on the control panel, and upper body leaning forward towards screen. The woman leapt down from her column and threateningly pointed her staff at the camera. For a millisecond, Asuka's own chest recoiled backwards, as if the weapon was pointing directly at her. Regaining her composure, she got even angrier.
'Attack, idiots! Why are you taking so long?!'
Finally, as if obeying her mental command, the camera moved off to the side and showed Shinji being enveloped in some kind of light, which the redhead decided must have been part of Rei's own AT-field. Shinji charged at the Angel.
'How reckless. If this doesn't work, I am knocking her a whole ten points down on my scale, even further below than the idiot.'
The sword pierced the angel right in the middle of its chest, but there was something wrong. The angel's body vanished into thin air, unveiling another body right behind it. Asuka let out a gasp, sensing the trouble the pilots were about the face. Even through the blocky video screen, she saw the woman's haughty smirk. Her purple staff pointed at Shinji, and purple light lit up the screen, making it painful to watch. Again, Asuka's instincts took over, sending a jolt through her body. When she realized her own body was in no immediate danger, the redhead noticed that her left arm darted to her neck and grabbed hold of a tiny silver axe, engraved with Norse runes, that hung around her chest. She only ever touched her good-luck charm in times of deep distress, meaning what her fellow pilots were facing would have even made her own nerves of steel buckle. The angel had smiled so arrogantly too. She turned away from the now completely purple screen and started running.
Misato couldn't see the angel on-screen. Her only clue as to what was happening was the sound link. But halfway through, she found another. The only other Seer in the whole building sat just a few meters away from herself, fidgeting nervously with her long light-red hair while looking at the screen. Misato had heard everything that angel said. About Asuka, about families and about the previous angel, who was apparently Ishrafiil's brother. Asuka herself had heard none of that, but saw everything perfectly. When the Head of Operations saw her former ward recoil in fear, she feared something did not go as intended. When she recoiled a second time, and grabbed her necklace, which she never showed to anybody, which even Misato had seen only by accident, the major knew something had not gone as intended. When the screen blacked out, Misato turned back forward.
"Aoba, is the feed working as intended?"
"Yes ma'am, no problems on our end, must be something wrong in the Interim" - Shigeru Aoba, the long-haired technician shouted at her from below.
'Damn.' - Misato gripped her own good-luck charm hanging around her neck - a thick silver cross. She turned back to where the German pilot had been sitting a few moments back - but to add to Head of Operations' worries, she had disappeared. Knowing Asuka, it was exactly like her to do something rash and naive in the situation. Like walk right into an apparent trap by Ishrafiil, if she understood what the angel said correctly. Frantically, Misato scanned the lower decks for her pilot, finding the girl decked out in the red plug suit jumping down from level to level, apparently going for the hangar floor - where her own inactive AVE capsule stood.
"Asuka! Don't!" - Was all Misato could scream at her former roommate. Asuka did not slow her pace, only stopping when she landed next to her metal capsule. Her expert fingers found the right buttons on the keypad quickly, sending power to the device, and lighting up several LEDs on and around it, indicating a start-up sequence.
"Misato," - the girl started speaking at her from below, tilting her head up to look at her ex-guardian, now her senpai. - "I know we have not seen eye to eye recently, but, please, you can't stop me. Not now. You have seen it yourself, or, heard, whatever. Either way, I don't care, right now an angel is about to kill pilots, your pilots. I can't leave them there, it's just ... not me.' - Asuka kicked open the top of the capsule, and made a sudden move with her hands towards her mouth. Misato instantly remembered what it was - NERV Germany issued her with fast-acting sleeping pills in case of need for an emergency activation where the pilot would not be confident of their own ability to get in synch with the Scorcher. The purple-haired major always thought that she threw those out, along with her neural clips and everything AVE-related. So, after all, she was still really serious about this.
Misato looked up at the screen, which was still dark. Her own vocal link was not working either, she heard nothing but silence from the Interim, and had no way of knowing if her own voice was getting through the children on the other side.
"Asuka.." - her tone was now more nervous than angry, like before - "Are you sure you want to do this?" - she realized telling Asuka what the angel said about her would rile her up even more.
The redhead jumped into her unit-02 and activated the LCL purge. She had forty seconds to sort everything out before she lost consciousness but she did not worry. Back in Germany she initiated start-up in twenty-five seconds flat. Planting the sensor pads directly on her head since she had no neural clips, Asuka opened the comms channel to Misato. Her scalp was burning - synchronization without the clips was more painful and troublesome. But now was not the time to let her heart falter.
"Never been more sure of anything in my life."
Remembering the angel's smile, her bright-red lips curled into one of her own.
'She who laughs last - laughs best. Baka-angel.'
