I tried to gain the rights to Evangelion but apparently my disturbing collection of Pen-Pen hentai wasn't enough. With nothing else to offer I returned home to write this. I'm sorry that this chapter isn't as long as the last one and I'm going to explain why at the end.
With that said please enjoy~ author guy
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Chapter Four: Sync Tests
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The tires skidded down the highway, with no concern for the soccer moms who had to get their kids to practice.
Shinji was on the verge of barfing in the back seat, while Asuka was doing a good job of hiding her own nausea. Yet another thing he would never get used to.They pulled into the parking lot. It took a while to find a spot given that they came in so late, but eventually they got out of the car and made their way inside.
"You guys ready?" Misato asked the two of them outside the locker rooms before they went their separate ways.
"Of course I'm ready!" Asuka flicked her hair with a smirk on her face. Time to show all these idiots that I'm the REAL best pilot! It had been a painstaking two weeks of waiting for her precious Eva to be repaired, but now it was her time to shine!
Misato gave her a smile before turning to Shinji, "And you?" She knew that he never wanted to pilot the Eva. She wished he didn't have to, that he could just go to school, make friends, and stay at her apartment and live a normal life. Something she could never have. But he didn't have a choice, not really, and she was the one who had to keep him going. It was part of the job afterall.
"Yes, Misato." He gave a little nod, about to head into to the locker room, but stopped to ask Misato something in return, "What would you like for dinner tonight?"
Misato gave a sigh of relief. "Something with beer." Misato had heard what she wanted to hear and so her conscience lightened. No matter how flimsy the reassurance was.
Shinji smiled and went into the locker room, thinking of all the possible recipes he could make.
"Well now, aren't you a mother hen?"
Misato jumped at the sudden intrusion on the moment and turned around to see Kaji leaning on a wall, already with a cigarette in his mouth.
Normally she would've just told Kaji to piss off but she was feeling the slightest bit playful at the moment. "You should've been here earlier, you could've given Asuka a kiss for luck."
"Ahh, as tempting as the offer sounds, I'm not into kids." Kaji bit down slightly on his cigarette, making a bit of nicotine fall into his mouth. It tasted disgusting but he could handle it, he wasn't an amateur at smoking. Neither was Misato, come to think of it.
"Really? I thought there wasn't a thing on the planet that you wouldn't fuck." Misato said with a hint of bitterness.
Kaji feigned hurt. "How could you speak such slander? Oh is there anything I could do to gain your favor, my queen? Perhaps a cigarette~..." He pulled out his pack of Marlboro cigarettes and extended them to Misato, a smirk planted on his face.
Misato smacked his hand away, "I don't smoke anymore, peasant boy." She was growing tired of Kaji's advances, and walked past him. "Be at the bridge at the scheduled time, Chief Inspector Ryoji Kaji."
"Yes, ma'am." Kaji went into work mode, even giving a little salute, something he didn't think possible when Misato was involved. She's really not going to make this easy, is she? He thought, putting another cigarette in his mouth, spitting out the ruined one.
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"M-hm," Shinji finished pulling on his plugsuit, a difficult task made even harder since he didn't take a shower this morning.
But once the suit pressurized he felt his balls all but roll into his eyes. He walked out of the changing room that morning like he was on stilts. Asuka didn't wait for a second to hold it over him.
"What is it, third? Not used to your plugsuit yet? Pathetic." Asuka gave a smirk as Shinji looked down, counting how many toes he could see in the plugsuit.
"It is time."
Both Asuka and Shinji jumped. Well, the latter more or less tilted backward. Too afraid to see what would happen if he actually jumped.
When the hell did she get here!? Asuka thought as Rei turned around and walked to the bridge, Shinji waddling closely behind, trying to start a conversation in vain.
"Rei, how did you do on the test?" Shinji asked. he personally did-
"Acceptable to the standards," Rei said without looking at him. She didn't understand why he asked her these questions.
"Oh...well how was your breakfast?" Shinji tried again. He was taken aback at the lack of...anything in her voice, he had thought they had become a little closer? since the 5th angel.
He wasn't wrong technically. But Ritsuko's double-dosing of her medication was making it very hard to emote. "I do not require it," she said, trying to keep her left arm from falling off.
"Oh...well good luck on your sync test," Shinji said before going silent. He had finished adjusting to his plugsuit and was able to walk normally the rest of the way. Either that or he had gone impotent at a tragically young age.
Asuka's laughing could be heard from in front of them.
They all reached the Eva cages in differing moods, but they all got into their Eva's nonetheless.
"Hello, pilots," Ritsuko gave them the required greeting - or so Misato said - over the intercom before getting to the meat of why they were talking, "we will begin your harmonic tests in a few minutes."
They all nodded their heads okay as their Eva's whirred to life. It was really quite a sight, watching as the world's three most dangerous weapons powered on, right next to each other, machines capable of ending every war or starting them. Depending on the pilots particular mood at the time.
"Just try to focus." Misato was now over the intercom giving her usual support.
"Yes, Misato." Shinji was the only one who said it, Rei being too busy trying to keep herself together while Asuka was already deep into her subconscious, trying to get the highest score she could. It's just like Galaga... she thought with a mental laugh.
"Asuka is averaging 53 percent." Ritsuko watched as the number went from 45 to 60 rapidly before dropping again. The neon greens, reds and yellows flickering and fluctuating would have made most people nauseous but Ritsuko had spent years slaving over these dials and numbers.
"Rei?" Misato was holding off on knowing about Shinji, a feeling of worry making a pit in her stomach. She tried to make it go away, knowing that it was illogical to worry.
"Averaging 30 percent. She's functional but lower than when we did the re-activation test." Ritsuko knew what was hurting her numbers, but didn't dare tell anyone.
"...And how about Shinji?" Misato asked.
"...Woah."
Misato's heart started beating faster. "What is it?" she asked, walking over to Ritsuko to look at the machines connected to the Eva's. She couldn't read any of the flickering numbers or symbols, it might as well have been in English.
"It's...it's averaging in the 20s, barely above the minimum!" Maya broke the news, Ritsuko apparently still in shock from the drastic crash of Shinji's score. She didn't understand - he had been averaging in the 60s after the 5th angel was defeated, so what happened? Even with all her cold logic and years spent solving problems, Ritsuko still didn't guess that Asuka moving into the Katsuragi apartment may have been part of the equation.
"What!?" Misato all but marched over to the intercom to confront Shinji. Had he been lying when he said he was ready? "Shinji!" she barked into the intercom; the fact that she had been lied to yet again by Shinji made her voice rise more than it needed to.
Shinji nearly jumped out of his skin. "W-what's the problem, Misato?" he asked. He was visibly shaken, his test scores now averaging in the teens.
"Your scores are the problem. I thought you said you were ready," her tone softened. With Shinji, yelling would only make things worse.
"W-what's wrong with them?"
"They've dropped over 40 points! We can't afford this!" Misato watched over the cameras as his face sunk.
"I...I don't...how?" Shinji said, more to himself than anyone else.
"That's what we're trying to figure out," Misato said, as Ritsuko thought, we?
About thirty minutes passed as they tried to raise his sync but ultimately Ritsuko called for Shinji to be ejected.
"What about my scores?" Asuka asked, her hands clenched in anticipation.
"You, Asuka, are averaging 54." Ritsuko watched as Asuka's face stretched upwards in the glory of that statement.
"So, I'm the best?"
"Yes, sync ratio-wise."
Asuka gave a cheer to herself as Rei watched Shinji leave the Eva and get dragged off by the Major.
Shinji was silent as Misato dragged him off. I don't know why she's so mad. I tried. And other such thoughts of apathy began to fill his head.
"What's hurting your scores, Shinji?" Misato stopped once they reached the outside of the locker room, putting her hand on his shoulders and looking him in the eyes.
"I don't know..." Shinji looked down, his eyes staying a moment on Misato's breasts. How the tips of them were barely visible under the slightly baggy shirt she was wearing underneath her jacket. He forced his eyes all the way down to the floor. What's wrong with me, he asked himself in disgust. He was failing to do the one thing he needed to and he was staring at his m...at his guardian's breasts.
Misato sighed, "Shinji, I need you to be honest with me, okay?" She gripped his hand that was hanging at his side. She wanted Shinji to tell her the truth; too many times had men lied to her, from Kaji's cheating to her father. She didn't want Shinji to be another liar.
"I-I don't know Misato...I really don't." Shinji's voice cracked for a moment, "y-you have to believe me." He didn't want Misato to hate him for failing everyone.
"Are you sure?" She asked steelily. She wanted to be sure he wasn't lying, she had to be sure.
"Y-yes, please believe me." Shinji was willing to beg. Misato wanted him to look her in the eyes and say it, but he didn't stop staring at the ground.
"Okay...I believe you." And she really did, she knew Shinji well enough to know that he couldn't lie like that, probably. "But we still need to figure out what's wrong, okay?" She loosened her grip on Shinji's hand, not realising that she had been squeezing it.
Shinji finally looked up and saw her giving him a small smile. "Okay...and I was thinking that we should have beer battered fish sticks?"
"Hmmm, sounds great, Shinji." Shinji was confused when Misato's eyes flickered past him and grew a tad darker.
"Commander!" Misato gave a salute. All emotion leaving her voice, only the bark of a soldier remaining.
Shinji's eyes widened. Slowly he turned around and was met by his father's cold gaze.
"As you were, Major," he said simply before moving down the hall. He stopped not more than 20 feet away from them before saying, "Have Ritsuko come see me."
"Y...yes sir." Misato was too caught off guard to maintain complete professionalism.
"Third." He didn't look back at his son as he spoke to him.
"Y-y-yes father?" Shinji's hand was shaking and his breathing was growing unsteady. What's father going to say to me?
"Fix your sync ratio," his father demanded before walking off. If he had been looking at Shinji, he wouldn't have seen much, just some glazed over eyes and a look of mild confusion.
Shinji and Misato both stood in silence, the tick tick tick of the clock in the hallway being the only sound. After 5 minutes the silence was broken by the appearance of a red-head.
"There you guys are!" She walked up to them with a glare, clearly annoyed, "I've been looking for you two for nearly 15 minutes!"
"Huh? Oh, Asuka!" Misato broke out of her trance to engage the fire-braided girl.
Asuka cocked an eyebrow to this. "Good guess. C'mon already, let's go home! I'm hungry!"
"Okay, come on Shinji, let's go." Shinji didn't move however, even as Misato said it again louder.
"Come on Shinji, we don't have all day." Asuka was already walking down the hall to the parking lot but turned back to see what was taking so long.
"Shinji?" Misato asked, gripping his hand. She noticed how heavy and unsteady his breathing was, and how his arms and legs were shaking- no, they were vibrating more than anything.
"Shinji!" She started to shake him, lightly rocking him back and forth, but none of it was registering to the boy.
His breathing grew louder and louder, his heart started beating faster and faster, and eventually, he fell to the floor with a thud...and screamed.
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Chapter Four: Sync Tests End
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Author Note: I wish that there was some good reason as to why it's not as long but the answer is time, I wrote this in one day so I went for quality over quantity, so hopefully it IS good. As for the next chapters release I'm not one hundred percent sure but it will be by May 19th.
Peace.
