Note: Neither of this fic's authors particularly took Jet Alone seriously. Can you tell?
Chapter VI: Tonight on RAW.
"Rei!" The blue haired girl jumped, as Ranma grabbed her shoulder, pulling her away from the crack of the furo door, and back into the change room. "You're not gunna see anything in there, at least nothing you or I want you seeing," the pigtailed man grumbled, wondering precisely how red Shinji would turn when he, inevitably, opened the door.
"I only wished to collect more information," the Ayanami girl protested, almost sounding petulant.
"Well, you don't need that kind of data," her guardian grumbled. "Now get outta here. You've got trash duty today."
"Yes, sir," Rei said, turning and leaving the room, while Ranma sighed, picking up the laundry he'd dropped in order to stop her activity and tossing it into the dryer. The First Child had been acting quite oddly ever since the Angel attack the week before. While she had been nervous, and had apparently even had one nightmare about the Fifth Angel, that was perfectly natural, in his opinion.
The renewed, and rather hardy, interest in the Jusenkyo curses was something else again, though it did seem to make at least some sense, as Rei had always been somewhat fascinated with water. Turning on the washing machine, he exited the room and made for the kitchen, where he saw that Ritsuko was poking the rice he'd made experimentally with a spoon.
"Won't be ready for a few minutes," he said rapidly, ushering his wife back towards the living room table. While the woman wasn't anything like Akane in the kitchen, she always liked to... experiment... with recipes, and her last experiment had involved adding some flavor with the benefit of some cinnamon she'd found at the grocery store.
"I wasn't going to do anything to it," the scientist objected slightly defensively, as she returned to the morning paper she'd laid aside. Ranma briefly noted a headline about NERV's ridiculous overspending, which had been running ever since the Fifth Angel had destroyed the editor's car.
"So, what's on the agenda today?" He asked, as he stirred the rice.
"Commander Ikari wants to talk to me about the Fourth Angel's core," Ritsuko grumbled. "Probably wants to transfer it somewhere else for study."
"Well, having that thing in Tokyo-3 kinda makes me nervous," Ranma admitted, getting an irritated look from his wife.
She was about to respond to that, when Rei spoke up, "Parent Teacher interviews are scheduled for today."
"Huh? Why didn't we hear about this?" Ranma asked, confused.
"I left the forms in my locker in the changing room, during the last Angel attack," Rei admitted, "and Shinji had asked me to hold his while he went to work."
"At least you didn't say Unit 00 ate 'em," Ranma grumbled.
"Unit 00 cannot eat them, its mouth is bolted shut," Rei responded, flatly.
"The EVAs have mouths?" Shinji's voice cut through Ranma's probable exasperated response, as he entered the room wearing his school uniform.
"The EVA units are bio-mechanical constructs based off of human DNA," Ritsuko said matter-of-factly. "Honestly Shinji, I did tell you this before."
"Oh," Shinji muttered, suddenly thinking that the scorched skin he'd seen under Unit 00's armor made a lot more sense now. Deciding that he would rather not have heard that, the boy sat down at the table waiting for breakfast, pretending he hadn't.
"Anyhow, I'll go to the school, since all I've got waiting for me at NERV's a pile of paperwork," Ranma said, taking the pot of rice off of the burner and bringing it over to the table.
"You really shouldn't put that off," Ritsuko objected.
"It'll get done," The pigtailed man shrugged, as Shinji tuned out the conversation, serving up his food.
HR.
As she entered Commander Ikari's office, Ritsuko had to shake her head, wondering why the man insisted on leaving the place so dark. Her husband had once called him the Prince of Darkness, and she briefly let herself wonder if he'd meant the way he kept his office, rather than the obvious fallen angel reference.
"Dr. Akagi," the brown haired man said, from where he was sitting behind his desk, his computer screen reflecting just enough light onto his glasses to obscure his eyes. "What is the ready status of the EVAs?"
"Unit 01 is fully functional," Ritsuko responded. "Unit 00's biological components are nearly fully regenerated, and we're beginning the combat armor refit. ETA is about two months."
NERV's commander nodded. "Have you been tracking the Jet Alone project?" he asked, curiously.
"They're just starting combat trials in a week, aren't they? Some corporate based answer to the Evangelion... with a nuclear reactor for power and no AT Field," Ritsuko summarized, her words tinged with derision.
Fuyutsuki nodded. "Yes, unfortunately the U.N. seems to think that it's going to be their savior from having to pump billions of dollars into us to stop the Angels. They're calling a large press conference for tomorrow afternoon."
The scientist barely suppressed the urge to jump, and cursed the low light again as she hadn't even noticed the grey haired man standing quietly behind Gendo. Trying to pretend she'd never lost her composure, she asked, "Am I to attend?"
"We're going to ship the Fourth Angel's core to the Americans for use in their S2 program, now that we've determined its safe to handle, so they're likely going to approve our next budget request regardless, however..." NERV's commander trailed off, though Ritsuko got the point.
"How far am I to go?" she asked, nervously. Ranma was likely to demand to go with her on this trip, primarily due to his very overpowered protective instincts, and there were some lines she wasn't terribly willing to cross herself.
"Here are several suggestions, and a security card that we've managed to acquire," Fuyutsuki said, sliding a folder across the table. Ritsuko took the papers, before turning and leaving the room.
HR.
"Rei," Ranma sighed, as she sat across from the blue haired girl on her and Ritsuko's bed, ringing the last 'experimental' cup of water out of her pigtail. "This is getting annoying again."
"I simply wish to ascertain how Shinji's change is different from yours," the First Child said. "Dr. Akagi has told me that experimentation is the surest way of establishing a fact."
Ranma winced, though she took a little pleasure in thinking that she could mention this to her wife next time she made a joke about Ranma being a bad influence on Rei. "Shinji doesn't have a curse, he's got an unusual preference in clothes and a rather feminine face," she said, opening her closet door and starting to rummage around inside.
"I... don't understand," Rei said, blinking in confusion.
"Shinji doesn't turn into a girl, he just wears girls' clothes. Many people wear things that are generally considered for the opposite gender, for many different reasons, but you're not gunna figure out how he does it by ambushing either of us with water," the pigtailed martial artist explained, grimacing as she realized she only had one set of the male dress uniform, and it was currently sopping wet.
Reaching for a skirt-suit that Ritsuko had bought for her as a birthday present, one of the perils of being born on April first, she began to change. "Now if I don't get movin, Ritsuko'll probably leave without me. Just promise you won't ambush anyone with glasses of water anymore, all right?"
"I promise," Rei said, reluctantly., and stood from the bed, exiting the room. When the door slid shut behind her, her eyes narrowed in thought and she began walking down the hallway. Passing Shinji's room, she stopped, and a speculative expression crossed her face.
HR.
"Rei got you, hmm?" Ritsuko asked, her mouth quirking up into a half grin, as she saw a very annoyed redhead walking across the tarmac towards her, a file folder in her hand.
"Yeah, on the way out, too," Ranma grumbled. "And Makoto refused to do my paperwork for me this time."
"Didn't smile wide enough?" Ritsuko asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Two security clearances higher than he's allowed to see," Ranma admitted sheepishly. "Forgot to read the clearance status."
Ritsuko rolled her eyes. When things didn't have directly to do with combat, or occasionally Rei or Shinji, Ranma would rather leave them to someone else and go train. Truthfully, it was a wonder that NERV's tactical section was still running along schedule, but she'd been thinking similar things since college.
As the two took seats in the back of the NERV VTOL craft that sat at the end of the runway, The brunette retrieved a pen from her coat pocket, presenting it to the redhead with a flourish. "You sure you can't do it?" Ranma asked, hopefully.
"There are certain areas where you have higher clearance than me, remember?" Ritsuko replied, resolutely ignoring the puppy dog eyes she was being given, though only through years of practice. Eventually, they got too much for her, and she dug out the report the commander had given her in order to distract herself.
The martial artist sighed, uncapping her pen and beginning work on a set of recommendations for safety upgrades in the areas surrounding Terminal Dogma that she had written herself, three weeks prior.
HR.
"I'm home," Shinji called, changing his shoes at the door and setting down a bag of groceries he'd gone to get when he'd noticed that they were running a little low.
Hearing Rei's voice in response, calling "Welcome home" from somewhere near the back of the house wasn't unexpected, as the adults of the residence had mentioned that morning over breakfast that they had a business trip. What was unexpected, however, was when he rounded the bend that lead into the main hall, and saw Rei walking towards him, a towel over one shoulder. "Huh?" he asked, blinking at her.
"Hello, Shinji-kun," Rei said, nodding.
The Third Child thought about just keeping quiet about the scene he saw in front of him, but finally decided that the little bit of extra weirdness demanded an explanation. "Why are you wearing one of my school uniforms, Rei?"
The blue haired girl, who now looked rather a lot like a clone of Shinji, just shrugged. "Do I look sufficiently boyish?"
"Huh?" Shinji asked, looking over the other. Her small breasts were bound, so the shirt fell about right, and she'd restyled her hair slightly, most of it pulled into a short ponytail at the base of her neck. "Um, you look okay, I guess," he offered.
"Excellent," Rei nodded. "I believe I have begun to understand why you dress the way you do. I have noticed that this uniform is significantly easier to move in than the school's girls uniform. Specifically, there is no skirt to flap, and aerial maneuvers contain much less potential for embarrassment. Is there some similar benefit to your work outfits?"
"I wear those at work because it's the uniform," Shinji sputtered, now completely confused.
"Ranma-san told me that you likely had a reason, however she did not mention work regulations," Rei said, shaking her head.
"She.. didn't?" Shinji asked, his eyes widening. Ranma, of course, wasn't Ukyo, but he'd seen them talking at the restaurant a few times, so it was likely he would know. "It wasn't a uniform?"
"Is something the matter, Shinji-kun?" Rei asked, a small note of concern entering her voice.
"Um, no," Shinji said, shaking his head. "Just ask before you borrow my clothes next time, okay?"
"Understood." Rei said, before turning and heading back to the training room.
HR.
"Hmm, this table looks happening," a drawling voice observed, its owner studying the one table in the large meeting hall that only had two people, one of which was struggling to keep her eyes open while listening to an explanation of the Jet Alone's power system which was being presented by a white haired old man with a pair of glasses that Mousse would probably envy.
Looking up, Ranma saw a woman with a very familiar brown bowl-cut, the word "Press" written across the ID badge that was pinned to the front of her black business suit. "Yeah, well, saviors of humanity, you know," she muttered, sourly.
"Well, you got pretty much the same reaction for saving Akane," the middle Tendo sister shrugged. "She still thinks you're an asshole, by the way."
"Would you like to sit down, Miss Tendo?" Ritsuko asked, looking up from the handout that she was reading, which listed Jet Alone's capabilities.
The reporter shrugged, taking a seat and grabbing Ranma's untouched copy of the report that the other brunette was reading, as she hadn't been provided with a copy.
The room abruptly went silent before Nabiki could start pumping the NERV delegation for information, as the head of the Jet Alone research team stepped up on stage, and she removed her recorder from one pocket. The next few minutes went along rather routinely, and Ranma was starting to let her head fall to the table, when the man opened the floor to questions, and Ritsuko quickly stood, asking one about the nuclear reactor that powered the machine.
Nabiki's interest perked, and even Ranma appeared to be paying more attention, as Ritsuko and the representative began tossing questions and answers back and fourth, though the middle Tendo's eyebrow twitched violently when the man, who she quickly re-dubbed 'asshole,' made a joke about the Evangelions being like hysterical women.
It'd been guys like him that had forced her out of the business world and into a place where she could make her way up more easily, and she smirked as she saw Ranma's fist begin to tighten. Still, she didn't forget her duty as a reporter, and made notes on the 'AT Field" as it was mentioned.
"The AT Field is only a temporary advantage that NERV possesses," the man was saying, as Ranma began to rise to her feet. "Time and research will soon close that gap."
Ritsuko glared at the speaker, not sure how to respond to several of NERV's main secrets being in the open, and she was surprised when Ranma's voice cut in. "Are you saying that, without the advantage of the AT Field, Jet Alone could replace an Evangelion in combat?"
"And you are?" the speaker asked, indignantly.
"NERV's Strategic Operations Officer," Ranma introduced herself. " I'm very interested in the answer to this question, because personally, I'd rather not send fourteen year old children into battle, as you put it previously."
As Ritsuko sat down, Nabiki whispered, "When did Saotome actually learn debating skills?"
"Unless he did it when I wasn't looking, he hasn't," Ritsuko replied, flatly.
"Well," the speaker sputtered. "Jet Alone is fully combat capable, and is going into tests next week."
"Then how about this," Ranma said, smirking slightly. "Your Jet Alone fights one of our Evangelions. Because it's a test model, it'll even be our test type."
"What?" the man asked, his eyes widening, as Ritsuko hissed the same thing just loudly enough for Ranma to hear. The redhead reached down, gently squeezing her wife's shoulder, and Ritsuko nodded, though there was a look in her eyes that said 'we'll talk about this later.'
"Well," Ranma explained. "You mentioned NERV sucking up all of the funds. We're spending every yen we get on defeating the angels, so if we lose funding, and have to scrap or decommission an EVA, I need to know that Jet Alone will have us covered."
The Jet Alone representative looked out over the crowd, and to his horror, he saw that there were several nods of agreement with NERV's officer's statement. Other than a few grainy photographs and a report or two from Tokyo-3 residents, he had no idea what an EVA could do, but if he didn't respond to the challenge, he was likely to lose the entire audience, including the very important U.N. delegates conferring near the back of the room.
"If some barbaric grudge match is the only way that we can prove Jet Alone's superiority to your machine, then I will consult my superiors and see if it can be arranged," he said, giving Ranma a very angry glare.
"Behind the school at 3:00?" Nabiki whispered to Ritsuko, who actually had to raise a hand to cover a snigger.
HR.
"I'm fighting what?" Shinji Ikari yelled, more shocked than anything else, as he sat in the passenger compartment of the massive EVA transport, staring up at the dead serious face of Ranma Saotome.
"It's a large mech designed to fill the same role as the EVA units," the strategic operations officer explained. "Unfortunately, it would also fill our nitch with the UN, and NERV would pretty much have to shut down."
"I don't really see the downside," Shinji admitted, before he could stop himself.
"It doesn't have an AT Field," Ranma replied.
"Oh." That was about all the Third Child could really think of to say on that matter, as he imagined trying to fight the Third Angel, or even worse, the Fifth without an AT Field.
"Yeah," Ranma nodded. "Fortunately, this time we've got a nearly complete list of capabilities, and we know that the machine carries no weaponry. This means that you can't use your AT field or progressive knife, but you should know what you're up against." Handing Shinji the handout, rather dogeared by this point, that Ritsuko had been reading, the strategic operations officer waited for questions.
"I should know?" the brown haired boy asked, nervously, and wondering if he was going to be blasted with a giant laser cannon again.
"Well, we certainly didn't tell them everything about the EVAs," Ranma shrugged, causing her charge to gulp.
HR.
Gaghiel was rather intelligent, for an Angel of his age. When he had learned that the planet they had been born onto was composed mostly of water, he had taken an aquatic form in order to hunt down and bond with Adam more easily.
It really wasn't his fault, therefore, that he was nearly totally incapable of assaulting the fortress city of Tokyo-3, where he could sense the signature power of an egg and its associated progenitor. At the moment, he was lurking several hundred miles off of the coast of Japan, pondering his options.
He'd circled around, trying to see if there was some sort of marine inlet to the city, but unless he wanted to try and squeeze his aircraft carrier sized bulk up a sewage pipe, that was looking like a solid negative.
By this point, he was frustrated enough to consider heaving himself up on the beach and dragging himself across the ground, but he was pretty sure that whatever was defending the progenitor would carve him into fillets, much as it had apparently done to Sachiel, Shamshel and Ramiel.
As he debated going back to sleep for another few thousand years and seeing if things had changed or one of his siblings had seized the progenitor, the Angel of fish suddenly felt something appear almost half way around the planet that felt almost exactly the same as whatever was being held on the island he'd been circling for the past few weeks.
Giving the angelic equivalent of a shrug, the massive sea creature adjusted his course, and started towards this new feeling as quickly as he could. After all, there was a better than average chance that it would be in the water, and three other Angels hadn't disappeared mysteriously trying to get it.
HR.
"You know," Ritsuko said as she and Ranma sat in Jet Alone's main control room in a set of observer seats, "I was just planning to induce a meltdown and force them to let it fall on its face."
"Yeah, but this'll be a lot more impressive," Ranma replied, as Unit 01 stood from its kneeling position outside, a set of batteries hooked to its shoulders along with its usual umbilical cable. "Plus, I checked this thing's specs, Unit 01'll have no problem with it, and it'll increase Shinji's confidence."
"I suppose," the scientist agreed before sighing. As she looked down into the part of the reserve seating that wasn't for people the Jet Alone staff didn't like, she asked, "And why's she doing that?"
"Hmm?" Ranma asked, looking down to see Nabiki walking down the isles with a pad of paper, taking money from various delegates. "Nostalgia, probably."
As Ritsuko processed that response, what looked like a building in front of the observation window rumbled open, and Jet Alone was revealed in all of its top-heavy, beige and red glory. The start up checks were relatively normal, and Ranma mostly tuned them out, until a set of six projections came from the robot's back, poking up over its shoulders.
"Are those...?" Ranma said, and she could hear Shinji saying the same thing through an earpiece she wore.
"Yep," Ritsuko replied, sighing.
"Okay Shinji, don't break any of those," Ranma said, nervously, receiving an equally nervous affirmative from the Third Child. When the JA project director started issuing orders to make the machine walk, her eyes practically rolled up into the top of her head in exasperation, though she managed to keep watching until it had made its way out onto the practice field and turned towards Unit 01.
Turning towards the balcony where Ranma and Ritsuko sat, the man asked, "Well? Is Unit 01 prepared for combat?"
"So, you're finally ready?" Ritsuko actually asked before Ranma could even open her mouth. At the black haired man's annoyed nod, Ranma shrugged.
"No progressive knife, no AT Field, and battery power only, right?" The redhead asked. Getting another nod, she tapped her mic. "Shinji, eject the umbilical cable and attack at will."
"Wait, what?" the project leader squawked, as a puff of gas ejected the cable from its port on Unit 01's back, and the Evangelion began charging rapidly towards its opponent. "Defensive maneuvers now!"
Jet Alone just barely managed to get its arms up in time to grab the Evangelion by the forearms, and the two began shoving against each other. Ranma heard Shinji grunting with effort, and Unit 01 was slowly being pushed backwards as she was being smirked at by a couple technicians who didn't need to be watching their panels after the start up. Abruptly, the EVA shoved itself to the side, ripping one arm free from its opponent's grasp and spinning out of the way as the other robot stumbled forward, its balance thrown off due to the sudden lack of resistance.
"Damn it, stabilize!" one tech at the front of the room shouted across to another.
"I'm trying!"
Unit 01 continued spinning with the momentum it had gained from Jet Alone's passage, and raised one foot, sending it smashing into the other machine's armored lower back. Jet Alone abruptly lost the battle it had been waging with gravity, falling forward with an impact that shook the control center.
"Get it before it can get back up," Ranma ordered, though she really didn't have to bother, as it appeared that getting back up was quite an involved process for JA. Shinji still followed her orders, though, raising Unit 01's foot and bringing it crashing down as hard as he could on the other machine's back. Seeing a slight dent in the armor there, he did it again, and again, and again.
After the forth strike, the control center went abruptly silent for a few moments, after which alarms started wailing from half of the consoles in the room. "Reactor core fractured!" one panicky opperator called out.
"Coolant lines 2 and 5 have been cut!" another reported.
"Ambient radiation level beginning to spike around the unit, beginning mandatory shutdown," a third called, and the project leader looked up at the ceiling with a look on his face that Ranma couldn't really describe.
As the grey and red machine settle down into dormancy, and Shinji nervously backed Unit 01 away from it, hearing the comment about radiation, Ritsuko couldn't help but let in a final jab. "Running continuously for one hundred and fifty days, hmm?"
END.
Note: Well, that was definitely... different. The divergence really starts to show this chapter, and we hope you enjoy it. Don't forget to tell us in a review.
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Hi Everyone! I bet you can't guess who I am! That's right, I finally show up in this fanfic next chapter, and I'm sure all of you have been waiting for it! Next chapter, the Second Child arrives, the Sixth Angel attacks, and there's gunna be Service!