Disclaimer: Neon Genesis Evangelion is the creation of Anno and Gainax. I don't own it, make no claims to it, and am making no profit from this fan fiction. No infringement of copyright is intended. In other words, please don't sue.
Disclaimer: I do not own DC Comics or anything associated with it, and I am making no profit from this fan fiction. No infringement of copyright is intended. In other words, please don't sue.
Chapter Six: A (Not So) Quiet Afternoon
Klarion Bleak had been born with a soul that loved mischief. At least, that's what was said about him in his home of Limbo Town, the underground civilization where the descendants of the citizens from the lost colony of Roanoke lived. His long suffering mother privately thought the disappearance of his father when Klarion was a very young child might have had something to do with the boy's apparent need to break the rules and get himself into trouble on a regular basis.
In truth, it was a combination of these two factors, as well as Klarion simply being too curious and smart for his own good. The witch boy had reasoned that there had to be something above the ceiling to the only world he had known... and in truth, he'd only needed an excuse to go and try to find just what that was.
That excuse had come in spades, when Klarion had broken into the home of Submissionary Judah, one of Limbo Town's most powerful spiritual leaders, to have himself a look around. He'd been caught studying certain magical tomes that were forbidden to nearly everyone in Limbo Town, and certainly to a witch boy like himself.
When Judah had ordered him burned at the stake, Klarion had decided that was as good a reason to run away from home as he would ever find. Escaping from the cell he'd been thrown in (and stealing Judah's symbol of power, the Submissionary's rod, just for good measure), the witch boy had had struck out upwards through the tunnels of the only world he'd known. He'd eventually ended up in a subway tunnel, and from there, had finally made it to the world above.
However, not long after that, a SEELE that was desperate for new agents with magical powers had learned about him and then "conscripted" him.
Once that had happened, everything was, as they say, history.
History which had led him to his current position, standing in a circle of light in the middle of an otherwise pitch dark-room, facing a giant holographic domino which was labeled as "SEELE 01".
Klarion resisted the urge to roll his eyes. All these fronts were so foolish; he knew perfectly well that Chairman Keel lurked behind the avatar. However, he didn't dare call the old man on it. Instead, he obediently told Keel how his attempt at ambushing the younger Ikari had gone.
Once Klarion had finished his tale, Keel was silent for a long moment.
"Is this the truth?" he asked finally, his voice heavily distorted, another stupid measure to conceal his identity.
Klarion glared at the holographic monolith, obviously wishing the man behind it nothing but ill fortune. "Yes," he said.
"So it would seem that Shinji Ikari is not the person we're looking for," Keel mused aloud. "More likely he is somehow under the true meddler's protection."
"Or he's merely pretending to be inept," Klarion suggested, more out of a desire to be contrary than from an urge to be helpful. "He wouldn't be the first sorcerer to hide behind obfuscating stupidity."
"Hmm," Keel grunted thoughtfully. "We need to know. Our errant magician is a dangerous X-factor in this scenario and must be neutralized."
"What do you wish for me to do exactly?" Klarion asked. "Attack him again and see what happens this time?"
"More than that," Keel said. "I want you to capture him and bring him before us."
"Very well," Klarion agreed.
The witch boy made ready to leave the virtual meeting room, but Keel's voice stopped him. "Bleak?"
"What?" Klarion asked, not bothering to conceal the annoyance in his voice.
"Do not kill the Third Child," Keel said. "He has his part to play yet. I don't want him removed from the scenario unless he really is our troublesome sorcerer. And even then, I'd prefer to avoid killing him. He could still be useful."
"Fine," Klarion replied, with the sort of gusty, exasperated sigh that was apparently universal to teenagers.
He didn't really care if Shinji lived or died, but he had grown powerfully sick of being so tightly controlled.
"Take this seriously, Bleak," Keel warned, his tone menacing. "You know what will happen if you disobey me."
The witch boy didn't reply. He just glared at Keel's avatar, as though trying to bore a hole through it with his gaze alone.
The Chairman clearly felt the need to make it clear, even though Klarion knew quite well what the consequences would be if he became more of a hindrance than a help to the old man and his mysterious plans.
"If you disobey me, I will order a bunker-busting nuclear missile to be launched at your home," Keel said. "Even as deep underground as it is, Limbo Town will be annihilated."
Klarion had scoffed at this threat the first time the leader of SEELE had made it, assuming no mere bomb could possibly be so destructive.
Then Keel had shown him footage from atomic bomb tests. Klarion had been shocked at the destructive might of the weapon, and, according to Keel, that had been from a test performed very long ago. Modern nuclear arms were supposedly far more powerful.
Part of Klarion so despised being under the Chairman's heel that he wanted to just let Limbo Town burn. After all, they had been perfectly willing to burn him.
But, no, he couldn't do that. He could cheerfully allow Judah to be flash-roasted, but more people than the old Submissionary lived in his old home town. His mother was still there, along with his sister, and his stepfather.
"I won't disobey," Klarion said.
"Good," Keel replied. "Now go."
With a soft whisper of sound, the witch boy vanished from the virtual meeting room. Moments later, eleven other monoliths joined that of Chairman Keel. The holographic avatars formed a large circle.
"So, there he goes," SEELE Five said sourly. "Do you really believe he'll succeed?"
"If the Ikari boy isn't the magician we're looking for, Bleak's efforts will flush his protector out of hiding," Keel replied.
"More to the point, can he be trusted?" SEELE Two asked. "Your threat is obviously an empty one. You would have to get the German government to launch a nuclear attack against the United States to carry it out. Even assuming you could do it, the repercussions of such an action…"
"Would be massive, and impossible to fully predict. Yes, I'm well aware of that," Keel said curtly. "I have no intention of attacking America just to spite the boy if he disobeys, but he has no way of knowing that. He spent most of his life in a cave—literally. When I don't have him on assignment, it's all too easy to get him to spend his time playing video games and eating candy. He has no way of knowing how great the repercussions of nuking his home would be for us."
"Let us hope he never bothers to find out," SEELE Two said darkly.
The test plugs had never felt quite the same to Shinji as the actual entry plugs, though he had absolutely no idea why. The things were completely indistinguishable from the inside, and he experienced the same sensation that something was tugging at his brain while he was in either one. And, of course, LCL didn't smell or taste any better in the entry plug than it did in the test plug.
Indeed, oftentimes he told himself that his preference for the entry plug was just his mind playing tricks on him. If he was blindfolded and taken to the test plug, then told it was the entry plug, he probably wouldn't have any idea he was being tricked.
Except that he knew he would. For whatever bizarre reason, he always felt very safe and comfortable while nestled in the middle of Unit One—provided, of course, that he was just participating in some test and not actually going into combat at the time. The test plug just didn't provide that same feeling.
Yet despite being in the test plug rather than the entry plug, Shinji thought the sync test he was currently doing was going very well. The mental connection seemed very smooth that day, almost effortless.
So when Misato announced that the test was over, Shinji was, for once, eager to know how he did, and asked what his test scores were.
The Operations Director's expression went sour, and Shinji was suddenly sure that, despite how well he'd thought he'd done, his results had actually been abysmal.
"We're… instituting a new policy today, Shinji-kun," Misato told him. "From now on, we won't be giving you your scores right here. Instead, you'll be able to get them by logging into your MAGI accounts."
Shinji blinked. He had been issued a MAGI user name and password when he'd gotten his permanent NERV ID card, but he'd rarely had any reason to use it. In fact, he could barely remember what his password was.
He was just about to ask about the reason for this new policy when a communications window displaying Asuka appeared on his HUD, and the Second Child asked the question for him in a much more… assertive manner than he would have.
"Why the hell won't you just tell us our scores?" she demanded.
Misato scowled. "We're not keeping your scores from you," she said. "You can go and check them just as soon as you get out of the test plug and change. In fact, I encourage you to do just that. I want you to be focused on your scores."
Asuka actually looked taken aback by the pointed remark, and the communications window snapped shut abruptly.
Though rather curious about the reason for the new protocol himself, Shinji wasn't eager to question it after Misato had so deftly fended off Asuka's demands. So he shrugged and contented himself to waiting a while before he found out his score.
Up in the control room, Misato switched off the microphone, closing the channel with the pilots. Now that she could no longer be seen or heard by her subordinates, she huffed, crossed her arms, and plopped down into one the vacant seats by the control panels.
"Aw, you look almost as petulant as Asuka feels," Ritsuko teased the pouting officer.
"It's not fair!" Misato said. "The instant we institute this new policy, Shinji leaps ahead in the scores, and I can't even congratulate him."
She glanced at Maya as she finished speaking, and even though the Operations Director's gaze wasn't particularly accusatory, the techie couldn't help but wince slightly. "I'm sorry," she blurted out.
Really, it had seemed like a good idea when she'd suggested it. Maya had been present for nearly every sync test the three Children had taken together, and the way things proceeded once the tests completed had long ago become very familiar and tiring to her.
There were two basic variations to the post-test scene. If Shinji had done poorly, Asuka gloated about how much better she was. If Shinji did well, Asuka got angry about it, and made a point of loudly reminding everyone how great her lead over him in the scores (which had been steadily dwindling) remained.
Asuka was left in a bad mood half the time, and Shinji suffered no matter what happened. Rei was the only pilot who was always unaffected by what happened.
"Don't apologize, Maya," Ritsuko spoke up. "The logic of the idea is just as sound today as it was yesterday. Maybe better, in fact. I can't imagine that Asuka would be too pleased about the news."
The Ops Director grumbled something that might have been a reluctant agreement.
A wicked grin formed on Ritsuko's face. "Misato's just overeager to be the bearer of good news," the bottle blonde said. "Her sense has been overridden by her desire to applaud her boyfriend for his accomplishments."
"Shut your face!" Misato barked.
Maya jumped at the sound of the loud exclamation.
Ritsuko didn't, much to Misato's annoyance.
Only about twenty minutes later Shinji Ikari was sitting before a computer within the NERV base. The Third Child's hair was still damp from the hasty shower he'd taken to rinse off the LCL from the test, and he was trying to get into his MAGI account with a level of impatience that surprised him.
He thought he'd done really well for once, and he just wanted to confirm it, but he was having trouble getting in. He'd forgotten the password NERV had given him, because he hadn't had any actual use for his MAGI account until now.
And worse, Shinji was pretty sure that if he made another attempt and entered the wrong password yet again, the system would lock him out for a full 24 hours.
He had a sneaking suspicion that he wouldn't really care all that much about his scores, come tomorrow.
Resigning himself to being barred from the MAGI network for a day, Shinji sighed softly and punched in what he thought was his password one more time.
He actually started in surprise when the computer let out a cheerful little chime, indicating that he had gained access to the system. Thus jolted from his glum reverie, Shinji hurriedly began to try and figure out how he could get at his sync test results.
This proved to be very easy and intuitive; it would have surprised Shinji not one iota to have discovered that Maya had personally programmed in the new feature. He clicked on the appropriate icon, causing a window displaying his test results to pop up.
Shinji blinked at the sight of them, at first thinking that there had to be some kind of mistake. However, as he continued to study the numbers, he couldn't see any obvious signs of an error.
Wow…
He had done well. In fact, he'd done really well.
Shinji leaned back in the cheap office chair where he currently sat, feeling a strange mixture of dumb shock and a rare burst of pride in his recent accomplishment.
Then he heard the sound of footsteps from behind himself.
On impulse, Shinji quickly moved to close the window that displayed his test results. If he'd allowed himself a moment to think the action through, instead of just reacting, he probably wouldn't have rushed to keep himself from being seen doing something as innocuous as checking his scores.
However, it was probably for the best that he did.
"Hey there, Shinji!" Asuka said, sounding just a tad too cheerful, leaning in to look over his shoulder.
The Third Child stiffened at the abrupt and unexpected close proximity of the German redhead. If she lowered her head a few inches, her chin would come to rest on his shoulder.
When she saw nothing interesting on his screen, however, she quickly pulled back, allowing Shinji to relax a little.
"About to check your scores?" Asuka asked, and even the Third Child noticed that her casual tone sounded a little forced.
"I just did," he answered.
"And?" she asked.
Shinji knew only too well what would happen if he told the truth and reported just how well he'd done that day, so it was with no guilt whatsoever that he lied through his teeth to his fellow pilot.
"Not so good. I dropped a few points," he said, looking down at the floor and appearing appropriately downcast.
It was something he'd gotten a lot of practice at over the years.
The rather brittle smile that Asuka had plastered onto her face suddenly became a lot more genuine. Some tension that Shinji hadn't even noticed until it was gone left her stance.
"Sorry to hear that, Third," Asuka said, obviously being as insincere as Shinji had just been. "I guess not even the invincible Shinji can win big every time."
"I guess not," Shinji agreed.
Asuka turned and walked off then, humming cheerfully to herself. Shinji allowed himself to slump slightly in relief. He'd definitely dodged a bullet there.
The next day found both the Third Child and the technician who had made it possible for him to evade the redhead's wrath involved in far more pleasant pursuits than a synchronization test. The two of them were currently outside the city limits, Maya having decided to move their tutoring session out of her apartment that day.
Taking a deep breath of the fresh mountain air, the brunette thought that she would have patted herself on the back for coming up with the idea, if only she could reach. Not only was the change of scenery nice, but it kept Shinji away from the prying eyes of Mrs. Takanawa. Her elderly (and perpetually nosy) neighbor had long ago decided that Maya's relationship with the teenage boy who always seemed to be calling on her simply couldn't be purely platonic. Hopefully, the seemingly greater length of time between Shinji's last visit and his next one would cause the old bat to lose interest in the whole affair.
And maybe pigs will fly, Maya thought.
She quickly squashed this bit of pessimism, accurate though it probably was, and focused on the pleasant day she had before her. After the mass amounts of insanity she had been enduring, not to mention the usual work schedule at NERV which no longer gave her anything like the satisfaction it once had, their little trip looked like nothing less than a miniature vacation to her.
"Not that I'm complaining," Shinji said quietly as he lugged the large basket which contained their lunch, "but why did we have to come out here for a tutoring session?"
Maya had to resist the urge to roll her eyes. It was very clear that the Third Child was indeed complaining, or at least wanted to, but he was too afraid of offending her to be upfront about it.
However, she forced a smile onto her face as she turned to him. "Some lessons just can't be taught in a little apartment like mine," she said. "Besides, I thought you might like to get out of the city for a little while."
The ghost of a smirk appeared on Shinji's face for just a moment, causing Maya to frown with confusion.
"What?" she asked.
Looking abashed, Shinji averted his gaze from her. "Oh, well, the last time someone said something to me like that, we were going to rendezvous with the fleet bringing Asuka to Japan, and we were fighting the Sixth Angel about an hour later."
"Oh," Maya said with a small smile, "well, today's going to be a lot less eventful than that."
"Good," Shinji replied.
The two made their way a little further, until they found a spot that Maya deemed perfect for them. There was a large patch of thick green grass where they could sit and be comfortable, but also a rocky area close by which was suitable for some of the things Maya had planned.
"This looks like a good place," the techie proclaimed.
Shinji was only too happy to set down the basket which contained their lunch. Maya had asked him to bring the food, but she hadn't thought he'd bring nearly so much as he apparently had. She privately wondered if he had been overzealous about the task because he was trying too hard to please, or if it was because his teenage appetite was much more prodigious than his thin frame suggested.
"So what do we do first?" Shinji asked.
"I'm not that hungry yet," Maya said. "What about you?"
"I'm fine with waiting," Shinji answered, with no trace of dishonesty for her sake that she could detect.
"All right, I guess that's settled," Maya said, a smile on her face. "Science first."
She set down her own basket and began to take out a few things, and while a few of them were food items, she wouldn't want to eat any of them for lunch.
When Shinji had told her a while ago that he would like some tutoring in chemistry instead of physics now, if she wouldn't mind, Maya had been delighted. Like a lot of the individuals who had chosen a scientific career, the brunette had spent many an hour playing with chemicals when she was younger. She'd been cautious enough to prevent any unpleasant effects, smart and well-read enough to produce a few spectacular ones, and had generally had quite a lot of fun at it.
"Okay, so the basic idea behind chemical reactions is very simple," Maya said. "Two separate substances create a new compound. Sometimes, it's enough for the two original substances to come into contact with one another."
Popping the top off of a very big jug of cheap vinegar, Maya introduced a healthy portion of baking soda to the mixture, and then quickly stepped back. Predictably, the mixture that had powered a countless number of model volcanoes over the years erupted rather dramatically, spraying white foam in all directions.
Shinji smiled slightly at the display, to Maya's relief. She had been afraid he might find the very common trick to be worthy only of a roll of his eyes. She would have been very surprised to know that Shinji had never made a mess of his uncle's kitchen even once with the same experiment.
"Of course," Maya said, removing two bottles of diet Sprite from her basket, "not all chemical reactions are nearly as energetic as that one. For instance…"
Uncapping one of the diet Sprite bottles, she dropped a small piece of green candy inside. It quickly sank to the bottom, and a few bubbles formed around it after a span of several seconds had passed.
"The candy and the soda are reacting to form a gas, carbon dioxide, I believe," Maya said. "But as you can see, this reaction isn't moving quite so quickly. But…"
She picked up a roll of Mentos. "These candies are made from the same stuff as the other one, but you'll notice that they're not smooth like it is. Instead, they're kind of bumpy. That means there's a much greater surface area where the reaction can take place."
She dropped a few Mentos into the other bottle of Sprite, and a moment later, soda erupted out of the top in a high pressure jet. Shinji actually let out a small chuckle, clearly amused by the display.
The day continued on for them in this manner for over an hour. Maya burned various different metals to show him the strange colors the flames would have, then used a strip of one of her those as a metal wick to set a pile of tang mixture on fire atop a large flat rock. Shinji watched with interest as it sparked enthusiastically, eventually all of it turning completely black before it stopped. Then, seemingly for the hell of it, Maya rigged up a small and fairly weak bomb from a few of the items she'd brought in her basket, and the blew it up at a distance using a very long fuse. The Third Child actually laughed delightedly at the explosion, making the brunette think there might be a normal teenage boy inside of Shinji yet.
And the whole time, Maya continued to lecture him about one scientific principle or another, until Shinji had felt that, despite how entertaining the display the techie had put on was, he had learned more that day than he would have in a month of classes at school.
The makeshift bomb (which Maya had made a point of not letting Shinji know the recipe for) proved to be the last of her tricks, however. With her unusual lesson completed, Maya packed away her things, and then it was time for lunch.
Shinji quickly spread a large blanket over the soft grass, then began to take out the food he'd brought. Maya was impressed by the spread; she had expected convenience store fare from the teenage boy, but the food Shinji laid out was clearly home made. Indeed, it looked better than anything Maya had had the time or the energy to prepare for herself lately. The Third Child had obviously gone to a lot of effort over the meal.
"This is really good, Shinji," Maya said after she had sampled a few bites.
"Oh, it's nothing really," Shinji said modestly.
The tech normally might have disagreed with him, but she was too busy eating to argue over the point. Shinji seemed to have brought quite a lot of food at first, but she found that she had little difficulty making her share of it disappear. She hadn't realized how hungry she'd gotten while doing her little science show (which had been far more pleasurable to perform than a magic show, in her opinion).
"Oooh, I don't care what you say about your own cooking, Shinji," Maya proclaimed as she set her chopsticks down, "that was really good."
Shinji blushed a little and stammered out a 'thank you', but Maya barely noticed. The brunette was feeling sleepy after eating so much. She placed a hand over her full stomach, thinking ruefully that she shouldn't make a habit of eating like that, unless she found some time in her already overcrowded schedule to exercise more.
A few more meals like that and I won't be able to fit into my costume, she thought, feeling too stuffed and contented to really care all that about that much at the moment.
"So, are we going to head back now?" Shinji asked tentatively after he'd packed up all the now empty containers he'd brought their lunch in, apparently noticing that Maya was making no move to leave, or even get off the blanket he'd brought for them to sit on.
The techie checked her wristwatch. "We still have plenty of time before we need to be back," she said. "And it's so much cooler out here than in the city. Let's stay here for a little while."
And, without giving Shinji a chance to protest, she lay back on the blanket, knitting her fingers together and pillowing her head on her hands. Her eyes drooped half closed as she gazed up at the crystal blue sky, which was dotted with puffy white clouds.
Shinji blinked at her, rather surprised. Then he shrugged and leaned back, not laying down next to her but propping himself up on his arms.
Time passed, Maya wasn't sure how much. She was soon half dozing beneath the warm sun, enjoying the cool breeze that blew over the area. She had expected to immediately fall asleep for an afternoon nap, but despite how drowsy she was, she couldn't quite make the transition from the waking world to the land of dreams.
It was probably the teenage boy sitting not three feet away from her, she mused. Though she knew he would never dare to try anything inappropriate with a sleeping woman, even if his morals allowed it, she still couldn't quite bring herself to relax enough to actually sleep. She contented herself with dozing.
He's looking at my legs, she noted with a small smirk, still easily able to see him from her vantage point on the ground.
It was no real surprise that a bored teenaged boy's eyes should start wandering, she supposed, and this wasn't the first time she'd caught him sneaking a peek. He'd often glance at her legs when she was wearing shorts (which she was now) and when he thought she wasn't looking.
Just my luck, Maya thought ruefully. Lots of men were practically falling all over themselves for Zatanna's attention when I was performing on the street, but the only one who's interested in me when I'm being myself is Shinji.
She looked at him fondly through her sleepy haze, realizing that he was probably the closest thing she had to a friend right now. She had thoroughly buried herself in her work in recent years, and she had been satisfied with it. Now that she was no longer taking anything like the same level of pleasure from her job, however, her life was starting to feel very empty, despite how busy being given the minor task of saving the world had left her. Even if she did sometimes find Shinji's extremely passive nature a little annoying, she had to admit that she looked forward to the days when he came for tutoring from her. They helped to relieve her loneliness somewhat.
And he's kind of cute for a younger man, especially when he actually smiles.
That thought instantly jolted her out of her pleasant state of drowsiness, and she abruptly sat bolt upright, startling Shinji.
"Are you all right, Maya?" asked the young man.
Boy! Maya thought. He's just a boy! You're not that hard up for a date, girl!
"I'm fine, Shinji. I just fell asleep and had a nightmare," she lied, rubbing her eyes. "How long has it been?"
"About half an hour," he answered.
"Well, I don't think I'm going to be able to get back to sleep now," the brunette said. "And I'll bet you're bored of sitting in the middle in the nowhere while I decide to be lazy."
"It's no big deal, really," Shinji said.
Maya smiled wanly at him. "Shinji-kun, you're a nice boy, and you'd still be a nice boy even if you didn't let people walk all over you all the time," she said gently.
"But I really don't mind!" Shinji protested. "It's nice out here. Besides…you've seemed so tired so often lately, I wouldn't have the heart to disturb you."
What Maya did next, she did against her better judgment, but at the moment she just couldn't help herself. Leaning in close to Shinji, she placed a quick kiss on the boy's forehead before he could react to her movements.
The Third Child immediately blushed so deeply that his face was almost purple, and his eyes bugged out comically. Maya had to suppress the urge to laugh.
"You're very sweet, Shinji-kun," Maya said. "I think you should probably worry about making yourself happy more often, instead of trying to please everyone else all the time, but I appreciate your consideration, anyway."
Shinji tried to make some kind of reply. He even opened his mouth to speak, but no sound came out. The Third Child was forced to settle for a small nod.
Maya turned to her basket, pretending to inspect the contents but really just doing it to hide the smirk she could no longer repress.
I don't think I've ever had quite such an extreme effect on a man, she mused. And if I have, it certainly wasn't with so little effort.
"Well, in any case, I don't think there's much point in us just hanging around here anymore," Maya said, now having managed to school her features into a more neutral expression. "Let's go, Shinji-kun. Since you made such a nice lunch for us, I'll treat you to a little dessert once we're back in the city."
She had a feeling that Shinji might have liked to protest, to tell her that it wasn't necessary for her to do that, but the Third Child still hadn't regained the power of speech. The brunette started heading down the path that would lead to where they'd left her car, and Shinji followed wordlessly.
The Third Child's head was still spinning (albeit pleasantly) by the time Maya was pulling back onto the city's streets. His motor controls weren't impaired, and neither was his judgment, but he actually felt drunk.
Or least, he felt the way he imagined being drunk felt. Shinji had never been hammered, or even slightly tipsy, in his life.
This is ridiculous, he told himself.
And indeed, it was. The quick peck Maya had given him hadn't exactly been passionate or romantic in nature. If anything, the gesture had been almost motherly, but that didn't change the fact that the place where she'd kissed him still felt warm and tingly.
This was…new to him. If there was anything Shinji prided himself on, it was that he wasn't that guy who was always lusting after the current pop star, actress, or model. Unlike his two best friends, he didn't drool over his very attractive but slovenly guardian who was twice his age.
He didn't fall for women he couldn't have (which, in his estimation, was pretty much all of them, but that was neither here nor there).
So he couldn't be having feelings for Maya.
At least, that's what he told himself, but his still fluttering heart begged to differ. He glanced at Maya, not looking directly at her for fear of being caught staring.
She is pretty, he thought wistfully, allowing himself a brief fantasy about how nice it would be if it was actually possible for the two of them to become an item, and they did.
Yeah, right, a nasty little voice whispered from the back of his mind. Maya's your tutor, and she's only that much because she pities you. Once she feels confident you won't flunk out of junior high school, she will be gone, and she'll probably be damned relieved that the ordeal is over with.
He frowned at that. He had really gotten used to his tutoring sessions with the technician and had come to enjoy them quite a bit; they were like little islands of calm and quiet in the often chaotic and stormy sea his life had become since arriving at Tokyo-3. He didn't like to think the kind young woman would cheerfully end their teacher/student relationship as soon as possible, but it did seem pretty plausible when he thought about it. He was probably assuming he'd become more important to her than he had, because he was finding himself getting attached to her.
Before he could manage to recollect his thoughts, Maya brought the car to a stop. Shinji silently got out and followed her into the small ice cream parlor. It was empty at this hour, save for the owner, who was a plump, middle aged man wearing a short sleeved, button up shirt of pristine white and plain black pants.
"Well, if it isn't Maya," he observed with a smile. "It's been a while since I've seen you here last."
She gave him an apologetic smile. "My life's been pretty…chaotic lately, Koichi," she said.
The man's expression turned almost grim for a moment. "I can imagine," he said, clearly thinking of the Angel battles which had plagued the city lately.
Then his features smoothed out, and he was again as cheerful as one would expect a man who sells ice cream for a living to be. "Well, what can I get for you and your…friend?"
Maya smiled. "This is Shinji Ikari, a co-worker of mine. Shinji, this is Koichi, owner and operator of Koichi's Corner Creamery."
The jolly man frowned in confusion at Shinji for a second, then comprehension dawned. He bowed as deeply as his large belly would allow him to, until Shinji could see the sun streaming in from the storefront window reflecting off the top of his bald head. "I am honored to have you in my humble shop, Shinji Ikari-san," he said formally.
"Pleased to meet you," Shinji responded in a quiet voice, feeling deeply uncomfortable in the face of the older man's display.
"Koichi here has helped me get through many a tough day," Maya spoke up, breaking the moment of tension.
The big man straightened up and smiled. "So, what would you like? The usual?"
"I'll just have a frozen yogurt. Vanilla. I've already taken in too many calories today as it is," Maya said ruefully.
"And you, Ikari-san?"
Shinji was prepared to ask for the smallest, plainest ice cream cone the man sold, very conscious that Maya had said she was paying for this. However, being addressed as "Ikari-san" by someone so much older than he was threw him for a loop, and he hesitated.
Maya was quick to seize the moment. "I think he needs to try one of your famous banana splits," she suggested.
"Coming right up!" Koichi said.
Shinji raised a hand, about to tell the man to stop, that he didn't want something so big or elaborate. However, the plump gentlemen disappeared behind the counter before he could say a thing, and the words died unspoken.
Maya put a hand on his shoulder. "Let's go have a seat," she said.
Giving up, Shinji allowed himself to be led to a comfortable booth. He took a moment to look around the old but well maintained establishment. "This is a nice place," he commented quietly.
Small businesses like the ice cream parlor where they currently resided were rare in Tokyo-3, and only becoming rarer. As the war progressed and more people left, the only shops that were left behind were the ones run by big corporations that were willing to take risks for the sake of profiteering. Many of the big companies, having trouble finding people willing to work in their Tokyo-3 stores for low wages, had invested in the technology to create fully automated places of business. Thus, the arcade that Shinji often visited with his friends, Maya's regular Laundromat, and several other establishments in the city were devoid of human workers.
"I was thrilled when I found it," Maya told Shinji. "I thought for sure that this place would be gone in the space of a month after the Third Angel showed up, but old Koichi's a lot more stubborn than you might expect. He has unbelievable luck, too. The building that used to be right next to this one was completely leveled during the Second Battle of Tokyo-3, but Koichi's front window wasn't even broken."
Shinji blinked. He hadn't realized that they were in the neighborhood where he had fought the Fourth Angel. But, of course, the city looked a bit different from inside Unit One.
The silence stretched on for several moments as the Third Child tried to process the fact that he'd only barely just avoided destroying the nice little ice cream parlor where he and his tutor currently sat. Maya didn't break it, instead taking out a coin and starting to toy with it idly. Shinji watched with growing interest as the small disk of metal seemed to disappear and reappear repeatedly between her fingers.
"How do you do that?" he asked.
"Hmm?" Maya asked, before seeming to realize what she was doing. "Oh, this is just a sleight of hand. Probably one of the oldest magic tricks there is. It's basically the same thing used for the old cliché I showed you before."
She abruptly reached over to him, and Shinji reflexively began to flinch back. Before he could go very far, however, she appeared to pluck the coin from behind his ear. The EVA pilot relaxed and released a brief chuckle.
"Here, this is how it's done," she said, moving her hand and performing the original trick again, the new angle allowing Shinji to see what exactly she was doing.
"Can I try?" he asked.
"Be my guest," Maya said, handing over the coin.
Shinji carefully placed it between two of his fingers, just like she had, then tried to execute the trick. However, it soon fell to the tabletop with a metallic jingle.
"Guess I'm not very good," he said.
"It just takes practice," Maya said kindly, "and some fairly graceful fingers, which I'm sure you have. You're a musician aren't you?"
Shinji frowned. "How did you know that?"
She took one of his hands in both of hers and gently opened his fingers, turning his palm upwards. "You have calluses," Maya observed. "That's a musician's hand. Strings, right?"
Shinji didn't answer, mainly because he couldn't. The Third Child had suddenly become bizarrely hyper-aware of her hands holding his. Maya's hands, he noted, were soft, dainty, and small. Smaller than his hands, even. And warm, yes, very warm indeed.
The brunette looked up as his hesitation drew out, and Shinji felt even more mortified; he was certain that he was blushing by now. Her warm brown eyes met his blue ones, and he saw only confusion in them, for the moment. Soon, though, realization would follow.
He didn't want to consider what would come after that.
Disgust, probably.
"All right, you two, here's your order!" the jolly proclamation of Koichi mercifully broke the awkward moment. Shinji quickly pulled his hand back. Maya did likewise.
"Thanks, Koichi," Maya said, taking some money from her wallet and holding it out to him.
The big man waved the offered cash away. "On the house," he said.
"Oh, no, we couldn't," Maya protested.
"Nonsense, of course you can," Koichi said nonchalantly, then turned to Shinji and added in a conspiratorial tone. "Between you and me, I never liked the people in the place that used to be next to mine. They made a habit of throwing their garbage out into my trashcans." He winked at Shinji, then walked off, leaving the pilot and the technician alone.
Shinji gawked at the heavy man's retreating back. While a little gratitude was nice, being thanked for destroying someone's property struck him as more than a little perverse.
"If you don't eat that soon, it'll start to melt," Maya said to him as she dug her spoon into her small cup of frozen yogurt.
The Third Child looked down at his own ice cream and was immediately taken aback by it. Three enormous scoops of ice cream lay on his dish, topped by whipped cream, hot fudge, crushed nuts, maraschino cherries, bits of pineapple, and sprinkles. The bananas in the banana split almost seemed like an afterthought.
"I won't be able to eat all this," he said.
Maya smiled coyly. "If you can't finish, I can help."
Shinji frowned. "But didn't you say that you wanted to eat lightly because of how much you had at lunch?" he reminded her.
The techie's expression suddenly changed to one of mingled annoyance and amusement. "Honestly, Shinji," she huffed, "has living with two women taught you nothing?"
"I'm sorry," he said at once, not entirely sure what he was apologizing for.
If there was anything on this strange world above the world Klarion had known—this bizarre and fantastic place of blue rafters—that the witch boy felt he would never truly grow accustomed to, it was the light. There had been great amounts of phosphorescent stone in Limbo Town, and necessity had made Klarion's people adept at creating lanterns and candles, yet nothing could compare to that brilliant thing in the sky called the sun.
"Even their graveyards are bathed in light half the time," Klarion commented to Teekl as he walked through the quiet cemetery. "It's amazing. Do they not care if their ancestors are never able to get any real sleep?"
Teekl, perched atop his shoulder, meowed by way of response.
"Ah, you're quite right," Klarion said. "Up here, the dead don't need to worry about being woken and put to work by the living. Normally."
The witch boy came to a stop, and Teekl, responding to an unspoken command from his master, jumped down from his perch and retreated some distance away from him. Klarion held up the wooden rod he had stolen from Judah before leaving Limbo Town.
"By hex and scourge, I command thee dead, awaken!" Klarion shouted, the simple staff suddenly glowing with an unholy white light. "Rise, grundies! Rise!"
Half a dozen hands burst forth from the dusty earth before half a dozen headstones. Klarion watched with a small smile on his face as the dead crawled out of the ground to reenter the world of the living. The six grundies all looked remarkably similar, time and decay having quite abolished any distinguishing characteristics the men might have had in life. The undead all had gray, shriveled skin, and were dressed in the tattered remains of the fine black suits they had been buried in.
The grundies released a series of low, gurgling groans as tongues and vocal cords that had been reduced to little more than fetid pulp tried and failed to form words. As one, they turned their glassy eyed stares on the witch boy, and suddenly there was unmistakable hostility in walking dead things.
Klarion raised the wooden rod he held once again, and it glow again, though not as brightly as before. The grundies flinched back and immediately became submissive.
"Go forth, and bring Shinji Ikari to me," Klarion commanded. "Once this task is done, I will let you return to your rest."
The half a dozen grundies could not give assent verbally; indeed, they could no more than grunt and groan by way of reply. However, they obediently headed off, and Klarion had no doubt they would obey him.
Teekl meowed and hopped back up onto his shoulder as they departed. Klarion stroke the feline's head affectionately. "There they go, Teekl," he said. "Hopefully by the end of the day, I'll have satisfied that old prune Keel, at least for a while."
"Won't be able to eat all of that, huh?" Maya asked with a tiny smirk as she and Shinji left the ice cream parlor together.
Shinji smiled weakly. "I don't know how I managed that."
Maybe it has something to do with you being a fourteen-year-old guy? She thought, her smirk widening. She remembered how much she had regularly packed away when she was Shinji's age and frankly wasn't surprised he had been able to consume the whole of Koichi's confection.
"I'm going to be regret doing that," he groaned softly, placing a hand on his stomach.
"Then why did you?" she asked.
"It was just so good I couldn't make myself stop until it was gone," he said ruefully.
Maya grinned. "I think you were trying to save me from making more of a pig of myself than I already have today," she said.
Shinji gave her a confused look, probably wondering why he was now being lauded for something she'd seemed less than happy about only a little while ago. She gave him a sunny smile back and was more than a little relieved when he eventually returned it.
Naturally, the moment was spoiled by the sounds of people's cries of fright and the low groaning of things that never should have existed.
Shinji and Maya's gazes snapped up toward the source of the sound, and the techie felt her eyes widen at what she saw approaching them, namely half a dozen men who were clearly no longer among the living.
Necromancy? That brat Klarion knows necromancy? She thought, momentarily paralyzed by shock.
Strictly speaking, Maya knew that the necromantic arts were no more intrinsically evil than any other branch of magic. Simply knowing and casting the spells wouldn't warp a sorcerer's mind and soul. Power over the dead wouldn't automatically transform someone into a dark lord and master of evil.
However, since just about anyone would be appalled and horrified to discover that their dead relative had been risen from the grave and made into the decaying meat puppet, there were few reasons a Homi Magi with good intentions would ever actually use such powers. Indeed, necromancy had been something of a dying art even before Second Impact had brought an end to the Ninth Age of Magic and a large number of the world's sorcerers and magicians along with it. Maya had once heard her father speculate that necromancy might be entirely dead.
Obviously, that was not the case. The dead were walking the streets of Tokyo-3 that day.
"Oh my god, you have got to be kidding me," the Third Child exclaimed, sounding like he was almost as exasperated and annoyed as he was frightened. Almost. "Zombies? On top of everything else, this city has zombies now?"
"Looks like it," Maya said grimly, "and it looks to me like they're all staring right at us. I think we should probably run."
Taking hold of his arm, Maya started to lead Shinji down the street, away from the undead things she was certain Klarion had summoned from what was supposed to be their eternal resting places. The Third Child quickly caught on and began to run beside her without prompting. However, the series of angry, gurgling groans and growls behind her, accompanied by the terrified cries of the living people on the streets, didn't make her think that escaping would be as easy as sprinting for a few seconds.
"Oh," Shinji groaned, "if I had known I'd be running for my life later, I definitely wouldn't have eaten all that ice cream."
A loud, short burst of laughter tore its way out of the brunette's throat before she could stop it. "God, Shinji-kun, are you actually starting to get jaded about all this?"
He looked taken aback, then thoughtful. "Maybe I am," he said. "I guess it's kind of hard not to in this city."
Maya risked a look back at their pursuers. The hapless civilians who'd had the misfortune to be in the wrong place at the wrong time certainly weren't the least bit jaded so far as the zombies were concerned, and they were all working themselves into a fine panic. Fortunately, the grundies were literally pushing the bystanders out of the way in their effort to get to her and Shinji. Nobody was receiving more than a few bumps and bruises.
Or at least, that was the case until a pair of black suited men who were obviously members of Section Two actually stepped up to the plate, getting into the path of the undead things and drawing their guns.
Oh no, she thought, knowing that pistols were probably the worst weapon a person facing the undead could choose.
The idea that you could stop a zombie by destroying the brain was an invention of Hollywood. Nothing short of completely destroying the undead being's body would halt it, making a simple axe a far better tool than just about any firearm, short of a bazooka or a seriously high powered machine gun.
Of course, the Section Two agents had no way of knowing this and opened fire. The grundies didn't even slow down, but the black suited men held their ground in the face of the advancing abominations.
God, why did they have to pick today of all days to actually act noble? Maya wondered, knowing that they would probably be killed.
The tech had no absolutely no love for the organization of black suited men. They had always, one and all, struck her as complete bullies and thugs. One of them even made a habit of trying to goose her every time she had the misfortune of running into him at the base.
Yet being in Section Two didn't mean the pair of men weren't human beings anymore, and they were trying to protect Shinji and, by extension, herself.
If you cast a spell, someone around here is bound to notice, a voice in her mind whispered urgently. NERV will find out, and your life will never be the same again.
That gave her pause, and she continued to watch the pair of Section Two agents, hoping they'd have the brains to run the hell away.
They didn't and instead continued to uselessly pump lead into the grundies. Reaching a snap decision, she raised one of her hands and opened her mouth.
Then she tripped before she could utter so much as a single syllable, a cry escaping her mouth instead of a spell. She hadn't been watching where she was going for too long.
Shinji's hand shot out and he grabbed hold of her upper arm, helping to steady her and keep her from landing flat on her face. As she regained her balance, she heard a wet, sickening crack, immediately followed by another. The grundies had snapped the Section Two agents' necks.
Damn, she thought, though part of her was guiltily relieved that fate had stepped in and kept her from intervening.
"Must go faster," she told Shinji.
He nodded and put on a burst of speed. The two of them ran for a few more blocks, but the grundies pursued them tirelessly, the zombies leaving panic and carnage in their wake as they bullied their way through the midday crowds.
No other Section Two agents tried to be heroes, thankfully.
"Maya," Shinji gasped out, "what are we going to do?"
She looked over him and saw that the Third Child was panting and sweaty. He also looked a bit green around the gills, to boot. Obviously, Shinji wouldn't be able to keep running for much longer.
Abruptly, bizarrely, Maya found herself wondering if Katsuragi would've made a joke about it being just like a man to have no stamina, if the Ops Director was in this situation.
Then she squelched the thought and grabbed hold of Shinji's hand. "In here!" she said, pulling him toward the nearest building, even as her mind whirled.
She could probably destroy the grundies easily enough if she could use her magic, she supposed, but in order for her to change into Zatanna, she would have to ditch Shinji, first. Somehow, she didn't think that would do the Third Child much good.
Not that being ripped apart by zombies will help anything, either, she thought.
Maya led Shinji through the halls of the apartment building they had barged into, and her hopes of finding a fire axe in a glass box on one of the walls went unfulfilled.
The unmistakable groan of the living dead sounded from behind them.
"This way," Maya said, leading him toward a stairwell.
She realized as they were taking the stairs two and three at a time that venturing indoors might have been a grave mistake, and her mind turned from thoughts of locating a weapon to thoughts of finding an escape route. Going up might not have been the smartest move, either, she realized belatedly.
"Here," the brunette said, throwing open the door to the fourth floor. Shinji, who was looking worse and worse by the minute, continued to follow her without a word.
This hallway was as empty as the one on the ground floor had been, and there were no open doors visible. Growing more desperate, Maya randomly picked a door and threw herself at it. Wood splintered as the door broke and allowed them access to the apartment.
Maya clenched her teeth, feeling like she'd shattered every bone in her shoulder. Only now did it occur to her that she might have asked the young man with her to do that.
"Are you…all right?" Shinji panted.
"Fine," Maya wheezed.
Nobody was shouting at them or screaming, so apparently the apartment was empty. Ignoring the cluttered state of the place, Maya headed over to one of the windows.
She very nearly uttered every profanity she knew as she got closer. A fire escape was outside, the old but hopefully sturdy metal structure holding the promise of a way out of this building. But between them and it were a set of security bars.
You're got to be kidding me! This is the good part of the city! Maya thought in consternation.
The sound of a growl came from a ways off. The grundies weren't upon them yet, but it wouldn't be long.
"Maya," Shinji said breathlessly, "go."
She frowned, turning to him. "What?"
"Go," he repeated. "Listen, stuff like this has been happening a lot lately. I don't know why, but whenever it does, I always seem to be…immune to it somehow. But nobody else is. Run and save yourself. I should be okay." He added, but his voice trembled a bit at the end.
"Oh no, I am not going to just abandon you to those things and trust in whatever unknown force has been protecting you recently," Maya said. "We're getting out of this one together, Shinji-kun."
She immediately began to search the messy apartment for something—anything—useful, and so she didn't notice the look of surprise that appeared on his face at her vehement declaration.
Of course, Maya knew exactly what had been protecting Shinji from the supernatural, and she knew the amulet she gave him would be of no use against the grundies. One of the spells she'd carefully engraved into the thing would inflict pain upon any magical creature who wished the wearer ill and came into contact with him. However, the undead didn't care about pain, and the amulet's other enchantments would likewise be of no help in this situation.
If things really started to look desperate, her only recourse would be to use her magic in sight of Shinji, something she was very, very reluctant to do. She felt pretty confident he'd try and keep her secret, but she knew about how he'd revealed himself to be EVA pilot at his school the moment someone had asked him.
Still, if she had to choose between saving Shinji or keeping her secret secure, Maya obviously would pick the former.
Here's hoping it doesn't come to that, she thought.
Suddenly, her gaze fell upon something that would definitely be useful to her: a screwdriver. Thanking whatever powers might be out there for what felt the one stroke of truly good luck she'd had since the zombies had appeared, she snatched it and headed back toward the window. Opening it up, she found to her relief that the screws holding the security bars onto the wall were on her side. That was about the only thing that showed the designer of the building had had even an ounce of sanity, in her opinion.
"I'm going to take this off," she said, indicating the bars. "See if you can find a weapon to threaten the zombies with, if they show up before I do."
Maybe it was the very idea of facing off against the undead things, or maybe it was the bout of violent exercise he'd performed immediately after stuffing himself silly with ice cold dairy products. Probably it was a combination of both factors.
Whatever the reason, Shinji Ikari bent over and wretched loudly, the remains of the ice cream he'd eaten—now looking a lot less appetizing than it had juts a little while ago—landing on the scuffed wooden floor of the apartment.
"Ugh, sorry," he grunted, standing up.
"It's fine," Maya said, turning back to the window and using the long screwdriver she held to start loosening the screw which held the bars onto the wall.
It's not my apartment, after all, she added silently, wondering what the owner of this place would think when he came home. She'd have to see about getting NERV to compensate the poor guy.
Assuming, of course, that NERV wasn't trying to hunt her down like some kind of fugitive once this ordeal was over.
She heard a brief sound from behind her and realized that Shinji had selected a chair as his weapon, which, if not optimal, was better suited to fighting the undead than Section Two's pistols had been.
The technician got one of the screws out, then another. The grunts and growls of the grundies were growing much closer, but she was starting to think that she'd get herself and Shinji out before their pursuers could set eyes on them in this apartment.
Then Maya got to the next screw and discovered that the head of the thing had been all but totally stripped. She looked at the other remaining screw and saw that it was in no better shape. Suppressing a cry of frustration, got to work. It was much slower going than it had been before, but she was still making progress. All she'd need was another minute or two, and she'd have cleared their escape route.
The sound of one of the grundies pushing aside the broken door chilled her heart. Maya spent a precious second to turn and look back at it and saw that it was alone. Apparently, this grundy was a little less decomposed and thus a little faster than its companions. However, she had no doubt that the others would be along soon.
There was no time left. She redoubled her efforts in getting the security bars off the window, but her hands had gotten sweaty, making it harder to hold onto the screwdriver.
"B-Back!" Shinji yelled fearfully. "Stay back!"
The grundy growled and took a few steps forward, in spite of the way the Third Child was waving around the chair he'd picked up. The moment the grundy got close enough, Shinji swung with all his strength. There was a loud crack of wood breaking as the chair crashed down over the dead man and broke.
The grundy staggered back a step from the force of the blow, then steadied itself and growled at Shinji. The Third Child held up the remains of his makeshift weapon, which consisted of a small part of the chair's back, and suddenly looked very small and feeble in the face of the zombie.
"M-Maya?" Shinji said.
Glancing back and seeing how bad the situation had become, the techie swore silently. It would have taken her only a few more seconds to get them out of this dead end she'd led them to, but she was out of time. She opened her mouth and raised a hand, ready to cast a spell and reveal her supernatural powers.
Then the grundy took a step forward, right into the puddle of vomit Shinji had produced, and it immediately slipped and fell, landing hard on its back.
Seizing upon the opportunity, Maya immediately turned back to her work as the grundy slowly and clumsily began to get back to its feet.
For a moment, the extreme tension of the moment prevented her from actually getting anything accomplished; her hands were shaking too badly. Then she managed to calm herself enough to start turning the screwdriver again.
The screw popped out.
Now with three of the four things removed, Maya was able to slide the safety bars aside, finally allowing Shinji and herself egress.
"Go!" she commanded the Third Child.
Shinji obeyed, quickly slipping out the window and onto the fire escape outside, then offered her a hand to help her out as well. She gratefully took it as she escaped the apartment, just as the grundy made it to his feet and his companions appeared in the doorway.
Even though she knew it wouldn't slow the damn things down for more than a split second, Maya slid the security bar back into place before she and Shinji went running down the fire escape as quickly as they dared. The grundies were soon coming after them.
"Now what?" Shinji asked as they at last made it to the ground and into a short alleyway by the side of the building.
Maya didn't answer, just running toward the street, mainly because she didn't have an answer to give him. She was very much playing this by ear.
Then she made it to the road and her brown eyes settled upon a certain vehicle that was parked by the opposite side of the street. Maya was amazed to see it there; it was an American made gas guzzler if there had ever been one. Even before Second Impact had drastically driven up the prices of many commodities, including oil, they had been considered absurdly wasteful and almost nobody drove them anymore, even in the States. Maya had certainly always viewed them with contempt.
Yet at the moment, that stupidly massive car was nothing short of beautiful to her eyes.
"God bless America," she said as she led Shinji toward the enormous H1 Hummer.
Shinji frowned in confusion as she stopped next to the parked car. "What are you—?"
He stopped speaking abruptly as Maya used the long screwdriver, which she had entirely forgotten to discard, to smash the driver's side window. Shinji jumped slightly at the sound of the glass breaking, and several people turned to look at them, but the technician paid them no heed. Maya unlocked the door and opened it, mentally adding this to the list of repairs NERV would have to pay for once this was all done.
"Come on, you've got shotgun," Maya told Shinji, hopping into the car and then helping him up. He plopped himself down into the passenger seat as the brunette hastily wiped some of the glass shards off the driver's seat.
"Here they come," Shinji said, indicating the grundies that were emerging from the alleyway, sending the nearby people, who had been on the verge of intervening in the apparent auto theft, to go running away instead.
"I've got this," Maya said, using the screwdriver to pry off a plastic panel beneath the steering wheel, revealing the cluster of wires there.
Maya had never been an auto mechanic, but she had worked with machines for most of her adult life, and not just with programming them. She'd be damned if it took her more than a few seconds to hotwire a car.
Touching two wires together, her confidence in her mechanical ability was vindicated as the Hummer's gigantic engine came to life with a thunderous roar. Maya quickly reached down and shifted the vehicle into gear.
God, I can barely reach the pedals, the petite young woman thought with annoyance as she struggled to get the Hummer pointed in the direction she wanted, namely right at the grundies.
"Maya…" Shinji said, seeing that the undead men were getting too close to them for comfort.
She pushed the accelerator down as far as she could, which, if not to the floor, was still pretty far. The Hummer thundered forward, crashing right into the half-dozen grundies with a series of loud thwacks. Both Shinji and Maya and were jostled about unpleasantly as the car drove right over the dead men. Finally, the car crashed into the side of the building they had just escaped from, leaving a very big dent in the brick wall and causing the car's airbags to deploy. Fortunately, the Hummer hadn't been able to build up nearly enough to speed to send Shinji and Maya shooting through the windshield on impact.
"Well," Shinji said weakly, panting, this time from fright rather than exertion, "that was…"
Maya shifted the car into reverse and then pressed down on the gas pedal again, running over the grundies once more. Then she shifted it back into drive and drove over them again. She repeated this process multiple times, until she was damn sure that she had totally destroyed the bodies of the undead men.
Then, finally, she allowed herself to lean back into the driver's seat, her body going limp as the adrenaline began to desert her. However, a small smile appeared on her face as a thought occurred to her.
Well, this is definitely one situation where science trumped magic, she mused. Internal combustion engine: 1. Zombies: 0.
Maya became aware of the flashing red and blue lights a moment later. Several police cars were approaching, no doubt to investigate the disturbance.
"Shinji-kun, I think we might be in for a very long afternoon," she observed, not relishing the idea of having to explain all this to the authorities one bit.
What followed the insane chase was about what was to be expected. The police were highly skeptical of Maya's story, but the presence of the Third Child with her immediately gave them pause, preventing any sort of harsh interrogation. NERV quickly interceded, and when several witnesses corroborated the story Maya and Shinji gave—a story which didn't seem nearly as bizarre and impossible as it might have, in light of the sort of things that had been happening in the city lately—they had been released. Maya had even received an official commendation from NERV for going above and beyond the call of duty in her protection of the Third Child.
Yet for all that, when Monday rolled around, it was back to business as usual for the brunette. Part of her was rather amazed that she could be just sitting at her terminal on the bridge when that had happened such a short period of time ago, but another part of her was comforted by the familiar routine.
Unfortunately, it was a slow day in NERV headquarters, which meant the brunette was left with plenty of time to think, and there was only one thing to think about, so far as she was concerned.
There's no way Klarion would have done that if SEELE had tugged on his leash because of his stunt with the pixies, she decided grimly. This had to have been sanctioned by them. Heck, he probably did it on their orders.
Of course, that led up to one inescapable conclusion, namely that Klarion's efforts toward Shinji weren't going to come to an end any time soon.
Unless, of course, she brought them to them to an end. Reluctant as she was to confront the agent of SEELE, it seemed like she no longer had any choice. Zatanna would have to seek out the little brat and ensure he ceased antagonizing the Third Child.
It was not something she looked forward to, to put it mildly.
The loud klaxons and accompanying flashing red lights rudely broke her out of her thoughts, and Maya scrambled to find out what was going on, feeling embarrassed that she had allowed her mind to wander so much while she was on the job. Her fingers blurred over her keyboard, and within moments, the computer had coughed up the answer.
Orange Pattern Detected
Possible Angel Incursion Alert
Author's Notes: Much like Girl of Steel, Maya's fic is one that I wrote for some time with only a pretty vague idea of where I was going. However, I finally sat down and did a better job of planning out the plot, and I have to say I'm pretty pleased with it.
I've already gotten some inspiration from the new Zatanna comic book, which I'm enjoying quite a bit so far. I was originally afraid when I heard about it—the lack of any hard limits on Zatanna's powers make her difficult to write for—but when I heard Paul Dini was the man behind it, I knew the book was in the best possible hands. Not only is Dini good, but Zatanna is his favorite character. I've heard there's even a running joke at DC that he's actually in love with the character. This might have something to do with Dini marrying a magician, of course.
But I'm rambling, as usual. So let me just say thanks as always to my readers and reviewers, and thanks to my beta reader, as well.
Now for some fun!
Maya the Mythbuster
"Hello everyone!" a redheaded man with a small beard and glasses with thick black frames greeted the camera enthusiastically. "I'm Adam Savage."
"And I'm Jamie Hyneman," a man with a prodigious walrus mustache added.
"And we're the Mythbusters!" Adam continued. "Here, on location in Tokyo-3, Japan, to test some myths concerning NERV, that oh-so-mysterious organization with the giant robots. And while the Build Team is testing some myths related to the giant robots themselves—"
There was suddenly a very, very large explosion in the distance.
"Led by an overzealous Grant Imahara, apparently," Jamie commented with a smirk.
"We're going to be testing some more local myths about this place and the people who live here," Adam said. "And for that, we've recruited NERV technician and honorary Mythbuster, Maya Ibuki."
The petite brunette walked into the view of the camera. "Hello," she greeted Adam and Jamie. "I love your show."
"Thank you," Jamie said.
"All right, Maya," Adam said. "You know this place better than we do. What myth is waiting out there for us?"
"Well, I thought we might start with the myth that the Commander of NERV isn't actually human," Maya said.
"What?" Jamie asked.
"People here have long ago started to theorize that Gendo Ikari has proven through his actions that he can't possibly be a human, as no one with a human soul could possibly do the things he's done," Maya elaborated. "As a result, people have begun to speculate that he is, actually, a flock of ducks in a Gendo suit."
"So how do you propose we test this myth?" Adam asked.
"Oh, I was thinking the direct approach," Maya was suddenly seen to be holding a stick of dynamite in each hand. "Time for science!" she proclaimed, and went walking off.
"I like her," Jamie commented to Adam.
"I think she'll fit in just fine around here," Adam agreed.
She's Created a Monster
Maya awoke with a slight groan, not immediately sure where she was or what happened. She rubbed her eyes, her sleepy brain giving her the details of what had occurred.
Let's see, she thought. I decided to show Shinji my new lingerie, he passed out, I used magic to turn him into a sex god…
That was when all the memories of what had happened came back to her, causing Maya to shiver with pleasure. She'd known her magic was powerful, but even she hadn't suspected it was that powerful.
Smiling languidly, she turned to the large, roughly Shinji-sized lump in the blankets next to her. "Hey, there, stud," she said, reaching out for him. "Do you want—?"
She stopped in mid-sentence when her hand came into contact with the lump and she realized Shinji wasn't underneath it. She quickly pulled back the blankets to reveal only a large pillow.
Oh, this could be bad, Maya thought.
The question of how long she'd been asleep suddenly seemed much more important than it had a moment ago, and she snatched up the clock on her bedside table. Her eyes widened at what she saw.
"Oh my god!" Maya exclaimed. "I slept through an entire chapter?"
There was no telling what kind of trouble the magically enhanced EVA pilot might have already gotten into while she slept.
The technician picked up the phone that sat near her bed and frantically dialed the number of Katsuragi's apartment. Someone picked up on the third ring.
"Hellooooo," the voice on the other end of the line seemed…almost drunk, but it wasn't the voice of the Ops Director.
"Asuka?" Maya asked, feeling dread building up inside her.
"That's me," the redhead pilot replied.
"Uh, is Misato around? Can you put her on?" Maya asked.
"Oh, she's still asleep," Asuka replied, sounding smug. "I really thought she'd last longer, given her reputation and everything, but I guess she's just getting old or something. She didn't last more than a few hours once Shinji-sama really kicked it into high gear."
Crap, Maya thought as her fears were confirmed.
"Tell me, Asuka, is Shinji still there?" Maya asked.
"Hmm? Oh no, he took off for NERV for some reason," Asuka replied. "Said something about smart being sexy."
Maya's brown eyes widened. "Ritsuko…" she breathed.
"What was that?" Asuka asked.
"I have to go, Asuka!" Maya said, quickly hanging up and then rising from her bed. "Sempai! I will rescue your purity from the monster I've created!" she proclaimed.
