Chapter 8: Ballin
Broadcast to specialized conference holodecks around the world...
SEELE-03 SOUND ONLY: "I believe we all see the result of SEELE's declaration of war against NERV. His Lordship's 'young female associate' kicked in the front door of his house. Are you going to retaliate, Chairman?"
SEELE-01 SOUND ONLY: "For the time being, we are going to focus on Tai-Yong Medical's S2 Miniaturization. We are unable to destroy the Evangelion Units until we can penetrate their AT Field, and our history has shown that an assault from automated Evangelions will fail. The female that assaulted the Englishman is under Nagisa's protection, and he is in full control of his power; he can only be matched by a human carrying the power of Adam."
SEELE-02 SOUND ONLY: "Chairman, you're lying in wait while NERV plots to destroy you."
SEELE-01 SOUND ONLY: "'Lying in wait' has caused far more damage to NERV than a military invasion ever did. We inserted our agent into NERV, Nagisa was only spared due to his divinity, a problem we will soon overcome. The First and Third were mutilated, and the Second was eliminated quietly-"
SEELE-03 SOUND ONLY: "That is untrue, now. Somebody high up in the World Health Organization has taken an interest in the Second. She is receiving lifesaving treatment under the WHO's oversight...Somebody is protecting her, and I know that it is not her family, as they had splintered before her transfer to Japan."
SEELE-02 SOUND ONLY: "Exactly, Chairman. You see the result of relying on contract holders and mercenaries to perform our work. We require loyalty and commitment in our subordinates to ensure that our enemies do not survive, as these Children seem to be doing..."
SEELE-01 SOUND ONLY: "So you want to use the American Cowboy solution and send your guns in shooting everything that moves, is that right?"
SEELE-02 SOUND ONLY: "No, it is time for a Changing of the Guard. We shape and direct our own assets into loyal forces who do not leave the job half-done. Tai-Yong's relationship with Belltower is an example of how (not) to succeed. Compare Page Industries' local security. Troops given military-equivalent training, performance-enhancing and pain endurance drugs, and behavior and loyalty conditioning. Bob Page's security forces are willing to fight to die for him."
SEELE-05 SOUND ONLY: "Well then, you see about getting his expertise, in the meantime, we will focus on the construction of the S2 miniature."
In Detroit, Michigan...
"So let me get this straight...we get an anonymous voice logged in during a- SECURE -conference, Said voice then cryptically orders us to go to Paris, so that the voice can 'show you' SEELE-03.
You know what? This doesn't look like a trap at all." Misato's portrait spoke in disbelief, her voice dripping with sarcasm.
"Yeah, but we were all there when the message came, and Dr. Akagi won't clear us to go to China or Nevada yet, so-"
"Shinji, what happened to the cautious- no, timid- boy that moved in with me? Why on earth are you chomping at the bit to go launch into another confrontation?"
"He got pissed off at the people who hurt his girlfriend. Paris is the only lead we have, we need to follow it." Shinji answered her.
"Do you remember the last time you jumped into a fight without any intel?"
"Let's see...was that the Eleventh Angel, the Twelfth, or the Thirteenth? I lost count."
Misato dropped her head to her desk. "One of these days, you two, you're going to get yourself into a fight you can't handle, and those electric eyes of yours aren't going to save you-"
Misato cut out and David Sarif appeared on the television.
"YOU TWO! Get to the roof of the building, RIGHT NOW. You're getting flown to Derelict Row!"
"What's going on?!"
"The Ballers just shot up an armored car carrying Neuropazyne. The Motor City Bangers, the rival gang out here, have a bunch of Neurop users, and they see this as an easy score...You two get a real initiation out of it."
"Don't tell me-"
"You're going to get the drug shipments out from under the Ballers' nose before the Bangers do. We're going to fly you in and fastrope you down into the gang territory...I don't need to tell you that this is the kind of place the police don't approach on the beat."
"David, I really hate you right now."
They rode the elevator up to the Chiron Building's helipad and were ushered into the waiting company VTOL. They hovered out to the slums of the city, where they approached the condemned and abandoned warehouse the gang used as their hideout. The side door of the craft opened and two climbing ropes were lowered to ground level. Shinji looked at Rei beside him.
"We are not new to violence, Shinji. There would be nothing to gain from refusing this assignment." She wove the rope through her arms and slid down it.
He rolled his eyes and followed her. "Just because we do the job doesn't mean I have to enjoy it."
Their radios spoke up, Misato just patched herself in. "You cut me off! What's the deal?! I'm trying to be the responsible one, here!"
Shinji and Rei hunkered down behind an air conditioning vent and backtalked her.
"Misato, hush!" Shinji whispered.
"There's been an emergency. We had to go." Rei explained. "Keep this channel clear."
"Well I think I have a right to be in the loop about you two!"
"Fine, Misato, just shut up! We're going after stolen prosthetics drugs. We're in a gang hideout, trying not to be heard, while you talk our heads off!"
"GANG TERRITORY!? You two are-"
"Seriously, some women just can't shut their mouths. Some of Asuka must've rubbed off on her." Kaji overrode Misato's connection. "I'm in Sarif's security office right now. Nice place, great view of the lobby, you can see everything. I've got you two on the VTOL's video feed and the bird's at minimum safe distance. The site's got plenty of hallways, landings, and storage rooms, so the stash could be anywhere...The good news is the Ballers are the poorer of the two gangs and they only- so far -have handguns and weak personal automatic weapons...The bad news is they've got great outreach and they pick up new scum every day...Try to keep the body count to a minimum, but Sarif gave you those silencers for a reason."
The radio cut and the electrically enhanced, teenage war vets crept to the building's rooftop fire escape and peered down...no guards...something was up.
"Inspector Kaji," Rei started, "there appears to be little resistance. Are we in the proper area?"
"Yes. We roped you down so the jet noise wouldn't make too many ears perk up...This is actually pretty standard...lots of bodies at the turf border, everybody else is inside their apartments, probably falling down drunk...it might make getting out difficult, but if it's quiet now, make your move as fast as you can."
They climbed down to the fire ladder's top landing and looked in on the building's escape windows. The Ballers' red diamond logo was graffitied on the walls and there were forties strewn about the floor. Rei shrugged and opened the window...The sound of a basketball game on television bled through the new entry.
"There's activity, after all. Two options: Continue down or enter here."
"How do we want to do this, Rei?"
"We aren't here to slaughter. Read your biogeneration. We should both have an equal reservoir." Rei turned her eyes up and to the left, bringing her vital sign report into view. "Yes. I am ready."
"Me too...that gives me an idea." Shinji set his retinal modification to view infrared outlines. "...Three in the nearest room. The TV is giving off some interference...one, maybe two asleep a couple of rooms down-...Oh. Not asleep. I'll bet she's cheap...One taking a leak...Occasionally a big cold spot appears and vanishes. Ring any bells?"
"A refrigerator. It must be a dining room. See any human outlines?"
"Just the one that melds with the cold spot...I'm sure there are more."
"Let's enter. Silence your movement." She climbed through the window, drew her handgun, and pointed to it. "Only if they initiate force." Inside Sarif HQ, Kaji confirmed that they were in.
They stayed low and Rei motioned to Shinji to lean into the doorway and look. Three street punks, dressed in long white shirts and red headrags, were watching some basketball and chugging beer on a couple of couches. They slipped past and reached the next door.
"Rei, walk past the door and look out...I'm going to create a problem." Shinji's face morphed into a demented smirk as he got the door to the seedy bunkroom open and he spied the thug and his ho, her dressed in cheap lingerie and heels. He raised his Taser and fired, stabbing the thug in the back, the voltage causing him to collapse on top of the now-terrified and hysterical girl. Shinji withdrew the needles and sprinted to Rei, grabbing her hand and pulling her off to a shadowy corner where they watched the results of his handiwork. The three sports punks heard her screaming and ran into the room to see the terrified tramp and the unconscious brother on top of her.
"Dude! Broseph can't even last, like, four minutes!"
"Yeah, he's never going to live this one down!"
"Shit, bro, she knocked his ass out!"
"That excitement should keep anybody from noticing us up here." The augmented teen infiltrators moved from their corner towards the refrigerator's signature. They peered into the unclean kitchen area to see a bro occasionally come by to open the fridge and take a forty.
"That is still not as much alcohol as Colonel Katsuragi consumes."
"No...it isn't..." He motioned towards the nearby stairwell. They made their way down to the third floor. They peered out...This was a landing above a large factory floor, the open air area to their right and abandoned offices and restrooms on their left. "Stay low." He entered one office, several mattresses were laid out, but it was empty. "Looks like sleeping areas for the lower-ranking guys...these ones don't have that many belongings yet. The next one looks the same." He nudged one restroom door open and gagged at the smell. Several of the toilets were overflowing and full of...well, yeah. = How the hell can these assholes live like this? = The sight and smell caused his surroundings to truly come to light. = Rei and I...We're living, walking weapons now, just like the Evas...My god, they expect us to stop a gang war! =
He turned to Rei, his face was pale.
"Yes, Shinji, I agree. The smell is horrendous, and I used to think that the recycled LCL at the dummy plug laboratory was the most pungent odor I would encounter."
He snapped out of his thoughts and they peered over the landing's walkway wall, down to the factory floor...there were armed Ballers throughout the facility, most with factory-standard handguns, though some carried TMP-18 automatics. Rei offered her professional opinion.
"The TMP-18 offers high rate of fire with wide spread. Accuracy is sacrificed in exchange for simply flooding the area with fire...If they start shooting, there will be too much lead in the air to dodge...The handgun users don't offer much of a threat."
She nudged him towards the staircase and they stepped down to the second floor. Several similar offices were here, but the doors were closed and locked.
"Rei, can you pick these?"
"Yes, Shinji." She slid her NERV ID into the door crack to manipulate the slide. "But I don't need to." They came upon an office with an intact desk, chair, a laptop showing pornography as a screensaver, and various liquor brands stored on cabinets and bookshelves. "This office must be claimed by the gang boss." She removed the battery from the computer, it cut out, and Rei picked it up to carry it out with her. "The Detroit Police Department may take interest in their files, and those pictures were degrading."
They left the room and shut the door, and Rei used the card trick on the next office. They silently entered...and hit the jackpot. They just found the gang's armory! Pistols and full magazines lined one wall, shotguns and TMP's lined the next, and the desk, home to one sleeping Baller, showed the collection of various knives the gangbangers used, and Shinji spied his trophy for their little excursion. A Chinese Jian sword was hung on the ceiling behind the sleeping armory guard.
"This'll be far too easy..." He crept behind the guard, slipped an arm around his nose and mouth and another around his neck. = Cover any respiratory orifices, and...constrict... = He squeezed, the guard awoke, struggled for several minutes, and fell slack. = Perk up, 'brotha', you're not going to die. You just need some sleep... = He took the sword, drew it from its scabbard, and found that it was in acceptable condition. "Rei, this probably belonged to the Boss, too."
She picked up a knife and its sheath from the assortment. "Yes, now let's get out of here. We still haven't found the Neurop cases-"
"YO! GUNZ! I'm out, man! I need new mags, like, now-...Who da fuck are you? You two little shits like, what, 13?"
"Physically, 15. Mentally, we're a lot older than you are." Shinji and Rei drew their firearms. "You're going to be quiet, or these 10's are going to make you quiet. Where's the Neurop?"
"The Bangerz shit? Listen, kid, I don't know. I don't make decisions around here...But, what are we going to do about this little fuckup? You ain't got the balls to shoot me and I ain't moving."
"If you shout, or even raise your voice, your head explodes."
"All right." The arrogant Baller answered. "HEY-" * BANG *
The suppressed shot didn't carry beyond the confines of the armory. Bits of the Baller's skull splintered into the door behind him.
"Shinji," Rei began. "Does this scenario imply 'killing in cold blood'?"
"He was threatening us and stopping us from moving on...There's probably a better way to do it, but shooting him came across as the best way to get out of this room."
"You and I have killed Angels, but we have not killed our fellow man...until now."
"...I know, Rei...But, I learned at NERV's shooting range -from Aoba, actually- that 'shoot to injure' rarely works. Either the bullet doesn't do enough damage to really hurt the target, or it kills it anyway." Shinji slowly entered the hallway, Rei behind him...too late.
"HEY, FUCKHEAD! WHAT'S TAKING YOU SO LONG, CABRON?! GET YOU SOME AMMO AND GET BACK DOWN HERE-" The one doing the shouting, clearly the one in charge, as the other Ballers were gathered around him, saw the two teens on the landing. "SHIT WE GOT A BREAKIN! WASTE THOSE NACOS!" The gang boss ordered his brothas. They pulled their guns and peppered the walls while Shinji and Rei dove to the floor and began crawling prone to the stairway landing. They arrived and rose to one knee, taking point and waiting for the crowd of Ballers to get choked in the tight quarters of the staircase...
One head appeared, then another, and another. "Rei, stagger our shooting!" Shinji began firing, until half of his 13-round magazine was expended. Rei opened fire at that point, ensuring that one shooter would be on target even if the other was reloading.
One head fell, then another, and another. "Don't these idiots know not to crowd in choke points like this?"
"They are (not) soldiers, Shinij." * BANG * "They are acclimated to fighting on the flat Detroit streets." * BANG * "They've clearly never repelled an invasion, before."
It only took a few small piles of dead bodies for the gang boss to see that they were outclassed.
"ALRIGHT! FUCK, STOP IT, STOP IT!" He appeared at the front of the crowd, holding his TMP above his head, the still-living half of the gang behind him. "What do you two psicópatas want?!"
"The Neurop." Rei answered, their laser pointers tuned to his head.
"Hanzers. I shoulda known. Look, senorita, we don't like augs, and we're not gonna give up the Neurop just because there's a gun to my head."
Shinji half-reasoned, half-taunted him. "We'll try the nice route: If you don't give it to us, the MCB's are going to bust in any minute now. You don't want to pick a fight with them, do you?"
"Fuck you!"
"My partner's body and my own function at a much higher level than yours. If you make a move for your weapon, we will sense it and fire. We're carrying 200 armor-piercing cartridges. We can finish every single one of you."
"As you can see, she's the bad cop. I suggest you listen to her."
Some intellectual spotlight amongst the crowd jumped out in front with this to say. "Why we listening to these freaks?! I say we kill em!" He ran out to in front of the boss and drew his pistol and knife, only to receive a bullet in his head for the trouble.
"Any further negotiation?" Rei asked as she inserted a full magazine.
"Alright, alright. Shit. Just let us go back to our own thing...You two canners plan to kill all of us if I don't give you the stash, don't you?"
"Actually, we hoped to kill no one, but when you started shooting, we felt it best to respond."
"Look. Just go outside, there's a bombed-out shed with no floor, just a hole in the dirt. That's our stash, the stuff's there. Just leave."
"Very well. If the location is fake, we'll come back and finish the job."
"Yeah, yeah, I know you will, that's why I didn't lie...pendejos."
"Huh...he was telling the truth." Shinij stated in surprise as he lifted the sealed and locked crate from the depression in the ground. He waddled as he carried the awkward weight. The street heading out from the warehouse was littered with junked cars and trash barrels. They came up behind the two shotgun-toting thugs near the entrance to civilized Detroit, who were standing around, smoking and otherwise not paying attention.
"Allow me, Shinji." She silently stepped behind one of the two, Tazed him, and pepper-sprayed the other as he whipped around to see the pair carrying their stolen goods.
They continued to a bus stop slightly down the outskirts roadway they were on, where Kaji checked in with them.
"So...what exactly went down in there?" His voice entered their heads.
"Some punk followed us into the Baller's armory and decided to act tough. We were spotted afterwards and...well the shootout ended after the gang leader realized they were going to lose."
"Remember what I said about 'minimum body count'?"
"That's why we reached a gentlemen's agreement."
"Right...there's a ride coming for you...just hold tight there."
Eventually, a police convoy and several Sarif vehicles stopped at the shelter. David approached them, being guarded by several of his security staff.
"Sorry about throwing you two out here, but with your enhancements configured the way they are, you were the best choice to get the Neurop back without too much collateral damage...Some of the mechanical guys you saw during your training would have shown up with their metal arms and just started punching down walls and throwing dumpsters at people...I needed a more subtle touch. For your efforts, I'm having a 2500 credit reward wired to your NERV acounts."
"What happens to the Neurop now?"
"The amputees who need their shots this week will get them."
Rei turned to the police presence who were making a perimeter around the hideout entrance. "Who is the Officer in Responsible Charge, today?"
"I would be." A voice growled out. He was tall and slim, and wore a very thin goatee and sideburns. "Jensen, SWAT. What can I do to help, miss?"
"I recovered this when we found the Neuropazyne." She handed the computer to Jensen. "I'd say that the Ballers are guilty of a few cybercrimes, not limited to possession of pedophilic pornography."
"...Right...If this is legitimate, we'll be back here to discuss it with them later...Aren't you two kind of young to be private investigators?"
"Yes, but our augmentations are best-fitted to the assignment. We used them to our best ability to avoid collateral."
After they'd returned to Sarif's headquarters, he had them report to Darrow's office where another reward was waiting for them.
"These look...good." Shinji felt the leather trenchcoat he'd been given.
"And your sizes match. For both of you, the shoes are made with extra-soft soles, quieting your steps even further. The coat can be worn over a ballistic vest without being distorted or stretched, so you can conceal your protection. Rei, both pieces of your outfit has been woven from a specialized bullet-resistant fabric. It's designed to inhibit anything under a rifle round without the need of a vest and won't inhibit your movement."
Rei stepped into a restroom to change into the long-sleeved minidress and leggings...it was a heavy outfit, and she could feel the density and tightness of the fabric, but Darrow was right. It was small-caliber resistant, and combine the armor with the internal medical augmentations both of them had, they could take a lot of injury and keep fighting.
A/N: For the clothing, I decided on JC from DX1 for Shinji and (female)Alex Denton from DX2 for Rei.
