Neon Cognogenesis Omega
Chapter 9

This chapter should prove to be enjoyable, despite my lack of inspiration at the moment. Also a good one for research ;-).

--

The sun began to set abruptly as Shinji and Rei reached the entranceway of their new appartment. 402 Shinji rang the bell.

"Coming!" It was a familiar voice, whose source was soon evident as the door opened to reveal a certain purple-haired captain clad in a lime green towel. "Ah, you two. You're early. Come on in."

The boy and girl looked at one another, then at the short sprawl of carpet just beyond the door frame. "Ojamashimasu, (Pardon the intrusion)" they said in unison.

"Ehhh?!" The voice came from the doorway beside them. It was that of the red-haired pilot. "Don't tell me you invited THEM over!"

The companions looked at one another once more. "Don't be silly!" The captain was now, thankfully, wearing a bathrobe. "They're moving here."

"Ehhh?! You mean I have to be next-door neighbours with the baka AND the freak?!"

The woman ignored this, instead choosing to put up her hair. "Come on in. It's not intrusion, since you live here now."

"T-tadaima," said the brown-haired boy. Pale lips framed by lapis lazuli echoed her partner's sentiment as they made their way in...

...To find an absolute pig sty. We really need to clean this place up.

Rei looked thoughtful for a moment. It does not seem entirely unhygenic. On the contrary, I believe it's cleaner than my previous dwelling.

Shinji called up his partner's mental images, and sighed. I need to send you some cleaning algorithms. Your XP is in the negative. He chuckled to himself at the confusion that shown in crimson eyes.

The mystery glaze cleared itself and bright crimson shown true as the furrow in her brow made way for a slight wry smile. You have reason.

"This will be your room, Shinji." Misato's metallic purple nail tapped upon a whitewashed door. "Rei's will be the one right across the hall."

"Un. (Sure)"

"So we shall not sleep in the same room?" Rei's curious eyes were met with twin expressions of confusion. "It would maximize space." She felt slightly unnerved by the continuation of said looks. "I do not have many belongings, and ergo do not require much space. Sharing a living area with Shinji-kun would aid in allowing for a greater quantity of general consensual living space."

Rei. Quit while you're ahead. The girl paused while she cautiously processed this phrase, then let out a soft self-depricating whimper. "Sorry."

Misato paused to think this over. "Actually... That's not a bad idea... Your reasoning has one flaw, however." All eyes were on her. "If you two sleep together, that will make it much harder for me to molest Shin-chan in his sleep!" Misato winked playfully, as the boy let out a willful sigh and the girl strove to process this new turn of events. Don't worry, she's just kidding.

She sighed a slight sigh of relief. Oh, she thought, as softly as she could.

-

Shinji lay in his futon, silently parsing the events of the day. His few belongings had been moved quickly, though a small percentage had been either delayed or lost in the mail (so to speak). He tried to clear his concious mind of thoughts, a sort of meditation that would allow his subconcious mind to process the new data that had been presented to him, hopefully without the interception of his new God and mindmeld-buddy. He chuckled to himself as he jacked his oversized audiophile headphones into his antique SDES (Super DAT Entertainment System) ogg player, silently cueing up the new songs he had just downloaded. Just as the first softly plucked strains and chords of Stairway to Heaven graced his audio cortex, he fell into the depths of an inky deep and dreamless sleep.

-

It was near to the end of the night shift on a particularly uneventful night, following a (for the bridge personnel) particularly uneventful day. No tests, no angels, and not even a bug in the MAGI all day. Still, they felt the need to occupy themselves as they dutifully stayed the remainder to the end of their long shift.

Maya was being productive (or at least more productive than the rest of the crew). She was at NervSoft via a college internship, and it took away most of her time for work. In order not to fail the class she chose (what she initially believed to be a 'gut course', World Music Theory I), she found it necessary to complete the research for her final thesis. To this end, she chose to (illegally) utilize the MAGI system to research her topic of choice, now regretted, of peruvian folk music.

Matoko and Shigeru, on the other hand, chose to use their time in an entirely different, and from a certain viewpoint, less productive pursuit.

"Hey, Shigeru... You see The Graduate on TV last night?"

"Yeah man, a total classic. Too bad they had to dub it into Japanese."

"Oh? Is it better in English? This is the first time I've seen it, so I don't know."

"Oh yeah, totally. It gives way more of -- you know -- the director's vision."

"So I've heard."

"Yeah, but I may be biased. I've been an American Film buff ever since I took a trip to Cali during college break. First time I ever saw Pi."

Ritsuko looked up from her paper, noting the last word that she had read: Simon. "Aaronovsky, right?"

The man grinned like a little boy. "So you've seen it?"

"Are you kidding? It's the entire reason why I became a math major in college." Well I did like the movie, but that's stretching it a bit.

Matoko pushed up his glasses in mock comfort. "I wouldn't know" he said to no one in particular. "I've never seen that movie either."

"Oh man, you're seriously missing ou--" Bzzzzzz

"Senpai, the angel alert!"

-

'Negeltu maru Shinji, timatu ina' (Awake, my son, from the deep abyss)

Rei. The boy stood up, and hurriedly got dressed.

Understood.

-

"Shigeru, status."

Shigeru hurriedly put his chair back into non-leaning position and typed. His eyes widened. "It's here. The predicted position in memespace correlates to this locality."

-

Blue eyes met crimson, framed by lapis lazuli in the void of the darkened hallway. In the distance, a lime green light burned, reflected in the window.

--

"We need to move quickly, or else third impact will occur. Matoko, ready the pods. Maya, call the pi--" All eyes looked to the entrance.

"Sorry we're late."

"How did you two know to come?"Something just isn't right here...

"Lucky guess," the boy said.

There was a pause, but it could not be maintained beneath the blaring weight of the angel alarm. "Nevermind that. You two, get ready for a sortie. Maya, make calls to the necessary staff, starting with the president."

"H-Hai." She pressed a number on autodial.

"Hello." A gruff voice came over the line, made more gruff by fatigue.

"President, there is another angel attacking."

"Then defeat it. This is your job, to be done autonomously without my intervention. Do not wake me in the middle of the night to bother me with trivial matters such as this."

"I'm sorry, sir."

"Good night." A dialtone.

Wait... didn't I dial the office number? Maya giggled slightly to herself momentarily before moving on to the next call.

-

"Okay, are you two ready to res the portal."

"Ryokai."

"Hai."

A portal rezzed before them, and Shinji and Rei breathed a sigh of relief. "Angel confirmed on visual." At least it's not hiding this time.

What they COULD see on visual, however, was blurry and hard to determine. Then again, since when does an angel need to take a human-recognizable form? "Permission to enter portal?"

"Go ahead, Rei. Shinji, follow her."

"Ryokai." Shinji followed his companion into the portal, finding himself in an area of dark, pixelated fuzz approximating walls. Looks like something out of Doom... The image quickly sharpened, and he found himself in a red brick alleyway, uneven, with cobblestone under his feet and a cold drizzle that he could feel down his back. There was a light fog, not unlike that of early morning, and behind them there was an antique streetlight. Paris, perhaps? The old section. Or perhaps back in time...

Look. He glanced towards his companion, and saw that she was looking ahead down the alley, towards a strange, organic shape, suitably lighted to stand out yet not defined enough to be distinguishable or recognizable. The angel?

Let's go check it out. They walked cautiously towards the shape, and it grew increasingly defined until she made out a huge unlit neon sign beneath a flood light. She looked around the base, seeing a mass of people in loose black robes, shrouded in shadow.

What the hell? Then suddenly, all of the heads turned in unison to face the newcomers. They had no faces.

The sign sprung to life, changing shape quickly, flashing words, images, characters. Cuneiform writing came to life in spurts of firey red.

"AHHHHHHHHHHH!" Shinji stood grasping his head. "NOOO!" The sign flashed the phrase "THE WORDS OF THE PROPHETS" in bold red capitals.

"NO! GIVE ME BACK MY WORDS!" Rei tried to go to him, to help him, but she found she could not move. She was caught, ensnared in the eyeless, sightless gaze of the people in the black robes. Their faceless mouths showed invisible change as the words came in unison.

"Ikkibu idu (You have that which is forbidden)"

Rei formed words, but they were not her own. "Eme idu" (We have language.) Her lips felt numb.

Shinji screamed at this, and the cacophony of his screams syncronized and resonated with the order of their words. "Eme ikkibu basu. Ikkibu nadanu. (Language is forbidden. Give back the forbidden thing.)

"NO! NOOO! GIVE ME BACK MY WORDS! HELP ME! SOMEBODY, PLEASE, HELP ME!"

Just then, a voice emerged from the inky darkness, the deep throaty sound of infinite compassion betrayed.
"Tiit basu!
Gishtil tiit basu!
Basu basu!
Zi danpu kima Enki basu!
Eme idu
Eme-mudu basu
Eme-mudutu isu anaku nadanu!
Zikru nadanu nadanula!
Ikkibu anaku nadanu nadanula!
Ikkibu anaku nadanu nadanu ikkibu basu!
Sabbatu-ina ikkibu nadanu ikkibu basu!
Nusku anaku nadanu nadanu ikkibu basu!
Kunuk Enki ikkibu isu!
Anaku iqbu, qabula!
(I am the life!
I am the thing that lives!
I am being itself!
I am the spirit lord of the earth, the great lord Enki!
You have the gife of language
You are those who know language
The knowledge of language that is yours I gave you!
I gave you the meme, give it not back!
I gave you the forbidden fruit, give it not back!
It is forbidden to return to me the forbidden thing I have given you!
Until the end of the Sabbath, you are forbidden to return the fruit to me!
I gave you the incantation, you are forbidden to return it to me!
The forbidden thing is sealed by Enki!
I have spoken, speak not!
)"

Just then, with the final words, a lime green light spread out from Shinji's prone form, the devouring flash consuming the void with the illumination of Knowledge. Upon seeing it, the faceless gained faces, each a unique expression of surprise and horror, followed by a look of euphoric complacency as the intensity of the light tore the flesh from their skulls and the bones from their body, dematerializing every pixel in the space. Shinji continued to be still, his face downcast as he hugged his knees and shivered down his spine. Rei, finding her movement restored, went to him and placed a hand gently on his shoulder.

"Wow, I don't know how, but you guys did it. Angel defeated."

Shinji-kun... Are you alright? He looked up into twin seas of crimson flame.

"You guys ready to derezz?"

Rei bit her lip. "Yeah," Shinji called back. I'm fine.

I am glad. Their avatars segmented into tiny shining dust motes, and their conciousnesses returned to their proper orientation inside their respective pods.

-

Misato, clad in her nightshirt, stretched as she walked into the dining room, yawning loudly. She spied her two new roommates on the couch, intently watching a chess match on the public access channel. "Hey, you two are up early." She glanced at the phone in the kitchen, her eyes attracted by a flashing red light. She walked over to it and pressed a button.

"Today, at twelve oh-three AM." Maya's voice emerged from a sea of static. "Hey, Katsuragi-san. I'm sorry to wake you, but there's been an angel attack. I need you to come down here ASAP. Shinji and Rei are already here." The phone went back to its normal, synthesized voice "Message two: today, at twelve twenty AM." Maya's voice came back on, clearer this time. "Katsuragi-san, this is Maya again. You don't need to come down anymore. The angel was defeated."

The captain attempted vainly to process this. Suddenly, a shock of red hair was visible as the front door was kicked down.

Two female voices were heard in unison. "THERE WAS AN ANGEL ATTACK LAST NIGHT?! WHY DIDN'T YOU TELL ME!" The two woment looked at each other for a moment. The younger one piped up first.

"Tell YOU?! They should have told me!"

"Why, pray tell?"

"I'm a pilot!"

"Well I'm the tactical officer!"

"Well they apparently did well without YOU!"

"May I remind you that they did well without YOU as well!"

Turning their eyes from the ensuing catfight, Shinji and Rei returned their interest to something that merited it: Chess.

--

Gah! I got this done finally. I didn't think I could get it done this weekend, so I was putting it off, but despite my lack of inspiration I think it came out well.

I'm going to attempt to do one chapter per week (at least), however I probably won't be able to stick to it for very long. I have chapters 10 and 11 mostly planned out, but then again, I had this one planned out completely in great detail before I even started planning chapter 8, and yet I got major writer's block on it. The moral of the story is, don't leave things in the fridge.

...Wait. Wrong story.

The moral of THIS story is, planning is not at all proportional to the amount of difficulty one has in actually writing the thing.

I'd like to thank sublims, my sound machine, Tears for Fears (their music is amazing -- the lead singer has about the voice I pictured Enki having), Radiohead (specifically their songs Paranoid Android, 2+25, and Climbing Up the Walls), and DarckRedd's fic "Dissonance" (I heart it SOOO much... after reading all 24 chapters in one sitting, I couldn't remember how to stand up for ten minutes -- that's how much it warped my mind). You accelerate me.

P.S.:
In case you didn't notice, this angel was the meme representation of the song "The Sound of Silence" by Simon and Garfunkel. This song, it seems upon listening closely to the lyrics, is actually about a meme, so it fits.