A/N: I now present to you chapter thirteen of "Neon Genesis Striker" fro your viewing pleasure. In case you were wondering the title of this chapter is a reference to Gulliver's Travels by Johnathan Swift and the chapter it's self is heavily influenced by The Andromeda Strain by Micheal Crichton.
Thanks to my pre-reader Makuhari-fan01
Disclaimer: I don't own Evangelion or Strike Witches.
It was a routine day at NERV. A new set of tests were planned for the girls but they were still at school, the NERV team time was using the time to do a routine maintenance check on the Magi.
"How are things going?" asked Ferrara as she walked into Central Dogma to check up on things and kill the boredom that plagued her.
"Everything is fine ma'am." answered Amaki as Ferrara stood behind Nishiki to observe what she was doing.
"The Magi is in top order. Everything will be ready when the girls arrive." added Nishiki.
"Good. Carry on." replied Ferrara.
"The tests on the Magi are going smoothly." said Perrine as she washed her hands in the bathroom before looking at herself in the mirror, "I'm taking good care of your favorite child mother."
"You're getting really good at that." noted Perrine as she watched her assistant Lynne type away with impressive speed returning to Central Dogma.
"I have to be on top of my game to keep up ma'am. I learned from the best." said Lynne as Perrine noticed something.
"I think we can find a better fit." said Perrine, pointing out what she'd seen and quickly fixing it by typing away at lighting speed.
"She is the master." said an impressed Lynne as Sakamoto walked up behind the two.
"Hello you two. Can I trust everything will be ready for the tests?" asked Sakamoto.
"Off course it will." answered Perrine confidently and when the girls arrived a few hours later it was.
"Why the hell do I have to take off my clothes again?" asked Hanna annoyed as she and her fellow pilots, who had been disinfected multiple already, got ready to go through another round.
("It is an ordered Hanna so just do it.") commanded Sakamoto over the intercom and the girls did.
"Okay. I'm standing butt-naked after being washed for the thousandth time today so just let me get in my Striker already." said Hanna, increasingly irked by these washings.
("Alright. I want you three to enter your Strikers just like that.") said Perrine over the intercom causing surprise amongst the three pilots.
"What? You want me to go out there naked?" asked Hanna hoping she had heard incorrectly.
("Yes." We need this data for developing a new autopilot system. The cameras are off and you three will be in separate rooms. We do respect you privacy.") said Perrine.
("It's an order Hanna.") added Sakamoto.
"Fine but if anybody peeks they're dead." said Hanna menacingly and with that the three girls entered their Strikers in the buff. As the Magi scanned the girls everything was going fine.
"I must say your work on the Magi is impeccable as always." noted Sakamoto as the test progressed on.
"Thanks but I only created the final systems. My mother deserves most of the credit for the Magi." replied Perrine while in Central Dogma Nishiki had called over Ferrara.
"You can see it here ma'am. A brownish substance on the eighty-seventh protein barrier." said Nishiki pointing out the odd substance on the wall to the Sub-Commander.
"Is it grime?" asked Ferrara.
"The Magi seems to indicate possible corrosion." said Amaki.
"It was done by the Second Sector and their work is usually half-assed." said Nishiki.
"We'll fix it tomorrow and make sure it's done otherwise Commander Minna will chew my ass." said Ferrara
"Ma'am, it seems Central Dogma has detected corrosion on the eighty-seventh protein barrier." said Lynne in the test ares after being called and filled in by Nishiki.
"Will it effect the test?" asked Perrine.
"The Magi seem to indicate it won't." answered Lynne.
"Then we'll keep going. We can't stop an important test due to minor technical issues. Besides, if we did Commander Minna would chew my ass." replied Perrine as Lynne powered on the Strikers.
("How do you feel girls?") asked Perrine over the intercom to the witches.
"I feel fine." answered Sanya.
"Me too." added Yoshika.
"It's weird, my senses feel off. My right hand is fine but the rest of my body feels fuzzy." replied Hanna.
("Sanya, I want you to try preform an activation test.") said Perrine.
"Understood." replied Sanya who obeyed, but almost as soon as she did, an alarm begin to blare and the corrosion began to spread at a rapid pace.
"What's going on?" asked Sakamoto concerned.
"I'm not really sure right now, but seal off the water pipes so it can't escape." ordered Perrine and Lynne followed.
"Ma'am, it's still spreading." reported Lynne followed by Sanya letting out a loud, pained scream as if her arm was being ripped off.
"Cut off the power to Sanya and eject the others!" ordered Perrine and with a few hits of her keyboard the three witches were free and escaped outside, still nude, but safe for the moment. "Good, now send out a laser and destroy whatever the hell that is."
"Roger." replied Lynne and she sent in the program which guided the lasers in their blasting of the corrosion. Everybody was holding their breath while they waited to see if it worked, but when the dust caused by the explosion finally settled down, they only saw a familiar red object sitting in it's place.
"It's a shield!" exclaimed Sakamoto as panic ensue.
"It's definitely an Angel." said Lynne running a quick scan which verified the worse and the Angel began to take over the entire testing area.
"Everybody evacuate now!" ordered Sakamoto and all the technicians followed suit while Perrine stood still until Sakamoto grabbed her arm and took her away.
("All personnel evacuate Sigma Unit. Repeat, all personnel evacuate Sigma Unit.") called the pre-recorded alarm throughout NERV.
"So that's the Angel. Guess I don't have time to work now." said Shirley who had just climbed out of her cable car inside NERV and jumped to a platform nearby to prevent being trapped in the closed off Sigma Unit.
"How bad is it?" asked Ferrara in Central Dogma.
"The entire Pribnow Box is infected. It's spreading so fast we're having trouble keeping up." answered Ferrara as Minna walked onto the tower above Central Dogma.
"Cancel the alarm. Tell the Committee and the government there was an error." ordered Minna to her subordinates below.
"Yes ma'am." said the two technicians who began working to carry out their orders.
"Furthermore, I want you to get the Strikers away from their cages so avoid infection. If need be than Unit-01 gets top priority."
"But why Unit-01?" asked Nishiki as she and Amaki were puzzled by the last order.
"Because it's an order." replied Minna who was joined by Ferrara while Sakamoto, Perrine and Lynne arrived at Central Dogma.
"Were is the Angel now?" asked Sakamoto.
"It's completely taken over the Sigma Unit." answered Amaki.
"That's close to Adam." whispered Ferrara to Minna.
"What have we figured out about the Angel?" asked Perrine.
"We're running tests now ma'am." answered Amaki as Lynne joined the two technicians and began trying to find a glitch in the Angel's defense.
"I found something." said Nishiki after several minutes of testing, "It appears the Angel hasn't reached areas with excess oxygen."
"So it's weakness is oxygen." said Perrine, "Good. Then flood the infected area with ozone. We'll have to win this battle without the Strikers."
"Roger." replied the three technicians who immediately began working and well things went smoothly at first but soon that changed.
"Ma'am, it seems the zone isn't working anymore. It now seems the Angel is thriving on the ozone." reported Nishiki.
"Dammit. Shut off the ozone then." replied Perrine but as Nishiki did an alarm began going off.
"We're being hacked!" cried out Amaki.
"Shit! Change the passwords and set up a false pathway." ordered Perrine but all attempts failed.
"It's got all of our passwords! We can't block it!" cried out Amaki.
"Were the hell is it coming from?" asked Perrine as terror filled Central Dogma.
"Oh my God! It's coming from Sigma Unit! The Angel is hacking the Magi!" screamed Nishiki as the situation went from bad to worse.
"The Angel has taken over Melchior!" cried out Lynne as the first of the three Magi fell to the Angel.
("NERV special order 582 has been initiated.") said an automated voice over the intercom.
"Perrine, what's special order 582?" asked Sakamoto nervous.
"The self-destruction of NERV." answered Perrine pale.
"Oh fuck!" cried out Nishiki.
"The Angel has moved onto Balthazar!" yelled Amaki as the second computer began to rapidly be taken over by the Angel.
"Perrine we need to do something!" said Sakamoto with desperation in her voice.
"Give me a minute to think." said Perrine as she racked her brain to come up with an idea, "Set up an emergency firewall. It'll buy us a few hours to figure something out, since the self-destruct order cannot be carried out unless all three Magi agree."
"Yes ma'am." replied the three technicians who threw up the firewall and halted the Angel for the time being. Everybody then headed to the briefing room to gather all there information together and come up with a plan to defeat the Angel once and for all.
"From what I'm able to gather this Angel unlike anything we've encountered so far." began Perrine, "It appears this Angel is a collection of intelligent and microscopic life-sized organisms that is acting in concert to form a living biological computer circuit and is able to change and adapt to it's environment to suit it's means."
"Evolution." stated Ferrara grimly.
"Indeed. It's already infiltrated NERV and unless we can stop it will incite Third Impact." replied Perrine.
"So how do we stop it then?" asked Minna.
"The Angel needs a host to stay alive so I propose sacrificing the Magi to stop the Angel." said Sakamoto.
"That's crazy. The Magi are too important to just sacrifice." countered Perrine, "I propose that since the Angel will constantly evolve to overcome any threat that we counter-hack the Angel and make it believe that life is a threat thus leading it to an evolutionary dead end where it will believe it's only option is to terminate it's self. Of course this will require us to sacrifice Balthazar."
"So you want to risk losing the Magi for a plan that might not work." said Sakamoto clearly skeptical of the plan.
"The odds are low but they aren't zero or a minus and I can work with that." replied Perrine.
"Since the Magi are too important to lose I have decided to allow Dr. Clostermann to move ahead." said Minna stone-faced.
"Thank you ma'am." replied Perrine and with that everybody went back to Central Dogma to prepare.
"This better work, Perrine." said Sakamoto still skeptical about the risk needed to make this plan work, while Perrine pressed a few buttons on her laptop, causing the case around Caspar to rise up and allowing them in.
"Trust me Sakamoto." replied Perrine as she entered while Lynne happily took notice of the countless papers covering the walls.
"It's amazing! These are the back doors! Magi's back doors!" exclaimed Lynne as she looked at the notes on the walls.
"It's an encyclopedia of all the tricks up the Magi's sleeves." added Sakamoto feeling better about her friend's plan now.
"Am I allowed to see these?" asked Lynne nervously before getting lost in the moment, "Oh wow! This is INT-C! With these we can run the program much faster!"
"Thanks mom. Because of you we'll make it." said Perrine softly as day turned into night while they worked to defeat the Angel.
"Everything is looking good ma'am." said Lynne as she sat outside with a laptop on her lap monitoring the situation while Perrine worked on the Magi with her mother's notes while Sakamoto helped her.
"You're really working hard Perrine." observed Sakamoto as she knelt in Caspar while Perrine lay on her back working on the parts above her.
"Well my mother made these computers and it's her notes I'm working off of so it's only fitting I work on it." replied Perrine, "pass the board to you right."
"You said earlier you mother created the Magi. It's the first time you ever mentioned your family." said Sakamoto who gave Perrine the part she needed.
"I don't like talking about my family. It's not a comfortable subject for me." replied Perrine, "Pass the saw."
"I understand." said Sakamoto handing the saw to Perrine who removed a plate revealing an artificial brain.
"Have you ever heard of personality transplant?" asked Perrine.
"Yes. It's when a creator implants parts of their personality in their creations." answered Sakamoto as Perrine began putting computer jacks into outlets on the machine.
"That's what was done here and how we'll defeat the Angel." said Perrine confidently.
"The Angel's gotten through!" cried out Nishiki as the firewall fell and the Angel overtook Balthazar and moved on to Caspar.
"Already?" asked a shocked Perrine thinking she had more time, "Lynne, do it now."
"Roger." replied Lynne who pressed a button on laptop as everybody held their breath while the Angel had taken over 99% of Caspar, then after the passage of an agonizing minute, the Angel terminated itself.
("Self-destruction of NERV has been canceled.") said the automated voice relief and cheer to break out all over NERV. Even Minna let out a sigh of relief.
"You really did it." said Sakamoto as she returned from the break room with two cups of coffee. It had been an hour and was now night time.
"I knew it would work." said Perrine before taking a sigh, "My parents never really had a good relationship as much as I can recall. They were constantly fighting then at five my father left my mother and returned to Gallia. He was sick of mother putting his work before him."
"I can relate." said Sakamoto sympathetically.
"My mother transplanted her own personality into the Magi. Melchior is my mother as a scientist, Balthazar is my mother as a mother and Caspar is my mother as a woman." explained Perrine, "I respected my mother as a scientist and loved her as a mother but I hated her as a woman. Of course that was the Magi that saved us."
"Glad to see you finally opening up." said Sakamoto.
"Yeah. Thank you mother." said Perrine as Lynne returned from the bathroom.
"Ma'am, it feels like we're forgetting something." said Lynne.
"Probably nothing." replied Perrine.
"I hope they haven't forgotten about us." said Yoshika as the three witches stood naked outside.
"It seems they have." replied Sanya.
"I can't let anybody see me naked." moaned Hanna trying to cover herself as best as possible.
A/N: A little humor at then end. This was a unique chapter because it's the only one where the Strikers are used to defeat an Angel. This also ends the streak of having an Angel every chapter as one won't appear again until chapter sixteen. Next time, Minna meets with the Committee and another test is held at NERV with a potentially dangerous outcome. Please review!