Change of pace this time, guys. Can't have battles every chapter now, can we?

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It was late afternoon when the downpour finally started. The heavy pitter-patter of rain on the leaves high above were an early warning sign to the denizens of the forest, with those who wished not to be drenched retreating to their burrows and hideaways. Some Pokémon, specifically the Water types, had been waiting weeks for this weather. At the biggest pond of the forest, Ludicolo and Politoed danced around in the rain in a jolly jamboree while the (self-proclaimed) King of the Water, a beefy Seismitoad, lounged back on his rocky throne absorbing the falling water through his pores.

'This is the life…' the big frog yawned as he stretched out his arms. He opened his mouth as a Poliwhirl attendant prepared to feed him an Oran Berry. Before the delectable blue treat could fall into his gaping maw, however, he saw something unusual: three human children, dashing past the lake in search of cover from the relentless downpour. Running alongside them were two Pokémon that Seismitoad didn't recognize; if they weren't members of his entourage here at the pond, then he gave no second thought about them. As he returned his attention to the Oran Berry in Poliwhirl's glove-like hand, the frog heard something else coming from the passerby: laughing and snickering.

'Hey, fat-ass!' one of the Pokémon, an orange chicken-looking thing, had stayed behind and was pointing right at Seismitoad's gut, 'Might wanna lay off the berries for a while! You need to lose weight, not gain it!'

'…You're dead.' Any thoughts Seismitoad had of ignoring these strangers immediately vanished. He rolled off his rock into the pond, a huge spray of water flying into the air as he angrily waded over to the shore to beat some respect into this passerby. As some of his Poliwrath guards joined his side, the chicken realized just how stupid he had been.

'What's going on?' Riolu had ran back after Combsken to see what idiotic thing he had done, but instead saw the big frog Pokémon heading towards his friend, 'What did you do?!'

'I-I called him fat!'

'Why in the name of Arceus would you do that?!'

'I didn't think he'd actually get up!'

'You arrogant-!' Rilolu couldn't even think of an insult to call Combusken, 'Come on! We can outrun them!'

The two fled the Seismitoad and his entourage, and quickly caught up with Shinji, Asuka, and Ayanami who were only a short distance ahead. Shinji looked down at Riolu, wondering where his Pokémon had just gone.

"Where were you?" Ikari asked, "Did you just go back to that pond?"

Asuka glanced at her Pokémon as well. "Yeah, what was that about?"

'Yes,' Riolu answered, shooting an angry look at the still-frightened Combusken, 'We went to the pond, but we won't be going back there again. Isn't that right, Combusken?'

'Yeah, yeah,' the chicken muttered, 'Stupid fat frog…'

"Hold." Ayanami stopped abruptly, looking to her right at something in the woods. Her companions skidded to a halt, almost slipping in the mud beneath their feet. The blue haired girl pointed to a rocky cliff side, with a substantial opening at its base. It was impossible to see what lurk within the murky blackness, but one could guess it was nowhere near as wet as the world around it. "There is a cave. We shall stay there for the night."

"Good eye, Wonder Girl," Asuka praised the agent like one would an infant, "You actually did something helpful for once. Come on, Shinji!"

Ikari was much less eager to go inside the cave. "I don't know about that, you guys. There could be an Ursaring sleeping in there, and I really don't want to-"

"Shut it, Baka Shinji!" Soryu grabbed him by the collar and started dragging him in the direction of the cave, "The longer you whine, the wetter we all get! Now come on!"

"Now this is interesting…"

It was just about midnight as Misato Katsuragi stared at her laptop screen on her desk at the strands of information displayed in rows before her. Copying the most useful tidbits to her flash drive, she continued scrolling through its contents in search of any more secrets. Acting in the position of the 2nd Angel had its benefits, for it allowed her full un-denied access to Seele's Terminal Master Database, or MTD for short. It was a good thing she had learned how to read this kind of data from Ritsuko all those years ago; if she hadn't this would be taking much longer.

The purple haired woman took a sip of beer as she entered another database. This one was slightly different in form, and was surprisingly password protected. "Huh?" Katsuragi bent over closer to the screen. For the ten years or so she had been planted here at Seele this was the first ever database she had found that denied her access. "This one must be hiding something… Time to find out what it is."

Before she attempted to hack it, Misato checked to see just where this locked data came from. She wasn't too surprised to see it had originated from the Science Division: This was Iruel's work.

"Great," Katsuragi tied her hair up in a ponytail, entering serious mode, "Like I really wanted to deal with his crap right now." She had to be careful here. The 11th Angel was a mad genius; any false move could alert him of the hacking in an instant and compromise her and Kaji's position. "Really wish Ritsuko was here to do this."

"Then why don't you have her do it then?"

The sudden voice made Misato jump in her seat. "Goddamn it, Kaji!" she threw her half full beer can at the man, who ducked in the nick of time. "You know I hate when you do that!"

"Are you drinking on the job again? You know that's bad for you, right?"

"I'm not drunk, am I? Don't preach to me about how I do my job."

"Fine, fine," Kaji walked over from the door and sat on the edge of her desk, looking over his shoulder at the laptop, "So this is Iruel's stuff, eh?"

"Yeah," Misato lounged back in her chair, letting out an exasperated breath, "I don't even wanna know what's in here."

"You could always let Ritsuko do it. She's probably bored to tears in that lab of hers."

"And what if the system detects an outsider using my server? That'd be pretty damn suspicious. I'm not compromising our position to delve into this nut-job's science experiments."

"Well then, let's not use your server."

"What do you mean?"

"It's simple," Kaji scooted onto the seat alongside her, pulling the laptop in front of him. "We'll use someone else's then."

"You clever bastard," Katsuragi smirked, "I'm surprised I didn't think of doing that."

"It comes packaged with my looks," Ryoji answered as he logged out of Misato's server, "Looks like Armisael and Arael aren't online right now. Whose should we use?"

A thought came to Misato. She dug into the desk drawer and pulled out a second laptop, blowing away the dust and opening its lid. "Why not both? If we log on at the same time as them and one of us gets caught, we can shift blame to the two of them."

"Looks like my cleverness rubbed off on you," Kaji chuckled, "Probably from all that fun back in colleg-OW!" His hand gripped the back of his head where Katsuragi had whacked him one.

"Bring that up again, and I'll hurt you even more. You can have Arael's server; I'll take Armisael. Let's see what this creep's hiding in here."

Shinji's initial thought of the cave proved to be wrong. There was no Ursaring within; only a few Paras that Asuka and Combusken managed to repel. A colony of Zubat was nested somewhere deeper in the cavern, but their cries were so faint that they far enough away to not be a bother. To prevent the rainy winds or any outside visitors from getting in, Ayanami instructed her Gardevoir to create a psychic barrier across the cave's entrance, effectively protecting them from the outside world for the remainder of the night. A small fire was burning in the center of the rocky floor; Combusken had been tasked with keeping it going, much to his chagrin. On the opposite side of the spectrum was Ayanami's Altaria. The fluffy dragon was glad to be finally out of its Pokéball, having been cramped up in the tiny sphere all day.

'Ahhh!' Altaria cried gleefully as she spread her wings as far as they could, 'I've needed to stretch all day!' Her cloud-like appendages accidentally bumped into Asuka, who was shoving food down her Magikarp's throat.

"Watch it, you…" the redhead stopped herself from screaming at the Pokemon as she realized just how soft and comfortable its wings were, "Whoa. This is actually pretty comfortable." She plopped back onto Altaria's fluff, completely forgetting about her flailing fish that couldn't feed itself. "You're alright in my book, Altaria. Even if you are Wonder-Girl's Pokémon …"

'Thank you!' the dragon hummed with a smile, always glad to make a new friend.

On the other side of the cave Shinji had made his own resting place. Though not as soft as Altaria, Skiddo's earthy fur was just as good a pillow. The goat nibbled on one of his trainer's socks as its owner yawned loudly.

"It feels so good to be able to kick back and relax like this for once," Shinji stretched his arms behind his head, "How long's it been since we've gotten any good rest?"

"It's only been two days, Baka Shinji," Soryu answered, rolling her eyes, "You can't be that worn out."

"Well… We have been through quite a bit. I'm still not over that attack from Seele back home, to be honest."

Asuka glared at him, disgusted by his fragility. She ducked her head behind Altaria's wing, unable to look at him a moment longer. "You're so pathetic."

Sighing, Shinji looked past the fire where Combusken and Riolu were sitting and focused his attention on Rei. She was sharing a small meal of tea and cakes with Gardevoir, the food neatly laid out on a little white blanket. The way they ate looked like they were following some sort of ceremonial routine, like they ate this way every day. The two of them really did look like outsiders right now, something that Shinji wanted to fix. Sitting up off of Skidoo, he made his move.

"Hey Rei, Gardevoir," Shinji smiled as he walked over, kneeling down beside the blue-haired pair, "Mind if I join you?"

Ayanami looked at him with her usual blank stare. "…You wish to join us?"

"Yeah. This food looks really good, and I'm starving!"

The NERV agent looked to her Pokémon as if she needed her approval. "…Do you reject?"

'Not at all, my lady,' Gardevoir gave her a little smile, 'The more the merrier, they say.' The Psychic Fairy's comment was overheard by Combusken, who appeared beside the three in a flash. He scooted up close beside Gardevoir, throwing his arm around her shoulders.

'Well then, may I join as well, my dear?' he crooned, making Gardevoir blush as he leaned in close to her face, 'Surely you need some male companionship, too.' Combusken then felt something moving in between him and Gardevoir, pushing him aside. That something was Riolu, who was planted Indian-style on the ground, already with a cup of tea in his tiny paws.

'What you need,' Riolu said solemnly with eyes closed, 'Is to learn some manners. It is impolite to invade a woman's personal space.'

Combusken's eye twitched in anger as his crush giggled at his misfortune. 'I can't wait 'til you get neutered, you little mutt.'

While the Pokémon started their own little conversation/argument (with the intrigued Skidoo finally wandering over to see what the fuss was about), Shinji brought his attention back to Rei.

"So, Rei," he started, picking up a cup of tea, "How long have you been a Pokémon trainer?"

The girl took a sip of her drink. "Ever since I have been with NERV."

Shinji was unsatisfied with her vague answer. "And how long has that been?"

"Since I was born."

"Wh-What?" He blinked twice; he couldn't have heard her right! "Since… you were born?"

"…Why do we ask questions, Ikari?"

"Huh?"

Ayanami put her tea down, delicately adjusting it into its proper setting. "Questions. You are always asking me them, Ikari. And I asked them to you earlier today. Why do you think humans feel the need to know things that do not affect them?"

"Uh, well… It's just natural curiosity, I guess. That, and I want us to be friends, Rei."

The odd girl cocked her head. "Friends?"

"Yeah. I mean, we are travelling together. We should at least try to know something about each other and not act like total strangers."

Rei paused to think for a moment, looking down at the ground. "You are not just content with me being your guarding escort?"

"I just think," Shinji smiled lightly, "That this wouldn't have to feel like a mission to you if we got along. We could have some good times if we were all friends. Just look at our Pokémon." He and Rei both turned to their creatures. Riolu and Combusken had broken into a little scuffle as Gardevoir and Skidoo laughed and giggled; it was a joyous scene. "Don't you think it would be nice if we were all like that?"

Ayanami fell silent again in contemplation. These feelings that Ikari was suggesting her to feel were odd and new to her, and she didn't have a clue of what to say to him in response. "I… suppose. Is that an adequate response, Ikari?"

Her strange response couldn't help but make Shinji burst into a laughing fit. She looked at him with wide eyes, like he was some sort of alien. "Did I say something wrong?"

"No, no!" Shinji wiped his eyes, "It's just the way you said it, that's all."

"Oh, I see. Then you find me amusing?"

"Amusing isn't really the right word; I'd say… quirky."

Once again she went quiet. The next moment, she slowly raised her index finger up to Shinji's forehead and gently poked him with its tip. The boy raised an eyebrow at her. "What's this?"

"You said I am quirky. Does this match with my personality?"

It was too much for Shinji. A little snicker turned into a giggling fit as he clenched his gut. "You really are something, Rei!"

Rei looked at him in confusion; was she really this amusing in his eyes? Why were her questions so funny to him? Oddly, she felt the need to cast her inquisitions aside. Just looking at him laugh made her want to smile. So she did.

It was the first time she had ever done so.

'I feel… happy…'

"Hmph!" Asuka grumbled from a distance as she returned the still hungry Magikarp to its Pokéball. Seeing all the happy-cheery fun happening over there made her angry, and it was most certainly not because she wasn't a part of it. No, it was because of that idiot Shinji and his attempt to befriend that freak Wonder-Girl.

'Why the hell does he want another friend? What does he see in her? What could he possibly want from her that he couldn't get from me?!'

The redhead flipped onto her side, her back turned towards the group as she rolled her head off the heavenly wings of Altaria and onto her solid backpack. There was no way she was going to enjoy anything related to that blue-haired freak now.

"Find anything yet?" Misato asked her partner. She and Kaji had just broken through the first layer of Iruel's security surprisingly unnoticed, and she had a gut feeling that they would be encountering some kind of resistance soon. The only info they had dug up so far were the mechanical plans of the EVA series drones, something every member of Seele had access to. Misato couldn't help but wonder why these were being kept under a locked database, unless…

"I think I just did," Kaji answered, turning his laptop towards her, "Another password command. But this one's different." He pointed to the symbols on the screen; they were archaic looking, and were instantly recognizable as the Alphabet Pokemon of Johto.

"Unown lettering," Katsuragi brought her hand to her chin, "Why would he use that? Even children know how to read that."

"There's obviously something more to it… The letters are B, H, E, R, I, T, and another R. None of them are of the punctuation shape. Maybe they correspond to the number of their letter in the alphabet?"

"It's worth a shot," she shrugged, "Let me connect to your server; if you trigger something I'll do my best to break through and grab any data that I can."

Kaji smiled and let out a laugh. "Ritsuko would be loving this right now."

"Tell me about it."

Rubbing his hands together for good luck, Kaji typed in the appropriate numbers. He and Misato crossed their fingers as the system examined the numerical password. The two of them were relieved to see the computer accept the password, and it began to load the next layer of Iruel's data.

"That actually worked," Misato shook her head in disbelief, "Who would've thought?"

Kaji, on the other hand, seemed way more concerned. "Yeah… It was almost too easy. Like he wanted someone to get in here…"

"Why, hello there."

The two spies froze at the nasally voice coming from the computer. On the screen was the masked visage of Iruel, his hands clasped together behind his back.

"Shit!" Reaching to close the laptop's lid, Misato's arm was stopped by Kaji. "What're you doing?! He can see us!"

"Look closer," the man pointed to the upper corner of the screen, where a date and time was displayed, "This is pre-recorded. Nothing to worry about."

Iruel continued to speak as the spies relaxed themselves. "If this specific recording has been accessed, then I must be speaking to Arael right now, yes? Surprised you of all Angels could actually get this far."

"He recorded a specific message for each Angel," Misato folded her arms, "Guy really wants to look like he knows everything that happens past, present, and future."

"Now you're probably wondering why you're seeing me right now, yes? Well, all you need to know is that you've been caught, and you're not going to live to spread whatever secrets you think you may have learned while searching through my dummy files, yes."

"Dummy files?" Kaji's eyes widened then narrowed, "Should've figured as much from this guy."

"But," Iruel raised a finger, "Seeing as you managed to get this far, I'll leave you with one last puzzle. Remember those Unown? Unscramble those for me, yes? Then tell me what they read as you die before me. Goodbye, yes?"

Suddenly the entire database on Kaji's laptop began to collapse, deleting itself in a flash of vanishing numbers and symbols. Realizing this self-destruct virus was heading towards his own laptop's personal files, the man pulled the battery pack at the last moment, halting its movement.

"That was close," Kaji said, storing his computer away, "Iruel sure knows how to make you feel stupid, eh?"

"Those letters…" Grabbing a pen, Misato quickly scribbled the letters of the Unown down on the napkin where here beer can once sat. She stared at them for a few moments before seeing the hidden word within. "Kaji… Look at this." The man leaned over to the napkin and watched as Katsuragi rewrote the letters in a different order, spelling them out under her breath as she wrote each one. "R… E… B… I… R… T… H."

"Rebirth?" Kaji said questioningly, stroking his short beard, "Any ideas of what that may mean?"

"I've got a few," Misato answered as she stared at the word written before her like the dark omen that it was, "But none of them have a happy ending."

The rumbling of thunder above reverberated off the cave walls as the children and their Pokémon slept, or at least tried to. Combusken had been first to go, passing out right in the middle of the fire; luckily his Fire typing made him immune to the intense heat and burning sticks around him. Riolu and Gardevoir were huddled around the flames, just close enough for its heat to warm them into deep dreams. The cloud-like wings of Altaria were being put to use by Ayanami, who was curled up in their heavenly fluff. The strange girl had fallen asleep while updating her data log on her Pokégear, the hologram image still projecting from the device.

Not far away Skidoo once again acted as Shinji's pillow. But while the goat was snoring gently, the boy was wide awake, mindlessly browsing through his Pokédex. For supposedly being the most tired of the group, he sure was having trouble staying asleep; this was his third time he had awoken. Perhaps it was the grassy smell of his Skidoo's fur that was keeping him up, or maybe the heavy rain outside. He remembered when he was little how his mother would always bring him a warm cup of milk to help calm him down during these storms, and it made him miss her even more.

It was then he also remembered he wasn't the only one missing their mother.

Shinji looked away from his Pokédex across the cave. Curled up with her head resting on her backpack was Asuka, fidgeting and whispering to herself; about what he didn't know, but he could make a pretty good guess on just what it was. Worrying about her surely wasn't going to help him fall asleep, so he flipped over onto his side and turned his back to her.

About an hour passed, and Shinji could feel his thoughts begin to fade as he finally felt sleep taking over. The rain had turned from a distraction to a soothing melody of nature, and he let out one long breath as he relaxed his body and mind…

"Move over."

Shinji hadn't heard the sound of footsteps walking over towards him, and surely wasn't expecting to hear a voice right behind his head. He jumped, startled, but didn't scream. His body went stiff as he felt Asuka's back press up against his.

"Don't say a word," her voice was calm, but with underlying aggression, "Tell anyone about this, and I will personally castrate you. Understood?"

"O-Okay. But why are you…"

"Can't sleep. Shut up so I can."

She said nothing for a while, silent except for the sound of her gentle breathing. Shinji could feel her back rising and falling with every breath, neutralizing his own ability to do so. If she stayed beside him all night, he was going to die blue in the face from lack of oxygen!

"Asuka…" he whispered, peering over his shoulder, "Can you scoot over a little bit?"

"No."

'Should've expected that,' Shinji sighed mentally. If only Riolu wasn't asleep then he could ask the Pokémon for advice here… Wait, what was he thinking? Riolu was probably even more clueless than him about how to deal with girls! The only other thing he could think of was ask again, this time with an excuse. "Please? This is pretty uncomfortable for me."

"…So I make you uncomfortable, is that it?"

"N-no, that's not – GAH!"

If Shinji thought he wasn't going to breathe earlier, he definitely wasn't going to now. In what could be considered a glitch in the system, Asuka had wheeled around and latched her arms around Shinji's torso, literally squeezing what little air he had left out of him. He had went stiff as a board, afraid that one wrong move may result in his imminent demise.

"How's this?" she whispered in his ear with an evil smirk, "Still uncomfortable?" Her hand slowly ran down his side and towards his waist, bee lining for his Little Shinji. "I can fix that."

"Asuka, what're you-?!"

"Keep it down!" Asuka's hand went back to its original position, "I'm just messing around. Like I'd ever do that to you, anyways."

Shinji sighed, relieved she hadn't actually reached his Little Shinji who was more than ready for liftoff. "Can you let go of me then?"

"…I will, once you fall asleep. I promise."

"But then how will I know that you did?"

"Come on, Shinji. When have I ever lied to you?"

Taking her word, Shinji finally relaxed and buried his head into Skidoo's fur. It actually felt good, her arms wrapped around him like this. As he managed to drift back to sleep, he could have sworn he felt Asuka bury her head into his back before dazing out completely. Deep down, he was hoping that she had lied to him about letting go. Shinji wanted to savor this moment now before he woke up tomorrow and Asuka returned back to her normal, hot-headed self.

He would get his wish.

That whole night, through every sound of thunder and crack of lightning, through the cries of the Zubat in the very back of the cave, and through the unknown dangers being concocted by Seele above, Asuka broke her promise until the break of dawn.

Next Stage:

A Morning Visitor!

Bardiel's Plan Advances!