Disclaimer: Evangelion belongs to Gainax, Sonic belongs to Sega.
Thoughts of gratitude: Big thank you goes to GamerJay for beta reading.
Chapter 14: Not even an apology
"ASUKA!" his horrified scream echoed the huge waiting room as he saw Unit 02 being decapitated through the video feed.
He ran to the nearest phone; the security guard making sure he wouldn't leave the waiting room and disobey the commander's stupid 'relieved of duty' order tailed him with his eyes.
"Oh god, is she alright?! Is she alright?!" He spoke as he waited a response from the other end, before anyone even answered. But when he heard the robotic recorded voice answer…
"Due to a state of emergency the lines have been-"
"FUCK!"
…he cut it off, tossing the phone back into the receiver, cursing at the loud clank. He knew what the message would say so didn't even bother hearing all of it. He eyed the guard still keeping him in place and before he could even think of anything…
"I can't let you leave kid."
…the same guard smashed any hope he had of rationalization here. So he had no choice but to be irrational.
"Do you want to DIE?!"
The guard snorted, "Threats from a teenager. Cute."
"That wasn't- I'm not threatening anyone here! My girlfriend is down! I'm guessing Ayanami is also going to go down soon! So I'm the only one that can beat the Angel! And the Angel will kill you, along with everybody and everything you know, if I don't let me OUT THERE TO FIGHT!"
The guard hesitated. Shinji could swear he saw the faltering even in the stoic and dark glasses using wrinkled face.
"The… the Commander-"
"Your commander is a bastard! He's a SWINE!"
The guard showed the same surprise Shinji felt right now. He was actually kind of shocked he just dissed his father - the commander - so easily. He hated him of course, so it was easy to keep the scowl but the commander was still a scary bastard.
I've seen scarier… like Mephiles.
Thinking that somehow gave him the strength to continue, "He's a childish fuck, having a tantrum like a baby! Why are you obeying someone like him? Why are you obeying an order that will kill you?!"
Shinji hated how the guard still looked stoic, even though he wasn't saying anything.
"Let me go pilot! Let me save everyone!"
"…"
Now Shinji's scowl turned to a slightly pained expression, "Please!"
"…aw fuck…" the guard muttered before opening the door.
(SGE)
Having stopped their synchronized flight towards the Angel just because they heard a loud clanging sound turned out to be a smart move after all. The clang they heard was Evangelion Unit 00 surfacing. The Eva had some sort of big cylinder with the word 'N2' written on it in its right hand, while the left hand seemed ready to deploy the AT field.
"They managed to fix Unit 00's arm in just five days. Impressive."
Sonic snorted, "Let's just help Rei, alright Shadow? What do you guys think she's carrying?"
The only response Sonic got was Unit 00 dashing with all its might and speed, clearing a great distance with each step and nearly shattering the sound barrier with a mere dozen steps. The three flying hedgehogs also charged towards the Angel, and though such a great distance was quelled quickly by their super forms, they were immediately halted by a double barrier that suddenly manifested.
As the AT fields of the Angel and Unit 00 warred with one another, the hedgehogs pushed against the AT field of the Angel, using the super strength their super forms possessed to help Rei cross it. But they immediately regretted it, taking note of Rei's plan as soon as the AT field was shattered
"SHE'S CARRYING A BOMB!" It was Sonic that yelled the obvious upon seeing Rei press what she was carrying against the Angel's core before he, Shadow and Silver could get away in time.
"GET BEHIND ME!" So now it was Silver that yelled as he shoved Sonic, Shadow and even the seven Chaos Emeralds hovering all around them as he hastily erected a psionic force field between them and the giant bomb.
KHABOOOOOOMMMM!
The color white filled Sonic's vision and heat that would have boiled him alive if he wasn't invulnerable washed over his body. The last thing he remembered seeing was the core of the Angel enclosing itself behind some sort of metal casing. Once the bright white subdued he realized he was being flung away like an ant would be flung by a human. The explosion was that strong.
Good thing I'm Super Sonic now. Being flung like that would have knocked me out in my normal state.
Then, upon stopping his momentum to hover in the air again, he looked around and confirmed his current fears.
(SGE)
"What happened to Silver?! And why is the Angel still in one piece?!"
Shadow shook his head as if to clear it, paying attention to Super Sonic beside him, sounding panicky as he realized what Shadow already knew.
"Silver took the brunt of the explosion while the Angel protected its own core against it."
Sonic gritted his teeth and narrowed his red eyes at the Angel.
"He was in his super form, like we are now Sonic. Though he probably returned to normal since the seven emeralds are still with us, he'll be fine."
"Right. Let's kick some skull faced butt shall we?"
With that, the two remaining hedgehogs started flying towards the black and white menace that had just put Rei and Silver out of commission.
They hammered the AT field with everything they had, making the hexagonal patterns visibly sparkle enough to be seen by the naked eye. Super Shadow nodded to Super Sonic and Super Sonic nodded back and the golden light surrounding both of them blistered, making a flash that would have blinded anyone except for them.
One layer of the AT field exploded, shattering into the second layer.
Both Super hedgehogs kept pushing; the seven Chaos emerald floating behind them were making a drilling motion in a cornucopia of color and light, each matching their own color and complimenting the golden bright of the two hedgehogs.
The second layer of the AT field shattered, leaving only one.
SWOSH!
Unfortunately, Shadow had to let go of the force field in order to dodge the 'arm' of the Angel that extended itself in an even faster motion than it did when it severed Unit 02's arms. And though he dodged, the strike from the giant paper thin arm still hit Shadow in his shoulder.
THUD!
The only reason it was a thudding sound instead of a slashing sound was because Shadow was in his Super form. He most certainly would have lost his arm if it wasn't for that but was still flung away from the fray instead. Away from the fray and away from the seven gems that were making him invulnerable.
"SHADOW!"
Sonic's once again panicked voice was the last thing Shadow heard before losing consciousness due to being hit in the shoulder by a behemoth sized blade and the shock of losing the powers of his super form.
(SGE)
He actually felt something akin to despair, a feeling he thought he'd never experience again, when the synchronization result screen showed the words 'dummy plug rejected' one more time.
"Why are you rejecting me, Yui?!"
He finally screamed his thoughts and his scream echoed in the empty control room where he was overseeing the futile attempts of activating Evangelion Unit 01. Eerily in sync with the question he asked, all the monitors of the control room blinked black before blinking into existence a picture of his son.
"…"
For a few seconds he could do nothing but stare at the neutral face of his son, displayed in the countless pictures being shown right now.
"…Is this your final answer then, Yui?"
The monitors blinked again, this time the countless images of Shinji morphed into one single image that occupied every monitor of the room. One giant Shinji's face that was looking down on him with a neutral expression.
His chest actually hurt and he had to get out of there. Get away from the gaze his wife made him see. Upon doing soon he heard the sound of soft footsteps, running towards him. He looked at the direction of it and immediately recovered his emotionless and controlled demeanor.
"What are you doing here, Third Child?"
Shinji panted a bit, stopping in front of him. Then he glared at him. His son actually glared at him, "Your temper tantrum has gone on long enough, Commander Ikari. Asuka and Rei could be hurt badly by now!" He spat.
Gendo straightened his glasses, "I will not suffer you to do as you please and then go unpunished. In fact I think I might fire the agent that was guarding you."
He was surprised he actually had to keep his emotions in check when his son narrowed his eyes at him, scowling, not breaking eye contact.
"But I suppose I have no choice but to allow you to do your job now."
Shinji glared at him some more and snorted, "I'm sorry, were you under the impression you could talk to me again?"
"…?"
"If you want me to do something… 'Commander Ikari'," Shinji spat before continuing, "you're gonna have to act like a commander and fucking order me to. Shove the fatherly attitude up your butt."
Gendo's eyebrows actually went up before he scowled harder than Shinji was and let his anger boil to the point it show in his face because his son blinked in surprise.
Nevertheless, Shinji continued, "Being mad, not liking the taste of your own medicine is not going to help either. My girlfriend, the only reason I'm still here, could have been killed by that thing just now because of you. Because of your little tantrum of 'my son reneged me'."
"You were insubordinate-"
"I hate you, Commander Ikari. You're not letting me pilot just because I admitted I hate you. Guess what? Nothing's changed. I STILL hate you."
Shinji still looked stoic. As did his father. He finished his point when Gendo said nothing.
"You're a bastard that would have killed Kensuke if it wasn't for me and Sonic. A bastard who didn't let me fight along my girlfriend and Rei even though I wanted to. A bastard who abandons his own family…"
That hit a nerve, now Gendo finally lost his stoic mannerism and not just in a facial expression manner. He grabbed his plugsuit clad son by the shoulder, holding firm to the slippery tissue of the Eva uniform, and brought his teen face closer to his own. He also raised his other hand, as if to slap Shinji. Shinji's face went from stoic to surprised, almost afraid. And perhaps that is what gave Gendo pause.
Shinji's flinch and the fact his eyes betrayed fear for a second meant nothing. Because when Gendo did nothing else, his would be hitting hand standing still in the air, he continued "Again, your temper tantrum, or even if you… add 'abusive' to the list of shit you do to me and how shitty of a bastard you are, changes nothing. I still hate you."
(SGE)
Gendo's face twitched again, in anger and something else Shinji couldn't identify. He wasn't particularly enjoying what he was doing but still, it felt good to be this spontaneous. Just say what you want to say, what you feel you should say. It was actually scary close to how he felt finally admitting to Asuka that he loved her. 'Being on a roll' as Toji would put it, he continued.
"So how about you do what you should have done when the Angel first attacked and let- order me to pilot?"
Gendo narrowed his eyes for about two seconds before asking "Why are you doing this?"
"I am the pilot of Evangelion Unit 01."
Gendo's face twitched for some reason, a twitch different from anger, "Fine then. Do it."
"No. I'll never do anything you ask. You have to order me, Commander."
Gendo's face twitched one last time, this time Shinji saw he was angry, "Report to your cage, Third Child. I'm ordering you to fight the latest Angel."
(SGE)
The Angel was done doing whatever it was doing before continuing its approach to HQ, hovering above the grounds of the Geofront. Misato could have sworn that the blurred images of small, human sized objects that were flying around were Sonic, Shadow and Silver somehow.
What else could they be? The fact their color was off and that they were flying doesn't-
Misato' thought was cut off when she heard the swooshing sound of an Eva moving its arm. Unit Zero was still active it seemed, servers grinding, struggling and shaking even to turn over. The explosion of the bomb she was carrying damaged her a lot more than it did the Angel it seemed. Rei had lifted a feeble arm, sweeping it pointlessly at the Angel as it approached. After dodging the futile attack, it stopped, turned, and bobbed in the air as energy gathered around its skull face, much like all the other times it fired.
ZOOM- KABOOOOM!
It blasted Unit 00 from the earth, opening up a great crater underneath her, making her roll in mid-air and fall onto its belly. Rei screamed, and the signal from Unit Zero cut off completely. The angel turned towards HQ. Much like just a few seconds ago it drew its strength, aimed itself at the headquarters pyramid, and fired.
BOOOOMMMM!
What followed after the explosion was a horrifying sound of snapped metal, an overhead light came loose and crashed down into the upper deck, then rolled over the side into the great yawning void below. The screens all flickered, and the main screen went out, first to static, and then to black. Misato heard screaming and shouting about how now there was a huge crater where the main screen used to be.
NERV headquarters had been breached.
(SGE)
"You are NOT hurting anybody ANYMORE!"
Sonic, now the only super hedgehog left, yelled atop his powered lungs, his scream making a ripple in the air as he dove towards the Angel that had just blasted a hole into the HQ pyramid after finishing off Rei. A silent quick prayer towards the pilot of Unit 00 was followed by his scream and his super focus on the Angel.
Whether it was because Sonic's lightning attack was too fast for an AT field to arm itself or because the Angel had forgot about him, having easily taken down Super Silver and Super Shadow, Sonic managed to reach the Angel's protected core.
As he hammered his lightning golden spin attacks at it, light and explosion sparkling in a twister of destruction as the emeralds spun around Super Sonic, he let his thoughts run wild.
Technically, Rei took out Silver. Well her N2 bomb did.
And the only reason we were taken out to begin with is because there are NO RINGS in this universe…
All this ugly sucker needs to do is to stop us from being super is drag us away from the Chaos Emeralds…
One last effort from the repeated homing attacks that mercilessly hit the protected core of the Angel finally exposed it, as it was before. Sonic gazed upon the ominous red sphere and gathered his strength, lightning and yellow light gathering around him as his yellow spikes became even spikier and his yellow burned bright.
SWOSH- SMACK!
And that second of gathering power was all the time the Angel needed to swing its blade like arm once again, with a force that would put the force of most if not all of the god-like beings Super Sonic faced to shame.
No wonder Silver and Shadow were blown away by this!
That was all Sonic managed to think before his face went full force and extremely fast against concrete, breaking the ground with his face. Good thing he was still with the emeralds hovering around him or else his face would have been broken so badly he'd probably be dead.
"SONIC" Misato's devastated scream reached him and he opened his eyes again to see the Angel approaching and gathering energy like it did before.
(SGE)
Now Misato knew for sure it was Sonic that was fighting the Angel by himself. She ignored the fact he was yellow and shining and the fact that he now could fly and refocused on the situation around her. Of course it wasn't good.
The level of destruction reached them, right near the center of Central Dogma. One of the heavy banks of servers on the MAGI level blew out in a shower of sparks, flames licking up the side wall until a pair of techs got up and turned a fire extinguisher on it. The entire frontal section of Central Dogma no longer existed, just a black hole.
She turned to the nearest tech, "Maya, grab your portable unit and whatever else you can. We're evacuating. Everybody out!"
"But-"
"Don't argue with me! Sound the-"
CRUNCH- SWOSH- CRASH!
What was left of the main screen, or at least the far wall on which it was projected, was suddenly gone as some sort of supersonic object passed by it and there was a great crash of falling masonry and whipping wires. Something came through the opening as the wall well away, hit the concrete floor in front of her so hard it bent the metal with a shearing and made a round hole in the ground, twisting a stifled scream.
"SONIC!"
The fact he was now yellow and with all the Chaos emeralds hovering around him, accompanying him, was once again ignored by her as she approached him. She stopped short however, when the humanoid hedgehog stood back up with eyes wide open, staring at the breach of NERV HQ.
Misato never felt so small, so powerless as she watched what the Angel did immediately after dispatching Sonic, making him crash face first into the HQ ground. He hovered above gathering up power, towering over everything, seeming so huge it could swallow everyone there. Maya screamed, Hyuga tugged her red sleeve, Sonic pointlessly hovered back up, trying to shield everybody. The Angel's 'eyes' shined and Misato grabbed her cross to her chest, knowing it was over. But…
SMASH!
…Evangelion Unit 01 came through the wall and punched the Angel on its face.
The Eva crashed into the command center, towering over them all even as it hunched over the Angel, the umbilical from the cage dragging behind it. Misato looked at it all in shock as Shinji grabbed the Angel by its great bony visage and forced it backwards with both hands…
SWOSH- SLASH!
…and didn't stop even when the Angel ripped off the Evangelion's right arm. Blood, hundreds of liters of Evangelion blood rained down and made a wave. Shinji's scream of pain and fury was made into a primal roar by the Eva's external speakers. The entire deck groaned as he still pushed the creature back, away from the bridge and towards the cages that contained the Eva launch pads.
"Misato!" Shinji's thundery voice came through Maya's portable console and the Eva's speakers.
Misato understood him immediately and kept up with his request of talking only if it was work, "LAUNCH PAD NUMBER FIVE NOW!"
Maya typed some commands in her portable unit, and the floor shook with the power of the hydraulic rams launching Unit 01 and the Angel out of HQ, back out into the Geofront.
"Come on," Misato shouted, "Everybody out!"
She turned to Sonic, but he was already gone.
(SGE)
Shinji felt only hate. It burned like lava flowing through his veins, coming from his chest in a thundery rhythm, it was accentuated by the lacerating pain in his shoulder, it was echoed in his throat and the inhuman roars he didn't know he was capable of uttering and it found its release only by going straight into the monstrous skull-like face in front of him.
He started with grinding the skull face to the side of the wall of the escape shaft. Then he punched it with his one hand over and over, weakening it. Then it didn't matter if he saw a crack in the skull's jaw or something along those lines, he simply pulled off a piece of the bony structure and started to beat the angel with it.
The strikes were repeated over and over again in a deadly motion. Through the red haze that was his sight, he realized he was hitting the core repeatedly with a piece of bone. The same piece of bone he tore off the Angel's face that he actually ripped partially off in the previous part of his rage.
FRZZZZZZZZ- CLUNK.
Shinji widened his eyes and his mouth went agape with horror when the burn all over his body and the shoulder pain of his missing arm; the feeling of synchronization in general fled him completely and his entry plug went dark red.
He looked to the side to see the clock of his internal battery marking zero. He whispered, "Out of energy? No…"
He futilely moved the yolks of his cock pit.
"No no NO, NOOOO!"
Of course angel ignored his screams and moved, making his own environment rumble, moving the limp Unit 01 from above him. But then he paused and with just one look outside Shinji realized why the Angel paused.
"S…Sonic?"
(SGE)
It was easy to recognize an Evangelion without power by this point; he knew Shinji was down too. He was now the only thing standing between this universe's people and the oblivion of Third Impact.
"Come on, Sonic! You got this!"
It was rare for Sonic to feel the need to reassure himself, especially when he was flying around in his super form but here was an opponent that seemed more powerful than any godly entity he had beaten before and now he was the only one left.
Sonic dove straight for the jaw wound Shinji had done by punching it repeatedly and then pulling it, ripping off half of the jaw. He repeated the motion to dodge the swing from the Angel's paper thin arm only to go downwards, towards the Angel's chest.
The attack from the second arm came and he swirled to dodge it and go straight for the Angel's chest, to punch it. A shockwave of yellow light splashed in a instantaneous circle. Sonic didn't stop and kept punching the giant sphere of the even more giant beast standing above him but by the time he landed the fourth punch…
SQUEEZE!
…the arm that would have landed the fifth punch was enveloped by the rear end of the membrane like arm of the Angel. Enveloped and wrapped firmly, halting Sonic in one place.
Sonic grinned "I predicted this!"
Using everything of his body, except the arm that he had it stuck. He vibrated and spun around in a super spin dash, glowing and flashing rays of light in all directions. The Chaos Emeralds swirled around Sonic as he spun and proceeded to free his arm and hence himself from the grasp of the Angel, and now, instead of punching the core, he did a powerful homing attack that roared like thunder and was as fast as lightning.
The core of the Angel closed itself again. However, unlike what happened with Unit 00, in which the N2 bomb didn't even scratch the surface of the protection, this super charged homing attack from Super Sonic destroyed the super armor of the 'skin' of the protective layer of the core, obliterating the area around it.
Now the Angel's core was fully exposed.
"Great! Now I can- HEY!" However, Sonic was then grasped by both paper thin arms of the Angel. His left arm and his right leg were now stuck.
Before he could even think of a way to get himself free, maybe just vibrate until he spin dashed again, he widened his eyes at the small light above him. A small light in front of the eyes of the giant skull face above him. The same light he saw before the Angel blew up Evangelion Unit 00, the same light he saw before the Angel blew a hole into NERV HQ.
"Oh darn…"
BOOOOOOMMM!
(SGE)
"SONIC NOOOOOO!"
And now that he saw Sonic being blown away by the Angel, apparently to death because there was nothing left of the hedgehog and the Chaos Emeralds that were hovering around him, his despair had reached its peak. His scream hoarsened his throat and now he moved the unpowered yolks with even greater strength, as if to break them. He kept screaming and moving and trying desperately to do anything as the Angel still moved about, still handled his Eva.
"Move move move move move move you USELESS PIECE OF JUNK! If you don't move now EVERYTHING IS OVER!"
He stopped to breathe and to take in the fact the Angel exploded his Eva's chest plate for some reason. He didn't stop screaming and moving the yolks with all his strength even when the Angel started hitting his chest with both of its paper thin arms.
"Move move move move move MOVE GOT DAMN IT! IF YOU DON'T MOVE EVERYBODY WILL DIE! I fought! I came back for Asuka! I stood up for myself! I wanna see Asuka again! So please MOVE!"
There was a thrum of power that echoed all around his entry plug, made his eyes widen and his hands stop moving.
(SGE)
Misato looked around the empty HQ bunk with the usual reconstruction efforts already under way. Asuka was still in sick bay and she still needed to oversee everything being done. Especially since a good chunk of the damage had been done by Unit 01 itself, after it devoured the Angel's core, trashing about relentlessly. She would hopefully see Asuka today, maybe send her home. And Shinji… well, with Unit 01 deactivated and brought back in, she would hopefully see that today as well.
Or maybe not so hopefully…
The memory of her last talk with her ward, how he actually made her cry by simply telling her the truth, still lingered with her. It was a terrible ordeal mainly because, with her inability to go home also came her inability to drink. She could not for the life of her stave off or at least disguise the pain still eroding her chest right now. That pain seemed like a constant companion now. It was there when she saw Unit 01's batteries run out, it was there when she saw Sonic being blown away after exposing the Angel core, and it was there during the whole gruesome final stand of Unit 01.
The Evangelion actually 'awoke' as Ritsuko put it. Actually got rid of the rest of its armor, which was actually restraining gear, actually used a piece of the Angel to regrow its arm and actually… ATE the Angel. All the while with the same 400% sync ratio Asuka had when she got out of the twelfth Angel.
Relive the events of yesterday in her head was the only thing she could do as she robotically made her way to HQ, to the Eva monitoring structure, just by the cages. To the imaging of Unit 01's entry plug, to her ward who was maybe better off dead.
Misato shook her head, "You see you stupid whore?! That's why he hates you." She whispered furiously to herself. "He told you what you did to him and you just wanna pass him along?!"
You want him to DIE?!
She had to think that last part or she would have yelled at herself and she had to fight back tears.
"Did you say something Misato?"
"No, Ritsuko," She answered as she cleared the final bit of distance inside the Eva monitoring structure between her and the doctor. "Is he…?"
She couldn't finish the question but Ritsuko nodded anyway, "We're about to find out."
She nodded to Maya and Maya typed a few commands, "Initiating imaging recovery of Entry Plug 01, now."
The big screen in front of them bleeped at the same time Maya said 'now' and Misato just stood there stoically, observing the image. Her eyes began to tear up. Unlike previous times she was overwhelmed, she couldn't take it and a sob actually wracked her as she put both her palms over both her eyes, and the tears washed down her face.
"Erm, so…" Maya began hesitantly, "Jus-just like with Asuka, this is a…"
"…This must be a natural consequence of that high a sync ratio, Maya. Yes it must."
Misato turned away from the image showing Shinji's plugsuit, floating about in LCL, in an empty entry plug. This was a thousand times worse than it was with Asuka and she wasn't even gonna bother to try to hide this from Asuka, like she did to Shinji when it happened to Asuka before.
I never even apologized to you Shinji-kun…