Then spake Leothric, son of the Lord Lorendiac, and twenty years old was he: "Good Master, what of the sword Sacnoth?"
And the village magician answered: "Fair Lord, no such sword as yet is wrought, for it lies as yet in the hide of Tharagavverug, protecting his spine."
- Exerpt from The Fortress Unvanquishable, save for Sacnoth
The flagship of the United Nations Pacific Fleet was a former American aircraft carrier, sectioned to the UN Navy under an agreement older than the Second Child. Over the Rainbow was home to over five thousand people. Sailors and airmen drawn from over twenty nations filled its bunks and passages, and they represented both the best of humanity's naval tradition... and the worst. The Pacific Fleet was the strong water arm of the world that had stopped waging war.
Standing on the bridge, Katsuragi Misato couldn't help but consider both it and her captain as living fossils.
The fleet was already several days into the first leg of its trip, where the NERV facility in Vladivostok waited to offload necessary supplies. Raw material from the greater Asian and Siberian territories were destined for the numerous cargo vessels following along, both to keep the fleet running, and to keep Asuka's Evangelion in one piece. The great war machine itself was still safely stowed aboard the Soyokaze, pre-loaded with B-type equipment. Asuka had insisted, considering more than sixty-six percent of the earth was water.
Misato kept a firm grip on her neutral expression, but inwardly, she wilted. Surrounded old dour men with grizzly, salt-and-pepper mustaches, Misato felt distinctly... out of place. Asuka, still clad in her plugsuit and jacket, hung sullenly in the older woman's shadow. Over the Rainbow's commanding officer, Admiral Stolocker, scowled past the low-set brim of his cap, and Misato suppressed the wince; she was supposed to be briefing them, right.
One of the crewmen manned his console and flipped a few switches, before handing her a headset microphone. She licked her lips and cleared her throat before holding it to her lips, but not before giving the technician a look. He gave her a decidedly thumbs-up; she was live.
"Good Afternoon," Misato's voice rang out over the public address system, and extended out from the carrier to ever other vessel in the fleet. "This is Major Katsuragi Misato of NERV. As of July twentieth, Two-thousand-sixteen, the UN Pacific Fleet is under my command as per Special Treaty Seventy-Eight."
The speakers hummed and crackled with feedback on the last word, and Misato waited for it to die down. The bridge crew and officers were all carved of granite, for how much they reacted. Misato swallowed thickly and pressed on. "Our mission is to investigate XT sightings throughout the Pacific and Atlantic theaters, with Unnatural Warfare support from Second Child Sorhyu."
Clipped, professional, and above all English, Misato tried to get her point across. Only at the end did she let some of her real self through. "For the past fifteen months or so, something has been chewing up coastal wilderness and civilian installations across the planet. "The pattern interception system classified these unknowns as Angels."
She paused, and her eyes cut left to right across the people staring right back. May as well go for broke. "Whatever they are, the threat they pose is no different. So we are going to find them, chase them to wherever they hide on this planet, and kill them. You may all return to your duties."
A week later, Misato settled into her seat and sighed. She had long since made it clear to Asuka that the pilot got the bed. Misato was going to just make due with the desk chair.
It was the tiniest stateroom aboard the massive aircraft carrier, and Misato knew it. Barely fit for one person, the pair were going to have to get real used to the idea of sharing each other's personal space. The whole room was maybe two strides wide and three deep with a shared desk along one wall, and a single, narrow bed along the other. To make matters worse, the bathroom and facilities- the head, Misato reminded herself-were not part of their quarters. Instead the NERV officer and pilot would have to walk ten yards down a dark hallway. And that wasn't even the most painful part.
The most painful part, was that when Asuka had rushed up north, she left behind everything she'd packed. Which meant that the girl only had the clothes on her back; the standard red plugsuit, the leather jacket, neural headband and patch. Her scarf had been hurled on the small bed across from Misato's. Clad in one of Misato's spare sweaters and a pinned up pair of boxers, Asuka raged.
Not that Misato would blame her, much. Two days ago, hygiene had become a very pressing problem. Asuka had sworn a blue streak and marched into the showers, not quite demanding Misato stand guard for any gawkers. A handful of helpful crewmen reminded the Major that when at sea, long hot showers were a luxury... and that Asuka had taken up twenty-odd minutes of their time. It was an enlightening experience for everyone involved.
The girl's plugsuit though was clean, after nearly two days of being sealed up against her skin. Misato shivered, and not for the first time, wondered how her pilots took care of other kinds of business... She decided then it wasn't a question that needed an answer.
It was also cold on board the carrier. The floating city soaked up the ocean's chill and held on to it like nothing Misato had ever encountered, and she cursed her vanity for wearing her mini dress. Snug cotton leggings kept the edge off, but that wasn't helping Asuka either. The older woman pulled off her red NERV jacket and draped it over the other girl's shoulders, pointedly ignoring the palpable fury. Asuka tried to jerk her shoulders away, but it wasn't like there was anywhere to go either. Gently, Misato guided the girl to her bed and pulled the leather jacket off the chair, draping it over Asuka's bare legs. That done, she slid in behind and wrapped her arms around the girl's middle.
Lacking more traditional inter-service rivalries, Misato figured a sailor or airman was close enough to a soldier for her to make a good impression. The trick was finding them. Over five-thousand people were on board the carrier, and several thousand more were spread out amongst the ships in the fleet. Coming from Japan, Misato also thought she understood what it meant to conserve space. The design of the Over the Rainbow informed her she was incorrect, in no uncertain terms. Near-vertical stairwells and cramped corridors made navigation confounding at best, outright treacherous at worst. Misato was by no means a tall woman, by Japanese standards or any other, but Asuka was having a better time getting around than she was.
Finding a place to go or something to do was one of a few dozen concerns at that. Misato ducked into an alcove between two bulkheads, where nothing in particular looked important enough to bother. She let out a gusty sigh, but smiled regardless. Counting the list over in her head, Misato ticked points off on her fingers. Work helped her focus, it seemed.
One, she had to finish helping patching in the fleet's communications to the detection network. The UN may have controlled the satellite interception system, but she helped design it; the strategic side at least. Two, she had to track down Kaji and lean on him until he needled the right people around the world. Glad-handing alone would not help her fight up this particular jurisdictional hill.
Looking around the corridor, taking in the numbers and letters stenciled along one bulkhead, Misato added a third objective to her list: Prove to Asuka she wasn't lost.
A week into the voyage, Misato found her sea-legs. Beyond that, she learned enough about the carrier's layout to make a fair attempt at getting around. Her shins ached however, from one too many hatch-rim impacts. She had however found something resembling an off-duty culture on board the carrier. The half of the crew that weren't at their given post tended to gravitate to the various galleys and few public spaces. And, in a surprising show of grace, Misato had been invited to the Officer's wardroom.
Settling down at a bench between a pair of junior officers, Misato looked up and watched a steward set a mug of coffee before her. Rank was observed, she couldn't help but note, but it was informal. 'Major' didn't carry as much weight on board a ship, but she wasn't going to complain either. A flash of red caught the corner of her eye. Twisting in her seat, Misato very nearly lost the grip on her mug: Asuka had been invited in as well.
That might have explained the reduced decorum- the girl was almost holding court through sheer, bullheaded force of personality. Asuka wasn't one to be charismatic, but she sure as hell tried. Misato stared over the rim of her mug and felt one of her eyebrows arch high. She had to lend Asuka some of her clothes, and there hadn't been enough time to negotiate something with the ship's tailor. On Asuka, Misato's black mini-dress needed a belt for cinching, and the rolled up slacks were... not flattering.
To her right, a Lieutenant nudged her elbow, pointing at the girl with his own mug. "I know she's one of the pilots, but you two have the same tastes Major Katsuragi... is she your daughter?"
Flipping a tiny switch on the side of her patch, Asuka's vision blurred. Orange lines overlaid her field of view, first describing angles, then shapes, finally three-dimensional polygons. Every edge and surface in the ship's corridor had been outlined, flagged with material analysis. The prosthetic was somewhat self-programming, or it piggybacked some of it's functions off of her own brain. Without a lab, Asuka couldn't say which. Concentrating, the girl pushed the schematic into the devices' memory.
Leaning against the cold steel wall, Asuka tried not to shiver. Misato all but preened next to her, well out of anyone's way, but watching, waiting. Every so often, a crewman would charge on by. Flipping over to image enhancement, Asuka had to note it was a crew-woman.
Misato must have noticed, because her smile curled at the corners. "Modern Navies may be co-ed, but relationships while at sea are strictly forbidden."
Asuka let out an ugly snort and crossed her arms over her chest. "And yet you're still treating this like a singles cruise."
The corridor went dark at the far end, as something blocked the hanging lights one after the other. The looming shadow approached, and as it neared, Asuka's eye went wide. Olive-green shirt, crew cut hair, rock-crushing jaw, and unambiguously masculine. Asuka felt the temperature drop a few degrees as the man's shadow passed over them. He flashed the pair a pearly white grin, and the narrow hallway suddenly swam with testosterone. Leaning out from around Misato, Asuka watched the man move away, and one eyebrow quirked up at the jigsaw muscles visible through his T-shirt. A marine, definitely.
"And you," Misato grinned and switching to Japanese, licking her lips. "Have never been able to appreciate the fine art of window shopping."
Officer country was 'invitation only', and as a 'civilian with special liberty', Asuka was not allowed anywhere particularly important. Not that there was much to do anywhere. A given ugly grey corridor was the same as any other. The galleys were often full of constantly moving flow of people, taking meals, swapping stories, hurrying back to their posts. In a way it reminded her of high school.
With nothing better to do, Asuka got in line and grabbed a food tray and got in line. Still uncomfortably similar to high school. There were a few strange looks, but that was due to the plugsuit. She couldn't afford to wear it constantly, but it was the closest thing she had to proper clothes. The jacket helped too, covering a good bit of her thighs. Anyone staring did so because she was a pilot, and not just a civilian girl. The scowl kept awkward questions to a minimum as well.
Pulling away from the serving area, Asuka threaded through the press of bodies, utterly lost beneath people inches if not feet taller. More than a few of them made way as she passed, out of courtesy or curiosity she couldn't tell, and wasn't interested in thinking about. She found a mostly empty table at one end of the galley and sat down, picking at her food.
Off to the side, someone said something to her, and Asuka looked up. She stopped, poised with forkful of possibly mashed potatoes hovering near her mouth. A crewman with curly red hair and a face made of curves loomed over her. Whatever he'd said hadn't even sounded like language. "I'm sorry, what did you say..?"
He tried again, smiling like he was used to it, and then Asuka understood. It was English dialect, somewhere from Ireland or Scotland. Her patch was already borrowing her language and pattern recognition to break the phonemes down. With the translation in clear text across the left side of her vision, she figured out what he said as he repeated it.
"What's your name?"
Oh, entirely reasonable. Asuka set her fork down and reached out for her composure, clamping hard on her temper. Her face settled into a dour mask. "Sor- Asuka Sorhyu Langley." Her standard English was a little rusty.
The redheaded sailor sat down without an invitation, smiling broadly. Without so much as a by-your-leave, he started in on something, a topic Asuka couldn't make heads or tails of. At first the accent was almost impenetrable, but bit by bit Asuka figured it out. "-And so I say to him 'you're crazy for that- making a pass at an admiral's daughter!"
Asuka didn't bother holding back her surprise. Admiral's daughter? Did she look like a sailor, or a man? She opened her mouth, ready and willing to utterly destroy him and his story. A new hand beat her to the punch, cuffing the curly-haired sailor upside the head.
Tray in hand, the newcomer nudged the other man off to the side. She sat down with a huff. "Nobody wants to hear your admiral's daughter stories, Carter."
Asuka felt her mouth click shut, and hope welled up in her chest; a lady soldier. Sailor, she amended. A plain looking brunette with her hair kept short, bleached at the fringes. She speared a hunk of meat with a simple fork and wagged it at the other man, before pointing at Asuka. "Especially around a kid!"
Being doused with a bucket full of icy seawater would've been preferable for Asuka, right about then. The scowl worked its way onto her face without thinking, but the woman and Carter ignored her in favor of bantering. Between Carter's accent and the woman being a motormouth, Asuka couldn't make heads or tails of the hashed conversation.
Finally though, the pair remembered the girl they sat across from. Smiling broadly, the woman reached over the table in greeting. "Sorry- Mind gets away from me. My name is Kim Bolton, E-3, or OR-3 depending." The pilot stood to shake her hand, but Kim's hand aimed higher, pressing against the girl's head and tussling her hair.. With the blood draining out of her face, Asuka dropped back down. Her thighs hit the bench hard enough to make it creak.
Neither Bolton or Carter didn't seem to notice. The brunette toasted the girl with her mug. "You're one of the pilots, right?"
For a moment the girl stared over the table, trying to process that question. A foul stinking shame built up in the back of her throat, because just for a moment, she'd forgotten her own status. Asuka willed the green tint away from her cheeks and sat up straight, drawing on every bit of imperial pedigree her teutonic ancestry allowed. This was familiar territory, and she desperately needed it. "I am! Second Child and Pilot of the Production Model Evangelion."
"Cool shit," Bolton almost gushed. "So is it remote or something? Like a video game?"
Asuka drew herself up as much as she could, not even bothering to stop the shock leaking into her voice. "What? No! I sit in it and pilot!"
Bolton leaned back and held her hands up in surrender, shaking her head. "Sorry! I just thought what with the gadget and all." Her hands dropped, but not before she tapped her own brow.
Asuka's hand few up to her prosthetic. "This isn't a controller!"
Carter leaned in, squinting. "Then how'd you lose it?"
"I didn't-" The girl scowled, clamping down and shooting her best glare at the other man.
The sailor bowed his head in apology and begged for forgiveness. As he spoke, Asuka read her patch dialogue for translation. Then she realized Carter was trying for an accent. "Beggin' the captain's pardon, when does this whipped dog of a bilge rat walk the plank?"
The crowd around fell silent, and red crept up the sides of Asuka's neck, past the collar of her plugsuit and jacket. That man had just crossed a line. Bolton's hand lashed out again. "Don't be a dick, Cart."
Asuka's lip curled, but she didn't quite snap. She wasn't made of glass- she could fight her own battles. Instead she pulled the patch up and blinked by reflex. "I didn't lose it, but-" Repeating herself, she stalled for a moment. For one there were security clearances... She sighed and said what she could. "There's nerve damage."
What little conversation there had been ended on that note, and Asuka stewed in the silence. Two more crewmen joined Asuka's table then, slapping Carter and Bolton on the back and shoulders as they shoved into position. More followed, crowding and jostling around as space around the girl rapidly filled. Glancing around, there were tons of empty tables, so they all must have gathered for the company.
Men and women in a whole range of uniforms and kit, shoving and laughing between bites. A dozen accents, full-on dialects and a smattering of French, Mandarin, Russian and English. Asuka felt her cheeks burn red-hot with some of the things they joked about, indignant and mortified by turns. Another sailor wedged in next to Asuka, a meal tray in one hand and textbook in the other. The girl almost declared her salvation to the heavens- Academia, something I can talk about!
She nudged the man's elbow, and couldn't help but note the elaborate, almost three-dimensional tattoos that wound up his bare arms. He looked up from his book and blinked, and Asuka jerked her chin at the page. "What are you studying?"
He licked his lips, wincing. "Ah, world history. I'm trying to get my GED."
Rocking back in her seat, Asuka reeled. He hadn't even graduated high school? Looking around, a bit more than half the people were maybe five years older than her. As she thought about it, she realized of them were serving to pay for college, and Asuka had already gone and graduated. She sunk back deeper into her jacket and picked at her food.
Bolton whistled sharply, smiling again. "Hey kid, you alright?"
Another sailor broke in, giving the girl a playful shove. "We're probably boring her stiff. Listen," The man put on an understanding look. "Wardroom 6-B's set up for books and movies. You want me to show you?"
Deep down Asuka knew they weren't trying to be patronizing, or at least, not offensively so. It rankled though. She stood up and pulled herself out of the lunchroom crowd, flipping her eye patch down. "I'll find it myself."
Being given more or less the run of Officer's country on board the carrier, Misato did her best to keep busy. Unlike say, nearly every other armed force in the world, she had one facility and six assets to manage, compared to armor, infantry and twenty other odd things a commander had to track. The Pacific Fleet basically ran itself, as long as they didn't see an Angel. Basically, Misato had nothing to do except wander.
A quick glance into the kitchens saw her ushered out by white-smocked stewards. A steaming mug of coffee was pressed into her hands, along with the utmost diplomatic urging to stay out of the way. Nonplussed, Misato took the cup and sipped. Polite, courteous, and pointedly distant; those were the words that defined the UN Navy. The Marines were okay- serving as a unified American unit attached to the Over the Rainbow. But for all her past exploits, there wasn't a lot of common ground.
Taking another sip, Misato leaned against a bulkhead wall and shivered. She was lucky and knew it, most of the crew on board went months without seeing sky or daylight. Assuming she had permission, she could make her way to the bridge for a bit of fresh air. Misato wasn't interested in wearing out the Admiral's hospitality, anyway.
There were things that still needed to be done though, things that had to be pushed through jurisdictional boundaries and fleet politics. Another reason why she wasn't interested in being a bad guest. The Evangelion power supply had to be tested, and drills needed to be set up, adapting carrier operations to Evangelion deployment and vice-versa.
Stodgy old fools all, she figured, and there was no point in denying the horror. There wasn't anyone fun in the fleet.
Another thought occurred to her then, as she finished off her coffee. Swallowing the last mouthful of bitter drink, she realized she was going to have to get used to it. Over the Rainbow was a dry vessel; only the captain or admiral's had mustaches, and those were under lock and key. Misato was certain a still was somewhere in the fleet, moonshine vodka and the like... but she wasn't that desperate.
Finding a place to hand back her empty mug of coffee, Misato sighed and hoped Asuka was having better luck making friends than she was.
A topographical map of the aircraft carrier made navigation exceedingly easy. Trivial almost. As long as Asuka knew which end of the ship was which, she had no trouble finding her way around... to a point. Her map had filled more than two-thirds of the vessel, but it lacked labels. It took her less than an hour to find the room set aside for crew entertainment, and it was thankfully empty.
Cramped, like every other place on the ship, every surface was filled with closed cabinets and sturdy shelves. Some basic tables were wedged into alcoves and bench seats, along with a handful of board games; the staples, chess, checkers, even a go board. Interesting, but impractical without an opponent. Asuka stalked along the cabinets, rifling through each one. Fifteen year old movies, Every one an ancient VHS tape. Most of them were recordings too, hand-labeled from and mailed from who knew where. At the last shelf, she whipped her hand away from one shelf as if burned.
They didn't even have the decency to hide their...
Asuka sighed and let her hand fall. More movies, none of which interested her. The other wall was lined with well-aged books of all kinds. She didn't consider herself a literary elitist, the classics were often just as dull to scientists and engineers. She was pleased to note the Lord of the Rings on one shelf, though she'd read that one years ago.
Aside from solitude and enough space to stretch, the wardroom was looking more and more like a bust, until she investigated the TV cabinet. A tangle of black cords hung from the half-opened panel, and a bit of exploration completely salvaged her day: a console and games. A few more minutes of effort had her blasting aliens in the most generic of side-scrollers.
Days later, Misato found herself back in the tiny stateroom aside Asuka. The pilot's plugsuit was being washed in the ship's laundry, so Asuka yet again had to raid Misato's luggage. The black mini dress came out once more, and Asuka hunted around for a belt to cinch around her waist.
Wincing, Misato tried to hazard a bit of friendly advice. "That dress really isn't meant for a belt, you know that right?"
Asuka just looked up at her like she was crazy, for once not wearing her eye patch. She tugged the fabric around her hips out and let it drop. The bottom hem dropped plenty low enough on her thighs, but Misato understood perfectly. A stiff breeze... Asuka made it even clearer. "This belt is all that stands between me and decency, woman!"
Misato crossed her arms and smirked. "There you go, calling me woman again..."
There were times Ryoji Kaji hated being a smoker. Being on board an aircraft carrier was one of them. A double-dose of nicotine gum sat braced against his cheek, and he willed the stimulant to flow faster into his bloodstream. It never worked as well as he liked.
Maybe that was why he snapped a little harsher than normal, when the crewman nearly spilled his important cargo. "Hey!"
The sailor stumbled, fighting to keep balance. "Sorry Inspector," He cradled a double-stack of small metal-walled cargo crates in his arms, while a few other similar containers lined the hallway. Kaji stepped up and took the topmost crate and saved the man further trouble, or embarrassment.
Tucking it under his arm, he turned, only to see Misato passing through the nearest hatch. "Well, You brought more luggage than I did."
Kaji just tossed her a jaunty salute. "What can I say?" He hefted the crate in his arm. "I need spare batteries for my razor, and ties for my hair. You know I want to look my best for you."
Misato stalked forward, rolling her eyes. Her hips rolled like a tiger, or a terrible, sexy dragon. Grinning, he couldn't help but imagine the jets of smoke shooting out her nose, even as she nearly bowled him over.
It was a beautiful sunny day outside, and Sea of Japan was warmer than Asuka expected. Which was to say it was wet, miserable and cold, as opposed to freezing. Even accounting for the noonday sun. Thanks to the wind and ever-present mist, Misato's borrowed wardrobe was only good for their tiny stateroom. Otherwise, the Second Child wore her plugsuit and jacket as often as possible. It may not have been warm, but it kept her drier than most other people out on deck. As for being on deck, she had to swear up and down on more rule-books and manuals then she'd ever seen in her life. Then the captain made her swear on an actual bible, just to drive the point home.
All of that, because the carrier flight-deck was dangerous, and loud. A handful of the carrier's on board aircraft were being sent out, equipped with highly sensitive blood-soul pattern detectors. The catapult launches and screaming jet engines rattled her bones from hundreds of feet away. An ugly pair of headphones protected her ears from the worst of the noise. She watched another fighter move into position, and Asuka had to admit, the whole process was a lot like deployment out of the Geofront. The few times she'd gotten to ride the launch rails had been amazing.
Closer, someone shouted, loud enough to make the girl turn...
On the flight deck, huddled close to the bridge-island and well out of the way of everything important, a middle-aged man rubbed his hands together and tried not to freeze. His name was Wyatt Levidon, and his life was suffering. A professional military photographer on attachment with the Pacific Fleet, he had no idea his lazy, puff-piece tour was going to turn into a fantastic, lengthy crusade against stygian horrors from beyond the stars. The original plan was simple; take some photos of sailors and airmen hard at work keeping the peace. Now, the fleet charged for one of the two warmest parts of Siberian Russia, which actually didn't sound too bad, if not the Stygian Horrors. From Beyond the Stars.
Still, Wyatt suffered, because there was no new material on board the fleet, save for the Evangelion- which he was not going to get anywhere near. No matter what his publishers said or did, there were things man was not meant to know, and he drew the line at giant goddamn robots. Fortunately the war machine was on an entirely different ship, far and away from his petty mortal concerns, like breathing.
Off to the side, a flash of proper cherry red caught his eye. A few dozen feet away was a girl- an actual girl, like his neice back in England. Seeing as how she didn't look or dress anything like the rest of the crew on board, that put her in one of two categories. Either she was a civilian, like him, or considering the shiny rubber suit and over-sized jacket, the Pilot. The giant robot he happily ignored, but this darling redhead was an opportunity. Like any good photographer, Wyatt always kept a camera handy, and against all conventional wisdom, shouted for the girls' attention.
She turned, just as a gust of wind caught her hair and swept it forward over her shoulder. With all the speed, grace and skill instilled in him over his long career, Wyatt mashed the shutter button.
Then the girl snarled. "What the hell are you looking at?!"
Three weeks into the mission, the Pacific Fleet reached Vladivostok. Impact had changed Primorsky Krai, scouring away miles of city and industrial infrastructure. In its place, the United Nations had sunk massive foundations, superstructures and manufacturing facilities. Vast train yards spread out tracks like arteries, meeting up with surviving lines and new paths leading inland. Evangelion armor and weapons were assembled all across Siberia, funneled down into the ports and testing facilities all along the mechanized coastline.
The fleet itself was on rotation, coming into port a few ships at a time while the remainder held off at sea as a defensive picket. On the bridge along the outside walkways, Asuka leaned against the railing and looked out over the city. Somewhere out there in a sunken bunker, a rapid, crashing metallic scream echoed out, enough that it shook dust from concrete walls and roads, even as far out as the docks. Not that anyone around would care- this was a place where people worked. Asuka could not spot a single house or apartment.
Elsewhere, massive cranes lifted equally huge containers. From where Asuka stood, the workers and docks looked like anthills, boiling with activity. The cranes lowered one container after another into a fleet cargo ship, the top deck hatches spread wide open for more material. The red slashes across each container marked them clearly as weapons. Misato had pulled out all the stops, it seemed.
Then a voice out of a dream hit her ears, and Asuka shivered. "Haven't seen you for a while, Asuka-chan!"
A few dozen thoughts crashed into each other, fast enough that she only had a second to really process. Asuka's mind went into overdrive as it considered her options. Coy and sweet? The past few days were leaving her without much good cheer to go on. With her plugsuit, Asuka contemplated a more flirtatious approach, hiking up her jacket and taking advantage of the lean and rail... But at the same time, Misato was on board, and a battle of the body wasn't one she could win.
It all proved to be a moot point anyway; her mouth was open and speaking, even before she even finished her assessment. She tried and succeeded at keeping the wince out of her voice. Mostly. "Ka-ji-san~ Where have you been?"
Kaji himself looked like he hadn't seen the sun in weeks, which wasn't saying much, because Asuka had been stuck below decks just as often. He had however found enough time to keep his beard well-trimmed. The man of her dreams shrugged, and his hair whipped around in the harbor breeze. "Filing reports, mostly. Calling up the chain of command. How's my favorite girl been doing?"
The illusion shattered. It self-destructed, detonating into successively smaller secondary explosions. Girl?!
Asuka clamped down on her disappointment though, and did her best not to let it show. Twisting around, she rapidly discarded pretenses and paths proven ineffective. She'd show him. Standing straight, arms at her back and the picture of perfect poise, Asuka squared her shoulders, nodding curtly. "I've been fine, Kaji-san. I've been looking forward to putting the crews through start up procedures, once we've loaded up the extra gear here."
Bemused, the UN inspector leaned over the railing and pulled out a cigarette- even outside, he wasn't allowed to light it. "Procedures?"
"Evangelion launch drills. There's not a lot of precedent for an At-sea deployment, but we're going to be patrolling the attack sites as we make our tour anyway." Asuka sighed, but couldn't help the theatrics. "They'll need to know how we do things."
Kaji just stared at her, increasingly unreadable. A single eyebrow crept up his forehead as she continued. "That's an awful lot of responsibility, isn't it?"
There was a sense Asuka was missing something, she couldn't quite put her finger on it though. She pulled more professionalism out, draping it over her shoulders like a mantle. 'Too much' had never entered into her vocabulary. Re-centering herself, Asuka pushed through the uncertainty.
"It certainly is, that's why I'm here." She tossed her head, as if his question was a bothersome fly. "I should probably go and check on how they're loading the weapons too. It won't do me any good if I can't reach ammunition for a reload."
With that, Asuka turned primly on one heel and marched for the hatch. Once she was down the stairs and out of sight, she realized something, and a bit of red spread out across her cheeks. In a roundabout way, she was playing hard to get.
They were only a few days past Vladivostok now. The Pacific Fleet had pushed east, cutting across the ocean toward California and Central America. Impact had obliterated most of Panama, to say nothing of the Canal. Still, it enabled an oceangoing vessel easy passage from the Pacific into the Atlantic. Misato however, had no idea as to their progress. Without a map, she only had the admiral's word they were on track. She didn't doubt the man's word of course, but being cooped up in a dim metal city for days on end wore on a person.
Weeks sleeping in a stiff desk chair wasn't doing her any favors either. Misato stretched, bracing hre back against the chair and rocked her hips back, drawing out a long series of pops and crackles. Her spine melted, tangibly relieved. Two feet away and stretched out along the bed, Asuka huddled under a double-layer of blankets, with a dog-eared book propped up in her hands.
Twisting, Misato tried to work out more kinks, sighing softly. A little small talk would be good for the nerves too. "I never forgot how to sleep in crappy conditions..." She licked her lips and pulled, popping another disc into place. "But this chair-" Misato just tossed the girl a wry smile.
Asuka just turned a page, sullenly noncommittal.
The major slumped in her seat then. "Back before I came to Tokyo I had insomnia. I'd be up all night, or I'd be lying in bed half-awake for hours..." A proper grin worked its way across her lips. "You however, sleep like a rock."
Marking her page, the girl thumbed the book closed and gave the older woman a wan little grin. Misato was happy to count it as a victory. "I do what I can to keep busy."
Desperate for a change of pace, Misato eased herself out of the chair and sat on the desk, hands hooked against the edges and leaning forward. She rubbed her calves together, hoping to keep some blood moving. "Yeah... I have to say though, some of my best nights have been back home. Shinji's like the best teddybear in the world."
Almost immediately, Misato realized just how badly she stepped in it. The girl let the book drop into her lap and she just stared at the older woman, through her. The dark-haired woman kicked herself again, fighting off a scowl and putting on the best, understanding smile she could muster. Whatever happened back at NERV must have been one hell of a fight, but the specifics, Misato had no idea. At the end of the day though, Misato just didn't know, and her hands were tied.
Asuka for her part had retreated behind her unassailable wall of pride. Her shoulders rose high and trembled, tensing enough for Misato to see lines of muscle. She turned enough to make sure Misato could see both her eye and patch, scowling. "If you're so sore, you can have the damn bed if you want it."
Misato's hands tightened around the edge of the desk and grit her teeth, cringing. There was no way for to talk around that statement; their bedding arrangements had already been set weeks ago for a reason. The girl had plain out maneuvered her. Distantly, some part of Misato's mind wondered if that was what other people felt like when she spun out elaborate verbal traps and double-entendre... Unlike those times though, there was no laugh or easy joke out.
Instead, all she could do was slap one palm into her face and offer the most sincere look of apology she could muster. Dragging her hand down, Misato spoke past her palm. "I'm sorry, that slipped out. Been a hard few days."
Asuka slumped and let her shoulders drop, exhaling softly. "Yeah, I'm sorry too."
With that, Asuka reached over to the light switch and flicked it down, leaving the stateroom in total darkness.
The Soyokaze was a hastily modified cargo ship, converted into an Evangelion transport and deployment platform. That was a fancy way of saying the internal holds had been gutted, replaced with a complicated mass of internal pumps, watertight sealant and security devices. The Evangelion itself floated on its back in chilled containment fluid, half-submerged in the ships' internal spaces. A massive tarp covered the rest of it, while massive restraining bolts and inset locks kept the war machine pacified.
Nearly fifty technicians and engineers swarmed over around the weapon, dashing along bridges made of air-filled oil drums lashed under plastic deckplates. Above, the cargo hatches laid into the top deck yawned open on hydraulic springs, letting in sunlight and suddenly hot Pacific ocean air. The tarp began to billow and writhe under the growing breeze. One by one, those bolts holding the Evangelion down were removed, some by remote and others with wrenches and muscle power. Halfway finished, a special controller entered the appropriate commands, and the machine sat up. Bending at the waist, the Evangelion moved under battery power.
The public address speakers crackled and snarled with static, feedback screeching through the hold. The electronic shriek easily gave way to a shout. "Stop dawdling! The longer you guys blunder around the less power we have for combat! Thirteen minutes and counting!"
As one, the engineers hurried.
"I can see you guys- Watch it when you raise the Evangelion! Those doors aren't fully cleared yet!" Asuka let her finger off the transmit button and sighed into the radio. "I mean, seriously...?"
Onboard the Over the Rainbow, leaning against the railing and platforms lining the bridge island, Asuka watched the crew of the Soyokaze run through a deployment drill. She closed her eyes, but the field of view on the left side of her face persisted nonetheless. Her perspective jumped and stretched, shooting forward in telescopic zoom. The cargo ship was several hundred yards away, and she could see far enough to read nametags.
A handy thing, when reminding people when not to screw up.
Less useful though, when it disrupted her peripheral vision. Achingly familiar dress-shoe sole on metal deck plates were enough to get Asuka to lean back, banishing the telescopic vision and open her eyes. With her hair caught in the wind and jacket billowing around her her, it was a perfect moment for Kaji to arrive. The ponytailed man leaned through the open hatch, waving lightly.
Then Asuka's face fell when Misato stomped through the same door. The older woman shouldered past Kaji, scowling something fierce. Asuka's eye cut down to the Major's hand, and how it rubbed at her apparently sore rear. That, plus the scowl and- No, that would not stand. Asuka planted her feet, pulling on that professional mask like her life and dreams depended on it. Because they did.
Turning back to the Soyokaze, Asuka raised the radio and took a breath. She had to put her best foot forward. Her vision jumped forward, but not before she saw Kaji lean against the rail, elbows hanging over the edge. She forced that pleasant sight from her mind and focused. The dreamy picture was going to be her reward; oogle later. Across the ocean, the Evangelion was sitting fully upright, still swaddled in the forty-meter long tarp.
Frowning slightly, she scanned the deck for problems. "They're still slow. I know these conditions aren't ideal but..." Asuka clicked the radio in hand. "Keep an eye on the battery levels. It takes us days to charge off of the ship's diesel generator."
A smattering of aye-ayes and 'yes-ma'ams' echoed back over the speaker. Letting her eye and proesthetic adjust again, she turned back to Kaji and Misato, allowing a tiny smile. Still sore over whatever had happened earlier, Misato had claimed a wall and planted her back against it, arms folded over her middle and still scowling. Asuka smiled a little wider and counted it as a conceeded, but still unconfirmed victory. She preened as subtly as she could manage, standing tall and proud.
Kaji smiled, making Asuka's heart slam into her ribcage hard enough to hurt. "What say you give those guys a bit of a break for a minute, I was meaning to talk"
Inwardly, Asuka was doing backflips and cartwheels, and cared not one bit how silly the metaphor sounded. Despite the glee, the girl did her best to keep cool and collected. "Oh? What about?"
The UN Inspector looked across the ocean at the Soyokaze and the crew running around, levering the Evangelion into deployment position. "You've been working hard the past couple weeks, huh?"
"Of course!" She turned away and almost struck a pose, banking again on the ocean breeze to help her out. It didn't disappoint. "My talents are legendary, after all."
Kaji let out a short laugh, grinning a little wider. "You might be overdoing it a little though."
That brought her up short, confusion leeched the warmth out of her chest. It gave way to indignation. She spun and stomped one rubber sole on the deck. "What?! Those guys over there wouldn't be managing half as well if I wasn't here to hold their hands!"
Another gust of wind pulled at them, tossing Kaji's ponytail over his shoulder and thuroughly ruffling Misato's hair. Asuka stood facing into the gust but did not bend, waiting for an answer. There wasn't one, just the sound of the ocean pressing against the side of the ship and the scream of jet engines in the distance. Misato kept her position, watching but not intruding.
Glancing sidelong at Asuka, Kaji broke the silence. He was painfully unreadable even now. "Say, Asuka-chan?"
Professional, the word hummed in Asuka's mind. "Yes?"
He waved with one hand at her, gesturing from head to toe. "Why are you in such a rush to grow up?"
The question hit her hard enough to knock the air out of her lungs. Meanwhile, Misato pulled away from the superstructure wall, suddenly and strangely subdued. Asuka forced her will out, clamping down hard on the dozen of things her body and emotions demanded. Betrayal was the wrong word, but something in her gut coiled tight, squeezing her stomach hard enough to make her gag. The wind picked up again, blowing her hair back and forcing her exposed eye wider. The gust stung, but she refused to let it show.
Instead she wished Kaji would stop asking stupid questions. "Because I am."
Kaji just stood upright, rubbing the stubble along his jaw and looking her over. Plugsuit, jacket, patch. I'm beautiful, a mature, elegant lady! Why won't you see that!? The older man shook his head and smiled softly, leaning forward to ruffle her hair and kiss her bangs. "You're on your way, Asuka-chan. I promise you that."
With that, he slid past Asuka and back through the hatch, leaving her alone with Misato.
Lech one minute and Father the next. Misato shook her head and sighed. If he weren't so damn insufferable she'd actually be able to admire him. Still, Kaji had tried when she asked him to help. She took short steps over to the railing where Asuka stood, concern plain on her face. Asuka stared at her with an empty eye and the pride drained out. It made her look brittle, like she'd been made of badly cooked clay.
She sighed, and not for the first time loathed her inability to say anything. Misato could fill the air with words, but it took her nearly a year of living together to learn how to speak clearly to Shinji. She had to do the same thing to Asuka in a few weeks, if not days. There was so much more going on in the background of their world, the plans and projects surrounding everything they did, the emotional stability of a teenage girl looked positively tiny.
At that moment though, Misato believed Asuka was most important thing.
Asuka meanwhile sighed, tapping the radio against her thigh. She didn't bother to look up, and her question came out more like a statement."You put Kaji up to that, didn't you."
Misato winced, but couldn't help the small smile. A clever Asuka was a good sign in her mind. "Yeah. We're just worried about you."
Huffing, the girl just spun away and scowled over the railing, looking at nothing. Misato took the chance to step closer, until she was standing next to the pilot. Asuka had pulled herself together somewhat, no longer looking so fragile.
Leaning forward, Misato draped her arms over the railing. "Listen... I really don't need to know every detail, but I want to help. To do that I need to know what's going on."
Asuka kept her eyes on the horizon, not that Misato could see past the black plastic patch. The oceans were calm at least, and the Pacific stretched out glass-smooth and shining. Asuka shifted, and Misato watched let out a sound close to resignation. "Am I really a tyrant?"
Misato cringed, caught between trying a bad joke at a bad time, and an honest answer. She went with the latter, sighing softly. "Yeah, sometimes."
The girl was quiet for a long moment, brooding and stone-faced. "Good, right now I want to be one for a little while longer."
Any answer to that was cut short by the sound of snapping metal and the crackle of the radio in Asuka's hand. The girl surged into action, leaning over the rail and thumbing the transmit button. "Oh you idiots! Watch what you're doing! We don't have enough of that to waste!"
A hundred yards away, cables and metal buckles snapped as they strained against bad angles. Caught on machinery and internal structures within the hold, the binding that held the tarp down over Unit-02 broke apart in a dozen places. The thick material still billowed in the wind, throwing heavy folds of tough woven plastic around while ragged bands of cargo straps whipped around.
While Asuka's voice rang out over the intercoms and radio, technicians and engineers rushed, trying to corral the growing hazard and fix the problem. One by one the torn straps were secured, tied or bolted down. On the top deck, one unlucky crewman however found himself at the wrong place at the wrong time, wrestling with a circulatory valve at the Evangelion's elbow. The tarp shifted, rippling and snapping hard enough into him to knock the man clean over. His hip connected with the wrench jammed into the valve, and the seal cracked under the strain, drenching the man with a thick gout of LCL.
The geyser shoved the man hard, back into the railing and nearly sending him overboard. The orange metalic blood washed over his legs and cascaded down the side of the ship, taking his hat and tools along for the ride. A smear of color spread out in the wake of the ship, trailing for hundreds of meters.
The Pacific Fleet was less than a week away from the Panama Transition, and Katsuragi Misato found herself in the Operations room on board the Over the Rainbow. She eyed the consoles and screens, acutely aware that their systems and such were a bit more than half her age. The NERV Major felt her eyebrows spasm, twitching madly. Or maybe the twitching was due to Kaji blatantly invading her personal space. He stood close to her, arms behind his back and close enough his for his elbows to brush against hers.
Misato puffed up her cheeks and huffed, taking a deliberate stomp to the side. Kaji's achingly familiar laugh followed and seemed to drape around her shoulders, lingering. Around her, crew and equipment operators chanted over their consoles in low tones, mostly in clear English with a smattering of French. The screens and readouts didn't glow the stereotypical green, but covered a whole range of colors and squiggling lines. Compared to the holographic displays back home, it was laughably crude.
All told, it was an uncomfortable step back in time, in more ways than one.
Still, they were patched into the interception system. Kaji had handed over the codes earlier and Misato made sure the fleet sensors were set up right.
A bead of sweat crawled down the side of her neck, and Kaji had to notice. He leaned in, rumbling in low tones. "You know Katsuragi, if you're hot, you could always take off that jacket."
Misato's scowl etched itself deeper into her face and she zipped her NERV jacket all the way to the neck. The 'nothing I haven't seen before' was left unsaid. Tucking her chin into her collar, Misato focused on business. "What's our data look like."
"Asuka's been a bad influence on you..." Kaji let out a short, drawling laugh. Sobering, he stood up and glanced at the myriad screens. "Sticking mostly to the Atlantic territories, against all established wisdom."
"Despite the fact that to this day, we know the Angels were going to come for the Geofront and the Evangelions."
The UN inspector gave her a hard look. "Is Asuka bait?"
"I hope not," she admitted. Misato showed her teeth off, but it wasn't a smile. "But if anyone wanted to dangle on a hook in order to kill an Angel, she'd be second in line after me."
A bit more than a day away from Panama, Wyatt Levidon found himself out on deck of the carrier once more. This time there was something interesting to see- flight operations had been suspended for some kind of maintenance effort, or training. Still under the aforementioned tarp, Wyatt could still see the edges of the red, black and orange war machine. Limbs, legs. From heel to toe, the thing's shoe was several times longer than a car. As long as the Evangelion was on deck, he was denied from taking photos, due to lack of clearance. Despite that, his liaison on board the carrier had graciously allowed him to keep his cameras, just so long as he kept the shutters closed.
And it really was a shoe. A foot would've made more sense, with tendon-sprung claws or hinges and hydraulic actuators. For a supposedly revolutionary war machine from the advanced hub of the Japanese tech sector, he hadn't expecting something that seemed for all the world like a homeless figure swaddled in a blanket with a pair of high-end trainers- right down to the custom soles. Instead it was still a shoe and Wyatt realized he was rambling. It reminded him of a corpse, now that he thought about it. He'd seen enough in his profession. The same kind of unnaturally human stillness projected leagues larger was something to inspire pause... or even terror.
Without being able to take pictures, that left Wyatt with little to do. On deck, he made sure to stay out of the way of everything, but at least there weren't any aircraft hurtling around. More than a few crew members were out and about, no doubt under their own non-disclosure agreements. Not surprising of course; even in a Post Impact world the sunny Pacific Equator was tropical. The sky was blue and cloudless for as far as the eye could see, and the waters were calm. Aside from boring, it might've been a vacation.
At the bow end of the carrier, Wyatt did spot something new, a woman. He pulled his camera out and zoomed in for more detail. Not just any woman, but Major Katsuragi Misato. Standing next to Admiral Stolocker, the woman pointed out to sea, clipboard in hand and hair tossed in the wind. Wyatt knew a glamour shot when he saw one, and as long as the Evangelion wasn't in frame... Well, his editor wasn't going to complain.
Over the Rainbow's bridge was crowded that day, packed in with officers and three NERV hangers-on. Misato was glad to know that Admiral Stolocker had thawed somewhat over the past days at sea, willing to let Kaji, Asuka and herself come up to the bridge. Granted the Major needed to be there for the transition. To the north and south, two long smudges of land stood out on the horizon- the last recognizable bits of the Panama Canal.
What remained was a straight shot through to the Atlantic, at the cost of the land bridge between Central and South America. Fifteen years ago, tidal waves had swamped the low-lying lands, obliterating the canal and structure. That and a subsequent tectonic event had all but sank the small country into the mantle. Now, dark clouds tended to hang high over the region, whipping into tropical storms and worse whenever inconvenient.
Seeing land remained something of a morale boost though, even Asuka was cheerier than normal, if only slightly. The bridge was one of the few places she hadn't yet fully explored, and it showed. Just out of earshot, the girl spent her time asking questions, and since there wasn't a lot to do outside of normal duties, nobody had a problem answering her. Misato just hoped nobody started actively patronizing her pilot. It would not end well, for anyone.
One of the bridge officers stepped up and gave the Major a polite nod. As long as she was outside their chain of command, there was no reason to salute her. Misato grinned regardless, switching mental gears for english. "Is there something you need?"
The clean-shaven man grinned, ducking his head and sneaking her a sly look past the brim of his cap. With a mug of coffee in hand, he toasted her, then Asuka. The girl was standing pretty in one of Misato's button down blouses and hemmed-in pants. "Your daughter's a peach, Major, first impressions notwithstanding."
Misato blinked, and a finger of dread crawled up her spine. Or maybe it was Kaji via some puerile sorcery. "First impression?"
"Real princess type. 'Yes Majesty, go forth my peon.'" He let out a short laugh. "My daughter was the same way at that age."
Laughing quietly behind a hand, Misato wasn't sure what to correct first; her family tree or his estimate of the girl's character. "Asuka? Oh no, I wouldn't-"
"Wouldn't what?" Even within the limited confines of the bridge, the pilot was unexpectedly to her left. She'd apparently ambled over after the half-hearted exploration had run its course.
Misato slammed hard on her verbal brakes, willing her voice to go smooth and lilting. She flung one arm around Asuka's head and pulled her into a one-sided hug. "Wouldn't want to sour that sunny disposition of yours!"
Rumpled and with her hair suddenly piled up on one side, Asuka crossed her arms and huffed. "Hrmph!"
Responsibilities were what saved Misato from further scrutiny, and she found herself offering thanks to her job. Watch stations on both sides of the Central American gap were tracking the Pacific fleet as it approached, and Panama control was on the radio and asking for her.
A crewman handed her the appropriate headset, already patched in. "Major Katsuragi here."
Speakers throughout the bridge and in her ear hummed, letting a pleasant, accented baritone ring out. "Major, welcome to the Pacific/Caribbean transition. Standard housekeeping procedures here, we'd like for you to transmit appropriate clearance any time."
She'd been expecting that, and had handed the Admiral the codes ahead of time. "Transmitting now," She let a little bit of charm leak into her voice. "Anything else we can do along the way?"
"Not particularly, Major- wait one." The line went dead for a moment, before the radio operator clicked back on. "Just got word your fleet is tripping our SOSUS lines. You have any submarines trailing you?"
Misato blinked and shook her head more out of habit. Most submarines were strategic weapons, N2 and nuclear equipped. Both far outside the pull she had at hand. "Not that I know of, " She turned to the Admiral, and he confirmed. "No submarines in the United Nations Pacific Fleet."
The operator on the other end hummed thoughtfully. "Hmm, we'll none of our active pickets in the area are seeing anything. There's just too much displacement for how many ships are in your fleet." Misato was sure he was shrugging on the other end. "Whales sometimes tripped our sensor nets, but whales don't come round anymore."
The Major frowned, and a different, icy chill settled in around the small of her back. That sounded suspicious, even Kaji thought so. Misato watched as the nominal UN inspector slid into the seat next to her, while Asuka watched over her shoulder. Kaji pulled out a pen and bit of paper, scribbling a quick word out: The Committee?
Misato just mouthed 'could be' right back. Looking out the window from side to side, she counted what ships she could see. "I don't presume to speak for the Admiral or any of the captains in this fleet, but maybe someone forgot to file something when we left Vladivostok? We did take on a lot of gear."
Another thoughtful pause before the operator replied. "Well, your clearance checks out. Major, I would love to take you at your word, but I'm going to call ahead to Norfolk and get a couple of subs to shadow you for a while."
There was already enough jurisdictional bullshit going on, Misato saw no reason to add to more of it. Considering possible involvement from the Committee, a little extra insurance was welcome. She explained the situation and held the headset out to the old officer. "It's your fleet Admiral, until we see an Angel."
The old man nodded grimly and took the microphone, coughing lightly. "This is Admiral Stolocker, we'll rendezvous with your submarines along the way."
"Thank you. Admiral, Major- enjoy the Atlantic and good hunting." With that, the radio clicked off.
Even post-impact, the Caribbean was a vacation destination for a significant portion of the world. Which Misato felt was a tragedy, as she was most assuredly not on vacation. Two American attack submarines had briefly joined the Fleet without incident, but Misato quickly learned almost no sailor in a surface navy was happy with submarines in the area, no matter their political affiliation. No tears were shed several days later when the pair had broken off, citing a need for extended diagnostics. Something to do with sonar.
Her other problem was scowling into a radio handset and peeling the paint of the bulkhead wall. Misato padded through the hallway as quietly as she could, wincing. Asuka's voice carried. "Uhm- Asuka?"
"Wha-Oh. Misato," Asuka let go of the transmit button, and the scowling, imperious look all but vanished. Clad in her jacket and plugsuit, the girl looked up and sounded more than a little pleasant. "Whatever you need, can we handle it fast?" She waggled the radio in hand. "The cross training thing I set up isn't going well, and we're going to need months of crew shifts for this hunting trip."
The cringe that worked its way up through Misato's neck and into her face, there was no way to suppress it. She raised a hand, hoping to lay it on Asuka's shoulder then thought better of it. No need to agitate the girl needlessly. Best to pull it right off, like a bandaid. She held Asuka's attention with a steady look. "We're not going to find an Angel on this trip. We're not here to fight Angels."
Asuka whirled then, nearly running into a structural support before sliding around it. Having cleared the obstacle, she just stared, jaw hanging slack and her bare eye gleamed dully. "... What."
Misato knew she deserved it, even as she explained, tight and rational. "There's... Really no way we COULD like this. Whatever's been screwing around the Atlantic, it's always going to be ahead of us. It can move faster than the fleet, choose when and where to engage us."
The girl stammered then, incredulous. "B-but we have the intercept system!"
"Assuming it is an Angel, they can drop in and out of our detection- it's never been perfect. If a blue pattern shows up, by the time we get there it'll be long gone." Misato sighed, completely aware how frustrating she sounded. She ran a hand through her hair and waited, tense.
Now a bit of fire surged back into Asuka's voice. She stomped her foot and held her fists clenched at her side. "Then we bring it to us!"
"The ocean is a big place, Asuka." Misato shook her head, wishing it was so easy. She wanted it to be easy, for Asuka's sake as well as her own. "We can fish all day, but you and your Eva aren't enough bait."
Plastic and rubber creaked loudly in the corridor- Asuka's plugsuit gloves. Her hands shook wildly. "Then why?"
Misato threw her arms wide, not helpless but close to it. "Because NERV has to show the world we are doing something! Telling them 'we're out here, and we're not going to leave the rest of humanity out to dry.'"
There was a brief war of emotion on Asuka's face as the blood attempted to drain from her features. Misato watched the color be pushed back up by an almost glowing surge of red. Asuka's scowl bordered on furious, but her voice had dropped deadly flat. "So that's it then, isn't it? All just another demonstration for you fucking people?"
Misato blanched, giving the girl needed ground in response. Her eyes drifted towards the floor. "Asuka I-, it's not-"
A sharp stomp put a stop to that, locking her back to Asuka's accusing glare. "Why can't you adults all just say what you mean?! All this... cloak and dagger public relations bullshit! What happened to being honest and speaking your goddamn mind?!"
For once in a long time Misato had nothing she could say or do in reply. The over-large coat slid down Asuka arms and onto the floor, and Misato licked her lips. "Listen, we..."
Asuka all but tore past her instead, voice rising up and echoing off the steel. "Whatever it is, forget it! I always listened, that's why I'm even here!" The snarl echoed behind her as Asuka pushed out into the hallway, drawing shouts from distant crew. "I'm through with listening!"
Misato blinked once and slumped back against the wall, staring at the jacket spilling over her toes. She stayed there for one heartbeat. On the second she slammed her fist into the metal and heaved herself upright, snatching the coat up in the same motion. Charging after the girl, Misato strained her ears for the sound of rubber on metal, vaulting stairs and shouting at sailors and crew to stay out of her way. Asuka's trail wasn't hard to find- the girl had left a path of rumpled and disrupted soldiers.
A flash of red down another hallway was the last hint Misato needed. She planted a foot and wrenched her body to the side, ankles protesting harshly. A straight shot through a dark corridor let Misato's longer legs eat up the distance. There was no way she was going to let this fester. She whipped an arm out and caught Asuka by one wrist. The leather jacket came next, draped around Asuka's shoulders. Pulling, she ducked under the wild fist and swallowed the girl in a bone-crushing hug.
Curling forward, Misato pressed her face into Asuka's hair, talking but not really speaking. Mushed against her chest, Asuka squirmed and tried to thrash, but Misato had locked the girl's arms against her side. The struggling slowed and faded when the girl ran out of fury, leaving the two of them standing alone in the dark corridor. Asuka's shoulders shook, but even Misato knew she was too tough to cry.
The girl growled into Misato's sweater, and she felt the words hum in her chest. "You lied. Everyone lied. Why should I trust you now?"
Misato rubbed her cheek against Asuka's hair, speaking softly."If it was all show, we could have brought any of the pilots. It had to be you, Asuka. Had to."
Now snarling, the girl's shoulders flexed and she tried to shrug free, but Misato refused to let go, not now. Asuka gnashed her teeth and hissed, again about marketing.
Misato just squeezed her tighter before letting go. She hunkered down and draped her arms over the girl's shoulders, looking Asuka square in the eye. "Yes, it's completely marketing, and did you ever stop to think about why that is? Because you are the standard of pilot I want the world to see. I want them thinking we have a dozen, two dozen more pilots skilled like you sitting back home on their hands, waiting for the hammer to get dropped."
The floor pitched beneath them, and a concussive, echoing boom shook the carrier. Whatever Asuka had hoped to say died under the screaming klaxon alarms. Red strobe lights flashed along the walls, and Misato felt herself go weightless, Asuka still bundled up in her arms. Listing, the corridor twisted around the pair. Impact was inevitable, and Misato shifted, curling around the girl before the hit. She felt her head slam back into the bulkhead hard enough to see stars.
Forcing her eyes open, Misato's body hummed with a sudden surge of adrenaline. She couldn't see. Then she realized her eyes weren't malfunctioning, the ship was. The dark hallway plunged into almost complete darkness, Lying on her chest, the only bit of light in the area was the dot of blue on the side of Asuka's face. The eye patch function light was a tiny pinprick in the dark.
Asuka pulled herself up on hands and knees, jaw hanging slack. Misato for her part ached all along her shoulders and the back of her head. Worth it though. She looked up at Asuka, and the girl stared right back with her one uncovered eye. The ship pitched again, but Asuka just rocked back on her heels and twisted, ready to charge. A hand on her wrist stopped her cold. Speakers throughout the ship crackled with static, and a crewman's voice rang out over the alarms.
Groaning, Misato pulled herself upright. "Asuka wait-" She stared up at the girl, and absolutely knew how desperate she must have looked, but it didn't matter. She had to make herself clear, now. "Can, can you do that for me?"
Asuka looked down at the hand then back at Misato herself. "Yeah. Yeah I can do that."
Misato watched the girl dash off, jacket and hair whirling behind her. She stood and steadied herself, even as crewmen with flashlights and tool kits stormed the corridor. Hooking a hand around the nearest sailor, she demanded a flashlight and directions. She had to get to the bridge herself.
Above, the public address speakers crackled again, this time in the clear. "-tack. I repeat, the Pacific Fleet is under attack."
Glowing orange lines spread out before her, and Asuka sang her praises to whoever came up with 'augmented reality'. Charging through the halls, her heads-up display outlined every floor plate and obstacle yards before she hit it. Photoreceptors sucked in every bit of light they could, casting the left side of her view in electronic green. Rounding a corner, Asuka nearly bowled over a sailor before spinning around and sweeping forward. "Sorry!"
Ship interiors began to blur together as she pumped her legs for all they had; she could catch all the breath she needed in the plug. Her rubber soles squealed against the floor as she slid to a stop. Up, she needed to go up. The ship pitched again and crewmen shouted in the distance. Whipping her head left and right while toggling vision modes, she flicked through the patche's memory looking for that map. The wireframe schematic unfurled in her field of vision, twisting and rotating along an internal compass.
Her eyes traced a path and Asuka moved. The emergency lights lining the corridors snapped on one after another, flash-blinding her prosthetic for a split second and flooding the rest of the ship in yellow. Vaulting up a flight of stairs, Asuka found more people running to and fro. Water from a burst pipe sloshed over the steps and the higher level. Men with wrenches and welding torches rushed elsewhere, looking for far more serious damage.
Another stairway and two more corridors gave way to the cafeteria, then she backtracked, blocked by a sealed hatchway. The carrier lurched for a third time, and the intercom crackled. "Othello down, Majorie down!"
Breathing hard now, Asuka hauled herself up a ladder, into some engineering space she didn't recognize. Oil and grease mingled with the smell of oxidizer and cutting torches. Someone in the crowd knew her though. Carter muscled through a press of machinists and repairmen, fighting with a dozen problems and damage. The redheaded man gave the girl one look before scooping her up by the arms. She was over his head so fast, there was no time to even get angry. Carter all but tossed her into the crowd, and she surfed the bodies until she reached the far end.
Along the way he shouted instructions over the crush of people, cupping his hands to his mouth.. "Two levels to flight-deck missy! Your chariot awaits!"
Framed in that far hatchway, Asuka blinked and nodded. Dashing forward once more, she passed through more crew spaces, threading between more sailors rushing to fulfill their orders. Two decks down, muted booms shook the ship hard enough for her to feel it through the floor. Dust from ceiling-mounted pipes caked her hair. Surface bombardment. The last leg of her run passed by mostly unseen, save for obstacles in her way. Sunlight at the far end of the final hallway gave her all the motivation she needed.
Breaking out onto the carrier deck and open air, wind whipped at Asuka's head and the leather jacket still in her hand. Salt air stung her nose and bare eye for a second, while flight deck crew flagged aircraft down the catapults, risking debris and more to get planes in the air fast enough to matter. The jet engines screamed louder than the catapults, throwing pilots and their fighters into the air two at a time. If they wanted to land, Asuka was going to have to move her Evangelion.
Somewhere someone shouted, and the call repeated across the deck. A woman near Asuka waved her arms. "It's breaching!"
Whatever it was, Asuka couldn't see the surrounding water past the end of the flight deck. A low, rumbling pulse of sound washed over the carrier, drowning out the jet engines and catapult by sheer mass. The deck pitched again, and Asuka set her feet against it.
A column of water a over twice the height of her Evangelion shot into the air, showering the deck and swamping everyone and everything on it. Asuka tumbled, carried along by the two-foot wave along with almost every one else. More than two dozen people were already lost overboard, followed by aircraft and racks of missiles. A fighter already on the catapult broke apart at the landing gear, skidding even as the pilot wrenched at the canopy. Everyone on deck scrambled for any handhold they could find- grooves in the deck, cables and the plexiglass catapult control domes.
Others reached out with human chains, lashing together by arm and leg or whatever they could grab. A gloved hand clamped around the corner of Asuka's jacket, and the girl felt her arm jerk even as more water poured down over her. A shadow crossed over the carrier, and Asuka twisted, looking up into the sudden cover.
Whale was her first thought, if a whale could get longer than a thousand feet nose to tail. Asuka knew, because her patch told her. White skin like uncooked fish arced over the ship, from port to starboard, showering the center of the carrier with a sudden downpour. The thing seemed to move in slow motion, and Asuka found herself thinking back to the time she spent in the MAGI VR. Flicking its tail, the perception-breaking creature angled in toward the ocean once more, dropping underwater with another gargantuan splash.
"Yeah. Right then." Asuka turned and realized the woman who'd caught her was Kim Bolton. The crew-woman had lost her helmet in the flood, shocked and sickened by the cold. The monster probably wasn't helping either. Asuka shoved her jacket into the woman's hands. "Don't you dare lose that!"
That shocked the aircrewman out of her stupor, and the deck crew strung out along the carrier shouted after the NERV pilot, Bolton being the loudest. "Hey kid don't just-!"
Asuka had already put them all out of her mind. Her Evangelion was more than a hundred meters away and the carrier was a sitting duck. The rest of the fleet had been strung out over a kilometer in all directions, a handful of them already smoking smears of black on the ocean, dotted with lifeboats. Escort battleships swung their cannons around and fired potshots at the water, but even Asuka knew the physics- no hope for a hit that way.
Ahead of her, the Evangelion loomed over everything, even swaddled by the tarp and lying on its front. It had slid along the deck while the carrier was being tossed about, leaving one arm dangling over the edge. That was fine, she just needed to get on top of the neck. The crew she'd been training had seen her coming, and they scrambled to enact the start-up procedure. Beneath the tarp, Armor plates along the back and shoulders split open, and the entry plug spiraled out, hatch open and waiting.
Crawling under the tarp, she made her way to the half-full plug and dropped in. Ocean salt and dust billowed out into the LCL around her hips, even as she started the activation sequence. The hatch clicked closed above, and more LCL poured in beneath her. Asuka wrapped her fingers around the controls and held on tight. "Set language mode to German, synchronization... start!"
On the bridge, Admiral Stolocker pressed his cap down on his head and scowled. He looked out over the ocean and his sinking fleet. "Dammit. Katsuragi said we weren't going to find one."
Asuka's discarded radio in hand, Misato made her way through the lower decks much like Asuka had earlier, though she lacked a map. Stumbling into the main hangar, Misato got her bearings via the wide open elevator platforms. Outside, ships were sinking. "I didn't think we were going to find one!"
"Dammit Misato!" Asuka exhaled her last empty breath and sucked in a lungful of LCL. From that point on she did not so much speak as make her machine simulate the act. "You just said we weren't going to find one!"
Reaching up, the Second Child powered down her patch and let the Evangelion take over for her perception. Input from four eyes interpolated into the pair she was used to, and she tugged hard on the butterfly controls. Fingers flicked out at joystick controls, calling up system diagnostics. Breathing was harder in LCL, but her lungs were strong. The emergency power timer clicked on, and Asuka willed her Evangelion to rise.
The wind hit her machine, pulling at the tarp and binding it around her arms and torso. Shifting, Asuka moved and bundled the cover around her like a sweeing cloak, even as she took a knee then stood, towering over the carrier bridge. She dared not move her feet, painfully aware of the men and women still dashing around the deck. Aviation fuel burned at one end of the carrier, throwing a plume of black smoke into the sky.
Asuka felt her thoughts move toward the radio before her fingers did, patching into the bridge. The Evangelion translated for her.
Redlining the engines, the Admiral gave the order to the fleet, charging ahead while their battleship escort trailed behind. The bridge staff stayed glued to their stations and consoles, issuing orders along the way. Damage reports filtered in from all over the ship, smoke, fire, structural damage. Over the Rainbow wasn't meant to take massive swells and bottom out, or list so severely.
The NERV woman barged in just as the radio crackled. "Admiral Stolocker!"
He twisted, glancing at Katusragi first then the speaker. A vein bulged in the side of his neck. "What is that girl doing on the line?! We can't afford to mess with her toy right now!"
"Unfortunately Admiral," Misato eased herself in, huffing faintly and sweating. "There's an Angel out there tearing your fleet apart. I hereby claim operational control." She grabbed the microphone and licked her lips. "You ready Asuka?"
Outside, the Evangelion moved, passing the bridge superstructure. The tarp billowed out and scraped against the exterior walls, shearing off railings before a massive hand held it back. Asuka's voice burst out of the bridge speakers once more. "Been ready! Plug and power supply are moving up!"
The ship groaned again, and the booms of distant guns rattled the windows. Stolocker held on, trusting his fate to a crazy woman and a child. "Expanded batteries and C-Type equipment?"
"Everything's set, Armor's locked in tight." The pilot moved her machine to the ship's bow, where crew and tow vehicles were already pulling its power plug into play.
Katsuragi grinned into the receiver, holding tight. "Then let's go fishing. Evangelion launch!"
Misato had called down to operations and confirmed it- Pattern Blue. Asuka felt fresh power flood her Evangelion, running along conductor cables into batteries muscle systems. The tarp billowed around her, even as her Evangelion stood on the end of the carrier deck, watching the horizon. Eight ships sunk in four minutes. Tapping buttons and console keys, Asuka thought as much as typed her intent to the computer. Without the MAGI, she had to update her HUD manually. Information swept through her field of vision, marking the sinking ships and those still seaworthy.
In the corner of her eye, the mission timer ticked up by milliseconds. Half a mile distant, the Angel breached and arced over another cargo ship. A whipping line of flesh cleaved the hull in half from port to starboard, and the Angel slid under the surface. Across the ocean, two pairs of battleships opened fire, hitting nothing but water. Asuka huffed, and a bubble of spent air slid past her teeth. Othello, Majorie, Helvetica, UN Regent...Mostly cargo ships, with one destroyer that had been in the wrong place at the wrong time.
The mission timer hit three minutes, and Asuka huffed again. She hated waiting. A box marked 'sound only' slid into her field of view, but she tossed her head and banished it to the side. A list of vessels in the fleet spread out on the other side. Misato's voice echoed inside the plug. "Asuka, are you getting this?"
"Yeah," The girl turned left or right inside the plug, and her Evangelion's head and shoulders followed. "It's sinking whatever it feels like."
Stolocker broke in then. "Be that as it may, my navy's getting slaughtered out there. The girl and her toy better be worth it, Major."
Asuka chose not to dignify that with a response, silencing the radio with a thought. She leaned, adjusting her Evangelion's center of gravity enough to ride the carrier's leading edge like a surfboard. Not that she'd ever surfed before, but the physics were close enough. The tarp caught the wind and fluttered, bound against her body with an arm around her collar. Asuka slid her eyes over the horizon, marking the smears of smoke along the way. None of the mundane weapons were cutting it, not as surface bombardment.
Now... how to increase her threat level. In passive mode, the AT field was like a third limb that always hung around, curled close to the body. She let it unfurl, almost lazily. Today there wasn't any need to chase after her synchronization, it was just there, waiting. Asuka felt her perception shift, the world around her didn't so much go solid as full, like her sight and will could be anywhere within her domain. The Absolute Territory of Evangelion Unit 02.
The second her field interpenetrated the water, the swell that marked the Angel cut hard right, making a shaper turn than it had any right to. Asuka licked her lips and tasted blood- no matter how they filtered the LCL she knew it was there. "Well, that was a lucky guess."
Most of the fleet were charging ahead, moving at full speed and leaving the wrecks in their wake. Rescue craft lagged behind, scooping up crew who'd been knocked overboard, or around the lifeboats from the sunk ships. Spots of fluorescent green dye dotted the Pacific, marking where men in life vests bobbed. Whatever the Angel was, it moved faster underwater than they did. Then the creature crossed into Asuka's range of influence, and her senses went haywire.
Synesthesia was the accurate term, but she just called it mush. Her inner ear was telling her the color orange tasted like chocolate. Her stomach growled despite the sudden nausea; she hadn't eaten all day. Asuka pulled the field in and grit her teeth. Sickness aside, she knew where the Angel was coming from. She pivoted smartly on the deck, tarp wrapped tight like a cloak and billowing behind her. Misato broke in again on the radio, saying something about the Angel's field, but there was no time. The swell burst and the whale-thing jumped.
Long and thin, it had two scoop-like fins on either side, like forward-swept manta ray wings. The Angel crossed over the ship, trailing more than enough water to sweep the deck clean of everything save the Eva itself. Sunlight scattered through the falling water, throwing rainbows across the carrier and fleet. Asuka looked up at the creature's white underbelly and grinned. Everyone outside should have gotten below by that time, but for whoever hadn't, they were in for one hell of a show.
Then the Angel brought its primary weapon into play. A length of flesh and muscle like the lantern on an Angler fish whipped forward, drawing a line through her Eva and across the deck. Asuka felt her skin prickle beneath her plugsuit as she wrenched hard on the controls. A hard spur of bone on the striking end raked around even as the Evangelion backpedaled half a step, pounding a heel-print crater into the deck. The bone edge missed her left arm by yards, but the nearly invisible AT field cut through her own opposed space, and the armor lining her wrist.
Standing though, Asuka brought her other arm up, knife-hand and aiming to tear. The Angel's massive weight worked against it, and the Evangelion's fingers dug a long ragged trench into its underbelly. Grey blood splashed out and down Asuka's arm and cloak, flushing seawater away from the deck. The shock and impact ran down the Evangelion and into the carrier below, buckling deck plates and shoving the vessel down into the water.
For a split second, the open hangar accesses flooded, before the ship righted itself, springing up and almost bouncing out of the water. The Angel twisted in mid-air, disengaging and screaming even as it lashed out with the cutting limb. Asuka twisted and planted her feet, letting the blade pass through where she stood. A ragged end of cut tarp blew out to sea, even as the Angel darted back underwater, shaking the carrier along the way.
Asuka stepped around and held up her arm, checking the thick band of poured composite surrounding her Evangelion's wrist. Bolted around, and sometimes into her partner, the new upgrade bulked out the Evangelion in round curving shapes. What she'd lost in grace, the Eva made up for in sheer volume of presence. Asuka let her arm drop and turned to watch the Angel slide around.
As a purely physical defense, the new armor was amazing, but no amount of material science was going to stop a weaponized AT field. "Misato!"
Misato's audio-window flipped back into view. "Yeah Asuka?"
The girl kept one eye out on the ocean while she toed the deck with a foot."You saw what it did?"
"We did. Everyone down in Ops on the AT field gear got readings." There was a rustle and hustle on the bridge before Misato came back. "I'm no Ritsuko, but we're thinking it's AT field adapted for the water. Cutting's just a side effect."
Very much a self-evident effect, Asuka could see the results firsthand. A line several yards wide cleaved through the carrier, all the way down to the hangar two or three decks down. Fires were already starting to throw smoke out into the air. Asuka glanced back up at the horizon, only to see the Angel leap out of the water again and cut a battleship apart. A sickly grey smear of ichor stained the ocean, trailing away from the carrier, mingling with the wakes of nearly twenty surviving ships.
The tarp billowed out around the Evangelion again, coated with blood and beading water. Asuka uncurled her index finger and tapped a particular command sequence. "I can handle this," She sighed and reached out over her back, even as a series of charges detonated along her back and shoulders. "... Though I really never wanted to fight like a samurai."
Shredded by deployment, the tarp gave way completely save for a ragged collar around the Evangelion's neck. It clung to her throat and caught on the shoulder storage fins, trailing behind like a scarf. A hilt as long as three of her Evangelion's hands popped out from over her shoulder. Drawn overhand, the weapon was half as long as the Eva was tall and heaved up by payload rocket assist. It all but leapt into Asuka's waiting hand. Held under tension by a core of self-tightening cable bundles, a series massive double-edged ceramic segments clicked and linked together.
NERV called it the Non-Progressive Prototype Blade. Asuka called it Wellenbrecher.
Unfurling her field once more, Asuka turned to track the rushing surge of water. She grinned faintly and tasted LCL -blood- again. Tasty treat- good to eat, come to me my sweet...
Stolocker stared at the radio, jaw hanging slack. "What is that girl doing?"
Misato paid him no mind, though Asuka's impromptu rhyme stuck in her head just as insistently. Hands were clamped tight around every rail and console, leaving knuckles strained white. Misato was no different, holding on to the a stanchion for dear life. The sudden jerk from earlier had nearly knocked everyone to the floor. Meanwhile Asuka had already figured out how to bait the hook, maybe faster than the Major could have, but Misato wasn't feeling picky right then either. She scanned the bridge and every screen she could for information.
The planes in the air were at best expensive lifeboats- no way for surface to air missile strikes. A muted screech of metal and booms marked the destruction of another ship, probably loaded with extra fuel or ammunition. More and more of the Eva's specialized weapons were being taken out of play by random chance, and that bugged Misato far more than anything. A smart enemy she could respect. This one was dumb, for now. She glanced at a sonar screen, watching a wobbly patch of water move closer to the center line and the Over the Rainbow itself.
Faster, but there was only one of it... and it liked to jump. Misato leaned around her handhold, hissing. "Admiral!"
The old man snarled in return. "What!?"
Misato waved her free arm, sketching out a tightening circle. "Bring everyone in closer- all the surviving ships!"
The carrier shook again, from what no one could say for certain. Another officer rattled off a damage report, but their engines were still running at the red. Stolocker forced his cap further down on his head and growled. "That's insane Katsuragi!"
"Running isn't working and we can't spread out. Don't you realize guerilla tactics when you see them?" The blank stare the Admiral gave her answered that. Well, it wasn't her fault nobody else understood Unnatural Warfare. She just shrugged, wide eyed and expectant. "Whatever you can manage then! It's like fighting an animal submarine. Bigger shapes in the water might confuse it- it can vault the carrier, but can it jump three ships in a line?"
Outside, Asuka stood her Evangelion on the bow once more, remnants of the tarp fluttering around her neck. Arms held wide at its side, the massive sword waited, presented edge on toward the ocean. The girl's voice crackled out over the radio, lilting and bubbly. "I like Misato's plan, but you're going to have to wait- it's coming back for round two!"
She was glad the sun was out for her debut combat. Even with the armor, Asuka could feel the heat through her Evangelion's skin. She watched the rushing bulge of water curved around the fleet, tracing a lazy teardrop shape as it circled. It knew she was there now- no need to rush in. Crew on ships all across the fleet rushed to life-boats, letting the freighters churn ahead on autopilot. The destroyers and battleships stayed in though, alternating fire and doing their level best to score a hit.
"Misato-" She snapped, urgent and focused.
The Major's voice came back immediately. "What do you need, Asuka?"
Scanning the carrier and rest of the fleet, Asuka bit her lip, thinking. "Is the deck clear?"
Admiral Stolocker answered in the affirmative, and Asuka nodded mostly to herself. The pilot shifted, holding her sword forward at the ready, hands stacked on top of the other along the hilt. Ahead, the Angel completed its turn and accelerated, angling in straight for the Over the Rainbow. Asuka started counting seconds. "When I say, hit the breaks. Cut the engines, drop the anchor, whatever works."
"Wha-?" Misato was only confused for a fraction of a second. "Okay! You got it."
The girl dismissed the reply as soon as it was made. Seconds, she had to count them. That's what she needed. Asuka kept her eyes on the approaching bulge of water. Vier, drei. White curls of foam built up on the leading edge, spilling over and spreading out. Zwei. For a moment she wondered why it wasn't diving lower, letting the ocean hide such an obvious tell. The rest of Asuka's mind decided it wasn't important yet and kept counting down. Just off the bow, the bulge of water dropped, and Asuka's heart leapt into her throat. She screamed the order.
Ein!
Exploding out of the water, the Angel sailed up into the air and lashed down with its bladed limb. It hung there in the sky for a long, agonizing second, and Asuka shouted to Misato. The pilot couldn't see it, but a hand came down on the throttle and the carrier groaned, jerking to not a stop but a bouncing, skidding turn. There was too much ship moving entirely too fast to stop in any meaningful way, but the sudden slowing was more than enough. With it's jump miss-timed, the Angel screamed as it bottomed out hard on the deck, ripping up deck plates and crushing what few aircraft remained. One wide fin gouged a hole in the bridge structure, leaving a handful of floors gutted to open air.
Asuka meanwhile stepped neatly to the side, letting the Angel grind along the deck. The ship lurched and bobbed in the ocean, suddenly off balance as it strained to remain upright. The Evangelion took a pair of stalking steps around, utterly composed even as Asuka raised her weapon. That blade came down and directed the weight of a small building into its cutting edge. White flesh split apart, drenching the deck in grey blood once more. Some flooded into the holes and rents torn in the surface, running down into the hangar and lower decks. From her vantage point, Asuka could see the crew already leaping to action inside, taking fire hoses to the soupy mess and growing fires.
Buried tip first up to the second segment in the deck, the sword had cleaved the Angel's tail off in one blow.
The foremost third of the Angel almost slid to the far end of the carrier, leaving it's limp tail far behind. Over the Rainbow groaned as the bow lurched out of the water. Forced to take strains it hadn't been meant to, the ship groaned at the middle, tugging hard on every bolt and weld. The Angel's massive weight settled at the stern, just to the side of the bridge island. The creature's alien fins twitched and spasmed on the flight deck, thrashing for a bit before going still. Blood spilt off the carrier's edges and into the water, spreading dirty white gunk in its dwindling wake. With hands wrapped around the hilt, Unit 02 wrenched the sword out and gave it a rough shake.
Standing bow-legged against the deck tilt and coated up to her knees in grey ichor, Asuka stood between the pieces of her kill, turning to face the bridge. "So, how's that for Angel hunti-Grkl!"
A wall of white half as tall as the Evangelion slammed into its torso, cracking dorsal armor and throwing a glittering cloud of red flakes into the air. Against a human the thumb-sized shards would have been deadly hazardous shrapnel. The Angel's tail however felt no pain. Like a severed lizard's tail, the limb squirmed and bucked, coiling across the carrier and bashing against the Evangelion again and again.
Inside the plug, Asuka coughed, feeling her ribs creak from synchronization backlash. Pushed to the ships' port edge, the Evangelion windmilled over open ocean. She willed her AT field into being, angling and aspecting it to protect her against all comers. The flailing tail hit thin air, stopping cold against the crackling orange boundary. Tangled around her free arm, the Evangelion's power cable stretched taut, holding her and the Evangelion leaning over the edge. She stalled, balanced on the arches of her feet while the front half of the Angel stirred.
Misato shouted from inside the bridge, ordering the crew to activate the cable winch. The tail kept thrashing, mashing deep craters into the carrier's top level and crushing the chambers below. Shit. Asuka scowled, staring through her Eva's eyes at the spreading damage. Shit-shit. Secondary fires were spreading throughout the ship, and the rest of the Angel was stirring. The finned bulk shuffled forward, seemingly desperate to get out of the air and back into the water. Small favors it wasn't whipping everywhere with the blade-tentacle.
Asuka looked up at the winch holding her up, then the bridge. The view jumped forward, zooming in far enough to see the shattered windows and handfuls of people belting orders into radios. Misato was spread between three phones, half working alongside Stolocker and half around him from breath to breath. Turning back to the tail, Asuka let out an ugly snort. That thing had to go. If she left too long and there wouldn't be any carrier to fight from, and she sure as hell didn't want any more people to die either!
Shifting her grip on the sword, Asuka tugged on the cable and snapped her weight forward, dropping her AT field in the same instant. The Angel tail writhed and reared up almost like it could see her, but that suited her just fine. Thrusting the sword up, she skewered the tail at the thickest point before the sliced end, leaving the tip of the blade sticking out the other side. The carrier shook as the tail beat another line of dents into the metal, and before Asuka could move, the severed limb swung back and caught her full in the chest.
The Evangelion sailed bodily over the edge of the deck before it jerked back. The plug wrenched hard in the socket along her spine, nearly snapping off on the winch end. Over the Rainbow swung in the water a few dozen yards as the Eva spent all its energy pulling the ship. Asuka hung over the water for a split second, watching the tail and Angel slip back under the surface.
Then she fell.
Cold!
Saltwater soaked into the Evangelion's every nook and cranny, boiling under water and throwing up a cloud of rapidly collapsing bubbles. The Eva itself sank not unlike a stone, corkscrewing down and spindling oddly around the still-connected power socket. Inside the entry plug, Asuka's arms shook, straining against the controls as the tumble forced her into out of the seat and into the walls. She grit her teeth and heaved, jerking hard on the butterfly sticks. The Evangelion understood her mental directive and threw its arms out, sweeping through the water and stopping the spin.
A hundred meters down, any light in the water was so faint as to be useless for regular eyes. Floodlights all over the Eva's neck and shoulders threw out beams of white that caught clouds of dust and scattered fish as well as the spreading cloud of angelic blood. Looking up, Asuka could still see the hulls of the Pacific Fleet, silhouetted against the afternoon sun. On the surface, ships slowly moved into tighter formations, lashing their hulls together and providing mutual support. Asuka could only see that by the cigar-shaped shadows changing position, or the simple map her Eva's on board computer provided.
More importantly, the Angel was gone.
All told she'd been sinking for less than fifteen seconds, and the radio snapped on. "Asuka! Asuka can you hear me?!"
The Eva panned its head left and right. Silt and whatever else was in the ocean cut her visibility to damn near zero. She flipped to other vision modes while she answered. "I'm here Misato."
"The winch is shot, not that we ever expected to have to reel an Eva in by their umbilical cable." The officer's voice came in clear, which made sense really. Asuka wasn't that far below. The pilot took a short breath, surprisingly calm given the circumstances. Still high on adrenaline, she supposed.
Misato had kept talking too. "So, just sit tight for now. The Angel's shoved off somewhere- it's hard to track by sonar and radar, maybe something to do with it's AT-Field."
Asuka nodded, more out of habit than anything. They'd have needed a NERV setup to get plug video. "I can sense the thing with my field if I tune it right but-"
"You can make an AT field do that?"
"Of course I can do that." The redhead snorted, too distracted to feel particularly offended. "I was going to teach Rei and Ikari too."
There was a shout on the other end of the line, the Admiral giving orders and people moving to and fro. Misato came back a second later. "We're on damage control up here and preparing for the third round. Is there anything we can do here?"
Asuka scanned the surrounding area with thermal enhancement, not seeing anything worth mentioning. She twisted around the cable, uncomfortably like bait on a hook. Everything was sluggish, even if the Type-C dive equipment- The girl sighed then, groaning. "Stupid rush job!"
The Major stammered, letting out a brief sound of indignation. Asuka shot back with a clarification. "No no, it's the armor," She shrugged her Evangelion's shoulder, testing her theory. Sluggish, very sluggish. "That' s it. Wasn't built with the dive equipment in mind. My buoyancy's all screwed."
"Are you going to be alright?"
Asuka felt a frown work its way onto her face. The concern was nice but... "I'll be fine, I just can't maneuver worth a damn unless I blow the skin off." Switching to light-enhancement, Asuka tried to make heads or tails of the murky Caribbean. "Dropped my sword too. Do you guys see it up there?"
A half-dozen ships with surviving sensors were patched in then, alongside Misato and the Over the Rainbow. A chorus of 'negatives' and 'no ma'am's were her only response. Meanwhile the Evangelion's eyes began to adjust, or maybe Asuka's were. Her synchronization was hovering at a steady eighty-eight, and she resisted the urge to clamp down on it like vice. Trying for sync just made it harder.
Without a frame of reference either, there was almost no way to tell how long she'd been underwater. The LCL and Evangelion itself would protect her from most everything except the Angel, which still wasn't showing up. A flash of white caught her eye, but it turned out to be a dead fish. Normal dead fish, her mind amended. She let out a long slow breath, head drooping forward. The most recent surge of adrenaline drained out as quickly as it had arrived, leaving her shaky.
Staring out into the bloody murk, Asuka triggered a new control. Her left shoulder pylon popped open and revealed a boxy and familiar shape; Progressive Knife. She drew the weapon and took a deep breath. Now all she had to do was wait.
Crap. She sucked at waiting.
Smoke rose up in thick plumes over several miles of ocean, marking ruined and sinking ships. More than a few survivors were burning too, with crew fighting hard to put out the fires. The fleet had lost over a dozen ships, but no one was certain yet. The bulk had thankfully been skeleton crews, freighters loaded with Evangelion weapons and replacement parts, alongside more pedestrian fuel and naval materials. Past that, there was no clear word on casualties. Hundreds easily, to say nothing below decks, probably more.
Misato bit her lip and looked out over the horizon, barely noticing the wind rushing into the bridge. The windows had shattered when the Angel jumped and fell onto the carrier. Over the Rainbow's flight deck was absolutely totaled, left crumpled and shredded. The Evangelion's umbilical cable had caught on an aircraft elevator and crushed the device. Now the carrier just struggled to stay level. Massive tears had been ripped all the way through to the hangar below.
Mere minutes after active combat, the Admiral had ordered damage control and rescue.
"We can't afford that." She turned to stare the older man down, not at all bothered by his height, rank, or weight. "We need to get ready for round three or we're all good as dead."
Almost everyone present on the bridge fell silent at that statement. Officers and crew slid their eyes over to her, and Misato met every glance with a full, sharp stare of her own. There was not going to be any miscommunication, not here, not now. Hands were tight on consoles while the wind tugged at shirtsleeves. The Admiral moved over, apparently calm and carefully restrained. The air still shook from his passing.
"Explain to me why, Katsuragi." Stolocker stopped just short of Misato's toes. He threw his arm out, waving past the broken windows and the deceptively calm waters. "I have men and women in the water waiting for pickup."
Misato just folded her arms over her chest, scowling. "Simple. Angels don't hang around for any reason. It probably attacked somewhere else and we simply haven't heard it yet, and any help we call in is going to come in after that crisis."
Now eyes were sliding between them. A part of Misato thought it was something like a strategic tennis volley, bouncing between ideologies. She forced her mouth to stay fixed and scowling. A smirk would've sent the wrong message. Officers halted their tasks mid-motion. Some had been clearing glass away from consoles, others were in the process of being bandaged.
The Admiral stared down at Misato, and white of his eyes stood out in the shadows cast by his hat."So what then, you expect me to leave them stranded in the water?"
"For now? Yeah, that's what I expect, Admiral." Misato dropped her arms and stalked across the small walkway between bridge stations. She leaned up, standing on tip-toes but not caring, not as long as it got her nose-to-nose with the old fossil. "I expect that, because I am in command of this fleet until the Angel is dead. I expect that because if we're not ready for the next attack we all will die, and then no one will be around to save your people."
Stolocker growled through his steel-wire beard and bristly moustache. His hat down to his fists were shaking, before he grit out a quiet, furious 'Yes Major'. Misato had no trouble hearing what he hadn't said. She looked around the bridge, admittedly aware that guiding aircraft was the Operation Room's responsibility.
She caught the eye of another officer and nodded, speaking quietly. "How many fighters made it into the air? Never mind, doesn't matter; tell them to run search patterns for people in the water as long as their fuel lasts. After that they should go to the nearest airfield."
The man blinked once but nodded, relaying the orders, but during a break he paused. Holding the microphone against his shoulder, he frowned. "But shouldn't we keep fighters on station anyway? They're full on munitions."
Misato stretched languidly, for the moment unconcerned about an impending Angel attack. Uncertainty was her stock and trade after all. To his question, Misato just gave the man a slightly bloodthirsty smile. "Well, the Angel is probably going to attack a long time before those jets have to land so..."
The Admiral glanced over, and the trembling eased, slightly.
Kaji leaned through the an open door, already run ragged. He'd been bandaged, gauze taped around his head and soaked through with blood, and more had trailed down his face to stain the collar of his shirt. In short, he looked like hell, and Misato winced.
"Yo, Katsuragi." He waved then, a little sluggishly. She watched the inspector stare blankly at the officers and crew milling about the bridge. "So, what's happening?"
She ignored him and turned to another sailor. Now Misato allowed herself to smirk. "Question: About how many torpedoes can we put in the water?"
Asuka wasn't sure what was worse; not being able to see or having nothing to see. She panned the Evangelion's head left and right, having long since shut off the floodlights. Fidgeting, she flexed her actual fingers and rolled her shoulders, letting out a low, short grunt "M'sato gonna owe me ten dozen massages after this..."
Waiting still sucked too. Bits of grit and tiny marine life spun in curling clouds around the Evangelion's eyes. It was just enough movement to catch her attention, but frustratingly random. The blood wasn't helping either. Thick and silty, more like mud than anything that belonged in veins. Asuka sighed and let a bubble of spent air out. Boredom always brought out her annoyingly analytic side.
Then the ocean currents changed. Water started to move, pushed or pulled by something Asuka couldn't say, but the surrounding ocean started to clear. Twisting shafts of sunlight reached down to her level, and one played over a distant, deadly familiar shape. Adrenaline spiked up and Asuka snapped to action, directing the camera to zoom and taking in whatever detail she could.
Half a mile away, the Angel hung nearly motionless in the water. Not dead, as far as the pattern sensors informed her. It had swum around and collected its tail, or maybe its tail had collected it, she wasn't sure. In any case, the clean slice she'd inflicted had changed, healed together with bulging, tumorous-looking growths. At the base of the tail just behind that wound, a thin trail of fresh grey blood leaked out from where she'd stabbed Wellenbrecher. The sword haft jutted out at an angle along the Angel's belly.
And, as soon as Asuka realized that, the Angel twisted. It went from a drifting dead stop to relentless speed. The leading edges along its massive beak and fins were churning with white froth, driving up spiraling corkscrews of ocean dust, dead fish and blood.
Stuck dangling on the umbilical, Asuka spat and jerked hard at the controls. There was only so much she could do without a full range of motion! Her extra armor was great, but it threw off her dive upgrades too. Biting off a sigh, she put the could-haves and if-onlys out of her mind. Instead, the Evangelion swung its arms and legs, pushing enough to start swinging. Ahead the Angel charged in, cleaving through the water like it wasn't even there. It blew past in a near miss, sending Asuka wildly out of control. Trailing at the end of the power cable, Asuka swung around in an awkward, erratic circle. Up on the surface, the Over the Rainbow was probably pitching to one side. At that moment though, Asuka could not afford to care.
Curling around, the Angel lined up for another pass. Asuka let out a quiet snort and nodded. As long as she was still hooked to power she might as well use it. Unfolding her AT-Field, Asuka visualized an actualized opposition between her and the creature. This was what she was good at, and Asuka was more than ready to prove it.
The Angel finished its turn and spun neatly, charging in once more. Asuka continued to spin on the end of the line, kicking her legs to steady the orbit. The whole time, she kept her eye and attention on one particular bit of ocean, the one place she declared immutable. She was no where near that point, but that honestly didn't matter as long as the Angel crossed the invisible line- and it did. The creature hit her unfolded AT-field almost head on, and for a moment it compacted, its beak-nose flattening out before snapping forward. A heavy, concussive clap of displaced water created an ominous swell up on the surface, and it sent Asuka whirling again, even though she was hundreds of feet away.
Energy spent, the Angel skidded along the plane-aspected obstacle, it's own water-cutting fields tearing a gaping line in Asuka's before it deflected fully. It beat the water with the massive tail before shooting off again, gearing up for a third pass. Inside the plug, Asuka unhooked her legs from the seat and let out a long, slow breath. It wouldn't fall for that again.
At the moment though, the Angel was content to take an even longer circuit, probably thinking of a new angle to attack from. Asuka wasn't going to complain, short of it making things complicated. It was an Angel, she was a pilot. She was going to kill it, no need to gild the lily. In the meantime though, she wondered. Raising her Eva's arm, Asuka focused, tugging at the region of altered space that defined her AT-Field. She'd hundreds of experiments back in Germany, but none of them with or even under water. The Angel's water-blade trick didn't look that complex, she wondered.
The radio snapped on and Misato's voice filled her ear. "Asuka! We're getting tugged around a lot up here, what's going on!"
"It's trying to kill me and probably the fleet." Asuka couldn't help the distant tone, focused as she was. She swished her arm through the water a few times, but no joy on reducing resistance. "Right now I'm trying to figure out how the Angel moves so fast."
"Shit- Well we're having trouble tracking it on radar and sonar, but we've got cameras in the water now and gearing up for torpedo cover." Misato clicked off the line for a second, and Asuka wiggled her fingers, keeping one Evangelion eye out for the Angel. Misato came back a second later. "As for movement, the Admiral's boys tell me it's something like a pump-jet. Like a jet-ski"
Another familiar voice broke in then, though Asuka wasn't up for her normal routine, not right then. She could still feel Kaji's smirk through her radio. "So like that one time in Cuba?"
Misato squawked, stammered and for a moment, completely lost her military composure. "I told you never to mention that again!"
"Relax Katsuragi, you looked fine." He didn't wait for an answer from Misato. Instead he focused on Asuka, audibly concerned. "So how are you doing, Asuka?"
Ahead, the Angel was getting closer and moving fast. It was going to eat up the mile between them in no time. To Kaji she huffed and tossed her hair by habit more than anything. "Bit busy for you right now, Kaji-san. Go flirt with Misato some more."
Letting go of any progress on water-cutting, Asuka refocused her field on defense. She fixed a point of space ahead of where she'd be, where the Angel was going to try and cut her down. The massive fish-thing hurtled forward, and Asuka counted the seconds before impact. At the last moment though, the Angel shifted, abusing its flexibility and cutting a new spiral path through the surrounding ocean. It swept past her field, only cutting a slice out of one edge as its fin crossed her Absolute Territory.
Asuka reeled herself in mentally and physically, throwing a warding hand up to block the inevitable. The hasty last-second barrier she put up between her and the Angel shattered. A half-second later the full weight of the Angel slammed into her Evangelion's stomach, and Asuka felt a rib crack. Acceleration forced her forward, bent half over the seat's center console, and her jaw clamped down so hard it was a miracle she missed breaking any teeth. After that, her whole face ached on top of the growing pain in her side. A second, metallic snap echoed out through her Evangelion, and for a split-second, the plug went icy cold.
Her power cable had been ripped out, and emergency batteries kicked on. Plugsuit life-support spun up, numbing her chest and forcing her body to relax. She would have rather dealt with the pain. Asuka heaved back in her seat and grabbed the controls once more, turning her attention back outside. Pinned by water and the Angel's own constant movement, Asuka at least had more free reign to move, unhooked. She glanced at her left hand and grinned. Raising that arm, she brought the progressive knife down into the Angel's snout, hard.
The strike had cut a ragged slice through the tip of its beak, well forward of the tiny bird mask at the top crown. Oddly, it wasn't using the blade tendril either, just letting it trail behind. A fresh plume of blood flooded into the ocean, and the Angel bucked, flinging her up then as soon as her blade met flesh. Tumbling hard end over end, Asuka only got one glimpse of the Angel before something completely aborted her rational train of thought.
"Nobody said anything about teeth!"
Banking over and curling up like a serpent, the Angel stood poised before her Eva. It hung there for a long second, just watching. Then the water-cutting whale opened its mouth and bit down.
Whatever pain Asuka expected never came. She cracked one eye open and checked a damage report- superficial. The armor still worked. Outside, Asuka and her Evangelion hung out of the Angel's mouth by one leg, stuck limp even as the Angel carved through the water. A handful of it's teeth had broken off against the ceramic wrapped around her Evangelion's thigh. Ha! Serves you right!
Still, she needed her weapon. The pilot ran through her options and resources, scowling more and more every passing second. Her batteries were good with twelve-minutes of power left sure, but using her AT field for any length of time was right out. The progressive knife thankfully hadn't gone anywhere, still buried in the Angel's nose and just out of reach.
"Asuka! We lost the umbilical- what's happening!?"
"Damn thing tried to eat me!" The pilot bent the Evangelion forward at the waist, reaching for the Angel's nose and coming up short. "It's gonna take me a sec to get loose."
"No that's perfect! Listen, we can track your Eva, and we've got enough more than enough torpedoes up he-" A sudden burst acceleration cut Misato off, and Asuka's vision greyed out along her right side.
Shoved into the plug wall, Asuka forced her awareness out, into the Eva and the surrounding ocean. The Angel twisted hard in the water, whipping the Eva around by its thigh. It spun and twisted and angled up for the surface, towards the aircraft carrier's hull.
The Angel turned, curving around while Asuka flailed both as the Eva and inside the entry plug. In one smooth arc, the Angel turned and ground Asuka against the ship above. Shrieks of metal on ceramic echoed through the plug and every inch of the Evangelion itself, and Asuka felt the sudden shaking twice over. Barely five seconds had passed since the Angel had caught her.
Misato's voice came back a moment later, full of static and sounding liquid. "-suka! What's that noise?!"
Asuka peeled herself away from the wall and rubbed her brow. She sucked in a quick breath and pulled her hand back, not at all surprised to see it come away bloody. "Just... getting my bearings."
Whipping around for another pass, the Angel carved out into open water. Asuka found her Evangelion folded over the whale-thing's nose. Water tore at the Evangelion's arms and shoulder pylons, pulling out interior bolts and connections. The pilot willed her attention forward, eyes focusing in on the bit of red and black metal still wedged on the white, toothy beak. Her massive hand curled around the knife hilt and ripped it free, throwing up a new plume of blood. The Angel shuddered, biting down harder with broken teeth.
Tumbling, the Angel rolled her in the water like an alligator, or a frenzied shark. Asuka's own thigh burned, even as her Evangelion's limb creaked. Glancing over her shoulder, she saw the fleet getting closer and closer. By that point Asuka had lost track of her adrenaline highs, but another fresh burst flooded her veins. Pinned or not though, she still had her free hand and her knife. Screaming, Asuka brought her empty fist down into the nearest exposed tooth, cracking it apart in one shot. A second hit shattered more enamel, as did the third and forth.
Not enough to get free though. Now Asuka turned to the knife. Flipping it over in her fingers, she brought it down overhand, carving a new scar into the Angel's snout. It bucked and twisted hard, but still held on. More slashes carved away chunks of white flesh, and the Angel bore down faster on the fleet flagship. Asuka risked a look over her shoulder and paled. Spending minutes of her backup battery, she unfurled her field.
The Angel bit into the sudden obstacle, one of the water-cutting fields around its right fin collapsed and forced it to grind along the altered space for seconds or more. Stopped short of the carrier by a hundred yards, the Angel coiled up and snapped its head around. It's mouth opened at the last second and Asuka found herself free for the first time in what felt like forever. She tumbled through the water and pumped her arms and legs- fighting for whatever bit of distance she could get.
Misato and Kaji said something, but Asuka didn't have time to listen. The Angel spun around again, faster than a snake and just as limber. It cut through the water, mouth yawning wide open for another bite-and-pin maneuver. This time Asuka was ready for it. She kicked down, catching one armored heel on the Angel's mauled nose. Flipping overhead in the water, she, caught her hand around the base of the whipping-blade tendril and slid back. The creature's undulating mass of flesh spread out beneath her for hundreds of yards, going narrow and wide as its whale-manta body shot forward.
Orange lines and telemetry spread out through Asuka's field of view, highlighting her sword hilt, just past the tumorous scar. She reached out then, part computer assistance and part raw skill. Her fingers hooked around the massive pommel and her whole arm jerked, hyperextended as she bled off momentum. Motion caught her eye, and for a second, Asuka swore she was seeing double. Ahead, veiny boils and pustules of flesh lined the ragged wound, and wriggling shapes squirmed inside. Infantile angels, part regeneration and part spawn.
Asuka drove her knife into the nearest blister and cut the embryo apart. "...Gross."
Hundreds of feet ahead, the Angel's nose dipped down towards darker waters. Asuka had a second to note the delay of watching the body curl and flex away from her. A second later, the tail snapped up, tossing her away from the Angel and ripping the sword free in the same move. Stuck at neutral buoyancy, Asuka twisted slowly in the water while the Angel prepared for another high-speed charge. Asuka settled back into her seat and let out a long, slow breath. Six minutes of battery power and dropping fast, Spreading her arms, she waited. Progressive knife in her left hand, Wellenbrecher in her right.
A thought-command reconnected her to the fleet. "Misato, Kaji? I think I could use some help down here..."
Over the Rainbow listed dangerously off to port and threw smoke into the sky from a dozen fires. Half the bridge officers had rushed below decks to help with damage control. Katsuragi Misato stood at the radio console while Kaji hovered behind. Not a concern, not when her enemy was down there with Asuka.
The radio hissed out static, and Asuka's voice pitched faster and higher with every word. "I have ten seconds before this thing hits me again. Misato, If you've got a plan, do it fast!"
Misato leaned into the radio and pressed the call button. "Asuka, you are going to let the Angel hit you and then hold on for as long as you can."
"You want me to what!?"
Seconds ticked by even as she explained, but it was necessary. "Our torpedoes can't track it, but they can track you. Get away from the Angel as soon as the torpedoes get close."
"Okay I'll do it-ohshithereitcomes!"
Misato turned to the nearest officer, already holding a phone to his ear and waiting for the order. She opened her mouth-
"-Fire torpedoes!"
The Angel slammed into Asuka's Evangelion, this time catching her not on the beak or nose, but in the shoulder where the fin flared out and merged into the beast's neck. Asuka coughed, wondering for a moment if another rib had just cracked. She put the pain out of her mind and focused. Sword and knife in hand, she rolled in the crook of the Angel's body. Swinging hard, her sword cleaved a long line into the Angel's side, sending a spiraling jet of blood into the water. The Angel shoved, flexing its body and throwing her forward only to whip around and slam her again with its tail.
Thrown around her plug again, Asuka spat out blood and snarled. Damn thing was learning!
A new countdown timer popped up in her display, marking time to first torpedo impact. For the moment alone in the water, it was a great reminder they were focusing on her and not the Angel. Biting off a curse, Asuka kicked hard and swam, shedding hubcap-sized flakes of cracked composite as she went. The Angel met her halfway then, circling around and darting in for another attack. Rolling on her back relative to the Angel's top, Asuka swung her knife down and drove it in deep. Acceleration ripped a long line of ragged flesh out of the Angel's head and back, spending momentum until the Evangelion shuddered to a halt.
Asuka shook her head then and worked her knife in deeper, holding on for dear life. To her right, the base of the blade-whip tendril rose up beside her, trailing behind the Angel even as it hurtled through the water. Raising her sword, Asuka hacked it off for good measure, sending the length of white flesh off into the ocean. Sonar pings started to bounce around Asuka's ears, enhanced or interpreted by the Evangelion's own sensors. The torpedoes were close now, filling the surrounding ocean and hunting for the one thing they could see; her.
Just ahead and below the rise of it's round head was the tiny, chitinous bone mask, like the First Angel's. Wellenbrecher's pommel made short work of it. The Angel screamed then, making a sound other than moving water and muscle. It shook the water and Asuka inside the plug, rattling her bones against her heart and lungs. Bucking hard, the Angel flung her off its back and into the open water for a third time, already moving in for a kill. Its gap-toothed mouth yawned wide and swallowed her whole.
For a second it was dark, and warmer than the surrounding ocean. Floodlights snapped on, and Asuka found her Eva squished between hard palate and a tongueless jaw. "Shit! Misato! I'm in it's goddamn mouth!"
No answer. Against all odds Wellenbrecher had made it inside too, but there was no room to swing. Crunched in as she was, Asuka shifted and kicked, aiming for more of the Angel's massive teeth. Behind her the Angel bellowed again. Glancing past her shoulder pylon, a flash of red against white sent the blood draining out of her face. A goddamn core. Now she didn't just have to get out, but keep the thing's freaking mouth open.
She kicked harder, breaking one tooth, then another. Blood wafted out of ruined gums even as the Angel rushed around the Caribbean. Asuka's depth gauge flicked on and she watched it climb, drop and climb. Gravity and acceleration tugged at her hair, and she forced herself to focus. Along one Evangelion shoulder, a battery shorted out, lost to saltwater contamination. The impact timer ticked down faster and faster, and Asuka swore. Stupid adrenaline throwing off her perception of time!
Inching forward, Asuka worked her way to the Angel's mouth and shoved one arm out. A shoulder pylon snapped off against a surviving tooth, but Asuka paid it no mind. Easier leverage in the long run. Asuka worked to get her legs under her, bearing down hard on the butterfly sticks as she urged her Evangelion onward. Her synchronization jumped two points in response. The torpedoes were seconds out, twenty, more likely ten. Planting both feet in the jaw, Asuka heaved. The Angel thrashed hard and tried to bite down, but Asuka refused to bend.
Two meters, five, ten, twenty. Braced against her shoulder, Asuka forced the Angel's mouth open, nearly as wide as the Evangelion was tall. Then she pushed it more, arms shaking inside the plug alongside the Evangelion's. The torpedoes were close enough to see, throwing tiny spirals of bubbling vacuum out behind, even as they zeroed in on her red machine. Again Asuka counted down, timing everything down to the closet second. The first torpedo blew past her hip, right into the Angel's mouth.
Asuka didn't bother counting the rest; there were far too many.
The explosion was few hundred meters away from the Over the Rainbow. A column of water a thousand feet high and a third as wide shot up into the air along with a swell that lifted dozens of surviving ships and people bobbing in the water. Seawater rained down all over the Pacific Fleet, and more than a bit made its way into the bridge, soaking everyone inside. Dripping wet, Misato and Kaji stared out at the calming ocean, and for once, she didn't mind it when his hand found hers.
He glanced out the corner of his eye and squeezed her fingers. "I think it worked."
Misato bit her lip and worked to keep her voice steady. "Yeah."
The carrier jerked, hard enough to throw people to the floor, rail and safety rope. Misato spun, using Kaji partly as a handhold and stepladder to find a working phone. "What the hell was that?!"
"Jeez, overkill much, Misato?"
As one, the pair from NERV turned to the radio console, blinking dumbly. The ship still tilted hard, shuddering every few seconds. Misato found her voice first, and the smile spread across her face faster than light. "Asuka! Where are you?"
The girl's voice came back dry and matter-of-fact, audibly smirking. "Climbing the damn umbilical. The Evangelion can't swim in this armor, remember?"
Misato nodded, smiling even wider while holding onto the console. She would've fallen over without it. "Roger that. Once you get on board we'll start recovery operations. I'm just waiting on kill-confirmation from the intercept system."
Behind her, Kaji wrapped one arm around her hip and reached for the microphone. An hour earlier, Misato would've slapped his ponytail clean off. Right then, she decided to let it slide. For now. He pressed the transmit key, smiling wide and relieved. "You gave us quite a scare there, Asuka. How're you doing?"
Outside a red hand shot out of the water and wrapped around the edge of the carrier deck, just as Asuka answered back. "Tired. And my Eva's almost out of power."
Misato smirked and broke in, nudging Kaji aside. "We'll get the spare socket hooked up a soon as we can." The ship shook again when Asuka's other arm came out of the water, along with her sword. "Had to get that back too, huh?"
"It's kind of grown on me." Asuka hauled herself completely out of the water and slumped forward, and both the machine and pilot sighed. "Guess I'll have to thank Ikari when we get back."
A flushed, sweat-streaked crewman charged out the open bridge door, a fist full of crumpled printouts in his hand. "Major Katsur-"
The Angel burst out of the water less than a hundred feet away from the aircraft carrier, covered in new, tumorous growth.
Cameras on the Evangelion's back and shoulders fed video to Asuka's forward-facing view. The Angel had changed. Covered still-healing scars and the squirming pod-growths, it stood on the water almost like an insect. Its fins had extended at the tips into long striding legs, but Asuka was completely certain it could still swim like nothing else. The water-cutting AT field now pressed into the waves, and as Asuka watched the water shift beneath the Angel's shadow, she couldn't help but think of a damn hovercraft.
Sliding sideways across the water, the Angel almost lazily circled the carrier, sizing it up for a meal. Its tail still dragged in the water, and the stump of it's whip-blade bulged with squirming tissue. Asuka sat in her plug, pitched forward by gravity and all too aware that she had ninety seconds of power left. The spare umbilical waited on board another cargo ship, a lucky survivor. Seeing that ship lashed against Over the Rainbow's side, Asuka watched massive cranes hoist the power plug out of the bay while men with ropes dragged it further onto the deck. Tens of seconds, minutes of preparation.
Turning her attention back to the Angel, Asuka took a knee and heaved her Evangelion upright. She left Wellenbrecher on the deck, carrying it would have just drained her batteries faster. No progressive knife, no guns, just her fists. The Angel pivoted lightly in the water, turning its beak and cracked bone-face.
Asuka raised her hands and grit her teeth, for once unable to bring out her customary bravado. She watched the power timer tick down. "Yeah... I can handle this."
The impact of the pressure wave was the first thing that registered, before the ocean simply erupted. Asuka rocked back in her seat and felt her jaw go slack. The radio hummed in her ear, and Admiral Stolocker's voice rumbled out. "Fire again!"
Cruise missiles, anti-ship warheads, and sixteen-inch guns bombarded the Angel from three sides or more. The second it had surfaced, the Admiral had put in the order to all his surviving ships. Detonations and the concussive impact of thousand-pound artillery shook the bridge. Misato's nose and eyes started to water as rocket fuel and explosive fumes filled the air. Outside and wreathed by black clouds and fire, the Angel screamed, slewing around the water even as more guns turned to track it.
A line of missiles stitched a near miss in the water, throwing up massive columns of hot water one after another. Decks of nearby ships and the carrier itself were pelted with a fresh coat of the Caribbean. Still less than a hundred yards away from the carrier, the Angel turned. Misato dashed for the window and leaned out, waving away the smoke and ash. She saw the Angel, bloody and mauled along every surface. Hundreds of yards of flesh boiled with squirming growths, and just behind the bone mask, the whip-tentacle's stump split apart.
New material spiraled out of the tear, unfurling into a second larger mask that framed a sharp slash of red crystal. Not a core as Misato recognized it, and less than a second after the thing finished forming, a beam of white-pink light raked across the ocean. A missile cruiser melted in half and detonated, but not before being thrown up out of the water on a column of discharged energy. The first Angel's ranged attack.
Thrown aside earlier, Kaji pushed himself off a console and stared out at the sudden attack. His jaw worked once, twice, then he caught Misato's eye. "I'll... I'll be right back! Help Asuka!"
Misato blinked and whirled in place, shouting at his back. "Wh-What? Kaji!" She spat and scrambled over to Stolocker and his remaining bridge crew. Vaulting a cabinet and row of screens, she dragged the radio set from his hand to her mouth. "Target the weapon crystal!"
Hurtling down the stairs and over ladders, Kaji barely had the presence of mind to keep a hand close to a rail. Corridors blurred into each other as he dashed past one door, then the next. Half his crazy plan banked on one particular cargo having survived the battle. The other half of his crazy plan depended on him surviving the battle. Fire and smoke choked nearly every hallway and chamber below decks, while the rest were slick with water and fire-retardant foam.
The ship lurched again, and sunlight streamed through a crack in the hull leading all the way outside. A flash of red and orange up top proved Asuka was up and fighting. Rounding a corner, Kaji's eyes went wide and he lunged, scrambling backwards. One hand found a dangling cable. Friction burned his hand, but he jerked to a stop, dangling over the edge of a ragged tear. Spread out about as wide as he was tall, Kaji could see four decks up or down. A bead of sweat dripped down his nose and off, falling twenty feet or more.. Heaving hard, Kaji pulled himself back onto the ledge.
Outside, the Angel fired its new primary weapon, and the temperature inside the carrier jumped up by degrees. Kaji swore and hung on to the cable tighter. It was easy to put on a brave face for Misato and his girl, but the pounding dizziness from his recent concussion made Kaji suddenly and violently aware of not only his situation, but also that he was remarkably out of his element in every way.
Another blast shook the ship, and Kaji muscled his way back onto steady ground. Standing at the edge, the gap seemed to spread wider, and Kaji felt his vision swim. Nothing for it he supposed, not if he wanted to see Misato and his girl again. Stepping back into the hall, Kaji backed against the nearest bulkhead and gave himself the most space for a running start. People shouted in the distance, and more ships exploded outside.
Sucking down a quick breath, Kaji shot forward and leaped, hoping his eyes would stay clear long enough to make the landing.
Debris and grit jumped as Asuka moved, twisting her machine around the carrier deck. Explosive bolts ripped out the remains of the old plug and made way for the replacement. Her voice boomed out from her Evangelion, thrown down by external speakers into the deck while crew hauled the power cable into position. "When I get out of here, I am going to shake every goddamn hand in this fleet, and then I'll kiss the cute ones, you all got that!"
Inside the bridige, Misato leaned on the handset, still bearing down on Stolocker's arm. "Jawhol Asuka!" She turned and pushed the Admiral's hand back toward his face. "Keep hammering that Angel with everything you've got!"
The old man squawked, shouting after her even as Misato darted for another console and free officer. Another blast shook the ocean and rocked the carrier, while ozone and smoke flooded the bridge. Outside the Angel twisted, diving for a moment to dodge the latest wave of missiles before resurfacing, only to let loose another beam.
Hiking around the console, Misato pulled out another radio and paged in on Asuka, urging the girl to get back up and into the fight. "Power's good and batteries are charging, you can do this Asuka!"
The Evangelion loomed close to the bridge, waving one arm at the ongoing ocean battle. "What am I supposed to do?! It's over there and the damn thing's shooting now!"
A concussive boom shook the ship, and a dozen more followed, cannon fire and more missiles. Misato braced a arm over her head and hair while hot air and sulfer stung her nose. "We're the genius soldiers here, we can think of something!"
"Yeah well I-hohshit AT-Field!"
The world burned white, and for a moment Misato was back in Antarctica, watching a giant of white stand out against a black sky. Instead she saw an Evangelion in silhouette, and a girl screaming in the face of a searing pink beam. The Angel's attack burned away against Asuka's shield, boiling water and heating the carrier's hull on the abused port side. Steam shot up in scalding towers of white vapor, and Asuka waved her Evangelion's arms. She beat away the steam, oozing contempt.
Defending was enough to catch the Angel's attention, charging in on the thin stilt legs. It dove under, bobbing and weaving past naval artillery fire while fire control aimed missiles ahead of where the Angel was, leading the target. Connected to main power, Asuka put up her field once more, drawing a line in the ocean and throwing down the gauntlet.
The Angel slammed nose-first into the field, coiling hard against the conceptual barrier. Atop the Angel's head, the razor-tipped crystal gathered a charge. Asuka, Misato and everyone else outside saw their vision wash away pink.
Kaji stumbled to his feet, bloody and sore in places he didn't even want to think about. He passed by men and women fighting fires and damaged systems, working hard to keep the ship afloat. Round one corner and down another set of stairs, lights flickered as Over the Rainbow directed every bit of power it could into the hands of his favorite girl. Finally on the right deck, Kaji started counting doors. He dashed down that last hallway, weaving past vertical pipes and blowing through smoke and lingering fires. Cinders caught in his hair but he didn't have time to pat them out.
The door he needed was up ahead and standing open- small favors, he supposed. One hand on the frame, he wrenched himself around and slid across the tilted deck, landing hard on a pile of crates. Lashed against the deck, they strained under their own weight, creaking ominously. That was fine, he knew what he needed. A black case stood out against the gunmetal grey and olive greens. Pulling it free of the stack, Kaji slapped at catches with bloody fingers. Familiar brass and copper fittings framed a titanium clamp, and in that clamp sat an equally familiar bit of smooth, black volcanic rock.
Kaji grinned madly and smashed his thumb down on the glowing green button.
IT had many names.
IT did not need to know its name.
IT wondered.
IT wondered if it should be able to wonder.
And then IT understood pain. The signal crushed its feeble mind beneath ancient instruction, and that which had been Gaghiel gained understanding.
MORTALITY
Thunder split its mind, even in the fraction of a second it took to gain one.
WEAPON
New capacity for thought and emotion flooded the Angel's being, now self-aware enough to comprehend the most basic of fears.
TERMINATION
Gaghiel screamed in denial of this awful truth.
The Angel stumbled suddenly, going slack in the water and scraping down against Asuka's field. The girl slumped in her plug and stared at the thing even as it fell. A grin spread across Asuka's face, and hands curled up so tight her knuckles cracked. She was not above taking a free shot, not in the least.
Bringing her Evangelion's fist up high over her head, Asuka breathed deep, channeling every ounce of fear, stress, adrenaline and sheer bloody rage into that limb. She held it there, counting heartbeats even as she watched the Angel writhe and spasm against the side of the ship. Every bit of her body, from toes to hips to back and shoulders went into that punch, coiling up and ready. Her arm dropped, crossing the distance faster than the eye could track, and the air cracked with its passing. She drove armored knuckles down into the Angel's snout, punching it so hard the flesh rippled out from nose to the tip of its tail. And when it's jaw hit the ocean, the water was as unforgiving as solid stone. The impact forced the waves to swell in turn, lifting the carrier by yards before settling.
The beast sagged in the water, leaking blood from a thousand wounds. On the edge of the carrier deck, Asuka stood over her victory and laughed.
Both of them leaning out the window, Misato watched Admiral Stolocker's jaw drop loose. He stared at the floating Angel, cuddled up against the side of his ship like a giant dead squid. Wordlessly he stretched his arm and handed her the radio. A bit of shuffling had her connected to every surviving ship in the fleet.
"Marines!" she gushed, grinning into the afternoon sky. "I want that Angel boarded and scuttled! Let's make sure it's dead this time!"
Men and explosives boiled out of the carrier and Pacific Fleet, ferried along by raft and small ships towards the creature. Others cut trenches into the Angel's cold grey flesh, shoving explosives in handfuls at a time. Rifles made short work of the still-squirming tumor-sacs, and yards long embryo sloughed out into the water, limp and sinking quickly.
Torpedoes and air-to-surface missiles were carted out of racks alongside other surviving ordnance from the air wing. Experts pulled at cases while other specialists wired up satchel charges. Aircraft engineers working alongside navy gunners laughed and shouted at each other- you're doing it wrong!
Standing up on the deck and still connected to main power, Asuka sighed and let her batteries recharge. More and more fleet vessels were hooking up, drifting close for mutual support and rescue. She watched as people who'd spent the whole battle in the water finally get brought back on board. They threw caps in the air, waved their vests like flags, shouting and hugging by turns. The girl just leaned back in her seat and tried to get her heart back under control.
All over the fleet, a dozen or more boats still burned, spreading oil and fuel into the water. The smoke and grit of a small war finally started to settle, staining the ocean a sooty black.
Misato sagged into the nearest seat and ran a hand through her hair, laughing quietly. Damage reports weren't going to be fun, but there wasn't much that could damage her good mood right then. Not even Kaji stumbling back inside, carrying a black and silver box under one arm. He shuffled across the bridge and set it down next to her before sitting at her other side.
One dark eyebrow quirked up, and Misato jerked an elbow at the thing. It looked like some crazy art project, or something Shinji might have made. Kaji just shrugged, smirking faintly. One of his eyes wasn't moving quite right.
"Side project from the Committee. I kept it, figuring it'd come in handy." He glanced out the windows at Unit 02 and the Angel. "Guess it did."
"No shit." Misato mumbled, then she laughed. Lightly at first, then a full on shoulder-shaking effort, hard enough to lean against Kaji and not care that it was Kaji.
A fresh wave of sulfur and acrid chemicals wafted into the bridge. Burning fuel threw up wider and wider columns of black smoke into the sky. Misato looked out and whistled. "We sure did a number out here, huh?"
Kaji turned and nodded, but before he could answer, a phone rang. Another officer relayed the call from Operations. "New Contact Admiral, Major. To our starboard, out there."
Gingerly, Misato eased herself out of the seat and suddenly felt every inch of her thirty years. She moved over to the starboard side windows alongside Stolocker. A pair of binoculars had survived the battle more or less in tact, and the Admiral had the pressed against his eyes. He handed her the binoculars and rumbled out the obvious question. "Katsuragi... Is that what I think it is?"
Taking a look while Kaji stepped up behind her, Misato adjusted the focus and scanned the murky horizon. A flash of white caught her eye, then shades of grey and a thin slash of red. Blood drained out of her face, and she found herself forming the words even before the rest of her acknowledge the impossibility. "Admiral I need you to fire everything you have on that contact right now. That is not one of ours."
The white shape stepped out of the haze, and the gentle waves beneath its booted feet were flattened, like water sloshing against a pane of glass. More swept over the surface, scattering across even as it stepped closer. It lacked the distinctive shoulder pylons, but the silhouette was the same. Long, gangly limbs wrapped in flexible armor, layered in warnings and decals. It walked closer still, moving across the water atop an AT-field platform.
Too-red lips spread out along a tube-like, almost phallic head, and the thing grinned with broad, thin teeth. A length of wet pink muscle lashed behind those metal blades, and the thing stopped a few hunded feet short of the carrier. By that point everyone was close enough to read the text stenciled along the intruder's arms.
MP-EVA 01
If he survived, Wyatt Levidon would never want for work or prestige again. He was now a member of an painfully exclusive club- those who had set foot upon an Angel's flesh and lived. Swept up in the mad rush to scuttle the alien, the photographer triggered his camera almost at random, catching snatches of soldiers and sailors carving into the whale-beast like ants. People vaulted over long ropes and hastily fabricated harnesses that dangled from belt loops and around shoulders; there weren't enough life jackets. Jet aircraft screamed overhead, and their delayed sonic booms rattled the camera lenses.
From nose to tail, the Angel was longer than the Over the Rainbow, some eleven-hundred feet, splayed out and bobbing in the cooling Pacific Ocean. Ghoulish white flesh was pockmarked with tumor-scars where fetal Angels had spawned. They progeny had in turn been found around older wounds, boiling up from ruined skin. Even as Wyatt cycled his camera, he found himself thinking back to high school biology, and the idea of platelets. Another embryo popped in the face of gunfire, and the dead simulacra Angel tumbled into the ocean.
Shoes soaked through with blood and seawater, Wyatt picked along after a particular crew. The viewfinder helped, distancing him from the situation. Shovels and axes made short work of the pallid skin, while high explosive was shoved into the bloody rents. Sandbags came next, to direct the blast downward. Elsewhere, experts cooked up proper scuttling charges, able to cut a ragged hole in the hull of any ship. Standing upright and looking to either side, Wyatt had to wonder any of it would be enough.
A shout from behind made him turn, and through the smoke, Wyatt saw the giant of white. The camera shuttered by reflex.
Inside the plug, A lance of heat pressed into Asuka's back just below her shoulder blades. A direct line to nuclear power flowed in through the spare umbilical, and Unit-02's systems sucked it in greedily. The batteries hanging from the Evangelion's shoulders and upper back warmed, throwing up faint clouds of steam into the afternoon air. Standing on the edge of the Over the Rainbow, Asuka watched as every seaworthy ship turned their attention on the invader. Cannons and missiles swiveled to face the white Evangelion.
Faceless, the thing stared across the ocean without eyes, panning over the ruined fleet. Crew on the carrier deck clutched at themselves, suddenly chilled... and Asuka felt bile rise in her throat. The touch of a hostile AT field. Tied back on less than a hundred meters of umbilical, Asuka waited. She squirmed in her seat, knuckles itching.
Over the Rainbow bent every hand to the fight. A beige-clad officer pressed a hard-plastic handset to his chest. Sweat and grime from cannon fire had stained it and him sooty black. "Weapons primed and ready in all respects, Major Katsuragi!"
Misato's hand wrapped tight enough around her cross pendant to leave marks. Out of everyone there, only she had any idea what they were facing, save maybe Asuka. Even then, the girl might not have grasped the full extent of the situation. Seconds ticked by, even as she acknowledged the word. She turned to Stolocker then, while Kaji hunkered down on the floor, braced against a bank of consoles. The Admiral's eyes hadn't left the windows, locked on the interloper.
"Admiral-"
Stolocker just raised his hand and uttered the sweetest sound Misato had ever heard. "Fire."
What ordnance hadn't been spent against the Angel now bore down on the white Evangelion. The near synchronized assault rocked battleships into the Pacific swells, and the Angel's inactive bulk shifted under the added force. Rattled down to their bones, men and women across the fleet clapped hands to their ears on that opening salvo. Over the Rainbow groaned, listing as more alien flesh beat up against its side. Tens of thousands of kilograms of high explosive arced across a hundred meters.
Atop its crackling platform, the invader craned its head around. From her own Eva, Asuka watched its too-red lips ripple, bulging around like a watery impression of a snarl. There was no intercepting field, nor did the white Evangelion simply ignore the attack. Instead it stepped forward... dropping into the ocean with barely a ripple. The fleet watched their first and best assault sail harmlessly over the enemy's head, even as it disappeared beneath the waves. The jets from before curled around for another pass, ready to bring their munitions to bear.
It was then that Asuka said what everyone across the fleet was thinking. "There's no way we're done ye-"
A black shape edged in white burst out of the ocean, leaving a spiraling trail of water in its wake. A limb of white and black snapped out and cleaved through the air and a passing fighter. An ugly black smear of burning jet fuel and debris bloomed in the aftermath.
Airborne, the MP Evangelion crossed the sun and spread its vast wings, bound and determined to swat every fighter from the sky.
Even when beaten and exhausted, the Pacific Fleet and Admiral Stolocker were back on familiar ground. The old man bellowed for information, and the officers on deck met his every demand. For a moment, Kaji and Misato were left adrift in the sudden surge of activity. NERV's Operations Director watched as Stolocker and his fleet geared up for air combat.
Unlike the Angel, the white armored Evangelion did not baffle radar and other sensors. Surviving radar apparatus flung out waves of energy unseen and unfelt by those on the surface, and the returns came back. Racks of surface-to-air missiles boiled into the sky and left long twisting corkscrews in their wake.
Above, the enemy Evangelion beat its massive wings and dodged, evading most and taking the rest head on. Shrapnel and high, unfocused explosive did little more than scratch the armor, even as surviving fighters swung in for a pass with machine guns and their own rapidly dwindling supply of ordnance. Those in the fleet heard more than saw the aircraft go down, snatched out of the air with sudden bursts of speed and grasping fingers.
Stolocker though was not going to give up so readily. While he worked at bringing every bit of worthy steel and destructive force to bear, Kaji rubbed the bandages at his head. His palm came away bloody.
He looked over at Misato, haggard and pale from exhaustion or maybe blood loss. "We're all good as dead you know."
"Excuse me?" Misato blinked and almost snarled, rounding on the man.
Kaji just shrugged and waved at the darkening ocean. "This was the Committee's trump card. I never found proof, but..."
Misato stared at him for what seemed like a long, awful moment. The color drained out of her face, but her eyes went hard and focused. She muscled past the bridge crew and tugged Stolocker aside, her free hand holding a radio handset. "Admiral... We need to call the jets off. Get them out of here."
The old man bristled, more from the interruption than anything else. His voice went low and intent, enunciating clearly. "If I do, we won't get them back. Can we afford to lose them now? I doubt it."
"That thing is here because of us, Admiral." Misato's jaw worked, and her free hand had wandered to the cross pendant hanging from her neck. "Because of Asuka and I."
Outside and overhead, another aircraft exploded, crushed by the white Eva. Kaji stepped over then, grim-faced. "Right now those pilots might be our only chance of achieving any kind of victory." The spy ran a hand over his head, sighing softly. He'd lost his hair tie earlier. "Send them away Admiral, and tell the pilots..." He trailed off, thinking.
Stolocker grumbled, both at the answers he wouldn't be getting, and wondering if he was sending men off to fates worse than death; Attention of vastly more important people. The aircraft broke off the engagement and split in three directions, leaving the white Evangelion with nothing to kill.
Thanks to Kaji, they left with a message. SEELE now considered NERV a liability.
It was hard to count how many ships had been sunk. Most had been left miles behind as burning smears of oil and debris, others hung around Over the Rainbow, just as dead in the water as the carrier. Inside her Eva, Asuka sat and looked up at the sky. All around her, a cloud of system alerts and diagnostic informed her of Unit-02's impending full recharge, and it could not come fast enough. Asuka's calf and toe bounced, crossed over her other leg. Clenching her fists and teeth, she willed herself to stay somewhat calm.
It wasn't working.
Bound to her umbilical, the girl watched the interloper play its game with the surviving aircraft. It looped and glided, supplemented with furious waves of an expressed AT-field. Asuka could feel it unfurl every time the thing needed lift. The Eva lunged for another kill even as three more fighters swept in for a strafing run, peppering the white armor with machine gun fire. But just as quickly as the attack had begun, the jets broke off on some unheard signal, leaving the enemy hanging dead in the air.
Just as well. The surviving batteries registered a full charge, and Asuka triggered the cable release command with a thought. She scanned the horizon and the still-surviving ships of the Pacific fleet. Spread out over hundreds of meters or more, the ships bobbed in the low swells or steamed toward the growing cluster around the carrier. Battleships on the periphery swung their cannons from side to side and reloaded their missiles and artillery. Asuka had memorized the names of every vessel, and more importantly, their cargo.
Glancing up, Evangelion enhanced vision showed the white Evangelion tracing a lazy loop through the air.
Asuka's lip curled, mumbling low under her breath."Ignoring me huh?" She gave the white intruder another bitter, acid look, settling deeper into her seat. "Yeah well, fuck you too."
She gripped the control yokes so hard they creaked, already turning for the ship she needed some five hundred meters away. The red Evangelion hunkered down and the carrier deck groaned beneath her. Synthetic muscle bulged under composite armor and the skin-sheath. Another thought command cranked Asuka's external speakers to full volume, and her voice shot across the water. "Hey, Miroslava! Clear the deck!"
Then Unit-02 uncoiled and leapt, leaving another pair of footprint craters in the carrier and sending itself soaring through the air.
As a Russian merchant ship conscripted into the Pacific Fleet on order of NERV, the Miroslava had not been intended for or expecting combat conditions. Its crew were proud and skilled sailors though, and above all else, they knew their ship was lucky. It had survived Second Impact, pirate raids in the subsequent war and lawless ocean. It had even endured readiness drills run by one Sorhyu Asuka Langley, a trial Miroslava's captain believed worthy of medals and honors.
Then it had been subject to Unnatural Warfare, to an extent that only a handful of men and machines had seen. The Angel battle itself had only lasted fifteen minutes, and a close fifteen, considering the Evangelion's limited power reserves. Sorhyu had beaten that into everyone's head.
The latest and greatest challenge was coming in overhead. Men and women charged to every safe point they could- lifeboats and secure bulkheads, all towards the bow and safe from the rapidly growing shadow crossing over the stern. One man was not so fortunate as to get more than amidships, running along the top gantries lining the container ship's outer edges. He stumbled, tumbling over and spun half around.
Evangelion Unit-02 dropped, ending its arc on the ships stern and helipad. Two whole decks of civilian steel were crushed beneath the Eva's weight, buckling metal and mangling the hull like a crumpled beer can. The fallen sailor was flung bodily, much like others all over the ship, up and then down. He landed hard on the rail, cracking his thigh bone but fortunately landing on the inside edge, spilling back onto the platform and safe from the ocean. Miroslava groaned as seams popped and welds burst. Even through the pain, the injured man knew the impact had probably popped the ships two engines clean out and apart, breaking them like eggs.
The red machine stood tall then, casting its shadow over the deck. The temperature dropped by degrees and the thing moved, shoving enough air out of the way to rip wind socks and flags clean off. Nearing the fallen sailor, the Evangelion slowed and one massive hand pointed forward in askance. The pilot's voice boomed out, archetypical loud American. "Sorry- Cargo's amidships, right?"
Snarling, the man just shook his hand ahead, angry or indicative neither could say. The man-god-thing marched forward, stomping into and through the cargo doors, barely bothering to peel them open. Sorhyu waded into the guts of the ship, swearing and apologizing by turns. The Evangelon was bent over at the waist, rooting around in the dark while the Miroslava listed.
Holding on to the rail for dear life, the sailor swore at the red machine's back. "Yob tvoyu mat!"
The Evangelion stood upright then, the tight whine of heavy electric motors growing from the deadly shape in its arms. A gatling gun several times longer than a city bus swiveled into ready position, gleaming in the sunlight. "I understood that, Nekulturny!"
Her first reaction was one of great joy.
Depressing the trigger stud, the Evangelion spun the gatling up and let loose, throwing a nearly solid stream of glowing hot metal across the ocean. The unbroken line of orange raked the water, throwing up dozens of densely packed columns. Heaving and twisting, Asuka felt the muscles in her own arms stand out beneath her plugsuit, and the Evangelion's limbs followed suit. The barrel rose by a handful of meters before a dozen warnings sprang up, screaming for her attention.
Another test shook the fleet, and around the listing Miroslava, the ocean against the gun's absurd rate of fire. And just like before, Asuka made to raise the gun, aim it high and fill the enemy with hot lead. But it wouldn't budge- Alerts and overrides told her the gatling would have broken under its own weight, leaving it locked to flat and horizontal arcs. Asuka spat out a wordless curse, and the cool anger spiked white hot. The white Evangelion was there and her own weapon was refusing to kill it. Reality was at that moment so inconvenient!
She glared up at the thing through her own true Evangelion's eyes. The intruder, imposter, offense-to-her-core ideals... Asuka licked her lips, tasting blood and the most appropriate word. Anathema.
That it continued to exist was unacceptable.
A thought banished the warnings and restrictions, and Asuka gave her machine the codes to release its limits. She breathed, and that extra limb of her AT-field unfolded, expanding in a volume and sapping minutes from her batteries. Above, the MP Evangelion twisted lazy, angling toward her almost curiously. All the better. Inside the altered space, the Miroslava bobbed despite the damage, popping up out of the ocean like a cork. Wrenching hard and both hands tight around the grips, Asuka willed her weapon up. She defied its construction, material and center of gravity, and the smoking barrel tilted higher.
Within the Absolute Territory of Sorhyu Asuka Langley, she declared her gun would not break.
The barrel swung wide, moving far more lightly than it had any right to. A pair of targeting reticule crossed over her perception to meet in the middle, and Asuka pulled the trigger. Shell casings the size of cars spilled out the side of the gun, crushing the Miroslava's aft decks even more. Tilting, the white Eva banked left and right, aiming to slide through the stream of lead. Asuka corrected in response by leading the shot. The line of gunfire stitched the sky and slapped into the enemy's black wings, riddling them with holes and pockmarking armor.
Orange dripped from the sky and the tiny wounds, but the white thing stayed stubbornly airborne. Asuka's vision jumped forward as her view zoomed in... and the Eva's phallic head seemed to turn, staring straight at her. An opposing AT-field lashed out and the damaged wings beat the air, sending the MP Evangelion down! It arced low, shifting and adjusting its angle of attack with the fingertip-feathers at the end of each wing. Hugging the ocean the thing bored down on the fleet and then on Asuka herself. Hurtling forward, the flyer corkscrewed, weaving between then stream of bullets Asuka sent its way.
It crossed the distance between them in an instant, spreading its too-long arms wide and tackling Unit-02 around the middle.
The two machines hurtled through the air, fast enough to carve a valley in the ocean swells. They bore down on the damaged aircraft carrier and the cluster of ships huddled close by. Great flakes of Unit-02's armor cracked and sheared away, and its torso bent double over the white Evangelion's shoulder. Asuka meanwhile bounced hard in the plug, throwing whatever arm or foot she could ahead of her. She'd lost the gun on impact, but her elbows and knees worked fine. Acceleration gave her leverage, and she landed every hit she could in the few seconds available.
One trailing red foot caught on the edge of the carrier deck, and Over the Rainbow groaned. Shoved through the water, it slammed back into the Angel's cooling corpse, crumpling the hull on that side even more. The Evangelions themselves tumbled, skidding over the broken runways and grinding away more paint, armor and steel. Asuka's machine left a glittering red smear across the deck right at amidships, before her Eva slipped over the edge.
Unit-02 slammed hard into the Angel's back, and Asuka's armored chin crushed what was left of the laser crystal. Below and all around, sailors and soldiers ran for their lives, scrambling for any bit of safety. The MP Eva landed on its rear, crushing one wing beneath a leg and the Angel's tumor-ridden tail. Asuka worked the controls, piloting and pulling herself upright. The enemy did the same, sucking its wings back to wherever they went. The two Evangelions squared off then, separated by two hundred meters of corpse flesh.
On some unspoken cue, they charged. Asuka's strides were long, driving her feet into the Angel's hide and beating shockwave after shockwave through its skin. At sea level, men and women looked and saw giants. The two Evangelion met in the middle, crashing into each other grill to tube-head. More of Asuka's armor blew off in a rain of shards. Those who knew the term now understood what NERV meant by Unnatural Warfare.
Infantry scurried, surfing the waves of tissue and dashing for boats and ladders, anywhere to get away. The more brave or foolhardy brought their weapons to bear, squeezing off shots at the white Eva's red lips and lashing tongue. Seconds passed, and the two Evangelions moved faster than anything had a right to, big or small. Tendons under armor cracked with strain, almost as loud as punches and kicks. The MP Eva was implacable, refusing to acknowledge pain or injury. Great strips of its own flexible skin had been torn free, leaving pink cloned flesh open to air.
Asuka meanwhile grappled, breathing silently through clenched teeth. She worked her Evangelion's arms around, forcing the imposters' limbs into locks and joint-straining binds. Seams on both their machines strained and burst, snapping like suspension cables stretched too tight. Asuka shifted, caging the MP Eva's wrists in the crook of her elbow, just long enough to kick out its knee. The joint all but exploded inside its armor. Whatever momentum it had was lost, and the MP Eva collapsed. Asuka was on it in the following instant, both hands locked around the thing's too-wide throat.
On the bridge, Kaji, Misato and the crew of the carrier had an eye-level view of Asuka throttling the MP Evangelion. Over the radio, they heard the girl gnash and strain, squeezing on her controls just as hard. The rival Eva thrashed, clawing at Asuka's arms and chest. It dug at the cracks in the bolted on armor, at her head and eyes. Nothing worked. The white leering head bulged obscenely, veins beneath the skin crawled up and down from around Asuka's hands.
Stolocker growled orders into a phone before he looked up at Misato. He jerked his chin at the thrashing machines. "Katsuragi, I've got every remaining heavy gun in my fleet zeroing in on that thing. If Sorhyu can keep it still-
The dark-haired woman blanched, shaking her head. "Asuka's got it handled." And I already used her as a target once today... I don't need to do it again.
Outside, the MP Eva had managed to swing Asuka's machine into the carrier. The impact echoed out over the bridge and the ship lurched to the side. Everyone reached for whatever handholds they could find. Asuka kept a tight hold though, fighting back across the Angel's flesh and forcing her opponent back on its knees.
When he recovered, the Admiral scowled and fixed his cap lower over his brow. "And if your girl can't put that thing down then I will fire, NERV authority or not. We're just about out of options."
Misato's hands found the nearest rail and held on tight, leaning forward out the window. The two Evangelions struggled harder, and everyone on the bridge could feel the titanic muscles straining. The Admiral held onto his phone, ready to give the order. NERV officer glanced back at UN Navy brass. They both nodded as one; they'd give Asuka her chance.
"C'mon Asuka," Misato breathed, having turned back to the battle. Somewhere in the bridge there was a microphone that heard her. "You can do this. It's not an Evangelion, it's a target, an enemy..."
The White Evangelion spasmed again, and its mouth yawned wide open. A length of pink muscle spilled out, bloated by blood and pressure. The tongue lashed wetly against its lips, the air and Asuka's own Eva. The pilot bore down harder on the things' throat, and Asuka's voice boomed out over the fleet. "...It's... Ugly!"
Pale hands edged in black shot out and hooked under the red Evangelion's arms. A second later, the wings unfurled. Over the Rainbow and all aboard watched as the enemy Evangelion shot up into the sky, with Unit-02 in tow.
Three thousand meters, five thousand. The altimeter pressed in on Asuka's awareness more and more as the two Evangelions shot up into the sky. Another thrashing, oppressive surge of AT field flared out from the enemy, beating at the air and temporarily violating physics, demanding both machines rise higher despite all reason saying otherwise. Its wings didn't even need to flap, short of curling and twisting at the edges for fine control.
Inside her own Evangelion, Asuka grit her teeth. Acceleration shoved the girl deep into her seat, bruising her tailbone. Muscles along her arms bulged as she tried and failed to keep her arms straight and hands on the controls. Outside, the two Evangelions punched through the wispy clouds. Spread out over nearly three miles of ocean like grains of rice was the Pacific Fleet.
The White Evangelion let go with a lunging snap, flinging Unit-02 up higher into the air. Inside the plug, Asuka shifted and bounced, half-cushioned by the LCL. Her stomach lurched painfully, stubbornly empty of anything other than bile. The view of the outside world was a tumbling split of dark and light blue, switching between ocean and sky by turns.
At the apex of the flight, Asuka and her Evangelion slowed, the tumble easing just long enough for her to see the horizon and the curve of the Earth as it spread out in all directions. The tops of white clouds were practically glowing just below her, almost close enough to touch. Above, the MP Eva crossed the sun, casting a brief shadow over Unit-02 and the ocean far below. Buoyed by LCL, Asuka felt the top of her head bump into the plug ceiling, bleeding off the last of her upward momentum.
Then she began to fall. That was when the panic set in.
FuckfuckfuckfuckingshitwhatdoIdofucking-!
Pressed against the top of her plug, Asuka fought to get back to her seat. She flailed wildly with arms and legs, fighting for a handhold or traction. The drugs that had numbed her cracked rib were starting to fade-that was good though, the pain was good, kept her focused. One rubber-soled toe got the right angle and she pushed, clawing for the seat and her controls. Clamping down hard on her fear, Asuka hauled herself back into place and pushed her will back out through Unit-02. Panic gave way to training, and though some distant part of her admitted she'd only done it before in a simulator, there was no question as to her success; She was Sorhyu Asuka Langley!
Her Evangelion responded to the unvoiced command. Snapping its arms and legs out, the great machine strained against the air. Face down, It aimed for as much surface area as possible, anything to control the wild spin and descent. Spiraling contrails of air whipped up through the Eva's fingers, around its ankles and elbows, and its one remaining shoulder pylon. Wind caught in every gap and rend in the armor, shaking the anchoring bolts down to the bone and Asuka inside the plug. The ocean stretched out below and grew closer by the second.
The radio crackled on, and Misato's voice rang out, distorted by damage and Asuka's own lack of attention. A half-dozen options ticked through Asuka's mind in a half-second, and she discarded them just as quickly. Between how massive the Evangelion was and her speed, Asuka knew just how hard that water could be. Even with unlimited reserves, an AT field would have done her no good here. Or at least none of the ones she knew how to make. A solid platform would be just as deadly as calm water.
Concrete would have been more forgiving.
Asuka reached for the radio with a thought, hoping maybe Misato would have an idea. Then a white hand clamped around her Evangelion's head.
The white Evangelion lumbered even when airborne. Long limbs had reached out for the red machine and clamped on with graceless, straight forward intent. Clinical, expedient and unthinking. Its hands did not paw or fumble, and it ignored the cutting chill of the upper atmosphere. Nor was it accurate, only unrelentingly decisive. Wind clawed at its wings and there was no sign of it noticing, no hint of effort or strain. Every move was telegraphed, but inexorable despite it. The most basic of full-body holds let the winged monster bend Unit-02 at the spine. Yet more armor sheared off in car-sized flakes, and the muscle beneath tore under the twisting force.
Kite-like, the MP Eva drifted through the air with Unit-02 in tow. They grappled almost silently save for the air rushing past them, and the muted sound of burst seals and creaking bones. The red machine flailed beneath it and tried to reach back, to kick and break free. The angle was wrong, leaving it out of position and helpless. The eyeless face seemed to look down at the thing struggling in its arms, leering at the straining expanse of shoulders and NERV armored flesh. The MP Eva's tongue rolled out, slathering and searching. Freeing one hand, it stretched out that arm with one broad motion, curling back for the armored protrusion rising from the red Evangelion's neck...
Adrenaline and bloody-minded fury was the only think that kept Asuka from blacking out. Even so, the agony unfurling out through her spine was enough to blur her vision and send her head spinning. Despite all that, she still tried to move, to fight back. She jerked at the controls, over and over, trying and failing to think of a tactic, to imagine a successful offensive. Power drained from the batteries in fits and starts as the girl pushed her Evangelion. The fear was back, impenetrable and all-encompassing. The distance between her and the ocean shrank by the second.
Wind howled past her Evangelion's head, coiling and beating against the MP Eva above her and her own thrashing limbs. Together the two machines punched through a plume of oily black smoke, a lingering leftover from the first half of the battle. Fires and black oily smears dotted the Caribbean.
Then something in the back of Asuka's head yanked, and for a split second she didn't see anything, think anything, or know anything. The plug walls were back, and her mind was void of that presence she had begun to welcome. Gravity shifted, and Asuka realized by the second turn that she'd begun to tumble once more. Maybe it wanted to make her sick before it killed her, or something. A heartbeat later synchronization returned, and the plug walls washed away in rainbow mist and brainwave patterns. The ocean pivoted around her and the blue sky swirled above, and she saw the dangling edges of her enemy's feet and wings, tiny slivers of white and black out the corners of her eyes.
Asuka shook her head and chewed back the nausea, wondering why her neck hurt of all things. A second yank terminated that thought, and something inside her neck gave way. There was a sudden visceral strangeness then, and Asuka felt something. Meanwhile outside, the world spiraled even more wildly. A spike of cold surged into and through her body, soaking into her neck and torso like a gust of wind hitting wet skin. The chill settled the roiling sickness in stomach somehow, and she counted the small blessing.
Just as well though; the spin and tumble had gotten worse though, pressing her against the plug wall. Pinned as she was, all Asuka could do was stare outside with Evangelion eyes, openmouthed and disbelieving. A red hunk of armor spun off into the distance, trailing massive hinges and cables. Following just after it was a long white tube, achingly familiar and terrifying in the implication. Some part of the girl noted the mental distance, the lack of reaction to what she was seeing. That cold and uncomfortable certainty...
The last thing she saw before synchronization cut out was Unit-02's arm reaching out for her entry plug, held in the hands of the MP Eva.
Neither Misato or Kaji could voice a reason as to why they had left the bridge. Together they grabbed binoculars and scrambled down flights of stairs, vaulting broken walls and at one point, crawling through a hole gouged in the side of the island superstructure. They had to get out, to see what was happening to their girl.
Kaji's hand had found its way over to Misato's and laced his fingers with hers, clamping tight. The Major meanwhile stared up into the sky. Her heart beat in her chest hard enough to hurt, like her ribs were going to crack. Above, the white monster Evangelion held Asuka's plug in one hand. Its mouth split wide open and teeth flashed in against the sun. Bile rose up in Misato's throat, for a moment utterly disbelieving. That thing wasn't doing...
The MP Evangelion bit the plug in half.
A spray of orange LCL spilled out over the sky several thousand meters up, and to the naked eye looked like little more than a speck. To Misato and Kaji it looked every bit like blood. The white Evangelion chewed then, mechanically, before it spat out mangled metal. More orange dribbled down its cigar-shaped chin and spilled over its chest, even as it twisted lazily through the air. Unit-02 tumbled away, its neck broken in more ways than one.
Throughout the remnant fleet alarms rang out, signaling ordnance at the ready. Misato and Kaji both tore their eyes away from the sky and whirled on the carrier deck. Hatches on surviving destroyers yawned open revealing what few missiles remained. That was it then- without an Evangelion, NERV was out and the Admiral was back in command. Misato's hand cinched down tighter on Kaji's, and her other went slack. The binoculars fell to the deck. She barely heard the lenses break. Looking up at the bridge, she hoped Stolocker had a good shot. If he failed, they were all good as dead.
Dead like Asuka.
Misato looked over at Kaji and read it plain on his face too. It wouldn't end with the fleet. Losing here meant losing face, losing what little goodwill NERV had gained in the past few months. Misato's insides clenched then, the stress and sickness coming back for a second round. The pair looked up at the sky. Unit-02 continued to fall, still a speck in the distance. They hadn't just lost a battle, an Eva or pilot... They had in a very real sense, utterly lost the war.
One of the air crew came up behind them. The black-haired woman was missing her helmet and waterlogged. She cleared her throat, choked up herself. "The Admiral's requesting you sit the rest of the battle out below decks... There's not much else for you to do here, I'm sorry."
Misato and Kaji nodded numbly, but the Major's eyes wandered down to something the soldier had in her hand. A familiar, black leather jacket. "...Asuka's."
The woman nodded and sniffled. ' ' was stitched across her breast. "Yeah she... She told me not to lose it."
Misato took the jacket and hugged it, looking past the rumpled collar at Kaji. He just gave her a desolate look before turning to the crew-woman. The bandages that had been wrapped around his head were loose, flying away in the breeze.
He pulled out a crumpled pack of cigarettes and dug one out, lighting it without much thought. "I think I'll stay out here, if it's all the same. Take the lady inside?"
Though Kaji wasn't an officer, nobody minded the breach of decorum when the woman saluted. Misato meanwhile set her jaw and stood tall, striding toward the bridge. She got no more than three steps when something closed around her wrist. She turned to see Kaji tugging on her hand. He said something, but Misato was more bothered by his tone. What did he know that gave him any right to sound hopeful? The closest thing he had to a daughter just-
"Katsuragi!"
Now the tears started to fall, and Misato ripped her hand free, almost stomping on the deck. "What, Ryoji!?"
He just shoved his unbroken binoculars into her hand and pointed skyward. "Misato, just look!"
She did. Then she manhandled Bolton and stole her radio. It took her less than two seconds to dial the bridge. "Hold your fire!"
She had dived to the far end of the plug for no other reason than better to try. The walls had buckled and sheared away behind her, and teeth as wide and thick as car doors sliced through the plug material with ease. Her pilot's chair had been crushed in half twice over. Pressure boxed her ears from the inside as the sealed environment collapsed. Her world tilted again and the LCL drained from the shredded walls in a gushing torrent.
Then the plug fragmented completely, and Asuka found herself tumbling through open air.
Her chest clenched painfully, pressing hard on the gunk that now filled her lungs instead of oxygenated life support. Free falling, she wretched and spun, coughing out gouts of orange into the sky. The rest of the LCL that clung to her suit and hair dried rapidly, whipping away into a crusty film that was honestly a distant concern. The ocean was still below and getting closer by the second. Her eyepatch initialized on its own, throwing up a painfully unhelpful rangefinder. The MP Eva circled above, not that it had any need to be fast, only thorough. It had time to play with its food.
Through all of that, Asuka could only think. Not that she had much choice; there was nothing else to do but wait and fall. Her eardrums rang and throbbed, even as the rest of her ears stung from the increasing chill. The pain just seemed to make the drop go on longer. Then the vertigo hit, catching the girl between her graceless fall and screaming inner ear. She screwed her eyes shut and relied on the patch's direct feed into her brain, insulating herself from her rebelling sense of balance. A flash of red and black caught her simulacra eye, and her heart clenched. Unit-02 tumbled away below her, spinning away uncontrolled with a gaping hole in the back of its neck. Without a properly socketed plug, there may have well been entire vertebrae missing.
Is this how I die? The question didn't upset her as much as she would have imagined. Failure and death had felt so distant not even twenty seconds ago. The wind howled around her, and Asuka flexed her fingers. The plugsuit kept some of the cold out, but not much. Her patch rangefinder pinged on her Eva again, some few hundred meters away. Three or three hundred. At that moment, either distance were so vast as to be impassable.
Asuka twisted in mid air, falling now with her back first and hair fanning out around her head. She looked up into the sky and sun. The MP Eva continued its lazy corkscrew, still content to take its time. "...Yeah, fuck dying, and fuck you too."
She turned back and folded her arms close, angling down like a spike toward the water and more importantly, her Evangelion. She reached out with will and mind, almost singing the one word that had proven their existence. "Partner!"
Unit-02 continued to fall, unresponsive and uncontrolled. Asuka grit her teeth and felt the fury rise up in her once more. She threw out one arm and reached for her machine, even still more than a hundred meters away. It didn't matter if the plug was gone or its spine broken; she'd already done it once before and she was Sorhyu! Asuka Langley! In the face of certain death, she banked on absolute success.
Unit-02's eyes flashed white.
Synchronization spun up, and despite lacking a plug and MAGI interface, Asuka felt her senses double over. They went liquid, mixing her perceptions with the combat cyborg below. It matched her motions, her intent, throwing its arms wide and clawing at the air. The great machine slowed almost imperceptibly, but it was enough for her. Asuka reached out with her arm and the Evangelion replied, meeting her move for move. Then the massive fingers filled her vision and Asuka suddenly wondered if she could manage not to pulp herself on impact.
Fighting for what control they had, the pair cut through the sky even as they fell steadily closer to solid ocean. The smoky columns of wrecked ships were thicker, choking the air with hazy smog. Asuka hissed out wordless prayers of don'tfuckthisup as she neared her Eva's waiting fingers. The range-finder threw out yet more unhelpful numbers. Ten meters, five, three, one-!
She hit the ring finger hard, folding over double and very nearly sliding off. One foot caught on the armor seam and hooked on, holding on by her toes and nothing more. Her ribs creaked and a new wave of pain shot up through her side, hot and sick enough to send her stomach churning. It didn't matter. She was back on her Eva and it was moving.
Synchronization hummed in the back of her mind and she strained, closing her eyes and fumbling along the Evangelion's arm. Gore slicked the armor and she tugged herself along, shying away from the razor-sharp spreads of abraded composite. Asuka settled and found her feet on the Evangelion's shoulder, just against the broken pylon cuff. Running a finger to along her patch cut the visual feed, and Asuka looked out though her Evangelion's eyes. The chill in the back of her neck, her Evangelion's neck was all the more acute, raw nerve endings exposed to open air.
Asuka relished the sensation.
Unit-02 straightened out almost as an afterthought, spread eagle and arms wide to catch the air. High above, the MP Eva's AT field thrummed, and she felt it all the more strongly, exposed and unshielded. Twisting its head, Unit-02 looked over its shoulder at Asuka's scowling mental command. She had no sensor, no computer readout to say, but she knew her batteries were limited. Nothing for it- she'd fight until they drained, or die trying.
The white flyer seemed to deliberate, swinging around in a figure-eight before it decided to attack. It turned into the wind and went at near vertical, like a kite in a stall-out dive. Asuka's Evangelion lashed out with its arms and legs, twisting over to show its belly, and more importantly, bring their fists to bear. Punching through a low cloud of oily smoke, a white palm reached out for Asuka, even as she willed her machine to defend her. She felt every ache in both her bodies, and her chest was sore and strained from long, ugly combat. Four green eyes locked behind armor stared up at the plummeting enemy.
It telegraphed every move, and this time, Asuka met it halfway.
Mid-air and still falling, Asuka brought her Eva's arms up even as wind tore at her hair and threatened to pull her off her machine once more. She clung on with one hand against an armor seam while her toes dug into the maintenance grips. Unshielded, the impact of Eva on Eva was deafening, and Asuka felt the shock ride up her machine's limbs, numbing her legs up to the hip. Overbalanced, the two Evangelions tumbled, spinning end over end. Asuka worked through the clinch, drawing her foe's arm in by the wrist and bracing her Evangelion's free limb against its elbow. The joint snapped, and Asuka continued the pull.
Scrambling, Unit-02 wrenched itself hand over hand along the MP Eva's back, digging into skin and wing. As for Asuka, a fresh surge of adrenaline kept her focused, let her block out the pain. Exhaustion and altitude though had left her running on empty, and it then hurt just to breathe. Still she urged her machine on, riding high on its shoulder.
Coiled and ready, Asuka's Evangelion crouched atop the MP Eva's shoulders with its chest bowed forward and arms pulled taut against the enemy's back. Red fingers reached under the seam that connected the wings to the spine and dug in, gripping tight. Muscle bulged along Unit-02's arms; its knees bent and braced, its back tensed and its teeth clenched tight behind a layer of armour. With a scream of effort and fury, Asuka clawed at the air and pulled.
With a whip-crack retort and a horrible noise of tearing flesh, the NERV machine kicked away the MP Eva's torso and ripped the white-backed wings clean off.
Free-falling again, Asuka and her machine spun through the air, still manhandling the broad span of flesh and alloy. Below the MP Eva flailed. Sparks shot out from broken cables and metal bone stood exposed between its shoulder blades. The girl couldn't be bothered with it now, she'd won. Asuka stared down at the falling machine, too tired to smile. The white imposter would hit the water and die same as her.
But, something nagged at her. The electric thrum of AT field bled away all around her, eerily close but fading fast. Asuka turned her attention back to the wings and let her synchronization shift, wanting to see it with her own good eye. The same pink-white flesh as her own Eva, leaking the distinctive orange of circulatory LCL. She could work with that. Hope wasn't the right word, but Asuka felt something close to it shoot through her.
Diving back into sync, Asuka welcomed the doubled perception and urged it higher. Her Evangelion followed her, shifting and twisting in the air until it managed to line the stolen wings with its own back. Asuka knew the limits of her machine, knew its functions and parameters. Knew the limits of NERV's own understanding... And she knew that if these had come from another Eva, then there was no difference between its flesh and that of her own.
Batteries along Unit-02's back shorted out, exploding and shearing away in black acrid smelling smoke. Power was in short supply, but Asuka had enough, she demanded she had enough. Willpower expressed through the Evangelion extended its altered space, and Asuka pushed her machine's identity out, reaching for the wings own denaturing presence. The pilot filled the gaps with Unit-02's presence, feeling air catch on the leading edges and billow up. A smile spread out across Asuka's face.
A sudden jerk nearly knocked Asuka off her machine once more. Something had been set into motion, and now she could only hold on tight. Muscles spasmed and spinal vertebrae shifted, accepting the connections and locking together. New limbs entered Asuka's awareness, and she gave the wings an experimental beat. She didn't have time to ponder the new development though. Staring down at the nearing ocean, Asuka urged them both to head up. Her AT field responded and Unit-02 slowed, halving speed and leaving the MP Eva far behind.
The white Evangelion hit the water just shy of a battleship. Great rings of white skin had peeled off on impact, sheared away by solid water. Ships nearby swayed and threatened to roll over. Asuka pulsed her field again, feeling the power leave her Eva and change the region around her. The wings made it easier, she realized, to visualize, to be efficient. It was still a phenomenal drain. Clumsily, the girl guided her machine with its new addition over the ocean, dropping steadily faster as her most resent push ran out. She aimed for the carrier deck, and Unit-02's legs dangled uselessly, dragging her down all the more.
Beneath another ship some hundred meters distant, the ocean churned. A column of water shot into the sky, halved by the ship's hull. Asuka atop her Eva's shoulder blinked and wobbled, for a moment wondering why a battleship was rising out of the ocean. Braced against the keel and looking worse for the wear, the MP Eva stood on its AT-field platform. The ship above buckled, cracking into limp thirds as it was heaved high. There was no sound other than shrieking steel as the white Evangelion launched the ship into the air.
Nearly forty thousand metric tons of metal and weaponry slammed into Asuka and Unit-02.
Knocked out of the air, the red Evangelion tumbled, folded over the ships' side as it crashed into the ocean. Together they skid across the surface, the ship shuddering and tearing itself even further apart. It came to a grinding halt and started to sink, but slowly, losing buoyancy in fitful bursts as water rushed into its shredded hull. Unit-02 clung to the wreck, waist deep in the ocean.
Asuka herself had been flung bodily away, heaved from the Evangelion's shoulder just before impact. Unit-02 twisted against the wreckage, off-balance and half pinned by metal and water. It wrenched one arm free and left an arcing trail of broken steel in its wake, arching out and back to catch the girl. The Eva reached, leaning back and Asuka poured everything she had into matching speed.
Hitting its palm hard enough to knock the wind out of her and see stars, Asuka managed to hook one arm between two enormous fingers. Her shoulder jerked hard at the sudden impact. She shook her head, and hissed for the spots and ringing to go away, even as she wedged herself between Evangelion thumb and forefinger. Carried back to her rightful place atop Unit-02's shoulder, Asuka found her grip once more.
Driving Evangelion hands into the ruined ship, Asuka willed her wings to beat one last time. The MP Eva stood on its platform of crackling orange and seemed to wait, oddly inquisitive.
"You just threw a battleship at me! That's cheating!" Somehow the external speakers had triggered, and her voice echoed out across the ocean. "Take it back!"
Asuka threw the battleship.
The MP Eva took the blow head-on. Its AT platform gave way even as the ship skipped across the water and rolled, grinding away more steel and structure against the ocean. A great smear of ruin spread across the water, throwing up a wave big enough to send Over the Rainbow listing once more. Smashed against the angel's side, something finally gave way inside the monster. Air ripped out of a bloody wound and the thousand-meter long span of flesh and muscle slipped under the waves.
As for the battleship, the twice-tossed wreck ended its journey just ahead of the carrier's bow, and the MP Eva struggled to shrug off the cage of twisted metal. Seemingly unaffected, it wrenched itself loose and stepped out into the water, stalking forward on another hardened surface field. Those close enough heard crackling footsteps and smelled ozone with every footstep.
Meanwhile, Asuka circled, forgoing flight in favor of stepping from ship to ship. The remaining members of the fleet were close enough together she hadn't needed to leap between them. Cargo freighter and warship suffered her footprints and little else while the wings folded into a misshapen mass along her back- the union wasn't perfect. She didn't have much time to care. The two war machines prowled around, gradually closing in on the carrier and climbing aboard. Over the Rainbow groaned under the weight of two Evangelions, but it still held against all odds.
By her mental estimate, Asuka had about a minute of power left. Setting aside synchronization for the moment, she stared down her opponent with her own eyes and stepped along Unit-02's neck. Eyeless, the MP Eva seemed to stare right back. Standing opposite from the intact shoulder pylon, Asuka guided her Eva's arms up. Lacking plug controls, she made due by digging into alloy and fasteners to rip the housing apart. A reserve progressive knife dropped into her Evangelion's waiting hand from the ruined holster. One massive thumb extended the blade and its internal power supply hummed, loud and close enough to set Asuka's teeth on edge.
The MP Eva took that as a good sign to attack. It strode forward, leaving more footprints across the carrier deck, and Asuka moved to meet it. Conscious strategy was already starting to fade away. There was no great speech or miracle tactic. She'd already forgotten the quip said not ten seconds ago. A steadily dwindling list of thoughts ran through Asuka's mind as the two Evangelions wound up for their initial attack.
First, disable with extreme prejudice. Knife in hand, she sliced forward, aiming for the damaged elbow and equally weak side. The MP Eva ignored her move in favor of a lunging grab. The two machines tangled together by the limbs, slashing and ripping at armor and flesh by turns. Bloody gashes on both Eva spilled orange gore onto the deck, flooding yet again into the lower holds through thousands of cracks. Asuka grit her teeth against the sound of impact and the reeking stench of blood.
Second, maintain momentum against all opposition. The MP Eva swung its arms forward and clamped its fingers around Unit-02's throat. Braced and straining, it dug its heels into the deck and held Asuka at bay. She felt the fingers close around her throat as much her Eva's, but it was a distant problem. With its arms locked at full extension and straining to hold her back, Asuka saw an opportunity. She exploited it ruthlessly.
Swinging its free hand up, Asuka brought Unit-02's forearm across the enemy's elbows, folding them in line with the joint and dragging the pair together. The red Evangelions' head slammed hard into the enemy's own face. Again Asuka saw stars. Still strangled, Unit-02 moved, driving her knife into the MP Eva's chest. Once, twice, over and over, and always in the same spot. A bloody ragged hole grew in the MP Eva's side, and it shed rings and panels of white armor and flesh on the deck.
Unfeeling or unaware, the MP Eva ignored the wound and bore down harder. Asuka felt something give way in her throat, and her priorities shifted. Twisting, Unit-02 curled and bowed, wrapping its arm around the other Evangelion's white limb and tensed, locking the joint tight. Knife flipping over in her hand for an ice-pick grip, Asuka shoved the blade into the crushed elbow and pried. Sinew and bone cracked under the strain as the red combatant yanked and twisted, tearing the MP Eva's damaged forearm clean from its socket.
The Second Child threw the ruined limb away and charged back in. The MP Eva stumbled back, shaking its broken stump. Its tongue rolled out again, thick and bulging with thin tooth marks shot through the muscle. The damage it ignored, hunkered low and feral. Asuka let out a suffering breath and sighed, watching for her next chance. The surge of energy scratching at her soul reminded her of the third and most important thought, even as she charged back into the fight.
Never let it raise a field!
While the two machines dueled above, inside the carrier in one of the few still-functioning holds, an old console glowed. Its operator long dead, the machine still bore the add-on modules that let it interface with the Evangelion. Simple telemetry showed the most basic of traits, blood pressure, Electrocardiogram, Synch Ratio and battery power. Ninety-one percent and twenty-six seconds, respectively.
Denied and distracted, the MP Eva abandoned the field and changed tactics. It met Asuka's headlong rush with one of its own, slamming its own phallic head into Unit-02's brow plate. Hammer blows cracked its teeth but did not break the plastic jaw inside its head, but the red Evangelion came away with a dented and mangled visor. Asuka reeled atop her Eva's shoulder, beaten against her own armor and holding on by a few fingers. Taking its own chance, her opponent reached out and drove its thumb through the top of Unit-02's left eye.
Now Asuka screamed, cradling her face and feeling tears spill out across her cheeks. Unit-02 pulled back with one long leg and swung forward, catching the rival Evangelion between the legs. The impact was enough to lift the MP Eva off the deck and break its pelvis, but seemed to do little else. The white machine dropped back down on weaker but steady legs. It surged in despite broken parts, outright ignoring Asuka's dangerous knife and now going for the girl herself. Unit-02's arm came up in response, catching its fingers with its own. Their hands locked up palm to palm, steadfastly useless for either machine.
Power: 22 seconds. Synchronization: Ninety-four point eight percent.
With both arms compromised, the MP Eva had no defense. Asuka abandoned most pretense of sane combat for most basic of basics. Aiming for the hole she made earlier, Asuka set her mind to making it bigger. She lunged and stabbed with her knife as fast as she could will her Eva to move, breaking the blade twice over before the handle fragmented in her grip.
The MP Eva however continued to fight. Its bound hand clenched tight enough on Unit-02's to break it, mangling the fingers and locking them even further together. One combatant could not give up, the other refused to. With a screaming, painful jerk, Asuka pulled Unit-02's hand free, feeling the broken fingers through her own limbs.
Power: point-five seconds. Synchronization: Ninety-nine point four percent.
Separated from her foe by a hundred meters of runway, Asuka crawled out of the bloody hole in the back of her Evangelion's neck. She let out a shaky breath. The plug socket had been the safest place she could think of when that hand reached for her. She looked across the carrier, sick and tired and broken. Unit-02 crouched hands and knees on the deck, drained of nearly everything it and Asuka had. The stolen wings draped over its back like a misshapen cloak, clashing white with the red and orange armor.
Power: zero-zero seconds. Synchronization: one-hundred-one percent.
Already the MP Eva was setting its feet for another attack. Even with broken hips the thing charged, eating up the distance with two long strides. Asuka's bare eye flashed in the afternoon sun, and below her, Unit-02's visor shifted. Three slits of white appeared in the black. The red Evangelion's good right hand closed around something, and Asuka felt a familiar weight in her own arms.
The MP Eva lunged, leaping forward with one good arm and a bloody stump. Asuka and her Evangelion moved as one, rising up from her crouch and carving a long curve in the deck as she brought Wellenbrecher to bear. The MP Eva came down on the blade and slid forward, skewered through the chest. Asuka continued her charge, tilting forward and pinning the enemy to the deck. Thrashing, the MP Eva bucked, scrabbling at nothing before it finally stilled. Unit-02 slumped forward then, with its wrists draped atop the sword hilt and head propped up against the same.
A handful of long, quiet seconds passed. Then Over the Rainbow's surviving crew surged out en masse.
Asuka wasn't sure what to feel. She had all but tumbled out of her Eva, barely avoiding getting hurt even worse as she made her way down. She slid off Unit-02's thigh and hit the carrier deck. Not a second later she was on her knees and retched out an already empty stomach. The dry heaves gave way to sobs.
Wiping her mouth and eyes, she looked to the side to see the massive letters 'Mass Production Evangelion' stretched across a dangling white arm. She stared at it for a long moment, and the tears started to flow in earnest.
Holy shit, I won?
A scratchy blanket dropped over her head and Asuka found herself in Misato's arms. Numb, Asuka barely felt the hands running through her hair or wrapped around her ribs. The dark-haired woman cried, hugging her, kissing her forehead and rubbing away the dirt and blood that clung to Asuka's cheek. Kaji hovered nearby, smiling and laughing with his hair loose. The lines of his face faded away, and Asuka caught a glimpse of the Kaji of ten years ago. Some small part of Asuka's mind couldn't help but think that Misato had been lucky.
Sailors, airmen and marines along with rescued civilians all joined the crowd, shouting and hollering. Helmets and hats were thrown into the air even as the cooler heads among them all hauled out cables and tarps, ready to lash the two hulks down to the hull. Out in the mass of people sounds and creaking metal, Asuka heard the winding click of a camera shutter. The girl sobbed harder, shoulders shaking and smiling by turns.
Then, something cold and dry was draped across Asuka's shoulders, smelling slightly of seawater. Fingers reached out to touch leather, and Asuka found her jacket, and that Bolton woman smiling. Carter was there too amongst the survivors, arm in a sling and stained with blood and soot, but resoundingly alive.
Misato hugged her all the tighter, and Asuka just soaked in the warmth.
Holy shit. I won!
AN: Whew.
During the first week the silence order had been given, the Geofront remained quiet as a grave. Less than a week, before a man's face dimly flickered on a video intercom screen. A pirated connection. With wide and livid eyes, he stared into the camera, haggard and unshaven. "He won't let us sleep! We're working twenty hours a day and eating but no sleep! Commander Ikari you've got to help us!"