The next Angel is ready for battle, and once again we see a few changes, as well as introduce the fifth pilot. And while she is similar to and named after a Persona 3 character, she is fundamentally different, though I will say I don't own Persona 3. Disclaimer: I don't own Jojo's Bizarre Adventure, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Evangelion, or Anarchy Reigns.
Cruel Angel's Thesis Chapter 10: Angel of Music, Israfel
To say that things were going bittersweet was rather appropriate given the circumstances. Earlier that day the Seventh Angel, identified as Israfel, had made his appearance known. Naturally the group had gone out to deal with the situation, but while Kaworu had warned them of Israfel's ability to split in two, they weren't prepared for how coordinated the two halves were. Luckily, a new EVA dropped in, quite literally, just as Israfel was merging together to finish the job. The new EVA, Unit-04, wearing green armor resembling an elephant, hadn't been able to defeat the Angel, but the impact had been comparable to an N2 mine, meaning the Angel wasn't moving anytime soon.
The downside was Israfel had erected an AT Field so strong nothing could get through it, not even a second N2 mine. Shinji looked at the five EVAs standing side-by-side and noticed something. "Hey Dad, why do our EVAs resemble the Dobutsu Sentai Zyuohger?" Gendo chuckled. Of course his son would recognize that. "Some of our sponsorship money comes from Toei, and they wanted to use the EVAs to advertise their newest Super Sentai." Shinji shrugged and joined the other pilots in greeting their newest member, Aigis Idabashi, the Fourth Child.
"So you're another robot created by Mirai Idabashi?," Kaworu asked. "Yes," Aigis replied, "I'm actually Keebo's younger sister. And much like each of you, I can manipulate electrical energy. In my case I do so by overclocking my internal hardware." "Well, it certainly stopped the Angel," Asuka noted, "Temporarily at least. Long enough to find out how the hell we're gonna beat it. More importantly, how we're going to retrieve his core." "Not to worry," Rei said, "Big Sis is working on something. Hopefully we'll have news before the end of the day."
Misato blinked as she looked at the USB drive, and then at Kaji. "You came up with this?" Kaji shrugged. "Hey, I know how hard it can be on you when you get in a bad moon. I thought this might be a good way to brighten your day." Misato checked out the info on the USB. She started smiling at what she saw. "Kaji... This is brilliant! Using the Angel's own tactics against him, and how we can grab the core!" She surprised Kaji by smooching his lips, albeit briefly. "Don't get used to that," Misato assured him, "But consider your foot in the door. Just be careful not to make me slam it." Kaji chuckled. "Fair enough."
"So here's what we know," Misato said as she addressed the pilots, "Israfel's core is actually made of two components. To fully remove it, it must be pulled out of his body while he is whole, but before the two halves of the core are merged. This means a quick, synchronized strike is key. Therefore, this operation will be three-fold. Team One, being Shinji and Asuka, will perform the synchronized strike. Team Two, consisting of just Aigis, will distract the Angel as he's pulling together. While that is happening, Team Three, Rei and Kaworu, will go to remove the cores. You'll have exactly five seconds from the time he merges to grab the cores. Any longer and the cores will merge and be too heavy to remove. Any questions?"
"How will we be training for the synchronized strike?," Asuka asked. "That's the catch," Misato said, "To pull this off, you both need to be perfectly in sync with everything you do. And you'll need to live in the same room for until the Angel recovers from Aigis' attack, which will be in exactly one week. In addition, you'll be practicing a battle routine set to a sixty-second piece of music. Remember, we'll likely only get one try with this plan, so we need to make it count." The pilots all nodded, and headed off for their individual training.
While Shinji and Asuka were busy with their sync training, the other three pilots busied themselves with a small errand for NERV. They had to bring a few energy cells to transport tubes connected to the geofront, which were needed to power Aigis' recharge station. Unlike her brother Keebo, who was self-sufficient thanks to this Stand Machinehead, Aigis had to rely on a daily recharge station, and the energy draw was substantial. So swiping energy cells from SEELE's supply was a great way to provide the level of energy needed for the station.
As they were finishing up, something came up on Aigis' sensors, and she quickly dodged something that was slicing through the air. "So," came a male voice from nowhere, "You were able to detect my presence." An electrical field surged, revealing a young man in a cybernetic outfit, the design being clearly based around a ninja. "As if we don't have enough to deal with," Kaworu noted. "I am Zero," the man said, "And you are stealing precious energy my masters need for their plans. But if you were to join us, we would be happy to share."
"I am afraid that cannot be arranged," Aigis said, "Our mission is to save the world, and your masters are seeking to destroy it, only to remake it the way they want. A place only for them, were everyone serves them. That is not the way the world is meant to work." Zero said nothing else, but grabbed the twin swords on his back, clearly the artificial Stand he was granted. "Onimaru & Jyuzumaru! Prepare to strike down this mockery of life!" He drew his swords, but Aigis leapt over the attempted attack and activated her overdrive system, her arms changing into revolver cannons.
The girl proved to be a walking arsenal, her guns firing too fast for even the high-frequency blades Zero was carrying to counter. After a bit, he managed to get up. "You fight well for a mere robot, but soon you will-Guh!" His entire system had been shorted out by a sneak attack from Rei using her lightning mode. "We have no time to be playing around with false Stand users," she said, "We should get back and keep practicing our roles. And maybe check in on our new couple." It was no secret that Shinji and Asuka had fallen for each other hard due to their similar personalities, making the synch training go all the smoother.
"So now we have another artificial Stand user for the brig," Cadence noted, "SEELE's really pushing for us to join their cause. The problem is they would deliberately hamper us so when the time came for them to make their move, they'd be able to scapegoat us and we couldn't do anything to stop them." She was overseeing the training of the other three pilots. Rei and Kaworu were practicing timing their attack for when Aigis provided the distraction, while Aigis practiced timing her attack to when the music stopped. For added security, Jet Alone would be flying in just before her to make sure Israfel's eyes were off the pilots.
Tomorrow was when the battle would begin, and the pilots were in great shape. "Everything took into account the Angel evolving to deal with a similar strike to last time," Shining noted, "Let's hope we can make our one chance count." Cadence nodded. "I'd really like to make this world one were we can start raising a family together." Shining smiled before hugging and kissing his wife. "I really envy you two," Kaji said as he came up to them, "I hope I can patch things up with Misato soon enough." "You do realize all her anger towards you is to cover up the fact that she's the one who left you," Shining noted. Kaji nodded. "Yeah. It still stings."
Israfel finally finished repairing his body and merged himself together. "That had to be the longest six days of my life," he said in stereo, befitting his ability to split apart. Of course, while he had two voices, he only had one mind. "It doesn't look like the Lilim are making any further attacks. They likely figured out how long it would take me to heal. No matter, I might as well take advantage of this opening." He got distracted by the sight of Ramiel's shell, still being broken down days after his core was removed. "I still feel Ramiel's presence not far from Father. Hopefully I can free my siblings as well."
Just then, twin hatches opened in the ground, revealing Units 01 and 03, arms crossed in an X in front of their faces. 'Ready Operation Tempo,' Cadence said over the comm. "Copy that!," Shinji and Asuka said simultaneously. Israfel scoffed before splitting in two, only to hear music the second he did so. Suddenly, the two EVAs struck as one, causing sever pain as they easily broke through Israfel's AT Field. "Damn! They're playing things my way! Need to hurry and merge together, disrupt their battle strategy!"
However, the second he did so, he found himself under fire from both Jet Alone and Unit-04 strafing the area. Before he could react, Units 02 and 05 dropped behind him and grabbed the two cores. Quicker than he could think, Israfel felt both his cores getting pulled from his body simultaneously, the two EVAs jumping away as the shell exploded. Shinji and Asuka found themselves in the middle of a crater, though their EVAs were unaffected by the blast. "Well," Asuka said as she got out of her EVA, "That happened." Shinji also exited. "Looks like we pulled it off. And it looks like we have some privacy." Cadence giggled as she took that as a sign to turn off the monitors.
Yeah, expect the Angel fights to be short. NERV's real enemy is SEELE after all. I know, alternate realities, right? But don't get it twisted, SEELE's downfall won't be for the same reasons as Barbro. This is Lorenz Keel, after all, and he has a few tricks up his sleeves. He just won't be playing his trump card until the final hand. Read and review.