Author's Note : Hey all. First time I've had to put one of these on top of the chapter, but I feel something needs to be said about the state of this chapter. It took me three weeks to write this, longer than any single chapter so far. The worst part? It wasn't for any reason other than a realization that Episode 11 of the Evangelion anime was... fundamentally broken, from an animation standpoint. I could not, for the life of me, work out how the vents and the shafts and the hallways were able to lead anyone to Central Dogma as quick as it did, and I could not find any resource that could give me a visual answer either. I was dumbfounded, which made me contemplate for multiple days how I would address such things. In the end, I chose that the best course would be to just describe things as the anime presented them, and thus sidestepped the issue altogether.

I deeply apologize for the extended time it has taken to get this chapter out. I hope you all can enjoy it as it is.


Just as Misato had informed me, a few days later I was greeted by a phone call from Dr. Akagi, detailing the training plan Asuka was meant to follow at the HQ for the foreseeable future. Set across two week intervals, seven total days of assorted combat drills, team exercises, and synchro testing, marked for various periods across morning, noon and night, with the team exercises specifically falling on every second Monday.

Asuka stared at the newly marked calendar, her eye twitching, and her foot tapping the floor in seeming annoyance. "Hey, hey, hey! Was zur Hölle ist das!?"

I stared at the calendar alongside her. "I have no idea what you just said, but this is the new sche-"

"I can see that, dummkopf. I'm concerned at why that Ritsuko lady thinks I need all this extra training!"

Scratching the back of my head, I remembered her comments from a few days ago. "...weren't you the one who said you'd take as much solo training as you need to, in order to stay ahead of Rei and Shinji?" She spun towards me quickly, gritting her teeth.

"I DIDN'T MEAN THIS MUCH!"


So, with a chunk of her after-school time being taken up by combat training, and the mornings of her Sundays involving sync tests, Asuka was slowly coming around to the idea of doing it all throughout the first week.

Before now, training used to be roughly once a week. However, after practically every Angel attack thus far having caught us off guard with sudden appearances and unpredictable movements, we've decided to take matters into our own hands. Still leaving most days out of the week for the pilots to relax, while also increasing the amount of training time exorbitantly, the plan was to observe just how each pilot would react, and after a couple weeks, change each one's plan individually once we see results one way or another.

If Asuka really did think all this training for her was unnecessary, the results would eventually show, thus granting her more time off. But, one thing, the team training would continue regardless. That was going to be vital to any tactical successes. Unfortunately, deep down I felt like that was where Asuka was going to fall flat, at least for a while.


The morning of this particular Monday in late September began like any other, however with the caveat of the first bout of team combat drills lurking just past noon. The pilots were to be excused from classes for the latter half of the day, and I was to pick them all up from school and bring them down to the HQ. Simple enough.

Asuka was noticeably antsy, poking her breakfast to death as I drank my morning coffee.

"Nervous?"

She swiftly speared her egg through the center. "Ha, hardly. I'm just excited to outdo both of those idiots in full view of you and the entire HQ, that's all." Wearing a superior look on her face, she gracefully devoured her food and stood up.

I sighed softly. "The team training isn't a competition, Asuka."

As Asuka washed her hands in the sink, she scoffed under her breath. "It may as well be. A team falls to pieces if the individual parts aren't working at their best!" She peered back over her shoulder at me. "You better believe I'm going into that training assuming Wondergirl and the wimp are bringing their A game, and I refuse to lose to them, even if we are on the same side!"

"Now some part of me is thinking you're taking this too seriously…" I responded while taking another sip of coffee.

Asuka slung the dish towel she dried her hands in over her shoulder and gave me another smug look. "Even if I didn't want as much training as I got, I'm gonna take it all seriously. No exceptions!" Well, she has the making of a good work ethic, I'll give her that much.

After she had left for school, I went ahead with cleaning the apartment, finishing with a shower, and then I just bided my time until I was ready to leave the apartment myself.


It was a scorcher of a day. On top of it being uncomfortable, it also made my recovering sunburns itch. Sitting in the lunchtime traffic, I vigorously tapped the steering wheel with my thumbs to keep my mind off the troubles on the back of my neck. The AC wasn't doing enough even on full blast, so I was just forced to sit in this heat, unmoving, dreaming of the higher powered ventilation systems of Central Dogma. Such thoughts were enough to make a man groan in frustration.

Eventually, I was able to break away from the lines of cars whose wheels seemed to have melted onto the pavement for as fast as they were going, and made my way towards the school, albeit being a tad late to the pick-up time by a couple minutes. As I took the corner, I saw two figures standing on the sidewalk in the distance.

The auburn and pale blue heads of hair stood out against the surroundings like a couple of sore thumbs.

I pulled the car up beside them and rolled down the window. "Shouldn't the two of you be in school?" I joked.

Asuka folded her arms, having just stopped fanning herself with a school book. "Would you look at that, the fashionably late Lieutenant has jokes!" Her hands moved to her hips as she bent down to look at me through the window. "Do you know how long we were waiting? Or how warm it is out? Sheesh!" As the two girls entered the vehicle (Asuka in her usual passenger spot, and Rei sitting comfortably in the back), I peered around for the third member of the group while detailing the reason for my delay.

"I would've been here sooner, had I known the main roads would be filled with dozens of cars sitting around."

"Ahh, this is heaven compared to outside!" Leaning herself up against the AC vent, flapping her uniform's collar, Asuka seemed to ignore my detailing but she noticed my surveying. "If you're looking for the idiot, he went to tell his dad something about school on the payphone around the block."

"Is that so?"

"Yeah, some stupid parent-teacher thing, about career guidance or whatever." She made it seem unimportant, though the event itself sounded substantial. "I was going to tell you about it when we got home, but it's not like you're my dad or anything, so you can just forget about it if you want."

I sighed. "We can talk about that some other time, then." I glanced at Rei in the rear-view mirror. She was patiently looking out the window, with her usual tepid demeanor. "Sorry if the AC isn't powerful enough, Rei. This is an older car, after all."

Without looking away from the window, she responded flatly. "I don't mind it."

"Mmh, that Rei sure is an obedient one, eh?" Asuka started, a mocking tone present in her voice. "Tell her to endure the heat and she'll stay until she melts if you don't say otherwise." I shot Asuka a look and she turned away, looking out her own window.

After a short, awkward period of silence, Shinji turned the corner. What immediately stood out was how perplexed he looked. Noticing us, he jogged over to the car and entered opposite from Rei.

"Well, now that the gang's all here, let's mosey." I put the car in drive, and hoped I remembered what paths I could take to avoid the traffic which surely still permeated the main roads.

Asuka leaned back against her seat, locking eyes with the boy sitting behind her in the mirror. "Hey, you're looking more depressed than usual. Your dad yell at you or something?"

Shuffling in his seat a bit, Shinji scrunched his face up, almost like he wasn't sure how to answer. "Uh… well, he did… and then the line went dead."

"Well, duh. I'd say he's a pretty busy guy for you to just call up out of the blue."

Shinji shook his head. "It's not quite that…. Uh, how do I explain? It was more like an error than him hanging up. That's what it sounded like to me."

"Geez, why can't you just accept that maybe the director of NERV has more important things to do than worry about dumb school stuff. I swear, you're going to go grey before you turn twenty with how much you fret."

As the two began another round of their usual bickering, I was now even more worried about the team training, to say the least.


Stepping into the Geofront's main above-ground entrance, we all expected there to be a refreshingly cool room awaiting us. However, the same stagnant air as outside greeted us instead. As Shinji and Rei strode towards the gate, I took a look around the industrial looking waiting room for the thermostat, eventually finding it in a peculiar state.

"It's… off?" Very peculiar, especially on a day as hot as today. I know people don't usually stay here for long, but...

Asuka walked up by my side. "Lieutenant? Is it broken?" I looked around more closely, noticing that there were no lights on at all… anywhere.

"Huh? My card doesn't work?"

Shinji swiped his ID multiple times in the gate's reader, getting no signal back. Rei followed, receiving the same result. Asuka marched over to them, pushing the two out of the way.

"Are you dimwits done playing around? Here!" She swiped her card as well. Grunting in frustration, she swiped it again and again, to no avail. "Gah, does nothing work around here anymore!?"

I caught up to the group after doing a little more poking around. "There's no other explanation, the power has to be out."

"Huh, out? Shouldn't NERV have… back-up generators, or something?" Shinji inquired. He was absolutely correct. The generators are supposed to cut in for the main power grid, granting power to the Geofront's related facilities at the very least, as soon as an outage occurs. As far as I could tell from here though, the back-ups hadn't activated at all.

"Yeah, but if they are on, the power isn't reaching the entrance to the Geofront, when it definitely should be…" Something smelled fishy here.


As we moved through the service hallways, checking every door we came across, the dead electronics served only to unsettle us further.

"Everything's kaput. So weird. I wonder what's going on down in the HQ." Asuka's voice breaks the silence.

Shinji looked towards me. "Could an Angel be causing this? Maybe a terrorist?" I shook my head.

"It's impossible to tell right now. It could just be something completely mundane, so we shouldn't panic until we get more information. There should be an emergency phone line somewhere here. If we can find that, even if there's a small amount of power, it should be connected to Central Dogma." Shinji nodded.

"R-Right, getting communications with the HQ should be the priority now."

We continued checking doors with no luck, until we found ourselves in another hallway, this time with a glass roof to allow a welcome helping of natural light. In this hall were an array of phone stations.

Alas, nothing. It was all down.

"Damn it all." I cursed under my breath. "Even the emergency line is dead."

The group took a spell, sitting on the seats lining the opposite walls in this warm corridor. "Anyone have any ideas now?" Asuka groaned.

Suddenly, Rei began looking into her school bag, which she had happened to bring inside with her. "You have something that could help?" I asked, standing up.

"I have the emergency manual." The young girl informed with no change to her expression, pulling a compact case out of the bag. Opening it and removing the contents within, she unfolded the pamphlet and handed it to me.

"Wow, excellent work, Wondergirl. Full marks!" Asuka remarked in a blatantly sarcastic manner, quickly clearing her throat afterwards. "Well, in any case, a dangerous situation like this calls for someone to take charge and become the leader. I elect myself!"

Shinji laughed sheepishly at her display. "I dunno, I feel like the Lieutenant might be a bit more qualified." Reaching her arm out, Asuka flicked Shinji's forehead with her index finger, causing him to stagger backwards.

"Hush, stupid. While the Lieutenant is busy reading, I'll lead us forward in the meantime!" She began walking back towards the service hallway we entered from.

"That's the wrong way. If we're going to the HQ, the opposite direction leads deeper inside." Rei spoke softly, but it made Asuka spin on her heel in a huff, swiftly marching past us deeper into the facility. I exchanged a worried look with Shinji and we followed the redhead's lead while I attempted to see if the pamphlet had any information of how to get inside the HQ.


"Oh great leader, what dead end are you leading us towards now?"

"Would you shut up with your whining already!? We're almost… uh, exactly where we need to be to enter the Geofront! Obviously."

Asuka and Shinji bickered as I tried to make out the last parts of the emergency manual in these much darker spaces. There honestly wasn't much here, but it did mention an emergency exit from the Geofront with a manual opening mechanism. That was really our only hope. After hitting two other blocked passages during my reading, Asuka had actually managed to lead us right to Route-07, the very same emergency exit I had just detailed.

"See? What did I tell you?" Her victorious aura undeterred in the shadow of earlier mistakes, we all looked upon the giant white door in front of us.

I stepped towards the manual opening lever next to the door, as outlined in the pamphlet. "Well, this is the only other way in, apparently."

"Oh, it's a manual unlock?" Shinji asked, walking up beside me. Asuka gave a short laugh.

"Well, men, it's time you show your worth! As the leader of this expedition, I demand you open this door immediately!"

Shinji groaned at the orders as he helped me slowly crank the stiff lever. After a few rotations, the door's creases began to inch apart, bit by bit, until it was a big enough opening for us to fit through. Afterwards, we both fell back onto the ground, trying to catch our breath in the warm air. Asuka took a few steps towards the opening, poking her head inside.

"Ugh, schrecklich, the air in this shaft is even worse! It's warm and smells like mold."

Having recovered, I poked my head in as well. Unsurprisingly, the lack of consistent usage this tunnel has gotten, along with the constant warm weather, made for a musk unlike any I'd hoped to smell in my life. Exiting the dry, dead air of the service hallways into this humid, somehow even worse feeling air was nearly suffocating, but we had no other choice. I handed the pamphlet back to Rei and we started into the shaft.

Almost immediately, the floor began to incline downwards, a sign of hope that we would eventually be able to reach our destination.


Admittedly, I may have gathered hope within myself too quickly, as after a few twists and turns, we ended up being spit out just a few meters below Tokyo-3's roads, facing a long straightaway of pipes and wiring trays. At least here, we could see a bit better due to the pittance of light streaming in from the world above. The air wasn't quite as unbearable either.

"We've barely gotten anywhere!" Asuka threw her arms up in exasperation and stepped out into the passageway first, taking a long look at the trek ahead of us. Shinji passed her and sighed, stopping to survey the path himself.

"Usually it only takes a couple minutes to get to the HQ from the entrance. I didn't think I'd ever find myself missing a simple escalator ride, but here I am." He turned back, looking for answers from the group. "Are you all sure this is the right way?"

I scratched the back of my head. "Well, we've been heading downwards so far. That's gotta count for something, right?"

Letting another huff out, Asuka strode down the passage. "Of course this is the right way, idiots! Stop the whining and buck up! I'm sure we'll be at the Geofront as soon as we've cleared this path!" Was she saying that to us, or herself? She still had plenty of energy, anyway.

"And how many times did you say that when you were leading us to dead ends earlier?" Shinji prodded out loud, immediately shrinking back beside me as if saying it out loud was an accident. Nearly skidding to a halt, Asuka spun around, stomping right up to the boy, as he visibly began to regret his statement.

"WHY DO YOU HAVE TO BE SUCH A USELESS WORRYWART!?" She yelled at him. He attempted a rebuttal, but was cut off as she continued her verbal assault. "THAT NEGATIVE ATTITUDE OF YOURS REALLY GETS ON MY NERVES! I WISH YOU'D JUST-"

Flipping my 'responsible adult' switch on, I pushed myself in between the two. "Hey! Listen, I know the situation sucks. It's warm and exhausting, but this is not the time to fight." I put a hand on Asuka's shoulder. "You two can bicker all you want when we get to the HQ and figure out the power problem, okay? For right now though, I just need you both to relax."

Asuka brushed my hand off, but agreed through gritted teeth, while Shinji just apologized softly. Hopefully that would be one less thing to worry about for this adventure.

"Hm?"

Rei made a sudden noise from up ahead. She had continued onwards a short distance while I was breaking up the other two pilots.

"Oh what, does Wondergirl want to weigh in now?" Asuka growled, raring to start another fight.

"Silence, please." Making a gasp at Rei's curtness, Asuka was definitely ready to shout some words, but then I could hear something. It was faint, coming from above us...

"Is that a voice?" A hush fell over us as we strained our ears towards the ceiling. It was getting louder, and we could almost make out what they were saying. The voice began to sound familiar the more they spoke through what seemed to be a loudspeaker. "It sounds like Hyuga! What's he doing up there?"

We all began calling out for him, but Rei shushed us again. His message was clear now that it had gotten close enough.

"AN ANGEL HAS INFILTRATED TOKYO-3, I REPEAT, AN ANGEL IS IN TOKYO-3! ALL NERV PERSONNEL, BE ADVISED! AN ANGEL HAS INFILTRATED TOKYO-3!"

As soon as those words entered my ears, everything froze. An Angel? Now, of all times!? Of all the damnable luck in the world, we really managed to hit the jackpot.

This adventure towards the Geofront's innards had suddenly taken a turn into a footrace.

"He said an Angel is here, didn't he? That's what he said, I didn't mishear?" Shinji straightened his back and wore a serious look. I nodded, this was already a dangerous situation, and we now needed to proceed extremely quickly.

Rei pointed a finger down the tunnel. "There isn't any time. There should be a shortcut this way." Her tone was flat, not nearly indicative of the situation we were in, but leave it to her to be cool under pressure. Asuka however, seemed slightly less enthused, but not in the way I expected.

"You, don't make decisions like that without consulting the leader! I don't care what the situation is!" Rei just stared at her, expressionless, before walking quickly towards the shortcut she mentioned. "H-Hey! At least let me go first, stupid Wondergirl!"


When Rei mentioned "shortcut", a tight ventilation shaft was not quite what I had in mind. In a situation like this though, I knew we couldn't afford to take the scenic route, so one after the other, we all climbed into this dusty, metal duct. It was just big enough for me to fit, pulling up the rear after the other three had already begun making their way, on hands and knees.

"I can't believe I let you idiots convince me to climb into a smelly vent, how embarrassing!" Asuka grumbled. The air in here was still murky, to be expected of these vents with the power off. The dust tracking along our clothing and the cobwebs I spied every couple feet forced me to ask myself if these vents were even used at all? "Someone talk about something to keep my mind off all this crap I'm crawling through!"

At first, no one took the offer. It was a little while more of our relatively noisy movements through these cramped vents being the only sounds, before Shinji decided on a question for the group to fill the silence.

"Um, w-well, this has been on my mind lately." He started, in his usual timid manner. "What do you guys think about…. Uh, the Angels?"

Asuka let out a sharp groan. "Of all the things we could talk about right now, you choose that!?"

Ignoring her complaint, he continued. "Angels are supposed to be messengers of God, right? Then… why do we have to fight them? Why do we even call them Angels, for that matter?"

Honestly, I had never really thought about the Angels in that kind of detail before, myself. Their naming, well, that's just what NERV called them when I was hired. They were organic, seemingly, at least to some degree. They had blood, and organs. Calling them "Angel", no matter how inaccurate to their actual existence, should still imply some level of… ethereality, yet as they are; their forms, their aggression. Nothing about them was Angel-like at all.

The redhead scoffed. "Just how stupid are you, anyway? It doesn't matter if they're actually Angels or not! They're attacking us! I think it's pretty natural to want to kill something that's trying to kill you, so it doesn't matter to me if they're Angels, or evil spirits, or even other humans! If they attack, I'll attack too."

Asuka's feelings on the matter didn't surprise me too much. Fighting is in her blood, she proves that almost every day. Having his question blown back in his face, Shinji didn't pursue any other enlightenment on the subject. Although thoughts of Angels and their origins were swirling in my head now, I had to put them aside for now, as the vent led to a descent; one that exited into a dark hallway, lit only by a soft red emergency light. The fact that there was any power at all here boded well, in any case.

We all piled out of the vent, dropping to the hall below. It seemed to be another service shaft. Brushing ourselves as clean as we could, we proceeded, however we were immediately met with a fork in the road.

"We go right." Asuka spoke suddenly, taking a step towards her choice.

Rei spoke next. "I believe the correct path is left." Asuka growled again.

"Would you stop contradicting every choice I make!? I'm supposed to be the leader here!" Her eyes fell on me. "What do you think, Lieutenant? My choice is the correct way, right?"

I scratched the side of my head. "Asuka, we really don't have time for this." She started to glare. "...well, why do you say the right path is correct, Asuka?" She shuffled.

"It's my gut instinct!" She proudly put her hands on her hips. "It's the most trustworthy tool of any warrior!"

I guess a decision like that in this situation has some merit, but in any case, I turned to Rei, posing the same question. "Why do you think the left path is correct?" She didn't answer immediately. Instead, she walked over to the right side, staring down its hall for a moment, before announcing her reasoning.

"The right path inclines upwards in about 40 meters. It's obvious that this cannot be the correct path." As Asuka stared in stunned awe, Rei proceeded walking down the left side, without even waiting for my verdict.

"Oh, you think just because you're Director Ikari's little pet, you can just go on and make decisions by yourself, huh!?" Asuka stayed with her feet planted next to her side, eyes fixed on the blue-haired girl, who had stopped in the hallway. "Yeah, I know you heard me, Wondergirl. You're oh-so-loved, it's given you a big, fat ego!" My hand snatched Asuka by the shoulder roughly, turning her towards me.

"What did I say about now not being the time!?" Her wide eyes made me loosen my grip immediately, but the reminder of the situation at least forced her to concede.

Rei ended the conversation with one final line. "You are mistaken. I'm not loved. I know that quite well." With that cryptic message, she continued on ahead, slowly disappearing from sight. Shinji quickly jogged after her.

As I took a step to follow as well, Asuka's hand wrapped around my wrist, stopping me in my tracks. She didn't say anything. She just stood there, wearing a terribly frustrated look on her face, as if she could start screaming or crying any second. Without really knowing what to say myself, I simply raised my hand up and laid it on top of her head.

"I'm sorry, Asuka, but even leaders should know when to take advice from their peers…" I attempted a warm smile, but she trudged past me instead. Keeping pace with her, I continued. "Since it doesn't seem like the team training will be going forward as planned today, we'll just have to improvise, right?" She sped up, with this obviously not being the conversation she was looking to have. I just sighed and carried on.


We moved as quickly as we could, without much conversation between the group distracting us, but even so, we had a lot of ground to cover. More and more damp shafts we descended, more seemingly meaningless corridors, over piping and under cable trays. As we exited this particular vent, however, Rei notified us that we should soon be closing in on Central Dogma. One final push.

Though, coming to think of it, the power was still mostly down. Would the Evas really be able to launch under these conditions? Certainly an organization like NERV would have a sprawling array of back-up plans for situations like these, right?

This last vent was a tighter squeeze than most of the others had been. Rei was still leading, but Asuka had pushed past Shinji and myself to be on her tail.

"If you look up my skirt, I'll crush your nose in." Asuka remarked violently towards the boy crawling directly behind her. A soft questioning noise from him prompted an abrupt commotion. "I TOLD YOU NOT TO LOOK UP, ARSCHLOCH!" Shinji had seemingly made a grave mistake.

"HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO SEE WHERE I'M GOING IF I DON'T LOOK UP!?" Shinji screamed between bouts of Asuka's shoe clapping off his face and arms, every kick making the vent shudder in an admittedly worrying fashion.

Before I had the chance to raise my voice, the section of the shaft beneath the two gave way, and they both immediately disappeared from sight with yelps, clattering to the ground below.

I glanced towards Rei, who, without giving me a look in return, hopped out of the vent with impressive deftness, landing on the ground just next to the duo of groaning teens. I gave another sigh, but it was mostly one of relief. The air was still torrid down here, but the air quality was a jump up compared to what I had been breathing for the past while. Following Rei's example, I hopped down as well, realizing we had dropped directly into the docking bay for the Evangelions.

Finally, some good luck!

Dr. Akagi was in the process of coming to our aid just as I touched the ground. "Lieutenant Hatsuyuki! You all made it down here safely?" I winced, giving her a smile.

"Well, it was almost a clean run." I turned and reached my hands out to the two still picking themselves off the floor. They both accepted the help, although as soon as they stood, Asuka gave Shinji one final kick in the leg. As he let out another sharp yelp, my attention turned back to Dr. Akagi. "Right, there's an Angel topside. We need to get the Evas prepped!"

She offered a thumbs up. "No need to worry about that. They already are. We were just hoping you'd all find a way down here, and luckily, it all worked out." Rubbing his calf, Shinji approached us.

"The Evas are ready? B-But how, I thought the power was still off."

It was then I noticed. There were people rushing all over the place, carrying tools and other things, and above it all, standing on a catwalk and shouting orders, Gendo Ikari. Dr. Akagi pointed towards him. "It was all Director Ikari's idea. We had the means to prep the Evas manually, so we put the effort in for you all to be ready to sortie as soon as you got here."

Shinji softly spoke his father's name, watching him in awe.


The trio ran and quickly changed into their plugsuits. While they were preparing and the final touches were being cleared up for the Eva's launch, Dr. Akagi took me aside.

"Lieutenant, do you mind me asking a favor?" I shook my head. "Well, Misato had been on one of the lower floors this morning, and I haven't seen her since. At first I figured she'd show up eventually, but I'm really starting to worry something may have happened during the outage."

That didn't sound good at all. "So, you're sending me on a rescue mission?"

She smiled, laying a flashlight in my hand. "That's right. Maya and myself will come to help as soon as things are cleaned up here, so just scout things out. It may only be a simple case of her being stuck behind a locked door, but…" She looked towards the pilots exiting the changing room, with Asuka and Shinji glaring at each other as Rei walked on ahead to her where Unit-00 was waiting. "Well, feel free to leave whenever you're ready." And with that, she left to assist Gendo, passing Asuka on her way. The redhead stood before me with a scowl on her face, adjusting the plugsuit's wrist cuff.

"That idiot Shinji's never going to change, will he? He always has to be a thorn in my side. Oh, and don't even get me started on Wondergirl. Who does she think she is!?" The young girl groaned, crossing her arms.

I scratched my chin. "Airing all your grievances before you leave?" I gave a soft chuckle, and she smirked, before giving a deep exhale.

"Figured I'd get it off my chest now before I have to actually give an honest attempt at working as a team." I was happily surprised at this turn of events. "Wipe that grin off. I'm only considering it because we have no back-up communications right now, and today is the team training day anyway. You said we have to improvise, right? Doesn't get any better than on-site Angel fighting."

I patted the top of her head, causing her to shoot me a bit of a dirty look. I ignored it. "I'm sure you'll all do your best. Just don't overwork yourselves. The Evas are still on their usual time limit like this, but that doesn't mean you need to be hasty. Let teamwork come naturally."

"Yeah, yeah. I'll make sure the two of them stay in line. Someone's gotta be the leader, and last I checked, I hadn't given that title up to either of them." I smirked at her bravado, though her understanding of what teamwork meant seemingly needed a bit of polish. It was on that note, just as she was turning to leave, when she noticed the light in my hand. "Are you going somewhere?"

"Dr. Akagi wants me to go deeper into the facility to try and find Misato. She's been missing since this morning." I shrugged. "Not exactly what I expected to be doing here, but with the power still out, I'm not much help anyway, so…"

Asuka nodded. "Just make sure you don't trip over something on your way. Last thing I want to do when I get back is to go looking for you and Misato."

"I'll be careful."

"Mmh, whatever you say." Then, Asuka too walked off, heading to board Unit-02. The smell and sound of the diesel generator had already filled the area, as Unit-01's entry plug was manually inserted into the neck of the machine. Soon, they would be moving out, to deal with the threat above. I offered a small prayer for their safety, and left to find the nearest descending staircase, so I could look for my drunkard of a commanding officer.


The pale green walls looked even more sickly than usual against the harsh rays of the flashlight. With the only sounds being my breath, and the clack of my shoes against the tiled floor, this lower area of the facility filled me with an acute fear for some reason, like I was wandering into an abyss. I let out a deep breath, peering my flashlight around corners and into any rooms that happened to have open doors. No sign of Misato on this level. I cleared my throat.

"HEY, MISATO! ARE YOU DOWN HERE!? ANSWER ME!"

Nothing. The fear grew slightly in my chest, and with it, I descended to the next level.

Room after room, hall after hall, the same green tiling meeting me at every turn. It was a little disorienting. Dr. Akagi didn't say exactly how far down Misato was doing work, so who knows how many floors I would have to go. One thing was for certain, the air was not the greatest down here, leaving a musty taste in the back of my throat with every breath. Unsurprising, given how deep underground I must be by now, though interesting how much work the ventilation systems actually put in for this place. I decided to pick up the pace.

Another level. Called her name. Nothing.

Another level. Called her name. Nothing again.

Another.

I shone the light down the hallway. At this point, I wouldn't be surprised to see some abomination from those late night horror movies I've indulged in over the past couple weeks to be lurking around the corners. Honestly, I'd much rather take my chances with one of those than fight an Angel…

Looking towards the ceiling, I wondered how the kids were doing with the fight above. Shaking the thoughts out of my head, I steeled myself for the mission I was on. Taking a deep breath, I let out another call.

"MISATO!? CAN YOU HEAR ME!?"

A soft thud. It came from below me, maybe a floor or three, but definitely a thud. It started becoming a rhythmic pattern, then grew frantic.

I ran to the next flight of stairs, clattering down it with agility I was slightly shocked to find I possessed in these conditions. I called out again, and in return, louder thuds, accompanied now by a muffled voice.

Another level. Called her name. Her voice was clearer now. One more floor for sure.

Down I went.

"MISATO!?"

A couple meters ahead of me, I heard a hand pounding against a closed elevator door. "Matsuo! Oh, thank god, get us out! We're suffocating in here!" It was Misato's voice. Luckily, she didn't sound like she was hurt. I was just relieved to've found her.

Wait. Us?

"Just hang on, I'll… figure out how to open these doors." Something I had no idea how to even begin tackling. Any emergency door opening code wouldn't work with the power still out, and I didn't have so much as a crowbar with me. Left with no other option, I raised my leg and gave the center of the door a hard kick.

A jolt of pain immediately shot up my heel and I stumbled back towards the wall behind me. "Did... you actually just kick the door?" It was barely above a muffle, but I heard Misato say that in quite the unimpressed tone.

From inside, I heard a chuckle, along with a few muffled words from a male voice. Okay, that didn't matter right now. What did matter, was opening this door. With still no new options available to me, I prepared myself for another try, as fruitless as it may have seemed. "Misato, stand clear of the door, this time I'm coming through!" I called.

"Really? I... don't want you hurting yourself. Just go find a crowbar or something!" Her words fell on deaf ears. Maybe it was the air quality messing with my head, or maybe all that crawling in the vents and listening to the kids bicker had given me my own frustrations I needed to get out, but regardless, I went for the follow-up anyway.

Just as my leg extended towards the door, I braced for impact.

Ding.

As the lights around me flicked on, the elevator doors slid open, and with all my momentum still needing somewhere to go, I essentially threw myself right onto the floor of the elevator with a hard crash.

Misato began clapping. "Well, I don't know how you did it, but your kick really saved the day after all!" Her obvious sarcasm was a sucker punch after the wind had gotten, quite literally, knocked out of my sails. At least it wasn't an eight foot drop like Shinji and Asuka fell, but it was far from my shining moment. A hand stretched out next to me.

"I'm no expert, but elevator floors are usually the last place I'd want my face near." The smooth voice of Ryoji Kaji snapped my head up to meet his gaze. He smiled his usual cheeky smile as he helped me up.

"Kaji? Why are you here?" He gave a short chuckle.

"Oh, I just came to make sure Misato wasn't all alone in this metal cell by herself. A lonely woman is a terrible thing, wouldn't you agree?" Misato was in the process of walking down the hall already. That's when it hit me. The power had returned! Ugh, if only I had waited a moment, I could've saved myself from that… simply incredible display. Kaji exited into the hall as well, calling after his elevator buddy. "The stairs are the other way, ma'am!"

"I'M GOING TO THE BATHROOM, JERK!" Thus, she disappeared around the corner. Kaji scratched the back of his neck before turning his attention back to me.

"So, even with the power out, you managed to make it here? I'm impressed."

"Yeah, we had no choice, really. The children needed to get down here." My eyes glanced towards the ceiling again.

Kaji snapped his fingers. "Oh right, for the team training? That was today, I had heard through the grapevine." I winced, folding my arms.

"Not just that, unfortunately. As we started entering the service shafts to try and make our way down, an Angel appeared."

Instantly, as if a switch had been hit, Kaji's face paled, and his eyes widened. He noticed me staring at his stark expression change, so he covered his mouth with his hand, giving the floor a hard look, and began pacing. "An… An Angel, you say? Now?"

"Kaji?"

He softly laughed to himself. "Of all the blasted luck…" I heard him say under his breath.

I placed a hand on his shoulder, and his gaze turned back to me, attempting to normalize. "I know, it's incredibly bad timing, but Asuka and the others are handling it. I'm just happy we made it down in time."

Kaji swallowed hard, before returning to his smirk, although still shaken. "R-Right, of course. I'm just… shocked that something like this could happen and we were completely unaware, just biding our time in an elevator while everyone else was getting ready to fight." He offered another laugh.

I understand what he means, but something was still a little odd about his attitude. As soon as his chuckle ended, he went back to glaring at the floor, as if he were thinking about something hard.

Misato returned a moment later, her shoes making their usual satisfying clack on the tiles. "Holy moly, I thought I was done for." She tossed me a wink. "Thanks for helping us out, Matsuo. Even if all you did was injure yourself." A sigh escaped my lips.

"Considering I was half expecting to find you trapped under a shelf or something in the dark, I'm glad a stopped elevator was all it was."

"Hey, it was warm as hell in that elevator, and plus, I was stuck with this… guy." She noticed Kaji's shaken composure and raised an eyebrow. "What…"

He smiled again, directed at her this time, seemingly regaining his composure in a single move. "Well, now that we're all good to go, let's go up and see how the kids are doing, hm?" Nonchalantly stuffing his hands in his pockets, Kaji walked quickly towards the staircase. Something was very odd about him right now, but I passed it off as shock. I mean, I would be too if I found out an Angel had attacked right under my nose.

"The kids? Oh right, the team training! Did you guys get here before the power stopped, or…" Misato looked at my face with a pleasant expression, but it fell to one of horror as soon as I responded.

"Misato, the Evas are engaged in combat with an Angel right now."