Taming the Beast
Summary: An error in the Space Bridge Project sends Coby, Lori, and the Convoys into the Eva Universe. Why are the Rumbles that Coby and Lori pilot so similar to the Evas? Is there a connection between the Angels and the Transformers? Will they survive?
Disclaimer: I don't own Evangelion or Transformers Galaxy Force, but they are interesting stories.
Chapter 4
"This is it," Misato said happily as she unlocked the door to her apartment, only it was 'their' apartment now. "Sorry if it's a little messy."
Lori took one look in and turned around, "I'm sleeping on the roof tonight."
"Save the roof for later," Coby said, grabbing her arm to stop her. "We should help." He pointed inside at Shinji. The white haired boy was already inside and cleaning up the biological hazard that Misato called an apartment. "Quiet kid," Coby remarked. "Good, but just too quiet."
"He's probably going over what happened to him," Lori said, following Coby inside. "Hey, Shinji-san, you don't have to do that."
He turned toward her, "Misato obviously doesn't, and I'd rather not live in such a dirty place." He suddenly felt a chill run down his spine as Lori grinned wickedly and went to find Misato. Coby tried hard not to laugh, as he had a good guess as to what was coming, and headed for the kitchen.
"Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! What the hell?" Misato yelled as Lori dragged her into the main room by the ear.
"You have two seconds to start cleaning your messes up," Lori told her, releasing her ear.
"Or you'll what?" Misato challenged.
Lori's evil grin widened. "SYBIOCON DUALITY FIELD TECHNIQUE TYPE 2: CENTER OF GRAVITY DISPLACEMENT." Misato suddenly found herself floating in the air by her ankles and feeling very nauseous. "As Hitomi's partner, I can draw power from her through our link and manipulate it within a certain distance. This is the Sybiocon Duality Field; two minds working as one to manipulate the world around them." She released Misato, catching the older woman before she hit the ground. "What I just did displaced your center of gravity, causing you to float like that. Side effects include nausea, stomach cramps, and indigestion."
Shinji stared in shock at what he had just seen. He had a feeling that what Lori did was hardly any more stressful than lifting a finger for her, and wondered just how much power and abilities Coby and Lori had.
"Misato-san," Coby called from the kitchen. "If that's not enough to convince you, I can always take care of this stash of beer in the fridge."
"NO!" Misato cried. "NOT MY BEER!" She turned into a whirlwind of activity, cleaning the entire apartment in a matter of minutes. Then she grabbed a beer and chugged it, much to the disgust of her three new roommates, before yelling, "Now lets have some dinner and celebrate!"
"First of all, what's to celebrate? Secondly, what food?" Coby asked.
"I've got three new roommates!" Misato laughed. "Let's grab some Ramen and…" She stared at the fridge for a while before finally asking, "Where's all the food?"
"In the trash where it belongs," Coby replied, making a face. "How can you stand that stuff? It's less edible than my cooking."
"I can cook," Shinji offered.
Lori gave him an encouraging smile, "It's settled then. We're off to the mall to get cookware for Shinji, food to eat, and clothes for me and Coby. We only brought what we're currently wearing with us, and I don't think walking around in a Cybertron Army Sybiocon Pilot's uniform is a good idea."
"You may want to wear it around NERV, though," Misato said, "And I'll try to get you two ID's that will work in this universe, and give you access to NERV."
Rei Ayanami was waling through the Eva Cages alone when she noticed something following her. She looked up to see a blue and silver insectoid figure crawling on the wall above her. She regarded it for a moment, before continuing on her way.
Hitomi continued to crawl after the blue haired girl. The Sybiocon just felt that something wasn't right. Jumping carefully, Hitomi transformed and landed on the catwalk in front of the girl, squatting to try and see if the girl would try to communicate with her.
For a while, Rei was surprised. Then she asked, "Is there something I can help you with?" The Sybiocon nodded, smiling and projecting a holoscreen with Lori's picture with a question mark. Rei understood the question and said, "Commander Ikari has placed them under the care of Captain Katsuragi." The Sybiocon made a noise of disgust and shut off the holoscreen, standing upright. Rei walked to the door to leave and paused. "Pilot Ikari is also with Captain Katsuragi," she said before leaving.
Letting out a metallic sigh, Hitomi decided that Rei was a very strange girl indeed. Transforming, Hitomi climbed back up onto the wall and began focusing her scanners on Unit 01 once more. Something was odd about the mech as well. The biosigns just didn't make sense. It was as if Unit 01 shared something similar to the Sybiocons, like they were both partially human.
Shinji stirred the soup he was making as he listened to the latest argument between Misato and Lori. So far, they had argued about what mall to go to, whether or not to buy beer, how much beer to buy, preferences in clothing, and whether or not it was okay for Lori to buy a bikini.
Now, they were arguing about who was sharing a room with who, as Misato only had two extra rooms.
"I don't want you and Coby in the same room," Misato insisted. "What would other people say?"
"You didn't care about what people said before, judging by the mess that used to be here," Lori countered. "I'm sleeping with my husband."
"You two are too young to be married."
"We're 21! It's not our fault that the Space Bridge altered our appearances."
Coby was sitting at the table, leaning back in his chair. As the argument grew somewhat louder, he raised his hand toward the opening that led to the main room. "SYBIOCON DUALITY FIELD TECHNIQUE TYPE 2: SOUND BARRIER." The air in between the main room and the kitchen shimmered, and the voices of the arguing females vanished.
"Thanks for that," Shinji said, checking the temperature of the burner. "Aren't you going to tell them what you want?"
"I learned a long time ago there are two things I shouldn't do," Coby answered. "One: don't get in the way of my wife when she's fighting for something I agree with. No offence, but I'd rather not share a room with anyone other than Lori. I grew up with a little brother." Shinji instantly understood, as he had heard the fights his neighbors got in. "The second one is to never get in the way of a chef in their element, or I'll get burned. My mom is a master of the kitchen, as is my mother-in-law. If it wasn't for the fact that they are good friends, they'd destroy the kitchen every time they tried cooking together. Besides, I'd burn water anyway."
"You really think I'm that good at cooking?" Shinji asked.
Coby nodded, "I can tell. Your stance at the stove shows your confidence, and the way you do things reminds me of my mom when she's cooking up one of her masterpieces. You have a natural talent for food, Shinji-san. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise, as that's something that can allow you to become successful someday."
Shinji smiled, "You really think so."
"I know so," Coby chuckled. "I always had an uncanny knack for mechanical things, to the point that Lori constantly calls me 'mecha otoku'. But with those skills, I ended up building Rumble and Hitomi, and ended up saving my little brother as well as the rest of my family and several others. Talents define who and what we are, so don't let them go. Don't let go of anything that makes you who you are."
"Don't worry, I won't," Shinji said. Suddenly, he thought of the change he had undergone that left him with white hair and red eyes. Now, the change didn't seem so bad. He remembered what Coby told him earlier about his father… No, his parent, there was a difference. He knew that now. Now, thanks to his change, he could probably step out of his parent's shadow. "The soup is done."
Coby disengaged the Sound Barrier as he grabbed some bowls and spoons and yelled, "Soups On!"
Final Score: Lori - 5; Misato - 1.
"Target in center, pull the trigger," Shinji continued to repeat as he destroyed simulation Angel after simulation Angel. This sucks!
Yui was arguing with Cyborus to pass the time. The current topic: whether or not to set Shinji up with Rei.
Shinji sneezed, and then looked over his shoulder to see who was laughing at him again.
"Pay attention, Shinji," Ritsuko told him.
Looking into the Test Chamber where Unit 01 was, Coby shook his head. "You call this training? Honestly and truthfully, this is pathetic."
Lori nodded in agreement, but for now she focused on the mech in front of them. It almost seemed to be watching them, like it was alive. That combined with what Hitomi had shared through their link made Lori wonder what Eva really was.
"Can you reconnect the system to a different computer?" Coby asked Ritsuko.
"Yes," she answered. "Why?"
"Why don't we hook it up to Rumble," Coby answered. "I'll climb in and we can give Shinji-san a much better simulation than this."
Ritsuko chewed on this. On one hand, she could get in a lot of trouble with the Commander. On the other hand, judging by what Coby had already told her, he had more experience with battle training than she did. "All right," she consented, and then turned to the mike. "Shinji, we're going to change the system. Please wait a moment."
After a few minutes, Rumble came into the room, followed by Coby. Coby was now dressed in his uniform; metallic white and consisting of boots, pants, a long sleeved shirt, a tunic, a belt filled with various tools, and a helmet with a black visor. On the shoulders, left breast, and helmet were red emblems that matched the one on Rumble's shoulder. Coby hooked Rumble up to the connections Ritsuko supplied, and then climbed in.
"Captain Katsuragi," Coby's voice came on over the speaker. "Since you are the one who gives orders during battle, one of the monitors will give you tactical readouts. Red dots are allies, and blue ones are foes. You will command Shinji during this simulation, but you have no command over your allies. We're going to constantly adapt the simulation, so it will be much like a real battle. Your mission is to destroy the enemy without loosing any allies in five minutes."
A screen came to life, and Misato hurried to it. She could see everything Shinji saw as his entry plug lit up with the simulation. It was somewhere with metallic ground and a space-like sky. There were several obstacles that were just like the ground: metallic. It would prove to be a tricky situation, as they were more confusing than Tokyo 3's layout. Shinji could easily see why they only had five minutes, as there were no cable outlets, so the Eva would have to rely on internal power if it wasn't a simulation. Next to the Eva were three military vehicles that turned into mechs. Names scrolled across, identifying them as the allies Coby had mentioned: First Gunner, Backguild, and Exiguiser. Then Misato saw the enemy.
There were hundreds of blue dots, and each one was a small, black, spider-like mech similar to Rumble, but Shinji was sure they weren't friendly like Rumble was.
Ritsuko could have sworn she heard Coby grin evilly as he said, "Reddy, set, GO!"
Shinji collapsed on his bed. So far, it had only been one week. Just one out of two weeks of training. In that time Coby Rumble and Lori Hitomi had continually hooked up to the simulator to put forth several scenarios. At one time, he had to stop a giant mech from tearing up a city even larger. Another time, he had to fight inside an exploding ship against a smaller mech that had the ability to fire lightning from its hands. When asked, Coby and Lori told the others that they were creating the simulations based of a war that had occurred in their universe.
He shivered as he remembered the last simulation they had put him through that day. Misato was not allowed to interfere. He was in an asteroid field in deep space, a lone human in the Eva's hands in a failing space suit. The poor guy only had five minutes of air left, and Shinji had to get him out of the asteroid field in three to a waiting wormhole before that air ran out by jumping from asteroid to asteroid.
He failed.
Just as he made the final jump towards the wormhole, an asteroid struck him in the side. He spun off course and lost the human from his hands. The simulation ended after five minutes, and Shinji had not found the human.
Shinji asked Coby and Lori later what really happened. Misato and Ritsuko were there too, also wanting to know. Coby simply hung his head, "The Human never made it. This simulation was fixed so that you would fail. The point of it was to try to help you learn that you cannot save everyone. Sometimes, in a war, the hardest thing to do is to choose who lives, and who dies."
He buried his face in the pillow and cried, as he had a bad feeling that he was going to have to make that decision sometime soon.