Chapter 18 - The Conflagration Man, Part 1 of 2
The sky was clear and sunny over the NERV-controlled runway on the very outskirts of Tokyo-3. These were the perfect conditions for what was about to transpire: the arrival of the newest additions to NERV-Central's arsenal in Evangelion Units-03 and 04, along with their pilots Maria Vincennes and Mari "Illustrious" Makinami. Shinji, Asuka, and Rei were all present for the affair, as were Misato, Makoto, and Kaji, along with a beefed-up Section-2 detail, a result of the reported incident two nights ago following the school performance; to Shinji, it was amusing how the presence of NERV's so-called intelligence division tended to increase the more abduction attempts were made on key personnel, i.e. the pilots themselves. Something told him the previously bare-minimum effort when it came to pilot security was also by his father's design. If anything, part of him was sort of glad Neo-Xanadu's intrusion into the Commander's 'kingdom' had forced the man to adapt his scenario a little.
"See anything yet?" he heard Asuka ask.
He looked to the side to see his companions, both watching the sky through pairs of binoculars like they were bird-watching.
"Nothing yet," Rei replied. "Given their estimated time of arrival, I would not expect to make out the silhouette of an EVA-carrier for at least another twenty minutes."
Off to the other side, Shinji took a glance at Misato and Kaji engaged in a little chit-chat while Makoto was monitoring the flight progress on his laptop. In the background, technicians were scurrying around, making sure the runway was clear and all support equipment was ready to go into action.
"Wait a moment..." Rei said as she focused her gaze through the binoculars. "I apologize, Asuka, I may have been off with my earlier estimate. I can make out two specks in the distance, at an angle of 75 degrees and to the left."
Asuka, acting on Rei's words, adjusted her own viewing angle to match her blue-haired friend's. "Yeah, now I see them!"
Makoto, following that, reported the following: "Carriers have reached Tokyo-3 airspace, and set for an on-time arrival."
Shinji proceeded to pick up a pair of binoculars of his own and joined the others in looking upon the crafts' arrival. Indeed, he could make out two shapes as they got nearer, eventually being able to see the important cargo they were carrying on large, cross-shaped binding racks: Unit-03 and Unit-04.
Suddenly, the radio console within the mobile unit the group had traveled to the runway in crackled to life with words of warning from the pilot of one of the carriers. "Mayday! Mayday! EVA Units will be making emergency jump landing! Clear the runway, repeat, clear the runway!"
"WHAT?!" Misato shouted in shocked response.
Everyone else appeared to get the message, as soon all those present got into their vehicles and sped away from the landing zone as far as they could. When they were at a safe enough distance, Misato looked at the scene through her binoculars, adjusting them to see as far as they could.
"Spotted them!" she said. "They're coming in hot!"
Entry plug of Evangelion Unit-03, around the same time...
"Looks like I'll get to make that entrance I told you about," Mari said to Maria over their vid-comms as she fiddled around briefly with the MP3 player she'd managed to bring into the plug and LCL-proof.
"Interesting sense of timing you've got there," Maria mused with a hint of sarcasm, "considering what we just got away from!"
"Ah, you're just jealous you didn't think of it first," Mari replied as she turned on her EVA's external speakers and quickly thumbed to a certain song.
"*Hhhh* Why do I even bother sometimes?" Maria asked herself as she quickly worked her Unit into a proper freefall, an action Mari followed.
On the ground...
"Both units are assuming a freefalling position!" Makoto confirmed as he observed through his own binoculars.
Please make it...Misato thought to herself, her hand gripping the cross around her neck.
"Hang on, you hear that?" Kaji noted.
Shinji didn't notice it at first, but soon he and the others could audibly make out something loud. "That's weird-sounds like..."
Asuka's eyes widened a bit when a pang of recognition hit her. "...AC/DC?"
[Suggested music: "Shoot to Thrill", AC/DC, Back in Black.]
Meanwhile, up in the sky, Unit-03 (whose external speakers the music was blasting out of) and Unit-04 continued their descent as they began to approach the ground faster and faster, until finally, both quickly engaged their backup thrusters and each landed on one knee, leaving quite an impression on the runway and sending out a mild tremor that could be felt even where the NERV-Central crew was currently standing.
A couple of minutes later, said crew had arrived back at the runway and approached the two EVAs. The backs of their necks unsealed themselves as their respective entry plugs emerged and opened, each releasing a rope ladder. Mari was the first to emerge from her plug, clad in her pink plugsuit as she flashed dual V-signs just as the song finished.
"Eat your heart out, Tony Stark!" she yelled gleefully.
Maria, emerging just a second from her plug and clad in her olive green plugsuit, shook her head as she gave herself a slight facepalm. "Way to make a first impression, Mari..." she said slightly ruefully.
NERV mobile headquarters, minutes later...
The two girls, after being brought down from their EVAs and given a check-up by a medical team, were being debriefed by Misato, which also served as a means of properly introducing them to Shinji and Rei. Shinji was mildly surprised when Mari got a little 'up close and personal', to the point where she even sniffed him, commenting on the minute scent of LCL that pervaded him, something she indicated she liked. It proved to be quite baffling to Misato, annoying to Maria (who shook her head), and strangely infuriating to Asuka.
Thankfully, Rei was able to diffuse the tension a little by quickly shifting topics. "You were about to tell us why you made the emergency jump?"
"Oh yeah!" Mari replied with a slight snap of her fingers. "About that-kind of a necessity, given what was going down in our respective carriers."
"Which was?" Misato asked.
"We had a couple of stowaways onboard," Maria stepped in. "Some nutjobs from a group called the Sunlight Brotherhood."
"Sunlight Brotherhood?" Asuka repeated skeptically, "Sounds like some second-rate hippie band."
"They're anything but," Kaji said. "I've heard a lot of rumors about them-they're a cult based around John Sunlight, a ruthless criminal mastermind that operated during the 1930s. He's what you would've called a twisted idealist, bent on ending all the world's problems by taking control of it. The cult carries on his ideals long after his eventual demise."
"Sounds like something from a comic book," Shinji commented.
"Thankfully, his efforts were always thwarted thanks to Doctor Clark Savage and his crew," Maria added.
"Who?" Misato asked.
Maria was astonished. "Seriously? You've never heard of Clark Savage?" she said, bewildered. "The guy was one of the most famous adventurers of the 20th century! Doctor, scientist, detective, polymath-he was a real-life renaissance man! He could practically do it all!"
"Oops, now you've done it..." Mari said with a chuckle.
"You seem to know a great deal about the man," Rei pointed out.
"I very well should," Maria said in turn. "He's celebrated as a national hero! His life story's almost required reading in most schools in America. Nearly everyone with a scientific bent idolizes him as much as they would Einstein or Curie."
"She's definitely right on that," Asuka chimed in. "His contributions to science alone were one of my academic inspirations in college."
"*Ahem* As much as I'm enjoying having this particular gap in my knowledge filled," Misato said, "I think it'd be better if we got you fully checked-in at HQ. We'll need to finalize your living situation, and see to it that you join these three at the school they attend."
"I'm certainly looking forward to working under you, Captain," Maria said.
Annnd there's her 'suck-up mode', Asuka mused with a slight roll of her eyes.
Misato's apartment building, a couple of hours later...
After having gotten their situation settled at HQ, Maria and Mari were brought back to the building and placed in the apartment next to Asuka and Rei's; when they'd first heard of their assigned quarters, Mari commented jokingly that they were being put up in 'Pilot's Row'. Their respective belongings, sent ahead of them days earlier, were already inside, yet to be removed from their moving boxes. Misato and the others left them to get settled in, with an open dinner invitation included. (Once they were informed about Shinji's culinary mastery, Mari, of the two of them, was all-too-eager to immediately accept.) Once their door was closed and they were sure the others had put enough distance between them, Maria and Mari, sporting more determined expressions, promptly got to one particular box and opened it up, taking out a small group of white noise generators and a device that swept their apartment for bugs, of which they were sure there were plenty, given Gendo Ikari's unique brand of paranoia. When they'd finished their sweep and started the generators, confident they could speak freely, the two girls began discussing their next moves.
"Your guy at MI6 does good work, I have to say," Maria commented on the quality of the devices. "So, how's it feel to be back home after so much time away?"
"It's definitely more technologically-advanced than I remember," Mari replied. "The man formerly-known-as-Rokubungi's certainly outdone himself-the place truly is a modern-day fortress city. Though from what we've heard, looks like some folks are making more than a few cracks in its walls."
"Right, the Neo-Xanadu situation," Maria noted. "Something we'll have to take into account while we go about our work. Luckily for us, it looks like an old friend of Granduncle's has already set up shop here."
"I still can't believe the Shadow's real-and active again," Mari said. "But if you're right about him, we've got ourselves more of an edge in stopping whatever it is SEELE has planned. We'll just need to find the guy first to make our intentions known."
"We'll figure that out," Maria stated. "In the meantime, our first day at school tomorrow means we can finally meet up, face-to-face, with the rest of the new 'Fabulous Five'."
Mari smiled at that as she walked over to their apartment's fridge, which had been stocked ahead of time. "Looking forward to it-heh, just wait till Strasberg and Asari get a load of me. I'll have them eating out of the palm of my hand in no time," she said while getting a couple of sparkling waters out and handing one to Maria.
"Easy there, girl, don't want to start off our little group partnership on the wrong foot," Maria implored.
"I know, I know," Mari said. "Besides, they're a little young for me, anyway."
"Saying it like that would definitely get you in trouble if taken the wrong way, in the presence of the wrong people," Maria stated.
"Point taken. But enough of that," Mari said as she undid the cap of her bottle, which she then held out towards Maria's. "Here's to carrying on your granduncle's work, Doctor Vincennes."
Maria nodded affirmatively as she held her own bottle out. "Here's to the legacy of Doc Savage." With that, the two girls 'clinked' their bottles together.
End Chapter 18.
**Author's Note(s)**
At last, Maria and Mari come to Tokyo-3, and already they've got an agenda they'll be acting on in secret.
The chapter's title comes from a four-part crossover story that ran from January to March of 1990, in the pages of DC's comic series of the time based on the Shadow and Doc Savage, specifically The Shadow Strikes #5-6 and Doc Savage #17-18.
Speaking of, if the Shadow is considered the 'proto-Batman', then Doc Savage is the 'proto-Superman', known as the Man of Bronze. He was also the first heroic character to have a place dubbed the Fortress of Solitude, first appearing in October 1938's Doc Savage Magazine #68. It was also here that John Sunlight, Doc Savage's most notable villain, debuted as an adversary on par with Doc Savage himself. As you no doubt noticed, I made an obvious shout-out to the opening scene of How Maria and Mari encountered that trouble on their flight will be elaborated on in a future five-part prequel/side-story called "Maria Vincennes: Girl of Bronze", which I wouldn't mind having a co-writer on, if anyone's interested.
Now then, time for a follow-up to the previous guest omake from the same guest writer!
Guest Omake 4 - "A Merciless Reign" by GainaxVel3o
Shinji didn't know what type of day he was going to have. He truly, honestly thought it was going to be synch tests, waxing mystery novel references towards his friends, then spending the night acting as the Shadow, eagerly busting up the operations of Neo-Xanadu and working to expose SEELE. That was, in fact, how the majority of it went.
"Everyone bow before the great Ming the Merciless! The Colosseum thanks him for his most gracious presence!"
As a bald, narrow-eyed man with a goatee raised his staff upwards, causing the crowd to stand up cheering, Shinji glared at the nervously-chuckling scientist next to him.
"Who would have expected we'd be kidnapped by aliens?" Dr. Hans Zarkov said. "I thought you would know a thing a two about surprise, Shadow."
It was his fault, Shinji decided. If only Zarkov had surrendered the rocket instead of dragging the two of them inside, then they would be on Earth dealing with the Angels instead of a vaguely humanoid-populated planet with winged Hawkmen, Robin Hood look-alikes, robot men, and other sorts of strange creatures Shinji swore only existed in the trashiest science fiction novels and not in reality.
Yet reality was punching him in the face with his lack of imagination. He should have downloaded a Queen album for this trip.
"Now, we send these slaves to the greatest challenge of their worthless lives," spoke the supposed merciless tyrant Ming, whose appearance Shinji felt vaguely offended by. "Bring out the terrifying beast of Mongo…Rogo, the Man-Eater!"
"Now father, do you not think that's a tad boring?" A darker-haired princess asked with a snobbish yawn. "I wish to see something more spectacular."
Keeping a composed front, Ming caressed his daughter's head, pulling away a hair from her eye. His eyes did not betray a sense of warmth. Only calculated vision.
"Now, now, Aura…I wish to test these fools. Let us see if they survive this battle," he replied.
Soon the gates opened, and Shinji's eyes widened as a giant dog-like monster lumbered into the arena, sharp teeth bared and drooling at the sight of its human soon-to-be-meals.
"Oh no!" Zarkov lamented as he dropped to the ground. "We're going to die! Save me, Shadow! I do not think I have the capacity to compute this scenario!"
"You and me both, Doctor," The Shadow spoke warily. "Stay back."
Stuck on an alien planet with no resources and a monster about to eat them. For any ordinary man, this would be the end of the line. However, if anyone could find a way to escape, only the Shadow would know.