"YOU LOST THE GODDAMN RIFLE?!" Misato screeched at the military advisors of NERV in the Operations Room, a fairly small meeting room near the command bridge of Central Dogma, while the NERV Chief of Operations was tearing chunks of hair from her head.
"The Positron Rifle just disappeared into some kind of portal. Camera footage shows nothing." A fairly nervous-looking general stared at the violet-haired woman who looked positively insane. "We're investigating, but it looks like-"
"Stop the investigations. I know precisely who took the Positron Rifle." Misato growled as she paced back and forth in the NERV operations room. "Ritsuko. What about the EVA's?"
"Unit-01 is fixed after we re-attached the Solenoid Engine. We also separated Unit-00's leg and fingers, and attached them temporarily to Unit-02 until we could get replacement parts for the EVA. Unit-00 is thus immobilized but has been equipped with a crude prosthetic leg and a heat shield." Ritsuko explained. "The plan was to have Unit-02 equip the Positron Rifle and take out the Angel while Rei protects Unit-02 with the heat shield. Meanwhile JSDF and Unit-01 engages the Angel with conventional weapons in order to draw the Sixth Angel's attention until Unit-02 can take the shot."
"...Except I'm about hundred percent sure Second swiped the Positron Rifle." Misato sat down in her seat and rubbed her temple. "Was it because of that DSS choker thing? Or something else? Goddammit… Haaa…"
"Calm down. We have lines of communication to Second, not to mention ways of influencing it, so the situation is not yet as bad as it looks like." Fuytsuki noted as he walked into the operations room. "Captain Katsuragi. You have closest ties to Second at the moment, as Commander is not present in Geofront right now. Please approach Second and ask him to return the Positron Rifle to us. You are cleared to use as much funding and make promises you believe are appropriate in order to reach this goal."
"Gendo made a runner?" Misato used cruder language than she had likely planned to use out of shock.
"Rather, he went off to execute a plan to guarantee our survival if the worst comes to worst." Fuytsuki sent Misato a glance that shut the captain up.
"Seventh special forces regiment is ready to approach this 'Second' and force him to return the Positron Rifle." One of the JSDF generals who served as relays between NERV and JSDF voiced proudly. "Our special forces operatives are second to none, and-"
"-And are absolutely useless against Second." Misato growled. "Believe me, we tried."
"...Our forces have been killing Angels all over Japan." The general sniffed a bit at Misato. "Captain, I feel as if NERV has quite overhyped the danger of Angels- While we understand that this 'Fourth' is quite a vicious siege weapon, alongside the 'First' and 'Third' Angels, and that we have suffered numerous losses when engaging the first two, but the JSDF has been for the most part victorious in our engagements against Angels. We've got a record of hundred and two confirmed Angel-kills, and-"
"...General Tsukio, you have been engaging lesser clones Second has sent out to test our combined defenses. The fact you've suffered heavy losses in your armored and mechanized units against what are effectively scouting patrols should be enough to give an idea what sort of damage Second could do if you tried a 'acquisition by force' method with it. We tried dropping Japan's entire N2 mine payload on Second and it just walked it off." Fuytsuki told the general whose face paled and reddened at the same time. "Regardless, the mission proceeds as planned, and will commence once Misato has reacquired the Positron Rifle from Second. Dismissed. You too, Kaji. Leave Central Dogma and assist Captain Katsuragi with her mission."
"...Hoo? " Kaji noted as he was leaning against the doorframe to the operations room, which Fuytsuki had left open and the man had seemingly stumbled by and had stopped to listen. "Looks like we've got a mission, Misato-chan."
"...Fuck." Misato let her head slam against the surface of the table.
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'If Kaji has been thralled by Second, the least damaging place for us is to place Kaji near Second and as far away from MAGI and other critical systems as possible.' Fuytsuki thought as he moved himself to the command bridge of Central Dogma. 'Katsuragi had a shared past with Kaji, but that's an unfortunate baggage that I can't really mitigate… Misato, I'm sorry to force this on you, but give it your all…'
The vice-commander of NERV sighed while he felt as if he had aged a century in a day. 'Gendo… I truly hope that your plan proceeds as you are assuring me… Second's actions… This situation is leaving our hands too quickly for my liking…'
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"How is it going?" Maya asked as she and Makoto were overseeing Unit-00's reactivation test while also looking at Unit-01's 'training simulation'.
"Unit-00 synchronization is at eighty percent and stable… Unit-01 synch at seventy-two and is slowing down. I expect that Shinji will reach a synch ratio between eighty and ninety in a few hours at this rate. I'm surprised, if I'm honest." Makoto answered while he glanced at the Third Child who was present in the observatory and was watching at the monitors showing the internal view of Unit-01's Entry Plug, which had been inserted into the dormant Evangelion Unit so that the boy could train.
Asuka seemed to be glaring at Shinji through the monitor as Shinji had a determined expression and he was slowly starting to get the hang of maneuvering around with Unit-01, even if in a virtual instance.
The VR-training screen reflected CRT monitor's light upon Asuka's face as she looked at the screen to see a simulated Unit-01 fling aside a empty, building-sized auto-rifle firing 300mm caliber high-explosive shaped warheads, and the EVA pulled a proggressive energy knife from one of it's shoulder pylons. Unit-01 then charged forth to stab at a attacking virtual 'Angel', created in the likeness of Third Angel, with MAGI using the combat data from the actual battle to give a rough simulation of the Angel's expected tactics.
The virtual Angel stabbed both of it's slicing appendages through virtual Unit-01, and Shinji screamed in pain… Followed by screaming in fury and determination while driving the prog knife into the Angel's chest and slicing it's S2 Organ in two.
The simulation reset.
Unit-01 lifted it's auto-rifle to a one-handed grip while pulling the prog knife with the other hand, and the 'new' Third Angel was enveloped in a cloud of smoke and shrapnel as Unit-01 fired a burst of rounds on the street in front of the Angel, obscuring it's view.
Unit-01 charged, and the Third Angel stabbed at it… Only for the Unit-01 to roll under the appendages and slice them with the Prog Knife.
The Third Angel reeled back, and Unit-01 stabbed the prog-knife against an AT-field barrier that the Angel erected… And the knife sliced a small opening in the barrier.
Unit-01 promptly slammed the half-empty auto-rifle into the opening and fired a long burst directly into the Angel's core.
The Angel exploded and Unit-01 dodged behind a large steel-made building to shield itself from the blast.
The simulation reset.
Unit-01 lifted it's prog-halberd, and charged the Angel…
Maya looked at Asuka as the 'prodigy from Germany' was having her hands bunched up while she looked at the screen, and she was biting her lip in annoyance with enough force to draw blood.
"Hmph!" The Third Child turned around and stomped off in annoyed fury, slamming the automatic sliding door behind her on her way out… somehow.
"...It looks like Asuka-chan is taking Shinji's growing proficiency with Unit-01 as competition." Maya whispered to Makoto who was otherwise busy fine-tuning Unit-00 which was standing idly in it's white-walled, claustrophobic training-pen.
The Unit-00 seemed somewhat stable even if one of it's legs was replaced by a huge prosthetic made of pistons and steel frame, but the EVA was clearly off-balanced and sluggish as Makoto ordered Rei to try taking a step forward and a step backwards in the skyscraper-sized bio-mech.
"I hope this works… There's no way Unit-00 can move around quickly with that leg." Makoto sighed as he signaled for the mobility and reactivation test for Unit-00 to be over.
"Likewise… Shinji-kun? Do you want to keep training or do you want to go for a bite? It's getting late, and you need some sleep before we restart training tomorrow for a few hours, before the actual battle begins…" Maya turned Shinji's Entry-Plug mic on. She was a bit impressed by Shinji's mental growth-spurt and sudden confidence, as she had mentally gauged the teenage boy to be a bit of a wimp (which, granted, would be her general reaction as well if someone ordered her to enter a EVA out of the blue and sent her off to battle). However, the Shinji that was training in the EVA now… Was different.
"No, I'm good. I need to train. I need to get better, I need to be stronger. I can't be weak… If I don't do this, then the others… I need to be skilled and confident enough to protect everyone, like dad. I can't show my fear, I can't show my weakness, I need to be strong…" Shinji had seemingly repeated the mantra over and over again as the mic towards the observatory had been turned off by the pilot before Maya remotely re-enabled it. "I have to get stronger, I can't show my fear, I can't show weakness… If I am strong enough, I can… I can force everyone to calm down and make peace… If I am strong enough, I can keep these peaceful days… I have to get stronger, I can't show my fear, I can't show weakness… I have to get stronger, I can't show my fear, I can't show weakness…"
Makoto paused his adjustments as he looked at the screen which showed a close-up of the Pilot of Unit-01, and saw that Shinji was clearly utterly terrified while his face was pale as a sheet, but his eyes had a determined glint nonetheless.
"Huh, Shinji-kun is growing." Makoto noted to Maya out of earshot of the two-way mic.
"Looks like that… Haa… I feel like scum, that we have to use children to fight our wars…" Maya felt depressed, but nonetheless booted another simulation, this time using the combat-data that Asuka's Unit-02 had gathered of the 'officially' Fourth Angel, or chronologically, 'Sixth Angel'.
The upwards-standing city-block sized cube-like Angel that was titled 'Ramiel' stood before Unit-01.
Unit-01 swung it's auto-rifle up… And lost both of it's arms as the Angel shapeshifted to it's multi-laser configuration. Followed by the Unit-01 being sliced into tiny bits by the swarm of lasers.
The battle took twelve seconds.
"U-um, sorry, Shinji-kun…" Maya sweated profusely while she apologized to Shinji as the teenager had almost passed out from the neural feedback and had been screaming in pain while flopping limply off the Entry-Plug's pilot-seat.
"No, again… I need to get stronger, I can't let my fear overpower me, I can't show weakness…" Shinji struggled back to a sitting position on the Entry-Plug seat. He then sighed deeply, took a deep 'breath' of LCL as the plug was filled with the life-preserving liquid.
Shinji adjusted something on the bridge of his nose in a startlingly 'gendo-like' manner as if he had glasses as well, and looked forward with coldness in his eyes. "...Send it again, Maya-san."
"A-alright…" Maya sweated even further as she restarted the simulation. "Shinji-kun… um…"
"I hope that this won't be the birth of second Commander Ikari… But it might just be what we'd need to win this war." Makoto sweated like Maya did as he looked at the simulation where Unit-01 was rolling to take cover behind buildings that were evaporating under the Sixth Angel's firepower.
The Angel transformed itself into a circle of needles that began to spin, which had been it's wind-up for a saturation attack, and Unit-01 made a quick dash on top of the skyscrapers of the simulated city to get height before jumping with enough strength to crumble the building under the Eva… And Unit-01 managed to catch the floating, exposed Angel's core with it's arms.
"Hoooo?!" Maya shot up to her feet. "Go, Shinji!"
Unit-01 swung it's prog-knife… And the Angel reconfigured itself to its edge-standing cube-shape, ejecting Unit-01 before the incoming prog knife-strike could connect.
The Angel then shapeshifted itself to resemble a triangle pointed at Shinji, which opened on the pointed end to show three smaller triangles, which then opened to show nine triangles… Until they all flung aside to form a star-like shape that fired a laser from it's center.
Unit-01 was evaporated instantly, alongside roughly half of simulated Tokyo-3.
"HGUAAAARGHHH- haa… haa… haa… Again. Maya-san."
"Y-yeah, I think Shinji-kun is starting to become scary…" Maya sweated even more as she pushed a few buttons to restart the simulation.
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"Mari Makinami Illustrious."
"Haaaai?" Mari pulled away from her carton of juice as she had been looking at her laptop which showed an image of the training 'Children', while Mari herself while deep in the bowels of Central Dogma.
Fuytsuki was rubbing his eyebrows in frustration as he had caught up to the mischievous troublemaker. "Please don't just do what you want in Central Dogma… We have security systems in place, and I am not looking forward to the fallout if you get shot by a jumpy guard. Second's invasion and butchery of Central Dogma is still keeping everyone on edge, and is keeping survivors from getting a good night's sleep thanks to the nightmares."
"I'm just watching your puppy train his fangs. He'll become a strapping young lad in a few years, you know? Anyway, who's Second?" Mari lifted her eyebrow as she suddenly remembered a huge man who had introduced himself with the name. "Wait…"
"Second, or as the world knows him, Second Angel. We are currently allied with it… Even if temporarily and very loosely. I'll go ahead and be frank with you about it, because I know you will find out sooner than later, based on your history of snooping around… The alliance is secret for now. Gendo has promised a swift bullet to the head to anyone blabbering about it, and without Unit-05-" Fuytsuki was sounding quite strict as he looked at the Fifth Child who was sitting on top of one of the massive cables that made the MAGI supercomputer's central lines of intercommunication.
"...I'm a spare. Gotcha." Mari nodded seriously while her mind was flying in the cosmic winds of her thought-patterns, trying to catch feather-winged sheep with a fishing net. Which was her version of her mind going 'Oh shit, so that huge buff guy is an Angel?! I totally flirted with an Angel and didn't die, holy shit…' "So, anyway, nice weather?"
"It's about to become much less nice, once the Sixth Angel arrives." Fuytsuki noted. "Or, is it actually Seventh Angel. Mari?"
"Teehee, there might have been an Angel attack upon Archeron… Donwori aboutddit, I got the Angels. All's good." Mari did a 'teehee' pose by rubbing the side of her head with her knuckle while having her tongue partially out of her mouth. "Anyway, I didn't get a memo for tomorrow's op, so are you'all really fine if I sit that one out?"
"Like I said, Unit-05-"
"I could pilot Unit-02 as well. Probably." Mari noted a bit more seriously. "We both know I was specifically made to be compatible with all sorts of EVA's."
"Considering how you handled Archeron's Angel, I believe it'd be best if you sat the battle out unless we needed a new pilot on the fly." Fuytsuki rubbed his eyebrows again. "You are skilled in close-quarters battle, much like Sohryu, but we need accuracy and calmness to properly take down the Angel with the Positron Rifle."
"And you think Princess will have those qualities?"
"At least she's not in the habit of announcing loudly that she'll go into 'beast mode' and start trying to whack the target dummies with historic landmarks."
"Come on, that was training so it's totally fine!"
"..."
"Ugh, fine… Everyone's such a spoilsport…" Mari pouted.
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Momonga paged through the 'stats sheet' of a Positron Rifle as he had it in his inventory after he had returned to his 'apartment' in Tokyo-3 after the school had ended and he had gone off to 'acquire' something. That 'something' being the two-hundred meter long rifle Gendo had slipped during his drunken speech.
Granted, the 'stats sheet' of the weapon was a mental one so Momonga didn't really have much to page through, but it was quite interesting to read nonetheless. 'The numbers don't quite make sense, but the 'damage' seems a bit interesting… Apparently it can consume up to hundred terawatts of energy with a single fuse, and use that to send a high-charge positron beam to it's target… If I read the damage spread correctly, it could one-shot me if I didn't counter it with [Body of Effulgent Ruby]... Then again, only half of it's damage is in radiation, er, heat damage, and my body and gear mostly negates Piercing damage, yet even despite that the damage would reduce me to less than ten percent health… Or if my high-school grade math isn't holding up, oneshot me even through all of my defenses… Hm. The locals do have some scary weapons, it seems…'
Momonga was quite glad that he had found the massive rifle mid-transport to Tokyo-3, as one of his Corpse Carrions had spotted the train convoy moving on the mountain-railway to its destination.
He had promptly used [Perfect Unknowable] in conjunction with a few invisibility scrolls, used [Undead Slave Sight] to get an exact location for a teleportation, and used the carrion-summon's view to teleport himself aboard the cargo train. Once onboard it had been quite simple to navigate under the huge tarp that kept the nearly two hundred meters long rifle hidden from view. Or, what would be a two hundred meter long rifle, but was more akin to a three separate parts that each were roughly fifty meters, except for the barrel that was hundred by itself.
'...That being thought, there's no way for me to use that rifle… It's just way too big.' Momonga felt a bit depressed, but nonetheless he was glad that another dangerous weapon was off his potential ally-slash-enemy's hands, while also satisfying his loot-grubbing instincts.
The door of his apartment blew open and Misato prowled into the apartment while tossing aside an empty rocket launcher tube.
Momonga blinked a bit at the woman who looked like she was utterly insane.
"I know you have the Positron Rifle. Give it back. Now." Misato grabbed the front of Momonga's shirt and pulled herself temple-to-temple against Momonga.
"Hoo? Do you have evidence to back that claim up?" Momonga lifted his hands up in mock-surrender.
"There's no-one else who can just yoink a two-hundred meter long EVA-class Anti-Angel artillery piece out of a moving train without anyone noticing a thing: Thus by deduction it was you." Misato growled. "Did you think you'd get away just like that?"
"...Speaking of getting away, are you going to fix my door?" Momonga asked while waving at the door, and spotted someone who had peeked his head to the apartment and was looking around while smoking idly.
"...Heey, Suzuki-kun." An easygoing man waved his hand at Momonga, and Momonga remembered that he had seen the man once before, when he had appropriated the 'Adam' from him. "Name's Ryoji Kaji. NERV inspector, UN. What's up? Sorry about Misato-chan, she's usually a bit more calm but I think I accidentally riled her up a bit on the taxi-ride here…"
"You don't say." Momonga sent a glance at the empty rocket launcher tube on the floor. "Anyway, could you get Captain Katsuragi off me, thanks?"
"Misato-chan, come here… Don't make things worse, will ya? Anyway, Second-kun, Fuytsuki-kun said to ask you to return the Positron Rifle back for the duration of the op we've got planned." Kaji grabbed Misato's hand and wrangled her off. "Well, at any rate Fuytsuki-kun told Katsuragi that 'you are allowed to make an offer for the Second'. I don't think he meant 'offering an anti-tank missile applied directly to the forehead.' though, Misato-chan."
"Hooo? And offer, you say?" Momonga picked something up and Kaji smirked a bit, causing the disguised Overlord to lift the externally easygoing-looking man's 'strategic rating' a bit- After all, Momonga recognized trademark signs of gaslighting, victim-blaming and other psychological manipulation tools from the man's words and actions. 'Not bad. I think I underestimated Kaji a bit, I stopped combing through his memories when I thought he was just another delivery-boy grunt, but it seems I should have dug deeper…'
"So… Whatcha want? The Positron Rifle is a kinda pricey piece of equipment, but it'd be hard to find a buyer for it. You know, people are going to ask if you show up to an underground black market and slap it on the table." Kaji joked while taking a deep inhale from his cigar. "So I doubt you're after money. We both know we're pretty much screwed if we don't have the rifle to take down the Angel-cube, so you definitely have a big bargaining chip. So the question remains, what do you want for it?"
'Hm… So things are more desperate than they are letting on. Then again, that Positron Rifle is quite a scary weapon…' Momonga thought for a while before deciding… Against giving the rifle back. 'Returning a weapon that is capable of one-shotting me… Foolishness. Even if I could use the trade-back to enlist help for searching Nazarick.'
'However, my deal with NERV will unravel if I just swipe the rifle but won't help in the war effort against these 'Angels'... After all, if the rifle was requisitioned in preparation to counter that floating illusion-Angel, so me swiping the gun would definitely lead to hostilities starting between me and NERV…' Momonga kept thinking while Misato was shaking in anger and Kaji was leaning lazily against the wall while waiting for Momonga to say something. 'And while I'd be alright even if they opened right now, I still need that education to make sense of this world's items. The Positron Rifle makes that even more obvious- If this world has weapons that can output so much energy that they'd pose a serious threat, I need to be well educated and capable of recognizing those threats and understanding their weaknesses and strengths… In-game logic only gets me so far.'
'I read something about S2 Organs giving infinite energy, at least based on what I understood from their 'stats sheet', which would fulfill the Positron Rifle's energy-drain needs… Hm, actually, that would give me an excuse to- hm, hm, hm… Yeah, and I can just get someone to put that on for a test, it should be alright… Even more so if I don't buff them because a normal human without buffs won't get far even if it has that… hm, and this also gives me an excuse for both swiping the rifle and keeping it afterwards… Hoo… If I can integrate the Positron Rifle to Amanomahitatsu's Powered Suit, it'd likely fulfill his dream of making a combat-viable Powered Suit build… Hahaha… I can't believe I'd get a chance to finish what he started…' Momonga thought up a plan and nodded resolutely. "In truth, I didn't so much swipe the rifle, but 'acquired it' for… Let's say, improvements."
"Hoo? I didn't peg you for a charity worker, Angel-kun?" Kaji joked a bit. "Sorry, but I'll have to ask you to elaborate a bit?"
"It's quite simple. Are you aware of S2 Organs?" Momonga pointed a finger up while taking a seat on his 'studying desk' and waved for Misato to sit on his bed as it'd look like the woman would pass out, either from anger, fury, fear, or the creeping realization that she had used a rocket-launcher on Momonga's apartment door.
"Heard of 'em. Most of the numbers-related stuff is for the science-types, but they're Angel's Heart, or so on." Kaji narrowed eyes playfully, but Momonga saw past the act. "I betcha you're the expert on the subject though."
"Perhaps. Gendo-kun and I talked about the Positron Rifle when I returned Unit-01's core to him." Momonga explained while waving for Misato to calm down as she opened her mouth. "I advised him on how to take down that cube-looking Angel, as well as explain the mechanics on how it works. So basically, the whole Positron Rifle being here was my idea in the first place."
"Hoo? That makes sense, I suppose. So you took it for inspection and didn't tell us?" Kaji nodded thoughtfully, almost as if he was believing what Momonga fed him. It was clear to Momonga, or rather, Suzuki Satoru's businessman-instinct that neither of them believed the other, though. "Were you planning on giving it back for the op, then?"
"Yes and no. S2 Organs are capable of outputting on-paper infinite amounts of energy, and I planned on connecting my S2 Organ to the Positron Rifle's energy system, as it would allow it to fire at full power." Momonga explained bluntly. 'I have a spare S2 Organ from the two Angels I have fought so far, so even if one of the S2 Organs break I'll still have the second… Moreover, that way I also have full control over when the rifle fires, as well as a safe position behind the rifle instead of potentially being in front of it… It had quite a ridiculous range…'
"Ah." Kaji seemed to pause for a while, as did Misato who looked quite ashamed.
"That… You'd do that for NERV? No, for us, humanity?" Misato was the first one to get a word out of her throat. "I… Sorry. I jumped the gun, I thought the worst, and... But you should have communicated your intention first! We thought you stole it!"
"We're running out of time, and it'd take too long for you to ship the gun to Tokyo-3, have me take a look at it, and then assemble it before the Angel reaches us. It's faster this way." Momonga handwaved. "Now then. I had a deal going with Gendo regarding the destruction of the Angel, so I expect NERV to hold up their end of the deal once the Angel is defeated… And I expect you to get my front door fixed, Misato-san."
Misato nodded numbly.
Kaji barely managed to suppress a snicker.