Chapter 11: Finding Another
After leaving Misato place, Shinji walked home instead of getting a taxi. Ignoring the company in his head that were giggling over the event that happened, his body eventually calmed down. Getting home an hour or so later, set his stuff down. In the midst of preparing to make dinner, the landline started to ring. Turning the heat off on the stove, he picked it up.
"Hello, Shinji Ikari residents," he said calmly.
[Come on ask him…no way you ask him, you seem more attached to him…WHAT!? I-I'm n-not!] Rayne and Nami argued close to the phone. Some rustle went around on the other end till someone responded.
[Hello Ikari, this is Chief Yogosami…err emm…I need to ask you a favor]
"What might that be Mr. Yogosami?" the boy asked.
More rustling came from the other end which not much was said further. His voices started to speak from the phone in which sounded like they were strangling people on the other end. Blinking, he waited until they stopped or if the Chief would continue. The strangling turned to a fire fight of handguns and machine guns. A cannon fire exploded sounding right next to his ear.
"…" he said deciding to hang up.
Looking at the phone wondering if Ryu would call again, the landline device started crumbling apart. Blinking, he slowly pressed a finger on it. His digit sank into the phone then turned to powder. Staring hard at the fine mound of dust, Shinji scratched the side of his head. When he blinked again, the phone was back in its original state. It rang.
"Hello, Shinji Ikari residents."
[My friend. There is an item I want to inspect] the accented voice came from the other end.
"What would that be sir?"
[Go to the blue people…don't keep me waiting] it said with an evil chuckle.
"…very well," Shinji said. Hanging up the phone, he put the kitchen items away. Changing his clothes back to the suit, he prepped his backpack then put it on. Going into the fridge, he grabbed something to eat while walking back towards the city.
At the police station, three officers were in the Chief's office.
"If you would have just answered first and didn't sputter, we could have got him to come here," Nami sighed.
"…" Rayne said with a small frown.
"So what did he say Chief?" the secretary asked.
"Hmm…I guess he hanged up during the little argument between you two," Ryu said. The young officer scratched the back of her head looking at the ground while the blonde sighed again. Hearing footsteps at the door, the three turned to see who it was.
"How are things going Chief and ladies?" Jack asked while grinning.
"Fine," both Rayne and Nami said. In their low-toned unison, they gave him a slight glare.
"So Wonder-boy isn't going to show eh?" he asked chuckling.
"Who knows, he may or may not," the chief shrugged his shoulders.
"Well if he doesn't today, you lose your bets," the male officer said while chuckling.
All three knew him long enough to know that was a possibility. They went back to their office spaces and did more paper work. A half an hour passed by with no development. The Yogosami was busy signing papers as the secretary worked on a few while handing him more papers. Rayne came in because she didn't have anything to do and didn't want to go home. All three put their coffee mugs on the desk and forgot about them.
"Should we try again?" the young officer asked. She was looking out the window while resting her head on the desk. Nami looked at Ryu and saw him shrug his shoulders. His eyes were on the petition from a union to have permission to hold a strike in a business area.
'Why do they give me these…it gives me a headache!' he thought narrowing his eyes at the paper.
The blonde picked up the phone and dialed the Third Child's apartment, but the phone kept ringing. She put the phone down, sat in an adjacent chair to the desk. She continued with organizing and handing more documents to the Chief. Rayne gave a deep breath in slight frustration and continued to stare at window. In the view, the sky changed to small amounts of orange and purple.
Fifteen minutes passed by which felt like a couple of minutes. All three thought of the same thing and went for their mugs. Each were still trapped in what they were doing. Lifting their mugs, they did not know that they were refilled. The scent didn't register quickly enough and all three took sips. Their faces changed to thinking that there was never tea in the police station.
Another wave of realization hit their faces. They turned/looked up slowly to see Shinji in his suit. He was sitting in the visitor's chair with a coffee pot in front of him. The impassive look on his face and odd shining in his eyes gave him an unholy glow. Their eyes widen and froze in place.
The Chief's heart was beating faster than the other two women with Nami second and Rayne third. A very quiet silence went by that made the three a little spooked out. They kept their shocked/scared gaze at the young lad. Shinji sat still through the silence, keeping his sights on the Chief. He saw them move their free hand towards what his voices repeated the word "poppers" menacingly and giggling.
"You rang sir and madams?" he asked calmly still staring.
All three flinched. Each grabbed hold of their sidearm. Shinji blinked from hearing three pistols boom loudly in his head. The three looked at their hand that was on their firearm. Blinking a few times, they slowly let go of them. Putting their mugs down on the desk, they took slow breaths before addressing the materialized boy.
"…nice for you to stop by…" the Chief said. He was trying to hide the creepy feeling in his nerves.
"..." Shinji stated and nodded. "Is there something you needed?"
"...how...did you get in?" Rayne asked.
"The officer at the desk let me in," he said and turned a little to her.
"...just...like that?"
"The gentleman stated about being here for a special event," the Third Child stated. "However, he did not elaborate on what it was."
"Yea…um could you possibly do something for us? It wouldn't be taking too much of your time."
"..." the male pilot said with a slow blink. "May I ask what that would be?"
"We want you to come to the shooting range for a…demonstration I guess you could call it," Nami said finally. She was able to move feeling her nerves finally thawing.
"May I ask what the demonstration is exactly?" the Third Child asked. He slowly turned his head to look at the secretary. She watched him and felt herself tensing up. Grabbing the mug with tea, she began to drink it to see if it will calm her down.
"It is mostly shooting targets that one of our officers has set up in the range. That's all," Ryu said finally calm.
"Jack will probably ask him to do the impossible like he always does," Rayne stated. Having a look of annoyance, she took a sip of her tea again.
"..." the male pilot stated. Looking back at the Chief, he nodded his head.
"Very well."
"..." the three responded. Blinking a couple of times, they felt that moving to the shooting range would help them.
"Alright…do you need to practice or anything?" Yogosami asked. Standing up and stretching, his secretary and younger officer stood up as well.
The Third Child stood up and shook his head side to side. Walking toward the office door, Shinji held it open and waited. As the occupants walked out with the teen following, Nami was pondering over how he could sneak in without being noticed. Noting that there were several points where sounds would have alerted them, it seemed it didn't. Deciding that another time would be better, she shrugged it off following the rest.
Going into the garage and heading toward the backside of it, the indoor shooting range was connected. Entering it, a small crowd of officers were already there with goggles and ear muffs on. Seeing that things were already set up with the targets, one of the booths had equipment on it. Walking forward to it, the four stood near the slot. Stopping, the Third Child took a step forward and waited. Rayne, Nami, and Ryu stood behind him and saw Jack coming forward to him.
"Ah so Wonder-boy came. Good good. Are you ready kid?" Jack said with a smirk on his face.
"I believe so sir. What are the requirements of this demonstration?" Shinji asked stoically.
Jack pointed to the targets in the shooting range. A couple was placed for close range while the rest was varied. Based on how far some were, it seemed like a pistol would be the weapon of choice. Looking up a little, there was a wooden box handing in the air by rope.
"Those are your targets. You will be given a weapon from my choice that has the number of bullets to match the number of targets. The box will need to take two," Jack said. Looking at the three officers behind the male pilots, their faces were frowning a little. He looked back at teen and saw he was still staring, waiting for him to continue.
"Do you understand?"
"..." the boy said with a slight nod.
"Alright," the male officer stated. Turning toward the small crowd, he motioned to another officer to get the pistol on the table. Retrieving it and handing Jack the black pistol, he examined it. Satisfied, he turned around to face the party of four.
"Okay wonder-boy, you will use this type of pistol…" he started to say. Trailing off, the male officer saw the male pilot putting on patted black gloves.
"Which hand is your dominate?" Jack asked. Shinji blinked and raised his right hand.
"Left hand," he said while grinning.
"Hey! That's going overboard!" Rayne said angrily.
"That I have yet you know how I work. I will make a compensation to this…" the male officer stated. Rayne and Nami rolled their eyes while the Chief yawned.
"If the kid passes my predictions, then each of you gets double the award money from my own pocket plus Wonder-boy will get some too…that is if he can hit a target," Jack said as he chuckled.
"...very well..." the Third Child replied. Everyone looked at the teen and saw him extend out his left hand for the pistol. His stoic expression did not change. Even when the officer handed him the weapon with a grin on his face, the boy did not react.
'This is going to be funny,' the officer thought evilly.
"..." Shinji said. Holding onto the weapon for a second, he placed it on the small counter of the booth. Removing his backpack and placing it on the floor, he opened it. Retrieving straps, he began to wrap it around his belt to hold the weapon from behind. His accented voice came back to fill him in of what the weapon was.
'Ah the Desert Eagle Mark VII version II, a rather noisy but powerful companion…'
'Made in the USA, it was conceived in 1979 by the Magnum Research, Inc. Their idea was to create a gas-operated, semi-automatic, magnum-caliber pistol. The Mark VII model became the standard in 1989 as well being popular in Hollywood films during that time. This upgraded second version has similar specs as the Mark XIX. It's used for sport/hunting as well as combat for more fun against friends,' the voice chimed the last part.
Shinji got his strap on and tightened it. Testing the holster from behind, the handgun seemed to hold but dropped a little. He noted that it was heavy and adjusted the strap. Pulling the pistol out, he held it with his left index finger in the trigger slot. As it dangled, he rocked it forward and backwards slowly.
Looking at his test dummy targets, he grasped the pistol grip and took out the magazine. Looking at the number of bullets, he placed it on the small counter. Pulling the slide assembly back, there was no bullet in the chamber. Putting the slide back, he pulled the trigger making the hammer slam with a dry metal click.
'Technical specs: Type; Single Hammer Action, Caliber; .357 Magnum and .44 Magnum, Length; 260mm, Weight; 2,315g without loaded magazine, Magazine; nine with .357 and eight with .44…'
Shinji loaded the magazine back, pulled back the slide then holstered the pistol. Jack kept the grin on his face and turned toward the range as well as the rest of the officers.
"That asshole. His making him use a Desert Eagle!" Nami whispered detestably to the Chief.
"Yeah and from what I know, Jack likes to boost the stopping power on those things. Can't imagine the recoil…might break the kid's wrist," Chief whispered back.
The secretary was about to say something when she felt a finger stop her. Both she and Ryu turned to see Rayne grinning evilly. Both shuddered from believing that they could see an odd shine in her orange eyes. Whenever she had that look, she could complete a crazy mission without a scratch on her when it was going in guns blazing. The young officer nodded to them then turned to the teen.
Seeing him put in protective gear on and sunglasses, she did the same. Glancing around, everyone inside was wearing PPE. Rayne turned to him and tried to watch him and the targets at the same time. He got in to his stance with the right leg out front and left leg back to support. His voice made one last note.
'Hmm…this version has a module inside that increases stopping power to more than intended. The firing rate has slowed down considerable, but I wonder…'
Shinji heard all his voices giggling, sometimes one right after another and some with each others. The target dummies slowly morphed into large plush toys. All of them were very cute with vibrant shades of color on their fur. They began singing happy songs about friendship, love, family, and expressed their affection toward everyone. The shooting range morphed into a bright flower garden with many different colors and types of flowers.
Blinking at what he was seeing, he kept a stoic face. Glancing up a little, the hanging target changed. It was now an angelic plush toy that had feathers and wings. A choir was singing a soft chord somewhere that he couldn't see. While seeing this, the giggling continued in his ears along with the singing. The volume of everything rose to an be almost yelling around him.
'Unleash the fun my friend,' the accented voice said with dark humor.
"...may I begin?" Shinji asked. Though staring at the shooting range impassively, his right eye was twitching.
"..." Jack said with a small chuckle. "Su…"
The male pilot cut him off by whipping out the Desert Eagle with his left hand. Placing his right hand on the other side of the handle for support, he unleashed the bullets. The officers saw targets being blown to pieces as well as hearing small explosions from the handgun. But, it was the rate at which the bullets were fired at that shocked them. The box was the last target and it was falling from a bullet that hit an edge making it spin quickly down.
The officers turned quickly to see Shinji holstering the gun. He quick drew the Desert Eagle and shot the falling target. The box flew backwards suddenly getting hit at the middle. When it hit the ground, it shattered into pieces. Everyone smelled burning metal and gunpowder. Hearing sounds of movement near them, they saw the male pilot stand up straight. Pointing the gun toward the floor, he looked at his watch.
'Seven seconds,' he thought.
All the officers turned toward the teen hearing him eject the magazine. Both the clip and the depleted, smoking gun were place on booth table. Taking a step back, he started to remove the sunglasses, ear plugs, gloves and belt strap. Opening up his backpack, he placed all his items inside. Closing his bag, he stood up and placed his glasses in the jacket's outer pocket.
"You can mail me the award money or I can pick it up now," the boy stated. He slowly turned to the pale male officer and gave a lethargic blink.
"What is your choice sir?"
Chief and Nami had their mouths open and nothing audible came out. Rayne was shocked as well but had a feeling that something like this would happen…just not as it happened. Walking up to Shinji, she looked at a once in a lifetime picture that she wished she had a camera. Jack was pale, speechless, and his predictions were shot down. She felt like laughing in his face but felt that she couldn't do that with the pilot next to her.
"...!?" Jack said. Shocked from the development, he slowly turned to the boy. Hearing his voice and looking at him, he recoiled. The teen was staring at him with the same expression when he started. No other emotion emitted from him. The Third Child's un-emotional face and eerie dark magenta eyes made him shudder noticeably.
"Are you...ill sir?" the Third Child asked.
"...!?" the male officer stated. Recoiling again, he stumbled and fell on his rear. Rayne was enjoying this very much. Ryu and Nami blinked out of their trance when they heard the fall. They walked over and grew wide internal smiles at the sight.
"Holy shit," one officer roared. The small crowd of officers had gone into the shooting range. Unknowing to them, it was covered with gore and insides from all the plush toys.
"I got a head shot here," one shouted. She was looking down at the decapitated head of a large stuff bunny. It's body was a few feet ahead with blood flowing out of its neck in pulses.
"Here too, how about the ones down there?" shouted another officer.
He was walking over squashing brains and intestines. A female officer looked at a couple of blown apart bodies. She was surprised seeing large bullet size holes in their necks. The plush toys were soaking in their blood as it poured out of their necks. They tried reaching out to the officer mouthing for help.
"Got two neck shots over here!"
"How many bullets did the box take?" asked another female officer.
"I think I saw two…yep two," a male officer said. He looked impressed at the Angel that was drenched in her own crimson.
Its skin color was paling quickly from the two shots. One hit the angel's left collar bone causing it to explode. As it was falling, the second shot hit its mid-torso. A bowling ball size hole burst open sending its heart and lungs far away. The angelic choir in the background changed to a dark, clashing, and sustaining chord. The angel whispered pleads of help to the male officer.
"That was so cool seeing the box go suddenly backwards and not rotate," a male officer said smiling. He was making hand motions at the dying angel.
"Hmm…what shots were these?" an officer asked. She was looking at a fuzzy bear that sat lifeless on the ground.
"Dude, half of the dummy's head is gone!" another stated. He pointed at how half of the bear's head was blown apart. Grey matter, bone, cranial fluid, blood, and parts of its face spewed in a fan away from it.
"Oh yeah, eye shot," the officer stated while snapping her fingers.
Rayne, Nami, and even the Chief couldn't help the smiles growing on their faces. Jack was reacting to each of the comments as if someone was surprising him over and over. He turned toward Shinji and stared at him. The other officers started leaving the shooting range still chatting amongst themselves. They went outside leaving only Jack, Ryu, Nami, Ranye, and Shinji. An awkward silence went by when the male officer got up and dusted himself off. He looks at the Chief and two female officers who were grinning at him.
"What are you guys looking at?!" he demanded. Nami and Rayne chuckled while the Chief just cleared his throat but a smile was stuck on his face. Jack frowned and waited impatiently for them to reply.
"Oh nothing in particular," Rayne chimed smiling broadly.
"Sure, sure."
"Sir?"
"WHAT!" Jack shouted angry at Shinji. He didn't flinch from the outburst or blink.
"Will you give us who won the bet our reward or will that be another time?"
'...grrr...' he thought grunting to himself. He tried to think of a way out and thought of one. However, he knew it would come at a price.
'Besides, the kid can't be that smart anyway…heh heh.'
"If you believe that I have cheated in this demonstration sir then I would have to disagree with you. Installing a module inside a Desert Eagle Mark VII with more firepower than intended would result in fractured wrists, forearms, and dislocated shoulders. The same feedback as a shotgun fire if not held properly," the boy replied.
"...!?" Jack stated. His eyes widened and looked back to see two angry glares from the females and a not so pleased Chief. The voices in his head kept chatting on beating him and ripping him apart. Shinji blinked at them, but did agree that some retribution was in order.
"If do not wish to give me my share, can I ask for something else sir?"
"Sure, what?" Jack answered quickly. His answer was a quick right fist in his stomach. It felt like a hard swing of a baseball bat. He grabbed his stomach and fell to the ground unconscious. Shinji bowed then turned to see three shocked faces.
"Is there anything else you need?" he asked with a blank face.
"..." the three said. Only able to blink, the three had thoughts going through their head.
'I wanted to do that…hee hee but his punch is probably good enough,' Rayne thought.
'Alright! Now that is award money to see!' Nami stated in her head.
"..." Ryu said with a smirk. "Hey Ikari…uh how about dinner?"
"That would be...pleasant sir, thank you," the male pilot said with a bow. The three watch the boy pick up the unconscious Jack from his belt with his right hand. In one jerk motion, he got the man up and over his right shoulder. Turning around again, there were three surprised faces.
"May you please direct me to this sir's office?"
"Uh…sure." Nami said and lead the group. They came to Jack's office and Shinji put him in his chair. Reclining the seat back, he place Jack's pillow under his head and a blanket over him.
"So Ikari, were you always this strong?" Rayne asked out of the blue.
"No. Only a few years ago did I gain strength" he calmly stated.
"More areas than one huh?" Nami asked without thinking.
"..." the Third Child stated. He felt that the question was asked before from a certain lavender haired woman. He turned towards Nami and blinked.
"That is a possibility Miss Blaze."
"..." the three officers stated. Letting what he said sink in, smirks came across their faces. Yogosami snorted then cleared his throat.
"Let's go get some grub," he said smiling. Shinji nodded and they all went out to eat.
"Well you brought a new member to the eating crew aye Ryu?" The chef said smiling at the Chief.
Dinner was at an open noodle stand. Yogosami introduced the teen boy which he bowed toward the chef. There were four open stools available; left to right was Rayne, Shinji, Nami, and Ryu. The sun started to go down shifting evening to night. Ryu ordered some beer, Nami had wine, Rayne had soda, and Shinji ordered tea.
Light discussion came about between the three officers which the pilot stayed out of. Not much came from him, just an assortment of one word or sentence responses. Their food came and it was eaten with a drunken Chief, slightly buzzed secretary, an annoyed female officer, and an impassive male pilot.
"So kid…do you wear contacts or something…hick…" Ryu slurred. Shinji finished his meal and set the chopsticks across the bowl.
"I do not sir," he calmly replied.
"Really?" Nami asked turning toward the boy. Rayne took a sip of her soda seeing the boy nod.
"So they are your natural color then?" the Chief asked out of curiosity.
"No and Yes," Shinji said drinking his tea.
"Oh…" the Chief said confused, but took another sip at his fifth beer. Nami was trying to see if something registered on the boy's face. Nothing appeared and she sipped her glass.
Rayne looked at her drink and stirred it around and around. She remembered when people asked her those questions and how quiet she became around the subject. But, she was thinking about it from how the male pilot was responding to them. Even though he didn't elaborate on his answers, they were just told however blunt they were. So far, she felt that she was the only one that had strange eyes. But when Shinji came, she felt more at ease from not feeling alone. She smiled slightly then drank her soda a little.
The chef of the noodle stand wasn't much of a social worker, but could observe people pretty well and tell where they came from. The only two people that he ever had a trouble figuring out was Rayne and Shinji. He got use to not asking personal questions around her. The boy was a different story. He had the looks of someone who was blunt, maybe autistic, and quiet yet no shyness emitted from him.
He had a calm presence as he sat straight. He concluded that he was in Rayne's category…just weirder than hers. His eyes shined in an odd way that a cold-blooded killer would have. But if you stared long enough, the calm face battled against that image into something tranquil however strange it was.
"So kid, where do you come from?" the Chef asked as he was cleaning the counter. Shinji looked at the man.
"I do not wish to answer that question sir," Shinji said calmly.
"Eh, sorry about that. I sometimes get a little nosy with people that stop by," he said with a smile. Seeing that both teens were finished, he took their empty bowls.
"That is alright."
He stared at his cup and some nightmarish flashbacks went by that some of his voices acted as narrators. They added sounds causing an effect to the distorted images but he remained impassive. Everyone paid their share for the dinner and walked back to the station. Rayne had to help Nami a little. From time to time, she would lean over a little too much. Shinji walked behind the Chief because he leaned back too much.
Inside the station, the Chief was put in his office and fell asleep as well as the secretary. Rayne came out of the secretary's office and sighed.
"They do that every time. I guess it's good sometimes to have a drinking buddy huh."
"It would seem so," Shinji replied standing outside Ryu's office. Rayne looked in and smirked.
"Sleeping like a baby,"
"Is there anything that is needed Miss Hymity?"
"I don't think so…oh call me Rayne please."
"..." Shinji said. Blinking slowly, he nodded.
"Very well, please forgive me for old habits."
"They say old habits die hard," she asked with a smile.
"That they do. Until we meet again, good day Miss Rayne," Shinji said with a bow then walked home. Rayne smiled and walked to her cubical space.