Εγώ σκόροδα σοι λὲγω, συ δε κρόμμυα αποκρίνει (I talk to you about garlics and you respond about onions) — An old saying
Asuka relaxed into her seat inside the entry plug as the familiar sensation of blood-warm LCL filling her lungs spread through her chest. Even if it's just for some scans, it's good to be back in an entry plug, she thought. A contented grin spread on her face. This is where I belong.
"Sorry, but this will probably take a few hours, so make yourself comfortable, Asuka," came Doctor Akagi's mousey assistant's voice over the radio. Asuka had still not learned her name, despite having heard it quite a few times now.
What, does she think I've never been sequestered in an entry plug all day before? Honestly, they've had the Commander's doll here for years, why don't they seem to know much about pilots? "Let's just get this started, Lieutenant," she said, leaving her rank dangling at the end of her transmission as she searched for a name. Suzuki? Isuzu? Ok, I'm going to remember her name for real this time. Once I figure it out. She elected to not venture a guess as to the woman's name.
"Oh, just call me Maya," she replied lightly. Maya—Ok. Maya. Maaayyyyaaa. Got it. "The equipment's ready to go, and I'm starting the program now. Once it's finished and you've washed up you can come up here and cross-reference the results with your records from Berlin for Doctor Akagi."
"Actually," the aforementioned Doctor Akagi interrupted, "slight change of plans. Once the scans are finished, Asuka, you're going to attempt an activation test with Unit 01."
Despite herself, Asuka's eyes widened slightly in surprise. Come on, she chided herself, you knew this was going to happen. You planned for it to happen. You wanted it to happen. It's the only Eva available to pilot right now. What use are you if you're not piloting? She slowly circulated LCL in and out of her lungs in a facsimile of breathing in an effort to keep her heartrate calm. There's nothing to be concerned about. It's just the dumb test type.
"Well, it certainly won't hold a candle to my Unit 02," she boasted, frowning and turning her nose up at the idea of lowering herself to pilot an inferior Eva. "But I suppose we make do with what we have available."
"Right," Akagi snorted. "Regardless, I don't expect you to be able to sync; the test type is a bit, well, temperamental. You just make the attempt and after that I want you up here going over that data for me."
Asuka rolled her eyes. Temperamental. Sure. The exact opposite of its designated pilot, more like. If he can pilot Unit 01, then there's no way I'll fail at it! "I'll show you how it's done. Let's get going on these scans, I want to synch with an Eva again!" Her brazenness restored, Asuka settled her hands on the control yokes mounted in front of her, gripping them tightly.
Ω
"That wraps up the scanning, Asuka." Maya's voice pierced through the not-quite-sleeping yet not-quite-waking zone the pilot normally inhabited for extended periods in an entry plug, bringing the girl's full attention back to the outside world. "Give us a second to switch some things over and we can get started on the synch attempt. No need to get out of the entry plug."
"Right," Asuka said off-handedly. She'd spent most of the past few hours mulling over what she could remember of what happened in Japan before she had arrived the first time but was ultimately still frustrated by her lack of knowledge on the subject. It's already been ten days since the first one showed up. Most of them were only a couple weeks apart—if that. But what was the longest time between attacks? It had to have been those 30 days when the Idiot was hiding inside Unit 01.
"We're set up on our end, are you ready to begin?" Maya asked.
Asuka scoffed in response, abandoning her train of thought. "Bring it on!" She barked.
The normal sounds of a synch test floated around her in the entry plug, but she had long ago learned to tune them out, only listening for a hiccup in the process. Instead, she focused on grabbing for the impending connection between herself and the Eva.
Come on, come on, she thought, waiting for the tenuous first contact that would blossom into a full connection in her grip and the feeling of completeness that she craved. Stop hiding from me, damn it! Unit 01, however, was not being forthcoming.
She could hear the tones of the voices from the operations center where they were supervising the test change as they nattered about borderlines and plug depth and pyschographs, but Asuka continued to pay them no mind. Instead, her growing frustration was turning into panic as the feeling of being unable to synchronize with the Eva brought back emotions she had thought discarded—reminders of a time when even her Unit 02 no longer wanted her, of being useless, of being rejected. Waiting to die.
No. No! I'm a pilot! You're just a stupid doll, you'll do what I say! Asuka desperately reached towards the figurative place in her mind where she knew her connection to the Eva should be, trying to wrap her fingers around what was not there as tightly as she could.
"We're halting the test," she heard Doctor Akagi say, the words cutting through her filter. Asuka's eyes shot open wide, and her mouth twisted with a snarl.
"Start it again," she growled. I will not be useless. Work, you stupid doll! "I can do this." I will do this.
"You're going to relax first, is what you're going to do," Akagi admonished. "I already told you I don't expect this to work, but surely you've done enough synch tests to know that you need to be calm and have a clear head? You do so often remind everyone of how long you've been training to be a pilot."
Asuka's eyes flashed in anger, but she bit her tongue on the riposte she intended to deliver to the doctor. Bitch. She repeated her mimicry of breathing, the well-known but still odd sensation of LCL slowly churning in and out of her lungs helping to stabilize her. She's right. But still a bitch. "Give me a moment, Doctor," she said flatly, closing her eyes.
"Take your time, Asuka," came the response. "We'll try again when you're ready."
Choosing to believe that Akagi was not being condescending, Asuka folded her legs into her chest, buried her face in her knees, and wrapped her arms around her legs—having just enough presence of mind to ensure the camera feed was switched off. You're not useless. You're Asuka Langley Soryu, the best Eva pilot in the world. You did not come all this way, through all this bullshit, to be undone by a stubborn piece of obsolete equipment. You're not being rejected. They need you. They can't just throw you away. I'm not some trash they can toss aside. I don't care if they hate me—they need me, not the other way around.
She hugged her legs tighter to herself. My first time synching with an Eva since that fight where—that's it! Her head snapped back up. Momma was with me in that fight, and piloting felt totally different! She recalled the ease with which she moved and flowed with Unit 02 at the time; while her normal piloting was, of course, quite elegant (in her opinion), her experience in her final battle had been of truly being one with her Eva.
Unbidden, she recalled some unsolicited advice she had received from the First Child. "Open my heart," huh? I guess that's what I did then. She released her legs and resumed a proper seated position in the entry plug. Momma is watching over me in Unit 02. Who's taking care of Shinji in Unit 01? Only one way to find out! She reactivated her camera feed and looked to Doctor Akagi.
"I'm ready to try again, Doctor."
Akagi looked up from the screen she had been reading from, meeting Asuka's eyes over the monitor. "Excellent. Let's start again, shall we?" She said, gesturing to Maya with one hand while raising her coffee mug to her lips with the other.
Once more Asuka tuned out the sounds of a synch test as she felt for the threads of a tie to Unit 01. Rather than trying to seize at a link and impose her will on the Eva, as she normally would, she instead tried to wait patiently for the connection to manifest itself.
This went on for several minutes. Keep calm, Asuka, she thought. NERV's favorite hobby is wasting your time, it stands to reason their test type would do the same.
Several more minutes passed, with no connection to the Eva forthcoming. This is getting tiresome. Like always, I need to be the one to initiate things around here. She mimed taking a deep breath, the LCL feeling heavy in her chest, and hazarded a guess. Mrs. Ikari?
Asuka waited a moment, but she did not feel anything happen. Well, it was worth a shot. Maybe she's not in there after all. But then who would be? Does every Eva have someone inside of it, or is it just my Unit 02? Momma was in Unit 02, and she spent years working on it before she—before. Didn't Shinji's mom work on Unit 01? She tried to remember some of the conversations she had had with the Third Child but could not recall him ever speaking of his mother outside of the one time he went to visit her grave, nor did she remember him mentioning anyone else who might fit the bill for "guardian spirit inside the Eva." I suppose mothers were a bit of a taboo subject for both of us, she thought.
Recalling the times when she had been happily interacting with the Third Child brought to mind other pleasant times she had spent with him. Showing off my Unit 02 when Misato brought him out to the fleet, and that week we spent learning that stupid dance to kick that Angel's ass. She blushed slightly at that memory—and his confession that he had almost kissed her while she was sleeping. That little pervert. He won't even do anything.
As her mind wandered over the subject of the Third Child, she started to become aware of the feeling of a growing presence. But he had his good moments too, I guess, she thought absentmindedly. Teaching him to swim yesterday was kind of fun. And what he did in that volcano, her thought trailed off as she lost herself to that harrowing moment.
She reminisced on how relieved and happy she felt when she had looked up to see Shinji in Unit 01 holding onto her in Unit 02, the lot of them being raised to safety. It's too bad he didn't keep that stuff up. The two of us working together like that would have been able to take on any Angel, no problem.
The presence she had begun to feel was unignorable to her now, and she opened her eyes to see a puzzled look on the camera feed in front of her.
"Activation attempt successful," Doctor Akagi said, one eyebrow quirked as she began frantically typing away at the keyboard in front of her. "36%. Not great, but not that bad. Much lower than your synch rate with Unit 02, and lower than the Third Child's, but truthfully I'm amazed you managed to synch at all. Everything feel normal, Asuka?"
She looked down at herself and gently moved her arms and legs, one at a time. It feels different than when I synch with Unit 02. And not just because of the lower synch rate. "I told you I would synch with the test type! Everything's great on my end," she crowed. She was still distracted by the feeling of sharing the space that she was experiencing.
This is less like being one with the Eva and more like having the Eva's permission to ride in the front seat, she thought. Right, she recalled, shaking her head slightly, temperamental.
"Well, in that case, get yourself cleaned up and then get yourself up here. We've still got work to do," Akagi said as the LCL in the entry plug began to drain and Asuka's odd connection with Unit 01 disappeared.
Ω
Asuka sat at a terminal alongside some of her fellow NERV employees, paying half a mind to the text that scrolled down the screen in front of her. Ostensibly, she and her colleagues were monitoring the data feed for any problems while Doctor Akagi ran the system through a test. Her thoughts were elsewhere, however, and she was not alone in that mentality.
Behind Asuka and the technicians at their computer stations, Misato was slouched in an office chair; her head was leaning back over the backrest and her arms dangling to the ground as she aimlessly spun in circles. Asuka was too focused to notice.
It doesn't seem likely that Unit 01 behaves that way with the Third, she thought, putting her elbow on her desk and propping her chin up with her hand. As sloppy as he is, his performance doesn't indicate a handicap like that, she begrudgingly admitted to herself. She'd been stewing on her experience of synching with Unit 01 since her encounter with it the previous day but had not been able to make any firm conclusions on the, as far as she could tell, irregular connection.
It's kind of like Unit 01 didn't like me. A minute frown crossed her face. If that's the case, the feeling's mutual. She sighed. At least we can set aside our differences to fight the Angels?
"I'm getting coffee!" Misato exclaimed, jumping up from her seat and stretching her arms above her head. "Anyone want some coffee?" A chorus of replies came from the operators around Asuka, but she ignored them.
Who cares what that thing thinks anyway? It's no Unit 02, that's for sure. This is only a temporary measure until I get back to my real home.
"Thanks, Hyuga, but I can get it myself. I need to stretch my legs anyway. Asuka, coffee?" Misato asked, stepping up to the girl's seat and placing a hand on her shoulder.
Asuka jolted slightly at the contact, quickly turning to face the captain. "Coffee? Sure," she said, waving her hand vaguely. Ugh, just leave me alone, Misato!
"Cream? Sugar?" Misato asked her, giving her shoulder a squeeze and grinning at her.
"You know," came the disembodied voice of Doctor Akagi from within the bowels of the computer system somewhere below them. "If you refrained from pestering the technicians while they're supposed to be working they'd be able to do their jobs better."
Misato's face scrunched up. "Quiet, you," she said. "Besides, don't act like I wasn't going to get you some too."
"I stand corrected," floated up the reply on a cigarette-scented draft.
"That's what I thought," Misato said, smirking. "So, Asuka?"
"A little cream, and a lot of sugar," she replied, turning back to her monitor. Don't these people know how to act like professionals? I swear, it's like I'm the only adult around here.
"You got it!" Misato cried. She released Asuka's shoulder and turned to leave but halted in her tracks when an alarm rang out through the facility.
"It's an Angel!" Maya called out from her station as all of the computers switched over from the diagnostic program they had been running. Misato spun quickly back to face the large displays at the front of the operations center as maps and diagrams lit them up.
"Asuka, get changed and make your way to the cages. We might need you," Misato snapped. "I want a location on the Angel—and get the nearest JSSDF and UN task forces on the net. What's the status on the defense grid? And the ETA for the other pilots?"
Asuka was already out of her seat and sprinting towards the pilot's locker rooms before Misato had finished speaking, not paying attention to the rest of the exchange happening behind her. As if you needed to tell me! Finally, I've been waiting for this!
She was able to quickly make her way to the locker room, thanks to the alarm clearing the halls, and even more quickly changed into her plugsuit. If they've got any sense, they'll launch me in Unit 01 straight away, she thought almost frantically, running towards the Eva cages.
As she approached the door to the cages and made her way inside, she could hear the chatter from the operations center as it was piped into the cavernous room over an intercom.
"Is it just holding position? Why would it do that?" She could hear one of the technicians, who she recalled had introduced himself as Shigeru Aoba.
"Do the Magi have an assessment?" Misato asked.
"Standby," Akagi responded.
"Right," Misato said. "Has the city finished entering its defensive posture? And I'm still waiting on the status of the pilots."
This is all pointless! Asuka grumbled to herself. She had her arms crossed and was impatiently tapping her foot next to the gangway leading to Unit 01's entry plug, leaning against a console with a speaker and a set of controls for the hoist system that lowered the plug into the Eva. Just let me at the thing, I'll have it taken care of before Misato can finish her coffee run.
"All buildings fully retracted," Hyuga Makoto said. "First and Third Children en route to the Geofront now, ETA eight minutes."
"Second Child on standby, right next to Unit 01," Asuka prodded, holding down the transmission button next to the speaker so she could be heard in the operations center.
"Continue standing by, Asuka," Misato said. "We're still assessing the situation."
Asuka hmphed. By the time you finish "assessing" things, I could finish off that Angel. She eyed the controls to lower the entry plug, but shook her head. They'd put me on lockdown as soon as I got out of the Eva.
"Magi are tracking a NERV flight heading into Tokyo-III. The Angel's position is directly in its path. They estimate an 89% chance that the Angel intends to intercept the flight," Akagi said.
"What the hell?" Misato yelled. "Contact that aircraft, tell them to find somewhere else to be! What in the world would the Angel want with them, anyway?"
"The Magi haven't determined that," the doctor answered. "But the positioning is too exact for them to consider another hypothesis as more likely."
"The flight isn't responding to comms," Shigeru called out.
"Could the Angel's AT field be interfering with the signal? It's directly between us and the flight," Maya said.
"That's likely the case, and the Magi agree. Intentionally or not, the Angel is blocking transmissions between us and them," Akagi concurred.
"Or someone is just asleep at the radio," Misato said bitterly. "Either way, I'm not letting that thing have its toy. How soon can we get Unit 01 out there?"
"We can get Unit 01 rigged to one of the QRF transports and in the air in ten minutes, then it's five more to airlift it to the target," Hyuga said. "We only have one weapons station that far out, but there's plenty of connectors for the umbilical to plug into," he added.
Asuka sighed. I won't be able to take any of the big guns with me in the transport. Hopefully they can send some out there while I'm in transit. I like a good scrap as much as the next girl, but a woman has to accessorize, after all.
"Call it 20 minutes in total, then, since we're still waiting for Shinji to arrive," Misato said.
What?! I'm RIGHT HERE! Asuka fumed, her face darkening as she scowled. What the hell is wrong with you?! You don't need him when you've got the best literally standing at the gates ready to go! "Misato," she said as calmly as she could into the intercom, "I'm—"
"How long until the flight reaches the Angel?" Misato continued over Asuka's transmission. The pilot's scowl deepened, but she refrained from the scathing diatribe she so wanted to be giving. Stay professional, Asuka. Don't give them a reason to cart you off to that school and away from Unit 02. When it finally gets here, anyway.
"26 minutes," Shigeru answered.
"Damn, that's cutting it close," Misato grumbled. "We'll just have to deal with it. Tell whoever's driving the pilots here to step on it and get Shinji into Unit 01 ASAP."
"The Second Child will pilot Unit 01," came the Commander's voice over the intercom.
Yes! Asuka cheered, a tight grin replacing her scowl. Not the first person that I thought would see reason on this issue, but at least it's something. Misato and her precious Shin-chan were going to screw everything up.
"Sir?" Misato asked. "The Third Child has a higher synch rate with Unit 01, we should—"
"Irrelevant," the Commander interrupted. "I'm confident that the Second Child's training will be adequate to make up the difference. Pilot Soryu?"
Oh, I'll show you adequate, you old bastard. "Yes, Commander?" She said instead.
"I understand you've tested with Unit 01. Are you assured that you can pilot it effectively in combat?" His tone offered no quarter for a negative response, but Asuka was not about to give him one.
"Absolutely, sir," she ensured. I'll show them what a real pilot can do. A debut battle, with no Third Child to get in my way!
"You have your pilot, Captain," the Commander said with finality.
"Yes, sir," Misato replied, just a touch of resignation in her tone. "Asuka, you heard him. Get into the plug and get ready to launch."
"On it!" Asuka called before running the last few meters to the entry plug. It was already swarming with engineers and technicians that had been waiting in the wings for the final launch prep work.
As she was settling into her seat the entry plug was already being lowered into Unit 01. Back into the Eva. For real, this time. LCL began filling the plug once it was secured inside the Eva, with Asuka taking her first lungful as it rose over her head. She smiled contentedly. Even if it's a poor substitute for my Unit 02, it's still an Eva, and I'm an Eva pilot—master of my domain.
"Initializing contact, are you ready, Asuka?" Maya asked over the comm.
"Let's get the show started," she answered readily. She once again began her faux breathing as she cleared her mind, stuffing her uncertainty about being able to synch with Unit 01 again, as well as how the fight might go, into the deepest pit she could. Hi, it's me again, she thought at the Eva, trying to bridge between them. Asuka Langley Soryu? Remember?
The odd together sensation she expected did not manifest. We don't really have time for this, you know.
"Asuka? Is something wrong?" Misato's voice called out.
Asuka kept her eyes closed and continued to focus mostly on being as receptive to Unit 01's fickle graces as she could. "No, just give me a second," she ground out.
Give me a break, here, we've got a combat situation on our hands. I've got to do this, or they'll stick the Third in here, she thought. It's the duty of the elite to protect others, after all, and I suppose others includes him too. Could you imagine the mess he would make of this fight? I mean, you were there for the last one, obviously. Do you want a repeat of that? Once again, she began to feel as if there were someone inside the plug with her, like the Eva was keeping her at arm's length.
Glad that we're in agreement, whoever or whatever you are. She grinned. You excited for the fight too? I don't think we'll need any of that berserker business, but let's keep it in the back pocket just in case, ok?
"Activation successful. Ma'am?" Maya said.
"Eva Unit 01, launch!" Misato declared, and Asuka felt the sensation of shooting up through the launch chute—slightly diminished by her lower synch rate with Unit 01 than she was used to in her own Eva.
Ω
"You've reached the drop-point, Asuka, get ready for a hot landing," Misato told the pilot. "That flight will be passing overhead in a little over ten minutes, so we're going to have to make this quick. I have no idea how the Angel plans to engage it, but that doesn't matter because you're stopping it before it gets the chance."
"Right," Asuka said, flashing a grin at the camera feed. "I'm ready to go." Just make sure you're all ready to take in the sight of my glorious victory! She could feel Unit 01 react to her gloating—not reciprocating her elation and pride as she recalled Unit 02 would do when she had strong emotions while synched with it, but more like the Eva was curious about her, in a who is this strange girl kind of way.
It feels like somebody giving me a weird look. Cut it out, we just need to kill this Angel, ok? The feeling mostly subsided, and Asuka heard the sound of the travel locks disengaging from Unit 01, followed by the sensation of falling. The pilot grinned.
She tucked Unit 01's arms into its chest and kept its feet and knees together as they fell, making contact with the ground with the balls of Unit 01's feet and twisting the energy of the fall into a roll that saw them standing right next to the weapons tower and one of the umbilical stations. She immediately reached for a cord and plugged it into its receptacle on Unit 01's back, the annoying countdown timer that had been flashing in the corner of her vision blanking out in response.
Surveying the battlefield, Asuka noted the Angel's position while she took in the lay of the land. They were just beyond the outskirts of Tokyo-III, with the only hints at civilization being the weapons station she was currently standing at, the occasional umbilical building every few thousand meters, and power lines leading to and from the city. Most of the terrain was flat and grassy, though there were some hills with forests crowning them to her west.
With the terrain accounted for, Asuka looked out toward her reason for being there. The Angel was a weirdly shaped dark purple tube with rigid protuberances at the apex of the tube that resembled a caricature of shoulders. It had a—well, mushroom-shaped lighter colored blob above its supposed shoulders that Asuka took for its head. A small label at the very periphery of her vision informed her that the Magi had designated it as Shamshel. It wasn't facing her; instead, its attention seemed to be focused away from Tokyo-III.
Probably looking for that plane. Well, whatever this disgusting looking freak wants with that dumb thing, it's made the first of a series of grave mistakes: turning its back while the Great Asuka Langley Soryu, Eva pilot extraordinaire, is on the field of battle! She again got the feeling of Unit 01 seemingly quirking a metaphorical eyebrow at her, but it was tempered with a sense of purpose. Come on, Unit 01. Let's do this.
"There are rifles in the weapon station," Misato informed her, which dragged Asuka's gaze back to her camera feed. "That's all for now, but they're working on sending some other stuff as we speak."
"That's disappointing," Asuka pouted. I wanted to try out one of those axes I used to train with in Berlin! Suddenly, she noticed that the operations center had picked up some new occupants during her flight: standing behind Misato, she could see both the First and Third Children in their plugsuits, the First being heavily wrapped with bandages. The Third, meanwhile, had an ugly red splotch on his cheek, just under his eye, that looked like it would turn into a nasty bruise soon.
What trouble did you get into, Idiot? And wow, whatever happened did a number on the First, she thought, though her feelings for the girl were mixed, trending towards negative. She probably just sat there and took it because no one ordered her to not get hurt. She shook her head.
"Hey, Shinji, First, make sure you pay attention to this fight!" She called out to her fellow pilots. "I'm going to show you how a real Eva pilot defeats Angels!" Predictably, the First Child did not react at all to Asuka's proclamation, but the Third did give her a grin and a small wave. Good, she thought, returning the Third's grin, keep your eyes on me, Shinji.
"Don't get cocky, Asuka. Just take this carefully. Start off at range and move in for CQB if you need to."
"Fine, Misato," she griped as she had Unit 01 grab two of the six rifles that were in the weapons rack inside the tower. She directed Unit 01 to a kneeling position and had it take aim at the Angel, judging the distance to be about 1200 meters away, and open fire.
As expected, the hail of bullets stopped just short of the Angel.
"You're going to have to get in closer to weaken its AT field!" Misato said over the radio.
"I know," Asuka growled, having Unit 01 scoop up the remaining rifles and run closer to the Angel. They quickly closed the distance with their foe, coming to within a few hundred meters of it, and Asuka could feel Unit 01's AT field eroding the Angel's. Hah! You're no match for me, you gross-looking creep! She once again had Unit 01 bring two rifles to bear on their target and open fire, but just as the first rounds were leaving the barrels slim neon purple cords slipped out of the Angel's shoulders and sliced through the rifles Unit 01 was holding.
After they had carved through her weapons, the cords came back down to lash against Unit 01's chest and arms, leaving deep welts in the armor where they impacted. Asuka felt the burning sensation that Unit 01 was experiencing, but only faintly. There's one thing to be thankful for when it comes to low synch rates, I guess, she thought as she had Unit 01 dive and dodge away from the Angel's whip-like appendages.
She kept the Eva constantly moving, weaving back and forth in front of the Angel, but it was still managing to connect with strikes more often than Asuka was comfortable with. I've got to change things up, she thought frantically. I'm being careful not to expose my back, but eventually that thing's going to get lucky and slice through my umbilical. Let me try something—
Inspired, she deliberately had Unit 01 overextend an arm on its next dodge, making for a perfectly exposed target for the Angel to strike. It took the bait, one of the bright cords lashing down towards Unit 01's wrist. Asuka, however, had Unit 01 stop in place, twist its arm up, and grab onto the weapon instead, wrapping it around the Eva's fist like it was coiling in a rope. This had the unfortunate side-effect of burning the Eva's hand, so intensely that it was quite painful even for the pilot.
Just bear with me, Unit 01, she thought to the Eva. This is going to be painful, but I know it'll work! As she continued to have Unit 01 coil up one of the cords with one hand, the Angel was using its other whip to strike at the Eva's arm in an attempt to free itself from the titan's grasp. She could hear voices yelling over the radio, but she paid them no mind.
Asuka smirked through the pain, watching and waiting for the perfect moment, before having Unit 01 snatch the cord with its free hand, stuffing it into the fist that was already controlling the other weapon once it was securely in the Eva's grasp. The armor on Unit 01's arms, shoulders, and hands was now completely ruined, in some parts covered in deep gashes that exposed flesh and in other parts completely burned off. The Eva continued to coil the Angel's whips around its fist, its brute strength overpowering the Angel's desperate attempts to free itself.
"Almost—there," Asuka panted, sweating with exertion and pain but still smirking. Are you all still watching? You'd better be paying attention, Idiot! Now that she was closer to the Angel, and no longer jumping around like a madwoman to avoid its attacks, she easily spotted the beast's core: in an aperture directly between the shoulders and at the base of the head. "Gotcha!"
With the threat of the whips neutralized, and Unit 01's AT field overpowering the Angel's, Asuka had Unit 01 grab up a rifle from the ground with its free hand and fire directly into the Angel's core. As the first rounds began to impact the glossy red surface of the core, the Angel's struggle against Unit 01 seemed to double as it released terrible screeches that reverberated in the pilot's skull. Unit 01, however, maintained a sure grip on its prize and a steady aim on its target.
More rounds impacted the core, with one rifle being discarded and another picked up, before the surface finally cracked and the luscious light it gave off dimmed. The Angel collapsed and Unit 01, having been braced against the thrashing angel, almost fell over before Asuka corrected its balance. She had Unit 01 release the whips it had wrapped around its fist and surveyed her apparently defeated foe.
"You did it, Asuka! Fantastic!" Misato cheered over the radio.
That was kind of anticlimactic. Well, a victory's a victory! The Great Asuka Langley Soryu triumphs on the field, and the people rejoice. I don't want to hear it, Unit 01, she preemptively scolded the whatever-it-was she felt when she was in the plug. I won; I get to gloat. You should try it some time. Rather than the skepticism she was expecting, she was met with a feeling of smug amusement. Right. Well, we won, I guess. Good job, test type.
"That's right!" Asuka preened, turning her attention to her camera feed, and taking in her well-deserved praise. "Now everyone's seen how to really deal with an Angel!"
"Well, you certainly accomplished something out there," Doctor Akagi said acerbically. "We're going to have to replace pretty much all of the armor on Unit 01 from the chest up, and it'll take days to regenerate those hands!"
"Oh, calm down, Rits," Misato chided her, rolling her eyes and crossing her arms. "That's a drop in the bucket when it comes to Eva maintenance. Besides, look at the giant Angel corpse she got for you. Don't you sciencey types get all hot and bothered about that kind of stuff?"
Akagi chuckled. "Well, I suppose every cloud has a silver lining."
While the two friends had been talking, Asuka had noticed a particular lack of a presence in the operations center. "Where'd the Third get to? If he didn't watch me fight that thing, I'll make him regret it!" Idiot, what do you think you're doing? How are you going to learn to fight if you don't watch me do it?
Misato glanced around, but saw only her friend, the other technicians, and the First Child. "He must have gone down to get changed. Don't worry, Asuka, I'm sure he saw the whole thing. Anyway, everyone, commence recovery operations. And someone get that flight on comms; I'm going to personally explain exactly how stupid everyone on that plane is to every single one of them."