Sick Day
Chapter TwoBy Evilkeen
If nothing else, Rei Ayanami was a master at three things: Piloting an Eva, Understanding Commander Ikari, and Guns. And a Gun was exactly what she held in her hand at that moment--or at least, a reasonable facsimile thereof--while she stared at the screen in front of her.
She tightened her grip on the plastic handle in anticipation, it was painted a pastel shade of blue as to prevent accidents, and it had 'Namco' imprinted on the side, but the weight was right and the force feedback accurate, and that was all she needed.
The screen lit up with targets.
She squeezed the trigger rapidly, the force feedback making a 'ka-clack' sound against her palm.
*ka-clack*
Middle of the forehead.
*ka-clack ka-clack*
Cleanly in both eye sockets.
*ka-clack ka-clack ka-clack*
Throat, Chest, and Crotch respectively.
'PERFECT SHOT' the computer proclaimed as computer generated people fell to the floor dead onscreen, 'PLEASE ENTER NEW HIGH SCORE.' and printed off a list that went something like this:
- ___?
- REI
- REI
- REI
- REI
- REI
- REI
- REI
- REI
- REI
Rei's scarlet eye's narrowed, this machine was supposedly the most difficult one in the arcade, and she'd only started playing since this morning.
A friendly-yet-somewhat-nervous Employee walked up to her and stopped, "Errm," he mumbled, "uhh, shouldn't you be in school?"
She looked hard at him for an uncomfortable period of time. "No," she finally stated.
"Ahhh," he replied in an intellegent tone, "well then, good day." And with that, he spun around and stalked off with a quickened pace.
Rei smiled a little smile, and aimed at the back of his retreating head with the arcade light-gun.
*ka-clack*
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Nerv Central required a constant 24 hour crew, and since there was usually nothing happening, which meant that the biggest drain on MAGI was simultaniously running about 2,530 unique and independant games of computer solitaire. Ritsuko used to play Solitaire as well on down-time, until she got annoyed at the computer continually giving her some 'motherly advice' about playing style every few minutes into a game. Instead she usually zoned out listening to music on headphones.
Shigeru Aoba, on the other hand, was watching a video moniter with great interest, it was a security moniter image of a pimply faced teenager in a uniform and desparately clutching a pizza box with both hands, warding off a swarm of security drones. "Please oh please let me deliver this pizza in peace!" wailed a tinny voice from a speaker on his desk.
Makoto Hyuga glanced over from a game of Solitaire that he was loosing badly, and murmured. "You've already been banned from ordering from 3 other pizza joints already, lay off man."
Aoba grinned, "oh come on, it builds character and'll give him something to tell his grandkids when he's old."
Hyuga's eyes rolled, "I can see it now, 'I once delivered pizza to a buildingful of maniacs with too much money and military technology at their disposal' Sounds like a heartwarming tale."
Meanwhile, Maya Ibuki had been eyeing the unusually vacant command desk with a feeling of insatiable curiosity. "Oh, one little peek couldn't hurt," she thought and scampered up silently to the big desk near the top of the room. She cautiously opened up a desk drawer. It was completely empty, except for a pair of clean white gloves.
"Odd," she thought to herself, "I would have thought he wore those gloves all the time." Unbidden a mental image of Gendo Ikari taking a shower wearing nothing but those white gloves flashed into her mind. She supressed a giggle. Then, acting on irrational urge, she slipped the white gloves on her hands, curiously, they were an exact fit.
Suddenly, Maya Ibuki began to feel distinctly odd, she sat down in the commanders chair, and enjoined her hands together in front of her mouth, but something was missing. Frowning, she pulled a pair of old reading glasses from her pocket and put them on. She surveyed the crew below.
"Peons" she snorted with contempt. "Yet all is going to plan," Maya smiled an evil little smile...
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It was rather odd, thought Shinji Ikari, that Asuka had it in her head that Rei would be found frequenting her own favourite spots to hang out. He was also quite irritated (and perhaps a little scintillated) that the itinerary included a few too many lingerie shops that Asuka had dragged him into insisting that 'Two people could search a store faster then one.' It was however--he concluded--much better then the time he was living with Misato alone, and she forced him to go out to buy her several 'feminine' products.
He shuddered.
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Gendo's fever had steadily gotten worse as the day progressed, and he knew it was getting to a bad point when a hallucinatory (he hoped) four-foot blue bipedal creature with a monacle appeared in front of him.
"Dear lord," said the monacled thing, "you look like crap. What the devil happened to you?"
"Sick," mumbled Gendo.
The thing 'tisked' at him "It's the Dreadful weather in this place," he sniffed, "just be glad you aren't dead of tuberculosis by now."
Gendo nodded in agreement. "So where from?" he mumbled, just to be polite.
"Hokkaido," replied the creature, pointing in a northerly direction just to be helpful.
"Guess it's been a while since I've been there." Gendo thought aloud feverishly.
"Well it HAS changed a lot in the last few..." the creature trailed off and affixed the prone commander with a sympathetic look. "Oh dear, your fever is getting bad, you should hang on for the ride."
"Thank you," said Commander Ikari dutifully.
Then his world exploded in rainbows.
End of Chapter Two
