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Title: Upon Bladed Wings
Author: Jonathan "Katarn" Gaters
E-mail: KatarnX2B@NetZero.net
HP: http://members.nbci.com/katarnx2b/
Genre: Action, Drama
Part: Chapter 2
************************************************
*****WARNING****WARNING****WARNING****WARNING****WARNING****WARNING*****
Contains spoilers for much of the series, as well as graphic, violent,
and adult content. Rated PG-13. You may now finish skipping this.
*****WARNING****WARNING****WARNING****WARNING****WARNING****WARNING*****
All thoughts are in script format. A name with a " or ' after it
is another aspect of that person's personality they're conversing with.
I've decided to use the Japanese names for the Evangelion units. Shoguki
is Unit-01, Niguki is Unit-02, and if you can't guess what Zeroguki is,
you probably don't have the IQ to be literate, so I don't have anything
to worry about.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
LAST TIME:
#
#
# Shinji felt the last shred of his sanity leave him as the g-
#forces of the catapult. By time he reached the surface there was no
#sign of the mind know as "Shinji" left.
#
# As soon as the lift reached ground level, Unit-01 broke free of
#the bindings. An energy flew off of Unit-01 reducing everything within
#three blocks of it to ruins.
#
#
# The support staff watched the monitor in fear as Unit-01 let
#out a bestial roar.
#
# "Poor Shinji," said the tech beside Ritsuko.
#
# "Don't say that." Ritsuko replied with a cold voice. "That's
#not Shinji anymore. He's *fallen*..."
#
#
------------------------------------------------------------------------
AND NOW...
KILL!! The one thought permeating Af's mind. Their ENEMY had
been stolen from them. But there was a -new- ENEMY for them! They could
feel ENEMY moving in the distance. They could almost smell its blood!
Af stalked their ENEMY, growing ever closer. ENEMY knew they
were coming, no doubt about it. ENEMY was coming right at them. There,
right around the building!
Af turned left on the next intersecting street. There was ENEMY.
So smug in ENEMY's path of destruction. ENEMY would have that smugness
ripped out of its soul at Af's hand.
Af opened their mouth and screamed at the top of their lungs,
"ENEMY!! WE SHALL BEFOUL YOUR VERY EXISTANCE!!!"
--
Most people in Central Dogma shuddered when they heard Shoguki's
roar reverberate through headsets and speakers alike --that horrible,
bestial scream. Except, of course, the Commander and the Sub-Commander.
'At least it's intercepting the Angel,' thought Misato.
Everyone's eyes were locked on the three dimensional display in
front of the command tower. There was nothing any of them could do
-except- watch.
--
Af took the first move, leaping at ENEMY with all the strength
they could muster. ENEMY did not move and instead let Af collide with
ENEMY's chest. ENEMY bent over backwards with the force of the impact.
The air began to shimmer between Af and ENEMY. Af suddenly found
themselves flung backwards at a great velocity. They tried to land but
their body felt weird around them and they botched the landing.
Af tumbled several hundred meters before they gained enough
control to bring their body to a stop. When they tried to scramble to
their feet, they simply slipped fell back down. Af tried to rise again
-- this time slower -- but they had wasted just enough time on the first
attempt to allow ENEMY to close on them.
--
In Central Dogma, the staff watched helplessly as the Angel
grabbed Shoguki by the ankle and promptly slammed it into the side of a
building. People called out damage reports almost mechanically. It was
more for the records than for any real use they could put it to.
--
Af managed to catch hold of a weapon. It was a beam from the
building they had just demolished. Af hurled the beam at ENEMY's "face".
It crumpled like and accordion a few inches away from ENEMY's "face".
'And here comes another building,' thought Af.
--
Misato had taken notice of the beam bouncing off the Angel.
"Is Shoguki AT field active?"
"No ma'am. Its AT field isn't unfolding," replied a tech from
somewhere to her left.
"What's wrong with it? If he can't use his AT field the he's as
good as dead."
"There's nothing wrong with it," replied Ritsuko. "He's just not
deploying it."
--
ENEMY dragged Af out of the fresh rubble that once was a
building by their leg. Af noticed ENEMY's arm begin to swell like it did
when ENEMY crushed Akriel's arm. ENEMY was looking to cripple him. Af
couldn't let ENEMY get away with it so easily.
Af snatched their leg back suddenly then slammed both their feet
into ENEMY's chest. The result was ENEMY being pulled forward and off
balance by ENEMY's own powerful grip, and ENEMY releasing ENEMY's grip
just in time to get propelled backwards into a building at high
velocity.
Af scrambled across ground and over the gravel and wreckage that
used to be a city block to get at ENEMY. ENEMY was just beginning to get
up and had no damage done when Af got within striking distance. Their
hands reached out toward ENEMY until they ran into a glowing barrier. Af
didn't care; they had planned for ENEMY's Light to shine.
Af focused their mind and brought their Light to bear.
--
"Shoguki is generating an AT Field!" screamed a tech. He was
just in time to state the obvious as a shimmering band of energy sprang
from Shoguki's hand, smashing into the Angel's AT Field.
It was quite a spectacular light show. The radiating orange
octagons from the Angel's AT Field provided a nice background for the
white opalescent beam of lightning leaping from Shoguki's fingers.
--
Af grinned inwardly (as they had no lips) as ENEMY stumbled back
from the blast, ENEMY's Light momentarily skewed. ENEMY was stunned just
long enough for Af to plant one good punch in ENEMY's "face".
If those were ENEMY's -real- eyes in ENEMY's "face", ENEMY would
have been blinded as Af had crushed ENEMY's face in on itself. Sadly,
ENEMY could still see just fine, which ENEMY quickly proved by grabbing
Af and manhandling them to the ground.
Af still wasn't used to their body and couldn't balance
themselves enough to stay up.
Af found an easy solution to their problems. They simply started
kicking violently at ENEMY's chest, which ENEMY left exposed as ENEMY
tried to keep Af on the ground.
Af felt their foot make contact with ENEMY's soul. The next kick
impacted ENEMY's soul, confirming their aim. Af's leg suddenly shifted
into high speed, pistoning ENEMY's soul, cracking it.
In an attempt to stop them, ENEMY gabbed Af's head with ENEMY's
right arm and rammed ENEMY's energy lance into Af's head repeatedly.
It was now a race to see who would give out first. Neither could
do anything to stop the other besides kill them.
--
The loud crunch was clearly audible through the speakers in
Central dogma. Both the Angel and Shoguki froze. All over the command
center people held their breaths for fear of jinxing it.
"Angel's gone silent."
Misato stripped her eyes away from the screen just long enough
to look at Ritsuko. The doctor had barely whispered that sentence, but
in the silence it sounded just short of a yell.
"Ma'am!" shouted one of the techs sitting near Ritsuko.
"Detecting a high-energy reaction coming from within the Angel!"
--
Af knew that ENEMY would try and take both of them out if it
couldn't get past them to ENEMY's goal. Normally Af's armor could take
the explosion with little damage to the flesh beneath. Unless of course
it had been compromised by, say, a giant pink energy spike.
A bright white light engulfed Af.
haHfKhDfD: Fuck.
--
Shinji woke with a start, followed closely by a wince of pain.
Apparently he had broken several ribs.
Lying back down, Shinji began to take note of where he was.
Apparently it was a hospital. He was in a South-facing room as sunlight
was streaming in. It appeared to be late afternoon. He had bandages
around his chest, his head, and his left eye. He probably looked like
that girl...
Shinji laughed at that thought. Maybe they could go to the prom
together! Shinji briefly wondered if she was in this same hospital. It
was totally logical to assume that. Of course, it was totally logical
that they'd try to keep the pilots as far away from each other as
possible so they wouldn't lose both of them in one strike.
Shinji noticed an intravenous drip in his left arm. It was
dripping some sort of orange liquid into his body. That would be the
first thing he asked about when someone came to check on him.
Shinji didn't have to wait long for that. The bio-monitors had
set off a silent alarm the moment he awoke, signaling to the doctor to
come check on him. A man wearing a white lab coat over scrubs and a
woman in the classic nurse's uniform walked in.
"Good morning, Mr. Ikari. And how are we feeling today?"
"Like shit. What's in the I.V.?"
"Just some medicine to help you heal," said the doctor being
purposely vague.
"No, I mean what is the name of the medication and what is its
exact function?"
"Don't worry about that. Nurse Kitamura here will take you blood
pressure and temperature."
Shinji smiled, nodded, and promptly snatched the I.V. from his
arm. The doctor looked shocked and the nurse took a hasty step back.
Without a word, Shinji slid off the foot of the bed, ignoring
the fact that hospital gowns were obviously designed by a homosexual
transvestite comedian and the trickle of blood running down his arm from
where the I.V. had been, and proceeded to a chair were someone had laid
out some of his clothing.
Shinji: Morons! I can't believe someone laid out the shirt from outfit
number three with the pants from outfit number five! It wasn't like I
didn't label them!
"I'm going to get dressed and then I'm going to leave. If you
wish to stay and watch, go right ahead."
The doctor seized Shinji's arm saying, "I have strict orders to
keep you here until further notification!"
Shinji smiled and spoke in a low, measured tone, "Since this is
the first time we've met, I'll give you until the count of one to take
your hand off me and never touch me again. One."
The doctor's reflexes weren't very good to begin with and he
wasn't expecting Shinji to actually follow through with his threat. So
when Shinji gave a quick twist of his arm and the doctor felt Shinji's
hand close around his wrist, he was caught completely off guard.
The doctor let out a yelp and sprung away from Shinji and
gingerly held his arm. It was numb from the wrist down, though he could
still feel pain throbbing through it.
The doctor backed away towards the door. The nurse had already
hurried away.
Shinji walked out of his hospital room fully dressed and ready
to leave. He calmly walked past the front desk where the doctor that he
had just met was talking into a phone. Shinji ignored him and simply
headed towards the nearest bank of elevators.
Pushing the "down" button, Shinji waited patiently for the
elevator to arrive. The ding of the elevator alerted him to its arrival.
The doors opened and revealed a familiar face. Captain Katsuragi Misato
looked mildly surprised to see Shinji standing there.
"Are you getting off?" asked Shinji.
"No, not anymore."
Shinji nodded and entered the elevator. Shinji reached slightly
past Misato to push the button for the ground floor.
Misato took out her cell phone and talked into it briefly.
"Yes... Yes... He's here with me now... Yes... I understand."
The door opened onto the ground floor. Shinji stepped out and
began towards the doors that seemed to lead outside.
"Where's my stuff," he asked Misato without looking over his
shoulder.
"I'll take you to it. Arrangements have been made for your
residence."
"It was a waste of time and resources. I won't be staying."
"You've already piloted once, why not stay and do something for
your species?"
Shinji snorted at the comment. "Simple biology. In humans, as
with most animals, first comes Self-preservation, then Reproduction, and
finally Species-preservation. As doing this puts my life in direct
danger and I have yet to see any mini-Shinjis running around, I have to
decline your invitation to stay."
A new voice spoke from behind Shinji, "If you don't stay,
there's a very good chance you'll die along with the rest of your
species. And since Reproduction is simply a merging of both Self-
preservation and Species-preservation, you should be leaping at the
chance to pilot."
Shinji turned around to see who had made that last statement. It
was Dr. Akagi, and standing beside her was the blue haired pilot,
Ayanami Rei.
"A very logical and convincing argument, Dr. Akagi. Possibly the
most sane thing I've heard anyone say since I arrived here."
"I'll take that as a complement."
Shinji looked at Rei. She was wearing what appeared to be a
school uniform. She didn't have nearly as many bandages as when Shinji
had last seen her, though her cast was still on.
Rei looked out her unbandaged eye at Shinji. Shinji looked back.
They stood like that for a while, simply gazing at each other, neither
moving, almost imperceptibly breathing.
Shinji shook off the weird feeling he had and walked through the
doors that parted so readily for him at the exit.
--
Shinji sat in the passenger seat of Misato's car as it sat in
the linear train. His head rested on his fist against the door. He was
contemplating whether or not he should stay over the soothing hum of the
magnetic inductors.
"So what was that back there," asked Misato, breaking the rather
pleasant silence.
"What was what?"
"It looked to me like you and Rei had a moment."
Shinji looked both puzzled and mildly amused. "Exactly what is a
moment?"
"Oh, you know! You're at a party; you look across the room...
You see her, she looks up, your eyes meet and... you have a moment!"
"One, you've been reading too many romance novels. Two, that was
not a moment."
"Then what was it?"
Shinji": She wouldn't understand.
"You wouldn't understand."
"And why not?"
Shinji': She's never been in an Eva.
"You've never been inside an Eva."
--
Shinji waited for Misato to open the door to her apartment.
"It was a-" started Misato.
"No it wasn't!" retorted Shinji. Misato had been teasing him
over it the whole trip over.
"Oh, yes it was!"
"Oh, no it wasn't!"
"Well then, what was it?!"
"I'd explain it to you, but you've never experienced anything
like it so you'd have no frame of reference!"
Misato grinned like a Cheshire cat as the door to her apartment
slid open.
"Was too."
"Go to hell!"
"Been there, done that, brought back souvenirs!"
"Just shut up and tell me where my stuff is!"
"You shouldn't talk to your superiors like that!"
"You're not my superior, you're just old!"
Misato let out a low, guttural growl and lunged for Shinji.
Shinji managed to evade her. Misato tried again and again to grab hold
of Shinji, but he was consistently just outside her grasp.
Fed up, Misato drew her gun from her shoulder holster. "Take it
back you little twerp!"
Instead of panicking or even stopping --like Misato had hoped--
Shinji lunged at her, grabbed her arm and pulled a disarming maneuver
that left Misato unarmed, and pinned in a very uncomfortable position.
"Now," said Shinji in a very calm and collected voice, "where's
my stuff?"
"Down the hall, third door on the right!"
"Now, was that so hard?" Shinji asked in a very condescending
tone of voice as he let go of Misato's arm and took a quick hop back out
of Misato's reach.
"You little bastard! What if that gun had gone off?" Misato
yelled, rubbing her shoulder.
"First of all, if it did go off it would have been your fault
for drawing the weapon. Secondly, the safety is on. And finally, I can't
possibly be a bastard since my father is unfortunately alive, and I do
believe you work for him, don't you?"
Misato grumbled as Shinji walked down the hall to the third door
on the right.
"Where the hell did you learn to do that anyway?" called Misato
after Shinji.
"My teacher taught me advanced self-defense moves," said Shinji
as he came back with his bag over his shoulder.
"Remind me to thank him for that, will you?"
Shinji snickered as his fastened his watch around his wrist.
Then he saw the date.
"I've been out for almost three days!" exclaimed Shinji.
"You suffered severe brain trauma during the battle. It took
awhile to repair the damage."
"About that, what exactly happened during that battle?"
"You mean you don't remember?"
Shijni": Wait, you don't remember?
"Should I?"
"I don't know. I'll have to ask Ritsuko about that."
Shinji just shrugged, "Memory loss is a sign of brian damage,
which you said I have."
"Had."
"No, have," said Shinji, annoyed that Misato didn't understand,
"Brain damage is permanent as nerve cells don't grow back and neural
pathways that are destroyed are normally lost forever."
Misato shook her head, "Doesn't work that way. Almost one-eighth
of your brain died during that battle. It grew back just fine. Little
things like Laws of Nature have no place at NERV."
Shinji was mildly stunned. According to Misato, he should have a
severe problem in functioning normally. Instead he hadn't even noticed
the difference, if one even exsisted.
Shinji': It doesn't matter.
"It doesn't matter, really. I'm fine now, that's all that
counts. Now if you excuse me I must leave."
Misato stepped in front of Shinji as he tried to walk to the
door.
"Don't try to stop me."
"I'm just trying help you see the fact that you want to stay
here."
Shijni': We should stay.
Shijni: No we shouldn't.
"I don't want to stay here."
"Sure you do. If you leave you won't get to go to school here!"
"Why would I want to go to your center for the ruthless
indoctrinations? There's nothing they can teach me that I don't already
know, and I like my brain dirty and unwashed, thank you!"
Misato grinned the grin she reserved for when she played her
trump card and completely out-manuvered the opposition. "Girls. Cute
ones, too. Lots of them. Twice as many of them as guys."
Shinji": Girls? Girls! Did she say girls?!
Shinji': I think we might need to investigate this a little further.
Shinji: I don't trust her.
Shinji': Ask her for evidence!
"I want proof."
Misato walked into one of the many rooms occupying the apartment
and returned with a large stack of folders. "These are the girls that
will specifically be in your class. I have digital copies of the files
on all the other girls at your school if you want to look at them too."
Shinji took the stack and quickly flipped through them, mentally
earmarking ones he felt showed the most promise. There were indeed many
cute girls in his class.
"Fine. I'll agree to a trial period of three weeks. After that
time, if I choose to leave for any reason, I'm free to go."
"Agreed," said Misato as they shook on it. "We can go down there
right now and get you signed up."
Shinji turned and looked expectantly towards the door a full
three seconds before the door opened and Ritsuko walked in, with Rei
close behind her.
"Hey, Misato. Hello, Shinji, I expected you to be gone by now."
Shinji glanced briefly at Rei before he turned his attention to
Ritsuko. "I decided to stay for a trial period."
"Are you going to be here long?" asked Misato.
"Not really. I just stopped by to drop Rei off and then I'm back
out."
"Would you mind taking Shinji to get enrolled in school? I
really have to finish the post-sortie briefings so I can get started on
the after-engagement reports."
"Sure. If you don't get those done then I can't finish my work."
--
Ritsuko and Shinji drove on in silence for a fairly long while
before Shinji broke the silence.
"So how did you and Misato end up living together?"
Ritsuko gave a short laugh and a wry grin crossed her face. "We
met back in university. Through a serious of odd occurances I ended up
tutoring her in a subject. Like most students we did most of our
studying at a local coffee shop, so after the lessons we'd end up just
hanging out, sipping Java. I was very quiet back then, and Misato talked
almost constantly. We ended up balancing each other out."
"Now tell me how someone like her ended up in such a high
position in such a prestigeous orginization."
"Don't let her demeanor fool you for one second. That woman is a
genius."
Seeing Shinji's look of disbelief, Ritsuko sought to elaborate,
"Back in good ol' university days, Misato would try to get me to
actively engage in conversation by asking me about what I was doing in
my course work. Whenever I started to really get into it, her eyes would
just sort of glaze over and she'd go comatose.
"This just fostered a superiority complex that had been growing
in me for years, and I started to develop serious fellings of
superiority towards Misato in particular.
"One day my ego pushed me to far and I asked Misato what _she_
was doing in _her_ classes. She launched into an indepth discussion of
the strategies being used in the combat sim that her Advanced Games and
Theory class was running and contrasted the minute details of her
classmate's strategies and her own, plus the underlying theories behind
them.
"She then listed off each and every one of her classmate's next
moves --she had identified the patterns all of them worked under in the
first two weeks of the class-- and how she would counter each strike,
how she would defend certain people to gain allies, then simply not give
any aid at a critical juncture when they were expecting it.
"She pointed out all their weaknesses and how to exploit them
properly.
"That was the first time I ever felt dizzy simply by being
talked over until I had an information overflow."
"And that's when you fell in love with her?" asked Shinji.
Ritsuko started laughing so hard she began to choke. Once she
settled down enough to talk, she asked Shinji where he had gotten the
idea that she was in love with Misato.
"I had simply assumed you and her were life-partners and that
Rei was your splice-baby," Shinji said, using the coloqulial term for a
person concieved by invetro fertilization of a woman with the genetic
material from another woman's ovum.
"No, that's not even close. Me and Misato work odd hours, so it
helps that we live together so that we don't have to do all that
housework on our rigorous schedules."
"So how does Rei fit into it?"
"Misato suggested letting Rei stay in one of our extra rooms."
--
At the school, Shinji could hear the murmurs from the children
in the classroms. He supposed it was over the unexpected arrival of a
new student. No doubt the talk was exsasserbated by the fact that
Ritsuko's lad coat had the NERV logo on it in several places. And,
Shinji realized, he was still covered in bandages.
It took surprisingly little time to get Shinji enrolled. Before
long they had left the school and headed for a fast food resturant.
"Why are we picking up dinner?" asked Shinji as Ritsuko handed
him paper bags containing food.
"Because Misato will probably cook if we didn't."
"Is that such a bad thing?" said Shinji, questioningly.
"Yes!" Ritsuko emphatically replied.
--
Durning the ride home, both Shinji and Ritsuko remained silent.
Shinji": Are you _sure_ you don't remember what happened during the
battle?
Shinji: Why do you keep asking me that?! If _I_ can't remember it, _you_
can't remember it either!
Shinji': I too do not remember the battle.
Shinji": But... I do remember the battle.
Shiji: How..?
Shinji": I don't know. I was wondering about that. That's why I've been
so quiet recently.
Shinji': We should probably take this as a sign of the furthering of
your insanity, Shinji.
Shinji: It might have something to do with the regenerative treatment I
received after the battle.
Shinji": Maybe.
Shinji: Well... at least tell us what happened.
Shinji": Let's see... It went like... You see... Oh hell! Let me just
show you.
Suddenly the burning hot poker was being rammed into his
forehead again and Shinji doubled over in pain and began to thrash
about.
Unfortunately for Ritsuko, Shinji still had enough LCL in his
system to making him a danger to anyone around him. Shinji's arm shot
out and easily went through the dashboard of Ritsuko's car. Shinji's
legs kicked against the floor, snapping the back off Shinji's seat as
his left elbow broke the glass in the door's window.
To her credit, Ritsuko was quick to pull the car over and stop.
It was fortunate she did, as shortly after she parked, Shinji tore his
door off the hinges and crumpled to the ground outside the car, rolling
around on the ground, hands clawing at his scalp.
Shinji finally settled on clasping his arms over his head
similar to the clasic "duck and cover" postion, while spining around in
circles by kicking his legs.
Ritsuko pulled her cellphone out of her pocket and quickly
dialed NERV HQ, "I need a medical team here fast, code brown!"
--END
Sayonara
[It is so] - Japanese
************************************************
Title: Upon Bladed Wings
Author: Jonathan "Katarn" Gaters
E-mail: KatarnX2B@NetZero.net
HP: http://members.nbci.com/katarnx2b/
Genre: Action, Drama
Part: Chapter 2
************************************************
*****WARNING****WARNING****WARNING****WARNING****WARNING****WARNING*****
Contains spoilers for much of the series, as well as graphic, violent,
and adult content. Rated PG-13. You may now finish skipping this.
*****WARNING****WARNING****WARNING****WARNING****WARNING****WARNING*****
All thoughts are in script format. A name with a " or ' after it
is another aspect of that person's personality they're conversing with.
I've decided to use the Japanese names for the Evangelion units. Shoguki
is Unit-01, Niguki is Unit-02, and if you can't guess what Zeroguki is,
you probably don't have the IQ to be literate, so I don't have anything
to worry about.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
LAST TIME:
#
#
# Shinji felt the last shred of his sanity leave him as the g-
#forces of the catapult. By time he reached the surface there was no
#sign of the mind know as "Shinji" left.
#
# As soon as the lift reached ground level, Unit-01 broke free of
#the bindings. An energy flew off of Unit-01 reducing everything within
#three blocks of it to ruins.
#
#
# The support staff watched the monitor in fear as Unit-01 let
#out a bestial roar.
#
# "Poor Shinji," said the tech beside Ritsuko.
#
# "Don't say that." Ritsuko replied with a cold voice. "That's
#not Shinji anymore. He's *fallen*..."
#
#
------------------------------------------------------------------------
AND NOW...
KILL!! The one thought permeating Af's mind. Their ENEMY had
been stolen from them. But there was a -new- ENEMY for them! They could
feel ENEMY moving in the distance. They could almost smell its blood!
Af stalked their ENEMY, growing ever closer. ENEMY knew they
were coming, no doubt about it. ENEMY was coming right at them. There,
right around the building!
Af turned left on the next intersecting street. There was ENEMY.
So smug in ENEMY's path of destruction. ENEMY would have that smugness
ripped out of its soul at Af's hand.
Af opened their mouth and screamed at the top of their lungs,
"ENEMY!! WE SHALL BEFOUL YOUR VERY EXISTANCE!!!"
--
Most people in Central Dogma shuddered when they heard Shoguki's
roar reverberate through headsets and speakers alike --that horrible,
bestial scream. Except, of course, the Commander and the Sub-Commander.
'At least it's intercepting the Angel,' thought Misato.
Everyone's eyes were locked on the three dimensional display in
front of the command tower. There was nothing any of them could do
-except- watch.
--
Af took the first move, leaping at ENEMY with all the strength
they could muster. ENEMY did not move and instead let Af collide with
ENEMY's chest. ENEMY bent over backwards with the force of the impact.
The air began to shimmer between Af and ENEMY. Af suddenly found
themselves flung backwards at a great velocity. They tried to land but
their body felt weird around them and they botched the landing.
Af tumbled several hundred meters before they gained enough
control to bring their body to a stop. When they tried to scramble to
their feet, they simply slipped fell back down. Af tried to rise again
-- this time slower -- but they had wasted just enough time on the first
attempt to allow ENEMY to close on them.
--
In Central Dogma, the staff watched helplessly as the Angel
grabbed Shoguki by the ankle and promptly slammed it into the side of a
building. People called out damage reports almost mechanically. It was
more for the records than for any real use they could put it to.
--
Af managed to catch hold of a weapon. It was a beam from the
building they had just demolished. Af hurled the beam at ENEMY's "face".
It crumpled like and accordion a few inches away from ENEMY's "face".
'And here comes another building,' thought Af.
--
Misato had taken notice of the beam bouncing off the Angel.
"Is Shoguki AT field active?"
"No ma'am. Its AT field isn't unfolding," replied a tech from
somewhere to her left.
"What's wrong with it? If he can't use his AT field the he's as
good as dead."
"There's nothing wrong with it," replied Ritsuko. "He's just not
deploying it."
--
ENEMY dragged Af out of the fresh rubble that once was a
building by their leg. Af noticed ENEMY's arm begin to swell like it did
when ENEMY crushed Akriel's arm. ENEMY was looking to cripple him. Af
couldn't let ENEMY get away with it so easily.
Af snatched their leg back suddenly then slammed both their feet
into ENEMY's chest. The result was ENEMY being pulled forward and off
balance by ENEMY's own powerful grip, and ENEMY releasing ENEMY's grip
just in time to get propelled backwards into a building at high
velocity.
Af scrambled across ground and over the gravel and wreckage that
used to be a city block to get at ENEMY. ENEMY was just beginning to get
up and had no damage done when Af got within striking distance. Their
hands reached out toward ENEMY until they ran into a glowing barrier. Af
didn't care; they had planned for ENEMY's Light to shine.
Af focused their mind and brought their Light to bear.
--
"Shoguki is generating an AT Field!" screamed a tech. He was
just in time to state the obvious as a shimmering band of energy sprang
from Shoguki's hand, smashing into the Angel's AT Field.
It was quite a spectacular light show. The radiating orange
octagons from the Angel's AT Field provided a nice background for the
white opalescent beam of lightning leaping from Shoguki's fingers.
--
Af grinned inwardly (as they had no lips) as ENEMY stumbled back
from the blast, ENEMY's Light momentarily skewed. ENEMY was stunned just
long enough for Af to plant one good punch in ENEMY's "face".
If those were ENEMY's -real- eyes in ENEMY's "face", ENEMY would
have been blinded as Af had crushed ENEMY's face in on itself. Sadly,
ENEMY could still see just fine, which ENEMY quickly proved by grabbing
Af and manhandling them to the ground.
Af still wasn't used to their body and couldn't balance
themselves enough to stay up.
Af found an easy solution to their problems. They simply started
kicking violently at ENEMY's chest, which ENEMY left exposed as ENEMY
tried to keep Af on the ground.
Af felt their foot make contact with ENEMY's soul. The next kick
impacted ENEMY's soul, confirming their aim. Af's leg suddenly shifted
into high speed, pistoning ENEMY's soul, cracking it.
In an attempt to stop them, ENEMY gabbed Af's head with ENEMY's
right arm and rammed ENEMY's energy lance into Af's head repeatedly.
It was now a race to see who would give out first. Neither could
do anything to stop the other besides kill them.
--
The loud crunch was clearly audible through the speakers in
Central dogma. Both the Angel and Shoguki froze. All over the command
center people held their breaths for fear of jinxing it.
"Angel's gone silent."
Misato stripped her eyes away from the screen just long enough
to look at Ritsuko. The doctor had barely whispered that sentence, but
in the silence it sounded just short of a yell.
"Ma'am!" shouted one of the techs sitting near Ritsuko.
"Detecting a high-energy reaction coming from within the Angel!"
--
Af knew that ENEMY would try and take both of them out if it
couldn't get past them to ENEMY's goal. Normally Af's armor could take
the explosion with little damage to the flesh beneath. Unless of course
it had been compromised by, say, a giant pink energy spike.
A bright white light engulfed Af.
haHfKhDfD: Fuck.
--
Shinji woke with a start, followed closely by a wince of pain.
Apparently he had broken several ribs.
Lying back down, Shinji began to take note of where he was.
Apparently it was a hospital. He was in a South-facing room as sunlight
was streaming in. It appeared to be late afternoon. He had bandages
around his chest, his head, and his left eye. He probably looked like
that girl...
Shinji laughed at that thought. Maybe they could go to the prom
together! Shinji briefly wondered if she was in this same hospital. It
was totally logical to assume that. Of course, it was totally logical
that they'd try to keep the pilots as far away from each other as
possible so they wouldn't lose both of them in one strike.
Shinji noticed an intravenous drip in his left arm. It was
dripping some sort of orange liquid into his body. That would be the
first thing he asked about when someone came to check on him.
Shinji didn't have to wait long for that. The bio-monitors had
set off a silent alarm the moment he awoke, signaling to the doctor to
come check on him. A man wearing a white lab coat over scrubs and a
woman in the classic nurse's uniform walked in.
"Good morning, Mr. Ikari. And how are we feeling today?"
"Like shit. What's in the I.V.?"
"Just some medicine to help you heal," said the doctor being
purposely vague.
"No, I mean what is the name of the medication and what is its
exact function?"
"Don't worry about that. Nurse Kitamura here will take you blood
pressure and temperature."
Shinji smiled, nodded, and promptly snatched the I.V. from his
arm. The doctor looked shocked and the nurse took a hasty step back.
Without a word, Shinji slid off the foot of the bed, ignoring
the fact that hospital gowns were obviously designed by a homosexual
transvestite comedian and the trickle of blood running down his arm from
where the I.V. had been, and proceeded to a chair were someone had laid
out some of his clothing.
Shinji: Morons! I can't believe someone laid out the shirt from outfit
number three with the pants from outfit number five! It wasn't like I
didn't label them!
"I'm going to get dressed and then I'm going to leave. If you
wish to stay and watch, go right ahead."
The doctor seized Shinji's arm saying, "I have strict orders to
keep you here until further notification!"
Shinji smiled and spoke in a low, measured tone, "Since this is
the first time we've met, I'll give you until the count of one to take
your hand off me and never touch me again. One."
The doctor's reflexes weren't very good to begin with and he
wasn't expecting Shinji to actually follow through with his threat. So
when Shinji gave a quick twist of his arm and the doctor felt Shinji's
hand close around his wrist, he was caught completely off guard.
The doctor let out a yelp and sprung away from Shinji and
gingerly held his arm. It was numb from the wrist down, though he could
still feel pain throbbing through it.
The doctor backed away towards the door. The nurse had already
hurried away.
Shinji walked out of his hospital room fully dressed and ready
to leave. He calmly walked past the front desk where the doctor that he
had just met was talking into a phone. Shinji ignored him and simply
headed towards the nearest bank of elevators.
Pushing the "down" button, Shinji waited patiently for the
elevator to arrive. The ding of the elevator alerted him to its arrival.
The doors opened and revealed a familiar face. Captain Katsuragi Misato
looked mildly surprised to see Shinji standing there.
"Are you getting off?" asked Shinji.
"No, not anymore."
Shinji nodded and entered the elevator. Shinji reached slightly
past Misato to push the button for the ground floor.
Misato took out her cell phone and talked into it briefly.
"Yes... Yes... He's here with me now... Yes... I understand."
The door opened onto the ground floor. Shinji stepped out and
began towards the doors that seemed to lead outside.
"Where's my stuff," he asked Misato without looking over his
shoulder.
"I'll take you to it. Arrangements have been made for your
residence."
"It was a waste of time and resources. I won't be staying."
"You've already piloted once, why not stay and do something for
your species?"
Shinji snorted at the comment. "Simple biology. In humans, as
with most animals, first comes Self-preservation, then Reproduction, and
finally Species-preservation. As doing this puts my life in direct
danger and I have yet to see any mini-Shinjis running around, I have to
decline your invitation to stay."
A new voice spoke from behind Shinji, "If you don't stay,
there's a very good chance you'll die along with the rest of your
species. And since Reproduction is simply a merging of both Self-
preservation and Species-preservation, you should be leaping at the
chance to pilot."
Shinji turned around to see who had made that last statement. It
was Dr. Akagi, and standing beside her was the blue haired pilot,
Ayanami Rei.
"A very logical and convincing argument, Dr. Akagi. Possibly the
most sane thing I've heard anyone say since I arrived here."
"I'll take that as a complement."
Shinji looked at Rei. She was wearing what appeared to be a
school uniform. She didn't have nearly as many bandages as when Shinji
had last seen her, though her cast was still on.
Rei looked out her unbandaged eye at Shinji. Shinji looked back.
They stood like that for a while, simply gazing at each other, neither
moving, almost imperceptibly breathing.
Shinji shook off the weird feeling he had and walked through the
doors that parted so readily for him at the exit.
--
Shinji sat in the passenger seat of Misato's car as it sat in
the linear train. His head rested on his fist against the door. He was
contemplating whether or not he should stay over the soothing hum of the
magnetic inductors.
"So what was that back there," asked Misato, breaking the rather
pleasant silence.
"What was what?"
"It looked to me like you and Rei had a moment."
Shinji looked both puzzled and mildly amused. "Exactly what is a
moment?"
"Oh, you know! You're at a party; you look across the room...
You see her, she looks up, your eyes meet and... you have a moment!"
"One, you've been reading too many romance novels. Two, that was
not a moment."
"Then what was it?"
Shinji": She wouldn't understand.
"You wouldn't understand."
"And why not?"
Shinji': She's never been in an Eva.
"You've never been inside an Eva."
--
Shinji waited for Misato to open the door to her apartment.
"It was a-" started Misato.
"No it wasn't!" retorted Shinji. Misato had been teasing him
over it the whole trip over.
"Oh, yes it was!"
"Oh, no it wasn't!"
"Well then, what was it?!"
"I'd explain it to you, but you've never experienced anything
like it so you'd have no frame of reference!"
Misato grinned like a Cheshire cat as the door to her apartment
slid open.
"Was too."
"Go to hell!"
"Been there, done that, brought back souvenirs!"
"Just shut up and tell me where my stuff is!"
"You shouldn't talk to your superiors like that!"
"You're not my superior, you're just old!"
Misato let out a low, guttural growl and lunged for Shinji.
Shinji managed to evade her. Misato tried again and again to grab hold
of Shinji, but he was consistently just outside her grasp.
Fed up, Misato drew her gun from her shoulder holster. "Take it
back you little twerp!"
Instead of panicking or even stopping --like Misato had hoped--
Shinji lunged at her, grabbed her arm and pulled a disarming maneuver
that left Misato unarmed, and pinned in a very uncomfortable position.
"Now," said Shinji in a very calm and collected voice, "where's
my stuff?"
"Down the hall, third door on the right!"
"Now, was that so hard?" Shinji asked in a very condescending
tone of voice as he let go of Misato's arm and took a quick hop back out
of Misato's reach.
"You little bastard! What if that gun had gone off?" Misato
yelled, rubbing her shoulder.
"First of all, if it did go off it would have been your fault
for drawing the weapon. Secondly, the safety is on. And finally, I can't
possibly be a bastard since my father is unfortunately alive, and I do
believe you work for him, don't you?"
Misato grumbled as Shinji walked down the hall to the third door
on the right.
"Where the hell did you learn to do that anyway?" called Misato
after Shinji.
"My teacher taught me advanced self-defense moves," said Shinji
as he came back with his bag over his shoulder.
"Remind me to thank him for that, will you?"
Shinji snickered as his fastened his watch around his wrist.
Then he saw the date.
"I've been out for almost three days!" exclaimed Shinji.
"You suffered severe brain trauma during the battle. It took
awhile to repair the damage."
"About that, what exactly happened during that battle?"
"You mean you don't remember?"
Shijni": Wait, you don't remember?
"Should I?"
"I don't know. I'll have to ask Ritsuko about that."
Shinji just shrugged, "Memory loss is a sign of brian damage,
which you said I have."
"Had."
"No, have," said Shinji, annoyed that Misato didn't understand,
"Brain damage is permanent as nerve cells don't grow back and neural
pathways that are destroyed are normally lost forever."
Misato shook her head, "Doesn't work that way. Almost one-eighth
of your brain died during that battle. It grew back just fine. Little
things like Laws of Nature have no place at NERV."
Shinji was mildly stunned. According to Misato, he should have a
severe problem in functioning normally. Instead he hadn't even noticed
the difference, if one even exsisted.
Shinji': It doesn't matter.
"It doesn't matter, really. I'm fine now, that's all that
counts. Now if you excuse me I must leave."
Misato stepped in front of Shinji as he tried to walk to the
door.
"Don't try to stop me."
"I'm just trying help you see the fact that you want to stay
here."
Shijni': We should stay.
Shijni: No we shouldn't.
"I don't want to stay here."
"Sure you do. If you leave you won't get to go to school here!"
"Why would I want to go to your center for the ruthless
indoctrinations? There's nothing they can teach me that I don't already
know, and I like my brain dirty and unwashed, thank you!"
Misato grinned the grin she reserved for when she played her
trump card and completely out-manuvered the opposition. "Girls. Cute
ones, too. Lots of them. Twice as many of them as guys."
Shinji": Girls? Girls! Did she say girls?!
Shinji': I think we might need to investigate this a little further.
Shinji: I don't trust her.
Shinji': Ask her for evidence!
"I want proof."
Misato walked into one of the many rooms occupying the apartment
and returned with a large stack of folders. "These are the girls that
will specifically be in your class. I have digital copies of the files
on all the other girls at your school if you want to look at them too."
Shinji took the stack and quickly flipped through them, mentally
earmarking ones he felt showed the most promise. There were indeed many
cute girls in his class.
"Fine. I'll agree to a trial period of three weeks. After that
time, if I choose to leave for any reason, I'm free to go."
"Agreed," said Misato as they shook on it. "We can go down there
right now and get you signed up."
Shinji turned and looked expectantly towards the door a full
three seconds before the door opened and Ritsuko walked in, with Rei
close behind her.
"Hey, Misato. Hello, Shinji, I expected you to be gone by now."
Shinji glanced briefly at Rei before he turned his attention to
Ritsuko. "I decided to stay for a trial period."
"Are you going to be here long?" asked Misato.
"Not really. I just stopped by to drop Rei off and then I'm back
out."
"Would you mind taking Shinji to get enrolled in school? I
really have to finish the post-sortie briefings so I can get started on
the after-engagement reports."
"Sure. If you don't get those done then I can't finish my work."
--
Ritsuko and Shinji drove on in silence for a fairly long while
before Shinji broke the silence.
"So how did you and Misato end up living together?"
Ritsuko gave a short laugh and a wry grin crossed her face. "We
met back in university. Through a serious of odd occurances I ended up
tutoring her in a subject. Like most students we did most of our
studying at a local coffee shop, so after the lessons we'd end up just
hanging out, sipping Java. I was very quiet back then, and Misato talked
almost constantly. We ended up balancing each other out."
"Now tell me how someone like her ended up in such a high
position in such a prestigeous orginization."
"Don't let her demeanor fool you for one second. That woman is a
genius."
Seeing Shinji's look of disbelief, Ritsuko sought to elaborate,
"Back in good ol' university days, Misato would try to get me to
actively engage in conversation by asking me about what I was doing in
my course work. Whenever I started to really get into it, her eyes would
just sort of glaze over and she'd go comatose.
"This just fostered a superiority complex that had been growing
in me for years, and I started to develop serious fellings of
superiority towards Misato in particular.
"One day my ego pushed me to far and I asked Misato what _she_
was doing in _her_ classes. She launched into an indepth discussion of
the strategies being used in the combat sim that her Advanced Games and
Theory class was running and contrasted the minute details of her
classmate's strategies and her own, plus the underlying theories behind
them.
"She then listed off each and every one of her classmate's next
moves --she had identified the patterns all of them worked under in the
first two weeks of the class-- and how she would counter each strike,
how she would defend certain people to gain allies, then simply not give
any aid at a critical juncture when they were expecting it.
"She pointed out all their weaknesses and how to exploit them
properly.
"That was the first time I ever felt dizzy simply by being
talked over until I had an information overflow."
"And that's when you fell in love with her?" asked Shinji.
Ritsuko started laughing so hard she began to choke. Once she
settled down enough to talk, she asked Shinji where he had gotten the
idea that she was in love with Misato.
"I had simply assumed you and her were life-partners and that
Rei was your splice-baby," Shinji said, using the coloqulial term for a
person concieved by invetro fertilization of a woman with the genetic
material from another woman's ovum.
"No, that's not even close. Me and Misato work odd hours, so it
helps that we live together so that we don't have to do all that
housework on our rigorous schedules."
"So how does Rei fit into it?"
"Misato suggested letting Rei stay in one of our extra rooms."
--
At the school, Shinji could hear the murmurs from the children
in the classroms. He supposed it was over the unexpected arrival of a
new student. No doubt the talk was exsasserbated by the fact that
Ritsuko's lad coat had the NERV logo on it in several places. And,
Shinji realized, he was still covered in bandages.
It took surprisingly little time to get Shinji enrolled. Before
long they had left the school and headed for a fast food resturant.
"Why are we picking up dinner?" asked Shinji as Ritsuko handed
him paper bags containing food.
"Because Misato will probably cook if we didn't."
"Is that such a bad thing?" said Shinji, questioningly.
"Yes!" Ritsuko emphatically replied.
--
Durning the ride home, both Shinji and Ritsuko remained silent.
Shinji": Are you _sure_ you don't remember what happened during the
battle?
Shinji: Why do you keep asking me that?! If _I_ can't remember it, _you_
can't remember it either!
Shinji': I too do not remember the battle.
Shinji": But... I do remember the battle.
Shiji: How..?
Shinji": I don't know. I was wondering about that. That's why I've been
so quiet recently.
Shinji': We should probably take this as a sign of the furthering of
your insanity, Shinji.
Shinji: It might have something to do with the regenerative treatment I
received after the battle.
Shinji": Maybe.
Shinji: Well... at least tell us what happened.
Shinji": Let's see... It went like... You see... Oh hell! Let me just
show you.
Suddenly the burning hot poker was being rammed into his
forehead again and Shinji doubled over in pain and began to thrash
about.
Unfortunately for Ritsuko, Shinji still had enough LCL in his
system to making him a danger to anyone around him. Shinji's arm shot
out and easily went through the dashboard of Ritsuko's car. Shinji's
legs kicked against the floor, snapping the back off Shinji's seat as
his left elbow broke the glass in the door's window.
To her credit, Ritsuko was quick to pull the car over and stop.
It was fortunate she did, as shortly after she parked, Shinji tore his
door off the hinges and crumpled to the ground outside the car, rolling
around on the ground, hands clawing at his scalp.
Shinji finally settled on clasping his arms over his head
similar to the clasic "duck and cover" postion, while spining around in
circles by kicking his legs.
Ritsuko pulled her cellphone out of her pocket and quickly
dialed NERV HQ, "I need a medical team here fast, code brown!"
--END
Sayonara
[It is so] - Japanese