Evangelion Hangers

"Why does it have wheels?" Asuka stared at the mighty visage of Unit-05, its green splendor doing nothing to distract from the odd wheels it had as its main source of locomotion.

"Because our bosses at the UN say they want a new Eva unit to ensure maximum effectiveness, but they don't allocate the budget to produce a fully-fledged Eva unit. So we had to cut some corners." Ritsuko sighed as she lit another cigarette.

"Right, fancy bigwigs wanting maximum crime for minimum dime. That's how it always is." Kotone nodded sagely.

"I get that, but how does it work? The Evas work by mimicking our movements through a psychosomatic link filtered through our sync ratio; it shouldn't work with wheels!" Asuka complained, pointing at the offending appendages with gusto.

"Look, Asuka-" Ritsuko took a long drag of her cigarette. "-I could explain to you the lengthy and complicated workarounds we had to install into the software to achieve something resembling a link that didn't cause the pilot to believe they were a truck that needed to run over high schoolers, or you could get in the fucking robot and rescue Shinji from the giant spider Angel that can somehow mascarade itself as a middle schooler and not trip off our Angel detection equipment." Ritsuko blinked and sighed again. "The fact that the sentence I just spoke is not strange to me at all is really troubling. I wonder if Misato's drinking helps her deal with all this?"

"Hmph!" Asuka flipped Ritsuko off as she made her way to Unit-02, Ritsuko responded in kind on instinct.

"Um….." Kotone shifted nervously in her new burgundy plugsuit. "I don't know how to pilot the giant mech thing, is that going to be a problem?"

"No, you should be fine. We've developed some assistance programs that should help you get the hang of things." Ritsuko paused for a moment to tap the ash off her cigarette. "But just in case, stay in the back and let Rei and Asuka do the heavy lifting for this op."

"Sir yes sir!" Kotone saluted.

"Don't….. do that. We're not looking for military-like rigidity here." Kotone sighed in relief and loosened her posture. "Head into your entry plug, we're about to start the final checks." Kotone nodded and ran off to her position. Ritsuko held herself back from sighing again. "I'm not going home anytime soon, am I?"

Tokyo-3 Abandoned Warehouse District

Matarael paced back and forth in the absurdly large warehouse. Nothing was going like the historical Lilim documentaries known as 'Television Shows' taught! Hiding as a cloud back when Israfel arrived allowed him to understand the importance of the prepubescent Lilim that piloted the constructs of false flesh. Using that observation the shows taught him integration and infiltration was the next step. So he walked the dangerous line of joining the 'School' in a foolproof disguise in order to sneak his way into where Father was being kept. And going to school when you're the size of a skyscraper is not easy! But it was going well until that vixen that smelled of the usurper and that….. minuscule anomaly somehow managed to break through his carefully constructed glamour. In his panic, he grabbed the weakest individual present to use as a hostage. That was perhaps Matarael's biggest mistake yet.

Matarael peeked through a crack in the boarded-up warehouse window, seeing the streets lined with miniature red anomalies out for blood. His blood. If Matarael had a mouth and throat he would have gulped nervously. Well, on the bright side he undoubtedly nabbed an extremely important person. The NERV Commander's son if his research was correct. Surely the boy's father would spare no effort to see him returned safely, and wouldn't leave him to die a dog's death at the hand of an alien invader. Just like his father, Adam, who is the best father ever.

NERV Medical Ward Elevator

"Reason number one thousand three hundred sixty-two of why I would be a better father than you, I am champion spear thrower. Reason number-"

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

One bullet. It would only take one bullet from his concealed sidearm to silence her forever. But that would be too easy. If he did that he would be admitting defeat. So he withstood the onslaught. Hopefully, the power will be restored soon. Otherwise, Gendo doesn't know how long his trigger finger will be controllable.

"-I'm cuter than you. Reason number-"

Tokyo-3 abandoned warehouse district

Yes, the Lilim fathers are obviously responsible creatures. So it stands to reason he should expect fierce opposition and with his ability to disguise himself through clever use of his AT-field was now null and void he could not rely on his ability to sneak away. Matarael would need to be savvy and pull from all of the 'shows' he studied relating to hostage negotiations in order to come out on top. Which meant he needed the cooperation of his hostage. Who was unconscious right now. Where was a bucket of water when you needed it?

Shinji awoke with a start as he felt water drenching his body. He quickly took stock of his situation. First, he was in an absurdly large warehouse. Second, he was adhered to the wall of said warehouse with copious amounts of duct tape. Third, a giant spider was staring at him oh gods what is going on.

"Ahhhhhhh!" Shinji screamed as he tried to wiggle free from his prison of polythene and glue. His memory was returning, remembering his abduction by Mat, who was revealed to be an Angel. The Angel dropped a bucket from it's eerily human graspers and waved in a manner that Shinji assumed was meant to be placating. Seeing as the tape seemed like it would not give way, he complied. At least until Leader and Shiki could- "Wait, where's Leader and Shiki?!" Shinji whipped his head around trying to find his friends, but they were nowhere to be found. The Angel produced a small whiteboard from somewhere and proceeded to write on it.

"who?" The whiteboard was displaying simple but coherent text. Shinji paused, taking in the fact he was communicating with an Angel.

"The, uh, small redheads?" The Angel erased it's writing and wrote a response.

"who?" Which was the exact same question. Alright.

"They were on my shoulder?"

"fell off i guess. not here. no important. you hostage now."

"….What?"

"didnt mean to kidnap you, i panicked, now the anomalies are after my blood. i use you for safety, so i dont die. cooperate so we both get out of this." Well. This wasn't a situation he thought he would get into today. He's surprised he isn't panicking right now. Perhaps he's growing too used to these strange situations?

"Well, uh, I don't think I'll be a very good hostage. Sorry."

"well youre the only hostage i have so youll do." Shinji was unsure if that was meant to be insulting or not. Suddenly his phone began to ring in his pocket, but he couldn't reach it due to his current entrapment.

"I still have reception?" He wondered allowed. "Does that mean they can trace my signal?" He was answered by the familiar sound of something reaching the surface, followed by heavy footfalls. The Angel had a panicked look in it's many eyes.

"fecal excrement."

"What?"

"I'm surprised the deployment catapults are usable." Asuka stated as she and the others approached the location of Shinji's cell phone.

"Yes, well thanks to the N2 reactor we 'reappropriated' after the Jet Alone incident we have some power to work with. Just try to finish this op as fast as possible, your Evas aren't running at full capacity and even then the reactor is strained supporting all of you." Ritsuko explained as she worked double time to constantly manage the power flow.

"You mean looted right?" Misato questioned.

"Call it whatever you want, neither the UN nor JHCI are getting it back."

"Alright, so does anyone want to explain why this warehouse is so enormous?" Kotone inquired as she followed the other two as she got used to having wheels. The absurdly large warehouse before them looked like it could hold an Eva Unit or an Angel.

"Apparently it's an old storage site for Eva parts shipped in from out of the country. It got abandoned after proper facilities were built within the Geofront itself. Now it's used for indie music shows, cult meetings, and the occasional underground extreme circus competitions." Maya listed off, wondering if she was reading that correctly.

"Oh right, Cirque Du Slay was great!" Ooi added as everyone looked at her with expressions of bafflement. "What?"

"Hey!" Asuka shouted. "We're here. Should we…. bust in or something? I'm not exactly sure how to handle hostage situations while piloting my Eva. Wasn't exactly covered in training." Asuka paused. "Well, not in any way that doesn't involve immense collateral damage at least."

"Good question. Working on it." Misato responded, staring at the warehouse like it was a Rubik's Cube.

"Well work faster, the mini-mes are gathering around and if I know my expressions well, which I obviously do, then they're probably going to do something extremely violent soon."

"Look, I'm-" whatever Misato was saying was cut off as a section of the warehouse exploded and Matarael burst out, Shinji (who was in a cocoon of duct tape) in one hand and a comically small (in comparison) in the other, pointed at Shinji's head. "-Oh."

"Look! It's Shinji! Hi Shinji!" Kotone beckoned Unit-05 to wave at Shinji, to moderate success.

"Hi, Kotone." Shinji responded weakly. "Is that Unit-05? Why does it have wheels?"

"Dunno! But I'm here to help, even though I only got this pistol!" Shinji did note she was quite underarmed compared to Asuka's dual Smash Hawks and Rei's Gatling Gun.

"Why do you only have a pistol?"

"They don't trust me with anything more lethal!"

"Everyone shut up!" Asuka screamed, before pointing one of her axes at the Angel. "Alright you arachnid asshole, this can end in one of two ways, and in both of them, you die. So you wanna do this the easy way, or the hard way?" The Minisukas were swarming around the area, waiting for the opportunity to descend upon Matarael with crimson fury. Matarael looked around with panicked eyes, trying to figure out a way out of this situation.

"Oh, are Leader and Shiki okay?" Shinji asked, drawing Asuka's ire once more.

"Shinji, what did I just-"

"Baka Shinji!" A call came from the horde, revealing Leader at the head of the pack.

"Leader! I'm glad you're alright. Wait, where's Shiki?" Shinji was cut off as Matarael reemphasized the fact that Shinji had a gun to his head by pressing it hard against his temple. "Right, a hostage situation." Shinji hoped Shiki was okay as this intense standoff continued.

Tokyo-3 Airspace, directly above Matarael

"Give me your lance." Shiki demanded of the Minisuka operating the miniature hot air balloon they were riding.

"What? No! Why!?"

"Because I want to duel wield against this bastard." Shiki lied effortlessly.

"…Yeah, that's fair."

"Also, if I'm holding onto the lance and things get dicey, you can recall it and all be dragged to safety with it."

"Huh. Also fair. Alright, here you go." She handed her lance to Shiki, who gave it an experimental twirl. Her eye filled with disdain towards the Lance of Despair before the disdain was smothered by rage. "Give that overgrown spider hell and bring the Idiot back home safely."

"Hmph. Of course." Shiki commented before jumping out of the basket. The wind buffeted her face as she dropped, her target quickly found as the ground became closer and closer. Red tinged her vision as she could just barely make out Shinji having a gun to his head. An unpleasant memory flashed through her head before she suppressed it, now was not the time. She deployed her parachute at the designated altitude as she drifted into position. Slowly descending above the Angel, she waited. Moments passed as she was getting closer, hoping she remained unnoticed as the Angel's attention lay elsewhere.

After what felt like an eternity she struck. She cut the parachute cords and plunged down onto the Angel's head. The lance struck true as it was buried deep within the Angel's head, causing it to let out a screech of pain. She saw the Angel drop Shinji as it tried to claw at her, her compatriots banding together to catch him. Shiki let out a deep sigh of relief, letting the lance go as she jumped to the ground, away from the Angel's grasp. The first step was over, now she needed to proceed with steps two through ten of kicking this thing's ass.

Asuka grit her teeth as the stand-off continued. They couldn't do anything while the Angel had Shinji at gunpoint, and as the (self-proclaimed) team leader of the Eva pilots, she would not abandon a teammate to their doom. The two axes in her hands felt heavier than usual as she waited for an opportunity to rescue that Idiot. Suddenly the Angel started writhing in pain as it started clawing at the top of his head. This in turn caused the Angel to inadvertently fling Shinji away.

"Shinji!" She screamed as she almost jumped to catch him, before noticing the mini-mes forming a human cushion in order to catch him. Her doppelgänger horde caught Shinji with ease and carried him away like ants. Relief flooded her as the Idiot was brought to safety. She was then overtaken by seething fury towards this Angel who dared to abduct her fellow pilot and kinda maybe friend. The revving of Rei's minigun and the hum of her Smash Hawks sounded like an excellent melody to start the symphony of this Angel's complete and total decimation. The Angel looked around frantically for a way out, realizing it was now doomed. Then the Angel did something she didn't expect, it jumped. The Angel cleared a surprising distance, reaching the edge of Tokyo-3 in a single bound. Then the arachnid Angel jumped again, heading straight up. And up. And up. Gott did that thing just exit orbit?!

"Uhhhhh, sensors have lost the Angel's signal." One of the bridge crew said. She thinks it's the one with the glasses that has the hots for Misato.

"Keep an eye out, it could come back at any second!" Misato commanded. Seeing as how she has a moment to relax she turns to check on the Idiot.

"Shinji! Are you alright?!" Hopefully, that didn't sound too worried. She had an image to uphold after all.

"I feel a little nauseous, but I think I'm fine?" He called out as the mini-mes were attempting to free him from his duct tape prison.

"Good. We came all this way to rescue you and I'd be pissed if you got injured at the last second."

"Sorry to interrupt your tearful reunion-" Doctor Akagi interjected. "-but our reappropriated-"

"Looted." Misato corrected.

"-reappropriated N2 reactor is showing signs of instability. You have five minutes max before we shut it down." Suddenly alarms started blaring in the command center.

"Angel reentered sensor range! Mass has increased and is approaching at extreme velocity!" Horny glasses guy, Mac she thinks his name was, screamed.

"What?! Oh shit! The Angel is trying to take us out like the dinosaurs!" Misato shouted.

"Misato that's… never mind. AT-field, now!" She didn't need Akagi to tell her twice.

"Mini-Mes! The Angel is throwing an asteroid at us! Get the Idiot to safety!" She screamed as she projected her AT-field as wide as she could. The mini-mes formed a protective cocoon around Shinji as they carried him away. Now all she had to do was outlast this spider bastard.

Matarael had no mouth, but if it did it would be screaming. He was pushing his AT-field to the absolute limit enveloping himself and the meteorite to make it as lethal as possible. This was his final gambit, this move was all or nothing. A silent apology was sent to Sahaquiel for the theft of his sibling's main modus operandi. As the heat of reentry began to deflagrate his flesh the Lilim city came into sight. This was the moment of truth.

witness me lilim! i am matarael! child of adam! you will not best meeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

The sound of a giant rock ridden by a giant alien spider smashing against an AT-field was indescribable. Mostly because nobody could hear it due to all three Eva pilots screaming as they tried to maintain their combined AT-field against the monstrous assault against them. The force of such an impact shattered most glass in the city and surely drove multiple stained glass wholesalers out of business.

"Am I doing this right?! It kinda hurts a lot!" Kotone screamed and white hot pain lanced up her arms.

"That's normal!" Asuka forced through grit teeth.

"The reactor is fluctuating! We need to shut it off before it goes critical!" Akagi shouted as the communications with the command center got cut. The timer started displaying the five-minute countdown for all the Evas.

"Wunderbar! Does anyone have any bright ideas?!" Asuka screamed, hoping Eva to Eva communications were still working.

"I have one!" Kotone shouted. "Gun!"

"Pilot Suzunami that is not-" Rei spoke with strain before a single gunshot rang out as Unit-05 fired it's sidearm. Surprisingly to everyone, the bullet struck true as the Angel recoiled and fell off the meteorite with an unceremonious thump. "…. I stand corrected." Free of the Angel's influence the meteorite disintegrated against the AT-field, ending its threat.

"Did….. the Angel not envelope itself in an AT-field?" Asuka questions incredulously as the Angel tried to get back to it's feet. This was prevented by Rei unloading a salvo of rounds from her minigun, shredding it's flesh.

"It appears that it did not." Rei mutters. As the Angel tried to crawl away the Minisukas began to dogpile it, stabbing away with righteous fury.

"Huh." After an uncomfortably long session of stabbing, the Minisukas departed, only leaving a smear of blood behind. "Well. Good job Kotone."

"Thanks! I gunned!" That was the last thing they heard before the Evas powered down.

Shinji peaked his head out from the abandoned warehouse he was using as shelter to see the Evas slumped over and the Angel nowhere to be found.

"I guess we won?" Shinji pondered aloud as he felt a tension he didn't know he had leave his body. Now if only he wasn't covered in adhesive.

"Baka Shinji?" He turned to see Shiki approaching him cautiously. She looked unusually skittish. Also covered head to toe in Angel blood.

"Shiki! I'm glad you're alright." Shiki motioned that she wanted to be put in his pocket, so he obliged and picked her up and placed her in his front shirt pocket. Suddenly she wrapped her arms around the small part of his chest she could encompass and buried her face in his shirt. She was hugging him. And he wasn't sure how to hug back. Considering the size difference he really had to think about how to do this. He settled for placing his left hand on her back. He thought he heard her make some kind of noise but he must have been mistaken.

"Baka?" He turned to look at Leader, who was studying him with a neutral expression. She sighed and hugged his side. Soon other Minisukas began to pour in to hug him as well. Shinji tried to reciprocate but at that point, he could barely move due to his entire upper body being a Minisukas sweater. This was a problem as he was still covered in the adhesive from the duct tape, meaning the Minisukas were now stuck to his body. Something he had to explain to Asuka, Ayanami, and Kotone when they left their Evas and found him. Suffice it to say he wasn't going to hear the end of this anytime soon.

NERV Command Center

"The rumbling stopped, you think they won?" Makoto ventured.

"Considering the meteorite hasn't smashed through the Geofront and killed us all I'd say that's a safe bet." Ritsuko confirmed as she lit another cigarette.

"Great! Now let's fix up the power so we can get home!" Misato ordered, but before she could direct anything Kaji burst into the command center half-carrying a panting Fuyutsuki. "Kaji!? Sub-Commander?! Where have you been?"

"Stairs." Fuyutsuki wheezed as he commandeered a nearby chair.

"The Sub-Commander was missing so I decided to look for him. I found him half passed out after he climbed thirty flights of stairs trying to get here." Kaji explained as he lit a cigarette of his own.

"Report." Fuyutsuki ordered between pants as he tried to even his breathing.

"High probability of Angel neutralization Sub-Commander!" Misato explained.

"Angel?!" Fuyutsuki wheezed out as a tech handed him some water, which he drank down like a man in a desert. "Nevermind, wait for the Commander to get here." Fuyutsuki looked around with a raised eyebrow. "Wait, where is the Commander?"

NERV Medical Ward Elevator

"Reason number five hundred thousand nine-hundred sixty-two I'm a better father than you, I look good in pink. Reason number-" Sakura was interrupted when the lights flickered back on, and the elevator began moving once more. A few moments later and the doors open, allowing Gendo to nearly sprint out of there without looking back.

"I am never sharing an elevator again." Gendo notes to himself as he made a beeline for the Command Center. Heads would roll for what happened to him, he would make sure of it.

Minisuka Secret Base, the Room of Doom.

Matarael's eyes fluttered open. The first thing he noticed was that his Fruit of Life was missing. The second thing was that his flesh was reduced to a mere fraction of what it was. The third thing was his suspension in a vat of LCL. The fourth and final thing was the presence of someone familiar sharing the vat with him.

sachiel? is that you?

Sachiel was reduced to part's of his face and a little bit of his head. Sachiel turned to look at Matarael with hollow, empty eyes.

I LOVE YOU. YOU LOVE ME.

sachiel what are you talking about?

Matarael's questioning was interrupted when one of the small anomalies brought one of the information receptacles known as a 'television'. It pushed the play button, revealing a large foam purple and green reptile. Which started singing.

"I love you! You love me! We're a happy Fam-ah-lee!"

Matarael still had no mouth, but he still screamed a scream unheard by any save his broken sibling, begging for a death he would not receive.

Jesus this one took longer then I thought. Well, at least it's done. I'm a bit iffy about this chapter but hopefully, it looks decent enough. So yes Matarael held Shinji at gunpoint and when that failed he grabbed a meteor and decided to go hulk on the Evas. Unfortunately he forgot to put some AT-field on himself. Poor Matarael. Also, I have been receiving quite a few requests for Shinji to hug the Minisukas. Well, your wish is now granted. With that said, I hope you enjoy, leave a review if you can, and have a pleasant day.