Disclaimer: Ok, Ok, you've got me I'll confess... I OWN EVANGELION!!!! AH!!! No Away you lawyer dogs AWAY!!! Here take my pet moth that I've grown in my empty wallet, just get them away!!!
I'm surprised no one has been complaining about a lack of a certain spy in this fic(no not James Bond *disclaimer: I do not own James Bond either*) doesn't anyone remember good ol'Kaji any more? Oh well. Remember when I said Gendo was going crackers? Well that's cause he was being told of all the fun stuff that happens in this chapter... Fun... yeah right...
I WARN YOU NOW THIS IS AN ASUKA / SHINJI WAFF CHAPTER NO EXPECTATIONS APPLY
(eventually)
"Talking"
"thinking"
*action*
--- next scene
Enjoy!
DrunkDrake
A Calling Of Souls
Chapter 09 : The underdog / One last chance
~~~~~~~~
October 29th
"Hey Shinji" Shinji looked up from his SDAT in his hands. He wondered for a moment why he was sitting on the couch in the living room and listening to his player. It boggled him for a moment because he'd only listened to it in his room... what prompted the change?...
"Hey Shinji..." 'Oh wait. I remember now, Asuka dragged Hikari over to their apartment today' Shinji pondered as the 26th track ran through his head. He glanced over at the side wall taking note of the time. 'Oh oh, I'd better get started on dinner soon...'
"MR. IKARI!!!" Shinji yelped as his headphones were removed from his head and Hikari growled over Shinji.
"Oh sorry Hikari, I was sort of thinking of something else" Shinji sat up from the floor he fell onto and looked up at her.
"Well... You said you were going to take Asuka out on a date right?" Shinji sweated on the spot and gained a touch of a blush at Hikari's question.
"Well... that's not quite true... I only own her dinner on a stupid bet I lost... I wouldn't really call that a date" Hikari pondered over his words before she nodded to herself. She sat on the couch and leaned over Shinji. The poor boy leaned back as well and may as well have just laid down.
"Well, your going to get this dinner 'over a stupid bet' out of the way tonight" Hikari had maintained a neutral face but her words were hiding something...
"But... but..." Hikari leaned further from her seat on the couch over the sitting boy and his brain clicked "Yeah... may as well...I guess"
Hikari stood up nodded at him and went back towards Asuka's room. She glanced at Shinji questioningly when he didn't bother to move away from his laid down position. He seemed... stunned. Perhaps melancholy?
"Hey Shinji..." Shinji sat up and glanced at Hikari
"Um, yeah?" Hikari waved her finger at Shinji almost menacingly.
"If your going on a date you must dress up! Especially if you plan to date Asuka! Now pick up the pace!!" Hikari then turned and entered Asuka's room, closing the door behind herself. A minute later Shinji's socks were heard padding off towards his room down the hall. Hikari wondered if she did the best thing...
"So Hikari, what did you do?" Hikari turned around and faced Asuka who was sprawled across her bed, on her stomach looking up from her magazine. Asuka wore her usual casual clothing, large yellow over shirt and short blue shorts. Hikari wondered if she was really was going to get this over with.
"So Asuka..."
Asuka hadn't moved from her position
"Yeah Hikari?"
"Did Shinji take you out on your dinner yet?" Asuka looked thoughtful for a moment. She had been ranting to Hikari about how Shinji owed her dinner from a bet for a little while now. Now that she thought of it... 'How long has he actually owed me that damn dinner?'.
"So... he hasn't I take it?" Hikari verbally prodded Asuka. 'I might have done them in the wrong order in hindsight' Hikari fidgeted for a moment. Asuka sat up on her bed and stretched almost cat like, yawning a silent affirmative.
"Well, how about tonight then?" Asuka's eyebrows lowered just a touch at Hikari's question. 'Sounds more like a statement... She wouldn't...'
"You need to get this dinner thing out of the way! Just do it and get on with your life!" Asuka pondered over Hikari's words again.
Subconsciously she was using the dinner thing as a shield to block off any of the would be perverts, claiming to want a date with her. She knew it was an effective shield because it had been working so far and because she felt Shinji wouldn't really bother to cash in on it.
On a more conscious level she told herself that the dinner thing was the baka's way to repay her for her presence and wonderful charms. It also gave her an excuse to leave the house any time she felt Misato's cooking was going to hit a new low and drag Shinji off to pay for her expenses.
"Well... yeah I guess..." Hikari brightened. She walked over to her discarded bag in a corner and drew out something.
"How about tonight... I sorta have these a ..." Asuka glanced at the offered token and saw it was a reservation for a table at some restaurant. 'Hey wait a second... she is baiting me...' she took the reservation and looked at the name. Asuka blinked as she noticed the Kanji was just above her but the subtitle underneath gave her all the clue she needed.
'Worldly cooking and dining for all gentlemen and ladies alike' It was a fancy restaurant.
"Me and my family had a reservation planned there but well... other plans were made so, here you have them" Hikari continued her point "Shinji's just about ready now. How about you?"
Asuka's ears perked up. She was a very cautious girl and one that rarely opened to anyone. She had her pride, her glory and her fire. Her only glaring weakness was of course... these exact three things. If she was challenged on any of these fronts she'll accept it without second thought. Hikari had done her best to do just that.
"The baka's getting ready?" Hikari nodded to Asuka. 'Do or die...' Hikari wondered for a moment why so used such a glum quote in her mind... though it did seem ditting.
"Then I guess..." Hikari leaned closer to Asuka as her voice seemed to fade "I'll need to know what to wear!"
Hikari was nearly flung back when Asuka leapt on top of her bed with the last statement.
---
Shinji sat at the kitchen table tabbing his left foot lightly on the ground. He just learned that Hikari had actually just set him and Asuka up. Well, that's what Hikari admitted anyway. She had handed over the reservation with a slight blush as Shinji glowered over her.
'This would have been soo much easier if we didn't have to go to a special restaurant...' Shinji was NOT wearing his school uniform but instead it was a light blue vest, over a normal white shirt, black dress pants and a matching jacket. He'd be damned if he wore the tie though, bloody thing wouldn't stay straight last he tried.
He sighed as the empty kitchen met his remark with silence. Hikari had ran off soon after that leaving Shinji and Asuka to their fate. Shinji heard Asuka's door open and he stood up before looking at her. One glance though and the world slowly rotated around him.
He blinked and found Asuka was still there. She wore a simple red dress that just seemed to cling to just the right spots, accenting her features and flashing her curves. The dress had patterns across the rims and leading over the sides that seemed almost like little roses. She wore red gloves that had the same pattern of roses crisscross over the wrists and extend to the elbows. Her hair seemed to shine just then. Shinji didn't know why it just felt like it shone and with her two interface headsets peaking at the corners. Amidst all the follow patterns and wonderfully shaded red, stood her 2 sapphire blue eye's. Little islands in an ocean of red.
Shinji must have been staring but then again so was Asuka. They caught themselves at the same time.
"Well, shall we go?" Shinji extended his arm as he walked past Asuka.
"...sure..." Asuka didn't accept the arm but then again she didn't shove it aside and run off. They left the apartment side by side.
'Where's Kaji when you need him?' Shinji wondered. Thinking back though he was always there when he was needed... 'But he's never to be seen at the point where he could be the MOST useful... I wonder where he is right now?'
---
Across the Pacific ocean the man of Shinji's thoughts sat on a bench in some run down park. His suit was fairly muddled and his hair was a mess, in fact some one commented on that it looked like an animal died on his dead.
'Better my hair dies then me...' Kaji leaned back letting his sore muscles relax as the days pain slipped away from him. He sighed as his back gave a nice crinkle from his stretching.
"My god... hide one secret from Ikari and he'll have everyone under his command work 24/7 just to figure out how it was a secret" Kaji glanced over his watch. He blinked as he read the digital readout.
"What an ungodly hour..." Kaji closed his eye's and hoped the bench would still be just as comfortable after he caught up on 3 days without sleep. He folded his hands behind his head and gazed at the night sky. Just as he was about to doze off his memory ran through a fast forward replay of some of the events he'd went through in the past few months...
"Agent" Gendo's voice rang in the cold black office as Kaji walked in on a surprise call from the commander of NERV.
"So what's the new deal?" Kaji sat on the side of the commander's desk and gazed down at the man. Gendo's position hadn't changed, his hands folded and his glasses unyielding.
"I take it you've heard about the new attack?" Kaji looked thoughtful for a moment as if recalling a moment from his childhood but he'd seen the fight and some of it's images were burned into his mind.
"Yes actually. I was rather surprised to see something unpredicted that was so large" Kaji continued to watch Gendo.
"Good. That wasn't predicated in SEELE's plans and this means the old men will begin to act like children fearing the boogy man" Kaji nodded with Gendo. He knew SEELE enough that anything that doesn't go to plan, an immediate scapegoat was needed to satisfy their hunger.
Kaji had nodded with Gendo's statement. If he had known what it would have dragged him through he might have not agreed in anyway. However the next day he found himself bound for the first point the 'red angel' was located. Several days with a crack team of field operatives and scientists out in the open fields surrounding Tokyo-3 and checking and rechecking recovered information sent him on a plane to NERV's 2nd branch in Germany. There is where he found his second most memorable image of his new duty.
"Jesus Christ, there's 2 of these things here!?" Kaji hovered in silent awe as he stared at the two towering giants. He had been assigned as NERV special inspector.
'Which was true in most cases' Kaji let a wistful smile caress his face as he sat on the bench in the cool night air before the memories resurfaced.
He stood eye level with one of the two brutes. It was obviously unfinished as the armour hadn't been placed over the head but all the connections were there and waiting on the maimed eva's head. He glanced way up at the standing one.
It was a monster. Just as tall as another eva but this one was completely white with black highlights. He noted that it lacked the standard shoulder pylons that every eva up till now had. But he looked between the shoulders and suppressed a shiver as he saw the most unholy smile in his career in dealing with secrets, rogues and spies. It's head was just a big mouth, a big fat red lip mouth that stood grinning wickly at him.
Kaji waved his hand through his hair as he looked down to a nearby magi-terminal. He plugged in and hoped the white giant wouldn't mind him poking around, literally right under his nose.
Data streamed past as Kaji absorbed as much of it into his memory as her inserted a disk to save it to digital memory as well. He had looked over the white eva's statistics first and several key points paused his speed reading. Mainly the points that read...
"Solenoid insertion successful... Flight capable... Awaiting proper controlling system"
Kaji blinked as he read over the save a second time but shook his head as he couldn't understand the technical crap. The terminal emitted a beep as the white eva's files had been loaded and filled the disk to the brim. Kaji removed the disk and inserted a new one, then skimming over files that he could choose to fill the next one.
'Eva-07 statistics. Bingo' Kaji smirked as he looked past the white eva and over at the other one it's head awaiting it's armoured helmet. He turned back and started skimming over the information.
"What the hell?" Kaji paused over the statistics as he noticed out of place text.
"45% conversion?" Kaji blinked and looked at the next line "Primary resource alpha not delivered?" Kaji rubbed his eyes and wondered if the techno-mumbo jumbo was frying his brain worse then normal. The wickedly evil grin just over his head didn't help much either. however the disk beeped, freeing Kaji's staring contest with the magi-terminal.
"Well. I got all the files Ikari would ever need" Kaji shook his head. He mission wasn't to do this. His mission was to find out where the 'red angel' had come from. The best location was deemed in Europe and he was only to stay in the German branch for a day before heading off to find the birth place of the new threat.
"Damn Ikari and his *requests*" Kaji grumbled as he walked through the halls. Ikari had called him earlier after his arrival and *requested* him to tour the facilities to see if their German ties were still strong.
"Building two eva's under your nose is definitely going to cause a bit of tension between east and west" Kaji pocketed the multiple disks and left off to get some sleep.
Before Kaji nodded off to sleep he scanned both stats of the eva's to see what they could possibly be doing. It slowly dawned on him that both eva's were finished. Both of the reports said that. However eva-06 was being converted? It didn't make much sense. Kaji turned off the terminal and went off to sleep. Just as he fell asleep he realized that eva-06 was being rebuilt into that white demon he saw earlier.
A week later Kaji found himself once again on a plane, not to Germany but away from it. His research team he left behind as he had received a personal *recommendation* to go to Chicago. A recent 'red angel' attack had left several question marks surrounding the region and it was Kaji's duty as NERV special inspector to replace those question marks.
One such question was 'Why did Chicago have Evangelion facilities?' and another one was 'What else could be hidden from view?'
Kaji had arrived in city but found nothing to answer those questions. The remains of the facility were ruins. Exploration only revealed empty hallways and crushed door frames. Kaji walked further into the secret NERV base and begun to find blood trails and bullet holes crossing floor ceiling and walls.
What was worse was that the Magi system that should have been included in every NERV HQ, including this one, was gone. Totally gone, not even a trace other then an unmarked patch of ground amid a sea of dried blood. All this blood and not a single body to be found. Of course just from the near invisible layer of dust coating everything Kaji could say, it was a safe bet this happened maybe a week ago maybe longer.
"Is there nothing in this base but blood, rumble and questions?" Kaji leaned against a wall and closed his eyes. He reached into his pocket and produced his cigarettes and with one well practiced flick of his wrists his lighter was busy lighting the nicotine delight. With a quick snap the lighter was safely back in his pocket the cigarette smoke brushed past his face.
Since his eyes wear closed he jumped when the fire alarm went off and water sprinklers started to drown the halls with a torrential down pour. He sighed and flicked the soaked cig into a nearby puddle and turned to walk out. But the newly washed off blood and grit on the other side of the hall got his attention.
'Evangelion Cages'
That in itself isn't anything special in a NERV base. In fact it was almost a requirement, yet Kaji remembered what he had found in the Germany branch and decided that he'd better have a look.
For there had to be some reason why all these people were slaughtered. If for no other reason then that they were holding out Evangelions that shouldn't have existed.
The door was one of the few that hadn't been crushed, locked or hidden by rumble. However an automated sliding door is not easy to open with bare hands. Kaji gave up for a moment as he looked for something to pry the door open. He was rewarded with a long pipe that looked like it had seen better days.
A quick shove with the newly acquired tool and the door swished open. Kaji stumbled inside, the sudden release of the door nearly toppling him. Inside the doorway the following hall was much the same as the one her left, just without the rumble covering ever centimetre of floor space.
"What the hell happened here..." Kaji looked down the hall it's lights having long since failed. A quick glance at his watch revealed that it would be dark outside too. 'Enough exploration today...'
"Ahh, no chalk... can't really mark off this section... Just Gotta hope I find my way back to it" Kaji stumbled through the few flickering lights and left the secret Chicago ex-NERV base.
---
"I recommend a large but discrete research, recovery team" Gendo watched as Kaji made his report, his hand's steepled in front of his face allowing only the glare off his tinted glasses to be his reply as he began a check-list of things to look over.
"What were your findings on that hidden facility?" Gendo asked again.
"There's nothing there but rumble now. Everything that would have been used in reference to life being in that base has long since left or been destroyed. That reminds me, send a lot of janitors too" Kaji's grim face gained a smirk as he spoke on " The place is nothing but dust, rumble and blood"
"Nothing else at all?"
"Well, maybe some shoe polish holding the place up... I need a team down here pronto to aid my searching" Gendo's eyes were flashed through the lenses when he raised his head in thought. 'Things have deteriorated in the angel war and one hidden asset that could have been useful has been stripped from us before we knew it's full potential... There must be a reason why they were wiped out so thoroughly...'
"Gendo... Whatever that base was, it did have one eva unit. We now have it but for all we know it could have held another one, hell maybe two" Gendo glanced at the reliable if sneaky and insubordinate agent that was currently tailing one of the bigger mysteries that shouldn't have occurred.
"The teams will be sent to you and will arrive fully prepared to dig out any secrets your new found tomb has found" Kaji nodded his version of a salute and the video link up ended.
"Why would SEELE want to destroy that base?" Fuyutsuki wondered out loud from Gendo's shoulder. Gendo didn't flinch.
"Simple, they had something SEELE wanted but what was it? That's the question"
---
"Evangelion unit 09!" Kaji yelped under his breathe when he saw what the records had picked up.
The day after Gendo's promised teams were to arrive Kaji had returned to the hallway he had found earlier. The team and him went scouring through the halls that were cleaner then others.
But it was still a mess with the blood sprayed across the walls.
As luck would have it this was the eva bays as the sign had earlier noted. However Kaji had gasped when he saw 10 eva cages lining the room, each of them empty but some looking like they were freshly used.
"Check the whole area! I want to see if we'll get lucky in anyway. Dead bodies, scrap metal with something written on it. ANYTHING got it?" Kaji's men and nodded and scattered through the dark eva bay.
"I think I found something!!" Kaji blinked as he had been interrupted from looking over data terminals that at best had enough circuitry working that could maybe produce a toaster. He looked at his watch and gawked. 5 hours searching and finding nothing sure passed fast some days.
"Sir, sir!!" Kaji followed the excited NERV forensics officer as he rushed away down the plankway. He had suddenly stopped at pointed at the waist deep pink goo that was standard for filling eva cages, well waist height for an eva.
"What about that stuff? Don't you see enough of it floating around base anyway?" The officer shook his head to Kaji's remark.
"No there's something moving down there!!" Kaji followed the line that the officer made by pointing his hand. Kaji peered over and found nothing... for 5 minutes he stared. Nothing...
"Your sure there's something down there?" The officer nodded "Ok then, drain the cage and take a closer look"
It's wasn't until the next morning that the manual draining was finished. Kaji and several brave souls ventured through the newly emptied cage braving the darkness in front of them.
"Hey wheel the spot light over this way!" Kaji glanced at the man on the opposite side of the cage.
"You found something?"
"No, too dark to see shit here. For all I know this could be the bogey man's pad!" came the shout from the young man. Kaji grinned, 'Kids these days' he was only a few years older then them but his attitude and experience rose him higher on the maturity totem pole of command.
Actually it was Kaji's idea to set up the search lights. The eva cages were huge and normal flashlights could barely reach the walls, groping around in darkness wasn't a favourite past time for Kaji.
"Hey wait a minute, move that search light back from Yadu back to Kaji for a second!" one of the observers manning the high watch shouted. Kaji watched as the light played across the room and a dark huddle form came under it's beam.
"Hey, wait there! Back, another metre so so... Yeah there Woah! Ok good, stop!" Kaji stood over the figure. It was a human alright and a dead one at that.
"Well, confirm one casualty... NERV's it looks like..." the man from before commented on the other side of the dead body. He searched through the pockets and and blinked.
"JACKPOT!! Magi security tapes, current base records and even up to date files on everything that went on until this poor bastard went for a pink eva goo drink" Kaji watched the man pull data card after data card out of the man's lab coat.
---
"Well, from viewing the data we've come across the can declare that it was a mercenary force that had assaulted the base facilities" Kaji read off a report his team had come up with as Gendo listened intently from the other side of the planet.
"Mercenaries would not possess the means to stage something like this" Fuyutsuki commented over the video link up.
"I wasn't finished. If I may?" Kaji waved the report in front of the camera before going back to his duty " At 0700 hours of an uncomfirmed date 3 magi around the world begun, what we the research team, deemed as a soft touch hacking scheme"
"what's that Agent?"
"Well, good professor, that would be the Magi's hacking equality of brushing against each other as lightly as a feather. When the invading Magi found nothing to brush against they'd move further in. Once deep enough they had begun a massive take over operation"
Fuyutsuki nodded having had his question explained.
"Now the when the base crew learned of the action they immediately begun anti-hacking procedures. Anyway, they failed. They're Magi is the equalivant of a toddler compared to ours, and thus, the base was completely taken over by an outside force"
Fuyutsuki looked at Gendo as he glared at the screen. Nothing as bloodless as a complete take over of every thing that was automated... even the toilets were on auto-flush commands from the Magi in the HQ. With an external force operating the base... well it was an obviously lost cause for the trapped personnel. Kaji had explained in detail some of the events the newly converted Magi did. Flood troop locations with toxic fumes, block air ducks into corridors and important zones such as eva cages, the magi terminals and the operations centre. Basically... cleanest way to take over one of the NERV bases without risking one's self.
"Then there were the mercenaries themselves that arrived 2 after two days of this. They came in full riot gear, gas masks, shields, hand pistols, batons, you name it they probably used it on some poor bastard. Thus all the blood"
Kaji sighed as he felt the least humane part of the report go past but sweated as he realized what was the final meal on the menu.
"Anything else?" Kaji nearly jumped. 'Some days I could swear he read minds'
"Yes. It appears that the base possessed two Evangelions. Not just the one we now have" Kaji paused for the dramatic effect... 'oops forgot hope I was reporting to for a second'
"So SEELE has an Evangelion now?" Kaji nodded.
"I'll send the data with the next transfer packet that is sent. These things look nasty" Kaji paused as he waved the disk with the statistics on the missing eva.
"I look forward to having you report it to me yourself"
--- October 29th
"My god... hide one secret from Ikari and he'll have everyone under his command work 24/7 just to figure out how it was a secret" Kaji glanced over his watch. He blinked as he read the digital readout.
"What an ungodly hour..." Kaji closed his eye's and hoped the bench would still be just as comfortable after he caught up on 3 days without sleep. He folded his hands behind his head and gazed at the night sky. Just as he was about to doze off his memory ran through a fast forward replay of some of the events he'd went through in the past few months...
He blinked his eyes open when an annoying beeping made itself known from his left wrist. He glared half asleep at it. 7:00pm Tokyo-3 time... Kaji yawned again.
"And My plane leaves in..." he looked at his right wrist "... this is not my day..."
Kaji stood up unruffled his jacket and took off at a startling pace to the nearest cab for a ride to the airport.
"I wonder how Asuka's doing? She must be going crazy without me there" Kaji chuckled to himself "Probably giving Shinji just as much of a hard time... hell maybe more then before. When I'm around she usually burns off some of her energy maintaining that school girl crush"
---
"You sure aren't Kaji..." Shinji glowered at his 'date' for the evening as she repeated what was her new mantra for the night. Dinner hadn't been bad, but because it wasn't Japanese Asuka nearly did a standing ovation after looking at the menu.
"If I was Kaji, what would I do?" he asked Asuka to prevent the silence from retaking it's reservation that it had been abusing wickly.
"Well, if you were Kaji..." Asuka looked thoughtful for a moment "you'd push my chair in when i was going to sit"
'Then you'd promptly kick my ass'
"You'd start small talk about the little things..."
'Which would end with an uncomfortable silence, or insults...'
"And you'd pay for the evening meal"
"I already am..." Shinji muttered under his breath. Asuka blinked for a moment then grinned. Shinji's mood lifted maybe a little, just a touch, better then nothing.
"You seem a bit more... pathetic then normal today" Asuka mused as she rubbed her finger around the edge of her water glass, a faint hum coming from it.
"Really... Sorry..." Asuka glared over her glass. Shinji looked down from the table to his lap.
"You know Shinji. If you dropped that annoying habit you might be more likable" Asuka wondered why she was trying to talk to the Baka. He was a Baka after all.
"Well... It's a habit..."
"So? Just do to that what you do with any bad habit. Drop it!" Asuka stated raising her finger in the air for a semi-potent pose of dramatic effect.
"Sorry..." Asuka glared across the table "... it's just sort of something that, I can't do..." Shinji muttered holding a hand in front of his face to better stare at it. Asuka grinned lightly.
"How bout we make a little bet, then shall we?"
"Isn't that how we ended up here in the first place?" Shinji pointed a finger accusingly at Asuka.
"Well, this bet is pretty much over and done with at this point" Asuka pondered for a moment 'Well... If anything I felt for him... in that hospital room was real... Then I guess he deserves a chance...NO, just one chance' "How about you and I try out this girlfriend boyfriend thing?"
Shinji blinked for a few moments unsure if this was some cruel trick. Asuka raised an eyebrow as seconds of waiting turned to a few minutes. The waiter deposited the bill before Shinji answered.
"...Ummm..." Shinji noted that Asuka was looking a little steamed that he wasn't answering but otherwise she seemed sincere "Sure. Just a try, I guess"
Outside a lone figure sat watching the newly formed couple. The shadow's brown golden eye's watched intently. Fingering something in it's grasp "come on... come on..."
"Well, how about a first kiss huh?" Shinji reflexively cupped his nose protectively. Asuka frowned at him, she wasn't exactly proud of that kiss... "I meant a first kiss as a couple...dummkopf"
"Well... sure... I guess so. Just... " Shinji shook his nose and Asuka hid a frown, which was more directed at herself then Shinji.
Asuka moved over and sat next to Shinji. Shinji being the lovable but not so forward person he was let Asuka lean forward to start the kiss.
Outside the bored shadow suddenly perked up it's golden brown eye's leaping with joy as it pulled it's camera from it's hiding spot. 'Here comes the money shot!'
It was sweet... not like sugar... but had a taste to it the kiss they shared. It was like jumping off a waterfall to land in the refreshing water below, the rush then the invigoration. It was the sweetest song and the sunniest day... Shinji and Asuka blinked after awards.
"Perhaps we should go..."
"Yeah let's..."
Neither knew who said what but Shinji paid the bill and they left walking side by side towards their apartment.
Amid the bushes near on the side of the street David stepped out pulling some natural camouflage out of his hair and clothing.
"I'm gonna feel like scum for this..." He looked at the camera that captured one frame of that perfect moment.
~~~~~~~~
Hmmmm... I never believed that David was such a sick puppy... I've trained him well. Well that's another chapter added to this fic and I hope you liked it. I hope I wasn't too over the top in some parts. I needed to explain what happened to that Secret NERV branch that we found David Cever in. And to anyone wondering, that dead guy they found was the shadowed man that was talking to David and the eva crew during the battle in Chicago.
How will this affect David when he finds out?
Eh? Did someone just poke me? *looks around* Oh no Rei...
"You didn't put me anywhere in his chapter!!!"
"Well it was a this chapter only happened in one night Rei. Your usually off swimming in LCL or sleeping at this time of night" Drake cringes as Rei looks like she's about to hit him.
"For that I'll..."
"... Forgive me? Thanks Rei I knew you'd understand" Drake starts to walk past Rei
"Drag you into the Omake with me" Drake's face contorts to pain as Rei holds him with an iron grip on the left shoulder.
"Lord help me..." Drake looks up to the sky
"Actually chibi Rei-1 will be taking your spot again"
AAAAAAIIIIIIIIEEEEEEEEEE
_-~Omake~-_
Asuka moved over and sat next to Shinji. Shinji being the lovable but not so forward person he was let Asuka lean forward to start the kiss.
Outside the bored shadow suddenly perked up it's golden brown eye's leaping with joy as it pulled it's camera from it's hiding spot. 'Here comes the money shot!'
It was sweet... not like sugar... but had a taste to it the kiss they shared. It was like jumping off a waterfall to land in the refreshing water below, the rush then the invigoration. It was the sweetest song and the sunniest day... It was a roller-coaster as it peaked at the top and then the trill of falling at break neck speeds. It was the joy of getting a new car on your birthday and the feel of the wind as it zooms past your ears as you stick you head out the window
***THAWK!***
and the pain of hitting a car in the next lane...
"You idiot! You really are a pervert!!!"
"Wha? You were going to kiss me... weren't you?" Shinji stammered with a noticeable purple hand print on his face.
"WHAT YOU GOTTA BE KIDDING ME YOU BAKA HENTAI!!!" Asuka made retching motions before continuing "You've had that damned spaghetti noodle hanging from your lip the whole meal and it's starting to bug the hell outta me the way it wiggles when you talk!!"
"Sorr.."
***THAWK!***
"Damn you and your limb noodle!! I'm leaving!!"
Shinji blushed when the entire restaurant turned to stare at him.
Across the street David fell out of the bushes laughing with tears in his eyes, his vocal recorder falling nearby.
"BLACKMAIL MATERIAL!!!"
_-~Omake 2~-_
Actually it was Kaji's idea to set up the search lights. The author cages were huge and normal flashlights could barely reach the walls, groping around in darkness wasn't a favourite past time for Kaji.
"Hey wait a minute, move that search light back from Yadu back to Kaji for a second!" one of the observers manning the high watch shouted. Kaji watched as the light played across the room and a dark huddled form came under it's beam.
"Hey, wait there! Back, another metre so so... Yeah there Woah! Ok good, stop!" Kaji stood over the figure. It was a human alright and a dead one at that.
"Well, confirm one idiot... An author from the looks of it..." the man from before commented on the other side of the dead body. He searched through the pockets and and blinked.
"JACKPOT!! MAGI HENTAI ACCESS CODES, SHOWER PICS OF THE KATSURAGI HOUSEHOLD AND EVEN UP TO DATE FICS that until now this poor bastard was working on before the mistress got him" Kaji watched the man pull obscene after obscene article off the figure.
"Ok, guys, nothing important here let's go!" Kaji whistled and everyone packed up and left noisily. If they hadn't scraped their finger nails on the nearby chalk board they would have heard a pathetic...
"...elp...me..."
But now they were gone leaving a semi-conscious DrunkDrake in the middle of his living room. Rei walks through the door to the kitchen and holds up a picture of him being groped by the thieves a moment ago.
"Rei if you hadn't pumped me so full of drugs and if the room stopped spinning and if your hair was flashing green ,blue and red I'd kick your sorry rumpus..."
"Well, I enjoyed every minute of it" Rei high fives Chibi Rei-1.
_-~End of Omakes~-_
There is a god...*Chibi Rei-1 waves from the computer screen* dear lord not again...
I may not Survive Rei's angelic wrath at this rate. So review like there's no tomorrow! (there may not be one for me)
"Ohh Drakkyyy-pooo? whereeee arrreeee youuu?"
"Bravely run away!!!"
I'm surprised no one has been complaining about a lack of a certain spy in this fic(no not James Bond *disclaimer: I do not own James Bond either*) doesn't anyone remember good ol'Kaji any more? Oh well. Remember when I said Gendo was going crackers? Well that's cause he was being told of all the fun stuff that happens in this chapter... Fun... yeah right...
I WARN YOU NOW THIS IS AN ASUKA / SHINJI WAFF CHAPTER NO EXPECTATIONS APPLY
(eventually)
"Talking"
"thinking"
*action*
--- next scene
Enjoy!
DrunkDrake
A Calling Of Souls
Chapter 09 : The underdog / One last chance
~~~~~~~~
October 29th
"Hey Shinji" Shinji looked up from his SDAT in his hands. He wondered for a moment why he was sitting on the couch in the living room and listening to his player. It boggled him for a moment because he'd only listened to it in his room... what prompted the change?...
"Hey Shinji..." 'Oh wait. I remember now, Asuka dragged Hikari over to their apartment today' Shinji pondered as the 26th track ran through his head. He glanced over at the side wall taking note of the time. 'Oh oh, I'd better get started on dinner soon...'
"MR. IKARI!!!" Shinji yelped as his headphones were removed from his head and Hikari growled over Shinji.
"Oh sorry Hikari, I was sort of thinking of something else" Shinji sat up from the floor he fell onto and looked up at her.
"Well... You said you were going to take Asuka out on a date right?" Shinji sweated on the spot and gained a touch of a blush at Hikari's question.
"Well... that's not quite true... I only own her dinner on a stupid bet I lost... I wouldn't really call that a date" Hikari pondered over his words before she nodded to herself. She sat on the couch and leaned over Shinji. The poor boy leaned back as well and may as well have just laid down.
"Well, your going to get this dinner 'over a stupid bet' out of the way tonight" Hikari had maintained a neutral face but her words were hiding something...
"But... but..." Hikari leaned further from her seat on the couch over the sitting boy and his brain clicked "Yeah... may as well...I guess"
Hikari stood up nodded at him and went back towards Asuka's room. She glanced at Shinji questioningly when he didn't bother to move away from his laid down position. He seemed... stunned. Perhaps melancholy?
"Hey Shinji..." Shinji sat up and glanced at Hikari
"Um, yeah?" Hikari waved her finger at Shinji almost menacingly.
"If your going on a date you must dress up! Especially if you plan to date Asuka! Now pick up the pace!!" Hikari then turned and entered Asuka's room, closing the door behind herself. A minute later Shinji's socks were heard padding off towards his room down the hall. Hikari wondered if she did the best thing...
"So Hikari, what did you do?" Hikari turned around and faced Asuka who was sprawled across her bed, on her stomach looking up from her magazine. Asuka wore her usual casual clothing, large yellow over shirt and short blue shorts. Hikari wondered if she was really was going to get this over with.
"So Asuka..."
Asuka hadn't moved from her position
"Yeah Hikari?"
"Did Shinji take you out on your dinner yet?" Asuka looked thoughtful for a moment. She had been ranting to Hikari about how Shinji owed her dinner from a bet for a little while now. Now that she thought of it... 'How long has he actually owed me that damn dinner?'.
"So... he hasn't I take it?" Hikari verbally prodded Asuka. 'I might have done them in the wrong order in hindsight' Hikari fidgeted for a moment. Asuka sat up on her bed and stretched almost cat like, yawning a silent affirmative.
"Well, how about tonight then?" Asuka's eyebrows lowered just a touch at Hikari's question. 'Sounds more like a statement... She wouldn't...'
"You need to get this dinner thing out of the way! Just do it and get on with your life!" Asuka pondered over Hikari's words again.
Subconsciously she was using the dinner thing as a shield to block off any of the would be perverts, claiming to want a date with her. She knew it was an effective shield because it had been working so far and because she felt Shinji wouldn't really bother to cash in on it.
On a more conscious level she told herself that the dinner thing was the baka's way to repay her for her presence and wonderful charms. It also gave her an excuse to leave the house any time she felt Misato's cooking was going to hit a new low and drag Shinji off to pay for her expenses.
"Well... yeah I guess..." Hikari brightened. She walked over to her discarded bag in a corner and drew out something.
"How about tonight... I sorta have these a ..." Asuka glanced at the offered token and saw it was a reservation for a table at some restaurant. 'Hey wait a second... she is baiting me...' she took the reservation and looked at the name. Asuka blinked as she noticed the Kanji was just above her but the subtitle underneath gave her all the clue she needed.
'Worldly cooking and dining for all gentlemen and ladies alike' It was a fancy restaurant.
"Me and my family had a reservation planned there but well... other plans were made so, here you have them" Hikari continued her point "Shinji's just about ready now. How about you?"
Asuka's ears perked up. She was a very cautious girl and one that rarely opened to anyone. She had her pride, her glory and her fire. Her only glaring weakness was of course... these exact three things. If she was challenged on any of these fronts she'll accept it without second thought. Hikari had done her best to do just that.
"The baka's getting ready?" Hikari nodded to Asuka. 'Do or die...' Hikari wondered for a moment why so used such a glum quote in her mind... though it did seem ditting.
"Then I guess..." Hikari leaned closer to Asuka as her voice seemed to fade "I'll need to know what to wear!"
Hikari was nearly flung back when Asuka leapt on top of her bed with the last statement.
---
Shinji sat at the kitchen table tabbing his left foot lightly on the ground. He just learned that Hikari had actually just set him and Asuka up. Well, that's what Hikari admitted anyway. She had handed over the reservation with a slight blush as Shinji glowered over her.
'This would have been soo much easier if we didn't have to go to a special restaurant...' Shinji was NOT wearing his school uniform but instead it was a light blue vest, over a normal white shirt, black dress pants and a matching jacket. He'd be damned if he wore the tie though, bloody thing wouldn't stay straight last he tried.
He sighed as the empty kitchen met his remark with silence. Hikari had ran off soon after that leaving Shinji and Asuka to their fate. Shinji heard Asuka's door open and he stood up before looking at her. One glance though and the world slowly rotated around him.
He blinked and found Asuka was still there. She wore a simple red dress that just seemed to cling to just the right spots, accenting her features and flashing her curves. The dress had patterns across the rims and leading over the sides that seemed almost like little roses. She wore red gloves that had the same pattern of roses crisscross over the wrists and extend to the elbows. Her hair seemed to shine just then. Shinji didn't know why it just felt like it shone and with her two interface headsets peaking at the corners. Amidst all the follow patterns and wonderfully shaded red, stood her 2 sapphire blue eye's. Little islands in an ocean of red.
Shinji must have been staring but then again so was Asuka. They caught themselves at the same time.
"Well, shall we go?" Shinji extended his arm as he walked past Asuka.
"...sure..." Asuka didn't accept the arm but then again she didn't shove it aside and run off. They left the apartment side by side.
'Where's Kaji when you need him?' Shinji wondered. Thinking back though he was always there when he was needed... 'But he's never to be seen at the point where he could be the MOST useful... I wonder where he is right now?'
---
Across the Pacific ocean the man of Shinji's thoughts sat on a bench in some run down park. His suit was fairly muddled and his hair was a mess, in fact some one commented on that it looked like an animal died on his dead.
'Better my hair dies then me...' Kaji leaned back letting his sore muscles relax as the days pain slipped away from him. He sighed as his back gave a nice crinkle from his stretching.
"My god... hide one secret from Ikari and he'll have everyone under his command work 24/7 just to figure out how it was a secret" Kaji glanced over his watch. He blinked as he read the digital readout.
"What an ungodly hour..." Kaji closed his eye's and hoped the bench would still be just as comfortable after he caught up on 3 days without sleep. He folded his hands behind his head and gazed at the night sky. Just as he was about to doze off his memory ran through a fast forward replay of some of the events he'd went through in the past few months...
"Agent" Gendo's voice rang in the cold black office as Kaji walked in on a surprise call from the commander of NERV.
"So what's the new deal?" Kaji sat on the side of the commander's desk and gazed down at the man. Gendo's position hadn't changed, his hands folded and his glasses unyielding.
"I take it you've heard about the new attack?" Kaji looked thoughtful for a moment as if recalling a moment from his childhood but he'd seen the fight and some of it's images were burned into his mind.
"Yes actually. I was rather surprised to see something unpredicted that was so large" Kaji continued to watch Gendo.
"Good. That wasn't predicated in SEELE's plans and this means the old men will begin to act like children fearing the boogy man" Kaji nodded with Gendo. He knew SEELE enough that anything that doesn't go to plan, an immediate scapegoat was needed to satisfy their hunger.
Kaji had nodded with Gendo's statement. If he had known what it would have dragged him through he might have not agreed in anyway. However the next day he found himself bound for the first point the 'red angel' was located. Several days with a crack team of field operatives and scientists out in the open fields surrounding Tokyo-3 and checking and rechecking recovered information sent him on a plane to NERV's 2nd branch in Germany. There is where he found his second most memorable image of his new duty.
"Jesus Christ, there's 2 of these things here!?" Kaji hovered in silent awe as he stared at the two towering giants. He had been assigned as NERV special inspector.
'Which was true in most cases' Kaji let a wistful smile caress his face as he sat on the bench in the cool night air before the memories resurfaced.
He stood eye level with one of the two brutes. It was obviously unfinished as the armour hadn't been placed over the head but all the connections were there and waiting on the maimed eva's head. He glanced way up at the standing one.
It was a monster. Just as tall as another eva but this one was completely white with black highlights. He noted that it lacked the standard shoulder pylons that every eva up till now had. But he looked between the shoulders and suppressed a shiver as he saw the most unholy smile in his career in dealing with secrets, rogues and spies. It's head was just a big mouth, a big fat red lip mouth that stood grinning wickly at him.
Kaji waved his hand through his hair as he looked down to a nearby magi-terminal. He plugged in and hoped the white giant wouldn't mind him poking around, literally right under his nose.
Data streamed past as Kaji absorbed as much of it into his memory as her inserted a disk to save it to digital memory as well. He had looked over the white eva's statistics first and several key points paused his speed reading. Mainly the points that read...
"Solenoid insertion successful... Flight capable... Awaiting proper controlling system"
Kaji blinked as he read over the save a second time but shook his head as he couldn't understand the technical crap. The terminal emitted a beep as the white eva's files had been loaded and filled the disk to the brim. Kaji removed the disk and inserted a new one, then skimming over files that he could choose to fill the next one.
'Eva-07 statistics. Bingo' Kaji smirked as he looked past the white eva and over at the other one it's head awaiting it's armoured helmet. He turned back and started skimming over the information.
"What the hell?" Kaji paused over the statistics as he noticed out of place text.
"45% conversion?" Kaji blinked and looked at the next line "Primary resource alpha not delivered?" Kaji rubbed his eyes and wondered if the techno-mumbo jumbo was frying his brain worse then normal. The wickedly evil grin just over his head didn't help much either. however the disk beeped, freeing Kaji's staring contest with the magi-terminal.
"Well. I got all the files Ikari would ever need" Kaji shook his head. He mission wasn't to do this. His mission was to find out where the 'red angel' had come from. The best location was deemed in Europe and he was only to stay in the German branch for a day before heading off to find the birth place of the new threat.
"Damn Ikari and his *requests*" Kaji grumbled as he walked through the halls. Ikari had called him earlier after his arrival and *requested* him to tour the facilities to see if their German ties were still strong.
"Building two eva's under your nose is definitely going to cause a bit of tension between east and west" Kaji pocketed the multiple disks and left off to get some sleep.
Before Kaji nodded off to sleep he scanned both stats of the eva's to see what they could possibly be doing. It slowly dawned on him that both eva's were finished. Both of the reports said that. However eva-06 was being converted? It didn't make much sense. Kaji turned off the terminal and went off to sleep. Just as he fell asleep he realized that eva-06 was being rebuilt into that white demon he saw earlier.
A week later Kaji found himself once again on a plane, not to Germany but away from it. His research team he left behind as he had received a personal *recommendation* to go to Chicago. A recent 'red angel' attack had left several question marks surrounding the region and it was Kaji's duty as NERV special inspector to replace those question marks.
One such question was 'Why did Chicago have Evangelion facilities?' and another one was 'What else could be hidden from view?'
Kaji had arrived in city but found nothing to answer those questions. The remains of the facility were ruins. Exploration only revealed empty hallways and crushed door frames. Kaji walked further into the secret NERV base and begun to find blood trails and bullet holes crossing floor ceiling and walls.
What was worse was that the Magi system that should have been included in every NERV HQ, including this one, was gone. Totally gone, not even a trace other then an unmarked patch of ground amid a sea of dried blood. All this blood and not a single body to be found. Of course just from the near invisible layer of dust coating everything Kaji could say, it was a safe bet this happened maybe a week ago maybe longer.
"Is there nothing in this base but blood, rumble and questions?" Kaji leaned against a wall and closed his eyes. He reached into his pocket and produced his cigarettes and with one well practiced flick of his wrists his lighter was busy lighting the nicotine delight. With a quick snap the lighter was safely back in his pocket the cigarette smoke brushed past his face.
Since his eyes wear closed he jumped when the fire alarm went off and water sprinklers started to drown the halls with a torrential down pour. He sighed and flicked the soaked cig into a nearby puddle and turned to walk out. But the newly washed off blood and grit on the other side of the hall got his attention.
'Evangelion Cages'
That in itself isn't anything special in a NERV base. In fact it was almost a requirement, yet Kaji remembered what he had found in the Germany branch and decided that he'd better have a look.
For there had to be some reason why all these people were slaughtered. If for no other reason then that they were holding out Evangelions that shouldn't have existed.
The door was one of the few that hadn't been crushed, locked or hidden by rumble. However an automated sliding door is not easy to open with bare hands. Kaji gave up for a moment as he looked for something to pry the door open. He was rewarded with a long pipe that looked like it had seen better days.
A quick shove with the newly acquired tool and the door swished open. Kaji stumbled inside, the sudden release of the door nearly toppling him. Inside the doorway the following hall was much the same as the one her left, just without the rumble covering ever centimetre of floor space.
"What the hell happened here..." Kaji looked down the hall it's lights having long since failed. A quick glance at his watch revealed that it would be dark outside too. 'Enough exploration today...'
"Ahh, no chalk... can't really mark off this section... Just Gotta hope I find my way back to it" Kaji stumbled through the few flickering lights and left the secret Chicago ex-NERV base.
---
"I recommend a large but discrete research, recovery team" Gendo watched as Kaji made his report, his hand's steepled in front of his face allowing only the glare off his tinted glasses to be his reply as he began a check-list of things to look over.
"What were your findings on that hidden facility?" Gendo asked again.
"There's nothing there but rumble now. Everything that would have been used in reference to life being in that base has long since left or been destroyed. That reminds me, send a lot of janitors too" Kaji's grim face gained a smirk as he spoke on " The place is nothing but dust, rumble and blood"
"Nothing else at all?"
"Well, maybe some shoe polish holding the place up... I need a team down here pronto to aid my searching" Gendo's eyes were flashed through the lenses when he raised his head in thought. 'Things have deteriorated in the angel war and one hidden asset that could have been useful has been stripped from us before we knew it's full potential... There must be a reason why they were wiped out so thoroughly...'
"Gendo... Whatever that base was, it did have one eva unit. We now have it but for all we know it could have held another one, hell maybe two" Gendo glanced at the reliable if sneaky and insubordinate agent that was currently tailing one of the bigger mysteries that shouldn't have occurred.
"The teams will be sent to you and will arrive fully prepared to dig out any secrets your new found tomb has found" Kaji nodded his version of a salute and the video link up ended.
"Why would SEELE want to destroy that base?" Fuyutsuki wondered out loud from Gendo's shoulder. Gendo didn't flinch.
"Simple, they had something SEELE wanted but what was it? That's the question"
---
"Evangelion unit 09!" Kaji yelped under his breathe when he saw what the records had picked up.
The day after Gendo's promised teams were to arrive Kaji had returned to the hallway he had found earlier. The team and him went scouring through the halls that were cleaner then others.
But it was still a mess with the blood sprayed across the walls.
As luck would have it this was the eva bays as the sign had earlier noted. However Kaji had gasped when he saw 10 eva cages lining the room, each of them empty but some looking like they were freshly used.
"Check the whole area! I want to see if we'll get lucky in anyway. Dead bodies, scrap metal with something written on it. ANYTHING got it?" Kaji's men and nodded and scattered through the dark eva bay.
"I think I found something!!" Kaji blinked as he had been interrupted from looking over data terminals that at best had enough circuitry working that could maybe produce a toaster. He looked at his watch and gawked. 5 hours searching and finding nothing sure passed fast some days.
"Sir, sir!!" Kaji followed the excited NERV forensics officer as he rushed away down the plankway. He had suddenly stopped at pointed at the waist deep pink goo that was standard for filling eva cages, well waist height for an eva.
"What about that stuff? Don't you see enough of it floating around base anyway?" The officer shook his head to Kaji's remark.
"No there's something moving down there!!" Kaji followed the line that the officer made by pointing his hand. Kaji peered over and found nothing... for 5 minutes he stared. Nothing...
"Your sure there's something down there?" The officer nodded "Ok then, drain the cage and take a closer look"
It's wasn't until the next morning that the manual draining was finished. Kaji and several brave souls ventured through the newly emptied cage braving the darkness in front of them.
"Hey wheel the spot light over this way!" Kaji glanced at the man on the opposite side of the cage.
"You found something?"
"No, too dark to see shit here. For all I know this could be the bogey man's pad!" came the shout from the young man. Kaji grinned, 'Kids these days' he was only a few years older then them but his attitude and experience rose him higher on the maturity totem pole of command.
Actually it was Kaji's idea to set up the search lights. The eva cages were huge and normal flashlights could barely reach the walls, groping around in darkness wasn't a favourite past time for Kaji.
"Hey wait a minute, move that search light back from Yadu back to Kaji for a second!" one of the observers manning the high watch shouted. Kaji watched as the light played across the room and a dark huddle form came under it's beam.
"Hey, wait there! Back, another metre so so... Yeah there Woah! Ok good, stop!" Kaji stood over the figure. It was a human alright and a dead one at that.
"Well, confirm one casualty... NERV's it looks like..." the man from before commented on the other side of the dead body. He searched through the pockets and and blinked.
"JACKPOT!! Magi security tapes, current base records and even up to date files on everything that went on until this poor bastard went for a pink eva goo drink" Kaji watched the man pull data card after data card out of the man's lab coat.
---
"Well, from viewing the data we've come across the can declare that it was a mercenary force that had assaulted the base facilities" Kaji read off a report his team had come up with as Gendo listened intently from the other side of the planet.
"Mercenaries would not possess the means to stage something like this" Fuyutsuki commented over the video link up.
"I wasn't finished. If I may?" Kaji waved the report in front of the camera before going back to his duty " At 0700 hours of an uncomfirmed date 3 magi around the world begun, what we the research team, deemed as a soft touch hacking scheme"
"what's that Agent?"
"Well, good professor, that would be the Magi's hacking equality of brushing against each other as lightly as a feather. When the invading Magi found nothing to brush against they'd move further in. Once deep enough they had begun a massive take over operation"
Fuyutsuki nodded having had his question explained.
"Now the when the base crew learned of the action they immediately begun anti-hacking procedures. Anyway, they failed. They're Magi is the equalivant of a toddler compared to ours, and thus, the base was completely taken over by an outside force"
Fuyutsuki looked at Gendo as he glared at the screen. Nothing as bloodless as a complete take over of every thing that was automated... even the toilets were on auto-flush commands from the Magi in the HQ. With an external force operating the base... well it was an obviously lost cause for the trapped personnel. Kaji had explained in detail some of the events the newly converted Magi did. Flood troop locations with toxic fumes, block air ducks into corridors and important zones such as eva cages, the magi terminals and the operations centre. Basically... cleanest way to take over one of the NERV bases without risking one's self.
"Then there were the mercenaries themselves that arrived 2 after two days of this. They came in full riot gear, gas masks, shields, hand pistols, batons, you name it they probably used it on some poor bastard. Thus all the blood"
Kaji sighed as he felt the least humane part of the report go past but sweated as he realized what was the final meal on the menu.
"Anything else?" Kaji nearly jumped. 'Some days I could swear he read minds'
"Yes. It appears that the base possessed two Evangelions. Not just the one we now have" Kaji paused for the dramatic effect... 'oops forgot hope I was reporting to for a second'
"So SEELE has an Evangelion now?" Kaji nodded.
"I'll send the data with the next transfer packet that is sent. These things look nasty" Kaji paused as he waved the disk with the statistics on the missing eva.
"I look forward to having you report it to me yourself"
--- October 29th
"My god... hide one secret from Ikari and he'll have everyone under his command work 24/7 just to figure out how it was a secret" Kaji glanced over his watch. He blinked as he read the digital readout.
"What an ungodly hour..." Kaji closed his eye's and hoped the bench would still be just as comfortable after he caught up on 3 days without sleep. He folded his hands behind his head and gazed at the night sky. Just as he was about to doze off his memory ran through a fast forward replay of some of the events he'd went through in the past few months...
He blinked his eyes open when an annoying beeping made itself known from his left wrist. He glared half asleep at it. 7:00pm Tokyo-3 time... Kaji yawned again.
"And My plane leaves in..." he looked at his right wrist "... this is not my day..."
Kaji stood up unruffled his jacket and took off at a startling pace to the nearest cab for a ride to the airport.
"I wonder how Asuka's doing? She must be going crazy without me there" Kaji chuckled to himself "Probably giving Shinji just as much of a hard time... hell maybe more then before. When I'm around she usually burns off some of her energy maintaining that school girl crush"
---
"You sure aren't Kaji..." Shinji glowered at his 'date' for the evening as she repeated what was her new mantra for the night. Dinner hadn't been bad, but because it wasn't Japanese Asuka nearly did a standing ovation after looking at the menu.
"If I was Kaji, what would I do?" he asked Asuka to prevent the silence from retaking it's reservation that it had been abusing wickly.
"Well, if you were Kaji..." Asuka looked thoughtful for a moment "you'd push my chair in when i was going to sit"
'Then you'd promptly kick my ass'
"You'd start small talk about the little things..."
'Which would end with an uncomfortable silence, or insults...'
"And you'd pay for the evening meal"
"I already am..." Shinji muttered under his breath. Asuka blinked for a moment then grinned. Shinji's mood lifted maybe a little, just a touch, better then nothing.
"You seem a bit more... pathetic then normal today" Asuka mused as she rubbed her finger around the edge of her water glass, a faint hum coming from it.
"Really... Sorry..." Asuka glared over her glass. Shinji looked down from the table to his lap.
"You know Shinji. If you dropped that annoying habit you might be more likable" Asuka wondered why she was trying to talk to the Baka. He was a Baka after all.
"Well... It's a habit..."
"So? Just do to that what you do with any bad habit. Drop it!" Asuka stated raising her finger in the air for a semi-potent pose of dramatic effect.
"Sorry..." Asuka glared across the table "... it's just sort of something that, I can't do..." Shinji muttered holding a hand in front of his face to better stare at it. Asuka grinned lightly.
"How bout we make a little bet, then shall we?"
"Isn't that how we ended up here in the first place?" Shinji pointed a finger accusingly at Asuka.
"Well, this bet is pretty much over and done with at this point" Asuka pondered for a moment 'Well... If anything I felt for him... in that hospital room was real... Then I guess he deserves a chance...NO, just one chance' "How about you and I try out this girlfriend boyfriend thing?"
Shinji blinked for a few moments unsure if this was some cruel trick. Asuka raised an eyebrow as seconds of waiting turned to a few minutes. The waiter deposited the bill before Shinji answered.
"...Ummm..." Shinji noted that Asuka was looking a little steamed that he wasn't answering but otherwise she seemed sincere "Sure. Just a try, I guess"
Outside a lone figure sat watching the newly formed couple. The shadow's brown golden eye's watched intently. Fingering something in it's grasp "come on... come on..."
"Well, how about a first kiss huh?" Shinji reflexively cupped his nose protectively. Asuka frowned at him, she wasn't exactly proud of that kiss... "I meant a first kiss as a couple...dummkopf"
"Well... sure... I guess so. Just... " Shinji shook his nose and Asuka hid a frown, which was more directed at herself then Shinji.
Asuka moved over and sat next to Shinji. Shinji being the lovable but not so forward person he was let Asuka lean forward to start the kiss.
Outside the bored shadow suddenly perked up it's golden brown eye's leaping with joy as it pulled it's camera from it's hiding spot. 'Here comes the money shot!'
It was sweet... not like sugar... but had a taste to it the kiss they shared. It was like jumping off a waterfall to land in the refreshing water below, the rush then the invigoration. It was the sweetest song and the sunniest day... Shinji and Asuka blinked after awards.
"Perhaps we should go..."
"Yeah let's..."
Neither knew who said what but Shinji paid the bill and they left walking side by side towards their apartment.
Amid the bushes near on the side of the street David stepped out pulling some natural camouflage out of his hair and clothing.
"I'm gonna feel like scum for this..." He looked at the camera that captured one frame of that perfect moment.
~~~~~~~~
Hmmmm... I never believed that David was such a sick puppy... I've trained him well. Well that's another chapter added to this fic and I hope you liked it. I hope I wasn't too over the top in some parts. I needed to explain what happened to that Secret NERV branch that we found David Cever in. And to anyone wondering, that dead guy they found was the shadowed man that was talking to David and the eva crew during the battle in Chicago.
How will this affect David when he finds out?
Eh? Did someone just poke me? *looks around* Oh no Rei...
"You didn't put me anywhere in his chapter!!!"
"Well it was a this chapter only happened in one night Rei. Your usually off swimming in LCL or sleeping at this time of night" Drake cringes as Rei looks like she's about to hit him.
"For that I'll..."
"... Forgive me? Thanks Rei I knew you'd understand" Drake starts to walk past Rei
"Drag you into the Omake with me" Drake's face contorts to pain as Rei holds him with an iron grip on the left shoulder.
"Lord help me..." Drake looks up to the sky
"Actually chibi Rei-1 will be taking your spot again"
AAAAAAIIIIIIIIEEEEEEEEEE
_-~Omake~-_
Asuka moved over and sat next to Shinji. Shinji being the lovable but not so forward person he was let Asuka lean forward to start the kiss.
Outside the bored shadow suddenly perked up it's golden brown eye's leaping with joy as it pulled it's camera from it's hiding spot. 'Here comes the money shot!'
It was sweet... not like sugar... but had a taste to it the kiss they shared. It was like jumping off a waterfall to land in the refreshing water below, the rush then the invigoration. It was the sweetest song and the sunniest day... It was a roller-coaster as it peaked at the top and then the trill of falling at break neck speeds. It was the joy of getting a new car on your birthday and the feel of the wind as it zooms past your ears as you stick you head out the window
***THAWK!***
and the pain of hitting a car in the next lane...
"You idiot! You really are a pervert!!!"
"Wha? You were going to kiss me... weren't you?" Shinji stammered with a noticeable purple hand print on his face.
"WHAT YOU GOTTA BE KIDDING ME YOU BAKA HENTAI!!!" Asuka made retching motions before continuing "You've had that damned spaghetti noodle hanging from your lip the whole meal and it's starting to bug the hell outta me the way it wiggles when you talk!!"
"Sorr.."
***THAWK!***
"Damn you and your limb noodle!! I'm leaving!!"
Shinji blushed when the entire restaurant turned to stare at him.
Across the street David fell out of the bushes laughing with tears in his eyes, his vocal recorder falling nearby.
"BLACKMAIL MATERIAL!!!"
_-~Omake 2~-_
Actually it was Kaji's idea to set up the search lights. The author cages were huge and normal flashlights could barely reach the walls, groping around in darkness wasn't a favourite past time for Kaji.
"Hey wait a minute, move that search light back from Yadu back to Kaji for a second!" one of the observers manning the high watch shouted. Kaji watched as the light played across the room and a dark huddled form came under it's beam.
"Hey, wait there! Back, another metre so so... Yeah there Woah! Ok good, stop!" Kaji stood over the figure. It was a human alright and a dead one at that.
"Well, confirm one idiot... An author from the looks of it..." the man from before commented on the other side of the dead body. He searched through the pockets and and blinked.
"JACKPOT!! MAGI HENTAI ACCESS CODES, SHOWER PICS OF THE KATSURAGI HOUSEHOLD AND EVEN UP TO DATE FICS that until now this poor bastard was working on before the mistress got him" Kaji watched the man pull obscene after obscene article off the figure.
"Ok, guys, nothing important here let's go!" Kaji whistled and everyone packed up and left noisily. If they hadn't scraped their finger nails on the nearby chalk board they would have heard a pathetic...
"...elp...me..."
But now they were gone leaving a semi-conscious DrunkDrake in the middle of his living room. Rei walks through the door to the kitchen and holds up a picture of him being groped by the thieves a moment ago.
"Rei if you hadn't pumped me so full of drugs and if the room stopped spinning and if your hair was flashing green ,blue and red I'd kick your sorry rumpus..."
"Well, I enjoyed every minute of it" Rei high fives Chibi Rei-1.
_-~End of Omakes~-_
There is a god...*Chibi Rei-1 waves from the computer screen* dear lord not again...
I may not Survive Rei's angelic wrath at this rate. So review like there's no tomorrow! (there may not be one for me)
"Ohh Drakkyyy-pooo? whereeee arrreeee youuu?"
"Bravely run away!!!"