Look for the disclaimer in previous chapters. And for those who haven't
seen Saint Seiya, I'll try to explain most of the stuff I have written and
any other questions you may have.
Saint Shinji
Part 5
"Diamond Dust!!" Shinji screamed.
The corridor was suddenly filled with freezing gale force wind and frost quickly covered the walls. Bodies caught in the concussive blast of air fell with sickening thuds and cracks. Black clad soldiers that survived the initial blast found themselves losing strength in their extremities, the cold slowly immobilising them as they fell shivering to the ground, vainly trying to gain warmth. A squadron of soldiers that just turned the corner hesitated at the sight of a blazing Shinji and raised their weapons, only to found them shattering in their hands.
They looked up to found Kaworu recalling his twin chains and smiling serenely at them, they turned tail and fled.
"Why did the JSSDF choose to attack now?" Kaworu asked Shinji as they stalked along the corridors.
"I wouldn't know. All I know is that they are threatening the people I care about and I've got to stop them." Shinji coldly replied.
"It is also our duty as Saints."
"I know..."
Kaworu suddenly stopped and Shinji turned around to face him.
"What's wrong, Kaworu?" Shinji asked.
"Something wrong, very wrong." Then he took off running at unimaginable speeds, followed closely by Shinji.
"What's the status of the infiltrated sections?" Misato queried.
"It doesn't seem as serious as we first thought." Hyuuga replied as he called up a diagram of NERV headquarters, the red sections indicating the invaded sections. The red sections were limited to the first five levels of NERV.
"As you can see they don't seem to be able to advance below level five or are holding their positions there." Hyuuga indicated at the diagram.
"Well, I don't believe they have much of a reason to hold their positions, judging from the speed of the insertion of their forces. Find out why they are not advancing and get some of forces positioned here," Misato indicated on the map, "Here, here and here. Aoba assist him."
"Yes ma'am." the two male technicians chorused. The two got to work, as Misato ordered the rest of the staff to begin blockading Central Dogma and arming themselves, as Maya and Ritsuko worked to secure the Magi from any potential attack (1).
"Ma'am, I've got visual in level two, section 52." Hyuuga yelled, "Putting on screen now."
Hyuuga's holographic screen changed to a static-filled display of one of NERV's corridors. The picture was grainy but it clearly showed a black- haired head, framed by two silver wings and then a blurring arm impacting against and through the faceplate of a JSSDF soldier's helmet, followed by the collapse of said soldier. Shinji turned around and the staff gathered around the screen saw the terrifyingly calm and cold expression on his face as he ruthlessly beat down any of the soldiers in his way.
"What the heck?" Misato exclaimed.
"Brrrr! That makes me cold just looking at him, he looks almost like the Commander." Maya commented as she suddenly averted her eyes when Shinji's fist deformed the face of another JSSDF soldier.
"The readings in the area Shinji's in are quite...strange." Ritsuko commented. "What? Why?" came a new voice. They turned to find Yui Ikari, followed by Gendo and Fuyutsuki, entering the commander's platform via the lift.
"Well the Magi are picking up extreme temperature changes in the areas he has been through," Ritsuko replied.
"What sort of changes?" Gendo was genuinely curious. "Well...it seems impossible but..."
"Well what, Doctor?" Yui was getting anxious.
"Well, the sensors are picking up temperatures that are around a hundred fifty Kelvin while some areas are steadily dropping to a point a Kelvin or two away from absolute zero"(2)
"HOW?" Yui nearly had to be restrained by the Commanders to stop her from grabbing Ritsuko by the collar.
"We don't know but my best hypothesis is that it's related to Shinji somehow" Ritsuko calmly replied.
"It's obvious that it is, Ritsu but what I want to know is how he is doing it?" Misato asked as she gestured to the screen.
The screen showed a picture that was obscured by white that was later identified as ice crystals.
"I don't know, liquid nitrogen weapon perhaps"
"I doubt it" Fuyutsuki examined the scene.
"Why?" Gendo questioned his second-in-command.
"Have you ever seen something called the Galaxian Wars?" Fuyutsuki asked Gendo.
"The Galaxian Wars? I don't believe so"
"Umm...did you just say The Galaxian Wars, Commander Fuyutsuki?" Aoba asked as he re-entered Central Dogma after completing his errand.
"Ah yes, Lieutenant. How are you familiar with it?" Fuyutsuki turned to Aoba.
"My father taped it and showed it to me once. It involved some spectacular fighting between some members of the Kiddo Organisation called Saints"
Those listening tensed in recognition, Aoba didn't connect the term Saints as anything to do with Shinji as he was manning the station when Shinji was revealed as the Cygnus Saint.
"I thought it was just some movie with special effects, I was kinda shocked to find that was it was a real live telecast my pop taped and I looked around on the Net about it and found one or two people with some info on it. That flying chain thing one of the fighter's did, I think it was a she, not sure, was pretty cool. The guy who froze that weird white haired snake guy was pretty cool too but the coolest had to be that Dragon guy and the Pegasus guy's fight."
"Thank you. Report back to your station now, lieutenant."
"Yes sir." Hyuuga looked up from his console in horror and he turned to Misato, "Ma'am? We may have a problem" Everybody turned to look at him.
Shinji and Kaworu literally skidded to a stop at one of the entrances leading outside to the Geofront. Numerous war machines were swarming into the Geofront via the highway bridges and the Evangelion ports. One of the bridges exploded when a couple of rounds from Unit 00's pallet rifle impacted against it. The thin frame of the structure shook and fell down in fragmented chunks taking the tanks and artillery vehicles on it down to the ground far, far away, raining death and destruction among the troops that were below. It seemed the battle was in Unit 00's and 02's favour with the use of the AT-field, conventional weaponry had minimal effect, the JSSDF were calling a tactical retreat, tanks bombarding Unit 00 and 02 as they retreated, pinning the Evas against NERV HQ. Shinji's relief was short- lived when nine buildings unexpectedly detached themselves from the ceiling of the Geofront. Nine white shapes emerged from the holes made by the absence of the buildings, poking their smooth natural heads out, followed by a body flipping itself out of the holes, the nine dropped to the ground of the Geofront with disturbing synchronism. In a circle they surrounded Eva Units 00, 02 and NERV Headquarters.
"Are those...?" Misato stammered out.
"Yes, those are the Mass Production Units 05 to 13." Gendo looked up at the large holoscreen, his glasses glinting with reflected light. Next to him Yui Ikari looked at him strangely while blushing slightly. Those who saw the look recoiled slightly.
"This isn't good, they outnumber us and we are unsure of their full capabilities." Misato muttered.
"They aren't plugged to an external source therefore they must be using the S2 engines." Ritsuko exclaimed.
"Great. This just gets better and better, doesn't it?" Misato mumbled.
"Unit's 00 and 02 will have to hold out. Tell the pilots to be on the defensive and do not engage enemy forces fully. Knock them back and keep them away until we find a way to disable them. Hit their cores only if you can without the risk of injury." Gendo ordered.
The others turned to him incredulously, the last time he took command of an operation was during the 13th and all knew how well that went but they went about to their tasks anyway.
Asuka's infuriated voice broke through on the communications, "What the hell? Why should we hold back?!"
Rei's quiet tone filtered through, "I concur why are we to hold back, the threat should be quickly neutralised"
"We are certain that they are equipped with S2 engines which I might add are not equipped in your Evas and we are still uncertain about their full capabilities." Misato shouted at them.
"Oh alright. I'll do it." Asuka grumbled.
"Just do it, Asuka. This isn't a game, you could get killed!" Misato screamed into the mic.
"I've got that Misato!" Asuka yelled back as she got her Eva moving.
Shinji and Kaworu watched in stunned silence at the white giant that stood before them.
"This isn't a good thing, is it?" Shinji asked as he craned his neck upwards.
"I do not believe so. I believe that you humans have an expression for this." Kaworu replied as he tilted his head back.
"What is it?"
"FUBAR"
"Yes, yes it is."
A shadow briefly covered them, followed by a red blur as Unit 02 rammed the white Eva aside before Unit 00 followed by jabbing a Progressive Knife into its chest. The white Eva collapsed and an almighty thud, however the other Evas paid no heed to their fallen comrade as they rushed the NERV Evas.
"We can't stand here like this we got to do something, Kaworu!!" Shinji yelled as he narrowly avoided being stepped on by a big white Eva.
"I'm thinking!" Kaworu yelled back, distress replacing his usual serene expression.
Kaworu jumped twenty metres back, "Shinji! I'm going to do something but I'm going to be defenceless while I do it."
Shinji jumped off one of the Eva's moving foot and headed towards Kaworu, he yelled, "You better do it quick then. The quicker you do it, the quicker we can get out of here."
"Agreed."
Kaworu's Cosmo pulsed around him like a nebula, radiating pink light that washed out the surroundings, it even caught the attention of the battling Evas. The white Evas paused in their attempt to catch Units 00 and 02 to behold the pinkish red light that emanated from Kaworu's body. Turning to him, they kneeled in his presence that was bathing the forest nearby, even the one that had fallen first to Unit 00's blade revived for a short time to crawl to its brethren in the ring surrounding Kaworu.
"What's doing on? What's that light?" Misato bellowed.
"It's unknown whatever it is, a lot of energy is being generated at that spot."
"All meters and gauges are off the scale!"
"Could it be an energy weapon?" Misato asked.
"No, it's not. The energy is too dispersed to be a positron weapon of some sort. It's a radiant light source but it's having a strange effect on the enemy Evas." Ritsuko reported her findings.
Everyone looked at the screen which displayed the nine Mass Production Evas crouched down around the nearly blinding reddish light.
"Asuka, Rei! Do not approach the targets! I repeat do not approach the targets. Something's going on and we have no idea what it is."
"WHAT! But they're just lying there, waiting for us to attack," Asuka screeched.
"Exactly. If they are waiting for you that means something's up and you don't want to fall into their trap, do you?" Asuka remained silent at Misato's reprimand.
A beep from a random console caused Misato to give a glance at it. She turned to Rei's holoscreen worriedly, "Rei, what's wrong? Your heart rate and breathing has increased and so has your endorphin level."
Rei was visibly sweating which was quite out of the ordinary, her pupils were dilated and her breath was coming in short pants despite her submersion in LCL. Her voice came weakly, as if she was struggling with the words, "P-power...such...pantpower...it," Rei swallowed, her eyes cleared for a moment, "it overwhelms...me."
With that her eyes rolled into the back of her head and she fainted, slumping over her Eva's controls.
"REI!!! Pilot Sohryu retrieve Unit 00 quickly and retreat yourself. We will come up with a plan later." Gendo abruptly ordered.
Asuka rolled her eyes at Gendo's blatant favouritism as she had already set out to retrieve Unit 00 when she saw the girl faint, while she didn't get along with the First she wasn't the type to leave a comrade behind.
Shinji shielded his eyes from the light of Kaworu's Cosmo, his mind boggled at the power the former Angel was producing. Wind had started to pick up, the sheer force produced by Kaworu's Cosmo uprooted trees and rocks, the ground shook as the former Angel's Cosmo expanded more and more. Shinji was alarmed to find his feet slipping backwards from the force of the wind that Kaworu's Cosmo was producing, he dug his heels in vain as the wind slowly pushed him back, two deep furrows marking where his feet had rested. Since his arms where shielding his eyes and face he didn't see the uprooted and rather large piece of ground flung in his direction by the strong wind. The chunk of dirt knocked him clean off his feet and sent Shinji head over heels fifty metres away.
Kaworu stood within the blazing inferno of light with his arms crossed before him at the waist, his hair floating upwards with the power he was emitting. The Nebula Chains writhed in the spiral as lightning surged through them. The Mass Production Evas hovered close enough to Kaworu at all he had to do was jump and he would have been able to touch their faces. Their wide mouths seemed to open in anticipation, saliva dripped from the open orifices only to evaporate in the heat and light of Kaworu's Cosmo. The great white heads leaned closer til they touched and suddenly as a light bulb, Kaworu's Cosmo disappeared from sight and with it the Eva's sentience it seemed. They slumped to a resting position as if all power was cut from them. Without warning, a part of their backs exploded, the heavy plates that covered the entry plugs broke like cheap plastic and with a wailing scream wisps escaped from the holes out into the air.
"Status report!" Gendo barked.
"Readings are unknown, however enemy Evas have stopped all functions. No telemetry, heat or any other readings indicate that they are active." Maya responded.
"It seems like whatever that light was, it disabled the Mass Production Evas by affecting the dummy plugs directly which shouldn't be possible unless..." Ritsuko trailed.
"It is the most likely possibility considering that it affected Rei as well." Gendo concluded.
Fuyutsuki quickly took note of the development and paged the Cage to put the Eva's on standby and tell the pilots to come up to the Command Centre.
Shinji dashed to the thoroughly destroyed site where Kaworu unleashed his Cosmo. The cracks in the ground spread far enough to reveal the armoured plating that shielded the lower portions of NERV headquarters. The white Evas slumped, drooling to the ground; Shinji guessed that Kaworu attacked the plugs directly. Shinji turned over a slab of rock and gasped. Kaworu lay there and with his complexion looked dead or very near it. Shinji quickly rushed to the fallen Angel and checked for a pulse, breathing anything to indicate that his comrade was alive. He was relieved when he felt a faint pulse.
"Kaworu! Wake up!" Shinji slapped Kaworu's cheeks a few times.
Kaworu's eyes opened and stared upwards with unfocused eyes for a brief moment before they cleared and in a very unAngel-like way, "Did you get the number of that Almighty's lightning bolt?"
Shinji laughed, the tension he held within drained away as he laughed. He lifted Kaworu over his shoulders and tottered away from ground zero. "You're going to tell me what just happened now," Shinji said as he half carried, half dragged Kaworu away.
"I performed what you would call an exorcism," Kaworu said weakly.
"An exorcism?" Shinji was confused, "Those weren't bad spirits piloting those Evas, were they?"
"No, the dummy plugs..." Kaworu gasped, "...they were made from me, my flesh, my blood, only I had the power to set them free, even if they had no souls..."
Kaworu paused to gain his breath again, "No I should say that they had a very small portion of my soul, so that they could be me and do things that would make me, me, even when it could be shown only when they were dominated by the barbaric shells of the Evas"
"So what did you do exactly?" Shinji had grown up a bit since his old days, in the past he would have left the subject alone but years of maturity, isolation and with some sincere human contact combined with a desire for more had allowed him to learn a few things. He voiced the question because he felt that Kaworu would fare better mentally once he let out what he wanted to say.
Kaworu's harsh breathing and gasping echoed in his ear as they half staggered to the entrance of NERV Headquarters, "I freed them, set them on the path to the Almighty."
"But how did you do it?" "I accessed the part of my soul that was connected to them and using the remnant of my divine power and my Cosmo, I flooded their beings with power enough to overcome the restraints that the Evangelions imposed upon them, by doing so I severed my link with them and gave them the power to become their own beings. The Evangelions themselves are harmless now, they will be unable to synch or activate with any being even with me."
"How long is it going to take you to recover?" Shinji asked.
"I will achieve battle readiness in a minute," Kaworu staggered away from Shinji and steadied himself.
"You flush them out with the Nebula chains and I'll face off against whoever they are, just watch my back you're still too tired to fight"
Kaworu nodded as his twin chains clinked slightly, "Umm, Shinji we may have a problem, they're not showing any killing intent. The Nebula chains will be ineffective if they don't show killing intent"
"I see, do that defensive stance it has, so we anyone steps in the chains will automatically attack them instead"
"If I do that I won't be able to help you until they step into my circle of attack"
"Then I'll do it myself," Shinji winced as he remembered the last time he said something similar.
"If you wish," Kaworu muttered, then shouted out, "NEBULA ROLLING DEFENSE" (3)
Shinji nodded, when the twin chains settled into a pattern on the ground, with the knowledge that his comrade was safe, he turned to the trees that surrounded the entrance to NERV.
"Get our forces into the environment containment suits and have them put the enemy forces into custody!" Misato yelled.
"Misato, the suits wouldn't hold out long to the temperatures that exhibited in most of the corridors, even the enemies would be dead by now. See this area," Ritsuko jabbed a finger at near black bit of the holographic screen she was using, "This area is one of the few areas affected that is only three Kelvin away from absolute zero. If any of our personnel go in there they wouldn't last more than a second or two before freezing to death."
"Doctor Akagi." Misato interrupted, "Shut up and let me do my job"
"Major Katsuragi!"
"Then we won't go into those areas affected. The suits should provide our people enough time to get those soldiers out. With that cold, they wouldn't be able to move, let alone put up a fight. Plus if any survived, we might be able to get answers out of them."
Then the console next to them beeped alarmingly, another holographic screen appeared, showing the remains of an entrance from one of security cameras that survived. Kaworu crouched directly in their line of sight with his back to the camera, his chains gently clinking and writhing in their formation. His head shifted around quickly as if he was trying to keep track of really fast paced action.
A brief spark and blur caught the observant eyes of Dr Akagi. "Magi, capture and replay that twelve second period at a thousandth times speed."
She barked. At her side stood Yui Ikari, she nodded at the doctor's command as she also caught the brief blur as well.
"Playing screen capture," Maya announced from her terminal. On the screen showed a picture of Shinji moving very quickly as he blocked a strike from an unknown individual with his forearm before shifting in midair to punch the individual away.
"Magi, I said repeat. Play at thousandth speed"
The rarely heard computer generated voice of the Magi answered, "Subject is moving at too fast a velocity for that frame rate, the parameters for playback have already been shifted to ten thousandth times speed"
"It can't be, no human can possibly move at that speed. His body structure should have collapsed from the stress by now"
"Well it seems that our boy has more than a few surprises in store for us," Commander Fuyutsuki chuckled, "He has achieved powers beyond our imagining."
The screen showed Shinji blasting away his attacker with the Diamond Dust.
End part 5
I feel bad at ending it there, however writing on would have dragged it out unnecessarily I thought. Good, bad or horrible, please review and offer your opinion. Constructive criticism is always appreciated.
Most of the NERV bases around the world have been decommissioned and their Magi systems with them. I'll just assume that Camus and Hyoga can produce blasts that are already at -272.75 degrees but Shinji is a little different as his blasts tend to collate and slowly bring the temperature down until it's close to absolute zero. This should be impossible due to the law of physics as the energy absorbed should melt the frost but if it can be done with Freezing Coffin it can be done here too. In conclusion Shinji's attack is Diamond Dust which is a basic attack to produce concentrated frost but combined with the Freezing Coffin that be used to immobilize enemies longer and be resistant to attack for a certain time period. So it's fair to say he's got the potential strength to match Camus or Hyoga, it just isn't developed fully yet and you could say that Shinji is equivalent to a Silver Saint at the moment. I might have gotten this confused with the other defense where the Nebula continuously spiral around its holder but they sometimes used the same name in the Cantonese version. So correct me if I'm wrong. This defense Kaworu is using at the moment is the one where it lays out a nebula like spiral on the ground and whoever steps in or jumps above the area of the spiral gets instantly attacked by multiple chains, a fancy proximity defense. Only whoever is standing at the centre of the spiral is completely safe from the defense.
PS: The update for Evangelion Fighters is coming soon, so please be patient it's just taking a long time.
Saint Shinji
Part 5
"Diamond Dust!!" Shinji screamed.
The corridor was suddenly filled with freezing gale force wind and frost quickly covered the walls. Bodies caught in the concussive blast of air fell with sickening thuds and cracks. Black clad soldiers that survived the initial blast found themselves losing strength in their extremities, the cold slowly immobilising them as they fell shivering to the ground, vainly trying to gain warmth. A squadron of soldiers that just turned the corner hesitated at the sight of a blazing Shinji and raised their weapons, only to found them shattering in their hands.
They looked up to found Kaworu recalling his twin chains and smiling serenely at them, they turned tail and fled.
"Why did the JSSDF choose to attack now?" Kaworu asked Shinji as they stalked along the corridors.
"I wouldn't know. All I know is that they are threatening the people I care about and I've got to stop them." Shinji coldly replied.
"It is also our duty as Saints."
"I know..."
Kaworu suddenly stopped and Shinji turned around to face him.
"What's wrong, Kaworu?" Shinji asked.
"Something wrong, very wrong." Then he took off running at unimaginable speeds, followed closely by Shinji.
"What's the status of the infiltrated sections?" Misato queried.
"It doesn't seem as serious as we first thought." Hyuuga replied as he called up a diagram of NERV headquarters, the red sections indicating the invaded sections. The red sections were limited to the first five levels of NERV.
"As you can see they don't seem to be able to advance below level five or are holding their positions there." Hyuuga indicated at the diagram.
"Well, I don't believe they have much of a reason to hold their positions, judging from the speed of the insertion of their forces. Find out why they are not advancing and get some of forces positioned here," Misato indicated on the map, "Here, here and here. Aoba assist him."
"Yes ma'am." the two male technicians chorused. The two got to work, as Misato ordered the rest of the staff to begin blockading Central Dogma and arming themselves, as Maya and Ritsuko worked to secure the Magi from any potential attack (1).
"Ma'am, I've got visual in level two, section 52." Hyuuga yelled, "Putting on screen now."
Hyuuga's holographic screen changed to a static-filled display of one of NERV's corridors. The picture was grainy but it clearly showed a black- haired head, framed by two silver wings and then a blurring arm impacting against and through the faceplate of a JSSDF soldier's helmet, followed by the collapse of said soldier. Shinji turned around and the staff gathered around the screen saw the terrifyingly calm and cold expression on his face as he ruthlessly beat down any of the soldiers in his way.
"What the heck?" Misato exclaimed.
"Brrrr! That makes me cold just looking at him, he looks almost like the Commander." Maya commented as she suddenly averted her eyes when Shinji's fist deformed the face of another JSSDF soldier.
"The readings in the area Shinji's in are quite...strange." Ritsuko commented. "What? Why?" came a new voice. They turned to find Yui Ikari, followed by Gendo and Fuyutsuki, entering the commander's platform via the lift.
"Well the Magi are picking up extreme temperature changes in the areas he has been through," Ritsuko replied.
"What sort of changes?" Gendo was genuinely curious. "Well...it seems impossible but..."
"Well what, Doctor?" Yui was getting anxious.
"Well, the sensors are picking up temperatures that are around a hundred fifty Kelvin while some areas are steadily dropping to a point a Kelvin or two away from absolute zero"(2)
"HOW?" Yui nearly had to be restrained by the Commanders to stop her from grabbing Ritsuko by the collar.
"We don't know but my best hypothesis is that it's related to Shinji somehow" Ritsuko calmly replied.
"It's obvious that it is, Ritsu but what I want to know is how he is doing it?" Misato asked as she gestured to the screen.
The screen showed a picture that was obscured by white that was later identified as ice crystals.
"I don't know, liquid nitrogen weapon perhaps"
"I doubt it" Fuyutsuki examined the scene.
"Why?" Gendo questioned his second-in-command.
"Have you ever seen something called the Galaxian Wars?" Fuyutsuki asked Gendo.
"The Galaxian Wars? I don't believe so"
"Umm...did you just say The Galaxian Wars, Commander Fuyutsuki?" Aoba asked as he re-entered Central Dogma after completing his errand.
"Ah yes, Lieutenant. How are you familiar with it?" Fuyutsuki turned to Aoba.
"My father taped it and showed it to me once. It involved some spectacular fighting between some members of the Kiddo Organisation called Saints"
Those listening tensed in recognition, Aoba didn't connect the term Saints as anything to do with Shinji as he was manning the station when Shinji was revealed as the Cygnus Saint.
"I thought it was just some movie with special effects, I was kinda shocked to find that was it was a real live telecast my pop taped and I looked around on the Net about it and found one or two people with some info on it. That flying chain thing one of the fighter's did, I think it was a she, not sure, was pretty cool. The guy who froze that weird white haired snake guy was pretty cool too but the coolest had to be that Dragon guy and the Pegasus guy's fight."
"Thank you. Report back to your station now, lieutenant."
"Yes sir." Hyuuga looked up from his console in horror and he turned to Misato, "Ma'am? We may have a problem" Everybody turned to look at him.
Shinji and Kaworu literally skidded to a stop at one of the entrances leading outside to the Geofront. Numerous war machines were swarming into the Geofront via the highway bridges and the Evangelion ports. One of the bridges exploded when a couple of rounds from Unit 00's pallet rifle impacted against it. The thin frame of the structure shook and fell down in fragmented chunks taking the tanks and artillery vehicles on it down to the ground far, far away, raining death and destruction among the troops that were below. It seemed the battle was in Unit 00's and 02's favour with the use of the AT-field, conventional weaponry had minimal effect, the JSSDF were calling a tactical retreat, tanks bombarding Unit 00 and 02 as they retreated, pinning the Evas against NERV HQ. Shinji's relief was short- lived when nine buildings unexpectedly detached themselves from the ceiling of the Geofront. Nine white shapes emerged from the holes made by the absence of the buildings, poking their smooth natural heads out, followed by a body flipping itself out of the holes, the nine dropped to the ground of the Geofront with disturbing synchronism. In a circle they surrounded Eva Units 00, 02 and NERV Headquarters.
"Are those...?" Misato stammered out.
"Yes, those are the Mass Production Units 05 to 13." Gendo looked up at the large holoscreen, his glasses glinting with reflected light. Next to him Yui Ikari looked at him strangely while blushing slightly. Those who saw the look recoiled slightly.
"This isn't good, they outnumber us and we are unsure of their full capabilities." Misato muttered.
"They aren't plugged to an external source therefore they must be using the S2 engines." Ritsuko exclaimed.
"Great. This just gets better and better, doesn't it?" Misato mumbled.
"Unit's 00 and 02 will have to hold out. Tell the pilots to be on the defensive and do not engage enemy forces fully. Knock them back and keep them away until we find a way to disable them. Hit their cores only if you can without the risk of injury." Gendo ordered.
The others turned to him incredulously, the last time he took command of an operation was during the 13th and all knew how well that went but they went about to their tasks anyway.
Asuka's infuriated voice broke through on the communications, "What the hell? Why should we hold back?!"
Rei's quiet tone filtered through, "I concur why are we to hold back, the threat should be quickly neutralised"
"We are certain that they are equipped with S2 engines which I might add are not equipped in your Evas and we are still uncertain about their full capabilities." Misato shouted at them.
"Oh alright. I'll do it." Asuka grumbled.
"Just do it, Asuka. This isn't a game, you could get killed!" Misato screamed into the mic.
"I've got that Misato!" Asuka yelled back as she got her Eva moving.
Shinji and Kaworu watched in stunned silence at the white giant that stood before them.
"This isn't a good thing, is it?" Shinji asked as he craned his neck upwards.
"I do not believe so. I believe that you humans have an expression for this." Kaworu replied as he tilted his head back.
"What is it?"
"FUBAR"
"Yes, yes it is."
A shadow briefly covered them, followed by a red blur as Unit 02 rammed the white Eva aside before Unit 00 followed by jabbing a Progressive Knife into its chest. The white Eva collapsed and an almighty thud, however the other Evas paid no heed to their fallen comrade as they rushed the NERV Evas.
"We can't stand here like this we got to do something, Kaworu!!" Shinji yelled as he narrowly avoided being stepped on by a big white Eva.
"I'm thinking!" Kaworu yelled back, distress replacing his usual serene expression.
Kaworu jumped twenty metres back, "Shinji! I'm going to do something but I'm going to be defenceless while I do it."
Shinji jumped off one of the Eva's moving foot and headed towards Kaworu, he yelled, "You better do it quick then. The quicker you do it, the quicker we can get out of here."
"Agreed."
Kaworu's Cosmo pulsed around him like a nebula, radiating pink light that washed out the surroundings, it even caught the attention of the battling Evas. The white Evas paused in their attempt to catch Units 00 and 02 to behold the pinkish red light that emanated from Kaworu's body. Turning to him, they kneeled in his presence that was bathing the forest nearby, even the one that had fallen first to Unit 00's blade revived for a short time to crawl to its brethren in the ring surrounding Kaworu.
"What's doing on? What's that light?" Misato bellowed.
"It's unknown whatever it is, a lot of energy is being generated at that spot."
"All meters and gauges are off the scale!"
"Could it be an energy weapon?" Misato asked.
"No, it's not. The energy is too dispersed to be a positron weapon of some sort. It's a radiant light source but it's having a strange effect on the enemy Evas." Ritsuko reported her findings.
Everyone looked at the screen which displayed the nine Mass Production Evas crouched down around the nearly blinding reddish light.
"Asuka, Rei! Do not approach the targets! I repeat do not approach the targets. Something's going on and we have no idea what it is."
"WHAT! But they're just lying there, waiting for us to attack," Asuka screeched.
"Exactly. If they are waiting for you that means something's up and you don't want to fall into their trap, do you?" Asuka remained silent at Misato's reprimand.
A beep from a random console caused Misato to give a glance at it. She turned to Rei's holoscreen worriedly, "Rei, what's wrong? Your heart rate and breathing has increased and so has your endorphin level."
Rei was visibly sweating which was quite out of the ordinary, her pupils were dilated and her breath was coming in short pants despite her submersion in LCL. Her voice came weakly, as if she was struggling with the words, "P-power...such...pantpower...it," Rei swallowed, her eyes cleared for a moment, "it overwhelms...me."
With that her eyes rolled into the back of her head and she fainted, slumping over her Eva's controls.
"REI!!! Pilot Sohryu retrieve Unit 00 quickly and retreat yourself. We will come up with a plan later." Gendo abruptly ordered.
Asuka rolled her eyes at Gendo's blatant favouritism as she had already set out to retrieve Unit 00 when she saw the girl faint, while she didn't get along with the First she wasn't the type to leave a comrade behind.
Shinji shielded his eyes from the light of Kaworu's Cosmo, his mind boggled at the power the former Angel was producing. Wind had started to pick up, the sheer force produced by Kaworu's Cosmo uprooted trees and rocks, the ground shook as the former Angel's Cosmo expanded more and more. Shinji was alarmed to find his feet slipping backwards from the force of the wind that Kaworu's Cosmo was producing, he dug his heels in vain as the wind slowly pushed him back, two deep furrows marking where his feet had rested. Since his arms where shielding his eyes and face he didn't see the uprooted and rather large piece of ground flung in his direction by the strong wind. The chunk of dirt knocked him clean off his feet and sent Shinji head over heels fifty metres away.
Kaworu stood within the blazing inferno of light with his arms crossed before him at the waist, his hair floating upwards with the power he was emitting. The Nebula Chains writhed in the spiral as lightning surged through them. The Mass Production Evas hovered close enough to Kaworu at all he had to do was jump and he would have been able to touch their faces. Their wide mouths seemed to open in anticipation, saliva dripped from the open orifices only to evaporate in the heat and light of Kaworu's Cosmo. The great white heads leaned closer til they touched and suddenly as a light bulb, Kaworu's Cosmo disappeared from sight and with it the Eva's sentience it seemed. They slumped to a resting position as if all power was cut from them. Without warning, a part of their backs exploded, the heavy plates that covered the entry plugs broke like cheap plastic and with a wailing scream wisps escaped from the holes out into the air.
"Status report!" Gendo barked.
"Readings are unknown, however enemy Evas have stopped all functions. No telemetry, heat or any other readings indicate that they are active." Maya responded.
"It seems like whatever that light was, it disabled the Mass Production Evas by affecting the dummy plugs directly which shouldn't be possible unless..." Ritsuko trailed.
"It is the most likely possibility considering that it affected Rei as well." Gendo concluded.
Fuyutsuki quickly took note of the development and paged the Cage to put the Eva's on standby and tell the pilots to come up to the Command Centre.
Shinji dashed to the thoroughly destroyed site where Kaworu unleashed his Cosmo. The cracks in the ground spread far enough to reveal the armoured plating that shielded the lower portions of NERV headquarters. The white Evas slumped, drooling to the ground; Shinji guessed that Kaworu attacked the plugs directly. Shinji turned over a slab of rock and gasped. Kaworu lay there and with his complexion looked dead or very near it. Shinji quickly rushed to the fallen Angel and checked for a pulse, breathing anything to indicate that his comrade was alive. He was relieved when he felt a faint pulse.
"Kaworu! Wake up!" Shinji slapped Kaworu's cheeks a few times.
Kaworu's eyes opened and stared upwards with unfocused eyes for a brief moment before they cleared and in a very unAngel-like way, "Did you get the number of that Almighty's lightning bolt?"
Shinji laughed, the tension he held within drained away as he laughed. He lifted Kaworu over his shoulders and tottered away from ground zero. "You're going to tell me what just happened now," Shinji said as he half carried, half dragged Kaworu away.
"I performed what you would call an exorcism," Kaworu said weakly.
"An exorcism?" Shinji was confused, "Those weren't bad spirits piloting those Evas, were they?"
"No, the dummy plugs..." Kaworu gasped, "...they were made from me, my flesh, my blood, only I had the power to set them free, even if they had no souls..."
Kaworu paused to gain his breath again, "No I should say that they had a very small portion of my soul, so that they could be me and do things that would make me, me, even when it could be shown only when they were dominated by the barbaric shells of the Evas"
"So what did you do exactly?" Shinji had grown up a bit since his old days, in the past he would have left the subject alone but years of maturity, isolation and with some sincere human contact combined with a desire for more had allowed him to learn a few things. He voiced the question because he felt that Kaworu would fare better mentally once he let out what he wanted to say.
Kaworu's harsh breathing and gasping echoed in his ear as they half staggered to the entrance of NERV Headquarters, "I freed them, set them on the path to the Almighty."
"But how did you do it?" "I accessed the part of my soul that was connected to them and using the remnant of my divine power and my Cosmo, I flooded their beings with power enough to overcome the restraints that the Evangelions imposed upon them, by doing so I severed my link with them and gave them the power to become their own beings. The Evangelions themselves are harmless now, they will be unable to synch or activate with any being even with me."
"How long is it going to take you to recover?" Shinji asked.
"I will achieve battle readiness in a minute," Kaworu staggered away from Shinji and steadied himself.
"You flush them out with the Nebula chains and I'll face off against whoever they are, just watch my back you're still too tired to fight"
Kaworu nodded as his twin chains clinked slightly, "Umm, Shinji we may have a problem, they're not showing any killing intent. The Nebula chains will be ineffective if they don't show killing intent"
"I see, do that defensive stance it has, so we anyone steps in the chains will automatically attack them instead"
"If I do that I won't be able to help you until they step into my circle of attack"
"Then I'll do it myself," Shinji winced as he remembered the last time he said something similar.
"If you wish," Kaworu muttered, then shouted out, "NEBULA ROLLING DEFENSE" (3)
Shinji nodded, when the twin chains settled into a pattern on the ground, with the knowledge that his comrade was safe, he turned to the trees that surrounded the entrance to NERV.
"Get our forces into the environment containment suits and have them put the enemy forces into custody!" Misato yelled.
"Misato, the suits wouldn't hold out long to the temperatures that exhibited in most of the corridors, even the enemies would be dead by now. See this area," Ritsuko jabbed a finger at near black bit of the holographic screen she was using, "This area is one of the few areas affected that is only three Kelvin away from absolute zero. If any of our personnel go in there they wouldn't last more than a second or two before freezing to death."
"Doctor Akagi." Misato interrupted, "Shut up and let me do my job"
"Major Katsuragi!"
"Then we won't go into those areas affected. The suits should provide our people enough time to get those soldiers out. With that cold, they wouldn't be able to move, let alone put up a fight. Plus if any survived, we might be able to get answers out of them."
Then the console next to them beeped alarmingly, another holographic screen appeared, showing the remains of an entrance from one of security cameras that survived. Kaworu crouched directly in their line of sight with his back to the camera, his chains gently clinking and writhing in their formation. His head shifted around quickly as if he was trying to keep track of really fast paced action.
A brief spark and blur caught the observant eyes of Dr Akagi. "Magi, capture and replay that twelve second period at a thousandth times speed."
She barked. At her side stood Yui Ikari, she nodded at the doctor's command as she also caught the brief blur as well.
"Playing screen capture," Maya announced from her terminal. On the screen showed a picture of Shinji moving very quickly as he blocked a strike from an unknown individual with his forearm before shifting in midair to punch the individual away.
"Magi, I said repeat. Play at thousandth speed"
The rarely heard computer generated voice of the Magi answered, "Subject is moving at too fast a velocity for that frame rate, the parameters for playback have already been shifted to ten thousandth times speed"
"It can't be, no human can possibly move at that speed. His body structure should have collapsed from the stress by now"
"Well it seems that our boy has more than a few surprises in store for us," Commander Fuyutsuki chuckled, "He has achieved powers beyond our imagining."
The screen showed Shinji blasting away his attacker with the Diamond Dust.
End part 5
I feel bad at ending it there, however writing on would have dragged it out unnecessarily I thought. Good, bad or horrible, please review and offer your opinion. Constructive criticism is always appreciated.
Most of the NERV bases around the world have been decommissioned and their Magi systems with them. I'll just assume that Camus and Hyoga can produce blasts that are already at -272.75 degrees but Shinji is a little different as his blasts tend to collate and slowly bring the temperature down until it's close to absolute zero. This should be impossible due to the law of physics as the energy absorbed should melt the frost but if it can be done with Freezing Coffin it can be done here too. In conclusion Shinji's attack is Diamond Dust which is a basic attack to produce concentrated frost but combined with the Freezing Coffin that be used to immobilize enemies longer and be resistant to attack for a certain time period. So it's fair to say he's got the potential strength to match Camus or Hyoga, it just isn't developed fully yet and you could say that Shinji is equivalent to a Silver Saint at the moment. I might have gotten this confused with the other defense where the Nebula continuously spiral around its holder but they sometimes used the same name in the Cantonese version. So correct me if I'm wrong. This defense Kaworu is using at the moment is the one where it lays out a nebula like spiral on the ground and whoever steps in or jumps above the area of the spiral gets instantly attacked by multiple chains, a fancy proximity defense. Only whoever is standing at the centre of the spiral is completely safe from the defense.
PS: The update for Evangelion Fighters is coming soon, so please be patient it's just taking a long time.