Optimus Prime had made the announcement: Seele were making their big move. It was time for them to show themselves to the world. They could no longer hide in the shadows. Tokyo 3 was in terrible danger if those Evas got there. So Optimus Prime gave the order, in agreement with Magnus, Megatron and Cyclonus: the Stronghold was so separate and transport to the area surrounding Tokyo 3; then they were to create a perimeter to stop any land based troops and to provide support to the combatants.
"Okay; lets go" Optimus said and activated the mass transit gate.
The very sky itself opened up in a cascade of lightning and wind. The very, slowly but surely, 4 great Transformers emerged from the ocean and flew into the swirling vortex of energy. Fortress Maximus, Scorponok, Trypticon and Metroplex all had grim looks on their faces as they approached the exit point. The exit gate was far less dramatic than the entry gate. It simply opened up and they dropped out. Then they set about setting up the perimeter. They would sit at the 4 main points of the city and then the rest of the perimeter would be made up of laser walls.
"Time to contact?" Ultra Magnus asked; he was at Nerv
"10 minutes" Optimus replied
"Game time then" Fuyutski said
"Yep" Misato muttered
"Deploy forces" Megatron ordered
*************
Down in the main bay, some new hardware was being handed out. The various scientists and technicians of the two forces had been working on some new weapons for the Evas; swords, lances, rifles and other exciting things. At the moment, each Pilot was standing in their suits as various Transformers went to and fro: Eva 2 was no where to be seen.
"Okay; we have every kind of weapon imaginable here. Research done during combat shows only high power energy and sharp edged weapons work against Evas; so to that end we have an extensive armoury for both" Warpath said
"Where is my Eva?" Asuka asked
"Ah yes, Eva 2; well, we ah, sent her through some heavy mods" Warpath grinned and signalled for them to bring Eva 2 in
Eva 2 looked like it was ready to kick some ass: heavy duty armour had been used to replace the original armour: knuckle busters sat on the hands now: fighting claws were hidden in between the fingers; they could be extended and retracted at will. Two large pulse guns, one on each hip adorned the Eva also. The other new feature was a helmet over the Eva's original head. It looked like an old European knight's helmet. Asuka seemed to approve of the changes.
"That and we had a go at the innards: the whole thing runs off an Energon battery now: which means you can go on full power mode, for 2 months no stop, more if you shut the Eva down during non usage periods, and now it uses a total immersion piloting system like Dark Eva" Perceptor explained
"Cool" Asuka said, raring to have a go.
"What about me; how am I going to fight" Rei was not one to leave her comrades to do all the work
"Ah yes, well, a little bird told me that Eva unit 3 had been completed in the US a month ago, so, we decided to ah hem, borrow it" Skywarp snickered
"Borrow?" Rei asked
"They stole it" Pipes said
Then they wheeled in Eva unit 3; like its brothers, the only difference was the head design: two eyes and a single mouth with something on the bottom jaw. The same general modifications had been made to Unit 3 as had been made to Unit 2. Thundercracker looked at the jaws of each Eva and quirked his eyebrows
"What the fuck are those things on the bottom jaw for anyway?" he asked
This comment caused great guffaws of laughter to occur. The mood in the base had been sombre at best but that arbitrary comment; made on some bizarre and pointless observation about something that did seem to serve no real purpose gave everyone something to laugh about.
"Thundercracker, get your brother, we got something for him too" Hook said
[Oh boy] Skywarp had a feeling where this was going
*************************
Starscream was in the training room practicing with a sword: he may be human now but he would not neglect his training in the warrior arts. More imperative now was his skills, because he had lost his intimidation factor of sheer size and his weapons, he had to be sure of his skills. Once he'd finished the session he put the sword away and went to have a shower. Upon his exit into the hallway he saw Thundercracker waiting for him.
"Tense, big brother?" Thundercracker asked
"Yeah a little" Starscream said and slung his swords over his shoulder
"It pisses you off doesn't it?" Thundercracker jibed
"What, being a human; nah, aside from waking up with a, um, what the hell did Asuka call it?" Starscream forgot
"I think they call that the, ah, you know that part has me fucked as well. Anyway, I didn't mean that but the fact that Asuka is out fighting and you can't help" Thundercracker said
"Yeah, that does kind of bother me. But what in the hell am I going to do about it?" Starscream said and leaned against the wall
"Well you can start by coming with me. I think The Constructicons have a surprise for you" Thundercracker chuckled
[What the hell?] Starscream thought but shrugged and followed his brother.
******************
In the streets of Tokyo 3, most of the Transformers were standing guard over the more vulnerable buildings and the doors to Nerv and all shelters were manned by a Transformer. Anything not waving a big white flag was gonna have a bad day. Outside the defence barrier; the Evas, and 6 of the combiner teams: Jurrasitor, Predaking, Superion, Bruticus, Computron, Abominus were with them; this was going to be an even fight. Each of them held a sword or other bladed weapon provided by the combined technical experts in both the ADA and Nerv, aside from Shinji who had what was now known as the Longinus Sword. He tightened his grip in anticipation.
"Bogies sighted, 8 clicks and closing" Bruticus said
"Okay, its time to party" Predaking said and lit up his new beam sabre
"They've dropped!" Asuka shouted and charged
"I like her" Abominus said and ran with her
"Oh what the hell" Shinji said and joined the fray
Each of them singled out a target and engaged. The fighting was fierce and fast. Swords and Lances clanged and blows were blocked and landed. Predaking was in his element, brutal combat was where he was best put to work. He slammed his sabre into his enemy's lance many time while kicking and blasting them with all his power. Then with one great downward slash, cut through the other Lance and through most of his target. Quick as lightning he withdrew the blade and sliced the Eva in 2 at the waist, which made it split into 3.
"BATTLE!" he roared
Elsewhere; combat was just as fast. Rei was armed with a long lance with a bladed edge. Growing irritated with her target's ability to block, she went and made a massively complex looking flourish with the bladed end. When she was finished, she kicked the Eva in its core: it then promptly fell into tiny pieces. Defensor's Eva had kicked his head and sent him dizzy; the evil Eva used this distraction to attack Rei from the back. She turned her head and saw the Eva but froze.
"OH NO YOU DON"T" Shinji yelled
He seemingly pointlessly thrust his sword at the Eva; then as if by magic, the blade extended to cover the extra distance and stabbed it in the core. Rei also threw her lance behind Shinji, for the Eva he was engaging was trying the same on him: she nailed it in the throat. With a quick nod each party retrieved their weapon and went to help their comrades.
"Come and get some" Asuka shouted and she used her two short swords to block and stab her opponent
She blocked and saw a great opening and took it, she stuck one sword in the core; twisted and shoved again; sending her hand right through it in a great red mess. Smiling to herself she retrieved the sword and set to double team with Superion; who was displaying his martial arts skills.
The battle raged on until there was a single Eva left: with no concept of fear, it tried to attack the whole assembled battle group. They all stuck a weapon into this one, severing its torso and legs from the core. Rei recommended they go and cut the cores out of each of the Seele Evas. Predaking gladly volunteered for that gruesome duty and ripped each core off the body with his bare hands.
*********************
Seele was quaking: the Eva assault was supposed to be their victory and yet it was a total defeat. Keel knew that his master would not tolerate this and that his displeasure would be great and his retribution unimaginable. Indeed as he thought the giant yellow and silver head of Unicron appeared in the centre of the room and his eyes burnt in fury.
"This is unacceptable Keel; you assured me your Evangelions could defeat Nerv and Transformers" Unicron boomed
"They had an even number and some upgraded parts on their Evas, and a mysterious weapon I've never seen before. I-" Keel was cut off
"No excuses. The punishment for failure to me is death. You are no exception" Unicron's head disappeared. The members of Seele all began panicking and screaming, running to leave their safe house, such that it was.
Somewhere in the Arctic Ocean, a large underwater base exploded. The debris spread for miles around, some even making it to the surface and getting stuck in the ice. A deep sea exploration station picked up the explosion on a seismology device and sent a team to investigate. Several hours later they returned; their only clues: 12 bodies. All of them of different nationalities and ages, one even seemed to have cybernetic enhanced eyes.
******************
Gendo Ikari sensed that he needed to move soon; then he could put his plan into action. Getting up and carefully and quietly he slipped out of his room and passed the nurse, who was too wrapped up in a romance novel to notice anything anyway. His card had not been cancelled by Fuyutski; a mistake Gendo would not have made himself. With a smile he took the lift down and made his way to Terminal Dogma.
"They are all too worried about Seele to concern themselves with me" Gendo smirked and went down the lift
Gendo was however wrong: he was being followed and he didn't notice them; had he been less arrogant he would have: Kensuke, Frenzy and a phase cloaked Megatron had tailed him since Frenzy saw him leave his hospital bed. Neither had any idea as to what Gendo was up to, but they reasonably sure he wasn't ordering pizza.
"Come on; lets see what he's up to" Frenzy said
"Yeah" Kensuke said and went over to the lift doors
"Okay; I'll handle this part" Frenzy grinned and got two hooks to replace his hands and opened the shaft doors T-1000 style.
"Okay Kensuke, jump on my back and I'll fly us down" Frenzy said
"Megatron, we need you to come to the command deck inside Fortress Maximus immediately" Optimus Prime's voice sounded from Megatron's comm unit
"Okay. You two be careful" he warned and flew to meet Optimus Prime
"Will do, come on lets go" Frenzy said and jumped into the shaft.
Gendo was of course aware of none of this and continued down in totally ignorant bliss. At the bottom of the shaft Gendo got out and walked into a large locked room. Wracked with curiosity, Frenzy and Kensuke landed and went up to the door and Frenzy looked through it with his heat vision. He saw Gendo, a few PC's that seemed far too hot
[Must be AMD] he thought
"Oh shit" Frenzy gasped and grabbed Kensuke and hid in the shadows.
Then saw the larger heat source, largest in the room in fact it almost took the whole room up. The large heat source in that room was a nuclear weapon. Almost 200 Megatons if his estimate was anything resembling accurate. He explained his discovery to Kensuke and the two sat and considered their options.
"Well, Boomer could come and have a go at disarming it" Frenzy said
"His name doesn't fill me with confidence, wait a second, did you say disarm as in to reverse the arming of a bomb?" Kensuke asked
"Uh huh, I heard him say it was armed" Frenzy mentioned
"Shit, get your bomb squad down here quick" Kensuke said
"Shhh" Frenzy clamped Kensuke's mouth shut
Gendo walked out of the room and locked the door with some kind of code. He either did not notice Frenzy and Kensuke or he saw them and chose to ignore them. Gendo had something in his one hand now. Frenzy scanned and saw that it was a remote detonator for something: he presumed it was for Mr. Manhattan Project in the room behind them. Once they were both sure Gendo was gone, they scrambled to the door and proceeded to try and open it
"Give me that Data Pad that Scrapper made for me" Kensuke said
"Here" Frenzy handed him the device
"Fucking right, here we go" Kensuke then proceeded to hack the door
It opened after a few seconds: by Cybertronian standards the lock was primitive. Once inside, they shut the door and looked at the device in awe: it stood as tall as the room they were in (nearly 25 feet high) and was as thick as a quarter of the room. 6 large server computers were connected to it. Kensuke looked at Frenzy who pulled a Data Pad of his own out: they had to stop this because the instant Gendo got wind that his scheme was up; he'd blow them all to hell so this had to be done on the QT. With a smirk Kensuke turned to the Servers
"Let's hack these shits" he said
"Amen brother" Frenzy replied: with that the pair got to work
**********************
Optimus Prime was with Megatron on the command deck; they were waiting for Unicron: they'd detected an explosion in the Arctic and knew somehow it had something to do with Unicron. And so they waited, Optimus Prime called ADA HQ on the moon and told them to be ready for Unicron's arrival and for them to receive Dark Eva and Shinji. Megatron sent a covert message to Cyclonus to head into Trans-Space and give the standby signal to a little surprise for their big planet munching friend. Then it came, a signal like no other; it simply appeared as a large darkness on a radar screen.
"He's here. Summon Shinji and Dark Eva; have them sent to Moonbase HQ, tell the Phoenix and the Harbinger to standby" Optimus said and left the commanded deck
"Okay; Shinji, Dark Eva: to the Gate room at once" Megatron barked over his comm unit
[Primus help; and forgive us: we place the responsibility of the safety of Earth and Cybertron in the hands of only 2 beings, one of them a child" Megatron muttered and sort of crossed himself
Dark Eva and Shinji were waiting in the Gate room when Optimus Prime arrived. He told them he honestly didn't know was going to happen but that they would not fight alone. As many Transformers as could be spared would be in space, fighting and shooting Unicron to so whatever damage they could. They would slow his advance in anyway they could
"But still it's up to us to actually kill him?" Dark Eva asked
"I'm afraid so. Here, I hand over the Matrix of Leadership: this and yourselves will be enough to defeat Unicron, I hope" Optimus said Dark Eva placed the Matrix in his chest
Rei watched from the bay observation room as Shinji and Dark Eva stepped through the vortex to go to the moon. Rei did not cry at Shinji's departure because she knew in her heart, her soul that he would come back to her. So she only smiled softly and waved to him, with her other hand on her heart.
[I love you] Rei thought, she knew Shinji could 'hear' her
[I love you too] Shinji responded and placed the sensation of a kiss in her mind
"What did you just do?" Misato asked, clearly something had happened but she had no idea what
"Shinji gave me a goodbye kiss" she said and went to sit down, she was tired from the battle.
********************
On the moon, Shinji and Dark Eva were led to a docking bay where they were greeted with an awesome sight: outside were two large ships. One was clearly designed for war: it had a double X configuration at the rear. One X area held and engine at each point, the second looked as it held lances, but they were in fact beam lasers that were so finely focused they could cut like knives through a ship's hull. In addition to those 4 there were to above and below the long neck area of the ship. Directly below the bridge were two large pulse cannons, another two were mounted under the forward down facing wings.
"Wow, what is that?" Shinji asked
"That is the Decepticon Dreadnought ship; Harbinger. She's your cover fire while the other ship takes you to Unicron" Scourge explained and pointed to another ship.
This ship had the look of a stealthy predator, it was flat and almost totally flush from top to bottom. A pair of reversed wings at the back led to a hexagonal and triangular shape that made the middle of the ship. Two wings facing forward long ways with two longer shafts with parts that sloped up at the end. No weapons were visible.
"That ship is the Phoenix; an Autobot stealth cruiser: she will be practically invisible to the naked eye and totally invisible to all forms of known radar. In her you will be until you get inside Unicron" Scourge hurried them aboard
"Well, Dark Eva. What now?" Shinji asked as they were sealed in
"We'll have to work that out when we get there; won't we" he said
"I'm scared; I've never undertaken anything like this in my life, even with my involvement with Nerv my responsibility was never this big" Shinji said
"You're still saving the world Shinji" Dark Eva replied
"Yeah; but that was an almost militaristic duty; this is fulfilling prophecy, legend. Shit from thousands of years ago. I mean what if that legend was only the work of a lunatic who could red and write?" Shinji asked
"Then we're screwed, Earth is screwed and Cybertron is screwed" Dark Eva replied plainly
"Gee thanks" Shinji muttered
"Well you did ask" Dark Eva spluttered
"Yeah, I did didn't I" Shinji said with a chuckle and lay down
Dark Eva sensed Shinji was still afraid on the inside, deeply afraid and that both concerned and relieved Dark Eva. The fear showed that Shinji was truly a person of humanity and of good mind: only a fool would not fear this mission. But he feared it may impede the mission so Dark Eva tapped into Shinji's head and asked Yui to comfort him. Shinji opened his eyes and saw he was at a beach with his mother.
"Mother?" Shinji asked, his eyes teary
"Yes Shinji; its me" she replied and hugged her son
"I missed you" Shinji cried
"I know, I miss you too" Yui replied and stroked her son's hair
She drew back and took a good long look at Shinji: the last time he was with her like this was the 14th Angel, how he'd changed since then. His body remained the same but his spirit had soared to new heights, and even sunk to terrifying lows in the short space since she had last seen him. Also, on their last visit she could tell by a scent that Rei and Shinji had slept together in the fullest sense. But now there was an even deeper connection: a small piece of Rei's soul was within him and her essence has mixed with his throughout his body.
"My god you've changed so much in so little time" she said and mussed his hair
"If not for Dark Prime and the others I don't think I'd be half the person I am now" Shinji admitted
"They may have taken you to the crossroads kid, but you chose where to walk" Yui said
"I know I did, but still: they helped me so much; but…" Shinji trailed off
"You're still scared of what you and Dark Eva are doing" Yui said
"Yeah I am" Shinji said and looked at the ocean, such that it was
"Then all I can do to help you is to tell you this: remember that Rei, myself, Misato, Kaji, Asuka; all your friends love you. With that love you can create power in yourself that no one; not even you know exists" Yui said
"I think I heard that in a movie" Shinji said
"Stop poking holes in my argument" Yui huffed
Shinji then burst into a fit of giggles as he saw his mother; a woman he had long been told was a serene and graceful but also brilliant and sharp minded look like someone had just burst her bubble: it just looked so ridiculous in Shinji's perception of her that he laughed
[He has such nice laugh: I'm jealous of you, Rei] Yui felt so deprived: she didn't get to hear Shinji's laugh often: Rei was going to hear it for the rest of her life.
"Shinji, I hate to break this up, but, fate or the deranged ramblings of some nutter calls" Dark Prime said
"Okay, I'm coming" he said and hugged his mother again
"I'm going to miss you" Shinji whispered
"Not as much as I'll miss you, trust me on that" Yui said and kissed her son's forehead
"Goodbye Shinji, go save the world" Yui finished before Shinji woke up
Shinji was jolted awake and outside he saw it: a giant orange and silver planet that seemed to blot out the sun loomed ahead of them. Shinji felt sick and afraid just looking at it and being near it: god knows how he was going to fare inside it. Shinji then realised that the ship he was in was making no noise at all. Dark Eva directed his attention to a monitor: the Harbinger was attacking Unicron, and making a good job of it too: its beam lasers cut through the hull of the planet like it was butter.
"He can't be feeling that" Shinji said
"He isn't" Dark Eva responded
Unicron began to shift and move his parts everywhere: Shinji realised Unicron was transforming. His eyes were open like plates and riveted the scene before him. Sides folded out to become legs and arms: the rings once surrounding his body became bone like wings. The two great claws at the front of his planet form now adorned a giant head with red eyes and a deep booming voice, even in space Shinji was sure Unicron's voice could be heard.
The Phoenix then began charging energy in the gap at its front end. It charged it till it was a large ball of energy and then it fired it at Unicron, around the area that a human has their kidneys. It created a huge breach in the hull of Unicron. The ship entered the body of the giant while the Harbinger made itself a real pest. Dark Eva and Shinji disembarked from the ship and it took off into space again. Shinji sighed
"Well, here we go" he said
*********************
Thanks to Gryphon for giving me a hand to sort out some order of events for this chapter, and I bet you're all wondering where Kaoru/Tabris is, aren't you?