Disclaimer: Nothing really new here; same old same old.
Chapter 10: The War on Two Fronts
"Well," said Misato, bored, "We're here." From their special observation room designated for the people from NERV, Misato, Shinji, Asuka, Ishiro, Touji, Kensuke, and Hikari (long list huh) watched dully as the operators for the new model of Jet Alone robots was put through its paces.
"Well," observed Ishiro, "It's not all that different from MechaGodzilla."
"Did MechaGodzilla have a nuclear power source too?" asked Shinji.
"It did. But not only was it protected under layers of titanium armor, but it also had a coating of NT-20 artificial diamond armor on top of that to protect it from energy based attacks." Ishiro smiled amusedly. "The technology is more advanced in terms of power, but MechaGodzilla makes this robot look like a cardboard cutout in terms of sturdiness."
"Isn't that armor you mentioned the same armor you suggested for Unit 00?" inquired Misato for the benefit of the other children.
"It is," replied Ishiro nodding distantly. Mentally, he braced himself for the explosion to come.
"WHAT!?" exclaimed Asuka at the top of her lungs, "How come Wondergirl's Unit 00 gets a special upgrade and my Unit 02 doesn't."
"It's one of the benefits that comes from rebuilding the Eva from the ground up," replied Ishiro, "The reason Unit 02 wasn't given the new armor was because the outermost layer of metal armor has to be specially conditioned to bond with the NT-20. Otherwise the armor would break too easily under strain of operating the Eva. In addition, this conditioning is what allows the armor's surface to conduct the energy absorbed by the diamond into the plasma cannon."
"Why can't we do that for any of the other Eva units?" asked Shinji.
"The process would require stripping and recasting the entire outermost layer of armor, a process that NERV neither has the time nor the money for. Furthermore, NT-20 artificial diamond armor is expensive and I doubt we'd be able to afford enough to do more than one Eva." Ishiro's smile widened. "Beside's Asuka, you wouldn't like having to lug around that plasma cannon."
"Speaking of which," commented Misato, "I thought you said that the plasma cannon was integrated into the structure of MechaGodzilla. Why can't that be done for the Eva?"
Ishiro replied, "MechaGodzilla's body was designed specifically to house the necessary equipment for channeling energy into and firing the plasma cannon and handling the recoil. The plasma cannon was central in MechaGodzilla's design because MechaGodzilla was essentially just a platform for the plasma cannon with a few extras. But even then it was an awkward setup. The Evangelion just wasn't designed to contain that kind of weapon within its body structure; therefore we had to design a weapon that could be plugged in externally. We settled on a modified version of the positron rifle used against the Fifth Angel. There's only one problem though."
"And what's that?" inquired Touji curiously.
"We can't figure out how to plug it in."
Everyone gaped at Ishiro. How could such an advanced system be thwarted by so simple a problem?
Ishiro laughed at the faces they made. "It's not as easy as you would think. Naturally, the optimal place to plug in the connector for the plasma cannon would be where we would normally insert the umbilical plug. But obviously that would render the entire system rather useless if it went dead after only five minutes. Thus, our problem is finding a way to connect the cannon to Unit 00 without interfering with the normal flow of power into the Eva."
The others nodded. This made sense. But the conversation was quickly forgotten as the announcement for the next demonstration came over the PA. The Jet Alone would be demonstrating the penetrating power of its much lauded AT Buster.
The testers lined the robot up with a long bar of solid synthetic titanium alloy that was exactly twenty meters long. The bar was fairly small in other respects, but that would also test the targeting ability of the Jet Alone. The robot was to fire its AT Buster directly down the length of the bar and spear it through the center. The anticipation built up as the countdown began. Thirty seconds from the firing mark, the cannon barrel on the shoulder began to glow with orange light as powerful magnetic fields focused nuclear energy into the most concentrated space possible. Finally, the countdown reached zero.
The end of the barrel flared brilliantly and a conical beam of energy streaked towards its target. However, this cone was inverted, tapering into a smaller point as it got farther away from its source and closer towards its intended target. With unbelievable accuracy, the blast punched through the titanium bar dead center and passed through its length without even slowing down.
Misato was in awe of the weapon's power. "That thing really could punch through an AT field."
"What a waste of perfectly good synthetic titanium alloy," mourned Ishiro, "As rare as such resources are today; people shouldn't waste them using them for target practice."
"Ishiro?" asked Hikari reprovingly, "Aren't you worried about what that thing could do to your Eva."
"Not in the slightest," replied Ishiro calmly, "It is true that the so called AT Buster is a powerful weapon. It gets even more dangerous the farther the Jet Alone is from its intended target to a certain extent."
"How's that?" asked Asuka.
"You must have noticed the inverted cone of the beam. The farther it progresses from its source, the more concentrated it becomes as the beam converges on itself, putting more power into a smaller space. It's perfect for a penetration weapon like this one."
"Then how could you not be worried?" demanded Shinji.
"There are several overall flaws in the design and intention of this weapon," answered Ishiro, "The first is that it obviously requires a considerable bit of time to build up, leaving an opening for an attack should an opponent get to close. The second is, that the designers couldn't anticipate the versatility of the AT field."
"How's that?" asked Misato.
"You'll understand when you watch tomorrow's test," replied Ishiro.
***
Ritsuko and the other members of NERV waited tensely for any sign of Manda. Rei was never allowed to stray far from Unit 00. The docks were lined with observers who had runners waiting to dash back to the Command Center with a report of when and where the monster would be rising out of the sea.
While they waited, Ritsuko wondered where Commander Ikari had gotten to. She hadn't seen the man in a long while. He hadn't paid any visits to the Command Center or the holding cages recently. It was almost as if he had dropped off the face of the earth. Despite this, Ritsuko was secretly relieved that she hadn't seen Ikari at all recently. The man always seemed to be more of a hindrance than a help. Not that he actually was one, but he certainly didn't seem to be making any contributions as of late.
And so they waited for Manda to rear his ugly head and renew his assault on Tokyo 3. Ritsuko believed without a doubt in what Ishiro had said about Manda's true objective. Come Manda, thought Ritsuko, We're ready for you.
***
Night had fallen over the deserts of Nevada. The visitors had been given a spacious apartment that had more than enough room to contain their number. Most everyone had gone to bed early that night. Ishiro however, remained awake, sitting on a couch in the large common area. He had been troubled recently by a new onslaught of dreams. In his dreams, the LCL that flooded the cavern holding Lilith exploded outward as something massive surged up from the ground beneath it. His dreams always ended before he could actually identify what that object was. However, he knew that it did not bode well for Rei back in Tokyo 3.
At the thought of the blue-haired, red-eyed girl, Ishiro said a prayer to whatever divine power existed for her safety. It was likely that she would soon face a terrible threat and face it alone.
"Shouldn't you be sleeping?" came a voice from the doorway to one of the bedrooms. Shinji stepped into view.
"I occasionally have difficulty sleeping," admitted Ishiro, "So it does me no good to try."
Shinji sat next to Ishiro on the couch. For a long moment, silence reigned. Finally, Shinji broke that silence. "Ishiro, you said that creature that attacked us on the ocean was Battra, right?"
"Yes."
"Well, if he had helped to defeat Godzilla before, why was Battra attacking us?"
"I never said that Battra was an ally to humanity. He only did it to aid Mothra when they fought Godzilla. Battra and Mothra simply united against a common enemy. Battra and Mothra are actually two very different creatures."
"I also remember you saying that Battra was killed in the battle against Godzilla."
"I did and that's the way it seemed until he attacked us on our way here." Ishiro shrugged. "I honestly don't know whether or not Battra really died."
"Where did Battra come from?" asked Shinji finally.
Ishiro smiled. "Well, there are many different theories as to where Battra came from, but my mother always told me the legend of his origin."
"What is it?"
"It would be hard for you to believe, but I guess I can tell you anyway." The look on Ishiro's face grew distant. "Many thousands of years ago, there was an ancient civilization that had grown very advanced. This civilization built a machine that could be used to control the weather anywhere on the Earth. However, they did not understand that the Earth itself was a living being, with emotions and thoughts of its own, and that this machine greatly offended the Earth. However, it is likely that even if they did know they wouldn't care. Anyway, the Earth was livid, so she created the Black Mothra, Battra. Battra attacked and laid waste to their civilization. When he destroyed the climate controller, the Earth was overrun by massive flooding, wiping away the last traces of that civilization. He was finally subdued in battle with Mothra and laid to rest under the sea."
Shinji sat back and pondered the meaning of the story. "That almost sounds like Second Impact."
"Yes," agreed Ishiro, "There are some similarities with the flooding and the destruction."
"So according to the stories your mother told you, Battra was created by the Earth itself?"
"Yes, in retaliation for all the evils that this civilization had created." Ishiro chuckled as he looked over at Shinji. "But it certainly seems rather far-fetched doesn't it." Shinji nodded in agreement.
They sat in silence for a moment; finally, Ishiro broke that silence. "I understand that you're quire a cook Shinji," he remarked offhandedly.
"Well," said Shinji sheepishly, "I'm not all that good."
"You're being too modest," replied Ishiro, putting a friendly hand on Shinji's shoulder. He was grinning in good humor.
"I'll bet you're probably better than me," said Shinji sadly.
"Actually, the only food I've ever been able to make is instant," replied Ishiro, "I'm not really very good at cooking at all."
Shinji fumbled for a reply, but Ishiro cut him off. "So how about sharing some of your secrets with me huh?"
Shinji couldn't help but laugh at the pleading look on Ishiro's face. "Well…" he began.
They talked long into the night about one thing or another. Finally, Ishiro had had enough. "Well," he said, stretching, "I think I'm ready to try again at sleeping." He left. Not much later, Shinji too went to bed.
As Ishiro lay in bed, staring up at the ceiling, he got an idea. He had been thinking more intently on the situation in Tokyo 3. He needed to warn Rei. He needed to inform her that the next attack would be on Terminal Dogma itself.
Slowly, Ishiro's eyes closed and he sent his mind across the passage of space and time, trying to find some hint of Rei's mind. After few minutes of searching, he found her consciousness. She was waiting. Carefully, so as not to alert her to any mental probing, Ishiro extracted from Rei's consciousness all the information to be found on the situation back home.
They had been cut off. Manda was somewhere near Tokyo 3 and was silencing all their attempts at communication. Rei was never far from Unit 00. Ishiro realized that they couldn't know about the real threat. Finally, Ishiro sent his message. Rei…
Rei had been sleeping in quarters provided for her in headquarters. Up above, the structures of Tokyo 3 had been lowered into the geofront as a precaution against the impending attack. She had been resting peacefully, but then…
Rei. The voice echoed through the corridors of her mind. At first, she was startled by the strange voice in her head. She sensed the source, waiting for some sort of confirmation that it had been heard.
What? she responded.
Terminal Dogma is in danger of attack, said the voice.
This I know, replied Rei.
Not from Manda! exclaimed the voice, Manda is only a diversion, a distraction to draw your attention from the real threat that will come from the ground below Terminal Dogma itself.
What is it?
There is no time, you must take Unit 00 and stand guard over Lilith. The voice vanished from her mind, leaving Rei, uncertain about what she was to do.
***
Ishiro opened his eyes and sighed. There was little else he could do. No doubt, they would be unable to penetrate the blanket of silence that Manda had thrown over the city. Hopefully, Rei could kill or drive away whatever it was that was trying to reach Terminal Dogma.
Ishiro slowed his breathing and closed his eyes and tried to get some sleep for the next day.
***
"Commander," Rei's voice came almost timidly from the doorway of Gendo's office.
"Yes Rei?" inquired Gendo. It was unlike Rei to come to him for anything.
"I need to take Unit 00 to Terminal Dogma," was all that Rei said.
"Why? Manda is outside the geofront, there is not need to fall back to Terminal Dogma yet." The Commander raised a wary eyebrow. This was not like Rei at all to make seemingly irrational requests.
"I wish to stand guard over Lilith directly," replied Rei evenly, "I believe that Manda may be only a diversion to keep our attention from a threat that will come from below Terminal Dogma."
"How do you rationalize this?" hissed Ikari.
"When Manda first came to Tokyo 3, he attacked less than a day after he arrived. Now, Manda has been in the area for more than three days and he still has not attacked, he is waiting."
Gendo wasn't sure whether he could allow Rei to go through with this. Naturally, she knew whatever he knew, but this was unprecedented. Rei had never used the information he had given her before to formulate her own opinions. Something strange was going on. Gendo Ikari resolved to get to the bottom of it. But first, the matter of Manda and this other possible threat needed to be attended to.
"Very well," was all that he said.
He was getting closer. After plowing through miles of solid rock for weeks on end, he had finally reached his goal. His horn glowed all the brighter to mirror the excitement he was feeling. Soon, he would reach his prey and take her home.
***
The sun rose over the Nevada desert. The day of the test had arrived. Ishiro said few words as they prepared for breakfast. From the look of the darkening of skin under his eyes, it was clear that he had not slept well that night. Shinji doubted however, that the day's test was the source of his insomnia. Ishiro did not complain however and only continued calmly with eating breakfast.
Two hours later, sealed away neatly in the entry plug of Unit 14, Ishiro went out to meet his opponent. The harsh sun beat down on the armor of the black Eva. In the cockpit, Ishiro tapped his fingers impatiently, waiting for his target to come into view.
"Would you hurry up," he snapped, finally tired of how long it was taking these fools to deploy their stupid robot.
"Such advanced technology as our Jet Alone robot needs preparation time," replied the head of the team controlling the Jet Alone robot. Even now he still sounded like he was trying to solicit the robot to somebody. "You'll be pummeled by it soon enough."
"An enemy wouldn't give you time to prepare," retorted Ishiro, grinning savagely, "So what if I pretended to be an enemy."
"It doesn't matter. We're launching the robot now."
The doors of the underground silo slid open to reveal the hulking form of the Jet Alone robot as it ascended on a platform to the surface. Well, thought Ishiro, It looks like we're going to just have to crush this annoying tin can and show these fools just how long a way they still have to go.
A voice came over the omm.. "The test will begin in five…four…three…two…one…begin!"
As the countdown reached the starting point, Ishiro threw Unit 14 into motion. The Eva dodged sideways as the Jet Alone lunged forward to attack. The massive robot swung with its heavy right arm, attempting to land a punch on its considerably more agile opponent. Unit 14 dodged around the punch with ease. As it did so, it brought its right elbow down hard on the extended limb. The blow shattered the Jet Alone's arm like glass, the forward section crumbling to the ground.
With a mighty leap, Unit 14 jumped back away from the clumsy machine and waited. As Ishiro had anticipated, the Jet Alone began to charge up its main weapon, its AT Buster. He merely smiled and waited while the cannon gained power enough to fire.
"Ishiro!" shouted Misato, "What are you doing? You need to take that thing out before it can get off a shot."
Ishiro knew that he indeed did have the time to simply destroy the robot before it could fir its AT Buster; however, he instead chose to wait. We need to show these fools how useful an AT field really can be, he thought calmly, Right Erika?
Of course, replied the spirit of Erika calmly. Ishiro calmly raised Unit 14's hand, palm outward aw if he were going to try and catch the enemy's beam. Unit 14's palm began to glow orange.
"What's he doing?" wondered Shinji.
"It looks like he's going to try and catch that blast like a baseball," remarked Touji.
"He's more stupid than the stooges!" exclaimed Asuka. From their position behind the Eva, they couldn't see the orange glow of its palm.
Ishiro waited calmly for the attack to come. Suddenly, he raised his eyebrow. Now!
At that exact moment, the Jet Alone fired. The beam from its AT Buster quickly narrowed as it neared the Eva. However, Ishiro had placed Unit 14's hand directly in the path of the beam. As the beam hit the Eva's open palm, it dispersed against the orange glowing surface and flowed in weak streams around the edges of the Eva's hand and between the fingers, splashing uselessly against its armor.
"What is that?" gasped Hikari, amazed.
"It looks like he concentrated all his AT field's power into his Eva's palm, where it could be easily moved to intercept the incoming blast," observed Misato, "He really did know what he was doing."
Ishiro was not done yet however. With but a thought, he sent his Eva charging forward, hand extended to block the continuing blast issuing from the Jet Alone's AT Buster. When Unit 14 reached the robot, it clamped its shielded hand down tight on the barrel from which the attack had issued forth. The effect was almost immediate. Small explosions blossomed all across the robot's body. The Jet Alone began to come apart at the seams. Even as it did so, its nuclear reactor shut down to keep from setting off a massive nuclear explosion. Defeated, the remains of the once powerful machine sagged to the ground, never to move again.
"Well," commented Ishiro, "I suppose that that seals the fate of the Jet Alone series. They'll never be able to compete with the adaptability of the Eva or the AT field."
***
Rei waited calmly in the bowels of NERV for her enemy to appear. Per her request, Unit 00 had been stationed in Terminal Dogma itself to intercept the threat she believed would come to here directly. Much to her surprise, Rei didn't have to wait long.
She had positioned her Eva so that it stood directly in front of Lilith where she was suspended on her massive cross. In front of Unit 00, the floor of the massive cavern seemed to disappear. LCL flowed into the hole like bathwater running down a giant drain. Through the rushing current, a large creature leapt from the hole like some titanic, grotesque frog.
The monster must have been approximately twenty-five meters tall. Its skin was light brown color that matched that of the earth around it. A series of low ridges ran down the length of its back and down its tail. Its ears were almost like the fins of some sort of amphibian as they jutted out behind the beast's head. Its most prominent feature was the glowing horn that jutted straight out of its face, right between the two very large and round eyes. Its broad mouth was lined with razor sharp teeth that gleamed white in the darkness of Terminal Dogma. The creature moved about on all fours, crouching mostly on its back legs as if it were waiting to spring.
And spring it did, right for Unit 00's neck. Rei was unprepared for the creature's speed and failed to react in time to keep the monster from landing on her Eva's chest and sinking its teeth into the Eva's neck. Rei brought Unit 00's fist up and smashed it on the monster's head. The monster released Unit 00's neck and dropped to the ground. However, instead of hitting limply, the creature jumped the instant its feet had enough purchase, carrying it away from Unit 00.
The monster began to leap around like a maddened cricket. It jumped from side to side, up, forwards, backwards, bouncing off of walls and ceilings, crazily. Rei tried hard to keep up with the monster's incredible movement, but found that it was moving too fast. Without warning, the beast careened off one of the cavern walls and smashed into Unit 00's right shoulder. Such was the force of the blow that the Eva was thrown to the ground almost instantly. The creature bounced away again, only to come back, heading straight for Unit 00's head. This time however, Rei lashed out with her Eva's foot, kicking the monster straight in the face. She winced in pain as the horn projecting from the creature's forehead punctured the sole. The creature was thrown across the cavern, Unit 00's blood staining the tip of its horn.
Rei got her Eva back to its feet and faced off once again with her adversary. They began to size one another up. At a quarter of the Eva's size and probably about a tenth its weight, the monster hardly seemed a match for the mighty man-made machine. However, Rei now knew from experience that this kaiju was far more dangerous than it seemed.
***
The Command Center was in an uproar. No one had expected a monster to attack Terminal Dogma itself. In addition to this, the monster down there certainly wasn't Manda. Ritsuko and the three technicians frantically monitored the condition of the Eva.
"Unit 00 appears to be mostly unharmed," reported Maya.
"Mostly?" said Ritsuko, raising an eyebrow.
"It does have a puncture on one foot but it's hardly anything life threatening."
"Where on Earth could this monster have come from?" wondered Shigeru, "I can't believe that it tunneled into Terminal Dogma directly."
"So," mumbled Gendo from where he had seated himself, "It appears that Rei's intuition was correct after all."
Fuyutsuki nodded in agreement, and then asked, "What will we call this kaiju."
"This kaiju will be designated Baragon," stated Ikari firmly.
"Understood."
***
Unit 00 and Baragon faced one another, waiting. Baragon's lips curled back and the monster snarled menacingly. It was clear that he had no intention of backing down from this challenge. In Unit 00, Rei waited patiently, hoping for some sort of opening that would allow her to finish off this creature.
Baragon tensed and Rei prepared for the attack. The kaiju leapt straight for Unit 00's face, its jaws open wide. Just as Rei was about to counter, the back of Baragon's throat glowed orange and red and the monster spit fire at her Eva. Plasma, not all that dissimilar from Godzilla's atomic heat beam, save for the fact that it was not radioactive in nature.
The plasma was very hot and would have undoubtedly melted through Unit 00's armor with very little resistance. However, the NT-20 artificial diamond armor did its job and the energy of the blast was absorbed by the coating and channeled into a special battery situated near the umbilical plug. Unit 00's fist lashed out and slammed into Baragon's jaws, knocking out several teeth and sending the monster hurtling backwards, ending the torrent of plasma. Looking at the battery's power reading, she saw that it was about halfway full.
"Dr. Akagi," Rei called over the Comm., "I have a plan."
***
"What do you want?" asked Ritsuko.
"Send down the prototype plasma cannon," ordered Rei, "I will use it on Baragon."
"But how?" Maya wanted to know, "In order to plug it into the energy pool, you would have to remove the umbilical cable. That would only give you five minutes of operating time."
"It may be enough," replied Rei calmly.
"Do it," ordered Ritsuko.
***
In the storage bay where the plasma cannon was being readied, work crews frantically strapped it into cables that were then hooked onto a crane so that it could be lowered into Terminal Dogma for use by Unit 00. Once the cannon was hooked up, it was transported and lowered slowly down the enormous shaft that lead down to the cavern. As soon as this had been accomplished, the technicians began to slowly lower the weapon down into the shaft.
***
Unit 00 stood firm as Baragon unleashed another blast of plasma at it. After a moment of soaking up the energy, Rei sent the Eva bursting through the curtain of flames and charging at the monster. Baragon leapt backwards away from Unit 00. Not pausing as its feet touched the ground; Baragon pushed off and leapt for the Evangelion. Rei threw out the Eva's arms and knocked Baragon away.
Baragon hit the ground running and bounded around Unit 00 to attack from the rear. Rei had difficulty keeping up with the agile creature, spinning her Eva to keep it in front of her. Tired of trying to get behind the Eva, Baragon simply charged straight at it and leapt to the side at the last minute. Caught by the feint, Unit 00 had lunged forward to counter the attack. It was still off balance when Baragon came hurtling at it from the side. Having no other option, Rei had her Eva throw itself to the ground as Baragon flew overhead.
At that moment, Ritsuko's voice came over the omm.. "The rifle should be reaching your position in approximately thirty seconds."
"Understood," replied Rei. Getting Unit 00 to its feet, she positioned the Eva beneath the shaft leading up to the upper reaches of headquarters and readied herself to receive the rifle as it came down. She would have to be quick, removing her umbilical cable and plugging in the rifle to the power supply. Baragon took the opportunity to spit more plasma at the Eva which Rei ignored as the power gauge reached the top.
There it was, the rifle, being lowered as a fast as possible, trailing the power cord behind it. Unit 00 caught the weapon its arms. Holding the gun tucked under one arm, the Eva caught hold of the plug in its free hand. Rei then ejected the umbilical plug and inserted the rifle's plug as fast as possible. Immediately, a counter appeared at the edge of her vision, showing that she only had five minutes of operating time left. Bracing the rifle's stock against its shoulder, the Eva readied the weapon to fire.
"Transferring power from energy pool to plasma cannon," reported Rei. The power gauge showing the amount of energy harvested from the NT-20 artificial diamond armor dropped, while a corresponding gauge showing the charge of the plasma cannon rose. When the plasma cannon was fully charged, Rei carefully aimed at Baragon.
During the whole battle, Rei had been exceptionally careful to make sure that she kept her Eva positioned between Baragon and Lilith. She had failed once or twice, but at each point, Baragon seemed more interested in removing the threat her Eva presented than heading for Lilith. Now, as she aimed her shot and made Unit 00 kneel down on one knee to brace for the recoil, she lined up the shot so that the blast, if it didn't kill the monster outright, would send Baragon flying back into the hole from which he came. As she aimed, the monster reared up on its hind legs and unleashed another torrent of plasma energy at her, which only served to refill the energy pool which she had drained to charge the plasma cannon.
Rei waited as patiently as she could while the targeting cursor moved over the monster and the seconds passed rapidly, her time left dwindling as the numbers reached closer and closer to zero. In truth, she had a little more than four whole minutes left, but her desperation seemed to shorten each second exponentially, making time seem to go even faster. Finally, a tone sounded. She had a lock on Baragon. Using another precious second, Rei double-checked that everything was ready, and then pulled the trigger.
Immediately, the Eva was rocked by the powerful recoil. Only the fact that it had braced itself on one knee kept Unit 00 from toppling over backwards as the gun kicked back. For moment, Rei was blinded by the brilliant flare of gold light that filled her vision. The blast of energy streaked towards Baragon, striking him full in the chest. The beast was instantly thrown backwards by the force of the blast, flying neatly into the hole it had created just as Rei had planned. Baragon hit the sloping roof of the tunnel and ricocheted out of sight. As the monster left the line of fire, the plasma beam struck the roof of the tunnel, turning it into a shower of debris, filling the entrance and blocking the path by which the creature had come.
Rei channeled all the power remaining in the energy pool into the plasma cannon. It wasn't anywhere near a full charge, but she hoped it would be enough should Baragon come back. Rei waited, carefully training the plasma cannon on the collapsed entrance of the tunnel, expecting the rock and debris to explode outward and the monster to burst back into the cavern. She waited tensely until Unit 00's time ran out. The vast windows of the cockpit faded away into the metallic walls of the entry plug. Unit 00 was out of power.
Because the Eva no longer had any power flowing into its systems, it was unable to replace its umbilical cable. Gendo immediately sent down a tech crew to plug the umbilical cable back in so that Unit 00 would be ready should Baragon return.
The monster did not come back. Even as all eyes were turned tensely on Terminal Dogma, Shigeru noticed that communications had been restored. Manda had apparently departed for parts unknown.
Ritsuko did not hesitate to contact Misato.
***
"You're kidding," exclaimed Misato over the phone.
"That's the reason you didn't hear from us for over a week. Manda apparently took up residence in our harbor so that this other monster, Baragon, could attack Terminal Dogma directly." Ritsuko had called Misato while they were transporting Unit 14 back to Tokyo 3.
"You weren't the only one who had problems with monsters," replied Misato, "We had to deal with both Godzilla and some creature Ishiro called Battra on our way over."
"Another monster! How many more of these things are there?"
"They must be a follow up for the Angels," remarked Misato.
"Well, since you didn't call, I can assume that no major damage was done," said Ritsuko.
"If Manda had disrupted your communications, how did you know that I didn't call you?" asked Misato.
"Two things," answered Ritsuko, "First, if you tried to call us and couldn't reach us because of the blackout, you would have sent Shinji and Asuka over right away because that would imply that Manda might be back. Second, if you had called and couldn't reach us, the first words out of your mouth when I called you would be 'I've been trying to call you'."
"You have a point," conceded Misato.
"Anyway, after today we can say that the plasma cannon has been successfully tested," announced Ritsuko.
"Why's that?" Misato wanted to know.
"We were forced to use it in the fight against Baragon," Ritsuko answered back, "And other than the fact that we haven't been able to come up with a way to work around the umbilical power system, it functioned flawlessly."
"That's good to know," commented Misato.
"So how did the combat test go?"
"It went great. Ishiro completely totaled the Jet Alone robot. He even managed to effectively counter its AT Buster by concentrating the full power of Unit 14's AT field into a small space; he was able to combat the beam's penetrating power."
"That's good to know. At least now, the Jet Alone project won't be stealing any of our funding until their next 'big advance'."
"Does that mean I can get a raise?"
"Not on your life Katsuragi."
***
Upon boarding the carrier for the trip home, Ishiro had locked himself into his cabin and hadn't emerged for quite some time. Shinji and Asuka had both attempted to coax him out without success. He did not emerge from his room for a week except for meals, which he bolted down as quickly as possible, returning to his room as soon as he finished.
Then, a week after they left the U.S, the door to Ishiro's cabin swung opened. He rushed out of the room and ran up to the flight deck where he looked around frantically. There, he spotted Shinji and Asuka as they looked out at the ocean over the edge of the flight deck. Ishiro rushed over to them and grabbed both of them in a bone crushing bear hug.
"I DID IT!" he shouted gleefully, "IdiditIdiditIdidit!"
"Did what," choked Shinji, working around the hold Ishiro had on him.
"I figured out how Godzilla can regenerate so quickly. I've managed to isolate Regenerator G-1!" Ishiro was positively ecstatic.
"You did?" gasped Asuka, finally managing to pry Ishiro's arm from her shoulders.
"That's great," said Shinji, as he finally broke free from his own imprisonment.
"So what are you going to do now?" Asuka asked.
Ishiro managed to calm down enough to answer. "I'm going to research its possible applications to medicine."
"Like you told Touji," remarked Shinji. Ishiro nodded. "That's great."
***
It plunged onward. Already it had passed through the cloud of meteors that separated the orbits of Jupiter and Mars. As it did so, a powerful magnetic field emanating from it served to pull the cloud of meteors around it, shrouding it further from identification. It was now only mere weeks from its goal. Soon, it would arrive at its destination and finish its grim work. It had tried once before to destroy the planet that had nearly become its grave, now that it had finally regained its strength, it planned to finish the job. The planet Earth would become a bed of ashes. And the black beast that had repelled it before would become a smoldering corpse.
For this chapter I really started to reach out. Part of this story borrows from GMK. Hopefully, if my writing is good enough, this will make more sense as the story goes on. By now, almost all of you (if not all of you) have figured out who my visitor from outer space is. For those of you who don't know, I'll keep from releasing any spoilers, provided the reviews don't already give it away. My postings are starting to catch up with the number of chapters that I've written. I'll post one more time next week, and then I'm taking a brief brake from this story to work on a couple of others. As a little heads up, keep your eyes peeled for the final chapters of my Zoids story on Anime Admirers. I've also got a Rurouni Kenshin fic in the works that'll also be making its debut on Anime Admirers. That's all for now.