Yes chapter 3 here…more battle…more often…all the while the Children are raising hell in Tokyo. R&R pls. yes...seems a bit early for a large battle in the story...but technically, the plot hasn't even started to unravel, so don't worry...definitely not short...
Chp. 3 Turning of the Tide
Back at central command, Takeda and Kaji were watching the battle unfold.
"Heh heh. You owe me another twenty bucks." chuckled Kaji, as they watched Tai's Lancer blow through two MCV's with one blast of his now recharged cannons.
"He is just amazing. All the other commanders were also quite speechless after watching his...spectacular performances. Heck, I bet you another twenty that you can't name all the colleges that he's graduated from."
"I bet I won't be able to pronounce one of them. I know that he graduated from Harvard Medical School, Oxford, Sarahishiki which me, Tai, Misato, and Akagi went to, and he probably also graduated from some German university which I can't pronounce."
"I can't pronounce the German university either." Admitted Takeda. "But he somehow graduated from all of them within five years. Well, technically, he didn't graduate, actually he transferred from one to another, but he had completed the majority of the courses which he took."
"So he really did graduate from Sarahishiki in two years, and then faked his death right before graduation day… tell me, is Tai supposed to be human?"
On screen, Tai slashed apart several more MCV's. I don't know why the hell we don't just send him to take out the base…
Takeda, still watching the screen, said, "Well, of course he's human. Just your average person, really. Average person who can shoot a stone from five hundred paces, pilot a G-suit, make 15 miles in an hour on foot, and catch the of every female in a room…accidentally on that note." Takeda grinned, "Not to mention, became the division commander of the elite unit of an international rebel organization at the age of 24. And I haven't even mentioned his exploits as part of a GLA operatives group."
Kaji grinned and added, "(He's been in the GLA for over six years now!?) Heh, you should've seen him at the first college prom at Sarahishiki. Before that as well. He got ambushed about six times a day by the girls for about a week, beforehand. I was ambushed several times as well…of course they stopped after I made a public announcement that I was going with Katsuragi. Forgot who he went with…no, actually, I don't think he went with anyone. And from what I know from past experience, he's not very good with girls. But then again, ten years can change a lot about a person…"
Takeda quickly turned away from the technicians, several of whom were laughing silently so hard that they seemed to be unable to do anything, and struggled to keep a straight face.
Juking his Hellscythe sharply to the right, then to the left, Matt dodged the bulk of several waves of missiles fired blindly by a SEELE pilot. The ones that hit his G-suit splattered on the left arm, leaving a series of blackened spots on the scratched up but otherwise fine armor.
Only a direct from naval-class weapons or energy-based (aka lasers of some sort) could actually scratch the heavily armored mobile suit. It was plated with acryllium, a form of reforged diamond fused with titanium alloy properties. Matt then launched into a series of fluid movements that left his enemies confused and intimidated, allowing him to easily get closer to his targets for him to use his giant scythe.
Dodging streams of autocannon shells that would have otherwise hammered his plating, his Hellscythe danced among the SEELE forces, wielding his lethal titanium scythe, which could slice through any known substance in a matter of milliseconds using vibro-tech. This seems almost too easy, thought Matt, I know that our forces have better technology, well, usually, and are better trained, but I can't help but feel that there is something wrong. Could this be a diversion?
Suddenly the lights in his cockpit flared red, and not a moment sooner, his G-suit was rocked by a series of explosions. Another flight of missiles struck him from behind, disintegrating part of his wings and nearly throwing Matt out of his seat. He bashed his head against something as he tried to see what was going on.
"Curse it!" Matt swung his G-suit around and launched three flights of mini-missiles in an arc in the direction of his assailant. The SEELE pilot who was foolhardy enough to attack Matt from behind was hit by twelve of the eighteen mini-missiles; two to the right arm, three to the chest, and seven blew through the left arm of the unlucky MCV, severing completely.
The pilot, in a panic, turned to escape, but Matt swiftly raised his Deathscythe's left arm and fired a heat-seeking sonic torpedo which sailed straight at the fleeing MCV, smashed into its back, exploded, and ruptured the systems inside. Matt, feeling a sudden pain on his head, instinctively put his hand to the spot. He felt something wet and on withdrawing his hand, he saw that it was bloody. Oh boy, this could suck…
About a hundred miles east of Matt and Tai's battle, The Vanguard superiority fighters faced off against their SEELE counterparts. The difference between this battle and the other, was that it was not evenly matched. The SEELE fighters had superior engines, Ferro-fibrous armor, and more powerful weapons.
The battle seen from a distance would look like a laser show with fireworks. There were PPC's (Particle Projection Cannon) and pulse lasers flying across the sky, leaving wrecked plates of armor flying around. The thing that kept the Vanguard forces from being completely annihilated was their overall superior skills and training, along with their ever-helpful cloaking device, which allowed them to disappear from sight at will for short amounts of time. Also, their weapons were more accurate and had a farther range than their SEELE counterparts, though each individual ship was not as heavily armed. Yet as the battle dragged on, the heavily outnumbered and outgunned Vanguard began to take casualties.
The 9th Steel Storm command unit, being led by Lieutenant General Hogan, had already taken 30 casualties, while the 6th and 10th Air Calvary, the main fighter units of the Vanguard, were down to 80 of their original force. Apparently, the more SEELE units destroyed, the more that came to take their place.
Hogan, threw his fighter (like most of the Vanguard leaders, they had their own personalized fighting machine and a command unit), a heavily modified Scytha-class FX-02 AeroHawk, into a rapid spin to the right to avoid streams of autocannons and PPC's. From on either side, his wing mates, Rob McShay (King's Man 01) and Hyuki Akari (King's Man 02), spun with him and returned fire from their own Scytha-class fighters with Ultra autocannons and PPC's. "King's Man 01 and 02, lets turn and blow that idiotically-large concentration of bogies at 5'O clock at 26 meters lower to kingdom come!"
"Roger." Came the two replies.
Their three-man formation suddenly pulled up and spun around, heading towards the enemy concentration of fighters. I'd think that under all that techno crap they'd be smart enough to armor their rear ends. They would hit them from behind, taking the majority of them if they didn't react fast enough. Hogan called into his intercom, "Okay boys, tie all your weapons systems to the same inter-lock circuit, 'cus we are gonna blow a hole right through them. After we come through, I want us to all break away, for the surviving retards will try to return the favor."
"Okay, commence fire." All at once, the three birds-of-war let loose their lethal cargo, a fury of PPC's, Pulse laser, autocannons, and in Hogan's case, mini-rockets. They made the air in front of them sparkle and light up with all the weapons fire. Hogan whooped through his intercom as he released wave after wave of min-rockets, which in waves streamed towards their designated targets, leaving plume of exhaust and smoke in their wake.
Since the backs of the SEELE fighters had almost no armor, the barrage would take out most of them, if not all. The PPC's and autocannons hit first, almost simultaneously, taking out four of the rear fighters and causing the other to almost quake in their flight as the exploding shells tore off sections of armor plating. Then Hogan's mini-rockets followed, ramming into the thrusters of the remaining fighters, causing internal explosions, which ruptured the whole aircraft. Laughing as they flew over the burning wreckage, currently on its way to the bottom of the ocean, "God, they are so pathetic." Laughed Rob, wiggling his wings
"We took out all of them in one pass. That was at least a dozen planes we shot down."
Calculated Akari, "That was a nice shot."
"Okay, Steel Storm, form up, we going to cover the retreat back to base."
"What," cried Rob incredulously, "We're kicking their asses!"
"And taking casualties in the process," countered Hogan, "We don't have the same unlimited resources as SEELE. Lest you forget, we're the rebel faction here. And anyways, check your sensor reading and radar, what do they tell you?"
Akari, being the fast one, had already checked them and calmly replied, "There is another air armada approaching our position. There is one Mammoth-class Battlecriser, along with another fleet of SEELE aircraft and MCV's."
This is all too easy, thought Takeda, SEELE can't be this weak. It has to be some sort of diversion…
Breaking his chain of thought, one of the technicians looked up from his radar read out and yelled, "Second SEELE air armada approaching from west. Shall I order the retreat? Commander…?" Takeda rested his chin on his hand, thinking, well, it's about time…
"Yes, ask General Hogan to call the retreat."
"Message sent, sir"
Hogan had called the retreat, and now, there was a stream of aircraft heading back to Vanguard HQ. His Steel Storm unit was holding off the enemy, giving time fro the rest of his command to escape. After the last of the stragglers had gotten some distance, he called for his unit to retreat as well, at least, what was left of it. The large air armada continued its path to the Vanguard base undaunted, like a giant swarm of hungry insects, closing in on their prey. Hogan took one last look at the huge group and thought, this may be the end of us, then he turned and hit his thrusters, shooting back towards the Vanguard HQ.
The air around him seemed to turn blood red and cackle with lightning as hundreds of laser beams and PPCs flew around him, slamming into his unit, blowing one MCV after another after another out of the sky. Some of the crimson beams found their mark, tracing their way up his G-unit, yet only succeeding at making the paint job hiss and bubble. On the other hand, the PPC's that hit home on the Blue Lancer began leaving blackened plates of the acryllium armor, sending blue electrical lightning jumping around Tai's Gear Fighter.
The blasts of PPC's jolted Tai in his cockpit, and would've sent him flying if he didn't have two seat belts crisscrossed across his chest. In defiance, Tai tied all of his weapons systems to the same targeting computer and trigger, and pulled it. His G-suit immediately released its own laser show as it launched two shotguns style slugs and blasted two streams of autocannon shells into the Battle Cruiser nearest to him. Looking on his radar, he saw that most of the SEELE MCV's had been destroyed, so he called into his intercom,
"All units target the capital ships."
There is something…hovering right above us…something spelling doom…. I just can't place it…,thought Tai. He then immediately thought of something. But before he could speak into his communicator, an urgent voice came out of it yelling, "Sir, the Evangelions have appeared!"
Tai looked up and saw on his front screen and saw three larger than Gear Fighter-sized humanoids figures with wings approaching them. They seemed to be wielding rather sinister looking blades. Oh joy…the big boys are here, he thought.
He proceeded to yell, "All units, retreat! I repeat, retreat back to base! Matt, Kurama, Li-chan, and Kairi, you're all with me! We need to take out the Evangelions!"
All around them, Vanguard forces disappeared into thin air as they turned on their cloaking shields. The pitiful remnants of the SEELE MCV's turned tail and retreated as well, parting to give room for the Evangelions as well.
"Actually, belay that last order, back to base with all of you. I need to test something."
"But-"
"No' buts'; this is a direct order."
The rest of the Gear Fighter pilots reluctantly returned to base, flying backwards to see what Tai would do.
Shinji, Asuka, and Rei, now all lived in Misato's condo, which surprisingly had not been claimed by the bank when they had not payed the rent for nearly two weeks. Asuka and Shinji had invited Rei to live at the condo the day after the fall of NERV. Actually, it was mostly Asuka.
"Your apartment doesn't have a lock, and there is no NERV security any more. Not to mention, the neighborhood your apartment is in is full of gangsters and hoodlums."
Rei, surprisingly, accepted the invitation. Asuka, who apparently was regaining her old personality back (a little too quick for Shinji though), had somehow convinced Rei to share a bunk with Shinji by saying that she had too much stuff in her room, while Pen-Pen would not have liked Rei taking Misato's room, and that they should leave Misato's room like it was in remembrance of her. Rei didn't seem to accept Asuka's lame excuse, but accepted anyways for her own reasons.
Shinji nearly fainted when Asuka informed him that Rei would be sleeping in the same bunk bed. Rei, as usual, did not mind at all having to share a room with a boy.
"Gash, gah, gah…"
"Oh come on Shinji, you and the First are a perfect match, so it's not that bad," said
Asuka, fighting the urge to laugh. "Anyways, you do like her, right?"
"How can anyone be so cruel," whined Shinji. He fell on his knees in despair.
"Well, I can switch rooms with you, only if you agree to two conditions; one, you ask Rei out on a date, and two, you at least attempt to kiss her." She was leaning on the walls, her face showing the strain of trying not to laugh.
"WHAT KIND OF SICK, DISGUSTING MONSTER ARE YOU!!!?" yelled Shinji,
"DO YOU ONLY TAKE DELIGHT IN THE MISERY OF OTHERS!!!!!?"
"Oh come now, Shinji, you'll thank me for this in the future." She picked herself off the ground and regained her posture, "Either way, you'll gain valuable experience about how to deal with girls, not to mention learn how a girl thinks. Of course, that's only if you're very perceptive. But don't worry, I believe in you." And with that she smirked at Shinji and left the room. He then heard Asuka burst out laughing somewhere in the living room. I'll get you for this!
Maybe I should see if I could sleep over at Kensuke's house, thought Shinji. He knew that he would have to prepare for the worst. When he was forced to stay with Asuka, she had nearly given him a heart attack in the first few hours by pretending to flash him. He would not forget that for a while. Then Shinji thought, or maybe I could sleep on the living room couch and let Rei sleep on the bed…yeah…I'll do that…
Hundreds of miles away, there was another person making another tough decision. This person was sitting in the cockpit of a heavily modified custom G-suit XF-91, complete with customized twin Blitzkrieg Auto-Shotguns and two heavy Raigeiki Ultra autocannons (You know those big guns on a battleship? The shells it shoots have the same power as this, except it's got the firing rate of a machine gun); a rather ominous sight for enemies of the Vanguard.
Tai Kotone was deciding whether or not to go on the offensive or not. He was looking through his computer database for the analysis of the Evangelions 05-13. He couldn't find much, except that they were not piloted by a person, but the cloned mind of some girl they referred to as the "First Child". He'd have to look her up later when he hacked into the SEELE database again. He pushed away the keyboard.
Peculiar, they had Evangelions 00-04 piloted by people without many problems, wonder why they decided to switch to CP's. Tai tensed his muscles as the Evangelions began circling around him.
Chairman Kriel sat in his seat watching the events unfold. In the darkened room, the rest of SEELE had convened
"So, that naïve pilot thinks he can take on 3 units by himself…Well, we must teach him a lesson in humility. Sadly he won't be able to correct his mistake…Commence the attack!"
"But Kriel, I believe that's the Blue Lancer, one of their secret projects, called the "Gear Fighters"; they have considerable power, made to combat our EVA units, and this one in particular is being piloted by their most skilled pilot. The "Gear Fighters" are far larger than the MCV's they use, with much more armor and weaponry. What's more, there are rumors that they have perfected the nuclear engines, which will function as well as the S2 engines for the Evas, and some sort of generator that copies the AT fields, thereby canceling them out. We may take casualties, you understand?"
"Hmmm…then perhaps the Evangelions should wait and see what happens, but not engage."
"Of course."
Gear Fighters…an interesting idea…similar to the Evas, but completely inorganic…a super mechanical combat suit basically…
Very interesting…this battle shall provide much data for both the Evas and on the opposition…
Meanwhile, Shinji was pacing around in his room brainstorming hopeless ideas. He thought back to when Misato had him and Asuka live together for five days. He was wondering he could do the same with Rei.
Maybe I'll try for one day and see what happens. I guess it won't be that bad, at least she's slightly more sociable now...I think…damn…gotta stop drinking caffeine-enriched water…
Then the doorbell rang, "Ding-dong…Ding-dong"
"I'll get it!" called Shinji. He ran to the door and opened the door. Shielding his eyes from the sun, he saw the shadowed figure of a boy slightly larger than himself. "Um, can I help you?", he said blinking.
WHUUNNKKK!!!!!!! The leg of a metal stilt slammed on top of his head, sending stars flying across his eyes. "Ow!" Shinji gripped his head, trying to sort out what had just happened.
"What da ya mean 'help me', you dumbass!!"
That voice…sounds familiar…
"I'm talkin' to you SHINJI!! I didn't come here for no reason ya know."
………blank mind…………
"Hello, this is your friend in need, Toji."
Shinji blinked stupidly, with a look of dawning apprehension on his face. Apparently, he was still struggling to input this piece of information.
"Well, its been a while. Why din' ya come and see me, even 'ikari, 'da class rep came and saw me." Said Toji, chugging a soda. He reclined on the sofa and belched loudly.
"I thought you were dead! At least that's what they told me." Shinji blabbered out. "Wait a sec, did you say that Hikari visited you."
"Ya, an' we had a rather interesting conversation." He paused, "By the way, I heard that Ayanami's also moved 'n with ya. If thats so, den you are da luckiest bastard on da planet…or at least in this side 'o Tokyo…living with da three best lookin' girls in da city. One more thing, I heard from Hikari, who heard from Asuka, that Ayanami's stayin' in da same room as you…heh heh, Ikari ya wily old fox…wished it coulda been me…"
"WHAT!!" shouted Shinji standing up, and spilling his soda in the process. He quickly ripped some tissues out of the nearby box and attempted to soak up the spilt soda. Unfortunately, the soda had stained the couch fabric. Damn!
"Ah, so she is gonna to stay in ya room."
"No, not that! I mean, anyways, you didn't hear about what had happened a couple days ago!!??"
"Whaddaya mean?"
Shinji sat down and put his head in his hands.
"Unhh, how should I say this…Okay then. A couple days ago, about a week to be exact, while you were probably still in the NERV hospital a couple miles away, SEELE attempted to takeover NERV to control the Evangelion and bring about the Third Impact. First, they attempted to hack into the NERV database and take control of our computers. My fa—I mean, Commander Ikari, had Akagi counter this. SEELE then, from what I know, tried to takeover NERV HQ by force. They killed everyone. It was a massacre. They sent in some kind of death squad after they bombed us. It was like hell. Everyone was running around and screaming…" he paused as he thought back to that fateful day
"I guess you should know the full story….."—
He proceeded to recount the SEELE attack on NERV
"WHHHHAAAAAAAAATTTT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! MISATO's DEAD!!!!!!!!!!!?????????? AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRGGGGGGGHHHH"
Toji screamed clutching his head. No, he thought, this couldn't have happened while he was away. Damn it!!!!!!!!!!!
"So even Akagi, Kouzou, and everyone else are dead…?"
"Yes…"
Suddenly, the doors slammed open against the wall, making them jump up from their seats again.
A girl's voice, punctuated by heavy panting, called out from the direction of the doorway,
"Hey, pant Shinji, I've got pant pant, some news for ya'," Asuka entered the living room, shortly followed by Rei, who strangely wasn't panting, but had the same calm, masked expression everyone was used to.
Asuka, having sat down to catch her breath, stared at Toji breathlessly, while Toji, stared back, but was leaning away with a scared expression on his face. "So you really are alive…" breathed Asuka.
"Yah, so? What's it to ya'."
"Hikari kept on telling me that she kept on visiting you, and I thought she meant your grave, but I noticed that she seemed happy, which scared me at first, but then she mentioned that you weren't going to be out of the hospital for a while, which meant that you were…alive." She then snapped out of the stupor she was in and added, "You scared us half to death, you know. Shinji actually quit being a pilot the day you supposedly died, ya' know."
Toji then sighed and said, "Well I'm sorry, I mean I was unconscious throughout most 'a 'da day…"
Shinji quickly replied, "Don't worry about it, it's not your fault, it was my fault. If I had acted faster and pinned you, I mean, your Evangelion, down, I would have saved us all the trouble."
Rei, who had left the room at the beginning of the conversation, had come back with another can of soda for everyone. Shinji sneaked a look at her face, which, to his dismay, was again another mask of seriousness. Darn, and she was just starting to open up. Hmmm…she was beginning to show her true personality…wonder what made her change back. Hey…maybe…living in the same room with her may not be such a bad idea…hmmmm…interesting idea…if I could learn as much about her as I did Asuka, then I guess it would be educational, as Asuka would put it, to be roommates…
Toji quickly popped the question, casually asking, "So Rei, I hear that ya gonna be Shinji's roommate, eh?" Asuka suddenly became interested in her can of soda. Shinji choked and sprayed Toji with orange droplets.
Elsewhere on the planet, Tai was thinking. Hmmm…why won't they attack? Maybe SEELE is afraid of losing any of their precious Evangelions…Interesting…this gives me an idea…, Tai flicked on his intercom and talked quickly into it.
"Takeda, this is Tai here, commence Operation Prevention now!"
"What? But it's not scheduled for another two weeks! Kotone, you must reconsider."
"Isn't everything in place?"
"Yes but-"
"We need to stop SEELE production of Evangelions as fast as possible. You do understand do you? Even I, along with the other G-suit pilots, wouldn't be able to stop an attack force consisting of scores of those Evangelions. Well actually, we could, but not before they've destroyed most us."
"Yes, I understand. Ordering attack on SEELE Evangelion factory now. All units locked and loaded!"
"Good." Tai said. Now it's time to reveal my secret project, he thought, looking at the screen in front of him showing the Evangelions circling around them. He opened a small panel and tapped into the buttons pad a series of codes, which afterwards the panel flipped over to reveal a switch covered by a case painted with yellow and black cautionary colors. Tai, in one smooth motion, swiftly flipped open the case and flicked the switch with his left hand. A voice then filled the cockpit, "G-suit p-synchronization sequence activated. Please state name for voice confirmation."
"Taishi…Ayanami."
"Voice pattern accepted. Please lean back against headrest and grip the mental synchronization handles." Suddenly, a helmet covered Tai's head, and a visor shifted down in front of his eyes. The cockpit had also changed for the switch over from the manual control to mental synchronization, becoming not unlike the control capsules of Units 00-04.
The console had moved away, to be replaced by a pair of joystick like handles, which looked just like the "thought" handles on the human-piloted Evangelion series. The differences were that these handles would allow the consciousness of its user to directly pilot the mobile suit as if it was the user's own body, literally transferring one's mind into the A.I. engine for total and complete control of the mobile suit
A second later, Tai was testing out his newly found body by flexing the G-suits's fingers and throwing a couple of punches to test the control. Good, the synch is perfect…the brain wave patterns are being directly transferred into the AI Battle Engine. He then tested out his thrusters, streaking upward, Interesting...so this is how a bird feels like. Tai then whipped a katana, going into a few daily practice routines, he twirled around, while keeping a close eye on the ever-circling Evangelions.
"All systems okay…turn on A.T. Imitator…"
Misato awakened to alarms and a darkened room. Small, hollow booming sounds came from all around, suppressed because of the distance. She quickly got up and stretched, and feeling no pain (except for her still broken left arm), she looked at her wounds and lifted the bandages, to see that her wound had almost completely healed; she could barely make out the spot were the bullet had penetrated her body. Only then, fully awake and on her feet, did she then notice the amount of sophisticated-looking technology located in her room. There were several large machines, which were vibrating and produced a low humming sound. Wires sprawled all over the floor. She winced as she pulled out the IV needle from her arms. Ow...
Misato couldn't recognize some of the advanced electronics and machines from the last few times she had visited the NERV trauma unit. She'd have to make sure that she personally thanked Kaji's friend. She still wondered how Kaji would know anyone who owned such a well-equipped Intensive Care Unit. Must be from his spy work.
She eyed the cabinet next to her bed; it had on top of it her NERV uniform, all cleaned and repaired, along with her wallet, handgun, and on top of the pile, a security card and memopad. Misato then quickly got dressed and walked out of the room examining the card. Hmmmm…never heard of the Dragon Vanguard…no wait…I've heard of the before… Wait!!!! Aren't they some sort of terrorist group!!!?
A couple thousand miles away, somewhere in southeastern Asia, several lances of Vanguard Battle AAS proceeded to stalk through the dense forest toward the hidden SEELE Evangelion facility. Lieutenant Commander Bren Storm gripped the controls of his Thunder Hawk in quiet concentration.
Before they had deployed, he had carefully gone over the plan five times, just to make sure everyone knew what they were doing, for he knew that they had to maintain communications blackout (silence) until they had effectively engaged the SEELE forces guarding the factory.
AAS (Armored Assault Suits) were, as said before, the earlier cousins to the MCV's. Most of them were restricted to the ground, though some designs came equipped with repulsor lifts and jump jets. The reason they were still in use was because of the obvious fact that they tended to be more heavily armed and armored than the MCV's. Also, they were ideals for fighting on any kind of terrain, from forests to deserts.
Storm's Thunder Hawk was a hundred-ton leviathan, equipped with racks of missile launchers and three lethally accurate gauss rifles, which shot out titanium slugs at hypersonic speeds. Even if the slug didn't penetrate a AAS's armor (they usually didn't just penetrate them, they took out whole sections of armored plating, and would a lot of times plow right through to the titanium bones), the force of the slug would, if it made a direct hit, would probably topple over the AAS if it was a medium sized or smaller design. On either side of him, two also hundred-ton AAS, the Titans,tromped through the vegetation.
Storm was in control of one of the deadliest assault forces in the world. He had been given more than enough forces to takeover several small SEELE bases, a little more than fifty AAS, along with air support. The Vanguard had been training preparing for this assault for many months now. It had also taken months get approval from the GLA command wing. As his force began to near the SEELE factory, he began to think that something was wrong. It's too quiet out here. We should have encountered some sort of defense line. But then again, maybe Commander Takeda already had his hackers disable all of the electronics here…
In the silence of the room, everyone stared at Toji, who uncomfortably shifted in his seat.
"Ah, bad question…"
"Well, yes, I guess I am going to reside in Shinji's room." Said Rei, who then continued to sip at her drink. Asuka, then, embarrassed, looked at Shinji and shrugged her shoulder. Not seeing this, Shinji appeared to be in some kid of trance. Asuka, blushing colors, quickly broke the silence and said, "Well hey, why don't we all go down to the mall, I hear there are some new shops opening."
Shinji, still in the trance, slowly turned to face Asuka, and asked, "Exactly how many people did you tell…?"
"Ahhhh…Ummmm…let me think…um," she started counted her fingers, "Actually, I'm not quite sure." The phone rang at that moment, disrupting the conversation, which was getting quite ugly. Shinji jumped up and ran to the phone in the kitchen. He picked it up and spoke into the receiver, "Hello, this is the Katsuragi residence."
"Shinji, you censored for very offensive language #$, what the #$ do you think you're doing!!!!!!! Seriously, first you're living with Misato and Asuka, but now Ayanami's staying in your room!!!!!!!! What do you have to say for yourself!!?"
"Uhhh…hello Aida…who told you that…?"
"Asuka did."
"Oh…actually Asuka forced me into this. It was not my doing…I swear. I mean seriously, you would believe her over me?"
"Yes."
"I feel so trusted."
"You are welcome. So are you really sleeping with her? snicker."
"Kinda, but I'm probably going to give the bed an' sleep on the floor,. Or most likely the living room couch."
"Not what I meant...but anyways...you're so lucky. I'm coming over to confirm this and steal your math homework while at it. Okay? Good-bye."
"NO, KENSUKE WAIT!!!" But he heard the irritating click of Aida hanging up the phone.
Shinji grimly stalked back to the living room. "Okay, we have some unexpected company…Asuka, this company is because of you, so when he arrives, you are dealing with him yourself."
Misato was now walking around, rather lost, in the sparkling white hallways of the Vanguard HQ (of course, she didn't know where she was yet). Damn, I hate these things, she thought, playing around with the memopad, why am I the only who ever gets lost? She continued trying to get the memopad to give her the information she wanted, but it was rather hopeless. She neared a corner while staring hard at the pad, hoping, pleading with it to show her a desperately needed map. As she turned the corner, she bumped into someone, who immediately gave her a hug and a kiss. Almost out of instinct she whipped her right hand up and slapped the person, who turned out to be none other than Kaji. "Oh-oh-ohmigod. Kaji I'm so sorry." She then accidentally dropped her pad.
Kaji, touching the place where he'd been slapped, smiled and said, "Don't worry about that, I should have known better than to give you a hug when you're paranoid," He paused to bend and pick up the pad.
"Kaji, what is this place?" she asked
"It's thebase of operationsof the Dragon Vanguard."
"Aren't they some kind of terrorist group."
"Now really Misato, if they were ordinary terrorists, would you be here right now?"
"What do you mean."
"You think that a terrorist group would have the skills and technology to break into NERV while it was under attack by SEELE, and rescue you and all of the survivors of NERV right under the nose of a elite SEELE assault squad? Not to mention, without all of the electronics and techno-crap you saw in the room, you would have died a while ago."
Misato then started twiddling around her index finger a length of her unusually clean hair, showing that she was hard at work (in thought). "I take it that this group has been fighting to bring down SEELE for a while now too?"
Kaji laughed, "That is correct. Based on what I heard, it's been involved with a sort of undeclared war with SEELE and the UN for half a century. Actually, the Vanguard is part of the GLA, which you probably don't know about. A long lost acquaintance of ours decided to help us out, tut, tut, a true friend in times of need like this is hard to come by. You know, the human race only cooperates to fight off other unworldly presences so that they can fight each other afterwards."
"Kaji, why do I get the feeling that you are hiding something from me?"
"What ever do you mean?" joked Kaji smugly.
Misato at this point was getting frustrated, "So, who is that 'friend'. I am literally dying to meet him."
"Actually, that meeting could take a while. If you haven't noticed, there is some kind of war going all around us. But hey, I'll give you a tour of the place." He put his arm around her and started walking, guiding a fuming Misato through the halls.
Maya suddenly jumped awake due to a large "BOOM" which shook her room. A large crash next to her bed further brought her to her senses. Rubbing her eyes, she looked around the room.. She got up, found a stack of accessories similar to her NERV uniform; but instead, she found a different, strange uniform, apparently with a officer's jacket and handgun, which she examined warily before pick, along with the small circular object that Tai had left behind, and got dressed. She then, after examining the technology piled all around her spacious room, left the room, wondering whether or not her previous awakening to find Tai Kotone next to her. Wait, didn't Tai get killed in a car accident or something, was that meeting a dream…no…it had to be real…it felt so real…and he left this thing…
Rounding a corner, deep in thought, she bumped into two people and fell over
"Owww…sorry…I wasn't paying atten- Major Katsuragi!!!!"
Misato gasped and quickly pulled the younger girl to her feet.
"Major Katsuragi, I thought you were shot!?"
"I was, but," she pointed to Kaji, "a friend of this idiot apparently rescued all of us. And you can call me Misato from now on; I'm not exactly your commanding officer anymore, just a friend," she smiled," oh yeah, and nice uniform Maya."
"Oh this…" She blushed furiously. She was wearing a uniform with a black sweater and a officer's coat complete with insignia (though she had no idea what army had this insignia) and a black skirt, something similar to Misato's, but longer.
Kaji then said, "Well then, why don't I give both you beautiful ladies a tour of this majestic fortress. Oh yeah, we can also pick up Akagi along the way."
"Dr. Akagi's alive too?"
"Yes, barely, she says that Gendo had shot her."
"Oh…," she looked shocked, "well at least she's alive."
Ding-dong!! The doorbell rang, signaling Aida's arrival. "Okay, Toji, you lost your leg in a car accident, okay? And Asuka, this is your damnfault, so fix it!" called out Shinji as he ran to get the door. When he opened it, he quickly slammed it shut.
"ASSSSUUUUKKKAAAAAA!!!!!!!! HOW MANY PEOPLE DID YOU TELL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!?????????????? REALLLY!!!!!!!!!!"
Everyone immediately thought (except Rei, who was thinking, Is there something wrong with my staying here…?), This is not a good sign…this can never be a good sign.
Asuka quickly ran to the door and asked Shinji what was wrong. Shinji quickly told her that there were a group of kids from there school standing outside. Asuka then said that he should just say that that wasn't true. Shinji, after Asuka bolted back to the living room and shushed everyone, Shinji opened the door and said, "Um, sorry about that, may I help you?"
The girl in front of all of them (whom Shinji recognized was the girl who had asked him via instant messenger when he first came here whether or not he was the pilot of the "robot") answered, "Is it true, that Rei Ayanami is going to be staying in the same room as you?"
Damn, what kind of crap did Asuka feed them this time?"
"Huh, what are you talking about?"
"Asuka told us that you invited her to stay here and that you said that she could sleep in your room."
Why Asuka? Why me…?
"I don't know what she said, but yes, Ayanami is staying here, yes, she is staying in my room, but I'm sleeping in the living room. And it was Asuka who invited her."
With this, everyone in the small mob outside Misato's condo groaned in disappointment, "Awwwww…" then they all dispersed and left, except for the girl, who just stood there, staring curiously at Shinji, who tugged uncomfortably pulled at his collar.
"You're lying aren't you?"
"No, of course not." I am such a bad liar.
"Oh," though she didn't seem to believe him, "Okay, see you at school then" and with that, she left.
Shinji closed the door and was storming back to the living room, when he heard the doorbell ring again. He strode to the door and angrily pulled it open, "What do you want! …Oh, Aida, thought you were someone else…"
Aida, pushing his glasses up, said (and ignored Shinji's comment), "So, are you really sleeping in the same room as Aya—? "
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
end Chp. 3
After the show 3!!
Curtains close, and the lights flick on. Kaji walks on stage, followed by Maya and Ritsuko. Kaji is heavily bandaged.
Kaji: Hello people. Again, FireDragonBL won't be able to make it, as he, along with some of the cast are being detained by some very angry Massachusetts state policemen.
Maya: And Tai is busy, trying to get them out.
Ritsuko: And Misato is currently chewing out Shinji and Asuka for failing their midterms. Toji and Kensuke are nowhere to be found…probably at the local arcade. And Hikari is sick…yeah…heck with it, we'll introduce what's left of the cast.
Takeda walks onto stage.
Takeda: Good evening. I am a new member of this cast, and as you can see, one of the older ones.
Random kid in audience: Hey, you know…you look a lot like Com. Fuyutsuki
Takeda smiles.
Takeda: That's because he's my brother! Don't worry he's not dead yet…just…lost and confused…My full name is Takeda Fuyutsuki.
Matt walks.
Matt: Hello, my name is Matt Ishimura—
FireDragonBL runs onto the stage.
BL: hey people I'm back!
Kaji: How…?
BL: I'm the writer remember? I found that I could do a lot of things with a flick of my wrist. I just made it so that I escaped the car crash with no injuries and that the police failed to arrest me.
Kaji: That's not fair…
BL: It could be. (he waves his arms)
A carton of beer appears!
BL: H4H4H4H4!!!! PH34R MY N33D PH0R 833R!!!!
Takeda: You're in high school…
BL: I can change that! (he waves his arms again)
An ID appears in his hand
BL: H4H4H4H4!!!! THIS ID STATES THAT 1 4M 18!!!!!!! PH33R M4 M4D SKILLZ!!!!
Kaji: Nice!! Can you make money as well?
BL: Nah my powers are limited from monetary terms by the federal banking union.
Matt: That sucks…why don't you make it so that the guys in union listen to you?
BL: Hmmm…that's a good idea…
Kaji: Can you make people change their views about one another?
Ritsuko coughs loudly.
BL: Uh…I don't know…I'll try that later…
End ATS 3
now respected readers...R&R !!!!! pls