Disclaimer: I will finish this story by Christmas, really...
In an act of absolutely randomness, I actually salvaged my old hard-drive with all my notes on this Fic. I took it as a sign from high I ought to finish writing this.
Well, that and the parents leaving town thus I am stuck in my dorm alone also prompt me to start writing again. Otherwise I am going to get rusty. It is senior year and I have no clue when I will be doing any kind of writing again.
Ok, really honestly, I am just DAMN BORED.
Without further delay….
Random clawing of a nearby wall
Cough
fed the dorm neko
Save pillow from same said neko
Seraph of Strife and Marcos Edson INC.
Neon Genesis Evangelion
Good grief, I had to remember how to type Evangelion now
Financial disclaimer: Gainax owns Eva, if I did make any money off this, they could have it. Tsuka is Asuka post EoE and arguably Ms. Fan Service of the show, and Shinji the older is the same. I just got into a habit to denote him as the older. He also wore a number of fake and strange names throughout shows from books I read as aliases. If any reader want give him a good alternative name, let me know. Oh yea, I only has about 10 in my bank account too...so don't sue.
Chapter 16: Music in my ears
In a Mansion overlook Tokyo-2, late Evening
"All plots have to begin with a darken conference room", Shinji the older thought, "Shouldn't it?" He blinked and wondered as Kaji hand him a glass of red wine. Standing on the porch and overlooking the entire courtyard, Shinji's position gave him a commanding view over the motley crew he assembled after his base was incinerated by SEELE's machinations at the old Tokyo bay.
"Did you get a group rate to an anime Convention or something?" Shinji the older mumbled to the master spy as the two of them surveyed their "hired help." Around the yard, there were a dozen of men and women, each dressed in an outfit stranger than the rest.
Kaji smiled at Shinji's the older remark, "come now, you worked with some of them before. You can not argue they don't do good work."
"True," Shinji the older replied, "But after our recent failure, I would think you do well by raising the recruitment age," staring at one of the "Agents" standing by the buffet, "or at least the height requirement."
"It was the best I can do in a pitch. Plus, these people are recommended by him." Kaji countered, raising a hand to cut off an argument from the other man, with a distraction that would worked better with Misato than Shinji the older, Kaji pointed off to the left of them, "Is that Bird hitting on the girls?"
"Probably, that's Jing's pet Kir. Its lechery is almost legendary as yours. I have to admit, it is better at picking up women than you." As if to emphasis his point, the bird did something and all the girls that were in the swimming pool laughed.
"I resent that." Kaji answered with a look of wounded pride.
"Now stop distracting me." The older Ikari not quite that old replied, "Are you sure this crew will do?"
Kaji answered the molten glares with his trademark smirk, one that more suited for teasing Misato than a fellow operative much less boss, "Trust me. Now shouldn't we get this freak show on the road before..."
An explosion went off as the robot two "guests" were tinkering with burst in a shower of sparks and fire. The resulting explosion sent a third guest directly into the pool head first.
"Banpei!" The first girl shrieked as her beloved creation went off in a fiery explosion.
"Damn you Winlry!" The boy who landed in the pool cursed with his mouth full of water, as he floated up to the surface; neat trick for a person who has metal for arm and a leg.
"Opps." Was the reply, "too much…power?"
"...somebody gets hurt." Kaji finished with a wince.
"Very well." Shinji the older sighed. Picking up his glasses on the desk, he walked off the porch to speak with the assembled guests. As much as he hated his father, Shinji the older had to admit Gendo's Machiavellian outfit did have its uses. Especially the glasses.
Clapping his hands to get everyone's attention, Shinji the older politely waited for the water soaked guest to climb out the pool, then began, "Good evening, ladies and gentlemen, my name is, well, unimportant. Some of you knows me already, some of you don't. What I am about to offer is both incredibly dangerous and financially, well, undesirable to say the very least; it will ask you to rely on my judgment and the judgment of those around you. Our survival chances will be minimum, to say the very best. If we fail, however, the events will surely lead to a catastrophic end of every being on this planet. If you succeed however, you are likely to remain as anonymous heroes the very most, and likely to be branded as a terrorist by every major Government on the planet."
Pausing a second to gather his breath, "If this does not sound like your particular brand of sake, well, enjoy tonight's dinner and have a safe trip home, if not, follow me."
Much to his surprise, everyone did.
Below is Marcoian to say the very least, as I have nothing to do with this - the Strife lord
Katsuragi residence
36 hours after the battle
From the balcony of Misato's apartment, Asuka and Tsuka overlooked the city in silence, as the sun slowly descended on the horizon. After spending one day at NERV following the angel's defeat, during what Dr. Akagi performed several tests to ensure both children were well both physically and mentally, Shinji and Asuka had been allowed to return home. Despite the nature of the attack, the blonde doctor was surprised not to find any serious illness, nothing some relaxation could not fix. – "If I was to recommned something, a night out would be in order..." – she said to Misato. Just one thing still puzzled her, and those who knew how the Second was like; upon return Asuka seemed to be treating Shinji in a much more civil way than before even after both children were freed of their forced acquaintance. For suggesting that Shinji had somehow "tamed the beast", Kensuke got his black eye renewed. Well, some things were still the same...
Back home, and taking advantage that Misato was still on NERV, Asuka went after her sister, determined to know what caused her to run away like that. Slightly ashamed, Tsuka told her in detail how her own battle against that angel went on and how her state was afterwards. Asuka was shocked. Not only her counterpart's experience had been much worse but to know that Shinji was not allowed to help her... the same (well, not really...) Shinji who was at her side and helped her, the same Shinji she had... Asuka blushed...
"I'm glad Shinji was with me..." – she said, still looking at the city. Tsuka looked at her for a moment before returning her gaze to the city as well.
"You surely is..." – she said with a mischievous grin. – "if you went to the point of sharing other fluids than LCL with him..."
Asuka's face went as red as her hair now. She had to tell Tsuka what happened, it was not something she could conceal after all her harsh words regarding her sister's moves on the Third Child. Fate had, indeed, a strange sense of humor...
"You aren't... uh... upset, are you? – Asuka asks cautiously.
"Upset? Oh, nooooo..." – Tsuka replied with a strange gling on her eye. – "I'M RAVING MAD!" – and jumped on her sister...
"No! Hey! Stop that! No! Not there! It tickles! Ah, Ah, Ah!
After a minute or two of harmless struggle, both girls laid on the floor, looking on the sky, where the first stars were showing up.
"Silly, I'm not mad..." – Tsuka spoke. – "For months I've been worried of being stealing your Shinji and cheating on mine..." – she turned her head to face Asuka. – "Things just worked out, I guess.".
"But you are not giving up of him." – Asuka stated.
"Want him all for yourself?" – replied Tsuka.
"I don't mind to share..."
"I recognize that line..."
"Of course, 'I' said it."
Both girls burst into laughter. Attracted by the "cat fight", Shinji peeked at the balcony.
"Asuka, Tsuka, are you all right?"
The redheads looked at him as if they were hungry... and he was dinner. Gulping audibly, the Third Child stepped back into the apartment. – "Dinner will be ready soon... yes... dinner..." – and made a dash back to the kitchen...
Shinji's Mansion
"The situation is a difficult one," Shinji the cool one explained to the assorted…people in front of him, " as you have learned from the e-mail I sent, SEELE, by it's extension spin-off organization, NERV, is literally planning a way for the humanity to 'unite" as one. The final solution called for the revival of the creature known as Lilith that is stored in the deepest section of the NERV HQ. Known as the Central Dogma, while the idea may not seem to be a bad one…it tend to lead to the extinguishment of the human race in the process."
"And we don't want that to happen, do we?" Kaji added in, which did nothing but earn a black glare from Shinji.
Tapping a laser point pen on the wall, Shinji continued, "If it truly comes down to it, we may have to storm the facility itself. I have a… contingency placed in the event we have to do this, but for obvious reasons, I prefer to use a neater type of operation". The memories of the military action before the Third Impact flooded in his mind. "Will I have to order my men to invade the facility? Will Misato and the others stand against me?"
"No," Shinji vowed in his mind, "I will change history; I will curve a new history of mankind, one out the heart of destiny itself if needed!"
"So here is the plan."
Katsuragi residence
"Going out?"
The three children, Misato and Pen-Pen were on the table, eating breakfast. Taking another sip of her matinal beer, the purple haired Major looked at Asuka.
"Yeah." – she said. – "I own you people a night out and even Ritsuko agrees it's a good idea, after the stress of the last angel fight and all..." – she glanced at Tsuka who avoided eye contatct, looking at her dish. None of them said a word.
"Uhmm, where are you planning to take us?" – asked Shinji. He didn't seem to be really thrilled. Then again, Shinji never did.
"There's this place I know, we can eat, listen to some music, dance... I heard they were putting a karaoke stage as well..." – Shinji winced, picturing two redheads dragging him up to the stage and making him perform some awful song. – "Hey, cheer up, Shinji! You too, Tsuka! It will be fun!" – Misato leant back on her chair, taking another sip. – "Why don't you call your friends to come along?"
"Can we?" – asked Tsuka, finally showing some excitement.
"Of course," – replied Misato. – "the more the merrier..."
"That's settled, then!" – exclaimed Asuka, clapping her hands. – "When are we going?"
"I was thinking about tomorrow night."
"Great! I'll call Hikari and Rei." – Asuka looked at Shinji. – "Don't make plans for this afternoon; Third, we have an appointment."
"Appointment? Which appointment? – asked the boy with a sense or dread. Tsuka giggled.
"Take a guess, honey..."
"Oh, no..." – Shinji paled, the worst thing after facing the girls collective PMS was...
"Yep!" – said Asuka. – "We are out shopping."
Shinji whined while Misato laughed. Both redheads raised and leant towards the boy.
"Now, now, Shinji, don't be like this." – whispered Asuka on his ear. – "We may just buy something special..."
"For your eyes only..." – completed Tsuka on the other. Shinji blushed. Looking at eachother, the girls giggled and left for their room.
Shinji watched as they walked away then sighed, closig his eyes.
"Hey, Shinjiii..." – Misato's voice brought him back to reality. – "Are you going to tell me what happened during that time we lost communication with your Eva?" – the major's voice was full of malice. Shinji blushed again.
"Uh... No, I don't think so…ma'am." – with that, Shinji quickly picked up the empty dishes and start washing, ignoring the grinning Major on the table. Misato then looked at her bird companion with a wink,
"You know, Pen-Pen, I think I have some money to collect..."
"Wark!"
"So let me get is straight," one of Shinji's "guests," a young (and short) caucasian male dressed in a red trench-coat with a black symbol written on the back, "We are supposed to waltz up this Super-Freighter thingy in the middle of the sea that we can't really get to."
"Right," Kaji confirmed.
"Protected by the 9th American Fleet which we can't destroy." The boy added.
"Um hmm, it would create too much problems." Kaji nodded.
"With an entire wing of Transit class Joint-Air Fighters in escort that we cant outrun."
"Yup."
"And sink the Freighter full of S2 Engines that are held in stasis."
"That sums it up pretty well," Shinji the older replied.
One of Shinji's other guests, a tomboyish beautiful young girl with a black vest and green hair, interceded, "can we go underwater and attack from below?"
"We can't," Shinji the older replied, "they had a squad of Reagan-seven Class Submarine going right below that fleet, anything size of a dolphin moving around in 10 miles radius and 5 miles deep will be detected without error."
"umm", the girl asked again while straightens her headband , "am I missing something here?"
Exchanging a grin, Shinji and Kaji replied maliciously, "not - at - all ."
Next day, at night...
Misato came out of her room adjusting one of her earrings; Shinji was already on the hall. Both wore casual clothes, they were not attending a big social event after all. – "Ah, you're there, Shinji. Are the girls not ready yet?"
"No, I guess they are just finishing..." – was the boy's reply.
"Hey, girls!" – Misato called. – "Time to go! Be fast or stay behind!"
"Coming!" – both redheads replied just as they left their room. Both wore black tops and jackets but while one wore black tight pants the other wore a black mini skirt.
"Hey, you two look great!" – Misato said looking at them. – "Don't you agree, Shinji?" – Shinji could only nod and the girls giggled. – "So, who is who?" – While usually the major would not have too much difficult to say which girl was Asuka and which was Tsuka (mostly based on the different ways each one would abuse on Shinji...) it was hard if both were all smiles towards the boy...
'Mini skirt' raised a hand and waved. – "Here, I'm Asuka."
"Okay... mini skirt, Asuka... pants, Tsuka... that's easy... Shall we go?
Smiling, each girl took one of the Third Child's hands and escorted him out of the apartment while Misato looked down at Pen-Pen. – "Well, you have the house. Take care of it." – Pen-Pen warked something that sounded like "Yes, ma'am!" and gave her a (mock) salute with a flipper. Misato laughed and left, closing the door behind her.
The ride to the place the purple haired major mentioned was uneventful... or as uneventful a ride with Misato Katsuragi could be, the kids were notably shaken upon arrival. Thanks to a previous arrangment their friends were already waiting nearby and all jumped two or three steps back as Misato's blue car stopped just in front ot them, wheels screaming. As the pilots stepped out, Rei addressed them with her usual cold fashion. – "I take Major Katsuragi's ways behind the wheel have not improved lately."
"You can say that..." – Asuka replied. Her sister and Shinji nodded in agreement.
If the major heard that, she ignored it. The others came closer and they exchanged some quick amenities (Kensuke kept a safe distance from Asuka of course) then Misato led the gang into the building, a karaoke-music bar called 'Clovers'. The crowd there didn't pass unnoticed the way the two redheads were hanging on Shinji.
"It seems your crazy plan really worked, after all... "- Toji whispered to Hikari. – "I didn't believe it when Kensuke told me earlier..."
"Yeah... but, do not bring that up tonight... or any other day for that matter..." – the freckled girl whispered back. – "Rei said Kensuke did...and the sequel was painful..."
While it was not late in the night, a lot people were already in place. Tables were distributed around an open area where people could dance, at one of its extremities stood a stage, right now occupied by a karaoke machine where a couple of teens exercise their talent (or lack of it...). On one of the sides, the bar. Through two sets of stairs at the sides of the stage, a second floor could be reached, several sliding doors indicated small rooms where people, usually vips and older/conservative individuals could have some more privacy. Waitresses clad in black maid attires walked around serving the costumers. One of them, a cute girl wearing glasses and a beaming smile led the group to an empty table and they seated down.
"Please, make yourselves at home. Would you like to drink something?"
"As if Misato would pass the chance..." – Tsuka whispered in Asuka's ear.
"A beer for me..." – spoke Misato, the teens all got soda except Hikari and Rei who asked juice. The drinks arrived and they really started relaxing, talking, laughing with other people at the ones making fools of themselves on the stage, teasing the stooges to be the next ones, in short enjoying what seemed to be a peaceful night so far...
Clover's
VIP Bar
Located on the third floor behind transparent glass with a commanding view of what was below, Shinji the older watched the commotion below. With a sigh, he turned around to watch a nearby TV set, pretending to watch a music video. One of Shinji's 'agents' sat next to him. A Japanese girl roughly 14, she wore the classic "schoolgirl" outfit with black rimmed glasses, tapping keys on a laptop with one hand while liberally spooning ice cream into her mouth with the other.
"They are in." she told him without looking up, interrupted only with more ice cream spooning.
The mastermind sighed, somewhere by the tip of South Africa, Shinji's team just broke into an African Union Missile Base, with any luck…
"I should be there with them." The older Shinji grimaced.
"Look, we went through this before," the young girl turned around. With the look of a nagging girlfriend or tired mother, she lectured Shinji, "you, sir, are the leader of this movement. Only you know everything, thank you Umi," accepting another sundae from a nearby waitress, the "schoolgirl" added, "we can be replaced, Kaji can be replaced. But we need YOU for the final act, we all know after the Tokyo Bay incident that if you die, the whole operation will fall apart. It nearly did last time, and time is running out."
"How much more time do we have?" Shinji asked.
"You know as much as I do." The girl answered curtly.
"Hi there!" A booming voice cut in. Casting a shadow over the tiny girl which nearly earned him a mallet on head from the said girl, the owner of the bar walked over.
"Oh... it's you...", the girl sighed, dropping the mallet. "Mr. Hentai."
The dark-haired man, looking to be on his middle thrities, grinned - "Nice to see you too, Geek Girl." - clearing his way through the empty ice-cream containers, he added – "I see you are being well treated, we have an ice-cream truck standing by around the corner just in case the local stock drops too much."
The girl stuck her tongue to him and resumed her tapping and ice-cream spooning.
"Marcos!" Shinji greeted, shaking the Brazilian's hand. "You are doing well, I see."
"I am getting by." The big man grinned. Marcos always made a point not to call Shinji's name or inquire about his background, which meant the two always got along very well. "Paying the rents."
"More than that from the look of it, do you have a crowd so large every night?"
"Just about," Marcos answered, "twice more on weekends and holidays."
"You certainly got the eyes for the ladies." Shinji added as the waitress earlier walked by with drinks in hand. Dressed in a fantasy blue outfit with a white ribbon around her neck, the blue-haired young woman attracted attention of every male (and some females) nearby. Behind her, a second girl dressed in a conservative black maid suit, with a pair of long braids that almost reach the floor, and headphones where her ears should be, followed.
Marcos smirked broadly, and shrugged, "I get what I paid for."
"I see... Do you still write those books on your free time?" Shinji asked, drinking from his glass.
"The erotic ones, you mean?"
"AH!" both men turned around to look at "Geek Girl". Without looking away from her laptop, she added "Erotic is a cute word to describe that stuff!"
"And how do you know about it, little girl." the Brazilian man asked, a malicious smile on his face "Have you been intercepting the copies I sent to your sister?"
"No, the old hag got the habbit of reading them out loud when she gets drunk."
Marcos raised an eyebrow in a way that would make Leonard Nimoy proud "She's kidding, right?"
"No." Shinji replied, grinning "Peorth confirmed the story; her exact words were 'Damn, that was hot!'".
The Brazilian man whistled. "I know a couple of people who would pay a fortune for a record of that..."
This section, due to an act of pure stupidity, is currently lost. A full update shall be available once I recover my computer. A quick summary would be the nitty-gritty part of the battle between the Naval base defenders and Shinji's (wo)men.
There is a second session done by Marcos, again, it is currently available due to the fact the computer that had it recorded is currently.. elsewhere.
U.S.N Condoleezza Rice
Approximately seven minutes later
Within the cavernous storage chamber of the super-carrier lay two long Rows of glass cylinders, each with more than ten meters high and three meters wide, and filled to the brim with an unidentifiable amber liquid. Within each cylinder was one of SEELE's ultimate weapons that ended all human resistance the first time around: the organic engines that allowed SEELE's manufactured EVAs to overcome all injuries inflicted by Asuka and EVA-01 back then.
"Impressive," the man known as Chairman Keel breathed. Admiring each biological horror like a loving father to a promising child, he took another deep breathe, taking in the strange taste that flows around in the air. With a smile, the ancient man recalled the scientists who worked on this project commented the strange smell akin the scent of stale blood from a slaughterhouse. But no, Keel thought, it is the smell of a new, sweet beginning, of a new freedom…
"Behold…" he commented to his fellow conspirators; the mysterious council that held the inner hierarchy of SEELE. As the group reached the end of the hallway, Keel continued, "With all of our setbacks, of all of our pains with our mysterious tormentors, we shall be victorious, with this."
Held within a tube that is barely two meter tall and half a meter wide, with an array of wires and tubing running from it, lies a human male, roughly 15 years of age. His face is serene and his eyes closed, with a mysterious smile so many girls would kill for. Right below him, a monitor contain a scan of the boy's Bio-scan data, and a machine nearby diligently record each change within the boy.
If anyone has the actual text of this conversation, it would be a pleasure to me if you can send it. I know it is one of EVA manga issues, but I cannot remember which
At the same time…
"We can't hold the door forever," One of Shinji's men yelled as he returned fire with a group of soldiers below. The Union defenders are taking defensive positions below the stairs, answering the commando team's every bullet with a volley from their own. Slowly, the team was losing ground, if not losing people yet.
An impossible situation, Kaji thought. I need a beer, and Misato.
Ruthlessly banishing the thought; Kaji went back to staring at the monitors. The virus upload seem to slowdown even as the bullets that flying into the room speed up…
Back at Clovers
The music grew louder as Shinji ordered another drink, hoping to slow down his beating heart. "How close is it?" he mumbled under his breathe to no one in particular, as he watch his younger self getting caught in a deadly embrace by two redheads. In all honestly, Shinji felt slightly…envious.
Well, very slightly envious. But he could not take his mind off the business at hand. Saving the world is serious stuff, he thought.
"THIS IS THE FIFTEENTH TIME YOU ASKED ME!" the little girl next to him screeched, "DON'T YOU THINK I GET TIRED OF IT?"
"Sorry" Shinji mumbled, looking away and carefully moving out the mallet range. No matter how hard he tried, the little girl always seems to be able to reach anyone, anywhere with that hammer of hers.
"You are not sorry…" before the girl could continue, a beep from her laptop interrupted her tirade.
"I am in." she smiled as her fingers begin to dance on the keys with a practice and grace no mortal can match. Within minutes, she found what she needed to do, and within seconds, the virus was executed. Chuckling evilly, the young "Asian" girl whispered to no one in particular, "Tabris dear, I hope you know how to swim!"
Shinji tried very hard to ignore that. No matter what happened, he could never be sure the identities of his "hired help." They seem to be normal…most of the time. Superstitiously, the mastermind stared at the sixteen empty ice-cream cartons by the bar table. Yea, most of time.
There are some things are better left unspoken.
Bridge of U.S.N Rhode Island
Destroyer-IIC
Sailor I: "Permission to speak frankly, sir!"
Captain: "Permission granted."
Sailor I pointing to USN Condoleezza Rice: "The men and I still don't understand, Captain, what exactly we are hauling in that tanker over there?"
Captain: "I wouldn't know either, son, classified and all. But what I can tell you is that we don't want get involved with this. The last time the navy hauled one of these 'cargos,' we ended up losing the half pacific fleet. "
Sailor II: "I heard about that, we lost some good people there."
Captain: "That we did, son. Sigh, we Americans are a dying breed, 800 sailor died and non-of them even made the headlines. Now days all we hear is Angel this and Angel that, pounding a Japanese city and no one can understand why."
Sailor I: "Damn the Congress and the UN, this is a fool's errand! Why can't the Japanese just pick up and move their cities elsewhere? Why do we have to bleed and die for a bunch of people we never met?"
Captain: "Yea…well, we can't do much about it. It is the way this world works right now, you have your orders, sailor."
Before any of the three men can make anymore negative remarks, the horizon is lit with an unnatural light.
Captain: "what the hell?"
Sailor II: "We have enemy contact sir, 4 missiles, heading toward us due east."
Captain: "Battle Stations! At least here is something we can kill!"
But the officer in his heart realized it is already too late. The missiles came too close from shore, too short a time period for the fleet to detect accurately. Within seconds the order were issued, two of the missiles streak past the aging Destroyer, luckily, they were intercepted by nearby warships' point defense system before they reached their target.
But the aim of the second fair struck true…
U.S.N Condoleezza Rice
Reached out with one maligned hand, the man known as Keel touched the bluish cylinder containing the boy. It felt cold in his hand. Savoring the crisp, clean feel of impending victory in his heart, the chairman of the committee smiled.
Wiping the icy mist off his hand, Keel turned around to his cohorts, "the hour of our brightest victory is upon us…behold, he shall be our striking hand!"
Less than a second later, two N4-Mines armed missile struck the Supertanker with a more than 100 megatons of Force. Beneath the scream of deaths, the screeching of metal, and the roar of systematic detonations, come a bitter and sarcastic laugh.
For most members of SEELE, their final victory is bright indeed.
More than a thousand miles away, Shinji the older raised his glass in salute as he heard the success of the mission and the safe extraction of his team, for the first time in his life (lives?), he did what no one thought was possible,
The ex-second Child turn mastermind gloated: "Here is my striking hand, biatch!"
T.B.C?
Stay tuned for more epic Mecha battles, touching drama, lesbian romance, vicious backstabbers, gunfire, sex, and more in "Evangelion of our lives."
This is not exactly the end…in fact if I proclaim this to be the end, if would be something of a copout. I still got several Angels missing, not to mention Marco's remaining three lemons, or my version of EoE, or the post EoE scenes, or even the author's notes.
Dear readers, would you like to see them? Just out of curiosity. I can't promise a time table or very high quality, but at least I would work on it to see it end. Or we can take this as an ending.
What do you think?
