Under Powered 3
Disclaimer: If I owned NGE… It would still be ongoing… Not to mention that fanfics would get turned into episodes if possible. But alas, I don't own NGE, So that's not possible. But I do wonder if the voice actors ever read these stories.
'…' thought "…" Speech
Getting Aquainted
After a small argument with Asuka over the possession of the front seat and ended with Asuka in the middle, wishing to keep Ayanami from Shinji's "hentai ways", The blue car finally got rolling. It is said that being in a small car with four other people can be stressful. However, the period of stress was significantly decreased with the Major's less rambunctious driving, and the appearance of Hawklyn's laptop.
Adley smirked as he brought out his notebook, the top of the laptop had a black base with midnight blue flames surrounding his Unit's (Not that anyone knew of that...)face, which happened be outlined in a ghostly hue of blue, making the look even more awe inspiring. Even better that he could feel the other pilots' curious gazes over his shoulder.
Asuka was entranced by the Seventh's customized laptop, she had to admit that the design looked really neat. She watched as he turned it on, unable to speak, watching as he entered a word processing program. Only to be jolted to awareness by a teasing barb from the Major.
"So Asuka, liking the Seventh already?" Misato smirked as she watched her redheaded charge aquire a faint tinge of red on her cheeks.
"N-No, that's not true!"
That much was caught by Hawklyn's ears as he started to write.
Shell
A shell like a shield,
To guard against intrusion.
There is one in each of us,
No matter the differences.
I have a shell,
A shield of silent comprehension.
To protect an inner pride,
To conserve an inner vanity from others.
Those around me have shells,
Whether to protect against others,
Or to camoflauge themselves from trauma.
We use them as a cushion against dramatic events.
The other Pilotsseem like me,
Distant and full of pain.
Yet, we each deny that every day,
Thru our own ways.
Through Pride and competition,
Through Isolation from ourselves.
By running away or drowning in music.
And By gaming and writing.
We pilots are linked together,
Through one common thread.
We all are lonely on some deep personal level,
Seeking relief and understanding from the pain.
With a sigh Hawklyn closed the program and then turned off the laptop, putting it away. He glanced towards the back row of seats, "So, why is it I've heard Ayanami no less then once on this trip?"
Asuka chuckled before Ayanami could answer, "Well, First doesn't usually answer anything unless ordered to, at least, usually, Times with Baka here don't count." The Second flicked the Third's ear for emphasis, earning her an annoyed look that she didn't notice, as her eyes were kinda busy with the view in front, not that she'd ever admit to being a hentai herself...
"Anyway, why don't you tell me about yourself Sohryu?" Hawklyn could already tell from the way she spoke that she was rather arrogant, but as he figured it. He fed her ego and kept the dissonance in the tight quarters of the car to a minimum.
So the occupants of the car settled in for a grand retelling of her story. The Major however would make sure later that Hawklyn knew what really happened.
As Asuka told of her great feats, Hawklyn assembled a rough outline of her life in his mind.
She had been trained to be an EVA pilot all her life.
She had an exceptionally high education level for her age.
She liked to have people's attention.
Which contributed to the sudden question from her on whether or not Hawklyn was listening.
"Yes, I'm listening… Sounds like quite a life Asuka."
Yes, that last comment seemed to make her glow in the dark, Now Hawklyn saw that they were almost to Tokyo 3 and turned to Misato. "So…Misato, where will I be living?"
Misato shrugged as the kids became more alert as backseat drivers while the Major replied. "Well, most likely next door to me, but that will need to be done tomorrow. You can spend the night temporarily with us Adley."
Hawklyn nodded his head as Misato halted in front of a large squat apartment complex, he turned to Misato before he exited the car, "By the way Katsuragi-san, your driving is not unlike my own with a pre-impact game called Carmageddon. But we can be glad that at least with you, no pedestrians are hurt." He grinned, getting out of the car to let out Shinji and Asuka even as Misato glared at Hawklyn from the other side of the car.
"I'll have you know," She retorted, a glare on her face. "That my driving is perfectly safe. Isn't that right Rei?"
A quiet voice floated up into the air as the First child extracted herself from the car to await the use of the front passenger side seat. "I withhold my comment on your driving Major." Hawklyn stepped away and let the Blue Head take her seat in the car.
Shinji turned and asked Misato, "When will you be back Misato-san?"
"Late, I need to file more paperwork and such, so you're on your own the rest of the day. Take care kids."
"Later Misato!" was chorused as the three pilots watched the blue car squeal off into the night.
The three pilots strolled to the elevator and Asuka being Asuka, lit the fires of conversation while the pilots the entered the vertical lift.
"What do we do now?"
A low near subsonic rumble seemed to underline that comment. Hawklyn's lips twisted up in a small smirk. "How bout we eat?"
They exited the elevator
"An excellent suggestion Seventh Child." The sarcastic voice of the Second ripped through the air while she swiped the keycard through the reader. "Make us dinner Third Child!" She then commanded as they all entered the apartment and left their shoes by the door.
"No pork, shellfish or sharkbits please." The sudden request from Hawklyn turned the Second's head as Shinji confirmed the actions to make dinner.
Hawklyn noticed the blue eyes gazing his way, and faced the fiery framed face that was moled into a semi-curious expression. "What is it Sohryu?"
Asukadirected her eyes to the ground shyly, internally wondering why she was acting so strange with the new pilot. "Its nothing. Wanna watch some tv Hawklyn?"
Adley sighed as he plugged in his laptop and turned it on. "Nah, much of its junk anyway. I'm gonna play a game right now."
Asuka pouted momentarily, then eyed his laptop, "You know, I play console games myself…" She took a seat beside Adley, who was now waiting for the laptop to finish loading.
"Really, what games?" Hawklyn nodded slowly as he listened to her response, pulling out a large binder full of game discs. "You might find something that interests you, take a gander."
Asuka paged through the binder full of gamediscs. "Wow, quite a lot of games."
"Yeah." Adley closed his laptop for the moment, then looked toward the Second Child, his blue eyes tracing over her profile as she looked through the various games. "Those are mostly pre-impact games as I said earlier… You seem to know a lot to do with EVAs…"
Asuka smirked as she nodded, turning her eyes to meet his, "Of course I do. I trained for 6 years in them, so there's no question in my mind that I'm therefore the best pilot."
Adley looked at the surface of his laptop a bit and absently wiped some dust off, his face lost between expressions for just a moment as he turned to the sounds of cooking in the kitchen. "Hey Shinji, Food almost done?"
Hawklyn's mouth dropped open at the sight of the penguin waddling out from the kitchen. Watching as the flightless avian made its way toward the living room, he glanced up to Asuka after the bird disappeared beyond the wall. "What is a flightless bird doing here?"
Asuka giggled a bit at his expression, "That's Pen Pen, Misato's pet of sorts. More like a room mate with speaking problems… Well, I think you get what I'm saying. If you don't, feel free to ask idiot boy later."
Adley frowned at Asuka's continually disparaging remarks over Shinji and stood up, taking his laptop and such to the living room, leaving Asuka to simply wonder what happened.
'Gott… Just when things were looking up too.' She grumbled as Shinji announced that dinner was ready.
Adley appeared and sat at the table as Shinji brought the food out. "Rice and meatballs… Interesting, definitely a change from airline food." He ventured and took a bite. "Tastes good Shinji."
The boy in question just bowed his head in an embarrassed fashion. "Arigato."
>
Across town, in a dingy old apartment, Rei Ayanami was eating noodles. The majority of her thoughts however, were focused on what occurred today.
She was confused over the amount of emotions that had plagued her today. The oddly warm feeling that transpired from Hawklyn's kiss to her hand was a unnerving and also confusing.
"What do I mean to Hawklyn? Today's the first day I've seen him and yet… I cannot let go of the memory of him kissing my hand…"
She looked out her window into the city lights as the "conversation" with herself continued. "Does Hawklyn care for me like Ikari-kun does?" She gazed out upon the desolate part of the city she was in, not caring for a moment that her place was essentially a dump.
No, the First Child had more important ideals to think about.
"Major Katsuragi said that Hawklyn would be moving into a place of his own tomorrow. Perhaps I will not attend school in order so I may be able to help."
Ayanami smiled to herself as she got ready for bed. Then fell asleep after murmuring about tomorrow.
>
Hawklyn sneezed as he was setting up his laptop, then cursed, for he had sneezed onto the laptop screen. He sighed and grabbed a cleaning cloth to wipe off the unknown substances and sighed, noticing Shinji come in.
"Hey there." Hawklyn watched Shinji as the other boy assumed a blank look, staring up at the ceiling.
"Oh…Hi.. Adley isn't it?" Shinji looked over to where the Seventh was opening a program before turning around to face him again.
"Yep. That's me… Say, you mind if I share my music with you?"
Shinji looked up at that comment, interested, "Sure, what ya got?"
Adley clicked the playlist open and scrolled through songs. "Type O Negative… Savatage… Rammstein… Mostly Pre-Impact music." He hit play, looking at the song that came up, "Type O Negative, "Cant lose You". Slow, dark, yet easy sing along with. I consider it to be easy on the ears."
Shinji just nodded as he listened to the slow melodical tones sound throughout the small room, thinking that he could possibly grow to like the song. He was stirred from his reverie as Hawklyn closed the laptop, the music still emitting from the little speakers, even though the volume was rather breeze like by now.
Adley turned to the young Ikari, "I think we best hit the sack, tomorrow's gonna be a long day.. At least for me… I'll be a moment." He exited the room and returned shortly with the cushions that had been on the living room chair and couch, then he explained to an openmouthed Shinji.
"I know I'm not gonna be very comfortable tonight, but that's no reason I have to sleep on a hard floor… The living room, I would've just been in the way."
Shinji nodded, for some reason, unable to speak as Adley set up a temporary resting area for himself.
>
Meanwhile, Asuka was bored. She had heard footfalls going back and forth to Shinji's room, then silence, but before that, there had been what sounded like a different sort of music.
'Hmmm, bah, screw this. I'll go see whats on tv.'
She opened her door and closed it behind her before going out to the living room, grabbing the remote from the coffee table before turning the tv on and sitting on the couch.
A couch that seemed a lot less softer then she remembered it, not to mention being a little lower. Looking down, she noticed that the cushions were missing, she frowned, looking around to see that the chair cushion was also missing. Growling as she decided to get up and ask Shinji what happened to the couch and chair.
A moment later, she was outside Shinji's door.
>
A couple minutes after Adley had brought cushions in…
An enraged voice carries through the door. "BAKA! WHAT HAPPENED TO THE COUCH?"
Two sets of eyes widen and Adley resist the urge to reply, figuring that the redhead is talking to Shinji. A moment later however, the seemingly peaceful air of the room is broken by the redhead with her forcing the door open and stalking in like an enraged rhino.
It didn't help matters between Adley and Asuka when the latter saw the former partially laying on the rage causing cushions.
At that point, Hawklyn was not particularly word savvy, as all he could do was utter a word. "Govno." Then found himself pulled up to his feet by his shirt collar, his feet adjusting to properly position himself on the ground attempting to ensure his own balance. All the while looking into eyes that made the icy surface of Pluto seem more hospitable then the room he was currently in.
Said eyes were burning with a red rage that put the oculars' owner's hair to shame. Then again, said eyes were nothing compared to the acid that now dripped in the Second's voice. "So…. Seventh Child is seemingly eager to test my patience is he?"
Hawklyn was scared, yes, he had to deal with enraged females back in the states, but never, ever like this. That said, his self protection instincts came online. "W-well, I take it that you were looking for the cushions I was laying on correct?"
Sadly, for the newest pilot, hope was not shining brightly.
"IDIOT!"
No, it was hailing cats, dogs and baseballs, complimented by lots of thunder and lightening.
"Don't try to change the subject!"
Adley's eyes seemed to solidify under Asuka's vicious gaze, and a quiet but very blizzard like voice rippled into the air.
"Shinji, go put the cushions back where they were."
"H-hai." Shinji went to return the items which were the cause of the redhead's volcanic eruption.
Hawklyn continued as Shinji went about setting things proper in the apartment. "Now, Second Child, would you kindly remove your hands from my person? If you do this, you and I will have an understanding that will lead to maintaining a peaceful co-existence, that, and it would certainly be unbecoming of me to lay a hand in anger on such an unmarred face as yours. Besides, I'll only be here for one night."
The Second Child sighed internally and cursed the Seventh for speaking so eloquently in a situation where those boys she knew would pretty much wilt in her grasp or call her belittling names. "Very well Seventh Child, but only if…" Her lips neared Adley's ear as she whispered something to him.
Judging by the way Hawklyn's eyes widened at what he was hearing, whatever Asuka had in mind had to be, at the very least, off the wall. Or this was the impression Shinji got when he re-entered the room to see Asuka whispering something in Adley's ear.
(A/N: For the moment, I'm going day by day, focusing on Hawklyn and those around him, mainly to get the feel for the characters. I think I've managed to get Asuka down fairly well in some respects, still working on reactions. We'll see more of Rei in the next chapter… What did Asuka tell Adley? I doubt the next chapter will reveal that .… In the meantime, feel free to RnR!)
