SAME PLACE/TIME
"What?... Shit! Quick, help me out of this!"
Naoko quickly tried to unbuckle herself from the seat, but fumbled at each attempt. Not even getting close to budging the locks.
Kaworu leaned over and did the simple task of pressing the release button. Unlocking her from the seat restraints.
. . .
"I could've done that myself."
She said, her face flushing with embarrassment. She struggled for a moment trying to prop herself up, her missing leg made it very difficult to get up in this odd seat.
"Do you need help?"
He asked, a small look of pity on his face.
. . .
"Yes…"
He chuckled and grabbed Naoko's arm, hoisting her up, wrapped her arm around his neck and helped her out of the entry plug.
He walked her down the restraints and gently sat her back down in her wheelchair.
"Thank you dear… But who exactly are you? How did you get past security?"
He chuckled before replying.
"I've been selected by the Marduk Institute to be the 4th child."
Naoko's eyes widened, she knew what that meant. No one at NERV had selected any new pilots, so that meant one other group that did.
She didn't want to arouse his suspicion, so she asked another question.
"What Angel? I've received such information about one arriving here?"
He shrugged his shoulders and smiled.
"Well, you were there for 3 hours, And Dr Akagi had left with Major Katsuragi to Mount Asama for an investigation of sorts. They said that there might be evidence of one."
Sighing, Naoko began wiping off the LCL that began to harden on her face.
"I see. Well, if you could, can you wheel me over to the women's locker room?"
"I can. Just point me in the direction."
. . .
"Does Commander Ikari know you are here?"
MOUNT ASAMA GEOLOGICAL RESEARCH FACILITY
SAME DAY
8:14 PM JST
"From this moment forward, Anything recorded here will be handed over to NERV. All data regarding this is considered classified and anyone caught divulging information will be detained. NERV will be taking over from here on out."
The technicians have an aura of uneasiness, they knew what this meant.
Misato Katsuragi stood proudly in the main control room near the summit. Just a few moments earlier, they had just lost a probe trying to confirm that an angel was present in the volcano.
Ritsuko stood nearby, observing her colleague's decision to go on the offensive. However her mind kept wandering back to today's earlier events.
"What does it even matter telling Yui what's going on? She can't and won't come out to help regardless…"
. . .
"Ritsuko?"
Misato finally snapped Ritsuko out of her thoughts, bringing her back to reality.
"Y-Yes?"
"We are heading out, We are calling in an A-17 to HQ."
"Y-Yeah, alright."
Misato examined her friend's face.
"Are you ok?"
. . .
"Yeah, Just thinking. Let's head out."
MATERNAL PROGRAMMING
EPISODE 16
"Ooh burned!"
OCTOBER 5TH
10:42 AM JST
NERV HQ
COMMANDER'S OFFICE
"What?"
"You heard me, and you just read it. Do you need help reading it?"
Gendo sat there utterly devastated at the news. Staring at the paper that was handed to him, he kept rereading it. He tried examining it over and over, trying to see if it was a forgery. He barely could control his one good arm from shaking.
. . .
It wasn't.
He looked up at the smiling silver haired boy. He was definitely sent from SEELE. There was no doubt about it.
Fuyutsuki stood nearby with a look of pure shock on his face. Years of planning had now just been undone in a single moment.
They could no longer hide what they were doing. They are all now in danger. Millions of possible outcomes raced through both of the men's minds.
"You should also know that you have three days to get everything in order and leave."
Gendo felt something was very wrong with the Fourth Child.
. . .
"Then I'll make my preparations…"
"Good-"
"However, we have issued an A-17. We have found an Angel in an embryonic state. We will be deploying Units 1 and 2 to the site."
Kaworu's expression did not change.
"Oh, Well then I'll leave you to it."
And with that, He calmly exited the room, leaving the two men by themselves.
. . .
"We need to move everything off the MAGI."
"Yes and seal off the plant."
"We must make sure nothing remains."
"Indeed."
MT ASAMA GEOLOGICAL RESEARCH FACILITY
12:35 PM JST
STAGING AREA
"It still sucks we couldn't go…"
Shinji groaned as he sat on a dinky folding chair. Asuka sat nearby, tapping away on her phone.
Both of them sat underneath a fold up canopy, situated nearby their Evangelions
The heat from the volcano nearby was slightly overbearing on the two. Who knew sitting near a volcano would do that?...
"I mean… We can't exactly go very far away from Tokyo-III. The only exception was Hawaii, and that was only to defeat an Angel…"
Shinji snorted and glanced at Asuka.
"I would've thought you would be the one to complain about this."
She rolled her eyes at the comment.
"And I thought you didn't care about that stuff."
"Touché"
Misato walked over from the nearby building, stopping just in front of the two.
"Alright, We just got Unit 01 hooked up to the coolant system, and should be dropping you in soon. Asuka you'll be on standby at the top."
Asuka raised her hand.
"How exactly will I help? I mean, He'll be going in with an actual suit that can withstand that. I can't really do much to help down there."
. . .
Misato opened her mouth to speak but found herself unable to answer.
"She has a good point…"
. . .
"J-Just standby ok?"
Asuka rolled her eyes.
"It's time to get on board anyways."
"Aye.."
"Ok…"
M: UNIT 01 HAS BEEN HOISTED INTO POSITION.
C: UNIT 02 IS ON STANDBY. JSSDF BOMBERS IN HOLDING PATTERN.
M: COOLANT PUMPS ARE ACTIVE AND AT NOMINAL PRESSURE.
C: TARGET IS WITHIN ACCEPTABLE DEPTH RANGE.
M: OPERATION IS A GO.
MT ASAMA VOLCANIC CRATER
12:50 PM JST
UNIT 01 ENTRY PLUG
T 00:00:21
"Alright Shinji, we've just finished pressurizing your suit, so you should be ready for descent. The capture cage is also ready and locked in your hands."
Came Misato over the Evangelion's radio.
"Ok, but is the fat plugsuit really that necessary? I mean, I'm more protected by the Evangelion's D Type Gear."
. . .
"Just shut up please… We are going to lower you now."
"Aye…"
Shinji felt a jolt in the Eva, as it began to descend. His legs are starting to slightly get warm as it makes contact with the lava.
The plugsuit did keep his torso cool, but everything else was warm.
He was now 40 meters into the hot magma. The suit was already making creaking noises as the pressure began to increase.
Droplets of sweat started to form in the LCL around him.
This is very uncomfortable.
. . .
100 METERS
Shinji soon enough began to feel less warm on the outside. An odd sense of safety and happiness washed over him.
JOY
EXCITED
PROUD
Emotions flowed through him for a moment. He was quickly snapped out of it however when Misato yelled at him over the wire.
"Shinji report!"
He stuttered for a moment, trying to formulate a coherent sentence.
"Y-Yes Ma'am I'm right here. All is good."
There was a pause for a moment.
"Alright, report anything that seems off, target depth is 500, you are already approaching 200. -Muffled- Your mom wants to speak to you, I'm going to patch her through to you for a moment."
A click and pop indicated that the call was transferred to somewhere else.
"Shinji, you there?"
It's Naoko, she sounded tired.
"Yeah, I'm here. How are you feeling?"
He asked, knowing It's only been 3 days since she and father left the hospital. Now you would think that they would stay longer, but…
"I'm doing better, just exhausted is all. Listen, when you get back your… Gendo needs to talk to you."
She sounded a bit nervous at that last part, somewhat trailing off.
"O-Oh, Ok. I'm glad you feel better."
. . .
"Good luck, I love you."
. . .
"I love you too"
489 METERS
"Shinji we are picking the pattern blue signature, it should be just below you. Ready the cage."
"Aye."
The creaking of the suit became louder and more frequent. He could feel his body become more squished. His ears popping sometimes.
The capture cage soon expanded and powered on, ready to amplify Unit 01's AT field.
500 METERS
"Alright it's right in front of you now, you can try and capture it now."
Shinji turned on the specialized sensors to see the target.
An almost egg-like structure appeared before him. It contained a human-like embryo, legs and arms already formed within.
Shinji felt both a sense of disgust and curiosity. Is this what a baby Angel looks like? Are all the Angels babies?
He carefully maneuvered the cage around the embryo, making sure to align it up correctly.
Steady…
He had to carefully fight against the convection current that constantly moved them both.
Ping!
Zwoop!
"Gotcha!"
Shinji had successfully activated the cage around the egg.
"Alright Misato, now get me out of here!"
"Rodger! We are bringing you up now!"
A slight jolt, and the feeling of movement, letting Shinji know he was ascending upwards.
. . .
450
. . .
400
. . .
350
. . .
300
. . .
250
. . .
200
. . .
150
. . .
100
. . .
50
. . .
SURFACE
Almost immediately as he surfaced, the cage began to drain its molten contents that came up with the egg.
"It's here! Now please, just get me out of this thing, its really hot in here!"
Shinji whined, the droplets of sweat starting to get in his eyes.
"Give us a minute, something is wrong with the Angel."
Shinji turned and looked at the screen. The Angel suddenly started turning grey and mushy.
Its body still within the egg, it moved only slightly, as if it was trying to escape but couldn't.
"We are getting a very weak pattern blue from it… Alright we'll get you out now. Good work. Operation over."
MT ASAMA GEOLOGICAL RESEARCH FACILITY
CONTROL ROOM
1:12 PM JST
"Well, we seem to actually have actually captured an Angel. Your plan worked Misato."
Ritsuko said, obviously impressed with her friend's idea.
"Well. I don't think it can really live outside of magma or without high pressure. But we finally get a chance to see what makes them tick."
Misato stared at the monitor, watching the angel be put into a container crate.
"Finally."
WELLLL! This chapter took a while to make, and i'm sorry for the rather odd quality of the chapter. I somewhat had some burnout from that week, and it almost affected my grades in class. Also, fun fact, this chapter was originally called
"The man formerly known as Commander Ikari"
But decided to change it after it didn't fit the chapter's vibe, And that it wouldn't fit in the chapter name.
Anyways thanks for reading this chapter!
-DerpymanMT
Deus