Rebuild of Third Genesis

Chapter Nineteen

"Have you considered getting the Jet Alone robot and trying to bring it online?" Mari asked, her ponytails swinging as they headed to the simulators. It was a Sunday night, but Misato wanted to get whatever simulator training she could, especially since her pilots were going back to school soon.

"We're looking into it," Misato admitted, "but the original JT was a dud and was officially decommissioned. I am considering throwing Rits and Maya at the basic design, see what they can come up with to fix it."

"Assuming they can get the Magi to stop sulking," Asuka noted, as most of NERV was aware of the struggle with the powerful computers. Everyone agreed something was going on with the machines, but exactly what remained a mystery.

"There's that," Misato agreed. "We're going to keep the simulator training short tonight, as you're going to school tomorrow."

"I'm looking forward to it," Rei noted with a shy smile.

"You've never actually BEEN to school, have you?" Mari drawled.

Asuka sighed and casually elbowed her fellow pilot in the side. Hard. "Don't be mean," she said to her simply.

"Ow," Mari made a face but decided not to press. Asuka had a mean elbow and a general willingness to use it. Especially on her.

"So what's today's game? Dogpile on Mari is always fun," Rei said teasingly.

"Gee, thanks," Mari rolled her eyes.

"You're actually surviving longer," Misato noted, "mostly because you don't seem to give a damn about your mechs physical limits. You're totalling your Eva but you are winning."

"Does that count as winning?" Asuka complained.

Rei shrugged as she offered, "In a 'I had to burn the village in order to save it' kind of way."

Asuka gave Rei a look, making a mental note to check what she was reading. Looking at Misato she asked, "What's tonight's game?"

"This time," Misato's smile widened, "everyone tries to kill YOU."

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

"You don't need to look so smug," Mari complained the next morning.

"Do I look smug?" Asuka asked innocently.

"You look smug," Mana noted, the more scholarly looking young woman walking with the group to school. They were taking advantage of Asuka as a native guide, so to speak.

"Well, you were expecting to kick my ass," Asuka mercilessly noted to Mari. She had been VERY confident of getting a win last night, but instead Asuka had beat both her and Rei in every simulation run so far.

"Yeah, yeah," Mari scowled.

"I was very surprised at how good at close quarters combat you were," Rei noted.

After Asuka had smoked her and Mari with pallet rifles, she had thought closing with her might work. No, it didn't. Using what appeared to be judo throws and other martial arts, Asuka had beaten Rei, then used Rei's Unit-00 as a shield against Mari's rifle.

Asuka shrugged slightly, "I had some training when I was younger."

"I sometimes forget you trained for years to do this," Mari drawled, "considering how poorly you did compared to Ikari."

"Mari!" Mana yelped.

Asuka stiffened, but kept walking. "Ikari was a special case," she said flatly. A cold smile tugged at her lips as she added, "Ask Misato how Gendo spent years psychologically readying Shinji to be a pilot."

"Huh," Mai grunted, looking thoughtful.

The four young woman had been dropped off not far from the school by their security, As well they were shadowed somewhat by plain clothed officers, presumably chosen for their ability to stand out like sore thumbs. On the other hand, a obvious security presence might help keep attackers at bay.

"Hikari!" Asuka called, grinning as she saw the other girl and Toji coming up the street towards them.

"Welcome back," Hikari smiled. "I see you know this delinquent?"

Asuka realized she was nodding towards Mari. "You've met, I see?" she asked, wondering why they were calling her a delinquent. What had Mari DONE?

"Oh, yeah," Toji laughed. "WE kind of got in trouble," he admitted.

"Lovely. I'm sure Hikari can tell me later," Asuka decided. She gestured, "This is the other newcomer, Mana Kirishima, who's also working part time at NERV."

"Pleased to meet you," Mana kind of half bowed.

"Where's Ken?" Asuka asked as they all headed inside the building.

"Headed to school early, he had a thing he wanted to work on," Toji offered.

"Thing?" Mari looked curious.

They opened the classroom door only to hear crackers go off and to have confetti thrown at them. "Ack!" Asuka yelped as she took in the massive banner reading 'Welcome Evangelion Pilots!'

There was a beat of dead silence then Mari noted, "Well, I think being low key is now right out the window..."

"KEN!" Asuka growled.

"What?" Ken asked, the smaller boy trying to look innocent, "It's not like you're keeping it a secret anymore."

"Sorry, Asuka," Hikari sighed, "I didn't realize THIS was what he meant by a welcome party."

"Your faces WERE pretty funny tho," Toji noted.

"I got pictures," Ken added then paled as Asuka growled softly.

"Don't kill anyone," Mana put a restraining hand on Asuka's arm as she added, "you'd HATE jail time, I think."

That got a chuckle out of Asuka and cut off the urge to maim. Mostly anyway. "Get that banner down," she sighed, "I'm sure the teacher doesn't want to deal with it."

"Too late," the dark haired woman in a nice woman's suit noted as she strode in.

"Oooh," Toji sighed, then yelped as Hikari swatted him one.

"My name is Yayoi Kusanagi, and for my no doubt great many sins I'm now your new home room teacher," the woman said briskly. "Get that banner down, clean up the paper and then take your seats please."

"I noticed a lot of new teachers starting today," one student mildly noted as they hurriedly cleaned up the mess.

As she calmly was writing her name on the board Yayoi noted, "I will neither confirm or deny that all the new teachers are in fact security specialists hired by NERV. I will confirm that if anyone makes a violent move towards a pilot candidate, they WILL regret it."

There was a moment of stunned silence as the students processed that. Finally Ken muttered, "That is SO cool!"

"Ugh," Asuka put her head in her hands as Rei patted her on the shoulder comfortingly.

"I think I like this school already," Mari smirked.

As they went from class to class, Hikari blinked at the sheer number of attractive, business suit clad men and women who were now on the job. "Is all of this really necessary?" she asked, bemused.

"It is kinda strange," Toji admitted.

"Oh, grow up beefcake boy," Mari noted dryly. As everyone looked at her she continued, "It's not just us who are being guarded. Everyone in our age group are potential pilots, remember?"

"But the angel war is over," Hikari said plaintively.

"That doesn't mean someone still couldn't want Evangelion tech," Asuka sighed. "Mind you, I think this IS overkill..."

"Look on the bright side," Ken offered, "no more days of our old teacher droning on about life before the impact."

"That is a plus," Hikari admitted. "Wonder what happened to him."

"Oh," a business suit clad janitor noted, "he made out okay."

On a sunny beach far, far away from Tokyo a old man reclined on the beach, enjoying the sun and sipping a drink. "Bliss," he sighed, glad to be away from those damn kids.

To be continued...