Rebuild of Third Genesis
Chapter 28
"We've had a breakthrough in decrypting some of Gendo's files," Maya Ibuki reported at the morning staff meeting.
"Some?" Misato asked, drinking coffee.
"He used multiple ciphers, we think," Ritsuko offered. "And for some reason the Magi are... weirdly reluctant to work on it."
"Well, your mother had issues around him," Misato noted.
The three Magi computers were patterned after different aspects of Naoko Akagi's mind. And she had been infatuated with Gendo at one point. So...
"What do we have?" Misato addressed Maya.
"Gendo sold tech to outside groups, but it was mostly older tech from NERV's earlier incarnation," Maya revealed. She added, "We had previously only been speculating it happened... this confirms it."
Before Misato could ask Ritsuko added for clarity, "It's not horribly bad, but it's not good either. None of our current technology is compromised, but there is at least some proto-evangelion technology out there."
"Can they build a Evangelion?" Misato asked.
"Yes," Maya said.
"No," Ritsuko countered.
"They'd have to have a sample of Adamite or Lilith bio-mass to do it," Maya explained, "Senpai is certain they don't, I'm not."
"That's pretty much it," Ritsuko agreed.
Misato sighed tiredly. "Okay, put together a report for the UN and pass it on to Satoko," Misato ordered them.
"Aye aye," Maya nodded.
Satsuki Ooi was there representing the bridge crew. "Nothing new to report," she said, "other than we're continuing the synch tests as well as weapon trials."
"And there's still whatever is going on with the Magi," Ritsuko added.
"I almost think they're having the machine version of a nervous breakdown," Maya sighed, feeling very tired of fiddling with the computers.
"Please let the computers running most of Tokyo-3 not be suffering a nervous breakdown," Misato sighed.
Satsuki snorted.
"Don't laugh," Misato added, "we sell spare processing hours to the city. If the Magi go down, the city's in trouble."
Satsuki flushed. That kind of thing was probably handled separate from her jobs, but she felt a bit sheepish not knowing...
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
"TOJI!" Hikari yelled as she came upon him and Mari in the equipment room.
"Ooops," Mari noted mildly, sitting in his lap, her panties and skirt gone.
"It's not what it looks like," Toji stammered.
Asuka and Rei watched, bemused, as Hikari chased the other two out of the room, literally growling in rage.
"Should we stop her?" Rei asked mildly.
"I don't think Hikari will actually kill anyone...," Asuka sighed.
"I didn't DO anything," they heard Toji yell from off in the distance.
Mari showed up a few minutes later, once again dressed in her too short skirt.
"What the hell, Mari?" Asuka had to ask.
"When I heard her coming I made Toji sit, yanked my skirt off and sat on his lap. He was too surprised to stop me," Mari smirked.
"You are just EVIL," Asuka groaned.
Rei looked at Mari with a disappointed look. "Excuse me," she walked off.
"Huh?" Mari blinked.
Toji ran by, Hikari behind him, then Rei stepped in her way. That startled Hikari enough that she listened to Rei, who was calmly telling her something. Hikari looked at her blankly, then frowned.
"Uh oh," Mari realized Rei was telling her what she did.
"YOU," Hikari scowled at Mari.
"Shit," Mari bolted.
As Rei returned an out of breath Toji trotted up. "Thanks," he told Rei.
"You're welcome," Rei said mildly.
"Wonder if all our security will stop Hikari?" Asuka wondered.
"I don't think she'll actually hurt her," Rei noted mildly.
Indeed, the various men and women in business wear were mostly just watching the goings on with amusement...
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
"I really don't know about a sword," Asuka noted as they watched Mari start up Unit-02.
"Hmm?" Kaede looked at her curiously, the young woman manning the control room.
Ritsuko and Maya were up on the command deck, along with Misato. They were having a remote conference with the head of the UN committee that now ran NERV.
"I really don't think we have the coordination to manage it," Asuka added.
Kaede shrugged, "Well, there's only one way to find out. Plus we won't be activating the cutting effect until we're sure it's safe."
"Hmm," Rei nodded, also watching.
"OK, we're going," Mari said from the entry plug.
"Pick up the sword from the table," Kaede instructed.
"I've been looking forward to this," Mari picked up the sword, holding it in an upright position.
"All right, we prepared a set of movements for you to try," Kaede said as she sent the diagrams to the cockpit.
"YAAAAAAAA!" Mari totally ignored that and started swinging.
"I knew she'd do that," Asuka noted with a sigh.
Rei was watching her flail about. "If the blade was 'on' she'd have cut her leg off at the knee," she observed calmly.
"I'm keeping track of the injuries," Kaede said ruefully. It was VERY clear they'd have to get the pilots sword training before giving them live weapons.
"How'd I do?" Mari asked breathlessly a few moments later.
"If that weapon was live you'd have cut BOTH your legs off," Kaede snapped.
"Oh. Sorry?" Mari said cheerfully.
Kaede just groaned. "Could you PLEASE do the positions we sent you? Ritsuko wants a actual usable test," she said.
"Spoil sport," Mari said, but started to do the requested moves.
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
"Well THAT was tense," Misato sighed.
"No one likes getting bad news," Satoko patted her on the shoulder.
The news about Gendo had been bad. Worse, the US and China were apparently looking into developing Evangelion technology.
They were in a meeting room just off the main bridge. Misato poured a coffee, wishing she just had some beer.
"What are the odds they can do it?" Satoko asked, echoing something Misato said earlier.
"The US branch helped produce the Mass Production Evangelions, so they have biological samples needed," Ritsuko said flatly.
"But they took a huge hit when they lost most of their scientists when Area-51 and Unit-04 vanished," Maya added. "But yes, the USA has the best chance to do it."
"And China?" Satoko asked.
"We don't know," Ritsuko reluctantly admitted. "They seized several NERV instilations when the UN declared we needed to shut them. And SEELE kept a lot of stuff secret from us, too."
"So they might have the tech, and we don't know," Satoko summarized.
"Pretty much," Maya agreed.
To be continued...
Notes: I'm STILL sort of debating what to DO with Naoko and the Magi. It would be interesting to have them re-integrate, but them I have to deal with all the secrets she should know.
Also, thinking about her turning Tokyo-3 into a huge body for her...
"Think she's still pissed at you?" Misato wondered
Naoko-plex STOMPED on the attacking Angel.
THOOM
"God I hope not," Gendo whimpered.
