Chapter 11: Escape from Tokyo 3
Asuka POV
Ugh my head.
Slowly light re-enters my vision and after a few gentle rubs of the sore spot in my forehead where that psychotic English Brunette's brick struck it, I'm able with little difficulty to confidently leap back to my feet.
Did she really think that would be enough to take me out?
That puny, loathsome creep who spends her days befriending an emotionless suck up.
And here I thought there'd be at least one reasonable pilot among us who realized my superiority and how much better things would be if they were but left to my devices.
You betrayed me Shinji.
You left me for Rei because you thought she was better than me.
The straight A child genius with the cabinet full of sports trophies from a top tier University whose floors were marbled with solid gold wasn't good enough for you Shinji?
Now I understand that I was wrong to call you an idiot.
You don't deserve to be called an idiot for an idiot doesn't lower themselves to the irrational delusions you've self-righteously upheld in being unable to see quality right in front of your own damn face.
You're a brat.
A spoiled, whiny and insufferable brat who deserves to be starved and left without food, shelter or company of any kind.
To wear a dunce's cap for the rest of your days and for no one to ever talk to you ever again.
I'd cut your ears off if I could so that even if I spoke to you by accident, you'd not hear a thing.
That's what your horrible actions against the amazing Asuka Langley Soryu deserve.
I will find you Shinji.
Don't think that you and Rei can go ahead and leave poor and innocent me in the dust.
You've just made it personal Mari. I was going to leave you alone thinking you were more reasonable but now you've just made yourself a target.
And when I make people a target, things never end well for them.
NERV will catch you Shinji. And when they do, we will finally be together once again.
Rest on your laurels if you want, for now.
All the better for the surprise when our sweet reunion finally comes once more.
Shinji POV
There's no way we'll make It. Already a line of armoured trucks are crowding the road behind us as Mari desperately continues to push the hijacked car we're riding to its absolute limit.
The tyres squeal as they struggle to keep traction on the road as we breeze past building after building too quickly for me to even see where we're going.
It's not wise to distract the driver anyhow especially when she needs intense focus in intense chases such as this one which wouldn't look out of place in the Fast and Furious movies.
I can but pray. Pray for our salvation. For the future that me and Rei could share together that I thought until this very day would be but a pipe dream forever and always.
You're granting my last wish Mari. My last wish and Rei's.
Don't lose now. Keep going.
I'm not running away from anything. I'm taking bold steps and embracing the new and wonderful opportunity that will bring me the square deal I deserve after years of hard work and dedication that those I served never rewarded me for.
And hang in there Rei. Once this is all over and we're far away from here, life will be much fairer to us both.
I don't know how but I know that anywhere is better than here with my father, Misato and Asuka in the way.
I can but offer sincere condolences for the others in NERV who were kind to me in spite of everything.
Officer Maya Ibuki and Dr Ritsuko Akagi. I hope your beautiful relationship with each other continues to blossom as mine and Rei will. And that you two will one day find a way out too.
I will be waiting, grateful for every last bit of the kindness you two showed to me in spite of everything.
Good friendly Kaworu who gave his life knowing I had no talent and would likley never amount to anything. Rest in peace buddy. For you will be missed and never truly forgotten no matter what.
Determined to do anything I can to slow the advance of dad's army that he sent to snatch away our beautiful new life away from his tyranny, I open the window much to Mari and Rei's surprise.
I take off my right shoe knowing that to do so will mean great discomforts for me later but knowing that if I do not there may be no later.
And with full force as a strong gale blows me full in the face blinding me, I throw the improvised projectile with all my force.
The sneering driver leaning his head out the window of the leading Humvee to get a better view, sneers as he sees the stunt.
A mere second later as the breath of mother nature does its beautiful work and he has no emotion at all.
His head is hit square on and he crashes his out of control Humvee into a nearby tree conveniently blocking up several of the vans behind him even causing a few of those to collide with each other in a grim and bloodthirsty chain reaction of sorts.
"Nice shot Shinji" Mari commends me above the roaring engine as she swerves into a nearby tunnel where she knows the trailing helicopters also won't be able to follow.
"You truly are the hero we all needed"
Comments like that are the reason I already like Mari.
And I haven't known her nearly as long as I've known Rei.
This will be the beginning of a long and loving friendship. For all three of us.
My years of loneliness and battles with depression are finally drawing to a close.
I'm growing up and taking charge of my own life slowly.
Soon I'll no longer be the immature little boy everyone thinks they can walk all over.
For my sake, Rei's sake and Mari's sake. I will get stronger.
The star meter has jumped to four stars but that hardly matters now.
For if memory serves then this tunnel will take us close to the outskirts of Tokyo 3 and we will be but a few streets away from freedom.
But no.
What's that up ahead?
No. It can't be.
Oh cruel fate.
Oh devilish luck.
Save our souls. Deliver us from evil. The devil himself is dancing on my dibbler.
So near yet so far.
I forgot.
I stupidly and idiotically like Asuka said I was, forgot the vital detail.
This exit of Tokyo 3 has a massive canal separating it from the outside world.
And the bridge is tightly controlled by NERV who open it only when they feel like it.
The bridge is up so far. The slope so steep and the gap so wide.
If the NERV trucks and helicopters that are quickly catching up behind us now that we've left the tunnel don't catch us first, we will surely drown in poison ed seawater.
"Slow down Mari. Let's just surrender. It's hopeless" I uncontrollably blurt out as we get closer to the watery doom which I all but dismissed as an obstacle to our promised land.
"Maybe my father will let us live after all. Maybe I can convince him to just take me and let you two go. Maybe..."
"We are not going anywhere without you Shinji. Rei outright told me she can't live without you and neither can I. No Shinji. When we go places, we go together. We aren't going to leave you behind"
Mari roars passionately, cutting me off mid sentence.
"We've fought eldritch alien abominations that by all rights should have been invincible and lived to tell the tale. We've witness unspeakable horrors enough to give us nightmares to last a lifetime and yet we've still got our sanity and humanity. We still care about the world enough to save it after all the blows it's dealt us. We're not going down so easily."
And as she finishes her rousing speech, she jams her foot even harder into the accelerator to the extent where I feel she might break it.
She grits her teeth and narrows her eyes.
"Hold on to your butts you two." She sullenly warns as much to me and Rei's horror she continues to drive up the steeply inclined raised bridge towards the gap. Time seems to grind almost to a halt as the car climbs the slope clearly on the verge of a breakdown from so much exerted force.
"You're crazy. Mari, stop." Rei tries to complain through an incredibly sore throat. "This is stupidity. This is madness."
"Madness?" sputters the brown haired pilot incensed with righteous fury as the great divide of the raised bridge is so close we can feel the sting of the contaminated red ocean water below us.
"This" She snarls quietly but viciously top as the front wheel of our car goes off the last section of the metal bridge.
"is.."
Her final word is bellowed with full force at the top of her lungs with a titanic volume that could break glass. It was a word that I would remember with absolute clarity long after I had gone old and senile I didn't remember a thing about my time with Mari and Rei together.
I was eternally thankful to be there to hear it.
"EVANGELION!"
I don't even have the energy nor the presence of mind to let out a scream as for the next few seconds we are sent flying in midair with no ground below us.
It feels surprisingly liberating like a eagle soaring the skies.
I feel as if there are no limits.
No boundaries.
It's funny how some distance makes everything seem small.
And the fears that once controlled me can't get to me at all anymore.
It was finally time, I thought joyfully to myself as we continued to fly higher and closer to the other side.
Time to see what I could do.
To test the limits and break through.
No right. No wrong. No rules for me and these happy friends of mine.
We were now well and truly free and liberated to our own devices to be our own people as it was our human right.
No more need to conceal our feelings.
No reason not to admit our mutual camaraderie and friendship and declare it to the world.
No more slaving away like cogs in a soulless machine to be dumped like garbage when our usefulness was outlived.
It would be difficult to make a living for ourselves now that we had no commander to report to and no father to obey.
But at least what we earned that was rightfully ours could be fully enjoyed and we still had each other.
That alone was worth the price of admission.
True freedom was still a long and burdened journey away. But we would be together every step of the way as true friends.
I cried as against all expectations the front wheel of the rundown rust bucket managed to connect with the fringe of the other side of the raised bridge enough for us not to fall into the water below after all and make it safely across.
Not tears of sadness for the first time in my life. But tears of genuine blissful euphoria.
A new life where NERV played no part in my decisions was going to be here at long last. And now I had the closest thing anyone could call a family.
A family wasn't about who was related to who by blood or genetics or otherwise.
And I finally understood what Rei meant when long ago she told me in response to my question of whether she was my mum, yes and at the same time no.
Rei was no more my mother than me my father.
I was nothing like him and in his circumstances would have acted completely differently.
I came through him but not from him. And though he was my legal guardian by law and my father, I did not belong to him.
A human being or a living being equally sapient and self-aware as one, was not owned.
Common knowledge for anyone after the end of the slave trade.
Now I understood that my father and Misato did love me deeply all this time and all my life.
Just as a plantation owner loved his unpaid and unfed labourers who were forced by his forceful whipping to rake in his vast fortunes while getting nothing in return.
Just as such a sadistic slave owner adored the sound his whip made when it burned an everlasting mark of pain into his slave. So did Asuka get her sick and twisted pleasure from my screams as her foot forcefully slammed into my skull time and time again.
They loved me in their own strange ways. But since I was a coward from what they called me time and time again, I was not strong enough for their adoration and never would be.
I tried my best. And that was all I could do. I couldn't do better than my very best.
But Rei needed me more than I needed them and Rei certainly did not need their abuse. Not with how nice and kind she had done her utmost to remain to everyone myself included.
I was so wrapped up in my own thoughts that it took a while for me to come back to my senses.
By this time, Mari had left the capital of Japan far behind and was taking the first slip road leading off the main motorway connecting Tokyo 3 from its closest neighbouring cities Nagoya and Kyoto.
She explained that it was so it would be harder for the NERV army we left behind to track us down since they'd most likely search the main roads first.
"Where to now. Mari?" I asked after recovering my breath a little after the close brush with death we'd all shared in experience. I had a feeling this would be my catchphrase for quite a while as we scrambled to figure out how to continue in this uncertain path we'd forged for ourselves in no small part thanks to Rei's long-awaited declaration that my love for her was mutual after all.
Once again, Mari's reply was crisp and form as if she had already rehearsed her plan several times over.
She truly was the organized and efficient planner that Misato the major was not.
"We'll head to a safehouse not far from here" She bluntly summarized as she drove on seemingly not at all worn down by her exertions during the car chase.
"I've made plans with a couple of my trusted fellow rebel friends for us to stay with them for a while.
Then we'll make further plans to get out of the country before NERV finds us out. They're already arranging transport for us. But for now. We just get to the safehouse and have a much needed rest. It's in a well hidden place only I know about so there's no worry about us being found at least for a while."
"A very simple plan Mari" Rei impressively remarked.
Mari grinned with a flourish.
"The best plans often are. Let's get there now. They're probably worried sick waiting for us."
Angelo POV
"Those guys are really taking their time aren't they?" A spiky brown haired boy anxiously remarked in American English as he paced about the room, several beads of sweat staining his flushed face soggy. His simple attire, a slightly ripped set of cheap sports jeans and a scuffed and worn brown jacket with a quickly falling apart zipper belied perfectly his haste of fleeing his abusive childhood home of Chicago's suburbia along with the rest of his gang.
Angelo Travis Rules, had decided after thorough deliberation following his close brush with his childhood fear of death by cold and starvation, to keep his original outfit that he started his journey into the outside world from his downright neglectful family.
It would remind him of all he had come through and give him the rugged tough guy image he always wanted as a child.
"I hope Mari has a plan."
"Chill Angelo. I'm pretty certain that wherever Mari is, she's doing fine. You knew how resourceful and smart she was when you agreed to work with her."
His dark haired and dark-skinned studious partner comforted him in the same foreign language, putting a hand on his shoulder which quite surprisingly was welcomed by the usually stiff and self-assured munificent braggart.
It was not normal for his friend who he'd followed literally half way around the world to act this tensely even when the danger of the morst urgent situation was evident.
He respected that aspect about him a lot.
Sherwood Schwarzwald Klein was a rebel agent of a different calibre.
Taller yet far less muscular and heavily built than his self-proclaimed leader and with an almost pitch black set of blazers and dark pants as his wardrobe of choice since deciding it was better to tag along Angelo instead of continuing to fail hopelessly at persuading him to return home.
He had always been an orderly and strict sort of kid in his youth despite the constant hijinks his gang pulled him into and he resolved to maintain this identity even as he adjusted his style to match the land of Anime he had somehow been lucky enough to end up in.
"Do you think the first and second child, Shinji and Mari are as legendary as they say?" Added their third and most attractive member.
The pink haired Lola Anwalt Rules born Lola Anwalt Gruneschimtz always had something positive to say no matter how grim their position. Her presence was one of the few strongest reminders for Angelo that his past was not all grief and loneliness. Her cry in his lowest moments when he felt all hope was lost and all purpose was gone that he still had every reason to deserve to live on in spite of his failures and the failures of those he thought most trustworthy as a naïve kid blinded by neon lights and neon gods.
Her green Kimono perfectly complimented her adorably stylized twin tailed pink hair which she still kept strawberry scented for Angelo's enjoyment.
It made her even sweeter eye candy than the younger her had been to her two male friends when they were kids back in the United States America which in truth was hardly united at all what with the NERV branches there continuing to fight over very petty power struggles pushing everything into turmoil and making the excuse of an education system they were provided a right mess.
"I bet they're even more amazing than that from what I've heard." Answered their final but no less important newest recruit, Candy Freidrich Gelbmann
Her short but still incredibly eye-catching blonde hair was pulled back into a single ponytail. She wasn't the fashionista her best friend Lola who she had followed around the world in search of Angelo. That said, she still had to admit her new Sailor Fuku outfit consisting of the nice and traditional blue skirt and white high collared shirt which she acquired when entering Japan looked pretty stunning on herself.
They were on a serious mission and wouldn't be staying in the sacred kingdom of Anime for long but that didn't mean they couldn't have some style and chicness going for them while they were here.
It was quite jarring how NERV had made terrible a once benevolent and rapidly growing land of opportunity however and they were all glad to be part of the solution.
The team continued to sit in their modestly furnished designated hideout.
The stacks of empty shelves in several of its rooms making apparent its former use as a storeroom before NERV decommissioned it no doubt to save on costs for its Evangelions and its Executives own benefits.
As dilapidated as it had become with some of its walls beginning to peel away like an Ancient Byzantium Fresco and as emptied out as it was, the remaining canned and bottle food the group had salvaged from one of the lowermost floors would still be enough to last them several days without them needing to expose themselves any more than they already had.
Once again, their charismatic decision maker Angelo had the perfect plans for the perfect hideout.
Befitting his namesake, Angelo really did rule.
So once again, the group sat in silent rumination to await the arrival of the legendary heroes they were all dying to meet. Their facial expressions perfectly belying their arduous impatience without the need for further idle chatter.
They stayed still as a statue for the next hour and a half which seemed to drag on like an eternity, only the ticks of a rusted analogue clock on the wall of the "staffroom" they now occupied as their makeshift bedroom to signal the passage of time.
Normally they would entertain themselves with a video game or some music but for some reason the news that soon they'd get to meet the legendary world saviours Shinji Ikari and Rei Ayanami destroyed all interest of such superfluous superficial virtual reality and they were content this once just to wait it out in earnest reflection.
Now was the time for a firm and steady focus on reality. The famous piloting duo who from what Mari had already said had been through hell and back deserved them at their best and brightest.
The silence was finally broken when as the sun finally set and the sky turned a majestic dark shade of navy, a beep on Lola's smartphone which she had since the day she left home sounded throwing upon the entire gang a wave of exasperated excitation.
"Shinji and Rei have arrived with me. They're as tired as I am but they are well. Come meet me outside" the short text which Lola showed to everyone else read.
"It's time." Angelo simply announced as he led everyone to the door.
…
Rei POV
"So, where are we? What is this place?" I ask as I stifle a massive yawn stretching my arms and caressing my aching back. It had been one bumpy ride for Mari to get us to this hidden spot deep in a forest with only an extremely narrow space between the trees.
We had actually been forced to ditch the car partway in and walk the rest of the way as Mari took us down a hidden trail clearly not meant for anyone but her to find.
"My rebel friends have a temporary base here. They have enough food for a couple of days and because this place is well hidden, we can stay here and rest until the main rebel base can send someone here to pick us up." Mari explained as she rubbed her head.
"So um. What are these people like? Are you sure we can trust them?" Shinji nervously chimed in, the years of his father's abuse would take a long time to heal and I only hoped his recovery would be smoother now that we were far away from our ungrateful superiors.
"They're a lot like us really and I have a feeling you will like them. And as for trust, I can say without exaggeration that I would trust Angelo with my very life."
Mari confidently assuaged, brushing a few strands of hair which had gotten tangled up in her face in the heat of the high-speed car chase she had skillfully pulled through.
The engine had in fact overheated part way so even if the trail was wide enough, we would have had to abandon the car.
"And as for where we are right now."
Here, she inexplicably put on a suave and classy tone as she held her arm out in an exaggerated gesture.
She took her glasses off with her other hand and proudly held them out with a bow before putting them back on.
I and Shinji watched on in complete confusion as she stopped walking to face us with an expression which we could not quite tell. It seemed like pride mixed with joy mixed with excitement and thrill all in one.
"You unlock this door with the key of imagination." she dramatically sung, posing just as dramatically as if more in a monologue than talking with us.
"beyond it is another dimension - a dimension of sound, a dimension of sight, a dimension of mind. You're moving into a land of both shadow and substance, of things and ideas."
"You've just crossed into..." She paused for dramatic effect causing the hairs on my neck to tingle uncontrollably. "The Angelo zone."
And as stealthy footsteps which only I could hear with my enhanced Angel senses came into the edge of my perception, I smiled in weary relief.
From the big silly grin on Mari's face the likes of which I had not seen since the day I met her even with her optimism being the defining aspect of her personality, I could tell that me and Shinji were going to like the Angelo Zone.
Kudos once again to all my readers for reading and special thanks to fictionelement 777, bandiras, Neo warkid , KysoccerRef and Fantasian for your kind support.
It makes me really glad and really helps me out.
Thanks once again for reading and have a nice day all of you.
It really makes me glad that other people out there realize just how badly Shinji and Rei are being treated and how they deserve better in light of all the selfless acts of kindness they've committed. Just amazing and really means a lot to me.
