4:20pm, Tokyo-3
Shinji was giving up now. After twenty minutes of ringing that stupid phone again and again, he was getting sweet nothing in terms of a desirable response.
"We're sorry, due to the state of emergency, no lines are currently available. This is a recording." The answer phone repeated for the sixteenth time.
Sixteen times too many.
After glaring at it for a while, Shinji slammed it back into its booth, so hard that it broke in half on impact. He recoiled from the broken public property, as for all his faults he didn't like breaking things. He quickly looked around with a guilty expression, half expecting someone, probably a soldier, to show up and arrest him for his "crime."
Getting arrested was not something one wanted to happen to them, especially in the Japan of 2017.
A Japan in which most minor crimes warranted a savage beating.
In such an age and country, Shinji had discovered his submissive and timid nature to be helpful. It wasn't that he liked the Defence Board or even Parliament, it was just "not being shot" was near the top of his priorities.
After futilely trying to reassemble the phone, he backed away slowly, and then made no small amount of haste away from the scene.
Stopping a few blocks away, he walked himself into some shade and sighed with pleasure as the temperature dropped a few merciful degrees. Being Japanese, he was used to constant thirty degree temperature all year round, but even then he had his limits. In fact you could say he hated warm weather, for it made being snug impossible.
And then his eye caught a glimpse of something. In the distance a green signpost with the words Shelter, 300 metres emblazoned in white, and an arrow pointing down the street which curved off to the right, was situated.
Having forgotten about the State of emergency due to his frustration and embarrassment, Shinji took another look at the photo, so as to remind himself of where the meeting point was. He then realised the street name matched up with the one on the sign post.
Well that's fortunate.
Reluctantly, he left the shade and briskly walked towards the shelter.
Reaching the end of this street, and the beginning of the one which crossed over the top of it, he looked left and right before crossing to the other side.
This may seem like a strange thing to do in an empty city, but Shinji was a person of routine. Also he'd heard what sounded like the revving of an engine not too far away, giving the impression that someone was driving around a little too fast. Considering that everyone should probably be in their shelters, Shinji could understand why whoever was driving that car was in a hurry. However upon looking right and "surprisingly" seeing nothing, he then instinctively turned his head left, and almost had a heart attack.
Standing some one-hundred feet away from him, was a girl. A very pale girl with...he squinted some more to make sure he wasn't hallucinating.
He wasn't.
The girl did indeed have sky blue hair.
Becoming aware of the fact he was staring, Shinji snapped himself out of his stupor and shook his head, as if to get his brain back in gear. And then it occurred to him he was being stared at.
Remaking some form of eye contact, he mustered his courage for a challenge.
"Uh, hello? Can I...help you?"
The girl remained silent, making the situation more awkward with every passing moment.
"Are you lost? I-if you're trying to get to a shelter I know where one is. It's just down there..." And then his attention was distracted by a flock of birds suddenly taking flight, the flapping of wings and ruffling of feathers breaking the unnerving silence.
Redirecting his gaze from the sky back to the person he was talking to, Shinji tried to think of something else to say, only to find the girl gone. As he scratched his head in confusion, a gust of wind blew past him.
Good luck...brother... These words were carried upon the wind by so soft and pure a voice, that it pushed him to the verge of tears.
And then logic reasserted full control. Now he was more unnerved than ever before. With all the deathly silence, lack of people, and vanishing girls, he felt like his perception of the universe had simply given up today.
Of course however, those weren't words. They were just tree's rustling.
But there aren't any trees... His brain unhelpfully observed, resulting in Shinji quieting these thoughts as quickly as possible before the rest of his body could panic.
"Weird." He muttered to himself, before resuming his journey towards the shelter.
It had taken a few minutes, but eventually he could see the steel door to an N2 blast and fall out shelter, causing him to sigh with relief.
And then the ground started shaking. So much that he would have toppled onto his face were it not for the protection of his arms.
Still, it hurt.
"Ah shit!" He gently rubbed the soon to blossom bruises on his bare arms before standing back up, and then being thrown back down when the shaking got worse.
Earthquakes? Really? Look, Spirits, for whatever I did to annoy you so much I'm sorry. Can I just please start having an ordinary day?
Wind started to rattle the vehicles and building shutters, making the situation even more uncomfortable, unnerving, and downright frightening for Shinji, as he was never the bravest person alive.
But then everything really went to hell.
The thunderous roar of hundreds of high velocity cannons exploded across the hills of Tokyo-3, as its own defences opened fire upon its unexplainable attacker. Shinji could only watch in stupefied and deafened awe, as dozens of tanks reversed through the streets, their cannon's belching smoke and fire like the dragons of myth, along with hundreds of men darting around them. Kazes screamed through the air, but they and everything else was drowned out by the humming of four great engines belonging to two newly arrived FCV's.
But his awe soon turned to horror.
In front of these men and their machines, was something almost indescribable.
A humanoid, amphibian like creature stalked towards the Japanese capital, a look of malice etched upon its bone like mask that might have functioned as a head. Missiles, tank shells and even bullets were hurled at it with reckless abandon, only to impact uselessly.
This did not stop the guns of the JSA from continuing to fire. The sound of four ship mounted rail guns charging up caused Shinji to cover his ears in pain due to their shrill whine. With an ear splitting crack they unleashed their payload of pallet rounds, the noise shattering most of the city's windows and shaking the ground. The only effect they had however, was uselessly tapping a wall of orange lightening.
Is that...an A-T field?
Shinji felt his blood run cold. He knew a little about A-T fields, with them being the unlimited source of energy which mankind used to pull itself out of the oblivion of Second Impact.
But he'd never seen or heard of a field as strong as this.
And he'd never seen one be used in the fashion of how the Seraph would.
Sachiel swept his arm in the general direction of a squadron of VTOLs coming his way. A flicker of orange light preceded the entire squadron being obliterated in a wave of hell fire.
Shinji couldn't hear the JSA's battle chatter, but he could well imagine what was being yelled over it.
We're not putting a fucking dent in it!
Squadron 8 has been completely destroyed!
3rd division retreating!
Retreat is unacceptable! Nippon Banzai! Tenno Heika Banz-agghhhhhhhh!
A Kaze accelerated to close range after unloading its payload of missiles, swiftly unleashing a stream of bullets from its mounted gatling guns.
Sachiel watched rounds that would liquefy a person, harmlessly bounce off his field, before swiping at the vehicle with the back of his hand as if it were some sort of insignificant insect.
Vooren, you are poor hosts indeed. Can none of you offer me some sort of challenge!?
The VTOL tumbled out of the sky and crashed onto one of the buildings near the street's edge in an explosion of flames. It proceeded to career through through the road, stopping some one-hundred feet from a petrified Shinji.
He sat there for a few moments, watching the Eastern Army be decimated by the Seraph with effortless and ruthless ease, becoming even more paralysed as the realization that Sachiel was actually walking in his direction hit him like a tsunami.
Oh Spirits...oh Spirits...oh Spirits...
And then the world seemed to slow down.
Out of the Kaze crawled a figure. A figure that appeared to be a badly burned individual who'd lost the use of their legs. They were stuck, a metal beam having collapsed upon them, and they shrieked as the wreckage's flames slowly came closer.
A memory came to Shinji at that moment. One of when he was four years old and Japan was burning around him.
Men in blue uniforms, screaming at me to run, and then they just start screaming in general...I ran away like I always do.
And thus, he found himself being carried over to the crash site on his unusually eager legs. For although he was an isolated person, the he couldn't stand watching others in pain.
"Hey hold on!" He yelled, gaining speed with every passing second.
The individual in the wreckage appeared to meet Shinji's nearing gaze, and stretched out an arm in a grateful acceptance of offered help.
Sachiel's gargantuan green foot slammed down on the vehicle, completely crushing it. A quick scream was all Shinji heard before the individual whose life he'd tried to save, disappeared beneath the Seraph's weight, a sickening crunch and spurt of blood being overshadowed by the Kaze's final rippling explosion.
He stopped in his tracks and stared. Although he was no stranger to death, the boy collapsed upon the ground and doubled over before the urge to vomit overcame him within moments. After finishing the regurgitation of his train dinner, Shinji, remembering that he wasn't alone, slowly angled his gaze skywards to meet that of the imposing Seraph's.
Whilst Shinji trembled for all he was worth, mighty Sachiel stared down upon the helpless child before him, blinking a few times whilst the JSA kept hammering away.
The one-hundred and sixty metre tall amphibian behemoth, after maintaining eye contact with Shinji for a few tense seconds, slowly, inexorably, turned away and continued his relentless march through the city.
Scurry away little one, I have no quarrel with you.
The mousey haired and wimpy sixteen year old watched the ancient warrior stomp away, with shaking form and tears of terror streaming down his paled cheeks. Wiping the traces of vomit from his lips, Shinji rose from the ground with limbs that had the solidity of jelly.
Tokyo-3 was in flames around him. The city built to withstand any sort of attack was falling before his very eyes.
Japan was on the verge of having its heart ripped out again.
It can't be...it can't be...
As the Seraph sliced through another wave of VTOLs, then stabbing another one with a spear of light jutting out from its hand, Shinji clenched his fist.
It was not that he was angry, far from it, for this was actually his most prominent nervous tick. He would vent all his fears and frustrations into that hand and squeeze it as hard as he could. It was the best way he had of dealing with his fear of, well, everything. Not to mention the memories of the person who'd taught him this technique brought warmth to his chipped and broken heart unlike anything else.
He closed his eyes and a took a deep trembling breath before unclenching his fist.
Stay calm...stay calm...being the pathetic little coward I am isn't going to help.
Although still scared, Shinji quietened his trembling limbs and opened his eyes.
Great pyres of smoke reached into the heavens in the distance, as Sachiel continued his inexorable march towards some unknown objective.
The screech of an engine caught his attention, causing him to turn around. His eyes widened as some sort of blue sports car from a past time, skidded to a halt by his side, before having its passenger side door thrown open from the inside.
At the wheel, sat a rather pretty woman with purple hair and sunglasses, her lips curled into a cocky grin. Oddly enough, around her neck she wore what appeared to be the Christian cross.
If he were in a state where logical thought could be practised, Shinji would have found this bizarre as Christianity was almost extinct in the east these days.
But he was not thinking logically. In fact he was only halfway out of a near panic attack, and it seemed this woman, who didn't appear to even notice the monster stomping through Tokyo-3 Godzilla style, wanted him to come with her.
"It's Shinji right? Get in!" She called to him, as the boy in question kept gawking, whilst the part of his brain that wasn't going into meltdown noted how similar she looked to the person he was meant to meet. Her head simply tilted at his silence.
"Am I real late?"
4:35 pm, NERV Central command bridge, beneath Tokyo-3
NERV's command bridge was an impressive thing. A main metal deck with dozens of staff and computers chattering away constantly, was seated in front of a gargantuan holographic display that currently depicted Sachiel demolishing a good chunk of Tokyo-3. There were two smaller decks above the base deck, coupled with the bottom one they were named as such.
Control: situated on the bottom.
Observation: the middle.
And Command: the top.
The decks would get slowly smaller in width and length, with Control being filled with roughly thirty staff, Observation having ten, and Command having two.
But these men were perhaps the most important.
Supreme Commander Gendo Ikari, and Vice Commander Kozo Fuyutsuki.
NERV had spent over a decade preparing for this. Trillions of Dollars, Pounds, Euros, Roubles, Yen, and hundreds of thousands of hours of man power had been spent so they would be ready for what Mankind had long dreaded.
The return of the Seraphim.
And even then, almost every individual present stared up at the display screen with a mixture of terror, awe, and rage. The rage emanating from three individuals seated on the Observation deck, in dark blue military uniform, who were currently overlooking the ongoing battle.
Whilst NERV was a multinational organization and many of its staff were foreign, they still kept a wary eye upon these people. And as for NERV's Japanese personnel, fear had crept into their very souls. For at this table sat all three members of the Defence Board.
"Eastern Army forces currently engaged are reporting a fifteen percent casualty rate. All weaponry appears to have no effect!" One of the male Lieutenants reported from his monitor.
The figure sitting at the centre of the table, slammed her forty year old fist down, and stood up abruptly.
"Damn it! General, pull the Air Force back. Admiral, order the Navy to commence missile bombardment. My forces will retreat to the outskirts. We will kill this thing!" General Chiso Motichka barked.
"But...General Motichka, what about the city? Naval strikes will cause a great deal of collateral damage-agh!" The unfortunate Lieutenant yelped as a gunshot crashed out and his shoulder exploded into gore. He whimpered miserably as the General holstered her smoking side arm.
"I don't recall asking for anyone's opinion."
A few minutes later, whilst the Lieutenant with the shattered shoulder was carried away to NERV's medical ward, the sheer force of fifteen pallet missiles impacting their target flattened an entire residential block. The A-T field of a Sky ship would've had difficulty standing up against such an onslaught.
But the Seraph wasn't even scratched.
Whilst the commanders of the Air Force and Navy stared in shock, Motichka's hand slowly balled into a fist, before she drew a deep, dangerous, breath.
"Over three hundred and fifty thousand of my finest soldiers, hundreds of aircraft and dozens of ships. None of these have even been able to touch this, thing. Now, if someone doesn't give me a reason for this and a solution to my problem, there will be consequences. So, Supreme Commander Ikari-" She whirled around to face the figure who sat above them, upon his pretentious throne with faithful dog to one side.
"Can you give me a reason and a solution?" She said in a sickly sweet tone, one that implied she would have him hung drawn and quartered if his answer didn't please her.
And please her it did not.
"As I have said before, your every contribution to this is totally useless. This enemy is utterly beyond you, the JSA serves no further purpose than that of a flimsy meat shield. NERV shall handle this battle. You are no longer required." Gendo Ikari spoke in a voice which did not rise or fall, but radiated quiet authority. This however, was drowned out by Chiso's military snarl.
"You insolent spook. How dare you speak of my men like that! Twelve years ago these meat shields bled, fought, and died for this country whilst you sat in your palace of diplomatic immunity. Tell me, Gendo Ikari, where was your NERV when the Communists swarmed like ants over our homeland? Where were you!?"
"Your war was of no concern. We had far more pressing matters to attend to. Now, withdraw your troops and leave this matter to me. Your men are dying, General, dying in vain." Gendo offered, as if trying to get the woman to see reason. But to an experienced listener it was simple to realize he was intentionally provoking Japan's de facto ruler.
Chiso fought her desire to explode, then contorted her snarl into a vicious smile.
Her armed forces still had one card left.
"We shall see, old man." She turned to face General Daiki Naka, supreme commander of the airforce, who met her gaze without any fear, just anticipation.
"General. Order your surviving units to lure the Seraph away from Tokyo-3. I'm authorizing an N2 strike."
The sound of touch screen monitors being tapped was the only thing which filled the cavernous room, as no one wished to speak of the dreadful act about to be committed.
The old nuclear weapons had a gargantuan stigma attached to them, as during the "Post Impact Wars" these doomsday devices had claimed roughly ninety million lives. Almost every mind on that bridge was consumed by the image of a towering mushroom cloud, spewing radiation and death like a burst boil spread its diseased puss. And these had been totally outclassed in destructive power by the N2 mine, a weapon which produced no radiation but disintegrated everything within its blast radius.
Had any of NERV's staff truly been focused on the here and now however, they may have heard a whisper of a laugh from their Commander...
4:45pm, outskirts of Tokyo-3
The initial flight from the city had been hair raising. The blue sports car's speed hadn't dropped beneath ninety for ten minutes, with it only now mercifully falling below sixty. For that, Shinji thanked whatever deity was listening.
Releasing his grip upon the car door, he slumped back and exhaled after holding his breath.
"Sorry if that was a bit much, but we really needed to move." His driver cast him a quick look of apology before returning her gaze to the road.
A bit much?
Shinji would never have described the situation in that way. Him holding on for dear life whilst both the car and himself screamed through the streets of Tokyo-3, with the driver having an almost maniacal look of enjoyment, was most certainly not something he'd call "A bit much."
But at least they were far away from that monster now. Speaking of which...
"What was that?" His voice barely rose above a whisper.
"We call it a Seraph. No one really knows much about them, except they want to kill us all." The purple haired driver unhelpfully offered.
"Why do you call it a Seraph? That's a western word. Surely Yokai would work better for whatever that thing is?"
"Yokai would make sense, but I didn't name them. If we discover a new race of monsters bent on the genocide of everything, you can have naming priority." She laughed at her joke, whilst Shinji fought with every ounce of his being to not just shake with fear.
Race? No...no...I'm sure that's just a figure of speech. There can't be anything worse than whatever is ripping Tokyo-3 apart...there can't be...
They continued to drive for another few minutes, before Shinji plucked up the courage to ask the real question on his mind.
"Are you from NERV? Did my father send you?" He said in a guarded tone, not wanting to show hatred for the man who was his father in name only.
"Yes I'm from NERV. Lieutenant Colonel Misato Katsuragi, combat operations director, at your service." She stretched out a hand, which Shinji awkwardly shook.
"I've been assigned as your escort to NERV central, so don't worry, your safety is my top priority." She added as the speedometer dropped below fifty. For a while, the only noise that both occupants heard was the sound of the engine humming.
A petrol engine? This thing is an antique.
"Um...sorry I wasn't at the meeting point. I sort of...got distracted..." Shinji awkwardly scratched the back of his head, whilst fighting the rise of his gorge as he remembered what reason had dragged him away. He was rather surprised to find "Misato" simply shrug.
"Don't sweat it, Shinji-kun, a lot of things didn't go to plan today." Had her sunglasses not been on, he would have noticed Misato frown.
Damn. Ten years of preparation and those things still caught us with our panties down! The UN is going to have trouble stomaching this, but Spirits know how GAAFT will respond...
Were she paying attention, the purplehead would have noticed her charge becoming very quiet all of a sudden.
Come on. you broke it, you own up for it. His subconscious gently nudged.
But...but...but...ah crap why did I have to think of this right now?
"Um, Katsuragi-san?" He whispered.
"You can call me Misato you know, I'm not picky." She cast her gaze upon him, only to see the mousey haired boy turn very pale, as if he were a child with his hand caught in the cookie jar.
"Oh you can't have done anything that bad. Come on, what is it?" She actually chuckled a little. She chuckled at the prospect of him owning up to vandalism! That would get you a few nights in a cell and a misshapen face at least. But still, Shinji had always been taught to confess his wrong doings.
Own up, and your punishment won't be as severe.
"I...I tried phoning NERV earlier but I wasn't getting any reception so I kept trying and things were really creepy and..."
"Hey calm down, I'm not going to get angry." Misato said in a humoured yet...reassuring tone. Shinji had not heard such in a very long time. Not since...
"I...sort of...got frustrated...and...kind of...broke the phone..." He gingerly put forward, then lost any and all courage before looking straight into his lap. What he got next, was nothing like what he'd expected.
Not some harsh words.
Not a fist.
But a laugh.
"What that's it? You broke a phone? Shit, I break things all the time, you wouldn't believe how much my old landlord chewed me out for it." She waved her hand dismissively, as if the whole situation was trivial to her. Which it really was.
But for Shinji, any wrong doing could not be forgiven.
"But...Katsuragi-san, I smashed it! I broke it beyond repair!"
"Smashed? Jeez, how strong are you?"
"I don't know, but I still broke it! I mean, how will the security services handle it-" His voice trembled horrendously, until Misato's hand found its way to his shoulder and gave it a gentle squeeze.
"You've done nothing wrong. Nothing at all."
"But it was public property..." He meekly whimpered, knowing full well how some people had been beaten to death for what was once a minor offence.
But his driver didn't let him finish.
"No, Shinji-kun. You are not going to have your face caved in for breaking a phone. Spirits on high, that Motichka is insane." She gave his shoulder another squeeze, then returned to focusing her attention on the road ahead, whilst her own mind grumbled.
I remember what it was like before her...before the wars...before the Second Impact. Hell that world wasn't perfect, but it's better than what we have now.
Shinji's mouth flapped uselessly for a few moments whilst Misato didn't seem fazed at all by the thing she'd just said.
No one, insulted General Motichka, no one. Well, no one alive anyway...
However, Lieutenant Colonel Katsuragi was a member of NERV and that was a multinational organization with both funding and protection from the United Nations. So perhaps its staff could get away with voicing their opinions on...just about anything.
"You won't tell anyone will you?" He gingerly asked, reckoning that perhaps he liked this, Lieutenant Colonel Misato Katsuragi. At the very least, he didn't find her as annoying or frightening as most people.
She raised an eyebrow along with the edge of her mouth.
"Not a soul."
Along a deserted country highway, the car slowed to an unexpected stop. Shinji watched his driver open the glove compartment and pull out some rather technologically advanced binoculars. She then removed her sunglasses, showing off her fantastic doughy brown eyes. After opening the passenger side window she leaned over and began to survey the area.
"Um...Katsuragi-san...what are you doing?" Shinji's body and voice trembled as her breasts got all too close to his face.
Hey I told you coming here was a good idea! His subconscious infuriatingly pointed out.
Shut up! Shinji snapped back, resulting in the perverted part of his brain going off to pout.
"What are they doing?" She muttered both quietly and unhelpfully.
"What do you mean-agh!" His sudden shriek came from beholding the tiny but unmistakeable form of the "Seraph," slowly trudging its way over the edge of a very large hill, whilst dozens of VTOLs and two Sky ships buzzed angrily around it. The dull thuds of FCV artillery, missile impact, the occasional blinding blue light of a positron cannon, and the chatter chatter of heavy machine guns, caused his skin to crawl.
Those noises were all too familiar to a survivor of Fukuyama.
"Don't worry, they're leading it away from us." His driver gently tried to reassure him, before she returned to watching the spectacle whilst repeating the phrase "what are you doing?"
As the Seraph disappeared from view, the air forces scattered. Misato tilted her head ever so slightly then started to say in a tone that was dripping with absolute dread "No, they wouldn't...they wouldn't..."
He barely had time to see the missile streaking down from the heavens as his driver threw herself over him. A blinding light followed by an ear splitting roar deafened the vehicle's occupants. But a few seconds later, wind storms flipped the car over and over, with Shinji screaming for all he was worth, and Misato gritting her teeth as they were thrown around all over the car's interior, earning many a tender bruise.
Eventually, the car stopped rolling and remained on its side. Slowly, its owner and passenger peaked their heads out of it to behold perhaps one of the most dreaded sights in human history.
A gargantuan mushroom cloud scraping the heavens, its clouds of death darkening the world.
4:50 pm, NERV Central command bridge
There was a roar of applause as the Seraph's energy signature vanished, completely washed away by a tide of energised death.
Chiso folded her arms with a smug expression, matched only by the two other members of her administration present.
General Daiki Naka could only feel relief that the monster which killed so very many of his men today, was finally gone.
Admiral Akira Takeida's smile was one of absolute ecstasy as his blood lust was finally satiated by the death of the monster which took five of his ships, and roughly four thousand of his men.
Motichka turned her gaze towards the not so all knowing Commander sitting on his throne, her lips pressing into a savage smile.
"Well well, Ikari-san. It seems all that faith, Congressmen Laberenz puts in you is sadly misplaced. Along with a lot of our money..." She winced in metaphorical pain at the thought of all those trillions going to waste. But that was ultimately something she could live with.
Ikari was not needed.
Those metal monsters he'd hammered together in his basement weren't needed.
And for that, the most powerful individual in Japan gave a quick prayer of thanks to Amaterasu herself. Not that Motichka was religious, the horrors of war had shattered such "superstitions" long ago. But every now and again, when something very strenuous or nigh impossible had been achieved, she did wonder whether or not something was giving her administration a hand.
So she gave thanks to whoever was listening.
For Chiso did not like Gendo Ikari, not in the slightest. She wasn't sure why, but there was something horrifyingly off about him, his organization, and especially the little pet clone he kept around.
Not that the idea of clones unnerved her. On the contrary she would love to employ such techniques in her army, but the United Nations had put multiple sanctions on countries that even attempted it. Of course NERV would get away with something like that, but the one they had in particular, that ethereal...thing...didn't just unsettle her, it frightened this old warrior.
And that was without considering what it was a clone of...
Speaking of which, she hadn't seen Ikari's pet for a while now...curious.
"Perhaps." Gendo replied to her earlier question.
She sighed and turned away, taking in the massive display screen and its image of Japanese might reaching up to the heavens.
"Target status?" She directed at the Lieutenant in front of her, a mousey haired and wimpy young woman who froze at the mere sound of Chiso's voice.
"Um...uh...we're still trying to deal with the interference from the blast, General." She blustered as she desperately tried to not notice her "technical" Leader reach for their side arm.
"How long will that take, Lieutenant?"
"Just a few minutes, General!" The younger woman began to type frantically whilst giving desperate looks of please to her colleagues, to which they responded by working as fast as they could to clear the interference.
On NERV's command bridge, Lieutenant Maya Ibuki was considered "the baby" of the group. Therefore, other staff looked out for the rather nervous but kind young woman.
"It better not take any longer..." Chiso grumbled as she sat down on the table her staff had been provided, whilst folding her arms. She was not exactly your stereotypical Dictator, with having rather modest living quarters, a diet of usually take away, and a surprising amount of dedication to her job. It is telling how the woman who had ordered the troops to open fire on Bloody April 14th was not just feared. She was respected by a good deal of Japan's population. For though her rule was brutal, at least the Japanese people felt safer in their beds at night, due to the lack of foreign invaders and bandits roaming the streets.
"Interference cleared, regaining energy readings!" A male Lieutenant, who was rather nerdy looking in appearance, called out in a shrill voice as the static on the display cleared away showing an energy reading of the crater the explosion had left.
"Energy spike detected!" Maya yelled, as a sharp rise on the displays' energy reader made the Defence Board's stomachs churn. Chiso stood back up with an expression of pure fury and shock on her face.
"Impossible, I want visual on the site right now!"
"Yes, General!" Daiki nodded then started issuing orders to his air force over the comms link.
A few minutes later, a VTOL flew towards the large mushroom cloud, its pilot relaying what she was seeing.
"Cloud still there, but I'm getting an energy signature and it's not a nuclear one...whoa wait!" Her shriek was matched by muttered whispers of awe and shock.
From within that vortex of smoke, a beam of energy exploded forth, reaching up to the heavens in a glorious display of power. Fierce winds ripped apart the kilometres tall mushroom cloud as if it were wispy smoke, eventually allowing the crater to be seen.
Within it, Sachiel stood with one hand raised. He was bruised and a bit burned in some places, but apart from that he was practically unharmed.
For a race that lacks such power, you Vooren have very impressive fireworks. You must show us how to make these things...when you are all on your knees before father himself!
Sachiel then swiped his hand down, and with a flicker of orange energy, what was left of the surrounding landscape was utterly flattened.
"T-t-target intact. N2 strike has no effect, returning to base..." The utterly demoralised voice of the Pilot was the only noise heard in that vast cavern.
Chiso stared at the now blank display for a few minutes, whilst the NERV Lieutenant sitting in front of her squirmed, as she tried to get out of a possible line of fire.
Eventually, the Dictator turned slowly to face Gendo Ikari, the bastard king, sitting high above her. She imagined that was done for the effect of making those speaking to him feel small, but when confronted with her, it did him no good.
Her arms folded and she tutted once, before speaking in a surprisingly controlled voice.
"Supreme Commander Gendo Ikari. Time and again you have told me, Parliament, the United Nations, the Global Allied Armed Forces Treaty, and even His Imperial Majesty the Emperor of Japan himself, that you and your organization are Mankind's only hope. Tell me, Commander, when the entire Eastern Army and an N2 strike could not kill that thing, then how in heaven's name will you have any hope?"
Gendo let the question roll for a few moments before readjusting his glasses. His subordinate, his loyal dog, Vice Commander Kozo Fuyutsuki briefly raised his eyebrow before NERV's Supreme Commander replied.
"It precisely for this scenario that NERV exists. I assure you, General Motichka, my organization will have the situation well in hand by the end of this very day."
The room was silent for a minute, before Chiso's sigh echoed around the chamber.
"Very well. By the powers invested in me by the United Nations as head of the Japanese State Army, I hereby authorize the transference of command for this operation to NERV."
Were she not so far away, Chiso would have seen Gendo's mouth curl into a small smile.
"Thank you, General Motichka."
5:00pm, outskirts of Tokyo-3
The car was a wreck.
It's paint job seared, its engine smashed nearly beyond repair, and its former occupants possessing huge red and black bruises.
Shinji considered it a miracle they were even alive, but he felt that Misato trying to restart the engine was asking for a bit much.
"Come on...just this once..." He heard her mutter again and again as the engine kept on spluttering, resolutely refusing to return from beyond the grave.
He stood outside the car which only a few minutes before he'd helped to push onto its correct side, taking in the now ruined landscape lying before him.
Once green and pretty hills had now been reduced to...this.
The area had been totally obliterated, only blackened dirt, little pieces of fluttering ash, and the tiny yet looming shape of the Seraph remained now. Indeed he should be a part of these remnants of life, but as it turned out, Misato's Car possessed an onboard S2 engine.
It was only there to provide a meagre A-T field, not propel the car. Misato had said, it just isn't the same on the matter, despite how totally inefficient petrol engines were.
"Damn it!" There was a loud slam as she punched the wheel. Taking a deep breath she removed herself from the car and walked around it so that she could talk to him face to face.
"I'm sorry, Shinji-kun. I think we're walking the rest of the way."
"Don't say sorry, Katsuragi-san. I probably wouldn't even be alive if it weren't for you." He did his best to make a believable smile, but it was difficult. For the boy hadn't truly smiled in a long time...
He collected his bag from the back seat and slung it over his shoulder, whilst Misato retrieved some other things from the boot. Shinji struggled to hide his alarm when she pulled out a regular issue Hitokuchi pistol, along with a red jacket and beret.
Slipping both on, Misato holstered her pistol and walked back over to him.
"Entrance eighteen is a three mile walk from here. If we hurry, we should get there before, temper tantrum-san-" She pointed towards the ever present dot that was Sachiel "-decides to start moving again." She received a meek nod from Shinji before the duo began to move as fast as they comfortably could in a direction that would take them away from the ancient warrior.
They'd been following the road for a few minutes, and he was already lagging behind.
"Can...can...can't you just...heh...call your people to come and get us?" He panted as his feet started dragging. As he was being invited to the place which was his father's home, he'd decided to dress nicely for the occasion. And so Shinji gained blisters from his unsuited to the situation black shoes.
"Oh come on, you're a boy aren't you? Man up!" Misato both admonished and teased as she masterfully hid the discomfort she herself was feeling from her heels. They weren't especially high, but they were just high enough to cause some issue. However, Misato Katsuragi was a survivor of Second Impact and the following wars, so this was a trivial thing to her.
"They'd probably be at Level Two Battle Stations anyway. So we aren't getting a lift from them."
Come on, did it really have to happen today of all days? Jeez kid this must be quite a shitty home coming...Oh Spirits this day has just sucked! My Car, my favourite dress, all fucking ruined, ruined I tell you!
"Um...Katsuragi-san?"
"Yes, Shinji-kun?" She tilted her head as the boy in question had stopped dead in his tracks some ten feet behind her with a curious expression.
"Do you hear that?" He looked around a little more as Misato remembered a piece of text in his dossier.
May possibly show signs of mental instability.
But then the rumbling reached her ears too.
"Yes I hear it." Her hand instinctively slid towards her pistol, but the eventual realisation that the noise clearly was not a Seraph made her relax.
"I think it's coming from-" Shinji stopped mid sentence and stared at the sight rumbling towards him. Misato's eyes also nearly fell out of their sockets as she walked over to his side, for moving towards them in all its slightly melted glory, was a Type 2 Yoroi main battle tank.
At its front was inserted a broken 120mm cannon that penetrated the frontal armour, sticking up in such a way it prevented the main gun from rotating left. Two heads poked out from the commander's and driver's hatches, staring ahead in surprise as well.
Eventually, the tank stopped some fifteen metres away from them, with the commander's face coming into view.
It looked like it had been almost burned off some years ago, but his grey eyes commanded authority and respect.
He was Sergeant first class Kiyoshi Yukimura, last surviving officer of the Eastern Army's 1st armoured division. And his face spoke volumes about what that meant to him.
"Citizens, what are you doing out here? Why the hell aren't you in your shelters?" He barked, causing Shinji to jump and Misato to put a hand on her hip in annoyance. Before any of them could respond, the Akuma's dark haired driver yelled at them.
"Move you fucking pedestrians or I''ll run you over!" As if to demonstrate his point, the engine revved.
"Eiji." Kiyoshi said simply and sternly, causing his driver to mumble something about "cunts" before going completely silent.
"Well are you going to answer my question or not?" He tilted his head, not in annoyance but impatience.
A cunning spark flickered in Misato's brown eyes.
"I am Lieutenant Colonel Misato Katsuragi of NERV. I require your assistance in transporting this boy to NERV central. If you refuse I will have to use my authority as a NERV operative to requisition you-"
"Lieutenant Colonel? How did you earn that? Did you distract the Tokuajin by flashing your knickers? Because if you got a promotion through that, could you please go and get the attention of whatever that thing is." Private First Class Eiji Fukui pointed in the general direction of the rampaging Seraph.
Misato's mouth dropped open as Shinji sniggered with his hand firmly clamped over his mouth.
Kiyoshi chuckled a little.
"That'll be enough, Eiji. Now then, you said about requisitioning my tank?" One of the Sergeant's eyebrows raised at the mere thought of his home being taken from him.
"Unless you comply. But I'm sure it won't come to tha-"
"Unless we comply!? Fucking spook bitch!" Someone from inside the tank roared, as its rail gun angled itself at Misato and began charging up, causing Shinji to nearly wet himself.
"Seiichi, enough!" Kiyoshi growled, but that didn't work.
"All those men, all those fucking men! Where the hell were you and your NERV? You were meant to help us, you meant to stop this kind of shit from happening! That's what we all paid those damned taxes for! How can you possibly make demands of us!?" Ragged breathing was followed by sobbing.
"Ah fuck, now look what you've done..." Eiji muttered as he closed his hatch, leaving only the Sergeant and the Lieutenant Colonel to stare each other out.
Misato noticed all the traces of concern on Kiyoshi's face, knowing exactly what to say next. For as she was a soldier herself, Misato understood your comrades were your family.
"You want to keep those men alive? Then you take us to NERV central, with me onboard I can get you in. I promise, you'd be far safer in there than anywhere else."
A moment of indecisiveness flashed on Kiyoshi's face before he narrowed his eyes.
"I have your word?"
"Unconditionally."
"Good. Because if they come to harm I'll kill you. Now get on before I change my mind." He gestured to them before disappearing down his hatch as Misato clambered on.
"Come on." She stretched a hand out to Shinji who still considering whether or not to assume the fetal position and hope for the best. But her reassuring smile, forced him to take destiny's offer.
5:20pm, NERV entrance point eighteen
A NERV security Guard was meant to be prepared for almost anything. But no one can be ready for a tank to roll right up to their checkpoint at near top speed, with two rather annoyed looking crew men poking out of their hatches. After stopping at the barrier, the commander went back down into his tank, and a few moments later, Misato squirmed out of the command hatch, then climbed down.
The "Section Three" security guard walked over with an amazed expression, even when Misato handed him her ID card.
"They said you'd be arriving in an unorthodox manner but..." He shook his head before handing the ID back.
"Yes. I was meant to get here in my car, but that's wrecked." Misato maintained a smile, but inwardly whimpered at the thought of her precious Renault Alpine A310, a vehicle which was an antique, being smashed up and broken. It pained her even more to leave it all by itself. It needed its mother, and she needed her baby.
"A lot of people's crap got messed up today, Lieutenant Colonel. What about your companions, are they with you? And where is the Third child?"
"Yes they're with me. JSA 1st armoured division. The Third child is actually in the tank, and he's not very comfortable..." She rolled her eyes, eliciting a chuckle from the guard. Although she reckoned Shinji was a nice kid, he didn't half whine.
"Hey soldier! Don't I get a salute?" The newly reappeared Kiyoshi barked from his command hatch.
"Oh...I'm sorry, Sergeant, but you're not NERV personnel so I can't salute you..."
"Alright fuck face, you disrespect the JSA then prepare to be disrespected." Eiji grumbled as his tank's engine roared to life, before it crashed through the barrier.
And this time, Kiyoshi did nothing to stop him.
"Oh what the hell! JSA barbarians!" The Security Guard yelled with absolute horror before shaking his fist.
"Considering how much you bastards get in taxpayer's money, I wouldn't be surprised if you could get a gold plated one!" The driver mouthed as the tank came to a stop.
"I...am...so sorry. We'll get this sorted out later but right now we really need to get a move on." Misato was eager to move, with the sound of explosions coming from far away.
The Security Guard grumbled, then relented.
"The Third child has arrived. He is currently in a...type 2 battle tank...so...just be ready for anything." He held his radio to his mouth.
"Thanks!" Misato patted him on the shoulder then ran off to climb back onboard the tank.
As it neared the entrance to NERV's tunnel systems, the route became narrower and narrower, with the Akuma's side even scraping against the wall.
"I don't think this road was designed for tanks..." Shinji muttered, whilst feeling cramped. He knew not to complain about that however, a good cuff round the head from "Seiichi" had taught him that.
"Well no shit, kid!" Eiji threw his arm out in exasperation, with Shinji instinctively dodging.
The crew of the Akuma had grown to be rather irritated by him, with his constant complaints of it being "too loud" or "too cramped" or the ever loved "are we there yet?"
"Whiny little bitch aren't you?" Akuma's driver grumbled. His mood certainly wasn't helped by the shredded remnants of an unfortunate fellow tank currently being lodged in the front of his "home." Not to mention how it had cut into his leg, preventing him from even leaving his seat. In fact, during Seiichi's earlier breakdown he'd had to gesture to him to get down to his level for a comforting hug.
Still just a kid He chuckled to himself.
Leading private Seiichi Oshiro on the other hand felt the situation could truly have been worse, with the attractive NERV Lieutenant Colonel currently sitting on his lap as there was hardly any room, and the kid being shoved into the now empty ammunition storing area.
Not that he'd ever consider cheating on Mikasa, as this "Misato" was a bit too sluttishly dressed for his liking.
"Katsuragi-san, we're getting into the tunnel systems now. Going to need your direction." Kiyoshi called out. Misato squeezed up into the command hatch and took the prepared binoculars the Akuma's commander had waiting for her.
"You'll be wanting to go left in a moment, and turn your headlights on, it gets darker soon."
Meanwhile, Shinji took a look through Eiji's periscope.
"How deep do these tunnels go?" He murmured.
"Deeper than you've ever been inside a woman probably..." Eiji chuckled as the boy degenerated into an irritated and stammering mess.
Well that makes two kids onboard this thing...they said life in the JSA is out of the ordinary but I never expected anything like this...
And thus, this unlikely and motley crew rumbled into NERV central. The heart of the planet's most enigmatic organization.