"Alright everyone, dig in!"
Shinji was honestly a little miffed that Misato refused to let him cook for this party she was throwing, but he tried to shuffle that thought away when it turned out she'd gone and picked up take out from basically every restaurant he and the girls liked. He ate ravenously despite having snacked all day - an Angel attack always left Shinji starving for some reason.
After a few minutes that were more than a little awkward, Rei managed to speak up first. "So, class rep, how was your first sortie?"
Hikari snorted. "Are you kidding? It was almost over before I even reached the surface. I didn't have anything to do but scramble out of the launch carriage and throw up the A-field or whatever it's called." Pen Pen appeared seemingly out of nowhere, something all four of the humanoid occupants had gotten used to over the last few hours, waddled next to and warked at Hikari. She stared at him for a few moments and he warked again, pointing at a specific piece of her food with one of his retractable claws. She blinked, and passed it over with her chopsticks. Pen Pen made a noise that some might have interpreted as happy, and waddled away.
"Well, that's the sixth Angel defeated." Misato added after another moment of silence. "Intelligence predicts there should be 18 in total. We're a third of the way towards defeating them. That's why I wanted to treat you all - you've made real progress!"
"And it's all thanks to three teenagers with attitude" Rei snickered. "Though we're about to be joined by the redhead, right Misato?"
"Yup, Asuka's officially on her way over. For some reason Germany insisted on transporting her by ship instead of by air, so we're waiting for the UN Pacific Fleet to perform ferry duty."
"Another one?" Shinji groaned. "How many of us are you bringing into this war?"
"Well, after Rei was more or less successfully implanted with Unit 00, six more units were commissioned. Past Unit 06, there's supposedly some kind of 'mass production' run being implemented all over the world. I don't have the details but they're supposedly more powerful. Aside from that there were a few one-off experiments that seem to have dropped off the radar."
"How is an Evangelion made? I thought Gendo said they were 'discovered'?"
Misato glanced nervously at Rei, who averted her gave. "That's… a story for another time," Misato sheepishly admitted, "And Ritsuko can explain it a lot better than I can. Anyway, let's stop talking about work and have some fun tonight!"
Games were brought out, and Shinji had a surprisingly good time interacting with the three women - he'd always been of the mind that girls were trouble waiting to happen and preferred to just avoid them. But, here and now, Hikari was nice enough to be around when she wasn't in class rep mode, Misato seemed to actually want to be like a mother to him, and Rei seemed to genuinely be interested in Shinji as a person and wanted him to succeed. Maybe he was wrong about some things.
As the three teenagers collapsed into another pile of limbs on the Twister board, Hikari found the time to be later than she'd expected and pulled herself out and up from the other two. "Well, thanks for having me over, but my sisters are going to start worrying about me if I don't get back soon."
"Would you like a ride?" Misato offered.
"I don't want to impose. Besides, I think I need the length of the bus ride to decompress before I get home."
"Fair enough."
Hikari got her bag together and the remainder of the food Miisato had bought for her, then turned to the groggy pair of Shinji and Rei. "Don't be late for school, you two, or I'll have you do the cleanup tomorrow." She gave them a playful wink. Pen Pen came back up to her and said goodbye separately, then she went out the door in high spirits.
Said spirits didn't last too long in the humid and not cold enough night air as she realized the busses only ran once an hour this time of night. Hikari considered going back or calling to see if Misato was still willing to give her the ride, but found the idea too awkward, and they'd probably already gone to sleep anyway. The bus finally showed up after about a 30 minute wait and she got on, and was partially startled when a bald, middle-aged man in a nondescript black dress shirt and pants that she hadn't noticed got on behind her. A bit shaken, she found a seat on the empty bus, and the man sat a few rows behind her.
Hikari had to fight to keep herself awake, resorting to texting with Nozomi who, sure enough, was still awake near midnight. However, Hikari noticed after some time that the bus hadn't stopped moving for a while, and she looked up just in time to see it run a red light and narrowly miss the cars in the intersection. She made a loud exclamation and got up to walk to the driver - but was shocked to find him foaming at the mouth, eyes rolled back in his head and hands on the steering wheel but convulsing wildly. Hikari tried to pull him out of the seat before realizing he was buckled in tight and she didn't know how to release the mechanism. Except, that didn't matter: Unit 05 appeared behind her and crushed the plastic buckle in one hand while pulling him out of the seat with the other hand.
Which was when the bus plowed straight into a building.
Misato had finally convinced Rei and Shinji to go to bed when her phone rang - but not with the regular ringtone. It was the NERV emergency line. Her eyes sprang open and her arm darted out for the phone, but missed and knocked it away. Swearing like a veteran sailor, she got up and retrieved it from the floor, answering the call with one deft hand motion. "Yagami, report!"
The voice of the night shift commander came out hurriedly. "Major, it's Horaki! She was just involved in a bus crash on 31st and Nagaraki street! You'd better get over there now and take command of the police responders!"
"Got it. I'm on my way." She closed the call and immediately went for her shoes. Shinji poked his head out the bedroom door.
"What happened?"
"Hikari was just in a bus crash. She's probably fine with Beautiful World protecting her, but I have to get over there and make sure the police don't do anything stupid."
Pen Pen got up from his slumber on the couch. He looked around a few times, then simply vanished into thin air. Rei's head poked out of the room above Shinji's. "Can we come with you?" She asked.
"If you two can get ready in the next 30 seconds."
Hikari's eyes were closed tight, but she soon realized that she wasn't hurt. She opened them slowly and found she was enveloped almost completely by the body of her orange giant, and was now in the middle of the bus and not the front due to the impact. She started to calm down and get her bearings, but panic set in as the middle aged man from earlier got up from his seat and started walking towards her, wearing an evil grin on his face.
"Looks like I missed 'ya the first time. Oh well! That means it's time fer more fun!" He took out a huge knife from his back pocket, but stopped moving towards Hikari. Curiously, he stabbed the knife into his own leg, but didn't even wince or make any noise at all. He looked to his right, and Hikari followed suit, just in time to see the cargo truck with a driver yelling in pain barreling right towards the bus.
It bounced off the AT Field of Unit 05, not even making it to the side of the crumpled bus. The man in black made a very annoyed expression on his face, and said "Hmph. Guess I'm thinkin' too small for you. Didn't think just a little girl would put up much of a fight. Lets see how ya do if I drop a whole buildin' on 'ya!" He smashed the window to his right with an almost freakishly muscled leg, then jumped out.
Hikari was panicking, hyperventilating. She wasn't prepared for this. After a minute or two, she finally found the courage to crawl out the side of the bus, to afraid to dismiss Unit 05, who simply tore a whole in the thin sheet metal and walked out, seemingly of its own accord. Cold and scared, Hikari looked around for the man but didn't find him, just empty streets and the now burning, crushed bus. She buried her face in her hands, not sure what to do as distant sirens just started to fade into her hearing.
A massive explosion behind Hikari threw her forward. She was caught by Unit 05 and held close, and turned around to see the burning shell of what used to be a gasoline tanker truck, crashed and detonated into the major support of the parking garage she was next to. The building cracked and crumbled, then started to lean over and collapse... Right towards Hikari. This was it - this was how she died. She thought of home, seeing Kodama and Nozomi around the dining table laughing at one of her jokes the other night.
Hikari's Stand had other ideas. Moving completely on its own again, it raised it's right hand outward, and a point of light appeared a meter in front of it, rapidly expanding into a light show of expanding circles in a cone shape. It then held onto Hikari with both arms again and leapt forward into the light - and disappeared an instant before the concrete would have made contact.
Fire trucks and ambulances began arriving en masse to the scene, and Misato with Shinji and Rei shortly after. It expanded to police cars and excavator equipment, but except a few people who'd been in the garage when it fell, there was no sign of Hikari under the rubble. Just as Misato was starting to go into panic mode over where she was, Section 2 called her with a sighting report…
The last thing Hikari remembered was moving through a weird tunnel with strange lights, then a second bright flash, and poof, she was in her dining room. She looked around. Unit 05 stood slightly crouched with it's emotionless yellow visor, but other than that, nobody. Her sisters must have been asleep and not disturbed by whatever that was. Hikari stood for quite some time, trying to process just what had happened, before deciding she shouldn't look a gift horse in the mouth and simply went to bed.
The bald man watched the excavation effort from the balcony of a nearby building he'd managed to climb, getting more upset by the second that they weren't finding a body. "Shieet, they never told me the squirt could teleport," he said to himself, "guess I'll skip town an' lay low for a while. Next time I see that sucker what gave me this job, I'm gonna lodge Lovers right in his noggin, and make sure he understands I don't do no impossible jobs. Gonna shake double pay out of him, too. That'll teach him not to mess with me." He turned around, and was taken aback when a penguin was blocking his way to the fire ladder, currently his only exit.
The surprise only lasted a moment, though, before annoyance took hold again. "Scram, 'ya damn fish!" He shouted, making obscene gestures with an arm. Pen Pen simply stared at him, then took a deep breath. Behind him, a large gold humanoid in extravagant gold armor appeared, actually intimidating the man. "What tha fuck? This fucking penguin is a Stand user? Pfft, like it could actually beat me. I'mma have Lovers get in there and mush that bast-"
Time became a crawl. An instant felt like it lasted several seconds. The man fell to the floor of the balcony, bruised, bloody, and lifeless. Pen Pen simply made a disgusted noise, and again vanished into thin air.
Shinji's Bizarre Evangelion
OVA #1: Jet Alone!
The next day...
Hikari laid facedown on one of the benches in the locker room, letting out the occasional groan. This was supposed to be a normal day of synchronization tests and sparring, but after the bus crash incident, the only thing anyone seemed to be interested in was Unit-05's newly discovered ability to move large distances in an instant by opening a portal. The scientists seemed about ready to make a mess in their pants/skirts when they finally figured out how it worked; apparently the Stand vibrated so quickly and precisely it made a rupture into 'subspace', whatever that meant. They immediately discovered two problems: it had a five minute recharge time, and Hikari either needed to have already been to the target location, or be able to see it with her own eyes or sufficiently zoomed out picture. The upshot was, there didn't seem to be any limit on range; Hikari had been to several spots in Japan including the top of Mt. Fuji, and had even briefly visited NERV's fourth branch in the United States.
All the subspace jumping around was making her tired as hell, though. Something seemed to drain from her every time she opened a portal, and she still wasn't at 100% after the assassination attempt a few nights ago. The only good news was that someone had tweaked the compression on the Skull Suit to make it way more comfortable, and honestly felt kinda good, to the point that it was actually helping Hikari feel better to just lay down and let it squish her. She still wouldn't want to wear it all the time, since it still left her a little short of breath, but it at least wasn't unbearable to be in.
As Hikari was wondering if or how she could request a massage function to be implemented into the suit, the door to the locker room opened, and Rei walking in with a bit of a spring in her step, followed shortly by Shinji, both also in their combat gear. "Hey, class rep, feeling any better?" Rei asked with some exuberance. Hikari just lifted her right hand in a "meh" motion and made another groan. "Aw, I'm sorry. You did go, like, all the way around the world though, so that's pretty understandable."
"Did you need me for something?" Hikari asked without moving.
"Actually we have a few hours off while the eggheads upstairs figure out what to do next." Rei and Shinji both sat on the bench opposing Hikari. "But I did want to show you something."
Hikari turned her head so she was actually looking at the other two. "What?" Rei closed her eyes and focused for a moment, and Fly Me To The Moon materialized in the locker room - but it had changed. The armor was now mostly a deep blue color, with the arms now white all the way down to the wrist. Hikari looked at Rei and raised a very puzzled eyebrow.
"It was a bit confusing to have two of the Evangelions be orange," Rei explained, "So I decided I liked mine in blue better."
"Wait, what? How did you do that?"
Rei was silent for several seconds and tilted her head. "I… Don't know. I just decided ours should be different colors and then… The next time I summoned it, it was blue." She looked at the 8-foot tall, single-eyed hulk. "I'm not even sure I did it myself, now."
"Hm… Maybe we should try." Shinji said. "I'll go for red. Hikari?"
"Green." She said, still not even lifting her head. Shinji closed his eyes and imagined Can't Be Yours in a neon red, with yellow arms, as hard as he could. After some time, he attempted to summon it - but he could somehow sense it being angry with him as it appeared, the same deep purple with green bits it had always been. Hikari's Stand also appeared the same color it had been, and her head jerked up to look at it with more than a little fear on her face.
"Well, that didn't work." Shinji sighed, and put his head on the locker behind him with a small bonk. He was surprised as Rei suddenly clapped her hands.
"So! What are we going to get up to before the next test? Do either of you feel like goofing off, or maybe we could go to my apartment since that's down here actually?"
Before either Shinji or Hikari could respond, the locker room door opened and Misato stepped through with her usual strut. "Hey, pilots," she said, walking up to them and putting a hand on her hip, "Who's interested in a field trip to Old Tokyo?"
Rei's Stand faded away, shortly followed by the others, and it was a few seconds before she responded. "Why?"
"Ritsuko and I have been ordered to attend a demonstration tomorrow of a weapons system called Jet Alone. Supposedly it's a completely artificial Stand that NATO put together as 'competition' to the Evangelions. I want you three to come with me in case something happens."
"Are you expecting something to happen?" Shinji asked.
"I expect those fools to screw something up. It took the greatest scientific minds in the world to create your Stands here at NERV. I'm scared to think of what the B team produced without our resources."
"You said all three of us?" Rei asked, "What if there's an emergency here?"
"Hikari's subspace jump ability seems more than adequate to get you all back to Tokyo-3 if an Angel attacks."
The three teenagers looked at each other, searching for some kind of question or objection to raise. Finding none, Rei looked at Misato again. "Alright! When and where do we report?"
Shinji had never been on one of NERV's VTOL aircraft before, and he honestly hoped never to do so again. The interior was surprisingly quiet despite the engines and propellers outside, but the turbulence was unbearable. Twelve military jump seats lined the side walls and the forward bulkhead, but Shinji was the only one strapped in - Misato and Ritsuko were both glued to their PDAs with their feet up, Hikari was on her knees looking out the window, and Rei was reading a book somehow with all the turbulence.
Speaking of the two girls, they were making Shinji feel quite underdressed - both were wearing a somewhat long shortsleeve dress that managed to be quite formal but also very cute at the same time. Shinji was just in his white button shirt and black slacks as always. He'd considered putting on his school uniform jacket, but decided it would have made him look too much like a kid for this event. As if reading his mind, Hikari got down from her perch and sat normally, looking straight at Shinji and saying "So, Ikari, is that really the best thing you have to wear for a function like this?"
Shinji just shrunk further into his seat. "I really don't have much at all in the way of clothes…"
"Hmph. Well then we're going to have to fix that, aren't we?" Hikari turned to Misato. "You said the demonstration is at 1300 hours, right? Do you mind if the three of us go to Inaba to do some shopping? We'll be back at the test facility before 1200."
Misato looked at her watch and thought about it for a moment. "I suppose there won't be much for you all to do at the reception except dodge questions. In fact, yeah, you go do that, I want those jerks at NATO getting their hands on you as little as possible."
"Uh, Misato," Shinji blurted out, "I thought NATO disbanded and fought with each other during the Post-Impact Wars. What are they doing funding this project?"
"It's basically just the US at this point. The only members even on the treaty are them, the UK, and the remnants of the Commonwealth, so just the English speaking countries. They're providing additional funding as well as some 'unspecified assistance' to an international group of manufacturing companies that gathered here in Japan to conduct the Jet Alone project."
Shinji stared for a moment. "...What's 'unspecified assistance' supposed to mean?"
"It means espionage. NATO is doing the dirty work to get them the top secret materials they need. I'm not sure exactly how they've created an artificial Stand, so this should be quite the interesting demonstration."
There was silence in the VTOL for a time, during which Hikari got up and moved to sit next to Misato, leaning onto her shoulder in an attempt to speak softly enough so the others couldn't hear her. "Misato… Did you look into that guy that attacked me?"
Misato swore in her head - she forgot to come up with a story. The assassin was almost certainly sent by SEELE - the same person had been used to 'clean up' people that learned too much about the Human Instrumentality project. The committee was probably angry about Hikari being activated so early into the plan, and wanted her eliminated. But she couldn't tell that to a teenager, knowing an all-powerful organization is out for your life would be too much.
"He was a Stand user that went renegade a few weeks ago," Misato lied, "We'd been trying to track him down, but as you saw his Stand, Lovers, had an ability that made tailing him difficult. You don't have to worry, though - we found him quite dead on the balcony of a nearby apartment building, apparently he got beat up really bad when the parking structure exploded."
"So it's not going to happen again?"
Misato paused. "It won't happen again from that guy. Sorry. That's the best I can promise. You got out of this one unscathed though, and got a cool new power."
Hikari made a small unhappy noise and kept her head resting on Misato's shoulder. Eventually, the VTOL slowed and landed, and Shinji was instantly out of his chair and waiting for the ramp to open. He ran outside and immediately laid down on the dusty concrete, while the four women slowly and calmly filed out behind him with no ill effects from the two hour flight.
"Strange that you're reacting like this, given you've got the Stand that's closest to flying." Rei remarked, and giggled. Shinji groaned in response.
"Alright, Ritsuko and I will head in now and see what's going on." Misato said. "You three are free to go until 1200 hours. The nearest town should be-"
"Inaba." Hikari interrupted. "I know it. Barely survived destruction in the post-impact wars. The refugees all wanted to get away from Old Tokyo, so it's been a small town ever since."
Misato looked surprised. "You know your history. Alright, we'll meet up with you later. Keep an ear out for your phones in case we need you. Dismissed."
Shinji heard the sharp clicking of high heels fade away into the distance. He groaned again and sat up, starting to feel less like death now. He was suddenly quite aware of the two girls staring at him, and didn't know what to do. "Uh."
"We're waiting on you, silly." Hikari put her hands on her hips. "Unless you'd like me to have Beautiful World carry you."
"Oh. Um. No, I can stand." Shinji got up. "So… Where are we going?"
"Somewhere from my past." Hikari took a deep breath, and her Stand appeared. It stretched out an arm, and a glowing, conical subspace rupture appeared a few meters ahead of her. "You two first." Rei simply stepped through without waiting, prompting Shinji to do the same in order to avoid more awkwardness.
The two of them reappeared in normal space on the side of an old, cheaply-maintained road with equally old houses placed about every half kilometer or so. Shinji was surprised by the density - he was used to big apartment buildings and people crammed into every nook and cranny. However, as he looked around, he noticed they were right in front of one of the houses… At least, where one of them once stood. The burned out remains laid before them, scattered somewhat by wind and time. Only one recognizable object remained - the side of a mailbox that looked like it said "Sato Residence" in mangled kanji.
Hikari appeared behind the other two after a few seconds. Rei was the first to speak; "Hikari, what is this?" she asked.
"This," Hikari said, stepping forward and looking solemnly into the rubble, "Is where I was born." Rei and Shinji simply stood there, shocked. "This is the only part of me NERV doesn't know about."
"What happened?" Rei asked, putting a hand over her mouth.
"My father happened." Hikari made a tight fist with one hand. "He liked to 'invent' things. He thought it would help the relationship with my mother. She was a brilliant bioengineer. Possibly the best in her field, if my memories and Kodama's stories are true. Except, one day the thing my father was working on caught fire. Then the table caught fire. And then the house caught fire."
Hikari closed her eyes. "He didn't even warn us. Just kept trying to put it out. My mother was the one who got me and my sisters out. I was seven. By the time the fire department arrived… it was too late. I had to watch my home burn down with everything we owned in it."
She was visibly distressed. Rei stepped forward and put a hand on Hikari's shoulder, but she took it off, turned around, and… smiled? "So, my mother divorced him. She had a good enough job that she didn't even need to worry about remarrying. We all changed our family name to her maiden name. We were still a family until… Until she disappeared. She just didn't come home one night. Kodama was 16 at the time and she tried to make it work, but the money ran out. So she had to contact our father." Hikari sighed and closed her eyes again. "And this is where I got my hatred of adults. That man didn't care about us. All he did was delegate things to Kodama, and then once she turned 18, he skipped town. Took us months to handle the debt he'd apparently tried to leave in her name. But then Kodama got offered the job she has now in Tokyo-3 right as high school was ending. We all moved there, and I shed my past."
Hikari turned back around and looked at the burned remnants. "When I was born, Inaba still hadn't moved to electronic record-keeping. So the paper trail of my life begins when my mother registered me under her maiden name. The impact wars left all the hardcopy records destroyed. Nobody else knows about this house or what happened. Except, now, you two."
"You… wanted us to see this?" Shinji asked.
"Yep. This is who I am. I figure at this point you two deserve to know. But make no mistake," Hikari faced Shinji and Rei again, "My past doesn't control me. I am Hikari Horaki, class representative of room 2-A in Tokyo-3 4th Municipal High School. I don't cry over what happened to me, I've moved on. I just… Needed to see this one more time, since we were going near it anyway."
"Thank you for sharing this with us." Rei made a surprise glomp on Hikari, who briefly protested and blushed, but begrudgingly accepted the positive attention. Rei released her after a minute or so, Shinji just standing awkwardly to the side. "So! You two have new expense cards and we've all got about 3 hours to kill. Hikari, you seem to know the area, which direction is the actual town in?"
Shinji had never worn a suit before, and the process of selecting one was completely foreign to him, so he reluctantly granted the authority over to the two girls who seemed to be enjoying making him squirm. They spent a long time looking at a dark purple one with green pinstriping, for no other reason than it matched his Stand, which made him quite uncomfortable. However, they ultimately decided on one in a deep, rich blue that was slightly iridescent, and Shinji was forced to admit to himself that he liked the color and how he looked in it. The fit was almost perfect off the rack, as well. At least he wouldn't look too out of place as they approached the newly-constructed test facility for Jet Alone after dropping off their haul of shopping bags at the VTOL. Hikari had spent quite a while at several gift shops looking through everything she could find from or about Egypt, for "payback" apparently, and gotten a huge amount of picture postcards.
Misato met them outside the demonstration facility and gave them each a VIP ID badge, along with a teasing remark about Shinji's new look. Shinji thought the brutalist architecture of the building's exterior was pretty harsh, but the inside was another story altogether - it was clearly designed by the engineers. It also looked a hell of a lot bigger on the inside, despite the huge, 25-person tables scattered throughout the main presentation hall. Shini spent a lot of effort dodging questions and staying near Rei and Hikari, despite the crowd's best efforts to separate them. Eventually, an announcement was made, and everyone started filing towards their country's table. Others started approaching the stage, including a young man in a black suit with very pale skin and light blue hair.
"Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen." a man at one of the stage's podiums began speaking. "I am Shiro Tokita, chief executive officer of the Jet Alone project. Today, I will be showing you the next phase in defending Earth from alien invaders. In a short while we'll move up to the observation deck for the demonstration, but for now I'd like to answer any questions the audience has." Ritsuko's hand shot up. "Yes, the famous Dr. Ritsuko Akagi, it's an honor to have you here."
She stood up and grabbed a microphone from the table. "I'd like to ask you some questions about the creation of Jet Alone, if I may."
"Yes, of course. Anything you like."
"Your promotional documents claim you've created an artificial Stand without the use of an Arrow, is that correct?"
"Ah, let me clarify one part of that." Tokita adjusted his tie. "The proposed production run of Jet Alone stands will indeed be artificial. However, the prototype that will be demonstrated today did come from an Arrow. Our program will use the prototype to make identical copies that can be used without psychological trauma."
"Where the hell did they get the Arrow from…" Misato muttered, her eyes closed and chewing on a straw.
"And you believe these copies will be capable of defeating the enemy?"
"We believe our program is a much more ethical option that doesn't involve murder."
"But how have you created these copies without a human carrier? Without a sufficiently strong-willed soul for the Stand to absorb, anyone you implant it into will-"
"We aren't implanting the production run in anybody." Tokita interjected. "Our technology allows the Stands to be used completely autonomously. The answer to your problem of killing the host before implantation was surprisingly simple. It's a good thing NERV seems to be above the law in this regard."
"But there's still the problem of manual control, not to mention the possibility of a runaway."
"We believe this is still a better option than a weapon that can go berserk in the middle of a city. A weapon that can't be controlled at all is completely insane, and your solution is to use something as fragile as a human heart to contain it?"
"Total control over the platform isn't our problem. The fact of the matter is that NERV has the only weapon capable of defeating the Angels."
"Ah yes, you mean the AT Field. NERV's dirty little open secret. You shouldn't make statements like that when any student of metaphysical biology could figure out how you did it. The real fact of the matter is that you had an unfair head start in developing your technology thanks to the mysterious SEELE organization." Misato's eyes shot open at the name, and she wondered how this guy was still alive if he knew all of this. "Meanwhile, millions of people in dozens of countries are starving to death because of just how much of the world's resources are being poured into your pet project and private clubhouse in the geofront under Tokyo-3, not to mention the extraneous Eva units being built all over the world. Of course, the official reason for this is because the planet's biosphere was heavily damaged during second impact, but you and I both know better, don't we?"
Ritsuko simply stood there, clenching the microphone in one hand almost tight enough to crush it. "In any case," Tokita continued, "I'd like to propose a little experiment. I see you brought all three of your children here with you today. If you were attempting to intimidate me, you're going to have to do better than that."
Misato grabbed the other microphone at the table with lightning speed. "I brought the three pilots here as their commanding officer. They have a right to see what's going on here."
"Very well, captain Katsuragi, though I do question the decision to leave Tokyo-3 undefended during this test, considering what sleeps below it."
"What 'experiment' do you propose?" Misato asked, venom seeping out of her words.
"I would like to show everyone here just how strong the Evangelions are. I propose a duel between myself and the boy there. Shinji Ikari, if I'm not mistaken."
"Now who's the insane one? You know full well the Evangelions are the most powerful combat Stands on the planet-"
"Correction," Tokita interjected again, "The Evangelions are the most powerful combat Stands within NERV" he said pointedly. "Surely you know there are others in the world with powerful Stands. And I happen to be one of them. I'm surprised your intelligence didn't brief you on this."
Rei stood up and slammed a hand on the table. "I'll take you on. Right here, right now."
Tokita let out a single laugh. "I'm not interested in fighting a Stand that can only barely be controlled by its' user, nor one that doesn't even have practical combat experience. Of course, if you'd rather not let me fight Unit 01, I completely understand why you wouldn't want me damaging your precious property. I'll simply concede the fight would be too damaging and we'll continue with the Jet Alone demonstration as planned."
The rest of the room let out little murmurs and giggles as the NERV table fell silent. Rei and Ritsuko awkwardly sat down while Misato stared at Tokita with a glare that could drill through battle plate. A full two minutes passed before Tokita smirked and reached down to grab his prepared speech.
"I'll do it."
The unamplified words somehow still carried through the large reception hall, the rest of the inhabitants falling silent as Shinji stood up from the table. "I'm not afraid of you. My friends at NERV are good people, and I won't stand for you insulting them like this, even if I don't understand exactly what you were talking about."
"Excellent." Tokia smiled and stepped away from the podium. "Would tables four, five, and seven please move to the sides of the room?" The people at those tables filed out of the way as the staff of the building came in to fold up and pack away the giant tables. Shinji got up and began to move towards the battle area being cleared, but Misato grabbed his hand.
"You don't have to do this," she said, "it's fine. He's being a jerk but I don't want you to get hurt over it. Just sit back down and I'll talk him out of it."
"No." Shinji looked her dead in the eyes. "I meant what I said. If this guy wants a fight he's got it. Can't Be Yours will protect me. It'll be fine." He broke out of her grip and took off his suit jacket, tossing it on the table as he approached the rapidly-clearing area. He and Tokita stood at opposite ends, sizing each other up.
"This will essentially be a sparring match." Tokita said, also removing his suit jacket. "I don't intend to hurt you, young man, but I do intend to see what you've got. Are you ready?"
"Of course."
Tokita smirked again. "No, you're not." He planted his feet as an aura of gold flame began to radiate from his body. He shouted - "Star PLATINUM!" The purple humanoid Stand with black hair and extravagant armor burst into existence from Tokita's body and shot towards Shinji with an ORA! Shinji didn't even have time to think about it, but Can't Be Yours appeared behind him, and Star Platinum's fist impacted the AT Field with a horrifying clanging noise.
"Well, your reflexes are good, I'll give you that" Tokita said with a chuckle, "But we'll see how you deal with an overwhelming attack rush."
Shinji was already making Can't Be Yours reach forward to grab Star Platinum, but the elusive Stand darted out of his vision and immediately began delivering a barrage of punches and Oras straight to Unit 01's back. Shinji felt the punches on his own back as he and his stand were pushed forward, and he used all of the speed he could muster to make Unit 01 turn around and grab Star Platinum's fist in one motion. With the other hand, he fired one end of a grappling hook into it's waist, and fired the other end right up at the ceiling.
Star Platinum shot towards the ceiling, and Shinji tried to regain his footing and come up with some kind of plan as Tokita yelled something he didn't quite process in the moment. Tokita and Star Platinum briefly flashed another aura of gold flames, and suddenly Star Platinum was right in front of Shinji again, punching Can't Be Yours in the face. Shinji flew backwards from the sympathetic bond, landing on his side and sliding to a halt directly in front of the table he'd just left to do this fight.
Can't Be Yours rolled in midair and landed crouched but on its feet in front of Shinji. A low growl emanated from it as it darted forward, paying Star Platinum back in full with a punch to the right cheek that few watching the battle even saw happen. Tokita let out a yell as Star Platinum spun from the impact, but it was trivial to turn the momentum from that into a savage left hook - that bounced off the AT Field again. Star Platinum started another attack rush of lightspeed punches and shouts, but hit nothing except the orange, octagonal barrier in front of it. Can't Be Yours grew bored of this after a few seconds and used one hand to grab both of Star Platinum's, twisting the Stand in the air with one twist of its' wrist and delivering a spartan kick as the torso rotated into position. Star Platinum flew backward this time, impacting against Tokita, and they both crashed into the wall behind the stage.
Tokita coughed and got up, a trickle of blood trailing out the corner of his mouth, and he dismissed his Stand. Shinji got up and did the same as Tokita walked over, a curious grin on his face.
"Well well, it seems I underestimated you. The videos of your fights don't do your Stand justice. Still, a win is a win. I'll stop antagonizing your superiors."
Shinji simply made a disapproving noise, turned around, and went back to his chair.
Tokita had answered questions from the rest of the attendees for another two hours after the duel with Shinji. Being a teenager, he'd first used the time to simmer in his thoughts, simultaneously hating the man but also noting that he'd kept to his word - he never again mentioned NERV nor even made remarks about it. However, with nothing else to do, Shinji's mind eventually made peace with the angry thoughts and started to wander. In particular, he started thinking about what Tokita and Ritsuko had been arguing about immediately before the duel. What was that about a human carrier? And murdering the 'host' before implantation?
By the time they'd moved up to the observation deck, the questions had percolated up to the top of Shinji's mind. He stood next to Misato, both of them leaning against the wall, as the other dozens of people crowded against the railing in anticipation of the Jet Alone demonstration.
"Misato?" He asked.
"What's up?"
"Can I ask you something about what Tokita said earlier?"
"Sure- though you might have better luck trying Ritsuko when this is over."
"I trust you more. What did Tokita mean when he implied the Evangelions murdered people to get made?"
Misato moved her arm and stared at her watch, staying silent for a few seconds. "He was talking about the prototype phase. It took… Quite a few tries for NERV to develop the technology to create the Evangelions. I won't sugarcoat it - more than 50 people died in the experiments. But, once Unit 00 was made, all we had to do was refine the process."
"But what was that about human carrier? And being 'strong-willed'?"
"The Evas are… not normal Stands." Misato shifted nervously. "The short explanation is, while being made, they had to bounce around who they were implanted in a lot because they kept making the host go crazy. We figured out the problem, though. You've had Unit 01 for more than a month now, and it only took a couple days for it to affect someone before completion."
Shinji stayed quiet, mulling over the words. He didn't exactly believe Misato - there was too much hesitation in her voice - but what she was saying made sense, at least for now.
"Your attention down to the demonstration area, please" a feminine voice announced over intercom, "The Jet Alone systems test will now commence."
Below the third-story window of the deck, a large arena with many areas designed to let a Stand show off it's true power had been constructed. The door of an inconspicuous building in the center opened, and the same person with red eyes and pale blue hair in a suit stepped out with two handlers. He took a few moments to stretch, then put the middle and digit fingers of his right hand on his forehead, intensely concentrating. An orange aura of flames briefly radiated from his body, and then he summoned his Stand - but it was odd. Shinji had always seen Stands erupt from their users' body in some fashion, but Jet Alone simply faded into existence, bathed in the same orange flames that rapidly dissipated, the beige robot with what could charitably be called approximate human proportions left behind.
Jet Alone and it's user went through every station of the demonstration area, which Shinji realized mostly revolved around showing off its' physical strength: moving concrete blocks, bending thick steel rods, punching through a reinforced wall. It was nothing more that Unit 01, or even Tokita's Star Platinum, could do. He actually found it rather sleep-inducing. The end of the trials came, and people started filing out of the observation deck. Shinji went and sat in a corner with his SDAT player a few meters distant from where everyone was moving as the four women he came with chatted about what they'd seen.
After several excruciating minutes, the woman spoke over the intercom again. "Anomalous readings in Jet Alone. Pilot psychograph deteriorating!", which was immediately followed by an angry man's voice shouting "Turn that thing off!" Shinji looked up from the SDAT just in time to see Jet Alone's user fall to the ground as the Stand regained its' flaming orange aura. It reached forward with one arm, and made some sort of gesture with its hand, and a huge fireball erupted in front of it and enveloped all three people in front of it, leaving only charred husks behind.
Misato wasted no time shouting orders. "Shinji! Rei! Hikari! Combat alert! Get down there NOW!" Shinji stumbled getting to his feet, but was caught before he could faceplant by the unfamiliar blue arm of Unit 00, who took one very swift stride and set him down next to the two girls, then leapt forward and shattered the reinforced glass like it was dried clay. Rei and Hikari in unison grabbed the railing and jumped, each putting one foot on the top bar and throwing themselves after Unit 00. Shinji, with the widest eyes and thinking the fastest he ever had, did the same and had 01 grab all three of them in one arm, firing a grapnel into some scaffolding above them and cancelling out their downward momentum just enough land with a roll and get on their feet. Hikari summoned 05, and the three of them stood ready against the enemy.
Jet Alone reached forward again and snapped its fingers with a sharp CLANG, and at the same time a strange circle on the back of its hand glowed, a second fireball erupting directly in front of the three pilots. Three AT fields snapped into place, taking the brunt of the attack but forcing them to take a couple steps back. Before any of them could react, Jet Alone clapped its hands together in front of it, circles on the back of both hands glowing this time, and crouched to slam one of them against the ground. A deep rumbling permeated the area, and three pillars of concrete erupted out of the ground behind the three Evas and crashed into them, throwing the giants and the teenagers forward onto their faces.
A low, metallic voice emanated from Jet Alone. "Threat assessment increased to level 4, locating additional power source." It took a step forward and reached for the charred remains of what used to be it's user, shoving fingers into the body and pulling out a strange metal shard. "Stand Arrow Fragment acquired, absorbing." It pushed the shard into its chest as the three pilots and their Evas were getting back to their feet, the orange flames peaking even stronger in intensity before dying out - and Jet Alone somehow seemed more real than before.
Unit 00 appeared next to Jet Alone in a Zero Shift and immediately punched it. The robot Stand reeled back and bumped into one of the bent steel rods, causing it to fall over on it's side. 00 approached again to deliver a stronger blow, but Jet Alone hit the ground with it's free hand, circle glowing yet again, and a pillar of concrete shot from the ground and impacted the Eva. 00 flew upward a short distance and landed back on the pillar, and Rei grabbed her midsection in pain as Jet Alone got back up.
Shinji threw 01 forward while Jet alone was still prone and launched a grapnel at it, again firing the other end towards the scaffolding above. The robot was dragged upward and hung from the metal tubes, but simply reached up with glowing circles, grabbed the metal, and began reshaping the section it was attached to into two long swords. It fell back to the ground, but threw the two weapons at Hikari and Shinji before landing. One simply hit Shinji's AT Field and clattered on the ground, but the other one ricocheted off Hikari's Reflector and flew straight back, impaling Jet Alone in the right arm and causing a lot of odd sparking to erupt from the "wound".
"Insufficient energy to engage hostiles." Jet Alone warbled out of… wherever it spoke from. "Incapacitating enemies and withdrawing to closest inhabited area to integrate additional souls." It reached forward with it's left arm and made a series of CLANGing snaps, saturating the entire area with exploding fireballs. Shinji grabbed Rei, and Hikari covered her face as their Stands desperately protected the teenagers from the same fate as had befallen Jet Alone's user. By the time the danger had subsided, Jet Alone was gone, running off into the distance with an inhuman gait.
Rei coughed several times and pushed herself out of Shinji's grasp, stumbling slightly as she stared at the enemy stand in the distance and tried to figure out how to engage it. Hikari made a very scared noise - "It's heading right for Inaba!" she squeaked.
"Shinji, catch me!" He looked up and saw Misato leaping down from the observation deck, and nearly panicked again as he sent 01 leaping upward to grab her. They both landed safely, and Misato made motions towards the direction Jet Alone had gone. "Don't just stand around, we need to get to the VTOL! Hikari, can you open up a gate that leads right next to it?"
"Uh. Yes. Yes! I can do that." Hikari closed her eyes and focused, 05 reaching forward again and forming the white subspace rupture. Rei and Shinji dismissed their Stands and stepped through, then Misato, and Hikari appeared last on the other end, which was actually a couple dozen meters away from the NERV branded VTOL - She apparently wasn't as accurate under pressure. The aircraft's engines roared to life as the four of them boarded, lifting off into the sky as the cargo door was still closing.
Misato opened an equipment locker and pulled out four communication headsets, handing them out to everyone. She put hers on and tapped it. "Ritsuko, are you tracking it? How long until it reaches Inaba?" She listened for several seconds before turning back to the pilots, and Shinji noted he could hear her clearly over the din of the engines thanks to the headset. "Alright, we've got 30 minutes before that thing gets to a populated area. We need a plan. It hasn't used an AT field, but that matter reconstruction ability it's got is something else! Plus it appears to have become an actual, physical being, so that's also bad. What do we know about it?"
"It seemed to dislike my punch like everything else." Rei said, "Maybe we just need to hit it harder?"
"That's a possibility. But it seems more than capable of holding you all at bay. It seems to need it's arms to use it's powers, though - if we can rip those off somehow, we should be able to attack it! Shinji, Rei, you two try to overpower it and focus on disabling the left arm, since the right is already damaged. Hikari, you're on defense. Do everything you can to prevent it from getting a shot off at the other two."
Three "Understood"s went out in perfect harmony, causing the three teens to look at each other slightly embarrassed. Misato dashed the moment, though: "Look alive, we're intercepting the target in two minutes!"
"Drop me first," Rei said, "I'll use Zero Shift to engage and give enough of a distraction for the VTOL to land safely."
Misato nodded and went over to a panel across from the cargo door, keying in a special code to open them mid-flight. Rei crouch walked to the edge of the ramp and held on while looking for the target. Hikari clung to Shinji as the sudden wind started to drag her away, and they found seats along with Misato. After about two and a half minutes, Rei let go and fell out, leaving Shinji's vision completely. Very shortly afterward, the VTOL flared and began an emergency descent, touching down so roughly Shinji and Hikari were nearly thrown out of their seats if it hadn't been for the harnesses.
Shinji and Hikari unclipped and ran down the ramp and across the barren, third-world-war scarred ground. Rei and 00 were grappling with Jet Alone some distance away, the VTOL not being too precise on the landing, but Shinji knew what to do. 01 appeared in the blink of an eye and fired a grapnel at both of them, planting it's feet and reeling them in like the most unlikely catch with a fishing rod ever. Jet Alone let off another fireball at Shinji en route, but the edge of it met Hikari's reflector shield and nearly cancelled itself out. 01 grabbed the robot's left arm as it got close enough, pinning it to the ground with all the weight Shinji could muster. Rei produced the Eva-sized Progressive Knife from somewhere and 00 grabbed it, extended the blade and stabbed the left shoulder joint of Jet Alone hard enough to snap off the limb altogether.
"Error. Error. Threat level raised above known parameters." Jet Alone spoke again, but this time did not resist. "Self-defense system offline. Engaging self-destruct. T-minus 30 seconds to detonation." The robot was surrounded by orange flames again, a sinister beeping cutting through the wind noise of the VTOL's still running engines. Shinji looked wide-eyed at Hikari and Rei. He had no idea what to do.
Hikari look up to the sky, fixated in thought for a moment. Her eyebrows furrowed in determination. "Get it up! Be ready to throw it into the subspace gate as soon as it's fully formed!" Shinji and Rei got their Stands to manhandle Jet Alone mostly upright while Hikari closed her eyes again, concentrating harder this time. A mote of light appeared in front of 05's outstretched arms as 20 seconds was announced. She struggled to open it wider as time passed - 10 seconds and it was only half open. Finally, at 5 seconds, she and 05 made an almost inhuman noise and the gate opened all the way, Jet Alone was thrown in, and the light winked out. Shinji caught Hikari as she collapsed and her Stand vanished. Time passed, and nothing happened. No boom, not anything. Shinji and Rei carried Hikari back to the VTOL and laid her on one of the sets of seats, where she groaned and opened her eyes.
"What did you do?" Misato asked in a curious tone.
"Well, my subspace ability is limited to my vision and memories, right?" Hikari groaned again. "But I don't know of anywhere on the planet I could send it to blow up safely. So… I sent it to the sun."
"The sun!?" Shinji shouted. "Is that safe? We don't even know how big the explosion was!"
"It's like a million times bigger than Earth, calm down." Hikari sat up. "We'll know if anything happened in about 8 minutes when the light catches up with us."
Misato ordered the VTOL to take off again and head back to the demonstration center. Shinji was almost inconsolable for the entire trip, worrying his head off about what might happen to them. Misato looked at the three kids and smiled - if they kept this up, the planet had nothing to fear from the Angels. She hoped to any deity that may have been watching that it stayed this way.
Several hours later…
Ritsuko was sitting on a bench outside her favorite bar, staring up at the clear night sky. She'd finished off four sake since coming here, so it was likely she wasn't moving for a good long while yet. Time to do the deed. She pulled out a nonstandard cell phone and dialed a very particular number, counting the rings to make sure it was exactly three and a half times. A male voice answered; Gendo. "You're late. Report."
"The Jet Alone test went exactly as planned, minus the girl's last second save." Ritsuko said. "We won't be hearing from Tokita again."
"Good work. Tomorrow I want you to come to my office. We have some catching up to do."
Ritsuko smiled as the line was cut. "That man gets more needy every day."