Sekhmet: Setup chapter ahoy!
Susano-o: Meeting the designated guardian ho!
Sekhmet: Yeah! Meeting Adults!
Susano-o: Ok let's get to it.
Chapter 2: Into The Fire
"Woah," Isabelle said as the Geofront came into view. "This place is enormous!"
"Ok, so I'm not seeing things, it really is super cool." Mary confirmed, glued to the window with almost childlike glee. She had thought for sure that she had entered another daydream somewhere on the way there.
"Yeah it's...pretty big," Shinji said smiling oddly. "Misato got lost inside NERV trying to get me to the EVA."
"I can see why. Holy crap." Mary said, still glued to the sight.
"We got a map luckily," Isabelle said flapping around a folded pamphlet. "So hopefully we won't get lost and have to be rescued."
"Yeah, and it's very lucky we can read it between the both of us." Mary agreed.
….
"We're lost aren't we?" Isabelle asked taking another corner looking around the dark hallways nervously. "I know I've seen that room at least three times already."
"I think so, but I swear we've only seen it twice." Mary agreed.
"Maybe we should find one of the Section 2 agents," Shinji suggested. "They should be around her somewhere."
"Great idea." Mary said, and started looking for anyone who might look like one.
"We just need to find a-," He said before stopping and looking down the hallway. "Oh hello Dr. Akagi!" He said loudly waving at a blonde haired woman in a lab coat walking away from them.
She turned around to greet him with a small smile. "Oh, hello Shinji."
Shinji smiled as he lead the two girls over to women. "Umm Mary, Isabelle, this is Dr. Akagi, she's the one who made the EVA's."
"Oh wow, that's amazing!" Mary said excitedly.
Ritsuko smiled at the compliment. "Hello there you two, glad you made it on time," She said with a small nod. "As Shinji here said, I worked on the EVA's, I'm also the head researcher and doctor here at NERV, so we'll be seeing a lot more of each other."
"It's a pleasure to be working with you." Mary said, and after a lightbulb went off in her head, gave a bow. She was still getting a bit used to customs.
Isabelle smiled as she stuck out a hand to shake, ignoring all basic customs, with the tons she had picked up over the years it was hard to keep them straight. "Thank you for finding us, so why did you need us here so early?"
"After the Third Angel attacked, we thought it best to call in reinforcements so we can be as prepared as possible." Ritsuko answered curtly.
Isabelle's eyes went wide. "So we do get to pilot those big robots?" She asked excitedly.
Ritsuko rolled her eyes. "Well there's a lot more involved than getting in and starting them up like cars, but in short, yes."
"Bloody cool," Isabelle said smiling brightly. "So what do we need to do?"
"Well, we have to run a few tests and teach you two the basics of piloting. It's a bit like learning to operate any piece of heavy equipment." Ritsuko explained. "By the time you're well adjusted to handling the EVAs, you'll be ready to fight the Angels."
"Oh wow!" Mary said excitedly.
Isabelle nodded. "Ok then!"
Ritsuko smiled. "-But first, a medical check up," She said enjoying the way Isabelle's face fell at that revelation. "We can't do anything till your EVA's get here anyway, so we'll get that out of the way first," She said turning to walk away before stopping to look over her shoulder. "Oh by the way, your official designations now are the Sixth and Seventh Child respectively," She said looking first at Mary then Isabelle.
Mary counted something on her fingers to herself. "Seven is a lucky number, right?" She asked offhandedly to Isabelle.
"Yep," Isabelle said smiled. "It's my lucky number too."
"Double lucky then." Mary noted. "Six doesn't mean anything to me personally."
Shinji smiled at the exchange.
….
Mary rubbed her arm and winced once her blood was drawn. "Why's the blood gotta be so painful to get out?"
"Oh that was nothing," Isabelle said dismissively. "I once had to get a boa constrictor off my leg after it bite me, took the better part of an hour to finally get the bloody bastard off."
"It's always the trivial pain that hurts the most. Shots and stubbing your toes hurt so much because it's ultimately not life threatening, so your body doesn't use any adrenaline on it." Marybabbled excitedly. "I once broke my thumb carrying a peach box, barely felt anything until the shock wore off, and by then I was on my way to the hospital."
"I got pounced on by a dingo the week before I got on the plane," Isabelle said pointing to her newest scar. "Tried to herd the thing away from our van, didn't like that at all."
"Well I guess I can't attest to that. I got into a couple fights with a kid who's tried to steal the top off the crop a few years in a row now. I can take a hit at least." Mary said.
"I punched a kangaroo," Isabelle said, Shinji just looked at them in a mixture of confusion and fear.
"Fuck, ok you win this round." Mary said.
"It was just one punch, he knocked my dad over and wouldn't leave, so I just popped him in the snout once, he was so confused he just disengaged," Isabelle explained smiling nervously at the two's praise. "For some reason Australia really hates us, UK, Germany, and Japan fine, Australia nah mate you're gonna hurt."
"But you punched a kangaroo. They're nature's boxing champs. Honestly America's barely changed. Most of the people that got displaced by rising sea levels ended up in Wyoming of all places." Mary said. "I don't know why Wyoming specifically."
"Oh well as long as Maine survived, Maine is the US version of Australia."
"I've never been to Maine, but I heard it was the Florida of the northeast, and not in a good way." Mary said. "Speaking of which, Florida is entirely underwater, or so I heard."
"Oh piss," Isabelle huffed. "No Disney World then, now we only have that crappy Disneyland in California."
"None of that either. Anaheim was flooded off the map, along with most of LA." Mary said. "Hesperia is a coastal town now, I live just outside."
"Oh damn," Isabelle pouted.
"Well there's still the international parks if you're into that." Mary offered.
"Not the same," Isabelle sighed.
"Well, if we ever have the means, I'm sure they'll be rebuilt." Mary said, trying in vain to reassure her. .
"Umm guys," Shinji said speaking up. "Tokyo Disneyland is still standing if you want to go there," He said with a nervous cringe.
"Yay!" Isabelle yelled excitedly.
"I'd like that one day." Mary said with a kind smile.
Shinji smiled too, glad to see them happy.
...
"Alright, everything seems to be in order. By all accounts, you two are perfectly healthy. There's still a few minutes until the EVAs are fully secured, so in the meantime I can brief you on what it entails to pilot an EVA." Ritsuko said.
"Well, I'm glad to hear nothing's wrong with me." Mary said.
"Doctors," Isabelle muttered. "Take forever to do things."
"You've spent more time in doctors' offices than anyone else here," Ritsuko said, holding out a four inch thick file. "You'd be in them less if you stopped your invasive exploratory habits."
Isabelle crossed her arms. "I like the outdoors," She said shrugging. "And being up high."
"That's great, but I'm impressed that you're not dead with that many incidents under your belt." Mary joked.
"She has a lucky streak three miles wide," Ritsuko smirked. "Though I'm going to stress to you to be careful when piloting," She said with a serious look. "Angels are not jokes, they will actively be trying to kill you."
"Right. Kinda forgot that they're not just happening to trudge through and we gotta chase them off." Mary admitted. Isabelle nodded.
"Alright then," Ritsuko said closing Isabelle's file. "Lets go get you two suited up and then you can meet the rest of the bridge," She said with a dark smile. Mary smiled and hopped out of her chair, eager to see the rest of NERV.
…
"Who in the blood soaked Protestant hell invented these bloody fetish suits!?" Isabelle screamed as she looked over the skintight black and pink suit with neon green plastic bits.
"It's not so bad. It reminds me of a wetsuit in a weird way." Mary said, holding up her suit, which was yellow with white accents.
"I've been in enough wetsuits in my life to know, this is not a wetsuit," She blushed pulling at the skintight material over her butt. "This would probably get me thrown out of a fancy restaurant for indecent exposure."
"Why would you wear a wetsuit to a fancy restaurant?" Mary asked, hefting the material over her arms.
"I'd rather wear a bloody wetsuit to one than this," She said grabbing her pink covered boobs and blushing even harder. "The support is not worth the look."
"I still say it's not so bad." Mary said, vacuum sealing herself in. "There are worse things to pilot a giant robot in, right?"
"What starkers?" Isabelle asked.
"Huh? In any case, we can't all be Roger Smith." Mary said, smoothing out her suit.
"Starkers, naked, nude, in the buff, in a state of nature, the birthday suit, au naturel."
"Alright I get it." Mary said. "Man, I never knew yellow was my color."
"I feel like I'm going to either a car show, a rave, or a strip joint," Isabelle muttered. "And what's with this?" She said holding up the hairband wire that came with the suit.
"Well it looks like a headband, so I guess put it on your head." Mary suggested, nestling hers in her hair.
"It's called the Interface Headset," A voice called out from the locker room door. "Or A10 Nerve Clips if you want to piss of Ritsuko," The voice joked.
"I've told you before," Ritusko's tired voice responded. "The Interface Headset has nothing to do with A10 nerve synchronization, how it got that name I don't know but I'm trying to get it to stop."
"See," The other voice chuckled. "It's fun."
"Hello Miss new voice." Mary said in a spacey tone.
"G'day," Isabelle added.
"Hello you two," The voice said happily. "I'm Misato Katsuragi, I'm the operations director here at NERV," She explained.
"She was also supposed to be the one to meet you at the front door," Ritsuko deadpanned. "-But she got lost...again," Misato just hissed in response.
"Oh that's ok, we got lost too." Mary said, all too eager to share.
"Yeah why didn't we get a map in english?" Isabelle asked. "-I'd have even settle for german."
"We had expected you to be able to read and write in Japanese before coming here," Ritsuko said slipping back into her doctor voice and out of the teasing one she was using before. "That you don't will have to be rectified as soon as possible."
"Oh tough break you two," Misato said with a sympathetic wince.
Mary pursed her lips and looked away guiltily. "I REALLY should have studied more."
…
"I can't do this," Isabelle whined as she paced the ends of the hallway to the EVA cages.
"Why not? It's not like the robots are gonna laugh at you." Mary said.
"No I can't do this with her watching!" Isabelle yelled flailing her hands around.
"...who?" Mary asked.
"Misato!" Isabelle said exasperatedly.
"Why? Just maintain some level of professionalism and everything'll be fine." Mary said.
"She just makes me feel weird," Isabelle sighed falling back onto the nearby bench bonelessly.
"Like, a lovey dovey weird? Because that would be fucked." Mary said.
"No like a 'I don't want to disappoint you or something' kinda weird," Isabelle groaned rolling over onto her stomach.
"So like a mom weird." Mary said.
Isabelle tensed. "M-Maybe," She stuttered out. "Bloody hell I don't even remember my mom."
"Yeah me neither. My dad named one of our horses after her though, and that horse is super nice. That's besides the point though. Let's just get out there." Mary said, and opened the door without further hesitation.
"Fine," Isabelle said standing up. "-But after this I'm gonna go find a place to watch the clouds," She muttered before looking up in contemplation as the two proceeded into the cages.
….
"So we have to sit in those?" Isabelle asked pointing to the two giant open pods sitting in an orange fluid.
"That's the physical side, yes. However, there's a lot more going on in the mind." Misato explained. "The EVAs are directed via a neural link provided by the pilot. They're basically controlled with your mind."
"Cool." Mary muttered, tempted to squat down and run her hand through the orange fluid.
Ritsuko sighed. "It's much more complicated than Misato said, but she's essentially right," The blonde scientist explained. "The neural uplink provided via your interface headset will allow you to command the Evangelions with your mind, anything else is simply there to help that link, the plug suits for instance cut down on unnecessary interference."
"Oh so there is a reason for them," Isabelle mumbled still not liking the skin tight suit. Shinji blushed and looked away mumbling to himself.
"And as you'll see inside, the entry plugs have handles to allow you something tactile to grip so your not tempted to move your hands when trying to move your EVA," Ritsuko finished.
"That's good. God knows I might be moving a lot." Mary thought.
"When you synchronize, you'll want to try and clear your mind of any outside interference," Ritsuko explained. "The more you're focused on piloting the easier it will be on you, this test today is to help with that," She finished before leading then over to the entry plugs. "EVAs can be...temperamental in their own ways, so learning how to establish a baseline sych-ratio before learning how to work with your EVA's particular idiosyncrasies it the best way to get you going."
Mary nodded, suddenly a bit more nervous, though trying her best not to show it.
"That's all you need to know now," Ritsuko said nodding up at the bridge crew, who nodded back. "-But you don't need to worry about the technical side of things, that's my job," She said with a small smile. "For now all you need to do is sit in the pod and concentrate on clearing your mind."
"Sounds easy enough." Mary said, her false bravado obvious.
"We got this," Isabelle agreed smiling softly.
"Ok," Shinji nodded having already done this in a real EVA.
Ritsuko nodded. "Alright then," She said walking towards the bridge elevator, leaving Isabelle and Mary alone in the room.
"Let's do this then." Mary finally said.
"Yes!" Isabelle agreed as she climbed into her designated pod. When both were in the pods, they sealed shut and began flooding with the orange fluid.
"Oh god no-!" Mary shouted, and quickly held her breath before the fluid overtook her.
"Fucking hell ya bloody fucking piker cunts!" Isabelle screamed as she banged on the cockpit door as hard as she could.
"It's alright, you can breathe just fine." Misato said over the internal line.
"Yes, the LCL will oxygenate your lungs directly," Ritsuko took over. "It's there to help with synchronization and will act as a shock absorber, don't want you two bouncing around in there in battle," She finished with a chuckle, the reaction of new pilots was always amusing to the bridge crew.
Isabelle growled as she took a deep breath, letting it out just as the LCL passed over her head. ""Keep yubbin' that big mouth, while it's still attached to your bloody fucking neck!" She screamed over the intercom.
Mary eventually let go of her breath and allowed the LCL in. "Do I have to cough this up later?" She finally asked.
"Yes," Ritsuko answered.
"Fuck." Mary said defeatedly.
…
"Well that was a right pain in arse," Isabelle snorted as she washed her hair. "Two bloody hours of sitting in a seat."
"That stuff is worse to get in your sinuses than bile." Mary sighed, sounding very tired.
"No kidding, stuff smells like blood and has the aftertaste of piss and nachos," Isabelle snorted before spitting out more of the fluid into the drain.
"I can't wait to go home and take a nap." Mary said.
"I want some mouthwash," Isabelle joked.
"Me too, but nap first." Mary said, before spitting a glob of LCL into the drain.
…
[I'm going to die,] Isabelle whined in english as she smacked her head against a wall. [I'm going to so totally die.]
[And why is that?] Mary asked.
[We're gonna be living next to Misato!] Isabelle shouted flailing her hands around her head.
[Oh no, living near the boss, how tragic.] Mary said sarcastically. [Remember what I said about professionalism?]
[How the hell can I be professional when I have to see her all the damn time?] Isabelle questioned. [I barely understand my feelings for her.]
[Well, don't think about it too much if it bugs you this much.] Mary offered. [I don't know, try focusing on the fact that it's our BOSS.] Isabelle's only response was a groan. [You'll be fine if you can put a wall between your personal and professional lives.] Another groan was her response.
This week's outro: Sinatra's Fly Me To The Moon