Sekhmet: (Demonic Teapot Screams)

Susano-o: *Laughs Geometrically*

Chapter 6: The Fifth Angel, Ramiel

"It's a D8." Mary observed. "What even."

"Roll for initiative," Isabelle mumbled setting herself up on the hill they had comendered for this mission.

"Be careful," Shinji said as he watched the large octahedron float towards the city.

"I have a feeling that Isabelle has this covered." Mary said, watching Isabelle line up her shot. "Do you want us to distract it or…?"

"Hold your positions until further notice." Misato ordered.

Isabelle smiled as she scoped in on the center mass. "Sniper's not hard, mate. You just need a good eye, a steady hand, and perfect bloody aim," she giggled. "Ready when you are, Misato."

"On my Mark…" Misato said, waiting a few seconds, trying to anticipate its movement. "Fire!"

"Cheers, mate." Isabelle said pulling the trigger, the massive round left the barrel with a thunderous crack as it flew at the floating angel, before pinging off the AT field. "Oh piss off," Isabelle glared. "I thought we fixed that problem."

"We're detecting a high energy spike within the Angel!" Maya said.

"What?!" Misato balked. "Evasive maneuvers!"

The Angel's edges started glowing, and with a scream that sounded like a demonic teapot reaching its boiling point, it fired its own beam of energy at the hill where Isabelle had shot it from.

"Move!" Isabelle screamed jumping under the beam and going prone, the beam just barely going over her, close enough to feel the heat through her armor. "Bloody piker!" Isabelle screamed in fear.

"Take us back, take us back!" Mary yelled, diving to the ground and taking Shinji with her.

"The nearest lift back down is 2 kilometers away. We'll open it. Get there!" Misato ordered. At the nearest edge of the city, a lift opened up. The three scrambled to the opening, narrowly avoiding another beam but managing to get down unscathed.

"Damn it all!" Isabelle shouted grabbing the sides of the launch tube to try to slow them down. "We need to slow down!"

Mary clawed at the sides of the lift, trying and eventually succeeding in slowing herself down. Unfortunately she had been the first to get in, so she ended up serving as a net for the other two pilots. "It could be worse, I could have gotten my head lopped off by that screaming D8." She reasoned to herself.

"Bloody hell," Isabelle huffed as they finally stopped falling. "That was freakin' dangerous!"

"What kind of power scaling nonsense was that?!" Mary asked incredulously. "First we had whips that hurt like a bitch but we're ultimately able to be worked through, and now they'll straight up vaporize us?! It's an awfully big spike!"

"We've got another problem," Ritsuko said. "It's starting to drill through the armor plating right into the Geofront."

"Ah crap, that's not good either! Unless we deal with that, we're basically trapped down here!" Mary growled. "Watch your grips, I'm gonna try climbing down."

"Find an emergency shaft," Misato ordered. "Get back here asap."

"Yes Ma'am." Mary said, and upon finding one, the three found their way back to the launch bay.

….

"Well," Isabelle said as she half stripped out of her uniform, her nakedness ignored in favor of trying to cool down quicker. "I feel like a boiled prawn," She sighed grabbing a water bottle. "So what's the plan Misato?"

"We've got about twelve hours until the Angel penetrates the Geofront. I have an idea to snipe it from a distance." Misato explained.

"Sounds like a plan Ma'am." Mary said, decompressing her suit to let out some heat.

Shinji just nodded, trying to ignore Isabelle's nudity, which just confused her.

"Hey Shinji," Isabelle said calmly. "If you want to look, then look I'm fine with it, ain't nothing you won't see in the future," She said turning slightly to face the boy. "These fetish suits barely cover anything anyway."

Shinji just looked away even harder, blushing as red as Misato's jacket. "Alright fine," Isabelle said finally covering herself up. "-But the offer stands, I really don't care about nudity," She said with a shrug. Mary pinched her brow at the awkwardness of the situation and resealed herself in.

"Right then," Misato sighed. "Continuing on, while Shinji takes the shot with our positron rifle, you three will help run interference, your job will be to distract both the angel's laser and it's AT field," She explained. "Ritsuko calculated that if it's beam came in contact with the positron's it would cause the shot to veer off wildly, leaving Shinji vulnerable to another blast before the rifle can recharge."

"So give it hell and don't cross the streams." Mary said.

"Correct," Misato nodded. "There's one more thing," She said looking at the three. "The MAGI predicted an aerial assault would be useless, however it gave an aerial distraction a .3% chance of helping Shinji, would anyone like to volunteer for this position?"

Isabelle quickly raised her hand. "I'll do it!" She said loudly before Rei could volunteer.

"Alright," Misato said nodding. "Prep Unit-06 with the S-Type equipment!" She ordered.

…

Night had long fallen on Tokyo 3. The Angel continued its drilling in the distance. Rei had joined the three on a platform that had a beautiful view of the moon. Nearby, the EVAs stood on standby.

"I love the night time clouds," Isabelle sang laying back and happily kicking her legs in the air. "They're so rarely this visible."

Mary meanwhile was staring up at the moon, which seemed unnaturally big from up here. She was also humming an indeterminate song.

"Wish Bob Ross was still alive," Isabelle said still kicking her legs. "His cloud paintings are my favorite."

"I know. He would have helped with the mood of the generation so much with his paintings. I like the forest lake ones myself."

"Yeah," Isabelle said sighing.

"Umm, can I ask you guys a question?" Shinji asked.

"Yeah sure, what's up?" Mary replied.

"Yes?" Rei replied.

"Shoot," Isabelle replied.

"Why do you pilot the EVAs?" He asked.

"Just because," Isabelle said shrugging.

"I don't really know. I don't have a reason not to. Call me stupid, but I guess I just like to kick alien butt." Mary said.

"...Because I am bonded with it." Rei replied.

"Bonded with the EVA?" Shinji asked.

"With all people." Rei clarified.

"What does that mean?" Isabelle asked furrowing her brow.

"Yeah that sounds really cryptic for no reason." Mary said.

Rei got up from her sitting position. "It's almost time for the mission to begin." She said simply. "Goodbye."

"Well alright keep your secrets then," Isabelle said standing up too.

"Let's do this." Mary agreed, and cracked her knuckles. Shinji simply nodded in somber agreement.

….

"Wait that's S-Type equipment!?" Isabelle asked in shock.

"I guess S stands for sky." Mary said.

"Oh my fuck-I have a jetpack!" Isabelle said giggling. "To the heavens!"

"Man, now I wish I was fast enough to volunteer." Mary said.

"Too late now!" Isabelle laughed as she ran up to her Eva. "Let's go Unit-06!" She shouted. "It's time to fly!"

A timer went off, signaling midnight exactly. "Start the operation!" Misato declared.

Instantly hundreds of guns started shelling out thousands of pounds of ammunition at once, covering the darkened city in a mid day glow as they impacted off the angel's AT field.

"SCREAMIN' EAGLES!" Mary shouted as she ran forward and began firing on the Angel as well.

The angel, having focused its beam on the artillery was unprepared when its AT field suddenly went down and Mary's rifle rounds impacted into its hardened shell. It let out distressed screams, but did not falter in its mission and prepared another strike, this time on Mary and Unit 05.

Rei was ready however and the minute the large angel focused on her fellow pilot she started firing her sniper at the point where the drill met its body in an attempt to sever it. The large octahedron quickly raised its AT field to prevent her from breaking it and undoing all its work.

Mary wasn't having that, and got around to its side and started firing again. More distressed screams from the Angel as it tried to block two areas at once. Getting fed up, it focused a beam on Rei, trying to systematically take out the threats to itself in order of importance.

Above the clouds though Isabelle was traveling full speed into the lower atmosphere on a modified EVA transport ship ready to begin her descent, however she had another idea. "Set controls to outer space now! Flying Higher than Ever Before! Rangers in Space!" She sang loudly as she set her ship into a full speed descent straight at the angel, getting red hot as it went down.

"What are you doing!?" Misato screamed over the intercom.

"I'm distracting it!" Isabelle responded as she disengaged her EVA from the transport. "I think dropping a couple thousand tons of red hot metal oughta do it!"

The angel, seeing what was about to hit it, closed it's AT field around itself long enough to fire its beam straight into the sky, shredding the transport into tiny metal fragments and just barely missing Isabelle as she flew out of the way.

"You missed you bloody bogan!" Isabelle laughed as she fired her electromagnetic crossbow at the Angel. They bounced off harmlessly as it charged up another beam.

"Now! Fire!" Misato ordered. Trusting the computers onboard, Shinji took the shot. A

huge beam led by a bullet shot through the air and hit the Angel dead on, knocking a clear hole through it followed by an explosion from its back. With a demonic teapot death wail, the Angel's core was severed, and it crashed to the Earth, dead, but not before firing its last shot up at Isabelle, scoring a direct hit as she couldn't maneuver away in time.

"Oh fuck!" Mary shouted, and ran out to catch Isabelle before she hit the ground. Rei however was closer and able to grab her first.

"Pilot Watanabe. The Angel has been defeated." Rei said. Isabelle didn't respond. "Are you well?"

"Rei get her plug out!" Misato ordered. Rei scrabbled to move the protective plate and pulled the plug out. She set it down and ejected herself to get the door open manually. Though it burned her hands to touch the plug, she barely flinched and opened the door.

"Oh hey," Isabelle groaned sitting up in her plug. "What's new blue?" She giggled deliriously.

"We have defeated the Angel." Rei said in a matter of fact way.

"I can't tell if that's a good thing or a bad thing by your tone," She giggled.

"Oh thank god you're alive." Mary sighed in relief, her and Shinji running up to meet them.

"You're ok!" Shinji added. "And what were you thinking?! You could have died doing that!" He started to berate her.

"I'm fine," Isabelle moaned waving her hand dismissively.

"You don't sound alright." Mary said. "You sound like you got kicked in the stomach a thousand times."

"I'll be ok," She said trying to stand up, only to fall back into her seat. "Ok maybe not," She groaned.

Sighing in both annoyance and relief, Shinji turned his attention to Rei. "And Ayanami, don't say goodbye before a mission, it's just too sad!" Tears started to fall from his face.

"Why are you crying?" Rei asked. She didn't get an answer. "I apologize, I don't know what to do in this situation."

"Why don't you just try smiling?" Shinji suggested, and wiping the tears away, gave an example. Something flashed in Rei's eyes, and after a moment, the most sincere smile crossed her face and she relaxed her shoulders. Mary started smiling too, as did Shinji, and finally Isabelle gave her a smile as well.