CHAPTER 14: DOUBLE TROUBLE
A few days later, the pilots had to miss school for a synchronization test and refresher training in the simulators. But the alarms sounded at NERV just as the EVA pilots arrived. "Was ist das?" Asuka asked.
"It's the angel alarm!" Shinji snapped as he and Rei darted past her.
"Alright!" Asuka cried out. "Finally, some action!"
"What!?" Shinji asked her as they rushed to the locker rooms.
"You don't have to worry about a thing, Third Child," Asuka grinned. "Just leave everything to me. I'll be taking care of things from now on. They won't even need you two screw-up's after today."
"Don't be so cocky," Shinji replied.
Asuka certainly wasn't happy when she eventually found out that Shinji was going to be going too. Because Tokyo-3's defense and combat systems were still being repaired due to the previous battle, they were going to have to intercept the angel as it made landfall in an abandoned metropolitan area. But what made Asuka really pissed was when Misato announced, "Shinji, you'll be the point man. Asuka will back you up."
"WHAT!?" Asuka screeched, introducing the bridge bunnies to her infamous lung power. "How come I'm second fiddle to this sorry excuse for a pilot!?"
"I'm standing right here," Shinji grumbled quietly.
"Because he has more battle experience, Asuka," Misato replied evenly. 'In more ways than one.' "Shinji, I'm counting on you to play it cool on this one. No heroics." She then glared at him. "Got it?"
"Yes, ma'am," Shinji mumbled giving her a salute.
"I mean it," she growled folding her arms. "You stick to the battle plan, understood?"
"I know. I know," he replied. "I'll try to avoid any more cowboy shenanigans. But remember Murphy's Law of Combat?"
"Just get to your EVAs," Misato ordered. "They'll be loaded onto transports which will then take you to the combat area." They nodded and headed for the cages.
"What's Murphy's Law?" Asuka asked Shinji as they came to the elevator.
"'No plan survives first contact with the enemy'," Shinji said. If he only knew how true that would be on this day.
XXXXX
Both Evangelion Units were deployed via airdrop to the intercept point. Ground crews were already waiting with power cables and weapons when they touched down. Shinji picked up a battle rifle and Asuka picked up a naginata staff. "Two against one's not what I'd call a fair fight," Asuka whined as they landed. "It's not fair."
"We don't get a choice," Misato said in reply, popping up on a window. "Survivability takes priority."
"Plus," Shinji added popping up in his own window. "Who said this was a prize fight for the title? If you're in a 'fair fight', it's because your tactics suck." If he knew what was about to happen, Shinji would regret saying those words.
"Just don't get in my way, Third Child!" Shinji rolled his eyes.
"There!" Shinji called out when he saw the angel erupt from the ocean. It was vaguely humanoid with gray and green skin and a single core in the middle of its gorilla-like body. "Target sighted, thirty-five hundred meters out and closing."
"Commence attack!" Misato ordered.
"I'll handle this one!" Asuka cheered as she made the first move, despite being assigned the support position. "Cover my back, Shinji."
"What?" Shinji muttered.
"Ladies first!"
"God damn it! Get back here!" Too late, she was already in full charge. 'Goddamn rookie.' So he brought his rifle to bear on the target and let a volley loose. At this range he doubted he would do much damage but it would serve to at least distract the angel.
"CHARGE!"
"Wait! You idiot!"
'I should've known this was going to happen,' Misato rubbed the bridge of her nose.
Unit-02 bounded off the building, swinging it's halberd up high and bringing it down onto the angel, splicing it in two. "There's no way it's that easy," a paranoid Shinji mumbled to himself. Something felt wrong to him and the hairs on the back of his neck were twitching. 'Something's not right.'
"You wouldn't know, Third Child, because you're just a washout," Asuka shot back. "A battle should be clean and elegant, without waste," she added with prideful glee. Unfortunately, most fights never turn out 'clean and elegant'.
"Watch out!" Shinji shouted when he saw the angel twitch.
"What are you-?!" Asuka shouted back before Shinji cut her off.
"GET OUT OF THERE!" When she looked back the two halves of the angel had split up into two identical twins.
"GYAH!" Misato screamed in the command trailer. "THAT'S A LOAD OF BULL!" From that moment on the battle went south.
"Asuka! Fall back!" Shinji barked as he brought his weapon back up as he darted in closer.
"You shut up!" Asuka snapped back. "This is my show!" She then jumped straight at the angels which moved out of the way and blindsided her from behind. "GAH!" Asuka screamed as the angels smashed into her back.
"Asuka!" Shinji called to her as he tried to line up his rifle, but Asuka was in the way and he didn't have a clear shot. "Clear my line of fire!"
"I don't need any help!" Asuka roared as she whirled around to fight back. Her halberd was blocked by the orange angel while the green one pounded into her flank knocking her into a building. Shinji had moved closer and began firing at the angels to get them away from Asuka.
"We have to fall back!" He shouted to her. "We're exposed here!"
"Dumbkopf!" Asuka snapped as she pushed her half battered EVA past his, throwing off his aim. "I won't leave until I win! YAAAAAAHHHHH!" She charged in only to meet the energy blasts of the angels forcing her back into the surf. Shinji moved in, firing once more. The angels fired back forcing Shinji to take cover behind a waterlogged building.
"Asuka! Get out of here while I draw them off!"
"Fuck you!" She charged the angels but the angels were too fast. They somersaulted above Unit-02 and came crashing down onto its back. They then picked Unit-02 up, launched into the air and hurled her into a small hillside along the beach. Unit-02 was partially buried into the earth by the impact and rendered immobile.
"Jesus Christ!" Shinji growled as he fired at the angels from behind the building. The angels fired into the building but Shinji took off for the abandoned city. "Come and get me, motherfuckers!" The angels fired energy blasts as he entered the abandoned city. Out on the coast the angels had room to outmaneuver him. In the city he stood a fighting chance to at least match the angels. To lessen the burden on his unit he detached his umbilical cable and switched to the five minute battery.
Taking cover behind one building he peaked around the corner and fired a burst at the angels, drawing them towards him. They responded by charging and slashing into the building he was behind. "Whoa!" He shouted as he rolled away. He rolled to his knees and fired a burst from the hip into the nearest angel, knocking it down temporarily before rolling to the side again before the second's energy blast could hit. This time he popped up over this building and fired into the second as the first rose back up and blasted the building, knocking Unit-01 into a third.
The angels closed in as Shinji stood up. The green one slashed at him but he ducked under it, barely, as the attack chopped off part of the unit's horn, and planted a powerful kick to its mid-section throwing it into another building. The orange one came at him from the flank but Shinji pivoted on his foot and batted it across the chest with the empty rifle. When the orange one fell to the ground Shinji dove out of the way of a barrage of energy bolts from its partner.
"Shinji get out of there!" Misato snapped at him. "You'll get killed!"
"Not yet, Misato!" Shinji replied.
"You can't beat them on your own!"
"I'm not trying to!" He shouted as he elbow struck one angel and side-kicked the other
"Then what are you-?" That's when she noticed his movements. He wasn't really trying to fight the angels. He was drawing them away from Unit-02.
"Major!" Makoto spoke up. "The UN East Asia Command is overriding jurisdiction!"
"What?"
"They say they're going to deploy an N2 missile."
"Shinji!" Misato called out to him.
"I heard," Shinji replied as he ducked behind a warehouse. "Just give me two more minutes." He had about 2:30 left on his batteries.
"Make it quick, cowboy!" At that moment the angels were upon him again. Shinji rose up and drew out a pair of progressive bladed kukris from their shoulder housings.
"HOOYAH!" He roared like a Spartan hoplite drawing on every bit of adrenaline fueled speed and reflex he had to match the angel's attacks. He blocked, dodged, deflected and parried their attacks as he drew them further away.
"Oh my God," Misato muttered as she watched the battle on the screens. Unit-01's motions seemed almost blurred in a flurry of movement. "How…how can he be so fast?"
Shinji was able to knock the green one into a building and impale the core of the orange one with a kukri. As the green one jumped away Shinji kicked the corpse of its partner to the side. "One down!" Shinji called out. He then took off after the second one. 'Maybe they won't need that N2 after all.' Shinji thought as he closed in. He slammed his shoulder into it, knocking it off balance. He then drove his elbow into its side, knocked it down and was preparing to finish it off when he spotted movement on his scope behind him. He barely managed to dodge a volley of energy bolts which destroyed both of his weapons. He kept rolling along the ground as the bolts kept after him until he got behind a stadium. "What the fuck!?" He cried out as he looked over the stadium. The orange angel had somehow gotten back up and its core was intact. "Didn't I kill you already?"
He was then blindsided by another volley from the green angel. He took some hits to the shoulder but was able to avoid the worst of it. "Shinji!" Misato cried out. "The UN just fired the N2 missile! You've got thirty seconds! Clear out!" He looked at his clock and saw he had only forty seconds of battery power left.
"Son of a bitch!" He swore as the angels launched at him again. This time he picked up a gasoline tanker truck and hurled it at them. It exploded into flames on impact and distracted them enough for him to get in close. He tackled both to the ground and then pulled a skyscraper down on top of them. "I'm out!" Shinji shouted as he took off.
He vaulted over one building and onto another and used it as a platform to jump out of the immediate blast area. But while he was in midair a torrential volley of energy bolts followed after him. One bolt hit the left shoulder, another hit the ass and another hit the left leg. To make things worse for him the N2 missile hit the angels and detonated. When the resulting shockwave hit it caused the unit to tumble through the air like a rag doll.
"NO!" Misato screamed as the unit began to tumble through the air in a flat spin. "SHINJI!"
"Shinji!" Rei cried out in shock as well.
"AAAAAHHHHHH!" Shinji called out as his body was racked by the G-forces.
He slammed his fist onto the emergency eject button. Immediately, explosives shot the upper spine panel away and the entry plug rocketed up and away from the plummeting EVA. Five seconds later, as the emergency rockets fired on the plug, the EVA crashed into a rock quarry and tumbled into the water filled pit. A few seconds after the emergency rockets flared the descent parachute deployed. But the plug was too close to the earth so when the chute finally opened it barely slowed the plug before it imbedded itself halfway into the beach sand.
"Shinji!" Misato cried out. "What's his status?
"Unknown!" Maya called out. "We're not receiving any data from the entry plug. I think the transmitter was damaged on impact."
"Scramble the rescue helicopters immediately!" Misato ordered. "Wait! I'll go too. Send another chopper to pick up Asuka!"
"Yes, ma'am," Makoto complied.
'Shinji,' Misato pleaded. 'Please be alright.' Unbeknownst to her, Rei was thinking the same thing as she followed after the Major.
From the hillside, Asuka was glaring at the site after she let her eyes become adjusted after the bright flash of the N2 attack. "Das arschloch," she growled in anger. "I'll make sure he pays for this."
When the CH-53E Super Stallion touched down on the beachside Misato couldn't help but shiver at the site of Unit-01's plug being buried into the sand the way it was. She and Rei rushed forward with the Medics. When they arrived at the plug Rei opened the hatch for Misato who clambered inside. Inside, Shinji was unconscious with blood trickling down from a gash on his forehead. "Shinji!"
XXXXX
Kiev, Ukraine
In the bedroom of a small penthouse in downtown Kiev a hard-faced man wearing an eye patch over his left eye was packing a suitcase. While he dressed and lived like your ordinary businessman, modest upscale living arrangements, dark blue suit and collared shirt, he was anything but. This was evidenced by the lockbox he packed into the luggage along with his toiletries. The contents were simple but important and potentially deadly: an FN Five-seveN with four 20 round magazines.
After he was done packing he made a few phone calls. One was to his 'employer'. "I will be ready to leave in a few days," he said into his satellite phone. "I have a few things to wrap up here and, unless you have urgent need of me, I will take my time in getting to Tokyo-3…No more than a week and a half at most…I have a few, shall we say, comrades to meet with…A few of them fought alongside me during the war. All share the same views. In fact, if need be, they could be of use to you…No. They will answer only to me. It's not a matter of trust, but rather professionalism…Da, thank you…Dasvidaniya, Commander."