Chapter 7.
Near Kanagawa Prefecture Route 75. 11:01 A.M.
Within the reinforced trailer of the NERV Mobile Command Center, six live video feeds from aerial reconnaissance drones played across corresponding monochrome monitors in the 'video village' section, located closer to the truck cab. The screens showed different exterior views of a tunnel, which took Route 75 through the side of one of the many rolling green hills that encircled the city proper. A decent portion of said tunnel had caved in — a casualty of a previous battle against the Tenth Angel — but the eastern entrance was still intact for now.
A larger color display meanwhile showed the video feed from a stationary V.T.O.L. aircraft near the two Eva Units on standby: Unit-00, piloted by Rei, and Unit-02, piloted by Asuka. For the first time in a good while, since Unit-01 was inactive, Misato really noticed just how marked the contrast was between them.
All Evas shared the same humanoid body shape, with a large squared-off pylon jutting upward from each shoulder and an almost rail-thin midsection, but the similarities ended there. Unit-00, in Prussian blue armor, had a small head with a single red eye at the center of its otherwise featureless 'face.' Its defining characteristic was its simplicity, befitting its status as the prototype Eva. Unit-02, meanwhile, was the first production model Eva, and had more visual flair: bright red armor and an elongated, four-green-eyed head with a prominent 'chin,' not unlike the bow of an old battleship.
It was just as well that the respective pilots were so different in personality: Asuka in Unit-02 as the 'fire,' Rei in Unit-00 as the 'ice.' And much like those elemental forces, it would be a miracle if the girls ever managed to peacefully coexist.
The Major, Ritsuko, and Maya darted their attention amongst the various screens, while off to the side, technicians managed control of the drones. Boots on the ground had not been an option for the time being; Misato vowed that what happened at the warehouse wouldn't happen again on her watch.
"How long do you think that intact stretch of the tunnel is, Ritsuko?" Misato asked from her wheelchair. (Yes, her previous remark about the wheelchair had become reality.) She pointed to a view of the hillside from one drone's feed.
Ritsuko thoughtfully hummed. "I'd say a hundred meters, give or take a few."
"That should give us enough leeway." Misato took a deep breath. "Alright, let's do this. Containment units, assume positions. Drone 4, move into the tunnel."
On cue, three semi-trucks with heavily-reinforced cargo trailers began to slowly, carefully drive in reverse up to the mouth of the tunnel. Drone 4 — the drone closest to the entrance — meanwhile hovered forward at a steady pace, and disappeared into the darkness just before the trucks stopped inches away from the spring-line.
"Switch to night vision mode," Ritsuko said just as the light vanished on Drone 4's feed, "and move very slowly."
The screen lit up a noisy green, barely illuminating the tunnel's interior. Several seconds of silence followed as the group watched the pavement roll with bated breath.
Misato squinted, then grimaced, as dark smears of various sizes and shapes came into view in the bottom half of the camera frame. "Looks like blood."
"We have a heat sig," one of the drone technicians announced. "It's alive, and it's big."
"Relay its relative position to the other drones," Ritsuko ordered—
—just before a maw full of gnarled teeth suddenly appeared in the camera's frame and promptly ended the drone's feed.
"Drone 3 has the heat sig now," another technician said. "Target is on the move, toward the end of the tunnel."
"Containment units, open your ramps," Misato ordered. "Asuka, Rei, get ready for my signal."
"Copy that," Asuka said over the open comms channel.
"Understood," Rei added not long after.
Drones 3 and 5, nearest to the tunnel after Drone 4, hovered closer to the mouth of the tunnel as the trailers' automatic ramps opened and hit the pavement.
The creature then plowed right through the trucks and out into the open. So much for the initial containment plan.
Its full form was still somewhat obscure behind the shimmering camouflage, but now that its body had grown so tremendous — almost the size of an Eva — everyone could see just enough. The creature was decidedly inhuman, almost feline in shape, with limbs that seemed proportionately too long for the rest of its body. Mottled skin appeared equal parts scarred and tumorous; claws the size of longswords protruded from the tips of elongated fingers; and the only recognizable feature upon the 'face' was a gritted-tooth sneer, seething with unfettered animalistic rage.
"Shit," Misato hissed. "Asuka, you're up! Grab it before it gets away!"
"Unit-02, moving in!" Asuka replied. On the color display, Unit-02 launched forward, taking off like a bright red missile in pursuit of the creature.
"Take this!" Asuka screamed as Unit-02 tackled the would-be escapee to the ground, and put it into a chokehold. The creature writhed violently about, trying to break its way free, letting out a blood-curdling howl. Unit-02 nonetheless held fast, and rose to its feet with the creature still in its grasp.
"Hold still, ugly!" Asuka growled.
"Rei, your turn!" Misato said. "Shoot as many darts as you need to, until the creature goes down!"
"Roger," Rei replied, as Unit-00 held aloft an oversized assault rifle.
Unit-00 might have objectively been the oldest, slowest, and weakest of the three active Evas, but it was the skill and temperament of the pilot that made the Eva, and not the other way around. Of the three active Evangelion pilots — despite Asuka's claims to the contrary — Rei had the most skill and the coolest head in battle. From a purely objective standpoint, she was the best at what she did, even if she herself didn't seem to take any pride in that fact. It was for this reason that Unit-00 was the designated marksman in most operations (barring Operation: "Yashima," the battle against the Fifth Angel, which was a fluke).
In this instance, Asuka was fine with Unit-00 being the sharpshooter, because she and Unit-02 would take point — a much more 'heroic' position.
The creature's camouflage diminished as Unit-02 continued to hold on as tightly as it could, giving Unit-00 an easier target. Unit-00 pulled the rifle's trigger three times, firing three large darts into the creature's abdominal area. The outer end of each projectile began to release a light-purple-tinged mist right as it hit, marking a successful start to the injection of tranquilizing chemicals.
The creature thrashed about like an angry crocodile from side-to-side in Unit-02's arms, trying its damnedest to claw its way out. It showed no signs of slowing from the tranquilizers, so Unit-00 fired two more darts. Both found their target, but even as the thin mist billowed from their tail ends, the creature still struggled.
"Damn it, just go to sleep already!" Asuka hissed.
Maneuvering itself into just the right position after it had squirmed about for long enough, the creature sank its teeth into Unit-02's hand, near where the thumb met its socket. From inside the Entry Plug, via synchronization with her Eva, Asuka felt like a venomous snake were biting down onto her own thumb.
"—AGH! You son of a bitch!"
Unit-00 fired two more darts at the creature — which missed, as in the blink of an eye, the creature used its toothy grip on Unit-02 to send both tumbling to the ground. Caught off-guard, Asuka let Unit-02's arms loosen enough for the creature to escape her grasp. Its jaws let go of Unit-02's hand, only to promptly latch onto the front of the head.
Asuka screamed bloody murder as she felt the equivalent of several dozen knives impale her skull at once. The haptic feedback from her synchronization with Unit-02 wouldn't kill her — but that made the pain even worse. There was no short, sharp shock followed by numbness in death; it just kept going, and going, and going...
"GOD... DAMN YOU, SHINJI!"
The toothy jaws suddenly lost their grip once the blade of Unit-00's Vibrating Knife sunk into the back of the creature's arm. With the whiplash from the sudden release, Asuka blacked out.
The creature made a startlingly quick about-face to confront Unit-00 with a harsh, defiant screech, baring its now bloodied fangs. Unit-00 took advantage of the split-second opening to grab ahold of the beast's jaws and force them as wide-open as they could go. Rei barely blinked as she flipped Unit-00 180 degrees around, without letting its hands slip. The Eva slammed into the creature's side and stuck closely by, positioning and repositioning in just the right way that the creature couldn't reach with its arms.
"Unit-02, grab the tranq rifle, now!" Rei called to Asuka — but by then, it was too late. The creature summoned the strength to force its jaws shut, clamping down onto Unit-00's fingers with more than twenty tons of pressure. Rei pushed past the immediate pain, terrible as it was, but she couldn't ignore what followed as the creature tore Unit-00's fingers straight from their knuckles. Unit-00 limply fell to the ground. Before Rei could have even a second to recover, the creature spit out her Eva's severed fingers and went for the throat.
Rei had experienced synchronization trauma with Unit-00 before, but never like this. Not with the pain of both asphyxiation and throat-slitting at once — and that was after having her Eva's fingers pulled out, like teeth extracted without anesthesia. It took the last shred of her sanity to hold onto consciousness; one single load-bearing pillar holding up the whole roof.
Then, that pillar snapped and the roof came crashing down. The creature suddenly jerked its head to the side, taking Unit-00's neck with it. A loud 'CRACK' rung through the air for miles, like a thunderclap.
Rei's vision faded to black.
The creature opened its gory maw, and Unit-00 rolled over onto the ground like a doll that a child had absentmindedly dropped. The rolling green hills quickly began to turn red as the Eva's blood trickled from the open wounds.
Misato stared wide-eyed at the screen before her, as the creature enveloped its body in shimmering camouflage, then exited the frame.
A flurry of words followed, all bleeding into cacophony. "We've lost the heat sig." "Both Eva pilots are unconscious. Vitals are stable." "Shit, it's out of visual range." "We can't track it." "Son of a bitch!"
The one voice that cut through the wall of noise was Ritsuko's. "Misato..."
Misato took a deep breath. "Suspend the operation. Send a medical team to the Eva pilots immediately. Inform all authorities in Kanagawa and neighboring prefectures as to the situation. I want every business shuttered and every household under indoor curfew until further notice. Send the defense forces if people don't listen; I'm not taking 'no' for an answer. We're not letting anyone else get hurt today. Dismissed!"
After the "Yes, Ma'am"s sounded throughout the trailer and people got to work making the necessary calls, Misato turned to look at Ritsuko and Maya. Maya had her face in her hands, clearly disturbed by the sight of all the blood. Ritsuko meanwhile had a hand on Maya's shoulder. That wasn't exactly uncharacteristic of her, since senpai and kōhai clearly had a respectful working relationship — but in the ten years since they'd met, Misato hadn't seen Ritsuko touch someone to comfort them. Ever.
If there were a sign to be more worried than usual, that was probably it.
[A/N: Thank you, followers and favers, for being so patient for this chapter! 2022 was a weird year, but I'm hoping that I can be more consistent in 2023. Stay tuned!]