Chapter 9: Haunted Angel
Danny, Pilot changing room
(Storm rolls in - Haunted by Disturbed)
The MAGI's synthesized voice rings out throughout NERV, accompanied by a renewed howl of the air raid/Angel horn outside in the city. "Warning, weather alert. Warning, weather alert. Stormfront is forming. Stormfront is forming. Likely Angel activity."
Angel nothing. I'm doing this.
I can feel it. Rain is falling, almost more then the sewers can handle, and the crack of thunder can be heard every few seconds.
This is the greatest of my powers, at the very least in scope. My emotions and my will can influence the weather. It's an acquired, indirect connection, but I can reduce or increase it at my leisure. And right now, ten seconds into Ghost Form, my energy is topped up and I'm fueling the storm that's forming above the city with just my passive regeneration.
"So..." I bask in Shinji, Misato and Ritsuko's slack-jawed stares. Fuyutsuki and Rei seem to be measuring me up and down, completely confused as well. "Give me at least ten minutes, please." I ask the dressing room in my Danny Phantom outfit, floating inches above the ground and in my best antihero pose.
Let me do at least this for Shinji and Rei, Misato. Misato frowns pensively at me. After what seems like an eternity of three seconds, she nods curtly. "I'll give you enough rope to hang yourself, and the Angel too."
That's all I need. I look at Shinji. After taking it all in, he seems to have settled on a near-hysterical grin. I grin right back. In the back of my head, I hear Sam's voice saying bloodlust is not the thing to encourage in a kid, but I dismiss her. Shinji's a Hero. I'm a Hero. This... is what heroes do!
With no further preamble, I strike a superman pose, phase out and shoot upward toward the surface. I fly through the Geofront once again. This time though, I'm at full power. Color scheme inverted, thirty years old... An angry god.
I can sense the Angel. It seems to sense me. Bio-electrics? Something like that. I don't know what it's shaped like. What it can do. But I can tell it's definitely very different from Sachiel.
My initial plan was to use to element of suprise to my advantage, and I can still sort of do that, I think. I do a barrel roll, coating myself in a thick layer of scalding ectoplasm while phased.
I taught this technique to myself only a few years ago. In desert caves. It turned out to be a good decision, as the physics involved turned out to have even more of a wham to them then what I was expecting.
I unphase up in the city. Specifically, inside an empty office building that's right next to the Angel. I let the coat of energized ectoplasm spin outward and heat up the air. Hot air expands. Very hot air expands very rapidly. While ectoplasm isn't technically 'plasma' it's very, very conductive and you can make it about as hot as actual plasma.
The expanding air wave shatters the frail bonds of concrete and glass, turning the office building into an enormous shrapnel grenade. Along with the shattered remains of the building comes the EMP-like effect that highly charged ectoplasma carries with it.
The unexpected, all-destroying blast turns out to hit the Angel right in the midsection, just past its head. The sudden explosion disorients it enough for me to fly upward and away from it. I still haven't gotten a clear view of the thing, but I saw LCL-as-blood spray all around me, so blowing (a guesstimated) 10% of my power for that alpha strike certainly had been a good investment.
Time for another! I throw my arms backward and gather power in my grasping hands. Rain starts falling and thunderclaps pound Tokyo-3. Shock and awe has never been this literal. By this point, I'm not actively directing it. I'm just calling up my reserves like a racecar, ectoplasm-fuel whirlpooling out of the proverbial fuel tank that is... eh, me... And the weird weather power anchored to me responds accordingly.
Heh. While charging my attack, I get an idea. When in Rome...
"Kame..." Another 5% of my power down the drain, getting hungry...
I hear Misato's voice in my ear. "-ello, Danny?"
"Hame..." My arms feel like they're gonna explode from the amount of current flowing through them...
The Angel squirms. Its skin is slick and... Lilac? A gargantuan red-pink worm from what I can see. But I can only see its backside. Oh dear Freud in a U.F.O. At least God builds his Angels with a sense of humour.
"...HA!" I finish my chant in a homage to Dragonball and throw my hands forward, combining the spheres of green plasma light into a huge ectobeam three times the width of Sachiel's pileblast. I pump more and more of my lifeforce into the beam, carrying it forward. A tidal wave of energized goop.
I have a hunch Ectoplasm is LCL that's been somehow... phased. Charged electrically or kinetically or some nonsense.
Whatever my ersatz Kamehameha wave is, its effect on the Angel is glorious, despite the terrifying visual. The venomous green ectobeam impacts the embarassingly phallic serpent right in the middle of its tubular body, where gashes and slashes signify the wound made by my pressure-bomb.
The plus-size ectobeam impacts, obliterating skin and muscle and cracking the brown vertebrae underneath, while imparting enough concussive force to send the massive Angel spinning and rolling into a bunch of warehouses.
Completely exhausted from my attack, I phase and dash backward in the air, cape fluttering around me. ...A lot better then turning your feet into a Casper-style wisp. I'm panting and sweating, but my little smirk is unmoving and I glare into the dust cloud I've kicked up by upending and rupturing the street-sized snake god.
To the Angel's credit... its body is still in one piece. Barely. Its serpentine rear is now only connected to the complex 'head' by its bone spine and a few ragged gobs of meat.
My shock blast did further disorient the beast, though, and the dust cloud formed by its impact with the warehouses is expanding around it.
I can see the beast, though. My eyes glow green and I can sense it.
The Angel might think the splintered wood and concrete will give it some cover until the rain swats it out of the air, but it would be wrong. I see it coil up. As it leaps out of the smoke in a downward arc, I move with the telegraphed motion. It takes a bit of effort to dodge, though. Even with its body hanging together by the spine, it has propelled itself forward at near the speed of sound.
Its 'head' is coming at me at near mach 1... and I must say, it looks very creepy. It has its red crystal core as a central 'eye' beneath the evocative flaps on its head. Underneath, a vertical mouth (also suggestive, I can't help but notice) which actually contains over a dozen sets of skeletal, humanoid arms. Those are some overcomplicated teeth.
...Yeah, these Angel bodies have either been created for the sole task of winning this apocalyptic war or they have some other reason for being that I can't be bothered speculating about, but they're certainly not designed to survive and thrive in any ecosystem. It's just not efficient design.
Distracted by the Angel's weird form, I almost miss the most important detail. On the sides of its 'head' it has two protrusions. Protrusions which each lead to a whiplike tentacle, charged to glowing with pink energy.
It swings its whips back to hit me, but thankfully, I act first.
I push my arms up into the sky and call down a thunderbolt with enough wattage to power Japan for an hour. Being the tallest thing in the immedeate vicinity, the giant lilac abomination is electrified head-to-belly. The heat and light from the gargantuan discharge flash-fries the Angel's flesh. The shock to the system sends it crumpling to the ground as if hit by Thor's hammer.
Because I had to become tangible to give that slithering lightningrod its deserved fate, I get blown backward through the air as well.
At the outskirts of the fortress city, I manage to skid to a stop in midair.
"DANNY!" I hear Misato shout as loud as she can.
The Angel isn't moving yet, and I need a moment to recharge, so I tap the communicator careful to keep both eyes on the giant eldritch horror knocked out cold across two streets.
"Yeah, hi?" I ask with the arrogant glee that comes with being a man-sized platform that can outpreform NERV's toted 'necessary' Evas.
A suppressed squeak from the other side of the line. "Um..." Misato says hesitantly. "Ritsuko wants me to ask: Are you an Angel?"
"Cute," I quip. "But quoting the late, great George Lucas's unfinished magnum opus to me isn't gonna get you any answers." Because I don't know if I'm an Angel, dear distraction, and I'm busy right now. "To tell you the truth, Akagi, I have no f-"
My impertinent quip is interrupted by the hiss of ozone and the subsonic hum of a charging laser flash-heating the air around me. Thankfully, I phase immedeately, so the (conventional) laser simply passes through me, scything through a parking lot instead. No ectoplasma, dear creature? Aww, too bad. All that energy expended on... severely scarring the city.
...Crap. I need to put this thing down, soon. It seems the Angel has managed to recover the lightning cooking its every cell, though, and I'm kinda stumped as to what else to try.
As if in reply to my thought it swings one of its wips clean through an office building, which subsequently explodes.
Whoa. Wait, stop the movie. That's not physics. Science time! Hypothesis: The Angel is charging its whips with kinetic energy or whatever physics-breaking bullshit I use for my energy blasts.
An instant later, the Angel Shamshel swings its other whip directly at me.
Gears turn in my head as my pupils widen and realization unfurls itself all at once across my phase-shifted brain. The pink glowing whips have AT-fields. Pink glow, the same as Sachiel, who displayed ecto-powers. Vlad has pink ecto-powers. And Vlad's ecto-beams have managed to piledrive me while I was intangible on more then one occasion.
1+1+1= ...Oh crap. DUCK!
I try and dive down and to the side, away from the whip, I really do... but I hear a ripping sound and a sting in my upper arm. It seems I was right. Whatever the Angel is using to make its whips so very deadly, it's (practically) the same thing as ecto powers. And all the excitement has got me so numb that I can't check my limbs by feel.
Time for a tactical retreat! I dash downward, through a building and further down though the armor of the Geofront. On the other side, floating high above the underground lake, I pause briefly to catch my breath and look at my wound.
More then a centimeter of the muscles on my right arm has been shaved off and it's only now starting to bleed. My cape's got a decent chunk torn out of it as well. I pull a strip off my cape and wrap it around my arm.
Could've been worse. I could've been split in half, skull to tailbone.
"Okay, that does it!" I snarl, hovering just under the Geofront roof. The sting of flayed muscle fades, I don't know whether it's from healing, rage or shock, but it's good, 'cause I'm not beaten yet.
You've seen this trick before: I can create multiples of myself. As you can imagine, it's a literal force multiplier in the heat of battle. But like I said before, it's a short-term deal, and carries risks.
My power is split, as is my lifeforce. If I run out of juice while split, I'll be unable to become human again to recharge. Death by dissipation. If one part of the whole dies, the rest of me feels it. I've spent enough times in the hospital coughing up blood. It was only the occasional shifting into ghost form that recovered me bit by bit.
Hrm. I get the curious sensation of looking at myself through my own eyes. Twice, and at two copies of myself. Facing an Angel with this technique could kill me...
And then Misato's voice speaks into my northeastern body's ear. Objects I'm carrying don't get split, of course. "Are you alright? The cameras saw you get winged, and then you disappeared into the ground." A relunctant sigh. "Do you need the Evas to come help you?"
I wince, and see myself wince. "No, no it's alright." I grumble and touch my wound on my southern body, leaving the other two wounds alone. "I'm done playing. The Angel did manage to clip me, but I've got a good idea now what I'm dealing with. How it moves, how it reacts. It's fast, and the whips are the real threat... But if I can get past those, hit it in the core..."
"Good insight..." Misato confirms, I hear her typing rapidly on a keyboard. "From what we've seen, we came to the same conclusion, except for one thing." A sharp intake of breath. "The AT-field. Ritz conjectures the Angel can't attack with its whips and form a barrier at the same time, but she could just as well be wrong."
Whatever. If the Angel does decide to use its AT-field barrier, it'll be an excellent test whether or not I'll be able to ghost through it. If not, I've still got my Ghostly Wail to try and batter it down. Worst case scenario, I back it into a proverbial corner and have an Eva come up to break the barrier.
I feel like just hanging up on Misato and starting the fight again, but if I'm going to do that, she at least deserves a heads-up. "I'm engaging the Angel again. Danny out." My mouth is dry, my heart pounds in my chest. No time like the present.
A burst of speed carries me up through the Geofront. I become tangible and let gravity decellerate me. The world pulls me down and I focus my mind. Focus on the Core. Stay aware of where the tentacles are. One big attack.
The beast idly twists toward me. It had a few minutes to heal, but it's still gravely wounded.
Like I said, playtime is over. I'm giving this my all. The storm churns, slamming down thunderbolts every few moments while the rain soaks Tokyo-3. I'm gonna be exhausted after this.
My middle body stops in front of the Angel and breathes in for a Wail. A tremendous sonic wave, the most raw power I can output, but only in a very wide cone and not too far.
The Angel Shamshel has by this point learned enough from the frustrating new prey. It knows what works and what doesn't work. So the Angel too stops playing.
It activates its AT-field. Octagons of straw-yellow light fall into place like a gargantuan football made of crystal glass. At the exact same time, a tentacle shoots out and my right-side body is cut in half diagonally by a tentacle. It's easy to detach from the pain. But the shriek of pain... The shock causes the rest of me to drop the energy buildup for my Wail.
As right side me dissolves into green fire and left side me manages to dodge the other tentacle, my middle body is enveloped in pale yellow light and a glass octagon intersects with my body.
The pain. I'd have called it indescribable if not for the fact that I've already experienced something similair in melding with Unit 01. Nothing like this, though.
At any rate, the Angel can apparently use its tentacles while its AT-field is deployed. I'm outclassed. Time to do the smart thing and run like hell. While one of my iterations drops to the ground, half-blended with the Angel's AT-field, the other drops down through the ground and strikes the same 'headache' pose on the shore of the Geofront's lake.
Pain. Beads of sweat drip down my forehead. I can feel my nervous system, every wire, prickling in pain beyond pain. But that's my other body. This body, this body on the shore is fine, and it is trying as hard as it can to focus.
Crap... Can't... move... Wearily, I look at my reflection in the water. Looking back at me is Shamshel, Second Born of ADAM.
Uh... Note to self, NEVER try and cross the AT-field. The Reality Wall is the ultimate fulcrum. A limb for the will, the wish for survival granted. The tiny has blended into the gigantic, but the tiny is somehow... Insulated!?
Hi.
Hi.
I'm You're... Shamshel? Danny FantonPhantom?
Enemy, you have done this by accident, have you not?
Yup. And I trust it's not very comfortable for you to be merged with me either?
No.
Normally, Shamshel Seraphim's Reality Wall would be a barrier for Danny Fenton's Wandering Self.
But today, the barrier of Shamshel's Self is going to manifest as intensely as we can manage.
I am large and you are small.
We will chirp a lovely duet of solitudes.
I will hold the high note.
And you will scream.
Up above, Shamshel looks down on the tiny Wandering Self creature, the shade that had accidentally but oh so fortuitously been splayed over Shamshel's unfurling AT-field, its Reality Wall. A few of its skeletal teeth find eachothers fingers and clasp. The tiny thing's mind will prove insights into this Geofront built by Lilith's prime protectors.
Ah, Geofront. Thank you, prey. A whip-tentacle obliterates another apartment block with seeming ease. The storm is churning above, but the rain has stopped. Debris to hide and twist behind, for later...
Down below, Danny's other body stands up limply. In the lake, his reflected eyes glow a faded gold. With a sonic boom, he dashes into the sky. Almost forgetting to go intangible, he phases just in time to shift through the Geofront from below...
He rises next to his other body, stuck in Shamshel's AT-field. A single touch is all it takes, and now there is only one Danny. He stands stock still, his hand splayed out and running into Shamshel's AT-field, veins like tree roots, exchanging green light for pale yellow.
The sound is like a whale and a lion and a buzzsaw going all at once. I exist, mercifully I exist, but inside Shamshel's head, like a goddamn memory. And I'm being interrogated.
"LILIM." A voice demands, thundering through my mind. It seems the Angel wants to have a chat. I can work with that, I guess...
"What's a Lilim, big guy?" I ask back through the mind-blend, biting through the maddening alien presence all around me. My body hurts like hell, too. So much so that I can feel it even here in acid-trip-imaginationland. Losing a third of your mass, physical or no, will do that to you. It won't be fun, but I really should focus on my pain. It's something strong, something I can anchor my mind on.
"LILIM." The voice exclaims again. I sense irritation in the word's inflection. My mind flashes with random images. People running, seen from above. Faraway shots of people inside the cockpits of heli-jets... A little kid being torn in half by the Angel's whips.
"Okay..." I answer tonelessly, hesitantly, sidelining my fury for later. Humans? Is that what the Angel means with 'Lilim?'
The Angel doesn't speak, but I can feel its cautious anticipation pervade the multicolored void around me.
"I know a Lilith..." Willingly, I share my own memory from earlier: Under Tokyo-3 I was hovering above the enormous thing. Fuyutsuki calling me from over the blood sea, designating the creature as 'Lilith'. I visualize the LCL dripping down from the enormous humanoid's crucified body, and the invisible spear so elegantly hidden in plain sight.
" - - - " Inarticulate rage and a memory pushed into my head. The sight of the Pink Angel grasping Lilith with its whips and shearing it into ribbons. Tokyo-3 exploding in bright white light. Earth's seas turning red and the Angel ascending into the sky, drinking the seas, growing enormous on eight golden wings.
"...Destruction..." I supply my unlikely companion. "No... rip and tear... Annihalation." My mind whispers into the Angel's.
"ANNIHALATION LILITH. APOTHEOSIS!" The Angel replies, bellowing the words, tasting them.
But the word 'Apotheosis' sticks out. It's not the kind of word that I tend to use, so Big Pink couldn't have plucked it out of my mind that easily, no? So does the Angel speak greek?
Or do we speak Angel? "Wait a sec, big guy. So Lilith is this thing's actual name and not just something we made up!?" I ask with dawning horror.
The Angel roars in reply, a contented, almost giddy sound. "LILITH, LILIM!"
Oh.
So Humans are Lilim.
And Lilith is... that alien thing.
"So who are you then, big guy?"
"SHAMSHEL!" The Angel roars proudly without words or even sound.
"Shamshel? Pleased to meet you!" I say sarcastically. The Angel seems to pick up on it, letting off a.. pulse.. huff? An amused snort. So Shamshel's got a sense of humour. "Oh, and my name's not 'Lilim', it's Danny." I mumble while I percolate on the terrifying thought of an alien space monster that can experience sadism.
The blackness churns, Shamshel ponders its next 'roar'.
"SACHIEL. LILIM ANNIHALATE." A memory, my memory, of Shamshel's predecessor Sachiel rampaging through Tokyo-3.
An image of Unit 01 being bonked on the head by Sachiel is pushed into my head. Ah. So Shamshel found my memories of the Evas, and now how he wants to know how to avoid his brother's fate.
Okay then, big boy. You want info, I can give you info!
Hope and rage. Neurochemical states of mind. Every species of sentient has their own variations on the same theme. Among the kaleidoscope of colours racing in front of my eyes, the cacophony, one sound suddenly emerges out, one colour bleeds through in splotches. The high-pitched hum of charged ectoplasm. The green of my light.
"That is an Evangelion." I answer imperiously. "I don't like them very much, but they will be your death. If I'm not wrong, you're about to meet your second one very soon."
"EVANGELION, ANNIHALATE!" Shamshel boasts, as if to test how the word rolls off its proverbial tongue. With a bit of luck its last thought will be the name of the Eva, and it will squirm at the irony.
My world goes green, and all I hear is the swish of transformation. Outside the AT-field, the tendrils of Shamshel's presence that have pervaded up my arm suddenly stop pulsing forward. Veins and tendrils of black and white and green cut through the faded yellow fluid, encapsulating Shamshel's presence. My hand, the only part of me stuck in the AT-field at this point, is where this happens the most. Boundaries define, and blood, neutral LCL, starts foaming out between my fingers and dripping down.
Shamshel's mind surrounds me. I see, from its eyes, live feed, an image of me, dripping blood from my hand, standing tall, eyes glowing green like stop lights.
"LILIM?" The Angel asks of me sarcastically, rearing back as if to lash me again.
"You are not human at all." The sudden haughty tenor is quite the suprise. But Shamshel's exclaimation is accompanied by a rapid stream of memories, accessed, amplified and pushed back in.
Turning the tables on Dash.
The Box Ghost frowning at me.
Evil Future Danny.
Phasing through Misato.
Asking Vlad for help.
Valerie frowning at me.
My ghost self overshadowing my human self.
Lancer frowning at me.
Spectra gleefully screeching "You're a freak!"
"FREAK!" Shamshel lets the word roll toward me with as much spite as it can. It thinks it's got me figured out. Self-hatred, being an outcast, my powers being nothing but a burden, bla bla bla... Well, Shamshel's only just found language, so a juvenile response like this is to be expected from a dumb animal.
My angry scowl and opening eyes are accompanied by other images. Images that I push into Shamshel's mind. My glee is further compounded by the distant sound of something big made of steel coming to a stop.
Sam's graduation.
My mom, dad, and Jazz meeting Dani.
Vlad mumbling an apology.
Ember giving herself up, and Valerie deciding not to cuff her.
Technus stepping out of-
OW. PAIN.
I try and pull my hand out of Shamshel's AT-field, but the Angel is having none of it.
Infinite anger, sonic scream, a dead deadbeat torn apart.
My mother dissolving into-
I black out, fall down on the ground. My hand is free, and Shamshel winds up its whips to dispose of me.
(Shattering punch - Locking up the Sun by Poets of the Fall)
The sound of a shattering AT-field fails to wake me, but the sonic boom that follows does the trick. My eyes snap open and I see a cyclopean orange Evangelion coast out of a massive diagonal uppercut. So this is Unit 00, huh. Very cool.
It doesn't look quite as intimidating as Unit 01, but Ayanami's ride did just save my life by feeding Shamshel a knuckle sandwich.
The 'arms' making up Shamshel's teeth have been completely splintered by Rei's punch and their remnants are raining down on Tokyo-3's streets.
I'm free of Shamshel's mindhack with more of a headache and less information then I'd hoped... but at least I managed to distract it long enough for Misato or Fuyutsuki to decide enough is enough and send the Evas up. It seems the giant space worm was distracted enough to let Rei sneak up on it.
As for me? When Shamshel's whip clipped me, I knew I was outmatched. I never intended to beat it from that point forward, just distract it and tire it out. But there's one aspect of my powers I've managed to hide from the Angel. And now it's time to use and abuse that advantage for all it's worth.
The sound of two gargantuan machine guns at full auto fills the air, bringing me back to conciousness. Unit 01 ambles closer to a slumped Shamshel, one step at a time, emptying its guns as it advances. It pauses, throws one Eva-scale assault rifle to Unit 00 and then they both slowly march forward, shooting bullets the size of desks as they go.
I hear Misato's voice in my ear. "I think we've got this, but I hope Danny is-" "Yeah, I'm here..." I cough out, still recovering from the nauseating experience of ripping myself loose. A few deep, steadying breaths later I take off into the air.
In Central Dogma, Misato grins. "Good to hear you, Danny. You looked pretty messed up there, I sortied the Evas as soon as we figured out you got... eh, blended with the Angel."
What Misato is leaving unsaid, but I know full well, is that NERV couldn't risk my body getting turned into an Angel's pawn. And if I hadn't broken free... well... It'd be my own fault. I chuckle darkly, and spit out the blood that was left in my mouth. "Yeah... I overestimated myself. Sorry." Clouds break, thunder rolls and rain once again drenches Tokyo-3.
"Danny, can you assist us?" Rei interrupts suddenly. At that same instant, a broken Shamshel lunges forward, exploding out of its prone state like... well, like a coiled snake!
I see you have exhausted your bag of tricks, sweet Angel. Let's see if I can't use what I've learned here in Tokyo-3 in combination with secrets I've kept to help kill you.
Step 1: Test if my hypothesis is correct, and in the same moment, save Ayanami's Eva.
I shoot an ectoblast. Not a charged beam, more of a shockwave. But this time I add my frost powers to the mix. My frost powers tend to reduce the overall oomph of my ectoblasts, turning a truck-flipping energy ball into nothing more then a light tap. But they instantly freeze everything and anything they ectoplasm comes in contact with down to absolute zero.
Including, hopefully, the part of Shamshel's tentacle that is currently whipping down toward Unit 00.
The Ectoplasmic shockwave and the tentacle-whip cross paths in midair. The Ectoblast fades, the whip keeps going, but I expected as much. My intent wasn't to sever it, but to freeze solid a part of the Angel's conductive wire. Enough to disrupt the AT-field being pulsed through it, turning it into nothing more then an oversized wet noodle.
Sure enough, the tentacle's pink light fades. Not being aware of what I did and having no other options, Rei spreads her Evangelion's arms and Unit 00 obligingly extends its AT-field. As predicted, the tentacle-whip slaps against the AT-field with a weak thud, to zero effect.
I've already dashed closer for a closer inspection. Indeed, the tentacle that not fifteen minutes ago blew through a building without a scratch is now frayed like rope. It's leaking Angel blood. The sight is accompanied by a roar of agony from the Angel. I dash backward. Shamshel's mind and soul are familiar enough to me that I can detect an enormous upwelling of imperious, indignant rage at Rei and myself, followed, of course, by its Absolute Territory manifesting itself in a nice, cozy protective sphere.
Completely blindsiding me, Unit 01 jumps into view from the corner of my eye, AT-field already extended, kicking up asphalt and concrete in its sprinting tackle.
The energy spheres collide and flow into eachother, before popping like soapbubbles. But the momentum Shinji brought into his charge slams Unit 01 into Shamshel.
The Angel is bowled over, sent spinning and flailing toward the edge of the city. Unit 01 catches itself into an elegant three-point landing, its feet digging into asphalt and sidewalk. Shamshel is not so lucky. Just after slamming into the Fortress City's divider ring, which to the Angel is like a curb, a sharp-shot bullet from Rei slams into the Angel's core, sending a spiderweb of cracks running up the sides of the Angel's glass heart.
"Core integrity 40%" I hear the MAGI whisper in my ear.
Not deterred, Shamshel slithers to the side, before pushing off from the barrier wall and lunging for Unit 01. It whips both its (healed) tentacles at Shinji, who immedeately dodges. Sadly, a thin whip is faster then an enormous armored leg. The tentacle catches Unit 01 by the calf and coils itself into a noose. Shamshel pulls, Unit 01 falls on its ass and the snare digs into the Eva's ankle armor. The heavy composite buckles and millions of dollars of purple-painted plating are pinned down onto Unit 01's leg.
Hearing Shinji hissing in pain, trying not to scream, I shoot another frost blast at the tentacle, but the blue projectile evaporates in the air around the wire. The Angel's made its whips radiate heat? How... space magic... It seems we're not quite finished yet.
Shinji is barely resisting the urge to scream in pain as his Eva (and he himself) are subjected to the pain of a razor wire noose cutting bone. Unit 01 has managed to right itself, feebly leaning on a bridge, but the more Shinji resists getting reeled in toward the Angel, the more it hurts.
Relief comes in the form of Unit 00's progressive knife, thrown at and through the tentacle, severing it. Step 2, copy and combine. All originality is iteration.
Weakly, Unit 01 stands tall. Shinji knows he is in no position to maneuver in close quarters, so he unsheaths his own prog knife, picks up Rei's and throws them both into the building behind Unit 00. On either sides of its head, to be exact.
Unit 00's single giant eye adjusts its focus. Rei throws Shinji her pallet rifle and pulls both knives out of the building. Me? I'm flying behind an office tower, drenching myself in rain, working on something cool.
Shinji raises both rifles and unloads on Shamshel, forcing it to curl up and activate its AT-field once again. Rei runs in close, hoping to dodge or parry the energy whips while she works on neutralizing the Angel's defensive barrier.
"Rei, ignore its tentacles." I state calmly through the comms. On the rooftop, I extend my arms wide and weave ice-cold ribbons of blue ecto outward from each hand, carefully tuning their shape.
Rei confirms my request with two radio clicks.
The Evangelions basically use mind reading for the radio, so the archaism displayed by Rei's reply reply is... actually kind of adorable. "That does it." I mumble to myself. "Rei deserves my help as much as Shinji." I push the ribbons of liquid frost further away from me, flattening the cone, forming a reservoir within...
I can hear Shamshel bellow out over the sound of two pallet rifles and straining AT-fields, making my bones tremble from the noise. Heh, poor Angel doesn't like being on the recieving end of a beatdown. Well tough.
"Aaand done..." I mumble grimly. This had better work. Our brawl has already chewed up more of the city then Shinji's fight with Sachiel.
I float up above the building, my torn cape billowing in the rain and wind. I find my footing on the railing, pull back my arms and throw two blurry-blue projectiles with all my strength, one from each arm.
"Catch!" My eyes glow and my voice briefly shines with soulfire. Shamshel flinches with suprised recognition.
Unit 00's AT-field and Shamshel's equalize, letting Rei close in. Unit 01's spray of bullets briefly stops.
Out of other options, Shamshel once again whips its tentacles down at Rei. But they are caught in the apex of their arc by two knives the size of greatswords. Knives of ice, condensed from rainwater. Sharpened to a monomolecular edge and shifted into intangibility so that they won't lose any speed.
I've always been good at practical learning. Improv in the heat of battle. This is my take on the progressive knife.
The icy prog-shards aren't just at a temperature near absolute zero and they aren't just absurdly sharp. They're both, and phase-shifted until they hit something with an AT-field. At their core, a reservoir filled with blue ectoplasm. Just enough so I can guide them on their descent and accelerate them forward. Just enough to explode into cryo-vapour.
As I hoped, the heating effect coruscating along the whip-tentacles works like a radiator.
The ice-daggers pass through the hot zone in less time than it takes to blink and impact the wires of muscle, flash-freezing alien cells, cutting through the dead, unprotected tissue and fragmenting apart as they do so.
The whips are detached at the apex of their slash, flying off into the clouds toward the northeast somewhere. A cloud of frost and blue ecto envelops the Angel's head.
Unit 01's progressive knife slides out of Rei's hand. The blade catches the reflection of a thunderbolt and teardrops tap against the handle. Unit 00's fingers return, catching the blade in a reverse grip.
Time resumes and with all the Eva's strength, Rei slams the knife down onto the cracked core, burying it up to the hilt in blood-red crystal. Cracks propagate and bloom and an instant later, Shamshel's core explodes in a torrent of LCL.
The lilac Angel flops to the ground, dead. The orange-white Evangelion, now coated in orange-red blood, takes a step backward. I hear Central Dogma (and Shinji) erupt into cheers. Rei is silent, as always. Unnoticed by everyone but the Third Child, Unit 00's head turns toward me and the enormous cyclops's eye readjusts its focus with a quiet mechanical whirr.
After a few minutes of after-battle diagonistics, the Evangelions saunter back to their elevator catapults. Inside their entry plugs, both Children have closed their eyes to listen to the rain pelt their gargantuan metal frames. A little pixie with a cape sits slumped against Unit 01's shoulder blade. I'm exhausted, so I've got my eyes closed too, letting myself get drenched in the cool rains.
Precipitation is a rarity in Japan after impact, and storms are appreciated by all.
Half an hour later, after I've limped my way to the hospital and transform back, the rainclouds dissipate, allowing the full moon to cast its cold but bright light on Tokyo-3.
A few days later, Berlin
I walk down a busy street. The sun's out, resteaurants are selling their wares... I bought an ice cream cone. I'm trying to locate... ah.
They're sitting at a table outside. The long red hair on the girl gives her away. Asuka: Second Child, pilot of Unit 02 and most definitely a person of interest to Vlad. And going by what Vlad's explained to me, what little he's explained to me, she's a person of interest to me as well.
Sitting on the other side of the little café table, quietly suffering under Asuka's petulant pouts and squeaks of joy is quite the handsome man: Kaji Ryoji. But I've read his file. Spy, flirt, still madly in love with Misato Katsuragi despite years of separation. I take a big lick from my soft-serve and step up to the table.
Asuka seems to be in the middle of an excited declaration of love of some type. Sounds like it was ripped straight out of a second-rate romance novel. Kaji can't even get a word in to shoot her down. I stifle a giggle. Those poor fools haven't even seen me yet, have they?
"Ahem, Kaji Ryoji I presume?" They both freeze and look up at me. "Asuka Langley Soryu, yes?" I look the girl in the eyes. Her deer-in-the-headlights stare immedeately falls into a grumpy scowl.
Well... Hrm. That's not very nice, dear. "I'm here on NERV business. You're going to Japan, and I'm gonna escort you there."
"And you are?" Asuka asks, glowering. Is she feeling territorial or something? Well, that won't do, oh no. But to answer her question: "I'm Danielle Fenton, friend of SE-,er, the council. Ahum. Yes." I grimace apologetically at Kaji. Apparently, SEELE isn't meant to be public knowledge. Sorry, sorry, new at this whole 'illuminati' thing.
But it seems my good looks, icy blue eyes and long black ponytail have caught Mr. Kaji's eyes instead. I guess the slick business suit doesn't hurt my looks either.
Both amused and annoyed with James Bond's little crush on me, I glance over to Asuka. She meaningfully wraps her fingers around her cola... Catching her drift, I smirk and give her a quick encouraging nod. She smiles at me, slowly pulls her arm back, holding the glass, then jumps up and splashes her soda into the dumbstruck Kaji's face.
"The show's over here, pervert!" she shouts, top of her lungs. Still a little creepy, but I admit... that was funny. Poor girl obviously just needs a hug.
Hm, suppose I can hang out with her, maybe make friends. If nothing else, I'll have to find some way to upstage my brother on this misadventure, and what better way to do that than to train my own giant zombie robot pilot in the arts of badassery? I smirk that little smirk that's been a Fenton family trademark for over fifteen years now.