Disclaimer: Neon Genesis Evangelion is the creation of Anno and Gainax. I don't own it, make no claims to it, and am making no profit from this fan fiction. No infringement of copyright is intended. In other words, please don't sue.

Disclaimer: I do not own DC comics or anything associated with it, and am making no profit off this fan fiction. No infringement of copyright is intended. In other words, please don't sue.

Chapter Nine: Move and Countermove

"Geeze, this Angel just couldn't wait, could it?" Blue Beetle complained to no one in particular as she flew over the streets of Tokyo-3. "Nobody's even had the chance to catch their breath after the last one yet."

(Personally, I'm ready for more.) The scarab piped up eagerly.

"You don't count. You freaking live for combat," Blue Beetle replied testily.

(Hmph.) Was the scarab's annoyed response.

Ritsuko mused that she would probably have to apologize to the scarab later for being rude to it, but she was too concerned with the Angel at the moment to worry about having hurt its feelings.

Unlike most of its siblings, which had given them some amount of warning, the Fourteenth Angel had seemingly just appeared out of thin air, not far from Tokyo-3. Its pace was slow but steady, and it wouldn't be long before it reached the city. The new JSSDF taskforce would never arrive in time, and even NERV would be hard pressed to deploy the Evangelions before the beast was upon them.

It's a good thing I made a point of finding and repairing holo-Ritsuko's projector as soon as possible, Blue Beetle thought.

Then she ascended above the Tokyo-3 skyline, and the time for such concerns vanished as she saw the latest Angel.

It wasn't huge. Not by the Angels' standards, anyway. The Tenth had been larger by several orders of magnitude, and the Fifth would've dwarfed it as well. However, there was something about this one that sent shivers up her spine.

The Angel appeared to be composed almost entirely of what looked like a massive torso, with a pair of stubby little appendages on either side. It had a bony skull-like face on its front, similar to that of the Third Angel but far less avian in appearance. Like most of the Angels, it should've looked silly, but its appearance instead filled the sapphire superwoman with a primal, nearly irresistible fear.

Well, it was either its appearance or the fact that every single weapons turret in Tokyo-3 was firing at the Angel, and it barely seemed to notice.

The Angel's eye sockets flashed, and suddenly a great, cross-shaped blast of energy cut a large swath across Tokyo-3, silencing a large portion of the city's static defenses.

(Um, Ritsuko? Are we going to attack or what?) The scarab asked, clearly not as overawed by the Angel as she was.

"R-Right," she said, silently hoping that firing a shot at this Angel wouldn't be tantamount to signing her own death warrant. "Let's not mess around here, scarab. Give me the Annihilator Beam."

(Sweet.) It said, clearly approving of her decision to start with the big guns. Immediately, the armor covering her right hand and forearm shifted and changed, becoming a wicked looking gun that Blue Beetle was now quite familiar with.

A targeting reticule appeared on her HUD. Blue Beetle easily got a lock on the red sphere in the Angel's body and fired.

A beam of electric blue light arced through the air, clearly visible even amongst all the gunfire and rockets that the city was still throwing at the Fourteenth Angel. If the beast had its AT field up, the Annihilator Beam pierced the barrier without even slowing down. It reached the ruby sphere, and for one beautiful, naïve second, the sapphire superwoman thought that she would destroy the Angel, just like that.

Then a shutter snapped shut over the Fourteenth Angel's core. It completely blocked the Annihilator Beam, which soon fizzled out, leaving nothing more than one very big scorch mark.

Yet even though the attack had been something of a dud, it proved enough to get the Angel's attention. The beast, which had apparently been preparing to blast its way into the Geofront, now looked up, eye sockets glowing.

"Crap," Blue Beetle hissed.

(Yeah.) The scarab agreed, and for once sounded like it intimidated by something that wasn't a Green Lantern power ring.

The Angel fired. Blue Beetle took off through the sky, barely avoiding the immense column of destructive energy that the beast sent their way. However, it turned out that having to avoid energy blasts was the least of their worries. The Angel's spindly appendages unfurled, almost like paper, and then lashed out at the Blue Beetle.

The sapphire superwoman hadn't yet regained her bearings when she saw the Angel's arms coming.

"Scarab!" she shouted.

(Right!) It replied, knowing what she wanted without her having to spell it out. The direct link between it and her central nervous system was good for that kind of thing.

The scarab, which, unlike Ritsuko, never lost track of which way was up, regardless of what kind of maneuvers they did, immediately seized control of their flight, quickly moving them out of the way of the Angel. Blue Beetle felt her stomach lurch at the crazed movement, but she didn't complain.

Especially not when she looked down and saw that the Angel had managed to graze her lower leg. There was a place on her left calf where the armor was missing, showing the pale flesh beneath, as well as a long but mercifully shallow cut.

(I can have that fixed in a jiffy.) The scarab reassured her. (But we have to go back on the offensive, and fast, if we want to survive this.)

"Agreed," Blue Beetle said. "You know that weapon we used to kill the last Angel?"

(Yeah.) The scarab said eagerly.

"Give me that one again, please," Blue Beetle said.

(Yeah!) The scarab exclaimed.

Once more, her arms were drawn together not of her own accord to allow the massive gun to form over her hands and forearms. This time, it was Blue Beetle who pulled the trigger.

Once again, a column of blue-white destructive energy burst forth, cascading down upon the Fourteenth Angel. The scarab adjusted the brightness settings on her HUD for her so she wouldn't be blinded, but for all the sapphire superwoman could see of the Angel, she might as well have closed her eyes. It was completely lost in the tide of cerulean light.

Then, after what seemed like an eternity, the attack ended, and Tokyo-3 was no longer awash in blue light.

And Blue Beetle gasped at what she saw.

The Angel was alive. It stood within a massive crater that had once been a city block, the buildings reduced to so much gravel by the force of the sapphire superwoman's attack. Its armored flesh was glowing orange with the heat of the assault it had weathered, but it was alive.

Blue Beetle swallowed, feeling like a ball of ice was forming in the pit of her stomach. Before, she had merely been concerned with stealing the kill from the Evangelions in order to strengthen the JSSDF's argument that it, not NERV, should be given all the funds meant for battling the Angels.

Now…

Stopping this thing from getting to Lilith might be harder than I thought, Blue Beetle decided.

The Angel attacked her again, but this time, Blue Beetle was ready for the one-two punch of an energy attack followed by a melee attack. She quickly shot straight up, avoiding the energy beam and then getting herself out of its reach.

"Okay, so what worked on the Thirteenth won't work on the Fourteenth," she said aloud, mind whirling desperately as she tried to come up with some kind of solution. "Scarab, do you have anything stronger than that last weapon that won't destroy the world?"

(I have one.) It said, sounding unusually hesitant. (However, I believe it might potentially have…theological consequences.)

For once, Blue Beetle was the one who was more excited by the prospect of a really deadly weapon. "I'll take it!" she exclaimed.

Instantly, her armor shifted again. The enormous gun that had covered both of her arms quickly vanished, replaced by a much smaller one on her right arm alone.

Blue Beetle blinked in surprise but opted not to comment on how much less deadly the thing looked than her previous weapon. The scarab had yet to disappoint her when she asked for heavy artillery, and in any case, the Angel was still glaring up at her. It would probably fire another energy blast at her as soon as it was able, so she had no time to waste.

Taking aim, she fired at the Angel.

A small, blue and black object burst from the barrel of her weapon, rather than the energy beam she had expected. The thing sailed down, down, down toward the Angel, looking almost placid as it descended.

Then it collided with the beast, and rather than doing what Blue Beetle had expected—erupting into a massive and spectacular explosion that left a towering, mushroom-shaped cloud in its wake—it simply latched onto the Angel's armored hide, where it sat, doing nothing.

Blue Beetle could feel a trickle of sweat running down the back of her head. "Uh, scarab…?"

(Wait for it…) The scarab said confidently. Blue Beetle just knew that if the scarab had had a mouth, it would've been grinning mischievously.

Suddenly, thunder rumbled within the puffy white clouds that dotted the crystal blue sky above them. Blue Beetle blinked, looking up at them in surprise. For a moment, she was completely certain that her ears were deceiving her, because it seemed impossible for those bits of sky fluff to be doing that.

Then unnaturally powerful blasts of lightning erupted from the clouds, dazzling the sapphire superwoman's unsuspecting eyes and filling the air with the scent of burnt ozone. The thunderbolts all streamed down toward the Angel, drawn to the beacon that the Blue Beetle had placed on it. For a second, the beast disappeared from view, caught within the center of the converging lightning bolts.

Wow, Blue Beetle thought, suddenly understanding what the scarab had meant by theological consequences. I don't know whether to start praying to Zeus or Thor!

Yet, amazingly, impossibly, when Blue Beetle managed to blink the spots out of her vision, the Angel was still alive.

"No," she moaned, shoulders slumping as she took in the sight of the beast.

This time, it wasn't just glowing with the heat, its armored flesh appeared to have actually become molten in places, much like Third Angel after the JSSDF had dropped an N2 mine on it. However, unlike that Angel, this one didn't look like it was about to stop for a breather.

"It could take any number of hits like that to kill this Angel," Blue Beetle groaned. "Scarab, do you have anything more powerful?"

(I always have a bigger gun ready.) It said proudly, then seemed to deflate somewhat. (However…all the weapons I have that are more powerful than that one would destroy at least 80 percent of Nippon.)

"Okay, so that's not an option," Blue Beetle said, desperately trying to come up with some kind of plan.

God, why is Misato never around when you need her? She wondered in a burst of dark humor.

(Uh, Ritsuko?) The scarab piped up.

"Yes?"

(Look.) The scarab said, and a little arrow popped up on her HUD.

Blue Beetle looked in the direction that the scarab indicated, and her eyes widened. The three Evangelions had arrived on the surface, courtesy of some of NERV's magnetic lifts. Each was carrying one of the standard pallet rifles.

"What are they thinking, deploying the EVA Units?" Blue Beetle screeched. "They'll be torn to shreds!"

In her mind's eye, she could see the whole gruesome scene play out clearly. Asuka would no doubt jump at the chance to take out an Angel that had withstood all of the Blue Beetle's attacks; she would recklessly charge into battle only to be cut down. Shinji would probably be too stunned to do anything but stand there and allow the Angel to dispatch Unit One. Rei…Rei would be cool and professional as always, but she was the pilot with the lowest synch ratio and in the oldest, most primitive Evangelion. She would fall as well.

"I can't let it happen," she decided at once. "Scarab, we have to stop the Angel somehow. Now."

(We could send it into the Bleed.) The scarab suggested.

"After what happened with the Twelfth?" Blue Beetle asked.

(Hey, I didn't say we have to leave it in the Bleed, did I?) The scarab asked.

A slow smile formed over the sapphire superwoman's face as she realized what the scarab had planned.

It could work, she decided slowly. The Twelfth Angel only needed a taste of the Bleed to upgrade itself, but this thing's more a scrapper type…

Then she saw Unit Two take off in a sprint toward the Angel. NERV hadn't been able to deploy the Evangelions very close to the beast, but an EVA could cover a lot of ground in a very brief period of time.

Blue Beetle instantly went into action, throwing her fists forward as she doubled-timed it back down to the Angel. With a thought from her, jets sprouted on the bottom of her boots, and she surged forward with even greater speed. The sound of thunder tore through the city again, but this time it was because Blue Beetle had broken the sound barrier.

The Angel lashed out at her with its thin but deadly arms once again, moving with such speed that it nearly managed to strike her. The Blue Beetle's human reflexes weren't fast enough for her to avoid the attack, so the scarab had to seize control. It deftly guided them past the Angel's arms, leaving nothing between them and their foe.

Retro-rockets emerged all along the Blue Beetle's arms, firing simultaneously. The abrupt deceleration was nothing short of bone-jarring for the human woman inside the alien armor, but she didn't complain. The alternative would've been to collide with the Angel while going at about Mach two.

Instead, she landed lightly on top of its…shoulder, she supposed. She could feel the heat its partially melted body was throwing off, but she ignored it, knowing the scarab and the armor would protect her from it.

Of course, the Angel noticed the Blue Beetle perched atop its body. One of its arms quickly reversed course, heading for her.

"Now, scarab!"

She could feel it straining to transport them and the Angel into the Bleed, and she immediately loaned it her full cooperation.

It was perhaps the greatest exertion she had ever made in her entire life, both because the Angel was so massive and because it seemed to be actively resisting them. For just a moment, the single blink of an eye, she could feel its AT field, feel how the Angel was using it to try and stay anchored within their dimension, rather than letting her take it into the space between realms.

My god, she thought as, for just that single fraction of an instant, she felt like she finally understood the AT field, a thing that human minds usually could not quite comprehend.

Then there was a flash of light, and they were in that bizarre soup of light and energy that was the Bleed. The sapphire superwoman spared a glance at the Angel's arm, noting that it was still coming toward her at an alarming rate. Unfortunately, she had no time to worry about that; she needed to get the beast out of the Bleed as soon as possible. She grit her teeth, calling upon reserves of strength and energy she didn't want to know she had, while the scarab did much the same.

There was another flash of light, and they were out of the Bleed. Using the last ergs of her strength, Blue Beetle flew away from the Angel, just in time to avoid its attempt to smash her into paste. The Fourteenth Angel instead struck itself and went reeling.

Despite how exhausted she suddenly was, Blue Beetle couldn't help but chuckle.

Then she took a look at her surroundings. A quick glance was enough to tell her that she wasn't in Kansas anymore.

The sun in the sky above them looked enormous, like an angry ball of flame rather than the happy yellow disk of light she was familiar with, while the sky itself was black rather than blue, with no moon in the sky. The ground beneath her was barren and pitted, much like the surface of the Moon.

Only they weren't on the Moon; they were on the planet Mercury.

The Angel turned to glare down at Blue Beetle again, light burning in its eye sockets.

"Scarab, get us out of here," she said softly.

(Are you sure that's a good idea?) It asked.

"No," Blue Beetle confessed. "But I don't think we have a choice."

Her original plan had been to unleash the scarab's really big guns on the Angel once they reached this dead and empty place, millions and millions of miles away from human civilization. Just leaving the Angel to its own devices seemed like something that could very easily come back to bite her in the ass, even if she wasn't quite sure how.

However, she was so weary that she could barely stand. If she stuck around, she wouldn't do anything but die.

The scarab seemed to understand. A moment before an energy blast from the Angel created a new crater where she was standing, the Blue Beetle seemed to wink out of existence.

She reappeared a moment later in her bedroom, in her home, on Earth. Banishing the armor and becoming Ritsuko Akagi again, she somehow managed to make it to her bed and collapse on top of it, not bothering to pull back the sheets first.

Holo-Ritsuko could fill in for her for the rest of the day, she decided. Right now, she needed (and deserved) a good rest.

"Good evening, I'm Keiko Ogata, reporting live from outside the United Nations building in New York-2," an attractive young woman said, doing her best to look serious and professional as she addressed the camera. "As many of you already know, one of the beings known as an 'Angel' attacked Tokyo-3 three days ago, coming on the heels of the Angel before it.

"Though Tokyo-3 serves as the main base of operations for NERV, the agency that was founded with the specific purpose of defending mankind from the Angels, it was not NERV that defeated this Angel," Keiko continued in a matter-of-fact tone. "That accomplishment instead belongs to the mysterious superwomen known as the Blue Beetle, who serves as the centerpiece of the JSSDF's new anti-Angel taskforce. Even without her allies in the military, Blue Beetle was able to defeat this Angel, almost before NERV was able to so much as deploy their forces."

The picture cut to an extremely grainy bit of footage which showed a huge, mostly brown and white…thing suddenly vanishing in a great flash of blue light.

"Blue Beetle and the new taskforce that the JSSDF has built around her has succeeded in defeating the last three Angels, at a cost of far less than what NERV typically expends fighting one Angel," Keiko went on as the camera returned to her. "As a result, many people are starting to question the need for NERV, and that sentiment has reached the General Assembly. Earlier today, they voted with an overwhelming majority to slash the NERV auxiliary budget by a whopping 70 percent. The funds will be reallocated to the JSSDF anti-Angel taskforce.

"In other news—"

Gendo heard someone push a button and the 2-D hologram that had been floating in the center of the SEELE meeting room flickered out of existence, taking the young reporter Keiko Ogata with it.

"As you can see, Ikari, the situation is deteriorating rapidly, to put it mildly," SEELE 01 stated in a positively acerbic tone.

"I am aware," Gendo replied in a completely flat voice.

In truth, he was more than aware of the General Assembly's decision. He had already begun the process of figuring out how to adjust to NERV's soon-to-be-reduced budget.

All work on the Dummy System would have to be halted immediately, and several damaged sections of headquarters would have to remain damaged and useless. Upgrades to the Evangelions and their equipment would have to be chosen far more carefully than they had been in the past.

On the plus side, the new paucity of funds was no doubt hampering the construction of the Mass Produced EVA Series, which Gendo had always felt quite certain would be used against him one day.

Scant comfort if the entire Scenario collapses now, he thought grimly.

"What you may not be aware of is that the American member of Security Council recently proposed revoking NERV's budget entirely in a closed session," SEELE 01 added.

Gendo's eyes widened slightly, making him very glad that he wore tinted glasses. The General Assembly could chip away at NERV's funding, but they could not do anything that would force the organization to disband entirely. The Security Council, on the other hand, was a very different matter.

"I was of the belief that this council controlled the American member of the Security Council," Gendo said, glancing pointedly at the monolith of SEELE 05, behind which hid the American member of the Human Instrumentality Committee.

"NERV has never been popular in my country," SEELE 05 said defensively.

"The Americans don't like the idea of someone besides them saving the world," SEELE 11 groused cynically. "Frankly, I think half of them would rather see the planet burn than let the Japanese rescue them all. We are just fortunate that our more loyal members vetoed the proposal."

"Enough," SEELE 01 broke in before SEELE 05 could retort. "It is true that NERV has never been popular in the United States, and the loss of Unit Four and the Second Branch only made things worse. It is also unsurprising that the American member of the Security Council was the first to defy us as a result of that."

"That any member of the Security Council would even suggest disbanding NERV, however, is a very bad sign. A very bad sign indeed," SEELE 02 said.

"We have not worked so hard and so patiently to see the Scenario fall apart at this late stage," SEELE 04 added.

"Haven't you taken our advice with regards to hiring a 'professional' about this problem?" SEELE 03 asked.

"I have," Gendo answered evenly. "However, Mr. Wilson seems to work at his own pace. Convincing him to speed things up will doubtlessly require a monetary incentive, and as you are all aware, NERV has less funding than it used to."

"We will ensure that you are provided with sufficient funds for this," SEELE 01 vowed. "Just make sure this problem goes away as soon as possible."

"Understood," Gendo said.

The monoliths winked out of existence.

"For centuries, humankind never even attempted to quantify the divine, assuming that it was something beyond our comprehension," the voice of Yui Ikari spoke in Shinji's ears as he walked through NERV headquarters. "Only in recent times has science begun to chip away at this great mystery, revealing facts that are often more confusing than illuminating. Such as—"

The Third Child stopped the tape as he approached his destination. The sound of his mother's voice soothed him, even if she was giving a lecture and trying to sound scholarly and professional rather than affectionate. However, what she was talking about went over his head entirely once she got into technical details, and he had long since ceased to actually listen to the words.

"Well, now or never," he said softly to himself as he took the ear buds out.

He knocked on the door to Ritsuko's office.

"Come in," she called.

He entered, and the blonde looked up from her computer screen, smiling when she saw him. That was a good sign, he supposed.

"Hello, Shinji," she greeted him.

"I hope I'm not bothering you at a bad time," he said, suddenly feeling intensely awkward.

"Not at all," she said, rising from her chair. "I always have time for you. What brings you here, Shinji?"

His eyes darted around the room nervously. He hadn't wanted to make her stand, but there was no guest chair in the room, and he didn't want to make her sit while he stood over her, either.

"Um, a few things, really. I wanted to thank you again for those tapes," he said, holding up his SDAT to illustrate his point. "Getting to hear my mother's voice, it's nice." He added softly.

"That's why I gave them to you," Ritsuko said with a smile. "I just hope the lectures aren't too boring."

"They're not that bad," he mumbled, then found himself at a lack for something else to say. He had no idea how to steer the conversation toward the topic he wanted to discuss. As the silence stretched out, he quickly grew desperate and eventually blurted out the first thing that came to his mind. "You know, your efforts to take better care of yourself are really paying off. I swear, you look ten years younger than you did when I first came here."

He blushed furiously the moment the words had escaped him, but Ritsuko just smiled more broadly. "Thank you, I feel a lot better, too," she said. "Hey, you're not trying to butter me up, are you? Just what do you want from me, Pilot Ikari?"

Her tone was playful, but Shinji suddenly felt like he'd been caught red-handed.

Noticing his sudden, deer-caught-in-the-headlights look, Ritsuko frowned slightly. "So you do want something?" she asked. "Well, whatever is, you can tell me, Shinji. I can't promise that I'll give it to you, but you can always ask me things."

"Right, thanks," he said, slightly less ill at ease. "Well, you heard about how the UN is cutting NERV's funding, right?"

She nodded. "Of course," she said. "A number of my own projects are being shelved as a result."

"Right, well, there are rumors going around that the UN will completely shut down NERV eventually, especially if the Blue Beetle keeps defeating the Angels before we can," he said.

"It definitely seems like a possibility," Ritsuko said, patiently waiting for him to get to the point.

"Well, I sort of overhead Misato talking with Hyuga about what it would be like if that happens," Shinji continued, feeling a twinge of guilt. He hadn't tried to eavesdrop on Misato, but he still felt bad about having listened to her private conversation. "She thinks there's a good chance that the military might transfer her to a new post, probably someplace dangerous."

Ritsuko shrugged. "Well, I don't really know much about how the regular military works, and…oh," she said, finally figuring out what he was getting at. "And if Misato ends up stationed in some Third World hellhole, you won't be able to live with her anymore."

"That's right," Shinji said. "I already decided that I don't want to live with my Uncle again if I don't have to, and I really don't think my father will want to take me in. So I was wondering, if you were…serious when you offered to take me in before."

"Shinji, I—"

"You don't have to, you know," he cut her off, speaking very fast. "I understand if you only offered because you felt sorry for me and never really thought I'd try to take you up on it. I'll understand if you say no. I mean, asking to live with someone—"

"Shinji," she said firmly, ending his ramblings. She placed a hand on his shoulder. "Listen to me, I didn't make that offer out of pity. I made it because I like you, I think you're a very nice young man, and I would love to have you as a roommate." A mischievous twinkle then appeared in her eyes. "And who knows? Maybe in a few years we'll be more than just roommates."

"R-Ritsuko!" he stammered, blushing. "Don't tease me!"

"Are you sure I am teasing?" she asked with a grin.

Shinji went from bright red to purple at this. "Um…t-thank you, for agreeing to let me stay with you, if…if Misato gets redeployed somewhere bad," he stammered, giving Ritsuko a deep bow. "I, uh, I guess I'll see you later."

With that, he practically ran from her office. Ritsuko couldn't help but chuckle as she watched him leave.

No wonder Misato does this to him so much, she thought, deciding that she would very much enjoy living with Shinji, if it came to that.

Until fairly recently, the JSSDF Auxiliary Air Base hadn't been anything special. It was located about thirty kilometers from Tokyo-3, at what had, during the Impact Wars, been considered a strategic location of moderate importance. It had largely been allowed to molder during the time of peace that had followed, and there had been talk of shutting it down entirely.

The coming of the Angels had changed that. Suddenly, the JSSDF found itself repeatedly deploying air forces to the Tokyo-3 area, first in an attempt to stop the Third Angel themselves, then in a support capacity for NERV. Still, the base had only been a convenient place to keep the VTOL fighters.

It wasn't until General Katsuro had made the place the base of operations for the new Anti-Angel taskforce that it had had anything to distinguish it.

Unfortunately, it was because of that new distinction that a saboteur had snuck past the base's very advanced security under the cover of night and was now heading toward the hanger where the BVG313's were kept.

"Are you inside?" the voice of Slade Wilson came to her via the ear bud she was wearing.

"Yeah, yeah," she muttered softly, careful to avoid the gazes of the guards stationed around the base as she crept toward her destination. "I'm in. I still don't see why we have to do this, though. The original plan would've worked just fine."

"Our current employer paid handsomely for us to accelerate our efforts," Slade answered simply. "Adjustments had to be made. In any event, I do enjoy the challenge."

The saboteur rolled her eyes. She had long ago decided that Slade got bored far too easily. Speaking for herself, she didn't mind it if the jobs were easy. Sure, you didn't build much of a reputation that way, but so long as the money kept rolling in, she didn't really care.

But not Slade, oh no, she thought. He's not happy unless the client wants us to shoot the target exactly seven times with a six-shooter, while he's in a room full of police. All without being seen. Or some crazy crap like that.

"Well, I can tell you what I don't enjoy," she said. "All this sneaking around. I'm a fire and explosions kind of girl."

"I'm aware, but the military's new toys aren't the target, just something we can use to get the target's attention," Slade responded. "We can't tip our hand quite yet."

"I still don't see why it has to be me doing this, though," she complained as she stealthily made her way into the hanger. "You could've sent one of the others."

"You have certain qualities that they do not possess, my dear," Slade reminded.

"Whatever," she grumbled, closing the line.

It was time to get to work. Once she was certain that the hanger was clear, she opened the backpack that she'd been carrying, revealing a number of metal canisters. Working quickly, she went from plane to plane, attaching a metal canister to each of them before moving on. In mere minutes, she was done.

"Time to get out of here," she muttered to herself.

Her exit was as free of incident as her entrance had been, and in only minutes she was walking through a field outside the boundaries of the base, a comfortable distance away from it.

She tapped her earpiece. "Charges are set."

"Then what are you waiting for? You said you like fire and explosions," Slade replied. "Do it."

Grinning, she reached into her backpack, grabbing the detonator inside. She armed it, then pressed the button.

A massive fireball erupted behind her as the explosives went off, the base's hanger erupting as billions of yen worth of advanced military hardware went up in smoke.

"Your move, Blue Beetle," the woman said as she continued her leisurely retreat from the base.

Meanwhile, back in Tokyo-3, Ritsuko Akagi was currently tinkering down in her little basement workshop, having quite a good time.

(Ritsuko, this is boring. Can't we go out and fight crime or something?)

The scarab, not so much.

"No," she said. "Listen, scarab, the fact is that you're bonded to someone who's a total science nerd at heart. Now that I have access to all this advanced alien technology, and with all this immense computing power at my fingertips…well, you should consider yourself lucky I don't spend a lot more time down here."

(What are you trying to make, anyway?) It asked her.

"A matter transporter," she answered.

(…really?)

"Yes, really," she retorted. "Scarab, we transported ourselves and an Angel that must've weighed hundreds of tons all the way to the planet Mercury in just a few seconds."

(We should really go and finish that Angel off, by the way.) The scarab broke in. (At the least, it would be a lot more fun than doing this.)

"Well, if you could find the thing, maybe we would," the blonde allowed herself to be side-tracked momentarily.

(Hey, Mercury might be smaller than Earth, but it's still a planet! And planets are really big! Besides, all the solar radiation makes it hard to scan.) The scarab said defensively. (And anyway, it doesn't seem to be a threat to you humans, stuck there as it is.)

"Which is why my time is better spent doing this," Ritsuko concluded with a triumphant smirk. "Anyway, as I was saying, Reach technology is clearly capable of transporting matter from Point A to Point B by sending it through the Bleed. I want to see if I can make a device that can do that."

(You already have one. Me.) The scarab said flatly.

"I didn't make you," Ritsuko pointed out.

The scarab just grumbled wordlessly for a few moments in response to that before finally falling silent. For several minutes, Ritsuko was allowed to work on her little project in peace.

(Ritsuko?) The scarab eventually spoke up again, apparently growing bored.

"Yes?" she asked, trying to hold back her annoyance.

(Did you mean what you said to Shinji this afternoon?) It asked.

Ritsuko frowned. "Of course I did," she said. "He's a very nice young man, and, from what Misato tells me, extremely helpful around the house. I wouldn't mind living with him at all, if he couldn't stay with Misato anymore."

(No, I didn't mean that. I was talking about the part where you told him that you two might be more than friends in a few years.) The scarab said. (Did you mean that?)

Ritsuko stopped her work. "Why do you ask?"

The scarab performed the mental equivalent of a shrug. (Well, I am joined to you, so this type of thing is kind of relevant to me.) It pointed out. (But mostly I'm just curious. I don't know a lot about human mating, but you never seemed interested in him before.)

"Well, he's too young right now," she said. "But in a few years, maybe, I guess…"

She trailed off, giving the matter serious thought. Shinji was a cute kid, and she could easily see him growing into an attractive young man soon. She had never thought about pursuing a relationship with a younger man, though, especially not with a man who was so much younger than she was.

God, I'll be halfway to forty by the time he's legal, she thought.

Of course, thanks to the scarab, she currently felt younger and more energetic than she had in her twenties, so waiting for him wasn't the imposition it once would've been. Shinji was also one of the very few people she had a real relationship with, someone whose company she genuinely enjoyed. It was rare for her to make connections like that with other people, especially men.

Still, there was something undeniably messed up about the idea of her ever sleeping with Shinji after she'd slept with his father, who had slept with her mother…

"I don't know, scarab," she finally admitted. "I guess it's one of those things where we have to wait and see what happens."

(This "love" thing you humans try to do is complicated.) The scarab observed.

Ritsuko smiled wryly. "You're telling me!" she said, going back to work on her project.

However, it wasn't long before she was interrupted again, this time by a call on the "blue phone."

"Blue Beetle here," she answered, finally resigning herself to the fact that fate simply would not allow her to get much work done on her matter transporter that night.

"Beetle, this is General Katsuro," the officer's voice replied, sounding grim. "There's been a development at the base where we keep the hardware made with your tech."

"What sort of development?" she asked, suddenly having visions of all the Reach-tech developing a mind of its own and turning on its masters.

"An explosion," Katsuro answered. "We aren't sure yet, but I'd bet anything that someone blew that stuff up deliberately."

"I'll be right there," Ritsuko said at once. "My armor has some extremely sophisticated sensors. Maybe I can find something that the forensics people can't."

If I can link NERV to this, it'll be the final nail in the coffin for sure, she thought.

"Good," Katsuro said. "I'll tell them to expect you. Katsuro out."

(Sweet!) The scarab exclaimed, clearly thrilled to be escaping Ritsuko's basement.

"Scarab, this isn't a good thing," she admonished it.

(Oh, right, sorry.) The scarab said, sounding sheepish.

Ritsuko shook her head. "Suit me up, scarab," she said.

(You got it.)

The blue and black armor appeared over her form, turning Ritsuko Akagi into Blue Beetle once again. The sapphire superwoman then dimension shifted herself, flying through the walls of her home and into the sky.

"Scarab, can you plot me a course to the air base?" she asked.

(No problem.) It replied, and a small map appeared on her HUD, along with an arrow pointing her in the proper direction.

It took Blue Beetle only minutes to cover the distance, and her eyes widened as the sight of the air base. A great column of smoke was floating up into the sky, and flames were still crackling inside the ruins of the hanger.

"Damn," she breathed, shifting herself back into phase with the rest of the universe as she descended.

She was approached by an officer the moment she touched the ground. "Blue Beetle, I am Colonel Sakai," he nodded politely. "General Katsuro has told me that you're here to investigate this incident?"

He sounded skeptical, which Blue Beetle could definitely appreciate. The idea of trying to figure out who was behind what had happened before they'd even put out the fire must've seemed a little out there.

"I am," she nodded. "I have some pretty sophisticated scanners in this armor of mine."

"Do you require assistance?" Sakai asked.

"No, thank you," she replied.

"In that case, I must get back to coordinating things here," Sakai said. "If you need anything, just ask someone."

She thanked the man, who then quickly departed to get back to work, then turned to look at the burning ruin of the hanger for a moment before deciding that it was high time to get to work.

Okay, scarab, I think you know what to do, she told it silently.

(Right, commencing a scan of the area…) It said, and Blue Beetle could feel a part of its mind, the part that was more like a computer than anything else, racing as it started up a series of processes. (Aha.)

What? She asked.

(This was definitely not an accident. I'm picking up traces of substances that aren't used at a JSSDF base. The remains of bomb components, and a chemical compound that's commonly used as an accelerant.) The scarab said. (I'm also picking up faint traces of radiation.)

Radiation? Blue Beetle frowned, feeling both concerned and confused. Confused because the blast, while impressive, had been far too small to be nuclear. Concerned because she feared that the soldiers in the area might be getting irradiated.

(Not enough to harm a person.) The scarab reassured her. (I don't know what made it, but there's a trail of the stuff leading away from here.)

Blue Beetle didn't know why the saboteur might've been leaking radiation, but there wasn't anything else at the JSSDF base that could've created it. Besides, it was the only thing she had to go on.

I want to follow that trail, she told the scarab. Can you point me in the right direction?

(Of course.) It replied, and an arrow appeared on her HUD again, showing her the way.

Blue Beetle took off in pursuit of the person who had done this to the JSSDF base, blissfully unaware of the fact that she was headed right into a trap.

Author's Notes: Okay, back on schedule here. Now to address the first thing you're all probably thinking about, yes the Fourteenth Angel will be making a reappearance later on. You can't just sweep an Angel under the rug like that and expect it to never return.

To address the second thing you're probably all thinking about, the associate of Slade who's seen here is a Teen Titans villian that I thought would make a good addition to his team for this fic, but I don't believe she's ever worked with him in the comics. I know it might seem a little odd to be grabbing other villians for this, seeing as how Slade's been the team leader plenty of times, but many of his more familiar associates just didn't work for me for one reason or another. Never fear, though, as some of the people you'd definitely expect him to work with will make an appearance when Ritsuko confronts Deathstroke next chapter.

Anyway, as always, thanks to my all my readers and reviewers, and thanks to my beta reader as well.