Chapter 5: Battlefield Bad Company/Intermission
A/N – Okay, so far my altered languages have been correct, but only because I've used German and I'm fluent in it. However, I'll be using Russian a little bit in this chapter, so don't get on my back if it's wrong – I'm using an online translator! Also, I'm going to try and add more humor.
"Did ya see that? Damn Führer!" continuing his obnoxious laugh, he slaps Sweets' back. Down with the two children, there was much, much less laughter going on. They continued walking at the same pace as before, only with Shinji silent and holding his cheek in pain. 'Jeez, I didn't deserve that! I was just trying to help…'
The walk to the camp progressed painfully slow. Shortly after they began walking, strong gusts coupled with flying sand slowed their progress and gave Shinji's fair skin a slight burn from the constant friction. What was originally supposed to be an hour and a half walk turned into well over three hours, leaving them arriving just as the hottest part of the day began. Asuka kept her cool, but Shinji was panting as if he was a canine. Showing her usual confidence, she knocked at the front door and was soon met with a tall man holding an assault rifle.
"Кто-то заказал партию?" the man smiled at Asuka's speaking and stepped aside, letting them in, "I can't believe he understood that. I haven't spoken Russian in years… grammar aside, he apparently got my point," Shinji kept quiet as she led the way. Oddly enough, the man was apparently there to guard the door, as he just let them wander off, "If you see a room full of electronics, tell me. Don't make it look like you're looking for something," her voice was cold and sharp, but she got the point across.
"Yeah," his hand has been removed from cradling his cheek, but a deep red mark still remains. In his mind, he's sure it'll bruise. Making the job much easier than what she anticipated, not only was the room quickly found, but there wasn't a soul in it. They could hear a party going on a few rooms down. Kneeling down, the German looks up under the console to a large computer filled with monitors or radar and radio antennae.
"Watch the door. If they catch us, we're dead," he did as she instructed for the full thirty seconds it took her to place the bug and the C4 out of sight, "Sarg, I'm placing the bug now. We're leaving as soon as possible. If you don't see us in two minutes, come help," she whispered towards the bug and stood up, "Come on, we need to get out of here."
"И только то, что вы думаете, что вы делаете?" just as the two turned to leave the room, a large, six and a half foot Russian man glared down at them before spitting out a phrase neither one fully understood. Anyone could tell that, just by his face, he was far from being amused. They stood there silently for a moment before he spoke up again, "Ну, что?"
"Say something, Asuka," Shinji nudged her side with his elbow as he whispered.
"Um… ich denke wir sollten laufen..." the man raised an eyebrow as Shinji looked at her.
"Asuka, wrong language," she let out a nervous laugh as she closed her eyes, "You said something about running, didn't you?" still laughing, she nodded, and the two were quickly bursting out of the encampment. Predictably, they were pursued by roughly five soldiers, only to have all of them picked off by Marlowe and his, apparently, impressive sniping skills. Screaming and yelling could be heard throughout the bunker as the two ran as quickly as possible – they didn't know if they were still being chased, and neither one was about to slow down to look. That being said, the two ran until their muscles were ready to give out from exhaustion… this took all of ten minutes for them. Piloting an Eva may make you tone, but it certainly doesn't allot for true strength. Asuka looked back as they slowed down to a trot and saw the compound, still very much in tact, a few hundred yards away.
"I think… we're good…" she stops and rests her hands on her knees, panting the whole time. Shinji follows the same action, "Now we just… need to wait."
"Yeah," he falls back and lies facing the searing sky. She follows the action and the two simply laid there for over fifteen minutes, just trying to get their panting and heart rates under control. To Shinji, the sky was… unwelcoming. He couldn't say how, but it was certainly different. There wasn't a cloud to be seen, which is a rarity in coastal regions like Japan – but it's not like he's never seen a cloudless sky. No, there was something much more omnipresent about it. He reasoned that it must have been from the fact that they were in a game.
"I lied, you know," Asuka snapped him out of thought. He looked at her, though she didn't return the favor, "About Paul."
"About the semi-marriage thing?" she broke a small smile.
"No, about everything…" a painful silence followed, "I don't even know a Paul," her smile faded, being replaced by a neutral tone, "Not too sure why I lied. It just kind of came out. The truth is I've never so much as been on a full date."
"It doesn't matter, why should you care about that?" still without looking at him, she shot an annoyed face to the sky.
"I don't. When did I say I cared?" her searing comment shut him up, "Actually, you know what? I do know why I lied. I like to call it mental gymnastics. Nothing has been 'normal' in my life. I told you my mother wasn't in the picture, and that's because I watched her hang herself. I lived with Kaji from that point on, but he was never home, like I said. I was left to fend for myself since I was five. My entire life was Nerv and school… that's it. No friends, no family, no one to talk to, nothing. So far, I've lived a pretty pathetic life," no emotion could be seen on her face, but there was plenty in her voice, even to Shinji's ears. She was trying to cover up her pain with a nonchalant tone, and was failing horribly. She knew that, "It's pretty sad when the only thing you have to look forward to is being crammed in an entry plug all day, isn't it?" she let out a weak smile, and Shinji simply stayed silent.
"There she is! There's the little badass!" Haggard's always comical voice rings through the air as the four men approached the children.
"Not too bad Asuka. Good job," Asuka hadn't really ever spoken to Marlowe – he's more the strong, silent type. Or maybe he's had just one too many shockwaves to the head, she wasn't sure. Asuka quickly shook off the emotions running through her head and stood up with a smile.
"Yeah, too bad they'll probably comb the place looking for whatever we did," Shinji stands up and notes just how good of an actress she was, "Whatever, right? That's the first place we've visited that didn't get blown up," Haggard smirks slightly, gaining the attention of Sarg.
"Don't you even think about it," Haggard held up what looked like a pen and pressed a small red button on top. Half a second later, the entire side of the bunker flew off, sending a deafening shockwave through the desert, "Damn it Haggard! We needed that intel!"
"Ah whatever, they were gonna find it anyway. Com-" for a moment, neither child was quite sure what happened. Haggard not only cut off half way through the sentence, but all four men completely froze in place, almost like a statue.
"Hello?" Shinji let out a mutter that only he could hear. The girl sighs as she throws her arms in the air.
"The damn game froze! This better not be Nerv screwing around!" she punched straight through Marlowe, her fist going through as if it was nothing but air. 'How can she change moods so quickly?' Shinji has been perplexed by this girl since the moment he saw her. Predictably, the two were suddenly thrown back into the office of Kensuke's hard drive, though nearly all file drawers were wide open with more than a few random pieces of paper sprawled about.
And so it went. Days came and went just like the games they eventually chose to be a part of. While in the office, they soon learned, sleep was somewhat of an option, as neither one became tired, hungry, or even thirsty for that matter. However, whenever they chose to be part of a game, all the human needs came flooding back to them in waves. Not so much as a word has been typed by Misato beyond that original note, and the two were beginning to think that they were doomed to spend eternity in the damned computer. How long has it been, he wondered? No less than three months, that's for sure… time is a tricky thing when no sun can be seen.
All of this time, though, gave them time to practice some newly found abilities within the office. Just as a computer user is master of his hard drive, they were masters of this world, so long as they accepted it. Shinji was somewhat of a late bloomer, having such mild emotions, but Asuka… Asuka, on the other hand, is defined by her emotional outbursts. Apparently this is just what controls the computer. At first, her controls were somewhat… fickle. Opening a random Word document here, possibly starting up a game there, but nothing really important. In fact, she thought it was all done on chance until one day after a few hours of walking through grass in a Pokémon field.
"Can't they set us down softer?" typically, the two hold their backs after falling roughly three feet.
"At least I can talk now… that's why you liked the game, wasn't it?" she smirks her wicked, sick smile, "At least I wasn't a rat…"
"A rat that had the power of Thor! You'd be wise to mind your place," three months in constant nudity tends to wear on a person's modesty. Neither one tried to cover up all too much, and quite frankly, Shinji's become bored with the sight, so there wasn't all that much to look at. Sure, the Mona Lisa is absolutely beautiful, but after a quarter of a year of staring at it, you begin to look past the beauty and, instead, marvel at the frame. Asuka's frame was… well, he's still looking for it.
"Better than that crap with portals… what was the name of that again?"
"Portal."
"How original," she's begun to rub off on him in terms of attitude. Sure, they may live together, but he has time away from her in the form of sleeping, school, and even showers to wash off the hate. But now, it's Asuka twenty-four/seven. That's enough to drive most men to cutting, "What's next? Or do you want to take a break?"
"I don't care… it seems like the dork has every game known to man on this computer. Why don't you choose one for once?" he scratches his cheek, glancing over at the file cabinets, "Hey, I wonder if we can play music? You think he has any?"
"What, you want some romantic piano background?" he jokingly winked at her, and she responded with a punch to the shoulder as she walked by. Her hits have gotten much softer lately.
"As if. I was just wondering…" she closed her eyes and tried to think of music back in Germany that didn't have to do with techno, Rammstein, or house… she came up blank. Finland usually had pretty nice music, though she'd never admit to being a metal head. In fact, Shinji probably doesn't even know what she-
"She doesn't wanna wait, 'We've gotta make the love complete tonight…', She should not lock the open door," now, Shinji wasn't quite as fluent in English as Asuka was. He tended to slack off in his studies during school, and not being immersed in the language makes it all that more difficult. He knew a few select words, and unfortunately for Asuka, almost all those words were in the song that began to play randomly. He got the gist of it.
"House is better than this crap," with a twitching eyebrow, the song ceased and Asuka was left standing away from Shinji.
"Interesting."
"Hm?" she turned to see him smirking, "What? What are you smiling about now?"
"Have you noticed that whatever mood you're in, the appropriate game plays? Like the other day when you went to yell at me, and we ended up in Street Fighter. Or the other day when you had a nightmare and we ended up fighting off zombies for half an hour," she crossed her arms and raised the same, twitching eyebrow. She knew where this was going, and she wasn't about to go down without a fight.
"Sterben!" a strong driving guitar accompanied a male with a deep bass voice as he screamed. Shinji didn't speak a word of German, but he's heard her yell that at him a few times in the past, and he knew it wasn't a good thing. Asuka was a little ashamed that the only German music she could come up with was that of all things, but hey, she got the point across. Nothing like a man with twice as much needed testosterone to get the blood flowing.
"I assume that's bad, no?" she raised both eyebrows and nodded.
"Don't read too much into things, Third. It'll save us both a lot of time," the music ceased just as a few more German phrases were spat out, "Now pick a game already, I'm sick of waiting," with a sigh, he walked to the nearest cabinet and began searching.
"Hey, you ever wonder what happened to Rei?" she didn't reply, and he took it as a ticket to continue, "I mean, she's not in here with us. I saw her get in her entry plug, so where is she?"
"Probably at home nice and comfy in her bed. She gets all the luck," he thumbed through a few games , looking for one that looked familiar or appealing. Mirror's Edge? No, the girl had the body of a twelve year old boy. Borderlands? He wasn't sure what a fire round was, but he knew he had to keep it away from Asuka. Dark Void? Probably a porno, knowing Kensuke.
"Just saying, it doesn't make much sense to me," Spore? He'd rather stay human, thanks.
"Neither does anything else," Leisure Suit Larry? Not a bad idea, but Asuka would kill him, "To you, I mean."
"You're starting to slip," Metal Gear Solid? He played it once and never quite understood the fun in scurrying around in a box for five hours, "Care to try again?"
"You're an idiot," it was said with love, at least in his mind.
"Your idiot," she rolled her eyes and sighed, "How's Mass Effect 2 sound?"
"No thanks. I played that game for a week straight – it's too addicting," the two have formed somewhat of an… unspoken relationship, some would say. It's the source of her tampered temper, and it's the source of his concise confidence. Her halted hitting, his elongated emotions. Her… you get the idea. No lips have been met, no true words have been spoken, but they've been known to share the warmth of each other's hands from time to time. Shinji tried to take it for face value as something that won't last a second out in the real world, and Asuka tries to ignore it all. Of course, she's always the one to initiate the linked fingers, and ignoring one's own limb takes mastery. Mastery she apparently had.
"Ah, here's one. Bayonetta, here we come!"
"Like hell!" too late.
A/N – Ah, here it is. I'm going to try my surest to get some more humor in this… thank Fresh C, an author here on FF. I read some of his stuff and it kick-started my funny bone (to an extent). Highly recommended author, by the way. Regardless, there you have it. I haven't a clue what the next chapter will be, so just… wait around, I don't know. It'll either be Monster Hunter or GTA San Andreas. Keep on keepin' on!