Next chapter. I've nailed down about half of the basic plot already.
Unrelated: Rebuild 3.0 coming in late 2012, YAY! Those who didn't see the new teaser yet must hightail it to Youtube really fucking quick 'cause Anno outdid himself again. That, or he hacked into my laptop and read my notes for Ascension's third season.
CHAPTER 04
BERSERK/RAGE
"Say, Shinji..." – asked Kensuke in school one day.
"Hmm?"
"Why are you wearing that uniform anyway?"
Shinji shrugged in response. – "I like this one much better."
"But how? Shouldn't you be wearing that?" – the boy asked as he pointed towards Hikari who was busily working with something at her desk.
The girl snorted. – "Forget it. I'm not wearing a skirt, period. Besides, a seifuku sticks out like a sore thumb. She didn't like it but I pointed out that since I'm still wearing one of this school's uniforms and there's no regulation against a girl wearing a boy's uniform, I'm not technically violating the dress code." – she remarked with a snide grin. In case the principal didn't share her way of thinking, Shinji knew he knew who's her father and was fully prepared to use that fact for a bluff. It was a bratty way of thinking but she believed the bastard deserved to be used for trivial things like that.
"Well..." – Kensuke looked below her neckline. – "You really don't have anything to grab attention with."
Tōji swiftly knocked him on the head. – "Dumbass!"
"What?" – shrieked Kensuke while clutching his head.
"Ya don't comment negatively on a girl's tits!"
"Like you're one to talk. You're doing that to the class rep all the time!"
The bigger boy swiftly turned a shade redder. – "S-shaddap!" – he yelled and gave out another punch.
Shinji silently observed the commotion then remarked. – "You've got a thing on her, aren't you?"
Tōji instantly spluttered. – "What da hell are you yappin' at?"
"The class rep. And from your reaction to what he said, it's not platonic. Am I right?" – she let loose the piercing question. Now it was completely impossible to mistake the heavy blush on his face for anything else. He just spluttered and stuttered but didn't give a straight answer – "Well?" – she asked one more time with a thin smile as she already knew the answer.
"...maybe..." – came the barely audible answer.
"Whoahwhoahwhoah! What do we have here?" – jeered Kensuke, only for the other two to share a look then simultaneously clonk him in the head. – "OW! What the f-?"
Shinji instantly interrupted him. – "You'd better not complete that sentence." – she warned as Hikari sent a sour look behind her, straight at Kensuke. The girl was really stringent on swearing, as Tōji found out the hard way before Shinji arrived. Shinji herself almost never swore as she had to be really pissed first – something her father found out the hard way as well.
"Yeah!" – continued Tōji who swiftly grabbed the opportunity to change topic. – "Besides, remember the rules." – After Shinji got into Tōji's good grace and was introduced to Kensuke, the three set up a few ground rules among themselves: no making comments on anyone's preferences in men or women (at their look, Shinji's only reaction was a polite remark that she's straight, thank you very much), no dating Shinji, no trying to hook her up with anyone, no making sexual comments on her body, no trying to peek into her shirt, no asking Shinji to become a willing participant of Kensuke's voyeur photo operation (she was quite miffed at the operation's mere existence but eventually agreed to turn a blind eye as long as they don't discuss it in earshot of her)... the list went on for a while.
Kensuke was about to reply when the teacher came in and Hikari immediately sprang into action. Shinji rolled her eyes at yet another pointless 'rise-bow-sit' routine but there wasn't anything she could do about it.
Half an hour later, Shinji couldn't decide if the teacher was assigned to this very class by her father as a way to spite her or not. This wasn't simply boring; this was slow torture. The teacher droned on and on, in a tone that would've made even a sniper fall asleep in under a minute. Most of what he said was various things about what life was like before Second Impact, something which didn't strike Shinji's fancy in the least. When he did say something else, it was either some part of the event's cover-up or something she already knew from elementary school.
Like the geological consequences of the Impact itself.
All the massive floods were obvious signs of the Antarctic ice sheet's melting but it took the scientists a few more years until they realized that Second Impact didn't stop at simply altering the climate by raising the ocean levels, therefore flooding areas and slightly increasing the Earth's overall surface albedo. The energetic event also affected the internal parts, so to speak; as a result, the planet became tectonically unstable. Minor earthquakes were a common daily occurrence and every single volcano that was at least moderately active prior to Second Impact are now permanently erupting all across the globe.
While the technology to build earthquake-resistant structures already existed, tsunami defense was a bit more problematic. The officials investigating possible courses of action wisely realized that no matter how strong those buildings are, nothing is perfectly safe. This viewpoint was infamously demonstrated in 2009 when the European plate spontaneously perforated under the North Sea and the British Channel, causing a series of tremors with strength never seen before and a devastating megatsunami that washed up the Thames and virtually wiped London off the map with an eight-figure death toll. Since there was no fault line anywhere near, the area was naturally considered earthquake-safe. Emphasis on 'was'.
After the Sundering of the North Sea – as the catastrophe came to be called –, the AAN started a radically new project aimed at securing humanity's future at the only place known to be safe from all cataclysms of tectonic origin – the high seas. Under the auspice of Project Atlantis, enormous floating cities were constructed of which Tokyo-3 was the first. Despite widespread political protest, all floating cities were declared to be independent non-governmental entities as long as they stay in international waters.
Of course, the logistics of such a project were nearly inconceivable at first, resulting in the decision that an expert system was needed to manage these aquatic behemoths. Thus came into being the Avalon System, the most advanced supercomputer to date. Each floating city was outfitted with a trio of these, enabling them to be completely self-sufficient. Just as Tokyo-3 was the first, it also came with the first Avalon to be completed; legendary AI researcher Naoko Akagi brought in all the best programmers for the task, which was known to the public. What was known only to a select few however is that some of these programmers were actually Scions who felt it their obligation to help their Natural brethren in their hour of need. Due to their intricate neural connection to their machines, Scions have a deeper understanding of computers than anyone who ever learned it from a book.
It would be an obvious question to those in the know of the secrets of the Biometal Wars: if they had the technology, why didn't the AAN simply evacuate everyone offworld? The answer was simple: logistics. Despite the massive confusion and devastation just after the Impact halving the planet's population, three billion is simply too many to relocate in any reasonable timeframe. Additionally, the ISDF's overall offworld presence only amounted to a few thousand at most; they lacked any and all facilities to maintain a larger population.
Shinji's near-sleeping mind was suddenly awoken by her cell vibrating in her pocket. Quietly retrieving it after making sure Hikari wasn't looking in her direction, she found a text message from an unknown source. It was merely two sentences long but chilled the girl to the bone.
INCOMING ANGEL – RECALL ORDER
'Oh, darn...' she thought, seconds before the school bell sounded in perfect synch with the civil defense sirens. Then she heard the city's PA system coming to life with its automated voice. – "Attention, all residents. The Tokyo-3 Board of Directors has declared Civil Defense Condition... Level 2... in accordance with public safety protocols. Please proceed to your designated shelters and stand by until announcement of Civil Defense Condition... Level 3... or lower. Thank you."
"What is the Angel's current location?" – asked the Bastard King himself from his raised platform.
"Sector 16, sir. It crossed the city's edge moments ago and the ISDF is throwing everything they have at it." – replied Maya without looking away from her console. She knew from experience that Gendo Ikari didn't care for trivialities like eye contact; she saw him without glasses only once but his gaze was colder than liquid nitrogen. As Tōji would put it, 'it creeped me the fuck out'.
"Irrelevant. They do not have the means to defeat an Angel." – announced the man as if he was stating the most obvious thing in the world.
His companion, the Sub-Commander, took over instead. – "It's only a matter of time before they ask for our intervention."
"With respect, commanders..." – Misato remarked. – "I would've launched Unit-01 even without their request."
Fuyutsuki was about to scold her when the Commander interrupted him. – "Captain Katsuragi is correct. While NERV is not part of the regular ISDF forces, they would make us take the blame if their men die due to our inaction." – He turned towards the woman. – "Proceed."
"Yes, sir." – She stepped to Maya's side. – "What's the status of Unit-01's pilot?"
"Suited up and ready to go in a few minutes. Unit-01 is being prepared for launch."
"Give me a direct channel to her as soon as she's in."
"Yes, ma'am."
Shinji looked up at the swarm of technicians that were around her Evangelion disconnecting diagnostic cables and sealing panels all around the armor. The front of the torso and the thighs were currently wide open, showing the cavity where she was supposed to go in a few moments.
She looked down at herself. The pilot suit they've given her had much to be desired: it was uncomfortably tight and a hard ridge ran across her spine, pressing into her flesh almost painfully; she was told the ridge was the neural interface that aided her movements by detecting electrical activity in her spinal cord. It was a necessity because without the interface, she would be forced to give out motor commands via motion capture and raw muscle power even though a teenage girl doesn't have nearly enough physical endurance for that kind of sustained activity. She did ask Ritsuko for any kind of alternative but the only one they offered was a set of permanent external jacks implanted onto her back via surgery; Shinji naturally refused as while she wasn't particularly concerned about her own beauty, she didn't want to end up like a Matrix-wannabe either. The only positive part of her pilot suit was that despite the tightness, it wasn't body-hugging; she didn't want to be ogled like a bondage fetish.
The technicians finally stepped back and Shinji realized it was her cue. Ignoring their looks, she climbed onto the Evangelion and turned around, navigating her feet into the receptacles where they were supposed to go before sitting into the cavity and leaning back as she was taught. Immediately several metallic harnesses snapped over her body, firmly securing it to the machine before the thighs then the torso sealed.
At this point Shinji realized she had passed the point of no return and adrenaline started having its obvious effect. The suit finally closed the helmet as well, plunging her into darkness. – "ACCESS." – she heard the suit's computer say before she felt a small tremor and something cold started rising from her feet. Remembering her training, she resisted the urge to squirm and waited until the liquid reached her chin before exhaling as deep as she could go... then submerging her mouth and taking a huge lungful of the foul-tasting material.
Immediately she started fighting the urge to cough and vomit as her body's natural reflexes tried to expel the liquid. It wasn't easy; her first tries during the various tests she was forced to do were mostly failures until Ritsuko decided to expedite the process and retrieved a syringe with a needle so long the mere sight of it freaked Shinji out... and that was before two orderlies propped her mouth open as the doctor injected the muscle relaxant directly into the back of her throat. Shinji couldn't swallow for quite a while but it worked as her body no longer had the means to repulse the liquid. While the woman later apologized for the rough treatment, Shinji remained suspicious around her ever since.
As for the liquid itself, Ritsuko explained that it had a dual purpose as oxygen supply and shock dampener. Upon hearing that it was called LCL, Shinji mentally made the connection with what she heard during her first time meeting the woman and concluded that the injection system in Rei's Evangelion is what malfunctioned and didn't fill the suit, resulting in the younger girl being thrown around inside like a ragdoll. The fact that Rei still won and took her Evangelion back to the facility before the pain of her injuries overwhelmed her served as a testament to her inhuman strength. That and her altercation with Tōji sent a clear message to Shinji: her sister was not to be trifled with.
Inside Unit-01, Shinji finally defeated her body's reflexes but was on the verge of having a panic attack after the full weight of the situation hit her. 'What the hell am I doing? I agreed to do this so that she won't have to but couldn't have those damn things waited until she was back at the job? I don't want to die yet! Sure, I had that training and all but possession does NOT imply mastery!'
"Shinji, can you hear me?" – she realized Misato was talking to her through the radio.
"Y-yeah. I'm here." – she replied, trying to hide the shaken tone of her voice. There's no way she was going to show weakness in front of her bastard of a father.
"Alright, from the looks of it you are going to be deployed soon. Now, don't be worried;" – 'I am worried!' the girl silently screamed in her own head. – "just do what you practiced and everything will be fine."
"Okay." 'Like hell it is!'
With nothing else to do, Shinji initiated the Evangelion's startup sequence. Lines of white text scrolled over her vision she couldn't make sense of but she felt the control surfaces in the limbs tighten uncomfortably then release as the system measured her dimensions and adjusted itself to her body. – "SYSTEM START." – the computer intoned in its feminine electronic voice as the readouts were replaced by her HUD. A half-circle appeared on the lower right corner of her vision was filled up with a green and blue quarter from both ends, the two colors meeting in the middle. A white 100 appeared next to the green bar while three names listed themselves next to the blue one.
On the lower left corner, a red half-circle read 100 and another four names were listed next to it. Finally, a cursor following her eye movements appeared and HOVER OFF was written on the top of the HUD for a few seconds before it disappeared.
Shinji continued to fret silently for a few more minutes until Misato's voice came again. – "Alright, we have launch authorization." – Those words sounded to the girl like a judge announcing a death sentence for her. – "We didn't practice catapult launches in the simulations but Ritsuko told me you'll do it fine. Stand by; we're launching you in ten seconds."
"That soon?"
"We don't have time. Launch in five... four... three... two... one... NOW!" – Shinji felt a brutally powerful throw on her Evangelion and was pressed downwards with a force that actually hurt. Her feet felt sandwiched against the feet containers and she was having trouble keeping her eyes open... until she realized that they were fully open; she still found she couldn't see as her thoughts jumbled into a dreamlike mess before the pressure ceased by a powerful jolt.
Distantly, she heard Maya's voice as if the tech was talking from the bottom of an ocean. – "Doctor, the pilot's biometric readings are-"
Misato's angry yelling cut in. – "Ritsuko, are you a sadist or what? You almost gave that poor girl a G-LOC!"
Then her most hated voice came. – "It appears you have overestimated the Third Child's g-force resistance, doctor Akagi. See that it does not happen again; I do not wish to waste time on finding another spare."
"Yes, sir." – the blonde replied without the slightest sign of remorse.
Shinji felt her blood boil at that. 'Spare? Is that all I am to you?' She tried shaking off the haze but it gave way very slowly; her eyes started seeing some light but no shapes or anything. Still, she was really pissed to the point where her doomful thoughts all but disappeared, replaced by a single drive: to prove that smug bastard wrong.
First however, she needed to get some bearings on her situation. 'Alright, what do we have here? One: I'm expected to go into real combat with no help. Two: I can barely see because of someone else's screwup. Three: my superiors have zero motivation to see me return alive. Summary: situation's really screwed up.' With that summed up, Shinji discovered that she regained enough vision to see her HUD somewhat. According to the topographical radar, her target was around three streets away, slowly moving parallel to her position. Therefore, Shinji drew a deep breath and started trekking.
In the command center, Fuyutsuki turned to his superior. – "Ikari, are you certain about this?"
Beneath his gloves, the corners of the man's mouth drew into a cold smirk.
When Shinji finally caught up with her target and spotted it, she had difficulty describing it. The long, purplish body was covered in smooth, leathery skin without hair or anything else she could've used to scale it. When the... thing turned around, it revealed a wider top section she guessed was a head of some kind, although the lack of eyes or orifices was quite unsettling. The middle section had six pairs of rib-like bony appendages that opened and closed in a waving motion around a red sphere somewhat identical to the previous one she saw being eliminated by Rei.
As soon as the creature spotted her (at least she thought it did; the lack of eyes made it kinda hard to tell what it was looking at), two tentacles unfolded from the sides of its body into what looked like a pair of whips. 'Whips...? What is this thing, some kind of domina?' She hurriedly dismissed that line of thought; it wouldn't do to be distracted when her life was on the line.
"Shinji, are you ready?" – came Misato's question over the radio.
"As ready as I'll ever be, I guess." – the girl murmured.
"Then you have a go. We're counting on you."
'Yeah, right.' the girl snorted in her head. 'More like: [Number of persons counting on me] = [Number of personnel on the bridge - N], with N being a positive whole number greater or equal to 2. She's still treating me like a kid but I'm not that naïve to think they might actually care about a random teenager just because I happen to be HIS daughter. In fact, I think the exact opposite is the one that's true here.'
With that taken care of, she launched a mortar shell at the Angel with the expected result: it bounced off the energy field – AT-field, Shinji recalled – that suddenly materialized between the two combatants. Therefore, Shinji decided to use the trump card which she was told would still work. – "Weapon." – she said twice and her weapon display scrolled onto the third item on the list: HORNET RKT. She heard the missile rack on her Evangelion's left shoulder hum to life and a yellow bracket appeared around the HUD's crosshairs.
That was another piece of ISDF technology built into the Evangelion: the variable weapon hardpoints. She was told that this specific weapon, the Thermal Hornet, was a large rocket with a high-explosive payload and an active infrared tracking system. However, a small modification was fitted into the weapon: some of the explosive payload was stripped out in favor of an anti-AT field generator that gave it AT-field piercing capabilities at the cost of smaller explosive power. Shinji naturally asked why didn't they use it against the previous Angel and received the answer that since the Angel came out of the ocean, its infrared signature was too low for the weapon to lock on, hence why Rei used an Image Shadower missile which locked onto the target's visual image (it was considered as a back-up weapon as the Angels' size meant the weapon locked on quickly and never lost track) and contained about as much payload as a man-portable RPG.
For her part, Shinji remembered the various rockets and missiles that could be installed into the rack as best as she could and recalled that knowledge as the eye-tracking mechanism read her command and centered the bracket on the approaching Angel's red core. – "Okay, here goes..." – she whispered as the bracket turned red. – "nothing!" – she yelled as she fired.
Outside, the missile rack erupted as a thick column of fire and smoke launched at the Angel. As expected, the AT-field sprang up again but all it did was stopping the rocket for a few seconds before it pierced through and flew towards the core...
...only to veer off-target and hit one of the glowing tentacles instead. A large explosion and a splatter of blood was followed by the Angel's shrill screech as the now black tentacle flopped onto the ground as if it was made of rubber.
"Eh... oops." – Shinji murmured in surprise as she remembered one more thing Misato said about the Hornet: using it carefully around multiple targets as it tends to go after the hottest one.
Seems like whatever makes those tentacles glow, it also makes them hot.
Very hot, as her quick switch of the Evangelion's visual sensors into false-color IR showed – the severed appendage was cooling quickly but the still-attached one's temperature was over a thousand Kelvins.
Then that white line moved upward. Shinji switched back to visual mode and her eyes went wide. – "Ah, shit!" – At her hurried command, the Evangelion leapt to the side just as the remaining tentacle hit the pavement, punching a crater into it and sending a massive spray of debris and partially molten asphalt all around.
Shinji tried scrambling the Evangelion to its feet as quickly as she could but the Angel was faster: it whipped the road next to her again, sending her flying from the shockwave. As soon as it landed, Shinji glanced at the HUD's lower right corner, near her weapon display. – "Hull integrity's 89%... and it didn't even hit me directly!" – she said to herself in disbelief. Her earlier panic quickly came back with a vengeance as she wildly fired the dual autocannon on her right wrist, even after the first bullets bounced off the Angel's AT-field.
She quickly rolled out of the way as the Angel tried to pancake her into the ground again but avoided it only just barely. 'Ohshitohshitohshit!' her mind was running. 'Okay, think, Shinji, THINK. What did Rei do to win that fight? First, blinded that Angel; this one doesn't even have eyes! Second, avoided its attacks; I didn't even learn how to use the hover system yet! Third, destroyed the core; I don't have a freakin' huge hammer! Okay, what do I have? Minigun: won't do squat. Mortar: ditto. Hornet...' She tried locking on but was interrupted when she once again flew in the air against her will. '...I can't ask that thing to stay still, am I? I'm so damn SCREWED!' she screamed silently.
The torture – because it couldn't really be called a battle – went the same way for a few minutes: the Angel's swipes throwing the Evangelion around like a ragdoll as Shinji had gone from worried to absolutely terrified. 'I'm gonna die in this thing! Why the hell did I even agreed to do this? What the FUCK was I thinking?'
Her HUD's damage indicator was now in the red. – "WARNING." – the suit's HUD intoned in its monotonous female voice. – "DAMAGE CRITICAL."
"You're not helping!" – screamed Shinji in panic as another swipe was aimed at her. She tried another futile attempt at dodging... but the Evangelion refused to move. – "Oh, not now...!" – She yanked hard on the controls but the display suddenly froze up and a large red SYSTEM ERROR message appeared. There was no way to dodge that tentacle now; it was going to hit her directly. 'Ohhshiiii...!'
Then she felt her arms move and her hands were suddenly grabbing a blistering heat that made her cry out in pain. In a few moments, the heat ceased but the pain only abated slowly. Shinji had no idea what happened but the Evangelion was still unresponsive.
Then she felt it.
An unexplainable feeling, as if she wasn't alone inside the machine. She felt every cell, every fiber of her being scrutinized by something and foreign thoughts filled her terrified mind. She felt boundless rage the like of which she never felt before in herself, burning hate against everything and everyone.
Especially itself.
At the same time, a strange sensation made itself known on her face. It was as if a hand caressed her cheeks. Almost inaudibly, she heard a whispering voice. – "Mitsuketa... Watashi no..."
Then the Evangelion started moving on its own.
Nevertheless, Shinji was really freaked out by this point. – "What... what's going on?"
The machine's fingers twitched and the hands slowly balled into fists and released a few times before it slowly and jerkily got onto its feet. A warm ripple ran across her left forearm as the Evangelion's entire arm suddenly went unnaturally stiff. Since the visual display was still out, Shinji felt rather than saw the Evangelion's head tilt up to look at where she thought the Angel would be...
...and a guttural, metallic roar sounded from the machine before Shinji felt herself being launched at the Angel. From them on, all she felt was the Evangelion being randomly jerked by the struggling Angel and her hands tearing into something that gave way with a wet tearing sound.
After what seemed like an eternity, the movement finally stopped and the frozen viewscreen shut down just as Shinji heard the same voice whispering to her. – "Shinpai shinaide... watashi no aisuru..." – Just a few seconds later, lines of white text started scrolling and Shinji realized the Evangelion was rebooting.
When the visuals reestablished, Shinji later wished they wouldn't have.
Everything was drenched in blood and bits of flesh, the sheer quantity of which made the normally impassive girl nauseous. The Evangelion was standing on a huge pile of unidentifiable viscera which nearly pushed her to throwing up inside the machine. As she slowly and fearfully looked around, a shop window on the street caught her attention.
The Evangelion's reflection stood motionlessly, blood dripping from every nook and crevice. The left forearm was gone, replaced by a long blade that reached nearly to the ground, its silvery gleam reflecting sunlight in all its colors. The Evangelion's head was also changed: instead of the samurai-like helmet, the frontal section morphed into a metallic imitation of a human skull, a pair of empty eyesockets crowning a sadistic, toothy grin. If Kensuke were to see it, he would've compared it to a Terminator.
Shinji's pupils shrank to the size of pinheads and the girl's throat erupted into a shrill scream.
"Evangelion retrieval complete." – reported Maya about half an hour later. She was still a bit pale after the rampage Unit-01 performed against what used to be the Angel.
"Status?" – asked Gendō tonelessly.
"No internal damage occurred but the EDD armor was on the brink of failure. Ammunition supplies are at 76%."
"And the pilot?" – asked Misato.
"Medical examination reveals no injuries, but..." – the tech hesitated.
"But what?"
"...you'd better see." – Maya brought up a video file Misato recognized was security camera footage. The captions indicated it was taken in Unit-01's storage bay.
On the video, the technicians were trying to extract a struggling and screaming Shinji from the Evangelion. The girl was completely unlike her normal self: she completely ignored any requests or orders from the technicians and as soon as she was free, she knocked over two workers as she fled into the furthest corner and curled up into a ball, refusing to communicate with anyone until two men forcibly dragged her out of the bay at which point she became completely passive and allowed herself to be hauled away to the infirmary.
"What could've possibly made her behave like this?" – wondered Maya quietly.
"That is irrelevant." – boomed Gendō's voice. – "Continue your work." – he added as he stood up and left the room with Fuyutsuki in tow.
Misato looked after the man in disdain before whispering to Maya. – "I don't know..." – she glared at Ritsuko's back who was working on the other side of the deck. – "...but I'm going to get answers whether she likes it or not."