Oh, boy. I'm really sorry about the nine week delay, I completely forgot updating this.
I wrote this in one night so its quality might not be as good as previous chapters. On the other hand, I'm now having proper chapter titles and have retroactively updated the previous ones as well. For some reason the site won't accept anything other than alphanumeric characters in chapter titles so I'll have to write the titles into the chapters themselves.
CHAPTER 06
WARNING/LETTER
"What do you think, will she wake up before I leave this time?" – quipped Shinji to Pen-Pen as they were having their respective breakfasts.
The penguin merely gave her a look that she guessed meant 'I have no idea' before returning to his bowl of fish; living on a floating city that had to export most foodstuff from the mainland meant that seafood was noticeably cheaper than everything else. And as Shinji already discovered, Misato was a cheapskate when it came to anything other than the contents of her fridge.
Said woman chose this moment to waddle out of her room. – "Mmnhng..." – she croaked.
Shinji raised an eyebrow. – "Morning..."
The woman didn't answer but dragged herself to the fridge and extracted a can of beer before retreating to the table and throwing herself down onto a chair. Still without words, she opened the beer and instantly guzzled the whole can in five seconds. – "YEEEEAAAH!" – she hollered, now fully awake. – "There's no better way to begin a morning, I tell you!"
Shinji shared a 'no comment...' look with Pen-Pen. – "You do realize you're not supposed to do that in front of me, right?" – she asked deadpan. – "Wrong example and all that."
"Ooooh, isn't someone acting all serious?" – cooed Misato with a grin.
Shinji sighed in exasperation, partially from her guardian's attitude and partially from the stench of alcohol she could feel even from this distance. – "Leave me alone. I'm not stupid enough to think imitating an adult would make me one. A few more years under my sleeve will do just as well." – She took a sip from her own drink before continuing. – "Why didn't you hire soldiers to pilot the Evas, anyway? I'm sure they could do much better than us."
Misato shrugged. – "Ritsuko said it's much easier to train a specialist from scratch than to retrain someone with an entirely different skillset, or something like that."
"Still, why not adults? What NERV is doing right now is child labor, you know."
"That reminds me..." – Misato announced as she put the can down with a serious expression. – "You breached confidentiality by telling your entire class about the Evas."
Much to her surprise however, Shinji merely leaned back in her chair, resting her head on her forearms. – "Bluff."
"It's not. The commander is thinking about taking disciplinary action."
"He's bluffing." – the girl dismissed her again. – "Remember that non-disclosure agreement you had me sign? I read it down to the fine print and it only covered surrendering information either of your own volition or under duress; confirming or denying specific questions wasn't mentioned at all. Therefore, I didn't do anything explicitly forbidden by the rules." – she pointed out.
Misato was floored with incredulity. – "You actually read all that?"
Shinji smirked victoriously. – "Naturally. Or did my father expect me to dismiss it as useless so that he can back me into a corner on a technicality? 'Know thy enemy' isn't mere paranoia; cutting off your enemy's angles of attack is sometimes more effective than going on the offensive yourself. And besides, it might give me my own angle of attack."
'She's her father's daughter alright...' The woman then realized what Shinji just said. – "Hold on, what did you mean by 'specific questions'?"
"It's not like I jumped out in front of the class and said 'hey everyone, I'm the pilot of the most badass powered armor this side of Starship Troopers'! Someone specifically asked me if I was the pilot. I'm not naïve enough to think it was a coincidence; there's an information leak in NERV." – she pointed out with seriousness.
"What if someone in your class was a witness of the battle?" – argued Misato.
Shinji shook her head. – "I thought about that too but then I realized: Unit-00 and I were there at the same time so if someone saw the Eva, they should've seen me outside of it too. Therefore, there was no way for them to deduce I was a pilot if they acquired that information first-hand. It's logical then to propose that they got the info from a third party." – She paused. – "Or maybe..."
"Maybe what?"
"...someone in the class complained his little sister was caught in rubble then tried to give me a knuckle sandwich. It is possible that she told him and he in turn asked me with someone else arranging the leak to make me seen responsible for it."
"Who is this boy?" – asked Misato experimentally.
Shinji however spotted the trap instantly and evaded it. – "Someone I'm going to question today."
Before Misato could press the issue, the doorbell rang. – "Well, that's my cue." – quipped Shinji as she stood up and hefted her schoolbag. – "See you later."
"Thanks for getting me out of that one." – Shinji sighed as she finally got out of sight from the apartment building.
"Why, what's up?" – asked Tōji, not understanding.
Shinji subtly looked around before whispering. – "She's been trying to press me for info. I can't talk about it here, we're under surveillance."
"Whaddya mean?"
"NERV Internal Security. Three plainclothes guys, they're watching me 24/7."
"Jeez..."
"That's not all. They've got snipers watching the apartment and the school. Remember that time you tried to beat me up?"
"Yeah." – he grunted.
"Rei's the only reason you walked away from that day alive and not in a body bag to be thrown into the ocean. You've been labeled a 'security risk' so they're watching you too."
The boy turned several shades paler. – "Shiiit... how da hell do ya know 'dis?"
Shinji grinned. – "I don't. At least that's what they think; you have no idea how talkative some people are if they think you're not listening."
"Daamn... you've got one helluva protective old man!"
The grin instantly disappeared. – "Don't even mention him. If it weren't for me piloting one of his precious Evas, I bet his only reaction to having my gangraped corpse nailed to his door would be to call someone to clean up the vandalism." – At Tōji opening his mouth to protest, Shinji raised a hand. – "Don't try to convince me otherwise, you'd be just wasting your breath. I hate that bastard and I wish he would just die and disappear from my life for good. Couldn't we talk about something else?"
He shrugged. – "Shoot."
Shinji kept silent for nearly a minute before continuing. – "I didn't want to bring this up so far, but... how's your sister?"
Tōji shook his head. – "Not much better. Da docs say her legs are busted so she'll be lame for da rest of her life, even with them crutches and leg braces." – he mumbled.
"Isn't there something else? Surgery or anything?"
"No way to pay for it."
"Sorry."
Tōji held a hand up. – "Don't. Ya don't have anything to do with it and there's no way I'd lay a finger on yer sister."
"Because you know she'd kick your ass?" – asked Shinji with a smirk.
"Nah, she's a girl. Hitting one ain't the way of a man!" – he protested.
"What about me? I told you I don't mind." – she pointed out.
"We're buddies. Don't piss me off and I won't hit ya."
"Got it. Anyway, is Kensuke coming to school today?"
"I think so, why?"
"Were you the one who asked that question on my first day here?" – Shinji demanded at a loud enough voice to get her state of mind across but not loud enough to draw attention from anyone else.
Kensuke immediately backed into his desk. – "I, uh..." – he squealed in surprise.
"How did you know?" – she pressed, already knowing the answer.
"Well, um..." – he fidgeted NERVously. – "My father works in the technical crew, he's been telling me this and that... I hope he's not in trouble for it."
Shinji sighed. 'You have no idea...'"Wait here." – she said before walking over to Hikari's desk. – "Class rep, do they have envelopes somewhere in school?"
"Yes, why?" – the girl asked.
"It's not urgent but I need one before school ends. It's vital and I don't need it to confess to someone either." – she stated calmly but inside, she was repeating 'don't notice, don't notice, don't notice...'
"Really? Because that denial was quite specific." – pointed Hikari out with a smile.
'Damn, she noticed!'"That's because I had a hunch that would be the very first reason you would think of." – Shinji shot back. – "Besides, I barely know anyone yet and I don't believe in love at first sight so who would I give a love letter to?"
Kensuke was sweating profusely when Shinji came back and sat down without a word before pulling out a sheet of paper and starting to write. He couldn't need her talking to know she was none too pleased for some reason.
Once he finally worked up the NERVe to ask her what she was doing, the civil defense sirens started howling outside which sent the entire class into near-panic before Hikari took control of the situation. – "Everyone, assemble for march!" – she barked with authority.
Kensuke looked at Shinji who was apparently completely unaffected by the events around her as she was still writing. – "Oh, damn. I have to-" – he began.
"Wait a sec." – she interrupted as she finished scribbling and folded the paper, slipping it into the unmarked envelope. – "Give this to your father. Unopened." – she stressed as she gave him the sealed letter. As she was about to leave however, another thought occurred to him. – "Why did you think it would be funny to have the whole class know?"
"What?" – he stuttered. – "I-I didn't-"
"No lies. Were you the one who routed that message to the whole class?" – the girl demanded.
"I wasn't! I don't even know how to do that!" – the boy protested.
Shinji appeared thoughtful for a moment before nodding. – "Alright. Now go or the class rep will be pissed." – she remarked as she turned to Tōji. – "And you, did your sister tell you about those robot things?"
"...yeah. But I didn't tell anyone, I swear!"
"Good. Keep it that way." – she warned before running off.
"...we know at this time the Angel is targeting Headquarters." – Shinji heard Misato's voice from the briefing room as she was heading there herself. – "Therefore, I propose to evacuate all personnel prior to the operation and set up a field command post at the northeastern docks. If the Evas fail to stop the Angel in time, I propose to detonate the emergency lockbolts and detach Headquarters from the city."
"Denied." – came Gendō's voice immediately, making Shinji flinch. 'Dang, I really don't want to put up with him now...!'
"Sir-"
"This is not open to discussion, Captain." – he announced with a tone of finality just as Shinji entered. Rei was already in the room and currently standing unflinchingly next to Gendō like a guard dog.
"...yes, sir." – Misato grumbled, defeated.
"Are we going to deploy?" – butted in Shinji.
"Not yet. Repairing Unit-01 took out a substantial portion of our budget so the AAN refuses to allow Evangelion deployment until proper reconnaissance of the Angel's combat capabilities has been carried out." – announced Gendō.
Shinji shrugged. – "Makes sense... last time you didn't tell me anything and I got my ass kicked."
By this time Misato gathered her thoughts enough to begin briefing the pilots. – "Alright, here's what we have learned so far. The Angel is armed with an unknown energy weapon not unlike our MAG Cannons. The weapon appears to have an unlimited horizontal firing arc and an unknown range; in our experiments, the Angel instantly fired at any hostile within twenty kilometers but also intercepted an incoming cruise missile from beyond visual range so it's entirely possible that the weapon doesn't have an arbitrary maximum range. We've launched drone aircraft against it as well so we know it has an at least 60° vertical firing arc; we couldn't get authorization to launch ballistic missiles for fear of damaging the city so we don't know exactly."
"What kind of firepower are we talking about?" – asked Shinji.
"Enough to instantly vaporize twelve assault tanks standing bumper-to-bumper at the least. Since there's no way for the Evas to withstand that in a direct engagement, we'll have to resort to subterfuge; specifically, we're going to do something called 'Wild Weasel'. And you are the lynchpin of this plan." – the woman said as she pointed at Shinji.
"Me?"
"Ritsuko says a sustained high-energy attack on a single point can probably penetrate the Angel's AT-field. To that end, we're arming your Eva with a modified Flash Cannon. Your task will be to utilize stealth to get as close to the Angel as you can and hit it with a sustained point-blank attack; Ritsuko will give you the details on how to do it."
"You just said if I go anywhere near it, it'll fry me!" – Shinji protested.
Misato smirked. – "Not if we keep it focused on someone else. That's where Rei comes in." – She turned to the so far silent girl. – "You are to execute long-range diversionary attacks against the Angel to get its attention; we're giving Unit-00 long-range shooting equipment. You don't have to do any damage, only keep it distracted."
Rei looked between Shinji and Misato before speaking. – "I have a question."
"What is it?"
The blue-haired girl looked at Shinji with a slight hint of distaste. – "Why am I the decoy?"
"Because once the decoy gets the Angel's attention, she will need to run like hell so you are the logical choice, seeing as you're the better pilot. No offense." – She directed that last part at Shinji.
Rei nodded, apparently satisfied. – "A logical conclusion. Your request is reasonable."
"Are you sure this'll work?" – asked Shinji skeptically.
Misato shrugged. – "Avalon says it might be possible the Angel can't fire straight downwards so if you can get under it without being detected, the day is yours. If it sees you..." – she paused before turning to Gendō. – "Avalon says a single shot from the Angel's weapon at that angle will punch right through the city's superstructure and sink us all to the bottom of the ocean, therefore ruling out a direct attack. On the other hand, we have nothing powerful enough to penetrate that AT-field from long range without needing at least three aircraft carriers to brace it against and that's not counting the power infrastructure. Even if we're right and the Angel has a limited vertical firing arc, we can't drop a Mark 3 on it without damaging the city. Therefore, a stealth operation is our only option. We're going to have to bring the Flash Cannon components in by sea but we can't risk the Angel firing on the cargo so we'll need to borrow a submarine, sir. With our current timetable, we can commence the operation tonight."
Gendō nodded. – "I understand. Captain, you have green light for the operation." – he announced before turning to leave.
"Misato, about the information leak I mentioned-" – Shinji spoke up.
"Sention 2 is investigating the matter." – Gendō interrupted without turning around.
Shinji scowled at the man's back before continuing. – "Listen, I did my own investigation and it really was who I suspected; I took care of that. It might be a wild goose chase but ask Section 2 to look into the log files of the school network anyway, just to be safe."
"Wait a minute, who were you suspecting?" – Misato demanded.
Shinji saw from the corner of her eye that her father paused in the doorway and was obviously listening in. – "The father of one of my classmates, name's Aida. He's working in Evangelion maintenance and occasionally told his son about his work. The boy breaks easily under duress so I decided to handle this one myself before Section 2 gets involved."
That was enough to grab Gendō's attention as he turned around. – "Explain." – he demanded tonelessly as Rei gave Shinji a not-so-subtle death glare.
The girl smirked. – "An anonymous letter, stating that NERV already knows it was him and that he'd better refuse to say another word to anyone or else he'll be considered a spy with all the appropriate measures taken against such infiltrators."
Gendō didn't show any signs of surprise or understanding. – "And if he refuses to heed your warning?"
"If he tries to disappear then we know he's a real spy. On the other hand, the boy denied he was the one who disseminated the information among my class so there's a fourth party involved." – the girl summed up.
"I see." – her father stated simply before leaving with Rei in tow.