Chapter 10: The impenetrable enemy

The angels assembled around their father. The giant angel watched his children before saying: My child. It is time to rescue Sachiel.

Finally! He's been there for too long already! Zeruel shouted at the others.

Calm down brother. Ramiel warned his brother.

Our little brother is there and had been torture yesterday by those lilim! Zeruel replied furiously.

Son. The father warned with a king, but authoritarian voice that silenced the fury of the angel. Alright. We will start the plan. Ramiel.

Yes father.

Shamshel.

Yes father.

You know your mission. Ireul will help you in the rescue mission. The giant angel told them.

Yes father! Ramiel and Shamshel replied.

The two angels disappeared to accomplish their mission.

Zeruel grunted furiously as the other angels watched him. If only my core was fully repaired. None of this would've been necessary.

Misato was fulfilling her paperwork without any real motivation. It was the worst part of her job. Her friend Ritsuko joined her in her room and sat at the front desk of her office.

"What is it?" Misato asked.

"I was checking if you were doing your job properly. Sometimes, you managed to delegate your job to me or Makoto," Ritsuko replied with a small smile.

"Now that you are suggesting it, maybe you-" Misato was interrupted.

Alert! Angel detected in Tokyo-3!

"What?!" Ritsuko shouted.

"Guess it's time to really work now," Misato said standing up, glad to have a short vacation of paper work.

"Where's Shinji?" Ritsuko asked.

"It's 10 in the morning, so he's currently in class," she replied. She picked her phone and pressed a special code before calling him.

"I'll be waiting in the command room," Ritsuko said before walking away.

"Come on Shinji. Answer now," Misato said standing up and walking at the direction of the command room.

Shinji was in class 2-2, listening to his teacher giving class about history. Once again, he was looking outside and was oblivious to what was happening in his class.

Most students weren't asking question to Shinji anymore. They found him a little too much boring. Shinji didn't answer most of their question by telling them it was information's he couldn't share or something he didn't want to talk about.

He was glad he had some fresh air in class and not the center of the subject in class anymore. The only one who was still asking him question was Keisuke. He was insisting a little more, but when Shinji had enough and asked him to stop, he stopped.

Even so, fresh air was relative with the usual hateful glare Toji gave him.

A loud sound suddenly resonated in the class and interrupted Shinji thought.

Alert! Angel has been detected in the city. Please follow the protocol seven of evacuation to the bunkers!

Every student raised their head and wondered what was going on. They saw their teacher still giving class.

"Is it another exercise?" A student asked.

"We'll miss class once again," another replied.

"I don't think it's an exercise. We always had a message warning us that we will have an exercise during the week," Keisuke said.

"Hey look! The angel is there!" one student shouted.

Shinji gasped and looked at the other students walking at the windows and looking at the angel.

"That's cool. I need to record it!" Keisuke shouted picked his camera and filming the angel.

"You brought your camera in class?" Toji asked also looking at the angel.

"Of course. You are never sure when the angels are coming," Keisuke replied.

The teacher continued giving his class until he spotted the angel and said nothing.

Shinji stood up and observed the angel. He guessed the angel was a 25 meter tall and floating in the air. It was a blue and highly reflexive octahedron. Shinji felt more like it was a strange machine than an angel. He didn't feel organic at all.

"That's an angel?" one student asked.

"He doesn't even appear to be alive," another one commented. Shinji agreed about it.

"What do we know about them? Not that I care about it," Toji said.

"Enough students. You heard the alert. We initiate Protocol seven. Everyone forms a line and we'll go to the bunker near the school," the teacher said.

Shinji heard something and picked his cellphone. It rang with a special sound saying emergency before ringing again. He checked and saw it was Misato and answered.

"What is it?" Shinji asked. He then told himself he was an idiot. He knew exactly why she called.

Some students turned around and watched Shinji without forming a line.

"-Shinji. There's an angel detected. Are you at school right now?-" Misato asked.

"I can see it outside right now and yes, I'm in class," Shinji replied.

"-Shinji. You have to go and stop it before it caused too much damage to the city while we evacuated. You'll have to go there by foot.-"

"...Y-yeah," Shinji replied.

Shinji hanged up and ran outside the class while the teacher was assembling the students for the evacuation. The teacher knew Shinji had a special permission and let him ran for his duty.

"Form the line now!" The teacher ordered.

The students finally made the line and walked outside the class. Keisuke and Toji were last in line.

Keisuke spotted Shinji climbing down the stairs at another direction and followed him. Toji saw him running outside and went after him.

"Keisuke! Don't go after him!" Toji shouted.

"Toji! Come on! It will be awesome to see him putting the Eva armor," Keisuke replied with excitement. He continued running after Shinji.

"Keisuke. Hey! Keisuke! The teacher will know we are missing!" Toji shouted after him.

Meanwhile, Shinji ran outside school and realised he will take some time to reach the angel.

"I need to be faster," Shinji said.

He stopped running exhausted. He then remembered it took a while to by in his Eva armor. It was less risky to do it now while the angel was far away. He took his core-like necklace and held it in his arms.

Keisuke and Toji ran outside and saw Shinji putting the core in his chest and suddenly being covered with an orange substance forming an egg.

"That's awesome!" Keisuke shouted while he took out his camera and filmed it.

Toji watched Shinji in the egg and put slowly his hand in his shirt. He took out hic necklace and looked at the core in his palm: "He...He just put- He put that in his chest," Toji realised. He dropped his head and dropped his shoulder.

"That must be the best moment of my life!" Keisuke said filming it with a big smile.

The orange egg cracked and Shinji came out in the green and purple Eva armor.

"I'm the first one who put this in camera! He's also bigger!" Keisuke shouted. He raised his camera and pointed it at the face of the Eva.

Shinji heard Keisuke and turned around. He watched the two students in his class with his white eyes. The eyes grew in size when he saw them: "W-what are you doing here?"

"I put your transformation in the camera," Keisuke said with a smile.

"It's dangerous to go out there. The angel is attacking and you have to go in the bunkers!" Shinji replied.

"This is a historical moment. It was so awesome to see you changing form," Keisuke replied.

"You have to go now. The angel might kill you if you stay here," Shinji warned.

"Speaking of that. You should also go away Shinji before you act too late again," Toji replied harshly.

Shinji didn't reply. He knew Toji was right. He turned away and dashed at the direction of the angel.

Keisuke turned around and said: "That was too hard on him. He's going there to fight it."

"Why is he acting now this time? Last time he was too slow to attack it?!" Toji snapped. He was glaring at Keisuke, but his eyes dropped at the core in his hand. He partially closed his eyes. He then whispered: "I-I could-" He stopped, interrupted by his friend.

"I don't know. I want to see how he's going to-" Toji grabbed Keisuke collar and pulled him at the school door.

"No way Keisuke! That's the most stupid things you could ever do and-" Toji turned around and saw the angel moving. His mouth opened widely and his forehead started to get sweaty when he realised where the angel was going. He whispered: "No."

"What is it?" Keisuke asked worried by his friend sudden change of mood.

"That angel's going to the hospital," Toji said.

"You can only hope Shinji's going to stop the angel before he reaches it," Keisuke said.

Toji looked at his friend and gave a doubtful glare. He took a glance at his necklace and grabbed it in his hand and looked at it.

Shinji focus

Shinji ran at the scene, passing between cars rolling around him and jumping over obstacles. When he was close enough of the floating angel, he hid behind one of the building and watched the angel. The blue octahedron angel was floating in the air and moving at a direction Shinji guessed was forward, but the angel wasn't passing to the offensive.

"-Shinji. Where are you right now?-" Misato asked.

"I'm near the angel. He's doing nothing right now, but floating in the city," Shinji answered.

"-Okay. We don't know a lot about this angel, it never attacked Tokyo-3 before. I received Intel's from Nerv USA. They confronted that angel three times. Ritsuko will give the details,-" Misato said.

"-Shinji. This is Ritsuko. There's no time for full introduction so listen to me. There are a few things to know about this angel. First, his AT-Field is extremely powerful and by that I mean way above average from any angel Yui fought. You won't be able to hurt this angel as long as the AT-Field is present, even with your weapon. Another thing, it's a range type angel compare to our prisoner. No existing countermeasure against that angel, but Nerv USA noticed that after a while, the angel will retreat. The current theory is that he used more energy than creating compare to most angels with his powerful attack and his AT-Field. You just have to hang in there until it retreated. One more thing! You don't see eyes on that angel, but act as if it can see everywhere around him just to be safe.-"

Shinji didn't like that Intel. It felt like the battle was lost from the start.

"-Shinji. Just attract its attention and force him to waste his energy. The military are preparing their assault right now. When they are ready, we will coordinate the attack,-" Misato said.

"O-Okay," Shinji replied unsure.

Shinji took one step outside his cover and the angel fired a beam at him. Shinji jumped to his left and evaded the blast. He gasped and continued running when another particle beam almost hit him. Shinji took cover behind a house and stopped. He heard nothing and saw behind him and saw two holes where it aimed him. Shinji took a peek and saw the angel floating as if he was nothing. The angel slowly moved slowly.

"-Shinji. You need to make him use more energy. You have to provoke the angel into offensive,-" Misato said.

"B-" Shinji was about to protest, but he was cut.

"-You just need to run around the angel,-" Misato told him.

Shinji called the little courage he had and ran outside his cover. The angel fired at him a few times and when fear overwhelmed Shinji, he took cover and stopped running.

You're going to just run? A voice asked calmly.

Shinji knew it was the angel, but he didn't reply. He instead communicated with Misato: "Did you hear what he said?"

"-He said something?-" Misato asked.

"You didn't hear it?" Shinji asked.

"-We cannot hear what the angels said in any ways except when we are physically here. It must be because they communicated with their mind. If the angel said something important, tell us,-" Ritsuko ordered.

I have all my time. The angel told Shinji calmly.

Shinji looked at a Skyscraper near him. He wondered if he should climb on the roof and attack the angel from the air, but just the thought of it wasn't appealing to him and he couldn't pass the AT-Field anyway.

Instead, Shinji called his courage and once again ran and the angel fired at him again, but one blast passed in front of Shinji and threw him in the air. He crashed against the wall of a house and grunted in pain. He raised his head and saw the angel about to fire at him again. Shinji freed himself from the wall and jumped in the air. The house turned into dust. Shinji took cover and sat on the ground. He put his hands on his head and didn't dear moving.

"...I-" Shinji didn't say anything else. His white eyes were trembling as he looked at the dust dissipating. He realised he almost turned like the house.

"-Shinji. You have to continue running,-" Misato told Shinji.

"I almost die!" Shinji shouted.

"-I know Shinji, but if you don't fight the angel, more people will die,-" Misato replied. Her voice was softer and supportive. "-The military are ready to fire missiles at the angel. If you can give the angel attention on yourself, we might hit it.-"

"-I got more Intel's from USA. The angel can only attack on target at the time with a five seconds cool down like we witnessed. If the angel is busy against you, it will not stop the missiles.-" Ritsuko told him.

Shinji said nothing for a few seconds until he said: "O...Okay."

He called his courage and prepared to run. He dashed out of his cover and the angel attacked him. Shinji ran as fast as he could and looked where the angel fired this time. Shinji suddenly stopped and jumped backward before one beam hit him. At the second he landed on the ground, he ran once again.

"-Missiles are coming!-" Misato warned.

Shinji continued attracting the angel attention.

How long can you keep running? The angel asked calmly. Shinji wasn't sure if he was saying that to him or asking this to himself.

Shinji heard a loud sound and saw lots of missiles passing in the sky. It hit the AT-Field of the angel. The shield was so bright that Shinji was blinded by the shield. He heard the multiple explosions and the sound of the AT-Field resisting the impact. Shinji covered his eyes and managed to too a glimpse of a building and took cover in the underground garage. He put his hands over his eyes and grunted in pain.

When the assault and the sound of explosions ended, Shinji took a peek in the sky and saw smoke floating in the sky. After a few seconds, Shinji saw, to his horror, the angel coming out intact.

Nothing can perturb me. The angel said calmly. The next thing it said made Shinji standing up and trying to run away as fast as he could. I can see you; the one who shouldn't exist.

The angel fired at the building and it collapsed on Shinji. Everything felt on Shinji and debris felt on the armor. Shinji couldn't get out in time and was buried alive. Only the horn of the Eva armor stood out.

Meanwhile, at a tunnel that leaded inside Nerv base. Something flew inside the tunnel, quietly and patiently. The base didn't react of the intrusion and didn't react of the AT-Field deployed. The thing that flew was the angel Shamshel.

Everything is going according to plan. Shamshel said before chuckling.

You are here Shamshel. Ireul said.

Yes brother. I am inside their base. How long until I reached their prison? Shamshel replied.

Sister, it will take a while. I'll guide you there undetected. If they see you, they will realise what Ramiel objective and the rescue mission will be at risk. Ireul said.

Do not worry; they will never realise I'm here. Shamshel said.

To be continued

AC: This is the end of chapter 10.

Chapter 11: Two Eva against one Angel.