Her gleaming white cross earring shifted side-to-side as she spoke to the, now free, boy sitting on the recovery bed, "Welcome to Tokyo-3. You have been issued an apartment, security i.d., and these..."

She slipped her slender hand into a black bag slung over her shoulder, "are the standard papers given to NERV personnel at your security clearance level."

Almost stalking to the table beside the door, she carelessly dropped the documents, where they promptly flew apart. "The Commander says we need you, but the moment you become a liability, I'll kill you myself. Understand?"

"By the way," she started while walking out the door, "you have an appointment in the Bridge in an hour. There's a map in that pile."

NERV headquarters was, at best, an insanely difficult maze. Shit! I've been going around in circles for twenty minutes. Must find some-

Shinji spotted a young woman in a brown uniform thumbing through a small stack of papers in her hands. "Excuse me, I'm trying to get to the Bridge. Could you..."

Maya Ibuki didn't even look up to greet the voice, clearly annoyed by whom it belonged. Her own voice revealed irritation, "Headed there myself, Ikari"

It only took Maya fifteen minutes to mitigate the labyrinth, arriving at a door marked 'Magi control station'.

Ritsuko looked over to the pair walking in, "Maya, good, you have the paperwork. Ikari, go to Station Four. You'll want to see for yourself what happened in New York."

Shinji took a deep breath before taking the seat. Hitting the solitary button, he watched the overlapped recordings in awe.

The purple giant marked as 'Unit 01' was crouched behind a brick apartment building for cover. Camera 2 became Camera 16, watching an approaching humanoid figure. Views switching again, now to Camera 77, the figure was bathed in several flashes as explosive ordinance struck an energy barrier. "Fuck! That was a direct hit! It... it's -ignoring- our attacks!" A soldier above the creature fired another rocket "Goddammit! Die you-" His radio went silent as the giant figure turned its 'face' to the man; a beam of energy promptly obliterated the top five floors of the structure.

Unit One began moving, building to building, trying to stay out of sight of the black-clad figure. "I see a red... core, for a lack of more information. But the face is the real threat. No idea how long I would last against a blast."
A computerized voice emotionlessly stated, "Remaining U.S. military forces in area at fourty-four percent of initial numbers. Effectiveness of conventional weapons estimated at zero point zero zero zero one percent."

The camera switched to see over Shinji's head inside the Eva. "

Let's see what you built, dad."

Standing up, the Purple Behemoth lifted and fired an equally massive machine gun at the target. The computerized voice announced, "Weapon fire ineffective. Improvisation recommended."

Shinji clicked a button on a control yoke, releasing a panel on Unit 01's right shoulder armor and activating the progressive knife. Before he could think to grab the new weapon, the giant before him registered a buildup of energy in Unit 01's display. The camera feed went to static, immediately switching to Camera 14. Revealing that the Eva had sustained a blast to the head and sending it flying back into the Empire State building. "Cranial armor compromised. Attempting pilot ejection. Signal sent. Ejection failure." Another heads-up overlay traced over Unit 01 to reveal an enormous hole in the Eva's head. Blood had poured out, leaving a streak on the purple giant's chest armor and a large splatter slowly coating the building behind it. "Eva Unit One silent. All circuits within register null pilot status. Initiating self-de. Command halted. Signal detected from Unit 01. Warning. Pilot control not detected. Unit 01 in autonomous mode. Warning. Backup controls offline. Pausing D-24 command for further analysis of Unit 01 and battle outcome."
Alarms blared throughout New York. "All civilians and military personnel evac to sub-levels! This is not a drill! I repeat, evacuate the surface!"

Several different cameras were displayed at once, the few people and soldiers left in the city fled underground.

Unit 01 let out a deafening roar that shook the camera as it began to stand up, a white light not present before, shown from the Eva's left eye.

Kozo's voice surprised Shinji from behind, "The damage was significant. However, not wanting to die gave you the opportunity to connect with the soul inside Unit One."

Shinji grumpily looked over his left shoulder at the old man. "Don't sugar coat it, Professor, we both know whom is within that," lifting his hand, Shinji pointed to the cage on the wall across the chasm before them where the purple behemoth was restrained. Returning his attention to the screen, Shinji only grew more annoyed.

Unit 01 was now standing before the Angel, right in the middle of punching its face, when a massive explosion erupted just above the two, sending them both grinding across the ground. The blast destroyed a three-block radius and sent a pyre of light into the bright blue sky.

The sound of a B-52's engines screamed overhead,

"Direct hit! Friendly fire unavoidable, but the purple unit is intact and moving!"
Unit 01 found the knife it had been denied earlier and picked it up. Flipping to its feat, the purple behemoth let out another roar and lifted the prog knife over its head. Alas, the Angel was coming down onto the Eva, but Unit 01 managed to slip the knife into the core, just as the view switched to Camera 77 again. An even larger explosion and pyre of light burst from the encounter, setting the East side of the Empire State building aflame, along with leaving a ten-block radius in a crater of molten concrete.

The B-52's pilot called out on the radio, a tremor in his voice, "T-this is Marko One Four. The purple unit survived. Even up here, I can hear its footsteps. What the fuck is that thing?!"

"Unit 01's data recorder was destroyed with the blast to the skull." Ritsuko noted, lightly tapping her pen against her coffee cup.

Kozo folded his arms, "The loss of the data is unfortunate, but we acknowledge the destruction of the Angel."

He kicked Shinji's chair, giving his statement the necessary jolt to the boy that Kozo wished his words would, "Next time, limit the property damage. NERV will not tolerate civilian casualties from carelessness on our part."

Stepping back onto a lift-pad, Kozo added with a smirk, "We can't afford the lawsuits." The remark got a quiet chuckle from the bridge bunnies, all of whom quickly got back to their normal work before invoking Ritsuko's wrath.