IRON IKARI
by Gunman
Disclaimer: I do not own Evangelion or Iron Man 2 or their characters.
Summery: After Tony is healed, Shinji explains what happened, is introduced to General Fury and Agent Romanoff, while preparing for a showdown with Ivan Vanko, and an unforseeable future.
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Chapter 4
SHIELD And Armor
When Tony Stark woke up his body felt completely and totally... slimy.
When he pulled himself up and out of the completely disgusting sludge that was brown, red, green, copper and smelled like every waste product you could possibly imagine, (and even those you didn't want to imagine) he was only relieved that he had on a mask that covered his entire face. Though he could barely move, the stuff was so thick. It was like trying to wade through quicksand.
(Not that Tony Stark had ever been in quicksand. But a guy could imagine, right?)
When he pulled the mask off his face... he wished he hadn't.
"OH... God! I think I'm gonna throw up." Tony heaved.
"Go ahead. I've got a waste disposal crew coming in to collect and dispose of all that." Shinji said.
"Though you'd better get out of there before that stuff hardens." Mari said as Stark scrambled his body out of the tank.
"Welcome back, boss." Shinji said as he handed the man a towel.
"After what happened... you still call me boss?" Tony asked, wiping his face.
"Even when we were fighting, I didn't not call you boss." Shinji said.
"Right." Tony agreed.
"Coffee?" Mari asked, holding out the cup for him.
"Thank you." Tony said, reaching for the cup, only to notice that his hands were still slimy. "You know what? Hold that for me. I need a shower." he said.
"Right over there." Mari said, pointing to a small area off to the right side of the lab.
Fortunately Stark had equipt Shinji's lab with a small bathroom, which included a toilet, sink and a stand-up shower.
It took Tony about 20 minutes to wash and scrub all that horrible gunk off of his body, including soap and shampoo and conditioner. He was given a change of clothes and then accepted the coffee that was waiting for him on the sink counter. Once he was out and dried he took a good look in the mirror and actually smiled.
All around the palladium-powered arc reactor in his chest... was nothing. The poisoning symptoms, which looked like a bizarre viral infection akin to a computer circuit induced rash, were gone.
He did it. Whatever he did... Shinji cured me. Tony thought with a smile.
"Are you alright, sir?" Shinji asked as soon as Tony was out of the shower, dressed in a black Stark-logo jumpsuit that Shinji had on hand.
"Well... now that I feel pretty again, I gotta thank you for curing me." Tony said.
"You're... not cured." Shinji replied.
"Pardon?" he asked with some surprise. "What do you call this?" he asked, pointing to his chest.
"I had you submerged in an ionic toxin removal bath, that Mari-chan actually set up for me, so that we could get the palladium out of you." Shinji explained.
"So all that... gunk... that I was submerged in was... the waste by-product?" Tony asked.
"Yes."
"Right. Very gross by the way. How long was I in there?" Tony asked.
"About ten hours." Mari said.
"TEN HOURS?" he gasped.
"Well it wasn't just the palladium, sir. It was the liquor as well." Mari said.
Stark nodded at that. "Of course it was. I'll bet Pepper is mad at me."
"Yes." Shinji said. "But she still wants to see you."
"Surprising." he mused. "And... where's Rhodey?"
Shinji sighed. "He's gone. Along with the Mark II."
"Somehow... I'm not surprised." he said, drinking his coffee.
While he drank his coffee, he looked around at the massive amounts of equipment that Shinji was working on, with Mari's assistance, before talking again.
"You know... you guys really kicked my ass back there." Tony said.
"It wasn't my intention, sir. But..."
"I get it. I was drunk. Irrational. I thought I was going to die... I would have kicked my ass too." he stated with some sobriety.
It was then that Tony became really, really interested in what Shinji was working on. In particular was the small triangular device that sat in the middle of a group of massive power coils. He also saw the small prism-like device that Shinji was fiddling with.
"Okay... what's all this?" Tony asked.
"This... is an experiment... designed to replace your palladium core." Shinji explained.
(Prismatic Energy Coils ready, Shinji) HOMER said.
"Thanks HOMER." Shinji said as he tossed a pair of goggles to both Mari and Tony. "Goggles on, please!"
Tony watched as Shinji preformed his experiment and within a few minutes, had successfully created a new element, which looked like a small triangular piece of metal that was glowing with intensity.
Huh. The energy was focused through the prism and into that piece of metal. Tony mused. Where did he...
Shinji used a pair of tweezers to pull the small glowing triangle out of the device in the center of the experiment and holds it up.
(Congratulations, Shinji. You just created a new element) HOMER said.
"What... is that?" Stark asked.
"Ununoctium." Shinji said as he held up the new element for Stark to see.
"Wha... I thought that stuff was supposed to be theoretical." Stark said.
"Well... it was only a theory. Until now." Shinji said as he placed it inside a new mini-reactor that looked like the one Tony regularly used for the palladium core.
(The new core should serve as a suitable replacement for the core as well as a means of keeping you, Mr Stark, from dying due to the rising toxicity levels of palladium) HOMER said.
Stark looked at the new core, not blinking in amazement.
"I... owe you a huge, HUGH, bonus." Stark said.
(The reactor has accepted the new element.) HOMER said. (Running diagnostics)
"Actually I just synthesized it. Your father actually came up with the formula." Shinji said.
At hearing that, Tony was shocked.
"Wha... my father?"
While HOMER was running diagnostics on the validity of the palladium core vs the ununoctium core, Shinji brought his boss over to the large model of the 1974 Stark Expo designs that he had used to create the Ununoctium core from.
Using the previously rendered holographic model and explaining exactly what he did to achieve this new scientific miracle, Stark actually had a mixed look of pride and astonishment on his face.
That's my boy. Tony thought with pride at how Shinji was able to figure this out. Though... why did my father leave this behind... in his Expo model?
"Is something wrong, sir?" Shinji asked.
"I have tried every combination, every permutation of every known element. Nothing has worked to replace the palladium. And you're telling me that my father... who had been dead for about two decades... had already come up with how to create this new element?" Tony asked. Can't believe he's still taking me to school.
"Kind of." Shinji said.
"We believe that Howard Stark was limited by the technology of his era, so he couldn't realize the Ununoctium's full potential." Mari said. "But.."
"You could. Using today's technology." Tony said to Shinji.
"Yes." Shinji said.
It was then that Shinji brought up the rendering of the newest armored suit.
"The Mark VI?" Stark asked.
"Yes. HOMER uplinked with JARVIS and gave us the design specs." Shinji said. "We could have the new suit fabricated and ready to accept the new core in.."
(Four hours, twelve minutes) HOMER said.
"Cool. Do it!" Tony said.
"HOMER, get fabricating!" Shinji said to the AI.
Just then the doors to Shinji's lab opened up, and in walked a tall, dark-skinned man with an eyepatch over his left eye, black outfit which included a trenchcoat, and a small group of agents behind him.
"Well, well, well... look what we have here." the dark skinned man said.
"Nick Fury." Tony Stark said with a wiry smile. "What brings you out of hiding?"
"You know... I should be very, very upset with you." the dark-skinned man said.
Shinji looked at Natalie Rushman, decked out in a skin-tight SHIELD uniform.
"Somehow... this doesn't surprise me." Shinji said, staring at the redhead.
"This is Agent Natasha Romanoff." Fury introduced.
"I'm a SHIELD shadow. When we found out Mr Stark was ill, I was tasked to him by General Fury." she said.
"Though it seems as if that was a bit unnecessary now." Fury said.
"Yeah... and what brings you by, Nicky?" Tony asked.
"Actually you!" Fury said.
"Look Fury, I told you, I don't wanna join your super-secret boy band." Tony stated.
"No, no, no. I remember. You like to do everything yourself. How's that working out for you?" Fury asked.
"Oh, you know. So-so." Tony retorted.
However, despite his crass quips, Tony knew what the dark-skinned man was implying. Mostly, the fact that he couldn't have done any of this on his own. The new reactor, getting the palladium toxins out of his body. The whole bit.
"You guys have been pretty busy, haven't you? First you make your girl the CEO of your company, then you give away all your stuff, and then you let your best friend fly away with your suit. Now if I didn't know any better..." Fury said.
"You don't know better." Stark interrupted. "I didn't give it to him, he took it."
"Whoa, whoa, whoa! He took it? You're Iron Man and he just took it? The little brother walks into your house, kicks your ass, and just took your suit?" Fury said with astonishment.
"Technically speaking, it was two against one." Tony said.
"Is that possible?" Fury asked, turning to Agent Romanoff.
"According to Mr Stark's database security guidelines, there are redundancies to prevent unauthorized usage." the redheaded shadow agent replied.
"Mr Rhodes didn't take anything. I gave him access." Shinji said.
Fury, Natasha and Stark looked at Shinji incredulously. It was as if he had just confessed.
"That, in of itself, is an incredibly huge security breach." Fury stated.
"Considering how I was acting at the time, I would have given Rhodey access." Tony defended. "Had I been more... sober." he admitted.
"You gave this kid access to your suits, your security, and you don't even know who he is!" Fury snapped.
"Wrong! I know who he is. I know exactly who and what he is. He's my technical assistant, who has more than enough brains to save my life." Tony countered.
"Yeah. Thanks to your father." Fury said.
Tony, Shinji and Mari looked at the dark-skinned director.
"What? You... you knew?" Stark asked the eyepatch wearing man.
"Howard Stark said that the Arc Reactor was a stepping stone to something much larger. He was on the verge of creating something that would have made the nuclear reactor look like a Triple-A battery and that you," he said, pointing at Tony, "..were the only one who could figure out and finish what he started." he said then looked at Shinji. "Seems he was wrong for once in his life."
"No... not really. Shinji... has the same knowledge I do. Given time and the right info, I would have eventually been able to figure this out. But he did... while saving my life in the process." Stark said.
Fury and Natasha looked at the ionic toxin extractor. They looked over at the model of the 1974 Stark Expo. And then at the highly complicated set-up that Shinji had just used to create Tony's new reactor.
"I see. You used that thing to pull the palladium toxins out of Tony," Fury said, pointing to the bath, "and while he was in recovery, you managed to synthesis a brand new element that would not kill him, but would also power his suits. Incredible!"
"So... what do we do with all this?" Agent Coulson said as two other agents brought in a thick gray case that said 'Property of H. Stark' on the top of it.
"H. Stark?" Tony asked. "That... that stuff belonged to my dad?"
"Yes." Fury said.
"How did you get it?" he asked.
"It was entrusted to us. Pretty easy since Howard Stark was one of the founding members of SHIELD." Fury said.
Tony looked shocked while Shinji and Mari just looked at each other in quiet knowing. Almost like they had been expecting something like this.
"My father... helped found SHIELD." Tony said. "You knew him?"
"I did. He said that the arc reactor was 'unfinished technology' and that you were the only one with the means and know how to finish it. It's kind of a blow that he was wrong."
"And you must have hearing in only one ear as well as sight in one eye." Tony snarked. "Shinji's knowledge came from me. So..."
"Yeah, and how is that possible?" Fury interrupted. "How did he," he said pointing to Shinji, "get your knowledge? I mean... that's impossible, isn't it? I mean, how could information like that be passed on from one human brain to another human brain? Unless the kid's some kind of psychic."
"If I was... I probably wouldn't like what's in your head." Shinji said.
"Oh? And why is that?" Fury asked the young Japanese man.
"You knew... all this time... even before Monaco... that Mr Stark was dying! You planted a spy in our midst. And then you pick now to show up and offer your help, even though we've already solved the problem." Shinji stated.
"I don't have to justify myself or my actions to a guy who, up until a few months ago, didn't even exist! Who isn't even a United States citizen! Who probably doesn't even come from this universe!" Fury snapped.
"You Knew He Was Dying!" Shinji snapped. "Then you come in here with Howard Stark's old files, telling us that his only son was the only person who could figure out what he couldn't achieve, such as creating this new element, and you knew this! All this time you knew this and didn't tell us until we would have had no choice by to turn to you!"
"Hey, I don't need to hear this from the Nowhere Man!" Fury shouted.
"ENOUGH!" Tony shouted, interrupting the pairs argument. "Is that what's really upsetting you, Nicky? That my boy Shinji actually stole all your thunder? That he figured all this out before you could even say you knew about it?"
Fury just grimaced at that. "Yes." he answered. "You became a problem, Stark! My problem! And by the time I get here to fix things... it's already fixed. So yes, I'm more than a little upset."
"And how exactly were you going to help Mr Stark? With his condition?" Mari asked the SHIELD agents.
It was Agent Romanoff who answered, lifting up a hypodermic needle.
"Lithium Dioxide. It would have abated the symptoms." Natalie said.
"Well, our Ionic Detox Bath removed all the palladium and hard liquor from his body." Mari said.
"And how were you going to cure me of my dependency on palladium?" Stark asked.
"Howard Stark's original files." Fury said, pointing to the gray case the agents had with them.
"Which I don't need anymore thanks to this new reactor core." Tony said, pointing to the triangle shaped reactor that was being analyzed by the advanced AI.
"That was created thanks to the secret message hidden in Mr Stark's 1974 Expo model." Shinji said.
"You got lucky." Fury said.
"Seems that was enough to help me. Which is more than you did." Stark snarked.
Fury smirked at the man.
"Well... it seems as if you don't need us, but there is something we can help you with." he said.
"And what is that?" Tony asked.
"Ivan Vanko is still alive." Natalie said.
Tony, Shinji and Mari looked at each other. Shocked.
"But the news bulletin said he was dead." Mari said.
"We exhumed the body. Ran it against every known and sealed record." Natalie said. "It wasn't his."
"He faked his death... but not on his own." Fury said.
"He had help." Shinji stated.
"Exactly." Fury said.
"But who?" Mari asked.
"My guess would be... Justin Hammer." Fury said.
"You guess?" Shinji asked.
"Someone with resources and money got Vanko out. Hammer is one of those people. Especially after what happened at the Senate hearing." Fury said.
"That's not good. It makes sense, but it's not good." Tony said.
"So what do we do?" Mari asked.
"We ask ourselves... what would Hammer need Vanko for?" Shinji asked. "The answer, of course, is simple. Vanko managed to create an arc reactor similar to Mr Stark's. He might be just the guy that Hammer needs to get those armored suits of his up and running."
"Exactly." Tony said, smiling with pride at Shinji's logic.
"Depending on how many he actually built." Mari said.
"Knowing Justin Hammer... he probably has a dozen or so suits lined up ready for final production." Tony said. "That's just like him. Mass production of a bunch of high-tech toys that don't work right. It's a waste of resources, but... at least he has resources."
"Hammers resources and Vankos brains..." Fury said.
"You mean those suits could actually work?" Mari asked.
"Yeah, for only one reason." Shinji said.
"To kill me." Tony stated as he looked at Fury. "That may not be what Hammer wants, but Vanko sure as hell does. Hmm. Guess you guys are good for something after all."
Fury gave Stark an unamused look. Like he had just been insulted.
"Hammer is planning to make a military presentation at the Stark Expo." Fury said.
"Vanko won't be there." Shinji said.
"We don't know where he will be. Or where he is." Mari said.
"True. But if he's working with Justin Hammer... then Hammer will know." Tony said.
"And if Vanko gets those suits operational... we're gonna have a heck of a fight on our hands." Shinji said.
"I don't think Iron Man will be enough for this." Fury stated.
"Because Iron Man doesn't have a sidekick or a partner." Tony said.
"That doesn't mean he has to fight alone." Shinji said as he went back to his computer to start the customizing of the Mark III.
"Once this issue has been taken care of, we'll address our Shinji problem." Fury said to Natasha.
"And what 'Shinji problem' is that, General?" Stark asked.
"Are you listening in on my conversation? That's very rude." Fury said.
"So is talking about someone behind their back." Stark said.
"You do know that that boy doesn't have a file. Officially, he doesn't exist." Fury stated.
"Oh, like you're one to talk." Tony snarked.
"Then how is he here? Where does he come from?" Fury asked.
"You're the super spy and you don't know?" Tony asked.
Fury just glared with his good eye. "We'll talk later." he said as he and Agent Romanoff departed.
Stark smiled as the pair left, taking a few seconds to admire Agent Romanoff's retreating form, and then went back to help Shinji with the newest models of the Iron Man armor.
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Authors Notes:
Originally I wasn't planning on writing up something so dramatic but it kinda wrote itself.
The interactions between Stark and Fury in the original movie were dependant upon certain factors. Such as Stark not knowing anything about his fathers involvement in SHIELD, Anton Vanko, or even that his dad was working on a new element or power source.
And now that Shinji has basically figured out how to save Stark's life, all of that was completely unnecessary.
Which includes Stark hanging out in a large donut hole right before Fury shows up because Shinji basically kidnapped him and took him to his lab. A lot of people thought that that scene was so cool. And it was very entertaining to watch, I admit.
That being said, I wanted to write up something that would be appropriate yet not take away from what I wrote up. The donut scene was cool, so... you'll just have to read it up in the omake I wrote below.
Hopefully, everyone will enjoy this latest update. The next update will have Shinji, Tony and Rhodey using their armored suits to battle not only Vanko, but his squad of Hammer Drones. I've also got something special planned for Mari. So... keep an eye out for that.
Also, I added a lot of omake's to this update, as a way to make up for the lack of ones in the other chapters. Hope you like them.
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OMAKE! (Alternate Scene)
"Another donut, sir?" Shinji asked as he walked over to the still-inebriated inventor, still dressed in the Mark III armor. He had his helmet in his left hand, a box of donuts in his right.
"Yeah. Something with cream, this time." Tony said as he sat inside the large plaster and metal donut that said 'Randy's Donuts' on it.
The mood was calm even as the sun beat down on both of them. That was, until a voice called out to them.
"Sir! I'm gonna have to ask you to exit the donut!"
The pair looked down and saw a dark-skinned man wearing an eye patch and black trenchcoat just staring up at both of them.
"Ohhh boy. Now I'm gonna get it." Tony groaned.
Hovering back down to the ground the pair of Iron Men walked into the donut shop and joined Fury over at one of the booths.
"Want anything? I'm buying." Fury said as the two Iron Men approached him. Stark sat down while Shinji just stood.
"Look Nick, I told you, I don't wanna join your little super-secret boy band." Tony said to Fury.
"No, no, no, See, I remember, you do everything yourself. How's that working out for you?" Fury asked.
"It's... it's... it's..." Tony huffed as he turned and looked at the super spy director. "I'm sorry. I don't want to get off on the wrong foot, but do I look at the patch or the eye?"
Fury looked only slightly amused.
"Honestly, I'm still a bit hung over. I don't know if you're real or if I'm having..." Tony said.
Fury moved in to get right in Tony's face.
"I am very real!" Fury declared. "I'm the realest person you're ever gonna meet."
"Just my luck. Where's the staff here?" Tony asked.
"That's not looking so good." Fury said, staring at the palladium poisoning that was creeping up Tony's neck.
"I've been worse." Tony said.
Just then, Shinji turned around as someone approached them.
A very attractive redheaded woman in a skintight SHIELD jumpsuit.
"We've secured the perimeter, but I don't think we should hold it for too much longer." the woman said.
Shinji sighed as he took in the image Natalie Rushman standing before him. Stark, on the other hand, just dipped his head so that his sunglasses weren't obstructing his vision.
"Huh. You're fired." Stark said to her.
"That's not up to you." she said.
"Tony, Shinji, I want you to meet Agent Romanoff." Fury said.
"Hi." Tony said.
"Hello." Shinji said.
"I'm a SHIELD shadow. Once we knew you were ill, I was tasked to you by Director Fury." she said.
"I suggest you apologize." Tony said.
"Wait! You mean you knew? All this time?" Shinji asked.
"Yes we did." Fury said.
"And you pick now to tell us this?" Shinji asked.
"Well, we've all been very busy." Fury said. "I mean, you made your girl your CEO, you're giving away all your stuff. You let your friend fly away with your suit. Now, if I didn't know any better.."
"You don't know better. I didn't give it to him. He took it." Tony said.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa. He took it?"Fury gasped in mock-shock. "You're Iron Man and he just took it? The little brother walked in there, kicked your ass and took your suit?"
"He wasn't alone." Stark said looking up at Shinji.
"At least I didn't run off with it." Shinji said. "I am here, sir."
"Right. Good point." Tony said.
"Is all this even possible?" Fury asked, turning to Agent Romanoff.
"Well according to Mr Stark's security database guidelines there are redundances to prevent unauthorized usage." she said.
"What do you want from me?" Tony asked.
"What do we want from you? No! What do you want from me? You have become a problem, a problem I have to deal with. Contrary to your belief you are not the center of my universe. I've got bigger problems than you in the southwest region to deal with! Hit Him!"
HISS!
WHIR!
Nick and Tony looked at the other two people in the restaurant. Agent Romanoff had stuck something into Tony's neck, causing a hissing sound. The second she did that, Shinji had powered up his repulsors and were now aiming them at both Natalie and Fury. Natalie pulled her gun and aimed it at Shinji's exposed face.
"Oh, god! What are you gonna steal my kidney and sell it?" Tony groaned as his vision started coming back. "Could you please not do anything awful for five seconds?"
"What did you just do to him?" Shinji demanded, not lowering his repulsor gauntlets.
Fury actually smiled as he saw the intense look on Shinji's face.
"Answer the man! What did she just do to me?" Tony asked.
"What did we just do for you?" Fury corrected. "That's lithium dioxide. It's gonna take the edge off. We're trying to get you back to work."
"Fine. Give me a couple boxes of that. I'll be right as rain." Tony said.
"It's not a cure, it just abates the symptoms." Natalie said, gun still pointed at Shinji.
"Doesn't look like it's gonna be an easy fix." Fury said.
"Trust me, I know. I'm good at this stuff. I've been looking for a suitable replacement for palladium. I have tried every combination, every permutation of every known element." Tony stated.
"We'll I'm here to tell you... you haven't tried them all." Fury stated.
"Lower your gauntlets!" Natalie declared.
"Give me a reason." Shinji retorted.
"Excuse me?"
"You lied about your real name..."
"I was undercover!"
"Manipulated Mr Stark into a drunk frenzy..."
"He posed to me a hypothetical question, I gave him a hypothetical answer!"
"You were spying on us all this time..."
"I had orders!"
"For all I know you could be in league with Vanko when he attacked Mr Stark in Monaco!"
Fury and Natalie looked at Shinji, just as Stark did.
"Excuse me?" she asked.
"Romanoff? That's Russian. Just like Vanko. And now we find out you're not who you said you were. How do I, how do we, know you're not a double agent?"
"The same could be said of you!" she said.
"Pardon me?" Shinji asked.
"You have no file in America or in Japan. Up until six months ago, Shinji Ikari didn't even exist, and now you're wearing one of Mr Stark's Iron Man suits. So tell me... why should we trust you?" Natalie asked.
"Simple. Unlike you, I haven't lied about who I am!"
"And how do I know that?" she countered in a mocking tone.
"If you can't discern truth from fiction, then you don't deserve to be in your profession."
Natalie looked at Shinji with some indignation.
"Oooooh." Nick Fury said with a laugh.
Tony Stark actually laughed at that.
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Eventually Tony and Fury called off their subordinates little stand off and all of them were headed back to Stark's destroyed manor.
"Seriously, you two ought to get a room." Tony said as he flew back to the manor.
"I've had enough bad experiences with sexy, aggressive redheads, thank you very much." Shinji said as he flew alongside his boss.
Natalie noticed Nick Fury's amused smirk.
"Sir?" Natalie asked.
"If I didn't know any better, I'd have sworn you liked him." Fury said.
"Excuse me?"
"I've never seen you in a standoff with anyone. Normally, you would have fired."
"He wasn't exactly an acknowledged enemy, sir."
"Pointing a weapon at you doesn't exactly make him a friend."
"Point taken, sir. I apologize for my lack of action. Won't happen again."
"Oh, so next time, you will shoot him?"
Natalie didn't have an answer for that.
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OMAKE 2
"Contrary to popular belief you are not the center of my universe, Shinji!" NERV Director Misato Katsuragi shouted to the armored inventor. "I've got bigger problems in the southwest region to deal with! Hit Him!"
HISS!
"Ouch!" Shinji hissed as Agent Sohryu sat down next to him. "Oh, god! What are you gonna steal my kidney and sell it?" he groaned. "Could you please not do anything awful for about five seconds? What did she just do to me?" Shinji asked.
"What did we just do for you?" Misato corrected. "That's lithium dioxide. It's gonna take the edge off. We're trying to get you back to work."
"Seriously, you ought to use some of this for yourself." Shinji said.
"How do you think I found out about it?" Misato asked. "A job this stressful, I need at least a couple cases of beer a day to get me through it. After which I take a couple shots of this stuff and I'm right back in there."
"Figures." Shinji said turning back to Asuka. "You enjoyed that, didn't you? Sticking me with that stuff."
"Kinda." Asuka said. "Though normally I use this paralysis formula. I try it a lot of times on this one guy, Kaji, so..."
"Not sure I want to know." Shinji said.
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OMAKE 3
"Mr Ikari!" Senator Rokobungi snapped.
"Yes, dear?" Shinji Ikari asked with a smirk.
"Can I have your attention?"
"Absolutely."
"Do you or do you not possess a specialized weapon?"
"I do not."
"You do not?"
"I do not. Well it depends on how you define the word 'weapon'."
"The Iron Man weapon."
"My device does not fit that description."
"Well... how wold you describe it?"
"I would describe it by defining it as what it is, Senator."
"As?"
"It's a high-tech prosthesis." Shinji said.
Everyone laughs.
"That... that is actually the most apt description I can make of it." he continued.
"It's a weapon, Mr Ikari. It's a weapon. And it is in the interest of the Japanese people to get this weapon turned over to the specialized self-defense forces of Japan."
"Well, you can't have it. I am Iron Man. The suit and I are one. To hand over my invention would be like handing over myself, which is tantamount to indentured servitude or prostitution, depending on what city or state you are in."
"Well, I'm not expert, sir...
"In prostitution? Of course not. You're a senator. Come on!"
"Mr Ikari?"
"Yes."
"In what regard could this weapon possibly be considered a high-tech prosthesis?"
"I Can Answer That!" a voice called out from the back.
Everyone looked as a young Japanese man walked up from the back of the room, wearing a silver and gray version of the Iron Man suit.
"Ladies and Gentlemen, this is Gunnery Sergeant Toji Suzuhara, injured in the line of duty, losing a leg in the process." Shinji introduced. "Thanks to the advancement of Iron Man technology, this brave young man can continue to serve his country as well as being able to walk since his initial loss several months ago."
The crowd applauded at that.
"So as you can see, it is a high-tech prosthesis." Shinji said with a smirk.
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OMAKE 4
"I am so going to get fired for this." Misato groaned.
"It's not your fault, Misato." Ritsuko said as she typed on the keyboard.
"Please! If I wasn't so desperate for a pilot to test that suit..."
On the screen, the newest model of the Variable Threat Response Battle Suit was literally rampaging through the city streets, shooting at whatever was in its path.
Machine guns, rockets, grenades, missile... everything was being used to destroy all the surrounding areas around it without regard for personal safety of any kind.
"Let's just hope Shinji can stop that thing." Ritsuko said.
On screen, a red and gold armored figure came into view, landing right in front of the heavily armed and armored suit.
"KENSUKE! SHUT IT DOWN RIGHT NOW!" Shinji 'Iron Man' Ikari shouted.
"Are you kidding? This Is The Coolest Thing I've Ever Done! The strength! The firepower! The armor! I'm INVINCIBLE!" Kensuke 'War Machine' Aida shouted.
Yeah, Misato's gonna get fired for this. Shinji mentally groaned. Letting this crazy otaku into a suit with more bells and whistles on it than the whole JSSDF is the worst call she ever made.
"And I Will Never Be Stopped!" Kensuke shouted as his suit suddenly died. "Huh?"
"They did tell you about the five-minute battery for that thing, right?" Shinji asked as he walked up to the powered-down suit. "Or were you looking at the pretty guns when they mentioned it?"
"Uh... yeah." Kensuke groaned.
Good thing Ritsuko didn't have the chance to put that new arc reactor into the armor for the initial testing. Shinji thought as he grabbed the armor and drug it back to base.
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OMAKE 5
"So... tell me again why you let Asuka keep those things?" Shinji asked as Misato ducked again.
"Hey, I didn't think she'd actually use an arc reactor to power them!" Misato shouted. "My armor's not gonna hold up too much longer here!"
"Neither is mine!" Shinji shouted.
Outside, Asuka laughed as she held Iron Man and War Machine in her cluthes.
"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! What do you think of Super Dominatrix Asuka Now?" she shouted as she tugged on the energy whips again.
"I swear, Misato, if we get out of this, I'm gonna..."
"Not now, Shinji! Not Now!"