Disclaimer: Don't own anything. Leave the lawyers at home, please. I'm running outta places to hide the bodies!
Author's Notes
1) Howdy everyone! Ama no Murakumo is back in action! Sorry about the lack of updates recently but I'm getting my creative groove back. Let's have some fun!
2) Excelsior B: Truthfully, I didn't think of Hellsing until you mentioned it. The .454 Casull is a handgun round generally used for hunting medium to large sized game animals. Against a human…it packs a bit more of a wallop.
3) animefan29: I understand your disappointment with the Eva fight, but I did it that way on purpose. After all, Unit-00 was being piloted by a DUMMY plug…anyway, the next fight will be much better.
4) Storyteller of dimensions: There will be a lot more insight to the story's background in this chapter, so don't worry. Also, the relationships between the characters and Shinji's change will be more developed.
Well now, with all the tedious paperwork out of my way…On with the show!
Back With A Vengeance
By Ama no Murakumo
Chapter 3: Hisoka Meets Asuka
After wandering through the tunnels under Mt. Asama for a while, Hisoka and Mana eventually made it out and into a nearby forest. The intelligence officer's only information about the Resistance's new HQ was that it was in the ruins of Tokyo-2. So…the pair had a bit of a walk ahead of them.
"Hey Hisoka, why exactly does your partner seem like a trigger-happy, deranged, psychopath?" The detective chuckled and turned to face his current traveling companion.
"You have to understand something Mana. Shinji was one of the Eva pilots during the Angel Wars, and that meant that he was always on the fronts lines against those things. You've heard how many soldiers develop post-traumatic stress syndrome while at war, right?" Mana nodded.
"Well Shinji developed a rather severe case of it. Dealing with those monsters, on top of the domestic problems he had with Ms. Katsuragi and Asuka Sohryu, pretty much drove him halfway to insanity. It was a miracle he hadn't been tossed in a padded cell at an institution."
"Then why wasn't he?" Mana asked.
"Because he discovered an interest in guns and ended up becoming one of the best gunfighters in the country. Shinji's deadly accurate with a firearm and the Nagoya-2 Police Department offered him asylum in exchange for going through the academy. That's where I met him, and we immediately hit it off," Hisoka finished.
The redheaded woman walked in silence. She knew that the pilots had it bad during the Angel Wars, but for one of them to be driven that far? It was crazy! Mana decided then and there that she was happy to not have been intimately involved in those wars. She wasn't sure she would have survived the experience.
Turning back to the plainclothes detective she asked, "What about you, Hisoka? Tell me more about yourself."
"Well first off, I was born in Osaka. My mother's Japanese, but according to her, my father was a Russian musician that she met while studying abroad in Moscow. Before I was even born, my father disappeared. My mother never talked about him, and I was smart enough not to ask. It always seemed a sore subject for her. Anyway, after graduating high school, I enrolled at Nagoya-2 University and got both my bachelor's and master's degrees in statistics," he explained before Mana cut him off.
"Why statistics?"
"I was always good at math, and I guess I was interested in learning how one could quantify risk. But after college I enrolled in the academy, met Shinji, and we graduated together before being put on patrol duty. We both made detective around the same time and begged Chief Kazekawa to partner us up, and he did. I think it had more to do with us constantly bugging the shit out of him about it, though." Mana giggled.
Out of nowhere, the two heard a faint rustling in some bushes nearby. Shutting up, they drew their weapons and crept closer. Before they could react, a red blur shot out of the underbrush and bowled the pair over. Mana and Hisoka tried to scramble to their feet, only to feel cold steel against the back of their heads.
A voice thick with pride asked, "Just who are you two? You better not be with those NERV assholes…"
Hisoka laughed. "Trust me lady, nothing would please us more than to see Gendo Ikari's head on a pike." Hearing a faint chuckle, the guns were slowly pulled from their places. That was all the opening Hisoka needed. Before their attacker knew what happened, the raven-haired man lunged his hands into his coat, thrust out his leg to take the woman off her feet, and pulled both a large black revolver and the Mateba from the coat, pointing the weapons at what he now identified as another young redhead of his own age.
Mana calmly climbed to her feet, drawing her Beretta as she rose. Pointing her own weapon at the now defenseless woman, her guns having clattered into the bushes after her fall, she glared pointedly.
"Mind explaining just why you attacked us? By the way Hisoka, where did you get that black gun? And what is it?"
"It's a Ruger Blackhawk .357 Magnum revolver, one of my personal favorites. This happened to be my mother's gun till she gave it to me. Now then," he said, turning back to the woman on the ground, "answer Mana's questions or I may be tempted to see how many holes I can put in you before I get bored."
"I don't have to explain myself to you fools. I'm the great Asuka Langley Sohryu. You should be bowing before me." Hisoka's eyebrows went straight to his hairline when he heard who he was dealing with and the way she addressed them.
'Let's see…red hair, an ego the size of the sun, huge rack, and the mental stability of Charles Manson…yep, that's Sohryu alright.'
With an ear-to-ear grin plastered on his face, Hisoka fired a shot from the Blackhawk just to the left of Asuka's head, neatly clipping some hair off.
"You should count your blessings that we found you and not Shinji, Ms. Sohryu."
"SHINJI! Don't tell me that the Prince of Losers is back in Tokyo-3!" Asuka screamed.
"Watch it, girly. If Shinji were to find you, then you would never live through the night."
The former Eva pilot scoffed. "Oh please…that wimp wouldn't have the balls to hit a fly, much less me."
Hisoka laughed heartily at the pompous look Asuka was giving him as she said that. "Oh yeah? Ever since I met Shinji, he always talked to me about his dreams to shove a grenade launcher straight up your ass before pulling the trigger, among other things."
The redhead on the ground cocked her eye at the raven haired man, not sure whether to believe him or not. After all, 10 years was a long time. And time had a way of changing people…
"Get up. We're heading for Tokyo-2 to try and meet up with the rest of our allies."
"Then go on your own. If I ever see Wondergirl or Shinji again, I'll kill them." Hisoka chuckled.
"Shinji would kill you first. And just for the record, I'd help him…" With that, Hisoka and Mana walked away, leaving an infuriated Asuka. The redhead growled and walked down another trail.
'So the Invincible Shinji's back, huh? Finally, a chance to show that bastard just who's number one…' And so Asuka Sohryu planned her revenge against Shinji Ikari for all the times she felt he humiliated her.
(Tokyo-2: New Resistance HQ)
Shinji groaned. He had finally made it to Tokyo-2 after wandering around for almost an hour. It was by pure luck that he had managed to find the new Headquarters, located directly in the center of the former capital. Bringing Unit-01 into the cover of the ruined buildings, the ex-pilot ejected from the entry plug and made his way into one of the deserted buildings that served as the new offices for the Resistance higher-ups.
Walking into Rei's new office on the third floor, Shinji slumped himself into one of the chairs in front of the large oak desk. Rei was content to just smile at her old co-worker, who looked positively bored and tired after his run-in with Unit-00.
The cyan haired beauty stood up and walked over to Shinji, planting herself in the seat next to him. "Shinji," she said, causing the man in question looked up at her before she continued, "when I wrote to you saying that I may have feelings for you, I wasn't just saying it to try and bring you back. I really mean it and would like to get to know you better and possibly begin a relationship with you in the future."
Shinji smiled. Not one of his maniacal, I'm-gonna-blow-you-to-hell-cause-I-feel-like-it grins. This was an honest to God smile of happiness.
"Rei, I have to confess. When I found out about your origins, I was afraid. Come on, I had been trained to fight Angels, and finding out that you were part Angel kinda threw me for a loop. After I left Tokyo-3, though, I started thinking about it more. I eventually decided that even though you weren't completely human, I didn't really care. My fear was completely unfounded. After all, if you were truly an Angel, then wouldn't you have tried to help them instead of destroying them?" The young woman nodded.
Shinji continued, "Well Rei, I would be happy to get to know you better. I have to warn you, though, I'm considered borderline insane by a lot of people."
The Resistance leader shook her head and replied, "That doesn't matter to me. You are still the same Shinji Ikari that I remember from before, though you are a lot more confident." This elicited a roar of laughter from Shinji.
"Rei believe me, I'm anything but the same guy I was before. For one thing, the moment I find Asuka I'm gonna blow her brains out the back of her skull." The violent statement didn't really seem to faze Rei, who was still calmly staring at the young man.
The two stood up and made their way to the door. Before Shinji could open it though, Rei turned him around and pulled his face to her level, capturing his lips in a deep kiss. She pulled back and saw that Shinji, a shit-eating grin on his face, only had one thing to say:
"I could get used to that." Rei pulled him down for another kiss.
(NERV HQ)
Gendo Ikari was NOT a happy man right now. His estranged son seemed to have finally grown a set of iron balls and returned to Tokyo-3 to oppose him. On top of that, he had brought somebody else with him who apparently could give Ivan a run for his money as a gunfighter. No, Gendo wasn't feeling any love today.
"I want every scrap of information you can find on this Hisoka Antares. If we can't shoot the bastard down, then we'll break him…" he ordered. Section-2 immediately took off to dig up the info their boss desired.
Sub-Commander Volsky didn't say anything. He was too entrenched in his own thoughts to worry about what Gendo was up to.
'That boy's eyes. I haven't seen eyes like that since…'
(A couple days later: Tokyo-2)
"We made it!"
"Finally! It's a good thing too, cause we were starting to run out of supplies." Hisoka and Mana ran towards the dilapidated city at a bum's rush, eager to see their friends. The Resistance had erected a wall around key areas of the city, in case of another attack by NERV. It was at one of these gates that Maya Ibuki was getting a report from the guards on duty. Upon seeing the two formerly missing operatives, she was ecstatic.
"Mana! Antares! Thank God you're both alright. Come on and we'll take you to HQ. Shinji and the others have been worried sick about you" she exclaimed. However, Murphy's Law dictates that something should now happen to royally fuck everything up…
As soon as the pair reached the gate, a swarm of Section-2 agents came barreling out of the forest behind them. They had been followed and ambushed. Turning around, Hisoka cursed.
"Son of a bitch! Where the fuck does Ikari get these guys from!? Is there some kinda service I'm not aware of?" The older man's ranting brought Resistance fighters from all over the nearby area, including Shinji and Rei. They had received word that the two had arrived and were coming to meet them. (A/N: Word travels fast, don't it?)
Drawing the Blackhawk, the elder detective fired a few rounds into the enemy before ducking behind cover with Mana, who had also run out of bullets.
Shinji was charging head-first at the goons, wielding his gatling gun with unbelievable agility as he mowed down as many agents as possible, all the while screaming like a lunatic. Mana had restocked her ammo supply and jumped back into the fray, covering Rei from behind as the Resistance Commander and Misato directed their soldiers.
Hisoka ran back out shortly afterwards and, tapping Shinji on the shoulder, handed the younger man a pair of Uzi's. Shinji blanched. "Where the fuck did you get these?!"
"Consider them an early birthday present," was his partner's reply as he drew two more guns: a Desert Eagle XIX .44 Magnum in his right hand, and a Smith & Wesson 617 in the left. By now, the sheer numbers of Section-2 had allowed them to completely surround the Resistance.
The two partners glanced at each other, nodded, and with their backs to each other, brought their weapons up. Mana saw what they were planning and dragged as many of her friends to the ground as she could, leaving the rest to dive on their own. Misato wasn't too happy with that.
"Mana! What the hell are you-" was all she could say before all hell broke loose. The two detectives began shooting at anything and everything that was standing. Shinji was having a blast, his eyes gleaming as Section-2 kept charging only to be brought down in a shower of crimson blood as quick as they came. The pair had gotten so quick at reloading weapons that it looked as if they were firing continuously, much to their friends' astonishment.
Screaming, the black-suited men kept charging for over ten minutes. Blood flowed like a river and flew everywhere as anybody unfortunate enough to get in the way of the two-man massacre was blown to pieces. Shinji had even fired a short burst at one agent's neck, ripping his head completely off.
The others watched amazed as Shinji and Hisoka finally began driving Section-2 back. The fools had finally figured out that they couldn't get within 7 feet of either of the two without being turned into Swiss cheese. Thus, they followed the unwritten Section-2 rule: If at first you don't succeed, run like a bastard in the other direction.
Not content to just let their opponents escape, the pair lunged after them. Mana was laughing her ass off at seeing the remaining 300 Section-2 agents running for their lives from two men.
Suddenly, a deafening roar erupted from the forest, stopping everyone in their tracks. The agents, now scared of whatever was coming at themfrom that direction, tried to turn around again. They didn't get very far, as a massive red foot came crashing down on top of them. The former members of NERV stared wide-eyed as the demonic visage of Unit-02 rose from underneath the trees: Asuka had finally returned. Shinji got over his initial shock quickly as his lips curled into a vicious smile, his feet quickly carrying him towards Unit-01.
"Payback's a bitch, ain't it?"
There's Chapter 3, everyone. Sorry for the cliffhanger, but I didn't wanna super-saturate this chapter with action like I did the last one. Don't worry though you violence lovers: the next installment will be plenty bloody. Also, Mana's past will be revealed a bit more in the coming chapters.
Next time on Back With A Vengeance, Chapter 4: Shinji vs. Asuka: Eva Fight! Now that Asuka's taken out the remaining Section-2 ambushers, Shinji activates Unit-01 and engages her to get himself some long awaited revenge. Can Asuka survive an encounter with the new Shinji? Or will the younger Ikari's near-madness be too much for the redhead to overcome? Find out next time!
Keep those reviews coming people! I love comments, good or bad. Hope you enjoy the story. This is Ama no Murakumo, signing off!