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No man is worth his salt who is not ready at all times to risk his well-being, to risk his body, to risk his life, in a great cause. -Theodore Roosevelt
Last Child of Krypton
Chapter 9- Under Pressure
"What do you mean, we can't go?" Asuka demanded.
Misato sighed sharply. "The pilots must remain in Tokyo-3 in case of an Angel attack."
Asuka huffed, crossing her arms at the table. Shinji studiously stayed out of the conversation, slipping out of the room before his housemates could involve him in their debate. He had four blessed days of relative freedom to enjoy, having already made sure to excuse himself from the class trip to Okinawa, the very same trip that Asuka was complaining about animatedly in the kitchen over dinner. Shinji too his own plate and went out to the veranda, electing to eat outside with the buzzing of cicadas.
He was a little surprised when Asuka joined him.
"Are you going on the trip?" she said, setting her food beside his.
He shook his head.
She seemed surprised. "Why not? All our friends are going."
He glanced at her in the fading evening light and searched for a reason. I need to stay here in case an Angel attacks so I can pummel it with my bare hands was probably not a good thing to tell her, and I don't see the point if you're not there… was… wait, was that his reason? He blinked.
"Earth to Shinji."
"Oh," he said, "uh… I can't swim."
That was technically accurate. He never had to swim; by the time he was old enough to learn he could already fly and whatever process he used to actually do that –he still wasn't sure how it worked- worked just as well underwater on land, and the longest he'd held his breath before was an hour, after which he got bored. He wasn't sure if he actually needed to breathe at all.
"You can't swim?"
He shook his head.
"How can you not know how to swim?"
He shrugged. "I lived up in the mountains. I never really had much of a chance, I guess."
She studied him, leaning on her hand, and took a slow, thoughtful bite. "Want me to teach you?"
YES.
"Uhh, maybe, umm, I guess…"
"Well, since I can't go on the stupid trip, you're invited to the pool in the recreation center tomorrow. Just don't get all pervy about me in my swimsuit."
She went back inside. Shinji glanced over his shoulder and watched her, just barely catching Misato's smirk.
SSSSS
One of the things that Rei noticed as she began to increase the frequency, duration, and complexity of her interactions with other people is that the more one remains quiet, the more one can observe and therefore infer about another's behavior. In situations where one is alone with another individual, this is a less effective strategy. When one is surrounded by very loud people, it is especially effective.
Rei applied this technique as she was swimming. She thoroughly enjoyed swimming and dedicated much time to it, despite the accusations of her peers that she spent all of her time outside of school and her piloting related duties hiding in her apartment. As such she was quite accomplished, and knifed through the water with the practiced ease of a veteran aquatic athlete. She completed another lap and righted herself, then began to tread water, watching the others.
Shinji had apparently upset Asuka somehow, in a way which related to his present activity, which consisted of sitting in a chaise lounge in his laptop with a stack of papers on a table to his right, a pencil clasped between his mouth. He was not dressed for swimming, instead wearing his customary school uniform. Asuka on the other hand was dressed for the activity, although she had not yet entered the pool. Unlike Rei's practical one-piece, Asuka wore a striped red and white bikini that was clearly chosen to emphasize her hips, legs and muscular torso. She bent over Shinji, causing him to blush profusely.
"What are you doing, anyway?" she demanded, nearly pushing her chest into Ikari's face.
"Science homework," he replied, leaning away from her.
"What is this? I can't read this crap."
"Thermal expansion," he said. "I can handle-"
"Here," she said, drawing closer to him as she typed on his laptop, "easy. It's a simple concept really, objects expand as they-"
At this point, she was interrupted as Mari ran into the gymnasium in a pink one piece swimsuit absent her customary glasses, screamed "Cannonball!" and leapt in the pool. When the resulting splash subsided, Rei poked her head out of the water, gasped for air, and surmised the results. Shinji had apparently moved to protect his laptop by swiveling around and shielding it with his body. This, in turn, caused him to strike Asuka in the legs and knock her over. Onto himself.
The results of this were quite fascinating. Asuka ended up straddling him, their faces nearly touching. She blushed profusely, as did he. They both stared at each other for a moment before Asuka rose in silence, looked at Mari, who was treading water and grinning, looked back to Shinji, and hauled him upright by his collar, shockingly strong for her size.
"Catch," she said, and shoved him into the pool.
"WaitIcan't-" his cry ended with as splash.
He sank immediately and began flaililng, spraying Rei and Mari with water. Rei backstroked away from him, shaking the water out of her eyes. Mari's grin widened.
"I"ll save you!"
"Like hell!" Asuka cried and ran full-tilt to the edge and then leapt into the water, splashing Mari with a face full of water.
The latter tackled the former, and they rolled through the water, sending up a turbulent stream of white bubbles as Shinji flailed, apparently forgotten. Rei decided it would be best if he did not drown and paddled over to him.
"Shinji," she said.
"Rei, help!"
"Stand up."
He stared at her for a moment, and then stood. The water barely reached his chest.
"Oh."
Without a word, Rei paddled away, ascended the ladder, and walked away from the pool in her bare feet.
"Shinji's looking at Rei's butt!" Mari yelled. "Get him!"
"You pervert!" Asuka screamed.
SSSSS
Misato stopped at the end of the hall, peering around the corner at the gymnasium, which was empty except for Asuka and Shinji, who were in the pool. Asuka was standing up in the shallow end beside Shinji, who was in his soaked school uniform. She heard Rei and Mari come up behind her and motioned for them to stop. Mari made an exaggerated motion of looking around the corner and Misato pre-empted whatever she was about to do by clamping a hand over her mouth. Rei calmly watched over Misato's shoulder.
"I said relax," Asuka insisted, putting one hand on Shinji's head and one on his chest. "Just lie back."
"Are you sure about this?"
"It's four feet deep, you coward," she said, her voice absent its usual edge.
Trembling, Shinji did as she asked, and his feet slipped out from under him. He gasped as he bobbed into the water, almost sinking for a moment before Asuka pulled him back to the surface. She put a hand on his stomach and pushed, forcing him to bend a bit in the middle until he assumed a natural, easy dead man's float.
"See?" she smiled, "it's not so hard."
"Yephhithith" Mari strained against Misato's hand.
"Shut up," Misato whispered.
Apparently this lesson wasn't going to go beyond the vital skill of lying in the water and staring up at the teacher, and so Misato turned to Rei.
"Hold her."
Rei nodded and assumed control of Mari, a hand blocking her mouth, the other around her waist to restrain her. Misato walked out towards the pool and when neither party noticed her, coughed. Asuka looked at her in horror, her mouth working silently. Shinji studied Asuka for a moment, and then followed her gaze to Misato, starting for a moment and sinking. He sputtered and Asuka instinctively grabbed him and hauled him to his feet, and both of them stood there in the water up to their chests, blushing, Shinji hanging onto Asuka as if he would sink to the bottom of the ocean if they let go.
"I need all the pilots in the briefing room in ten minutes," Misato said, "we have a mission."
She turned and walked back out into the hall, where Rei still held Mari.
"Can you control yourself?"
She glanced at Asuka and Shinji, then shook her head no.
"Rei, bring her."
Rei pulled Mari alongside her and followed Misato away from the gymnasium.
SSSSS
Asuka groaned and slapped the side of her head, trying to force the damnable water out of her ears. She hadn't had time for a proper shower, either, so the pool chemicals were no doubt playing havoc with her hair even at that very moment. She sat around the table in the cramped briefing room, still feeling damp under her dress, flanked by Mari and Rei, who at last wore something besides that stupid school uniform, favoring a conservative blue sundress she'd bought on their shopping trip after the Seventh Angel. Mari wore a NERV bathrobe. They never gave Asuka a bathrobe.
"This is our chance to go on the offensive," Misato announced, bringing up a view of Mt. Asama on the screen before them. "Four hours ago, a seismic probe encountered an anomaly within the magma in the volcano, here."
The screen flashed and an egg-shaped dark spot in a purple field appeared. "This doesn't look like much, but the void you see in this readout is incredibly dense and heavy, and it's moving. After they contacted us, we confirmed that there is a living creature down there."
"So what's the plan?" Asuka said.
"Simple. We're going to lower an Evangelion into the magma flow and retrieve it using a laser cage."
"What?" Asuka said flatly. "That's stupid."
"The D-Type equipment will protect Unit-02 from the heat and pressure, and we have a special plugsuit prepared for the wearer," Misato went on, ignoring her protest. "Rei will remain here on standby while Unit-01 and Unit-02 are transported to the volcano. Once there, Unit-02 will extract the Angel for analysis."
Mari nodded. "I can do it."
"No," Misato said. "This isn't an ego trip. Asuka is the most experience pilot, the most experience with Unit-02, and has the highest sync ratio. Mari, you'll be in Unit-01 for this operation on restricted power mode unless an emergency arises."
Both girls nodded. Asuka fought hard to clamp down on her smirk. Mari, for her part, didn't seem especially disturbed.
SSSSS
Shinji handed Misato her iced coffee and stood at attention, or something like it, next to her in the mobile command center set up at the base of the mountain. Maya, Hyuga, and Aoba were there, along with the support crew outside, swarming all over the steaming volcano like something out of The Lord of the Rings. At the summit, the huge gantry and laser drill, like a giant microscope, had been erected, and Unit-02, encased in the massive, diving-suit like D-Type equipment, hung over the opening, like bait dangled before a fish.
"Ready, Asuka?" Misato called.
"Roger," she replied by radio.
Unit-01 tensed at the edge of the crater, peering into the abyss in anticipation. As a signal from Misato, Unit-02 began to lower as the laser drill fired, each blast like a crack of thunder, leaving flash behind it. Shinji nervously touched his glasses, looking for the quickest exit from the cramped trailer where the operation was being coordinated, just in case. Asuka cleared the edge of the crater, disappearing into the red-hot, smoking opening.
"I'm in," she announced over the radio. "It's getting hot in here already."
"We're compensating," Misato said, nodding to Maya, who began working on the adjustments.
Shinji drummed his fingers on his arms as the cables continued to snake into the opening. Asuka went lower and lower, and the pressure gauges along the control panels spun further and further away from the minimum, the needles trembling. Shinji started to edge towards the door. He realized that he was truly, legitimately afraid. He wasn't sure he could survive molten rock. If the cables snapped, or something went wrong…
"Asuka," Misato said, "we have to abort, you're…"
"I'm almost there," she said, "I see it. Keep going."
Misato nodded and Maya looked over her shoulder nervously as the gauges reached their limits and struggled, needles quivering. Misato sucked in a breath and held it until finally, Asuka came back on the radio.
"I've got it," she said, relief plain in her voice, "pull me up."
"Extract," Misato said, and the cables reversed, tugging Unit-02 back out of the volcano.
Misato let out a long, rasping breath and relaxed visibly, until a light flashed on the panel in front of her.
"It's moving," Asuka said, panic rising in her voice, "it's breaking the cage!"
"Let it go," Misato said. "Get her out. Now."
"We're going as fast as we can," Hyuga said.
"It's out," Asuka said, "I dropped the cage. I can't see it. Shit, I dropped the prog knife."
"Send her another one."
The laser drill fired, and Unit-01 raised and then dropped a knife behind it. For an agonizing minute, there was silence.
"Got the knife. This thing is big… shit, it didn't hurt it! It's coming back! It's got the cables!"
Shinji started to edge towards the door.
"Wait, I've got an idea. My coolant's leaking… thermal expansion!"
"What? Misato said, "Asuka, what are you-"
"Turn the coolant pumps all the way up! Just do it!"
"Do it," Misato nodded.
Silence.
"I… I did it! It's dead! I did it!"
"Get her out," Misato said again, more sharply. Aoba turned and shook his head. "Pressure," he mouthed.
Shinji put his hand on the door.
"She's almost up," Maya said. "She's just under the surface…. Wait… this can't be right… it snapped! The cables are gone!"
Shinji started to move. There was a roar, a deep, baleful bellow that shook him to the bone, transfixed him in place, like the cry of a wounded god at the end of the world. He watched as Unit-01 sprang into action, jumping into the crater.
"Mari, what the hell are you doing?"
"It's not me!" Mari screamed, "It's moving on its own!"
"The connections are reversing! It's going berserk!" Maya cried.
With another bone-shaking roar, Unit-01 crested the crater, one hand dragging itself upwards, the other grasping the ruins of the coolant cables. Its faceplate had broken open, revealing teeth beneath. It threw back its head and roared, and with a final titanic effort shoved itself up onto cold ground and pulled Unit-02 behind it. Both slid down the side of the mountain, coming to a stop half way in a cloud of dust and smoke. Unit-01 took two steps, stooped, and went silent.
"I'm okay," Asuka said, "My power's almost out, but I'm okay. Thank you, Mari."
"Hey," Maya said. "Where's Shinji?"
Misato, staring in shock at the horned Evangelion, didn't quite hear her.
SSSSS
Asuka sat in the plug, desperate for a drink. How the hell could she be submerged in liquid and be thirsty? It made no sense. Something about that bothered her deeply until the LCL drained and the plug came open, the door lifting away. A hand reached down with a can of soda and she took it, grateful for the cold.
"Superman?" Asuka said in surprise, looking up through the door. "What the?"
"I was passing by," he shrugged, "I heard you making some distress calls. I see your friend has it well in hand, though. I'll be on my way. Have a nice day!"
"Okay," Asuka said after taking a long pull of cold soda, "that was weird."