by Greylle
DISCLAIMER: Original series belong to someone else.
NOTE: As mentioned earlier, this is one of the threads me and Kender Sci wrote over at the Anime Addventure. There will be slight changes to better fit the different format. This catches up with our current episodes, so things will slow down because the scenes are written on a rotation and weekly basis along with several other threads we juggle.
Chapter Eleven: Bardiel jumps the gun.
"You know, it's not like the city is going anywhere," Kaji commented as he looked towards the girl that was his charge.
Asuka spared him a hard glare before turning to face the cityscape passing by the window she was sitting at. "Hardly, although with all these attacks, who can be sure?"
"Well, isn't that why you are here?"
"I'll give you that much," she groused as she crossed her arms over her chest. "Until now, they've probably just been stumbling by."
"More than that, it seems."
"Humph. Like some newcomer can do better than I can."
"You have had more practice, it's true..." he allowed, recognizing that it just might be more trouble than it was worth to argue with her.
"Good to see that someone around here has some sense!"
"You're still not mad that the car didn't arrive when we did, are you?"
"Why would you think that?" the redhead sarcastically drawled, and then gave off a small 'humph'. "I mean, how hard could it be? They knew we were coming, and they were in radio contact with our boat. On top of that, they had to know that one of the important pilots was on board. Then why not have someone there to meet us?"
"I don't know. But right now I've got some things to handle."
"What? What's that?"
"I've got to make some phone calls."
It did not have a consciousness as the local population would have it. What it was able to understand was that it was in a major hub of travel for the Lilim. From there, plenty of places could be reached, and it would be done by the very species were its targets in this situation. That would make things much easier for it, and it would be allowed to move forward with less trouble than what might have otherwise been called for.
Yet, it needed something to travel in, and one package called to it. Something about the container seemed to resonate with it, and so it slid its formless self into the cracks to find what that was. Inside it discovered materials that not only had that which came from the Lilim, but had some contamination from forces linked to the Angels themselves. It was not that the fragile being that had packed this case was truly related to the being invading at the moment, but that it had been exposed to material that sang to the shapeless entity.
And that made it a perfect vessel to move into the outside world of this physical scape.
So, it was such that the case bulged and twisted in unnatural shapes until the material could no longer take it. Once that limit was reached, the container burst open, sending the contents that had not been changed across land like seeds from a pod. But life had been given to one item in particular, as something was moving on its own. In fact, it had such strength in its motion that gusts of wind were created so that items of great bulk were being slammed into walls, or were tumbling about. Not a sound was heard from the newborn menace, but it didn't need to vocalize anything, as it was showing enough to catch anyone's attention.
"Perhaps I can just rest until the... ache dissipates," Rei murmured, half to herself.
Misato caught the First Child's wariness and gave her an admonishing look before returning to rifle through the cabinets. By the way that she was going about it, one could tell that she really was looking for something. However, the sound of her clattering about was kind of troublesome for a girl unused to such agony.
"Having you force yourself to go to such lengths might just be unnecessary."
"Don't be silly," the older woman commented, waving off any concern. "It'll just be a little bit. Once I've gotten my patented 'hangover cure' finished, you'll be as good as new."
"Are you certain about that?"
"Of course. I've taken it, and look at how I've turned out."
There was a moment where the pale girl just stared at the Operations Director, but once the phone started to ring, she moved off to answer it without a word.
"This is just so stupid. Why is it always that they are so worried about these sort of thing? They always complain when I do it, but never have a problem when Ritsuko puts in an idea. I mean, damn it, I should have some experience with this sort of thing."
Silence met her words, but perhaps then that was an answer of its own.
Grumbling under her breath, Misato stuck her head back in the cabinet and then began to rummage through the contents to see what she could find.
"Captain, I believe that you should stop," Rei stated.
"Oh, really? Why is that?"
The teenager held out the phone towards her. "This call is for you."
The older soldier had obviously seen more than a few years in the service. His uniform was worn with the familiarity of long use, he didn't have the stiffness of some of his younger comrades, and he clearly knew what he was doing. Such a man wasn't the sort to put out on recruiting posters, but he was good when one needed someone who'd get the job done.
"Just how are we supposed to fight that?" the younger soldier put in.
But right now, he was as lost as his subordinates were at the moment. "Not quite sure myself. This hasn't come up in the training drills before."
"I kind of doubt that they had ever thought that this would be happening."
"That's easy to see, kid."
"Unlike this. Not that I can believe this." Blowing out a breath, the younger soldier shook his head. "Of course, I don't know if anyone would really think of seeing giant flying panties being on their list of possible threats."
As he was currently looking at what the other soldier had said, the older man found that he couldn't dispute the statement about the panties... because there really was a giant pair of panties flapping its sides like wings. Now, they were pretty panties, but that was besides the point. Each move of its improvised 'wings' were making gusts that were blowing everything in their path away. At the same time, anyone trying to do anything near it was blinded by being covered in that soft fabric.
Somehow though, he rather doubted that he'd want to know just what sort of huge ass fit into that garment.
Wondering if this would constitute a good time to get drunk, he let that be.
"A giant set of panties is attacking Tokyo-3?" asked Ritsuko Akagi, ignoring the coffee cup which had just shattered at her feet. "If this is a joke, I am NOT laughing."
The bridge crew looked at each other before Aoi clicked a switch and changed the display.
Silk they were, shimmering softly in the morning light. Flying along with apparently no concern for the missiles and bullets that were being fired on it.
"Why does it have Asuka's name stenciled on it?" asked one of the bridge operators when a view from a helicopter was transmitted.
"Asuka's panties are attacking Tokyo-3?" asked Ritsuko, because she was really really really having trouble with this situation.
"The Magi agree, it's an Angel," said Aoi without looking towards Doctor Akagi. Mainly because the Doctor was not really looking her best at the moment.
"Asuka's panties are an Angel that is attacking Tokyo-3?" asked Ritsuko, still trying to wrap her mind around the idea.
"Though Caspar seems to think it's more of a kaiju than anything else," said Aoi.
"Kaiju panties?" asked Satsuki.
"What are we going to call it? Pantiel? Pantizilla?" asked Aoi. "Silkthra?"
Ritsuko twitched several times, lit a cigarette, began to smoke it, and realized she already had a cigarette in her mouth. "Where's Unit 1?"
"We've already contacted Ranma, but he says he can't go hand-to-hand with a pair of panties," said Satsuki. "Even kaiju panties."
"Why not?" asked Ritsuko as she tried to concentrate on the emergency at hand.
"Because he would expect some 'uncute tomboy' to appear out of nowhere and use some blunt instrument to smack him around for being a pervert," said Satsuki.
"What?" asked Ritsuko.
"I don't get it either, but that's what he said," explained Satsuki. "Also that some 'old freak' should really love this."
Ritsuko's anger was suddenly almost a tangible presence in the room. "He called me WHAT?"
"I don't think he was referring to you, Doctor," said Satsuki.
Ritsuko was apparently not listening. "That boy thinks his last exam was a problem, just wait till next time."
There were a number of NERV personnel who had a sudden flash of sympathy for a certain son of Gendo Ikari.
"WACHOOO!"
"Please. Not so loud, Ranma-kun."
"Sorry, Rei."
"Here we go!" cheerfully interjected Misato. "Misato's Number One Sure-fire Hangover Cure!"
"It looks dubious somehow."
"Hey, I've got a lot of experience with hangovers. Trust me on this."
Asuka walked past the TVs in a huff. Then came to such a complete stop that she actually stumbled on forward momentum for a moment. Slowly she turned and stepped back towards the TVs that had been set up as a display at the train station.
Yes, that was a pair of her panties. Even had her name written there from when she'd been sharing a room with that twit girl.
"WHY IS A PAIR OF MY PANTIES ON TV?" demanded Asuka.
"They appear to be attacking Tokyo-3," noted Kaji. "You really need to be more careful with your choice of detergents you know."
"WHY ARE MY PANTIES ATTACKING TOKYO-3?" demanded Asuka.
Her grip was so tight on her replacement coffee mug that it seemed to creak under her hold, but Ritsuko didn't seem to notice. Of course, given that her attention was locked onto the screen, that was only natural. Every bit of her body was tensed, as if she was ready to move on a moment's notice. However, she was also as still as could be, making her look as if she were made of porcelain.
"It looks like it's not hiding where it's been going," Satsuki murmured.
Aoi gave a small snicker. "Not that we didn't already know."
"The only question is how its going to attack us."
"You want to try guessing?"
"Yeah, right."
Listening to their banter, Ritsuko ground her teeth together, and couldn't fight the rising annoyance growing in her. None of them seemed to be aware of just how serious this really was. For her, this wasn't just some silly game to watch, but was an emergency that had to be taken care of right now. Someone had to be the sensible one here, and she was damned well going to make sure that it was her.
"Snap it up, all of you!" the scientist declared. "We have a job to do!"
"Well, sure, but..." Aoi started.
"No 'buts'!"
"Actually... we don't know what it can do."
"On top of that," Satsuki put in, "we don't know how to hurt it."
"Exactly. What do we do then?"
With a twitch going on in her eyebrow, Ritsuko hunched her shoulders before going to glare mightily at all of them. "Stop with the gossip!"
"Ummm... Ma'am?"
"Get to work already! Bring up the defenses!"
"We can't. Not completely..." admitted Aoi.
"Why not! We have a fight with an Angel on our hands."
"Captain Katsuragi isn't here."
"So?"
"Doctor," Satsuki put in. "She's the Director of Operations, and is the only one with the codes and authority to get everything running to one hundred percent."
Looking sheepish, Aoi ducked her head. "And we've only got secondary officers available for the job."
As she heard the words, Doctor Akagi let out a low growl that came from deep in her throat as she began to realize that things were building against her.
In the still of the air above Tokyo-3, the sound of something flapping could be heard, and was echoing through the canyons made by the towering buildings. Gusts charged down the streets, with anything loose being blown away without mercy or thought. It seemed that the very air itself had become the city's enemy.
But what was really attacking the metropolis was the giant pair of panties currently hovering over the landscape. It had slowed its advance, but it was also clearly not about to stop. Almost as if it was trying to figure out something, it wobbled from side to side. Going from that, it took a leaning towards the ground, trying to crash through the surface, but its body wasn't hard enough to manage it.
Then it pulled back, and seemed to flutter just a bit, almost as it was trembling. For a moment, it seemed as if nothing more was going to happen, but in a flash, the giant set of panties just... exploded. That wasn't to say that it disappeared in a blast of smoke and fire, but that it popped into many pieces that were apparently falling towards the concrete below. Yet, as they went, they did not float down as might be expected by the cloth. Rather, they sailed down, in very specific trajectories, heading along in ways that were simply not natural.
However, nothing about this was natural, and this was just one more part of it. Instead of just being torn pieces of fabric, these were fully set pieces of lingerie that were moving just as the larger original had been. Simple white cotton flew between the towers, skimpy bits of lace glided past windows, and even bits of satin could be glimpsed in the cloud of panties now crowding the streets.
And each and every one of them was heading for any entrance to the underground structures that they could find.
"How can this be?" Ritsuko asked as she dropped her mug with one hand and reached for her pack of cigarettes.
"What is that? Her third cup?" Satsuki whispered to her fellow 'bridge bunny'.
Speaking just as lowly, Aoi shook her head. "Her fourth, I think."
Fortunately for them, the object of their discussion was not listening, and was currently heaving great puffs from her latest cigarette. (Which had joined the unlit one already in her mouth.)
Fortunately, someone had realized that Misato could call in an order.
"Everyone to shelters! Use all means of destroying Asuka's panties... You know, that just sounds so completely wrong."
"Wow," noted Makoto as he watched the carnage on the screen. "Other than they're moving around on their own power, they seem fairly normal. I think this is the first time the NORMAL weapons have had any effect on an Angel."
"It's... working?" asked Ritsuko.
"Confirmed, each has a weak AT field," said Maya from her own console. "Correction - the invading panties are now evading the emplaced weapons. We're still getting a few though."
"Misato, where are you now?" asked Ritsuko of the speaker-phone.
"On my way, Rei is sobering up," said Misato's voice.
BLEARGHHHHHHHHH! went something else heard over the speaker.
"AGHHH! Don't throw up in my CAR!" said Misato's voice.
"She's probably driving like a maniac again," noted Ritsuko.
"What are those panties doing?" asked Maya, pulling up and enlarging a picture.
"Isn't that two of the boys from Shinji's school?" asked Ritsuko. "What are they doing out of the shelters?"
"Looks like they're running like their lives depended on it," said Makoto. "With about thirty panties in pursuit."
"Well, of course," pointed out Shigeru. "I mean just think about it. If you were killed by a pair of panties, that would just suck. Even your ancestors would be ashamed of you. Even if you survived, you'd never live it down."
There were a few stares at Shigeru for that. Not that anyone was disputing it, perhaps. Just that the subject had come up was sufficiently worthy of a few stares.
Asuka watched as panties fluttered around the glass doors even as Kaji dragged another chair over to become part of the barricade.
"My panties are invading Tokyo-3," said a disbelieving Asuka. "How can this day get any worse?"
CRASH! went one of the windows as a flock of silk, rayon, and cotton came in.
"AGHHH!" said Asuka just before she was inundated.
Kaji stared as Asuka was engulfed, though it was obvious she was going down fighting. He stood near the restroom for a few moments as the attack occurred, not attacking the panties himself because they had apparently not noticed him yet and he was kind of unsure as to how to go about actually damaging the things anyway.
When the panties finally cleared away, Kaji could see that Asuka now looked kind of zombie-ish?
Years of experience had taught Kaji to be really careful about keeping himself safe. He knew that one misstep could result in him losing his life, and he had little desire to even go with the 'survivable' encounters with dangers. Being maimed held little attraction for him, and he really didn't want to tempt fate any time soon.
Still, Asuka was not only his charge, but he kind of liked her... in a 'little sister' sort of way. No matter how much she tried to act all grown up, she was still a teenager, and was a young one at that. Someone had to watch out for her, and he figured that he was the best choice at the moment.
Besides, someone had to see what those panties would be doing to a person.
He had little to worry about in being able to see her, as the panties fluttered off almost as quickly as they had come. It was like they were merely a force of nature that would quickly swoop over anything in their path. If anything, they didn't seem to be physically dangerous, as he could still see her body was intact. Whatever they had been trying to do hadn't been a direct attack, as they hadn't even tried to use their momentum to do any real damage.
What he discovered though was that not all of the panties had left. From the rumpled state of her clothes, she was showing much more of herself than she normally would have allowed, so he was able to see that the panties that she had put on were still where she'd slid them onto. Yet there was another pair of panties... which were on the wrong end. Almost as if she was trying to be a stereotypical pervert, she had a pair of panties over her head, pulled down so hard that the elastic had been hooked onto her nose. This allowed for the leg holes to be positioned to be almost able to let her eyes be uncovered.
From her slack jaw and her glazed eyes, it was clear that she was out of it... if she was even in control of her own body. This didn't seem to be the case, as she jerked up to a sitting position, heedless of the bedraggled state that she was in would take any dignity that she had. Instead, she shuffled to her feet, twitching and moving stiffly, as if she was trying to telegraph in her movements. She didn't seem to care though, as she merely gave of a low moan, which was apparently the limit of her vocabulary right then. When she got somewhat steady on her feet, she stopped for a moment before turning back to him. Her hands went out to reach for him, and somehow, he rather didn't think that it was for a simple hug.
Near as he could tell, she was under the thrall of the panties, and as bad as that sounded in theory, it was even worse to see in person. Seeing as he really didn't want to go through that himself, he figured that it would be best to beat a hasty retreat. Despite how much he might have had been fond of that girl, he was not about to fall to their enemies.
With that in mind, he beat a hasty retreat until he could figure out how to make this better.
"AGHHHHHHHH!" screamed Kensuke Aida. "They got me! Help me, Toji!"
Toji Suzuhara glanced back, then switched back to forward. "Sorry. Fighting flying panties is NOT something I've trained for."
"SUZUUUUHAARAAAAA!" screamed someone as the panties swirled around the figure in their midst.
"Are you recording this? Fascinating!" said Ritsuko Akagi.
"That he abandoned his friend?" asked Makoto Hyuga.
"No, he probably realized he had no chance against a swarm of that size," said Ritsuko. "No, I mean the data."
"Lucky it happened where we could monitor," said Maya, her tone indicating some sarcasm involved in that statement.
A scream sounded inside the swarm, quickly cut off.
"That... sounded like a girl's scream?" asked Makoto.
"The boy's gone, instead that... looks kinda like Asuka," noted Shigeru Aoba as the security cameras caught another panty-zombie shambling off as the swarm dispersed.
"Hairlength's the same as the boy, tentative ID is Kensuke Aida. Eyes are a different color, so is the hair. Less massive though what I've got on Aida indicates not much of a difference."
"I'm sure HE would beg to differ," pointed out Makoto. "If he weren't zombied-out."
"At least they're not wandering around eating brains," said Maya, trying to find a bright side in all this.
"I am experiencing some difficulties in ambulation," stated Rei.
"We noticed," said Misato as she watched Ranma walking Rei along the corridor to the elevators.
"So, Ritsuko?" Misato asked of her cellphone. "What's the sitrep?"
"Uhm, this is Maya Ibuki. Ritsuko won't give a situation report right now because saying that there are panty-zombies trying to get into NERV would be... troublesome."
"'panty-zombies'?" asked Misato.
"Ya know, if they were trying for surprise, they certainly got it," said Ranma. "How many people would expect flying panties and panty-zombies to assault our hidden-sinister-looking base in some panty-ocalypse."
"'Panty-ocalypse'?" asked Misato, wondering how much RANMA had been drinking.
"You prefer 'Panty-aggedon'?" asked Ranma, trying the term out.
"Stop that. Stop right now," warned Misato.
"Well," said Maya on the phone, "at least we've found effective countermeasures. If you wash down the panties they can't fly. The panty-zombies are also repelled by Fabrezetm."
"Just when I think the situation can't get much more bizarre," said Misato as they got on the lift to take them to Unit 00.
"Story of MY life," quipped Ranma.
"I thought you were drunk," said Misato. "No tolerance for alcohol."
Ranma shrugged. "I also get over it fast. Good metabolism I s'pose."
"So everyone who gets zombified ends up as a red-haired blue-eyed girl vaguely resembling Asuka?" asked Makoto.
"That's what it looks like," said Maya, bringing up a security camera showing dozens of panty-zombies trying to use another panty-zombie as a battering ram on the security door of the subway station. "Though I don't think she looks much like Asuka, especially with those glasses."
"THERE!" said Shigeru, bringing up another camera's footage. "That's the Core."
The various NERV personnel looked over the single pair of red panties amongst the various beige and white and pink and other colors.
"That's got to be it," admitted Ritsuko.
"So now what? Do we launch Unit 00 and Rei?" asked Makoto, looking back at where Fuyutsuki and Gendo were in their usual spots.
All those in the chamber seemed to hold their breath at once. What would be said next would determine what course of action events would take, and so they waited for the sign of the coming situation. It was going to be of such great import that none of them could afford to miss it, and so only the bleating of alarms and beeping of sensor panels could be heard. That silence would be needed to hear whatever series of instructions that would be needed to explain the depth of the plan that their bosses had come up with.
"No," stated Gendo.
There were several moments when the staff all thought that they had missed something, but then it became clear that nothing more was coming.
And for his part, the Commander didn't seem to be in a hurry to elaborate.
"Is that it?" Makoto asked, glancing over at his fellow operators.
Maya gave a small shrug. "Don't look at me."
As confusion began to reign, it became clear that someone had to explain, and Fuyutsuki had to step in to bridge that gap. "It would be counterproductive to have someone, even in an Evangelion, try to directly face off against those things."
"Okay... If you say so."
"He's right," Ritsuko admitted, closing her eyes and sighing. "If we put Rei out there like this, we could put her out as a possible target. We'd be in trouble if they got to her, and we don't know how it would affect Unit 00 itself."
"Plus, it would be troublesome to having to target so many small attackers," the vice commander added. "That would be akin to trying to hit a fly with a tank."
"Then that would be a bad thing," Ibuki allowed.
"What else can we do though?" asked Makoto.
Peering over the computer operators, Ritsuko raised a brow at them. "We keep on with long range attacks. Water guns should help, and hoses might be even better. Though, we might just have to use the automated guns on those things."
"We're going to shoot panties?"
"At the very least, we can thin the numbers until we can get a real plan to get to that core."
"So... all we have to do is to make it easy to get at the panties."
Several sets of eyes turned to look at the man in the glasses, with the feminine ones more wary than the others.
Makoto squeaked in a panic. "What? I didn't mean it that way!"
"Really..." Maya murmured.
"In any case, we have work to do," Ritsuko reminded them all. "Get all barrier systems prepared to prevent unauthorized intrusion."
"Keep the First Child on standby. We may need to send her out later, if the opportunity presents itself," Gendo instructed.
"Of course, sir."
Each of them turned back to their work, glad to have some sort of plan for this... oddity.
Asuka-zombie joined the other zombies as they came to a crosswalk, waited patiently for the Walk light to come on, crossed the road in a shambling gait, and then began their way to the train station.
"They... waited for the light to change?" asked Maya.
"Well, that's just kind of..."
"COMMANDER! They've infiltrated Shelter 5!" said one of the bridge bunnies, Satsuki. "They made it through the air shafts somehow."
"Oh, that can't possibly end well," commented Fuyutsuki drily into the intervening silence.
"Indeed," said Gendo Ikari.
On the screen, Asuka went up to the gate and swiped her NERV ID badge through the card reader.
BZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ!
"Whoever had the presence of mind to invalidate her card, well done," said Makoto.
"Thanks," said Maya.
Asuka continued swiping her card through the reader a few times.
The other panty-zombies milled around while she was doing that.
Finally Asuka-zombie had enough and simply climbed past the turnstile and began beating at the door with the others.
"They can't possibly break through like that," said Shigeru.
"That might be why they're making a battering ram out of that bench," pointed out Makoto.
"Panties reported swarming in Koreatown," said Shigeru, referring to a section of Tokyo-3 that had a large immigrant population.
"They're in the hangar bay!" reported Maya, wondering how they'd managed that - wasn't it hermetically sealed? Oh right. Repair operations on the refrigerant lines today.
"Seal off the hangar bay," ordered Gendo. "Where are the pilots?"
"Ranma and Misato are entering the Entry Plug of Unit 1, Rei is already in the Entry Plug of Unit 00," reported Maya.
"What about the technicians?" asked Fuyutsuki, dreading the answer.
"Mostly trying to lock themselves in equipment lockers and otherwise out of panty range," reported Maya. "I can't believe I just said that."
"Guards with super-soakers are responding to the hangar," reported Shigeru. "Meanwhile there's a panty-line forming around Shelter 6! Huh. I see what you mean. Can't believe I'm saying that."
"This is like one of those old 'movie of the week' things they used to show on the Sci-Fi Channel," said Fuyutsuki with a tone of nostalgia.
Misato sat in the dark behind Ranma and tried not to think about a great many things.
Ranma sat with Misato in the dark and listened to the occasional tap or sliding noise that indicated that panties were attacking his giant robot.
"Why aren't the lights on?" asked Misato after awhile.
"One of the techs would have to turn it on, right?" asked Ranma. "Besides, then we'd end up with the cockpit full of that LCL crap."
"Oh, right." Misato was silent for a few moments.
"You know, there's just something WRONG about this situation," said Ranma.
"What is?" asked Misato, thinking about being in a darkened room with a buffly toned young man who did NOT look at all like he was as young as he was. As he'd gotten a shower while sobering up, she could smell freshly scrubbed male flesh and... was that a citrusy sort of scent?
"We're in a giant robot, in a hidden underground base, surrounded by the enemy, and defending the world... from panties," said Ranma.
Misato blinked, though her eyes weren't processing anything beyond dark. "Isn't there supposed to be emergency lighting in these?"
"I think someone has to turn that on," said Ranma.
"Great," said Misato. "Maybe someone on the bridge can turn them on. They have to know we're here."
On the NERV bridge, they were dealing with another problem altogether.
When considering the work around the Instrumentality Project, much of it was still unknown. That wasn't to say that those were keeping that part secret, as they lacked the knowledge to completely understand what was going on with those materials. Much was still beyond human comprehension, and only a combination of having learned enough to make some use of the processes, and plain old blind arrogance got them as much headway as they had gotten. Now, even those doing the high level scheming knew that there were massive gaps in their knowledge, and had always tried to plan accordingly.
Right about then, Gendo Ikari was trying really hard not to wonder if there was more in Heaven and Earth than even he knew.
"It seems that we have a... problem," Makoto commented on what he'd put on the screen.
"I can see that," the Supreme Commander murmured. "How did it get loose?"
Maya didn't look up from her terminal as she spoke. "Apparently, there has some sort of infiltration... issue in the containment area. What's not clear is if there was some sort of intrusion there, but it seems that some, if not all, of the staff ran for secure cover, and... 'left the door open', so to speak."
"Which made for what we are seeing now."
"Yes, sir."
"Wonderful. So now we have to deal with something like double the enemy power," Doctor Akagi griped, with her teeth clenched and her brow twitching.
"No, it seems that she's fighting on our side."
Being stuck in this sort of situation had not been something that Makie was all that keen on. After being locked up by those mean looking adults, she'd been left alone with the door open. At first, worry over being yelled at had kept her from seeing what was outside, but then it got too creepy to stick around. So she'd slipped through the door, hoping that she wouldn't get into too much trouble for doing so.
What was outside was even worse as she'd been chased after by moaning people with panties on their heads. If that hadn't been bad enough, flying pieces of said lingerie had tried to dive bomb her several times. Every instinct in her body told her that she did not want those icky pervert drones getting their hands on her. As it was, they were a lot of blind drive as they never wavered from their course.
On the other hand, she wanted their paths to go far away from her, and so she tried to keep them away from her. Thrusting out her hands to shove them away worked pretty well, considering that they tended to go flying backwards as she did so. Her ribbon helped, as she used it to not only grab and toss troublemakers, but was able to whip opponents down. Then she could use her long legs to kick them, which she actually did with some flair as flipped over one zombie and dropped her heel onto the head of another. And the biggest help was that the gymnastics knowledge that she had helped her twist and bend out of the way of all the grabbing hands.
Besides, she had other things to do, since she knew that there were some nice people around who could use some help.
The words that Ritsuko Akagi used were not pretty, printable, or all that calm.
Makoto pushed his glasses higher on his nose and gave a small cough. "It seems that the combat effectiveness of the... captured and transformed... enemy is high."
"From these readings, it looks like she is subconsciously using her AT-Field for assistance," Maya put in. "Also, the interactions between them makes it look like the wavelengths are wrong for one... enemy's abilities to work on another, at least like this."
"Isn't a bit odd that she looks really cute doing what she is?" Shigeru drawled as he watched one of the transformed girl's smooth legs as she went for a jumping point.
All the others there just stopped and stared at him.
"What?"
"A-hem," coughed Ritsuko. "I believe that we have other concerns at the moment."
"Quite," Gendo agreed.
As far as SHE was concerned, she was Makie Sasaki. A young girl who was interested in several things - rhythmic gymnastics being one of them.
As far as the bridge personnel were concerned, she was an Angel who'd apparently switched sides and was now fighting the Angel that had come after her.
"If we defeat this Angel, and it surrenders," began Shigeru.
"Ungh," said Ritsuko Akagi, looking as if she had a headache which was about to upgrade itself.
Shigeru had paused at that soft exclamation from Doctor Akagi, but then forged on. "Do you suppose we can get better use out of them? I mean, even if she doesn't remember being an Angel - we have to be able to get better data on AT fields and how to use them. Just look at what she's doing with that ribbon."
"You mean how it goes from being a prehensile weapon to something that can slash through panties to then form a spiral defense around her?" asked Makoto, his voice speculative.
"Well, it's better than dealing with panty-zombies," Shigeru pointed out.
"I would debate skrlenx," said Ritsuko.
Everyone on the bridge immediately looked towards Doctor Ritsuko Akagi. Everyone on the bridge immediately noticed the pair of panties on her head. Everyone on the bridge immediately looked up at a ventillation shaft, the grill for which was now seriously skewed away from the shaft.
Later on, Gendo Ikari swore that anyone who reported he'd screamed like a little girl would be quickly discovered to be a traitor and shot.
Right now though, everyone was busy scrambling to get away.
Ranma took a deep breath, calming himself.
"Don't do that!" exclaimed Misato, you'll use up all our air.
"Don't talk," said Ranma. "Uses up more air."
Misato stared at the darkness where Ranma was. No lights, no noise other than breathing and the occasional sliding noise as something moved across the Eva's armor, nothing to do except wait.
Ranma had just counted to twenty when Misato asked the question he'd been expecting.
"How long do you suppose..."
"Misato, meditate if you can. It'll use less air."
"I don't know how to do that."
"Learn."
Getting into a fight had not been what Makie had been aiming for, but then that was what she had gotten. It wasn't that she wanted to hurt the people, as they weren't exactly trying to be mean. They were just acting really strange, and she couldn't blame them. There was just something about those strange panties that made it so that things were twisted out there.
That was probably due to the fact that the pieces of lingerie that were not on people's head were flying around on their own like little birds.
Still, if she was going to have to fight, then that was what she was going to do. Twirling about, she swung her ribbon in an arc around her, using it to whip several zombies around her. Then she went into a crouch, one leg stretched out long in front of her. Doing so gave her some breathing room, and allowed her to take the panties by surprise, as she twirled her ribbon in a spiral, making the lingerie hit into each other, and get all tangled up.
However, the zombies weren't about to let her go with that, and they tried to grab at her. One even wound up groping her backside, and she didn't take too kindly to that. With a shriek, she used her ribbon to grab hold of the apparent pervert, and then launched him away. Not wanting a repeat grope, she did a couple of quick whippings so that those around her wound up being knocked to the floor.
Taking a step away from the group, she looked up to see a flock of panties making a dive bomb at her... until they were knocked away by several streams of water.
After a moment of surprise, she glanced over at the source of the attack, and saw a group of uniformed figures carrying squirt guns, shooting at the various flying bits of cotton and lace. The new arrivals were intent on soaking the mobile garments, which was good, but the best thing about them was that they had no panties on their heads. Instead, they seemed to have clear thoughts as they went about shooting wherever they saw flapping lingerie. That did send the bits of fabric into disarray, but there was one thing that she did notice.
"You keep on missing them," she complained.
One of the non-zombies scowled at her. "You think that you could do better?"
"I don't know, but... Can't you hit where they are going to be? Or at least hit the entire area, so that they can't go anywhere?"
At first, it had seemed that the officer who had spoken earlier was going to snap back, but then he stopped himself. He and his comrades looked at each other for a long moment, and then seemed to grudgingly agree to something. They didn't say what they had decided... but it became clear once they set up a mist that soaked bunches of panties at once.
With that being the case, it set up an area effect that cleared airspace of underwear attackers. Then again, the panties weren't going to let that go unanswered, and tried to buzz the defenders several times. It didn't really work, as Makie got them close together as she used her ribbon to create a mobile barrier to block attacks.
One young soldier did trip though, and he wound up falling outside of their perimeter. Getting a new headdress might have been in his future, but Makie reacted without though, and wrapped one end of her ribbon around his ankle and pulled. As she did that, one of the others took a bottle from a supply cart and heaved it right at the panties heading for him so hard that the container burst as it hit the wall. Their combination helped get him back to safety... and gave the ribbon user a surprise when she saw the panties fluttering to the floor.
"Why aren't they flying?" she asked no one in particular.
"Can't tell for sure..." began one of her impromptu allies. "But I'd guess that they don't have enough stiffness to make for good wings."
"What was in that bottle?"
"Fabreze, I think," the thrower from earlier answered.
"We gotta get more of that stuff," Makie murmured, as she looked around her group at the combination of zombies and flying panties.