A month had passed since the 'Blob and the Pyromaniac' incident, which had been explained by a sheepish Shinji ('I mean, the thing had gone from being cooked food to some kind of sentient life form. And don't we deal with all the weird stuff?').
As Misato made her way to the gym in NERV HQ in her usual rig of sports bra and gym shorts, she was struck dumb at the sight before her.
A man was using the chin-up bar. He was dressed in a white t-shirt and pair of black track pants. He wasn't overly muscular, but was ripped. It was like looking at an anatomical chart. All she could see was his back, with all the muscles rippling from the strain which his damp shirt clung to, his arms coated with a light sheen of sweat.
Unconsciously licking her lips, she moved further into the gym as she tried to check out who he was. She had been on a dry spell of a year now, the longest she had gone without any. And, there was no harm in window shopping.
Right?
Normally, Misato would not hit on her colleagues, liking to keep a professional distance from all of them. But, pickings were slim and because of her 'Christmas Cake' status, she knew she didn't have a chance at even a short-term, casual relationship.
All her one-night stands had been sad, selfish and absolutely lacklusture. They all were looking to just fuck and leave, and didn't even think of her pleasure.
And she hated it.
That was partly why she was currently celibate. And the second reason was walking in beside her.
Shinji Ikari had been literally a godsend for her. A completely housebroken teenager, who had her cutting back on her beer in a controlled manner and was very free with hugs. The last bit had started after she had returned to the apartment at the end of a long day. Shinji, who had already left for home, had taken one look at her and came over and gave her a hug. At first she had been surprised, but once her brain computed that yes it was a hug and no, he was not trying to cop a feel, she returned it.
When she asked why he did it, his reply was a pithy "You looked like you could use a hug" But the warm smile he gave her made her understand what he was trying to get across.
Misato had cried herself to sleep that night.
"Makoto-sensei!" Shinji called from her left, startling Misato from both her reverie and her ogling...wait Makoto? What the hell else was he hiding under those khaki uniforms of his?
"Hey Shinji! Ready for CQC?" Makoto asked as he turned around to look at them and Misato felt a thunderbolt strike her.
Why the hell hadn't she realised that Makoto looked this damn delicious?
A sharp jaw emphasised his leanness, framing a warm face with kind eyes, topped off by a closely cropped head of hair with spikes along the front. And he was ripped. Misato had to exert every bit of her discipline to not drool.
Yes, women are turned on by the sight of a ripped male form. Doesn't mean they'll always tap it, but yeah.
Then what was said filtered into her head.
"Wait, what?" she said in surprise as Shinji happily jumped onto the sparring mat to square off against Makoto.
"Relax ma'am, Shinji's good. Need him to work on his footwork though, which is what we're going to do today" he replied as he joined Shinji on the mats.
The two fell into ready stances, neither of them moving. Then on some unspoken signal, the two moved.
What followed was a blur of motion, Shinji swaying out of the way of Makoto's punch, striking at him from under his guard, Makoto blocking, his counter strike in the form of a sweeping kick, Shinji leaping over it as he struck at him with a kick, Makoto ducking under it as he front rolled and got into Shinji's guard and a straight jab struck Shinji full force onto his crossed arms. A second punch impacted him under his ribs, knocking the air out of him. Shinji struck back with a kick, which Makoto redirected away from him with his right arm. Getting inside his guard, Makoto struck with a lightning fast one-two combo, knocking aside Shinji's half-formed guard, the second hitting him in his jaw, jerking his head back. The leg to overbalance him was the finisher, causing Shinji to fall flat on his back, knocking him out.
The bout barely lasted five seconds.
Before Misato was aware, she was already cradling Shinji's head in her lap, frantic with worry.
"Shin-chan? Shinji? Wake up, Shinji!" she called, as she gently slapped his cheeks. Makoto brought a bottle of water and sprinkled water on his face, causing his eyes to flutter open, slightly groggy and hazy.
"M...mum?" he said, his voice a little heavy from his recent bout of unconsciousness. His whisper caused a warm something shoot through Misato.
"Oh...um" was the articulate reply when he regained his bearings. It felt like someone had doused her in ice water.
"How long have you two been training like this?" she asked, her ire well and truly stoked. Shinji blinked at her like a cute puppy, forcing her to suppress a smile as she did not want to cuddle him right now.
"Since I landed up here. Makoto-sensei has been training me in CQC so that I stop fighting like a headless chicken" Shinji replied, his voice quite calm.
On Misato shooting Makoto a glare, he raised his hands in a placatory manner, defending himself "I said he needed to improve on his hand-to-hand skills when he approached me for CQC training. Seriously ma'am!" he yelped, as Misato's glare upgraded from 'anti-tank round' to 'thanix cannon round'. She rounded on Shinji, who wilted under her glare.
"And you! From now on, I or Rits will monitor any training you are going to undergo, clear?!" she barked out at him like he were a newly minted cadet. She watched in satisfaction as Shinji gulped at that.
"Yes ma'am!" he replied, just as alarms began to ring inside the base.
The three shared a look and rushed to the elevator, to the accompaniment of the warning.
"Pattern Blue. Fourth Angel detected"
-NGE:RX-
"Play it again"
"But.."
"I said play it again"
A sigh is heard and a recording of the battle with the Fourth Angel, designated Shamshael, began playing again.
The purple, vaguely (disturbingly) phallic like Angel bypassed the ground defenses, floating serpentinely in the air.
Suddenly, it was smashed down into the shallows by an armoured, purple coloured giant. Said giant was about to stab it in the core with a progressive knife, when it was blasted off of the Angel by its AT-field. The giant tucked itself into a ball as it somersaulted, but the Angel used one of it's whip-like appendages to pierce the giant and slam it into the ground, breaking the giant's left arm in the process.
The viewer filtered out the radio chatter of the recording, focused on what occurred during the battle.
As the Angel made to attack the stunned Evangelion, JSSDF CAS, artillery and armour engaged the Angel, buying the pilot of the Eva precious seconds. As it turned it's attention on the interlopers, charging up an energy blast. The Eva's right hand shot out to stab the Angel in it's body. In response, it slammed its whips onto the Eva, jolting it with electricity.
On another screen, a recording of the pilot ran, overlaid with a display of his vitals and synchronisation, showing him gritting his teeth as the sympathetic pain ran through his body at the electrical discharge. He then said one word.
"Die"
The Eva was surrounded in a corona of orange electricity, its armour morphing from purple to black, with its eyes glowing an eerie red. Its apparently broken left arm, now healed,grabbed the Angel by it's neck. The orange electricity gathered onto a single point, the tip of the progressive knife still held in the Eva's right hand, which stabbed into the Angel's core, overwhelming it's AT-field with a sound akin to the shattering of the largest pane of plate glass.
The electricity discharged into the Angel's body, cooking it instantly.
"I guess that's well done" commented the pilot, causing an annoyed response from the command center about arrogance and self-praise to be doled out to the pilot.
If it was possible for an Eva to look bewildered, the formerly purple coloured unit did a good job of it.
"What? No! Look at it!" at which the Eva gestured to the carcass hanging from it's knife, in a parody of a fisherman with a prize fish.
"It's well done" the pilot said again, making a slow up-and-down motion with the Eva's free hand, causing the CIC to burst into merriment when the joke was understood by the others.
The viewer had snickered at the joke the first time. It didn't get less funny.
"Shinji Ikari. You are most certainly interesting" the viewer murmured in amusement, icy blue eyes analysing everything.
-NGE:RX-
Elsewhere, on seeing the video, a torrent of memories were unlocked, causing the figure to collapse into a fetal position.
Slowly clawing itself upright, the figure examined their appearance.
Grey hair, red eyes, an unhealthily pale complexion. The figure examined their limbs, almost as if they may get replaced by cybernetic augmentations.
He then turned to watch the screen and said "Well brother, it looks you're making quite the impression"
-NGE:RX-