Author notes:

So I will admit, going into this I had pretensions of having a pretty epic story, to say something meaningful. That was silly. This is inspired by pulp, it is pulp, and we read pulp to have fun, not to learn something.

Also, this chapter holds the record so far in that I completely rewrote the events maybe 5 or 6 times before I was happy with them.

Warnings: Violent. Then again if you need to be warned about that, reading this fic may not have been the best idea in the world, just saying.

Chapter 18

"Good morning my children!"

"Good morning sensei." Both pilots replied. It was not a good morning. Turns out taking a long nap in the afternoon does not lead to a good nights sleep.

"First, well done, dead angel, good stuff, you do the house of Sinanju proud." Remo said as he began to pace in front of his students as was his habit.

"Thank you sensei." They said together and bowed.

"Secondly, you bring great shame upon the house of Sinanju and its very name with your horrible forms and letting yourself get hit by that big dumb flying thing."

"But Sensei, I blocked it with the AT field, isn't that just as good? It was too fast to dodge." Shinji said, apparently a little too close to whining since his reward was a strike upside the head.

"My foolish child you betray your ignorance but reveal a jewel of wisdom that needs only be polished. It is indeed very nearly impossible to dodge a bullet, or any similar attack, once it has been aimed and launched. Today we are going to learn the first trick my master demonstrated to me. The ability to read an opponent and use your own movement to prevent him from aquiring you as a target. To the ignorant man, who will attempt to attack anyway you will appear to be reacting to his attack, when in reality, you are controlling his actions…" Remo stopped suddenly and turned to face the pilots, a wicked smile on his lips.

"… In other words, today you learn how to dodge bullets."

…

"What?"

…

"Remo-sensei, I have a question." Shinji said during a break for food and rest some time later.

"Well, and maybe I am just overthinking it, but the way we are training for this, it doesn't seem like it is for fighting the angels. I mean the first two were both trying to hit me up close, but when this one shot at us, it wasn't like a gun or a rock. I mean I know there are limits to what we can do down here but... I dunno, it just seems like you are teaching us to fight people more than anything."

Remo put his bowl down with a sigh. "Well no way around it, that is pretty much what we're doing here. Part of it is that's what the house of Sinanju has done for ages. I would be dishonest to say I do not worry though."

"Why do you worry Sensei?" Rei asked.

"Well my daughter, because in ages past the reputation of sinanju was such the village and its master were left well enough alone. When I was learning, I worked for an organization that took care to stay secret, and even then faced attack here and there. I have come to find out that this is not the case here, that our names and our professions are out for all to see. And so I worry, not for my own safety, but for those of you three, my children who I have shaped with my heart and my will. I had been a student of this art for nearly two decades before I learned what I am teaching you here today and for as long as it takes you to master it. Even though you fight for the lives of everyone on this world, there are those crazy or stupid enough to try for your life, little daughter. I do what I do so that they may learn a final lesson before they die, that you should live. The house of Sinanju is not to be fucked with."

Cups were tapped and a drink had to that, water though it was.

A week hence…

On the one hand, Remo had begun to enjoy the regular time away from training now that the kids were in school most days. On the other, it left him no excuse not to attend staff meetings. So many meetings. It was like the Japanese had to come to a consensus on everything, or (and more likely in Remo's opinion) the commander was just a control freak.

They were so serious about them too. Remo had blown them off the first day the kids were back in school, so the second day they locked down all the hallways between his quarters and the conference room, then programmed the elevators so they would only go to the one floor. As he walked down the hall, steel shutters would close off the hallway behind him. It was just a meeting for christssake!

They were talking about the provisions and emergency supply budget right now. Remo did not include himself in 'they' because he was engaging in an ancient and most honored practice of Sinanju masters through the ages. Turning off one's brain to rest while appearing completely awake. A very important and productive mental exercise, at least more so than attending this damned meeting.

Remo was in such a state when the double doors to the conference room swung open to show Lt. Maya Ibuki, pent over panting after having sprinted there from the command bridge several levels above.

"Commander! There's been an attack in the city!"

"The procedures for an angel attack are quite clear Lieutenant, why are you here and not on the bridge doing your job? And why ahsn't the alarm been sounded?"

"Its not an angel attack Sir! An armed force has taken the grounds of Tokyo-3 secondary and they demand to speak with you."

"This issue is tabled. Major Katsuragi, please come with me. Mr. Williams, I understand you have significant experience in counter-terrorism, I would appreciate your presence as well." Gendo Ikari did not make demands of that man. He knew to order him about was to invite embarrassment.

"Well since you ask so nicely Commander." Remo rose from his seat and followed.

"Commander Ikari of NERV?" a modulated voice came over a phone line on speaker for the entire bridge. The line itself was secret and section 2 was already attempting to find out how anyone even knew about it.

"Yes, you are speaking to the commander of NERV. Now who are you and what do you want?" Gendo said, perched at the top of the bridge, hands steepled beneath his nose. For all the emotion in his voice he could be talking about the weather.

"Ah yes, to business as always, the great Gendo Ikari. It has come to our attention that you are harboring the fugitive Remo Williams, yes. Mr. Williams has something that belongs to us, yes, the results of an experiment. As you are aware, we are now in possession of a school full of children, yes. You will see that no aircraft approach us as we have surface to air missles stationed on top of each building, yes, and will engage any craft, civilian or military, that comes near. We know your son attends this school Gendo Ikari, yes. Comply with our demands and nobody will be harmed you see, all the little children go home safe and sound. Do you understand Ikari?"

"You have yet to enumerate your demands, so compliance is somewhat problematic, mister…?"

"You don't need to know my name Ikari, you only need to know that you will turn over Remo Williams and what belongs to us. You will do so within the hour or we will begin executing these lovely little children, starting with your son, yes."

"I will require a few moments to coordinate with my staff, please hold."

"Hold? Wha-" The voice was cut off at the press of a button.

"Mr. Williams, I was not aware you were wanted for any crimes. Do you know anything about these people or what stolen property they mean?"

"Yeah, I got a pretty good idea. Rogue Russians doing some nasty experiments in Komchatka. Found'em on a freelance job in '02. Only crime there was that bunch of monsters calling themselves soldiers. Just a sec…" Remo picked up the intercom handset and dialed the code for his quarters.

"Hey Vitali, get your ass to the bridge, old friends have come calling." Remo said then hung up the handset.

"I found my young ward there in a cage. Best I can tell he was the result of some late soviet super soldier program. Sounds like they want us both."

"I see, and what do you propose we do about it."

Remo grinned. It was an evil thing, like all the light around him just backed away in fear and anyone looking at him just saw teeth and light catching off his eyes.

"Well Commander, that depends."

"On?"

"Do we know how many there are?"

"Well Major, do we?"

Misato looked to the bridge crew expectantly.

"Sir, surveillance at the school has been disabled, but between cameras, audio, and other tech Section 2 has in the area, we estimate between 30 and 50 hostile actors. What footage we have shows they are heavily armed."

"That isn't so bad, could ya pull a picture up for me Lt. Makato?"

"Yes Sir, here."

"Oh yeah, You don't get much more Russian than that."

Vitali entered at this moment.

"Ah my honorable son, look who has come to say hello. Colonel Cazmanov."

"Mr. Williams, what do you propose?" Gendo demanded, he was becoming impatient.

"Commander, it is my suggestion that you give them exactly what they want: Enough rope to hang themselves. There are already two night tigers in that school, and they want two more. Way I figure that is three more than absolutely necessary to end the situation."

"You have a plan then?"

"You could say that."

Gendo brought the line back on. "I do apologize for the delay. NERV agrees to your demands, Mr. Williams will be arriving shortly."

"… What?" Came the modulated voice on the line

"Did I stutter? We agree to your demands."

"Oh… well… good!"

Remo mouthed to Gendo "call him Leonid".

"Please contact us again when you are ready to leave and we will see to your safe passage out of the country, Leonid." Gendo said and reached down to cut the line.

"How the-" the caller was cut off for a second time in 5 minutes.

"Mr. Williams I certainly hope you know what you are doing."

"Commander, there is nothing I know how to do better. Vitali, you ready for some good ol fashioned revenge?"

The sound that came from the younger man was so guttural and growling that it took Misato a moment to realize it was laughter. She had never noticed his eyes before and she thought how strange it was that she never saw something so obvious. Maybe she had just thought they were hazel, but in that moment she could see they were pure gold.

"I'm ready Ssem, but didn't you say you tired of all those code names? I want my own name back."

"You know it was just a note on your cage, right?"

"Yeah, but its mine. A name's is a thing of power, an identity. You take away a man's name; you take away what he is down to his very core. 'Sides, only changed it to hide from those losers, not like that's gonna be a problem after today."

"Alright, I can understand that… You ready to do this, Viral?" Remo asked.

"Hell yeah!"

Just then the phone on Gendo Ikari's desk, the private, secret one, rang again. He picked it up.

"This is commander Ikari, speak… yes… they moved the test up?" The commander began to rub the bridge of his nose, pushing his glasses off his face. "And it did what you say?... Yes of course, minister, I am absolutely shocked. NERV will of course be happy to assist… I'm sorry what?... What are you talking about "that person" like I am supposed to know who you mean, I'll use whatever person or persons gets the job done… Yes he is currently employed here, he is the martial arts teacher… Yes minister, good bye." Gendo slammed the phone down and reset his glasses on his face.

"Mr. Williams, I need you for something else…"

Colonel Leonid Cazmanov, formally of GRU spetznaz, first of the USSR, then of the Russian Republic, was worried. While NERV had just agreed to his demands, perhaps a little too quickly, this was not his primary concern. His chief worries at the moment were that he didn't actually know where Gendo Ikari's son was and that he was losing communication with his men in the middle school at an alarming rate. Knowing what he did of the father, he had the sinking feeling the two problems were directly related. Colonel Cazmanov was right.

The colonel had set up his command center in the high school building of Tokyo-3 Secondary School, catty corner across the field from the middle school. His men were equipped in a way befitting one of Russia's most feared special operations units, including suppressors on their weapons. As such, the sounds of gunfire did not make it to the Colonel's ears.

The first kill had been reflex. Rei had vaulted another student's shoulders to take the soldier dressed in black as he entered the room. It was good, he was dead before he hit the ground. Quiet too, the only sound the man made was when he hit the floor. There had been cries from the other students, but they were quickly shushed. The body was moved and the door shut.

With their elderly language teacher cowering under his desk and muttering to himself the pilots were arguing, quietly, their next course of action.

"We don't even know how many there are." Shinji said in admirably quiet panic.

"We kill giant monsters as an after school activity." Rei quipped, deadpan.

"We don't have the evas!"

"We don't need them. I do not see why you are worried, you are even better at avoiding fire than me. Likely cheating."

"Will you let that go already!"

"No."

"Rei this isn't the time…"

Both stopped and turned when they heard the gun actioned inside the room.

Kensuke Aida had removed the dead soldier's weapon, removing the clips that held the sling to slide it off the body, then reattaching and adjusting it around himself. The AK-74u was a short weapon and combined with the shorter length of most Kalashnikov stocks he could shoulder it comfortably. He made his chamber and magazine checks by touch as he probed the dead man's body with his foot.

Ken kneeled down and pulled extra magazines from the man's load bearing vest. He considered stripping it off the corpse, but the soldier had been a big man and it would not have fit. He shoved a magazine in each front pocket and another in the left back, opposite his wallet.

A quick examination of the weapon confirmed the barrel extension was indeed a suppressor; the handguard had been replaced with a 3rd party model (Ken figured likely Chinese from the roll marks and cheap plastic materials) with rail space mounting a vertical grip. The after market handguard's fit was acceptable, though not great. Ken was also pleasantly surprised to find an American safety, or at least a good copy of the "Kreb" model. It made it easier to use with his small hands.

Finally, Ken pulled the man's knife from its sheath and held it in his left hand against the aluminum vertical grip of the weapon. It was thin enough to work. He pointed-in out the window and liked how it felt, everything was good and tight. He wasn't big, but the little carbine was tiny.

"Uh, Ken…" Shinji said in a voice he hoped was calm and even.

"Oh sorry, got a little absorbed, what's up?" Kensuke replied, smiling and looking up like he had been engrossed in a particularly good book.

"The hell are you doing?"

"Looting materiel."

"Oh… good…" Shinji said before instinctively flowing out of the way as Ken leveled the gun at the door. He fired in a two round burst just as the door opened and another man in black fell dead.

"Thank you for contributing to and I think solving our discussion on what to do next Aida-san."

"No problem, Ayanami-san."

"Goddamit, these are people, we aren't going to just go slaughter them." Shinji snapped, not even caring about being quiet with the sounds of boots starting to echo in the hallway.

Rei turned and locked eyes with him. "People? Animals? Angels? There is no difference Warrior. They come to harm us and those we protect. They would hurt us and our people." Rei did not break eye contact as she lashed out with one hand and took a man's head from his shoulders in a flash of orange light.

"I will not abide weakness Shiva." She said, faint light coming from her crimson eyes. "We are the destroyer. We protect humanity, even from other humans."

It was sympathetic reaction when Shinji's own power flared along with Rei's, and it was reflex that began the process of quick breaths speeding blood. Shinji tasted salt in his mouth before the state took him. He was still there, he was in control, but his fears were forgotten and his resolve became steel. He was created, the destroyer, and damn if it didn't feel good.

They moved into the hallway together, Shinji turning right and Rei left. Four men on each side leveled their weapons. Facing night tigers, it was their final mistake. Bursts of fire were countered with inhuman roars. Wherever the soldiers aimed, the children just weren't there anymore. Like fools they fired anyway, sometimes even sending rounds towards their own allies.

There was a loud POP and a gust of wind as Shinji charged. His knee met the first man's chest as a knife hand strike to the face ended him as the body fell. Shinji was off the corpse before it hit the ground and took the next with a round house kick. He drove his right foot, leading with the big toe, between the vertebrae of the soldier's neck, separating them and leaving the man to choke on air his lungs could not draw in. The third man died as his body was twisted around as a shield, by his own comrade's bullets. Shinji took the final man with a spear hand to the chest that met a hard armor plate. The man was thrown against the wall hard enough to leave a spiderweb of cracks and slumped the ground. He also died for lack of air, due to the fact his lungs, along with the rest of the contents of his thoracic cavity, had become a soup not dissimilar to LCL.

Rei's approach was more artful, but no less deadly. She danced among the guns and blades, removing the hands holding the guns and the heads of the soldiers with graceful swings of her arms. The final one she cut through the neck then launched the body away with a forward kick to the chest. As the head fell she ripped the helmet from it and caught it by the hair, catching the helmet upside down on her fingertips in the other hand, ending with the blood draining from the neck into the helmet it had been below.

Ken had stayed back, covering the stairwell across from the door. Measured bursts and diligent tactical reloads kept men coming up from below at bay. He didn't let the magazine run dry, that was a particularly time consuming error with the Kalashnikov series. The guns lacked bolt hold open on the last round, which meant reloading with a dry chamber took more time as one had to rack the bolt. Stoner based designs it was not such a problem. With a magazine still in the weapon, Ken would take split seconds to check the partially full magazines on the floor by pushing against the top round. The greater the resistance, the more ammunition was left in the magazine. When he did change mags, he would strike the old mag near the bottom to it would rock out and fall down instead of forward.

Just like camp. Camp had been fun.

Shinji and Rei had both finished their targets and turned back to see Ken advance out of the classroom, tunnel vision focused on the stairwell leading down. The stairwell leading up led only to the roof. Kensuke had not considered the position the roof offered to cover the grounds, nor did he know about the anti-aircraft weapons the enemy had. So he did not consider the men coming down from the roof. The angle was such neither Rei nor Shinji saw the shot that took Ken, only the red mist that burst from the right side of his head before he went down.

Both pilots rushed forward and it was Shinji who took vengeance. He raised one open hand and in a flash of light men, cloth, and metal became a single layer against the wall.

Rei was at Ken's side. She was relieved to find him breathing. His right eye was gone and there was blood matted through his hair, but he looked up at her with his remaining eye. It looked like the bullet had passed through his eye and out of the side of his skull. One hand still held his weapon against his chest, and the other reached up to Rei.

Shinji had mounted the stairs now, and impacts shook the walls as he disposed of the men on the roof.

Rei kneeled beside Ken and took him in her arms, one behind his shoulders and the other under his knees. He touched her cheek with his blood stained hand and she kissed it then shushed him as he tried to talk. He was crying and choked on his words.

"Ssssssh warrior. You are injured, but you will survive."

Rei held Ken to her chest and he pulled the remnants of his glasses from his face then pressed himself to her chest. Ken had not known his mother. His father had said she died when he was a little baby. He had seen pictures, but attached no emotion to them. He had no memory of what it was to be held by one's mother, but somehow he knew this is what is must feel like.

"You fought well." Rei said, and Kensuke smiled.

Shinji felt tired, he was nearing his limit. He considered for the first time since they had begun fighting that there may be too many. He had found four more on the roof. All of them had been holding the big tubes he figured were rocket launchers or something with their little guns either on the ground or hanging from their straps. Either way, none of them got to them fast enough. Shinji decided this was not a bad place to sit down and stretched his legs out with his back against the short retaining wall around the roof. At least there was only one way for anybody to come up. Rei soon joined him, sitting the unconscious but alive Kensuke up beside them.

"I suppose we should probably go help the high school students." Rei said before they heard a shout from below.

"I am Viral Genomevich and I am going to tell you two things! First, I am nobody's experiment! Second, all of your miserable lives belong to me now!

Shinji shrugged. "Sounds like it is under control."

Viral smelled death and gunpowder from the middle school but heard nothing. He could feel that weird little static in the air from when pilots did their special trick and took it to mean they had the situation taken care of. He focused his attention on the high school building.

He was running for the wide entry doors. He wore only dark pants and a red t-shirt, and his bare feet barely kicked up dust as he crossed the schoolyard. Two men who came out of the doors guns blazing hit only air and died with their sternums driven through their hearts.

"Oh Uncle Leoniiiiiiiiid, come out come out wherever you are!"

Viral was not like the younger students, his brother and sister as he thought of them. They were sloppy, they made mistakes. As Viral made his way through the school building, most of his targets died without even knowing he was there. His movements made no sound, and even if one looked straight at him, they saw if anything a blur, or more likely something their brain told them not to look at.

He left the halls behind him as an abattoir, bodies left where they fell and blood streaked and splattered across the floors, walls, and ceiling. This was not savagery on Viral's part. He knew better than to go into a fight like this with emotion fueling him. There were children's lives at stake here, he had to be fast and perfect.

When he did find Colonel Cazmanov, the fat old man had a pretty young teacher at gun point. Viral laughed when he demanded that Viral comply and come with him. He actually took the gun away and knocked the fat Russian out with one thrown stapler. Viral even allowed himself a celebration when the stapler fell down and hit him on the head again after he was on the floor with a satisfying ka-chunk as it went off on the old man's head. Good times.

When the pilots met up with their younger teacher, children were being escorted from the school and a combination of NERV and local police were combing the school for bodies and evidence. Viral was dragging the groaning fat body of a bald Russian man in a too small uniform, and Shinji was propping up Kensuke. Ken's absent eye was covered by a soaked through impromptu bandage made from some girl's dress, and he still had the little carbine slung across his chest. Amazing how much nicer everyone gets when you shoot bad guys and your super powered friends start asking for help.

"Hey looks like you all had fun. Nice shiner there kid." Viral said with a grin. Ken raised him a thumbs up before slumping back onto Shinji's shoulders.

"What do you have there Vitali-sensei?" Rei said and pointed towards the fat man he was dragging behind him.

"Yeah sorry, Vitali was kinda a false name since we were on the run from this guy. That's not a problem anymore though, so you can call me Viral. This guy is a piece of shit, I'll tell ya about him some other time."

"We heard." Shinji quipped, adjusting Ken's arm across his shoulders. "So where is Remo-sensei?"

"Yeah something else came up that he had to attend to, I'm sure they'll tell you about it later. Lets get your buddy there to the doctor."

Meanwhile, "something else" was happening…

It was loud inside the NERV VTOL, even with the doors shut. Remo Williams sat in the jump seat. He had been ready to go in casuals, but the newly minted major wasn't budging and he wanted to get to the matter at hand, so he wore a set of dark blue NERV BDUs with a radio on his belt hooked up to an ear bud and a throat mic. Least with that stuff it would not get in the way.

"Mr. Williams, we are nearing the target. Might be shaky but I think I can get you close enough to fast rope down to the top." Came the voice in his ear from the pilot. Remo held the microphone against his throat to respond.

"Not necessary Warrant, just put me on the ground about a click in front of the thing."

"I'm not a warrant officer Mr. Williams, I'm a flight Lt."

"Whatever, just put me down and take up a loiter, the Major wants video of this."

"Aye aye."

Remo felt his stomach turn when the VTOL turned and rotated its engines at the same time, then the impact as it set down. It felt nothing like riding a Hus in the Marine Corps and even with a good pilot, several tons of metal strapped between two engines even bigger than the body does nothing gently. Remo slapped the central buckle to release the harness then slid the door open and stepped out onto the dirt. He slammed the door shut and banged twice on the metal skin before moving away, signaling the pilot that he could go.

Once the VTOL and its thundering engines took off, Remo could feel the vibrations through the ground as huge machine approached. Remo smiled at the mechanical behemoth. He found the evangelions off putting, but he would admit they were graceful in a way. This thing was even bigger than the evas and it was unganly, even clumsy looking. Each step looked like it was falling forward and catching itself.

"Testing testing, Major Katsuragi, do ya hear me?"

"Loud and clear Mr. Williams."

"Hi everyone, I'm Remo Williams and welcome to jackass…" Remo said as he stretched his shoulders. A little less then one kilometer ahead of him, and closing, was the shambling nuclear reactor with guns.

"…This is Remo Vs. Jet Alone."

Remo had once been recorded as running at one hundred miles per hour. This was not the fastest he had ever run, that was just the only time anybody was pointing a radar gun at him. Remo covered the distance between him and the giant robot in three seconds, the ground cratered with gunfire from numerous onboard weapons behind him. When he whipped his entire body around to swing his fist, the sonic boom was lost in the crunching and groaning of metal as Jet Alone's right ankle was turned to slag.

The war machine shuddered and began to fall before emergency systems took over and rebalanced. As it limped on Remo was already climbing past the knee joint, which he expected to fail in another five steps or so. When it did and Jet Alone lurched again, catching itself on its long arms, Remo was ready. As the shudder of impact traveled through the machine, Remo drove his fist into the relatively thin armor surrounding the complex balancing mechanisms below the abdomen. Two more strikes and the whole system jammed solid and the robot fell to the ground.

Remo climbed up to the top of the unit, where the neck would be if the ugly thing had a head and looked out at the city it had been marching towards, still many miles distant.

"And the day is saved again, thanks to-" Remo was interrupted as the machine shuddered and returned to life, dragging itself along with its arms.

"Really? REALLY? Just give and die already!" Remo grumbled loudly to himself as he made his way to the unit's left shoulder. Tearing the armor plate away was easy and one open palmed strike was enough to make the segmented joints along the arm shake themselves apart. Remo climbed back out and took the two dozen meter drop to the ground. With his hands on his hips, facing into the sun that had just begun to set, Remo smiled.

"As I was saying, once again the day…" With a groan of bending steel, the last functioning limb, the right arm, came around with its palm facing Remo. The aperture in the center opened and Remo saw the stubby barrel of the internal beam weapon, turning on its gimble joints before centering on him.

"Oh crap."

Remo ran as fast as he could while still able to change direction. Once the beam fired, the mount, the wrist, and the arm gave it more than enough flexibility to follow Remo as he juked and weaved. The scariest part was each time he dodged it missed him by that much less. When the blue uniform began to singe, Remo knew he had to end this now. If he ran, it could just start dragging itself again. Too much risk of fallout or meltdown with conventional weapons, it would just take too much ordinance to be precise.

Remo took the heat to dig in just enough and get a good launch off the ground. He ran straight for the "face", the wide panel of cameras around the central computer that looked like a Cheshire smile. The thing can learn, he knew that from the beam getting closer. It can prioritize a threat, otherwise it would have tried to kill him while he climbing up. He was not a threat to its mission, whatever that was, until he had thoroughly damaged it.

If it can learn and make judgments, then it can be fooled.

Remo leaped into the air, arm drawn back to punch straight through the sensor deck and into the computer core, his entire body coiled like a spring to power the blow. When the strike came though, it was not a battering ram, but the tap of a hammer as Remo flipped himself back into the air with just a finger tip.

Having judged the sacrifice of the more sensitive equipment acceptable to the termination of the threat, Jet Alone shot itself in the face, and as glass shattered and shrapnel spread, blinded itself. In the moment it took to recalibrate, Remo was at the remaining shoulder, one hand dug under the armor.

"Sorry about that sweetheart…"

With a roar, Remo began to run, dragging one hand behind him and flaying the armor open as he traveled the path from shoulder to hand. As the arm tried to move, to flail, to throw the human off, something, anything, the ripped open segments jammed together and struggling only made it worse. Joints began to strain and servos overheat

Remo jumped from atop the clawed hand and grabbed hold, bringing the weakened arm down with him. In the split second before he hit the ground, Remo cracked the arm like a whip. The whole assemblage slammed against the ground and burst into a million warped metal little pieces.

"But that's the biz!"

Remo stood with arms across his chest, grinning ear to ear, as the huge mech struggled uselessly on maimed limbs. He laughed even harder when it tried to extract the cooling rods and overload its reactor and the mechanisms jammed.

In his ear, over the radio, Remo heard the voice of Major Misato Katsuragi

"We are NERV! We are the undefeated army! Our pilot's martial arts teacher just beat up your dinky rival project on the same day we were dealing with some half-ass terrorist's bullshit! Who the hell do you think we are?!"

Across the world, a girl watched television.

"Hey, all you watching! We are NERV! We are the undefeated army! Our pilot's martial arts teacher just beat up your dinky rival project on the same day we were dealing with some half-ass terrorist's bullshit! Who the hell do you think we are?!"

"Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, oh my gosh, that was so cool!" She squealed. "Wasn't that awesome Master Kaji, wasn't it wasn't it? I mean the first one when the third child killed the angel with its own arm, then the worm, and then when they killed the fifth together. I can't wait to go to Japan, this is gonna be awesome! Their teacher is soooo cool, I mean not as cool as you of course, you just haven't had need to destroy a giant robot on your own, I am sure you could and waaaaaay more gracefully and and and…"

chapter end

Notes:

-So its not an angel, but that will come later. Never Learned To Code, consider your request fulfilled. It was better than what I had planned anyway.

-Yes, that Viral. Yes, from TTGL. I was going to tease it out some more, but in the interest of a faster, more fun story, I decided to get it out there now. Was probably pretty obvious anyway.

-Kensuke is rather competent, and it's not from playing war games. Explanations, and why Toji was nowhere to be found, in coming chapters.

-I am not sure how well it is working out, you all can tell me, but when it comes to something that one character is knowledgeable about but another is not, I am trying to save the detail for when it is from the knowledgeable characters perspective. For example, Shinji and Misato's car early on. In this case, to Shinji or just about anyone else, the gun is a gun. But Ken is a gun nut, which I can empathize with, thus its not just a gun. On that note Ken does make mistakes, but that's the difference between knowledge and experience.

-For my navy readers: I wasn't navy but I imagine NERV to be most like the navy in structure. Large crews working to service and maintain large-scale combat assets with one army officer on loan from the JSSDF land forces in the mix. I think it explains NERV being run by a commander, which as far as I know is like an Lt Colonel equivalent in the Navy, so up there but not general officer. Point is, if I screw something like that up, LET ME KNOW.