Chapter 12: Crossroads (Pilots)
"Baka Shinji, hurry up!" Asuka yells back to her slower teammate. Shinji doesn't respond and just keeps running. "Stop." Rei says bluntly. "What do you want wonder girl?!" Asuka pratically yells. Rei simply points towards the entrance to the transit that leads them to the geofront. "I knew that." Asuka growls before stomping in that direction. Shini and Rei follow behind.
Rei swipes her ID card...and nothing. "What's the matter Rei, did Ritsuko forget to renew your card again?" Shinji asks while swiping his Id card and once again nothing happens. "What are you stupid, what's the hold up?!" Asuka demands. "T-the ID cards don't work." Shinji stammers. "Your probably just not doing it right!" Asuka says before swiping her key card and in this case three times is not the charm as it still doesn't work.
"The power appears to be out." Rei states. "Well in that case I nominate myself as leader, any objections?" Asuka states in a superior tone. Neither Rei nor Shinji say anything, "Well now that that's settled." Asuka trails off as she tries to figure out just what to do. Meanwhile Rei is taking out her NERV pamphlet and begins reading the emergency section.
She gets up and walks to a door. "What are you doing?" Asuka asks. "Alternate exit." Rei says while holding up the pamphlet. "Don't you patronize me!" Asuka yells while stomping past Rei and flinging the door open. Rei and Shinji follow behind silently.
After that it was a pretty boring trip though at some point or another Rei had taken the lead, which of course only served to piss Asuka off. "Look at her, she thinks she deserves to be in charge. She's nothing but a self righteous bitch." Asuka whispers to Shinji. "Rei may be a bit different but she's not like that." Shinji responds. "Oh really, she won't even look at us when she talks, not to mention the fact that she's obviously the commanders favorite and you think she doesn't look down on us, I guess I gave you an accurate nickname after all." Asuka determines.
"I am not treated any better." Rei says before continuing down the hallway. Asuka would of said something but they had made it to HQ and were greeted by Ritsuko who rushed them to their Evas. The Evas crawl through a small (to them) ventilation shaft to an opening. "Whoa!" Shinji yells surprised by the random vertical shaft.
He begins to climb up it but is then hit from above by some orange liquid. "OW!" Shinji yells before going back into the ventilation shaft. "It's acidic." Shinji says. "Ha! That's what you get for charging into battle without my permission." Asuka mocks. "I have a plan, one person will be on offense they will attack the angel, one person will be on defense they will defend the person on offense, and one person will be on support, they will go pick up the rifle at the bottom of the shaft and give it to the person on offense. I will be on defense, Baka Shinji will be on offense, and Wonder girl will be on support." Asuka orders.
Rei jumps down the shaft to get the rifle, Shinji's the next one to come out of the shaft and positions himself in a way so he won't fall, Asuka is the last to leave the positions herself so she's protecting Shinji. The angel continues to send acid down the shaft. "AH!" Asuka's cries of pain echo throughout HQ. "Rei hurry up!" Shinji yells. Rei throws the rifle up and Shinji catches it. "Asuka move!" Shinji orders. Asuka moves out of the way and Shinji shoots the giant eyeball with legs.
A few minutes later
The pilots were extracted from there Evas and everything at HQ was back to normal. "Nice job Baka Shinji, though I had the most dangerous job." Asuka says. "Thanks." Shinji says. "So why did the power go out anyway?" Shinji asks Ritsuko. "Well it's a bit of a long story." Ritsuko starts.
Only one more chapter to go of the Crossroads "Mini series". Yeah sorry that this chapter is basically just an abridged version of the show, I couldn't think of any changes to make but at the same time didn't want to just skip it like I did the volcano angel, and unfortunately it seems like the next chapter is going to suffer the same fate, things should pick back up in the originality department in chapter 14 though.