(Chapter 2;The Two Stooges)
Who is there? Only you. Yes, I am the only one here. I am alone. A lone hair falls from her head.
Why are you so bad at it? What am I bad at? Rei asks herself, therein the doubt that afflicts her.
Bad at being alone. For you, being alone is painful. Another strand slips to the sheet below.
But I'm always alone, why is it important now that i be near others. You know the answer. Her mind returned flatly. Almost smiling as another hair leaves it's root and drifts away forever.
"Think she'll be, y'know… interested?" "She'll be after seeing me in action" Tad flexes to emphasize his point. The duo pushes through the closed, but unlocked door. "You're such a prick...". Smack "Gabe! Language in front of the lady!" Recoiling from the hit, Gabe turns to face the rest of the room. Therein was an empty save for a bed and a pale girl lying facedown on top of the covers, head held up by her thin forearms.
"So, uhh…" Tad picked up "You never showed up to the debriefing.", with a bit of snark. In one motion, Rei swept the hair off the bed and turned to face the two boys who had just barged into her room. Her eyes held the gaze of both pilots, intensity that neither had seen before. Gabe broke the silence picking up on her absence of a reply. "Well, we'll summarise what you missed. All the techs went somewhere I don't care and you, miss first child, are to join us on our way to the cages." Tad's lips curled up into smirk. Reaching over, he punches Gabe in the arm. "Oww! What the hell man." "As you can see, this nerd can't even stop a slow hit. You're better off following me to the cages." Gabe knew he had planned this from the time he knew a female pilot was among the transfers.
"I only take orders from the commander" She replied flatly. Her face unchanged from the display.
They exchanged sideways glances "Well it was commander Holston who told us to come get you after you never showed to the debrief." Gabe buts in "I would've skipped too if I knew it was all dumb team building exercises and drinking we can't do." Both boys were considerably larger than her meager 80 pound frame, a good foot or more taller in both cases. But they were still underrage, being 15 and 16 respectively. Without a word, she made her way to the door and waits to be led away. The trio sets off down the hall with Gabe lecturing Rei on the necessity of locking one's door when they're asleep. Tad adding "Not everyone has our virtuous nature."
Elsewhere, Donald was sitting in his private jet, having chose it to be more comfortable than air force one. Spinning a pen in his hand impatiently, he waits to return to his family in the nation's capitol. I wonder what's keeping them. He started to bend the pen between his fingers, thoughts moving to other things. Her even. How sickly, surely she's not eating properly. And the other one having been admitted to a mental hospital. He bent the pen further, snapping it in his hands. NERV must treat their pilots horribly. Damn Japs. Mattis steps onto the jet and takes a seat 2 rows up from him. Trump mutters "Finally. Let's get a move on here."
"No chance, the magi agree we should stay grounded. There have been sudden, violent sandstorms in the area of uncertain origin." Trump stood, startling the minister. "Those fuckin' computers! Who am I to be controlled by a toy that NERV conjured up." "As unfortunate as it is, they've never been wrong." He could feel the president staring a hole in his back. I'm not staying in here with this idiot. Trump made his way to the front of the plane and exits left.
"So here we go, my glorious evangelion. Unit 04." Tad groaned at the excitement in Gabe's voice. "Built to the highest US manufacturing standards with the most advanced weaponry onboard. Convertible progressive lance, pylon blade ejection, onboard n2 charge,..."Rei glanced upwards to the silver beast. It resembled unit 00 moreso than 01 or 02, with the exception being compatibility with the standardized head casing and the D type equipment. "And of course no tether thanks to a 11 megawatt nuclear reactor" The reactor was placed on the back, attached to the shoulder pylons. Tad hadn't once looked up during the exposition dump, his eyes were fixed on Rei. Specifically her shapely figure garbed in the white plugsuit.
None of this mattered to her. Rei took note of the inadequacies in the Nevada NERV base and evangelion cages. The only restraints applied to units 03 and 04 were the umbilical bridge and shoulder restraints. They could pull free so easily. This facility was clearly a retrofit, none of the infrastructure was in place for efficient evangelion deployal. Suddenly, Rei started walking past the evangelions moving to the end of the dome that contained the cages. At the end of the room lay unit 00.
Scavenged from the blast, all that remained of unit 00 was the exposed core and entry block. Though in a similar state to unit 02, they had chosen to save the prototype as the second child was already displaying some instability and would serve no purpose to the dummy plug experiments. Now the freshly painted unit 00 was fully armored and stood knee deep in coolant. Clearly as some sort of political move, she had been painted with an american flag on each shoulder, running down the arm. A red circle on the front indicated the units country of origin. The rest had been painted desert camo with white accents.
Hideous. Rei thought, surprised at her own detestment of the changes made. She could almost feel it's will to come alive and destroy the scaffolds of technicians working on it. A stigma termination plug had been inserted. That is why you're so calm then.
Her mouth, sporting a slight downward curve straightened as the two pilots eagerly ran up to her. They had changed into their plug suits. "Are we being deployed?" Rei asked sincerely. "No, we just thought you might wanna see- " "How great the american entrygear is" Tad butt in. "Comfortable and stylish. Where yer suit looks more like a kinky thing." The boys laughed. Rei didn't understand. The two definitely looked different to her. Their suits seemed to be two layers, a breathable underlayer with a loose, poncho like overlayer covering the life support systems and further features she did not have. "If we got stuck out in the sun, we'd stay cool for hours, unlike melting alive like you." The two were striking poses as they berated her garb. Rei didn't react.
Tad and Gabe stopped teasing, seeing as none of their predicted outcomes had come after a few minutes. "Well I'm sure you'll be issued one too." Gabe added cheerfully. Rei starts walking back as she notices a small pile of blue hair gathering below her. Neither boy noticed. Tad chimes up; "The commander also said we should show you our dorms, so you know where to find us in case of an emergency" "Yeah, we can't have you dying all alone out there." Tad couldn't hide his smile. Rei followed the two out of the cage. Why can't I be alone? As they left, unit 00's hand visibly flexed, as if grasping something invisible.
The Tokyo-3 technicians were all on the bridge now, and only slightly inebriated. They had started to settle into various stations set about the cluttered warehouse. They was silent agreement among the transfers that the second branch facilities were confining and inefficient compared to the first.
Everyone turned to face door as Trump burst in, bodyguards in pursuit. "Mr President, what are you doing back. Had we not completed inspection before-" Holston cut in before Trump could complain. "Hardly, If I can't takeoff then why be on the runway, let's see the enemy before they strike." The chatter dies down immediately. "Well! Let's see a visual!". Holston speaks up, "We don't have a visual, we don't even have confirmation that it's an angel causing the dust storms. Additionally, with all due respect Mr Trump, the actions of NERV are UN sanctioned and it's not necessary that you oversee this." Visibly fuming, Trump steps up to bat. "This may be UN sanctioned activities, but this is on American soil! I must oversee actions taken that could endanger national security or this country's integrity!" Holston stops himself from rebuking, after all the president himself has temporary command over the transferred technicians and unit 00. This does not need to become a dicks contest of giant robot proportions.
"I'm staying on the bridge until this can be concluded. Let it be known that there is no one tougher on angels than Donald Trump!" The room collectively sighed. Many quiet minutes followed until Holston barks out orders, "Have all 3 evas ready for launch by 0600 hours tomorrow." "Provisional unit 05 should remain stationed at point Credo, load a dummy plug." "I want sync tests on all pilots, then get them prepared for tomorrow's operation." The room was bustling once again.
The trio of pilots had almost made it to the men's residence when both boys were grabbed from behind. "And where are you taking our pilot?" Gabe choked out a "We were giving her the full tour an' she asked to see our dorms-" "Well Dr. McConnic, I was out for a stroll when I caught up to-" McConnic butt in "Yeah, sure. Child's 4 and 5 are to report to the cage immediately for sync tests. And first, you should probably go back to the women's block." The two stooges started back to the cage, just as they rounded the corner the doctor grabbed Rei's hand and placed a paper bag in it. "You need these, I'll keep you supplied. He waves before turning to meet the boys back at the cages.
They won't help. Rei takes a handful of red and white pills and swallows the lot. The doubt comes back, Those are anti rejection pills, they won't help you if you can't produce a field. She slowly walks back to her bed and stares at the hair piled on the floor next to it. I cannot go back. I am Rei Ayanami and I will not go back. She sweeps the hair under the bed. She starts to remove her plugsuit just as the door slams shut. It had been open, luckily someone had closed it. Remember to lock your door. She thinks to herself, as she pulls off the stiff rubber suit, that she does hope they give her a new one.
(End of chapter 2)
Whoah there, that was alot of expo but no romance. As much as there will be romance, and lots of it, I still have a story to tell with many unexpected twists worthy of Neon Genesis itself. A gripe have is characters, if I name a character it means i intend to use them again, however Dr McConnic was added just to get Rei her pills and interrupt Tad's plan.
Big stuff up next, more trump I promise, but first lemme throw an idea out there. Next chapter will be just images and concept art. This would include unit 00 with ugly paintjob, unit 03 and 04, rei in an american style entrysuit, a map of nerv nv, and some other random doodles. Review if interested in this idea.