Chapter 3
Shinji opened his eyes. His body hurt like he had a sunburn. Everywhere. He stared up at the ceiling 'Inia?' there was no reply. He wasn't certain where he was, or what had happened. Last he remembered, he was launching in Eva 01.
Given how much he hurt, something bad must have happened after that. He was just considering whether he should attempt to sit up when Rei walked into his room "I'm here to inform you of the schedule of Operation Yashima. It will commence 0:00 – midnight."
Shinji watched in quiet horror as Rei rattled off the details. He missed most of them as he focused on the fact that he would have to get back in the Evangelion.
"Do I really have to pilot again?" He asked rhetorically.
"Yes. This operation requires two pilots. " Rei replied coldly, before adding, "otherwise I would carry it out myself."
"I know. I wasn't really asking. It's just..." As Shinji faded to a stop Rei continued to stand and watch him, "Rei, why do you pilot?"
"It is my connection."
"Connection to who? My father?"
"To all humanity."
Shinji stared down at his blanket covered lap. Rei turned to go, but he finally replied, "I pilot because it's the right thing to do. Because somebody has to, or all of humanity will die, and if I don't somebody else will have to suffer in my place. And that's not fair." Shinji looked up at Rei, "Your reason is so much better than mine." He tried to smile.
Rei considered ,"No. You just have other ways of connecting to people," and turned to go.
/\ PoC /\
"I have secured the use of a particle cannon, and had it wired to the entire Japanese power grid." Shinji and Rei stood in front of Misato in their plug suits, as she described her plan to have Shinji snipe the Angel from outside it's 'aggro' zone, with Rei standing by to use a shield to defend him, just in case.
"Remember, if you miss on the first shot, it will take at least ten seconds to swap out the fuses and re-energize the cannon. So don't miss!"
"Yes, Ma'am" the two pilots replied in unison.
'Shinji?' Shinji had just walked out onto the hillside to watch the final preparations when Inia contacted him him, 'Is everything ok? You weren't available at the usual time.'
'I was in the hospital, unconscious.' Shinji explained what had happened with his last sortie, as best as he could recall, 'And now I have to try to take it down again.'
'Stay calm. It's just like practice. Let Rei take care of everything else – you just concentrate on shooting.' Inia reassured Shinji. 'I'm going to cut contact to let you concentrate. I'll talk to you tomorrow, ok?'
'Ok,' Shinji smiled.
Misato watched Shinji stare of into the distance silently. She was worried: nobody seemed to realize or care that they were forcing untrained teens to do things that most adults couldn't handle. Not and stay sane.
She walked up and stood next to the teen, staring out into the distance with him. "Hey, Shinji, you want to talk?"
'I got to go.' Shinji sent. "About?"
"Are you worried about what you have to do?"
"Some, but all I have to do is to shoot the Angel, just like in practice. Everything else I'm going to leave to Rei and you."
Misato looked at the young man in surprise. "That is a very good way to handle this." She examined Shinji, trying to discern if he really meant that. "I just want to say that I don't know how you do it, but I am very proud of you."
"Thirty minutes until start of Operation Yashima." Blared the the PA system, "all personnel to your posts."
Shinji ran to the gerry-rigged Eva dock on the hillside overlooking Tokyo-3. The whole instillation looked like it had been knocked together in a couple of hours (because it had). The command center was a large trailer, with radio gear mounted on two neighboring flatbeds. Huge cables covered most of the open space, running to the massive particle cannon, which was set up so that it could be fired by a prone Evangelion.
"Good luck!' called out a tech as Shinji got into his entry plug.
/\ PoC /\
Shinji was laying on his bed, his DAT player plugged into his ears. To all the world, he looked like he was lost in his own world. Which he sort of was, but it wasn't what the casual observer would have expected. Currently there was no one to observe him, though: he was alone in the apartment as Misato had gone off picking up Toji and Kensuke.
'So, how did it go?' Inia asked with baited breath. She hadn't spoken to Shinji in three days. But it wasn't like she was being clingy – they were three very important days. The fact that she had manged to reach Shinji was a good sign – he had survived, at least.
'It went ok, almost. I missed on my first shot, and then Rei had to deflect the counter attack while I reloaded, but I got it on the second. Evangelion 00 got a little melted, and Rei was a little shaken up, but nothing major.' At least, Shinji assumed that she was: when he had pulled her out of her entry plug she had seemed almost human.
'Well, that's your opportunity to get to know her. Bring her flowers or something while she's in the hospital.'
'I don't think she's in the hospital anymore – Ritsuko checked her out, and she was back in school today. Oh, that reminds me, I had to stop a rampaging TSF. It was a project of one of NERV's competitors. I wasn't impressed. It was as big as Evangelion, and it looked like a walking tank, but without an AT field, it's not much use against an Angel. And something went wrong with the remote control.'
'So what happened?'
'I wasn't there at the start, but apparently the big wigs on the ground got it started walking, and then it just refused to accept any other commands – Misato had me airlifted in and I slowed it down so that she could get inside and manually shut it down.'
'You a must be a very big strong man to be able to stop a TSF with your bare hands.' Inia giggled.
'You know what I meant – I was in my Eva,' Shinji smiled. 'So what have you been up to – you missed our usual 'rendezvous'.'
There was a pause, and Shinji began to panic that Inia might have gotten annoyed at his joke. He wasn't trying to be pushy or flirtatious or anything, but not being able to see her face made it both easier and harder: easier in that he could say things he would never even DREAM of saying in person, but harder because he couldn't tell if she was getting annoyed with him. Finally, she replied sheepishly. 'We were working on high G turns, to see how well the new systems handled, and I blacked out.'
Shinji bolted upright in his bed, 'What? Are you ok? Why didn't you tell me?' That was one of his fears: If Inia died, he would never know. And it could happen. She was in the military, after all.
'I'm fine, I recovered in a couple of minutes, but my telepathy was not working until just now.' Inia paused, and then pressed on. 'So tell me what else is going on?'
Shinji decided to let it slide. Not that there was anything he could do to help in this situation. 'Anyway, we're going to go rendezvous with the the fleet bringing Evangelion unit 02 and the pilot this afternoon. It should be interesting. Misato said I could bring along a couple of friends. Kensuke – he's the military geek I mentioned – is so excited that he's been texting me every 10 minutes.'
'I hope you have fun. We will be going down to the West Indies for hot weather tests. And there is gossip that we'll have several days of leave there, too!' Shinji could hear the excitement in the girls 'voice'. 'We'll get to laze around in the sun and everything! I hope I don't burn – I've never been to any place that sunny before!'
'Me either. I've never..' The door to the apartment opened and Misato stormed in.
"Shinji, we got to go! I got stuck behind this horrible truck, and we're running late. Our take-off slot is in fifteen minutes!"
'I'll talk later. I have to go risk my life in Misato's automobile.' Shinji signed off as he grabbed his duffel bag and went down to strap himself into Misato 'death rocket'.
"Hey, dude! I can't believe you invited us! This is so cool! Thank you!" This came gushing out from the back seat as soon as Shinji opened the car door.
Toji just rolled his eyes. Before glancing surreptitiously at Misato.
Shinji carefully strapped himself in, checking his seat belt twice, before Misato mashed the gas pedal through the floor. The speed didn't bother Shinji as much as it had the first time he had gotten into Misato's car. He would have felt better if he was the one at the controls, though.
Once on board the helicopter that was going to take them out to the fleet, things got boring really quick: It was too loud to talk, and shortly they were out of cell ranges, so they couldn't text anybody. Shinji was stuck alone with his thoughts. Not a terribly pleasant experience, as the more he thought, the more he began to doubt himself. What was the point of them flying out to meet the fleet? Why was he here? Wouldn't somebody else be better as a pilot for the Evangelion? Usually when he got into this sort of funk, Inia could cheer him up, but she had her own work to do. He couldn't wait for tomorrows 'call', though.
/\ PoC /\
Earlier
Misato leaned against Ritsuko's desk, a mug of coffee in her hands, "I just don't know what to do with that kid. He's completely socially withdrawn. All he does is lay on his futon and listen to the that stupid SDAT. I hate that thing."
Ritsuko leaned back in her chair and looked up at her friend. She grabbed up her own coffee mug. "What about those two boys – the ones you said he was friends with?" She took a sip and grimaced. It was cold. Oh well. It wasn't worth the effort to get a fresh cup – it's not like it would taste any better.
"He hangs out with them a little, but he never shows any interest in doing anything with them."
"So invite all three of them to some outing." Ritsuko sipped her coffee again. It still tasted like stale cigarette smoke. "Or better, make him invite them."
Misato nodded, "that could work. Better than your attempt to try to get Shinji to make friends with Rei."
"Hey, that was your idea. And I told you it wouldn't work." She finished off her vile coffee, pretending to herself that she liked it.
/\ PoC /\
Time passed as the helicopter beat the air into submission. Fortunately, the flight to the air craft carrier was only about an hour. As they were coming in for the landing, Kensuke was glued to the window like a bug splatted on a windshield. Shinji was worried that he would accidentally push his face through the glass. As the helicopter landed, and the motor turned off, Shinji realized that Kensuke was talking non stop, and probably had been for some time now.
"And that's an Aegis destroyer. I would have expected it to be further out from the rest of the battle group." Kensuke babbled as they filed out onto the landing deck. There they were met by a pair of officers standing at attention and teenage girl in a sun dress that was whipping around in the breeze.
As soon as she spotted Misato, she called out, "Hello, Misato. How are you?" In a surprisingly formal fashion.
Misato smiled and waved, "As well as ever. You've grown tall, haven't you?" At which point the girl spoiled the 'mature' image " Yeah! And not just taller - my figure has filled out, too." Misato tried not to snort as she turned back to the three boys, "Let me introduce you - this is the exclusive pilot of Evangelion Unit Two, the Second Child, Sohryu Asuka Langley." As she was saying this, the hat Toji was wearing blew off and skittered towards Asuka, who firmly planted her foot on it to keep it from going any further. As Toji dived to recover it, the wind whipped her dress up, giving him an eyeful.
"Ow, what did you do that for?" Toji put a hand to his cheek, where Asuka had slapped him.
"It's a viewing fee."
"Oh, yeah? Here's your change!" And pulled down his trousers. Shinji turned his back on the whole debacle, and tried to project 'I don't know these people. I have nothing to do with them'.
"So, which of these is the Third Child?" Asuka finally asked.
"The gentleman with his back turned," Misato replied.
"Huh. What a boring boy."
/\ PoC /\
As they headed down to the mess hall for a belated lunch, a rumpled looking businessman came up to meet them.
"You!" Misato's eyes widened. At the same time Asuka skipped over to the scruffy older man and latched onto his arm. "And this is Kaji Ryouji, my escort."
The man in question smiled banally, "Hello, Misato. It's been a while."
"Not long enough," She muttered, but forced a smile. No need to air dirty laundry in public. "Let's go get something to eat before we talk." Apparently, Asuka took that to mean that she could expound on whatever topic she saw fit without interruption - she monopolized the conversation to the point that nobody else could say anything. At first she kept trying to direct it at Ryouji. But he was skilled at deflecting her attention, so she was soon expostulating towards the boys.
Toji and Kensuke were split between hanging on her every word and glaring at her for her behavior, while Misato and Ryouji tried to assiduously ignore each other (well, it was actually Misato trying to ignore Ryouji, who smiled and acted friendly).
"What are you doing here?" Misato hissed as they walked into the mess hall. It was almost empty, as lunch was finishing up.
Ryouji shrugged, "Since I had business in Japan, NERV asked me to escort Asuka."
"I should have figured you would fine some way to turn up." Misato turned to get her food and walked away.
She ended up taking a table at the far end of the cafeteria, where the three boys joined her, sitting in a loose knot around one of the tables.
From the other end of the room, where she almost hanging off of Ryouji as he got himself a coffee, Asuka huffed, "it's too bad that the Third Child is such a boring boy," casting an annoyed glance at Shinji. Unlike the other two boys, he had his back to her, and wasn't sneaking periodic glances her way.
"Well, for a boring boy, he's done pretty well. You know his sync ration was over 60% on his first sortie."
"What!" Asuka gawked at Shinji, who looked very inconspicuous as he ate his omelet. She stormed over, grabbing him by the arm. "Come on, then!" And pulled him out of his seat.
"Wait, what?" Shinji gabbled, fork clutched in his hand, "I'm still eating.."
"I bet you got a 60% sync score because you were using the prototype. My unit 02 is the first true Evangelion, and it requires real skill to pilot. Come on, I'll show you, and you will understand!" She dragged Shinji towards the inter-fleet ferry.
/\ PoC /\
"And this is unit 02. It's not a prototype, like your unit. This is the final design. Its faster, stronger, and all around better. So that is why it is harder to sync with than your Eva." Asuka gestured to the red behemoth strapped into a carry-cradle.
'She's a really annoying girl,' Shinji had tuned out what Asuka was saying half way through. He was trying to decide what to do with the fork that he was still holding when the ship lurched.
"What...?"
"It's a shock wave – something exploded in the water."
"Do you think... it's an Angel?" Shinji asked with trepidation.
A huge smile spread across Asuka's face. "Come on, now's my chance to really show you!"
"What?"
"Here, get into my spare," Asuka rummaged in the locker off to one side of the room before throwing a red plug suit to Shinji. "Stay there, and don't peek!" Asuka ran behind a stack of crates. A moment later, she returned, dressed in her plug suit. "Well, how come your not dressed?"
"Asuka, you're the pilot – I don't need a plug suit. Besides, I wouldn't fit into yours." And there was no way that Shinji was getting dressed in girls' clothing, even if it was 90% androgynous.
Asuka rolled her eyes at how stubborn and thick headed boys could be. "Fine. Just get in."
Shinji clambered into the entry plug. It was smaller than the one in unit 01, forcing the two teens into close proximity.
''Here, sit!" Asuka commanded as the entry plug began to fill with LCL.
Shinji sat.
It was only afterwards that his brain processed that there was only one place to sit – the command chair – and two people. But fortunately, he didn't have long to be confused by this conundrum as Asuka sat down on his lap
"Don't get any ideas, Third!" the LCL supported most of her weight, so it was not uncomfortable.
/\ PoC /\
"Sir, the unidentified sonar return is circling again for another pass," one of the bridge crew called out to the captain.
"It's an Angel" Misato burst through the hatch. "Prepare the emergency umbilical and tell unit 02 to launch." It was a good thing that Asuka had decided to drag Shinji out to show off her Evangelion. Otherwise this would be much more complicated.
"What are you doing on the bridge? This is a combat situation!" The captain demanded.
"Correct, sir. And as your orders state, I am to take command if this fleet encounters an Angel in a 'combat situation'!" Misato went over to the radio station and connected to the Evangelion's channel. "What's your situation, Asuka?"
"Ready to launch!"
"Go ahead and launch."
/\ PoC /\
"Why is it not responding!" Asuka growled, "It's your fault!" She turned to look over her shoulder at Shinji, "Synchronize with me! We need to both be sending commands, otherwise the thought noise will stop it."
Shinji nodded, and took a deep breath of the disgusting fluid. He pushed himself into the trance state he had perfected for communicating with Inia. Usually when he was piloting his Evangelion, he couldn't lose himself completely into it, as he had to stay aware of his surrounding to pilot, but this time he was just here for support.
He imagined he could feel a slow pulse running through the Evangelion, and a sense of... something, almost animal. He then reached out to Asuka, feeling for her pride and anger.
It was strange. He realized that it was all probably in his head, but he could feel a sense of connection, like he was a conduit between the pilot and the machine.
"Shiest! Don't squirm so much!" Asuka muttered as she slipped in Shinji's lap from the Evangelion standing up. But her link was good. She could feel... everything! This was way better than practice. 'Adrenaline is what makes the difference. It's probably why that baka was able to sync do well.' But she quickly put the Third Child out of her mind as she burst out of the hold, leaping to the top of the transport's superstructure.
Swimming right towards them was a huge shark like something – the Angel. And it was going to ram their transport.
"Asuka, leap to the 'Over the rainbow' – we have a power coupling ready!" Misato called over the radio.
Asuka leaped to a neighboring cruiser, and then over to the carrier, setting the cruiser rocking dangerously.
As the Angel turned towards the carrier, Asuka grabbed the power coupling and jammed it into the access port.
"Angel attack imminent!" Came the voice over the radio.
Asuka whirled back in time to see the shark thing leap out of the water directly at her Evangelion.
"Grab it with the AT field," Shinji muttered, trying to stay in 'the zone', syncing Asuka to the Evangelion. Asuka nodded, catching the monster fish, slowing it with her AT field.
As the Angel's AT field canceled theirs, the Evangelion grasped the the fish and wrestle it to the deck. The powerful shark muscles flipped the two of them over from side to side, the Evangelion barely holding on.
"Asuka! The core is in the thing's mouth. Get it to open it's mouth and stab it!"
Asuka momentarily quailed at the idea of shoving her hand into that tooth studded jaw. But she began to clamber up the length of the body, inching her grip up towards the mouth as she struggled to not be knocked loose as the Angel buffeted them against the carrier deck. Several helicopters and a jet were knocked overboard. One VTOL managed to take off at the last moment, and there was some radio traffic – somebody was yelling at the pilot – but Asuka was too focused on holding on and clawing her way up to the jaws.
She had just reached the mouth, and was starting to pry them open, when Misato yelled, "Asuka! Lookout!" Asuka just had time to glance up before the Angel flopped over the side and back into the water. With Unit 02 still holding on.
As the Evangelion was pulled in, Asuka froze. "Asuka. Stab in through the gills!" Shinji pointed to the structure that the Evangelion was holding tight to – the underside looked a lot more delicate than the outside of the Angel.
Asuka grabbed a progressive knife and pushed it in, angling it towards where the back of the mouth should be. As it went in, the Angel began to thrash and buck, Asuka held on tight, "I can't get it any further in – it's too tough."
"Focus! I'll help." The two teens tried to stab it with their sheer force of will, squinting as they growled in unison. The knife slipped in, and with a crack like a glass shattering, the Angel spasmed and was still.
"Are you ok in there?"
"Yes, Misato," came the reply in unison. Asuka glanced in horror at Shinji.
"Ok, I'll reel you in." The power coupling began to draw the Evangelion upwards, like a giant fish hook.
"Stop touching me, you pervert!" Asuka tried to push Shinji away.
"There's no room! I can't move!" Shinji burbled as Asuka pushed his face into the back of the pilot's seat.
"What's going on? Is Shinji in there as well?"
/\ PoC /\
As Shinji staggered out of the entry plug under the bemused eye of Misato, He glanced over at Asuka, 'that was not what I expected.' He had expected to feel a sense of pride, or anger radiating from the red head.
"So, you have a good time in close quarters?" Misato asked, to Kensuke and Toji's hoots.
"It wasn't like that!" Protested Shinji.
"It was all the pervert's fault!" Asuka said at the same time.
"You're lucky that the Evangelion functioned with both of you inside. Ristuko said that having a second person in there could mess up the synchronization." Misato got serious for a moment, before shrugging – they had won after all - "Let's go finish lunch."
"Blearg! Not until I have a chance to shower." Asuka struck a horrified pose.
'You know, the main sense I got from her was loneliness. And fear.' Shinji cast a surreptitious glance at the other pilot. 'She's a lot like I was, before Inia.'
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