'Shinji!'
"Wha?" Shinji jerked out a sound sleep to the sound of a girl crying. He glanced around his darkened room – it was dark. Shinji finally processed that it was 3 in the morning, and the room was empty save for him.
Yet the weeping was still loud and clear.
Finally, Shinji realized that it was all in his head
"Inia? Are you ok?'
'She died,' his imaginary friend sobbed, 'they just shot her.'
'Cryska?' Shinji asked tremulously.
'No, it was Natalie. She was one of the cooks at the Alaska base.' Inia started to get herself under control. 'She was always so cheerful and friendly. We always joked around. And then.. the Refugee Liberation Front staged an attack – they are a terrorist organization – and they attacked the base. We fought them off, but they killed Natalie,' Inia sniffled some more.
'I'm really sorry. I wish I could be there to help.'' Shinji considered what sort of help somebody like him could offer. Not much really, 'I could at least give you a hug.'
'I'm hugging my teddy bear. I'll pretend that its you.' Inia sniffled, 'I.. So many of my friends have died. First at the laboratory. Then out on the front lines. But I thought somebody like Natalie was safe. That she would always be there for me. She should have outlived me.'
Shinji pulled himself up into a sitting position on his futon, arranging the blankets comfortably. He was going to be here a while. This wasn't the first time Inia had called him in the middle of the night, but she sounded a lot worse than ever before.
'I wish you were here,' Inia sobbed, 'no, I don't. Then you would have to deal with the BETA as well.'
'I'm not certain if having the Angels is any better.'
'It's better. At least you don't have to watch them eat people. And no matter what we do, it's never enough. It's just a matter of time. The BETA control most of Asia. Europe is barely holding on. Nobody knows what is going on in Africa. We're losing. It's just a matter of time before those fucking monsters eat all of the people.'
Shinji was shocked to hear Inia swear. 'What about that rail gun that you developed? All it takes is for your scientist to come up with a new weapon, and you'll be able to stop them, to push them back.'
'Maybe.' Inia sounded a little less depressed.
'Look, pretty soon every TSF will come equipped with a rail gun, and then you will be able to hold your own.'
'There are still so many of them. And they breed , or reproduce, or whatever they do, too fast.'
'Well, I should probably say thank you, for all of your advice on how to deal with Asuka.'Shinji was wracking his brains on how to cheer Inia up. It wasn't something he had any talent at, but she sounded really distraught.
'What, she asked you to reproduce?' Inia was able to tease Shinji, even in her current state, 'Is that what made you think of it?'
'NO! No, I mean we just had lunch together. In the cafeteria. But we talked, and it was very.. normal.'
'Normal is good,' Inia commented sleepily.
'Yes. Normal is good.'
There was a pause before Inia finally replied, 'Good night, Shinji. Thank you.'
Shinji took a while to fall asleep. As much as the Angels terrified him, knowing that Inia had it so much worse made facing them more manageable.
/\ PoC /\
"Dude, It's pouring out there!" Toji tried to shake the water off of his cloths, "And it was so nice this morning, too."
"Yeah, the weather has been pretty crazy this year." Shinji opened the door to the apartment, "Keep it down, guys, Misato has been working nights, so she may be asleep." Given how little he had slept last night, a nap seemed like a good idea to Shinji as well.
"What are you doing here? Are you losers stalking me?" Asuka opened her door and struck a pose. At Shinji's look, she added, "oh, don't worry. Misato's awake."
As her name was spoken, Misato walked in. She was apparently just on her way to work, as she was in uniform, instead of her 'comfortable' clothes (which made Toji sigh in disappointment).
"Welcome home Shinji. Don't forget that the two of you have a harmonics test this afternoon."
"Ok."
"Oh, uh, congratulations!" Kensuke said, pointing to Misato's collar.
"What? Oh?" Light dawned on Shinji as he noticed her rank insignia had been replaced by a gold star, "Congratulations!"
"We should have a party!" Kensuke declared.
"Yeah," Toji added, "We can do it here!"
As Asuka and Shinji both looked scandalized at the two boys taking over, Misato nodded "That would be great!"
/\ PoC /\
The three pilots hung suspend in tubes of LCL in a cavernous room, with the only illumination coming from a handful of overhead lights and the screens of the computers running the experiments. Cables were strewn all over the floor, running from the tubes to the computers. Maya and Ritsuko were at their workstation, adjusting parameters, the light from the displays giving them a pallid, unhealthy complexion. It was a typical Tuesday afternoon.
"So, how does it look?" Misato asked as she walked into the lab.
"Pretty good. Rei is holding steady, while the other two keep inching up. Today, for the first time, Shinji's score exceeded Asuka's."
"But Rei is not improving?" Misato sighed, "well, I guess that's the best we're going to get. She still performs more than adequately out in the field, even if her Eva is a little sluggish."
"I suspect it would be that way even if her sync score was higher, Ma'am." Maya interrupted, "Her unit is the prototype, after all."
"I guess so. Any progress on adding that second command seat to Unit 01?"
"Yup! We put it in tandem, almost elbow to elbow" Maya chirped, "Unit 01 isn't that big, after all."
"I am surprised the commander okay-ed it – we had to scrap the dummy plug system," Ritsuko added. She wasn't certain how she felt about that. She hated everything about the dummy plug, but it gave them options that didn't involve relying on 15 year old teens.
"From your reports, the dummy plug has only mediocre performance, and can't generate an AT field. And Shinji has been very reliable, behaving in a very mature, adult fashion. To my mind, It's a no brainer," Misato gushed over her charge.
"Never say that something is a 'no brainer'. It makes teasing you too easy." Ritsuko corrected, before turning to the mike, "Ok you're done for the day." And hit the drain button.
The three teen scrambled out and over to the locker rooms. As they did, Misato called out, "Shinji – good work! Your sync score topped Asuka!"
Asuka's visage began to darken,"I don't think that's a fair comparison. I didn't have a good nights sleep last night."
Shinji recalled his own recent 'night', and being interrupted in the middle by a hysterical Inia. He also recalled something else Inia had said, from her experience working with sometimes temperamental fellow pilots. "We aren't competing against each other, Misato. We're all on the same team, and the only opponents are the Angels."
Misato opened her mouth to respond when Ritsuko barked a laugh, "And I thought you said he was socially withdrawn!"
Shinji cringed under the comments.
"Just because he's shy doesn't make him an idiot!" Asuka defended her fellow pilot.
Misato threw up her hands in defeat.
"Are you certain that they are teenagers?" Ritsuko asked, "Maybe these are their future selves that somehow traveled back in time?"
"I'm going, now." Misato shook her head, " I have a meeting."
/\ PoC /\
That evening, Misato arrived to find the apartment all set up for a party – a banner read 'congratulations'; while a stack of pizza boxes sat on the counter, next to a tray of home made snacks that Shinji had assembled.
"Congratulations!" Cheered the assembled teens. In addition to Shinji and Asuka, Toji, Kensuke and Hikari were present.
"Wow, you guys really outdid yourselves!"
"Nah, it was mostly this guy." Toji gently punched Kensuke in the shoulder.
"I invited Rei as well, but I don't know if she will show up." Shinji knew he should have done more than just send her an impersonal email, but he couldn't quite bring himself to interact with her more.
In some ways she was almost as scary as his father.
"And I invited Kaji," crooned Asuka.
Misato gritted her teeth, but smiled anyway, "well, he's late. We should start without him." She opened up a pizza box.
Any protests were quelled by the tantalizing aroma of pizza – nectar of the gods (or at least teens). But before Misato could relax, the door opened to reveal Kaji accompanied by Ritsuko.
"I hope this is the right place," Kaji joked.
"How come you're together?" Misato demanded immediately. Asuka glanced over at her vehemence. Asuka still kind of liked the older man, but not enough to make a big deal about it: She had come to realize that he ignored her. Oh, he pretended that he wasn't but he never remembered anything she said. He was kind of a jerk that way.
"We just met up on the way. " Kaji placated.
"Oh, I bet you're two timing!" Asuka countered venomously. Not that she really cared, but if he wasn't going to pay attention to her, then she was going to make him suffer.
"Come get your pizza," Misato interrupted before things could get out of control.
/\ PoC /\
"So, your idiot friend did ok," Asuka had ditched Hikari after the other girl focused all of her attention trying to chat up Toji. Not only was she being completely ignored, but she had to be within 10 feet of the jock. She could feel her brain cells dying from being in close proximity to such a massive source of stupid. Instead she perched on the kitchen counter, next to where Shinji was hanging out to avoid the press of people.
"I told you, Kensuke is a good guy," Shinji countered.
"Hump. I'll reserve judgment." Asuka stole the pepperoni off of Shinji's second slice of pizza. Shinji was just opening his mouth to protest when she continued, "so, why do you pilot?"
Misato roared with laughter in response to something Kaji had said. The adults were talking (and drinking) in their own little cluster. Asuka frowned and looked away.
"How could I not?" Shinji replied, and then paused. He wasn't certain how to explain it, without revealing the existence of his 'imaginary' friend. And that wouldn't turn out well. Even he knew that.
"That's a stupid answer," Asuka retorted, but before Shinji could protest, she added, "I'm asking because I'm not certain what my reason is. And it seems like you should have something, if you are going to get into an Evangelion and put your life on the line."
Shinji nodded. "What I meant was.. The way the world is, after second impact. Everybody is working so hard to rebuild it – heck, that's all our history teacher talks about – that, I felt I had to help somehow."
"And fighting aliens is your contribution to society?"
"I guess. We're the only ones that can do it, so if we don't everybody will die."
"I guess that works," Asuka said sourly. It wasn't much of a reason. At least, it wasn't one that she could appropriate. She knew why she piloted – she was a genius after all, and it would be pretty stupid not to know what was going on in your own head – but she found that she didn't care about impressing people as much as she used to.
"Do you ever wonder if there are other universes out there?" Shinji asked tentatively. "I mean, not like other inhabited planets, but other versions of Earth, in a completely separate reality."
"You mean like different surfaces of a Riemann manifold? One class I audited talked about that as a possibility, though obviously nobody has any evidence so it's pretty much just hypothetical. It's the sort of thing theoretical physicists talk about at parties and such."
"Guess what?" Shinji gestured to the party going on around them.
"Yeah. It would be pretty cool if other Earths existed. I could meet an alter-Asuka, and see how her life was. Maybe in a world where Second Impact never happened."
"Have you considered that our world might be the best alternative out there? That in the other universe, maybe all life on earth ended in Second Impact? Or some other alien races invaded and ate all the people?"
"Uh. That's just depressing." Asuka jumped off the counter to go see if she could pry Hikari off of Toji.
"It ties into why I pilot. I think there are many Earths out there, and many of them are pretty crappy. I just want to keep ours from becoming like that."
Asuka stopped and looked at Shinji. It was an oddly compelling image. A sort of a heroic last stand, "ok". It was still depressing.
/\ PoC /\
Later that night, after everybody had left, Shinji and Asuka gently herded a slightly inebriated Misato to her room.
"Rei never showed up." Misato realized, and turned to head for the phone. "Maybe I should call her."
"And tell her what? The party is over, Misato." Shinji tried to steer their putative guardian back towards her room.
Asuka mimed picking up the phone, "hey, Rei, you missed a good party."
"Exshat.. exactly!" Misato escaped from Shinji's guidance and headed back for the phone in the kitchen.
"Not helping, Asuka!" Shinji motioned for Asuka to give him a hand.
"Come on, Misato. You have work tomorrow." Asuka took the Major's other side, and they finally were able to chivvy her to her room, where she promptly fell into bed.
"Thank you," Shinji sighed, "I don't know why we're stuck having to be the responsible ones."
"Hey, if we're responsible enough to be the guardians of humanity, were good for taking care of one immature commanding officer." Asuka retorted.
Shinji smirked up at the redhead. He recalled what Inia had said, about how having a copilot. "Uhm, Asuka... Do you want to ask Misato about working some more on the dual synchronizations test. I mean, with both of us in the Unit 01 entry plug? I mean, it would be good to have somebody working together with me, that I could trust," he asked tentatively.
Asuka froze. "Are you.. asking me out?"
Shinji knew this was a trick question. Inia had explained it one day when she was talking about why she wasn't interested in dating any of the guys in her squadron – that they didn't mean what they said. And how it always pissed her off how they flirted & toyed with women's feelings without taking them seriously.
"Uh, yeah?"
/\ PoC /\
The next day dawned weird.
Misato was working the afternoon shift, so she took the opportunity to sleep in, and try to recover from her hangover. That left Shinji and Asuka to have breakfast together. And then they walked to school. Together.
Of course, they had been living in the same apartment for months, and doing all of the exact same things, but now they were... together.
Sort of.
Maybe?
Neither one had dated before, so they weren't quite certain what the protocols were. They didn't know what to say to each other, or what to think. The one thing the both were (secretly) in agreement about was that Shinji was eff'ing things up.
Thankfully, school took up the day, and for once both paid attention.
"Shinji. Hey, Earth to Shinji." Kensuke called out, "It's lunch time. Lets go, or we'll lose our spot."
Shinji finished packing his books away. "You guys go on. I need to see Asuka about something."
"That sucks," Toji replied. He had been waiting patiently for his friends by the lockers, "good luck with the red devil."
"Uhm, have you seen where she went?"
"Nope. I think she might have left with Hikari."
Shinji nodded and went in search. He had an idea were Asuka liked to eat lunch – either in the back, under the big oak, or up on the roof. But looking out the window revealed nobody in back, and the roof was empty, except for some third years.
Shinji decided to desultorily head down to the cafeteria – maybe she was in there for some reason, when he spotted her eating by herself on the library steps.
"Asuka? I was hoping to eat lunch with you." But before Asuka could reply, their cell phones went off.
"Let's go, Baka! It's an Angel attack" Asuka grinned, having regained her self confidence the moment she was back in familiar territory. Fighting for her life was so much less scary than this whole dating thing. The teens ran for the school's service entrance, where their Section 2 driver was stationed for just such an emergency.
"Asuka?" Shinji had his hand on the outside door, preventing Asuka from going out to the car. "You don't need to hide from me." He stepped out and ran the last few steps to the car.
/\ PoC /\
"So let me get this straight," Asuka repeated incredulously. "The three of us are going to catch the Angel as it falls from orbit?"
The three pilots were in the command room, and had just been briefed on the newest Angel, which was apparently in orbit. A view screen off to one side showed an image of the Angel captured by a satellite – it looked like a giant eye with fingers.
"We aren't exactly certain where it will hit, so most likely only one of you will be in position to catch but, yeah, that's pretty much it," Misato replied calmly.
"Ok." Rei nodded and turned to go board her Evangelion.
"What, are you stupid?" Asuka turned after Rei and was about to start a rant when Shinji took her hand.
"Asuka, you're right, it's a dumb plan, but its the best we got. If Misato comes up with something better, she'll radio us. But right now, we don't have time to second guess our commanding officer."
Asuka sighed, looked down at Shinji's hand, looked up at Shinji. She was clearly torn as to whether to listen to Shinji or to continue yelling.
"We will have the dual sync test after we deal with this Angel, ok?"
Asuka shook her head in bemusement, a small smile on her face. "Fine, baka."
Misato looked up from her screen, "Um, what just happened? It sounded like Shinji just talked Asuka out of her screaming fit."
"Yes, Ma'am." Makoto replied as he continued typing away, getting the best coordinates for the Evangelions.
"But that's not physically possible."
"Neither is catching an Angel falling from orbit, Ma'am."
/\ PoC /\
Shinji waited at his designated starting point. So far, this sortie seemed like a typical Angel battle – an hour of stomach clenching anticipation which would be shortly followed by 5 minutes of absolute bowl loosening terror.
But right now they were still in the anticipation stage, so Shinji had time to dwell on stuff. Like how his relationship with Asuka had spiraled out of control. What had started as a charity project had somehow morphed into them dating.
Shinji checked the feed from command – they still had ten minutes before they could tell which sector the Angel was going to hit in.
Except it was pretty clear that Asuka wasn't interested. So it was going to go on the record as the shortest relationship ever. And he wasn't certain how he felt about that. He hadn't meant to ask her out. He just didn't want to hurt her (or their rather delicate relationship) by saying no. But that didn't mean he wanted her to completely ignore him.
"Hey, Baka," it was a communication from Unit 02, "If you don't die in this… this. Lets hang out, Ok? We can watch TV." Asuka asked nervously.
Shinji smiled, "Yeah. We can do that." Despite them being about to die, hearing Asuka say that had felt really good.
"Enough chit chat. " Misato came on the line, "we have a vector."
Shinji was wrong – it was only 3:34 minutes of abject terror.
/\ PoC /\
"I can't believe we caught the Angel. That you caught the Angel!" Asuka was exuberant. Everything had gone according to plan. The Angel had died, they hadn't, and she had a boyfriend. She glanced over at Shinji, just to check that. 'Yup. Still a dweeb.' But he liked her, which made up for everything else.
"The Evangelions AT field redirects kinetic energy into a trans-dimensional space." Rei explained, "with that, all that was required was that we be at the right spot." The three pilots were waiting for Misato, who had promised to take them out for dinner as a reward for pulling off her hair brained scheme. With the commander and vice commander both out of the office, she had been the senior officer, making this intercept all hers. And it had gone off spectacularly.
"Thank you," Shinji replied quickly to Asuka, before the two female pilots could get to arguing. Again.
Asuka smiled.
"Hey. Guys, pile in!" Misato finally made her appearance, and herded the lot to her car. As they took off at rocket-like speed, she explained "Small change of plans – the restaurant I was hoping for is closed, so we'll have to go with plan B."
Dinner was one of the first times that all three of the pilots had interacted socially and enjoyed it. Maybe it was the release of stress, or maybe it was that Asuka was for the first time radiating happiness instead of a mild sense of irritation.
Misato was pleasantly surprised at how well everybody got along, especially Asuka, who not only didn't pitch a fit over the fact that Misato ended up taking them to a food stand instead of a fancy restaurant (the excuse that the restaurant had been stepped on by an Eva was true. It was equally true that Misato figured that if she was going to spend money to eat out, she should do it someplace where she actually liked the food).
But Asuka was actually chatting amiably with Rei and Shinji, making an effort to be nice. And Rei almost smiled. Shinji looked a little distracted, like he often did. There was something wrong with that boy, if he was bored talking to two pretty girls. Maybe he was gay?
/\ PoC /\
'Hey, Shinji, can we talk?' It was Inia. Shinji glanced around. Asuka and Rei were discussing something, and Misato was nowhere to be seen, so he zoned out to respond.
'Just for a bit. I'm at dinner.'
'Oh, that's ok. I only have a half hour downtime, and then I have to go back on patrol – there are rumors that the RLF terrorists breached a research lab down at the American military base that was working on live BETA and released them.' Inia explained, 'everything is upside down. It's good to talk to you, to get some sanity in my life.'
'Wait, what? Why were they keeping BETA near a city? I can understand studying them, but I would think that they would do it somewhere in Kamchatka,' Shinji interrupted.
'Yeah,' came the tired response, 'Not certain yet if its true – we're currently operating out of the Soviet base, but we're going to go check it out shortly. With any luck, it's just a handful of Soldier class. We are still cleaning up from the terrorist attack, so nobody knows anything as we try to root out the sleeper cells.'
"Hey Shinji. Earth to Shinji. Are you going to sit there spacing out, or are going to eat that?" Asuka pointed to the strips of meat, "Cause if you don't want it, I'll take it." She eyed Shinji – her putative new boyfriend – and decided to set a few boundaries, "And you know, if you don't respond, I'm going to take them anyway."
'I got to go.' Shinji set quickly to Inia, 'I'm dating Asuka, and she is threatening to steal my food.'
In retrospect, there were better ways to have handled that conversation, but Shinji's mind was on his meat.
/\ PoC /\
"Asuka?" It was the following day at school, and Hikari accosted her friend on the way to lunch, "I was wondering if you would go on a date with a friend of my sister."
"Isn't your sister a third year in high school? How old is this guy?"
"He's a couple of years older that us, but I thought you liked older guys, from how you go on about Kaji. And besides, my sister says he really likes you."
"Yew. Just yew." Asuka stuck out her tongue like she was gagging. "I'd rather date Shinji."
Hikari sighed. "What's wrong with Shinji?" Asuka talked about Shinji all the time, and it was always the same sort of thing – 'Shinji cooked diner, but it wasn't perfect. Shinji complemented me on this, that and the other thing, but he missed one item...'. Hikari wished Asuka would get a clue. Even to an outside observer, Shinji seemed like a decent guy.
"Nothing, I guess," Asuka prevaricated. She wasn't quite ready to admit that she was dating Shinji. Not even to Hikari. She glancing over to where the afore mentioned boy was putting his books away and chatting with the jock and the geek.
"Well, I think he's a nice guy. And I know you are scared of dating anybody.."
"I'm not scared, I am just too mature for any of the guys our age, and the I'm not going to date some older pervert" Asuka pronounced.
"Well, that kind of takes care of everybody," Hikari shrugged, "so, where do you want to eat?"
Before Asuka could reply, a voice asked from off to the side, "Uhm, Asuka, you want to go eat on the roof?"
Asuka almost levitated as she turned to face Shinji, "Yeah, sure. Let's go. By, Hikari!' And the two teens left the pigtailed class rep standing with her mouth open.
/\ PoC /\
"Ok. Did you just see what I saw?" Kensuke asked his companion.
"Yeah. Shinji just betrayed the human race." Toji replied as they watched Shinji and Asuka walk out of the classroom together. It was the end of an era. They had read enough manga to know that they wouldn't see their friend again until the Red Devil had had fill of him and dumped him like yesterday's laundry.
"Maye they just have some NERV stuff that they need to do?" Kensuke asked hopefully.
"What, like that training where they had to dress alike and spend all their time together?"
"Um... when you put l it like that, it sounds like an excuse for dating."
"Creepy dating," Toji added before shrugging, "Lets go get food."
/\ PoC /\
"You know, your loser friends were staring at us all afternoon." Asuka commented as they walked home.
Shinji sighed, 'remember – charity case.' He glanced sideways at Asuka, 'Ok, maybe a very hot charity case.' He was conflicted, "I know you don't like them, but they are my friends."
"Sorry," Asuka muttered.
"Anyway, I thought you were going to go hang out with Hikari after class."
Asuka shrugged, "I like Hikari, but she's a little too responsible – she's going to be saying after school for some class rep meeting. Ugh."
"Says the girl responsible for protecting the human race." Shinji countered.
Asuka smirked, "ah, you want to go out to eat? I can phone Misato and let her know we'll be late."
"I forgot to tell you – Misato said she's going to be out late- she has a wedding/reception/bridal shower/thing she's going to. So I figure I'll just cook something at home. Maybe something European?"
"Um, OK." Cooking was definitely one of Shinji's talents. "But I doubt you'll be able to get German food right."
"Oh, it's easy. You just add sauerkraut to everything, right?"
Asuka elbowed Shinji in the ribs.
/\ PoC /\
"Too bad Misato missed this." Asuka commented as she polished off the last of the gravy with a crust of bread (store bought, but still good). "You want to watch something?" she waived towards the TV.
"Sure."
Watching was awkward. They sat down like usual on the couch, except Shinji didn't put his feet up on the coffee table, and Asuka didn't sprawl like she usually did across 2/3 of the couch. They sat properly. That lasted until halfway through the first show, when Asuka proclaimed, "You're my boyfriend. That means I have certain privileges!" And spun around so he could use Shinji's lap as a pillow.
It was much later, and still no sign of Misato. The TV had been turned off and Shinji was reading a book while Asuka stared off into the distance, lost in thought. Or so it appeared,
'You have a girlfriend! That's great!' Inia almost squealed. Dating and guns seemed to be her two favorite topics.
'I guess. But I have no idea what to do.'
'So? That's what dating is about."
'But.. you know about stuff. Asuka is laying on my lap. What should I do? I don't want to be pushy, but she's really delicate, and if she thinks I'm being standoffish, shell be annoyed.'
"How should I know? I haven't dated.'
'You haven't?
'No.'
That didn't really fit with Shinji's image of Inia, but he was too busy worrying about Asuka to worry about Inia. 'Well, you're a girl. You know what the guy should do in a situation like this. If it was you laying on my lap, what would you want me to do?"
'Kiss me.'
'What?'
"Shinji, you want to kiss?" asked Asuka.
Shinji looked down nervously, his connection to Inia broke as he began to sweat, "um, ok"
Asuka sat up and tentatively placed her lips on Shinji's.
'This is nice.'
/\ PoC /\
"Good job, ladies and gentlemen," Misato commended the pilots as they exited their entry plugs. "Both Asuka and Shinji improved their synchronization score. Though Shinji is now consistently in the lead."
A growl came from the redhead pilot, "Don't get used to that, Third. I'm going to retake the lead, even if I have to pummel you!" At Shinji whipped around in terror, she added in a more normal tone, "seriously, don't get cocky, Shinji. I am still a better pilot," and sauntered off.
Misato scratched her head, 'what was that, just now? I seriously don't get teenagers.' She had effectively skipped her teenage years as an almost catatonic recluse in a psych ward, so she lacked first hand experience.
Before Misato could say anything, the alarm sounded. "Major, we have something entering our sentry line."
"Something? Is it an Angel?"
"I can't tell, Ma'am – it's coming in as pattern orange, but the the radar cross section is not like anything that we have on record. At it's current rate of progress, we'll have it on monitors in five minutes."
Misato considered, before announcing peremptorily: "Pilots, prepare to sortie."
As the docks burst into activity, she made a beeline for the the command center.
/\ PoC /\
"This sucks," Asuka pronounced. For the third time, "I was hoping to go home, take a shower and relax."
"I know. Why can't the Angels come during school hours." Shinji replied.
"There is no reason to expect the Angels to keep to a human schedule. It would be not unreasonable for them to arrive in the middle of the night," Rei contributed.
"Uh. They better not."
"Evangelions, launch. " Misato commanded, sending the behemoths shooting up their respective elevators. Once they were at the surface, she continued: "grab a power cable and advance cautiously – were not certain what we are dealing with here."
What confronted the pilots was a giant floating sphere, with a pattern of black stripes running around it, almost like they were liquid.
"What do we do from here?" Shinji asked.
"Approach slowly: we're still not getting a constant blue signal."
"I think it's pretty clear that that thing is an Angel. I can take it out from here." Asuka stationed Evangelion 02 next to a shield barrier and raised her pallet rifle.
"Hold, Asuka. We don't know for certain. And more importantly, we are not detecting a core."
"I'll circle to the other side." Shinji began to advance, followed by Rei.
"Don't come too close, just in.. we have blue!" Misato yelled, just as everything in the sphere's shadow began to sink into the ground.
"Shinji, pull back!" Asuka yelled, as she opened fire.
"Unit 00, retreat! You are blocking Unit 02's line of fire." Misato commanded.
Shinji took the opportunity to fire a burst from his pallet rifle as Rei retreated from the Angel. As he turned to follow, the Evangelion wouldn't move – one foot was sinking into the shadow.
"Rei, Asuka, give me a hand!" As the other two units moved towards Shinji, Unit 01 (and the surrounding structures) began to sink faster.
"Shinji! Grab onto something" Asuka called out as she tried desperately to reach Unit 01 without having her own Evangelion sucked into the black.
"Help?"
Rei opened fire on full burst at the sphere, but like all the previous shots, they had no effect.
Unit 01 sank from sight, one hand waving in a desperate attempt to grab hold of something.
/\ PoC /\
"Get him back!" Asuka stormed over to Misato. The two pilots had been recalled while Ritsuko analyzed the data and tried to figure out what they were dealing with.
"How?" Misato retorted. She wanted to retrieve Shinji just as much, but they had no idea what had happened.
"You don't care!" Asuka stomped off to a corner of the control room to sulk. She didn't dare go further than that, for fear of missing some development. She couldn't risk losing Shinji.
Misato looked over to where Ritsuko was leaning over Maya, peering at the sensor readings. "Anything?"
"Nothing except the obvious – the Angel is the black 'shadow' on the ground, not the spherical projection hovering above it. And that given the complete lack of energy when things contact it, I expect that the are being transported elsewhere rather than destroyed."
"You said that an hour ago," Misato sighed.
"And it's no less true now. Now shut up and let me work."
/\ PoC /\
Shinji tried to orient himself. Everything around him was gray, and there was no sound. It was like being in a sensory deprivation tank. Even the Evangelion was silent, as he had put the unit into standby mode to conserve power. 'I wish we had the nuclear reactors that Inia uses.'
The radio was the only thing he kept powered up, but even that was silent. It was starting to get a little chilly, but it wasn't too bad yet. There was also a sense of... a presence that was reaching out to him. It was like a pressure. He couldn't quite describe it with words, but it wasn't pleasant – it was clingy and oppressive.
'Inia?' He tried reaching out to the older teen, but she didn't reply. But he could almost feel her, and that pushed the strange other presence aside. Maybe wherever he was made telepathy stronger, or maybe it was the complete lack of distractions, but he soon was feeling a shadow of what Inia was experiencing. She was anxious, which was periodically broken up by burst of giddiness and abject terror. Shinji was familiar with this sensation: 'She's in combat. I shouldn't call out to her.'
Shinji relaxed, and tried to wait. Misato would rescue him.
As he drifted, his sense of Inia increased. She was really scared now.
Shinji thought he could even tell the direction that the sensation was coming from. He pivoted back and forth, sniffing like a dog. Yes, definitely. He powered up the Evangelion and reached for where he 'felt' Inia. There was nothing there, but maybe...
Unit 01's hand closed on something! Shinji pulled himself forward. There was a... something.. in the gray. He could feel it – a crease or a fold – even though he saw nothing. He wedged the Evangelion's fingers into it and PULLED.
/\ PoC /\
The technicians were racing to find some way to power up the rail gun as the BETA hammered away at the hanger door. The rail gun was still on its truck mounted transport, but it was the only weapon that they had that could stop a Grappler class BETA. If they could get it powered up and aimed.
All of a sudden, something on the far side of the hanger, back with the abandoned experiments, lit up with a dancing purple radiance. "I think that's the dark-energy mining set up" One of the technicians pronounced, "I didn't realize it was still running. It must be self-powered."
"Never mind that," replied a more level headed engineer, "Is it going to blow?" The glow from the instrument had spread, and was making ripples in the air. At the same time, the banging from the hanger door changed tenor as the metal began to tear.
With another ripple, the air parted, opening into a giant slit through which stepped a giant, anthropomorphic *something*.
Before the stunned technicians could respond, the hanger door ripped off its hinges and the Grapple class burst in.
/\ PoC /\
"As far as I can tell, that Angel is actually a portal into a Dirac singularity – a discontinuity in realty or possibly between realities." Ritsuko was lecturing to the assembled bridge staff, along with Asuka, who had not budged from her nook. The LCL had dried onto her plug suit, and Maya had draped a blanket over her, but otherwise she hadn't moved.
"I don't know how much 'stuff' it can swallow, as a Dirac singularity doesn't have any physical 'space' inside it, not as we understand it. Basically, it is infinity large at the same time as all sides are infinity close together. According to my calculation, a sufficiently large impulse of energy will distort it."
"And for those of us that don't have advanced degrees?" Misato asked, a trifled annoyed. It always bothered her when Ritsuko showed off how much smarter than her she was.
"If we drop enough N2 mines into it, it will pop."
"And what about Shinji? Will he also 'pop'?" Asuka uncurled from her corner like a spider coming awake.
"Unit 01 should survive that intact. I am uncertain about the pilot," Ritsuko shrugged, unconcerned.
"We will explore all other options first." Misato glared at her friend before turning to Shigeru, "Assuming Shinji put Unit 01 on standby, how long does he have?"
"Another 6 hours, maximum."
"Ok, people. We have six hours to figure out how to rescue Shinji. Otherwise, we'll have to go with N2 mines as a last resort."
"We can't do that." Asuka replied calmly, As Misato turned to her, puzzled, Asuka pulled her mind into gear, "Misato, what do you need me to do to help rescue Shinji?" After the way he had dived into a volcano to rescue her, she was willing to dive into the Dirac whatever to get his stupid ass out.
/\ PoC /\
Shinji pulled on the nothing, and the nothing tore. He stepped through back into the world. He had no idea where he was. People were scampering about, yelling, there was a horrible pounding, and he could feel a tugging on his connection to Inia, but he could no longer discern emotions, it was just a sense. Shinji glanced at his power meter - He had less than 4 minutes of battery left.
Something ugly and about knee high leaped at his Evangelion – it was quadrupedal, with two giant claws and a stubby tail.
Shinji instinctively raised his AT field, but it continued trying to claw its way in. He had no idea what it was, but it was attacking him. So he responded the way he had been trained: he grabbed it with one hand, and stabbed it with the progressive knife towards where he thought the core should be. The ugly thing died in a burst of gore.
The people were jabbering and pointing, so Shinji turned on his external comm gear
"What is that? Is that one of ours?"
"I don't know, but it looks like the sort of shit that the skunk works would pull, making a TSF that looked like a BETA."
"Um, hello? Can you here me?" Shinji broadcast. The technicians quieted down, "Do you have a power supply here? I am running on battery." Unit 01 knelt down and pointed at it's back, were the severed end of the power cable was dangling.
The techs consulted with one another, "If you can power down, we can jury rig a connection to the rail guns reactor. It'll take about a half hour." Several glanced nervously out the ruined hanger door, "After that, you can get us out of here? We're pretty much cut off by the BETA."
As if to punctuate that, a Soldier BETA – just slightly larger than human - ran past.
Shinji considered. He was in Inia world, which kind of made sense, since he had followed her mind to get here. He wasn't certain what to do next, but he wasn't leaving his Evangelion while the BETA were around. And he needed power. "Ok. Go fast." and he put Unit 01 back on standby.
As the technicians worked, several kept watch out the hanger door, and one wandered over to the rift into the Dirac sea
"Don't touch that!" Shinji called out.
Shinji waited anxiously, watching the crew work, and stealing glances at the carcass of the BETA that he had killed. It blocked half the room, the blood seeping out and covering the floor. 'Why is the blood red? Inia said they were a silicon based life form.'
It felt like hours, with the sound of heavy caliber machine guns rattling in the distance, and the banging of metal being smashed coming neared, but finally one of the techs called out, "Fire it up, see if you blow the fuse." Shinji crossed his fingers that they hadn't messed up on the wiring and activated the outside power feed. The battery timer jumped back to 5 minutes, and stayed there, not dropping.
"I don't know how long this will last, but thank you."
"Thank us by getting us out of here. We're surrounded." As if to punctuate the technicians words, a TSF crashed into the building.
Unit 01 grabbed the mini-reactor under one arm – it was a bit bulky, but manageable – and pulled out the large pistol that he had been testing out against the Angel and stepped out to check the lay of the land.
The Eva had to stoop to get out of the hanger, but when it unfolded, it was confronted with a hellish scene: On the north side, a TSF was fighting against a squad of Tank class BETAs – smaller than the Grappler, with arms in place of claws, but very fast. And they were a disturbing red color. They had the TSF pinned against a hanger as they tried to bite pieces off.
To the east, a group of assorted TSFs were trying to slow an advanced cluster of BETA. Everywhere else, there was a tide of bodies, like some kind of giant ants, a living carpet advancing inexorably.
BAM!
Shinji shot one of the BETA attacking the northern TSF. As the BETA pivoted to deal with the counter-attack, the TSF shot one of the others and rocketed over to Shinji. It was about half the height of the Evangelion, but much more heavily armed, with a pair of Pallet rifles and what looked like a Katana.
"Who are you? What's your unit?" the Eva radio picked up the transmission as the other pilot sent on all channels.
"How do we get out of here?" Shinji glanced at his power meter – it still read 5:00
The TSF rose up 50 feet into the air and slowly rotated around. "There are not gaps. We need to regroup with the others, and maybe we can make a break." It as clear that he knew it was a forlorn hope – unless they got reinforcement soon, they were going to be over run.
The TSFs that he was referring to were still engaged in battle to the east, and a fort class BETA – a huge, multi-legged monster as tall as the Evangelion, and much more massive – was about to cut off their line of retreat.
"I'll take care of the giant BETA, you get them over here. I may have a way out." Shinji adjusted the reactor into a football hold and ran at the Fort, slamming into it with his AT field. 4:58.
Shinji fired all of his remaining ammunition into the giant BETA, but it had no effect. The rounds couldn't penetrate deep enough to damage anything vital. The Fort tried to take a bite out of Unit 01 but, it couldn't get any purchase. Two of the forelegs battered at the Evangelion, hitting hard enough to make it shift position despite the AT field. Shinji dropped the pistol and lashed out with a progressive knife, but the blade was too short. He left shallow cuts over the monster's body, but it was not slowed.
All of a sudden, Shinji felt a presence. Before he could spare a glance, a large TSF glided in and opened fire with with a pair of pallet rifles.
"Pull back. We'll hold the line." It was Inia!
Shinji gave a push with his AT field, flipping the huge monster up and exposing the BETA's underbelly, which the TSF proceeded to pound with its cannons. When the Fort staggered back, Shinji turned and ran for the research hanger.
3:24. The battery timer was running now.
"There is a sort of dimensional rift inside. We can go through to escape the BETA," Shinji peered inside. The opening to the Dirac singularity had faded to a faint scar, but it was still visible. The half dozen technicians had gathered inside an armored troop transport.
"Do you have space suits? I don't know if there is air in there." Shinji pointed to the rift. Several technicians went running, grabbing firefighter respirators, test pilot masks and any other supplies that could bee repurposed to provide air.
"The BETA are almost here!" Came the voice of the first TSF pilot. "We need to evac stat!" He was apparently somebody in authority.
Shinji nodded, "somebody grab the jeep with the scientists." And he pulled the tear into the Dirac singularity open.
/\ PoC /\
"Ma'am the the Dirac sea is fluctuating again." Makoto pronounced. Time was up, and they hadn't been able to find any way to extract Shinji. Misato had called up half of Japan's stockpile of N2 mines, and they now stood poised to be dropped into the singularity.
Asuka and Rei were standing by on the sides of the disaster area, in case the Angel tried to escape. 'Everybody abandons me,' Asuka was curled into a fetal ball, her knees pulled up to her chest, as she sat in her command chair. 'First mama, then papa. Now the Baka.'
"Last time the ripples didn't signify anything." Misato replied, glancing at the timer, "Drop the mines in 2 minutes and counting."
They watched the timer.
One minute
30 seconds
"Drop"
Fifty N2 mines fell from the hovering VTOLs, splashing down into the Dirac singularity.
"10 seconds to detonation," Misato glanced nervously at the timer, 'I am sorry Shinji. But we have to kill the Angel.' This was followed by, 'I hope the timers don't malfunction in there.'
"10 seconds...9.. 8.. 7.. 6.. 5.. 4.. 3.. 2.. 1.."
Detonation.