Chapter 12 - Over The Rainbow

Shinji was out on the balcony of his and Asuka's apartment, relaxing in one of the outdoor chairs with his SDAT and enjoying the rare cool evening breeze after finishing his homework. There was a warbling squawk from the next balcony over. With the way the apartment building had been designed, there was a slanted wall partitioning off the balconies from each other, presumably for privacy. Shinji removed his earphones, but without even needing to try and look around the partition, he knew it was Pen-pen. From several weeks of experience, he knew that that squawk had meant, essentially, 'get me another beer!'

Then again, the can shake each time certainly helped with the translation.

Shinji was mildly surprised to hear Asuka responding to the call, practically slamming the balcony door open and sighing upon seeing Pen-pen's request. A moment later she returned and said, "Here's your beer, you lazy little duck."

"Wark."

"You're welcome," Asuka grunted.

After about a minute of silence, Shinji put his earphones back in, and began to settle back into-

"Oh, this is where you've been hiding."

"What?!" Shinji yelped and almost leapt back out of the chair. He looked around for Asuka, before quickly adding, "I wasn't hiding!"

Surprisingly, Asuka wasn't at their balcony door. Instead, she was...

Climbing over the partitioning wall. Just like Misato had warned them not to attempt.

"Asuka! What are you doing?!"

"Taking a shortcut, genius," Asuka retorted, pausing to adjust her grip. "I don't feel like going back through Misato's stuffy-as-hell apartment when it's so nice out here."

"Are you sure that's a good id-"

If Asuka had been wearing proper footwear, she would have had no problems in her trek. Instead, her sandalled foot slipped off of the wall the moment it touched down on Shinji's side. She fell quickly, stopped only by an outstretched hand grabbing desperately onto the edge of the balcony.

"Asuka!" Shinji cried out as he rushed to help, panic quickly beginning to flood his body.

"I'm fine, just pull me up!" Asuka shouted back, waving her free hand in the air above her head.

With both hands, Shinji latched onto the flailing limb. But when Asuka let go of the balcony to transfer both hands to his, he suddenly found himself with a problem. Namely, that he just wasn't strong enough to carry Asuka's weight like this. His stomach collided with the balcony wall and he tipped forward, just barely managing to keep his feet on the ground.

"Are you kidding me?!"

"Ngh! Sorry!" Shinji managed to say through gritted teeth. His face was scrunched up from the effort; even his eyes were closed.

"Told you you were too damn skinny!" There was a pause. "Look, just drop me."

"What?!" That got him to open his eyes. "Are you crazy?!"

"The next balcony is like five feet below me. I'll barely even feel the drop."

"Are... are you sure?" It wasn't like he could even do much if she wasn't.

"Yes I am. Now drop me before your attempted heroism rewards you with two dislocated arms!"

With some reluctance, Shinji loosened his sweaty grip on Asuka's hands, gasping in relief as the weight left his arms. After a second or two of panting, he looked down.

Asuka was standing right below, staring disappointedly up at him.

"Told you," she said. "But I'll let you say 'I told you so' about the shortcut."

Relief washed through Shinji, and he watched as Asuka disappeared from sight, presumably to try the balcony door.

"Huh."

"What is it?" he called down upon hearing the confusion in Asuka's voice.

"The door's unlocked. Pretty damn sloppy for Section Two, but at least I should be able to get back up there in a minute."

In fact it only took about thirty seconds for her to be standing in their kitchen, where she at least had the decency to look a little ashamed.

"Just don't tell Misato about this," she said after a few seconds of Shinji staring at her. She looked away and rubbed the back of her head. "And... um... thanks for trying to rescue me."

"I did say I'd help you if you needed it," Shinji replied, recalling the conversation they had had a while ago about him running to her aid. He shrugged, wincing at what the movement did to his strained limbs. "But... I guess I'm not going to be very good at it..."

Asuka whirled around and poked him in the chest. "You need to bulk up a bit. Your limited diet has obviously stunted your physique. Start eating properly and get some goddamn exercise." She backed off a little and folded her arms. "Ask that Suzuhara boy; maybe he can help."

Shinji opened his mouth, but shut it again upon seeing the warning look directed at him by Asuka, who had clearly predicted what he was about to say.

"Everything that's happened between you two is in the past, so leave it there. His own damn sister, the actual victim in all this, doesn't blame you. If you keep this up, I'll do everything I can to find out where she is, just so I can drag you in front of her and have her tell you face to face."

"Alright, alright," Shinji relented, putting his hands up in surrender despite the pain in his shoulders.

XXX

Things were understandably a little tense between Shinji Ikari and Toji Suzuhara for a few days after their last confrontation. It seemed that neither of them were sure of how to act towards the other whenever they bumped into each other. The two of them would usually end up awkwardly silent until somebody else started talking. This made it difficult for Shinji to bring up the topic of exercise, no matter how much Asuka pointedly stared at him.

In the end, Hikari was the one to get the ball rolling, and Shinji would lay odds that Asuka had asked the class representative to help out. Whatever the reason, he now found himself sitting at a table in the cafeteria across from Suzuhara. Asuka and Rei were sitting on opposite sides of him, and Kensuke and Hikari were next to Suzuhara, but it felt like the two of them were in a void.

"Right," Suzuhara finally said. "First off, just call me Toji. That formal crap annoys me."

"Um, okay," Shinji hesitantly replied.

"Good." Toji thrust his hand out. Shinji stared at it for a moment, hovering over the table between them, before realising that the jock wanted him to shake it. He did so, and Toji grinned at him.

"Okay, so you're a skinny guy lookin' to get fit, right?"

Asuka suddenly piped up. "He almost wrecked both his arms trying to lift m-... something the other day."

Toji chuckled. "Yeah, I could see that happenin'. You're like a twig, man."

Shinji directed an impotent glare at the two conspirators. "C-can we just get to the point?!"

"Yeah, sure," said Toji. "First things first, you're gonna need to start small. No way somebody like you would be able to jump right to liftin' weights. Chances are you've got no stamina, so start there." He pointed towards a window. "Couple days a week, go for a walk when you got nothin' better to do. Doesn't matter where you go, as long as you're movin'. Got it?"

At a nod from Shinji, Toji continued. "Don't go overboard though, tryin' to compensate for how bad off you might be. If you do too much too soon, you'll start feelin' tired and defeated." With a conspiratorial wink, he tapped the side of his head. "And then you start wonderin' if you should bother anymore. Next thing ya know, you're right back where you started."

Shinji nodded again, then said, "Well I already walk to and from school every day, but that's only fifteen minutes or so. It isn't much distance-" He had to stop as Toji waved a hand in front of his face.

"None of that negative crap," the jock barked. "The fact that you're already doin' something is good. Doesn't matter that it's only fifteen minutes. That's at least... two hours of exercise a week already. Besides, there's also P.E. class. That's even more exercise time."

"He's got a point," Hikari interjected. "Exercise is as much mental as it is physical."

"Yeah. You should get some one-kilo weights too; that'll help more than you think."

For the rest of lunch, Shinji was practically barraged with advice as the other teenagers joined in. Rei also offered one or two useful tidbits. When the bell rang, Shinji headed back to class feeling strangely tired.

"You gonna be able to remember all that?" Asuka asked as they left the cafeteria.

"I hope so," he mumbled. "I'm just... kind of surprised how helpful you're all being."

Asuka groaned and directed a despairing look at the ceiling. "Come the hell on, Ikari. It's not like we hate you or anything. You're trying to better yourself, and we're helping you do it. What's wrong with that?"

"Er... noth-"

"Nothing. Exactly."

There was blessed quiet for a moment, before Asuka abruptly began giggling.

"What's so funny?"

Asuka got herself under control, although there was still a smile on her face as she said, "I was just wondering if we should buy a leash."

Shinji faltered, and somebody bumped into him from behind with a mumbled apology. "A leash? What for?"

"For Pen-pen. I was just imagining what it would look like if you took him for a walk."

Shinji blinked several times, then chuckled. "I think that'd raise quite a few eyebrows. Besides, Pen-pen's more of a housemate than a pet."

Asuka shrugged, conceding the point. "Perhaps, but he's getting pretty pudgy. All that beer and lazing around… I wonder what the normal weight for a penguin is. Bet he'd be considered obese by comparison."

"Just... don't say that to his face, please?"

"What, you don't want to see what an irate penguin looks like?"

"No."

"Spoilsport."

XXX

A couple of days later, Asuka and Rei were called into NERV. Shinji tagged along purely because he had nothing better to do, and if anybody had something to say about his presence that day, he never heard any of it.

In a sense, it ended up being a good thing that he was there, considering what he ended up doing.

A mock evacuation drill was declared in the city, ostensibly to test some new system. The buildings topside were retracted, and two giant biomechanical machines were deployed to the surface.

In Unit-01, Shinji readied himself for the task ahead. It had been no real surprise when the mission was announced, that of moving the remains of Ramiel out of the city. What did come as a surprise was when Asuka asked if she could give Shinji her spot in Unit-01, since it was a non-combat role and therefore he would be safe. It didn't take long for the people in charge to agree, but they insisted on Asuka 'riding shotgun' in the entry plug with him in case of emergency.

Of course, nothing actually happened as Shinji and Rei worked together in their Evangelions to shift the massive blue diamond to its new location. The corpse was obscenely heavy though, even with the assistance of several super heavy duty transport helicopters doing their best to lighten the load. It ended up taking half an hour to move, and according to Doctor Akagi, the entire operation, expensive as it had been, was still far less than it would have cost to demolish it where it stood. Whatever crystalline substance Ramiel had been made of, it had been very strong. Firing a Pallet Rifle's entire magazine at it would have merely done the equivalent of stripping off a single layer of paint.

The diamond came to rest near the spot where Asuka had dropped Shamshel after that battle. The corpse of the Fourth Angel had long since been cut up and disposed of, presumably shared out to the various research groups lucky enough to be vetted by NERV. It would be interesting to see what they could do with a giant blue diamond.

Shinji went home that day tired but happy to have contributed in some meaningful way. Doctor Akagi asked Rei to stay behind for some reason but, seeing as Rei didn't so much as blink before agreeing, it probably wasn't anything important.

XXX

Asuka groaned. Shinji, hearing the noise, turned and saw her covering her face with her hands. If he was perfectly honest, he had something of a similar reaction too.

Because Kensuke just wouldn't shut up.

"Oh man, a MiG 55D!"

Shinji immediately tuned Kensuke out as he went on about whatever the helicopter was capable of. Maybe it had been a bad idea to let him and Toji tag along for this trip, but once he'd heard about where Shinji and Asuka were going, the military nerd had begged and pleaded with Misato to be allowed to join them. She had simply laughed at his enthusiasm before giving her approval.

Later, Misato had told Shinji and Asuka that she was mainly allowing the two boys to come along to cover the fact that this was official NERV business. With two teenage civilians, it would be more likely to be seen as simply a joyride. One look at the large cargo transport helicopter they were flying in, however, would likely ruin that cover story.

And now Kensuke seemed to be practically wetting himself at the opportunity to ride in one of NERV's heavy transport helicopters. The crewmen bustling around the helicopter, after a nod from Captain Katsuragi, didn't seem to mind the attention as some of them answered the excitable boy's questions. Although they did have to refuse to answer what was in the boxy cargo hold underneath the helicopter.

"You know, Asuka," Shinji began, once Asuka stopped covering her face. "It is a helicopter. If Kensuke gets to be too much you could threaten to kick him out the door."

Asuka's expression changed, shifting to a thoughtful smile. She turned to him and replied, "You know me so well. I was just thinking that."

"I'm used to it by this point," muttered Toji from behind the two of them. "I gotta deal with his crap more than you do. Just gimme the word and I'll give Ken a kick in the ass to shut him up."

Nearby, Misato turned from where she had been talking to somebody and began heading over.

"Alright, pile on in, kids," she said. "We'll be taking off in a few minutes."

The three teenagers moved towards the helicopter, Toji reaching a hand out to drag Kensuke along as he passed. The jock stopped to let Misato step up and into the helicopter first, who gave him what Shinji thought was a rather flirtatious smile as she took a seat. Asuka was next, then Shinji right afterwards, both sitting on the same bench seat as Misato and the two civilian teenagers entered last, sitting across from the others. A crewman shut the door behind them then ran off as the helicopter pilots started up the engine.

Kensuke was already bouncing in his seat as the helicopter left the ground, a small video camera glued to his eye as he panned it around the interior. But at least he'd quieted down.

"So... Asuka," said Shinji after a few minutes of blessed quiet. "Looking forward to seeing your Eva after so long away from it?"

Asuka turned a patronising look upon him before smoothing out a non-existent wrinkle in the yellow dress she was wearing. "Gee. I wonder what the answer could possibly be to that question."

Shinji blinked, realising just how obvious the answer really was, then chuckled ruefully. "You're going to say something about having been stuck in an obsolete model aren't you?"

"Weeellll..." The redhead exaggeratedly shrugged as best as she could without her arms bumping into Misato or Shinji. "Unit-01 does have three kills, so I guess I'll say instead that it's battle-proven. It didn't hold up too badly. You know, for a Test-Type."

"Speaking of which, I wonder if Rei will get transferred to Unit-01 when we get back," Shinji mused. "Unit-00's supposed to just be a prototype after all." He glanced somewhat expectantly at Misato, who noticed his expression and shrugged.

"Sorry, I don't have an answer for you," she said. "I haven't been told anything about what's going to happen with the Eva assignments."

"I reckon they'll stay the same," Kensuke piped up, camera still held to his eye as he focused on them. "If someone's been the driver of a main battle tank for ages, it doesn't make much sense to suddenly stick them in an MLRS."

Shinji blinked owlishly at Kensuke, and Asuka gave him a cool look before turning back to Misato and asking, "How long is this flight?"

"About twenty more minutes."

With a hollow thud, the back of Asuka's head met the bulkhead of the helicopter behind the seat.

XXX

"Whoah, look at that carrier battle group down there!"

Shinji could swear he heard Asuka's teeth grind a little.

"We're not blind, you nerd!" she ground out.

"Several American aircraft carriers... oooh, there's a Russian heavy missile cruiser too! And Russia's only aircraft carrier!" Kensuke continued, oblivious to the glare directed at the back of his head as he stared out the side window. "Two... three... four battleships, and all those frigates and destroyers! If I didn't know better I'd think I was looking at an invasion fleet! … And... there's a ship with a massive sheet on it."

"That'll be the transport ship Othello," Misato supplied. "Can't exactly fit an Eva on any military vessel."

"Could you sit it on one of them aircraft carriers?" Toji wondered. "They look big enough to support a giant robot."

"It could be possible; aircraft carriers are pretty freaking big," Kensuke replied.

"Where are we landing?" asked Shinji. "On the... Othello?"

Misato shook her head, before getting up and moving to the window Kensuke was gawking through. "We're landing on the Over the Rainbow; that one right there," she said, pointing over the boy's shoulder.

"That's the supercarrier Over the Rainbow?!" Kensuke practically shrieked in amazement. He shifted to focus his camera on the ship "The pride of the U.N. fleet is here too?!"

With a loud groan, Asuka looked at Toji, who nodded before leaning over and slapping the back of Kensuke's head.

"Keep it in your pants, Ken!" he barked. "Just sit down til we land!"

Kensuke let out a sound of disappointment as he returned to his seat, rubbing his head where Toji had hit him. With a small laugh at the scene, Misato did the same. Out of the corner of his eye, Shinji watched Kensuke fidget and squirm in his seat.

Soon the view outside the helicopter windows was dominated by the ships of the U.N. fleet as they flew overhead. Shinji noticed a couple of gun emplacements track their movements, and wondered if that was standard procedure. Then again, the fleet was guarding something important enough to warrant over a dozen escort ships, and possibly...

There might even be submarines down there, he thought with a glance down at the ocean surface.

The cargo helicopter soon touched down on the deck of the Over the Rainbow. As expected, Kensuke was the first out the door, looking everywhere solely through the lens of his video camera. The other teenagers hopped down one after the other, giving Kensuke a wide berth as he swung wildly around, trying to take in everything at once.

And there was a lot to see, even for somebody like Shinji who wasn't all that interested in military hardware. The flight deck was wider than a highway, with planes and helicopters of various types scattered around the edges of the runway. After a glance down at the ocean, a view which gave him a funny feeling in the pit of his stomach and made him carefully back away from the edge, Shinji felt like he was standing on top of a building.

Men in brightly coloured uniforms were everywhere, running to and fro, checking the aircraft on the deck, moving things around, and generally making the place look busy. Several of them were now approaching the helicopter Shinji had just arrived in and were preparing to detach the cargo container it was carrying.

Asuka turned to Misato as the group moved away from the helicopter to give the men space to work.

"Can I go see Unit-02 now?" she practically begged.

"Not yet, sorry," Misato replied before pointing at the tower and beginning to head in that direction, Toji and Kensuke following close behind. "We need to check in with the admiral first."

"Why? He's probably watched us touch down."

"Protocol and politeness. Plus I need to officially hand over our cargo."

Shinji paused and glanced back at the cargo container. "What's in there anyway? And why are we bringing something to people that are on their way to us?"

Misato gave an airy and dismissive wave as she headed towards the tower. "Oh, nothing much. Just an emergency power cable for Unit-02."

"Oh, oka-" Shinji blinked as the words sunk in. "A power cable? What for? And how?"

Asuka lightly slapped his shoulder. "To power Unit-02 in case of an emergency, you dummy. This is a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier. It can certainly spare the juice to keep an Eva running."

Shooting her a reproachful look, Shinji hurried to catch up with Misato.

XXX

From what little Shinji could glean from all the English flying about, Vice Admiral Wilford wasn't taking kindly to the appearance of teenagers on his ship, if the practically hostile looks he kept giving them were any indication. He caught Misato saying something about NERV and the Evangelion the fleet was protecting; presumably that in an emergency she was allowed to take charge and deploy Unit-02. Then a scruffy-looking man barged onto the bridge, eliciting two very different reactions from the two females in the room.

Misato suddenly looked as if she had eaten something vile, while Asuka seemed to get stars in her eyes. With an excited cry of "Kaji!", she shot across the room and wrapped her arms around the man's waist.

Well at least that makes sense for Asuka, he mused. She's meeting her former guardian. But why is Misato acting like she's almost mad at him?

Fortunately the man spoke Japanese.

"Hey there, kiddo," he said as he patted Asuka on the shoulder, before gently disentangling himself. "You're looking well. Tokyo-3 been treating you alright?"

"Well you might have heard about the Angels I killed!"

As the two of them spoke, Shinji noticed that Asuka's body language had... dropped a couple of years. She was now acting like a giddy schoolgirl, fiddling with both her hair and the hem of her dress.

Does she... like him? he thought to himself. But Asuka is only... thirteen isn't she? This Kaji person has to be at least twice that.

"And you must be the Third Child, Shinji Ikari."

He blinked. Kaji must have noticed him staring, and was now talking to him. "Um... y-yes sir. That's me."

"The boy who struck the first blow in this strange war we've found ourselves in." The scruffy man stepped closer and held out his hand. "The name's Ryoji Kaji."

Vice Admiral Wilford suddenly grumbled something at the group. Withdrawing the proffered hand, Kaji shrugged and said, "Alright, let's take this little party to the mess hall and get out of the way of the admiral."

That would be a task a bit simpler said than done. One look at the elevator that would take them to the mess hall was enough. With a hand on Shinji's collar to stop him blindly following the group, Asuka announced that the two of them would wait. That didn't seem to bother any of the males, who piled into the elevator ahead of Misato. The woman turned back to wave at Shinji and Asuka, but then Shinji saw her eyes widen in shock. She opened her mouth and shouted.

"Which one of you boys touched m-"

Only to get cut off by the doors closing.

A few minutes later, once Asuka and Shinji made it down to the mess hall as well, the incident seemed to have been entirely forgotten. Then again, with the way Misato was still glaring at Kaji, it was hard to tell.

Whatever had happened during the aftermath of the elevator incident apparently didn't concern Kensuke at all, as he still hadn't taken the video camera away from his eye; he was eating with one hand and panning around the mess hall. Shinji could only give a bemused sigh as he got his own meal.

While Kensuke was sitting next to Misato, trying to record everything in existence, Toji was on the other side, chatting awkwardly with the woman. On the opposite side of the table Asuka was seemingly enraptured with Kaji, hanging off his every word. She didn't even notice when Shinji sat down next to her.

Kaji, on the other hand, did. During a lull in the conversation between himself and Asuka, he waited til Shinji finished a mouthful of food and said, "So Shinji, I hear you've had some... interesting times with your Eva."

Shinji blinked, before realisation kicked in. "Um, yes Mister Kaji," he nervously replied, his eyes flicking to the other side of the table and his two friends. "I can't really say much, but I'm unsuitable to pilot right now."

"I see," Kaji said cryptically, raising a hand to his chin in thought. He glanced at the two other boys, still focused on Misato, then back at Shinji and winked.

Afterwards, Kaji asked Asuka to follow him, something which the redhead seemed all too eager for, and the two of them went back to the elevator. Misato, after a look from Shinji, said that Kaji probably just wanted to catch up on some more personal matters with his former ward. This time Shinji was faster on the uptake. Kaji was likely going to speak to Asuka in private about his... problem.

Catching up apparently only took half an hour, and then Asuka was back in the mess hall. Whereupon she got Shinji's attention and pointed back at the elevator. Puzzled, he got up and followed her through the ship until they reached a spot where a small motorboat was waiting for them.

"Time to go see Unit-02," Asuka declared, before almost taking a running leap onto the boat. Shinji, keenly aware of the massive amount of water all around them combined with the fact that he couldn't swim, proceeded much more carefully. He then had to deal with several minutes of less than comfortable travel as he was bounced around in the motorboat. As a result he practically scrambled to be the first to get off once it reached the Othello, and he just barely kept himself from holding onto the metal floor of the deck.

"First time speeding across the waves, I take it?" Asuka remarked as she strode up to him.

"Please tell me we won't have to do that again," Shinji gasped.

"Sorry, but we're gonna have to get back to the others somehow."

"In that case I'll just stay here the rest of the trip then."

In lieu of a response, Asuka grabbed him by the upper arm and hauled him along after her towards the tarpaulin that dominated most of the Othello's deck. He managed to shake Asuka off after a moment and sent a scowl her way, but she was focused on the tarpaulin.

"Shinji Ikari," she said as she spun to face him. "Allow me to introduce you to the latest and greatest weapon in NERV's arsenal. The Production Model Evangelion Unit-02!"

With a flourish, she pulled up as much of the tarpaulin as she could and beckoned towards the opening with her other hand.

"Wow," Shinji breathed as he ducked his head to get under the tarpaulin. A massive red and orange Evangelion was laying prone in what was essentially a swimming pool filled with some sort of purple liquid. "It's... it's..."

"Amazing, yes I know. It's mine after all."

Shinji smiled a little at the pride he heard in Asuka's voice. "Actually I was going to say 'really really red'."

Next to him, he heard a despairing sigh. Then, with the sound of the tarpaulin flapping, Asuka surprised Shinji by dropping from the deck down to the level of Unit-02, bending her knees to absorb the impact. After an impatient beckoning wave from her, Shinji followed suit by carefully climbing down.

"Couldn't we have just taken the stairs?" he asked, pointing to where they were only a dozen meters away.

Asuka scoffed. "Of course you'd say that. How boring."

"Better bored than injured," Shinji shot back.

"Whatever, just come on."

XXX

Wilford stared out the window at the fleet surrounding his command vessel. Each ship filled with brave men and women drawn from navies all across the world, and each person sworn to give their lives in defense of it. And yet these Angel things seemed completely impervious to harm from anything the world could throw at it, save for a hideously expensive giant robot piloted by a child.

Wilford gritted his teeth. A mere child could apparently accomplish what thousands of soldiers, tanks, aircraft and bombs couldn't. Such a thing made the military seem useless and incompetent, best used only as a delaying tactic while the children got picked up from school or whatever.

"Sir."

Thankfully something caught Wilford's attention before he could put his fist into another bulkhead at the sheer ludicrousness of it all. The last time, it had required a welder to set right. He turned to the man who had spoken, sitting at a workstation with a phone to his ear.

"What is it, ensign?"

The man covered the mouthpiece of the phone. "The commander of the Lurker flotilla has just reported that he's lost contact with one of his submarines, sir."

Wilford blinked, before stomping over to the ensign at his workstation and accepting the proffered phone. "This is Vice Admiral Wilford. Report."

The commander sounded understandably perturbed. "Sir, a minute ago Lurker Three failed to report in on time. An active sweep revealed nothing in our formation where they should be."

"Enemy action?" Wilford growled in question.

"Unknown, sir. Per orders we are running passive sensors, and nobody has detected anything out of the ordinary."

"Go active," Wilford ordered. "If someone or something is trying to pick us off, they obviously already know where we are. Find out what happened to Lurker Three."

"Aye, sir."

Wilford handed the phone back to the ensign, but somebody else was already trying to get his attention. He looked at the lieutenant. "What is it?"

"An officer on the Rosencrantz has spotted debris behind us, sir," the man reported, his face looking rather uneasy. "I believe that may be our missing submarine."

The Rosencrantz was the rearmost ship in the fleet. Wilford frowned. "What makes you so bloody sure so soon?"

The lieutenant held up a pair of binoculars. "I had a look myself, sir. The debris is metal, and what little I could see appears to have come from a submarine's hull."

Snatching the binoculars from the nervous man's hands, Wilford strode over to the stern bridge window and put them to his eyes, staring out across the ocean. A few seconds of scanning showed him the Rosencrantz, and the debris was only several hundred meters behind the destroyer.

That most certainly was once a submarine. The rest of it would likely be on the ocean floor about now. Wilford turned around and addressed the bridge crew. "Signal to the fleet: Sound General Quarters, stand by for anti-submarine warfare."

The bridge became a flurry of motion, and Wilford's attitude was not improved by the appearance of that purple-haired NERV captain a minute later. "Get off my bridge," he barked.

Misato saluted but shook her head. "Sorry, sir, but I have my orders. Besides, I'm pretty sure I know what's abo-"

An explosion outside cut the woman off. She and Wilford, as well as several other officers rushed to the starboard window and stared outside. One of the fleet's missile destroyers was now broken in half, both pieces burning as they sank into the sea.

"What happened?!" Wilford demanded.

"Something massive rammed the ship, sir!" somebody reported.

"Rammed?!"

Remembering the binoculars he was still holding, Wilford brought them back up to his eyes and looked in the direction of the sinking ship. He caught sight of a large off-white fin in the water before it hit another ship; a cruiser this time.

"Red alert!" he called out. "Target that thing and blow it out of the water!"

"You may as well save your ammo, admiral."

Wilford growled and spun around to face the arrogant NERV captain. "This is a military operation and I want you off my bridge!"

Misato smiled sadly. "Actually, sir, this is now a NERV operation, and I am now in command. The target is an Angel, and we need to get Unit-02 active as soon as possible."

"An Angel?!" he sputtered, before snarling deep in his throat and turning to look out the port window towards where the Othello was. "Damn. Give me some good bloody news," he added as he watched another ship break apart.

"Well if I'm right, the pilot of Unit-02 should already be over there and preparing to launch," Misato replied.

Wilford glanced at her out of the corner of his eye. "And if you're wrong?"

Movement outside caught his eye before she could respond. The tarpaulin on the Othello was thrown aside as a giant red machine emerged from the transport ship's hold. Evangelion Unit-02 rose to its full height, wrapping the tarpaulin around its shoulders like a ragged cape.

"You are bloody well kidding me," Wilford muttered.

Misato grinned as a girl's voice filled the bridge.

"Flagship, this is Evangelion Unit Two. The fleet is under attack by an Angel. Awaiting orders."