Blood Red
Episode 3
Bloodlust Crusaders
Chapter 15: Extra-dimensional vacation
Wunder's bridge, a bit after the storm ended
"Hm? Captain, we just got a distress signal from our base in Nepal, they're going to be attacked by NERV soon and they won't be able to deal with them alone!" Aoba said while turning around as his radar flashed red.
"The quickest way would be to fly through the Hymalayas…" Misato thought while an alarm rang in the background, annoying her more than usual. She then said:
"Hyuga, trace a route that avoids the major mountains. Everyone else, make it so we can get in the air as soon as possible, Maya, open a channel with the fortress too."
She did as ordered and soon they were able to talk directly to VEGA, with Samuel and the Slayer entering soon after.
So Misato said:
"VEGA, we have to reach a base in Nepal that needs our help, we might be away for various hours, can you keep an eye on the village while we are gone?"
"Let us come with you." Samuel suddenly said and before Misato could respond he added:
"Gendo's highest priority for now is trying to get Molly's soul back, us remaining here would actually endanger the village."
"... Alright you can come with us, just don't cause any problems okay?" Misato replied as she began feeling quite hot all over her body.
A worker then suddenly stopped by the left door to say:
"Three minutes and we can lift off!"
"A bit more time than I thought… And there's nothing I can do about it… Dammit." Misato thought while the general mobilization clouded her ears of any distinctive sounds.
She also suddenly felt very light-headed and weak, a feeling that only worsened with each minute that passed.
Finally however, they were able to lift the giant ship into the sky, with the Fortress following swiftly since they had been ready for a while now.
Far below them, Toji, Kensuke and Kaji Jr watched them fly into the horizon as Kensuke said:
"I guess that we'll have to go back to our previous life now."
But then Kaji jr said:
"I… Wouldn't think so." And he pointed to the small Matriel near them, which was wearing the Slayer's helmet. Soon after Matarael appeared with the rest of her kids, trying her hardest to keep them in place as she tried to talk to the village leader.
At the same time, Kaji Jr looked at Toji again and told him:
"I just hope that my mother will be alright…"
"Ay don't worry kid. She's a woman of steel, if there was something that could kill her then it already would have."
"I guess that you're right, Toji… But you know, she's still my mother and all."
Suddenly the man put an arm around his shoulders as he said:
"It's good that you care about her even when she isn't there, it's a sign that you were raised well. And hey, having someone to want to meet again makes life a lot easier to go through."
The boy simply smiled as they left the area.
Wunder, captain's quarters, around an hour later
"Ugh… God I'm feeling like shit." Misato said as she laid on her bed with a high fever.
"40°C, that's a very strong fever captain. How do you think you got it?" Sakura said as she pulled the thermometer out of her mouth. She then handed her a glass filled with diluted medicine and said:
"Drink it, this should help for a while. After that try to rest as much as possible, I'll have Akagi to fill out your role while you're gone."
Once she finished the drink, Misato replied:
"Thank you, let's hope this is nothing serious."
"I'm confident that it won't be, alright see you soon captain, I'll be back in a couple of hours."
"Sure… Oh wait, where are we right now?"
"I think above the sea, China has just been spotted. Okay I'm going now, rest well."
Sakura left the room after that, and Misato covered herself in darkness as she shut off the lamp beside her bed.
Her entire body was aching, and the dizziness and the heat certainly didn't help either. And as her tired mind started drifting off, a dream started playing in her head.
She saw Kaji Jr standing out in the open, right in the middle of a white empty dimension as he looked at her with a smile.
She tried to approach him, but even inside the dream her brain made her remember how weak she was at the moment, making her struggle with each step.
After what felt like a hike up Mount Everest, she was finally just a step away from her son, but just as she was about to grab him a black and red collar appeared around his neck.
It exploded immediately, making her scream as her son's bright smile was replaced with an even brighter explosion.
The force of the blast knocked her back, making her land on her head and black-out completely.
When she reopened her eyes a moment later she was back in the Geofront under Tokyo 3, right as the Doors of Guf were being opened over the city.
In the middle of it however, there weren't Shinji and his awakened evangelion, but rather a different evangelion, which she had never seen before. It was surrounded by a dark sphere, only making itself visible by the lines of light that ran through its body.
It suddenly looked up at her, opening its mouth as she was teleported right in its hand.
She tried to free herself, but could only scream more and more with each meter she made.
That's when a bright light exploded from behind the unknown giant and before she could clear her vision, the evangelion was gone. The Atlan moved away as the arm that was holding her started falling to the ground as it left a stream of blood behind, but just before she hit the ground, a pair of strong arms grabbed her shoulders and she was pulled out of its grasp.
She looked up, finding Samuel holding her as he glided with a pair of wings that had VEGA's mark on them. While they flew away, she noticed a flaming VTOL heading directly towards the center of the darkened area, crashing into it just like her lover did many years earlier.
Her scream was silent as the explosion enveloped her, turning everything black once again.
Finally she woke up for a second time, finding herself strapped on the Wunder's main bridge surrounded by flames.
Among the flames, she could see the bodies of every other WILLE member, some of them melted beyond recognition.
As she looked outwards, she saw Mari's decapitated evangelion, while unit 01 and 02 were surrounded by a large group of enemy units.
She could only watch as the pair was slowly defeated and then quickly dismembered, their remains eaten by the other giants each with the ferocity of a hungry lion.
Once she was the only one left, she suddenly began to hear the voices of her crew, whispering to her:
"Captain, why did you abandon us?" Hyuga said.
"What the hell are you doing Misato?" Ritsuko said.
"Why don't you consider me a normal person?!" Asuka said.
"You and your stupid adult problems got us all killed!" Mari said.
"Why didn't you let me help you when I could Misato!?" Shinji said and as she heard the metal beams above her start to move, Misato said:
"Because I'm scared."
Just as she was about to get crushed, a white and blue flash of light clouded her vision, making her feel a strange sense of warmth as she finally got back to reality.
She moved a bit in her bed, ending up looking at her ceiling with an arm over her forehead, while the white cross around her neck started feeling as heavy as a brick.
"I'm doing a lot of things wrong…
But will I find the strength to fix them?" She thought, not being able to find an answer.
That's when a loud alarm suddenly sent her into a state of total confusion as Ritsuko said over the ship:
"Everyone to battle stations! Alert level 1! Flying enemies detected on radar!"
She quickly moved her eyes towards the clock near her bed, noticing that she had just woken up from a three hour nap.
And she looked outside the window, she was greeted by the snowy tips of the Hymalayas.
She couldn't enjoy it for long though, as the ship started suddenly shaking.
Fortress of Doom, main deck
"The Wunder just got hit! Their AT field absorbed the damage!" VEGA said as the fortress dodged a huge missile coming from behind.
Then, after turning the ship around while still going forward, Samuel took aim on the flying evangelion and blasted it out of the sky.
Near them, streams of purple rounds perforated the wings of two such enemies, making them crash into each other and explode.
Play:[Glacial Skies] Ace combat Zero OST
It seemed as if the two ships could rest for a moment with their radar now clear, when suddenly they received a radio message from the WILLE base not too far from them:
'We just detected various bombers approaching at Mach speed! They're going to flatten this place if you don't help us!'
'We're on our way, engines full thrust!' Ritsuko said from the Wunder's bridge.
Just before Samuel could move the controls to follow them however, VEGA said:
"Wait, look over the Wunder!"
The other two in the ship turned their eyes towards the ship as a huge black flying wing came out of the clouds above it, with its underbelly full of evangelions.
Just as they noticed the giants starting to fall after sliding off from their railings, Samuel said:
"Slayer, go get the Atlan! And VEGA?"
"Yes?"
"Let's show them what this ship is truly capable of."
[Music picks up]
The four enormous engines of the moving castle roared as VEGA tremendously increased their output, pushing the ship to reach Mach 3 in a few seconds.
Thanks to not having any blood in his body, Samuel was able to resist the extreme acceleration and aimed the guns at the carrier aircraft, splitting it in two with just a push of the trigger.
They soon ended up over the Wunder, so VEGA opened the hangar bay while their shields kept taking the fire and allowed the Atlan to jump out on the Wunder.
The Slayer immediately kicked off an approaching enemy, he then took aim with his shoulder cannons and hit another one, making it stumble and almost fly off if it hadn't grabbed the edge of the wing at the last second.
He stopped right before he could push it off however, turning around to block the attacks coming from the three remaining units.
Managing to gain an opening against the enemy, he used his hand cannon to stun it before doing a sweeping kick that sent it flying off.
Suddenly the Wunder began tilting to the side as it maneuvered to get a better firing angle on the enemies. One of the eva units wasn't able to grab onto something in time and lost balance, so the Altan slided down right on top of it, managing to stay aboard thanks to the thrusters on its back.
As he turned around to look at the last enemy, the Slayer saw their back explode and their body being flung off the ship by a beam of light.
A bit further behind in fact, Mari had just gotten out of her hangar with unit 08 and a smoking sniper rifle in her hands.
The pink unit turned towards the Atlan and Mari was about to say something when in that moment the unit that had been left hanging on the wing from before jumped out of cover.
The girl didn't even have time to open her mouth as she saw the green mech jump into a rotating kick that slammed the evangelion into the ground. Now stunned, all the Slayer had to do was kick it off the ship like a sack of potatoes.
A sudden burst of fire from the Wunder's cannons made the two mechs aware of the larger air battle that was being fought at the moment all around them.
And as Mari noticed an evangelion drone flying near them, she took aim and fired.
The shot impacted the wings directly, causing an explosion that sent all of their pieces flying off in random directions.
"As sharp as always Mari." The girl said to herself as the Fortress taxied over the Wunder again to pick the Slayer back up.
He jumped inside and they flew off, nailing two bombers at the same time while spinning away.
"Ugh, damned show-off." She thought again as she took aim once more.
Meanwhile inside the Wunder, near Shinji's cell
The two guards regained their balance as the ship finally returned to its normal position, one of them trying his hardest not to vomit.
It wasn't going too well for Shinji either, who had been thrown off his bed when the battle started.
Nonetheless they soon resumed their duty, but were surprised when Asuka appeared from behind a corner and so one of them said:
"Captain? Why are you not in your room? The battle is still going on."
"I left because it had severe structural damage, so I figured I'd leave to avoid getting possibly crushed to death. I want to enter this one since it still looks mostly intact."
The two men looked at each other for a moment before moving to the side as one of them said:
"Watch out on the suspended bridges."
"I pilot evas, a little shake is nothing for me."
And so she entered, with the iron door closing behind her. Immediately she heard a muffled voice coming from behind the glass as Shinji said:
"Asuka, what are you doing here? Shouldn't you be in your eva?"
She didn't reply as she hastily made her way into his cell, making him retreat to the edge of his bed with how angry her face looked.
She noticed this and so she said:
"You don't have to die yet idiot, stop being such a wimp."
He tried to calm himself down, but couldn't as the explosions from outside kept ringing in his ears.
To shut the noise off he moved to grab his SDAT, but just as he placed one of the earbuds in his ear, a red hand snatched the other one from his hands.
"Asuk-"
"Shut it, if I have to stay here until the fight ends then I might as well listen to something, even if it's your stupid music."
The scared boy didn't reply as he pressed play while she sat down as far away as possible from him, completely hiding herself behind her hat and red jacket.
Play:[Rei II] Neon Genesis Evangelion OST
Shinji stared at the girl in front of him as the slow notes played in their ears, with the two cables being the only thing connecting them.
They could both feel an uneasy tension in the air, their mouths closed as if they had been frozen inside of an iceberg.
The boy couldn't help but start to observe her. Focusing on her scarlet jacket covering most of her body, the dark eyepatch illuminated by a faint blue and her long red shining hair.
His body by now had started to beg him to get closer to her, to see if he would feel warmth by her side, but every single neuron in his brain was telling him not to.
And amidst this battle, Kaworu said in his mind:
"Shinji, Shinji, calm down, you're not acting rationally.
I see that you're longing for warmth after what those monsters did to you before putting you in this ugly cell, but she's the last person you want to inconvenience right now."
"W-what do you mean Kaworu? She didn't seem to be so angry at me lately…"
"That's because she's tricking you! She's letting herself seem more open to you so that if you two get close she can betray you and laugh at your sadness.
She'll only ever provide you with fake warmth my dear Shinji, but don't worry, even if you isolate yourself you'll always be able to feel my genuine affection for you."
The boy's hands then suddenly started moving on their own towards Asuka's neck, who was seemingly unaware of this.
As Shinji felt his muscles move by themselves he thought:
"Kaworu, what are you doing!?"
"I'm trying to get rid of her Shinji, that way you'll be finally free from the pain that she brings you."
"Wait, don't do that! You don't have to go so far!"
"It's the only way, Shinji!" Kaworu replied as the two hands were now almost around the girl's neck, who seemed to be completely focused on the music.
Suddenly however, they stopped moving forward, just centimeters from Asuka's skin as an equal force began forcing them back. And as he felt pain similar to having his chest on fire, Shinji thought:
"You might be my friend Kaworu, but I can't let you hurt people like that!"
With one strong pull, the angel was sent away as the boy slammed his body against the edge of the cell and fell unconscious from lack of energy.
At the same time Asuka turned around, finally stopping the music as she looked at him and thought:
"He… Actually protected me… Despite how much it cost him… You idiot."
She then got closer to him to try and get him back to his senses, but he didn't respond until his stomach let out a really loud growl. She ignored this, at least until she noticed that his entire face looked as if someone had sucked all of his body fluids out of it.
Getting more worried, she placed two fingers on his neck, feeling the pulse getting weaker and weaker very quickly.
Her arms were quick as she grabbed the unconscious boy, feeling him as light as a feather and all bare bones.
Rushing out of the cell, she ignored the guards and ran straight towards the infirmary as she felt Shinji's body get colder and colder.
After what seemed like an eternity, she busted down the door with a kick, finding Sakura as she was walking away from a patient she had just treated.
Intrigued by the loud sound, the doctor turned around, immediately focusing her eyes on Shinji. The normally calm girl felt a sudden rage rise up in her as she remembered Shinji walking into the mark 09's hand right in front of her.
She pulled out her gun and pointed it at Asuka before saying:
"Get him out of here now!"
Asuka's eye widened in shot as she sprinted away from there, with the dying boy in her hands as she thought:
"Right… I forgot that while I haven't grown up physically, some people here haven't grown mentally…
What the hell can I do now though? Sakura was probably the only medic that might have been willing to help him and now that she's gone, what the hell do I do? Wait, maybe if I can remember the frequency we used at the village…"
So she quickly changed course, reaching one of the emergency communication rooms, finding a radio with a microphone near it.
She placed Shinji on a chair near her as she grabbed the device and started moving its parts around to find the right signal.
In the end, she got a positive response from the Fortress, finding VEGA on the other side who said:
"Who are you?"
"VEGA, it's me, Asuka! Shinji needs help now! He was fighting against Kaworu and has fallen unconscious. He's all barebones now too!"
A short agonizing second of silence passed before VEGA said:
"I'm opening a portal on your position, get inside as soon as you can."
Hearing this Asuka turned around to see a familiar dark blue circle getting larger and larger, when suddenly someone began banging loudly on the door.
"Shikinami, return Ikari to his cell immediately!" A male voice shouted, but he was ignored as she jumped in the portal with Shinji in her arms right as a group of people burst into the room.
They weren't able to catch her, but they recognized the portal from before. They all quickly exited the room and began running towards the bridge.
Meanwhile the battle alert suddenly stopped ringing in the hallway, meaning that all the NERV bombers had been destroyed.
Fortress of Doom, main bridge
As the redhead came out of the other side of the portal she almost fell face first, but the Slayer was quick to catch her.
He looked down at the boy in her arms, taking him away as soon as he saw his state, letting the girl let out a short sigh as Samuel approached her.
The two of them looked at each other for a moment before the robot said:
"Are you alright?"
"It doesn't matter, that idiot is about to die." She replied as she walked past him with an angry glare, one which both Samuel and VEGA could see right through.
Fortress of Doom, infirmary
"Analysis complete, give me a moment…" VEGA said as the red lights stopped illuminating Shinji's naked body inside the Argent-filled tube, which had a metal line covering the boy's important parts. (Much to someone's disappointment.)
Finally however, VEGA looked at the three in front of the tube as he said:
"Shinji is currently in a comatose state. It seems that the cause of this was a huge dip in the glucose levels in his brain, making it stop for a moment and causing this shutdown.
It also seems that, even if it was just a couple of seconds, his body went through self-cannibalism. Once the dip of energy occurred, his body tried in every way possible to make up for it and began consuming the stored fat.
Once that wasn't available anymore however, the muscles started eating themselves to gain proteins to keep working.
At the moment in fact, the percentage of Shinji's fat mass is 0.02%, while the muscles make up 13%, leaving the rest of the weight to his bones and organs.
About that, he currently weighs only thirty kilograms, making it a miracle that he isn't dead given the fifteen kilos he lost since we left the village.
Now Asuka, can you tell us what happened?"
"Sur-" The girl was about to say when she was suddenly interrupted by VEGA who said:
"Wait, you can tell us later, looks like your friends got mad at us. Come to the bridge."
A while later
As Asuka entered the room with the Slayer and Samuel next to her, she immediately noticed all of the Wunder's guns pointing at them, as VEGA said:
"They want you back on the ship immediately for taking Shinji away. I've been trying to reason with them, but they won't listen. They also keep saying that Misato isn't available."
"Those damn idiots, let me have a word with them." Asuka said as she got closer to the microphone and continued:
"Shikinami here, let me expl-"
'Shikinami, you must return immediately to the Wunder!' Ritsuko shouted at her and then said:
'What the hell is wrong with you? Taking away Ikari like that right after a battle!?'
"He was about to die! I've just followed Katsuragi's orders to make sure he has his trial in Europe."
'Katsuragi is not in charge at the moment, she handed me control of the ship directly so I order you to return immediately and bring Ikari with you.'
Asuka was about to respond when suddenly Samuel stepped forward and said:
"We'll hand Ikari over as soon as he is in a decent state of health, right now I don't think he can even walk."
'Well can't you just inject him with a lot of your Argent energy?' Ritsuko said, annoyed.
"It is not that simple, using too much Argent on a human has some… Very undesirable effects.
Moreover, what has happened to your captain? Is she still safe?"
'That is classified, she's simply unable to fulfill her duty at the moment. Now, hand over Ikari, we will be the ones to treat him. If you do not comply I am afraid we'll have to do this by force.'
Samuel suppressed a laugh as he said:
"Oh? And how so?"
"Well, Mari has already climbed on top of your ship while we were talking."
As Ritsuko said this a giant pink hand waved at them from above before unit 08's head came down to greet them.
Then Mari said:
'Hey there princess, they're pretty angry so I think that you should do what they say.'
That's when Mari suddenly felt something poking at her chest, and as she looked down straight into the barrel of one of the railguns, VEGA said:
"Mari, get off our ship. I detected you coming here before you even jumped, so I'd advise you to not try that again.
'Hmph, you're such a spoilsport.'
As she said this she felt the gun press harder against her armor, so she jumped away back into the white beak of the Wunder.
As the two ships aimed their guns at each other, neither side knew what to do. Either break their alliance and fire first, or wait and possibly get shot down.
In the middle of this VEGA thought: "I still don't know how powerful those turrets are, such was the confusion while we were shooting at the bombers…
They are definitely powerful, though are they enough to go through our shield?
Wait what's that!?"
Suddenly both ships' alarms turned on and VEGA quickly identified the threat.
A gigantic missile has just been launched from the side of a mountain, and it was heading straight for them.
He quickly shot it down, leaving behind a huge round explosion that formed a fireball a couple of kilometers wide.
"Five megatons of energy… That was a nuclear missile!" VEGA said and Ritsuko added:
"It's an N2 missile, so don't worry about radiation."
Just as she said this five more missiles appeared on their radars, all coming from different directions. Immediately after that five more appeared again, making it impossible for the ships to shoot all of them.
So Ritsuko said:
"We can't stay here any longer, follow us!"
The Wunder's engines came to life as bright flames shot out of them, pushing the ship forward as Mari got back inside her hangar while the main deck was placed inside a huge gyroscope to keep it straight.
The fortress followed swiftly, with VEGA activating the augmented gravity on the deck's floor to avoid Asuka being flung around with their maneuvers.
The Wunder's wings got filled with vapor as it pulled off a high G turn, going right behind a mountain and deeper into the valley.
As one of the missiles was about to hit their back, Ritsuko ordered full power before they pulled off an Immelmann maneuver by doing a half loop and then rotating back to a normal position.
The Fortress watched as the large weapon slammed into the rock, emitting a huge fireball that sent debris everywhere.
Their shields protected the two vessels, so they kept moving through the valley, going in zig-zag through the snowy tips and sometimes putting in the odd loop or crazy movement to avoid a particularly stubborn missile.
In the end however, both of their radars were clear of threats, allowing them a moment to breathe… Right as a lone missile caught the Wunder by surprise and hit it dead centre.
After the ball of fire dissipated, the ship was still there, but it's AT field had been completely destroyed and the engines had been damaged too. Both of which were huge problems considering that a moment after their radars were filled with threats once more.
This time over twenty missiles coming from all directions surrounded them, and with the Wunder unable to escape their options were diminishing with every second.
"Dammit, reminds me of that time in the arctic sea." Asuka suddenly said, making Samuel curious as he asked:
"What happened then?"
"We were surrounded by a tall enemy and the only way we had to get out of there was by starting the Wunder for the first time and flying upwards. Though now I don't think that's even an option."
"Well… At least not for the Wunder."
"Wait what? We can't just leave them behind."
"Oh I know, I know, I was just considering… VEGA, prepare the harpoons! It's time we bring that whale back to Port!"
Play:[The Anthem] Evangelion 3.0 OST
"Understood Samuel." The AI replied as the four attraction beam cannons came out of the sides of the ship.
Confused by this, Asuka looked back at the robot, noticing that his blue eye had started shining, just like Misato's did in the past whenever she came up with another crazy plan.
A moment later all four cannons fired at the Wunder, shooting beams of Argent energy mixed with melted metals that tore through the hull and exploded into a solid block after a set distance.
'Hayden what the fuck was that!?' Ritsuko shouted and so the robot replied:
"Grab tightly onto something, I'm about to get us out of here.
VEGA… Full thrust!"
The Wunder crew watched as the Fortress' red tinted shield became completely visible, while lightning started shooting out of the ship from every angle.
In the lower part of the rock, the usually blue glow of the four engines turned a deep red while a loud howling noise started coming out of their nozzles, accompanied by the Fortress retreating it's guns inwards.
The howling noise continued to rise in pitch and volume, along with the missiles getting closer and closer… Until everything stopped for a short moment.
What followed a second after was a blast of energy so powerful that the surface of the mountain near them cracked just from the shockwave it let out.
However no one could have seen that due to the thick and enormous cloud of smoke that the four engines produced as they accelerated the Fortress into the sky, bringing the Wunder with it.
The entire WILLE crew nearly passed out due to the excessive G force as their ship went into a straight vertical climb, with the N2 missiles following them soon after.
For a moment Ritsuko's vision went dark, sending her unconscious. When she reopened her eyes they were already way past the clouds, still climbing above the red earth.
She struggled to move around and looked down at her station while blood slowly began recirculating correctly in her body.
Still, she managed to stand back up, from where she could see that their altimeter was rising very quickly.
On the good side of things though, their radar was clear from any threats and their AT field was coming back online. So she allowed herself to let out a sigh of relief, which was cut short as she thought:
"Dammit, now we're in debt with them. This is bad… I guess that the best thing to do now might be to just talk."
So she contacted the ship and said:
"Can you hear me? Thank you for pulling us out of that mess… Literally."
A moment later Samuel replied:
'Uhm, you might want to hold onto those words Ritsuko.'
"This was… Unexpected." She thought as she opened the microphone again and said:
"What? Why?"
'Well, it turns out that the Fortress couldn't withstand the Wunder's weight so much and we overdid it with the engines. So now we are unable to slow down enough to land safely, and we can't even use the planet' s atmosphere because it would burn your AT field and then your ship.'
"Oh… Wait so what are we going to do? We can't stay up here in orbit forever."
'I know and, if VEGA's calculations are correct…Then we have only one option.
We are going to take the portal that originally sent us to your world and then land on Urdak. It's the only way for us to survive.'
Ritsuko remained silent in shock as her mind started processing all the possible outcomes that such a thing could have, but ,in the end, she realized that they were right.
So she said:
"Alright. Fine we'll do as you say, if it truly is the only option."
The audio channel closed as the bridge crew looked back at Ritsuko, with Maya saying:
"Katsuragi won't like this at all."
"I know, but what was I supposed to do? I don't have the ability to come up with plans quickly."
"Well at least you're honest with us, unlike her." Midori said and Ritsuko remained silent, a bit offended.
Meanwhile outside, the blood red moon passed near the two ships, hiding them in its shadow as a sinister crimson glow emanated from the surface.
The bridge was in total silence, observing the scenery around them as a lunar sunset bathed the Wunder with light a few minutes later.
After a while, Samuel contacted them again and said:
'We're about to enter the portal, get ready for the turbulence. We don't know precisely what it'll do to our systems, but we have a good chance of making it through alive.'
"How much is this chance?" Ritsuko asked and he said:
'From 1 to 0.5 %.'
The woman paused for a moment before she replied:
"We've dealt with worse."
As she said this the portal finally came into view. It looked like a gigantic sink drain with blue Argent energy flowing into it in a circular motion, as bright lightning bolts illuminated briefly the dark blue circumference.
Due to its size, the closer they got to it, the harder they started being pulled, so at a certain point VEGA turned off the Fortress' engines and let physics bring them in.
Once inside a flurry of colours flashed around the two ships as they traveled through the void, passing by billions of galaxies at a time. After a moment of relative calm however, electricity began striking the Wunder, leaving gigantic holes as the oxygen was sucked out.
Ritsuko immediately ordered to close down any of the damaged compartments to avoid losing too much air, but it was easier said than done.
Suddenly one of these bolts struck one of the cables that had been holding the ships together, snapping it in half as the Wunder began tilting to the side.
Fortress of Doom
"Warning, cable 4 lost." VEGA said as a bright red emergency message appeared on the screen in front of Samuel, who said:
"Dammit, if the Wunder can't get back on track the edge of the portal is going to snap it in half!"
"Is there anything we can do?!" Asuka said as she walked up behind him.
Suddenly a new notification appeared in front of them, making them confused since it read:
"Atlan requesting launch? What the hell is the Slayer trying to do?"
"It sounds like a good idea to me, Samuel." VEGA said and the robot replied:
"If we weren't inside of a damn portal that is! But this is the Slayer we're talking about, so it doesn't matter what we decide. Ugh, just open the doors and let him out VEGA, that way he won't damage anything."
"Opening now."
As VEGA said this, the Atlan slowly climbed on the side of the Fortress, which was traveling sideways through the void.
The Slayer then moved the robot forward as electricity radiated off of it, with lightning getting ever closer each step he took. Once he was near the cannon with the broken cable, he got lower and grabbed his end of the cable.
After knotting it around his hand and testing its strength, he jumped from the ship, floating into the air until he was stopped by its length.
The problem was that the other side of the cable had been thrown against the Wunder, making it impossible for the Slayer to reach it.
He had thought about this however, and if he understood what kind of person Mari was, he would have seen her pink eva pop up any moment now.
A couple of seconds passed befo-
'Mari Makinami coming to the rescue!' She shouted over the radio, so loudly that she even interrupted the narration. Mean :(.
Unit 08 jumped outside of the opening hangar bay, grabbing onto it and using the large antennas of the Wunder to reach the free floating cable.
She grabbed it with a leap of faith, letting her get back to the ship with the cable in her hands.
VEGA then moved the broken cable and the one nearest to it closer together while also starting to slow down the Fortress.
Mari walked back a bit as she calculated how much she would have to jump in order to reach the Atlan.
"Friction with the area is very high, height difference is minimal, but still important and the cable is around two hundred meters in length… Alright, time to fly off like a bird, nya!"
Unit 08 began to run across the pink metallic surface a moment later, sending vibrations throughout the entire ship.
As she got closer to the edge, she began riding the right gigantic pilon that generated the AT field and where the cable was coming from.
Finally, as she reached the yellow tip, with one swift move she transferred the energy of her run into a jump that sent her flying across the void.
She was making good progress for the first few seconds, but just as she was about to grab the Atlan's hand, her cable stopped just short.
She was about to start shouting as soon as she noticed this, but suddenly she felt her head being squashed from all sides.
She looked up and saw that the Atlan had let go of some of the wire to grab her and she was now holding her by the head.
Now connected, they were able to get the two cables close enough for VEGA to repair the damage with Argent energy.
Now that the Wunder was back on track and avoiding total destruction, Mari said to the Slayer:
"Hey, we make a pretty good team right?"
The Atlan looked at her and they hanged from the cable in total silence, before kicking her into the air as she landed face first into the pink ship.
"Ow." She said to herself as the green robot returned to its hangar. That's what you get for being mean Mari.
Lifting herself up, she returned to her own hangar as the exit of the portal was coming increasingly closer.
Meanwhile on board the Fortress, Samuel and VEGA watched the approaching exit in silence, Asuka having left to vomit in the bathroom, knowing that the land in front of them was still full of demons.
"Was this the right choice Samuel?" VEGA asked him and he replied:
"Well we were going to die if we tried an orbital reentry. Plus we have the Slayer to take care of the demons here."
"I know… I was just asking myself if they were ready to learn the truth… About us."
Samuel paused for a couple of seconds at this as they crossed the portal, finally entering their homeland.
And as they approached the ground, he said:
"No. No they aren't."
A moment later both ships crashed on a flat island, coming to a halt quite quickly.
Around two minutes later
"How is the damage on your end Ritsuko?" Samuel asked as VEGA's repair drones were already flying around the ship.
'We belly landed so it's not too severe. The structural skeleton in the back is damaged along with the cargo bay, but otherwise most other areas are intact.'
"Okay, everyone here is fine. Asuka only got a small bruise and Shinji is still asleep.
Now listen, you have to prioritize turning your weapons back online."
'What? Why?'
"Look over the horizon, near that gas cloud."
The scientist did so as the crew increased the zoom of the deck's screens, finding that various red balls were coming towards them, along with a strange, large red ship.
As the red balls got closer, they all noticed how they had glowing blue mouths, enough teeth to make a great white shark shit itself and a single green eye on the top of their body.
And as they kept getting closer, VEGA said:
"Cacodemon and Hell landing ship spotted. Slayer, the Atlan was damaged by the crash so you'll have to go on foot."
The AI then noticed that Mari's hangar doors were opening, so he said to her:
"Your batteries were hit inside the portal Mari, you shouldn't move your eva."
'Nah don't worry it won't be a probl- Aaaah!'
"Told you." VEGA said as her line went offline.
As they watched the Slayer get closer and closer to the demons that had amassed at the foot of the landing ship, they saw the vessel point its guns at them and speed forward.
Samuel got ready to fire, when suddenly Asuka grabbed his attention as she said:
"Hey, can I try that?"
Samuel looked at VEGA's icon on the screen for a moment before saying:
"Sure, we have the Slayer on the ground anyway."
He stepped to the side and let her walk to the center to take control of the guns, where two circles of blue light appeared near her palms.
A screen that showed her the area they were aiming at as well as the status of the guns appeared in front of her.
She immediately noticed how the barrels followed the movements of her hands, so as she quickly adjusted, she aimed at the closest ship. Until a realization hit her:
"Uhm, wait how do I fire?"
This caught by surprise Samuel too as he said:
"Oh right… I'm used to just sending electric signals, but that won't work.
VEGA, can you reconfigure them to fire by the movement of her hands too?"
"Sure, give me a moment… Alright done.
Now wherever you open your hands they will fire. Of course I'll run a safety check each time to be sure. Theoretically you have a very high fire rate, but that would overheat the barrels so I've capped it at a maximum of ten shots per minute."
Asuka looked at the trigger-like holograms forming around her hands while a large crosshair appeared on the main screen. So she pointed it at a ship and then pressed the button.
Two powerful shots were sent out as the Hellish landing ship crashed into the body of the island below them. A bright smile formed on Asuka's face as she saw more ships approaching, making Samuel feel a strange sense of pride inside of himself.
That was cut short however when they heard a door behind them open.
"Where the hell are we?" Shinji asked with his body still covered in the liquid that was holding him.
Samuel immediately looked at VEGA's icon on the screen, who said:
"Alright there is a chance that the data coming from the infirmary was corrupted by the crash."
The robot slammed a hand on his face as he approached Shinji, leaving Asuka to her gun fun.
Meanwhile, in the middle of the battlefield
Play:[Rip and Tear] Doom 2016 OST
A hell knight screamed in pain as its left arm was cut off from its body and thrown against a group of imps, which later exploded thanks to a rocket.
The Slayer then pulled out the super shotgun and put the two shells right into a mancubus' eyes. The enormous fat creature screamed in pain as it still kept firing its hand cannons, which were blown off a moment later by a precision bolt and ballista combination.
Finally, the Slayer suddenly jumped on top of it, impaling its brain with the Doom blade on his wrist.
As the creature fell dead and began to burn up, the Slayer used the meathook on a Cacodemon to fly into the air and regain some distance.
He then launched an ice grenade and unleashed two blood punches on the frozen enemies, making them drop Argent that recharged that exact ability.
He did this until they were dead, chainsawing a small gargoyle to reload a moment later.
Just as he was done, a baron of hell tried to land a jump attack on him, but he dashed out of the way as the demon made of muscles, fire and grey armor turned around to face him again.
Using its hellish magic, the fire baron launched a fireball at the Slayer, which he dodged and replied to with three homing rockets.
He then dashed closer to the beast and put two shells in its chest, then fired a ballista shot to get away from the swing of its arm blades.
The Slayer then shot a remote detonation rocket which stunned the baron for long enough to let him get in close again and shoot two more shells before switching to the chaingun and activating the energy shield.
He pressed the trigger as a wave of hot bullets entered the demon's upper body while the energy shield kept bashing against him, sending shockwaves through his body.
As it was about to die, the Slayer moved away and pulled out the plasma rifle with the energy beam mod equipped. It locked onto the demon and sent out a plasma beam that eroded its entire body.
Being so close to death, it didn't take much before the energy broke the Barron's skin and made him explode, killing all other nearby demons.
The Slayer had just enough time to change weapons as a purple skinned prowler teleported behind him, managing to get a hit on his armor before getting obliterated.
The Slayer quickly located a lone possessed and flew towards it with the meathook.
He shot it while the chain engulfed its body in flames, turning the bloody guts into armor pieces that repaired the damage he took.
He looked around for a moment, noticing that the horde had thinned out, with the only ones left being a group of dread knights and carcasses, a very dangerous combination.
While the genetically modified hell knights were unrelenting war machines in constant pain that only felt relief when taking a life, the carcasses were flesh abominations on a metal tripod made out of dead human bodies sewed together.
Their role was to mainly support other demons with deployable plasma shields, but they weren't defenseless either, so he had to be careful when evading the dread knights' arm blades.
He immediately began moving sideways to avoid the larger beasts, while trying to get the carcasses all lined up, given that one charge of the destroyer blade was enough to kill them.
A series of rectangular shields suddenly appeared all around him, but he was able to make them explode with his plasma rifle before the dread knights could attack him.
However one of them had gotten too close, so after a lock-on burst he cut its throat and continued forward, finally getting close enough to the first carcass.
Being some of the more intelligent demons in hell's armies, they had already scattered to make it impossible for the Slayer to kill them all with the destroyer blade. This inadvertently opened up a new option for the man, since he was able to put one in a weakened state with a blood punch.
And so he started doing a chain of powerful punches, skipping from demon to demon while breaking their heads.
After the last one died, he didn't have time to avoid a jump attack from a dread knight, taking a bunch of damage in the process. Angered by this (as if he wasn't already), he grabbed the taller and wider beast by the neck and slammed it straight into the ground, sending its metallic and organic matter flying everywhere.
Immediately after he located the others, but since his ice grenade had recharged he didn't have to worry about anything.
He started running circles around them while shooting at the same time, eventually rounding them up all close together.
He launched the grenade and pulled out the destroyer blade mod, charging it up while the ice started melting off.
In the end he was faster, and so he fired a fully charged destroyer blade at them, splitting their bodies wide open and ending the battle.
He turned back to look at the fortress, noticing the large amount of destroyed hell ships around it.
"Damn, that tin can really went all out this time eh?"
The Slayer thought as he put away his gun, when suddenly he was contacted by VEGA who said:
'Slayer, I detect no more demons in the area, please return to the fortress immediately as we have a problem on our hands.'
The Slayer was about to ask why, but then he overheard Asuka shouting from the deck:
'Come on you stupid robot! I want to shoot more! Leave me now!'
The Slayer let out a short laugh before making his way towards the ship.
Wunder, the captain's bedroom
"Ugh, what the hell was all this noise…" Misato thought as she tried getting up from her bed, with her body still feeling very weak from her fever.
Thanks to some energy she didn't know she had however, she was able to reach her window and look outside.
What awaited her was a mostly empty dimension with a purple and dark blue tinted sky, with destroyed planets scattered off. Some of them were split wide open, others looked like they had crashed into each other and even more had gaping holes in them.
In the distance she could see some white alien structures, devoid of energy and blending easily with the stratified dark rock underneath.
A large broken yellow ring orbited the white structures like a fallen halo, giving them an eerie look even at such a large distance.
Finally there was the floating island they had landed upon, made up of a sort of dark rock that almost looked fake, synthetic, like it didn't even want to exist.
This was augmented by the fact that in the places where the ground had been blown off, a circuit-like material could be seen. As if the ground itself was synthetic in nature.
"What kind of nightmare did we end up in?!"
Misato thought as she felt her legs giving out again, making her nearly fall to the ground if she hadn't stopped herself with her arms.
After finally getting back in her bed she said to herself:
"Of all days to get sick… I should watch a movie."
She grabbed her laptop nearby and opened it, intending to look at the movies she had saved on it, when suddenly she remembered something.
"Wait…VEGA did access my laptop a while ago… Maybe the connection is still active? If there's anyone who might know something it's definitely a talking computer."
So, she opened up the log record of her laptop and, true to her suspicions, an unknown ID had accessed it some hours earlier and installed an unknown texting program.
She found the program in her computer's memory, but as soon as she clicked on it her screen immediately turned black.
Her mind was put at ease however when she noticed that a text had appeared in the top left.
"Katsuragi?" VEGA asked, wondering why that connection had come back online.
"Hello VEGA." The woman replied.
"I didn't think you'd find this program."
"Ritsuko taught me a couple of tricks. Why did you even leave it here anyway?"
"I believed that it might be useful in the future, although I feel like this is not what you wanted to talk about."
"Yeah, no… I've just woken up and taken a look outside. Where the hell are we?"
"We are currently in Urdak, me and Samuel's home planet. We had to escape here because the Wunder couldn't perform an orbital reentry. Unfortunately this place is still full of demons, so we'll have to be careful during our repairs."
"Oh great. That's just fucking great… We're in another damned dimension, I'm so sick I can't even move and we're surrounded by otherworldly beasts. Just great!
Ugh… My head…"
Misato moved her eyes away from the computer while throwing her head back on the pillow, unconsciously getting to look at her son's photograph.
The spike of pain that it caused in her head made her move back to the PC and tyoe:
"VEGA tell me… Earlier I heard them shouting about Asuka and Shinji earlier, do you know what happened?"
"You really care about them don't you?"
"It's just my duty! Tell me what happened now!" Misato texted back as her face got red, but not from her fever.
VEGA laughed a bit with himself and a moment later he said:
"She brought him to our ship after breaking him out of his cell. He had suddenly lost nearly a third of his body weight and would have died if she hadn't intervened.
Your crew didn't take it well though, they're thinking that we were trying to make them escape. I tried to reason with them, but I must admit they can be pretty stubborn."
"Not even Ritsuko?" Misato asked, a bit confused.
"She mostly remained silent. Why did she take your place anyway?"
"Oh? She didn't tell you?"
"No, she just kept saying you weren't available."
"Huh… Strange… I have a fever by the way, it's really killing me."
"I see. I hope you have a quick recovery, Misato, also because I believe Samuel has started missing you."
"What? But we met just a few days ago."
"Well, Samuel does seem to not be fond of Ritsuko… And he gets close to people quite quickly. You should get to know each other more, from what I've seen you two are quite similar."
Misato stopped for a moment to think about it before typing:
"Sure VEGA, what harm could that do?
I'm going back to sleep now though, I'm feeling really tired."
"Rest well Katsuragi." VEGA said as the laptop was shut off.
Fortress of Doom, infirmary
"There, you're all hooked up now." Samuel said as Shinji looked at the feeding tube in his arm while Asuka peeked at him from behind.
"How long will I stay like this?" Shinji asked, finding it annoying to even move his mouth to talk.
"Yeah, how long until this idiot can be kicked back into a cell?" Asuka added and so Samuel replied:
"I believe that you're both misunderstanding the situation here, let me explain.
Shinji, currently your body possesses basically no muscles and a very limited amount of body fat, the fact that you made it up to the deck is only thanks to your exoskeleton.
Here's the thing, we can't treat this like a normal disease, nor like a tumor or like something that is curable in the first place. If we don't want you to die, Shinji, we'll basically have to rebuild all of your body from the ground up. Starting with your body fat, then we'll rebuild your muscles and maybe even some electric stimulation to keep your nerves alive."
"Wait, can't you just use Argent to give me strength like the Slayer?" The boy asked, looking at the man standing near Asuka.
"For how much I'd like to, Argent doesn't magically give you a superhuman body. It heals a human, but it doesn't build one.
Don't worry though, he'll be your gym coach when you are ready."
The Slayer gave a thumbs up to Shinji, who replied with a weak smile.
Both men hadn't noticed that Asuka's eyepatch had started glowing once Samuel mentioned Shinji going through bodybuilding.
Samuel then continued:
"Don't worry, it won't be anything crazy, just to keep you healthy enough to stand your ground."
"Oh. O-okay, but… I mean why are you doing this? We've only caused you problems so far."
"There's a number of reasons, but most importantly because one of our goals is just like yours, saving humanity."
Asuka noticed the Slayer throw a quick glance at the robot, confirming her feeling of him being dishonest.
"What game are you three playing?" She thought, without finding an answer.
"I guess that I'll have to keep an eye on you three. Especially on what you do with my Shin-… Ikari! I'll keep an eye out for Ikari!"
She saw Samuel get up from his position near the hospital bed and then said:
"So, now comes the first hard part for Shinji's recovery plan."
"And that is?" Asuka said and the robot replied:
"We don't have any food on board."
The redhead slapped herself in the face once she heard these words as she thought:
"At this point I might as well become Shinji's official caretaker or something…
The funny thing is that he's such an idiot that he needs one.
Well, if there's one thing that Shikinami is known for is not giving up, so I guess that I'll have to take on this stupid task. To keep my title of course.
Stupid idiot."
TO BE CONTINUED