Top Girls!

Chapter 20

Back at Tokyo-3, Mari Illustrious Maki Makinami was piloting a simulated Evangelion against two pilot candidates.

(Gendo KNEW they had to have options if everything went to hell and one or more pilot died. He did NOT tell Shinji, Rei or Asuka about that, of course... they didn't need to know.)

"COME ON IF YOU'RE HARD ENOUGH!" Hikari Horaki yelled, the young woman attacking a fake 'angel'.

"Is anyone else kind of surprised at how much she's getting into this?" Toji noted mildly, backing her up.

"Synching with the Evangelions can DO that," Kaede told him, the bridge bunny there monitoring the testing. "Heck, even Shinji gets more outgoing when he pilots," she added.

"Sorry, I just thought that was a pilot thing to say," Hikari shyly admitted once the simulation went on standby.

"Well, she DOES know Asuka," Toji noted.

"That's just mean," Kaede snickered softly.

Cheerfully Mari asked her, "Okay, so what's the objective of the next simulation?"

"Hikari and Toji vs you, they start the game with pistols, objective is you getting to NERV HQ," Kaede said briskly.

"Piece of cake," Toji boasted.

"That's MY line," Mari purred, and in less than ten minutes had defeated then both.

"HOW...," Hikari blinked.

"I DO know where the weapons lockers and such are," Mari shrugged, having gotten rifles and such during the fight.

"And she's trained," Toji noted ruefully. He'd had the bright idea to try to engage her hand to hand and got his ass kicked.

"All right, we're resetting and going again," Kaede said, "get ready."

"Right," Hikari nodded.

"And Mari, you don't HAVE to kill both of them," Kaede added.

"Where's the fun in that?" Mari grinned.

Once again, Toji wondered about the pilots NERV recruited...

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

"UGH I hate camping," Misato groaned as they got up.

"It wasn't THAT bad," Ritsuko said, stretching. She winced as something in her back twinged... a air matress was not that comfy.

"Morning!" Satsuki Oou beamed, clearly a morning person.

Both women GLARED at her.

"Breakfast is on," Shinji called, the young man helping with the cooking.

"Ikari, one day you will make someone a good wife," Asuka drawled.

"Hey!" Shinji blushed.

Misato just ignored that, greedily drinking some coffee. "Ahh," she sighed.

"Hmm," Maya agreed, the boyish young woman in t-shirt and shorts.

"No bandits hit us over night?" Kaji asked tiredly. He hadn't slept well. Gendo snored, and they had shared a tent.

"The police were still on site," Shinji pointed out reasonably, while dishing up a vegetarian fried tofu for Rei.

"How can you eat that?" Asuka shuddered.

Rei looked at Asuka's sausage and eggs and shuddered.

"Thank you," Ritsuko said as she got her porridge and toast.

"All right," Gendo said as he ate, "we SHOULD hit the Nevada testing grounds today, barring anything unexpected happening."

"Yup, we're doomed," Maya joked.

Satsuki jumped in, "We want to stage everyone getting up for the cameras, so once you eat we'll do that."

"Why not just film them when they got up?" Shinji wondered.

"Misato tends to swear if you thrust a camera at her before she's had a coffee or two," Kaji noted, amused.

"Or punches people," Ritsuko added.

"I DO NOT," Misato scowled.

Shinji nodded, as did Maya and Ritsuko, that YES she did.

"I hate you all," Misato sighed.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

"Welcome to Nevada!" Maria Vincennes waved.

Behind her crouched the silver Unit-04, waiting for the Top Gear cast as planned.

"Thank you for the warm welcome," Gendo formally shook his US counterpart's hand.

"My pleasure," Maria looked past him, eyes twinkling.

"Hello," Maya waved shyly.

'SO CUTE!' Maria thought.

"So, who's in Unit-04?" Ritsuko wondered.

"Our pilot, Nene Matsukaze," Maria answered. She turned to the EVA, "Nene, say hello!"

"Hello," the voice came over the speakers, "I'm looking forward to beating you in the upcoming race!"

"NENE!" Maria scolded.

"I like her," Asuka grinned.

"You would," Shinji sighed from where the three pilots were watching.

Gendo noted, "It's early enough we could do the race now..."

"Let's do it!" Nene agreed in the Evangelion.

"We'll set up a staring line," Kaji said briskly, "line up the cars and get Unit-04 in position."

"Let's NOT have the pilots in the cars," Gendo noted. He added, "We want them light as possible, after all."

Maria chuckled, "I don't want you blaming losing to our Evangelion on your cars having extra weight on board."

"Oooh, you're going DOWN," Misato chuckled.

The Camero, Shelby and Mustang got in position as did the Evangelion. They would race across the nearby salt flats, and they sent Satsuki and a local staffer to watch at the finish line. In addition to the filming van, they had a aerial drone above them.

"READY," Shinji raised his arm, having been asked to do it, "GO!"

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

Nene Matsukaze grasped the control handles, the young redhead sitting in the LCL filled cockpit of Unit-04. Despite being the same age as the other pilots, she LOOKED younger, annoyingly.

"READY," Shinji Ikari raised his arm, "GO!"

The three cars took off surprisingly fast, even as Nene made her Evangelion start running. Each stride of her evangelion was HUGE, but the cars were speeding up FAST.

'Shit, I'm being outpaced by the Mustang,' Nene realized. The Shelby was also speeding up, and might be the fastest of the three, but the Mustang was best in raw power.

The four raced across the salt flats, and the three cars fought for the lead among each other, too. That maneuvering cost them a bit of time, which Nene seized on.

'Come ON,' Nene thought, even as the cars accelerated.

The Mustang and the Shelby jockied for first, even as Unit-04 held onto a lead. Then the Shelby roared ahead, and gradually got ahead of her.

"No! No!" Nene growled, trying to get even a bit more speed out of her Evangelion.

The finish line came into view, then came up FAST as they raced on. Nene pushed as hard as she could, but the supercar had fulled opened up and was widening the lead.

"Damn it!" Nene cursed as the car raced across the line, then the Evangelion, then the other too.

"Good race, Nene," Maria's said over the radio, "the car's accelleration was just too great."

"Sorry, ma'am," Nene sighed as sbhe brought the Evangelion to a halt. "We could probably win a shorter race."

"Maybe," Maria conceded, "anyway, get back here."

"Aye aye," Nene sighed.

To be continued...

Notes: It is NOT canon that piloting a Evangelion changes your personality, but have you noticed how different Shinji is while piloting? Just saying...

Nene Matsukaze is from a spinoff visual novel. I am NOT writing her as canon, I just realized I needed a pilot for Unit-04. I did think about using Kaworu but...