Evangelion: You Shall (not) Win This Time
Episode 19: Sun, Fun (and) Brawls/ Altered (episode) 10 Quadrollogy, PT.3
(Warning: All intellectual properties belong to their respective original creators/current copyright holders. EVA to Studio Khara, Reality Warpers to Yoshi3000, you get the idea.)
(Opening Theme: "Reverse/Re:Birth" by Hiroaki Iwagana and Asaya)
Earth Dimension EVA-181818-Sigma: one of the big holiday hubs of the multiverse with sun, surf, and plenty of tourist traps and distractions to keep the money rolling in. There was a sense of irony with this universe though: as it was forged when that universe's versions of Shinji and Asuka had learned to set aside their differences during the events of Human Instrumentality, and together banished the Angels and SEELE from from the universe and rebuilding it to be one of peace. With their latest string of adventures, battles and fetch quests finally finished, the Knights of Ryujin had set foot in what was NERV HQ turned into a mass hotel resort's main lobby, finally ready to begin a well deserved holiday. Bishops stretched his arms after checking in with the Maya of that universe before going "Alright, we pretty much got a whole week off to rest and recharge. Feel free to take today to get the lay of the land once you get your stuff loaded up in your rooms."
Toji quickly responded by cheering "Aw, hell yeah! Time for some surf, sun, and fun." with Kensuke adding "And with about a week, we should have plenty of time to try as much of what's here as possible." as everyone else cheered that it was vacation time.
(Group A: Toji, Kensuke, Strasberg and Keita)
With the groups opting to split up and enjoy their holiday in their own separate ways, Toji had rallied most of the men of his team for something seemingly important.
"So why are we not at the beach when we're supposed to be relaxing?" asked Kensuke before Toji answers "Because the boss is gonna egg us on to do some training while we're here, so why not get it out of the way now, so we can spend the rest of our time scoping out the local hotties?"
Toji's statement lead Strasberg to respond with "This is because Shinji, Rei and Kaworu all got a major power boost alongside the boss, ain't it?", earning a response of "NO!" from the elder Suzuhara followed by a meeker "Okay, maybe a bit of it is." before voicing his excuse:
"You guys know just as much as I do that with those rocks, the boss and those three are on a completely different level now more than they ever were before. I know it's petty, but…..I wanna be able to fight alongside them without feeling completely overshadowed or outright useless. Think about it: there's plenty of jackasses who want our heads on a pike out there, and it's more than likely that they're gearing themselves up to be stronger than us every single day. And knowing that Bishops and everyone else who's so close to nearing the triple plus digit power level club makes me feel like I'm not pulling my weight. I want to be able to stand side by side with them, not just to protect Sakura from whatever threat may come, but to protect you guys since you're my bros, and…...I want us to be around for as long as possible. Don't tell me you guys don't feel the same sometimes."
The sheer force of Toji essentially spilling his proverbial guts to his brothers in arms was enough to leave them all silent for a short moment before Keita was the first to voice their piece on the matter:
"You aren't the only one who feels that way. You guys not only saved the asses of me, Strasberg and Mana, but you took us in. You taught us how to fight like you. And you taught us that there's more to fight for than we could've ever possibly imagined. If you wanna help us all get stronger so we can fight as equals, then I'm game."
This lead to Strasberg adding in "You're right, Keita's right, and no way in hell am I gonna deny that the two of us and Mana are literally the weakest members we got right now. Those two saved our lives, the only way to make it even is that we get strong enough to fight on their level.", leading to Kensuke throwing in "I'm not denying anything you're saying either, Toji, but where are we supposed to find somewhere to do some serious training on a resort OU Earth?"
The answer to their question came from a somewhat unexpected source: the universe's version of Kaji who was resurrected during that Shinji and Asuka's global reset, who responded with "If you're looking to train, then you'll be happy to know that this universe's Asuka runs a dojo with specialized Warper training equipment. Granted, the Hyperbolic Time Chambers here are usually booked months in advance, but you'll still be able to get some significant gains in just a day."
Keita responded by asking "Any chance that there's a Hyperbolic Time Chamber free?" as Kaji answers "You'll have to ask Asuka about that. After all, it's her dojo."
To say that the Asuka of this universe took advantage of Warper Edit after discovering the secret in order to undo the effects of LCL contact would be a partial understatement as after learning of the 14 year time skip in the Rebuild continuity, she had allowed herself to mod her body as such to match the age of her franchise…..give or take a few years. Taller, leaner, bustier, a body of a warrior.
"So you're looking to get use of one of my Time Chambers to do a year's worth of heavy training in a day so you can enjoy your vacation and be a bit stronger." went the dojo master before adding "You're in luck, a guest party had to cancel their reservations and left a spot open. I highly suggest you gather as many people in your party as possible quickly, and take this advantage. Those bad boys don't make themselves available every day, you know."
Knowing that the others would chide them for keeping such a huge secret under wraps, a mass group text was sent with the information and coordinates. Bishops commends them for thinking of getting the training that he was going to assign them out of the way fast and the onslaught begins. Punches thrown, ki blasts fired, clashes at supersonic speeds while combatants were at their full power roared, all to such intensity, it would drive even the strongest of level 7 Warpers to break. Come that time the next day, everyone came out of the chamber far stronger than they were going in. Toji and the others who thought of the plan knew that they still had a ways to go to reach the likes of Shinji and Bishops, but for now, they were at least closer than before.A day after resting from the Time Chamber session Strasberg had gotten a hold of Toji while he was practicing his accuracy by shooting hoops on one of the resort's basketball courts.
Toji asked "What's up?" with Strasberg replying "Okay, so I know we did some serious training a couple days ago, but I still kinda got the urge for a spar. Think that this joint's got some kind of arena or something where Warpers can throw down?"
Toji answers "Most likely since this place is an OU. Think I actually saw one on the big map in the main lobby somewhere in Tokyo 2." to which Strasberg responds "I'll rally the boys, you double check."
Within a 5 minute interval, Strasberg alongside the other men of the team save for Bishops, Shinji and Kaworu had made their way to what was lovingly dubbed the Tokyo 2 Slam Center: the fighter's haven of the OU where Warpers from across the multiverse could dish out what they have for honor, glory, and big money on top of possible hot late night action. Upon registering at the front desk, each of them were entered into separate tournament brackets of 8 meant for first time competitors. Of course this gave our boys the idea of placing a little side bet: who could hold out the longest without being eliminated from their respective tournaments. Surprisingly, Toji and Kensuke both had the worst runs, being knocked out in the second round with Sakura's elder sibling being knocked out by a version of Teletha Testarosa from Full Metal Panic while Kensuke lost to a version of Asta from Black Clover. Strasberg was soon to follow when a version of Rolf from Ed Edd n Eddy took him down after their brawl had lasted 10 minutes. Which left Keita and a version of Kaname Chidori from Full Metal Panic in his final round. The Whispered opened up a dialogue before the fight truly started by going "I'll admit, the other guys I faced didn't really give me a decent workout, especially the one before you. I expect to not be more of the same."
The former TRI-DENT agent readied himself and responded "Ask and you will receive." as the battle begins. Kaname had made the first move after the initial clash by utilizing the hand signs needed to activate a Lightning Bullet Jutsu as Keita evades the electric shots before charging in with a lineman's tackle. Kaname recovers quickly and delivers a swift roundhouse to Keita's left side, sending him off for a moment before bouncing back and going in for a melee barrage. The blue haired combatant swiftly blocked every blow that came her way before managing to get some distance in order to cast another jutsu, this time a "Lightning Style: Kirin Jutsu" that came crashing down from the open ceiling with Keita just barely dodging in time. He knew he had to step up his game with his opponent, and triggered a 3x Kaio Ken and managed to outspeed his opponent to land a surprise Lion's Barrage, sending her down to the ground.
The Full Metal Panic character gets back up after a few seconds and goes "Okay, that one actually caught me by surprise. Guess that's my que to go all out. 'Lightning Style: Lightning Release Chakra Mode'!"
Keita got a bit nervous after hearing of Shinji's encounter with a bounty hunter who was able to use that particular technique prior to him and the other TRI-DENT team members learning the Warper's secret and quickly upped his Kaio Ken output to 6x as combat resumed.
(Track Change: "Character Select"- "Tekken 5 OST")
Both combatants clash in a stream of furious blows at high speeds with the electricity surging from each clash filling the air within the arena. Keita decided to increase his Kaio Ken output further to 10x in order to get the upper hand until the blue haired Whispered said something to change the game.
"In all honesty, I never thought I'd have to use this fighting in a place like here, but you've somehow forced my hand: 'Lightning Style: Lightning Release Chakra Mode "Overboost"!"
The electricity surging from Kaname became even more vigorous, changing colors from bright blue to a very bright magenta as Keita could not only sense that her power had not just doubled again, but quadrupled. Before he could even react, his opponent had managed to clock him by surprise and go into a further barrage of attacks before she jumps into the air in order to charge a final attack in the form of an iconic move which shared her last name.
Kaname mentally goes "This state might only last a minute before I expend all my energy for the day, but I just need it to last long enough to beat this guy." as Keita finally recovers enough to realize what's about to go down and trigger a 25x Kaio Ken and start charging a final attack of his own. Focusing his energy into his right leg, Keita leaps into the air right as Kaname begins her downward charge as the two clash one last time with the Knights of Ryujin member's foot connecting with the electric energy within his opponent's palm. For a time, it seemed like they were evenly matched when Keita got the idea to begin spinning in a drill like fashion in order to give his attack more power. The end result: a kick to the face of his opponent who began falling to the arena, having spent the last of her energy into the Chidori that they cast in defeat after uttering the words "Well played."
Once the match was fully declared, Toji and company rushed towards their compatriot in order to congratulate their friend on a job well done and a fight well fought when Kaname's group, including the Teletha who had bested Toji collected their friend and acknowledged that very few people had been able to get Kaname to use that version of "Lightning Release Chakra Mode", earning the group their respect. The rest of their vacation was spent with a mixture of relaxation and fun alongside going back to the arena to fight. Toji and his boys swore to use their time there to get stronger, and while there was still a gap between their power and that of their empowered counterparts, it was noticeably far from being as distant from when their holiday started.
(The Curious Case of Rei Ayanami the 3rd and the Blue Lilith Pirates)
To say that the life of a Rei Ayanami within the multiverse could be comparable to having your fate decided by the flip of a coin or the roll of a 20 sided die would be nothing short of an understatement. The Rei currently siding with the Knights of Ryujin was no such exception. Case in point: after finishing the group training session inside the Hyperbolic Time Chamber, the human/angel hybrid had learned one of her fellow clones from her home universe had made residency in the universe of the resort. During the time that they had to reunite, the agent for Tokyo 3 had been disclosed in regards of the whereabouts of the clones that were sent out, namely the one that had joined the counterpart in journeying to Zen Kuro, only to fall in the forsaken area of Vice, the agents of the Integra church who were currently combating the spread of Fusion Matter across the multiverse, the pair in the care of the retired tyrant Pinkamena, but one group of their "siblings" seemed to be the most out there to her in a sense. It would seem that a portion of the clones had united under their version of the Jolly Roger and formed a multiverse cruising pirate group known as the Blue Lilith pirates. Within seconds of their mentioning, an airship in the shape of a high tech pirate's galleon started to descend from the skies in seemingly a "speak of the devil, and the devil shall appear" manner before ultimately landing in a nearby lake. The Rei in Bishops' party readied herself to fight the incoming energy signatures, only to be shocked when it was revealed that the beings emitting the energy were people she knew all too well aside from a couple. Most of the people in front of her were her fellow clones that came from the same batch that before Bishops' intervention, had spent their days simply swimming around in the LCL of their cultivation tank. As the older looking apparent leading clone stepped forward while for some reason dressed in Gendo's coat and sunglasses before kneeling at their feet, digging her cutlas into the ground and went "Sister, the will of the Super Spiral blesses you, I assume?" towards the masseuse clone who responds "It does, as with you and your crew."
Clearing the confusion quickly with the clone who will be referred to for the rest of this spotlight as "Rei III", the masseuse reintroduced her sisters proper. The older with the cutlas in partial Gendo garb served as the captain of the crew, opting to age herself up using Warper Edit to the current age of one Monkey D. Luffy of One Piece fame. Known to the public as crass, crafty and pragmatic to keep the public image of a fearsome contender within the multiverse pirate community, but those who knew her personally were made aware of her being a truly caring individual when it came to her crew to the point it could only be rivaled by her religious belief in what she referred to as the "Super Spiral". One who had taken the name Parvati had died her hair bright green and had it grown out in a ponytail, even dressing as the Fate/Grand Order version and developed a rather…...quirky personality revolving a cordless toaster that she wore as a sort of hat that would randomly pop up random flavored toaster pastries. One had opted to have her hair colored a darker blue than what's standard for a Rei and dressed in the garb of one person that most would think they'd want nothing to do with: Naoko Akagi, the woman who had strangled the very first Rei clone to death all those years ago. Even going so far as to take her name and have her role in the crew be saving lives. Also among the clones were a maroon haired Rei who let her bangs grow out to cover one eye dressed as Aqua from Kingdom Hearts who acted as the crew's mage, one had taken to wearing an 80's-90's style aerobics outfit while changing her hair to be blonde and had developed a somewhat flawed version of Garnet from Steven Universe's Future Vision where it only predicts 5 seconds of a randomized event only activates in completely random times who served as ship cook, one with jet black ankle length hair dressed as Disney's version of Snow White with the skirt shortened to knee length carrying a replica of Sigfried from Soul Calibur's sword Faust that basically served as the heavy weapons member of the crew and one with neck length orange hair dressed up as Sailor Mercury from Sailor Moon who had her eyes hidden behind Mercury's visor who acted as the team sniper. And then we had the 2 mystery individuals: versions of Jaune Arc and Nora Valkyrie from RWBY.
Through explanation, it was revealed that they were victims of the renegade Warper Spinel alongside their old home dimension's Ruby Rose and Yang Xiao Long. With aid from Warpers who were later revealed to have association with the Fusion Force, they were able to escape the world Spinel had made her capitol which was on the brink of destruction by destabilization and while Ruby and her sister opted to stay and work in the universe that they and a few other refugees decided won't up hiding in and eventually called home while the two with the pirate crew decided to go freelancer and were recruited not too long ago, serving wherever needed.
Turning to her crew, the Blue Lilith captain exclaimed "Rejoice, fellow warriors of the stars. For on this day, you stand before one of the Super Spiral's trusted hands in his quest for justice.", earning a collective "Huzzah." from her associates.
Such revelry was halted when the masseuse in the group received a phone call. The person on the other end: Ryker Blackthorn of Jade Company. Feeling safe enough to tell Rei III, the masseuse informed her after the call that she was employed by Ryker after leaving the barn she had called home before coming to this universe to act as a personal spy in the event of multiverse level threats that would become a problem in the future. Her findings: that the Cult of Combination had restructured under new leadership into the group called "Rendo Nexus". A bit of higher end bubbly here, a few techniques to get them to "loosen up" there, and the agents who came in to "relax", and you tend to hear some valuable info. Case in point: the organization had been rather busy in accumulating resources and building a steady stream of assets with a primary investment in collecting clones of Reis and "Rebuild" Asukas among the other EVA pilots save for Shinjis who they opt to just execute to keep them from becoming problems later on. Who they captured would be cloned using the tech used to make Rei clones and mind wiped to be used as either agents for the organization or be shipped off to be used as cheap labor and indentured servitude to the highest buyer. But that wasn't all. The masseuse had also come upon the discovery that Rendo Nexus had sent an infiltrating agent to blend into the resort staff and possibly scope out the resort for a possible future invasion: Maria Vincennes, a character only seen in the confines of a tabletop RPG known as the NERV White Paper. Knowing that this agent was aware of her connections to the Jade Company in the twilight days of the Crystal Squadron's prime, the masseuse had relocated into Tokyo 3's main city in order to avoid having her bedroom compromised in search of Warper secrets…..and also to keep people from stealing the things she used when having a certain kind of company spend the evening with her.
The second that her current assignment to get Bishops alone to warn him of her was mentioned, the captain decided that she was having none of this. This was a plot against her god, and this must be dealt with post haste. But alas, before she could even act, the captain had received a request from a client for an escort mission being declared high importance. The plan in her mind was now set.
"Sister, please warn the Super Spiral of this heresy in the name of the Blue Liliths." she said before turning to her Jaune and Nora, adding "Cabin boy Arc and cabin girl Valkyrie, the time has come to truly earn your place within this crew. I want that heretic properly disposed of at once. I don't care how it's done, but make sure it looks like an accident. We can't afford to have the heretic's masters catching on that there are those who know of their schemes." before ultimately turning to the rest of the clones in her crew and finishing with "Sisters, we must quickly resupply before we embark on this escort assignment. Let us make haste."
Before the Reis could begin their flight to return to their vessel, Rei III offers her services for the escort mission since with her orders, they'd be down 2 crew members. The captain complies and accepts her offer after gauging her strength, even without the Metsu Sol Emerald in her possession, with the training in the Hyperbolic Time Chamber, she was capable of fending for herself. Rei III turns to the masseuse, Jaune and Nora and tells them "Inform the Super Spiral that I will be spending time doing some 'family bonding', he'll understand."
What was supposed to be a simple escort mission to return 2 relatively powerful shinobi to the same Naruto universe that housed Uzumaki Corps. Headquarters was met with a pursuit and vicious battle against another pirate crew, one commanded by the visage of someone who filled the Blue Lilith's captain with disdain: a version of Asuka presumably from the Rebuild continuity that had amassed a crew of her own to pillage in the sake of asserting dominance. Parvati had taken a freshly cooked pastry from the toaster and taken a bite before going "Wild berry. Sisters, this battle shall be most fortuitous for us, and the captain of the enemy vessel shall play a major part of it. However, we must refrain from killing her."
The ship's cook responded with "You can't be serious." before the toaster wielder curtly answered "Foolish you, the toaster has never lead us astray before, it has no reason to now."
The Aqua themed mage asks if she should prepare a spell or two with the captain about to respond when the crew's cabin huntsmen portaling back onto the ship. The Sailor Senshi outfit clad sniper sees them and goes "Well, you two work fast. I take it that the heretic was properly dealt with?" with Jaune responding "Uh, about that-" before Nora interferes by adding "Okay, so we were figuring out how to do what you asked us to do, but turns out that we kinda didn't need to do it at all because this huge piss off laser vaporized her in one shot. Didn't even see it coming."
The captain responded "And you're certain that this beam was a fatal one?" as Jaune answered "Energy signature matched that of a Kamehameha Wave, and it left a pretty decent crater afterwards, so pretty certain that the problem took care of itself."
The captain simply responded "For your sakes, I hope you're right, but for now, prepare for battle." as the ship allowed itself to get into closer range, ready to fight.
The battle was furious with all members of the crew locked in combat. The Ginyu of the Crimson Wind made the unfortunate mistake of insulting Parvati's precious toaster as she lost her "cool" with her faithful pastry popper converting into a minigun, giving the Blue Liliths a perfect opportunity to board the enemy vessel. Seeing that a version of the infamously hard to kill Cinder Fall was among the enemy, Jaune easily took the chance to receive much desired revenge against the fiend that killed the woman he loved while the Disney Princess attire clad zweihander user and the Knights of Ryujin member managed melee crowd control with the Sailor Senshi sniper and Kingdom Hearts styled mage providing help from a distance. All of this happening while the captain Ayanami and Shikinami clashed blades atop the steering deck with sword skills that even the enemy Asuka had to admire. Meanwhile, the Naoko cosplaying doctor was analyzing the muscle movements and Warper energy signatures of her captain's opponent when she made a full revelation: declaring that the enemy Asuka who thought she was a Langley who became a Shikinami was in fact a Shikinami since her spawning, which allowed the doctor the proper opportunity to scan the rival factions leader with her Medi-Tricorder, confirming her theory and then some enough for everyone to stop fighting on the spot. What the Blue Lilith's medical officer had discovered that the opposing faction's captain had indeed had her mind tampered to think that she was a Langley by most likely the maligned faction Rendo Nexus.
With the shocking revelation bringing their opponent to their knees, the Rei captain helped her then opponent up as Asuka suggested the following course of action:
"I want answers. RN took away my past, and I want answers. I want to propose an alliance. Name your price, but I want your help."
With that, the long thought impossible happened, and a deadly alliance was forged as the two crews left the universe of ninja and tailed beasts upon the completion of the Blue Lilith's mission, hell bent on getting their dues from a common enemy. But first thing was first, drop off the Knights of Ryujin member as Parvati subtly went "I told you so" without actually saying it for the whole trip back to the resort. The crew had managed to investigate Jaune and Nora's claims, proving them to be true before ultimately shoving off for their new quest.
Rei III had then opted to disclose the events of the pirate excursion to her masseuse sister within the confines of her apartment. Upon seeing that it was relatively the same as canon seemingly with the exception of wallpaper and a UHD smart television, the knight responded "I see you've taken to some more simplistic measures in redecorating. Still looks far superior to what we had in canon." before her fellow clone replied "Well, this technically isn't the whole apartment." before hitting a four digit code on a hidden keypad, revealing a larger, more lavish portion, including heated swimming pool and hot tub combo, stocked bar, home theater, and a special room meant for more….private reasons.
The masseuse simply went "Mr. Blackthorn pays rather well so that I may fulfil my…..personal needs." as Rei III responds "You wouldn't happen to still have the contact information for whoever set this up for you, would you?"
The masseuse simply chuckled before handing her sister a business card with the knight taking a place on the larger sofa with the apartment owner fixing herself a drink, asking her sister if she wanted anything. Now properly sat down with virgin margaritas in hand to discuss various topics, namely the worries they share about the other sisters that are still AWOL.
"Do you still think of them and if they're safe or not?"
The more provocative of the two solomly answers with "Every day, as much as I mourn for the sister I came here with. There are times where I wish I landed in Vice with her so that I could either protect her or make sure she didn't die alone."
Rei III could only look down on her glass, thinking about how many of the clones she shared a cultivation tank of LCL with, spending their days floating around while blissfully unaware of the malicious intent that was originally planned for them. Had Bishops not come in and altered the course of history, who knows how badly things would've turned out with the Third Impact. She then looks to her fellow human Angel hybrid and asks "Do you think that we'd be better off still in the tank, not knowing about any of this? Blissfully unaware of our ultimate fates and eventually meeting it?"
The answer she got: "I've honestly considered it a couple times, but every time the answer just leads back to "no". Besides, the old hag's crotch goblin was gonna kill us all anyway, might as well use the life we've been given. It's kind of the mentality I've adopted, living for those of us who don't make it…...they would've wanted it."
The sisters then raised their glasses in toast for those who are out there and those who've been lost along the way, vowing to spend the vacation doing some family bonding.
(Asuka and Mari's Bizarre Adventures)
To say that it had been an eventful 24 hours for the pilots of EVA Unit-02 and Provisional EVA Unit-05 would be the understatement of the year. From learning the truth of not only their universe, but of their existence as characters of a fictional work on top of pursuing the people who had been keeping it such a secret for so long, the duo were exhausted and looking for a place to rest in order to plan their next move. Crashing on the couch of their rented bed and breakfast, the pilot greenhorn duo begin their attempts at plotting their next course of action.
"Okay" starts Asuka before adding "according to that next episode preview, those bastards are gonna wind up here most likely later today. How do we deal with them now that the idiot, the doll, the weirdo and their boss now have those magic space rocks absorbed into their bodies?", to which Mari answered "Now hold on there, princess. With those rocks, those guys are more out of our leagues than before. If anything, we should probably find a place where we can do a shit ton of training in as little time as possible. You know, figure this Warper stuff out, maybe learn some effective counters to whatever they can throw at us."
Asuka's response: "And just where are we gonna find a way to do something like that on such short notice?" as Mari explained that the resort housed a cluster of Hyperbolic Time Chambers that could let them do a year's worth of training in a single day….only to learn that they're usually booked far into the future in advance, leaving her to go "Well shit. So much for that plan."
Asuka then grumbles "Great, what other options do we have?" when Mari got another idea: sneak into another group's session and do their training away from the others. With plan in mind, the duo decide to continue resting for a few hours before acting on it. The time for action had finally come as Asuka and Mari had spent another hour in search of a group heading to the Time Chambers for their appointment. Their targets obtained: Warper versions of Inaba Scoobies of Persona 4. The time to act was now as the two greenhorns snuck into the group. The plan was perfect…...until the Asuka in charge of the resort caught them right before they were able to enter.
The elder of the Langleys was first to act, going "So you thought you could pull a fast one on a group of paying customers, huh? Though I gotta admit, it was a nice try." as her two captives tried to escape. All for naught as the more experienced Warper counterpart teleported all three of them to her own private training hall before releasing them. Before the two could even attempt to make up any form of an excuse, the elder Asuka spoke.
"I know where you're from, so don't deny it. EVA-12385267 seems to be a pretty eventful place these days if so many mainline and spin off characters are learning the secret. However, I am running a business, and I can't have the likes of you two trying to cheat me out of payment for an honest day's work. If it's training you want, than it's training you'll get, except you'll be learning from my personal curriculum."
It was at that moment where our two greenhorns realized they fucked up. Within the confines of the elder Langley's personal Time Chamber, the training was nothing short of brutal. Random environmental status changes, extreme pressure akin to a multiplication of Earth's gravitational pull, and an instructor hell bent on making them earn any gains they receive. As expected, the elder Langley was putting special focus on her alternate universe counterpart as the younger of the 2 was only focusing on utilizing brute force to unlock her full potential. Of course, this wouldn't do at all.
"You're still not fighting at your full potential. You're just trying to force power to come to you, solely focusing on the physical aspect of Warper arts instead of a mix between physical and mental."
The younger counterpart only responded with an upper sweep kick which the dojo master quickly blocked and responded in turn by throwing her opponent aside and continuing her attempts to reach a breakthrough.
"Do you really think that you can beat anyone if all you know is flail around like a raging lunatic, let alone the Angels or the Gendo of your universe?"
The younger counterpart once again charged towards her opponent, only to be met with a reversal throw leading to an armbar submission with the elder Soryu trying again for results.
"Blind rage and a thirst for revenge against those who put you in the situation you're in will only get you so far unless you have the capability to learn from past mistakes and use that knowledge to your advantage. And even if you manage to achieve what you had planned, what then? What do you think you'll have when all is said and done without proper planning?"
The younger Asuka bluntly responded with "I already know my plan: gain power, get rid of the bastards who're gonna get me killed in canon, and let the universe sort out the rest!" while attempting to escape the hold. While she did manage to break free, it only lasted a few moments when the elder mentor body slammed her opponent to the ground
"I was seriously hoping that I wouldn't have to resort to this, but you've proven more stubborn than I was before I learned the secret."
Placing an open palm to the back of her younger counterpart's head, the elder Asuka used a surge of Warper Energy to make her opponent go limp as a noodle, causing Mari to shout "What did you do to her?!" in response.
The answer Provisonal Unit-05's pilot received as the dojo master entered a meditative stance: "Your little friend just won't listen to reason, so I had no choice but to have her confront her issues mentally before I can actually help her with training her body. Three hours should be enough to hopefully get a breakthrough."
Within the confines of Asuka's mind, the pilot of Unit-02 finds herself mentaly bound to a psychiatrist's sofa with a mental visage of the elder Langley sits in an armchair in front of her.
"What the hell did you do to me?!" shouted the younger of the 2 as the dojo master responded "It's become painfully obvious to me that the walls keeping you from achieving what I know you're capable of are more mental than physical, so you and I are gonna dish out your issues for the next 3 hours so you can hopefully begin to break down your mental barriers and I can actually get results out of your training. So you might as well get comfy and get ready to deal with some inner demons, we're gonna be here a while."
The next three hours were a mental hell for Asuka and a physical one for Mari as the elder Shinji had been informed about his wife's situation, taking over as trainer until then. And if Mari thought that the elder Langley's program was rough, "puppy boy" 's was on another level. Eventually, both Asukas managed to leave the trance to hopefully resume the training that they came for with the elder of the two going "I hope you take everything from our little session to heart. There's still plenty of work you need to do mentally before you can be on the level of some of the more powerful Warpers out there, but I think we managed to reach enough of a breakthrough that we can continue with the physical aspect for a bit. Oh, and heads up, we will be trying for at least one more mental session before your time here is up. I'm thinking three hours for physical blocks and three hours for mental ones."
The younger Langley anomaly responded "Yeah yeah, whatever." before seeing Mari sitting down looking winded and asking "What happened to you?"
Mari's reply: "When you and older princess took your nap, the older version of puppy boy took over. Not gonna lie, he knows how to fight, and fight dirty."
The cycle laid out by the elder Asuka would continue for the rest of the day, pushing both the younger Langley and her compatriot to their mental and physical limits. By the time the moment they were all to leave the chamber came, the two fledgling Warpers came out slightly changed individuals. Stronger, more durable, in control of their Warper Energy and with slightly less mental baggage.
"You may have gotten more on par with some mid tier Warpers, but don't let that get to your heads. If I find out that you two have been slacking on either aspect of your training, I will find you, and we will be having a refresher course. Understood?" stated their mentor as Mari quickly responded "No need to tell us twice, cougar princess. Come on, regular princess, let's bounce." before grabbing the younger Asuka's arm and running off.
Having now made their way to the outer parts of the city, Mari decided to address their current situation by asking "So what do we do now?" before adding "I mean we did the training we were gonna do, but chances are that ol' boss man and his gang are probably gonna be taking at least a day to get more stronk themselves."
Asuka mulls it over a moment before answering "First thing's first, we need some money to bankroll our plans. Might as well put our training to use and collect some bounties and set ourselves up with a nice little nest egg for once everything's said and done. We might be able to catch them by surprise, but we're stuck to keeping to ourselves for the time being."
With that being said, Asuka decided to pull out the phone given to her in her welcome basket and look up potential marks to fuel their bank accounts when something caught her eye: recent bounties had gone out to eliminate a renegade isolated sect of Warpers who worshiped a being by the name of "CPU Blue Heart" that were sealed away in an isolated microverse with zero ways to interact with the greater multiverse….that was until their "deity" utilized a psychic distress call that managed to weaken the seal enough for this new cult to escape with the intent to merge all multiverses into a singular dimension. A "Dimensional Merge" if you will. This of course raised the concern of if they were sealed away for so long, how strong could one be in spite of the lack of proper equipment to hone their craft.
Asuka's answer to the situation: "What if we find one that's by themself away from the others? We can kinda size them up, and still collect some form of reward for getting rid of one."
Mari then responded with "That might work, but how are we supposed to find one operating on their own?"
Turns out the cult members took after their leader a bit too much, using social media to spread where each member was operating, how many were in any given area, and general bullshittery in regards to their own lack of self two were able to locate a target within the universe of Earth Dimension KCC-209: one of the blossoming universes based off of the series Komi Can't Communicate with a small, but still existent population of Warpers. After finding the coordinates proper, our duo was on a hunt that lasted all of 5 minutes since the cultist's energy signature was surprisingly the highest in that universe. Now considering that the cult didn't have the materials needed for more proper conventional training, the cult member in question still had a power level of 15,000,000, meaning that should things come to blows, they would be in for a rather tedious fight. Therefore, the two EVA pilots figured that a surprise snipe attack would be the best course of action. But this is the multiverse, people should always expect their plans to get derailed. Something Asuka and Mari unfortunately failed to comprehend when the cultist was able to sense both of them and began its attack with the EVA pilots utilizing a x11 Kaio Ken in order to escape the attack and even the playing field a bit.
(Track Change: "Minor Boss Fight"- Sonic 3 and Knuckles OST)
The cultist charged towards Asuka with an energy blast charging in its right hand as Unit-02's pilot quickly dodged, firing off a few shots of her own to distract her assailant while Mari dealt a serious blow with a Ki charged lariat to send them to the ground. The duo could see that their opponent was getting back up, and decided to end things quickly in order to avoid causing more property damage and drawing more attention to themselves than needed. Their solution: go max Kaio Ken and blast the bastard with a dual Tri-Beam Attack, and while the cultist was able to get up in time to block Mari's attack, Asuka's…...not so much as they were left a smoldering corpse in seconds.
Reverting back to their base forms and descending to the scene of their victory, Mari had found the cell phone that fell out of the cultist's pocket during the fight and decided to see if there was any info they could use. Again, these renegade Warpers had no sense of keeping protected evidence out of enemy hands, and basically gave the two EVA pilots turned Warpers the low down on their plan: find universes with minimal or no Warper resistance to set up special beacons in order to further their plot of a "dimensional merge".
Asuka retorted with "We can deal with that and maybe get some clout with the council in due time. Right now, let's just collect the reward on the guy we already took out and find a new bounty to hunt."
This is how the two spent the rest of the week between the events of episodes 10 and 11, a combination of training, collecting bounties, and further planning how they would confront the Knights of Ryujin. That final matter however, would have to wait for another day.
(Ending Theme: "Aozora ni Naru" by Jon Hashimoto- Kamen Rider Kuuga OST)
Current List of Power Levels:
Desmond Bishops: 85,000,000 (Metsu Sol Emerald Absorbed)/ 4,250,000,000 (Max Safe Kaio Ken: x50 Metsu Sol Emerald Absorbed)/ 4,250,000,000 (Super Spiral Metsu Sol Emerald Absorbed)/ 8,500,000,000 (Super Spiral 2 Metsu Sol Emerald Absorbed)
Shinji Ikari: 25,000,000 (Metsu Sol Emerald Absorbed)/ 750,000,000 (Max Safe Kaio Ken: x30 Metsu Sol Emerald Absorbed) (Warper Status: LV. 6)
Mana Kirishima: 3,500,000/ 87,500,000 (Max Safe Kaio Ken: x25) (Warper Status: LV. 5)
Musashi Lee Strasberg: 3,500,000/ 87,500,000 (Max Safe Kaio Ken: x25) (Warper Status: LV.5)
Keita Asari: 3,500,000/ 87,500,000 (Max Safe Kaio Ken: x25) (Warper Status: LV. 5)
Rei Ayanami (Rei III): 5,800,000 (Metsu Sol Emerald Absorbed) (Warper Status: LV. 5)
Toji Suzuhara: 5,000,000/ 150,000,000 (Max Safe Kaio Ken: x30) (Warper Status: LV. 5)
Kensuke Aida: 5,000,000/ 150,000,000 (Max Safe Kaio Ken: x30) (Warper Status: LV. 5)
Sakura Suzuhara: 5,000,000/ 150,000,000 (Max Safe Kaio Ken: x30) (Warper Status: LV. 5)
Hikari Horaki: 5.2
Misato Katsuragi: 5
Wynn Miyabi: 5,000,000 (Warper Status: LV. 5)
Eria Aoi: 5,000,000 (Warper Status: LV. 5)
Lyna Hikari: 5,000,000 (Warper Status: LV. 5)
Asuka Langley Sohryu: 1,500,000/ 30,000,000 (Max Safe Kaio Ken: x20) (Warper Status: LV. 5)
Mari Illustrious Makinami: 1,400,000/ 28,000,000 (Max Safe Kaio Ken: x20) (Warper Status: LV.5)
Ryoji Kaji: 6
Pen Pen: 3.25
Shigiru Aoba: 4
Maya Ibuki: 4
Mokoto Hyuga: 3
Ritsuko Akagi: 4
Jessabelle Musashi: 7,000,000 (Warper Status: LV. 5)
Fuytsuki Kozo: 3
Gendo Ikari: 3,009,000 (Warper Status: LV. 5)
Ami (Earth Dimension SJ-12639706): 6,500,000/ 260,000,000 (Max Safe Kaio Ken=x40) (Warper Status: LV. 5)
Kaworu Nagisa: 9,500,000 (Metsu Sol Emerald Absorbed) (Warper Status: LV: 5)
Johnny "Gourdar the Never Ending" 2x4 (Earth Dimension EEE- Sigma-1451-B): 25,000
Dr. Frog (Earth Dimension LOSE-1018-Tau): 3,500,000/120,000,000 (Battle Suit MK.2 Overclock)
Kaname Chidori (Earth Dimension FMP-8428-Sigma): 8,000,000/16,000,000 (Lightning Style: Lightning Chakra Release)/64,000,000 (Lightning Style: Lightning Chakra Release "Overboost")
Cultist: 15,000,000
(Author's Note: Not even gonna talk about how long this one took, there's something that needs to be addressed. For those out there thinking the people involved in this shared fanfiction project I'm involved with are trying to be A-Loggers actively going after Chris Chan after...you know what happened, no, we do not actively wish harm upon Chris, we do not actively engage with trolling as we damn well know to obey the LOLcow prime directive of "do not engage, observe from a distance only, and interfere if circumstances are absolutely dire". What happened to Barb was unfortunate, and we can only hope that Chris receives as much help as possible while carrying out their sentence (because the evidence is literally everywhere), and instigators who egg Chris into letting shit like this to happen like Janke are properly dealt with. As far as I see it, using the cult is basically a way of saying "Okay, this has gone too far, people need to stop messing with Chris, lest something happens even worse than what went down that summer of 2021.". Personal rant on the matter aside, I can assure you that I'll be doing my damned-est to get the last part of this quadrology done just a little bit sooner. Until then, later.)