A new sunny Monday morning arrived at Tokyo-3. The students of class 2-A were in currently in their classroom, enduring for the umpteenth time the story of their teacher about the trip to Antarctica that he made many years ago. Luckily for the students, the classroom bell didn't take much longer to finally ring, informing them them that class had come to an end, and, even better, that the long-awaited lunchtime was at hand, so they could take a well-deserved rest while they satisfied their appetites.
Shinji opened his backpack and took out two lunchboxes. He sighed, feeling more nervous that he would liked to admit, while glancing hopefully in the direction of a specific desk. Not far away from him, his friends Touji and Kensuke had already gotten up from their desks and were ready to go to the cafeteria, where as usual they would buy something to eat and then go to the courtyard to have a pleasant lunch under the shade of one of the trees there while they shared conversation. The Third Child, however, had something else to do before that.
Touji, who noticed that the boy had not yet gotten up from his chair, stood next to him, giving him a curious look "Aren't you coming, Shinji?" he asked.
Shinji was abruptly taken out of his thoughts upon hearing the voice of his friend "Um, yes, we'll be leaving right away... wait just a minute" he said finally standing up and gathering his courage. He knew that after what he was about to do, his friends would probably be teasing him for weeks to come, but he was sure that the trouble was worth it. Well, at least that's what he hoped.
Shinji took one of the lunchboxes in his hand and walked towards one of the desks that was located next to one of the classroom windows. Its occupant, who was still sitting in it, was currently looking out of said window, oblivious to her companions, as usual.
"Um...Rei?" said the pilot of Unit 01 once he was next to the girl to try to get her attention.
Rei turned her gaze to the boy upon hearing him, breaking out of her musings. Once she realized that the one speaking to her was Shinji, her serious look softened significantly "Yes, Shinji?"
Shinji blushed slightly "Well, uh... I noticed that you never bring anything for lunch so... today I took the liberty of cooking this for you" the boy said as he handed the lunchbox to the First Child "I made you fried rice, like the one from last Saturday" added the Third Child in a whisper.
Rei opened her eyes wide, clearly surprised. She looked at the lunchbox the boy held out to her and then back at him, as the now familiar feeling of warmth filled her chest. Her lips curved into a small smile "Thank you, Shinji" the girl said as she took the lunchbox from the boy's hands.
"You're welcome, I hope you enjoy it..." Shinji murmured, gazing at the smiling face of the First Child for a couple of seconds.
The girl looked back at him and the Third Child could see how her cheeks were covered with a very light blush "If you were the one who cooked it, I'm sure I'll enjoy it" the blue-haired girl murmured.
"Okay, it was worth it. Without a doubt" Shinji thought, captivated. Even so, he soon regained his composure "Well, I hope you do. See you later" he wished her with a smile before turning around a little embarrassed. During the whole conversation, he could practically feel the looks his friends were undoubtedly giving him, and now he could see that they were, in fact, smirking mischievously at him. Shinji sighed before taking the other lunchbox that was still on his desk and walked towards the classroom door, closely followed by Touji and Kensuke, who clearly had a lot of new ammunition for their teasing after witnessing the exchange between the two pilots.
Who had not missed a detail about said exchange either was a red-haired girl sitting a few desks ahead. Asuka raised an eyebrow as she followed Shinji with her gaze. The girl remembered how a few weeks ago the Third Child interrupted her when she was about to give the doll a piece of her mind for rejecting her friendship proposal in such an ungrateful way "Is something actually going on between those two idiots?" she wondered. It was true that the doll seemed to talk with the idiot a lot more than with anyone else... Asuka turned her attention to the First Child, who had already opened the lunchbox that Shinji made for her and was chewing a bite, her lips turning into a slight smile as she savored the food "Is she... smiling?" the German thought almost unable to believe what she was seeing.
Asuka narrowed her eyes. Something was definitely going on there.
"You sure kept it to yourself, Shinji" Touji said with a mischievous smile as he put his arm around the boy's shoulders "Since when do you get along so well with Ayanami?"
"I don't know what you mean" Shinji stated, visibly blushing.
"Sure, sure" Kensuke intervened, smirking widely "You made her lunch by pure coincidence, it's not like you are trying to hook up with her or something" the boy with glasses added with evident sarcasm in his voice.
"We are friends, I don't see what's so strange about it" the Third Child defended himself "I have also cooked for you two before, yet you didn't see anything strange about it when I did"
"Come on, Shinji, who are you trying to fool with that one?" Kensuke replied "You cooked for us at Misato's apartment when we were visiting just that one time. And besides, you're the only one I've seen Ayanami have a conversation on which she spoke more than three words in a row"
"Yeah. Also, we all know that there is only one reason for which a boy goes out of his way to make lunch for a girl or the other way around" Touji added, widening his smirk "And it's not exactly to express friendship"
"Oh really?" Shinji said, regaining some of his composure, much to Touji's surprise "Am I to assume, then, that between you and the class rep there is more than friendship?" the boy asked with a cynical smile. He had not overlooked the times that Hikari had given his friend a homemade lunch, nor his reaction in those cases. If he had to bet, he would bet that they were into eachother.
Touji froze on the spot upon hearing that comment. His face blushed a deep crimson "He got you there, Touji" Kensuke said just before he started laughing.
"Shut up!" the athlete snapped before returning his attention back to Shinji "That's different! There's nothing like that between Hikari and me!" he roared.
"It's different?" Shinji interjected, raising an eyebrow "Well, explain it to me"
"Huh?" was Touji's eloquent response.
"Explain to me why if Hikari makes you lunch then you are just friends, but if I make Rei lunch then we are more than that" said the Third Child while crossing his arms.
"Well... obviously because... well…" Touji stammered "...fine, you're friends and that's all there is to it" he finally muttered, accepting defeat.
Shinji's lips curled into a satisfied smile, considering the matter settled. Kensuke, next to him, also smiled, but decided not to press further. He was already used to pretending that he didn't know that Touji liked Hikari, he could also pretend that Shinji didn't like Ayanami if he really wanted him to play dumb so badly "Well, let's go eat lunch then, okay?" said the boy with glasses while entering the cafeteria. His friends followed him.
Misato Katsuragi was in one of the many elevators that connected the plentiful floors of the Geo-Front. The captain's destination was one of the lowest floors, where her friend and co-worker, Dr. Ritsuko Akagi, was waiting for her. The elevator stopped on one of the floors prior to her destination, however, and after its doors opened, Misato's face contorted in a frown. A tall man with an unkempt beard and his hair tied in a ponytail smiled mischievously at her before entering the elevator.
"Good afternoon, Katsuragi" greeted Kaji while standing at her right, before the woman pressed one of the elevator's buttons in order to make it resume its path "What's with that dull expression?"
Misato's frown deepened "My face gets like this when I see you" she answered through clenched teeth.
"Oh, that hurts my feelings, Captain Katsuragi" the man replied with mock apprehension, bringing a hand to his chest. Misato was about to express a not very elegant response to that when the elevator stopped in its path. This time, however, it had stopped between two floors.
"Huh… Power went out?" Kaji wondered aloud.
"That can't be, we have auxiliary generators for that" Misato said raising an eyebrow. Just after she said that, the lights on the elevator went off, and the emergency light turned itself on to the surprise of the woman "How strange..."
A few floors below, Ritsuko Akagi watched as all the screens in the room as well as the lights turned off "A power outage?" the woman asked herself. She waited a few seconds for the auxiliary generators to take over, but the screens remained off.
"Non-existent power source. Zero voltage" muttered a surprised Maya Ibuki next to her.
The blonde scientist raised an eyebrow. "What's going on?"
The three Evangelion pilots were walking through the streets of Tokyo-3 with NERV's facilities as their destination. Classes had ended not long ago and they had an afternoon of harmonics tests ahead of them. They walked in silence, which wouldn't have been be very unusual if the only present were Shinji and Rei, but Asuka being silent for so long was something quite more unusual.
Shinji raised an eyebrow and directed a curious glance at the redhead, who was walking a couple of steps ahead of his two companions "Could she be angry about something?" the boy thought. As far as he could tell, nothing had happened recently that warranted such a mood for the red-haired girl. The day before Asuka had spent the afternoon at home, like him, and at dinner time she was in her usual "better than anyone else" mood. Furthermore, and the Third Child knew this well, when Asuka was angry, he was very explicit about it.
In the end, he decided not to dwell to much on it, if the German girl had something to think about it was only fair to give her space to do so, and in any case, considering that they lived together if something was going on with her he would probably find out sooner than later. He then decided to direct his attention to his other companion.
Rei walked silently next to him with her usual stoic face. Shinji glanced discreetly at the girl, unsure of what to do. He had been wanting to ask her for several hours what she thought of the lunch he had cooked for her that day, but he had not been able to be alone with her at any point after lunchtime... perhaps now was the right time? Asuka didn't seem to be paying much attention to them. Shinji clenched his jaw before deciding to speak.
"Um… Rei?" murmured the Third Child, trying to get her attention.
Rei directed her eyes at him "¿Yes?"
"Did you... enjoy the food that I cooked?" asked a hopeful Shinji.
The First Child nodded, a tiny smile forming on her face "Yes, it was delicious. Thank you very much, Shinji" the bluenette stated with a soft voice.
"Oh… I'm glad to hear that..." muttered Shinji, also grinning "If that's the case perhaps... I could make another lunchbox for you tomorrow" offered afterwards.
"That wouldn't be necessary" the bluenette replied, shaking her head "You don't need to bother"
"It's no bother. I already cook Misato's and Asuka's lunches in addition to mine, cooking another one is not a big deal…" stated the boy.
Rei considered that for a second. She really didn't want to be a bother to her now friend but… she couldn't deny that she really enjoyed the meals he cooked for her. Her chest was filled with warmth once again "If that's the case… I would be grateful"
"Deal" replied Shinji, still grinning "What would you like for tomorrow then? I was thinking about-"
"Dammit, Shinji, you're pathetic" cut in Asuka, interrupting him. Shinji noticed then that the redhead had turned to look at them with disdain.
"Huh?" the boy muttered, confused "Where did that come from?"
"Don't pretend to be more of an idiot than you already are" the redhead snapped "Are you that desperate to get the doll's attention?"
"What? I'm not... I'm not trying to do that" the boy replied, blushing deeply. Maybe it hadn't been such a good idea to talk with Rei in front of Asuka.
"Tch" the German looked forward again, abruptly ending the conversation. Shinji lowered his head, flustered, his desire to keep talking with either of his fellow pilots gone. Rei, respectively, felt at loss with the whole situation "Why does Pilot Sohryu react in such a way? Aren't friends supposed to pay attention to eachother?" she mentally asked herself. Regardless, the bluenette confirmed once again that the Second Child, in direct contrast to Shinji, was not a person she enjoyed being around. Leaving aside her tendency to speak loudly and her short temper, she didn't like how she often was unkind to her, and especially didn't like how she did the same to Shinji. Still, she did what she usually did, and just kept walking without saying a word.
The pilots continued walking, now in a slightly uncomfortable silence, until they reached the closest entrance to NERV's facilities. Asuka, who was still walking a couple of steps ahead of the other two pilots, swiped her ID card through the reader of one of the doors of the security gate. However, the door did not open.
"Huh? What's wrong?" the redhead said, raising an eyebrow as she swiped her card through the reader again. The door remained closed. Shinji and Rei tried swiping their cards too, but the result was the same. After trying on all available readers, it was obvious that whatever the problem was, it wasn't related to their ID cards. They decided to try their luck at the doors in an adjacent hallway, to no avail.
"This one doesn't work either" said the Third Child after trying the last door "It seems as if the power was out"
"That's a possible conclusion. But it's strange. The Geo-Front has back up generators for situations like that" Rei stated, lost in thought "Although I suppose it's feasible that those are currently damaged"
"It seems very unlikely that back up generators would break at the same time the power went out, though..." Shinji remarked "Well, in any case, let's try to contact Misato and the others" he said, taking out his cellphone from his pocket.
"Goddammit, the emergency phone doesn't work either" murmured a frustrated Misato, hanging up the device.
"Yeah, I got no signal either" Kaji said while putting his cellphone back in his pocket, his attempt to make a call similarly unsuccessful "Looks like we'll have to wait for someone to get us out of there" the man said directing Misato a mischievous smile "Well, I can think of worse people to spend a moment like this with" he added in a suave tone before winking.
"I can't" Misato replied, frustration obvious in her voice.
"She's not picking up" Shinji said after his third attempt to contact Misato "This is very odd, a power outage shouldn't be able to obstruct the phone lines, right?"
"No luck here either" Asuka said later, hanging up one of the emergency phones that were available closely to the security gates "Neither the main line nor the auxiliary line are working"
Rei, who had tried to call Dr. Akagi's phone, was also unsuccessful. The girl gave up on the task, putting her cellphone back in her school bag.
"So, what should we do now?" Shinji wondered. Rei silently opened her school bag and took out a small manual from it. Asuka, picking up on this, did the same. Shinji observed them curiously "What's that?" asked the Third Child.
"It's NERV's emergency manual" the First Child responded while reading the aforementioned manual.
"Oh... good idea" the boy said scratching the back of his head "I don't have mine here..."
"Dammit, Shinji, you're hopeless" Asuka lashed at him as she quickly turned the pages of her manual.
"I'm sorry..." the boy apologized.
"We must go to NERV's headquarters" Rei then said in a monotone voice "We can go access port seven, right in that direction" the girl said, pointing to one of the hallways.
"Good, but first we must decide who will be the leader of the group in this emergency situation" Asuka stated, putting her hands on her hips "And naturally, the leader will be me. Any objections?"
Shinji looked at her with resignation. "Even in situations like this, she has to put herself above others?" the boy thought. Rei simply gave the redhead an indifferent look.
"Perfect" the redhead said to the silence of her companions "Let's go then" she declared, heading to the hallway that Rei had mentioned.
Hundreds of meters away, a gigantic creature whose shape resembled that of a spider advanced on its four long legs, making the ground tremble with each step. Its destination was the Geo-Front.
"Geo-Front is designed to be self-sufficient" Fuyutsuki stated seriously "In theory, it should be impossible for all available power sources to be unavailable"
"That means someone must have sabotaged them. Their goal must be to investigate our facilities through their re-establishment processes" Ritsuko concluded, her hand on her chin "I will run a fake program on MAGI to make it more difficult for them to do so"
At that moment, a very hurried Makoto Hyuga burst into the room "An angel is approaching! We have to prepare the Evas for battle"
"Oh, no... what horrible timing" Maya lamented upon hearing that.
Behind both of them, a serious commander Ikari stood up from his seat "Fuyutsuki, I'll leave the rest to you. I'll go to the cage to prepare the Evas" he said, turning his back on the man.
"Ikari, do you mean you will do it manually?" the old man asked curiously.
"We have an emergency diesel generator. We have no alternative" the man responded coldly as he descended through a ladder.
"But... the pilots aren't here..." Fuyutsuki whispered, although the commander no longer heard him.
The pilots were at that moment walking through one of the many corridors of the facilities. The lights were obviously off, so the teenagers only had the emergency lights as a light source. Asuka was in front, with Shinji and Rei following behind.
"Asuka, are you sure this is the right way?" the boy asked, raising an eyebrow "Shouldn't we be descending instead of ascending?"
"Shut up, idiot, I'm the leader so we'll go where I say" replied a not very convincing Asuka. Then she glimpsed a door at the end of the hallway they were in "See? I'm always right" the girl said, speeding up to the door. The German girl opened it abruptly, only to reveal… the street.
Shinji sighed. He was about to say something when they noticed a tremor in the distance. When they directed their attention there they could see the front leg of a gigantic spider-like creature.
"An angel!" exclaimed the Third Child.
The three pilots quickly returned to the interior of the hallway. After closing the door, Asuka sighed in relief "Well... we have visually confirmed the presence of an angel... now we know we have to hurry" indicated the redhead. Shinji looked at her with a look of circumstance, Rei kept her face serious.
The Third Child sighed "Rei, do you know where we should go?" the boy finally asked. The bluenette nodded her head "Then guide us, please"
"This way" indicated the First Child as she headed down the hallway in the opposite direction from which they had come. Shinji followed her. Asuka grumbled under her breath and did the same.
Minutes later, the pilots managed to reach the room where the three Evangelion Units were, to the relief of those present "Guys, I'm so glad you've arrived" said a smiling Ritsuko Akagi "There's an angel nearby, you need to get ready to get on the Evas"
"Yes, we've seen it... wait, how are we going to get on the Evas if there's no power?" asked a confused Shinji.
"We are preparing for manual insertion with brute force" Ritsuko explained, pointing to the background, where several people were pulling ropes to place the Entry-Plugs in their corresponding positions "It was the commander's idea"
Shinji could see, with great surprise, how the aforementioned was pulling one of the ropes like everybody else. He didn't expect that from his father. Still, the Third Child decided to leave those thoughts for later and headed to the locker room to change into his Plug-Suit along with his fellow pilots.
A few of minutes later, the three Evangelions slid through one of the tubes that connected the cage's room with the surface. After a while, they eventually reached a large vertical tunnel that they accessed trough brute force. The three Evas grabbed onto the walls of the tube and began to climb upwards, where they could finally emerge to the surface.
It was at that moment that Asuka, who was in the lead, saw something fall through the tunnel. Some sort of orange liquid dripped upon them from above. Eva 02 tilted her head, dodging the fluid, which fell on Unit 00, which at that point was below Unit 02, and began to melt part of its armor. Rei opened her eyes in surprise.
"Careful! It's some king of acid!" the First Child urged. Asuka looked back up, and could see, horrified, how numerous drops of that acid began to rain down on them. Eva 02 lost its grip on the tunnel when the acid came in contact with it, falling over Unit 00. This caused Rei's Eva to also lose its grip. Both units descended several meters, until Unit 01, opening its arms and gathering all its strength, managed to cushion the fall, digging its feet on the walls. The three Evas rushed back into the tube they had come from as acid literally rained down the tunnel.
"The target is trying to enter the facilities using that corrosive liquid" Rei stated while observing the aforementioned acid descend.
"Damn, what should we do?" Shinji asked "I lost my rifle on the fall, and we have less than three minutes of power left" he said apprehensively as he watched the countdown in his Entry-Plug.
"I have a plan" Asuka intervened "One of us will take a defensive position there and neutralize the angel's AT field with his own, in addition to protecting the offensive Unit from the acid" the girl explained "Another Unit will go down to retrieve the rifle and will throw it to the offensive Unit. And, obviously, the offensive Unit will open fire on the angel and blow it to pieces"
"Understood. I will be the defensive Unit" indicated a serious Rei.
"No chance, that position is mine" Asuka said while shaking her head "I still owe the idiot for taking me out of the volcano" the girl explained to the surprise of the Third Child "Shinji, you will be the offensive Unit, Wonder Girl, you get back the rifle"
"Understood" was the only response from the First Child.
"...Okay then" Shinji nodded.
"Let's go!" the redhead exclaimed, making her way towards the vertical tunnel. Unit 02 spread its arms and legs, remaining static, trying to cover the maximum possible space. Eva 00 descended towards the bottom of the tunnel where the rifle had fallen. Unit 01 positioned itself below Unit 02, also using force with its arms and legs towards the walls of the tunnel to remain static.
The angel threw another load of acid, which Eva 02 received squarely, much to the displeasure of Asuka, who felt as if hot wax was being poured on her skin. The girl suppressed a grunt of pain. Unit 00 fell heavily to the bottom of the tunnel, grabbed the rifle and turned his sights upwards "Shinji!" the girl exclaimed as she threw it.
Eva 01 extended its hand and grabbed the rifle as soon as it reached it. "Got it!" the boy exclaimed "Asuka, get out of the way!" The German did not need any further instructions. She quickly stepped aside, leaving Unit 01 a cleat shot. At that moment Shinji fired incessantly. The angel received the shots squarely, piercing his core and ending its existence.
"Now we are even" said a satisfied Asuka.
Back in the elevator, Misato was standing on Kaji's shoulders, so she could reach the ceiling of the elevator, where there was a small door for emergency situations. After being locked up for so long, they decided to try their luck with said door, since if the elevator was close enough to one of the floors, they could get out through there.
"I can't get it open, damn it" said a frustrated Misato, pushing the door with all her strength.
At that moment, the power returned, and the elevator resumed the path it had started hours before. The unexpected movement of the elevator caused Kaji to lose his balance, and he fell to the ground along with Misato, resulting in a... somewhat compromised position.
A few instants later the elevator reached its destination and the door opened, giving way to Ritsuko Akagi. The woman raised an eyebrow when she saw the state of the occupants of the elevator "Oh, sorry… am I interrupting?" the woman asked with a mischievous smile.
"Shut up!" roared a furious and embarrassed Misato.
Asuka finished showering and began to dry herself with a towel. The girl had enjoyed the shower more than usual, she clearly had an eventful day. She sighed. Walking around in almost total darkness around the Geo-Front was definitely something she didn't feel like doing again in the future. She had also passed up the opportunity to defeat another angel herself, but she decided that getting even with idiot Shinji was more important than that. Asuka hated owing anyone anything. The girl began to get dressed when Rei also finished showering and left her cubicle, beginning to dry off without paying attention to the redhead.
The German raised an eyebrow. It wasn't the first time, far from it, that Rei seemed to completely ignore her "What's her problem?" Asuka thought dismissively, remembering once again how the bluenette openly rejected her generous offer of friendship a few weeks ago. The First Child was, in her opinion, a real weirdo. Leaving aside the battles against angels, there were very few occasions in which the redhead had seen the bluenette express emotion of any kind other than stoic apathy. Specifically, the doll only seemed to act almost like a normal person when she had seen her talking to Commander Ikari… and his idiot son.
Asuka remembered what happened that morning at school and the conversation she overheard between her fellow pilots on their way to NERV. She grimaced "Damn, that idiot Shinji must be really desperate if he's drooling over someone as boring as the doll" Asuka thought. Well, she really couldn't expect much more from her roommate. Besides, what did she care who that idiot drooled over? Asuka finished dressing and was about to leave the locker room and head home... but she stopped.
"Hey, Wonder Girl, I have a question for you" the redhead said. Rei, who was putting on her school uniform, looked at her while still keeping a serious look on her face "What do you think about the idiot?"
"The idiot?" the bluenette asked with a hint of confusion on her voice.
"Idiot Shinji, who else could I be referring to?" Asuka replied, crossing her arms.
"Shinji... is my friend" Rei replied.
"...And that's all?" the redhead asked after the First Child didn't add anything else "Is that all you think of him?"
Rei remained silent for a couple of seconds "I… I don't know. I don't understand emotions very well. But being with Shinji makes me feel happy and warm inside" the girl said, her eyes darting to the floor for a second, while a slight blush painted her cheeks "I would like for him to feel the same way when he's around me too... isn't that friendship?"
Asuka's eyes widened. She wasn't sure what she expected to get as an answer, but she definitely didn't expect that the bluenette would go into that much detail about how she felt. As soon as she understood the implications of her words, however, she frowned, suddenly feeling particularly annoyed for some reason she couldn't really pinpoint "Are you serious? You don't understand anything" the redhead said before leaving the locker room without saying anything else.
The girl headed towards the elevator at a brisk pace, her brow furrowed and her mouth twisted into a grimace of dissatisfaction "How can someone be so stupid? That means you love him, idiot"
To be continued...