Yet Another Retread of Evangelion
Chapter 6: Sandals for Sandalphon
A/N I'm probably not finishing this series, and I only recently re-found the drive these stories were on, after having lost the archival hard drive my stories were on some years back. Please excuse it's partially finished state.
If you want to adopt and rewrite this story, feel free. Next chapter is my working document so you can crib my notes for the rest of where I was taking this.
Five years in the future,
It was the after-party of Berlin Technical University's Hooding Ceremony, and nineteen year old Doctor Asuka Langley Sohryu merely sipped at her champagne. She had no great tolerance for alcohol, and wanted to have a clear head when she left that evening.
She had managed to ditch Dietrich Prosser with her parents as he had also completed his doctorate in Meta-Biology and was seeking a position at Gehirn. So, she was free of the annoying hanger-on that thought he had chance to be in a relationship with her, and she was simply wandering the party, catching snips of conversation, wishing that Shinji Ikari was there.
She hadn't seen him at the ceremony or at the party so far. But he did promise her he'd be there.
A very familiar voice called her name, and she turned to see him walking toward her, grinning. A smile spread on her face and she walked toward him, taking in his looks. He was only slightly shorter than she was, but that was due to her wearing heels. His face had become more lean and angular, looking more like his father, and he was sporting a very neatly trimmed vandyke.
Then it struck her. She was still looking for a boy in the crowd, not this handsome man.
He stopped before her and bowed, a solid forty-five degrees if she had to guess. He straightened as he said in crisp English with only the slightest hint of accent, "Congratulations, Asuka, or should I say, Doctor Sohryu?"
She also switched to English and replied, "You, Third, can always call me Asuka. It would be rude of me to demand anyone else from the man who saved my life more times than I can count."
He dismissed it with a shrug and a wry smile, "We all covered each others backs. Besides, my second in command was, and still is important to me."
She saw that Prosser had managed to break free of her parents and was just entering earshot, "For that remark, I insist you come home with me tonight. My parents will want to talk with you."
He nodded and replied in German, "That's fine, my dear Doctor. I'm here on special Assignment from Branch One anyway, and will have to check in with them."
Mindful of the hanger-on, she replied in Japanese, "Flattery will get you everywhere with me, Shinji."
He grinned, as she then switched back to German, "So, why did your father assign you here?"
"Special Research Assistant to Professor Sohryu. All goes well, I'll be getting my Doctorate in three more years. So this year I'm here, next year I'm with Doctor Makinami, and my final year will be with Professor Fuyutsuki."
"I think it's stupid how the Japanese system forces you to go that many more years." She mumbled as Prosser stopped next to them.
"It is what it is. I'm not the natural genius you are, but I make up for it."
"Speaking of genius, you brought your Cello, right?"
"Of course."
"We'll have to play Kummer again."
He smiled and replied, "I'd love that."
"Well, before we get you to mother and father, I want a kiss from you."
"Your wish is my command, my dear," he replied as he stepped in, wrapping his arms around her. She angled her face toward his, and he rose to meet her, taking the initiative and planting his lips on hers. Then she deepened the kiss, and he responded in kind, much to Prosser's dismay.
Current day:
Doctor Akagi muttered a 'Good morning' as she shuffled past both Shinji and Asuka in the Cafeteria. Asuka nodded, mouth full, while Shinji replied with the same phrase. It wasn't a school day, so they had planned on doing some college studies together before any Synch training, her for her eventual Doctorate, he for his Masters.
So, neither one was concentrated on anything other than a cup of coffee and what passed for breakfast for each of them. He was eating one of two pieces of toast with strawberry jam, she was indulging herself with the best NERV Japan could muster for soft-boiled eggs, cold-cut meats and a couple of croissants with cream cheese and blackberry jam that she claimed had to have been imported solely for her mother and herself.
Doctor Akagi had grabbed a cup of coffee and a bagel, and walked over to their table. Doctor Sohryu glanced up and nodded from next to Asuka as she was also heavily involved in eating a similar selection foods to her daughter.
At another part of the table, both Kensuke and Rei eyed Shinji and Asuka, while Kaji and Misato all but ignored each other, her not wanting to hear his voice, and he not wanting to risk the Wrath of Katsuragi once again that day.
Touji was pondering what he could do to get away from Headquarters for a little bit, especially as he'd recently been invited over to a girl's apartment, namely one Hikari Horaki. Mari was, for a change, not trying to flirt with the nearest guy as she'd received a talking to of sorts from several adult women, including both Doctor Akagi and Doctor Sohryu.
She'd decided to try to shore up relationships with others rather than be seen as the type of woman her mother was. She loved her mother, but didn't like the way she had a different boyfriend every week. Thinking rationally, she saw she was following in her footsteps, and was slowly becoming that which she despised.
Shinji was sipping his cup of coffee while glancing through the newspaper at the table, and he paused. Doctor Akagi glanced at the paper herself, being able to read upside-down. Her eyes raced down the article in question. She gulped her coffee, tore into her bagel with a vengeance, downed the remaining coffee quickly, then excused herself from the table.
In passing, she snagged a newspaper from a rack near the entrance and stalked off to find her prey and verbally roast him alive. Seeing her behavior, he finished the article and shrugged. She'd probably beat the answers out his father for him he mused as he flipped to the next page.
Gendo Ikari glanced up at his office entrance as Doctor Ritsuko Akagi burst through the doors and stormed toward his desk. He looked back down at his paperwork, gathering his calm. If this was about what he thought it was, he'd need it.
She slammed a newspaper on his desk and snarled, "Just what is this?"
He placed his pen down, and folded his hands up over his mouth as he looked up at her over his glasses.
"I thought it was obvious, my dear Doctor. By throwing in our support for the robot and even funding their research in some ways, we tell the world that this robot is a more viable weapons platform in the long run."
"But why?" she hissed.
He leaned back and continued, his hands coming to rest on his desk, "Even though we know this fact to be false, but if we're developing weaponry for the Jet-Alone system using our supposedly inferior Evangelions as the testbeds, it provides us with a high level of income in the years after this war. This should also discourage any attempts governments may make at seizing the Evangelion."
"So we'll slip under the radar, so to speak?"
"Yes. We're the only ones with a weapon that can stop the Angels. By the time the new Jet-Alone prototype reaches testing, The Angels should be gone and Third Impact averted. No one will be the wiser, especially if we sacrifice a remote-piloted test body to a combat demonstration, and then bungle that so the robot wins the fight."
"Do you ever get tired of making plans within plans?"
"I don't have a wife to distract me anymore, so no. It keeps my mind occupied."
Ritsuko narrowed her eyes. "My answer is still no."
"I didn't ask, my dear. It's not Tuesday for another three days." he replied as he smoothly moved the newspaper to the side, then picked up his pen.
"I'm not done with you yet. Why would you sacrifice all of our work?"
He flipped the pen between his fingers and replied, "Who said I'm sacrificing it? The Evangelion will be useful after the war. Interplanetary exploration and construction being the thoughts at the forefront of my mind. Plus, this will allow is the ability to sneak Lilith off of the planet, eliminating one key for Third Impact."
Ritsuko's eyes widened and her jaw dropped open. He bent back over his desk, grabbed the next form out of his inbox, scanned through it, then signed it his usual precise and neat pen strokes. After a moment of staring at the man with a gobsmacked expression, she visibly gathered herself and asked, "You're serious?"
He glanced back up at her over his glasses as the left corner of his mouth quirked upward.
"Never stop making plans, my dear Doctor. Do you have any idea how many iterations I have saved on the Scenario?"
"Do I even want to know?"
He put his pen down again, opened a dataspace and pulled up the file, then counted off the shapes at the bottom which marked his changes and additions. She counted twenty-two circles, five squares, eight triangles and three vertical lines as he replied, "Twenty-two thousand five hundred and eighty-three variations. I also know I've not thought of all of them."
Blue eyes met brown, and she was once again astounded by the man's sheer intelligence.
Shinji stumbled on the mat, causing the machine to display 'error'. The initial exercises, walking in lockstep, and military style drills had been a success, but getting two pilots to synch movements to music was not working well. None of them seemed to be able to do it, with the exception of Rei, and it didn't matter who she was paired with, male or female, she was able to match their movements perfectly.
With a grimace, Asuka stood.
"Sorry," he muttered, rubbing his ankle.
"You okay, Shinji?"
"Yeah, I'm fine. Just twisted it a little."
"I think we're going to call it quits for a while," Misato said from her laptop. "That's twice in as many days you've nearly hurt yourself Shinji."
Mari, Rei, Touji and Kensuke all stopped themselves as Misato tapped a few more keys and shut down all three dance simulation machines. She looked up after starting the shutdown sequence of the laptop, "In fact, I think we'll let all the pilots break. So, that means free leave time. I expect everyone back to Headquarters by nine o'clock tonight for curfew. Other than that, take the rest of the day off and just be teenagers."
"So, Shinji, Touji, want to go to the Arcade?" Kensuke immediately asked.
"Umm, I guess," Shinji said, "I'd wanted to practice on my Cello. It's been too long with everything going on, and I don't want to fall out of practice."
Touji shook his head and replied, "I'm going to umm, call someone and see if I can go over to their place."
"I never knew you played a Cello, Shinji," Asuka replied. "I play Violin. May I join you?"
"I have one as well. Shinji and I used to play duets." Rei commented. "I will join Aida. I expect you to behave toward my brother, Second."
Mari pursed her lips, then remarked, "I think I'll go shopping. I want to get some more casual clothes."
"Well, that seems decided," Misato replied. "Have fun and enjoy yourselves, kids."
Mari wandered around the shopping mall by herself. Well, not totally alone. She did have quite a few Section Two Agents following her. She did window shop, and did buy a few things, but most of her time was spent thinking.
She purposefully ignored some of the looks she was getting from young men, and some not so young men, and focused on why she came.
It was easy to be alone in a crowd. Easy to think with a glut of background noise drowning out your own musings. And yet, she was no closer to an answer of how to become friends with the other pilots and not follow in her mother's footsteps.
Then, someone tried to grab her purse, and she reacted, grasping the strap and twisting, pulling back against the man. It was all the time she needed as her curtain of bodyguards finally reacted and tackled him.
Two of the men picked up the perpetrator and pinned him against a nearby wall as the rest formed a hard circle around her.
"I recommend we get going," one of them replied to her questioning gaze. "We'll leave the two restraining him to answer security and the police."
"Very well," Mari said, then made her way toward the nearest entrance.
Kensuke stared at Rei's handling of an old Arcade game, a pre-Impact American one, wide-eyed and slack-jawed at the fact she was dual wielding the plastic pistols and racking up a perfect kill score. As the last boss died and the game flashed up a new high score entry for each gun, she chose her initials in English and then holstered the guns.
"That was amazing," he gushed as the crowd around them cheered.
"It was simplistic. Is there a game here that is not so easily mastered?" she asked.
Nodding, he led her to another game, hoping this one would challenge her at least a little.
The strains of Albrechtsberger's Duet in D major faded away as both Shinji and Asuka raised their bows from their respective stringed instrument.
"You're rusty," she noted softly, "But you are pretty good."
"You're an excellent violinist, Asuka. I'm honored you think I'm good, despite all the mistakes I made."
"Shall we do another?" she asked.
"How about Kummer?"
"Oh, a Romantic Era piece? The two part duet? OP-67?"
"That's the one. I have the sheets... right here." he replied, pulling out the copies he and Rei used from his cello case.
She favored him with a rare smile, and he felt his heart leap.
Two days later,
Fuyutsuki looked at his watch as the class settled down.
"Good. Before we take you over to the pilot's high security access lift for your tour I want you all to understand that you must leave anything electronic here. No exceptions. We'll be passing through an intense electromagnetic field that will drain batteries and fry even the most heavily shielded microchips. So all phones, watches, everything must be left here."
"What about your watch Sensei?" a student asked.
"It's an old Rolex mechanical. Mainspring provides the movement for gears. No battery, no chip. Carefully wind it daily, and learn to read the position of the hands to tell time."
The class began to divest themselves of cellular phones, watches, and music players, leaving them in their desks as they then stood.
"Well, if you would follow me, single-file, we'll get started."
They followed him out into the hallway, then down several flights of stairs, then across the school courtyard before proceeding down the street to the nearby Geofront Access building.
CLACK CLACK CLACK CLACK CLACK. Rei and Asuka stepped back from each other and brought their wooden swords back up to guard position.
"Again," Rei said softly, and Asuka launched into an attack, and crack of wood on wood resounded as both combatants attacked and parried. This time, Asuka managed to disarm Rei.
"Interesting movee," Rei admitted.
Asuka smiled, and brought her sword back up, "Even the best can be disarmed by a trick they don't know. And I bet you know plenty yourself. So I want to learn those."
"Rather than swapping techniques, shall we spar, then?" Rei asked.
Asuka grinned and replied, "Yes."
It was striking the children of Class 2A that Evangelion piloting was as much physical skill as it was just driving a machine as Rei and Asuka dove in at each other, the crack of wood on wood louder than ever, both pilots displaying incredible speed, agility and strength as they attacked, parried, counterattacked and dodged.
The fight went on for almost five minutes before Rei disarmed Asuka. Asuka rubbed her wrist and said, "You got me when I overextended. Good job Rei."
"I learned a lot from that. I believe I will have to study some of your arts in more depth."
"Take what you can use and use it. Discard the rest. That's what true Martial Arts is."
"That is a Jeet Kune Do philosphy."
"It's not limited to just that. Learn as much as you can but be flexible. If your enemy goes left when you think he should go right, then you need to adapt, or he will beat you. But you already know this on some level as you adapted to my changes pretty well that whole fight. Now you need to try to act rather than react."
"A functional combat strategy. Yes. I have been limiting myself in some regards." They heard Rei say as Major Katsuragi led them out of the room and to the next area.
They watched in awe as Kensuke piloted a simulated Unit-02 against twenty AI controlled Unit-01. They watched the rapid battle as he managed to take down four of them before being subdued himself.
Then the class stood in a control room as they watched crews clear away from Unit-01. The EVA was secured to a wall through multiple restraints, and it was on an EVA-sized manual treadmill.
A light went green, and the classmates as one, paid rapt attention as one of the two lab-coated women who had been bantering a little touched her earpiece and said, "Begin running Shinji. We need to finish charting the pilot stress data, so I need you to hit and maintain five hundred Kilometers per hour for as long as you can. When the Neural feedback gets too much and you don't feel you can maintain the run any longer, let us know."
"Yes, Doctor Akagi. Building speed to five hundred KPH." he replied.
They watched the Evangelion strain against it's mounts as it's feet pushed against the treadmill as it started moving, and the robot began to walk, then jog.
"If there is some way of limiting the induction, you can be assured I will look into it," the red-head assured the blonde.
"I know you will, Doctor Sohryu. Let's concentrate on the data we're getting. It could be that the EVAs need stronger musculature given that the pilots get tired too quickly under duress."
Some of the kids alternated between the holographic display hovering in front of the blonde and red-headed Doctors and looking at the Evangelion running. Some were transfixed by the Evangelion.
Then alarms flashed and a thundering noise battered the reinforced window.
The blonde Doctor touched her earpiece again and yelled, "Shinji, throttle back fifty KPH. It seems the legs are breaking the sound barrier and stressing the building."
"Confirmed Doctor," Shinji replied, panting audibly over the loudspeakers.
The noise subsided, and the students looked on at Evangelion running at speeds faster than any automobile.
They then were lead to another control room and stared at the multiple views as Mari sat in her entry plug, grinning. They watched the cranes move the plug into the back of the Evangelion, then watched it twist into it's socket as the clamps released.
"Opening Stage One connections. Clearing connections through two-hundred."
"Flooding entry plug with LCL," another technician called, and the class gasped as the plug filled with orange fluid, rising above her head.
"Isn't she going to drown?" a girl asked as Mari exhaled, then drew in a 'breath' of LCL. She did so a couple times, making sure her lungs were filled before smiling at a camera and calling back, her voice recognizable, if a bit distorted, "I'm fine."
"LCL is oxygenated and breathable," Misato said as a third Technician said, "Ionizing LCL, Enabling A-10 Nerve connection. Stage Two initiated."
"Locking plug at point nine, checklist clear through four-ninety."
"Initiating Stage Three connections, checklist clear through Eight-oh-two, Synchronization ratio at eighty-one point six percent. Absolute borderline in three... two... one... Absolute borderline clear. Evangelion Unit Five has activated."
"Alright, Mari. We're going to try something else with the harmonics test. We're going to introduce the last Angel's noise emissions, and you need to fight sleep while you also fight the mental noise contamination."
"Gotcha Doctor Akagi. I'm ready."
"Beginning test. Start at five percent mental noise, five percent volume on the Song."
Rei, Asuka and Shinji walked in as a message appeared on her overlay, and she excused herself a second after opening it, calling, "Maya, take over monitoring and recording. I have to check on the girls."
"Yes, Doctor Akagi," she replied.
"Who are the girls?" someone asked.
"My sisters. I will go with you, Doctor," Rei said.
"Rei has sisters?" another student, a boy asked.
"What's wrong Doctor?" Kyoko asked.
"They want to try a synch test themselves. I don't think I can talk them out of it. So We'll just have to set them up separately," Ritsuko called back as she kicked off her heels.
Scene with Rits and the girls.
"It's giving me a wedgie!"
"I feel like I'm on display!"
"It doesn't hide anything," a girl said plaintively as she held her arms across her chest. Hikari looked on, seeing that it was true. She was showing more of herself than she did in the swimming pool at school. She also had a wedgie, but wasn't going to let it get to her.
The girls were, as one, complaining. Mari looked on in amusement, towel draped over her hair. Still, it was no excuse. These suits were what the existing pilots wore, and NERV was being gracious in allowing them to use them.
"Okay, order," she called, striding toward Mari. She stopped and turned around, "You will hold your heads high, you will not flinch. We are all candidates to pilot these Evangelions, and we've seen that the pilots seem as comfortable in these suits as they do regular clothes. We need to try to do the same."
The girls started straightening up, although they all looked nervous. Hikari continued, "I don't know what will be required of us, but I'm sure we can all do it. Okay?"
"Just what I showed," Mari replied, dropping the towel about her shoulders, "Just sit there, don't panic, then become one with the monster you're sitting in."
"Monster?"
"They aren't robots. They're biological constructs, similar to the Angels we fight. They aren't strictly alive, nor are they dead. So they're monsters. Monsters we have to pilot to save the human race." Mari said.
The boys were faring little better as most of them made strangled moaning noises after pressing the switch on their wrist to make the suits conform.
"It's too tight," most of them cried.
"How come is it none of you noticed the provisions built into the male version of the suit?" Shinji asked, "Touji and Kensuke got no advice and still avoided the pain."
He sighed and called, "All right, you'll need to hit the buttons again to release, then just... well, adjust... things... into the little non-stretchy pocket down there before sealing the suit again."
As one, suits released, and most of the boys gasped in relief. Then they all looked around embarrassed, and turned away as they gingerly adjusted their anatomy.
Shinji hid a wry smile behind a facepalm.
Ritsuko Akagi looked on impassively as a mousy girl with glasses and bushy brown hair by the name of Hideko Tadamichi settled into the entry plug of Unit-05 at the same time as a tall, muscular blonde-haired boy named Itsuki Yoshimura sat in Unit-02's plug.
Kyoko and one of the backup bridge crews were overseeing Unit-02 and the male students while she and the primary Bridge crew were overseeing the female students and Unit-05.
"Opening Stage One connections. Clearing connections through two-hundred."
finish scene
A few days later,
Ritsuko was reviewing a report while keeping an eye on the Children while they were operating in pairs doing synchronized dance. The idea was to get each pilot able to dance in synch with the others. It was proving harder than she thought, and it had been two weeks.
There had been other teamwork building exercises, and each was successful to varying degrees. But the dance training to get the children to move in synch was so far, a disaster.
A priority message appeared in front of her in a screen, and she looked at it. After a moment, her eyes widened and she sent it up while starting preparations for an incoming data-feed to the MAGI.
Misato Katsuragi steeled herself. She knew from experience that scientists could be touchy, being her father was one.
Volcano scene similar to series
"So, that's the plan?" Shinji asked skeptically.
"Yes."
"The pilot who volunteers for that would be bait on a fish line. Wouldn't it be safer to put a remote piloted test body in the D-type equipment and not risk the loss of a pilot and combat Evangelion when, not if, the Angel hatches?"
"That would make a bit more sense," Misato replied over her conference video line. "An AT field could sever the umbilical, and then the Eva sent down would sink until it was crushed."
"It would take us a week to get something like that set up. By then it could have hatched already," Ritsuko replied.
"Okay. So, Lava diving is the best plan we have?" I still don't like it."
Volcano detection scene
Units two and five dispatched, same as canon, but sandalphon manages to escape. Asuka barely retrieved
Volcano erupts and EVAs retreat.
The cranes managed to get both Evangelions over the Volcano's rim seconds before the power shut down. Both EVAs glowed from the effects of the Lava, and huge hoses were turned on and aimed at the two. Clouds of steam rose from them as both pilots ejected their plugs, and cranes retrieved them.
The plugs were set down side-by side, and the hatches popped at the same time. Both children carefully got out of their plugs, and while Shinji headed for the Command Van, Asuka made a beeline for him and headed him off, grabbing him roughly be the shoulder.
"You IDIOT!" she shrieked, then slapped him hard enough to knock him off of his feet.
He looked up at her from the ground, blinking tears from his eyes as he attempted to sit up. "But Asuka..."
He didn't get to finish however, as she dropped onto him, grabbing the front of his plugsuit, straddling him as she roughly mashed her lips to his. They separated, and his confused look irritated her, so she shoved him down, causing him to wince in pain instants before she kissed him again.
"That's enough confusing him, Asuka. Let him up," Misato said.
"Buh?" Shinji replied as Asuka let go of him and stood.
"Don't think I'm not grateful you saved my life, but that doesn't mean you're not a complete idiot. You risked everything jumping into that volcano."
With that, the red-head stormed off.
"So, is she happy or upset?" he asked as he slowly got to his own feet.
"She's a girl. That's all you need to know." Misato replied cryptically, "Let's get you back on the chopper home while the crews get the EVAs loaded up. We'll need to figure out how to deal with a lava monster Angel."
Both of them had showered together in a small vehicle built specifically for the purpose. However, due to lack of privacy and water, they remained in their plugsuits and simply washed the LCL out of their hair and off of them so they would not smell too badly on the way back to headquarters, where they could get properly cleaned off.
Asuka refused to look at him during the chopper ride. She was aroused, and had shared not only her first, but second kiss with the boy she liked, no, like was too mild, love was too strong. No. She could admit it to herself. She loved him.
She loved him. It wasn't the 'feel good tingles' and 'butterflies in her stomach' love either, although he did do that to her sometimes, like during their duet a few days before. She loved him. She needed him. But he saw her only as a second or maybe third sister? Or would that be sixth or seventh due to all of Rei's clones? Her traitorous heart thumped hard as she realized this.
She swallowed once, then sniffled for a second. She was not going to break down and cry here.
They weren't great kisses, she admitted, she was very rough with him. But he didn't do more than just lie there. No, he didn't see her for anything other than a sister. She had no chance.
It never occurred to her that between the two near concussions, the boy was simply too shocked to be more than dimly aware he had just been kissed.
Shinji kept staring at the back of her head, confused as to what even happened back there. She swallowed loudly and sniffled. He'd just started to have a thought cross his mind that maybe, just maybe, he should start trying to kiss her back. The thought hadn't even finished, much less reached his mouth before Misato had broken things up.
He was conflicted, but he knew he needed to say something, and he wasn't sure what. Finally, after a few more moments of silence, he said, "Hey Asuka?"
"What?"
"I'm sorry."
She looked over at him from the corner of her eyes. "What are you apologizing for?"
He wasn't sure what to say. He wasn't sorry he rescued one of his closest and oldest friends. He didn't want to lose her. He didn't want to lose any of his friends.
After a moment he said, "I'm sorry I made you worry. I just, well, I didn't want to lose you."
"Idiot," she replied softly, "But thank you. I'd have done the same thing had the situation been reversed."
"I know. But I was more worried about you than I was me."
She allowed herself a small smile and sniffled again as she resumed looking at the passing terrain below. From what she could see, he at least was her friend, if nothing else, even if he didn't see her the way she wanted him to see her.
She allowed another sniffle to escape and shivered. She really wanted to have him hold her in his arms, as foolish as that sounded.
Angel tracked moving toward Tokyo-Three in the magma. Lose signal.
Geofront locked down, Lilith moved to EVA Lift. Lilith to be sent to center of the exposed Geofront if attacked. EVAs stationed in Lilith's chamber.
It was a waiting game. The magma disturbance moved closer, and they knew it was the Angel. Four full Evangelions, a converted and currently unarmored Provisional and one Test Body that had been hastily reworked into something resembling a functioning Evangelion were sitting in Lilith's chamber. The provisional and test body weren't combat ready, and both pilots had trouble maintaining steady synch, due to lack of proper systems.
Doctor Akagi was worried. This was likely to go very badly if both Provisional-05 and Test Type-06 were pushed too hard by their Novice pilots. They did however, hold their Type-20s at the ready, and stood guard near Lilith herself. Lilith was mounted on a modified EVA Launch rail to be sent into the Geofront once the Angel broke through. All four Combat Evangelions patrolled around the Catapult.
The Magi sent Seismic patterns of the Angel's slow circle around the bottom of the Geofront, translated into tracking data, and overlaid it on everyone's HUD with approximate range, speed and bearing.
Asuka kept swapping between the Magoroku and a Type-20, and Shinji was concerned with trying to keep the newly built Positron Sniper intact before the battle. Rei simply stood by, tracking the Angel with her head, swords in hand, and Mari kept tossing the Sonic Glaive between her hands.
Sandalphon attacks, breaks through into Lilith's chamber. Lilith sent to Geofront.
Battle ensues, EVAs take down Sandalphon.
wrap-up
"It's simultaneously cute and sad how oblivious they are to each other's feelings." Kaji remarked as he leaned back.
"So, why aren't you trying to help Asuka and Shinji get together?"
"Ritsu-chan, I'm going to refrain from playing matchmaker. After all, I'm a failure there myself, if the best I can do is make the woman I love more than life despise me."
"She does still love you. She won't admit it. Yet. I can see it every time she looks at you. The hatred is directed at herself."
"She'll barely talk to me, and even then only if it's about the Children. She's the one who broke it off. She said she was seeing someone else."
"That was a lie. There never was anyone else. She got scared because you reminded her so much of her father, a man she hated passionately."