Pressure, Part 4
Note, the parenthesis indicate languages other than Japanese, in this case, English and German.
Please Read and Review. I'd like to know what I'm doing right (to keep doing it), and what I'm I doing wrong (to correct it).
In route to the Secondary NERV Base at Matsuhiro
For an eternity that lasted for five seconds, nobody moved, nobody spoke, nobody even dared to breathe; as the magnetic cage that held the Eight Angel's chrysalid rolled down to the bottom of the valley. Lt. Tomoyo Yamaguchi almost lost control of the crawler, as it rocked side to side, free of the titanic weight of the angelic cocoon.
To everybody's horror, the cage shattered before even stopping, from one of the ends, a powerful, long beak went through the sides of the magno-cage as if they were nothing but air. The magnetic forces dissipated in an instant, fragments of the hardened shell broke from the chrysalid, falling down, breaking trees that had stood for decades.
The… thing… shook its long neck, ridding itself from its prison. Its head rose into the air, screaming its challenge. It was a disgusting, bare imitation of a bird's skull. The lower jaw was split in two, like a snake's. And the Angel was very snake-like in shape. A long, skeletal neck followed the head, as it looked around itself, looking for its enemies. It's round, yellow eyes scanned its surroundings unblinking. With a shudder, the creature stood over a weird U-shaped structure, under which six insect-like short legs wriggled for a moment, until they found purchase on the irregular ground. At the other side of the U, a long, skeletal tail whipped around.
The only one who was somewhat ready for this was Shinji Ikari, forewarned by the Phantom Stranger. Almost before the thing had broken free, he planted the EVA's feet solidly on the ground, and let loose short bursts of bullets the size of a desk.
"(Huntress! Snap out of it!)" He shouted in German, while the bullets crashed uselessly against the AT-Field of the creature.
It took Asuka Langley Soryu just a moment to recover from her spell. But after a momentary paralysis, she jumped into action. Unknown to her, she wasn't alone in the EVA-02's plug. She was accompanied by the ghost of an acrobat, murdered almost three decades before she was born. However, the moment of doubt carried a high price. The tail of the Angel whipped against Unit-02's mid-section, hitting it like a train.
"Ough!" The red Evangelion fell down, rolling over itself several times, until it stopped, face down against the ground. From the Spiritual Plane, Deadman shouted at its pilot, unheard by any living soul. "C'mon, girl, you have no time to sleep on the job!"
While Unit-01 kept firing, Shinji's voice shook her out of her pain. "(Asuka! Huntress! Are you okay?)"
"(Ugh… I just had the wind knocked out of me, you Baka!)" she switched back to Japanese, "Keep it busy while I get back up." She shook her head, clearing the metaphorical dust out of her brain. The red Evangelion imitated her movements, releasing a cascade of dirt, small rocks, and branches and leaves of the unlucky trees that had been crushed in its fall.
"Roger that!" The purple Evangelion stepped carefully to one side, firing occasional bullets from the Pallet Rifle.
Misato barked her orders, galvanizing every person present into action. "All NERV personnel! Get back, NOW! Clear the area! Generators, release more cable as you retreat, but be ready to reel back at any time. I want the umbilical cables to have some slack, but not too much, got that?" One of the risks the particular method of feeding power to the Evangelions carried was as simple as it was dangerous. In the heat of battle, an Evangelion could trip with its own power cable. "Makoto! Call Central Dogma, we need some serious firepower here, dammit!"
A few moments later, the answer came. "The JSSDF's 33rd Tank regiment is on its way, Captain! It will take them about 8 minutes to arrive!"
She nodded back, if the EVAs lost the umbilical cables before that… "Robin, Huntress! Back up is on the way! But it will take some time. It's in your hands! You are authorized to kill that damned thing, do you hear me?"
Unit-02 pushed its hands against the dirt, getting back up in a smooth movement, amazing in a creature that had the size of a whole building and weighted even more. "Got it, Control! We get to do the fun part." Asuka snarled.
"That's it, girl! Kick it back into the egg!" Deadman cheered her.
While Unit-01 kept the Angel's attention onto itself, Unit-02 stood proud and furious. Its hand lifted the Progressive Glaive it had lost in the fall. Adjusting its grip, EVA-02 jumped into the air, raising the weapon's edge over its head. At the apex of her trajectory, Asuka willed Unit-02 to strike a decapitating hit against the Eight Angel.
The Eight Angel saw her, its head twisted over its neck, and screeched a banshee's wail. Its dead eyes flared to life with terrible light. A blast slammed into EVA-02's chest, throwing the mighty machine back. Asuka screamed. It felt as if a red-hot poker had gone through her own chest.
Unit-02 fell hard to the ground. The shockwave rocked all NERVs vehicles around it, almost knocking Misato out of her feet. A plume of smoke rose from Unit-02's burnt chest armor. The Progressive Glaive fell down from its fingers, embedding itself into the rocky ground. The titanic bio-mechanoid didn't move.
"Asuka!" Shinji and Misato screamed.
"She's unconscious!" Dr. Akagi shouted over her shoulder. "The pain must have been too much for her, she was almost at 68% Synch!"
In EVA-01's plug, Shinji Ikari snarled.
In EVA-01's core, Yui Ikari's soul snarled too.
From EVA-01's throat, a guttural growl cut the air.
In the mobile HQ, Misato felt as if she had received a punch in her stomach. Her training took charge immediately. "Rits, try to wake her up! Shinji, protect her, don't let the Angel to get near her!"
An incoherent roar answered. The purple EVA ran towards the Angel, its steps causing minor shockwaves that were registered in seismographs back in Tokyo-3. Its head down and its hands behind, much like a rugby player about to tackle his adversary. However, unlike the player, the EVA's intention was simpler than scoring abstract points.
The only thought in the gestalt mind of Unit-01 was to kill.
As it got nearer to the Angel, it swung the Pallet Rifle it still held on its left hand.
"Shinji's synch is rising!" Maya informed frantically. "74% and still rising!"
Inside EVA-02's plug, a red ghost took a decision. "(Damn! I didn't want to do this!)" The wandering spirit hijacked Asuka's unconscious body. Her eyes snapped open. '(I hope I did really learn how to move this damned thing!)', he thought as her hands gripped the control yoke.
"I'm okay, Control!" Deadman shouted with Asuka's voice. "It won't catch me by surprise again!"
Eva-02 tugged the Progressive Glaive out of the rock.
From the EVA's core, he felt a double wave of surprise mixed with a hint of anger and a little bit of hope.
'Oh, damn!' he thought. 'Missus Soryu! Both of her!'
EVA-01 swung the pallet rifle like a club, hitting the AT-Field of its enemy with a noise like thunder. The field held on, flaring with a series of orange hexagons at the impact point. Unit-01 roared in frustration. It swung the rifle butt against the shimmering barrier again and again, even the heavily reinforced weapon started to crump like tinfoil at the repeated assault.
The MHQ had retreated back to a relatively safe distance. Misato observed the battle intensely, looking for any weakness in the Angel. "Robin! ROBIN! Don't stand in front of its face! Damn it!" She slammed her fist against the side of the vehicle, well far away from any sensitive components. "He doesn't listen!"
The Angel twisted its neck again, ready to shoot the eyebeams at its enemy.
'Hello, Missus Soryu! Don't be like that. I'm a friend.' Deadman tried to talk the divided soul inside EVA-02 into helping him, but so far, he hadn't had any success. The bio-mechanoid was moving slugglishly, almost like a drunk man trying to walk straight. He pulled and pushed at the control yokes, but to no avail.
Down at the edge of the valley, the Phantom Stranger leaned against a rock. The feedback he had received when the Angel freed itself from both the pod and the time delay had struck him like an avalanche. He felt sick, but by sheer force of will, he managed to breathe deeply, trying to clear his head. His own thought process was a mass of confusion.
He fell back against the rock. His gloved hands craddled his head.
For the moment, he was absolutely useless.
While Deadman struggled to control the red Evangelion, a strange,wordless conversation flowed inside the core. One half of Kyoko Zeppelin Soryu tried to convince the other to help the red-clad spirit in the fight, to save Asuka's life, while the other tried to convince the first that it would be better of Asuka died alongside with them.
About the only thing they agreed on was that the ghost was NOT welcome in the gestalt.
EVA-01 discarded the useless weapon, and used its claw-like hands to rip the AT-Field to shreds. However, the Angel rebuilt it as fast as Unit-01 was able to cut through.
'(DamnDamnDamn!)' Deadman pulled at the useless controls, yelling with Asuka's voice "Move it! Damn you, move already!"
'(Well... it seems I need to do something drastic here... hang on, girl!)'
Deadman released Asuka, and in his desperation, dived into the Evangelion's core. As soon as he entered it, his senses were assaulted by a cacophonie of sensations, heat, cold, noise, silence, all kind of smells and tastes. It was maddening.
He screamed for what he felt was a long time, but he found what he was looking for.
Kyoko Zeppelin Soryu's halves.
To his eyes, it looked like a pair of sisters fighting each other. One was dressed with an old model plugsuit, her long blond hair flowed behind her like a cascade of gold. The other was naked, except for a hospital gown, her hair hung dead behing her head, and a noose made from a white sheet hung around her neck.
The eyes of both were lost in their shared madness.
Meanwhile, Asuka stirred weakly in the plug. Her chest hurt, and she felt like she had been tossed inside a turbine.
"What happened?"
Next to her, a vid screen opened. "Huntress! Are you Okay? We lost you for a second!"
"I'm fine, Misato, but Unit-02 isn't responding!"
Inside the core, Deadman watched the fight for a second, and dove into action. He had never done this, and he didn't know if it would work.
He tried to hijack one of Kyoko's spirit halves.
To his surprise, it did work, he felt incredibly weird. He looked at crazy-Kyoko's almost skeletal hands, now covered by blood red gloves, and smiled at the other half. "(Hey, we can fight later if you want, but right now, your girl need your... our help.)"
Not-so-crazy-Kyoko nodded. Her smile was disturbing, at best.
"Asuka's synch dropped to 10% for a few seconds, but it's rising again." Maya looked over her shoulder. "Captain Katsuragi, at her current rising rate it will take her about 35 seconds to get back to her usual 60%. "
Misato barked at her mike. "Did you hear that, Robin? Asuka is okay and will be back in the fight in less than half a minute. ROBIN!"
Back at the EVA-01 plug, Shinji's fury receded. "Roger, Control. I'll keep this monster busy in the meanwhile."
"(Rise, rise, rise! I won't be left out of the fight!)" Asuka mumbled between gritted teeth. "(25%, 28%, c'mon!)"
Gradually, she felt the EVA around her again, layering it's sensory input over her own. Once she reached 30%, she jumped into action.
As EVA-02 stood once again, it snatched the Progressive Glaive again. She swore this time, the Angel would not catch her by surprise. She ran the distance in a few long strides.
To her delight, EVA-01 had already ripped through the AT-Field, and was holding it open for her. "Robin! Duck at my signal! NOW!" Jumping high from behind the purple EVA, she threw her weapon at the Angel's head.
Unit-01 obeyed instantly, the glaive passed over its head, cutting the air with a shrill whistling sound, and embedded itself into the Angels'head.
Unfortunately, it missed the red orb of the core. Taking advantage of the trashing of the wounded creature, Unit-01 wrapped its arms around the long neck, immobilizing the head and keeping it pointing away from the bio-mechanoids.
"Huntress! Kill this thing already! I won't be able to hold it for much longer!"
"Keep it there for a second!"
The Angel tried to shook its enemy from its back, but UNIT-01 had the advantage of both weight and strenght. It held the neck in the crook of its left arm, while the right hand held the head away from the body.
Unit-02 slid to a stop, reaching for the left shoulder pylon to get the Progressive Knife out. "Oh, shit! I forgot the pylons were removed to fit the D-Type Eq.!"
"Crush it with your hands!" Shinji yelled.
The image of Asuka in EVA-01's plug nodded, but Shinji didn't look at it "Don't tell me what to do! I was planning on that anyway!"
While Unit-01 kept the head pointing at the sky, the lower jaws snapped close and open in threat. "I have no time for this!" she mumbled in annoyance.
With a roar, EVA-02 grabbed the lower jaws, and with a mighty pull, ripped them off the head. The thingh screeched in agony. A black fluid sprayed from the wounds.
Asuka grabbed the core in EVA-02's hands, and pushed it in with all their stranght. She could feel a burning heat in her own hands.
With a terrible noise, the orb cracked into fragments between her hands. She felt the splinters dig into her palms and fingers, but kept the pressure until the core exploded into fragments.
The skeletal Angel fell down in EVA-01's hands. And almost as soon as Shinji released it, began to decompose. There wasn't time enough for the scientific crews to take samples from it, except for a few fragment of the core.
Their adrenaline spent, both pilots sagged in their seats.
"You did well," sighed Misato. "Rest for a while, kids. I'm proud of you both."
At the MHQ, the relief was like a wave. Everybody relaxed.
SEELE Holographic Chamber
Monday, Late Afternoon (Tokyo-3 Local time)
Commander Gendo Ikari was not a happy man. Neither were all the SEELE members in attendance.
"Ikari, you assured us you had this operation under your control." Hissed Lorenz Kiehl. Her anger was evidently held in check only by his iron will. "We are tired of your incompetence."
From behind gloved hands, Gendo Ikari answered. "No human endeavour is ever guaranteed to success. Especially with the unknown factors we are dealing with. The operation was planned as best as possible. The elimination of the Angel once it hatched was unavoidable."
Kiehl grumbled. Ikari was damnably right. "Send the recovered samples to NERV Germany. We might still rescue something from this debacle."
"The samples are already on their way. They will be in your hands in a few hours."
Kiehl nodded. "The rest of this meeting is only for SEELE members, Ikari." He grumbled. The holographic image shimmered and disappeared.
NERV Holographic Chamber
Monday, Late Afternoon
"Well... it went better than I would have expected." Kozo Fujutsuki added, from his usual place behind and at the right of his former student.
"They are blinded by the promise of whatever the samples they will get might yield." Ikari answered with barely a movement.
"Still, they might take some other actions we might not like."
"Yes. They might. But they might have done so even if we had captured the Angel still in its chrysalid."
Spiritual Plane
Ten Minutes after the Battle
"(You okay, pal?)"
Deadman´s voice brought the Phantom Stranger back to reality. He straightened up. Deadman was sitting on a low, thin branch that could barely support the weight of a squirrel.
"(I have some news for you. Number one, the battle is over, Angel destroyed, as we hoped.)"
The Stranger nodded, his strenght was coming back.
"(Number Two, I can´t actually synch with an Evangelion, at least, not with Unit-02.)" Deadman was counting each point with his fingers.
"(Number Three, the split in Dr. Soryu´s soul is even worse than we thought. Half of her wants Asuka to live, and the other wants her to die.)"
The Stranger nodded again. "(Her soul must be healed.)"
"(I completely agree with you in that. That poor woman needs a lot of help. And those SEELE bastards need to pay for everything, just seeing her two half souls breaks your heart.)"
"(I already have something in mind for them. But at the moment, he is... not available. I´ll make some enquiries about it. Hopefully he will wait until we can point him to the guilty party. Otherwise, it would be almost as bad as Third Impact.)"
"(Exactly just how ´almost´ are we talking about?)"
"Complete annihilation of the human race in a period of hours, instead of minutes.)"
Deadman shut his mouth.
Back from Mt. Asama
Hot Springs Resort
10:38 P.M.
The NERV crew entered into the resort with leaden feet. The recovery team had taken their own sweet time to clear the area of the fight, and between that and the time the trip to Matsuhiro, incomplete as it was, night had fallen.
Misato had convinced Commander Ikari to grant the tech crew, the pilots, and herself, a free day to unwind.
The hotel had accepted the group of travelers, but by the time they had arrived, access to the hot springs was already closed for the night.
To their surprise, in the small restaurant there were two visitors awaiting for them.
"Kaji? What in the name of all that is holy are you doing here?" Misato asked, while Kaji folded his newspaper and poured a fresh cup of coffee for her. Asuka simply squeaked happily and sat next to him, grabbing his arm and beaming a big smile at him. However, she was so tired, she fell asleep almost immediately.
"Well..." Said Kaji, while passing an arm over Asuka's shoulders, to keep her from falling. "I got wind that you promised the kids a day here, and wanted to check on you all. I also took the chance to bring a friend of yours." He pointed at the yard next to the springs.
There, confortably sitting next to a table, was Pen-Pen. Once he noticed the group, he put the magazine he was reading on the table, and waddled happily towards the group. He rubbed his head against Misato's hand, and after greeting her, waddled towards Shinji, who repeated the greeting.
Kaji continued, "I think he's a bit disappointed he didn't have the chance to swim at the springs today. But we just arrived a few minutes after the staff closed them for the day. I asked the staff to get you some clothes to sleep in."
Ristuko poured herself a cup of coffee, "Kaji, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship."
Maya sat beside her, and accepted a menú from the waiter.
Author Notes
One of my favorite parts of Evangelion: Rebuild (apart from Mari Ilustrious Makinami), are the new Angels. So, once I decided to let Sandalphon hatch, I realized that the form it took inside the volcano just would't work outside it. Plus, it was very obvious the thing changed form just as it hatched! From a humanoid to something that would be very much at home in the Cambrian Age, and reminds me of the very strange creatures that lived then (Anomalocaris is my favorite fossil invertebrate, BTW).
Also, at the beginning of Evangelion 2.22, it's very obvious that the freaky Angel was IN the NERV base when it decided to come out and play. Therefore, I guess that at some point, NERV actually did manage to capture an Angel; the best and only candidate from the original timeline was Sandalphon. So, I combined both.
I think this version lasted some more time than the original... How long did it take Mari to finish it?
I think a good musical match for this fight could be Two Steps From Hell´s "Hypnotica".
This selection was inspired by the Tenth Angel´s battle in Advice and Trust (Ch. 16), by Panther2G; listening to "United We Stand, Divided We Fall", also from TSFH, while reading the chapter is great! (check both!)