Void, Part 1
Note, the parenthesis indicates 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 am doing wrong (to correct it).
Tokyo-3
Japan
Katsuragi-Ikari Apartment
Living Room
The two pilots looked intently into each other's eyes, their instruments back into their cases. Asuka's still held a hint of challenge, Shinji's full of acceptance. Neither spoke. Their faces getting closer and closer.
Shinji breathed in Asuka's perfume. It smelled fresh, vital. It reminded him of a cool summer rain. It was almost intoxicating.
Asuka's inner voice argued in her mind. '(What are you doing? He is a pervert!)'
'(If he gets grabby, I'll slap him; if he just stays there, I'll know he is not attracted to me.)' her mind counterargued.
'(And if he… kisses you back?)'
'(One thing at a time, brain.)'
Their noses touched, ticking her. Instinctively, both tilted their heads, smiling.
Asuka closed her eyes, acutely aware of his breathing, Shinji did the same, his heart beating faster than he thought possible.
Her lips parted, she was closing the last few centimeters of distance…
Tokyo-3
Japan
Katsuragi-Ikari Apartment
Living Room
(Spiritual Plane)
"Oh, boy!" Deadman smiled, "I think you'll need some privacy, kid. I'll come back later! Don't do anything I wouldn't do!" And he ghosted through the wall.
Ground Floor
"At last, home." Misato slurred. Kaji helped her to get out the cab, and while she leaned on the vehicle, paid the driver, with a generous tip, it had been a long trip, and the man had given them a bottle of water, saying, "Been there, my friend. Tomorrow you'll be thankful."
Before the cab went away, Kaji asked, "Could you wait for me a few minutes? I just want to get this beautiful lady home, and then go back to mine."
"Sure, but the meter will keep running."
"Of course. I'll be back in five minutes at the most." He pulled a bill from his wallet and gave it to the driver. "In case I don´t come back in time." The driver took the bill, nodding.
While they waited for the elevator, Kaji held Misato close. "I want to show you something tomorrow."
"Oh, yeah? What?"
The elevator arrived with a bell sound. "It's a big surprise." He winked at her.
Very maturely, Misato showed him her tongue. "Nnnn!"
Gotham City, USA
Wayne Manor
Batcave
Training Section
"(Alfred?)" Bruce Jr. asked. "(How long must I keep on repeating this move?)"
The old butler sighed, "(Until you have mastered it, young master. I fear your parents have been very insistent on it.)"
The special elevator opened with a soft hiss, and Dick and Barbara Grayson entered the original Batcave.
"(Yes, we did, Bruce.)" Dick pushed his wife's wheelchair, leaning heavily on the handles, while she tapped on a laptop.
"(I don't know why I have to keep on it, Dad, I don't really want to be the next Robin.)"
"(Well, we don't really want you to be, but the way things have been changing, I'd rather not have another attempt on our family. Last time, I was almost kidnapped by some guys who later turned out to be part of a weird apocalyptic cult.)" Barbara shrugged.
"(But the main reason is weirder. We got a warning.)" Dick scratched his chin.
"(A warning?)"
"(Oh, yes. A very dire warning, just before you found the entrance to the cave. Why do you think the place was not in a full lock-out?)"
Barbara tapped a last command on her laptop. The big screen on the batcomputer lit up. The picture of a man appeared on it.
"(The Phantom Stranger warned us that things are getting to a crisis point. He is gathering all the help he can. And let me tell you, son. When the Phantom Stranger says that things are getting to a crisis point, it only can mean one thing.)"
Bruce waited until the answer came to him. "(That things are getting to a crisis point?)"
"(Exactly. Mom and I have been hacking a few systems in some secret base or another. We won't burden you with the details, but it might be important later.)"
The elevator dinged again, and a group of kids appeared, looking around in amazement. "(Uncle Dick! Aunt Barb!)" they surrounded the pair, laughing. Behind them, their parents grinned proudly.
"(So, the Stranger?)" Ralph Dibny asked.
The Graysons chorused back "(The Stranger.)"
Each of the Dibny kids had a sports bag. "(Hey, BJ. Where do we change?)" The girl asked, lifting her bag. "(Your dad invited us to train with you.)"
Smiling, Bruce pointed at the other end of the platform. "(The changing rooms are back there, Diana.)"
"(Cool! Barry, Hal, dibs on the changing room!)" She said, turning her head a full 180 degrees backwards. Her head snapped back into place, and her legs elongated to double their length as she broke into a run.
"(Diana! No fair!)" her brothers Barry and Hal chorused, both stretching their bodies in an effort to get first to the changing rooms.
Behind them, Ralph and Sue Dibny looked at their triplet children. "(Hey! Be careful! We are guests here!)" Ralph yelled at the kids.(1)
A few minutes later, the three Dibny kids came out the changing rooms. Each one dressed in a colorful suit. Diana's was red, with a triangular black section descending from the shoulders to just above the belt buckle. Barry's was completely purple, and Hal's was half purple and half white, the colors separated by a red line. (2)
"(So, what do we do?)" Diana asked, making exaggerated stretching exercise.
"(Glad you asked.)" Barbara said. "(To begin with, I want you three to tag Bruce.)"
"(What?)" he asked.
"(You must simply evade them for as long as you can.)" Dick added.
Ralph and Sue sat on the available chairs, next to Alfred.
Tokyo-3, Japan
Katsuragi-Ikari Apartment
Living Room
The touch of their lips was very soft, almost ethereal, but charged with electricity.
Pen-Pen chose that moment to return from the bathroom; curious, he stared at the strange ritual the two humans enacted. It didn't involve pebbles of any kind, so he quickly lost interest and returned to his cooled bedroom.
In the meanwhile, the two teenagers stood awkwardly, neither advancing nor retreating, unsure of what the other would want.
Slowly, Shinji raised his hands, and guided by old instinct, softly grabbed Asuka's arms for a moment, his hands descended the length of her slender arms, until he found her hands. He wrapped his fingers around hers, with just enough strength to hold them.
His touch was careful, as if she was made of porcelain. Or crystal.
Asuka's brain shorted at his touch, she redoubled her efforts and deepened the kiss.
A distant sound intruded.
It was like somebody had hit the door of the apartment. Reluctantly, they separated, her eyes lingering on the other's for a long moment. Asuka opened her mouth to say something, but Shinji would never know what it would be.
The hiss of the sliding door heralded the entrance of a couple. Misato and Kaji stumbled in. "All right, here we are. Hang on." Kaji said, holding a very unstable Misato.
Shinji was the first to see them, "Hi, Kaji." He waved, he hoped his blush wouldn't be too noticeable in the dark entry hall.
Asuka pushed him aside, "Oh, allo, Kaji!" she greeted him enthusiastically.
"Hi, Asuka. Hmm… would you mind helping me? Misato is asleep on her feet, and I mean it!" He barely managed to stop her from sliding to the floor.
The three guided Misato to her messy room, and laid her face down on her futon. Kaji took her shoes off, to put them back into the hall as he was going out.
"Well, time for me to leave." He took his tie off, and put it in a pocket.
"Why don't you stay the night?" Asuka asked. "I'm sure Ayanami wouldn't mind."
"Sorry, Asuka, but that would be terribly improper." He stifled a yawn. "Hmm, by the way, shouldn't you be at your own apartment?"
Asuka demurred, "I was about to leave, I wanted to check something with the Boy Wonder. A… A… "
"Practice," Shinji intervened, "Asuka plays the violin and wanted to practice a duet with cello, and I offered to help."
Kaji grinned, "So… you're making beautiful music together, uh?" he chuckled. He shook his head, "Sorry, I shouldn't joke about such things, I must be too tired." He missed the simultaneous blush on the two pilots' faces, Shinji and Asuka exchanged a look.
Kaji sighed. "Anyway, I better go home. I need some sleep on my own bed. I'll see you tomorrow kids." He said as he crossed the threshold. "Oh, and Asuka, you better go home, it is late."
"I will, I just need to get my violin. We were done when you two arrived anyway."
She almost ran into Shinji. She winked at him as she went past him, grabbed her violin case, wrapped it hurriedly with the bubble wrap, and put it back into its cardboard box.
As she walked past Shinji, she whispered, "Nice practice, Boy Wonder. But you still have room to improve. We will have to keep on practicing."
She waved Kaji goodbye as the man entered the elevator, and he waved back as the doors closed.
New York, USA
S.T.A.R. Labs
Dr. Victor Stone Office
(Mental Plane, Simulacrum made by MAGI-2, Casper)
The Phantom Stranger tented his fingers in front of his face. He sat comfortably on one of the visitor chairs in front of the main desk in the office. "(I know it is hard to believe, Dr. Stone. But it is the truth.)"
Cyborg paced around the office, looking at his guest. "(What? Like The Matrix? Everything I see, everything I do, everybody else in this city? Just an elaborate illusion? Why? How?)"
"(To keep you under control. To use you. I am sorry to say, Dr. Stone, but the only thing real in this world, is you. Not even me. What you see now is just a projection. Last time I had to come personally into your mental simulacrum. Once the contact had been established, sending an image was easier than coming in person. It took me some time to recover from my earlier visit.)"
"(So…)" Tiredly, Victor Stone rubbed his face. "(What happened? And don't mince words.)"
"(In short, you were captured by the Secret Society of Supervillains, your death faked. Enough remains were planted to convince the JLU of your demise, along with your companions, whom I regret to inform you, were murdered. Your brain was stolen and cloned over itself by SEELE. Used as the basis for one of the MAGI computers. A mental copy of Naoko Akagi was included into the software. To keep you happy and pliant.)"
"(Damn!)"
"(Yes.)"
"(And what's happening then? Really?)"
"(SEELE is bringing about the end of the world.)"
"(Of course they are.)" He growled, "(I want a reckoning.)"
"(I can help you with that, but I need your help too.)"
Cyborg put his metallic fists on the desk, leaning on them threateningly. "(Count on it. I am still working on contacting the Metal Men. There are very high grade firewalls and lots of redundant security systems around them. Are they in a MAGI too?)"
"(No. They are stored in a physical location, their caskets are monitored by the MAGI, so you have the chance to establish a link to their positronic brains.)"
Stone snorted. "(Tell me something. Who are the other ghosts in the machine? I am sure I'm not the only one.)"
"(Indeed you are not the only victim of SEELE's machinations. The other two MAGI contain two individuals you are very familiar with. Cliff Steele and the Brain. Each one with their own version of Naoko Akagi to keep them unaware of their true status.)" (3)
"(No wonder you told me to contact Robotman in the sly.)"
"(I contacted you because you are the best qualified to help. Clifford Steele is not computer literate enough, and the Brain is certainly not suited to act unless it benefits him directly.)"
"(Well, then. So it falls to me.)" He sighed. "(Story of my life.)" He pulled out a module from his torso, and looked at it for long seconds. "(System access. Copy full memory, erase last ten minutes from the original and synch to local time, insert partition with the last ten minutes as subroutine. Execute partition during rest time or when alone. Execute 30 seconds after my mark. Mark.)"
He reinserted the module back into place.
"(That will do it. I created a secondary personality, it will work on contacting the Metal Men and Robotman. Otherwise, my behavior around Naoko will change and give the game up. Now leave before the primary personality asserts itself.)"
The Phantom Stranger nodded gravely. "(Good luck, Dr. Stone. Hopefully, next time we meet will be in better circumstances.)"
"(Yeah, yeah.)" He sat at his desk, and waved his hand as if an annoying insect was buzzing around his head. "(Just go.)"
The Stranger vanished from sight.
The light in Cyborg's left eye blinked out, and came back a moment later.
He shook his head and kept on writing the report he was working on.
Tokyo-3, Japan
Ayanami-Soryu Apartment
Living Room
"Wonder Girl? I though you'd be asleep by now."
"Oh, no. I was listening to you and Robin playing. You do make beautiful music together, I enjoyed it immensely." She bowed deeply to Asuka. "I hope you'll keep playing. I'd like to go and watch. It would be… enjoyable." (4)
Asuka opened and closed her mouth several times, unsure of what to say, if anything, while her face alternated between blushing and going pale. In the end, Rei spared her from any further embarrassment by simply returning to her bedroom.
Once back in her own bedroom, Asuka put her box back into its place, and her mind began to rewind the events of the day, especially the last hour or so.
She smiled to herself. '(Who would have guessed? Madame Xanadu really hit the nail in the head.)' she laced her fingers at the back of her head, looking absently at the ceiling. '(Shinji was quite respectful, I thought he would try to grab my goodies. Maybe I misjudged him.)'
Finally, her mind registered something she had not noticed at the moment. '(She was right about Misato and Kaji. He smells to lavender. I guess they are back together.)'
To her own surprise, there were no pangs of jealousy.
Her mind went back to the synchronization training they had done before fighting the Seventh Angel for the second time. '(The most beautiful girl he knows, uh?)' She smiled to herself. Sleep would be late to come, as she rejoiced in her memories.
Tokyo-3, Japan
Katsuragi-Ikari Apartment
Shinji's Lovely Suite
Shinji sat at his desk, his fingers close to the keyboard. Waiting.
A few minutes passed, and he was beginning to worry Deadman had gone for the night.
Suddenly, he was looking at the new text on the screen.
"Congratulations!"
"Uh… how much did you see?" he whispered.
"Easy, kid. I respect your privacy, when I saw you and the little miss were about to lock lips, I went out for a while. I just returned a second ago."
"Ah, thanks, I guess." He scratched the back of his head.
"You're welcome, buddy. And thank you for the popcorn. It had been a good while since the last time I got to eat some."
"Anytime, Boston-san."
"I'm very, very, very tempted to take on your offer, but let's keep it for very special occasions, ok? Not fair for you to pay for my vices, don't you think?"
Shinji smiled. "No, you are right."
Tokyo-3, Japan
GeoFront
NERV HQ
Deep Underground Facilities
Central Dogma (Psyche's Chamber)
Next day
In a big and spacious chamber, Rei Ayanami floated inside a narrow cylinder full of LCL; above her, a complex structure with a vague likeness to a brain copied and stored her memories, backing up them in case she had to be replaced.
Once, that thought would have been just a random occurrence, one that didn't affect her in any real way. But now, just thinking she would be replaced by a copy elicited a strange feeling in her. She didn't have the necessary word for that feeling. She would have to ask.
Once, months before, she would have asked the Commander for clarification. But now she didn't feel comfortable voicing her question, so she simply kept on floating in the amber liquid, breathing it in and out, the only sounds her own breath, and the barely perceptible humming of the machinery
A change in the machine's sound marked the end of the procedure. Slowly, Rei opened her eyes. Just as she expected, the Commander stood in front of the cylinder, patiently waiting, still as a statue.
Satisfied, he smirked.
Tokyo-3, Japan
GeoFront
NERV HQ
Terminal Dogma
Main LCL Plant: Circulation Line No 3
(Depth 2008 meters)
Ryoji Kaji stood in front of the digital reader that would open the gigantic doors. It had taken him time, effort and a lot of stealth to get a duplicate of an ID card with high enough clearance to even get him to this door, plus some hacking of the system to keep it from registering the intrusion.
All worth it, he hoped. It would be really embarrassing if the place turned out to be exactly what the sign on the wall claimed to be, a Circulation Line for synthetic LCL.
Suddenly his instincts warned him that he was not alone in the place.
Without turning, he said, non-chalantly, "You're late."
Author Notes
1. Diana, Barry and Hal are the triplet children of Ralph and Sue. They are all metagene active, having inherited their dad's elasticity, but they don't need Gingold to stretch. Of course, their names are homages to Ralph's old comrades in the Justice League, respectively, Diana for Wonder Woman, Barry for Barry Allen, AKA the Flash, and Hal for Hal Jordan AKA Green Lantern. The have more siblings, but the next kids are too young to participate in any heroic battle.
2. Their suits are based on the Elongated Man's suits. Barry's is a copy of the original suit Ralph wore in his debut back in The Flash issue 112 (May 1960), but without the mask. Diana has the one he wore as a member of the Justice League, it was first shown in Detective Comics issue 350 (Apr 1966). while Hal's is the one from the end of the original JLA and that he kept on using during the JLI era, but without the "EM" letters over the heart. I didn't found a definitive first appearance for this costume, but it could be Justice League of America, issue 252 (Jul 1986). Personally, I like the red and black best.
3. Their surnames were translated to German on the MAGI labels. Brain got Naoko as a Scientist, Robotman got Naoko as a Mother, and Cyborg got Naoko as a Woman.
4. Rei's accidental innuendo was inspired by Advice and Trust.