Neon Senshi Evangelion

Twenty Five

The next morning, Asuka and Misato were having breakfast. "Training? For ESP?" Asuka Langley sounded extremely dubious.

"We're at least looking into it," Misato explained to her roommate. "Admittedly, weeding out the cranks is going to be fun."

"Oh yeah," Asuka snorted.

"Yeah. So far the oddest psychic is a tiny lady that was formerly a professional dominatrix," Misato noted cheerfully.

"What," Asuka blinked.

"That was pretty much my reaction," Misato agreed. She drank some coffee, "Are you settling in at the labs?"

"It's going all right," Asuka admitted, "I'm basically a gofer plus mascot."

"Well, I understand you're making Ritsuko keep reasonable hours," Misato teased. "Which everyone in her team appreciates."

"Well, I'm TRYING. The woman's a workaholic," Asuka chuckled.

"Maybe you and Maya can work together to manage her," Misato said then paused. "That didn't come out the way I meant..."

Asuka snickered, "Maya can handle Ritsuko all by herself."

The two finished up breakfast, then both headed out, as Asuka noted, "WHY do you never dress in uniform, anyway?"

"No one's complained," Misato shrugged, wearing her usual dress and a jacket.

Asuka just sighed. "Meatball head," she muttered in annoyance.

"What?" Misato blinked.

There was the ODDEST look on her face. "Why did I say that?" Asuka wondered.

'And why did that sound weirdly familiar?' Misato wondered.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

"All right, everyone, this is going to be different," Yui Ikari noted, presiding over a meeting called that afternoon. She gestured, "Ritsuko?"

"Geologists picked up unusual seizmic activity in a volcanic area. They found this via probe," Ritsuko brought up an image. It was a egg like... thing, with something inside, but it was too blurred to really tell.

"Okay, what is it?" Misato asked.

"We think it's a gestating Angel," Yui answered eagerly.

"Fascinating," Maya murmured.

"So we're going to kill it before it hatches?" Gendo suggested practically.

"No!" Yui yelped.

Ritsuko also gave him a disapproving look as she explained to everyone, "We want to retrieve it for further study."

Maya nodded, "We could learn a great deal from studying it."

Misato kind of waved as she asked, "One problem: it's inside a volcano, right? How do we get it out? The Evangelions?"

"They should be able to manage the temperatures," Ritsuko agreed. She added thoughtfully, "We think."

Yui shrugged as she added, "This, admittedly, is the first time we'll have actually exposed them to that much heat. But the theoretical models of AT-Fields and armor vs heat have looked good."

"That works," Gendo agreed.

"I want tests done before I'll agree to letting the pilots taking the Evangelions in there," Misato said firmly. " 'I think' isn't good enough."

Yui looked a little startled at that, but nodded.

Ritsuko noted, "We'll also need to modify the plugsuits."

"We've roughed out some designs for special function plugsuits at different times, some of those might work," Maya added.

Ritsuko nodded, "We'll try to have a prototype by the end of today."

"Keep in mind we're on a tight schedule," Yui cautioned them. "We have no idea when this thing will hatch." She signaled Gendo, silently.

"Misato? A moment," Gendo added as the rest left.

Yui looked unhappy, "I'd rather you not challenge me like that."

"In addition to bridge duties, you put me in charge of the pilots," Misato pointed out. "We're putting them in incredible danger regularly... it seems to me that at the least we should be preventing anything else happening. Like, say, tossing a Evangelion into lava."

"Point," Yui conceded. "Next time, could you bring it up privately?" she asked.

"I'll try," Misato said, getting up and leaving.

Yui sighed as she admitted to Gendo, "I'm hurt that she'd think we'd put our kids in unnecessary danger."

"We do put them in necessary danger," Gendo reminded her.

Yui frowned at him, "Not helping."

Meekly Gendo answered, "Yes dear."

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

Later that day...

Setsuna Meiou cursed quietly as she saw the update. What was NERV thinking, trying to capture an Angel?

"Trouble?" Mari Illustrious Makinami asked her, both sitting casually in the apartment NERV had provided.

Setsuna swept the place for bugs daily, so she wasn't worried about being frank. "NERV is trying to capture a baby Angel alive."

Mari looked at her blankly. "Are they aware of how many ways this whole thing could go wrong?" she demanded.

"They certainly should," Setsuna frowned.

Mari thought a few moments then asked, "Could you order them not to do it?"

"I may be a UN Rep, but I don't have that kind of direct authority over NERV," Setsuna answered with a sigh.

Mari cursed softly.

Setsuna finally set down the tablet with a sigh. "All we can do is hope NERV hasn't bit off more than they can chew," she admitted.

"And have the Outers ready to move if needed," Mari noted.

Setsuna frowned at her as she said frostily, "Revealing ourselves is an absolute last resort."

Mari shot back, "If a baby Angel goes fully active inside NERV, that's going to be a last resort sort of situation." She added, "Especially since, however this playes out, Misato will almost certainly be at ground zero."

Setsuna frowned but nodded, "Point."

Briskly Mari continued, "We should put the others on alert."

Setsuna nodded as she said, "I'll call Haruka and Michiru on the burn phones. They can let Hotaru know."

"Here's hoping Sailor Saturn isn't needed," Mari muttered.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

Later that evening, in the Evangelion labs...

"Turns out Misato was right," Ritsuko noted.

"Senpai?" Maya asked questioningly.

"Unit-00 and Unit-01 probably would be damaged in the lava bath." Ritsuko continued, "Only Unit-02 with it's better armor etc etc can go."

"So I get the lava bath," Asuka noted mildly.

"We're working on the plugsuit modifications, since it's going to get damn hot in there," Maya noted frankly.

"Well, make sure it looks awesome," Asuka joked.

"Ah...," Ritsuko looked sheepish. She brought up the design they were currently working on.

"It looks like a giant marshmallow," Asuka blinked. "If anyone else sees me in it, I'll die of embarrassment," she added.

Maya gave her a quizical look, "You have a better idea?"

"Something like a thermos?" Asuka suggested after a moment. "Two layers of suit, with a vacuum between crating insulation."

There was a beat as they processed that. "Why didn't I think of that?" Ritsuko muttered, pulling open a design program on her computer.

"I'm not sure it's practical," Asuka admitted, then realized she was being ignored while the two scientists brainstormed.

Addressing the various techs Asuka asked, "Anyone need coffee? Drinks?" She collected everyone's orders and trotted off.

To be continued...

Notes: Rei Hino is starting to emerge a bit in Asuka. I need to decide how much tho. This Yui is (probably) not as evil as canon implies, but she does have edges.