The Gods Within - 3/3

[fanfic_mausoleum_n_grill]

The Gods Within
A Neon Genesis Evangelion elseworlds fanfic by Scriviner

Part 3: Lightning Rides the Light Fantastic

      "This is Gehirn Tactical Section calling NERV
Tactical Section, Respond please, NERV-TacSec."
      The voice was on an unfamiliar, though fully secured
and scrambled direct line. A few of the technicians looked
at each other in confusion. What in the world was Gehirn?
The more dutiful ones of course contacted their superior.
      The Major, in the infirmary, caught as he was by the
backblast of wind from the two children who had vanished in
colorful blurs and strokes of lightning, was as cheerful
and unflappable as always. The CMO looked at him with an
expression of vague, nameless worry, but he flashed her an
easy going smile and winked. Everything would be alright.
He hoped.
      "Didn't expect a call from them this soon." He
replied to the tech on his cell phone. He walked back to
the command center as he talked.
      "Er... yes, sir."
      He said, "Give me a line to them." His face changed
from its usual easy grin to a hard, neutral expression.
"This is NERV-TasSec. Go ahead, Gehirn-TacSec."
      Of course, while he was technically alone in the
elevator, it was to be expected that the rest of his staff
in the command center would be listening in.
      "Major." The voice from Gehirn's Tactical Section
acknowledged. It was difficult to tell if it was male or
female, but the tone was very clipped though precisely
spoken.
      "Major." The Major, NERV's tactical section head
responded.
      "We're invoking Code Foster."
      "We were never the aggressors."
      "Understood, but Gehirn requires NERV's full
cooperation in the upcoming operation."
      He smirked, "Not bad for someone trying to kill me
not three hours ago."
      "That was then, this is now. Times change and so does
the situation."
      "You're getting the feed from the Zimbabwe's
satellite, aren't you?"
      "Yes. MAGI analysis indicates code pattern 'blue'."
      "FATE analysis concurs."
      "The Japanese have requested the UN for a Code Factor
Intervention."
      "We know. I still don't see why I would want or need
to acknowledge the Code Foster, though."
      "We've mobilized all of the conventional forces we
could muster at short notice to intercept it before it
reaches Japanese waters..."
      "It's not going to be enough."
      "It's decimated three battle cruisers already." There
was a brief pause. "In under 5 seconds." There was a pause.
"Now five... and working on a sixth."
      He gave a nod, "You want us to mobilize Unit 01."
      "It's what he's there for."
      "Is he?" There was a mild note of sarcasm that laced
his voice, "This is certainly another change of tone from
when you were trying to put a depleted uranium slug through
his head two months ago."
      "You're one to hold a grudge, Major Kaji. I mean, I'm
not at all upset over how you broke five of my ribs and
both my legs last year."
      "That, my good Major, is because you're a cold
ruthless bitch."
      "Arrogant bastard."
      "Drunken slut."
      "Lecher."
      The eavesdropping staff were cringing at this bizarre
exchange. Delivered as it was in a deadpan monotone.
Gehirn, whatever else it was, must've occupied at least as
powerful a position as NERV's in the complex and shifting
structure of international government intelligence.
Meanwhile, here was their boss trading insults with his
equivalent number in that other agency. Rather immature
insults at that. Rumor now had it that whoever Gehrin's
Tactical Section Commander was, must've at one time been
dating the Major and must've still been bitter over his
marriage. Of course the rumor hadn't existed two minutes
ago, but such was the way with any large organization.
      "Very true." Kaji's mouth quirked into a small smile.
"Code Foster invocation accepted, Major. Welcome to the
wonderful world of cooperation."
      The voice sneered. "Just send the boy, Major. It
doesn't mean hugs and kisses."
      He smirked, "Pity."
      "Gehirn-TacSec, over and out."
      Major Ryouji Kaji, with the invocation of both Code
Factor and Code Foster was now the fifth most powerful man
on the planet, stepped out of the elevator, into the
brightly lit control center and looking at his staff with
bright, hard eyes. They all looked faintly disturbed. But
they moved with precision and efficiency. Just like they'd
been trained.
      Sitting above it all, was the Doctor, Yui Ikari. Her
fingers intertwined before her, her lightly tinted hornrim
glasses reflecting the light. She was a handsome woman with
short, light brown hair and was younger than one would've
expected for someone in her position and looked even
younger than that, but her intellect placed her light years
beyond everyone else.
      Except possibly for her second in command and
Research Chief, who stood just a little behind her seat,
with hands folded just so, wearing amber-lensed glasses
that caught the light and hid those eyes that radiated cold
indifference. The Chief was the Doctor's shadow, confidant,
and rumor had it, sometime lover.
      Kaji grinned up and gave his in-law a playful wink,
and got a frown back in return. He grinned and clapped his
hands together, rubbing them briskly. "Well, here's what
we've been working towards for all these years, boys and
girls. It's showtime!"
     

      "Shinji, what's going on?" Asuka demanded, panting as
she struggled to keep up with him.
      "They're here! This is what I've been training for!"
His voice was tight and excited. The grin on his face
scared Asuka. It was so... hungry.
      They were moving hurriedly down the narrow,
claustrophobic hallways of the facility. Shinji was flying,
holding both hands before him and Asuka was sprinting
beside him. To everyone else, they were nothing more than a
flashing pair of red and blue and red and gold blurs that
left a trail of electrical flickerings, strong wind and the
smell of ozone. To them, everyone else was standing still.
      Ryu-san had said two words to them and suddenly
Shinji took off like a rocket. Without meaning to and
without thinking about it, she followed after him. She
supposed she should've stayed in the infirmary, she was
after all, technically still in recovery from gaining her
abilities, but she could feel her control improving with
every step. She was even carrying Dieter, although she
didn't quite remember picking him up. He was proof that her
control had improved. The bear seemed to be acting at
normal speed with regards to them even though they were
moving at a speed at least a factor of 60 faster than
everyone else around them.
      "But where are you going?"
      "Launch bay 23."
      Asuka blinked in surprise at that, "Isn't that on the
other side of the city?" Then she looked disturbed. How did
she know that?
      He grinned at her, "It is. We're already three-
quarters of the way there, didn't you notice?"
      "I... I don't know."
      "Well, we are. We're moving pretty fast, so I fixed
it so we don't leave sonic booms behind us. I kept getting
lectured about that until I figured out how to do it."
      "Oh."
      Shinji glanced down at her. There was an odd
expression on his face. She frowned slightly. Was he
checking her out? So much for that innocent facade he had,
she thought. Worst of all, she could feel herself bouncing
all over the place in the ridiculously tight outfit she had
to wear. There wasn't even any room for underwear under it.
If she'd had any to begin with when she'd woken up. So no
doubt that flying lecher was getting a good view. She
sighed and blushed, edging slightly away from him and
clutching her bear closer to her, blocking off his view of
her chest as they moved.
      His flickering gaze, wandered more and more towards
her chest, the tighter she clung to her bear. It was
becoming more than she could deal with.
      "What?" She finally snapped at him.
      "Um... I've been wondering... why do you have a teddy
bear with you?"
      The bear sounded mildly miffed, "I'm not a teddy
bear! I'm Dieter!"
      It was his turn to be surprised, "Is that an
animatronic..?"
      She snapped at him, "He's my best friend, okay?"
      "Um... okay."
      They continued on in embarrassed silence past the
frozen tableau.


      The sound of heavy knocking on her door brought her
out of her trance. She leisurely put on a terrycloth robe
and opened it.
      The Financial Section Chief of NERV US gaped at her
for a moment as he realized what she was wearing. Very
little. He gulped nervously and fidgeted. He was an
accountant, this wasn't in his job description. Of course,
he was the top accountant of an organization that employed
her... so he supposed it was a necessary evil that he have
to be the one to speak to her.
      She scared the living daylights out of him. Then
again, most women did. Especially the attractive ones. She
was definitely one of the attractive ones. Was he robe
opening just a bit? Oh god...
      He gulped and stuttered, "Ma'am, sorry to disturb
you. But we've just received word from Tokyo..."
      "I know." She replied, "It's an Angel attack."
      Her declaration shook him from his musings, as he
nodded, "Er... yes, ma'am. We're prepping the Lear for you
now. It'll be a few hours to Tokyo."
      She smiled at him and brushed back a stray strand of
light brown hair from her face, "No need, Mr. Falkner. I'll
handle my own travel arrangements."
      "But the Major said to get you back to Tokyo ASAP--"
      "Which is why I'm not taking the Lear. Comfortable as
that would've been."
      "Yes, ma'am."
      "Oh... and Falkner?"
      "Yes, ma'am?"
      "If I catch you trying to look down my robe again,
I'll rip your eyes out, alright?" She smiled sweetly at
him.
      "Yes, ma'am!"
      She shut the door in his face and let the smile slip
from her features. She threw off the uncomfortable robe and
pulled open the picture window of her penthouse apartment.
It had proven necessary to have that especially done, since
most people designed these windows to never open. She
needed that though.
      She looked out, taking in New York for a brief moment
and allowed herself to taste the texture of the city one
last time before she headed out. Tokyo would be a whole new
world to her again.
      She knew Shinji's eagerness to confront the Angel. He
had been waiting for it for these many years after all. She
could taste it.
      She took a glance at herself in the mirror and
nodded. Her face was utterly devoid of expression. With
only herself, it always was.
      He will need us.
      Plus he misses me, I'm sure.
      That is immaterial.
      Not to me, it isn't.
      Let us go.
      She pushed back her pale blue hair from her eyes and
hopped on the windowsill. She spread out her arms, allowing
the powerful winds to caress her naked form for a long
moment before her other came and enfolded her in a warm
embrace. She stepped off the windowsill as
gravity/wasnotdown/was-
Singularity/indirection/toseeking/beFOUND--
      The windows of the nearby buildings were rattled by
the sonic boom as a streak of black, white and red raced
off to the distant east.

     
      "Um... Shinji... something's rattling me..."
      "Its just nerves."
      "No, I mean my plugsuit is shaking... It's very slow,
but I can feel it, like someone's thumping on my hip."
      "Oh... that means someone's trying to contact you.
Slow down to normal speed and find out what they want. Just
talk normally, I'll go on ahead."
      "But--" She sighed and willed herself to slow down.
It was working better than she expected. In just a few
seconds, she's gotten the whole super-speed or compression
thing under her full control. She could feel time for
herself contracting back to normal... and the strange
tingling sensation as the thickened air released its grip
on her. She managed to catch a glimpse of Shinji's flapping
cape and bootsoles before he zoomed off down the corridor.
      As the world sprang into normal motion around her,
she staggered as the lightning trailing her finally caught
up again. That must've been the worst part about the entire
super powers thing. She wondered idly why Shinji didn't
seem to have that problem. Around her a number of personnel
blinked in surprise, but noone seemed to be too surprised.
She smiled weakly at them and waved. They waved back before
hurrying on their way.
      At normal speed the couldn't feel the thumping
anymore. It was a full body vibration. It was at just the
right frequency to set the teeth humming. Very annoying.
She fumbled at her hip, trying to find the source of the
vibrations from before and found a few more cunningly
concealed buttons. She tapped one and Ritsuko's voice came
at her, "--uka, please come back to the infirmary."
      "Oh! Um... Ritsuko-san?"
      "Yes, dear?"
      "I..." she looked around. She had no idea where she
was. Much less what she was doing here. Why HAD she
followed Shinji? She wasn't sure. Just that Kaji had said,
'Angel Attack' and the next thing she knew she'd been
gripped by a powerful excitement and had to rush to...
somewhere.
      "Come down to the infirmary, dear. It's for your own
good. It'll be alright. Shinji will be fine, don't worry
about him." Her voice was soothing, though oddly tinny.
Asuka could've sworn Ritsuko was standing right in front of
her.
      "How're you talking to me?"
      "Short wave radio built into the plugsuit. The
speakers are on your shoulders."
      Asuka looked at her shoulders thoughtfully. The
plugsuit's material seemed so painfully thin, but she
realized it must've contained some pretty sophisticated and
very tiny circuitry to do what it was supposed to. "Wow."
      "How do I get back to the infirmary?" she looked
around, "I'm... um... I'm not really sure where I am right
now."
      "I'll direct you, but you'll have to take the
elevators like a normal person." Asuka couldn't see her but
knew that the woman was grinning at her. She couldn't help
but flinch at the implication. She wasn't normal anymore.
She could catch a bullet and go halfway across Tokyo in
under a minute.
      "A-alright."
      "Want some music?"
      "What?"
      "The controls for the radio are on your other hip."
      "Oh. Um... maybe later."
      "No problem."


      Shinji burst out of launch bay 23 which had been
hidden inside the exit pipe of a storm drain. He tilted his
head back, letting his body follow the slight movement and
sent himself rocketing into the night sky. His speed was
such that the very air battered at him but he drank in its
energy. He'd spent the early part of the day sunning
himself and even now, after that battle with the L-types,
earlier, and helping Asuka, he was still crackling with
stored power. He pushed himself as fast as his powers could
take him and he could vaguely imagine the crack of thunder
his passage caused.
      He would've liked to have had Asuka with him. She
deserved to share the fun too, but Ritsuko had called her
back. She was still inexperienced. More likely than not,
she'd just hurt herself. Not that it detracted too much
from his excitement. He'd always been alone in this. Except
for Rei. And she was... well, she was Rei. The vibration
from his radio shook him out of his reverie.
      "Unit 01?" The Major's voice was harsh and tinny
across the tiny speakers.
      "Yes, sir?"
      "Engage the angel. You are authorized to use all
powers. I repeat, you are authorized to use all powers.
Bring that sucker down before it reaches Japan's coast."
      "Thank you, sir!"
      He grinned into the wind. He had been waiting for
this. The L-types were all very well, but a true superhero
was tested by the mettle of his foes. The angel was a
worthy foe indeed. Or so he'd been told. He was ready.
After all, couldn't he leap tall buildings in a single
bound?
      The coast fell away behind him and the sea was
nothing so much as a blur as he flew over it. Even at his
speed, it would take him a minute or so longer to reach the
target. But he was definitely faster than a speeding
bullet.
      He could already pick it out in the distance,
surrounded by UN and Japanese warships. Seeing around the
curvature of the planet was an elementary trick he'd taught
himself back in grade school. It grew in his field of
vision as he drew closer.
      It had reared itself out of the water, several dozen
feet tall standing in a birdlike crouch on top of the
remains of the UN Carrier Dacosta. The Angel's face, if it
could be called such, only served to enhance its avian
appearance, resembling a weird bird's skull. The body was
black and lean to the point of being emaciated, like a very
broad shouldered human with no neck who'd been taken
through a taffy machine. It's ribs extended out of its
chest and a red sphere was cradled in them like an obscene,
smooth parody of a human heart.
      A number of the other ships in the near vicinity were
firing on it, but there didn't seem to be any effect.
Shinji watched in fascination as it actually caught a
missile launched at it, shredding the metal casing with its
long, delicate fingers.
      It stared at the source of the missile and its eyes
flared, causing that carrier to go up in a cross shaped
explosion.
      Shinji was fascinated. It was amazing. A powerful
engine of destruction. Almost something straight out of the
comic books. A truly worthy challenge.
      He could vaguely hear Kaji's voice saying, "Kick it."
And he grinned broadly. There was no doubt. There was no
fear. Only the thrill of battle. He pulled his head back,
sending himself shooting straight up. A second later and
miles above, with a suddenness that would've torn apart
anything else that would try such a maneuver, he looped
around, rocketing straight towards the water and the
creature.
      He allowed gravity to urge him on, as he built up his
own gathered speed. He shifted energy to mass and twisted
his substance into something that was almost totally
impermeable. He did not even realize precisely how he did
it, he simply thought of it as becoming super-strong. The
scientists who studied him called it Singularity.
      As he closed, he drew back a fist, wrapping it in
mass and energy, his every motion seemed to distort things
around him as he weighed heavily on the fabric of space. He
smashed his hand into where he approximated its forehead
was, driving his fist into it, backed as it was by his
considerable mass and speed.
      The impact sent out shockwaves that rocked all of the
warships and shattered all the glass of the nearby ships.
The creature... the angel, reeled from the force of the
blow. Its bird skull face cracked almost in half, but it
did not quite fall from its perch. Shinji could only stare
in amazement. He hadn't hit anything full force in a very
long time. But every time he'd done so, whatever it was,
was inevitably destroyed. If anything, the angel was only
mildly hurt and staggered by the blow.
      The angel took advantage of Shinji's surprise and
seemed to shrug its shoulders. As it did, the muscle mass
of its chest, rippled and seemed to redistribute itself
along its upper arm before it lashed out a fist, slapping
Shinji out of the air and into a ship. He tore through the
steel of the vessel as though it were tissue paper, but he
could still feel the metal clawing at him before it gave
way and the impact of each deck before he burst through
each one.
      He ended up in the engine room where panicked sailors
and engineers stared at him in confusion. He picked himself
up, wincing in pain. He was banged up pretty badly and as
he could taste something coppery in his mouth. He brought
up a hand and touched it to his lip. Blood. He was
bleeding. It had actually hurt him!
      His face set itself into a rictus of fury. It wasn't
going to get away with THAT! He flew out of the holes he'd
created, building up his speed and strength once more.
After all... wasn't he more powerful than a locomotive?
It was time to get heroic.


      "This isn't going so well, is it?" Kaji sighed to
himself, his arms folded across his chest as he watched the
live feed from the battle.
      The Doctor bit her lower lip, doing her best to keep
the tension she felt away from her face. She whispered.
"He's getting hurt out there."
      The Chief put a comforting hand on her shoulder, "It
will be alright."
      A tech at her station spoke, "The ships are pulling
back. They're allowing Unit 01 to engage directly. They're
providing some covering fire, but that's it."
      One of the techs, an attractive brunette woman with
short bob of hair blurted out suddenly, "Unit 01's P-length
just went up to five micrometers."
      A pretty blonde woman added, "Increased adrenaline
levels. Pulse rate and blood pressure way up."
      "I think its safe to say that our boy is pissed."
Kaji replied in a mutter. He raised his voice slightly,
adjusting the microphone he had attached to his earpiece,
"Unit 01-- you left yourself wide open for that last one,
so don't stop. It looks like you've got the edge on him in
speed. Give him a barrage."
      Shinji's upset voice came across the radio, "Sir,
this-- I think it can bypass my invulnerability. I'm
bleeding..." The live feed from the battle showed that the
boy stopped, flying just out of the angel's reach.
      Kaji replied smoothly, "Doesn't matter, son. He has
to hit you to hurt you and you're faster. Just keep moving.
Simulation eighteen. Remember?"
      "Yes, sir!"

     
      Asuka was back in bed and watching the monitor
tensely. "Is he going to be--?"
      "Don't worry about him, he'll be fine." Ritsuko gave
the girl a confident smile she didn't really feel. She was
against allowing Asuka to watch the battle, but it would
help give the girl an idea as to what she could expect when
her turn came. If she ever decided to help. As shy and
heistant as the girl seemed, there was an unspoken
insistence in her very attitude that she be allowed to see
what was happening. Too many secrets had been kept from her
and she wasn't going to stand for it.
      Although she had allowed herself to lie down for it,
complete with a new hospital robe worn over her plug suit
and a replacement set of sheets to replace the ones she'd
ruined earlier.
      The timing couldn't have been worse, though. The poor
girl had been through enough shocks today, this was another
one she could've done without. But despite the initial hits
the angel and Shinji had traded, the battle seemed to be on
more equal footing now, with Shinji slowly taking the upper
hand. He flew quickly, ducking and weaving the swipes that
the angel was making. As each blow passed within a
hairsbreadth of striking him, he would lash back, striking
with whatever he had on hand. On more than one occasion, he
would swoop down and pick up large jagged sections of metal
which he would drive into the creature's limbs. He'd
already succeeded in apparently disabling the creature's
right arm, which dangled loosely down its side. This only
served to redouble the attacks it was making with its left.
      "But what is it?"
      "An alien creature. We call it an angel. One of
several which are expected to try and invade the earth."
      Asuka stared at Ritsuko, ignoring the battle on the
screen for the first time since it started, "You're
serious..."
      Ritsuko looked amused, "You just saw a boy who can
fly, bend steel like so much taffy, you catch bullets and
watched some L-types get their heads blown off and keep
going. All that, just today, and you can't accept aliens
angels?"
      "That looks like a gooney bird..." Asuka murmured
looking at the screen again.
      "Yeah, it does, doesn't it? It'd almost be cute if it
weren't huge and rampaging." 
      Asuke just stared at her in horror. Cute?!
      "It's okay... just relax. We've been preparing for
them for a long time. It's why we've been looking for kids
like you and Shinji."
      "Kids who have... superpowers?"
      Ritsuko nodded, "We theorized that conventional
weaponry would have no effect on them. Only certain special
people have abilities that can bypass their defenses."
      "But--"
      Ritsuko sighed just as Shinji landed a powerful
wallop on the creature's 'beak'. "Asuka, I know you're
upset and you have a lot, a lot, a LOT of questions, but if
you promise me that you'll get some rest, I'll do my best
to answer them. After you've rested."
      Asuka sighed and crossed her arms, dropping back into
the bed and pulling Dieter closer to her. She watched the
battle progress, as Shinji drove a spear of metal into the
creature's side and suddenly gagged at a horrible taste.
She pulled her thumb away from her mouth, wincing at the
taste of the plug-suit material. She sighed. Well, that was
one way to keep her from biting her nails.


      Shinji grinned, slipping his body between each of the
Angel's strikes. The Major was right. This thing was at
least as strong as he was, but he was faster. He could
handle this. He could really deal with this, no problem.
      He'd gathered a number of ten foot girders from the
remnants of one of the ships and was using them almost like
javelins. They were penetrating the Angel's 'flesh',
crippling it slowly, but it was fighting on gamely.
      He drew back, just outside of the reach of its arms
and launched another barrage of his projectiles. He swung
his arm around in an over arm throw with all of his
strength, sending the steel sections screaming through the
air at supersonic speeds.
      The creature raised its good hand to fend off the
attack as it raised its head to get a good look at him.
Shinji saw its eyes flash into golden crosses for a second
before he was suddenly enveloped by pain.


      Kaji groaned, "Oh shit."
      On the monitor the live feed from robot camera four
showed Shinji suddenly caught in a mid-air cross shaped
explosion. He was stunned for a critical few seconds, his
cape, now tattered and fluttering weakly as he fell.
      The Angel, reached out, almost seeming to overbalance
itself on its precarious perch and caught the falling
Shinji in its good hand. It raised the source of its pain
up to its eye and began to squeeze.
      A sudden babble of voices erupted from the control
center. Above them, the Doctor's grip on her desk turned
her knuckles white.
      "Pressure increasing on the plug-suit. Three hundred
kilopascals and rising."
      "He's slipping into unconsciousness, but P-length is
holding at one micrometer."
      "Sir, we know why the ships have been pulling back...
bombers are coming in..." the tech's eyes widened as new
information was fed to her, "They're carrying an N2
device."
      "Bomber ETA to release point in one minute, sir!"
      "What?" Kaji tapped his earpiece and spoke into his
mike rapidly, his voice was low and calm, but urgent,
"Shinji, wake up. You have to wake up. You need to get out
of there faster than a speeding bullet. They're going to
use an N2 bomb on you. Get out!"
      Camera three focused more tightly on Shinji's face.
It had an expression of dazed confusion mixed with pain.
The boy hadn't been really hurt by anything since he was
nine... Kaji shook his head.
      He could see the boy struggling for a second before,
to everyone's amazement, the angel's arm suddenly raised
above its head and it was actually lifted off the carrier
wreck it had stationed itself on.
      Another camera showed a more distant view. They could
see what passed for  musculature in the angel's arm tense
as it began to squeeze the boy that had actually managed to
lift it. The grimace of pain on Shinji's face deepened, but
he continued to concentrate, somehow managing to raise the
massive creature even higher into the air in his attempt to
escape.
      The angel had other plans. From its elbow, a spike of
energy protruded that suddenly retracted back into the
angel's forearm. The hand that held Shinji shuddered, and
some sort of gaseous backblast escaped between the
creature's fingers. The slow lift ended and the angel
crashed back onto the wrecked and much abused Dacosta,
finally breaking it in half. They began to sink, but the
angel didn't relinquish its grip on Shinji.
      "Solid energy impact. Like some sort of energy
piledriver. Its hitting Unit 01 with it! Fifty megapascals
of impact pressure!"
      "L-length just dropped to point oh-five micrometers."
      There was no sound being fed to them back in the
control center, but from the camera three feed they could
all see Shinji begin to scream.


      "Ohmigod! It's killing him!"
      "Asuka," Ritsuko tried to soothe her, "He's
alright... he's invulnera--"
      "Look at him, he's screaming, Ritsuko! Someone help
him! Someone has to help him!" Her voice was rising even as
she pulled herself up. Dieter the bear was making little
choking noises as her arm tightened around his little
stuffed neck.
      Ritsuko steeled herself and refused to look at the
screen. She knew that she would start panicking too if she
did. She started to say something, but Asuka's voice
suddenly rose to an inaudible high-pitched whine and she
began to blur.
      The woman recognized that Asuka had accessed her
powers again and ducked just in time. There was a loud
explosion, which resulted in another shredded sheet and a
bolt of lightning that suddenly tore from the bed striking
the TV screen they'd been watching.
      Ritsuko peeked from the floor. The TV screen was a
total loss. It had become scorched around the edges and the
glass was blown out... no... it was blown in. There was no
glass on the floor near the screen.
      She peeked above the bed and only Dieter was there,
looking rather lost and lonely in the middle of the empty
and torn up bed. Asuka had vanished again. She leapt for
the intercom to get the people in the control center to
patch her into Asuka's suit radio again, but she caught her
toe on one of the bed's legs and tripped, sending her
sprawled on the floor. It took a little longer than it
should've before she finally got to the intercom, but it
was more than enough time. Those were the critical few
seconds when things REALLY started to happen.
     

      "Bomber ETA to release point 20 seconds!"
      The tension in the room could've been cut with a
knife and served at a dysfunctional dinner table.
      Their view suddenly became just snow and noise.
      "What the--?"
      "Sir, we just lost the signal from camera three.
We're not sure what happened--"
      Kaji snapped back, "Just shift to camera two. Release
10 cc's of adrenaline into Unit 01." He tapped his headset
and spoke in a low, calm tone that he most assuredly was
not feeling. "Not even a bursting shell can pierce your
skin, Shinji-kun, remember? Either get out, or crank up
your invulnerability."
      The screen flickered back to life, showing a
different view of the action. Shinji was now hanging limp
from the angel's hand.
      "He's unconscious!"
      "N2 device is released, sir. Detonation in three
seconds!"
      "Dammit." Kaji muttered.
      They watched helplessly as the bomb fell.
      "Two seconds to detonation!"
      "One second!"
      The view shifted slightly and caught sight of the
wayward camera three, which was mounted on a small remote
controlled helicopter. Without warning, it exploded and
sent a jagged bolt of lightning arcing across to strike the
angel. The bolt danced and played across its body. It
seemed to roar in pain as it was bathed in electrical fire.
As the lightning flash ended, the hand it had been holding
Shinji in, had also vanished.
      That only managed to register on the eyes for a
fraction of a second before the all consuming flare from
the N2 bomb, followed by the noise and static of
electromagnetic disruption.
      "What the HELL was that?" Kaji blinked.
      "Our sensors weren't active long enough to get a
clear reading, but it seemed like some sort of massive
electrical discharge--"
      "I could see that, Lieutenant, I want to know what
happened."
      Another tech who had been silent up to this point
suddenly spoke. "Sir, the Infirmary reports that Unit 03
has vanished."
      "She's what?"
      "Cameras will be active in thirty seconds."
      "Sir, FATE conjectures the strike on the angel was
some sort of massive tightly organized mass of gamma
particles. It was moving so fast that it was transforming
the air in its path into an ionized plasma. The electrical
discharge grounded into the angel."
      "Where did it get that from?"
      "01's plug-suit is broadcasting through the N2
interference. FATE is collating that information against
the visual data."
      "We just picked up Unit 03's signal. She's with 01.
Her P-length is registering at 34 micrometers and holding!"
The tech blew a few strands of long dark hair from out of
her eyes, "Sir... this can't be right. According to her
plug-suit's sensors she's not... er... she's travelling
at... this can't possibly be right." She shook her head.
      Kaji glanced over, "What?"
      "There's no physical body registering, but we have a
mass reading. That's impossible! The gamma body may be Unit
03--"
      He murmured under his breath, "Repealing the laws of
physics..."
      "Unit 01's conscious again, sir. His P-length just
jumped to match hers. He's--"
      "Receiving broadcast from the cameras and satellites
again, sir. Picture's clearing up."
     

      Asuka couldn't remember what had happened clearly.
She knew she had been very upset at seeing Shinji getting
hurt. He was the first kid her age who'd ever been nice to
her. Weird as he was. She remembered screaming at Ritsuko
to help him. For someone... anyone to help... then she
remembered everything suddenly blurring... as though she
had slowed down, but it didn't feel like it.
      She remembered jumping out of bed to go to him, to
help him. She was scared of the angel. The creature.
Whatever it was. But she was more scared that he would get
hurt. Superpowers or not, he was just a kid too. A kid like
her. More like her than anyone she'd ever known before,
since they could both do weird stuff.
      She remembered the leap. She remembered clearing a
distance that was clear across the room... she saw the
screen rushing to meet her as she closed that distance...
she remembered something black and light and dark and
crackling and silently loud rushing past her as she kept
falling towards the picture, which wasn't a picture anymore
but it was really them and they were so far away and
everything was happening before she could think, so she
didn't think she just wanted to be there and she felt like
she was underwater but she wasn't, but if felt like she
was, so she swam through the thick air angling herself
towards the creature... and gravity had no power and she
kicked and stroked and swam like it was water, but it was
really air, but it was alright and it was frozen and she
swam. She remembered hitting its leg, crashing into a thing
that felt like crumbly powder, digging in her fingers and
toes and climbing as fast as she could, finding the seams
and handholds and making them when she really needed to, as
fast as she dared while behind her a dozen, a hundred other
Asuka's were also climbing and falling and swimming and
moving and she looked up as she passed the angel's chest
and dug her fingers into the purple ball there and she
couldn't see anything to each side, just black, black,
black, black and ahead was Shinji in the thing's hand and
he was asleep and he wasn't breathing and his face was blue
and she climbed faster and behind her a thousand other
Asuka's swarmed up following her path. She remembered
reaching Shinji, who was bluefaced and not moving and
frozen and everything else was frozen and she tore at the
hand that she hit and screamed and kicked and dug and tore
and gouged and she touched him and his eyes opened slowly
oh so very slowly and she pulled and pulled and pulled and
its hand cracked and powdered and flashed and she screamed.
She screamed! Never again! Never again! Then... just white.
Nothing. Blank space...
      The next thing she remembered with any clarity was
waking up to Shinji's smile. He had a happy expression on
his face and her in his arms. She felt totally drained. She
barely even had the energy to blush. Not that that stopped
her. A blush rarely waited for an opportune moment.
      "Are you okay?" She asked him slowly. It was a silly
question. She was being very silly. Of course he was
alright. He was flying with her in his arms and he didn't
seem to be straining at all.
      "They dropped a bomb on us." He smiled pleasantly,
"I've never had one dropped on me before. I was getting
worried there for a moment, but I'm glad you came and
helped me."
      "Um... you're welcome." Her blush deepened. Despite
the battle he'd just been through he still smelled faintly
of bath soap. There was still some blood on his lip and his
nose was bleeding slightly, but otherwise he looked fine.
Better than fine actually. He was even cuter up close, she
realized.
      The fingertips of her gloves had been torn off and
her hands were very sore. But neither that nor her
embarrassment stopped her from wrapping her arms around his
neck when she realized just how high up they were.
"Shouldn't... shouldn't we get back to... you know... what
did Ritsuko-san call it? Nerve?"
      "It's not quite over yet." He said distantly, his
eyes focused on the now tranquil waters below. There was
nothing floating in them now. She remembered there had been
ships when she was watching on the monitor. Of the angel
though, there seemed to be nothing left.
      Asuka bit back a scream as the angel's charred and
twisted form burst out of the water suddenly. It rose...
bobbed once, then settled into an odd sideways float. Or
perhaps it was on its back, it was hard to tell where its
front was now, as it's broken arm had charred off totally
and the rest of it was a scarred mess of black and bone
white.
      "Isn't it--?"
      "Not dead yet. Look." He gave a nod of his head and
she looked. It was moving ever so faintly and it wasn't
just the motion of the sea doing it. Small pieces of
scorched flesh were sloughing off of the creature,
revealing shiny and healthy looking black flesh underneath.
Even the shattered skull face seemed to be getting pushed
out of the way by a whole face that was rising slowly from
the folds of the creature's substance. "It's healing
itself."
      "Oh god... do they have to bomb it again?"
      "No... I think--" he began but was interrupted by
sudden shudders running through both of them.
      "Asuka, what're you doing out of the infirmary
again?" Kaji's spoke. His voice was stern but there was a
strange undercurrent of amusement to it.
      "Um... uh... I mean... I... oh god!" she covered her
face.
      "And Shinji... yes, I know she's pretty, but enough
flirting with her, you need to finish off the angel."
      "Who's flirting?" The boy responded stiffly.
      "Well, you still have an angel to finish. Most of its
defenses are still up, we think, but you seem to be able to
bypass its like it could bypass yours."
      "Yes sir. I was just about to... um..." he flashed
Asuka a self-conscious glance then continued, "I was kind
of planning on ramming myself through it, but I'm worried
about Asuka, sir."
      She blushed even more and replied faintly, "Um... if
I'm a bother, you could just... um... I guess fly me back
or something." She ended weakly.
      "How much of a charge do you still have?" Kaji's
voice came back.
      "About a third of my capacity, sir. Why?"
      "Well... you have been asking me for a chance to use
your Nova Flux again. You are authorized for all powers..."
      "Really, sir? Wow! Thanks." Shinji grinned excitedly. 
      "Are you waiting for Valentine's or something? Get to
it. It seems to be healing very quickly. We estimate that
in another half hour it'll be back to full health."
      "What is Nova Flux?" Asuka finally asked.
      Shinji through his grin stared down at the seared
angel and said, "Heat Vision."
      His eyes suddenly changed from a pleasant grayish
brown to a disturbingly bright crimson. There was a brief
red flash of light from them and as Asuka watched, a
portion of the angel where its chest had been seemed to
twist and warp. As though its substance were being pinched
into a single point. There was a loud crack, like something
strained suddenly reaching its breaking point and a
pinpoint flare of pure white light burst from the warped
section.
      The pinprick of white blossomed suddenly expanding
almost out of control into a searing explosion of pure
energy, consuming the creature in a conflagration of white
flames. Around it the sea bubbled as it boiled away from
the heat, which even from their distant vantage point,
Asuka could feel on her face.
      "No wonder they didn't let you use it a while ago--"
Asuka mumbled around her thumb.
      "I have it under control. They're just scared of it."
He replied.
      Well, why wouldn't they be? Asuka asked herself.
      The two watched in silence as the creature seared
away into nothing but ash floating across the boiling sea.
      A sudden gust of wind sent Asuka's hair blowing
across Shinji's face and set the torn remnants of his cape
flapping. She looked away from the sea and into the sky as
it deepened into night. Above them the Aurora Borealis
shimmered faintly into view, like a veil across the stars.
For a moment... just for a moment, Asuka could almost
imagine the only people in the world were her and Shinji.
And somehow, the thought wasn't that bad.
      A voice interrupted the moment, light and amused as
it spoke. "Something tells me I should've taken the Lear."
      Shinji turned, shifting his orientation to face the
voice, Asuka still cradled in his arms. It was a girl of
their age dressed in a similar plugsuit. It was red and
black, but the gloves and boots were white. Across the
chest gold markings could be made out indistinctly. She was
smirking at them and floating at roughly the same height
they were.
      She had her arms folded across her chest and one foot
seemed to be pretending to be tapping the ground which was
actually a couple of miles west and a few hundred feet
down. Her hair was a strange pale blue.
      Shinji's face broke into another grin, "Rei! When did
you come back from the States?"
      "Just a few seconds ago." She leaned forward and eyed
Asuka thoughtfully.
      Asuka gulped and tried to shrink deeper into Shinji's
arms. An action which only caused the girl's dark red eyes
to narrow further. The same red that Shinji's eyes had been
when he used his heat vision.
      "Obviously, I'm here just a little too late, aren't
I?" She asked a little sharply, continuing to eye Asuka.
There was some strange undercurrent to her question which
made the redhead wonder whether this Rei person was asking
about the battle or something else.
      Shinji smiled and inclined his head towards the
direction of the coast, "No, you're not! The Major is
making dinner, come on. We'll make a party of it!"
      Rei sighed and released a puff of air, blowing at the
hair which was threatening to cover her eyes. She smirked
at Asuka, "He'll never get it."
      "Um... this isn't what it looks like--"
      Rei laughed, "It usually isn't with Shin-chan.
      "Get what?"
      "Nevermind."
      The girl flew closer, "I'm Rei Ayanami." Her eyes
twinkled as though she were sharing a grand joke with
Asuka.
      "Asuka... Asuka Soryuu."
      "Cool. Nice to meet you." The girl grinned. "Hey,
Shinji, is the Major making sukiyaki again?"
      "I think so."
      "Heck... I got here too early then. Oh, well... let's
get out of here."
      Asuka wondered if this was going to be a normal day,
what dinner would be like.

End Part 3