Neon Genesis: EVANGELION
Eva Wasn't Built in A Day.
v1.0 (final 'net release)
By Jared Waddell : rick_spiff@yahoo.com
Disclaimer: I own none of the characters in this work except for Goku
Takagi and James Rahn.
This story takes place post-episode 18.
******* WARNING WARNING WARNING WARNING WARNING WARNING *******
This fanfic contains S P O I L E R S ! ! !
This fanfic contains material that may be offensive to some
readers, including material of a type never covered in the Eva
series. This is not a nice story; it's Eva material, so if you
didn't like some of the issues present in the series, don't
even think about reading this!
******* WARNING WARNING WARNING WARNING WARNING WARNING *******
Chapter 4:
---
Footsteps... soft lighting... the confines of a cell.
And one _mother_ of a headache.
"Do you have _any_ brains at all?"
"Yes ma'am."
"_Don't_ play smart with me!"
"Yes ma'am."
"Do you realize how much trouble you're in?"
"Yes ma'am."
"The Commander isn't going to be happy about this."
"No ma'am'"
"Did you think of the repercussions to this?"
"Yes ma'am."
"I mean, assaulting one of our own pilots?!! What in the name of all
things holy were you thinking?!!"
"Ma'am, do you really wish to know?"
"Hell yes! How could you do such a thing!!"
"Well ma'am, it has to do with her psychological condition-"
"I'm WELL aware of that!"
"as it could cause problems with her combat effectiveness."
Misato stopped, her short pacing in Takagi's cell halted like a CD put
on pause.
"And you decided to deal with this?"
"I was trying to help, ma'am."
"You broke THREE of her FINGERS! How can that be helpful?!!"
"Well ma'am, I didn't intend for that to happen."
"Well it DID!"
"Yes ma'am."
"And the Commander wants to talk to you."
"Yes ma'am." A strange look came over Misato's face, but passed quickly.
"Are you even listening to me?"
He sighed, his own voice ringing in his ears. He was still nauseous and
no one had thought to give him any painkillers, so he was still feeling
the after-effects of a less-than-healthy dose of sake and numerous blows
to the head. With all that, it wasn't surprising that he wasn't paying
much attention to what was going on around him, but he was still lucid
enough to answer questions, or in this case, tell when someone was lying
to him.
"Yes ma'am."
---
As expected, commander Ikari was not happy. The hour was far from late,
and it had been a relatively uneventful day, apart from a drunken brawl
involving two of NERV's pilots. The embarrassing thing was, the two
pilots were the only people involved.
"I'm not going to patronize your behavior towards Miss Sohryu. However,
I do want you to explain this behavior to me. Now."
Always one to follow orders, despite his present condition, Goku was
able to relate his views on the subject, and explain his 'plan' to the
commander in a monologue.
It was quite simple really. Asuka had a double-complex of fear and anger
that worked in a cycle to keep her sane, a kind of automatic defense
mechanism. Fear to warn her of danger to her emotions, and anger to keep
that danger away. Releasing her anger, usually in the form of insults,
kept it from boiling over too often. Lately, something had been keeping
her depressed, and while anger usually accompanies depression, in
Asuka's case, there was nothing but a bleakness in her soul.
Goku had set out to get her angry, and allow her to release her
frustrations. As it turned out, in a violent manner.
And it was Goku's lack of control over the situation that resulted in
their injuries, something which he took full responsibility for.
After he finished his somewhat laughable explanation, the Commander did
his glasses thing, and dismissed Takagi with a little wave. He waited
outside for a moment, biting his lip against the pain that seeped
through his veins. He was still waiting there when a nurse of
nondescript character walked up and handed him a little paper cup with
two pills in it.
"Here. I found this in the room the admitted you to. You were supposed
to take it before you left, but apparently the doctor misplaced them."
She smiled a smile without charm or sincerity, and hovered over him
until he swallowed the pills and took a drink of water from the nearest
fountain.
Then Commander Ikari called him back into his office.
"You do not have a medical degree in psychology. Your practical
experience does not warrant examination and treatment in this area.
However, you are also a sort of behavior specialist, so for now this
will not go on anyone's records, except as an accident, as long as I
have your assurance that it will not happen again."
"You have my word, Commander."
"Excellent. Dismissed."
---
Four days later, Cage 4, the eve before the attack is to be launched...
Goku was feeling much better. His injuries had healed somewhat, and he
found that the pain was easy to ignore while synched with an Eva,
provided the Eva itself wasn't damaged. Unit 03 had been completed on
schedule, and it was hot rumor that Ritsuko hadn't sleep in the last
fifty hours to get the thing up and running. This didn't improve
Takagi's already fragile mood in the first operational synch test with
Unit 03.
"Pre-locks engaged."
"Power flow nominal."
"Beginning countdown."
"Point oh two..."
Takagi waited passively for all the connections to be made.
"Absolute borderline reached..."
Suddenly, he felt horribly sick and dizzy, like the world was spinning
around him a hundred times a second. He closed him eyes, but that just
made things worse since he could _still_ see with his eyes shut. There
was no up and no down.
"Synch ratio stabilizing at forty-one point three percent."
[Ritsuko?]
"I'm right here Goku. How do you feel."
[I feel like I'm in free fall.]
Ritsuko's face twisted into something like a scowl before her lack of
energy began to override her caffeine rush.
"And..."
[IT'S MAKING ME FUCKING NAUSEOUS!!! Check nerve connection three dash
seven one seven, NOW!!!]
A technician looked over his screen. "The backflow is nothing but
static."
[Flip it's input with the reverse polar of connection 4301!]
"Do it." Ritsuko was a little too drained to follow what Takagi was
trying to do, but decided to follow his lead.
A few clicks later.
[Ahh, much better. Now, Dr. Akagi... WHY THE FUCK DIDN'T YOU GET THAT
FIXED?!!]
"I didn't know it was a problem. The static just looked like feedback-"
[Well it's not! The fucking nerve is toast, we had to re-route to get it
to work right. It was fine then, why did you switch it back?]
"The connection tables were a mess, don't you ever look at these
things?"
[I don't have the fucking time for this, I gotta be up a four a.m.
tomorrow. Is everything else working OK?]
A pause. "Yes."
[Then get me the hell out of here.]
---
Tomorrow.
Tomorrow would be the day to face fears. To remember those who had
fallen, and to fight for those who wanted to live.
Tomorrow three children, barely in their teens, would climb into the
most power weapons man has ever constructed, and fight a malicious
life-form for the fate of every human life on earth.
It wasn't grand. It was annoying.
---
End.
6/24/99
Chapter 4: Limited Scale Conflict?
---
Crystal clear skies gave away nothing as the sun moved higher over the
horizon. Bright red light spilled over a sleeping earth as an alien
figure writhed over a bruised and beaten city.
For the moment the hideous figure was winning. The humans below were not
happy about its intrusion into their lives, and many took the insult
personally. After all, who wouldn't?
It was ugly, the monster. Terribly ugly. All ungainly limbs and gross
biological parts moving in a simply disgusting manner, while lighting
the world up in a nauseating shade of pink. Well, disgusting just didn't
fit the definition anymore. Yet far below it's perch, not far from the
creature's own target, a force seeked to destroy it. By any means
necessary, a small group of humans were carefully planning the alien's
demise.
The death of an 'Angel.'
---
Fifteen minutes after sunrise was early.
Way too early.
The technicians of NERV didn't seem to mind, scurrying about hour after
hour, shift after shift, like ants in the maze. They were very concerned
about getting their jobs done, being so important to the future of
humanity at large, but greater concern was felt over the pilots' of the
giant mecha they repaired and tested and tweaked day after day, night
after night.
Because they, unfortunately, couldn't pilot the things themselves. It
WAS an unfair position to put the pilots in, but did the human race have
a choice?
Did the children get to choose?
Actually, they did. As the pilot of Unit 01 had indeed simply walked
away from his job of protecting humanity without a second glance. The
rest chose to stay, for whatever reason. They did have a choice, but one
option just wasn't very likable.
"I hate getting up this early. Are you sure we have to leave _now_?"
Even with said choice staring them clean in the face one of the children
still felt it their duty to complain loudly and profusely.
One Asuka Langly Sohryu.
"Yes, Asuka, we most definitely have to leave now. Any later and many
more lives would be in danger." Misato nearly silenced complaint (but
not quite completely).
Beyond the obvious, Rei was early.
Goku Takagi was embarrassingly late.
Stupid engineers. Aaaaalways late.
Bleary and unhappy, unawake and coffee-less, Goku was the very picture
of unhappiness. So unhappy, in fact, that Asuka didn't even bother
ripping into him.
"Someone staying up late last night?"
"Shut up, Asuka."
Well, not too much, anyway.
---
"How are the harmonics looking?" Asked Ritsuko, the strain of late
nights over long weeks evident in her voice.
"Eva systems are all go, Ma'am.
"Everything is green. Pilots normal, if a little nervous." Said Shiegeru
loudly.
Makoto turned and spoke quietly to Misato. "Do we have a chance?"
Misato didn't respond, looking in the direction of the main display, but
seeing past it... perhaps trying to reassure the pilots as much as
herself. After a moment of tense silence, she shouted her battle cry.
"EVA LAUNCH!"
Barely more than a hundred meters away, three great behemoths were
shuttled the surface like a... shuttle. A space shuttle.
Goku could feeling nothing but cold fear as Unit-03 rocketed towards the
surface. A million things could go wrong, millions of ways his flesh
could be rendered into some unrecognizable mass of chemicals, a million
ways to die. And that was just on the way to the surface.
After that, the Angel could do harm to him and the Eva he couldn't even
begin to imagine.
Asuka was practically chomping at the bit by launch time, the
aftereffects of a strange human habit called sleep not longer bothering
her. However, her training as an Eva pilot, and recent 'incidents' with
the pilot of Unit-03 (see chapter 3) had taught her some patience.
Rei was placid as usual, ready to take on the Angel, no matter what
tricks it had up its sleeve.
The Evas made ground 200 meters from perimeter of the target, where the
giant robots would be safe while they readied the modified 'armor' that
was required for this mission. The pilots wasted no time getting into
their gear, but paused while Asuka made some instrument sweeps for Dr.
Akagi. Strangely, the Angel made no move to attack though the posturing
of its many tentacles was clearly hostile.
Goku watched the pattern with curiosity, thinking in short philosophical
thoughts while his brain cold-booted. Could they really pull this off?
Well, losing wasn't an option, so it was certainly time to hope for the
best. And that was about as complex as his analysis of their odds went.
Rei scanned the pattern intently with her eyes, until she realized
something about its movements. Something similar to what Goku would do
when waiting for her and Asuka to attack. It was waiting for them to
come to it.
"It's waiting for us." Said Rei over the comm.
Her soft voice hit Goku's nerves like a strike of lightning, and larger
parts of his brain were suddenly fully awake. "Wha?..." Unfortunately,
the part dealing with threat analysis was not yet working, and neither
were the speech centers, for that matter.
"The pattern of its movement. It is waiting for us to start combat."
Stated Rei with more conviction in her voice. Not much more, but enough.
"Nice of it." Said Goku sleepily.
Asuka was a little more... 'active'. "Taunting us, is it? Thinks it's
all that, huh. Well, we'll see!" After five more seconds of scanning,
Asuka switched her displays to attack mode, and Unit-02 thumbed its
nose.
Goku just shook his head.
"Ready?" Came Misato's voice over the comm. "Attack!"
Unit-02 dashed forward, blowing through the AT Field like it wasn't even
there. Unit-03 and Unit-00 were hot on the red behemoth's tale. Asuka
flung everything she had into the opening blow, a devastating
double-fisted sound off to hell. The Angel took the brunt of the attack,
and let a tentacle loose at Unit-02's midsection.
Rei was right there, throwing aside the tentacle while blocking four
more that were moving to entangle Unit-00. Back on Asuka's right flank,
Goku was opening up with a blur of punches to the Angel's mass as his
computer scanned for core. Oddly, it seemed to be moving.
"PLAN B! THE CORE'S LOOSE!!!" He shouted over the comm as limbs began to
converge on him. Asuka used a few quick knife-hand blows to halt the
assault on Goku, but left herself open. Rei was tied up (literally), and
suddenly vanished.
Seconds into combat, and everything was already going to shit.
Six more tentacles snagged Unit-02's feet, pulling Asuka into the
writhing mass of flesh, out of control, as Goku stood his ground,
calling her name. A split second later the world dropped out from under
him. The same sickening sense of disorientation as in the activation
test grabbed his senses. Then black earth rushed up to meet his Eva.
---
"Unit's zero and three have disappeared from the combat area!
Tracking..." Shiegeru said, his eyes glued to the monitor directly in
front of him.
Misato uttered a curse in the background, but they had planned for this,
were ready to deal with it. As long as the Angel couldn't really do any
permanent damage, they had the upper hand.
"Shit! Unit-02's been chucked out too!"
---
Asuka hit the ground on her rump. More accurately, Unit-02's rump, and
it was right then she vowed to get revenge. The metal monster rose
quickly to its feet, small patches of torn up soil dropping off the
improvised 'armor' designed to minimize damage to the Eva's vital
systems. For a second, she focused her thoughts of rage at the pink
thing in the distance. It had thrown her nearly a kilometer away, but
Asuka Langly Sohryu wasn't down for the count.
Not by a long shot.
"Regroup, try from sector six." Misato said tersely.
The three Evas dashed to the coordinates, power umbilicals strung out
behind them like massive leashes. They took the same formation as
before, Asuka in the middle, with her higher synch ratio and faster
reflexes, and the other Units flanking her as backup. Between the three
of them, a perimeter almost 400m wide could be covered. More than enough
to hunt for the core.
Asuka advanced more cautiously this time, having learned her lesson
quickly. She advanced slowly, not hitting back much this time, instead
concentrating on moving forward.
It was slow going. And any given instant, she could see no less than
four tentacles coming her way. One from above, taken out by a quick
circle block. One from the side, dodged by a half step, another
deflected by an elbow. A single punch to bait the target, turn it into a
lower circle block to avoid being hit on the hip, two quick blocks over
the chest, snap the head aside, short chop to make a hole, step forward;
repeat. Exhausting work, but invigorating.
"Yeah!" Goku shouted as he cleaned out the spot he was standing in. A
single leap, and he landed one and a half seconds later in the middle on
anther mess. Before him, Asuka hidden behind a wall of the enemy's
making, and behind him, the open spot he had just occupied with suddenly
crammed with pink tentacles of death. Yes, invigorating.
Rei grunted. This was hard. She was doing a damn good job of though,
keeping her feet moving constantly, well out of the way of any surprise
attacks as she increased her speed. Unit-02 was moving ahead in its own
quarters, making solid progress, but she could feel something, a kind of
humming subconscious. She'd felt it just before the telepor-
The sky. The blue sky. Peaceful, strange she could see the sky from
here... oh, the Angel's mass transit system... Trees.
Trees?
Unit-00, blue, white and nine hundred tons of destruction hit the ground
like a meteor impact, pushing up compression waves for kilometers.
Hundreds of kilometers away, animals made for the hills like all hell's
fury was hot on their heals.
Rei sighed. The sky was nice.
Unit-00 jumped to its feet, an Eva shape imprinted into the ground, and
dashed for the pink glow over Tokyo-3 (NOT the name of a movie, people,
move along...).
Inside the air conditioned control center, the ambient temperature had
risen several dozen degrees. The command crew was mentally cheering for
the Evas, and booing at the Angel; it could all be read off their faces.
The only two people in the room unreadable were the Commander himself,
and his second, Dr. Fuyutsuki. Internally, they were not cheering,
however. They were very worried. Then after a few minutes, a mantra
began in the Commander's mind.
Meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow
meow meow...
But some commanders are like that.
Goku flung himself into the melee again. How many times had he attacked
the monstrosity? Ten? Twenty? Time had no meaning to him. The world
continued to rotate on its axis. Somewhere, people worried about his
life signs, some places people just worried. He brought to the battle
all the hopes of humankind and his own feelings towards to the invaders.
He made the feelings his own, made them part of his being, and attacked
again.
"Goku, you're armor's lost 60% of its impact-absorbing capacity, it's
time to change it out before Unit-03 sustains major damage." Ahh,
Ritsuko. Hmm, wonder where Rei went...
Rei dodged and weaved like a pro, taking out limb after limb, but
carefully keeping her distance. She did not relish another trip through
the magic transporting machine, once was more than enough to turn her
off to that idea.
Asuka radioed in to say that she was pissed, only slight damage was
incurred, give the ugly pink thing what for, make
sure that engineer is doing his share of the work,
be there in half a jiff, kick for you know who, blah
blah.
Rei spared a glance from saving to world to see where the other two Evas
were located. Currently, Unit-03 was thirty meters away, engaging the
Angel, and Unit-02 was at three hundred meters, incoming velocity of 121
meters per second.
A giant red biological machine of war piloted by a young girl with red
hair landed on the ground with the sound of an entire forest giving way.
The forest she landed in was not one filled with trees, but a concrete
fortress constructed by humans. In the grisly crimson light of earth's
most hated enemy, the great man-machine combination stood defiantly
ready to bring its destructive force to bear. The invader waited
patiently, distracted slightly by two of the death machine's comrades in
arms.
Asuka attacked.
Had she not had the recordings for reference, Lt. Maya Ibuki would have
honestly sworn in the following days that Unit-02 fairly glowed with
hatred as it launched an AT Field-buffered flying kick into the mass of
writhing flesh that was the Fourteenth Angel.
Goku would never see such recordings, despite the exhaustingly extensive
after-action report that NERV prepared regarding the effectiveness of
the Evas in combat ON TOP of the city. Right now he was rather concerned
with killing a certain life form before his power timer ran out. He
didn't recall the connection being severed again, but according to the
clock, he had only 90 seconds worth of power remaining. Rather than
retreat for an umbilical though, he was going to tough it out.
Ha. In less than five seconds, Asuka had cleared an opening large enough
for a UN fleet destroyer to sit comfortably in the Angels inner
perimeter. Units 00 and 03 broke through within seconds, and the three
suddenly had the advantage they had been looking for.
Goku took the front like it was instinct, Asuka being too overwhelmed to
complain at all. Somehow, in this mass of insanity, Goku had done an
unlikely thing: found his center. From here any attack was an
instantaneous action, and no movement of violence towards him could come
through his guard unless _he_ explicitly allowed it. Things were
definitely looking good for the pilots.
Something by Goku's armed beeped, but he ignored the city, his
preternatural awareness kicking in, letting him know the goal was nearly
within striking distance. Asuka was beating back the pink limbs with
ferocious tenacity; Goku had to admire her, but not right now.
They had an Angel to kill.
---
"Wow, Goku's synch ratio just surged up to nearly 90%. It's coming back
down now." Said Ritsuko suddenly.
"Wonder what brought that on?" Misato questioned no one. They could
figure it out later.
Problem right now was the remaining activation time on the Evas. Goku
stood furthest down the ladder, at 57 seconds of power remaining.
Something akin to hope coursed through the control room's
subconscious...
---
It was a good thing too, because over the course of nearly seven minutes
of uninterrupted combat a fair amount of the Angel's mass that had
become... detached... from its body had begun to land on and around
important spots in Tokyo-3. Places that earth NEEDED to go on, like
24-hour pizza houses.
Goku hit left and right, stepped forward, and prayed somewhere in the
back of his consciousness for an end to this battle. His arms were on
fire, his body hurt from hundreds of simulated wounds to the Eva, and he
was getting right PISSED OFF that this thing just WOULDN'T GO DOWN.
He moved left, felt something give way, heard Asuka shout over the comm.
Somehow, he knew she had drawn out her progressive knife for the
finishing blow, but he was too tired to cheer. Rei was back on Asuka's
left flank, sawing through the Angel with a viciousness that would have
shocked Goku, from what he knew of the girl...
A cry rose from the field of battle, amongst the blood, sweat, and pain
of the raw brawling that this battle for humanity had become.
Asuka's voice raised in triumph, Goku just had to smile as he tore away
a few more tentacles for good measure. It was only a matter of time
now...
"DIIIEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!" Came the scream.
The earth shifted suddenly, almost an earthquake, and the massive body
of the Fourteenth Angel heaved suddenly. Goku had secure footing, but
Asuka cursed loudly. Without having the time to think his tactical
decision through, Goku lunged in Unit-02's general direction, ignoring
the orders from command that were distracting him.
Good thing, too.
Asuka had lost her temporary footing with the final thrust of her prog.
knife, landing just short of her goal. The Angel had taken the
opportunity to cast away Rei again, but it seemed to be tiring, if only
just a little. Maybe it was beginning to be affected by its slow
disassembly the pilots were working on it. Maybe.
Rather than bother to think the situation through, Goku's highly trained
engineer's mind just belted forward, hitting Unit-02 hard on the back to
give it those few crucial meters...
And thunder rained down on Goku, along with the screams of a thousand
dying people as armored plates gave way like rice paper under Unit-03's
feet and the Angel's assault. Even as victory was assured, he felt the
ground slide sickeningly-
And then stop. More thunder as the Angel's many limbs flopped to the
ground around him.
The idea of dancing for joy was hot on Goku's tired mind as the comm.
radioed back cheers from the command crew. Of course, it hurt to much to
move, so he decided to settle for a swuave one-liner. Unfortunately,
whatever comments or praise anyone had for him that moment, died as
easily the words on his lips as the world went black... and the pain
finally left his mind.
Only to re-surface later, when he would be waking up in the hospital. (
geocities.com/tokyo/subway/1888) (
geocities.com/tokyo/subway) (
geocities.com/tokyo)