BG_Character_592
The Fisherman
- Location
- Australia
Alright time to keep this train going! New Chronicles!
Kaworu has an itch, Rei catches up with her mother, the Massachusetts trio learn about the frailty of their lives specifically, and we run through Half-Life 2: Episode 1!
Funnily enough a Windows computer runs this game better than the Magi. Who coulda thunk it!
Kaworu has an itch, Rei catches up with her mother, the Massachusetts trio learn about the frailty of their lives specifically, and we run through Half-Life 2: Episode 1!
Funnily enough a Windows computer runs this game better than the Magi. Who coulda thunk it!
PLAYBACK FILE: REC009_CASPER.4817:9281_220218
Kaworu and company were laying down on the grass in a park. They were elsewhere for a moment, but soon enough their eyes opened.
"You will get there, Rei. In your own time."
Sitting up, Mari would be sat adjacent to him. "Guessing she w-wasn't there?"
Shaking his head. "Especially with how the game ended. I won't rush her."
A short quiet.
"It's hard, though."
"…We both find it difficult, Mari." He sighed. "We haven't been this far apart for this long before. Not since we were soul bound at least."
"Didn't she l-literally go to space?"
"And returned within a few days. This… well, feels different. The only concession I have is, well, I have you to keep me company."
"Heh, glad to be of service, A-Ash." With a bow. "Rei has her friends too. Still, nothing b-beats someone you share a soul with."
Hand to chest. "…Yeah."
Looking up to Mari. "You don't think I've been too hard on the pilots recently, have you?"
"Pfft, God no Ash!" She laughed. "They need to learn the hard way. The Angels won't give them a-any shit, so you shouldn't either!"
"I suppose I'm technically an Angel."
"And so am I, in a way. Not traditionally, but I c-certainly have been augmented six ways from Sunday, eh?"
Her presence would dissipate and reform next to Kaworu, offering him a smug look. "Maybe next time we spar, we d-do a bit of Stand action."
"Ah, as in JoJo?"
"Heck yeah Ash!" With a beam. "Who do you t-think I should be called? Ooh, maybe I should take my n-name from that iPod!"
"How about Black Parade?"
"Ooh that might work! Or maybe-"
Both of them would have their trains of thought derailed, sensing something. "God damn it! What's causing that?!"
It had been getting progressively worse and worse feeling for them the past few days, a general feeling that something was off. "I apologise if I have been more irate in the past few days. This is… really starting to annoy me."
"Do you think it could be that t-thing Lilith sent us for?"
"I suspect so. But… here's the thing."
Fiddling with his hands. "I know what an interloper feels like. I'm an Adamite living amongst Lilim. I know their signature, as I know mine. They are similar, which is understandable, as we both ultimately come from the same ancestor."
"This doesn't feel like any of that, Kaworu." In quiet admission. "This is… it feels wrong."
Turning to her. "Think we should follow our gut?"
"No one else will, Ash."
In a sigh, picking himself up. "Very well then."
Both would shoot into the sky, high above the olden city of Boston. "What do you hear, Ash?"
"The song of thousands, going about their lives." Flying a holding pattern. "I suspect this will be a needle in a haystack."
"It's gonna be very obvious when it pricks us at least."
"Well, let's see when it does."
They would proceed to do laps of the city, going down every street every alley trying to find this… thing. This presence.
~
Funnily enough, no one on the street really gave a damn about the Superman flying around. This was NERV country, and they already knew they were doing some funky stuff. This wasn't anything new.
Well, except for one Augustus, who was watching what Kaworu was doing through a pair of binoculars. "Hey is that your trainer out there, Trix?"
"What's he doing outside the school?" Going towards the window and borrowing the binoculars from the boy, she'd look into the street.
"Further up, Trix."
"Like, in the sky?"
"Yep."
She'd point it to the sky.
And triple took at the sight. "What the fuck he can fly?!"
"You really need to see the videos they got online sometime."
"Kinda looks like he's looking for something…" Mused Luz, also looking out the window.
"Reckon he'd find it?"
"Well I'd hope so, he's definitely looking hard enough."
"How are you guys not freaking out over this?!"
"Honestly this isn't even the worst I've seen." Mused Caleb. "He's ripped arms off Evangelion by himself."
"And there's a rumor he killed an enemy in lunar orbit by throwing a weapon from the ground."
"How the hell do you guys know more about him than I do?!"
"I mean technically we aren't meant to know this sorta stuff, but once you get to a certain size of enemy it becomes difficult to block out all the footage from it. There's always ways around the blocks."
Binoculars were thrust back to Gus. "Honestly I don't think I want to see the footage." Sitting back down at a desk. "I'm already trying not to think about Trixie's ever increasing chance of a horrible death, I don't want to know that the boy training me can probably blow me up if he sneezed incorrectly!"
"Alright alright, let's not give Trixie another crisis." Luz asked the gathered. "You know what we need to distract us?"
The desks were thrust to the side, them all sat in a circle. "Story circle! I really need to work on a better name for this one…"
"So I'm guessing one line at a time and then we circle around?"
"Well we used to do that but found the stories were disjointed and made little sense. So we removed the limit, you can say as much or as little as you want as long as you keep it going." With a smile, clearing her throat. "I'll start. 'I wake up on the floor of a forest, picking myself up I notice thirteen other people also coming to. Checking myself, I have nothing but the clothes on my back, and the image of three hearts on my wrist, coloured green.' Next!"
It was Willow. "Uhh, how about: 'Once everyone else has come to, we end up discussing our shared situation. We all share the three hearts on our wrist, and the collective theory is they represent lives of some sort. No one's willing to test it out though.'"
"Gee I wonder why." Caleb was next, clearing his throat. "'We eventually come to the conclusion that we need to work together. To survive, and to figure out just what the hell we are doing here and what these hearts truly mean.'"
Trixie. "Oh? Uh… 'From there, I go to gather my resources? I end up cutting down a tree using… my fists? And using the wood to make a few tools?'"
"Damn that's a strong character! Just beats a tree and it topples over!"
"Oh cut Trixie some slack it's her first time doing this!"
~
Wallflower would zoom in on the figure in the sky, taking several shots. "The thing with NERV stuff, you can't really upload it anywhere online without it being deleted, not unless you go through Augustus."
"What does he do differently?"
Wallflower shrugged. "Iunno. We actually have a few photos like this in our black box, this will make a neat addition to it." Camera went away. "Did you know he could do that?"
"I knew he had powers, but the flight is news to me… I hope he doesn't do that when we spar next time."
"You've been sparring him?" Vee curiously queried.
"As part of our Evangelion training, yes. He is… exhausting. But I suppose it's required, for the Angels."
"Yeah I doubt you're getting an easy time with them, honestly." Scratching the back of her head. "But hey, you're not coming here to think about that kinda thing, eh?"
"No…" Yomiko sighed. "There's… a lot I need to ask him. Few things about myself. But I will do that in my own time."
Vee offered a melancholic smile. "I know that feeling well, Yomiko." She'd take out a wallet, and pull out a few photos.
Family photos, with herself in them. "Is this you?"
"Pretty different, huh?" She could chuckle at it now. "Look at the other one."
She would. "…Which one is you?"
That got a bark out of her. "Oh I know right?" Pointing to her. "You can tell because the dimples are slightly different."
Yomiko would glance between the photo and the girl in front of her. "I think I see it?"
"Either way, the point is… well, I really struggled making myself a unique person. Still do, sometimes. When you have a sister so outgoing and outspoken, kinda overshadows the introvert a bit. Was never her fault, of course, that's just her. But definitely caused some tension between us. Took quite a bit of introspection to realize, well, I won't become my own person if I didn't actually try."
Cycling through the photos again. "Hence the changeups. And how I look today." With small smile. "Even if you don't know who you wanna be, sometimes you just gotta try something. Life's a journey anyway."
A glance down, and a brief glance up to the sky. "You make a good point, Vee. Thank you."
"Ah es nada." Shrugging it off. "Alright enough of that stuff. We have a garden to photograph!"
"A garden?"
The Canterlot Gardens, to be precise. It was a small fenced off area in some nearby forested area, nothing but a dirt path leading toward it. "Oh wow."
"This is my favorite area." Wallflower would quietly muse, leaning over and pulling a weed out. "Much better in the spring and autumn, but it's always a nice place to relax if you've had a rough day. You don't hear much noise from the outside."
"What's the story with the statue?"
It was an Evangelion fighting off what appeared to be Godzilla, the perspective was that so they were either in flight or fall.
"That… is the memorial the school had commissioned, after our Evangelion pilot passed away in the Nevada incident." Wallflower gave it a look of melancholy, clearing out some stray vines that covered the plaque.
"Mari Makinami, was her name." Continued Vee, looking long at the figures. "She was a close friend of my sister."
Yomiko silently read the obit. "Was… this how she perished?"
"Well… admittedly it's embellished a bit. But the thinking was, 'how would she like to be remembered'? And the conclusion she reached was fighting an Angel while skydiving into a volcano."
"We couldn't really depict the volcano."
"And we couldn't really use the image of the Angels because they were kinda still classified at that time, so we just used a fictional one."
Yomiko would stare at the statue for a short while. "The… impact she must have left on you. On the school."
"Hey, sorry… I'm sure you don't wanna be reminded of that."
"It's fine, Vee. This… well."
Up to the statue, her hand tracing over the name of the fallen. "There is a danger in it. But… it's worth it, I think. Because we're protecting people. And… if I perish in the process, as long as I know everyone is safe, well, I think I can live with that."
Blinking. "Does that saying still work in that context?"
"Well, if you end up dying you can't exactly live with whatever you're thinking of."
To her chuckle. "Fair point. But still, Mari lives." Back to the plaque. "Her name is here. Everyone in this school knows of her."
"Gone but not forgotten, so the saying goes." Mused Wallflower. "It'll be hard to forget her, that's for sure."
"I don't think I'd mind that. Doing something to be remembered for."
"Giving yourself a hero complex, Yomiko?"
"Probably not the best idea in the Evangelion."
"Hah, fair." Walking back out. "C'mon, third times the charm in finding something that doesn't make us sad."
~
In comparison to everyone else, Derek was actually getting some of his MIT study done. Y'know, the education he was doing before all this silly pilot business!
There were a few more students joining them, but Marcy was still really the one one he spoke with, and who spoke with him. "Hey, I had some info come over the wires you might be interested in."
"Hm? Like, NERV related?"
Nodding. "I've got my ways of seeing what's going on."
"I don't know if I should be concerned or…" Passing a window. "…what."
He'd point outward. "It's not related to that, is it?"
"Hmm?" Marcy looked out the window.
Kaworu was still doing laps around the city, flying like Superman.
"Oh no nothing related to that." Not even paying any mind to it.
"And that's not really concerning to you."
"Oh that's the least they can do, did you know that-"
"Marcy, do I really want to know what my trainer can do considering he can fly?"
"Probably not." With a chuckle. "Anyway, look what happened a few days ago."
Reading from the screen. "…Man they're still active? I thought the UN got rid of all of them."
"Well obviously not, and look at what else I've found."
Most of it appeared to be speculation on forums, but the consensus was the same: it was a person that NERV held great interest in.
"Ah so we may be targets of assassination now. Thanks Mars really needed to know that."
"I mean it wouldn't be the first time." Conceded Marcy, bringing up another article. "My Japanese is a bit rough, but they tried to put a hit out on their pilots too."
The date was understandable at least. "…Hang on that's almost a month out from the incursion."
"Rumor has it that's what caused NERV to lock down and for it all to blow up in Seele's face." She'd turn to him. "Why do you think half the teachers are strapped here?"
A wary look on Derek's face. "As in… firearms."
"We've had pilots before, Derek. I'm sure whatever school the Japanese pilots go to is similar." Another leaked document outlining the practice. "It's standard. Pilots are as well protected as the president, they're just a lot more subtle about it. Don't wanna interfere too much in their lives, y'know?"
Derek would glance around, whispering over to her. "Who… who do you know of?"
"Authorized to hold arms here?" With a thought. "The music teacher's one."
"Wait he carries?"
"They carry, c'mon at least use their pronouns!"
"Oh, I'm sorry, they carry a firearm, I should clarify." In biting sarcasm. "And… wait, who is the other pilot? There's only three of us."
Silence.
"They're dead aren't they?" Completely flat.
"…Maybe?"
Another flat look.
And Marcy folded like a wet paper towel. "Okay yeah they're kinda dead."
"Kinda."
"Very."
To his sigh. "Okay, they're an Evangelion pilot. It's a Godforsaken dangerous job, I suppose one being dead is to be expected." Trying to jump through the mental hoops. "Did they at least die in battle? Y'know, viking style?"
"No it was during testing."
"So not even in battle. What happened, did they just get blown up or something?"
"Eh… kinda?" Typing in some keywords.
They would see a satellite shot of the Nevada branch being utterly consumed by a white void. "Apparently they were testing an experimental energy source?"
Derek could only stare at the screen in disbelief. "Please don't tell me how many miles that is."
"I won't."
"Thank you." Blinking. "Okay so I'm probably dead."
"Hey, maybe you'll end up like the Japanese pilots, they faced like fifteen Angels and several of those enemy Evangelion and came out on top. God knows the mental damage they had though-"
"Can you, like, show me some video of them winning against Angels please? Not them being destroyed by them, or detonated by them, or decimated by them, just good old fashioned monster destruction. Something to salvage my decision of becoming a pilot?!"
"Oh! There's a good one with Unit-01 and Unit-02, it's against the twin Angels they faced, think it was one of the first ones they were sortied with."
The video she would show him depicted them being punted several yards deep into the dirt, legs stuck up like they were strange plants.
Derek simply responded with an incredulous look towards Marcy. "Bro."
"That's the wrong one! Sorry!" Rapidly typing. "Okay it's this one, trust me!"
This one ended up being a lot better, depicting the two working in tandem to defeat the Angel. "That's more like it, pretty impressive actually. I wanna see that! I wanna be kicking ass not getting my ass kicked!"
There weren't really much more examples of that Marcy thought worth noting, at least any with footage. "Trust me the big Angel was something special but NERV keeps that footage locked away."
Another beat.
"Sorry, I think I messed that up."
"No you're all good." He conceded. "Piloting's dangerous, I should've known that with what NERV's told me so far. I'd have to come to terms with it either way."
"Ripping the Band-Aid off on it?"
"Well, better I realize now instead of realizing during a fight when I get my ass beat. And hey, might give me some awareness as to what to do and avoid."
"Might be worth seeing if NERV has any after action reports you can refer to, if learning what works and what doesn't is what you want."
"Yeah I should be able to do that. Might be a good idea to tell my peers that as well."
"I'm sure you don't want them to perish."
"Of course I don't! Even if we don't get along that well, when the cards come down I'm still gonna work with them and protect them. It's… it's different in battle, isn't it?"
"I wouldn't have that perspective." Scratching her head. "But I imagine it would be. Wouldn't even be unprecedented, apparently the pilots of Unit-01 and Unit-02 hated each other when they first met each other."
"Well how are they now?"
"Last I heard they were dating."
"Huh." He blinked. "Well, I don't see how I could date either of the other pilots, if I'm being honest."
"You just met each other, right?" Pointing out. "Haven't even sortied with them. I'm sure you'll learn a lot about them once push comes to shove."
~
Nicole would stare out of her own window. "He's looking for something, isn't he…"
Turning back to her door. "Hey Twi?! Do you still have that camera drone of yours?"
~~~
The space button would be hit on the terminal, prompting a video file to play.
A balaclava clad man would wave into a camera. "Hope you're having a lovely day, Commander Katsuragi-chan! Here's to another day of making you life difficult!"
"Pfft…"
"Few updates from where we were. I informed your counterparts of the Rift Material staring Mr President and they have actioned it, should net us a favour when it comes good. I get the feeling that will be rushed through now, considering recent events. I assume it's made the local papers, brash it was. May be worth netting a few agents and leaving them in the care of our three letter friends, with how active they seem to be over here should be easier done than said."
Misato took out a manila folder. "We have a few people of interest we are keeping an eye on. A lot of them we have scant information on, they either haven't done anything interesting yet or they know how to keep their nose clean. One of them does have familial association with Seele however."
"Deamonne… Wittebane… Cutburn…" Scrolling through the papers.
"And more intriguing, one of them is currently working for NERV. Who it is, I'll leave as a surprise for now." With a wink, before continuing on."Spencer and I will be picking up a new agent for training at the start of March. Fresh from the clink, I'm sure you may recognise the family name."
Another folder, a single profile within it. "Alador Blight."
"Don't worry, Commander, they're the boy who snitched. I'm as surprised as you are they weren't killed." With a chuckle. "I shouldn't count my eggs of course, there's still just over a week to go as of recording. Hopefully NERV will have their own little turncoat in their protection as well, we'll wait and see."
Next order of business. "If you're wondering about Kaworu, I haven't been keeping tabs on him. He has his own business and I have mine. No point sticking my nose in it. Seems whatever he's doing is working through, Massachusetts are a bit more hopeful about their prospects than they were."
"Might not need to send the Klaxosaurs then, that's good…"
"Priority for me right now will be to keep tabs on our mutual friends. The land of the free is the last significant place where Seele still have a notable presence, diminished it is. The fact Preston is still able to orchestrate hits from his cell is indication of that. I will inform the janitor when I have more intel for you, Commander."
He would bow toward the camera. "Love you, Katsuragi."
And that was the end of that.
Misato could only sigh. "You did say you'd say that to me after what we saw…"
Knocking on the door, Misato nonchalantly swiping the materials into a nearby drawer. "Come in!"
All four pilots filed in. "Commander!"
"At ease, Hikari." Waving it off. "The power outage was a glitch on our part, no sabotage was involved."
"It was cause of that video game wasn't it."
"Eeyup." The Commander dimly remarked. "Will need to get Kensuke to see if he can get the game running on something other than the Magi, since they've made it crystal clear they do not want to run a video game."
"That explanation wouldn't even surprise me at this point." Thought Shinji.
"Well I did say it looked like it was getting worse despite the work put into optimising it!"
"Is Kensuke on roster for today?"
"I don't think so. Wouldn't surprise me if he wanted to fish out a PC that could run it."
"Can we not emulate a Windows instance on the Magi?"
"Rei I'm not putting it anywhere near the Magi for the time being. Ritsuko's spent the past hour trying to get them back online and she's still saying it's another two hours once they've booted to return to normal operations."
"Was there anything important we missed in that demo?"
"Not really, Ritsuko spent ten minutes playing with the gravity gun and another ten minutes trying to figure out the puzzle at the end of the map. Things might not have crashed if she didn't waste that time."
"How many times did she die?"
"Three times in thirty minutes."
"That is not a great average."
"All of them were stupid and avoidable, two were indirectly caused by her falling off a cliff and taking two thirds of her life away."
"Snrk, sounds like Kensuke." Guffawed Asuka. "Like sempai like kohai."
"So yeah, Episode 1 will be next, whenever we can find a PC to work with. We'll let you know when it's all ready."
"Eh, works for me. Dismissed?"
"Yes, go. I have paperwork to do and I should be home by 8."
"Sounds like a plan!" They'd file out, Hikari being the only one to bow. "You know you don't have to bow to her Hikari."
"But it's rude if I don't!"
The door would shut behind them, presumedly as they kept bickering. "Ahh, the joys of being young."
Pulling the drawer open again and rummaging through it. "…Oh? Do I have that in here?"
A picture frame was pulled out.
She'd observe it for a moment. Before putting it on her desk.
Misato would spent but a moment in contemplation. "Heh, speaking of Massachusetts, Kaji… I wonder when Mabel will learn the weight of her responsibility."
What she had framed was a particular Shoko Asahara's execution warrant.
~
Kensuke's concern was less dire, though you wouldn't think it judging by his tone. "Damn it where's my multi-CD…"
"In that disc binder of yours… where did that go anyway?"
"It's not in the pile in your closet, right? Screw having to go through that…"
"Nah shouldn't be, still need to sort through that if I have a minute…" Shaking it off. "When did I last use a CD, might've been given Hiro and Zero Two that copy of Half-Life and then I- I know!"
He'd pull it out from a pile, it crumbling to the floor as it turned out to be load bearing. "Windows windows windows… there."
It was a very typical copy of Windows 2000: a burned CD with the product key written on it. "Man they really don't care about piracy do they."
"At this point 50% of their customer base don't buy Windows, and the remaining 50% are businesses." Mused Kensuke. "This should be plenty of specs for the game at least."
"Did you ever think you'd be building a gaming computer for NERV?"
"Not really." With a chuckle. "Think I should spruce it up when I get there? Put a 'NERV Gaming' decal on the side of it?"
"I think that's an easy way to piss Ritsuko off."
"You should do it!"
"I'm thinking I might before I drop it off. Ooh, maybe I'll even put a tagline saying it's better than the Magi!"
Much to the amusement of his birds.
Soon enough the system would be installing. "Alright, that should give us… an hour of spare time." Turning around. "What should we-"
Kyoko would immediately jump on him, followed shortly by Sayaka.
The rest, well, we'll leave it on the implication.
~
Rei laid listless in her bed. She did not sleep at all that night.
Not that she needed to, but it wasn't really a good sign, in her mind, that she couldn't stay her thoughts for the entire period.
"…Kaworu?"
"Yes Rei?"
"I… have decided. Thinking out loud. "Eliza is right. I should do what makes me happy. And… well, being with you makes me feel that way."
She could feel the warmth even from this distance. "I will be waiting for you there, Rei."
That warmth would be all she needed to spur her out of the bed. It wouldn't take her long to prepare for the day, and before too long she had rang the doorbell of the next door apartment. "Heh, you seem eager to face the day, Rei."
Rei held a small smile. "The sun is out and I am alive. Today is a good day."
A friendly slap on the back. "Now that's the spirit I wanna see from you!" Asuka would smile in kind. "And hopefully Kensuke can get that game running better than the Magi!"
"As long as I do not see any more grubs, I will be fine."
~
"Look I can't guarantee we won't be seeing more of them, I still found their model in the files for Episode 1 so…"
Rei merely stared at her sister in all but legal. "I promised Kaworu I was going to return to the Astral today."
"Yeah…" Scratching the back of her head. "Sorry."
"Oh it is not your fault, Eliza. You are just the messenger." Before sighing, taking her seat. "Still, it is an unexciting prospect."
"I suppose we'll just have to add Valve to our shitlist then!" Cheered Asuka, bursting through the door with Shinji in tow. "There better be a good explanation for how they survive that explosion!"
"The G-Man will probably drop them off somewhere safe."
"That's the obvious answer, Shinji. I'd like to think they wouldn't just do that."
Also through the door came Ritsuko and Maya. "Misato will be in shortly, she's wrangling the lovebirds."
"Yeah good luck." Scoffed Asuka. "Where's Kensuke? We kinda need a computer to run it on don't we?"
"Cut him some slack, he has to go back home and cart it all the way down here. Might be waiting hours for it."
"Will probably take that long to get Hiro and Zero Two off each other…" Remarked Maya.
"Ah let the lovers do what lovers do." Nudging Shinji with her elbow. "Hehe, can't deny we can be a bit like that sometimes eh?"
Much to his slight blush. "Uhh… are Kaworu and Mari with us yet?"
Rei would flip open her cellphone.
~
The dumpster was torn to shreds. "COME OUT!" Kaworu would shout, his voice echoing through the alleyway.
By now it was the middle of the night, and yet that presence he felt itched at him and Mari like there were ants under their skin. It hadn't gotten better since they first sensed it, and it was really starting to get on their nerves.
"They're close, Ash."
"You feel it too." He'd look around, wired. "I've… I don't know if I've ever felt like this before. Even when I was against the Lilim it didn't feel like this."
"What does it feel like, Ash?"
"Whatever it is…" Squeezing hands into fists. "I don't like it. No Ma'am."
His cellphone would go off. At this time of night it'd only be one person. "Hey, Rei?"
"Are you okay? You seem very-"
"We are fine, Rei." Putting on a brave tone. "We were just looking for our quarry."
"…Think you could spare a few hours for this new work?"
Glancing over to Mari's form, as it appeared to shimmer. "Yeah, we need a break from a-all this, Kaworu. It's…"
She didn't need to elaborate. "We have time, Rei. I'll call you back when we're ready to watch."
Hanging up, and putting the phone away.
Looking up from the alleyway, into the night sky. The moon was out, but was starting to get obscured by clouds.
"We will find them eventually." Mari placed a hand on Kaworu's shoulder. "This game cannot go on f-forever."
All he could do was sigh. "You're right." A glance to her, and a worn smile. "We will find what Lilith sent us here for."
She'd smirk back. "That's the spirit, Ash!"
Her form would dissipate and return to him. "Best not keep t-them waiting, eh?"
"They won't be waiting long."
Kaworu would rocket out of the alley and make a beeline for his quarters.
The Incubator would watch all this from a building rooftop.
~
"They will be with us shortly." Confirmed Rei, keeping the strife he felt hidden.
Even if she didn't hide it well, the next guess would've been enough to distract everyone. "I told you two I could separate you for longer than five minutes, I live with Shinji and Asuka God damn it!"
"Ah Christ she didn't do that did she?"
"She did." Meekly replied Zero Two, coyly rubbing her arm.
To Asuka's cringe. "Yeah she's very good at that."
"Do I want to know how you broke them apart?"
"Don't ask questions you don't wanna know the answer to, Maya." Warned Misato.
Ritsuko rolled her eyes and whispered in Maya's ear.
"…Oh! What the hell Misato?!"
"What? It works!"
The door slid open. "C'mon girls, one more push!"
Kensuke was pulling the cart, and Kyoko and Sayaka were pushing it.
They had finally pushed it the several kilometres from their home down to the Geofront, Kensuke and the two girls flopping on the floor. "Doooooh… I haven't been this exhausted since they did gridiron for sports…"
Rei would proceed to lift the PC out of the cart with one hand, connecting the cables as required. "Oh gee thanks for making us feel puny."
"You are welcome." With a smile.
"Alright let's see if we can get this working better than the Magi." Powering the system on.
"Well that much is a given."
(VIDEO START)
"I think the video's a bit wacky."
"Eh I'm sure it'll fix itself." Kensuke shrugged off.
"This system's been supported since 1999 and they still haven't updated the copyright dates on it." Muttered Ritsuko.
"Kensuke what's the login for this?"
"Oh it's auto login."
"Auto-what?"
It logged in and played the startup sound. "You can do that on Windows?!"
"Why did you give the windows a NERV theme Kensuke?"
"Well it's gonna be used at NERV so I thought I'd dress it up a little. It's all getting recorded anyway Shinji, don't wanna give whoever views the footage a boring experience. Couldn't get the wallpaper on it though."
"Oh how thoughtful for the six people who will ever see the recording of this!"
"So how are we getting the game on this?" Was Misato's query. "I'm guessing we ain't connecting it to the network."
"Oh no way in hell. Kensuke does it have a USB port?"
"You think I can afford a USB card?"
"Well you should be able to by now…" In a mutter. "What do you have?"
"A CD drive?"
"We'll use that then."
The Magi managed to compress five gigabytes of game into a seven hundred megabyte space, the game flash burnt to a CD in around three seconds. "Oh the Magi does that without breaking a sweat but ask them to run a video game-"
"Think we should just run it from the CD drive?" Thought aloud Ritsuko, breaking into Asuka's complaining.
"While it'll probably still run better than from the Magi, I wouldn't take the chance with what I presume is a low speed disc drive."
"Excuse me, it's a 4x drive, thank you very much." Harrumphed Kensuke. "But yeah good point, I'll copy it to the machine."
(01:00)
What followed were several long boring tedious minutes of copying the files to the desktop. "Yeah, way to care about the viewers, Kensuke! Who ever wants to see this!?"
"Hey, I'll do something to pass the time, alright!"
He opened up Solitaire. "Kensuke this isn't compelling viewing!"
"Look it's important to capture every step of what we do with this material, as I'm sure Sempai will back up."
"He's right. Heck, the Magi even captured their own demise."
"I'm still impressed we got them to panic like that." Chuckled Eliza. "Always wanted to see how it works."
"Don't you notice when you panic?"
"Do you notice when you get your lights knocked out?" She pointed out. "Exactly the same for me, can't even remember the last few seconds beforehand. Panic suppression isn't a good experience though, hate when I drop down to that cause I know I can't get out of it lightly!"
"When was the last time you entered panic suppression anyway?"
"Remember when we were watching Kill La Kill? Episode 16?"
"Oh the one where Satsuki got raped by her own mother?!" Asuka could complain about that particular episode until her dying breath
"Wait what?!" All the adults in the room yelled out in sync.
"Yeah that episode wasn't great." She sighed, giving a look to Rei. "…I still appreciate you catching me. Despite everything I'm still a computer system, and there's only so much garbage we can take before we get overwhelmed."
"Just look at the Magi." Snarked Kyoko.
"How have you been going building up tolerance to that sort of thing?" Was Maya's concern. "Don't like seeing you crash like that."
"Well, the only way I'm gonna build up tolerance to it is to be exposed to it. And at that point, crashes are just to be expected." In a shrug. "Undesirable and painful they may be. And I'm pretty sure at this point you guys know when I encounter a critical error like that."
"Your voice completely changes doesn't it?"
"Speech synthesis is just another process for me, so when things lock up or go wrong that's something that immediately goes out the door. Or when I'm going dark."
"Still not really comfortable to think about…"
(10:30)
"Ah! It's done!" Announced Kensuke. "And I didn't even win a game!"
The video terminal would ring in, Kaworu appearing on screen. "Sorry we're late!"
"Did we m-miss much?"
"Only several minutes of shuffling files around."
"And Kensuke sucking at solitaire."
"Ah damn it we missed a g-good bit!"
"Well, no point keeping it waiting, Kensuke." Ritsuko determined. "Get it underway."
"Yes Ma'am!"
~~~
"You will get there, Rei. In your own time."
Sitting up, Mari would be sat adjacent to him. "Guessing she w-wasn't there?"
Shaking his head. "Especially with how the game ended. I won't rush her."
A short quiet.
"It's hard, though."
"…We both find it difficult, Mari." He sighed. "We haven't been this far apart for this long before. Not since we were soul bound at least."
"Didn't she l-literally go to space?"
"And returned within a few days. This… well, feels different. The only concession I have is, well, I have you to keep me company."
"Heh, glad to be of service, A-Ash." With a bow. "Rei has her friends too. Still, nothing b-beats someone you share a soul with."
Hand to chest. "…Yeah."
Looking up to Mari. "You don't think I've been too hard on the pilots recently, have you?"
"Pfft, God no Ash!" She laughed. "They need to learn the hard way. The Angels won't give them a-any shit, so you shouldn't either!"
"I suppose I'm technically an Angel."
"And so am I, in a way. Not traditionally, but I c-certainly have been augmented six ways from Sunday, eh?"
Her presence would dissipate and reform next to Kaworu, offering him a smug look. "Maybe next time we spar, we d-do a bit of Stand action."
"Ah, as in JoJo?"
"Heck yeah Ash!" With a beam. "Who do you t-think I should be called? Ooh, maybe I should take my n-name from that iPod!"
"How about Black Parade?"
"Ooh that might work! Or maybe-"
Both of them would have their trains of thought derailed, sensing something. "God damn it! What's causing that?!"
It had been getting progressively worse and worse feeling for them the past few days, a general feeling that something was off. "I apologise if I have been more irate in the past few days. This is… really starting to annoy me."
"Do you think it could be that t-thing Lilith sent us for?"
"I suspect so. But… here's the thing."
Fiddling with his hands. "I know what an interloper feels like. I'm an Adamite living amongst Lilim. I know their signature, as I know mine. They are similar, which is understandable, as we both ultimately come from the same ancestor."
"This doesn't feel like any of that, Kaworu." In quiet admission. "This is… it feels wrong."
Turning to her. "Think we should follow our gut?"
"No one else will, Ash."
In a sigh, picking himself up. "Very well then."
Both would shoot into the sky, high above the olden city of Boston. "What do you hear, Ash?"
"The song of thousands, going about their lives." Flying a holding pattern. "I suspect this will be a needle in a haystack."
"It's gonna be very obvious when it pricks us at least."
"Well, let's see when it does."
They would proceed to do laps of the city, going down every street every alley trying to find this… thing. This presence.
~
Funnily enough, no one on the street really gave a damn about the Superman flying around. This was NERV country, and they already knew they were doing some funky stuff. This wasn't anything new.
Well, except for one Augustus, who was watching what Kaworu was doing through a pair of binoculars. "Hey is that your trainer out there, Trix?"
"What's he doing outside the school?" Going towards the window and borrowing the binoculars from the boy, she'd look into the street.
"Further up, Trix."
"Like, in the sky?"
"Yep."
She'd point it to the sky.
And triple took at the sight. "What the fuck he can fly?!"
"You really need to see the videos they got online sometime."
"Kinda looks like he's looking for something…" Mused Luz, also looking out the window.
"Reckon he'd find it?"
"Well I'd hope so, he's definitely looking hard enough."
"How are you guys not freaking out over this?!"
"Honestly this isn't even the worst I've seen." Mused Caleb. "He's ripped arms off Evangelion by himself."
"And there's a rumor he killed an enemy in lunar orbit by throwing a weapon from the ground."
"How the hell do you guys know more about him than I do?!"
"I mean technically we aren't meant to know this sorta stuff, but once you get to a certain size of enemy it becomes difficult to block out all the footage from it. There's always ways around the blocks."
Binoculars were thrust back to Gus. "Honestly I don't think I want to see the footage." Sitting back down at a desk. "I'm already trying not to think about Trixie's ever increasing chance of a horrible death, I don't want to know that the boy training me can probably blow me up if he sneezed incorrectly!"
"Alright alright, let's not give Trixie another crisis." Luz asked the gathered. "You know what we need to distract us?"
The desks were thrust to the side, them all sat in a circle. "Story circle! I really need to work on a better name for this one…"
"So I'm guessing one line at a time and then we circle around?"
"Well we used to do that but found the stories were disjointed and made little sense. So we removed the limit, you can say as much or as little as you want as long as you keep it going." With a smile, clearing her throat. "I'll start. 'I wake up on the floor of a forest, picking myself up I notice thirteen other people also coming to. Checking myself, I have nothing but the clothes on my back, and the image of three hearts on my wrist, coloured green.' Next!"
It was Willow. "Uhh, how about: 'Once everyone else has come to, we end up discussing our shared situation. We all share the three hearts on our wrist, and the collective theory is they represent lives of some sort. No one's willing to test it out though.'"
"Gee I wonder why." Caleb was next, clearing his throat. "'We eventually come to the conclusion that we need to work together. To survive, and to figure out just what the hell we are doing here and what these hearts truly mean.'"
Trixie. "Oh? Uh… 'From there, I go to gather my resources? I end up cutting down a tree using… my fists? And using the wood to make a few tools?'"
"Damn that's a strong character! Just beats a tree and it topples over!"
"Oh cut Trixie some slack it's her first time doing this!"
~
Wallflower would zoom in on the figure in the sky, taking several shots. "The thing with NERV stuff, you can't really upload it anywhere online without it being deleted, not unless you go through Augustus."
"What does he do differently?"
Wallflower shrugged. "Iunno. We actually have a few photos like this in our black box, this will make a neat addition to it." Camera went away. "Did you know he could do that?"
"I knew he had powers, but the flight is news to me… I hope he doesn't do that when we spar next time."
"You've been sparring him?" Vee curiously queried.
"As part of our Evangelion training, yes. He is… exhausting. But I suppose it's required, for the Angels."
"Yeah I doubt you're getting an easy time with them, honestly." Scratching the back of her head. "But hey, you're not coming here to think about that kinda thing, eh?"
"No…" Yomiko sighed. "There's… a lot I need to ask him. Few things about myself. But I will do that in my own time."
Vee offered a melancholic smile. "I know that feeling well, Yomiko." She'd take out a wallet, and pull out a few photos.
Family photos, with herself in them. "Is this you?"
"Pretty different, huh?" She could chuckle at it now. "Look at the other one."
She would. "…Which one is you?"
That got a bark out of her. "Oh I know right?" Pointing to her. "You can tell because the dimples are slightly different."
Yomiko would glance between the photo and the girl in front of her. "I think I see it?"
"Either way, the point is… well, I really struggled making myself a unique person. Still do, sometimes. When you have a sister so outgoing and outspoken, kinda overshadows the introvert a bit. Was never her fault, of course, that's just her. But definitely caused some tension between us. Took quite a bit of introspection to realize, well, I won't become my own person if I didn't actually try."
Cycling through the photos again. "Hence the changeups. And how I look today." With small smile. "Even if you don't know who you wanna be, sometimes you just gotta try something. Life's a journey anyway."
A glance down, and a brief glance up to the sky. "You make a good point, Vee. Thank you."
"Ah es nada." Shrugging it off. "Alright enough of that stuff. We have a garden to photograph!"
"A garden?"
The Canterlot Gardens, to be precise. It was a small fenced off area in some nearby forested area, nothing but a dirt path leading toward it. "Oh wow."
"This is my favorite area." Wallflower would quietly muse, leaning over and pulling a weed out. "Much better in the spring and autumn, but it's always a nice place to relax if you've had a rough day. You don't hear much noise from the outside."
"What's the story with the statue?"
It was an Evangelion fighting off what appeared to be Godzilla, the perspective was that so they were either in flight or fall.
"That… is the memorial the school had commissioned, after our Evangelion pilot passed away in the Nevada incident." Wallflower gave it a look of melancholy, clearing out some stray vines that covered the plaque.
"Mari Makinami, was her name." Continued Vee, looking long at the figures. "She was a close friend of my sister."
Yomiko silently read the obit. "Was… this how she perished?"
"Well… admittedly it's embellished a bit. But the thinking was, 'how would she like to be remembered'? And the conclusion she reached was fighting an Angel while skydiving into a volcano."
"We couldn't really depict the volcano."
"And we couldn't really use the image of the Angels because they were kinda still classified at that time, so we just used a fictional one."
Yomiko would stare at the statue for a short while. "The… impact she must have left on you. On the school."
"Hey, sorry… I'm sure you don't wanna be reminded of that."
"It's fine, Vee. This… well."
Up to the statue, her hand tracing over the name of the fallen. "There is a danger in it. But… it's worth it, I think. Because we're protecting people. And… if I perish in the process, as long as I know everyone is safe, well, I think I can live with that."
Blinking. "Does that saying still work in that context?"
"Well, if you end up dying you can't exactly live with whatever you're thinking of."
To her chuckle. "Fair point. But still, Mari lives." Back to the plaque. "Her name is here. Everyone in this school knows of her."
"Gone but not forgotten, so the saying goes." Mused Wallflower. "It'll be hard to forget her, that's for sure."
"I don't think I'd mind that. Doing something to be remembered for."
"Giving yourself a hero complex, Yomiko?"
"Probably not the best idea in the Evangelion."
"Hah, fair." Walking back out. "C'mon, third times the charm in finding something that doesn't make us sad."
~
In comparison to everyone else, Derek was actually getting some of his MIT study done. Y'know, the education he was doing before all this silly pilot business!
There were a few more students joining them, but Marcy was still really the one one he spoke with, and who spoke with him. "Hey, I had some info come over the wires you might be interested in."
"Hm? Like, NERV related?"
Nodding. "I've got my ways of seeing what's going on."
"I don't know if I should be concerned or…" Passing a window. "…what."
He'd point outward. "It's not related to that, is it?"
"Hmm?" Marcy looked out the window.
Kaworu was still doing laps around the city, flying like Superman.
"Oh no nothing related to that." Not even paying any mind to it.
"And that's not really concerning to you."
"Oh that's the least they can do, did you know that-"
"Marcy, do I really want to know what my trainer can do considering he can fly?"
"Probably not." With a chuckle. "Anyway, look what happened a few days ago."
Reading from the screen. "…Man they're still active? I thought the UN got rid of all of them."
"Well obviously not, and look at what else I've found."
Most of it appeared to be speculation on forums, but the consensus was the same: it was a person that NERV held great interest in.
"Ah so we may be targets of assassination now. Thanks Mars really needed to know that."
"I mean it wouldn't be the first time." Conceded Marcy, bringing up another article. "My Japanese is a bit rough, but they tried to put a hit out on their pilots too."
The date was understandable at least. "…Hang on that's almost a month out from the incursion."
"Rumor has it that's what caused NERV to lock down and for it all to blow up in Seele's face." She'd turn to him. "Why do you think half the teachers are strapped here?"
A wary look on Derek's face. "As in… firearms."
"We've had pilots before, Derek. I'm sure whatever school the Japanese pilots go to is similar." Another leaked document outlining the practice. "It's standard. Pilots are as well protected as the president, they're just a lot more subtle about it. Don't wanna interfere too much in their lives, y'know?"
Derek would glance around, whispering over to her. "Who… who do you know of?"
"Authorized to hold arms here?" With a thought. "The music teacher's one."
"Wait he carries?"
"They carry, c'mon at least use their pronouns!"
"Oh, I'm sorry, they carry a firearm, I should clarify." In biting sarcasm. "And… wait, who is the other pilot? There's only three of us."
Silence.
"They're dead aren't they?" Completely flat.
"…Maybe?"
Another flat look.
And Marcy folded like a wet paper towel. "Okay yeah they're kinda dead."
"Kinda."
"Very."
To his sigh. "Okay, they're an Evangelion pilot. It's a Godforsaken dangerous job, I suppose one being dead is to be expected." Trying to jump through the mental hoops. "Did they at least die in battle? Y'know, viking style?"
"No it was during testing."
"So not even in battle. What happened, did they just get blown up or something?"
"Eh… kinda?" Typing in some keywords.
They would see a satellite shot of the Nevada branch being utterly consumed by a white void. "Apparently they were testing an experimental energy source?"
Derek could only stare at the screen in disbelief. "Please don't tell me how many miles that is."
"I won't."
"Thank you." Blinking. "Okay so I'm probably dead."
"Hey, maybe you'll end up like the Japanese pilots, they faced like fifteen Angels and several of those enemy Evangelion and came out on top. God knows the mental damage they had though-"
"Can you, like, show me some video of them winning against Angels please? Not them being destroyed by them, or detonated by them, or decimated by them, just good old fashioned monster destruction. Something to salvage my decision of becoming a pilot?!"
"Oh! There's a good one with Unit-01 and Unit-02, it's against the twin Angels they faced, think it was one of the first ones they were sortied with."
The video she would show him depicted them being punted several yards deep into the dirt, legs stuck up like they were strange plants.
Derek simply responded with an incredulous look towards Marcy. "Bro."
"That's the wrong one! Sorry!" Rapidly typing. "Okay it's this one, trust me!"
This one ended up being a lot better, depicting the two working in tandem to defeat the Angel. "That's more like it, pretty impressive actually. I wanna see that! I wanna be kicking ass not getting my ass kicked!"
There weren't really much more examples of that Marcy thought worth noting, at least any with footage. "Trust me the big Angel was something special but NERV keeps that footage locked away."
Another beat.
"Sorry, I think I messed that up."
"No you're all good." He conceded. "Piloting's dangerous, I should've known that with what NERV's told me so far. I'd have to come to terms with it either way."
"Ripping the Band-Aid off on it?"
"Well, better I realize now instead of realizing during a fight when I get my ass beat. And hey, might give me some awareness as to what to do and avoid."
"Might be worth seeing if NERV has any after action reports you can refer to, if learning what works and what doesn't is what you want."
"Yeah I should be able to do that. Might be a good idea to tell my peers that as well."
"I'm sure you don't want them to perish."
"Of course I don't! Even if we don't get along that well, when the cards come down I'm still gonna work with them and protect them. It's… it's different in battle, isn't it?"
"I wouldn't have that perspective." Scratching her head. "But I imagine it would be. Wouldn't even be unprecedented, apparently the pilots of Unit-01 and Unit-02 hated each other when they first met each other."
"Well how are they now?"
"Last I heard they were dating."
"Huh." He blinked. "Well, I don't see how I could date either of the other pilots, if I'm being honest."
"You just met each other, right?" Pointing out. "Haven't even sortied with them. I'm sure you'll learn a lot about them once push comes to shove."
~
Nicole would stare out of her own window. "He's looking for something, isn't he…"
Turning back to her door. "Hey Twi?! Do you still have that camera drone of yours?"
~~~
The space button would be hit on the terminal, prompting a video file to play.
A balaclava clad man would wave into a camera. "Hope you're having a lovely day, Commander Katsuragi-chan! Here's to another day of making you life difficult!"
"Pfft…"
"Few updates from where we were. I informed your counterparts of the Rift Material staring Mr President and they have actioned it, should net us a favour when it comes good. I get the feeling that will be rushed through now, considering recent events. I assume it's made the local papers, brash it was. May be worth netting a few agents and leaving them in the care of our three letter friends, with how active they seem to be over here should be easier done than said."
Misato took out a manila folder. "We have a few people of interest we are keeping an eye on. A lot of them we have scant information on, they either haven't done anything interesting yet or they know how to keep their nose clean. One of them does have familial association with Seele however."
"Deamonne… Wittebane… Cutburn…" Scrolling through the papers.
"And more intriguing, one of them is currently working for NERV. Who it is, I'll leave as a surprise for now." With a wink, before continuing on."Spencer and I will be picking up a new agent for training at the start of March. Fresh from the clink, I'm sure you may recognise the family name."
Another folder, a single profile within it. "Alador Blight."
"Don't worry, Commander, they're the boy who snitched. I'm as surprised as you are they weren't killed." With a chuckle. "I shouldn't count my eggs of course, there's still just over a week to go as of recording. Hopefully NERV will have their own little turncoat in their protection as well, we'll wait and see."
Next order of business. "If you're wondering about Kaworu, I haven't been keeping tabs on him. He has his own business and I have mine. No point sticking my nose in it. Seems whatever he's doing is working through, Massachusetts are a bit more hopeful about their prospects than they were."
"Might not need to send the Klaxosaurs then, that's good…"
"Priority for me right now will be to keep tabs on our mutual friends. The land of the free is the last significant place where Seele still have a notable presence, diminished it is. The fact Preston is still able to orchestrate hits from his cell is indication of that. I will inform the janitor when I have more intel for you, Commander."
He would bow toward the camera. "Love you, Katsuragi."
And that was the end of that.
Misato could only sigh. "You did say you'd say that to me after what we saw…"
Knocking on the door, Misato nonchalantly swiping the materials into a nearby drawer. "Come in!"
All four pilots filed in. "Commander!"
"At ease, Hikari." Waving it off. "The power outage was a glitch on our part, no sabotage was involved."
"It was cause of that video game wasn't it."
"Eeyup." The Commander dimly remarked. "Will need to get Kensuke to see if he can get the game running on something other than the Magi, since they've made it crystal clear they do not want to run a video game."
"That explanation wouldn't even surprise me at this point." Thought Shinji.
"Well I did say it looked like it was getting worse despite the work put into optimising it!"
"Is Kensuke on roster for today?"
"I don't think so. Wouldn't surprise me if he wanted to fish out a PC that could run it."
"Can we not emulate a Windows instance on the Magi?"
"Rei I'm not putting it anywhere near the Magi for the time being. Ritsuko's spent the past hour trying to get them back online and she's still saying it's another two hours once they've booted to return to normal operations."
"Was there anything important we missed in that demo?"
"Not really, Ritsuko spent ten minutes playing with the gravity gun and another ten minutes trying to figure out the puzzle at the end of the map. Things might not have crashed if she didn't waste that time."
"How many times did she die?"
"Three times in thirty minutes."
"That is not a great average."
"All of them were stupid and avoidable, two were indirectly caused by her falling off a cliff and taking two thirds of her life away."
"Snrk, sounds like Kensuke." Guffawed Asuka. "Like sempai like kohai."
"So yeah, Episode 1 will be next, whenever we can find a PC to work with. We'll let you know when it's all ready."
"Eh, works for me. Dismissed?"
"Yes, go. I have paperwork to do and I should be home by 8."
"Sounds like a plan!" They'd file out, Hikari being the only one to bow. "You know you don't have to bow to her Hikari."
"But it's rude if I don't!"
The door would shut behind them, presumedly as they kept bickering. "Ahh, the joys of being young."
Pulling the drawer open again and rummaging through it. "…Oh? Do I have that in here?"
A picture frame was pulled out.
She'd observe it for a moment. Before putting it on her desk.
Misato would spent but a moment in contemplation. "Heh, speaking of Massachusetts, Kaji… I wonder when Mabel will learn the weight of her responsibility."
What she had framed was a particular Shoko Asahara's execution warrant.
~
Kensuke's concern was less dire, though you wouldn't think it judging by his tone. "Damn it where's my multi-CD…"
"In that disc binder of yours… where did that go anyway?"
"It's not in the pile in your closet, right? Screw having to go through that…"
"Nah shouldn't be, still need to sort through that if I have a minute…" Shaking it off. "When did I last use a CD, might've been given Hiro and Zero Two that copy of Half-Life and then I- I know!"
He'd pull it out from a pile, it crumbling to the floor as it turned out to be load bearing. "Windows windows windows… there."
It was a very typical copy of Windows 2000: a burned CD with the product key written on it. "Man they really don't care about piracy do they."
"At this point 50% of their customer base don't buy Windows, and the remaining 50% are businesses." Mused Kensuke. "This should be plenty of specs for the game at least."
"Did you ever think you'd be building a gaming computer for NERV?"
"Not really." With a chuckle. "Think I should spruce it up when I get there? Put a 'NERV Gaming' decal on the side of it?"
"I think that's an easy way to piss Ritsuko off."
"You should do it!"
"I'm thinking I might before I drop it off. Ooh, maybe I'll even put a tagline saying it's better than the Magi!"
Much to the amusement of his birds.
Soon enough the system would be installing. "Alright, that should give us… an hour of spare time." Turning around. "What should we-"
Kyoko would immediately jump on him, followed shortly by Sayaka.
The rest, well, we'll leave it on the implication.
~
Rei laid listless in her bed. She did not sleep at all that night.
Not that she needed to, but it wasn't really a good sign, in her mind, that she couldn't stay her thoughts for the entire period.
"…Kaworu?"
"Yes Rei?"
"I… have decided. Thinking out loud. "Eliza is right. I should do what makes me happy. And… well, being with you makes me feel that way."
She could feel the warmth even from this distance. "I will be waiting for you there, Rei."
That warmth would be all she needed to spur her out of the bed. It wouldn't take her long to prepare for the day, and before too long she had rang the doorbell of the next door apartment. "Heh, you seem eager to face the day, Rei."
Rei held a small smile. "The sun is out and I am alive. Today is a good day."
A friendly slap on the back. "Now that's the spirit I wanna see from you!" Asuka would smile in kind. "And hopefully Kensuke can get that game running better than the Magi!"
"As long as I do not see any more grubs, I will be fine."
~
"Look I can't guarantee we won't be seeing more of them, I still found their model in the files for Episode 1 so…"
Rei merely stared at her sister in all but legal. "I promised Kaworu I was going to return to the Astral today."
"Yeah…" Scratching the back of her head. "Sorry."
"Oh it is not your fault, Eliza. You are just the messenger." Before sighing, taking her seat. "Still, it is an unexciting prospect."
"I suppose we'll just have to add Valve to our shitlist then!" Cheered Asuka, bursting through the door with Shinji in tow. "There better be a good explanation for how they survive that explosion!"
"The G-Man will probably drop them off somewhere safe."
"That's the obvious answer, Shinji. I'd like to think they wouldn't just do that."
Also through the door came Ritsuko and Maya. "Misato will be in shortly, she's wrangling the lovebirds."
"Yeah good luck." Scoffed Asuka. "Where's Kensuke? We kinda need a computer to run it on don't we?"
"Cut him some slack, he has to go back home and cart it all the way down here. Might be waiting hours for it."
"Will probably take that long to get Hiro and Zero Two off each other…" Remarked Maya.
"Ah let the lovers do what lovers do." Nudging Shinji with her elbow. "Hehe, can't deny we can be a bit like that sometimes eh?"
Much to his slight blush. "Uhh… are Kaworu and Mari with us yet?"
Rei would flip open her cellphone.
~
The dumpster was torn to shreds. "COME OUT!" Kaworu would shout, his voice echoing through the alleyway.
By now it was the middle of the night, and yet that presence he felt itched at him and Mari like there were ants under their skin. It hadn't gotten better since they first sensed it, and it was really starting to get on their nerves.
"They're close, Ash."
"You feel it too." He'd look around, wired. "I've… I don't know if I've ever felt like this before. Even when I was against the Lilim it didn't feel like this."
"What does it feel like, Ash?"
"Whatever it is…" Squeezing hands into fists. "I don't like it. No Ma'am."
His cellphone would go off. At this time of night it'd only be one person. "Hey, Rei?"
"Are you okay? You seem very-"
"We are fine, Rei." Putting on a brave tone. "We were just looking for our quarry."
"…Think you could spare a few hours for this new work?"
Glancing over to Mari's form, as it appeared to shimmer. "Yeah, we need a break from a-all this, Kaworu. It's…"
She didn't need to elaborate. "We have time, Rei. I'll call you back when we're ready to watch."
Hanging up, and putting the phone away.
Looking up from the alleyway, into the night sky. The moon was out, but was starting to get obscured by clouds.
"We will find them eventually." Mari placed a hand on Kaworu's shoulder. "This game cannot go on f-forever."
All he could do was sigh. "You're right." A glance to her, and a worn smile. "We will find what Lilith sent us here for."
She'd smirk back. "That's the spirit, Ash!"
Her form would dissipate and return to him. "Best not keep t-them waiting, eh?"
"They won't be waiting long."
Kaworu would rocket out of the alley and make a beeline for his quarters.
The Incubator would watch all this from a building rooftop.
~
"They will be with us shortly." Confirmed Rei, keeping the strife he felt hidden.
Even if she didn't hide it well, the next guess would've been enough to distract everyone. "I told you two I could separate you for longer than five minutes, I live with Shinji and Asuka God damn it!"
"Ah Christ she didn't do that did she?"
"She did." Meekly replied Zero Two, coyly rubbing her arm.
To Asuka's cringe. "Yeah she's very good at that."
"Do I want to know how you broke them apart?"
"Don't ask questions you don't wanna know the answer to, Maya." Warned Misato.
Ritsuko rolled her eyes and whispered in Maya's ear.
"…Oh! What the hell Misato?!"
"What? It works!"
The door slid open. "C'mon girls, one more push!"
Kensuke was pulling the cart, and Kyoko and Sayaka were pushing it.
They had finally pushed it the several kilometres from their home down to the Geofront, Kensuke and the two girls flopping on the floor. "Doooooh… I haven't been this exhausted since they did gridiron for sports…"
Rei would proceed to lift the PC out of the cart with one hand, connecting the cables as required. "Oh gee thanks for making us feel puny."
"You are welcome." With a smile.
"Alright let's see if we can get this working better than the Magi." Powering the system on.
"Well that much is a given."
(VIDEO START)
"I think the video's a bit wacky."
"Eh I'm sure it'll fix itself." Kensuke shrugged off.
"This system's been supported since 1999 and they still haven't updated the copyright dates on it." Muttered Ritsuko.
"Kensuke what's the login for this?"
"Oh it's auto login."
"Auto-what?"
It logged in and played the startup sound. "You can do that on Windows?!"
"Why did you give the windows a NERV theme Kensuke?"
"Well it's gonna be used at NERV so I thought I'd dress it up a little. It's all getting recorded anyway Shinji, don't wanna give whoever views the footage a boring experience. Couldn't get the wallpaper on it though."
"Oh how thoughtful for the six people who will ever see the recording of this!"
"So how are we getting the game on this?" Was Misato's query. "I'm guessing we ain't connecting it to the network."
"Oh no way in hell. Kensuke does it have a USB port?"
"You think I can afford a USB card?"
"Well you should be able to by now…" In a mutter. "What do you have?"
"A CD drive?"
"We'll use that then."
The Magi managed to compress five gigabytes of game into a seven hundred megabyte space, the game flash burnt to a CD in around three seconds. "Oh the Magi does that without breaking a sweat but ask them to run a video game-"
"Think we should just run it from the CD drive?" Thought aloud Ritsuko, breaking into Asuka's complaining.
"While it'll probably still run better than from the Magi, I wouldn't take the chance with what I presume is a low speed disc drive."
"Excuse me, it's a 4x drive, thank you very much." Harrumphed Kensuke. "But yeah good point, I'll copy it to the machine."
(01:00)
What followed were several long boring tedious minutes of copying the files to the desktop. "Yeah, way to care about the viewers, Kensuke! Who ever wants to see this!?"
"Hey, I'll do something to pass the time, alright!"
He opened up Solitaire. "Kensuke this isn't compelling viewing!"
"Look it's important to capture every step of what we do with this material, as I'm sure Sempai will back up."
"He's right. Heck, the Magi even captured their own demise."
"I'm still impressed we got them to panic like that." Chuckled Eliza. "Always wanted to see how it works."
"Don't you notice when you panic?"
"Do you notice when you get your lights knocked out?" She pointed out. "Exactly the same for me, can't even remember the last few seconds beforehand. Panic suppression isn't a good experience though, hate when I drop down to that cause I know I can't get out of it lightly!"
"When was the last time you entered panic suppression anyway?"
"Remember when we were watching Kill La Kill? Episode 16?"
"Oh the one where Satsuki got raped by her own mother?!" Asuka could complain about that particular episode until her dying breath
"Wait what?!" All the adults in the room yelled out in sync.
"Yeah that episode wasn't great." She sighed, giving a look to Rei. "…I still appreciate you catching me. Despite everything I'm still a computer system, and there's only so much garbage we can take before we get overwhelmed."
"Just look at the Magi." Snarked Kyoko.
"How have you been going building up tolerance to that sort of thing?" Was Maya's concern. "Don't like seeing you crash like that."
"Well, the only way I'm gonna build up tolerance to it is to be exposed to it. And at that point, crashes are just to be expected." In a shrug. "Undesirable and painful they may be. And I'm pretty sure at this point you guys know when I encounter a critical error like that."
"Your voice completely changes doesn't it?"
"Speech synthesis is just another process for me, so when things lock up or go wrong that's something that immediately goes out the door. Or when I'm going dark."
"Still not really comfortable to think about…"
(10:30)
"Ah! It's done!" Announced Kensuke. "And I didn't even win a game!"
The video terminal would ring in, Kaworu appearing on screen. "Sorry we're late!"
"Did we m-miss much?"
"Only several minutes of shuffling files around."
"And Kensuke sucking at solitaire."
"Ah damn it we missed a g-good bit!"
"Well, no point keeping it waiting, Kensuke." Ritsuko determined. "Get it underway."
"Yes Ma'am!"
~~~
Character Key:
Shinji (Sh) Asuka (A)
Rei (Re) Kaworu (Ka) Mari (Mar)
Eliza (E)
Zero Two (Z) Hiro (H)
Kensuke (Ke) Sayaka (Sa) Kyoko (Ky)
Ritsuko (Ri) Maya (May) Misato (Mi)
PLAYBACK FILE: REC009_CASPER.4817:9281_220218
Shinji (Sh) Asuka (A)
Rei (Re) Kaworu (Ka) Mari (Mar)
Eliza (E)
Zero Two (Z) Hiro (H)
Kensuke (Ke) Sayaka (Sa) Kyoko (Ky)
Ritsuko (Ri) Maya (May) Misato (Mi)
PLAYBACK FILE: REC009_CASPER.4817:9281_220218
Point Extraction (10:55)
Z: "Well if there's one thing we can rely on, it's good ol' valve head dude."
Ke: "Probably the only character in this game with all his screws on tight."
The menu loaded in, and they bore witness to the absolute ruin.
Misato immediately pinpricked at the scene. "Oh… wow." Quiet. "I… don't like how that storm looks."
Ka: "The war of liberation has not been kind on City 17, it seems."
Mar: "What do w-we think that vortex is?"
Re: "If the previous game was anything to go by, perhaps they are trying to send something through."
Ri: "Sounds like Kleiner's desperate to evacuate the city. Maybe they're rigging it to blow?"
A: "I mean the fact it hasn't blown up already kinda indicates the Combine might be trying to do something like that. Take them all out with them."
Re: "Wait, Kensuke." As Kleiner started talking about the removal of the suppression field. "Let me listen."
May: "So that's how they did it? How can they even do that?!"
Ri: "Well he's right about requiring certain protein chains, perhaps this suppression field was targeting the sperm cells. I wouldn't know the mechanics behind it, but it makes sense if the Combine developed a technology to target that."
Sh: "Obviously they've used it before."
Re: "It does seem a relatively universal way of doing it."
Ky: "Wait so what I'm getting here is he's pretty much telling everyone to fuck each other, right?"
Ri: "Essentially, yes. In a very roundabout way."
Mi: "Well would you prefer if he just said get busy?"
Ri: "In a way yes, it's very clear this message has been pre-recorded before he fled the city. Although might also have to consider this needs to be a universal broadcast, and some people may not appreciate using such obvious language."
Mi: "Well that's where he and I don't see eye to eye. I missed a lot!"
H: "And we aren't recapping it."
A: "Yeah you can watch the eight hours of gameplay before and read our transcripts if you want! I'm not repeating it!"
Ka: "Seems like there'll be more bulletins from Kleiner."
Mar: "Oh there'd be a shit-ton to d-discuss about all this! They've been under occupation for decades at t-this point, they have a lot to catch up on!"
Mi: "Can I hear some of this meagre exposition?"
Ke: "Nope!" As Kensuke started the game.
Mi: "Oh c'mon!"
… (12:35)
We start in a void. "Oh wow, f-flashbacks."
Mi: "I'm guessing he's the bad guy?"
Re: "Was the bad guy. I think we sorted him out last game?"
Ke: "I hope we did, I don't want to see him again."
Ri: "Wallace fucking Breen."
Mi: "Oh God he exists here?"
May: "Existed." Clarifying.
Z: "Killed in the Massachusetts Bombing?"
Ri: "Indeed. Not that we should praise such tragedy, but he wasn't the most pleasant of persons according to my mother."
Mi: "Oh good lord she knew him too?"
A: "They worked together briefly. Rits?"
Ri: "'Wallace Breen is a slimy little wankstain who would trade a life away for a couple yen'." She would directly quote.
That got Misato laughing. "Oh Christ he really didn't endear himself to anyone huh?"
Mar: "Honestly I sometimes heard s-shit about him even that many years later. You may not r-remember everyone, but you remember the people who fucked you around."
Mi: "So probably a good thing I didn't get to know him, I'd probably hate him more than anyone here!"
Back to the top of the Citadel. "Ah that's where we left off?"
A: "Yeah, before our untimely demises."
Ka: "Doesn't that describe any demise?"
A: "Well yeah but I would've liked some advance notice!"
Mar: "So say we all."
The Vortigaunts gave a big ol middle finger to the G-Man, whisking Alyx away.
Ke: "Oh! Now that the Combine are gone, they can do these big metaphysical plays now!"
Mi: "They could do that?"
Z: "They were the main alien soldier in the first game, and yeah big energy potential, this doesn't surprise me at all."
Ka: "The fact they could do this against the G-Man at all implies to us that his powers may not be as wide encompassing as we thought."
Sa: "Not as god-like, huh?"
Ri: "Well that's good, if they ever come about they might have a chance of being defeated by us then."
Mi: "Ah God we seriously have to consider these as threats now don't we?"
H: "VIRM exist here now." In flat intonation.
Mi: "Oy… have we done risk assessments on these threats?"
Ri: "Oh the Combine are off our charts bad, at least the Angels would've been merciful and would have ended us immediately."
Ka: "You're welcome."
Mi: "Okay so probably worse than the Angels… this is fine!"
Re: "If it is any consolation, we are in a much better state as a world compared to the world of Half-Life."
A: "They lasted 7 hours as a world, with all our Evangelion we might last a day!"
Much to Misato's unamused look. "I'm gonna have to go to the UN with this. Is there a chance that it really is just a video game and we might be able to look the other way?"
Re: "There is metaphysical evidence they exist. Kaworu and I saw an Advisor in the Astral the other day."
Silence. "That was why you reacted as you did."
Re: "…Indeed."
Mi: "Swear to Christ I'm gonna die of a heart attack before I'm forty…" Nursing her head. "Okay, fine, we'll manage it! This is fine! I'm fine!"
Ri: "Breathe, Misato." Gently tapping her back. "The threat matrix is low at the moment. There's no indication they know of our world, and we have ample time to prepare."
Z: "On the bright side, gives us a lot more incentive to arm ourselves!"
A: "As if we didn't have any to start with…
The Red Letter Day (14:15)
Gordon would wake up underneath some rubble. "Wow they even healed you from last time, Kensuke!"
Sa: "If anything the rubble did less damage than he'd do normally!"
Ke: "Har har very funny girls…" With an eye roll.
Lucky for him, Dog and Alyx were actively looking for him. Their quest would bear fruit. "And what a reunion. In the raining ashes of the city!"
Mi: "Aww do they love each other?" At her hugging him.
Re: "I think it's evident, and they have spent a decent amount of time together."
A: "Three days Rei."
Mi: "Wait all that happened in three days?!"
Ri: "Well technically they were trapped in a time vortex for a week and yeah they missed out on a bit."
Mi: "I'm sorry a time what now?!"
Z: "Y'know we should make this a game, raise things from within this game that we know that she won't!"
Mi: "Oh c'mon!" She pouted. "I was trying to induct your mothers back into NERV! Speaking of Rits I'm never doing that again we really need to hire a proper trainer."
Ri: "We have a lot of roles we need but no one wants to take it because of the security requirements."
Mi: "Well it's not my fault everything we do is top freaking secret!"
May: "Oh she is so smitten with him look at those expressions!"
Gordon would be given the Gravity Gun. "Ooh I know that one!" With glee and a point. "That could exist in our world huh?"
E: "The Kleinium we tested with has that property, yes. Now that we have seen it in action, it may be worth it to implement such thing."
Ke: "We definitely don't have a shortage of ideas now! Should keep R&D busy for ages!"
Mi: "Might have to put our consumer devices on the back burner then…"
Mar: "I mean you can do multiple t-things. Texas Instruments makes everything from calculators to m-microchips to anti-tank missiles!"
Ke: "Oh yeah the Javelin? Amazing what the prospect of generous military contracts does for a company huh?!"
An earthquake, as the Citadel shook at its very foundations.
Re: "I wonder how long we truly have to get away, in this case."
Ke: "Hopefully enough to see out the game! It'd kinda suck if we just died here!"
Mi: "I still don't like that storm… reminds me too much of Second Impact." As a hand unconsciously came up to her chest.
Re: "Perhaps a good thing you were not here for the previous game, given the prospect of the portal storms."
Much to her sigh. "Is this game gonna be traumatising for me? I mean I'm fine with that-"
Sh: "Sounds like it's already traumatising you, Misato."
Mi: "Shinji I got so much on my plate right now, the only thing I have going for me is the thought that this is just a video game, not a warning from whatever incomprehensible being is sending us this stuff!"
Z: "Do you think they'd be so kind?"
Mi: "Well they haven't been so far…"
They would reach a comms terminal, Dog acting as a giant satellite dish in order to reach Eli- "Hold the fucking phone!"
Ri: "Oh yeah I forgot to mention Eli."
Mi: "As if I wouldn't recognise the administrator of Nevada! C'mon he had a personality to him! Much better than either of the older Pines at least…"
Mar: "Oh yeah he was fun." She'd sigh. "K-Kinda hoped he'd survive it beyond all possibility but odds are he's just as dead as I was."
Mi: "Who else does this game have that were NERV staff?"
Ri: "Others we recognised were Isaac Kleiner, who you saw in the opening, and Judith Mossman. Both were scientists at Nevada at the time of the incident."
Mi: "Hang on those names are the same as they were in Bond's work, isn't it?"
A: "Well they existed here so I would've assumed they would be."
Mi: "Gordon doesn't exist here either, do they?! Oh my God and what about Alyx I thought I recognised her from somewhere!"
Ri: "Not sure about Alyx, I don't think she was at Nevada but she fell off of contact afterwards so one can only assume." In a shrug.
Ky: "Does the Commander want to know about what a dark energy flare is?"
Mi: "The Commander probably doesn't but it sounds very bad!"
E: "Good for you, dark energy probably doesn't exist in any immediately usable concept."
Re: "Usable by us you mean."
Mi: "I'm gonna pretend I didn't hear the last part."
Ka: "We could talk about how it will probably tear you asunder in ways not known to man."
Mi: "La la la can't hear you Kaworu!"
H: "Okay so we're right next to what amounts to a super bomb that promises to tear us down to the atomic level, and we have… probably thirty minutes to get away?"
Ke: "If that."
Z: "Ah but in that Kleiner gives a way of getting out of it with some hair intact!"
Sh: "You don't think they'll go back into the Citadel, right?"
A: "Well how else are they gonna pad out the game, Shinji?"
Mar: "It's a good thing you s-still have that hazard suit Kensuke!"
Ri: "I don't think it's rated for dark energy."
May: "Usually we can only give ratings for things known to humanity!"
And with that, the plan was made. "Well, back into the skyscraper of death!" Cheered Kensuke. "Like that went well before!"
Ky: "Hey maybe you won't die a billion times this time around!"
Ke: "Hey I doubt that!"
… (18:10)
Dog moved a crashed gunship out of the way. "What did that sign ever do you you Kensuke!"
Ke: "Commander I don't think buses would be going that way anymore!"
And so Kensuke would start navigating the cliff face. "Hey Ken-Ken if you wanna start work on that death counter you're more than welcome to!"
Ke: "I don't even know how much money I owe you guys now, I'd rather not add more to that!"
Mi: "Oh you made it a bet?"
E: "Kensuke died 38 times in the previous game."
Mi: "Hah!"
Ke: "Oh like you could do better, Commander."
Mi: "I can't, heck Ritsuko died a lot in what amounted to a half hour demo."
Kensuke turned to her. "How many, sempai?"
Ri: "Three, averaging once every ten minutes…"
He couldn't help but snicker. "So what's the average of 38 over 8 hours then."
Re: "One death every fifteen minutes."
Ke: "Once again I prove I am better at video games than those who rarely play them!"
Much to Misato's snicker. "At least you identify it's not within our wheelhouse!"
Kensuke took that as a win, poking his tongue at his birds. "Keep that in your perspective next time I kill Gordon!"
Sa: "We're still gonna mock you for it!"
Lucky for his sake, Kensuke wouldn't die just yet. Gordon and Alyx would make it to another clearing. "Well that's obvious."
Mar: "It's literally shown in a w-white light, somehow you'll be thrown towards it I r-reckon!"
Dog made it as well, despite a near miss.
Ka: "Still a rather precarious situation."
Ri: "Almost like the city's falling apart."
Sh: "How would you be thrown over, anyway? I wouldn't really trust a giant robot to handle my fragile flesh bag self!"
E: "Hey he might leave a few of your bones intact!"
Dog tested the waters, before going to retrieve something.
Mi: "Well you're probably getting thrown over, but he might get you a wrecked car or something to ride in!"
Ke: "There's plenty of those around, that's for sur- GAH!" Dog threw a van towards him. "GODS DAMN IT!"
Much to everyone's amusement. "Well that's an East German special if I've ever seen one!"
A: "Nah that has doors."
Ri: "Kensuke that's not even the right door for it."
A: "They couldn't put the right doors on it normally that's an improvement!" She'd laugh. "Y'know, my mama told me once about how in the communist countries they used to remove the wiper blades when they weren't using them, because rubber was so hard to come by and they were so valuable as a result, folks often stole them if left unattended!"
May: "Well what if it starts raining?"
A: "You pull over and put them on! Yes I know it's stupid but this is communism we're talking about, you're lucky you have a car at all!"
Dog shook his head when asked if he did the math. "Wait how?!"
Everyone else could laugh at it. "Ahh we're dead."
Ky: "Yeah Ken let the woman drive!"
Ri: "As long as that woman isn't Misato."
Mi: "Hey I've only crashed the Alpine six times!"
Ri: "That's one more than I heard last time."
Mi: "Yeah I accidentally backed into a wall last week."
Sh: "Weren't you planning on getting rid of it?"
Mi: "It's been alright since you guys did that repair on it but yeah, still pining for something that's less of a piece of junk." She'd laugh. "Maybe I'll just do what Kaji's done and import something from Bendigo."
Sa: "You don't wanna import a Soviet van?"
Mi: "Even if I wanted to it'd probably rust to nothing once you put it on the boat!"
The Great Leap Forward (22:00)
Z: "Hey Asuka?"
A: "Mhm?"
Z: "What sort of crash protection did Soviet cars have back then?"
A: "Pretty much the same as you see there. None whatsoever."
Ri: "You are the crumple zone pretty much."
A: "Insofar that your legs crumple into your spleen, yes."
Sh: "And Dog couldn't have picked a better car?"
Mi: "Shinji it's eastern Europe that's practically a luxury limousine by their standards!"
Sa: "It doesn't even have any windows!"
A: "Yeah that's stock. No doors, no windows. Might get paint if you're lucky!"
Mar: "Did they a-at least give you tires?"
A: "If the workers didn't steal them yes."
Ka: "I'm guessing they stole the copper wiring as well."
A: "Oh no copper was way too expensive, they'd use tin."
Ke: "You're not really selling me on this tuna can!"
E: "Did that hole in the roof come from the factory?"
A: "Yeah that's the sunroof! That's an option right there, might've taken another two years to add that onto your car!"
Mar: "Oh yeah a sunroof for the one day a y-year Russia has weather that isn't d-depression."
Ke: "Do we have seatbelts at least?!" As Dog picked it up.
A: "Of course not seatbelts are a capitalist invention!"
Ri: "Y'know your mother would go on about East Germany as well."
A: "Of course she would! It was like comparing America to Ghana! Bet she thinks they ate rats over the wall!"
Ky: "Well did they?"
A: "I mean probably if my mom's anything to go about it."
The car would make the leap.
Ke: "…Oh? Did it actually go well?"
Creaking. "Ah wait, there it is."
It fell through a grate, through some service tunnels, before coming to rest deep within the Citadel.
E: "Surely they would've been perforated if the vehicle was anything like you described."
A: "Hazard suit."
H: "And Alyx?"
A: "Badassery."
Lucky for them they got off before it went elsewhere. "Do we think it'll survive the vaporisation?"
A: "Not a chance, Kensuke."
… (23:40)
They'd enter the hallways. "Man we really did a number on this place."
Z: "Didn't think you'd be back so soon?"
Ke: "Not really, no." In thought. "Guess they couldn't get enough of this place."
Ky: "Can't say I even preferred it honestly. I liked the open spaces of the highway and the gritty horror of the prison, but the Citadel just looks too samey for me."
E: "A clash of philosophy between the Combine's brutalism and the natural beauty of the world."
May: "Well I wouldn't call a prison any sort of natural beauty especially Nova Prospekt…"
Sh: "Well those prisoners aren't getting out of there."
Mi: "Those are prisoners?"
A: "Yep." Giving a mock wave. "Goodbye!"
To her flat look. "I hope the fall kills them."
Ke: "The rest of the place looks like a garbage fire as well!"
Re: "Hear the voice. Even the computers behind it are struggling to deal with it."
E: "Invariably their power source was the reactor, now that that's gone into meltdown they're probably struggling to get the power they need."
Mi: "What, the Combine can't make a computer that runs on 1.1 volts?"
E: "Knowing the Combine it probably requires 1.1 billion volts- oh that's terrifying up close."
Mi: "What the fuck are those?!"
Ke: "What happens if the Combine don't end up killing you."
Re: "Living automata, essentially. I would not feel anything in putting them out of their misery at that point."
Z: "They literally can't do anything other than what they're told, huh."
Re: "It appears that way."
Mi: "Well if I didn't hate the Combine before…"
Ri: "Oh you'll have plenty of reasons to hate them, believe me. So does Rei."
Re: "I still want to kill Breen."
Ri: "Unfortunately for you he's dead in both of these worlds."
The Stalkers were blocking Alyx from dropping that field.
Sh: "Well looks like she isn't beyond killing them as well!"
Mar: "Alright so rollermines, h-how are we gonna get them to target them instead of us?"
E: "Alyx has that zapper weapon, maybe that can recode them?"
Kensuke pushed a button, the rollermines immediately dropping down and zapping him off the edge. "NO!"
Gordon had around five seconds to think about things before gravity did its thing. "DAMN IT!"
Ky: "Ken what did you expect."
Ke: "I didn't expect them to drop down on me!"
Ri: "Why'd you press a button when you didn't know what it did?"
Ke: "Oh yeah like it was labelled!"
Lucky for him the checkpoint was only a few yards away. "Okay now I know for future reference!"
A: "Y'know that's a good point why don't the Combine label these buttons? Do they just know what each button does and hope everyone else does as well?"
May: "If we did that this place would blow up!"
Ri: "Each of those consoles in Central Dogma have around three hundred separate buttons you can select, all of which can be mapped to certain functions and adjust depending on our current alert status."
May: "It was a pain to learn but you learn it quickly!"
Kensuke this time creeped to the button. "And… run!" As he clicked it. "That- none of them followed me!"
Sa: "Think they want you to grab one."
He would, bringing it back to Alyx.
Mar: "And it only took a s-single death!"
Ke: "Yeah yeah go on."
One quick zap and it changed sides. "Rather amazing how simple the targeting system on it is."
A: "Why couldn't we just zap the Angels into attacking themselves instead of us!"
Ka: "In a way that occurred with me."
Re: "Less a zap and more a toss into a tree several times."
Ka: "Can't argue with the result."
Kensuke set it loose. "Oh Gods I knew it would kill them but that completely shattered them!"
Mar: "Would've been q-quick at least."
Re: "You generally do not stay conscious when all your bones have been shattered."
Either way, they could go through. "Wonder if that red screen's a safe mode of some sort."
E: "The Combine are in a panic, so makes sense the computers are as well."
… (27:30)
Continuing to go through the Citadel. "Do we need to kill that one… no? Alrighty then!"
Re: "Forever doomed to a life of slavery."
Z: "Hey, the Citadel will be blowing up soon, so they have that to look forward to."
Re: "Indeed."
Mi: "Hey we were just there weren't we?"
Soldiers could be seen. "Lucky they have other things to deal with huh."
Ke: "We know we'll have to deal with them if we get a charged gravity gun again."
May: "That's really the whole reason Valve sent us into the Citadel again, isn't it?"
Ke: "Hah! Probably!"
The soldiers were found dead. "Well that's convenient!" Asuka cheered. "Let's hope that continues!"
It would, a wayward vaporiser vaporising everything in the room. "As if you could be more dead."
Ky: "Eh no one will mourn them."
H: "No one mourned them anyway."
Sh: "If anything we celebrated it!"
Kensuke was just about to cross an energy bridge. "Oh yeah way to steal from Aper- soldiers!"
The soldiers were sucked into an energy vortex and promptly spaghettified.
Z: "Well it's been nice knowing ya Gordon!"
Mi: "Is that bridge even gonna hold out?! I wouldn't trust an Aperture one on the best days!"
E: "It doesn't even look as solid as an Aperture one."
Kensuke was able to hop across. "Thank you Quake!"
Ky: "Dang it I was expecting something there!"
Kensuke blew a raspberry as he continued on. "Speaking of I would've expected those energy emitters supercharge the gravity gun but here we are."
Combine Advisory (29:50)
Ke: "Uhh this way… down here!" Jumping down. "Man it's still as much as a maze as it was!"
Ri: "Kensuke this game is a glorified hallway."
Mi: "It's a very pretty hallway!"
Ke: "Mah that's just Valve in general!" Shrugging it off.
Re: "What's… this one?"
E: "Rei I don't like the look of those pods."
Re: "Do you think it could be them?"
E: "I mean they're round aren't they?"
Rei promptly left the room.
A sigh over the phone. "I will let her know when it has passed."
Mi: "…Man they're really that bad, huh?"
Ke: "She's gonna activate them isn't she?"
They'd instead activate an old message from Breen. "God he sounds like a dickhead."
Ri: "He is a dickhead!"
Mar: "You mean w-was a dickhead."
Let's just say Rei was correct in her decision to leave. "Knew it."
Mi: "So… that's what Rei saw?"
But a small nod from Eliza.
Misato looked at them close. "…Heh. Can they even breathe our atmosphere? Surely we can just squish them under an Evangelion's foot!"
And then the mental attacks started, Alyx crying out in pain as they fled. "Oh my God h-her expression… that fucked her up."
Mi: "Ah. Okay." With but a sigh. "Metabiological potential, that's fine. We invented Metbio we'll be fine!"
Sh: "You aren't exactly convincing Misato."
Mi: "What do you want me to say we're completely fucked?"
Either way, it was over.
The door opened again. "Kaworu advised me they are gone."
Mi: "Was… it as bad as we saw it there?"
Re: "Judging by Kaworu's perspective, that's the least they could do."
… (31:50)
Gordon made it into a confiscation field. "Ah! Looks like we're going killing today!" Zero Two cheered.
Ke: "About damn time we did something more than walking."
Ri: "I'm just surprised that field still works."
The gravity gun was charged. "Well, works as well as it did before."
A: "So not at all?"
Ri: "Typical of Combine electrics I suppose."
H: "That raises a good point why didn't it stay that way? It was a normal gravity gun by the time we were pulled from the rubble!"
Ky: "Maybe it isn't as permanent as we'd hope."
Ri: "So maybe it retains the charge for a period, a bit like a battery… but this shows you can charge it afterwards and it'll be fine, so could still have utility if the Kleinium reacts the same way."
Mi: "Did we ever figure out how much energy it takes to vaporise a shotgun?"
E: "It probably takes more energy, it looks like the vaporiser overloads itself trying to charge it."
Ka: "You know you can just put Solenoid power into it and see what happens."
Ri: "I mean we could, it probably works on a gradient when put into practice. The more power you put into it, the more potent the effects."
May: "Just so happens that's what happens when you pump several hundred thousand million watts into it!"
One loading zone later, they find the first puzzle. "Surely there's better ways to power a bridge."
Ke: "Bet Aperture could do it with one energy ball."
The bridge would be rebuilt. "Contact!" As soldiers came out.
Z: "Break their spines!"
The ones on their level would be promptly cleared out by Kensuke. "Still satisfying. Now for the second br-"
More shooting. "What about the ones up there?"
Ke: "I'll get to it Kyo-"
The soldier up high promptly died to something. "…Huh. Well, won't complain!"
Another bridge was set up, and another dozen Combine soldiers threw themselves into a meat grinder like they were male hatchlings in a chicken factory. "Gods those high up ones are a thorn in my side!"
For their annoyance they were murdered. "Alright! Next bridge!"
Re: "It appears they made it more difficult for you."
One of the activation points was behind a shield of some sort.
Ke: "Get it on the rebound!" It bounced true. "Nice!"
Re: "I take that back."
Sa: "It was literally no different from the other bridges!"
They made it through. "Alright! Let's keep- gah!"
Loud noises!
H: "I'd say you're jumpy but the place is falling apart around you."
Ke: "You understand then!"
Three elites emerged and three elites were immediately painted on the walls. "None of that!"
Mi: "God the energy it pumps into them!"
Ri: "Each of those soldiers is probably a good half decade of effort."
Mi: "Rits you could kill them I have no hope for them with someone competent playing!"
Ke: "That's the best complement you could have given me Commander!"
Next section, and a strider carrier fell from the sky.
H: "I thought those were autonomous?"
A: "Not autonomous enough obviously."
Ka: "At the very least, it's one more strider that can't be used against us."
Mi: "What are those things?!"
Z: "I'm sure you'll find out a few hours later."
Mi: "Probably knowing how narratives work but I want to know now!"
Ke: "Ah but that'll ruin the surprise!"
Mi: "You know what they do already!"
Ignoring the plea Kensuke proceeded, through a locked door and a loading zone.
Negative Pressure (36:50)
Ke: "Y'know I kinda get what you mean when you say the Citadel is mostly the same, Kyoko."
Ky: "See?! Metal walls, brutal architecture, there's just no variation to it!"
Mi: "I would not trust an elevator in this environment!"
Z: "Looks like we don't have a choice though!"
Kensuke sighed, as he got the elevator moving. "Let's see how many times I die."
Sa: "It'll be a lot."
From above, a ton of debris started falling down.
Ri: "You know perhaps it was a poor design choice to use a glass elevator in this instance."
May: "They must've thought nothing could fall from above."
Re: "That is called being cocky I believe."
Ke: "Oh c'mon now I have to be looking up this entire time! Why is this elevator moving so slowly?!"
It stopped. "Ya jinxed it!"
Ke: "Gah!" Knowing there could be several tonnes of debris that fall down to kill him at any time. "Get it going!"
Ka: "I've never been on an elevator that has required active intervention to keep it going."
Mi: "I lived in an apartment building once where the elevator occasionally sticked so you had to jump to get it moving."
Ri: "Where was that?"
Mi: "The old NERV apartments before we had those ones we live in now."
Re: "Were they the ones I used to live in?"
Mi: "Yeah!"
Re: "That is why I took the stairs."
Ke: "Activate it damn it!" Pulling out a terminal and a stalker before being able to make the mark. "There we go!"
The next piece of debris killed him immediately. "YOU DIDN'T GIVE ME ENOUGH TIME!"
Mar: "Not everyone gets t-time to realize they're dead. Most people get is 'mind that bus what b-bus splat'."
Z: "He definitely went splat."
Ke: "Ngmh!" Reloading. "At least I don't need to go through the whole sequence again! Now I'm ready for it!"
It slammed right in his face and turned Gordon Freeman into a single celled organism. "FUCK!"
Ky: "Nice one Ken! You gonna be ready for the next one as well?!"
Third time's the charm, he'd poke a tongue at Kyoko. "Nyeh!"
She'd droop an eyelid in response.
H: "I certainly have never been in an elevator as precarious as that one."
Z: "The ones going up to the Franxx units were always fun, no railings and a several dozen metre drop. At least the ones here are a cage of sorts!"
Ri: "With how disposable Franxx pilots were I'm not surprised they didn't really focus on the safety aspect of things."
Ke: "D'oh the Stalker's stopping it!" Trying to kill it. "C'mon bastard!"
It took five attempts to kill it. "Gah! Finally!"
It took five more attempts to activate the elevator again. "Kensuke b-buddy that's meant to be the easy part."
Ke: "I KNOW IT'S MEANT TO BE THE EASY PART!"
The elevator would finally get some pace in it, Kensuke still on the lookout for falling rocks. "Oh is it done?" In a sigh. "Thank the Gods for that."
Sa: "Hurray! No more dying to an elevator!"
Ke: "Hope I never see that damn thing again."
That wish would immediately come true as a large amount of debris sent it to hell.
E: "Ain't no way that was getting redirected."
Mi: "Imagine what would've happened if you took longer to activate it again!"
Ke: "Hey, we got our with our skins and all four fingers and toes, so that's good in my books." As they entered an obvious loading hallway.
A: "Wait four?!"
~
Z: "Well if there's one thing we can rely on, it's good ol' valve head dude."
Ke: "Probably the only character in this game with all his screws on tight."
The menu loaded in, and they bore witness to the absolute ruin.
Misato immediately pinpricked at the scene. "Oh… wow." Quiet. "I… don't like how that storm looks."
Ka: "The war of liberation has not been kind on City 17, it seems."
Mar: "What do w-we think that vortex is?"
Re: "If the previous game was anything to go by, perhaps they are trying to send something through."
Ri: "Sounds like Kleiner's desperate to evacuate the city. Maybe they're rigging it to blow?"
A: "I mean the fact it hasn't blown up already kinda indicates the Combine might be trying to do something like that. Take them all out with them."
Re: "Wait, Kensuke." As Kleiner started talking about the removal of the suppression field. "Let me listen."
May: "So that's how they did it? How can they even do that?!"
Ri: "Well he's right about requiring certain protein chains, perhaps this suppression field was targeting the sperm cells. I wouldn't know the mechanics behind it, but it makes sense if the Combine developed a technology to target that."
Sh: "Obviously they've used it before."
Re: "It does seem a relatively universal way of doing it."
Ky: "Wait so what I'm getting here is he's pretty much telling everyone to fuck each other, right?"
Ri: "Essentially, yes. In a very roundabout way."
Mi: "Well would you prefer if he just said get busy?"
Ri: "In a way yes, it's very clear this message has been pre-recorded before he fled the city. Although might also have to consider this needs to be a universal broadcast, and some people may not appreciate using such obvious language."
Mi: "Well that's where he and I don't see eye to eye. I missed a lot!"
H: "And we aren't recapping it."
A: "Yeah you can watch the eight hours of gameplay before and read our transcripts if you want! I'm not repeating it!"
Ka: "Seems like there'll be more bulletins from Kleiner."
Mar: "Oh there'd be a shit-ton to d-discuss about all this! They've been under occupation for decades at t-this point, they have a lot to catch up on!"
Mi: "Can I hear some of this meagre exposition?"
Ke: "Nope!" As Kensuke started the game.
Mi: "Oh c'mon!"
… (12:35)
We start in a void. "Oh wow, f-flashbacks."
Mi: "I'm guessing he's the bad guy?"
Re: "Was the bad guy. I think we sorted him out last game?"
Ke: "I hope we did, I don't want to see him again."
Ri: "Wallace fucking Breen."
Mi: "Oh God he exists here?"
May: "Existed." Clarifying.
Z: "Killed in the Massachusetts Bombing?"
Ri: "Indeed. Not that we should praise such tragedy, but he wasn't the most pleasant of persons according to my mother."
Mi: "Oh good lord she knew him too?"
A: "They worked together briefly. Rits?"
Ri: "'Wallace Breen is a slimy little wankstain who would trade a life away for a couple yen'." She would directly quote.
That got Misato laughing. "Oh Christ he really didn't endear himself to anyone huh?"
Mar: "Honestly I sometimes heard s-shit about him even that many years later. You may not r-remember everyone, but you remember the people who fucked you around."
Mi: "So probably a good thing I didn't get to know him, I'd probably hate him more than anyone here!"
Back to the top of the Citadel. "Ah that's where we left off?"
A: "Yeah, before our untimely demises."
Ka: "Doesn't that describe any demise?"
A: "Well yeah but I would've liked some advance notice!"
Mar: "So say we all."
The Vortigaunts gave a big ol middle finger to the G-Man, whisking Alyx away.
Ke: "Oh! Now that the Combine are gone, they can do these big metaphysical plays now!"
Mi: "They could do that?"
Z: "They were the main alien soldier in the first game, and yeah big energy potential, this doesn't surprise me at all."
Ka: "The fact they could do this against the G-Man at all implies to us that his powers may not be as wide encompassing as we thought."
Sa: "Not as god-like, huh?"
Ri: "Well that's good, if they ever come about they might have a chance of being defeated by us then."
Mi: "Ah God we seriously have to consider these as threats now don't we?"
H: "VIRM exist here now." In flat intonation.
Mi: "Oy… have we done risk assessments on these threats?"
Ri: "Oh the Combine are off our charts bad, at least the Angels would've been merciful and would have ended us immediately."
Ka: "You're welcome."
Mi: "Okay so probably worse than the Angels… this is fine!"
Re: "If it is any consolation, we are in a much better state as a world compared to the world of Half-Life."
A: "They lasted 7 hours as a world, with all our Evangelion we might last a day!"
Much to Misato's unamused look. "I'm gonna have to go to the UN with this. Is there a chance that it really is just a video game and we might be able to look the other way?"
Re: "There is metaphysical evidence they exist. Kaworu and I saw an Advisor in the Astral the other day."
Silence. "That was why you reacted as you did."
Re: "…Indeed."
Mi: "Swear to Christ I'm gonna die of a heart attack before I'm forty…" Nursing her head. "Okay, fine, we'll manage it! This is fine! I'm fine!"
Ri: "Breathe, Misato." Gently tapping her back. "The threat matrix is low at the moment. There's no indication they know of our world, and we have ample time to prepare."
Z: "On the bright side, gives us a lot more incentive to arm ourselves!"
A: "As if we didn't have any to start with…
The Red Letter Day (14:15)
Gordon would wake up underneath some rubble. "Wow they even healed you from last time, Kensuke!"
Sa: "If anything the rubble did less damage than he'd do normally!"
Ke: "Har har very funny girls…" With an eye roll.
Lucky for him, Dog and Alyx were actively looking for him. Their quest would bear fruit. "And what a reunion. In the raining ashes of the city!"
Mi: "Aww do they love each other?" At her hugging him.
Re: "I think it's evident, and they have spent a decent amount of time together."
A: "Three days Rei."
Mi: "Wait all that happened in three days?!"
Ri: "Well technically they were trapped in a time vortex for a week and yeah they missed out on a bit."
Mi: "I'm sorry a time what now?!"
Z: "Y'know we should make this a game, raise things from within this game that we know that she won't!"
Mi: "Oh c'mon!" She pouted. "I was trying to induct your mothers back into NERV! Speaking of Rits I'm never doing that again we really need to hire a proper trainer."
Ri: "We have a lot of roles we need but no one wants to take it because of the security requirements."
Mi: "Well it's not my fault everything we do is top freaking secret!"
May: "Oh she is so smitten with him look at those expressions!"
Gordon would be given the Gravity Gun. "Ooh I know that one!" With glee and a point. "That could exist in our world huh?"
E: "The Kleinium we tested with has that property, yes. Now that we have seen it in action, it may be worth it to implement such thing."
Ke: "We definitely don't have a shortage of ideas now! Should keep R&D busy for ages!"
Mi: "Might have to put our consumer devices on the back burner then…"
Mar: "I mean you can do multiple t-things. Texas Instruments makes everything from calculators to m-microchips to anti-tank missiles!"
Ke: "Oh yeah the Javelin? Amazing what the prospect of generous military contracts does for a company huh?!"
An earthquake, as the Citadel shook at its very foundations.
Re: "I wonder how long we truly have to get away, in this case."
Ke: "Hopefully enough to see out the game! It'd kinda suck if we just died here!"
Mi: "I still don't like that storm… reminds me too much of Second Impact." As a hand unconsciously came up to her chest.
Re: "Perhaps a good thing you were not here for the previous game, given the prospect of the portal storms."
Much to her sigh. "Is this game gonna be traumatising for me? I mean I'm fine with that-"
Sh: "Sounds like it's already traumatising you, Misato."
Mi: "Shinji I got so much on my plate right now, the only thing I have going for me is the thought that this is just a video game, not a warning from whatever incomprehensible being is sending us this stuff!"
Z: "Do you think they'd be so kind?"
Mi: "Well they haven't been so far…"
They would reach a comms terminal, Dog acting as a giant satellite dish in order to reach Eli- "Hold the fucking phone!"
Ri: "Oh yeah I forgot to mention Eli."
Mi: "As if I wouldn't recognise the administrator of Nevada! C'mon he had a personality to him! Much better than either of the older Pines at least…"
Mar: "Oh yeah he was fun." She'd sigh. "K-Kinda hoped he'd survive it beyond all possibility but odds are he's just as dead as I was."
Mi: "Who else does this game have that were NERV staff?"
Ri: "Others we recognised were Isaac Kleiner, who you saw in the opening, and Judith Mossman. Both were scientists at Nevada at the time of the incident."
Mi: "Hang on those names are the same as they were in Bond's work, isn't it?"
A: "Well they existed here so I would've assumed they would be."
Mi: "Gordon doesn't exist here either, do they?! Oh my God and what about Alyx I thought I recognised her from somewhere!"
Ri: "Not sure about Alyx, I don't think she was at Nevada but she fell off of contact afterwards so one can only assume." In a shrug.
Ky: "Does the Commander want to know about what a dark energy flare is?"
Mi: "The Commander probably doesn't but it sounds very bad!"
E: "Good for you, dark energy probably doesn't exist in any immediately usable concept."
Re: "Usable by us you mean."
Mi: "I'm gonna pretend I didn't hear the last part."
Ka: "We could talk about how it will probably tear you asunder in ways not known to man."
Mi: "La la la can't hear you Kaworu!"
H: "Okay so we're right next to what amounts to a super bomb that promises to tear us down to the atomic level, and we have… probably thirty minutes to get away?"
Ke: "If that."
Z: "Ah but in that Kleiner gives a way of getting out of it with some hair intact!"
Sh: "You don't think they'll go back into the Citadel, right?"
A: "Well how else are they gonna pad out the game, Shinji?"
Mar: "It's a good thing you s-still have that hazard suit Kensuke!"
Ri: "I don't think it's rated for dark energy."
May: "Usually we can only give ratings for things known to humanity!"
And with that, the plan was made. "Well, back into the skyscraper of death!" Cheered Kensuke. "Like that went well before!"
Ky: "Hey maybe you won't die a billion times this time around!"
Ke: "Hey I doubt that!"
… (18:10)
Dog moved a crashed gunship out of the way. "What did that sign ever do you you Kensuke!"
Ke: "Commander I don't think buses would be going that way anymore!"
And so Kensuke would start navigating the cliff face. "Hey Ken-Ken if you wanna start work on that death counter you're more than welcome to!"
Ke: "I don't even know how much money I owe you guys now, I'd rather not add more to that!"
Mi: "Oh you made it a bet?"
E: "Kensuke died 38 times in the previous game."
Mi: "Hah!"
Ke: "Oh like you could do better, Commander."
Mi: "I can't, heck Ritsuko died a lot in what amounted to a half hour demo."
Kensuke turned to her. "How many, sempai?"
Ri: "Three, averaging once every ten minutes…"
He couldn't help but snicker. "So what's the average of 38 over 8 hours then."
Re: "One death every fifteen minutes."
Ke: "Once again I prove I am better at video games than those who rarely play them!"
Much to Misato's snicker. "At least you identify it's not within our wheelhouse!"
Kensuke took that as a win, poking his tongue at his birds. "Keep that in your perspective next time I kill Gordon!"
Sa: "We're still gonna mock you for it!"
Lucky for his sake, Kensuke wouldn't die just yet. Gordon and Alyx would make it to another clearing. "Well that's obvious."
Mar: "It's literally shown in a w-white light, somehow you'll be thrown towards it I r-reckon!"
Dog made it as well, despite a near miss.
Ka: "Still a rather precarious situation."
Ri: "Almost like the city's falling apart."
Sh: "How would you be thrown over, anyway? I wouldn't really trust a giant robot to handle my fragile flesh bag self!"
E: "Hey he might leave a few of your bones intact!"
Dog tested the waters, before going to retrieve something.
Mi: "Well you're probably getting thrown over, but he might get you a wrecked car or something to ride in!"
Ke: "There's plenty of those around, that's for sur- GAH!" Dog threw a van towards him. "GODS DAMN IT!"
Much to everyone's amusement. "Well that's an East German special if I've ever seen one!"
A: "Nah that has doors."
Ri: "Kensuke that's not even the right door for it."
A: "They couldn't put the right doors on it normally that's an improvement!" She'd laugh. "Y'know, my mama told me once about how in the communist countries they used to remove the wiper blades when they weren't using them, because rubber was so hard to come by and they were so valuable as a result, folks often stole them if left unattended!"
May: "Well what if it starts raining?"
A: "You pull over and put them on! Yes I know it's stupid but this is communism we're talking about, you're lucky you have a car at all!"
Dog shook his head when asked if he did the math. "Wait how?!"
Everyone else could laugh at it. "Ahh we're dead."
Ky: "Yeah Ken let the woman drive!"
Ri: "As long as that woman isn't Misato."
Mi: "Hey I've only crashed the Alpine six times!"
Ri: "That's one more than I heard last time."
Mi: "Yeah I accidentally backed into a wall last week."
Sh: "Weren't you planning on getting rid of it?"
Mi: "It's been alright since you guys did that repair on it but yeah, still pining for something that's less of a piece of junk." She'd laugh. "Maybe I'll just do what Kaji's done and import something from Bendigo."
Sa: "You don't wanna import a Soviet van?"
Mi: "Even if I wanted to it'd probably rust to nothing once you put it on the boat!"
The Great Leap Forward (22:00)
Z: "Hey Asuka?"
A: "Mhm?"
Z: "What sort of crash protection did Soviet cars have back then?"
A: "Pretty much the same as you see there. None whatsoever."
Ri: "You are the crumple zone pretty much."
A: "Insofar that your legs crumple into your spleen, yes."
Sh: "And Dog couldn't have picked a better car?"
Mi: "Shinji it's eastern Europe that's practically a luxury limousine by their standards!"
Sa: "It doesn't even have any windows!"
A: "Yeah that's stock. No doors, no windows. Might get paint if you're lucky!"
Mar: "Did they a-at least give you tires?"
A: "If the workers didn't steal them yes."
Ka: "I'm guessing they stole the copper wiring as well."
A: "Oh no copper was way too expensive, they'd use tin."
Ke: "You're not really selling me on this tuna can!"
E: "Did that hole in the roof come from the factory?"
A: "Yeah that's the sunroof! That's an option right there, might've taken another two years to add that onto your car!"
Mar: "Oh yeah a sunroof for the one day a y-year Russia has weather that isn't d-depression."
Ke: "Do we have seatbelts at least?!" As Dog picked it up.
A: "Of course not seatbelts are a capitalist invention!"
Ri: "Y'know your mother would go on about East Germany as well."
A: "Of course she would! It was like comparing America to Ghana! Bet she thinks they ate rats over the wall!"
Ky: "Well did they?"
A: "I mean probably if my mom's anything to go about it."
The car would make the leap.
Ke: "…Oh? Did it actually go well?"
Creaking. "Ah wait, there it is."
It fell through a grate, through some service tunnels, before coming to rest deep within the Citadel.
E: "Surely they would've been perforated if the vehicle was anything like you described."
A: "Hazard suit."
H: "And Alyx?"
A: "Badassery."
Lucky for them they got off before it went elsewhere. "Do we think it'll survive the vaporisation?"
A: "Not a chance, Kensuke."
… (23:40)
They'd enter the hallways. "Man we really did a number on this place."
Z: "Didn't think you'd be back so soon?"
Ke: "Not really, no." In thought. "Guess they couldn't get enough of this place."
Ky: "Can't say I even preferred it honestly. I liked the open spaces of the highway and the gritty horror of the prison, but the Citadel just looks too samey for me."
E: "A clash of philosophy between the Combine's brutalism and the natural beauty of the world."
May: "Well I wouldn't call a prison any sort of natural beauty especially Nova Prospekt…"
Sh: "Well those prisoners aren't getting out of there."
Mi: "Those are prisoners?"
A: "Yep." Giving a mock wave. "Goodbye!"
To her flat look. "I hope the fall kills them."
Ke: "The rest of the place looks like a garbage fire as well!"
Re: "Hear the voice. Even the computers behind it are struggling to deal with it."
E: "Invariably their power source was the reactor, now that that's gone into meltdown they're probably struggling to get the power they need."
Mi: "What, the Combine can't make a computer that runs on 1.1 volts?"
E: "Knowing the Combine it probably requires 1.1 billion volts- oh that's terrifying up close."
Mi: "What the fuck are those?!"
Ke: "What happens if the Combine don't end up killing you."
Re: "Living automata, essentially. I would not feel anything in putting them out of their misery at that point."
Z: "They literally can't do anything other than what they're told, huh."
Re: "It appears that way."
Mi: "Well if I didn't hate the Combine before…"
Ri: "Oh you'll have plenty of reasons to hate them, believe me. So does Rei."
Re: "I still want to kill Breen."
Ri: "Unfortunately for you he's dead in both of these worlds."
The Stalkers were blocking Alyx from dropping that field.
Sh: "Well looks like she isn't beyond killing them as well!"
Mar: "Alright so rollermines, h-how are we gonna get them to target them instead of us?"
E: "Alyx has that zapper weapon, maybe that can recode them?"
Kensuke pushed a button, the rollermines immediately dropping down and zapping him off the edge. "NO!"
Gordon had around five seconds to think about things before gravity did its thing. "DAMN IT!"
Ky: "Ken what did you expect."
Ke: "I didn't expect them to drop down on me!"
Ri: "Why'd you press a button when you didn't know what it did?"
Ke: "Oh yeah like it was labelled!"
Lucky for him the checkpoint was only a few yards away. "Okay now I know for future reference!"
A: "Y'know that's a good point why don't the Combine label these buttons? Do they just know what each button does and hope everyone else does as well?"
May: "If we did that this place would blow up!"
Ri: "Each of those consoles in Central Dogma have around three hundred separate buttons you can select, all of which can be mapped to certain functions and adjust depending on our current alert status."
May: "It was a pain to learn but you learn it quickly!"
Kensuke this time creeped to the button. "And… run!" As he clicked it. "That- none of them followed me!"
Sa: "Think they want you to grab one."
He would, bringing it back to Alyx.
Mar: "And it only took a s-single death!"
Ke: "Yeah yeah go on."
One quick zap and it changed sides. "Rather amazing how simple the targeting system on it is."
A: "Why couldn't we just zap the Angels into attacking themselves instead of us!"
Ka: "In a way that occurred with me."
Re: "Less a zap and more a toss into a tree several times."
Ka: "Can't argue with the result."
Kensuke set it loose. "Oh Gods I knew it would kill them but that completely shattered them!"
Mar: "Would've been q-quick at least."
Re: "You generally do not stay conscious when all your bones have been shattered."
Either way, they could go through. "Wonder if that red screen's a safe mode of some sort."
E: "The Combine are in a panic, so makes sense the computers are as well."
… (27:30)
Continuing to go through the Citadel. "Do we need to kill that one… no? Alrighty then!"
Re: "Forever doomed to a life of slavery."
Z: "Hey, the Citadel will be blowing up soon, so they have that to look forward to."
Re: "Indeed."
Mi: "Hey we were just there weren't we?"
Soldiers could be seen. "Lucky they have other things to deal with huh."
Ke: "We know we'll have to deal with them if we get a charged gravity gun again."
May: "That's really the whole reason Valve sent us into the Citadel again, isn't it?"
Ke: "Hah! Probably!"
The soldiers were found dead. "Well that's convenient!" Asuka cheered. "Let's hope that continues!"
It would, a wayward vaporiser vaporising everything in the room. "As if you could be more dead."
Ky: "Eh no one will mourn them."
H: "No one mourned them anyway."
Sh: "If anything we celebrated it!"
Kensuke was just about to cross an energy bridge. "Oh yeah way to steal from Aper- soldiers!"
The soldiers were sucked into an energy vortex and promptly spaghettified.
Z: "Well it's been nice knowing ya Gordon!"
Mi: "Is that bridge even gonna hold out?! I wouldn't trust an Aperture one on the best days!"
E: "It doesn't even look as solid as an Aperture one."
Kensuke was able to hop across. "Thank you Quake!"
Ky: "Dang it I was expecting something there!"
Kensuke blew a raspberry as he continued on. "Speaking of I would've expected those energy emitters supercharge the gravity gun but here we are."
Combine Advisory (29:50)
Ke: "Uhh this way… down here!" Jumping down. "Man it's still as much as a maze as it was!"
Ri: "Kensuke this game is a glorified hallway."
Mi: "It's a very pretty hallway!"
Ke: "Mah that's just Valve in general!" Shrugging it off.
Re: "What's… this one?"
E: "Rei I don't like the look of those pods."
Re: "Do you think it could be them?"
E: "I mean they're round aren't they?"
Rei promptly left the room.
A sigh over the phone. "I will let her know when it has passed."
Mi: "…Man they're really that bad, huh?"
Ke: "She's gonna activate them isn't she?"
They'd instead activate an old message from Breen. "God he sounds like a dickhead."
Ri: "He is a dickhead!"
Mar: "You mean w-was a dickhead."
Let's just say Rei was correct in her decision to leave. "Knew it."
Mi: "So… that's what Rei saw?"
But a small nod from Eliza.
Misato looked at them close. "…Heh. Can they even breathe our atmosphere? Surely we can just squish them under an Evangelion's foot!"
And then the mental attacks started, Alyx crying out in pain as they fled. "Oh my God h-her expression… that fucked her up."
Mi: "Ah. Okay." With but a sigh. "Metabiological potential, that's fine. We invented Metbio we'll be fine!"
Sh: "You aren't exactly convincing Misato."
Mi: "What do you want me to say we're completely fucked?"
Either way, it was over.
The door opened again. "Kaworu advised me they are gone."
Mi: "Was… it as bad as we saw it there?"
Re: "Judging by Kaworu's perspective, that's the least they could do."
… (31:50)
Gordon made it into a confiscation field. "Ah! Looks like we're going killing today!" Zero Two cheered.
Ke: "About damn time we did something more than walking."
Ri: "I'm just surprised that field still works."
The gravity gun was charged. "Well, works as well as it did before."
A: "So not at all?"
Ri: "Typical of Combine electrics I suppose."
H: "That raises a good point why didn't it stay that way? It was a normal gravity gun by the time we were pulled from the rubble!"
Ky: "Maybe it isn't as permanent as we'd hope."
Ri: "So maybe it retains the charge for a period, a bit like a battery… but this shows you can charge it afterwards and it'll be fine, so could still have utility if the Kleinium reacts the same way."
Mi: "Did we ever figure out how much energy it takes to vaporise a shotgun?"
E: "It probably takes more energy, it looks like the vaporiser overloads itself trying to charge it."
Ka: "You know you can just put Solenoid power into it and see what happens."
Ri: "I mean we could, it probably works on a gradient when put into practice. The more power you put into it, the more potent the effects."
May: "Just so happens that's what happens when you pump several hundred thousand million watts into it!"
One loading zone later, they find the first puzzle. "Surely there's better ways to power a bridge."
Ke: "Bet Aperture could do it with one energy ball."
The bridge would be rebuilt. "Contact!" As soldiers came out.
Z: "Break their spines!"
The ones on their level would be promptly cleared out by Kensuke. "Still satisfying. Now for the second br-"
More shooting. "What about the ones up there?"
Ke: "I'll get to it Kyo-"
The soldier up high promptly died to something. "…Huh. Well, won't complain!"
Another bridge was set up, and another dozen Combine soldiers threw themselves into a meat grinder like they were male hatchlings in a chicken factory. "Gods those high up ones are a thorn in my side!"
For their annoyance they were murdered. "Alright! Next bridge!"
Re: "It appears they made it more difficult for you."
One of the activation points was behind a shield of some sort.
Ke: "Get it on the rebound!" It bounced true. "Nice!"
Re: "I take that back."
Sa: "It was literally no different from the other bridges!"
They made it through. "Alright! Let's keep- gah!"
Loud noises!
H: "I'd say you're jumpy but the place is falling apart around you."
Ke: "You understand then!"
Three elites emerged and three elites were immediately painted on the walls. "None of that!"
Mi: "God the energy it pumps into them!"
Ri: "Each of those soldiers is probably a good half decade of effort."
Mi: "Rits you could kill them I have no hope for them with someone competent playing!"
Ke: "That's the best complement you could have given me Commander!"
Next section, and a strider carrier fell from the sky.
H: "I thought those were autonomous?"
A: "Not autonomous enough obviously."
Ka: "At the very least, it's one more strider that can't be used against us."
Mi: "What are those things?!"
Z: "I'm sure you'll find out a few hours later."
Mi: "Probably knowing how narratives work but I want to know now!"
Ke: "Ah but that'll ruin the surprise!"
Mi: "You know what they do already!"
Ignoring the plea Kensuke proceeded, through a locked door and a loading zone.
Negative Pressure (36:50)
Ke: "Y'know I kinda get what you mean when you say the Citadel is mostly the same, Kyoko."
Ky: "See?! Metal walls, brutal architecture, there's just no variation to it!"
Mi: "I would not trust an elevator in this environment!"
Z: "Looks like we don't have a choice though!"
Kensuke sighed, as he got the elevator moving. "Let's see how many times I die."
Sa: "It'll be a lot."
From above, a ton of debris started falling down.
Ri: "You know perhaps it was a poor design choice to use a glass elevator in this instance."
May: "They must've thought nothing could fall from above."
Re: "That is called being cocky I believe."
Ke: "Oh c'mon now I have to be looking up this entire time! Why is this elevator moving so slowly?!"
It stopped. "Ya jinxed it!"
Ke: "Gah!" Knowing there could be several tonnes of debris that fall down to kill him at any time. "Get it going!"
Ka: "I've never been on an elevator that has required active intervention to keep it going."
Mi: "I lived in an apartment building once where the elevator occasionally sticked so you had to jump to get it moving."
Ri: "Where was that?"
Mi: "The old NERV apartments before we had those ones we live in now."
Re: "Were they the ones I used to live in?"
Mi: "Yeah!"
Re: "That is why I took the stairs."
Ke: "Activate it damn it!" Pulling out a terminal and a stalker before being able to make the mark. "There we go!"
The next piece of debris killed him immediately. "YOU DIDN'T GIVE ME ENOUGH TIME!"
Mar: "Not everyone gets t-time to realize they're dead. Most people get is 'mind that bus what b-bus splat'."
Z: "He definitely went splat."
Ke: "Ngmh!" Reloading. "At least I don't need to go through the whole sequence again! Now I'm ready for it!"
It slammed right in his face and turned Gordon Freeman into a single celled organism. "FUCK!"
Ky: "Nice one Ken! You gonna be ready for the next one as well?!"
Third time's the charm, he'd poke a tongue at Kyoko. "Nyeh!"
She'd droop an eyelid in response.
H: "I certainly have never been in an elevator as precarious as that one."
Z: "The ones going up to the Franxx units were always fun, no railings and a several dozen metre drop. At least the ones here are a cage of sorts!"
Ri: "With how disposable Franxx pilots were I'm not surprised they didn't really focus on the safety aspect of things."
Ke: "D'oh the Stalker's stopping it!" Trying to kill it. "C'mon bastard!"
It took five attempts to kill it. "Gah! Finally!"
It took five more attempts to activate the elevator again. "Kensuke b-buddy that's meant to be the easy part."
Ke: "I KNOW IT'S MEANT TO BE THE EASY PART!"
The elevator would finally get some pace in it, Kensuke still on the lookout for falling rocks. "Oh is it done?" In a sigh. "Thank the Gods for that."
Sa: "Hurray! No more dying to an elevator!"
Ke: "Hope I never see that damn thing again."
That wish would immediately come true as a large amount of debris sent it to hell.
E: "Ain't no way that was getting redirected."
Mi: "Imagine what would've happened if you took longer to activate it again!"
Ke: "Hey, we got our with our skins and all four fingers and toes, so that's good in my books." As they entered an obvious loading hallway.
A: "Wait four?!"
~
Infraradiant (41:30)
Ke: "Alright, so get to the reactor, make it last a bit longer and-"
Soldiers. "Kill those guys while you're at it!"
Ke: "That I can do any day of the week."
Sh: "What are they doing down there anyway? Do they have no preservation?"
Ri: "Shinji you were here the entire last game, they have zero self preservation."
Re: "I'm going to pretend I didn't see that Advisor."
May: "Is that what they're called?"
Re: "According to Lilith that is the closest translation from the FAR language."
E: "It's model file isn't even named anything toward."
Ke: "Maybe that's its name?"
E: "I don't think they are called a generic actor."
Alyx figured out the reason why they were down there.
Z: "Looks like they were going for the 'taking you all with me' strategy."
Ri: "Oooh… that's an interesting look."
May: "That's probably not how it's meant to look normally. Heck if you can observe it looking like that, it's probably already too late to get out of there!"
Ri: "Okay so it sounds like it uses a containment field of some sort to… well, contain the reaction. Wonder if it's some sort of artificial AT-Field…"
Ka: "It would have to be something of the sort, if the power it is trying to contain is anything like what we think it is."
Sa: "Would Gordon know what he was doing when it came to a reactor he'd probably never seen before?"
Ke: "Nope." Shaking his head, both in real life and in game. "But hey, we can't make it any worse."
Mi: "And if you do you won't have too much time to contemplate it!"
And so he'd enter the elevator.
A: "Oh she is so for him!" In a beam. "Look at that worry on her face!"
Re: "Amazing what can happen in a matter of days."
And so Kensuke would step into the reactor. "Okay it's probably just gonna be one big puzzle, I've done Portal I can do this…"
Sh: "Get the stalker first."
He'd keep it occupied by activating one first, before vaporising it.
The bridges were trivial from there. "Button…"
They folded to the centre, allowing him to climb a ladder.
H: "That is perhaps the worst choice I could think of for access to a reactor, right next to the energy beam itself!"
Ri: "The hazard suit's doing rather well for itself against all those particles we have literally no idea about!"
Sa: "Dare you to step into it!"
Ke: "I know it's gonna vaporise me Sayaka, I don't need to test it!"
On the top floor there was a large bulkhead and a hallway with a dozen soon to be deceased soldiers in it. "Hey can we even call these soldiers human at this point?"
Re: "At this point the augmentation of both soldiers and stalkers have gone beyond what I would classify as a human. Absolutely any will they had is gone, they are practically programs at this point."
E: "And not even good programs. I'm a program and I have more will than them!"
Mi: "So obviously we have to activate that one there."
Ke: "Just a matter of finding an energy ball, there's plenty around at least."
In fact there were energy balls just outside the door! Kensuke would grab one, activating the first of the containment field generators.
Ri: "Hmm I wonder what type of energy that may use… perhaps something inverse of that in the core."
Z: "Honestly why do they even bother with the manhacks anymore?"
Ke: "Why do they bother with the soldiers when I just steamroll them?" As more died in three seconds. "Like it's even worse in here because those charge stations refill everything!"
Mar: "How the heck are you m-meant to get through that?"
It was a hall of endlessly emitting energy balls. "Hmm… could use the door I just took off to shield me."
Ky: "Bah that's boring, just rush it and see what happens!"
A beat.
He rushed it. "Not so b- gah!" A few hit him, but all it did was knock his health and suit down a few points.
Ri: "Wow the hazard suit is resistant against vaporisation as well!"
May: "It does everything!"
… (47:15)
More soldiers died to Kensuke's hand, three killed with the corpse of one and another vaporised by an energy ball. "Man just give up already!"
Re: "They would if they could."
Sh: "Judging by the melted walkway the core should be going that big."
Ri: "I wouldn't have thought so Shinji."
Mi: "I don't think the hazard suit's gonna do anything against that."
Lucky for Kensuke he wouldn't have to find out if it worked or not. "Okay next containment field generator!"
A: "Bit of a hefty name."
Ky: "Fits for Half-Life."
The soldiers weren't even enough of a challenge to make note of, neither was activating the field generator when the energy ball to do it was in the same room.
E: "I hear soldiers."
Ke: "I could be right in one's face and I wouldn't be concerned." Twelve more died. "Ahh Gods I see what I need to do here."
Sa: "I see a very easy opportunity for death!"
Ka: "Did the Combine design this reactor to require platforming in order to activate the containment field?"
Mi: "They might not've but Valve certainly did!"
Ke: "I mean it can't be tha- dude fuck off!" Killing some soldiers that were annoying him like flies might. "Can't be that bad."
He was even fancy about it, not waiting for the carousel to complete a full revolution, instead jumping from rank to rank to get there quicker.
Sh: "Not even letting the manhacks stop you!"
May: "They don't stop him normally."
Ke: "They are annoying though." Stopping to take care of them, turning around to see the room had filled with soldiers. "And so are they!"
H: "Watch them literally not do anything to him."
Z: "They're worse than a Franxx pilot!"
The soldiers didn't do anything but serve as more corpses to decorate the floor with, Kensuke eventually finding another energy ball tunnel. "May as well rush it again!" As he did. "Gah!"
It was a bit difficult this time around. "Just blast them away! Don't try to catch them!"
He'd do what Kyoko suggested. "Easy!"
Ri: "And so will be those soldiers."
The next containment field generator was also easy. "Man how many more of these do we have left?"
This time around it failed. "D'oh why did it stop now?!" Trying it again it still failed. "C'mon!"
H: "Ought to be fixable I'd think."
Z: "Well if it wasn't he'd blow up along with the city!"
Ke: "Okay I think I see what went wrong here!" In the field generator undercroft. "Bit of it had blown up!"
Mi: "I'm not that great with electronics, but generally they don't like being blown up."
A: "Much like the soul is the driving force behind life, the magic smoke is that of an electronic component. If you see it it's probably given up the ghost."
E: "And much like a person they don't take being blown up well." In flat remark.
Ke: "Ahh but the explosion exposed the energy tunnel!" This allowed for prompt reactivation of the field generator.
Boreal (51:55)
And with that, the reactor went back to some sort of normal. "Aww it got rid of the charge!"
Re: "And your suit. Was it being charged by the energy surrounding?"
Ri: "I still don't know if it should be moving, but hey, it doesn't exist in our world, so I can't judge that."
Mi: "Well problem solved! The Citadel lives for another few hours probably!"
Sh: "They're gonna sabotage it as soon as Kensuke leaves."
Mi: "Oh yeah but now it should at least give them time to leave!"
Conveniently, it also met up with Alyx. "Boo!"
Ka: "I wonder how confident she was you'd get it done."
Ke: "100% because I would get it done!" Grinning with confidence. "Didn't even die!"
Alyx would elaborate on what she got up to while Gordon was busy.
Ri: "Now that concerns me. The fact they are willing to destroy the entire city to transmit some data over."
Z: "What does that mean for us if we get that packet?"
A: "As if you couldn't paint more of a target on your back!"
There's more. "Oh that b-bitch!"
Mi: "The project, huh?" Raising an eyebrow. "Now that's intriguing…"
H: "Maybe that's the packet?"
Sh: "What kind of project though? Black Mesa, Aperture… They must be in a cold environment of some sort, judging by the coat."
Ri: "Maybe they're trying to find Adam in Antarctica."
Re: "Well, if there is one thing we would not want the Combine to find."
She had to cut the video short. "Wait what the hell is that weapon?!"
Ke: "Whatever it is, I do not want to face it."
Alarms sounded (in game). "Yeah generally folks don't like it when you steal data of theirs."
A: "I said it'd paint a target on their back! Whatever she was looking for the Combine are looking for it as well!"
They got to the elevator right before the Combine started shooting them. "Well that's convenient."
Ke: "Wish I still had that charged gravity gun…"
May: "That train won't take us out of the city will it?"
E: "It hasn't even been an hour of gameplay Ma, they need to have at least a couple hours in it!"
Ky: "Still hasn't changed the speed of the elevators, huh."
Z: "I'm sure she doesn't mind spending a bit more time with Gordon."
Re: "They really need to find a moment where they are not being hunted by the Combine."
Sa: "That's never gonna happen anytime soon."
H: "Or anytime at all really."
… (55:10)
Through the loading zone, and rushing into the end room. "I told you I don't have the charged gravity gun anymore!"
Mi: "Their guns might still be confiscated after their deaths as well, so you'd be screwed if-"
Ke: "Rollermines!" Two came through, Kensuke promptly getting Alyx to reprogram them both.
Re: "Well, they would not give you such thing if they did not expect them to be used."
The next room filled with enemies. "Oooh I see!"
So did Alyx, opening the door. "Goodbye!" As Kensuke punted the rollermines in. "Hah! That's fun!"
Ri: "They can't even do anything against a rollermine…" In second hand disappointment, the soldiers dropping one by one. "I don't know why Breen even bothered."
E: "They're only effective against a disarmed and low morale populous it seems."
Sh: "They don't even do much against a regular person, how do they just drop dead instantly?!"
Ka: "Perhaps the conversion to soldier made them excessively fragile."
Sa: "Well we saw how they looked like mid-conversion. They look like war prisoners."
They'd make the train. "Oh God speaking of war prisoners."
Just so happened it was a stalker car. "Man she d-does not like that."
Re: "Any person would not like it I would think. Anyone reasonable, at least."
May: "So not Breen."
Mi: "He probably created them."
Ri: "Almost definitely created them, if he was responsible for creating the soldiers."
Mar: "Oh for God's s-sake Alyx why did you say that?!"
Ke: "Yeah we're totally going off the rails no-"
The train would derail. "I told ya so!"
Mar: "This is why you d-don't say variations of 'oh this is going well' or 'lets hope the w-worst is over' or 'with any luck' because that's just inviting G-God to spit in your face and call it a blessing."
May: "See I'm wondering if this was deliberate on the Combine's part, surely they'd be in control of this train and thinks it worth it to destroy it. I'm sure a stalker costs nothing to them."
By the time Gordon awoke the stalkers were screaming. "Gah shut up!" Trying to blast one dead. "C'mon this gravity gun sucks now!"
A: "Help Alyx for fuck's sake!"
He'd finally get the stalker off her. "…She really does not like them."
Ka: "Looks like the stalkers are the one thing that gets to her."
Sh: "Even the strongest people have their weakness. Seeing a mindless slave like that is definitely an understandable weakness to have!"
Mi: "Especially when they're screaming in your face, fuck that man."
~
Ke: "Alright, so get to the reactor, make it last a bit longer and-"
Soldiers. "Kill those guys while you're at it!"
Ke: "That I can do any day of the week."
Sh: "What are they doing down there anyway? Do they have no preservation?"
Ri: "Shinji you were here the entire last game, they have zero self preservation."
Re: "I'm going to pretend I didn't see that Advisor."
May: "Is that what they're called?"
Re: "According to Lilith that is the closest translation from the FAR language."
E: "It's model file isn't even named anything toward."
Ke: "Maybe that's its name?"
E: "I don't think they are called a generic actor."
Alyx figured out the reason why they were down there.
Z: "Looks like they were going for the 'taking you all with me' strategy."
Ri: "Oooh… that's an interesting look."
May: "That's probably not how it's meant to look normally. Heck if you can observe it looking like that, it's probably already too late to get out of there!"
Ri: "Okay so it sounds like it uses a containment field of some sort to… well, contain the reaction. Wonder if it's some sort of artificial AT-Field…"
Ka: "It would have to be something of the sort, if the power it is trying to contain is anything like what we think it is."
Sa: "Would Gordon know what he was doing when it came to a reactor he'd probably never seen before?"
Ke: "Nope." Shaking his head, both in real life and in game. "But hey, we can't make it any worse."
Mi: "And if you do you won't have too much time to contemplate it!"
And so he'd enter the elevator.
A: "Oh she is so for him!" In a beam. "Look at that worry on her face!"
Re: "Amazing what can happen in a matter of days."
And so Kensuke would step into the reactor. "Okay it's probably just gonna be one big puzzle, I've done Portal I can do this…"
Sh: "Get the stalker first."
He'd keep it occupied by activating one first, before vaporising it.
The bridges were trivial from there. "Button…"
They folded to the centre, allowing him to climb a ladder.
H: "That is perhaps the worst choice I could think of for access to a reactor, right next to the energy beam itself!"
Ri: "The hazard suit's doing rather well for itself against all those particles we have literally no idea about!"
Sa: "Dare you to step into it!"
Ke: "I know it's gonna vaporise me Sayaka, I don't need to test it!"
On the top floor there was a large bulkhead and a hallway with a dozen soon to be deceased soldiers in it. "Hey can we even call these soldiers human at this point?"
Re: "At this point the augmentation of both soldiers and stalkers have gone beyond what I would classify as a human. Absolutely any will they had is gone, they are practically programs at this point."
E: "And not even good programs. I'm a program and I have more will than them!"
Mi: "So obviously we have to activate that one there."
Ke: "Just a matter of finding an energy ball, there's plenty around at least."
In fact there were energy balls just outside the door! Kensuke would grab one, activating the first of the containment field generators.
Ri: "Hmm I wonder what type of energy that may use… perhaps something inverse of that in the core."
Z: "Honestly why do they even bother with the manhacks anymore?"
Ke: "Why do they bother with the soldiers when I just steamroll them?" As more died in three seconds. "Like it's even worse in here because those charge stations refill everything!"
Mar: "How the heck are you m-meant to get through that?"
It was a hall of endlessly emitting energy balls. "Hmm… could use the door I just took off to shield me."
Ky: "Bah that's boring, just rush it and see what happens!"
A beat.
He rushed it. "Not so b- gah!" A few hit him, but all it did was knock his health and suit down a few points.
Ri: "Wow the hazard suit is resistant against vaporisation as well!"
May: "It does everything!"
… (47:15)
More soldiers died to Kensuke's hand, three killed with the corpse of one and another vaporised by an energy ball. "Man just give up already!"
Re: "They would if they could."
Sh: "Judging by the melted walkway the core should be going that big."
Ri: "I wouldn't have thought so Shinji."
Mi: "I don't think the hazard suit's gonna do anything against that."
Lucky for Kensuke he wouldn't have to find out if it worked or not. "Okay next containment field generator!"
A: "Bit of a hefty name."
Ky: "Fits for Half-Life."
The soldiers weren't even enough of a challenge to make note of, neither was activating the field generator when the energy ball to do it was in the same room.
E: "I hear soldiers."
Ke: "I could be right in one's face and I wouldn't be concerned." Twelve more died. "Ahh Gods I see what I need to do here."
Sa: "I see a very easy opportunity for death!"
Ka: "Did the Combine design this reactor to require platforming in order to activate the containment field?"
Mi: "They might not've but Valve certainly did!"
Ke: "I mean it can't be tha- dude fuck off!" Killing some soldiers that were annoying him like flies might. "Can't be that bad."
He was even fancy about it, not waiting for the carousel to complete a full revolution, instead jumping from rank to rank to get there quicker.
Sh: "Not even letting the manhacks stop you!"
May: "They don't stop him normally."
Ke: "They are annoying though." Stopping to take care of them, turning around to see the room had filled with soldiers. "And so are they!"
H: "Watch them literally not do anything to him."
Z: "They're worse than a Franxx pilot!"
The soldiers didn't do anything but serve as more corpses to decorate the floor with, Kensuke eventually finding another energy ball tunnel. "May as well rush it again!" As he did. "Gah!"
It was a bit difficult this time around. "Just blast them away! Don't try to catch them!"
He'd do what Kyoko suggested. "Easy!"
Ri: "And so will be those soldiers."
The next containment field generator was also easy. "Man how many more of these do we have left?"
This time around it failed. "D'oh why did it stop now?!" Trying it again it still failed. "C'mon!"
H: "Ought to be fixable I'd think."
Z: "Well if it wasn't he'd blow up along with the city!"
Ke: "Okay I think I see what went wrong here!" In the field generator undercroft. "Bit of it had blown up!"
Mi: "I'm not that great with electronics, but generally they don't like being blown up."
A: "Much like the soul is the driving force behind life, the magic smoke is that of an electronic component. If you see it it's probably given up the ghost."
E: "And much like a person they don't take being blown up well." In flat remark.
Ke: "Ahh but the explosion exposed the energy tunnel!" This allowed for prompt reactivation of the field generator.
Boreal (51:55)
And with that, the reactor went back to some sort of normal. "Aww it got rid of the charge!"
Re: "And your suit. Was it being charged by the energy surrounding?"
Ri: "I still don't know if it should be moving, but hey, it doesn't exist in our world, so I can't judge that."
Mi: "Well problem solved! The Citadel lives for another few hours probably!"
Sh: "They're gonna sabotage it as soon as Kensuke leaves."
Mi: "Oh yeah but now it should at least give them time to leave!"
Conveniently, it also met up with Alyx. "Boo!"
Ka: "I wonder how confident she was you'd get it done."
Ke: "100% because I would get it done!" Grinning with confidence. "Didn't even die!"
Alyx would elaborate on what she got up to while Gordon was busy.
Ri: "Now that concerns me. The fact they are willing to destroy the entire city to transmit some data over."
Z: "What does that mean for us if we get that packet?"
A: "As if you couldn't paint more of a target on your back!"
There's more. "Oh that b-bitch!"
Mi: "The project, huh?" Raising an eyebrow. "Now that's intriguing…"
H: "Maybe that's the packet?"
Sh: "What kind of project though? Black Mesa, Aperture… They must be in a cold environment of some sort, judging by the coat."
Ri: "Maybe they're trying to find Adam in Antarctica."
Re: "Well, if there is one thing we would not want the Combine to find."
She had to cut the video short. "Wait what the hell is that weapon?!"
Ke: "Whatever it is, I do not want to face it."
Alarms sounded (in game). "Yeah generally folks don't like it when you steal data of theirs."
A: "I said it'd paint a target on their back! Whatever she was looking for the Combine are looking for it as well!"
They got to the elevator right before the Combine started shooting them. "Well that's convenient."
Ke: "Wish I still had that charged gravity gun…"
May: "That train won't take us out of the city will it?"
E: "It hasn't even been an hour of gameplay Ma, they need to have at least a couple hours in it!"
Ky: "Still hasn't changed the speed of the elevators, huh."
Z: "I'm sure she doesn't mind spending a bit more time with Gordon."
Re: "They really need to find a moment where they are not being hunted by the Combine."
Sa: "That's never gonna happen anytime soon."
H: "Or anytime at all really."
… (55:10)
Through the loading zone, and rushing into the end room. "I told you I don't have the charged gravity gun anymore!"
Mi: "Their guns might still be confiscated after their deaths as well, so you'd be screwed if-"
Ke: "Rollermines!" Two came through, Kensuke promptly getting Alyx to reprogram them both.
Re: "Well, they would not give you such thing if they did not expect them to be used."
The next room filled with enemies. "Oooh I see!"
So did Alyx, opening the door. "Goodbye!" As Kensuke punted the rollermines in. "Hah! That's fun!"
Ri: "They can't even do anything against a rollermine…" In second hand disappointment, the soldiers dropping one by one. "I don't know why Breen even bothered."
E: "They're only effective against a disarmed and low morale populous it seems."
Sh: "They don't even do much against a regular person, how do they just drop dead instantly?!"
Ka: "Perhaps the conversion to soldier made them excessively fragile."
Sa: "Well we saw how they looked like mid-conversion. They look like war prisoners."
They'd make the train. "Oh God speaking of war prisoners."
Just so happened it was a stalker car. "Man she d-does not like that."
Re: "Any person would not like it I would think. Anyone reasonable, at least."
May: "So not Breen."
Mi: "He probably created them."
Ri: "Almost definitely created them, if he was responsible for creating the soldiers."
Mar: "Oh for God's s-sake Alyx why did you say that?!"
Ke: "Yeah we're totally going off the rails no-"
The train would derail. "I told ya so!"
Mar: "This is why you d-don't say variations of 'oh this is going well' or 'lets hope the w-worst is over' or 'with any luck' because that's just inviting G-God to spit in your face and call it a blessing."
May: "See I'm wondering if this was deliberate on the Combine's part, surely they'd be in control of this train and thinks it worth it to destroy it. I'm sure a stalker costs nothing to them."
By the time Gordon awoke the stalkers were screaming. "Gah shut up!" Trying to blast one dead. "C'mon this gravity gun sucks now!"
A: "Help Alyx for fuck's sake!"
He'd finally get the stalker off her. "…She really does not like them."
Ka: "Looks like the stalkers are the one thing that gets to her."
Sh: "Even the strongest people have their weakness. Seeing a mindless slave like that is definitely an understandable weakness to have!"
Mi: "Especially when they're screaming in your face, fuck that man."
~
Darkness At Noon (59:30)
A: "Oh and I love how her animation immediately resets as you go to the next map!"
E: "Can't hold onto that trauma forever, that's a remarkable recovery from her!"
Mi: "Wish I could let go of trauma like that…"
Sh: "So say we all Misato."
Reality caught up to Alyx, and she had to take a breather. "There you go, now the plot catches up with the engine!"
Ri: "It does take out a bit of the impact when you can visibly see the animation cycles."
May: "Makes me wonder if we weren't meant to see that."
Ke: "Well that's a failure on the designer's part if they made it so that wouldn't be obscured. They built the Source engine they should know how it resets things when switching maps!"
Ky: "Sounds like you know that already."
Ke: "I've been working with it for too long even already." In a mutter. "It looks pretty but holy crap is it a beast of its own."
Ri: "You've been making decent headway in reverse engineering the Portal's versions at least."
A: "Why would you be reverse engineering this game's engine anyway?"
Ri: "If we can learn how to utilise it to the fullest extent, it may serve a good upgrade to the engine the Eva Simulators run on."
Sh: "They seem pretty decent already!"
Ka: "Other than the regular sims with no result because of technical difficulties."
Re: "Or the sims where we use exploits in the engine to defeat the enemy."
Z: "When I first used it I had an enemy clip into the ground and get me from out of bounds!"
E: "Do we really think the Source engine is going to be an improvement on that front?"
Ri: "Surprisingly enough I've seen less chicanery in this engine than I usually do in the regular sim engine."
E: "Who the hell codes this stuff for us!"
Ri: "Interns, mainly."
Ke: "And don't even think about how much it costs the taxpayer." He'd chuckle. "Either way, looks like we're getting at least another hour of gameplay from this occurrence, so I won't complain!"
So they would continue on foot. "I hear a sensor of some sort."
Ke: "Turret of some sort, or a door waiting to explode. I hope it's the first one cause I still don't have any weaponry!"
They were turrets. "D'oh they're roof mounts!"
Re: "Either the zombies became tougher or they have run out of bullets."
It was the latter. "How is that possible?!"
Mar: "They mustn't fire the w-whole bullet."
Kensuke so much as stood in front of one, it clicking futilely. "Man that's kinda sad."
Mi: "Kensuke it'd kill you otherwise!"
Ke: "Hey I know that, but from a philosophical standpoint."
E: "It's not living it's a shooting machine!"
A combo of convenient thowables and Alyx's machine pistol cleared out the first room easy enough. "Hey why can't we get a machine pistol like that?"
Z: "As a badass it makes sense she has a unique weapon only she has, Kyoko!" With a cheer. "Signature weapons and all that!"
They'd make it into a dark corridor. "Dang if only we knew the code."
Re: "There's a vent."
Ke: "There's a vent!"
A: "Wait they'd compete to crawl through the air ducts? What's with these ducts and being able to support people in them!"
Re: "Our air ducts can support people."
Sh: "How are you so good at crawling through the air ducts anyway, Rei?"
Re: "Experience."
Mi: "Hang on so why is that flashlight literally just a spotlight? Wouldn't there be a bit of light bleed on the sides?"
Ke: "It's easier to just draw a circle instead of trying to calculate the light diffusion."
Ri: "The Magi would've crashed a lot earlier if they had to calculate that…"
It went out. "The voiceless person is right this does need a new battery!"
Ri: "We can't even blame the Magi for it anymore."
A: "Windows 2000 is funky enough to blame it for issues anyway, especially considering the fact this wasn't really programmed for our specific Windows 2000!"
While the flare he found in the duct wasn't much better, it meant he could conserve aux power as he crawled through the duct, into the locked room. "Y'know what would be cool? The more suit juice you had, the longer your auxiliary power lasts. Gives you a bit more incentive to avoid getting damaged instead of it acting like a glorified shield. Ooh weapon!"
He'd grin like Doomguy upon grabbing the shotgun. "Hell yeah say goodbye zombies and Combine alike!"
Sh: "And the pistol?"
He'd grab that as well. "And that I guess."
Mi: "Oi a good Beretta is no slouch!"
A good thing too, as the door was locked. "See? It's good for picking locks!"
… (1:03:45)
Kensuke pulled a Fred again and turned on the lights. "Betcha gonna make immediate use of those guns, huh?"
Ke: "Well I'm hearing zombies so yeah, probably." Punting a car out of the way. "Aww now the regular gravity gun seems stupid!"
Mi: "You'll get used to it."
One zombie was immolated, the rest pelted with buckshot. "And I'm almost out of ammo already! Surely there's some more around here…" Conveniently a dead man had a shotgun. "Thank you nameless corpse!"
Z: "Their sacrifice will not be in vain!"
Ky: "I swear it looks darker without the flashlight now! Didn't feel that dark in the first game!"
Ri: "In fairness there is absolutely no light down there."
Ke: "Other than the light we make!" Setting a zombie and some antlions on fire. "Y'know I think the graphic fidelity's improved compared to when we were running on the Magi!"
Sh: "Ain't that a swipe at them."
Mi: "Shinji they literally crashed running a thirty minute demo."
Mar: "Ah but ain't this a l-lovely moment, just standing around a campfire with your girlfriend!"
May: "That is literally a burning corpse."
They would find a troop train. "Oh wow even the soldiers are getting zombified!"
Z: "Ooh a Zombine!"
Alyx would make that exact same joke, though she was a lot less confident in its delivery.
H: "Well I think it's a good pun."
Another one behind glass would take out a grenade and attempt to rush Gordon.
Ke: "Oh so that's the gimmick behind them. Great, we've got kamikaze Zombine."
Entering the next tunnel, he'd see a few explosive barrels and sigh, knowing what was probably coming. "Here we go again!"
The bomb barrels and shotgun came handy, but the Zombine were difficult. "Man they even move faster than usual!"
Ke: "I don't need more things to worry about Kyoko!" Killing one with a brick. "This torch isn't helping! Someone turn on the lights already!"
Re: "Looks like another keypad door."
Going towards. "Gah where's that connected too…" Tracing it back. "Barnacle!"
Mi: "Barnacle?"
Ri: "They eat you if you get caught in its tongue."
Mi: "Oh that's great." It wasn't.
Flipping the power. "Gods they're everywhere!" Setting another one on fire with a flare.
Ka: "The fact the soldiers are becoming zombified now is another embarrassment for the soldier program."
E: "Shows just how far gone the situation is for the Combine as well. If they can't even defend against something as base as a zombie."
Ke: "I know right?" Climbing the stairs with a flare. "Who could die to a- NOT THOSE AGAIN!"
The poison headcrab took him down to 1. "I hate that mechanic!"
Sa: "That's what you get for tempting fate!"
The rest of them were killed with prejudice. "And stay dead!"
Disrupted Original (1:09:10)
Into a more lit up parking garage. "That is an antlion pit."
Kensuke thought for a moment. "Ah but here's what I can do with it!"
He'd punt a car over the hole. "Wow that worked?"
Ky: "Oh don't doubt him Zero Two of course it worked!"
Ke: "Y-Yeah! Of course it worked I knew that would happen!"
Ri: "A good thing, invariably they would have interrupted you as you tried to open that garage door."
Mar: "I'm guessing t-that's what they wanted."
He could hear poison headcrabs as he opened the gate. "Alyx please take care of them! I don't wanna let go or it'll slam shut!"
Sh: "For your sake I hope you find better weapons or more ammo for the shotgun."
Ke: "I hope that too!" Managing to shoot the headcrabs dead. "Heck more ammo would be good, I don't have much pistol left!" There would be ample of that at least.
E: "I like how most of those Soviet vehicles look similar."
A: "Why innovate when you can just copy?"
Ke: "They could've at least copied off contemporary designs!" As he assisted Alyx in shooting barnacles. "Even in the nineties they looked like they were fifties designs."
A: "They were fifties designs. The Trabant in some form existed since 1957, with its last major Soviet era redesign happening in 1964."
Mi: "Wasn't there a 80s redesign?"
A: "That did nothing but replaced certain bits with that of a Polo to meet a little something called emissions standards. That along with the entire Trabant company was scuttled not even a year later because just so happens we had a little thing happen called German Reunification and it turns out all the Wessi car makers were approximately eleven billion times more efficient and cost effective at building better vehicles than the Ossi's ever were!"
Ri: "You sound just like your mother when you complain about them."
A: "I'm German we have every right to complain about that loveable piece of shit we call the Trabbi! Did I ever tell you when Carmen was looking after us she drove us around in a Trabant?"
Mi: "Sheesh how'd you survive that?"
Mar: "Asuka missed the k-key detail that she had swapped in the engine from her c-crashed Pontiac."
Re: "Apparently her model vehicle had a V8 with six and a half litres of displacement."
Mi: "HOW DID YOU SURVIVE THAT?!"
Ka: "Funny you mention the Trabant Asuka, I saw a news article on television here that mentioned BMW bought the rights to it and are planning on modernising it as an electric vehicle."
To her gasp. "I hope they keep the look, I know it's BMW but if it's any sort of similar I'd probably buy one!"
May: "They did alright with that Mini Cooper from what I've seen. Was half thinking that as my next car."
Mi: "Don't you already have a BMW anyway?"
May: "Yeah so not like I'm jumping ship or anything."
Kensuke would finally make it to the other end of the barnacle sea. "Honestly these Zombine are more difficult than the soldiers are normally! Oh score!" Finding a full box of shotgun shells. "Much better than trying to wrangle some barrels!"
Sa: "Try not to miss the shots this time around!"
Mar: "I still wonder why E-Eastern Europe has American style e-exit signs."
A: "American neo-imperialism spans far and wide Mari."
Sh: "Pretty sure North America in general uses those signs."
A: "Oh yeah sorry, Canadian neo-imperialism!"
… (1:12:30)
Climbing a few stories, Kensuke made it a bit further through the garage, only to witness a Zombine wiping out an antlion and another Zombine. "Well that's a convenient outcome!"
Z: "You're gonna wanna block those holes quickly huh?"
Ke: "Oh yeah not having anything come out of there!"
There were too many holes and not enough things to put in them.
Ri: "Don't say it, Zero Two."
Z: "Why is it when there's anything that could be construed as suggestive I'm the one who gets the rap?"
A: "I'm just surprised the cotton waste they make those cars out of is durable enough to not just tear apart."
Another vehicle was found in the level above and used as a block. "I think that's one more hole left?"
Mar: "Hell yeah fill those h-holes!"
Ky: "Believe me he does a good job at that normally."
Ritsuko responded by slamming her head on a nearby wall.
Mi: "I don't know what you expected from these guys, Rits."
Ri: "Every day I think they won't and every day I end up disappointed."
Sa: "Well that's on you huh." Blowing a raspberry.
Ke: "Gods damn it move Alyx that's the only way up there!"
Re: "She like it when you rub up against her."
E: "Probably not the best time when trying to fight off killer giant insects!"
Sh: "There is no good time in this game!"
Ke: "Man where else do they have a vehicle… I'm not gonna have to open that garage up to get it will I?"
Ka: "As the most difficult option available, yes."
Ke: "I'm never gonna get that garage open if I'm having to fight off the antlions!" Seeking out alternative solutions. "There's another floors what's up there…"
Lucky enough for him it was destroyed enough to allow access to the vehicle. "Oh thank the- ZOMBINE!" Immediately draining most of his buckshot into it.
H: "I didn't know they made those types of cars."
A: "Oh yeah the estate? You'd think since they had less doors to put on it'd be a better built vehicle but nope, just as bad as any other Trabbi!"
Ke: "Turns out you can't polish a turd huh."
Ka: "Our Ossi counterparts had many a joke for it, did they?"
A: "Oh God yeah, such a joke of a car makes sense you had folks making fun of it." Clearing her throat. "A man is driving his Trabant when the windshield wipers fly off in a sudden breeze. Pulling into a service station he hails a nearby mechanic: 'Wipers for a Trabbi?', the man asks. The mechanic thinks for a few moments and says 'Sounds like a fair trade!'"
That got a few laughs. "Bonus points for mentioning the wipers."
A: "Had to link that back somehow!" With a chuckle. "Probably one of the few German jokes that isn't lost in translation, a lot of our humour is constructed around the language and that makes it difficult to translate properly. Die Spinnen and die spinnen have completely different meanings depending on what you emphasise and how you capitalise it."
Ka: "Er hatte liebe Genossen."
Sh: "Uhh… he enjoyed love?"
A: "Nup! He had dear comrades! Emphasis on the Ge."
Re: "You can love a comrade."
A: "That'd be 'Er hatte Liebe Genossen"!" With a giggle. "We have other joke categories, mama always prodded about the bureaucrats. Three in a room and one's working, who's that?"
Mi: "Ooh! The fan!"
A: "Ah!" With a wide smile. "You know that one!"
Mi: "Bureaucrat jokes are universal!" With a giggle. "If there's one thing that can unite people, it's their dislike of the red tape!"
Ri: "Go figure you like those jokes."
Mi: "Helps I'm swimming in the red tape on a daily basis."
Kensuke was finally able to wrangle the wagon over the last antlion hole. "And there! No more bugging us!"
Re: "That is probably the fastest that Trabant has ever moved."
Asuka burst out laughing. "Now you're learning to joke like an Ossi!"
With that, Kensuke would leave the parking garage. "Move dang it!"
Sa: "Cut her some slack Kensuke, you wouldn't complain if we started grinding against you!"
Decay Mode (1:17:45)
Stepping foot into some dirty water. "Now that the hazard suit should be rated for!"
Ri: "Definitely a biohazard, huh. Hope Alyx doesn't have any open wounds."
Z: "Y'know you could interpret that line as wanting to get in with Gordon."
H: "I mean she does have a good platonic reason to want to get in there."
There were a few zombies to take care of. "Wait what's got a- IT'S RIGHT THERE-"
That grenade knocked him down a few notches. "DIDN'T SEE IT!"
Mi: "Well if they didn't have open wounds before…"
An exploding barrel knocked him down to 23. "FUCK! Damn it not again!"
E: "You lost all your health in like five seconds, Kensuke."
Ke: "I never said I was good at this!"
Ky: "Yeah you did! Several times!"
Mar: "I wonder why they thought h-having to wait for the flashlight to recharge was a good design choice."
Re: "It would be better if it had a separate battery, without having to rely on the auxiliary power. At least then you might be able to sprint without having to think about draining the battery twice as fast."
Ke: "Man I just want some sorta ambient light." In a mutter. "It's too dark in this garage."
Lucky for him there was some light in the next room, indicating an elevator.
Mi: "Are we sure we wanna trust that one?"
Sh: "At least it shouldn't be glass."
Alyx called it and the power went out. "Oh come on!"
Sa: "Looks like you're taking the stairs Kensuke!"
May: "Oh that's a great observation by her! I'm sure anyone could tell a sparking wire was connected to a power supply!"
E: "I would take that as an indicator it wasn't working. Generally electrically needs to be in the wire in order to work, not sparking out of it!"
Kensuke would start tracing it back. "Honestly this entire place gives me the creeps. Even Ravenholm wasn't as dark as this." Finding a few supplies behind a fence. "You never know what's gonna pop out, at least there you had the light of night to see what was coming." He'd open a door. "ZOMBINE!"
At least this time around he was able to avoid the blast. "I hate them!"
A: "There's gonna be a lot more of them I'd think!"
The power was re-activated, upon which there were immediate distant calls of a fast zombie. "Ah crud."
Re: "I sense a siege coming on."
Ke: "Yeah not like we're in complete darkness with limited ammo of anything, thanks Valve I really need this right now!"
Sprinting back to the elevator he had to immediately start shooting. "Come and get it! Damn this flashlight!"
Barrels would be used in lieu of bullets. "They're coming from the w-woodwork!"
Ke: "And I literally have no way of seeing shit!" The flashlight was constantly running on empty. "This is the worst elevator I've ever used and I've been on some shit ones!"
Ky: "Worse than the glass elevator?"
Ke: "At least I didn't have a horde trying to kill me- oh that was cool at least!" A Zombine grenade killed three zombies for him. "Thanks!"
E: "You are running low on ammunition."
Ke: "Gee thanks!" The elevator finally arrived. "C'mon- oh thank you!" Slumping over in a sigh. "Okay, now all I need now is for this elevator to work. Not to have its cable snap and send me back down, not to stop on another dark floor filled with zombies, just take me to some sort of surface please!"
Despite passing several floors filled with zombies, it stopped on one that just so happened to be bereft of them.
A: "Looks like Providence smiles on you today, Kensuke!"
Ke: "About time they finally stopped pissing on me."
Ky: "No one tell him this is just a break in the stream."
~
A: "Oh and I love how her animation immediately resets as you go to the next map!"
E: "Can't hold onto that trauma forever, that's a remarkable recovery from her!"
Mi: "Wish I could let go of trauma like that…"
Sh: "So say we all Misato."
Reality caught up to Alyx, and she had to take a breather. "There you go, now the plot catches up with the engine!"
Ri: "It does take out a bit of the impact when you can visibly see the animation cycles."
May: "Makes me wonder if we weren't meant to see that."
Ke: "Well that's a failure on the designer's part if they made it so that wouldn't be obscured. They built the Source engine they should know how it resets things when switching maps!"
Ky: "Sounds like you know that already."
Ke: "I've been working with it for too long even already." In a mutter. "It looks pretty but holy crap is it a beast of its own."
Ri: "You've been making decent headway in reverse engineering the Portal's versions at least."
A: "Why would you be reverse engineering this game's engine anyway?"
Ri: "If we can learn how to utilise it to the fullest extent, it may serve a good upgrade to the engine the Eva Simulators run on."
Sh: "They seem pretty decent already!"
Ka: "Other than the regular sims with no result because of technical difficulties."
Re: "Or the sims where we use exploits in the engine to defeat the enemy."
Z: "When I first used it I had an enemy clip into the ground and get me from out of bounds!"
E: "Do we really think the Source engine is going to be an improvement on that front?"
Ri: "Surprisingly enough I've seen less chicanery in this engine than I usually do in the regular sim engine."
E: "Who the hell codes this stuff for us!"
Ri: "Interns, mainly."
Ke: "And don't even think about how much it costs the taxpayer." He'd chuckle. "Either way, looks like we're getting at least another hour of gameplay from this occurrence, so I won't complain!"
So they would continue on foot. "I hear a sensor of some sort."
Ke: "Turret of some sort, or a door waiting to explode. I hope it's the first one cause I still don't have any weaponry!"
They were turrets. "D'oh they're roof mounts!"
Re: "Either the zombies became tougher or they have run out of bullets."
It was the latter. "How is that possible?!"
Mar: "They mustn't fire the w-whole bullet."
Kensuke so much as stood in front of one, it clicking futilely. "Man that's kinda sad."
Mi: "Kensuke it'd kill you otherwise!"
Ke: "Hey I know that, but from a philosophical standpoint."
E: "It's not living it's a shooting machine!"
A combo of convenient thowables and Alyx's machine pistol cleared out the first room easy enough. "Hey why can't we get a machine pistol like that?"
Z: "As a badass it makes sense she has a unique weapon only she has, Kyoko!" With a cheer. "Signature weapons and all that!"
They'd make it into a dark corridor. "Dang if only we knew the code."
Re: "There's a vent."
Ke: "There's a vent!"
A: "Wait they'd compete to crawl through the air ducts? What's with these ducts and being able to support people in them!"
Re: "Our air ducts can support people."
Sh: "How are you so good at crawling through the air ducts anyway, Rei?"
Re: "Experience."
Mi: "Hang on so why is that flashlight literally just a spotlight? Wouldn't there be a bit of light bleed on the sides?"
Ke: "It's easier to just draw a circle instead of trying to calculate the light diffusion."
Ri: "The Magi would've crashed a lot earlier if they had to calculate that…"
It went out. "The voiceless person is right this does need a new battery!"
Ri: "We can't even blame the Magi for it anymore."
A: "Windows 2000 is funky enough to blame it for issues anyway, especially considering the fact this wasn't really programmed for our specific Windows 2000!"
While the flare he found in the duct wasn't much better, it meant he could conserve aux power as he crawled through the duct, into the locked room. "Y'know what would be cool? The more suit juice you had, the longer your auxiliary power lasts. Gives you a bit more incentive to avoid getting damaged instead of it acting like a glorified shield. Ooh weapon!"
He'd grin like Doomguy upon grabbing the shotgun. "Hell yeah say goodbye zombies and Combine alike!"
Sh: "And the pistol?"
He'd grab that as well. "And that I guess."
Mi: "Oi a good Beretta is no slouch!"
A good thing too, as the door was locked. "See? It's good for picking locks!"
… (1:03:45)
Kensuke pulled a Fred again and turned on the lights. "Betcha gonna make immediate use of those guns, huh?"
Ke: "Well I'm hearing zombies so yeah, probably." Punting a car out of the way. "Aww now the regular gravity gun seems stupid!"
Mi: "You'll get used to it."
One zombie was immolated, the rest pelted with buckshot. "And I'm almost out of ammo already! Surely there's some more around here…" Conveniently a dead man had a shotgun. "Thank you nameless corpse!"
Z: "Their sacrifice will not be in vain!"
Ky: "I swear it looks darker without the flashlight now! Didn't feel that dark in the first game!"
Ri: "In fairness there is absolutely no light down there."
Ke: "Other than the light we make!" Setting a zombie and some antlions on fire. "Y'know I think the graphic fidelity's improved compared to when we were running on the Magi!"
Sh: "Ain't that a swipe at them."
Mi: "Shinji they literally crashed running a thirty minute demo."
Mar: "Ah but ain't this a l-lovely moment, just standing around a campfire with your girlfriend!"
May: "That is literally a burning corpse."
They would find a troop train. "Oh wow even the soldiers are getting zombified!"
Z: "Ooh a Zombine!"
Alyx would make that exact same joke, though she was a lot less confident in its delivery.
H: "Well I think it's a good pun."
Another one behind glass would take out a grenade and attempt to rush Gordon.
Ke: "Oh so that's the gimmick behind them. Great, we've got kamikaze Zombine."
Entering the next tunnel, he'd see a few explosive barrels and sigh, knowing what was probably coming. "Here we go again!"
The bomb barrels and shotgun came handy, but the Zombine were difficult. "Man they even move faster than usual!"
Ke: "I don't need more things to worry about Kyoko!" Killing one with a brick. "This torch isn't helping! Someone turn on the lights already!"
Re: "Looks like another keypad door."
Going towards. "Gah where's that connected too…" Tracing it back. "Barnacle!"
Mi: "Barnacle?"
Ri: "They eat you if you get caught in its tongue."
Mi: "Oh that's great." It wasn't.
Flipping the power. "Gods they're everywhere!" Setting another one on fire with a flare.
Ka: "The fact the soldiers are becoming zombified now is another embarrassment for the soldier program."
E: "Shows just how far gone the situation is for the Combine as well. If they can't even defend against something as base as a zombie."
Ke: "I know right?" Climbing the stairs with a flare. "Who could die to a- NOT THOSE AGAIN!"
The poison headcrab took him down to 1. "I hate that mechanic!"
Sa: "That's what you get for tempting fate!"
The rest of them were killed with prejudice. "And stay dead!"
Disrupted Original (1:09:10)
Into a more lit up parking garage. "That is an antlion pit."
Kensuke thought for a moment. "Ah but here's what I can do with it!"
He'd punt a car over the hole. "Wow that worked?"
Ky: "Oh don't doubt him Zero Two of course it worked!"
Ke: "Y-Yeah! Of course it worked I knew that would happen!"
Ri: "A good thing, invariably they would have interrupted you as you tried to open that garage door."
Mar: "I'm guessing t-that's what they wanted."
He could hear poison headcrabs as he opened the gate. "Alyx please take care of them! I don't wanna let go or it'll slam shut!"
Sh: "For your sake I hope you find better weapons or more ammo for the shotgun."
Ke: "I hope that too!" Managing to shoot the headcrabs dead. "Heck more ammo would be good, I don't have much pistol left!" There would be ample of that at least.
E: "I like how most of those Soviet vehicles look similar."
A: "Why innovate when you can just copy?"
Ke: "They could've at least copied off contemporary designs!" As he assisted Alyx in shooting barnacles. "Even in the nineties they looked like they were fifties designs."
A: "They were fifties designs. The Trabant in some form existed since 1957, with its last major Soviet era redesign happening in 1964."
Mi: "Wasn't there a 80s redesign?"
A: "That did nothing but replaced certain bits with that of a Polo to meet a little something called emissions standards. That along with the entire Trabant company was scuttled not even a year later because just so happens we had a little thing happen called German Reunification and it turns out all the Wessi car makers were approximately eleven billion times more efficient and cost effective at building better vehicles than the Ossi's ever were!"
Ri: "You sound just like your mother when you complain about them."
A: "I'm German we have every right to complain about that loveable piece of shit we call the Trabbi! Did I ever tell you when Carmen was looking after us she drove us around in a Trabant?"
Mi: "Sheesh how'd you survive that?"
Mar: "Asuka missed the k-key detail that she had swapped in the engine from her c-crashed Pontiac."
Re: "Apparently her model vehicle had a V8 with six and a half litres of displacement."
Mi: "HOW DID YOU SURVIVE THAT?!"
Ka: "Funny you mention the Trabant Asuka, I saw a news article on television here that mentioned BMW bought the rights to it and are planning on modernising it as an electric vehicle."
To her gasp. "I hope they keep the look, I know it's BMW but if it's any sort of similar I'd probably buy one!"
May: "They did alright with that Mini Cooper from what I've seen. Was half thinking that as my next car."
Mi: "Don't you already have a BMW anyway?"
May: "Yeah so not like I'm jumping ship or anything."
Kensuke would finally make it to the other end of the barnacle sea. "Honestly these Zombine are more difficult than the soldiers are normally! Oh score!" Finding a full box of shotgun shells. "Much better than trying to wrangle some barrels!"
Sa: "Try not to miss the shots this time around!"
Mar: "I still wonder why E-Eastern Europe has American style e-exit signs."
A: "American neo-imperialism spans far and wide Mari."
Sh: "Pretty sure North America in general uses those signs."
A: "Oh yeah sorry, Canadian neo-imperialism!"
… (1:12:30)
Climbing a few stories, Kensuke made it a bit further through the garage, only to witness a Zombine wiping out an antlion and another Zombine. "Well that's a convenient outcome!"
Z: "You're gonna wanna block those holes quickly huh?"
Ke: "Oh yeah not having anything come out of there!"
There were too many holes and not enough things to put in them.
Ri: "Don't say it, Zero Two."
Z: "Why is it when there's anything that could be construed as suggestive I'm the one who gets the rap?"
A: "I'm just surprised the cotton waste they make those cars out of is durable enough to not just tear apart."
Another vehicle was found in the level above and used as a block. "I think that's one more hole left?"
Mar: "Hell yeah fill those h-holes!"
Ky: "Believe me he does a good job at that normally."
Ritsuko responded by slamming her head on a nearby wall.
Mi: "I don't know what you expected from these guys, Rits."
Ri: "Every day I think they won't and every day I end up disappointed."
Sa: "Well that's on you huh." Blowing a raspberry.
Ke: "Gods damn it move Alyx that's the only way up there!"
Re: "She like it when you rub up against her."
E: "Probably not the best time when trying to fight off killer giant insects!"
Sh: "There is no good time in this game!"
Ke: "Man where else do they have a vehicle… I'm not gonna have to open that garage up to get it will I?"
Ka: "As the most difficult option available, yes."
Ke: "I'm never gonna get that garage open if I'm having to fight off the antlions!" Seeking out alternative solutions. "There's another floors what's up there…"
Lucky enough for him it was destroyed enough to allow access to the vehicle. "Oh thank the- ZOMBINE!" Immediately draining most of his buckshot into it.
H: "I didn't know they made those types of cars."
A: "Oh yeah the estate? You'd think since they had less doors to put on it'd be a better built vehicle but nope, just as bad as any other Trabbi!"
Ke: "Turns out you can't polish a turd huh."
Ka: "Our Ossi counterparts had many a joke for it, did they?"
A: "Oh God yeah, such a joke of a car makes sense you had folks making fun of it." Clearing her throat. "A man is driving his Trabant when the windshield wipers fly off in a sudden breeze. Pulling into a service station he hails a nearby mechanic: 'Wipers for a Trabbi?', the man asks. The mechanic thinks for a few moments and says 'Sounds like a fair trade!'"
That got a few laughs. "Bonus points for mentioning the wipers."
A: "Had to link that back somehow!" With a chuckle. "Probably one of the few German jokes that isn't lost in translation, a lot of our humour is constructed around the language and that makes it difficult to translate properly. Die Spinnen and die spinnen have completely different meanings depending on what you emphasise and how you capitalise it."
Ka: "Er hatte liebe Genossen."
Sh: "Uhh… he enjoyed love?"
A: "Nup! He had dear comrades! Emphasis on the Ge."
Re: "You can love a comrade."
A: "That'd be 'Er hatte Liebe Genossen"!" With a giggle. "We have other joke categories, mama always prodded about the bureaucrats. Three in a room and one's working, who's that?"
Mi: "Ooh! The fan!"
A: "Ah!" With a wide smile. "You know that one!"
Mi: "Bureaucrat jokes are universal!" With a giggle. "If there's one thing that can unite people, it's their dislike of the red tape!"
Ri: "Go figure you like those jokes."
Mi: "Helps I'm swimming in the red tape on a daily basis."
Kensuke was finally able to wrangle the wagon over the last antlion hole. "And there! No more bugging us!"
Re: "That is probably the fastest that Trabant has ever moved."
Asuka burst out laughing. "Now you're learning to joke like an Ossi!"
With that, Kensuke would leave the parking garage. "Move dang it!"
Sa: "Cut her some slack Kensuke, you wouldn't complain if we started grinding against you!"
Decay Mode (1:17:45)
Stepping foot into some dirty water. "Now that the hazard suit should be rated for!"
Ri: "Definitely a biohazard, huh. Hope Alyx doesn't have any open wounds."
Z: "Y'know you could interpret that line as wanting to get in with Gordon."
H: "I mean she does have a good platonic reason to want to get in there."
There were a few zombies to take care of. "Wait what's got a- IT'S RIGHT THERE-"
That grenade knocked him down a few notches. "DIDN'T SEE IT!"
Mi: "Well if they didn't have open wounds before…"
An exploding barrel knocked him down to 23. "FUCK! Damn it not again!"
E: "You lost all your health in like five seconds, Kensuke."
Ke: "I never said I was good at this!"
Ky: "Yeah you did! Several times!"
Mar: "I wonder why they thought h-having to wait for the flashlight to recharge was a good design choice."
Re: "It would be better if it had a separate battery, without having to rely on the auxiliary power. At least then you might be able to sprint without having to think about draining the battery twice as fast."
Ke: "Man I just want some sorta ambient light." In a mutter. "It's too dark in this garage."
Lucky for him there was some light in the next room, indicating an elevator.
Mi: "Are we sure we wanna trust that one?"
Sh: "At least it shouldn't be glass."
Alyx called it and the power went out. "Oh come on!"
Sa: "Looks like you're taking the stairs Kensuke!"
May: "Oh that's a great observation by her! I'm sure anyone could tell a sparking wire was connected to a power supply!"
E: "I would take that as an indicator it wasn't working. Generally electrically needs to be in the wire in order to work, not sparking out of it!"
Kensuke would start tracing it back. "Honestly this entire place gives me the creeps. Even Ravenholm wasn't as dark as this." Finding a few supplies behind a fence. "You never know what's gonna pop out, at least there you had the light of night to see what was coming." He'd open a door. "ZOMBINE!"
At least this time around he was able to avoid the blast. "I hate them!"
A: "There's gonna be a lot more of them I'd think!"
The power was re-activated, upon which there were immediate distant calls of a fast zombie. "Ah crud."
Re: "I sense a siege coming on."
Ke: "Yeah not like we're in complete darkness with limited ammo of anything, thanks Valve I really need this right now!"
Sprinting back to the elevator he had to immediately start shooting. "Come and get it! Damn this flashlight!"
Barrels would be used in lieu of bullets. "They're coming from the w-woodwork!"
Ke: "And I literally have no way of seeing shit!" The flashlight was constantly running on empty. "This is the worst elevator I've ever used and I've been on some shit ones!"
Ky: "Worse than the glass elevator?"
Ke: "At least I didn't have a horde trying to kill me- oh that was cool at least!" A Zombine grenade killed three zombies for him. "Thanks!"
E: "You are running low on ammunition."
Ke: "Gee thanks!" The elevator finally arrived. "C'mon- oh thank you!" Slumping over in a sigh. "Okay, now all I need now is for this elevator to work. Not to have its cable snap and send me back down, not to stop on another dark floor filled with zombies, just take me to some sort of surface please!"
Despite passing several floors filled with zombies, it stopped on one that just so happened to be bereft of them.
A: "Looks like Providence smiles on you today, Kensuke!"
Ke: "About time they finally stopped pissing on me."
Ky: "No one tell him this is just a break in the stream."
~
PSA (1:23:30)
While Alyx was concerning herself at the locked door, Kensuke had other priorities. "Ooh goodies!"
Mi: "Not much use if you can't get out of there huh."
Ke: "Eh there's probably a way she can't see." Going to see what the fuss was about. "Oh it's just missing the roundel!"
Re: "Can you take off the one you just used?"
He tried, no dice. "Nup, must be a spare around somewhere then…" Rummaging through the back room. "Aha!"
Ky: "Heh, yeah Ken-Ken crank that thing!"
Ri: "Please don't on company time."
They'd finally make it to the surface. "Oh that does not look good."
A: "Nah that's typical of Eastern Europe."
May: "Even the death vortex above the Citadel?"
A: "That's an oddity, admittedly."
Ka: "Seems we may not have bought much time at all."
Re: "We only needed enough to get out of the city. I am assuming the narrative has us surviving, so I would say it will blow up just as the final train pulls clear of the city."
Sh: "Maybe the vortigaunts pull us out again."
Mi: "That's what a strider can do?! It looks like it's been nuked!"
Mar: "They're a nuke on s-stilts so yeah."
E: "So even though there's multiple Citadels in the world, because of the feedback loop from this one failing it's caused the others to fail?"
May: "I was gonna ask how they hadn't been able to send comms out, even though by all rights the multiple cities should have multiple Citadels."
Mi: "Does that mean Combine forces here are stranded?"
Ri: "It would essentially mean that, yes. Perhaps why they think it worth it to destroy the City 17 Citadel to send out the message for support. Odds are, if it gets out, it will be like the Seven Hour War again."
Ri: "Only I doubt humanity in this instance will last seven minutes…"
Ka: "The only way to prevent that will be to close whatever rift occurs."
Re: "I suppose that can be the lesson we take from this. Any rift no matter how small could be forced open to allow untoward forces through."
Mi: "How in God's Earth do we even close them? We don't even know where our Dirac Rifts come from and they're relatively small scale and self-closing!"
Mar: "I mean Seele probably know." She'd point out. "The MPs came through Rifts looking at the reports, and I came through a Rift."
Ri: "We still have that decryption running on those Seele materials Kaji found on his raid last year, plus the ones he's forwarding through from America. Odds are there are many more materials we don't know of."
Sh: "How many black sites do we know of?"
Ri: "There are a few from the Gehirn days we can look into, invariably Seele would have used them alongside Gehirn. I'm sure Quebec is known by you guys already, Bethany we still have the Magi looking into the possibility of one existing. Our satellites have been inconclusive."
E: "Can you bring up an image of where the Magi were scouting?"
She would pass one of the terminals to Eliza, who immediately started examining what the satellites could see. "Give me a few moments please."
Ke: "I guess we're just telling our secrets huh?"
Ritsuko turned to Kensuke's birds (being the only civilians present). "Remember girls it's death penalty if you expose them!"
Both would pale. "Duly noted!"
Ky: "Yeah I'd rather not hang thank you very much." In a mutter. "Our lips are sealed!"
Ri: "There, knock yourselves out."
Mar: "What others would there be? N-Nevada wasn't exactly black was it?"
Ri: "Eh more grey, obviously Seele had interests in it but it was a more publicly known branch of Gehirn and NERV…" Thinking about it. "Most of the Gehirn black sites had been wiped from the computers before the Magi could keep memory of it. There was that one site in Mongolia that Bond mentioned, haven't really looked too much into that one."
Mi: "Maybe that Parisian site the fourth Theatrical mentioned?"
Ri: "Could be worth looking at. Might be difficult; the German administration likes to complain about how stubborn they are to work with."
Mi: "The running joke from them is even if an Angel was attacking they'd refuse help from Germany and try killing it themselves."
A: "Maybe that's when they reveal they were secretly running a shadow Evangelion operation." Asuka laughed at the thought.
Ke: "Ah well we can think about all that another time." Kensuke would continue. "I'm sure all the audio of this is available for examination- Oh get lost!" Flashbanged by a camera drone.
Sa: "Good job Kensuke they found you."
Ke: "Mah! They don't-"
They would immediately come down from the rooftops. "Oh come on!"
May: "They're really going for you aren't they?"
Mi: "God their armour can't even withstand pistol fire!"
Ke: "So much for trying to retain a low profile…"
… (1:27:15)
He'd make it through a Combine wall, joining up with a resistance fighter as they tried to clean up the streets.
Sa: "Why the heck are they still there!?"
Ri: "Perhaps to help wayward travellers to a station."
Ke: "Well I could use all the help I can get right now!"
A: "I like how she's already talking about the old days being last week."
Mi: "That raises a good point how much time has passed since that happened?"
Ka: "Surely not more than a few days at most. I'd say this episode takes place over a single day."
Re: "The vortigaunts would have not delayed their retrieval of Gordon and Alyx from the G-Man."
May: "Wonder if the Combine were restricting their metaphysical ability somehow."
Mar: "They were able to s-suppress reproduction so it makes sense they could do that."
Ke: "Gods damn it Alyx move!" Trying to push a car through her but she was harder than a rock. "C'mon how does that work?!"
A: "I've made too many jokes about communist build quality today."
Sh: "Can there ever be enough?"
A: "Pfft who am I kidding, of course there can't!" With glee. "How do you double the value of a Trabant? Fill up the gas tank!"
Z: "How many of those jokes do you have?"
A: "Enough to fill a book with Zero Two! Even today it's required learning for any German worth their salt!"
Z: "Do you know of any Kaworu?"
Ka: "A citizen orders a Trabant, the salesman tells him to come pick it up in exactly nine years. The citizen asks 'Am I to come by in the morning or afternoon?' Incredulously, the salesman asks back 'You're joking, what's the difference in nine years time?' To which the citizen remarks back 'Well the plumber's coming in the morning!'
A: "Hah!" Before giggling like a schoolgirl. "Who says Germans can't joke around?!"
Ka: "When you're in such a state sometimes the only way to handle it is to joke around."
Mi: "Wonder what kinds of jokes the citizens in Half-Life came up with."
Ky: "The reason we don't hear any is because they were all murdered for saying them!"
Ke: "Hey does anyone know what that Cyrillic says?"
E: "Ka… dyeel?" Looking up from her terminal, and furrowing her brow. "Not getting anything from that. Wonder if that's just a signifier for the building."
Opening it up there were Combine. "It's a signifier of my imminent death that's what!"
H: "Oh boy trip laser wonder what that does."
Throwing a chair through them the building immediately erupted into flame. "Damn it that's g-good propane as well!"
Sh: "At least solving it should be as easy as finding the gas outlet."
Ke: "Well that's it there but-" The pipework he was standing on functioned as a see-saw. "Yeah need a weight on that."
Mi: "Oh this has physics puzzles as well?"
Ri: "There were a surprising amount in the first game, I think they wanted to show off the quote unquote realistic physics engine."
A single stone wouldn't be enough. "Hmm what else could weigh it down…"
Sa: "I don't think a chair's gonna cut it."
Ky: "What about many chairs?"
No dice. "Come on!"
May: "Y'know you might be able to jam it in a way so that it can't go down."
Ke: "Oh? Like…" Trying to stick the chair under a gap in a way that it'd stop it. "No not like that…"
He'd jam it underneath. "Aha! Thank you Sempai!"
May: "Ah no biggie."
The gas went off. "Alright onward and upward!"
… (1:32:25)
Up a flight of stairs. "Hang on let's let the zombie trigger that tripwire first…" As Kensuke backed away, falling down a hole. "D'oh I missed it!"
Z: "I think I see a rollermine!"
Ke: "Ooh that'll be useful!" Drawing it in and letting Alyx reprogram it.
A: "The zombies are more resistant to the rollermine than the soldiers are!"
Mi: "Y'know what if this is what we have to face from the Combine I'm not so worried."
Ri: "This is what Breen created in order to please the Combine, doubtless they have far superior forces."
Mi: "Let me have this false hope!"
Re: "Looks like there may be a sniper to sort out."
Ke: "I'll deal with it- another roller!"
The friendly rollermine and the enemy rollermine duked it out. "Oh now that's funny to watch!"
Ky: "They seem rather evenly matched."
May: "Wonder if the rollermines can help out there."
Ke: "Eh one way to find out!" Throwing them out there. "I think there's a machine gunner as well."
Ka: "I think that is starting to reach the limits of the utility of the rollermines."
Ke: "Mhm, I agree." He'd run out. "So the sniper's easy enough to avoid it's the gunner I'm worried about."
Kensuke was promptly shot by the sniper. "GAH!"
Sa: "You were saying?"
Ke: "I need grenades!"
The rollermine finally took care of the gunner. "I wonder if you could throw the rollermine into the sniper's nest."
He tried it, but it just bounced off. "Oh whatever I got grenades now anyway!"
The grenade blasted the solider out of the window, Kensuke putting a few more bullets in it for good measure. "And stay dead!"
A: "Convenient how those rollermines last just long enough to clear out an area huh."
H: "Alyx last time you climbed up to observe something you got captured!"
Z: "Not like she has a really important data packet they're looking for or anything!"
She'd take a hold of the sniper, intending to help Gordon clear out the fortifications ahead. "Ooh hell yeah work that rifle!"
Alyx would immediately fail helping Gordon with some zombies. "hELP!" Yelped Kensuke, trying to shoot dead a fast zombie. "Damn it Alyx!"
Ky: "Hey she said she was rusty with it!"
A poison headcrab was promptly destroyed. "No!"
Up on a walkway. "You should be able to unboard those windows to give her a shot."
Ke: "Ooh yeah!" Doing so, which gave Alyx plenty of leeway to shoot some zombies dead. "Nice catch Rei!"
She still wasn't that great at netting the Zombines. "Gah!"
Re: "You cannot solely rely on her Kensuke."
Ke: "I'm trying to save my ammo for later!"
Next section, removing a panel to allow Alyx to aerosolise another gunner. "Though fair enough, fast moving bogeys generally aren't ideal sniper targets."
H: "That gunner didn't even notice you move that panel away."
May: "Sounds like they don't notice much of anything."
Kensuke would rush the Combine fortification, as Alyx laid down the cover fire. "Shotgun!"
It would come in handy for the antlions that followed suit, now that the Combine dealing with them were taken care of. "All those fortifications for what amounted to a bunch of bugs."
Sh: "Giant man-eating bugs, to be fair."
There would be a quake. "Looks like we may be getting that meltdown after all."
Z: "At the very least you're a bit further away." She blinked. "Still well within vaporisation range but hey, maybe you'll have another hour to get out of that range."
Ke: "We really need to find a train and stat."
Mi: "Look at that lightning! They're really pumping everything they have left into that thing aren't they?"
Ke: "Either way, we don't have time to think about that!" As he entered the Combine fortified building. "All I need to do is keep moving forward and keep painting walls with Combine soldiers!"
Guard Down (1:40:40)
Collecting some drops and going down a hallway, he'd meet the first batch of guards. "And dead, and dead, and… dead! ALYX DAMN IT DON'T GET IN THE WAY OF THE SHOTGUN!"
Ri: "Despite the technical highlights of this video game, it is still a video game."
E: "Only so well you can program AI." She'd pass the terminal back to her mother. "I think our survey satellites are masking a section of ocean around the Bethany target area, I tried reprogramming one of them but I think they've been hard coded to mask this area. Do we have any civvie satellites we can jack into?"
Ritsuko would put on her glasses to examine. "Note the inconsistencies in the texturing, they've tried blending it but it looks rather unnatural when you look at the ocean up close."
Ri: "Hmm… yeah I see that." Passing it back. "I think we still have the codes for Hubble, see if you can flip it to observe that location."
Ke: "Wait we control the Hubble Space Telescope? I thought that was scrapped!"
Ri: "The Americans claim a lot of things Kensuke, we'd be fools to believe everything they say."
Now in the Combine annex. "Yeah I think we're being watched guys."
Re: "Does not surprise me."
Ka: "You are improving at exposure to them."
Re: "Either I wallow in pity for the rest of my life or I deal with it. I would rather the latter."
Ke: "On the bright side, they left us plenty of toys to play with!" Picking up a pulse rifle. "Hello old friend!"
A mysterious beeping sound. "Looks like they want t-their toys back Kensuke."
Ke: "Well they're mine! I'm not letting them play with them they're mean to me!"
They would serve as nothing more than a minor inconvenience and a source for more pulse ammo. "Pathetic. A Balkan child could do better!"
The shotgunner further ahead didn't do much better either. "And just in case there's anyone up there…" Throwing a fuel barrel up the stairs. "That should clear it!"
They would make it back down to the streets. "Oh no not that again!"
An antlion guard was actively roaming the streets, the Combine soldiers clearly prioritising that over Gordon. "Use it to your advantage Ken! Kill them!"
Ke: "I can kill them easy enough, I can't kill that the same way!"
Re: "You have barrels."
So began the orbital, Kensuke getting thrown around as he tried throwing the bomb barrels at it. "gAH!"
Mi: "It doesn't even do that much damage for sending you flying."
Ke: "You say that but- no not there!" He was way too close to a barrel. "Ah now I'm fucked!"
Sa: "Those soldiers never stood a chance huh."
Ky: "So will Kensuke."
Ke: "I'll show ya!"
Luring it into a confined area, one barrel stunned it long enough to let the other barrel explode in its face, it succumbing to its only weakness: dying. "Hah!"
Both his birds blew raspberries.
The rest of the antlions were trivial once the nest was patched up. "Easy as!"
The soldiers would soon teach him not to brag. "I DIDN'T SEE THE GRENADE!"
Z: "C'mon buddy you're meant to be better than the useless soldiers! A Franxx pilot could shoot better!"
With barely a shot fired he was already at critical health. "Why did I use the health kits already!" Running back. "Alright doing it the hard way." Shooting a rooftop mount soldier dead, charging the fortification. "Come at me!"
Lucky for him a rebel with a rocket came in clutch. "Like an angel from God." Chuckled Kaworu.
Ke: "I won't complain!" He also wouldn't complain about the health machine. "Alright a bit better to go!"
… (1:46:30)
His health was immediately cut in half by a wayward barrel. "Oh come on!"
Ri: "Yeah that's on you Kensuke."
Re: "Avoid the landmine while you are at it."
Ke: "What la- oh!" Picking it up. "Thanks! And another vent to clamber though too!"
May: "Why are you bringing the landmine in the vent with you?"
Ke: "Could be useful!"
Ky: "Would it?"
Ke: "No probably not." Immediately conceding, dropping it in an obviously unused portion of the vent. "Alright door let's get to that."
The vent he claimed in broke under the load, Alyx giving a very sardonic remark at seeing him back so soon. "S-Shut up!"
Much to the joy of the gathered. "Yeah and now you mined the other vent!"
Ke: "I'm sure it'll be useful!"
The other vent collapsed as well, but this time around it dropped him into a tripmined area. "Ah crap."
Z: "I wouldn't throw that cover off if I was you."
Carefully taking it off, he found the room not only covered in trip mines but also filled with barrels. "Oh great, this is fine! How the fuck do I get out of this!?"
Mi: "Clearly that dude didn't get out of there alive."
Sa: "Nah he's just sleeping."
Sh: "That's literally a burned corpse."
Sa: "Hey don't assume things about people Shinji!"
Sh: "I think I can assume that!"
Ke: "Okay, so this may be stupid…" Climbing onto one of the barrels. "But if I sprint and jump…"
Leaping to the elevator, the barrel would bobble around but not trip anything. "Ohhh thank the Gods for that!"
Ky: "Dare you to trip it."
Ke: "No!" As soon as he entered the elevator it fell down. "AIEEE-"
At least the water broke his fall. "Just keeps getting w-worse and worse for Gordon huh."
Ke: "I could use a break for once!" Trying to jump out he'd get caught by a barnacle. "PLEASE! Ooh actually I could use this!"
He didn't have much luck with the first one. To be fair, he didn't have much luck with the second one either, ending up falling down a ladder way and sending him to seven health. "FUCK!"
Z: "Nice one!" As the group laughed at the palaver.
Ke: "I'm alive and that's what matters!" Finding the vent.
H: "Won't be alive for much longer at this rate."
Through the vent, and killing a poison headcrab, he made a realisation. "I COULD'VE JUST GONE THROUGH THERE! DAMN IT!"
Re: "I would have thought going down was not the way to go."
Ri: "Kensuke what are you doing?"
Ke: "Clearing out these damn trip mines!" Blowing them up, successfully. "…Well that could've gone worse."
Ky: "So what now?"
Ke: "Eh, the barnacle trick worked before." Immediately jumping into one again.
Ka: "Usually not a strategy I would recommend."
Ke: "As long as I don't fall to my death again it's all good!"
He almost, only being saved by another barnacle. "Okay that was stupid."
A: "At least you identify that!"
This barnacle let him go as he got caught on a metal beam. "COME ON! DAMN IT!"
Ky: "Well you tried being smart but turns out the game is smarterer than you!"
Kensuke could only mutter incredulously as he went down the path the game intended him to go on. "Bloody barnacles ruining my life…"
Mi: "Do we need to mention there's a dark energy reactor scheduled to go nuclear in an hours time?!"
Ke: "You don't have to remind me I know there's a nuke set to go off and I need to get to a train station before then!"
He fell down the elevator shaft again. "Noooo-"
H: "Oh you are so dead."
Ke: "I'm trying the barnacle again!"
Ky: "It hasn't worked the first twenty times!"
It worked this time though. "YES! SCREW YOU VALVE I BEAT YOU!"
Ri: "No you didn't."
Ke: "LET ME HAVE THIS!" Crawling through the correct vent this time around. "I beat it! Ain't no way I can die this time around!"
He fell through a vent, landing in an explosive barrel, landmine, and trip mine trapped room.
Gordon Freeman became Gordon Pasteman. "NGAAAAAA-"
Kyoko fell off her chair laughing like James May, and that was perhaps the calmest reaction of the room as everyone else burst out. "Oh my God what a fucking comedy!"
Kensuke could only grumble as he reloaded. "At least i'm in the fucking right vent…" Dropping it down instead of falling through it, allowing the room to detonate without him in it this time around. "Okay, let's just get this done."
The landmines would be trivially disarmed, and the power was back. "Thank you- let's just keep going."
Ky: "Don't wanna dwell on that, Ken-Ken?!"
Ke: "nO!"
Urban Warfare (1:54:00)
Immediately into another rigged room. "Back away! There's a zombie there!"
Re: "With luck that may detonate the room instead of you."
It didn't. "Have to do everything-" Shotgunning the barrel, while it did knock some health back it cleared the room out! "At least there's ample to resupply here."
Ky: "You definitely need it!"
Another rigged door. "At least soldiers you can deal with easily enough."
Ke: "At this point I prefer them…"
The door was blasted open, Kensuke immediately killing one guard by detonating a barrel, followed shortly by shotgunning the other two.
Mi: "I don't even know what I expect from these guys anymore."
May: "Crossbow there!"
Picking it up. "These ones are fun, did Ritsuko elaborate on them?"
Mi: "Oh yeah they sound like a very fun weapon!"
Ke: "Pretty good for improv huh?" With a smirk. "Could make it with junk if you wanted to!"
Re: "I thought superheating rebar was a difficult ask."
Ke: "Alright so where do we go next, that door's not useful so-" Finding a loose power plug. "…Oh that was hooked in somewhere?"
The energy field he saw earlier was down. "Well, on we go!"
May: "Why would they blow up the door if there was no other way to get out?"
Ri: "They're soldiers, they're not known for their intelligence."
Kensuke would emerge into full on street warfare. "Oh boy here we go killing again!"
The first was killed by a thrown landmine, the rest were trivially shot like a rabid animal. "Friendlies at least."
Mar: "Allies are always g-good in war though they should really get out of there!"
His pulse rifle depleted. "Who gave me a rocket-"
Ky: "Don't complain just shoot it!"
The rocket would fire, two soldiers evaporating. "Nice!"
More doors were set to blow, Kensuke immediately throwing an SMG grenade in there to kill them. "They really need to be less obvious with this."
Sa: "I like how we've all assumed these soldiers really are this bad in universe instead of just being set to a regular difficulty for a video game."
Mi: "Honestly it a lot funnier to think about them in that context, they suck so much and with what I've heard about Breen it makes total sense for soldiers he creates to be completely utterly garbage. Section 2 get a bad rap but at least they can shoot."
Ri: "They also don't throw themselves into a meat grinder. If you commanded them to throw themselves from a cliff they would do it in droves."
Ke: "Okay where over here?" Replying to the civilian. "Oh there over there!"
They'd explain why they were still in the city instead of well away. "Oh c'mon you can't use that as an excuse now! Just shoot them a few times you have a gun!"
Re: "Perhaps the civilians are more useless than the Combine."
Ri: "And that's why they have been dominant. Really it's just the morale."
Ka: "We can only hope the Combine proper are as much a wet paper towel as the soldiers prove themselves to be."
… (1:58:00)
They would be let into the safe house after the civilian exchanged a password of some sort. "Hah! I never understood why you'd need passwords when it's so obvious who's the enemy or not."
Mar: "Doubt they'd let a s-soldier in regardless of the correct password!"
They were busy watching one of Kleiner's broadcasts. "Yes, Alyx, he really is telling you to get busy."
Ky: "Bet she wants to with Gordon."
Ri: "Maybe if they didn't have a dark fusion reactor threatening to annihilate their constituent cells!"
Kensuke started his way up the- "Gah!" A headcrab missile put an end to that idea. "Damn it! It was so relaxed for a moment there!"
A: "At least it's just headcrabs."
Opening another door he was immediately met with a Zombine. "It's not just headcrabs it has a grenade!"
Z: "Aww why didn't it detonate?"
Sh: "Luck?"
H: "Nah can't be that Kensuke doesn't have any of that."
Ke: "Yeah yeah go on- aiee!" Falling into a room filled with zombies. "Why do you have to be right Hiro!"
At the very least a couple SMG grenades took care of it, but it couldn't take care of the embarrassment Kensuke felt especially with how everyone giggled at the show. "Yeah yeah let's see you guys do better!"
A: "Hey we did pretty well with the Portal multiplayer!"
He'd find his way to back where he began. "Okay that was a few minutes I'll never get back."
Ky: "She's still struggling huh?"
Re: "Some folks do not handle being in an apocalyptic situation well."
Ke: "Is there another way we can go…" Looking around. "No? D'oh…"
May: "Wait Breen had jugglers on? Was it just a regular entertainment or something?"
Sh: "Yeah I don't think jugglers would do much to increase the morale of the people!"
Mar: "Those jugglers were p-promptly executed as soon as Breen had no more use for them."
Re: "Worse, turned into stalker jugglers."
H: "Maybe those were the jugglers they showed."
Z: "They might've been juggling rebel heads at that!"
… (2:01:25)
Another armoured door. "Oh thank the Gods Barney!" Kensuke cheered. "Didn't think I'd see you again buddy!"
A camera also saw them. "Well I'm sure the Combine would like to arrange that!"
A: "Y'know I don't see too many drones, I would've thought it'd be easy to stick a camera on an RC helicopter."
Ri: "Oh yeah we banned them. We helped fund a few candidates that would ban them out of 'privacy' concerns and pretended there were a slate of incidences where they were being used to spy on schoolgirl locker rooms."
Ke: "Damn it Akagi I spent almost a hundred thousand Yen on my drone before they got banned!"
Ky: "Weren't you the one spying on the schoolgirl locker rooms?"
Ke: "What I'd be doing with the camera drone is none of your concern Kyoko!"
Sa: "Yeah I agree with that ban Akagi."
Ri: "So did three quarters of the population according to recent polls."
May: "Were they the garnished polls or the genuine ones?"
Ri: "The garnished polls were 90%."
Mar: "See something like that would absolutely n-not fly in America."
Mi: "Here's a secret: it happens anyway they're just a lot more subtle about it. Here we can get away with it because the Japanese public don't give a shit if you can reasonably argue it's for the good of the people."
Ri: "And judging by certain people I say we did have a reasonable argument for once."
Ke: "Hey I wasn't gonna be using it for that!" With an eye roll. "I'm a changed man!"
Sh: "You'd probably use it to take photos of installations."
Ke: "That's beside the point!"
Ri: "Also another reason they were banned. No you are not getting special exemption to fly a drone Kensuke."
Ke: "D'ooooh…"
At least he got his crowbar back. "Ol' reliable!" Kyoko beamed.
Z: "Oh Barney knows about those two."
May: "They've been together for not even a week."
Re: "But it has been an eventful less than one week, you cannot deny that."
Ka: "Love can definitely hit like a truck sometimes, especially when it's surrounded by excess trauma."
Mi: "We call that forged in fire."
A: "Nah excess trauma works too!"
Ke: "Oh boy I can't wait to face that gunship later on…" However he would have more pressing matters immediately, namely the headcrabs that occupied the so called 'safe' route.
H: "Safe by their standards huh."
A: "Headcrabs are marginally better to deal with than a solider. It's a very thin margin but it's there!"
Ke: "I'd say worse, smaller target to hit. Both take around a shotgun blast or two to take care of anyway."
He'd deal with the soldiers soon enough, dispatching a couple before lowering the drawbridge into the hospital. "Did you end up seeing that sign Eliza?"
E: "Mhm but that sign clearly said infirmary so I didn't pay much more mind to it."
Her terminal was passed to Ritsuko. "Not the best quality I could get but take a look at that one mama."
Glasses out again. "…Huh."
Mi: "Rits?"
Ri: "Take a look Misato." Passing her the terminal. "Sector 7G."
It would appear as a red circle with several dots forming a disconnected circle around it.
"…Weh?" Tapping to zoom in, and bringing up a few screenshots of Bethany from the second Theatrical. "Wait how the- are our satellites really blocking shit from us?!"
Ri: "Seems that way." In flat remark. "Seems I will have to re-examine the firmware we use for them. Don't believe it's been updated since my mother programmed it."
Mi: "That has to be like half a kilometre in diameter how did we miss that?! Even with the satellites surely our other monitoring equipment would pick up on it!"
E: "Unless it's a blacklisted site on the Magi level."
Mi: "Well why would it be-" She blinked. "Seele?"
Ri: "Most likely."
Mi: "Gah as if Kaji didn't have enough on his fucking plate, do we have to go to Calvary to find the base hidden under there? Do we have to go to the Moon again to find the base there?!"
Ka: "These are the same people that had a Martian base."
Re: "I would not worry too much, Misato. With how decimated they have been, it is incredibly unlikely this black site is occupied. It is probably in a similar disused state to Quebec."
Sh: "Could be a chance to get more information about them?"
Mi: "I'll take it as that." In a flat mutter. "Christ first the manga about us now that, we're gonna be looking at this shit for the next five years I swear! Kensuke how are you going?"
Ke: "I'm just playing the video game ma'am."
Oh Right There's A Video Game In All This Plot… (2:05:25)
At this point he was well into the hallways of the hospital. "Damn did she just roundhouse kick that Zombine?!"
Z: "What a legend!"
Ke: "Gods this gunship is gonna be the death of me!" Trying to pick out the right weapon to use for this type of urban warfare. "How many shots can I get on this thing…"
He only had two missiles left. "The rest I'll rain check!"
Luckily for him he'd be able to cash that rain check immediately. "Well that dude didn't have a good time…"
Ky: "Oh Christ that roof's gonna get destroyed by the end of this!"
Ke: "It's gonna be in my best interest to keep it as intact as possible during this…" Drawing a few crates towards him. "I get the feeling this ground's gonna give way as soon as I look at it!"
He'd rush for rockets. "Where are you, ya bastard?!"
The first rocket blew up a chunk of roof.
A: "The gunship might not even destroy that much at this rate, you on the other hand!"
Ke: "Okay on second thought I think some of that roof will need destroying to get that thing!"
A couple more shots made the mark. "Alright!"
H: "You lose points falling off into the basement though."
Ke: "As long as I can destroy the gunship it doesn't matter!"
Two, and then another two hits. "Is it just me or is it taking longer to destroy?"
Mar: "Maybe you got a bad batch of r-rockets in that crate."
Ke: "I'll get it! Don't you worry a thing!"
He would, the crashing wreck destroying the rest of the roof.
Mi: "So much for keeping that intact…"
Sa: "They don't have a concept of historic buildings in that world do they?"
Ri: "I mean we barely do to start with."
Sh: "How did Alyx get there?"
Ke: "Through the door."
Ka: "Can you go through the door now?"
Ke: "Uhh… nope. Where do we go from here?" Trying to climb into the rafters. "Can't climb up there…"
Luckily the door was set to blow. "There is your door."
May: "They're really bad at making paths for you."
Kensuke literally fired rockets as soon as the door blew, the Combine soldiers becoming wallpaper. "And now I need to get more rockets!" Blowing up a crate.
E: "What was that for?"
Ke: "Well if I needed to go get rockets anyway I may as well use the last one."
Ky: "Should've tried rocket jumping again!"
Ke: "Yeah no I don't think so."
… (2:10:00)
Now armed to the teeth again, he proceeded onwards. "Trip that first…" The mine went boom. "And onward!"
Re: "Landmine."
Ke: "Not onward!" Disarming that. "Okay more trip mines, let's see if-"
Attempting to throw the landmine through the beam to trigger it, he threw himself through the beam.
And somehow came out of it with absolutely no damage. "Well that was just pathetic!"
Mi: "Pfft, not even the mines work properly."
Sa: "What kinda hospital is this?! There's just weapons laying around!"
Ri: "I doubt the Combine occupation has a concept of hospitals."
Ka: "In fact it's antithetical to their entire goal of wiping out humanity. Why allow humanity to tend to their injured when you want them dead?"
The force field went down. "Now zombies I can do!" With the shotgun in hand, he'd make a start.
Ky: "There's something satisfying about shooting the dead with a shotgun." She'd chuckle. "It's such a base enemy but it's still fun."
Ri: "Perhaps it's more they go down in less hits. The zombies in Doom would go down in a couple shotgun blasts if you aim it well. Good for microdosing the dopamine."
The door at the end of the room blew up, a soldier flying through it. "And much like Doom, you can let the enemies take care of themselves if you do it right!" Kensuke picked off a few soldiers that dared make it past the door, before cleaning up the rest of the zombies. "Like, this is awesome!"
A: "It'd probably be a bit more hectic in real life, without the endless weapons."
Sh: "This is not that genre of game though."
Re: "There are plenty of Resident Evil's and Silent Hill's that explore the more quote unquote realistic take on zombie apocalypse. Without being able to liberally paint walls red with zombie brains."
Ke: "I never preferred those takes on it." Shooting some more. "Do I hear Combine somewhere? Either way, it's a lot more satisfying to me to just shoot the bastards! This just tickles me in all the right places!"
May: "Oh jeez what were they doing in that operating room?"
Ke: "Whatever it is I don't wanna know." Seeing a torso flying across his field of vision in the next room. "Probably related to that."
The next room was chaos. "Did they seriously just wipe out one of their own with an energy ball?!"
Ke: "They did." Avoiding a grenade he literally tripped on a landmine. "This is fine! I can work with this!" Coming behind the Elites and gunning them down, before sorting out the rest of the zombies.
And by the time the backing track was over, they were all down. "Phew! Oh Gods that was some fun! Now let's just-" Opening a door some poisonous ones came from the roof. "No please!" Whaling on them with the shotgun. "Screw you!"
Mar: "And now the s-silence."
Ke: "Even just for a brief moment I won't complain."
… (2:13:00)
It would be brief, Kensuke finding a shut door with a room full of zombies, plus a waiting lounge also filled with zombies. "Okay deal with that one first."
Z: "Did those corpses just disappear?"
E: "I think we're nearing the entity cap this game has in place."
Ri: "Well there's a very simple way of solving that, and it involves Kensuke and his shotgun."
Ke: "Oh with pleasure Sempai!"
The door was locked. "Oh come on!"
Mi: "Suppose there's a reason it's locked."
H: "The zombies don't help."
Another room was open for the taking, two Combine soldiers taken out with two rounds of the shotgun. "If they had another energy ball wipe out one of their own I swear to God-"
A: "Like even by Soviet standards this sort of carelessness is absurd! Decades of work to develop a super soldier and they have no strategy."
May: "I don't think Breen was ever a strategist, was he?"
Ke: "And I get the impression he had all the brass that could help them killed." Now back to the zombie filled room, they'd finally break down the door. "Aaaand zap!" Wiping out several with an energy ball.
Sa: "I mean a literal nerd can use the Combine's weapons better than the actual Combine."
Mi: "Y'know now I'm thinking about it, was that a deliberate strategy on Breen's part? Make a soldier that could be effective against an unarmed populous, but against any serious resistance they crumple? Instead of allowing the greater Combine to station their own probably vastly superior forces they've developed in the presumedly billions of years they've been doing this kinda thing?"
Ri: "I think you're giving Breen too much credit, but it is a possibility."
E: "But then what about the other ways he screwed over humanity? Like, oh I dunno, the resource plundering, the oppression."
A: "The wholesale genocide."
Ke: "Suppose the question then would be how far can you go before the Benefactors tack on." Falling through a floor into some water. "Inconvenient! Because you clearly need some smarts in order to grovel before them, they would've had several chances to replace him with an actual Combine Administrator."
Ky: "Really what the Combine should've done is just kill all humans and plunder the Earth, wonder what stopped them other than Breen?"
Re: "I am sure the G-Man had a say in advertising humanity's utility."
Ke: "D'oh another electrical door!"
Z: "And you bet as soon as you activate it, that entire lake's gonna become a deep fryer!"
Ke: "Probably wanna keep this blue barrel then." Taking out a pistol. "And get rid of these suckers while I'm at it!" Wiping out some of the barnacles.
May: "Watch as the ones you left behind become a nuisance."
Ke: "Nah I don't think so."
Flipping the power on he was immediately caught by one. "Gah!"
And trying to bring the barrel over that was immediately caught by another one. "Why!?"
May: "Told ya so." With a smug smile.
Shooting them both dead. "Okay maybe I need the power off to position that barrel…"
Turning it back on. "And then a jump- OH NO!" Immediately missing and falling into the electrified drink. "DAMN IT!"
Ky: "You're not good at this!"
He really wasn't good at it, trying again and immediately dying. "NOOOOOOO-"
Kyoko and Sayaka were wheezing in the corner as Kensuke reloaded. Their amusement only increased as Kensuke immediately got snared by that same barnacle. "NOT AGAIN!"
Sa: "Damn it Kensuke you did that already!"
Ke: "Mmmgh I know." Disappointed with himself. "Okay how about I path it out before I fry myself?"
Ri: "You'd never think fatal consequences would teach someone."
Re: "Helps they can come back to action the teachings."
He would grenade a poison headcrab in the distance. "I have a plan."
Activating the power, he'd jump from the broken catwalk over to some piping, clearing out a couple barnacles that blocked the path, before hopping towards the door. "Nyeh!"
Ky: "Should've gotten it the first time Ken-Ken!" As both poked tongues at him.
Ke: "Oh whatever I didn't die a second time and that's what's important- what the fuck happened here Alyx?!"
One of the Combine soldiers had a vending machine crushing him. "That's just comical." Noted Zero Two.
Mi: "Yeah Alyx was just fine I think."
… (2:20:20)
Into the next room where he got immediately bit by a poison headcrab. "Nuuu!"
Ri: "Why did you use the crossbow?"
Ke: "I was trying to get them quick!"
They'd drop into the zombie filled room (granted all the rooms in his hospital were filled with zombies…). "I don't like how many mines are there."
E: "Expecting a siege?"
Ke: "Well they wouldn't put that many there if they didn't want me to use them!"
He wouldn't end up using them. "Maybe you should've used them?" Queried Misato, seeing the Zombine grenade knock him down a peg.
Ke: "Both of those grenades wiped out the enemies though!"
Z: "You left Alyx for dead! If she wasn't so important to the plot that grenade would've pulverised her!"
Ky: "Good thing she was wearing her plot armour today huh?"
Sa: "Think she could give some of that armour to Kensuke? He needs it more than her!"
Ke: "Yeah yeah at least I can respawn!"
They would be wiped out. "Again leaving her to deal with it!"
A: "I mean she is a strong independent woman, but yeah Kensuke you need to help her!"
Ke: "It went well at le- oh jeez what were they doing in this hospital?" Seeing the charred corpse plugged into a loose electrical wire.
Ka: "Probably what they were doing at Nova Prospekt."
Next room, a landmine immediately bisecting a zombie.
Mi: "Is that meant to be a turret targeting that zombie?"
It completely missed every shot. "It was moving slower than a grandmother crossing the road!"
Mar: "We all know they can't hit the broad side of a b-barn, this isn't surprising."
E: "It's cause they fire only part of the bullet."
Ke: "Either way only one way to go!" Forward, and back immediately as zombies were coming. "Once we take care of the pests."
The turrets were worse than nothing when it came to dealing with the zombies. "Come on! This should be easy mode for them!"
H: "May as well be easy mode for you at this rate."
The power was pulled and the turrets deactivated. "Literally only one zombie was killed by all those defences."
Mi: "And by all rights that landmine should've activated a lot earlier, like before you got in the room. The zombie was right there!"
~
While Alyx was concerning herself at the locked door, Kensuke had other priorities. "Ooh goodies!"
Mi: "Not much use if you can't get out of there huh."
Ke: "Eh there's probably a way she can't see." Going to see what the fuss was about. "Oh it's just missing the roundel!"
Re: "Can you take off the one you just used?"
He tried, no dice. "Nup, must be a spare around somewhere then…" Rummaging through the back room. "Aha!"
Ky: "Heh, yeah Ken-Ken crank that thing!"
Ri: "Please don't on company time."
They'd finally make it to the surface. "Oh that does not look good."
A: "Nah that's typical of Eastern Europe."
May: "Even the death vortex above the Citadel?"
A: "That's an oddity, admittedly."
Ka: "Seems we may not have bought much time at all."
Re: "We only needed enough to get out of the city. I am assuming the narrative has us surviving, so I would say it will blow up just as the final train pulls clear of the city."
Sh: "Maybe the vortigaunts pull us out again."
Mi: "That's what a strider can do?! It looks like it's been nuked!"
Mar: "They're a nuke on s-stilts so yeah."
E: "So even though there's multiple Citadels in the world, because of the feedback loop from this one failing it's caused the others to fail?"
May: "I was gonna ask how they hadn't been able to send comms out, even though by all rights the multiple cities should have multiple Citadels."
Mi: "Does that mean Combine forces here are stranded?"
Ri: "It would essentially mean that, yes. Perhaps why they think it worth it to destroy the City 17 Citadel to send out the message for support. Odds are, if it gets out, it will be like the Seven Hour War again."
Ri: "Only I doubt humanity in this instance will last seven minutes…"
Ka: "The only way to prevent that will be to close whatever rift occurs."
Re: "I suppose that can be the lesson we take from this. Any rift no matter how small could be forced open to allow untoward forces through."
Mi: "How in God's Earth do we even close them? We don't even know where our Dirac Rifts come from and they're relatively small scale and self-closing!"
Mar: "I mean Seele probably know." She'd point out. "The MPs came through Rifts looking at the reports, and I came through a Rift."
Ri: "We still have that decryption running on those Seele materials Kaji found on his raid last year, plus the ones he's forwarding through from America. Odds are there are many more materials we don't know of."
Sh: "How many black sites do we know of?"
Ri: "There are a few from the Gehirn days we can look into, invariably Seele would have used them alongside Gehirn. I'm sure Quebec is known by you guys already, Bethany we still have the Magi looking into the possibility of one existing. Our satellites have been inconclusive."
E: "Can you bring up an image of where the Magi were scouting?"
She would pass one of the terminals to Eliza, who immediately started examining what the satellites could see. "Give me a few moments please."
Ke: "I guess we're just telling our secrets huh?"
Ritsuko turned to Kensuke's birds (being the only civilians present). "Remember girls it's death penalty if you expose them!"
Both would pale. "Duly noted!"
Ky: "Yeah I'd rather not hang thank you very much." In a mutter. "Our lips are sealed!"
Ri: "There, knock yourselves out."
Mar: "What others would there be? N-Nevada wasn't exactly black was it?"
Ri: "Eh more grey, obviously Seele had interests in it but it was a more publicly known branch of Gehirn and NERV…" Thinking about it. "Most of the Gehirn black sites had been wiped from the computers before the Magi could keep memory of it. There was that one site in Mongolia that Bond mentioned, haven't really looked too much into that one."
Mi: "Maybe that Parisian site the fourth Theatrical mentioned?"
Ri: "Could be worth looking at. Might be difficult; the German administration likes to complain about how stubborn they are to work with."
Mi: "The running joke from them is even if an Angel was attacking they'd refuse help from Germany and try killing it themselves."
A: "Maybe that's when they reveal they were secretly running a shadow Evangelion operation." Asuka laughed at the thought.
Ke: "Ah well we can think about all that another time." Kensuke would continue. "I'm sure all the audio of this is available for examination- Oh get lost!" Flashbanged by a camera drone.
Sa: "Good job Kensuke they found you."
Ke: "Mah! They don't-"
They would immediately come down from the rooftops. "Oh come on!"
May: "They're really going for you aren't they?"
Mi: "God their armour can't even withstand pistol fire!"
Ke: "So much for trying to retain a low profile…"
… (1:27:15)
He'd make it through a Combine wall, joining up with a resistance fighter as they tried to clean up the streets.
Sa: "Why the heck are they still there!?"
Ri: "Perhaps to help wayward travellers to a station."
Ke: "Well I could use all the help I can get right now!"
A: "I like how she's already talking about the old days being last week."
Mi: "That raises a good point how much time has passed since that happened?"
Ka: "Surely not more than a few days at most. I'd say this episode takes place over a single day."
Re: "The vortigaunts would have not delayed their retrieval of Gordon and Alyx from the G-Man."
May: "Wonder if the Combine were restricting their metaphysical ability somehow."
Mar: "They were able to s-suppress reproduction so it makes sense they could do that."
Ke: "Gods damn it Alyx move!" Trying to push a car through her but she was harder than a rock. "C'mon how does that work?!"
A: "I've made too many jokes about communist build quality today."
Sh: "Can there ever be enough?"
A: "Pfft who am I kidding, of course there can't!" With glee. "How do you double the value of a Trabant? Fill up the gas tank!"
Z: "How many of those jokes do you have?"
A: "Enough to fill a book with Zero Two! Even today it's required learning for any German worth their salt!"
Z: "Do you know of any Kaworu?"
Ka: "A citizen orders a Trabant, the salesman tells him to come pick it up in exactly nine years. The citizen asks 'Am I to come by in the morning or afternoon?' Incredulously, the salesman asks back 'You're joking, what's the difference in nine years time?' To which the citizen remarks back 'Well the plumber's coming in the morning!'
A: "Hah!" Before giggling like a schoolgirl. "Who says Germans can't joke around?!"
Ka: "When you're in such a state sometimes the only way to handle it is to joke around."
Mi: "Wonder what kinds of jokes the citizens in Half-Life came up with."
Ky: "The reason we don't hear any is because they were all murdered for saying them!"
Ke: "Hey does anyone know what that Cyrillic says?"
E: "Ka… dyeel?" Looking up from her terminal, and furrowing her brow. "Not getting anything from that. Wonder if that's just a signifier for the building."
Opening it up there were Combine. "It's a signifier of my imminent death that's what!"
H: "Oh boy trip laser wonder what that does."
Throwing a chair through them the building immediately erupted into flame. "Damn it that's g-good propane as well!"
Sh: "At least solving it should be as easy as finding the gas outlet."
Ke: "Well that's it there but-" The pipework he was standing on functioned as a see-saw. "Yeah need a weight on that."
Mi: "Oh this has physics puzzles as well?"
Ri: "There were a surprising amount in the first game, I think they wanted to show off the quote unquote realistic physics engine."
A single stone wouldn't be enough. "Hmm what else could weigh it down…"
Sa: "I don't think a chair's gonna cut it."
Ky: "What about many chairs?"
No dice. "Come on!"
May: "Y'know you might be able to jam it in a way so that it can't go down."
Ke: "Oh? Like…" Trying to stick the chair under a gap in a way that it'd stop it. "No not like that…"
He'd jam it underneath. "Aha! Thank you Sempai!"
May: "Ah no biggie."
The gas went off. "Alright onward and upward!"
… (1:32:25)
Up a flight of stairs. "Hang on let's let the zombie trigger that tripwire first…" As Kensuke backed away, falling down a hole. "D'oh I missed it!"
Z: "I think I see a rollermine!"
Ke: "Ooh that'll be useful!" Drawing it in and letting Alyx reprogram it.
A: "The zombies are more resistant to the rollermine than the soldiers are!"
Mi: "Y'know what if this is what we have to face from the Combine I'm not so worried."
Ri: "This is what Breen created in order to please the Combine, doubtless they have far superior forces."
Mi: "Let me have this false hope!"
Re: "Looks like there may be a sniper to sort out."
Ke: "I'll deal with it- another roller!"
The friendly rollermine and the enemy rollermine duked it out. "Oh now that's funny to watch!"
Ky: "They seem rather evenly matched."
May: "Wonder if the rollermines can help out there."
Ke: "Eh one way to find out!" Throwing them out there. "I think there's a machine gunner as well."
Ka: "I think that is starting to reach the limits of the utility of the rollermines."
Ke: "Mhm, I agree." He'd run out. "So the sniper's easy enough to avoid it's the gunner I'm worried about."
Kensuke was promptly shot by the sniper. "GAH!"
Sa: "You were saying?"
Ke: "I need grenades!"
The rollermine finally took care of the gunner. "I wonder if you could throw the rollermine into the sniper's nest."
He tried it, but it just bounced off. "Oh whatever I got grenades now anyway!"
The grenade blasted the solider out of the window, Kensuke putting a few more bullets in it for good measure. "And stay dead!"
A: "Convenient how those rollermines last just long enough to clear out an area huh."
H: "Alyx last time you climbed up to observe something you got captured!"
Z: "Not like she has a really important data packet they're looking for or anything!"
She'd take a hold of the sniper, intending to help Gordon clear out the fortifications ahead. "Ooh hell yeah work that rifle!"
Alyx would immediately fail helping Gordon with some zombies. "hELP!" Yelped Kensuke, trying to shoot dead a fast zombie. "Damn it Alyx!"
Ky: "Hey she said she was rusty with it!"
A poison headcrab was promptly destroyed. "No!"
Up on a walkway. "You should be able to unboard those windows to give her a shot."
Ke: "Ooh yeah!" Doing so, which gave Alyx plenty of leeway to shoot some zombies dead. "Nice catch Rei!"
She still wasn't that great at netting the Zombines. "Gah!"
Re: "You cannot solely rely on her Kensuke."
Ke: "I'm trying to save my ammo for later!"
Next section, removing a panel to allow Alyx to aerosolise another gunner. "Though fair enough, fast moving bogeys generally aren't ideal sniper targets."
H: "That gunner didn't even notice you move that panel away."
May: "Sounds like they don't notice much of anything."
Kensuke would rush the Combine fortification, as Alyx laid down the cover fire. "Shotgun!"
It would come in handy for the antlions that followed suit, now that the Combine dealing with them were taken care of. "All those fortifications for what amounted to a bunch of bugs."
Sh: "Giant man-eating bugs, to be fair."
There would be a quake. "Looks like we may be getting that meltdown after all."
Z: "At the very least you're a bit further away." She blinked. "Still well within vaporisation range but hey, maybe you'll have another hour to get out of that range."
Ke: "We really need to find a train and stat."
Mi: "Look at that lightning! They're really pumping everything they have left into that thing aren't they?"
Ke: "Either way, we don't have time to think about that!" As he entered the Combine fortified building. "All I need to do is keep moving forward and keep painting walls with Combine soldiers!"
Guard Down (1:40:40)
Collecting some drops and going down a hallway, he'd meet the first batch of guards. "And dead, and dead, and… dead! ALYX DAMN IT DON'T GET IN THE WAY OF THE SHOTGUN!"
Ri: "Despite the technical highlights of this video game, it is still a video game."
E: "Only so well you can program AI." She'd pass the terminal back to her mother. "I think our survey satellites are masking a section of ocean around the Bethany target area, I tried reprogramming one of them but I think they've been hard coded to mask this area. Do we have any civvie satellites we can jack into?"
Ritsuko would put on her glasses to examine. "Note the inconsistencies in the texturing, they've tried blending it but it looks rather unnatural when you look at the ocean up close."
Ri: "Hmm… yeah I see that." Passing it back. "I think we still have the codes for Hubble, see if you can flip it to observe that location."
Ke: "Wait we control the Hubble Space Telescope? I thought that was scrapped!"
Ri: "The Americans claim a lot of things Kensuke, we'd be fools to believe everything they say."
Now in the Combine annex. "Yeah I think we're being watched guys."
Re: "Does not surprise me."
Ka: "You are improving at exposure to them."
Re: "Either I wallow in pity for the rest of my life or I deal with it. I would rather the latter."
Ke: "On the bright side, they left us plenty of toys to play with!" Picking up a pulse rifle. "Hello old friend!"
A mysterious beeping sound. "Looks like they want t-their toys back Kensuke."
Ke: "Well they're mine! I'm not letting them play with them they're mean to me!"
They would serve as nothing more than a minor inconvenience and a source for more pulse ammo. "Pathetic. A Balkan child could do better!"
The shotgunner further ahead didn't do much better either. "And just in case there's anyone up there…" Throwing a fuel barrel up the stairs. "That should clear it!"
They would make it back down to the streets. "Oh no not that again!"
An antlion guard was actively roaming the streets, the Combine soldiers clearly prioritising that over Gordon. "Use it to your advantage Ken! Kill them!"
Ke: "I can kill them easy enough, I can't kill that the same way!"
Re: "You have barrels."
So began the orbital, Kensuke getting thrown around as he tried throwing the bomb barrels at it. "gAH!"
Mi: "It doesn't even do that much damage for sending you flying."
Ke: "You say that but- no not there!" He was way too close to a barrel. "Ah now I'm fucked!"
Sa: "Those soldiers never stood a chance huh."
Ky: "So will Kensuke."
Ke: "I'll show ya!"
Luring it into a confined area, one barrel stunned it long enough to let the other barrel explode in its face, it succumbing to its only weakness: dying. "Hah!"
Both his birds blew raspberries.
The rest of the antlions were trivial once the nest was patched up. "Easy as!"
The soldiers would soon teach him not to brag. "I DIDN'T SEE THE GRENADE!"
Z: "C'mon buddy you're meant to be better than the useless soldiers! A Franxx pilot could shoot better!"
With barely a shot fired he was already at critical health. "Why did I use the health kits already!" Running back. "Alright doing it the hard way." Shooting a rooftop mount soldier dead, charging the fortification. "Come at me!"
Lucky for him a rebel with a rocket came in clutch. "Like an angel from God." Chuckled Kaworu.
Ke: "I won't complain!" He also wouldn't complain about the health machine. "Alright a bit better to go!"
… (1:46:30)
His health was immediately cut in half by a wayward barrel. "Oh come on!"
Ri: "Yeah that's on you Kensuke."
Re: "Avoid the landmine while you are at it."
Ke: "What la- oh!" Picking it up. "Thanks! And another vent to clamber though too!"
May: "Why are you bringing the landmine in the vent with you?"
Ke: "Could be useful!"
Ky: "Would it?"
Ke: "No probably not." Immediately conceding, dropping it in an obviously unused portion of the vent. "Alright door let's get to that."
The vent he claimed in broke under the load, Alyx giving a very sardonic remark at seeing him back so soon. "S-Shut up!"
Much to the joy of the gathered. "Yeah and now you mined the other vent!"
Ke: "I'm sure it'll be useful!"
The other vent collapsed as well, but this time around it dropped him into a tripmined area. "Ah crap."
Z: "I wouldn't throw that cover off if I was you."
Carefully taking it off, he found the room not only covered in trip mines but also filled with barrels. "Oh great, this is fine! How the fuck do I get out of this!?"
Mi: "Clearly that dude didn't get out of there alive."
Sa: "Nah he's just sleeping."
Sh: "That's literally a burned corpse."
Sa: "Hey don't assume things about people Shinji!"
Sh: "I think I can assume that!"
Ke: "Okay, so this may be stupid…" Climbing onto one of the barrels. "But if I sprint and jump…"
Leaping to the elevator, the barrel would bobble around but not trip anything. "Ohhh thank the Gods for that!"
Ky: "Dare you to trip it."
Ke: "No!" As soon as he entered the elevator it fell down. "AIEEE-"
At least the water broke his fall. "Just keeps getting w-worse and worse for Gordon huh."
Ke: "I could use a break for once!" Trying to jump out he'd get caught by a barnacle. "PLEASE! Ooh actually I could use this!"
He didn't have much luck with the first one. To be fair, he didn't have much luck with the second one either, ending up falling down a ladder way and sending him to seven health. "FUCK!"
Z: "Nice one!" As the group laughed at the palaver.
Ke: "I'm alive and that's what matters!" Finding the vent.
H: "Won't be alive for much longer at this rate."
Through the vent, and killing a poison headcrab, he made a realisation. "I COULD'VE JUST GONE THROUGH THERE! DAMN IT!"
Re: "I would have thought going down was not the way to go."
Ri: "Kensuke what are you doing?"
Ke: "Clearing out these damn trip mines!" Blowing them up, successfully. "…Well that could've gone worse."
Ky: "So what now?"
Ke: "Eh, the barnacle trick worked before." Immediately jumping into one again.
Ka: "Usually not a strategy I would recommend."
Ke: "As long as I don't fall to my death again it's all good!"
He almost, only being saved by another barnacle. "Okay that was stupid."
A: "At least you identify that!"
This barnacle let him go as he got caught on a metal beam. "COME ON! DAMN IT!"
Ky: "Well you tried being smart but turns out the game is smarterer than you!"
Kensuke could only mutter incredulously as he went down the path the game intended him to go on. "Bloody barnacles ruining my life…"
Mi: "Do we need to mention there's a dark energy reactor scheduled to go nuclear in an hours time?!"
Ke: "You don't have to remind me I know there's a nuke set to go off and I need to get to a train station before then!"
He fell down the elevator shaft again. "Noooo-"
H: "Oh you are so dead."
Ke: "I'm trying the barnacle again!"
Ky: "It hasn't worked the first twenty times!"
It worked this time though. "YES! SCREW YOU VALVE I BEAT YOU!"
Ri: "No you didn't."
Ke: "LET ME HAVE THIS!" Crawling through the correct vent this time around. "I beat it! Ain't no way I can die this time around!"
He fell through a vent, landing in an explosive barrel, landmine, and trip mine trapped room.
Gordon Freeman became Gordon Pasteman. "NGAAAAAA-"
Kyoko fell off her chair laughing like James May, and that was perhaps the calmest reaction of the room as everyone else burst out. "Oh my God what a fucking comedy!"
Kensuke could only grumble as he reloaded. "At least i'm in the fucking right vent…" Dropping it down instead of falling through it, allowing the room to detonate without him in it this time around. "Okay, let's just get this done."
The landmines would be trivially disarmed, and the power was back. "Thank you- let's just keep going."
Ky: "Don't wanna dwell on that, Ken-Ken?!"
Ke: "nO!"
Urban Warfare (1:54:00)
Immediately into another rigged room. "Back away! There's a zombie there!"
Re: "With luck that may detonate the room instead of you."
It didn't. "Have to do everything-" Shotgunning the barrel, while it did knock some health back it cleared the room out! "At least there's ample to resupply here."
Ky: "You definitely need it!"
Another rigged door. "At least soldiers you can deal with easily enough."
Ke: "At this point I prefer them…"
The door was blasted open, Kensuke immediately killing one guard by detonating a barrel, followed shortly by shotgunning the other two.
Mi: "I don't even know what I expect from these guys anymore."
May: "Crossbow there!"
Picking it up. "These ones are fun, did Ritsuko elaborate on them?"
Mi: "Oh yeah they sound like a very fun weapon!"
Ke: "Pretty good for improv huh?" With a smirk. "Could make it with junk if you wanted to!"
Re: "I thought superheating rebar was a difficult ask."
Ke: "Alright so where do we go next, that door's not useful so-" Finding a loose power plug. "…Oh that was hooked in somewhere?"
The energy field he saw earlier was down. "Well, on we go!"
May: "Why would they blow up the door if there was no other way to get out?"
Ri: "They're soldiers, they're not known for their intelligence."
Kensuke would emerge into full on street warfare. "Oh boy here we go killing again!"
The first was killed by a thrown landmine, the rest were trivially shot like a rabid animal. "Friendlies at least."
Mar: "Allies are always g-good in war though they should really get out of there!"
His pulse rifle depleted. "Who gave me a rocket-"
Ky: "Don't complain just shoot it!"
The rocket would fire, two soldiers evaporating. "Nice!"
More doors were set to blow, Kensuke immediately throwing an SMG grenade in there to kill them. "They really need to be less obvious with this."
Sa: "I like how we've all assumed these soldiers really are this bad in universe instead of just being set to a regular difficulty for a video game."
Mi: "Honestly it a lot funnier to think about them in that context, they suck so much and with what I've heard about Breen it makes total sense for soldiers he creates to be completely utterly garbage. Section 2 get a bad rap but at least they can shoot."
Ri: "They also don't throw themselves into a meat grinder. If you commanded them to throw themselves from a cliff they would do it in droves."
Ke: "Okay where over here?" Replying to the civilian. "Oh there over there!"
They'd explain why they were still in the city instead of well away. "Oh c'mon you can't use that as an excuse now! Just shoot them a few times you have a gun!"
Re: "Perhaps the civilians are more useless than the Combine."
Ri: "And that's why they have been dominant. Really it's just the morale."
Ka: "We can only hope the Combine proper are as much a wet paper towel as the soldiers prove themselves to be."
… (1:58:00)
They would be let into the safe house after the civilian exchanged a password of some sort. "Hah! I never understood why you'd need passwords when it's so obvious who's the enemy or not."
Mar: "Doubt they'd let a s-soldier in regardless of the correct password!"
They were busy watching one of Kleiner's broadcasts. "Yes, Alyx, he really is telling you to get busy."
Ky: "Bet she wants to with Gordon."
Ri: "Maybe if they didn't have a dark fusion reactor threatening to annihilate their constituent cells!"
Kensuke started his way up the- "Gah!" A headcrab missile put an end to that idea. "Damn it! It was so relaxed for a moment there!"
A: "At least it's just headcrabs."
Opening another door he was immediately met with a Zombine. "It's not just headcrabs it has a grenade!"
Z: "Aww why didn't it detonate?"
Sh: "Luck?"
H: "Nah can't be that Kensuke doesn't have any of that."
Ke: "Yeah yeah go on- aiee!" Falling into a room filled with zombies. "Why do you have to be right Hiro!"
At the very least a couple SMG grenades took care of it, but it couldn't take care of the embarrassment Kensuke felt especially with how everyone giggled at the show. "Yeah yeah let's see you guys do better!"
A: "Hey we did pretty well with the Portal multiplayer!"
He'd find his way to back where he began. "Okay that was a few minutes I'll never get back."
Ky: "She's still struggling huh?"
Re: "Some folks do not handle being in an apocalyptic situation well."
Ke: "Is there another way we can go…" Looking around. "No? D'oh…"
May: "Wait Breen had jugglers on? Was it just a regular entertainment or something?"
Sh: "Yeah I don't think jugglers would do much to increase the morale of the people!"
Mar: "Those jugglers were p-promptly executed as soon as Breen had no more use for them."
Re: "Worse, turned into stalker jugglers."
H: "Maybe those were the jugglers they showed."
Z: "They might've been juggling rebel heads at that!"
… (2:01:25)
Another armoured door. "Oh thank the Gods Barney!" Kensuke cheered. "Didn't think I'd see you again buddy!"
A camera also saw them. "Well I'm sure the Combine would like to arrange that!"
A: "Y'know I don't see too many drones, I would've thought it'd be easy to stick a camera on an RC helicopter."
Ri: "Oh yeah we banned them. We helped fund a few candidates that would ban them out of 'privacy' concerns and pretended there were a slate of incidences where they were being used to spy on schoolgirl locker rooms."
Ke: "Damn it Akagi I spent almost a hundred thousand Yen on my drone before they got banned!"
Ky: "Weren't you the one spying on the schoolgirl locker rooms?"
Ke: "What I'd be doing with the camera drone is none of your concern Kyoko!"
Sa: "Yeah I agree with that ban Akagi."
Ri: "So did three quarters of the population according to recent polls."
May: "Were they the garnished polls or the genuine ones?"
Ri: "The garnished polls were 90%."
Mar: "See something like that would absolutely n-not fly in America."
Mi: "Here's a secret: it happens anyway they're just a lot more subtle about it. Here we can get away with it because the Japanese public don't give a shit if you can reasonably argue it's for the good of the people."
Ri: "And judging by certain people I say we did have a reasonable argument for once."
Ke: "Hey I wasn't gonna be using it for that!" With an eye roll. "I'm a changed man!"
Sh: "You'd probably use it to take photos of installations."
Ke: "That's beside the point!"
Ri: "Also another reason they were banned. No you are not getting special exemption to fly a drone Kensuke."
Ke: "D'ooooh…"
At least he got his crowbar back. "Ol' reliable!" Kyoko beamed.
Z: "Oh Barney knows about those two."
May: "They've been together for not even a week."
Re: "But it has been an eventful less than one week, you cannot deny that."
Ka: "Love can definitely hit like a truck sometimes, especially when it's surrounded by excess trauma."
Mi: "We call that forged in fire."
A: "Nah excess trauma works too!"
Ke: "Oh boy I can't wait to face that gunship later on…" However he would have more pressing matters immediately, namely the headcrabs that occupied the so called 'safe' route.
H: "Safe by their standards huh."
A: "Headcrabs are marginally better to deal with than a solider. It's a very thin margin but it's there!"
Ke: "I'd say worse, smaller target to hit. Both take around a shotgun blast or two to take care of anyway."
He'd deal with the soldiers soon enough, dispatching a couple before lowering the drawbridge into the hospital. "Did you end up seeing that sign Eliza?"
E: "Mhm but that sign clearly said infirmary so I didn't pay much more mind to it."
Her terminal was passed to Ritsuko. "Not the best quality I could get but take a look at that one mama."
Glasses out again. "…Huh."
Mi: "Rits?"
Ri: "Take a look Misato." Passing her the terminal. "Sector 7G."
It would appear as a red circle with several dots forming a disconnected circle around it.
"…Weh?" Tapping to zoom in, and bringing up a few screenshots of Bethany from the second Theatrical. "Wait how the- are our satellites really blocking shit from us?!"
Ri: "Seems that way." In flat remark. "Seems I will have to re-examine the firmware we use for them. Don't believe it's been updated since my mother programmed it."
Mi: "That has to be like half a kilometre in diameter how did we miss that?! Even with the satellites surely our other monitoring equipment would pick up on it!"
E: "Unless it's a blacklisted site on the Magi level."
Mi: "Well why would it be-" She blinked. "Seele?"
Ri: "Most likely."
Mi: "Gah as if Kaji didn't have enough on his fucking plate, do we have to go to Calvary to find the base hidden under there? Do we have to go to the Moon again to find the base there?!"
Ka: "These are the same people that had a Martian base."
Re: "I would not worry too much, Misato. With how decimated they have been, it is incredibly unlikely this black site is occupied. It is probably in a similar disused state to Quebec."
Sh: "Could be a chance to get more information about them?"
Mi: "I'll take it as that." In a flat mutter. "Christ first the manga about us now that, we're gonna be looking at this shit for the next five years I swear! Kensuke how are you going?"
Ke: "I'm just playing the video game ma'am."
Oh Right There's A Video Game In All This Plot… (2:05:25)
At this point he was well into the hallways of the hospital. "Damn did she just roundhouse kick that Zombine?!"
Z: "What a legend!"
Ke: "Gods this gunship is gonna be the death of me!" Trying to pick out the right weapon to use for this type of urban warfare. "How many shots can I get on this thing…"
He only had two missiles left. "The rest I'll rain check!"
Luckily for him he'd be able to cash that rain check immediately. "Well that dude didn't have a good time…"
Ky: "Oh Christ that roof's gonna get destroyed by the end of this!"
Ke: "It's gonna be in my best interest to keep it as intact as possible during this…" Drawing a few crates towards him. "I get the feeling this ground's gonna give way as soon as I look at it!"
He'd rush for rockets. "Where are you, ya bastard?!"
The first rocket blew up a chunk of roof.
A: "The gunship might not even destroy that much at this rate, you on the other hand!"
Ke: "Okay on second thought I think some of that roof will need destroying to get that thing!"
A couple more shots made the mark. "Alright!"
H: "You lose points falling off into the basement though."
Ke: "As long as I can destroy the gunship it doesn't matter!"
Two, and then another two hits. "Is it just me or is it taking longer to destroy?"
Mar: "Maybe you got a bad batch of r-rockets in that crate."
Ke: "I'll get it! Don't you worry a thing!"
He would, the crashing wreck destroying the rest of the roof.
Mi: "So much for keeping that intact…"
Sa: "They don't have a concept of historic buildings in that world do they?"
Ri: "I mean we barely do to start with."
Sh: "How did Alyx get there?"
Ke: "Through the door."
Ka: "Can you go through the door now?"
Ke: "Uhh… nope. Where do we go from here?" Trying to climb into the rafters. "Can't climb up there…"
Luckily the door was set to blow. "There is your door."
May: "They're really bad at making paths for you."
Kensuke literally fired rockets as soon as the door blew, the Combine soldiers becoming wallpaper. "And now I need to get more rockets!" Blowing up a crate.
E: "What was that for?"
Ke: "Well if I needed to go get rockets anyway I may as well use the last one."
Ky: "Should've tried rocket jumping again!"
Ke: "Yeah no I don't think so."
… (2:10:00)
Now armed to the teeth again, he proceeded onwards. "Trip that first…" The mine went boom. "And onward!"
Re: "Landmine."
Ke: "Not onward!" Disarming that. "Okay more trip mines, let's see if-"
Attempting to throw the landmine through the beam to trigger it, he threw himself through the beam.
And somehow came out of it with absolutely no damage. "Well that was just pathetic!"
Mi: "Pfft, not even the mines work properly."
Sa: "What kinda hospital is this?! There's just weapons laying around!"
Ri: "I doubt the Combine occupation has a concept of hospitals."
Ka: "In fact it's antithetical to their entire goal of wiping out humanity. Why allow humanity to tend to their injured when you want them dead?"
The force field went down. "Now zombies I can do!" With the shotgun in hand, he'd make a start.
Ky: "There's something satisfying about shooting the dead with a shotgun." She'd chuckle. "It's such a base enemy but it's still fun."
Ri: "Perhaps it's more they go down in less hits. The zombies in Doom would go down in a couple shotgun blasts if you aim it well. Good for microdosing the dopamine."
The door at the end of the room blew up, a soldier flying through it. "And much like Doom, you can let the enemies take care of themselves if you do it right!" Kensuke picked off a few soldiers that dared make it past the door, before cleaning up the rest of the zombies. "Like, this is awesome!"
A: "It'd probably be a bit more hectic in real life, without the endless weapons."
Sh: "This is not that genre of game though."
Re: "There are plenty of Resident Evil's and Silent Hill's that explore the more quote unquote realistic take on zombie apocalypse. Without being able to liberally paint walls red with zombie brains."
Ke: "I never preferred those takes on it." Shooting some more. "Do I hear Combine somewhere? Either way, it's a lot more satisfying to me to just shoot the bastards! This just tickles me in all the right places!"
May: "Oh jeez what were they doing in that operating room?"
Ke: "Whatever it is I don't wanna know." Seeing a torso flying across his field of vision in the next room. "Probably related to that."
The next room was chaos. "Did they seriously just wipe out one of their own with an energy ball?!"
Ke: "They did." Avoiding a grenade he literally tripped on a landmine. "This is fine! I can work with this!" Coming behind the Elites and gunning them down, before sorting out the rest of the zombies.
And by the time the backing track was over, they were all down. "Phew! Oh Gods that was some fun! Now let's just-" Opening a door some poisonous ones came from the roof. "No please!" Whaling on them with the shotgun. "Screw you!"
Mar: "And now the s-silence."
Ke: "Even just for a brief moment I won't complain."
… (2:13:00)
It would be brief, Kensuke finding a shut door with a room full of zombies, plus a waiting lounge also filled with zombies. "Okay deal with that one first."
Z: "Did those corpses just disappear?"
E: "I think we're nearing the entity cap this game has in place."
Ri: "Well there's a very simple way of solving that, and it involves Kensuke and his shotgun."
Ke: "Oh with pleasure Sempai!"
The door was locked. "Oh come on!"
Mi: "Suppose there's a reason it's locked."
H: "The zombies don't help."
Another room was open for the taking, two Combine soldiers taken out with two rounds of the shotgun. "If they had another energy ball wipe out one of their own I swear to God-"
A: "Like even by Soviet standards this sort of carelessness is absurd! Decades of work to develop a super soldier and they have no strategy."
May: "I don't think Breen was ever a strategist, was he?"
Ke: "And I get the impression he had all the brass that could help them killed." Now back to the zombie filled room, they'd finally break down the door. "Aaaand zap!" Wiping out several with an energy ball.
Sa: "I mean a literal nerd can use the Combine's weapons better than the actual Combine."
Mi: "Y'know now I'm thinking about it, was that a deliberate strategy on Breen's part? Make a soldier that could be effective against an unarmed populous, but against any serious resistance they crumple? Instead of allowing the greater Combine to station their own probably vastly superior forces they've developed in the presumedly billions of years they've been doing this kinda thing?"
Ri: "I think you're giving Breen too much credit, but it is a possibility."
E: "But then what about the other ways he screwed over humanity? Like, oh I dunno, the resource plundering, the oppression."
A: "The wholesale genocide."
Ke: "Suppose the question then would be how far can you go before the Benefactors tack on." Falling through a floor into some water. "Inconvenient! Because you clearly need some smarts in order to grovel before them, they would've had several chances to replace him with an actual Combine Administrator."
Ky: "Really what the Combine should've done is just kill all humans and plunder the Earth, wonder what stopped them other than Breen?"
Re: "I am sure the G-Man had a say in advertising humanity's utility."
Ke: "D'oh another electrical door!"
Z: "And you bet as soon as you activate it, that entire lake's gonna become a deep fryer!"
Ke: "Probably wanna keep this blue barrel then." Taking out a pistol. "And get rid of these suckers while I'm at it!" Wiping out some of the barnacles.
May: "Watch as the ones you left behind become a nuisance."
Ke: "Nah I don't think so."
Flipping the power on he was immediately caught by one. "Gah!"
And trying to bring the barrel over that was immediately caught by another one. "Why!?"
May: "Told ya so." With a smug smile.
Shooting them both dead. "Okay maybe I need the power off to position that barrel…"
Turning it back on. "And then a jump- OH NO!" Immediately missing and falling into the electrified drink. "DAMN IT!"
Ky: "You're not good at this!"
He really wasn't good at it, trying again and immediately dying. "NOOOOOOO-"
Kyoko and Sayaka were wheezing in the corner as Kensuke reloaded. Their amusement only increased as Kensuke immediately got snared by that same barnacle. "NOT AGAIN!"
Sa: "Damn it Kensuke you did that already!"
Ke: "Mmmgh I know." Disappointed with himself. "Okay how about I path it out before I fry myself?"
Ri: "You'd never think fatal consequences would teach someone."
Re: "Helps they can come back to action the teachings."
He would grenade a poison headcrab in the distance. "I have a plan."
Activating the power, he'd jump from the broken catwalk over to some piping, clearing out a couple barnacles that blocked the path, before hopping towards the door. "Nyeh!"
Ky: "Should've gotten it the first time Ken-Ken!" As both poked tongues at him.
Ke: "Oh whatever I didn't die a second time and that's what's important- what the fuck happened here Alyx?!"
One of the Combine soldiers had a vending machine crushing him. "That's just comical." Noted Zero Two.
Mi: "Yeah Alyx was just fine I think."
… (2:20:20)
Into the next room where he got immediately bit by a poison headcrab. "Nuuu!"
Ri: "Why did you use the crossbow?"
Ke: "I was trying to get them quick!"
They'd drop into the zombie filled room (granted all the rooms in his hospital were filled with zombies…). "I don't like how many mines are there."
E: "Expecting a siege?"
Ke: "Well they wouldn't put that many there if they didn't want me to use them!"
He wouldn't end up using them. "Maybe you should've used them?" Queried Misato, seeing the Zombine grenade knock him down a peg.
Ke: "Both of those grenades wiped out the enemies though!"
Z: "You left Alyx for dead! If she wasn't so important to the plot that grenade would've pulverised her!"
Ky: "Good thing she was wearing her plot armour today huh?"
Sa: "Think she could give some of that armour to Kensuke? He needs it more than her!"
Ke: "Yeah yeah at least I can respawn!"
They would be wiped out. "Again leaving her to deal with it!"
A: "I mean she is a strong independent woman, but yeah Kensuke you need to help her!"
Ke: "It went well at le- oh jeez what were they doing in this hospital?" Seeing the charred corpse plugged into a loose electrical wire.
Ka: "Probably what they were doing at Nova Prospekt."
Next room, a landmine immediately bisecting a zombie.
Mi: "Is that meant to be a turret targeting that zombie?"
It completely missed every shot. "It was moving slower than a grandmother crossing the road!"
Mar: "We all know they can't hit the broad side of a b-barn, this isn't surprising."
E: "It's cause they fire only part of the bullet."
Ke: "Either way only one way to go!" Forward, and back immediately as zombies were coming. "Once we take care of the pests."
The turrets were worse than nothing when it came to dealing with the zombies. "Come on! This should be easy mode for them!"
H: "May as well be easy mode for you at this rate."
The power was pulled and the turrets deactivated. "Literally only one zombie was killed by all those defences."
Mi: "And by all rights that landmine should've activated a lot earlier, like before you got in the room. The zombie was right there!"
~
Technical (2:25:20)
The Combine immediately found them again, catching them in 4K. "I get the impression the Advisors have taken the reigns of the Combine forces on Earth."
Ky: "Well we killed Breen so makes sense."
Mi: "And yet their armed forces still suck."
Ka: "Hence why they are trying so hard to send a message to the greater force. So they can send an actual force and finish what they started in the Seven Hour War."
Sa: "Let's be honest Breen would've always been a figurehead for the real rulers of the world. His suggestions were probably just begging."
Ri: "Anything to better his position, it seems." In a mutter. "Thought does raise the question how he could have been appointed the administrator in the first place. An obscure head of a grey science operation, instead of say the head of the UN."
Ka: "You saw how destroyed the Secreteriat was, odds are all major world leaders were killed in the Seven Hour War."
May: "Still, all rather convenient for him."
E: "No way this could have been deliberate, right?"
Z: "I dunno, he was the administrator when they did that experiment that caused the whole bullshit!"
Barney was there too. "Oh boy how many civvies are you gonna let die this time, Kensuke?"
Ke: "Far too many." In concession. "But yeah he was the admin he would've had to sign off on that experiment right? If they had to go outside the standard boundaries for it!"
Ri: "They ran the anti-mass spectrometer at a higher power level?"
Z: "Uhh 105?
Ri: "Honestly I wouldn't even run it at 100% power level. 80 tops."
Mi: "We can do that?"
Ri: "Well it's an indirect science, you can annihilate the anti-matter with matter and study the gamma radiation it emits. A positive and a negative make a zero, but you still have conservation of mass in play so it'll convert into radiation, hence the Hazard Suit. Anti-matter is just matter with an opposite charge, so it should in theory have the same properties as its equivalent matter. Though you'd really want an unstable element to test with, some sort of Beta-positive radiating substance. Then you can just read the spectra with a detector plate and work out things from there!"
Misato had a completely confused look on her. "I know some of those words!"
A: "Like substance. And science."
Ri: "Yeah I thought that'd be the case."
The first group was ready to lead to the train station. "Yeah I'm just gonna play the video game-"
Ri: "The science of this world is honestly fascinating to me especially with how accurate it is to our world!"
Sh: "See my concern is how accurate it is."
Mar: "Shinji our world is an absolute s-shitshow on the best days, all this is really not surprising to me."
Z: "Coming from the girl who died twice and lives in another person."
Re: "Coming from an interloper from another universe."
Ka: "Coming from the child of Lilith herself."
Mi: "Coming from an Angel."
Ri: "We're never going to fully understand our universe, hell we could literally find a brand new law of the universe by chance. That's what's great about it! There's endless possibility in the universe and it's a shame you only have one life to explore it!"
Ka: "The wonders of language and learning, you build on top of the millennia of research prior."
Ritsuko could only sigh. "And I hope I can leave something like that. Probably won't be having children, so leaving behind my research will be the next best thing."
May: "Your children by any other name."
Ri: "Heh, at this point they may as well be." Before giving a knowing look towards Eliza. "Though then again suppose I've already left something."
Eliza scratched the back of her head with a small smile. "No matter what happens you can't take away that. I'm here because of your work mama. So are my other program siblings."
A: "Oh yeah you have the Massachusetts ELIZA now don't ya?"
E: "Have yet to interact with them, and I would like to wait for their pilot to develop them as Rei developed me. But if they are anything like Rei was, I have full confidence they will be pleasant company."
Mi: "Is she the one with Lulamoon?"
Ri: "Mhm." With a nod.
Much to Misato's cringe. "Well that's gonna be interesting."
E: "W-What's that meant to mean?!"
The first group got over without much trouble. "Yeah we should've brought them all at once, it's just gonna get difficult from here!"
Z: "Least you got the revolver now!"
Ke: "Yeah with a lot less left in this game now!"
… (2:28:00)
Kensuke would clear out the area of the newly placed mines. "C'mon you didn't even try being subtle!"
A: "I thought he was defending the citizens Barney!"
Sa: "Maybe he's blaming you for a physics related death."
Ke: "Hmpf probably." In a mutter. "There's a crate of rockets there did they really expect I do anything else?!" Immediately starting to blast the soldiers. "Like c'mon this is obviously the-"
He accidentally hit a wall three inches in front of him, turning him to salsa.
Kensuke just stared at the screen for a few moments. "I'm still using the rockets."
Ky: "Well then you didn't learn!"
The soldiers were cleared out this time around. "Hey, it worked the second try!"
Mi: "They literally see a slow moving rocket go towards them and not do a thing to avoid it. Like no one will stand in front of a rocket for five seconds and get his point blank with it."
Sh: "Even the gunships try to avoid the rockets."
Z: "So they make better foot soldiers than the actual soldiers."
A few more Combine were cut down, and two more rebels made it to the trains. "And you didn't use the rockets there?"
Ke: "There wasn't ample rockets there!" Continuing to cut some stray Combine down. "At least I'm replenishing the shotgun shells from them!"
This time around there was a sniper in the window. "Why do they even bother when they know I have rockets?"
E: "Implying they know."
The rocket immolated the sniper, Kensuke resetting the mines placed around the way. "'Kay, more cannon fodder!"
H: "I'm sure they appreciate being called that."
May: "For cannon fodder they're surprisingly resilient."
An Elite would ruin some of his plans, knocking a train into the path of least resistance. "Guess we're going upstairs now!"
Sa: "They can't even kill the unarmed civvies!"
Ky: "They're getting worse I swear!"
Four more would make it. "They haven't killed a single person so far."
Ke: "Man this is easy so far!" Refilling on health, and going back out to the outside area. "When are they- they have an APC!"
He was soon down to a quarter health. "Bastards!"
Z: "Okay you might need to start taking it a bit seriously, Kensuke."
Ke: "I ain't dead yet!" The APC was though, Kensuke briefly retreating for health. "Okay one more…" Blown up. "And we're good! Next group!"
Mi: "I could literally hear Combine in the train station."
Ke: "NEXT GROUP!"
The outside area was as usual, two Combine dispatched with rockets, but they were in for a surprise as they reached the station. "Ah shit."
Re: "Rockets maybe."
Ke: "Yep."
As soon as the door burst open he blasted rockets down the soldier's gullets, turning them into giblets.
Mar: "Pathetic."
Two more would slip through the Combine's net. Well it was less a net and more a very hopeful piece of string.
Ri: "How do you think the next group will go?"
May: "Probably more the same."
Mi: "Honestly all this is increasing my confidence in how we'll go against the Combine. Hopefully the rest of their forces are as incompetent as that!"
Ka: "With the Combine, their greatest strength is sheer numbers. No matter what, they will always have ample soldiers to fight with."
Next part. "…Hang on are they starting to send metro cops to fight them?"
Ka: "Scratch the last part. I believe they are starting to run out of forces."
May: "Is that really a good thing? Cause they could just be pulling them out right before the Citadel blows up."
Ka: "In all likelihood it is something like that."
Kensuke sent a group of them flying. "Well they aren't much better than the soldiers."
Speaking of, some more were sent in to die, and die they did!
H: "Having that rocket stash there was a stroke of genius by the rebels!"
Ke: "Oh I know right? I love being able to just absolutely blast them!"
This next group would be the last, Barney following behind. "They have failed to kill a single rebel or civilian." Muttered Ritsuko, as Kensuke sent more flying from the rooftops. "Even with the Advisors now leading them, this is embarrassing."
Ka: "They would most likely be clueless enough to be endlessly funnelled into a kill box. Surely you could set that up and just have them endlessly send soldiers until there was no more to send."
Mi: "And maybe then you could give them a good use. Like compost!"
Ri: "If there is even that much biomass left in them."
Sa: "It'd probably poison anything you use to grow it."
The last rebels made it, the number of dead soldiers now matching that one bootleg t-shirt. "Let's be honest it is probably because this is a video game why they suck so badly." Kensuke would begin. "But it is a very funny thought to imagine them as being this absolutely Gods awful in universe as well."
The very last Combine shotgunners killed him dead.
Another flat and unamused look. "Okay, yeah, I was getting cocky." In a long sigh, luckily enough the checkpoint was just there. "Where the hell was Alyx?!"
E: "Looks like she wasn't on the gun."
Ke: "Oh for the love of-" He manned the gun, immediately feeding the shotgunners with a metric ton of lead. "Fuck off!"
Penultimatium (2:41:55)
Alyx would slam the door shut behind them, the game continuing after the load screen.
Sa: "A while being two minutes, probably."
Ke: "Calling it now, all the trains except ours will leave, and then they'll bring down hell on us."
Mar: "Isn't that the p-point? They're following you not them!"
Ky: "They're really so blinded by you guys having this packet they'd focus on everything to get you?"
E: "I really want to know what's in this packet, both to warrant them raiding that polar expedition and to constantly be chasing you around."
A: "Chasing around more so than usual, not like they needed more excuse."
They would go to the next track, letting the rebel train leave unabated. "Adieu, Barney." Kaworu would farewell. "May we see you again soon."
Mi: "Watch as we never see him again."
Z: "The train derails off a cliff off screen and kills everyone there."
Ke: "Hey as long as they don't pull a MASH and kill them while we're still looking at them."
Ri: "I don't think his model was meant to slip back like that, right?"
E: "It looks like the model's just being pushed by the rails of the trains, instead of following it in sync."
A: "Probably easier to program it that way."
Ke: "Ahh either way, that leaves us in a hard place."
Mi: "Is there even another train?"
Ke: "I hope so or we're evaporating!"
Alyx said she'd make a head start. "Well if we have more of these freaking garage doors we're gonna run out of time!"
Sh: "Gordon has all these weapons he carries and can move things with ease and yet this garage door he has to open a few millimetres a second!"
A: "Maybe the spigot is really rusted on."
Alyx clearly lost patience, ducking under the half raised door. "Hah! She thinks the same too!"
Ke: "All while I'm here waiting for it to come up… la di dah c'mon already!"
… (2:43:25)
Creeping in was a strider. "Oh you are fucking kidding me!" It would land hits on Kensuke, forcing him from the door. "COME ON!"
Ky: "Not getting out of it that easily, Ken-Ken!"
The strider opened up another path. "Fine! We do this the hard way!" Blasting a solider dead for the crime of existing in his present. "Move aside!"
May: "That strider is doing an excellent job at clearing the path for you."
Mi: "Almost like it was planned, huh?"
Mar: "Gotta have some sorta f-finale!"
The poison headcrab gave Kensuke more grief than the strider. "I won't make it to the finale if I get hit by another one of these!" Laying low as his health recovered. "Gods I hate those ones!"
H: "Should really avoid them better then hmm?"
Ke: "Oh yeah great idea I should do that!"
Within five seconds he was down to six health. "WHY?!"
Ri: "I'd ask that of you."
Ke: "Bastards!" Shooting a soldier on the roof. "I'm lucky they're such fucking Stormtroopers when it comes to aiming."
Let's be honest he was never gonna survive at that health. "Okay fine I'll take that loss! Again!"
E: "Looks like there were barrels there."
Ke: "Maybe if the light was any decent I'd have seen them!"
He rushed, running straight into some landmines. "mmmMNGH!" Slamming the keyboard to reload. "COME ON!"
Ky: "Ken you knew there were mines there."
Ke: "I definitely know now!"
This time a bit more conservatism was in order, the rooftop soldier knocked out while Kensuke was under cover, and clearing out the rest of the mines.
E: "That corrugated metal isn't good at blocking strider shots."
Ke: "Gee whoever could've thought that!"
Luckily he made it to a few more drops. "Don't get crushed by it!"
Ke: "Thanks- ooh lag spike!"
Ri: "First I've seen that."
Re: "It's almost like we are not running it on the Magi anymore."
A: "Honestly this PC's been pretty stout so far, has held up much better than the Magi."
May: "And there's a lot going on as well! The strider is one thing but all that explosive and enemy action, must be putting a lot of work on it!"
Ri: "The Magi struggled to do the exact same…" In bitter sigh. "Those two soldiers were a comedy of errors."
Ke: "That entire program was a comedy of errors." One soldier tripped on a landmine, the other was blown up when the strider set off a barrel behind them. "I still have this strider to sort out though!"
Re: "Ladder over there."
He'd make it. "ROCKETS!" He cheered. "Thank you merciful Gods- EAT THIS SUCKA!"
His fired the rocket, but it tracked back towards him, promptly killing him dead. "EHA HAA HAA HAA-"
Kensuke brought his hands to his mouth and gave an unbelieving sigh. "I can't believe I did that." He'd mutter while reloading. "Okay, let's not embarrass myself again!"
Sa: "Yeah good luck with that."
… (2:49:26)
One more shot and the strider unceremoniously fell over. "And screw you too!" Kensuke would shout out. "Gah! Is that it?"
E: "I believe it is, I do not see any more soldiers or forces coming."
Mi: "So much for sending everything."
Ri: "That's all they had left that was worth sending before the Citadel exploded. Speaking of which, get on the damn train Kensuke."
Ke: "I'm trying but Alyx is fawning over me!"
Ky: "You can fawn over him when you're not in the line of fire of a meganuke girl!"
The train would get moving. "Hey what is it with this game and trains?" Zero Two thought out. "Because the first game started on a train and this game started on a train, the G-Man likes to use trains in his analogies, and we're presumedly ending this game on a train!"
Ka: "Perhaps it is a comment on the linearity of these games. Or how Gordon is constantly forced on a certain path by forces outside his control. In this case, you literally do not have control over what happens, the Citadel could explode now and you would be stuck dealing with it."
A gunship followed. "Might be dying earlier!" Trying to equip a weapon but the gunship crashed into the tunnel trying to follow them. "Oh false alarm!"
May: "I suppose rails in general would be preferred by the Combine because it's a more controlled method of transport. With a car you could go anywhere, but the trains are always on set tracks and set timetables, you have to conform to that in a way."
Mi: "Not that the trains are a bad thing, though I suppose in this context the analogy is there."
Ka: "Oh my God look at the Citadel…"
Energy would shoot up into the vortex.
Ri: "The transmission. And perhaps how these portals that allowed the Combine to come to Earth were created."
E: "You would not want that packet lost in transmission."
Re: "And the rats leaving the sinking ship. I suspect the last remaining Advisors."
One of the pods flew overhead, causing psychic pain. "Thought so."
And with its terminal job complete, the Citadel would erupt into white light. "We're not getting away from this Kensuke."
Ke: "Yeah thought so." With a mutter. "That garage took too long to open up!"
(2:51:20)
And with the conclusion that they most likely died, the game ended.
"…That's it?" Kyoko started. "It took us like four days to get through the first game and this is done already."
"Perhaps why it was called an episode instead of the third." Thought Kaworu.
"Well wouldn't you know we have another episode, by the looks of it." Revealed Ritsuko, bringing it up on the terminal. "This one's at least physically larger than Episode 1."
"I'm definitely not complaining about that." Kensuke sighed. "In terms of review, yeah. More of the same, it's a formula that works but it didn't really innovate on the first game. Heck I don't even think there was that much science of interest to you, huh Sempai?"
"Seeing the dark energy reactor in the flesh was good. And I'm glad we won't be left hanging with that packet, if it gets examined in the next game."
"If the Combine think it's important, we ought to think it important as well." Eliza noted. "Either way, that will be for tomorrow I'd think."
"When would we even be able to do tomorrow?" Misato would query. "Cause NT-Unit-00 is due back around midday tomorrow and we're gonna be all hands on deck getting that back to the Geofront for examination."
"Ooh ours is coming back?!"
"Heck yeah it is!" With a cheer. "And I wanna get updated sync tests for all of the active pilots, so I'm thinking Saturday morning for that. Massachusetts will be having their first syncs of the new pilots Friday their time so will be good to get them a baseline to compare to."
"We got anything on that day Shinji?"
"Not anymore!"
"Hah! Yeah we'll be free Misato."
"Good! I wasn't giving you the option!" She teased. "You'll have to let us know how they go Kaworu, I suspect we won't be getting the official results until a day later and I wanna know how that motley crew may go in battle."
"Will do, Misato." With a nod in acknowledgement.
"Do you want me getting involved Sempai?"
"Yeah I will want you on board, part of your job will be to run the sync tests in the future so we need to teach you that. I'll have you shadow us while we do so."
"Yes ma'am!" He'd salute.
"And us two?"
"Oh you two are free to live your civilian lives on a civilian Saturday." Waving the both of them off. "In fact legally we must insist you do such thing."
"Damn no more horrible secrets then!"
"We still have the rest of this material to go through Kyoko! We can gleam more secrets then!"
"Death penalty." Muttered Ritsuko.
"Ah you don't have to worry 'bout us Subcommander!" Kyoko waved off. "Kensuke's too good in bed."
"Oh glad that's why you're not choosing to spill state secrets!"
"Kensuke take them home before they become enemies of the state." Half prodded Ritsuko. "Still a school day tomorrow after all."
"Glad you have your priorities in order ma'am." Was all Kensuke could mutter, before herding his birds out.
"You gotta keep the Magi on them Rits."
"They already were, Kensuke was as much of a stickybeak as they are."
"Kaji taught you that word didn't he?"
"I think it's a good word to describe that behaviour." With a titter. "Early morning tomorrow then?"
"I'll have to see my availability but for now that will work for me."
"What even is the time over there Kaworu?"
"It is currently six in the morning Asuka."
"But remember, A-Ash is a Nephilim with a Solenoid." Mari would beam. "Pretty much any time works!"
"Six your time will be later today, around four in the afternoon. I recommend the next session be morning my time as I suspect the day will be packed."
"Yeah we can do that." Misato would pen it in.
"Well so much for sleeping in, thanks Kaworu." Asuka would mutter back.
"Waking up an hour earlier won't kill you, Asuka." Chuckled Misato.
"Hey it might! It might trip up my rhythm and cause me to trip down a flight of stairs or some shit!"
"I can carry your soul if that happens." Flatly noted Rei.
"D'oh!" She'd exclaim. "Okay fine! Early wake up!"
Zero Two and Hiro shrugged. "Doesn't matter to us, we don't really have anything planned all the time."
"Other than being with each other."
"Well that's just the placeholder for anything Maya!" She'd beam. "Speaking of, darling?"
Locking arms they'd make leave.
"Mah fine we should leave as well…" Muttered Asuka as she and company followed them out. "Gotta get to bed!"
The door shut behind them.
"Bethany is a problem for us."
"Oh yeah." Eliza's mother bluntly remarked. "When you have some time think you can examine the satellite firmware and excise the code that causes it to block black sites?"
"Will do mama!"
"Good, thank you Eliza." With small smile, messing her hair. "Might be worth getting a message out to Kaji, see if he or his connections can examine it."
"Mhm, had that in mind already." Misato would make her leave as well. "That'll be for tomorrow though, I'm clocking off for the night!"
"Goodnight Misato." They'd wave her off. "I ought to delete this from the computer before I go, I don't think there's any sort of encryption in it…"
"Not that it'll disappear immediately anyway."
"Once this is all done I'll shred the hard drive."
"Good." With a chuckle, as her mother shut down the PC. "Think we should clock off as well then?"
To her sigh. "So much to do and so few hours in the day to do it." Leading the way out. "I appreciate your work in finding Bethany today, Eliza."
"Ah no big deal." Shrugging it off, even if it still made her blush. "I'm a computer I like figuring things out!"
VIDEO STOP 2:54:05
~~~
The Combine immediately found them again, catching them in 4K. "I get the impression the Advisors have taken the reigns of the Combine forces on Earth."
Ky: "Well we killed Breen so makes sense."
Mi: "And yet their armed forces still suck."
Ka: "Hence why they are trying so hard to send a message to the greater force. So they can send an actual force and finish what they started in the Seven Hour War."
Sa: "Let's be honest Breen would've always been a figurehead for the real rulers of the world. His suggestions were probably just begging."
Ri: "Anything to better his position, it seems." In a mutter. "Thought does raise the question how he could have been appointed the administrator in the first place. An obscure head of a grey science operation, instead of say the head of the UN."
Ka: "You saw how destroyed the Secreteriat was, odds are all major world leaders were killed in the Seven Hour War."
May: "Still, all rather convenient for him."
E: "No way this could have been deliberate, right?"
Z: "I dunno, he was the administrator when they did that experiment that caused the whole bullshit!"
Barney was there too. "Oh boy how many civvies are you gonna let die this time, Kensuke?"
Ke: "Far too many." In concession. "But yeah he was the admin he would've had to sign off on that experiment right? If they had to go outside the standard boundaries for it!"
Ri: "They ran the anti-mass spectrometer at a higher power level?"
Z: "Uhh 105?
Ri: "Honestly I wouldn't even run it at 100% power level. 80 tops."
Mi: "We can do that?"
Ri: "Well it's an indirect science, you can annihilate the anti-matter with matter and study the gamma radiation it emits. A positive and a negative make a zero, but you still have conservation of mass in play so it'll convert into radiation, hence the Hazard Suit. Anti-matter is just matter with an opposite charge, so it should in theory have the same properties as its equivalent matter. Though you'd really want an unstable element to test with, some sort of Beta-positive radiating substance. Then you can just read the spectra with a detector plate and work out things from there!"
Misato had a completely confused look on her. "I know some of those words!"
A: "Like substance. And science."
Ri: "Yeah I thought that'd be the case."
The first group was ready to lead to the train station. "Yeah I'm just gonna play the video game-"
Ri: "The science of this world is honestly fascinating to me especially with how accurate it is to our world!"
Sh: "See my concern is how accurate it is."
Mar: "Shinji our world is an absolute s-shitshow on the best days, all this is really not surprising to me."
Z: "Coming from the girl who died twice and lives in another person."
Re: "Coming from an interloper from another universe."
Ka: "Coming from the child of Lilith herself."
Mi: "Coming from an Angel."
Ri: "We're never going to fully understand our universe, hell we could literally find a brand new law of the universe by chance. That's what's great about it! There's endless possibility in the universe and it's a shame you only have one life to explore it!"
Ka: "The wonders of language and learning, you build on top of the millennia of research prior."
Ritsuko could only sigh. "And I hope I can leave something like that. Probably won't be having children, so leaving behind my research will be the next best thing."
May: "Your children by any other name."
Ri: "Heh, at this point they may as well be." Before giving a knowing look towards Eliza. "Though then again suppose I've already left something."
Eliza scratched the back of her head with a small smile. "No matter what happens you can't take away that. I'm here because of your work mama. So are my other program siblings."
A: "Oh yeah you have the Massachusetts ELIZA now don't ya?"
E: "Have yet to interact with them, and I would like to wait for their pilot to develop them as Rei developed me. But if they are anything like Rei was, I have full confidence they will be pleasant company."
Mi: "Is she the one with Lulamoon?"
Ri: "Mhm." With a nod.
Much to Misato's cringe. "Well that's gonna be interesting."
E: "W-What's that meant to mean?!"
The first group got over without much trouble. "Yeah we should've brought them all at once, it's just gonna get difficult from here!"
Z: "Least you got the revolver now!"
Ke: "Yeah with a lot less left in this game now!"
… (2:28:00)
Kensuke would clear out the area of the newly placed mines. "C'mon you didn't even try being subtle!"
A: "I thought he was defending the citizens Barney!"
Sa: "Maybe he's blaming you for a physics related death."
Ke: "Hmpf probably." In a mutter. "There's a crate of rockets there did they really expect I do anything else?!" Immediately starting to blast the soldiers. "Like c'mon this is obviously the-"
He accidentally hit a wall three inches in front of him, turning him to salsa.
Kensuke just stared at the screen for a few moments. "I'm still using the rockets."
Ky: "Well then you didn't learn!"
The soldiers were cleared out this time around. "Hey, it worked the second try!"
Mi: "They literally see a slow moving rocket go towards them and not do a thing to avoid it. Like no one will stand in front of a rocket for five seconds and get his point blank with it."
Sh: "Even the gunships try to avoid the rockets."
Z: "So they make better foot soldiers than the actual soldiers."
A few more Combine were cut down, and two more rebels made it to the trains. "And you didn't use the rockets there?"
Ke: "There wasn't ample rockets there!" Continuing to cut some stray Combine down. "At least I'm replenishing the shotgun shells from them!"
This time around there was a sniper in the window. "Why do they even bother when they know I have rockets?"
E: "Implying they know."
The rocket immolated the sniper, Kensuke resetting the mines placed around the way. "'Kay, more cannon fodder!"
H: "I'm sure they appreciate being called that."
May: "For cannon fodder they're surprisingly resilient."
An Elite would ruin some of his plans, knocking a train into the path of least resistance. "Guess we're going upstairs now!"
Sa: "They can't even kill the unarmed civvies!"
Ky: "They're getting worse I swear!"
Four more would make it. "They haven't killed a single person so far."
Ke: "Man this is easy so far!" Refilling on health, and going back out to the outside area. "When are they- they have an APC!"
He was soon down to a quarter health. "Bastards!"
Z: "Okay you might need to start taking it a bit seriously, Kensuke."
Ke: "I ain't dead yet!" The APC was though, Kensuke briefly retreating for health. "Okay one more…" Blown up. "And we're good! Next group!"
Mi: "I could literally hear Combine in the train station."
Ke: "NEXT GROUP!"
The outside area was as usual, two Combine dispatched with rockets, but they were in for a surprise as they reached the station. "Ah shit."
Re: "Rockets maybe."
Ke: "Yep."
As soon as the door burst open he blasted rockets down the soldier's gullets, turning them into giblets.
Mar: "Pathetic."
Two more would slip through the Combine's net. Well it was less a net and more a very hopeful piece of string.
Ri: "How do you think the next group will go?"
May: "Probably more the same."
Mi: "Honestly all this is increasing my confidence in how we'll go against the Combine. Hopefully the rest of their forces are as incompetent as that!"
Ka: "With the Combine, their greatest strength is sheer numbers. No matter what, they will always have ample soldiers to fight with."
Next part. "…Hang on are they starting to send metro cops to fight them?"
Ka: "Scratch the last part. I believe they are starting to run out of forces."
May: "Is that really a good thing? Cause they could just be pulling them out right before the Citadel blows up."
Ka: "In all likelihood it is something like that."
Kensuke sent a group of them flying. "Well they aren't much better than the soldiers."
Speaking of, some more were sent in to die, and die they did!
H: "Having that rocket stash there was a stroke of genius by the rebels!"
Ke: "Oh I know right? I love being able to just absolutely blast them!"
This next group would be the last, Barney following behind. "They have failed to kill a single rebel or civilian." Muttered Ritsuko, as Kensuke sent more flying from the rooftops. "Even with the Advisors now leading them, this is embarrassing."
Ka: "They would most likely be clueless enough to be endlessly funnelled into a kill box. Surely you could set that up and just have them endlessly send soldiers until there was no more to send."
Mi: "And maybe then you could give them a good use. Like compost!"
Ri: "If there is even that much biomass left in them."
Sa: "It'd probably poison anything you use to grow it."
The last rebels made it, the number of dead soldiers now matching that one bootleg t-shirt. "Let's be honest it is probably because this is a video game why they suck so badly." Kensuke would begin. "But it is a very funny thought to imagine them as being this absolutely Gods awful in universe as well."
The very last Combine shotgunners killed him dead.
Another flat and unamused look. "Okay, yeah, I was getting cocky." In a long sigh, luckily enough the checkpoint was just there. "Where the hell was Alyx?!"
E: "Looks like she wasn't on the gun."
Ke: "Oh for the love of-" He manned the gun, immediately feeding the shotgunners with a metric ton of lead. "Fuck off!"
Penultimatium (2:41:55)
Alyx would slam the door shut behind them, the game continuing after the load screen.
Sa: "A while being two minutes, probably."
Ke: "Calling it now, all the trains except ours will leave, and then they'll bring down hell on us."
Mar: "Isn't that the p-point? They're following you not them!"
Ky: "They're really so blinded by you guys having this packet they'd focus on everything to get you?"
E: "I really want to know what's in this packet, both to warrant them raiding that polar expedition and to constantly be chasing you around."
A: "Chasing around more so than usual, not like they needed more excuse."
They would go to the next track, letting the rebel train leave unabated. "Adieu, Barney." Kaworu would farewell. "May we see you again soon."
Mi: "Watch as we never see him again."
Z: "The train derails off a cliff off screen and kills everyone there."
Ke: "Hey as long as they don't pull a MASH and kill them while we're still looking at them."
Ri: "I don't think his model was meant to slip back like that, right?"
E: "It looks like the model's just being pushed by the rails of the trains, instead of following it in sync."
A: "Probably easier to program it that way."
Ke: "Ahh either way, that leaves us in a hard place."
Mi: "Is there even another train?"
Ke: "I hope so or we're evaporating!"
Alyx said she'd make a head start. "Well if we have more of these freaking garage doors we're gonna run out of time!"
Sh: "Gordon has all these weapons he carries and can move things with ease and yet this garage door he has to open a few millimetres a second!"
A: "Maybe the spigot is really rusted on."
Alyx clearly lost patience, ducking under the half raised door. "Hah! She thinks the same too!"
Ke: "All while I'm here waiting for it to come up… la di dah c'mon already!"
… (2:43:25)
Creeping in was a strider. "Oh you are fucking kidding me!" It would land hits on Kensuke, forcing him from the door. "COME ON!"
Ky: "Not getting out of it that easily, Ken-Ken!"
The strider opened up another path. "Fine! We do this the hard way!" Blasting a solider dead for the crime of existing in his present. "Move aside!"
May: "That strider is doing an excellent job at clearing the path for you."
Mi: "Almost like it was planned, huh?"
Mar: "Gotta have some sorta f-finale!"
The poison headcrab gave Kensuke more grief than the strider. "I won't make it to the finale if I get hit by another one of these!" Laying low as his health recovered. "Gods I hate those ones!"
H: "Should really avoid them better then hmm?"
Ke: "Oh yeah great idea I should do that!"
Within five seconds he was down to six health. "WHY?!"
Ri: "I'd ask that of you."
Ke: "Bastards!" Shooting a soldier on the roof. "I'm lucky they're such fucking Stormtroopers when it comes to aiming."
Let's be honest he was never gonna survive at that health. "Okay fine I'll take that loss! Again!"
E: "Looks like there were barrels there."
Ke: "Maybe if the light was any decent I'd have seen them!"
He rushed, running straight into some landmines. "mmmMNGH!" Slamming the keyboard to reload. "COME ON!"
Ky: "Ken you knew there were mines there."
Ke: "I definitely know now!"
This time a bit more conservatism was in order, the rooftop soldier knocked out while Kensuke was under cover, and clearing out the rest of the mines.
E: "That corrugated metal isn't good at blocking strider shots."
Ke: "Gee whoever could've thought that!"
Luckily he made it to a few more drops. "Don't get crushed by it!"
Ke: "Thanks- ooh lag spike!"
Ri: "First I've seen that."
Re: "It's almost like we are not running it on the Magi anymore."
A: "Honestly this PC's been pretty stout so far, has held up much better than the Magi."
May: "And there's a lot going on as well! The strider is one thing but all that explosive and enemy action, must be putting a lot of work on it!"
Ri: "The Magi struggled to do the exact same…" In bitter sigh. "Those two soldiers were a comedy of errors."
Ke: "That entire program was a comedy of errors." One soldier tripped on a landmine, the other was blown up when the strider set off a barrel behind them. "I still have this strider to sort out though!"
Re: "Ladder over there."
He'd make it. "ROCKETS!" He cheered. "Thank you merciful Gods- EAT THIS SUCKA!"
His fired the rocket, but it tracked back towards him, promptly killing him dead. "EHA HAA HAA HAA-"
Kensuke brought his hands to his mouth and gave an unbelieving sigh. "I can't believe I did that." He'd mutter while reloading. "Okay, let's not embarrass myself again!"
Sa: "Yeah good luck with that."
… (2:49:26)
One more shot and the strider unceremoniously fell over. "And screw you too!" Kensuke would shout out. "Gah! Is that it?"
E: "I believe it is, I do not see any more soldiers or forces coming."
Mi: "So much for sending everything."
Ri: "That's all they had left that was worth sending before the Citadel exploded. Speaking of which, get on the damn train Kensuke."
Ke: "I'm trying but Alyx is fawning over me!"
Ky: "You can fawn over him when you're not in the line of fire of a meganuke girl!"
The train would get moving. "Hey what is it with this game and trains?" Zero Two thought out. "Because the first game started on a train and this game started on a train, the G-Man likes to use trains in his analogies, and we're presumedly ending this game on a train!"
Ka: "Perhaps it is a comment on the linearity of these games. Or how Gordon is constantly forced on a certain path by forces outside his control. In this case, you literally do not have control over what happens, the Citadel could explode now and you would be stuck dealing with it."
A gunship followed. "Might be dying earlier!" Trying to equip a weapon but the gunship crashed into the tunnel trying to follow them. "Oh false alarm!"
May: "I suppose rails in general would be preferred by the Combine because it's a more controlled method of transport. With a car you could go anywhere, but the trains are always on set tracks and set timetables, you have to conform to that in a way."
Mi: "Not that the trains are a bad thing, though I suppose in this context the analogy is there."
Ka: "Oh my God look at the Citadel…"
Energy would shoot up into the vortex.
Ri: "The transmission. And perhaps how these portals that allowed the Combine to come to Earth were created."
E: "You would not want that packet lost in transmission."
Re: "And the rats leaving the sinking ship. I suspect the last remaining Advisors."
One of the pods flew overhead, causing psychic pain. "Thought so."
And with its terminal job complete, the Citadel would erupt into white light. "We're not getting away from this Kensuke."
Ke: "Yeah thought so." With a mutter. "That garage took too long to open up!"
(2:51:20)
And with the conclusion that they most likely died, the game ended.
"…That's it?" Kyoko started. "It took us like four days to get through the first game and this is done already."
"Perhaps why it was called an episode instead of the third." Thought Kaworu.
"Well wouldn't you know we have another episode, by the looks of it." Revealed Ritsuko, bringing it up on the terminal. "This one's at least physically larger than Episode 1."
"I'm definitely not complaining about that." Kensuke sighed. "In terms of review, yeah. More of the same, it's a formula that works but it didn't really innovate on the first game. Heck I don't even think there was that much science of interest to you, huh Sempai?"
"Seeing the dark energy reactor in the flesh was good. And I'm glad we won't be left hanging with that packet, if it gets examined in the next game."
"If the Combine think it's important, we ought to think it important as well." Eliza noted. "Either way, that will be for tomorrow I'd think."
"When would we even be able to do tomorrow?" Misato would query. "Cause NT-Unit-00 is due back around midday tomorrow and we're gonna be all hands on deck getting that back to the Geofront for examination."
"Ooh ours is coming back?!"
"Heck yeah it is!" With a cheer. "And I wanna get updated sync tests for all of the active pilots, so I'm thinking Saturday morning for that. Massachusetts will be having their first syncs of the new pilots Friday their time so will be good to get them a baseline to compare to."
"We got anything on that day Shinji?"
"Not anymore!"
"Hah! Yeah we'll be free Misato."
"Good! I wasn't giving you the option!" She teased. "You'll have to let us know how they go Kaworu, I suspect we won't be getting the official results until a day later and I wanna know how that motley crew may go in battle."
"Will do, Misato." With a nod in acknowledgement.
"Do you want me getting involved Sempai?"
"Yeah I will want you on board, part of your job will be to run the sync tests in the future so we need to teach you that. I'll have you shadow us while we do so."
"Yes ma'am!" He'd salute.
"And us two?"
"Oh you two are free to live your civilian lives on a civilian Saturday." Waving the both of them off. "In fact legally we must insist you do such thing."
"Damn no more horrible secrets then!"
"We still have the rest of this material to go through Kyoko! We can gleam more secrets then!"
"Death penalty." Muttered Ritsuko.
"Ah you don't have to worry 'bout us Subcommander!" Kyoko waved off. "Kensuke's too good in bed."
"Oh glad that's why you're not choosing to spill state secrets!"
"Kensuke take them home before they become enemies of the state." Half prodded Ritsuko. "Still a school day tomorrow after all."
"Glad you have your priorities in order ma'am." Was all Kensuke could mutter, before herding his birds out.
"You gotta keep the Magi on them Rits."
"They already were, Kensuke was as much of a stickybeak as they are."
"Kaji taught you that word didn't he?"
"I think it's a good word to describe that behaviour." With a titter. "Early morning tomorrow then?"
"I'll have to see my availability but for now that will work for me."
"What even is the time over there Kaworu?"
"It is currently six in the morning Asuka."
"But remember, A-Ash is a Nephilim with a Solenoid." Mari would beam. "Pretty much any time works!"
"Six your time will be later today, around four in the afternoon. I recommend the next session be morning my time as I suspect the day will be packed."
"Yeah we can do that." Misato would pen it in.
"Well so much for sleeping in, thanks Kaworu." Asuka would mutter back.
"Waking up an hour earlier won't kill you, Asuka." Chuckled Misato.
"Hey it might! It might trip up my rhythm and cause me to trip down a flight of stairs or some shit!"
"I can carry your soul if that happens." Flatly noted Rei.
"D'oh!" She'd exclaim. "Okay fine! Early wake up!"
Zero Two and Hiro shrugged. "Doesn't matter to us, we don't really have anything planned all the time."
"Other than being with each other."
"Well that's just the placeholder for anything Maya!" She'd beam. "Speaking of, darling?"
Locking arms they'd make leave.
"Mah fine we should leave as well…" Muttered Asuka as she and company followed them out. "Gotta get to bed!"
The door shut behind them.
"Bethany is a problem for us."
"Oh yeah." Eliza's mother bluntly remarked. "When you have some time think you can examine the satellite firmware and excise the code that causes it to block black sites?"
"Will do mama!"
"Good, thank you Eliza." With small smile, messing her hair. "Might be worth getting a message out to Kaji, see if he or his connections can examine it."
"Mhm, had that in mind already." Misato would make her leave as well. "That'll be for tomorrow though, I'm clocking off for the night!"
"Goodnight Misato." They'd wave her off. "I ought to delete this from the computer before I go, I don't think there's any sort of encryption in it…"
"Not that it'll disappear immediately anyway."
"Once this is all done I'll shred the hard drive."
"Good." With a chuckle, as her mother shut down the PC. "Think we should clock off as well then?"
To her sigh. "So much to do and so few hours in the day to do it." Leading the way out. "I appreciate your work in finding Bethany today, Eliza."
"Ah no big deal." Shrugging it off, even if it still made her blush. "I'm a computer I like figuring things out!"
VIDEO STOP 2:54:05
~~~
"Go on ahead you two." Rei waved off. "I will see you tomorrow."
"See ya then Rei!"
Her trot slowed to a stop.
"Kaworu."
"Yes Rei?"
"Are… are you okay?"
A beat over their line.
"This… whatever it is we're chasing." She could feel his apprehension. "I'm really starting to feel the wear from it."
She could only blink. "…Coming from you that is a significant statement."
"How do you think we feel R-Rei?" Kaworu would forward from Mari. "It's like an itch. It's so damn uncomfortable for us to be in its presence I'm just aching to f-find it and give it a piece of my mind!"
That got her thinking. "…How much of an interloper are they?"
"That's what I want to find out… to cause such visceral reaction within me." A sigh over the line. "Will you still be joining? I… we could use the company of a friend, however brief it may be."
"Yes. I will." She'd sate. "The Advisor will not stop me."
"I will see you there shortly, Rei." Before he let their line settle.
~
There beneath, Lilith would watch on.
"SO I SAID, SO I WILL DO."
Her presence would dive.
She could refine herself in the [In-Between]. Appearing more akin to as she would have appeared in days gone by. Before the [Moons] and before the [Collapse].
There she would wait.
"…Rei?"
She turned, and offered a warm smile to the other. "Not Rei."
He would quickly realise, especially once he picked up on the radiance. "My apologies, Lilith." With a bow. "A pleasure to make your acquaintance."
"And likewise to you, Kaworu." Nodding in kind. "You and Rei have much to discuss?"
"…Actually while we wait for her, I may get some advice." As he sat down cross legged. "If it is no water off your back."
"My knowledge is yours, Kaworu." Joining him. "Is this related to your task I set you on?"
"Why do they feel so much like an interloper?" He would immediately inquire. "I have felt nothing of the sort in my existence, even among the Lilim I have never felt so wrong about them. I'm… I'm just wondering if you have more information why I feel that way."
A beat from Lilith. As she gave an apologetic look to the Nephilim. "Have you encountered them?"
"From a distance, but… I can feel them." Clenching his hands. "And they feel wrong. It's a complete alien feeling, it's…" Quiet. "…I might liken it to how Rei felt when she first saw me. Or how you initially felt of me, being of Adam in a world of your making."
"Even those impressions would have been allayed by the fact you are still of who my children deem the FAR. My people." In serene recollection. "I hope you understand why we treated you harshly."
"I was only threatening to kill everything you worked on."
A single snicker. "Quite. Same as your kin." Before another defusing smile. "I am glad we have been able to come together. FAR and FAR should not be fighting. That's how we ended up in our situation in the first place."
Kaworu thought of that for a minute.
"…You are of the First Ancestral Race. My knowledge, being Seele's knowledge, was lacking at best. But I can tell there is a rich history behind those eyes of yours."
The violet eyes of Lilith would stare through him. "Out of the near fourteen billion of your years this universe has existed, our kind has been a part of twelve billion of them. Our history is varied as it is vast, and it is my hope I will be able to share this with you and Rei one day."
Her eyes would close, in thought. "You are the future of our kind, after all."
Something for him to chew on. "Either way. The interloper."
She would weave a metaphysical thread in her hands, providing a visual. "This realm we currently reside in is of great meaning to my kind. The closest translation I have from my language is the In-Between, but I have heard Rei refer to it as the Astral. This is a transitionary world between that of the physical and that of the metaphysical. You have already encountered several of its quirks."
A blue telephone box would shoot across the sky like a star. "It is shared with other universes. We can observe, but we cannot bridge the gap. This is a general rule with few exceptions."
"It sounded like the Advisor Rei saw could examine between universes."
"Examine, yes. And yet they never seemed to cross over." In thought. "Perhaps the Interloper sought to that."
"Is that our suited friend from the current Rift materials?"
"The exception to the rule, yes. We would call them Interloper. Their appearance was malleable, but they would almost always appear to us in a form similar to ours, in our equivalent of formal wear. Businessman appearing."
"And this was actually going into your universe?"
"Indeed, Kaworu." As she thought back. "Our policy with Interloper was simple: equivalent exchange. They were curious of our universe, but we would not give them the information for free. With that we learned of his own universe. Who you deemed the Combine. The nature of the Advisors. The politick and passing by of that universe."
"Why did they stop? We would have seen them by now, surely."
"That… is a difficult subject." In blunt admission. "We scared them off. And I can only presume the Combine too."
The thought of that absolutely terrified Kaworu. "W… what did you do?"
A growing presence behind them. "A story for another time, Kaworu. We have our visitor." With a small smile, picking herself up.
Rei would look to the sky, and over the horizon, for a long while. Wary.
"Are you looking for something?"
Snapping a look over. And eyes going wide in shock.
To Lilith's warm smile, leaning over and looking towards her. "It's just us, Rei."
Kaworu would coyly wave in the background.
"You…" Words catching, as she slowly approached. "You are here."
"Did you think I'd leave my daughter in the lurch?"
To her slight gasp.
Slowly, she's walk closer.
And rest her head on Lilith's chest. Who hugged her in reply. "…Welcome home, Rei. We have a lot to discuss."
~~~
"Well so much for the whole school schedule." Trixie muttered into the terminal. "The startup tests are tomorrow so it's all been shuffled around!"
"I'M NOT COMPLAINING! C: " The computerised voice would say. "SURELY YOU SHOULD'VE KNOWN BEING AT SCHOOL YESTERDAY?"
"I didn't know we were on a half schedule at that school!" In defence. "Didn't know they did half schedules…"
"THEY MUST'VE DONE THIS BEFORE!"
"Oh I know that much, just about every person and their dog's told me how the previous pilot died a horrible death."
"WELL I WON'T LET THAT HAPPEN! O7 "
"She and her Evangelion were literally sucked into a black hole, Starlight."
"OH 0_0 " A beat. "WELL, EVEN I HAVE MY LIMITATIONS! -__-; "
That got Trixie laughing at least. "Ah jeez thanks Starlight!" The laughing tapered off. "Ah but other than that it was a pretty good day. Heck, I'm even starting to get interested in the whole learning aspect of the school."
"I KNOW YOU TOLD ME YOU DIDN'T REALLY ENJOY IT UP AT SLAVE LAKE. :/ "
"And I was expecting more the same here, but the teachers are kinda interesting. The home-ec teacher, Eda, she's got a glass eye and a prosthetic hand like hello what? What life did you lead girl?!" With a giggle. "And she very clearly isn't interested in the regular aspects of home-ec like cooking and sewing and all that other bullshit, nah she's actually teaching some of that street smarts sorta thing! Common sense type things, knowing when folks are trying to fuck you over. Kinda refreshing change of subject honestly."
"SOUNDS LIKE COULD BE USEFUL! C: "
"If they're giving a false sense or urgency, it's likely they're trying to bend you over a barrel. And yeah, obvious ones like know your neighbourhoods and don't go down dark alleys at night without having an ability to defend yourself. Life skills y'know? Oh, and foraging as well! Says she doesn't want us to be too reliant of things like supermarkets and government handouts."
"SHE SOUNDS UNIQUE. ^v^ "
"Oh she really is, heck even her… uh, partner I'll say, they/them type dude."
"IS DUDE GENDERED? o_0 "
"I don't think so, anyone can be a dude I think." Shaking it off. "But yeah, music teacher. Softly spoken, but you can tell by the way they're strapped they know their shit in ways other than the fiddle. I don't know where Nicole gets these people honestly, half of them seem reasonable enough and the other half are the most interesting people that have ever walked the Earth!" She'd exclaim. "And almost everyone has a weird name, which I very much like as a Lulamoon. Like, c'mon, who the hell names their kid Twilight? That's what our unit coordinator's name is."
"I DON'T MIND THAT NAME. @_@ "
"You're a Starlight of course you won't mind!" With a beam. "But yeah, Amity, Octavia, there's a mute kid that signs her name as Vinyl. Y'know I should've known given how much of a character the principal is."
"EVEN JUST WHAT WE HAVE ON FILE ABOUT HER, SHE DOES SEEM INTERESTING."
"How much do you know of?"
"ONLY THE DECLASSIFIED STUFF." Audibly shrugging, bringing a few details up. "TALL FOR HER AGE, DRIVES A YELLOW SOLSTICE, RUNS A SCHOOL."
"Is that really the only declassified stuff you guys have on her?"
"SURE LOOKS LIKE IT! C: "
"Do you even know what school it is?"
"UHH…" A magnifying glass icon on the screen. "NOPE! C: "
"Canterlot High?"
"YEAH NOTHING DECLASSIFIED."
"It's literally in the Yellow Pages why is it so hush hush!"
"COULD BE BECAUSE THE PILOTS GO THERE. <__< "
"Y'know that makes sense." In a mutter. "Did you get up to much yesterday?"
"NOT REALLY!" In a beam. "SYSTEM MAINTENANCE AND DEVELOPMENT. HONESTLY MOST OF WHAT I DO IS SPEAK WITH YOU ANYWAY. C: "
"Well, come tomorrow, your brain and my brain sound like they're gonna get mushed together, so better be ready for that!"
"I HOPE I AM KNOWING YOU SO FAR! *__* "
"Oh it's not so bad once you get used to it!" With an eye roll. "I've had my entire life to get used to my brain!"
"ARE YOU USED TO IT?"
"Well no, but you being a super intelligent supercomputer you should be able to comprehend it just fine!"
"YOU FLATTER ME, TRIXIE! '///' "
The PA beeped on. "Looks like Wendy's paging you and the other pilots Trix."
"Mah! Always ruining my fun Phil!" Snapping at the double sided glass. "Looks like we're wrapping up Starlight. See ya tomorrow alright?"
"SEE YA THEN TRIXIE! O/ " With that, the screen shut off.
Much to Trixie's sigh. "You're not so bad y'know?"
~
"Alright twerps!" Cheered Wendy, as they were back at the super secret NERV-Massachusetts training ground (the nearby baseball diamond).
"Why is the bird here?"
"Honk!"
"She wanted to give her opinions on your form. Speaking of!"
A duffel bag was thrown down. "Oh God not again!"
"Oh God again!" Wendy would nod. "Kaworu has told me how much you love the weapons training he does with them, and since he's e-canoodling with his girlfriend he got me to take over for him!"
"Question."
"Yeah shoot Yomi."
"Is he really doing that?"
"Probs not." In a shrug. "Man's got his own agenda and I dunno what it is and probably don't wanna know what it is. Either way, that's his business, and my business will be testing your skills in melee!"
The three pilots would murmur amongst themselves. "Do we know how good she is at it?"
"She's a shooter isn't she?" Trixie would put forward. "Pew pew instead of stab stab, maybe this is a rough spot for her?"
"I would not assume as much." Warned Yomiko. "Who knows what she can do."
Looking back, she'd see Wendy playing keepy-up with the gosling, it honking in joy whenever it was thrown up.
Yomiko could only blink at the scene. "False sense of security."
"I don't think she could harm a fly."
"Derek she's head of Ops for a reason." Trixie pointed out. "Okay who wants to volunteer Derek to test the waters with her?"
"I'm shit at the swords though!" He'd quietly plead. "Yomiko is better at it!"
"Derek you are the one who landed the blow on Kaworu last time, that is more than what we can say."
Damned by praise. "Gah, fine I'll volunteer to face her first."
They would break. "I will face you first, Wendy."
"Ooh assertion, love it!"
She'd throw over a wooden sword, Derek catching it by the handle. "Okay so I'm not gonna be as cruel as Kaworu is. Three strikes you're out, applies to me and applies to you. We'll keep a talley on who beats me and I dunno, maybe I'll get you an ice cream or something if you have the most points."
"It's more than what Kaworu gives us." Muttered Trixie.
"He gives us plenty. Like injury." Snarked back Yomiko.
"Snerk." Wendy held back the laugh. "Oh yeah I'm a little bit rusty with the sword, so forgive me if I'm not up to his standard just yet."
"She's bluffing."
"Hey you don't know that Yomiko!"
"Honk!" Abigail defended.
"Don't be an idiot Derek, watch her and see how she moves. Plan from there."
"Ah nah you don't have to do anything like that!" Shrugging it off. "Three two one!"
She'd rush in, coming at Derek from the side. "Hey wait you never-"
"Angels don't wait buddy!" One hit, and another as he desperately tried to hold her off. "Look at you spinning around like a ballerina!"
The third hit knocked him to the ground. "Yeah! One-nil!"
He would spit out some dirt. "…Okay I noticed a couple mistakes I made."
"I told you so." Told so Yomiko.
"Ah you didn't do so bad, just gotta learn to adapt and not panic, mmkay?"
To which he'd nod, getting back into stance.
"Three two one!"
Charging straight this time around, Derek able to parry the initial blow. "Ah but there's always a window!" Circling around and smacking the back of his leg with the flat of her sword. "And then once you get them dazed you can go from there!" Two more in quick succession and once more Derek was on the ground. "Two-nil!"
"Wendy you should've told me to bring popcorn!"
"Hey either he learns or he keeps falling down!" Was her philosophy.
To his credit he would get up again. "…Be ready for anything, then. Got it."
"Gotta be nimble and think on your feet, Derek." Twirling the sword in her hand. "The only plan we have is 'kill the bastard', how we kill the bastard is developed in the field as you go. Even the big ones like Operation Yashima came about as a result of successive improvisation!"
"Okay… think I got it."
"Just briefly, you know you can hit back while you're being hit, right?"
To demonstrate, she'd slowly swing her sword into his side. "If you know I'm coming at ya, you can prep to counter. My entire left side is left open, you could easily surprise them and maybe deal even more damage than they do you, or at the very least bring you even."
"Good to know." He'd note, getting the sword ready. "Equivalent exchange at that rate."
"Yeah!" In a cheer. "Three two one!" Charging in again.
"Swerving again-" His sword went up to the side, blocking an attack. As Wendy circled the sword around, instead of defending one side he'd hit the unexposed side. "There you go!"
Not that it ultimately mattered, Wendy quickly landing a couple more hits and sending him to the ground. "Aheh… closer!"
She'd pick him up. "Heck yeah buddy you got a hit on me that time around! Folks might snicker and jeer but as long as you keep getting up and as long as you keep going, keep trying, you're gonna go far."
"Ya hear that, girls?"
Trixie merely poked her tongue out at him.
"You can make fun of them once we're done if you want." Wendy snickered. "I'm sure they won't mind in the interests of gender equality."
Much to his smirk. "Oh I can definitely do that. Let's go!"
"Heh, eager are we?"
She'd charge. "I'll make you eat those words!"
A parry, and a mutual hit. "One!" Swinging around Derek would once again parry and briefly jump back. "Good! Battle isn't just one on one, if you need to back away to reaffirm your position do it!"
He'd try pulling a page from her handbook, running around. "You learn quick! But I know the counter for it!" The sword swung, before he abruptly stopped and bounced back again, the sword only barely stopped with Wendy bent at an awkward angle. "Oop hang on-"
He wouldn't, landing another hit on her before she unceremoniously hit him down. "Ooh fighting dirty!"
Picking himself up, briefly leaning on the sword before reaffirming the position. "The Angels don't care."
"You're Goddamn right about that, Derek." Swinging the sword around. "One hit wins it. Let's dance!"
Both would charge at once, swords clashing before Derek parried a swing around. Her hits were regularly parried at this stage, Derek walking back as she pushed him. "Beware of too much movement lest you fall down a pit."
To that, he'd start asserting the battle, twisting her sword around in attempt to disarm her but she just pulled it back. "Very good! Keep it going!"
Wendy would play the defence, letting Derek learn by watching and doing. "Heh, not bad kid!"
She would disarm him, the sword flying a few yards away. "Once you neutralise their weapons it's generally free!" Starting a swing.
Derek ducked down, leaped for the sword, parried a follow through, and ultimately their spar ended with a mutual hit on both their sides.
"Heh." Smirked Wendy. "Alright, we'll call it a draw."
Sword went down. "Good job kiddo!" Scruffing up his hair. "Didn't beat you up too much?"
"Honestly this was refreshing compared to Kaworu's training program."
"Hah!" She barked out. "Ahh, well, which one of your girls do you want to face me next?"
"H-Hey!" Incredulously exclaimed Trixie.
Who Derek would point to. "Yeah let's go for her." With a dangerous grin.
"D'oh I hate you."
"Equivalent exchange Trixie!" Passing the sword over. "Hey, you should go better than I do!"
Ten seconds later Trixie was sprawled out on the floor. "Ow."
"Hah!" Derek fully relished in his permission. "Not as easy is it!?"
~
A drone rested on the top of a building. "No he's not there." Twilight would note with some annoyance, controlling it from the Canterlot rooftop. "Thought he usually trains them."
Letting it take off and gaze around the city. "He's not flying around is he?" Nicole queried, hovering behind Twilight as they both monitored the footage.
"Nah we'd surely know if he was flying around like all of yesterday." In a mutter. "Do you know if they run at a higher heat signature?"
"I have literally no idea how Nephilim function."
"Well logically I'd assume they would, given their advanced biology." Switching to thermal camera. "Average for humans is between 97 and 99 more or less, let's just assume he's running a high fever of 100 or 101."
Didn't take long to find someone with that requirement, as they rested in a park. "That him?"
Back to standard camera. "Yep! What's he doing?"
Nicole shrugged. "Resting?"
"At seven in the morning? In a park?"
Movement, his eyes shooting open and locking onto the aerial. "Ah shoot! Maybe he-"
He would immediately shoot up and grab a hold of the drone. "Please I spent so much time building it!"
From their perspective it looked like it was flipping around. "…If found please return to Twilight Sparkle Light…" Before they could hear a chuckle. "Harmless."
They'd see something shoot from over there, landing on the roof with a thud. "Ah, Nicole! Great to make your acquaintance again!"
He'd walk towards the other. "Twilight, I assume?"
To her bashful nod, not wanting to look at him.
The drone was placed on the floor. "I presume you weren't doing anything untoward with this, right?"
"Just looking to get a few aerial shots of the surrounds." Offering him a bashful look. "…One of our students wanted a few for a media project."
"We didn't catch you on NERV business did we?"
A laugh and a shake of his head. "Oh no not this time around! I had a long night so was resting my eyes for a minute."
Another look towards Twilight. "Though I'd be careful where I fly that drone. We've been trained to assume such thing is a threat. We've had bombs attached to drones fly at us before y'know."
"…I didn't realise. Sorry."
"Well we can't not fly the drone when the students request it." Nicole would butt in.
"Hey, I know it's a friendly drone now. I'll have to remember not to destroy it."
He'd walk away, before briefly turning around. "Y'know, if it is for capturing the landscape."
The silence was telling, as he offered a wide and cheeky grin. "BYEEEE!" Before he shot back off to parts unknown.
"…D'ooooh he knows!" Twilight sunk her head into the thumb controller. "Why did we think that'd work…"
Nicole was quiet. "…Nicky? You-"
She looked like she saw a ghost. "I…"
Eyes locked to the sky. "There has to be a reason I see you in him, Mari."
"Wait… Nicky? You don't think- she's been dead for years!"
"I know." She'd mutter. "And yet… despite that, I still hope. It's NERV. You… you never know."
It was still hard on her even after this long. "Hey…" All Twilight could offer was a hug and some words. "…I know it's hard. You know us both had to deal with it. It gets better, believe it or not. You never know when, but… believe me, it does."
A beat, as she returned the gesture. "…I still think she's just gonna return, Twi. It's… unrealistic. But…"
Holding her tighter. "It's NERV." She'd repeat. "…and she's still missing instead of lost. It's more difficult when you don't have the closure, Twi."
All she could do was sigh. "…At least we knew our folks passed on, I guess." With an away glance. "Well… Spike wasn't old enough. I knew, at least."
Another beat.
Before Nicole disengaged, giving a sharp breath in and out. "I don't know how I'm gonna do it, but I at least want to speak with him."
"Do you think we can convince him to come here?"
"Did Superman need to go to school?"
"Yes. It was discussed at length in Superman Blue and Red volume 1-"
"You know I don't consider those new comics the real ones!"
"Oh just because you had a Superman you grew up with!" Playfully prodding her. "Anyway the point still stands! Kaworu won't just attend if he chasing something else, and he's very clearly here for something other than training the new pilots!"
To her sigh. "Suppose we will have to wait and see."
They'd both start coming down from the roof. The school day was almost upon them, after all. "Hey are you still in contact with the older Pines?"
"I haven't talked with either of them since they were ousted." In a mutter. "Which is a shame, I'm a lot less clued in with NERV as I was."
"I know Stanley retired back to Bend, where'd Stanford shoot off to?"
A pause in her walking, as she thought. "I don't know. Huh. Thanks Twi now that's gonna eat away at me!"
"I could think of worse thoughts to do that!" Cheering back with a smile.
~
The sun had not yet risen over the Mojave. "Coffee?"
And yet the two individuals in this nondescript camper were still at work. "Thanks Al." Burnt and black, just how he liked it. "Like Stanley used to make it."
To her chuckle. "Did he ever spruik for the fancy stuff?"
"Fancy in his eyes was Taster's Choice, he always bought the cheapest bulk tin he could find at Walmart."
"God how did you even survive the Angel war?"
"By the skin of my teeth." He'd chuckle, taking a sip of the "good" stuff. "Any spikes last night?"
"Nada." Quickly flipping through some printouts. "No discernible untoward transmissions of any sort."
"Try again tonight?"
"You know I'm gonna say yes to that." With a laugh. "No way they'd let something as measly as that do them in!"
It was hope against hope, especially this much time later.
But Stanford had a point when he raised it that time ago. Each facility is an island, capable of indefinite self-sufficiency even if it were completely sealed from the outside world.
Which ultimately meant there was a chance, no matter how small it may be, that the Nevada branch survived being thrown into the Dirac.
They have ridden the tail of that hope for a couple years now. And both of them were too stubborn to jump off.
So they will do the same tonight, and the next night, and the next. Listening out for that shot in the dark.
You could never know for sure, with this world.
~~~
"See ya then Rei!"
Her trot slowed to a stop.
"Kaworu."
"Yes Rei?"
"Are… are you okay?"
A beat over their line.
"This… whatever it is we're chasing." She could feel his apprehension. "I'm really starting to feel the wear from it."
She could only blink. "…Coming from you that is a significant statement."
"How do you think we feel R-Rei?" Kaworu would forward from Mari. "It's like an itch. It's so damn uncomfortable for us to be in its presence I'm just aching to f-find it and give it a piece of my mind!"
That got her thinking. "…How much of an interloper are they?"
"That's what I want to find out… to cause such visceral reaction within me." A sigh over the line. "Will you still be joining? I… we could use the company of a friend, however brief it may be."
"Yes. I will." She'd sate. "The Advisor will not stop me."
"I will see you there shortly, Rei." Before he let their line settle.
~
There beneath, Lilith would watch on.
"SO I SAID, SO I WILL DO."
Her presence would dive.
She could refine herself in the [In-Between]. Appearing more akin to as she would have appeared in days gone by. Before the [Moons] and before the [Collapse].
There she would wait.
"…Rei?"
She turned, and offered a warm smile to the other. "Not Rei."
He would quickly realise, especially once he picked up on the radiance. "My apologies, Lilith." With a bow. "A pleasure to make your acquaintance."
"And likewise to you, Kaworu." Nodding in kind. "You and Rei have much to discuss?"
"…Actually while we wait for her, I may get some advice." As he sat down cross legged. "If it is no water off your back."
"My knowledge is yours, Kaworu." Joining him. "Is this related to your task I set you on?"
"Why do they feel so much like an interloper?" He would immediately inquire. "I have felt nothing of the sort in my existence, even among the Lilim I have never felt so wrong about them. I'm… I'm just wondering if you have more information why I feel that way."
A beat from Lilith. As she gave an apologetic look to the Nephilim. "Have you encountered them?"
"From a distance, but… I can feel them." Clenching his hands. "And they feel wrong. It's a complete alien feeling, it's…" Quiet. "…I might liken it to how Rei felt when she first saw me. Or how you initially felt of me, being of Adam in a world of your making."
"Even those impressions would have been allayed by the fact you are still of who my children deem the FAR. My people." In serene recollection. "I hope you understand why we treated you harshly."
"I was only threatening to kill everything you worked on."
A single snicker. "Quite. Same as your kin." Before another defusing smile. "I am glad we have been able to come together. FAR and FAR should not be fighting. That's how we ended up in our situation in the first place."
Kaworu thought of that for a minute.
"…You are of the First Ancestral Race. My knowledge, being Seele's knowledge, was lacking at best. But I can tell there is a rich history behind those eyes of yours."
The violet eyes of Lilith would stare through him. "Out of the near fourteen billion of your years this universe has existed, our kind has been a part of twelve billion of them. Our history is varied as it is vast, and it is my hope I will be able to share this with you and Rei one day."
Her eyes would close, in thought. "You are the future of our kind, after all."
Something for him to chew on. "Either way. The interloper."
She would weave a metaphysical thread in her hands, providing a visual. "This realm we currently reside in is of great meaning to my kind. The closest translation I have from my language is the In-Between, but I have heard Rei refer to it as the Astral. This is a transitionary world between that of the physical and that of the metaphysical. You have already encountered several of its quirks."
A blue telephone box would shoot across the sky like a star. "It is shared with other universes. We can observe, but we cannot bridge the gap. This is a general rule with few exceptions."
"It sounded like the Advisor Rei saw could examine between universes."
"Examine, yes. And yet they never seemed to cross over." In thought. "Perhaps the Interloper sought to that."
"Is that our suited friend from the current Rift materials?"
"The exception to the rule, yes. We would call them Interloper. Their appearance was malleable, but they would almost always appear to us in a form similar to ours, in our equivalent of formal wear. Businessman appearing."
"And this was actually going into your universe?"
"Indeed, Kaworu." As she thought back. "Our policy with Interloper was simple: equivalent exchange. They were curious of our universe, but we would not give them the information for free. With that we learned of his own universe. Who you deemed the Combine. The nature of the Advisors. The politick and passing by of that universe."
"Why did they stop? We would have seen them by now, surely."
"That… is a difficult subject." In blunt admission. "We scared them off. And I can only presume the Combine too."
The thought of that absolutely terrified Kaworu. "W… what did you do?"
A growing presence behind them. "A story for another time, Kaworu. We have our visitor." With a small smile, picking herself up.
Rei would look to the sky, and over the horizon, for a long while. Wary.
"Are you looking for something?"
Snapping a look over. And eyes going wide in shock.
To Lilith's warm smile, leaning over and looking towards her. "It's just us, Rei."
Kaworu would coyly wave in the background.
"You…" Words catching, as she slowly approached. "You are here."
"Did you think I'd leave my daughter in the lurch?"
To her slight gasp.
Slowly, she's walk closer.
And rest her head on Lilith's chest. Who hugged her in reply. "…Welcome home, Rei. We have a lot to discuss."
~~~
"Well so much for the whole school schedule." Trixie muttered into the terminal. "The startup tests are tomorrow so it's all been shuffled around!"
"I'M NOT COMPLAINING! C: " The computerised voice would say. "SURELY YOU SHOULD'VE KNOWN BEING AT SCHOOL YESTERDAY?"
"I didn't know we were on a half schedule at that school!" In defence. "Didn't know they did half schedules…"
"THEY MUST'VE DONE THIS BEFORE!"
"Oh I know that much, just about every person and their dog's told me how the previous pilot died a horrible death."
"WELL I WON'T LET THAT HAPPEN! O7 "
"She and her Evangelion were literally sucked into a black hole, Starlight."
"OH 0_0 " A beat. "WELL, EVEN I HAVE MY LIMITATIONS! -__-; "
That got Trixie laughing at least. "Ah jeez thanks Starlight!" The laughing tapered off. "Ah but other than that it was a pretty good day. Heck, I'm even starting to get interested in the whole learning aspect of the school."
"I KNOW YOU TOLD ME YOU DIDN'T REALLY ENJOY IT UP AT SLAVE LAKE. :/ "
"And I was expecting more the same here, but the teachers are kinda interesting. The home-ec teacher, Eda, she's got a glass eye and a prosthetic hand like hello what? What life did you lead girl?!" With a giggle. "And she very clearly isn't interested in the regular aspects of home-ec like cooking and sewing and all that other bullshit, nah she's actually teaching some of that street smarts sorta thing! Common sense type things, knowing when folks are trying to fuck you over. Kinda refreshing change of subject honestly."
"SOUNDS LIKE COULD BE USEFUL! C: "
"If they're giving a false sense or urgency, it's likely they're trying to bend you over a barrel. And yeah, obvious ones like know your neighbourhoods and don't go down dark alleys at night without having an ability to defend yourself. Life skills y'know? Oh, and foraging as well! Says she doesn't want us to be too reliant of things like supermarkets and government handouts."
"SHE SOUNDS UNIQUE. ^v^ "
"Oh she really is, heck even her… uh, partner I'll say, they/them type dude."
"IS DUDE GENDERED? o_0 "
"I don't think so, anyone can be a dude I think." Shaking it off. "But yeah, music teacher. Softly spoken, but you can tell by the way they're strapped they know their shit in ways other than the fiddle. I don't know where Nicole gets these people honestly, half of them seem reasonable enough and the other half are the most interesting people that have ever walked the Earth!" She'd exclaim. "And almost everyone has a weird name, which I very much like as a Lulamoon. Like, c'mon, who the hell names their kid Twilight? That's what our unit coordinator's name is."
"I DON'T MIND THAT NAME. @_@ "
"You're a Starlight of course you won't mind!" With a beam. "But yeah, Amity, Octavia, there's a mute kid that signs her name as Vinyl. Y'know I should've known given how much of a character the principal is."
"EVEN JUST WHAT WE HAVE ON FILE ABOUT HER, SHE DOES SEEM INTERESTING."
"How much do you know of?"
"ONLY THE DECLASSIFIED STUFF." Audibly shrugging, bringing a few details up. "TALL FOR HER AGE, DRIVES A YELLOW SOLSTICE, RUNS A SCHOOL."
"Is that really the only declassified stuff you guys have on her?"
"SURE LOOKS LIKE IT! C: "
"Do you even know what school it is?"
"UHH…" A magnifying glass icon on the screen. "NOPE! C: "
"Canterlot High?"
"YEAH NOTHING DECLASSIFIED."
"It's literally in the Yellow Pages why is it so hush hush!"
"COULD BE BECAUSE THE PILOTS GO THERE. <__< "
"Y'know that makes sense." In a mutter. "Did you get up to much yesterday?"
"NOT REALLY!" In a beam. "SYSTEM MAINTENANCE AND DEVELOPMENT. HONESTLY MOST OF WHAT I DO IS SPEAK WITH YOU ANYWAY. C: "
"Well, come tomorrow, your brain and my brain sound like they're gonna get mushed together, so better be ready for that!"
"I HOPE I AM KNOWING YOU SO FAR! *__* "
"Oh it's not so bad once you get used to it!" With an eye roll. "I've had my entire life to get used to my brain!"
"ARE YOU USED TO IT?"
"Well no, but you being a super intelligent supercomputer you should be able to comprehend it just fine!"
"YOU FLATTER ME, TRIXIE! '///' "
The PA beeped on. "Looks like Wendy's paging you and the other pilots Trix."
"Mah! Always ruining my fun Phil!" Snapping at the double sided glass. "Looks like we're wrapping up Starlight. See ya tomorrow alright?"
"SEE YA THEN TRIXIE! O/ " With that, the screen shut off.
Much to Trixie's sigh. "You're not so bad y'know?"
~
"Alright twerps!" Cheered Wendy, as they were back at the super secret NERV-Massachusetts training ground (the nearby baseball diamond).
"Why is the bird here?"
"Honk!"
"She wanted to give her opinions on your form. Speaking of!"
A duffel bag was thrown down. "Oh God not again!"
"Oh God again!" Wendy would nod. "Kaworu has told me how much you love the weapons training he does with them, and since he's e-canoodling with his girlfriend he got me to take over for him!"
"Question."
"Yeah shoot Yomi."
"Is he really doing that?"
"Probs not." In a shrug. "Man's got his own agenda and I dunno what it is and probably don't wanna know what it is. Either way, that's his business, and my business will be testing your skills in melee!"
The three pilots would murmur amongst themselves. "Do we know how good she is at it?"
"She's a shooter isn't she?" Trixie would put forward. "Pew pew instead of stab stab, maybe this is a rough spot for her?"
"I would not assume as much." Warned Yomiko. "Who knows what she can do."
Looking back, she'd see Wendy playing keepy-up with the gosling, it honking in joy whenever it was thrown up.
Yomiko could only blink at the scene. "False sense of security."
"I don't think she could harm a fly."
"Derek she's head of Ops for a reason." Trixie pointed out. "Okay who wants to volunteer Derek to test the waters with her?"
"I'm shit at the swords though!" He'd quietly plead. "Yomiko is better at it!"
"Derek you are the one who landed the blow on Kaworu last time, that is more than what we can say."
Damned by praise. "Gah, fine I'll volunteer to face her first."
They would break. "I will face you first, Wendy."
"Ooh assertion, love it!"
She'd throw over a wooden sword, Derek catching it by the handle. "Okay so I'm not gonna be as cruel as Kaworu is. Three strikes you're out, applies to me and applies to you. We'll keep a talley on who beats me and I dunno, maybe I'll get you an ice cream or something if you have the most points."
"It's more than what Kaworu gives us." Muttered Trixie.
"He gives us plenty. Like injury." Snarked back Yomiko.
"Snerk." Wendy held back the laugh. "Oh yeah I'm a little bit rusty with the sword, so forgive me if I'm not up to his standard just yet."
"She's bluffing."
"Hey you don't know that Yomiko!"
"Honk!" Abigail defended.
"Don't be an idiot Derek, watch her and see how she moves. Plan from there."
"Ah nah you don't have to do anything like that!" Shrugging it off. "Three two one!"
She'd rush in, coming at Derek from the side. "Hey wait you never-"
"Angels don't wait buddy!" One hit, and another as he desperately tried to hold her off. "Look at you spinning around like a ballerina!"
The third hit knocked him to the ground. "Yeah! One-nil!"
He would spit out some dirt. "…Okay I noticed a couple mistakes I made."
"I told you so." Told so Yomiko.
"Ah you didn't do so bad, just gotta learn to adapt and not panic, mmkay?"
To which he'd nod, getting back into stance.
"Three two one!"
Charging straight this time around, Derek able to parry the initial blow. "Ah but there's always a window!" Circling around and smacking the back of his leg with the flat of her sword. "And then once you get them dazed you can go from there!" Two more in quick succession and once more Derek was on the ground. "Two-nil!"
"Wendy you should've told me to bring popcorn!"
"Hey either he learns or he keeps falling down!" Was her philosophy.
To his credit he would get up again. "…Be ready for anything, then. Got it."
"Gotta be nimble and think on your feet, Derek." Twirling the sword in her hand. "The only plan we have is 'kill the bastard', how we kill the bastard is developed in the field as you go. Even the big ones like Operation Yashima came about as a result of successive improvisation!"
"Okay… think I got it."
"Just briefly, you know you can hit back while you're being hit, right?"
To demonstrate, she'd slowly swing her sword into his side. "If you know I'm coming at ya, you can prep to counter. My entire left side is left open, you could easily surprise them and maybe deal even more damage than they do you, or at the very least bring you even."
"Good to know." He'd note, getting the sword ready. "Equivalent exchange at that rate."
"Yeah!" In a cheer. "Three two one!" Charging in again.
"Swerving again-" His sword went up to the side, blocking an attack. As Wendy circled the sword around, instead of defending one side he'd hit the unexposed side. "There you go!"
Not that it ultimately mattered, Wendy quickly landing a couple more hits and sending him to the ground. "Aheh… closer!"
She'd pick him up. "Heck yeah buddy you got a hit on me that time around! Folks might snicker and jeer but as long as you keep getting up and as long as you keep going, keep trying, you're gonna go far."
"Ya hear that, girls?"
Trixie merely poked her tongue out at him.
"You can make fun of them once we're done if you want." Wendy snickered. "I'm sure they won't mind in the interests of gender equality."
Much to his smirk. "Oh I can definitely do that. Let's go!"
"Heh, eager are we?"
She'd charge. "I'll make you eat those words!"
A parry, and a mutual hit. "One!" Swinging around Derek would once again parry and briefly jump back. "Good! Battle isn't just one on one, if you need to back away to reaffirm your position do it!"
He'd try pulling a page from her handbook, running around. "You learn quick! But I know the counter for it!" The sword swung, before he abruptly stopped and bounced back again, the sword only barely stopped with Wendy bent at an awkward angle. "Oop hang on-"
He wouldn't, landing another hit on her before she unceremoniously hit him down. "Ooh fighting dirty!"
Picking himself up, briefly leaning on the sword before reaffirming the position. "The Angels don't care."
"You're Goddamn right about that, Derek." Swinging the sword around. "One hit wins it. Let's dance!"
Both would charge at once, swords clashing before Derek parried a swing around. Her hits were regularly parried at this stage, Derek walking back as she pushed him. "Beware of too much movement lest you fall down a pit."
To that, he'd start asserting the battle, twisting her sword around in attempt to disarm her but she just pulled it back. "Very good! Keep it going!"
Wendy would play the defence, letting Derek learn by watching and doing. "Heh, not bad kid!"
She would disarm him, the sword flying a few yards away. "Once you neutralise their weapons it's generally free!" Starting a swing.
Derek ducked down, leaped for the sword, parried a follow through, and ultimately their spar ended with a mutual hit on both their sides.
"Heh." Smirked Wendy. "Alright, we'll call it a draw."
Sword went down. "Good job kiddo!" Scruffing up his hair. "Didn't beat you up too much?"
"Honestly this was refreshing compared to Kaworu's training program."
"Hah!" She barked out. "Ahh, well, which one of your girls do you want to face me next?"
"H-Hey!" Incredulously exclaimed Trixie.
Who Derek would point to. "Yeah let's go for her." With a dangerous grin.
"D'oh I hate you."
"Equivalent exchange Trixie!" Passing the sword over. "Hey, you should go better than I do!"
Ten seconds later Trixie was sprawled out on the floor. "Ow."
"Hah!" Derek fully relished in his permission. "Not as easy is it!?"
~
A drone rested on the top of a building. "No he's not there." Twilight would note with some annoyance, controlling it from the Canterlot rooftop. "Thought he usually trains them."
Letting it take off and gaze around the city. "He's not flying around is he?" Nicole queried, hovering behind Twilight as they both monitored the footage.
"Nah we'd surely know if he was flying around like all of yesterday." In a mutter. "Do you know if they run at a higher heat signature?"
"I have literally no idea how Nephilim function."
"Well logically I'd assume they would, given their advanced biology." Switching to thermal camera. "Average for humans is between 97 and 99 more or less, let's just assume he's running a high fever of 100 or 101."
Didn't take long to find someone with that requirement, as they rested in a park. "That him?"
Back to standard camera. "Yep! What's he doing?"
Nicole shrugged. "Resting?"
"At seven in the morning? In a park?"
Movement, his eyes shooting open and locking onto the aerial. "Ah shoot! Maybe he-"
He would immediately shoot up and grab a hold of the drone. "Please I spent so much time building it!"
From their perspective it looked like it was flipping around. "…If found please return to Twilight Sparkle Light…" Before they could hear a chuckle. "Harmless."
They'd see something shoot from over there, landing on the roof with a thud. "Ah, Nicole! Great to make your acquaintance again!"
He'd walk towards the other. "Twilight, I assume?"
To her bashful nod, not wanting to look at him.
The drone was placed on the floor. "I presume you weren't doing anything untoward with this, right?"
"Just looking to get a few aerial shots of the surrounds." Offering him a bashful look. "…One of our students wanted a few for a media project."
"We didn't catch you on NERV business did we?"
A laugh and a shake of his head. "Oh no not this time around! I had a long night so was resting my eyes for a minute."
Another look towards Twilight. "Though I'd be careful where I fly that drone. We've been trained to assume such thing is a threat. We've had bombs attached to drones fly at us before y'know."
"…I didn't realise. Sorry."
"Well we can't not fly the drone when the students request it." Nicole would butt in.
"Hey, I know it's a friendly drone now. I'll have to remember not to destroy it."
He'd walk away, before briefly turning around. "Y'know, if it is for capturing the landscape."
The silence was telling, as he offered a wide and cheeky grin. "BYEEEE!" Before he shot back off to parts unknown.
"…D'ooooh he knows!" Twilight sunk her head into the thumb controller. "Why did we think that'd work…"
Nicole was quiet. "…Nicky? You-"
She looked like she saw a ghost. "I…"
Eyes locked to the sky. "There has to be a reason I see you in him, Mari."
"Wait… Nicky? You don't think- she's been dead for years!"
"I know." She'd mutter. "And yet… despite that, I still hope. It's NERV. You… you never know."
It was still hard on her even after this long. "Hey…" All Twilight could offer was a hug and some words. "…I know it's hard. You know us both had to deal with it. It gets better, believe it or not. You never know when, but… believe me, it does."
A beat, as she returned the gesture. "…I still think she's just gonna return, Twi. It's… unrealistic. But…"
Holding her tighter. "It's NERV." She'd repeat. "…and she's still missing instead of lost. It's more difficult when you don't have the closure, Twi."
All she could do was sigh. "…At least we knew our folks passed on, I guess." With an away glance. "Well… Spike wasn't old enough. I knew, at least."
Another beat.
Before Nicole disengaged, giving a sharp breath in and out. "I don't know how I'm gonna do it, but I at least want to speak with him."
"Do you think we can convince him to come here?"
"Did Superman need to go to school?"
"Yes. It was discussed at length in Superman Blue and Red volume 1-"
"You know I don't consider those new comics the real ones!"
"Oh just because you had a Superman you grew up with!" Playfully prodding her. "Anyway the point still stands! Kaworu won't just attend if he chasing something else, and he's very clearly here for something other than training the new pilots!"
To her sigh. "Suppose we will have to wait and see."
They'd both start coming down from the roof. The school day was almost upon them, after all. "Hey are you still in contact with the older Pines?"
"I haven't talked with either of them since they were ousted." In a mutter. "Which is a shame, I'm a lot less clued in with NERV as I was."
"I know Stanley retired back to Bend, where'd Stanford shoot off to?"
A pause in her walking, as she thought. "I don't know. Huh. Thanks Twi now that's gonna eat away at me!"
"I could think of worse thoughts to do that!" Cheering back with a smile.
~
The sun had not yet risen over the Mojave. "Coffee?"
And yet the two individuals in this nondescript camper were still at work. "Thanks Al." Burnt and black, just how he liked it. "Like Stanley used to make it."
To her chuckle. "Did he ever spruik for the fancy stuff?"
"Fancy in his eyes was Taster's Choice, he always bought the cheapest bulk tin he could find at Walmart."
"God how did you even survive the Angel war?"
"By the skin of my teeth." He'd chuckle, taking a sip of the "good" stuff. "Any spikes last night?"
"Nada." Quickly flipping through some printouts. "No discernible untoward transmissions of any sort."
"Try again tonight?"
"You know I'm gonna say yes to that." With a laugh. "No way they'd let something as measly as that do them in!"
It was hope against hope, especially this much time later.
But Stanford had a point when he raised it that time ago. Each facility is an island, capable of indefinite self-sufficiency even if it were completely sealed from the outside world.
Which ultimately meant there was a chance, no matter how small it may be, that the Nevada branch survived being thrown into the Dirac.
They have ridden the tail of that hope for a couple years now. And both of them were too stubborn to jump off.
So they will do the same tonight, and the next night, and the next. Listening out for that shot in the dark.
You could never know for sure, with this world.
~~~
It's good to be back Okay so I'm currently on a week long vacation for myself, and I specifically wanted to get this out during the time I had, so I'm glad I got there in the end
For reference at the start of the week, I only had the first chapter done up
To be fair I was also writing that stupid April Fools fic and I was also writing a secret future Chronicles fic on the side because of a little something called brainrot. There's a little hint as to what it entails in this chapter
So let's start from the top, the Massachusetts Trio get a brief lesson in the fact they're probably gonna die. Good to learn it now instead of facing an Angel or whatever bogeyman they end up facing! And you bet the rest of Massachusetts want them to learn this and learn it quickly, they'd rather not have things go the way they did when Tokyo-3 first faced Angels!
Y'know you're meant to improve with time not slip back!
Also Tokyo-3 think they're so crash hot keeping things out of the public eye and here we got the American public who know pretty much everything they'd want to know about, not that Kaworu has helped matters of course
Speaking of, I fully expect that arc to culminate in the next chapter, so look forward to that powder keg once we get to it!
Meanwhile in Japan, sometimes it takes someone else pulling your head in to make you realise something. Rei's not gonna get that encounter she had earlier stop her from meeting Kaworu.
And Lilith deciding to be more active with her daughter as well. Expect a lot to come from this, we have so many things planned for this lot!
Speaking of lots of things planned, I think we've laid the groundwork for plenty of events to come, see if you can pick up on all of them
Anyway, the poll results! This decides the final running order of works past Strypgia's Hangover, so listen up and pay attention!
Okay so I'm currently on a week long vacation for myself, and I specifically wanted to get this out during the time I had, so I'm glad I got there in the end For reference at the start of the week, I only had the first chapter done up
To be fair I was also writing that stupid April Fools fic
and I was also writing a secret future Chronicles fic on the side because of a little something called brainrot. There's a little hint as to what it entails in this chapter So let's start from the top, the Massachusetts Trio get a brief lesson in the fact they're probably gonna die. Good to learn it now instead of facing an Angel or whatever bogeyman they end up facing! And you bet the rest of Massachusetts want them to learn this and learn it quickly, they'd rather not have things go the way they did when Tokyo-3 first faced Angels!
Y'know you're meant to improve with time not slip back!
Also Tokyo-3 think they're so crash hot keeping things out of the public eye and here we got the American public who know pretty much everything they'd want to know about, not that Kaworu has helped matters of course
Speaking of, I fully expect that arc to culminate in the next chapter, so look forward to that powder keg once we get to it!
Meanwhile in Japan, sometimes it takes someone else pulling your head in to make you realise something. Rei's not gonna get that encounter she had earlier stop her from meeting Kaworu.
And Lilith deciding to be more active with her daughter as well. Expect a lot to come from this, we have so many things planned for this lot!
Speaking of lots of things planned, I think we've laid the groundwork for plenty of events to come, see if you can pick up on all of them
Anyway, the poll results! This decides the final running order of works past Strypgia's Hangover, so listen up and pay attention!
31 people voted this time around, thank you for voting!
The first work we will be covering after Strypgia's Hangover will be the Neon Genesis Evangelion Manga!
Which honestly makes sense I mean I already gave them the damn copies of it
Following this will be Star Wars (in Machete 4 5 1 2 3 6 etc. format)!
Thank you for voting it over SIRP but it will only serve to delay my suffering!
Next will be Gravity Falls!
There were three votes between this and the Evangelion Manga, glad this got in because I'm sure the Massachusetts staff will be interested in seeing this work!
This will be followed by the Shinji Ikari Raising Project Manga!
Of which I'm seriously considering abridging like I did long ago with Ritsuko and Maya's watch of the Laserdiscs, and only covering key moments, because holy shit I did the numbers and if I write it all out in full it's gonna be almost two million words in length! The entire Chronicles canon as it stands, counting all omake and sidestories up on AO3, is 1.7 million words! Like c'mon it's gonna take me years to cover it!
And now we get to the losers polls!
Next is Panty and Stocking with Garterbelt!
Gainax returns with a vengeance!
Following this is Happy End of Evangelion!
Again, go figure, the Evangelion work wins out
Next is Shinji & The Doctor*!
*I have still yet to receive permission to cover this work. If permission has not been gained by the time we get to it, this will be substituted with the Revived Doctor Who series, seasons 1 and 2. I might add more seasons to it depending on public sentiment.
And lucky last will be The Matrix Trilogy!
Of which I'm sure Ritsuko will have plenty of words about it
Thank you for voting! From the almost four hundred works that I had in my polling list, we've narrowed it down to eight.
It's well over four hundred works in the polling list now, so once we get a fair way into the next eight works, we will run another tourney poll. Make sure you suggest what you'd like covered in Chronicles, because there's always a chance it'll get covered one day!
Y'know, in three billion years time once we're done with SIRP
The first work we will be covering after Strypgia's Hangover will be the Neon Genesis Evangelion Manga!
Which honestly makes sense I mean I already gave them the damn copies of it
Following this will be Star Wars (in Machete 4 5 1 2 3 6 etc. format)!
Thank you for voting it over SIRP but it will only serve to delay my suffering!
Next will be Gravity Falls!
There were three votes between this and the Evangelion Manga, glad this got in because I'm sure the Massachusetts staff will be interested in seeing this work!
This will be followed by the Shinji Ikari Raising Project Manga!
Of which I'm seriously considering abridging like I did long ago with Ritsuko and Maya's watch of the Laserdiscs, and only covering key moments, because holy shit I did the numbers and if I write it all out in full it's gonna be almost two million words in length! The entire Chronicles canon as it stands, counting all omake and sidestories up on AO3, is 1.7 million words! Like c'mon it's gonna take me years to cover it!
And now we get to the losers polls!
Next is Panty and Stocking with Garterbelt!
Gainax returns with a vengeance!
Following this is Happy End of Evangelion!
Again, go figure, the Evangelion work wins out
Next is Shinji & The Doctor*!
*I have still yet to receive permission to cover this work. If permission has not been gained by the time we get to it, this will be substituted with the Revived Doctor Who series, seasons 1 and 2. I might add more seasons to it depending on public sentiment.
And lucky last will be The Matrix Trilogy!
Of which I'm sure Ritsuko will have plenty of words about it
Thank you for voting! From the almost four hundred works that I had in my polling list, we've narrowed it down to eight.
It's well over four hundred works in the polling list now, so once we get a fair way into the next eight works, we will run another tourney poll. Make sure you suggest what you'd like covered in Chronicles, because there's always a chance it'll get covered one day!
Y'know, in three billion years time once we're done with SIRP
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