Aeon Entelechy Evangelion Book II: The Thing That Should (Not) Be

[EarthScorpion]

Scraped from here.

Thread One can be found here.

Fanfiction.net version of the story - Note that these are to be viewed as the correct version of the chapters, and small edits have been made to them over the SB.com versions.

Index of SB.com Story Posts

BOOK I​

Prologue: The Words That Began The End of Everything

Chapter 1: A Harbinger / But where the dead leaf fell
Chapter 2: Lusus Naturae / What bliss even in hope is there for thee?
Chapter 3: Becoming a Child / There was a listening fear in her regard
Chapter 4: Interconnections / As if calamity had but begun
Chapter 5: Absent Communication / As if the vanward clouds of evil days had spent their malice
Chapter 6: Die Grabesmutter / And the sullen rear was with its stored thunder labouring up.
Chapter 7: Die Brandrosenfürstin / One hand she press'd upon that aching spot where beats the human heart,
Chapter 8: Rei 01, Something White / As if just there, though an immortal, she felt cruel pain.
Chapter 9: Rei 01, Something Black / The other upon Saturn's bended neck she laid
Chapter 10: Rei 02, In Ice And Dust / and to the level of his hollow ear, leaning with parted lips
Chapter 11: Rei 02, In Water And Darkness / some words she spake, in solemn tenor and deep organ tune
Chapter 12: Rei 02, In Fire And Ashes / Some mourning words
Chapter 13: Rei 02: And Then Silence / which in our feeble tongue would come in this like accenting
Chapter 14: Archives I / how frail to that large utterance of the early Gods!

​

BOOK II ​

Chapter 15: Rest for the Wicked / 'Saturn! look up and for what, poor lost King?
Chapter 16: The Panhuman Functionality / 'I have no comfort for thee; no not one;
Chapter 17: I Shall Always Arise / 'I cannot cry, Wherefore thus sleepest thou?
Chapter 18: Dancing Over A Freezing Sea / 'For Heaven is parted from thee, and the Earth 'Knows thee not
Chapter 19: Procedural Work / so afflicted, for a god

 

[EarthScorpion]

Well, given the new rules on thread length, I have to set up a new thread, and I thought I'd use the chance to set up a proper thread Index this time, for people who do want to skip to the posts (although, as noted, the FF.net versions are receiving polishings and tweaks over the SB versions, so in case of a conflict, they are to be viewed as correct). And...

Asuka: "So you're finally going to bring me into the story properly, are you?"

Asuka, you've already had two chapters devoted to you. That's certainly far more than you got in canon by this point.

Asuka: "One-and-a-fraction chapters. That first bit firstly wasn't a proper chapter, and secondly I was four at the time! That doesn't count as me!"

It was two chapters.

Rei: "In my chapters, even the ones named after me, the focus is still on Shinji."

Asuka: "And what are you going to do about it, huh?"

Rei: "Nothing."

Asuka: "Typical. I haven't even met you yet, and you're pathetic. Yeah, "

Rei: "On the other hand, I can read his planning notes."

Rei, you will not tell the audience all the plot twists I have planned.

Rei: "No, I will not."

Asuka: "Hah! So you're so completely under his thumb that you just do what he says all the time, do you?"

Rei: "We all do. I am merely a puppet who can see her strings."

Asuka: "Well, that's going to change, I can tell you that! Hah! Book I was pathetic, because I wasn't around! But now... things are going to change! With a proper pilot, unlike you and Mr Doesn't Speak over there, we'll crush those damn Harbingers beneath our giant arcanocyberxenobiological feet!"

Rei: "Book II ends with Moloch."

Asuka: "..."

Shinji: "... fuck."

So enjoy Book II, kids! Chapter 16 will be up soon, because it's currently with the beta reader.

Asuka: "Just wait a min..."

*Transmission Cut*

 

[NHO]

Being meta-level mindbreaking asshole to the readers and your own character and loving every moment of it: EarthScorpion, resident Eldritch Abomination (hard).

Because Facehugger is Eldritch Abomination (soft).

 

[Jonen C]

It's a little cheap to start the new thread yourself when there's no update and no ongoing discussion, but it does let you get the indexing done.

 

[wellis]

Earthscorpion, will AEE only focus on the original NGE, or will it also include elements of Rebuild of Evangelion?

 

[EarthScorpion]

It's a little cheap to start the new thread yourself when there's no update and no ongoing discussion, but it does let you get the indexing done.

Click to shrink...

Chapter 16's with the beta reader right now. I thought I should get this done, with the indexing, rather that have to do that when I really want to get the story up. Plus, it's proof that I haven't just been lazing around.

Earthscorpion, will AEE only focus on the original NGE, or will it also include elements of Rebuild of Evangelion?

Click to shrink...

As is common for Evafics nowadays, although I have the primary continuity of the main series, I will cherrypick bits from the Extended Universe and other continuities as I see fit, often warping them to fit roles in the story. For example, you already saw last chapter that Mana exists as the pilot of the Jet Alone equivalent, although she's a young Lieutenant rather than the age of the Children.

 

[Jonen C]

Chapter 16's with the beta reader right now. I thought I should get this done, with the indexing, rather that have to do that when I really want to get the story up. Plus, it's proof that I haven't just been lazing around.

Click to shrink...

Also in the plus column, you get to tease us so.


Teasing teaser who teases.

As is common for Evafics nowadays, although I have the primary continuity of the main series, I will cherrypick bits from the Extended Universe and other continuities as I see fit, often warping them to fit roles in the story. For example, you already saw last chapter that Mana exists as the pilot of the Jet Alone equivalent, although she's a young Lieutenant rather than the age of the Children.

Click to shrink...

(Honestly expected you were going to explode a little at the mere mention of Rebuild.)

 

[EarthScorpion]

Chapter 16


The Panhuman Functionality / 'I have no comfort for thee; no not one;


EVANGELION

~'/|\'~​

"Chicago-2 has been the capital of the New Earth Government since its foundation. What was once a temporary set-up for the headquarters of the New United Nations, after the destruction of New York-1 in the First Arcanotech War, has become permanent. However, with the state of affairs of the modern world, we must acknowledge that this is merely tradition, and we are not bound to the Second Cold War politics which meant that the headquarters of the NUN had to be in the now-defunct United States of America. Africa and South America are the main population centres of panhumanity now, the two continents least touched by the wars which have ravaged the world. And when the somewhat tenuous state of affairs on the North American Front is taken into account, we must ask ourselves; 'How long can Chicago-2 remain the capital?' Are the resources spent and risks taken really worth it?"

Ruby Okina

'To the Cradle Once More' ​

~'/|\'~​

A luminescent shimmer played across the gemstone-encrusted gold of the roof. The precious stones caught the light from the water below, caught it and sent it forth in all directions. Prismatic sprays sparkled against the wet walls of this underground cavern, catching the gilded coral edged in tarnished brazen green in strange lights. This place, this far-reaching cavern that had been built through uncounted ages, and whose history was written in foot-eroded rock, was a wonder of light.


All bar the centre, for the gemstones and the waters and the gold had all been positioned such that the supplicants, blinded by the radiance, could not see that which dwelt in the centre. In wondrous light, they were blind, and that was good, for their sight would despoil this sacred place.


Three of one, the chant went out. Three of one, and one of another. Patterns of war, patterns of hate, patterns of betrayal and of lust, have been painted in the sacred ways. Already the stirring has begun. Three of one and one of another.


The towering figure in the centre of this holy place gave no sign of acknowledgement.

~'/|\'~​

16th of October, 2091

[We are beginning our final approach to Chicago-2,] the autopilot stated crisply. [Please put your seats in an upright position, rotate them to face toward the rear of the craft, return your trays to vertical, and ensure that your safety belts are fastened.]


Shinji Ikari sighed, wiping his brow as he looked up from the homework in front of him. Then, with a groan, he stretched in his seat, sweeping the A4-sized work-PCPU into the stowage compartment, and looked around the plushly appointed interior of the cargo module.


He had to admit, this was a much nicer flight than the ones he'd taken flying to London-2 months ago. When senior members of Ashcroft Groups travelled, it seemed they travelled in style. Only the screens replacing two walls with views of the outside broke the illusion that he could have been in one of the hospitality suites down in the Geocity all along. And the fact that he only felt mildly nauseous from the journey was a nice change, too.


He nudged Kensuke, beside him, in the ribs, and the other boy jolted upright. "Huh! Ow!"


"Landing," Shinji said, simply.


"Oh, cool!" The other boy twisted around, to stare out the unreal windows. "So, when're we going to be getting to see the city! You know, the Chicago-2 docks are a masterpiece! Although they're hardly anything compared to Durban-A... did you know, that entire city is basically naval grade nanofactories, or Nacala... that's an original, pre-AW1 city, if you can believe it, despite how important it is, or... well, they're amazing. They broke almost the entire lake into diamond honeycombs and then filled them in so they're like silos, except they build the ships aligned vertically and..."


Shinji felt his mind begin to ache at the completely unnecessary and extensive lecture which he was receiving, and tuned out.


"You can already see it," he heard Dr Akagi say, from the other side of the compartment. Her harcontacts were, for once, off, and she was wearing a high-necked white jumper which made her look peculiarly civilian. "That's not cloud down there. It's snow."

~'/|\'~​

Ten thousand dragons' teeth, cast in steel and diamond, sprouted upwards from the frozen ground. Between them, a gossamer web of spiderweb lattice tied these spires together, delicate-looking compared to the spires of the citadel towers, but numerous and interconnected, so each was bound to many others. And then the hanging delta wing of the transport came around, swinging towards the north, to the landing pads, and the scale of Chicago-2, capital of the New Earth Government, became evident.


This was not a city like London-2, like Tokyo-3, like the ruins of Berlin-2. Those cities were squat and heavy, above-ground pyramidal arcologies more akin to artificial mountains than structures which dominated the landscape. Even the buildings separate from those heavy presences were armoured blocks, designed to provide cheaper housing in-between the fortifications. And in such places, the populace hid below the ground, in bubbleform spheres separated by armoured layers, culminating in a Geocity, kilometres down. But Chicago-2, despite the fortifications, despite the armoured layers and the bunkers and the standing cyclopean monuments of capital defence systems, was light, and airy. The inhabitants lived in natural light, away from the synthetic radiance of glowstrips. Under the sparking structures of diamond, greenery bloomed, growing upwards in nested vineyards and rainforests and outwards in building-connecting bubbles. Outside may have been a frozen wasteland, an ecology dying as the Migou slowly cooled the planet; inside it was alive, the chlorophyll green that was the colour of the NEG everywhere.


This almost delicate beauty was a sign of the city's age. It was the flagship city built post-AW1, distinct from the first crude fumbling attempts at arcologies , which had died in Nazzadi fire, and the squat, armoured landscapes of the strange aeon; towering needles of diamond and light. It would not be built now.


The delta wing was but one of the many dark birds swooping in to the north of the city, towards the wide flat expanse of the former lake and the clear firing lines around it. Circling, circling, each one the target of defence systems watching vigilant for treachery, the crafts waited for permission land, even as a fresh flurry of snow from the clouds rolling in from the north obscured vision further. The greenery and light of the city was no longer visible from the cameras around the plane, and, as they waited for a landing space, all that was left to see was the cold militarism of the northern side of Chicago-2, the hulking shapes, low against the ground and blurred by active camouflage, of defence systems.


Eventually, though, the landing call came – though Kensuke had to be forced back into his seat by some stern words from the Major – and silently the A-Pods moved to vertical alignment, the LAI pilot bringing the craft in for descent into one of the hexagonal landing bays. A digital opera between the aeroplane and the station systems ensued, choral binary synching and linking systems, and the six cargo capsules detached from the framework of the delta wing, leaving it a skeletal remnant of its laden form. LAI-controlled gantries and umbilical connectors swung into position, one connecting up to each wall, even as the lifter ascended, up into the sky above.


With the grating of gears, the hexagonal ceiling sealed, the boom of displaced air resounding through the room.


"Well, come on," Misato said, trailing her suitcase behind her as she made her way to the exit umbilical. One hand went up to adjust the way her red beret sat on her head. "We need to get moving, because they'll want a fast turnaround."


"Make sure you have everything," Ritsuko sighed, as she checked the back of the seat in front of her.


"I do, I do..."


The blonde ran her hand through her freshly re-dyed hair. "I was talking to the children, Misato," she said sarcastically, as the other passengers started to leave by the umbilical connector, and they followed.


"I can't believe the Foundation would do something like go to a completely different Region for a weekend! I mean... all the way to North America. This is so cool," Kensuke exclaimed, as he stepped off the gantry, bouncing up and down on his toes as he stood on the terrain of a new continent. "I haven't got to do this since my dad got moved from Brasilia-A! And this is just a weekend thing!"


Toja grinned, his eyes flicking down Misato's back. "Shinji gets all the luck, man," he affirmed, wrapping one arm around Shinji's shoulder. "So, come on, how much have you seen? You know what I mean."


Shinji shrugged away. "Stop messing around," he said, blushing faintly. "Anyway... um, you're friends with me because of my charming wit and... right, not because of anything like this?"


"Nope," Toja said, grinning.


[Remember, citizens,] stated a warm-sounding male voice over unseen speakers, [keep your personal possessions on you at all times. Bags left unattended will be treated as a security threat. Thank you for your cooperation.]


"Nope, pretty much the material benefits," Kensuke added, light-heartedly, ignoring the routine announcement.


"Because, I mean, I'm pretty sure I could have invited some other people along. Like... um, well, Hikary is nice, and I bet Taly would have wanted to go," Shinji said, trying to sound casual, "and... that is a big dog," he added, slowly, as the low-pitched growl of the monster by the ArcSec officer grew louder.


The dogs were armoured beasts, wearing the same colour armour as their handlers, their shoulders reaching the panhumans' waists. Their growls were bass reverberations that echoed in the gut, as they sniffed. The bulbous CATSEYE sensors mounted in their helmets gave them an almost un-canine appearance. One padded closer to Kensuke, and the boy paled, beads of sweat visible in the bright light. It passed, and he slumped in visible relief.


"Those things are scary," he muttered.


Shinji raised his eyebrows. "I think that's sort of the point," he said, trying to keep the slight shake out of his voice. He encountered them fairly frequently down in the Geocity, but they were still intimidating.


"Yeah, but drones are nice and clean and... a CATSEYE drone feels safe, you know. But those things... I bet they weigh as much as I do, in armour."


"One of my neighbours has a retired ArcSec dog," Toja said, looking considerably less worried than the others. "They're actually pretty nice dogs... at least, she is. Think they're chipped for control, anyway, so it's not like they'll just go for you."


Kensuke rolled his eyes. "Oh, sure, the fact they have chips in their brain means that... oooh!" Whatever her was about to say was interrupted by his rather girlish squeal, and a dash that left his face pressed against a window, staring down at a loading bay. "Look... look at that!" One hand scrambled in a pocket for his PCPU. "Is that... that is! It really is!"


"What's going on?" Shinji asked, flinching, and looking around warily.


"It's an entire bay of combat mecha," Kensuke exhaled, in tones of religious awe. "Let's see, let's see... are they ZNB-12s or ZNB-13s? Oooh, yes, yes, they're ZNB-13s! They lost the micromissile launcher of the -12, but sources widely agree that the replacement of the old-style laser cannons with the latest high end plasmathrowers more than compensates for it, making them a superior combatant by far in urban areas. Moreover..."


"Aren't you just quoting that from those websites you read?" Toja asked, drifting over.


"Besides the point. And... look!" Kensuke continued, running over into the window on the other side. "Heavy powered armour; those look like REV-9As, which are the best new and upcoming design, considerably smaller than other things in the same combat class due to radical new enhancements in their D-Engines. Of course, civilian arcanotechnology is generations behind military stuff... do you know that the engines available to the civilian market haven't been improved in almost twenty years?" With fevered eyes, the boy glanced back at Shinji. "This is so cool!" he breathed. "I didn't realise... of course, we're using a private Ashcroft landing area. And that means that I get to see military tech on the pads, ready for deployment. And..." he ran off, ahead of the group. "... so cool!"


Shinji didn't say anything, only staring in vague bemusement. He didn't feel as well as he had; there was a slight throb behind one eyeball that marked an oncoming headache, and he felt slightly sick. Inwardly, he groaned, at the symptoms of airsickness which had apparently decided to make themselves known just after he got off the plane.


[The security and well-being of citizens is our main objective. Please cooperate fully with any ArcSec or airport staff who approach you.]


"Well. He seems to be enjoying himself," Misato remarked, with a slightly flirty smile. "I guess that's his favourite bit of our little date."


Toja let out a chuckle, and massaged the back of his neck. "Yeah, Ken's always been like that," he remarked, sounding slightly embarrassed. "If... like, he could find a way to take a mecha to the prom as a date, he totally would."


Shinji groaned. "Don't call it a 'date', Misato," he muttered softly. "You'll just give them ideas."


The woman had rather sharper ears than he had hoped. "Now, now, Shinji, don't get jealous. A woman has ne..." her sentence was interrupted by Ritsuko tapping her on the head with her PCPU.


"Don't joke about that sort of thing," the scientist said severely, as they paused, waiting while an airlock cycled. "That is completely inappropriate!"


"Thank you," Shinji exhaled.


"Well, I'm sorry that none of you have a sense of fun," Misato drawled. She shrugged. "Anyway, Shinji, Toja..." she shot a glance in Kensuke's direction, "... uh, you two. Just remember you've got most of today to yourselves. I've sent you the time and place when you have to meet up... that's at Ashcroft Headquarters. We'll take your suitcases there, too, because we've got private transport there."


Toja grinned broadly. "Thanks," he said, sounding slightly relieved.


The woman gave him a sparkling grin, as the bright lights above cast her face into a pattern of light and shadow. "No problem," she remarked. "I..." and then she trailed off, as a patrol of armoured troopers, the stylised 'A' of the Ashcroft Foundation on their semi-powered armour crossed the intersection in front of them, heading towards one of the boarding areas. Only one of them was not wearing a helmet; a pale-skinned man, balding despite his youth, with thin aristocratic features.


His gaze swept over their group, as he passed, and the corners of his lips turned up slightly, before he passed out of sight, lost among the troupe.


There was a high-pitched squeak from Kensuke. "That was Eschaton XI-H semi-powered heavy combat armour! Wow! I didn't even know it was past the prototype stage! I mean, I got to see the XI-F when it came to the school... that was so cool, but..."


"Ken. Shhh." Despite the fact that he was back on solid ground, Shinji felt his head sway and gut clench from that old, familiar sensation of air sickness, and he swayed, head suddenly spinning. The lights in the room were flaring bright in the corners of his eyes, and he really hoped that he wasn't about to vomit all over the floor in public like this. That would be humiliating. He slumped slightly, leaning into Misato, who was rod-stiff. "Sorry," the boy apologised, looking up at his guardian.


The woman was tight-lipped and pale, her Eyes narrow, synthetic pupils contracted to pin-pricks. "It's fine," she said, in a distant voice.


"Are you feeling all right, Shinji?" Ritsuko asked, genuine-seeming concern in her eyes.


"I..." Shinji swallowed, tasting bile in his own mouth. "I get... uh, very airsick. I was feeling okay, but... it must have been standing up or something, because..."


Dr Akagi sighed. "Urgh, don't talk to me about that," she said, voice clipped, but with some sympathy in her eyes. "Gendo is just the same. He usually sleeps through flights if he can... do the normal anti air-sickness tablets not work for you, either?"


Shinji shook his head mutely, despite the fact that it made the world spin more. He should be feeling more annoyed at another sign that he and his father were, in fact, related, but at the moment he was simply feeling too ill for any other response.


The blonde sighed. "Toja, can you grab Mr Aida... by the ear if you have to. Let's just get through the final security gate quickly." She shook her head. "Or at least find somewhere to sit down."

~'/|\'~​

Elsewhere in the city, deeper, away from the shining diamond and lush vegetation, were darker things hidden away.


[Please remove all metal objects from your person.] Even the mechanical voice of the LAI managed to sound bored. [Weapons are to be placed separately in the marked container. When that is done, please change in the security booth. Your co-operation is appreciated.]


Ryoji Kaji shrugged, as he slipped off his shoes, placing them on the scanner. The tiling was cold underfoot, he found, and he sat right down on the benches in the changing room, feeling like a fool as he scampered to avoid spending too much time in contact with the ground. He could feel the ridged bumps of integral wards engraved on the darker tiles, even through his socks, and cursed whoever hadn't heated the floor. Making his uncomfortable way over to the scanner, he checked that the safety was on and slipped the magazine out of his handgun. Keys and wallet went into the blue box, separately, but as he reached for his PCPU, he noticed that he'd missed a message.


"Wait one minute, please," the unshaven man said, raising one finger, to signal to the security guard who was watching him in person, a panhuman component to the electronic grid. "Just have to make a call." Sitting back down, he booted his harcontacts back up, and slid the jack back into the port just behind his right ear. The presence of the screen display on his harcontacts was reassuring, although the agent would never admit it to anyone. Control pad in his hand, he selected Asuka's portrait, and checked his missed message.


Kaji smiled slightly. He might as well make the call. He still had plenty of time before his appointment, and it wouldn't do to have her asking questions about what she was up to. The hum of the line was only present for mere seconds before the girl picked up; she had clearly had her PCPU close to hand.


"Hello? Kaji?" she asked, the noise of the city in the background.


"Hello, Asuka," he subvocalised, relying on his throatmike to catch it. "Sorry I missed your call; security checks, you know."


There was a snort. "Oh, I knew there had to be a good reason. You wouldn't just not answer me, would you?"


"Of course not," was his response. "Listen, I'm going to be busy in meetings for the rest of the day, so was this anything important. I should be back by eight at the very latest, so..."


"Mmm, I knew you had an early start and late finish. Poor Kaji," the girl said sympathetically. "They work you so hard. Up at all hours." There was a pause, and the crying of a child could be heard, distantly, over the connection. "I'm with Uncle Cal right now," Asuka added. "I'm going to be spending the day with him, because they actually gave me a day off, as Unit 02 is being loaded, and the team are supervising that so can't run the normal checks. I don't think I'll go soft from a single day off, do you?"


"I wouldn't dream that that would be possible," Kaji reassured her, smiling faintly. "I've seen your performance."


"Mmm." The noise was rather smug. "Anyway, he says he has something planned, and then later today we're meeting up with Major Katsuragi... she's the Director of Operations for the Project, and Dr Akagi, who's the Director of Science for the entire Group. I've met her a few times; she's been in charge for basically as long as I can remember, and... what's the matter?"


The pony-tailed man, freshly shaven, was trying to hold in laughter. "I..." he swallowed, forcing himself to be calmer, and mostly succeeding. "It's... mmm, I've heard of those two. They've a bit of a reputation."


"They certainly do," the girl said, proudly. "Dr Akagi's a genius, from the times I've met her; she put Dr Schauderhaft to shame last time on the point of the upgrade to the D-Engines, and she was barely out of university when she took over the Group. And Major Katsuragi... I've seen her combat record. For a conventional mecha pilot... she's pretty good." Asuka sniffed. "Of course, if she'd upgraded to a proper ACXB mecha she'd have been better, but, still... hopefully under their command, I'll be properly appreciated."


[Please do not delay,] the bored-sounding LAI said.


"Mmm." The man was still stifling his amusement, ignoring the LAI. "So... how are you?" he asked, clearly trying to change the topic.


"It's certainly colder this morning," Asuka remarked, annoyance in her tone. "Seriously, is it something about this city? Can't they keep their internal temperature settings constant or something? It's been getting colder every day I've been here; does winter really set on this fast, here? Well, I suppose that's to be expected, if you're going to build all these stupid spires, rather than a proper pyramidal arcology or subterrasphere. This place is obsolete. I tell you, when they move the capital to somewhere else, which is clearly going to happen soon, it'd better be somewhere warmer."


Kaji listened to her rant with a hint of amusement which he purged from his voice. "Yes," he said non-committed. "Well, it's true it felt a bit colder this morning, but, then again, maybe it's just a local thing. A problem with the spire. I feel fine now."


"No, it's not. This entire city is cold. I wish I was back in Ostberlin-2," Asuka said, somewhat sulkily. "London-2 had better be warmer... it's further south, so that should better for getting away from this cold. Stupid Migou and their carbon-locking."


Kaji nodded. "Listen," he started, "I've got to make the meeting, and..."


"Sure!" He could almost see the grin on the girl's face, even though the portrait in his harcontacts was static. "See you tonight!"


Smiling paternally, Kaji shook his head, and checked his pockets again, fishing out a half-empty packet of chewing gum.


[Please disconnect all electronic devices from cybernetic interfaces before entering the changing booth,] reminded the LAI.


The man sighed, and pulled out the jack, his eyes returning to their natural colour. Despite his nerves, he was not shaking. He was trained too well for that, and the endocrinal control helped what that did not cover. And the talk with Asuka had been a welcome distraction in its own way.


He certainly didn't need to be thinking about what he was about to do.

~'/|\'~​

[Attention. This is an Arcology Security announcement. Following the recent widespread public disorder in the Millennium District, Arcology Security is looking for the culprits. Information leading to prosecutions will be rewarded. Remember, we are here for your safety and security.]


The buzz of the high-ceilinged train station, the gateway to Chicago-2, was an omnipresent hum. Three boys, awake and fully alert thanks to the shots they'd had midway through the flight, were ready and willing to face the dangers and sample the pleasures of the capital city of the New Earth Government.


"You feelin' all right, right now?" Toja asked, concern in his red eyes.


Shinji took several deep breaths, inhaling through his nose and out through his mouth. "Yeah?" he tried, swallowing, mercifully without the taste of bile. "Yeah, I think I am. I get over it pretty quickly" Another deep breath. "Yes, yes." He shook his head, touching his brow with the back of his hand and finding it slightly clammy, but no more than a little. "Yes. I... I told you I get airsick, right?" He forced a grin. "At least I'm feeling better than when Misato drives."


"She drives?" Kensuke asked, enthusiastically. "What model of car? What's it like?"


Shinji shook his head. "Can't remember. The model, that is. It's aerocapable, and... look, the inside sort of looks military. Crash seats and lots of switches and things, you know?"


"Hmm." The other boy stroked his jaw. "Not sure I recognise the model... of course, you're not exactly giving it all the attention it deserves, because it sound wonderful. You said military... a modified police-level car, perhaps. Or maybe..."


"I wasn't paying attention to that," Shinji admitted. "Sorry. But... you know the stuff that fighter planes do... you know, like in films? Well, of course you do," he remarked, looking at Kensuke's avid face. "Yeah. Like that."


"Really?" The boy's eyes were wide. "Oh, wow!"


"I don't think this is... hey, watch where you're going," Toja snapped at a gaggle of younger girls who pushed past them. "


Shinji pulled a face. "I don't think you had to shout like that," he chided.


[Sa-di iteruesdutabi absul homisapi estel hi suluscipi delo kiviliti pla kontrunosesi serabi Newi Earthi Governmenti,] proclaimed a propaganda broadcast in Nazzadi, a noise in the background.


The nazzada blinked. "I'm an older brother. Yes, you do have to shout," he said, flatly. "And, yeah, I don't think that really matters. I mean, if Miss Katsuragi were to dignify us with a ride in her car, letting us climb in and going for a spin..."


"If you say 'if you know what I mean', it will go very badly for you," Shinji warned his friend.


"Wouldn't think of it," Toja lied. "But, yeah. The blonde one said she sent you a map and a guidebook, didn't she, yeah?" Shinji nodded, and fumbled for his PCPU. "Well, we got... uh, six or so hours before we have to think about meetin' up back at Ashcroft HQ. What do you want to do?"


The dark-haired boy paused, and coughed. "Um..."

~'/|\'~​

With a grunt, Ritsuko dumped the last suitcase in the boot of the aerocar, and wiped her brow on her jumper. "That's all of them?" she asked.


Misato nodded.


"Well." The blonde slammed the boot shut, only for it to bounce off the obstructions. "Oh, what now!" she exclaimed. "Did... did that sound like something breaking to you? Oh well." Ritsuko shrugged. "It wasn't my suitcase on top. Or yours," she hastened to add. "Let me just..." she poked at the suitcases, nudging them down so that they were no-longer stopping the boot from closing, "... done."


"Hah."


"So... heading to Ashcroft Headquarters first?" she asked, rhetorically. "Of course we are. Unless we want to go..." Ritsuko tilted her head. "You're rather quiet," she remarked.


Misato blinked, and shook her head. "Just a bit... distracted," she said, eyes flicking from side to side.


The scientist shrugged. "Oh, Shinji'll be fine," she said, heartlessly. "I meant it when I said that Representative Ikari is the same. They spend all the time on any plane feeling sorry for themselves, and they're fine not long after hitting the ground. Although you could have helped more with the bags. One of us is milspec enhanced, and it's not me."


The dark-haired woman made an apologetic sound. "Uh... sorry. I was..."


"... yes, a bit distracted, you said. Come on. I need to get to a proper Desk soon; I can't handle most of the work I need to do without a proper secure connection."

~'/|\'~​

"I can't believe you didn't actually have a plan," Toja remarked, in a disappointed tone. The dark-skinned boy folded his arms, and leant forwards on the rail, the blue radiance of the sign on the opposite wall washing across his face.


"It's not like I get time off normally," Shinji protested. "And Misato sprung this on me on Wednesday... me, I thought I was just going to get some time to do nothing."


"Yeah, but..." Toja blew out air. "Think quick," he said, gazing out over the sight of the shipyards. "Or else Kensuke'll just keep draggin' us on more things like this."


Hugging himself, Shinji rubbed his forearms, and regretted not brining a jumper with him. It was chillier here in Chicago-2 than he was used it. It might have been psychological, he had to admit; the sight of the frozen, snow-covered land around the shining urban spires, rather than the reassuring safe enclosure of a proper arcology dome, felt cold to him. But, psychological or not, the hairs on the back of his neck were standing on end, and they couldn't even get below ground, because him and Toja had, through lack of other ideas, agreed to let Kensuke have what they had unofficially dubbed 'happy-fun military time'.


"I'll get looking on the guidebook," Shinji agreed, hastily.

~'/|\'~​

[We are now approaching our final destination, the Chicago-2 headquarters of the Ashcroft Foundation,] the LAI pilot-system of the aerocar announced, as the driverless craft followed its assigned path, broadcasting the correct codes to not be atomised by the large numbers of defence systems trained on it. At the moment, it was rising vertically towards its destination, one of the recessed landing bays built into the connecting strands between the two towers. [Built in 2067 by the famous architect Mohammed...]


"Skip the tour guide," Ritsuko sighed. "We've seen it before and it's not that impressive... Misato, stop staring."


The dark-haired woman pouted slightly. "It's still pretty," she muttered. "Look," she added, pointing at the twin helical towers that twined around each other, the chemical basis of life on earth hewn in architectural form. "You have to admit that's nicer looking than the pyramid Representative Ikari spends his time in. And what about the fact that you've got a view from here, looking over the city, rather than the L2 way of putting everyone in domes? Doesn't... you know, sunlight and stuff mean anything to you?"


"I prefer the Geocity and Central Dogma," Ritsuko retorted. "That's impractical and clearly designed for PR. I worked there for a year, and it's a nightmare. I was so glad when they moved the department I was with underground, into the places where we can actually get some work done without having to deal with a place made for aesthetics rather than practical design considerations."


There was a silence, then Misato smiled, cheering up noticeably. "Oh yes," she said, a lilt in her voice, "I'd forgotten you were agro... agora... scared of open spaces."


"I am not agoraphobic, I just..." she paused, as her harcontacts chimed, and she bought them online. "Wait a moment, a call from Lieutenant Ibuki, back in L2? And it's set to high priority?"


The Major nodded. "Take it," she said.


Ritsuko raised one finger to her ear, and answered it. "What is it, Maya?" she asked.


"Just to tell you... um," the younger woman cleared her throat over the link, "your cats are fine and they're not ill and they certainly haven't been sick all over the floor in the kitchen and even if they had, I've cleaned it up."


Ristuko blinked. "Well... okay," she managed. "Look, I really appreciate it, and..."


"Oh, it was no problem at all, Dr Akagi... I like cats... think nothing of it really... it was no problem!" She drew a breath. "Look I have to go but just to tell you that everything's fine! Bye!"


The connection was cut, and the blonde blinked a few times, tilting her head slightly. Eventually, she shrugged. "Where was I?" she asked Misato. "Oh yes. Not agoraphobic. It's just a mild anxiety condition aggravated by crowds. Completely different thing. And..." the aerocar shifted under the two women as it touched down, the hum of the engine fading. With a click, the doors unlocked, porters already scrambling to help them unload the unmanned vehicle. "Hmm. So you want to stay in here and enjoy the warmth a little more?" the blonde asked wryly, tilting her head.


Misato snorted. "Wimp," she said, amusement in her voice, before she opened the door wide, letting the freezing air in. "Come on," she said, after clambering out, offering her hand to her friend. "The sooner you get moving, the sooner you can get back into the buildings. Even if you think they're annoying, at least they're warm... actually, they're really warm. And look at it from up here!" Facing south, Misato spread her arms wide, staring down at the shining city below and around, gleaming diamond interspersed with chlorophyll green. "Come on, you have to admit that this is really beautiful!"


"Cold-not-feeling monster," Ritsuko muttered, hugging herself, hands tucked under her armpits and breath steaming. "Come on, let's get back into the nice warm buildings."

~'/|\'~​

Shinji sighed, leaning back against the wall. This area was high-ceilinged and open, white-painted and almost slightly incomplete-looking, with the diamond-glass facing of one wall giving the illusion of exposure to the outside. This was unusual enough for him; both Tokyo-3 and London-2 were to a large degree sphere-clusters, snug and safe underground, rather than these expansive sealed buildings reaching upwards. Darker clouds were moving in, obscuring the blue sky, and he had heard people mention that it looked like more snow. Rubbing his hands together to warm them from the chill which also seemed to be present in this spire, he leaned back a little more, neck hunched into the warmer jumper he'd just bought to stave off the cold


His stomach made a grumbling noise, and he looked back down, fishing in a pocket for his PCPU. "List recommended restaurants," he told the Augmented Reality Interface.


[Preferred type of food?] the muse asked.


The boy tilted his head. He didn't feel too hungry, he thought, as he watched a pair of local ArcSec officers patrolling, their dark blue and white uniforms trim, and their faceplates clear. He should probably ask the others what they wanted.


Honestly, why had Misato got him to come with her, anyway? Unit 01 was not repaired yet, so he couldn't use it. She and Dr Akagi were here for a conference, and had apparently taken him along for... well, he couldn't really see a reason. But now, instead of him getting the time off, he was instead having to put up with an obligation to have a good time, and Shinji was feeling a little resentful about that. Given a choice, he really would much rather have stayed back in London-2. He could have had time off, could have sat around doing not much, could maybe have found out about some places which the locals really knew about... oh, and he could have gone to a party that a rather attractive girl had invited him to.


"Just pick the places with the best ratings," he told ARI, sticking his left hand into his pocket. Yes, it wasn't even as if one city were much different from another. London-2 and Tokyo-3 could have almost been nanofac replicas of each other, and even if Chicago-2 was sort of pretty, with the plant-filled diamond towers, what was he meant to do? Go around the museums like some kind of gawping tourist? Go shopping, which was utterly meaningless when the economic homogenisation of the world meant that it wasn't even as if he could get anything cheaper here? He'd had a long flight, felt ill because of it, was only not jetlagged because of pharmaceutical compounds in his blood, and... for what?


Maybe it was just a thing about the older generations, an obsession with travel and going to other places. But as it was, he felt a bit guilty to realise that he was feeling sort of bored here, Shinji thought morosely, staring at the glowing screens in front of him, which stretched from wall to wall in the concourse. The civil authorities were busy 'naming and shaming' individuals prosecuted in riots in a district here in Chicago-2, Nazzadi face after Nazzadi face flashing up. Assault, assault, breaking and entering, arson... Shinji sighed, and turned away. Scanning the area, he noticed Toja heading in his direction, a bag in each hand, and waved.


"Heya," the other boy said, when they had made their way over to each other. "Got it all done." Shinji made a non-committal noise, which Toja clearly took as some noise of disapproval, because he stiffened slightly. "Hey, listen, my little sister went to my dad and told him that I should be nice and buy these things for her... and I'm pretty sure I'm being used as a mule or something for her friends, too. Stupid region specific releases. So..." he added, his face darkening with embarrassment, "... if you want to make a thing about why I'm carrying around all these things for ten year old girls, that's the reason, okay! It's not my choice!"


"I didn't say anything," Shinji protested, turning back around to stare over, out of the window to the sparkling city outside. "Look... oh, there's free seats down there, you want to sit down?"


Heading down, Toja claimed three seats, sinking down with a sigh of relief, while Shinji darted into the nearby Boomer's Coffee for drinks. "It was a white spiced coffee you wanted? No sugar?"


"Yeah, exactly that. Glad you got it right." The darker-skinned boy took a long slurp. "What'd you get yourself?" he asked, with only mild curiosity in his voice.


"Green tea," Shinji replied, taking a sip, and screwing up his face. "Urgh... this is way too sweet. Who sweetens green tea?" He sighed, and took another sip. "Urgh."


"Take it back and complain, then," Toja replied, his attention shifting. "Hey, what do you think that building is, over there... the one surrounded by all those biodomes?" he asked, pointing at a particular spire which rose, alone, from low-rise greenery.


"I don't know... probably government or megacorp owned," Shinji said, with a shrug. "Someone rich. And... no. It'd be too much trouble to take it back. It's not that bad... it's just not very good."


Toja shot him a glance. "Seriously, what's that meant to be?" he asked. "Too much trouble. The place is right there!"


Shinji slumped slightly, flapping a hand in non-answer. Hunched over, he drank his overly-sweet green tea, lost in thought. The drink was at least helping against the cold, although the hairs on the back of his neck were still standing on end. He braced himself, and took as large a sip as he could and swallowed, for the warmth rather than the taste.


"You really don't take charge or stuff, do you?" Toja interrupted, tilting his head. "I mean, I though..." he looked around, clearly considering his words, "... I guess I thought you..." he sighed. "Never mind."


Shinji shifted slightly, moving his weight from one leg to the other. "You thought wrongly," he said quietly. "Seriously, I'd much rather have been at home this weekend, getting homework done, and... just getting to do nothing, okay? I mean, I do the cooking and stuff around the house anyway, and...if Misato wasn't there, I'd get a chance to actually start winning on the cleaning front."


"Man." The dark-skinned boy shook his head. "Listen to yourself. 'I want to clean on my weekend off'. That's just not right."


Shinji glared at him; a glare which would have been considerably more effective had he not been trying to keep a straight face. "... okay, that is a bit wrong," he conceded. "But the catching up on work, and the getting to do nothing parts were the important parts. That was just... a side," he added, weakly.


Toja slapped him on the shoulders. "Then clearly what me an' Kensuke have got to do is make this as much fun for you, 'cause, really, you clearly can't have fun on your own!"


With a raise of his eyebrows, Shinji sighed. "I can have fun," he said, with a note in his voice which showed that he already suspected that he was going to lose this argument. "And it's fine to just be getting time off, to do things with friends. You two don't need to treat me specially."


"Hey, I just spent fifteen minutes queuing for girl's stuff at a corp nanofac, and I'm sure I'm gonna be gettin' ads for that sort of stuff for the next month," Toja proclaimed. "See the sacrifices I can make for friends and family. Come on! Let's go find Kensuke, and we'll find something actually fun to do, before he can go drag us off to a military history museum or something."

~'/|\'~​

The clacking of fingers was a beat to the hum of the fan overhead.


'I've been in contact with Mal from the 02 team, and he's confirmed that the Eva's fully operational. It's fitted with the Type B-1F for transport, in case of an attack and forced deployment, but the components to restore it to the default Type-B are also in transit, and 02's science guy tells me that they've got switch-over down to three days. So don't move onto 00 yet; make sure that 01 is completely done, and don't rush it. I want two Evas operational if at all possible from now on. If Rits gives you trouble about that, tell her to take it to me; this is directly an Operations matter.'


With a shake of her head, the Major flicked her Eyes across the virtual message. "Fill in the rest and check it," she ordered her muse, the LAI complying, correcting spelling, polishing the language, and occasionally prompting her for clarification of points. With one last read-through, the dark-haired woman sent it into the queue to be transmitted to L2 with the next squirt.


Yawning, Misato stretched out, pushing her chair away from the Desk. Hands behind her head, she flexed her fingers. The sensitivity settings on this Desk didn't feel quite right, even though she'd imported the settings across, and it was the same model as the Desk back in her office. How annoying.


Still, unless someone had been stupid enough to send important mail by low priority datasquirt, she'd dealt with everything she needed to. An idle thought, and she checked the status update from the Armacham security forces trailing Shinji and his friends; she smiled as her muse grabbed the nearby security cameras. He seemed to be enjoying himself, which was good. She wished, as Misato, that she didn't have to force him to train so much, but as Major Katsuragi, she was quite aware of the necessities of his position as the Third Child.


Crossing her legs on the chair, she idly spun around a few times. Yes, she'd covered everything... hmm, should she talk to Captain Martello from the Unit 02 team in person? There were a few things she thought she probably needed to bring up, but there was no need to do it face to face, really, and they were moving the Evangelion over. She would have plenty of chances to talk to him then. Yes, no need to book an extra meeting while she was in Chicago-2 before the scheduled one just prior to loading Unit 02 up.


"Stop that. Please," Ritsuko said, acidly.


Misato tilted her head, slowing her spin to stare at the blonde. "Stop what?"


"Spinning like that. I can see you moving in my periphery, and it's ruining my focus."


"Oh." Misato shrugged. "Um... don't look at me, then?"


The scientist smiled acidly. "If they're going to have us share a temporary office, then, please, can you not be so distracting? Go... go get changed for the Daeva meeting, if you've finished everything. Just leave me to work in peace, because I have a lot of things I need to cover, and you're not helping. One bit."


Misato sighed. "Come on..."


"No, don't 'come on' me. I was working fine before..." Ritsuko blanched. "Oh. Did I just say that?"


The dark-haired woman's giggling seemed to suggest that, yes, she had in fact just said that.


"You're so immature," Ritsuko sighed. "Go get changed, and leave me to work, okay?"

~'/|\'~​

Whether by nature or nurture, Shinji Ikari had never been the most sociable of people. That was not to say that he had made a habit of staying in his room, glued to the Grid – quite unlike Kensuke, to name one individual currently in close proximity to him – but even back in Tokyo-3, he had been quite happy to be left alone sometimes. And , he was finding, the broad open lines of sight, and the sheer elevation of the spires that made up Chicago-2 were slightly disconcerting. Every few levels in the buildings, there were broad open concourses, one diamond wall seemingly open to the outside, lined with the shops and the communal activities of the people here. The bridges and connecting lines between spires, which had looked like silvery cobwebs from the air, were revealed to be multi-story bridges, connecting two of these spaces together.


The people of Chicago-2, or at least the ones who lived in the spires, played and relaxed in these threads, suspended above nothingness. To the subterrasphere-raised Shinji, that just seemed unnatural. Especially the bits where the floors were transparent.


"Come on, you can't be afraid of heights," was Kensuke's response, as he pointed this out, the three of them strolling along, heading in the general direction of the Ashcroft Headquarters where they were meant to meet back up with Misato. "I mean, seriously?" He paused for a moment, adjusting his arglasses. "Urgh, pop-up AR adverts on the walls and floor. Stupid sponsored guide service."


"Hey, if you don't want to get arverts, don't accept that sort of thing," Toja said, heartlessly. He patted his breast pocket. "Only wear them when you need them."


"No way." They continued along. "And, Shinji? That jumper makes you look like a tourist. Those topos on it are just tacky," he said, referring to the topological animated graphics on the smart fabric.


Shinji stuck his hands deeper into his pockets. "I didn't buy it for the topos," he informed Kensuke. "It's cold."


Tilting his head slightly, the other boy frowned. "No, not really. I'm fine in just a t-shirt."


"Must be a sign of how manly you are," Toja drawled. "And I'd like to point out that Shinji is totally right. Walking on those transparent bits is just a bit..." his mouth pursed, "... eugh."


"Wait a minute, you're just in a..."


"Yeah, why'd they have to go and do that," Shinji interrupted, to get the topic off the subject of whether he was apparently a wimp for feeling the cold.


Kensuke sighed. "Oh, you closed-in, naive underground dwelling people things... troglodytes, that's the word! So used to living in subterraspheres and closed in arcologies that you're scared of the natural world."


Toja looked at him flatly. "It's hundreds of metres down."


"So? I lived here for a few years when my dad was assigned here, and I wasn't scared of it, even when I was... like, seven or something."


"And you? Accusing anyone of being scared of the natural world? You're scared of dogs! And cats!"


"They're scary!"


Shinji coughed. "Uh... wasn't that where we were going to go next?" he asked, trying to break up the pointless bickering. "I mean, that looks like an arcade place."


Toja scanned the name. "Yep," he said, grinning. "We've got some time to kill, right? I checked some rec sites and this is meant to be a pretty good one... and it was close." He frowned slightly. "And had toilets. Look, I'll find you when I'm done."


Shinji and Kensuke were left to wander further into the arcade, coming to a stop by a vacant machine which proclaimed itself to be called 'Xtra Musik Rock'. The bespectacled boy smiled, stepping forwards, and immediately searched for a track. "Want to play?" he said, not waiting for an answer as he swiped for two player.


"Well... I play the cello, but I've never been a big fan of this type of game," Shinji admitted.


"Well, in that case I challenge you to a rock off!" Kensuke declared loudly, puffing out his chest. "Which makes it a matter of honour!"


Shinji shrugged. "Sure," he said, getting into position. And then was soundly trounced.


"We could try again?" he suggested. "Maybe on one not-so-fast paced?"


Defeat was his inevitable fate.


"One last go?"


No such luck.


Discarding the plastic controller, Shinji threw his hands up in the air. "Okay, I admit it," he said. "You're better at me at pressing buttons on a controller, which bears no resemblance at all to playing an actual instrument, as anyone who's played one ever would know."


Kensuke slapped him on the back, and smirked. "Easy, easy," he said. "Someone'd think you're getting upset about being totally slaughtered three times in a row."


"I'm not upset!" Shinji insisted. "It's just not at all like a real instrument, and I think everyone needs to know that." He blinked. "And where's Toja? Shouldn't he... you know, be out of the toilet by now?"


The other boy snorted. "Well, he'll find us," Kensuke remarked, as they resumed their stroll around the arcade, looking at what was there. The electronic facsimile of gunfire and loud music was an aural counterpart to the lights there; chaotic and bright. The game machines with Nazzadi players were particularly bad, Shinji felt, shivering, because the reduced colour sensitivity of the Nazzadi eye just meant that the primary colours were cranked way up, making the play of light in the peripheral vision almost painful. And with the noise, he was having to strain when his friend talked to him.


"Anyway, did you see the full Evangelion public announcement they put up yesterday?" Kensuke asked, looking highly enthusiastic. "It's way better – and longer, which is better – than the Wednesday one! And it means that people can now talk about how the proto-Engel – which everyone claimed was just a test-bed for experimental technologies, not a real weapon – well, it turned out to be real! Makes you wonder what other superweapons they're hiding from us!"


Shinji shot his friend a warning glare, and, when that was ignored, coughed. "Not interested," he managed, the security warnings he'd had from various people flashing through his mind. "And... they probably have a good reason for covering things up," he added, rather more weakly. The boy was aware that, yes, 'people would object if they knew we were using a teenager as a pilot' was technically a good reason to not let the public know, but from his admittedly somewhat-self-interested point of view, he found it rather objectionable.


Kensuke managed to look offended by that. "It's awesome!" he insisted. "Like... that's what people have been talking about online and IRL, ever since. And..." his brain caught up with his mouth. "I guess it is your we...ekend off, and I've been talking about it a lot, so..." he trailed off, as the careful choice of words ran short.


There was a faint twinge of guilt on Shinji's part. "I'm sorry," he muttered, "but... yeah, just please don't talk about that sort of stuff here. Why not..." he paused, as he thought through what he knew of Kensuke's other interests, beyond military hardware, and turned up mostly blanks. "How about some food?" he ventured.


"Sounds good, yeah," Kensuke said. "Maybe... oooh!" he exclaimed, snapping his fingers. "That reminds me! I sort of remembered a sort of secondary birthday present for you. Ish."


Shinji paused, distracted from his glance around the concourse. "Uh... thank you." His eyes flicked over Kensuke, noting the conspicuous lack of wrapped gifts, and the smirk on the other boy's face. "What is it?"


The arglassed boy's lipped twitched. "Oh, just the answers to all the maths homeworks I've done so far."


Blue eyes closed then opened again in surprise. "Thanks!" Shinji replied, with considerably more enthusiasm than before. "That's... actually really helpful."


"Toja's right," Kensuke said, more seriously. "You don't seem to relax. And on the way here, you were doing homework, rather than... watching a film, or anything. So... I sort of figured I'd help out." He slipped a hand into his pocket, bringing out a datastick. "I've anonymised this, but you still shouldn't load it up while your PCPU's Gridsynched, or it'll get flagged. Set up a read-only offline display mode on one device, and copy them in by hand to the homework. Best way."


Shinji nodded, smiling broadly, and thanked his friend again, feeling considerably more cheerful. That was his workload reduced by quite a bit. It didn't solve the problem of the essay-based subjects – and that was a point, as he would need to check through the answers to make sure that he both understood them, and that it wouldn't be obvious that he was copying Kensuke... how good was the other boy at maths, actually – but, still, it would be much better than the alternative. "What now?" he asked.


"Hmm." Folding his arms, Kensuke glanced around the room. "Aha!" A large screen, displaying images of gunplay-based violence drew the boy like a moth, and he flittered around it, staring at the performance of the person wearing an AR-helmet, a replica rifle in hand, who was fighting cultist. "Oh, they're pretty bad," he remarked, loudly. "Look at it, low on health, and barely out of the first level. Ha! Just wait until they come across the boss."


In actual fact, the boy playing the game didn't actually make it as far as any boss there may or may not have been. A contributing factor to his demise may have been the loud commentary from behind him, despite the padded helmet he was wearing. And the dirty look he shot Kensuke as he stalked off may have confirmed such suspicions. Nevertheless, like a bespectacled thunderbolt, Kensuke was remarkably fast at darting in to grab the helmet and rifle involved in the game, before he paused.


"You should have a go, Shinji," he said, offering them to his friend. "Come on. It's fun."


"Fine," Shinji sighed, picking up the dummy rifle, and taking the arhelmet from Kensuke, sliding it onto his head. "But you're paying for it, okay? And it's not a game. Um... I mean, sorry, it is a game, it's not anything else. Right?"


Kensuke grinned, taking advantage of the fact that Shinji could no longer see his expression. "Oh, sure," he said. "I just want to see how good you actually are at this. I mean, this is basically the same as... just another game."


Shinji sighed, and then sighted down the rifle, moving it around his augmented-reality-generated field of view. The leering faces of cultists stared back at him, while an introductory spiel explained whatever contrived plot meant that the character was storming a museum to rescue the President from cultists. Or something. Shinji would have quite willingly confessed, if anyone had asked him, that he wasn't really paying any attention to the plot. With a slightly thoughtful twist to his face, he noted how it felt quite a bit heavier in his arms than the rifle felt normally – when he was the... when he was in the Evangelion – and practiced moving his aim across the screen. Squeezing the trigger, he felt the thing kick against his shoulder, an electromagnet within the device emulating the recoil of a real weapon. It felt... the best phrase he could think of was probably 'low synch', like he was wearing thick gloves which damped the feeling he should have been having.


To distract himself from this unpleasant sensation in his own body, Shinji Ikari selected the Start icon, and entered a world of espionage and violence.

~'/|\'~​

Angels sang and demons whispered in the ears of Ryoji Kaji, as the muffled echoes of his padded footsteps reached him through the biohazard suit he was wearing. Lights flashed in the corners of his eyes, and that little sense in the back of his head, that screamed that something was wrong was hoarse from overuse. He followed the instructions he had, and kept his eyes dead ahead, to the night-black door at the end of the corridor, letting his implants keep him from panicking or flinching. This was not a place for human fear or mortal instincts.


A soft pad of footsteps, the synaesthesia of moisture on his hands. A sudden pressure on his knees, as if there was a current flowing against them. He endured.


The ABN Facility was a Grade-A facility. It was designed to hold things of such a level that their mere presence induced Aeon War Syndrome; ancient horrors spoken of in myth, entities which drove monsters mad, things which would not die, would not sleep and should not exist. Those true horrors of the universe which mankind had encountered - or, in its worst moments, made - were sealed here, undying and restless. Was it any surprise that the Auburn district, located just outside Chicago-2 proper, in one of the , was viewed as a hell-hole slum by the NEG as a whole, a place where cultists gathered, and extra-dimensional beasts were attracted, before the near-absolute military lockdown around the place terminated them? Where the AWS score of the inhabitants was a good two to three points higher than average for the population? Where children were sometimes born with Outsider taint through no fault of their parents, and the parapsychic rate was nine times that of the ambient population?


Of course, a cynic could say that characteristic made it useful, made it worth keeping so close to a population centre.


Sussurations and reverberations, echoing from afar in this narrow corridor. Something was watching him, he knew,and all the hairs on the back of his neck stood on end, cold shivers running down his spine.


But now he was up to the door, crafted of something that was, and was not, black stone. Licking his lips, he read out the code displayed against the inside of the faceplate of the suit, and waited for the humming drones to buzz around him, their umbilical cables trailing down from the ceiling.


The door unsealed, and within was blinding light, and dark un-stone. Sudden nausea hit Kaji, only to be suppressed, and he took a step forwards. Surprisingly, the buzzing in his ears got quieter, as he stepped along the gantry that connected the entry point to the thing at the centre of this hallway of dark stone. The door sealed behind him... and the noise stopped.


And the sixth sense at the back of his mind stopped screaming.


"Huh," said Ryoji Kaji, bewilderment in his voice. He took another step forwards. And a terrible suspicion began to dawn.

~'/|\'~​

Shinji Ikari put the rifle down in the rack, and stretched, slipping off the arhelmet. "Happy now?" he said, to Kensuke, rolling his eyes. "I did the first mission, and only died once."


"Oh yes," the arglassed boy exhaled.


Toja grinned broadly. "Pretty nice shooting," he remarked.


Shinji blushed. "I sort of have to practice," he said, modestly, before adding, "... of course, things are sort of different, so it doesn't count for much, really. When did you get here?"


"While you were busy," the dark-skinned boy replied.


Leaning forwards on his tiptoes, Kensuke almost reached out for the headset, fingers twitching. "Okay, that sort of modesty? Stop it. That... had you even played that before?"


"This game?" Shinji asked with a shrug. "No. I've done some similar... ones, but not this one."


"That's real good," a dark-haired stranger said, grinning. "I mean, learning the spawn patterns is one of the big thingies 'bout how to do well."


"Yeah, pick up and play... pretty good," said a nazzady, to sounds of agreement from an amlata beside her who was probably her boyfriend.


"Mmm," Kensuke continued. "It's even better, 'cause, you know, right... I've spent ages trying to get my score up on it and I have the Imago IV copy of the game and it's an approved training sim for the NEGN so they've got a machine with the cadets and..."


"Oh, come on," a clear female voice came from behind them, a patronising note in her slightly-accented tone. "It wasn't that good. He didn't even make the leaderboard."


With a slight groan from mildly aching arms, Shinji turned around in the poorly lit arcade, to face the source of the noise. A red-blonde girl, hair pinned back with red clips, was standing, hands on hips, brows raised. The look in her narrowed blue eyes was one of superiority, and, from his perspective, arrogance. "I'm not pretending to be that good," he said mildly, suppressing his own exasperation.


"Yes. And a lot of people could see that," was the response. The girl crossed her arms, her baggy jumper quite out of line with the sundress it seemed to cover.


He raised his hands in partial surrender. "Whatever you say," he said. Turning away from her, he quite deliberately focussed all his attention on Kensuke. "Hmm," he remarked. "That wasn't that bad, but... it sort of felt a bit sluggish."


"I never found that," Kensuke said. "Actually, I had had a problem that it's a bit twitchy."


Toja grinned. "That's because you're not good at games, Kensuke. Seriously. I beat you all the time. You want to think that you are, but you're... kinda really not." The red-eyed boy shot a glare at the girl. "And ignore her, Shinji. You did great, mate. Hey, you wanna go play co-op on..."


"Great?" was the intruded response from the girl. The middle-aged man behind her, who, with his rust-coloured hair, looked to be related to her, smiled faintly; something she didn't see. "That wasn't a performance deserving of the word 'great', no matter what crowd-think claims."


Toja turned to face her fully, puffing up his chest, to make best advantage of the slight superiority in height he had over her. "Well, I'd say my friend did pretty well, so..."


"Are you going to stand there being an idiot patting yourselves on the back, or are you actually going to play another game? Maybe the next level?" the girl retorted. "Because if you aren't..."


"You think you could do better?" the nazzada snapped. "Because if you want to try, you're free to!"


"Oh?" She put one long finger to the edge of her mouth, head tilted in saccharine curiosity, before the mask fell off, and she returned to glaring. "Why, yes. Yes, I do think I can do better. Stand aside, idiot." She squared her jaw. "I hate it when people get undeserved praise."


"I don't see why it's really any of your business," Shinji muttered sullenly, more annoyed by her attitude than by her words, because... it hadn't been that good, had it? He'd died once. That would normally have earned him a talk from Dr Akagi or Misato, especially since the way it had happened had been because he'd missed someone on the right.


"It wasn't undeserved!" Kensuke interjected. "Shinji did really good!" he added, to agreement from Toja.


The man accompanying the girl smiled even wider, leaning back slightly against the edge of one of the machines, to watch the spectacle before him.


Stepping forwards, the girl snatched the arhelmet from Shinji's hands, taking the rifle when offered. "Do you want to watch someone doing it properly, or maybe you'd prefer to go off and annoy someone else?" the eyeless visage of the helmeted figure asked.


"Oh, we'll watch," Toja snapped. "We will watch!"


" We will?" Shinji echoed. "Can't we just go off and leave the rude girl to her own stuff, and, you know, actually go and do something fun?"


The other boy smiled a predatory smile. "Oh, I think it'll be quite fun to watch her fail and burn and stuff, because she made one silly mistake. Yes. This will be fun indeed."


The girl sniffed. "I don't make silly mistakes," she said, as she selected 'Start'.


The next seven minutes produced a steady fall in Kensuke and Toja's faces as they watched her performance on the large screen, the attraction of a flock of onlookers, and, on Shinji's part, boredom. Wandering off to buy a drink helped remedy the last part, and by the time he got back, the inhuman curves of a Dagonite power armour filled the screen, in front of the sea of onlookers.


The abrasive girl under the helmet didn't appear to have lost any lives. And the way she was moving... Shinji frowned. The posture, the way she snapped from position to position, the particular way she held the toy rifle...


... well, she clearly played this game far too much. The blossom of flame from the right arm of the hostile indicated the endgame, as she pressed the advantage with practiced skill, hammering it in the weaken flank with the 'Heavy Rifle' she'd apparently acquired. The death throes of the boss demolished the facade of the mansion, and the girl tore the helmet off, looking both fairly attractive, and incredibly smug. With a smirk on her face, she entered 'ALS' on the leaderboard, and presented the sullen-looking Kensuke with the equipment.


"Now I'd say that was a good playthrough," she remarked. "Not perfect, no, but good." She turned to go, and found Toja blocking her way. "Well, move!" she demanded.


The nazzada was silent, glowering at her.


In one motion, her hand blurred, and she flipped his hat off, sending it flying. As he recoiled in shock, she stepped smoothly past. Striding through the crowd, she ignored his protests, moving like a red-haired knife through the sea of people to get back to the man that she'd arrived with. She frowned for a moment, as she passed Shinji, standing there with his drink.


"I'm a little bit sorry for having to embarrass you like that in public," she said calmly, the corners of her mouth curling up in a superior manner, "but your friends are complete idiots. If they are your friends."


Shinji felt his facial muscles twitch as she walked away. "It was only a game," he muttered, as she left, his knuckles whitening. Letting out a long sigh, he took an irritated slurp of his drink, and looked over to where Toja was trying to get his hat down from the top of a machine without setting off the internal sensors.


Urgh. 'What had been that girl's problem?' he asked himself, before heading over to help his friend. Oh well. With luck, he could go plenty of time without meeting anyone like that again.

~'/|\'~​

"Well," Asuka said, as they walked away. From her attitude, it seemed that she felt that this was sufficient.


Calvin merely raised her eyebrows. "That was not well done," he remarked.


"Not well done?" the girl asked, eyes widening. "I mean, I know, I was being a bit sloppy, because it was just a game, but I have a reason... not just an excuse, a reason! The controls were sluggish and felt wrong, and because they won't let me have the proper milspec-level enhancements I'm still nearly baseline normally and..."


The man sighed, massaging the back of his neck. "Oh, I wasn't talking about the game," he said. "Asuka... that was unnecessarily abrasive."


She frowned. "Really?" she asked, thinking for a moment. "It wasn't that bad, surely? And... come on, the hap-flip was just funny. And everyone else was impressed. What do I care about what a bunch of stupid teenage boys think? That Nazzadi one even went and blocked my way, after he was the one who went and challenged me!"


"Asuka," Cal said, his voice quiet and intense, "what have I told you about paying attention to the world, your surroundings, and generally making logical inferences when given data?"


"... but... what did I do wrong?" she asked, turning pale. "I... you..." she ran her tongue over her lips, digging her hands deeper into the pockets of her baggy jumper. "I can't see any... it..." Her brain was whirring, the gears clashing and jamming as she ran over the scene, over and over again, trying to find out what he wanted. "I... I wasn't able to track my Armacham bodyguards in the dense crowd in there?" Mentally she swore; Uncle Cal disliked uncertain answers like that. But it was the only thing she could think of, damn it, and... what could she have missed? From the way his expression stayed impassive, the bright lights playing over it, she was wrong. And... and... and she didn't know why and why was he unhappy with her? "Why did we go there, Uncle Cal?" Asuka asked, forcing the shake out of her voice.


"That is something you should have been asking yourself earlier, isn't it?" was the response she got, as the man walked off, and she followed him, trailing behind, uncertain mind abuzz, running over the scene again and again.

~'/|\'~​

His pulse was not elevated. His pupils were not dilated. He was not sweating.


But the only reason that Ryoji Kaji was not doing any of these things was that the devices woven into his endocrinal system were regulating his hormone levels to keep him calm and emotionless. If not for that, he would have been shaking from the adrenaline which would have flooded his veins.


Activating his vocal cord bypass, he opened the secure mission channel. "We have a problem," he stated wordlessly. "The Romanian Fragment is not active. I believe it has already been replaced by a fake."


There was a pause. Then; "Are you sure?" was the anonymised response, speaking without words.


"No response to the test. Trigger status was emulated."


Another pause. "Ikari will require a new 'gift'," was the voice's first response. "A new selection has made. Scheduling handover." Another pause. "Your opinion?"


Kaji's eyebrows rose slightly, despite himself, as he flicked his eyes over the description on his harcontacts. "Valid," he forced himself to say.


"We recommend strongly that you take the next available flight from Chicago-2. Data from the UNITY system suggests that there will be a Discontinuity somewhere globally in the next 105 hours, with a sixty seven, plus or minus twenty nine, probability. We have no data from OBLIVION which might validate it. You are a valued asset; you must be in place."


The man nodded fractionally. "Understood," he wordlessly said.


"The next flight is from the Weismann Barrier Military Airport. The time of departure is 15:43. Be there at least thirty minutes before take-off. You will be travelling in acceleration gel. "


With a flick of his pony tail, the man stood. "Understood. Anything else?"


One last pause. "No, agent. Thank you for bringing this to our attention. The absence of the Romanian Fragment is of concern."

~'/|\'~​

"Fasten and adjust," Misato instructed her overdress, and the neat, pseudo-military garment complied. The joins at the front fused together, leaving the smart fabric to shrink slightly. Standing on tip-toes, the woman gave a spin, checking that she could move properly and that she looked all right in the mirror. "Loosen a bit. Okay, lock." The overdress, high-collared velvet black hemmed in dark green, sat snugly down to just above her knee, perfectly adjusted to her model of body, and the fact that she had a holster under it. The underdress was a paler green, and reached down to her mid-shin. Staring at herself in the mirror, Misato adjusted her pillbox hat, pinned to her tied-back black hair, and took a deep breath.


Shinji and his friends were lucky, getting to avoid this stupid test conference. The clash of egos between NEGN Project Daeva and the various Ashcroft Groups – there in an advisory role – would be something to see. Hence, it was necessary for even her dress to be considered; she, unlike Ritsuko, was a member of the New Earth Government Army as well as an employee of the Foundation. Her dress, with its cut, and the green, the colour of the NEG, was intended to remind people of that.


Not that that would make her much more palatable to the Navy sorts there.


Shaking her head sadly, Misato checked the clock in the top-right corner of her vision, tapping her foot. Catching a sight of herself in the mirror, she grinned, and raised her fingers in a V-sign, but her expression returned to impatience. Checking that her hat was on properly, she strode of the shared room, making her way back to the office space.


"That is true, Gendo, but..." the door slid open, and Ritsuko glanced away from her screen set-up momentarily, "Yes, yes, I understand. I've conferred with Dr Wade from Herkunft, and she's been in contact with Representative Egger...it's nice to have her on-side for once, rather than being obstructionist." A pause. "I understand, Representative." Another pause. "No, I won't be late; Misato's just shown up, probably wondering where I am. Possibly to drag me off. Was that all? Yes, goodbye, then."


Misato sighed. "Do you know what time it is?" she asked her friend.


"Yes, yes, I just had to talk with Representative Ikari about something. I was just coming. Now, I just need to... let go of my arm!"


"No!" Misato said, dragging her friend behind her. "Clearly, you can't be trusted for this!" Grabbing her friend by the arm, she frogmarched her to their shared room, sitting her down in front of the large, illuminated mirror despite Ritsuko's protests.


Then she started to pull the blonde's jumper off, over her head.


"Misato! What are you doing!" the scientist managed.


"Getting you changed, since I apparently can't trust you to change yourself," Misato retorted, with a grin on her face as she tossed the jumper into the corner, and started on her friend's t-shirt. "You haven't been eating enough, either; I can feel your bones through your arms! Rits, you have to stop starving yourself! Come on"


"... stop it!" Ritsuko managed, blushing red, blouse halfway off.


"Nope! I told you several times, and now you're running really late because you stayed in the office, rather than get changed when I... stop squirming... told you to. Now... unless you've improved at getting your make-up on at a proper rate since university... have you? I doubt you have. You haven't improved at all, have you?"


"Of course!" Ritsuko pushed the hand which was going for her bra strap away. "Urgh! You've clearly been through military stuff since then, because..."


"What's what meant to mean!" Misato retorted, hands on hips.


The blonde glared up at her. "You've clearly lost all regard for personal space in military showers!" she snapped back, grabbing her blouse and bringing it up to cover herself.


"Fiiiiine," the dark-haired woman drawled. "I'll let you have five minutes. Because that's basically all we have. And after that, I will be coming back in, to help you, whether you like it or not."


"Bully," Ritsuko muttered.


Misato turned at the door. "I like to think that it's a fulfilment of my duties as Director of Operations," she said, in a high-minded tone of voice. "I'm merely ensuring that assets are coordinated and prepared for a scheduled engagement." Her eyebrows raised suggestively. "If you know what I mean."


"Out!" her friend ordered, pointing at the door imperiously; an expression only slightly ruined by the pinkness of her face.


Misato saluted, turned on her heel, and marched out. And then promptly collapsed on the nearest chair she could find in tears of laughter.


"I've... I've missed doing that to h-her," she managed, when she could breathe again. Dabbing around her Eyes with her fingers, trying very hard not to smear her make-up, she let the convulsions shake her body. "Rits is s-s-so fun when she's off balance." Laughing, the black-haired woman shifted so that she wasn't sitting on her pistol, and smoothed down her overdress. "These moments... heh."

~'/|\'~​

The maglev slid into the station smoothly, the doors hissing as they unsealed. The carriages half-emptied, onto the richly-decorated station platform. The three boys paused for a moment, trying to get their bearing in this verdant area, interspersed with ancient looking stone. The hexagonal-faced adamant dome reached up above them, centred on the three linked spires that made up the Chicago-2 headquarters of the Ashcroft Foundation.


"Hey, this looks sorta like the L2 Geocity," Kensuke remarked, somewhat unnecessarily.


Shinji pursed his lips, and said, "We can probably look later. At the moment... we're sort of running late. Okay," he rotated his PCPU in his hand, letting it acquire the local dome, then instructed his muse, "ARI, find the place that Misato told us to meet."


[Yes, Shinji. Searching. Follow the signs to the Centre.]


"There's the sign," Toja exclaimed, pointing to a broad ramp, to a skyway, which rose above the vegetation. He paused, looking slightly embarrassed. "We could've seen that from the way that that's the way that all the suits are going. Mmm."


The boys set off at a rapid pace, passing sharp-suited men and women, and larger, less formal groups of people who were probably tourists, based on their accents. The occasional reminders from the various muses that they were running late did not help matters, and by the time the skyway started to descend, the three of them were almost running. Several times, the local Armacham security personal seemed almost about to stop them, but the security personnel tailing them, breaking cover for the first time today, were enough to stop that further inconvenience.


By the time on the clock over the entryway, they were running almost ten minutes late by the time they got to the place where they were meant to assemble. Misato looked a little exasperated, Dr Akagi looked oddly guilty, and...


... and a familiar girl stared back at them with slowly dawning shock.


All a shambles, the boys came to a halt.


"Shinji," the Major said, raising her eyebrows slightly. "Get lost, did we?" She sighed. "Well, never mind. We did leave a bit of allowance for this. Anyway. Shinji, this is Asuka Langley Soryu, the Second Child. Asuka, this is Shinji Ikari."


There was a moment of sustained silence, as if the world itself was waiting for a reaction.


"What," managed Shinji.


"Seriously, what," agreed Toja.


"No way," confirmed Kensuke.


"You have to be kidding me!" exploded Asuka. "He... that boy is the Third Child! That's... everything... argh!" She whirled on Dr Sylveste. "Why didn't you say something!" she demanded, face red, though whether from embarrassment or anger, it was not entirely clear.


The rust-red haired man let out a thin smile. "I do believe you were paying insufficient attention to your surroundings, Asuka."


"Paying insufficient attention! How am I meant to know that a random..." something clicked in her mind, and she took a deep breath, letting it out slowly. "My apologies," she said, shortly, to Shinji, before smiling at Misato. "Anyway, as I was saying before these boys interrupted, you said that Captain Martello passed along my concerns about the uneven weight distribution in the right arm?"


"Yes, Asuka," Ritsuko said, smiling back in a perfunctory manner, which left the girl frowning somewhat. "So..." she shot a momentarily narrow-eyed glance at Dr Sylveste, "you... uh, met Shinji already then?"


The girl shot her own hard glance at Dr Sylveste. "Yes, apparently someone decided to have us just stumble into each other."


The man's mouth twitched. "Well, of course they'd already met each other," he said, answering Ritsuko's question rather that responding to Asuka. "Not for... oh, thirteen-ish years, but... yes."


Ritsuko sighed. "I think there's no need for you to show off that you were part of the original Evangelion Project," she said, a little tartly.


"Heh. Perhaps." He raised an eyebrow at Asuka. "I have to admit, I was expecting for you to recognise him. The fact that he was clearly trained should have been obvious, and," he faced Shinji, "Yes, you're certainly your father's son," he said, with a smile which seemed to be innocent. "I mean that was always clear; you have his eyes, and there's just something about the two of you which feels similar... but you have Yui's jawline."


Shinji stiffened slightly at those words. Asuka, meanwhile, was clearly suppressing a comment, but said nothing.


The Major narrowed her own eyes. "And I don't appreciate you interfering in these manners," she told the head of the Achtzig Group, bluntly, "but this isn't the place or time for this." Misato turned to face the children. "Anyway, I've booked a tour of the Ashcroft Headquarters for the four of you," she said, much more cheerfully. "I mean, you really need to get to know each other, and since you're being moved to L2, Asuka, you'll be in the same class as Shinji, as well as the other pilot."


"A class. Of children," the red-blonde girl said, her voice dripping sarcasm. "Wonderful. Can't you just move my tutors over?" There was a distinct whine to her voice.


"Yeah, if she doesn't want to have to be with us, she shouldn't have to!" Toja interjected, fists balled.


"Nonsense," Misato said, with another glare at Sylveste. "We do our best to try to keep a normal environment for our pilots. And that means school." Her Eyes flicked momentarily, as she checked the time. "Anyway, we really have to dash, I've sent your tickets to the tour on the Grid... have fun, kids!" Misato said, waving back as she headed towards the lift down to the deep-line station, along with the other adults who were headed towards the Daeva presentation.


If looks could kill, the Evangelion Group would have been looking for a new Director of Operations.

~'/|\'~​

"I do apologise for how that turned out," Calvin Sylveste said to Ritsuko and Misato, once he was sure they were out of hearing range. He had the decency to look vaguely sheepish. "I was interested in seeing whether she'd remember him, and... well, personally I'd put the issue more down to his friends than him. I'm sorry to say that those two sort of clashed with Asuka."


The Major let out a slow exhalation. "Nevertheless..." she began.


"... and, perhaps, maybe I wanted to see how Yui and Gendo's boy had turned out, in a less controlled environment," the rust-red haired man said. "I was rather surprised to see that he hadn't been bought into the programme earlier. With that level of natural talent..."


"It wasn't felt to be appropriate," Dr Akagi replied, coldly.


Calvin grinned. "Ah, so Gendo was vetoing you, then?" he asked, the corners of his mouth twisting up. "You're so very like your mother, Ritsuko. Trying to keep a proper Group running with him getting in the way."


The blonde sucked in a breath. "Why are you even here?" she asked the man, controlled irritation in her voice. "As in, right here, right now. I thought you weren't attending for the Achtzig Group. And since we're heading to the train now..."


"No, no," the man replied, raising his hands in mock-defensiveness, "you're quite right. I was just here to get the last day with Asuka, before she heads off to L2. I'll be off, back to my labs, to work on the new TITAN devkits. We've got ten proto-gestates, so, assuming we can get them past the metastable phase into the stable phase, with no more losses... well, the third generation TITANs should start coming on line soonish." His eyebrows raised, his eyes crinkling, before his tone suddenly went much more serious. "My offer still stands to provide TITANs, to upgrade the LITANs in the Evangelions," he said, earnestly. "I remember why the Group exists, why I was brought on board in their first place and how vital it is that we have the best Evangelions we can. Even if Miyakame has forgotten with his pathetic little rip-off Engels, I haven't." And with that said, he turned on his heel, and left, not even waiting for a reply.


"That," said Misato, after a pause, "is an annoying man."


"The first time you've met Calvin Sylveste, huh?" Ritsuko said, her eyebrows rising. "Yes. He's brilliant...the TITANs are built on the work that he and my mother did on the MAGI and he did the foundational work for the LITANs, but... dear gods, I want to throttle him."


Misato smirked. "Rits? You also want to throttle most of the Engel Group, whatshername from Herkunft, the Representative for Research..."


"...yes, yes," Ritsuko said tartly, "I get your point."


"... people who don't pay attention when you're going on about things which really aren't that important..."


"Enough!" The blonde took a deep breath. "This is a purely personal level of throttling."


"Okay, okay." Misato shrugged in surrender. "Now, should I let you build yourself up into a state of ranty irritation as we head over to the Daeva thing, or should I distract you by, you know, not letting you stew in bitterness and rage? Speaking purely as a friend, you know."


"Oh, very funny."

~'/|\'~​

Things were awkward among the children.


"This? This is tedious," Asuka declared loudly, from the back of the queue of tourists to enter the facility. "I've already been on the tour. I don't need to go again."


"Well," Toja grinned, in a completely unfriendly way, "you got told to go." The girl glared at him, but didn't respond.


Shinji dug around in desperation for things to say to break the silence. "Um... you're not wearing a jumper anymore," he tried, and then cringed slightly. In the annuals of conversational ice-breakers, that was not going to go down as a particularly successful one, and the response, when it came, seemed almost predictable.


"I see you didn't stop wearing your silly tourist jumper," the reddish-blonde girl shot back instantly, leaning forwards slightly. "Oh, and look, the Nazzadi is still wearing his stupid hat. Inside."


Toja puffed up. "Garden domes aren't inside!" he snapped. "And... look, it's a fashion thing!"


"Mmm. A clear statement that you look like an idiot." Asuka glanced at Shinji. "But..." she cleared her throat, "in the last few days, there's clearly been something wrong with the heating. It wasn't so bad, but then the temperature's been plummeting."


Shinji massaged the back of his neck. "I know what you mean," he said softly, forcing a half-smile. "I didn't bring one, so had to buy one here. This is a cold arcology... certainly compared to Tokyo-3 and London-2."


Asuka raised her eyebrows. "Thank you!" she exclaimed. "Someone else who feels cold here!"


"Oh, that explains it," Kensuke said, in a tone which was quite deliberately not talking to Asuka, yet was intentionally loud enough for her to hear. "We should excuse the way she's acting. Obviously, she's sick. Because she's making up that it's cold in this warm dome place."


"I'm not ill. I don't get sick," was the instant retort. "There's no need for some pathetic display of macho-ness." She crossed her arms. "Why," she asked imperiously, her gesture taking in Toja and Kensuke, "are these two even here? I was told this was a..." she looked around, "... wasn't a tourist thing."


"We got invited along," Kensuke said, pushing his arglasses up with one finger, as he leaned forwards intently. "We're doing stuff with a friend."


"A friend, too. Not mean hat-hitting bitches," Toja added, glaring.


Asuka sniffed, and folded her arms. "Well, this is just great," she announced sarcastically. "Here I am, stuck with a bunch of idiots. And queuing for something for something I've already seen." Her brow furrowed. "I'm sorry, why are we even queuing at all? Didn't Major Katsuragi give you guest access passes?"


Shinji blinked. "Well... yeah," he began.


The girl rolled her eyes. "Idiots. Follow me, then," she said, marching off, away from the main tourist entrance, to glares from the rest of the queue. "Why would we be queuing for your passes when you already have them?"


"Why? Because you're the one who dragged us to this queue," Kensuke muttered rebelliously.


Shinji sighed. He could already tell that this was going to be a long day.

~'/|\'~​

The bland anonymity of the mass transit system all around him, Ryoji Kaji had one of his contact lenses set to browse the Grid, while his other eye watched the world. He had been planning to meet up with Asuka, to say goodbye, and... well, if he could, see Katsuragi. For old time's sake, if nothing else.


Now, though? He wasn't in the right state. Not after what he'd found, and what he hadn't found, in the ABN facility. Yes, he could suppress any tells, but she knew him well enough to know that he was suppressing such things. Even after years, he didn't want to risk it.


He was just going to get to the airport as fast as possible, and get over to L2 to give Gendo Ikari his prize. And then, after that?


Kaji needed time to think. It might well not be worth his time to plan that far ahead.

~'/|\'~​

The room was filled with the hushed mutter of serious-and-important people making casual-and-meaningless conversation. On the wall-sized display at the front of the room, an over-large clock counted down.


"Excuse me. Major Misato Katsuragi, Director of Operations for the Evangelion Group, yes?" Misato looked up at the tall, blonde woman – she had to be two metres, at the least – towering over her, and nodded. She couldn't quite place the accent, although she looked northern European. "I wish to speak to you. It is a matter which directly concerns you and your Group."


The dark-haired woman flashed a glance over at the clock on the mainscreen. "It won't take too long, will it? And who are you?" She was already starting to get neck-ache from staring up at the other woman, in her painfully sharp dark suit. And if the stranger – probably GIA or OIS, by Misato's reckoning - didn't have extensive subdermal plating, she'd eat her hat.


"Agent Andersdottir. And, yes, that is one of the things we must discuss. There is time," the woman said, drily. "The Daeva people have made it quite obvious."


Ristuko glanced at her, from the other side of the table set aside for the guests from the Evangelion Group, and flapped her hands at her co-worker. "Go on. Just don't be late back. I just know Tokita will go comment if you're not there, and I wouldn't want to give the man that."


Misato got to her feet, noting to herself that even standing the government agent was unreasonably tall, and followed her out, to a smaller room just off the conference hall. The taller woman ducked as she stepped under the door, into the windowless space of a holoroom. There were two chairs in here, and a desk; the agent offered a chair to Misato.


"I'll stand," was the reply.


"Heh." The other woman smiled, easily. "Perhaps I will sit and you can stand... or perch on the desk, how about that? I understand that I am quite tall." She ran a hand through her short blonde hair, and sighed. "Major Katsuragi, I am Agent Andersdottir, as I mentioned, and what I am about to tell you is all classified to the equal level of the highest levels of your authorisation." Her grammar was certainly not that of a native speaker. "I am from the Office of Special Services, and this is about the Harbingers. Specifically, we have information off the UNITY grid which would suggest that Harbinger-6 is expected sometime within the next four days. Odds are about seven in ten, although that is with sizable error bars, as is normal for UNITY. About thirty percent."


The Major narrowed her Eyes, mind whirring. "Location?" she asked, one single, curt word.


A shrug. "UNITY is not that precise, Major. You should know that, yes?" The Major did not, in fact, know that, and filed that information away for later reference. "But... from the previous instances, it is likely that it will target London-2... although we have already advised that all other Geocities should be on high alert, especially Tokyo-3, and the Berlin-2 Containment Perimeter."


The dark-haired woman smoothed down the sleeve of her black overdress, and thought. "Unit 02 is almost ready for transit. Unit 01's still out of action; Unit 00 is damaged but can be deployed. We'll try to move the schedule for Unit 02's movement ahead as much as we can... possibly tonight."


"Which is where we run into the second problem," Agent Anderdottir said, sighing heavily. "Migou movements over the Atlantic are increased. It is not felt that a superheavy lifter will necessarily be able to pass in safety. However, a solution has been arranged." She snapped her fingers, and a projection of the Atlantic appeared in the air. "The Over The Rainbow will be part of a battlegroup departing at 4am tomorrow morning. The OSS has secured transit space aboard for the Evangelion Group. We believe it is vital that you have two Evangelions combat-ready. Harbinger-05 was alarming."


The Major let out a breath. "Yes. And... you arranged for a superheavy carrier? I'm impressed."


"Major," the agent said, expression grim, "the OSS is quite aware of the threats posed by Harbinger-level entities. The Evangelions have killed three so far. I, just as you, am aware of what happened the last time a Harbinger intruded, and could not be dealt with as cleanly as Harbingers-3, -4 and -5 were." She massaged the back of her neck. "We will also be locating a UNITY node onboard the ship. You will be transporting it with the Evangelion; with luck, if the Harbinger does attack a location before you make your way back to London-2, we will at least be able to get a better 'look'," the inverted commas dropped around the word like tongs, "at it. Another point for triangulation."


The Major nodded. "I understand."


"The Navy will be in contact, Major. You will be able to move the transport forwards, we believe. Let us hope it goes well, eh?"


As Misato left the room, and made her way back to the conference hall, she was... uncomfortable. The woman, the OSS agent – and that was rare enough, for the OSS didn't legally exist, instead existing only as a men-in-black group – had been... there was something off.


And as she sat down, she realised what it was. The woman had been giving her more information than she needed. The OSS didn't do that. Even the OIS or the GIA parcelled out facts like misers. Hells, if you came down to it, her own superiors were certainly not telling her things. So... why would the Office of Special Services do it? Either they were very, very worried, or they were planning something.


Misato Katsuargi wasn't sure which was worse.

~'/|\'~​

The first sign to Shinji Ikari that the somewhat-limited patience of Asuka Langley Soryu had expired completely was the sudden grab-and-yank on his right arm, as she pulled him out of the tour group and down a different corridor. From the ache in his arm, she was notably stronger than he was.


"What are you doing?" he managed.


The girl waited until they were both out of sight of the rest of the party before pausing, and, quite deliberately, looking up and down, head tilted slightly as she scrutinised him. "Now that we're in private... you are a pilot, aren't you?" she asked, ignoring his question. "Just to make quite clear. You actually, really are the Third Child? Pilot of Evangelion Unit 01?"


Shinji straightened up, quite aware that he was looking up at her. "Yes," he said. He paused. "It's true," he added, in case his previous statement was not enough.


"Well... that's a little disappointing," the red-blonde girl remarked, after a pause.


That, in itself, was more than a little offensive, and Shinji puffed up his chest in response. "What's that meant to mean?" he retorted.


"The Third Child has three kills, officially," was the girl's clinical answer. "Well... not really three, because I reviewed the tape, and you clearly weren't in control against Harbinger-3, and, likewise... come on! The NEGA had already blown Harbinger-4 in half! That doesn't count as an unassisted kill." She paused, taking a breath, as her cheeks faded from pink. "But," she said, almost grudgingly, "I saw what you did against Harbinger-5, in the after-action review. And that level of AT-Field control." Tilting her head, the girl tapped one finger against her red lips. "It was impressive," the girl finally said, as if that was the highest level of praise. "I'd have to work to do the same. It almost makes up for the inadequate level of the rest of your combat performance."


"Inadequate? What's so..."


"What's your personal best velocity in atmosphere?"


"Um..."


"What's your reaction time in milliseconds?"


"Uh... wait, I haven't answered the first..."


"You're a Type-1 Synch, while I'm a Type-2. What's your compensation factor for second-order harmonics?"


Shinji blinked. "What does that even mean?" he asked.


The girl put one hand on her him, and glared down her nose at him. "There are all basic things," she said. "How can you not know them?"


The boy puffed up his chest, glaring back at the girl. He had had enough of this. She was being... this was just rude, and... he gritted his teeth. "Well, I'm dreadfully sorry," he drawled. "I mean, it's really inexcusable me not knowing this. All these basic facts. I should of course have memorised this all in the less-than-three months I've been doing this." Shoulders hunched, he turned his back on her, and started to walk away.


Only to be whirled around. "What do you mean, three months?" Asuka Langley Soryu asked him, eyes slightly wild. "You mean years, right?"


The boy's nose wrinkled slightly, and he looked away, focussing on the corner of the wall over her shoulder. There was a crack in the wall there, he noticed idly; right on the join, a spider-like split of radiating hairline legs. "No," he said, still not looking at her. "Months."


"You're lying," she accused him.


His burst of laughter was cut short, and completely without humour. "The first time I ever got in an Eva was the day Harbinger-3 arrived. If you must know." She let go of him, suddenly, and he sagged slightly. "Now, really, this was meant to be my first weekend off when I'm not stuck in a hospital, and..."


"... no." She was in front of him again, blocking him, but her expression was different. Where there had been a certain adversarial tension, Shinji was fairly sure that her face was now set in curiosity, and he could not but shudder as a certain premonition told him that her curiosity was quite possibly more dangerous than her opposition. "That... I saw the synch ratios for that fight. That can't be possible." She grabbed his hand again, this time taking the actual hand rather than his wrist. "Come on. We need to talk properly. They wouldn't tell me anything about you... where have you trained before? I've been to Facility 2501 on the Eastern Front, Facility 0343 over in Australia... they've moved me around quite a bit, because Unit 02 is the Production Model, and..." she smirked, "I'm technically the most experienced ACXB pilot in NEG service. Including the Engel Group. Let's get a coffee or something. Actually, I know a place here at Headquarters that is pretty good... not as good as the places in Ostberlin-2, of course, but that's to be expected. And it might be warmer down there. I can't believe the temperature's playing up here, of all places. It was warmer a few days ago!"


Shinji was swept away by the current of the Second Child, stuck in her eddies as she ploughed through the high corridors of Ashcroft Headquarters.

~'/|\'~​

The conference hall was amphitheatre-like, the floor configured so that the speaker was at the bottom of a shallow stepped progression. The wall behind the central stage was currently set to transparency save for the clock counting down, showing a slightly green-hued view of the testing grounds outside. The upper spires of Chicago-2 were just visible on the horizon, along with a few closer conduit-arcologies, whose blocky, low pyramidal structures were much more akin to the ones seen in other Regions.


The nazzada making his way centre of the stage was pale by the standards of his people, his skin slate-grey. Despite pressure that he was surely under, in this patch of light surrounded by often ill-inclined observers, he looked perfectly calm, as he paused at the lectern, waiting for one of his subordinates – a younger man who had stumbled slightly over some of the technical details, to Ritsuko's glee – to vacate the stage.


Ritsuko chuckled. "I wonder how hard they had to work to get this place back to operational condition after the Unit 02 test. The Second Child really tore up the ground," she said, softly. "Or, indeed, how many safety features and deliberate maximum output caps the Daeva people overrode to try to beat us." A small smile crept onto her face. "I do hope they haven't done anything foolish. Because, either way they won't be good enough."


"You shouldn't wish ill on another weapons team," Misato chided her.


"Oh, I'm not wishing ill," the blonde said, with a shrug. "I'm mildly concerned that they're going to let their egos run wild. When, the fact is, they can't beat an Evangelion." She smiled malevolently. "I can't wait to see the expression on their faces, though, when all their work is judged to be... oh, just not up to standards. Not quite satisfactory. Lacking in..."


"Yes, yes, I get your point, stop gloating, Rits. He's about to start." And, indeed, the room fell silent as the man cleared his throat.


"Ladies, gentleman, thank you for attending this evaluation meeting for the latest output of the New Earth Government Naval Project Daeva," the man announced, the wall behind him gaining an entopic of the emblem of the Navy, and the green-triangle-on-white flag of the New Earth Government. "I am the chief engineer on this project, I wish to thank you all for making time to attend, to both senior members of the Navy, and of course those among you who are here in an advisory role, to see the public testing of the Daeva Advanced Heuristic Amphibious Combat Automaton, which will be referred to from here on in as DAHACA. Under the tasks for the development of our unit, we were tasked with designed and constructing a corvette-grade unit, capable of supporting amphibious operations"


Despite the known dislike that Tokita, the Chief Engineer of Project Daeva had for the Ashcroft Foundation and the Advisors who, even now, watched him, his tone was courteous, if slightly chilly. Leaning backwards slightly, he raised one hand. "You will observe the official demonstration from the observation bays. But before we head over there... does anyone have any questions?"


An olive-skinned woman in a naval uniform stood. "In the previous section, your subordinate mentioned that DAHACA was designed to be operated by one pilot, guiding the heuristic logic network of the ACA. What level of enhancement is required for the pilot to be able to guide this, and would it not be better to delegate command more?"


"The pilot's enhancement level?" Tokita echoed, smiling. "The Mass Production Model is designed to be piloted by anyone of E-IV or higher; Lieutenant Krishima is a specialised E-V, due to other issues unrelated to her piloting of the Daeva. With the necessary implant-interface requirements, along with the long-duty emplacement, anything below a category E is out of the question. We have an eventual goal that an E-IV level enhancement package can be specifically designed, due to the fact that, as a superheavy mecha, certain features in the standard E-IV package, which is after all intended for fighter pilots, who have rather different operational requirements, are unneeded. Preferably, we would like for E-II grade pilots to be able to use it, in order to open up the candidate pool, but under current circumstances, this prototype design requires E-IV levels or higher." He rested his hands more heavily on the lectern. "As for the task... yes, we understand clearly that the current naval paradigm is based around multi-crew ships. However, that was not an option for DAHACA. With the unorthodox means of locomotion, combined with the fact that it's piloted by direct neural interface, we found that attempts to even set up a triparate command system produced unacceptable levels of noise. That is part of the reason for our own advances in Limited Artificial Intelligence; we wish to lighten the load on the pilot as much as possible." Whitened teeth glittered, as he added, "We look forwards to sharing these advances with the rest of the Navy."


Misato blinked, narrowing her eyes. Those were heavy levels of enhancement. She, a former assault mecha pilot, was only upgraded to E-III standards. It certainly didn't look fast enough to need that level of acceleration tolerance. She glanced sideways at her friend, who was sitting there, legs crossed, a slight smirk on her face. "Aren't you going to say anything?" she whispered. "I thought you'd be verbally eviscerating him."


The smirk on Ritsuko's face grew wider. "No, not right now," she muttered back. "I think I'll let them show off their little toy. They can show the world what they can do in ideal circumstances, right before I bring it down on their head that they're just worse." She tilted her head slightly. "Feel free to smile at him, too," she added.


Tokita flinched slightly, next time he glanced up to see the Evangelion team beaming down at him, but rallied well, to take a question from the Achtzig contingent on the precise details of their LAI network. The next question and the one after that both came from the Engel Group, asking about the structure and certain design choices – although the word 'compromises' was used instead – which had been made, a hint of criticism creeping as Dr Malia Robinson, Deputy Director of Science for the Group, gleefully pointed out that the Daeva required a Restricted Technology Exemption for its endostructure, and wasn't it slightly dishonest to not reveal that in the main technological briefing?


And then one of the Naval Admirals, known for his close ties to the Marines – who just happened to be large-scale users of the ACXB mecha provided by the Engel Group – asked a particularly cutting question about cost-overruns, and the precise utility gained by this when conventional corvettes served the role well.


And again. And again. Tokita kept calm, kept controlled, because this was an ambush he had expected. He was always going to get a hammering from the Ashcroft Groups; from the Evangelion Group – who were being suspicious silent for direct rivals – and from the theoretically-neutral other groups, who were 'advising' on the use of extranormal materials in the DAHACA and on its LAI systems, to make sure none of it was illegal. But it was, nevertheless, an ambush. And his trump card, the actual display of the working DAHACA Prototype, had been pre-empted by the public unveiling of the Evangelion Group, just three days before, with their Production Model and proven track record.


When he'd taken this job, elements in the Admiralty had warned him that it might be a trap. But... no-one could have a trap set up which was older than Project Daeva itself, right?

~'/|\'~​

"And this area is where several of the technology groups who work on the modern high-end plasma physics used in many modern weapons systems have offices," the tour guide continued, gesturing around, to take in the many-levelled corridor. Of particular note was the lightning-bright conduits, bent into structures and shapes of modern art, of many hues. "Here you can see the plasma that they work with... come in, gather closer. This is probably the closest that any of you have been to the famous 'fourth state of matter'. These particular examples are five times hotter than the surface of the sun, if you can believe it, and are confined through the combination of sorcery and technology that the Ashcroft Foundation is the leading pioneers in."


Toja stuck his hands in his pockets. "I can't help but feel sorta cheated," he muttered. "I mean, Shinji leaves us behind... well, he gets dragged off by a red-headed bitch, leaving us on this stupid tour, and Miss Katsuragi is busy, although she did look really pretty in that dress... mmm." He shook his head. "So... why are we even on this tour, then?" He nudged Kensuke. "Eh, Ken?"


"Shhh!" the arglassed boy hissed back. "This is fascinating." He raised one hand. "Excuse me?" he asked the tour guide. "Is this where the Helios Group is located?"


"Indeed it is," the tour guide replied, beaming. "Are you interested in plasmas or high energy physics research, young man?"


"I'm a member of the L2 Naval Cadets, and I've been on NEGS Archimedes and..."


"Oh, the test-bed ship?" the man replied, perking up himself. "I saw the demonstration videos and... wow. The intensity and the size of the craters it left when it used that ventral plasma weapon..."


"It is every bit as good as it looks, and more," Kensuke confirmed. "I got to see a test-firing, in person. They got us up on the bridge, and gave us photomasks and let us watch a firing. The steam explosion when they fired it at the water? That was so worth watching."


"No doubt, no doubt." By now, the guide was more than a little distracted from his task. "Anyway, the next place on the tour is the Museum of Arcanotech, which is built in the old particle test chamber which was where Ladisalao discovered the first r-state element with an r-value over ten. Just follow me, and we'll be going down the deep lift." He turned back to Kensuke. "You saw an Archimedes test in person?"


Toja sighed, at the rather too-enthusiastic display of male bonding. "Figures," he said to himself, and sighed again, scuffing his shoes as Kensuke and the man babbled at each other. "Should've got Shinji to invite Enis or Hikari 'long. Would've been more fun, even with the Class Rep here."

~'/|\'~​

"Damn them! Damn them all! Damn, damn, damn!" The PCPU broke in the man's hands, as he took his rage out on perfectly innocent consumer electronics, and he swore, dropping it. Nostrils flaring, Tokita turned to punch the wall, but common sense overrode his anger, and he instead booted the nearby bin as hard as he could, sending it flying with a satisfying clatter. "Why! Why are they doing this! Damn corrupt megacorp lackeys and their bought admirals! This is some kind of petty revenge for anyone else even daring to try to innovate, isn't it! Petty, stupid, stupid, spiteful!" Hands balled into fists, he snarled in rage. "I just want to hit someone!" he yelled, down in this room safely away from onlookers, stomping over to give the bin another kick.


"Stop it, sir, it makes you look like a baby," the younger woman on the screen in the room said. Her reddish-brown hair was removed, to reveal the woven carbon underneath, and her synthetic skull locked into place in the insertion suit. Her still visible mouth smiled, cheerfully. "They're trying to show off and intimidate you. They're small, petty people."


"But how on earth did they know all those details on our endostructure? Or the work on the systems intelligence?"


Lieutenant Mana Krishima sighed, shaking her head slightly, as artificial muscles whined. "That probably means we have a leak."


Tokita snarled, "Then what's our security doing, if that sort of thing can get out? Can't we get them done for industrial espionage?" His brows furrowed. "No, of course not. Because they probably just asked one of their friends to give it to them. Well, we'll show them. Are you ready, Krishima?"


"Sir? This is my little baby," the young woman said with a smirk from within her armoured tomb. "Of course I'm ready. Dahac's reading green, and I'm ready to show off."


A figure superimposed itself on the screen; a stylised, iron-grey draconic icon. [Tokita, you are expected back for the test in ten minutes,] stated Dahac, the systems intelligence of DAHACA, in a deep mechanical voice. [Ensure that your appearance is satisfactory.]


"Your stage make-up is running a bit," Mana confirmed. "You should get one of the PR people to look at it."


With a sigh, frustration still evident, Tokita stalked out of the room, and Mana closed the link with a sigh of relief. Though, as she was already in DAHACA, her body was completely immobilised save for her face, here she was free. Paralysed within a tomb, cortical shunts and jacks and threads, her body was only so much meat and technology. Within the virtual world where she now waited for her signal to begin, there was freedom.


On a white plane she waited, the sky filled with data and the iron dragon of Dahac coiled around her.

~'/|\'~​

Shinji looked up from his hot chocolate, to find a pair of blue eyes staring at him. His gaze quickly dipped again.


"Moving onto me," she continued, both hands wrapped around her cup, "I've been piloting since I was four, before there was even the Children programme. Don't pay attention to the numerical system, because the only reason I'm the Second Child, rather than the First is that 'Soryu' comes after 'Ayanami' in the alphabet. You wouldn't believe the hassle I had to go through to find that such a stupid reason like that was true."


Shinji found himself zoning out. A glance around this cafeteria, down somewhere under the main facility, revealed... well, he could have been in any number of identical places down in the L2 Geocity. The false-light windows in the ceiling showed a sky rather more blue than the actual one outside, and tired-looking scientists were imbibing caffeine in clusters. They were past several levels of security cordon here – and Asuka had been somewhat annoyed that he also had clearance to be here – and so this was where the dedicated employees dwelt. Just the signs on the way here were a sign of how deep they were, pointing to areas and groups with all sorts of unnecessarily German names; Engel, Herkunft, Mnemosyne, even a small section – which Asuka had cut through – for Evangelion, even if they been mostly PR people. The glares that some of the staff directed at the two Children might have been a sign that they'd been recognised, although that might have also been something to do with the two teenagers taking a shortcut through their workplace. Especially when one of them had been loudly stating that 'they wouldn't mind' and 'it's a shortcut, it doesn't matter'.


"... and that's another question," she continued, "... I know you said that you're woefully undertrained...although, of course, since you're the new Third Child, I knew you had to have started training in 2084 or later, but you've been placed in London-2, and I know that the First Child has been in the Children Programme since I got started... well, how good is the First Child?"


"The First Child? Rei?" Shinji echoed, refocusing on her.


"So you know her? Well enough to be on a first name basis? Or not?"


"... uh." Shinji paused. "Well, yeah, broadly, I mean, sort of..." he took a breath, and tried to settle his thoughts, ignoring the flicker of irritation on the girl's face. "I mean, I've sort of seen her about for two months, but I don't really know her know her, if you see what I mean... although," he massaged the back of his neck, "she did distract Harbinger-5 so I could take the shot. It was very brave of her."


"Yes, but what's her piloting like?" The red-blonde girl didn't seem willing to leave the subject until she had an answer.


"Uh, well, she can walk around... and run." Shinji was quite aware of how pathetic that sounded, so hastened to add, "Her synch ratio is lower than mine, but that's not really a fair comparison, because she was injured in a start-up accident which was the entire reason I got pulled into this. She only managed a successful start-up... you know, after they repaired the Eva... the day before Harbinger-5 showed up. She managed to dodge a shot from Mot which," his hand went to his chest, "I didn't, though."


Asuka sat, with her chin propped on both hands, staring at him. Observers from the side or back, who couldn't see the look in her Eyes, might have thought it was a date. "When you say 'managed a successful start up'... for the first time ever?" she asked, with a sort of quiet intensity in her voice which left Shinji on edged.


"I don't know," was his tactful response. "Probably not? I mean... I really don't know."


"Well, no, of course you don't. You don't seem to know anything." The girl frowned, and tilted her head, "That makes complete sense, if you were an emergency pilot pulled in because you were thought to have a talent for piloting. No one could have guessed that the First Child could manage to injure herself and damage her Eva in a botched start-up; I've certainly never done that. Honestly, why they didn't just move me over from the Eastern Front? Some of us have actual combat experience, and training. And yours is completely inadequate, did I mention?"


Shinji coughed. "Uh... yes, you did. More than once," he added, the words slipping out. The boy took a breath. "Yes, I've only been doing this for a little bit. Before then... well, I was in Tokyo-3, with my foster-mothers, and then my father called me up... not even telling me what he wanted me for, and then stuck me in a giant robot."


The girl shot him a flicking smile, there and gone. "Of course, you're doing quite well for how little experience you have," she said, in a manner which suggested that it was effusive praise. "Uncle Cal mentioned that your parents were both on the original Evangelion Project, so I thought you might have got the Evangelion by nepotism after seeing your first combat tapes. But, no, it turns out you actually are this untrained."


"Some nepotism," Shinji muttered. "I never asked for this."


"Anyway," Asuka continued brightly, as if she hadn't heard him, "hurry up and finish your drink. Next, we're going to see Unit 02, so you can see what a proper Production Model is like, rather than the Test Model. Maybe they'll even upgrade your one to proper specs next, so you should get to see what you might be able to get."

~'/|\'~​

Compared to the conference room, the observation bay was far more Spartan. Although a local network was broadcasting datafeeds for users with Eyes or harcontacts, most were still choosing to watch on the large screen in front of them. The light snow had stopped, although the ground was covered in slightly grey, polluted whiteness.


Dr Ritsuko Akagi was one of the minority who was not, and so was flicking through the various viewpoint cameras around the test course. Misato pouted slightly, as it was clear that she wasn't about to get any conversation in any dull bits, and glanced at Captain Martello, on her right, from the Unit 02 team.


... yeah, she thought to herself, she didn't really need to talk.


"Now," Tokita began, standing back at a rather-unnecessary control panel, "... we'll begin the demonstration of DAHACA. We like to think this might be the start of a new era of fear for our enemies."


With those words, the launch silo rose from the ground, the ground-height camera staring up at a skyscraper of grey metal, which slid open to reveal its contents. There was a pause, and a rustle from the onlookers at this, because it was apparently empty.


Tokita smiled broadly. "Feature one," he announced, "active and passive stealth. Due to its unique low-energy endostructure, despite its size DAHACA runs heat-neutral. As a result, prior to battle damage, the unit has an average c-rating of 0.92 for the HMD spectrum range, when operating at ground level. This is reduced when operating aerially or underwater, but remains above the current corvette-class standard for conventional units."


"And," Ritsuko said softly, in words intended for Misato's ears, "that wouldn't have meant a thing against Mot."


The man continued, "But I think it would be hard for us to demonstrate it, without a good look at it."


And then, as if a switch had been flicked, there was suddenly something there. What it was, was somewhat difficult to classify. The Evangelions were humanoid, even anthropoid, in a twisted way. This most certainly was not. Though it had two arms, and two legs, they were strangely boneless appendages anchored to a central torso. The 'arms' seemed somewhat longer than the legs; perhaps that was how the entire torso could be at an incline, despite the fact that both 'hands' and 'feet' – which upon closer inspection were the same kind of appendage – were on the ground. The scale on the feed showed that it would have been around fifty metres had it stood upright, but instead it was in a knuckle-walking crouch, such that the heavy weapons that festooned its back like porcupine spikes were pointed forwards. The entire war machine was painted in tan-and-crimson test-colours, which just made its previous invisibility more peculiar.


"That," Misato said, tilting her head, "looks sort of like a headless dog." She tilted her head the other way. "Or maybe an ape. With no head. And... like, spears in its back."


"Feature two," Tokita continued. "Although it is fully flight capable, the use of limbs allows DAHACA to anchor itself. This means that the single most powerful plasma weapon of any corvette-class ship in NEGN service, or on the drawing boards of any NEG mobile platform is built ventrally into the torso. Were this fitted on a conventional corvette, it would not be able to use ground-hugging manoeuvres, as the recoil on this would make it risky. But with the ability to anchor itself, and the sophisticated AMCU designed for this unit, DAHACA can operate on two legs, four, and of course still fly like a modern-generation naval unit." The whispers were louder, and the man smiled. "Perhaps we might have a demonstration of the destructive firepower of this unit. Perhaps on that building over there."


A white lance from the bulge at the front of the machine blinded the camera, and when it cleared, not only was the building slag, but the entire fabricated block.


"Did I mention that the ventral plasma weapon has the full range of varying confinement options?" he added, an almost schoolboy-like cheek in his voice, as DAHACA settled into its full range of combat protocols. Just like they had planned.


"You have to admit, that plasma cannon is pretty nice," Misato muttered.


"No, I don't have to," was Ritsuko's grimaced response.

~'/|\'~​

The man tilted his head, fractionally, as something chimed in his ear. [Alert,] the deep voice of Dahac reported, [Lieutenant Krishima has flagged fluctuations in Engine/Sink Pairs One, Three, Seven, Nine, and Ten, for possible evaluation.]


"Serious?" he subvocalised, keeping the smile on his face, as he watched the audience and their responses.


There was a moment's pause. [The technical team advises that all acts classed Demanding on Engine/Sink output be removed from the test,] the systems intelligence stated. [This is justified on the precautionary principle.]


"So merely as a precaution; no confirmed issue?" he muttered back.


[Yes.]


"Keep on going. Run the full test. We can't let those bastards beat us. If Krishima believes she can do it," he added, after a moment's thought.


"I do," the young woman's voice responded instantly. "I just flagged them as protocol, because it's unusual. They're well within acceptable bounds."


"Then go ahead. I trust your judgement that things will be okay."

~'/|\'~​

The two Children were deep now, far below Chicago-2, and to Shinji the corridors and lifts could have been in the Geocity, for all he knew. It was oddly reassuring, in some ways; quite unlike the open light city above. Although the fact that it was warmer did help; warm enough to remove his jumper as he trailed after the Second Child.


"Listen," Shinji began, as yet another lift took them down, trying to work out the best way to put this on the fly, "... uh, about earlier today. We might have got off on the wrong foot, but... well, you were being sort of rude, and..." he paused, trying to see if he had set anything off in this conversational minefield. "I had no idea you were a pilot!" he finally blurted out.


Her eyebrows raised. "Weren't these," she pointed at the red clips in her hair, "a clue?" Asuka drawled. "You weren't wearing yours."


"Well... no." Shinji felt that wasn't sufficient, so he added, "I don't wear them around... neither does Rei, and both of ours are white. I... didn't make the mental leap." He could feel a comment about his intelligence coming, so continued, "So what I was trying to say was, I'm sorry for how it all happened."


The girl harrumphed, but nodded. "Fair enough," she said. "And... I'd have done it differently if I'd known you were the Third Child," she not-quite-apologised. "Now, come on, we're almost there."


With a chime, the lift doors opened. And now Shinji was sure that he wasn't in London-2, because this Evangelion launch facility was so much smaller. There were only two launch points, one of them filled with a matt-grey pod the size of a skyscraper.


Asuka's face fell. "Oh," she remarked. "It's already been prepared for transport?" She shrugged. "Well, that's not the dramatic image I wanted. I can still show it to you."


"How?" Shinji asked, looking around. Yes, this entire area looked subtly newer, and yet slightly worse maintained than then bays in the Geocity; like it had been built, and never really used.


She let out an elaborate sigh. "We go into the transportation pod. Idiot."


Shinji let out a nervous laugh. "Oh. That easy, huh?"


No, it was not that easy, as it turned out. The technician standing by the entryway to the Evangelion transport pod respectfully, yet firmly, told Asuka when she demanded to get in, that work was still going on to ready Unit 02 for transport. The woman proved adamant against both requests, and orders, and so Asuka stalked back to Shinji, face slightly red.


"Well, that's that ruined due to other people," she muttered. "Right. We're going to see if they've moved the training equipment, because if they haven't, we're going head-to-head, so I can see how good you are."


"I... don't think that's really necessary," Shinji protested, as they headed away from the launch bay, and into carpeted office corridors. "I mean, I've only been doing this for two months, and you said you've been doing it for years. Can't we just go topside again?"


She narrowed her eyes. "What, don't you take this seriously?" Asuka said, as if it was a personal insult. "I'm going to have you at my back some time. You know, with the massive robot and the giant weapon and things. I want to see how good you are in real life, rather than just watching videos of you."


The boy massaged the back of his neck. "That's fair enough," he admitted. She was annoying, and rude, and bossy... but that was actually a good point. And the noise of satisfaction she made, when a glance through a window revealed that there what looked like simulation pods still here... well, it probably boded him-losing, but at least they looked like the dry simulation pods. He didn't have his plug suit here, and he didn't want to spend time in LCL if he didn't have to.


His chain of thought snapped, and the boy flinched, feeling as if a bucket of ice-cold water had been dumped on his head. From the way Asuka reacted, she'd felt exactly the same thing.


"What was that?" he asked, suddenly concerned.


Asuka's Eyes were wide, head twitching from one side to another as she shivered. "Something has just gone very wrong," she said, without any uncertainty in her voice.

~'/|\'~​

Ryoji Kaji tried not to panic, as he felt his lungs fill with the clear impact gel. He was used to it. He didn't need to worry. It was going to be fine.


These were all lies according to his body, which knew that he was strapped into a clear-faced coffin, flooding with something that looked like viscous water. Despite all his preparations, he still thrashed around, gasping for air which did not come. And yet, despite the fact that it was not air he was breathing, his lungs could still move.


[Pulse; elevated. Stress levels; within normal bounds,] was the now muffled voice of the LAI monitoring his loading into the grey-painted craft. [Proceeding onto step three once pulse has decreased to acceptable levels.]


This wasn't a luxury Ashcroft cargo module that he would be travelling in. This wasn't even the cramped conditions of the still-extortionate civilian intercontinental travel. This was a military transport pod, where the closest thing you got to a stewardess was the possibly-a-woman who was guiding the robot which loaded your coffin-like pod into a rack, to be unloaded at the other end. It was designed to fit as many people in as possible, and ensure that if the craft had to pull military grade evasive manoeuvres, the cargo-passengers would end up bruised, rather than dead. It was not, in any way, shape, or form, designed for comfort, which is why individuals were sedated for the duration of the transport.


Kaji sighed, and took a breath of the impact gel, his lungs protesting slightly at the increased viscosity. Already, he could see the serpentine arm of the loader selecting pods from the queue in front of him, and slotting them into place. At least the gel muted the noise of this place. He wished that he could slow his pulse down automatically, but the endocrinal adjustments needed for that might react with the sedative.


And... God, he had a good reason to be worried, quite apart from the fact that he felt like he had just drowned. There were things concealed in the package he had that certain divisions of the FSB, GIA, OIS, NEGA, NEGN, and for all he knew, the Chicago-2 Arcology Security Traffic Department would be rather excited in knowing he had. So excited, in fact, that he might just die from the joy and love that they would be spreading around the place. In fact, he was mildly concerned that he might not wake up, that there might be an 'accident' in transit.


But... no. If he had the Romanian Fragment with him, it might have been different; for that reason he would have been travelling another way. But with the replacement offering?


No. No one should know that he had it. No one at all. And there was no way of finding it. It should be unseen to arcane scans; invisible to parapsychics and electromagnets alike.


Hopefully.


Kaji really hoped his handlers were right about that bit.

~'/|\'~​

Major Katsuragi's nostrils flared wide, and she took a sudden, shocked gasp of air, letting it out in a stream of badly pronounced Chinese profanities. The others around here were spared the tedious necessity of asking her to explain what she meant by that, as orange-hued lightning arced through the sky to the north, beyond the figure of DAHACA, froze. Curving and bending, the unnatural radiance wove a grid, as overhead, light burning through the snowclouds, the heavens ignited in an aura borealis.


And from between the gaps in the grid, the world itself ruptured, breaking and cracking such that the grid was now more akin to light from within a cosmic egg. The burning lights above warped and twisted, the sky expanding to reach and compress the land and the ground rising motionless to touch it, as sensors screamed.


The world-egg hatched.


Down from the heavens, the ocean fell, an albumen wreathed in noxious orange-lit clouds. And something vast and ancient and horrible swam in these waters.

~'/|\'~​

Something shook the building to the very foundations, walls cracking and corridors slumping, so that that which had once been plane was no longer so bound. Cascading ripples of power failures cut illumination and tore cables from the ruined walls, leaving only the dim redness of emergency light. In one sector, a series of thuds signalled the emergency shutdown of one of the generators, for the casing was ruptured and a Horizon Event immanent.


And, down in the lower levels, Shinji Ikari and Asuka Langley Soryu were sent sprawling to the now-quivering floor, to a choir of immaculate sirens. Together, they both exhaled impulsively, sudden waves of bone-deep chill overcoming them like a perverse fever. The lights flickered, and within their heads, the draperies of veins formed a corona around the edge of their sight. Sound was muffled from without, and the breaths and beating of their hearts was all that could be heard.


Asuka groaned, raising her head from the floor, feeling her arm muscles protest. It felt like she'd skinned her knees, and she was lying on something hard and irregular, digging into her chest. The thing made muffled noises, and she rolled aside, which allowed Shinji to take an explosive intake of breath.


"Oww..." he managed, panting, one hand going to feel the back of his head. "That hurt."


For her part, the girl's hands went protectively up to the front of her sundress, where his face had just been, before they dropped again. There was a throbbing sensation in her own skull, which felt quite entirely unlike the sharper, clean pain of a gash, and the resultant trickle of blood from her forehead. There was a false-colour aura around things, which either meant that she had a concussion, or there was an extranormal entity nearby.


Even in her possibly-concussed state, Asuka couldn't help but correct her own thoughts. It could be both.


Shinji groaned again. "What's up with the lights?" he managed, as the building creaked above him, the noises from the spires above reverberating down to set up ghostly interplays of structural echoes. "All red."


"Emergency lighting," Asuka stated, for her own part.


"Why does this remind me of the last time I was almost nuked?" Shinji groaned. "'Course, Misato was heavier than you."


With an irritated flick of her head, and a glare, the red-blond girl sat up, the floor still shifting under her. "No," was her response, cold and crisp. "Can't you feel the difference? Something is clearly continuously shaking HQ; a danger-close to a tactical weapon doesn't feel like this." Sliding across the floor, she managed to get to the wall, and lever herself up using the ledge. "Come on!"


"Come on where?" Shinji asked, rubbing his aching wrists. "Where's the evac route?"


"Not the evacuation routes, idiot!" Asuka snapped, her calm breaking. "We're going to Unit 02. If this is a major attack, I'll be needed, and you're the pilot of Unit 01. You'll be useless if you're a pancake in the rubble of Ashcroft HQ, and an Eva is always the safest place to be."


With a groan, Shinji managed to pull himself up onto all fours, and then lurch over to the handrail himself. "Safest place," he muttered, somewhat bitterly. "Yes, the giant robot they send me to fight monsters in. Safe."


There was a low and worryingly intense noise in the Second Child's throat. "Yes," she growled – there really was no other word to describe. "If anything happens, get to your Eva. You should know this. Even if you're a complete newcomer. Even... even if there's s-something like a massive chromatic leak. It's safe." And turning her back on him, she set off, Shinji reluctantly following, more scared to be left alone. Working hand-over-hand, they headed off back the way they came, even as the floor shook and foundations screamed.


Only for the floor to shake once again, greater than before, and the walls to rupture.

~'/|\'~​

The beast from the heavens was vaguely white, a shape reminiscent of earthly aquatic life, and this similarity was only made more similar by the vile, toxic afterbirth of oil-slick waters which accompanied it. Roaring, screaming with a cacophony which shattered glass and left unprotected eardrums bleeding, the monster smashed into a glittering tower, and rent it asunder, a rain of adamant crystals flung over the city. The opalescent, greasy waters hit like a battering ram across the city. And around them, as this terrible cataclysm hit, the air of earth began to freeze even as the boiling waters revealed themselves to not be water, but instead a sea of hydrocarbons emptying themselves from gods knew where.


Harbinger-6 tore into Chicago-2, to the soft patter of a nitrogen rain.

~'/|\'~​

And in that shining grotto beneath the sea the towering figure, a spawn of distant stars, rumbled. The base note made the water that filled the space susurrate, in a rhythmic rising and falling.


One move made. One ancient ally called upon. And one step, perhaps, closer to the day when the sunken city of its elder kin would rise again.

~'/|\'~​

 

[minuseven]

As always, superb writing. Got to love the way you write. Also as always, Cthulhutech references went pretty much over my head.

Misato and Ritsuko interactions were light and funny, nice to see. Asuka and shinji interactions were ... interresting. Asuka's different from cannon yet very similar. Mana was also nice to see there. I like!

Otherwise, I just can't wait for the next chapter and probably awesome/bone-chilling fighting scenes. Of course, you're also working on znt/exalted and znt/pmmm and I also can't wait for those... Decisions, decisions...

 

[Jonen C]

There was a silence, then Misato smiled, cheering up noticeably. "Oh yes," she said, a lilt in her voice, "I'd forgotten you were agro... agora... scared of open spaces."

Click to shrink...

Do I detect a hint of Usagi Tsukino in your Major Katsuragi?
Even if not, you can tell Shadowjack he's practically a memetic [Hazard] now.

"Urgh... this is way too sweet. Who sweetens green tea?"

Click to shrink...

Lindy Harlaown, Outsiders, Admirals of the Dimensional Fleet, Trolls, but I am being redundant.

Crossing her legs on the chair, she idly spun around a few times.

Click to shrink...

... Memetic [Hazard], I tell you.

I'm also imagining hints of a Yukari/Nyamo kind of interplay going on there, if oddly reflected (for one thing, Misato would be the Nyamo-in-position, while the Yukari-in-personality and most contexts besides).

"Oh, come on," a clear female voice came from behind them, a patronising note in her slightly-accented tone. "It wasn't that good. He didn't even make the leaderboard."

Click to shrink...

Asuka... Strikes!

Hee. Poor Asuka, completely missing the point. (And shouldn't she know by now? There is always a point.)

"Someone else who feels cold here!"

Click to shrink...

Epileptic trees moment: The Pilots are sensing the coming Angel, somehow. Cirno, stop messing with the thermostat.

Fluctuations in heat sinks on a high performance prototype. Connected to the Advent of the Angel?

His chain of thought snapped, and the boy flinched, feeling as if a bucket of ice-cold water had been dumped on his head. From the way Asuka reacted, she'd felt exactly the same thing.

"What was that?" he asked, suddenly concerned.

Asuka's Eyes were wide, head twitching from one side to another as she shivered. "Something has just gone very wrong," she said, without any uncertainty in her voice.

Click to shrink...

[Cirnoroth]

And a very, Combine vision for the future of military personell mass transport.

Though, of course, a Gaghiel expy as per in the other place, other time, before, yet roughly simultaneous. Nice bookends to the chapter, by the by. Ze summoning. That was Dagon in the last bit, was it not?

Even... even if there's s-something like a massive chromatic leak. It's safe.

Click to shrink...

Remind me, what happened at Berlin-2 again? Oh, right.

Also, I don't think Shinji was expecting Asuka to correct him on what being nuked feels like, though I doubt she has much personal experience.

Also - cool shark - let's jump it in the General Lee Unit Dahaca of the Red Line, the Last Line Ever to Hold.

 

[Amorous Intent]

You keep using the term panhuman. Outside of the context of a relentlessly transhuman setting like Eclipse Phase, I really don't understand what you mean.

Also, is DAHACA a reference to Azi Dahaka, or something I'm unfamiliar with?

 

[TheLastOne]

You know, you can just FEEL the insecurity rolling off Asuka. I was a bit annoyed by no one catching on that both the pilots were feeling preternaturally cold halfway through the chapter - but I guess neither of their handlers were reporting the complaints, so no one was correlating anything. Still, I would expect the after-action reports to catch on, and have them watch for that kind of thing in the future.

 

[Shinr]

Also, I don't think Shinji was expecting Asuka to correct him on what being nuked feels like, though I doubt she has much personal experience.

Click to shrink...

Besides her organic eyes being burned out for staring at the nuke when she was roughly four/six?

 

[EarthScorpion]

You keep using the term panhuman. Outside of the context of a relentlessly transhuman setting like Eclipse Phase, I really don't understand what you mean.


Also, is DAHACA a reference to Azi Dahaka, or something I'm unfamiliar with?

Click to shrink...

"Panhuman", in fact, is used in exactly the same way as EP uses "transhuman"; it's just that it's more encompassing than transgressive. Panhuman is the word I decided to use instead of having to write "Humans, Nazzadi and xenomixes", because I can't just call them all human (despite the fact they are) because it's also the name of a subset of the group. It's used in the same context as the Nazzadi word homisapi, to the extent that the Nazzadi conflation of "personhood" and "citizenship" is starting to bleed through into it.


It also has the convenient bonus that Pan is the genus of the chimps.

...


Yes, DAHACA is linked to Azi Dahaka, although it's coming more through the Zoroastrian myths than later ones. It also has quite a bit of the Iron Dragon (from The Iron Dragon's Daughter) about it, because they have shared draconic imagery, and DAHACA is a machine, and... well, it "breathes" plasma-fire.


Incidentally, DAHACA looks basically like canon Jet Alone, except it has a second set of arms rather than legs, and it actually has built in weapons.

You know, you can just FEEL the insecurity rolling off Asuka. I was a bit annoyed by no one catching on that both the pilots were feeling preternaturally cold halfway through the chapter - but I guess neither of their handlers were reporting the complaints, so no one was correlating anything. Still, I would expect the after-action reports to catch on, and have them watch for that kind of thing in the future.

Click to shrink...

It's quite a change from the normal "Asuka has a parental figure she can look up to and so everything is all better", isn't it?

It is fantastic to see this updated. Sometimes I think that if the story weren't so massively decompressed you might crank it out updates more frequently and traverse the plot you have planed more swiftly. But then I think you might leave out the parts I like, instead of the curtains.

Click to shrink...

Let's be fair, it would also get updates more frequently if I wasn't trying to keep multiple other fics running on the fly, making sure they all get updated, and wasn't acting as a co-writer/brain for other people.

... but, yeah, this chapter was a pain to get out, and I probably deleted 5000 or so words in "... no, this entire 1000 word section won't work, can it" moments.

 

[violetshadows]

"Why does this remind me of the last time I was almost nuked?" Shinji groaned. "'Course, Misato was heavier than you."



Heh, Shinji approaches wisdom.

 

[EarthScorpion]

"Why does this remind me of the last time I was almost nuked?" Shinji groaned. "'Course, Misato was heavier than you."



Heh, Shinji approaches wisdom.

Click to shrink...

Indeed. Although, in Misato's defence, she was in SP-armour at the time.


... and also weighs more.

 

[Twitchy Artemis]

And isn't Chicago further south then London is?

 

[EarthScorpion]

And isn't Chicago further south then London is?

Click to shrink...

Yep. I compared their climatic data in Wikipedia, though, and Chicago has a wider spread of temperature ranges in the same months, and more snow (and earlier in the year). The UK basically has its climate stabilised by proximity to the ocean, while Chicago, despite its proximity to one of the Great Lakes, is inland. This isn't some kind of permafrost, in case you were misreading it; it's just been snowing for the last few days. Also remember that in L2, we very rarely actually see the above-ground world, so you wouldn't even know if it was snowing, unless a Harbinger attacked.


And that's not getting into the mess that the Strange Aeon has made of the global weather system. It started with early 21st century climate engineering projects, which were trying to lock CO2 down, and all sorts of "anti-desertification" and "wetland restoration", which required constant maintenance to work. Then we get the delicate balance broken by AW1, which was basically akin to a global nuclear exchange on the sort of things that happened. The new NEG is too busy holding the world together to keep the climatic projects working in the aftermath. And then the Migou invade, and start locking down CO2 at the poles, making the carbon into diamond (vast diamond expanses, dead, sterile, and purely there as carbon storage), removing greenhouse gases to freeze the Terran ecosystem into submission.


Oh, and then Leng fucks up South-East Asia. Yay. Not.


Basically... the chapter of Sunward, for EP, which handles the condition of Earth? AEE!Earth isn't that bad, but it's heading that way.

 

[Amorous Intent]

"Panhuman", in fact, is used in exactly the same way as EP uses "transhuman"; it's just that it's more encompassing than transgressive. Panhuman is the word I decided to use instead of having to write "Humans, Nazzadi and xenomixes", because I can't just call them all human (despite the fact they are) because it's also the name of a subset of the group. It's used in the same context as the Nazzadi word homisapi, to the extent that the Nazzadi conflation of "personhood" and "citizenship" is starting to bleed through into it.


It also has the convenient bonus that Pan is the genus of the chimps.

Click to shrink...

Ah, makes sense. For some reason I thought you were referring to the CATSEYE dogs as panhuman. On doublechecking, I realized that I simply herped the derp.


Truth be told, I think I like "panhuman" better than transhuman for referring to the EP transhuman "family". After all, uplifts and AGI aren't transhuman in any respect. They're trans-simian/cetacean/cephalopod/avian or infolife. Then of course you have the exhumans, which are precisely that. Panhuman is much better at relating that.

Yes, DAHACA is linked to Azi Dahaka, although it's coming more through the Zoroastrian myths than later ones. It also has quite a bit of the Iron Dragon (from The Iron Dragon's Daughter) about it, because they have shared draconic imagery, and DAHACA is a machine, and... well, it "breathes" plasma-fire.

Click to shrink...

My knowledge of Persian mythology and Zoroastrianism in particular is woefully lacking. I've found that Wikipedia is a terrible source for learning about mythology unless you're already familiar with it. I can figure my way around Greek and Christian mythology (and stumble through Norse), but as soon as I look up Sumerian, Persian or Hindu myth--or worse, Kabbalah--Wikipedia becomes an incomprehensible mess of obscure references. Any tips?


Hell, the only reason I knew of Azi Dahaka is because of the oblique reference in Prince of Persia: Warrior Within (the antagonist shares a name and little else).

Basically... the chapter of Sunward, for EP, which handles the condition of Earth? AEE!Earth isn't that bad, but it's heading that way.

Click to shrink...

Stop ruining my fun! I was going to make a joke about how old Chicago was a superheated, radioactive puddle of slag and glass that even ten years after STEEL ANTIMATTER RAIN is hot enough to prevent cloud formation.

 

[EarthScorpion]

My knowledge of Persian mythology and Zoroastrianism in particular is woefully lacking. I've found that Wikipedia is a terrible source for learning about mythology unless you're already familiar with it. I can figure my way around Greek and Christian mythology (and stumble through Norse), but as soon as I look up Sumerian, Persian or Hindu myth--or worse, Kabbalah--Wikipedia becomes an incomprehensible mess of obscure references. Any tips?

Click to shrink...

I'm sorry, I've basically been a mythology nerd for so long that I've sort of internalised it, and, more, internalised picking up new mythologies (which is why AEE has quite a few Canaanite points, as a literal mythology gag to the Judo-Christian apocrypha of NGE). I just sort of browse through them, and remember things. The fact that I've done a lot of reading in various occult/religious things due to wanting to expand my knowledge after being introduced to them in various (often WoD, so I want to see if they actually got them right) RPGs also helps.

Zoastrainism is pretty fun at times, though. It's one of the first real dualistic set ups. Gnosticism is also a lot of fun.

Stop ruining my fun! I was going to make a joke about how old Chicago was a superheated, radioactive puddle of slag and glass that even ten years after STEEL ANTIMATTER RAIN is hot enough to prevent cloud formation.

Click to shrink...

Nah, that's Los Angeles. A Nazzadi Loyalist ship pulled an accelerating sling-shot around Venus, and de-orbited into it at high velocity as a "fuck you" towards the end of the Nazzadi Civil War, and triggered the bombs on board just before impact. The glassy basin has flooded with seawater; that was later formalised into a shallow lake. Los Angeles-2 through to -7 are small, independent shallow above-ground single arcologies scattered around it; it's viewed as too-high an earthquake risk to rebuild there as a proper arcology. There certainly isn't any fear that the slightly odd readings from the area might be due to some kind of creature or creatures that naturally live in the molten rock of the Earth being drawn by the impact to the fault line, lurking underneath.

 

[Jonen C]

Besides her organic eyes being burned out for staring at the nuke when she was roughly four/six?

Click to shrink...

Ah, forgot about that. Her player really min-maxed her build with all that tragic backstory, didn't she?

Yep. I compared their climatic data in Wikipedia, though, and Chicago has a wider spread of temperature ranges in the same months, and more snow (and earlier in the year). The UK basically has its climate stabilised by proximity to the ocean, while Chicago, despite its proximity to one of the Great Lakes, is inland.

Click to shrink...

Aye, this is the difference between a continental and a maritime climate. Areas on the same latitude receive the same amount of solar energy, but oceans retain the energy roughly five times better than land, which means that they cool off (but also heat up) slower, both during nights and during winter (when they receive less sunlight). Then you have to factor in ocean currents which can generally be said to transfer warm water up from the equator towards the poles near the surface, and cold water from the poles down towards the equator in deeper layers. If you look at a climatological diagram comparing the annual temperature variations of Bergen, Norway with those of Moscow, Russia, you see a rather marked difference, where Moscow is hotter when it is hot, and colder when it is cold. All of the British Isles have very Maritime climates, with mild winters and summers. Chicago, on the other hand, is located right in Blizzard Alley in the North American continent, the Great Plains of which are uniquely dis-positioned for big storm systems to come in from the south and north and mix it up (though, that usually happens well south of Chicago, and with Global cooling, has probably migrated even further south). If they'd visited during the summer, they'd complained of the heat (and the Angel would probably have rained fire on the city).

This isn't some kind of permafrost, in case you were misreading it; it's just been snowing for the last few days. Also remember that in L2, we very rarely actually see the above-ground world, so you wouldn't even know if it was snowing, unless a Harbinger attacked.

Click to shrink...

Honestly, I was mostly twigging that Toja and Shinji, being arcology/tunnel (b)rats, were displaying a bit of agoraphobic unease at the entire set up of the town. Ken is altogether more cosmopolitan, and lived there for a while besides.

And that's not getting into the mess that the Strange Aeon has made of the global weather system. It started with early 21st century climate engineering projects, which were trying to lock CO2 down, and all sorts of "anti-desertification" and "wetland restoration", which required constant maintenance to work. Then we get the delicate balance broken by AW1, which was basically akin to a global nuclear exchange on the sort of things that happened. The new NEG is too busy holding the world together to keep the climatic projects working in the aftermath.

Click to shrink...

"Terraforming" the Earth is an admirable project, but the hazard of having someone messing up your terraforming efforts so they run out of control... Ayayayayayayayay. On the other hand, the emergent ecosystem in the areas formerly devoted to agriculture, not to mention abandoned settlements and urban areas, ought to make interesting areas for study for entire generations of biologists and geographers.

And then the Migou invade, and start locking down CO2 at the poles, making the carbon into diamond (vast diamond expanses, dead, sterile, and purely there as carbon storage), removing greenhouse gases to freeze the Terran ecosystem into submission.

Click to shrink...

Bolded bit: Incidentally looking somewhat like a Tiberian Sun style landscape.

Oh, and then Leng fucks up South-East Asia. Yay. Not.

Click to shrink...

Fucking POLLEN.

Basically... the chapter of Sunward, for EP, which handles the condition of Earth? AEE!Earth isn't that bad, but it's heading that way.

Click to shrink...

And if the TITAN project of the NEG goes like it did in EP, it's even ahead of the curve!

 

[EarthScorpion]

Ah, forgot about that. Her player really min-maxed her build with all that tragic backstory, didn't she?

Click to shrink...

I don't know why people assume that a nightmare has to be literally what happened.

... but, yes. I think I worked out the character sheets for the two of them in EP, back when I was doing ANE, and Asuka's built on roughly twice the number of points that Shinji is. Rei, on the other hand, is probably shagging the GM or something, because there's no way that she should have been allowed to write all these broken powers for herself.

Damn Rei's player. She did the same thing in the Haruhi game, too. And always plays the same kind of character.

- interesting. All the people feeling cold are either Pilots, parapsychics or somehow connected to Paxton Fettel. This does not bode well.
- and your record of neat world-building decisions continues. Emotions are mostly biochemical and of course Kaji would have implants to counteract that aspect of their existence.
- Calvin continues to troll with the best of them
- finally, a different take on the Shinji-Asuka meeting. This might not end too badly!
- "I never asked for this." AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAA!
- oh dear, DAHACA is a giant-sized BigDog isn't it. With a healthy dose of Metal Gear.
- and heeeeeeeeeere's Yam!!! Hopefully it'll get even worse than being eaten by Shoggoth-stuff this time
- dude at the end. That's the badass Star Spawn that fought the Nine in Aeon Natum Engel, yes? Perhaps e's playing a longer game in this iteration!

Click to shrink...

- What ever does?
- Thank you, I thought so myself. EP is a great help as a gear book.
- Calvin is a bad, bad man.
- Yes. Dear gods, yes. My brain just rebelled at doing a canon-like meeting. Heh. For all that I moan about Rebuild, AEE's going to go off skew from canon (and ANE) much more in Book II than Book I.
- *smiles*
- No, actually. DAHACA is basically canon Jet Alone; it's just armed up a bit, a bit bulkier, and it has a second pair of arms (those weird, boneless arms) in place of its legs.
- Yam, Yam, Yam. Sorry, kiddo, but you're almost certainly not about to kill both Asuka and Shinji. I mean, then Rei would be the only major protagonist left, and... do you have any idea how hard it would be to have the entire story from her PoV?
- Mmm, yes. It's certainly the same idea as that one; I'm not sure if he counts as the same one or not, because that one in ANE got all of one scene or so of appearance. But, yes. Something that actually can play smart.

 

[Lavanya Six]

I don't know why people assume that a nightmare has to be literally what happened.


... but, yes. I think I worked out the character sheets for the two of them in EP, back when I was doing ANE, and Asuka's built on roughly twice the number of points that Shinji is. Rei, on the other hand, is probably shagging the GM or something, because there's no way that she should have been allowed to write all these broken powers for herself.


Damn Rei's player. She did the same thing in the Haruhi game, too. And always plays the same kind of character.

Click to shrink...

I don't normally say this but... sig'd!

 

[Jonen C]

I don't know why people assume that a nightmare has to be literally what happened.

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Readers of fiction are kind of like that. We tend to assume that what we're reading is true, unless it's strongly implied not to be so, or have some reason to doubt our reading.

Actually, part of my current course at Uni, we finished reading Heart of Darkness, by Joseph Conrad, and one of the points of discussion brought up in the critical essays we read with it was how he played with readers expectations. I heartily recommend reading the book and looking for that specifically.

... but, yes. I think I worked out the character sheets for the two of them in EP, back when I was doing ANE, and Asuka's built on roughly twice the number of points that Shinji is. Rei, on the other hand, is probably shagging the GM or something, because there's no way that she should have been allowed to write all these broken powers for herself.

Damn Rei's player. She did the same thing in the Haruhi game, too. And always plays the same kind of character.

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I sort of assumed Rei (and Yuki) wasn't a PC, but an NPC the GM keeps around the players to provide handy Deus Ex Machinae Exit in case he throws an unsolvable problem at them, and the occasional hint whenever they run out of ideas he'll actually let them try in game. ("No, you can't use the timeloop to sedu... Fuck it. You don't remember anything that happened in any of the previous loops, Yuki has to tell you what's going on.")

- Yam, Yam, Yam. Sorry, kiddo, but you're almost certainly not about to kill both Asuka and Shinji. I mean, then Rei would be the only major protagonist left, and... do you have any idea how hard it would be to have the entire story from her PoV?

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It might be an interesting experiment. It's not so much that it'd be the story happening from her PoV, it'd be the story's PoV as Rei happens. Or people observing Rei.

- Mmm, yes. It's certainly the same idea as that one; I'm not sure if he counts as the same one or not, because that one in ANE got all of one scene or so of appearance. But, yes. Something that actually can play smart.

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I'm still thinking it's Dagon, myself.

 

[Amorous Intent]

I'm sorry, I've basically been a mythology nerd for so long that I've sort of internalised it, and, more, internalised picking up new mythologies (which is why AEE has quite a few Canaanite points, as a literal mythology gag to the Judo-Christian apocrypha of NGE). I just sort of browse through them, and remember things. The fact that I've done a lot of reading in various occult/religious things due to wanting to expand my knowledge after being introduced to them in various (often WoD, so I want to see if they actually got them right) RPGs also helps.


Zoastrainism is pretty fun at times, though. It's one of the first real dualistic set ups. Gnosticism is also a lot of fun.

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Gnosticism is probably the one I'm most familiar with. It certainly make more sense than modern Christian myth.

Nah, that's Los Angeles. A Nazzadi Loyalist ship pulled an accelerating sling-shot around Venus, and de-orbited into it at high velocity as a "fuck you" towards the end of the Nazzadi Civil War, and triggered the bombs on board just before impact. The glassy basin has flooded with seawater; that was later formalised into a shallow lake. Los Angeles-2 through to -7 are small, independent shallow above-ground single arcologies scattered around it; it's viewed as too-high an earthquake risk to rebuild there as a proper arcology. There certainly isn't any fear that the slightly odd readings from the area might be due to some kind of creature or creatures that naturally live in the molten rock of the Earth being drawn by the impact to the fault line, lurking underneath.

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If they're worried about something living in the ruins of LA, they clearly did not use enough dakka. NEG, I am disappoint.

... but, yes. I think I worked out the character sheets for the two of them in EP, back when I was doing ANE, and Asuka's built on roughly twice the number of points that Shinji is. Rei, on the other hand, is probably shagging the GM or something, because there's no way that she should have been allowed to write all these broken powers for herself.


Damn Rei's player. She did the same thing in the Haruhi game, too. And always plays the same kind of character.

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Rei has psi-epsilon sleights, and therefore can't be a legal PC build. She's obviously the GM's bullshit Mary Sue GMPC that the players all hate with a fiery passion. The only reason the players haven't quit is because the GM forgot to actually give her any personality.