No italics because big post, but enjoy nonetheless!
Shinji yanked his foot forward, just fast enough to avoid the archway behind him before it came screaming down on his heel. Gleaming frosted metal blades inside caught the light of fire and sun above through the clouds. The rising structures had been the most recent obstacle, springing out of the ground and walls to snag wayward limbs. There was no grace or great skill to his piloting, just a stubborn strength that put more trust in the Eva than anything. Piloting itself was an unnatural mode of thought.
Fortunately, he was good at thinking.
Ahead, barely a dozen city blocks away was their objective. The summit loomed ahead of them, rising higher on spinning rings, dripping with smaller fortified structures. Above, the clouds roiled and boomed as heat in the air set off more hydrogen pockets, painting the sky with thunder and fire. Asuka nearly danced through the chaos with sword in hand, and for a split second, it was almost as if he could see her instead of the Eva.
Vaulting another stand of animated architecture, Shinji lowered his shoulders, charging through the stone and metal. Whatever the stuff had been, it gave way into more of that white powdery plaster, leaving a trail of dust in his wake. Rei and Nagisa brought up the middle, while Kensuke and the new machine rushed through the gap he carved like wrecking balls.
The chemical snow and cold gave way to icy rain mixed with sleeting, grainy soot. In the distance, the chain was wreathed in a thick column of dry black smoke edged in red, billowing high and fast. The air shimmered with heat, and the view ahead went liquid, while the smoke bowed out in front of him from pressure and the rush of wind. The other pilots followed in his wake, and he could feel their eyes on his back as the beacon leading the charge.
Plowing through the last ramp and wall, Shinji broke out onto the summit. The howling gust of wind he generated cut through the smoke and fire, where suddenly the ground stopped. Every bit of his nerve and will went taut as he dug his heels into the ground and skid to a halt, throwing his arms wide while the others piled up against his back. The combined surge of air and impact raised a gale that spun into the sky, blowing away hot gasses and ash until all six of them could see unobstructed.
The chain stretched upwards without apparent end. Each round, oval link was massive, over two hundred meters wide, and they swayed in the wind despite that. Going up, it disappeared into the clouds and smoke. Below, it dropped into a pit, and Shinji had ground to a halt just shy of the edge with the other Evas piled up behind him. Thin, tall towers like gothic lamp posts dotted the rim, standing as tall as the pit was wide and looming over the human machines.
Kensuke and Vespa groaned over the radio, almost speaking the same words at the same time. "He-ey what's the big-Oh."
Past the edge of the pit and below was a volcano, with caldera and seething pool of magma bubbling fitfully at the bottom. The lowest links glowed cherry red, sinking into the molten rock. The crater itself- the castle seemed to be rising outward from the lava, where red hot fortifications and architecture scaled the walls like creeping lichen or coral before spilling over the lip and crawling down the topside surface. Shinji let out a low whistle. The castle grew itself out of this?
"Is any of this bullshit magic making any sense to you at all?" Shooting him a sly smirk via the communication screen, Asuka peeled away from the group and dashed along the rim, coat trailing behind her Eva as she went.
Tugging on his controls, Shinji sighed, but smiled regardless. "If I ever figure out an 'automatically understand magic' technique, you'll be the second to know."
"Holding you to that, Golden Boy!" Asuka smirked before raising her sword. "This thing might get ready to pull the city free any second, so I say the chain looks important enough to cut. Let's get to it!"
Vespa and their machine twisted in place, panning across the battlefield. Even with the voice masking, they managed to sound coy. "Roger! Gotta say though- you guys sound a little too familiar with this kind of stuff. There something you NERV kids aren't telling me~?
"It'd take too long to explain." Shinji admitted, tersely apologetic and unable to say much more. At least they were moving with some kind of purpose, even if they were making it up as they went. "Asuka's right- we're on more than one clock. How are we doing on power?"
The Evangelions replied back with their status and telemetry, with Kensuke having the most battery life at three minutes.
Asuka let out a low growl, facing the chain and standing between two of the gothic towers. "I could use some cover for a second or two. Keep an eye out if the small fry come back."
Rei and Vespa moved up without comment, and Unit-02 shifted, relaxing visibly. Shinji felt the tingling static heat of a manifest AT-field wash over him, resonant with Unit-02's own signature. Rei and Kensuke leaned around Unit-01, surprisingly loud due to their bulk and closeness. The sandy-haired boy was pale and shaking, but his hands were tight on the controls.
Nagisa perked up, smiling. "A sensory expression! Allow me to join you, Sorhyu-san. I mistook your name, but I did read your papers."
"Flirt later, Nagisa, but go for it!"
Seconds ticked by, and Shinji watched their expressions on screen while he kept another eye on motion trackers. Asuka's eyebrows twitched madly, while Nagisa seemed much more serene about things. He knew the other boy well enough to say he carried tension elsewhere though, in the neck and shoulders. The two fields spread out across the caldera, and though Shinji couldn't see it, he knew they were reaching for something. Feeling their altered space extend further, he could sense a reflection in Unit-01's, and a void appeared. Carved into the world was the chain, inviolate as any soul.
"Ah shit- they hardened it somehow, like the fancypants ones!" Asuka's eyes snapped open, and she punched her console with a scowl.
"Hey!" Vespa shifted position and turning towards the chain while raising Jet Alone's arms, and a keening, electric wail and static hum of manifest AT-field rang out. "Before we play the most dangerous game of the floor is lava-"
The human machine lurched, awkward and deliberately off balance as the charge intensified. Channels of green glowed hotly beneath the segmented arms and raised a scintillating cloud of tiny planar fields. The arms curled into the shoulders and bent like tentacles before unfurling with a lightning-fast whip crack. The scattershot blast of altered space shot forward, flung from Jet Alone's hands and deflected off the chain. From below, the massive city-spanning creature groaned, shifting fitfully. The cracked and cooling pavers beneath Shinji's feet trembled, while rubble skittered and bounced from some unseen energy.
Vespa bit off more than a few choice words, lapsing into odd, lilting English while Asuka whistled. "Who did you say you were working with again? Nevermind, we'll find out later. We're sure as hell in for a long debrief."
"Indeed." Rei's voice was soft and intent. "No damage, but we've upset something."
Asuka and her Evangelion nodded before taking a few steps back, and Shinji could see the plan plain on her face. With a running start, she leaped forward, coat unfurling not as full wings but more like a glider to catch the wind. Unit-02 arced through the air, sword in hand and slammed into the chain hard enough to send it swaying twenty meters around.
"Simplest plans are the best plans!" She raised her sword and brought it down, cleaving through alien steel and sending a great chunk into the lava below.
The rumbling rose sharply, and the lava below bubbled, before a sudden surge and jet of heat shot straight up into the air. Temperature alerts blared out all across Shinji's perception, and his readings on Asuka's Eva spiked into the red before falling. The chain drew upwards, with each shifting link clicking together with sounds that shook buildings. Asuka let out a quick yelp, catching her sword with one wing-hand while her legs and other three arms wrapped around the link and held on for dear life.
Out from the lava, glowing hot red and dripping molten stone was a link in the chain, warped into a face with lopsided gemstone eyes and bristling with hot metal horns. A snaggletoothed maw of teeth the size of train cars gnashed, and Shinji could see it drool more lava even as it swayed like a top-heavy snake.
Stumbling away from the edge of the volcano, Vespa wailed and landed on their hands and knees. "The chain is a giant monster- of course it is!"
"For once I'd like something inanimate to be inanimate! Or at least stay that way!" Asuka switched grips and readied her sword again, hacking away as hard and fast as her arm could swing.
The face in the chain squirmed, twisting to look up at the irritation. Shinji could only say it spat in disgust before acting, rearing back in a heavy coil. Diving back down into the lava, the creature dragged the rest of the chain with it. Leaving her sword to her wings again, Asuka scrambled up the chain hand over hand, working for altitude over the pit.
Before Asuka could even ask for help, Shinji moved. The volcano was still printing more architecture, and he realized the giant towers were the latest elements destined for some distant point further down the mountain-creature. The bases were still hot, not quite cooled and crystallized stone, ten meters wide and taller than his Eva several times over. He dropped into a sliding kick, leading with one foot to punch through the tower's lowest point. Shearing through part of the structure, he scrambled back on his hands and knees to yank more material away.
The column listed with a crackling groan, still half-connected at the base, tilting away from the pit and down the mountainside. There wasn't time to speak, but Shinji pointed at the top of the tower, and Vespa raised one of Jet Alone's spindly hands and flashed a thumbs-up. They turned and rocketed upward on blue candleflame jets, braving the smoke and grit. Vespa latched onto the top of the tower, hooking tow cables around the pinnacle and waving ready.
Shinji dug his hands into the cracked base, and a second later Kensuke was there. Together, the purple and silver Evangelions strained, heaving with arms, legs, every bit of muscle they could muster. Their heels punched holes into the paving stones below, and the tower tilted forward towards the chain. As the far end swung over the caldera and into the smoke, Vespa launched forward again and slammed into the far side of the caldera, threading the needle through the chain even as the links reeled down into the magma.
Rei and Nagisa flared their AT-fields, lifting the improvised projectile while Shinji and Kensuke strained against its bulk. Turning, Vespa dashed away from the rim and reeled the spike in over their mechanical shoulders while the winches inside Jet Alone's body sparked and smoked under the strain. With one heaving shout, the five of them ripped the column free and sent it airborne.
The tower sailed through the gap, tall enough to span the crater and spear through massive links. The ends dug into the rim of the caldera and carved a ragged trench through the architecture walls. Above, Unit-02 was nearly thrown clear off, hanging on by two wingtip fingers before pulling herself back upright. Asuka's gnashing growls filled the airwaves, and Shinji turned his attention back to the chain and monster below. Seething, roiling magma reached up for the improvised pin, while the creature dove down into the hot fiery stone. It rose and dove, jerking hard on the pinned chain, and the column strained against the crater walls.
Even as he watched, Shinji moved, waving for the others to follow. "Shore up the ends! We're buying Asuka time!"
"Pair off. Vespa with me. Aida-kun, Nagisa, to the far side." Rei's orders cut through the air and Jet Alone offered Unit-00 a jaunty salute.
Shinji turned back to the chain and looked up to the damaged link. Before he got in Rei and Vespa's way, Shinji dashed ahead, urging his Eva to move fast. His heels pounded against the braced column, shaking loose dust. Odd that it hadn't turned to plaster like everything else though. He vaulted the nearest link and landed on it, hands digging into the rough-cast metal. Each link was banded with smooth stone bearings, almost decoration. Either way, it made for ready handholds. Clawing hand over hand, he raced up the chain and leaped from link to link, until he reached Asuka and Unit-02.
Four green eyes stared down at him for a moment, and the red Evangelion hung off from the chain with both wings shaped into broad hands.
His answer was to reach for his left shoulder pylon and drop the progressive knife into his hand.
"Worth a shot!" Asuka laughed, loud and pleased. "Start carving, rip and tear!"
The chain jerked hard beneath them, and stopped moving just as quickly. A knot of cables around their end dug into the crater lip as the two giants braced the strands over their shoulders. Shinji flipped the knife around in his hand and sliced a hot arc through the nearest hunk of stone, shearing away tons of material with a single slash. Each one of Asuka's sword strokes cleaved off a hundred times more than he did in one go. If she had strength, then he'd carry his end with efficiency.
Focusing, Shinji swung around to the far side of the chain and hopped across the gap- they had to break both sides or it'd just stay stuck like a hook. Wrenching hard on the controls, he brought his legs up and knees first, slamming into the stone rings and smashing through the first few surface meters. Knife in hand, he hacked and clawed, digging hard for the center core.
The chain jerked again, and Kensuke bit off a panicked yelp. Glancing down, Shinji caught a fleeting snapshot of the battle below. Kensuke and Nagisa stood on the column like a balance beam, dodging thick tentacles of molten magma and leaving them to wrap around the column. Shinji could feel Unit-03's AT-field flicker out, letting Nagisa cut down the tendrils and send them back to reform with almost careless economy.
Shoving the worry aside, Shinji focused on the task at hand. Now elbow deep, he stabbed the knife into the side of the link and switched grips. Behind him, he felt every ringing impact through the chain as Asuka lashed against the chain with sword and grasping wing. Her blows were coming faster now, almost blurring together. Braced with half his arm in the rock cowling, Shinji pulled. His Eva's muscles bulged in response, splitting the armor along the left arm from wrist to shoulder like busted seams. Without tension and wholeness, the stone shattered against his leverage, and he shook his arm free of dust before grabbing his knife once more.
A sharp, wrathful crack caught his ear, and Shinji didn't need to look. The column fractured, collapsing in the middle with his friends and allies still fighting along it. The battle below was cut through with sound and thrumming vibration, along with the roar of wind and smoke. The choking black ash filled his view and coated every surface, while the heat above the caldera thickened the air with endless ripples. That distinctly artificial wail and screech of Jet Alone's AT-field spun up, launched with a bone-shaking thunderbolt.
Shinji didn't see what happened, but whatever happened beneath him shook the chain-monster from bottom to top. He nearly lost his knife against the furious vibration, but snatched it out of the air at the last second and swung back to carve a long ragged line into the next layer. The next strike went easier, faster, with stone falling apart in great sheets and bands with every hack and slash.
Asuka silently pushed a countdown timer into his perception, paired with a view of her own perspective. The chain's exposed inner metal core dominated her attention- she had struck so hard and fast, both her sword's edge and the chain glowed faint red. "Shinji! Dig in and Cut on three!"
He just gave her a terse nod, intent on slicing through the next layer and then the one after, getting closer to the core a handspan at a time. Every move pulled down buildings worth of stone and sent it tumbling into the smoke and fire. Then, Shinji heard her voice count in his mind, silent and all-encompassing in focus. One.
The face in the chain thrashed, jerking hard against the fallen tower and sending the whole length swaying even as the chain itself could not reel in. His controls were unnecessary, holding on with synchronization and will to win. Another sudden yank left him half-hanging mid air by a hand, but Asuka never lost count. Two.
Shinji rode the momentum on the way back, blade in his left hand glowing hot ultrasonic and angled for the kill. "Three!"
Two blades sliced through metal, and for a split second, all was still. The magma bubbled a few hundred meters beneath them. The other three Evangelions plus Jet Alone were almost frozen in place, and the snarling beast-chain was hung in mid-air, mid lunge.
And then the instant passed, and Shinji was caught without warning. The sky and clouds appeared in a blur of rushing wind, while the immediate acceleration strained his Eva's joints from head to toe, letting out awful cracks and creaks. Inside the plug, Shinji was pressed down hard against the seat. The plastic and metal complained, bowing out with stress. The monstrous castle spasmed beneath him, writhing in pain while growing smaller and distant as he was lifted higher and higher. He watched his knife tumble away from fingers, and only caught the barest glimpse of his friends crawling away from the volcano rim.
Out the corner of his eye, he saw a flash of fluttering red and black. Asuka was still there, tangled up in the broken chain worse than he was, with wingtip fingers wedged too tight to pull free. Unit-02 looked up, and he followed Asuka's attention up, past the clouds and into the sky above the city. The chain was reeling in, and taking them with it. They'd already climbed over a thousand meters, and the air was growing colder and stranger by the second. The chain punched and cut through thick clouds of helium and hydrogen, mixed with more pedestrian atmosphere, and they saw the maw of the sky stretch wide, kilometers across.
Then they were through. The chain shivered, knocking both Evas loose and sending them tumbling helplessly above an ocean of banded red and brown clouds. The night sky stretched out in every direction with every full rotation, and Shinji's inner ear rebelled as he fought for control. Only the leaden fullness of LCL in his stomach kept him from vomiting. Whim, intuition and luck was all he had. Shinji swung his Eva's arms, his legs, counter to the rotation and fighting his own center of gravity...
"Oh fuck." Asuka exhaled, already stable, and Shinji remembered she'd probably trained for this. "We're in space."
Alarms and environmental hazard alerts filled his plug a half-second after Asuka's declaration, and she was absolutely correct- they were in space. Jupiter dominated the local area, but all around them were things. Platforms made of smoky glass that drank in starlight, massive whale-ships with palaces stretched across spiderwebs spanning between them. Behind him, the portal showed Tokyo-3 from the top, and the maw-gullet on this side was already closing.
Shinji cast about for an answer, an idea. He could vent reserve LCL for thrust, but they were already hundreds of meters away from the portal. His battery life ticked over to fifty nine seconds, and there was no time for an AT-field experiment.
But another field brushed against his, and Shinji watched Asuka spread her Eva's wings. A rainbow halo appeared behind her for a fraction of a second, and she beat towards him across the vacuum. "Hang on Golden Boy!"
Asuka and her Evangelion slammed into him hard enough to send them both tumbling back for the portal, and he watched her batteries drain with every surge of altered space. Fighting down the nausea, Shinji twisted them both, grappling with inertia and more. The maw was closing faster, teeth grinding together at two ends like a puckered zipper. Atmosphere above Japan rushed out in misty whorls and billowing clouds of expanding gas, and they were still moving too slow.
"Have to move faster, Asuka! Faster!" Shinji twisted in his seat, bracing his legs around the console.
The hum and tingle of manifest AT-field surged harder, and Asuka's low, rising shout of effort fought its way past gnashing teeth. Unit-02's helmet shifted, and four new eyes snapped open and glowed with white fire. Her wings beat against hard vacuum, sending them rocketing forward faster than he thought possible. The acceleration and absolute certainty of action pressed in on his body, forcing LCL from his lungs.
He risked a look over his shoulder. The maw was almost sealed shut, with only the faintest hints of Japan showing through the gaps. He turned back to Asuka, but Unit-02 powered down in his arms, wings going slack and listless as they curled around them both. Well, he trusted her to get them this far. Now it was his turn.
Five hundred meters out, Shinji fought their shared tumble has hard as he dared. He hauled the red Evangelion around, keeping it and Asuka as far from impact as possible, draining power with every curl and cartwheel. At a hundred meters, the last few chinks between the teeth ground together, and now the maw itself began to seal itself into nothingness. Halfway gone at fifty meters, twenty five, ten-
Unit-01 punched through the building-sized incisor like a bullet, leaving it a jagged and cracked ruin of enamel and bone. The impact sheared off his Evangelion's shoulder pylons and shattered his Eva's helmet. Vacuum and stars gave way to rushing air that shocked Shinji through his Eva's nerves. The portal sealed up completely, and the noonday sky above the clouds was bright, blue and clear.
The two Evangelions tumbled lazily, and the Hakone region spread out beneath them both. Forty seconds of power and two minutes of free fall. Hands back on the controls, Shinji grit his teeth. Right, that was still a problem. The radio came back with a half-dozen voices, Rei and Kensuke loudest among them, and somehow Misato from NERV. He tuned them out- he had to focus. Sinking down into synchronization, Shinji reached for the AT-field.
Asuka did it all the time, it couldn't be that hard.
Wind caught on his Eva's armor, whistling around the broken gaps and planes of Unit-01's helmet before curling away into foamy contrails. Unit-02 hung limp in his arms, with the coattail wings fluttering behind and catching every stray gust. The castle was still standing over Tokyo-3, but it shambled and shuffled, letting out odd groans of pain and more. It made for an easy target, at least. The two Evangelions pierced through the cloud cover, dropping ten meters a second and going no faster. There was no computer to help him, just will and theory. Shinji unfurled the field and held on tight.
A half-second before impact, he realized he never even once considered ejecting.
The new crater stretched out for several city blocks, leveling courtyards, citadels and curtain walls for hundreds of meters all around. Unit-01 slumped in the very bottom, wedged uncomfortably beneath an inert Unit-02. Shinji settled back into his seat and exhaled. Telemetry and pilot vitals all showed green across the board, and even Asuka's was a steady positive despite her silence.
The battle might have ended, but he could still hear the war all around him. It ebbed, but it had not ended, not yet. What lingering aches and soreness faded, draining away as he willed his body to heal. Staring at those green lights on his console, Shinji couldn't help but laugh. There had been no magic solution, no perfect technique or absolute expression of his prowess. Just a team, working together. Asuka had been glib about it, but even he wondered as to when he'd reach that critical point. That time he'd discard the Evangelion entirely.
Perhaps he would, eventually. But not today.
"Uuugghhh... I think I blacked out." The redhead groaned woozily. Asuka's communication window was crowded out by views of three pilots and NERV officers, while Vespa's sound-only tab let them laugh freely.
"Yeah." Shinji sat back in his plug while Rei, Kensuke, Nagisa and Vespa all reached into the new crater and pulled them out. "Get us back to the Geofront. I think we're done here."
