NERVous Breakdown (NGE/XCOM)

7734 · Mar 10, 2017

At school, Kensuke was the definition of a mild-mannered nerd. A little witty, he always tried to be soft-spoken, and as close to unnoticeable as possible.

At home, though, he was another person entirely. Gone was the mild-mannered nerd, and out came the borderline-obsessions. Forget his old business selling beauty shots; no, he'd moved on to much more bountiful pastures. The new army in town, XCOM, was an unknown to the world- and there were a lot of people willing to pay top dollar for the information on them. Pictures, film, anecdotes, hell even rough sketches, if he had data, there was at least one buyer, if not more. Between a PayPal account that was getting four-digit deposits on a regular basis plus a bi-monthly circular, money was a moot point now.

Of course, behind the trillion-yen paywall was the grand slam of information Kensuke was jealously guarding. The EVAs. A few stills taken from the Second Angel battle had given him a fairly good treasure trove of data, but the Touchdown he'd recorded happening in the mountains behind town was the real treasure trove. The existence of a second EVA, the weapons it carried, and most importantly the dependence on a good pilot were all factoids he was sitting on like a penguin's eggs.

Then Shinji showed up. With a genuine- a fucking genuine!- uniform, along with all the knowledge in his head. Soon, that trillion-Yen pile of data would be big enough to pretend Kensuke wasn't trying to rob some dumbass for all he was worth. The trick was going to be getting Shinji to talk to him.

At that point, the Third Angel arrived.

-------------

It was a bright Tuesday morning, and Shinji felt decent for once. A solid week of four-hour drills in the EVAs had been exhausting in so many ways, but he was feeling better for it. Push, push, push, that had been the adventure. Gunfighter Angels, Melee angels, Stealth Angels, Angel Swarms, he and Rei and Asuka had faced them and all and held their own. Each Angel had died, three a day, for seven days. Closing his eyes, he remembered the last one- the Warhawk Angel.

He was tired. They all were. This was the last night, so they were running late- at 2200 hours, they should already be home.

"Wonderkid, Baka, you ready?" Asuka said, a feral note in her voice. The last Angel, a Berserk Angel, had made the mistake of charging the formation of EVA's right out the gate and had been flanked by him and Rei as Asuka braced herself and stopped the charge dead.

"Ready as you are, Asuka." Shinji hissed, clenching his fists. "I'm glad the TAGO didn't chew you out for stopping the charge."

"If I went for my gun, I'd be roadkill."

"Not true, Asuka-san. Merely knocked aside and critically damaged." Rei mentioned, head on a swivel.

As the EVAs topped the digital shafts, three carbines came out. After the Gunfighter Angel that had ripped Asuka to pieces, she'd finally made the grudging acquiesce that suppressing fire was a good thing and she should kick in towards it. She'd at least managed to subdue the complaints about her melee specialty after a near defeat at the hands of a Tower Angel because she had wanted to show why she tended to closing the distance over blazing away from cover.

"Scopes cold" Rei said quietly. "No detection on EVA systems. Requesting datalink to Geofront."

"Datalink is jammed." The cool, automated voice that handled automatic scenario announcements stated.

"Well, shit." Shinji said, scanning high. "We're fighting-"

The thing most people didn't realize about supersonic things was that they were silent until they passed you, so when an explosive traveling at three times the speed of sound with the approximant power of twelve tons of TNT exploded in the center of the triangle group of EVAs, sending them all flying.

"Verdammt!" Asuka called out, trying to get to her feet and failing miserably. "My leg, es ist kaput! Scheisse!"

Meanwhile, Shinji had landed better- and more importantly, had found a radar track. "Asuka- found the Angel! Thrity thousand feet and climbing, bearing one-three-nine on a straight! Paste it!"

Rei's position during all this was to break over and spread out. The Artillery Angel had taught them that clumping up was a very easy way to loose sensors, and the denial of datalink from the Geofront meant they needed all eyes on the Angel. Taking the track from Shinji's radar directly, she loaded it into her own FCC. Rei knew, at some level, she couldn't match Shinji's incredible marksmanship, so she had put together something else to compensate. Specifically, the fire control computer programing taken from a tank, plus a system to translate it into movement of the EVA. It was a little rough around the edges, but it did work and more importantly let her get a track on the Angel and start firing.

"Shinji-baka!" Asuka called out from where she lay, wincing in her Entry Plug. "Get me your gun- there's a weapons building nearby, and you can re-arm from there!"

"Rodger!" Shinji yelled, jogging over and dropping his Rail Carbine at her side before helping to roll her over on to her back.

"Move!" Rei called, still burning through magazines. "It's coming around!"

Running, Shinji tried to separate himself from Asuka, but the Angel was already in route. Thwaps and hisses went past as the strafing run tried its damndest to knock wither of the EVAs out.

"Surprise, bitch." Asuka grumbled, opening up with both Rail Carbines on the Angel. Most of the shots missed by a mile, but on a target that sacrificed AT field protection for permanent supersonic speed and absolutely devastating weapons a few rounds plus the destabilizing effect of three EVA fields was just enough to send it out of control for a second.

Exactly enough time for Rei to have finished reloading after her turn as flak, and coat it in more rounds. A slight loss of control became a major loss of control, which lead to the Warhawk Angel slicing itself into the ground. As it dug a crater in the landscape, Shinji got to the armory building and withdrew a four-pack missile launcher. Riffling one off in the general direction of the downed Angel, he then checked on his Progressive Knife and started advancing.

"Hope it's dead…" Shinji murmured, before seeing a little red square pop up in his vision that said "Comms Lost"

He would have expressed surprise, if an Angelic energy beam didn't launch itself at him and knock him flying. Still, though, he'd been learning. Rippling off the remaining three in the pack, he drew his Plasma Pistol in his off hand and started blindly spraying fire in the hole. When the Angel rushed out, though, he frantically dodged and started screaming.

"Rei! Asuka! You hear me?" he called, parrying another blow by the Angel, watching it recover. "Help!"

The answering response was another long roar of carbine-fire as Asuka had dragged herself into position, and when it ended Shinji lunged for the Core. Clipping it, he felt a massive blow to his back as he tripped from overextending, going down like a sack of bricks. At this point, though, Rei had finally moved close enough so that she and Asuka could take turns hosing the Angel while Shinji got back up and readied himself for another go. Slamming the Angel's AT field, he watched carefully, and once the first slugs got through Shinji charged again, this time felling the angel with a good stab.

"Simulation Complete." The voice said, and all three slumped down. They had won.

"Hey, Baka, you awake?" Asuka asked, dragging him forcibly back to reality. "C'mon, you made lunch today!"

"Eh?" was Shinji's response, which lasted right up until Asuka grabbed his jacket.

"You. Made. Lunch. RIGHT?" she 'asked', growling. "I am not having another spam sandwich or Spratly Roll, right?"

Shinji hissed, and nodded energetically. "Yeah, yeah! I made lunch!"

"Good." Asuka said, sighing. Privately, Shinji agreed with her. Lily's love affair with tinned meat wasn't exactly healthy, and there was only so many times he could agree to eating pork.

WOOP WOOP WOOP WOOP BAAAAAAAAAAAAA! WOOP WOOP WOOP WOOP BAAAAAAAAAAAA! WOOP WOOP WOOP WOOP BAAAAAAAAAAAA!

"Oh, shit." Asuka and Shinji said at the same time. Four whoops, one baaaah. The Angel Alarm. They had to scramble- NOW.

"Which way?" Asuka called as Shinji started running for the inside of the school. She'd been briefed, but Shinji had been drilled- and as the last week proved, an ounce of drill was worth a pound of briefs. He was running to the basement, where the transfer tunnel was. One keycard flick later, the two were running towards a clandestine train station. Getting in, Shinji slammed on the activation button and the car shot off for the Geofront.

----

Inside the command center, it was barely-controlled chaos as the TAGO and TACO bodily threw their chairwarmers out of the hotseats and started warming up the airwaves. As the backup bridge bunnies scrambled out, dozens of coordinators got into their own chairs and started warming up the massive arrays of sensors that permiated the city and the mountains around it.

"Array One reporting in, they're losing towers!"

"Sector Three has opened fire, this Angel's got a bigass gun!"

"Sector Two reporting in, Particle Cannons are having no effect!"

"Array One has lost contact!"

"Array Two is under fire!"

Through the chaos and maelstrom, the Commander entered, flanked by both Vahlen and Shen. Behind them stood the Old Crew- experts on the tactics and equipment that had defined the Long War, soldiers and analysts who had done their bloody dance before. Near two hundred people filled the remodeled Command Deck of the Geofront, each one ready to set in motion the grand plan.

"Status on the EVAs?" The Commander asked, looking out over his domain, eyes dancing on the screens.

"Unit oh-one and oh-two are three minutes from launch, sir. The Pilot for oh-zero is currently unaccounted for, however."

The Commander grimaced. "Not unexpected. Are the Pilots in a position to be briefed?"

"Yes, sir."

"Very good. TAGO, those pilots need data on this. TACO, what's our status on getting some air support?"

The TACO grunted, and ran his fingers through his hair. "Not good. Ares Flight is still cold on the pads, and Paladin Flight is too. Estimated time of arrival is forty five minutes."

"Damn." The Commander muttered, frowning. "TAGO, how are the EVA teams going?"

"They're getting briefed right now. Preliminary guess is that this is either a Fortress-type or maybe Artillery-type Angel, things are fuzzy."

"Well, then." The Commander grumbled. "Sorte the EVAs."

----

In the railcar, a small light lit up in the nose. Both Shinji and Asuka stared at it, frowning. The battle was coming- both were showing their nerves quietly.

"Alright Pilots, listen up." The EVA bay commander said, his cigarette-stained voice tinting the compartment in a noir feel. "Information's come in from the Bridge, and it's looking dicey. Current analysis is that this thing's either a fortress-type or an artillery-type. Either way, it's going to be tough. Your current loadout is standard- prog knife, plasma pistol, and carbine, and you're not getting support from the ground net here."

As the briefing continued, the train passed the marker that meant entry into the Geofront. "Bad news time- this thing's tough. Current estimates show some serious angling on its primary armor, and we can't find the core. Good news, though- you're going in datalinks hot, rods cold, so what you see is gonna be a little of your eyes and a lot of what our towers see. Air support is going to be inbound from the get-go, currently twelve minutes to inbound Lance strikes. Questions?"

Asuka laughed, and grinned at Shinji disturbingly. "Nope! Me and Baka here have this one in the sack!"

Shinji nodded, stiffening back up. The simulators were one thing, this would be another. As the car rode on, though, a piece of music came through the speakers- almost an inspiration for the coming battle.

Blessed are the days when life is intent and clear

No falter or doubt, I know the way

They are the days I hope

I had never stepped on this road

The spark I once had seems to have died…

No. he thought, quietly. No. I fought once, and we won. I can fight again.

What a relief it would be to end this all

How easy to fly the white flag and give up

But would I run today

Just to die another day

Give up now, and every fight has been in vain

No. I have a friend, now. She might not be nice, but she can fight. We can fight!

Get up! You've made it this far

No loser you are!

One more time! One more try!

The pouring rain sticks my hair to my face...

Stand and Deliver. Shinji thought, determination filling him from his jacket. I am not alone! We will stand together!

STAND UP AND FIGHT!

Stand up and look into the light!

Pushing the clouds away

Stand up and fight!

Stand up and see the sky turn bright,

Fight for a better day!

Yes. Shinji finished thinking. I fight.

Mizu · Mar 10, 2017

The formatting for most of the chapter has an extra paragraph in it, @7734. Was that intentional, or an error?

7734 · Mar 10, 2017

Mizu said:
The formatting for most of the chapter has an extra paragraph in it, @7734. Was that intentional, or an error?

Sometimes when the formatting goes from Word to Xenoforo, crap like that sneaks in. I'd say I'll fix it, but I honestly doubt that's going to happen sometime soon.

Mizu · Mar 10, 2017

7734 said:
Sometimes when the formatting goes from Word to Xenoforo, crap like that sneaks in. I'd say I'll fix it, but I honestly doubt that's going to happen sometime soon.

It's an issue with the way Xenforu posts, yeah. I tend to post chapter from Google Doc in the BBCode Editor (last button on the right, in the post box), which prevents it, but it does come with the downside of you needing to add BBCode tags for your post manually due to them not being kept from the transfer.

Wizzrobe · Mar 10, 2017

I love the characterization of the side characters (or at least what we have seen so far).

7734 · Mar 11, 2017

Mizu said:
It's an issue with the way Xenforu posts, yeah. I tend to post chapter from Google Doc in the BBCode Editor (last button on the right, in the post box), which prevents it, but it does come with the downside of you needing to add BBCode tags for your post manually due to them not being kept from the transfer.

Considering the ammount of BBC code my posts normally have (yay itallics) that's not really feasible for most of my 2k and 3k word chapters. Plus add in that I use a lot of attached music, and I'm not very inclined to manually BBC code my story work.

Mizu · Mar 11, 2017

7734 said:
Considering the ammount of BBC code my posts normally have (yay itallics) that's not really feasible for most of my 2k and 3k word chapters. Plus add in that I use a lot of attached music, and I'm not very inclined to manually BBC code my story work.

There's a plugin for GDoc I use, called BBCode Export, which as the name suggests converts GDoc formatting into BBCode. I find it works quite well.

Dmol8 · Mar 11, 2017

Baughn said:
I'm reading this, and enjoying it, but it could use some improvement. If I had to name one thing in particular...

Your people don't always act like, well, people. That scream at the end of the chapter, for example; I don't know what that was meant to convey, except that it doesn't seem like you're always taking the story seriously, and I wish you would.

This is a modified scene from the original Anime. It shows here as it did there that people don't take the whole Angel thing seriously right then.

7734 · Mar 11, 2017

Dmol8 said:
This is a modified scene from the original Anime. It shows here as it did there that people don't take the whole Angel thing seriously right then.

I'm glad someone got this- it was one of the more impacting scenes to me. Shit happens, people probably die, millions in damage... and the class? The class doesn't see it. They're still innocent. They're still free.

In a way, the reason I do so few bits in the school is because there is this story's version of the Garden of Eden. The Fruit of Knowledge is a double-edged sword, giving information by allowing analysis and questioning. Conversely, the Fruit of Life is the ability to go without need, striving on though they never will work.

In the school, though, they have turned back from the Fruit of Knowledge. They've pushed away the guilt and the gifts, and now they must rely on those who still partake of that sin to keep them alive.

At one point, I must note, Kipling comes up. I've been making shout-outs left and right through this story, but he's one of the very few people I'll directly reference in my work. There's five poems of his I plan to reference: "Chant-Pagan" "Sons of Martha" "Tommy" "If" and "The Virginity"all of which are now public domain. I would rather hope that someone gets why I chose them.

Dmol8 · Mar 12, 2017

7734 said:
I'm glad someone got this- it was one of the more impacting scenes to me. Shit happens, people probably die, millions in damage... and the class? The class doesn't see it. They're still innocent. They're still free.

I can't say I agree with you there. I see the class as still innocent in this moment in the original story and here, but innocence is not freedom. In fact innocence is the opposite of freedom for me. To be innocent is to be limited in your understanding of what choices you have. That isn't to say that we should remove innocence by any means available as few crimes are worse than tearing someone's innocence from them. In my opinion innocence should wherever it is possible be gently prodded and pushed until it is grown into maturity and responsibility.

7734 said:
In a way, the reason I do so few bits in the school is because there is this story's version of the Garden of Eden. The Fruit of Knowledge is a double-edged sword, giving information by allowing analysis and questioning. Conversely, the Fruit of Life is the ability to go without need, striving on though they never will work.

The School is the Garden of Eden, but only in the sense that it is the place of innocence in this story. There are other concepts of the Garden of Eden that were never used in the original series and don't need to be used here.

7734 said:
In the school, though, they have turned back from the Fruit of Knowledge. They've pushed away the guilt and the gifts, and now they must rely on those who still partake of that sin to keep them alive.

Not true. The kids in the pilot's class are on the border between Innocence and Knowledge. They are going towards Knowledge, but most of them aren't there yet.

7734 said:
At one point, I must note, Kipling comes up. I've been making shout-outs left and right through this story, but he's one of the very few people I'll directly reference in my work. There's five poems of his I plan to reference: "Chant-Pagan" "Sons of Martha" "Tommy" "If" and "The Virginity"all of which are now public domain. I would rather hope that someone gets why I chose them.

I'll look into reading those when I have the time.

7734 · Mar 15, 2017

In the changing room, Shinji sighed quietly. Time to fight again.

Breathe in, snap the plugsuit tight, check the connections-

This was the Third Angel, designated as a Fortress or Artillery-type. It would have a strong AT field, thick natural armor, and a heavy weapon.

-connections good, lock in emergency life support battery-

Today, he would have Asuka at his side as she ran through the same steps in the girls' changing room. She was fast, with high synch and damn tough in a toe-to-toe fight.

-battery set, oxygenation coil and cell locked in-

He was Shinji Ikari, the gunslinger of the team. He would advance with his normal kit, and would stand with another strong fighter. Together, they could overcome.

-oxy coil and all systems test green. Suit is on.

Time to get in the Entry Plug.

---

Next door in the girls' changing room, Asuka flew through donning her suit.

Probably not going to get a chance to cut in close… will need Shinji to cover for me.

She had never fought an Angel before, but be damned if she wouldn't give it her all. She had trained with NERV Germany, and again with XCOM in Japan.

Let's see him prove the first one wasn't a fake!

Now, it was her time to shine. She could fight, fight! Oh, what a wonderful feeling! She could fight, now; destroy the Angels as she had learned for all her waking years!

Today is the day!

---

At the launch ramps, the Catapult Chief breathed in and out. Two EVA launches on the standard ports. Simple, straightforward, and almost nothing could go wrong. Still, he knew well enough to check.

"EVA pilots, standby for launch."

"EVA oh-one, Shinji Ikari, Stand And Deliver. Ready!"

"EVA oh-two, Asuka Soryu, Lion From The North. Ready!"

"All EVAs, LAUNCH!"

Ride the rails, up to the top of the shaft, Shinji thought, and get ready to fight.

The lightning cracked up and down his body, the EVA- there was no difference now, as far as Shinji could tell. He felt the push of the catapult, the drag of his shoulder pylons, the snatch of gravity trying to rip his gun from his hands. Looking up, he saw the light at the end of the shaft, and breathed in. Out the hatch, gun up, and-

Light, heat, searing. He had to cry in pain, now, the force slamming him back, ripping him off the catapult, ramming him into the wall.

Stand, he thought despratly, pushing out his AT field to try and hold the ray of death off. Stand. Fight! Hold on-

As he blacked out and his AT field snapped, the Angel overhead made an almost satisfied sound, its ray retargeting onto the Geofront. Nearly falling down the shaft, Shinji felt nothing but pain.

----

"What the heck happened!" The Commander roared out, hands tight on his chair. "Sitrep!"

"Initial guess, the Angel figured out the launch ports for our EVAs and nailed Shinji's right in the fucking face." The TAGO bit out, growling. "Report's coming in now- looks like he threw up an AT field to try and tank the shot, which fucked up his cat rig, and when he lost the shield he fell to the bottom of the shaft. Medical's got him now- kid's practically parboiled."

"Air assets are inbound in six minutes." The TACO said quietly. "Loiter time on the Firestorms is eight hours if we park them in an auto-orbit over Nagasaki, and we can get them time-on-target in three minutes there."

"Park 'em." The Commander said, smoldering. "Shen, what's the best time to combat capability that EVA's got?"

"Three hours. We got a shipment of assorted bric-a-brac last week- we might be able to fashion some sort of shields for the things. Vahlen, analysis of that beam? Anything that's a no-go?"

Vahlen pursed her lips, and frowned. "I'll need my lab to tell, but that looked like a particle and radiation beam that was sub-Cherenkov by a thin margin. Think heat shield first, armor layer close second. It also looked pulsed- heavy impact load in the front blazing a channel, residual energy beam after. Soak the particle blast, and the thermal tracer should be easy to handle. I think."

The Commander still looked like a bulldog, working over the problem. Fiddling in a pocket, he pulled out a Cuban cigar and a battered old Zippo.

"Hop to, then. Estimated time to Geofront breach?"

The Geofront Chief replied back, voice thin. "Nine hours, sir."

"Good. Vahlen, Shen, those SHIV- ah, EVAs need ablative armor. Maybe some sort of shield, hell if I know. Just science it. TACO, planes, park 'em somewhere airbone. I'll take the mission effectiveness loss in exchange for a three-minute response time. TAGO, we need every beam emplacement ready to go. I don't know if it drops shields or something when it fires, but if it does then we need to blast it. Someone in Medical, get Ensign Ikari medical'd. Kid's a bit thin-skinned, so give him someone nice. Can someone round up a cabal of Psykers and get them to poke that fucking dee-eight, maybe try throwing some voodoo at the beam? We need options here, people- I'm not staying on the back foot here for long. We need to strike, hard."

Lighting the cigar, the Commander smiled. "Time to put our other foot forwards."

----

Down in Medical, Asuka grimaced as she rubbed her head. She'd gotten an AT field up between her and the incoming first shot, but the second one had detonated, somehow, giving her and her EVA a nasty bump. The concussion she took had nothing on her EVA, but her head still felt like shit.

"Alright, allons-y!" one of the doctors yelled, rushing a half-concious Shinji past on a trolley. Following in morbid curiosity, Asuka grimaced as she saw him get wheeled into an operating theater.

Why she stayed, she wouldn't know. What she learned, though, set the stage for a new round of nightmares. With deft strokes, the surgeons first popped off the chestpiece of the plugsuit, throwing the damaged item away into a corner to be picked up by an orderly. Next came the scissors, deftly taking the plugsuit off, one strip at a time. Shinji wasn't normally pale- always a few shades darker than Asuka herself. Now, though, he was red- an angry shade, blisters and pustules beginning to form. Soon rendered nude on the gurney, his operation continued at a brisk pace, the doctors slathering a heavy white cream on shiny bandages, covering his extremities with brutal efficiency. As tape secured the outriggers, his head was quickly shaved, Asuka wincing in sympathy. The wince turned into a full-blown shudder though, as she quickly realized- that could have been her.

Still working with him, one, two, and then three needles went into Shinji's arm. Muttering words like "potassium iodine" and "saline drip" the swarm of scrubs treated Shinji for his wounds internal and external.

"Ensign?" a deep voice behind her said, and Asuka turned. In a light doctor's coat, a rather large, smiling black man behind her continued speaking. "Dr. Sweet. I'm afraid we need to do some preliminary decontamination on you before we can let you back into the EVA."

Grabbing her mane possessively, Asuka growled. "As long as you don't mess with my hair."

Dr. Sweet laughed. "Saw Shinji, didn't ya? Don't worry, he was losing his one way or another, so you'll be fine."

Asuka just blanched and let the loud doctor lead her away.

----

Eyes bleary, Shinji tried to drag himself out of bed. Waking up feeling like he got the stuffing beat out of him wasn't fun the first time he fought an Angel, and it wasn't any better the second.

"So, how'd it go?" he mumbled, trying to move his arms.

"We fucked up." Was the blunt response from the chair next to his bed.

"What?"

"We fucked up." The voice repeated, dark. "You got knocked out, and Asuka got beaten up."

Struggling to sit up, Shinji tried to focus on the source of the voice. It finally shone clear, proving to be Misato.

"Wait… we lost?" Shinji said, groping at his nightstand.

"First round, yeah." Vessening said as he walked into the room, fresh plugsuit in hand. "Damn double pyramid has a hell of a punch and managed to get you right as you came out of the shaft. We fixed you up fairly well, though those burns miiiight scar a little."

"Burns? Scars?" Shinji asked, throwing off his sheet and gasping. Where before smooth skin had covered his body, now he was a marbled mess with some spots shiny and others freckled. His arms and legs were the worst, almost looking like a chameleon mixed with a mirage.

"Yeah, that." Vessening said, chucking him the new plugsuit. "Major second degree burns on the extremities, slightly less major second degree burns everywhere else. Bad news is you look like shit. Good news, though- if you beat this fucker, we can get you in a tank for a bioelectric skin upgrade and smooth out most of your new camo pattern."

Trying not to hyperventilate, Shinji nodded.

"The Commander might have been nice the last time you go the 'get in the robot' speech, but I don't have the time." Vessening said, face tight. "We've got two hours to sorte the EVAs and kill that fucker outside, or that puppy breaches the Geofront. Asuka's in better shape- she's been running diagnostics for a couple of hours. Either way, we need you two ready to roll- now."

Shinji sat up, and started putting on the plugsuit. "I get it."

"Good. You're gonna get launched a good ways away, you with the Minskovy Cannon. The idea is, you suppress it at range, while Asuka has her spear and a Tachibana Lance- a one-shot fusion lance we cooked up a long time ago. You draw fire into a fuckhuge shield with active cooling and shit, she'd gonna wait till she sees the AT field go down and then hit it with the Duke Nuke'm Stick and stab it till it dies."

"Okay."

----

On the EVA catapults, everything was quiet. The launch went off without a hitch, putting Shinji into the foothills behind the city. Umbillical trailing, he moved up to the sniper's perch they had selected. Laying his shield and propping it, dozens of XCOM soldiers hooked up the massive water system to cool the equipment, as well as the liquid nitrogen cells on the outside designed to hide the EVA when they burst.

"EVA oh-one, ready." He said, settling down the mighty Minvosky Cannon. "Any last words of advice?"

"Yep." The TAGO replied, going over the same old song and dance. "Eight second refresh time on the gun, so once you start just keep the trigger down. We're gonna take some collateral damage if you miss, but that's not an issue. EVA oh-two is ready to go on your mark, okay?"

"Okay." Shinji replied.

A minute passed, and then another as a massive power network started setting up shunts to fuel the mighty Minvosky Cannon.

"Power network ready. Fire as you bear." The TAGO said. "Air support is vectored inbound."

Shinji nodded, feeling his neck compress and stretch from his new scars. "Firing."

As the Minvosky Cannon roared out, a blue beam leapt forth at the Angel. The strike was a clean one, but the AT field soaked it up. Now, the drill stopped, and the deadly octahedron brought its own gun to bear. Another shot lanced out, hammering into the shield. A third, the air rent at its presence.

Then the Angel returned fire. The strike nailed the heat shield dead on, leaving the EVA in a heavy smoke cloud and huddling behind the massive defensive piece. Cowering, Shinji took a second to breath in, and out. In, and out.

Then he shot back, his shot meeting a second from the Angel and both warping. The Minvosky Cannon fired a beam of highly charged particles faster than the speed of light in atmosphere. The Angel fired a packet of slightly slower particles, followed by a mess of radiation. Both weapons used a lot of electromagnetic fields to keep their respective death-rays in line.

So when said death ray beams passed each other and one swerved into space and the other dug into the lake, even Vahlen was mildly surprised.

The answer as to why was simple, mind- the conflicting EM fields both added a bit of spin to the equation, but the results were catastrophic. Now with the firing lane to the Angel totally obscured, Shinji was forced to rely on the sensor net to sight in his shots. The Angel, meanwhile, had even more material interference between himself and his target. So much so that he didn't notice the other EVA that had sorte'd and was moving closer, bringing her Tachibana Lance around into the classic firing stance popularized by little green army soldiers with Bob's Bazooka.

As the wrath of a sun poured out, one could only assume by the sudden list developed by the Angel was that it's thought process included the word Ow.

"Direct hit!" Asuka cried out, drawing her Progressive Spear and starting to close. "Right in the flank!"

Unfortunatly, her celebration was cut off by an abrupt burst of incoming fire. Catching it on her shield, Asuka swore and tried to hold some of it off with an AT field. Fortunatly for her, Shinji was still spraying away, hammering the Angel with chot after shot tearing away chunks of the crystal armor. Not being a dummy, the Angel resumed plinking back at Shinji and his now thoroughly-destroyed hill and third heat shield.

Of course, this in turn meant Asuka could close in more, and stab her Progressive Spear into the weak point she'd made in a lower face, penetrating the armor. Reaching in, she began to rip and tear herself a hole.

"C'mere, little buddy." The Angel-blood soaked Evangilion Pilot said, popping off her shield and drawing her Progressive Knife to worm her way in. "You're huge! That means you've got huge guts!"

In the Command Center, several cups of coffee were spewed. Meanwhile, Shinji took a moment to take himself out of his firing trance to notice that most of the right side of his EVA- the side that had been getting wailed on more by the incoming Angel-fire. None of the shots had been a direct hit (thank you beam interference!) but the close misses had sent shrapnel everywhere.

"Ow." He muttered, before thinking loudly about passing out. "Why am I conscious?"

In the Command Center, TAGO looked over to the Commander. "Do I tell him?"

"Sure."

"Command to Shinji, come in Shinji."

Shinji was not all there, but he did realize that someone was talking to him. "Hi Command. I'm here-ish."

"Listen, don't try to move around too much, ok? We put a pain pump in your plugsuit in case your burns got aggravated in the piloting, and when the sympathetic pain came back from the… ah, grievous damage… it kicked in. Also, please take your hand off the cannon."

"Ok, boss. Is it bad that I can't feel my feet?"

TAGO looked at the Commander. The Commander looked at Sweet. Sweet looked at the TAGO.

"Yeah, that's kind of a bad sign. Listen, just hold still, and when-"

"SAY HELLO TO MY LITTLE FRIEND!"

As the Angel started to spit fire and shudder, TAGO just groaned quietly.

"-okay, when Asuka climbs out of the Angel she just killed, we'll get recovery teams over to you."

"I'm gonna take a nap now."

As the TAGO made suffering noises, the Commander panned over to Asuka flipping the fallen Angel over bodily and waving her arms to signal a Fusion Lance strike while she ran. Rocking back and forth on a sputtering AT field, the Angel looked nothing more than a die that had rolled one than anything else until a Firestorm pumped the fatal burst down its throat to make it explode.

"This is Paladin two-two, confirmed core detonation. I repeat, confirmed core detonation. Angel is DOWN!"

Dmol8 · Mar 15, 2017

OK this went different. Very different. So how many scars are the children going to have by the MP EVA (or whatever replaces them) fight?

Gindjurra · Mar 15, 2017

7734 said:
Minskovy

7734 said:
Minvosky

What is the name of that gun? Is it possibly Minovsky? Or is one of the various spellings correct?

7734 · Mar 15, 2017

Gindjurra said:
What is the name of that gun? Is it possibly Minovsky? Or is one of the various spellings correct?

Third one is correct. I'm just a really bad typist.

Dmol8 said:
OK this went different. Very different. So how many scars are the children going to have by the MP EVA (or whatever replaces them) fight?

Yes. Because this is XCOM, so its a coin flip to see how they come home from piloting an EVA.

Scallywaag · Mar 15, 2017

That's... wow. Asuka's really getting into the whole "Murderize the Angels!!" mindset. Bald Shinji could be cool, god forbid he has self-esteem for his looks

. Here's hoping the next angel comes on the wrong end of an XCOM avenging overkill because damn Pyramid Angel sucks.

7734 · Apr 24, 2017

After an Angel attack, things in Tokyo-3 tried to go back to normal. People came out of the bunkers, construction workers got to constructing whatever got knocked down by Angelic or EVA based weapons, insurance payments were paid, Lloyd's of London coughed out another check to keep the harbor open, and school started back up.

Of course, the first day back to school from an Angel attack was always a bit odd. Desks knocked over, lockers jammed open or shut, cars overturned, teachers going "I CAN'T TAKE IT ANY MORE!" and other assorted problems. Even the famed Japanese Work Ethic was hard-pressed to handle a classroom growing a new skylight or size five hundred boot prints in the parking lot.

Still, when everything was all said and done, school was resumed. Pouring into the classroom were the usual suspects, plus a few straglers. Still, as things settled down, the Class Rep, Hikari, looked around confused. Aside from Rei being missing- not odd, she'd missed class after the last Angel attack- there was also an empty seatin the middle of class.

Oh. It's… Ikari's? she thought idly, noting Asuka was here at least. At least I don't need to restrain the guys from going after her today. She looks about ready for murder…

Just then, a thunking sound came down the hall, before the door quietly opened. Jaw falling, Hikari thought for a second it was a new student- but no, it was Shinji in what was left of his flesh. Speckled and blotched he stood, skin spattered as if by some caustic spray. His hair was gone, totally, without even eyebrows left. A pair of heavy blast-framed sunglasses sat on his face, while a wooden cane made the clacks as he slowly put his book bag down. His hands were covered by heavy gloves, while on his belt a heavy pouch stayed, stiff as a board. Sitting carefully, Hikari could hear his hiss of pain as he settled into the chair, teeth gritted.

As the teacher entered, Shinji did not stand or bow. For the entire class period, his handwriting was stiff, dropping strokes and slowly creaking along. As the lunch break came, Hikari approached the desk with morbid curiosity. She could almost swear she saw his ear twitch as she approached.

"Hello, class rep." he said, quiet. His tone was neutral, as if he was hiding something. "I'm afraid I won't be going to the cafeteria for lunch today."

His gloves creaking slightly, he reached down into his bag and pulled out two bentos. "I made lunch for Asuka, but I think she forgot. Would you like some?"

Shaking her head, Hikari noticed something. What she had been assuming had been his clothes creaking hadn't been- jacket, gloves, shirt, all were cloth. What had made that noise had been him.

Turning pale, she tried to express a pleasantry, but the platitude fell short as she saw the shadow of Asuka in the doorway. For a second, a bare second, the flame-headed German looked less like a Valkyrie of myth and more like a caretaker, a sentinel standing tall.

Moments later, her look hardened into the bronze mask of anger that was so damned familiar, and she advanced towards her prey- the bento box. Swooping in, she grabbed it, grumbling about baka-Shinji all the while.

Staring, Hikari just tried to compute. Which was the real, and which was the fake Asuka? The grumbling Valkyrie, or the watching Sentinal?

----

Rei had been having a truly shitty series of bad days. First came the beginning of her medication adjustments, which had resulted in a severe case of nausea. This wasn't so bad, except it slowed her down and pushed her envelope. Next came the trip to school, wherein the bus that got her out of her section of town and to where she could walk to school promptly dropped its oil pan in the middle of the street.

The obligatory Angel attack had only made things worse. Rei was smart- she had to get to the Geofront, and that meant taking an underground train. Except the underground trains were shut down, and her ID card didn't manage to reactivate it.

So getting to the Geofront was out. Plan B, get to a shelter and use its terminal to call in and see what the home base could do. Only problem was, the shelter in that part of town had two main problems.

One, it was quite literally full of squatters.

Two, they'd scrapped the computer systems for cash.

Needless to say, things did not go well while Rei was forced to hide there. Between 'handling' the idiots who thought that a schoolgirl wouldn't know what getting groped would be liked, using the archaic rotary phone to talk to the Tokyo Metropolitan Switchboard and get her connected to Geofront, and performing first-aid on the idiot she'd hit a little too hard, not much of use got done. By the time she'd stopped getting connected to Indian telemarketing centers, the Angel attack had ended and she could leave the shelter and resume going to the Geofront.

The massive flowerpot that chose to fall on her head was just the icing on the cake.

---

The Commander had read some pretty damn weird After Action Reports. Rei's explanation for her absence might not have been "so we lit the fields of medical cannabis on fire to smoke out the Muton Berserkers and accidentally found the crashed Battleship" levels of What The Fuck, but it was certainly up there.

After writing out a short memo to the tune of "get a new apartment under the following criteria (see schedule A) and an Official XCOM Nokia Phone, postscript- Cap. Kitsuragi's building has openings" the Commander leaned back in his chair. As per the laws of conservation of chaos, the minute he fixed one thing something equally aggravating if not worse was sure to come up in three… two… one…

BANG.

Whelp, there went the office door, and holy shit that was a lot of Frustrated Russian in the doorway.

"Yes, Grandmaster?" The Commander asked, opening up his Liquor Drawer and grabbing a bottle of good, medium-shelf vodka.

Huffing and puffing, the Grandmaster of Psionics slowly lowered herself into the guest chair in the office, her eyes still flecking purple and hair sparking with the corona that all psions had when they'd been using the Gift heavily.

"I am about ten minutes from going out and descreating the Angel carcass in the city." She said, growling. "That game of 'poke the bear' you had us do? I've got three of my Gifted down with mindburns and we nearly got fried by a particle ray blast."

"Mindburn?" the commander asked, pouring the drinks.

"You know how we can't hit someone with Neural Dampening with the voodoo?" Grandmaster asked, taking a solid swing of her drink. "Well, if we do it sorta feels like running your forehead into a hot stove. So, mindburn. Thing is, this Angel didn't have Neural Dampening- more like the theoretical Neural Hardening plus a Psionic Shield plus something else in there too to make sure it felt like we just soaked Mindfrays on top of the Mindburn. My attack team got skullfucked when they tried 'frays, and then my defense team nearly got killed when we got a return-to-sender care package."

At this point, the Commander drained his glass, and made sure to top them both up.

"So psionic assault is a dead end."

Grandmaster laughed darkly, and tossed back her vodka. "I don't know, we might be able to it if we were at, say, Saar or Passchendaele"

The Commander hissed now. He was not willing to trade a man's life for two inches of advance. "Anything else?"

"Yeah." The Grandmaster said, voice flat. "I want to test Ensign Ikari for the Gift."

At this the Commander balked. "You want to put a kid, a kid we depend on as our front line of defense, through testing for the Gift? Care to give me a few reasons why?"

"One, the kid's got an iron will under that pile-o-trauma. Even doped up to the nines on codine and Combat Stimulants, he got in the mech and didn't start faffing about. Two, he actually managed to hit the Angel repeatedly under the same circumstances- which means either the kid should be able to hit a flying quarter with a gauss pistol at a hundred yards or he's got the mental fortitude to keep the shakes under control while firing the biggest gun in the world. Three, I've seen the creepy shit that happens when they plug the kid in, and every one of my Adepts thinks those EVAs are the scariest thing since Freddy Krueger fucked a spider to make Chryssalids."

The Commander blinked, and downed another shot of vodka. "Let me get this straight- this creeps the Adepts out? Those same Adepts who proved Gift-positive and didn't go half-mad staring into the Gollop Device to see Enernity?"

"Yep."

At this, The Commander took a slug from the bottle, and passed it over.

"Well." The Commander said, rolling his shoulders. "Well. You have my approval."

Grandmaster snored, her voice light. "Good, 'cause the next thing on my list is giving the redhead a Surprise Mindfray so she understands you don't fuck with my kids. Wonder how much she'll like seeing half-double for a few days."

The Commander groaned. "No 'fraying the guys, Valarie. It's bad for moral." As the psionic leader opened her mouth, he continued. "OR mind controlling her into the men's bathroom. No trickery. Instead, you need to use a more potent weapon.

At this, the Command Sergeant Major's eyes widened.

"You don't mean-" she stammered out.

"I do mean." He said, grinning savagely and putting the vodka away. "The most dreaded weapon."

"Sir, I am obliged to say this is a bad idea."

The Commander laughed. "And I can overrule that, Valarie. Say hello to the most dangerous weapon on base. Paperwork."

---

Somewhere way far away, Shinji was walking out of school, one slow step at a time. Step, step, clack; that's how it went. Just get to the house, and he could sit down. Step, step, clank.

"Hey, you!" a loud voice yelled. Stopping, Shinji turned to face the yelling person, a kid in a light tracksuit.

"Yes?" Shinji replied, leaning forward on his cane some.

"You're that EVA pilot, right?"

"Yes." Shinji said.

"You crashed, you dumbass! You crashed, and crushed my house! My sister can't walk now because of your shitty piloting!"

Shinji frowned, and discreetly slid one foot behind the other, turning neatly to the side. When the punch came in, he took it on the chest, and held firm. It was just a rabbit punch, not strong enough to really knock him back when he had a sure stance. The next one, to the gut, still hurt though.

"I'm sorry about your sister." Shinji said, pushing the words out through the pain.

"I'll make you sorry!" the kid yelled, going in for a haymaker. Shinji had toughened up over the last two weeks, to be true. More importantly, though, he'd learned a few simple tricks.

For example, take on step back, and whip the cane around into the side of this dumbass' head, sending him sprawling. It wasn't the clean beauty of a proper iado, but it was close enough for government work. Asuka, who had just turned around and was working up a proper frothing head of Get Off My Baka rage when she saw the blow connect. One instant, the Baka was going to get pasted. The next, he wasn't in the path of the punch, and black ebony flashed, and the jock was on the ground.

For a second she was impressed, if only at the fact that Shinji had stood his ground for once. This still expressed itself as righteous anger, though, as she bulled in towards him to bodily extract her wingman from the fracas before a teacher showed up. Taking his free arm up in hers, she snorted loudly.

"Baka! C'mon, we need to get home so you can rest and get better!"

Letting Asuka drag him away, Shinji just sighed and started going home.

---

7734 · Apr 26, 2017

Of all the things Shinji expected to do for his Psionic Testing, putting on a plain gray pair of sweatpants and running laps was not one of them. This wasn't an official part of the Psionic Testing, as the Grandmaster explained, but rather an exercise the Psions did when they had high hopes for a new member.

"When we run," she had explained, "our glands start rolling and shaking, kicking the cobwebs out and firing up the hormone and chemical production. Once that happens, parts of the brain that don't normally wake up do. Humans as a species started out as runners, chasing prey down on the plains of Africa and beating them to death with rocks as a group. Running down the streets with us might not inspire the same thing, but it will help. Equally importantly, us psions will be weaving a network of psionic communications, and you'll be a passive part of it. We've never proven that this helps, but even the ones who wash out says it has."

The Valarie of then was not the Valarie of now, though, loaded up with a backpack full of water bottles and energy drinks over her sports bra and the same style of sweatpants he wore.

"Sound off!" she called as the run began, the weight on her shoulders not inhibiting her bellows.

A loud ringing came into Shinji's ears, making him wince audably. He still hurt, his pain pump removed for the run. Stumbling, he found an arm on both sides catch him, the psions catching him and helping him to his feet. Nodding thanks, Shinji kept running.

"Goldman, Sing High!" one of the runners called out, his voice rumbling with an echo it shouldn't have.

"Goldman, Sing Low!" a female voice called back, her soaring tone again ringing out in an uncanny way.

"Goldman Sing Together!" another pair yelled out, the two-part harmony warping and twisting.

"Aleph sings wry, Aleph sings fast," came the next line, the uncanny noise dwarfing the words together.

"But we all sing together!" the band roared, the noise gone. Blinking, Shinji gasped. Those uncanny echoes, they had left, and now there was just harmony. The words were gone now, discarded by the score of psions as they ran. There was only the melody, the harmony, and underneath it the percussion section, lub-dub-thrubing away in the time of the heartbeat.

Shinji hadn't even noticed they'd made it all the way down to the waterfront when the pace of the song changed, transitioning cantos. As it did, though, for a second Shinji felt his body for the first time, and it was pain. His skin, stretched, torn in places, letting thin streams of blood spill forth and spiderweb his torso. His feet, aching and sore, two layers of running socks not enough to cushion several miles of running. His throat, pounding for water. His lungs, crying for air. Stumbling again, he was caught, and a series of pips entered the melody. From the head of the Run, the Grandmaster pulled out a water, and blindly tossed it back. As each psyker passed it back to Shinji, they piqued and pipped at the melody, a soft chuckle in the music. Flushed, Shinji just drank the proffered water slowly. The Run was still running.

Three hours later, not even the melody of the Run could hold him together. Water jugs and energy drinks were passed around freely, and the harmony was slowly starting to unravel. Dogged, despairing, Shinji held true at the end of the pack, his two minders panting along with him. Each step brought the pyramid of the Geofront closer, while a little bit more of Shinji's vision ebbed away. He knew that tunnel vision was a bad sign, that he needed more air. He knew he was taking deep breaths, trying to pull all the energy in he could. He felt burns, both from his protesting muscles and his sun-baked skin. In short, Shinji was a wreck. At the peak of the Georont Hill, a mere thousand yards before the doors, he collapsed.

As one, the Run stopped and re-circled around the fallen member. Hoisting him up, they started booking it over to the Testing Center.

---

At school, Asuka was not in a good mood. Shinji had been missing for two days now, for that stupid "psychic testing" thing. This meant she'd been forced to do a lot of things she'd rather not. For starters, cooking, cleaning, and chucking beers to Misato. Asuka didn't mind cooking, but Lilly was adamant they take turns at it.

Normally, this wouldn't be a bad thing, but Lilly's repertoire of dishes was amazingly limited. Specifically, it was limited to Spam. Spam sandwhiches, spam soup, traditional Nagasaki dishes with spam, spam sushi, even a spam schnitzel when Asuka asked for a taste of home one night!

Unfortunatly for the world, Asuka was a Pilot. It didn't matter if she flew a plane, guided a boat, or drove an EVA- she was a Pilot, and that meant by extension she was a massive control freak. Between the spam food, distinct absence of her new friend/punching bag, and the oddly relaxd air most of the XCOM soldiers had been treating her with in comparison to the stiff formality of NERV Berlin, she was on edge.

So when a genuine jock stooge in a tracksuit with a glaring Hikari behind him walked up to Asuka, she wasn't exactly inclined to give them a long shrift.

"Hey." The jock snorted at Asuka. "Listen, you work with the other pilot, Shinji, right?"

"Yes." Asuka said, flat.

"Well… tell him… tell him I'm apologizing for that." Turning, he glared at Hikari. "There, I did it. See? Say Touji Suzuhara doesn't apologize again, I dare you!"

At this point, Hikari just pointed at Asuka. Turning, Touji managed to catch Asuka's incoming dope slap on the opposite side of the head to where Shinji had laid into him last time, sending him down on his knees. As Asuka worked up a good yell, Hikari shook her head. She'd have to do something else to get that particular fence mended- the Class Rep was getting tired of her classroom being three steps short of an active warzone in the mornings. The fact she might, might have a crush on the stupid jock might be a part too.

---

Waking up, Shinji gagged. The last thing he could remember was the harmony of the Run, and then the dissolving melody, the pain…

Hissing, one of his arms went up to his chest, and he noticed almost idly he was totally submerged. That choking had been his air pipe, with a second, smaller water pipe next to it. Feeling his damp skin, he blinked. His burns- gone! He couldn't feel the skips and jumps that showed where new skin was taking up the flaked and destroyed flesh of old. Slowing down his breaths, he felt around. The tank he was in was about two and a half meters long by two thirds of a meter long and wide. The umbilical went into a flush port on the top of the tank, the bakelite construction seamless and motionless. Without any outside stimuli, he was lost, dazed, and slowly becoming confused.

---

Outside the tank, Misato and Valarie stood, both women sizing each other up. After a short nod, they recognized each other, much like two dogs sniffing another's buts.

"So, mind walking me through some of this?" Misato asked.

Valarie smirked. "Worried? We've never had a fatality before, not for some's lack of trying."

"No." Misato said. "I want to know if we should do this for the other two Children."

A sharp laugh later, and Valarie clapped Misato's back. "If we see anything, we'll organize another Run. Now, where to begin…"

----

It was a mere four minutes from when Shinji found himself starting to hallucinate. At first, it was lights, dancing outside his reach. Moving his arm, he found the wall of the tank. Pushing against it, he quickly found out the lights weren't real.

Then the ringing started, a pure note that suggested a triangle rung well. Turning, Shinji failed to see anything. When he flipped back, he tried to scream as an Angel advanced towards him, arms raised and face smiling darkly.

---

"First off, the sensory deprivation tank. The mind starts to play tricks on most people after about ten, twenty minutes. He's totally immersed in there- can't see, can't hear, can barely feel, and there's nothing to smell. So when his hindbrain doesn't have anything to tell the forebrain, it starts making shit up."

Misato shuddered.

"Think that's bad? It gets better- once the random neural static's done, psions start tending to see their memories. Psions also being seasoned warriors, there tends to be some booby-traps under the hood, and- hoo boy!"

"What?" Misato snapped as Grandmaster leaned over a panal.

"Blood in the water! Shinya here's a fighter!" Valarie cooed, bastardizing Shinji's name in the process. "And there's the piss check, too! C'mon kid, pull the switch…"

Misato just gaped. "What?!"

"We've got sensors in there- they're picking up blood, so he's banging on the tank walls. Probably fighting something, or trying to run. Piss too- means he's scared. Impact sensors are showing fist strikes, no kicks. Good!"

---

Huffing and puffing under the water, Shinji sheathed his Progressive Knife in his shoulder pylon, and sighed.

"Hey, Shinji~" a seductive voice lilted. Behind him was Asuka, still in her plugsuit and dripping wet with LCL. "My seals are stuck- can you help?"

Blinking, Shinji slowly worked his way towards Asuka, trying to keep their umbilicals from being tangled. As he moved behind her and started to work at disasmbling the modules in the back, she shifted, and tripped. What was a floor was now a pit, and Shinji had to grab her before she fell. Diving, he reached for anything, anything to save his teammate, but all he could grab was her umbilical.

As Asuka tumbled, she cried out once- "Shinji!" -and then spun, spinning, spinning, until her umbilical caught her neck.

The snap of bones and cartilage seemed to echo for days.

---

"Yes, Shinya, come little one…" Valarie cooed, the monitors spasaming and dancing. "Perth, Sowilo, Wunjou, Rhaido, Uruz… oh, you will be so fun to train!"

Misato just felt her eyes water as a screech emanated from the tank, a sound no ear could hear.

"Well, add corporal manifestation of Berkanan, judging by that wince." The Grandmaster laughed, scrawling down sticks and strings on a notepad. "We made the right decision, here! Oh, I so do want to see what he does when he leaves the compartment!"

---

Keening at his loss, Shinji sat back on his heels and cried. He didn't know why, but he knew the loss when he felt it. It was a loss, too- his teammate, his companion, gone. Dead, dead, dead; and with her body hanging their below his feet like a grim reminder of the future. It was much, so much-

"I am with you." A soft voice said in his ear, blue hair intertwining with his own. "I am your teammate too, Shinji-kun. Don't forget-"

A gunshot rang out, cutting out Rei's statement of unity. Standing there, Gendo sighed. "Do you know how many plans you've overturned, boy? Do you know what this does to the Scenario?"

"I am with-" began the same voice, as another bullet flashed out. Gendo's gun smoked, his frown clearly visable.

"We will need to use an older version. Oh well." Gendo sighed, holstering his murdering tool with a flat click. "Boy."

"Y-yes?"

"Pilot the Evangilions. Do not dare die. I will return."

---

Growling slightly, Misato looked over the banks of ticker-tape meters and archaic dials. This was the third scream, now, the hopelessness and despair driving her half-mad.

"This is torture." She said, flat. Her white-haired companion nodded.

"Da. It is."

"Why?"

"Because we need to know. Shinji is being pushed to his limits, and he's excelling. Soon, we will add the stimulus, and then crystalize his power. He will be great when he comes out- if weary. I am mildly concerned about uruz displayed, though. It is a dangerous gift."

Misato just gritted her teeth. "Will he be alright?"

"Nope!" Valarie laughed. "You think we are ever 'all right'? Ha! This is merely the tip of a glacier!"

---

Panting, Shinji tried to stand. He had fought, and fought. Below him, Asuka's body swayed in an invisable wind. Surrounding Shinji, four copies of Rei were lain out by shots, his father's efforts to stop her from speaking hope to him. Above, a moon superimposed over the sun.

Unbidden, a thought came to him. Why do I fight?

"I don't know." He muttered, progressive knife loose in his hands as he stared at the ruins of the Third Angel and the new burns that surrounded his left hand.

Why do I fight?

"I fought for myself, to live."

Now the wind changed directions, eerie and loud. "Why do you fight?" asked the wind, playing through the cables that had taken Asuka's life before she knew it.

"I fight for you. To keep you safe, and Rei, and Misato, and the people here. To make the Commander proud, the one man that has cared for me enough to ask."

Now the wind changed again, talking through the ruffles of Rei's hair and flutter of her clothes- a ballgown, a school uniform, a plugsuit, and a pair of jeans and a shirt. "Why do you fight?"

Shinji laughed now. "Because I have no choice! If I don't fight, then you could all die! I don't want you to leave me! I don't ever want to be alone again!"

From behind him, a pair of arms wrapped around his shoulders. It was Asuka, her neck straight and the loops of umbilical a necklace rather than a noose. "You fight for us, your family. You fight for your people. You fight for greed, the best greed. No treasure for you other than a heartbeat, and no greater treasure you could receive."

Now, the first of the bodies of Rei stood. Dressed simply in her school dress, she gave a cold, bitter smile. "What do you fight?"

"I fight the Angels that try and destroy my home and family."

Again, the smile so cold under that blue mask. "What do you fight?"

"I fight things that try and hurt me, hurt us, no matter what they are." Shinji spoke quietly, feeling his spine tingle and dance.

Now, a second Rei rose, giving herself in the school dress a kiss on the cheek before laying her down to sleep. As the Rei in a plugsuit stood back up, she came closer, stroking Shinji's chin with a hand idly. "How do you fight?"

Shinji pulled back, this newer Rei freighting him. "I… I fight with what I have. My prog knife… my carbine…"

Shaking her head, the white-clad Rei stepped closer and snaked an arm around Shinji. "How do you fight?"

"I fight with my tools." Shinji said, dazed. "My weapons, my friends too."

"How. Do. You. Fight!" the Rei said, both hands around him now, frowning at her oblivious student.

That's when the bolt from the blue came. "I fight with everything I have. My mind, my body, my soul."

Rolling her eyes, this Rei gave Shinji a hug before going over to her sleeping self in the casual clothes. Again, the odd tango began, one Rei raising herself up, only to be lowered down after. Now in jeans and a plain t-shirt, the third Rei smiled. "Where do you fight?"

"Tokyo-3" Shinji said, flat.

The quiet 'thwip' of Rei's head meeting her hand brought a blush to Shinji's face. "Where do you fight?"

"The city, the fields, the hills. Wherever there are Angels."

Now, at least, Rei had a glimmer of hope in her eyes. "Where do you fight?"

Shinji was really, really starting to hope he wouldn't have to get another bolt from the blue. "Where I am, and where my friends are, and where the danger is."

Smiling, this Rei went over and kissed Shinji on the cheek, and impulsively hugged him before returning to the floor in sleep. Spinning around, he saw the last Rei standing, her ballgown shimmering in the un-light of his mind.

"When do you fight?" she asked, head cocked to the side slightly.

At this, though, Shinji knew the answer. "Whenever I have to. Whenever my family is in danger. Whenever I take up arms, I am fighting, and will not stop until my family is safe."

This Rei, the most elegant of them all, laughed a high, clear laugh. "Good! You understand! Now, go!"

---

Outside the case holding the pilot, all the meters redlined for a brief second, and the sensory deprivation tank slowly started to tilt until it stood tall like a colossus. Drains on the bottom opened, and the fluids of the tank slowly drained out, pooling in the floor of the room.

"Ever since Mankind first looked up at the stars, we have wondered what lies beyond." The Grandmaster began, as the locks and seals on the case slowly unlocked themselves, depressurizing and disengaging. "So very few have dared to look. The depths of the human mind hold more secrets than we can possibly imagine. How ironic, that the means to defeat our enemy does not come from weapons, or machines of war."

As Shinji stumbled out of the container, he fell to the ground on hands and knees. Crying out, his naked body flashed purple, an ethereal howl emerging from his lips. Standing, Shinji held out his hand, breathing deeply. In it, purple embers flickered and danced, until he imbued them with a power, creating a field pulsing and pushing, radiant with a purple light.

"If we have succeeded, people have gained a glimpse of what we will become. We will have created something… extraordinary."

(AN: Small spoiler to who can guess where the Rei were standing. Large spoiler to whoever can figure out where each one of the Rei were standing. As per normal, use thy PMs.)

Dmol8 · Apr 26, 2017

7734 said:
Shinji pulled back, this newer Rei freighting him.

Is this a pun or is this supposed to say: "this newer Rei frighting him."? Cause I doubt that sentence is about moving cargo.

7734 · Apr 26, 2017

Dmol8 said:
Is this a pun or is this supposed to say: "this newer Rei frighting him."? Cause I doubt that sentence is about moving cargo.

That is in fact a typo. That said, Rei is slowly learning the art of the Ship.

New Shadow · Apr 26, 2017

7734 said:
That is in fact a typo. That said, Rei is slowly learning the art of the Ship.

Part of me wonders if you're posting this over here now, even though you've got this on SB, where it's a whole lot farther along. Something happen, if you don't mind me asking?

7734 · Apr 26, 2017

New Shadow said:
Part of me wonders if you're posting this over here now, even though you've got this on SB, where it's a whole lot farther along. Something happen, if you don't mind me asking?

Its very simple. SB gets the first pick of posts because that's where the best audiance is at. Here, as I'm stuck with so many less people, I tend to like farm the updates, waiting until it drops off the front page for a while and then re-bumping it with an update.

New Shadow · Apr 27, 2017

7734 said:
Its very simple. SB gets the first pick of posts because that's where the best audience is at. Here, as I'm stuck with so many less people, I tend to like farm the updates, waiting until it drops off the front page for a while and then re-bumping it with an update.

Ah, I see. I follow the story on SB, too, and was just worried something ticked you off enough to leave like Zoat, the author of With This Ring, had happen to him. Nice to see that wasn't the case.

7734 · May 8, 2017

In the world of XCOM, many specialized expressions came about over the years. A couple of better examples, such as "rookies first" had been misconstrued as praise by some of the newer members, while some classics like "Only Vahlen/Shen knows" were closer to an oath than mere banter.

Among all these varied expressions, though, there was one that crossed all languages and creeds, uttered by the faithful of every religion and fervent of any ethnicity.

"HIT THE DECK!" Shinji yelled, throwing up a Deflection Field behind him as he scrabbled through his coat to pull out his Training Pistol. Next to him, Rei and Asuka tried to kiss the floor plates as their brother in arms spun and started spewing paint. Behind him, the two Bluehats cursed, trying to find cover and getting nowhere as the .85 paint slugs slammed into them.

"PFC Lincoln and PFC Rajamandara, eliminated." A cool voice came over the speakers. "Current Red Force remaining in Sector A14, twenty six."

Huffing quietly, Asuka pried herself off the deck and went over to the downed PFCs. "Baka!" she yelled, kicking Lincoln in his training armor front. "Where was your cover? Bah- I don't want to know! Just give me your guns!"

Grumbling, the two privates handed over their rifles and ammo slings, the loads of CO2 cartridges and pods of paint. Taking one for herself, Asuka passed the other one to Rei as Shinji hunched over, clutching his stomach.

"Aw, does someone need a break?" Asuka asked, voice sickly sweet.

"No, just felt like I got kicked in the gut…" Shinji muttered, barely standing upright. "Gimme a minute."

"Pilot Ikari may need some time." Rei said, checking the drum holding her sim-weapon's paint. "Remember, these psionic powers are supposedly deliberating if used improperly according to the Command Master Sergeant."

"If he can't stand the heat, he should stay out of the kitchen." Asuka sniffed, nose high. "He's an Evangilion Pilot, that should be enough."

Interrupting them, Shinji pulled out the small tablet the three had been issued to keep in contact. "Listen, we still need to get to the labs and get the next objective."

"I still say we should be going for the EVA bays." Asuka muttered.

----

Up in the Reserve Command Center, Bradford grumbled to himself. "How the hell did those kids not fall for the trap yet?"

Next to him, Vessening grinned. "Because I told Pena to tell Asuka that we've been designing a new type of Entry Plug at the lab that raises the Sync Score of the pilot."

"Have we?" Bradford asked, frowning.

"Yes and no. The Entry Plug down there is the experimental Dual-Pilot System, which is projected to raise Synch Scores by fifteen percent."

Bradford just facepalmed.

"Listen sir, it's their first Base Assault training exercise. They're probably going to fuck it up sooner or later- we just felt it would be bad for Pilot Morale if they tripped on their shoelaces right out the gate."

Bradford just looked at Vessening. "And who is 'we' there, Lance Corporal?"

"We found a minder for Rei- Lance Corporal Spee. Which reminds me, there's gonna be some paperwork on your desk later to get Rei moved. Her current housing is, ah… inadequate."

Bradford winced. A Lance Corporal like Vessening had five grades of housing quality, "not bad" as the best and "inadequate" as the worst. When Pena had seen the remains of an old gulag when she had been deployed on a Scout-whacking mission in Russia, it had been described as "really fucking bad", a full step over "inadequate".

"Oh."

"Quite, sir. Quite."
---

Down in the labs, Lily was humming as she worked on her latest project. Picking it up, she appreciatively swung her arm around before putting it down.

"ALRIGHT, EVERYBODY FREEZE!" an OPFOR soldier said, appearing on the catwalk. Lily's response was simple, elegant, and easily-deniable; a click of a remote, and suddenly three SHIVs with simulation Gatling guns came to life. Sighing, she put the experiment back on her desk and started futzing with the controls. At least she had the sim version ready for Asuka when the pilots finally arrived.

---

As the trio of pilots passed another opfor unit sulking back to the barracks dripping in paint, they started moving faster. Getting to the lab doors, Rei covered the back while Asuka led the way in, paint rifle up.

"WELCOME TO MY HUMBLE ABODE!" Lily laughed loudly as the Pilots stepped inside. "COME, SEE WHAT NEW MADNESS I HAVE UNLEASHED!"

"Is she always like this when someone comes in the labs?" Asuka asked, earning a shrug in response.

"Hey! Du da, ja, genau, die Berlinerin! Komm her - ich habe dir eine neue Wumme gebaut!" Lily yelled at Asuka, practically waving her arms. Looking across to Shinji, the only male pilot shrugged. "You too, scardey-cat! And you, silent pilot! C'mon!"

As the three trecked down the stairs into the laboratory-cum-manufactory, they noticed the paint-splotched walls, the practice markers and blurry silhouettes showing where fools had tread without permission. Going up, Lily tossed each of them a new paint-gun.

"Alright, Asuka, this is a basic shotgun with point-three-eight pellet paint. Past fifteen meters it won't trigger a kill, so going in with backup is advised. Rei, you've already got a rifle, so I cooked up something special for you." Lily smiled, pulling out a heavy gauntlet. "It's got a heavy paint spray in there, good to about eighteen meters. Anything caught in the cone is toasted, though. Shinji, you get this old Marksman's Rifle with a new hammer in it. Fires one-two-five paint, so if you guys see a MEC trying to make a mess, you shoot it."

"Got it." Shinji said, picking up the gun, taking a second to check out the can-sight. Asuka just tossed over the rifle, and smiled. Rei shrugged at her new Gauntlet, and got ready.

"Now can we go to the EVA bays?" Asuka griped, getting ready to move. "We've got plenty of firepower, and I dare those imbeciles to come at me!"

---

Upstairs, coordinating the 'defense' of the Geofront, the Commander smiled a thin smile. Everything was going just according to-

That was a rustle in the air ducts. Pulling out a paint grenade, The Commander stood up and moved next to the vent. As the wall rattled gently, he gave the side of the vent a soft kick that knocked it off. Pulling the grenade pin, he cooked it for a second and chucked it down the duct.

As the BLAM of paint staining the ducts echoed out, The Commander smiled at the glories of seven-second fuses that always ran seven seconds. "Amateurs." He snorted, before carefully replacing the grate. Yes, everything was still going all according to plan.

---

Running through the corners, Asuka had a wild grin on her face as she took advantage of her XCOM uniform's heavy pants to powerslide past a door and double-tap her scattergun through it. Rolling back up, she thumbed two more into the tube clip as Rei hosed her rifle through the door. Shinji, of all people, was the first through, tagging two blueshirts with a steady hand riding the bolt of his marksman's rifle. As the pack of pilots walked into the hanger proper, the lights suddenly cut out.

On the railing to their Evangilions, three people stood, white armor gleaming in what looked like stage spotlights. Helmets off, they were immediately recognizable- they were the Pilot's handlers: Vessening, Pena, and Spee. Worse, each one wore a black kneckerchief around their collar- the only uniform the enemy team had.

"Hello, Children." Vessening said, unlimbering the heavy machine gun from where he had been resting it on the shoulder of his power armor. "We've had our fun today, but I'm afraid that I can't let you get to the EVAs."

"And you're going to stop us?" Asuka challenged back, laughing.

"Well, as they say at Alpha Site Three, 'Heeeeeeeeeeeeeeeere's Johny!" Vessening said laughing, shortly before opening up with his massive gun. Diving for cover, the Pilots frantically made sure they were loaded up before the other two tried going for their flanks.

As Shinji gulped and got ready to risk the absolute hail of paint Vessening was putting out, he saw something from the corner of his eye- Pena, cradling a shotgun with a killer smile.

"Aw, crap." Shinji muttered, before trying to wing the mechanical soldier. His shot missed miserably, but it was enough to get Pena to duck long enough for him to get ready to move. "Rei, cover me!"

At that exact moment, Asuka jumped out of cover, scattergun ready. Dashing up to the ground right under Vessening, she got ready to open up just after she saw the trip mine.

"Yippe-kay-aye, motherfucker!" Spee yelled as Asuka got knocked on her ass from the blast. Still, Rei threw some paint at him long enough for Shinji to break for better cover close enough to get a Deflection Field up.

"You know what we got here, Shinji?" Vessening yelled from the railings. "What we got here is failure to communicate!"

Shinji's return fire clipped the pauldron of the Lance Corporal's Titan armor ineffectively.

As Pena and Spee took turns pinning Rei, Shinji growled slightly and sited in on the bantering pair. "So, Spee, how you gonna get her out of there?"

"Well, Pena, I'm gonna make her an offer she can't ref-"

Shinji smiled as his shot caught Spee right in the gorget, cutting off his horrible movie quote mid-word. It seemed like all the Children's adjuncts shared a taste for the cinema, if the fact almost every word so far had been an action-movie one liner, famous quote, or-

FOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOSH!

Peeking out of cover, Shinji smiled as he saw the paint-coated Pena fall on her ass. Seeing a paint round whistle past his nose, the young Pilot breathed in and out, and threw up his Distortion Field before stepping out of cover and firing his clip into Vessening as fast as he could. As the inbound rounds swerved, spun, and in one instance exploded as they came towards him, his own outbound only missed two of seven shots, the remaining five barely enough to get Vessening out of the fight. Panting, Shinji leaned against the pillar, his temples throbbing and gut wrenched by the effort of holding off dozens of shots.

Behind him, a set of armored footsteps clanked, and Shinji turned around, only to see Spee there, pistol in hand.

"Gonna have to aim better than that, Shinji." He whispered, his bruised neck turning purple at the line of the gorget.

Diving back, Shinji dropped his rifle and went for his pistol, arming it with a quick pull of the breech mechanism, dropping the entire nine-round clip into Spee's chestpiece. Growling, Shinji ran for where he'd last scene Rei, hoping to get her rifle. Seeing her on the ground with black marker paint covering her from a last-second grenade, Shinji hissed and yanked up the rifle.

"Too slow." Spee hissed, starting to unload. Ducking, Shinji felt a round crease his head just above his ear, the black paint dripping hot and wet onto his neck. Swearing, he came up, dumping rounds into Spee again, the black paint splashing as it covered his chest.

Returning fire, Spee trusted his armor to keep him safe, confident that the shot to the neck earlier was a coincidence. When Shinji managed to work his way around to where Pena had fallen, though, he got the minder's backup grenade and lobbed it. As it detonated, Spee slowly sat down, finally subdued. Panting, huffing, and hissing, Shinji started making his way up to the control booth, flopping into 'his' chair that would take him to his Entry Plug where a spare plugsuit was kept.

"Objective… completed…" he muttered, trying not to pass out.

---

In an out of the way and very inconspicuous apartment under the Geofront, seven people sat around an old, scratched, green poker table with a game underway. Around the table were a number of drinks- Yeibisu, Johny Walker, Belvidere, Schnieder Wiess, Don Julio, and Hakutaka. The people there were barely highlighted by an old iridescent bulb in a hanging lamp, the noir atmosphere completed by several cigars and cigarettes in glass holders, with one pipe fulfilling a niche position. The pot was in the dozens of chips now, the smoke was thick, and the dealer was smiling.

No other atmosphere was really fit for Poker Night with the Commander.

"So, how do you guys think todays organized clusterfuck and paintball game went?" The Commander asked, watching the pot go up by chips and chaps as he ruffled the deck.

"Complete disaster." Shen grumbled, rubbing his arm.

"Glorious success." Vahlen smirked.

"Call." Voiced Misato.

"Didn't make the same stupid mistakes as last time." Valarie grinned, leaning back as she pulled her cards to her bosom.

"I still don't know how Shinji took out three people who've been literally doing this for years." Bradford grumped, taking a sip of his whisky.

"Kid's got talent, what can I say?" Valarie said, chuckling. "Got Captain Nervous here to flinch when we watched his testing."

Misato just slinked lower into her seat, and finished off her beer. Slinging the can into the recycle, a little robotic arm mounted to a miature SHIV track base held up another can of the drink to the thirsty gambler.

Laughing, Vahlen just took a pull from her own beer and patted Misato on the back. "Relax, Kitsuragi. Yeah, Valarie might get hammy every once in a while, but most of the Psionic stuff isn't as nasty as it looks."

"Sounded pretty nasty." Misato replied, frowning.

"That's just because we didn't have that control room properly shielded." Shen waved, shrugging. "Psionic shielding takes forever to grow, and we haven't finished shielding a quarter of the crap we need to in case of mass mind control. God, that quarter sucked."

Glaring at the table, the Commander watched Bradford rake in the pot. "Can we not talk about that? Please? Or do I need to start dealing Texas Hold 'em?"

As the veteran players at the table shut up, all downing their drinks. They remembered the last time Texas Hold 'em had come up, and it was not a happy memory.

"Good." The Commander smirked, sipping his drink. "Anyway, actual business. I've got a field trip to take soon, and I need some poor sod to water the flowers and feed the Evangilions while I'm dicking around in America trying to pry another giant robot out of this Gendo Ikari scuzzball."

Valarie grinned, triumphant in her NCO powers to save her from this hideous assignment. Leaning back in her chair, she took a deep drink of her alcohol, smiling like a Cheshire cat.

"Valarie, you're coming with me to make sure they don't try and sell me an old Honda Civic dressed up in Power Armor. You've said before the EVAs have a 'smell' to them, so you're my bird dog."

As Valarie leaned too far back and fell on her ass, The Commander took a small sip and looked over the rest of the team.

"Vahlen, I'm sorry, but you're coming with us too. That scientist who was here previously? What was her name… ah, Kaga? I want to say Kaga."

Bradford snorted quietly. "Ritsuko Akagi was her name. Bachelors in Angel Voodoo otherwise known as metaphysical biology, doctorate in computer science. Currently she's in America at NERV-3, somewhere in Nevada."

"Thank you, Bradford." The Commander said, smiling. "Anyway, Vahlen, I need you to 'borrow' Doctor Akagi for us so we can get cracking on whipping out a few more EVAs and maybe see what's in the basement that's not on the floor plan or the MAGI networks."

Vahlen just groaned, and downed her beer. "Do I at least get a Skyranger to pull her out with?"

"Yep. You even get two flunkies to hold the Arc Throwers and look scary."

Grinning, Shen flipped over his cards, prompting a round of moans as he raked in the pot. "Heh. Sucks to be you guys- I'm already booked up, so I can't keep an eye on the Geofront."

"Oh?" went Bradford. "So what's your dodge?"

"Psi datalink systems the guys in Europe came up with. I swear, ever since we incorporated the University of Linz into our research and development program, it's like having a supercomputer that doesn't gigo you if you drop a decimal. It's so helpful."

Bradford laughed. "Got one better- I'm headed to Bravo to check out a new batch of Rookie candidates who just passed Stage One training, plus organizing the purchase of a Skyranger two point oh."

"So, whose job is it to watch the base while you all are gone?" Misato asked, sipping her beer. Five eagle-eyed glances looking to dodge the job turned towards her, and she briefly felt like she was staring down the Hall of Infinite Brass.

"Misato, we'd like to thank you for volunteering" Bradford smirked.

"This is a tremendous opportunity for your career." Vahlen chuckled.

"We like to practice the fine art of chucking people in off the deep end" Shen sagely added.

"And now you know why I avoid the officer school like the plague." Quipped Valarie.

"Do I get any say in this?" Misato asked, downing another beer.

"Don't forget to turn the lights off by eleven, feed the Pilots dinner by six and the rest of the staff by seven, walk the Rookies, and water the scientists." The Commander said, chuckling. "I'm leaving you Hilltopper as a backup guy, and the base should run itself for the most part. Don't scratch the paint on the Skyranger, and don't feed the Psions after midnight. Other than that, it'll be a piece of cake!"

---

Deep in the bowels of the Barracks, Veesening cracked one eye open and smiled a happy, joyful, childish smile. It was time for the mice to play!

((This update may have gotten away from me...))

Derek58 · May 9, 2017

Come on Misato, you walked right into that one!

Dmol8 · May 9, 2017

7734 said:
"Hey! Du da, ja, genau, die Berlinerin! Komm her - ich habe dir eine neue Wumme gebaut!"

Thank you for tying my version of Google Translate into knots. I swear that thing still acts like its in Alpha. Anyways this was a fun chapter to read. Looking forward to the next one.

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