Yay! Another part. Nice to see the time between chapters on this isn't too
long.
John Biles & Rod M. Present
A Neon Genesis Evangelion Elseworlds
Children of an Elder God
Part 4
"Asuka Strikes"
The work crew took a brief lunch break, then took
hammers to the crate as they nailed it shut. With every
hammer strike, the workers winced, as if fearing they'd wake
the monstrosity up.
In this world, that's not as impossible as one might think.
At last, after several nerve-wracking minutes of
hammering, the job was done. The men all walked away
eagerly, glad to be away from that... thing. Even if it was
only a wax figure, it was disturbing beyond words.
As the doors of the massive museum creaked shut,
they weren't sure, but they thought they heard a groan.
For some odd reasons, that sentence doesn't flow quite right to me. I
think:
The men weren't sure, but as the doors of the massive museum creaked shut,
they thought they heard a groan.
That might be just me, though.
Gendo shook his head. "Until we're sure that the
mobile power supplies can function under Arctic conditions,
we can't deal with him. The American base should finish the
tests in a few days. Unlike our soon to be guest, he will
likely give them a real fight. Also, I want a chance to see
how well the Second Child performs before sending all three
of them on that mission."
Gendo plays' God' so well ^_^
"And how do you propose to do that? We haven't
located any of the others, and if we wait too long to deal
with the Wind-Walker, some of the others will likely rouse
themselves as well."
* ARGH* Times like now make me wish I had the time to read Lovecraft
again.
Asuka popped up behind Kaji suddenly, wrapping her
arms around his neck in a rather amorous (though Kaji would
say 'octopus-like') way. She peered at the photograph and
was shocked to see Kaji, a younger Kaji, grinning and with
his arms around two other girls.
"Who are _those_ two?" she asked.
Kaji grinned. "Jealous?"
"Of course not," Asuka said as she doused the picture with kerosene and
set it on fire.
Asuka pouted, a cute sort of puppy-dog-eyes sort of
pout,
Hmm. Those two 'sort of's seem a bit too close together. Maybe drop the
first?
and leaned her head on his shoulder. "Of course! I'm
jealous of any woman that gets close to my Kaji!"
Kaji laughed and ruffled her hair. "I forget who I
talk to, my lady. These two ladies are old friends of mine.
The drunk one's Misato. The sober one is Ritsuko."
Hehehe. That's as good a way to describe them as any.
Kaji shrugged. "It ended kinda badly, so I guess I
oughta hate her."
Asuka brightened immediately.
"But," continued Kaji, "I'd like to think that we're
still friends. Sort of. Kind of."
Hmm. Seems a bit wishy-washy for Kaji. Minor nit.
"She didn't appreciate you like I appreciate you,"
said Asuka, trying to sound seductive. Coming from a
14-year-old, however, it didn't quite work its magic on
Kaji.
Thankfully.
Kaji's shoulder.
"And in case you're wondering why I'm looking at
this relic of my glory years... these two ladies will be
joining us in a few days."
That's going to go over real well.
This, thought Asuka, was not good.
-*-
The aroma of fresh food grilling filled the kitchen
of the Katsugari apartment, a sure sign that Miss Katsugari
I think someone already mentioned the 'Katsugari' Katsuragi' name thing.
then nearly spat his drink out.
On the lower half of the front page was a picture of
him and Ayanami together. The caption underneath the
picture read:
YOUNG HEROES IN LOVE? Ayanami Rei (left) and Ikari
Shinji (right), the two pilots of the EVA robots,
are rumored to be dating. More in section A10
Oh, that is going to go over really well. Shinji is never going to know a
moment's peace at school now.
should've expected," teased Misato.
"W-we're not like that! R-really!"
"Riiiight, Shinji-kun." Misato patted him rather
condescendingly on the head, then went into her blazing fast
breakfast routine.
Grab beer. Guzzle beer. Shovel rice. Impale fish.
Devour fish. Skewer seaweed. Shovel seaweed.
Get another beer. Guzzle.
"Aaaaah."
Shinji is terrified of this ability of hers? ^_^
need anything, just ask Maya. Okay?"
"Um, yeah."
"Be good now. Seeya!" Misato took Shinji by
surprise and gave him a quick, motherly kiss on the
forehead,
I hope for his sake she wiped her mouth. Having the residue of beer, fish,
rice and seaweed on you sounds about as pleasant as drinking the LCL/motor
oil in the EVA's.
and then she was gone. Shinji blinked at the now
shut door, still not sure what to make of the situation.
The kiss was unexpectedly nice of Misato... but...
He was apparently home alone.
Was this a bad thing?
Nah! With just a little poor acting and having two incompetent burglers
break in, you can make a hundred million dollar movie out of it.
Well... no. But it didn't seem incredibly good
either. He realized he was actually missing her already...
sort of.
Finally, he shrugged off the entire line of thought
and headed for school. Shinji hoped no other great
surprises would be there waiting for him.
Only if no other copies of the paper were delivered in all of Tokyo-3
"NO WAY!"
"Stop it."
All three boys froze in place, nearly turning as
pale as the girl who spoke the words. As if the voice
wasn't chilly enough, the stare she was giving them was
absolutely Arctic. Had they looked up, they would have seen
a passing fly suddenly explode into black dust in mid-air.
Rei gets scarier and scarier as this thing continues.
"Do you know what it is?"
"Old statue, or something like that. It's supposed
to have a clue about the nature of the Angels, or something
like that."
Methinks 'or something' is the more accurate guess.
Fooey.
That little disappointment didn't damper Asuka's
spirits too much. She still had the digital camera, and
hoped to send some pictures back home to Frau Himmelfarb.
She immediately began unloading her purchases:
postcards, statuettes, odd trinkets, t-shirts....
With a concerned frown, she held up her baseball
t-shirt. "Nuevo Los Angeles Angels"
Cute.
was printed in large
letters along the back. Kaji had told him
Shouldn't that be 'her'?
that, all things
considered, the shirt might be in bad taste.
Naaah.
The shirt was too cute. If only as sleepwear, she'd
use it. Definitely a keeper.
A chill suddenly ran through her spine. That
earlier feeling... that unidentifiable disturbing feeling...
came back stronger than before.
Ah, I know what it is now: her 'Spider-sense'. ^_^
Cautiously, she stepped out to the upper decks and
looked around. The sun had set minutes ago, leaving the
city and the sea to be swallowed in darkness. All seemed
quiet, except for several bright lights surrounding one of
the other ships from the fleet docked next to hers. A
massive crate was slowly being lifted unto
'into' sounds better to me.
the ship's cargo
hold.
She stared at the men, scurrying to put it in place,
just a moment longer, then went back to her cabin.
Hopefully, a few romance novels would shake this bad
feeling.
-*-
After three and a half romance novels,
What?! Three and a half? How long was she reading, or is this speed
reading skill going to come into play at some other point?
two of which
had details which would've made Kaji blush,
Somehow, I doubt that.
Something underwater caught her eye.
Not good. No sir. Not good at all.
then sank to the endless depths.
Asuka got very little sleep that night.
-*-
The next morning was an improvement for Asuka, at
the start.
Hmm. I think 'at least at first.' sounds better, IMO.
"Well... I was wandering around the deck last night,
and I thought I saw something in the water?"
"What sort of something?"
"Um, well... eyes. These green, glowing eyes. Lots
of them. I didn't see what they were attached to, but they
were there, really!"
"Calm down, Asuka.
Hmm. I didn't get the impression she was all that excited in the paragraph
before, even with the exclamation point on the last sentence. Perhaps
throw in a line about a rising level of excitement or something?
"I was looking the wrong way. C'mon, Asuka, let's
go."
The two walked to the landing pad, where a VTOL
transport jet had just finished descending. Descending
Two 'descending's close together. I'd use 'landing' for the first.
Ritsuko smiled, though Asuka wondered if that was a
warm smile or a sly one. She reached back into the plane
and dragged another person out by the arm.
"And that would be Misato," hissed Asuka.
"Hey! Rits-chan! Misato-chan!"
Asuka's left eye twitched. Rits-CHAN? Misato-CHAN?
Aww. Poor Asuka. She should have found an excuse to practice using her EVA
when they arrived, then she could have 'accidentily' stepped on them.
Misato stomped down the ramp, seething with every
step. Kaji merrily strolled up to greet them, with a
not-so-merry Asuka in tow.
"Rits-chan, Misato-chan! Good to see you again!"
said Kaji cheerfully.
Misato grumbled something they couldn't hear.
Most likely something about having to meet him sober, no doubt.
Ritsuko frowned and quickly elbowed her colleague.
"What are _you_ doing here?" she finally said to
him.
"Me? I'm the NERV Special Inspector."
"Ah, just my luck," grumbled Misato.
"It's been a while, Kaji-san," said Ritsuko
pleasantly. Asuka definitely didn't like the smile on that
woman.
"Ah, Ritsuko, as beautiful as ever," said Kaji
smoothly. He took her hand in his and kissed it. Both
Misato's and Asuka's left eyes twitched, and their mouths
curled up in slight snarls.
Ritsuko laughed and pulled her hand away. "Enough
of that, flatterer." Sue
'She'
die.
Shinji could feel himself starting to go out of his
mind. He couldn't understand why; he'd always enjoyed, and
usually prefered solitude before. The first day had been
wonderful; no distractions, he could actually play his music
on the stereo without Misato getting bored of it, no beer
belching, no one suddenly demanding to play frisbee when he
was trying to practice the cello.
So Pen-pen is on vacation too? ^_^
By the evening of the third day, he was starting to
wish for the sound of a beer can opening, loud music blaring
on the stereo,
Misato staggering into the apartment in the middle of the night, dead
drunk and vomiting her guts up on the floor, swearing...
Okay, maybe not the sound of 'anything', but at least the sound of
something.
something, anything...he was approaching the
point of ultimate boredom.
And what happens at that point? Does one spontaneously combust? Slip into
a coma? Something else?
It scared him; he had been able
to go weeks with minimal human interaction at one time. But
now...well, he'd reached the point of playing chess with
Pen-pen
And the little waterfowl was good at it too, capable of beating even
Commander Ikari three out of four times.
He never would have thought of challenging a penguin
to a chess game, except that while he had been practicing
his cello, he had seen Pen-pen playing around with a chess
set that he hadn't even realized Misato had. While Shinji
had never been a chess buff, he did enjoy the game. So he
was now on a three game losing streak as they started game
four.
The truly horrible thing about this is, I was kidding in the last comment.
I'm C+Cing it as I read.
Even scarier thought, Misato CAN beat Pen-pen regularly, which is why she
doesn't play chess with him anymore.
He twitched quietly as his inevitable doom approached;
Pen-Pen's white pieces were 'swarming across the border' and
his carefully constructed defense was collapsing.
Give him a Bud Ice to distract him. Wait, wrong penguin. Nevermind.
When his
queen died, it was simply too much for him. Shinji wasn't
made for fighting to the death.
Now is that a statment of foreshadowing, or just an odd turn of the
phrase?
"Alright, I resign." He
got up, sighed, and decided to go for a walk.
-*-
A nice long walk through the park was relaxing; he
was actually looking forward to school tomorrow, simply to
have something to do. After a while, he started to get
tired and sat down on a park bench. A few seconds later, a
guy he vaguely recognized from Nerv...Makoto something or
another...came jogging up the winding path. "Hi, Shinji!"
"Hi," Shinji said back.
Makoto came over and sat down. "Don't know what to do
with Misato gone?"
"Yeah." Shinji blinked. "How'd you guess?"
"I suppose Misato should be glad you're not the type
to have a wild party while she's gone like
I think that part should have commas.
party, while she's gone, like
It just sounds better to me, but it might just be a style thing.
"Card game?"
"Weekly card game with the bridge techs. Misato
comes sometimes, but she usually gets skunked pretty hard.
You wanna come? You look bored to me."
"I'm not bored," Shinji lied. "But I'll come watch.
I'm not very good at cards."
The words that pass from the lips of every card shark.
Much later, Shinji went home about three thousand yen
richer.
The state rests its case.
-*-
Maya frowned. Before her was a 3D image of Rei's
body, cycling through images of her nervous, circulatory,
and respiratory systems, as well as close-up representations
of the sections of her brain.
While the delightful tune of 'Fly Me to the Moon' was playing on a nearby
radio.
"I helped Ikari-kun with his math homework."
"Ikari-kun? You mean Shinji Ikari?"
Rei nodded.
"And then...?"
"I helped Ikari-kun with his history homework."
Maya blinked. "Uh huh. And then?"
"I helped Ikari-kun with his chemistry."
Maya: Sounds like a psychotic break to me. Probably best to have you
'sanitized' sorry.
Maya suppressed a giggle. "And then?"
"I had a snack with Ikari-kun."
Maya laughed, a light, warm laugh. She didn't think
it was possible. Not with Rei. But if it was true, well,
that would be great. She always felt saddened at Rei's
perpetual loneliness, despite the fact that Rei made Maya
feel somewhat nervous. After years of working with her,
however, Maya had become accustomed to the girl.
And now, it seemed someone else might have to get
used to Rei being close too.
"Rei," said May,
Maya
crush?" she asked.
Maya nodded happily. "You just might be in love."
Rei frowned, slightly. "Is this... a good thing?"
Probably not.
Maya laughed again, taking a hold of Rei's hand.
"Rei, it's a wonderful thing."
Rei looked doubtfully at Maya. "I don't like it."
"I know these feelings are new to you, but don't
worry, they're just natural."
"Not to me."
Probably right.
-*-
*riiiiiing*riiiiing*
Shinji blinked, his morning ritual of breakfast and
newspaper broken by the unexpected phone call. Who, he
wondered, would want to call here, especially this early in
the morning?
*riii-
"Um, hello?"
A familiar voice came through the phone line.
"Heya, Shinji! Miss me?"
"Ah! Misato-san!"
"Everything okay over there?"
Shinji nodded.
"Good.
I can't tell if this is meant to be humourous (what I'm leaning towards,
knowing you two) or a mistake. It's amusing, in any case.
Listen, can you do me a favor?"
"Favor?"
Misato: Yes. A favor is where I ask you to do something for me and you do
it no matter what. It's much more polite than an order, which is where I
tell you to do something for me and you do it no matter what. See, it's my
way of showing how much I care for you.
-*-
"Daydreaming about Ayanami again?" asked Kensuke.
"Hey!"
"Just kidding! Just kidding!" Kensuke laughed,
arms up in mock surrender. "Hey Shinji, what'cha doing
after school today? They've got Gekiganger X down at the
movie theatre today."
Hehehehe.
"This will provide us a good chance to see the Second
Child in action," Gendo said as they both strode towards
the Bridge.
I don't think 'Bridge' be capitalized here.
"And luckily, both of the other Children are
there as well. We'll simply kill him sooner than was
planned."
"That may not be wise," Fuyutsuki said. "The
Revelations of Hali, the fifth volume of the Seven Cryptical
Books of Hsan, and the Eltdown Shards all contain versions
of the Great Prophecy which assert that his survival is
crucial to the Great Return. In fact, all but the Eltdown
Shards go so far as to say that if he is destroyed, the
ancient masters of the Earth may never return. Now, many of
the other sources of the Prophecy, such as the Revelations
of Glaaki or the R'lyeh text make no reference to such a
requirement, but..."
Gendo blinked. "You never mentioned this before."
"I had forgotten them,
Gendo: Oh crap. There goes our plans for global domination, you stupid
twit.
When the sirens began wailing, Asuka didn't panic.
She didn't look around in terror, fearing for her life.
She grinned like the devil.
"SHOWTIME!"
Yep. That's Asuka all right.
"The pilot's got a cool color," observed Touji.
"Red. Sporty. How'd you get stuck with purple?"
Well, you see, the designer of the EVA-01 was a big Barney fan...
-*-
"...an almost globular torso, with six long sinuous
limbs terminating in crab-like claws. From the
upper end a subsidiary globe bulged forward
bubble-like; its triangle of three staring,
fishy eyes, its foot-long and evidently flexible
proboscis, and a distended lateral system
analogous to gills, suggested that it was a
head."
- From the journal of Stephen Jones
-*-
Asuka stared at it.
"It's a.... a koosh ball."
HAHAHAHAHA!!! Perfect reaction.
"Oh, this is pathetic."
She reached down to squish it again.
And then a most surprising thing happened.
It ripped the Eva's hand off.
"AAAAAAAAAAGH!"
Serves you right for getting cocky.
"Asuka! Asuka! Are you okay?!" yelled Misato
frantically.
"ICH WILL DIESEN KLEINEN SCHEISSKOPF TOTEN!!!"
Misato: No, Asuka! Don't try to feed him ice cream!
Kaji: That's not what she said.
Misato: Well, it's not like I understand German.
And neither do I. I understand the intent of what she's saying, but not
having a clue as to what is actually being said is annoying as hell. If
you dropped everything German outside of 'Guten Morgun' (which is probably
mispelled) I sure wouldn't cry.
-*-
Flashing lights and sirens filled the air as the
NERV crews scrambled to to gather the chunks, bits, and
pieces of Amaliel.
Looming over them all was the hunched form of
Eva-02, like a lion hunched over its kill. The children had
gatherered
gathered
redhead in a skintight suit of sorts.
"Aah, nothing like a swim after battle," she sighed.
The three boys stared at her in awe. She wasn't what they
were expecting, though definitely far more attractive.
Especially not being covered in black sludge anymore.
After shaking her arms dry and wringing her hair, she
realized they were still looking at her. "Oh. Forgot to
introduce myself. Asuka Soryuu Langley, Eva pilot for
NERV. Nice to meet you!"
"Ah, nice to meet ya," fumbled Touji.
"You're the new pilot?" asked Kensuke. "That's
cool! Don'cha think, Shinji?"
"Huh? Oh, um, yeah."
"Shinji?" asked Asuka. "Shinji Ikari?"
"Um, yeah, that's me," said Shinji. "Third Child,
whatever that means. Piloting Eva-01."
She looked at him thoughtfully for a moment. "Not
quite what I expected, but that's okay. I wasn't what you
guys expected either, huh?"
A cold breeze seemed to ripple through the four,
even though no wind had actually blown. Kensuke and Touji
shuddered. Asuka furrowed her brow.
Her 'spider-sense' should be going into overdrive now.
Misato's fury index rose a full meter as she turned
to face Kaji. "YOU butt out of this."
"C'mon," said Kaji soothingly. "Let's iron this all
out back at headquarters, okay?"
"Get your arm off, sleezebag."
"Can I put the other one on, then?"
Misato: Sure. *SNAP* Oh, I'm sorry. Did I just break it? how clumsy of me.
"You just don't know when to stop, do you?"
Asuka looked at the two, grinding her teeth as she
saw Kaji flirting shamelessly with Misato.
And then she had an idea.
Asuka quickly stepped up to Shinji's side, taking
his arm in hers, and strolled along with Kaji and Misato.
"So, Shinji, I've heard that you've already fought some
Angels. Tell me all about it?"
HAHAHAHAHA!!! Now I wonder how Asuka will react if Rei gets territorial
and tries scaring her off.
Rei was staring at Asuka, intensely, her face
twisted in anger. Her fists were clenched, shaking
slightly. It was hard to tell in the sunlight, but they
thought they saw her blood red eyes glow brightly for a
moment.
"Ohshit," whispered Touji. "She's mad."
This promises to be a fun potential love triangle.
"This isn't a Greek epic. They're not supposed to
fight heroic single combats against the enemy. Their last
few opponents will wield enough power that if they don't
work as a team, they will die. And if they die too early,
all our efforts will have been for naught. We must find the
Fourth Child.
Oh ho. How very different from the MainEVA storyline. Not Toji this time
around?
Excellent work, as always.
D.B. Sommer