I actually had it finished Monday night, but decided to wait
and reread one more time. I'm very suspicious of anything I write
quickly. Chapter three is at the 1/3 mark, just email me if you'd
like to have a say in it.
Thanks to everyone who replied to chapter one, and a very
special thanks to Bart Kelsey who preread for chapter two, and
Stuart Ferguson who is on his way to becoming a full-fledged co-
author for this. Without them this would be much worse than it is.
Comments of any sort are welcome.
Kichigai.
-- Attached file included as plaintext by Listar --
-- File: xgp2.txt
"Morning, Fei," Misato said, waving with a cup of coffee.
Fei mumbled incoherently, his bleary eyes finally focusing
on the steaming mug as he stumbled into Misato's office in Nerv.
It was just too early in the morning to be moving.
"Hey!" Misato protested, as Fei grabbed it and chugged in
one smooth motion before flopping down in a chair beside her.
"Yick," Fei complained, yawning hugely. "Coffee tastes
terrible."
"Fei? Are you alright? That coffee was too hot for me to
drink!"
Fei shrugged. "Yeah, it was hot. I guess I drank it too
fast to feel it." He yawned again. "Or," he amended, "I may just
be too numb."
"Did she keep you up all night?" Misato asked, grinning.
"Huh?"
"Your girlfriend. Did she keep you up all night?" she
repeated, nudging him in the ribs.
Finally getting it, Fei turned pink and stammered denials.
"No, no, nothing like that. She's not even my girlfriend!"
"Oh, ho!" Misato yelled triumphantly. "But can you deny
that you were with a girl last night and that she kept you out so
late that you didn't get any sleep?"
Fei's stammering ceased and he nodded mutely.
"See? I simply asked if your friend, who is a girl, kept
you up all night. You, being a typical hormone crazed teenager,
immediately thought I was talking about sex, when in fact I was
asking a perfectly innocent question."
"H-hey! That's not fair!" Fei spluttered, his blush
deepening. "She's my best friend's girlfriend and he just got out
of the hospital!"
Misato grinned, thoroughly enjoying his discomfort. "Ah,
but you obviously like her 'that way', or you wouldn't have
immediately jumped to conclusions!"
"Forget it, Fei, you're just digging yourself deeper,"
Ritsuko interrupted as she walked in with a clipboard in hand.
"And do try to calm down before you burst capillaries in your
face. We don't need external stimuli interfering with today's
test."
Glad for the distraction, Fei immediately changed the
subject. "Oh, yes, Dr. Uzuki told me to ask you what happened
with the Eva the day before yesterday. He said I'd been given
security clearance to know."
Ritsuko snorted mentally. (He's a smooth one. 'Just tell
him something simple, he'll be glad that we told him at all.' I
haven't seen the Commander be this devious since that UN
inspection team visited.) "Well," she said aloud, "you know that
Eva's are organic in nature. LCL runs through their circulatory
system, carrying nutrients and oxygen to all of its pseudo-
tissues, and it also runs through the entry plug and keeps the
pilot supplied. This allows us to not worry about fuel and power,
you can just about go indefinitely except you'll run out of oxygen
and other materials within two days of minimal use or a half day
of fighting."
"Yeah, but what does that have to do with what happened?"
I'm getting to that." She gave him an annoyed glance. "The
organic systems also lets us use the direct pilot interface,
bypassing control panels. You just use it like an extension of
your body."
Fei nodded, having already been told about that feature.
"Each Eva is unique, with its interface being just a little
bit different from the others. The problem is that the earlier in
its series it was made, the better the interface potential, but
the harder it is to find a pilot that could use it. The later,
the poorer, but more people can pilot it. You've got great
potential as an Eva pilot, so we wanted you to have our best Eva.
Unfortunately, it didn't work out. We'll have to put you in Unit
1-3."
Fei sat quietly, assimilating the new information. "So
there's no chance I can use Unit 6-2?"
Ritsuko shook her head. "To attempt so again would kill
you."
Seeing Fei's downcast look, Misato tried to cheer him up.
"Hey, don't be upset. Unit one is more than a match for a hundred
wiels."
Ritsuko nodded. (Wiels, yes. Angels...)
****************
"This isn't going to hurt this time, is it?" Fei asked, even
more nervous than before. Normally he'd have swallowed a few
times, but the LCL in his mouth made him try his best to avoid
that, even though he'd been told it was the perfect food.
"No, Fei, it's not. 1-3 couldn't hurt a fly," Ritsuko
replied, annoyed by Fei's recalcitrance.
"It's not _that_ weak," Misato countered, motioning for
Ritsuko to do her job and let Misato do hers. "But there's none
of the guesswork involved here. You'll be fine."
"Lets just get this over with, okay?"
"Right." Misato signaled for the synchronization to begin.
On their respective computer screens, gauges and readouts
starts moving with increased activity, and the ones for the Eva
and Fei started to match.
"Synchronization has occurred," Maya announced. "Progress
is rapid, at ten percent, thirteen, fifteen, slowing... Halted at
nineteen percent."
"Are you okay, Fei?" Misato asked.
Fei nodded, causing the Eva to shift its head in a slight
approximation.
"Ready for the next part?"
He nodded again.
"Then begin."
The similarity between the readouts for the Eva and Fei's
own started increasing as Fei consciously started expanding his
awareness, flexing the Eva's muscles rhythmically.
"It, it has a pulse," Fei said, barely audible even through
the throat patch. He could feel the rhythm all around him, a kind
of current moving through the LCL as it circulated throughout the
entire machine. His hair moved with it, stirred by the energy,
but Fei didn't notice. For the first time, he saw as the machine
saw.
He was still underground: that much was clear from the huge
armored ceiling above him. The floor was smooth and flat, with
giant sized scuff marks here and there. Two Eva-sized doors were
the only exits he could see.
Cheering broke out in the control room as Maya announced the
final readout.
"Way to go, Fei!" Misato cheered. "If you were old enough
I'd buy you a beer!"
"Fifty-three percent still isn't great considering that it's
a third generation..." Ritsuko mumbled to herself. Louder she
added her voice to the din. "Okay, that's good Fei, keep it up.
Now," she said, turning to Misato. "Misato? We've got more to
run him through."
She nodded. "Fei, we're going to release the locking
clamps. I want you to stand on your own."
"Okay, I think I can do that," he replied.
Huge hydraulic cylinders moved, releasing the support for
the large plates on the back of the Eva. It sagged slightly, Fei's
own muscles tensing in response. He'd been unprepared for the
sudden feeling of weight pressing down on him.
"It's, kind of heavy, Misato," he said, stepping forward to
balance it better. "And its center of gravity is all weird."
"Yes, we've had complaints from the other pilots about
similar problems. You'll get used to it."
Fei shrugged, blinking in wonder as the armor on its torso
restricted his movement. "It's really weird, it does everything I
do, only bigger. I wonder how high I can jump with this..."
Misato laughed. "You've got to learn to walk before you can
run. Don't be impatient."
"But I can already walk, so I might as well run," Fei
replied, taking several steps forward, adjusting himself awkwardly
as the Eva nearly overbalanced. He turned around in a slow spin
before settling in a combat stance. "See?"
"Alright hotshot, since you're so eager to get started,
we've got an obstacle course set up for you. Just go through the
door we're opening," she instructed, hitting the controls to open
one huge door.
Fei gradually got used to the new sense of balance as he
walked the Eva around according to Misato's instructions, even
dropping and crawling when ordered.
Ritsuko, Maya, and several other bridge technicians kept
careful track of both pilot and Eva vital signs, although their
worry was unfounded. Both Fei and the Eva worked well, although
several still worried about the possibility of Fei's body ceasing
to breathe as the synchronization got even higher.
Fei worked out in the Eva for several hours, gradually
growing more and more accustomed to it. He was eventually able to
complete a passable kempo kata, albeit a simple one.
Misato was amazed by his relatively rapid progress, having
spent time with two of the other pilots and watching their own
training.
Meanwhile, Citan studied all of this over the video network
and worried.
*****************
A young man with golden blonde hair stared idly out a window
in the conning tower of a ship, occasionally scratching himself in
pure boredom. Not for the first time, Bart cursed the angels that
had destroyed his homeland. Not specifically because of that,
though.
The huge aircraft carrier plowed through the waves at full
speed, desperately trying to make it to Japan in time for its
cargo to join in the coming fight there. Unfortunately, it was
only a day out of port in Italy, and was being forced to take the
long way around the southern tip of Africa. Angels had made the
Suez Canal an impassable route.
Bart jumped, startled as the relative silence was suddenly
broken by a huge explosion a half mile out in the water. "What
the hell was that?"
"Another water seraph, I'd imagine," replied a voice from
just behind him. "Big Bertha is really getting a workout."
Immediately after he said that, the intercom cut in to
announce that another angel had been destroyed.
Bart didn't turn around. "Hey, Sig. How long have you been
there?"
Another man in his mid-thirties stepped up beside him,
looking out the window at the raining chunks of white flesh still
hitting the water around the explosion site, which rapidly faded
from view. "Not long. You've got the best view on the ship."
Bart shrugged. "Got to have something to do. Can't kill
angels until I get to Japan." He sighed. "I wish I could kill
every fucking angel in the world."
Sigurd nodded sympathetically.
"I just wish..." he started, then stopped. "I just wish I
could have saved the Nerv-Italy base. I feel like I failed."
Two more explosions were heard, followed by two reports of
angels killed.
"You did fine, Bart," Sigurd replied instantly. "We did
save the base. We just had to relocate a bit." (We saved the
important stuff, anyway,) he amended mentally.
"We lost all of Europe to the angels!" Bart yelled.
"Bart, Europe was already lost. No one wants to live in a
nuclear wasteland."
"Not all of Europe was nuked," Bart began hotly, then
trailed off as Sigurd nodded.
"Maybe not all, but it was pretty close. Many of them
weren't public," Sigurd explained. "So many nations proved to be
run by shortsighted fools who attempted to exploit the crisis to
further their own petty goals. It probably would have been worse
elsewhere, but the plagues were particularly light in Europe."
Bart stared at his guardian, eyes wide in amazement. "You
mean the other countries nuked them?"
"Backed by the UN," he confirmed. "The official report was
that it was to curb the spread of angels."
Bart shook his head. "Screwed by the people we fight for,"
he murmured, although it wasn't clear which he meant.
Another explosion rocked the ship, centered as it was about
five hundred meters away from the starboard side.
"Damn!" Bart said, picking himself up. "Cutting it a little
close aren't they?"
Sigurd stared out the window, blinking as a spray of water
and bloody red chunks of flesh peppered the deck. "I don't think
that was an angel..."
The intercom cut on. "Oops, that, umm, that was a whale."
*****************
"I want you to be careful, alright?" Fei said into the phone
as he lounged in his bedroom at night. He'd been run ragged for
three days with constant Eva exercises overseen by Misato and
synch training under Jessie's tutelage.
"Sheesh, man, you're turning into a worry-wort. What's up?"
Dimoshi asked, scratching under his bandages.
"I'm not sure, but everyone at Nerv is real anxious, and
they're getting worse. I think something is gonna happen soon,
maybe a wiel attack, or worse. They keep saying that I'm more
than a match for any number of wiels, but about half of what
they're teaching me is how to avoid getting hit and where to run
to if I'm losing."
Dimoshi laughed. "Is big bad Fei afraid of the little
wiels? Gonna run back to Nerv when it gets tough?"
Fei sniffed disdainfully. "Not hardly. But still, stay
close to the shelters for a while, alright? And keep Aruru with
you."
"Sure, man, don't worry. I'll take care of her, you just
try not to get killed yourself."
"I'll be fine," he replied, then yawned.
"You get some sleep, and I'll call Aruru. Bye." Dimoshi
hung up.
Fei hung his phone up and flopped back on his bed, asleep
before his head hit the pillow, relieved now that his friends knew
to stay safe.
****************
"Why do I have to use a weapon? I'm better with my bare
hands!" Fei protested into the throat mike. His Eva held a short
knife loosely in its hand.
"That may be, but believe me, sometimes a weapon can help.
You just demonstrate that you know what you're doing with that
knife and we'll move on," Misato replied testily. Tempers were
getting short.
"Really? If I show that I can use this enough to make you
happy, we can forget about this weapon business? Okay!" Fei
replied, settling into a series of knife kata he'd been shown by
his martial arts instructor.
"That's not what I said..." Misato mumbled to herself with
the mike off. "Oh, well, as long as he's doing it."
After a half hour of making Fei run, jump and slash in knife
attacks, Misato granted him that he was proficient enough in knife
tactics to move on.
"Okay, Fei, you can quit. Drop the knife to one side and go
to the weapons depot," she ordered.
"Weapons depot? I thought you said we were through with
weapons?"
"No, you said that. I said we'd move on to the next phase."
Fei sighed, causing a weird hum to buzz through the speakers
in the bridge, and obeyed. Reaching in the building shell, he
produced a rifle nearly as long as the Eva was tall. "Hold it! A
gun? You want me to use a gun?"
"Would you quit complaining?" Misato snapped, patience
wearing thin. "What are you gonna do, squash every wiel you see?"
"Umm, yeah, I'd kind of thought I would..." Fei replied
quietly, taken aback by the force of Misato's yell.
"Well what if they can shoot back?" she continued hotly.
"Fei, we've already planned for situations that might arise, now
just do us all a favor and cooperate, please?"
Fei hung his head. "Sorry," he replied contritely.
Ritsuko tapped her lightly on the shoulder.
"What?" she replied, turning away from the mike.
Ritsuko looked down at her sternly. "Getting mad isn't
going to help anything. You're being kind of harsh on him."
Others in the room nodded.
Misato instantly felt sorry. (I guess if even Ritsuko
thinks I got carried away...) Nodding at her friend, she turned
back to the mike. "Listen, Fei, I'm sorry. You're tired, I'm
tired, we're all tired. But we're coordinating the defense of
thousands of people here, and there's no room for error."
Fei fidgeted with the gun slightly. "It's okay. I want to
do my best, too."
"Good," Misato said gratefully. "Now, here's how you use
the rifle."
*****************
"Elehayym Van Houten! Report to Commander Ramsus's office
at once!" announced the intercom speaker in the Element's lounge,
cutting out the peppy dance music that had been playing.
Elly immediately stopped her workout routine, grimacing at
being summoned to her superior's office in a sweat drenched baggy
sweat-suit. She threw her headband and seventy kilo weight
harness to one side and grabbed a towel, mopping her face and
attempting to comb her red hair with one hand as she headed
towards her meeting.
"Lieutenant Van Houten, reporting as ordered, Sir," Elly
announced, standing at attention outside the Commander's door.
"Come in, Lt., and have a seat," Ramsus replied without
looking up from his terminal. "I've been going over your record,"
he said, looking up after she sat across from him. "I must say,
I'm quite impressed. Fluency in five languages, graduated the top
of your class, ace Eva pilot, high �ther ability, and plenty of
experience."
Elly sat perfectly still during the Commander's recitation,
schooling herself to avoid showing any reaction. "Thank you,
Sir."
Ramsus nodded. "Out of everyone in the Elements, you're the
best we have. We have need of a pilot like you for a very special
mission we've got coming up."
"A special mission, Sir?" she asked. (What could he mean?)
she wondered. (We already killed every angel off of the moon, and
no training exercises could be this important.)
Ramsus nodded again and tapped a few keys on his keyboard,
bringing up a well known image on a screen set into the desktop,
angled in Elly's direction.
Elly stared, barely able to believe her eyes. "Earth, Sir?
You want me to go to Earth?"
The image rotated at Ramsus's command, bringing Asia into
view. Then it zoomed in on the northern half, stopping at a
virtual height of eight kilometers. Tiny specks crawled to and
fro, although they must have been huge to be visible at that
distance.
"Siberia, actually," he corrected. "We're seeing evidence
of angels herding people, rather than killing them. A large group
is in Central America, consisting of nearly four hundred angels
and several thousand humans. This one in Siberia only has thirty
angels and a few hundred people, hopefully making it easier to get
close to. Your mission is to scout out this 'herd' and report
back what you've found."
"Sir, may I ask a question?" she asked, taking her eyes off
the screen. At his nod, she continued. "Why an Eva, sir?
Wouldn't it be less noticeable to send gears or people?"
"We've already tried that," Ramsus explained. "Gears and
any people with standard equipment are immediately destroyed, we
think the angels pick up on the electromagnetic frequencies our
electronics, no matter how shielded, put out." He stopped and
rubbed the bridge of his large roman nose.
"We tried sending just people, but they were never heard
from again. An Eva with all nonessential electronics removed
should be able to sneak in undetected, or, failing that, defend
itself enough to escape and report," he finished.
Elly swallowed nervously. "Sir, what about back up?"
Ramsus tapped a few keys, removing the image of the earth.
"We will be sending the rest of the Elements right behind you, as
fast as we are able. Due to shortages in supplies, we can only
send you one at a time, with a possible delay of between 2 to 6
days between drops."
Elly nodded, relieved.
Ramsus paused, thinking, then brought up another image on
the screen, that of a white Eva. "Due to the rather dangerous
nature of this mission, you are being assigned a second generation
Eva, Vierge series like your old one. You will have no trouble
synchronizing with it."
"Thank you, Sir!" Elly replied, amazed. "I'm honored."
Second generation Eva's were rare, being harder to replace than
the later models. Having one also meant that her chances of
successfully completing this mission were good. (Maybe I'll get a
promotion when I get back,) she thought happily.
"Inform your command and be in your new Eva by 1300 hours.
Complete mission briefing will be available during your drop.
That will be all." Saluting, he signaled that the meeting was
over.
****************
"Fei, no training today, and I'm afraid you'll have to stay
the night here at Nerv. We've got a situation," Jessie
announced, interrupting the three-way conversation in the bridge.
(I knew it!) Fei thought triumphantly. "What kind of
situation? A wiel attack?"
Jessie shook his head. "Not exactly. Major, you are now to
instruct Fei in fighting the angels. Four Seraphs have been
spotted heading this way, ETA in 22 hours."
Ritsuko sighed. (Oh, well, I hadn't planned on sleeping
tonight anyway.)
"Yes, sir. Fei, come with me."
"What are angels?" he asked, trailing behind her as they
hurried to a briefing room in the same area of the complex.
"Angels are the real enemy," she explained. "They're
bigger, more powerful, and thousands of times more dangerous than
any wiel."
"That strong? And four of them are going to attack
tonight?" he asked, eyes wide.
Misato nodded grimly. "Now you see why we built Eva's.
Against wiels, they're overkill. Against angels, they're
adequate." She paused. "Sometimes."
After arriving in the briefing room, she sat down at a
computer terminal and called up several encrypted files, opening
them with her personal code. Motioning for him to sit, she
started video clips playing on a large screen in the front of the
room.
The first picture was of a wiel. Nothing new there; Fei had
already seen clips of those. Then an Eva appeared beside it for a
size comparison. Fei nodded at the size differences. Then
another giant humanoid thing appeared beside the Eva. It was the
same size.
"This is a seraph, a smaller type of angel. These are what
you'll be fighting," Misato announced, then hit a few more keys.
The still pictures were replaced by a series of short clips
of seraphs destroying buildings and apparently looting them,
stooping to sift through rubble with their 'hands', although they
didn't seem to be carrying anything when they moved on.
"These were taken in the Middle East, an area already wiped
out by the plagues. We don't know what they're doing here, but in
every case they destroyed the camera and crew when they found it.
They later moved on into Europe and Asia, where nuclear weapons
were deployed to stop them. It was only partially successful, but
it did buy us the time to build the Eva's to combat them. Nerv
bases are scattered around the world, and several of them have
already seen combat." She cued up more clips.
Another Eva, red this time, appeared on screen, armed with
an Eva sized hand axe and rifle, supporting the barrel of the
rifle on the forearm of the arm holding the axe. It lacked the
horn of Fei's own Eva, but appeared to have more features than the
smooth design of Unit 6.
Misato gestured to the axe with a pointer. "From assaults
with artillery of various types, we discovered that most weren't
very effective, except as a way of keeping them at a distance.
The angels have several ranged attacks."
A yellow beam of light lanced out from one angel, flickering
across the torso of a gear and slicing it in half.
On screen the Eva fired on full automatic at several
seraphs, knocking them down. It quickly dropped its rifle and
sprang at them, only to get thrown back as they all rose,
levitating on a field that caused the air to go hazy and yellow.
The Eva responded with a field of its own, also yellow, and
continued the attack, chopping through one and leaving it
motionless on the ground.
"Chopping them up seems to work fine though, and doesn't
require ammo. That's why you've been going through all those
bladed weapon drills.
"Eventually we developed the �ther enhanced rifle, which
proved to be considerably more effective than the standard
versions. Unfortunately, your Eva isn't equipped for it. The
Americans developed it, and Eva 3 and 5 are the only ones that
currently have it."
Again the screen changed, showing a dark blue Eva blasting
at an angel with a large gun strapped to its arm. A nimbus of
power surrounded both Eva and gun, lancing out every time it was
fired and piercing the halo of the attacking angel, until finally
it was still. Still another Eva, this time a larger, bulkier one
painted in dark green shot repeatedly at approaching angels,
destroying several.
"So many," Fei murmured, awed. "Just what are they, Misato?
And where did they come from?"
Misato sighed. "You've heard the official word. Aliens.
The plagues appear to have alien origins, and indeed, many of them
seem to share traits with angel DNA. We're facing a war of
conquest, and so far we're losing."
"That's right," Fei said suddenly. "You said there were
more than one type of angel."
Misato nodded. "Hopefully you won't be fighting in the
water, so you shouldn't run into any water seraphs. They are like
the regular seraphs, but smaller and less powerful." She paused.
"They make life interesting for our navies, though."
Fei studied the scenes intently, watching how the angels
fought.
Misato hit more keys, bringing up a detailed map of Tokyo-3.
"Okay, here," she said, circling an area with her pointer, "is
where we think the angels will strike. We're moving artillery and
missile batteries into the area now."
Fei nodded after a close scrutiny. "I know the area. I've
been there several times."
"That's good, you'll need every advantage you can get. Fei,
this is going to be tough. I don't want any heroics, I just want
you to follow my orders and kill angels, alright?"
Fei nodded.
"Good." (God, I wish they had chosen somewhere else to
fight,) she thought. (All those civilians in bunkers... Fei,
you'd better not screw this up.)
****************
Heavy pounding could be heard throughout Tokyo-3 as the
angels encountered the first artillery embattlements. Even in the
cavern far below, Fei felt the vibrations through the soles of the
Eva's feet.
"Fei, this is it."
"Good luck, Fei."
"Don't get hurt, Fei!"
Citan was silent for a moment, then smiled slightly. "Be
careful, Fei. We'll celebrate later."
"Alright, let's go kick some angel ass." This last was from
Misato, taking charge.
Fei nodded from inside the entry plug. "I'm ready." He was
alert, rested, and as prepared as he could be, given the nature of
the problem.
"Sending to track seven, launch!" she commanded.
Citan circled the bridge, giving encouragement and praise to
the crew before retreating to the sanctity of his office. He too
had things to attend to.
Despite the tremendous acceleration, Fei felt hardly a thing
as the life shot to the surface, emerging some distance away from
the angels. Released from the clamps, Fei moved the Eva to grasp
his progressive knife and cautiously moved around to sneak up on
the angels.
He hadn't bothered with a rifle of any sort on Misato's
instructions. The heavy ground artillery was equal in size and
power, and they were already hitting the angels with constant
fire. One more gun would hardly make a difference, especially now
that the angels had responded by creating an � field around
themselves, wrapping their power around like armor.
The four huge monsters waded through the explosions with
impunity, stopping only long enough to crush the defending
installations before continuing their journey into the center of
Tokyo-3.
Fei peeked over the top of several nearby buildings that
hadn't been retracted, watching as the angels held out their hands
and swept their aura across the automated cannons.
"Fei, do you have a clear shot?" Misato asked through the
radio.
"Not yet," he answered. "Hold it, I think they're moving."
He shifted position, getting directly behind them as they moved
deeper into the city.
Apparently sensing the huge complex under the surface, the
angels gathered around a section of geofront and focused their
combined power on a small area, vaporizing through the layers of
armor.
"I see an opening!" Fei exclaimed, excitement getting the
better of him. "They're going through the geofront!" he
continued, standing to the full height of the Eva and launching
himself at the angel's backs.
Suddenly Ritsuko yelled a warning. "Misato, no!"
"Wait!" she yelled, already too late as Fei's screams filled
the air.
"Where the hell did it come from?!" cursed Ritsuko, typing
madly in response to the stream of data coming in. "Another angel
got behind him! Substantial damage to the entire back of the
Eva!"
"Fei! Are you okay?" Misato asked, her fingers whitening on
the microphone. "That's not your back! Focus! That's not you!"
Fei didn't answer, too busy writhing in pain. Wisps of
steam and metallic vapor rose from the ruins of the Eva's back,
causing sympathetic whelps to rise on Fei's back.
"Pilot life signs appear to be stabilizing; heart rate and
breathing dropping to acceptable levels. He'll make it," Ritsuko
announced.
Finally gathering the remains of his focus, he gathered the
Eva's arms and legs beneath it, causing large piles of rubble to
slide off and join the other remains of the building he had been
blasted through.
"Get up!" Misato commanded, hoping Fei could comply.
Slowly rising to its hands and feet, his Eva extricated
itself from the debris and stood. Anxiously waiting for another
attack, Fei looked around hoping to spot his enemy.
"Enemy at twelve and seven! Retreat three blocks to your
right!"
Fei ran for his life. Training kicked in, however, and
rather than run in a straight line, he took a zig zag approach
that allowed him to find his newest opponent before it found him.
It was even bigger than the others and composed partially of
pure white energy. Four wing-like spikes of �ther protruded from
the back of its humanoid torso, while two more served as arms.
Casually, it stretched several of its spikes in four directions at
once, neatly erasing its immediate surroundings into nothingness
as it rose into the air and followed. Not even rubble was left
behind, all of the material within reach having been absorbed by
the angel.
"What the hell is that?!" both Fei and Misato yelled
simultaneously.
"I don't know!" Ritsuko screamed, franticly analyzing
readouts. "It's like �ther made flesh! A being of pure power!"
"I don't care if it's pure dirt! How do we kill it?" Misato
yelled back, watching anxiously as Fei dodged several attempts by
the angel to skewer him on one of its wing spikes.
Another technician looked up sharply. "Ma'am! The seraphs
are going below the geofront!"
****************
Citan studied the screen in front of him with interest,
pausing and enlarging the image of the angel giving Fei such
trouble. "Oh, my," he said as he realized the gravity of the
situation.
Freeing the scene to continue playing, he noted the angel's
size and attack ability. "A Seraph of Power, eh Akagi? It's apt.
I fear Fei may have bitten off more than he can chew."
He leaned forward and typed several commands, bringing up a
small box in the corner of the screen, labeled 'A gift, open when
in need.' Finger paused over the key that would execute it, he
studied the angel again. "Hmm, so that's what they look like
awake."
****************
"Dammit! Go away!" Fei yelled in frustration as he dodged
franticly. Although it moved somewhat slowly, the added reach of
its extendable arms drove him to his and the Eva's limits as he
jumped through, over, and on buildings to escape, forgetting the
pain of injury.
Finally deciding enough was enough, he faked a dodge in one
direction and darted directly at it. His progressive knife having
been lost in the initial attack, he focused all of his strength
into a snap kick aimed for the center of its chest.
The Eva responded to his focus with a surge of energy,
seeming to originate from every cell in its body. A hazy aura
enveloped it as the foot struck home, penetrating the angel's body
slightly and knocking it down.
"Nice move Fei!" Misato congratulated him. "Now stop the
seraphs! They're under the geofront armor!"
Not stopping to look at his fallen foe, he rushed to the
hole he had seen the angels make and darted in. Several small
blasts of light promptly melted his chest armor, and he fell
backwards. "AHH! It burns!"
"Damage report!" Misato commanded.
"Chest armor compromised, left pectoral muscle severed! Get
him out!"
Barely hearing the command to retreat, Fei scooted the Eva
backwards on its rear, unable to immediately stand. The now
useless left arm flopped erratically as unopposed muscles spasmed
in response to Fei's own. "I need help!" he finally screamed,
falling out of the hole. Several more blasts widened the
entrance, taking huge chunks from the battered chestplate Fei now
saw that he'd left behind.
Misato chewed her lip bloody, devising tactics and
discarding them rapidly as she took in the situation. Glancing at
the screen that showed the seraph of power, she grabbed the mike.
"Look out for the other angel!"
Fei scrabbled and rolled as he saw the huge angel coming for
him again, throwing up his one arm to block as one arm speared
straight for him.
This time it was the angel who stood triumphantly,
withdrawing its appendage from the Eva. A huge hole gaped in the
midsection of the Eva, leaving LCL spewing and torn flesh sizzling
in the open air.
"Fei! FEI!" Misato screamed, as the pilot life sign
indicators beeped in urgency, then informed that all life signs
had ceased.
****************
Citan blinked in astonishment at the defeated Unit 1-3. In
his heart of hearts he'd really expected Fei to win, somehow.
Shaking his head briefly, he pressed the key.
On screen the little window changed, becoming a progress
bar. It slowly filled as Citan watched, the text changing letter
by letter to form a new message. "One miracle, coming up."
****************
Deep within the Eva, arrayed along patterns even Ritsuko
didn't know about, small electrical signals reached their
destinations.
First it was only a few. Then another hundred. Suddenly,
ten thousand cells burst. Each was nearly ten times the size of a
human cell, and they were all full of a strange mixture of unknown
molecules, a brew that seeped into the LCL of the Eva and traveled
all over its body, expanding as it flowed.
Fei twitched as the substances entered his body and found
nerve cells, each unique compound finding and binding to the
appropriate cell.
Similar interactions occurred all over the Eva, as tissues
were brought back to operation and changed slightly, becoming more
efficient. Leaks in the circulatory system were plugged and
nutrients were redirected as the instructions contained in the
released molecules were interpreted and carried out.
Fei began to glow, softly at first, but gradually growing in
intensity. That glow reached out into the Eva around him,
triggering an answering glow. By the time the process was
complete, the entire Eva was rendered hazy and white.
****************
"Good luck, Citan," read the final message, blinking over a
progress bar stopped at 100%.
****************
Misato slowly trailed off in her orders for rescue crews and
pleas for Fei to answer when the Eva suddenly moved. "Fei!
You're alive!" she sobbed in relief.
"Life signs!" Ritsuko confirmed happily. "And his �ther
strength is climbing dramatically!"
Misato watched, entranced as the Eva's glow settled around
its torn midsection, then evened out into a smooth cover. It
faded almost as quickly as it formed, leaving smooth grey flesh in
its wake.
Ritsuko beat her to the question. "It's healing itself?"
she asked incredulously.
Misato just stared.
The white halo around the Eva altered shape, forming itself
into two wing-like spikes protruding from its back, each
controlling a web of power that lifted it into the air, hovering
over the hole that all of the angels had disappeared down.
"Fei?" Misato asked.
The halo exploded.
End chapter two.