I should be writing Possession, but... :)
*****
"Here he comes..."
Three shadows shift, crackling twigs against the soft chirring of
crickets. The noon-day sun presses the land into brick and kindling;
the three men huddle in the scant shade of a mullberry thicket,
ignoring the small swarm of midges that swirl under their wicker hats.
"Just as our spies reported, he travels with his son. See there,
their armored cart!"
"And the sign: 'Son for hire, Machievellian Intellect for Hire, 3rd
Impact School, Strictly-Guided Wrath'? What the devil?!"
"Idiot, look, it's 'Ikari Gendou', not 'Strictly-Guided Wrath'. Well,
he's practically advertising himself. Let's do this, for our
brothers!"
"Vengeance! Hyah!"
As the three figures bound out of the thicket and onto the roadside,
a great lumbering shape trundles out of the heat-wavered plains,
rumbling down the road. A small skirling breeze blows aside the great
dust-cloud behind it. As one, the three assassins crouch, ready to
attack, but slowly rise in confusion as they are passed by. One
removes his hat and scratches his bone-white, bird-like skull.
"Um..."
The rumbling shape, a gigantic wheeled transport, wheezes and coughs
as it rolls past. The size of a whale, it is battered and smudged
with dust and soot, but on the side, barely legible, it bears a faded
Nerv insignia. A wrapped shape lays supine in the cargo bed, but the
wind flaps the tarpaulin enough to reveal flashes of purple and green.
An antique Japanese battle banner flaps from atop the cab.
"Attack, my brothers! The vengeance of heaven is slow but sure!"
"What he said!"
The two other brothers whip off their hats, revealing themselves to be
of otherworldly origin as well. As their eyes glow brilliant
blue-white, they leap and strike at the side of the truck. And
inside...
"Shinji! The angels are attacking. You must pilot the EVA."
"Father, I don't want to! Isn't there anything in the world besides
killing?!"
"Well, there are always underhanded schemes and treachery... but we
must fight against those things! Oh, and money and warm beds, the
occasional woman of ill repute, destroying angels and feeding their
still-beating S2 organs to the giant humanoid inhabited by the spirit
of my dead wife... but enough of warm memories! If you won't do it,
you are of no use to me! I'll just turn this truck around and we'll
go back home."
Gendou glances at his side mirror. Outside, the angels are throwing
themselves head-first at the side of the truck. The truck has taken
absolutely no damage, although the paint job is totalled. Gendou
tsk's quietly to himself, then turns back to his disconsolate
companion.
"Look, either you get in that thing and crush them, or we're going to
starve tonight!"
Sighing, Shinji nods, then crawls through the back of the cab and on
into the cargo bay. Soon, the lumbering truck judders to a halt, and
the entire rear platform elevates, standing its burden on end. A
stray gust blows away the tarp, and Evangelion Unit 01 towers over the
three ineffectual angels.
The EVA looks down as the three assassins attempt to gnaw off its
foot. It looks over to the cab.
"Unit 01, sortie immediately!" Gendou leans out his window and
gesticulates wildly at the angels.
Unit 01 heaves a gigantic sigh, then stomps one of the angels flat.
The two remaining angels split up, one running around the front of the
truck to hide, the other leaping heroically towards the EVA's eye,
yelling loudly. Unit 01 snaps him up like a pointy black M&M. Gendou
smiles proudly as the gigantic machine licks its lips.
Up front, the last remaining angel takes stock of his options.
Psyching himself up, he prepares for a last-ditch psychic eyeball
laser antimatter cross-beam attack.
"For what you did to my brothers, I'll kill you!"
...and is crushed under the massive tire of the Nerv transport truck.
"Whoops, silly me, left the E-brake off. Well, Shinji, looks like our
work here is done. Pick up that one you squashed, and get Yui, I mean
Unit 01, back on the truck. Let's roll!"
A few minutes later, the Evangelion is tarped up and back in place on
the truck, and the two Ikaris drive off into the sunset. Small
crunchy noises drift in the wind as the massive truck wheels crush the
body of the last angel into smelly goop.
"Truly... <cough> we have under...estimated you. <Hack, cough> You
are a... skilled opponent," the angel grates from his cracked, oozing
jaw, "Lone Snake... and... Grub."
---,-@
Martin L. Metke
exaxxion@balista.com
sleet01@hotmail.com
"I laughed, I cried, I fell down, it changed my life... it was good!"