[Marvel/EVA][fanfic] The Evangelion Four, Chapter 3 of 5
By Henry J. Cobb
All of these characters are the creation of Hideaki Anno or Stan Lee, but
the inspiration for this story can be blamed on a throw away line from John
Biles & Rod M.
Chapter Three: The Second Child, or Fish out of Water.
I leaned on the railing and looked back over the American aircraft
carrier's wake at the rest of the fleet. My thoughts reached back across
the Pacific Ocean, back to the life, home and friends I had been uprooted
from, because I couldn't do the impossible. Not like all of the others.
"Asuka!" Kaji leaned around the corner, "They're about to show the press
conference."
I followed him to the breakroom. Two of the American sailors gave up
their seats for us.
The TV said Breaking News then switched to an announcer who said, "Having
defeated the second Herald, NERV's titantic three are about to give their
first news conference. The entire world is about to meet these three
amazing children, seen here during the battle."
The picture switched to a view of a huge white octahedron flying low over
Tokyo-3. A blue thread snapped into place across the lower right hand
corner of the screen and released an orange dot towards the second Herald.
The Herald responded with an energy blast from its corner, but this was
deflected by some unseen force a short distance away from the orange dot
which then landed on the Herald and struck blows that could be seen from
the effects of their shockwaves on the surrounding buildings. The sides of
the Herald were soon bashed in by this savage attack, it fell over, stopped
moving and dissolved into a white mist that faded away.
"The news conference seems to be starting now," the announcer reappeared on
screen and then was replaced by a view of a conference room with dozens of
reporters seated in folding chairs. The camera swung over to the side
where Misato entered, followed by two kids around my age and an almost two
meter tall orange monster in trunks of the same dark blue fabric as the
uniforms of the two kids.
Misato stood at the lectern while a light blue haired girl with the number
zero on the chest of her uniform, a normal looking japanese boy in a
similar uniform with the number one and the orange monster sat at the
table. A giant NERV logo was attached to the wall behind the dais.
I had heard rumors back in Germany that the girl was badly hurt, almost
dead, but she looked ok to me. Obviously she didn't look as beautiful as
me, with her poor choice of hair dye and freakish red eyes.
"Good afternoon," Misato spoke, "Welcome to NERV. I am Captain Misato
Katsuragi. Here are our agents who saved the entire world yesterday, First
Child Rei Ayanami, Third Child Shinji Ikari and Fourth Child Toji Suzuhara.
We wanted to show them to you today so that any other children who exhibit
signs of the X-factor will feel free to come forwards and join NERV to help
defend our planet against alien attack. With that, I would be happy to
take your questions. You over there?"
"Why isn't there a second child? Did he die?"
"We're holding the Second Child in reserve for the moment."
In Reserve. That's what she calls it. She might as well have said that I
was simply a useless failure.
"Why don't their suit numbers match their child numbers?"
"Each suit is carefully constructed for each Child, but is somewhat
unique. Should a suit be replaced, the replacement suit would have a new
number."
"Do the suits give these children their powers?"
"No, the suits are resistant to each Child's powers. Shinji, stretch your
hand over here," Misato held Shinji's hand up, "As you can see his suit
conforms as he stretches. Thank you Shinji."
"How exactly does that work?"
"I'm afraid those details are classified."
Misato probably doesn't know. I've read a little bit of chemistry, but the
explanation the scientists gave made no sense. Wouldn't Unstable Molecules
simply break down?
"Why did you choose children as your agents instead of trained adults?"
"The X-factor is a natural process that we have no control over. At NERV
we simply train and support the Children who have the X-factor."
That orange monster, Toji, looked over at Misato as she said that and I
could tell that he wasn't happy under all those rocks.
The news conference continued, but I studied these Children. Rei paid
little attention to the procedings, Shinji seemed embarrassed and Toji
looked annoyed.
The next morning, I put on my yellow dress and red pumps and went to Kaji's
room.
"Why are you putting on a tie?" I asked.
"Didn't I tell you yesterday? Misato is bringing the Children to the
ship. They should be here in five minutes."
"What?" I ran up the steps to the flight tower and watched their
helecopter land, then went down to the flight deck to greet them.
Misato got out first and was followed by Shinji and that orange monster,
Toji. They were all in uniform, except for another boy of around 14 in
civilian clothes who followed them with a video camera. Why didn't Kaji
tell me that this was going to be an offical trip? It was just one more
snub to rub in the fact that I didn't have superpowers like they did.
"Hello Misato, where's Zero Girl?" I asked.
"Rei's busy with physical therapy," she replied, "Second Child, Asuka
Langley Soryu, these are the Third Child, Shinji Ikari, the Fourth Child,
Toji Suzuhara, and their classmate, Kensuke Aida. I see you've really
grown up, Asuka."
"Yes, and my figure's filled out also," I pushed my chest out a little.
Anything to keep the conversation away from superpowers.
"She looks awful scrawny to me," Toji said, "Did you make her two suits or
what?"
"What?" I was amazed that he could actually speak clearly without any lips.
"Thanks to your begging for a suit you didn't need, little girl, all they
had left for me was enough material for a pair of trunks."
"I can see why you'd want to cover up that ugly hide of yours," I replied,
"If this is what the activation process does, give people blue hair or turn
them into orange monsters or thin rubbery freaks, then I'm glad it hasn't
happened to me."
"It's Shinji's fault that I look like this," Toji said.
"And I've always looked like this," Shinji added.
At that moment a gust of wind lifted my dress clear above my waist,
revealing my white panties, while Kensuke zoomed in with his video camera.
"So, do you flash for all the guys," Toji asked, "or are you just happy to
see us?"
"Why you!" I stepped up and kicked him in the groin.
"Ow!" I sat down on the flightdeck, removed my shoe and rubbed the toes of
my right foot.
"Ha ha!" Toji laughed, "You didn't consider that my stones really are made
out of rock, did you?"
"Asuka, are you hurt?" Misato knelt down in front of me.
"Nothing's broken," I stood up, still carrying my shoe.
Shinji offered me a hand up, but I ignored him.
I walked back to my cabin and sat down on the bed.
A few minutes later a Navy Corpsman came to my door. He was a bit of a
hunk so I let him massage my foot for a bit and pronouce it to be ok.
When he left I changed into my suit, to match the boys, and caught up with
the group in the breakroom.
Kaji was with them so I sat down next to him.
"See, that's hardly any material at all," Toji pointed at me, "unless
there's a lot to cover around the backside."
"You creep!" I considered trying to poke him in the eye, but I didn't
because he might blink and break my finger.
"So Shinji," Kaji said, "I hear you're living alone with Misato these
days. So tell me, is she still wild in bed?"
"What!" I said in unison with the other two boys.
"No, no, it's nothing like that!" Shinji and Misato said while blushing.
"Oh, I see," Kaji continued, "So she hasn't changed at all. Shinji, you're
pretty amazing yourself to defeat a Herald within minutes of activating
your powers with no training."
"Well, you see, they gave me a weapon."
"There's more than one special weapon?" I asked.
"Well it wasn't The Weapon," Misato said, "but it's all classified. Hush
hush."
Kaji excused himself and I tagged along with the rest of the group and
started to show them around the ship.
An hour later, I was out on deck with Shinji, "Just wait until I show you
the things we're bringing from Germany on that ship," I pointed out over
the railing at one of the cargo ships.
"OK," Shinji picked me up in his arms, streched his legs out until we were
fifty meters in the air and stepped over to the other ship.
"What!" I jumped out of his arms and turned in a karate stance to face
him.
"Oh, sorry."
"Just don't ever do that again!"
"So, uh, what did you want to show me?"
"Well, most of the stuff is packed away, but take a look at this."
"It's a robot hand? I thought they didn't have any giant robots."
"No, it's hollow inside. it's an armored glove, but for a hand a meter
across."
"Wow," Shinji stretched his neck out to take a look inside it, then banged
his head inside it as the ship rocked, "Ow, what did you do that for?"
"I didn't do anything. It must have been a wave."
The ship rocked again.
"This is strange," I rushed over to the railing, "What's that?"
Shiji looked at the moving patch of churning water, "A submarine's about to
surface?"
"It's too big," I heard the alarms sound throughout the fleet and saw the
water patch hit a destroyer and split it in half, "It's a Herald attack!
We've got to get back to the Carrier. Kaji's got The Weapon."
"Another weapon?"
"The Weapon, the big one, get me back over there now," I hopped up into his
arms.
As Shinji expanded upwards for the step over I could see Kaji getting into
a jet and he seemed to have the case with him.
We reached the deck too late and I stared at the departing aircraft, "No,
Kaji come back!"
"Asuka!" Misato's voice came out of my collar, "Get below decks. I'm
sending Toji up."
"But Kaji's got The Weapon."
"Don't get your panties in a twist little lady," Toji stepped up, "It's
just one Herald. I can handle it."
"It's not a Herald," Misato said, "It doesn't have an orange signal."
"What?" Toji, Shinji and I asked.
"Whatever that is, it isn't a Herald."
"There's non-Herald monsters under the Earth," Toji said, "I guess
there might as well be monsters under the sea also. Does this mean that
it's being controlled by some sort of Sea Man, like Mole Boy?"
"I don't know," Misato said, "Asuka, get out of there. It's coming this
way."
"Hey stretch," Toji turned to Shinji, "Give me a lift over there, will you?"
"Over there?" Shinji asked, "It's already here!"
A huge three clawed paw reached up to pull the ship over and I saw an
enormous
whale like face staring at us from the one eye I could see from this side.
"OK, it's on!" Toji jumped towards the whale monster.
I was slipping down the tilted deck towards the monster. I held up my
hands to ward it off, "Get away from me, you monster!" Twin columns of fire
erupted from my hands to cover the beast.
It roared and released the ship. Toji bounced on the deck as it came up to
meet him.
The recoil from my own blasts threw me off the far end of the ship and into
the water.
Yes! I have a power. I pointed my hands down and willed another blast to
propell myself back up to the surface. Nothing happened and I continued to
sink towards a Japanese city that had been submerged by the Second Impact
14 years before. What's wrong with my power? A trail of bubbles escaped
from my lips as I looked back up at the surface.
Ten long black tendrils came down from the surface and wrapped tightly
around my chest and arms then yanked me back up to the carrier.
"Who?" I looked behind myself to see that Shinji was holding me against
him. Then he unwraped his fingers from my chest.
I crossed her arms over her sore bosom, "Why did you have to be so rough,
you pervert!" Then I dropped to my knees and coughed up some seawater.
"Uh, do you need some mouth to mouth?"
"Not from you!" I looked over at some frothing in the water.
The whale monster surfaced again with Toji clinging to his face.
"Stay here," Shinji said, "I've got to help him," He stretched out towards
the monster.
"I'm not going to stay out of this battle. I've got a power now!" I
closed my eyes and concentrated until I could feel the power then I pointed
my hands down towards the deck, "Anz�nden!" The twin blasts came out again
and I rose into the air.
As I went out over the water I rotated my body to the horizontal and I
noticed that the flames were spreading up my arms. It didn't seem to hurt
so I hovered in midair and watched. As the flames spread over my body, I
seemed to grow lighter and it required less blasting power to keep myself
in the air.
I held my breath for a moment as the flames covered my face but I found
that I could somehow still see and breathe through the flames.
My contemplation was cut short by a geyser of water as the monster surfaced
again with Shiji wrapped around it and Toji pounding on it.
I sent out flame blasts from my feet to propel me towards it then pointed
both arms together to direct a massive blast at its back.
The monster roared again and shook violently, throwing both boys off.
I was caught in a splash as it submerged. My flame was put out as the
water turned to steam and I fell towards the sea. I was unable to restart
my fire so I held my hands forwards to dive into the water with the least
possible resistance.
I dove several meters down then curved back and swam up to the surface. I
was still unable to restart my fire so I switched to a back float and
conserved my strength.
Shinji reached out a hand, I grabbed it with both of mine and he pulled me
back to the carrier.
Back on deck I looked down and noticed that my uniform had survived my
flame and the sudden temperature changes since. I reached up and
discovered that my hair had also survived, but that my barretts were
missing. I rushed over to a window and checked my reflection. My
appearence was unchanged. I was still as beautiful as ever.
"Where did the monster go?" Toji asked.
"I don't see it," Shinji streched his neck up to a height of twenty meters.
I hopped into the air, and with a cry of "Anz�nden!" relit. I flew around
for a bit, but was unable to find the monster, even in these clear shallow
waters.
"Asuka, do you see it?" Misato's voice came over my suit communicator.
"No sign of it. How did something that big get away so quickly?"
"Come back to the carrier and we'll regroup. I don't want you to splash
down outside of Shinji's reach."
As I flew back to the carrier I could see Kensuke standing on the edge of
the deck with his video camera.
I pointed one finger and torched it.
"Ow!" He dropped the camera over the side, "What did you do that for?"
"That's for taking a video of my panties."
"Ha! I already changed the disk."
I torched the disk he held up.
"You almost burned me!" He tossed the flaming disk into the sea.
"Would you like to see how good my control is?" I wondered if he could see
my smile behind the flames.
"Help!" He ran back towards where the others were gathered on the deck.
"Asuka, stop playing around," Misato said, "The admiral wants to see you."
I flew over to where Misato was standing on the deck and put out my fire.
"My flightdeck!" The admiral looked at a melted hole in the carrier, "That
stupid pyromaniac idiot melted a hole in my flightdeck!" He turned to me,
"You! Do you realize how close you came to hitting a fuel tank on the
hangar deck below?"
"Well, she did help defeat that monster," Misato said.
"Did she? Did she? Then show me where that bloody fish is floating dead
in the water."
"Hey, it was my first time using this power."
"And it will be the last time any of these damn superpowers are used on my
ship. Do I make myself clear?"
"But," Misato interrupted, "What do we do if the monster returns?"
The admiral glared at Misato then shook a finger at me, "If you were my
daughter, I'd spank you so hard that you wouldn't be able to sit down for a
week," Then he stormed off.
The rest of the day passed without further monster attacks and at the port
we got a ride on another helicopter to replace the one that had been tipped
into the ocean by the monster attack.
At the Tokyo-3 airbase we transfered to a large van. The suspension
groaned as Toji climbed aboard. He put on an overcoat and a big hat as we
drove into town.
"I know that everybody wants to get home," Misato kept her eyes on the
road, "but I need to stop by the office to drop the van off and grab some
paperwork."
A ring sounded from Toji's coat and he pulled out a large device that
seemed tiny in his massive hands.
"Is that a cellphone?" I asked.
"It's rugged," He switched it on, "Hello. Yeah, yeah, the missions over.
We're on the way back to the complex. We'll be there in five minutes."
"Keeps you on a tight leash, doesn't she?" Kensuke asked Toji.
"Is Toji married?" I asked.
"Well, it seems that way sometimes," Kensuke ducked a playful swipe from
Toji.
As we arrived at a parking garage inside a security fence, I saw a japanese
girl with pigtails waiting for us.
"Hikari Horaki, this is Second Child Asuka Langley Soryu," Toji nodded to
me and walked off.
"Not so fast!" Hikari ran after Toji, "You're not getting away from me that
easy," she put her arm on his and walked off with him.
"What can somebody see in a monster like that?" I asked.
"Aw, she's got her good points," Kensuke said, "She just gets worried
everytime Toji has to go fight. I need to get home myself. Thanks for the
trip Misato."
"No problem Kensuke. Now come along you two. I'll only be at my desk for
a minute and then we can go."
Shinji and I followed Misato to the elevator and then past a security desk
before getting to her office, which was a mess with papers everywhere.
"So, where will I be staying?" I asked her.
"At my apartment, with me and Shinji." She searched through the pile of
papers on her desk.
"What! A teenage boy and girl under the same roof? That is too
scandalous; I won't allow it." I felt somebody watching me and turned to
see Rei standing at the doorway in her uniform.
She walked up and hit the comm buttons embedded in her uniform's glove,
"Commander. Captain Katsuragi's apartment is too small for myself along
with agents Ikari and Soryu."
The rest of us stood shocked as Commander Ikari's voice replied from her
collar, "Very well, it will be taken care of."
"Excuse me," Misato stood up, "I need to go deal with something right now."
At that moment Gendo was sitting at his desk and studing the case that Kaji
had brought, "So this is The Weapon."
"Careful with that," Kaji backed away a step, "It's killed two operators
already."
"Don't worry, we'll discover the way to fire it safely," Gendo looked at
the sound of his door buzzer, "Who is it?"
"I want to talk to you about this reassigning my apartment," Misato said.
"Ah, Captain Katsuragi," Gendo closed the case and put it under his desk,
"Do come in."
Gendo looked at Misato over folded hands, "The Children are too slow to
respond to attacks. This is a dangerous gap in our security that you have
failed to address."
"What?" Misato asked.
"Uh," Kaji put a hand behind his head, "I can come back later."
"Stay," Gendo commanded, "You will help Katsuragi plug this gap. Your
mission is to find suitable lodging for three of The Children, within reach
of our pod system. There will also need to be a room for their guardian.
Will you continue in this role, Katsuragi?"
"Yes, of course."
"Wait," Kaji asked, "What's a pod system?"
"It's a system for rapidly moving people one at a time between downtown and
this base," Misato said, "It enables our agents to engage and withdraw from
battle as needed. Think of it as a cross between a fireman's pole and
those old pumematic mail systems from the 20th Century."
Meanwhile, hundreds of miles east and miles below the waves, a submarine
with the crest of the royal house of Atlantis on his bow glided silently
through the water.
A white skinned man sat alone on the bridge and studied a movie of the
day's battle between the three Children and the sea monster. His green
trunks revealed his finely toned body. He might even pass for human, if
not for his pointed ears and the small wings that grew from his ankles.
A green skinned woman with pointed ears entered the bridge. Her elaborate
dress failed to conceal her pregnancy bulge, "You had them at your mercy.
Why didn't you crush them?"
"It's that girl," the man froze the picture and pointed at a streak of flame.
"You have some feelings for her?"
"Hardly, but she wasn't on the intelligence report," He pushed a button on
his command chair, "Krang, come here."
"Yes, my liege."
The white skinned man swiveled his chair to face Krang, a green skinned
officer with a mustache, "Your report failed to mention this fourth agent
of the surface dwellers."
"Her flame is put out by the very water we breathe," Krang said, "I don't
see what threat she can pose to our plans, my lord Namor."
"Since you've missed one, you could have missed dozens. I need a complete
and accurate report before we strike. And do not ignore the previously
identified agents either. For example, how much can the blue haired girl
lift?"
"As my report shows, she has been shown to generate at least a dozen tons
of force with her force fields."
"And if we cancel out her force fields, how much can she lift on her own?"
"As she is an underage land girl, I would say not very much at all."
"I need facts, not assumptions. My father assumed that the surface
dwellers where harmless and it cost him his life. Report back to me when
you have a report I can risk the kingdom on."
"As you command," Krang bowed stiffly and left.
"Whatever happened to the impulsive prince I married?" The green skinned
woman asked.
"He has the weight of a kingdom on his shoulders now. Nay, an entire
world. But do not worry my princess, for Gendo Ikari will soon pay for his
treachery in full."
Next chapter: The First Child, or The Unseen Enemy.