Categories > Anime/Manga > Neon Genesis Evangelion > Call of EVA: The NERV Incident
CHAPTER 5: TRAINING AND SCHOOL
Over the next two weeks Shinji was trained up in the EVA. He was issued an olive drab and battleship grey plugsuit to wear when he was piloting the EVA. They said it would help reduce the error in synch ratio regarding his connectivity with the EVA. He said it looked ridiculous and felt slightly uncomfortable. Said he felt just one notch above being naked.
It also didn't help when he first put it on and cinched it down by pressing on the button that sucked the air out from under the suit that it pinched him somewhere 'sensitive'. Of course, Misato and, with the exception of Maya, the techs that Shinji quickly nicknamed the 'Bridge Bunnies' thought it was funny as hell watching him dancing around in pain, trying to press the opposite button and end the discomfort.
They used hyper-realistic simulators to replicate various combat scenarios. Time and again he surprised everyone with how easily it all came to him. "Shinji's doing an excellent job," Ritsuko said as she looked over the charts. "He's a natural. Despite his synch score being low last week at thirty-six points he's gotten back up above forty. This week alone he's already improved by two points."
"And his training is going quicker than expected," Makoto added. "He's already aced seven levels of difficulty. The Second Child was only able to do that after two years of training. He's so good you'd think he's done this before."
"Hm," Misato hummed to herself. "I wonder…"
"Wonder what?" Ritsuko asked.
"I wonder if he's received combat training before?"
"That's ridiculous. What makes you think that?"
"Look at him," she said pointing to the current simulation. "He's too good and his movements are too perfect. He fights smart, using the environment to his advantage, taking cover and taking the high ground where available. He doesn't hesitate. And when he's thrown a curve ball he instantly reacts."
"And he's fast, too," Maya joined in as Shinji quickly evaded a surprise attack from a simulated angel. After avoiding the attack he instantly counter-attacked and destroyed the target with ease. "He seems to have incredible agility and almost bottomless stamina."
"Exactly," Misato nodded. "He had to have received training. But what kind? I'll have to ask him about it tonight."
That afternoon, Shinji stopped by the medical ward and found Rei Ayanami's room. He knocked twice before he entered. She was asleep but his entrance woke her. "Hi," he said to her softly. "I didn't mean to wake you. I just wanted to see how you were doing."
"I am recovering well," the girl replied softly.
"I'm Shinji Ikari," Shinji introduced himself. "You're Rei Ayanami, right?" Dumb question.
"Yes."
"Well," he couldn't come up with anything to break the ice. "I started school three days ago. You're being discharged tonight?"
"Yes."
"Good to hear," Shinji nodded. "I understand we're in the same class?"
"Yes."
"Cool. Well, Misato's probably waiting on me. I just wanted to introduce myself. I'll see you at school tomorrow, Rei." The red eyed girl watched Shinji leave the room.
'He called me by my first name,' Rei pondered. 'Why is he so kind to me? And why does this matter to me? It does not concern the scenario so why do I think about it?' Rei went back to sleep with those questions unanswered.
As he walked away Shinji was thinking about her as well. 'There's something different about her. I can feel it. She seems familiar. As though we've met before. And those eyes…' At that moment he saw his father walking towards him. Shinji stopped and gave him a cold stare as he walked past, without saying a word. He watched over his shoulder as his father stepped into Rei's room. 'And why does my father concern himself with her?' He felt something wrong with the situation but couldn't place it. With these suspicions in mind he left the infirmary.
That night Misato did ask Shinji about why he was so good at combat. "If you must know I took martial arts classes," Shinji replied.
"Since when do martial arts classes teach infantry tactics?" Misato said folding her arms. "And I don't recall them teaching the use of firearms either."
"Well if I'm jumped by some thug wielding a gun it might help to know how it works and how to use it. Plus, I did a lot of paintball and Air-Soft. We used a lot of military tactics in matches in the woods."
"Alright, I'll give you that," Misato slumped in her chair. "But I'm curious: what kind of martial art were you trained in?"
"It was actually a couple." Shinji replied. "Mostly Krav Maga but also Hapkido and I took some Taekwondo while I was in elementary school."
"Really?" Shinji nodded. "So what, are you a mixed-martial artist or something?"
"No," Shinji growled. "Fine. You want to know why I'm so good at fighting? Why I have so little personal belongings? And why I have this scar and this tattoo?" Misato looked at him with a dead expression. "You pay attention to the news for the past year? With the invasion of America and the '70-Day War'? You know, World War III?"
"Oh," Misato muttered. "Looked pretty nasty from what I saw on the news."
"Yeah, well. Let's just say I had some 'on the job training' in urban warfare."
"Wait…you fought?"
"Yeah, I was a 'Wolverine'." Shinji said with a flat tone. "I nearly got killed by an air strike the first day and got this guy," he pointed to the scar, "about a week or so later. The unit I fought with, they were real bad asses, and they looked after me like I was one of their own. I later learned that my guardian was also killed the first day, when a Mig crashed into the house. The unit I was with kind of became my de facto guardians. We bonded like brothers as we fought and lived amongst the ruins in Philly. Some days we slept in bombed out basements on rubble strewn floors." Shinji took another sigh as he rolled up his sleeve. "Anyway. We all got this tattoo to commemorate our victory." And with that, Shinji got up and headed to take a shower.
"Holy crap," Misato said to herself as she mulled over the revelation. She could hardly believe that Shinji, a teenager, had already seen combat against a cut rate military in some of the worst fighting since the Vietnam War or even World War II.
XXXXX
Tokyo-3 High School #3; that's where Shinji walked to for school every day for the past few days. He was in class 2-A. Shinji dreaded going to a public school after having fought a war and being practically home schooled since then. That and he always had a pseudo-phobia about large crowds. And when he started it was more of a drag than he feared.
Not only were the classes slow paced but the teacher was old, partially senile and spoke in a monotone so deep it would make a tree fall asleep. That and he had to wear a uniform. Tennis shoes, black slacks and white polo shirt. Thankfully, the school didn't care what t-shirts he wore under the polo or what kind of jacket so he wore his woodland camo Gore-Tex jacket if it was raining.
They did throw a fit about his haircut. Mohawks weren't kosher. But, thankfully, over the week before he moved into the school his hair had grown out enough to where he could cut the hawk down to match. And after two weeks he now sported a low crew cut.
Another thing about school he had come to treat with a level of anxiety was the girls; more specifically the girls in his class. He was slightly taller than most of the other guys in his class, and noticeably more fit. This made him a target for the all the cute girls in the school and not just the ones in his class either. As it turned out, Shinji Ikari, age 16, weighing in at a lean, mean, 151 pounds, was a babe magnet.
One interesting point on this particular day came when, during the increasingly boring Second Impact lecture, Shinji received an IM on his laptop.
-Are you a pilot?- It read. Confused, Shinji looked around the room. In the back were two girls huddled over one of their laptops. They waved at him and giggled. They began typing again.
'Oh, great,' Shinji groaned inside. 'Here we go.'
-You are, aren't you? Y/N?-
'Well,' Shinji rolled his eyes. 'It couldn't make things any worse.' EERGH! Wrong!
The second he hit send with the answer 'Yes' the class erupted into a maelstrom of 'wows'. All the guys swarmed him with questions about how cool it must be to be a pilot and all the girls virtually glommed him.
"Oh my gosh!" A girl shrieked. "I can't believe you're a pilot!"
"Where do you live?" Another girl asked.
"What kind of weapons does it have?" A guy asked.
"What's the cockpit like?" Another asked.
"What's your number?" He heard a lot of those from the girls.
"How can I apply to be pilot?" He heard a lot of those, too.
"Do you have a girlfriend?" More than a couple of the girls asked that.
'I fucking hate school,' Shinji said to himself as he let his head collide with his desk (A/N: desk, apply it to the forehead).
As he was leaving the building for the day Shinji was challenged by an angry jock in a jogging suit. "Alright, pilot boy," he said walking towards him. "Time for you to pay up."
"What the hell are you talking about?" Shinji asked.
"Toji's just being dramatic," a spectacled boy with a video camera at his side waved it off.
"Shut up, Kensuke!" Toji snapped at his friend. "My little sister was injured in that fight of yours two weeks ago," he said.
"What's this have to do with me?" Shinji growled. "How is it my fault? It not like I wanted to pilot the damn thing!"
"But you did!" Toji shouted back. "It was because of your recklessness that she was injured!"
"So you blame me, huh?" Shinji said. "It's not like I hurt her on purpose. Besides, why wasn't she already in a shelter?"
"You bastard," Toji said as he stepped towards him. "That's not the point. You just had to go out and fight like some kind of hero."
"Dumbass. Alright then, fine," Shinji said. "If that's how you feel about it, then go ahead and punch. But let me give you a fair warning…I'll let the first one land for free." Toji pulled back and punched Shinji in the face. Shinji took the punch like he said and stumbled back but remained on his feet. "Feel better now?" He asked as he wiped the blood from his lip.
"Yeah right," Toji growled. "When I'm done with you you'll know what kind of pain my sister was in, you little fuck."
"I warned you," Shinji replied as Toji moved in to grab his collar. In one fluid motion Shinji's hand shot forward, grab his wrist and twisted it. As Toji's face began to contort in pain Shinji delivered a quick jab to the mouth and kicked out his left knee before a strong right hook to Toji's left temple sent his head crashing to the school yard pavement as Shinji let go of his arm.
His upper lip and nose bleeding, head hurting like hell and his vision dancing in circles Toji forced himself to his knees. "Here endeth the lesson," Shinji said before he picked his bag up and continued on his way, seeing no need to continue fighting. He walked up to Rei, who had seen the whole fight, as Toji tried to stand and chase after him.
At that moment sirens began to blare across the city. "What the hell's this?" Shinji asked.
"It's the angel alarms," Rei said softly. "We must report to headquarters."
XXXXX
Upon arriving at NERV Shinji quickly changed into his plugsuit. When asked about the bruise on his face Shinji said he accidentally walked into a door. He then rushed to his EVA and prepared to fight. "What do we know about this one?" He asked Misato as the EVA was moved into position.
"All we know is that it has limited flight capabilities," she replied.
"Define 'limited'."
"It can hover along about 30 meters off the ground but that's about it. We don't know how it attacks yet, but for now keep your distance."
"Roger."
As the angel approached the UN ground forces opened up with AAA, missile and gun batteries. And, as with the previous angel it had no effect. "A waste of the taxpayer's money," Ritsuko said slyly.
"Yeah," Misato grumbled. "I guess these military types aren't satisfied until they've fired their whole load." As soon as she said that an uncomfortable silence fell over the command center. "Wait…" She then realized what she had said.
"Giggity," Shinji called out. Maya choked on her laughter.
"Err," Misato growled. "Let's just get on with it. Launch EVA!"
And with that Unit-01 was then shot to the surface inside a concealed building. The building adjacent to it opened up to reveal a rifle. Shinji grabbed it and swung around the building quickly targeting the squid-like angel and opened fire. As he let out three, long, controlled bursts a pink tentacle appeared out of the angel's shoulder and whipped out at him. "Whoa!" He ducked under it but not before it cut his rifle in two and took the building with it.
He quickly rolled out of the way and took cover behind a warehouse. But this too provided little protection from the angel's whips. It was hacked to pieces and Shinji barely dodged the attacks. He continued to back pedal ducking and dodging the whips. However, the power cable attached to his EVA wasn't as quick as he was and was cut off. "Shit!" He swore as he darted away with the whips trying to catch him.
"Shinji!" Misato called out to him. "Get out of there!"
"No shit, Major!"
"Sheesh," Toji said as he and Kensuke filmed the battle from their perch in the hills. "That kid is getting owned."
"This coming from the guy who got owned less than an hour ago?" Kensuke chided.
"Say that again and you die!"
At that moment one of the whips wrapped around one of the EVA's ankles. "AH!" Shinji shouted as he felt electricity surge through his body. The angel then lifted the EVA into the air, slammed it down through a building, picked it up again, and slammed it through another before launching it into the sky.
"AHHH!" Toji and Kensuke screamed as the EVA dropped towards them like a lead balloon.
The EVA came to a crash on its back on the hill. Shinji was still shaking from the taser-like jolt he received. "The synchro-connectors are showing interference," Shigeru announced from his console.
"Those tentacles must be short-circuiting the system," Ritsuko deduced.
"We've got to get him out of there!" Misato shouted.
"Misato!" Shinji cried out. She looked up to see what he was yelling about. Cowering between the EVA's torso and its left arm were two kids. The computers flashed their identities on the monitor.
"Shinji's classmates?"
The angel appeared in front and lashed out with its whips. With cat-like reflexes Shinji grasped the whips and, ignoring the pain whipped the angel around and tossed it into an adjoining hillside. Without waiting for an order Shinji knelt down, ejected his plug and opened it up. "Get in here!" He shouted to the two dolts.
"Huh?" They stared at him.
"Get your fucking asses in gear!" He waved for them to get over to him. Without further shouting the two climbed in. The plug closed and LCL filled it back up.
"What's this, water?" Toji asked.
"Oh no!" Kensuke screamed like a girl. "My camera!"
"Shut the fuck up!" Shinji barked as he brought the EVA back to its feet. The angel also got back up.
"Shinji Ikari!" Misato snapped at him over the radio. The screens began flickering because of the interference from the other two in the plug with him. "What are you thinking? Bringing those two into the plug?"
"Should I put them back?" He asked.
"NO!" Toji and Kensuke shouted. "DON'T DO THAT!"
"Shinji, retreat now!" But the angel was already moving in. "Your unit can't continue to fight."
"Like hell it can't!" Shinji shouted as he broke out a Kris-bladed progressive knife from its shoulder housing. "Besides I don't think I can outrun this thing." The angel lashed out with its whips but Shinji ducked under them and launched forward to attack.
"What are you doing!" Misato screamed. "You've only got thirty seconds of battery power!"
"She's right, kid!" Toji shouted. "Let's get the hell out of here."
"Sit down!" Shinji snapped. He then moved forward as the whips came back around. Again he dodged the attacks, slipping underneath them and got in close. "YAAAHHH!" Yelled in pain as the whips pierced the left shoulder and right abdomen of his EVA.
"SHINJI!" Twenty seconds left.
"GRRRAAAARRR!" Shinji growled as he forced the unit upright. Shinji grabbed both whips and wrapped around the left arm. The burning pain was intense. "GRRRRAAARRRR!" Ten seconds left. "HYAAHH!" He pulled the angel towards him as he launched forward with one last push and drove the knife into the angel's core. Five seconds, Shinji forced the knife in deeper. Three seconds, he twisted the blade shattering the core. The whips ceased glowing and went limp one second before the EVA lost power.
"Target has ceased activity," Maya announced. "Unit-01 has run out of power. Pilot is alive but he's got to be in serious pain."
"Scramble the rescue crews!" Misato ordered. "Get him out of there." On the monitor, both EVA and angel remained frozen in place having somehow balanced each other out. "That was too close," she growled at the screen.
Inside the plug Shinji continued to shiver as the pain slowly left his body. Toji just looked at Shinji with a sad expression on his face. 'I had no idea that it would be that painful for him,' he said to himself.
"That was crazy," Kensuke muttered.
"Story of my life," Shinji mumbled just before he passed out from the massive adrenaline dump.
Over the next two weeks Shinji was trained up in the EVA. He was issued an olive drab and battleship grey plugsuit to wear when he was piloting the EVA. They said it would help reduce the error in synch ratio regarding his connectivity with the EVA. He said it looked ridiculous and felt slightly uncomfortable. Said he felt just one notch above being naked.
It also didn't help when he first put it on and cinched it down by pressing on the button that sucked the air out from under the suit that it pinched him somewhere 'sensitive'. Of course, Misato and, with the exception of Maya, the techs that Shinji quickly nicknamed the 'Bridge Bunnies' thought it was funny as hell watching him dancing around in pain, trying to press the opposite button and end the discomfort.
They used hyper-realistic simulators to replicate various combat scenarios. Time and again he surprised everyone with how easily it all came to him. "Shinji's doing an excellent job," Ritsuko said as she looked over the charts. "He's a natural. Despite his synch score being low last week at thirty-six points he's gotten back up above forty. This week alone he's already improved by two points."
"And his training is going quicker than expected," Makoto added. "He's already aced seven levels of difficulty. The Second Child was only able to do that after two years of training. He's so good you'd think he's done this before."
"Hm," Misato hummed to herself. "I wonder…"
"Wonder what?" Ritsuko asked.
"I wonder if he's received combat training before?"
"That's ridiculous. What makes you think that?"
"Look at him," she said pointing to the current simulation. "He's too good and his movements are too perfect. He fights smart, using the environment to his advantage, taking cover and taking the high ground where available. He doesn't hesitate. And when he's thrown a curve ball he instantly reacts."
"And he's fast, too," Maya joined in as Shinji quickly evaded a surprise attack from a simulated angel. After avoiding the attack he instantly counter-attacked and destroyed the target with ease. "He seems to have incredible agility and almost bottomless stamina."
"Exactly," Misato nodded. "He had to have received training. But what kind? I'll have to ask him about it tonight."
That afternoon, Shinji stopped by the medical ward and found Rei Ayanami's room. He knocked twice before he entered. She was asleep but his entrance woke her. "Hi," he said to her softly. "I didn't mean to wake you. I just wanted to see how you were doing."
"I am recovering well," the girl replied softly.
"I'm Shinji Ikari," Shinji introduced himself. "You're Rei Ayanami, right?" Dumb question.
"Yes."
"Well," he couldn't come up with anything to break the ice. "I started school three days ago. You're being discharged tonight?"
"Yes."
"Good to hear," Shinji nodded. "I understand we're in the same class?"
"Yes."
"Cool. Well, Misato's probably waiting on me. I just wanted to introduce myself. I'll see you at school tomorrow, Rei." The red eyed girl watched Shinji leave the room.
'He called me by my first name,' Rei pondered. 'Why is he so kind to me? And why does this matter to me? It does not concern the scenario so why do I think about it?' Rei went back to sleep with those questions unanswered.
As he walked away Shinji was thinking about her as well. 'There's something different about her. I can feel it. She seems familiar. As though we've met before. And those eyes…' At that moment he saw his father walking towards him. Shinji stopped and gave him a cold stare as he walked past, without saying a word. He watched over his shoulder as his father stepped into Rei's room. 'And why does my father concern himself with her?' He felt something wrong with the situation but couldn't place it. With these suspicions in mind he left the infirmary.
That night Misato did ask Shinji about why he was so good at combat. "If you must know I took martial arts classes," Shinji replied.
"Since when do martial arts classes teach infantry tactics?" Misato said folding her arms. "And I don't recall them teaching the use of firearms either."
"Well if I'm jumped by some thug wielding a gun it might help to know how it works and how to use it. Plus, I did a lot of paintball and Air-Soft. We used a lot of military tactics in matches in the woods."
"Alright, I'll give you that," Misato slumped in her chair. "But I'm curious: what kind of martial art were you trained in?"
"It was actually a couple." Shinji replied. "Mostly Krav Maga but also Hapkido and I took some Taekwondo while I was in elementary school."
"Really?" Shinji nodded. "So what, are you a mixed-martial artist or something?"
"No," Shinji growled. "Fine. You want to know why I'm so good at fighting? Why I have so little personal belongings? And why I have this scar and this tattoo?" Misato looked at him with a dead expression. "You pay attention to the news for the past year? With the invasion of America and the '70-Day War'? You know, World War III?"
"Oh," Misato muttered. "Looked pretty nasty from what I saw on the news."
"Yeah, well. Let's just say I had some 'on the job training' in urban warfare."
"Wait…you fought?"
"Yeah, I was a 'Wolverine'." Shinji said with a flat tone. "I nearly got killed by an air strike the first day and got this guy," he pointed to the scar, "about a week or so later. The unit I fought with, they were real bad asses, and they looked after me like I was one of their own. I later learned that my guardian was also killed the first day, when a Mig crashed into the house. The unit I was with kind of became my de facto guardians. We bonded like brothers as we fought and lived amongst the ruins in Philly. Some days we slept in bombed out basements on rubble strewn floors." Shinji took another sigh as he rolled up his sleeve. "Anyway. We all got this tattoo to commemorate our victory." And with that, Shinji got up and headed to take a shower.
"Holy crap," Misato said to herself as she mulled over the revelation. She could hardly believe that Shinji, a teenager, had already seen combat against a cut rate military in some of the worst fighting since the Vietnam War or even World War II.
XXXXX
Tokyo-3 High School #3; that's where Shinji walked to for school every day for the past few days. He was in class 2-A. Shinji dreaded going to a public school after having fought a war and being practically home schooled since then. That and he always had a pseudo-phobia about large crowds. And when he started it was more of a drag than he feared.
Not only were the classes slow paced but the teacher was old, partially senile and spoke in a monotone so deep it would make a tree fall asleep. That and he had to wear a uniform. Tennis shoes, black slacks and white polo shirt. Thankfully, the school didn't care what t-shirts he wore under the polo or what kind of jacket so he wore his woodland camo Gore-Tex jacket if it was raining.
They did throw a fit about his haircut. Mohawks weren't kosher. But, thankfully, over the week before he moved into the school his hair had grown out enough to where he could cut the hawk down to match. And after two weeks he now sported a low crew cut.
Another thing about school he had come to treat with a level of anxiety was the girls; more specifically the girls in his class. He was slightly taller than most of the other guys in his class, and noticeably more fit. This made him a target for the all the cute girls in the school and not just the ones in his class either. As it turned out, Shinji Ikari, age 16, weighing in at a lean, mean, 151 pounds, was a babe magnet.
One interesting point on this particular day came when, during the increasingly boring Second Impact lecture, Shinji received an IM on his laptop.
-Are you a pilot?- It read. Confused, Shinji looked around the room. In the back were two girls huddled over one of their laptops. They waved at him and giggled. They began typing again.
'Oh, great,' Shinji groaned inside. 'Here we go.'
-You are, aren't you? Y/N?-
'Well,' Shinji rolled his eyes. 'It couldn't make things any worse.' EERGH! Wrong!
The second he hit send with the answer 'Yes' the class erupted into a maelstrom of 'wows'. All the guys swarmed him with questions about how cool it must be to be a pilot and all the girls virtually glommed him.
"Oh my gosh!" A girl shrieked. "I can't believe you're a pilot!"
"Where do you live?" Another girl asked.
"What kind of weapons does it have?" A guy asked.
"What's the cockpit like?" Another asked.
"What's your number?" He heard a lot of those from the girls.
"How can I apply to be pilot?" He heard a lot of those, too.
"Do you have a girlfriend?" More than a couple of the girls asked that.
'I fucking hate school,' Shinji said to himself as he let his head collide with his desk (A/N: desk, apply it to the forehead).
As he was leaving the building for the day Shinji was challenged by an angry jock in a jogging suit. "Alright, pilot boy," he said walking towards him. "Time for you to pay up."
"What the hell are you talking about?" Shinji asked.
"Toji's just being dramatic," a spectacled boy with a video camera at his side waved it off.
"Shut up, Kensuke!" Toji snapped at his friend. "My little sister was injured in that fight of yours two weeks ago," he said.
"What's this have to do with me?" Shinji growled. "How is it my fault? It not like I wanted to pilot the damn thing!"
"But you did!" Toji shouted back. "It was because of your recklessness that she was injured!"
"So you blame me, huh?" Shinji said. "It's not like I hurt her on purpose. Besides, why wasn't she already in a shelter?"
"You bastard," Toji said as he stepped towards him. "That's not the point. You just had to go out and fight like some kind of hero."
"Dumbass. Alright then, fine," Shinji said. "If that's how you feel about it, then go ahead and punch. But let me give you a fair warning…I'll let the first one land for free." Toji pulled back and punched Shinji in the face. Shinji took the punch like he said and stumbled back but remained on his feet. "Feel better now?" He asked as he wiped the blood from his lip.
"Yeah right," Toji growled. "When I'm done with you you'll know what kind of pain my sister was in, you little fuck."
"I warned you," Shinji replied as Toji moved in to grab his collar. In one fluid motion Shinji's hand shot forward, grab his wrist and twisted it. As Toji's face began to contort in pain Shinji delivered a quick jab to the mouth and kicked out his left knee before a strong right hook to Toji's left temple sent his head crashing to the school yard pavement as Shinji let go of his arm.
His upper lip and nose bleeding, head hurting like hell and his vision dancing in circles Toji forced himself to his knees. "Here endeth the lesson," Shinji said before he picked his bag up and continued on his way, seeing no need to continue fighting. He walked up to Rei, who had seen the whole fight, as Toji tried to stand and chase after him.
At that moment sirens began to blare across the city. "What the hell's this?" Shinji asked.
"It's the angel alarms," Rei said softly. "We must report to headquarters."
XXXXX
Upon arriving at NERV Shinji quickly changed into his plugsuit. When asked about the bruise on his face Shinji said he accidentally walked into a door. He then rushed to his EVA and prepared to fight. "What do we know about this one?" He asked Misato as the EVA was moved into position.
"All we know is that it has limited flight capabilities," she replied.
"Define 'limited'."
"It can hover along about 30 meters off the ground but that's about it. We don't know how it attacks yet, but for now keep your distance."
"Roger."
As the angel approached the UN ground forces opened up with AAA, missile and gun batteries. And, as with the previous angel it had no effect. "A waste of the taxpayer's money," Ritsuko said slyly.
"Yeah," Misato grumbled. "I guess these military types aren't satisfied until they've fired their whole load." As soon as she said that an uncomfortable silence fell over the command center. "Wait…" She then realized what she had said.
"Giggity," Shinji called out. Maya choked on her laughter.
"Err," Misato growled. "Let's just get on with it. Launch EVA!"
And with that Unit-01 was then shot to the surface inside a concealed building. The building adjacent to it opened up to reveal a rifle. Shinji grabbed it and swung around the building quickly targeting the squid-like angel and opened fire. As he let out three, long, controlled bursts a pink tentacle appeared out of the angel's shoulder and whipped out at him. "Whoa!" He ducked under it but not before it cut his rifle in two and took the building with it.
He quickly rolled out of the way and took cover behind a warehouse. But this too provided little protection from the angel's whips. It was hacked to pieces and Shinji barely dodged the attacks. He continued to back pedal ducking and dodging the whips. However, the power cable attached to his EVA wasn't as quick as he was and was cut off. "Shit!" He swore as he darted away with the whips trying to catch him.
"Shinji!" Misato called out to him. "Get out of there!"
"No shit, Major!"
"Sheesh," Toji said as he and Kensuke filmed the battle from their perch in the hills. "That kid is getting owned."
"This coming from the guy who got owned less than an hour ago?" Kensuke chided.
"Say that again and you die!"
At that moment one of the whips wrapped around one of the EVA's ankles. "AH!" Shinji shouted as he felt electricity surge through his body. The angel then lifted the EVA into the air, slammed it down through a building, picked it up again, and slammed it through another before launching it into the sky.
"AHHH!" Toji and Kensuke screamed as the EVA dropped towards them like a lead balloon.
The EVA came to a crash on its back on the hill. Shinji was still shaking from the taser-like jolt he received. "The synchro-connectors are showing interference," Shigeru announced from his console.
"Those tentacles must be short-circuiting the system," Ritsuko deduced.
"We've got to get him out of there!" Misato shouted.
"Misato!" Shinji cried out. She looked up to see what he was yelling about. Cowering between the EVA's torso and its left arm were two kids. The computers flashed their identities on the monitor.
"Shinji's classmates?"
The angel appeared in front and lashed out with its whips. With cat-like reflexes Shinji grasped the whips and, ignoring the pain whipped the angel around and tossed it into an adjoining hillside. Without waiting for an order Shinji knelt down, ejected his plug and opened it up. "Get in here!" He shouted to the two dolts.
"Huh?" They stared at him.
"Get your fucking asses in gear!" He waved for them to get over to him. Without further shouting the two climbed in. The plug closed and LCL filled it back up.
"What's this, water?" Toji asked.
"Oh no!" Kensuke screamed like a girl. "My camera!"
"Shut the fuck up!" Shinji barked as he brought the EVA back to its feet. The angel also got back up.
"Shinji Ikari!" Misato snapped at him over the radio. The screens began flickering because of the interference from the other two in the plug with him. "What are you thinking? Bringing those two into the plug?"
"Should I put them back?" He asked.
"NO!" Toji and Kensuke shouted. "DON'T DO THAT!"
"Shinji, retreat now!" But the angel was already moving in. "Your unit can't continue to fight."
"Like hell it can't!" Shinji shouted as he broke out a Kris-bladed progressive knife from its shoulder housing. "Besides I don't think I can outrun this thing." The angel lashed out with its whips but Shinji ducked under them and launched forward to attack.
"What are you doing!" Misato screamed. "You've only got thirty seconds of battery power!"
"She's right, kid!" Toji shouted. "Let's get the hell out of here."
"Sit down!" Shinji snapped. He then moved forward as the whips came back around. Again he dodged the attacks, slipping underneath them and got in close. "YAAAHHH!" Yelled in pain as the whips pierced the left shoulder and right abdomen of his EVA.
"SHINJI!" Twenty seconds left.
"GRRRAAAARRR!" Shinji growled as he forced the unit upright. Shinji grabbed both whips and wrapped around the left arm. The burning pain was intense. "GRRRRAAARRRR!" Ten seconds left. "HYAAHH!" He pulled the angel towards him as he launched forward with one last push and drove the knife into the angel's core. Five seconds, Shinji forced the knife in deeper. Three seconds, he twisted the blade shattering the core. The whips ceased glowing and went limp one second before the EVA lost power.
"Target has ceased activity," Maya announced. "Unit-01 has run out of power. Pilot is alive but he's got to be in serious pain."
"Scramble the rescue crews!" Misato ordered. "Get him out of there." On the monitor, both EVA and angel remained frozen in place having somehow balanced each other out. "That was too close," she growled at the screen.
Inside the plug Shinji continued to shiver as the pain slowly left his body. Toji just looked at Shinji with a sad expression on his face. 'I had no idea that it would be that painful for him,' he said to himself.
"That was crazy," Kensuke muttered.
"Story of my life," Shinji mumbled just before he passed out from the massive adrenaline dump.
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