.
=][=
.
Deep inside a command center buried underground, the Japan Strategic Self Defense Force commanders smirked. "We did it!" one of them exulted.
The other one looked up at the NERV command tower, where Gendo Ikari sat staring at the massive wall screen. His hands in white gloves were were laced together under his nose as he leaned on his elbows, hiding his mouth. His eyes were also hidden by orange tinted glasses that reflected the light of the kiloton-range explosion.
The JSSDF commander insincerely said "Sorry, we've left you with nothing to do."
A female voice, the situation officer, reported through the speakers: "Shock wave inbound." The main screen flashed white and then into static.
Gendo smirked.
.
=][=
.
Misato Katsuragi shielded the boy with her body. She pulled him tight to her as the car was thrown off the road by the blast. The car tumbled up and over to its side and skidded off the highway, throwing sparks, as the shockwave passed over them. There was only the vague feeling of heat, but they could feel their ears pop from the sudden change in pressure. Through it all, Shinji thought /'Maybe coming to Tokyo-3 wasn't such a bad idea after all…'/
/'I should be feeling outraged',/ said the Farseer, miffed. /'But your thoughts are our thoughts.'/
/'I am SURE it is no surprise that perversion flows from one of the Race that spawned Slaanesh. Enough. We care not. Get your FOOT out of my face, woman.'/
/'My foot, as you put it, is attached to my base. Stop kissing my plastic stand.'/ She paused. /'You were trying to look up my skirt, weren't you? Weren't you?'/
/'Damnation! Stop kicking me, woman!'/
His imaginations were always the most lively when he needed to take his mind off something. He was only grateful for their timely distraction.
/'Hear your most devoted follower, oh bright lord. Save me! HELP!'/
/'Die, die and die again. Be resurrected by your Dark Gods to be killed by me again!'/
After a while, Misato let him up from his breath-starved position.
Misato stood up and looked past the road's lip. "That was an N2 mine. It seems to have stopped the Angel for a while." She sighed. "Let's get moving."
Shinji stared blanky at the rising mushroom cloud. "Aren't we going to die from, like… radiation?"
"No, Shinji. N2 means Non-nuclear. It has all the power of a nuke without the nasty side-effects."
"That still sounds terribly unsafe!" Then he blinked. "Wait... you said... stopped for a while? How would you even know that? Even that's not enough to kill it?!"
Misato winced at the information she carelessly handed out. NERV had fully expected this to happen.
.
=][=
.
"Visual image restored," the situation report officers said overhead.
Deep inside NERV's control center, the commanders of the JSSDF gasped as the EMP cleared and cameras could again show the monster. It lay flat against the ground, and all around it was a blasted steaming ruin.
"Is... is it dead? It has to be!" said one of the JSSDF commanders.
"It's still in one piece. Impossible."
"High-Energy reaction in the target!"
The Angel began to twitch. Its single bird-shaped mask started to twist and bulge. A second bony face began to /grow/ out of its shoulders.
The screen began to turn red. The light around itself was redshifting from how it was defensively warping spacetime as it regenerated the damage to its body. This was the AT field.
"Our trump card... unbelievable," one of the brown-suited commanders sagged.
"This... this is a true monster..."
.
=][=
.
They pushed the car back to rest on its wheels. Misato bewailed her beautiful car. "Thirty-three more payments....! Nooo!"
Shinji patted her back and said "Um, it's not that bad? The spirit of this machine is the same no matter what face it wears." Misato stared back at him with incomprehension. The boy smiled sheepishly. He took his hand away and stared up at her. "Aren't you a soldier, Misato-san? This is a soldier's car. Let it wear its scars proudly."
She scrunched up her face at him. Not that she wasn't guilty of applying personifications to machines too, but it's not the time to be joking around pretending that machines had identities. "But Shinji-kun. This thing still isn't even fully paid for, now I'll have to go into debt again to fix it! People won't respect me if I'm driving around a piece of crap. It's a classic! I had just finished restoring it, and now..."
She sobbed again. "My lovely lovely caaar!"
"This piece of crap got those bumps saving their skins." The young teen nodded, his face so serious. "Misato-san! Screw 'em!"
That did it. She had to laugh. He was just too serious, and yet she could tell he meant well. She hugged him, pressing his face to her bosoms again. "Aren't you just adorable? Hah! You're right, Shinji-kun! Screw 'em!" She slapped at the steering wheel, as if urging a horse to run.
They went on their way.
After a while down the road, the car rolled, rolled, slowed, and… came to a stop. The engine choked and died.
Silence. Misato turned her head and pointedly looked at the young teen sitting beside her. Shinji grinned weakly and rubbed the back of his head. "… maybe the spirit is willing but the metal is weak?"
"Maybe you're not as cute as I thought, after all." she huffed.
.
=][=
.
Smash!
Misato chuckled as she hefted a bundle of heavy-duty batteries in her hands. Tokyo-3's hyper-efficient ideals worked against her, the electric car might be clean and cost-effective, but ultimately easy to knock out of proper working order. She didn't have time to fiddle around with the insides, hopefully these would provide the additional power she needed for the existing engine lines.
"Um… is it really okay if we take this? We did break into a store, after all. Isn't that stealing?"
She huffed again. She just knew the kid would be one of those unimaginative law- abiding types. "It's fine. It's fine. NERV will take care of it, no problem. Now let's get go-"
The young teen finished placing his armload of batteries into the back seat. "Really? Awesome! Can I go get something for me too, then?"
Her head turned with grinding slowness, like a gun on a turret. It filled Shinji's heart with dread. Her gaze was grim and and judgmental. He began to back away. Then, all of a sudden she cheered up and said "Sure! But remember this is an emergency so be quick!"
"Thank you, Misato-san." Shinji bowed. Then only painfully suppressing himself into as to look too much like a looter during an inner city riot, he rushed back into the store. Score! The boy had always been fascinated with hardware and construction tools, ever since he realized that it was the only way to build a 1:10 scale Battle Titan. His childhood knew friendship and camaraderie, but association with the Boyz and their independent attitudes also taught him the joy of building things with his own bare hands.
Oddly, it was the Warboss and the Meks who'd admonished that building stuff was just as much fun as destroying it. Looting was, after all, gathering the scrap needed to make something bigga' and betta'.
"Maybe the kid won't be so boring after all…" the NERV officer mused while waiting. "Wait, what I'm doing is emergency requisitioning. Isn't telling a child to steal actually A CRIME?" She thought it over and shrugged. "Eh, what the heck. I wonder what he's going to get out of a hardware store?"
The kid came out holding a mini-chainsaw.
He was practicing sword-like motions with it. Misato stared at him.
Shinji felt her stare and grinned weakly. He held it out for her to see. "May I have this?"
"Shinji…" she said blandly. "Why, out of all things in the store (and by that I include the dirty magazines they hide behind the counter) did you choose a CHAINSAW?"
"Um, because I've always wanted one and it'd be really useful where we're going?" /'And that it's the closest thing to a chainsword I've seen so far?'/ It was not a proper choppa, but better suited for him since he did not have to swing hard with each cut.
Really.
Useful.
The words seemed to hit her face. Misato rubbed her cheek and straightened back up. "Useful? What do you mean useful? How could it possibly be useful where we're going?"
"You know! We could be thrown off the road and we have to cut our way out of a mangled vehicle! Or we might find a fallen tree blocking our path! Or we might need to fight off scavengers and looters operating while the city is under attack!" Shinji took a deep breath. "A rippa's always useful when you need to resize a room or things to more manageable bits."
"Heh, heh…" Misato chuckled oddly. /Unimaginative, you say, Misato?/ she thought to herself. /I'm riding with a psycho!/
She pulled herself together and pointed. "Put it back, Shinji. I took those batteries for a reason. We're not here to pick up toys for you."
"B-but… Misato-san."
Misato crossed her arms over her chest. "Shinji, as a ranking officer of NERV and possessing legal authority within this city, you must obey me."
His face fell. He let the mini-chainsaw drop to the ground. It was such a perfect size for him, too. He woodenly walked over, complying. However, rather than entering the car, he simply stood before her. He kept his head down and his face under shadow. "S-Shinji?" asked Misato, slightly nervous.
The young teen merely leaned forward and pressed his head into the flesh of her arm.
"Please, Misato-san…"
His voice was so tiny. She felt as if she crushed his dreams.
...
"Oh, all right!" she retorted hotly. "Go get whatever you want. But it stays in the car, until you can pay it back with your own money!"
He looked up at her and his face just… beamed! "Thank you, Misato-san!" he said with such honest rapture. He slid over to the chainsaw, dumped it in the backseat, and rushed back into the store. She heard him say "Lookz at dat! NAILGUN!" with unbridled joy.
Misato stood there rubbing the flesh where he'd touched. It still tingled. She shivered for no reason. "What is it with this kid?"
They did not speak at all on the rest of the way towards NERV.
.
=][=
.
/'What was that about, Commander?'/ the Space Marine asked. /'Did we just impose our will on this woman? Have we not sworn never to do such again?'/
/'I- I don't know. It just seemed so right at the time…'/
The warboss snorted. /'Well, I gots me stuff, so I'm happy. Wot's it matter?'/
/'It was a way to keep her off-balance. She sent her picture to us in a forced act of intimacy, that was designed to send us confused. We simply returned the favor.'/ was the Farseer's helpful reply.
/'It was a Slaaneshi greeting.'/ said the Chaos Marine after a while. All beings in Shinji's mental landscape turned to look at him, in wide-eyed horror. /'Flesh to flesh, NEED to need. A false front of being libertine to prevent others from looking deeper. Can you not hear her soul? It SCREAMS in anguish, calling out for comfort and acceptance.'/
Shinji had to nod. /'That sounds more like it.'/
/'She has been HURT before, and badly, so much so that she wears her skin and her sexuality as a shield. She is a soldier. Her first reaction is ALWAYS physical.'/
/'I see. She shares her body but not her soul? She aches for intimacy and yet always spurns it when given.'/ Shinji shook his head. /'How do I know this? She's still a stranger… since when could we judge other people's hearts?'/
/'Since the time you started to become comfortable with calling yourself "we",'/ was the Eldar's ominous answer.
.
=][=
.