Otaku Reflected Episode Three, Eva Revolution Part Seven A Superspy in Peril by Jared Ornstead ===== I write for my own amusement, whether any of you are allowed to participate is optional. Posting this fic was a whim and will not be continued in the face of lackwits heaping abuse while at the same time asking to read more. Such was what killed Mirrors Multiplied. I can read and enjoy what I write without letting any of you share. ===== Misato slammed down the phone headset, after concluding her call. "I'm starting to forget that we ever called these things Evangelion Units. I can't believe it, looking back on it. Who came up with such a screwy title, anyway?" Ritsuko had her rump against the counter, leaning against the control panel lazily while her gaze was focused tightly on her friend. "Are you sure you even had to do that?" Misato collected herself, gazing down on the control center from the command chair that Gendo had, until recently, occupied. Her face reflected the information displayed. "Our current data supports everything the Sky Lord said. The dark angel has trouble engaging multiple targets simultaneously, therefore we need to act from as many different angles of attack at once, with as much firepower as possible, as we can to have our best chance of success. It's that simple." Ritsuko looked at her friend, gauging her. "I'm surprised you were able to convince the United States to part with Unit Three." Misato scowled, still reading the information projected on the big screens over the command center. "As current commander I have full access to Nerv's emergency powers. With our Eva-modified bomber/transports we can put a Knight anywhere in the world in four hours. I told the president he'd better have Unit Three in the air inside of twenty minutes, or else." Misato leaned back and rubbed the bridge of her nose. "The United States doesn't have a suitable pilot, anyway. Unlike Germany, they can't claim to be keeping them for their own defense because without pilots they don't have a way to *use* them! Besides, they had two Knights. They'll still have one once this one gets transferred to us." "I admit that another Knight could be useful." Ritsuko deferred. "But why do we have to have *four* to take that thing on?" Misato closed her eyes. "You saw the tests. How long could a Knight's armor stand up to the accelerated particle beam cannon the dark angel uses against perceived threats?" "After four seconds of exposure it should cause critical damage to the internal control systems. Six seconds and the beam would punch right through one of our units. The heavy beam-scattering shields Pilot Saotome insisted on would add another twenty seconds of resistance." The dyed blonde sighed. "But we can't expect much more." Miss Katsuragi nodded. "That's right. Further, tests indicate a base 100% probability the dark angel will fire on any target entering the strict line-of-sight perimeter it maintains. We only *have* two shields, and we can't expect any of our Knights to be taking that kind of assault and counterattacking at the same time. So we switch to a shield-bearer approach. Both our Elemental Knights will have a Muscle Knight standing by to take the attack on the shield they'll be carrying, allowing the more powerful Elemental Knights to focus on working to destroy the dark angel." Misato once again lifted her face to the screen, this time to the side view showing a current projection of the dark angel hovering over their city. "We've still got eleven of those German type twelve, rail mobile laser mortars after testing its response. Combined with our local artillery, we can put two teams of two Knights each into position and be hitting that thing from every angle at once." She took a sip of hot chocolate. "By saturating its defenses, the dark angel's crystal shield should be split thirteen different ways simultaneously. That ought to be enough of a distraction. The Magi predict that one of our two teams has a 83% chance of breaking through such a fractionalized defense." "Even if that's so. Can they kill it?" Ritsuko prodded, transferring her gaze up to the displays showing an enemy almost as large as the city itself. Captain Katsuragi, and current interim commander of Nerv, sagged slightly in her chair, head bowing. "I don't know. What I *do* know is that we've got to maximize our shot at doing this. I believe a focused, high energy beam is our best chance of punching through that thing's hide deep enough to hit the core, which the Magi predict will be at its exact, geometric center." Misato had her friend's complete attention again. "But Nerv only has *one* positron rifle." Ritsuko protested. The purple-haired girl had a nasty smile when she wanted it. "So we'll requisition another. The one from the Japanese Strategic Self Defense Forces may even be more powerful. I've already sent Rei Ayanami and Aoba to collect it." Ritsuko pursed her lips in a frown. "So now all we're concerned about is a distinct problem with our current piloting situation." "Yui's leading a team on it right now." Thunder Knight stood in its usual cage in the usual bath of fluid, while cables stretched over cranes and dangled from every catwalk around it. "Preparing energy flux to reverse polarize the synoptic interface!" Maya called over her shoulder to the diminutive doctor Ikari. Yui unfolded her arms to lean against the catwalk railing, looking down over scurrying techs and their machinery. It looked like a factory floor with all of that activity and equipment scattered about. "Begin operation!" She called. Generators began to whine. Extra high-ranking personnel showed up in the sidelines to see if there was going to be success. Rei entered from having finished her mission and just locked Frost Knight into the next cage over. The cockpit seals hissed as the closed chamber retracted from that stance and came open, spilling a redhaired boy in a third generation plugsuit from the entry plug. This youth was instantly scooped up by family, friends, and trained medical staff and put through a rigorous regimen of cuddles, welcomes, and checking out. In the end he was pronounced healthy and sane (as much as he ever got anyways) and was allowed to speak his mind. "Ouch." Jared rubbed his head, advising his guests. "Don't ever get absorbed by a giant robot. It never does anyone any good." He winced at the lump on his scalp. "Why didn't you have a mattress ready, anyway?" Several people looked at each other. "New at this, aren't you?" Jared asked. Feeling much relieved, he advised. "When you save anyone who's helpless from the bowels of any giant machine they always flop. It's in the Rules." Rei duly made note of this, then noticed Maya nearby was doing the same. Yui exhaled a vast sigh of relief, along with half the command crew. Misato came to the overlook formerly used by Gendo and shouted. "Okay, begin immediate preparation of our temporary pilot interface system described by Washu. Can you do that Yui?" Doctor Ikari shot the operations director a thumbs up. "Already underway, Misato. We can have the rest of the equipment in place in an hour, then we can process each Eva in ten minutes apiece." Misato nodded, leaning over the railing. "Good. Make sure that you only do Knights that are currently vulnerable. Rei's Frost Knight is operating fine by the old system, we don't want any surprises from messing with that." Yui nodded, turning to give a final command to her subordinate work crew, then she headed to another station on her task, leaving the Thunder Knight's cage. Misato sighed and rolled her eyes. "I'm not fit for command." She grouched. Ritsuko was behind her, with comfort. "Don't worry about it. You're doing a fine job." Jared was wheeled into a medical center and finally pronounced whole. They let him go, and once he got clothe he found that his plugsuit was the only garb available. Without hesitation, he put it on. Rei was waiting for him immediately outside his hospital room, also garbed in a third generation plugsuit. Hers was ice blue to contrast against his much darker shade. "I'm glad you were recovered." She said, slightly less calmly than her usual. He nodded in response. "Thanks, me too. It would've been awkward being a giant robot for the rest of my life. Where would I find clothes?" Rei blinked, confused, and protested. "Giant robots do not wear clothes." The redhaired boy sighed, putting his hand on her shoulder to look in her eyes. "Rei, statements with obvious and extreme difficulties and low import are intended as humor, not indications of concern. They are called absurdities, and the proper response on recognizing them is to laugh or smile." Rei smiled. "There you go." He patted her on the shoulder, moving off with her hurrying to follow him. "We'll have you up to speck emotionally in no time." She nodded, moving in to place alongside him. "By the way, I would like to borrow a pair of your jeans sometime." Jared paused, this was curious. "Oh, what for? Don't you have any of your own?" Rei nodded again. "Yes, but some of the girls at school were interested in getting into your pants, and I promised to help them." He just stood stunned. Yui stood before the Eva assembled from pieces of other Evangelion units, parts taken from failed prototypes as well as bits cut off of Unit One in battle - back when she'd been part of Unit One. The fourteen year old scientist, her current biological age regardless of what clocks or her own life experience would've said, smiled to be completing her biomod notes to her satisfaction. Tests on her Eva *did* indicate that the interface modifications could be put to work in battle, in place of the current design and its notable flaws. She pressed the button on the notepad computer that sent this information and her conclusion to the command center. Then Yui looked over her shoulder, hearing the door swish open to this Eva cage. "Oh, hi." She smiled pleasantly. Kensuke Aida, war enthusiast, walking in wearing a third generation plugsuit and afire with the delight he felt at this. The boy was beside himself to be within an actual Eva cage in Nerv headquarters, actually *allowed* to be there and preparing to pilot one! "Oh, wow!" The boy ran over to stand in front of Yui's Eva. "This is the *greatest!* I never expected I'd get this close to one before!" The scientist smiled. "I'm glad for your enthusiasm. Someone around here has to have some." She chuckled. "If you stay as excited as you are, you'll probably turn into as good a pilot as Jared." "Wow! I hope so! Do you really think I could?" Yui gave a nod, sealing closed her notebook. "If you can stay excited in spite of an ongoing battle, sure you could." "Precisely why he'll never get the opportunity." Spoke a sepulcher voice. Yui spun, recognizing that sound. She saw a man staring at her over the barrel of a heavy personal laser - a type of weapon highly classified and only available in prototype in any case. Before she could speak the weapon gave an electric arming shriek as capacitors were brought up, then a bright beam of laser fired out and caught Kensuke Aida in the chest with enough force to knock the boy backwards and over. As he fell out of the line of fire the beam went on to burn a six inch long light scorch mark in the armor of the Eva. The beam weapon reoriented to cover Yui. She noticed in a corner of her mind that the murderer only had one arm. The left sleeve hung empty just above the elbow. "Who are you?" "Hello, Yui. It's been a long time." Misato was prowling around the battle board, examining strategy and tactics for use in their upcoming battle, when the explosions came. The room hadn't even finished shaking before she was at a phone terminal demanding to know what had happened. "Explosion in one of the Muscle Knight cages!" Aoba responded from the command center, dealing with whooping alarms and frantic monitors all around him. "Was it the dark angel?" She demanded, in a panic. "Negative!" Came the reassuring reply. "Dark Angel still hasn't penetrated halfway through our armor. It's got to be something else... MAGI just reporting sabotage as a 90% probability!" "I want Nerv Security down there now! And get me a repair team, figure out what kind of damage we're facing there, and how soon we can get that Knight operational! We don't have any extra of them to spare!" "Gotcha, major Katsuragi." Aoba replied. "But there's a problem." Ritsuko marched grimly through crowds of security guards rushing about in full armor. Beside her Maya walked with an IV bag held high in one hand, and between them lay the critically injured body of Kensuke Aida on a gurney. Misato watched them go, feeling lousy about it. She had both arms folded under her considerable breasts and was leaning her back against the wall with one foot raised to place on the wall below her. A casual stance totally at odds with her face, which showed that she was obviously feeling low. Taken in context it was almost a pose of defeat. She turned to face Jared, who was leaning in an identical pose opposite her, with Rei trying to understand the significance of their positions. In Jared's case the pose could almost be construed as truly casual. "I don't get it. Who could have done this? And why? Nerv exists to defend the world from the dark angels. Who would do such a thing?" Misato seemed lost. Jared wasn't. "Gendo." He answered simply, without preamble. "He doesn't care about others, and he doesn't care about the world. Nor does he care about Nerv or about saving the human race. He cares about what his own appetites or concerns are, which don't match with anyone I'd call sane." Misato had to smile slightly at hearing their queerest pilot call someone else insane. Still, this didn't *look* like a case of the pot calling the kettle black. She was still confused, however. "I'm not saying Ikari couldn't do such a thing, but what did he gain by it?" Jared began appraising her, certain until now she'd already known. "Yui, of course. I thought it should be obvious. The explosion was rigged to cover a kidnapping. It was just Kensuke's bad luck to be on the scene when it happened." Misato's face went pale white. "But we've already demanded Unit Four from the United States! What are we going to do?! Mr. Aida was our best pilot trainee we had! Now how are we going to get the Knights into battle?!!" She demanded, looking stricken, as she exploded into action, racing down the hall without an answer toward the command center. "Is our situation desperate?" Rei asked in the wake of her departure. Jared remained motionless, considering aloud. "Yui is missing, her Knight disabled by damage we cannot repair in less than weeks. Kensuke is alive, but won't be available to fight this battle with us. That gives us two pilots for four Knights, if we count the two already in route from the United States. Since our plan calls for four Knights acting in concert, I would say that our situation is suitably dramatic." Rei consciously effected a concerned expression. "If we had only one unassigned pilot why did Misato request two Knights? I don't understand." "Fairly simple." The redhaired boy explained, still unconcerned. "It is easier to give estimates about machines than it is about people. Misato heard about the extent of the damage to Yui's Knight before she learned that Kensuke wouldn't recover in time to help us in this one. Since she only just learned about Yui's disappearance, she ordered enough Knights on hand to suit the pilots she *might* have. It was well chosen with the information she had." He shrugged, dropping his elaborate pose leaning on the wall. "So we're having Unit Three *and* Unit Four join us shortly from America. Enough for a whole sentai team." Rei smiled at that, sure it would make him happy - which it did. A pet carrier phased into existence in Beautiful, Stately, Sky Lord Manor, having an open door and a bowl full of fish sitting invitingly inside. Pen Pen, poking around, soon discovered this and, since his owners hadn't fed him yet today, ventured inside to start eating fish. Whereupon the pet carrier's door slid closed and the entire thing phased out of existence with a multi-dimensional surge. Jared loaded Washu's data module in the Synoptic Teacher, then leaned back to get the entire thing downloaded into his brain directly. He had more than a trifling feeling that it may be important. He also had a plan. "What is the status of Kensuke's condition?" "He'll live." Aoba automatically replied to Misato's question without looking up from his busy attempt to handle all the work on his monitors. "Doctors report that his entire body has third degree burns except his groin and head! He's not going to be joining us on duty again soon." "I see." Misato pronounced grimly. "How did he even survive?" One of the nameless bridge techs asked. Misato smiled grimly. "Our third generation plugsuits have considerable armor value. The pilots are now wearing them at all times in case of an attempt at assassination. My guess is that's what saved him." "What kind of weapon would burn his entire body without touching his face?" Aoba mumbled, still struggling to hold the ongoing emergencies in check. "A laser. The plugsuits work by distributing energy across a wide area, breaking up their force like a bulletproof vest, with some extra diffusion buffered in. The force required to burn him that badly over his entire surface could only have been a heavy personal combat laser." "But aren't those classified?" "Gendo." Misato's answer severed to the entire room's satisfaction. Another anonymous tech wondered aloud. "But... why wasn't his groin burnt?" A second grim smile from Misato. "Because spreading shocks to that area would be counterproductive. Our female plugsuit design also eliminates her breasts from the equation which gives them slightly less overall protection, but we've got to do it for the same reason. Damage distribution shouldn't be shutting our pilots down by hitting sensitive areas." "Oh." The word echoed from multiple sources. Their interim commander frowned. "Do we have any idea how quickly Kensuke can rejoin us? Even under maximum anesthetic at minimum functionality." Aoba scowled, checking that reading. "The doctors already have him in sedation and are applying medication. Samples are being taken and new skin grafts should be available in two days, but there's no hope of their releasing him in under a week. Hospital reports that he can't be used without peril to his life in less than four days." "Great." The purple-haired commander clearly wasn't pleased. "Has anyone got a fix on Yui's position?" "Negative. Assuming she survived the explosion she could be anywhere in or out of the Geofront. Outside is probably more likely, if it was kidnappers." "Not likely. This was Gendo. His power base is still in here." Misato licked her lips dryly, then began issuing orders. "Okay, I want Nerv security to stop prowling the corridors. Gendo has never used them when it didn't suit him. I want those guys to start looking at the floorplans, try to make sense of how they all fit together, then I want guards pacing off all the rooms and corridors to see if they fit with their specs. He's got some kind of secret lair down here. I want them to find it!" Jared arrived in full uniform (now that they looked cool) at the cage holding Thunder Knight, looking ready for battle. He really hated to do this, but it was almost critical for the kind of atmosphere he was trying to set here. More importantly, if he didn't think he could succeed. Yui's makeshift job of altering the interface would make the Knights pilotable - barely. This was the most dangerous enemy to date and if his interface crested a certain point, he would be absorbed and possibly obliterated. But waiting wasn't going to help these problems either. On the command deck a certain pet carrier phased across dimensions to deposit itself behind a console in a corner, where a certain freshly altered neo-penguin wandered out and a red-haired scientist in another galaxy giggled, recalling the empty pet-carrier. A bleep on the alarm panels had Hyuga setting aside the ramen snack he'd been enjoying to cry out in panic. "Major Katsuragi! Thunder Knight has just begun preparations to launch!" "What!?" Misato sat bolt upright in the command chair. Jared's face appeared before she could ask to be patched through. "Hello Misato. Just wanted to let you know. I already guessed that we didn't have the pilots to fill out your wonderful plan. So I'll be going at it alone." "Wait! Just one minute!" The lady turned with a swish of purple hair to give some commands to her support crew. "Get Rei on the double! Start powering the type twelve mortars to aid in the assault." She swished back to face the screen. "Just wait five minutes, Jared. We'll have full support for you by then." He gave single, negatory head shake, looking very heroic and tragically noble as he did so. "Sorry Katsuragi. But I've been lagging in my displays of heroism lately and need to redeem myself. Solo is the only way to go." The command crew gaped at the tragedy of what was going on here. Misato almost shed tears as she forced words past her suddenly dry throat. "Jared. I don't know anyone I'd call a greater hero. Please don't do this." He shot her a wry smile. "The real reason is one mistake against this monster means instant death. I can't allow Rei's first combat to be one so deadly. She's not ready for that. I must fight it alone." Ritsuko's throat felt tight as well as she addressed him. "Jared, I can't even conceive of how you could think of yourself as anything less than the perfect hero." He shrugged, holding his controls. "Look around something to see the shape of the thing. I'm lacking. I don't even have a troubled romance among my fellow pilots yet. This is almost embarrassing. I mean, what will the rest of the heroes say? No heroic rescues of fair damsels innocently brought into this war against their wills, no humiliating misunderstandings, I'm not being raged at by unsatisfied higher officers any more than I'm being praised as a hero of mankind... not even a decent female lead. I mean, the *closest* we get is Rei. But really she's only progressed so far as the Precious Kid That Must Be Saved From Danger. Hardly a fair bet I'll get a sidekick even. Now I find I'm being forced into the role of Genius Scientist *AND* Dashing Young Hero. Fortunately there's precident. A few other shows have done that, so it CAN be combined into one star. But now I've got to step into the role totally and blow everyone away with my smarts from now on, getting high grades and all that just because the rest of you guys are late getting into things! I mean, Kensuke hasn't even mysteriously overcome his wounds and anesthetic to come heroically staggering into to the command chamber here to insist on being a part of this fight. What am I SUPPOSED to do when none of you will stick with your roles?" He shot them a cocky grin. "You don't earn hero status punching a time clock. There's no award for being a log collecting a paycheck. You have to go beyond. I wouldn't try this if I didn't think I could do it, guys." The screen switched off. "He's cut off outside control!" Hyuga yelled in a panic. Thunder Knight launched from it's bay, did an immediate unlatch and roll just barely missing the deadly particle beam blast from the dark angel, and came up flying to give it a return blast that was regrettably stopped by its force screen. "Impressive." Doctor Akagi mumbled. Misato turned on Ritsuko, yelling. "You know, when that kid was first working here you called him some unkind names. That boy is NOT a twit!" "I agree. Now I'm concerned for him. Will his AT field be able to stop that beam?" "For about four seconds." Hyuga replied, still watching controls. "But there's going to be a problem. His AT field is not at full strength. He's diverting part of the power to fly." The major shook her purple-haired head. "It's worse than that. If a beam touches him at all he'll be a goner. The pain would destroy any ability he might have to dodge. Once that happens there'll be nothing we can do for him." "The MAGI predict the battle will last no more than two minutes, without a significant chance for Sky Lord to get a victory." Aoba regretfully reported, reading his boards. Faces paled in the command center as Jared dodged another blast. Pen Pen leaped up onto her desk. "Misato quick! Transform into Pretty Katsuragi and save Jay-chan! You're the only one who can do it!" Everyone stood frozen, staring at the penguin. Misato had a HUGE sweatdrop on the side of her head and her eyelid twitched, mouth hung open. Ritsuko was clutching her chest like she might have a heart attack any moment. Ignoring the stares it was receiving, Pen Pen continued to stare in open hope, only on Misato, focusing all his considerable powers of cuteness on wearing the major down. Misato blinked. "Do I really have to do this?" On seeing Pen-pen nod, she winced, still twitching. "Oh... this stinks." The bridge tech Hyuga couched into his hand, saying loud enough to mention. "The choice between being a comic sidekick or a fighting team player only comes once, Major." Maya didn't have the energy to glare, still busy staring at the reformed neo-penguin. "How can you be so calm about this?" Hyuga coughed again, speaking lowly. "Uhm, Aoba and I are writing a manga series on the side, based on our experiences here. We were actually kind of expecting this." Aoba gave a calm confirmative nod. "Yah, it was either have it happen for real or make it up on our own, and so far it's been more interesting to let the real stuff outpace the fake. I know I couldn't come up with something this weird." Ritsuko was obviously strained near her breaking point to ask the inane question she did. "How is it selling?" "Really well, so far. I guess we're going to have to include that part about Gendo being a surgically altered monkey anyhow." Hyuga gladly admitted. "I thought that was too weird, but with Misato being a magical girl..." Misato started twitching. Pen Pen pleaded with her using all of the force of cuteness a magical (or in this case, Washu-enhanced) mascot could cram into liquid, trusting eyes. Misato squirmed. "But isn't that kind of a stupid name? I mean Jared gets to be 'Sky Lord' and all I get is 'Pretty Katsuragi'? What about when I get married?" Pen Pen leaped into her arms and warbled. "Pretty mode is just what we call it when you change. Your combat name for fighting evil is Magical Soldier Cutie Emerald!" "Yaaahh!" Hyuga and Aoba broke into simultanious applause. One of them had produced party hats out of nowhere and the other had inflated balloons. Somehow even Ritsuko had a hat on and joined them in snapping party favors. It was the flash of an explosion as seen from the monitors that decided Katsuragi as to the course she should be pursuing. She clenched her fists to both sides in determination, leaning down to ask her pet penguin. "Okay, now what do I do?" Pen Pen leaped, performing a cute little mascot twirl and flip, which just happened to serve as the call beacon to the lab of The Greatest Scientific Genius in the Universe, who had been waiting for such an eventuality, and with a ripple of disturbed dimensions, a green gemstone in a fancy necklace appeared to fall into Misato's suddenly outstretched hands. "Have you been taking any alcohol?" Ritsuko demanded of her friend seriously. Misato was too stunned to properly reply. "Huh?" Doctor Akagi folded her arms. "Jared was the one to tell us that your powers were inhibited by alcohol. I'm not sending a magical girl into battle with her powers impaired." Aoba wondered aloud to Hyuga if Fuyutsuki really was a robot in human guise over the bowl of punch that had been set on the table. Celebratory streamers hung overhead. Misato paid no attention to them, shaking her head. "No, I haven't been able to touch a drop since I moved in with... Jay-chan??" She directed a stunned look towards her neo-penguin, aka magical mascot. Said penguin gave a very professional nod. "Then that means he must have broken the curse that was put on you by Cyber Jew. The Gemstone Girls are getting ready to be together again! It was said that only True Love could break the spell, but since here you are again, it must have been he that did it! Now that their leader has been cured the rest of the team can be gathered! But first you *gotta* save Jay-chan!" Aoba and Hyuga gave very firm nods, toasting with their drink glasses. "True love?" Ritsuko sweated. "Him and her? Talk about age difference." Maya's mind was just boggling. Hyuga helped her to a little slice of 'Remember The Love' magical girl memorial cake they'd had delivered. Misato hurried to put the necklace on, then froze, sweatdropping, unable to believe she was doing this but going forward anyway. "Ugh, are there words that go with this? You know, trigger the transformation or something?" "They should come from your heart." Hyuga and Aoba both echoed professionally. Feeling clumsy, but having her sense of reality revoked moments ago when this all began, Misato shoved a fist at the heavens and shouted. "By the Power of Love!!" A burst of emerald green light shot forth from the crystal on her chest, expanding in a ring of change that swept over her. The uniform she'd been wearing was replaced by a green outfit with lots of very feminine appeal, tons of ruffles and ribbons combined into a beautiful style like you might see on an idol singer going all out for a cute look. Jewelry and accessories, along with a pair of pretty green shoes, completed the ensemble. Her hair had aquired two perky green bows on either side of her head and her hair had turned blonde all over. She could have faced against Azusa Shiratori for a cute contest. "Tame, but adequate." Aoba leaned over and calmly marked the day on his Doctor Ritsuko Akagi Swimsuit Calender. Hyuga had finished with snapshots and was now taking notes. Pen Pen jumped up on Misato's shoulder and explained. "The hair color change will keep *anyone* who knows your civilian guise from knowing who you are when you're in pretty mode. That is unless they see you transform." "The skirt could be a lot longer." Maya primly complained. "Actually that's in genre. The power of magical girls could almost be compared to the shortness of their skirts." Ritsuko observed, asking. "So, how do you feel, Cutie Emerald?" Misato was taking stock of her new earrings and whatnot. "Huh? I feel alright, I guess. Though I get the sneaking suspicion that I could fold rebar in my fist." As an experiment she reached out and twisted a steel plate in her grasp, actually surprised that she could do it. Pen Pen hopped up high and flapped his flippers hard enough to be actually flying in a sustained hover before her face, which almost astonished people as much as his talking earlier had done. "No time for that now, Cutie Emerald! Now you've got to use your magical powers to save Jay-chan! Hurry up and get in one of those giant robots so you can go out and enter the fight! Your true love is counting on you, Emerald!" Misato swallowed all lingering doubts about reality and took off running. Maya was slowly shaking her head. Watching the neo-penguin fly after her interim commander, she groused. "When did we all fall down the rabbit hole?" The two other techs shared a look, then united in chorus. "You mean this Geofront?" Maya's face fell into her hands, groaning. In her lab, eating popcorn, Washu began to laugh herself SICK! The antics of Jared were just too hilarious! She *never* would've thought to perform a joke like this without his having set it all up in advance! But it was so humorous! Her scheming mind was already working on other angles. The alterations to Pen Pen had to be pretty extreme, making up a past history and all that so the little animal wouldn't even know about his own part being fabricated. Luckily, she had a machine that would do that. She'd just fed in a few copies of Neon Genesis Evangelion for the characters and a coupla issues of Sailor Moon and Cutie Honey for genre, and already what it spit out was rocking her sides with laughter! Hm, the next step to this had better be pretty good, too! She moved to implement it, thinking all the while about what fun this mischief was. On her left, a screen focused in on a hospital bed containing a bandaged man on life support. Magical girl and mascot emerged on the ramp leading to the launch bay where Unit Three was standing. Misato paused in her lunge toward the mecha, saying aloud. "Jared, in your absence but in the presence of what is soon to be my Knight, I give you permission to command my Knight and do so unconditionally. To seal this I grant you my token, but I'll have to wait to tie it on you until we meet again." She took an emerald colored ribbon from her costume and held it out, letting it drop to the floor as she resumed racing toward the Eva. Pen Pen fluttered up, holding the ribbon in his beak. "I'll tie it on him for you, Cutie Emerald. Now you've got to transform into your mecha pilot uniform." The nascent magical girl, suppressing deliberately a raging sense of unreality about all this, gave what she felt was a firm nod and raised a hand to the air. "Magic Transformation! Give me a pilot's uniform!" A disk of glowing green energy swept her from head to toe, leaving her in what had to be a third generation plugsuit, tailor fit for her. Soon she was in the entry plug and Pen Pen was fluttering off for safety. Realizing too late that she was too old to pilot one of these things, she triggered the entry sequence and shouted. "Synchronization Magic!" Feeling the rush of actually linking, the lady came to realize that she was almost at the stage for the most critical connection and shouted the phrase she always heard Jared using. "Evangelion Power! Charging Up!!" Evangelion Unit Three lifted out of the holding restraints, floating lazily midair while the special effects of an AT field gone wild spread across the mecha's surface. Ritsuko took command in her friend's absence, watching this all with a detached air of someone who knows exactly what's going on. The look of one totally in control. She wasn't, but was willing to fake it. She had Aoba trigger communications open to the Muscle Knight. "Cutie Emerald, we haven't done any experimenting with your own magic powers. So it's unwise for us to rely on them. I'm sending you deeper into the Geofront." "Huh? What for?" Came the nascent magical girl's return voice. Ritsuko could not resist a smile. "The dark angel we've got in the basement. The one Gendo was using in his terrible secret experiments to devastate the entire world for his own personal gain. We've decided that we're no longer going along with that plan. We want you to eliminate that dark angel. That should get you a crystal and S2 organs for powering your Knight during battle to save 'Jay-chan'. There's also a spear in there that will be able to save Jared from this enemy. Follow the lit path." Badly abused cage restraints disengaged from Misato's Eva and she took off to run down the path indicated. Gendo was just about to unzip his pants, finally having Yui helpless and restrained, when the alarms in his secret command center went off. Angrily he glared at their direction. Lack of two arms had meant that he could not grope and restrain her at the same time, and was considerably frustrated that he had been interrupted before even getting her plugsuit off. He began stalking over into his office. "What could it be now?" He tabbed a monitor on, then froze at what he saw there. "NO!! They CAN'T! She has to know better than that. This will bring..." A pair of red eyes had appeared in the hidden sanctuary behind him. "Hello, Gendo Ikari. Thought you'd never see me again, didn't you?"