Otaku Reflected 

Episode Three, Eva Revolution 

Part Eight 

A Superspy at War 

by Jared Ornstead 

=====

    Washu giggled and pushed another button, the focus this time on 
Kensuke in a life-support cocoon. 
    A change in medications was in order. 

    "Frost Shield, Appear!!" 
    A cyclone of snowflakes formed and coalesced into the mentioned 
item. The Frost Crystal could be set to sustain and continually 
recreate the Frost Shield during battle, but as he aimed to avoid 
getting hit he settled on a new variation for extra safety and comfort. 
    "Ice Armor, Augment!!" 
    The battle had now been going on for considerably longer than the 
two minutes the MAGI gave him. But that didn't bother him at all. Right 
now he was a bit too busy to reflect, but his gamble on maneuverability 
verses rate of fire  had been paying off. 
    A cyclone of snowflakes swept up his Knight from the ankles, 
coating it all with a thin transparent layer of super-flexible ice that 
would instantly distort and sacrifice itself under the heat of an 
energy beam, saving him from vital seconds of critical pain. 
    Another huge particle beam lashed by him, as he and the dark angel 
fought with their wits, trying to predict each other. Bother had been 
learning the other's patterns and adapting to match. So far Jared had 
stayed a step ahead. 
    ~There!~ 
    Thunder Knight cut flying and dove downwards, toward the ground. 
Since before this his tactics had been always to stay high, so that the 
particle beams would shoot harmlessly off into space, the next lashing 
of multi-million-megawatt power fired FAR too high and had no chance of 
hitting the rushing Knight. Jared dove with all his strength and speed, 
passing by kilometers of the dark angel's hide while it refreshed and 
recharged its deadly beam in the few seconds that it required. 
    At last he was past, and with a combined volt of his Lightning 
Crystal and AT field's power he momentarily transcended the force 
screen of the angel, passing bodily through it even as he fell, unable 
at this moment to take flight. 
    The Knight sprang, swinging its alloy sword with all its might. 
    The Dark Angel fired. 
    Jared's plan succeeded. In a leap he'd cut *through* the massive 
drill that had been continuously pushing further into the Nerv 
Geofront, severing that. The particle beam blast actually served him 
better, slamming into the ground beneath and behind his feet, cratering 
it and shoving hundreds of tons of earth aside. This did nothing to 
help penetrate the hole in which Nerv headquarters hid, not even 
passing to the first layer of armor. But it *did* hit hard enough to 
twist and warp the drill bit the dark angel had been using. Forcing all 
that dirt aside had squished the severed drill bit and now the 
bore-hole itself collapsed, negating all the hours of progress the bad 
guy had made. 
    And Jared struck. 
    Theoretically, from this point he could withdraw and call the 
assault mission a tentative success. He'd reset the drill to square 
zero and given them perhaps another twelve hours if it started over. 
    But that was NOT enough. 
    Knowing he was going to get flung out of striking range at any 
moment, he cast his Heaven's Justice Storm and flung the attack through 
a rapidly-melting alloy sword up into the bottom tip of the cube from 
which the drill had been issuing. 
    The tip was blasted to ruin. 
    With a spasm like unto pain, the dark angel's force field 
reasserted itself and flung his entire Knight away to skid and flip 
back to it's feet on a mountain top miles outside the city. Instantly 
he took back to the air, barely dodging another deadly particle beam. 
    It was so close he'd lost his Frost Shield to the near miss. 
    Jared realized doing a solo attack on the dark angel to save the 
others was *terribly* in genre for him - which was why he did it, of 
course. Heroism came with a price, you know. But he was as yet 
undecided whether the shrieking hordes of nubile would-be girlfriends 
were part of the price or the reward. 
    In his case, probably both. 
    The German type twelve laser mortars chose that moment to appear 
from ports all over the city and began to light up the dark angel's 
defense field with their simultaneous fire. The dark angel replied by 
blowing through a mountainside and annihilating the main power 
distributing supply grid on the other side. 
    Hmm, Jared felt a song coming on. Pausing in his flight, he 
deliberately posed while broadcasting as the city listened in 
frightened huddles in their emergency shelters and the Geofront 
listened on monitors and through speakers. 

"There comes a time 
when you face the toughest of fights. 
Searching for a sign 
lost in the darkest of nights!" 

    The cube-shaped foe shot another particle blast at him, which he 
dodged with much greater ease than he could've before. Warming up to 
his song, he continued to merely sing as he opposed this enemy of all 
humanity. 

"The wind blows so cold 
you're standing alone 
before the battle's begun." 

    He held out one arm and his frost crystal flared with blue energy 
and light, causing a snowflake-filled wind to blow which coalesced into 
a frozen shield of white ice on his left arm. Then his volume increased 
dramatically and originating from his two remaining crystals came a 
flood of energy that flowed down his Knight's right arm and into that 
hand. 

"But deep in your soul 
the future unfolds 
It's bright as the rays of the sun!" 

    With a suddenly blazing bright electric spear in his Knight's right 
hand he attacked the hovering monster, sending forth a beam of laser 
energy bright as fire with twin helixes of white lightning surrounding 
it. For the first time something penetrated the dark angel's field and 
scored a trench into its body. 
    Then Thunder Knight was dodging again, flying about leaving streaks 
of rainbow light behind him as he dodged with double the speed and 
agility of before. 

"You've got to believe, 
in the power of love! 
You've got to believe, 
in the power of love. 

The power of love." 

    Misato was watching the suddenly shifted fight as she broke through 
the final security locked gates (Gendo having changed the key, but 
really no one had tried. Breaking through into the room was demanded 
for dramatic emphasis) and into the LCL chamber where the Dark Angel 
awaited, hanging partially dismembered already and speared to a giant 
cross. 
    Misato had her Eva lunge forward and grab the haft of that spear, 
then shouted aloud as Jared's next lines came over the speaker, 
simultaneous with her slashing with the weapon to lay bare the 
creature's previously hidden core. 
    The verse continued as Misato, seeming in slow motion, stabbed down 
upon the red orb in the captive dark angel's chest. Her own Knight got 
a crystal to form on its chest and the light from the creature's 
explosion erupted like a geyser, sending a red beam shooting clear 
through to the surface where it illuminated the other angel and Jared's 
fighting Eva already in combat. 

    Entry gates opened in the ground on the surface and Frost Knight 
appeared, backlit by the emergency glow of twirling sirens. 

"Lazing in motion 
there's a light that flows from your heart 
it's a chain reaction, 
and nothing will keep us apart" 

    Jared's Thunder Knight dove to grab Rei's Knight, rolling away 
clutched together as the deadly particle beam again blasted down, 
causing a minor earthquake it displaced so much dirt. 
    Misato's Knight appeared on the surface of the ground behind them 
as the final glow from the red light geyser faded away. Locked in her 
hand was the Lance. Both the Frost and Thunder Knights joined her. 

"Stand by my side, 
there's nothing to hide. 
Together we'll fight to the end." 

    Both previous Elemental Knight focused their AT Fields forward and 
locked Frost Shields together against the gathering blast about to come 
from the dark warrior, shielding Misato behind them as she wound up for 
a throw. 
    The beam came. 
    The Lance was cast. 
    The one diverted the other and a hole was merely blown in the 
creature's north face, far too far away to do the core any harm in 
spite of leaving a gaping tunnel right through the alien creature 
itself. 
    Jared's Thunder Knight grabbed hold of both others and again took 
to the air. 

"Take hold of my hand 
and you'll understand 
what it truly means to be friends!" 

    "They've lost the Lance. They'll never have sufficient power to 
finish it now. Ritsuko, what are you doing?" Maya asked. 
    "They'll need all the help they can get!" Ritsuko somehow firmed 
around her jawline and took off running, shucking her heeled shoes to 
gain speed. 
    "Wait!" Maya called after her. "Where are you going?!" 
    Ritsuko was running toward the empty Unit Four, shucking her lab 
coat and calling. "I may not be able to *pilot* the thing to save my 
friends but I'm sure going to die TRYING!" 
    Maya had gone pale. Was NO ONE sane around here anymore? 
    Kensuke came staggering up to the bridge, holding an arm tight to 
his side as his other clutched the doorframe, woozy with painkilling 
drugs. "Hey, someone say there was a fight going on here? Why wasn't I 
invited?" 
    "WAIT!! RITSUKO!!!" Maya called down to the entry cage. 
    But it was too late. Servos had already brought the entry plug to 
where the primary connections had to be made. Dr Ritsuko Akagi had 
arced her back as she loudly cried. 
    "Evangelion Power!! Charging UP!!!" 

"You've got to believe, 
in the power of love! 
You've got to believe, 
in the power of love." 

    Gendo stood holding Yui as a shield, backing as quickly as he could 
arrange from the hulking, darkish shape that followed him. 
    But that shape made no other move, afraid of hurting Yui. 
    Gendo smirked in self-congratulation, as he spat taunts at his 
pursuer. "I have always based my plans on the presumption that other 
people are nicer than me, and I have never in my life been 
disappointed." 
    He slammed his arm stump against a door control and twelve tons of 
safety steel of the vault-style entrance came smashing closed on the 
mysterious being with red eyes. 

"It gives meaning to each moment 
it's what our hearts, are all made of 
You've got to believe, 
in the power of love. 

The power of love." 

    The three Knights has become separated and now the dark angel was 
mercilessly focusing his power on the weaker two of them. Frost Knight 
had a beam pass over it, without any sustained power, and still her 
Frost Shield got vaporized and the icy coating over her armor, 
duplicated from watching Jared, flashed and was almost gone. 
    A beam caught Misato's Knight right square on the chest, knocking 
her backwards and instantly freezing her mind with the pain. Jared 
leaped in, grabbing her hand to pull her clear, but the deadly beam 
followed just as fast and Misato's Knight fell in two equal pieces, top 
and bottom halves, to the cratered ground. 
    The beam followed Jared away, stripping off the vital protective 
coating of ice. 

"You've got to believe, 
in the power of love! 
You've got to believe, 
in the power of love." 

    Somehow the type twelve laser mortars spoke again from some reserve 
of power and Rei got her Frost Knight to concentrate a blast through 
the weakened force field, but all to no good. Though she'd scarred the 
surface, the creature's core was still far too far within. 
    Jared rolled away, finally succeeding in throwing off the close 
following beam by the intervention of a second's reprieve by dodging 
behind a small mountain. 
    But the cubic alien was overexerting itself, drawing beams faster 
than it had before, and Rei's Knight was swiftly and cleanly cut in 
half before she could think to dodge. 
    In that moment Jared responded with a deadly, focused beam with all 
the power of his crystals behind it. The mighty force gave the 
distracted alien a powerful blow, rocking it hard and blowing off the 
entire southern face, cut cleanly off to fall away and lie in a heap on 
the city. 
    Both Knight and Dark Angel faced each other, recuperating. 

"It gives meaning to each moment 
it's what our hearts, are all made of 
You've got to believe, 
in the power of love." 

    The launch gates opened once again, revealing the form of Eva Unit 
Four. Bare, unpainted metal glinting in the emergency lamplight. 
    Springing upon her immediately, Jared *threw* the Muscle Knight 
straight toward the tunnel hole blown through the creature by Misato's 
Lance throw. The creature replied by firing a blast at him, which he 
dodged, leaving a streak of rainbow light behind him. Then the combined 
power of his field attempting to cancel it's, and his reply blast back 
with all crystals overcame the shield long enough for Eva Four to fly 
through. 
    The shaky and unbalanced Eva Unit Four landed within a hole created 
in the monster and knew what it had to do. She focused all her Knight's 
wildcard and reserve power into a blast that barely reached the core. 
The dark angel by now was fleeing, trying to avoid the twin dangers of 
Jared's external attacks and Ritsuko's internal ones. 
    They struck together. 

"In the power of love." 

    The fourth dark angel sped even faster away when a massive particle 
beam came from back over Tokyo 3, where Misato's Knight had dragged 
itself into a firing position, its Earth Crystal fading with the glow 
of having shot that blast. 
    Finally cored right through the heart, the dark angel crashed to an 
untidy landing in the ocean surf of a partially sunken and abandoned 
portion of city, where it lay dead. 

"In the power of love." 

    The silence was deafening. 
    Celebrations began across the city almost immediately. 

    The doors to the bridge swished open, revealing a tallish older 
gentleman that most there recognized. In their relief at the successful 
conclusion to the near-impossible fight, the technicians there almost 
didn't notice. 
    Aoba stopped hugging Maya long enough to show astonishment on his 
face when the figure had stepped forward to be recognized. 
    "Mister Fuyutsuki?" 
    The stranger with the image of their former commander's aid turned 
more fully to face the bridge crew, revealing that his right side had 
been badly crushed and the skin torn off to reveal the clear armor 
plates and blinking multicolor lights beneath. 
    "I am Mecha-Fuyutsuki." It said in a perfectly reasonable tone of 
voice. "I activated when my original copy was injured, and have been 
searching for his attacker all this time. I found him, but Gendo 
escaped from me. I came here to warn you. I fear his plans are not yet 
come to naught." 

    Gendo hauled Yui through another door, the crazed light of 
fanaticism in his eyes as he sealed yet another barrier behind them. 
"He's dead. He's *got* to be dead. I knew the bullet wasn't enough. The 
hospital saved him. The laser *should* have done it, but didn't. I know 
slamming a door on him only slowed him down, but he's got to stop 
sometime. He'll come again if I don't get the power to finish him for 
good. He was always jealous of me." 
    "Could you please let me GO!?!" Yui kicked and screamed in his arm. 
    The madman directed his gaze to the girl. He shouted. "Enough of 
your whining!! If I don't win he'll come for me, you see? Then he'll 
get you, and it will all have been for nothing! But I won't let him. 
I'll teach him to *stay* dead!!" 
    Yui was crying, sobbing as she held both hands to her eyes. "But I 
don't even know who you are!! That other man was my teacher in school. 
How could you hurt him??" 
    "I WAS YOUR HUSBAND!!" Gendo shouted, losing all control. 
    "You were?" Yui gazed on him with total incomprehension, then she 
shrank from him. "Oh, no." Yui was shaking her head. "I don't 
remember... Only, that... what a *terrible* man he was !!" She began 
kicking and fighting. "Please go AWAY!!" 
    Gendo grabbed her by an arm and flung her beside of a new 
vault-style entrance they'd not passed yet. Quickly, one-handed, he 
swiped the card access key, letting the door motors slide the massive 
hunk of metal out of his way as he stepped into a command control 
center deep in the heart of the Geofront. 
    Through a window on one side of the chamber they could see the pool 
of LCL with a pale form lying hacked apart in it. Gendo grinned, seeing 
in the exposed red core a pulse of pale red light, then another, like a 
heartbeat. "They failed to kill it. Injured, yes. But that will not 
stop my plans." 
    "Eww." Yui's face wrinkled up, seeing the grotesque thing on the 
other side of the chamber's glass wall starting to regenerate itself. 
    Gendo was already fiddling with controls, hunching his back to peer 
closely at them in the dim light of the ill-used chamber. "They said I 
was mad! MAD!! But I'll show them. I'll do it to show them ALL!!! That 
boy wants cartoons does he? I'll show him a cartoon he'll never forget! 
I'll teach him to cross me! Wants to complain. Everything all soft and 
plushy, while I rot in the bowels of this hole. Made Yui forget me, 
turned Fuyutsuki against me. But I'll make him PAY!!!!" The madman 
lunged around to a different console, a mean smile on his face. 
    "Terrible experiments, yes." The madman gathered more of his wits 
about him, becoming almost calm as he faced the youthened Yui. "But I 
learned many things in those experiments. Doing them may have branded 
me a murderer in their eyes, but they'll never know. I learned things I 
never told SEELE. I learned *many* ways to stop or foil their plans, to 
turn them to my own ends. I did it all for you, Yui." 
    Somehow the girl was NOT impressed. She began looking around 
herself for a weapon she might use against him. 
    Gendo was now clutching a yellow rubber squeaky duck in his one 
hand, crushing it again and again as he ground his teeth, making oddly 
incongruous happy little squeaks as it got mashed over and over. Yui 
paused at the sight. She *remembered* that toy! It was one of 
Jay-chan's favorite bath things when he was little. Suddenly she looked 
around her surroundings with new eyes. 
    This was one of the mobile command centers! She'd taken Jared here 
when he was little to show him around. The duck must have fallen out of 
his hands then. 
    But if this was what she was thinking, the controls to raise this 
room should be over there. If she could get there the room could be 
raised practically to the door of Nerv security! She began to edge over 
that way. 
    Gendo was still mashing his teeth, seeming obsessed in his 
inability to smash the yellow squeaky duck out of shape without it 
instantly returning to form. While he tried to crush the toy he 
muttered. "Think he's better? Think he's smarter than me? Well, I'll 
show him! I'll crush him, and crush him, and crush..." 
    When Yui reached the console to move the room suddenly Gendo went 
silent. 
    In a calm tone of voice that was downright eerie, he contrived to 
sound far more mad than before. "He wants to complain, but he took you 
from me. He'll never take you from me again, Yui. I'll stop him. I'll 
do what I never told anyone could be done. I'll do it to stop him, so 
he'll never come between us, Yui." A giggle escaped the madman. 
"Because I already knew how I could add the angel to a man. I knew it. 
I was working on getting you back, and I learned it." 
    With his eyes rolling now in different directions, totally at odds 
with the calmness of his face, the madman touched a single button. 
Reactions started both within the chamber and out with the injured 
angel. 
    "I'll have the power to stop him forever now." The TV monitor began 
showing an ancient cartoon. Gendo began to change while the wounded 
angel shrank, being absorbed into him. "We'll always be together now." 
    He sprouted another arm, then something else. 
    Yui began to scream. 

    "Here, have a slice. You'll feel much better." 
    "Roasted dark warrior?" Misato sat in her plugsuit, the LCL 
swirling around her as she continued to gather herself and counteract 
the terrible things the interface was trying to do to her. 
    Thunder Knight dropped a fresh slab across her Eva's knees. "Your 
Knight needs to absorb the powers of your enemies. Your Earth crystal 
is still fresh and unstable, you might need a booster shot of their 
protein to stabilize those, and especially to acquire the force shield 
powers which caused us so much havoc this time fighting them." 
    Misato looked at the fork in her left hand that he'd made out of a 
twisted utility tower. "Uhm..." 
    "You want to regrow the waist of your Earth Knight, don't you?" 
    Misato began directing her Eva in eating. Moments later, she 
exclaimed. "Hey! This is really good! I could get used to a diet of 
this." She hastily began cramming more meat into her Eva's mouth. 
    Jared looked over to where several square miles of alien flesh sat. 
"Well, you might have to. There's an awful lot to eat this time..." 

    "Status of the Knights?" Mecha-Fuyutsuki asked from where it was 
enthroned in the command chair of the command station, metal and lights 
glinting from half his face. 
    By now the bridge crew were taking this in stride. 
    They'd had weirder things happen - earlier today, in fact. By now 
anything so normal as finding a robotic duplicate of a trusted coworker 
was almost tame. 
    Rei Ayanami walked into the chamber, looking around, as Aoba 
muttered. "I'm not getting any readings on Frost Knight's pilot. 
Misato... err, Cutie Emerald seems to have been saved by her Magic Girl 
powers. Ritsuko's Knight read her sync ratio jump to 400% just before 
the last blast from her, cresting the limits of the new soul-filter." 
    "Did she leave a ribbon for Jared to command her Knight?" Rei 
asked. 
    Everybody turned toward her. 
    "Hi Rei!" Hyuga replied, then shrugged. "No one knows. She left in 
such a dramatic moment, I wasn't watching. I don't think anyone was. I 
could check the recording for you." 
    Rei gave a slight nod. "Please do. It will be vital in knowing if 
Jared can restore her by the proven methods by which he rescued Yui." 
    "Right on it!" Hyuga turned back to his boards, feeling cheerful. 
    "Say, Rei, why'd you leave Frost Knight? We had Eva Rescue on its 
way, now I'll have to call them off." Aoba leaned back, feeling 
pre-party rush of post-battle euphoria. 
    "Please don't." 
    "Huh?" Aoba clicked a button and the contents of Frost Knight's 
entry plug were made clear. It was empty. "See, no reason for them to 
waste their time." 
    "Do not let them spill the entry plug fluid." Rei informed him. 
    Aoba was getting confused. 
    Rei Ayanami walked into the room. "I was unable to locate Dr 
Akagi." 
    Rei Ayanami walked into the room, holding a length of yellow 
ribbon. "I found this lying in Unit Four's cage. I believe it was torn 
from a party display. I do believe that this serves to indicate that Dr 
Akagi gave Jared permission to command her Muscle Knight." 
    Rei Ayanami walked into the room, trailed by Rei Ayanami and two 
more Rei's Ayanami, holding between them a Rei Ayanami who'd been shot 
by a severely startled security guard. They reported in chorus. "We 
will go to the infirmary to await help there." 
    The other Ayanamis nodded in response. 
    Every Ayanami began to file out of the room. The last one in line 
turned to face the bridge crew. "Please do not forget to save Rei 
Ayanami from the Frost Knight. I note from your boards that her sync 
ratio crested 400% as the beam claimed her. She will need to be rescued 
by Jared as well." 
    Aoba and Maya's eyes had come clear out of their sockets and rolled 
under the consoles, bumping up against a certain pet carrier. Hyuga 
waved an arm casually. "Right! I'll let him know." 
    The other two turned to him, eyeballs retracting on nerves slowly 
reeling back into place. "How..." they both echoed. 
    "Could I take this so calmly?" Hyuga asked, completing their 
question for them. He buffed his fingernails against his shirt, then 
went back to face his controls, beginning to send orders out to various 
parties on the battlefield. "I just remembered what Jared said, is all. 
Remember when he got Rei admitting she was a clone? Well, obviously 
they made some spare copies." 
    Maya fell in a dead faint on the floor. 
    This was too good an opportunity to miss and Aoba fell right across 
her, also in a dead faint, though with a motive less pure. 
    "Status of the Eva Rescue teams?" Mecha Fuyutsuki inquired. 
     A roar came from out of the battlefield monitors. Hyuga covered 
his ears, rubbing them as the volume had hurt. "We appear to be under 
attack again." Was all he said. 

    The fright was bad enough Misato's magical interface failed, and 
she slumped, in a not-too-terribly-well-repaired pile of 
almost-regenerated Knight. 
    Jared had left his Thunder Knight to devouring large scraps of dark 
angel, as the quickest way to recharge internal power (of which he'd 
used ALOT) was to feed it. Now he raised a muzzle covered in red 
substance to look to this new source of terror. 
    When he saw what it was, he set aside the giant ketchup bottle and 
stood up. 

    Gendo thought he'd had the perfect plan. 
    Of course, there were one or two little flaws with it. Trivial, 
really. Things well worth the cost of the power now flowing within his 
veins, throbbing in his renewed limbs, and bulging his youthened 
muscles. 
    The first was his appearance. The tail kept getting in the way of 
things. 
    Second was control. He'd knocked Yui out trying to restrain her 
hysterics. Now he carried her limp in one arm - her weight was trivial. 
Third was, though now he was super-powerful, one of the most powerful 
creatures on Earth, in fact, he could not afford to remain any longer 
inside the Geofront. It was too close to his opponent's base of power, 
and with his changes could no longer hide him. The senses of the 
attacking dark angels would detect him, and he didn't want to be the 
subject of their attacks. 
    Simply solved. If he was away from the Geofront he could hide from 
both Knights and other Aliens and no one would be the wiser. If he hid 
the tail he could even still pass for human. 
    But he had not reckoned on the full moon. 

    The change was FULLY recorded on every monitoring device that Nerv 
controlled. 
    It also left Hyuga with his tongue hanging out and his jaw resting 
in his lap. When he recovered them both, he said. "You know, it's one 
thing to SAY you believe it. But it's quite another to SEE that Jared 
was right all along!" 
    Gendo Ikari, having gone just mad enough to pattern his 
angel-modified self after an old action cartoon, obviously had 
forgotten what happens to an alien Dragonball Z character who sees the 
full moon. 
    Clutching a slender Yui in one mighty paw, the hundred-foot tall 
alien Gorilla Gendo gave a massive triumphant roar, and began to amble 
away through the city, knocking down any inconvenient buildings that 
got in the way. 
    Aoba had woken up and was staring with frank disbelief. "I don't 
BELIEVE it! The moody freak WAS a surgically altered monkey all 
along!!" 
    Hyuga gestured to the massive screen. "Yah, only now he's got his 
tail un-snipped somehow." 
    Aoba climbed back into his chair, saying. "Thunder Knight will get 
him." 
    "No takes on THAT bet!" Hyuga grinned. 

    Automated, rapid-deployment defense drones were actually faster 
getting to the scene than Jared's Thunder Knight. Tiny robotic tanks 
were crushed under foot and airplanes swatted away or hit by thrown 
garbage, buildings, and tanks. 
    It was a glorious scene of mass destruction, the giant ape leading 
the way by quite a few points. If it had been a screen shot from an 
ancient video game called Rampage only a few people would've thought to 
comment on the unusually high quality of the graphics. 
    Others viewing it would've thought that Japan was getting back into 
giant monster movies in *style.* In point of fact, Kensuke would 
release bootleg copies among his friends and be a media star hounded by 
studios offering movie contracts almost overnight. The real masters 
Hyuga would only get to release after trying to convince the oversight 
committee that this wasn't a promotional gimmick for years. 
    Gendo had an early start, having chosen one of the access tunnels 
that gave an exit farthest from the city, and deliberately chosen as 
opposite where the Knights crouched in their after-battle repairs. 
    Thunder Knight was also hindered by having placed no small amount 
of energy into the past fight and now gaining new crystal powers - both 
exhausting. 
    There was *also* the comparatively minor fact that Gendo as an ape 
was FAST!!! It wasn't until the chase had led all the way to Old Tokyo 
that Thunder Knight caught up to him, and with Yui still clasped in the 
beast's furry paw he didn't DARE unleash his greatest range weapons. 
    Thunder Knight created his lightning spear. 
    Gendo Gorilla looked around, saw that escape by speed was no longer 
possible, and began to climb up the side of Tokyo Tower, holding Yui in 
one paw. A new swarm of attack planes and helicopters began to buzz 
around him, and the giant ape began to swing at them, roaring defiance. 
    Jared began to consider that just MAYBE he'd let this get away from 
him. 
    Weird was *his* specialty, since when had all these others started 
horning in? 
    The alien gorilla began beating its chest, having put down Yui to 
swat at planes two-handed while its prehensile feet clung to the 
building. 
    ~Okay, this was getting just a *little* too weird.~ 
    Next thought. 
    ~So how do you kill a Saiyin all monstered out?~ 
    The tail began wagging before his eyes. One giant, furry, snakelike 
target. And best of all, cutting it would cause the villain to fall. 
Except, hmm... knowing this type of alien, he'd survive, and get away, 
and looking for one humanoid among millions was not any kind of fun. 
Especially not with one of Gendo's skills doing the hiding. 
    It was time for the bastard to die. 
    A completely incongruous biplane flew by in a daring raid, with a 
boomer clung to a ladder hung underneath. Said boomer snatched Yui away 
from the ledge the gorilla had lain her, and Jared took that as his 
cue. 
    He adopted the correct pose. 
    Power began to gather from all his crystals. 

"Here I'm standing in the night. 
The crystal power our only light. 

Alone against my darkest fear 
But I sense my friends are near 
I'll draw from each the power I need 
To win this battle and succeed!" 

    Thunder Knight had begun to power up a blast capable of killing a 
Saiyin monstered out, and to do so he mentally reached out and tapped 
into the power of all the remaining Elemental Knights, still lying 
scattered about Tokyo 3. 
    Thought their pilots were dissolved or incapacitated, their 
crystals all began to glow. 

"Give me the strength to carry on! 
With all our love, we can't go wrong! 

Only together we'll face the fight! 
Nothing can stand against our might!" 

    Gendo Gorilla was trumpeting his triumph over the airships, as they 
withdrew from the fire zone. Jared had built up an energy sphere 
approximately the size of his own chest, a glowing ball of lacy frost 
crystals, electrical bolts and radiant glow. 
    The gigantic simian suddenly noticed the loss of Yui, and Jared's 
Thunder Knight was the largest, most obvious thing in sight. The 
creature began to glow with a dangerous aura of its own. 

"Give me the strength to carry on! 
With all our love, we can't go wrong! 

Only together we'll face the fight! 
Nothing can stand against our might!" 

    Still and all, it was only an angel. Jared had the beast lined up, 
the Tower's height keeping most of the destructive damage confined to 
the ape and the sky beyond. 
    He released the massive bolt of power. 

"With all our strength the battle's won 
With all our love we can't go wrong 

We have the strength to carry on!" 

    Gendo roared in rage and fear as the bolt annihilated him and half 
of Tokyo Tower as well. 
    Exhausted with the strain, Thunder Knight collapsed into a canal. 

    The ceiling of the Nerv infirmary was getting fairly familiar by 
now. 
    Jared blinked at it. 
    The door swished open almost in that moment, spilling in family, 
friends, and loved ones... Oh, and Pen Pen. The little penguin 
fluttered up to Jared's face, saying. "I'd like to thank you for 
restoring Misato to her true powers." 
    The superspy looked in surprise at the former operation director of 
Nerv, and saw her demonstrate her transformation sequence. That was 
then he noted something else. 
    "Uhm, how did everybody... get... who *is* everybody here, 
anyway??" 
    One fourteen-year old raised her hand. "I'm Misato." The magical 
girl laughed. 
    Another fourteen year old raised her hand. "I'm Misato's Mother." 
    Yet another fourteen year old girl raised hers. "I'm Ritsuko." 
    And another cheery girl in her early teens. "And I'm Ritsuko's 
Mother." 
    "I'm Yui!" Yui giggled. 
    "We're Rei Ayanami." Several dozen Rei Ayanamis answered. 
    "I am Mecha-Fuyutsuki." 
    "And everybody but the cybernetic dude is fourteen years old." 
Jared concluded for them, observing what he could himself. Something 
welled up within him. He sat up straight, giving out a cry that would 
horrify most men of stout hearts. "ALRIGHT!!" The redhead said with 
every evidence of glee. 
    And there was much rejoicing. 

    After the celebrations, later, Mecha Fuyutsuki gave them the 
current news. Clearing his mechanical throat, he said. "It seems that 
our new commander will be arriving tomorrow." 
    Magical Soldier Cutie Emerald pouted, putting down the heavy 
medical machinery she'd been curling one-handed. "Well, I suppose it 
had to happen sometime." 
    "Who is it?" Ritsuko's mom, until recently being out of touch, 
asked. 
    Mecha Fuyutsuki addressed them all. "Until recently his name was 
Ikari, adopted because of his brother Gendo. Since learning of his 
assignment here, he has reverted to his birth name of Saotome." 
    Jared practically swallowed his throat. "Don't you mean, Genma 
Saotome?" He said, feeling an excess of terror. 
    "Yes." Mecha-Fuyutsuki nodded firmly. 
    The door suddenly burst open and a fat, balding old man shot 
through to consume Jared in a grease-smelling hug. "Jared! My boy! How 
PROUD I am! Now the Saotome family legacy is assured." 
    Jared scowled. At least the old guy could've changed his gi once a 
year or so.