Third Labor
Chapter 1 - A Paler Shade Of Grey
by Gregg Sharp
=====
Note that this builds on events in "Skysaber's Choice"
and directly follows the events in "Reluctant Bet"
---------
Grey felt things fall apart, the Worldgate shutting
down in mid-transport, and did what little he could,
gathering Ami and Sasami close with his arms as he used a
leg to hook around a support and try to anchor himself. The
horses screamed, and there were other screams as well that
indicated other people were caught unawares by the vortex.
Something slammed into the back of his head, and Grey
loosened from the impact and it felt as if Ami and Sasami
vanished in that moment as well as the comforting solidity
of the wagon.
---------
"Shinji? Shinji!"
Grey groaned, not wanting this to be confirmed. He
opened his eyes to see Misato Katsuragi looking down on him.
~Oh, crap!~
"Shinji! You *are* Shinji Ikari, aren't you?" Misato
stood up.
"Certainly looks that way," Grey held up a skinny arm,
without any of the callouses or scars he'd had at Shinji's
age. Certainly without the muscle he'd developed later,
particularly after going through battle training by some
particularly sadistic Valkyries. ~Okay, dimensional vortex,
and now i've 'leapt' into Shinji Ikari. Best to go along
with this until i figure out what to do next.~ "Uhm, you're
my contact, right?"
"Captain Misato Katsuragi! C'mon, we've got to get out
of here!" Misato jerked a thumb at a 60ft+ tall figure
walking away from their position. At that point a shot from
a UN Combat chopper struck Misato's car, instantly
transforming it from "sports car" to "flaming wreck".
Misato rose up from where she'd ducked behind a bench
and whimpered.
"You *did* have Giant Monster Battle insurance on that,
didn't you?" Shinji (best to go with the flow) asked as he
scratched his head.
Misato whimpered again in reply, staring at the ruin.
"...I've still got payments..."
Shinji nodded and took stock: no equipment, no backup,
and he was in the physical body of an anemic spineless wimp.
This sucked. "Okay, how about calling for alternate
transportation?"
"My phone was..."
Shinji winced. "In the car. Right. And the phone lines
here are down. Well, that leaves us with only one option,
doesn't it?"
Misato kept staring at her car and mumbling about the
damage to her bank account.
Realizing he wasn't getting anywhere, Shinji paused. He
could *feel* someone's presence. One of the benefits of
having your wedding ceremony performed in Asgard by an
actual goddess. Even if it *had* been rather crowded and a
shotgun affair. Telepathy wasn't possible, not here at
least, but he could feel the presence of a wife in THAT
direction.
Shinji opened his eyes. "C'mon, Captain, this way."
"But..." Misato eyed the boy as he went walking off
with determination. Certainly he carried himself differently
than she expected. "...but..."
Shinji smiled as he heard Misato following him. It
didn't take long before he found someone sprawled
unconscious on the street and ran towards her. Shaking her
gently, the girl finally stirred.
"Who's she? Why isn't she evacuated?" Misato was a
little surprised but still in shock and going over her
monthly payments on a car that had attained the past tense.
Ami blinked, not recognizing the face, but something
told her..."Grey?"
Shinji smiled and nodded at Ami's hesitant response, he
whispered just loud enough for her to hear: "We'll talk
later. Check your purse for identification while I keep
Misato there occupied. Then introduce yourself, please
follow my lead."
Ami nodded, so Shinji walked back to where Misato was
finally coming out of her "I'm financially doomed" trance.
"Well, Captain, what's with the Giant Monster? You
obviously know what's going on around here!" Shinji went on
the attack, knowing that keeping Misato off guard would buy
them some valuable time.
"Hey, I wanted to know who's this girl! And... oh man,
how am I going to explain this to the Commander?" Misato
winced at the thought of the report she'd end up filing.
"She's with me. We go everywhere together. Now, what's
with the Giant Monster? You're not getting either of us
until we hear some answers more than that irresponsible
deadbeat poor excuse for a father -Gendo Ikari wants to see
me. After seeing a Giant Monster from way too close, *i* am
supposed to just swallow my questions and go gallivanting
off after him. Next thing you know there'll be Giant Robots
in a Hidden Base and Secret Plans of World Destruction."
"I don't..." Misato bit off the rest of her reply and
went thoughtful. "Actually we're the Last Best Hope For
Mankind's Survival."
"That's what they *all* say in the old cartoons."
Shinji cocked his head to the side and regarded her. "So
you're not denying the Secret Base and Giant Robot stuff?
You didn't hit your head when you dove behind the bench, did
you?"
"No!" Misato yelled, briefly losing her temper.
"Excuse me," Ami said, easing up to Shinji's side and
taking his hand. "I'm Ami Mizuno, you know Grey-chan?"
"'Grey-chan?'" Misato repeated.
"A nickname i got after my horrid excuse-for-a-father,
Gendo Ikari, dumped me after he turned my mother into a
puddle of goo during an experiment. As you might expect, it
was a bit of a traumatic event." Grey smiled at Ami and
squeezed her hand. "You ought to call me Shinji just to
avoid confusing people."
Ami blushed but smiled herself. "Uhm. Well, I, ah,
anyway I'm... Shinji-kun's girlfriend. Here's my ID. When
the request for his school records came through, I took the
liberty of having my own transferred as well."
Misato's hair was toinging again. "I think I've heard
of you... Rits mentioned something about some girl genius
transferring to Tokyo-3. That's you?"
"H-hai..." Ami's shyness was returning with a
vengeance and she felt the need to lean on something.
Naturally, she chose the boy who's hand she was holding.
"But why aren't you in a shelter? It's dangerous out
here." Misato winced as the rumble of autocannon in the
background punctuated her sentence.
In answer, Ami lifted a keyring out of her purse and
punched a button on the side of a 'pillbox' hanging from it.
A rental truck flashed its lights in response.
"You're fourteen, and driving?! No no no no NO."
Misato held her hand out. "Kids nowadays. Geez! I'M driving.
How'd you..."
Ami just shrugged and smiled happily as she leaned
against her boyfriend. Using the action to whisper to him.
"There's a little diary in my purse. I need more time to
read it."
Shinji nodded and whispered back. "It may have to
wait. i'll see if we can't drop you off outside of NERV,
otherwise they'll probably search your stuff."
Misato found herself wincing. The two were whispering
to each other, and she'd seen enough to extrapolate. A
couple THAT close and unchaperoned... If they hadn't been
sleeping together she'd be *very* surprised and they
probably couldn't bear to be apart very long at THAT stage
of their relationship. The 'girl genius' showed every sign
of having been transformed into a giggly schoolgirl, while
the 'pilot' probably wasn't able to think of anything beyond
his girlfriend for long periods of time. She wondered what
other details were going to pop up and start slapping her in
the face.
---------
To Misato's considerable relief, the rental truck had
a working phoneline and a call to NERV HQ did manage to go
through. The relief was only temporary, however.
Ritsuko's annoyance was quite obvious despite the
line static. "What do you mean you're driving a rental
truck?! What happened to your car?"
"Uhm, well, it looked like a small missile managed to
hit it," Misato tried to laugh about it.
"Did you get the insurance package that covered
military actions?"
Misato winced. "Well..."
"Translation: no. Well, did you at least manage to
get the pilot?"
Misato's wince was joined by a sweatdrop. "Errr.
Yes... he's here with me."
"I hear a 'but' in there."
Misato's sweatdrop was joined by several cousins.
"Well... there's kind of a complication..."
Ritsuko's voice dropped slightly. "What *kind* of
complication?"
"He brought his girlfriend... or she brought him, or
something like that..."
"WHAT?!" Ritsuko's voice was loud enough that it drew
curious looks from Shinji (who was otherwise just watching
the scenery) and Ami (who had had her nose in a book since
Misato had started driving). "What do you mean
'girlfriend'?!"
"Her name's Ami Mizuno, you remember mentioning some
girl transferring to Tokyo 3 High School?"
"Mizuno-san?!" Ritsuko's voice lost the edge that had
appeared in it. "That's... interesting. I read her term
paper on the longrange climatic effects of the Second
Impact, and her theories about the dwindling number of
children being born- particularly male children. With the
scanty data she was able to access, it was quite impressive.
Completely wrong, but impressive nonetheless..."
"Something occur to you?" Misato was glad the
streets were so deserted, it made driving this ornery thing
much easier than it otherwise would have been.
"This is not a secure line," Ritsuko reminded.
"Talk to you when I'm there, then." Misato hung up
the phone as they approached a tunnel.
"WHAT THE?!" Shinji yelped. "Ami-chan, does your
compact have a mirror?"
"What's the problem?" Misato looked over the boy but
couldn't see anything different. His girlfriend, on the
other hand, was definitely blushing *again* as she handed
him the requested article.
Shinji fumbled it open and stared long enough for
Misato to notice.
"Shinji, is something wrong? You didn't get too
much sun, did you? With that fair skin, I've bet you've got
to be careful." Misato wasn't sure why Shinji had that
"punched in the gut" look to him.
"Oh yeah," Shinji nodded. "Albinos like me tend to
burn pretty quickly out in the sun..."
---------
Fuyutsuki looked at the report. "So it's happening
much as you've planned. Chairman Keele has his hopes pinned
on this Human Instrumentality Project (HIP), but SEELE's
backup plan..."
Gendo nodded, his gaze never wavering from the
geofront view outside his window. "The Genetic Upgrade Test
Series (GUTS) is progressing ahead of schedule. So Shinji
has been seeing the Alpha unit..."
Fuyutsuki glanced at his superior, not bothering to
mention that the Alpha unit had a name. Gendo would use it
when he wanted to. Not before.
----------
"Estimate fifteen minutes until the yoma arrives," a
female voice announced over the intercom.
Another female voice spoke immediately thereafter.
"N2 Mine has successfully destroyed 90% of 'troop' yoma, the
General *is* regenerating."
Ritsuko watched the monitor. "Look at that, the boy's
being quite protective of his little girlfriend. How...
useful."
"Useful?" Maya wasn't quite sure what to make of that
comment.
"It gives us a tether by which we can manipulate
him," answered Ritsuko absently. "Look at how he's ready to
start a fight with that one security guard for copping a
feel while frisking Mizuno-san. Despite the guard being
quite a bit larger. With territorial instincts like that,
we'll be able to get him jumping through any rings we want."
"A guard did what?!"
"Actually he was planting a chempatch onto her skin,
the grab was just to distract attention." Ritsuko Akagi
pursed her lips and considered the display briefly. "Now we
just have to seperate the two of them and we'll be able to
get Alpha ready."
Maya blinked. "She's the Alpha unit? What about..."
"Shinji will pilot Unit One. Asuka will pilot Unit
Two. Ayanami will pilot Unit Zero. The others all have their
own places."
Maya winced. Yes, she had a crush on Ritsuko Akagi,
she admired the woman's fierce intellect and ability to pull
solutions out of nowhere. That didn't mean that Ritsuko
didn't scare the piss out of Maya every so often.
---------
"Mizuno-san will have to stay here, it's too late to
get her to a shelter." Misato didn't mention that the
security teams were likely going through the packed
belongings on the truck with a fine tooth comb right now.
"I don't trust Secret Government Organizations running
out of Hidden Bases," noted Shinji with a calm voice,
fingering an odd little marble in his pocket. "The
prediliction for secretive behavior often copies over into
other areas, like hidden agendas and secret plans.
Therefore, Ami-chan should stay with me."
"I'll be okay," Ami reassured her boyfriend (that
thought sending a fresh blush across her cheeks). "I'm
feeling a bit tired, anyway."
Shinji frowned some more but finally nodded. "Okay, if
you insist."
"I insist. Go out and save the world or whatever." Ami
sat down in one of the plastic "bus station" sort of chairs,
ending the argument.
Ami watched the two go off and tried (unsuccessfully)
to find a magazine of interest. She finally settled on an
old issue of Cosmopolitan and started reading THAT with a
fair heaping of guilty pleasure. Especially when the first
article she turned to was on how to rate your relationship
using the Kinsey-Matsumoto System.
Acting out fantasies was the first question. Maybe if
she played Doctor...
She was sound asleep with an odd little grin when the
men in dark suits came for her.
---------
Eyecatch #3:
Minako Aino in a framed picture, wearing a skirt and blouse.
With a click, the picture turns over and she's wearing a
plugsuit. Click/turn. Minako's wearing a Sailor Venus
seifuku. Click/turn. Minako's wearing a cheerleader outfit.
Click/turn. Minako as a Lodoss style elf. Click/turn, Minako
the cute lil' angel.
Eyecatch #4:
Ami Mizuno in a framed picture, wearing a labcoat and
stethoscope. The picture turns over with a click, revealing
a picture of Amy Anderson as a Vulcan in a Star Fleet
science uniform. Click/flip: Sailor Mercury. Click/flip: Ami
as a RIFTS Rogue Scientist in a suit of Urban Warrior
megadamage armor. Click/flip: Ami as a cute little angel.
---------
Ritsuko, Misato, Gendo, and half the crew from NERV HQ
noted the difference between the sulking albino led into the
storage bay to the fierce boy ready to do his level best to
defend his girlfriend at the security checkpoint.
"Are you sure about this? Isn't there someone better?
What about the effect on the environment? Has anyone even
*tried* to talk with these yoma?"
"Commander," mumbled Fuyutsuki as he stood behind
Gendo, "maybe we *need* Alpha after all."
Gendo smirked (smirk#7) and didn't respond verbally.
Misato, in the bay, pointed towards Unit One. "Get in
there, you're a boy you know!"
Shinji blinked at Misato for a moment, then very
deliberately, looked down the front of his pants. "Oh my
lord! You're right! Well, no sense sending a boy in to do a
woman's job. Good luck, Misato, go kill that
yoma-thingie..."
Misato blinked as she realized that Shinji was halfway
towards the door. "HEY!"
Shinji got to the door, found it wouldn't open, and
sighed. Not that easy to get out of this Reality...
"WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!" Misato screamed, having
absolutely no idea what to do about a suddenly *very*
reluctant pilot.
"Shinji. You will pilot Unit One."
Shinji dropped the pretense. "What are you doing to
Ami-chan?"
Gendo frowned and it showed in his voice. "The girl is
safe. For now. This will not be the case if the Yoma
accesses this Geofront."
"Let Ami-chan go and i will pilot Unit One."
"You are not in a position to negotiate," replied
Gendo. "Bring the First Child. The spare is proving
difficult."
Shinji blinked. ~Waitaminute. If Rei Ayanami is *also*
here, then why am *i* a half-angel clone... and of *who*? i
certainly don't look like Yui Ikari, Gendo Rokubungi/Ikari,
or anyone else in the series i remember.~
The answer was swift in coming, with identical wounds
to what he had seen in Evangelion, the figure of Rei was
moved through the door by several large officious types.
However, her hair and eyes were dark, her skin several
shades darker than his own bleached-looking albino skin. Rei
was quite obviously a relatively normal human.
The wounds, the bloodstains, the gurney, were all the
same from the Evangelion series he'd seen.
"Rei, you must do it again," Gendo's voice echoed over
the "waters" of hangar bay.
Rei winced and tried to get up.
Shinji turned his attention towards the observation
booth. "I'll pilot it. But I swear on my mother's grave,"
here he pointed at the Eva unit, "if you do *anything* to
Ami I will find a way to hunt you down and kill your sorry
ass. And don't forget I *always* keep my promises."
The cold, heartfelt, sincerity in that statement
reached a few of the people there. Misato and Ritsuko had
absolutely no doubt that the albino was serious. Gendo made
plans for finding another pilot immediately, this one
appeared to have some will.
Nobody saw him pull a marble out of his pocket, inflate
it to the size of a baseball, then release a mountain lion
as Shinji got into the entry plug. They just noted his
presence in the entry plug and accepted his brief absence
from camera view as continued jitters.
---------
In an odd place that combined aspects of a late 70s MIS
Department, a garden, and the Starfleet Administration
Computer Research Center (she'd worked there once, and
discovered that Klingon Warriors could be repelled quite
easily with Hello Kitty merchandise) a young-looking goddess
frowned and checked her readings. "Oh, fubar!" This was both
an assessment and a term of lack of endearment.
"Ama-chan!" Celeste held the button on the intercom do
wn briefly. "Amaterasu! I've done traces on the explosion.
Looks like Grey's little red wagon and the horses ended up
in Staging Area 3. I've sent Joe to recover them. The
problem was caused by Son Usagi's battle aura interfering
with the gate process. I *know* she wasn't supposed to go!
Yeah. Sixteen. No, I'm not sure."
Celeste listened a little longer. "Because those were
just the obvious trails. Look I think the best thing to do
is get Grey to accept the marriages as valid. Because THEN
he can use the connection there for Similarity & Contagion,
and use the bond to trace them to wherever they ended up. Uh
huh. Looks like Ami and Sasami are there in the timeline
where he landed. Depends on your definition of danger."
Celeste nodded. "Actually they're all genetically
engineered beings. SEELE is planning on having them mate
with 'Shinji' so as to produce a next stage in human
evolution. They call their plan GUTS. Genetic Upgrade Test
Series or something like that. No, Makoto is in another
timeline, so are Usagi, Minako, Honey, Belle's here merged
with her local aspect, Haruka and Michiru ended up in Sky's
homeplane merging with their aspects there, Hotaru's in
another plane, so is Setsuna. Actually she's not that
manipulative in this variant.
"Well, of course they're in trouble. Ayanami and Misato
didn't sneak aboard. The four bracer-genies are in the
wagon. He's got his weapon-bracers, but what use he can get
out of them... No, there *are* local versions of Ami's
friends, they're just not the ones who tried to sneak on his
Labor."
------
On the monitor, the bridge crew could see Shinji
settling back as the LCL rose around him, finally taking a
deep breath of the fluid and making a face. "It tastes like
blood, it smells like blood."
"Cut it out, you're a boy you know!" Misato fussed at
the albino, momentarily forgetting his last reaction to that
statement.
"i'd really like to hear Ami's comment on that."
Maya looked up from her board. "General has released
soldier-yoma. Actions?"
"Release our soldiers," ordered Gendo, "tell them shoot
to kill. They only have to hold them off long enough for
Shinji to defeat the General anyway."
--------
Shinji looked at the interior of the Entry Plug with a
certain degree of surprise. It more resembled the cockpit of
a Gundam unit (later series) than a Evangelion plug that he
was familiar with. "Ami-chan..."
"Cut it out, you're..."
"OH SHUT UP!"
Everyone in the bridge stared at the monitor briefly as
Shinji lost his temper.
"i DON'T need some criticism from some drunkard washed
out military dupe who can't even fix INSTANT RAMEN! Someone
whose failed relationship with her high school sweetheart
continued to set the pattern of dangerous rebel and
self-destructive behavior all her life."
Ritsuko blinked, making a little squeegee noise.
"Misato, how does he know you that well?"
Misato turned to her friend with a startled expression.
"What?"
"Man, he really nailed you," Makoto Hyuga said
thoughtfully.
"Hey!"
"Fuyutsuki. Check our security files and find out how
Shinji could have such accurate intelligence on Katsuragi."
"HEY!!!" Several hairs had toinged by this point.
Shinji hadn't stopped talking. "AND you're not getting
any younger, you know! What do you think that 'drink till
you puke' lifestyle is gonna do?"
"STOP THAT!" Misato yelled at the screen, thoroughly
rattled.
"Well *excuse me* Captain Mushroom!" Shinji fussed as he
checked the controls. "i'd be a lot less stressed out if
you'd let Ami go!"
"Mushroom?" Misato pondered that.
Hyoga volunteered some information. "Means everyone
keeps you in the dark and feeds you..."
Maya decided to interrupt. "Registering a synch rate of
52%. 64%. 72%... stabilizing at 74%."
Everyone sweatdropped except Gendo, who merely smirked.
Ritsuko finally gave a low whistle. "Rei's best synch
rate so far is 14%, and that was just before her Eva went
wild."
"Mushroom?" Misato repeated. There weren't things going
on around her she wasn't aware of, were there? She was in
the loop, wasn't she?
"Launch Eva Unit One," commanded Gendo.
"Unit One, Launch!"
"I am *not* 'washed out'," muttered Misato.
Aoba looked up at her and temporarily disabled the mike
to the Eva. "He's just stressed out about his friend being
in detention. Maybe if we put her on voicelink he'll settle
down."
"We can't do that in her present condition," Ritsuko
said ominously.
"What?! Why wasn't I informed?" Misato looked to her
friend for answers.
"Need To Know, Captain, and you don't." Gendo
interrupted as the EVA unit sped up the shaft to the streets
above.
---------
From a catwalk above the LCL to the bay, from the bay
that had contained Unit One to a hallway, something walked.
"A-ka-ne!"
Another security camera became molten metal and
cracked plastic as a mountain lion stalked the top secret
corridors of NERV.
"WHAT THE?!" A NERV Security agent saw a large
carnivore, decided that one of the soldier-yoma had
penetrated the security perimeter, and drew his weapon. That
was as far as he got before said large carnivore did a head
butt attack that sent the agent into dreamland.
Akane considered, lashing her tail about as she
pondered. Wandering around aimlessly was no good. Grey
(she'd recognized his scent even if the face had changed)
had told her that Ami was in trouble and he was counting on
her to effect a rescue.
Akane *liked* that. None of this smarmy superior male
crap she'd had to put up with from Kuno or the Hentai Horde.
No condescending at all. He'd taken her seriously, and asked
her to do something really important. Save his girlfriend,
that weak little bookworm, if she remembered the briefing
right. Oh, and there'd been that video party while they got
ready for this mission. She remembered Ami, and Ami smelled
like...
Akane sniffed the air. There it was, faint, but it was
there. Akane grinned, revealing sharp teeth. Her senses were
so acute now, she felt so vital, it was like this form was a
drug and she was thoroughly enjoying it. Eventually she'd
return to being human, but she was enjoying the enhanced
senses, the power and strength of this form.
"Aka." Another burst of flame caused a suite of
sensors to curl up into a blackened molten nub.
She didn't have any camouflage abilities, but she
could move pretty quietly, and she was quite capable of
shredding some of the walls and doors she ran across. And if
anyone happened to see her, well, she'd cross that bridge
when she came to it.
--------
"Where..." Shinji immediately started looking around
for the villain, only to notice all the little
robot-thingies running around in the street. "What the
hey?!"
"Ignore the soldier-yoma, destroying the General will
end their threat as well," Hyuga's voice advised in the
cockpit.
Shinji blinked as he saw the big guy step out.
"Jadeite?! Errr. Where are my weapon systems?"
"You have a progressive knife in the right shoulder. Can
you walk?"
Shinji thought about walking. The EVA responded. Shinji
thought about giving Jadeite the finger. The EVA responded,
then Jadeite responded.
Black lightning shot from Jadeite to Eva, knocking the
big purple robot on its butt.
---------
There was silence in the control room for a few moments.
Aoba broke the silence first. "He must *really* be
distracted by his girlfriend being held incommunicado."
Hyuga nodded. "Yes, that does appear to be the case."
"That's pathetic," Misato watched as the fallen Eva was
being pounded on by the Yoma General.
"Chest plate has just been cracked. Cracks occurring in
the faceplate. Right arm broken," Maya kept up a running
commentary about the amount of damage being done.
"Structural integrity of abdominal wall compromised."
Gendo watched as the broken arm of the Eva unit was
ripped out of its socket and the General turned his
attention to ripping the chest plate off.
Fuyutsuki sidled a little closer. "Commander. If this
keeps up, the Unit and the pilot will be destroyed."
"Eject the entry plug, get that pilot out of there!"
Misato commanded.
"The signal's being rejected," Hyuga noted.
"Nerve connections are failing across the board,"
continued Maya, "synch ratio is plummetting, 45% and
dropping. Power cord severed. Pilot's synchrograph is nearly
flatline, if I didn't know better I'd think he was in a
depressive fugue, but that's not possible in these
conditions. Is it?"
Gendo scowled.
"Commander!" Fuyutsuki looked down on the seated Gendo.
"Feed the video of Alpha to the cockpit of Unit One,"
Gendo reluctantly allowed, "and if anyone asks, I've just
left for our Kansai base."
"Do it!" Fuyutsuki waited until the appropriate orders
had been given. "Commander?"
"If he chases this misdirection to Kansai, his power
will run out," explained Gendo. "We'll have to find a
substitute for Shinji after this..."
---------
In the Unit One cockpit, a little videobox opened,
revealing Ami. Revealing Ami drugged out of her mind.
Revealing the same Security agent as earlier...
---------
"What is that person doing?!" Misato was more than a
little upset.
Maya eeked and turned her eyes from the display.
"That's not going to look good in his personnel record,"
remarked Ritsuko. She glanced up at Gendo. "Isn't that a bit
much?"
"If it motivates the pilot, then it is sufficient."
Gendo frowned at his subordinate. Was he not the Commander?
Dr Akagi publicly questioning his authority was not
something he was prepared to tolerate.
Misato twitched as she heard enough to indicate that
Gendo had ordered the guard to do this during the
transmission.
A bleep returned Maya Ibuki's attention to the console.
"Synch rate rising, but..."
"That's odd, it looks like higher brain functions have
shut down." Ritsuko began to run an analysis of the
readings. "Fascinating."
"He's...." Maya's voice trailed off as the Eva unit
braced one finger with another and drove it deep within the
eye of the General.
The Eva roared animalistically, and started kicking and
punching at the General. When the General's head snapped
back, the Eva bit deeply into the neck of the General,
causing a fountain of blood to spew.
"Berserker," said Ritsuko.
Maya pulled her wastebasket out and began to spew
herself.
"The right arm's regenerated! But that's impossible!"
Ritsuko glanced at the synchrograph. "110%! How is this
possible?! This can't be!"
"Less than two minutes remaining of power," noted Hyuga.
Disdaining tools, the beast ripped open Jadeite's chest
and lifted the still beating heart of the General to its
mouth and fed. Maya looked up in time to see this, and was
quickly excused to the Ladies room. She was joined by Misato
a moment later. She was joined by Hyuga as well, but they
quickly ejected him from the Ladies room a moment later.
"That's... pretty gross," indicated Aoba, looking a
little green himself.
"Eva is taking in the S2 unit!" Fuyutsuki stared at the
screen. "It's too early."
With another roar, Eva slashed Jadeite's head off,
snapped his back over one knee, and then threw the Dark
General's body down the street where it imploded. Then the
Eva turned its attention to the elevator shaft that had
delivered it.
"Uhm. If THAT is coming back here..." Aoba's green was
rapidly turning pale. The Eva's eyes were glowing, blood
spattered its hands and mouth, and its stance definitely
indicated that whoever was home wasn't exactly running on
all cylinders. "Then, may I ask permission to evacuate?"
"Permission denied. Activate all barriers in elevator
shaft nine. DO IT!" Gendo raised his voice slightly for the
last.
On the screen, the first barrier came apart like
aluminum foil.
"Shinji? Shinji? You can calm down now," Hyuga had
returned to his post in time to see the barrier get wadded
up and the Eva begin climbing down the shaft. "The General's
dead and the minor yoma have vanished. You can stop any time
now!"
Eva roared in reply, leapt down the shaft, and began
pounding away at the next layer of armor. It immediately
started to crack.
"Well, on the good side, he's really got over that
indecisiveness problem..." Aoba offered as a quick joke.
Nobody laughed.
"How quickly can you get his girlfriend coherent? That
might snap him out of it." Fuyutsuki's voice was slightly
louder than he intended, he was a little paler than normal
himself.
"Barrier three is at 50%," noted Aoba. "Maybe you
overdid it a little, Commander."
Unit One ripped another section up and threw it to the
side, growling all the while.
"Timer's at zero," noted Hyuga quietly. "Isn't the Eva
supposed to stop?"
"It hasn't fully absorbed the S2 unit into itself,"
Fuyutsuki noted with rising hope, "it's slowing down."
The Eva on the screen held it's hands together as if
cupping an invisible ball.
"AT Field is folding in upon itself!" Ritsuko stared at
the displays. "The Eva is concentrating its entire AT Field
into a single point, feeding the field into a closed loop!"
"Um, I must have missed that class. What does that mean,
exactly?" Aoba wasn't too proud to ask for directions, and
he certainly felt lost.
"RRRRRRRAAGGGHHHHH!" The Eva on the display roared and
the "ball" began flickering into visibility and then up
through the spectrum.
"The AT field is increasing in density and power
output," Ritsuko noted. "Fascinating."
"Uhm, is this dangerous?" Misato made her way back into
the room, followed by Maya.
Eva Unit One released the AT Field missile, which cut
through four more layers of armor plate.
"I'd say so," supplied Aoba.
The Eva slowed and gradually came to a stop.
"Get teams up there immediately," Gendo ordered. "Get
the pilot out, arrest him, throw him in the brig, and put
Unit One in cryostasis before the S2 unit is completely
absorbed!"
--------
The Security Guard glanced up, bored out of his skull, when
the door to the cell suddenly came apart in neat little
one-inch slices.
Akane entered the room, took in the girl mindlessly babbling
into some recorder, the guard trying to draw a gun from his
holster even as some magazine he was reading fell from his
lap, and the presence of recording equipment.
The recording equipment ended up in little slices, a flame
burst sent the guard screaming to the floor, and the
recorder was left for the moment. Akane's eyes glowed as she
regarded the man in front of her.
"It was under orders!" The man backed away. "It wasn't my
idea!"
Akane wondered what he was talking about briefly, then
looked at Ami's state of undress and the camera. ~Chemical
interrogation? And recording all aspects of it? How *dare*
they take advantage of such a nice (if overly bookish and
terribly naive) girl as Ami? They. Must. Be. Punished!~
-------
The discussion between Ritsuko and Misato (regarding
Rei's ability to cover) was cut short as the entry plug of
Unit One ejected itself and then burst open.
"Aaaaaa!" Aoba managed. "What the hell is *that*?!"
"A yoma!" Ritsuko gasped and stepped back. "During
the attack the General must have infected Unit One!"
Gendo frowned. That was as good an explanation as
any, he'd use it.
"Looks more like a dragon to me," opined Hyuga,
having played AD&D years ago.
The dragon flickered and vanished from Elevator
Shaft Nine.
Ritsuko had had too many shocks lately, and was
freaking out. "Where'd he go?"
A roar from directly outside their building
answered.
---------
Akane looked up as the lamp began swaying and a
shudder racked the building. "Aka?!"
The security guard reached for his weapon, Akane
swatted him with a paw, claws retracted. The security guard
ceased to be conscious.
Now the pyrolion examined the chair that the girl
was tied into. She could cut through the straps without
problem, but how to...
"Believe in a sign of Zeta, yappa pai, yappa pai,
Miracle Romance..." Ami's babbling abruptly cut off,
catching Akane's attention. Ami had gone all stiff.
"Aka? Ne? Ne?" Akane frowned but delicately bit
through the steel restraints holding the girl in place.
Actually, Ami reminded her of herself. Physically at least.
If a bit anemic.
"He's angry. He's been submerged in anger, the
nature of the Evangelion units..." Ami's voice was weak.
Akane heard something that sounded like part of the
building collapsing and wondered what was going on out
there.
---------
Guns blazed as the two security guards began
sweeping the dragon before it could get in. Gendo fled,
going to an elevator and vanishing as his bridge crew tried
to find cover.
Scales began flying off under the barrage, and the
dragon reared its head back to blast again with a cone of
frost that stopped everything in the bridge. After another
moment the dragon shredded three supercomputers and tried to
claw its way through the bridge until it shuddered and
collapsed.
"Damn," summarized Aoba as he crawled out from under
his console.
Fuyutsuki stared at the huge head lying a few feet
away from him.
Shinji suddenly realized where he was, what he was,
and that he was dying.
"Hold it right there!" Misato held her pistol and
pointed it at the dragon's head. "Don't move! You..." Her
aim didn't seem too steady.
"Not a yoma. There was no AT Field." Ritsuko pulled
herself up and tried to look unshaken. She wasn't
successful.
The dragon raised his head and regarded Misato
directly. "Beware Gendo. He's planning on starting the Third
Impact by... dummy plugs... I..."
The dragon's form slowly shifted, becoming an albino
boy whose eyes stared at the floor.
---------
At the moment that Shinji died, Ami shook her head.
What had been going on? Where was she? She was a genetic
experiment?
Of Akane there was no sign.
---------
"Man, did *i* blow it. Remind me not to try piloting an
Eva unit again."
"Uhm, where are we? And why are you a dragon?"
Grey checked himself. "Silver dragon again. Can't seem
to shift back. Likely because of the injury level in the
last timeline. That and if you're altered significantly in
one timeline, you need to fix it before you travel or it'll
still be altered in the next."
Akane sniffed the ground. "Aka. Ne."
"Sure, go ahead Akane. We'll stick around here for
awhile. Just don't go too far off."
Akane and Ami both stared at Grey.
"Huh?" The dragon considered them. "Oh. My breed of
dragon is able to understand most intelligent species. If
i'm a dragon, i can understand her."
"Are you okay?" Ami considered the large vaguely
reptillian creature before her.
"The wounds aren't bleeding, though the translation to
this universe has the injuries as being a day or two old.
They ain't pretty though."
Akane snorted at typical male-foolishness and trotted
off, she needed to stretch her legs and maybe get some
water.
Ami considered the dragon again. "So any idea where we
are?"
"It feels familiar, but I don't immediately place it,"
Grey announced. "Hmmm. I seem to have downshifted in age
categories."
"Age categories?" Ami decided she was going to examine
his wounds while talking to keep the dragon distracted.
"Yeah. Just like humans go through age categories like
baby, infant, adolescent, etc, so do dragons. Ours is a bit
different than yours though. If i'm guessing right from your
relative size, you're normally just over five feet in
height, right?"
Ami winced at the chewed scales and flesh that marked a
line from Grey's "collarbone" down to the abdomen. "Five
feet, four inches." She paused as something about his speech
patterns penetrated.
"Well, i'm looking, and i think i'm about ten or twelve
Ami-lengths. Add another four Ami-lengths for the tail. That
means i'm a 'adolescent' in dragon terms." Grey winced as
Ami probed the wound. "Do you mind? That's rather sensitive.
This is a problem in that i wouldn't have the full range of
clerical spells i'm used to."
"Is that a big problem?"
"Yeah, it looks like i can only access third level
spells and below. Which is a problem if those dragons over
there keep coming closer."
Ami looked. "Those birds?"
"Dragons who normally hunt in the air have greater
visual acuity than a land-dragon or a human." Grey made a
grumbling noise. "If this is where i think we are, remain
really close to me."
Ami watched the "birds" get closer and resolve into
dragons, though different in shape and color than Grey. They
landed a short distance away and seemed to regard Grey with
suspicion.
"What do you here, silver?"
"i rest from battle most strenuous, and given rest
will fly on without harm to your lands. i am but a
travelling priest."
"Battle, silver?" The lead red said in a questioning
tone. "With what?"
"Humans who would be dragonslayers. i escaped, and did
their castle grievous harm."
"Humans? Where? I see no humans, silver."
"They don't like humans?" Ami realized she'd blurted
that out, and the way the other side was looking at her, she
didn't think that drawing attention to herself had been
wise.
"A human? HERE?!" The lead red dragon snarled at Grey.
"What do you think you're doing, bringing HUMANS into our
territory!"
"The human is my bonded Kindred," Grey replied. "She
accompanies me."
The lead red was prepared to argue when one of the
other dragons nudged him and whispered something to him. The
leader blinked, stared at Ami, then back to Grey and slowly
began to smile.
"Well, well," he chuckled a moment later. "I'd always
heard you Silvers were into some kinky stuff. Bet you
couldn't do anything like THIS in your own aeyrie, eh?"
"Hmmm?" Grey was momentarily lost but was willing to
go with the flow if that meant Ami wasn't eaten.
"Playing a little game with your mate using polymorph,
eh?" The red leader started laughing out loud now. "The (hee
hee) terrible Dragonslayer (bwah hah) and the (snicker) poor
dragon victim (snort)! No doubt using her (snicker snort)
'special attacks' to (hits the ground laughing
uncontrollably) 'dominate' the dragon and (starts crying
from laughing so hard) have her way with him..." At this
point the red leader wasn't the only one laughing and many
of the other dragons were at least openly snickering.
"Well, that's not quite it," said Grey, managing an
embarassed look, "she's not a dragon, at least at the
moment.
This, of course, convinced the rest of the dragons
that their leader was right and they all began laughing
themselves silly about it. Especially when the mage among
them remembered something about how some of the metallic
dragons used their transforming ability only to get "stuck"
in their other shape and not be able to transform back. Many
suggestions and speculations followed.
The leader recovered enough to notice a tiny little
creature come running up to where the "human" stood, then
vanish into a gem or something in the female's hand. "What's
your name, O Perverted Silver?"
"Grey," said Grey.
"Well, Grey, you're on Bloodtide Isle about six
hundred wyrmlengths from the city of Malice. If you go that
way, you can keep your perversions away from decent red
dragons. Though wait'll I tell the boys in the barracks
about this...(hee hee hee)."
Taking as much of his dignity as he could, Grey lifted
Ami to a point just behind his skull and advised her to hold
onto the spikes back there. Then he lifted off, hearing
another roar of laughter as further jokes were made at his
expense.
"Uhm, do you know where we are now?" Ami gripped as
tightly as she could, her face quite red from some of the
suggestions that had been made about their relationship.
"This is the land known as Io's Blood, where dragons
are relatively civilized and rule over the lesser races.
Humans are all but unknown, as humans have the ability to
become a feared thing called a DragonSlayer." Grey took the
flight as easy as he could, knowing that Ami had no saddle
or experience. "We're currently flying over Bloodtide Isle,
which is red dragon territory. Reds are not nice people, by
the way. We're heading over towards the lands ruled by
silver dragonkind, if i'm right."
Ami spent a lot of time in silence, considering
carefully. The rocky ground below them turned to swamp,
which turned to ocean, which eventually became a beach
again. Finally, she thought she had the right idea. Why had
they been so convinced that she was a dragon? Because of
that 'dragonseed' she'd heard mentioned, no doubt. Which
meant that...
Grey felt a moment of panic as the tiny weight of Ami
vanished from his head. He immediately wheeled and looped
around, his eyes scanning for the tiny form that should be
falling to her doom.
And collided with another form in midair that was
slightly smaller than he was. The two fell in a tangle,
crashing to the sand dunes below them.
Grey's nostrils twitched at a bewitching scent and he
opened his eyes to behold a picture of loveliness. Her
scales were a waterfall of gleaming silver, her head-spines
slender and refined, her limbs and tail the very picture of
feminine delicacy. That she was sprawled rather inelegantly
in a heap was beside the point.
"Ouch," said the strange dragon in a voice that was
nonetheless familiar as she uncoiled.
"Ami?" Grey stared. Her wings were so delicately
tapered, with a hint of deep blue along the vanes, while her
claw webbing had that iridiscent feminine sheen. Her scent
hit him like a blast of lightning, rich and feminine.
"Grey?" Ami stared herself. He made quite a handsome
dragon now that she was looking with draconic eyes herself.
His scent filled her nostrils, and she found it oddly
exciting. She found herself taking off and looping in the
air, Grey following as instincts took over.
He moved, she moved. He quickly found a thermal-
cleared bare rock heated by the sun which caused the air
above it to rise. He swirled lazily into it, the female
pursuing and then slipping around and over him.
He half-furled wings and flared his "light" - the
magical aura that allowed such a massive creature to float
as easily as a seagull. Ami swerved closer as she rode the
"bow-wave" circling her larger partner, acting on instincts
she hadn't possessed a few minutes ago and letting her own
light flare.
The pulsings of that magical light began to
synchronize as the two dragons circled each other and
steadily rose within the thermal.
Some nearby silvers noted that two others were
initiating a mating flight and sat back to watch until their
superior told them to give the lovebirds some privacy.
The two finally pulled out, beginning another phase
as Ami became the center of another aerial ballet, though
the larger dragon was slower and more clumsy than the
female. Almost but not quite touching, the two glided to a
clumsy landing, both in the grip of set of behavior that was
ancient and engraved in the dragon's racial memory.
Ami went to all fours, flattening her wings against
her body, then roared to the sky with a blast of frost. Grey
answered similarly and moved closer. Ami lowered her neck,
Grey moved his own so that their head-spines briefly
touched.
"WHOA! Major bad timing!"
A burst of cold water would not have been more
sobering. The two were shocked into awareness of what they
had done when a blaze of light appeared before them,
solidifying as a 3x lifesize hologram of a human-looking
woman.
"Ahem, well, I'm kinda sorry I interrupted now..."
Even though Ami was a dragon, she still managed to
look embarassed.
"Celeste? What the heck happened?" Grey looked at the
sort of landscape damage that had occurred from a 54 foot
long and a 45 foot long pair of dragons without a lot of
experience landing. "Wait a minute, we didn't... did we?"
"Dragons have their seasons and instincts too, and
Grey you should know that your default form is a dragon at
present. Though, no, you didn't actually mate. Just all the
normal things leading up to it. Back to the shapes: the
angelform, humanform, and cyborg shell are all dependent on
which universe you're in, and they're overrides. Right now
in any universe where there is a close match to your type of
dragon, that's what you'll be. Ami is your mate, and got a
dragonseed, so if she's in a universe where you're a
dragon - she will be too. Same type too, and it oddly fits
her: scholarly type with a frost breath weapon. Thor wants
to know if you two are available for parties. (He's always
running out of ice.)" Celeste shook her head. "Kids
nowadays, I tell you."
"So we both basically went into something like the
Vulcan *pon farr*? Geez. And how come i lost age
categories?"
"They were swiped from you to form the dragonseeds."
Celeste shrugged. "So you're a teenager again. Deal with it.
You're still a silver dragonpriest, and since you're of
Etragar, that means you've got to deal with his weapons
restrictions. Better learn an unarmed style of combat."
"i'm not *too* bad with a staff, but you're right,"
grumbled Grey. Dragons could grumble particularly well.
"Most of what i know is *armed* combat."
"Now are you ready for the rest of the bad news?"
Celeste paused until both dragons craned their heads closer.
She had to admire them, they really were quite attractive -
regal looking in fact. "The other brides tried to tag along.
The gate might have handled it anyway, but Son Usagi's power
level was quite enough to destabilize that." Celeste
listened to something going on outside the holocam's range.
"Thor wants to know if Usagi would like to wrestle sometime.
Sif's objecting to the entire concept."
Both dragons nodded at the sounds of off-camera
violence.
"So i need to go pull them out of where they are?"
Grey guessed.
"We," corrected Ami, craning her long neck closer,
not entirely sure what to make of this newest development.
"Got it in one," agreed Celeste.
================
the Eva timeline was cut short to avoid any
comparisons/parallels with Skysaber's Otaku Rising chapter
2.
The votes were:
1. The usual Senshi-candidates are the dummy plugs in
this timeline.
2. The usual Senshi-candidates are part of an attempt to
genetically engineer a next stage in human evolution. Ami
has an enhanced intellect, etc. The GUTS plan by Seele has
them mating to produce a superior human race whose
development they can guide.
3. The usual Senshi-candidates are actually fatima
and are necessary processing units to run an Evangelion.
4. Since the Second Impact in that world, 80% of the world's
male population and 40% of the women died. Ami is Shinji's
first girlfriend, but he has others as you might expect.
5. The usual Senshi-candidates are power-armor pilots who
take care of the smaller yoma while the big
General/Angel/Yoma is fought by the Eva unit.
6. I haven't been able to make any sense out of this
Timeline. It looks like Ami's his girlfriend, but I don't
see any sign of the rest of the usual Senshi-candidates.
7. The usual Senshi-candidates are actually the yoma, and
Ami is filling Kaoru's role.
8. The usual Senshi-candidates are actually unawakened
Senshi in this timeline.
Senshi are Dummy Plug Inserts - 1, Senshi are genetically
engineered New Types - 7, Senshi are fatima - 2, Senshi are
girlfriends in a man-poor environment - 4, Senshi in Power
Armor -1, Senshi are missing - 1, Senshi are Yoma - 1,
Senshi are Senshi - 4
Go for next:
1. Usagi, at the Tenkaichibudokai in a Dragonball setting...
2. Makoto Kino, who ended up in a Sabre Marionette timeline.
3. Minako Aino, who is either in Lodoss
4. Minako Aino, currently a freighter pilot/gunner in the
Rebellion against the Empire.
5. Rei Hino, who is currently in RIFTS - Kyoto in the New
Empire.
6. Setsuna Meiou is a Vulcan science officer who is assigned
to researching the Guardian Of Forever.
7. The bleak human vs robot future of the Terminator movies,
where a young warrior named Haruka Ten'nou tries to survive
each day.
8. Something else that you can think of.
9. Usagi is in a SM/Cutey Honey fusion timeline, as Cutey
Moon
10. MM Xover This could only happen with Sky's permission,
but one or more of the worlds he's written of and then
abandoned is where one or more of the tagalongs end up. Such
as the world where Moongirl is a Batman-esque defender of
Justice.
Usagi at the Tenkai -3, Makoto in SMJ -4, Minako as a Lodoss
elf -2, Minako in Star Wars -4, Rei in RIFTS -0, Setsuna in
Star Fleet -1, Haruka in the Terminator future -1, Cutey
Moon -2, Mirrors Multiplied Xover -1, the Senshi as
dragons -1, All the Senshi as being Cutey Honey style
androids -1
while i think the experiment was largely a success, the
"Choose Your Fanfic" feedback system is on hold until i get
this monster more under control.
====================
"Don't forget that for the acorn to
become the mighty oak, it starts with a
little nut that decides to stand its ground."
-Anonymous
metroanime@mindspring.com
http://metroanime.home.mindspring.com/