Altered Destinies (part 14 of 19)

a Neon Genesis Evangelion fanfiction by Shanejayell

Back to Part 13
"So what happened?" Misato asked her eagerly even as
the sirens blared in NERV, people rushing about
wildly.

"Mana gave me a warning," Shinji hurried along in her
blue plug suit, her brown ponytail bouncing against
her back, "stay out of Jet Alone's way or else."

"That wasn't very friendly," Misato frowned.

Shinji snorted, "You can say that again."

Just then a angry shout rang out and Asuka hurried to
catch up, her red plug suit hugging her more generous
curves. "I told you to wait," she said to Shinji
fiercely.

"Misato needed to debrief me on something," Shinji
improvised fast.

"Humph," Asuka frowned as they hurried into the
briefing room.

"What are you doing here?" Misato nearly skidded to a
stop seeing who was casually waiting for them in
there.

"Just observing," Kaji smiled charmingly, the unshaven
man watching with amusement as he sat in one of the
chairs down front.

"Ah hem," Ritsuko cleared her throat, the woman
standing by the main display reminding them why they
were here.

"Sorry, Rits-chan," Misato said after she walked up to
the other woman, "I'll be good."

Ritsuko gave her a fond look, "I'll believe that when
I see it."

Rei Ayanami entered and took a seat as she smiled
slightly at Shinji. "Things went well?" she asked her
softly.

"Good enough," Shinji whispered back.

"All right everyone," Ritsuko said once they all
settled down, "here's what we know." A image appeared
of the area around the city, "We've detected a Angel
inbound to the city, estimated to arrive in two hours.
With the damage to the city from earlier Angel
attacks, we want to try to stop it before it gets
here."

"I'm willing to go out alone," Asuka's eyes shone with
eagerness as she continued, "just give the word."

"We'll deploy both you and Shinji," Misato corrected,
"I'd send Rei out too, but unit 00 is still being
repaired."

"Understood," Rei said flatly, eyes flickering to
Shinji a moment.

"This should be interesting," Shinji sighed, feeling
the pure eagerness positively radiating off of Asuka.

"We don't know what capabilities this Angel might
have," Ritsuko cautioned them, "be cautious before
attacking."

"We'll be fine," Asuka reassured her as they got up to
go.

It didn't take long for the two Evangelion's to be
deployed, carried by modified carrier transport to the
edge of the city. Both were deployed smoothly, power
cables attached to give them some extra range as they
waited for the Angel to emerge from the sea.

"Don't get in my way once it arrives." Asuka warned as
she took up position, the red Unit 02 hefting a
dangerous looking pole arm.

"Not planning on it," Shinji said, blinking as he saw
movement. "What in the..."

A third transport, a vehicle of a somewhat different
design to the ones NERV used, arrived, the cloth
covering pulled back to reveal a rather strange
looking machine. Unlike the mostly humanoid shaped
Evangelion it was very roundish, with thin arms and
somewhat more sturdy looking legs.

"You have GOT to be kidding me," Asuka said, sounding
oddly offended by the other machine's chunky
appearance.

"That's Jet Alone," Shinji sighed, "at least, it looks
like it from the photo's I've seen."

Asuka said something in German that wasn't sounding
complimentary. "Misato!" she yelled into the radio.

"I'm in touch with them now," Misato sounded more than
a bit pissed even as Jet Alone lumbered up to the two
Evas.

"Evangelion pilots," Jet Alone's pilot broadcast, "I m
here under authority of the Japan Self Defense Force.
Remove yourselves from the vicinity."

"WHAT?!" Asuka roared.

In the background they heard Misato swearing fluently.
"All right," she said in disgust, "pull back."

"You have got to be kidding," Shinji said.

Misato sounded disgusted as she said, "Jet Alone's
creators have gotten authorization from the Japanese
government to attempt to use their creation against an
Angel. It's been taken out of our hands."

"Can we at least stick around?" Shinji asked after a
moment. "If something goes wrong with Jet Alone..."

"Just stay back unless you have to," Misato ordered
grimly.

Asuka swore again, loudly. "That peace of garbage
won't stand a chance," she hissed out angrily, hands
tight on Unit 02's controls.

Out to sea they could see the Angel, lumbering through
the water as Jet Alone waited for it on the shoreline.
The angel was mostly humanoid but most resembled a
headless torso, the core resting obviously on it's
chest.

"At least the target's and obvious one," Shinji
murmured.

Jet Alone lumbered forward, arms swinging and attacked
with surprising speed. The first blow missed as the
Angel circled it, seemingly trying to understand what
it faced. The pilot of Jet Alone managed to dodge the
first return strike, but a second blow hammered it
backwards.

"Ha! Good one," Asuka sounded amused.

'Be careful, Mana,' Shinji thought worriedly.

Jet Alone rallied, sweeping in fast and striking with
both fists at the Angel's core, sending the creature
reeling backward. Of course what happened next was a
surprise to them all. The Angel's core appeared to
subdivide, the creature splitting, then suddenly there
were two Angel's flanking Jet Alone!

"Misato!" Shinji blurted in alarm.

"I'm contacting the Japanese government now," Misato
barked even as the two halves of the Angel proceeded
to beat on Jet Alone.

"That'll teach them," Asuka sounded amused.

"Damn it," Shinji actually sounded angry, "there's a
human being in there." As sparks and smoke erupted
from Jet Alone Shinji had to act, racing in to try and
drive the two Angel's back, Asuka following her in.

"No, I can," the pilot of Jet Alone coughed, "do this!
Stay back!"

"Shut up," Asuka growled, swinging the polearm-like
weapon that Ritsuko had equipped her with for this
mission to drive the Angel back.

"Buy me some time," Shinji said as she used her
Evangelion to help Jet Alone up, "I'm going to get
this thing clear."

"Make it fast," Asuka barked.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0

"Well, that could have gone better," Misato said later
as she surveyed her battered pilots. The Angel had
trounced them both, forcing a emergency withdraw and
causing the military to drop a N2 mine on it.

Asuka had a bandage wrapped around her head, half her
face bruised from a rather rough landing. The LCL was
good a protecting them, but obviously it wasn't
perfect. "If that damned robot hadn't got in the way,"
she scowled, "we'd have finished it easily."

"Maybe, maybe not," Ritsuko noted calmly. "We've
analyzed the battle data, the Angel's split core
provides it with a remarkable defense."

"Which means?" Shinji asked, her arm bandaged from a
near break.

"Unless both pieces of the core are destroyed at the
same time," Ritsuko said calmly, "the Angel can't be
stopped."

"That's going to be tough to manage," Misato blinked,
processing the information.

"Damn," Shinji muttered. She looked up questioningly,
"How long until the Angel regenerates from the mine?"

"We've got a bit over a week until it's on the move
again," Maya Ibuki spoke up, the brown haired young
woman delivering a message to Misato.

"Well, well," Misato blinked as she read the piece of
paper. She looked up at Shinji, "It seems Mana
Kirishima is at the entrance gate, asking for you
Shinji."

"Huh?" Shinji looked surprised.

"You'd best see what she wants," Misato nodded.

A few moments later Shinji found herself at the
entrance way, Mana waiting just outside. The normally
neat redhead was battered and bruised as bad or worse
than the Evangelion pilots, and she had a most
unattractive scowl on her face.

"Hello, Miss Kirishima," Shinji said a bit
tentatively.

"Ikari," Mana said flatly. She took a breath then
reluctantly said, "Thank you, you and your fellow
pilot may have saved my life."

"You're welcome," Shinji smiled wryly.

"You!" a voice growled. Looking up they saw Asuka
charging at them, "You're the one who interfered with
my debut!"

"Here comes hurricane Asuka," Shinji murmured and Mana
giggled.

Onwards to Part 15


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