"You did WHAT?!" Mana Kirishima growled, the brown haired young woman looking at Shinji with annoyance. Shinji sighed, wishing she hadn't even mentioned why she got sunburned. "We went to a local beach to make up for missing the class trip out to Okinawa," the dark brown haired girl explained tiredly. "It wasn't too bad," Asuka admitted, the redhead sitting nearby as she casually sat back in her chair. Most of the rest of the class was still off on the trip so the young women had the classroom all to themselves. "Damn," Mana sighed, "I wish I could have gone." "Misato complained she got sand up her...," Rei started cooly, the blue haired girl sitting in a desk nearby. "Hush," Shinji quickly muffled the next comment. Mana thought of Shinji's brash, blustery guardian and resolved, "I don't want to know." "No, you don't," Asuka agreed sourly, "and I certainly didn't need to know they were...." "La la la la," Mana covered her ears to drown out Asuka's final words as she said firmly, "I can't hear you." Shinji smirked, "I've done that a few times myself." "Oversharing," Mana pointed out. She looked thoughtful as she mused, "Maybe it's best I didn't go along." "It could be," Rei noted mildly, a slight smile on her face. Mana gave Rei a odd look. Since coming here nearly a year ago she had seen Rei a great deal, but most of the time she had been quiet and almost utterly withdrawn. Her conversing at all was a surprise, and the flickers of amusement and interest on her normally expressionless face were quite astounding. 'Is it meeting Shinji that did it?' Mana wondered, 'Or maybe Asuka?' "Did the power outage hit you, too?" Asuka asked mildly, sipping from a drink box. "No," Mana answered promptly, "just the city core was effected." 'Thank god we don't have to explain all that,' Shinji thought glumly as they sat around the classroom. Not long after returning from the beach, NERV had been hit with a mysterious power outage, trapping the five of them outside the facility. She, Asuka, Rei, Misato and Ritsuko had been forced to make their way manually into NERV through emergency access routs and ventilation shafts and try to reach the command center. Making things more complicated was the usual tension between Rei and Asuka, who really didn't deal well with being in tight quarters together. Add in no air conditioning and a crisis possibly breathing down their necks and you got a recipe for disaster. Thankfully Ritsuko was able to sit on Asuka enough to keep her under control. So they fought their way down to the command deck where they found Gendo and the others trying to MANUALLY launch a Evangelion. Shinji boarded Unit 01 and used it to prepare the other two Evangelions before all three set out to stop the Angel attacking NERV. They pulled it off, Shinji's Evangelion suffering serious acid burns as Rei and Asuka together gunned down the spider-legged invader. "Did something happen?" Mana asked thoughtfully. "Just the usual at NERV," Asuka answered with a half smile on her face. Mana smiled wryly, "You're not going to tell me, are you?" Rei sipped her drink box then put it down. "Even if something did happen," she noted mildly, "we wouldn't be allowed to repeat it anyway." "Never mind," Mana shook her head with a slight smile as she said, "I'll just get it out of the staff at Jet Alone." "Fair enough," Shinji chuckled. A teacher stuck her head into the room, blinking at them. "Oh, you're the students who had to stay behind?" she asked. "Obviously," Asuka muttered under her breath before smiling brightly and loudly answering, "Yes, ma'am." "You can just do free reading till the end of class," the blonde said casually, "then go home one the bell rings." "Thank you," Shinji called as the teacher ambled off. "All right," Asuka grinned, "we just have to wait a few minutes then we can take off." "Don't you think they'll check on us?" Mana looked a little worried. "I really don't think they care," Asuka said dryly. About twenty minutes later and the group of women were out in the sun, strolling down the street in their school uniforms. "Wish I had brought a change of clothes," Shinji admitted, her school skirt swirling around her legs.. "At least we're not in new Akhiabara," Mana noted, "they'd think Asuka is cosplaying as a catgirl wearing her nerve clips." "Heh," Asuka chuckled as she touched the cone like devices on her head, "I like wearing them, it lets people know I'm a pilot." "I'd rather they didn't know," Rei noted mildly. "How about you, Shinji?" Mana asked her curiously. Shinji shook her head, "I'd rather people not know either." She sighed, "As it is, it's probably all over the school by now." Asuka sniffed, "You should be proud of yourself." "That's what Misato keeps telling me," Shinji agreed. 0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0 Misato scowled as the black haired woman confronted the various managers. "You're telling me no one knows how we lost power?" she demanded, her usual combination of red jacket and NERV uniform looking oddly intense today. Several uncomfortable looks were exchanged then Maya Ibuki stepped forward. The brown haired woman took a deep breath, "I'm sorry, ma'am. I can explain the sequence of events that killed power, but I can't tell you how it started." "Why?" Misato asked thoughtfully. "Because someone either hacked the Magi or had high level access and erased portions of the record," Maya explained grimly. Misato raised her eyebrows in surprise, "Is that even possible?" "Yes, I confirmed the erasure," Ritsuko said, the blonde sighing softly, "While I thought our computer security was inpenerable, it appears I was wrong." "Inside job?" Makoto asked, the young man frowning. "That's the current theory," Ritsuko looked unhappy as she said, "but we're still trying to confirm it." She smiled grimly, "Whoever it was also killed internal security for ten minutes before the outage, when we think the attack took place." "So no video records inside of who might have done it," Misato nodded grimly. She rubbed her temples with her fingers, "Gendo is not going to like hearing that." Maya smiled weakly, "Sorry, ma'am." "We'll also keep digging," Ritsuko added, "if there's any traces left in the Magi of how they did it, we'll find it." "Thabks," Misato nodded then moved on to the next thing on the agenda. "Makoto," she turned to him, "what's the progress on the repairs?" Makoto rose as he said, "We've already rebuilt on the surface where the Angel dissolved it's way in." He checked his notes, "Repairing the inner layers of armor will take time, however." Misato nodded glumly, "Understood." She looked at Ritsuko, "And Unit 01?" "The Evangelion's armor was badly melted but we can swap in spares fairly easily," Ritsuko noted, "thankfully the damage was only cosmetic." "Good enough," Misato finished briskly, "I'll pass the information on to Commander Ikari." She gave everyone a serious nod, "Good work."
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