Kaiju Slaying For Death and Profit (WC Evangelion SI) Ch 5

“So, Shinji.” Misato said into the mic, being careful not to use the boy’s last name. That always seemed to get his hackles up. “How goes it?”

[I’ve gotten used to basic maneuvering, though I'm still having issues with fine digital manipulation.] Shinji said as, on the screen in front of her, a Simulated Third Angel was shot by seven consecutive bursts from the Evangelion scale assault rifle.

“No no, I mean, how are you settling in? Is everything going well in school?” By all reports he was settling in well enough, he'd been sighted spending time with the First Pilot. Most of his peers held him in something approaching awe as, even though he stuck to the letter of the directive not to speak about his involvement with NERV. ‘I am not allowed to comment’ only served to increase the curiosity of most, making them wonder what exactly he was unable to speak about.

[School is going well enough. I still don't see a reason to attend, by the time I muster out of NERV I’ll be independently wealthy enough to not have to bother with a job.] Shinji said in a bored tone as another virtual Angel fell under a barrage of gunfire.

Misato hummed noncommittally and shut down the microphone.

The truth was that Shinji was something of an enigma. A natural Eva Pilot who in hours had achieved more than the other trainees had in years. Upon his arrival he’d been openly antagonistic, but the moment his contract had been signed he’d been, for the most part, an ideal recruit. Following every order given to the letter without complaint.

The closest thing to insubordination he'd done since the day that he struck his father, was that every time he was on base and they happened to meet, he’d glare at the man with open resentment, perhaps even hatred. But beyond the glare he was unfailingly polite, nearly but not quite to the point of mockery.

The time the elevator doors had opened and Shinji saw Director Ikari on the elevator, Misato had worried, then her heart had climbed into her throat as Shinji had resolutely stepped into the elevator, nearly chest to chest with his father, and glared down his nose at the man.

That staring contest had not ended until Shinji stepped out of the elevator, not a word exchanged between the two.

It had happened three more times to Misato’s knowledge.

Any other recruit would have been knocked down several pegs. But Shinji had shown that he understood exactly how valuable he was. He was already considered a flight risk, and while they could detain him easily enough, the idea that he might well go through with his threat, to stand by while an Angel tore the city apart purely to laugh as his father was killed. It was deemed unwise to call his bluff, according to their analysts, it may well not be a bluff.

Just what had Gendo done to the boy?

“Have you memorized the locations of the redeployment gates, charging stations, and weapon caches?” Ritsuko asked as Shinji brought down another virtual Angel. This time in five bursts of fire.

[Not yet.] He answered, pausing to duck behind a building and shimmied along Several buildings to exchange his empty gargantuan assault rifle for a fresh one. [There's a lot of them. Isn't there a Heads-Up Display system that could be used to overlay them onto the pod’s vision?]

“That is a work in progress.” Ritsuko said, glancing at Misato as Shinji grunted noncommittally. She cut off communication before speaking again. “I am worried. With how he acted when he first came…do you think he's being genuine as far as his willingness to fight?”

She thought back to the day he had arrived, when she had tried to slap him. He’d caught her wrist with no effort and looked at her with eyes that may as well have been chips of ice.

She had seen her death in those eyes.

“I don't know.” She finally answered.

On the screen, the simulated Angel died in two bursts.

=][=

The new guy thought he was hot shit, but Suzuhara Toji knew better. The fucker had gotten his little sister hurt! His fight with the monster had caused structural damage in the building she was in and gotten her trapped in rubble when it partially collapsed.

Toji had promised himself that he'd give the asshole a piece of his mind, by punching him in the face. But he kept hiding behind the teachers and the class rep, looking at Toji like he was trash on the floor.

It really pissed him off.

He also spent all his time with Ayanami, the mysterious girl that used to spend her time all alone. There were rumors that the two were an item. Or that, since he was the pilot of that giant robot, Ayanami was as well, and had gotten hurt fighting another monster.

The bastard had gone to the roof again, and this time Toji would not be denied. He owed that wannabe pilot a punch in the jaw for hurting his little sister! If he’d been careful, he wouldn't have dropped half a building on her!

He was on his way to the roof, with Aida still trying to stop him, when the evacuation alarm rang out. Toji cursed and turned around, the new guy got a stay of punch-acution, today only.

He’d been saying that for three weeks.

Moving to the shelter was boring. One would think that having to evacuate to a big shelter that could laugh at a nuke would be exciting. But it wasn’t, it was just walking orderly and responding when your name was called. Just like all the drills.

Hell, it was probably another drill.

“Hey, Toji!” Aida said with a glint in his eye. “We should go out there!”

Toji blinked. “You crazy? It's just a dumb drill and we’ll get in trouble.”

“No, this one's legit!” Aida whispered so loud that a few people turned to look at them. “We should go out there and record it, for posterity!”

“You’re an idiot.” Toji crossed his arms. “Either way, get in trouble on your own, I’m not going.”

“It’s okay.” Aida said and patted Toji’s shoulder. “I understand if you're too scared.”

“You what!?”

After a bewildering series of events later that led to the two of them being outside, they witnessed the impossible. A giant floating half fish half centipede half majestic sea flapflap (so Toji had forgotten the name, anyone had a problem with him was welcome to the knuckle sandwich).

Aida loved every second, cooing as it crawled over a building and reduced it to rubble. Seemingly by accident.

A gigantic purple robot shot at it from behind a different building, using a fuck-off huge rifle. The monster didn't care and broke every building between it and the robot into rubble.

The robot retreated a few times, then switched tactics and slammed shoulder first into the monster and made it stumble. It broke off a few of the monster’s legs which Toji belatedly realized were ribs, then it retreated and continued shooting the monster, it continued that tactic whenever the monster got close, forcing the fight to happen over already destroyed or damaged buildings.

Until in one of those tackles it got sent flying. Literally flying, that thing was going on six seconds of airtime and— wait, was it getting bigger?

The giant robot landed with an explosion of dirt and rock, tumbling head over heels and tearing through buildings and the ground. It rolled right over the two of them, and the only reason they didn't get squished was that the robot was in the part of the roll where its body was off the ground when it reached them.

It ended the roll on its feet, glaring at the monster, a huge cable running from its back.

Then it looked at them and froze. It felt like forever, but after two seconds it had run past the two of them, the wind of its passing knocking the two of them over.

There was a huge crash like two buildings ramming into each other, Toji pushed himself up and saw that the robot had slammed into the monster mid-run. The two struggled with each other as the monster’s tentacles began to glow bright white, Toji could feel the heat of its tentacles from where he stood, the metal of the robot’s hands running molten as it grappled with the monster. A weird rainbow effect happening between them, the robots gun crushed into scrap in the middle of that rainbow.

The two grappled for several long moments, the robot screaming a surprisingly human scream of pain when the monster brought up two new tentacles and stabbed them into its gut.

The stalemate remained for what felt like forever. The robot would push the monster away, it would throw it, trip it, punch it, rip its legs off and stab it with them. But always the monster would come back, pushing the robot back and taking back whatever ground it lost.

Toji was at a loss, the place was a pretty big disadvantage for the both of them, the robot could try luring the monster elsewhere, or the monster could try tossing the robot like a frisbee again. But the both of them kept fighting bitterly for the unimportant stretch of buildings they were steadily demolishing.

And then it hit him.

The monster had realized that the robot had not gone for a straight up fight until it had to protect Toji and Kensuke. If the robot tried to do its thing and fight at range, the monster would kill them.

So long as it tried to kill them, the monster would have an advantage.

They were going to make the robot fail.

The monster would destroy Tokyo-3.

The monster would kill Sakura, and it would be Toji’s fault.

Just as he started to realize exactly how badly he’d messed up, the robot did a goddamn judo-flip on the monster, slamming it to the ground so hard it made a crater and sending Toji and Kensuke to the ground as the earth heaved.

There was a high-pitched sound that hurt his ears, followed by the sound of a huge window shattering, and an inhuman screech full of pain and anger.

Then heavy, earth-shaking thumps. A huge metal hand scooped them up along with a slab of the pavement they'd been lying on. Then the world went crazy.

Up became left and right was up and down was taking a vacation. Toji and Kensuke rolled around, got banged up, and in one particularly bad bounce where Kensuke slammed into him, Toji felt something give in his shoulder.

He wondered if it made a sound, but between Kensuke’s terrified screaming, the roar of an explosion, the smashing of metal against concrete, and his own terrified defiant yells. Whatever sound his arm made was lost.

He wasn't sure for how long they got tossed about, but it felt like forever. When it all stopped, Toji lied still fearing that if he moved, everything would go crazy again.

“Woah! Toji, look at this!” Kensuke said excitedly.

Toji waited for the world to go crazy again. When it didn’t, he chanced opening one eye. There was a huge cross made of light in the sky. He sat up and took his surroundings in, they were in the robot’s hands, he could see where some of the plates had run like wax.

They were surrounded by a wasteland, it looked like the movies when a big bomb fell. Toji put his working hand over his mouth to help keep his breakfast in his stomach, where it belonged.

Kensuke kept talking a mile a minute, but Toji ignored him, looking instead to the huge, unmoving robot.

He was wondering how they were going to get home when a bunch of helicopters arrived. People in hazmat suits rappelled off and holy shit a rifle barrel looked huge when you were staring down it!

He and Kensuke were taken forcefully to the ground, all the hazmat guys screaming nonsensical shit. Out of the corner of his eye, he caught a glimpse of the new guy, being lowered on a weird contraption keeping his back and neck rigid, he looked like he was covered in blood.

And then someone put a bag over his head. And Toji wondered if he was going to make it home on time for dinner.

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Kaiju Slaying For Death and Profit (WC Evangelion SI) Ch 5

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