"Sorry," Shinji apologized quickly, stepping into the room and taking a seat.
"Pilot Sohryu expressed a desire to masticate," Rei supplied, "She forced myself and Pilot Ikari to accompany her to the cafeteria."
"Thanks a lot, Wondergirl..." Asuka muttered, glaring darkly at the First Child before taking her seat.
"Alright, look," Misato broke in, rolling her eyes at the trio, "I know that we've all put in a long day here, and I know most of us are tired," 'Some more than others', she amended quickly, thinking back to Ritsuko's and Maya's little episode earlier that day, "but the fact of the matter is that a lot of stuff happened today, and from what I've been told, it's not going to go away any time soon, so to make things brief... you've been given new orders."
At this news, Shinji blinked, Asuka sat up a little straighter, and Rei directed her attention from the little spot of paint drying on the wall near her chair to the little spot of paint drying on the wall near Misato.
"Rei," Misato continued quickly, "The techs are still running preliminary tests on your Unit, so in the meantime, you will continue to report for additional systems checks as needed."
Rei nodded briefly in understanding before rising and exiting the room.
Asuka stared after Rei momentarily in disbelief before turning around and addressing Misato, "You mean we can just leave?!"
"Anyway," Misato stressed, gritting her teeth, "as for the two of you, pending further testing, the two of you are to devote your time to mastering the combination system. If you'll turn your attention to the monitor behind me, you'll see the predicted model of the Units' combination process."
...
(Five minutes later)
...
"So, any questions?" Misato asked calmly, the edges of her lips twitching badly as she fought back a smirk. It was to her credit that she actually managed to keep a straight face, but of course, she had also had a full half-hour to laugh her ass off prior to the Pilots' arrival.
Dead silence followed her statement.
Shinji, for his part, was too busy having all of the blood in his body rushing to his face and other more sensitive areas to answer with anything even approaching any level of coherency. Asuka, for her part, was going through an interesting mottling process, her face briefly flushing redder than her hair before paling to a deathly white and back again.
"W-who-who....wha-?" Asuka managed to work out after several moments.
"Yes, I was quite surprised myself, the first time I saw it," Misato replied much too casually, "It appears that whoever designed the actual combination system was something of a pervert, wouldn't you say? Of course, the finished product is quite impressive, wouldn't you say?"
"Y-Yeah..." Shinji stammered, "But why do they have to combine like THAT?!"
"Beats me," Misato shrugged, "At first I thought it was just one of the techs playing a practical joke, but apparently this thing's legit. Go figure. Anyways..." she drawled, spinning around in her chair so that her back was to the Pilots and allowing herself a feline grin, "Since all evidence suggests that interfacing with the hybrid form will require joint input on the part of the pilots, the two of you are to work on developing an input protocol that won't have you constantly tripping over each other's feet. To this end, the Commander has ordered that you are both to undergo synchronization training, effective tomorrow. Now, doesn't that sound like fun?"
The sound of two unconscious bodies hitting the floor in unison almost made Misato's day.
Almost.
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(Posted Thu, 21 Oct 2004 12:05)
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らんま1/2 © Rumiko Takahashi
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