The silent commander watched the man for a time, as if he was debating something. Eventually he did speak, "It's evident conventional weapons have no effect against these.. monsters." he sighed, rubbing his forehead tiredly, "The UN has decided to give you control of this operation, and all following operations dealing with the Angel menace until such time as they deem it no longer necessary."
"I understand." Gendo nodded, careful to hide the excitement he felt within him at that point. He had worked long, and hard to reach this point. Nothing would stop him now.
The silent commander grunted, putting out his cigarette as he eyed the man, seriously. "Are you sure victory can be met?"
Gendo pushed his glasses up, nodding. "It's what NERV was created for."
He grunted, leaning back in his chair. "We expect much from you." before the podium he and his other commanders lowered into the ground, leaving Gendo and his lacky Fuyutsuki alone in the command center.
"The target is dormant, currently in a state of regeneration." one of the aids informed them.
"The present effective rate of interception is 7.5%." Another aid said, rather morbidly.
"The UN Troops won't be able to help us, Ikari." Fuyutsuki grimaced, eyeing his colleague. "What are you going do to now?"
Gendo smirked, turning around and heading for the exit. His words were like a blow to his second in command, it's weight heavy on the older mans heart. "I'll activate Unit One."
"Unit one?" Fuyutsuki raised an eyebrow, curiously. "We don't have a suitable pilot."
"By the time we reach NERV, we will." Gendo responded cryptically, with a smirk.
---
Ranma spared his surroundings a entirely bored look. It hadn't been long since Misato had driven them into some kind of train platform for her car. He only dimly remembered this part from the Anime, but he guessed it really didn't matter anyone. He was annoyed, upset, and rather unpredictable right now and he knew it. Anyone would be upset to find themselves in this type of situation, he figured.
Misato snapped her fingers, as if she just remembered something. Digging around the back seat, she asked, "Ranma! I nearly forgot, did your father send you an ID?"
He gazed at her with a half lidded glare, "No."
She stopped suddenly, a large binder in her hands, and shot him a look. "What?"
"You deaf?" He sighed, shaking his head. Just play along Ranma. Yeah, just wait till you get yer hands on a giant robo then show everyone they couldn't get away with this shit. "He sent me some stupid note, sayin Come. I used it as toilet paper after readin it, that a problem?"
Misato grimaced. Wow. This kid must really hate his father. "Ah.." hesitantly, she shrugged, settling back in her seat and handing the binder to the boy. "Here, it's the standard NERV welcome information packet. You'll need to know all that since you'll be working for us."
Ranma gave the book a disdainful look, before shrugging and rolling the window down.
"Something wrong?" Was it stuffy in here? She didn't think so, but the kid could be so random at times she didn't know what to think.
"Nope." he replied casually, before flinging the book out the window where it fell between the cars, getting ripped up in the railing underneath. "There, all done."
Misato gawked, "What?! What the hell's wrong with you!"
"You don't want me to answer that." He deadpanned, rolling his window up and just daring her to say something more on the matter.
She gritted her teeth, instinctually gripping her steering wheel tightly as she struggled to contain her anger over his latest stunt. Calm down Katsuragi! Just get him to HQ, then he'll be some one else’s problem! Yeah, she was looking forward to that.
"Oh hey, look, a Geo Front." he twirled his finger in the air in a rather flippant gesture of not really giving a damn. "Whoop-di-doo."
"Yeah..." Misato wondered if having a beer on duty was a bad thing. She was perfectly happy to let the rest of their time together be one of silence.
Ranma, on the other hand, wasn't. He snapped his fingers, as if remembering something. "Oh yeah! Hey Misato!"
"What now?" she groaned, tiredly resting her head against the steering wheel.
"Think we can skip the whole getting lost thing? Y'know, call yer little friend to get us instead of wanderin around like baka's?"
Misato twitched.
---
"See, hate to say I told ya so but.." he shrugged, flipping a yen piece in sheer boredom. ".. I told ya so."
Misato twitched. An hour, a whole hour of being stuck with the annoying brat. Her pride had been tested at first, she wouldn't give up and admit that she was lost, but now she just didn't give a shit. Anything was worth the agony if it meant she got away from this punk.
She picked up a phone and made a call. Shortly after hanging up, the PA system crackled to life.
"Would Chief of Project E at section 1 of the Technical Department, Dr. Akagi Ritsuko. Dr. Akagi Ritsuko please contact Captain Katsuragi Misato at Section 1 of Operations Department immediately."
---
Tearing off her scuba mask, Ritusko looked up just as the message repeated itself. "She's lost again?" she rolled her eyes. Honestly, how the heck did that girl get a job here of all places. She couldn't find her way out of a paper bag!
---
"We there yet?"
"No."
"We there yet?"
Misato gritted her teeth, "No, now stop asking."
"Fine fine." Ranma sighed, tiredly leaning against the back of the elevator they were in. A whole three seconds passed before he lost his patience, "Are we there yet?"
"FOR THE LOVE OF GOD! No! We aren't there! At this rate I'll die of old age before we get there. Shut. UP!" the woman seethed, fists gripped into tight little fists angrily.
"Geesh, what crawled up your ass and died." Ranma rubbed his nose, tiredly, completely ignorant of the monumental test of will he was putting on the older woman. She was so close, so damn close to snapping it wasn't even funny.
Thankfully, something came and saved him from a fate worse then death. With a soft chime, the elevator doors opened up revealing a pretty woman with hair dyed blond, if the brown roots were any indication. The woman stepped in, stepping precariously close to Misato, the other woman stepping back while chuckling nervously. "Hehe.. hi Ritsuko.."
"Captain Katsuragi." The woman snapped, a little upset. "Certainly you are aware of our current situation? We're short on hands and time, we do not need to waste valuable resources in this way."
"Heh.. hehe." she twiddled her thumbs, rather embarrassed, "Sorry.."
Ritsuko sighed, waving the matter off before glancing at Ranma. "Is this him?" She was a little off kilter. She had been expecting a 14 year old boy, some one young and impressionable, not this teenager. She debated momentarily if some mistake had been made, but quickly cut off that line of thinking.
"Hard to believe, huh?" Misato shot the boy a glance, before nodding. "But it is him, the third child reported by the Murdock report."
Ritsuko nodded at the boy respectfully, "Nice to meet you."
Ranma grunted, "Yeah, yeah. Ditto. Hey.." he hmmed, eying the two women weirdly, "Can I ask you somethin?"
Ritsuko raised an eyebrow curiously. From what she remembered reading from the report, Ranma was a rather shy child. She only idly noticed Misato groaning and face palming as she replied, "Yes."
He nodded, eyeing the two women again, "Are you two.. lesbians?"
Misato stiffened. Oh hell no he did not just ask that.
Ritsuko just stared.
He chuckled nervously, scratching the back of his neck nervously, "Cause, it's okay if you are, y'know? Just, y'know, seems like it with the way you two practically hugged back there, and, uh..." he shrugged, deadpanning, "I'm a horny 14 year old boy who just wants to know, okay?" he lied smoothly.
Ritsuko twitched.
---
Gendo spared the command center a long, long look. It had taken a lot of work, and so much effort on the parts of all, but they had done it. They had finally been given command to do what they had to do to destroy the Angels, and 'prevent' Third impact. He was giddy, it was only a matter of time now. He sighed, berating himself for letting himself even get that riled up over everything. There was still much to do, so many variables that could go wrong with this plan.
"It's time, old friend."
Gendo gave Fuyutsuki a nod, as he stepped up on a platform and lifted away.
'They'll meet after three years.." Fuyutsuki watched as Gendo left. He didn't know what to expect from this meeting, he just hoped Gendo didn't do something he'd regret later. He was left with no more time to ponder such things as one of the command crew exclaimed. "Sir! The target's begun to move again."
So this was it. He nodded, "Red alert, all personnel to battle stations." he barked.
---
Ranma rubbed his cheeks, mumbling about how two repressed lesbians didn't need to slap him twice to get their points across. He was thusly ignored by both women, which he really didn't care. Busying himself with watching the purple container of ooze as the elevator rose, he tried to ignore the conversation taking place around him.
Misato stood stone still, arms akimbo, with a nervous twitch in her eye. How dare that boy even suggest such a thing! She didn't care if he was fourteen, it was easy to ignore that fact since he looked more like a teenager then a little boy.
The PA crackled to life, "RED ALERT! RED ALERT! ALL HANDS TO BATTLE STATION!"
"You hear that?" Misato asked redundantly.
Ristuko had long since put the boys tactless question out of her mind, she had more important things to think about. At times like this, she really wondered why Misato had to always state the obvious. "Yes, well, we are at a state of war."
"How's Rei?" Misato asked, nervously. The angels had returned, and if NERV had been given command of the operation it meant the UN forces had failed, and it was time to play their trump card. The problem, which really worried her, was that their only pilot was currently down with serious injuries. She didn't hold a doubt in her mind, if they tried to use Rei as she was the likely hood of her surviving the encounter was minimal at best.
"She's fine. Unit 00 is still frozen within Cryostasis."
Misato frowned, "Unit One?"
"Obviously." the doctor clucked her tongue, "It's equipped with the B type equipment, and is currently in the process of being unfrozen."
"Does it even work?" she asked, hesitantly. "I heard it's never activated yet."
"The possibility of Unit One activating is 0.000000009. We call it the 09-system." the doctor shrugged.
"Ah, as in no chance in hell?"
"That would be the o-ni system." Ritsuko sighed, rubbing her head tiredly. "Don't be so depressing. It doesn't mean it won't work."
Misato snorted.
---
Ranma had to stop himself from squealing like a little girl when the lights went out. Not that he was scared, far from it, but he figured if he kept acting like a total ass he'd just piss everyone off, then he'd be right where he was before, well, if you add the very real possibility he'd die before this was all over. Yep yep, what fun! Thanks Mihoshi.. you ditz.
The lights came back on a few moments later, and he came face to face with a gigantic purple monstrosity. He gulped, a little nervous to be this close to an actual Evangelion. He had been able to play it off as no big deal earlier, but now that he was here, facing the thing... well, he was a tad bit nervous.
He flipped his coin and smiled cheerfully. This was gonna be fun fun fun.
"Did you have a chance to read the manual, Ranma?"
"Manual?" he blinked, eyeing the doctor. When Misato face palmed, remembrance kicked in. "Oh, yeah, that thing." he shrugged, "Threw it out the window."
Ritsuko blinked, "Excuse me?"
"You deaf?" he sighed, shaking his head tiredly. "I. Threw. It. Out. The..."
"I heard you!" the doctor snapped, shaking her head in annoyance. This child was really something else.
Misato snickered, elbowing her friend.
She shot the woman a glare, before turning back on the boy. "Fine." she motioned to the Eva, "This is is the Multi-purpose Humanoid Fighting Machine, Code named EVANGELION, which humanity developed as a final defense against the extra-terrestrial threat code named, Angel.
Ranma hmmed, before shrugging, "This what the old man's been working on?"
"Correct."
He looked up at the man overhead, protectively standing behind what looked like a large piece of pexiglass. Ranma rolled his eyes. "Sup pop."
Gendo frowned, just a little at that, but quickly shook his sudden apprehension off. "Dr. Akagi, prepare Unit One for Combat."
Misato blinked, "What? But sir! Rei can't pilot it, she's too injured! We have no pilots!"
"One's just been delivered." Gendo answered mechanically.
The woman froze. No way, no way was he really considering letting Ranma of all people into one of those things. Glancing at the boy, who returned her look with a cheerful smile, before she snapped, "You can't be serious! There's no time to synchronize the Eva! It took Rei seven months to sync with hers! He wouldn't have a chance out there!"
"We're only expecting him to take a seat." Ritsuko explained seriously, "We can't expect more from him then that."
"But.."
"At present.." Ritsuko continued, cutting off Misato's retort, "The interception of the Angel is our top priority! Even with the remote possibility he can successfully sync with the Eva, we have to take that chance. If we fail now, the whole of Humanity could be lost."
Misato was about to say something when the installation suddenly shook violently, knocking most everyone but Ranma off their feet.
---
"Status Report."
Fuyutsuki depressed the button, "The Angel's reached the City. He's laying concentrated fire directly above our position." he gritted his teeth, "I think he knows we're down here."
---
Gendo frowned, staring directly at his son. "Will you pilot it?". He was half expecting his son to be crying by this point, but the fact he just stood their with a silly grin on his face seriously unnerved him.
Ranma clucked his tongue, flipping his yen piece. "Well, maybe." he coughed, "Okay. Before I get into any giant robo's, there's just one thing I wanna say to all of ya."
"And that is?" who was he to complain? If his son just wanted to say something before going off to battle, he wasn't going to stop him.
He caught the coin tightly in his grip, before taking aim at his 'father'. Everyone watched in morbid fascination as he reared back and launched the little thing, their jaws dropping in shock as the little yen piece slammed into the plexiglass protecting their commander, digging deeply into the surface.
Gendo sweat dropped.
Misato gawked.
Ritsuko raised an eyebrow.
Ranma raised his hand to Gendo, extending his middle finger before beginning his tirade. "Fuck you!" he turned his finger to Ritsuko, "Fuck you!", Misato got it next, "Fuck you!" then some nameless engineer got it next, "You! I don't even know you, but I bet yer an asshole too! So Fuck you!" he then took in a deep breath, exhaling slowly. "Alright, I'm done."
Gendo quickly wiped away his sweat drop as everyone else face faulted. His son was anything but a whiney pushover, that was for damn sure.
---
Let's Look Toward
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(Posted Sat, 01 Jan 2005 01:14)
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