Ranma glared irritably at the clock on the wall, followed by the empty lobby she’d been left to wait in. It had been over half an hour so far, and still no one had shown up to take her to the hospital wing for treatment. Even worse, she was within easy reach of not one, but three full vending machines with no money. The snacks inside it arrogantly taunting Ranma’s empty stomach.
Another fifteen minutes passed without anyone showing up for her, and Ranma’s stomach growled angrily at its emptiness. So, when no one showed up to keep Ritsuko’s promise, Ranma reached through the glass window of the nearest machine to liberate one of its snacks. It was followed soon after by a second, then a third, and so on. Ten minutes later, two of the machines were completely bare of snacks, and Ranma was feeling significantly better.
The only down side to her situation was that Ranma still hadn’t seen anyone show up to lead her to the hospital wing. She could also feel that the monster was almost directly over head now. Ranma was already tired of waiting, and that cheap-shotting monster would be just the right target for Ranma to vent her frustrations on right now.
So, without anyone there to tell her otherwise, Ranma flew up through the ceiling on an intercept course for the monster above. Most of the rooms she passed through along the way were either empty, or simply too busy to notice her passing through. One caught her attention however since Ranma heard a pair of familiar voices as she was passing through it. The room was enormous, with several giant video screens and holographic images covering one side of it. One of those screens had Shinji’s face on it while another showed the monster breaking things outside.
“Just concentrate on walking for now, Shinji. We’ll try to guide you from here,” Ranma heard Ritsuko coax him. Judging from the monitors, Shinji was apparently piloting the giant purple robot that just popped up on the surface.
“Oh, so this is where you guys ran off to? Sorry, but those people you sent to get me never showed up, by the way,” Ranma greeted Ritsuko walking up to the startled woman.
The woman, started so bad Ranma almost feared she’d accidentally given the woman a heart attack. She wasn’t the only one in the room to jump at seeing her there either. “Ranma! How the hell did you get in here?” Ritsuko demanded in frightened anger.
“I’ll explain later. But right now I just gotta ask you something. Shinji has piloted that thing before right? Because I don’t think that big, dumb, and ugly’s going to go easy on him for being a newbie if he hasn’t,” Ranma countered Ritsuko’s question with her own.
“No, I haven’t! But according to them, I’m the only one who can pilot it!” complained Shinji’s image on screen. He didn’t even look confident about what he was getting himself into, making Ranma’s heart go out to him.
“Whoa, and they figured all that out without even putting you in it before now? That’s gotta be a first. Anyway, go sock him one for me, Shinji. I got faith in ya,” Ranma encouraged her friend on screen.
“Ha! Easy for you to say, Ranma! I’m up here and you’re safe down there!” Shinji shot back. At least it looked like his irritation at her was letting Shinji shake off his first time jitters piloting that robot thingy.
“What? You want me to come up there and help you with it? I’ll do it, you know,” Ranma shot back. She was planning on taking the creep out herself until just a second ago after all.
“What is this person doing in here?” someone on a tier higher up demanded. Whoever they were, Ranma ignored them, deciding that they were a little slow on the draw for their own good. Apparently she wasn’t the only one either, since no one else answered him either.
“I wish you’d just trade places with me instead, Ranma. I don’t have the first clue how this thing works,” Shinji complained, obviously not hearing the unknown man’s demand either.
“Shinji, I already told you; just concentrate on what you want the Eva to do and it should follow your commands,” Ritsuko interjected impatiently, then glared at Ranma for interrupting.
“Just try, Shiji. That’s all we can really ask of you right now,” Misato added, obviously trying to build Shinji’s confidence up some. Instead she just seemed to make the younger teen more nervous instead.
“Yo, Shinji, that thing’s headed your way, man. Just walk up to it and punch the thing out. You can’t possibly miss, it’s face alone has gotta be fifty feet across,” Ranma warned her new friend, taunting him just enough to make him forget his jitters again.
Outside, the Eva took a step forward, then a second, stalking towards its enemy. “It’s walking, keep it up, Shinji!” cheered Misato, thrilled by the small success. Only to ruin it by reminding Shinji that he didn’t really know what he was doing yet. The machine raised its foot for a third step, then fell flat on it’s face like a drunkard passing out.
“Idiots, you distracted him! Come on, Shinji, get up! That creep’s headed right for you!” Ranma yelled irritably into the horrified silence that followed. Shinji’s robot started to roll over in response to Ranma’s warning. But the so-called Angel closed the gap between them before Shinji could successfully recover from falling down.
The Angel then grabbed the robot by the head and lifted it up. Shinji tried feebly to fend it off with one hand, only to have it seized by the forearm and pulled away. As second later the monster crushed it, armor and all, with its grip alone. The ugly thing wasn’t done yet either, as a purple bar of light lit up at its elbow. That bar of light seemed to piston through the monster’s forearm as it moved forward, jack hammering the head of Shinji’s mecha.
Someone nearby yelled that a crack was forming on the brain case, probably referring to Shinji’s robot. “That armor can’t take much more of this!” Ritsuko added after yet another hammering blow. Someone else yelled something about the robot’s AT field not unfolding to protect him.
“Shake that thing off, Shinji!” Ranma yelled, trying to coach him into getting out of that situation. She didn’t understand much of what anyone else was talking about. But she didn’t need to understand their gibberish to tell that Shinji was in trouble up to his neck right now.
With a horrified gasp, Ranma watched as a final hammering blow launched Shinji’s mecha from the monster’s grip. It propelled him backward into a nearby building, the glowing bar of energy going through the robot’s head, along with the building behind it. When it finally retracted again, blood sprayed from the supposed robot’s head as it lay there limply.
Standing there in shock, Ranma distantly heard several technicians yell about this thing or that thing not working. The signal was dead, the eject wouldn’t work, the Eva wasn’t accepting any commands. But one above all the rest caught her attention, and shook Ranma out of her shocked state. “Pilot’s condition unknown! Life support systems are not responding, unable to confirm vitals!”
She didn’t understand any of the rest of what was going on right now. But to Ranma, one thing was perfectly clear. The boy she’d met barely three hours ago was hurt, possibly dying right now. And that the giant monster outside was responsible for his current condition.
“That’s it! You’re paying for that one, you bastard!” Ranma all but shrieked at the image on screen. She then used the image on screen as a reference to teleport herself outside, within striking range of the monster that had just hurt her new friend.
“Okay, Ugly! It’s my turn now!” she spat in the monster’s direction. A fierce bolt of sliver-blue energy followed Ranma’s declaration and slammed into the monster’s back. Two more just like it followed as well, just under a second apart each. The four hundred foot tall monster staggered forward violently with each hit, bloody holes exploding in its thick hide where the bolts hit.
The monster turned around to face Ranma with a defiant roar. Only to catch two more shots that shattered it’s bony face plate, sending chunks of it flying in multiple directions. Roaring in pain and anger, the giant beast retaliated with an energy bolt of its own, one easily wider than Ranma was tall. The long bolt of energy hammered against Ranma’s shield, blocking almost her entire field of view. But her shield held, allowing Ranma to hold her position against the powerful onslaught.
When the attack ended, Ranma retaliated immediately with a two handed barrage of smaller bolts similar to her initial attack. The main difference between them however was that Ranma could launch these attacks much faster and two at a time despite them being weaker. A fact that Ranma was taking full advantage of right now as she peppered her opponent mercilessly as it recovered from its failed attack.
She wasn’t far into her retaliatory attack though when Shinji’s wounded bio-mecha stood up again, roaring in defiance of it’s own. It leapt up at the giant that wounded it earlier and landed on it with a choke hold. The wounded monster managed to shake Shinji’s wild attack off though, throwing him a short distance behind it.
Shinji’s Eva landed gracefully however, despite being thrown like it had been. The instant it touched down, the armored Eva turned and charged at the monster a second time. Only to collide with a hexagonal wall of reddish orange energy that stopped its momentum cold.
The monster’s barrier rippled a little, like water, with each of the probing shots Ranma fired at it, as well as the two experimental punches thrown by Shinji’s Eva. Feeling a sense of desperation coming from the monster, Ranma grinned evilly as she teleported behind it in a flanking maneuver. She re-materialized just in time to see Shinji’s Eva heal its right arm and reach forward to grab the monster’s shield with both hands.
Getting the Eva’s fingers through the barrier, Ranma grinned to herself as she figured out what Shinji was up to. He was overpowering the monster’s barrier, and likely destroying its last hope at defense. After seeing enough to know that Shinji could do it if he kept on going, Ranma decided to make his job easier by showing the monster why its shield wouldn’t have been enough either way. She powered up her biggest shot yet, straining to store as much energy as possible before unleashing it on the monster.
“Shinji!” Misato screamed as their only hope of fighting the angle right now went down, possibly dead. It was almost too much to bare. Why did they have to pin all their hopes on someone who’d never even piloted an Eva before in the first place.
“That’s it! You’re paying for that one, you bastard!” Ranma, the strange girl they’d picked up screamed at the screen as well. Then she suddenly just disappear somehow. Misato didn’t have time to worry about it though, Shinji’s condition was much more important at the moment.
“Commander! An unknown pattern has just appeared on screen! It could be a second Angel!” Ibuki announced in alarm from her console, obviously panicked.
All eyes snapped up to the main screen to see the apparent new threat assailing them. Nothing was visible though, not at first. Then suddenly a silvery blue beam flashed across the screen to hit the Angel attacking Shinji, staggering it. A second and a third beam hit the angle as well, all but knocking the thing over as it tried to recover itself and face its seemingly invisible attacker.
As they all watched, a section of the screen showed a close up of the spot where the silvery bolts appeared to be coming from. Against all probability, there was a human figure just floating there, four hundred meters above the ground. The image zoomed closer, and Misato was amazed to recognize the black skin-suite clad figure attacking the Angel like an image of wrath incarnate.
“Oh my god, it’s Ranma!” Misato yelled out in recognition, unable to believe what she was seeing. But there she was, floating on screen as plain as day for anyone to see.
“Angel is counter attacking!” Ibuki called out again as the Angel used its energy attack again.
“Get out of there, Ranma!” Misato ordered the image on screen. For just a moment she forgot that Ranma had absolutely no way of hearing her out there. Eyes shut reflexively closed as a massive beam of energy slammed against Ranma’s position.
“I don’t believe it; she blocked it!” Ristuko’s voice called out, causing Misato to look back up at the screen in disbelief of her own. But there Ranma was, not budging even an inch as she blocked the Angels attack with the same barrier she’d demonstrated before.
An impossibly long second later and the Angel’s attack ended, leaving everyone in central dogma breathless at what they’d just witnessed. Except that Ranma wasn’t done yet, and she was still just as savagely angry as before. The petite redhead orbited the Angel’s massive bulk like an angry hornet pestering a bear; her tiny form peppering the Angel’s flanks with smaller, machine-gun fast, energy attacks that kept it flailing and off balance.
“Unit One is moving again!” Ibuki announced, shocking everyone once again. The section of the main screen that wasn’t zoomed in on Ranma focused back on the purple mecha to show that it was indeed moving again.
The instant it was on its feet again, Shinji’s Eva roared back at the Angel in front of it in defiant rage and then leapt at it like an angry predator. “Berserker,” someone observed in horrified awe as Unit One landed on the Angel in a choke hold with its one good arm. Only to be grabbed and thrown off again by the Angel.
Instead of crashing to the ground like before though, the Eva landed nimbly like a gymnast and turned back around to charge at the Angel a second time. The mecha never made it though as the multi ton Evangelion’s charge was stopped cold by a rippling, hexagonal wall of energy. Enemy unit is deploying its AT field!” Ibuki reported to the room as the Eva pounded angrily on the barrier.
“No! As long as that AT field is up, there’s no way Shinji can fight back!” Ritsuko yelled in dismay at the revelation.
On screen, Unit one bellowed its rage at the Angel again and brandished its damaged left arm as if flexing it. “Impossible! Unit One’s left arm just regenerated itself!” a male tech announced in disbelief as the mecha’s arm really did become whole again.
Once its arm was whole again, Unit One gripped the center of the Angel’s AT field like a set of closed sliding doors and forced its fingertips through. “Unit One’s deploying it’s own AT field! The wave length is neutralizing the phase space!” Ibuki yelled out as they tried to follow what was happening above ground.
“No, it’s ripping right through it!” Ritsuko corrected, as they all raptly watched the fight unfold. That was exactly what it looked like too, as the hole in the Angel’s AT field stopped stretching and suddenly ripped like so much cloth instead.
“Massive energy signature emanating from the unknown entity! She’s powering up for some kind of large scale attack!” Ibuki called out, momentarily bringing everyone’s attention back to the much smaller image of Ranma. Her entire frame was glowing with silvery blue energy, arms clasped to her chest as if restraining something there.
Then suddenly her black clad arms shot forward in a shining blur. As she did, all of the energy surrounding her flowed into her palms briefly and collected there. An instant later a flash of silver left Ranma’s hands that was nearly as long as she was and exploded against the Angel’s backside like a small sun gone nova.
At the same time, Unit One obliterated what was left of the Angel’s AT field with a final savage tug and struck the sphere in it’s abdomen with a savage gut punch. The combined deathblows left what was left of the Angel laying on its back, motionless, the reddish crystal sphere in its gut nothing but crumbling shards now.
“No activity detected from the Angel. Magi confirms, the target has gone completely silent, Commander,” Ibuiki announced in awe. “We’ve won,” she added in cheerful disbelief.
No one else took their eyes off the main monitor just yet however, all of them were so awe struck by what they’d just seen, Misato herself included. Unit One was standing triumphantly over the corpse of the fallen Angel, as if silently daring it to come back from the dead and attack again.
The enlarged image of Ranma floating across from Unit one visibly calmed though, most likely relieved by the Angel’s defeat. Then her eyes closed, and the redhead toppled forward and plummeted head long toward the ground below. “Ranma!” Misato heard herself scream in sudden panic for the girl who’d helped them. She thought she heard Ritsuko call out her name too but couldn’t be certain.
Separated by over a city block, Unit One miraculously lunged forward and caught the unconscious girl before she’d fallen more than a few stories. Then the wounded mecha staggered to one knee, the hand holding Ranma, or her remains, resting palm up against the ground. The closeup image obediently zoomed up onto her again so that all of them could see what had become of her.
Ranma’s body was still whole, but from the image alone there was no way of telling if the motionless figure was still alive or not. Or so Misato believed. “Faint energy signature still detectable from unknown friendly unit. Entity appears to still be alive, commander; please advise,” a technician announced, much to Cpt. Kusanagi’s silent relief.
“What is the status of Unit One’s pilot?” Commander Ikari responded, seemingly ignoring the initial question. The man’s impassive visage regarding the main monitor as though nothing of note had happened yet.
“Monitoring systems within the Eva coming back on-line . . . now. Commander, pilot life signs are confirmed within the Eva’s entry plug. Pilot appears to be unconscious however,” Ibuki reported obediently, audibly relieved.
“Very well then. Deploy recovery teams to retrieve the Eva and its pilot. Have them collect that girl the Eva is holding as well. I want to know everything there is to know about her, especially who and what she is. And above all, I want to know why she is here,” Commander Ikari replied after hearing the report.
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(Posted Thu, 30 Oct 2008 19:48)
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