NOVEL WEB 1.02 – Angel Attack Pt. II
Atami, Hakone, Kanagawa. August 13th, 2015
Misato gaped at the girl sitting quietly on the bench across from her car, not quite sure what to think. She had been told that Commander Ikari’s child was a boy. She had his picture right here on the dashboard. Maybe this was his sister?
“Miss Katsuragi?” asked the young girl, quizzically. “Is there a problem? I hate to be a bother, but there is an emergency evacuation order on the area, and we really should be going.”
Misato shook off her surprise and smiled at the young girl. “Of course, Aiko. Please, don’t call me ‘Miss Katsuragi’, Misato is just fine. But, uh, maybe we should fetch your brother first? Your father must have forgotten to mention you were coming as well.”
Aiko frowned. “I don’t understand what you mean.”
“I was told I was to pick up your brother, specifically.” Misato explained, raising an eyebrow. “Your brother is Shinji Ikari, yes?”
The young girl shuddered. “Please…stop using that name. Shinji doesn’t exist anymore. He never did. I’m Aiko, not Shinji. I’m transgender.”
“…oh,” Misato said, realising her mistake. “Aiko, I’m so sorry. Please, get in the car, I’ll make sure that headquarters knows in advance. We weren’t told that you had transitioned, and I’m so sorry for using your…uh…what’s the term again…”
“Deadname,” supplied Aiko, climbing in, and closing the door. “Clearly my father didn’t bother to read any of the parental consent forms he had to sign before signing them. If he even bothered to handle it himself.”
“…sorry, by the way,” Misato said, as they began to drive towards the road that would take them to Tokyo-III. “I’ve never really met a transgender person before. You look really…uh…well, you look like a real girl.”
Aiko glared at her with a venom that Misato had never seen from a child her age before. To be honest, the only child Misato had any experience with was Asuka, and it was easy with her. Captains in the Luftwaffe, regardless of how unusually young they were, were still easy enough to deal with. With Asuka, Misato was especially good at prodding her into keeping in line. Once you figured out how to gently stoke her ego, she was easy to manage. Aiko was an unknown, especially since she bore little resemblance to the boy whose dossier she had on the back seat.
“I am a real girl,” hissed Aiko. “You know how difficult it is in this country to get access to hormone replacement? How difficult it is to get your legal gender and name changed? I’m lucky that the chaos caused by the second impact led to such a drastic overhaul of the Japanese bureaucratic system, because if it wasn’t for the fact that most of the bureaucracy died along with old Tokyo, and the reshuffling of the government lead to a lot of extraneous laws being ditched, the grey areas I had to use to get everything changed wouldn’t exist. I had to fight for my gender. I had to fight to get the drugs that I use to change my body. So don’t you dare say that I’m less of a girl than any cis woman is.”
“Sorry…” Misato said, abashedly. “That was a poor choice of words on my behalf. We’re near the edge of Atami, anyway, and we should be in Tokyo III well before the- SHIT!”
Aiko had barely any time to react to Misato’s exclamation before she was thrown into the side door as the older woman swerved violently to avoid the hunk of metal that had just slammed into the road in front of them. Aiko dimly noted that it looked like some kind of military VTOL, and had enough time to register the pilot, still in the cockpit and desperately pulling off his restraints, before the entire aircraft was crushed underneath a massive foot, the remaining airframe disappearing in an explosion that sent the car into a spin.
“Hang on!” exclaimed Misato, pulling the car into reverse, and screeching back onto the road. “Damnit, we were so close! Make sure your seatbelt is fastened properly, Aiko!”
Aiko barely had time to check before Misato slammed down hard on the accelerator and sped away from whatever the fuck had just fallen onto the aircraft. There were a series of thunderous explosions from behind, accompanied by the sound of what seemed to be shrapnel falling on top of the vehicle. The vehicle shook slightly as more and more explosions came from the city rapidly disappearing behind them, accompanied by the sound of crumbling concrete and the shriek of rending metal. Eventually, Misato let off the accelerator, and pulled the car back into the correct lane, wiping some sweat off her brow. She even turned on the indicators as she pulled the car onto the turnoff for Tokyo-III.
“What the fuck was that?” Aiko exclaimed, looking through the rear window at the column of smoke billowing from the direction of Atami. “When my Dad summoned me here, I didn’t expect to end up in a warzone!”
“That was the Third Angel, Sachiel” explained Misato, picking up the phone attached to the dashboard with the hand she didn’t have on the wheel, placing in between her ear and her shoulder, and dialling a number on the keypad. “A member of an ancient species of powerful lifeforms who have apparently only returned now. We should be safe now, we’re nearly at the entrance for the express lift. I’m currently contacting headquarters to update them on our current status, and to request priority access to the express lift.”
There was a flash of light in the distance, and a sudden tremble that sent the car swerving slightly as Misato struggled to keep the car on track. Aiko looked out the side window to see a mushroom cloud rising over the hills in the direction of Atami. Misato exhaled as she briefly glanced over.
“Thank god for good timing. If I’d been a few minutes slower in picking you up, we’d have been caught in that blast. It seems the JSSDF decided to employ a N2 mine in their attempts to stop the Angel. Hopefully, that’ll slow it down a bit, and we’ll have more time to prepare a more effective defence.”
“They used a nuke?” Aiko said, gaping. “How much of a threat is this thing?”
“Technically not a nuke,” Misato said, her face set into a thin line. “And threat wise, the Angels are beyond anything that the regular military can hope to use against them. I’d appreciate some silence now; I’m nearly through to HQ.”
NERV HQ, Tokyo-III, Hakone, Kanagawa. August 13th, 2015
“Operational command has been passed to you, Ikari.”
Fuyutsuki grinned as the JSSDF finally gave up their futile attempts to commandeer the defence of Tokyo-III and handed command of the situation back to NERV. Ikari, for his credit, had deigned to show up to actually receive command in person. It was pretty clear that the man felt the same way as Fuyutsuki did. That, or he enjoyed a small amount of schadenfreude.
“Can you beat it?” asked one of the military officials, struggling to not visibly sweat in front of the man he had been dismissing as a “technocratic knuckledragger” mere hours ago. “Can your organisation truly defeat the Angel?”
“That,” replied Ikari. “Is what NERV is for, gentlemen.”
With little more than a scowl, the military officials departed, their dais sinking into the ground with a whine of hydraulics. Gendo turned to Fuyutsuki, wordlessly.
“Unit One is ready for launch,” Fuyutsuki said, already knowing his commander’s desires. “The Third is currently on route to the Eva cages. Major Katsuragi reported no issues with retrieval but did indicate that the intelligence on the Third was faulty.”
“It is of no consequence,” Gendo said, dismissively. “He will either play the role that we laid out for him and the other children all those years ago, or he will be replaced. I leave the rest to you, Fuyutsuki.”
“Of course, Ikari.”
With that, the Commander departed again. Fuyutsuki turned back to the situation map and sighed.
“Their first meeting in five long years,” mused Fuyutsuki to himself, before refocusing on the battle raging on overhead. “Order the JSSDF forces to pull out of the defence perimeter. Deploy all perimeter defences. Go to level one battlestations.”
As the alert began sounding over the overhead speakers once more, Fuyutsuki hoped that Gendo was right and that the changes to the Third that Major Katsuragi had indicated would not pose a risk to their plans.
“So, Ikari,” mused Fuyutsuki once more. “You have lost both a wife and a son, but you have gained a daughter. How will you proceed?”
“Aiko Ikari, I wish to show you something.”
Aiko hadn’t expected this when her father summoned her to Tokyo-III. First, she had been nearly killed in an impromptu encounter with an ancient alien being who had been tearing through the most advanced weapons in the military’s arsenal. Then, she had been brought deep underground, and escorted through a massive military facility at the bottom of a massive geofront. She had been fitted with a skintight jumpsuit of some kind by a woman called Dr. Akagi, who had been shocked to see her, and had repeatedly mentioned that it was at least a saving grace that she was the same size as someone called “Ayanami”, who she had also initially confused her with. Finally, she had been brought via a speedboat across a large chamber filled with some kind of red liquid that Dr. Akagi had referred to as “LCL” to a large superstructure which she now stood in. There was a click from nearby, and the lights switched on suddenly. What they revealed caused Aiko to jump back slightly in surprise.
In front of her, sticking out of the pool of LCL, was a giant metal head. The surface was painted metallic purple, with green highlights on the giant fins that she had thought were part of the walls, but seemed to be part of the shoulders of whatever this was. The helmet resembled the oni of Japanese mythology, complete with a single horn-like spike that towered over her, reaching towards the ceiling. Aiko didn’t quite know what to think.
“Is this what my father has been working on all these years?”
“…Yui…?”
Aiko looked up at the unexpected answer that had boomed out of the loudspeakers above. Her father stood in an observation booth overlooking the gantry she currently stood on. Her fists tightened.
“Father, it’s been a while,” Aiko said, curtly. “Happy to see your only child again?”
“…it…it is of no consequence,” replied her father, the shock in his voice replaced by his usual indifference within a matter of seconds. “We’re moving out. The Third Child shall be the pilot.”
“Is that all you have to say to me?” Aiko questioned, glaring at him. “You summon me here after five years, and you have nothing to say? I’m Aiko Ikari, your daughter.”
“It would seem so,” came her father’s response, almost sounding bored. “It is of no consequence. I have summoned you here for one reason: I have a use for you. You shall pilot this machine, the synthetic biomechanical weapons system known as Evangelion Unit One.”
“Aiko,” said Dr. Akagi, almost gently. “You can talk with your father about this later. Right now, we’re all in danger. You’re the only person who can synchronise with the Evangelion. We’ll provide you with instructions, all we need you to do is to get inside the cockpit.”
Aiko was silent for a few moments. This was definitely not what she had expected. She knew what they were asking was, in any other situation, completely unreasonable. Children were not meant to be soldiers, and she had zero experience when it came to fighting a giant monster. She certainly didn’t know how to pilot whatever this Evangelion was. But the fact that they were asking her meant that had few options. And the fact that the Angel that had attacked her had survived a weapon on the scale of a nuclear warhead meant that the situation was desperate indeed.
“I’ll do it. On one condition,” she said, glaring up at her father, who stared back impassively. “Will you listen this time, or will you ignore me as you have for most of my life?”
“Name your price,” said her father, his tone definitely expressing some degree of exasperation.
“You better not fuck with my transition while I’m here,” Aiko said, her tone firm. “In fact, I want you to authorise the surgeries I desire.”
NERV HQ, Tokyo-III, Hakone, Kanagawa. August 13th, 2015.
“Evangelion Unit-01, beginning launch sequence!”
“LCL draining, in progress!”
“Main power connected; Signal Termination Plug has been removed!”
“Roger! Contacts ready! Commence Entry Plug Insertion!”
Aiko sat in the seat of what Dr. Akagi had called the Entry Plug. As far as what she had expected for the cockpit of a giant robot, it was rather barebones. There were a pair of control saunters, which she had been told were “manual synch rate adjusters” for the two hemispheres of what the scientist had referred to as the evangelion’s brain. Apparently, she would be interfacing with the machine via a brain computer interface. Aiko had understood about half of what she had said. The rest was, as far as she knew, technobabble. She had been given a pair of hairclip like devices that she had been asked to attach to her head over her temples, which had been called the A10 Nerve Synchronisation Clips. She presumed those were the means through which the machine would respond to her thoughts. Other than that, the rails which her seat and the control setup sat on, and the bare metal walls of the torpedo-like plug, the cockpit was entirely featureless.
There was a sudden whir, and the plug began to move downwards, Aiko having climbed in with the plug at a slanted angle. There was a click that echoed through the metal plug, and a whirr accompanied by a slow move forwards as the plug was presumably fed into the Evangelion. Aiko was about to ask how they expected her to see when another message came over the hidden speakers inside the plug.
“Entry Plug LCL injection now beginning.”
To her shock, the red liquid that the evangelion had been immersed in began to fill the cockpit, still slanted at an angle. She began to panic as the liquid reached her legs, then her chest, before flowing over her head and filling the plug completely. Dr. Akagi’s voice came over the intercom.
“Aiko, relax. The LCL is oxygenated and is perfectly breathable. You won’t drown, and the LCL will oxygenate your lungs directly. You’ll get used to it.”
Aiko was running out of air at this point and seeing no other choice but to trust the doctor, she opened her mouth, and took a breath of the liquid that surrounded her. It tasted mildly of copper, seemingly as blood flavoured as it looked.
“I’m fine,” she said, trying to ignore the itchiness in her lungs as they protested the liquid filling them. “Ready to proceed.”
“Activating secondary contacts and beginning A10 Nerve Synchronisation.”
The LCL in the cockpit seemingly became transparent, as if the cockpit was filled with air. Before Aiko could do more than register the change, the walls of the cockpit flashed with bands of colour, and the clips on her head thrummed slightly. Within seconds, the bare metal walls had been replaced with an image of the world outside. Aiko could also feel something pressing against the back of her mind, probing at her. Was that the Eva?
“Synchronisation rate at 96.52%. Synapse Synchronisation Graph is stable, and plug depth is stable at plus three point five above the contamination threshold. All signals green, batteries fully charged. Progressive knife and pallet rifle loaded. Evangelion unit one ready for launch.”
Aiko gripped the controls and tried to remember the briefing she had been given prior to entry. The evangelion began to move as the platform it stood on moved along rails towards the catapult that would carry her to the surface. The Third Angel was currently busy dealing with the static defences that Tokyo-III employed but was expected to break through in a matter of minutes. Her job was to destroy the core, which was protected by what had been called an Absolute Terror field, or a AT field. Her Evangelion also could project an AT field, which would protect her against the Angel’s powerful attacks. She needed to wear down the AT field with the heavy rifle she had been issued, which used specialised ammunition that could weaken the Angel’s AT field enough for her to close in and use the progressive knife to penetrate the core and destroy it for good. She still thought that this was way too much to ask of her, especially since she barely knew how to use a gun, but she had a motivation to do this.
Father better keep that promise, she thought to herself. Remember, your goal is to transition in full. This is an opportunity to do that. All you have to do is fight and survive.
She tried to remember what her Sensei had taught her during their meditation lessons.
Count to four, inhale, count to four, exhale. Repeat. Count to four, inhale, count to four, exhale...
She just hoped that it’d be enough. Then again, meditation wasn’t all she’d learned after leaving the guardian her father had assigned her to all those years ago. After all, when society was hostile to you, you learned to defend yourself.
“Launch path is clear, Evangelion standing by for launch,” reported Lt. Ibuki, her voice tense. “Angel has breached the final layer of external defences and is approaching the edge of the perimeter defence wall. Gun batteries are reporting that suppressive fire is ineffective. Standing by for final launch command. Major Katsuragi?”
Misato frowned. Aiko’s willingness to fight concerned her, but Misato could see why she had been motivated by the Commander’s promise. The girl definitely had her own goals, and hopefully she wasn’t going to die out there trying to achieve them. NERV had access to the best medical staff on the planet, and Aiko could easily receive the care she desired from them without worrying about cost or malpractice. Not to mention that Misato knew how rare, trained plastic surgeons were in today’s world. When most of the world was still suffering from famines and resource shortages following the collapse of the ecosystems, there wasn’t that big of demand for plastic surgery. Doctors trained to help fight pandemics and to treat injuries, not to perform frivolous cosmetic surgeries for the wealthy. Those days had ended fifteen years ago along with the Second Impact.
Regardless of whether Aiko had consented or not, or how much pressure she had been under to make her choice, Misato knew that what NERV was doing was wrong. Sending children to fight against something as powerful as an Angel was…well, it was certainly something that they’d all be going to hell for when they died. But they had no choice. She took in a deep breath and exhaled.
“Launch the Eva!”
Aiko barely felt the jolt as the catapult reached the surface and abruptly stopped. The LCL dampened the shock so effectively that she barely had perceived the sudden change in velocity as the catapult screamed up the shaft towards the surface. There was a clunk as the locking bolts that had secured the evangelion to the catapult were released, and a second clunk as a nearby building opened up to present what she assumed was the Pallet Rifle.
“Aiko, the Angel has just breached the perimeter wall,” Misato ordered over the radio. “It’s approaching you from the north, you have mere minutes till it makes contact. Grab the rifle and prepare to engage.”
“…um, Roger?” said Aiko, tentatively. She tentatively reached towards the presence at the back of her head and tried to command the Eva to grab the rifle. To her mild surprise, it did as she commanded. She pushed forwards on the saunters reflexively and was surprised when her perception of her body began to fade, replaced by a feeling of being several stories taller than she used to, and much, much stronger. The control chair began to move down the rails towards the front of the plug, and she pulled back slightly. The feeling lessened, and her awareness returned to normal. “…I…think I’m getting the hang of this.”
“Be careful to watch how much you push up the synch level!” Dr. Akagi said over the radio, her tone sharp. “Push things too far, and you risk psychological contamination. If you go too far, and the plug depth reaches maximum, the consequences could be catastrophic. You could die.”
“OK, got it,” replied Aiko, her confidence rising. She held the rifle to the Eva’s shoulder, and stepped forwards off the catapult, bringing the machine to one knee like she’d seen soldiers do on TV. A targeting reticule appeared on her monitor, centred ahead. This was sorta like a video game, although she tried to remember the situation she was in. She had to admit though, when you got over the fact that her father had basically sent her out to be used as a child soldier, and ignored the fact that she could very well die tonight, this was kinda fun. Well, almost.
“The Angel is approaching. Five hundred meters to contact. Aiko, the pallet rifle carries three hundred rounds of anti-ATF ammo. The Eva’s fire control systems will handle the recoil and provide targeting correction. If it fires at you, move quickly, and stay on your feet. Only fire in short, controlled bursts, and when you run out of ammo, ditch the rifle, and grab a new one from one of the resupply points. We’ll send you the nav data to them if you need it. Good luck, we’re counting on you.”
Aiko swallowed, and tried to respond, but her throat seemed to be too dry to respond. She could feel the rumbling of the Angel’s feet as it came around the corner and stood in front of her. It was taller than the Eva, with broad shoulders, lanky limbs, and skin as black as the night sky. It lacked a head, instead sporting a birdlike mask embedded into its upper torso. A series of bonelike spikes protruded from its elbows, and a series of rib-like spikes encased a glowing red orb at the centre of its chest. Aiko didn’t hesitate for long. She pulled the trigger, her reticule centred on the angel. The pallet rifle spat streams of tracer rounds at the Angel but were stopped by a sudden flare as a translucent barrier flared into existence before the giant monster. Aiko fired another two bursts, but before she could squeeze off the fourth, a flash of light emanated from the eyeholes of the angel’s mask, and Aiko dived away behind a cluster of buildings. She barely escaped the explosion that scorched the catapult and the intersection where she had stood, a massive cross of light blooming into the sky from the point of impact. A warning flashed on her display as the power cable that had been connected to her Eva from the catapult was severed. She rolled back onto her feet, and continued to run, her awareness of the distinction between the Eva and herself diminishing as she pushed down on the saunters. A navigation beacon popped up, beckoning her to plug herself into a power supply, something she dimly recognised as a necessity for her to survive. Her target was pursuing her, however, and five minutes would be all she needed to destroy it. She skidded to a stop, threw away the rifle, and ignored the noises that seemed to come from inside her head that ordered her to plug into the power and retrieve the rifle. Instead, she ripped open the bindings that held shut her jaw and screamed a wordless battle cry at her opponent. A panel on her shoulder snapped open, her knife deploying with a metallic clunk. Grabbing it in her right hand, and pulling it free of the holster, she charged at her foe, ready to rip it open and destroy it. The beast’s eyes flashed again, and she only just managed to dive to one side to evade it as it fired a beam of energy down the road she had just stood on. Emerging once more, moving on three limbs as she scrambled back into a charge, she leapt towards the target, soaring high above the city, and landing atop its AT field.
A mere annoyance.
Her fingers gripping the field with one hand, and her other grasping the knife, she plunged the knife down, and began to cut through the AT field, eager to skin her foe, and to finish the hunt. As she ripped through the field, the angel reached towards her head with its right hand, a futile attempt to stop her. It was of no consequence. She batted aside its arm, and kicked out one of her legs, sending the beast flying backwards into a nearby building. She lunged forwards, tacking it to the ground, and ripping the spines from its chest. Raising her knife up high, she let out one last scream, and the Eva plunged the knife down into the core.
The feeling faded, as a long beep echoed through the plug, and the monitors went dark. The batteries had been depleted, and she was down to emergency power. She realised she was still gripping the controls tightly.
“Evangelion Unit-01 has destroyed the target. Battery supply depleted, Evangelion has shut down. Minimal damage to unit and to city. Situation clear, deploy recovery and cleanup teams immediately.”
Aiko slumped back in her chair, suddenly feeling like she had run a marathon, and a migraine beginning to build at the back of her head.
“Aiko, are you OK? You barely managed to stay above the minimum safe plug depth, and your biosigns were erratic for the entire battle.”
Aiko blinked, and responded to Dr. Akagi’s query, now registering that they had been attempting to contact her the entire time. “Dr. Akagi! Sorry, I...don’t know what happened. It was weird. I felt like I could barely distinguish myself from the Eva, and I sorta just went with what it wanted to do. I did a good job, right? I’m sorry about not following your orders, I could barely register them at the time. Is everyone safe now?”
There was a minute of dead silence before Dr. Akagi spoke again. “You did good, Aiko. Better than we could have hoped. Stay put for now, the retrieval teams will be there to manually eject the entry plug and recover the Eva soon. The emergency power supply should give you more than enough life support for them to reach you. We’re all safe, thanks to you.”
Aiko let out a sigh as the communications channel closed. She sat back in the entry plug, noticing that the LCL, previously cold, now felt as warm as a sauna. She closed her eyes and tried to forget the feeling of bestial rage that had filled her very being during the battle. But even her Sensei’s mantra couldn’t get it out of her head. She had thought that this was an opportunity to avoid paying the costs of affirming her own identity. Of finally being able to feel like she was truly happy with herself. Of becoming female. But she was beginning to feel like she’d just changed the price from one in Yen to one that was more metaphysical.
Was the true price of happiness not money, but her soul?
TO BE CONTINUED…
