I seem to have gotten back in to my usual writing groove after the short
hiatus. I'm surprised because I figure it would take me a while before I
got back in to writing quickly once again^_^

If you missed previous parts/chapter this series/fanfic, you can find it
on my webpage at http://www.anime.sobhrach.com/~jeffwong/ 

 
Enjoy^_^




Jeffrey "OneShot" Wong




  He had no idea what was going to happen, but he knew it was definitely
something very painful and most likely fatal.
  Several blocks were incinerated in an instant in a massive
mushroom-like cloud of smoke and fire. When the explosion subsided, all
that was left behind was a giant crater a hundred meters in radius.
  Standing in the middle of the crater were Shinji and Misato and
Ritsuko. 
  They were confused and unscathed. 
  Shinji was the first to compose himself.
  "W-what the heck just happened?"





<new stuff 12/6>




  Shinji looked around toward the edge of the crater. From where he and
the others were, so deep down in the crater, they could see nothing but
sky, all of the surrounding buildings that would otherwise block out the
sky destroyed.
  "What just happened?" Misato asked, looking down at herself. She was
still here. Ritsuko was still here. Shinji was still here. It didn't make
sense. She definitely saw that huge wall of fire coming straight towards
them. Heck, something should have happened to them considering the fact
that the building she and Ritsuko had been standing on melted right under
their feet.
  Shinji scratched his head, "I'm not too sure what happened. I don't
know how to conjure or an AT Field and I didn't see one protecting us at
the last minute. I don't know why that happened nor why we're all right
in the first place,"
  "This is very confusing," Ritsuko commented.
  Shinji couldn't help but feel a great sense of weight press down on his
shoulders when he heard that coming from Ritsuko. He was hoping Ritsuko
could make sense of what was going on. There was no way he would be able
to figure something like this out on his own.
  Misato looked down at her body armor, "Hm, you think it was the body
armor?"
  "I highly doubt it," Shinji scratched his head, "I wasn't wearing one
and I'm fine. Also, how could those vest block out something as powerful
as that blast? It melted all the surrounding buildings,"
  "C'mon, let's get out of this crater and see how much damage it's
caused," Misato proceeded to climb up the side of the crater.
  Shinji and Ritsuko followed, Shinji helping Ritsuko out after she
slipped halfway out of the crater and almost tumbled back down. When they
made it out of the crater, they looked around and noticed that they had a
clear view of the Angel still hovering a good distance away. The few
buildings that blocked a clear view of Angel were no longer there, having
melted from the searing heat from being within such close proximity when
the particle beam traveled right by them.
  The three of them began heading down the street in the general
direction of the Angel. They had no real idea what to do and that seemed
like the right thing to do. 
  "T-this is just...insane," Shinji commented, "What the heck and why the
heck did this happen? None of this is happening according to what I
expected to,"
  "What do you mean?" Misato asked curiously.
  "Angels are attacking out of synch," Shinji commented, "And when they
do show up, they're not doing what I expect them to do. They seem to
attack Tokyo-3 in the exact same fashion as how I remember them attacking
my own Tokyo-3, but it looks as if they suddenly have a change in plans
and do something completely different,"
  "What were you expecting the Angel to do?" Misato asked.
  "Well, this Angel is a few weeks early, much like the Angel before it,"
Shinji stated, "And not only that, it's attack pattern is completely
different from what I was expecting. It only attacks object of
opportunity within a certain range. Considering the fact that we are by
the outskirts of Tokyo-3 and it's basically in the center of the city, we
are way out of its range. It's  attacking an area much father than
expected. This also doesn't include the fact that it seemed to have
purposely attacked right where we were and seemed to have left us, yet no
one else, unscathed,"
  "Most peculiar," Ritsuko scratched at her chin, deep in thought.
  "This is probably all happening differently from what you're expecting
because of all that's occurred," Misato commented, "Keep in mind that,
considering what you told us about your world, this world has undergone a
much more different chain of events,"
  Shinji shrugged, "Well, all we can do is deal with it as it comes
along. There's nothing much we can do but that,"
  "What's the plan now?" Misato asked.
  Shinji gave Misato a rather odd look. It was weird that she was asking
him for suggestions. 
  "I dunno," Shinji said, "I was hoping you might have a plan. I'm not
used to this,"
  "What, you think we should know this any better?" Misato smirked,
"Considering how you are younger than us and we are supposed to be the
ones in charge, with something like this, I doubt any adult would be able
to know what's going on,"
  Ranma would know what's going on, Shinji thought with a sigh. Too bad
he isn't here. I needed his help so many times. I feel like I'm stumbling
my way through everything.
  "How about we do this?" Shinji suggested, "You two, find a safe place
to hide. I'm gotta try and find a way to get Nerv to use the Lance of
Longinus to defeat this Angel,"
  "You want us to hide?" Misato asked, a bit surprised.
  Shinji nodded, "I guess. Keep in mind that it was a good chance that
Ritsuko got followed on her way back from that cyber caf� place she had
been coming from. That's most likely how they found out where we were,"
  "A-are you sure?" Ritsuko was surprised. She felt very bad if that was
true, that she could have been the cause of their hotel room being
stormed.
  Shinji sighed, "I have no idea. There are so many unanswered questions.
For all I know, they could've followed me from when I was at school. The
thing is is that I made extra sure that no one was following me,"
  Shinji proceeded to pat himself down.
  "What are you doing?" Ritsuko asked.
  "I dunno, maybe I was tagged with some kinda tracker or homing device,"
he commented. After a moment, he found nothing.
  Misato and Ritsuko proceeded to pat themselves down. They both found
nothing.
  Shinji scratched his head, "Well, we're not tagged with tracker or
anything so the only logical explanation would be that Ritsuko was
followed,"
  "If I was followed, then I'm sorry this happened," Ritsuko said
sincerely, "I wouldn'tve left the hotel if I knew I was going to be found
and followed,"
  Shinji waved a dismissive hand, "No, don't worry about it. It can't be
helped. We are much better off now than had you not found out the info
about Nerv. Knowing that they upped their security saves me the risk and
trouble of going there and finding that out the hard way,"
  "Once again, back to the first questions, what do you plan on doing?"
Misato asked.
  "Our first priority is defeating that Angel," Shinji said, "Since the
positron rifle won't be functional for around a month from now, that
means it can't be used to defeat this Angel like it was used on my world.
Therefore, something else needs to be used. The only thing I can think of
is using the Lance of Longinus,"
  "Lance of Longinus?" Misato asked.
  "It's the lance that was used to inflict the fatal blow on Jesus when
he was crucified," Ritsuko said, "It's located in Central Dogma which is
located under Nerv Headquarters. It is impaled through Lilith, the second
Angel, to prevent her from coming back to life,"
  Misato gave Ritsuko a weird look, "What? What are you talking about?"
  Ritsuko sighed, "Well, since I no longer have to worry about what would
happen to me for revealing top secret information, I'll tell you. It's a
long story,"
  "Do you know how I can contact Nerv and pass on this information to
them?" Shinji interrupted, "You two can talk about that later. It'll be
very soon before Asuka is deployed to fight that Angel. I'm sure it'll be
Asuka since, at this point in time, Rei is still in the hospital
recovering from her injuries from when Unit-00 went berserk,"
  "Man, you know so much," Misato commented, "It's uncanny how you know
such closely guarded secrets about Nerv,"
  "That's because I've been through all of this on an alternate version
of this world," Shinji said, "But that's not the point. Anyway, do you
know of a way I can contact Nerv? There's no way I can get in there to
tell them, what with the tight security, so I hafta go about it with a
different approach,"
  "Well, you can always call them," Misato said, "There's a main line you
can call in on that only high-level personnel like Ritsuko and myself can
use. It's actually the commander's private line,"
  Both females noticed the slight agitation grow Shinji's face upon
hearing that.
  "Yeah, I remember," Shinji snorted, "I remember calling him about
something related to school and he just brushed me off,"
  "Um, unfortunately, I don't know the number by heart," Misato
commented.
  "Neither do I," Ritsuko said.
  Shinji sighed, "Well, that's no help,"
  Misato said, "I have the number jotted down at my apartment. It's
actually written on the blackboard in my bedroom. If we go back there-"
  "I'm way ahead of ya," Shinji said, running down the street, "I'll go
get it and call him up. I'll take the risk of having to deal with
whatever security people that are watching over your apartment over Nerv'
Headquarters any day,"
  "What about us? Where should we meet?" Ritsuko asked.
  "Um, how about we meet by the lookout?" Shinji said, "Y'know, the place
that gives a great view of Tokyo-3 for when the buildings come back up
from underground,"
  Misato's eyes widened, "Y-you know that place? I thought that was my
little secret place,"
  Shinji smirked, "I know, the other version of you showed me. I
remembered,"
  "Um, okay," Misato said, "We'll meet you there,"
  "Good luck," Ritsuko said.
  "Yeah, good luck," Misato said.
  "Thanks," Shinji ran off.
  "Um, if it's not too much trouble-" Misato called off toward his back.
  "I know," Shinji said, continuing down the street, "If he's still
there, I'll bring PenPen with me,"

  Shinji sneered as he glanced down from a nearby rooftop and at Misato's
apartment. There were two armed guards holding automatic weapons standing
in front of the apartment entrance and two cars sitting in the
apartment's front courtyard several stories down below. 
  He had just escorted Misato and Ritsuko to the lookout and was happy
that they weren't followed. His happiness easily disappeared when he
noticed all those Nerv personnel lingering about.
  "Damn, man, how much personnel does Nerv have to allocate...two, four,
six, eight, nine goddamn guards to watch over one apartment?" Shinji
muttered. 
  He fingered at the magazine clip in his pocket.
  He had fifteen bullets, more than enough for him to incapacitate all
the guards through use of well-aimed throws. The problem was that if he
went down the approach of throwing those bullets, he would most likely
seriously hurt those people, perhaps even risk killing them. They were
only there doing their jobs and nothing more. It wasn't their fault. 
  He didn't want to voluntarily hurt people. He had reacted on instinct
and seriously hurt those two soldiers with his pocket change back then.
Although it had been an involuntary action, his body doing so before his
mind could prevent it, he felt very bad about it now that he had a chance
to think about it. 
  With this situation, he could not bring himself to actively hurt them,
knowing that throwing those bullets were equivalent to firing bullets
from a high-caliber gun.
  "Jeez, if pocket change does as much damage to a person wearing body
armor, bullets would probably be far worse," Shinji said, trying to think
of a plan.
  He glanced a short distance away where he saw some dog dropping right
by a fire hydrant.
  Shinji chuckled, "Yeah, like I'm ever gonna use dog shit as
projectiles. That's something only Ranma would probably do and use
effective. I'll pass,"
  He looked around more. There was nothing he could use. All he had were
those bullets in his pocket.
  "Hm, I can take out the two guys standing in front of Misato's
entrance," Shinji said, "Since the others are sitting in the cars down in
the front courtyard, it'll take the people around one minute to get up to
the apartment. That doesn�t really give me much time, perhaps not enough
to find what I'm looking for,"
  Shinji sighed. That was the best plan he could come up with. It meant
he would have to seriously hurt two individuals, but that was definitely
much preferred over him having to seriously hurt all nine individuals.
  "Hey, rather than hurt those two guys, I can just damage their
weapons," Shinji said to himself, "That way, I can just jump right across
and knock them out with my bare-hands,"
  Shinji smiled slightly, glad that he had figured out a way to take out
two guards without seriously hurting them.
  He took several deep breaths, psyching himself up for what he was about
to do. He needed that. There was no way he could just up and carry out a
plan without taking a minute to mentally prepare himself.
  After a minute, Shinji released two bullets from the magazine and threw
one each at the individuals standing in front of Misato's apartment
entrance. Each bullet struck where Shinji had been aiming, the automatic
weapons they held in their hands.
  "What the?" one guard said as he looked down and saw his automatic
weapon seemingly break in half.
  The other guard said much the same thing, a bit curious as to why his
and his partner's weapon suddenly broke apart. They happened to both
glance up and catch sight of Shinji seemingly defying gravity and come
sailing through the air and right toward them.
  Before they could react, well-place open-palm strikes struck them in
the chest, sending them flying backwards where their backs slammed
against the wall to either side of the door. The two of them then fell
forward on to their stomachs, unconscious.
  Shinji gave a meek smile, "Sorry about that. No hard feelings,"
  He tried to open Misato's door and realized it was locked. A
well-placed kick knocked it down as he then entered the apartment,
heading straight toward the bedroom.
  "Heh, why'd they even bother replacing the door they blew up the first
time around?" Shinji commented with a smirk.
  As he raced through Misato's apartment, noticing that everything looked
very much the same. It was messy but not because of soldiers rummaging
through every thing. 
  Running in to Misato's bedroom, he quickly looked around for the
blackboard. He couldn't help but pause for a moment and noticed Misato's
bra and panties precariously strewn about. Misato seemed to like wearing
very sexy bras and panties.
  Banishing the sudden hentai thoughts that invaded his mind, he focused
on his objective. 
  Looking around in the room, he found the blackboard located right above
Misato's desk. After quick scan through the miscellaneous information
written on the blackboard, Shinji found the number he was looking for,
the number to Gendo's private line. Memorizing it, he came to realize
that he did remember dialing in that number way back then when he tried
calling his father.
  The phone number now secured in his memory, Shinji quickly left the
bedroom. His heart was beating very rapidly and it would be very soon
before all the other guards would have made their way to Misato's
apartment and would be storming in.
  Once in the dining area, Shinji quickly ran over to the giant fridge
where he knew PenPen lived in. He clicked on a button and looked in and
was pleasantly surprised to see PenPen, a bit surprised to see him, but
otherwise perfectly fine. It seems PenPen had managed to someone hide
itself from the guard that did a quick sweep of the apartment before
considering it 'cleared' after Shinji, Misato, and Ritsuko had been
dragged unconscious from there.
  "PenPen," Shinji said, reach out toward the startled penguin, "I came
here to pick rescue you and bring you to Misato,"
  PenPen squeaked in delight as it quickly ran forward and jumped in to
Shinji's arms. When Shinji grabbed a hold of him and picked up, he
couldn't help but feel a bit weirded out. He had never really held a
penguin before, not even when he was on the other world, and holding a
penguin was definitely what one would consider an unusual experience.
  Ignoring the odd feeling of holding such a weird creature, Shinji ran
out of the apartment building, expecting to make a running leap through
the air and to land on the apartment where he jumped from before. When he
glanced down the walkway, he caught sight of several armed guards running
toward his location, all of them having seen what had happened.
  Shinji smirked. He would be long gone by the time they reached him.
  He leapt through air, landing on the nearby rooftop, running off and
away from them.

  "Please, don't wander off," Shinji told PenPen, placing it down on its
feet. He needed to make a phone call before he went on his way.
  Shinji glanced at PenPen wondered if he should let the penguin roam
around. He hoped PenPen wouldn't wander off too far and make itself
hard-to-find.
  Shinji proceeded to dial the number that he memorized. He couldn't help
but feel a sense of nervousness and dread at having to talk to his
father. However, this was for a good reason so he would allow it.
  He smirked, wondering if the phone was going to request that he insert
some money. What was very funny was that he had no money since he had
thrown all of his pocket change to incapacitate those two soldiers
earlier. He wasn�t worried. He could easily break in to the machine and
steal a few coins to pay for the call.
  Actually, he wouldn't mind giving it a try. He had never broken in to a
phone booth before and it would be kind of cool to do so since this would
be a good reason to do so.
  "I'm sorry, but due to the current state of emergency, all phone lines
are not in service," came a recorded female voice on the phone.
  "Oh, you've gotta be kidding me," Shinji said, looking at the phone
receiver.
  Believing that it was most likely a coincident, he hung the phone up
and dialed in the number again.
  "I'm sorry, but due to the current state of emergency, all phone lines
are not in service," cane the same recorded voice.
  "This is not happening!" Shinji shouted, slamming the phone received
down on the phone machine itself with such force that the top portion of
the received broke off. Although it did feel good to vent some of his
frustrations on that machine, it did nothing to help alleviate the
current situation.
  "C'mon, of why do the phones hafta be outta service now?! This is so
frustrating!!"
  Shinji, realizing that he need to regroup with Ritsuko and Misato to
come up with another plan, looked around for PenPen.
  Shinji sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. Ranma used to do that
often and it seemed to have rubbed off on Shinji quiet nicely.
  PenPen had wandered off and was nowhere to be seen.
  "This sucks," he sighed.
  Several bullets whizzed by him, hitting nearby the nearby windows of an
evacuated building.
  Shinji instinctively took cover behind a nearby mailbox, not too sure
if it provided good enough cover from bullets, looking around to see
where those bullets were coming from.
  Glancing down the street, he caught sight of two cars racing down the
street. It seems that the two carload of guards had followed after
Shinji, Shinji too preoccupied with finding a phone to realized that he
had been followed all this time until now.
  "Damnit, could this get any worse?" he sighed, "When it rains, it
pours,"
  The clear sky suddenly became pitch black as clouds instantly appeared
and blocked out the late afternoon sun. To make matters worse, it started
to downpour, Shinji instantly soaking wet.
  He sighed. He didn't meant to think of it raining in a literal sense.
This just made it all the worse for him. He was cold and wet, had armed
guards shooting at him, and no way of contacting Nerv about the use of
the Lance of Longinus. Also, PenPen had wandered off and it would only be
a short time before Asuka would attempt to fight the Angel and be
terribly hurt from one of its particle beams. 
  Shinji had a funny idea that even though the Angels haven't been doing
what he had been expecting them to do, he couldn't leave it to chance
that this Angel would not attack Asuka much like the same version of that
Angel on his world had attacked him.
  He also needed to worry about Misato and Ritsuko. They had been
accidentally caught up in all of this and, like him, might not make it
out of this city alive if they continued to get shot at and chased.
  Shinji wanted to rip his hair out out of shear frustration.
  "Why is all of this happening to me?!"

  Shinji ran down the street, PenPen in his hands.
  He couldn't believe his luck. He found PenPen right around the corner
from him when he made a break for it away from the mailbox, picking him
up as he ran. 
  The dark clouds blocking out the sun had made it hard for the guards to
get a good visual on Shinji. The rain had made it impossible for them to
chase after him by car, the streets to wet for adequate traction, their
cars crashing in to one another when Shinji suddenly deviated from his
straight path and made a sudden turn.
  It was still raining, Shinji having chosen to let it rain for the time
being. He may be wet, but it was just a trivial annoyance for him if it
meant the guards being unable to chase him.
  PenPen seemed to be perfectly fine. Actually, it seemed to be rather
comfortable in the rain, it preferring rain than the skin-drying
sunlight.
  "At least it got those guys off my back," Shinji said to himself with
relief, "Now I hafta go to the lookout and talk to Misato and Ritsuko. We
need to come up with a plan. No, better yet, I need to tell them to just
run away. All of this stuff have gotten way out of hand and they would
only get caught or killed if they stay around. I need their help, but
their safety comes first. I'll learn to made do without them,"
  Shinji ran up the inclined road that led to the lookout point.
  "Don't worry, PenPen," Shinji said to the penguin in his arms, "We're
almost there. You'll see Misato soon enough,"
  PenPen squeaked in happiness.
  Shinji came to a sliding halt when he caught sight of a car in the
middle of the street, sliding farther than usual due to his shoes
hydroplaning on the thin film of water on the ground.
  He recognized the car. It looked very much like one of the cars chasing
him. They were most likely the cars Nerv operatives drove.
  He caught sight of three armed guard firing in the general direction of
a tree. Looking over to where they were firing, through the pouring rain,
he caught sight of Misato taking cover. When she peeked out and fired
toward one of the guard, hitting him in the shoulder and sending him
sprawling to the floor, he knew it was Misato. She always had good aim
with guns.
  Shinji's eyes widened as he suddenly realized the situation. They had
somehow found Misato and Ritsuko and were shooting at them.
  He quickly glance around and took in his surroundings. There were no
one else nearby and those two guards seemed to be the only ones there and
firing toward Misato and Ritsuko.
  Noticing that the guards' backs were toward them, Shinji seized that
opportunity to run up behind the remaining two of them.
  He didn't even bother to tap them on their shoulders to make them turn
around so he could hit them in the chest. Instead, he grabbed the arm of
one of them and threw him violently toward the other guard whom had now
noticed his presence. 
  Both guards crashed in to one another with vicious force, knocked
unconscious from the impact, tumbling to a sliding halt a good distance
away from the car.
  Shinji quickly looked around, wanting to make sure that not hidden
guard took a pop-shot at him while he wasn't looking. Satisfied that
there were none, he began to rest easy.
  A bullet whizzed right by his head, Shinji dropped down and taking
cover behind the car. 
 "Where the heck did that come from?!" Shinji gasped, his heart racing so
fast it was ready to burst. Bullets were not to be taken lightly.
  He cautiously and reluctantly looked back over the car and noticed no
guards in the general direction where the bullet came from. All he saw
was the tree where Misato and Ritsuko were hiding behind.
  "Jeez, Misato shot that!" Shinji gasped, grateful that she missed.
  The rain was making it hard for her to distinguish him so she had
mistaken him for one of those guards firing at her. Besides, it was
understandable since she had no idea he had just showed up and
incapacitated the two remaining ones.
  "Misato! It's me! I took care of the guards!" Shinji shouted loudly,
hoping Misato would recognize his voice over the rain.
  Misato peeked her head out and narrowed her eyes toward Shinji's
direction. When she recognized him, she emerged from behind the tree.
  She had this relieved look on her face as she came running up to him.
Shinji assumed it was because she was able to see PenPen again.
  "Thank goodness you're here," Misato said gratefully.
  "Are you okay?" Shinji asked, concern in his voice.
  Misato rubbed at her side, "Yeah. Kinda. I was shot twice though,"
  "What?!? Y-you were shot!! How can you say you were okay if you got
shot twice?!" Shinji's eyes were wide.
  Misato smiled, rapping a knuckle against the armor plating of her body
armor, "It sting, but the body armor you gave me protected me. I checked
and the bullet never broke it. I have two bruises from the point of
impact but that's all. I'll live,"
  "Thank goodness," Shinji sighed in relief, "I'm glad you're okay,"
  "Thanks to you," Misato smiled.
  PenPen squeaked.
  "Here's PenPen," Shinji handed the penguin to Misato whom, happy to see
it, took it in to her arms in an embrace.
  "Thanks," Misato said happily, "However, now's not the time. I've got
some bad news..."
  Shinji didn't hear those words because he was glancing past Misato's
shoulders toward the tree.
  Where was Ritsuko? Why was she still taking cover? The coast was clear
so she could come out now.
  "Where's Ritsuko?" Shinji asked, "Is she all right?"
  "No," Misato said in a frantic voice.
  Shinji ran past Misato and toward the tree, dreading the sight he was
going to see. Ritsuko had probably gotten shot and was now lying
motionlessly and bleeding right by the tree.
  "Where is she?" Shinji asked when he didn't see Ritsuko, but to his
relief.
  "They took her," Misato called out to him.
  "Took her? Who?"
  "Nerv," Misato said.
  "What?!?" Shinji gasped.
  "I don't know how, but they found us," Misato said, "It was as if they
knew where we were,"
  "How?! I know you guys weren't followed!" Shinji said, "How the heck
could they have found you? Did you guys make some kinda phone call or
such that made them track you to where you were?"
  Misato shook her head, "No. We just sat around. We were waiting around
when a one car suddenly pulled up behind us and grabbed Ritsuko and took
off. They tried to grab me as well but I managed to get away and take
cover,"
  "How the heck did they know you guys were here?" Shinji was thoroughly
confused, "This doesn't make sense. None of this stuff makes sense,"
  Misato shrugged, "I'm sorry, but I'm every bit as confused as you right
now. Right now, we need to get to Nerv to get Ritsuko back,"
  Shinji's eyes widened, "Are you kidding me? They've got guns! We can't
break in there to rescue her! I'm not some kinda superhero!"
  "You seem to be doing just fine on your own, maybe you can," Misato
commented.
  Shinji emphatically shook his head, "No. I can't. I can get hurt much
like you and Ritsuko. Heck, right now, I'm hurt,"
  "Y-you're hurt?" Misato asked.
  He nodded, "Yeah. Right here by my arm, it's just a small flesh wound
where a bullet grazed me so I'll be fine. However, this goes to show you
that I'm not impervious to bullets or anything,"
  Shinji looked around toward his arm where he saw the rip in the fabric
where the bullet had grazed him. However, checking himself, he noticed no
scratch.
  "Hm, that's strange, I know I got grazed over here," Shinji commented,
"I even felt the pain when it hit me. Where'd that cut go?"
  "Maybe you have some kinda weird super fast regenerative properties,"
Misato commented. Considering the crazy things she had seen Shinji do, it
wasn't so far-fetched.
  Shinji scratched his head, "I dunno. Perhaps. However, that's not
something I can to rely on. It hurts getting shot and I don't wanna get
shot,"
  "I guess you've got a point there," Misato nodded, "So, what should we
do?"
  Shinji cleared his throat and said, "What we're gonna do is split up.
I'm heading toward Nerv. Maybe I can get close enough and somehow and use
some kinda loud speaker device to relay the information to them. Of
course, that leaves me the problem of having to find one, but that
shouldn't be too hard. I can probably find one in an electronics store,"
  "That's one crazy plan, but I guess it's better than nothing," Misato
stated, "What about me? What should I do?"
  "You leave," Shinji said seriously.
  "What?"
  "Leave," he said, "Take PenPen with you and just run away. Never look
back,"
  "But-" 
  Shinji interrupted, "Please, just do as I say. It will be much better
if you weren't around. That way, once I know you're safe, I don't hafta
worry about you anymore,"
  "What, you think I'm in the way?" Misato was almost offended.
  Shinji gave a meek smile but said, "Yeah. If I'm alone, all I hafta
worry about is myself. If you think about it, if I had told you guys to
run away earlier, Ritsuko wouldn't have been captured and I won't need to
worry about finding her now,"
  Misato was silent. That was very true. Shinji seemed like a very
capable person and someone like her and Ritsuko would most likely slow
him down.
  "But what about Unit-01?" Misato asked, "If you're going to try and
steal it, you need people in the control room to activate it so you can
steal it,"
  Shinji sighed. He forgot about that.
  "I-I never thought about that," he said.
  "Wait, you might be able to kill two birds with one stone," Misato
said, "It only requires one person to activate it from the control room.
Since Ritsuko was taken in to custody, you can rescue her and have her
activate it for you. She knows how to activate it,"
  "Really? That's great! That sounds like a perfect plan," Shinji said
happily.
  "Well, not so perfect since you still hafta worry about Nerv guards and
all," Misato added, "As to how you're gonna get to Ritsuko, that's a
whole different problem,"
  "It may, but it's still something to go by," Shinji said, "I can try
and put that plan in to motion later,"
  "Later?"
  "Right now, the thing I've gotta worry about is that Angel," Shinji
pointed toward the object in the far off distance, "I need to get Nerv to
use the Lance to defeat it or Asuka's gonna get seriously hurt. I'll use
that loud speaker plan to get them to use it. Hopefully, it'll work,"
  "Why not just forget that plan and try and steal Unit-01?" Misato
suggested, "That way, you can rescue Ritsuko, steal Unit-01, and use the
Angel to absorb its core,"
  "I wish I could but this is a different Angel," Shinji said, "There's
no way I can get close to it since it has such a powerful particle beam.
Trying to get Unit-01 close enough to eat the core is out of the
question. I hafta wait until the next Angel. I most likely hafta break in
to Nerv to get my information across so the immediate danger, the Angel,
can be dealt with. In a sense, I hafta help out Nerv while Nerv is trying
to kill me. After I help them out, I hafta break back in to steal
Unit-01, where, by then, the would most likely double the triple-security
they already have now. Somewhere along the lines, I hafta find and save
Ritsuko," 
  He laughed, somewhat delusional.
  "Man, I'm fucked,"
  
  Shinji sprinted down the street. He was already halfway to the tunnel
entrance that would lead down to GeoFront. His heart was racing, not from
pushing his body so hard, far from it, but rather at the dreadful thought
of what would happen if Asuka was sent out to battle the Angel without
full knowledge of what it was capable of.
  It was no longer raining, Shinji having made the bad weather go away.
He wasn't being chased and the bad weather would most likely act against
him in this situation. Besides, he didn't want to be wet if he could help
it.
  He glanced over toward where the Angel was and watched as it easily
blew up several attacking aircrafts. The UN was throwing everything they
had at the Angel and losing. 
  Judging at the time of when the Angel had first arrive, it would be no
more than an hour or so before the UN would relinquish command to Nerv to
fight off the Angel.
  Shinji continued running, looking around for an electronics store.
  He came to a sliding halt when he caught sight of an electronics store.
He walked up to the window and looked through it. It was completely
empty, the workers and occupants gone having gone in to hiding during the
Angel attack. 
  He kicked in the front window, the breaking and falling glass sounding
louder than ever in the quiet streets. 
  "Sorry about that," Shinji said meekly, entering the story via the
broken window.
  "God, I can't believe I'm doing this," Shinji told himself, "I'm
breaking an entering and robbing a store yet again,"
  The alarm went off, startling him. 
  Knowing that it didn't really matter if the alarm was sounding or not,
Shinji proceeded scanning through the store. This was the second
electronics store he was breaking in to. The first one didn't have a
megaphone. Along the way, he had planned on finding a megaphone and just
shouting through it toward Nerv once he was close enough. Hopefully,
someone would hear him and relay the message. Whether or not it would
work, he had no idea.
  "Yes!" Shinji said happily when he found what he was looking for, the
megaphone. 
  Not wanting to find out too late that he didn't have batteries or such,
he scanned through the back of the box.
  "Aw, c'mon, this is bullshit! This thing's got a built-in battery and
takes six hours to charge!" Shinji said in an annoyed voice.
  He looked around for an outlet. Finding out, he plugged it in. If he
charged it for ten to fifteen minutes, perhaps that would give him enough
time to use it for a minute or so before the battery ran out.
  The fifteen minutes felt like an eternity. When he was satisfied that
it had charged long enough, he gave it a quick voice check.
  "Test, test," he said in to the megaphone.
  When he realized that it was working correctly, he unplugged the
megaphone and left the store, sprinting down the street.
  "It's a long shot, but it's all I've got to go by to help Nerv out,"
  He had no idea how he was going to get close enough to Nerv to get his
point across to use the Lance of Longinus against the Angel.
  He would worry about it then. All he could do was handle one problem as
it came to him. 
  He would worry about that crossroad when he came to it.

  Shinji ran down the street and came to a sliding halt when he caught
sight of a giant building rising up from the ground a good distance away.
He was only a couple miles away from the tunnel entrance. It would be at
least a half hour before he would even be down in GeoFront. He didn't
have time.
  "Oh no!" Shinji said, the color draining from his face.
  He watched in disbelief as the front of the building opened up to
reveal, like he expected, Unit-02. Before Asuka could make Unit-01 take
its first step out of the building, a particle beam shot from the Angel,
incinerating a lone building standing in front of it and Unit-02, and
hitting the EVA right in the chest.
  Even though he was a good deal away, Shinji was still forced to shield
his eyes from the brilliance of the blast. When he was able to see, he
noticed that Unit-02 was no longer there, having been immediately brought
back down underground.
  "Damnit!" Shinji said again.
  Asuka had been taken out of the battle even before it had begun.

  Shinji sprinted at full speed.
  He was currently running down a steeply declining tunnel that led to
GeoFront. It was the same tunnel Misato had driven down the first time he
had arrived on that world after having picked him up. It would lead to an
escalator that would bring the cars down, but he would not use that. He
would use the ramp just to the side where he could run down on foot.
  Things were going so badly that he knew now was not a time to use
finesse. Being discreet about reaching Nerv had gone right out the
window. He needed to get down to Nerv and fast to tell them, anyone,
about using the Lance of Longinus. He needed to tell them since, knowing
Gendo, he would be cold enough to send Asuka back out again in Unit-02 as
soon as she woke up.
  Misato wasn't there so there was a good chance there was no one that
could think of a plan to defeat that Angel. Misato he knew's plan to use
the positron rifle was pure genius. Only someone like her would think of
something so innovative. But since she was no longer a part of Nerv
helping out, this was a different scenario.
  Shinji used his free hand to keep his pants secured around his waist as
he ran along. This was because his pants were sagging due to the
exuberant amounts of batteries he had in his pockets. He had grabbed them
from the electronics store, just in case he needed to use them to fight
off people with weapons. Throwing batteries would be just as effective as
throwing bullet but not as deadly since they would not pierce the skin.
It also made it easier for Shinji since he wouldn't have to worry about
hitting weapons of the guards with the bullets and could focus on just
hitting the guard themselves.
  He glance down toward the megaphone in his hands. He couldn't help but
feel ridiculous. Here he was, running down a tunnel, one hand holding a
megaphone, the other holding his pants from sagging.
  "Why can't I know ki-blasts? It would be so much more convenient,"
Shinji muttered. 
  He paused and extended a hand toward the wall of the tunnel.
  "Mouko Takabisha!" he shouted, envisioning a ki-blast erupting from his
extended hand.
  When nothing happened, he sighed, feeling even more ridiculous.
However, at least he now knew that he couldn't shoot ki-blast. He had
hoped that more of his dormant powers had surfaced and shooting ki-blasts
would be one of them. Unfortunately, that didn't seem to be the case.
  "Why do I hafta only know how to control the weather and create a
portal?" Shinji sighed, "Why couldn't I know how to do something useful
like stopping time or something like that? That would be so much more
useful for something like this,"
  Shinji contemplated conjuring a portal to travel not to different
worlds, but to different areas of a single world. It would be very useful
thing to use to instantly appear within Nerv, bypassing the need to
confront the dozens of security guards most likely on patrol right this
instant.
  A portal formed in front of him. He paused and looked at it. After a
moment, he dismissed the thought and continued on running down the
tunnel. If he tried going through the portal, there was no telling where
he would end up. Sure, he could just open a portal back to this world,
but he didn't know when he would show up on this world. He understood the
'where' aspect of traveling through the portal but he didn't understand
the 'when' aspect. It wasn't worth the risk.
  Shinji stopped when he saw two guards by the exit side of the tunnel.
Luckily, they weren't paying all that much attention and were talking to
one another, their backs toward him at the moment.
  Not even caring to use diplomacy, Shinji reached in to his pocket and
pulled out two batteries, throwing them at the guards. The batteries hit
them in the back of their heads. 
  The fell to the ground unconscious, never suspecting a thing
  Shinji ran past them. However, after several steps, he suddenly stopped
as he realized something.
  "Jeez, why didn't I think of this before?" he said, "I can use the
guards' radios to contact Nerv,"
  Shinji felt very angry at himself. 
  Had he thought of that before, he wouldn'tve wasted those precious
fifteen minutes charging the megaphone. He would've been able to perhaps
stop Asuka from going in to battle totally blind and unaware of what the
Angel was capable of.
  "Damn, all because I didn't realize this before, Asuka ends up getting
hurt," Shinji scolded himself, "There's so much at stake and I can't let
the pressure get to me. If I plan incorrectly, people will get hurt,"
  Shinji picked up the radio and looked at it for a moment. He had never
used one of them before. After a few failed attempts, there being no
response, he came to realize that he needed to press a button first
before he were to speak.
  "Hello?" Shinji asked in to the radio, "Anyone there? I've got some
important news to tell you Nerv people,"
  "Who is this? This is a private line. Identify yourself," came a voice.
  "Just shut up and listen. The Angel has an AT Field and the Lance of
Longinus is the only weapon you have that can defeat that Angel,"

  Shinji slowly made his way toward Nerv Headquarters. 
  It was dark in GeoFront. This was because it was night out and GeoFront
had an automatic system that made it feel like no one was underground,
even if the sunlight or moonlight was artificially made.
  Shinji was glad that it was dark within GeoFront, it made sneaking
around much easier. He came to realize that he was very skilled in the
art of stealth. Of course, it was all attributed to his training. He had
always wanted to try and sneak up on Ranma, hoping to catch him off-guard
one day, and it seemed like the training he had done for something
completely different was very useful now. 
  He had come to the conclusion that if he wanted things done right, he
needed to do it himself. He had no idea if his suggestion would be even
considered by Nerv and chose to believe that it would not occur.
Therefore, he needed some kind of contingency plan. 
  He planned on making his way in to Nerv where he would go about finding
Ritsuko and stealing Unit-01. That gave him five minutes, what with
Unit-01 only being on battery support, to make Unit-01 retrieve Ritsuko
safely from the control center since she needed to be there to activate
Unit-01 for him, get down in to Central Dogma to retrieve the Lance, and
finally, get topside and throw it at the Angel.
  Shinji chuckled, "Pulling this off successfully seems just as
impossible as expecting to actually beat a walking God with fighting
skills as good as Ranma,"
  He banished the thought from his mind. He needed to think positive, no
matter how hard it was to do so.
  He sneaked across the wide open area that lead to the entrance Nerv
Headquarters. There were several guards patrolling about, but none of
them saw him.
  Entering Nerv, he stealthily snuck down the vast corridor leading
straight ahead for a good fifty feet before it came up to an
intersection. In his hands were several batteries. If he saw anyone, his
only choice would be to throw those batteries and knock them out. There
were no alcoves by the entrance where he could duck in to if a guard
wandered by. They were located further within Nerv.
  Shinji continued to sneak further and further in to Nerv, eventually
arriving at his destination, the door that lead to the stairwell. From
there, he would head down several flights to the area where holding cells
were since it was most likely that that would where he would find Ritsuko
once again.
  He silently made his way down the stairs.
  Meanwhile, standing in a security room, Gendo watched the monitor. His
right arm was in a sling and the right side of his face had a big bruise
on it. This was because the fall down on to the floor of Shinji's holding
cell, after Shinji had basically thrown him in there, had been a very
rough landing. 
  The fall hand dislocated his right shoulder and left him concussed. It
would take quite a while before he recovered from the injury to his
shoulder, no thanks to Shinji.
  "Would you like me to sound the alarm, sir?" a security watchman asked
Gendo.
  "No," Gendo said, his voice cold, "He'll get what's coming to him,"
  A phone rang within the security room. The man answered it. After a
minute, he held it toward Gendo.
  Gendo took the phone, "Yes? This better be important,"
  "Sir, Misato was apprehended," he heard a man's voice from the other
side, "It seems like the tracking device worked. She was finally
apprehended heading north along 'Route 315' just ten miles out of
Tokyo-3,"
  Gendo smirked, "Good. Bring her in,"
  He couldn�t help but smile. He knew Misato had been trying to run away.
Unfortunately for her, no matter where she ran away to, she would be
found. A tiny tracking device had been implanted within her head, right
under the stitches above her right eye. 
  Gendo turned around and faced Ritsuko. She had been standing silently
in the room, brought in and to Gendo after she had been caught.
  "It seems like my 'son' is here to save you," Gendo said, his voice
sounding acidic as he said the word 'son'.
  Ritsuko was silent.
  "He'll be in for a surprise when he doesn't find you there," Gendo
added, "He'll also be in for a surprise when he finds out you betrayed
him. I doubt he ever suspected that you contacted Nerv back then, when
you were away from that hotel. What's funny is that even if you didn't
betray him, you would've been found anyway since you also had a tracking
device implanted within you. At least now, I knew where you stand, with
Nerv, not my so-called 'son',"
  Ritsuko remained silent.
  Had she made the right choice in betraying Shinji?


 


<all ive got so far...>

(Ranma pays Heaven a visit. He is in front of big door. He knocks.)

Ranma: Heh, I'm living out the title of the 'Cowboy Bebop' Movie. I'm
'Knocking on Heaven's Door'.

(Urd answers. She spots Ranma and promptly closes door on him.)

Urd: Go away!!

Ranma: Why?

Urd: You've ruined all those worlds. You'll not ruin mine.
 
Ranma: ..............



    
-OneShot
Jeffrey "OneShot" Wong
http://www.anime.sobhrach.com/~jeffwong/index.html


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