[IC] Neon Exodus Evangelion Act 2 - Crossing

[rustytengo]

Beverly gave a huff and shook her head at Ahmed. "Sounds more like denial to me than anything, but paint it in whatever way makes you feel better. Just don't expect me to come and save you once you do something stupid." She said before crossing her and leaning back in her chair. 

[Chevaleresse]

Kyou resisted the urge to put a death grip on the doctor's hand as she'd done in the past. She shot a grateful look at Alma, instead. It bothered her on some level that she was reacting like this; wasn't she supposed to step up all gung-ho for saving humanity, and all that? Excited for the adventure and whatnot, that was what the "correct" reaction was. Instead, though. . . She was quite obviously scared, but for reasons that went beyond the immediately obvious. What were the Evas? Machines didn't bleed like that, they didn't reach out to catch people of their own accord, and they weren't picky about who was in the driver's seat. And Hashimoto was being so cagey about them. There had to be a reason their research was banned. 

[Yours Truly]

Ahmed turned slightly to get a better look at Dr. Hashimoto before he said, "So basically if one of us is out of commission for any period of time the EVA they were supposed to pilot is basically just an unusable pile of bleeding steel then, good to know." He then decided to glance in Sir Kay's direction before he finally replied to them by leaning in closer and whispering , "Well they never found a body didn't they?".

[Notus]

12 hours ago, Cronos5010 said:

"So basically if one of us is out of commission for any period of time the EVA they were supposed to pilot is basically just an unusable pile of bleeding steel then, good to know."

"Yes" Dr. Hashimoto answered in an irritated tone. "And that is why I'm still of a mind to keep you children with the military, so that you don't end 'out of comission' by mistake. So try to be careful and prove me wrong, or Dr. Neummann won't be playing babysitter for too long."

 

Alma kept a neutral voice and didn't change the pressure on Kyou's hand, but she looked at Satomi's father almost immediately. "That was... A bit uncalled for, Daisuke. I think we already went through that, and the children weren't put in any situation that might change that decision. Or am I wrong?"

 

Before Dr. Hashimoto could answer though, Asuka intervened. "Look, the last thing we need now is you kids and 'adults' bickering over stuff like that. Can we get a move on and start training? I believe that was supposed to be the priority after all."

 

That, coming from her, had the surprising effect of stopping Daisuke from answering. After an awkward moment of silence, Admiral Adalard took over "So, are you ready to start training?"

[rustytengo]

"I've been ready since you mentioned it. So let's stop sitting around clucking like hens and actually do something." Beverly said sounding a bit more annoyed then she was earlier as she tapped her foot impatiently as she waited. 

[Yours Truly]

While Ahmed would have said something to Satomi's father, he was rather quickly cut off by both Dr. Alma and Asuke who quickly made it clear that we all really didn't have any time for this, and after he spent a few moments to try and think it over, he decided that there was really nothing to say but, "I think that all we are honestly waiting for right now is for you to show us to our training area and give us some time to come to terms with all of this a bit better by spending some time with our family for the last time in I don't know how many months."

[Twinwolf]

Satomi nods. "I believe I am as ready as I will be getting, yes." she said, adjusting her glasses a little. She glanced at her father again. What was he thinking about all this? About her going out and fighting? She tried not to be visibly nervous, and to focus on the task at hand.

[Bfroger6]

Ranga shily peeked out from behind Alma and went over to Asuka. "We need to train so none of us dies. So let's just..." She looked down. It was obvious all the bickering about and what Hashimoto said last really got to her. She didn't want to be taken away from the Doc now that she got so accustomed to her. It was fun living like that. Of course, piloting the Evas again was a scary thought but well...she was gonna get taken away if she doesn't pilot it, no? And then what would she do?

Leaving Canaan was a scary thought too. Staying just as much so. All her options were equally scary so she just picked the one that had the most good to it.

 

Smiling, Ranga turned to Asuka. ""I wonder what you're gonna teach us."

[Notus]

"Alright, so if there's nothing else I'll get them to the training grounds." She said, getting up and then answering the other pilots without as much as waiting for a reply from the Admiral. "After that you can go spend the rest of your time until the mission starts doing whatever you want, deal?" 

 

Adalard raised an eyebrow, but otherwise didn't complain about the way Asuka took the meeting's reins from him. "Alright. Be sure to check your communicators often, we will contact you through them if we need you. And if you need anything, just ask Dr. Neummann and we will take care of whatever it is. You're dismissed."

 

...

 

"You know I'm against this, Adalard." Dr. Hashimoto told the Admiral after the children and the shrink had left. Asuka had practically dragged the kids out, leaving the room ahead of them without looking back (and thus forcing everyone to follow her as quickly as they could). Dr.Neummann was about to follow them too, but Adalard told her to leave the training to Asuka and go back to her duties - there was still a lot of injured people to tend to, after all.

 

"I don't see any problem, Daisuke." The Admiral answered. 

"I don't trust her, that's the problem. She was not with us from the start in this, and now we're leaving the most important valuable assets we have in her power. What if she starts putting ideas we don't need in their heads?"

 

"You're worrying too much about this, Daisuke, even for your standards." He said. "Alma may have come to know about the EVAs only recently, but she is with NERV for a long time and knows how things work. I'm not an expert, but I think the risks of mental breakdown caused by Angels are bigger than those caused by a psychologist playing their mother."

 

"..."

 

"If she proves to be a nuisance we'll get her out of the way, alright? But cut her some slack for now, for God's sake. You're being more paranoic than usual, old friend, and honestly that's tiresome even for me."

 

...

 

Despite what Dr. Hashimoto thought, Asuka did look back after she left the room - and slowed her pace (a bit) so the others could catch up. Of course, she did her best so they wouldn't notice how considerate she was being with them.

 "Ok, so answering Ranga's question" she said after everyone was closer. "Today I'm going to show you the gym, the shooting stands and the dojo. We'll be using that to train our bodies, martial arts, ranged and melee weapon handling. But before that, I'll teach you what you can do when you master your EVAs, so you can have an idea of how much you have to work if you want to really help in the battlefield."

 

She showed the facilities she mentioned first - all close by one another in one side of the EVA hangar, small, but enough for their numbers. She explained they could use it anytime if they wanted to do extra training, including using the fake guns and weapons in the stand and the dojo - which were extremely realistic, though non-letal, versions of the real ones. From rifles to pistols, swords to war hammers, they had a lot to choose from.

 

Finally, she led them to change into their plugsuits - the same kind of latex-like clothes she was using when they met her three days before, but each matching their EVA's colours - and the to were their EVAs entry plugs were stored in standby.

 

"Ok then, let's get to it." She said, entering her own plug. "Our plugs are connected to a simulator, so we won't be actually moving our EVAs. The system can generate various types of Angels and battlefields based on what we have encountered so far, so we have a lot of combinations to practice in. Each Angel fights in a unique way, so I want you to focus on defeating the enemy in the most effective way and, for that, you must pay attention in how they fight, figure out weak points, think of a strategy and don't get killed while you're thinking about all that. Also..." She smirked as she reached for her plug's door. "Satomi's dad was kind enough to make the simulator very realistic regarding sync. Just so you know who to blame if you want to curse at someone for the pain. That's what I usually do." 

 

 And with those 'encouraging' words, she closed the door.

[Twinwolf]

Satomi had been fairly quiet as she was led out of the room, lost in thought. She had remained quiet, paying detailed attention to all that was explained. It made some sense to her that there was physical training and weapons training, despite the fact that they'd be fighting within their Evas exclusively. It would help to know how to fight with those weapons when they used them in a fight, when the robots seemed to follow their movements. It also would help should they, for whatever reason, be forced to eject into the wilderness of the planet. She wondered if survival training would come up at some point. 

 

Her thoughts were jolted out of focus when they were led to put on their plug suits. ...She had to assume they had some purpose, but did they have to be so skin tight? Satomi was lightly blushing as she waited to enter her plug, rather failing in her attempt not to look embarrassed. As Asuka entered, she looked at the others. "Well then... we should head inside, right?" she said, heading towards her own plug.

[rustytengo]

Beverly was glad to finally get out of the meeting and was happy to follow Asuka along to the training area since it got her out of having to listen to the old folks talk. "If by mastering an Eva means getting your ass kicked right off the back? Then I'm not sure I want to learn it." she thought to herself as she listened to Asuka's explanation of what they would be doing today. She was keeping her thoughts to herself for the most part.....until Asuka introduced them to the plug suit. "Ah, so these were what you were wearing when we first meet you hmm......" Beverly looked at her's then turned to Ahmed "I suggest you go find a corner to go change in." She said as she started to push him away from where the girls were changing. After She shooed him away far enough she returned and put her's on after looking it over on her she started to speak "So Miss Ace pilot do you like wearing this bec......... " She stopped mid-sentence as she turned and saw Satomi in her plug suit. To say the least, in Beverly's eyes it looked great on Satomi and it was only amplified by Satomi's attempt to hide her embarrassment. Once Satomi spoke it snapped Beverly out of her daze and she managed to utter a "Yeah."  as she headed into her plug.

[Yours Truly]

Ahmed had already walked off into another room to change into the almost needlessly tight silver colored plug suit he was given before Sir Kay could say anything, and he made damn sure that literally no one else was around to see him undress due to unexplained, but blatantly obvious personal reasons. He stayed silent and tried his best to not let his eyes glance anywhere potentially scandalous as Asuka said something about keeping their wits, and doing their best to form a strategy and execute a series of tactical maneuvers to- you get the point. Basically he was hoping and praying that he wouldn't fuck this up again as he waited for everyone else to climb into their plugs before he did the same.

[Chevaleresse]

Kyou waited until the other girls were changed to slink in and start the process herself. At least the color scheme was something she might've picked out herself. . . Not for personal wear, though. The blue was just a tad too bright. the magenta just a little too much contrast, but neither of those things were the main problem. No, apparently instead of slapping her into a set of fatigues or something (which she would have been perfectly happy with,) they just had to be skintight latex bodysuits. She slid the thing on, half wishing that she would tear it in the process so she'd have an excuse to return to her baggy jackets and jeans. Fortunately or unfortunately, they had her sizes correct, and so she just sort of. . . awkwardly crept out of the changing room,, resisting the urge to cover herself.

 

At the very least, if anyone had been operating under the mistaken thought that Kyou was a boy, it would be abundantly clear that she was not. 

[Yours Truly]

As Ahmed's vision naturally started to drift around the room to make sure that the group wasn't missing anyone; his eyes slowly went wide as his eyes betrayed him by glancing down to rest on Si' Kyou's...remarkable feminine figure inside of hi-he meant he-. His eyes only lingered there for a moment before he rather quickly decided that perhaps this wasn't a good time to stare or think at length about someone else's apparently present curves, and he tried his best to hide a slight blush of embarrassment as he struggled to retain his composure and look at Lady Kyou's face while he said, "Wwwhy do the plug suits have to be so tight and form fitting again? Didn't our regular clothes work just fine earlier?."

[Chevaleresse]

Ahmed's reaction was enough to turn Kyou's already somewhat embarrassed expression into something best described as "tomato-esque." She made a somewhat distressed-sounding noise before working up the capacity for speech once more. "I-I mean, you're telling me, I just wanted to wear my jacket, but instead they shove me in this, fuckin', ugh." Kyou skittered toward her plug, in an effort to be in any situation other than the one currently happening. Unfortuntely for Ahmed, he wasn't nearly as subtle with his looks and avoided looks as he was probably trying to be.

[Twinwolf]

"I-I'm sure there's some reason for it..." Satomi stammers, "They wouldn't make us w-wear these for no reason!" She herself was currently failing to use one of her arms for some amount of coverage as she fumbled with the controls to open the entry plug.

[rustytengo]

Beverly was finally snapped out of her staring when everyone started to talk "Really I rather like these outfits. The give great visuals after all." She said giving a wink to both Kyou and Satomi.

[Bfroger6]

Ranga wondered how they'd practice in their EVAs and whether they had an EVA-sized gym built somewhere around the camp, but her questions were answered shortly thereafter as simulators were mentioned.

 

Of course, before that, Ranga had to change into her very own plug suit. A bright sunny yellow one. It accentuated both her darker skin-tone and her bright green eyes. She twirled around in her suit, turning her head to take a good look of her form and trying to get a feel for it, as it felt slightly uncomfortable to move in at the start, but she slowly grew more used to it. A smile crept on her face as she turned to the others who were all having fun about things she hardly understood yet.

 

"Kyou don't worry you look great. We can always ask Asuka about why we gotta wear the suits."

[Notus]

Spoiler

 

(Battle Theme for this one)

 

Once all the pilots were ready inside their plugs, Asuka started the simulation. 

 The weird initial feeling of synchronizing with the EVAs was there and, once that was over, a realistic view of a city in ruins was before them. 

 

Four of them were in an open area that should have one day been a very wide avenue. Asuka's red, four eyed EVA 02 was standing facing them with it's arms crossed a few blocks away. There were trucks and cars laying abandoned in the streets, and a train was stopped in a station nearby, probably never to move. It felt like a true ghost town for some reason.

 

"Welcome to Tokyo-3. This is a field I like training in a lot, so I thought I'd share it with you first." Asuka's voice sounded in everyone's cockpits while her smirking face was shown to them in the video call mode. Unit 02 uncrossed one of it's arms and lifted a finger in a gesture for them to pay attention.

 

"I'll tell you five things before we start. One: don't forget to deploy your AT fields; Two: if your power cable is damaged you'll only have 5 minutes of internal battery to use; Three: you have your progressive knifes in your shoulder plates, just reach for it if you want to slice something; Four: I'm your opponent today; and Five: You will lose. Ready?"

[rustytengo]

"My my thats some confidence. What you fought against a group of giant robots before?" Beverly said to Asuka as her Eva drew its progressive knife from its sheath in its shoulder. 

 

"Well since your so confident lets make this a bit more interesting shall we? If you win you can have fun with me however that entails to you for a week, but when we win I get to have fun with you however that entails for me for a week sound fair?" She continued while giving Asuka a smirk through the video call.

[Yours Truly]

Ahmed's EVA turned to face Beverly's for a couple of moments before he quickly took out his progressive knife and put on a fighting stance, "You know Sir Kay, making a bet that hinges on us beating your mom up might actually be a bad idea, especially since she is a lot more experienced than us." He moved a couple of steps to the side to try and prevent Asuka from getting close to Satomi.

[Twinwolf]

Satomi, once the simulation began, started a weapons check - what weaponry were they equipped with, apart from the progressive knife? She followed this by looking at Asuka - unarmed, probably barring the progressive knife. She was doing this because she didn't think she needed it. "I have to agree, making that sort of bet is probably just setting yourself up for failure." Not that she meant to give up... The area was a city street. Probably went a good ways in any direction. Tall buildings at that - cover, maybe, to try to ambush her. She opened a com circuit to the others. "I don't think we should all charge her. Three of us should try head on, while two of us use the buildings for concealment and ambush her. Quick plan, but when all we have is knives not much else to do. We should try to spread out, keep some room to maneuver. I've got the most armor, so I'll be up front." She thought for a moment... "Kyou, Ranga, get some distance and loop around, try to get behind her. Ahmed and Beverly should stay here and help me. Everyone ok with that? Not trying to tell you guys what to do, but I figure having a plan is better than just charging a her."

[Notus]

13 hours ago, rustytengo said:

"My my thats some confidence. What you fought against a group of giant robots before?" Beverly said to Asuka as her Eva drew its progressive knife from its sheath in its shoulder. 

 

"Well since your so confident lets make this a bit more interesting shall we? If you win you can have fun with me however that entails to you for a week, but when we win I get to have fun with you however that entails for me for a week sound fair?" She continued while giving Asuka a smirk through the video call.

You have no idea. Asuka thought while her smirk evolved into a defiant looking smile. 

Spoiler

 

"Humpf. I'm in, but don't come crying to me later." She said, and then turned off the video call with the other EVAs. She'd use the loudspeaker from now on if she wanted to talk to them.

 "Ready or not, here I go!" She said, while EVA 02 uncrossed it's arms.

 

 And then she ran right towards them, each stride of the Evangelion's powerful legs sending the huge mass of the giant forward with unbelievable speed for something that size. It was instantly clear that something was changed from their fight with the Angel, and Unit 02 moved in a much more fluid and powerful way than what the other pilots had previously seen.

 

 Suddenly what had looked like a safe distance didn't seem to be enough at all, and that crimson monster would cross the space separating them almost literally in the blink of an eye.

[Twinwolf]

Satomi had to react fast - "Do the plan, go!" she shouted over the comm as she stepped forward to intercept the charging Evangelion, progressive knife already deployed - maybe she could make her charge onto it, although she doubted it. What else had Asuka mentioned... AT field? That sounded familiar... she'd done something the last battle, was it like that? Could she replicate it?

[Yours Truly]

Ahmed quickly realized that Asuka had presumably messed around with the simulator's settings somehow to make this fight less obviously one sided as he tried his best to not fail horribly at deploying his AT field once more.