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Post by Mizagium on Feb 18, 2011 22:15:11 GMT -5
also, I'm setting something up with the rouge extractors. It might not be what you expect, either
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Post by TEAM_DERRICK on Feb 19, 2011 10:06:42 GMT -5
Can't wait.
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Post by TEAM_DERRICK on Feb 19, 2011 10:11:34 GMT -5
I propose that Evas are generated via inception. Or extraction.
Whatever. A team goes down into Adam/Lilith and rips out some of its essence to create their eldritch abomination automatons.
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Post by Mizagium on Feb 19, 2011 13:19:42 GMT -5
Lilith is still crucified in Terminal Dogma. Adam is... o wait. Never mind. I see what you're saying.
Ok yeah, I'll do that.
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Post by TEAM_DERRICK on Feb 22, 2011 0:42:47 GMT -5
cool
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Post by Mizagium on Feb 22, 2011 21:04:09 GMT -5
in this chapter!
Rei's resynchronization test with Unit 00!
We maybe learn what was on that flash drive!
Cobb teaches Shinji exactly what it means to be a Child!
Ariadne crawls around the ventilation!
Ramiel absorbs Sachiel and Shamshel's knowledge!
Fanservice Other stuff!
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Post by TEAM_DERRICK on Feb 25, 2011 12:39:39 GMT -5
We got two more reviews, both of them very positive.
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Post by Mizagium on Feb 25, 2011 21:03:06 GMT -5
already seen those. Quantum is fairly supportive of this.
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Post by TEAM_DERRICK on Feb 25, 2011 22:06:17 GMT -5
Still...
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Post by Mizagium on Mar 20, 2011 16:52:20 GMT -5
And the Ramiel fight. Figured I might as well put it up here. I ended up writing it the day of your party, Derrick because I thought I had until Saturday, and so had to scramble to finish them both. In the end, I was very proud of the Ramiel fight. It wasn't perfect, but I got all of the ideas I wanted in it and it ended rather epicly.
~~~~~
And now, here’s something I think you’ll REALLY enjoy!
“It’s just like before,” Misato muttered to him. “Line up the target, and fire.”
Shinji grunted by way of reply, preferring not to break his concentration. Wielding a sniper rifle is much different than an assault rifle or a progressive knife. But it wasn’t just any sniper rifle, it was a positron rifle developed by ENCOM and loaned to Nerv in order to fight the Angels. Well, technically, it wasn’t real. What they had was an outdated flash drive containing the schematics for building such a weapon.
And here it was in his hands.
Unit 01 was laid on its stomach gripping the positron cannon, some kilometers away, across a body of water. It resembled Hakone Lake, but was different enough so that he could distinguish it from reality. Same with the city over which the Fifth Angel now hovered. Cobb said that the city environment that they moved around in was actually constructed by the MAGI using labyrinth designs from Ariadne. Thinking about that make him wonder what this place looked like when it was just the Angel.
In the corner of his vision, a timer ticked down until the mission would begin. He wished it would hurry up; the wait was killing him.
Off to the side, Unit 00 sat with its knees pulled to its chest. Beside it lay the shield designed to withstand the force from the Angel’s attack, in case Shinji’s first shot missed. He already knew what she was thinking and wished she would quit it. How could she not care if she lived or died? Why would she say goodbye before the start of a mission? His hands tightened around the controls. He wouldn’t let her die.
-
Misato Katsuragi anxiously tapped her foot. “Are we sure about this, Ritsuko?”
Ritsuko didn’t even look up from Maya’s terminal. “Of course. You saw the weapon schematics. The design is perfect. As long as Shinji believes that the rifle will fire, it will. That’s how suspension of disbelief works.”
She knew all of that. Everything was set up the best way it possibly could. They planned for as long as possible without letting the Angel burrow too deep. The timer was counting down until the last possible minute before initiating the strike. Much further than that, and the Angel would be able to drop to another subconscious layer; that was a whole new can of worms that they did not want to open.
Nervously, she glanced up at Cobb, who stood on Commander Ikari’s left, opposite Fuyutsuki on the right. Whatever training you gave Shinji, Cobb, it better have been enough.
-
The positron rifle began gathering power in Unit 01’s hands; Shinji could feel the machine humming and heating up and his heart rate and breathing accelerated along with it. This was it. All or nothing. The center of his chest burned with the memory of the first surprise attack form the Angel and a single word crept into his mind, the name of the Angel: Ramiel. It was a knowledge only he possessed, one he didn’t dare share with the others.
Dutifully, he loaded the fuse into the barrel and cocked the device at the designated time. A headset dropped over the top part of his face and began calculating the distance and aligning the scope of the rifle. It also displayed the ENCOM logo, he noticed.
Everyone that was a part of this operation held their collective breath and thought, Here we go, as the timer hit 00:00.
The targeting computer indicated a lock, and Shinji pulled the trigger switch. All of the stored energy erupted from the barrel with the force of a small N2 explosion and sailed across the lake, pushing the air and water out of the way as it flew. Ramiel never saw it coming. The beam easily penetrated the wave-particle exterior impacted the core and kept going through the other side. The energy dissipated, leaving a roughly cylindrical hole in the big blue diamond.
In the eerie calm that followed, Shinji realized his hot had been slightly off center. He missed the core.
Ramiel screamed a chillingly human scream as a torrent of blood was expelled from the wound in both directions. It broke apart into four elongated diamond rotating around the core, transformed into a six-pointed star, and then back into its default shape, the wound completely healed over.
Shinji reloaded the rifle and begged the thing to recharge faster.
-
“We’re getting a high-energy reaction from the target!” Makoto shouted over the blaring klaxon alarms.
“He missed!” Misato swore. “How long until the rifle can fire again?”
“Forty-five seconds,” Maya provided.
“He won’t make it!”
-
Ramiel seemed to implode on itself, one point sinking inward to expose the core, before it began another series of transformation that can only be described as a star folding in on itself multiple times. While dazzling, it was unmistakable the motion of an energy weapon being charged up, which is exactly what it was. At the final fold, a spot of light coalesced between the five star points, which were aimed directly at Shinji’s location. Seconds later, it fired. The beam sailed across the water in a mirror of Shinji’s attack, but with more power. Shinji watched in horror as the light grew brighter; there was no way he could dodge in time.
Luckily, he didn’t have to. Rei moved in the path of the beam with the shield. At first it seemed that it was going to fail, but it held and deflected the energy, sending it off to the sides. The mountain upon which they based their operation was torn up in moments, leaving only a narrow plateau with them. Rei held back the relentless assault as the positron cannon continued to charge.
“Hurry up!” Shinji shouted at the device. Seconds later, the display indicated that it was ready to fire. The barrel was positioned so as to go over Unit 00’s head and into the Angel. He wanted to tell her to get out of the way, but if she did, then the energy attack would consume him and the rifle. Reluctantly, he lined up the target and pulled the switch.
For a second time, a blast of energy erupted from the long barrel of the rifle. This time, though, it collided with Ramiel’s own attack, which had expanded to try and get around the shield. It doing so, it dispersed it power, allowing Shinji’s beam to pierce it, and travel straight to the Angel. This time, it seemed a direct hit.
The attack from the Angel ceased immediately. Fire erupted from the exit wound. The Angel started changing shape erratically, expanding, contracting, spinning, until finally settling on a starburst pattern. Then it exploded.
-
Nerv erupted into cheers and celebrations at their apparent victory. Misato slumped to the ground as all of the tension left her body. Ritsuko hugged Maya in her chair, causing her protégé to blush profusely. Makoto and Shigeru high-fived. Even Arthur and Eames grinned and didn’t snark at each other for once. Only the three at the highest level remained composed.
“It’s not over,” Cobb muttered knowingly.
Alarms started blaring again.
“So it would seem,” Gendo said neutrally.
-
Unit 00 dropped the heavy shield and turned to look at Unit 01. A screen popped up in his cockpit that showed Rei’s face. “Thank you, Rei,” he said. “For protecting me.”
She started to say something in return but cut off when a light flared out from the direction of the Angel. An explosion knocked Unit 00 off its feet and sent it flying away. In the empty space it left, Shinji could see Ramiel in its starburst pattern. The entire thing shattered but remained in the air. Then as one, the fragments lunged at him, sailing across the water at an impossible speed, and surrounded him.
-
“What’s going on?” Misato demanded.
The Bridge Crew struggled to find words to explain the situation. “It,” Maya began. “The Angel is reforming itself around Unit 01!”
“Umbilical cable has been severed,” Shigeru informed them as an animation appeared in the large wall, overlaying the ALERT hexagons.
“Unit 01 has five minutes of active time remaining!” Makoto shouted.
-
Shinji was in an impossible world.
It was like an ever changing house of mirrors. His sense of up and down failed as the environment around him moved with the fluidity of water, but maintained the rigid order of crystal. In every surface, the core of Ramiel was reflected. His sensor’s failed, unable to detect the real core.
Welcome to me.
The Angel was speaking to him, but unlike the others – Sachiel and Shamshel – this one wasn’t invading his mind, nor was it speaking in disconnected thought fragments. No this one, Ramiel, seemed intelligent, and spoke to him, rather than in him. It was reading his mind, he realized, but only because he was inside its mind.
Yes, Shinji Ikari, that is exactly correct. You are within me, and I within you. This will be your tomb. You and the Lilim will not stand against us. We are the inheritors of this world, the children of Adam.
Unit 01 got to its feet, bringing the positron cannon with it, but it was useless now. Its power cable, along with the Eva’s, had been severed by Ramiel when it formed around him. He didn’t have it in him to talk back to the Angel as depression filled his heart. This was it, this was the end. He couldn’t even save himself, and now everyone was going to die.
Yes, feel the despair. Such will be the fate of all Lilim.
Even if the rifle still work, he thought miserably, it could only fire one shot at a time, and it took too long to recharge between shots. So no matter what, he was doomed.
Or was he?
Something Cobb had told him crept into his mind. He wasn’t sure why it surface, but he suspected it was because of the Angel’s rooting through his head.
You and the other Children are special because you can manipulate the fundamental fabric of the dream environment without drawing the subconscious projections attention. In short, you can changing things in a dream, without consequences.
“I can change things in a dream.” A glimmer of hope in the darkness the gripped his heart. He glanced at the positron rifle in his hands. “Without consequences.” He hefted the rifle into Unit 01’s hands. “If I wanted this rifle to fire without ammo…” He pulled the targeting helmet over his face and aimed the rifle at one of the core reflection. “Then I can make it.” He pulled the trigger, but got nothing. Ramiel’s laughter boomed in the alien geometry.
Wanting it wasn’t enough. Suspension of disbelief had to be absolute. This rifle will fire.
And it did. The positron beam lanced out and struck the core image. As he suspected, it was just a reflection, but it was a step. Ramiel screamed in pain.
You got lucky. You will never destroy me!
But Shinji’s mind was already reeling. It was like the maze Cobb had him solve. It seemed impossible, but the solution came to him naturally. He made the rifle fire by believing it would fire. So now, he turned the positron rifle into an automatic-firing positron rifle, a weapon that could not exist in the real world. But this was not the real world, this was a dream, and in a dream, anything was possible.
Beam after bean lanced from the barrel, striking each reflection of the core he could see. Ramiel’s mind was unable to understand what was happening, except that it was dying. Entire section of its crystalline wave-particle structure fell away, revealing the outside environment.
To those watching from the command center, the diamond that was Ramiel appeared to be putting on a laser-light show as positron beams burst through the outer layer at furious pace. Pieces of the structure fell away and crashed into the water.
The Angel became unable to maintain its own structure and the floor gave way. In the instant before Unit 01 plunged into the water, Shinji spotted the real core, and swung the positron rifle around. He held the trigger and six, seven, eight beams pierced the core, sending fragments flying away. Shinji kept up the assault until the core was obliterated by the barrage of elementary particles. For just that moment, he seemed to hover in the air, at least to the observers. Unit 00 climbed out of the water onto what was left of the mounting in time to see Shinji destroy the Angel. She was speechless and amazed.
Ramiel was gone.
Shinji and Unit 01 fell into the water, victorious.
~~~~~
Depending on how the lead-in goes, there may still be one more chapter before this. Or it might be one long chapter if I can't get enough material for two.
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Post by TEAM_DERRICK on Mar 20, 2011 17:03:59 GMT -5
alright.
I gotta say, reading this fight = awesome
find twenta dollas in it = more awesome
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Post by Mizagium on Mar 20, 2011 17:21:29 GMT -5
In the final edit, Shinji throws Rei/Uni 00 out of the way of Ramiel death throes, instead of her getting blasted away. Because there's a conversation they have about how Shinji saw her in his dream after the Sachiel fight. Rei also saw him, and he said he would protect her, so there's a nice little thing there.
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Post by TEAM_DERRICK on Mar 20, 2011 17:32:14 GMT -5
DIGGIN IT
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Post by Mizagium on Mar 20, 2011 17:37:31 GMT -5
Rei and Shinji actually become friends.
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Post by TEAM_DERRICK on Mar 20, 2011 17:50:14 GMT -5
hopefully without benefits.
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Post by Mizagium on Mar 20, 2011 17:56:07 GMT -5
hopefully without benefits. You know me. It becomes more a bro/sis thing (I hope so, at least) because between him boning Asuka, and Mana fawning all over him, I really, really, don't want to have to add Rei to that. Also, even if you don't think of her as his mother, she's still his sister. |
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Post by TEAM_DERRICK on Mar 20, 2011 17:57:51 GMT -5
Hell, she's either his half sister, his double sister, or his double mother when you think about it.
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Post by Mizagium on Mar 20, 2011 18:00:49 GMT -5
Hell, she's either his half sister, his double sister, or his double mother when you think about it. I prefer not to. Either way, friends. They can be protective, which I guess can be explained as their strange, STRANGE relationship. |
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Post by TEAM_DERRICK on Mar 20, 2011 18:07:35 GMT -5
"Why does the girl with the largest bust have to be a clone of my mother? WHY?"
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Post by Mizagium on Mar 20, 2011 18:10:40 GMT -5
"Why does the girl with the largest bust have to be a clone of my mother? WHY?" Gendo: Because, Shinji, I'm kind of a douche like that. |
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