41Steel Cougar
By Lord Raa
Disclaim-me-do: The donkey was not pleased.
Chapter 1
"¬That's awful shooting, Shinji! Don't you have any hand-eye coordination?¬"
Shinji glared at the image of his commanding officer. "If you think I'm that bad, why don't you do it instead?!"
"¬What was that, Shinji?¬"
"I said, 'if you think I'm that bad, why don't you do it instead?'" the pilot repeated, his frustration getting the better of him.
"That little..." Misato growled as she pointed a finger at the screen. "Doesn't he realise that we wouldn't put a kid in there if we didn't have to?"
"I'm sure he does, Misato," Ritsuko said, trying to reassure her friend. "Look, it's been a long day for him, made even frustrating by the fact that he can't seem to get anything right."
"But he's not even close to what we need from him. We can't just say to the next Angel 'Please hold on for a bit, our pilot's a complete rookie who managed to win his last battle by pure luck' now can we?"
Dr. Akagi reached for her coffee, quickly draining the lukewarm liquid. "How about this – we take Shinji out for quick break and put you inside."
"I can't sync with an Eva!" Misato said dismissively.
"I know that, Misato," the blonde said. "But we can get the systems to power up. Once Shinji sees that you've experienced what it's like, he'll say something like 'not so easy, is it?' After that, he should improve once he realises that he's needed here."
The Captain sighed. "I guess you're right. So, what am I going to wear? Because there's no way in hell I'm going to wear this in the entry plug."
"Give me a few minutes and I'll find you something to wear in the entry plug."
Fifteen minutes later, Misato was struggling to get into the blue and grey wetsuit her friend had handed to her.
"Why do these things have to be so damned snug?"
"It's so they can trap a layer of water to the skin to keep you warm," Ritsuko explained. She was about to pull out a cigarette. "I know it's awkward, but would you rather just walk out there in that two-piece? With all those guys out there, leering at you?"
"No," Misato replied, though her voice was oddly subdued.
'Still conscious about your scar, I see. I don't blame you though – that bikini would frame it.' Ritsuko put her tobacco away. "Here, let me help you with that."
After another minute of struggling, the Captain was finally in the wetsuit. "Damn, this is uncomfortable. Are the plugsuits this bad?"
"No, they're loose until you pressurise them," the blonde explained as she zipped her friend up. "There you go, ready for the piloting experience?"
"As ready as I'll ever be."
Shinji sat in the control room behind Dr. Akagi. His earlier enthusiasm for Misato to experience piloting was waning and he focused on the floor.
'I shouldn't have been so selfish,' he thought as he raised his head to look at the main monitor.
He was in time to see his guardian slowly climb into the entry plug, thanks to the form fitting wetsuit Ritsuko had provided.
Ritsuko cast a speculative glance behind her to see that the pilot had a blush on his face. 'Heh, Misato'll have fun teasing him tonight.'
"Right then, Pilot Katsuragi," the blonde said playfully, "are you ready?"
"¬This damn thing's chafing my butt!¬"
"I can't help that, Misato, you'll just have to suck it up for now. Now, initialising the systems."
Misato was having difficulty getting comfortable, thanks to the ill-fitting wetsuit, but was able to put it out of her mind when the system started to come online.
"Now, just take things easy, relax, take deep breaths," she told herself. "This will be over soon enough and I deal with this wedgie."
After two minutes, Misato was starting to get bored. "Ritsuko? What's going on?"
"¬Err, bear with us a moment, Misato, there's something we need to check on the instrumentation. We're going as fast as we can.¬"
The beer drinker sighed. "Fine, but if I find you've been slacking off, you're paying for tonight's drinks."
"¬Err, Dr. Akagi, what does this 29 percent thing mean?¬" Misato heard Shinji ask over the comm. system.
"29 percent? What's going on, Ritsuko?"
"¬It seems that you've somehow managed to sync with Unit-01. I can't explain it, but it doesn't look like an instrumentation fault. I'm bringing you out,¬" Ritsuko said as her hands flew across the controls.
Gendo Ikari remained silent as the two other people in his office discussed the day's unforeseen event.
"This is unexpected, Dr. Akagi," Kozo Fuyutsuki said as he looked at the printout. "Are you certain that this isn't an error?"
"I ran a diagnostic as soon as it became clear that Misato had synched with Unit-01. Hell, I ran it twice just to be sure," Ritsuko answered.
"I see," the Commander nodded. "Do either of you have any hypothesises for the cause of this synchronisation?"
Fuyutsuki shook his head. "Other than it being some sort of fluke or undetected error, I can't think of anything."
"What about you, Dr. Akagi?" Gendo asked, turning to the bottle-blonde.
"It's most likely to be some sort of instrumentation error. Which means we've got to strip everything down and test all the components," the smoker sighed.
"I see," the bearded man repeated. "We will perform the tests again after you've recalibrated the telemetry systems."
"What if it's not a computer error, Ikari?" Fuyutsuki asked. "What if Captain Katsuragi can pilot?"
"Then we have an additional pilot; one who we can expect to follow orders."
Shinji was content to make dinner for Misato, even though it was her turn that evening.
'I didn't want curry tonight,' the pilot mused as he turned off the stove. "Food's ready, Misato-san."
"Well played, Shin-chan!" the purple-haired woman smiled as she pulled out a beer from the fridge.
After the young man served up the meal, he took his seat. "So, Misato-san, what did you think of the entry plug?"
"It's weird," Misato answered as she chewed a mouthful of food. "Kinda like being in a liquid filled coffin…"
Shinji's head dropped and he focused on his plate. "That's what I thought…"
"Shit," Misato cursed under her breath. "I know it's not a pleasant experience for you, but I didn't mean to put it that way, Shinji."
"D-did Dr. Akagi say anything to you about how you synched with the Evangelion?" the pilot asked.
"Only that it might be an instrumentation error," the beer drinker replied. "I know you'd like it if you weren't the only one we could rely on, Shinji, but I don't know what else to tell you, other than 'at the moment, you're our only chance'. I'm sorry, Shinji, I really am."
The next morning, Shinji was even quieter than normal, causing Misato feel bad about what she'd said to the young man.
"Shinji," she said as he packed his bento into his bag.
"Yes, Misato-san?"
"I didn't mean to… shit, I can't even get this right…" the purple-haired woman sighed. "I'm sorry, Shinji. If there was any way I could make it easier for you, I would do. Please believe me."
Shinji nodded once. "I… I have to go to school now. I'll see you when you get back from work."
Once the pilot had left the apartment, Misato let out a loud curse. "SHIT! Why the hell can't I talk to him?"
Draining the rest of her beer, the Captain left to dress for work.
Ritsuko let out a tired sigh as she leaned back against the cold metallic floor. She closed her eyes for a moment, savouring the chance to rest after her Herculean task.
'Damn it, why did Misato have to sync with Unit-01? What made it possible? Everyone else born before the Second Impact has failed to sync with an Eva, but why her?' she asked herself.
"Sleeping on the job again, Ritsuko?"
The bottle-blonde's eyes shot open and she saw who it was that was bothering her. "Morning, Misato. I see you've opted for blue and white stripes today."
"Ha-ha-ha," Misato laughed sarcastically while holding two mugs of hot coffee. "It's a good thing we're on our own in here – any men might get the wrong idea about us. Unless you like looking up my skirt…"
Ritsuko sat up for a moment before climbing to her feet. "Misato, while I've had worse views, I can't say that I've been tempted to make out with you here at NERV."
When she took a mug of coffee from her friend, the blonde added, "Besides, you know how sordid and tacky I think sex at work is."
"Tell me about it," Misato said with a shudder. "Let's just say you don't want to use the photocopier in D wing."
"Thanks for that pleasant mental image, Misato," the scientist said with a grimace. "Lately, you seem to be causing me nothing but trouble. So, what brings you here? You're not going to spilling coffee on the computer are you?"
"Wasn't planning on that," the Captain answered truthfully. "I'm here to see how your diagnostics are going."
"Nearly done, aside from replacing this pile of processing modules," Ritsuko said before taking a much need hit of caffeine. "I should be done within the hour. After that, I'm going to get some sleep and then fin-"
Ritsuko's sentence was interrupted by a loud yawn. "Sorry about that, I pulled an all-nighter. After I get some sleep, I'll finish up the diagnostics and we can see if you can actually sync with Unit-01 or it was just a glitch."
"Cool, do you need me for anything in the meantime? You need a blood sample or anything?" Misato asked after taking a sip of coffee.
The blonde blinked, shook her head and let out an amused sigh. "Please, if you could. I can't believe I forgot to ask for that yesterday."
"It's ok, Ritsuko. I mean, I forget shit all the time," the purple haired woman smiled reassuringly.
"That's true."
That afternoon, Ritsuko was woken up from her nap by Maya Ibuki.
"Sempai, it's three o'clock," the young woman said, her head poking around the door.
"What? Already?" the scientist asked as she lifted her head off the couch in her office. She sat upright, stretched and let out a loud yawn. Rising to her feet Ritsuko slowly rolled her head in a circle. "Damn, I could do with another couple of hours sleep."
"I'm sorry, Sempai, but you wanted to be finish the diagnostics before you tested Captain Katsuragi in the entry plug again," Maya said. "I've already started the analysis on Captain Katsuragi's blood, the MAGI should have some results soon."
"Thanks, Maya," Ritsuko smiled appreciatively. "Hopefully, I can get to the bottom of this thing before the end of the day."
"Hopefully."
An hour and a half later, Misato was struggling into a wetsuit for the second time in two days.
"Stupid thing," she grumbled. "Isn't there a sleeveless one I could wear?"
"Not if you want to breathe easily, Misato," Ritsuko answered. "The sleeveless ones are a bit smaller; especially in the chest."
"My beauty is as much a curse as it is a gift," Misato grumbled good-naturedly. "There, we're ready to do this. So, we're sure that it's not a computer error?"
"I've checked every part of the system, replacing anything that looked like it might cause us a problem. So whatever results we get today will be accurate," the blonde answered.
Misato sat as calmly as she could in Unit-01's entry plug as it filled with LCL, the smell of blood filling her nostrils.
"Relax, Misato, this will be over soon enough," she told herself. "I just have to not synchronise with this thing and I can go about apologising to Shinji."
After taking in several lungfuls of LCL, the Captain was ready for this test.
"Ready when you are, Ritsuko," she said, putting on a brave face.
Ritsuko initialised the start up sequence, though it was a lot slower than she normally did things.
"The connections are all open and operating within parameters," she said to no-one in particular. "Neural input levels are stable… Attempting synchronisation now!"
"It-it's working, Sempai!" Maya Ibuki announced, three metres to the left of the bottle-blonde.
"What?" Ritsuko demanded.
"Captain Katsuragi is synchronised with Unit-01, it's holding at 28 point 98 percent," the young lieutenant explained. "I-I thought it was impossible for anyone born before the Second Impact to do this."
"I'm at a loss to answer this one," the scientist admitted. She switched on the comm. system. "Misato, try moving the arms for me."
"¬What? Move the arms? Ok.¬"
In the cockpit of Unit-01, Misato shrugged. "Other than the LCL, I can't feel anything special. Still, this should prove that yesterday was a fluke."
The purple-haired woman moved the right control stick, half expecting nothing to happen.
But when she realised that Unit-01 was actually reacting, various thoughts flashed through her mind: from surprise that something happened to how she could use this as a tactical advantage to how Shinji would react to the news.
'Shit, what about Shinji? He still feels that the only reason he's here is because we need him. If I can pilot, won't he just leave? I know I've got military training, but he's the one with the higher sync ratio...'
"Ritsuko, what's the verdict?"
"¬I can't believe it, you're synching with Unit-01. I don't know why, but you are.¬"
"Cool. Err, Ritsuko, can I get out of here and grab a shower?" Misato asked. "There's something else that I kinda need to talk to you about. I'd prefer to talk to you in private, if I could."
"¬Sure thing, Misato,¬" Ritsuko nodded as she started the shutdown procedure.
As Misato dried her long purple hair, she walked briskly to Ritsuko's office. Knocking on the door, but not waiting for an answer, she entered.
Only to be greeted by the sight of her friend sleeping at her desk.
"Ritsuko?"
"Mmm…" the blonde mumbled into her folded arms.
"Come on, Ritsuko, I need to talk to you," Misato insisted. She shook her friend by the shoulders. "Please, it's something important."
"Sleep…" Ritsuko replied, her eyes finally opening. "Misato? What's going on? I was just catching up on some sleep."
The Captain let her friend go. "I need some advice, Ritsuko. After I managed to move the Eva's arm, I realised something."
"You did?" the blonde asked as she reached for her tobacco. After lighting up and taking nicotine hit, she straightened in her chair. "Ok, so what have you realised?"
"Well, it's about Shinji. You know how he reacted to the knowledge that his dad only wanted him here to pilot Unit-01? Well, if it turns out that I can actually pilot an Eva, what's Shinji going to do?"
Ritsuko blinked as she tried to process what Misato told her. "Wait, try that again, slower this time. You know, for the benefit of those of us who pulled an all-nighter on top of double shift."
Misato nodded and repeated her concerns about Shinji.
Finishing her cigarette the scientist closed her eyes for a moment. "You've got a point, Misato. What do you want to do about this? I mean, do you want Shinji-kun to continue piloting, given that for better or worse, Unit-01 is set up for him or do you want to replace him as the pilot?"
"I don't know. I mean, I don't like the idea of a kid fighting, you know, but if it's what we need to do to survive…" the purple-haired woman said with a hint of sadness in her voice.
"Do you like Shinji-kun?" Ritsuko asked.
"What?"
"Do you like Shinji-kun?" Ritsuko repeated. "I don't mean 'do you want to get married to him next weekend', but do you care about his wellbeing?"
"Of course I do," Misato insisted. "And it's not just because I'm his guardian or superior officer. I guess, I'm kinda getting used to him being around. I like the company, even if he doesn't talk that much."
"So you want him around?" Ritsuko lit up another cigarette. "That's good – it gives us somewhere to go with this."
"Ok, but where do we go with this?"
"I've got no idea, Misato. In fact, I'm so tired, I can barely focus on you. I need sleep; you tell Shinji that you'd like to sortie with him or something. I don't know right now."
"Sorry about this, Ritsuko. I'll try talking with Shinji when I get back home."
"Good," Ritsuko nodded before falling into an exhausted slumber in her chair.
"Shinji-kun," Misato said as she poked her head around the door to her roommate's room.
The young man looked up from his homework. "Are you hungry, Misato? Do you want me to make you something to eat?"
"No," the Captain shook her head. "I… Can we talk?"
"I guess," the pilot shrugged. "What did you want to talk about, Misato-san?"
"Piloting," Misato answered. "I know you don't like thinking about Eva, but I need to talk to you about this."
Shinji didn't look too enthusiastic about the topic, but couldn't find the mental strength to protest. "Ok."
"It turns out that I did manage to synchronise with Unit-01 yesterday. We know this because Ritsuko checked the system and I synced with it again earlier today."
"I see. So you don't need me any more, do you?"
"That's not true – just because I managed to sync with Unit-01, it doesn't mean I can pilot it in combat," the purple haired woman replied. She took his left hand in hers. "What it means, Shinji-kun, is that you won't have to face the Angels alone anymore."
Shinji turned his gaze to the floor. "I guess…"
'Shit, why can't I do this right? I tell him that I'll be helping him, but he's still upset about something.' Misato sighed. "Shinji, something's bothering you. Tell me what it is."
The young Ikari lifted his head. "You said that you're going to pilot, but you still don't know what it's like."
'Neither did you until recently,' the Captain thought.
"When that first Angel picked me up off the floor and started hitting me in the face, it felt like my head was going to be split open and my brain was going to fall out," Shinji continued.
'Is Shinji worried about me?' Misato blinked. "True, but how do you think I'd feel if I didn't do what I could to help you out? Don't worry about that, Shinji. If I have anything to say about this, we'll be fine."
"I guess so…"
The next morning at NERV, Misato knocked on Ritsuko's office door.
"What is it?"
"Hi Ritsuko, I was wondering if you were doing anything for tonight?"
Ritsuko looked up from her analysis of Misato's synchronisations. "Tonight? I don't know yet, I still need to talk with the Commander about yesterday."
"Ok," Misato nodded. "It's just that-"
"Just that you can't seem to say the right thing to Shinji?" the blonde interrupted. "I can't promise anything, but if I can come up with some way to help you, I'll let you know."
"Thanks, Ritsuko."
In the NERV Commander's office, Kozo Fuyutsuki looked over the preliminary report that Ritsuko had complied.
"How can Captain Katsuragi synchronise with Unit-01?" he asked. "It doesn't make any sense."
"I don't know," the blonde scientist replied. "I've checked out everything that could possibly give us a false positive, so we know it's not a computer error."
Gendo Ikari closed his eyes as he focused his sharp mind on finding a reason for this anomaly. 'What do we know about Captain Katsuragi? She's an alcoholic; she's living with the Third Child; she was on the Katsuragi Expedition with her father...'
"I have a possible explanation."
"You do?" the grey-haired man asked. "What is it?"
Ritsuko also looked at the bearded man for an answer.
"What is Captain Katsuragi's most noteworthy fact?" Gendo asked. Not waiting for an answer, he continued his hypothesis. "The only reason for her to even so much as synchronise with Unit-01, outside gross incompetence on the part of NERV technical staff, is because she's a surviving witness to the Second Impact. The only surviving witness."
Ritsuko bristled at the thinly veiled slur, but managed to bite her tongue long enough for the Commander's point to sink in.
"I… I hadn't considered that."
The Commander smirked, but decided against mocking the blonde.
"How should we proceed?" Fuyutsuki asked.
"Captain Katsuragi is to be considered a backup pilot; we will review the situation once Rei has recovered sufficiently to pilot Unit-00," Gendo replied. "Have a plugsuit made for Katsuragi. That way we can use her as a PR distraction and keep certain facts hidden for longer. The repairs for Unit-01 are the top priority, but don't allow the work on Unit-00 to lag behind."
"Yes Sir," the scientist nodded before leaving to draw up a plan for Misato's testing and training.
"Are you sure this is the wisest course of action, Ikari?" Fuyutsuki asked. "What if Shinji reacts badly to this? He only piloted because he didn't want Rei to be hurt any further."
"It is a deviation from the plan, but not using Captain Katsuragi like this would be waste of an unexpected boon. We will handle the Third Child according to his reaction."
That afternoon, Ritsuko called Misato to her office. "Misato, I want to talk to you and Shinji about piloting and the changes to your respective roles, so is tonight a good time to come over?"
"Actually," the Captain said looking a little relieved, "I wanted you to come over to help me talk to Shinji. I still haven't figured out what to say to him."
"Oh?" the blonde asked as she reached for her cigarettes. "Is he taking the news that you can pilot that badly?"
"I don't know what he's thinking," Misato admitted. "All I know is that he's conflicted about it."
Ritsuko exhaled a plume of smoke. "It sounds like it's going to be a long night for me. If I have to stop over to fix your problem, then I want breakfast thrown in."
When the purple-haired woman cast a questioning look at her, the scientist replied.
"Hey, I've had to put in a lot of work lately and missed several meals because of you, Misato. The least you could do is make sure I'm fed."
"Sure thing, Ritsuko."
To be continued…
Pre-read by Chi Vayne and previewed on various intertubes.
There may be more before the heat death of the universe. But I promise nothing.
Stalk me on on Twitter for random updates and retweets from funnier people. I'm LordRaa
