Doctor Who: The Evangelion Error (Book One)

E4 Part 5: Oh, where have you been, my blue-eyed son?

Uenohara

There was fire and heat and light. A massive wave of hot air burst through the valley. The buildings shook like leaves.

Then - just as quickly as it had started - it was over.

Nobuhide Suzuki raised his head from behind the piece of broken highway he'd used as cover. "Well, I'll be damned," he said.

***

NERV Mobile Command Post

The video feeds came back on. Misato sat down and let out the deep breath that had stuck in her throat. Both Evas stood intact over Uenohara. A few twisted fragments of scorched armor jutting from out of the ground were all that remained of Jet Alone. The body of the Fifth Angel, though it had held together through the explosion, had been burnt to a crisp. As she watched, the withered crystal dissolved into blood-red fluid, gently flooding through what remained of the town.

"What's our status?" she asked.

"All hardwired systems check out green." Lieutenant Hyuga looked over the readouts. "Communications seem to be down, though."

"Send out runners, then," Misato said. Damn, her eyes felt heavy. "Check in on the work crews and the tanks. Get help to whoever needs it. And for God's sake, someone get Shinji out of that cockpit before he does something else."

***

Inside Unit One

Shinji watched through the Eva's cameras as the crystal dissolved, his brain struggling to grasp what had just happened. It just wasn't fair. Around him, the entry plug began to blur and turn red. There was a high-pitched ringing sound in his ears...

Wait. That was his cell phone.

Shinji snatched the phone back up and pressed the receive button. "Right," the Doctor's voice said. "Big fir tree behind you and to the left? Call it maybe, oh, two hundred meters or so to the west? Big hole in the top? Can't miss it. If you could... err... bring the big fella around... I'm sort of a bit stuck."

***

"Slowly, now... slowly..." the Doctor said.

Unit One carefully bent the top of the fir tree down with one hand while holding out the other below. Shinji glanced at the battery readout. Twenty seconds of power left.

"Slowly... just a bit slower..."

Fifteen seconds. Out of time. Shinji twisted the Eva's wrist.

"SLOWER I SAID SLOWER! SLOW -"

The Doctor tumbled out from the tree and into the Eva's palm. He groaned. Shinji lowered him to the ground as the power finally gave out. A familiar warning came up on the entry plug's screen: EXTERIOR RADIATION ABOVE SAFE LEVEL. ENTRY PLUG EJECT DISAB-

Shinji kicked the controls in frustration. The message disappeared. The eject sequence started.

***

Outside Unit One

He rushed around the other side of the Eva. The Doctor, still lying in the Eva's hand, had pulled the spacesuit's helmet off, its faceplate cracked. He shot Shinji a look as he turned the corner. "Armor's a bit thick on this thing, don't you think?" he asked. "You lot ever think about padding for situations like this? Maybe an airbag or two?"

Shinji reached down and poked the Doctor in the shoulder. It was solid. He sat down and stared at the figure in front of him.

The Doctor raised an eyebrow. "What?"