Doctor Who: The Evangelion Error (Book One)

E6 Part 8: All In The Balance

NERV Headquarters - Central Dogma
T-0 Seconds

"Report!" Misato yelled over the screams of every single alarm and klaxon they had in the control room.

"Angel detected!" Lieutenant Hyuga typed furiously into his console. "Blood type blue confirmed!"

"Do Asuka and Rei have it?!"

"Negative!" The lieutenant looked up at her, his eyes wide. "Enemy is above Unit One!"

"What?!"

***

Unit Two

Asuka shook her head as the spots faded from her eyes. "What the hell --"

She looked up.

The vast creature filled the sky. Its wings, feathered with insectoid forms, seemed to stretch across the city. At its center, an immense globe -- like a massive neon eyeball, shorn free from the socket -- pressed down against a thin orange shield...

... at a point that was far, far away from her.

"Oh, that is not fair!" she shouted.

She saw a sudden blur out of the corner of her eye as Unit Zero hurdled past her, straight towards the Angel's center. Asuka swore. She ejected the umbilical and sprinted after the other Eva.

***

Unit One

Okay, yeah. This -- this hurt. This hurt a lot. It felt like the mass of the entire world was pressing down on Shinji. Like he was ten years old again and back at the evacuation school and those older kids had forced him under the bench press bar in the gym and made him try to lift too much weight for laughs, only this time they expected him to raise it with his brain somehow, 'cause his arms just weren't funny enough --

"Um," the Doctor said in a strangled whisper. "Wow."

Shinji opened his eyes just a little. He found something staring back down at him. A massive orb, patterned in nauseating colors like an eye, filled the viewscreen. He could feel that the Eva had dropped to one knee, its arms spread out, AT field flickering above it. Behind his ear, he heard the warning chime of the battery clock counting down -- because of course the generator truck couldn't have survived all this, that'd be too convenient...

"Yeah." The Doctor swallowed. "That's... a bit bigger than I expected..."

"Doctor?" Shinji whispered. "Little... help?"

"Um, right... Right!" He heard the Doctor leap to his feet. "C'mon, think. Screwdriver's down... can't signal... maybe the radio? No... so the rift -- no, no, that won't work now. Urrrgh!!!" There was a sound not unlike a man knocking his own skull against a metal column out of pure frustration.

Have to move, Shinji thought. Can't stop. Don't stop. Don't stop don't stop don't stop...

He tried to straighten the Eva's knee. Inch by painful inch, he felt Unit One start to rise...

***

NERV Headquarters - Central Dogma

"Get me telemetry on Unit One!" Misato shouted.

"Voice comm is offline. Some kind of interference from the Angel. Switching to the LOS backup..." Lieutenant Hyuga's hands raced across the keyboard. "Got it. He's on reserve power, two minutes fifty seconds left. Based on current speed, ETA of Units Zero and Two is... three minutes, sixteen seconds!"