ALTERNITE FUTURE

By James Lee

Disclaimer: None of these characters are mine. I'm using them without permission.

PART 4 EVA 03
The boys gym class was running laps today. As the boys each waited there turn they did what they did best, watch the girls class at the pool just behind the track. Shinji was watching Rei, who was (as usual) just leaning against the fence. Suddenly Toji was in front of him.

"What ya doing Shinji?"

Shinji jumped. "Umm ahh nothing!"

"Yeah Right! You were watching Rei again weren't you?"

"I-I-I-I"

Kensuke walked up. "Come on Shinji. We have to be blind not to notice you got a thing for her. When ya gonna ask her out?"

"A-Ask her out!?"

Toji nodded. "Yeah! You really should too, considering your job."

"My job?"

Kensuke nodded his head. "Yeah Shinji, both you and her got a dangerous job. If you wait too long, it might be too late. After all you know what they say. Drink and be marry today for tomorrow..." Kensuke put his hand's on his hart and put on a tragic voice. "You Diiieee." Shinji didn't see the humor in that. "But seriously Shinji, at least you can see your girl. Toji's still looking for his dream girl."

Shinji looked at Toji. "Y-your still looking for her?"

"Yeah. I can't find her anywhere. I tell you it's weird. It's like she's disappeared off the face of the planet. By the way Shinji, where's Ranma? I was hoping to race him today."

"Oh he, Ritsuko, and Misato went to Matsushiro for the activation of unit 03."

Kensuke jumped up. "THE ACTIVATION OF UNIT 03!? Aww man, they didn't invite us!"

*****

Ritsuko, Misato, and Ranma were on the train to Matsushiro. Ranma spent most of the trip trying to watch the scenery go by. Ritsuko spent her time going over the various tests they had planed for the day. Misato just snickered at Ranma most of the time. Ranma had his polygraph and true serum tests yesterday. Although he had pass both tests, some of the questions had given Misato some amusing answers. Finally Ranma couldn't take it anymore.

"Aww cut it already will ya!"

Ritsuko looked up and smiled. "Well Ranma, you have to admit you do have an interesting problem."

"You don't know the half of it. Not only do I have to worry about Toji, but I think that Hikari girl is jealous."

"HIKARI'S JEALOUS!?" Misato lost it and started laughing hard. Ranma glared at her and decided to change the subject. "So why are we having the test way out here."

"Oh that's because of what happened to unit 04 Urk." Misato stopped laughing and elbowed Ritsuko hard. This wasn't lost on Ranma. "What happened to unit 04?"

"Oh umm nothing important." Said Misato. *I better not tell him that unit 04 just disappeared, taking a good chunk of Navada with it.* Ranma wasn't sure if he believed her. She seemed to be hiding something. Somehow he got the idea that he didn't want to know what that something was.

*****

NERV testing facility, Matsushiro.
"Begin LCL flood."

Ranma looked down to see a liquid begin to fill the entry plug. "Hey! What's this stuff!?"

"Don't worry Ranma. Once your lungs fill with LCL your blood will be oxidized directly." Said Ritsuko from the control room.

"You expect me to BREATHE this STUFF!"

"Ranma, we all spend nine months breathing liquid. You just need to get used to it again." Ranma tried to hold his breath, but he eventually opened his mouth. He felt like he was going to be sick, but wasn't going to admit it. The various technical personal began to speak.

"LCL pressure is good."

"Cardiac monitor system good."

"Power systems are go."

Ritsuko looked up at unit 03 and at Ranma on one of the view screens. She was pleased to note that the LCL didn't trigger a change. "Set Language Perimeters to Japanese. Begin activation!"

"Beginning activation."

"Approaching border line."

"Border line reached......and passed."

"Activation complete. Sync rate is at 60%."

"Whoa that's pretty good!" Said Misato.

Ritsuko nodded. "Ranma, how do you feel?"

"Umm OK."

"Good. Now try moving the arms." Ranma brought unit 03's right arm up and made a fist. He then did the same for the left arm.

"Very good Ranma. We're moving on to the next test. Ranma, we're going to open the cage and remove the restraints. We want you to try walking. Go slow at first. Are you ready?"

"Yes ma'am."

"Open the cage."

The sides of the cage that surrounded the massive beast slide open. Soon the restraints that held the EVA upright snapped open and unit lurched forward. Ranma's first steps with the EVA were clumsy and it almost fell. However, after walking around the small testing room a few times, Ranma got used to it. Soon Ranma had unit 03 doing one of his practice kata.

"OK Ranma that's enough for now. Back up to the cage so we can lock it down."

"That was pretty impressive." Said Misato as unit 03 began to back up to the cage with little problem. "So what now?"

Ritsuko sipped her coffee. "Now we have Ranma 'change'. We then give 'her' the other plug suit and start over. If everything works out, we then go back to Tokyo 3 and prepare for the exercise."

Misato nodded.

*****

That night Ritsuko, Misato and the pilots were eating dinner at Misato's apartment. Ranma (after a considerable argument) had proven to be just as good a pilot in female form as in male and unit 03 was now on it's way to Tokyo 3. Ranma was eating as he usually did. He was glad to be having dinner at Misato's. He didn't know why, but Ritsuko's apartment still made him uneasy. The only place there that didn't make him nervous was his room. Ranma didn't know which was worst, being scared or not knowing what he was scared of.

As they ate, Ritsuko moved back from the table for a chance to see Ranma the food bandit in action. Watching carefully, she was able to make several observations.

Observation 1: Ranma got away with his attacks by use of incredible speed. Even Ritsuko, who knew what to look for, could barely see his hands move. The only other person to notice was Rei, when Ranma took a vegetable off her plate. Rei looked at Ranma, but said nothing.

Observation 2: The more people eating the more likely Ranma was to get away with his attacks. Ranma never hit the same plate twice in a row. Also the more plates aloud Ranma to take less from each plate, thus the victims didn't noticed the slight reduction in food.

Observation 3: Ranma seemed to be doing his attacks subconsciously! Ritsuko watched as Ranma got into a full argument with Asuka, yet still take food from Misato and Shinji. This concerned Ritsuko. If this habit of his was programmed into him, it would take a lot of work for her to brake it.

Observation 4: No food item was safe from Ranma. The entire meal was made by Misato, yet Ranma was eating at only a slightly lower rate. He'd even taken a fish from Pen Pen's bowl! Ritsuko had to wonder what type of poison Ranma must have been exposed to. Not only did he eat Misato's cooking, but he seemingly enjoyed it.

Finally Ranma got caught when he grabbed a piece of food at the same time as someone else. Fortunately for Ranma it was a piece of food that was on the table, not on someone's plate. Unfortunately for Ranma it was a piece that Asuka had been grabbing for.

"Hey Hydrosexual! That's mine!"

"No way! I saw it first!"

"Did not!"

"Did too!"

As they argued, Ranma and Asuka started to have a tug a war for the morsel. This ended when Pen Pen jumped on the table, took said piece of food, and popped it in his mouth; thus ending the fight...NOT!

"Now look what you did!"

"ME? Your the one who has to be so greedy!"

"Well what am I supposed to eat now huh!?"

"Ahh you can use some weight loss."

"WHATT!?" Asuka jumped up ready to attack.

"THAT'S ENOUGH!" Misato yelled. "Asuka sit down! That's an order! And be quite."

"That goes for you too Ranma!" Ritsuko added in. *The first thing I going to have to do is teach you some tact!*

Asuka sat down grumbling. Ranma just glared at her.

"Well now that dinner is over, We can talk about the little exercise we have planned tomorrow." Said Misato.

"Exercise?" Asked Shinji.

"Yes. Tomorrow you will be doing a team combat exercise at the outdoors combat range outside Tokyo 3." Said Ritsuko. "Ranma.You should make the most of this exercise. It will give you a chance to see how an EVA operates on real terrain. It's a lot different from the clear test room. There's a lot of stuff out there that your EVA can trip on: woods, power lines, even a few old buildings."

Misato took over. "The scenario is as follows. It will be a meeting engagement. You four will be broken up into two teams. Each team will start on opposite ends of the combat range. You are to move in and destroy the opposing team."

"All range weapons will be equipped with a MILES(1) laser system. All of the EVAs will have a false cores attached to them. If your core is hit by a MILES laser or destroyed in hand to hand combat; then your EVA will be considered destroyed and you will have to sit out the rest of the battle. An AT field can stop a MILES laser. So as always, you will have to neutralize your opponents AT field before you fire."

"The teams will be as follows. Team one will be Shinji and Ranma. Shinji will be mark and Ranma will be point. Team two will be Rei and Asuka. Rei will be mark and Asuka will be point."

Asuka spoke up. "Girls verses the boys huh. Hmph no contest."

"I'll say. I feel sorry for poor Rei being stuck with the Wicked Witch of the West." Said Ranma.

"Will at least she isn't stuck with the Hydrosexual Rookie!"

"ASUKA/RANMA!" Misato and Ritsuko growled at the same time. The two quitted down.

"Now if there aren't any questions, I suggest you go home and rest. Shinji. You'll be staying at Ritsuko's tonight with Ranma."

"Umm yes ma'am."

"Rei. You'll be staying here with Asuka."

"Understood."

"Wonder Girl's staying here? What for?"

"This is so each team can spend some time discussing battle plans for tomorrow. Don't stay up too late. The exercise will start sometime tomorrow. The city will be having a civil defense drill at the same time; so it will be like a real combat alert. There will be sirens and we'll be calling you on your cell phones. So be ready and good luck."

(1)MILES: Military Integrated Laser Engagement System
*****

The next day Misato stood at Central Dogma. They had started the alert at 09:30. All the pilots had made it to Headquarters in good time and were now waiting to be launched. It was time to start the exercise.

"Okay guys and girls are you ready?"

[This is unit 01, yes ma'am.]

[This is unit 03, ready.]

[This is unit 02, ready to win.]

[This is unit 00, I am ready]

Misato turned to Aoba. "How's the weather up there?"

"It's a little drizzly and there's some sort of fog over entry point nine."

"Well that's nothing they can't handle. Commander?" Up at the commander's station Gendo just nodded. "Begin exercise, EVAs LAUNCH!"

In a few seconds the EVAs where at different points on the combat range. Asuka moved out immediately.

"Cover me Wonder Girl." Not waiting for a response, Asuka charged on. Using the many hills in the area for cover, she made it halfway though the combat range before she saw a flash of black. *Must be unit 03, the Hydrosexual!*

"Hey Wonder Girl, it looks like I about to mix it up with the Hydrosexual. Keep an eye out for the Third Child."

Suddenly a red light filled Asuka's entry plug and pleasant, Belldandy like voice proclaimed. "EVA killed, direct Fire. EVA killed, direct fire."

"Whahh!?" Asuka turned to see unit 00 emptying it's rifle into her. "Oh ha ha Wonder Girl, VERY FUNNY. Are you stupid!? You're supposed to kill THEM not ME!"

Back at Headquarters Misato and the control crew groaned. Misato put her hands to her head. "All right, let's start over. Move back to your start positions." *Hell of a time for Rei to get a sense of humor!*

Back at the range Asuka began to return to her start position. "Well Wonder Girl, you heard her, back to the start positions."

The blue EVA dropped the now empty weapon, but didn't move. "Hey Wonder Girl, you got problem!?"

There was no response. "Wonder Girl?"

When Asuka screamed, Misato looked up at the screen to see unit 00 throwing unit 02 around like a rag doll. Misato noted that unit 00 looked different. The EVAs arms were longer and it was hunched a little making it look less like an EVA and more like a Cyclops guerrilla. "What the hells going on!? Rei!?"

"We're picking up an AT field!" Shouted Hyuga. "Type blue!"

"A-An Angel has taken over unit 00!?" Misato didn't want to believe it, but as it slammed unit 02 down one last time it seemed that was just what happened.

"Unit 02 is out of action!" Maya began yelling. "Unit 00 has changed curse and is headed towards Tokyo 3!"

Gendo jumped up from his chair. "Eject the entry plug, NOW!"

"Ejecting entry plug......It won't eject! Something stopped it halfway!"

"NO!" Gendo cursed, things were getting worst by the second.

"We just got the report from the MAGI! All three consider the unit too dangerous to attack hand to hand! They recommend range weapons only!"

"Commander?" Asked Misato looking up at Gendo.

The NERV commander sweated. Why couldn't it be unit 02 or 03? Why unit 00? Why Rei? Gendo shut his eyes, he was going to hate this for a long time. "S-Send a loaded rifle to both units 01 and 03. D-Designate unit 00 as the 13th Angel and.......destroy the target!"

"C-Commander!? You can't be serious!? What about Rei!?"

"We have no choice Major! Destroy the target! That's an order!"

Misato looked at Gendo a moment then nodded. As much of a bastard she thought he was, she knew he wouldn't sacrifice his precious Rei unless it was absolutely necessary. She then turned to the view screen. "Shinji, Ranma?"

[Yes ma'am. What's going on?]

[Yeah Major, I just saw Rei trash the Witch.]

"Stand by to receive new weapons. Ranma go to the building marked with the red P. You'll find the weapon in there." Misato turned to Aoba. "As soon as unit 01 is armed freeze it's controls and cut comm link between the two unit's."

Aoba raised an eyebrow, but did as he was ordered. Misato then took a deep breath. She knew there was no way Shinji was going to follow the next order.

Ranma went to the large building that was marked with a red P. As his unit approuched, the side of the building opened up revealing another rifle. As EVA 03 grabbed it's new weapon, Ranma noticed that unit 01 had also gotten a new weapon but had stopped.

"Hey Shinji, what do you thinks going on?...Shinji?...Unit 01?"

[OK Major. I got the gun, but I've lost commo with unit 01.]

[Misato, I've rearmed. Why have you frozen my controls?]

"L-Lesson very carefully. Unit 00 has been taken over by an angel. R-Ranma, engage and destroy the Angel."

[WHATT!?] Both pilots yelled.

[Ahh Major what about Rei?]

"I-I'm sorry. We have no choice, Ranma."

[YOU WANT ME TO KILL HER!?]

Misato didn't look at the screen. "Ranma, if that angel makes it to NERV headquarters then we'll all be dead! I'm sorry Ranma, but you have to do this!"

[RANMA YOU CAN'T!! RANMA!?]

Ranma however couldn't hear Shinji's pleas. Unit 03 aimed it's rifle at the EVA now angel unit 00. Ranma then hesitated. This was not what he had signed up for. Ranma had been told that the angels were all monsters. This however, was another EVA unit. An EVA unit with a human pilot, a GIRL EVEN. Looking at the EVA through the gun sight he could see her entry plug sticking out of the back. *THE ENTRY PLUG!!*

"Unit 03 has dropped it's weapon and is increasing speed!"

Misato looked up. "WHAT! Ranma! What the hell are you doing!?"

[Tell Shinji to stand by! I'm going for the entry plug!]

"Ranma NO! You can't fight that thing hand to hand!"

"It's too late! It's noticed him!"

Unit 00 turned and lunched an elongated arm at unit 03, but Ranma easily dodged it. The arm missed, but it did take out unit 03's power cable.

[Ranma! Without that cable you got five minutes!] Ranma didn't reply, instead he pushed his assault. Slowly unit 03 closed on the angel, dodging a fury of blows at ever increasing speed. When it was close to unit 00, unit 03 launched it's own attack. Unit 03 arms became a blur as they struck the angel multiple times.

Misato turned to Ritsuko. "I didn't know an EVA could move that fast."

Ritsuko just looked at the screen. "Nether did I!"

"IMPOSSIBLE!" Maya cried out. Ritsuko turned to her. "What!?"

"According to this, unit 03's fist struck the target 158 times in less than FIVE SECONDS!" Misato looked at Maya in disbelief. "What! No way!"

Unit 03 then kicked the dazed angel in the stomach, causing it to bend over. Grabbing hold of the entry plug as carefully as possible, unit 03 ripped it out of unit 00's back. Then everything stopped. Inside unit 03, Ranma looked at the counter on his screen that was now a line of zeros. "Oh shit!"

"Unit 03's battery power is depleted!"

"No! Not now!"

Unit 00 quickly recovered and slammed the helpless unit 03 into a nearby hill. The now powerless unit 03 lost it's grip on the entry plug. The plug flew several hundred feet before smashing into the ground.

"Unfreeze unit 01's controls!" Misato shouted. "Shinji! Rei's out! DESTROY UNIT 00 NOW!!"

As if sensing the order, unit 00 leaped at unit 01. Shinji however, was fast at aiming. Blood rained down as 21 depleted uranium slugs tore through unit 00 in midair. The angel landed in front of unit 01 and tried to attack, but was blown back as Shinji emptied his rifle into it. Finally the angel infected EVA unit collapsed.

"Unit...I mean enemy target destroyed."

"What's the condition of the pilots?"

"Asuka's alive, so is Ranma. We're not getting anything from Rei's entry plug! The transmitter's been damaged!"

"Send the rescue crews out now!"

To be continued