[Ranma][NGE][HPL][AMG][Fusion][Fanfic] Sic Semper Morituri Chapter 22:
Noblesse Oblige

Disclaimer:
I do not own any of the characters from Ranma 1 / 2, Neon Genesis
Evangelion, Ah My Goddess, or the Lovecraft Cycle involved in these
stories.  And I'll put them back when I've finished with them.

C&C , MSTs are welcome
E-mail: dan_s.comments@worldnet.att.net
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http://www.cs.ubc.ca/cgi-bin/ftp/archive/anime-fan-works/Ranma/type/Sic-Sem
per-Morituri
(these are the original versions)

What has gone before:
     About Book 11, Akane and Soun Tendo throw Ranma out of the house.
Nabiki, in the guise of a wish, follows him.  They meet EVA pilots Shinji
Ikari, Rei Ayanami, Asuka Soryu Langley and Jeffrey Davis.
     Asuka and Jeff begin deriving the equations to manipulate the AT
field.  Asuka suddenly solves the equations, tries to explain them to the
others, they don't understand.
     Search and Rescue training continues.  The fogs and mass absences from
school also continue.
     SEELE summons the Crawling Chaos, sending it to `investigate` NERV,
Nyarlathotep taunts Mara, who rushes off to warn Belldandy and her sisters.
Gendo leaves the defeat of the Outer God to the pilots, they make a mockery
of it's mission and drive it off.
     Ranko completes her nightmare, rescued by Asuka, Rei, Jeff and
especially Shinji, who massacres the mental impressions of the Nerimaniacs.
     Maya has a dream entangling Ritsuko, who reacts badly to this.
     Nabiki and Jeff encounter an unusual girl who looks like Rei, they
rescue her from odd attackers and enable her to escape Japan.
     Asuka and Misato argue, Misato slaps her and that decided it for
Asuka, she's moving out.  Shinji also leaves for the night.
     While searching for Asuka, Ritsuko and Jeff argue, Ranko keeps the
fight verbal, Jeff walks off into the night.


No one who saw them fighting against the inevitable, could help but be
moved to tears by their courage, their stubborn nobility.
When they ran out of ships, they used guns. When they ran out of guns, they
used knives and sticks, and bare hands.
B5: In The Beginning  Peter Jurasik . . . Emperor Londo Mollari  written by
J. Michael Straczynski


When Darkness Screams
     Dark things made their way through the realms of nightmares.  Huge, an
uneasy hybrid of dragon, octopus, and humanoid.  Vast wings beat against
the ether, thousands and thousands, no rank or row in their vast formation,
thousands of individuals set on a single goal.  A unison of targeting, an
object in the distance.
     Another, darker nightmare flew along on its own dragon wings.  The
Scholarly Dragon knew the creatures, the Spawn of Cthulhu himself.  Ages
ago, billions had descended on Earth with their lord and master, but
billions of others had remained behind on other outposts, where their
suzerain had landed, and left them behind.  The Dragon didn't know how
close the communication between the groups was.  These things were headed
_away_ from Earth and the Human Dreamlands, and as chaotic as their
formation was, they were clearly winging their way to war.
     They ignored him, Logical, nothing he'd ever seen could match the
power massed here, the EVAs would be overwhelmed completely, even the
Dragon's Council would be a child's toy against them.
     The only saving grace, was they were headed _away_ from the places he
would fight and die to protect.  They ignored him as he closed in, a few of
the flankers changed their position, but nothing beyond that.  He could
just make out, in the center of their formation a tight knot of a few
larger Cthulhi, If the big guy is only 50% larger than those things . . .
he thought, He'd be able to juggle the EVAs like they were clubs.
     He'd been following them for some time, when their target appeared, a
red brown spot, growing larger with each passing moment.  He quickly
realized, the clash was approaching.  The formation tightened up, spells of
protection and detection came up.  The entire formation, loose and chaotic
as it seemed, took on an air of purpose it hadn't had before.  The
innermost cluster moved forward, face-centered on the target.  There was no
telltale glow, no rising horns heralding a sea change, no clue at all that
they had attacked, except a spirit of expectation that suffused their
countenances.
     The Dragon hadn't sensed any spell or projectile, that alone was
worrisome.  As their expectation gave way to curiosity, and no harm befell
their target, now clearly a planet-sized quarry, told the Dragon all he
needed to know.  He turned tail and raced away from the formation, he'd
scarcely managed such a speed before.  Slowly, the army he'd pursued all
this way, lost its assumption of INVINCIBILITY, and came to the same
conclusion he had.  The Dragon glanced back at the rust-brown planet's
response, great seas, revealed as continent sized parts of the landmass
moved away.
     Eyes! the Dragon fearfully realized, I don't care who overhears this,
Langley and the boy need to know this, need to see it, "And I need advice!"
As the Cthulhi prepared to receive the counterstroke force-on-force.
----------------------------------------
     Toji's dreams were troubled again.  They'd been surreal since the
pilots had come.  This dream was all the more terrible, because he could
understand it.  Monsters, thousands, millions of them, twisted, distorted
things that should not be, were being slaughtered.
     He could hear their voices, cries of pain, commands, pleas to
blasphemous gods.  All piled or heaped on each other, until it was almost
impossible to determine what was what.
     One thing was clear, they were afraid.  The leaders hid it, but they
issued too many orders, desperately trying to rescue a situation too far
gone.  The `soldiers` screamed their defiance, agony and death as something
unseen and incomprehensible smashed into their formations.
     He contorted in his bed, trying to banish the images from his mind and
dreams, to no avail.  The screams and cries reduced, as mounting casualties
slashed their numbers.
     A voice, deep, gravelly, but clear, cut through the cacophony.  Two
immense, glowing yellow eyes bored into his, no pupil or iris, all else was
blackness, Thank the kamis, Toji thought, then saw the battle, the carnage
reflected in those eyes.  "They're maintaining their assault, to little
effect.  Sixty-two percent casualties to this point.  I haven't spotted the
attack mode, or any targeting priorities, but I admit, I'm too far out for
a proper examination."
     "Are you in any danger?" it almost sounded like Asuka.
     "No, they're drawing most of the fire," the gravelly voice replied,
"They are continuing the attack."
     There was a feeling of floating free in space, perspective swinging
towards the besieged attackers.
     Now Toji could clearly see what had been attacking them, slaughtering
them.  A tight swarm of eye-watering shapes, all oozing, undulating or
pulsing towards their targets.  In his belly, a fire grew.  A bolt of
uttermost hatred, corrosive in its intensity.  As he closed the distance,
he vomited forth the black bile into the onrushing horde.
----------------------------------------
     Shinji was glad to see Rei-chan waiting for them as they left the
`bolt-hole`.  The fog was still out, thick as ever.  Shinji wondered if
they were ever going to see the sun again.
     "I heard you went to the orphanage," Raccoon said.
     Shinji and Rei-chan exchanged worried looks, Raccoon sounds a little
_too_ pleased about that.
     "Seeing all those bright young faces," Raccoon told them as they
headed to the mess hall, "All those eager young visages."
     Shinji was _sure_ Raccoon was a mind-reader, the entire gathering
yesterday, he'd been going over it, again and again in his mind.
     "You want to know what the scariest thing in the world is?"
     _NO_!_! Shinji thought.
     "Yes," Rei-chan said, ignored his disapproving look.
     "Those eager faces, the absolute _certainty_, that you can do
something, you have some special wisdom or knowledge that they, as lesser
mortals, don't have.  You look at them, and they look back at their
salvation.  Nothing you say can really shake their belief, it's almost a
religious faith.  If you talk about your failings, they think you're being
modest, or assigning them to look out for that.  'I'm a coward!', 'Oh, he
gets scared just like the rest of us.'  'I'm a drunk,' and they hide any
liquor you could possibly encounter.  They want you to be perfect, they
_need_ you to be perfect, and they want to love you."
     Shinji writhed inwardly, he realized that the complimentary affection
he'd always wanted, and had gotten, had a price he hadn't even considered.
He'd unknowingly sensed it, and it was one of the reasons he was so
uncomfortable about it.  He glanced at Rei-chan, she nodded slightly, he
knew that she had known, but hadn't brought it up.
     But where did _he_ learn that, Shinji wondered, It doesn't sound like
something you'd pick up out of books.
     "At the same time, you _know_ what a fraud you are, you guessed right
more than someone else, you knew something your opponents didn't, or you
knew better how to avoid disaster or take advantage of an opportunity.  You
aren't better, just luckier, a little better prepared."
     "The scariest thing," Raccoon said as they entered the mess hall.
     I don't want to hear anymore! Shinji thought, but he did, he had
suspicions about how he was changing, about what he'd become.  He wanted to
know what to expect, and how to prepare for it.
     "Is when you call for volunteers, for a suicide mission.  You know it,
they know it, and _they_know_ you wouldn't ask, if it wasn't really
important, and that _you_ have faith in _them_._  Or you wouldn't be giving
them this _opportunity_ to do this.  As long as you keep winning, more
often than not, or more often than others, they'll keep looking at you the
same way."
     "Raccoon," Shinji shuddered at these revelations.
     "Yes?"
     "Congratulations," Shinji told the other boy, "You scared me more than
the Inspector did."
     "Glad to do my part," Raccoon told them as they stepped into line with
their trays.
     Shinji wondered if `transferring` Raccoon to Misato's apartment,
permanently, would be possible, It would serve both of them right! he
thought.
----------------------------------------
     Misato walked wearily out of her room.  At least they're being quiet
for once, she headed into the bathroom to wash some of the yuck out of her
mouth, and get halfway presentable.  She was glad she didn't have to shoo
Asuka or Shinji out, that was becoming a nuisance, she had to be suitable
for work.  She finished quickly, something began intruding on her thoughts.
     As she stepped out of the bathroom, she realized the place didn't
smell or sound right.  She walked into the dining room and looked into the
kitchen.  Nobody had prepared breakfast, and Shinji and Asuka weren't
arguing.
     She headed to Shinji's room, "Shinji!"  The bed hadn't been slept in?
     Going to Asuka's room, she found it the same, empty, no evidence that
the bed had been used last night.
     Or they got up early and left, but the would have taken their school
stuff, she thought, "I'll have to drive it in," she sighed, she wished they
could be a little more sensitive to her feelings and needs, especially
considering her hangover.
     Last night is a blur, I wonder if I talked to Asuka about what Ramsey
said, about her moving out, she thought as she assembled her breakfast and
Pen Pen's.  He seemed very quiet this morning as well.
     Then it all came back, the argument, the slap, Asuka walking out, then
Shinji doing the same.
     "DAMN!" she shouted, regretted it immediately, Why do kids have to be
so immature? she wondered.
----------------------------------------
     "Foggy again," Ranma said as he looked out the window, "It's been this
way for a week."
     "It's just an Angel attack," Nabiki said as she put the breakfast on
the table.
     Ranma frowned at the two large cat statues, that stared at him, but at
least with them there, at his place at the table, he wasn't stealing other
people's food.  He'd learned to control himself better, and control was the
one thing Ranma strove for in his life.
     "It is not," Ritsuko dug into the food, "It might be, but it isn't.
Sometimes the weather changes suddenly, and we get fog for a few days.
Would you prefer if it were pouring rain?"
     "No, not at all!"  Ranma knew that the fog wouldn't cause his
transformation, so he was content.
     "Ranma fixed the lunches, so good trading again today," Nabiki dug
into breakfast.  She smiled at Ranma's uncomfortable look.
     He was deeply embarrassed that his cooking brought as high a price as
Raccoon's, cooking was a girl's skill.  Nab-chan told everyone it was
Raccoon's, and no one noticed the difference.  He'd never figured out how
he was so naturally good at it.
     "Good news no sync or harmonics tests today.  We're still correlating
the data from the last set of examinations," Rit-chan told them.
     Ranma wondered why she seemed so out of sorts, Raccoon had only been
gone one night.
     "Then there's no chance of slipping Raccoon and me some training
time?" Nab-chan asked.
     "Sorry, I need all the people I have to run the data," Rit-chan
paused, smiled like a wolf, "Unless you'd like Misato to supervise?"
     "I withdraw the request, Honored Sensei," Nab-chan bowed formally,
"Considering what a snit she's been in, I don't want to see if the eject
works."
     "We'd better get going," Nab-chan reminded them, "Special business
this morning."
     "Why do I have to go in early?" he asked, and got two sighs as an
answer.
----------------------------------------
     "I still don't know why I have to go in early," Ranma said from his
perch on the fence.
     Nab-chan walked behind him on the fence, at least he'd gotten her that
serious about their training.  He wondered if this was part of Raccoon's
plan to let him be alone with Nab-chan, he couldn't figure out how the
fight with Rit-chan figured in, As if you'd ever figure out the corkscrews
he twists his plots into, Ranma admitted.  At least we've got one thing to
talk about, he thought as they walked through the fog, "What's up with
Rit-chan and Raccoon?"
     He had to turn suddenly, and catch Nab-chan before she fell off the
fence, "It was just a simple question."
     "Saotome," Nab-chan said in an exasperated tone, "Would you want
Raccoon to tie you down, or me to trap your male form and . . . well,"
Nab-chan fumbled with the idea, "Well, force ourselves on you."
     "And don't say they couldn't," Nab-chan added sharply, "All kinds of
things can happen in dreams, you well know."
     "Yeah," he noticed she hadn't pushed him away, or broken his grip, as
wobbly as she still was, she'd fall if she did.
     He'd had plenty of those dreams, usually once he was tied down or
intimidated into submission, the violence stopped, of course sometimes they
got silly instead.  Like Nab-chan tearing all his clothes off with her
teeth, while he was hanging upside down, then tickling him with these huge
feathers, until he bought one of those gizmos that made chopping vegetables
easy.  Still, he'd a few of the kind that Nab-chan described too.  "But
nothing happened, I think," Ranma said.
     "It doesn't matter," Nab-chan pulled away slightly, a bit unsteadily,
but wanting to stand on her own, "I don't think Ritsuko likes surprises.
How people feel is often a _BIG_ surprise."
     Don't I know that! Ranma considered about how _he_ felt about Nab-chan
and Raccoon, and how _Ranko_ felt about them.  Then he realized Nab-chan
may have told him something about herself, something she didn't mean to.
"Maybe you could help me teach them Martial Arts.  Get them used to it.
It's also good for balance," he tapped her shoulder, forcing her to lean
back and forth, windmilling her arms desperately to stay atop the fence.
     He tapped her other shoulder, settling her solidly on the fence,
"Spiritual balance," he told her, "You might fall, but you won't mind, and
you'll be ready."
     He saw the change in her expression, and took off down the fence with
Nab-chan in hot pursuit.
----------------------------------------
A London Particular in Tokyo
     Shinji walked along with Rei-chan and Raccoon.  He still hadn't
figured out what, if anything, he should do.  He doubted Asuka would return
to Misato's.  He didn't know whether he should or not.  He hadn't wanted to
go there initially, but he was too afraid to oppose her, and his father.
Now . . . .
     Now I realize I have other people I can talk to, they won't laugh at
me.  They will even listen and take action, actions I can't take, he
considered, The problem is: where would I go? he wondered.
     "Do you smell that?" Raccoon's question brought him out of his own
thoughts.
     "Yes," Rei told him, "Ozone and . . . " she wrinkled her nose, "Bad
meat."  They headed off towards the smells.
     Shinji couldn't smell anything, until they got close to the restaurant
cluster marked by the 'Mast'.
     He stopped at the base of the 'Mast', the trademark and hook for a
number of restaurants in a cluster.  The smell was even stronger now.
Corruption and a sharp smell, like after a lightning strike.  Shinji didn't
like it, he wondered why they had gone _towards_ it.
     "I smell it now," Shinji told them.  The fog was still thick,
visibility was bad.
     "Is somebody up there?" Raccoon stared into the fog over them.
     "I don't know," Shinji peered up through the fog.  "Is it our
problem?"
     "Rock-paper-scissors," Rei-chan told them, "Since both want the other
to go."
     "So the loser has to go," Raccoon made a fist, ready to play.
     Shinji had paper, Raccoon rock.  Shinji suspected that Raccoon
cheated, but was glad to let the other boy go.
     Raccoon unstrapped his belt, then wrapped it around the pole,
lineman-style, and started climbing the old cruiser mast, grumbling as he
headed for the huddled figure at the yardarm.
     "You suppose this will get him dirty?" Shinji asked as they watched
Raccoon climb.
     "I do not believe so," Rei stared up at the fog, "But I do wonder how
he manages it."
     Considering how scrupulous Rei was at cleaning herself, he could
believe she might have been jealous.
     'Oh CHRIST!' came from above, followed by Raccoon descending as fast
as he could, far faster than was wise.  "Call NERV!  CALL NERV!  CALL NERV
NOW!!" He landed badly.  "Call NERV!  Call NERV!  Call NERV!" he fumbled at
his belt which was the only thing that kept him from running away.
     Rei pushed his hands away from the buckle and said something to him
quietly, almost musically, then repeated it when it didn't register.  She
repeated it again as the belt came loose, Raccoon gulped and nodded.
     "Just call NERV," he said clearly, "Do it now."
     "What's up there?" Shinji asked, and was glared at by both the others.
----------------------------------------
     Dr. Ritsuko Akagi had seen a lot of things in her life, what was left
of the man, was one of the more unpleasant.  Shinji recoiled, as did
several of the police officers.  Rei, Jeff and the coroners looked at it
unemotionally.
     "What killed him?" Jeff asked.
     "Dehydration," she told them.  She watched the coroners carefully
remove the rifle from the dead man's hands.  A quick check verified it was
loaded, and ready to use.  His identification was from the owner of the
restaurant, a war veteran.  The rifle was his issue weapon, and he knew how
to use it.  NERV did a thorough investigation of anyone who came in regular
contact with the pilots.
     "We'll need to do an autopsy, to determine the exact cause," she
assured them.
     Rei stepped away from the policemen who were questioning her, "Sensei,
that makes no sense.  That requires days, you could obtain water from
condensation.  The fogs."
     "That's right," Ritsuko said, "How'd you know that?"
     Rei stared, "I know."  She returned to the police.
     Misato waited by her car for the police to finish with the pilots.
Finally settling on Shinji and Rei, since Jeff found the body, they needed
to ask him more questions.
----------------------------------------
     "So, what do you think happened?" Misato asked her two passengers.
She was worried, but wanted to cover it.
     "He said, he was a good shot," Rei said, "He said he was ranked
expert.  Expert is above marksman."
     "It means he was very good," Misato told them, searched through the
fog as she drove.  She didn't dare drive at her normal speed with
visibility down to less than a hundred meters.  Although anyone else would
have considered the speed she was driving, reckless.
     "Someone must have chased him up there," Misato said, trying to draw
the other two into a conversation.
     Misato couldn't get either of them to rise to any bait, they seemed as
adamant in their silence as Shinji was at his worst.  Misato soon adopted
their grim visage, staring into the fog.
----------------------------------------
     The police lieutenant saluted her, "Dr. Akagi, our investigation
indicates he served the lunch crowd.  So the earliest he could have been
chased up there, was the evening."
     "That's impossible," she assured the officer, "No one could have died
that way, in a few hours.  The decay and condition of the body would have
required several days.  In my opinion, he had to have been chased up there
last week at the earliest."  Ritsuko looked around.  No one had an answer,
not her, not the others.
     "Are you through with Pilot Davis?" she asked.
     The officer nodded, "We have his address if we have further
questions."
     "So, doc, do we head back to NERV, to get the EVAs to find this thing?
Search for the killer who ages people a week, and doesn't fear rifles?"
     It struck her as funny, four EVAs chasing down a murderer.  Anyone
remotely sane would surrender instantly, "No," she laughed, "You don't get
out of school that easily.  I'll drive you."
     "Doctor," he spoke to her in French, the one language where her
fluency was better than his, "I would walk.  I need my sang-froid.  Murder,
disturbs."
     She chuckled, most people considered him unflappable, It is good to
see there are limits to that.  "I'm still going to drive," she told him in
French, "In case you need to talk."
     It took him a few moments to parse the sentence, "Thank you."
     As they headed off, she realized he was walking about as fast as she
would want to drive in this soup.  They were side by side, her driving the
left-drive jeep, him walking beside it.
     "Killing in war I can understand," he told her, "Assassinating a
political enemy, I can understand.  Who'd want to murder a harmless old man
like that?  And why in such a heinous way?"
     "I don't know," she admitted.
     "So," she asked, trying to change the subject, "Are you coming back?"
     "I'm not sure, it isn't your fault," he told her, "My mind too filled
with Asuka and Shinji's fate."
     Ritsuko listened to the heavy accent and stilted French, she couldn't
really say what she wanted to say, she had the vocabulary, she doubted he
did.
     Besides, you're trying to talk about it to a 14-year-old boy, she
considered, And his is a very different culture and attitude.  She admired
his ability to ignore genders, it was _extremely_ rare in her experience.
She and Misato had fought 'you're only women' all their lives, she
suspected Gendo didn't take her as seriously as Fuyutsuki, as much because
she was a woman, as she was not part of the original `inner circle`.  It
was ironic that the problem was now his inability to differentiate between
roles within a gender: mother/wife and son/husband.  She wondered how much
he knew, how accurate the dream had been.  Since the dream, he'd been able
to say and do things, a glance, morning coffee just right, a look, a smile,
that melted her heart, without even intending to do them, almost a reflex.
That bothered both of them.
     He stopped.  "Do you smell that?" He sniffed at the air, "That was
what we smelled at the first body."  He walked off, following his nose.
     She turned the jeep and followed him.  He stopped in front of an herb
store she sometimes bought supplies from.  She parked the jeep, and they
circled the building, it was locked up tight.
     He should be open at this time in the morning, she thought.  The smell
was noticeable, decay and ozone.  Sweet and sickly, yet sharp at the same
time.
----------------------------------------
     Ramsey awaited the autopsy results.  Simson had declared that he had
no intention of 'supervising', he was becoming too much of a ghoul.
'Besides,' he told Ramsey as he left, 'I am going to have to argue a new
security policy, and our `experts` aren't going to like it one bit.'
     "Considering Fuyutsuki's attitude, that we must let bad things happen
to the pilots," Ramsey considered, "I wish you well Admiral."
     The medical examiner entered, looking flushed.  Ramsey sympathized,
these five `corpses` bothered him.  The security team had cooperated with
the pilots to kill them, but when the Marine reinforcements arrived, the
`corpses` were lively enough that they had to park a 6x6 truck on the chest
of each one to keep them from leaving.  Chopping them to pieces, with
chainsaws, didn't keep them from continuing to attack.  Back home, Ramsey
thought, I would chop them into one inch cubes, and sent them to the steel
mills.  "I'd like to see them regenerate out of a couple hundred Buicks,
Studebakers, Fords and Hudsons," Ramsey commented, "How do we kill them,
how do we keep them dead, and what are they?"
     "In reverse order," the M.E. told him, "Nyarlathotep's Million Favored
Ones, enhanced members of many different species.  These aren't human,
despite their appearance.  They are some kind of plant, disguised as
humans.  Burning them in molten steel and scattering the parts is one way,
extreme cold would be another: leaving them in Antarctica should work,
although it might take a couple of years.  Killing them," he shrugged,
"Fire, cold, dismemberment all would work.  We could also chop them into
slivers and sprinkle them over the food in the mess for a few days, being
digested should also kill them once and for all."
     "You're suggesting we _eat_ them?" Ramsey asked with a smile, the idea
revolted him on one level, and seemed like poetic justice on another.
     "We, and a few thousand others."
     "I'll stick with the steel mill idea - "
     "They're actually quite tasty, with the appropriate sauce and wine,"
the M.E. teased.
     "I'll tell Captain Katsuragi that, no we want them actually eaten.
Steel mills."
     "I won't object."
     "There were five of them, Doctor, and six pilots," Ramsey said, "Did
we miss one?"
     "No," the M.E. said, "I think they were sent to attack the pilots, as
a group."
     Ramsey knew he shouldn't be glad having his assumption affirmed,
rather than confirmed, "The two SEELE teams, we encountered them, and
captured them.  So far, we haven't been able to crack them.  My worry is
they might have had plans to attack the pilots.  Maybe, in coordination
with these other things?"
     The M.E. shrugged, "I have no idea, I'm not an interrogator.  And
these creatures, are laconic in the extreme."
     "If they don't want to talk, they don't, and there's no way to compel
compliance?"
     "No truth serum or physical discomfort would work.  If there are other
methods, I don't know them.  How do you interrogate a plant?"
     "Go back and threaten to eat it?" Ramsey joked.  He stood, "Thank you,
Doctor.  I'll inform the Admiral."
     "Where is he?"
     "Feeling lonely?  He found someone who may solve some of our security
problems, or rather, they found us."
     "Suspicious," the M.E. said, leaving.
     "Not _that_ suspicious," Ramsey commented to himself.
----------------------------------------
     Shinji watched Misato race away into the fog.
     Shinji said, "Someone chased him 50 meters into the air, out of his
own restaurant?  Someone not afraid of a rifle?  NERV's expert marksman,
can hit anything they can see.  Besides, if he'd shot at something, or
yelled for help, someone would have heard him.  That place does a brisk
trade, someone would have heard something."  Shinji fell silent, stared at
the fog and at Rei-chan.  She was also thinking.
     "Yes," Rei agreed, "There is more here," she considered, "I do not
know what."
     Rei stopped, stared at Shinji, "The Second no longer wishes to live
with Captain Katsuragi . . . and you."
     "I don't know about me," Shinji said, "But I think she's had it with
Misato-san," Shinji sighed, "I don't blame her  She's, Asuka's, been trying
so hard."
     "Too hard," Rei agreed.
     "Maybe that's her problem.  Misato treats her like a little kid.  I
know we're kids, but not little kids."
     "Does the Captain fear her?" Rei asked him as she took his hand,
leading him through the opaque fog to the school building.
     "Why would she be afraid of Asuka?  She's Asuka's superior officer."
     Rei stared at the ground, deep in thought, "All wear masks.  There is
the Fourth, there is Ranko, there is Ranko with Raccoon, there is the
Fourth as he first was.  The Second will not give up, no matter the odds
against her.  If she believes, she will never surrender.  Roku-kun is the
same, striking unhesitatingly from the darkness."
     "Okay."
     "The Second and Roku-kun insist on the mask of Captain Katsuragi,
tactical commander of NERV.  The Captain demands to randomly change her
mask, and others must know and act appropriately.  It is an impossible
standard."
     Shinji thought he understood, "So she wants what she wants, and gets
angry when she doesn't get it?"
     "Yes, both of them," Rei agreed.
     Shinji smiled at that, "Asuka just yells, and does it, 'for our good,'
Misato-san just does it."
     "Correct." They approached the school.
     "Oh, are you gossiping about me?" Shinji heard Asuka's voice.
     "We compared you to Captain Katsuragi," Rei told her.  Shinji thought
Rei was setting off Asuka on purpose, as Asuka followed her, demanding an
explanation, an apology, or whatever.  Nabiki and Ranma finally had to
separate them.
----------------------------------------
     Ritsuko and Jeff waited uneasily outside the herb shop.  Jeff would
occasionally glance at Ritsuko, both would quickly look away.  He could
feel her eyes on him, and she would look away when he reacted.
     We're going to drive each other crazy acting like this, Jeff turned
and walked towards where Ritsuko sat on the hood of the jeep.  She tensed
at his approach, but he didn't let that deter him.  "There is one thing I
have to tell you."
     She drew back fearfully, "What is it?"
     "I'm sorry for what I said," he told her, "In Gendo's office.
Sometimes, I let my anger cloud my judgment.  He's just playing with you,
like the rest of us, he's a classic psychopath.  If I walked in there, with
the answer to all his problems, he might not implement it for months,
because he likes his tournament: 'Gendo against the world' too much,
'gaming the system' we called it.  People who'll cheat, when they'd get
better results playing it straight, because it makes them feel smart,
smarter than the rest of us."
     "That doesn't make up for the fact that you said it, you're better
than that," Ritsuko countered angrily, then added sadly, "I expect better
from you."
     "It seems both of us forget, I'm only 14 years old," he admitted,
"Sometimes kids are stupid, in the heat of the moment."
     "Well, I accept your apology," she relaxed somewhat.
     "And Maya, wasn't trying to betray you either."
     Ritsuko tightened up again at that, "I do not want to talk about
that!" she snapped.
     "Fine," Jeff stepped up next to her, "You can hit me to shut me up,
that seems the common currency around here."  He waited for her to blush.
     "You and Nabiki are very similar, for your chief assistant, you both
instinctively picked a pretty girl who's highly intelligent and thoughtful,
a little too mousy to be considered really beautiful, and is on the outs
with the power elite in school and in her own family.  So she's passed over
by the boys and everybody else.  And when you show this girl kindness,
devotion, and give her the chance to prove herself that she's always
dreamed of, you're both amazed that she falls in love with you."
     He stepped closer, "You're as blind and frightened as she is, as Maya
is," he told Ritsuko, "She's a kid, why are you so afraid?"
     Ritsuko shied back fearfully from his approach and comments, "She and
I aren't alike.  Why are you talking about this?"
     "You _are_ alike, Nabiki is interested in business and politics, you
in science, but it's still all about power, and solving the puzzle.  Both
trying to avoid intimacy with people.  Trying to reduce them to logical,
controllable numbers and equations.  It doesn't work, and you both know
that too."
     "And you both can't bring yourself to believe, that anyone loves you,"
he took her face in his hands.
     "Stop this!"
     "Then push me away, we both know you're stronger than I am.  Is that
why Maya's reaction -?"
     "I said stop this!" Ritsuko tried to sound angry, but was growing
terrified, she closed her eyes and bowed her head.  Jeff knew he had her,
he just had to lead, rather than push.
     "Or what?  You'll go on hurting yourself this way?  I - love - you.
Maybe it was only a dream, but I remember it, all of it.  It may have
started with Nabiki's personality in your teen-aged body, but she grew up a
lot like you, in all the ways that matter.   You're both terrified that
someone will get under your shell, and what . . . ?  Care about the person
they find there?"
     "You don't know what you're talking about!  You're just a kid!"
Ritsuko said defensively.
     "Then why are _you_ trembling?" he asked warmly.
     "It was a dream, it was all fake, like you said," Ritsuko tried to
regain control of herself.
     "Then why did you react to Maya's dream that way?  It wasn't being
under the control of someone else," he leaned close, he still cradled her
face in his hands, "It was not being able to control how _you_ felt about
it.  Like right now, you look like you'd prefer me to punch you in the
stomach than kiss you."
     She turned away, Jeff gave her a very delicate, chaste kiss on her
cheek, caressing her other with his finger.  She blushed furiously at both
spots.  "I know this isn't 'proper', I know how uncomfortable this makes
you feel.  I'm not completely comfortable with it either."
     "Then why do it?" Ritsuko looked near to tears, "Why torture . . . ?"
     "Me . . . or you?  Because I'll never press the issue like I am now,
it confuses me, too.  I can deny what I feel, put it aside and never act on
it, but it will always be there.  You and I built a home and a family, we
argued and fought, we struggled and cried, and sometimes, we lost.  But we
never regretted that we took the journey together.  You and Maya have a
chance to be happy, both of you deserve it."
     "I would think you'd understand.  Besides, aren't Christians supposed
to be opposed to that sort of thing?  Two girls, I mean," she said
bitterly.
     "I think Maya and I know more than you think," Jeff replied in a
fatherly tone, "How much do you weigh, Doctor?"
     "What's that got to do -?" she jerked her head out of his hands.
     "A hundred kilos?  150?  200?" Jeff asked, "I'm not saying it isn't
delightfully arranged, and lusciously packaged.  The door to the bathroom
is 1-1/2 inch thick solid core, live oak, the fittings and hardware are
more appropriate to an outside security door, than an interior door.  The
owner wanted a serious door, Doctor Akagi."
     Ritsuko blushed at that, "I wanted privacy."
     "From yourself?  There was at least a ton of force against that door,
from all of Ranma's hair.  You didn't spring the door latch when you
barreled into it, you split the door and tore it out of the door jamb.  I'd
be hard pressed to duplicate that trick, with this jeep."
     "I got buried, if you remember," Ritsuko replied, trying to evade.
     "You were surprised, what I'm saying is that I know, and Maya might
also, we - don't - care.  Tendo is stronger than any single human I've ever
met, and her reflexes are as fast as any person I've ever seen, Saotome is
stronger than five men and his reflexes are faster than any animal I've
ever seen.  I'm not that fast, but I can run circles around him at his
fastest pace, and Rei could lap both of us.  Are we monsters?"
     "In the dream last night, where we supported Saotome, Shinji, by
himself, defeated 30 martial artists, any one of which could have given
Ranma a run for his money.  Langley and I, working together, couldn't do
that.  Where do we sign up for our 'I am a monster' I.D. Card?   There are
monsters at NERV, Doctor, but you have to get to know them, to find them."
     Jeff simply held her as she cried.
     He considered how easy it was, And what separates you from Gendo?  As
you push people around, to get them going in the direction you need them to
go?
----------------------------------------
Blood Bulwark
     Simson watched the new security officer.  What bothered him, was that
only Doctor Akagi could vouch for her.  There were no official records.
Logical, for the daughter of a Korean/Russian prostitute.  Medical tests
had shown she was healthy, and she'd admitted she had never taken up her
mother's vocation.
     He was watching the woman take down one, two, then three hand-to-hand
experts with an almost inhuman adroitness.  That struck him as unusual,
considering how ungainly she was under normal circumstances.  Only Saotome,
and the late Captain Everett, could have matched the grace of her
movements.  Tendo might have been more skillful, but she lacked the grace.
She gave the last man of the four a quick hip throw out of the ring, and
the match was over.  The young woman beamed at the Admiral.  He looked her
over, she appeared fairly unusual, long mahogany hair with a few _very_ red
streaks in it.  Arms and legs followed European physiognomy, a slightly
stocky build.  From a distance it gave the impression of her being shorter
than average.  When she smiled, which she did quite a lot, she could be
called pleasant to look at, but only her husband, Unlikely considering her
heritage and age of 26, Simson thought, or her deceased mother, would ever
call her beautiful.
     "Sammi, please proceed to the target range, we need to check you out
on sidearms, rifles and shotguns," the Admiral told her in German.
     "Does that mean I've passed so far?" she asked in the same language,
as she walked towards him.  She walked with a sense of exaggerated care, as
if she might move or step wrong, and break something.  Now with something
familiar to compare to, a sense of scale, her most striking feature became
obvious.
     She admitted to 190+ cm., he would have guessed 6'5" or 6'6", a
'willow woman' Miss Samantha (Sammi) Kraznyzamok wasn't.  An oak or a
sequoia, would have been a better description.
     "Doctor Akagi says you also speak a little Russian."
     "Very little," she told the Admiral, he could see why she hadn't
followed her mother's profession.  Up close, she was rather intimidating,
despite, or perhaps because of, her overly friendly manner.
     "So far you seem to be everything Dr. Akagi promised."
     "I'm glad.  With my background," she smiled, shrugged, "I couldn't
expect much work . . . or other prospects."
     "I'm sorry."
     "Don't be," she smiled brightly, "I'm glad I can help, might be able
to help.  After you clear me."
     "Well, it may take a while, but I do have one job that needs doing,
sort of a trial run, it comes with a good-sized apartment, and believe me,
you'll earn your money."
----------------------------------------
     "Don't look," Jeff told Ritsuko, as they stood at the door to the herb
shop, she looked away for a moment, the click of a lock came next.  They'd
gotten tired of waiting, and decided to investigate.
     "I won't ask how you did that," she told him, wondering all the same.
     "Magic."  He opened the door, then held it for her.
     I expected that, she thought.  Inside was only the smell of herbs, and
the odd smell overlaying everything else.  The stock was all there, no
tables overturned, no signs of a struggle.  No signs of the shopkeeper or
his wife either.  "Shima-san?"  No answer.
     "I don't like this."  Jeff sounded nervous, looking around, as if the
shadows themselves were planning to attack, and were only waiting for an
unguarded moment.
     "Well here's something," Ritsuko spotted Mr. Shima's hat on the floor,
"I never saw him without this hat.  He was almost as fanatical about that
as you are."
     "Crazy you mean."  Something on the ground seemed to have caught his
attention.
     "No, he probably just has a bald spot."
     "Had, I should think."  Jeff had stood up suddenly, after brushing
through a strange mound of dirt on the floor.  "Why is the floor dirt?
Concrete or wood are better, and they aren't that expensive," he said in an
odd tone of voice.
     "He would have to go through the bureaucracy, the permit is probably
still pending," Ritsuko lifted the hat, a moment later she started
screaming, old Mr. Shima's eyeless face had been under his hat, his
expression twisted in a rictus of pain and terror, but that was all there
was.
     "What's going on here?!" Ritsuko heard herself shouting, as both of
them retreated out of the shop.  "Where was the rest of him?  What is going
on?"
----------------------------------------
     "You actually found a dead body, Shinji?" Kensuke asked him, in 'fully
enthusiastic' mode, "How cool!"
     "How come the interesting stuff always happens to pilots?" Toji asked.
     Shinji wished _they_ had found it, instead of him.  He glanced around,
to see the other's reactions.  Asuka looked disgusted, exactly like
Rei-chan, although most people wouldn't have picked that up.  Ranma looked
worried, Probably wondering what would have happened if he found it.
     Nabiki looked distinctly sickened by their callousness, I don't blame
her, Shinji thought, I'd never seen a dead body up close before.  Maybe
seeing someone he cared about die, is what blotted out Ranma's memory.  If
that was the case, does he want to remember? Shinji asked himself.
     Nabiki looked at Shinji, and made a winding motion next to her head.
     Yeah, Shinji thought, Crazy Kensuke.
     Nabiki's 'eyes and ears' had reported nothing about the strange goings
on, no word on the murder, or anything else.  That seemed to worry her more
than anything else.  The only suspicious thing, was the number of people
reporting to the school nurse complaining of severe headaches, instead of
not showing up at all as had been the cast the rest of the week.
     Hiroko and Nabiki agreed that it hardly constituted a nefarious plot.
But it did increase their level of worry.
     "Well, I'll clobber any murderer who comes near me!" Asuka announced.
     Who didn't expect that? Shinji wondered.
     "Shinji," she shouted at him.
     "Hai?"
     "Remember, it is our duty as pilots, to protect those weaker than us."
     "Hai."
     Who protects us from you, Asuka? he thought, but didn't say.  He felt
like crawling into a hole, when Asuka was around and pontificating.
     "As much as I don't like Raccoon," Ranma whispered, "I prefer him to
her."
     "Where is that lazy Raccoon anyway?  Too shook up to come to school?"
Asuka asked, overhearing only part of Ranma's comment.
     "The police were still questioning him when Rei and I left," Shinji
told her.
     "Then they probably think he did it," Asuka's joke got some laughter,
Shinji saw Rei and Nabiki were equally irritated by it.  I've never figured
out why people think Rei is hard to read, I just watch her eyes,  Shinji
thought.
     Rei, Nabiki and Hiroko wandered over to a corner, trying to figure out
what happened, and getting nowhere from their expressions, Shinji stood
close, hoping for answers.
     "So who would know?" Nabiki asked Rei quietly.
     "After the Commanders," Rei replied, "Dr. Akagi and Roku-kun, are the
real experts."
----------------------------------------
     Pacing and chain smoking didn't speed the minutes for Ritsuko.  "Where
are the police?  They are only a few blocks away.  What could be taking
them so long?"
     Jeff hopped off the hood of the jeep, "I don't know.  I'm going for a
little walk around the building.  Maybe they're at the back waiting for us
to let them in."  He started back, "And to steady my nerves," he said,
almost too quietly for her to pick up.  He stopped near the rear corner of
the building.
     "Doctor!"
     She ran to where he stood so rigidly.  Two bloody police caps lay on
the ground.
     "And we didn't hear the murder of two policemen?" he asked in a flat
voice.  "And no one on the rest of a busy street heard it either?"
     Ritsuko glanced back at the bustling street, it wasn't so noisy they
couldn't have heard the screams of two dying men.
     With unspoken assent, they turned and ran from the sight.  Jeff jumped
in the driver's seat and had the jeep running before Ritsuko made it to the
car.
     "I should drive," she told him.
     He stabbed it into gear - and they didn't move.
     "Use the gears and clutch," she told him.  He gave her a dirty look
and hunted around for another gear.  Finally, the car roared away with a
lurch.  The jeep jerked a bit from the heavy-handed driving.
     "The repairs are coming out of your salary," she teased him.
     "Doctor, with all due respect, please - shut - up.  All I've got is a
pistol, and whatever is doing this, isn't afraid of rifles."
     "What do you think it is?" she hadn't the faintest idea, It isn't like
anything I've ever heard of, and I thought I knew most of those things, she
thought.
     "I don't have the faintest idea," he admitted, "I figure there are
about 60 possibilities, and all have a principle characteristic
contraindicated."
     "All that means, is one of them is muddying the waters," she told him,
"It could be worse, they could be working together."
     "That makes me feel so much better," he replied, as they drove through
the thinning fog.
----------------------------------------
     Misato drove back to her apartment, she wasn't happy with the kids
finding a body.  She didn't know what all the army trucks in the apartment
building's parking lot were for.  Then she spotted the two trucks and ten
men unloading Asuka's boxes out of her garage.
     "What are you doing?" Misato demanded.
     "Orders," the Marine sergeant overseeing the operation told her.
     "Who's?" Misato asked.
     "Admiral Simson's," the Marine told her.
     Misato rushed up the stairs to her apartment, expecting the worst.
     The smell of cleaning materials, and the furniture cleared away from
the center of the living and dining room, leading towards the bedrooms,
warned her something was terribly wrong.  She dashed to Shinji's room,
afraid of what she'd find.  They had stripped it to the walls, people were
washing the walls, even the ceiling, erasing any traces that Shinji had
ever lived there.  Asuka's room had already gotten the same treatment.
     Why are they doing this?! Misato was shocked, "Where are you taking
their things?" she wanted to sound forceful, instead it sounded like a
plaintive cry.
     "They're being assigned new quarters."
     Somehow, that made it worse.
     Misato glanced at Pen Pen, they'd evidently left him behind.  Ramsey's
comment about Asuka moving out came back, she vaguely remembered the
details of the argument she'd had with Asuka about it last night, but they
were still hazy, "Do you know where?"
     "Sorry, ma'am.  I haven't been briefed.  Excuse me, I have a job at
Dr. Akagi's."
     Ritsuko too?!  Misato rushed to the phone, dialing the lab's number,
"Pick up, pick up, pick up!"
     "NERV Labs," Maya's voice came over the line.
     "Maya, put Ritsuko on the line."
     "She isn't back from the crime scene yet."
     "Thanks," Misato hung up, then called Tokyo PD.  She asked for a radio
link to the investigation team.
     "I'm sorry, Captain, they stopped somewhere, I radioed for some
officers, we haven't heard anything since.  I'm about to take the
investigation units to their last location now," the officer in charge told
her, "I'm sure they're all right."
     Misato thanked him and hung up.  The last of the cleaners had left
while she was on the phone.  The place reminded her of when she moved in,
but that was an illusion.  The three of them had lived here, she'd thought
they'd enjoyed it.  Now . . . ?
     "What am I going to do?" she asked.  She felt they were punishing her,
But for what?  If they had complaints, why didn't they come to me first?
And whatever problems they had, what did Ritsuko do?  She considered if
going to NERV or going to the school was more worthwhile.  She grabbed her
jacket and car keys, and headed out the door.
----------------------------------------
     Pen Pen watched Misato leave, she'd steadfastly ignored all his
attempts to get her attention.  He was furious that she'd allowed this to
occur, if the Children were moved out of this protected space, they would
be vastly more vulnerable to all manner of attacks.
     The penguin hung his head, there was little to nothing he could do,
except wait.  He had patience in abundance, but they didn't have the time.
----------------------------------------
     The teacher droned on, Ranma was bored, I could be using my time a
hundred better ways, some actually don't even involve martial arts.  He
tensed each muscle group and relaxed it, doing something to appear to be
paying attention, rather than goofing off.  Nab-chan was sitting back,
going over the receipts and reports, Shinji was listening to Kensuke's and
Toji's whispered comments.  Rei stared out the window, ignoring the sights,
but absorbing the sounds.  Asuka was smirking at the foolishness of the
others, including his, for seeming to pay attention to the teacher.  I
agree with her, Ranma didn't want to get in trouble, But a glass of cold
water and an hour with my roommates, and I'll be a month ahead of where the
teacher is.
     A scream interrupted even the moron at the front.  Rei instantly stood
when her eyes locked on what was happening.  The people in the P.E. class
were running in all directions.  Ranma was at the window in an instant, so
were all the pilots.
     "What, are they stupid?" Asuka asked, "What are they doing?"
     Ranma felt Nab-chan's gaze on him, they exchanged a nod and were out
the door, cries of 'Saotome-san', 'Tendo-san' from the teacher and Hikari
followed them, and were ignored.  There are times to follow rules, Ranma
thought as they ran, And times to ignore them.
     On the playing field, people were running in panic, but one group was
calm and determined, despite their screams.  Ranma and Nab-chan headed
towards them.  There is where the problem will be, Ranma watched them as
they approached, saw Kenta and Seisuke leading by example.
     Something had buried the P.E. coach up to his hips in the ground, a
dozen students had a grip on him and were desperately trying to drag him
back up.  All of them were shouting and screaming.  Most of these wimps
should have some trouble alone, but a dozen of them could have carried him
over their heads, Ranma added his strength to theirs.
     Nab-chan or Asuka might call it inexorable, Ranma thought as the force
dragged the coach down, and the kids forward, I call it impossible.
Something dragged the man down under the ground, the dirt closed around him
as if it was water.  I hate losing!  I hate not understanding how to fight
something even more, Ranma thought.
     Nab-chan was yelling for the others to get into the school, she was
shoving them in that direction.  Ranma ran after those who'd gone farther
afield to point them in the right direction, and kept them moving in the
correct direction to the entrance.  Asuka and Shinji were at the doorway,
grabbing people and getting them inside.  Ranma could see the pallor on the
other pilots' faces.  Again, we're fighting an enemy, and we don't know
what to do either, he would never admit it, But I'm afraid.  If the ground
is our enemy, what can be done? he asked the universe in general.
     Rei appeared as they got the last of the kids inside the school, "The
phones are not working."  She walked past them and closed the school's
doors.
     "So much for calling for help," Shinji lamented.
     "We could always run out there, and find a phone," Ranma told him.
     "Nobody's that brave, Saotome," Nab-chan replied, "Not even you, are
that foolish."
     "What's going on?" Asuka shouted, "Wondergirl, you know everything,
what's happening?"
     "Someone's coming."  Rei pointed to the jeep dropping someone off at
the gate.
----------------------------------------
     Jeff slid out of the seat, Ritsuko slipped into the driver's seat.
     "I'll get the pilots, and head back to NERV," he told her, "That
should give you time to solve the riddle, and give the EVAs a target."
     "Your faith in me is overwhelming," Ritsuko told him sourly as she
drove away.
     He walked onto the grounds.  There was no one on the playing field.
     "They're swimming inside," he told himself, looking at the thinning
fog, "Not enough visibility for soccer or track and field.  Calm down."
     The odd mound in the parking lot drew his attention, it looked just
like a big version of what they found in the herb store.
     "I almost don't want to know what that is."
----------------------------------------
     In the school's atrium, Shinji and Hiroko were trying to get a picture
of what happened, at Nabiki's request.  While she had Asuka and Ranma, 'the
two loud-mouths', yelling at whoever was walking out there.
     "He just started screaming and sinking," a student told Nabiki, "Not
like he was scared, but like he was hurt, like sinking hurt somehow."
     "Is this an Angel's work?" Kensuke asked her, everyone seemed to be
milling around.  A murder on campus, broke through all discipline for the
moment.
     Asuka turned back, "Baka!  If it were an Angel, NERV would have
sounded the alarms, and we'd be fighting it."
     "Unless everybody at NERV is dead already," Kensuke mumbled.
     "Go back to your classroom," Asuka told him.  Then shouted at the
shaken students, "That goes for the rest of you!  Get back to your
classrooms!  Go back to `learning`, let the experts handle this."
     Nabiki and Shinji glared at her.
     "Typical German empathy," Nabiki told her in German, "Why don't you go
out there, and tell whoever that is, they're in danger and to go get NERV."
     Asuka bit back her reply, and returned to shouting at the distant
figure.
     The distant figure seemed to be steadfastly ignoring them.  Set down a
school bag and squatted down near something in the distant parking lot.
     "Are you stupid?" Asuka shouted at him, "You're in danger!"
     Rei watched the man brush at the dirt while leaning on his walking
stick, "It is Roku-kun."
     Toji and Shinji joined the screaming brigade.  'Raccoon get out of
here.'  'There's a killer on the loose!'
     "Do you smell that?" Ranma asked, "Like after a thunderstorm," he
wrinkled his nose, "And a slaughterhouse!"
     Shinji sniffed, "Corruption and - ozone, electricity!  Like at the
MAST!  We've got to get him out of there."
     "Go out there?" Asuka pointed across no-man's land, "How crazy are
you?  Because I'm not that crazy!"
     Ranma answered her by charging out the door at a dead run, Nabiki
shook her head as she followed.
     "Come on Asuka," Shinji jogged after them, followed by Rei.
     "You're all crazy!" Asuka shouted after them.
     Kensuke adjusted his glasses, "It seems you, are something else."
     "Are you calling me a coward?" Asuka grabbed the smaller boy's collar.
     "Shinji's a coward," Toji said, "And he's out there."
     "Schiesse!" Asuka dropped Kensuke and ran out, "Raccoon you are _SO_
stupid!"
     "That went rather well," Kensuke stood to watch.
----------------------------------------
Timor Mortis Conturbat me [Fear of Death Disturbs me]
     Normally I can think, no matter what.  I analyze when feeling, or
simply doing nothing, might be a wiser endeavor, Jeff stared at the ground,
lost in thought.  He'd just uncovered the grill of an army 6x6 truck, an
inch down, perfectly parallel to the surface of the dirt.
     It is a practical joke, he thought trying to deny the reality, A dozen
students with shovels working all night.  But the dirt was in every crevice
and opening, as if the dirt had fluidized as the truck sank, so it flowed
over everything.
     He managed to stand up, at that point his mind shut down.  The string
of answers, explanations, even critiques on the subject, vanished.  I can't
even decide whether I should run away or stand here, perfectly still, he
thought, I mean, if they can bury a truck, could they bury a building, an
EVA, all of NERV headquarters?  Is there any place safe?  He waited for the
answers, analysis, wild guesses, that would normally follow any such
questions - nothing.
----------------------------------------
     Dr. Akagi pulled the jeep into her assigned parking space.  Paused to
collect her thoughts.
     "Doctor," one of the Marine guards approached, "If you're going
off-road, maybe next time you'd better take another vehicle, like a tank."
     "What are you talking about?" she asked crossly.
     "Well, ma'am, if you tore up the suspension like that, I'm surprised
you made it back here."
     Dr. Akagi got out of the jeep, then on her knees, and looked at the
torn and twisted undercarriage.  She glanced at the Marine kneeling next to
her.
     "My uncle tore up his old truck that way once," he told her, "Trying
to pull out an old stump with a chain.  Chain came back, smashed up
everything."
     Dr. Akagi stood, "Please have it taken to the motor pool for repairs."
     The Marine nodded.
     She headed inside to report, she was growing worried.
----------------------------------------
     Ranma stared down at what arrested Raccoon's attention, "How could
somebody bury a whole truck?"
     I can see the fear in his voice, and the others who had come charging
out, evidently to my rescue.  Now they are uncertain, Jeff thought, he was
glad he could manage that again, it seemed all he could do, he couldn't
make himself walk away, to the relative safety of the school, or run back
through the gate, all the way to NERV.
     "Why, would they?" Asuka replied as she looked down, more confused and
aggravated than frightened.
     Jeff was remembering the layout he couldn't see, because of the fog,
The trees planted all along the perimeter, to give the impression of the
school being in a forest.  It also cuts off almost all view from the
outside.  He realized that anything could be happening in the school
grounds, and nearly no one outside could look in and see.  Even if the fog
finally lifts, he thought, We are still highly obscured from the outside.
     "We must go," Rei urged.
     Even she's frightened, Jeff thought, I would have bet money no enemy
could cause that, she's as much of a berserker as Shinji.
     Jeff tried to move, It's like being in solid concrete.  "Something's
wrong."  Is that an understatement? Jeff thought, I can move neither my
arms nor legs.
     Nabiki took the direct approach, she grabbed his sleeve and pulled.
Ranma saw her confusion, put both hands on Jeff's shoulders and pushed.
     Jeff felt his bones groan under the strain of the force they're
applying, but they couldn't budge him.
     "If he were faking, he'd fall over!" Ranma said.
     He's getting worried, and he's not alone.  "Get out of here!  Before
they get you too," Jeff told them.
     "Shut up Raccoon," Asuka put her shoulder to his back and pushed for
all she was worth.
     I can hear her and Saotome's feet slipping on the loose earth, Jeff
realized he couldn't even turn his head now.
     Rei and Shinji dragged on one arm while Nabiki pulled on the other.
     It feels like their almost pulling my hands off, Jeff grimaced in
pain, I can't sense what's holding me.
     Toji and Hikari ran out, and started helping Nabiki.
     "This is ridiculous!" Jeff wanted to scream, This much force could
push a railcar.  Why am I not moving?  "There," he wanted to gesture, but
nothing moved.
     Hiroko had thrown a rope out the door of the school.  None of the
group of 50 or more students holding the knotted end wanted to step out,
but they were willing to help.
     "Tie it off," Asuka shouted, "Move it Horseface!"  The harness she
quickly created, was crude but effective, distributing the load as evenly
as possible.
     "Pull!" Nabiki signaled to her friend, "Everybody push!"
     They put a hand or shoulder wherever they could and shoved as hard as
they could.
     "Nabiki, you're incorrigible!" Jeff told her.
     "It's not me!" she replied defensively.
     As they neared the school, the grip faded, and Jeff was able to
stagger the last few feet himself.  "This isn't meant as a complaint.  I
appreciate your efforts on my behalf, I'd rather be hurt than dead," he
gasped in pain, "But can I go to the nurse?  I want to make sure everything
is still attached."
     "Come on.  The nurse is on the first floor, inside," Nabiki led him
inside, "Where are the rest of you supposed to be?"
     "You're welcome," Hiroko told Nabiki, as she opened a path for the
pilots.  The other pilots dispersed the crowd, leaving the three alone.
     God!  Do I hurt, he moved slowly with pain, "My arms and legs feel
like they are dislocated, my chest crushed."
     "You're lucky to be alive," Nabiki countered, "What are those things?"
     "I don't know," Jeff gasped as Hiroko and Nabiki helped him out of his
boots, and on with his `inside` shoes, Stupid ritual, he thought, But they
need it to settle down too, "There's a lot of things that can do what we've
seen.  If it were winds holding me, I'd say it was the Wendingo, why didn't
it drag me under, like the truck?"
     "Don't look a gift horse in the mouth," Hiroko warned.  Nabiki and
Jeff agreed.
     "I just had a terrible thought," Jeff told Nabiki, "Do you suppose
they're trying to make the school a safe zone, so they can blast us all at
once?"
     "That is a terrible thought," she replied as she took a place under
his arm, so he could lean on her and Hiroko.
     The nurse told them that nothing was broken or out of place, although
she suggested he didn't do anything like this again.
     Even Nabiki feels the edge of hysteria on the woman, Jeff realized, We
EVA pilots are used to weird things, but the students and others only
experience them second hand.  "Thank you ma'am," Jeff tipped his hat to
her, hid the pain that simple gesture caused him.  The yellow-green tinge
of fear was coloring everything, the sound of fear.  He picked up the phone
in the school office, and got no dial tone, no sound at all.
     "It's broken," Nabiki told him.
     "I gathered that," he replied.
     "So what are they, how do we defend ourselves, how do we kill them,
when is NERV going to get come us?" the questions from Nabiki were rapid
fire.
     Nabiki is slipping too, Jeff was worried, Hiroko saw it too.  No one
had the real answers, yet.  "I don't know, altitude, I don't know yet, and
I said I'd bring the pilots to NERV.  I don't know when they'll realize we
aren't coming and send help.  I don't know if they even realize we need
help."
     Nabiki let out a long sigh, he patted her shoulder.
     "They haven't gotten us yet, Boss," Hiroko said, trying to sound
confident, Jeff could see how frightened she really was.
     "Yet," Nabiki muttered, as they walked back to class.
----------------------------------------
     In the pilots' homeroom, everyone was asking questions, and no one
seemed to have any answers.  'What are they?'  'Where do they come from?'
'What do they want?'  'How do you fight them?'
     Shinji felt like his head would explode from the noise.
     When Jeff and Nabiki walked in, Ranma immediately turned to them.
"Hey!  Raccoon, you're so smart!  How come you aren't doing something
useful, like calling for help."
     "The phones are out, it's impossible to see outside, so semaphores and
flags won't work."
     "Well," Ranma replied, "Just tell us what are those things and how do
we fight them?"
     "Oh, heck, Ranma.  Everybody knows about them," Jeff replied testily,
"We all just decided not to tell you.  Saotome-san, if I knew how to beat
them, don't you think I would have tried it by now?"
     "Calm down," Nabiki urged Jeff, then turned to include Ranma in the
admonition.
     "Well," Ranma told him, "If you can't help, why don't you do something
useful, like fire off some flares or something."
     Jeff stepped forward to confront Ranma, Nabiki grabbed his arm.  Ranma
braced for the attack as Jeff shook off Nabiki's grip, then Jeff turned and
stormed out of the room.
     Asuka broke the tension between Ranma and Nabiki, "The minders, will
see or hear something unusual, and they'll make a report, then NERV will
send all the help they need.  All we have to do is wait for them to do
their job."  Asuka frowned, "Of course that may take a couple of days."
     The other students in the class groaned, but everyone relaxed a bit.
     Now, they only have to wait for help, Shinji thought.
----------------------------------------
     Ritsuko strode into the Security office, she hadn't expected to find
Kaji here, it was only his job.  "Do you have any unusual reports about the
kids?  Anything unusual?"
     The security officer who was taking Kaji's place looked at her,
"They've reported nothing.  Not even the usual scuffles the kids get into,
Doctor," the man smiled, "Events this morning seemed to have settled them
all down."
     "Inform me the moment you hear anything untoward.  Otherwise, I have
other work to do."
     "Yes, Doctor, I understand."
     Ritsuko headed for her office.  She found Maya waiting for her.
Ritsuko's fists tightened, Maya glanced down at the floor.
     "Captain Katsuragi called, she needed to talk to you.  She was very
agitated," Maya stood fidgeting.
     Ritsuko frowned, "Was there anything else?"
     "No, se - nsei," Maya turned, bowed and left the office.
     Ritsuko put the other woman out of her mind.  Then she called Misato's
home, then her office, got no answer either place.  Ritsuko shook her head,
she set to work, she'd have to wait for Misato to call again.
----------------------------------------
     Jeff chuckled, then put on his best 'threatening calm' demeanor.
Saotome, every so often . . .  he stepped into the other classroom, swept
the students with his gaze.  The conversations quieted, which was more than
the teacher had been able to manage.
     "Matsuda Natsumi, Yuko Aiko, please come with me," he intoned.
     The two girls exchanged frightened glances and stood up, glanced at
the class president who was pinned under Jeff's gaze.  They bowed to the
teacher and began threading there way to the door.
     "We are having class," the teacher spoke up, finally, although it was
a lie, no one had really been doing anything.
     Jeff switched the target of his gaze to the teacher, who quailed.
"Sensei, this is NERV and U.S. Government business, to interfere would be
treasonous," Jeff told him quietly, "Your protests will be taken down now,
and properly dealt with, at a more appropriate time," Jeff pulled a small
note pad and pencil from his pocket.
     The frightened man shook his head 'no'.
     "Good, keep the class under control," Jeff returned the pad and pencil
to his pocket, "Await further orders and advisories."
     The man nodded, "The students will behave," the teacher looked over
the students, none wanted to meet his gaze.
     Well, I scared them enough, "We'll get control of the situation, just
give us your patience, and be ready to act as directed."
     Conversations started up again as Jeff left with the two girls.
     "Raccoon-sensei, what are we supposed to do?" Natsumi asked.
     "Assemble the Chemistry and Jewelry clubs, in the Chem lab.  I never
said only the pilots, would be the ones who got the situation under
control."
----------------------------------------
     "They can bury an entire truck," Kensuke said, "Do you think they're
worms, like Shinji fought?"
     "I hope not," Shinji admitted, "I don't think I'd do as well as the
EVA, if I get eaten."
     "You let the EVA get eaten?" Toji demanded.
     "It got out!" Shinji retorted.
     Asuka sat with her cadre, minus Hikari, "We're in the most populous
city in Asia.  One of the most in the world.  _Somebody_ must have noticed
something!"
     One of the girl's replies was cut off by Toji's outraged comment,
"Then what is it?  It creates fog and eats people, don't they train you to
recognize these things?  In the war, they made my dad memorize plane
silhouettes to recognize them!"
     "Well, we don't," Shinji admitted.
     "Well, who _would_ know?" Kensuke demanded.
     "Wondergirl would," Asuka replied, "But without Commander Ikari's
orders, she can't tell us.  There she is, 'She Who Knows All,'" Asuka said.
     "I do not know what these are," Rei replied.
     "Can't you at least guess?" Asuka asked.
     Rei considered, "No.  It would not help."
     Asuka threw up her hands in frustration and walked away, "So all we
can do is wait for them to remember were here, and rescue us."
     "Unless everybody's dead outside," Kensuke said morosely, then saw the
pilots glaring at him.  He tried to imitate a turtle, pulling his head into
his shirt collar.
     "Okay," Asuka continued, "We don't know what they are, what are they
doing?"
     "That depends," Hiroko piped up, "Do we include the fog, the people
getting sick, the murder, the burials, all in one package?"
     Asuka considered, "Let's take them individually, then combine them."
     "The fog's easy," Ranma said, "Blind us, and everybody else."
     "Isolation," Rei said.
     "Spineless," Asuka pointed at the board.
     Shinji started forward, the teacher wasn't going to protest.  Shinji
wrote the four elements on the board with chalk, then added Ranma and Rei's
discussion.
     "Good," Asuka considered, "The murder . . . horrible as it sounds,
that may have been a test."
     That appalled everyone.
     "It was my favorite restaurant too," Ranma complained, "Big portions,
good selection."
     Asuka rolled her eyes at that, missed Ranma's wink at the others.
Asuka turned back to the laughter, which was quickly stifled.  "Okay, the
burials, I think, are the real attack.  The truck must have been additional
security, the coach got us all in the school building.  Raccoon was a real
attack to scare us more, or to eliminate someone who wandered in."
     "Can you repeat that?" Shinji asked, "I can't write that fast."
     "Argh!  ISOLATION, REAL ATTACK, TERRORIZE," Asuka told Shinji, "And
write it in Romanji!"
     "Making people sick," Nabiki offered, "Might be a side-effect of their
presence.  Just being around them makes you sick."
     Asuka considered.
     "No," Rei said, "They would not return in good health.  Vampirism.
Energy to survive, or the targets resisted."
     Asuka took a moment to consider, Rei had befuddled everyone except her
and Shinji.
     Shinji wrote FUEL, FOOD, TRAINING for the sickness.
     "How did you get that?" Asuka asked.
     Shinji seemed amazed it wasn't obvious to everyone.
     "Okay, so they arrived . . . "
     "The first major loss was about a week ago," Hikari offered.
     Toji agreed.
     "So they predated the inspector," Asuka told Nabiki quietly in German,
Nabiki nodded.
     "So, they've been building to this, the fogs were to lull us, so we
didn't notice them."
     "Or put us in the mood," Shinji offered, then turned away.
     "That might be," Asuka considered.
     "Then they're really after you!" one of the students stood up.  Hikari
tried to calm him.
     "They're after you, they're hurting and killing us to get at you!" he
shouted.
     Two more students stood up, "So we're all going to die because they
want you.  They attack us first - "
     "They attack us first," Toji stood and shouted at the others, "Because
the pilots would tear them to pieces.  If they could kill the pilots first,
they would have, just like the Angels.  Once the pilots are gone, they can
do what they want to us.  Nobody else can pilot the EVAs."
     "You're just standing up for them, because your friend's a pilot!" the
instigator shouted at Toji.
     "Oh yeah," Toji cracked his knuckles, "Come over here and say that."
     Asuka ignored the argument, and headed for Hikari, who had been
hugging herself as if cold.  "You okay?" Asuka asked.
     "I hate this," Hikari wiped her hands on her sleeves, "These idiots
fighting because they're scared."  She stood up and shouted, "Stop this,
all of you!  The first _student_ attacked _was_ a pilot.  We saved him and
the attacks have stopped."
     Toji and the other boy moved away from each other.
     Hikari sat down, "Asuka, I'm really scared," she said quietly.
     "They haven't tried anything against anyone in the buildings," Asuka
said soothingly, "Maybe they can't."
----------------------------------------
     Raccoon walked in with a shit-eating grin on his face.
     "Where the Hell have you been?" Asuka shouted at him.
     "Oh, most beauteous and incendiary maiden, whose voice pierces all
eardrums," He bowed, "I was following the too too parsley sage commandment
of his most warlike density, Saotome Ranma-saamaa."
     Ranma nudged Nabiki, "That reminds me, I have to talk to you about a
new hair style."
     Nabiki stared at him in confusion.  Asuka was about to reply, when
three loud explosions were heard, a pause, then three more.
     The students rushed to the windows.
     "There's a red cloud up there!" Kensuke pointed out.
     "Three shots indicate trouble," Raccoon told them, "That ought to get
some people looking."
     "Flares," Kensuke realized, "Just like Ranma told you."
     "Exactly.  I put the Chemistry Club to work," Raccoon told them, he
walked over to the board, considered the four elements and their
explanations.  He added 'REPRODUCTION' and 'MISCEGENATION' to the reasons.
     "They're trying to mate . . . " Hikari said in horror, "With us?"
     Raccoon shrugged, "Maybe."
----------------------------------------
>From Where the Blade Fell
     Misato made it into her office at NERV HQ, found Ritsuko's note, that
she needed to see her.  Misato stormed through the corridors.
     And the people fled from the Wrath of Misato, she thought bitterly, as
people cleared the way for her, conversations stopped as she headed through
the white-painted concrete passageways of the Technical section.
     Arriving at Ritsuko's office, she noted that Maya was still acting as
if Ritsuko was going to hit her or yell at her.
     "You called."
     "Actually," Ritsuko looked up from the chart recorder strips she was
examining, "You called, then you disappeared."
     "They are moving Asuka and Shinji out.  Army movers said they had a
job at your apartment."
     Ritsuko blanched.
     "So what did you do?" Misato asked, "Molest one of them?"
     Ritsuko got angry at that, but kept her brittle reserve, "I think we
need to discuss this with the Military."
     "Agreed, do you drive or do I?" Misato asked.
     "First we _call_,_" Ritsuko said, "Then we storm the gates of the
castle.  Let's make sure this isn't just a mistake, before we make a huge
case of this."
     "Admiral Simson's office," Maya timidly offered Ritsuko the phone.
     "Thank you," Ritsuko said flatly.  Maya retreated.
     "I take it you two haven't come up with a solution yet."
     Ritsuko ignored Misato's question, "Admiral.  What's going on?"  She
listened with an increasing look of despair.  "Why couldn't you tell me . .
. yes, I understand."  Ritsuko hung up the phone, "Shinji is being
`transferred` to my home.  They are `transferring` Pilot Davis out.  It
seems that the situation requires a `reassessment`."
     "What the Hell does that mean?!" Misato asked.
     "It seems they didn't appreciate, that the three of them didn't report
rescuing you from your late night bouts of alcohol poisoning.  _They_ are
in trouble, not you, they are in serious trouble, for not reporting it,"
Ritsuko said quietly, "You are merely under observation, with 'reduced
responsibilities'.  These reduced responsibilities, will allow you to
better control your problem."
     "Who needs kids any way?" Misato stormed out.
----------------------------------------
     Ritsuko turned to Maya after Misato left.  "I do, and their 'misplaced
loyalty'," she looked at Maya, "The pilots should have been here by now.
Go to Security, tell them I want an immediate status report on the
Children, all of them, NOW!"
     "Yes, Doctor," Maya squeaked and headed away.
     Ritsuko kept thinking about what she'd discussed on the drive to the
herb shop, she touched her cheek where Jeff had kissed her, she had no idea
how he knew exactly how to excite her that way.  The words and the touch,
He's only a boy.  They couldn't know how he made you feel, I'd never do
anything.  He couldn't know!  She shuffled the papers she had been working
on before Misato had come crashing in.
     She knew what she wanted to do, she knew what the culture required her
to do, she also knew what her nature required her to do.  None of the
alternatives was the least bit satisfying, and none answered the longing
within her, the longing that had brought her here, in the first place.
----------------------------------------
     Ranma was worried, even the teacher, hadn't tried to start the
lessons.  The arguments about what they wanted, and how they intended to
get it, had concluded nothing, except they didn't know.  The sound of
Hikari's fidgeting in the corner, shielded from view by Asuka and the
others, was making him nervous.  He was sick of problems he couldn't see
and couldn't fix.  He was sick of waiting for those things to attack or go
away.
     We don't know if they have given up, "Hey, somebody should check if
these things are still out there."
     Ranma thought it was hilarious, how Raccoon looked up from the book he
was reading, with a stricken expression, as it dawned on him that
_everybody_ was staring at him expectantly.
     "Hey, I sent for help," he said, "I did my part."
     "You are the best qualified," Ranma told him.
     "How do you figure that?"
     "Well, they didn't eat you all at once, like the coach," Ranma told
him, "Maybe you taste bad or something."
     Jeff grumbled something in a language Ranma didn't even recognize,
Asuka did, she laughed and said something back, which only deepened
Raccoon's scowl, as he got his hat and marched out of the room.
     "What did you tell him?" Hiroko asked Asuka.
     "Only the truth, that Horseface is finally growing up."
     Ranma could practically smell the insult coming.
     "As the Sixth Children, Raccoon is the _most_ expendable," Asuka
smiled at Ranma, "If he gets bloodily torn to shreds, it causes the minimum
disturbance of NERV's effectiveness.  Even the funeral will be cheap, an
envelope and a sponge, to mail him to Arlington."
     "That is true," Rei agreed.
     "Oh shut up," Ranma stood to follow him, I should have known I'd wind
up following him.  He stopped off to get some cold water before completing
the journey.
----------------------------------------
     The school building looked like a capital 'I' from above, stairways
and supply closets formed the serifs.  Jeff got a pair of broomsticks from
the janitors' supply, before he headed down the stairs.
     "When am I going to learn?" he asked no one in particular, because no
one was around.  The bottom floor was offices, school store, cafeteria,
etc.  Everyone who worked there, had found other business, on the higher
floors.
     There wasn't a soul on the ground floor.  Jeff pulled off the slippers
the school required for inside wear.
     "If I'm going to die, I'm gonna die with my boots on.  I shouldn't
have gone back to the classroom," he wondered if Saotome actually knew
about his talent, or if he was guessing.
     Jeff relaxed, extended his senses, spread his spirit, he could feel 11
of them, and something out by the perimeter wall, something that was either
very large, or there were a lot of them packed together.
     He also felt Ranko coming up behind him.  "They already sent me, no
need to endanger someone else, especially someone more valuable."
     "They were just joking," Ranko told him.
     "All good humor has a grain of truth," Jeff replied, "They're out
there, waiting."
     "Waiting for what?" Ranko asked.
     "Hanged if I know."
----------------------------------------
     Asuka had watched Ranma follow Raccoon, she'd been half-tempted to go
herself, What's taking them so long? she wondered, Somebody out there must
have noticed something, those flares were loud enough, even if they
couldn't see anything.
     Hiroko's twitching was beginning to worry her. She kept wiping  her
hands on her arms and looking around.  Asuka knew the waiting was getting
to her too.  She almost wished the stupid teacher, would just start the
lecture to make the time go faster, but the feeling of gloom had settled
over everyone, so even the normal conversations were muted.  Wondergirl was
staring out the window at the fog, the sun had all but burned it away,
around the school.
     Are they sending her semaphore signals, or can Wondergirl receive
radio frequency too?
     "Auugh! They're burning me!" Hikari yelled, scaring Asuka
half-to-death, Hikari stood and started frantically slapping at her hair
and clothes, "Get'em off, get'em off, GET'EM OFF!"  She dashed from the
room, performing her odd tarantella, trying to extinguish flames and foes,
that weren't there.  Asuka was in pursuit.
     Asuka listened to her friend's screams of 'They're burning me!
'They're eating me!' as she sprinted along, down the stairs.  "I wanted
some change," Asuka cursed in German, "This is _not_ what I meant."
----------------------------------------
     Ranko had watched Raccoon edge out the doorway, but he hadn't left the
'porch', the concrete slab that marked the entry to the school.  Ranko had
put on her outside shoes, but hadn't gone outside, The Great Ranma Saotome
is scared again, she cursed, Just because Raccoon knows better how to deal
with those things, that doesn't mean I should leave him out there alone.
     She watched him wave the two strapped together broomsticks and
sometimes tap them on the ground, he clearly wasn't getting the response he
expected.  He turned around and headed back inside.
     "Thanks for staying inside here for support, that horse's ass Ranma
probably would have dashed out there and gotten us both killed."
     Ranko grimaced at that.
     "Don't make a face, yes, they're still out there, at least 11, with
something else at the perimeter.  They aren't interested in one target, and
they don't seem eager to take on the entire school.  So we wait, as long as
it's not a small . . . OH NUTS!"
     Hikari was charging straight at them.  Raccoon blocked the doorway,
then wound up against the shoe covey.
     Asuka, shouting Hikari's name, followed, closely pursued by Rei, then
Nabiki, Hiroko and Shinji.  Toji and Kensuke paused to look at Raccoon, who
was pulling himself up on his cane.
     "There was a time, I could defeat three even five opponents, not
anymore.  What am I?  A mechanic, and a clown," Jeff stared out at the
events on the grounds.
     Outside, Hikari was rolling in the dirt screaming about burning and
being eaten.
     "We've got to get them back in here!" Raccoon said, and charged out.
     "Why - oh, small _group_!_" Ranko was running after Raccoon a moment
later.
     Asuka and Nabiki were holding Hikari, as she struggled to get free.
Rei took advantage, and knocked her out, Asuka and Nabiki stared at the
girl as she urged them inside.
----------------------------------------
     The creature that exploded out of the ground between the girls and the
entrance, looked like a wingless dragon, except for the weirdly distorted
limbs and head, and the cancerous, tentacular growths at the shoulders.
Ranko had never encountered such a hideous monster.  The creature that had
rescued him and Rei, had a terrible beauty, this thing was just gruesomely
wrong.
     "Scatter!" Asuka yelled.
     Rei slung Hikari over her shoulder and sprinted to the entrance,
leaving a shocked Asuka and Nab-chan in the dust.  Hiroko went running for
the main entrance, at the center of the building.
     Ranko saw Shinji disappearing among the few cars in the parking lot.
Ranko decided to take care of the creature, although her first priority was
to divert it, while the others ran for safety.
     "Here!  Right here!" she waved her arms as she shouted, Raccoon get
out of there! she thought as he walked up and began poking at it with his
walking stick.  The creature was now distracted, Ranko took the opening,
she didn't want to touch the creature, But I have to.  She rushed forward
silently, and kicked it as hard as she could.
     That's like kicking a wall! she hopped away, dodging it's
counterstroke.
     Raccoon kept poking it, suddenly it screamed and began thrashing
around, fading as it did.
     Ranko was ecstatic, until two others appeared, running to the entrance
after the others seemed like a good idea, I wonder if these things are
afraid of coming inside.  She couldn't see Shinji among the cars, nor could
she see where Raccoon had fled to.
     "How is she?" Ranko asked Nab-chan about Hikari.
     "She'll wake up with a nasty headache," Nab-chan stared her accusation
at Rei, who was exempt, "Asuka took her to the nurse's office - "
     "OZONE!" Rei looked around, "Run!"
     None of the three needed more warning.  A moment later, the slab floor
exploded, filling the entryway with whirring shards of concrete.
     As they ran down the corridor, Nab-chan spotted Hiroko coming in
through the main entrance, "Second floor!  Second floor!"
     Hiroko turned around and ran for the nearest stairway at the center of
the building.
     "Hold it!" Ranko shouted, "We have to get Asuka and Hikari!"
     Hiroko yelled back, "I'll get more stretcher bearers," then she
disappeared up the stirs.
     "We must evacuate this entire floor," Rei told them.
     "Shit!" Nab-chan shouted as they turned around.
     Maybe the second floor too! Ranko thought.
----------------------------------------
     "What do you mean they missed their last radio check?" Misato glowered
down at the security man, terrifying him in his own office, "All of the
observation posts, and you don't think that's unusual?"
     "We've been having communication problems lately.  So we sent out
another team to investigate.  They'll report back what they found.  I mean,
Captain, if there _was_ something to report, someone would have reported
something."
     That didn't settle Misato's mind.  She turned and left, returning to
her own office.  The first thing she did was dial the military, If I have
been `lax` in my duty, then I'd better take up the slack, Misato thought as
she waited for the connection.  "Yes, Captain Ramsey, I haven't been able
to contact the Children's Security teams.  I request you dispatch troops to
investigate and secure them if necessary."
     "Yes, Captain," Ramsey answered, "What does Security say?"
     "Wait and see," Misato said disgustedly.
     "That sounds about right.  We'll send a recon force, followed by a
heavy armored infantry force."
     "Quickly," Misato told him.
     "Agreed," Ramsey hung up his phone, cutting the connection.
     Misato called Ritsuko's lab.
     "NERV labs."
     "Ritsuko, what have you found?" Misato asked.
     "Nothing that makes any sense," Ritsuko replied.
     "Very well, I want your team to check the detection systems.  It could
be an Angel that slipped under our defenses."
     "'Very well', who are you and what have you done with Katsuragi
Misato?  We'll get right on it.  The kids mentioned that this fog was an
Angel attack, I thought they were joking.  I _treated_ it, as a joke."
     Misato didn't want to hear about Ritsuko's mothering problems.  "Get
the sensors checked.  That's all we can do," Misato hung up.  She couldn't
believe what was happening was a coincidence.
     She called the command deck, "Lieutenant Baker, status of the
sensors."
     "Captain, the initial checks show no failure in the systems, and no
traces of Angel activity."
     "Thank you," Misato looked around her office, feeling trapped within
the walls.  She was torn between her desire to rush out and go to the
school herself, and her responsibility to remain here and monitor.  I'm
second-guessing myself because they accused me of being lax in my duties.
----------------------------------------
     Jeff watched Shinji, trying to keep the cars between him, and the two
creatures who'd appeared within moments of the death of the first.  He
isn't going to be able to dodge them forever, he sighed, took a small black
object from his pocket, and affixed it to the tip of his cane.  He had been
hoping to use his best weapons later, but without Ranko distracting them,
he'd never be able to drain another one, like he did the first.
     The only thing he could do, was kill one of these two, and hope Shinji
could make a break for the building.
     He rushed the creature, with his cane couched under his arm like a
lance, driving it into the creature's flank.  The reptile-thing turned and
roared at him.
     "Shinji!  Run!" Jeff turned and ran for the perimeter wall, as Shinji
bolted for the entrance to the school.  He needed to see what was at the
perimeter anyway.
----------------------------------------
     Shinji glanced at the creature running after Raccoon, and the other
one writhing on the ground screaming, "Well, he can get that one too,"
Shinji ran into the school building.  He saw the wrecked atrium, and the
damaged stairs, he needed no further prompting to start climbing.
     On the second floor, his classmates and some of the pilots' coteries,
were herding people, to the upper floors.  He fell in with the people
trying to keep the stragglers moving.  Nabiki was shouting commands, trying
to keep everyone coordinated.
     Shinji spotted Ranma, back as a boy, "Raccoon got another one, but
he's alone out there."
     "You left him?" Ranma asked.
     "Well, so did you," Shinji recoiled at the other boy's anger.
     "CRAP!" Ranma began pushing his way through the crowd up the stairs.
     Probably headed to the roof, Shinji thought, then heard Hiroko hail
him.
     "Just keep them moving," she told him, "We think the third and fourth
floors will be safe."  She took him aside and lowered her voice, "So will
the roof, but we don't want to lead anybody up there just yet, it will make
people think there's a bigger problem than there is."
     "Right," Shinji continued herding, Like there might be monsters out
there trying to kill us, he thought as he tried to round up stragglers, We
need a cowboy, he rushed to keep a few more people from wandering away from
the crowd.
----------------------------------------
     Ranma reached the edge of the roof, and looked down over the short
wall that formed a parapet.  One dragon was smoldering through its death
throes, the second was patrolling a short distance from a tree at the edge
of the campus.  Ranma spotted Raccoon near the top of the tree, out of easy
reach of the creature.
     "Raccoon!  Can't you get that one too?" Ranma smiled at the glare from
Raccoon.
     "I got my two!" Raccoon shouted back, "If I get all of the other nine,
you'll all say I'm being greedy!" Raccoon angrily yelled back.
     "Well, keep them occupied, we're trying to keep people safe."
     "I'm glad you don't think I'm a people then.  Besides, I thought I'd
go for a stroll," Raccoon yelled back, "There's something you need to tell
the others."  Raccoon tore a small branch loose, then tossed it over the
perimeter wall, it hit something and bounced back.
     "It's there," Raccoon's gesture encompassed the entire campus, "An
invisible wall."
     Ranma glanced around.  The fog was fading, they'd replaced the fog
with a real wall.
     "We're trapped," Ranma shouted.
     "Why don't you yell louder?  I don't think all the students heard
you!" Raccoon shouted back.
     Ranma turned away grumbling, Nine more of those things, and we're cut
off, Ranma thought, We'll need the Army to get us out of here.  Ranma
needed to tell Nab-chan what Raccoon had found out.
----------------------------------------
Spit Defiance in Their Eye
     Rei was making her sweep through the second floor.  The others had
taken the homerooms, Rei wanted to be thorough, so she checked the storage
lockers, the Home Ec. kitchens, now she entered the Chem lab.  Several
dozen people were here, diligently cleaning up.  She recognized most of the
Chemistry club.
     "You must evacuate," she told them, "Immediately."
     Matsuda Natsumi-san, one of the 'eyes and ears', who was also a member
of the club, approached, "Is Raccoon-san ready to use the bombs?"
     "Bombs?" Rei was amazed.
     Natsumi nodded, "We have steel-shelled and cardboard-shelled," she
held up a standard pipe-bomb and an oversized firecracker, "Raccoon-san
gave us the instructions and the proportions.  They're much easier than the
flares."
     Rei merely stared at them, she was uncertain what to do next.
     "We should collect them and go?" Natsumi asked.
     Rei nodded, "How are they to be used?"
     "Fuse them and throw, I guess."
     Rei nodded, "Head to the roof, that will give the widest field of
fire."
     "Yes, Rei-san."  Natsumi and the others carefully carried their
parcels up the flights of stairs with Rei leading them past the staring
students.
     They arrived at the roof.  Rei advanced to the edge and stared over.
Raccoon was in a tree at the wall, with one of the beasts pacing near its
base.
     "Do you need help?" Rei called.
     "No, I'm oaky."
     Rei stared at him.
     "It's an oak tree, and I'm stuck as part of it," Roku-kun explained.
     "Would one of Matsuda-san's - devices - be of use?" Rei asked.
     "No, there are eight more.  With luck, they'll manifest."
     "They are Lliogor, sentient energy matrices."
     "They're too powerful for that."
     "They drained the school children to enhance themselves," she watched
Roku-kun tap his forehead on the tree trunk.
     "You're right!  I should have known.  When I arrived, Dr. Akagi was
headed to NERV, I told her I was going to get the pilots and return.  When
can we expect help, since we'll be overdue?"
     Rei considered, the fog would slow events, "Assuming Dr. Akagi arrived
safely, the first help is late now."
     "Yeah, that's what I was afraid of.  They're late, soon we'll be
late."
     Rei nodded.  The creature seemed to have noticed her for the first
time, and seemed to be gauging the chance of a leap getting to her.
     "Matsuda-san, steel-cased, now."
     "How long a fuse?" Matsuda headed over with a length of pipe and some
cord.
     "Shortest possible," Rei told her as she stared at the monster,
willing it to try its leap, so it would come into range.
     "Kamis!" Matsuda whispered after she glanced at the monster, she
handed over the fused bomb and a zippo lighter.
     "Yes," Rei said, "They believe they are."
     It leapt up three stories, its claws catching in the woodwork of the
school.  Rei waited for it to roar, lit the fuse and hurled the bomb down
its gullet.  The creature scrambled up the wall towards them.  Rei noted
that Matsuda kept staring at the monster.  It stopped, hung on the wall for
several moments, and fell back to the ground.
     Rei turned to Matsuda, "They function, remain here," Rei headed back
down, Nabiki-kun and the Second may have use for these.  The sound of
another explosion drew her attention back, she raced to the wall and looked
over.  The lower 10 meters of the tree Roku-kun was hiding in was gone.
Rei could see no trace of him in the fallen crown.
----------------------------------------
     Ranma was at the window, as soon as he heard the explosion.  He saw
the falling tree fall on Raccoon, "We've got to get him."
     Ranma threw open the window and jumped the three stories to the
ground.
     He felt the heaviness encompass him, Just like what got him.
     He ran fast, dodging and bounding into the air, to make himself as
difficult a target as possible.  Before he'd been shot at by Raccoon and
Dr. Akagi, he'd never considered having to fight an enemy he both couldn't
see and couldn't fight back against.  Now he did, the movements and
evasions came easily.  Random changes never falling into a pattern.
     Ranma spotted Asuka running across the field in a serpentine path, she
picked up Jeff's walking stick, then began running in a search pattern
around the tree, as he was.
     Suddenly Ranma smelled, "OZONE!" instead of running away, he ran
forward to locate Raccoon, near the epicenter of the smell.
     Ranma located the other boy, "I can't pull him loose!" he glanced
around.  Rei picked her way through the fallen tree's branches.  Ranma
crouched down near Raccoon's bleeding body, Rei crouched near.
     An instant later, an explosion shattered the tree.  Fragments bounced
off an unseen barrier.  Ranma managed to shift the limbs off Raccoon.  Rei
stood, tossed a cardboard tube.  A moment later, it exploded.  The smell of
ozone faded.
     Asuka arrived to help them carry their bloodied friend back to the
building.
     "You didn't tell us you could blow them up!" Asuka accused.
     "I only learned recently," Rei replied.
----------------------------------------
     The Security troops looked over the observation post that was supposed
to overlook the school grounds.  The two guards were nowhere to be found,
but considering the general destruction, they probably would never be
found.
     "Call this in," the senior agent said.
     "Do you smell that?" the radio man paused, "It smells like ozone."
----------------------------------------
     Ranma, Rei and Asuka dropped off the wounded Raccoon at the new
nurse's station, on the fourth floor, and returned to their third floor
homeroom, it was a lot more crowded.  Kids from other classes filled the
desks and the floor.
     "What do we do?" Ranma demanded, he wanted to _do_ something, these
invisible enemies irritated him.
     "No physical weapon can harm them, in their energy form," Rei
commented.
     "Then why did the bomb drive them off?" Ranma asked.
     Rei and Asuka gave him matching blank looks, he remembered the cane.
     Of course, the cane, and a few other tricks, Ranma remembered the
arsenal Jeff had stashed in the Harvard apartment he'd seen in the dream.
"Then how do we get them in range?"
     Now Asuka smiled, "We need someone brave, and bold."
     Ranma wanted to run away from that smile, "No!  Asuka!"
     "Damn," she snapped her fingers, "Spineless?" she smiled sweetly at
him.
     "I'm not being bait," Shinji told her.
     "Well, Ice Princess, bribery is your forte."
     Nab-chan glared at her, "Why don't we just wait until the military
shows up?"
     "We're surrounded by some kind of wall," Ranma said.
     "Could a tank drive through?" Kensuke asked from the window, "Because
there's one out there."
     They rushed to the windows.  At the school gates, an M5 light tank was
trying to drive through the unseen barrier.  Ranma heard the excited
chatter in this room and the other nearby classrooms.  Then the tank pulled
back a bit.
     "They're going to use their main gun!" Kensuke said enthusiastically,
he was wrong.
     The crew disembarked from the tank, and tried to find the edges of the
barrier.
     "No!  Run!"  "Don't get out of the tank!" these and other shouted
warnings.  The crew either couldn't hear them, or didn't heed them.
Suddenly the crew started looking around.  The shouting and gestures from
the students doubled and redoubled, trying to warn the men of their danger.
     The implosion killed all of them, and damaged the tank.
     The students slumped.  Even the army is helpless against these things,
Ranma slid to the floor.
     "Eighteen seconds," Rei said, "Between detection and detonation, it is
confirmed, eighteen seconds."
     "Those men got killed," Ranma stood and shouted at her, "And you were
timing it?!"
     "Yes," Rei was unperturbed, "Their deaths served a purpose.  We could
not save them, perhaps now we can save ourselves."
     "I don't believe you're so cold."
     "Would it be better if she broke down and cried?" Asuka shouted at
him, "You just saw, we're going to have to save ourselves, all the
knowledge we can get, helps us."
     "So it's all right they died, just so long - "
     Asuka's slap interrupted Ranma, "How _DARE_ you!" Asuka hissed, "I
didn't want them to die, anymore than you do.  But I don't want _us_ to die
a lot more.  So Wondergirl decided to gather intelligence, instead of
_WHINNYING_ about _DISHONORABLE_ behavior.  Grow _UP_ Saotome.  We're in a
war.  People die.  That was four, we've got 100 times that many in here,
and a million times that in the city.  Think about _them_, instead of
yourself!"
     Ranma hated that anyone could be so callous, he let Nab-chan and Toji
lead him away, while Shinji and Rei kept Asuka from following.
     "I know," Toji said quietly, "She think she knows everything."
     "She's scared," Nab-chan added, "Just like the rest of us.  Two
hundred meters of open ground separating us from the rest of civilization.
NERV and the military might as well be on the moon."
----------------------------------------
     Nabiki looked around the classroom, she was out of ideas, unusual
enough.  Both Ranma and Asuka were coming unglued, that was terrifying.
She had thought only cats disturbed Ranma, and Asuka stood up to the
inspector without flinching.
     Face it, you need more information, she thought, Before you can even
make intelligent suggestions.  Her only instinct, was to get to the EVAs,
but first they had to get past the creatures out there, Easy enough,
stampede everybody out across the field, she thought, Maybe loose a quarter
to half of them.  Then how to get through the wall.  So it won't work, she
thought.
     She wished Hiroko was here, but her factor was watching over Raccoon
and Hikari o the fourth floor.  The school nurse was nearly in hysterics,
with all that was happening, and Hiroko was studying medicine, a
psychiatrist was a full medical doctor first.
     It was heading on to noon, and NERV seemed to be taking its own sweet
time rescuing them.
     Either they don't know about the problem, or they aren't there to make
the rescue.  Funny, all these huge monsters, and a bunch of little ones
working to a plan got us.
     Nabiki looked at the listless students, no one seemed ready to leap up
and confront the pilots over getting them into the mess they were in, it
would have been better if they were arguing, then at least someone would be
coming up with ideas.
     She overheard Shinji talking with Toji and Kensuke, about how much
time had passed with no further explosions.
     "Nabiki-san," Shinji spoke up, "We need to locate the lunches.  Food
might take everybody's mind off . . . things."
     Nabiki nodded, glad someone was taking some initiative, but disturbed
because he seemed to need _her_ permission to act, "Take who you need, take
Ranma with you, to spy out the empty rooms.  Ranma, don't be a hero, we're
only after food.  I don't think they can get to the upper floors, but we're
all guessing about that."
     Ranma nodded, Shinji collected about seven other people, along with
Toji and Kensuke, and followed Ranma out.
     Nabiki wondered how she had become the war leader, "Asuka, collect who
you need, I want options and answers how do we fight those things."
     "I don't know that," Asuka admitted.
     "Find out who does, take them and figure something out."
     Asuka glanced around, signaled for Rei to follow her.
     Nabiki walked to the window, stared at the destroyed tank, If they're
going to treat me as the leader, I'd better act the part . . . even if I
haven't the faintest idea what I'm doing.  She gave the people in the class
a sharp glance, but once she looked away, she heard an increase in the
murmurs.  The pilots are going to act, she interpreted the voices, then
turned to `survey her dominion`, let them know that someone was doing
something.
     "Ma'am," one of the students asked her as she headed out.
     "If Misato-san made the lunches, that would give us a last-ditch
weapon.  Wouldn't it?" Nabiki glanced at the boy, "That would be a
violation of the Geneva Convention, besides, eating it might kill us all."
She swept out of the room, and was glad to hear a few chuckles behind her.
----------------------------------------
     Ranma slipped down the stairway.  He'd checked the classrooms and the
halls of the second floor.  The stairwells to the first floor were all
destroyed.  They wouldn't cause him any problems getting to the ground, but
the wounded, or the less fit students, would have serious difficulties, Not
good, Ranma wondered, Why destroy _just_ the stairways?  Why not the whole
building instead?
     It didn't make any sense to him.  He spotted Asuka coming towards him,
"They exploded all the stairs."
     "Imploded," Asuka said automatically, "We could have heard an
explosion this loud."  Asuka looked at the ruined stairs, "We need more
medical supplies, from the nurse's office."  She smirked at him, "You think
you could get the entire medicine cabinet up here, without getting killed?"
     Ranma considered, "Not without someone else helping.  Feel like
getting killed?" Ranma considered dragging the entire floor-to-ceiling
cabinet all the way to the stairwell.  He knew he didn't know enough about
the medical supplies and equipment to grab just the critical stuff.
     "Raccoon's getting shocky," Asuka misinterpreted his pause, "The
alternative, is a glass of cold water and let Ranko keep him warm and his
blood pressure elevated."
     Ranma frowned at her, then weighed the alternatives, "If you get Rei,
the three of us should be able to get the necessary equipment.  You two
know what we need, I can get the stuff, and break into the locked cabinet."
     "Who are you, and what have you done with Ranma Saotome?" Asuka asked,
"I really don't want him back, I just don't want him to escape."
     Ranma frowned at Asuka as she headed off to get Rei.  Ranma noted
Shinji and company were carrying the lunches to the people upstairs.
Several other groups were added to these, stripping the floor of lunches
and personal possessions.  Somebody decided nobody should have a reason to
come down here, Ranma thought, waiting for Rei and Asuka to return.  The
two girls returned with several empty satchels and a filled one.
     "Bombs.  Raccoon had them building bombs," Asuka handed him one of the
large empty satchels.
     "If we have to use one, we get out of there, use the others only if we
need to, to escape, agreed?" Asuka looked at him and Rei.  Both nodded.
     Ranma simply dropped to the 1st floor, while Rei and Asuka used the
exposed timbers and the twisted handrails to climb down after him.  The
trio spaced out, making their advance to the nurse's station.
     Ranma thought Asuka's method of having only the rearmost person
advance, while the other two watched, was kind of silly, but against a
human or human-like opponent, it might have some utility.  They reached the
nurse's office without incident.  Ranma, as quietly as he could, sprung the
lock holding the equipment locker closed.  Ranma took the blankets from the
locker and carefully packed whatever Asuka or Rei handed him in the
blankets, then packed the packages in the satchels.  The two girls seemed
to be taking things at random.  Well, they seem to know what they're doing,
he decided he didn't need to know what they were doing.
     None of the trio made a noise.  Ranma kept glancing around, sniffing
for ozone or corruption, listening for the sounds of any reptiles.
     Nothing bothered them as they carefully reversed their advance to the
central stairwell.  Ranma thought he could feel the creatures out there, he
knew it was an illusion.  None of them were close, but he would accept the
creepy feeling that made him more alert.
     As they approached the stairway, the `Three Stooges` let down a
knotted fire hose as a makeshift ladder.  As soon as Asuka and Rei were on
the ladder, Shinji, Toji and Kensuke hauled it up.  Ranma waited until they
were most of the way up, he scrambled up the stairwell using the few hand
and toe holds provided.
     "He's scary," Toji commented as he took one of the satchels.
----------------------------------------
     Hiroko looked at Hikari, as the other girl struggled at her bonds and
whimpered.  She wished she could do more, there seemed to be nothing that
she could say or do to ease the girl's terror.  She glanced at the nurse,
who seemed to be almost as disturbed.
     Hiroko couldn't, in good conscience, sedate the girl.  Even though she
knew the procedure and the recommended dosage.  But I can't do that, she
thought morosely, Besides, I'd rather dose the nurse, what were they
thinking?  Didn't they _expect_ the pilots would be attacked?
     Hiroko looked around the room at the various wounded, she headed back
to her main patient.
----------------------------------------
Lliogor Attack
     Misato had arrived a few moments before the armored company, that was
the first of the forces sent to investigate.  Misato saw the damaged tank,
and remembered what Ritsuko had mentioned about something holding the jeep.
     "Stay aboard the vehicles, and keep them moving!" Misato ordered.
Misato ignored her own advice and parked her car, then climbed aboard the
company commander's T26 Pershing.
     "There aren't enough of us to rescue the entire student population,"
the Major told her, "Not until the rest of the battalion arrives."
     One of the Shermans ground to a halt, trying to pass through the gate.
It backed up and tried again, the treads churning uselessly, as it tried to
penetrate.  One of the other tank commanders fired a few shots from his M2
.50 and discovered the barrier continued beyond any chance to climb over
it.
     "Captain," the Major told her, "I think we're a bit screwed."
     Misato tended to agree, "Try your main gun."
     The commander disappeared into the turret.  Misato climbed to the rear
deck and covered her ears.  The 90 mm. shell hit the invisible barrier and
exploded.
     "That was AP.  If we can't get through, we aren't of any use," the
Major said, "We'll have to pull back, and await events."
     Misato wanted to scream at him, but it wouldn't help, "Agreed."
     The tank column turned and moved away.  They would have to try
something else.
----------------------------------------
     Hiroko had managed to pull all the wood splinters out of Raccoon, then
cleaned the wounds and began bandaging.  His skin had been cold and clammy.
She knew enough medicine to know that shock, all too often, was fatal.
She'd had help from two others of Nabiki's team, then she's shooed them
away, after they'd set up a barrier.  Then she had to complete the job by
herself, but considering where she was pulling the splinters from, and
where she was sewing up and bandaging, she thought Raccoon deserved a
little privacy.
     Hiroko noted that the flesh warmed and reddened while she was working,
"So you're awake."
     "Yes," Raccoon was still too rocky to sit up.
     She was glad he was conscious again, "Relax, I've got three brothers,
it's nothing I haven't seen before.  This is strictly medical."
     "I'm just waiting for the inevitable questions," Raccoon said, trying
to hide how mortified he was.
     "Okay, where did you get all those scars?"
     "In July of 1945, a horse turned over on me, it didn't die instantly.
After it fell into a ravine, it ground me into the rock first," he glanced
around at the blankets strung from the ceiling, forming a barrier around
them.
     "I thought you might want some privacy," Hiroko told him, "You're
safe, the fourth floor seems out of their range.  The boss had a few people
who got hysterical, we isolated those."
     "Good planning and leadership."
     "Thank you, I - " the Boss entered.
     Hiroko pulled his coat down to cover him, "Even odds she was staring
at the scars.  Boss, the barrier applied to you too."
     The Boss gulped, "Sorry.  No one had a pair of pants that would fit
you," she held out a plaid skirt.
     "Well, it isn't Davidson tartan, but beggars can't be choosers."
     "What about, the lack of . . . " the Boss was extremely embarrassed.
     "It's called regimental," Raccoon stood facing away and put on the
skirt, adjusting it to hang just below his knees, "Not perfect, but it will
serve."
     "You'd better watch your back, I doubt the Boss's interest was
medical."
     "Hiroko!" the Boss complained.
     "I don't object to you collecting your harem, Boss.  But you aren't
leaving any good ones for the rest of us," Hiroko smiled at the Boss's
blush.
     "You'll have to teach her to share," Raccoon pulled on his boots, then
the entire room, perhaps the entire building lurched.  Heaving up, then
coming down with a crash.  "They've started blowing out the main supports,"
Raccoon told the Boss.
     "Get everyone up on the roof!" the Boss ordered.  She saw Asuka, Rei
and Ranma returning.
     "Get all that to the roof!" the Boss ordered, "Shinji, Toji, get the
people moving up to the roof.  It may be farther to fall, but up there,
nothing can drop on them from above."
     The Boss turned to her, "Get a team, pack up everyone and everything
from here, get them topside, now."
     Then she was gone.
     "I think they made her mad," Raccoon commented.
     "Are you okay?" she asked Raccoon.
     "Blood loss, shock, what is that compared to honor and duty?" he left.
     "Great," Hiroko lamented, "Now he's doing Saotome impersonations, a
little too well at that."
----------------------------------------
     Shinji was herding people again, this time Raccoon was dealing with
the stragglers.  Shinji could believe he was a cowboy, as he turned them
around, pushing them in the right direction.  Shinji saw Matsuda-san on the
roof, she and some of her friends moved to get the people organized, get
them away from the stairwells where more people were pushing their way up
from below.
     Shinji couldn't imagine how they'd pack so many people up on the flat
roof, or if it would handle the weight.  He abandoned those thoughts as he
headed back down the stairs, through the mob, to pick up another load.
     "You!" Shinji turned at Raccoon's voice.
     "Just push them up the stairs, rather than getting them in batches."
     Shinji nodded, he was glad somebody _else_ was giving orders, telling
him what to do.  He'd been in charge of getting all those lunches.  He
hated every second of people, his friends, looking at _him_ instead of
using their common sense.  Even Toji, who knew he could knock Shinji down,
still looked to him for orders.
     This morning, I thought Raccoon was just trying to scare me with that
story, Shinji thought, Something to take my mind off what happened with
Misato-san, and that I have to go back there, and apologize or confront
her.  Now I know the truth, he was underplaying it.  Even Asuka was glad it
was _Nabiki_ giving orders.  Asuka might want to decide _how_ to do a job,
but she seemed glad someone else was handing out the jobs.
     The building lurched, again, but none of it buckled.  He shoved the
people nearest him up the stairs, "Keep moving."  It broke the spell of
terror that had gripped his fellow students, they were moving again of
their own accord, looking at him with the same confidence: 'The Pilots will
get us out of this.'
     Shinji didn't know whether to laugh or cry, he knew enough not to do
either where they could see him.
----------------------------------------
     Admiral Ramsey strode onto the bridge of the South Dakota, someone
called everyone to attention.  "As you were," Ramsey removed his hat,
'uncovered' he didn't have to be saluted, he wanted people's mind on their
jobs right now, "Have you checked your calculations?"
     "Yes, Admiral.  Aft turret is all dialed in," the Lieutenant Commander
told him, "One High Capacity, with an Armor Piercing and a balanced
Practice round ready to fire."
     Ramsey nodded, another Asuka/Jeff idea, `slugs` for the battleship
guns, practice rounds were as heavier than live rounds, but carried no
explosive.  They wouldn't kill an Angel, but it wouldn't like getting hit.
     "Stand by to fire," Ramsey was glad the fog was lifting.  He wanted to
see the effect of the gunfire.
----------------------------------------
     Ranma watched as the last of the students and teachers walked onto the
roof.  Most slouched or sat in groups, as if no one had the strength to
stand up.  Ranma watched Raccoon, in a skirt, consulting with Natsumi and a
few others of the 'bomb squad'.
     "HA!  A skirt, and it looks good on you, you've got the knees for it,"
Ranma taunted.
     "It's a kilt, do you know why it's called that?" Raccoon asked, then
leaned close, "Because that's what happened to those who called it a
skirt."
     "It still looks like a skirt," Ranma rallied weakly.
     Raccoon pointed his walking stick at the sky and his free hand at
Ranma, then uttered a string of incomprehensible gibberish.
     "What was that?" Ranma demanded.
     "It's Gaelic, I just laid a terrible curse on you, a bane I wouldn't
wish on anyone except you."
     Ranma quickly checked that he had all the parts he was supposed to,
and none he wasn't, "What curse is that?" Ranma was ashen, he could imagine
a hundred curses Raccoon might use on him, and was terrified that Raccoon
had managed something worse.
     "I made sure your children, would turn out just like you," Raccoon
intoned, "Even the girls!"
     "Raccoon is just too evil and cruel!" Hiroko shrieked, before mock
fainting in Nab-chan's arms.  There was general laughter.
     Ranma stalked to the parapet, and sat down, watched the others
creeping around, staying low as they passed out lunches, making sure
everyone was somewhat comfortable.  Even Nab-chan and Raccoon were staying
low.  The whole group was hiding, after the military pulled back, no one
felt like peering over the parapet at nothing, for fear of attracting
attention.
     The explosion, 'Implosion!'  Asuka would insist, Ranma thought, as he
tried to stabilize himself, as one end of the roof heaved upwards some 3
meters, then crashed down 2 meters below its original position.
     The lift and drop had hurt some students, there were also cries of
alarm from others: 'We didn't do anything!'  'Somebody's got to do
something!'  'Why are they doing this?'  And so on, Ranma knew that this
kind of terror would spread, as it had earlier in the classroom.  But what
to do?
     Raccoon marched over to the parapet with a furious expression, he
tossed his hat aside and raised his walking stick, "By God!  THAT'S
ENOUGH!"
     Ranma glanced up at him, he'd only seen him that mad once before, and
had hoped never to see it again.
     His tone and manner gave Ranma shivers, scaring him worse than the
creatures had, "By the pricking of my thumbs, something wicked this way
comes, be it live or be it dead, I'll grind its bones to make my bread."
     Raccoon dropped to the floor, "Get down!" he shouted to the others,
most of the students covered their heads.
     Ranma felt his heart sink, they'd lost Raccoon, of all the pilots,
Ranma figured he'd be the last to go mad, on the idea that you can't fall
off the floor.
     The tremendous explosion and the dirt that showered everyone had Ranma
flinching and covering his head.  He watched as the `rain` subsided and
Raccoon knelt to peer over the parapet, to view his handiwork.
     "Okay," he told Ranma, "I admit it and apologize, that was a little
excessive."
     "_EXCESSIVE_!_" normally it took hot water for Ranma to hit that note.
     "Look!  Tanks dragging trailers, and trucks."
     Ranma and others scrambled to their feet, to watch the three armored
columns moving in, one through each gate, the main, east and west.  The
students started cheering wildly, hooraying the advance.
----------------------------------------
     Hiroko wasn't cheering, she _was_ watching the others, who kept
glancing at the tanks, then fearfully at Raccoon, standing there smug and
self-satisfied.  It worried her that one of those watchers was the Boss.
     "Say, Boss, odd he cast his spell just as the South Dakota fired,"
Hiroko whispered to Nabiki, "Incredible coincidence, I'd say."  She smirked
as the Boss threw Raccoon a sour look.
     "Why does he take credit on one hand, and deny everything on the
other?" the Boss complained quietly.
     Hiroko had no answer, At least now the depression has left most of the
students and faculty, she thought, "So," she said loudly enough to be
easily overheard, "That's why you always make him wear pants?"
     "Put him in a kilt, and he starts running around killing all the
'Bloodthirsty Supralapsarians!'" the Boss commented.  Others took up the
story.
----------------------------------------
     Misato stood atop the lead tank, she heard the kids cheering.  She
waved to them.  She was confident that they could pack all the students
into the trailers and trucks that were following.
     When the tank suddenly ditched down, throwing her into the dirt, after
flipping her end-over-end, three other tanks dropped into the wide tank
trap that surrounded the school.
     Some of the tank crews made it out of the tanks before they
disappeared completely underground.  Misato caught a whiff of ozone, before
one of the trucks exploded as the fuel tanks detonated, spraying flaming
gasoline everywhere.  The unprotected infantry ran back, some were on fire.
The tanks that hadn't fallen, halted.  Misato wondered why the enemy did
not detonate them as well.
     The tanks that hadn't committed to the approach, turned away.  Misato
shook her head again, trying to clear it, after her impromptu gymnastics
recital.
----------------------------------------
     "Come on!" Nabiki grabbed Hiroko's arm, "20 people only!" Nabiki saw
Asuka and Raccoon collecting small teams of their own, While Ranma was
accompanying Shinji, Toji and Kensuke.  They rushed down the stairs,
through the damaged school.
     There was the fire hose `ladder` that Shinji and company had made.
Nabiki started climbing down, Hiroko and several of her factors followed.
     "Get them into the building and onto the roof!" Nabiki looked around
worriedly, Why aren't they attacking?  We're completely vulnerable here!
"GET up!" she shouted, "Move, move!"  Nabiki was practically picking up and
shoving the stunned troops, her factors would lead the men to the building.
Asuka's team was collecting the walking wounded.  Shinji and Ranma were
collecting the immobilized.   Nabiki glanced up, Rei and the 'bomb squad'
were standing by to support them.  There were more rescuers than victims,
they collected the handful and retreated.  Nabiki looked despondently at
the other military, some less than 30 meters away.
     Maybe Ranma could jump over that pit, but no one else could, she
thought, We'd have to bunch up, use the half-sunken tanks as stepping
stones, they'd get us for sure, she turned away, and trotted back to the
school, looking for anyone they missed.  She knew they were going to have
to think of something else.
----------------------------------------
     Misato had managed to recover a pack radio, then got stuck next to the
wall of the school building.  I don't know where the nearest entrance is,
she glanced around, trying to decide what to do next, I know I should have
paid more attention to the blueprints.
     "Grab hold."  Jeff's cane dropped almost on top of her, at the end of
a long cord she recognized as the unwound handgrip.  She grabbed hold, and
let the students pull her up.  Daimatsu and Ayanami were waiting at the
top, Ayanami took the radio while he grabbed her by the collar of her
jacket and the waistband of her skirt, and hauled her over the parapet onto
the roof.
     "Figures," she heard him tell Ayanami as he recovered his walking
stick.  She didn't want to ask why he was wearing a plaid skirt and no one
else seemed concerned by it either.
     She took the pack radio from Ayanami and tried to reach NERV HQ.
     "Captain," she heard Commander Ikari's voice, "What is the situation?"
     "We knocked down the wall, but they had a tank trap ready for us."
     "Bridging teams."
     "They'd blow up the building, the bridge or both before we could
rescue the students."
     "What about the pilots?" Ikari asked.
     "I doubt we could get them out before they destroyed everyone."
     "Understood.  We're working on the problem, Ikari out."
     Misato handed the radio to one of the arriving soldiers.  She stared
over the parapet at the wrecked armored assault.  She hadn't expected the
simple tactic they'd used.  These things _never_ used tactics, she thought,
They blasted their way in, by superior firepower, not by cleverness.
----------------------------------------
     Rei watched Roku-kun, Shinji-kun and the Fourth join her and the
Second.  Nabiki, Toji and Natsumi soon joined the group.
     "Captain K is all out of ideas," Roku-kun began.
     "Well those things can outwait us," Nabiki said, "Now we've got more
wounded.  Some are going to need surgery and real doctors, if they are
going to survive."
     "Well good and bad news," the Second added, "Why didn't they swarm all
over us?"
     "The truck exploded," Rei told them.
     "That's right," Shinji-kun said, "There was no reaction when that big
explosion went off."
     The Second nodded, "And they ran away when you tossed that bomb while
we were getting Raccoon out of the tree."
     "So what's the problem?" the Fourth asked, "Let ole' crazy here light
off a few more of those things."
     The Fourth seemed confused by the laughter.
     "Saotome," Roku-kun told him, "It's getting the timing just right
that's the problem.  That's a Mark 6, I've never mastered a Mark 7."
     "So do a Mark 3 or something!" the Fourth insisted.
     "Saotome," Roku-kun explained patiently, drawing out the joke, "You
can read about a Mark 2, in the first chapters of Genesis."
     "Oh," the Fourth deflated, missing the half-hidden smiles on the faces
of the others.
     "Then why the bombs' construction?" Rei asked.
     "I thought we'd be facing humans, or more normal monsters," Roku-kun
replied, "The explosives would have full effect on them."
     "They had a serious effect on the Lliogor," Rei corrected.
     "Energy creatures," Roku-kun remembered, "What, the heat had an
effect."
     "That's why they ran when the truck exploded," the Second took up the
idea.
     "Maybe sodium, magnesium, phosphorus," Roku-kun continued the thought,
"Would give more bang for the buck."
     "We can do that," Natsumi said, "We can even make crude thermite."
     Everyone suddenly stared at Nabiki, who was instantly unhappy with
being in the leadership role.  "Look, do what you have to, to make or
upgrade your bombs.  How are we going to deploy them, and how many enhanced
bombs can you make?  We can't exactly stand out in the field, and call
'Here Kitty, Kitty.'"
     "Twenty?" Roku-kun asked Natsumi.
     She considered, "If you aren't picky about mixing and matching.  We
should have enough for twenty big bombs."
     The Second had walked over the parapet and looked down, "That may be
exactly what we do."
     "Okay, you and Ranma stay here to help plan strategy," Nabiki said.
     "Tactics," Roku-kun corrected.
     "All right," Nabiki replied, "Tactics, the rest of you get what you
need to make it work.  Don't spare the lab, I doubt they'll get anything
out of it, when and if the building collapses."
     Shinji remained with Nabiki, Rei decided to remain also, as the others
moved off to raid the chemistry lab, for the needed supplies.
     "We should ask if the bombs will penetrate tank armor," Rei told her.
     Nabiki nodded, "Shinji, go get one of the older sergeants, not a young
officer."  Shinji nodded and headed off.
     "We're going to be the bait?" the Fourth complained.
     "I don't have a better idea.  Lure them in and blow them up," Nabiki
shrugged.
     "I will go," Rei said.
     "You'd better, it was your idea," Nabiki told her.
     That confused Rei, she hadn't been considering what this idea became.
     Shinji-kun returned with an older American soldier.
     "Will this go through the armor of a tank?" Nabiki handed him one of
the pipe bombs.
     "Guncotton," Rei said as the man opened it and looked at the explosive
inside.
     "We need as big and hot an explosion as possible, to kill those
things," Nabiki added.
     The sergeant stared at the `kids`, Rei could see the open disbelief
change to resignation.  The soldier looked over the parapet at the trapped
tanks.   "It shouldn't, but the turret side has two cans of gasoline, that
will add to the blast.  But you have to get out of there fast, tanks don't
like fire."
     "How do we get the bombs out there?" the Fourth asked.
     "Simple," the Second said, "We run out there, place the bomb, dive in
the tank, then get the Hell out, once the bomb goes off."
     "So who's going to do it?" Nabiki asked, looking at the Fourth.
     "Hey, Horseface, how much cash have you got on you?" the Second smiled
as Nabiki stuck out her tongue at her.
     The building heaved again.  Everyone stood still, awaiting the result,
the result was nothing.
     "I think they have returned," Rei told them, they stared at her.
     "If this works?" Nabiki asked, "What about flame-throwing tanks?"
     The tanker considered, "I'll put my lieutenant on that," he walked
away.
     "This may be a dumb question - " the Fourth began.
     "A dumb question from _you_," the Second sighed, "Perish the thought!
Speak, Horseface!"
     The Fourth frowned, "How do we set these things off, how do we know
when these things are close enough?"
     "Let Raccoon do that," the Second was very serious now, "If you can
set it off with a bullet, he and Wondergirl are our best shots."
     "How's he supposed to know when to hit it, when he can't see the real
targets?" the Fourth pressed.
     "That won't be a problem," the Second told him quietly, "And no, don't
ask.  You _really_ don't want to know."  The Second's tone stifled
conversation.
----------------------------------------
     Ritsuko was working in her lab, when Gendo entered, "From the
descriptions, our enemy must be backed by a cult or a powerful sorcerer."
     "They aren't native to Japan," Ritsuko extracted an ancient book, and
the reference manual she had been making with it.  "Iraq, Rhode Island,
Wales, but not Japan."
     "International travel, Doctor," Gendo reminded her.
     "No ship would take them," Ritsuko said, "Why do I bother?  You seem
to have all these memorized."  Ritsuko opened the relevant page, confirmed
all the previous reports with a glance.
     "I have, had, access to _other_ source material."
     "Your dream, with Pilot Davis," Ritsuko considered bringing up her
recent . . . problems, "Anything else I should know?"
     "He's a very . . . passionate, young man," Gendo said as he left.
     That's the second time I've seen him smile, Ritsuko thought, It's
creepy.  He almost looks human when he does that.  Ritsuko returned to the
reference work, trying to find some better way to fight these things.
----------------------------------------
To the German Commander: Nuts
     Misato watched the other pilots return, from wherever they'd gone,
she'd overheard what they were planning, Kids playing games.  "I forbid
this."
     "Your opinion was not solicited," Daimatsu told her, "If you want to
wait - "
     The building heaved again, one end of the building sagged three
meters.
     "I'm sure you can discuss it with them eye-to-eye," Daimatsu
continued, "We're almost on the ground as it is."
     "The flame tanks will be here soon."
     "Why weren't they with the first wave?" Asuka asked.
     Misato ignored her question, "You will wait for them to arrive."
     "Hiroko!" Nabiki said, "Escort the Captain to a place of safety.
She's obviously under their influence, just like Hikari."
     "I agree," the girl took her arm, "This way."
     Misato shook her off, "I'm in complete control of myself."
     Shinji stared at her, "She isn't acting as she normally does."
     Misato wished they'd kicked her in the guts instead, she glanced at
Rei.
     "I defer to the others," Rei told her, "It is not your fault."
     Misato was stunned, allowing the other girl to lead her away.  She saw
the pilots dismiss her from their minds and continue discussing their
plans, "I can help."
     The girl smiled indulgently, glanced at several of the school boys,
"I'm sure you can.  Now, just wait here quietly."
     "I am not crazy!" Misato shouted, the girl didn't back down.
     "Delusions of persecution, violent outbursts.  You are acting exactly
like Miss Hokari Hikari did, just before she ran out into the middle of the
field, and started rolling around.  You want to prove you're sane, act like
it . . . or you'll be sedated," the girl waved six of the boys over, "Keep
her here, keep her from hurting herself.  You take advantage of her, you'll
answer to me, then the Boss, what's left will answer to Ayanami-san.  Got
it?"
     The boys nodded and stood in a semicircle, as the girl walked away.
She smiled at them, she could charm a bunch of schoolboys, "I'm sure - "
     "None of that, ma'am," the leader interrupted her, "Just stay quiet,
the pilots will see to it you'll be safe."  Misato couldn't believe her
ears.
----------------------------------------
     "You enjoyed that," Nabiki accused Hiroko as she returned.
     "I didn't think she enjoyed being called crazy, but . . . " Hiroko
shrugged, "After what she did to you two," she nodded to Shinji and Asuka,
"I'd be willing to testify that she's crazy at this time."
     "No need," Raccoon commented, "NERV is a _civilian_ agency, while one
of the tankers could give us orders, the Captain," he spat the word, "Can
no more order us when we're off-duty, than a fire chief can.  I've heard no
alert sound, we're off-duty."
     "What about the casualties?" Nabiki asked Hiroko.
     "We need to get some of them to a hospital _now_!_"
     Nabiki nodded, returned to the argument they'd been having, "It's too
risky.  You think you can really hit a bullet set into the end of one of
these bombs?"
     "Yes," Raccoon answered, "I'd feel better using a rifle, instead of my
pistol, but either way.  Ayanami's as good with a rifle as I am."
     "No," Asuka said, "I may be willing to send Horseface out there, but
not alone.  With you wounded, they're our fastest runners."
     "So I have to depend on his . . . " Ranma's objection ran out of
steam, "His shooting, huh?"
     "I'm almost as good with a rifle, as I am with a pistol.  At that
range, I'm better with a rifle."
     Nabiki was amused, seeing Ranma caught in such a dilemma, he didn't
like guns, or any other weapons.  Nevertheless, he had a real fear, he'd
insist it was respect, of Raccoon's gunnery.
     "Okay," Ranma relented.
     The tank sergeant spoke up, "The side of the turret is well armored,
but just to be safe, set the bomb, go through the comm . . . the big top
hatch, close it, and head for the front of the tank's main compartment,
where the driver sits.  The driver's hatch on two of the tanks is clear."
     "Wait a few seconds after the explosion, then run for it, out the
driver's hatch," Asuka added.
     "Uhm, you're sending out two, right?" Hiroko asked, "So you really
need two shooters, right?"
     "That would be better," Nabiki said, "What are you suggesting?"
     "Well," Hiroko twisted her skirt in her hands in embarrassment, "Me .
. . my dad taught me how to shoot a rifle a couple . . . "
     "When the U.S. Invasion seemed imminent," Raccoon finished, "There's
nothing to be ashamed of."
     "That's when I got my real training," Asuka added, "Except for me, it
was the Russians."
     "I'll get a couple of rifles, most of us haven't fired a rifle since
Basic," the tanker glanced around, "No offense, but I'd feel better with a
couple of Marine snipers."
     "Call them forward," Nabiki said, "We aren't proud."
     "There aren't any here," the tanker admitted, "I'll get those rifles."
     "Ever fired an American rifle?" Nabiki asked, "I'm told it's a Garand
experience."
     The pilots groaned.
     "Anyone telling jokes like that," Raccoon commented, "Should be drawn
and quoted."
     More groans.
     "Yes, Ranma-chan, we do need him," Nabiki said, "We can bury him alive
when this is all over."
----------------------------------------
     Ranma glanced around the ruined atrium, then at Rei.  Both were
nervous, he also knew neither would admit it.  "You wish you were somewhere
else?" he asked.
     "Wishing, will not change anything."
     "I mean . . . I don't know what I mean," Ranma gave up trying to
explain how he felt to Rei, she either understood perfectly the first time,
or you'd never get her to understand.
     "We will succeed, or we will die," Rei told him, "In either case, our
concerns will end."  Rei took off running out of the atrium, Ranma was a
few steps behind her, and was quickly outdistanced.
     Ranma placed the five wired together bombs on the two racked gas cans,
then dove through the hatch, slamming it shut after he was through.
     "Driver's seat," he squirmed into the chair with the hatch over it,
made sure that was sealed too.
     The seconds dragged on.  He could smell only oil and something acrid,
that wasn't ozone.  All he could hear was creaks and groans of the
sun-warmed metal.
     "Hot in here," he sat, and waited.
----------------------------------------
     "Come on!" Nabiki whispered fiercely.
     "This will only work once, or twice," Asuka told her, as she dragged
her away from their two snipers, "So they have to get several at once."
     Nabiki stared at the two figures with their rifles.  Neither seemed to
move.  Nabiki hated and distrusted guns, part of her culture.  She'd
expected Kensuke to be the expert, but he'd admitted he wasn't very good.
She never expected a Japanese girl to be a good shot.  She also had to
admit, that part of it was the old Nerima conditioning: Ranma was in
danger, and she could trust nobody to help him.
     "I guess the stories you two told about Ranma's and my future have me
jumpy."
     "Believe me, Davis gave his _word_, and he'd _never_ abandon an ally,"
Asuka sniffed disdainfully, "It just isn't done."
     Nabiki smiled at that, "So I'm worrying unnecessarily."
     "If you have to worry, worry about what we do next.  There were 11, we
killed three, this might get as many as six, that still leaves two," Asuka
reminded her, "What do we do about them?"
     Nabiki frowned at Asuka, got a shrug in reply.
----------------------------------------
     "Still ready," Hiroko told Raccoon.  She fervently wished this were
the rifle her father and brother had taught her with.  She could hit a
similar target, they'd already tested that.  So she was pretty sure she
could hit the target, but she wanted to be certain.  By random chance, her
target was Rei's tank, Raccoon's was Ranma's.  She wondered if the pilots
would appreciate the humor of the coincidence.  Here she was, protecting
Ayanami-san again, while Raccoon was protecting his `archenemy` Ranma.
     "Not yet," Raccoon was still hunched over his rifle, peering through
the gunsight, at something she couldn't see.
     "Those wavy lines," Hiroko spotted a shimmering disturbance in the air
near the tanks.
     "A few more seconds," Raccoon cautioned, "Get in there," he urged
their enemy.
     She concentrated on that little bit of brass, on the bombs Rei had put
under the gasoline cans.
     "Fire!"
     The two rifles went off at once, they ducked back as the area around
the tanks was filled with a yellow-white cloud of flame.
     Hiroko glanced over the parapet, a moment later, Rei climbed out of
the tank and ran for the entrance, followed shortly by Ranma.  She glanced
at Raccoon, as everyone crowded close.
     "Four definite," he told Nabiki, Hiroko thought the Boss would tear
the answer from him bodily, until he spoke.  "With two more possibles, they
may just be playing possum.  You know, 'Pay no attention to that man behind
the curtain', I really am dead."
     "Can we get them?" Nabiki peered over the parapet, small fires dotted
the tanks and the grounds.
     "Get who?" Ranma asked, as he and Rei arrived.
     "Can you put a lit bomb about 2.3 meters to the right and about 1.4
meters in front of the tank Rei was in?" Raccoon asked.
     "Sure," Ranma stared over the parapet, "But is it fair, well, to bomb
them while they're helpless?"
     "Of course not," Raccoon handed him a pipe bomb, with a lit fuse.
     Ranma disposed of it, right on target.  Everyone ducked before it went
off.
     Ranma glared at Raccoon, "You forced me!"
     "You didn't have to throw it, nor did you have to throw it on target,"
Raccoon offered.  Ranma continued to glower at him.
     "Ayanami-san, 3 meters directly behind the centerline of Ranma's
tank."
     Rei took the bomb, lit the fuse herself, and lobbed it in a high arc,
landing it right on target.
     "That's six!" Asuka yelled happily.
     "There's still two out there," Shinji put a damper on things.
     "Anyone _else_ have any brilliant ideas?" Raccoon asked.
     "You, of course, have one!" Ranma said angrily.
     "That is my job," Raccoon replied smoothly.
     "How about we wait for the flame tanks to take care of things,"
Kensuke pointed at the two Shermans driving onto the school grounds.
     "I don't want to know how you can tell what those are by sight," Toji
complained.
     "That was you - " the huge explosion that rocked the building,
interrupted Ranma.  The building sank, twisting slightly, before stopping.
No one moved, no one spoke, while everyone waited, glancing at everyone
else, trying not to move anything except their eyes.
     Despite their efforts, the building lurched again.
     "I think they got the supports this time!" Asuka shouted.
     "And the gas lines," Rei added.
     The building twisted and dropped another meter, followed by a
deafening explosion.
----------------------------------------
     Asuka spat out a mouthful of dirt.  The last thing she remembered, was
the roof opening in a fireball and flinging her off like a catapult.  She
heard the groan, and turned to watch the school building continue to
collapse in on itself.  At the heart, a tremendous fire burned, "I'm not
going back in there to get my 'outside' shoes."
     She looked around, the only person she could see nearby was Raccoon.
He sat up, adjusted his skir - kilt, and looked at her, then at something
else, something she couldn't see.
     "We appear to have attracted their attention.  Undividedly, it seems,"
he started scrambling backwards.
     Asuka looked around for anything to use as a weapon, she saw two of
the pipe bombs and a firecracker, "I'm not going to ask why these didn't go
off with the building," she scooped them up and ran towards Raccoon.
     "I've got some of your party favors!" she yelled at him, "Where do we
celebrate?!"
     "Vault the tanks, run for the wall near those drums, and over.  Leave
the presents, and let the flame tanks deal with them!"
     "Our tax dollars at work," Asuka jumped onto the hull of the tank, and
clambered over the edge to flat ground.
     Raccoon closed on her a moment later, "Gimme, I'll set them as we go
over.  You first."
     "You're hurt," Asuka argued as they took off running again.
     "You'll have to pull me over," Raccoon replied as he twisted the fuses
together.
     Great, well that's it for this dress, Asuka thought, This will be a
great letter to Anna though, I finally blew up that damned school.
     The drums didn't seem to be getting close as fast as the smell of
ozone was.  With the evasive pattern we're running, Asuka analyzed, Maybe
the things can't reach out and grab us.  They'd just have to calculate our
base course to catch us, though, she hoped they wouldn't, as the pair
zigzagged towards the wall.
     The tanks were obviously tracking them, although they held their fire.
     I'm glad of that, Asuka thought as they neared the wall, How precise
is the aim of those flamethrowers?   She jumped without breaking stride,
landed on the drums, glad they all had lids, then swung herself up on the
wall, extended her hand, "_COME_ON_!_"
     Raccoon had paused to set the bombs, "Okay."
     The instant he set his foot on the drums, they shivered and started to
sink.
     "Take my hand!" she tried to grab her friend's flailing arm, before
the bombs went off, she only caught the edge of his sleeve, as he and the
drums were pulled underground in a cloud of dust.
     "KILL'EM ALL!" she yelled at the flame tanks, as she flipped herself
off the wall into the crowded street.  The bombs went off on the far side
of the wall.
     She ran for the main gate, as she heard the two flame guns firing, she
hoped they were covering the entire area with fire.  She only paused long
enough to grab a shovel off the side of one of the tanks.  She ran through
the gate and up on the top of one of the flame tanks, pounded on the hatch
with the shovel.
     "Cease fire, you got'em, get some people out here to dig!" she jumped
down as the tanks ceased firing, she ran for the odd mound, and started
digging frantically, ignoring the small fires that still burned, covering
them with dirt.
     She kept digging, "Come on!  Come on!  Jeff hang on!" ignoring the
others as they arrived to help with shovels, helmets or bare hands.
     Her shovel hit metal, she tossed it aside and joined the others
digging with their hands.  They uncovered a drum with a lid shoved down
into by the force of the explosion.
     Wondergirl physically pushed her aside, and wrenched loose the lid
Asuka had been straining at.
     "Good of you to dig me out," Wondergirl and Horseface dragged Raccoon
out of the drum, "I was a little concerned."
     "Only you," Horseface carried him to a stretcher, "Could jump into a
garbage can, get buried alive, AND STILL BE CLEAN!"
     "Close the lid before you submerge, I - " Raccoon quipped, until Asuka
grabbed him.
     "Don't you _ever_ do that _again_!_" she shouted at him.
     "Agreed."
     "We got them all," Wondergirl told them.
     "How do you know?" Ice Princess looked winded from wherever she'd run
from, and after elbowing her way through the crowd.
     "I know," Wondergirl told her.  Ice Princess was breathing too hard to
argue.
     "I say we take the rest of the day off, " Spineless joked, as the
school building gave up the ghost, and collapsed in on itself.
     "I don't know if all of you deserve a medal," Asuka told the others,
"Or electroconvulsive therapy!"
     "I'd settle for a pair of pants, a bath and a nap," he replied, "Not
necessarily in that order."
     "I just want to go home," Horseface complained.


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