Neon Echo Evangelion

Episode 5: An Unforeseen Flaw

	The Angel fired.
	Instinct kicked in for Brian. He immediately pushed himself off at a run, like a runner taking off from his starting blocks, his Eva tearing huge lumps of earth from the ground as its foots fell at high speed. He sped across the distance between him and Tony, racing against the speed of the death-bringing beam flying at the same target. I’m not gonna make it, he thought, panic welled up inside him, I’m not gonna make it! He put his shield out too his left to try and protect Tony from the brunt of the blast, in case he was too late. He crashed into Tony’s Eva at high speed, sending them both sprawling on the ground, he felt a heavy blow strike his shield which span him round in mid-air so he landed on his back. Brian quickly checked his shield, a hole had been burned nearly straight through it.
	“Oh my God,” He exclaimed marveling at the power of the Angels weapon. “Tony!” he shouted, remembering his stricken friend, “Are you okay Tony?”
	“Yeah, I’m fine,” Tony said sounding exhausted, “My arm doesn’t hurt anymore either.”
	“The nerve links to his left arm have been cut,” Lily said, “That was some amazing work Brian.” Brian smiled at this compliment.
	“Get out of the way!” Jacques screamed, “It’s going to fire again!” Brian looked up, the Angel’s chest had again begun glowing red, it was looking right at them. Man this guy must have something against Tony, Brian thought.
	“Can you move?” Brian asked.
	“I think so,” Tony replied.
	“Then move!” Brian stood up and pulled Tony’s Eva up by its remaining arm. He looked over at the Angel. Its chest was glowing bright red. It’s going to fire! He thought. He dived to the ground again pulling Tony down with him. He waited for the searing heat of the shot to pass overhead, but the heat never came, instead he heard…
	“Get the hell out of there!” Emma shouted, “I’ll keep it busy!” Brian didn’t stop to think, he grabbed Tony’s Eva and ran over to where Jacques stood ahead of them. As he ran he looked round, the Angel as being fired at, he could see bullets ricocheting off its armoured hide, he saw that Emma had taken up a kneeling position and was firing at the Angel to distract it. He reached Jacques and let go of Tony, who managed to stand up by himself.
	“So what do we do now?” He asked Jacques.
	“We’ve got to get Emma to safety , she’s in danger there.” Brian looked and saw the Angel fire another one of its beams at Emma, she managed to dive to the side and avoid it.
	“Hey guys, a little help would be nice,” she said sounding panicky.
	“Come on…” Brian urged Jacques to think up a plan.
	“Okay Emma take cover in the city, try to keep it focused on you, Jacques said at last. 
	“Okay!” Emma’s Eva rolled to the side, another beam struck the ground were she used to lie, she staggered upwards, stumbling once and having to put her hand down on the ground to stabilise herself. She made a break for the cover of the buildings, now cleared of their occupants, constantly under fire from the Angel.
	“Okay, Tony you stay here, if you see any opportunities for shots, take them, but until we get close enough to the Angel to engage it in hand to hand.”
	“Hey, Jacques how exactly are we going to kill it? The damn things bullet proof.” Brian complained.
	“Well, while you were being shot at I was studying it, and I noticed that its Core is in its chest. When it fires its vulnerable, so we need to wait for it to charge up a shot, and then we strike, hopefully it will be too distracted to close it’s chest and Emma will be able to take the shot,” Jacques said triumphantly, “Got that Emma?”
	“Yeah, but can you hurry up, this thing shooting through concrete like its paper!”
	“Okay, Brian approach it from the right, I’ll take left. Go!” Brian and Jacques both set off at a sprint, leaving Tony to kneel down and train his cannon on the Angel, waiting for a chance to get revenge. Brian could see the Angel to his left as he circled round it, trying to use the forests around the City as cover. He could see scarlet flashes emanating from the Angels chest  knocking down buildings like they dominoes. 
	Emma shifted to another building to avoid the devastating power of the beam, “What the hell is that weapon?” She asked.
	“We think it’s a particle weapon, similar to what Ramiel used, it’s able to penetrate AT fields so watch out,” Lily answered back.
	“Thanks,” she said sarcastically. Like I wasn’t worried about it enough already, Emma thought. She peeked round at the Angel, hoping to get a shot off at it. She saw the ominous red beam arcing straight towards her. She screamed in terror and flung herself to the right, into the cover of the buildings, she landed on her back, and a large flat block landed on her front. “Help I’m pinned!” Emma screamed in panic, she began firing wildly at the Angel, hoping to stop the next inevitable shot, as the Angels chest opened up again, to unleash death upon her.
	Brian was quite close to the Angel, he heard Emma’s scream and saw the building collapse on her Eva. I’ve got to strike now, it’s now or never, he thought. He drew his prog knife and leapt at the Angel. He landed on the huge creature’s back and dug the prog knife into the creature’s neck, blood spurted into his Eva’s face, obscuring his view. He heard the Angel scream, it sounded like a high-pitched kettle boiling. “Now!” Brian shouted, “Take the shot now!” 
	Emma tried to focus, she could see the Core in the centre of the Angels chest. It’s me or it, she thought, if I miss this I’m dead. She quickly lined up the shot, she could see the Angels chest was growing even more red, she didn’t have much time left. She focused, breathed out, and pulled the trigger.
	The Angel screamed again.
	“You missed!?” Brian cried in disbelief, the bullet had struck the Angel in the eye, spraying yet more blood over Brian’s Eva.
	“Help me!” Emma screamed, “Somebody do something!” She frantically began scrabbling at the debris covering her Eva.
	The Angel fired, again.
	Jacques flung himself in front of Emma, the beam hit him full on. He screamed with pain, it felt like his whole body was burning. Brian pulled his prog knife out of the Angel’s neck and repeatedly stabbed it in the neck, by now his Eva was nearly covered with the Angels blood, but yet the Angel kept firing. “Stop firing damn you!” Brian screamed out loud, Jacques can’t last much longer, he thought.
	The Angel suddenly jerked, knocked off balance, and stopped firing. Another shell struck the Angel in the side, it didn’t hurt it, due to the Angel’s ample protection, but the impact was enough to knock it off balance and stop it firing. Jacques’ Eva collapsed to the ground, all the Eva’s front armour had been melted, turning the front of the fighting machine into a large dark green mess. 
	Tony launched yet more shells at the Angel, “Hah, not so powerful when the shoes on the other foot now, are you?” He bawled at it in rage.
	One Shell caught the Angel full in the face, completely knocking it over. Brian leapt off the Angel’s back. He could see that it was trying to close its chest up to cover its vulnerable Core. “Oh no you don’t!” he shouted at it, and jammed the barrel of his shield-gun into the Angels chest, the Angels chest plates futilely tried to close around the gun. Brian pulled the Trigger for his machine gun, planted right on the Angels Core, and he didn’t let go.

	Brian sat back on a bench in the Hangars, he breathed out deeply, he was completely mentally and physically exhausted.
	“That’s quite a mess you made of that thing,” Ana commented. Brian looked up at his Eva, which was being hosed by several mechanics on small balconies scattered around the Eva. The Eva’s head, Chest, and arms were all completely covered in the unfortunate Angel’s blood. 
	“Well, the damn Angel just wouldn’t die,” Brian said, trying not to think of the blood bath he had instigated against the Angel.
	“Well, I doubt  it’ll be coming back to life after that,” Ana exhaled theatrically, “I doubt we’ll ever get that Shield clean.” Again Brian got a mental image of muzzle flare erupting inside the Angels chest cavity, and blood spraying out in every direction from around the edges of the Shield with the gun locked into it.
	“Look, can we not talk about that please,” Brian looked round, he could see Emma sitting with Jacques in his Hangar. While the Hangar’s were counted as being separate, there was actually only a very small wall separating the Hangars, and they were only there for the maintenance balconies to be mounted on.
	“Yeah, I understand,” Ana said, “I’m sorry if I offended you, I didn’t realise you didn’t like having to kill that Angel.”
	“No it’s not that, it’s just that… it bled, you know? I mean real red blood, that’s just not what you would expect from such a huge creature like that, I mean the blood looked… well, human.”
	“Well don’t let it bother you, how could something that big possibly be human,” Ana rubbed his shoulder in congratulations, “Well you did good, you certainly saved your friends, you should be proud.” Ana walked off to supervise the clean up of EVA-SHIELD. 
Ana, Brian thought, she always seems to know how to cheer you up, so does Lily as well, I suppose that’s why their such good friends, because their so alike. Yeah, I did do good, Brian thought, let’s see them call that performance satisfactory, he laughed to himself.
In Jacques Hangar Lily walked up to Emma.
“Emma, Director Cardinal wants to see you as soon as possible.”

“I completely disagree,” Sebastian Cole stated, “If anything I believe SIN requires more funding, we have no idea of knowing how many more Angels will appear.”
“If any more appear, we should get NERV involved, let them handle it instead of spreading our funding between SIN and NERV,” Lisa Morgenson replied.
“No, we have a bad enough problem trying to keep this incident secret as it is,” Alphonse Tomay argued, “The entirety of Nouveau Verdun saw that Angel, and most saw the Eva’s. And how were going to cover up the partial destruction of the East fringe of the city, I’ll never know. But if NERV gets involved in affairs over here it won’t take them long to figure out there have been other Angels, and then they will discover SIN, and God knows how they will react to that. Gendo Ikari is a loose cannon, he could try anything if he feels his position is threatened.”
“I agree,” Maria Folstein said, “We must reinforce SIN’s position. With the threat of more Angels, and the increased threat of discovery by NERV, SIN must be ready for any eventuality.”
“And how, pray tell, do you intend we get extra funding for SIN?” Lisa asked cynically.
“We can redirect funding from several sources,” Eve said, interrupting the bickering faces on the video screens around her office, “From the construction of new Hospitals around Europe, we could claim it is a way to get work done more cost efficiently. There are several large stores of capital for use in future “New” cities to be constructed around Europe, due to the fact that the population isn’t increasing as fast as previously thought some of these caches could be sold. Or money going to NERV could also be redirected, so far no Angel has been able to penetrate the Geofront, therefore we could cut some of their defense budget without incurring any major problems.”
“That seems satisfactory,” Sebastian said, “I’ll leave it up to you, Lisa, to sort out the nitty-gritty.” Lisa glared at Eve.
“The fact still remains that we must find out how to keep this incident secret, with information spreading over the Internet so fast nowadays it’s going to be a tough job, does anybody have any suggestions?” Alphonse asked. There was a knock on the door of Eve’s office.
“I’m afraid I must leave you for the time being,” Eve said I have some business to attend to.” Eve pressed a button on her desk and the Video screens all shut off and sank back into their recesses. “Enter,” she said once all the video screens had disappeared.
“Emma Harwood to see you ma’am,” Lily said.
“Send her in,” Eve said.
Emma walked into Eve’s office, it looked very intimidating. The Office was very long but very narrow, with only two windows on the far wall providing light into the room, and even that seemed rather gloomy, despite the bright sun outside.
“Please, take a seat,” Eve motioned to one of the large high-backed chairs in front of Eve’s large ornate wooden desk. Emma sat down in one of the chairs and sat as straight as she could. “I have called you here to review your performance,” Eve said calmly. Emma looked shocked.
“Did I do something wrong?” Emma asked, she felt hurt, nothing she had done before had been wrong, she had excelled at basically everything she had ever done in her life.
“Yes,” Eve replied coldly, “But don’t worry, I won’t be taking you off Alpha team, I simply wish to find out what has been affecting your performance recently.”
“I don’t know what you are talking about,” Emma said.
“Since that Initial fight with the Angel a month ago your performance has been steadily getting worse,” Eve said, “You managed to hit that Angels Core in what was a very difficult shot, I don’t know of many people who could pull off that shot. However since then your accuracy has been steadily going down,” Eve shifted a piece of paper in front of her, “In your first training session in SIN your accuracy was 93%, that is exceptional. However in your training with the new Eva’s early this morning your accuracy was only 71%, that is still good, but it is a large drop from your previous scores. Is there any explanation for this?” Eve looked up from the data sheet and stared straight at Emma, her gaze was so intense that Emma averted her eyes from looking at Eve and instead focused on the back of the computer screen on Eve’s desk.
“I’ve been having trouble sleeping recently,” Emma said.
“Go on.”
“I’ve been having… nightmares, ever since I first went in that test Eva,” Emma didn’t like to admit that such a trivial thing as nightmares was getting to her, but it felt good to get it off her chest.
“This is intriguing,” Eve said. “Is there a link between these nightmares?”
“Yes, in all of them… I see my parents die,” Emma felt even worse for admitting it, she didn’t even know how her parents died, but yet she was seeing them die in her dream.
“This is interesting, and so as a result you are not sleeping as well, and so you are becoming fatigued?”
“Yes, I have been drinking a lot of Coffee to try and hide it, but I’m finding it hard to focus now.”
“Yes, I saw how you missed that shot at the Angel’s Core today, it was a relatively easy shot,” Eve took a piece of paper from a draw in her desk and began writing on it, “However this problem is relatively easy to fix. Go to the base Hospital and give this slip to one of the Nurses there, they will give you a prescription of sleeping pills, they should help stop these nightmares and improve your combat performance.
“Oh, thank you,” Emma felt relieved that her condition could be cured so easily, feeling glad that she had confessed these things to Eve. She took the slip of paper Eve offered her and stood up. “Thanks a lot for your help,” She said again.
“I am simply making sure my pilots are in top physical and mental condition,” Eve looked at Emma, it looked like she was trying to say something. “Is there anything else?”
“Yes, actually,” Emma said, “You might think I’m crazy, even I don’t think I really saw it.”
“Can you hurry up please,” Eve said impatiently.
“Yes, of course, sorry,” Emma remembered what happened, “When I dived for cover behind the buildings I saw somebody, standing on the roof of a building near the centre of town. They were dressed in robes and they had, something in there hand, it was glowing green, I only saw them for a second, because I had to move to avoid fire from the Angel.”
“Interesting, I will have this matter looked up, this information could be valuable, thank you for reporting it. You may go now,” Eve returned to some paperwork on her desk. Emma got up and began her way down the long office.
She’s not such a bad person, Emma thought as she walked out of the room.

Episode 5: A light to a flame

“Just being that close to death makes you think really,” Tony was leaning against the wall on the top of his apartment block, Lily was standing next to him. Behind Tony the sun was setting, casting a deep orange glow over the whole of the city.
“I understand,” Lily tried to console him, ever since that fight Tony seemed to be very depressed, his normal happy-go-lucky self was more subdued.
“It’s been a crazy day hasn’t it?” Tony laughed nervously to himself. The time between waking up, going bowling with Art and everyone, trying out his new Eva, the fight between Brian and Jacques, and that final fight with the Angel, it had all been in one day. It felt like years to Tony.
“Do you still want to pilot it?” Lily asked cautiously, she wanted to keep Tony safe, but at the same time she didn’t want to force him to do anything he didn’t want to do.
“I don’t know, I’m still pretty messed up at the minute,” he massaged his forehead with his hand, trying to get rid of his furrowed brow. “I can’t deal with all this now,” he said, “I think I just need some time off to think.”
“Okay,” Lily said. She was becoming very worried, she hadn’t known Tony to be so indecisive, “I’ll give you the next few days off, just try and relax, see how you feel after that, okay?” Lily walked over to him and hugged Tony, squeezing him tight to make him feel loved and safe.
“Thanks Lily,” Tony smiled, completely ignoring the embarrassment of being hugged by his sister, and just simply taking comfort in the situation.
“You’ve all had a rough time today,” Lily broke off from the hug, “I expect you all need some time off,” Lily said. Tony looked very worn out, He’s probably just tired, Lily thought, He’ll be feeling better in the morning. Lily smiled at him. “Brian told me that you said mom and dad were killed in Second Impact,” Lily ventured, she didn’t think it was the best time to press Tony, but she figured that if he listened to her advice he would feel better for it.
“Yeah,” Tony said sounding exhausted, “He wouldn’t want to know what really happened,” Tony leaned back against the short wall round the apartment blocks roof, and looked out across the city, still bathed in the glow of the setting sun.
“I think you should trust him more,” Lily said, “He’s a nice boy, he’s got a good heart,” Lily also stared out across the city, “And he’s a good friend.”
“You think?” Tony asked, genuinely curious for Lily’s opinion.
“Well he’s put up with you for a month hasn’t he?” Lily smiled, Tony gave out a short laugh and a small smile appeared on his face. “And besides when he ran across those plains to get you out of the way of that beam, he broke the maximum speed limit for an Eva.”
“Really?” Tony asked shocked.
“Yeah,” Lily said, “From Information we’ve managed to get from NERV apparently an Eva can exceed it’s specifications when a strong emotion is involved, I’m guessing he counts you as a close friend.”
“Wow,” Tony looked round at Lily, “Thanks a lot Lily, I don’t know what I’d do without you.”
“It’s okay,” she said, “Listen… I’ve got to go now. Just try to relax over the next few days, and come and see me whenever you want,” she gave him another hug, “See you later Tony.” She headed off down the stairwell. 
“I don’t know what I did to deserve a sister like her,” Tony said to himself, “But it must have been something special.” Tony reached over and grabbed his acoustic guitar, which had been resting against the wall, he had brought it up to play it, and that was when Lily found him. He strummed a couple of chords on it and looked out across the city again, the far side of the city was becoming dark, as the sun began to sink below the hills in the distance. He began to play his Guitar, playing his favourite song, he had to concentrate on getting the right notes, and he listened to the music. It was enough to make him forget the horrors of the day, the excruciating pain of the particle beam blast, the feeling of helplessness as he stood paralysed by the pain, and the horrible sound of Jacques scream, as the beam slammed into him.
“I didn’t know you played Guitar,” he heard a voice say. He looked round, Brian had emerged from the stairwell.
“Hi there Brian,” Tony said, “How did you know I was up here?”
“I passed Lily on the way up to the apartment, and I followed the sound of the Guitar, how long have you been playing for?” Brian asked.
“About 5 years now,” Tony said, continuing to play his Guitar.
“I’ve never heard you practice before,” Brian said.
“I don’t really like disturbing people so I try to come up here to practice, that way I can’t annoy anyone with my playing.” Brian had never really noticed before, but Tony, although at first glance seems like an obnoxious person, rarely did anything to offend him. The only annoying thing Brian could think of was when Tony had made him go to Lily’s party, but he probably did that to keep Lily happy. And Brian was also secretly happy he had went, it was one of the only times he had been to a party like that, and he made several friends.
“What is that you’re playing?” Brian asked.
“It’s called ‘walking after you’,” Tony said. Brian stood in silence for a while until Tony finished playing the song.
“Are you okay?” Brian asked, with concern in his voice.
“Yeah, you?”
“I’m fine, just a little shaken from the fight and all.”
“We all are.”
“Yeah…” Brian looked out across the city, the massive shapes of the skyscrapers clustered in the centre of the city had become black monoliths, as the dark of night slowly spread across the city. The last sliver of light from the setting sun could be seen over the horizon. “I just talked to Lily and she said that Alpha team have the next few days for R & R.”
“Yeah, she was talking to me before about it,” Tony laughed nervously, “I bet you think I’m a real wimp, turning to my sister when I’m feeling down.”
“No,” Brian dismissed the notion playfully, “If anything you’re lucky, you’re really the only one out of Alpha team who has someone to talk to. My dad’s back in England, Jacques family live in Paris, I think, and well… you know about Emma’s family.”
“I guess your right,” Tony said.
“Well anyway, I was thinking maybe tomorrow we could all go out somewhere together,” Brian suggested.
“That sounds good,” Tony smiled, “Yeah, that sounds good.”
“Well, it’s getting dark, I’m going back to the apartment,” Brian said.
“You go on ahead, I’ll probably stay up here a bit longer,” Tony said.
“Okay, see you later,” Brian turned and headed towards the stairwell, and as he did he heard Tony begin playing his Guitar again, and start to sing.
“Tonight I’m tangled in my blanket of Clouds…”

Emma woke in a cold sweat. The night hadn’t yielded any rest for her, the sleeping pills had made sure she slept for the whole night, but it hadn’t got rid of the nightmares. It might just of been because of yesterday, she thought, it might of gotten to me. It wasn’t the fear of impending doom that she remembered most vividly from the battle yesterday, it was her failure. She had never failed at anything in her life, and as such she feared failure as much as death, success had filled her whole life. Without any parents, and not many friends, she usually threw herself fully into anything she did, to make sure she succeeded. If she failed at something she would have nothing left, she always thought, and now she had failed, and not just herself, she had failed her friends, because of her Jacques had been badly injured, not physically, but he had still felt pain.
She got up and had a shower. She had breakfast and then sat in her apartment and tried to read a book. Her apartment wasn’t anywhere near as luxurious as Brian and Tony’s, she had TV, but no satellite, so all the channels were in French, and she knew very little French. Her apartment was also very small, it was, after all, only an apartment for one person. She wondered what to do today, she had the next few days off, but at the minute she felt pretty gloomy, and she expected everyone else would feel the same, so she didn’t think anyone would want to do anything. Well it looks like I’ll just have to spend the day reading. The doorbell rang.
“Huh?” Nobody had ever came to her apartment since the people from SIN delivered her luggage to her apartment. She wandered over to the door and opened it. “Hello?” Jacques was standing outside, in his usual attire of his Blue long sleeved T-shirt and jeans.
“Hi there Emma,” He said.
“Oh hi Jacques,” She smiled at him. “Are you feeling okay?”
“You mean that little scratch I took during the battle,” he nonchalantly referred to the massive damage his Eva had taken, “Oh yeah, I’m feeling fine.” Emma laughed at Jacques pseudo macho attitude. Emma had expected him to be the worst affected by the fight but hearing him talk about it made it seem like he was completely unaffected by it.
“So what brings you here?” She asked.
“Well Brian called me and asked if I would want to go out and see a movie with him and Tony,” Jacques said.
“Brian called you?” Emma interrupted him, her voice heavy with disbelief.
“Yeah, I thought it was weird too, but I guess he just wants us all to have a good time today, to try and get over what happened yesterday,” Jacques said.
“That’s nice of him,” Emma said. Maybe I could try and patch things up between them today, Emma thought. “So why did you come here?”
“Well we had to have the whole of the team didn’t we? And nobody could remember you phone number so I figured I should go round to your apartment to get you.”
“How did you know where my apartment was?”
“Well I remembered the name of the block from when I saw the sheet with my apartment on, so I just asked at reception which apartment was yours. So do you want to go?”
“Yeah sure, but I’ll have to get ready first,” Emma rushed off into her apartment, “Just come in, I’ll only be 10 minutes.”
“Only ten minutes?” Jacques asked, he could probably get ready to go out in a minute.

“Hi Brian!” Emma said. She and Jacques walked up to Brian and Tony, who were standing outside a Cinema. The City was already bustling again, it was amazing how quickly life had returned to normal. Only yesterday several buildings in the east of the city had been completely destroyed by a monster the likes of which had only been seen in movies, and which had been fought off by a group of massive living war machines.
“Hi Emma, Jacques,” Brian said, Jacques nodded at him.
“Are you guys feeling okay?” Tony asked.
“Yeah, I’m feeling okay,” Emma said, “What about you?”
“Yeah, just a little shaken still from the battle,” Brian said.
“Shaken, from that little Scuffle? Hah!” Jacques said loudly.
“Hey you two,” Emma managed to interrupt before another argument started, “This day is supposed to be about having fun, so don’t fight okay? Surely you can get along for one day?”
“Yeah,” Brian said determinedly, agreeing with Emma.
“Well I suppose I can try,” Jacques said, “So what film do you want to see?”
“Well me and Tony were thinking about seeing Black Star,” He motioned to a poster showing a large battle between spaceships.
“A Sci-fi movie?” Jacques asked, sounding skeptical.
“I think an Action film should be avoided today,” Emma said diplomatically. “Um, how about this one,” She pointed at a poster with the title Shattered Heart, a quote from a newspaper below boldly declared it “The greatest Romance since Romeo & Juliet.”
“I don’t think I could watch a girly film right now,” Tony said.
“Why do all men assume that films about love are girly films?” Emma ranted.
“Well can you name a love film that’s made for boys?” Brian asked.
“Hey what about this?” Tony asked, “Dudley Finkel, it’s supposed to be really funny.”
“I think a comedy is just the right thing to watch right now,” Emma said.
“I suppose so,” Jacques said.
“Okay, I’ll get the tickets,” Tony said, “Brian you wouldn’t get me a bucket of popcorn would you?”
“Yeah sure,” Brian said.

“Well that sucked,” Jacques declared once they had left the Cinema.
”Well I liked it,” Brian said, trying to defend Tony’s choice of Movie.
“Well, it wasn’t as good as I thought it would be,” Tony said grudgingly, “Although that bit with the Crocodile was pretty funny.”
“Yeah,” Brian agreed, “‘But I swear officer, that Crocodile stole my wallet,’” Brian quoted from the film, both he and Tony laughed.
“That bit was just cruel,” Emma said.
“Hey it would have been a fake Crocodile,” Tony said, “They wouldn’t have been allowed to beat up a real one.”
“Still, I didn’t find it funny.”
“…And apparently it was some kind of weapon sent by some country to destroy the city,” The 4 pilots heard a man say as they walked by.
“You don’t say?” The man’s friend said in shock.
“Yep, it destroyed a large section on the eastside of the city, it’s all cordoned off now. But, get this, the army released some large weapons of its own to destroy it,” The person said putting special emphasis on the last sentence.
“Really did you see them too?”
“Nah, but Rene from down the pub saw them, he said they looked just as scary as the first one. One of them had bleeding eyes.”
“Bleeding eyes?”
“That’s what Rene said.”
“So what happened to this weapon?”
“Well it was defeated by the army’s weapons, obviously, and then a load of helicopters showed up and Airlifted the thing off, taken to some big shot research lab I heard.”
“Did anybody see them fight?”
“Rene said that the bad weapon was firing nuclear missiles out of its chest.”
“Hang on, wouldn’t that have destroyed the whole city?”
“That’s what I thought but Rene said they were special mini-nukes.”
“Wow, mini-nukes you say?”
“Yeah, and Rene said that the army’s weapons used knives.”
“Knives?”
“Yeah he was probably making that bit up, I mean mini-nukes, okay, but Knives. That’s just stupid.” 
“Well, I tell you I leave the country for two weeks and all this happens.” The two gossipers passed out of hearing range.
“Well, did you hear that?” Brian said.
“Those Morons, they didn’t have a clue how close this city came to being destroyed,” Jacques said.
“Well at least we don’t need to worry about SIN being found out if people are going about telling stupid stories like that,” Tony said, “No one will believe them.”
“Well what are we going to do now?” Jacques asked.
“I don’t know, what time is it?” Brian asked.
“It’s 3:30,” Tony said, “I suppose we could meet up with Art and do something, he’d be able to think of something to do.”
“No, I think that Bravo and Charlie Team are spending the day reviewing yesterdays battle and going on some kind of Intensive training course,” Brian said, “Well today didn’t turn out as well as I wanted it to.”
“No, I think it was Okay,” Emma said, “I’m going to go shopping if anyone wants to come with me.”
“I’ll come with you,” Jacques said, “I haven’t got anything better to do.”
“I think I’m going to go back to the apartment,” Tony said, “I’ve got homework to do for when the half term holiday finishes, so I’d better get started on that.”
“Oh yeah, I’ve still got that Geography work to do as well,” Brian remembered, “I’d better get that finished, I think I’ll head off to, you guys have fun.”
“Okay, see you later,” Emma said. She wished that Brian would have came as well, she seemed to be making some headway in getting Brian and Jacques to stop fighting, they hadn’t argued today, that was a good start. “Well is there any shop you want to go to?” she asked Jacques.
“Not really,” He replied, “But if I pass a shop that I want to go into I’ll tell you.”
“Okay, then let’s go to one of my shops first.”

“What do you think of this one?” Emma had just emerged from the changing rooms of the fifth clothes shop they had been into in the last hour. She was currently modeling a V-neck red blouse, with ruffled sleeves.
“That looks nice,” he said, trying to hide the intense boredom he felt from having to wait for five minutes during each change of clothes.
“Really, you don’t think this top is a bit too low cut?” She leant forward to illustrate the point and inadvertently gave Jacques a good view of her cleavage.
“Er, I don’t know,” Jacques looked away. He had been quite the playboy in his last school, with a quite a few of the girls after him, but something about Emma felt different to him. Before it was mostly the girls who wanted him, with him only caring slightly for them. But over the past few months he had became infatuated with Emma, he didn’t know why, maybe it was her English accent, the fact that she was a much better pilot than him, or just her looks, the first time he saw her he thought she was very attractive. But also he had some kind of feeling deep in his heart that she was far too good for him. He wasn’t sure, but he thought he loved her.
“Emma?” He asked tentatively.
“Yeah?” She replied, not taking her eyes off her reflection as she twisted around to see how the blouse looked from various angles.
“You wouldn’t want to go to a concert with me would you?” Jacques asked.
“What, you mean like on a date?” She turned round to look at him. He panicked, and tried very hard to hide it.
“Not really, think of it as a repayment,” he tried, trying to look as cool as he could.
“A repayment of what?” She asked skeptically.
“Well, there was that time you shot me in the arm,” He said looking up at the ceiling with a cheeky grin on his face, “And there was that time yesterday, when I saved your life. I mean these are small things, and I suppose that just one date will be too much to ask really,” he said, his voice positively dripping sarcasm.
“That’s not fair,” she said, “And anyhow, where are you going to get the tickets for the concert at such short notice?” she asked feeling she had won the argument.
“I got the tickets months ago,” he said, “Before I joined SIN. And I asked at the local arena, where the band is also playing, and they said they would convert the tickets for seats there, there were a few spare seats left.”
“And you just happen to have two tickets?” Emma asked skeptically.
“Yes I was planning to go with one of my friends back in Paris, but I’m sure he won’t mind giving up his ticket.”
“You’re a very evil man Jacques Martier,” she said, and returned to checking the blouse.
“So that’s a yes then?”
“Yes,” she said grumpily.

“So who exactly is playing tonight?” Emma asked as they took their seats in the arena.
“Well at 7:30 the support band, Star Child, come on, they are a soft rock band.”
“I’ve never heard of them,” Emma said.
“And then at 8:30 the main band, World’s Shortest Love Scene, come on,” Jacques announced triumphantly.
“Oh, I didn’t know they were doing a European tour,” Emma said.
“You’ve heard of them?” Jacques asked.
“Yes, There not my favourite band, but I really like ‘Field of Tears’.”
“Yeah, that’s there latest single, I’ve got both their albums. This tours being done to promote their new album, which ‘Field of Tears’ is taken from.”
“If you’d said they were playing I wouldn’t have grumbled so much.”

“Thank you Verdun!” The lead singer of World’s Shortest Love Scene shouted as their previous song received a great round of applause from the audience. “Now this is a song that has been around for a very long time, and has been covered by so many people over the years, but I still love it, and I hope you love it too,” the singer sat down at his Piano, and began to play.
“What is this song?” Emma asked, “It’s beautiful.”
“It’s called ‘Corpus Christi Carol’,” Jacques said, “It’s probably my favourite song by them, even if it isn’t an original.” Jacques looked across at Emma, she had closed her eyes and was gently swaying her head to the music. He smiled.
“…and on that bed there layeth a Knight…”

“Thanks a lot, Jacques,” Emma said, as she turned the key for her apartment.
“It’s okay, if anything I should be thanking you, it wouldn’t have been the same without you,” Jacques replied.
“Well I’ll probably see you tomorrow,” She said as she stood at the door.
“We’ll have to do this again sometime,” Jacques said, he knew it was a cliched phrase, but nothing better sprung to mind.
“Yeah we will,” Emma couldn’t believe what she had just said, but she smiled warmly anyway. 
Jacques leaned over and kissed her. When their lips met Emma felt like she should slap him, but the night had been so perfect, and she had seen a different side of Jacques, as opposed to the normal outwardly venomous Jacques. And besides, she actually enjoyed the kiss.
“Good night,” he said, as he walked down the corridor away from her apartment.
She closed the apartment door, and smiled a wide smile, that she just couldn’t contain. She felt the happiest she had felt for years, like a child still naïve to the mysteries of the world. She got changed, took her sleeping pills and climbed into her bed. As she closed her eyes she still felt happy, the music from the concert still playing in her ears, the feeling of the kiss still lingering on her lips. She hoped that maybe, just maybe, tonight she wouldn’t be plagued by nightmares.
She hoped in vain.

Ending Theme: Smashing Pumpkins – Speed Kills