Neon Echo Evangelion

Episode 6: One of those life changing decisions

	“What are we going to do with you Tony.”
	“What’s wrong with you Tony?”
	“Now look what you’ve done Tony!”
	“Stop trying to pass the blame Tony!”
	“Why do you keep doing this Tony?”
	The voices echoed around him, echoes of his memories.
	“I’m sorry mommy, don’t cry,” He said.
	“I didn’t mean to mommy, but he made me,” He said.
	“I didn’t mean to do it,” He said.
	“Don’t hurt me daddy, I’ll be a good boy,” He said.
	“There lying, I never did that,” He said.
	“Mommy? Where are you mommy? Mommy…”

	Tony woke up in startled shock, his breathing heavy. What was that? He thought, I’ve never had a dream like that before. He lay back in bed, and stared at the ceiling. It had been four days since that fight with the Angel, could that have been what caused that awful dream? He thought. He got up and went into the Living room.
	“Good Morning Tony,” Brian said, around a spoonful of cereal, “Did you sleep well last night?”
	“No, actually, I had an awful dream,” Tony said, he reached into the fridge and pulled a carton of milk out. Hmm, were nearly out of milk, he thought, I’d better get some more today. Brian was thankful that there was a mini-mart across the road from the apartment block.
	“That’s a shame,” Brian said, “Today’s the big day,” he said putting as much drama into that sentence as he could.
	“What do you mean big day?” Tony asked, he sat down next to Brian on the couch, some early morning cartoons were playing on the TV.
	“Well it’s the end of the half term holiday, so we’ve got to go back to school today,” Brian said, “And not to mention its parents evening tonight, so we get to find out how well we’re doing in school.”
	“I knew that, what did you get me all worked up for?”
	“That’s not what I meant, what I meant was after school we’ve got to go and tell Lily whether were going to stay on at Alpha team,” Brian said.
	“Oh yeah,” the gravity of the situation hit Tony.
	“So what are you gonna do?” Brian asked, “I suppose even if you don’t decide to stay on with Alpha you’ll still stay at the base with Lily, Right?”
	“Yeah,” Tony looked round at Brian, he remembered Lily’s words.
	“…I’m guessing he counts you as a close friend,” she had said. A close friend, he thought, I haven’t had many friends. And I’m doing my bit for the safety of the world, he thought. Sure I might of nearly got killed, but if it wasn’t for me hitting that Angel, He remembered seeing the Shell launch from his cannon and streak out across the grassy expanse to slam into the Angels chest, then Jacques might have been killed, and Brian couldn’t have defeated the Angel. Yeah, I’ve got to stay, he thought, and protect my friends.
	“You know what, I think I’ll stay,” Tony said.
	“Yeah, good for you,” Brian slapped him on the back, “We pilots have got to stick together.”
	“So are you staying to?”
	“Of course, my life has meaning here, If I moved back to England I’d end up in a dead end job somewhere, but here I get to do something worthwhile. Of course no one will ever know about it, but I’ll be able to feel I’ve contributed to the safety of the whole human race.”
	“Yeah, we pilots have got to stick together,” Tony agreed.

	It was a pretty uneventful school day, they had lessons of History, Maths, Physical education, Science, Geography and English, the study of English that is, not learning the language. In 2003 English was declared the standard language in Europe, and as such was taught in Primary schools to European children, that is why everyone in Europe is able to speak English. However most European families encourage their children to speak their native tongue whenever possible. Germany is notorious for its desire to keep its national language, and as such Germans usually only speak English when in the presence of English speaking people. However in France the people where much happier to speak English, especially due to the depression France fell into after the Second Impact meaning that they usually relied on trade with foreign businesses to keep the economy stable, most of these foreign businesses being English speaking. So in France people usually only speak French when talking to people from older generations, who didn’t have extensive teaching in English. However when the pilots went to SIN afterwards Brian received a pleasant surprise. As they walked down one of the corridors, away from the elevators, to Lily’s office they spotted her up ahead in the corridor.
	“Hello Brian!” A man was standing next to Lily, he was very tall, wearing a Grey business suit, he had brown hair with a large beard.
	“Dad?” Brian said in disbelief.
	“How you doing son?” James Robertson said, he leaned down and hugged his son.
	“I’m doing great, but what are you doing here?” Brian asked.
	“Don’t you remember?” Lily said, “It’s parents evening tonight.”
	“You mean you flew my dad all the way out here for parents evening?” Brian stared in disbelief at Lily, he still couldn’t take in the situation fully. “Wow, thanks a lot Lily.”
	“I’m sorry I haven’t called you yet Brian but I’ve been so busy over the past month, I had to secure a deal with a very large contractor,” Brian’s dad said.
	“It’s okay Dad, I’ve been coping on my own fine,” Brian said.
	“Hah, you certainly have,” He smiled warmly at Brian, “My little boys all grown up.” The other members of Alpha team stared at Brian and his dad in shock.
	“Dad, you’re embarrassing me,” He said, when he saw them all staring at him. “Oh yeah, these are the rest of my erm…” He looked at Lily, unsure of what to tell him. He remembered what she had said to him when he left England. 
“I have told your father that you are joining a team that is testing out new military equipment, so don’t go letting any information slip, got it?”.
	“This is the rest of Alpha squad,” Lily said.
	“Yeah,” Brian said nervously, still unsure of what his dad knew. “This is Tony, he shares an apartment with me, he’s a bit loud but he’s got a good heart.” Did I just say that? He thought, it was the first thing that came into his head and he was as puzzled by it as Tony looked. “That’s his sister you were talking to before,” Brian explained.
	“Yes she told me,” James said.
	“And that is Emma, you remember her don’t you?”
	“Oh yes, It’s been a while since I saw you last Emma.”
	“Hi Mr. Robertson,” She said politely.
	“And that’s Jacques Martier,” He pointed at Jacques, who turned his head away and pretended to ignore them.
	“Is that the boy who’s been picking on you?” James whispered to Brian.
	“Well yes,” he replied, “but we haven’t fought for a while, and I always gave as good as I got,” Brian said.
	“Good lad,” James whispered back, he patted Brian on the shoulder.
	“Jacques, your parents have came to see you as well,” Lily said, there waiting at the school for you.
	“Oh, that’s good,” Jacques said, with very little emotion in his voice. Emma glanced across to him, he was standing with his hands in his pockets and a blank expression on his face, there was nothing to show what he really felt. That was one thing Emma had learned about Jacques over the past few days since the concert, that he usually hid his emotions, and he had been doing it for so long that he had gotten very good at it.
	“And if you will all care to follow me, I’m sorry Mr. Robertson but we are about to have a tactical meeting, I’m afraid you won’t be allowed to come with us,” Lily said to him.
	“Oh that’s okay,” he replied cheerfully, “I’ll just wait here for you.” The pilots and Lily headed off down the corridor. Brian hung back to talk to Emma.
	“Man, can you believe that guy?” Brian said nodding towards Jacques, who was marching on ahead, “He’s so cold, It’s like his parents hate him or something, not that I would blame them, having a son like that.”
	“Hey,” Emma said, perhaps too abruptly, “That’s not a nice thing to say,” she tried to explain her defensiveness of Jacques. From the day at school Emma saw that it was clear that Jacques didn’t want anyone to know that they were going out. “He’s just, he’s just hiding his emotions, I think,” she quickly added, “He doesn’t like people knowing how he really feels, so he cover it up by being unemotional and vicious to those around him,” Emma said, “Well, at least that’s what I think.”
	“Wow,” Brian exclaimed at this remarkable insight into Jacques psyche, “I never really looked at it that way before,” Brian mused over this for a while, “But he’s still a jerk.” Emma grumbled at him.
	“Okay, listen up everybody,” Lily said, as she opened the door to her office, “It’s time for you to choose. Just take a seat,” Tony immediately grabbed one of the two seats in the office, leaving one left.
	“You can have that seat,” Brian and Jacques both said simultaneously to Emma.
	“Oh, thanks guys,” She said as she sat down. Brian and Jacques growled at each other, annoyed that they had to share attention from Emma. While Brian thought of Emma as more of a friend than a prospective girl friend, he still found her quite attractive. As such he had found it very annoying that Jacques seemed to have spent more time with her than he had, over the past week. 
	“Okay, I’ve given you enough time to think about it so I hope you have all reached a decision,” Lily said, “Remember that this is your own decision, so don’t feel pressured into this just because of what somebody said. And don’t feel obligated just because we chose you, we have plenty more pilots now, okay?” The pilots all nodded. “So then Tony, what have you decided on?” Lily asked, she had chosen to ask Tony first as she was eager to know what his decision was.
	“I’m going to stay in Alpha team,” Tony said confidently.
	“Okay Tony,” Lily looked at Brian, “And you Brian, What’s your decision?”
	“I’m going to stay as well,” Brian said.
	“All right then,” Lily turned to look at Jacques, “Jacques?”
“I’m going to stay as well,” He said coolly. Emma looked round at Jacques, who was standing behind her chair. She had talked to him about this the day before, during a shopping trip they had taken a break in one of the parks that were scattered around the centre of the city.
“Jacques, about this thing with Alpha team,” she had said as she sat down on the park bench, dropping her numerous shopping bags around her feet.
“Yeah?” Jacques said as he sat down next to her.
“What…” she didn’t quite know how to ask this without being nosy, but she had begun to care about Jacques a lot recently, and she really wanted to know what he was going to do, “What are you going to do, are you going to stay?”
“I think so,” he answered after a long pause. “There’s nothing for me to do back in Paris,” he said sounding quite somber, “and besides I’ve got to get my own back on those damn Angels,” he added jokily. She hated it when he did that, he always sounded so sincere, and then when she touched on something sensitive he laughed it off. He was a like a different person when he was with her, normally he acted cold or insulting to cover his emotions, but when he was with her joked on to avoid talking about something. I suppose he doesn’t want to insult me by acting distant, she thought.
“You think that there’ll be more Angels?” she asked.
“Well, I hope not. But when you look at the amount NERV have encountered, there’s bound to be more coming.” Jacques turned to look at Emma, she was staring distantly at the flower beds In front of the bench, “So, are you going to stay?”
“Yeah,” Emma said, “England holds nothing for me now. And I am the best pilot after all,” she joked, they both laughed. I’m as bad as him, she thought, covering my feelings with jokes. What she wanted to say was, “And I want to be with you.”
“Emma?” Lily asked.
“Huh?” she snapped out of her daydream, “What?”
“Are you going to stay with SIN?” Lily asked, trying not to get impatient with the girl.
“Yes, yes I am,” she said, a strength audible in her voice.
“I’m glad to hear it,” Lily smiled a broad, infectious smile. “Right, now its your parents evening in half an hour, so you may as well all come with me,” Lily said, standing up, “Except for you Brian, your dad wants to take you there himself.”
“Okay,” Brian said, thankful he would get more time to spend with his dad.
“Okay, lets go,” Lily said.
“Excuse me?” Tony asked, everybody in the room looked at him, “But what am I supposed to tell my sister I’m doing, she’s not the sharpest tool in the shed so she should be easy to fool,” he said, with a cheeky grin on his face.

“So what things do you test out there?” James Robertson asked.
“Oh, er…” Brian tried to think of something, but all he could think about when he tried to think of some military hardware were action computer games, “Er, training simulators,” he said.
“Training Simulators?” His dad quizzed him, while he glared at the traffic lights, urging them to go green.
“Yeah, we try out these, like, virtual reality things, there supposed to teach new soldiers combat tactics, that is, when they’re completed.”
“Interesting,” The car lurched off as the traffic lights changed, they turned left into the street with Chirac comprehensive on it. “So I guess you’ve saved the world a few times, huh?” he joked.
“More times then you would have thought,” Brian said, trying not to laugh at his own private joke. His dad drove round to the car park at the rear of the school.
“So why do SIN do weapons testing?” His dad asked.
“Er, well, they were responsible for creating the program used in making the simulators. I think that they do programming as well as creating the whole European computer net.”
“I see,” they sat in silence for a while as James scouted the car park for a space. “So you’re enjoying it here then?” James asked, as he reversed into a parking space.
“Yeah, there all nice people, Tony’s a good friend,” Brian said as he got out of the car.
“You share an apartment with him, right?”
“Yeah, he’s a bit messy, but he’s surprisingly considerate,” Brian said, as they made there way over to the school. 
“I just can’t believe that you’ve left home this early, I was expecting to have you around until you went to University.”
“You’re alright, on your own, aren’t you?” Brian asked, he had never really had any in-depth conversations with his dad, and so wasn’t used to them.
“Oh, don’t worry about me, I’ve got my work, and I do have friends of my own you know,” he said. Brian laughed, relieved that his dad was okay. He had never really considered how lonely it would be for his dad with him gone, he’d be on his own. But then again he was on his own, in France, which was probably worse. He remembered his granddad, who was still living in Scotland, and his hatred of, well, just about everyone. 
“France?” he had said, when Brian had called him to tell him about his move to SIN, “What do you want to go there for, it’s full of bloody Frogs,” he had said, “Eating frogs legs and talking there gibberish language left, right and centre.” Brian had laughed at his Granddad’s archaic stereotype of French people.
“You could always go back to Scotland if you wanted to,” Brian suggested, “Live near Granddad, you could visit him every now and then. He might be lonely.”
“No, I don’t think so,” James laughed, the prospect of being given advice by his son had amused him, “I’m fine were I am, and it would cause to much problems if I moved now, I’d have to change my job. And anyway, I visited your Granddad a few weeks ago, he’s quite happy living with Grandma, and I hear he’s become quite popular at the local Bingo hall,” they both laughed.
“Nice to see you again Mr. Robertson,” Lily said, she was waiting at the back entrance to the school.
“Hello Miss. Alvara,” he said cheerfully.
“Hi, Lily,” Brian said.
“If you just follow me I’ll show you were to go.”

“Well, that was pretty good, you’re predicted a B in Math’s then,” James said, looking over the report sheet the teacher had given him. 
“Yeah, I didn’t think I was that good at Math’s,” Brian said.
“I have to say, I had forgotten that they all speak English on the continent now, I thought I would have to act like you Granddad, and shout at them until they understood,” he laughed.
“There you are!” Brian heard a voice shout, he looked around the hall they were in. The desks with teachers at them were scattered around the hall, usually with large queues of people waiting to speak to the teachers, as such it was very hard to see, or hear due to the amount of noise the people were making chatting among themselves. He spied Emma, worming her way through the throng to get to him.
“I’ve been looking all over for you,” She said, “Oh hi there Mr. Robertson,” she smiled at Brian’s dad.
“Hello Emma, do you want Brian for something?” His dad asked.
“Yes,” She turned to look at Brian, “Come and meet Jacques’ parents, they want to meet all of Alpha team.”
“Okay,” Brian said, Emma grabbed Brian’s wrist and dragged him through the crowd the way she had came.
“Sorry about this Mr. Robertson!” She shouted over the din, “Wait there I’ll bring him back!”
	“Okay!” Brian’s dad shouted back. Brian saw Lily, Tony and Jacques all clustered around a middle aged couple. The man was quite short, with brown hair, grey streaks were visible when the light caught his hair, and glasses. The woman was taller than the man, with long blonde hair, although Brian guessed she would probably be in her early forties she had a young face and as such she only looked about thirty.
“Mr. and Mrs. Martier, this is Brian Robertson, the last member of our research team,” Emma introduced him.
“Hello,” he said nervously.
“Bonjour,” The man said.
“Hello Brian,” The woman said, her voice sounded shaky, like she was trying to get a grip on the words, “You will excuse my bad English,” she said jerkily. Although it sounded abrupt she had a kindly expression on her face so Brian realised that the last sentence hadn’t come out quite as politely as she had intended it to, and she just didn’t realise. “We have not been taught English like Jacques was,” she said.
“It’s okay,” he said. Jacques’ father turned to Jacques.
“Il ce le garcon qui-est ce gagner sur tu?” he said.
	“Mais, oui,” Jacques replied, “mais nous pas catailler pour pendant que semaine dernier et je,” he said.
“Toujours bagerre,” Jacques’ father said back, a pleased look on his face, he patted Jacques on the shoulder.
“So what grades are you predicted?” Tony asked him, as Lily conversed, awkwardly with Jacques’ mother, his father seemed to have no grasp of English at all.
“Ooh, er,” He tried to remember all of them, “A B for Math’s, D for Geography-”
“Ooh, that’s nasty,” Tony interrupted.
“Yeah, I thought I would do better than that,” Brian agreed. “Hey what did Emma get?” he asked, he was interested in seeing whether he had beaten her in any subjects, although he doubted it.
“Oh man,” Tony said, in the manner of someone who is about to tell somebody something shocking, “She got A’s in all her subjects,” Tony said, waving his arms dramatically.
“All A’s!?” Brian exclaimed, “How did she manage that?”
“Well she says its because she’s been kept back a year,” Tony said.
“What does she mean kept back a year?” Brian asked puzzled.
“Well she says that she has done all this work before, when she was in England. Hey you knew her back in England, was she in the year above you?”
“I don’t know, she went to a different school, and it never really came up when we talked.”
“Oh right, Lily seemed pretty spooked when Emma told her all this, I don’t know why, maybe she’ll get reprimanded for putting her in the wrong class.” Tony pondered.
“I don’t think so, it’s the schools fault, surely they should have checked her Birth certificate?” Brian asked himself.
“Oh well, it won’t do any good to wonder about it now. Hey, I should be getting a games console for the apartment this weekend,” Tony announced triumphantly.
“Cool, what are you getting?” Brian asked.
“I don’t know, maybe the new playstation,” Tony said, “It’s got some pretty cool games on it.”
“Yeah I read some good reviews of the games on that,” Brian said, “How can you afford it though?”
“I’ve been saving my pay from SIN, and I’ve used some of the money from my military account,” Tony said, sounding smug.
“Oh, that Military account again,” Brian grumbled, “I can hardly afford anything with the pay I get from SIN.” Brian remembered when he first got his paycheck from SIN. “Is this all?” he asked, as Lily handed him the slip of paper, “25 francs?”
“That’s about ₤17,” Lily said, “You’d be hard pushed to get a job with ₤17 a week pay in France’s current economic state.”
“But I’m saving the world, surely I could get a little more than that?”
“What more do you want, the prices are pretty low in France at the minute, 25 francs will get you two, maybe three CD’s,” Lily said, “I thought all you teenagers only bought CD’s nowadays.”
“Yeah,” Tony said, interrupting Brian’s memory, “But I got paid pretty well on the military base back in Italy, and I worked there for about two years.”
“Well Lucky you,” Brian said sarcastically, “So what are your predicted grades?”
“Oh, well I got the same as you in Math’s, a C in Geography, erm…” he paused and rubbed his chin in thought, “C in History, C in English, and-”
“Okay you guys can I speak to you all for a minute,” Brian looked round to see Lily looking nervously at the pilots, Emma was standing by her side looking equally nervous, “Alone,” she said, looking at Jacques’ parents.
“I wonder what this is about?” Brian asked.
“You got me,” Tony replied. They both walked over to Lily, who led them all into a classroom joining onto the hall.
“Okay pilots we have to go,” Lily said.
“Already?” Brian asked, “I haven’t seen all my Teachers yet though.”
“I’m afraid,” Lily said, lowering her voice to a whisper so no one in the hall would hear her, “Another Angel has been spotted,” She saw the pilots faces go white, except for Emma who had overheard her conversation on her Mobile Phone.
“Another one?” Tony asked, “How many of these are there going to be?”
“We don’t know,” Lily said, “But we have to leave now, we’ve managed to corner it in St. Julien, but we don’t know how long it will stay there.

“You can’t be serious?” Jan said, he didn’t believe what he had just heard, “You’re going to commit these kids to battle in damaged Eva’s?”
“Do you have a problem with this?” Eve said calmly.
“Yes, they nearly got killed last time, and they were in brand new Eva’s, they’ll get killed if they go out in damaged Eva’s.”
“The last time was an exception,” Eve said, “That Angel took us by surprise, and that Angel was also very powerful. Preliminary reports from scouts indicate that this Angel is not as well armoured or armed as the last. Also we have the Angel where we want it, I do not want to lose this opportunity.”
“But Jacques’ Eva is completely useless at the minute, all the front armour was fused in that last attack, the Eva can’t move because the armour has hardened into a solid lump.”
“That is why Jacques will not be sortied with the rest of Alpha team, however Tony will, his Eva is still combat capable.”
“It only has one arm, repair work hasn’t finished on it.”
“And it performed fine in battle last time with one arm,” Eve said, Jan recognised that steely glint in her eyes, he couldn’t win this argument, not even if he was in the right.

Episode 6: The Slaughterhouse Rock

So here I am again, Brian thought, back in this Eva, having to protect the world from these creatures. He looked down and saw the countryside roll past him.
“If you stand still long enough, the wind will blow the world by,” Tony said.
“Huh?” Brian looked to his left and saw the large winged plane that was carrying Tony’s Eva in between the clouds.
“It’s a quote I read somewhere,” Tony said, “It seemed pretty apt.”
“We have to keep it together,” Emma said, “We don’t want a repeat of last time, I think we would all like to forget that.”
“It’s going to be pretty tough,” Tony said, “You would have thought this Angel would have had the decency to wait until our Eva’s were repaired,” he grumbled. “But I can take on this guy with one arm,” Tony said, trying his best to sound macho, to inspire confidence in the rest of Alpha team, and himself.
“Well you got off lightly Brian,” Emma said, “Your Eva didn’t receive any damage, my Eva’s legs were damaged when that building collapsed on me, I’m going to have to limp about everywhere.” Brian laughed at the thought of an Eva limping about on giant crutches.
“Whoa,” Brian exclaimed, as the city appeared from out of the clouds below him, a massive crater occupied the centre of the city, most of the buildings around the crater looked derelict. “What happened here?” Brian asked, fear welled up inside him, “Did the Angel do that?”
“No,” Lily said, “We did.”
“Huh?” The pilots all said in unison.
“The Angel was spotted in the city, we managed to evacuate the population and then we dropped an N2 mine on the Angel.”
“You mean it’s dead?” Tony asked, hope audible in his voice.
“No, it’s taken refuge somewhere in the city to regenerate,” Lily said, it should still be damaged from the blast so this shouldn’t be…” Lily stopped herself, she said its shouldn’t be hard last time, and look what happened. “Well, good luck pilots,” she managed to say at last.
“Good luck guys,” the pilots heard Jacques say, “I’m just sorry I can’t be there to kick some Angel butt, I know how much you guys need me.” Emma smiled, happy to know Jacques was safe back at SIN HQ. “And Brian?”
“Yeah?” 
“Try not to screw up too much, okay?” Jacques laughed.
“I’ll show you who’s the screw up, Mr. I’ve just totaled my Eva!” Brian shouted.
“Approaching Drop Zone,” Lily said, “ As soon as you land you should spread your AT fields, connect the power generator trucks to your Eva, and search the city for the Angel.”
“Got it,” Emma said.
“Okay, Drop in 3… 2… 1… Drop!” Brian heard the clamps, holding his Eva to the underside of the plane, open with a thud. He immediately felt wind blowing round him at a high speed as he dropped to the ground far below, the clock showing how much time of energy he had left began counting down from 5:00. He remembered what Ana had said to them as they were getting prepared for liftoff.
“These things will survive any fall, so just make sure you land on your feet and you’ll be fine.” Brian tried to keep himself vertical as he descended to the ground. Primitive fears bubbled up inside him as he saw the ground drawing near, the rational part of his Brain was saying he would be fine, but the more basic parts of his Brain were saying he was going to be squashed flat when he hit the ground. When he hit the ground his knees bent automatically, and he put his hands out in front of him on the ground to absorb the impact. They had landed on the outskirts of the city.
“Yeah!” Tony shouted, “Let’s do that again.”
“I didn’t like that much,” Emma said. “Anyway, spread your AT fields everybody.” Brian felt the familiar electric surge pass through him, and then grabbed the power cable from the top of the large truck nearby and inserted into the socket on the Eva’s back, the countdown turned to 00:00:00.
“Split up to cover more ground, if anybody spots the Angel do not engage it, wait for your team mates to arrive before attacking, got it?” Lily said.
“Roger,” the pilots chorused.
“Okay Alpha team,” Emma announced, “Let’s move out.”

It had been 10 minutes since the search started, Brian had expected Alpha team to be able to search the whole city with their Eva’s in a few minutes, but the rubble and debris left from the N2 attack was proving more difficult than expected to move through.
“Are you doing okay?” Brian asked Tony.
“Yeah, but it’s a bit more difficult to move with only one arm than I thought, It’s hard to keep balance,” The hologram of Tony said.
“Just hang in there,” Brian said enthusiastically. “What about you Emma, how are you doing?”
“Well these legs are pretty slow moving, but otherwise I’m okay,” The hologram of Emma smiled at him.
“Has anybody seen any sight of this Angel?” Brian asked impatiently.
“No, afraid not,” Emma said.
“Not a thing,” Tony said.
“Me neither,” Brian said dejectedly, “Have you spotted it Lily?”
“No, nothing yet,” Lily scanned over the birds eye view of the city provided by spy planes circling overhead, “I’ll tell you if any movement is spotted.”
“Thanks Lily,” Tony said, he was standing in a large business district of the city, all the tall skyscrapers had been completely gutted, standing now as husks of their former selves. Where the hell could this thing be? Tony thought, We’ve searched nearly the whole city, something as big as an Angel can’t have many places to hide. Tony looked up at the sky, grey clouds sailed by overhead, casting a gloom over the city. The hairs on the back of his neck stood on end. Something hissed. “What the hell was that?” Tony whispered, fear rife in his mind.
“What was what?” Brian asked, “If you’ve spotted any movement, then pull back, we’ll come and join you okay?”
“I just heard something,” Tony said, looking round. He turned round, a rather large skyscraper was in front of him now, there was something odd about it, It didn’t look like it had been hit by the blast, even though there was a large hole in one side of the skyscraper. “Something hissed,” Tony said.
“Are you sure?” Brian asked skeptically.
“Of course I’m sure,” Tony said nervously, “I know a hiss when I hear one.” And then Tony realised what was so odd about the Skyscraper, it had been hollowed out. “Oh no,” he said, “I think I’ve just found where the Angel is hid- Aaaargh!”
“What is it Tony!” Brian shouted, he began to take off towards the direction Tony had headed. “Lily, where is he? What’s going on?” Brian asked frantically.
A face like something from a nightmare swung out from the darkness of the skyscraper's innards, on the end of a long neck. Tony froze in sheer terror at the sight, the face had no nose, and a mouth, wide and cruel looking, its teeth were of varying sizes and arranged crookedly about its jaws. It had no eyes, but not in the way that it had no nose, it still had eye sockets, but they had been sown up, and yet, it stared right at him.
	“Somebody,” Tony said quietly, trying to squeeze the words out of a throat frozen by fear, “Help me.” The Angel hissed, and uncurled from its position hanging upside down from the skyscraper’s roof. It was massive, about one and a half times the size of an Eva, but it was incredibly thin, like it was suffering from some horrible wasting disease. It was all very dark green in colour, so dark it looked more like black, especially in the gloom of the grey clouds overhead, except for the bony covering’s on the Angels forearms shins and chest, which were a creamy white. It’s arms were long and thin, with wicked talons on the end of its fingers. It stood up to its full height and towered over Tony’s Eva. It hissed again, a wisp of purple smoke escaped from its mouth and struck the face of Eva-Artillery, and it burned. Tony screamed in pain, it felt like someone had splashed acid in his face.
	“Tony I’m coming!” Brian shouted, “Emma where are you?” Brian asked. It’s all happening again, he thought, my friends are getting hurt, and I can’t do anything about it. He remembered the desperation he felt as he repeatedly plunged his prog knife into the Angels neck, and realising he having no effect on the Angel.
	“I’m over the other side of the city,” Emma said, “It’ll taking me about five minutes to reach Tony, you’ll have to stop that Angel yourself.” Panic washed over Brian, it was just him and Tony against the Angel.
	Tony swung his right arm up, hoping to slam the barrel of the cannon on his arm into the Angels mouth and blow its head off. The Angel was too quick, it grabbed his arm, and Tony’s arm erupted in blazing pain. He screamed again. Tony could see a strange purple and green rash spreading from where the Angel’s hand touched his arm.
	“It’s spreading some kind of virus!” Josh shouted, staring at a display of Tony’s Eva, the diagram’s arm flashed red and the word ‘Contaminated’ flashed at the top of the screen.
	“Brian, get over there quick! Tony, you need get away from that Angel, engage at long range, repeat, engage at long range!” Lily shouted over the communication system. Jacques was standing next to her, horror showed in his face.
	“What are they going to do?” Jacques asked.
	“Whatever they can,” Lily said, a look of grim determination on her face, “Let’s just pray that nothing else goes wrong.”
	“There’s a malfunction in Eva-Artillery!” Josh shouted.
	“Is it the virus?” Lily asked.
	“No, something else is causing it, Eva-Artillery is losing power,” Josh quickly began running diagnostic checks of the Eva’s systems, “Power cable is clean, so is the internal battery, something is shutting off the power to the Eva. Shit, it only has 10 seconds of power left!”
	“Tony, move, your Eva’s suffering a system failure, try to get away from the Angel before you run out of power!”
	Tony glanced across at the power timer, it read 00:08. Not good, he thought. He tried to wrest his arm away from the Angel, but its grip was like a vice. “Brian, hurry up!” Tony looked up to see the Angel raise its arm, flexing its talons in anticipation, and then strike. Tony screamed in pain as the Angels razor sharp talons pierced the armour on the Eva’s head, piercing two of the Eva’s four eyes in the process. Tony clutched his left eye, “I’m blind!” he screamed.
	“Brian hurry up!” Lily was becoming panicky.
	“Eva-Artillery’s AT field has just failed,” Josh announced, “Power is depleted, I’m working to restore it, but I can’t promise anything.”
	Brian raced through the debris and the wrecked buildings, his foot caught a large section of building in the middle of the road, he stumbled and fell flat in the middle of the road. Get up you idiot! He shouted at himself. He pushed himself up and took off at a sprint.
	Tony tried to stave off the pain coursing through his body.
	“Cut the nerve links to 30%,” Lily shouted.
	“We can’t,” An analyst sitting next to Josh said, “We can’t get any orders through to the Eva’s CPU.”
	“This isn’t an ordinary power failure,” Josh said, “If an Eva loses power all nerve links should be automatically shut down, but they are staying active. It looks like its some kind of computer virus causing this.”
	“It looks like whoever sabotaged the Eva wanted the pilot to suffer as well,” The analyst said.
	With agonising slowness the Angel raised Eva-Artillery up by its head, the Angels talons cutting deeper into the head unit, until the Eva was hanging useless in the air in front of the tall Angel. The Angel drew its other hand back, straightening its hand to line its arm up like an arrow, ready to fly. The Angels lips parted in a sick grin.

	Jan walked slowly towards the control room in SIN HQ, to check on the progress of the mission. As he walked down a long corridor he immediately remembered which way to go, up ahead was a junction, he had to go right, an then the control room was the first room on his left. He rarely visited the control room, instead putting his faith in Lily and the other Operations staff, but he did pride himself on his good memory, and as such was quietly pleased that he had remembered the location of the Control Room. Suddenly a figure, clad in crimson robes, when running past the junction ahead. For a minute he thought he had imagined it, but as he reached the junction and stared down to the left he caught a glimpse of the robed figure round the corner of another corridor. Jan quickly activated the communication system on his watch and switched it to the SIN guard frequency. “Attention all Guards,” he said, “An intruder has been spotted in section 3, heading for the service exits in section 2, intercept and detain, repeat, intercept and detain. I want the intruder alive.”

	The Angel struck, its hand pierced the chest armour on Eva-Artillery easily, without the AT field present to protect the Eva. Tony cried out in pain, and clutched his chest. This is some kind of sick joke, he thought, this damn Angel is happily torturing me and no one is helping, no one. Please, somebody, anybody, “Help me!” he screamed. The Angels hand penetrated further into the Eva’s chest, probing around like a rough surgeon trying to locate a cancer in a patient. Tony doubled up in pain, his whole body, trying to reject what was happening, thrashed about. Arching his back in agony he slammed his fists into the command seat he was strapped into. Suddenly a creaking sound filled the entry plug. It’s going to crush he entry plug! He thought.
	“It’s going to crush the entry plug!” Josh shouted, alarms flashed on the display for Eva-Artillery, warning signs flashed up on the screen saying, ‘Contaminated’, ‘Structural Integrity Compromised’, and ‘Entry plug under excess pressure.’
	“Oh please god,” Lily whimpered to herself, “Do something, somebody do something,” Tears welled up in her eyes, knowing she was completely helpless to save her brother.
	Tony saw the Entry plug around him crumpling, the holograms around the entry plug, showing the Angel outside the Eva, flickered and died under the pressure from the Angels crushing grip. A tear opened in the side of the Plug, the DOF reacted to the virus the Angel carried and turned dark green, the infection spreading into the Entry Plug. Tony tried to hold his breath, to stop him breathing in any infected DOF, his whole body burned from the touch of the liquid. This is it, he thought, I’m going to die, and to Tony the prospect of death did not frighten him, at least in death, he thought, there won’t be any pain. 
	The Angel’s twisted grin was wiped off its face as its elbow spontaneously exploded. It roared in pain as its elbow was turned into a bloody cloud of gore leaving its forearm sticking in Eva-Artillery’s chest.
	“You stay away from my friend,” Brian growled as he loaded another grenade into his grenade launcher. The Angel dropped Eva-Artillery in a heap on the floor, and hissed at Eva-Shield, the Angel ducked to the side as Brian sent another grenade flying down the street, it missed the Angel and struck an already wrecked building behind it, sending the debris hurtling to the floor. The Angel charged at Brian, its remaining arm held at its side, ready to strike, its mouth wide open in a roar of fury.
Brian struck the Angel in the face with his Shield, knocking it off balance, and fired off a grenade straight into the bony covering on the Angels chest. The Angels’ chest splintered into thousands of bone fragments, it landed on its back in the middle of the street, Brian saw what was underneath the Angels bony chest covering, red orb shined where the covering used to be.
	“The Core!” Lily shouted, “Take it out quick Brian,” Lily shouted, she was eager to get this over with and get Tony hospital treatment.
	“Alright,” Brian raised his rifle, pointing the Grenade launcher underneath at the prone Angels core. The Angel jerked upright suddenly, its long arm stretching out and grabbing his Shield-gun and wrenching it from his hands, and then wrapping its hand around Eva-Shield’s throat. Brian felt his throat stinging from the Angels touch, and he felt his breathing get short. Brian reached up to his shoulder unit and grabbed his prog knife from it, he activated it and swung at the Angel. He slashed at the Angels face, its mouth wide in a mad grin, he caught the Angels lower jaw with the blade, splitting it in two, black rancid blood splashed on his Eva’s chest. Everything about this Angel seems rotten, he thought, it’s disgusting. He stabbed the prog knife into the Angels wrist, and twisted it round, cutting its hand off in an eruption of diseased blood. The Angel’s ruined mouth gave out a guttural cry of pain as it fell back onto the floor, having lost it’s grip on the Eva. Brian brushed the severed hand from his neck, feeling his breathing return to normal. He raised the prog knife over his head, and, with both hands, plunged it deep into the Angels core. The Angel arched its back in pain, driving the prog knife further into the core, and then flopped, lifeless, back down again.
	“Somebody get the medical team down there, quickly!” Lily shouted.

	The Entry Plug slid out of the hatch on the back of the Eva, it was badly damaged, the imprint of the Angel’s talons could be clearly seen wrapped around it. The hatch on the top of the Entry Plug slid out and a green foul smelling liquid sloshed out onto the ground.
	“Stay back!” Cried a medical worker in a biohazard suit, “The liquid is infected.” Brian and Emma watched with baited breath as the medical worker reached into the Entry Plug and pulled Tony out. Tony was pale white, with his skin covered in patches of the green and purple rash the Angel spread.
	“Oh God,” Emma gasped, clutching her hand to her mouth.
	“Is he going to be okay?” Brian shouted, as a group of medical workers rushed over to Tony as he was placed on the floor. The workers began pumping on his chest, continually checking his pulse.
	“Oh God Brian, is he dead?” Emma asked, she looked away, tears appearing in her eyes, she clutched Brian’s arm for comfort.
	“What’s going on?” Brian asked, one of the doctors who weren’t attending to Tony walked over to Brian. 
	“Can you please keep quiet, this is a life or death situation,” He said.
	“But please, Doctor, you have to tell me what’s wrong with him,” Brian pleaded.
	“He has been infected by the virus the Angel spread, we don’t know how contagious or virulent it is and as such we have to keep him quarantined, and we don’t know how dangerous the virus can be. But the main problem is that he is drowning,” the Doctor said.
	“Drowning, how?” Brian was confused.
	“The mechanism for draining the DOF was damaged and as such his lungs are still full with the fluid, and because the DOF isn’t active outside the Entry Plug no oxygen can get into his lungs.” Brian saw the doctors inserting a tube down Tony’s throat, he felt helpless having to stand there, watching, at least when the Angel threatened Tony he could help, but he knew nothing about medicine and so he just stood there, feeling useless.
	“It’s all my fault,” he said in apology to Emma, “If I was faster I could have…” He looked over at Tony, lying limp on the floor.
	“It’s not your fault,” Emma said, “If I hadn’t done so badly in that last fight, then my Eva wouldn’t have been damaged, and… and…” she rubbed tears from her eyes. Brian held her close, feeling her body trembling.
	“That wasn’t your fault, there was nothing you could have done,” Brian said, “Nothing any of us could have done.” He turned to the doctor, “Will he pull through?” He braced himself for the answer.
	“To be honest,” The doctor turned, seeing the two pilots for what they were, two frightened children, and he hated himself for what he said next, “I don’t know.”

	Brian walked into his apartment, still feeling shaky from the rush of emotions he had experienced today. Tony had been rushed to hospital, in a critical situation, the doctors were still unsure how to treat him, knowing nothing of the virus that had infected him.
	“Hello there Brian,” He heard a voice say, it was his dad.
	“What are you still doing here dad?” Brian asked.
	“You don’t think I would come all the way to France just to see my sons parents evening, I’m going to spend as much time with you as I can.” His dad was sitting on the couch, he had turned around to look at Brian, “Good God,” he gasped, “Are you okay, you’re as white as a sheet.”
	Part of Brian desperately wanted to tell his dad what had happened to Tony, to confide in him and receive some comfort, but he knew it would cause too much trouble. He would get in trouble from SIN for revealing their secrets, he would get in trouble from his dad for joining such an organisation, and besides his dad could never cope well with startling news. Brian remembered that after his mom died his dad was in a deep depression for nearly a year.
	“I’m okay, just a bit exhausted,” he said, managing a weak smile, “It was a busy day.”
	“Well I think it was rather rude of them to drag you away just to do more work. By the way your teachers all said that you have a lot of potential,” James said, with pride in his voice, Brian sat down next to him.
	“How long have you been waiting?” Brian asked, he glanced at the clock on top of the TV, it read 11:03.
	“About 4 hours,” his dad said, “But its okay, I expect you must enjoy your work to put so much effort into it.”
	“Yeah,” he said, his voice straining due to his extreme exhaustion.
	“So how did Tony do in the Parents Evening, and where is he anyway?” His dad looked around the apartment, in case he had came in with Brian and he hadn’t realised. Again Brian was tempted to tell his dad.
	“He’s decided to stay with Lily while you are here,” Brian said at last, “He doesn’t want to intrude on our time together.”
	“Oh, he didn’t need to, he seemed like a nice boy,” they sat in silence for a while. “Ooh, The Police,” his dad remarked, as a song by them appeared on the TV, “I love The Police. That’s Sting,” He said pointing to the members of the band on the TV, “And that’s er… Yeah, well Sting was in the band.” Brian laughed at his dad’s forgetfulness, and for a minute, sitting with his dad, it felt just like he was back in England, as if he had never came to SIN.

	His dad slept in his bedroom, and Brian slept on the couch, not wanting to use Tony’s bedroom, because it just felt wrong. He didn’t want to sleep until he heard news from SIN about Tony, but he was just to tired to stay awake any longer. As he drifted off to sleep memories of Tony came back to him. When he and Tony got drunk one night and jumped about the apartment listening to Heavy Metal. When they both roared with laughter at the same jokes. All that petty cash wasted at the arcades in the city centre. When Tony tried to show him how to play guitar, and he got it completely wrong. Brian sighed, and let sleep take over him, washing away the memories of the day.

	Lily stood her hands pressed up against the window that showed the room Tony was in, a large plastic curtain surrounded him, and the room was littered with equipment monitoring his condition. He had stabilised, but he was still unconscious, the doctors had said he might never wake up. She was thankful that he was getting good treatment in the base hospital, but that still couldn’t cure the sadness she felt.
	“I’m sorry,” she whispered, staring at him lying silently on the bed, tubes covering his body, his skin still covered in the rash, “I’m so sorry. I protected you all your life, and I failed you when you needed me most,” Tears rolled down her face as she said those words, “I’m so very, very sorry.” Her mobile phone rang, she wiped the tears from her face and picked it up. “Hello?”
	“Lily,” Jan’s voice said, “I’m sorry to have to do this but I want you to come to the interrogation room, we’ve caught an intruder.”
	An Intruder? She thought, they might be responsible for what happened to Tony. She set off at a brisk walk, determination fuelled her, and there was only one thing on her mind:
	Revenge.

Ending Theme: Foo Fighters – Walking After You