And more.
Honestly, I utterly failed to think of any other 'combat cyborg'-type that wouldn't have Shinji running a mile.... and I remembered from the digging I did for Shadowrunning that Eva's plugsuits had inspired these so, what the hell.
And Nazzadi. Everything's better with Nazzadi.
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--m(^0^)m-- Wot, no sig?
Quote:He had taken three steps back to Kotono’s apartment when he started hearing voices. For a moment, he thought they were coming from inside his head. He scanned around, craning his ears to try and define who it was.
Another female voice. Were there only women on Frigga?
She sounded like she was complaining.
“She didn’t have to hit me full force like that!”
“I don’t know, I thought it was hilarious, You go in there full force and she’s just like donk with one hand and then you get this oh crap look on your face before getting launched into the wall.”
A second woman. She was giggling. Shinji felt a ghost of a smile cross his lips.
“Even with all my augmentations that hurt.”
The first one again. Getting closer. They were ahead of him, coming from a side passage. Their voices reverberated against the walls.
“Well maybe next time you’ll follow the rules like the rest of us.”
A third voice. Dryer in tone.
“I know. Just because I can do a thing, doesn’t mean I should.” A pause. “I just wanted to show her what I could do.”
“And she showed you what she could do.” The second one giggled again.
Shinji’s first instinct was to turn and walk quietly away before they could spot him, but there was nowhere for him to go. They appeared around the corner moments later.
One looked a lot like Jet; her armour was the same basic style but painted in a deep red with silver trim that matched her shoulder-length hair. The second had graphite-black skin on her face, with white swirling tatoos on her cheeks, demonic-red eyes and blonde hair. Shinji didn’t recognise what she was wearing; it looked like generic armour, but whirred as she moved. The third wore little more than a form-fitting two-tone blue bodysuit that reminded him of a plugsuit, with armour on her shoulders, hips and - strangely - nowhere else. Her mousy brown hair was cropped short and she wore a cheery smile that reminded him horribly of Maya Ibuki.
“Oh, hello,” she said, a little startled by him.
Shinji’s mouth engaged before his brain did.
“Is everyone here a woman?”
“Well unless you’re hiding something on us,” the one in the bodysuit smirked at him. She’d been the one complaining.
His cheeks flushed with shame. “Sorry.”
“It’s okay.” She smiled at him. “Come to think of it.... it is a bit strange.” She put a finger to her lips.
“Is that the kid from Neon Genesis Evangelion?” the red one asked, barely above a whisper. Voice number two.
Shinji started. Neon Genesis Evangelion.
“Shhh!” the dark skinned one hissed at her.
Red pouted. “Jet told us he knew.”
“That he’s an android. He doesn’t know about that yet.”
Shinji frowned at them. “I’m right here, you know.” A knot was already starting to turn in his stomach as his mind got to work on the implications of the phrase Neon Genesis Evangelion.
“Sorry,” the body suited one said with a soft smile. “I’m Ami Shinohara.”
Odd. She didn’t look or sound at all Japanese. Shinji’d pegged her as being ‘American’, though from where in the US he couldn’t tell. She offered him a handshake.
He offered a limp hand. Her fingers closed around his like a vice. He had the feeling That it should’ve hurt him a lot more than it actually did.
“Wow, Iron hand,” she said, releasing her grip.
Shinji stared at his right hand, clasping and unclasping it. There were fading red marks where her fingers had been.
“Amara Sara,” the red-armoured one offered.
“Tony Majellan Nite,” said the coal-skinned one with a smile that bared her razor-sharp incisors..
“Ikari Shinji,” the boy responded. His voice shrunk down to somewhere beneath his runners.
They looked down at him. He looked up at them. The two in the armour seemed to loom over him, actuators clicking and whirring as they moved.
He had to fill the silence.
“So... “ he glanced at all three of them. “You’re all like Jaguar too?”
“I am!” Ami announced. “I asked for the full combat cyborg package, and doesn’t it look awesome?”
She stretched, arching her back to show off as much of her clearly enhanced figure as she could. Shinji felt his cheeks flush again. Yes, yes it did. If you put Maya Ibuki in a plugsuit, Shinji thought, Ami was what you’d get.
Amara’s armour scratched against itself She scowled down at him.
“Didn’t anyone ever tell you it’s rude to ask a Senshi if she’s modded?”
They’re soldiers?
He shrunk back. “No.”
“Well it is.”
“Sorry,” he mumbled through his teeth.
There was still one question nagging at the back of his mind, begging to be asked. Glancing between the three women and recalling his other little unintentional faux-pas, he wasn’t exactly sure he should.
Amara sighed. “Aside from the hair dye, I’m as nature made me, and Tony here...” she glanced at the other woman. She nodded her permission. “Is a Nazzadi biomod. We just bought these armours and signed up for training here because we couldn’t let Ami come out here alone.”
“Well, she helped me get over this.” Tony rapped her knuckles against the hard, plastic armour covering her chest. “So it’s the least we could do.”
Shinji nodded, despite that not really being the question he wanted to ask them. He swallowed a lump crawling up the back of his throat. Maybe it’d be best if he didn’t?
Maybe if he phrased it politely, they wouldn’t be offended.
The boy found himself cursing the English language as he tried to form the sentence in his mind, with the right level of submissive politeness.
“If I can humbly ask a question, and if it’s not too much trouble for you to answer, could you please tell me what sort of soldiers you are?”
All three of them shared a glance.
“We’re not soldiers, we’re Senshi,” answered Ami. She was staring down at him, wondering how he couldn’t possibly know the difference.
Shinji couldn’t point out to them that Senshi in Japanese meant ‘Soldier’.
“I’m a Moon Knight in the Crystal Tokyo Militia... but inside the city that’s closer to a police force really,” said Tony. “I’m not a soldier by any means.”
The boy just looked bewildered.
Amara offered a soft smile. “The term senshi comes from Sailor Senshi... from Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon. You’ve heard of it?”
Clearly, she expected an affirmative.
He didn’t want to disappoint her by answering in the negative, but didn’t want to lie either. He gently shook his head while swallowing the bitter certainty that he was making an idiot of himself, and that all three of them probably thought he was a moron.
She smirked at him. “Someone has sorely neglected your education.”
“I’ve only been here for two days,” he said in a petulant tone. It wasn’t his fault.
“You really should see Crystal Tokyo. Especially when it’s on the night side and it’s all lit up by its own floodlights. It’s beautiful. Like Ohtori Acadamy made of opaque glass.”
“Oh yeah,” Ami chimed in. “Especially the Rainbow bridge.”
Ohtori what?
Shinji forced a smile. “Maybe another time.”
“We might just have to hold you to that.” A glimmer in Amara’s eyes informed Shinji that it was more than just ‘might’.... they’d bring them themselves if they could.
He just wanted to curl up inside himself, close his eyes and hope they’d leave him alone. He had the perfect excuse to leave.
“I am expected down in the motor pool soon. I have to go.
Ami smiled at him “Oh, well don’t let us keep you. We’ll see you around,”
“Yeah,” Amara chipped in. “You’re kinda sweet.”
He felt himself flush a little once more.
“You made him blush Amara,” Tony teased. She threw him a cheerful smile. “i hope we can talk later, Shinji. “
“Goodbye!” he blurted out.
Shinji started running, following the directions on his navigator to the lift shaft. Their voices receded into the distance behind him. Solitude closed in once more. He was alone
Standing waiting for the lift to arrive, he cursed himself for running away from them.
And he was seeing Rei apparitions again. Was she trying to rescue him somehow? Shinji recalled that Anika’d told him Rei Ayanami - or a doppel of her - was on her way.
He decided that he could hope she was his Rei somehow. Either transported to this world, or a touchstone to the real reality that would take him home from this place.
-------
“He is lonely,”
“Frigga is a lonely place.”
“It’s more than that. And I think it’s more than they understand on Frigga
“You’re worried about him, aren’t you?”
Rei looked at Yayoi for a moment, turning it over in her mind for a few moments.
“Yes.”
--------
Honestly, I utterly failed to think of any other 'combat cyborg'-type that wouldn't have Shinji running a mile.... and I remembered from the digging I did for Shadowrunning that Eva's plugsuits had inspired these so, what the hell.
And Nazzadi. Everything's better with Nazzadi.
________________________________
--m(^0^)m-- Wot, no sig?