2022-02-09: Furimukanaide ~ Don't Turn Around
- Log: 2022-02-09: Furimukanaide ~ Don't Turn Around
- Cast: Mari Makinami Illustrious
- Where: NERV-02
- Date: February 9th, 2022
- Summary: A brief detour from destruction. Takes place prior to 2022-02-10: Furimukanaide
- NERV-02
"Something's wrong with the core! It's entering collapse state!"
"Engage evacuation protocols immediately!"
- WESTERN BRITANNIA
Dozens of red warning signs alight in a furious flurry of statistical errors spelling out the inevitable doom of the thousands upon thousands of lives within eighty-nine kilometers of NERV's Second Branch. Hundreds of staff workers, technicians and guards scramble, attempting an evacuation that will not succeed.
♩ "Please, I'm begging you, don't turn around~" ♩
One polished-white Evangelion stands at the epicenter of what will be ground zero, beating coruscating crimson like the heart of a rupturing star.
♩ "What I'm about to tell you is a secret -- hup!"
*splsh*
The sight of someone slipping into its entry plug is easily missed, until the capsule hisses into Unit-04's spinal column with a click.
♩ "Look over there, please and thank you~" ♩
Within a pool of LCL, a girl with reddish-brown hair and glasses has settled comfortably into the doomed seat of a weapon of mass destruction reaching critical failure. The world around her is a violent river of raging reds all streaming from a central point buried deep, deep below her cockpit.
"Still such sneaky saboteurs, eh? Tsk, tsk. A good boy like you deserves better."
She cracks her knuckles. Rolls her neck.
And grins.
"Righty-o! Let's get to work, shall we, Eva Unit-04?"
Unseen by most of the scrambling staff, readouts scroll showing the entry plug of Unit-04 plunging rapidly towards its core.
---
The skies above NERV's Second Branch smear in briefly ominous crackle of red. It burgeons.
... and then it dissipates entirely as if it were never there.
---
One lone Evangelion Unit-04 stands, polished white and proud, at an epicenter of nothing more than a peaceful breeze of conditioned air. Dozens of red warning signs disappear in an anomalous flush of normalcy. Hundreds of staff workers are left bemused in the middle of an evacuation that is no longer necessary.
A second later, Unit-04's chamber floods with binding bakelite.
The entry plug, opened, juts from the back of the chrome beast. Completely empty.
---
*beep*
"Ahoy-hoy. Mari here."
A girl with reddish brown hair and glasses swings her legs back and forth from her comfortable perch seated at the edge of a building rooftop some ninety kilometers out from NERV-02. Phone cradled to her cheek by an upraised shoulder, she watches as helicopters fly past, the wind of their passing buffeting the twintails of her hair.
"I'm all done now. ... Yep. Did you prep everything like I asked? ... No, that'll work. Thanks. I'll be ready to move out to the extraction point in a bit."
She pauses. Light glints off her glasses from the fading sun as she watches it paint the sky in calm crimsons.
"... I just wanna enjoy the view a little bit more."
*click*
She pockets her phone. Leans back, palms planted on the rooftop. And she smiles, soaking in the atmosphere as the sun sets on NERV-02.
♩ "After this we'll go on a friendly date,
and we'll talk about romance together... mm, mm, mm..." ♩