Words from the Author:

It's time to get back into business. Now once again, I will do my best to entertain you and I really hope you like this episode. Per usual, I do not own anything of Evangelion. I'm not trying to make money off this, so chill out.

Episode 5: The First Impending Strike. Fight Valiantly, Children of NERV

A few days go by with the simulation experience having been put behind the pilots for the most part. Unfortunately, Shinji continues to be troubled from how he behaved during the training, distancing himself as a result. It's now early in the morning and Asuka is gradually waking up while lying on the bed with Shinji as it can be noted that all the rooms look the same, except for a few things. Their room possesses a dresser that's on the left side of the bed, which is at the same section the 2nd Child sleeps while wielding the doll that used to belong to her mother atop it with minor damage ailing the toy thanks to the 3rd Impact. In addition, the dresser has all of Asuka's clothing in it as Shinji's apparel are inside the closet that's located next to his region of the bed. There are also some luggage spread across the room with other stuff in them, mainly owned by Asuka since she usually has a lot of things.

Asuka slowly opens her eyes as it's revealed that she isn't wearing her brain-wave transmitters like she normally does, obviously because the teenager never sleeps with them on nor in the apartment when she has no expectation of going out. Afterwards, the German girl glances at her surroundings amidst facing away from Shinji while steadily sitting upward. Once she gathers some composure, Asuka turns her head toward the right to view Shinji with minimal emotion exhibited and registers him still in his slumber with his SDAT on while directed at the opposing area. 

Shinji would have been nearby Asuka when sleeping,  however due to his recent personality, he refuses to confront her lately.

Following that, Asuka thinks to herself with sadness arising, "I'm worried about him. I've tried talking to him so I can help him get back to being his old self, but he doesn't say a thing. I really hate that he's been doing that."

With the completion of that thought, Shinji randomly turns his person to lie upon his backside, his left arm on his stomach while the opposing limb's above his head amidst continuing his sleep. 

Asuka navigates herself toward Shinji prior to leaning forward as she lightly places her hands onto Shinji's chest. Concurrently, the teenager shuts her eyes and gently kisses Shinji on the lips.

Shinji feels the warmth of Asuka's lips, causing him to steadily opening his eyes, and instinctively clicks pause on his SDAT with his left hand. At first, the lad's vision of Asuka is blurry from just waking up until everything comes into focus as he confirms that she's kissing him. This results in Shinji becoming quite surprised while thinking, "Asuka...?!" He then suddenly grins after taking into consideration the sensation of his interaction with Asuka while mounting his right hand upon her left cheek, deeply pressing his lips against her's.

Asuka opens her eyes to see Shinji while moderately stunned before smirking and pulls away from him to stop the kiss as the left side of her hair covers her face. After a couple of seconds, the red-head commandeers her hair toward the right and questions in a sweet tone, "Enjoyed that?"

In response, Shinji nods as he gazes into Asuka's beautiful blue eyes with a hint of content showing. 

Asuka tilts her head slightly to the left. "Well, if you want more of that, then you have to start acting like the old, stupid Shinji I fell in love with."

Shinji's expression gets a little red while experiencing embarrassment prior to hesitantly nodding again while saying with a faint voice, "Alright." He steers his attention away with a somber demeanor portrayed. "Sorry for making you worry."

Irritation overtakes Asuka due to Shinji apologizing, however, quickly brushes it off via closing her eyes and inhales. Once that's done, the 2nd Child concentrates onto Shinji yet again while sincerely smiling. "It's okay. Just be happy that you're so fortunate to have me worrying about you."

Shinji emits delight as he shyly nods. "Of course."

Thanks to Asuka, Shinji starts to be social with the others the following day, which is a huge relief for everyone. Today was supposed for the children to relax and not have to concern themselves about synchronization tests or self-defense training. Unfortunately, it was all interrupted when the clock struck 3:50 PM as Tokyo-03's newly installed emergency system notifies everybody to head to a shelter. This baffles the civilians immensely because they know what it means and rush to comply with its instructions as the city is being submerged underground like it used to, even though it still isn't complete. Although the children had the day off, Misato didn't and is presently at Central Dogma with the other members of NERV while viewing the large main screen that's displayed in the room. The group promptly bear witness to a giant, shadowy figure situated at the outskirts of the city as it's gradually traveling towards Tokyo-03.

Misato watches the massive monitor with mild distress exhibited while containing her arms crossed. "So the time has come." She briefly sighs and lowers her head during the shutting of her eyes.

Hyuga sets his sights onto Misato from his post with his body directed towards his monitor as sadness displays itself. "We all knew that this was going to eventually happen, Colonel."

Misato nods amidst reopening her eyes to focus on the screen once more with determination surfacing. "You're right! Now let's get down to business!" 

Everyone in Central Dogma confidently nod with Ritsuko's attention toward Misato for a moment and is lightly smiling. Following that, the blonde navigates her vision to Gendo and Fuyutsuki, who are at the Commander's usual location. As Ritsuko does that, seriousness overtakes her constitution while thinking, "I really do hope you don't have anything secretly planned like last time." The adult shifts her gaze back at Misato as she utters in a vaguely fearful manner, "Where's Kaji?"

Misato looks at Ritsuko as she's a bit surprised that the doctor didn't know where Kaji was and calmly states with a grin slowly arising, "Commander Ikari put him in charge of discerning where SEELE's hiding. That way, when we find them, we can bring the fight to them instead of waiting for every one of their cheap, sneak attacks." She reverts her concentration to the main monitor and asks with a demanding voice, "Are the pilots here yet?!"

Aoba rebuttals with distress emanating while viewing his computer screen, "They're on their way! They were recently picked up by NERV personnel and are headed over as we speak!"

Misato smiles and nods. "Good. As soon as they're ready and in their Evas, our counterattack will commence." The purple-haired dame gives Maya a serious look while adjusting her tone to reflect a stern composition, "All the Evas are prepared, right?!"

Maya replies with her focus glued to her monitor that currently portrays the status of the Evas. "Yes!"

Aoba promptly yells out as he retains his sight upon his screen, "The pilots have arrived and are getting ready!"

Misato glances at Aoba while contentedly grinning before navigating her attention at the large monitor and thinks in a somewhat excited way, "We're almost set! Let's see what SEELE has up their sleeves!"

Hyuga's looking at his screen and thinks while having a concerned expression, "From what we can see, and from what the MAGI have confirmed, there's only one enemy. Though why would SEELE send us one when they should comprehend that it will be outnumbered? They may not know how many Evas we have, but they can't possibly believe a single Eva will be sufficient." He then peers at the huge monitor poised onward, presently exhibiting a decent view of the adversary. Afterwards, Hyuga mumbles to himself with no alteration to his tone, "Hopefully there isn't more to this."

Dummy Eva 01 has just enter the city as it's revealed to be possess a dark green coloring with its arms light blue. Its physical appearance is like the children's Evas with the exception of its head being different. The head's shaping is similar to Mari's Unit 05 from the Rebuild Movie, including the facial features, and wields a large, dark green missile launcher that's strapped to its posterior. It's length is on par with Dummy Eva 01 while the width is thin enough that it can hold it via one arm. In its left hand, the green beast carries multiple missiles in a gigantic bandolier. 

As Dummy Eva 01 continues to progress through the city, NERV launches an attack to keep it at bay in the effort of providing the pilots time for them getting ready. Unfortunately, their attempts are barely doing anything thanks to the behemoth's A.T. Field.

Aoba watches the main screen with disappointment. "Damn it! I was hoping that it would at least do something!"

Hyuga retains his focus upon the monitor while having a stressful demeanor before calmly responding to Aoba's complaint. "Well, that merely proves that SEELE didn't slack off when making it."

Misato observes the enemy Eva's persisting its way through the city and says with a commanding voice, "We need to continue attacking! No matter what, don't back down!" 

Central Dogma's personnel obediently nod in agreement and keep doing what they can to stall for the pilots. This still fails to affect Dummy Eva 01 by their attempts as it lets go of the bandolier while the object drops to the ground next to its left leg. After that, the mechanical monster reaches for its missile launcher via both hands while pulling it off its back, positioning the weapon with its right arm curled around the launcher. Following that action, Dummy Eva 01 directs the weapon with its left hand towards the mountain region, which is where the attacks from NERV are coming from. 

Because of that, Misato panics as she uncrosses her arms and takes a few steps forward. "It's going to retaliate!" The adult veers her vision to the others while firmly stating, "Do whatever you can to prevent it!"

While NERV's assault doesn't falter, Dummy Eva 01's focus is still towards the attacks' origin and makes the launcher quickly deploy a missile at the mountain area. Once the projectile comes into contact with the mountain area, a giant eruption is crafted as it causes a big shock-wave that spreads throughout the vicinity.

Everyone in Central Dogma promptly feel a small tremor and are horrified at how effective the foe's launcher was when it's revealed that the mountain region is nearly obliterated. 

Ritsuko watches on with a stunned composition as she thinks, "I can't believe how powerful that missile was! Although I'm sure our Evas can handle it, It's something that we must be wary of!"

Misato grits her teeth while clenching her right hand and mutters, "SEELE really is tough! Despite controlling more Evas, there's still a chance the children will have a hard time defeating their Eva!" The purple-haired woman shuts her eyes amidst trying to settle her nerves. Not long after that, Misato reopens her eyes to see the enormous image ahead of her and confidently says to herself, "But I know that they will beat it. I have faith in them."

Aoba watches the main screen for a moment and then sees a notification on his screen out of the bottom corner of his eyes, which causes him to look at it in shock. Afterwards, he suddenly smiles and yells out, "The pilots are in their Evas and they're ready to launch!"

Misato smiles after hearing Aoba while keeping her eyes on the main screen. Not much later, the female adult yells out with optimism in her voice, "Great! Get ready to launch Units 00, 01 and 02 north of the enemy! Once they arrive, send the other three Evas south from the enemy! That way, it will be surrounded!"

Maya nods as she's typing with her eyes focused on her monitor. "Alright! Units 00, 01 and 02 are set to go!"

Misato promptly rebuttals in a stern tone, "Then let's launch them!"

Maya nods as she finishes typing and shouts with a composed tone, "And they're off!" 

With that declaration, Units 00, 01 and 02 quickly ascend while reaching the surface in a matter of seconds. The trio currently stand at a small distance away from Dummy Eva 01 with each of them slowly moving off their individual launch pad while intently staring the opponent down.

Misato hurriedly yells out with no difference to her speech, "On to the next three!"

Right after Misato gave that order, the necessary steps are taken as Units 03, 04, and the Extra Eva ultimately are positioned atop their own launch pad during their observation of the mechanical beast's posterior from a considerable range.

Hikari nervously makes her Eva journey forward as she examines the enemy Eva and mumbles to herself, "Stay calm... I need to stay calm."

Touji's image suddenly appears on Hikari's right side screen as he issues her a confident expression while his Eva is poised in front of the Extra Eva. "Don't ya worry, Hikari! Like I said before, I won't let anyone hurt ya!" 

This statement surprises Hikari as she blushes and looks at Touji before getting a tad nervous again as she nods with a light smile.

Kensuke watches Dummy Eva 01 with a serious glare and says in a firm tone, "Okay you two! We have to focus now! We have a job to do!"

Both Touji and Hikari are surprised by what Kensuke just said. They each then appear on a side monitor that's to the left of Kensuke and just look at him in disbelief. Following that, Misato shuts her eyes amidst covering her mouth with her right hand while giggling a little. Soon after, the Colonel puts her hand down onto her hip as she reverts her attention toward the main screen once more and contentedly remarks into her microphone, "That's the spirit, Kensuke. For your first time on the battlefield, you're doing a good job keeping your composure."

Kensuke smiles happily due to Misato's comment prior to closing his eyes and scratches the back of his head with his left hand while fairly embarrassed. "Oh, come on. Don't say something like that while I'm trying to act tough."

Asuka's voice abruptly comes through the intercom of Unit 04 as she yells out while moderately irritated, "Hey, stooge! Why don't you take your own advice and stay focus!"

Kensuke suddenly opens his eyes as he looks towards the enemy while fairly surprised until determination takes over, staring down the Eva in the process. "You're right, Asuka! I need to remain focused!"

Asuka sighs while still a bit irritated as she thinks, "Dummkopf..." 

During the time that everyone was talking with each other, Dummy Eva 01 had picked up its bandolier from the ground and places it over its left shoulder. Following that, the mechanical behemoth pulls out one of the missiles from the straps it holds hand loads the ammunition into the launcher.

Rei gives off a serious expression toward the opponent. "This is not good. We need to make our move before it fires."

Misato crosses her arms with a firm demeanor showing and says with a commanding tone, "Rei's right. Now here's the plan. You guys will spread out to box in SEELE's Eva. We'll send you the coordinates of where each of you should go. Once done, we'll give you long distance weaponry so you can attack that bastard from afar. Got that?"

The children confidently respond in unison. "Yes!"

Misato turns to the NERV personnel in Central Dogma with no difference to her attitude. "You guys know what to do!"

Central Dogma's workers look at Misato and sharply nod prior to all of them doing what must be done for preparing her plan. With that, the children promptly receive the coordinates of where they should go amidst quickly getting to their station. Their positioning has them form a spread out circle around the enemy with Unit 01 containing Unit 02 on its right and Unit 00 toward its left. Meanwhile, the Extra Eva has Unit 03 at its right and Unit 04 upon its left. Soon after, as the pilots stand at their selected location, a building comes from the ground behind each Eva and reveal that there's an Eva-sized version of a M134 Minigun inside it. The children then have their Evas grab onto their individual minigun while aiming it at the enemy.

Dummy Eva 01 looks back and forth between each Eva while pointing its missile launcher at the adversaries. Eventually, the huge beast halts as it directs the weapon specifically at the Extra Eva, causing Hikari to worry while concentration on the launcher. 

At the same time, Touji becomes enraged by the fact that the enemy Eva is aiming its weapon at Hikari as he displays a fierce glare. "Ya asshole! How dare ya point that thing at her?!"

Misato abruptly yells to the pilots in a commanding tone, "Everyone, fire!" 

The children fire their minigun accordingly at the enemy with the bullets colliding into the enemy Eva and quickly form a cloud of smoke while the children continue to fire. They then stop firing and wait patiently to witness the results of their attack.

Nervousness is portrayed upon Hikari's composition as she watches the smoke. Suddenly, a loud wind-like sound is heard coming from the smoke just before a missile comes through it. The projectile advances straight towards the Extra Eva with a good amount of speed, surprising Hikari and gasps while flinching.

Misato frantically shouts amidst watching the main screen, "Hikari!" 

Both Touji and Kensuke quickly maneuver their Evas towards the Extra Eva to position them right in front of Hikari's Eva while deploying their A.T. Fields. This results in the pair being able to block the missile, but this doesn't keep the projectile from exploding after coming into contact with Unit 03 and 04's A.T. Field.

Shinji feels the shock-wave from the blast as he worriedly yells out, "Guys!" 

The smoke that had surrounded Dummy Eva 01 has completely cleared after a while. Eventually, it's revealed to be facing towards Touji and the others' location while the mechanical beast launcher has some smoke emitted from the end of the barrel as it's still pointed at them. The smoke that was formed from the explosion caused by the missile steadily clears as it's revealed that all three of the Evas are alright thanks to the combined efforts of Unit 03 and Unit 04's A.T. Field.

Due to seeing that, Central Dogma's personnel release a huge sigh of relief with Shinji doing the same while lowering his head as his eyes are briefly shut. Once he opens his eyes, the 3rd Child realizes that the ground is mildly shaking and thinks with a bit of concern displayed, "What's going on?"

Suddenly, a right hand with claws as fingers shoots out from underneath the ground and firmly grabs onto Unit 01's left leg, causing Shinji to gasp in dismay while pulling his head backwards. 

Following that, Unit 01 is forcefully pulled beneath the terrain by the hand while Asuka witnessed that occur out of the corner of her eye, leading to her exhibiting a horrified expression as she screams towards the area where Unit 01 once stood, "Shinji!"

Misato starts to panic as her vision is set on the main monitor. "What just happened?!"

Hyuga's surprised as information is shown on his screen. "I can't believe this! There's actually another life form that's confirmed to be underground!"

Misato directs her gaze to Hyuga with a baffled demeanor established prior to rushing toward him while viewing his screen from the male's left. "How's that possible?! We should've been able to notice it beforehand!"

Stress overtakes Hyuga as he's typing. "Seems like it appeared out of nowhere!"

Ritsuko unprecedentedly interjects into the conversation through yelling out while attentive of the main screen, "Colonel, look!"

Misato veers her concentration accordingly with a hint of concern emanating and sees that the enormous monitor is now displaying an extra image, which is of Unit 01 penetrating the ceiling of the Geofront. With that, the purple behemoth continues to fall towards Dogma as the Colonel fearfully shouts, "Shinji!"

Simultaneously, Shinji screams while holding onto the controls as his Eva descends to the ground of Dogma, ultimately crashing into it. The blue-eyed teen's a bit shook up from the impact and soon tries to regain his composure while getting his Eva to its feet. 

As Shinji strives to do that, Dummy Eva 02 comes through the hole Unit 01 made, sending out a loud screech as it descends towards the adversary it chose. It can be clearly noted that this Eva looks almost exactly like Dummy Eva 01 with the exception of its mouth being open and possessing the color light brown as there is some black on its arms and legs.

After Unit 01 gets to its feet, Shinji peers at the enemy and registers it heading straight for him, greatly alarming him in the process, as he desperately has Unit 01 jump rearwards to barely dodge the enemy.

As a result, Dummy Eva 02 crashes upon the landscape with a fog temporarily formed. 

Shinji hurriedly stations his Eva at a small distance away from the enemy while fairly exasperated. "Sheesh! That was too close!" The lad abruptly realizes something and then focuses on the ceiling of the entry plug while uttering with concern emitting, "Wait a minute! I didn't know there was another Eva!"

Misato responds while still stressed out a little. "We didn't either, Shinji! That coward was hiding until it saw its opportunity to attack you!"

Shinji reverts his attention to the enemy's shadowy figure that remains covered by the smoke and attempts to settle his nerves down. "This isn't good. Not only do I have to fight an Eva that we didn't even know was here, I'm separated from the others too." He looks up again. "Misato, how are they by the way?"

Misato gazes at Maya, who's presently watching her, and inquires to the Lieutenant with a serious tone, "Well?" 

Maya gives off a confused attitude for a moment until registering what Misato wants from her and turns to her monitor as she starts typing on it. The main screen's focus promptly switches over to depict the other pilots' situation. 

Misato sees that the children are firing at Dummy Eva 01 and grows very irritated by the fact that the enemy isn't getting bothered that much. "Damn! That bastard is tough! The pilots will have to draw themselves closer to it so they can neutralize its A.T. Field!"

Asuka's voice swiftly echoes from the intercom as she speaks in a worried tone, "Misato! What happened to Shinji?! Is he okay?!"

Misato calmly replies as her image appears on Asuka's right side screen while having returned to her usual spot. "He's alright, but apparently, there was an enemy hiding underground this entire time. It decided to choose Unit 01 as its target."

Asuka becomes quite upset while Unit 02 stops shooting the enemy before looking at Misato with determination. "I'll go help him!"

Shinji's image suddenly appears on Asuka's left as he portrays a moderately confident conduct. "Don't worry, Asuka. I can handle this on my own. You need to stay there and help the others."

Asuka exhibits a surprised expression with her vision shifted to Shinji. She then gets irritated again and yells at the Japanese boy, "What the hell?! Just because you're the best pilot out of us, doesn't mean you're superman, you idiot! You can't always fight alone!"

Shinji smiles nervously. "It's not like I think that way, Asuka. Anyway, you use to believe that you didn't need any help to beat the angels. And you can do it since you're the Great Asuka Langley Soryu." He chuckles after regaining some of the confidence he had earlier.

Asuka blushes a ted as she glares at Shinji prior to shutting her eyes with her head turned away from him while flustered. "Oh, shut up!"

A second later, Rei urgently shouts through the intercom, "Soryu, watch out!"

Asuka's surprised by hearing Rei yelling and swiftly navigates her concentration to where the enemy is. She immediately depicts the foe aiming its missile launcher in her direction, forcing out a high level of concern from her. What happened was that Dummy Eva 01 had already reloaded its launcher during the attack implemented by the other Evas' miniguns in the attempt to diverge its attention from Unit 02. Unfortunately for them, the behemoth's A.T. Field continues protecting it while maintaining its aim onto Unit 02 via its missile launcher. It then fires the missile towards Unit 02 just as fast as the previous one. This invokes a gasp from the German girl until she quickly maneuvers her Eva to jump towards the left so she can dodge the missile. 

With the success of Asuka's evasion, the projectile keeps traveling through the air prior to ultimately striking the ground and causes a giant explosion. Concurrently, Unit 02 lands upon the area it leaped at while confronting the region that just exploded as Asuka's significantly stressed out. "Damn, I almost got caught there!" She shifts her attention to Unit 00 and yells out to it, "I owe you one, First!"

Rei calmly watches the enemy with a hint of determination resonating in her eyes as she tightens her grip on her controls. "I shall collect on that later. We must defeat the enemy before anything else."

Asuka turns her Eva to face the enemy and nods with a stern conduct presented. "Right!"

That said, the scene changes to focus on Unit 01 and Dummy Eva 02. The smoke has cleared as Dummy Eva 02 is now intensely staring at the purple beast while releasing a low, growling sound.

Shinji stares back at the adversary with some fierceness showing while thinking, "Alright, I know what I have to do. I'm going to beat this Eva and head back to the surface to help my friends." He smirks with his thought process persisting. "Although... I think they would've won by then. They can handle it as long as they work together." Shinji shuts his eyes as he takes a deep breath until reverting his gaze to the enemy Eva again and calmly exhales.

Dummy Eva 02 keeps staring at Unit 01 while rapidly moving its razor-like fingers as if it's trying to restrain itself from attacking. It eventually ceases that action as the mechanical monster lets out a loud roar via tilting its body back. Afterwards, Dummy Eva 02 suddenly torques its body forward and sprints toward Unit 01 with great speed. 

Misato panics due to seeing the enemy Eva advance and hurriedly commands, "Shinji, counterattack!"

Shinji sharply nods as he exhibits a tenacious composition while having his Eva point its minigun that it was still holding towards the enemy and commences to fire at the SEELE Eva. 

Dummy Eva 02's A.T. Field promptly appears, effortlessly deflecting the bullets as it continues to run towards Unit 01. Upon drawing close to Shinji's Eva, the behemoth swings its right arm and slices the minigun into three vertical pieces, rapidly leading to the minigun blowing up.

Shinji cringes as he feels a slight pain from his hand, compliments of the eruption and his synchronization. After that, the teenager tries to maneuver his Eva rearward to gain a decent sum of distance as he thinks, "Darn it! I can't believe I let it destroy my weapon!"

Unfortunately, Dummy Eva 02 doesn't allow any separation to be forged between them by continually swinging its arms in the attempt to strike Unit 01. As it does this, the enemy Eva issues a grunting sound with each swing while Shinji desperately makes his Eva dodge the onslaught and then finally decides to pull out a Prog Knife from Unit 01's left pylon via its right hand. Following that, the blue-eyed boy has his Eva repetitively elude the attacks while waiting for an opportunity to initiate his own assault.

Concurrently, seriousness can be noted on Misato's constitution as she's watching the screen that displays Unit 01 and Dummy Eva 02 and yells out with a firm voice, "Alright, Shinji! Just keep dodging, and when you have the chance, attack with everything you got!" Misato looks at Maya to calmly asks, "Is Shinji's A.T. Field up?"

Maya nods while focusing onto Misao. "It sure is! His sync ratio is at 96% as there isn't much damage to Unit 01!"

Misato smiles slightly from content prior to navigating her concentration towards Ritsuko. "Now please tell me that the MAGI have found out something about the enemy Evas."

Ritsuko veers her gaze to Misato with an expression of disappointment as she's holding her laptop. "Unfortunately, the MAGI were unable to determine the full extent of the enemies' capabilities."

Misato gets a bit irritated as she drops her attention to the floor and mumbles, "Damn... I guess I'll have to leave it to them."

Aoba suddenly turns his head to view Misato while panicking a little due to just receiving an urgent notification. "A large, unidentified object has been located!"

Misato's eyes widen as a result of hearing Aoba's cry as she directs her vision to him with a shocked expression. "What?!"

The scene changes again to focus on Asuka and the other pilots as they persist their effort in penetrating Dummy Eva 01's A.T. Field with their miniguns. While that transpires, a giant shadow appears as it shades the area that the children's Evas and Dummy Eva 01 are situated.

Kensuke notices the sudden blotting of the region and stops firing his Eva's minigun to peer at the sky. Immediately after that, the glasses-wearing male exhibits astonishment while frantically inquiring, "What's that?!" 

The other children detain their firing as well and look up with concern due to Kensuke's outburst. They are all then surprised by the sight of a dark, mysterious figure poised in the air.

Hikari's now scared while sustaining her attention onto the unknown entity. "Could it be...?!"

Misato watches with stress forming and says in a concern voice, "Please don't tell me that thing is what I think it is!"

Hyuga rapidly types on his computer with worry rising before his eyes widen once he sees information that brings bad news. After that, the adult slowly steers his concentration towards Misato with sadness surfacing. "Sadly, it is."

Misato grits her teeth while extremely irritated as she drops her gaze to the floor. "I said NOT to tell me!" The jacket woman snaps her focus back to the main monitor with an enraged expression demonstrated. "I can't believe there's another Eva to worry about!"

Dummy Eva 03 remains in the sky as it steadily flaps its wings amidst staring down at the opponents below while continually casting its shadow. The SEELE Eva's appearance is almost exactly like the Mass Production Evas with the exception that its head is a diamond-like shape instead of being round. In addition, Dummy Eva 03 is completely black as it has the same creepy smile that the Mass Production Evas possess.

Asuka feels a chill go down her spine as she notes the enemy Eva's wings, reminding her of the Mass Production Evas, and is ultimately consumed by rage. This leads to the red-head to glaring at Dummy Eva 03 while whispering to herself, "I hate those fucking wings...! I was lucky to keep control of my anger during the simulation... But for those bastards to make one that looks SO much like them...!" Asuka promptly shouts as she retains her wrath, "Well that just pisses me off!" 

After Asuka made that statement, Unit 02 points its minigun at Dummy Eva 03 and begins to fire it while the blue-eyed teenager passionately yells with intensity showing.

Misato hurriedly displays worry upon Asuka issuing her furious cry. "Calm down, Asuka! Don't let your anger get the best of you!"

Dummy Eva 03 maintains itself airborne as the bullets heads towards it, the mechanical beast's A.T. Field easily shielding it. This causes Asuka to be filled with even more rage as she briefly shouts in German while refusing to let-up her onslaught, "Du bastard!" The dame quickly switches back to talking in Japanese. "I'm gonna' get you!"

Rei shifts her vision to Unit 02 while significantly concerned about the way Asuka's behaving until noticing out of the corner of her left eye that Dummy Eva 01 is reloading its missile launcher. As a result, the pale-skinned girl turns her attention towards it with seriousness taking over and thinks, "That Eva will most likely aim for Soryu again since she is busy with the new foe." Rei swiftly maneuvers her Eva towards Unit 02 and has it stand in front of the red beast while pointing her minigun at Dummy Eva 01. 

At the same time, everyone in Central Dogma is caught off guard by Rei's unexpected positioning while even some of the pilots are taken aback.

Misato observes Rei's action with her hands on her hips with a hint of fear presented as she thinks, "I can understand why Rei is doing what she's doing, but she still has that tendency of putting herself in harm's way to protect others. It isn't necessarily bad, however..." She sighs while closing her eyes for a small moment. Afterwards, Misato opens her eyes to view the immense screen again while mumbling, "I just hope that she isn't trying to throw her life away with the belief that she'll just be replaced like she used to. She mustn't continue thinking in such a manner because this time that won't happen and none of us could possibly stand the thought of losing her."

Asuka persists her shooting at Dummy Eva 03 while glancing at Unit 00 prior to returning her attention to Dummy Eva 03, considering her being more focused on it than Unit 00. As she sustains her attention upon the recent adversary, the 2nd Child utters to Rei with an annoyed tone, "I don't need you to be my shield, First!" Asuka smiles with a mildly pleased composition established. "But I do appreciate the back-up!"

Rei lightly grins as she's looking at Dummy Eva 01 and contentedly nods. "I'm glad to hear that, Soryu." Unit 00 then shoots at Dummy Eva 01 again. 

Fortunately for Dummy Eva 01, its A.T. Field deflects the multiple projectiles as the behemoth finishes loading its launcher. Not long after, the enemy Eva points the launcher at Unit 00 and gets ready to fire it.

At that instance, Kensuke makes his Eva rush towards Dummy Eva 01 from behind while shooting its own minigun at the enemy's A.T. Field as he fervently yells out, "Don't you dare aim that at Rei!" Unit 04 ultimately ceases its travel at a dangerously close distance from the opponent with the volley of bullets persisting.

Rei hastily increases the volume of her voice due to stress enveloping her, having drawn her concentration to Kensuke, "Aida, No! You are too near it!"

Dummy Eva 01 quickly turns around to confront Unit 04, directing its missile launcher at Unit 04's midsection. 

Kensuke gasps out of shock as he pulls his head back a bit. 

Simultaneously, Misato urgently yells while removing her hands down from her hips to gesture them a little. "Expand your A.T. Field, Kensuke!" 

Rei unprecedentedly makes her Eva drop the minigun as she hurriedly pulls out two Prog Knives from Unit 00's pylons. Afterwards, the blue Eva runs towards the enemy as fast as possible.

During that, Dummy Eva 01 fires its missile launcher, invoking a stunned expression from Kensuke while paralyzed with fear. Thanks to that, the brown-haired boy's unable to respond to the SEELE Eva's attack. 

To Kensuke's good fortune though, Unit 03 and the Extra Eva appear behind Unit 04 while each grabbing onto an arm to pull the silver-colored Eva down to the ground to lie onto its back. Meanwhile, the missile barely misses Unit 04 as it journeys right between Unit 03 and the Extra Eva. In conclusion, the projectile soars all the way to the outskirts of the city until colliding an enormous eruption is seen to symbolized that it had finally crashed into the ground with Central Dogma's personnel greatly surprised by what they have just witnessed.

A split second later, Rei shouts in a commanding tone towards Touji, Hikari and Kensuke while almost reaching Dummy Eva 01's backside, "Deploy your A.T. Fields!" 

After hearing Rei's command, Kensuke swiftly gets Unit 04 back on its feet, and without questioning her, all three Evas initiate their A.T. Fields to maximum capacity. 

Rei smirks at witnessing the trio do as she requested and thinks, "Perfectly timed." Unit 00 then comes in contact with the enemy and strikes it on the back via both knives.

Dummy Eva 01 generates a loud squealing sound as it's struck by both Prog Knives, compliments of connecting directly with its core unit. This promptly leads to the SEELE Eva abruptly explode while the blast engulfs the four Evas that were near Dummy Eva 01. 

As the eruption retains its form, Central Dogma's personnel watches it until it dies down and creates a lot of smoke. After a little bit of time passing, the smoke dissipates while revealing that all four of NERV's Evas are in one piece. This causes everyone to release a huge sigh of relief until hearing Shinji suddenly scream out of nowhere. 

Misato becomes worried as she deviates her gaze towards Hyuga. "What's happening to Shinji?!"

Hyuga hurriedly retorts in a frantic manner. "I don't know! We were so busy with the others that we didn't keep an eye on Shinji's progress! Here it is on the screen now!" The uniformed guy veers his focus to the main monitor after typing something on his screen. 

Misato looks up at the main screen as well while quite concerned. Right after that, the purple-haired woman's baffled when she sees that Unit 01 has been severely scarred with multiple, deep cuts through out its body.

Shinji's currently breathing heavily with his head lowered while bent forward, pain enveloping his entire being, while Unit 01 is at a small distance away from Dummy Eva 02. Following him gathering some of his composure, the 3rd Child thinks to himself as he's gritting his teeth, "I can't believe how pathetic I am! I can't even defeat one Eva by myself! And after what I said to Asuka!" 

As Shinji's lost in thought, Dummy Eva 02 rapidly moves its fingers while staring at Unit 01 with it not having received any real damage, except for a few small cuts that were made by the Prog Knife.

Then, Misato's voice comes through the intercom as she hastily speaks, "Shinji! Are you alright?!"

Shinji peers at his adversary and is a bit irritated. "I'm fine! I just have to beat it"! The brown-haired boy tries to relax with his tone settling down. "How's everybody else?"

Misato rebuttals while containing a slightly sad tone. "They were able to defeat the Eva that had the missile launcher, but now they have to deal with another one that appeared not too long ago."

Shinji demonstrates stress as he steers his attention upward. "Seriously?! How many are we going to have to fight?!"

Misato observes the large monitor that shows Unit 01 and the enemy while saying in a assuring tone with her arms crossed, "Calm down, Shinji. Just hope that it will be the last one. At least they were victorious over one." She temporarily pauses before uttering while sounding a bit concerned, "But unfortunately, Asuka seems to have gone ballistic. The enemy Eva actually holds a pretty strong resemblance to the Mass Production Evas."

Shinji's eyes widen prior to grinding his teeth a tad as he mounts his concentration onto Dummy Eva 02 with a fierce glare while tightening his grip on the controls. "Then I have to go up there to help her. I don't want her to suffer like she did last time." The teen soon shouts in a tenacious manner as Unit 01 commences charging towards the opponent, "I'm going to beat you and help Asuka!"

Dummy Eva 02 detains the moving of its fingers while roaring at Unit 01. It then runs towards Unit 01 with its claws ready to strike, and eventually, both Evas come in contact. 

Unit 01 collides into the enemy's A.T. Field and desperately strives to penetrate it with both Prog Knives that are still in its hands. 

Dummy Eva 02 gives out a creepy chuckle as it starts to swing its arms in the attempt to strike Unit 01.

Unit 01 barely avoids each slash while Shinji continues to have it assault the A.T. Field with the Prog Knives when possible. As he does this, the Japanese lad's consumed with hate and anger as he's intently staring Dummy Eva 02 down. Afterwards, Shinji yells out while feeling quite useless from his constant failure, "Shit! I can't get it! I need to help Asuka! But this bastard won't let me!"

Misato continues to watch what transpired with worry as she mutters to herself, "Shinji... Asuka means that much to you, huh?" She gradually smirks while relief takes shape. "I'm glad that you can be so honest with your feelings."

Maya abruptly turns her attention to Misato with panic displayed. "Colonel! Shinji's synchronization is climbing! It has already surpassed 100% and nearing 200% as we speak!"

Misato looks at Maya and calmly says, "I'm not surprised." The adult reverts her concentration towards the main screen. "He's fighting with the thought of protecting the girl he loves. Even if he's showing anger, it's for the right reason." Excitement presents itself on Misato's demeanor as she shouts with a supportive tone, "Keep it up, Shinji! Don't hold anything back for the sake of the person you love!"

Unit 01's mouth promptly opens to display that it has gone berserk while Shinji keeps passionately yelling with Unit 01 dodging the enemy's attacks and implements its own strikes at the enemy's A.T. Field. 

Dummy Eva 02's defense starts to crack as a result as Hyuga witnesses this and clenches his hands in delight. "Alright! He's slowly breaking through!"

Aoba promptly yells out while also getting excited as he's standing up, "Yeah! You can do it, Shinji! Show SEELE that their Evas are nothing in comparison to ours!"

Ritsuko smiles amidst her observation of her companions and thinks, "It's good to see that everyone's getting pumped up at Shinji's determination." The doctor veers her focus to the enormous monitor as she continues her thought process while sadness steadily arises. "It must be good to be in love with someone who loves you back."

In the meantime, Shinji elude a right swing from his opponent and then gives out one final battle-cry. With that done, Unit 01 hits the A.T. Field with the Prog Knife that's in its left hand while successfully penetrating it and stabbing the enemy's right rib-region. 

Dummy Eva 02 instantly lets out a pain filled roar while stopping its arms's frailing. 

Shinji sees his opportunity immediately and swiftly has Unit 01 pierce the neck of the enemy with its right knife. This causes the SEELE Eva to roar in pain once more as Unit 01 snaps off the blades of the Prog Knives, so they would stay embedded into the enemy. After that, the purple behemoth  releases its grasp on the knives' handle while grabbing onto the enemy's neck and starts to mercilessly choke it. 

As it's being choked, Dummy Eva 02 quickly grabs onto Unit 01's arms in the attempt to make it let go while some screeching sounds escapes it mouth. 

Unit 01 plainly ignores the efforts of the enemy while forcefully pushing Dummy Eva 02 onto the ground, pinning the beast with its left knee as Shinji's Eva adds more pressure to the neck.

Misato continues to watch Unit 01's persistence while thinking with seriousness showing, "That's it, Shinji... You almost got it... Just a little further..."

Following that thought, Dummy Eva 02 releases its grip on Unit 01's arms without warning and grabs onto Unit 01's head in the attempt to make the giant concede first. 

Shinji totally neglects the adversary's desperate strive to be free as he screams in determination, "Let's see how you work without your head!" Unit 01 quickly moves it hands to the head of Dummy Eva 02, and with as much force as possible, rips it off while letting go of the foe's severed body part. Thanks to that, the head is sent flying up in the air and eventually crashes upon the landscape behind Shinji's Eva.

Once that transpires, every single member within Central Dogma start to celebrate. Meanwhile, Unit 01 stands above the defeated behemoth as Shinji tries to calm himself down while staring at Dummy Eva 02. Not long after, the 3rd Child peers at the ceiling and thinks with concern surfacing, "Asuka..."

Misato smiles as she watches Unit 01 standing tall prior to navigating her attention towards Maya with a bit of worry exhibited. "How are the others?"

Maya quickly types on her screen's keys in response to Misato's inquiry until looking up at the main monitor. "Viewing now!"

Misato promptly sees on the main screen that all the Evas are firing their miniguns at Dummy Eva 03, causing her to become more concerned while murmuring to herself, "This is going to be tough! There's no way they can penetrate its A.T. Field from that distance!"

Dummy Eva 03 continues to flap its wings as its A.T. Field defends it from the bullets. Suddenly, it pauses its wings for a moment to build up strength for a huge flap that causes its A.T. Field to expand as that action deflects all of the oncoming bullets and sends them back towards the children's Evas. 

Because of that, the pilots are briefly stunned, however, soon regain some of their composure and rapidly deploy their individual A.T. Fields to block the projectiles. 

While that occurred, Dummy Eva 03 grins in a creepy manner amidst turning its concentration to Unit 02. It then launches itself to fly straight at Asuka's Eva with a considerable amount of speed produced.

Asuka witnesses the adversary heading towards her, becomes a bit irritated and yells out with confidence brimming, "Come and get me!" The redhead directs her minigun at the enemy once again without detaining the weapon's barrage.

Dummy Eva 03's A.T. Field continually protects it from the bullets as it comes into contact with Asuka's Eva and collides into the red behemoth.

Asuka shuts her eyes amidst her yelping in pain while Unit 02 falls to its backside. During that, its arms are pinned against the ground by the enemy while Dummy Eva 03 is also putting its entire weight on the mechanical beast's body. 

The sight of this causes Central Dogma's personnel to demonstrate fear and are still observing the battle.

Misato's briefly worried as well until regaining her composer while yelling out in a commanding tone, "Get up, Asuka! Don't let that piece of crap beat you so easily!"

As if taunting Asuka, Dummy Eva 03 brings its face is extremely close to Unit 02's while keeping Unit 02 down with a demented smile portrayed. 

Asuka opens her eyes and sees the enemy Eva's expression and is reminded of the Mass Production Evas again while thinking about what Misato just said, instigating a furious attitude from the teen. At the same time, Unit 02 goes berserk with its green eyes lighting up as it forcefully breaks free from Dummy Eva 03's grip before delivering a punch to the SEELE Eva's face via its left fist. The force of the hit makes Dummy Eva 03 get off of Unit 02 due to it being so unexpected while staggers rearward a tad.

Asuka quickly makes her Eva rise to its feet while glaring at the enemy with a pissed off conduct displayed.

Misato's concern surfaces again while thinking, "It seems that Asuka couldn't take it anymore! The bastard just looks way too much like the Mass Production Evas!"

Simultaneously, Asuka passionately screams while totally enraged prior to thrusting Unit 02's right arm towards the enemy as it's also balled into a fist. Amazingly, the limb's able to penetrate Dummy Eva 03's A.T. Field and goes right into the foe's stomach with a lot of force. 

As a result, Dummy Eva 03 screeches in agony with its head cocked back while the behemoth's wings are extended out. 

After that, Asuka shows a slightly demented expression and persists applying pressure to the region that was struck.

Dummy Eva 03's crying doesn't halt while grabbing onto Unit 02's arms. 

Asuka instantly reacts to the enemy coming into contact with her Eva and shouts at it in an upset voice, "Don't you dare touch mama!" Unit 02's right hand grabs onto the enemy's face and crushes it, defeating Dummy Eva 03, but Asuka doesn't take note of it thanks to how angry she is. Following that, the German chick decides to forcefully throw the enemy's body upon the terrain and makes Unit 02 pull back its arms. She then attempts to thrust both of Unit 02's fists back into the enemy's body. 

Right before they could reach the unmoving opponent though, Unit 01 appears in front of Unit 02 while standing above the enemy's body and catches both of Unit 02's hands with its own. 

Asuka's astonished by Unit 01's interference as she yells out, "Shinji?!"

Shinji's image abruptly becomes established on the upper screen as he's giving Asuka a reassuring smirk. "It's over, Asuka. You can stop now."

Asuka's spaces out temporarily until remembering that this is similar to what transpired in the simulation training and happily smiles at Shinji while nodding. "You're right. Thank you, Shinji."

Shinji closes his eyes without extinguishing his current behavior. "Anytime, Asuka."

*Scene Cuts To Black*

To Be Continued...

Ending Statement:

So far this is the longest episode in this series and I have been making each episode so far pretty damn long. I decided to end the episode right after the last enemy Eva was defeated. I remember that the NGE would end sometimes right after the battle is over with nothing else really needing to be said, so that's what I did. I hope you all enjoyed the episode and look forward to the next one. Can't make any promises of what it will be about, but I will do my best like always to entertain you.

That's it. Talk to you all later.