So . . .Torg? Uh, let's be a bit selective about that little trip down memory lane!

”In a word?” I deadpan, trying not to sound sarcastic but really felt a need for SOME kind of rejoinder for that rather . . . .obvious question. Sweet Heaven above, we did give out an overview of what Neon Genesis was about, you know! “Yes!”

Okay, quick look around and see what there is to see? I have situational awareness right now but increasing it to higher levels is Always a good idea! Yeah, that and take a deep, calming breath. It’ll help to not look like someone who’s not on top of things and in a state of panic!

I am NOT in a state of panic but that rush of adrenaline from that brush with death (and all that) can make a body jittery, right?

. . .

Looking around, anyway, I see to get a lay of the immediate land around me since landing. I’m had a pretty good bead on things already beforehand but just needed to take my eyes off things and take care of Betty Ragan’s question.

She was brave enough to volunteer to come along and deserves the respect of an answer. God only knows what I would have to do if she had actually lost it like her lesser analog that my family had meet earlier at that other VLA incident (re: 13434).

Anyway…

The Master being totally miserable and green due to that rather high speed dive we all did there, to the point of being curled up into a ball of misery and not much else. Reika and Lilith are looking after him with anti-motion sickness patches (which work with humans and Time Lord biology, thanks). He’s taken care of there. And villain or not, I DO feel sorry for the guy. Brilliant as it had been for him to use cloning to get around facing death due to no more Regenerations the Time Lord’s method for “revitalizing” his digestive system left something to be desired. Something that he shall take care of AFTER we get this mess straightened out and him back in his old universe. Something that we clone girls learned (quiet the hard way) in the course of things.

Put that on my “things to do before the Master leaves this reality forever” list, but he’ll hold for now. The patches seem to be having an effect anyway by the way he’s not as pale as before, slightly. If he’s still bad by the time I get back to him? Well, a small spell should put him right?

I do hope that he does not again try to explain why a field of magic that usually is reserved for the clergy should be available to those who practice magery. Frankly, it had been the stuff of massive headache for both secular and religious bents when mages first discovered the knack after so long it being only available to those religious houses. Oh, the clergy can do it for much cheaper, but at least one does not have to pledge themselves (sometimes pledge themselves mind, body, and soul to “gods” that are VERY possessive)…

Ah, nevermind!

My husband? He’s looking over the air cycle we’d been using and hoping to make a very quick trip with here for damage. He had bounced the thing a few times as we’d made that emergency dive/landing just a moment ago and did quiet a number on the highway behind us. Doesn’t seem too bad from here (the thing has armor on it from Rift Earth and therefore can take a HELL of a beating) but hubby wants to be sure.

Yukiko? She looks like she’s doing fine. Excited even from the adrenaline rush but besides fingering her weapon (a phasor we had given here after a quick lesson in how to use/fire safely), she keeps glancing back the way the Angel had been (and now is turning into a BIG puddle of LCL).

LCL? Since when do Angels turn into total puddles of LCL? In my world they left . . .corpses. What the hey?

Sigh, Mark me! I know that sister Yukiko’s home reality had only some similarities to it but THAT was just too much! I mean REALLY! That Angel’s beam just melted a #$%#$ mountain over yonder that way and MY and my sisters who are not from the Rebuild reality that Yukiko’s from never faced one that could fire something that powerful and that quickly. Let us not mention the quick counter- fire that NERV managed just now….

. . .

Come to think of it, I KNOW . . .that the counter-fire came from slightly different directions than just a single, solitary sniping spot. I was able to tell that even—albeit in passing--as we all were diving to avoid all that hellfire above us. So either NERV was fielding more than one sniper EVA team. Worrisome because that would mean the not only more than one “prototype” (though having two would negate it being a prototype, to be pedantic) positron rifle “borrowed” from the JSSDF but MUCH more power than what I and my sisters are familiar with. And WE were part of an operation that had our positron rifles had been (though what amounted to a nightmare cludge of massive electrical engineering even by anime physics) channeling ALL of Japan’s national grid through so we could punch through that Angel’s AT field. What kind of power source had the Rebuild’s positron rifle use in order to take down THAT monster who’s energy beams can melt mountains in one go?!

I mean frankly I rather doubt that an improvised shield made from the bottom part of the American space shuttle would cut it, bloody Hell! And having been the shield bearing maiden—the one to block Angelic counterfire so Shinji Ikari could survive to take a second sniping shot when/if the first should fail I and my sisters had something of a vested interest in such matters.

What in the name of Heaven was that bastard Gendo Ikari fated to have put my little sister Yukiko against if Setsuna had not intervened and destroyed his (and Seele’s) mad plans for Instrumentality…

No, now Yukiko’s world has a chance to live but it also means since the powers that be who run the various Offices dumped all of the leftovers here which we’ll have to dodge and run from until either all the marooned party members wake up to the fact that THIS is not Japan (not even their old reality) and better STOP fighting before the surely agitated US Armed Forces come in and start spanking people left and right in their efforts to get things back under control . . .or until the anime physics that is still in play for the “leftovers” finally runs out and axiom wash comes in and transforms it all to conform to THIS realities physics. THAT will inert the EVAs (and the Angels) because . . .frankly the Rules and Agents pretty much don’t LIKE their intrusion.

…

Okay, let’s get back to business and not go off on needless tangents, Rei! I swear sometimes that I could almost miss being a clone soldier/puppet, being lead than leading but right now duty calls and I better bloody well LEAD!!

That and break out the souped up laptop that Inquirer gave me as a belated birthday present. I do hope that she copied my old files for the hacking tools I had created if I should ever need to . . .gain some kind of quick entry into a NERV computer system out on Quest without bothering to ask.

Yes, I DO try to be properly paranoid and get ready BEFOREHAND for a quest like ones involving getting new sisters like Reika and Yukiko. Last time around I tried to “MacGuiver” it on the fly, it didn’t work quiet as I had hoped (re: 70977). Going in half-arsed with just simple costume makeup (instead of having it prepped beforehand) had lead to all kinds of problems. Imagine trying to hack a supercomputer like the Magi on the fly? I’m good with computers (that come from the Military reality), but I am NOT in the same class as Inquirer or her family, thanks!

”Yes Ragan,” I sigh after taking a calming breath and start taking out my laptop. “Yes, we did fight at least one monster like that. . . .all of them were dangerous and challenging in their own way. Yes, welcome to a glimpse of the life I and two other child pilots from a post-apocalyptic world lived. Something that will for the MOST part go to the wayside as soon as things run out and your reality pulls a Torg on some of the more dangerous things out there.”

Or at least I hope it happens REALLY soon, thanks. Do not feel like playing hide-and-seek/dodge with the Angels . . .or Nerv and her EVA units, thanks!

”What . . .do you mean by ‘pulling a Torg’?” the Master mutters, apparently having recovered enough to begin to actually butt in on things. “I fear I’m not familiar with that term.”

”It is . . .a term borrowed from a role-playing series that had been rather popular back on Terra Prime last time I was there,” I begin, smirking slightly as I see Betty Ragan blink in surprise.

Yes, I see she would recognize that gaming system, having been her analog having introduced it to Terra Prime (through Inquirer to be exact)…

”You guys have TORG?!” she blinks. “The one with ‘The Near Now. Later today, early tomorrow, sometime next week, the world began to end.’"

“The Storm has a Name,” I add, finishing the quoet from the back of the game box Betty speaks of before explaining the similiarities of converting anime physics the EVA units are still running around with over into ‘real life’ physics, like what we talked about before. We just didn’t mention any games first time about, much less muddy waters with how fiction became reality and Inquirer, the Doctor, and his Companions at the time had to deal with one of their role playing games . . .

1. . . .coming real and such, as it were.

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