41WriterGirl: Edited on Sep. 24/16
Chapter 1: The Land of the Living
The Hole, Tokyo-3 Ruins, Japan
"Well…they weren't so tough," Mari called out in a disappointed tone as she floated to the room's window as an explosion roared in the distance. "I mean I think I could have gotten through them and I'm a Ghost!"
Ghosts, drone like machines purpose built to find individuals who can serve as Guardians, the elite protectors of humanity. Like most Ghosts, Mari's core was made of a dark grey sphere around the same size as a golf ball with a flat 'face' that contained her eye. Mari's eye was a square diamond with squared corners, with a small circle in the middle with the outside section is split vertically into two halves, unlike most Ghosts though her eye glowed green instead of a light blue. Mari's shell, like all Ghosts, consisted of four triangular pieces arranged around the eye in a cross formation with a square diamond shaped cut-out in the middle for her eye while four identical pieces in the same arrangement made up the rear of her shell. Mari's shell itself is pink in colour with white accents while 'THE BEAST!' was stenciled in white on her right side beside her eye.
What truly made her unique as a Ghost though is that she is, currently, the only known female Ghost in history, an aspect of herself she took great pride in.
She heard a sigh come from behind her followed by a soft male voice.
"Mari-chan…can Ghosts fight?"
Mari turned around to face not just a Guardian but her Guardian, her Hunter. He wasn't particularly heavily built, quite slim actually which lead to him being often mistaken by strangers to be a female Hunter. He wasn't particularly tall either, standing around the average height of a sixteen year old male, making him shorter than most Guardians.
Standing in the doorway he was clad in the style of armor worn by all Hunters, a lightly armored full body suit. His body suit was mainly dull black in colour and made of a synthetic leather like material. The armour was light but strong with his lower body protected by almost knee high grey boots and dark purple plate armour knee pads. His torso was protected by a dark purple armored chest plate, protecting some of his vital organs while leaving his abdomen protected by the synth leather, a compromise for flexibility and protection. On the middle of the chest plate was written the three letters 'FWC' in white text while three diagonal stripes, one red, one yellow and one white ran down his abdomen. As a personal touch '01' was printed in green over his right breast while the side facing silhouette of a fierce demon with one horn, it's jaws open in a roar, was stenciled in white over his left breast. His helmet was simple. The upper half was dark purple with a triangular plate bolted on the front with three camera lenses, one on each corner, providing the enhanced optical information necessary in the Hunter's common role as a scout while a green bandana covered the lower half.
His right arm was very lightly protected, keeping it flexible for the skilled handling of firearms. The only armour protecting his right arm other than synth leather was a simple purple shoulder pauldron with green accents, a purple armored elbow pad and a green metal bracelet protecting his wrist and lightly armored purple gloves that mainly protected his knuckles and little else, favoring dexterity more than anything. His left arm though is what distinguished his gauntlets as something truly special. Mounted on his left shoulder was the skull of an ahamkara, a dragon like creature hunted for their body's seemingly magical properties while the still moving spine of the same beast served as a forearm guard, mounted on a vembrace, while a lightly armored glove the same as his other one protected the hand. They were the gauntlet's called Young Ahamkara's Spine, named after the beast it had been made from.
Rounding out her Hunter's outfit is the quintessential piece of Hunter gear, the cloak, a stylish hood and cape worn by every Hunter to show off their achievements, honour past Guardians and events, break up their silhouette in the wild or just add their own personal flair to their appearance. Currently he was wearing a blue camouflage ankle length cloak with a white trim, the same design worn by the legendary Ayane Takanome whose skills with a sniper rifle protected hundreds of refugees during mankind's collapse before the birth of the Guardians hundreds of years ago.
In his left hand he held the large Hunter's Knife, a large single edged knife with a curved blade and a gut hook.
In Mari's opinion it was more of a short sword than an actual knife.
In his right hand he held the oddly named Havoc Pigeon, a pistol with a grey frame, boxy purple slide with green accents that resembled the 21st century Glock series of pistols. The gun was special though because, other than the punching power and great performance, it had a suppressor attached to the end of the barrel. Suppressors were rare on the guns used by Guardians, the high powered cartridges used in modern weaponry simply being too powerful. As a result the suppressors that were in use tended to be expensive and time consuming to make which made them rare and only attached to the best of firearms.
On his back was Monte Carlo, a clean and sleek white auto rifle with a simple dot sight and an absurdly long bayonet that, to Mari, was more of a sword than anything else.
…Her Guardian liked sharp and pointy things Mari realized.
"No, of course not," Mari answered as her Guardian sheathed his knife behind his waist and returned Havok Pigeon to its place on his right thigh, the armor sensing his intentions and activating an electro-magnet that held the weapon in place.
"Ok, good," her guardian nodded, " I was afraid that in the…how long has it been? Seven years?"
"Seven years, two months, three days and 37 seven seconds."
"…Right, seven years. I was afraid that in those seven years of you being with me through all that fighting you just chose not to help," he teased.
If she had the eyelids to blink in surprise she just knew she would have, instead settling for blinking her eye's light instead. Her Guardian was many things, quiet, polite, a good cook and a crack shot but teasing? That was one thing he wasn't. She should know, she had perfect memory after all and in seven years he had never teased her before, usually that was her job.
Her Guardian walked through the room and grabbed a chair and a tall bar stool and a table and placed the chair at one of the blown out windows while placing the small table beside him, placing Monte Carlo on the table, ready to be quickly used. He then placed the bar stool down behind the chair and sat on it.
Mari, knowing what to do after years of practice, floated beside him and looked out the window.
"So," Mari started as she focused outside, "I'm guessing you want to test out your new toy?"
"…Yes," he muttered and she could tell he was a little embarrassed with his eagerness, she couldn't blame him though, he did get a new rifle from the gunsmith and from what she could tell with her scans it was quite the custom piece.
Quickly searching through his inventory she selected the sniper rifle Stillpiercer for transmat and in a flash of bluish white light the sniper rifle teleported from their ship in orbit to her Guardian's lap. Stillpiercer was a powerful sniper rifle, the base gun had been a HAKKE made sniper, the same weapon foundry behind Havoc Pigeon, but heavily modified and upgraded by the The Tower's gunsmith. The gun resembled the 21st century M110 in appearance and the receiver was olive drab in colour. The rifle's barrel had a grey thermal shroud wrapped around it, to help disguise the rifle in the wild and also to absorb some of the heat generated by the rifle's powerful round. At the end of the barrel was another rare suppressor, although the sheer power of Stillpiercer meant the gun was nowhere near the whisper quiet of Havoc Pigeon and still quite audible at medium ranges. Sitting atop the rifle's optic rail, covered in dark green camouflage netting, was a custom sniper scope with a HAKKE red dot sight fitted on top for emergencies.
Stillpiercer was designed to keep the user undetected at long range while keeping him stealthy enough to loose off a few shots at medium range before being found and it showed.
Mari still remembered what the gunsmith said when he handed the gun to her Hunter.
'By the time they know you're there, it's already too late.'
She couldn't help but agree with him.
Her Guardian positioned himself on the bar stool while resting Stillpiercer's barrel on the top of the back of the chair, the tall stool allowing him to look down and out through the window as the chair stabilized the rifle's barrel. He was careful not to extend the barrel out of the window, actually keeping the muzzle around a foot away from the window to better conceal them in their now set up sniper's nest.
Mari focused her attention outside and onto the floor of The Hole. They were in one of the few buildings left standing, holed up on the sixth floor, the highest remaining floor of the building as the rest had been blown off in the Battle of Tokyo-3, or so she guessed. Mari searched outside, keeping an eye out for movement as her Guardian beside her did the same thing. Her job was simple, act as his spotter and look for targets. While his sniper rifle had more powerful zoom optics the scope had a very limited field of view, so to prevent tunnel vision she would also look for any threats. The scope on Stillpiercer did had an impressive electronics suite that actually extended the range of her Guardian's standard issue motion sensor but it was still only useful for making sure nobody would sneak up on them, it just didn't have the range necessary for spotting targets hundreds of metres or even a kilometre or two away. She, however, did.
So far nothing though.
"So," Mari started, "looks like the plan worked."
Her Guardian looked away from his scope to quickly steal a glimpse at the sight of the earlier explosion, a Fallen outpost…well it was a Fallen outpost. Now it was just a sea of flames surrounded by a cloud of smoke, courtesy of some explosives she had tansmated from their ship.
"Looks that way," came the soft reply, "most of the Fallen in the area are rushing to the scene…I can't believe it worked. I have to thank Cayde-san for the idea."
"It didn't bring in all of them though," Mari said as she noticed a few of the Fallen had been ordered to stay behind, patrolling through the wasteland that was the floor of The Hole. She could see their forms moving between some of the ancient hulks of destroyed vehicles. "Are you going to take them out?" she asked as she sent their location to her Guardian's HUD.
"No, not yet at least. They know something happened but not what happened or who did it. Our goal is to make sure that Ghost finds his Guardian and get them and us out, no need to do anything that would make it harder."
"Understood. So…" Mari drifted off as she remembered the day her and her Guardian met, at this very same place. "Feeling nostalgic?"
"…a little."
"But it's not from the day we met, is it?" She made sure not to sound accusatory when she said that, she understood what he felt, so deep was their connection to each other and their Light.
"No…sorry. This is where I died after all."
"Stop," she said, annoyed. "Don't apologize, you don't have anything to apologize for Puppy-kun."
Seriously, he was too nice for his own good sometimes. He really did remind her of a sad puppy a lot of the time with his big eyes and almost constant small frown, hence the nickname.
"Thanks," and she could see the small smile she knew he had in her digital mind's eye. "A lot has happened here for me. A lot of memories here, good and bad, us meeting? One of the best."
"Flatterer. Speaking of this place, do you have any idea who that Ghost may have been looking for? The moment he said his Guardian to be may be in Japan you smiled. If I could be rendered blind, which I can't, I think I may have been after seeing that bright smile of yours, you were so happy."
And she meant it too, just before they left she had heard rumors of Cayde-6 running around The Tower proclaiming the world was about to end (again) because the, as he liked to call her Guardian, 'Saddest Hunter Alive' smiled.
"Oh I have an idea."
"Are you sure?...You know, I don't think you should get your hopes too high here. If you're wrong…"
"Don't worry Mari-chan, I accepted her death…years ago but…well I can't think of anyone who had died here that would fit the role of a Guardian more. Brave, fiery and strong. She's a perfect fit."
'I hope you're right,' she thought to herself as she continued to monitor for movement, 'you deserve something good to happen to you after the life you've lived, Puppy-kun.'
"Wake up!" Asuka heard a male voice call out to her but something about the voice seemed…off, artificial. "Come on Guardian, wake up."
Asuka opened her eyes with a groan as her brain struggled to work through what she last remembered…her last…moments.
"I…I should be dead," she said numbly as she looked at her hands. She looked at both her arms, they were both intact, she clearly remembered her last memory, of having one of them split down the middle. She also saw that her arms were covered in armor and she had on black armoured gloves. "What the hell? I should be wearing a plugsuit."
"Phew," she heard the artificial voice sigh in relief. "Welcome back to the land of the living Guardian."
Asuka looked up and saw…a floating eye drone? It's eye was glowing blue while it's simple white shell moved as it talked.
"Why am I alive?" Asuka asked as she placed her hand on her head and noticed she seemed to be wearing a helmet for some reason. "What the hell happened? Who or what are you?"
The eye drone floated a bit closer and down to her eye level before speaking, it's eye glowing a bit pulsed as the shell moved around its eye as it spoke, giving it a surprisingly organic feel.
"I'm a Ghost," it explained in English, which Asuka easily understood as she was fluent in that language along with German and Japanese. "Well…your Ghost actually, and I brought you back to life."
"Ok...Where are we?"
The…her Ghost, she corrected herself, tilted a bit to the side in a gesture of curiosity that reminded her of Rei. "The ruins of Tokyo-3 of course, where else?"
Asuka looked down and saw the familiar red armour of her beloved Unit-02 although the colour had faded somewhat. She quickly jumped down and ran away from it to get a better view, her Ghost following her. She had remembered being...eaten so she wanted to see what had happened to her Eva and she felt her heart hammer in her chest. She expected a gruesome corpse, torn flesh and organs splayed out but what she got was a body long dead. Stark white bones and broken armour, red paint faded and worn by time. She could see rust clear as day where the armour was cracked or broken, the metal unprotected by the protective coating they sprayed on Evangelion armour.
She looked around and saw that yes she was in the ruins of Tokyo-3, the Geofront to be specific.
"How much time has passed?" she asked in a whisper as she looked around herself. The Geofront seemed to have changed greatly from what she remembered of it from her battle with the nine white Evas. A lush forest had grown at the edges of the massive hole in the ground where the Geofront floor met the walls. She could see huge sections of the walls now had bear rock, the metal plating fallen off long ago. The hulks of the JSSDF vehicles were rusted a redish brown and some of them had vegetation growing out of them. Hell she could see some moss on her Eva's old armour.
"It has been…a long time Guardian. You're going to see a lot of things you may not understand."
"Answer me!"
Ghost flinched, "it has been…more than a millennia. I am sorry."
"Don't apologize when you don't need to," she commented absently as she remembered a sad blue eyed brown haired boy.
Her blood boiled with rage. He had left her to die! When she finally asked for his help he didn't come!
She felt betrayed by the only boy she had ever come to care for.
But just as quickly as it came her rage left her.
Didn't she do the same thing? Didn't she leave him alone too?
And she knew how much that would…probably…did devastate him. Shame flooded her as she remembered enjoying seeing him hurt. They were the same after all and while she would never admit it back then she just felt…too tired? Resigned? To deny it now.
She hurt him and he hurt her.
Who was she to judge him for leaving her? She did the same thing really and she didn't know what Shinji had to go through prior to the JSSDF attack.
She turned to her Ghost as the drone quietly hovered near her. She felt a little embarrassed at feeling awkward at the silence that had descended between her and a robot but, hell, he was the only one to talk to right now and he did seem so…alive.
"Hey…uh…Ghost was it?"
"That is correct. While some other Guardians do name their Ghosts most just refer to us by that title."
"Uh…what do you want to be called?" she asked awkwardly, she did notice that he kept calling her Guardian and that meant there were others like her. She had questions about them but she didn't label them a priority at the moment.
"Ghost is fine, Guardian."
"Right," she nodded. "So…what happened here? After…I died."
"According to records from that time after your Unit-02 had been...destroyed Evangelion Unit-01 appeared on the scene. What exactly transpired between Unit-01 and Units-05 through 12 is unknown. What is known is that the pilot of Evangelion Unit-01 successfully prevented Third Impact and the Mass Production Evangelions were destroyed in the process. I apologize if you find the information lacking, Guardian, many records of your time were lost or destroyed over the years."
"No it's fine Ghost," she assured her…companion? Sure seemed like it to her since he followed her. "But what's Third Impact?"
"Records available to me are unclear but what is known is that it would have been a catastrophic, possibly extinction level event. There may be more but it's probably classified...or just lost."
Asuka shook her head. Shinji had stopped that? Damn Baka always did have a hero complex, always having to save the day. Still, she felt a little peeved, would it have killed him to come just a little bit sooner? She sighed, 'no point complaining since I'm alive again.'
"What happened here though? They didn't rebuild?" she asked as she continued to take her environment in.
"No," her Ghost answered with a shake that seemed to be the little drone's version of a head shake. "After the battle the UN had sent in forces to provide security and the city had been cordoned off to deter scavengers. Other than that the city was left untouched, as a memorial and a grave for those that died here."
Asuka then asked a question she wanted…no needed the answer to. "What happened to the pilot of Evangelion Unit-01?"
She needed to know what happened to him. To the one boy who had tried to come close to her no matter how much she pushed him away, insulted him and hurt him. The boy who had wormed his way past her defenses even if she didn't want him to.
How long did he live? With his eating habits she guessed he lived a long life. Did he get married? If the Baka could somehow manage to attract a girl as, admittedly, bitchy as herself it wouldn't surprise her if he could attract another girl. She did hope he found someone nice, someone like Hikari and not herself. Hell, Hikari and Shinji? She approved, Hikari deserved better than the jock she insisted drooling over. Did he have children? With his bastard of a father he had an amazing reference for how to not be a father, he would probably be a good dad she guessed. Did he live a happy life? Now that was the question wasn't it? God knows he deserved it.
Her Ghost though was quiet and just turned his gaze to the middle of the Geofront.
She raised brow behind her helmet's faceplate and followed his gaze.
Her heart froze in her chest at what she saw.
The nine white Evangelions she fought were splayed out in a ring, obviously broken and long dead. She could see some of their bleach white bones through gaps in the armour, what remained of the armour itself now browned with dirt and time.
And in the middle lay the form of Evangelion Unit-01. Some of the armour had been broken and she could see some bone but she could recognize the iconic horned head of Shinji's Eva even from as far away as she stood.
"Please," she turned to her Ghost with a desperate whisper, "please tell me he lived."
"…I'm sorry Guardian. Pilot Ikari is listed as KIA on December 26th 2015."
"Y-you can bring him back though, right? Right?!"
Her Ghost shook in the negative, "I'm sorry Guardian. While I can revive you…a Ghost can only revive their respective Guardian."
Asuka took a deep breath to calm herself, "can we go back to…wherever you came from, get another Ghost and have him revive Shinji?"
"A Ghost chooses their Guardian but considering his record in the Angel War there is a high probability that there is a Ghost searching for Pilot Ikari...but Guardian, there is a possibility that that isn't the case. I don't want you to get your hopes up."
"I know but…I can't give up on him. Not when he tried so hard for me when we were alive"...'I still owe him for the volcano rescue...I didn't even say thank you.'
"I understand."
"Ghost…I've been meaning to ask but…am I taller?" she asked. She noticed it earlier, she felt taller, her limbs longer and her breasts, which were protected by a plate of armor, felt bigger as well. If she guessed she was now sixteen. "And what is a Guardian?"
"A Guardian is a protector of Humanity. Warriors who fight against the Darkness. As for the reason of your physical maturity…well I don't really know. I used the Light that was stored in me to revive you as a Guardian. Perhaps your physically young body's small size would make it difficult to fight and aged your body in response? Many aspects of the Light are still poorly understood, apologies."
Asuka nodded in acceptance. So she needed to fight another war huh? Well that was fine with her, she was really good at it and she didn't know how to do much else. She doubted her university education from a thousand years in the past would be useful and she couldn't even cook or clean properly, spoiled by living with Shinji. Besides a part of her looked forward to fighting beside Shinji again one day, and this time she would properly support him.
That said she did find his language oddly poetic, the little drone had been very straight until just now. What was the Darkness referring to? Aliens? Monsters? She would have preferred him to be straight with her.
"Well," she started, hand on her hips in one of her classic poses, "looks like the great Asuka Langley Soryu will be needed again!"
"Now, I came here with another more experienced Guardian, they're hunkered down not too far from here waiting for us so we can use their ship to leave. Let's go, I can explain more to you when we're somewhere safe."
"Right," Asuka nodded before turning back to her Eva and blowing a kiss, a soft smile on her face. "Good bye mama, thank you for protecting me for all that time." She then turned to the fallen form of Unit-01 and spoke in a resolute tone, tears blurring her vision, "I'm not going to blow you a kiss, I'll just give one to you when we meet again, so look forward to it you hear! I'll come back again Shinji and next time…next time I'll be nicer to you. You'll see. Until then…rest well my Baka."
Her Ghost remained respectfully quiet, something she was thankful for.
Asuka shook her head and looked at her Ghost, feeling strong and resolute as a few tears fell down her cheeks. "Lead the way Gho-"
A loud howl interrupted her and her head whipped around searching for the source.
"Guardian," her Ghost urgently called out to her, "stand still."
Her Ghost vanished in a flash of light and she heard his voice clear in her head.
[Don't worry Guardian, I'm with you. I've fabricated your armor out of some of the matter in the area, don't expect anything too special, it's meant as a stop gap until we can get you proper equipment. Here, I'll activate your HUD. Your motion sensor should be to the upper left of your vision.]
True enough Asuka could see a circle there. Inside was another smaller circle with a triangle in the middle, its apex pointing where she faced. The outer 'ring' had been sectioned off into eight sectors. One directly in front, one behind, one to her left, one to her right and one in between all of them.
She also saw a white bar appear at the top of her vision, divided into three equal sections.
"Ghost what's the bar?"
[That's your health bar Guardian] Asuka blinked in surprise, how video game like. [The left and middle sections are for your armour's shields, the third represents how much damage you can take before you die and I have to revive you. Your shields will only recharge if you take no damage for a moment and your shields do not make you invincible, be careful.]
"Right," she nodded as she crouched behind a destroyed tank hull, "stop gap armour, I got it. What was that though?"
"Fallen. The Guardian that brought me here set up a distraction, it worked but it didn't get all of the Fallen in the area to leave it seems."
Asuka saw that something was coming behind her thanks to her tracker and her combat training kicked in as she quickly jumped over the tank to take cover at the other side. Her strength and speed surprised her, she was always fit but…she had never felt so powerful before.
Peaking over the tank hull she saw it.
Covered in dark grey armour was a humanoid form. It had four arms and in two of them it held swords that were covered in a blue glow, the swords themselves resembling the swords pirates once used. It had a tattered red cape and wore a helmet that had two hoses coming out of it, connected to its armoured chest. What caught her attention though was the thing's head. It had an elaborate crest coming out of the back of the helmet while four eyes glared out in her direction, glowing bluish white. It was massive, easily towering three or four heads over a grown man.
Above it her HUD displayed the title 'Fallen Captain.'
"Movement," he heard his Ghost call out in her uniquely feminine voice.
A waypoint appeared on his HUD, courtesy of Mari, and he trained his scope on the location. It was a Fallen Captain, easy to identify from a Fallen Vandal with its bigger build and size. He also spotted a figure clad in white, grey and silver armour.
The new Guardian, a female he guessed by her slim build and the way her armour hugged her body.
He didn't care right now if that was Asuka or not. He'd worry about it later, right now he needed to cover her.
He quickly flipped off Stillpiercer's safety, and steadied his breathing, his heart rate slowed as a familiar mantra rang in his head, 'centre the target...and pull the switch.'
Stillpiercer barked for the first time as a soft purple flash lit up in the room, the sniper rifle's suppressor muffling what would have been a very bright muzzle flash.
The tungsten round, wrapped in purple Void Light screamed through the air before impacting the Fallen Captain 787 metres away. The round's Void energy, the force of dark energy and gravity, along with the round's massive amount of kinetic energy made short work of the Captain's shield. His shields flashed bright blue before fizzling out and collapsing, the round then impacted his target's head, penetrating the armoured helmet and the alien cranium exploded in a shower of armour and gore as a whisp of light evaporated from the Captain's neck before the body crumpled to the ground.
"Mari, tell them to get here now!" he ordered as he searched for targets, finding another Fallen he squeezed out another round and Stillpiercer barked again as the rifle claimed its second kill.
"Right. I'll send them a location of that APC we found on our way here. It's going to be in their path, might as well get our Princess a gun," Mari cheerfully replied as she enjoyed the action and gave the new Guardian a nickname, "Let's hope they find something that can still shoot."
Next on Fireteam Tokyo - Chapter 2: Reunion
AN
Maniac: Man I've had this, finished but unedited on my hardrive for...I'd say an entire year. I just got the urge to write it one day but hadn't bothered to work to get it out into the wilds of the internet. That said I did have a lot of fun writing this, I don't have many stories where I can write almost purely gunfights, most of my stories being more melee or even magic focused (at least the stuff I have coming up). I also had a lot of fun writing Asuka here as in most of my stories she's either completely absent or simply hadn't arrived 'on screen' yet.
WriterGirl: It took me offering to edit it to finally get it out, the lazy bum.
Maniac: Pretty much ahaha. Anyway for my long time readers this is how future ANs will be in the future since this is now a, kind of, two man (er one man, one woman) team. Also to my more senior readership don't worry, this hadn't interfered with me working on my other stories outside of writing this AN thanks to WG, I've just been quite busy with life in recent weeks.
Now on to the story I have to say so far I have another chapter planned but nothing past that. Would you guys like more of this story? If so it will follow Asuka and Shinji as they adventure through the plot of Destiny and eventually its DLCs. The updates will be around 5k in length so they should be easier for me to do than the 10k minimum I try to go for with all my other stories, it would also be a pure AxS story. I kind of wanted something easier to write, writing a good harem story isn't easy due to balancing all the characters. This story could serve as a fun breather thing to write since its so different to all my other stuff.
Anyway, until the next time!
WriterGirl: Bye!