Asuka wondered why there were tire marks on her Evangelion. And how on Earth they got on her transorganic unit in the first place. And as much as she didn't want to admit it transorganic sounded better then the official NERV term for the Evangelions of bio-mechanical units.

She grumbled as she went to examine the marks. "Probably one of those verdamnt Autobots playing some sort of..." she trailed off into more grumbling as she got a large brush to clean the rubber off.

While General Toru watched the Asuka cleaning her Evangelion and wondered why NERV was so willing to make her a pilot from childhood yet the commander's own son got nothing. He figured that Gendo would have played on any teenage boy's desire to drive a giant robot to get Shinji to come to Tokyo-3. He then shook his head. Figuring out why Gendo did anything was as easy as putting together a massive 3-D puzzle in the dark.

'And likely as ugly too,' Toru mused.

From over the General's shoulder, Doctor White watched Asuka intently. Before Asuka won't have liked anyone to clean the surface of her Eva. Though her making friends with several people was helping her come out of that ego based shell. Brad really wondered why the Children weren't trained together to work as a fighting unit.

True it wouldn't be easy to do that with kids, but it appeared no attempt to even try to do so had been made. Then again Gendo Ikari also ran the shell companies that picked who was a pilot of an Evangelion. It was another tool of control Ikari had that didn't sit well with anyone now that it was known. It also made them question what other independent organizations that worked with NERV really were under Gendo's direct control.

"You have any better luck getting the names of the other Children out of him?" General Toru asked the young psychologist.

"Only a handful of them; three jumped out at me immediately, though."

"Besides the 6th Child?" Toru asked. "You have no idea how surprising it was to see an Evangelion pilot with both parents and a younger sister."

"Mmm... Their names were Touji Suzuhara, Kensuke Aida, and Hikari Horaki." seeing General Toru's shocked expression, he nodded. "All three are in Shinji's class."

"And from what I heard the middle one would have ran across hot coals covered in gasoline to be a pilot," Toru remarked as he shook his head. "Before he started stalking the Transformers and camping outside the Ark in his spare time."

He nodded. "I'll do a bit more digging; I can almost see the pieces of a puzzle here, but I need more time to put them all together..."

"With Commander Gendo Ikari at the center of it," Toru growled in frustration. "The more we find out, the more its clear whatever he's after it won't be good for anyone else. Especially those he steps on to get it."

"Like a spider on it's web," Doctor White agreed.

"And I can't believe they even thought about using Evangelion 01," Toru growled with disgust. "After what it did to Yui Ikari."

White nodded. "I don't know which frightens me more; the possibility that Ikari is completely and utterly insane, or the possibility that he is in full control of his faculties, and everything he's done has had a deliberate purpose behind it."

"Though we have plenty of both going by some of the Decepticons the Autobots have named," Toru remarked. "With Megatron being just as much of a mystery to them if he's insane or in full control of his mind as Ikari is to us."

"Now that's a sobering thought."

"And the fact we were going to let a man who has traits of several different Decepticons save the world?" Toru commented. "Who looks more and more like making one of the Angels head of NERV would be less of a disaster."

Both men shuddered a bit. At least with the Angels they'd be be more honest in what they wanted. And might even tell them what was in the Tokyo-3 region they wanted so bad before they tried to kill everyone.

"And the Evangelions were crap," Toru noted. "They used power cords of all things for power was a tactical nightmare. And a pathetic stopgap measure until they were done creating something that was frankly messing with antimatter of all things. And the knives were usable, but they were the only weapon they had worth anything."

"Mmm..." White nodded, as they watched Asuka clean Unit-02. Even now the fiery Second Child took a great deal of pride in her Evangelion.

"And how is Lt. Ibuki doing?" Toru asked gently. "After being used by Bombshell..."

Brad shook his head in disgust."She's a mess, sir. If I'd had my way, I'd have pulled her from duty and placed her on Medical Leave to get proper psychiatric help."

"Ikari trying to throw his weight around?" Toru groaned."Or getting Doctor Akagi to follow his lead, which is the same thing honestly." Brad nodded.

"I'll knock er talk some sense into him," Toru stated with annoyance.

The general then ran his fingers through his hair. Getting Commander Ikari to change his mind was like pulling teeth out of an alligator. Only without blood on the ground after it was all over and finished. And what worried Kenji was how close Gendo was to having no military oversight, and just a single UN Committee to keep an eye on him. With Ikari that was nearly unlimited power to work towards his own agenda.

"Thank you sir," Brad White said honestly.

"I saw the medical report Ratchet gave me on the Operations Director and Head Scientist," Toru said sadly. "One is trying to smoke her self to death and the other had been drinking so hard I'm surprised her liver didn't explode like a bomb."

"And when you went to Ikari about this, what did he say? No, wait, let me guess; was it something on the lines of 'as long as they can perform their duties, I don't care what they do in their off time'?"

"Exactly," Toru grumbled. "I even asked if he watched what they did on their off hours for his own entertainment."

"It wouldn't surprise me if he did, the ego-maniac."

"He also didn't answer me," Toru remarked with a sardonic smile on his lips. "So I took it as a yes."

It really meant that Gendo didn't consider the question worth answering, but for Toru it was worth using for a joke. Kenji would never joke about military personal, but Ikari only had the honorary title of 'Commander' and didn't earn it.

"And my friend Alexis wonders why this job is making paranoid," Doctor White commented.

"I can see why MAGI never talked to this people," Toru mused. "If I had to work with these people and pretend to be something so they'd avoid trying to chat with me, I would in a heartbeat."

"I can't say I blame her, either."

"In your expert opinion," Toru asked. "Would you say the command staff and the pilots all require their own personal psychologists?"

"Psychologists? God above, General, in my opinion, we'd need a team for each of them!" Brad stated. "However that's what I feel for a lot of people that survived Second Impact. This group will manage to make it...barely in some cases."

"And I take it having friends is the only thing that makes Shinji even close to normal?"

"General, from what few records I could find, Shinji was almost worse than Asuka, just in a different way."

"So basically Ikari's plan was to find the most psychologically screwed up children he could find, put them into life and death situations?"

"It's almost hilarious, if it wasn't so tragic." Brad commented as he shook his head sadly. "Thankfully the other pilots are far more normal and more stable then the first three Children."

"Though it doesn't answer why none of them were tested," Kenji said annoyed. "Instead he had Shinji dragged here. And I'm sure that the 3rd Angel would have beaten Eva 01 easily."

"And of course never answer why other then the 6th Angel they all come to this city," Toru remarked. "And where the hell Angels one and two are." Of course what the first Angel, aka Adam was and that he caused Second Impact was an open secret among NERV. Though they never said what happened to him, or if they'd ever made sure he was dead. Toru was almost sure it was, but wanted to be completely sure that Adam was dead and never coming back.

"They must have some sort of bait; but what would lure an Angel, as surely as cheese to a mouse?"

"I'm sure when we find that out, we'll have to kill Ikari."

"Should I bring stakes and Holy Water?" Doctor White remarked with a huge smile.

"More like a Jetalone to step on him," Toru joked. "And the First Child is likely the only to really care."

The two men nodded in agreement. The First Child was the only person Gendo Ikari had been seen to act open and even nice around. However her dating Shinji Ikari had put some distance between them, not to mention his letting her live in a slum showed even toward Rei his good nature only went so far.

It also reminded Toru to see what upgrades Wheeljack had planned for the Trident project. The sniper mech was going to be far more useful against the Decepticons then the Angels.

V-V-V

In the darkened office of the Supreme Commander, Misato was meeting with Commander Ikari. Gendo had seen her transceptor unit and he was wondering how the hell the Dead Sea scrolls could become useful for use as toilet paper. The Angels even now had gone from being seen as world ending threat to just a threat among many. People now feared the Decepticons far more.

"You wanted to see me, sir?" Misato asked, barely masking her growing disgust for the man. The more time she spend with the Autobots, the less and less Gendo Ikari became something she could tolerate to be around. If anything it she was pondering how to get him thrown out and make General Toru or Colonel Witicky completely the head of NERV.

"Captain," Gendo said from behind his desk. "Why would you want anything...he could offer you?"

"Who, sir?" she asked carefully.

"Wheeljack," Gendo Ikari said and Misato thought he made it sound like a curse word.

"I've never liked the fact that the Evangelion Units require children to pilot them, as you well know, sir."

Gendo nearly scowled. He never expected in two weeks for Wheeljack to take Masters insane genius and improve on it.

"And that gives you the right to wear the Autobrand?"

"It's nice to see that you're at least keeping up with events." she muttered to herself cheekily, before raising her voice back to normal. "It's simple, Commander; Optimus Prime would never have allowed me to use the transceptor if he wasn't completely satisfied that I could control it fully; he's a better judge of character than any one I've met before."

Gendo knew full well how good of a judge of character the Autobot Commander was. And he despised Optimus Prime. It was like the Autobot leader could look straight into your soul and knew exactly what you were under any veneers and false faces. And he wasn't sure where interstellar allied armies fell on the Geneva Conventions. Of course driving around in the body of foreign military unit wasn't covered by it and Gendo's only solace was her autobrand wasn't the version that was Optimus Prime's face.

Misato knew that too; Kami alone knew she was far from perfect: she was a slob, she drank too much, and many other things beside, but even with all that, knowing that the leader of the Autobots trusted her that much gave her a warm glow in her heart.

"I see," Gendo coldly stated.

Misato watched Gendo's face carefully as she waited for his response, trying work out what his thoughts were.

"You going to give this symbol to our...guest...as well." Gendo remarked referring to Sixknight who was still at NERV and in a state of shock at humans having beaten him. The Autobots were paying too close attention to the sixchanger for Gendo to have him vanish and be studied by his scientists.

"That's not for me to decide, sir."

"Can you recover any of Bombshell's cerebro shells and bring them to me?" Gendo said in a tone that made it clear it was an order.

Misato barely avoided looking at him like he was completely and utterly insane. And that was disregarding the fact that other then a few in pieces in Wheeljack's lab...all the cerebro shells had been destroyed to purposely keep them out of the hands of others. Gendo's hands especially.

"That's impossible, sir. All the cerebro units were recovered and destroyed in the cleanup after the battle."

"Tragic," Gendo commented. "They would have improved the Dummy Plug Project."

"Dummy Plug, Commander?" Misato asked as she was extremely curious as to what that was.

"A project to remote control the Evangelions," Gendo stated. "Much like you wished for the pilots to not be required."

"I see, sir." she said slowly.

Gendo then looked at his desk and saw something from one of the scientists under Doctor Akagi. Hitoshizuku Amaō had some plans for her own Cybertronian based transformable units. Perhaps his scientists could find some use for it.

"Will that be all, sir?"

Screw propriety, Misato wanted out of that office.

"Yes that will be all," Gendo said going over Doctor Amao's ideas.

Misato turned and walked out. When the door to the office closed, she sagged against the other wall, gasping for breath.

"Hey Misato," Kaji said trying to give her his most charming smile.

Misato shuddered, surprisingly not because of Kaji. "Hey..." she said

"You know I never took you for being a huge mecha fangirl," Kaji quipped with a slight hint of a smile.

"Not now, please Kaji?" she asked in a pleading tone. "I just had a stormy meeting with Ikari, and..." she shuddered again.

"He must be losing his touch," Kaji said off-handly. The man could make his head scientists swoon but now Misato looked like she'd rather drink American light beer then deal with him. And she once said she'd drink her own bodily wastes then said light beer.

"Why are you here anyway?"

"Just need to give my report, " Kaji stated. "And Doctor Amao is kind of annoyed Wheeljack beat her to the punch."

Misato nodded, and then looked at him. Kaji looked a bit better then he did on Over the Rainbow, and relieved that Asuka wasn't pestering him as much. It honestly amused Misato that of all the men in the world Asuka had to have a crush on, it was her ex-boyfriend. She did however wonder what boy on Earth could handle a relationship with Asuka.

She gave him a nod, as she began to walk off. Kaji felt more sure that Misato was going to survive the Angel War. The other members of NERV's command staff he wasn't so sure about.

Misato then heard someone screaming. Immediately she sprinted towards the source of the commotion.

"And furthermore your Auto Rooper idea reads like something about of a bad manga," Wheeljack stated. "And I have no idea why you think human females kissing us will grant us super powers? Was your daughter the one to write that?"

Needless to say everyone slowly backed out of the room as Wheeljack's holoavatar took the doctor's ideas and destroyed them. It one looked closely Wheeljack's hologram looked like a mix of the fictional characters Reed Richards and Mr. Spock. Doctor Amao looked like she had been hit in the face with a 20-pound haddock.

"Plus you lacked an element that would synch the user with the unit," Wheeljack commented.

Doctor Amao mumbled something to herself; Wheeljack's superior hearing could make it out as being something about not coming up with ideas after two saucers of sake. He smiled as he remembered when Brainstorm put out the idea of using the power of the imagination of organic children after a few too many high grade energon cubes.

"Hey Misato," Wheeljack called out. "Just dealing with the most laughable ideas I heard."

"Sounds like it," Misato drawled. "Seriously it sounds even weirder then Masters' ideas."

V-V-V

In the NERV pool Shinji was wondering why everyone thought Rei was his girlfriend. Not he disliked her at all, just that he really hadn't dated her or anything like that.

The girl in question was gliding through the water of the pool, doing laps.

"Well she looks pretty agile," Sideswipe's holoavatar commented. "Reminds me of this femme I used to date. Had a plant alt. mode for some reason but she could..."

"Please, no more." Shinji said hurriedly.

"All I was going to say she she could smell like pine."

Sideswipe then grinned. "What did you think I was going to say?"

"I choose not to answer that." Shinji stated.

"Emirate Zeenom you are not Sideswipe," Cliffjumper's holoavatar commented. For some reason he looked a lot like Casey Kasem.

Shinji chuckled a little at this. The Autobots used some obscure and odd things for references for their holoavatars. And it made it an interesting game of guessing what they used as the basis for those forms. Though some were less obscure then others. A case in point was Cloudbust.

"How do humans get their hair like this?" Autobot communications asked pointing at his holoavatar's head. An apt question as his holoavatar looked like Wolverine of the X-Men.

"Styling products," Shinji said, before he saw Rei climb out of the pool, water droplets cascading down the figure-hugging white one-piece swimsuit.

Shinji was transfixed at the sight. Sideswipe waved his hand over the Third Pilot's face. "Cybertron to Shinji, Cybertron to Shinji."

"Eh? Wha?" he said, shaking his head.

"Well at least we know for sure you like girls," Cliffjumper remarked with a laugh.

"Though that..accident helped," Sideswipe noted with a hint of amusement. Shinji blushed as he was sure he was referring to what had happened in Rei's apartment. The Autobots teased him a bit about that even now.

Rei then walked over to them.

"So would you launch a thousand ships for her Shinji?" Cloudbust asked extremely curious since he'd read about the source of that statement.

"Possibly..." he said softly, before Rei sat beside him.

"Looks like he's a romantic," Sideswipe remarked. "So you going to do anything Rei?"

"Did you bring your swimming trunks, Shinji?" she inquired. "I need some assistance in one of my exercises."

Shinji nodded and went to change.

"You know we really need to get Asuka a boyfriend," Sideswipe said with a grin. "I wonder if Matt Helm would like that."

Rei looked at Sideswipe's holoavatar questioningly.

"She doesn't know who Matt Helm is," Cloudburst commented." Primus I have no idea."

"Spy novel series that never adapted well to film," Sideswipe said with a shrug. "You mean Kaji doesn't try to be like Dean Martin?"

"My personal observation is that he more acts like an incompetent spy, to hide that he is actually skilled," Rei stated. "And if he used Dean Martin's personality as a template for his cover persona I won't be surprised."

"You like the time Smokescreen cheated so badly at cyberpoker so that they didn't notice Mirage sneak in and steal the plans the cons had in the casino vault?" Cliffjumper asked.

"While I do not know the specifics of that, I'd say the idea fits."

"And does Asuka know that other then in Japan Kaji would get arrested returned her feelings?" Sideswipe asked.

Rei smiled a little.

"I wonder where we'd find someone who could take her huge ego, pride in Evangelion, and various issues and not be scared off by them?" Cliffjumper asked. The aggressive Autobot doubted many dating services would be of much help with that.

Rei nodded. "An interesting thought exercise." she agreed, as Shinji returned clad in a pair of black swimming trunks.

"What is?" Shinji asked.

"Finding a romantic interest for Pilot Sorhyu."

"It hasn't been easy," Sideswipe commented. "Probably be easier to talk my brother into getting a mud bath."

"Humans do that?" Cloudburst asked utterly confused.

"Part of expensive beauty treatments," Rei stated.

"By Xal that's weird," Cloudbust muttered. "And doesn't help Landfill at all."

"I am not doing it," Shinji stated forcefully. "I might be a nice guy and a bit meek but I am not into dealing with Asuka even more then I do now. She'd probably drive me nuts."

Rei nodded in understanding, as she lead him back to the pool.

"Ack!" Shinji yelped while shivering. "That water's cold."

"The maintainance staff mentioned that the heating system broke yesterday, but they have yet to get around to mending it."

"So how often you swim here?" Shinji asked as he tried to take his mind off how freaking cold the water was.

"As often as I can; twice a week at the minimum. That is when I am not recovering from a battle."

"It is a nice pool," Shinji said as he moved in place to keep warm. "Better then your apartment complex was."

"Agreed." she said, very softly.

Shinji moved to hug Rei. She smiled and hugged him back; her body was surprisingly warm to his touch. She then explained why she asked him to join her.

"Pilot Ikari I believe you need a more extensive physical exercise regiment," Rei bluntly stated.

"So you think I need to work out more?" Shinji said. He then shrugged. Swimming seemed as good as anything to keep in shape.

"They do also say that it helps to have a partner in it as well."

"And we need to do something other then sitting on Kensuke's sofa watching TV," Shinji noted. "Even if it is a 70 inch flatscreen."

"Indeed." she said, as she began laps again, parting the water with the grace of a dolphin.

Shinji held no aspirations to being that good. And he doubted Rei or his friends really care if he wasn't that good either. Still Shinji started to do laps. Help work off some of those ding dongs he enjoyed while at Kensuke's. And the Evangelion pilot was glad he liked green tea chips over potato chips.

During one of his laps, Rei seemed to leap over him, like a horse jumping a fence.

"Is she part mermaid?" Cloudburst asked Sideswipe.

The other Autobot shrugged.

They all heard a gasp as Asuka had watched Shinji and Rei flirt and now Rei's aquatic acrobatics.

"Himmel..." the German murmured.

She never imagined what it took to make Rei act like a human being was to get her in the water. And Rei probably could make the Japanese swim team if they restarted the Olympics. Asuka found herself actually jealous of Rei.

Shinji soon stopping at the edge of the pool to pant for a moment. He was feeling the burn from his work out. It felt kind of good and could see this working as his preferred way to get exercise. The pleasant company of course helped as well.

Rei floated past on her back, smiling a little.

"Not bad." she told him.

"Thanks," Shinji wheezed.

She gave him an encouraging smile and continued on her way. Suddenly there was red alert sound.

Rei frowned. "Duty calls, it would seem."

Shinji nodded and got out of the pool.

V-V-V

On the bridge even Gendo looked in shock as a whole city rose out of the water and was coming toward Tokyo 3. And in the depths of his black heart, Gendo knew that was no angel. Though the question was what was it then?

"MAGI detects a...moving city?" Ritsuko gasped.

'What is it now?' Gendo thought. 'It is like the Dead Sea Scrolls were purposely incomplete.'

In Gettsyburg President Edward "Auger" Augutter had this weird feeling that he was missing out on some trouble. And that he'd throw a shoe at another TV later.

Misato appeared on the bridge, frowning as she took in the sight. "Get the civilians into the shelters and prepare to lower the city to Battle Configuration." she ordered. She didn't want to be caught flatfooted.

"Right," Aobo said when he recovered from the shock.

"We got worse news," MAGI stated as she appeared before them. "That city is crawling with Decepticons and the inhabitants have Transformer grade weapons."

Subatlantis came up on a series of monitors and everyone saw first hand MAGI wasn't kidding. Purple energy blasts came from the flying city and blew up anything the UN forces threw at them as easily as the Decepticons could. Misato winced when she saw a tank blown up in one shot.

"Damn it!" Misato growled, before looking at the MAGI thoughtfully.

"And it appears there's someone there Grimlock really doesn't like," MAGI remarked. "And given his sunny disposition..."

"That says a lot," Misato muttered, before pausing... "I wonder..."

MAGI then magnified the inhabitants of the city. They were bipedal fishmen using breathing devices to get fresh water to breath. And that appeared to be the only thing they needed to be able to survive on dry land.

Hyuga made a choking sound.

"Oh shit...Deep Ones," Toru gasped.

"You know of them?" MAGI and Misato said at the same time. They then looked at each other for a moment.

"I've read the works of HP Lovecraft," Kenji admitted softly. "Though my reading habits aren't important right now."

"Let's just hope they're the only thing from that to be around," Misato shivered thinking like entities like Cthulhu being even possible and that scared her stiff.

While Ritsuko wondered if these Fish Men would be effected by Third Impact. And realized before the Transformers had appeared she won't be putting serious thought into questions like that. Everything she knew was changing in weird and often completely insane ways. They were making the Type F equipment with it's heavier armor, weapons, and originally N2 Power packs but now stored energon necessary as a standard option for the Evangelions.

With the next upgrade for the suits to be that equipment after this battle. Ritsuko then admitted at least for the prototype Evangelion units. They might need Eva 02 ready to use any of the specialty Types and most of those didn't really work very well with Eva 01 and 00 for various reasons.

'But I bet that the Mastema would impress even Wheeljack," Ritsuko mused. And then was scared realizing what insanity the Autobot mad scientist would come up with after seeing a sword that could turn into a gun that fired N2 mines. It was kind of like tempting him to one up them.

Misato looked very pensive now, as she kept glancing at all the scanners. She felt like a 5th wheel standing around in the commander center when she could be doing something more useful in the field.

"You want to go out there don't you Minerva?" MAGI asked her quietly.

She nodded slightly. "I want the chance to prove I'm worthy of wearing the Autobrand." she said softly.

"Rampaging Evangelions weren't enough?" MAGI commented. "Really what else do you need to prove that you are worthy of being with them?"

She could sort of see what Misato meant, however.

"I can handle it," MAGI said with a smile to Misato. "Transform and roll out."

Misato smiled and nodded in thanks, as she left the Bridge.

On the surface Highflyer, the Aerialbots, Cloudburst, Tracks, Sideswipe, and Starsaber were flying at SubAtlantis.

It was a study of contrasts; flying cars, a legendary piston-engined fighter, an assortment of Cold War-era NATO jets, and an alien craft of baffling geometries. Flying off of the floating city at them were F-22s in a wide variety of colors. With a blue Decepticon with one massive eye and four back of optic sensors leading the charge with an axe.

"For the glory of Lord Megatron!" Lugnut bellowed with his axe held high. "ATTACK!"

"Looks like a bit of a sticky wicket, chaps," Highflyer commented.

"More like a pain in the reactor linkage," Slingshot remarked as he blew several Seekers out of the air.

"Let's hope the civvies are in their shelters."

"They better be," Starsaber said after transforming to robot mode and parrying Lugnut's axe with the saberblade. There was a flash of sparks as the two weapons struck. Suddenly Starsaber kicked the loyal Decepticon in the leg and Lugnut was thrown off balance for a moment.

Starsaber then let Lugnut have it with his laser machine guns. It managed to distract the single minded Decepticon and Starsaber followed it up by changing the position of the saberblade a bit and then letting the Kaon Krusher have it with a laser blast out of the sword in the gut.

"Still think you stand a chance?" Starsaber remarked with a touch of a amusement.

"Die!" was Lugnut's intelligent response.

The Decepticon warrior soon found himself armless. It was then that Starsaber's reputation as the greatest swordsman in the galaxy cut through his internal clutter. And that revelation was his last thought as a barrage of missiles from Starsaber struck him.

"Hit them hard and fast," Silverbolt called out to his team as they flew in formation.

"Tally-ho!" Highflyer called, as he followed the Aerialbots in.

"Death comes to my enemies!" Thrust yelled as he opened fired on the spitfire Transformer.

Highflyer barrel-rolled out of the line of fire before looping around and giving the Conehead a burst of his laser machine guns.

"I thought you'd never show you face here again slagger," Sideswipe said as he blew Thrust's nose cone off with his lasers. The Seeker roared in fury at that. Skywarp appeared behind Air Raid and opened fire on him. And he was right into Slingshot's sights. The hot headed Aerialbot blasted Skywarp before the obsidian Seeker could figure out he made a critical error.

Slingshot got shot by a purple and sea green seeker for his troubles. The hot headed Aerialbot looked annoyed and fired back.

As the aerial battle raged a purple barrier suddenly formed over Tokyo 03 from SubAtlantis covering the entire city and cutting it off from the rest of the world. The flying Transformers suddenly found their battlefield drastically cut down in size.

Skydive barely managed to avoid slamming into the barrier. The Seekers following him didn't. The effect was like an egg crashing into a brick wall. Bits and pieces of the seekers crashed to the ground.

"What the-?" Misato said looking up, having changed to her Headmaster form just moments before.

Hordes of fish men flew into the city and started firing off weapons that could hurt the Transformers. For deep sea beings, it appeared the only concession to living on land was wearing rebreathers filled with water.

Misato frowned as she transformed into Minerva and set off to hello. She fired a pair of blasters John Woo style at the invaders. The brown skinned Atlanteans got behind several cars and opened fire at the much larger target.

One blast fired an EMP pulse that caused Misato's transceptor to lock up. Minerva tumbled to the ground face first. Misato swore she saw her life flash before her eyes when Braver, Trailbreaker and Jazz came to her rescue.

Trailbreaker extended his forcefield and the shots impacted it with no effect. Braver quickly rebooted her systems, while Jazz stood their with his hand open. Suddenly the fish men flew into the side of the bank behind them.

"What...what was that?" Misato gasped as her vocalizer came back on-line.

"Spark over processor," Jazz grinned. Misato had a blank look on her face.

"Its a cybertronian martial arts thing," Trailbreaker explained in a calm tone. "It works kind of like that force trick from the Star Wars movies."

"And here I thought I'd seen everything," Misato groaned as she managed to stand up. Braver let out a snort.

"You haven't seen anything yet."

Any response Misato would have made was stopped by the sound of metal on metal and a scream of pain.

"Die!" they heard being screamed a block from their location.

"You ok?" Jazz asked Minerva.

"I'm fine and ready to fight," Misato told him a bit more forcefully then necessary. Jazz nodded.

They moved quickly and saw a battle of metal T-Rexs. Grimlock vs. Doomlock. The pair were beating each other senseless and sparks came out of their many wounds as well as dripping energon. The scary part to Misato was the Dinobot leader looked the most pissed off she had ever seen him.

Grimlock's optics were alight with fury as he tried to to kill the traitor to his team. Betrayal to him had only one sentence...and that was death! And he was the one to fulfill this sentence.

"You're getting soft," Doomlock snared as he dodged Grimlock's energo blade. "You would have killed me by now in the gladiator pits."

"Oh really?" Grimlock mocked him. Grimlock fired behind Doomlock and rolled for cover as his energy blast hit a gas line. The fuel burst into flames and the force of the explosion send Doomlock flying through the air.

The gray and brown Decepticon got back up and transformed into what looked like a metalic version of Zilla. Grimlock in turn transformed to T. Rex form and ripped into Doomlock's throat with his sharp teeth.

Minerva, for all her eagerness, had a feeling that getting involved in that would be galactically stupid and utterly insane.

While she was watching that savage brawl, Misato was grabbed the tongue on a mecha toad looking Decepticon. The Legion Tentacle dragged her over to the Con.

"Glark!" she said in shock, before she involuntarily kicked the 'con between the legs. It stunned Slapper for a moment. There was then the sound of metal on metal as Brawn grabbed the tongue and ripped it off.

Slapper looked pissed at this turn of events. Minerva pulled out her energy pistol and began shooting Slapper repeatedly. Brawn joined her in blasting the ever loving slag out of the disgusting Decepticon.

"Well that was kind of fun," Brawn admitted.

"You two done?" Trailbreaker asked looking at the trashed body of Slapper.

They then saw Pirachicon shoot Eva 01. The gestalt blasted Evangelion 01 in the arm and Shinji dropped his massive battle axe.

Minerva saw red at that. No one hurt her Shinji-kun and got away with it! With Rei having the same thought as she shoved her Electro saber into the chest of the gestalt. The blade came out the other side of Snaptrap who was the torso part of the combiner. Rei pulled out the sword and knocked the Decepticon to the ground with a roundhouse kick.

Minerva shoved the muzzle of her blaster into the wound and began firing inside the Seacon gestalt. It forced the Seacons to demerge and try to hold her off before she killed the Butcher of the Bogs. Brawn, Trailbreaker, and Jazz gave the female headmaster cover fire.

Asuka rolled her eyes and was busy trying to avoid being killed by Devastator. MAGI assisted by firing a volley of heavy missiles into Devastator's back. It got the golem made up of construction vehicle's attention.

And then to Asuka's surprise Sixknight flew into her hand in gun mode.

"What the?" she said, looking at the wild card transformer.

Sixknight fired with full power to primary weapons and metal started to melt and emerald sparks came out of the wounds he left on Devastator. The emerald giant was also knocked back a step. Catching on, Asuka dropped to one knee, and braced her Eva as she began to fight Devastator with Sixknight.

Devastator was between a rock and a hard place as he was attacked by the weapons placements in Tokyo-3 and the Sixknight armed Eva 02. So he fired a laser beam at Eva 02. Asuka had a feeling that this was going to hurt and braced herself for a lot of pain. However due to Wheeljack's improvements Asuka was shocked it wasn't painful at all. Devastator then punched Eva 02 down.

"Nnngh!" Asuka grunted, as she grabbed for her Prog Knife. With suddenly Shinji driving his axe into Devastator's shoulder.

Asuka managed to wriggle out, and knifed the gestalt in the neck joint. There was a purple fluid on the blade as well as a lot of sparks, and then Optimus used his trailer's weapons to give them support fire. The green sectrolaterial fusionalcombiner focused on Optimus. It gave the Evangelions a moments respite in the fight.

"Thanks, Shinji," the driven Second Child said truthfully. "That was too close for comfort."

"And I see they put a visor over his optics," Shinji remarked.

"Smart," she muttered.

"They're an army of conquerors and pillagers...they aren't all idiots," Shinji said as he avoided laser fire.

"I know," she said. "Still, it would have been nice if they hadn't wised up for a while longer..."

"Submit to my will! The will of King Nergal!" Boomed into their heads at sitting next to the speakers in a heavy metal concert levels.

"Up yours!" Asuka yelled back.

"Back the slag off!" Shinji snarled as he tried to fight off the mental voice.

The Eva units didn't care much for him either, snarling their mental defiance.

King Nergal battled a mental battle with the Pilots and Evangelions. And encountered a force more formidable than he expected; the souls of Yui Ikari, and Kyoko Zeppelin Sorhyu. Megatron watched the undersea king's expression as he fought against five people.

"I am connected to all things," Rei stated in a subzero tone. "And...I...Don't...Like...You!"

This was going to suck, quite badly, for Nergal. It was like a tital wave had slammed into the monarch and he went to his knees. Megatron looked at him like he was pathetic. He then raised his fusion cannon at the monarch.

The Evangelion pilots suddenly felt the mental attack stop. It was a shock to them and they wondered what had happened.

Yui nodded firmly, as she mentally hugged Shinji. A sensation that was left comforting and more just a surprise to the Third Child.

"What the pit was that?" " Shinji yelped in shock. That phantom feeling surprised him.

Asuka looked over. "What's up?"

"I felt something hug me," Shinji said. "It didn't feel like a gestalt bear hugging me...if I'd even feel that."

"What did it feel like?" The Second Child asked.

"Warm...and comforting," Shinji replied as he swatted at a Seeker.

Asuka was quiet at that, as she and Sixknight slagged the Seeker Shinji had been swatting at.

Rei tackled Devastator form behind and repeatedly slammed his face into the ground. Optimus gave her a thumbs up. That warmed the bluette's heart.

"Thanks," the Autobot Commander stated.

While the awakening Kyoto Zeppelin Sorhyu tried to organize the images and information she was getting from her daughter. It was hard for her to tell what what was real and what wasn't. Everything was so strange and having only half her soul wasn't helping matters.

Up in the sky above them, Raptor fought Spitfire, as Highflyer was locked in mortal combat with Skywarp. Skywarp chuckled darkly as he teleported behind Highflyer. The Spitfire seemed to produce a massive cloud of oily smoke from it's engine.

Skywarp teleported around it...and himself face to piledriver with Sideswipe. Followed by a searing pain as Highflyer transformed and stabbed him in the back with his propellor.

"Looks like that comes in handy," Sideswipe remarked.

"You've no idea, old chap." Highflyer grinned.

"Foolish Autobot," Megatron yelled and flew at Highflyer armed with a massive and jagged sword.

"Bloody Pitfire!" the Spitfire Transformer said, booking it to avoid being cut in half by the Slag Maker.

With Optimus Prime then letting Megatron have it with his trailer. The Aerialbots moved in to assist their fellow flyer, but Megatron expertly used the air as the 3-D battleground that it was to his advantage.

And Sixknight transforming into drill mode and giving them a hand to fight Megatron. It is something Sixknight had wanted to do for a long time. He slammed into Megatron and started trying to bore into the cyberium armor plating of the Decepticon leader.

Asuka looked at Shinji. "That guy enjoys fighting."

"They said he was one of the champions of the State Games tournaments," Shinji said.

"Right..." she said, as Minerva appeared about them.

"Any idea how we're going to get the floating city out of here?" Shinji asked.

"Well, an N2 mine might do the trick," Minerva mused. "But the yield would have to be extremely precise."

"And the fact that thing coming down on us would be really bad," Shinji said forcefully.

"Well, yes," she agreed.

"Quit standing there and kick some aft!" Huffer yelled as he fired a barrage of missiles at Soundwave.

"Duty calls," Shinji remarked before crushing Insecticon clones under his foot.

V-V-V

In the Geo Front Gendo was planning the best way to bring down Subatlantis intact...and claim it for NERV...and himself.

Hyuga looked up in concern, "The munition supplies are starting to run low..."

"We must take that city intact," Gendo ordered in a cold and harsh tone.

Everyone turned to look at him at hearing that. They had fish men and Decepticons stretching their weapons and manpower to the limit and he wanted to steal a flying city?

"We need that technology," Gendo stated. "And it is within our grasp."

Makoto glanced at Shigeru. "I think the boss is losing it." the bespectacled tech mouthed to his long-haired compatriot.

"And how do you intend for us to get it?" Toru asked wanting to see what Ikari had planned this time.

Gendo smirked behind his intertwined fingers. "I have my means."

"Right..." General Toru remarked with heavy sarcasm.

The General had a worrying thought about this. Several Transformers with clearly headmaster units on their heads came out of hidden access points and flew up to Subatlantis while the other Transformers were busy. Most looked to be Decepticons, but one or two of the units appeared to be Autobots.

There was a deep silence at the sight of this.

"I see you got Masters blueprints," Toru managed to say when he recovered his voice.

Gendo smiled. "For all his madness, he was undeniably a genius."

Toru looked at Doctor Akagi. He stared the bottle blond scientist right in the eye.

"And were you working on this special project Doctor?" Toru asked. "Like Mastema wasn't big enough?"

Ritsuko's expression of horror told him clearly.

Suddenly there was the sounds of explosions from SubAtlantica and the force field crumbled.

Gendo smiled again. He wondered what goodies might now be his to peruse from this engagement. Perhaps he could turn things around and put his plans back on track.

While MAGI wondered where Soundwave was. He'd vanished after being attacked by Huffer. On the frontlines, Shinji, Rei and Asuka had rendezvoused with each other.

"Very suspect that the commander has his own Headmasters," Shinji remarked as they watched in case Subatlantis fell on the city."Especially since the one Masters made is in the hands of the Autobots and Wheeljack didn't share his designs with NERV."

Rei nodded. "Most ominous." she agreed solemnly.

Then the floating city flew out of the city, however the jerky unstable motion meant that either the controls had been damaged or that the Headmasters had gotten control and had no real idea how to smoothly control the flight system. It was a major disaster in the making.

Minerva frowned at this. "I don't like the look of this."

Then came a massive explosion from one of the engines. Flames spewed forth from the port engine and the city tilted forward. The Decepticons and Subatlanticans were fleeing the city. The Autobots were getting as far away from the city as possible.

"Come on." Minerva called to them.

Sixknight transformed to jet mode and landed in front of Minerva. "Hop on!"

"Thanks." Minerva smiled, and jumped onto him.

Wheeljack also flew along side them. On the left was Sideswipe on his jet pack. Gears was taking up the rear using his compressed air jets to be airborne.

The Eva units followed the flying Autobots.

"I think as impressive as these are," Shinji commented. "Our Evangelions just aren't that good at everything that's showing up."

Asuka, rather humbled, nodded. "I can't believe I'm saying this, but I think you're right, Third."

"At least our Evangelions aren't as funky as those transorganics of Cybertron."

Rei said nothing, as the Evas stomped through the city.

Then their was a loud earth shaking crash outside the city, Subatlantis crashed and then it went up in a cinematic explosion. Shinji was rushing to see if Misato and the others were alright. He found Minerva first, staggering up to her feet.

"That was not fun..."

"No scrap," Gears grumbled. "My diodes will be hurting for a quartex."

"We don't ever want to know about your diodes," Sixknight growled menacingly. Sideswipe nodded.

"Anyone need help?"

"You need to see if the Roadjammers made it," Wheeljack said as he got up.

"Roadjammers?" Shinji asked and raised an eyebrow under his helmet.

"That's what they called themselves," Wheeljack replied. "At least when Sixknight asked them."

Shinji nodded, and went to look. And saw an...interesting sight of the two Seeker bodies and an Autobot body...and the Autobot one was trying to rip the headmaster unit off it's head. Something that would be comical in other circumstances.

Shinji pulled out his prog knife and walked over. And with a link to Teletran learned who the Autobot was. His name was Drift and he was an Autobot swordsman of great skill. Not in Starsaber's league but still someone that getting into a melee fight with was a horrible, horribly bad idea.

"Get the slag...off!" Drift yelled as he tried to yank the headmaster unit on his head. The pilot inside was freaking out thinking he was riding on a zombie.

"Hold on a bit, Drift." Shinji called. "I'll try and cut it off."

"What the slag..." Drift yelled as he saw Eva 01. His head had been blown off before the first Evangelion had been launched into combat along side the Autobots.

"It's ok," Wheeljack said in a soothing tone. "He's with us."

"Okay... This might hurt a bit..." Shinji apologized, as he stuck the prog knife in and began to cut away carefully.

It was when the Headmaster unit optics cut out that Drift had any real sense of discomfort. Suddenly being blind in a very strange situation made him uneasy. That Wheeljack was there was the only thing keeping him from freaking out.

"Almost done..." Shinji said with a bit of sweat on his brow as he used the prog knife in ways it was never designed to be used for.

The last connection was then cut and Drift transformed to vehicle mode. Being able to see again made him calm down even if the thing that human was piloting looked like it came out of the Pit.

"Amazing," Wheeljack gasped. "Bumper thought you were dead Drift."

"I nearly was.." Drift softly stated.

"Let's get back to the Ark. Ratchet can have you repaired in no time" Wheeljack managed to get out.

While in the Command Center Gendo was surprised to see that one of his Transformers "corpses" was really still alive. He frowned slightly. Still; he'd managed to get his hands on SubAtlantis; that outweighed that slip-up quite handsomely.

While Ritsuko wondered how the hell a race of technologically advanced fishmen were not included in anything Gendo or SEELE had planned. Not that they had been missed. Humanity knew more about the surface of the moon then the depths of the oceans.

'Still that was a bit much,' Doctor Akagi mused. 'Even by current standards,'

Toru was quietly seething, for his part. Then suddenly and without warning he had a predatory smile on his face. Gendo knew what thoughts amused the general so much it didn't bode well for him.

"Commander Ikari I believe you should be the one to write the report, after all if NERV resources are to be used for the recovery of that city then you are to be the one to tell the UN."

Fuyutsuki watched his old student's face as the General spoke. Gendo's eyes betrayed that he didn't think Toru would give him the city...and how much paperwork and saying "No seriously council members a group of fishmen did attack Tokyo 03."

He wondered if any bodies of those fishmen survived, just to reinforce his words. He made a mental note to recover some of them alive or dead for that purpose. Proof like that would be very useful.

"MAGI, would it be possible to coral the still living fishmen in an LCD tank?" Toru asked. "Given that works like water in the tanks."

"I believe the probability of that is feasible, General."

"Good. Now let's go do that."

MAGI nodded. "Lt. Aoba, Lt. Hyuga, please assist the General."

"And I assume Section 2 has been informed?" Toru asked.

"I informed them 35 seconds ago, once I confirmed the feasibility."

"Then we have some work to do," Toru said taking the two bridge bunnies with it.

Makoto and Shigeru were glad to be out from there. It was getting really, really weird around there, which given their day job was to fight invading giant monsters said a lot, and they were half expecting General Toru and Commander Ikari to get into a gun fight.

"Now imagine if the inhuman creatures and beings in the mountains of Tibet that Hector Rameraz chases after are true," MAGI commented to the three people left on the bridge.

Fuyutsuki had an unreadable expression on his face, but MAGI wasn't fooled. He was thinking about very real possibility of Kohbrala being real. And of course coming to Tokyo-3 with some sort of plans that would end like on Earth.

MAGI then looked at Ritsuko. The bottle blonde found it unsettling and didn't want the holographic ghostly figure wearing her mother's face to look at her. It was as though she knew all her secrets and it was just some sense of amusement that she wasn't telling Wheeljack them.

"Be careful dear," MAGI whispered in her ear before vanishing.

Ritsuko's mouth twitched slightly.

Gendo wondered if the Autobots had upgraded MAGI's defenses to include physical ones. And then realized that given their distrust towards him, and Wheeljack's feelings toward the computer he'd likely have better luck breaking into Fort Knox. While drunk, wearing bright orange jumpsuit, and singing anime theme songs at the top of his lungs.

His ire at the Thrice-damned Autobots grew greater still. He needed to find and create the tools that would let him regain lost ground and control of the situation. However he had to figure out where to find them. His headmasters project wasn't the success he hoped for in that department.

Down below him the Evangelions returned to base, at this point they won't be able to help much in the round up of Nergal's people. The Entry Plugs were extracted and the pilots quickly exited them.

Shinji took his helmet off and was glad he didn't need to take a shower after using the transorganic like Asuka needed to. It was something that Asuka gave him a dirty look about even now

Rei was satisfied with how things went down. "Mission Complete."

"And I think our names will go down in the history books," Shinji commented with a slight smile. "Looks like there's stranger stuff on Earth then in space."

Rei nodded slightly.

"Oh please," Asuka remarked rolling her eyes. "They'll need entire books devoted to us and all the weirdness that has happened. And I know it'll get a whole lot weirder."

And she was honestly afraid on how that was possible but Asuka knew it would happen. The Second Child then moved onto pondering who would play her in the miniseries needed to cover all this stuff. And hoped they let someone who could film a fight scene direct the movie. She'd be unhappy if they let someone who thought shaky cam was a good way to film battles do it.

"So Rei," Shinji asked looking his possibly girlfriend in the eye.. "Do you have any idea who the other pilots are?"

"I know of some of them, yes."

"Good," Shinji stated. "Now are there any training like Asuka was with a specific Evangelion?"

"Not that I am aware of," she said after a moment.

"Actually there is one," Rewind remarked as he walked up to them. That the Autobots roamed the Geofront was now as noticed as the cleaning staff.

"There is?" Asuka asked wondering who else there could be like her.

"A Chad Jones, the 6th Child and pilot of Eva 04," Rewind commented as he pulled the relevant facts from the massive amount of information he had on his hard drive. "You know it's quite bad form when you don't even know who all your comrades are. And you're the Elite Guard of your world at that..."

"...That name..." Asuka muttered to herself. She knew had heard of him before.

"I know I should know that is," Shinji said as the name tugged at his memories.

"Was Chad a pilot you were aware of Rei?" Shinji asked.

She nodded. "I believe he is the Pilot of Unit-04, currently under testing with the Nevada branch of NERV."

"How crazy is he?" Shinji asked. The only Evangelion pilot that was normal had been him and he had that was due him not being raised and trained to drive an Eva. Though Rei was more robotic and self sacrificing.

"I understand that he takes part in Bicycle Motocross tournaments, with no safety equipment."

"Why didn't they send for him and Eva 04?" Shinji asked sounding confused. "Seriously sounds like fighting a giant monster in a giant robot would be a good time for him."

"Eva-04, as I understand, has a temperamental experimental system that is an integral part of it's construction, which is why it has not been sent for."

"So when is Wheeljack or Braver going to be sent over to work on it?" Asuka interjected. "Those two love to work on things like that."

"An interesting thought, and I am surprised they haven't asked for assistance yet." The First Child admitted.

"Probably the commander," Shinji said making the last word sound vaguely profane. "You know how much he doesn't like when Wheeljack solves problems and usually plasters his solution with the autobrand."

Asuka said something in German that suggested that suggested a water buffalo had been in Commander Ikari's immediate ancestry.

"Yeah Asuka that's kind of why I hope mom had an affair," Shinji commented. He wasn't sure exactly what she said, but he could guess.

She snickered at that. Rei however looked a bit surprised at that comment.

"And I wonder what my mother could have made with the help of the Autobots," Shinji said sadly. "I mean she made some incredible things even without their help..."

Again, an odd feeling swept over him. He looked at Evangelion 01 for a moment and then shook his head. He'd have to ask Wheeljack and the others about that. Maybe LCL exposure was giving his mental powers for all he knew. Given what happened around NERV anything was possible.

He then saw Misato, Colonel Witwicky, General Toru and more coming in to the Eva bay with a horde of Fish men at gunpoint. It was a lot like something from a war film.

With Prowl driving into the eva bay and transforming into robot mode. He then gave a text book perfect military salute.

"General."

General Toru saluted him. "What can I do for you?"

"We would like to know if you had any idea of where Drift was held for," Prowl said dead serious.

The General was equally serious. "Prowl, until about, what, twenty minutes go, I had no idea that Ikari had anything like that up his sleeves."

"Even with our Oversight, there are apparently still ways he can play his games," Misato stated adding her two cents. Toru and Witwicky nodded in agreement.

"Very likely that he has sent all this up before we ever set foot on this world," Prowl remarked. "Rung would have rejected half the senior staff for this place for the Wreckers before you and Colonel Witwicky came here General."

"Which says a lot, doesn't it?" General Toru commanded.

'Just as long as I wasn't included in the rejected pile,' Misato thought to herself. Though she could easily see being asked to cut back on her beer consumption. And was hit by the revelation that she was cutting back like it was Devastator's fist.

"And he is very short sighted," Prowl stated. "As your world has things he hasn't even dreamed of, and your Evangelions even with Wheeljack's upgrades are struggling to keep up."

"There are more things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio, than are dreamed of in your Philosophy." he quoted.

"We have a similar quote," Prowl remarked with a slight hint of amusement, which was a bit surprising to come from the cold and formal tactician.

"Hmm..." Kenji nodded, while on the other side of the bay, the Children were extracted from their Plugs.

"Say," a Captain Lennox asked. "What do you guys call your interstellar nation?"

"The Autobot Commonwealth," Prowl replied.

Lennox nodded thoughtfully.

"General," Shinji called out as he got to the ground level. "I believe Wheeljack or Braver are needed to help get the OS of Eva 04 working effectively."

"I've seen the files on that; it's the one with the experimental Flight systems."

"And believe me General, if Chad Jones wanted to fight giant monsters with a knife...and something tells me would...I won't have minded him being the guardian of this city," Shinji stated. "I never really wanted this job to be honest."

"I'll keep that in mind."

"So what is it like driving a transceptor?" Shinji asked Misato.

"It's... it's unlike anything I've ever experienced," she admitted.

Beside Shinji, Asuka rolled her eyes. She knew that Misato was only the first to get one of those units. An entire taskforce of them in the near future won't surprise her.

"Shinji you honestly don't think Wheeljack has a transceptor in his workshop with your name on it...and probably Kensuke's as well."

"Asuka, behave," Misato stated.

"MAGI have you calculated the best match for the Second Child?" Prowl asked. He wasn't sure why Sideswipe and the others wanted to use her as a dating service but she seemed amused by the act. And given she was based off a human mind, should logically have a better understanding what they hoped top accomplish.

After appearing in the Eva bay, she nodded slightly.

"Hey!" Asuka snapped. "My personal life is none of your business."

"Kaji agreed with them," Misato remarked with a smile. The unshaven spy had the been the first to suggest using MAGI to help with the matchmaking.

Asuka grumbled at that.

"And the best choice is...the 6th Child Chad 'Kicker' Jones," MAGI remarked with a bemused expression.

Asuka nearly tripped over her own feet. There was a reason she never talked about him or his production model Evangelion.

"Now that nickname rings a few bells," Shinji admitted. "Very faint memories but they're still there."

Asuka got up, dusted herself off, and staked off to the showers.

"Interesting thing to note," MAGI commented. "The Second Child earned herself the nickname Puncher as a child."

"Kicker, and Puncher," Toru remarked. "That seems very fitting from what I know of them both."

"Now I remember," Shinji said. "Wow...Asuka is Puncher...damn I honestly didn't remember her. But I was four the last time I met her."

Misato nodded. "Go get cleaned up, all of you, I'll want to debrief you when you're done."

Shinji walked off muttering. "Why wasn't Rei there then?"

Misato wondered that as well.

"MAGI, why are children with nick names that they hit things given giant robots?"

" Colonel Witwicky asked in a guarded tone.

MAGI grinned. Toru had a feeling calling MAGI Wheeljack's better half would be a lie.

While Shinji was amazed that he actually knew Asuka before all this. And something Gendo Ikari never mentioned to him at all in his one word letter of course. His expression turned dark as he thought about his 'father'. It was getting clearer and clearer to Shinji that Commander Ikari wasn't really doing a lot to save the world. Or at least as much as he could be doing.

'And I bet I won't like it when they found out 100% sure what LCL is either,' the Third Child mused as he made his way for the showers.

V-V-V

About half an hour later, the three Children were sitting in front of Misato.

Rei was interested to know exactly how Asuka and Shinji knew of the 6th Child. "Shinji exactly how do you and the Second Child both know Pilot Jones?"

"Old family vacations," Shinji said with a shrug. "I really can't remember much about them, but Kicker...is a hard person to forget. No matter how hard you try."

"Is that so?" she asked, leaning forwards in interest.

"He'd slap someone with multiple personalities or whatever the current term is until he got the persona he wanted to talk to," Shinji admitted.

Misato blinked at hearing that. That course of action was insane and extremely crass.

"Unless age gave him wisdom," Shinji admitted.

"Somehow I doubt it," Misato muttered softly.

"And I can't believe," Shinji said looking at Asuka. "That you who I think thought boys were gross date college men."

Rei looked surprised at that statement.

"At least the best to my hazy recollection," Shinji admitted.

Asuka glowered at him.

"Anyway what I can remember about Kicker was that he took risks," Shinji said. "He's not a bad guy, but you want to stay back from when he does something insane."

Misato nodded. "I see."

"And I believe trying to 'Tame the Red Haired Devil' is something he'd attempt?" Rei asked.

Misato coughed, trying to get them back on subject.

"Who calls me that?" Asuka snarled.

Rei grabbed Asuka to keep her from grabbing Shinji. The Third Child pushed his chair back.

Misato separated the two. "That's enough, Asuka." she barked.

"Sorry," Asuka grumbled.

Misato sat back down. "Just try and keep your temper in check from now on, okay?"

"Fine. I'll try" Asuka sighed. "And I punch the first joker to make a Yoda joke."

That drama over with, Misato began to debrief them properly.

"And how is Drift doing?" Shinji asked. He'd asked several Autobots who that swordsman was.

"He's taking it as well as could be expected," Misato said. "It's like what happened to Maya all over again."

"And any idea why our leader happened to have them Transformers bodies and the plans for Headmasters?" Asuka drawled.

"He claims that he got them to act as backups to the Evangelion Units."

Everyone looked at her like that was a pathetic excuse.

"That's what he said, not me," Misato said with her hands out in a stop motion.

Shinji looked at Rei and was surprised even she wasn't taking that excuse. Misato's expression was agreeing with them.

"Did King Nergal die in the explosion?" Asuka mused outloud. His sudden stopping of the mental attack was strange.

"Before that; Megatron annihilated him."

"Any idea what the UN is terming what we have and what their city counts as?" Shinji asked.

"I think that there'll be a special Emergency meeting of the UN Security Council later this evening."

"Will they invite Optimus Prime to it?" Shinji grinned.

"If he isn't there, I'd be very surprised."

"Should we expect the Commander to be asked about his new toys?" Asuka asked.

"If I was there, I'd certainly want an answer."

V-V-V

At said meeting Gendo noticed that a very large seat had been made with the sign "Autobot Commonwealth" written on it in several languages.

'So that is what they call their interstellar nation,' Gendo mused.

He didn't show it, but out of sight, his hands were tearing a small paper napkin to confetti. And it was a loss of control over himself that he loathed. His legendary ability to keep cool in any situation was taking a beating.

Gendo knew the Old Men and their support was likely gone. Due to inaction or being dead. With every day- no, every minute- that passed, the Scenario become more and more ruined.

All because alien robots crash landed on Earth and caused insanity in their wake. People now incinerated the dead or locked them in caskets that no one could get out of, crypto zoology was becoming a true scientific branch after these mermen attacked Tokyo-03. The Angels were now just a threat instead of the threat, and worst was the 3rd Child having a role model that wasn't going to let him down.

All of which rankled him to great lengths.

It seemed the only group left was the group that helped him get his foot in the door to Gerhin. Machination. It had been too long since he'd heard from them. Perhaps it was time to try and get back in touch, he mused.

In a flash of light Optimus Prime appeared. They still weren't able to enlarge to door ways for him to walk or drive into the chamber.

'And here we go...' Gendo thought.

"On behalf of the President of the United States I have a message for Commander Ikari," the US ambassador said with the barest hint of amusement.

"And what is that, Mister Ambassador?"

He threw a shoe at Gendo Ikari and nearly hit him.

"POTUS has broken enough TVs doing that."

One of the Security Council members, the Representative from what was left of New Zealand, held up a scorecard, rating the throw at a 9.4

"Are we done with such childish displays?" Gendo growled.

"He still has another shoe, you know."

"I believe it is in our interest to get to the issue at hand and not take potshots at Commander Ikari," Optimus stated.

"Quite, quite." The Secretary General said firmly.

"First order of business is...what do we do with them?" the Japanese representative asked. "They invaded my nation, and their leader got blown up by Megatron."

There was a muted rumble of discontent around the chamber, which Gendo sought to capitalize upon.

"They are sentient beings," Optimus Prime stated forcefully. "However the real question is...are there more cities of them?"

There was a deep, thoughtful silence at this. With many of the ambassadors wondering what else lurked in the depths of the oceans. And how they'd be able to explore those alien regions of their planet.

"To aid in that, " Optimus Prime said. "Grapple and Hoist have designed a city that could be raised and lowed in and out of any ocean."

There was another, deep and thoughtful pause; this one was tinged with melancholy and nostalgia for the Pre-Impact world. And how amazing it would have been to have the Autobots around then. The world would have been a much better place for that.

he Argentine Ambassador was the first to speak. "Did your subordinates happen to supply any technical schematics or similar that we might examine?"

"They put it up on the internet," Optimus Prime stated. "Wheeljack put up a link to it on his Yatter page."

There was a discreet rustling, as various aides went to find copies. And they hoped the microblog's servers hadn't crashed again due to what Wheeljack had posted about. That seemed to happen every time he put up his various ideas and inventions.

"Ocean City" as it was dubbed was an impressive design. It would be an almost entirely self-sufficient city. It was possibly even a good location for the UN to meet given it would be off a coast and nearly three miles into a sea with a collapsible bridge.

Gendo looked at it for a moment. Another symbol of how wrong the Scenario had gone.

Yes he would have to renew his alliances with Machination. Perhaps then he would be reunited with Yui. Nothing else mattered beyond that goal. Though he wondered what hell would happen next involving the Transformers.

However that plan should work out perfectly. He smiled to himself slightly. No matter what stood in his way, he would find a way to win.