Chapter Text
Sonic is sipping on a milkshake from the tank station across the road. Leaning against his parked car, he looks to the giant digital clock at the top of the station sign, unimpressed with Rouge's time management skills. She is the one who'd organised to meet here and now of all places, why is he the one left waiting?
Wearing a brown bomber jacket — one that Tails had gotten him two years ago for his birthday — he pulls the printed out email from his pocket to check the time again.
'You always look so cold, it's making me freeze just looking at you.' Tails had said when Sonic had opened his present that year. At the time Sonic had just told him to shut up and tackled him, the two falling to the ground laughing and wrestling. Funnily enough, he worked at that very same gas station across the road at the time.
Taking another glance at the sign's clock, he sighs and puts the crumpled paper back.
Not anymore, and if everything went right and Rouge actually shows up then Sonic wouldn't be seeing this gas station for a very long time, maybe ever.
The thought of Tails stung. Sonic takes a hard sip of his milkshake hoping for a brain freeze to make him forget about it, but grief strikes a different kind of pain than whatever a brain freeze does.
Finishing the shake with physical discomfort eluding him, he throws the empty cup into the nearest trashcan and considers getting a second one. Eyes trail back to the clock again. Rouge is already running thirty minutes late so maybe he's got time.
What is taking her so long?
A rumble sounds in the distance, but Sonic doesn't pay it any mind. Another minute passes on the clock; if it passes another then Sonic will be getting that second milkshake.
Suddenly, a red Cadillac veers into the parking lot from the empty road. Tires screeching, the car drifts in a wide arch around Sonic and his car before looping back to the hood he was leaning against. For a moment he thinks that it's going too fast to stop without crashing into him, that the evening news will have a segment about some guy getting squashed between two cars; his own and this rogue Cadillac.
The red car screeches to a halt a few meters away from him.
Any worries he just had are quickly scattered to the winds when the door pops open, a white bat draped over the passenger seat from the driver's side, keeping the door open with one outstretched arm to smile up at him.
"Hello, handsome. Sonic I assume?" She asks with a manicured smile.
"That's me." Sonic replies.
"Great! Get in."
Another rumble sounds in the distance, and Sonic briefly wonders whether he's getting kidnapped or actually joining the military.
The drive to wherever the bat was taking him isn't a quiet one. "So, you're Tails' older brother." She asks rhetorically before putting the car in gear.
"That's me, the name's Sonic the Hedgehog." He puts on a grin. Nodding, she takes them onto the road, leaving the parking lot with little more care than she entered it with.
"Good to finally meet you Sonic, I'm Rouge. I'll be your handler for your time here at NERV." Rouge was about as tall as him sitting down, wearing a sleek jumpsuit under a cropped jacket with slits for her wings. She has a strong style of make-up and to Sonic's horror, or respect, it looks like she's wearing high heels when she boldly presses the pedal to the floor.
Scrambling to hold onto something, Rouge swerves over the road uncaring or unbothered whether there are others on it. Luckily for them the area is just as deserted as it was two minutes ago.
"So! We're in a bit of a hurry, I've got your starter packet in the glove box, feel free to leaf through it." Sonic dares to take one hand off the door to open the glove compartment, a pack of papers thicker than his arm tumbles out falling smack right on his foot.
Rouge just chuckles at the string of curses he let out. "It's usually a little thinner but after, you-know, I guess high command just wants you to be prepared for anything. We have a solid team of pilots and EVA's right now, but the Doctor wants to ensure that that doesn't change."
An acrid taste goes through his mouth at the unintentional reminder, like bile wanting to rise up his throat. Instead of letting it take over, Sonic just heaves out a breath before bending forward to drag up the mess of papers crushing his feet.
"When am I even going to read all of this?" Sonic mutters as he lightly pages through the… 1147 page-long 'file'. The cover reading 'CONFIDENTIAL' in big, bold, red, letters.
"Oh I'm not sure, but you have maybe 10 minutes before we get there." Rouge doesn't see the expression Sonic casts at her, but he likes to imagine that if she did, she would feel the need to explain that statement. When the bat remains happily focused on the road with no extra context in sight Sonic just sighs, cuts his losses and starts staring out of the car window instead of cramming the classified book into his head. He was never the type for academics, that had always been all Tails.
The outside world whizzes by, the road Rouge was driving on curved along a mountain, giving Sonic's side a wide, open view of Tokyo-3 in the distance.
The name isn't creative, but after having to relocate and rebuild the same city a few times Sonic can forgive the lackluster effort in naming it. Instead the city is something of a statement, a bold one. With skyscrapers still reaching for the sky, he can't make out any individual people from this far away but he knows they're there. Tokyo-3, the last bastion city of earth.
Stubbornness incarnate.
A giant middle finger to the heavens.
"And where would there be?" He asks, turning back to the NERV worker's statement.
Rouge just chuckles, but doesn't answer him. Sonic glares at her for a moment before deciding to just enjoy the view.
Tokyo-3 itself is in a surprisingly good condition. 'Considering recent news at least', Sonic thinks to himself before the car notably slows down. Focusing back on the foreground, the road ahead of them escapes into the mouth of a tunnel. Sonic can't help but frown in confusion at the sight and by the time that Rouge truly passes the entrance, the car is rolling at a leisurely pace.
The sun cuts off around them and it takes a minute for Sonic's eyes to adjust, but when they do he can see the tunnel ahead. The rough walls of the mountain tunnel are illuminated by the soft lights placed at the wall's edges and the harsh headlights from Rouge's car. The entire space has a murky scent to it. However, the moment he notices it, Sonic's attention is caught by new headlights up ahead.
Instead of reaching the other side of the mountain, Rouge rolls down the tunnel as walls fall away, opening into a cavern filled with lingering people, cars, and trucks. Sonic swears he can see militants in full-gear grouped together along one of the cavern walls when someone knocks on the driver-side window.
Rouge is not put off however as she just rolls it down and hands the person a card, it's checked over with a flashlight, she hands them a second before they're both returned and the guy moves on.
Rouge rolls the car along deeper into the throes of people, eventually stopping in a random spot somewhere in the back of the room. Sonic eyes the cavern again, they're closer to the military personnel now and he can't help when his eyes linger on the guns.
"You wanna get out for this part." His attention snaps back to the white bat right as she steps out of the car, slamming the door closed behind her. Following her lead, he walks around the hood up to where Rouge is standing just outside of her headlights. The bright lamps hit Sonic dead on and he can see his shadow carved out on the rough wall.
"What part am I getting out for exactly?"
"It might just be better to let you see it for yourself."
Her answer does nothing but confuse him more, so the hedgehog gets comfortable leaning against the car, preparing to wait around for however long they're supposed to wait.
The two of them eventually end up sitting on the hood of her car, the confidential papers fished from inside and now Sonic is showing Rouge how to fold origami rabbits.
Should he be using extremely confidential files? No.
Is he using them? Yes.
Is the origami good? Absolutely not.
"Didn't you fold that backwards last time?" Rouge asks as she points her phone torch at his hands as Sonic is struggling to make a second rabbit.
"No no, I'm certain that I'm the origami master between us two, it's supposed to be folded like this." He informs her very politely. Rouge just watches him struggle, after a while he realizes that she is right about that back-fold.
It's hard to tell how much time has passed exactly, there's no sun in the cavern and no convenient clock-sign for him to gleam from. Sonic has amassed an army of 4 good rabbits and many failures when Rouge tells him that it's been about 15 minutes since they entered the mountain.
Sonic tosses rabbit 5 when an alarm starts blaring overhead. A red rotating light switches on as people stop what they're doing, but rather than break out in panic, some of them start to make their way towards Sonic and Rouge. An excited chatter starts up under the clangorous blare. People walk around them and settle near the wall, Sonic crouches where he sits and looks over the lined up people in confusion and worry until his eyes catch onto a wave from Rouge.
The handler doesn't seem worried at all, actually she looks quite amused by Sonic's reaction. She slips off the hood and gestures for him to follow.
Sonic takes a second before slipping off the car himself and goes to stand next to her, he feels slightly insane when he stands next to her facing the wall.
And then the ground shakes.
He catches himself as he realizes why Rouge told him to wait. The lights on the walls blink out, Sonic stands with his back to her car's headlights again and the move feels intentional as he watches the wall crawl up, the floor under his feet lowering.
The entire cavern is an elevator he realizes when he looks back, the light from the tunnel entrance eventually winking out as they leave it behind. Light suddenly floods his feet and Sonic focuses back on the foreground. The opening climbs up as the floor descends lower and when the edge passes Sonic's eyes, he loses his breath.
Sunlight, he realizes, streaks from the ceiling as his eyes fall on a kilometers-wide subterranean area. The giant lift he's in gives him a great vantage point over the entire territory, there's a metal grid attached to the ceiling that allows for sunlight to pass through some spots and it's enough to send good light down on the huge hub below. There's a mini-city under, a large pyramid structure juts out high above the rest and it looks as if it's made from a sheen-like metal or one-way glass. Not the whole of the area is compound however, there is a lake on the right side of the pyramid.
The whole thing makes Sonic feel like he's either losing it, or high.
Rouge takes his expression in with pride, turning to face him. The hedgehog stares a bit longer at the side before noticing that the handler has turned to him.
"Sonic, allow me to welcome you to Zone 2. Welcome to Green Hills."
The hedgehog is at a loss for words as they descend. Rouge just snorts as she leaves the hedgehog to his own devices.
It takes maybe 7 minutes before the lift puts them down on the subterranean floor. By then most people have already returned to their own vehicles and Rouge is ready to do the same, tugging Sonic back to her car, he snaps out of it enough to get into his own seat when she steps back into the driver's seat.
If you don't look up then Sonic can be fully convinced that Rouge drove him to the other side of the mountain rather than some impossible mega-cave. He remembers that Tails had once described the NERV base as beautiful, at the time he'd thought that Tails was talking about the science facilities.
Rouge drives them into the mini-city, they don't go far before she enters the mouth of another tunnel but instead of it being another lift, it's a garage. Rouge spins and spins as she drives lower and lower and at some point Sonic starts to think that he really is losing it. The drive down is much longer than the lift was and right as Sonic is considering picking up the confidential book again, Rouge spots a number on the wall she likes and finally parks the car.
It doesn't end there however, the handler leads him down a series of hallways, person lifts and moving paths that makes Sonic's head spin in a new way, and right as Sonic is about to stop her for a break they finally arrive to where she's taking him.
At first it just looks like another hallway, similar to the previous twenty-eight, but Sonic quickly comes to realize that it's not. The walls are lined with large glass windows, beyond the thin divide Sonic can see people — scientists working. It looks like something straight out of Tails' dream until Rouge waves him over from an open door that leads onto one of the lab floors.
The invite reminds him why he's here, it makes his throat tighten for a brief moment before Sonic pushes it down and follows Rouge through the door. It's another few steps before the hedgehog can finally stand still.
The lab itself is spacious, there are maybe about 15 people working there right now. Rouge doesn't pay them much mind unless they say hi to her. No, the figure of her focus is a woman hunched over a microscope.
She has magenta hair, sort of big, that curves on either side of her head. She wears the same white coat as every other scientist in the room with a simple brown turtleneck and pants combo under it, her gloved hand adjusts a dial before Rouge clears her throat to catch the woman's attention.
Bleary-eyed, she looks up.
"Sonic, I want you to meet Professor Victoria." Rouge turns back to him as she gestures towards the Professor who quickly wakes up at the sight of them. "Head Angel researcher, and leading expert on pilot-EVA synchronisation here at NERV." The woman's eyes turn the size of discs as she glances at her watch, then her eyes become more plate-like in surprise at the time.
When she looks up, the surprise is wiped from her face with a professional smile to replace it.
"Pleasure to meet you, you must be Sonic. Tails told me a lot about you." The two shake hands as Victoria's face pinches for a moment. "I'm sorry for your loss."
Sonic keeps his face and voice blank, that taste of bile flashing through his mouth for a second before he subtly swallows it down. He's here for a reason, there is something he wants to do, and in order to do it be needs simple trust.
"And I'm sorry for yours." He tells her before pocketing both his hands.
"So this is where the magic happens?" Any science nerd worth their salt wants to talk about their work and just like Tails, Victoria proves to be one such person.
"Ah not exactly, this is one of the Angel focused labs, we're currently trying to sequence composite strands and—" The professor goes on. It is all probably very invigorating if you pay attention, which is why Sonic is politely nodding along, but it's also completely unrelated to why they're here at all.
"As lovely as it is to hear about your new research venture Tori, I do think it's time to get this guy properly tested." Rouge interrupted with expertise. The professor realising that they've moved fifteen minutes into the future has the decency to shoot Rouge a guilty smile and letting out a small 'right.' before closing down her station.
"Walk with me." She says adjusting her coat before the three start on another journey that Sonic can't describe even if asked at gunpoint.
But he can assume that it's going to be another long walk, so:
"So, Professor Victoria," he starts out.
"Please just call me Tori, any more 'Victoria' and I'll start becoming the dead queen of England."
"Alright then, Professor Tori," he starts again. "What's it really like here behind the scenes?"
"You haven't read the introductory file for joining NERV?" The lead researcher asks in surprise as they round a corner. She's hit with a stilted silence from both Sonic and Rouge.
"Okay. Yeah you're right, that thing is ridiculous." Tori relents.
She does go on to tell him the extremely abbreviated version of the confidential bible. What they do between Angel attacks, how research and security is organised; she gives him a handy tip on how to find his way around the ridiculously complicated compound, but the one thing she doesn't touch on is the actual test he's curious about. It's starting to feel deliberate.
Before Sonic can even try asking about it, they arrive.
It's a set of double doors with a keycard-pad placed next to it on the wall. It's wholly unremarkable to Sonic — just a copy and paste from all the other double doors with keycard-pad locks that he's gone through in the last hour — but when the doors hiss open before his eyes, all the air escapes his lungs.
Between this and his first glimpse of Zone 2, Sonic can't tell which is greater.
Stepping through the threshold in awe, Sonic can hear Rouge's smile from behind him, but even her smugness can't make him take his eyes off the sight.
He steps out onto a large ledge, it's high off the actual floor of the room and with a metal fence ensuring that no matter how close he gets he can't accidentally fall to his death. Yet the EVA in front of him rises high above.
He knows this unit. Not just because he has heard of it, he knows that there used to be a torque in the right foot that had to be adjusted in its early days, he knows the pilot once spilled a milkshake on the shoulder after a successful battle. He knows things about this EVA that the public doesn't, he knows its soul and more. It used to be Tails' EVA.
The metal body is tens of meters wide, as tall as a skyscraper, and wholly capable of killing an Angel; he knows, he's seen it. In person and in footage. It's 60M tall, 20M shorter than the other EVA's, The plating is a near-gold yellow with white and red highlights. The whole frame designed to be sleek, against wind-resistance.
They're in the docking bay he faintly realizes, then suddenly he realizes it fully and whirls around to Tori and Rouge.
"You can go through that door over there, you'll find a changing room with a spare piloting suit in it." Rouge points with a manicured nail to a door somewhere to the side.
Sonic feels wholly confused.
"Uhm, alright, but where is the test?"
The Professor just smiles, it's not unkind— actually, it's quite filled with glee. Her footsteps echo throughout the massive room, hollow and louder in his ears than they probably are as she goes to stand between him and the painfully familiar EVA.
Turning to him and throwing her arms wide, she says with absolute joy: "This is your test, Mr. Hedgehog."
The words haven't fully processed, even when Sonic walks out of the changing room some ten minutes later. A spare suit flopping around his figure as he desperately holds it together and on with his hands. The ladies waiting for him in the docking bay just stare at him for a minute and laugh.
"Ha ha, go on, get it out of your system." Sonic chides them without any heat. "When you're done can one of you please get me a suit that — and this is a hot take — fits?"
Rouge walks up to him wordlessly, gestures for him to give her his hand. Swats away when he reaches out with his left and grabs his right hand by the wrist. She rubs the wristband that seemingly is the only thing that fits Sonic right now until there's a small click. Instantly the suit sucks up, all air is pressed out until Sonic is in a uniform that sits snug against his skin.
It's a grey thing, one piece that wraps around his neck down to the tip of his fingers and all the way down to his toes. There's a pattern of darker pieces around his sides and shoulders, but it all just looks random to him. It does look better than when it was flopping.
"Huh," Sonic says, "Neat."
Rouge makes a grabby-hand gesture towards him and it takes a second before he realizes what she's after. Pulling something out of his pocket he presents her with two head clips. They're odd, but Rouge takes them without any preamble and attaches the triangular shapes to the quills above his temples.
One of the on-site engineers walks up to them and leads Sonic around the giant robot, up an open pair of stairs and directs him to enter an oval pod from the top. It's a tight fit but he sits in what he assumes to be the seat before the engineer gives him a nod. It's dark inside as Sonic fumbles with the one of the clips in his quills. A loud pop shakes the darkness, his hands shooting out to the sides to stop him from banging through the pod, he can hear mechanical whirring from the outside as he's moved around.
There's a jolt, then a sudden drop.
Sonic heart stops as he's flung forward, but before he can hit anything the pod stops and he's tossed into the back of the seat.
"Sonic, how are you doing?" A voice calls out to him, it takes him a minute to figure out that Dr. Tori is talking to him from somewhere, but when he does Sonic wets his lips and answers.
"Doing great," He wiggles around to a more comfortable position in the pilot seat, he thinks that he's now actually sitting inside the cockpit properly. "Could use a light but other than that? A-plus for comfort," The seat is pretty comfortable when he's actually sitting on it. "D-minus for snacks."
There's a chuckle over the comms, the Professor tells him that she'll make a note of that before moving on.
"What you just experienced was the plug insertion, currently you are inside Unit-02. After making contact the plug gets powered through the suit's internal power-grid. Normally a comm-link opens up between the pilot and the main room, but for today it'll just be me and you."
"Don't forget me, darling." Rouge's voice cuts into the line.
"And you Rouge, how could I forget?" The Professor says rhetorically.
"In a minute we'll start initial contact, you may feel some unusual things but don't worry, that's normal. Piloting an EVA is done through a special neural connection so the first time we like to take things slow. I want you to lean forward on the seat, in front of you should be the main frame and on each side is a handlebar, you can grab onto those."
Sonic does as instructed, it's pretty easy to find the handlebars in the enclosed space. He feels a little like a canned sardine, or a rolled up piece of gum with how he's bent over.
All of a sudden he feels something wet at his feet, he tries to look down but there's still no light in the room. Sonic's heart leaps into his throat as he feels it climb up his leg. It's so fast that he only manages to cry out when it's up to his thigh.
"Professor there's water filling the pod—" He gasps for air as the liquid climbs over his head. Letting go of the handles he tries to push out of the seat but he's met with the ceiling. Hitting it in a panic he barely manages to catch Tori's words.
"Sonic, I need you to breathe. Listen to me, it's not water, the plug is filled with LCL which will deliver oxygen directly to your bloodstream when it fills your lungs. You've got nothing to worry about, just breathe."
The words don't register, but the lack of oxygen does. Sonic curls up around himself when the need to breathe grows too strong. He breaks and gasps, mentally preparing for the pain of drowning as LCL fill his lungs, but it doesn't come. Finally, the words process and it feels a little silly now, with the panic slowly washing away with each non-drowning breath Sonic doesn't find that he particularly cares.
"Okay, a heads up would have been nice." He ribs the professor and Rouge when he catches his breath.
"Sorry, force of habit." Tori says guiltily.
"How do you feel?" Rouge asks and Sonic realizes that he can hear her through her own and Tori's comm, the voice echoing with the second feedback.
"Just peachy ma'am." He retakes his sardine position, looking ahead into nothing as he waits for the next thing.
"Initializing contact, prepare for synchronisation."
Something materializes ahead, like a seed erupting. Light unfurls throughout the entry plug. As if the walls are made of bright LED's, one blink and everything is a white void.
There's a feeling of nothing around him and if Sonic looks up he can convince himself that he truly is in an endless void, but the Evangelion pilot seat is grounding in a sense. Gripping tighter onto the handlebars he takes a deep breath, he can't even feel the LCL anymore; he has to focus on the soft pressure surrounding him to even realize it's there and even then, if it isn't for the memories of panic he would doubt whether it's really there.
It feels like he could get lost in this.
Then another seed forms, this one sprouting slowly from one point as visuals start climbing across his vision. The white void gives away to the room he knows he's in. It's smaller, or he's just bigger. In the middle of his vision a woman materializes, it takes a minute for her face to become clear as she brightens at something she can see on her workpad.
Rouge is standing next to Professor Tori when she notices something about the EVA, about him. She nudges the professor and points up at Sonic.
Looking up from the tablet, the professor looks up and smiles. It's like a camera is slightly out of focus, but Sonic can make it out.
"Hell—"
Sonic's hands shot to his ears, a scream of his own tearing out his throat as blinding noise wracks his skull. A red light flares throughout the room accompanied by an alarm loud enough to rupture eardrums.
Somewhere he registers that voices are shouting, Tori's one of them. He manages to glance at her as she yells into her comm, a hand to her ear and her tablet painting her face with a glaring red. He can't hear what she's saying, not in detail, but she sounds and looks mad. Rouge is already gone but her voice is also in his ears, neither are talking to him though. He catches something about Pilot 01 — impact sight — building.
Sonic doesn't even notice when his breathing grows erratic but when Tori looks up at something and says something he can't hear over the alarm he realizes his heart is pounding alongside his head. With the alarm still deafening, he tries to focus on what she's saying when suddenly the comm cuts out. Tori's voice disappears even though he can see her yelling.
A short beep and the comm reconnects again. There are multiple voices but it's all background noise. Sonic can't hear anything solid until a single voice singles out from the rest.
"Hello? Hey wait! Who—" The feed distorts. Sonic thinks he's finally lost his hearing, the pain is still there as he's clutching his ears but by now he's slowly growing used to the alarm. It's easier to catch the voice when he can hear her again.
"Wait for real?" She says to someone on her end.
"Who is this?" He finally gets enough of a grip to ask. The voice doesn't respond to him though, still talking to someone who he can't see, maybe someone else from earlier.
"Sir I heavily advice against this, Pilot 01 is still— Okay overruled." She whispers the last part to herself, only Sonic catching it because of the comm-link.
"WHO IS THIS?!" Sonic yells in frustration which finally seems to catch this someone's attention.
"Sonic, this is first lieutenant Tangle the Lemur of the central battle command station." Professor Victoria runs out of the room, leaving her tablet cracked on the floor. "There's a—" The comm-link warbles into unintelligible radio static, however this time Sonic feels the world around him move. The platform in front of him moves back as others do the same. They look small even though he knows they're huge, but he barely takes note of any of this as he delves into questions and trying to reconnect the comm-link to lieutenant Tangle.
He's jerked forwards as the EVA is moved back, something slots together and suddenly there's pressure pressing down on all of him. Like shooting way too fast up in a lift.
Everything is dark for a moment when a light above him breaks out. Shooting through it Sonic is shocked by the sunlight around him, blinded for a moment he closes his eyes, at least the alarm is gone up here. Soaring through the sky for a second, he somehow manages to catch himself into a crouched landing.
"Hello? Hello Sonic do you copy? Can you hear me?" Tangle's voice is back, hers a lot more professional than Sonic's own panic earlier.
"Copy." Sonic grumbles out as he lets his eyes adjust to the light. It takes him a second to recognise his surroundings but the hedgehog is surprised to find himself in Tokyo-3.
"What's going on?" Sonic asks as he looks down at the street in front of him. He catches something in the corner of his eyes and it takes a minute before he manages to turn around. It's his reflection he realizes, in the side of a building made of glass. He looks like Tails.
"Sonic I don't have much time." New voices barge into the central command station or wherever Tangle is, Sonic recognizes Rouge's voice and it doesn't take long for Victoria's voice to join hers and Sonic can't stop himself from flinching, she sounds furious. "We are in an active Angel attack."
Tangle's pulled back for a moment, Sonic can hear as someone takes the mic from her and Rouge's voice comes on the comm.
"Sonic I know this isn't ideal, but I need you to do this okay? You're connected to the main control room right now, you'll hear statistics and get real life updates from us now, there's an atmosphere break about 200m above you and approaching fast and whatever happens you can't let it make contact with the ground. There is a second pilot coming to your aid right now but you need to hold it off until they can get there."
And then it hits him, the alarm, Victoria's rage.
Sonic is being deployed.
Tangle gives him the crash course, Sonic barely catches any of it, his ears are ringing. The Angel is named Mashhit, Pilot 01 is coming soon, he doesn't know when. The Doctor authorized his deployment. Information is being flashed by him, battle advice, weapon caches and where to find them, AT-field readings, it's all jargon to him.
The only thing that really catches is the fact that the EVA is powered by an umbilical cable attached to his upper back, without it he has 5 minutes of emergency power if he's conservative. 1 minute if he's not.
The realisation hits him that he can die, he can really die today. He'll die here today, being some sacrificial lamb for a man he's only heard of. Dying to an Angel that will destroy the city if Pilot 01 doesn't get here fast enough.
He'll die never knowing what happened to Tails.
No.
He won't let that happen.
Turning away from the reflection, Sonic looks up and he can see it. A giant red orb descending towards the city, it looks almost gentle but Sonic knows exactly what it is, what it can do, what things like it have done.
Six months ago Tails disappeared, Sonic doesn't know where, and he was never told how. One day there was just a telegram on his doormat informing of Tails' death. He was a pilot, this is his EVA. Sonic knew that like he knows that NERV is lying.
He doesn't know what happened to his brother, but by God will he find out. No Angel will stop him today.
Sonic slowly stands up, eyes still locked on the Angel; that little red dot above the city. Tangle informs him that it's at around 150M when it starts changing.
Sonic watches as it comes to a halt, nothing happens for a beat and then he sees it. Water magnetically flows through the air towards the Angel, circling the orb forming a body, growing bigger and bigger in size draining the nearby lake and Sonic can swear that it's pulling at the sea too, all the way from Tokyo-3.
It grows two legs and two arms, a head protrudes at the top and has four downwards reaching 'strands', two smaller ones framing its face and two larger ones protecting its back. It does not look like any human or mobian form that Sonic knows of. Its red core is concealed within the middle of its head above eyes that open to reveal a burning yellow.
This is the Angel Mashhit, the destructing Angel.
Sonic doesn't need to win, that's not his mission. Even central command realizes that asking him to defeat this thing all on his own is an impossible feat, especially on his first synch. All he has to do is keep it occupied until Pilot 01 gets here, and survive.
All Sonic has to do is survive.
"Sonic you are clear to engage." Tangle informs him and he can't help but grin.
Six months ago Tails disappeared, presumed dead. Today Sonic picks up the threads where he left off.
Mashhit lunges from the sky, Sonic's whole internal monologue is thrown out as his heart leaps into his throat and he throws himself backwards, umbilical cord flinging over him. Rolling over the ground, he manages to escape Mashhit by a hair as the blue Angel slams into the ground. A large crater marks out where it lands as a dust cloud jumps up. Sonic scrambles to his feet, throwing the cord away to not tangle in it.
A limb rushes at him from above and Sonic rolls to the side in the nick of time. The force of its slam into the ground throws him up for a moment and Sonic uses it to get up and scramble for the nearest weapon cache. The side of a whole building falls away to reveal an EVA sized gun, he doesn't stop to wonder about the hows or whys when he grabs the gun and points it at the dust cloud. Not hesitating to pull the trigger religiously as he slowly walks backwards to create more distance between him and the Angel.
It's all useless when another limb swipes at him in an arch, this time he can't dodge. It hurls him backwards through the city. Sonic rushes through the air, skimming buildings. It feels like they're cutting into his skin rather than the EVA and he can't help but cry out.
Crashing into the ground blocks away from it, the Angel doesn't relent its pursuit of him. Another swipe sends him careening again, this time he gets caught by a building before getting far. It crumbles under the force he's flung with and debris scattered around him when he hits the ground.
"SONIC!" Tangle and Rouge yell on the other side of the line. Sonic only responds with a groan as he lies there, his gun gone. The Angel doesn't make any noise as it floats over towards him, almost leisurely.
Something about the sight just pisses Sonic right off. Like this overrated water bottle is just toying with him if anything. Tangle's voice washes over him as he puts his hands under himself, ignoring the building crumbling off him, he gets up. Takes a low stance and waits. The Angel stops for a second, he can't tell if it's assessing him or doing something else; he doesn't have to wait long before it moves.
Rushing both arms wide, they start to slam together with him in the middle — he briefly thinks of a couple hours ago when Rouge almost squished him between her car and his own — but before it touches him, Sonic grabs the debris under him and throws it directly at the orb on its head with enough force that some hits his orb core.
The Angel's arms seize up, it's entire body distorting like it's suddenly boiling as it loses shape. It doesn't last long however, one moment it rattles, the next its surface smooths over and a head strand pins Sonic into the ground, immobilizing him.
A scream tears out of his throat as the strand melts to wrap around his body and slams him into the ground again. And again. Sonic's back explodes in pain with each blow as he scrambles for control, each time he's slammed into the ground he sees stars and his back thrashes.
The EVA goes limp.
The Angel stops its torture and pulls the slack EVA towards its ugly water head, lifting it more towards its core rather than its eyes. Its face ripples at the sight of him and even though Sonic knows that Angels don't do facial expressions, he feels like it's laughing at him in triumph.
It isn't until Sonic is pressed into the back of the pilot seat that he gets a better look at this thing. The orb looks less round now, less like a sphere and more like a brain. It's stem climbing into the torso.
The face ripples again, distorting Sonic's view. Still laughing.
Sonic sees red, like a flame ignites inside his chest, he lunges forwards for the controls of the EVA with what little strength he has left. He starts struggling in the Angel's hold, thrashing the unit around as much as he can but nothing comes of it as the giant water blob just lifts him up a little higher. Water surface rippling again, Sonic feels the moment the strand drops, slamming him into the ground again, pain explodes across the back of his head but he doesn't let it overtake him again.
Grabbing one of the nearby intact buildings, Sonic clings on as the Angel goes to lift him up again. Its own force against his grip on the building frees him faster than it can blink. The building strains at its foundation to pull him out, but Sonic doesn't waste time. Gripping the building with both arms, he kicks the base again and pushes.
It's enough, the building crumbles at the bottom, giving away and starts falling towards the Angel. Its limbs come up to shield itself against the crushing building. Sonic doesn't wait to see what happens to it, turning around to look for his gun or the nearest weapon cache.
He can hear the Angel boil in anger when he spots it. Lunging for the weapon cache, the building opens up as Rouge likely realizes what he's planning. There's another gun there, a carbon copy of the other gun. Sonic grabs it and turns onto Mashhit.
Whirling around Sonic aims the gun at Mashhit but the Angel is already lunging for him. Its arm reaches right for his head as Sonic is too late.
The world slows as Sonic's eyes widen when the hand starts to close around him. He's tired — on his last leg, really — and this thing doesn't even seem affected by the building he just dropped on it.
One of the Angel's hands curls and Sonic can't tear his eyes away.
There's a flash, something dark crossing his vision when the water around him falls uselessly to the ground. Sonic gasps for breath, LCL swishing in and out his lungs as he looks ahead of him.
A new EVA stands between him and Mashhit, a knife in hand as it crouches in a defensive position. Mashhit lets out a cry that makes Sonic curl up, trying to block the deafening scream, it is worse than the EVA alarm.
Coiling, Mashhit looks to the newcomer as if angered, its stump convulsing before a new limb grows in place of the one before in grotesque mires.
Pilot 01 has arrived.
A cheer goes through central command, Sonic catches some of it through the comm.
"Alright, new battle plan, Pilot 01 will aim for the core in close combat. Sonic, we want you to lay down cover fire as best you can. Make sure to stay out of Mashhit's range." Tangle's voice comes out on top, Sonic nods gripping the gun tighter as he aims at Mashhit with renewed vigour.
It feels like his back is open. It feels like someone just repeatedly hit him in the back of his head with a baseball bat. His hands are shaking as he rests his finger on the trigger, a headache blooming behind his eyes that feels more like a concussion, but Sonic knows that it's all neural feedback. Nothing is broken, it's just the EVA hurting, and they are so close to winning. All he has to do is shoot tendrils and not get hit again, easy-peasy.
There's a pregnant pause between the three, dust clouds settle as the tension grows palpable.
Pilot 01 cuts through it. Charging straight at the Angel, 01 brandishes their knife using it to deflect and dodge water-like tendrils that shoot from the Angel's body. The limbs shudder and fall to the ground as unit 01's knife severs limbs, the disconnected water falling forces the Angel to focus on regenerating. Another scream tears through the air, Sonic grits his teeth as he pulls the trigger hitting the Angel's outreaching arms.
Slashing, shooting, screaming. It becomes a horrid dance where Pilot 01 is pushed back then starts his advance again and again. Sonic doing his best to lay cover fire where he can, evaporating chunks of water with shells; Tangle alerts him where she can with Rouge shouting commands around the command station behind her. With each pass his exhaustion grows, but so does 01 advance.
The three are jumping around the city, dodging and charging. Sonic feels like he's getting the hang of it when it all goes to shit.
The Angel screams once more before suddenly surging forwards with its whole body, catching both EVA pilots off guard. In their surprise, the Angel manages to swallow unit 01, surging away from the ground as it tears the Pilot's knife off him.
Sonic's heart stops at the sight.
Abandoning the gun he rushes for the knife. It's black with red highlights just like its Pilot and it feels unbalanced in his own grip but Sonic still leaps after the two in desperation. Before the Angel can take Pilot 01 too far away from the city for help.
It's a stupid plan. There's a flash and Sonic is thrown to the ground, batted away like a fly. He skids through the city, crashing through buildings, knife lost somewhere in the fray. Sonic screams until he comes to a sudden halt, EVA crashing into the side of a mountain.
Sonic blacks out upon impact.
There's a familiar darkness as Sonic drifts. The black that surrounds him is the same as right before he synchronised with the EVA back in the docking bay. There's nothing around him, no metal, no noise. Sonic doesn't know if he's moving, if there's an up or down.
All there is is darkness, it is endless. Until the beginning, until a voice let there be light.
"Sonic." It's gentle, it sounds like a young girl, it calls out to him again.
"Sonic." It doesn't quite echo as much as it just reverberates between his ears, he doesn't know if he responds or just groans in acknowledgement but the voice latches onto him regardless. Soothing words wash over him and the voice talks.
There is a world of nothing and everything in the voice, there is sound but no body that Sonic can see. Maybe his eyes aren't open at all, he can't tell the difference.
"You've done quite well. I haven't seen someone pilot this quick, although I guess you have a… special motivation to succeed." The voice lures him to sleep and wakefulness. Sonic feels empty inside, maybe the emptiness is outside.
"I've heard about you, you know?" The voice tells him. "Very little, but Tails is very, very—" He's in hell. This emptiness in and out of him is hell, Sonic is dead.
"No you're not, not yet."
"I want you do to something for me," Sonic sobs or might not have, "I know it's a lot, but I'll help you in turn. You're not alone."
Words tumble out of his mouth, he's sure of it. He's not sure what he's saying. There are no walls for the words to echo back to his ears, only an escape into nothingness — it feels like it's about Tails, maybe he's asking for him. To have him back, to learn what happened to his little brother. He's not sure.
The voice returns, different. Not gentle anymore, instead she sounds as if on the edge of mirth.
"Well, alright then."
There's no coming to, Sonic is just awake.
A blur of red and gold streaks through the city on the visual feed. The command station bursts into renewed chaos as the readings for Pilot 05 are silent, but the EVA gets up.
A horrified silence deafens the room when the unit strains its arms backwards and tears out its own umbilical cord. Leaping through the air, higher than an EVA is capable of, Unit-03 uses a weapon cache to shoot itself at Mashhit. Hitting the Angel dead in the head.
Wrapping its legs around Mashhit's neck, the EVA straddles it. Its arm reels back towards Pilot 01, snatching a leg, the unit flings the other Pilot to the ground, dislodging it from the Angel and leaving it to plummet.
Watching it turn its attention back to the Angel, a single thing goes through the head of first lieutenant Tangle.
Pilot 05 is going berserk.
The Angel wraps its body around the Evangelion, trying wring it off but the EVA plunges its now-free hand into its body, gripping onto the creatures' spinal stem.
A new scream tears through the city, hacking through bone marrow like a butcher's knife. If an Angel could feel emotions, Mashhit would shit itself.
Unit 003 plunges its own umbilical cord into Mashhit's core.
The Angel spasms and screams so loud that even Tangle grasps her ears in pain, its form distorts into spikes and falters. Enough electricity to power a city wracks through its nervous system and the Angel falls, taking the EVA with it.
Crashing into Tokyo-3, a tremor wracks through the whole of NERV HQ. Dust covers the crater, but settles in the span of a breath. Pilot 05 hovers above the Angel's core, water uselessly spatters down over them like rain in a vain attempt of collecting it again by the Angel.
The Evangelion throws its head to the sky, the face panel cracks until a jagged break forms over its lower part like a mouth. A victory wail tears between the mountains as the mouth widens.
Turning back to what is left of Mashhit, the monster bites.
Written by a human in Ellipsus.