Agents of NERV Red Delphinium, Blue Helenium, 2/3

The girls crept down the metal stairs, gripping the handrails carefully. Both to minimize the noise, and to avoid any tripping their unsteady feet. Both Asuka and Rei had taken used napkins down there, so they knew the route. It was much bigger than expected, though poorly lit. Asuka wonder if business here also fronted as a clothes washing location.

“When we get back, we really have to practice in walking in these more.” Asuka muttered. Rei nodded in agreement. “It might help walk Eva...” She noted, before blinking, surprised at herself for taking initiative like that.

The wannabe spy girls descended into the washroom. Fortunately, some of the dryers were still running, which partially blocked their approach. Rei tugged at the short sleeve of Asuka’s dress.

“Hmmm?” Asuka turned to Rei, who was pointing across the room, past some of the tall washing machines. There was an open door, and if Asuka listened carefully, she could hear voices talking. Quite excitedly at that.

Asuka grinned. “This is REALLY it wonder girl. Cover me. I’m going to go in there and listen in, maybe even catch an incriminating photo!” Asuka bent over, and pulled her skirt up a bit, and removed the flip phone she’d discretely hidden between her legs. She’d made sure to set the flash for the camera off.

Rei nodded, scanning the room for a covert location to observe from...when Asuka yet again grabbed her, and pulled her along as she crept to the side of the open door. Rei was incredulous. “From there?”

Asuka shrugged, letting go. “Just stay close. Give me a pinch if you see anything.”

Rei sighed. She noted two washing machines stacked on top of eachother. It was about her height, and with her back braced towards it at one of the corners, she would be fairly well hidden from anyone looking into the washroom from one of the side rooms, or the stair entrances. Rei quietly got into position, as did Asuka. With one of the nearby washers changing cycles, it was now possible for both girls to hear inside the room.

“-that was a stupid stunt you pulled yesterday!” One of the voices inside shouted angrily.

“But we got into NERV’s data network!” A voice protested in response.

“But only got half the data we needed!” A hand slammed down on a table. “And we exposed our operations presence! Not only that, we failed to get get any of the primary targets. We were supposed to get everything in one swoop. Tell me, when are we going to get another shot at this now with NERV on lockdown? Or that we haven’t been completely compromised already?”

The question was met with silence. Asuka grinned broadly. This was all the proof she’d needed to confirm NERV intelligence’s suspicions about this place. All she needed was a few bits of information on their plan, and maybe some camera photos.

She slowly pushed the door a bit more open, and peaked inside. The meeting room was dark, a projector screen the only source of light. She couldn’t make anything but the silhouettes of the of the Qipao clad women, but she could make out the projector screen fine. It was various photographs of NERV HQ. All rather compromising.

Asuka began to snap photos as discretely as possible, while still listening in.

“Well it’s not a total loss.” One of the women noted, tapping a folder with her hand. “We did manage to at least get some information on a few of our potential primary targets.”

That caught the others attention. “Which ones? Do we have names?”

“Red and White.” The shadowy lady explained, looking over the dossier. “And uh, not exactly. Our data breach was only halfway done when we got detected and pushed out by MAGI. But we did find out some things. Not their names, but the school they attend. First Municipal Middle School.”

The overhead slide shuttered again. Asuka felt increased tension when she recognized the school both she and Rei attended. Suddenly the entire game of spy was suddenly hitting closer to home. Rei had even held off on her vigil of watching the stairs when she’d overhead the mention of their school.

The group seemed to consider this. “Do we know what class they are at least? If we can’t grab one of the pilots themselves, nabbing some of the reserve candidates could work just as well.”

Asuka felt a chill. They were after her, Rei, and any of the other students from Class 2-A.

“No. Not anything like that. But I can tell you that they suspect we might know something. School got cancelled for the week, and all the students sent home. That’s a lead, right?” The shadowy figure explained, a hopeful tone in her voice.

Asuka relaxed. THAT was largely useless information. She and Rei should be safe for now.

The shadowy ringleader seemed to agree with Asuka’s assessment. “Hardly. That’s hundreds of people to pick out. Are you sure we don’t have anything else on them?”

“Errr, well...we have their gender, height and shoe size....Both are girls.149 and 145cm, Size 22 and 21 for Red and White respectively. Umm, real dainty things...”

Silenced filled the room. “How exactly did you manage to get something that uselessly specific, but not their names?” One of the group asked in irritation. “As I said. Our data breach was only partially successful. Their personal file was only partially retrieved. But this IS a lead.” Came the response.

“How is that supposed to help? We can’t just go and try grabbing school girls from that school just because they’re petite! We’d get caught so fast! Not only that, we’d get labelled as weirdos instead of respectable spies.” The shadow woman threw her arms up in frustration. “Honestly I think we should quit while we’re ahead. I’d rather not get taped up in a box then express delivered to a NERV interrogation facility.”

“Hey! We can’t give up just yet!”

The group began to argue, and Asuka began to snicker. Had she really been afraid of these buffoons just a little bit ago? In triumph, she took more photos. “Well if I have anything to say about it, you won’t be getting away.” Asuka whispered to herself.

“Soryu.” Asuka startled when a hand was placed on her shoulders. She spun away, red hair swinging, finding herself staring into Rei’s red eyes. Asuka blinked. How had wonder girl snuck up on her while wearing heels?

“What is it?” Asuka hissed. “Can’t you see I’m busy? And aren’t you supposed to be watching?”

Rei leaned in, whispering. “We must leave now. These people mean to abduct us.” She said flatly. “Every second we persist we aid them. This was a mistake. ”

For a moment Asuka wavered. There WAS something foolish about two precious Evangelion putting themselves at risk spying on people who intended their kidnapping. Asuka almost relented...but a surge of pride stopped her from conceding.

“Hmmph, we found out what they wanted. That’s something the NERV dossier couldn’t tell us. We’re doing a good job here. So stop worrying about it.” Asuka rolled her eyes, trying to make Rei seem the worry wart.

Rei’s eyes narrowed. “Soryu, if I were to be abducted, I could be replaced as pilot of Unit 00. The same cannot be said of Unit 02. We must leave.”

Asuka blinked. Hearing Rei put herself lower than Asuka was disconcerting, especially when so nonchalant about her own safety. Asuka (usually) didn’t go that far when putting herself above the rival Eva pilot.

“Just...keep look out. I’ll be there in a minute. Just need to get a few more photos.” Asuka relented, glancing back to the room with a toss of her hair, signaling an end to the conversation.

Rei was about to protest, but held back. There wouldn’t be any use to her raising a fuss, and getting themselves captured anyway. So she slept back to her observation spot and...

Rei paused. Light seemed to shine in from the stairway down into the basement washroom. Hadn’t she pulled the door all the way shut when they had entered?

Uncertain, Rei leaned forward, eyes narrowing. Had perhaps the door been inched open by a breeze? She tried to listen, but several dryers had come on. Rei took a step forward, creeping ahead quietly, hoping to get a better view at the entrance.

As she neared one of the many gaps between the dryers, a purple figure jumped out in front of her.

Rei yelped hoarsely, trying to pull back, but a hand darted out and yanked her forward by the wrist. She tried to cry out louder, but another hand shot over her mouth. It held a sponge, which was soon forced past Rei’s lips. “Mmmhn.” Rei mewed, trying to spit out the obstruction.

Belatedly, Rei recognized her. The seemingly inattentive head waitress from upstairs. Lei-Ling. She loomed menacingly over Rei. Not so out of it now.

“Get her wrists.” Lei-Ling commanded, her vibrant green uniform now cast in shadow. Another figure appeared around one of the dryers. It was the cook, and she was carrying cords of red rope.

Rei’s eyes widened. She tried to pull away, but the two women had pulled them behind her back, and were already binding her wrists. As surprising as the entire affair was, Rei couldn’t do anything more but stand up straight with a start. So much in fact, she immediately tiptoed her feet half way up out of her heels! The grip of her captors on her limbs made sure she stayed tiptoed like that.

“nhhhn.” Arms now nearly bound, Rei tried to keep herself anchored to the floor. But the floundering and the wriggling of her feet only caused them to slip half out of her heels, leaving her twisting body standing precariously on her tiptoes.

“Sneaking off while on shift huh? That’s not going to look good on your trial run.” The head waitress hissed with annoyance, as she finished tying the knots on Rei’s wrists. “Those stupid college girls upstairs came nagging me about where you were, and here I find you...”

“mmmph.” Rei mewed, unable to respond. She glanced over to where Asuka was, just as the cook dropped to her knees to start binding Rei’s ankles with rope, even as Rei dangled up on her tiptoes.

Asuka was still in sight, quite close actually. Asuka would have been able to spot the altercation if she had but turned around.  But so engrossed was Asuka in her eavesdropping (the conspirators in the room had just pulled up a slide of what Asuka was sure to be extra incriminating information that needed to be photographed), she did not notice Rei’s plight.

“Assshkhha...” Rei tried calling out as her captor forced the sponge deeper into her mouth. The hold forced Rei to crane her head upwards. Even as Rei tried to push away the taller and more athletic adult woman, she was hoisted up by her bound wrists.

Now bound hand and foot, the cook stood up, and produced a roll of tape. Pulling off a strip, she gestured for the waitress to remove her hand over Rei’s mouth, so that she’d be able to tape the sponge in. Rei tried to turn her head away, but Lei-Ling kept a tight enough grip to force her to look forward.

The tape was pressed and smoothed over Rei’s mouth, bulging noticeably where there was still a large sponge sticking out.

The waitress turned from Rei to regard Asuka. She scowled as she saw that Asuka was obviously listening in on the delicate conversation taking place inside. “Hold onto her. I’m going to get the other one.”

Rei winced as she was handed over, held tightly by her arms and , keeping her precariously half lifted out of her high heels. Despite the pain, she watched helplessly as Lei-Ling approached Asuka from behind.

Asuka grumbled as she continued to spy on the enemy agents in the room beyond. Rei’s word bothered her. Less due to the urgency of her words, but her self-deprecating assessment of herself.

“Naturally I’m the most important, but it sure is bratty for an EVA pilot to decide they’re expendable...” Asuka whispered to herself, eyes crossed. It actually pissed her off a little. After this was over, she’d have to find some way to get back at Rei. Like forcing her to come along for a prolonged clothes shopping trip. If Rei wanted to pretend she was a doll, then Asuka would take maximum advantage over that.

The thought brought a smile to Asuka’s face, just as Lei-Ling crept up behind her. Asuka froze when she heard the faint tapping of heels behind her.

“R-Rei?” Asuka asked sheepishly, before a sponge filled hand clamped down over her mouth. “mmmmph?!?!”

Asuka had imagined herself more prepared than Rei had been for a physical confrontation. But as soon as she’d been grabbed, Asuka found herself standing up straight with a girlish yelp just like Rei had! By the time she even considered using her heels as a weapon, her feet were halfway out of them! In desperation, she tried to lower her feet back into the pumps so she could use them as weapons. Yet Asuka was just as lightweight as Rei. Lei-Ling could easily keep Asuka out of her heels and on her tiptoes with a bit of upward pressure applied to her wrists.

“GMMMPH!” Asuka cried out. “LLHHHHD GHHH!!” She furiously sputtered and whined. Twisting her body around. In the struggle, she dropped her cell phone to the ground with a clatter. Asuka looked around desperately, wondering where Rei was.

The noise caught the attention of the room's occupants. “Huuh? What was that?” Faster than Asuka would have expected for a group of women wearing high heels, they scrambled out of the room. Somewhat to her surprise, Asuka noticed that a couple of them had produced compact lower caliber handguns with suppressors attached over the barrels. They gaped at Lei-Ling, as Asuka’s dainty feet dangled helplessly.

“Lei-Ling? What’s going on?!” One of the shadowy women demanded.

“Oh, just me turning out to be a terrible interviewer.” Lei-Ling droned sarcastically, before wrenching Asuka’s wrists up with one hand just enough to toss the cords of red rope over. “Hurry up and help me truss up this snooping brat. Bai’s already got the other one.” She gestured to back to where Rei was being held by the cook.

As the staff descended upon Asuka to bind her hand and foot, they dragged Rei into view. Her feet were dangling off the ground, heels barely still attached to them. Asuka glared. The stoic pilot had proven to be less proficient of a lookout than Asuka had anticipated.

“Jhhhshd ghhrrt!” Asuka grumbled to herself, pinching as eye shut as as she struggled against the bindings she was being subjected to with little success. But hand gagged and forced onto her tiptoes as she was, she could do little to interfere with their attempts to restrain her.

As a final coup de grâce, Asuka had a strip of tape slapped over her mouth, just like had happened to Rei. Asuka put up more of a fight, twisting and mouthing off as much as possible. It didn’t yield her much. Just slightly less of the sponge forced into her brat trap, and spilling out of her mouth and from under the tape gag. Regardless, she had been very efficiently gagged and muffled.

“Mmmph! Yhhhd bhhhdhr llhhhd mmmhh ghhh!” Asuka sputtered under the heavy gag, as she to was lifted off the ground, her heeled shoes barely staying on her feet before finally coming down on the tiled floor with a clack. Her eyes darted between all the unfriendly faces surrounding her, until she finally rested on Rei again. She mewed to get her attention. The pale ruby eyed girl tilted her head towards Asuka as much as she could while being held.

“Rhhmmhmbbhhr?” Asuka hinted through the tape, and Rei nodded. Asuka breathed a sigh of relief. Rei had remembered the cover story they had agreed upon if they had gotten captured. All they had to do was wait to be ungagged to give it.

Unfortunately, their interrogation wasn’t forthcoming.

“What the heck were those girls doing down here?” One of them demanded.

“Crap, they could have overheard everything!” Another exclaimed, clearly disturbed.

“Should we close early?” another pondered. “There are still customers upstairs.”

“No, that’d just tip off NERV intelligence that something was up!”

“We don’t even know if they’re with NERV intelligence.” It was pointed out.

“Oh yes we do!” Lei-Ling took center stage, holding up the cell phone that Asuka had dropped. “NERV issue cellular. These brats are working with Section 2!” The red haired girl felt herself fall into a cold sweat.

That revelation brought considerable alarm. Soon the women were all abuzz talking about so many different contingencies that Asuka lost track. She tried to catch their attention, and mew out her cover story of ‘getting lost’, but they paid her and Rei no heed...at first. Eventually all eyes turned towards Rei and Asuka.

“So, what are we going to do with those two?” One of the women noted grimly, looking towards Lei-Ling.

The head waitress shrugged. “Well it’s unfortunate, but if they’re working for NERV then we’ll have to...”

“Wait a minute, working for NERV?” One of the other agents exclaimed in alarm. “You don’t think...”

Asuka’s eyes widened. “Crap!” She thought to herself.

Rei for her part, just sighed. It looked like the charade was up.

Lei-Ling looked around, confused. “Don’t think what? What are you guys babbling about?” The women looked towards each other uncertainly, until one of them walked back into the briefing room, and came out with the dossier folder with the stolen information about the EVA pilots.

Lei-Ling looked it over, clearly incredulous. “No, couldn’t be...” She stormed over to Asuka and Rei, looking them over, and planting a hand on their heads to measure them, then using a measuring tape to further verify it. Asuka shook her head emphatically.

“Uhnnuhnnn! Whrrr nnnhhbhhdy!” Asuka insisted, shaking her hair and pigtail back and forth. But was ignored.

“Mmhn...” Rei mewed simply as her fluffy hair was jostled around.

“About right height I think...” One of them commented. “I’d guess the right age too.”

“That could mean anything...” She looked over the folder again. “Verify the other data point.”  She ordered simply, referring to measurements of Asuka and Rei’s foot size.

Asuka cried out and struggled as the women methodically lifted her up by her shoulders, waist and knees and held her horizontally over the floor, pantyhose covered legs wriggling helplessly. Asuka’s feet were forcibly taken and straightened when she tried to curl them, and a measuring tape was pressed up to them quite roughly. Asuka tried to pinch the measuring tape with her toes to mess it up, but had them pinched painfully by the irate secret agents.

“mmmph!” Asuka exclaimed, wincing.

Rei for her part didn’t offer up more than a resigned wiggle of token resistance when she was lifted up and had her feet measured. In truth, she was keeping her her legs pressed together, wanting at all costs to avoid having the phone she had hidden on her thigh being discovered. It was looking like that might be their only lifeline to safety at this point.

“Well I’ll be...” Lei-Ling exclaimed. “Looks like we might be onto something here.” She glanced towards the other agents, gesturing at them. “Lock the place down. Say that we needed to close down early. Find some excuse. Get all the customers and that other new girl out of here. I’m going to have a little chat with the two brats here.”

The cheongsam clad agents quickly went to work, most shuffling upstairs. One stayed behind to help carry Asuka and Rei into the meeting room. The two girls were made into shoulder candy, hauled in, and then sat down in a pair of chairs under an oppressive overhead light.

The two girl squirmed in the metal folding chairs facing opposite directions., glancing up at Lei-Ling towering over them from behind. Asuka attempted to sit up, but Lei-Ling’s assistant planted her hands on Asuka’s shoulders, pushing her down from behind.

“Mmmph!” Asuka twisted about, trying to look behind to see what was happening.

Lei-Ling walked up to Rei, looming over the petite teenager even more when she had lost her heels. Rei didn’t make eye contact until her chin was tilted up.

Lei-Ling peeled the tape gag off, leaving it half on one of Rei’s cheeks. She frowned when Rei made no move to spit the sponge out, so removed it herself.  “Now then ‘Reiko’, got anything to say?”

Rei met the woman’s gaze briefly, before looking down. Her expression completely neutral. Aside from breathing in slightly, she hadn’t reacted to being ungagged at all.

Lei-Ling narrowed her eyes. She tightened her grip on Rei’s cheeks, squishing them in. Rei winced slightly.

“You know girlie, I could do some pretty mean stuff to you. And I don’t think a delicate little flower like you’d be able to take it.” Lei-Ling threatened Rei, much to Asuka’s disdain.

“Mmmph! Lhhhph hhhrh allhhn!” Asuka protested, icey blue eyes furrowed in anger. “Sleazy lady! Just because Rei is the weak link in the spy duo is no excuse to go after her first!” Asuka thought to herself.

Lei-Ling continued to stare daggers into Rei’s nonplussed eyes. The expression would have caused a trained soldier to flinch, but Rei took it without blinking.

Finally, Lei-Ling sniffed. “Smart assed brat.” She groused as she shoved the sponge back into Rei’s mouth, roughly, then reapplied the tape.

“mmmhn...” Rei mewed quietly, biting into the hefty sponge as it was crammed into her small mouth.

Lei-Ling moved on to Asuka. Lei-Ling slowly peeled the tape off Asuka’s face. The captive spy waitress wasted no time in spitting out the sponge immediately, and going into a tirade.

“Alright you crazy bitch!” Asuka declared. “I don’t know where you got this crazy idea that we’re EVA pilots, but we’re not! And furthermore-”

Lei-Ling raised an eyebrow. “Who said anything about you two being EVA pilots?” Lei-Ling noted dryly.

Asuka froze. “Errrr, I overheard it in the meeting!” Asuka’s eyes darted back and forth. “T-there’s an explanation for all of this!”

Lei-Ling rolled her eyes. “I’m sure it is. It’s probably just incredibly juvenile.”

Off to the side, Rei gave a soft exasperated sigh, while she weakly rolled her eyes.

Asuka balked at that. “Why you! When I get out of t-hmmmph!” Asuka blinked when Lei-Ling planted a palm over her mouth, gagging her.

Lei-Ling gestured to the other agent holding Asuka down. “Take our stoic little friend and lock her in the supply closet.” She gestured across the room to a door. “She may be more tight lipped than her blabber mouthing Ginger friend, but I figure if she sweats it out a bit while we work over her little ginger friend, she might be a bit more talkative.”

“Mmmmph?!” Asuka blinked, staring wide eyed as Rei was once again hefted over a kidnapper's shoulder, and carried off. Rei gave Asuka a blank look as she was taken to the bare closet, and roughly deposited in it, landing on her butt.

“mmhn” She mouthed, once again wincing, and pulling herself up. One of her shoes had fallen off when she’d been tossed.

“How about you enjoy the chance to stretch out? I get the feeling you might not get much of a chance to do so when we get around to packaging you up for export.” The woman snickered as she slammed the door shut, locking it with a key.

“Mmmhn...” Rei mouthed quietly as she heard the woman walking away. She waited a moment or so after that as well, before she slipped out of her remaining  shoe, and laid down on her side. With a slight grunt, she tucked in her legs as far as she could, and slipped her bound wrists under her ankles, looping them under her body.

Her hands now in front, Rei reached up to remove her tapegag, sighing with relief after she’d removed it and spat the sponge out. She examined her bound wrists, and then began to dutifully work at the knots with her mouth.

It took longer than she had expected. It was a good ten minutes before she was able to loose the tight knots on her wrists, and begin the process of freeing her ankles. By that time, Asuka had been laughing hysterically for awhile.

“GHHHHN! MHNHNHN! HNHHNHN!” Asuka, teary eyed, and twisting back and forth as a large feather was run over the lengths of her delicate nylon covered soles, occasionally pressing the length of feather between dainty toes. Despite her struggles, she couldn’t escape her plight, still pinned down on the chair by her shoulders.

Eventually, Lei-Ling ceased the tickling, and the other lady spy ungagged Asuka quite roughly. Asuka gasped for air as soon as the obstruction of the tape and sponge was removed.

“Now then little miss Evangelion pilot. Why don’t you start telling us some juicey state secrets. Maybe we won’t have to take you away if you give us enough information.”

Asuka stared at a large white feather pointed at her feet, still panting.

“L-like you’d really let me go!” Asuka blurted out, before catching herself. “Errr, I don’t know what you’re talking about! I don’t know why you think I’m an EVA pilot! Or wondergirl for that matter! Maybe she’d be stuck up enough to claim something like that! Even that she was a better pilot than me! But I wouldn’t!” Asuka pleaded rather unconvincingly.

“hmmm, riiight.” Lei-Ling rolled her eyes again, and ran her palm over her mouth, gesturing for Asuka to be re-gagged.

“It’s true! And furthermrrmph!” Asuka squealed girlishly, and furrowed her eyes in irritation. “Bhhhd hmmm nhhhd!” She protested.

Asuka drew silent when Lei-Ling reached into a nearby duffle bag, and produced an electric toothbrush. “The feather doesn’t seem to be getting the results I want, so maybe this will do a better job.” She smiled sweetly as Asuka’s baby blues widened. “Oh don’t worry honey! I’m very skilled. Don’t have to worry about those lovely nylons on those baby skinned toes of yours getting ripped!”

More muffled protesting followed, followed the shrill drone of an electric toothbrush, followed by the squealing gag talk of a sensitive adolescent.

Rei listened in on this spectacle, back pressed against the door, and now unbound. She sympathized with Asuka’s plight, though found feathers and toothbrushes odd methods of torture. It also felt somewhat ironic that for once Asuka was trying to disavow her status as an Evangelion pilot. Asuka’s desperate humility was strangely endearing.

Yet Rei could not hope to help her friend at the moment. Not against two grown women, both of whom clearly had combat training. The most she could do was call for help.

Rei reached down under her skirt, and with a slight rip of tape, produced the NERV issue flip phone that had been hidden between her thighs. It had been fortunate that the enemy agents had not done a proper pat down of both their captives.

Less fortunate that her cell phone was unable to get a signal down in the basement. Rei frowned. Suddenly things had grown much more difficult. She would have to ascend from the basement if she hoped to call for aid.

Rei looked at the lock for the door, and with a deft motion, reached into her light wolfish hair. She retrieved a small bobby pin hidden away just above her ear. She had to concede now that Asuka had been correct to force her to wear it.

Rei wasn’t much of a lockpicker, but her fingers were light and dexterous, and it turned out the mechanism on the door was not particularly sophisticated. It came undone with a click. She slid the door open with a creak, but nobody could notice with the sound of Asuka’s muffled laughter drowning out any other noises in the room.

Rei surveyed the room. Most of it was dark, with the only source of light being from the light over Asuka and her two interrogators. It was close to neither the entrance to the room, or the closet that Rei had been thrown into.

Carefully, Rei slid out of her heels, placing them on the floor haphazardly,before getting down on her knees. It would be best to approach her exfiltration as carefully as possible.

Rei crawled out of the closet, making sure to close it behind her. She made careful effort to put the various tables and chairs in the meeting room between her and the two agents. Thanks to their preoccupation with the second child, they didn’t notice the first sneaking out the unlocked door.

Rei reemerged into the hallway of the basement laundromat. Pulling herself up, she quickly scanned the room for signs of the other employees. None were in sight, but she could hear the tell-tale sound of heels on tiled floor from across the room, hidden by several washing machines.

As Rei creeped behind several driers, she listened in on parts of a conversation.

“-still don’t believe it’s actually them. Why would NERV send their pilots of all people to spy on us?” One of the agents muttered in disbelief.

“Hey, you saw the two of them. They’re just a couple of kids. Probably let all this super robot super-heroic nonsense get to their heads.” Another answered apathetically. “You see the way they stomp around in those robots don’t you? Think they’re masters of the universe or something.”

“Maybe. Worlds sure gone crazy if some people are relying on people like that to save us. Still can’t believe they shut down Jet-Alone for these lunatics.”

“Yeah? Well you know what I heard about that was...” the conversation drifted off as the two entered another room in the basement. Rei paused, vaguely considering following them to listen in, but shook it off. Overt feelings of curiosity like that is what got her and Asuka into their current predicament. She assured herself that she had to stay focused on the mission at hand.

Continuing the creep forward, she checked the cell phones reception again. Still nothing. She wondered if communications equipment in the basement was interfering with the signal. Though risky, she decided to attempt to reach the first floor via the stairs.

That lead to a dead end. Not only had the door to the basement been locked, but Rei could hear voices from the other side.

“-don’t have to rush us out the front door like that ya know. This is really bad service!” Rei recognized the voice. It was one of the female customers from earlier.

“Whatever” A flippant response came from one of the employees. “Just let us get your take out packaged, then we can both get out of here.”

Rei considered, then rejected, the notion of trying to call the women for help. It was unlikely the women would be able to help Rei or Asuka against the agents, so there was no reason to put them at risk.

Rei instead opted to check her cellphone again. Luckily, she had managed to receive a weak signal at the top of the flight of stairs. She quickly dialed in the Major’s mobile phone. She would wait until things had settled down with the patrons leaving before trying to pick this lock as well.

There was a short wait, punctuated by the light flutter of Rei’s heart, as she anxiously waited to reestablish contact with her commanding officer.

She answered after an uncomfortable moment or two of waiting. “Hello? Is that you Rei? I know I told you to call me incase you needed anything, but I’m *kind* of busy right now.”

“Major Katsuragi, we are in serious danger.” Rei urged over the flip phone.

“...What’s going on?” Misato replied, her voice serious.

“We have been captured by the enemy agents you were investigating.” Rei replied simply.

“...what?!” Misato shouted in disbelief over the phone. “What do you mean? Where’s Asuka?”

“She has been captured by the enemy agents you were investigating.” Rei repeated for a second time, not entirely getting why Misato was so confused.

“Reiiii” Misato sternly noted across the phone. “This had better not be some kind of practical joke that Asuka put you up to. Where is she?”

“It is not.” Rei truthfully replied. Though noting to herself that it had been Asuka who had put her up to the endeavour. “Sohryu is currently being tortured by the enemy using an electric toothbrush on her feet.”

“...Okay, hold on a minute Rei. I’m calling the agents watching the apartment to see what’s going on.” Misato replied.

Rei was again confused as to why Misato disbelief. Was there something comical about torture with a tooth cleaning device?

“We are not at your apartment.” Rei informed Misato. “We are...”

Rei froze when she heard footsteps coming from down below. They would be on her in just a second. They’d hear her in just a second if she spoke.

“Wait, what?! Where are you two, Rei?!” Misato shouted over the phone, clearly alarmed.

Rei knew that if she was caught with a phone, then things could get dangerous very quickly. “It’s dangerous, I have to go.” she whispered, turning off the phone and cutting off any of Misato’s objections. Her eyes darted about, and she noticed that the top stairs were wider than the lower ones, and there was a blind spot next to the door. She bent down to deposit the phone by the door, out of sight...and then rush down the stairs.

Two women after rounding the corner and seeing Rei coming at them. She vaulted over the head of one of them, the agile pilot gracefully landing with a roll and making off at a dash. She’d overhead that the basement connected to an underground garage, but had avoided it to remain hidden. Such considerations went out the window.

“Hey!” One of the women cried out from behind Rei as she ran barefoot. “One of the brats go out!” A flurry of movement followed.

Rei could hear a metallic clicking. One of the firearms being chambered.

“No guns you idiot! We need her unharmed!” A voice quickly admonished.

Rei continued running towards the garage door, dodging a few of the woman who emerged, shocked at seeing Rei loose. She was almost at the door when it flung open, and a woman emerged, rope in hand, they had responded to capture her faster than Rei had anticipated.