Story: NGE Oversynched

Here is another NGE story. I am taking suggestions for options.




She had a bad feeling about this.

No, no, let’s be more specific. The aforementioned “this” had started about half an hour ago, when all three of them had reported for another scheduled sync test. Just like any other sync test. Except that one where they were all naked, but forget that. Had she been informed that they were to be naked for this particular test, someone would’ve lost a limb. Mein Gott! How did Akagi come up with this?

Again, “this” was referencing the test. An unusual test with modified equipment. You see, rather than a single seated container filled with LCL, they had provided a triple back-to-back seated container filled with LCL. All of them in it, first by themselves, then trying it out in various combinations. It was dumb. Completely stupid. What were they trying to prove anyway? No way did Asuka intend to get in the same plug as either of the other two. Nuh uh. That one time with Shinji was just that. One time. No more. No how. No. Way.

And if anyone even tried suggesting she share piloting an Eva with Wondergirl, they’d wish they’d lost a limb.

“You’re doing great,” Dr Akagi said. “But I’d like you all to concentrate on the same thing. Try picturing something simple, like a circle.”

A circle, huh? Asuka rolled her eyes and set to work. It was a futile task. Even something as simple as this would be too much to get them synched up knowing those other two. The First Child would be measuring it in her head, calculating the radius and diameter to ensure it was a perfect circle. The Third Child would be unable to make up his mind whether to make it a big circle, a small one, maybe a dot or the moon in the sky or maybe he’d even try out a sphere? He was certainly dumb enough to imagine a sphere.

Even so. Asuka imagined a circle. A medium sized perfectly average circle with its edges drawn in black on top of white. Nobody could blame her when this failed, as she knew it would. Asuka closed her eyes and concentrated on the circle. Black against white. Black against white. Black against -

Red.

Her brow furrowed. Red? Where did red come from? She had been imagining a blue circle drawn against a green background. No, that was wrong. Black on white. Black on red. Blue on white. The image swirled in her mind, growing and shrinking and warping and - And there was a loud noise echoing throughout the LCL. She could sense the other two moving around through the ripples in the liquid. They were in pain, and she knew that because so was she!

“Shut down the experiment!” Misato yelled. “And get that alarm switched off as well!”

Ah, that noise was an alarm? Good. It wasn’t simply in her head. But why did it hurt so much? Why did -

“Aaaargh!”

The scream drew Asuka helplessly out of her thought process. Was that Rei, Shinji or herself? She couldn’t tell. It hurt too much to focus on where the noise had come from.

“Make it stop!” one voice pleaded, and Asuka agreed vehemently with the plead. Ah! But the LCL was draining away! They had aborted the experiment - and yet the pain lingered on. No. Not lingered. It was getting worse! And worse. And worse. And -

Turning right three times is the same as turning left once. It is entirely possible to hate something so much that the hatred turns into a form of love. Think of it like a circle. Go too far in one direction and you’d have been as well going the other. This was the only explanation, the only possible rationale for Asuka’s new reaction.

She writhed in her seat, hips bucking against the air as whimpers and gasps of delight escaped her lips. The pain had mutated without warning. Perhaps her senses were overloaded by it and trying to compensate in any way that they could. Maybe she simply had a masochistic streak she’d never known about before. Whatever the reason, Asuka found it impossible not to give in to these new intoxicating sensations. Somehow she knew that the other two were reacting in much the same way as herself, and the sound of Wondergirl attempting to stifle her reactions to this stimulation only served to make Asuka feel all that much happier about this situation.

A technician pulled Asuka into a fireman’s carry, but she didn’t care. She was so close now. So close! So cl-

At the last possible moment she felt the needle being inserted into her neck, and darkness was her only relief.

<hr>

“What the hell happened to those three?”

Ah, but that was the question of the year. Doctor Akagi was looking over the results with a fine toothed comb, had been for the last day and a half and neither herself or the Magi had any answer to give to it.

Not that this would placate Misato any, as she stood in the doorway with her arms folded and foot tapping impatiently. Though she may be a lazy drunk at home, once she was outside those walls she was one hell of a guardian for all three of the pilots. The Commander had mentioned Misato’s attempts to convince him it would be more efficient for all involved if the pilots all lived under the same roof, but that couldn’t be allowed to happen under any circumstances. Rei had to live alone for very, very good reasons given her rather unusual nature…

“Well?” Misato seethed. “I’m waiting!”

“The short answer is, I don’t know.” Ritsuko sighed and rubbed her forehead in frustration. “Their sync level held out at about 60%, which is roughly what we expected given the exercises we had them perform and the prior test results. When I instructed them to imagine a circle, it jumped up to 64% and then something odd happened. Mental contamination occurred across all three of them simultaneously. At first it caused a massive amount of pain for all three of them… But about half a minute in, their bodies began to flood with hormones.”

Even Rei, whose body wasn’t supposed to be able to manufacture them. That was another mystery on top of the first one… and may well prove to be the clue to figuring the whole matter out.

“All three of them were sent into a nigh-orgasmic state that left them with no motor control while it was in effect. After rendering Asuka unconscious, the other two calmed down a little. On rendering Shinji unconscious, Rei returned completely to normal, though she appeared to be confused about what had just transpired.”

“As are we all. Have Shinji and Asuka recovered? Has Rei shown any signs of unusual mental activity?”

“No, Rei has been normal.” For Rei. “And I can’t see any reason to keep the other two sedated any longer. We’re going to need to wake them up if we are to discover what is wrong with them.”

<hr>

They were to be awakened for further analysis. This was good. Whatever had happened to the three of them had to be analysed in case it interfered in their piloting duties. This was the reason that Rei was standing in the hall outside their rooms. Waiting to see what had happened.

The experience had been unusual. Painful at first. Then the pain vanished to be replaced by something indescribable. It was almost as though -

Rei’s head moved slightly. Pilot Ikari was awake. She could not see him from this position but she knew. Strange feelings began to creep into her mind, almost unnoticed. They would have been had she not expected something to happen. It was a feeling of loneliness. Fear. Sadness. It was not pleasant, and -

Pilot Soryu was awake. Again Rei could not see into the room, so it puzzled her. How did she know? Ah. It was because her brilliant mind was intuitive enough to determine this from subconscious audio clues! But of course. After all, the great Rei Ayanami -

She steadied herself against the wall as conflicting thoughts and feelings waged war in her mind. It was like a rising storm, a tornado that came and went leaving destruction in its wake. There was little question in her mind now. All three of them had been changed by the experiment, but in what capacity she dared not speculate.