"This is unprecedented!"

"This is a catastrophe!"

"How is this even possible?!"

"Enough!" - Keele did not actually raise his voice, but the other members grew silent nonetheless - "We will leave this to you, Ikari."

And with that the session was over.

Fuyutsuki breathed a sigh of relief.

"I would not be so hasty as to relax now, sensei"

"Indeed. The position they left us in is quite obvious" - Fuyutsuki sounded annoyed, but not worried (as he liked to say, "at my age, there is no reason to worry myself about anything") - "But really. What do they expect us to do about this?"

He was shocked to discover Gendo's face lit up in a never-before-seen grin. You'd think Christmas came early for him.

"The old fools are scared. This is the biggest proverbial monkey wrench in their beloved plans. They're scared witless of this... development"

"But the question remains: What are we going to do?"

"Nothing. We have one job, and one job only: Destroy the angels. It does not affect our plans... For now"

Fuyutsuki let out an exasperated sigh. As much as it was gratifying to see those old coots squirm, Gendo was enjoying it way too much.

Misato was in a strange mood: she did not feel like beer. At all. If anything, she wanted to be sober and awake. Because every time she closed her eyes, she saw...

6 hours ago

"The head's damaged! Extent of damage unknown!"

"SHINJI!" - Misato has never felt so helpless. Their only hope was soundly defeated seconds within its deployment.

Among the yells of damage reports, techno-babble and a whole lot of unnecessary reminders of how urgent the situation was, by some miracle, Shinji's voice was heard. He sounded meek and was obviously loosing conscience.

"... I'm sorry... Z..."

And with that they lost all communication with the Eva.

And then it came. A sound, unlike anything they ever heard before, tore through the night - a defiant roar, signalling a seemingly universal challenge to whoever was worthy.

"There's something approaching at tremendous speed! Dear God..." - Maya could not help but actually turn to the main screens - "It's here!"

Sachiel has foolishly ignored the challenge - for it was meant for him. Before he could finish off his target, something smashed into his side, sending him flying a good distance off.

While the angel laboriously got to his feet, the crew back at Nerv got a look at the new challenger in all his - or better, its - full glory: a 55 metre tall dinosaur-like creature with a roughly rectangular head - complete with a very thick lower jaw -, long powerful arms, its back lined with two rows of dorsal spikes - the largest were on its shoulder, and each were around the size of its head - all the way to its long, whip-like tail.

As Sachiel was finally facing it, the creature roared again, before charging the angel. Without a moment's hesitation, Sachiel raised one of his arms and shot a spike towards his attacker. With nimbleness belying its huge bulk, the creature dodged to the side and not a moment later, sunk its teeth into Sachiel's arm, crushing it and managing to all but pull it out of its socket.

While seemingly surprised, Sachiel recovered quickly, grabbing the creature's head with his remaining hand. Immediately letting go, the creature twisted out of the angel's grip and... this is where things got even weirder. Something like an electric charge dashed up through the creature's spikes and, after a brief, yet bright, flash of its yellow eyes, it let out an enormous green jet of flame. More shocking still, the flame all but vaporized Satchiels other arm. Taking advantage of its enemy's hesitation, the creature spun and tripped the angel with its tail, jumping on top of him without hesitation. Either by instinct, or by luck, it went straight for his core.

Knowing that his time was up, the angel did the only thing he could: destroy hiss enemy at any cost. But before he could do such a thing, that same green flame went straight through his core. He still exploded, but it was more an explosion of rapidly disintegrating body parts than the holocaust he intended to create.

With its job done, the creature turned towards the Eva. It approached the downed giant cautiously, sniffing it once close. After what seemed like a close examination, it turned its head upward, delivered one last roar - this one announcing its victory - and fled into the night.

Now

Shinji woke up with a start, all but jumping out of his bed. After a quick, but thorough check he was satisfied that he was alright. Sore, tired, confused, yes, but alright. Laying back, he breathed slowly, clearing his mind, and letting the events of the evening come back to him. And what he remembered made him smile.

"Thanks, Z" - he murmured, before letting sleep envelop him once more.