Attention: This story contains references to the Gundam Wing- Episode Zero manga!
A brown-haired, lithe figure made its way across the empty train station. He glanced at his watch. Two minutes until his train arrived. He quickened his step and reached the platform just as the train pulled up. He entered, and the car was empty except for one figure, slumped comfortably in a seat near the back, sporting sunglasses and staring absently out of the window. As he came closer, he noticed what had appeared to be a girl was actually a boy, with a waist-long chestnut-colored braid.
He took a seat across from this character, and as the train lurched away from the station, the stranger just seemed to notice him, and turned away from the window. He was wearing the same school uniform as him, and holding the same duffel bag. He pulled off his shades and smiled, and blinked his blue eyes.
"Hey!" The braid-boy reached across the aisle, extending his hand, and gave him a nod. "My name's Duo. How are you?"
The boy silently shook his hand and sat back in his seat.
"How about a name?" Duo asked.
The boy glanced at his neighbor's identical duffel bag, and noticed a brown envelope stuffed in the outer pocket with a bright red half-maple leaf symbol stamped on it. He glanced back up.
"Heero Yuy."
Shinji Ikari shifted nervously, staring at the lighted numbers on the train timetable. Train 1056 from Narita had just arrived at the platform. On it carried the rumored 5th to 10th children, Eva pilots. Five of them!
. Shinji's guardian stood next to him, a tall dark-purple haired lady, Major Misato Katsuragi of NERV. She was genuinely excited.
"Wow! Five new children! They're all boys, you know. I wonder what they're like! I wonder if they're really as good as they say!"
Of course they were, Shinji thought. He had seen the 6th Eva as it finished its construction here in Japan. It was a production model, an all-battle machine, with more access to weapons. The other four had been made in different parts of the world, like Asuka's had been made in Germany. They were from America, France, Saudi Arabia and China.
"Here, take a look at their files." Misato tossed a pile of papers to Shinji, who gasped and fumbled to keep them from slipping away. He got the mess of files under control and looked at the first profile. A stern, serious face stared back at him. He looked at the name: Heero Yuy. Then he glanced up.
The five passengers had gotten off the train and stood in a line on the platform. Shinji compared each of their faces to their names: Duo Maxwell, Quatre Winner, Trowa Barton and Wufei Chang.
They silently stepped forward, dug into their identical officially issued NERV packages and presented their identity tags.
"Pleased to meet you all." Misato smiled. "This is Shinji, the Third Child." She declared. Shinji could only manage a weak nod. She continued,
"HQ has arranged for your own quarters. I'll direct you to the resident sector of Tokyo-3. Briefing and testing is tomorrow at 0600. I'll see you there!" Shinji watched the five serious boys march past him and didn't feel any less nervous.
* * *
"Hel-looo children!" Asuka greeted the five new recruits the next morning at the entrance of NERV headquarters, obviously sizing them up. Shinji sighed and stepped out of the way. He knew Asuka would try the best she could to ridicule him.
He turned his attention to Rei as she appeared from down the street. She took one glance at the new pilots, barely blinked, and continued on to HQ. Asuka raised an eyebrow at her past the curiously staring boys.
"Honestly, that was almost friendly for her."
Duo relaxed as the LCL filled up the entry plug. He held his breath as it came up over his head, then took a deep breath in, letting it saturate his lungs.
"Hope this stuff doesn't ruin my hair," He thought. Despite the weird taste, he got used to it quickly, and felt the powering-up sequence pulse all around him. He closed his eyes and focused on clearing his mind, nothing but emptying his mind and coming in synch with the world around him. Before he knew it, the synch test was over and the plug was draining. He opened his eyes and peered out at the other 4 plugs around him.
Next to come was the field test.
Misato protested against putting Heero inside Unit 00's configurated plug.
"What if he can't handle it?" She argued. Ritsuko Akagi replied calmly,
"His synch rate is extraordinary, and he's very stable and focused. I think he'll manage. And," she added, "It might be good to try them out in different plugs to see if they can maintain their ratios."
And that's how Duo ended up in Asuka's plug.
"What?!" Asuka had exclaimed in horror. "You're going to let a stranger inside my Eva?!"
"Only for the field test." Ritsuko sighed. "They won't be going anywhere." Asuka still fumed with rage as the American stepped inside her plug.
The holographic Tokyo-3 rose up in front of Heero's eyes. He stood over 8 stories off the ground but remained unfazed. He darted behind a building and proceeded to follow out his route.
Just then, the 3rd Angel attacked. It reached out an arm and fired a deadly blast in the Eva's direction, but he somersaulted out of the way. Heero ran to his weapons cage as it rose out of the ground. He grabbed his beam rifle and fired straight at the Angel's core. It staggered backwards, and the Eva was on top of it in an instant, firing over and over, until it exploded. Mission accomplished.
Duo knew there was a difference between this plug and the synch test plug. Just sitting in it made him sense the battles it had fought, in panic, in desperation, in triumph. He could feel this Eva held excellent control and power, but a fleeting sense of maturity and experience. He liked it.
He stalked the streets of Tokyo-3, keeping a wary eye out for signs of enemy. He heard a buzz above him and instinctively wielded his weapon- Unit 02's ax, and swung. It just missed a UN helicopter.
"Sending me just friendlys, huh?" He muttered, scolding himself for his mistake.
But he didn't have long to wait until the real enemy attacked. An image of the angel Sachiel appeared, and instantly began firing in his direction. He dodged haphazardly, wielded the ax again and jumped high in the air, then brought it down. He heard a mighty crunch, and sighed in relief.
Trowa was ready to tackle the Angel when it fired a blast that demolished a good-sized portion of the holographic Tokyo-3 in front of him. He began an impressive seeming retreat away from it, involving a series of backflips. The Angel remained there, partially confused, until he turned on it and, thanks to two barrels of guns, could fire a synchronized non-stop arsenal of bullets on it. It was wiped out before it knew it.
Misato watched pilot after pilot successfully defeat the simulated Angel, growing more and more impressed. The boys were better than they could have hoped. Their combat skills and military training were extraordinary- which meant their international counterparts really knew what the #$%^ they were doing, she sighed.
Heero's synch rate was the highest for the day, and Shinji's came in a close second, and then Quatre and Trowa's. Wufei's was only lower because he accidentally kept switching languages to himself. Duo's was equal to Asuka's.
Rei was not responsive to her 5 new co-workers. Asuka fumed at her ability to not react to something this upsetting. If she ever reacted to anything.
Now she surveyed the new pilots contemptuously. Sure, they were cute, but that dark brown-haired one creeped her out. The blond one was clearly a wuss. The tall boy with hair covering half his face stayed cold and silent, and the Chinese boy ignored her. And Braid-boy pissed her off. An American matching her rate on his first day here! She spat German curses all the way to the changing room.
* * *
"Stand up! Bow!" Hikari ordered.
The class was given a surprise as 5 handsome new boys were introduced. They were automatically made heroes. Piloting an Eva was just two steps away from Godhood. And being fabulously cute didn't hurt, either.
The middle school teacher was an old, bent man, indifferent to whether his students were listening or not. He droned on monotonously while staring out the window.
"The Second Impact was the worst event to happen in human history"
Heero stayed bent over his laptop, concentrating intently on something unknown. Duo later snuck a glance at the computer to see Heero had accessed the NERV terminal and was briefing himself on all the functions and codes.
"This guy takes his work wa-a-ay too seriously."
Shinji headed to the music room after school, not wanting face Asuka right away. Consumed with jealousy, she had attempted to intimidate the American pilot, but to no avail, as he matched her insult by insult. Then the 10th pilot had muttered something about a shrew and she had hit him with a deadly slap before he could react. Shinji smiled, remembering how her face had turned as red as her Eva as she screamed "Dumkopf!"
He took his cello out of its case and slowly played a melody he had often played before. It was peaceful and elegant, but with a twinge of regret and sorrow, the sadness of childhood memories, shut away.
He turned to the sound of a violin, quieting tuning up. The blond, Arabic pilot gave Shinji a friendly smile and remarked,
"I find classical music simply beautiful, don't you?"
Shinji stammered in response, blushing at the boy's friendliness. "Well... I guess... You don't get much time to practice... around here-"
He was distracted by the arrival of the tall, green-eyed pilot, and to their surprise, he silently put together a flute. He settled by the window and began to play. The other two shrugged, and joined in.
* * *
The phone beside her bed rang incessantly. Misato summoned strength to reach over and pick up.
"Hello?" She mumbled sleepily.
"Major Katsuragi! I need you at HQ immediately!" Ritsuko's sharp voice snapped urgently. When Ritsuko Akagi meant immediately, she did not kid around. Misato rolled out of bed and sprang to her feet, tugging on a skirt at the same time. Ritsuko's voice still called out from the phone on the floor.
"Contact the pilots and have them at the terminal, as soon as possible. Katsuragi, are you there?"
"On my way!" Misato yelled, fumbling with her shoes and hopping out the door, leaving Ritsuko shouting from the phone.
* * *
"Blood Type: Blue. Angel confirmed." Maya brought up the Angel's image on the monitor.
Misato stared, gaping at this horrific sight. This angel stood on two legs, over twice as high as any Eva, advancing towards Tokyo-3 with a slow, ponderous pace. Its appendages were long and spindly, a huge knobby hand or foot on the end of each one. Its head was enormous, with 2 large receptors sticking out of the top of it. Out of its face underneath sinister, shining eyes, protruded a bulbous nose with a black shiny knob at the end, and underneath that, a hideously grinning mouth. It walked with its arms swinging wildly, leveling mountains and hills as easily as sand piles. It had a long, thin tail coming out of its back, which it waved around like a whip. And it was garishly colored, its face flesh-colored, its lower torso a bright red with two yellow spots on it.
"What is it?" Misato stammered, growing pale.
"Its name is Michimaus." Ritsuko grimaced. "It's knows exactly where NERV headquarters are located and it will arrive us in less than an hour at the pace it's taking. We must dispatch the Evas immediately."
Misato looked worried. "Who will we send?"
Ritsuko looked at the advancing, grinning scepter of pure evil. "In this kind of situation, it seems all the Evas could be necessary."
Misato gasped. "With new pilots that just arrived? Are you sure?"
Ritsuko did not answer. She turned away.
"Prepare Units 01 through 10's systems for pilots immediately!"
"Pilots have taken position within entry plug!"
"Get in your own Eva, braid-boy!" Asuka hopped inside her entry plug. She would show them who was the real pilot here! Duo fumbled with his plug suit. He had specifically requested black, the same color as his Eva. He took his place in the cockpit and squirmed inside his tightened suit. The thing could really give you a killer wedgie! Heero had looked positively comfortable in his. Its color was dark green. Quatre's was mostly light blue, and Trowa's mostly red. Wufei's was white and red. The colors corresponded with their Evas.
"Okay, here's the game plan!" Misato bellowed over the intercom. "Units 01 and 02 will launch first and intercept the Angel! They will spread their A.T. fields and restrain the Angel! We will dispatch additional Evas as needed! Now, move out!"
"Inserting entry plug!"
"Initiating first level interface!"
"Flooding entry plug!"
Quatre clutched his chest. There was that smell again.
"Releasing lock bolts!"
"Transporting Evas to launch elevator!"
"Seven launch paths all green!"
"Roger." Misato answered. She looked at the seven windows on the viewscreen, seven stern faces. She hesitated. Just then, Duo gave a wink at his screen and a thumbs-up. She smiled.
"Eva LAUNCH!"
Units 01 and 02 shot up to the surface. There was a wild, excited yell from Unit 02 as she launched. The Evas came out of openings in the solid ground, and forcefully halted at the end of the launch tracks. Both were now faced with the Angel.
Shinji's Eva stood directly in front of it, acting as the primary gunner. He now raised his rifle and prepared to destroy it as soon as possible.
"Let's get this over with now!" He shouted. But before he could fire, 2 red lasers shot from the Angel's eyes and struck him full on. He flew backwards and skidded along the ground.
"Oh no!" Misato gasped. "Damage report!"
"Minimal damage to chest armor." Maya reported. "Don't let the beam stay concentrated on you for too long!"
Asuka found this out the hard way. She stepped forward as Shinji was thrown away and raised her knife, screaming a war cry.
"DIE!" She brought it down on the creature's face, but at the last second, one of its arms shot out and grabbed hers. Shinji watched, and winced at painful memories of the first angel he had battled. It would twist her arm and then grab her head with the other arm, firing blast after blast until it blasted clear through the cranium.
But it lifted Eva 02 right off the ground and shot its beam straight into her chest. She screamed, the white-hot beam burrowing and sizzling through her armor.
"Three plates of armor passed through!" Ritsuko yelled. "Get out of there!"
Shinji rose up and ran forward and tackled the Angel, spinning its head all the way around with a gruesome cracking sound. It righted itself and threw both Eva 01 and 02 into a cliff, then proceeded on its way.
"Angel has suffered no visible damage!" Maya yelled in alarm. Misato gaped. But they had seen its head twist all the way around!
"Dispatch Evas 06 through 10! NOW!"
The last 5 Evas rocketed to the surface in sequence. They had been placed to appear in a grid pattern on the surface, surrounding the Angel. It stopped in its tracks.
"Evas, attack at will!" Misato yelled.
It was just the order they had been waiting to hear. The Eva 06 and 09 commenced firing straight at the Angel, while Evas 08 and 10 hacked away with blades and spear. Eva 07 had its own personally designed weapon: a scythe with an impressive thermal energy blade, but nothing could make a dent in the Angel!
Every bullet that hit, every slice they made, landed without a mark on the fearsome creature. As they withdrew in shock, the Angel's arm shot out again and grabbed Quatre's Eva. It crushed him in an iron grip and slowly began to bring the Eva to its mouth.
Quatre screamed. The other 4 Evas immediately leapt onto the Angel in order to bring it down, but it knocked them away with one swipe of its arm. Wufei finally rushed forward, and with a surge of energy, drove his spear clear through the center of the Angel's body. It staggered, dropped Quatre, and sagged, impaled on the spear. But it rose again, roaring, and swiping at everything in sight. Quatre's Eva went flying, and Wufei's was caught by a blow from the Angel's fist. Both of their umbilical cables were severed.
The battery power countdown flashed on the terminal viewscreen.
"Force ejection of Unit 07 and 10's plugs!" Misato shouted.
The two plugs shot out of their Evas and spewed LCL. The pilots were alive, but how would they be retrieved?
Meanwhile, the Angel had slowly pulled the whole length of the spear out of its body and thrown it away. How can it be possible? Misato's mind raced. There wasn't a scratch on it. What if they were dealing with a super-fast regenerating monster, an unimaginable healing speed. Did they even have a chance?
Quatre slumped, gasping, in his cockpit. The only thing he could do now was get out of the plug and make a run for it. He forced open his plug as well as he could, then attempted to squeeze out. He managed to get an arm through, peered out- and his mouth dropped open in silent horror.
He was looking straight at the Angel. But not the seemingly indestructible Angel that shrugged off bullets and blades without a scratch- this one was hideously injured. Bullet-riddled, deep gashes and lacerations, and blue blood gushing out of it. Its head dangled limply to one side- its neck was broken- and one ear was missing. But still it continued, marching forward, the 3 remaining Evas gazing upon it in terror.
Quatre sat back inside his cockpit and yelled into the communicator.
"Miss Katsuragi! Major Katsuragi!" Misato answered,
"Quatre, are you all right?"
"Never mind that!" He shouted. "Take a look at the Angel!"
"Despite all the assault, it hasn't suffered one bit of damage." She choked.
They couldn't see the Angel's injuries. How could they not see it and he could? Then he realized.
"Look at it with your own eyes!"
"What?!"
"Don't look at it through the monitors, look at it with your own eyes!"
His voice was so urgent, Misato snapped to attention.
"Excuse me a moment." She left the control terminal and took an elevator to the surface. She was in a small armored observation dome overlooking the city. She looked at the Angel.
"HOLY MOTHER!!!"
She went back down the elevator and sprinted to the control terminal. She grabbed the microphone.
"Listen up you guys!" She yelled at the 3 remaining windows on her screen. "Keep pummeling that Angel! Don't stop! It's suffering more damage than you think!"
The three gave her incredulous looks, but did as she told them.
"What do you mean by that?" Ritsuko demanded. "The Angel doesn't have a mark on it! The sensors aren't even picking up signs of its damage!"
"See for yourself." Misato pointed to the elevator. The Angel had now begun to sway and stagger, although showing no signs of injury on the monitor.
Ritsuko went and returned from the elevator, pale-faced.
"Bring it down!" She ordered. Duo's Eva dodged a swing from the Angel and swung his scythe at its legs. It fell over like a ton of bricks, and suddenly, the spell was broken.
All who were watching were seeing the real Angel, its real form, covered with blood, bashed and battered. Just as suddenly as the veil lifted, it dropped again, making them see a full and unharmed vision of the Angel.
Ritsuko quickly instigated a request to the NERV supercomputers, the Magi. She brought up a description of the Angel's type and ability.
"What it's doing is spreading a kind of deceptive virus that's changing its appearance and physical status on our electronic monitors. So it really is suffering more damage than we can see."
"I knew it!" Quatre had been listening it. Ritsuko continued.
"This deception ability is called" She paused. "Sensiring."
Sensiring. The ability to trick its opponents and cloud them from reality. [writer's note: like the American TV companies!! WAI!! ^_^] Misato shivered.
The Angel was now down for the count, the Evas taking turns punching and kicking it. Still its legs kept marching and marching, futilely attempting to continue.
"Also," Ritsuko added, "It has one sole program- to reach Tokyo-3. Nothing else. It keeps going, no matter what."
"Let's put it out of its misery." Misato muttered. "But wait! Where is its core located?"
Quatre took a look out of his plug again, trying not to retch at the sight of the grotesquely twisted Angel, its stumps still waving frantically in the air, forever on its endless march. There was an open gash on its nose, revealing a glowing red core.
"It's in its nose!" He cried.
"If you can call it a nose." Misato grinned. "You heard him!"
The three remaining Evas rammed their fists into the Angel's nose as hard as they could, and the unharmed Angel again disappeared from their sight and they saw it for how it really was. As its core glow intensified, the Angel finally seemed to realize the trouble it was in. Its eyes widened in shock, its mouth opened to emit a piercing shriek. The core exploded, light emitting from the creature's eyes and mouth, and capturing 5 Evas in the immense blast.
"NO!!!" The entire viewscreen was consumed with blinding light. Misato struggled to see the pilots.
"HEERODUOQUATRETROWAWUFEI!!!" She screamed in sequence. The explosion ended with a single shooting spark that sprang in the air and fizzled like a firework. And all she could see was charred landscape and a vast cloud of smoke.
* * *
Duo was playing in the sunshine with his friends, outside of the Maxwell church. The bright-faced boy sitting across from him leapt up and pointed to the sky.
"Look! A shooting star!"
"That's impossible, Solo." Duo replied. "There are never shooting stars in the daytime."
"Then let this be the first one." Solo returned. Duo followed his point to a dazzling ball of light in the sky. His wonderment was taken over with growing fear and apprehension.
"That's no star!" He yelled, just as the sky lit up with the light of a thousand suns. Then he saw the church falling, falling in slow motion. The steeple fell over him, trapping him underneath. Then all he could do was listen to the frightening noise of hell breaking loose all around him.
He finally emerged, pushing away the last stone, once part of the church wall, out of his way. He crawled out from underneath his small prison and stared all around him. He could no longer recognize anything. There was no more church, no more buildings, no more people anywhere. But then he looked down to his left and saw Solo. He looked to the right and saw Sister Helen.
He threw his head back and screamed.
"Nataku" was what she had called herself. And he had only agreed to call her it seconds before her death. The blast with the force of the heavens splitting open had engulfed them while they stood there, in that beautiful grassy meadow in the valley. She threw himself over him, threw him to the ground. A massive wind took them clear off the ground and then flung them back to earth again, skidding, rolling to a stop. He recovered, slowly, and prepared to scold her for her foolishness. But her chest was heaving and she had a deep gash in her forehead. She reached out to him
"No! Nataku! I have not proved myself worthy of being your husband!!!"
She closed her eyes
"Quel est ton nom?"
The small boy stayed silent and still.
"Repondez la question. Quel est ton nom?"
"J'ai aucun nom."
"Ah bien, venez avec nous, Aucunom."
* * *
Quatre opened his eyes to nothingness. He was floating in a pure white void. There was no more Eva, no more suit, no more Tokyo-3. He sighed and shook his head. Here he was, dead already. He saw a door of light appear in front of him. He reached towards it.
And a form reached back, its arms outstretched. Hair flowing, glory and purity shining out of its face like a star. It embraced him, received him
And he was thrown back into his plug, back into reality, back to life, just as he had begun to mouth the word.
"mother?"
Duo lifted his eyes up to someone calling his name. He was still sitting inside Eva. He looked outside and saw a small bright-faced boy, waving wildly and grinning. Duo cried,
"Is it?" The boy jumped, waving, calling out something Duo could not hear.
"Wait there!" He yelled. "Wait!" He scrambled to climb out of the entry plug.
And then the boy was gone. And Duo awoke to see the LCL draining away.
"Dispatching retrieval units! Contacting emergency crews!"
All 7 pilots and Evas were recovered, suffering repairable damage and minor injury, though life-signs had been shaky for a few minutes after the explosion.
"Are you sure you still want to pilot after this?" Misato asked each pilot gently. She knew now it was foolish to force someone to do something like this.
But she got a definite "yes" from all of them.
Heero had suffered the least damage of all of them. He had held up to the massive explosion with barely a headache.
Quatre knew he had been protected by something, someone. It had given him back his life.
Wufei touched the side of his plug, as if remembering the presence of someone who had been there, and left without a word.
Duo was excited, and mildly shaken. He had seen Solo.
And Trowa had said nothing, but pored over the memory of what had happened inside his plug after the explosion. A vision of a girl with curly brown hair and bright blue eyes, that had coaxed him back to life.
* * *
Wow, that was really dumb. Absolutely NO character development (too many to keep track of, y'know), flimsy storyline and bad writing still, you got to admit that was the COOLEST angel (Bwah hahaha!)
I love the idea of Evil Mickey shooting lasers from his eyes. It's just hilarious.
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