Disclaimer: Of course, I own nothing.
Author Notes: Hi, guys. I'm Gentle08. I've had this idea picking at my brain for over eight years and finally sat down, plotted some details out and here we are. The beginning of something new. Well, not new new. This is a concept that has been done before but I wanted to put my own spin on it and practice my writing skills.
I hope I manage to entertain you, dear reader. Please, do consider leaving a review behind. I could use some constructive criticism as it has been a long time since I've written and posted anything online.
Amazing Fantasy Issue #01
The Ikari Incident
A daughter gripped the straps of her bag as she walked alongside her father. She kept her expression neutral but her insides were coiled tightly in an icy grip. She was late. Terribly late. What would the others say about her? How badly would her teachers punish her?
'You alright, kiddo?' her father asked with a knowing glint in his eye.
She nodded first, but then shook her head. Somehow he could always tell what she was feeling.
'It's alright. I cleared it all up with the principal. Can't be helped if the car broke down.'
'You just have fun at your outing, alright?' He said with a warm smile.
Rei didn't say anything because the edges of her mouth said it all. Curling ever so slightly upwards.
'It's a pretty interesting place, that WILLE. Got a lot of sciency whatsits and gizmos. Don't go playing with anything dangerous, okay?'
'I wouldn't.' Rei said softly.
'I know you wouldn't.'
They stopped outside the foreboding gates that led to the WILLE Research Institute. Her father turned to her.
'Well, I'll be off.' He said, when a security guard opened the gates.
Rei looked up at her dad and hugged him quickly.
'Goodbye Rei,' he said gently as they parted.
Rei was led inside the huge building in front and sent up the elevator. The whole place teemed with incredible science but none of it really interested the teenage girl. Real science was boring, she thought to herself.
The guard leading her opened a door to a darkened room and beckoned her inside. In she stepped and felt a dozen eyes fall on her. She shrunk back and found a corner to hide in.
A doctor lady was talking in front. She spoke about radiation and mutations, something about gene splicing. She went on and on and Rei's mind wandered.
There were a lot of creepy things inside the glass boxes. Mostly insects scuttling around that glowed dimly in the dark. The lady was saying it was all to learn more about genetic manipulation.
Did the insects know they were different? If they found others who were supposed to be like them would they feel isolated? She felt oddly sad at the thought.
She came back to reality when she felt something on her chest. A hand. It squeezed her momentarily before snapping back as if it had been stung.
'I'm sorry!'
Somebody stumbled backwards and there was an echo of cracking glass. The voice yelped and the lights buzzed to life.
It was Ikari, Shinji Ikari. A shy boy in her class who now had his hand inside one of the cases.
'Remember when I said don't mess about when the lights are off?' the doctor lady snapped.
Shinji's hand was bleeding. He'd cut it on the glass.
'Ah! Ow, that stings.' He groaned.
Shinji was leaning against the table. He looked like he was about to faint.
Rei watched in mild curiosity as some WILLE personal hurried over to Shinji. She noticed one of the spiders scurrying away from Shinji's bloodied hand and instinctively shivered.
Back at school the others made fun of Shinji's incident and the boy tried his best to disappear into his desk. His arm was bandaged and he still looked rather pale. Rei watched him during class. Even his friends, Touji and Kensuke, would mention the Ikari incident and laugh.
Shinji found her at the end of the day and was red in the face.
'Is there something you need, Ikari-kun?'
'Um, s-sorry about today. I really wasn't trying to do anything. Honest! It was just an accident.'
'You said so already.' His words puzzled Rei. She looked at his bandaged hand. 'You should be more concerned with your own wellbeing.'
'Maybe I should work on my coordination.' He said with a laugh.
'That would benefit you.' Rei said.
This seemed to amuse Shinji somehow and he relaxed.
'I didn't know you had a sense of humour.'
Rei frowned. 'I was being serious.'
Shinji gave her that look she was all too familiar with. The confusion others had whenever she spoke. He would look away for moment and then exit the conversation.
He did exactly that.
'So, I'll see you tomorrow, I guess.' He started for the school gates. 'Bye Ayanami.'
Rei watched him leave in silence.
'Goodbye.'
Rei heard her mother enter her room and she heard the exasperated sigh. She cracked her eye open and sat up. Her manga tumbled to the floor from the foot of her bed. Her mother sighed again.
'Rei, you need to keep your room clean. How can you find anything in this mess?'
The young girl looked at the floor. Perhaps her mother had a point. It was hard to walk without stepping on yesterday's clothes or a book…or her camera.
Oh no.
Her mother left as Rei stepped over to the little device. She turned it on and everything seemed fine until she looked at the display. Something was off. It was all blurred. She'd left it on her bed and let it get broken. She hadn't meant to break it. She just wanted to look at some old pictures. Now it might not be able to make new ones.
Breakfast was silent in the Ayanami household. Rei and her mother only exchanged goodbyes. As the young girl was about to step though, she felt her mother's hand on her shoulder.
'Rei, you can't leave with your hair like that.'
She waited as her mother brushed it for her. She didn't complain nor sought to argue.
'There, now you're looking your best.' Her mother said with a warm smile.
'Thank you.' Rei said giving a weak smile back. She stepped outside and heard voices. It was a woman and a young boy she recognised from school. Shinji Ikari. She hadn't really interacted with him since the Ikari Incident, and that was months ago.
The elevator doors closed and took them down. Rei followed, knowing she had to take the train to school.
After school, Shinji found himself standing on the edge of a skyscraper in the middle of Tokyo-3. Some days he'd wake up in a sweat, some cold terror having gripped him in the night. He could never remember what happened in these dreams but he was always left feeling as if…being awake was the dream. Like reality was the dream.
Shinji looked over the edge and clenched his fists. His heart thundered in his ears and part of him begged him not to do it. His throat ran dry and his palms began to sweat under the gloves.
Shinji ignored the gnawing dread, stepped over the edge and fell.
The world seemed to slow down. Air filled his lungs slowly and he savoured each breath. He was free. Unburdened by the aches of reality and the pain in his heart. He wished he could fall like this forever. Truly free.
He opened his eyes and caught his reflection zipping down with him. A sharp dose of reality.
Red.
Blue.
Green.
He liked the suit, feeling a swell of pride with his handiwork. Red over blue with green lenses for the eyes, three smaller ones surrounded each eye to give it that spidery look. What he was most proud of were the devices strapped to his wrists. Which was the main reason he was falling right now. Shinji righted himself and aimed with one hand. Two fingers curled to tap the pressure pad on his palm twice.
Sssss-
Whirr-
Click-
Thwip!
In all honesty, he knew it worked. He had tested it extensively at home, discovering its tensile strength and its range. This was the final test. Would his months of research, messy accidents and awkward conversations prove fruitful or would he instead go splat?
No, this dive was not to discover an end but to begin something. Something that felt important and worthwhile. A thin strand of incredible thread launched from the device on wrist and latched itself to the building and from there, and he swung.
The rush from the momentum, of being so dangerously close death, Shinji could not describe it. Never in his life had he ever imagined he would be doing this.
He kept going for a dozen blocks before stopping on a billboard to rest up. On the street people were walking and taking no notice of him. They stepped into their cars or hailed taxis and were on their way home. Shinji played with the thought of heading to his home but he wanted to spend a little more time field testing his web-shooters.
Seems to be working great. Though, I'll need to make a bunch of batches at time. I'm using up a lot of fluid. I should add a belt to the suit to hold more.
Had people looked up they might have marveled at the sight of Tokyo-3's latest tourist attraction. The Amazing Spider-Man they called him. A local weirdo who was often seen climbing up and down the city and occasionally punching muggers. Now with webs he could move a lot faster through the city and keep a better eye on all the goings on.
It was a good thing he'd decided to hang around the billboard because he heard a chilling sound down below.
He couldn't pick out the words with all the noise from cars and the hustle and bustle of the city but it was panicked. Shinji leapt from the billboard and zipped his way across to the other side of the street.
A woman in her twenties was moving about frantically. She was distraught, stopping passers-by and asking them questions.
'My car! Did anyone see it? Please, it's a little Nissan-'
Shinji felt a weight in his chest. He was right here! He must have missed it. The weight grew heavier when he heard her next words.
'My little girl was still inside. Miku! Miku!'
Shinji leapt down to the astonishment of the pedestrians. He had to tap the distraught mother to get her attention.
'Sorry, miss. What type of car?'
'It's a blue Nissan-' she described the rest of the car in detail, shakily. She was in such a state she wasn't questioning Shinji's choice of clothing, or maybe she recognised him from the web. 'Please, my little girl is still inside.'
'I'll find it.' He announced and launched himself skyward.
He swung around the area, keeping an eye on the streets. The lady had said she hadn't stopped for more than ten minutes. Traffic was heavy so whoever took the car wouldn't have got very far.
There!
He'd found it or at least he had found a little blue Nissan. Waiting at a red light. Shinji let go of his webline and dropped onto the bonnet. The shock rippled through his arms and legs but didn't bother him much. The car now had some light dins though.
The driver, a young delinquent looking guy, shared a look of surprise with his partner and then both turned to look at the weirdo on the bonnet.
'Is this your car?' Shinji asked.
'Yeah.' The driver said slowly.
Whoops.
'Oh. Sorry.'
Man, where could the car have gone.
Shinji was just about leave when-
'Help me! They're stealing mama's car!' A voice from the backseat, the girl!
The driver slammed his foot onto the accelerator while the passenger whipped out a gun. The lights had turned green and everything went to hell.
Gunshots rang in the street causing chaos. Cars either screeched to a halt or roared to get away.
The Nissan sped through the traffic, its windshield now possessing several air holes and its bonnet free of hitchhikers.
'The hell did that creep go!?' the passenger asked the driver.
'I'm driving!' he snapped.
The passenger stuck his head outside the car. The weirdo had jumped off right before he'd pulled the trigger. Almost like he knew about the gun before he'd pulled it out. He had the gun ready in his left hand, hanging out the car in case the weirdo came back.
Something moved on the roof.
'I think he's-'
Thwip! Thwip!
His hand was stuck to the side of the door by some substance.
'He's up there! I'm stuck!'
The driver swore suddenly. Not about the guy on the roof but about the wall separating the road from the river that was coming closer quickly.
The girl in the back screamed and so did the carjackers. They were about to go through the palisades, off the cliff and into the river. The guy fumbled with his foot to hit the brake but didn't find it in time. The car hit a speed bump of all things and was off its wheels.
Shinji was still on the roof when the car had flipped. If he didn't do something now he'd be crushed and the car would still take a dip in the river. That sensation of slow motion hit him again. He had to move now!
Don't panic! Don't panic! Don't panic!
His feet found the concrete slates of the pavement and his hands clung to the car roof. For an instant, the car seemed weightless and a thought sprung to mind. Just how fast can I move? Very suddenly the car became the heaviest thing Shinji had ever held above his head and he asked a second question. Am I strong enough for this!?
Shinji roared as his muscles strained against the force. His thin frame hid the strength that he now possessed but even that was stretched by this feat.
It took Shinji a moment to realise the car was still in his grasp, held aloft by his hands. A terrified man clung for dear life to the doorframe with one hand, his other hand webbed to the door. The car was still revving but it was going nowhere. The wheels eventually stopped spinning and Shinji set it back down.
He walked to the backdoor and opened it, quickly webbing the driver's hands to the steering wheel, and found a crying little girl. She was coughing, choked by her seatbelt and frightened by the car flipping.
'My arm hurts.' She cried. She was scratched up and bruised but alive.
'Sorry,' Shinji said gently, reaching out for her. She shrank away, frightened. 'Don't worry, your mom asked me to find you. I just want you to get back to her.'
He didn't know if his words had reached her or if she just wanted out of the car, but after he'd undone the seatbelt, she moved towards him. He helped her out and she clung round his neck.
He set her down on the sidewalk and rubbed his aching arms. The girl was staring at the symbol on his chest. She looked up at his eyes and started to smile, like she was looking up at some superhero. It made Shinji blush under his mask. It didn't seem right having someone look at him like that, but it felt good.
It didn't take long for the area to fill with police and ambulances. Once the little girl was safely tended to Shinji took that moment to leave.
From his spot in the sky he saw the mother rushing over to her little girl and a smile played on his lips.
Shinji changed a block away from his home and walked the rest of the way. It was well into the afternoon when he stepped inside the apartment that he called home.
'Hello.' He announced as he slipped off his shoes.
He winced. It hurt to bend down. The price of learning he could lift a car above his head.
I can lift 1 ton…maybe more.
Shinji mulled over this realisation as he walked into the living room. He stopped thinking when he saw who was sitting at the table. He was expecting his guardian, Misato Katsuragi, the kind but teasing woman with striking beauty. The only other person who might be sitting with her would be Doctor Ritsuko Akagi, WILLE's current owner and genius scientist (often regarded as the best in the country). There was one other person but it was not the good doctor who constantly reminded Shinji to be careful.
Misato sat at one end of the table, reclining on the chair in her evening attire and drinking a soda. On the other end sitting straight up and almost demurely was Rei Ayanami.
They'd barely spoken at school since the Ikari Incident. Why was she here?
Rei greeted him first.
'Hello, Ikari-kun.'
'Why hello, Shinji-kun.' Misato said with devilish glint in her eye.
'Um, h-hello, Ayanami-san.'
'So, Rei here tells me you spend all your time at school with your buddies but none with any of the girls in class. Even our new neighbour here.'
Shinji's fingers twitched.
'That's correct. Ikari-kun is very quiet in class though jovial with his friends. He used to be quite diligent but recently has been daydreaming.'
'Are you spying on me, Ayanami?' Shinji was going red. What was this? An interrogation?
'No. Katsuragi-'
'Misato.' The older woman interrupted.
'M-Misato-san,' Rei corrected with difficulty, 'simply asked a question. She seemed concerned with your well-being.'
'Aw, isn't it sweet Shinji-kun? One of your classmates is keeping an eye on you.' Misato turned to Rei. 'Just make sure he's decent to you. I couldn't bear it if my little Shin-chan turned out to be some sort of delinquent.'
The teenage boy scowled. She was one to talk, in her cut-off jeans and skimpy top. He kept his mouth shut only because a classmate was present.
'Ikari-kun has always been a gentleman.' Rei said. She tapped a finger on her chin, a thought crossing her mind.
Shinji balked. No, no, no, no!
'Though he did touch my breast once.' The girl added.
Misato snorted soda out of her nose and coughed.
Shinji wished his web shooters hadn't worked so didn't have to live through this part.
Misato looked at him for an explanation. She waited patiently and appeared calm. It was a lie.
'It was an accident! It was at WILLE when Ritsuko was showing us the glowing spiders and stuff! The lights were off and I just needed to go to the bathroom and couldn't find the door so I reached out with my hand and um…'
'It was an accident. Ikari apologised many times.'
'Hm, and here I thought I taught you better.' Misato said with what little dignity remained. Her shirt was soaked. 'I really did my best to teach him how to treat a lady.'
'Maybe if there was an actual lady it would have rubbed off better.' Shinji grumbled.
Misato stuck up her nose dramatically. 'Rei, feel free to snap his fingers one by one if he does that again.'
Rei blinked, turning to look at Shinji who had folded his arms in annoyance and looked back at the older woman.
'Misato-san. You really should wear a bra, it is inappropriate to be without underwear when in company.'
Misato finished her soda and threw the can into the bin and got up.
'Well, I'll go fix that.'
She left the two teenagers in an ocean of awkwardness.
Rei spoke up first.
'Ikari-kun, you are good at fixing things, correct?'
'It depends on the thing.' He mumbled. Still miffed at Misato's attempts to embarrass him.
Rei collected something from her bag and held out a digital camera.
'Could you fix this for me?'
Shinji took it gingerly and examined it. A digital camera which looked well cared for, but a nasty scuff on the side was telling of some recent damage.
'My father gave it to me.' Rei said quietly.
Shinji looked at the delicate face of Rei Ayanami and felt a weight on his heart. He knew her dad had passed away some time ago. This was obviously something special to her.
'I'll do my best.'
He went to his room to set the camera on his desk and put his bag down. He didn't realise Rei had followed him until he turned around.
She was looking around his room, her curious red eyes drinking every detail in.
'There are strange marks on your ceiling.' She pointed up at old handprints he'd made last month. They were smudged, thank god, but noticeable to anyone who'd look up.
'Oh, yeah. I've been meaning to clean that.' Shinji said checking around his room to make sure nothing incriminating was lying out.
Rei stepped over to his desk and picked up something. Shinji froze. What had she found?
'Who is this?' She held out the photo for him and he relaxed.
'That's my mom and me.'
'Is Katsuragi-san not your mother?'
Shinji laughed. 'No, she's my guardian. More like an annoying older sister really.' His expression softened. 'My mom died a long time ago.'
'My father died this year.' Rei had said this in her usual neutral tone but he could hear a hint of sadness in her voice.
Shinji looked away.
'Yeah, I heard.'
He wanted to say something to make her feel better but every thought just seemed hollow.
'I'll pay you for fixing the camera.' Rei began but Shinji held a hand up.
'It's fine. Don't worry about it.'
Rei frowned. 'But, I have to pay you. You are doing work for me.'
'I'm doing it for free.'
She shifted on her feet clearly unhappy with that explanation.
'I'll bring it to school when it's done.'
'Very well.' Rei said finally.
After saying goodbye to Ayanami, Shinji stumbled back to his room fell back onto his bed and groaned. Everything hurt. Was this what being Spider-Man would be like? He was helping people, that was the main thing, he told himself. Any pain to him was less pain to others.
He went over to his desk and put the headphones of his S-DAT player on. Shinji set about opening the camera and finding out what was wrong.
As he worked he thought about the little girl in the car. The way she'd looked up at him and smiled. An odd thought popped into his mind, strange and fleeting but it stuck around. He hoped he could make Ayanami smile like that.
