NEON BABYLON EVANGELION by Andres D Lapadula V

AUTORS NOTE: This is a work of fanfiction. The characters Babylon 5 belong to J. Michael Strakzinsky, and the Evangelions to Gainax. However the story line, dialogue, and opinions are mine. If you want to copy this or post it on you homepage please let me know and be sure to put my name on it.

CHAPTER II Midnight on the secret front.

The roaring sound of the engines seemed to disappear as the Learjet 35D came to a stop on a far runway in New Seattle's Boeing Field King International Inside Major Misato Katsuragi held a pile of neatly ordered papers with the STRDA logo on the back. It has been eight hours since the Shuttles disappearance, and the lost of the crew. Of course the UN didn't care about the lives of the people who died. "Sometimes people think that lives actually mean something in a situation like this." Besides her Marcus spoke his voice calm. "What?!" "Never mind that. What is important is the support of the organization." He said. Misato crossed her arms. This guy sounded like a jerk. Most men did but he was particularly annoying. She kept her words in check. Who the hell did he worked for anyway. The Commander had told her not to ask and that was a direct order. "So, just, what is this organization about? I know that they are supposed to have the most advanced technology.." She said finally. " A great part of their technology is unknown to the rest of the world. They have the means to achieve any number of goals, technologically speaking of course." Misato shook her head "I just hope this contact of the Commanders is as good as he claims 'cause I don't have the authority to make them do anything."

The holographic screen on the front part of the White Star came to life with the ghostly image of what had once been some sort of space shuttle. Now that was left was an empty carcass of metal. The camera zoomed closer on the debris. As John Sheridan looked at his aide. "Apparently the high energy pulse we felt must have been some explosion." Anla'shok Lennier said. "Didn't the scanner picked up something else. Maybe another ship." Sheridan said still looking at the image. The camera had stopped at one of the pieces of metal which were still attached to main fuselage. The metal was scratched and burned on the outside. "No, must of the equipment is still off line. All we could get was the explosion." Answered Zack Allan. "But this is odd." "You noticed too." Sheridan said pointing at the image. "The edges on the metal are melted. For something to do that it requires a lot of concentrated heat. An explosion would burn for less than a few seconds before running out of air, not enough time for the metal to melt." Zack took a deep breath he had seen this kind of damage before. On many ships, and the only thing that could burn metal like this was a Cutter Bean, the kind of weapons used in Shadow vessels.

The door on the front part of the plane opened, letting the cabin air leak into the atmosphere outside. Misato picked the small backpack she'd brought along and saw that Marcus was already standing at the door. She hurried up to stood with in on the top of the stair that extended from the plane to the floor. She looked down and saw two men standing at the foot of the stair with a large limousine . The one on the right was tall, white hair, maybe on his late fifties. The other one was a black man, considerably younger. Marcus looked at her and made a gesture with his hands. "Women first." Misato walked down the stairs, which were soaking wet, she also notice that the entire runway was wet and that the air was hot and thick with humidity. Once she got to the bottom the old man gave her a military salute. "Major Katsuragi, I presume." He said politely " I'm Commander Jeffrey Sinclair and this me XO, Lieutenant James Sisko from USAF." Misato returned the salute. "Pleased to meet you Commander. This is my companion..." Even before she could finish that statement Sinclair cut her off. "Marcus Cole. Long time no see." He made a slight gesture with his head. Marcus nodded back. Sinclair continued "This way if you please." Sinclair lead them into the limousine. "Why didn't you said you knew him?" Misato whispered to Marcus "You didn't asked." They climbed on board the car. Misato noticed that the seats were covered with leather flame retarding material, and she was pretty sure this was an armored vehicle, quite expensive. Sinclair and his XO sat in the forward couch while Misato and Marcus sat on the rear. "So tell me Major, is there any reason why the committee should worry about your visit." Sinclair started leaning forward. "You already know why we are here Commander Sinclair." Misato said. "Yes. Because you want our support for a mission to outer space with our technology. I must say that with all you people have accomplished you should be able to do this by yourselves." "NERV is not getting involved, and the UN has failed and lost their only remaining shuttle, so we have no options." Actually NERV could manage to get into orbit. They re-activate the Evas, but who was going to pilot them, further more the Evas as well as the pilots had become incredibly unstable, Kaoru had died in Unit 02, Asuka couldn't fly anymore, and Shinji , it was a miracle he was still alive at all. Maybe if you could get a pilot for Unit 05 but that was out of the question. "Very well." Sinclair leaned back. "I will talk to my people and se what I can do. However you must understand that all information given to you is confidential. We spend big buck to keep our names out of the papers and we wont tolerate a security leak."

The light was beautiful, comforting, it felt nice in the middle of nowhere. It challenged the darkness, the nothingness. She was floating in space . It was so quiet, calm. Then the light began reaching for her, until she felt in going through her body and into her head, her brain, and she heard the words. "Who are you?" It was not a voice, it was as if someone had whispered into her mind. "What do you want?" "Why are you here?" Then the light surrounded her. The black space turned white. The voice came back again, but now it was different. It sounded calm, heavenly, it said. "We have no choice in been what we are. But we can Choose who we want to be." The light disappeared and she opened her eyes. She saw she was sitting back in Unit 02, on the entry plug. On the malignant beast that was the Eva. She looked up through the window and saw the beam of light coming for her. The Angle rose in the distance like the Phoenix. It was coming for her!! "NO!!!" Asuka sat up on her bed, her breathing coming in short gasps of air. It took her a moment to calm down. She was on her room. Safe. Yet for some reason she felt scared. Scared like shit. "It was a dream." She told herself "Nothing but a dream."

"Come on gimme a break 'kay." Major Misato Katsuragi stared down the glass of the fifth shot of Whisky Soure. "You've been following me for hours. Whats'cher problem." "You are drunk." Marcus said sitting besides her on one of the few bars in the entire City of New Seattle. What time was it now? One, two in the morning. The City itself was not much to look at. Most of it was buried under the water of the river that had once passed through the city. There was still the Airport and the military base and that was about it. Marcus remembered what had happened here, 4 millions died on the Y2K. "Not yet, I still haven't passed out once." She said turning to the bar tender. "Another one." "I think you've had enough." He said grabbing the glass from her hands. "I need you to stay at least sober enough for you to know that's going on." Now he saw why they had chosen her. They could get her to do anything in exchange for a can of beer. That would have to change. "Jerk. Why can't you leave me alone?" He ignored her. "I mean here you are, hanging around like you know me, but I don't know a thing about you. Why don't you just tell me want do you want from me ." "Soon you'll know." Marcus said, looking around the bar as if expecting something to happen. Surely enough he saw it. Standing at the end of the bar were two men, dressed in expensive suits, wearing sun glasses even tough it was dark. Damn things didn't even try to look normal. He saw the one on the right reach for something inside the coat. Marcus turned to Misato, who was still complaining about him being a SOB. He shook her shoulder casually. "Do you have your gun?" He said "Yes." "You see does guys over that the other corned from the tables?" "Yes. What's going on?" "When I say down drop to the floor and aim for the one on the left." Misato turned and noticed that one of the men pulled something that looked like a piece of shining metal. Marcus shouted at her and pushed her to the floor. The man fired, but it saw not a bullet. It was a bolt of light which went right pass her head and smashed into the wall behind the bar. Shattered glasses flew through the air, people began screaming. Everything seemed to go on slow notion. She took out her gun, a Browning 9mm semi automatic, and fired. Marcus saw the lead bullet piercing the mans head, sending and arch of blood through the air. He grabbed his own PPG and shot the second man in the head. Even before the body fell to the floor more of the suited men entered the nearly empty room. He pulled Misato by the shirt and told her to cover behind the bar, which was made out of metal and would protect them from the attackers. She did. He aimed for the man on the lead, fired and jumped over the bar. Hot plasma smashed the glass on the other side of the bar, the bottles exploded, liquor and shattered crystals rained over Marcus and Misato as they struggled to cover from the debris. After a few seconds the shooting stopped. Marcus looked up. One of the men was standing right there. He pointed his PPG at Marcus, who slapped the gun aside. It fired but missed. He grabbed the man but the neck and slammed him on the opposing wall. Another man jumped over the bar and tackled him, on his midriff . The man brought him down, pulled a PPG. Marcus turned just in time to see the mans head blown to pieces by a 9mm bullet. Blood splashed down on him like a dreadful red rain. Taking himself from under the body he nodded at Misato. This girl had teeth after all. "Thank you." "No problem." A third man jumped forward. This time he was picked off in mid air by a bolt of plasma from Marcus PPG. "Cover me." He said to Misato while taking a small metallic cylinder from a pocket. Misato reached up, fired three bullets, two hit their target. Marcus pressed the thumb size button. The lights of the device became alive and made a low beep. "Get out ." Marcus said pointing at a door on the far side of the bar It took Misato a while to figure what was going on. The she knew it was a shock bomb, made out of C-7 low class plastic explosive. "You are nuts." She shouted tightening her grip on he gun. "Maybe." He nodded. Misato stood up and ran to the door, firing 9mm rounds as she went. Marcus trailed after her. He noticed that the place had emptied, good, less innocents killed. The men still at the main entrance fired at them, barely missing by inches. They made it to the exit and jumped through it. Marcus launched the cylinder to the entrance. As soon as he made it, he clicked the close button. The explosion rocked the entire building with a loud blast. Misato covered her head with her hands and hoped that it wouldn't end this way. She really didn't wanted to die just yet. In just a few seconds the sound died down. Marcus picked himself up from the ground like a fallen stone, he was calm as he looked at her. "You OK." He said, his ears still ringing from the detonation. "What the hell is going on?!" He ignored her question. "That wont stop them." "What?!!" Misato couldn't believe this, who were this guys. They had just been bombed and they wouldn't stop. Shit. "You have to get out of here." Marcus turned to the door. Damn no lock. "I'll hold them here." "No fucking way." As she said this her eyes met his and she recognize that he was serious. Marcus was going to sacrifice himself to save her. Why? "Yes way." He said grabbing something else from his coat. This time it wasn't a grenade, it was some sort of jewel, a dark blue crystal framed in gold. "This is important." He had no time for this, of course he didn't expected her to understand. But she couldn't die here. He was expendable, She was important. Marcus shoved the jewel into Misato's pocket . It was his medallion, the one they had given him when he became an Anla'shok. "Keep it." She understood, this was his job. Misato nodded. Picking her gun she ran for the nearest exit. There was a wooden door on the far side of the room she opened it. With the gun in her hand she checked the sides of what seemed to be an alley on the back of the building. It was still raining. Misato lowered the gun and ran for the end of the alley, as she did she heard explosions coming from the inside. She tried not to look back. He knew what had happened. As she ran she couldn' avoid felling that some how this was her fault. Yep another person how knew her had died, again. "Rest in peace, Marcus." She told herself as the alley ended and she was made it to the far side of the building. Rain began pouring more heavily splashing on her head and shoulders. "Damn Bastards."

Brushing brown hair from his eyes, Shinji Ikari stared through the keblar windows into the space below. He recognized the familiar shape of the Evangelion, differenced only in the color. This had to be someone's idea of a joke. "White, orange and Teal? On this thing? What the hell were they thinking." The answer came from the other side of the room. Shinji turned and looked at the fake blonde. "Yep. They commissioned the paint job to someone from Florida. If you ask me I'd rather silver and black." Dr. Ritsuko Akagi said from one of the consoles in the empty control room, typing keys at a computer terminal. Shinjins eyes narrowed. "Shouldn't they be more concerned about what to do with the damn things instead of decorating them for a Superbowl." "Beats me." She said, standing from the console, she grabbed her cup of coffee and shouted to one of technicians. "Are the connections on-line?" The answer came from another one of the consoles. Shinji could not she the owner, but he recognized the voice as Hyougas. "Yes, 1 to 56 and 78 to 108. Have power." Shinji turned away from the room and once again stared at the huge pit below. The Eva had the LCL fluid up to its neck, It looked odd. So similar to his Unit 01 yet so different. He noticed something on the catwalk in front of the head. He looked harder and made out the shape of a man. A man he had never seen before. The turned his head and Shinji saw his eyes. At that time some where in the back of his mind he hear a sharp, screeching sound filled with hate, pain, emotions he couldn't describe. "Who's that? Don't remember seen him before?" He heard Dr. Akagi saying. He hasn't noticed she had walked up to where he was standing, but he paid no attention to her. Unconsciously he lifted his hand and pressed his fingers against the glass. It was stronger now, the sound. Then it stoped. Silence.

The screen read: ENTER PASWORD In green letters at the top left corner. Jeffrey Sinclair typed his own personal access code. A345098'32$#"%&&/$#GHT.JC.COM.V The words disappeared and the screen began to form a logo. He pressed enter. The screen changed again. ACCESS PRIME SECURITY PROTOCOL. SYSTEMS STATUS. MAIN SUB SYSTEMS ADVANCED UTILITY ORG. (RESTRICTED USE ONLY) Sinclair pressed the fourth one and was taken to another screen. RESTRICTED ACCES. TYPE CLASS A CLEARANCE. He did. The screen faded and changed. The green letters changed and became different icons. "I knew you were hiding something, you bastard." Sinclair heard a voice from behind him and turned. He recognized the blue haired woman almost at once. She was holding a gun to his head, 9mm military standard. "Major Katsuragi, wha...?" He started was cut short by her. "Shut up!!" Misato frowned. "I'm the one who wants some answers." Sinclair shrugged. "Sorry, I wont give you information that would jeopardize the mission." "That was not a request." She tightened on the trigger. "You either tell me what the hell's going on or I'll blow your fucking head off!!" There was no doubt in his mind that she was desperate enough to shoot him, she definitely would, but he couldn't give information until they said so. "You don't have to do this. They need you and you will need them, but.." "You know, I'm a nice gal. A real peoples person. Yet I can't stand jerks like you. who think they are gods and that the can screw the human race just for fun." She tuned her aim, a bullet right there would've gone straight through his head. Suddenly she heard something from a few feet away from Sinclar, as she turned she saw something coming forward from the shadows. Her eyes went wide as she stared at the thing. It was not human. The thing had a long rectangular head with a orange diode in the middle of the front part. It wore some suit or armor and a long robe which covered the rest of the thing. Misato felt something coming from it. "I wont hurt you." It said, almost as if sensing her fear. "Drop your weapon." She couldn't refuse it. Slowly Misato opened her hand and the gun fell to the floor with neat metallic sound. Who, What, could be this thing? Was it human? No. She felt the answer reach out to her. She could feel it. Sinclair rested his hand on her shoulders, she hadn't even notice the old man walking up to her. She was to busy staring at the thing. Sinclair whispered something in her hear. Misato missed it so he shook her shoulder. She look away from the thing into his eyes. Sinclair spoke. "They are called Vorlons." "Vorlons." She repeated almost instantly, as if by reflex. The word bounced on her mind, it carried such a sense of loss, hatred, power. "Kosh." The thing said.