Disclaimer: I do not own Area 88 or Evangelion.
Summary: Shinji Ikari had fled from being useless and unwanted. He was sleeping on the streets when he overheard two men talking. A boy his own age was fighting as a mercenary at an airbase in the Middle East. What did Shinji have to loss by signing up? He soon found himself being sent to the base. He was only 12 years old and now he would be a fighter pilot with on the job training.
"My Name is Shinji Kazama!"
Chapter
Zero: "Finding Wings to Fly"
Tokyo-2, Japan, Asia
Third Street and Sakura Way
Alley behind the Aslan Embassy
1345 hrs, Tokyo Standard Time
Shinji Ikari, age 12, was eating a burger and fries he had swiped daringly in the open day time in front of people at a drive through burger joint. He quickly polished off the drink he had also stolen with the food and began to wonder where he was going next. He was getting pretty skilled at staying alive on the streets. He was really enjoying his himself, being free and all, but he knew he was not happy at all. He had ran away from a good home because his guardian said he was a burden to his father and his father had replied that he had no use for the boy.
Shinji just sighed again, the feeling of victory at getting his lunch already going away. Then Fate decided to throw the boy a lucky curve ball. Whether Shinji took it or not was up to him and him alone, but Fate was determined to get the boy to follow a plan of action. Because Shinji would need this strength to live in three years time and to survive the trials that man was about to endure. He would also need very skilled allies and only one place held any who remained truly the best of the best.
Two guards had spotted Shinji, but a visitor saw something in the boy and had two of his men go and try to get the boy to join up with a special group. The two men stopped and looked left and right; they stood a scant meter from Shinji. Then they began to speak, giving the appearance that they were in need of a quiet place to talk. Shinji listened to every word they spoke.
"Well Ali, what of the boy?" asked the first man.
"Well Boris, he isn't very talented as a pilot, but he has his talents and has a degree of talent or he would have died long ago," said the second man Ali.
"To think he is only thirteen years old… Saki is against having anymore children at his base, but he has not the final say," Boris said.
"Yes, we've been instructed to get a few more children, like orphans and runaways who have nothing else. Though in all honesty, I agree with Saki on this one. Children need to learn how to live, not fight wars… Not like that NERV organization that intends to use them as pilots of those… those monsters!" Ali was disgusted.
"I hear that the leader of the project is a Japanese man by the name of Gendo Ikari," Shinji stiffened as Boris said that and listened to what else he had to say, "the man knows how dangerous those things are and already there have been several major incidents including his own wife's death! Where does a man like that get off being allowed to 'recruit'," Boris said it in a way that said conscript, "children! This is not Central or South America or Africa or South East Asia or the damn Balkans! This is Japan!"
"I know, you know, we all know, but he is getting away with it," Ali sighed and accidentally made eye contact with Shinji.
Shinji didn't run nor did he freeze, he stood up and said one sentence, "Does this Saki have a spare fighter and a bed?"
Ali and Boris looked at one another and both smiled secretly at each other. They turned to the boy and told him to follow them inside where he could become a fighter pilot. Shinji followed and soon he was on a plane to the Middle East, to a small airfield and from there a short helicopter flight to a base in the middle of nowhere, Area 88.
