A/N - I swear this is better than my last fanfic, which I removed from FF.net and left on my site. This one details the events of two men in the Intelligence Division, and their encounters with various people in the NERV complex. Later chapters will include other technicians such as Shigeru, Makato, and others. I do not own any of the characters in this Fanfic, with exception of Mervyn Long, Captain Stefan Findlay, and Lieutenant Patrick Anderson. Enjoy the story!
Chapter One: Introduction
A twenty-three year old man looked into a small black notebook. He read aloud to the others that were standing around him.
"You know, of all the things I've seen in my life, this is by far the strangest. Of course, now I'm getting ahead of myself. My name is Mervyn, and I'm addicted to Everquest. Well, so are all my friends, but that's not the point. Anyway, when I'm not working, I'm online playing Everquest. Even when I'm working, I'm THINKING about playing Everquest. At least I can admit that I have a problem. Casey, on the other hand, will swear up and down that he isn't addicted. He's the one with the real problem.
Okay, so, where was I? Oh yes, that strange thing. Believe me, it is STRANGE. You'd think after all the books I've read, the movies I've seen, the TV specials, I'd be ready for this. Not hardly. This is something beyond the boundaries of the human imagination. This is something nobody has ever seen before, except maybe in Japanese animation.
Imagine something so large it can hold a fully-grown human in the palm of its hand (think about holding the cap of a ball point pen.) Something so powerful it can simply look at a building and it explodes. And something so sinister that its intent is to completely eliminate the human race. They call them Angels.
I don't know why they were given the title of 'Angels,' because angels were supposed to help out, right? I mean, if they are going to be called something, call them 'Demons.' Oh well, it isn't like I have a say in the matter. I'm just a lowly janitor in this complex. But I know things. I've seen things."
"Sir," the reader paused "I think we should take care of this matter immediately. He could pose a thr---"
An older man stopped the reader. "He doesn't know anything. Let him do as he pleases."
"But what if he goes public with our secrets?"
A man sitting behind a desk spoke up. "He won't. Because he won't be able to talk to anyone from his jail cell." His folded hands covered his mouth, but the expression on the rest of his face said that he was totally serious. "Burn the book, and throw him into a cell. Make sure he's…" the man paused. "comfortable. You are dismissed, Captain Findlay."
"YES SIR!" The first man saluted and headed out the door, carrying the notebook under his arm. He headed down the hallway and glanced down at his watch. "Oh, it's break time." Captain Findlay made a right turn down another corridor, stopping at a set of double doors.
"Oh great," he groaned. "The sensor on the door is broken again. You'd think that they could maintain the equipment in this facility a little better." He leaned up and pressed a button, forcing the doors to slide open.
As he entered the break room, he noticed a familiar young woman drinking a can of tea. The door closed behind him as he approached where she was sitting. He set the notebook down on the table in front of the chair beside her, causing her to look up at him.
"Oh, hello Captain Findlay. It's been some time now hasn't it?" she asked politely, a slight smile crossing her lips.
"Maya, you know that you can call me Stefan, I hate that 'Captain' junk." He replied, smiling back. "And yes, it has been a while. How have you been?"
"Oh, you know how it is. All I ever do is work. Doctor Akagi has me pulling double and even triple shifts. Sometimes I wonder if it's really worth the trouble. Do you remember the last Angel attack?"
"Yeah, that was almost a week ago."
"We're STILL sorting through all the data that we collected. That core sample we collected is still being analyzed. It's decaying rapidly, however. What did they name that one anyway?"
"I think they called it Shamusial. But of course, we just call it the 4th, don't we?"
"Yeah, but I kind of like using the real names, even if it's simpler to use the number system."
"I suppose. I don't really care either way."
The watch on the girl's wrist beeped at her.
"Oh man, I have to get back to work." She stood up, extending a hand down at the young Captain. "It was good to see you again, Stefan. Maybe if you call me sometime, we could talk some more."
"Yeah, sure." He took her hand and gave it a light shake, smiling. "You're listed in the personnel directory, right?"
"Yes, I am." She withdrew her hand and headed out the door, which was suddenly working again. She had left her empty tea can sitting on the table, a small condensation ring collected on the bottom. Stefan looked at it, picking it up and aiming at the recycling can.
"Then again…I never have had much luck with women…" He took his shot and made it, as the can collided with the others inside. "Unlike my luck with other things." He looked down at the notebook, wondering who the person who wrote it really was. He shook his head. "It's none of my business, and I have to do my job."
He stood up, noting that it was time to get back to work. He picked up the notebook and headed out the door. He turned down the corridor toward his office. He looked up at a faded, dirty sign that said plainly: "NERV Intelligence Division." He walked in as the doors slid open on their own.
He moved over to his desk, laying the notebook down and sitting in his leather chair. Picking up the phone, he pressed a single button, which connected him to another part of NERV.
"Yes, security?" he asked, speaking into the handset. "This is Captain Stefan Findlay of Intelligence Division. Commander Ikari has ordered that the janitor named Mervyn Long be removed from his post, and placed into a holding cell immediately. According to his schedule, he should be on level eight, floor seventeen. Thank you for your cooperation."
He promptly replaced the handset, sighing heavily. The deed was done. Another one of the low class employees had been thrown into jail because they knew too much. This was the one part of being in ID that he loathed. He hated having to put someone away for this. But it had all been routine. It seemed like every day someone was punished for "knowing too much."
He picked up the notebook and placed it into a small bin. He closed the lid and stepped on the pedal beside the machine. A loud whooshing sound was heard as the chamber was filled with flames, incinerating the notebook instantly. The released the pedal, which opened a small door inside the machine, disposing of the ashes. He turned back to his desk, opening another file, looking it over.
Many hours later, the man finally returned to his apartment. He closed and locked the door behind him, removed his shoes, and headed for the bedroom. He looked at the digital clock beside his bed, noticing the time.
"It's midnight, too late to call Maya" He said to himself. "Oh well, I suppose it wouldn't have done any good, I would have blown my chances anyway. Oh well, there's always tomorrow." He removed his clothes down to his undergarments, the flopped onto his bed. The futons weren't so bad, he had slept on the floor back in America as well. Everything here in Japan was so different to him, especially in Tokyo-3.
He put on his headphones and turned on the music, something a bit strange for a man his age. He didn't really care, it didn't matter to him. He closed his eyes and soon fell asleep.
Part Two: At Least it Pays Well
A red sports car zoomed down a deserted two lane road. The young man inside cheered and whooped loudly.
"WOO HOO!!" he shouted, stepping on the gas harder. The car roared loudly, the overpowered engine accelerating with ease. He took the long, swooping curves with ease as his car reached speeds well over the allowed limit. Not like there were any cops on this road, it was a restricted zone. A zone that only NERV personnel could occupy. So, of course, Lieutenant Anderson chose to take advantage of the situation and race his car along the road.
What he didn't count on however, was another sports car, a blue convertible, following him, actually keeping pace behind him. He glanced in his rearview mirror just in time to see it dive off to the side. He looked in his left sideview mirror, seeing the car charge up beside him.
"Ahhh, somebody wants to race." He checked the convertible over, seeing that the bumper was actually TAPED on. "Man, this is going to be a walk in the park." He pressed the gas pedal all the way to the floor, shifting the transmission into high gear. The two vehicles raced down the road at top speed, engines whining as they topped out. The Lieutenant looked down at his speedometer, which bounced at the bottom of the meter, well over the last number. "Over 140 miles an hour, impressive."
The older female in the other car grinned slightly, glancing over at the red vehicle. She began to laugh as she slammed her car into a final gear, speeding ahead of the young man.
"No WAY!" he commented, easing up on the pedal so the engine could relax a little. At the end of the roadway, both cars entered the gate and approached the metal wall that stood between them and the elevator. The blue convertible went in first, and the elevator shifted left and down, allowing the red car to drive in. The door closed, and the elevator sent the cars downward.
Once on the lower level, both cars drove around the parking garage and found two empty spaces, side by side. Lieutenant Anderson was the first to climb out.
"Oh man, what kind of car is that!?" he exclaimed, closing his door and waiting for the other driver to exit their vehicle.
"Actually," Captain Misato Katsuragi said as she climbed out of her car. "It's an older model, made a few years after Second Impact. Do you like it?"
The young man's eyes widened as he realized she outranked him, and he quickly straightened up and saluted. "Yes Sir! Your vehicle has qualities that obviously excel those of mine!"
"Relax" she said, chuckling to herself. "Just because we're in the Geofront doesn't mean we're on duty. You must be new here, all of the new people think everything applies everywhere."
The Lieutenant relaxed slightly, dropping the salute. "Oh. Well, yes I am new, I just arrived last week. I've been assigned to Intelligence Division, under the command of Captain Findlay. Um, since we're informal, could you pop the hood? Please?"
She smirked. "I guess being inquisitive is a good quality for someone in Intelligence. You've got two minutes." She leaned down and pulled the hood release switch, then shut the door.
The younger man walked around to the hood, reached under and unlatched it, then lifted it up to reveal the engine. His face paled slightly as his eyes grew wide with wonder at the sight of the powerhouse behind the convertible.
"Impressive, isn't it?"
"Thirty-two valve V-8 engine with a turbo charger, fuel injection, and ram air! Oh my GOD! This is the greatest engine I have ever seen! It's absolutely incredible!"
"Thanks" she said, chuckling slightly. "Are you into cars?"
"You'd better believe I am! Oh man!"
"You're two minutes are up, Lieutenant."
The man reluctantly lowered the hood and closed it gently. "I guess I'll see you around then, Captain…"
"Katsuragi" she finished. "Captain Misato Katsuragi, Defense Division."
"Right." He extended a hand toward her. "Lieutenant Patrick Anderson, Intelligence Division. A pleasure to meet you."
"Believe me" she answered, taking his hand and giving it a firm shake. "The pleasure was all mine." She grinned, and released his hand. She turned and headed for the elevator. "Next time, we're racing for cash." She entered the elevator and pressed the button for her level, closing the doors and leaving the Lieutenant standing in the parking garage, somewhat awestruck.
"She's cute" he remarked, scratching his chin. "I wonder if she has a boyfriend?" A grin poked at the side of his mouth as he headed toward a second elevator. "She's got a cute butt." He snickered, then walked into the elevator and pressed a button, heading for his floor.
Captain Findlay was sitting at his desk, apparently waiting for the Lieutenant to show. When he heard footsteps in the hall, he stood up and waited for the owner of them to enter his office.
Lieutenant Anderson entered the room and approached the desk. He assumed the position of attention and saluted his superior.
"Sir! Lieutenant Patrick Anderson reporting as ordered sir!"
The Captain returned the salute. "At ease" he said, sitting back down. The Lieutenant moved toward his desk, sitting down in front of a massive stack of papers.
"I've only been here a week and already the workload seems like more than I can bear. Is it always like this sir?"
"As far as I know it is. Ever since the Angels returned, I've had a pile of reports to sift through. It seems that Defense Division gets them first, then they pass them along to me. It's mostly complaints, but some of the reports have pertinent data. That's our job, you know. We get to sift through all the stuff and pick out the important stuff. We also have to keep tabs on the pilots, as to their activities, grades in school, synch ratios. And let us not forget that we get to help with the defragmentation of the MAGI computer system. That's a lot of fun, if you're a computer geek."
"Great. Well, I'll bet you're glad they transferred me here from the second American branch, hmm?"
"Right. I'd say it's good to have another American I can relate to here. Apparently you can speak Japanese fairly well."
"Yes, I learned it in high school. It was offered as an elective. I got my advanced Japanese in college. It's funny, as soon as I got out of college I got this letter from the second branch, saying they need people of my caliber in the Intelligence Division. I guess good grades really do pay off in the end. So I'm there for about a year, then I get transferred here. It's a good thing I didn't have a relationship going, otherwise I'd be pretty homesick right now."
"I remember when I was transferred here. They say the old Intelligence really used to drag its backside, if you know what I mean. I'm hoping to turn this place around. But with the rest of the staff either showing up late or not at all, it's going to be hard."
"Well, we won't get anywhere if we don't get working" the subordinate stated as he started to look through his pile of paperwork.
"No kidding. Let me know if you find anything, we have to put it into the MAGI as soon as we come across anything" the Captain said as he started sifting through his own pile of files.
"Yes, sir" the Lieutenant replied, opening the first file.
Meanwhile, above them in the testing box, Doctor Ritsuko Akagi was preparing for the reactivation of Unit-00. "Well, this is going to be quite interesting" she said, turning to her old friend.
"Yeah" Captain Katsuragi replied. "But do you think Rei can handle it?"
"We'll just have to see." The doctor turned away from the glass, heading toward one of the monitoring stations behind her. "It seems that everything is in order, and the test will begin as scheduled."
"Finally we'll be able to do something ON TIME. It's been almost a month since we were on schedule."
"Tell me about it. The MAGI are due for a defrag, but we just simply haven't had the time! With all these Angel attacks, I don't think we'll ever get around to it."
"I'm sure we'll get a break soon. How long does it take to update the MAGI, anyway?"
"Anywhere from a few days to three weeks."
"Well, we'd better pray for that break, huh?"
"Yep."
Meanwhile, far from Japan in the deep reaches of space, a large figure headed towards the Earth. It was shaped like a massive grain of salt, a shimmering blue in color. It made a noise that sounded like a choir girl hitting a shortened high note as it slowly entered the atmosphere of the large blue planet.
A DAY LATER…
Two men stood in front of the diamond-shaped Angel's carcass, the blonde looking angry and the black haired man seeming very passive.
"Well this is just fan-fucking-tastic!" Lieutenant Anderson exclaimed. "Now we have more shit to do! Damnit! More shit to sort through!"
"Relax Lieutenant" stated Captain Findlay. "It's not that bad, after they start dismantling it, all we have to do is read the files and get the data. It's that simple. Nothing more."
"But still, now we're going to have to pull more shifts to get our jobs done."
"At least we get overtime pay."
"Good point."
"Be thankful we're not in Defensive Division. They're the ones with the high stress jobs. All we have to do is gather information, they're the ones who have to fight these big ugly creatures."
"Again" he sighed, calming down. "You have a good point. Sometimes I wish I had never taken that ID job in America."
"At least the officer pay is good."
"Ain't THAT the truth."
"Well, let's get to work."
Anderson just grumbled, then stormed off towards a nearby tent. Captain Findlay followed him, removing the laptop case from his shoulder. When they were inside, he unzipped the case and pulled out a laptop, setting it up on the table. He inserted various plugs, one for power, one to link to the instruments that would record their data, and one for the cellular link to the underground base.
A large truck with a massive ladder puled up to the tent, the driver honking to try and get someone's attention. The Lieutenant spun around and approached the drivers side. The driver rolled his window down, leaning out to speak with the officer.
"Where do you want me to park this thing?" he asked.
"Park it on the north side of the Angel, so it's lined up with that massive hole through the middle."
"Sure thing."
The driver backed up, then headed toward the giant carcass. Anderson headed back for the tent, standing beside Captain Findlay.
"Sir, the portable ladder is here, should I get the team ready to begin the sample extraction."
The other officer looked at him, a few beads of sweat forming on his forehead from the midday heat. "Yes Anderson, and make sure that they know what they're doing this time. The analyzers chewed my ass off last time because they contaminated the DNA. I don't want some dumb fool forgetting to wear his gloves again."
"Yes sir!" the Lieutenant saluted and left. He walked toward a small group of about ten men, who were laughing and joking around. He picked up a megaphone and pointed it towards the men.
"Okay, we're ready to begin collecting samples now. Make sure everyone is wearing the proper gear. The ladder truck is parked on the north side of the Angel. We're going to start by collecting samples from the core. You will enter the core through the wound in the center. Let's remember that we're dealing with an alien species here, and we don't want any of the samples contaminated like last time. Let's go!"
Anderson walked toward the fallen giant, followed by the group of workers. The ladder on the truck had been extended so that it reached up to the giant tunnel created by the positron rifle. He pulled a pair of latex gloves from his pocket and slipped them on, then climbed up the side of the truck to the ladder. He slowly made his way up the extended ladder, making his way up to the hole.
The men followed after him, all of them carrying large containers for the samples. Once at the top, Anderson entered the cavern, testing the soft innards of the massive creature with his toe. Seeing it was fairly firm, he made his way in. He turned on his flashlight, searching around for anything. He signaled back to one of the men that were following him.
The man walked up, and opened the jar he was carrying. Anderson pulled a metal cylinder from his belt clip, and pressed a button which activated a medical laser. After cutting away a relatively large chunk of the angel, he gently placed it into the jar. The worker closed the lid and walked away, towards the exit.
After a few hours, all of the men had returned their jars to the main tent, and left for NERV HQ. Anderson however, had remained inside the dead beast, still studying it. He spoke into his microphone that connected him to the main tent.
"Captain Findlay, are you seeing all of this?"
"Yes, it's like nothing we've ever seen before" The Captain responded over his radio, looking at the laptop display which connected the camera that Lieutenant Anderson wore on his helmet. "It seems as though it has no separate organs, it's just a massive heap of tissue."
"Right, but maybe when we dismantle it from the top down, we might find something. What do you think? Should we call it a night and leave the rest to the Disposal Division?"
"Yeah, why don't you come on back. We'll go to dinner. Maybe you could bring your girlfriend along."
"Ha ha. Well, if I have to bring someone, you have to bring that girl from Computer Systems. Sound fair?"
The Captain chuckled. "Yeah, sure."
"Great, I'll be back in a few minutes."
"Roger, Findlay out."
"Anderson out." The man started for the exit. Suddenly, his foot slipped on the slimy innards of the Angel, sending him sliding downward. Panicking, he grabbed for his knife. Just as he was about to fall into the street below, he jabbed it into the wet wall, stopping his decent abruptly. He sighed with relief, placing his feet on the ladder. Slowly, he leaned forward and began his descent down the ladder. Once at the bottom, he walked back to the tent. Captain Findlay turned and looked at him.
"What happened to you? Did you fall into a puddle of angel goop?" he asked with a chuckle.
"Very funny, sir. Actually, I slipped on the way down."
"Not to smart Lieutenant, you should be more careful." He closed the laptop and placed it back into its case. "Come on, let's get back to HQ and get you cleaned up. Come to think of it, I should probably change too, this constant heat make you sweat pretty heavily."
"No kidding."
Both men started back toward their NERV jeep, Findlay climbing into the drivers seat, Anderson getting into the passenger seat. After fastening their seatbelts, the Captain started the vehicle and drove away, leaving the Disposal Division to do their job.
A/N - okay, now that you have read chapter one, please review it. I am considering continuing the story, but only if people want me to. Feel free to visit my web site, although it is fairly dull. Please do not use my characters without my permission. Thank you and have a nice morning/day/afternoon/evening/night.