Neon Genesis Evangelion: Unsettling Science
Chapter 1
Meet Shinji Ikari. He's a teenage boy, manipulated into becoming a child soldier by his own father, by the father ordering Shinji to pilot a massive armored robot. The device, Shinji was instructed to refer to as an 'Evangelion', whatever the hell that was he thought, was a tall but gangly and thin machine made in the image of man, with a few various accessories around, such as the tall pointy horn affixed to the helmet the machine monster wore, or the ludicrous purple paint job, a color Shinji never would have imagined a military weapon would be given. He was ordered to pilot it, a thing he had never even seen or heard of before. So he naturally refused. Upon that refusal, the father ordered another teenager to pilot it. A girl. She was brought out on a hospital bed and was covered in bandages from her legs all the way up to her left eye. Shinji heard his father's specific instructions to the girl:
"Rei, the Third will not perform its task. You will pilot Unit-01"
Shinji noticed that while his father addressed the girl, apparently 'Rei', he did not name his own son, or indeed even refer to him as a 'he'. His father referred to his son as 'it'.
The girl was somewhat surprised that another would disobey the Commander, after all, he was the Commander of this entire organization they occupied. Who would dare refuse him? She did not exhibit that surprise on her features however, she had been born and raised at that organization, and was raised to think and act at a level beyond rote 'emotion'. Said upbringing succeeded with flying colors, as not only did she not emote, she had been trained beyond human feelings. Through her internal surprise, she answered, - quietly and almost imperceptibly - "Yes."
At that moment, the reason Shinji was brought to the organization, a deep underground facility, titled NERV, in an artificial city in the nation of Japan, named Tokyo 3 by NERV, reminded all in the facility just why the organization was founded. A creature kilometers above on the surface of the earth, a creature of extraterrestrial origin, and that was taller with much greater mass than Unit-01, tore through the city above like one of Japan's bullet trains could tear through a sheet of wet towel paper. That in itself was an accomplishment to be feared, as the city itself was a weapon, even the business skyscrapers were armed and armored. Military missile sites scattered across rooftops and parking garages were bunkers for tanks and jet fighters.
None of that mattered to the creature, which shattered the earth below it with every step it took.
That latest step was the worst so far. It rocked down to NERV's underground base, and the fortress where Evangelion Unit-01 was waiting to be sent into battle felt the force of the creature's mighty stride. Concrete sections of the fortress ceiling broke loose, and crashed down onto the metal gangplank Shinji, his military handler, a dark-haired beauty of a woman who introduced herself to him as 'Misato', and the girl, Rei, were standing. Misato jumped to the side out of the way of one boulder, but Shinji froze like a deer, until his eyes spied another meteor crashing down to where the injured girl had been stopped.
His body moved before he could feel any more afraid than he already was. Before he knew what he even did, the boulder crashed down on the hospital bed, just a hair's width from where Shinji had landed after he leapt up, jumped over the bed and scooped the girl up and into his arms. They both would have been crushed into refuse had Shinji jumped a moment later.
The girl screamed. The harsh movement re-tore every wound already in her body. Shinji was no doctor, he was a damned child, but his heart felt some small comfort in that she was alive enough to feel pain.
At that moment, the father, safe above behind an armored window, spoke again, his voice thundered across the organization's fortress via the military paging system he spoke through.
"Shinji, if you do not act, She will. And if she acts, in her current health, she will fail. And if she fails, being killed by rubble would be mercy. The Angel will not show mercy to the rest of Mankind. Shinji, you will pilot Unit-01."
Shinji felt the cruel irony of the order. Why would the beast above, hell-bent on destroying him and apparently all of the human race, be called an 'Angel'.
Shinji nearly refused again, but he felt Rei try to move her broken body in his arms. She tried to stand, and failed, collapsing back into Shinji's hold.
Oh my God, he thought to himself, she really is going to die! Wh-Why me? WHY ME!
"FINE" He shouted, to his father, to Unit-01, to God, and to the 'Angel', "I'LL PILOT IT."
"FINE" He shouted, to his father, to Unit-01, to God, and to the 'Angel', "I'LL PILOT IT".
At least that's what he thought he shouted. He thought the whole situation might have been just a bad dream, until he did not wake up in his own bed. His eyes opened onto the ceiling of a hospital room, he was laying on a hospital bed, and he felt the godawful headache he woke up with.
If I'm here, am I dead, or did I actually do it? All I remember was getting in and then I woke up...Did I drown in that orange stuff inside it, or-
Two adult women walked in the room.
"You gave us a scare during the fight, Ikari. We watched you black out on screen." The blonde one told him.
"BUT OHMYGOD YOU DID IT SHINJI, THE ANGEL IS DEAD! YOU'RE A NATURAL AT IT TOO, YOU AND UNIT-01 KICKED ASS!" Misato ran to the side of his bead and crushed the boy in a hug-
"MISATO PLEASE" He cried out, "IT HURTS WHEN I MOVE, DON'T HUG ME!" She let go after the startling outburst.
The blonde Akagi scientist let Shinji know it was all in his head. "You took no serious injuries during combat, Shinji. You've already been discharged, so you can go with Misato."
"Uh, go home?" Shinji was relieved at the thought, until...
"Not exactly, Shinji. Our intelligence states that there are indeed more Angels that will attack. That means you're getting enrolled as a full time NERV pilot."
"WHAT!? NO, SERIOUSLY, NO."
Misato cut in. "You can say no, Shinji, but that doesn't change the fact that you're the only one who can do this stuff, we need you."
"What about...what was her name...Rei?"
"We need her for Unit-00." Ritsuko answered.
"But, but how am I the only one?"
"Because the Eva you were assigned to matches your personality. You have to be able to sync to it to pilot it. You wouldn't be able to use Unit-00."
"...how long do I have to stay here?"
"Frankly, until the Angels are driven back."
"So what do I do now?"
Misato spoke up. "That's where I come in! I'm gonna have you move in with me!"
"Wha-wha...What? I -I thought I'd be moving in with my dad when I came here."
"He lives here on the base, Shinji. Practically lives out of his office. I have my apartment in the city itself! You'll like it much better, hey when the Second Child gets deployed over here, I plan on moving her in with us too!"
"Who's that?"
"Oh, Asuka. She's from Germany, and she was the second kid after Rei to be matched to an Eva unit. They're finishing Unit-02 in Germany right now. When she gets deployed, she'll have the newest Eva yet."
"I thought I was the second kid to match an Eva?"
"Oh, they knew Asuka was going to be a pilot as soon as she was born, same as they did Rei." And unlike Rei, Asuka let that knowledge go to her head. "They just haven't finished Unit-02 yet."
Shinji walked into Misato's apartment, and immediately regretted doing so. The kitchen buried under an avalanche of dirty dishes and empty beer cans. And Yebisu beer for that matter! It's enough that she drinks, but she consumes that swill too!
The living room had Misato's civilian clothing strewn about, including her undergarments in disarray on the floor and furniture. Misato's unblemished face went fire red as she saw and scrambled over Shinji through the doorway in to begin scraping up what underwear she could to get it out of the boy's line of sight.
"UHH, JUST IGNORE THIS STUFF, WE'VE HAD TO SPEND SO MUCH TIME AT BASE RECENTLY I HAVEN'T BEEN ABLE TO CLEAN UP!"
The bras and panties weren't what got to Shinji. The mess was. "Misato, leaving this stuff out is a good way to get sick, a clean house is a healthy house."
Misato stopped and turned to him. "You're a health nut, Shinji?"
"I, uh, had to cook and clean where I was living when I was at my old school...so I kind of know how to do it."
Misato went starry eyed. She had someone, someone, to take care of the house for her! Shinji's a miracle boy!
Shinji learned that he was to be exactly that. He spent the next few days scraping, scrubbing, and polishing every stain, pile, spot and smudge in the house.
"Misato, what would your landlord say about all this stuff?" He asked while scrubbing a stain on the livingroom carpet.
"Oh, nothing. NERV owns the building. They own most of Tokyo-3."
"Why's that?"
"Because all of Tokyo-3 takes part in fighting the angels. The surface of the city is a big armor plate. The skyscrapers are all weapon bases."
"I mean, but why though? If the Angels attack anywhere else-"
"They're attacking Tokyo-3 because that's where the Evas are. Las Vegas and Berlin have just as many defenses now, because that's where the US is building their Evas and Unit-02 is in Germany, so if an Angel attacks them. They'll be just as defensed. We've even got a base up in Russia, but Unit-05 and its pilot are both kind of situational, they can't operate in the open, same as we can."
"What's Unit-05?"
"Another prototype, I think they're testing its ability to fight underground, so it has wheels, not legs, for instance. Their pilot is also not on the roster to be sent over here, so it's not anything I really look into."
"So, if there's a Unit-02, and a Unit-05, Where's 3 and 4?"
"Those are the American ones. They're production models like Asuka's is."
"What's 'Asuka' like?"
Misato thought for a minute. "Well, since she'll be living here soon, she's a lot like Rei in that she was born into this job. She trains hard, and studies hard. She's already a college graduate!"
"WHAT?"
"I don't know the details, so I don't know if it was a science degree, or history or literature or anything like that, but I know she already has it, so you're gonna have some catching up to do when she gets here, Shinji!"
"What about Rei?"
"Rei's really smart too, she just doesn't talk much. She's nice though. She was born in Tokyo-3, and she already has her own apartment. You'll see her at NERV, and at school when you start there."
And Shinji did start at school. He walked onto the school grounds only to be accosted by a tall teenager in a sports tracksuit.
"Hey, new kid, I know you're the one NERV brought in, just like that Ayanami weirdo."
Shinji froze. This guy was big. "I-uh- Listen, I didn't ask to come here, they brought me here!"
"Hey, Touji, I believe him" The tall one's companion said. "You know NERV just does whatever they want."
"I don't care!" He grabbed Shinji by his shirt. "You put my sister in the hospital!"
"WHAT? I'M SORR-" Shinji's jaw was damn near punched off his skull.
Shinji spat blood on the ground. "Wha-" he tried to groan out through the pain. "What did I do?"
Touji turned back to him. "Your giant robot freak crushed our house. You'd better be happy my sister's alive, because if she was dead, I'd return the favor."
"Bu-But-" Shinji tried to reply, but he was cut off.
"Touji Suzuhara. Assaulting NERV personnel is a felony, and you would be tried as a non-minor adult should your act be reported."
That was a girl's voice. Shinji looked up behind him; that Ayanami weirdo was standing behind him. Her uniform billowed in the wind, but her head and arms were still covered up in bandages.
"Ikari, report to NERV. We are being scrambled."
Wait. That means, oh God, I have to pilot it again.
It was indeed the next angel. Over the water of the Pacific, it's airborne gait slow but sure, it would devour its prey and then return to its mother the way the Other had failed.
It reached the city. It looked around the land it occupied. It slithered through the buildings and towers until it came face to face with its enemy.
"Shinji, let it get into close range and fire."
Unit-01 flipped the switch on the handguard of the 300 Millimeter GAU cannon Shinji had been issued. The seven barrels drilled to life, sending a sawblade of fire into the wall of force the Angel grew before it. Empty hulls rained down upon the city, their weight crushing parked vehicles and denting the alloyed streets.
The weapon may have sawn one wall of the Angel's will in half, but it and its siblings could unfold one after another up to and until the moment of its death. Meanwhile, a Gatling gun uses ammunition. Lots of Ammunition. Shinji had run out the belt in the process of sawing down the field.
His radio sparked to life. "Forget the gun, Shinji. Stab the damn thing!" And so he did, he drew his knife and impaled the Angel at the same moment that the Angel impaled Unit-01 on it's sharp, tensile arms. All that mattered was who gave up first, the Eva, wounded and losing power, or the Angel, flooding the streets with an ocean of rust-colored blood.
Shinji felt Unit-01's knife crack through a layer of something smooth but solid and hard inside the Angel's flesh. The chest wound opened up an even greater torrent of blood. The Angel's body split and tore down the middle, bursting into an ocean of refuse that flooded the streets several meters deep. Unit-01, damaged and out of energy, had to be clumsily dragged through the streets of Tokyo-3 back down underground to NERV.
Shinji was once again checked into NERV's hospital. He once again woke up in the same hospital bed.
"I used to follow a routine at my old school, but getting beat up and going to the hospital again and again isn't routine, it's torture." He didn't really care about being properly discharged, so he left the room on his own, rode the Tokyo-3 subway system to Misato's city block, and returned home. Misato was most likely still at work, but her pet penguin was there. He pet the bird on the head and fed him a sardine, before returning to his bed and falling down on it.
He really did not want to be part of this.
He slept until the return of his new legal guardian woke him. "Shinji! I know you're here!"
He walked out to the living room. Misato was there, but she also brought the thug from his school and his friend.
"Shinji, next time, you wait for your debrief and you wait for me to bring you home. Understand?"
Shinji defied her. "No, I don't understand, I don't want to be part of this."
"Well you are, and you have to be."
The short boy was shocked. He was obsessed with all things NERV, and made no attempt to hide it. "SHINJI, HOW CAN YOU SAY NO TO THIS STUFF! YOU GOT TO PILOT THE ROBOT! YOU KILLED THE ANGEL! EVERYTHING NERV DOES IS SO AWESOME!"
"It also puts you in a coma, friend."
The tall one cut in. "Shinji, his name's Kensuke, and one of your NERV cops picked us up at school and brought us to Misato. I'm here because I punched you earlier."
Shinji stared at him. "Yeah"
Touji continued. "Look, Misato told us everything. How hard it is, how dangerous it is, and she told us we'd all die if you failed. I'm sorry I hit you, and I'm sorry I blamed you for Sakura. That's on me and I owe you-"
"No, no you don't. I feel the same way about the Eva that you feel about me."
"No, seriously, this is beyond ego trip bullshit. I blamed you for something you didn't do. That's a shitty thing to do, and I'm ashamed of myself. Now explain to me why you get to live with her!" He shouted at the end, pointing to Misato.
"Sorry boys" Misato laughed at Touji, "but that's a Pilot only thing. When Asuka gets here, she'll be living here too."
"WHAT? TWO GIRLS?"
Disclaimer time: First off, Evangelion was created by Hideki Anno and is the properties of Studio Gainax and Khara. Sue them.
Now, if you were expecting this to be a regular action story, well that ain't what this is. It'll be a teen drama with some jokes thrown in. It'll also have adult situations and uncomfortable content discussed. If you do not wish to read such content, please do not. Otherwise, any hate mail resulting from not reading this line will be happily ignored.