My take on the first episode of Neon Genesis Evangelion. Shinji is just a bit less of a wimp. Reviews most appreciated. Enjoy!
Across the deserted city, the lonely thrum of cicadas whispered through the evening air. Cars stood abandoned on the streets. Not a soul seemed to stir. But one remained. Standing alone, a young boy with short brown hair at a telephone booth futilely attempted to use the dead lines. He stepped back and shaded his eyes, gazing upwards at the myriad aircraft carrying the inhabitants of Tokyo-3 far, far away. For an Angel had come, and no one was safe.
Suddenly a car pulled up, the only manned vehicle in the city. "Shinji Ikari!" the driver announced, breathless. "Your father sent me for you."
Shinji Ikari stepped into the car, and the fate of the world changed the moment he did so. Where only fear and despair had lurked moments before, now hope and salvation struggled over the horizon. For Shinji Ikari would one day save the world. But first, he needed to save himself.
More aircraft flew the opposite direction, silent military vehicles carrying deadly N2 missiles. Misato Katsuragi, driver of the car that came to take Shinji, glanced backwards and glimpsed the monstrous form of a black and white, powerful being hulking menacingly through the city.
It lumbered fairly quickly in the same direction as the car. "Is it followingus?" asked Shinji in a shaky voice.
"No, it's just heading in the same direction we are."
"And where's that?"
"The same place your father is. Where he has been for the last seven years, ever since your mother died and he left you. NERV."
"What is NERV?"
"You will see soon for yourself."
Suddenly a loudspeaker blared out from a solitary, enormous bomber accompanying the fighters. "N^2 mine authorized. T-minus ten… nine… eight…"
Misato stepped on the gas and drove swiftly. "Four… Three…"
Finally she pulled to the side of the road and dragged Shinji into a deep ditch beside the road. "Get down!"
They turned their heads as a blinding flash lit the city. Then, the light dimmed, revealing a bleeding but unfazed monster. Misato hauled in Shinji and drove off again.
Five minutes later Shinji and Misato stood, travelling underground, on a ridiculously long escalator. No matter how many questions Shinji asked, Misato would not answer. "What is NERV?" he asked at length. Misato stood silently.
"We save the world," she answered finally.
At the bottom, Misato led Shinji along numerous corridors until they entered a dark room. Lights flickered on, and Shinji found himself staring into the dead eyes of a robotic head, several times his own size. He gasped and fell back.
"Shinji." Frightened, Shinji looked up into his father's distant face; the man stood on a balcony above the robotic head. "Hello."
"Father?" Shinji thought to himself. Once his mother died, Gendo Ikari handed off his son to state educators and disappeared to do his work. Seven years ago. Why had he called Shinji now?
After another N2 mine detonated, the room shook and rumbled, like a hut caught in a gigantic storm. "The Angel is attacking the Geofront. It is coming for us."
"Why?" Shinji shouted out. That one word contained many questions. Why had Gendo left Shinji? Why had the Angel attacked? Why did Gendo call Shinji?
Gendo heard these, and answered all at once. "This involves you on a scale you cannot possibly imagine. We need to you to pilot the EVA and destroy the Angel."
Shinji started. EVA? He looked to the eye of the robotic head facing him. "Is this an EVA?"
Then Shinji brought himself back to the present. His father abandoned him for years, and now wanted him to somehow risk his life to be part of some sick attempt to kill that monster outside.
"No. You have no right to make me do what you want, after how you left me. No! Now let me out of here."
Gendo stared down at his son. "Very well. Bring in Ayanami." He spoke the second sentence into a small microphone, and soon doctors wheeled in a girl on a hospital gurney. She had an IV in her arm and bandages covering her arms and head and torso. She sat up and coughed.
"You… wish me to pilot the EVA, Commander Ikari?" Gendo nodded to the girl.
"You will pilot it. My son is not… reliable."
Another explosion jarred the chamber. Rei fell off the gurney and lay breathing hard on the ground. Shinji stepped forward and cradled her head in his arms, wondering what could drive his father or anyone to do something like this to a young girl. He the warmth of blood on one hand.
"Get up, Rei. You will pilot." Shinji snapped up his head at his father's words.
"…No. I will pilot it." Shinji forced himself to say the words. He didn't want to have anything to do with his father, but he couldn't let anyone else get hurt for his sake.
Gendo Ikari smiled. It chilled Shinji. "Indeed."
Fifteen minutes later, the Angel continued destroying the city above. Soon it would find the entrance to NERV. But then, on the horizon, something appeared. Something tall, and metallic. The sun set and lights activated on the figure's surface. None shone more brightly than the two eyes peering out from its head.
Shinji Ikari sat inside the giant mecha known as an EVA, seething and staring at the screen in front of him, depicting the Angel looking back at him.
"My name is Shinji Ikari. I am this EVA's pilot. I will stop you. I will save Misato, and Rei, and everyone else who would die because of you… And I will live on, stopping the next one that comes. And the next. Because otherwise, my father will do something horrible. I cannot allow that. So come, meet your death, Angel."
With that, the EVA and the Angel closed the gap between them, in the growing darkness, and Shinji Ikari sealed the fate of the world.