Author: Hello again, it's been a while. Sorry about the radio silence but I'm getting back on my feet and my story ideas are forming again, so expect really slow updates in the future (thank college for that!). Hope you enjoy the story, its sort of experimental for me and I'm worried that it might not be up to scratch. Only way I'll know is from your reviews, so please review!
Shinji: chosen by immortals.
Asuka: an extraterrestrial encounter.
Hikari: handpicked by man.
Rei: destined to save humanity…or destroy it.
Chapter 1: Heavy metal, Fire and Aliens
A bored German girl with flaming red hair and vibrant blue eyes walked through the airport. Her name is Asuka Langley Soryu, a 14 year old genius with a number of Tertiary Degrees. She was waiting for an old college friend to pick her up. She passed the time by fiddling with the large green watch on her wrist strangely it did not seem to tell time. 'Tsk, I told Misato I could've gotten to her place faster. She just wants to show off her stupid car.' Her face pulled an involuntarily smirk as she looked down at the watch on her wrist. 'Who needs a car anyway?'
She dragged her luggage along as she trotted to the escalator that went to ground level. She leant back against the side, flashing a smile at the sunlight outside. Japan was a complete contrast to the far colder climate of Germany. Yup, a holiday was what she needed. Her smile vanished when she took notice of the boy next to her. The pervert was staring at her! He was busy concocting a half assed plan to ravish her young body right this moment! She'd teach him! 'Hey, what're you staring at pervert!' she accused.
The boy pulled a frown, his hazel eyes widening. 'What? No, I wasn't staring! I promise!' he shook his head in response, trying to maintain that he was completely innocent. His dorky brown hair and nervous demeanour were obvious indicators of a closet pervert. This was a boy who'd get off over a half-naked comatose girl! She knew it!
'Yeah right, you were just waiting to see what I've got under my dress weren't you!' She jabbed a finger at him, ignoring the ensuing stares she got from the other, more sane, people present. 'Ah-hah! You were thinking that, you're blushing!' she grinned in victory, catching a pervert in the act was always an enjoyable pass time.
'You're the one who mentioned it!' he retorted, his blush a deep red. Lucky for him the escalator had reached the bottom, meaning his torment was at an end. Asuka's torment on the other hand…
'Ow!' a number of German swear words flew out of Asuka's mouth when she received a skinned knee and had fallen face first after failing to notice the end of her journey. She felt someone gently use her arm to lift her up. It was the boy. Such a kind and noble gesture could only be rewarded in one way. 'Hands off hentai!' shoving him back, just barely, Asuka fixed her hair and retrieved her bag proceeding to stomp her way to the waiting area, her face flushed with humiliation.
Eventually she settled down in a restaurant, ordered some food and tried to calm down. All she wanted was a nice holiday away from her family. A nice, warm holiday with her only friend in the world, well the closest thing she had to a friend. That boy just had to ruin everything, didn't he? Asuka huffed, resting her head on her hand staring ahead blankly. Someone else was staring too.
'Yes?' she seethed at the little boy staring at her. This kid couldn't possibly be a pervert otherwise his parents had really not paid much attention to what he'd been watching. Then again, they were nowhere to be seen.
'Aren't you too old to be playing with toys?' he inquired in an innocent voice, pointing at her watch.
Her face twitched. Did every male in Tokyo-3 have it in for her? A dark scowl clouded her face. 'It. Is. Not. A. Toy.'
'Well it looks like one it's got a light in it and everything.' The kid replied.
Fighting the urge to choke the life out of the insolent little boy, Asuka's face changed dramatically. The scowl was replaced with a superior-than-you smirk as a cruel idea formed in her mind. Her left hand danced over her green "toy" menacingly as she replied. 'Want to see what this "toy" can do?' she asked in a sugary sweet voice.
'Okay!' he said excitedly. Obviously not picking up on the tone the red head had used. Thankfully the fates smiled on the little guy. Instead of Asuka showing him what her watch could do the lights went out, plunging the entire building into utter darkness, except for the green glow of her watch.
Shinji Ikari walked out of the Airport miserably. His hazel eyes kept down on the ground beneath him. He hadn't really been staring at the girl. Okay, well he had but not in the way she had thought. He'd just never seen somebody so…different? Maybe that was it he'd been staring at her because she'd stood out amongst the masses, she had seemed so sure of herself so full of life. Should he have said that instead? He chuckled to himself. No, that would've gotten him into more trouble. He looked up at the cloudless sky. It seemed to be a perfect day.
He hadn't been in Tokyo-3 for years, almost eleven years to be exact. Maybe he'd see his father? He shook his head at that idea away and focused his attention to more important things. First thing he'd need to do was catch the train to the inner city and then find his hotel room. It would be simple and completely normal. He'd meet his cousin and maybe stay a little longer if he felt like it. Speaking of his cousin, he'd better call her friend and tell her he'd made it, mostly intact. Or would that seem weird? Grimacing he shrugged it off. Why did he always get so flustered at even the thought of talking to girls?
Stopping suddenly, in the middle of the pedestrian crossing, he quirked his brow. He'd heard something in the distance, far down the road, nearer to town. Something was going on, he was certain that he'd heard screaming. Maybe he should check on it?
After a moments thought and the urging of motorists wanting him out of their way he sped to a deserted corner. Making a quick scan to be sure no one was watching he shut his eyes and felt the familiar and ethereal sensation of his body taking a new form, one with wings and claws.
Misato sped down the street in her blue Renault Alpine, avoiding the fleeing pedestrians as best she could. Today had started out so perfectly. For once she'd woken up without a hangover and it was her day off, meaning that she should have been able to spend the whole with Asuka. But oh no, the end of the world just had to be today. A sharp ring from her left caught her attention, and also nearly killed someone. Her phone just had to ring too, didn't it? 'Yes, Ritsuko!' she yelled.
'Misato, where the hell are you? We need you at NERV to coordinate the attack!'
'Well I'm sorry, I was trying to get to the airport and a giant freak of nature decided to show up!' the purple headed woman grunted as she took a sharp corner. Now was really not the time to test her patience.
'The airport, what does the airport have to do with anything! You're needed at NERV, now! Everything else can wait.' Ritsuko replied, making complete sense.
'Asuka's stuck in there, I can't leave her.' Misato replied defiantly. No one gets left alone, she assured herself.
'Misato, she'll be fine. The Angel is heading towards NERV it'd be counter-productive to get Asuka if she's safe anyway.' Once more her friend made perfect rational sense. Misato sighed audibly, damn Ritsuko. 'Alright, fine. I'll just drive towards the 20-foot tall monster.'
Making an abrupt U-turn, the speedster went into high gear and took off like a bullet intent on escaping the large monstrosity terrorising the city. Unfortunately her daredevil speeding sent her straight into the radius of an exploding car. The small car tumbled and did its best to protect the driver but all it could manage was to land belly up in more or less one piece.
At the headquarters of NERV, AKA humanities only hope, things fared much the same as Misato. No one was ever truly prepared for this. No matter how many drills had been done, how many tests had been run and how little they'd been paid, the staff of NERV just weren't confident in themselves at the moment. All except for a man named Dr. Terrance Howard, who had a posture of pure confidence. He stood next to the seated faux blonde Ritsuko, a fellow colleague, who'd been having a chat with the Operations Director. 'Is she going to be here or not?' he demanded.
'I…I don't know. The line's gone dead,' Ritsuko said in shock. Terrance rolled his dark eyes. 'Well then she is not going to be present for the launch of my Evangelion.'
He swiftly pressed down on the call button for the Head of NERV. 'Gendo, a pilot is necessary. It seems that the Operations Director will not be joining us.'
Over the intercom, the Commander replied, 'Very well, we'll make use of Unit-01 and the second child.'
'You don't say.' Terrance said under his breath as he removed his finger from the button. 'Now hurry on, we have no time to waste Dr. Akagi.'
'Yes.' Ritsuko replied with restraint. Pressing down on a separate call button, she spoke into the microphone, 'Hikari, you'll pilot Unit-01 from the Beta Plug. Make sure everything is adjusted on your suit and that your clips are operational.'
'Y-yes ma'am,' replied the soft voice of a hesitant girl.
The brunette teenager put her cell phone away and bit her lip. She was going to have to pilot the Evangelion, something she had been dreading ever since being selected. Everyone was going to depend on her. The fate of the world depended on her. She was going to throw up. She did throw up.
Humanities only hope was bent over a toilet seat emptying her stomach. Puking like a panicky teen who didn't want to say her oral in front of the whole class. A gentle hand rested on her back, she could feel the pressure through the skin-tight plug suit she wore, whilst the gesture itself was a warm one the hand itself was not. 'It would be more ideal if I piloted. If I failed, I could be replaced.' Typical Rei, making her feel guilty without wanting to.
'No…I'm the one that should pilot. You're my friend Rei I can't let you take my place. You can't be replaced anyway.' She lifted herself up and offered a weak smile to the albino girl, who sent a smaller smile back.
'Good luck then.' The odd girl said finally.
It took only minutes for Hikari to be seated inside a large canister labelled Entry Plug BETA. The minutes felt more like hours while she sat inside the comfortable, empty machine waiting for the technicians to ready all the systems. She could hear their scientific jargon going left and right as they prepared the machine. Finally, she got the go ahead from Ritsuko, 'Alright, remember to relax, we're about to fill the entry plug.'
Hikari pulled a grimace at what was to come, thankful that she had emptied her stomach beforehand, this was just one of the worst parts of synchronisation. The plug filled up with a thick orange liquid that held the smell of blood. She breathed in the liquid, technically drowning herself. Fortunately the fluid oxygenated her blood directly so she was not in any real danger of asphyxiation. She heard Ritsuko over the communications once more. 'Prepare for Passive Conscious Re-direct to Unit-01.' Hikari felt her body grow weak as her mind was slowly pulled away from the form of a petite brunette and placed into a 15 foot tall purple war machine.
Inside the launching tube a hunched over mechanical creature opened its white eyes. Hikari was now in control, mostly. She still felt the odd tug of what she could only describe as cravings. It was like the instincts of this creatures mind wanted something but what it wanted was still a mystery. 'P.C.R link fully established synchronisation steady at 38.4 percent, 'proclaimed a technician. Great, so only 61.6% of her was in control. Better than nothing, she assured herself.
'Evangelion Unit-01 launch!' Ritsuko said finally. The hulking beast shot up to street level in the tube. The transport unlocked itself upon arrival and gave the Hikari-controlled machine a view of the desolate city. The doctor gave Hikari directions to the Angel which she followed to the letter, secretly wishing that someone else was in her place.
'What the hell!' cried an infuriated Asuka. What sort of city would dare call itself the pinnacle of human technology if it suffered from something as stupid as a power outage? The whole airport was in darkness and the only light she had on her was the glow from her watch.
'Don't worry they sometimes need the electricity for their experiments.' She heard the brat say, apparently unperturbed in the dark.
'Who's they?' Asuka huffed.
'NERV, my dad works there.' The boy explained with pride. He continued to elaborate in a hushed tone. 'They have Super robots there that are gonna fight evil and stuff.'
'Right.' Asuka rolled her eyes. The little boy was too young to have dirty dreams, so instead he dreamt of silly giant fighting robots. Next thing he'd tell her was that the robot would be piloted by five teenagers with attitude. Honestly, kids these days were so immature.
The suddenness of the ground quaking beneath their feet caught everyone by surprise. Some fell and cried out in fright when they couldn't tell who or what had landed on them. Asuka was lucky this time by landing on her behind. 'I take it that's normal too.' She said in a childish, mocking tone. 'N-no.' the boy replied, suddenly frightened.
As the German got to her feet, she overheard wailing sirens outside, emergency sirens. Someone at a megaphone shouted out a warning to everyone to find the shelters and stay put until they received word of safety. 'Mein Gott,' Asuka muttered, rolling her eyes. Japanese people were so panicky. One little earthquake and suddenly it was Second Impact all over again.
'Ugh, now they put the lights on?' Asuka looked at the tiny, ineffective rows of red light that ran down the floor. Then she guessed they must lead to those shelters. She made a start to the exit of the building, curios to see what was going on outside. 'Hey, we're supposed to go this way!' the little boy protested obviously frightened.
Spinning around on her heel, Asuka stabbed a finger at the boy. 'Get this straight there is no "we" there never was a "we". I'm going my way and you're going your way.' He hung his head to hide a look of misery, 'but…I'm gonna be alone.'
Asuka kept quiet for a moment, before regaining her posture. 'Sometimes you've just gotta grow up and take care of yourself.' She explained, not in a harsh voice but a soft one. As she left the frightened boy a strange thing happened. 'Hey kid?'
The boy looked up with sad eyes. He saw Asuka press a button on the watch, making the green centre pop up and crack as she turned it around. 'Watch this.' She depressed the centre and a flash of bright green made spots appear all over his vision. After rubbing his eyes he got to see what the watch had done. His mouth fell to the floor. 'Told you it wasn't a toy.' The magma covered female said with a grin plastered on her fiery face.
Shinji was currently several stories above ground, stuck to a wall by the sharp claws on his fingertips. Sturdy wings were wrapped over his shoulders like a cloak and legs with reversed knees were attached to clawed feet that clung to the wall. He used his nose to sniff the air as the wind swept passed, brushing his unruly hair around and running through the crimson scales of his skin. Something was wrong. There was almost nobody in the city, well as far as he could smell anyway. Still, shouldn't there be somebody around? A pair of lenses slipped over his hazel eyes changing the circular pupil to a slit. As he took in the sight of cityscape in infrared he was just able to make out a large concentration of heat in the distance. Maybe he'd find someone there? He readied his wings as he pressed up against the wall and pushed himself off. Spreading the strong limbs of flight wide, he glided over the street hoping to find the source of the eerie silence.
'Still no one, who was screaming then?' Shinji thought out loud, his voice a bit gruffer than his human voice. The source of the heat turned out to be a car on fire with no living, and thankfully no deceased, people present. He sighed then tensed when he heard something massive stomping in the distance. Just as he was about to investigate his sharp eyesight found body heat in an overturned wreck of a car. He soared downwards and skidded to a halt on the tar road, wrapping his shoulders with his wings. 'Hello?' he called out as he neared the car. The infrared lenses receded returning his vision to mostly human. He caught sight of a purple haired woman seated in the upturned car. As he neared the aftermath of a painful looking accident he spotted blood leaking from a nasty gash on her forehead accompanied by myriad of cuts and bruises.
Using his bare hands he tore the driver's door off. Gently, he reached inside and used his claws to cut the seatbelt and kept the woman from hitting her head again. Carefully he pulled the woman out of the wreckage and laid her on the ground, wondering what to do next. He had no idea where the hospital was or if there would be anyone there to help. The sound of crunching glass broke his thoughts. It came from just behind him maybe it was somebody who could help. 'Hello? I need help somebody's really hurt here.' he called out.
An eight year old stepped out from behind a parked car obviously distressed. She kept her distance from him, frozen in fear. 'It's okay. I won't hurt you.' He assured her, offering a warm smile. She hesitantly stepped towards him her eyes darted around looking for somewhere to hide, like a deer caught in headlights. 'W-what are you?' she stuttered when she was just a metre away from the transformed Shinji. 'A dragon,' he explained.
'Really?' she asked with intrigued eyes. Luckily she seemed to be more interested than frightened right now, so Shinji nodded in response to her question. 'I promise I won't hurt you. Do you know where the hospital is?' The girl grinned and nodded, but her expression changed to a grimace. 'It'll be closed now. They need the electricity.'
Shinji frowned at the odd explanation. 'Who needs all that power?'
Hikari knelt behind a building keeping out of sight of the horror that was just a block away. 'The target is designated Sachiel. Satellite imagery shows that it has a dense skin with protruding bones which may act as natural weapons. Remember: if it engages it's AT field you'll have to move into melee combat and utilise your own field to counter the Angel's, understood?' Ritsuko explained this in the most neutral tone Hikari had ever heard. It was like the doctor wasn't concerned about the fact that a fourteen year old girl was about to fight an alien monster that could bring about the end of the world. She sent a digital message back saying she understood the instructions.
The purple behemoth she controlled gripped the heavy pistol in its nimble hands. Her purple horned head stuck out from the side of the building, glancing down the deserted streets. She nearly wet herself when she spotted the monster. It was a lot bigger than her and uglier! A creepy beak-like skull was all it had for a face which rested on its body instead of a neck. Thin legs and arms with jutting bones were its limbs. Hikari took a moment to catch her breath and then leapt out of her hiding place, raised and aimed the large gun and fired off.
Taken by surprise the monster known as Sachiel took four heavy slugs in the chest before an orange hexagonal field shielded it from the remaining ten. Hikari swore when she realised she'd have to get close. Placing the pistol onto the attachment on her hip, she retrieved the progressive knife from her shoulder pylon and broke into a run.
The Angel was prepared this time, gripping her arm just as she neared it. Feeling her arm snapping like a twig was something she'd never forget. The limp arm's hand let go of the knife, leaving it to clatter on the ground. Sachiel gripped her torso armour with one bony hand and hoisted her up then brought her down violently. It proceeded to brutally beat her with spines of bone that protruded from its palms, stabbing her as if it had a personal vendetta with her. There was so much pain she could barely comprehend it all. Spots danced over her vision that was slowly fading. She was going to die. Worse, she'd screwed up. The past year of training had all been for nothing. Everyone was going to die because she couldn't get past her fear. A final stab entered her right eye, piercing armour and the flesh beneath it. The behemoths mouth clamps shattered as Hikari and the beast roared in agony.
'Holy crap,' Asuka gaped at the vicious scene in horror. The kid had been right about the robots. Below her was a giant purple one being slaughtered by a repulsive, skeletal alien. The German girl made a leap of faith off the skyscraper she'd landed on; powerful jets of flame left her feet to boost her distance. As she flew over the back of the unsuspecting skeletal alien she blasted it with a stream of searing flames.
Sachiel threw its head back and screamed. The flesh on its back was on fire! Rapidly the flames died but still the agony of such a direct hit persisted. The Angel searched the area for the source of the attack and found it. Sachiel stared down its adversary. The purple abomination had been easy to defeat. Clumsy and slow, as if it was unused to its body but this new one was strange. It stood barely 6 foot tall and fully encompassed in fire and magma.
'Hey, ugly! Eyes up here!' the creature pointed to its face, smirking at him! This defiant monstrosity dared to think it was up to the challenge of fighting one of Adam's sons? It was then that the tiny creature attacked him once more, burning his arm with flames so blisteringly hot that the limb was rendered useless. Sachiel raised its AT field a second time, this time knowing that its enemy could not use its own soul for protection or countering.
Asuka arrogantly sent a flurry of fireballs at the monster, laughing at its misfortune. Her laughter subsided when she realised two things: first, her attacks were stopped by an orange wall and second, the symbol on her chest had gone red and was beeping. 'Oh Gott.' Seconds after having realised just how much trouble she was in, the monster raised its palm. A stream of energy burst from the hand and it sent her flying, the blast was so powerful that she felt pieces of her magma-flesh break off. One thing was certain she'd never been hit so hard in her life.
Shinji's inhuman sense of hearing picked up heavy gunfire from the distance along with some other sounds that sent chills down his spine. 'I think we should get away from here.' He explained to Akira who was trying to interpret the distant sounds.
Asuka counted herself lucky. Her alien body had absorbed most of the impact and the tumble down the road. Her human body still ached but it could have been worse. 'Oh crap.' It was worse. The giant freak was coming towards her!
In a panic she twisted the now red watch, trying to get it working again. 'Gott, you stupid watch just work already!' she screamed. Asuka looked up at the monster with defeat in her eyes. She was just going to lose. It was that simple. Even with a watch from outer space she was just going to be stepped on like a bug.
The monster seemed confused when it looked at her but soon overcame its confusion. Raising its palm one more time, it prepared to end the threat. 'Least its better than a bug,' the German girl said keeping her eyes on the face of death.
She couldn't be quite sure what happened next. The energy blast blinded her, but she did remember gravity suddenly trying to pull her down again. 'What the hell?' she yelled, her eyes slowly adjusting. She felt strong scaly arms draped over her body, protecting her. 'Don't blame me, blame the kid!' the owner of the arms shouted back at her. As her eyesight fixed itself she finally saw what had happened. She'd been pulled out of the way by some weirdo with wings. 'Look I was…' his eyes stared at her, like he recognised her but he quickly composed himself when the monster tried to swat him.
'Put me down Gott damn it!' she cried. Once today she'd avoided being killed like a common insect and that was more than enough.
The Angel clipped Shinji's wing, disrupting his balance, sending him and the loud mouthed girl hurtling towards the ground. Lucky for the girl, Shinji had made sure to take most of the impact with his back thus saving her life. The girl lay, sprawled over his body, a little too close for his liking. 'Um, can you get off?' The girls face burned with rage, without a word, she huffed and got to her feet. Shinji got to his feet. They'd landed in an alley, safe at last.
The hand that almost got Shinji begged to differ about his safety. Yelping in fright he managed to evade it, bumping the red head as he doubled back. The Angel stared at the dragon with hollow eyes. It felt like the emptiness of its eyes was sucking out his soul. 'Are you just going to stare at it or are you going to do something useful!' the girl yelled.
'I'm thinking!' he shouted back gruffly. The Angel made another grab with its now relatively healed charred arm, a breath of fire sent it back, roaring in rage. 'Happy?' Shinji leapt at the enraged beast, which was surprised to great its smaller enemy face to face. Claws dug into the tough carapace of its face, just as Shinji was about to exhale another searing breath something shoved him away from the Angel.
The AT field sent him back but his wings gave him the opportunity to fly back at the injured monstrosity. 'What?' Shinji blabbered as he found something was pushing him back, like a force field was between him and the monster. He'd just have to push harder then. Much to the surprise of the Angel, Shinji's claws proved useful in somehow gripping the AT field and he nearly succeeded ripping through. Unfortunately the Angel wasted no time in batting him away.
Shinji's fall was broken by mangled metal, purple metal. Picking himself up with difficultly and clutching his wounded chest he caught a large white eye staring at him. He'd landed on the robot. Their eyes were locked for a moment in curiosity. Sachiel broke the moment by swatting the dragon boy once more. Shinji crumpled in on himself as the pain became too much. The last thing he heard before blacking out was a guttural howl.
'My God, Unit-01 reactivated itself!' The whole of NERV suddenly went into disarray at those words. Technicians triple checked bio-readouts and scans deciphering the information as fast as they could. The Eva was viciously tearing the Angel apart in a berserk.
'Astounding,' Terrance stated taking in the bloodshed as if it were his favourite television series.
'Has Hikari lost it!' a female technician cried.
'Her synch ratio spiked! It's at 92 percent and climbing!' a technician shouted in horror.
'Shut down the BETA plug now! We can't lose the pilot!' Ritsuko ordered, ignoring the dark look she received from Terrance. It didn't matter what he thought, she couldn't let a child vanish from existence because he wanted to see more of the carnage.
'It's ignoring the shutdown commands! We can't eject Hikari's consciousness from the Eva!'
Everyone in the room looked at the display screens in horror. A teenage girl was about to lose herself in the body of murderous animal and it was all their fault. Everyone felt some form of guilt, except for one person in the room. Terrance rolled his eyes once more at their antics. If a pilot was lost it could be replaced, simple as that besides there were some more interesting events afoot: The fiery creature that had come to the rescue of the Eva and then of course that dragon-like human who very nearly pierced an AT field. Another thing with the dragon was that its injuries seemed to have spurned the Eva to life, as if it wanted to protect the creature. How puzzling.
'The Eva shut itself down.' Someone said out of the blue, breaking Terrance's thoughts. He looked to the screen and quirked an eyebrow, the Angel hadn't been efficiently killed instead it had been butchered post-mortem, another puzzle to solve.
'Thank God, Hikari's back where she belongs.' Ritsuko heaved a sigh of relief at those words sinking into her seat. As her tension dropped she ordered the next course of action to take place, 'take Hikari to the medical ward and set her up in a hospital. She's going to suffer with lingering phantom pain. Have a retrieval team bring the body of Sachiel and the Eva to base for study.' The blonde doctor looked at the sociopath on her left. Terrance didn't notice apparently deep in thought. She didn't care what he was thinking, all she knew was that she hated this vile man every fibre of her being.
'Dr. Akagi what about the unidentified creatures?' a technician inquired. Her mind soon went back on track to the fallout of the battle. 'The first priority is Sachiel and the Eva, then the Major. Have a look for the creatures too, just be careful. If they can take on an Angel firsthand and possibly survive…' she let her voice trail off, not for dramatic effect but because she was tired. She still had to find Misato but in what condition was her friend going to be found in?