Evangelion: Misplaced Warrior
Chapter one: Setting the stage.
Somewhere in Nevada.
14 year old Gavin Takayama, Half-British Half-Japanese and designated Fourth Child, is currently awaiting his activation test with Unit 04, which is equipped with the first Human built Super-Solenoid (S2) Engine, reverse engineered from the partial Core remains of the Fourth Angel Shamshel.
Gavin Takayama is walking down the corridor inside NERV's second branch on his way to the cafeteria, after finishing up on a bunch of synchronisation tests which lasted until early evening.
"Hey! Gav!"
Gavin slightly surprised, looks around wondering who called him. "Huh?.. oh hey Ellis, what's up?"
Ellis quickly catches up when Gavin stops walking, allowing Ellis to catch up. "Glad I ran into you, just wanted to ask how you are, since your activation test is tomorrow."
"Ah, I see" Gavin suddenly finds his feet interesting. "I am... quite nervous actually, after all, all of us have heard what has been happening in Tokyo-3, and just thinking about being in the middle of all that puts me on edge... Not to mention, tomorrow just so happens to be the anniversary of my mother's death." Gavin with a sad smile returns his gaze to meet Ellis'.
Ellis frowns at the mention of Gavin's mum but then cracks a smile. "Hey don't worry about it, I'm sure your mum is looking after you, from where ever she is. After all it's not like you are going to be alone fighting those Angels, you'll be joining the First, Second and Third Children in combat, and I'm sure they'll get you up to speed in no time." Ellis lightly punches Gavin in the arm as they both resume walking.
Gavin with a chuckle. "Thanks Ellis, you always know how to cheer me up." Gavin returns the smile. "It's one of the reasons why we became such good friends... though, I do miss mother since the accident 8 years ago... and I will also miss you after this test, since I will be transferred to NERV HQ in Tokyo-3 if Unit-04 is successfully activated."
Ellis slightly frowns, "Yeah, it will suck." He smiles again. "But the main thing is after all this is over, we will get to see each other again." Ellis emphasises the point in that last sentence, bringing a small smile on Gavin's lips. "Anyway, where are you headed?"
Gavin perks up as his friend reminds him where he was going. "I'm just headed for some food, I'm starved not eaten much today, want to join me?"
Ellis shakes his head. "Would love to mate, but I've only just eaten myself. Besides I was just going to go see the new Lab Tech...Sarah I think she's called, heard down the grape vine she's a beauty to look at." Ellis ends the sentence with a big cheesy grin.
Gavin rolls his eyes. "What am I going to do with you" Gavin and Ellis laugh.
"Right then I better motor if I am to catch her, see you later Gav, I'll try and catch you tomorrow before your test." Ellis turns around and heads back down the corridor.
"Later Ellis, try and not end up holding an ice pack to your groin like last time." Gavin expresses a bit of concern.
Ellis shouts in return. "Ah don't worry about me, I'll be fine!"
'You said that the last time...' Gavin says in his head.
10 minutes later Gavin arrives at the cafeteria, orders a large ham and cheese panini with fries and a drink, he finds a seat and proceeds to tuck into his long awaited meal.
'I wonder how the other pilots will react to me' Gavin muses to himself. 'after all from what I've heard, the First is very introverted, doesn't like or doesn't want to interact with anyone. The Second is VERY out spoken and thinks she is better than everyone apart from the Third, and the Third Child is very arrogant more so than the Second.' Gavin then frowns at the conclusion of that thought. 'How am I going to fit into that bunch?'
During his thought train, Gavin finished his meal and was nursing his drink failing to notice Nerv's lead scientist, Emily Saracen taking a seat next to him.
"So... something on your mind?"
Gavin jerks slightly in surprise at the sudden question. "W-What? oh... not really just spacing out."
Emily raises and eyebrow. "Hmm... you sure? cause you looked pretty deep in thought to me when I sat down."
Gavin turns his head to look at Emily. " Yes I'm sure, thanks for asking, what can I do you for?"
Realising Gavin doesn't want to talk about it with the change of topic, Emily relaxes her face. "Oh, nothing I was just checking on you to see if you're still ok for tomorrows test, after all, we cant have anything going wrong now do we?"
Gavin sighs. "Yea that's true don't worry about me doc, I'll be good to go tomorrow." he cracks a smile at the end.
Emily's face lights up. "Good, so I'll see you at 0800 for your final physical before the test, ok?"
"Yea sure, at least me and Unit-04 will have something in common tomorrow then... both of us will get prodded and poked, heh." Gavin chuckles slightly at his own words, Emily just smiles.
With the conversation concluded Doctor Emily Saracen leaves the cafeteria and heads for the Eva cage, while Gavin heads off to his quarters for the night.
"Ah! Doctor Sanders there you are."
"Oh, Commander Forest, I didn't expect to see you here." Emily responds realising who called out to her.
"And why would I not be? after all, Eva Unit-04 is undergoing activation tomorrow and I want to make sure everything is running smoothly." Forest responded calmly. "Speaking of which what is our current status?"
Coming to attention Emily speaks. "Unit-04 is currently undergoing final checks to the installation of the S2 engine all other systems are green and ready to go. The Fourth Child has also confirmed he is ready to participate in the test, he is also scheduled for a physical examination tomorrow at 0800 in preparation for the test." Emily relaxes a bit.
Forest cracks a smile. "Excellent Doctor, glad to see you are running a tight ship." becoming serious again. "How is your new assistant settling in?"
Emily slightly frowns. "I haven't met her yet, I was just on my way to see her now."
Forest nods in understanding. "Very well I'll shall not keep you any longer... by the way I will be present at the activation tomorrow I shall see you then. Goodnight Doctor."
"Goodnight Commander." Emily takes a deep breath and heads towards the door to the Eva cage.
The door opens to reveal a young lab technician sat at a foldable table with a laptop talking to a young teenager leaning on the rail next to her.
"Ellis, what are you doing in here? last I checked tactical operations staff don't need to be in the Eva cage." Emily gives Ellis a questioning look.
Both Ellis and the lab tech both jump to their feet to attention at the sudden commanding voice coming from Emily.
"M-Ma'am, I was just introducing myself to the new Tech here, since... since she is the new Technician... and all." Ellis response rather hurriedly.
Emily raises an eyebrow at Ellis' response. "Yea... sure, just don't go touching anything you don't need to touch. After all we don't want anything to happen during the test now do we?" Emily chuckles to herself after realising she just said almost the exact same thing to Gavin about 30 minutes earlier.
Ellis quickly composes himself. "No Ma'am, in fact I'll take my leave and let you and the new Tech introduce yourselves." Ellis turns to the Tech. "Was nice meeting you, hopefully we can chat again, later in the week perhaps?"
The Tech blushes slightly, and responds timidly. "Y-Yea sure... you know where to find me." With that Ellis turns and leaves the Eva cage, Emily turns to the Tech.
"So you are my new assistant." Raising an eyebrow. "Name please?"
"Sarah... Ma'am, Sarah Lockstock... pleasure to meet you." Sarah responded nervously.
Emily raises and eyebrow. "Hmm, Sarah aye?" Emily extends her hand. "well... I'm Doctor Emily Saracen, Head Scientist at NERV second branch, welcome aboard."
Sarah reaches out and shakes Emily's hand. "Thank you Ma'am, again it is a pleasure meeting you, and being able to work alongside you." Sarah being noticeably more relaxed now.
Emily, happy that Sarah seems more relaxed becomes serious. "Now that that's out of the way, are you up to speed on your current situation?" Emily states authoritatively bringing Sarah to attention.
"Yes Ma'am." Sarah replies flatly
"Good. Everything in order for tomorrow?"
"Yes Ma'am." Again Sarah replies flatly.
"Excellent, so see you tomorrow, I'm going to turn in for the night." Emily says with a slight yawn.
"Goodnight, Ma'am." Sarah replies before finishing up and leaving herself to turn in for the night.
Meanwhile in the pilots quarters one Gavin Takayama is laying on his bed staring at the ceiling. 'I don't know why but I'm really nervous about tomorrow... I feel like... something somewhere is just going to go wrong...' Gavin turns to lay on his right looking at the alarm clock that reads 2:30am. "I'm probably to over thinking this, I really need some sleep." He whispers to himself before sleep finally overtakes him.
The next morning Gavin finds himself waking up half off his bed and some how managing to find himself with his head near the foot of the bed.
'Jesus, I know I couldn't sleep, but to wake up like this?' Gavin thought with a bemused look on his face. "What time is it?" he asks himself as he looks to his alarm clock.
'6 am! oh god no wonder I feel knackered... oh well, suppose I'm up now, bloody nerves about today's test keeping me up all night.' Gavin proceeds to get the rest of him out of bed and head towards the bathroom.
His quarters are not much to look at, standard living conditions for active personnel living on site. A bed with open plan access to lounge and kitchen/dining area with a partitioned off bathroom. Gavin removed his pyjama bottoms off as well as his boxer shorts before stepping into the shower to wake himself up.
"Yo! Gav!"
Gavin looks ahead of him. "Hey Ellis wondered where you was." Gavin says with a grin.
"Hey! I was tied up, I left something in the Eva cage last night after Emily caught me chatting up her new Tech." Ellis puts his hand on the back of his head with a silly grin.
Gavin sighs. "I'm telling you Ellis you're going to get hit again..."
"Nah Sarah digs me, I can tell." Ellis proclaims.
Gavin shakes his head. "Yeah...sure... I need to see this for myself, we should go see her after the test."
Ellis suddenly turns serious. "Oh yea your test is today... nervous still?"
"Very... Just on my way to see the doc to get my pre-test check up." Gavin groaned.
Ellis shuddered. "Ahhh! human pin cushion time eh? Well I better let you go then, since Doc Saracen will be busy with you I can go hang with Sarah." Ellis ending that sentence with a big grin.
"Oh thanks for leaving me to the wolves." Gavin states sarcastically. "Just be careful what you say to her, I do care when you get your arse handed to you by a woman."
"I told you already stop worrying about me!" Ellis with a slightly raised voice. "Anyway good luck pal see you after the test."
"See you later Ellis." Gavin waved with a smile.
Knock! Knock!
Emily looks up from her PC terminal. "Come in!" Gavin steps through the door. "Ah Gavin! on time as usual I see."
"Yea... I'm here, lets just get this over with, the sooner we start the better" Gavin responses dejectedly.
"Well... someone got out the wrong side of the bed... want to talk about it?" Emily expresses some concern.
"Nah, nothing you can fix Doc, just didn't sleep much, and I don't like the fact I'll be leaving everyone after all this." Gavin with a now glum look.
"Unfortunately that cant be helped, for some reason the Angels want to attack Tokyo-3, and since the last 10 have been spotted in or around that area, well there is no reason to keep any other Eva away from the combat zone. and as you know... that includes the pilots." Emily stated offhandedly.
Gavin looks at Emily. "Jeez you sure know how to make a guy feel better..." he then looks around the room. "Where do you need me?"
Emily takes a long look at Gavin. "Just strip down to your underwear and sit on the table, then we can begin."
With a sigh, Gavin complies with the request, not looking forward to the next 2 hours of being prodded and poked.
Gavin walks out of Emily's medical room just as he runs into Commander Forest on his way to the Command Centre.
"Urgh... sorry Sir, I didn't see you there." Gavin states apologetically.
"That's quite alright Gavin, anyway how did the physical go?" Forest asks expectedly.
Gavin looks at Forest. "Fully poked and prodded, if I didn't know any better I'd think I was being prepped for Thanksgiving." That comment elicits a chuckle from the Commander. "Other than that I'm good to go Sir."
"Excellent Pilot, you better hurry and go get changed, we cant keep our wonderful Doctor Saracen waiting now can we?" Forest grins.
"No Sir." With that Gavin heads off to the Lockers to change.
Inside the Locker Room Gavin is in the process of changing into his plug suit, which has the standard Blue torso and legs for male plug suits but Silver on the top half and matching A10 connectors with 04 in Black on the centre front chest piece, also Red highlights down the side of the torso and arms instead of Black.
'I can never get used to how lonely it is in here... wont be for much longer though I suppose, I will have at least one other person to talk to while we are getting changed.' Gavin presses the vacuum seal on his left wrist. The plug suit shrinks to fit flush against his body. 'Still though... I do wonder how I'll get along with them.' with that train of thought Gavin heads for the Eva cage to commence the activation test.
Gavin reaches the Eva cage and walks in front of Unit-04. "Today's the big day girl, now we get to see if you need an Umbilical cable or not, hopefully the latter." ending with a grin.
Unit-04 is very similar in build to Unit-03, you could even say they were twins with the only differences being cosmetic. While Unit-03 is Blue and Black in colour, Unit-04 is Silver from head to toe with only Black arms and Red highlights, still if the colour wasn't intimidating it's face was, the very pronounced jaw line, coupled with the sinister looking Red eyes would creep anyone out, not matter what the colour was.
Taking one last look Gavin climbs up the gantry near the entry plug, climbs in and takes his seat the chair located in the centre of the Plug.
Dr. Saracen's face pops up on a holoscreen to the left of Gavin. "Right Gavin, how does it feel to be doing this for real this time?"
Gavin looks over at the screen. "Little nervy but it cant be much different to the simulations...can it?" sounding a little hopeful at the end of that sentence.
"Disengaging Termination Plug!" Sarah's voice rings out over the PA system
Emily chuckles. "Nah, don't worry it's not much different... but this will be a full synchronisation session, so we can test the S2 engine during prolonged use. So get comfortable." Emily ends that sentence with a smirk.
Gavin groans. "Oh great, NOW you tell me... fine," 'Fortunately I have nothing major planned today' He sighs. "lets get this over with"
"Insertion of the Entry Plug commencing!"
Inside the Plug Gavin can hear the whirling of the corkscrew locking mechanism of the Entry Plug sliding into place inside the Evangelion.
"Entry Plug Insertion Complete, Rear Neck Armour Plate Re-sealed, Commencing L.C.L Fluid Injection!"
"Just remember Gavin, breath the L.C.L in one go it's easier that way." Emily casually reminds Gavin how to take in L.C.L as easily as possible.
Gavin rolls his eyes. "Yes I know... thanks for the reminder though, still doesn't mean I like doing it." Emily gives a small laugh at that remark.
A few seconds later Gavin Quickly inhales the L.C.L just as it covers his head. "Urgh... Still tastes like blood..." he says grimacing.
"Nothing I can do about that I'm afraid." Emily instantly replies.
"L.C.L Pressure Nominal, L.C.L Level at Maximum Capacity. Standby for Main Power Connection."
'Here comes the acid trip...' Gavin thinks as he stares in the still orange coloured L.C.L
"Main Power Connection Green, Distributing Power to All Systems, Electrolysing L.C.L."
In the entry plug the L.C.L turns transparent as a small electrical current is passed through it.
"How's it looking Sarah?" Emily asks her assistant.
"So far so good Ma'am, we are Green across the board." Sarah replies.
"Good, start up the activation sequence." Emily orders while turning back to the holoscreen showing Gavin in the entry plug.
"Yes Ma'am."
"All Systems Green, Initiating Activation Sequence."
In front of Gavin the Entry Plug flashes a multitude of different colours, then flashes a rainbow of colour until it finally displays full panoramic vision of the Eva Cage and where Gavin was just standing not 5 minutes earlier.
Gavin shakes his head trying to remove the spots in his vision after the eye battering flashes of colour he just watched.
"Everything ok Gavin?" Emily asks.
"Yea I'm fine, just retina burn from the acid trip." Gavin replies.
Emily smirks at that comment. 'Might make a note to rename that part as the acid trip sequence. heh, who said scientists have no sense of humour.'
"Voltage Levels at Optimum, Entry Plug Display Nominal, First Contact Phase Completed, Starting Second contact Phase!"
"Right Gavin this is where I need you to concentrate, just like in the simulator." Emily orders Gavin.
"Rodger Doc."
"Bringing the A10 Nerve Connection Online!"
'Hmm... it really does feel like the simulator, only... stronger... more... familiar... why does it feel familiar?' At the end of that thought Gavin has a slightly puzzled look on his face.
Emily notices the change in Gavin's expression. "Everything ok in there Gavin?"
Gavin snaps his eyes open slightly startled by Emily's question. "Y-Yea, everything is ok... just wasn't expecting how strong the A10 connection would be."
"Oh... alright then, better get used to it from now on though." Happy with Gavin's response Emily goes back to monitoring the start up sequence.
"Nerve Links Connected! Second Phase Complete. Moving on to Final Phase!"
"Set thought configuration to English." Emily orders Sarah
"Configuration to English set Ma'am."
"Approaching Absolute Borderline!"
"0.9...0.8...0.7...0.6...0.5...0.4...0.3...0.2..."
'Here goes...' Gavin braces himself slightly.
"0.1...0.0...Clear! Borderline has Cleared, Remaining Nerve Circuits are Showing Green!"
"How's the synchrograph looking?" Emily asks Sarah.
"Harmonics are all good, variance of 0.02%" Sarah reports.
"And the synchronisation rate?"
"Holding steady at 36.3% Ma'am."
"Excellent." Emily states with a smile. "Quite impressive after only 1 month of training, First time too."
Sarah looks a little puzzled at Emily's second sentence. "If you don't mind me asking Ma'am, what do you mean by that?"
"What?...Oh that's right, you won't have been told yet have you?" Sarah shakes her head. "The First Child couldn't even activate her Eva until the 4th attempt, even then the Eva itself went nuts." Emily showed Sarah a stern look. "The Second Child took months to reach the same level as Gavin here." her look changed to bewilderment "Then the Third Child flummoxed everyone..."
"Why what happened?" Sarah asks now intrigued.
"It was the day the Third Angel attacked, the Third Child shows up just in time, gets in his Eva starts it up and holds a 41.3% sync ratio with no training and no prior knowledge of the Evangelions before hand."
"Oh... wow..." Sarah states sounding amazed.
"Anyway, back to the task at hand..." Emily switches to the screen showing Gavin in the Entry plug. "Gavin how's it feeling in there?"
"Feels okay in here Emily, nothing else to report."
"That's good to hear, standby for S2 Engine activation."
"Rodger!"
Emily turns to her assistant. "Sarah, what is the status of the S2 Engine?"
Sarah quickly switches read outs on her terminal. "S2 status still green currently reading no energy output on all bandwidths."
"Good, exactly as expected." Emily turns to the Command Deck. "Sir, requesting to commence with the activation of the S2 Engine.
Commander Forest looks over the summary of the activation test before glancing down to Emily. "Permission granted." he states authoritatively with a nod. 'Hopefully after this we wont need to rely on bulky Umbilical cables.' He muses.
Emily nods acknowledging the affirmation. "Right, begin disconnecting the Umbilical from the Eva."
"Beginning S2 Engine Start up Sequence. Ejecting Umbilical Cable from Unit-04!"
With a loud *Hiss*, the Umbilical was ejected away from the Eva, a second louder *Whoosh* was heard as the retro thrusters engaged on the cable to prevent damage to the connector from the fall.
"Umbilical successfully ejected from Unit-04 Ma'am, Eva has switched to Back-up batteries, 3 minutes of power remain." Sarah reports the progress to Dr. Sanders
"Good, Initialise start up procedure for the S2 Engine." Emily replied.
"Yes Ma'am"
"Ejection confirmed, commencing with S2 Engine starting sequence. S2 Engine activation in T minus 10 seconds, 9...8...7...6...5..."
'Once more into the breach...' Gavin thinks to himself.
"4...3...2...1..." Gavin gulps. "0...S2 Engine active, all monitors read Gre-" Sarah's report was cut off by the sudden blaring of alarms.
'What the...' Gavin thinks when he hears the alarms.
"REPORT!" Emily orders.
"I'm reading a massive energy spike coming from Unit-04!" Sarah replies.
"Any idea what's causing it?" Emily snaps hurriedly.
"Nega...no wait..." Sarah double checks her read outs. "It's...It's the S2 Engine Ma'am, It's outputting out way too much power, we cant control it!" Sarah gasps.
"Shut it down cancel the test!" Forest Voice booms from the Command Deck.
"Already tried, signal was refused!" Sarah replies.
Suddenly the video, audio and life support telemetry from Unit-04 go blank in Central Dogma, eliciting gasps from some of the technical staff fearing for the pilot's safety. Meanwhile inside Unit-04's Entry Plug everything goes dark.
"Um... Guys?..." Gavin tries opening a channel to Central Dogma but is just met with static.
"STATUS! I need to know what's going on in there NOW!" Emily shouts stress clearly present in her voice.
"No feedback from any of our sensors! We got zero telemetry on the Pilot!" Sarah shouts in panic. "Also peripheral sensors detecting energy build up reaching critical mass in 20 seconds!." Sarah was rattling off the reports as they came flying in.
'Damm if we don't stop it soon all of Second branch will blow' Emily is racking her brain trying to figure this problem out. "GOD DAMMIT! There's no way we can sto..." with that sentence incomplete NERV Second Branch ceased to exist.
The next thing anyone sees outside of the incident, would be a satellite recording of the entire state of Nevada, engulfed in a black shadow, with a cross explosion protruding out of the centre a couple hundred meters into the atmosphere.
Gavin tries numerous attempts to re-establish contact with Emily and everyone in Central Dogma, but every attempt came up with nothing but static.
After what seemed like a few hours had passed, it was hard to tell with no time reference, during which Gavin tried every sensor on Unit-04 only to be met with black nothingness on display or static. With a sigh Gavin shut down all systems except life support and muttered. "Come on Guys, this isn't funny anymore..."
With that said. Gavin curls up into a ball on the seat in the Entry Plug feeling alone and silently weeping.
Little did he know, the panicked shouts and concern was the last thing he would ever hear of his colleagues again.