Creation began on 06-22-16

Creation ended on 06-23-16

Neon Genesis Evangelion

Eva Art Online: Discovery

A/N: This is to shut up EvaShinobiKaiserKnight about the lack of Shinji/Asuka pairings. Also manga-based instead of anime.

NERV was in a bind that was undeniably intense to resolve. It had been a week since the Third Angel attack, and the casualties were, while few, severe. The city of Tokyo-3 had lost eight buildings, less than two-hundred dead or injured, and the First Child, Rei Ayanami, was in critical condition with no hope of recovering from her injuries.

This left Gendo Ikari, who was supposed to be in charge of the situation regarding the Angels, facing the brunt of both bad press and his superiors. His original course of action was to bring in the Third Child to substitute the First Child in piloting Unit-01, but was informed that his estranged son was unavailable and hospitalized. Because he didn't have the time to be bothered with the reasons for Shinji being unavailable, he requested the Second Child from Germany, but was informed by the NERV branch over there that Asuka Langley Soryu was also unavailable and hospitalized. When he finally had no other alternative, he had Rei face the Third Angel, despite her injuries. But now that he had time to question the lack of availability from the other two pilots, he called the NERV branch in Germany again and demanded an explanation for why the Second Child was unavailable.

"Are you sure about this?" He questioned over the phone.

He then called up Ritsuko to his office.

"Yes, sir?" She asked when she arrived.

"What do you know about these…MMORPGs?" Gendo asked her.

"MMORPGs? Those are multi-media-online-role-playing-games that people play on the Internet. They're a global fad that any computer-iterate individual can participate in."

"Can people become comatose from playing them?"

"No, that's impossible."

"I was just informed by the NERV branch in Germany that the Second Child has become comatose due to playing such a game on the Internet. Going further, it has been recently discovered that more than three-hundred-thousand people across the planet have become comatose because of a new game. I need you to ascertain the exact game this was and how that many people were affected almost at the same time."

"Yes, sir. What about the Third Child?"

"That's something I've sent Captain Katsuragi to investigate."

-x-

As Misato Katsuragi entered the Nagasaki-2 Memorial Hospital where the Third Child was admitted to, she noticed a lot of adults and very few children in the halls. Normally, the hospital was often where you found children more than adults, unless they were sick or elderly.

"Um, excuse me, sir," she spoke to a man sitting at a desk. "I'm looking for Shinji Ikari."

He looked up at her and responded, "Are you a friend or relative?"

"No, I'm here on orders from his father."

He got up and led her towards an elevator and pressed the button for the fifth floor.

"I've noticed that there are no children around."

"That's because most of them are in a video game-induced coma."

"What are you mean?"

"About a week ago, this new role-playing game was released, and something happened. The game was called Survival Times, a type of fantasy-themed adventure game that incorporates other themes, such as cowboys and Indians, knights and dragons, robots, ghosts and some Zen architecture. Somehow, everyone that was playing the game were put into a coma tied to the game, mainly because of this new system they call Full-Force Dive Solutions. It's a headset that's supposed to allow wearers to actually be inside the game without ever leaving your room."

They got off the elevator and the man led her to the room assigned to the boy.

"You mean to say that the boy and many others are completely incapacitated because of this Survival Times game?" She asked him, and entered the room, seeing a terrible sight.

"In a twisted way," the guy said, looking at the fourteen-year-old boy that lay immobile on the hospital bed with a dented, gray helmet covering his head that was plugged into a wall outlet, "they're still in the game…and the doctors can't do a thing to get them out on the outside."

Misato looked at Shinji's face that wasn't covered by the helmet, seeing that he looked as though he were sleeping, and noticed the name of the helmet read, "Full-Force Diver".

"Are they all wearing these helmets?" She asked him.

"They're a crucial part of playing virtual reality games online," he explained. "They hook right up to the nervous system, and you're in the game."

"Why not just take the helmet off?"

"Some people actually tried that…with bad results as a consequence. Over two-hundred people died within minutes of their helmets being removed while still active and online in the game. You take his off…and he'll probably have less than a few minutes before convulsing and going respiratory failure among nervous system failure."

Misato decided to keep away from the helmet. She then noticed a bruise on his right wrist.

"Is this a bruise on his arm?" She asked.

-x-

"…To be simple," went Ristuko, over the phone at the NERV branch in Germany to Gendo, two days later when she arrived, "The Second Child and others like her are trapped in the online game that incapacitated them at some point when whatever happened to trap them in the game. All attempts to remove them from the game externally will result in death. So long as these helmets they're wearing have a charged-up battery and remain functional, they'll remain comatose, but if they're separated from the Internet or run out of power, their bodies will cease all bodily functions."

"Very well. Return ASAP." Gendo ordered her as soon as he was informed.

On his office desk was a copy of the Survival Times game the Second and Third Child were trapped in, and he deduced that the game was like any other game meant to incite a challenge. The only way to get out of the game was to win it.

To be continued…

A/N: Here's the first chapter of the story. Until next time.