Man found his god.
The year 2000, antarctica.
No matter how long he remained here, the cold was one thing he was never going to get used to. He has never once regretted going on the expedition though, considering what it has yielded.
Well.. What it has yielded is not really the thing you should merit it for. What it has discovered, that is important. The horrifyingly beautiful discovery, the pinnacle of the Katsuragi expedition.
The expedition arrived here about a year ago with the mission to investigate what was presumed to be an alien lifeform buried beneath the ice of the south pole. It was discovered by accident, but an accident send from above no doubt.
What they found was a giant. A snow-white human-like lifeform, arms, legs head and all. It stands approximately 80 meters tall. Well, figuratively speaking, that is, since it was discovered standing on all fours with an enormous lance buried in its chest, buried inside the ice.
And what else that was buried in its chest, and soon discovered to be a part of its physiology, was a perfectly round and flawless, crimson red sphere the size of a small cottage. It's pierced by the lance that matches the sphere in its colour, but the sphere doesn't seem to've taken any apparent damage from the impact, as if the lance had actually grown out of it.
They actually managed, with great difficulty, to drill into the sphere and extract some of the crystalline matter. However, when they reached the centre of the sphere, they found something else. Something else that rested within the sphere.
When studied more closely they found that it possessed a strange solenoid structure, and when the fragments recovered were touched they started generating energy from nothingness.
It is believed to be the giant's energy source, and he, Dr. Katsuragi, has dubbed it the S² engine, or S² organ, along with his Super Solenoid (S²) theory. If he is right, and if the science itself is replicable, then they might just have solved all the earth's energy crises, theoretically. If theory is correct, it also means that should the being decide to come to life and activate the S² engine, it'd be able to sustain itself forever. As long as its body didn't decay of age, the being would be immortal, and possess possibly limitless destructive, and creative, might.
Going back to the being itself, some discoveries have been made that have nothing to do with the Super Solenoid theory. Like the one that says the giant white being is alive.
It seems to be made from cells not very unlike ours. Some have even theorised that merging human DNA with a cell from the titanic being could produce some sort of offspring. The prospect of this is also staggering, but hasn't been researched in a great enough detail to be touched upon at this point. One thing at a time.
And of course, he feels no little pride himself over the whole adventure. He, Dr. Katsuragi, has discovered the thing which has been theorised for so long. The sleeping, all-mighty anthropomorphic lifeform that pre-dates the human race. The extraterrestrial being that is the mother of us all.
God.
Adam.
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He folds his arms with an expression nothing short of amazed, and points at the vial absently, "We need to try it again. Remove the crystal and get a new blood sample."
"Yes, Dr. Anderson."
Taking off his glasses and cleaning them as he goes over in his mind what the recent experiment yielded, he doesn't at first react to the door to the lab being hastily opened and closed.
"How's things going in here? Found something interesting?" Taking off the hood and gloves, Dr. Katsuragi looks around the small research building, and then walks up to his colleague.
"We certainly have. We are just preparing to do the most recent experiment again, and you'll be amazed at what it results in." Inviting Dr. Katsuragi to the table with a gesture of his hand, Dr. Anderson steps to the far end and fetches something, holds up a small crystal sample with a pair of tweezers. "You know this one, eh? We've been conducting experiments with it and human tissue and blood."
Dr. Katsuragi nods and joins DR. Anderson at the table, "Good idea, considering what it did to those who touched it. But do you think that this will yield anything useful?"
"Good question. But now, one thing at a time, here we have the blood sample now." Dr. Anderson gestures to a young man coming over with a vial half-filled with blood. The vial is put in a holding arm, and then Dr. Anderson simply puts the shard inside.
For a few moments, nothing happens.
But then Dr. Katsuragi can see that the blood's starting to change colour. A mild tremor goes through the vial as if the blood has suddenly started boiling, and when Dr. Katsuragi leans in closer to inspect the result, the blood is no longer red, but amber orange.
"What in the name of God.. Do you have any idea as to why this is happening? Is this blood plasma I am looking at, or..?"
Dr. Anderson takes a moment to respond, and the fascination if evident in his voice, "We don't know what it is. It's a liquid we've never encountered before, and we're having extreme difficulty determining what it's made up of," he says as he again picks up the crystal shard.
Dr. Katsuragi leans back and stands straight again, arms folded and chin resting upon his left knuckles, "Have you done this test on real human tissue yet?"
"No. But we can conduct a test if you wish? We simply felt that we should do one thing at a time." Dr. Anderson looks upon his colleague with a questioning gaze.
Dr. Katsuragi returns the gaze with a confident smile, "I do indeed wish for you to conduct a test with human tissue. Can someone please fetch some? Do we have any in here?"
The young man from before swiftly departs the room they're currently in, and in short order comes back with a small jar filled with skin, handling it with care. "Here you do, doctor."
"Thank you, Simon. Alright.. Lun, fetch a new vial." Opening the jar and taking out a small patch of skin, Dr. Anderson waits for his second assistant to come with a clean vial. The new vial arrives, replaces the old one, and in the skin and crystal go.
Both doctors takes a step forward and peers into the vial. For the first few seconds there is no visible activity. But soon they both notice that the skin starts to.. melt, almost, the amber liquid from before forming a small pool in the bottom of the vial. Then the patch of skin bursts, spraying the vial with the fiery orange stuff.
"My word.."
"Indeed. What could be causing this?"
Straightening their backs again, the two scientists give each other a puzzled look.
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Closing the door behind him, Dr. Katsuragi lets out a long, drawn-out sigh and sinks down into the chair in his office. He needs coffee. Badly.
Leaving the paper he brought with him on the desk, he pushes himself up and sets his course for the coffee machine.
Having gotten his coffee, he sinks down into the chair once more, takes a deep sip of the strong, brown liquid, and puts the cup down upon the desk. Still work to be done.
Opening a drawer under the desk he takes up a paper and pencil. Eyeing the content of the report he brought with him, he's just about to set the pen to work when there's a nocking on the door to his office. Raising an eyebrow, he puts down the pen and walks over to the door.
"Yes?" He opens it, and in the doorway stands none other that Gendo Ikari.
"Dr. Katsuragi, I hope I am not disturbing," Gendo says, not really as a question, but more as just a formality.
"No, please come in. What is the nature of your visit?" Dr. Katsuragi gestures for Gendo to step in, which he does. He turns to the doctor, face neutral, "I have a delivery for you from the old men," he holds up a folder with SEELE's emblem upon it, along with the words top secret.
"Oh? What's it about this time, then?" Dr. Katsuragi gives Gendo a puzzles look.
"They wouldn't tell me," Gendo says defensively. He turns his gaze outwards, towards where the rigging for tomorrow's experiment is being set up.
"Well, doctor, what do you think? It's almost finished now. The crane will soon be ready for the experiment." Gendo gestures towards the giant contraption looking somewhat similar to an 18th century canon, only with a giant cogwheel on each side to act as a means of propelling the lance inward. "As I said before, I deeply regret not being able to stay for the experiment.."
Turning and regarding Gendo with a studying gaze for a few moments, Dr. Katsuragi opens his mouth, closes it, and then walks past Gendo, away from the window and towards the papers on the room's desk.
He then speaks up, "So am I. I believe there will be some interesting results you'd like to see first-hand. But, who are we to disregard the committee's orders?" He again turns and regards Gendo, always scanning him for breaches in Gendo's own poker face.
"Indeed," is all Gendo replies with. He walks up to Dr. Katsuragi, puts the folder down on the desk, and excuses himself.
Dr. Katsuragi watches Gendo leave, and off-handedly takes up the folder. "Tsk. That man is hiding something. But it will not deter me from the experiment," he thinks out aloud as he reads the documents within the folder. Orders from the old men on how to proceed with the experiment itself, and how to handle the information of whatever the results will be and so on.
He himself expects, at best, that the experiment will yield some further insight into how the giant outside could function without any sort of real organs, brain or other body control centre, or even a damn shithole.
The red sphere is a prime suspect, sure, but could it really be the only real organ Adam possesses?
Well. Tomorrow, hopefully, they will be able to unveil it's secrets.
Of course, things may not go as per planned. For all they know, pulling the Lance out of Adam awaken the entity. Or cause it to explode. So many unknowns.
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Folding his arms, he lets his gaze wander across the small command centre, with the handful of people working at different consoles or running across the room to give another one a paper. A lot of activity, with other words.
No surprise there, considering what they're all about to undertake.
"Well, what's the status of the project? Are we on schedule?" Dr. Katsuragi steps forth to the windows in the front, and lets his eyes rest on what lies before him.
They've attached several mechanical components onto Adam for this procedure. Mainly power absorbers, data gathering equipment and the like, although the arm plates are meant mainly for restraining the thing.
He dearly hopes that attaching those to Adam is just unjustified paranoia. He really does.
Upon each shoulder rest a giant pylon, high as Adam's forearm. It's head is also clad in certain restraints, mainly a giant neck-piece that physically binds the head to the rest of the body, making it look as though it never had a throat.
However, all this gets somewhat bleak in comparison to the focus of the experiment: the crimson red spear lodged firmly into it's chest.
The spear, the Lance of Longinus, is made up by two red strands, tightly interwoven at one end, and then loosening up as the spear goes, and about three-quarter way up the two strands separate and form two massive tines, which seems to've pierced Adam's S² organ just above and below it. The entire spear is almost as long as Adam is tall.
The experiment is simple: pull the Lance out.
A young female with short blond hair turns around and addresses him. "We are on schedule. The crane with the holster is being lowered down right now. We will be ready to commence first phase in five minutes."
"Excellent. Has there been any interruptions while I was gone? Any activity from Adam?" He folds his hands behind his back.
"No, doctor."
"Well."
An older male turns his head from a computer and gives Dr. Katsuragi a questioning look, "Doctor.. Is this really wise? Removing the Lance from this white giant who's evidently been here for thousands of years, sealed to a cross by only this spear?"
"I will not have this experiment questioned by anyone, not now! We will proceed with the experiment. Anyone having second thoughts about this may say so now, and excuse themselves from the greatest experiment in science yet!" Dr. Katsuragi looks around the command and control room, burrowing his gaze into anyone any everyone.
He has sacrificed to much to stop now.
"Doctor, the holster is in position. We are ready to begin at your word." In the woman's voice, in contrast to the old man's, there is excitement. That gives Dr. Katsuragi some confidence.
"Very well." He sighs. Let's do this. "Engage the cogwheel motors and extend the crane."
Outside the command centre, the giant crane holding up the metal cylinder starts extending forward, it slowly envelops the Lance. After about one third of the Lance has entered the cylinder, the giant cogwheels sink in and begin spinning slowly, and the Lance starts dislodging from Adam.
"All mechanical systems nominal. Data gathering systems on Adam not reading any anomalies." The blonde female announces.
"Good. Engage holding arms."
Inside the tube pressure arms fold out and holds on to the Lance, keeping it firmly in place, and the cogwheels stop spinning.
"Holding arms engaged. Lance locked."
"Retract the crane. Slow and steady." Dr. Katsuragi remains stone cold, observing the procedures with a focused determination.
The Lance can no longer be seen extending out from Adam's back, the holes where it's been sticking out having swelled and the knitted themselves shut. Had this been seen by the team, it would've probably caused some stir.
That is not supposed to happen. Not to a being that keeps its life functions powered up by one single organ, which is not at present powered up.
Something similar, and that does cause quite some stir inside the command centre, happens when the lance suddenly shoots out the final meter by itself, the holes that it had made in the S² organ expanding as if letting the Lance go and then shutting themselves, waves rolling out across the crimson sphere like water on the ocean.
Then there is a pulse, a muffled thundercrack and you can see a wind going through the hangar, whipping up a door and snow flowing in.
Then an alert starts blaring, and an older woman speaks up, "Reading a power build-up inside Adam. There's activity throughout the body!"
No more is said, as a rather massive earthquake goes through the building, throwing everybody standing off their feet. This would not be a problem, however, if it weren't for there being people inside the hangar itself, and the sudden shaking has thrown a pair of them off their feet.
Of course, the railings on the platform on which they stand catches them good and proper, safeguarding them from danger.
Not for long are they safe, though. A second pulse shocks the building, which shatters all the glass inside the hangar. It also twists the metal on which the two men are leaning on. Which a mutual shriek they both loose their footing again, and tumble down towards their doom.
They don't fall to the ground, however, as Adam hangs directly below.
And as they reach Adam, something quite disturbing happens, something that makes everyone inside the command centre, even the doctor, gasp in horror and disgust. Although the doctor keeps his cool the best.
The first man, who falls to the left of Adam's S² organ, falls into a fleshy maw that opens in Adam's chest, swallowing the man whole.
The other, who fell directly at the core, simply pops. As if a water ballon filled with a bright amber liquid, his clothes falling to the floor far below and the liquid splashing over the S² organ.
"What just happened?! Report! What happened to those people? And what's the status of Adam?" Dr. Katsuragi looks around, having been the only one so far to wipe the shock from him.
The blonde from before slowly and shakily responds, "The- the men's been absorbed by Adam. One's been physically absorbed into Adam's body and the other entered the core's ambient AT-field. Checking data recording instruments more closely now.."
She takes no long time to do so, and swiftly looks up at Dr. Katsuragi again, then back at the screen. She then starts announcing different things, and with each thing horror once more creeps upon the doctor's face.
"Human DNA diving into the S² organ. It's physically fusing with Adam. It- God Have Mercy..."
The blonde's looked up from the screen again and gazing with sheer, clean horror out through the windows, and some amongst the command crew has already left their seats and ran out the door.
Slowly, Dr. Katsuragi turns his own head towards the windows as the pale white light starts painting everyone's faces. And he sees Adam rise.
It's skin has started glowing a pure luminescent white, even the mechanical components have joined with the being, and it's S² engine has gone from crimson red to pitch black, and seems to've sunken into Adam, showing only as a black disk on the giant's shining skin. And just as Dr. Katsuragi turns his head towards Adam, it blinks, and two pitch black, perfectly circular eyes open, and a slit for a third starts opening in its forehead.
Survival instinct taking over scientific curiosity, he turns on his heel and legs it. He runs like he's never run before, out through the command centre exit and down the staircase.
Misato..
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With a sound like female choirs going through the hangar, Adam lifts its eyes to the hangar's ceiling. And the ceiling promptly melts away in its gaze. The entire hangar begins melting away, and a sound like a generator starting up goes through the air.
And, with a sound like thunder the hangar walls are blown away in Adam's white fire.
Rising from its kneeling position, Adam gazes around itself.
It sees the frozen wastes upon which it has slept for millennia countless. And Adam sees other lifeforms.
The childe of the fruit of wisdom. Descendants of the black moon. Yes. The enemy.
Turning his demonic gaze towards one of the Lilim structures, full of the creatures, a sound like a howling whale fills the entire antarctica. And Adam's eyes flash. The entire structure starts shining a luminescent pink, and then it is engulfed in pink and golden fire as a radiant beam of pure energy shoots into the sky, two pillars extending horizontally outwards forming a cross.
Craning its head around, it sees the Lilim fleeing from Adam. It turns to the flock of fleeing Lilim, and there is a momentary blur in front of the giant of light. And from this air a golden, translucent octagonal wall the size of Adam's chest is materialised in front of its S² organ.
It flickers, and then more layers materialise, of different sizes, and they all pulse out like a spring, crushing the Lilim and shattering the ice beneath them, blood splattering across the broken icy plains like spilled water from so many glasses.
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Running through the underground part of the complex, Dr. Katsuragi curses over and over again. How could this have happened? How could they be so foolish?!
But that doesn't matter now. This place is doomed. There is only one thing he needs to do now.
Panting, he reaches the metal door with the name Katsuragi engraved on it. Using his card he opens the door and fins her sitting in the couch, legs folded up about her and face resting on her knees. When she hears the door opening, however, Misato looks up, fear evident in her eyes.
"Father? What is going on? Why are there noises coming from above and- Is it that-"
"Please, Misato, say no more, we have to leave! Adam has gone rampage, it's killing everyone! I have to get you out of here!" Grabbing Misato by the wrist he drags her along out through the door and out in the other direction from where he came. He need to get her to one of the emergency safety modules. She'll be safe there. He hopes.
Running up a flight of stairs they reach a door leading out into the antarctic day. A good few hundred meters away, still standing in the pit where they excavated it, Adam stands.
And with a roar a pair of attack helicopters comes flying over a nearby building. The excavation site did have a certain military detail along with it, so now they appear to've finally see it fit to do what they were supposed to, and hailing high-explosive ammunition and rockets upon Adam they fly in towards the titanic giant.
But alas, they flew towards their doom. As the second barrage of explosives is sent Adam's way, they freeze mid-air in front of the giant. Then, they're thrown back at the helicopters, one craft exploding and sending debris everywhere. The second is only badly damaged, Dr. Katsuragi sees it tumbling out of the sky. Towards him and Misato.
He gets no time to react. The broken aircraft is thrown against the ground and explodes, shrapnel digging into his arms and chest, a particularly large one slicing his side.
His vision blurry from the shock and from pain, he looks down at Misato's unmoving corpse. Without any major thought he kneels down and checks her pulse. It's there.
He smiles to himself for a moment. And, grunting, he hefts Misato up, and with a steady gaze but somewhat shaky gait he sets his course towards the place where the capsules are.
Around him he can see other military units appearing; tanks, APC's, more helicopters and even a pair of fighters fly overhead. All of them take up positions, firing at Adam. What effect their bombardment has upon Adam he cannot see as he can not even divert enough of his energy to turn his head around. All he can do is hear.
Hear the orders being given over the thunder of guns, and Adam's wailing. He has realised by this point that it is futile. What they've awoken here is no mere creature. They have awoken God himself, and he doesn't seem so content about his current situation.
As Dr. Katsuragi leaves the battlefield behind him he can still hear the creaking of metal being crushed, explosions and the dyings screams of men.
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Turning around and not seeing any greater concentration of it's enemy left, Adam instead turns to the grisly task now ahead of itself.
Rising to full length, stretching its limbs, the S² organ in its chest starts pulsing ever so slightly. And breaking out from its back materialises four radiant white wing-like limbs, rising far above Adam and into the lower troposphere itself, the sky turning into a baleful purple.
A storm is gathering overhead, storm clouds forming into a vortex around Adam's wings, the base camp standing in the eye of the storm. Well, only visually, if anything the wind's worse there than anywhere else.
And with another whale-like howl, Adam starts expanding his anti-AT field.
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His whole life, he's been dedicated to his research, bordering on fanaticism. And this dedication -and success, mind you- have come at the cost of his family. Only a month ago his wife signed the divorce and housing for Misato. He had begged and pleaded to her to at least let Misato stay with him during this test.
But that doesn't matter now. He cannot let this doom fall upon Misato to. There is only one thing he needs to do now.
Entering the half-cylinder shaped hangar, he looks around. There lies one pod on the floor, seeming to've fallen out from the storage containers. He can hear the hangar creaking under the duress that Adam is placing it, and the entire continent too.
Stretching out a bleeding arm, Dr. Katsuragi opens the pod and puts Misato in it. He looks down upon her face, also scarred and blood flowing from her nose. A drop of blood falls from his face and lands upon her cheek, and she slowly wakes up. Her eyes fill with tears, but she says nothing.
He strokes her hair and says a choice few last words, "Take care of mother for me."
The hatch then closes and Misato is sealed shut inside the pod. He lets out a sigh and looks around, feeling his legs shaking under him. He throws his gaze back towards Adam, whom is still standing in the same place, his head turned down slightly.
However, he can see some other movement close to Adam. And with a gasp, he seem the crane with the Lance moving forward.
Adam seems to notice this too, and raises its eyes. However, before it can destroy the crane, the cogwheel motors starts spinning, which launches the Lance forward. The Lance then seems to change shape, the two tines melting in closer together and on the back of the Lance, the wraps fold up partially, revealing some sort of gill-like structures that emits a golden glow, and the Lance shoots out towards Adam with blazing speed.
However, before it can reach Adam's S² organ, it is stopped by another one of the translucent octagonal fields, this time several fields confined within each other, pulsing outwards like waves flowing out from where you've dropped a pebble in the water.
Adam's AT-field holds the Lance away.
Fumbling through his pockets, he picks up a small radio and starts up an open channel, "H-hello? Who is it up in the crane control room?"
After a few moment's silence from the radio, a female voice cracks though the speaker. It's the blonde from earlier. "It's me.. yeah, I survived the bastard's initial attack, and now i'm going to get back at 'im. It seems the Lance is a co-operative fella, wouldn't you say?"
Dr. Katsuragi can get no more words out, however, as he can't tear his eyes from Adam struggling against the Lance. For a few moments the AT-field seems to've held against the Lance, but the field starts flickering, warping around the two tines.
And with a moaning sound from Adam, the AT-field collapses in on itself, the Lance shoots forth and pierces Adam straight through its heart that is the S² organ, the fruit of life. This happens just as the third eye on Adam's forehead opens and a slit in each of its palms open. Adam bends backwards a little, and the Lance lodges itself upon the very top of the red cross that Adam was first found nailed to.
And from the corpses of all the people that Adam killed rises small red orbs, floating through the air towards Adam as if it was absorbing their very souls. Also, a handful -pun not intended- of small red orbs escape each slit in Adam's hand, like fireflies escaping captivity. However, the slits suddenly close on themselves as fast as they opened, sprays of amber liquid splattering out of the slits as they knit themselves. This causes the red orbs that rose from the dead people to start vibrating and then simply disappear, and screams can be heard through the devastated camp.
Then, a pulse goes through Adam's S² organ as the god-like being looses control of the black heart, and upon the Lance's tines flesh tumours start growing and vein-like lines form upon the solid metal-esk surface. There is another pulse, and the S² organ suddenly implodes, then to explodes outwards again, but instead of its original spherical form it takes the shape of a seventeen-edged star, each pillar reaching vertically about as far away from the core as Adam's forearm is long.
The red orbs that exited Adam's hands earlier then rises up to Adam's S² organ, and distributes themselves amongst the black star's seventeen pillars, one for each.
As if things couldn't get more bizarre, Dr. Katsuragi thinks as he witnesses what happens next. At the absolute edge of each of the star's pillars, a wheel-like structure is shaped, each with dozens of spokes. Then a second wheel within the first wheel is formed, and upon the outward surface of each wheel a hundred eyes form and open. Each structure is about as large as Adam's head.
Dr. Katsuragi can observe this event no longer, however, as a shrieking sound goes through the antarctic, and Adam, in its death throes, suddenly pulses out its anti-AT field, instantly killing everything within roughly 15 million km². And then, as Adam's S² organ collapses in on itself and the titan is no longer able to keep the energy controlled, a hellfire that humbles even the mightiest of nuclear weapons on earth combined consumes antarctica and melts the polar ice cap completely.
Second Impact has occurred.
