Authors Note: This is my first ever fic written for NaNoWriMo 2013. Between inexperience, rushed time-frame and no beta-reader it is bound to be full of glaring errors and just be plain awful, so be warned. It is basically a NGE fic with a DBZ character inserted, so familiarity with NGE is much more important than DBZ.
Neon Genesis Evangelion: Just a Boy
Chapter 1: Two worlds, white nothingness between.
"Can we... just... rest here... a bit... please Gohan?"
The boy looked up from his training session snack over to his father. Goku was no longer a Super Saiyan, laying on the white ground of the Hyperbolic Time Chamber breathing heavily. Was his father feigning this exhaustion? Gohan had wondered for a while but in the last couple of days he was becoming sure.
'Dad is holding back, but why? Maybe he thinks I'm not up to it after all.'
At first, Gohan was concerned that maybe the heart virus had came back, but as his father had recovered to normal after a big meal and a full night of sleep that couldn't be it. Not that day or night exist here, just sand falling down the hourglass. He was startled out of his train of thought by the loud rasp of his father snoring beside him.
"Oh well, guess we're sleeping here 'tonight' then, huh Dad?"
Gohan relaxed as he lay down nearer to his father for warmth on the cold surface. Somehow he always went to sleep as a Super Saiyan but no matter how much he concentrated to hold onto the transformation, he without fail woke up normal again without any memory of powering down. Slowly, his thoughts drifted off into dreams, trying solve the puzzle of why his father was going easy on him.
When Gohan awoke he realised his father wasn't there. He quickly gathered his bearings and felt the bright light in his mind of his father back at the doorway to this strange dimension, by the feel of it he was sleeping. Wondering why his father hadn't woken him or carried him back to a real bed, he turned to fly back to the doorway when from the corner of his eye, he caught a glimpse of something odd. This place manifested mountains of fire and ice during training sometimes, or perhaps they appeared through the subconscious will of those training? Usually this 'room' was simply empty, a vast expanse of nothingness, a huge white blank slate. Curious, Gohan turned his attention to the new apparition. He couldn't make it out other than being vaguely humanoid in form, it appeared somehow both massive and tiny, perspective was an issue in a place with no horizon after all. Looking between this thing and the safety of the doorway, he felt nervous. Sure, he could just reach out with his mind to his father to find his way back, but still, leaving sight of the doorway was disconcerting. He steeled himself, flashed into his resting Super Saiyan state and flew with trepidation towards the object of his curiosity.
As he neared the thing, he turned his head and was pleased to see that although it was tiny, the doorway was still within eyesight and his father's light was as bright as ever in his mind. Focusing again on the object, it was indeed huge. Roughly the size of Oozaru Vegeta from memory, though proportioned differently with absurdly long arms, legs and body. It looked like a massive purple robotic demon with green highlights, like it was some sports car with a fancy paint job. Looking closer he noticed a spherical bubble around the thing. It was perfectly clear and only became visible as his movements so close to it had disturbed the air, causing it to ripple like throwing a stone into a pond. Curious, he reached out to touch the bubble. His fingers passed though it as if it wasn't there but it felt warm. His fingers were unharmed so he reached in a little further, this time inserting his forearm up to the elbow, he gasped. Where the surface of this bubble was pleasantly warm like body temperature, inside it was deathly cold. He ignited his aura and his arm was once more comfortable, so he proceeded to put his body in further, but not completely. Once his head went through he started, the light of his father was gone! Pulling his head back out of the bubble his father's presence reappeared in his mind. Gulping, he pushed fully inside the bubble and felt his father disappear once more. Once fully inside the bubble he found himself floating as if in the vacuum of space, except he could breathe. To be sure he tried to leave the bubble once more and found no resistance, once again sensing his father.
Feeling reassured that it was safe, he passed back through the invisible wall to inspect this giant robot thing more closely. Flying around in the zero gravity bubble was weird at first, but he quickly got the hang of using his energy to slow down as much as speed up. Inspecting the joints of the giant he quickly realised it wasn't a robot at all but really some kind of giant being wearing this armour like a massive, grotesque fairytale knight. Feeling out with his mind he was shocked to discover a human presence inside. It felt like a boy not much older than he was, and if he wasn't mistaken the older boy was an inch from death. Disturbed, Gohan flew around the thing trying to figure out of the boy was the armoured giant or inside it. Recognising another presence he realised it was the latter, but also that the boy was somehow in the back of the neck and upper chest of the thing. Plates of armour there appeared to be able to move so he flew down & tried to pull them apart. At that moment, the giant beast's eyes glowed as it awoke and roared, punching its fist through the transparent bubble around them. Transfixed, Gohan saw the bubble glow orange with a pattern of octagons, with a bleeding tear around the forearm of the armoured beast. Terror gripped him and he powered up and tried to fly out of the sphere as quickly as he could, but his head impacted hard against the glowing orange now solid surface of the bubble. He felt a sensation of falling before both his eyes and vision went black.
Asuka was in position next to the Angel inside Unit-02 listening to the radio chatter...
"Both Evas are in position and standing by."
"AT Fields are ready to generate"
"Roger"
"T-Minus sixty seconds to mine drop"
Another wave of guilt came over her that perhaps she had goaded him into this recklessness... She mentally shook herself, 'Stupid idiot Shinji got himself killed, this isn't my fault.' Maybe if she kept telling herself that she would believe it?
Suddenly the shadow and the ground beneath it started cracking, her eyes widened.
"What in the hell is that!"
The shadowy sphere in the sky started to ripple and shake before it was punctured from the inside out by the fist of an Evangelion. She gasped. The trickle of blood quickly became a torrent as Unit-01's head emerged, then it tore the sphere apart, roaring in a horrifying display of gore. A mixed feeling of awe and terror descended on her.
"My God, is that what I'm piloting?"
The Angel exploded and Unit-01 landed on the ground in a rainstorm of the Angel's blood. Asuka was too focused on Shinji's miraculous yet gruesome return to notice another smaller figure falling to the ground amongst the mess of red, however those watching the transmission back in Nerv Headquarters were more observant.
"Sempai, did you see that?"
"Yes Maya, please go back and play it again. Half speed and full zoom on the unknown object."
Maya gasped, "Is that a boy?"
Ritsuko's eyes narrowed, "We don't know what 'it' is yet Maya, nothing else that went into the Dirac Sea such as the Eva's weapon, nor any of the buildings or cars came back through when Unit-01 escaped the Angel. Even if a person was in one of the buildings that disappeared I doubt they would have returned alive or dead, plus look at those odd clothes. What do the Magi say?"
"No pattern, as far as we can tell from here he is human."
"Okay, have the recovery team put 'him' in quarantine until we figure out what 'he' really is, for all we know this could be the Angel in another form or yet another Angel... and don't let Misato or the Children near 'him', I have no doubt she'll be too busy bawling her eyes in Shinji's plug right now but you never know."
"Yes Sempai."
Gohan woke up in a stark white room, though by the merest of glances it was clearly not the Hyperbolic Time Chamber. He took in his surroundings; he was on a bed in a hospital gown with a few monitors attached to him, there were also some restraints laying loose over the sides of the bed as if they had been recently removed.
"Ah, hello sleepy head." came a cheerful female voice.
Gohan started, turning to see a slight young woman with short brown hair rising from a chair picking up a small hand-held electronic device. He opened up his mind a little further.
"My name is Maya." she gestured to herself, "Can you understand me?"
"Um, yes. My name is Gohan, where am I?"
"In a hospital in Tokyo-3. Tell me, what do you remember?"
"Tokyo-3? I was..." he paused, confused.
As the memories flooded back, he had no idea how much to share with this person. Only a handful of people on earth knew of Kami's Lookout or... he gasped. With more than a hint of panic in his voice he continued.
"What about Cell? Where is my Dad?"
Puzzled, the young woman replied, "Cell? Is this a person or a place? I'm not sure who your father is, can you tell me his name and I assume your common surname? Any other relatives? Also, how old are you? The more you can tell me the better chance I have of finding your family."
'She won't know the name Cell but she must know about what he is doing, it was all over the news.' Gohan thought to himself. He noticed her gesturing on the electronic device & surmised it must be a hand-held computer of some sort. He continued a little less panicked than before but still far from calm.
"The people disappearing everywhere leaving empty clothes, whole towns vanish at a time, it started in Gingertown. Cell is the name of the monster killing everyone. My Dad's name is Goku, my Mom's is Chi-Chi and our surname is Son, I'm almost 12. Or is it 11 outside the Hyperbolic Time Chamber, hrm..." he drifted off.
She looked up, a little confused glancing to a security camera Gohan previously hadn't noticed in the corner near the ceiling. Of course they were being watched as well as listened to, he noted the earpiece in Maya wore.
"I've never heard of a place called Gingertown. I am unaware of whole towns of people disappearing due to a monster. There are the Angels of course but we've thus far been able to keep casualties to a minimum." '...except for those in the UN fleet when the 6th Angel attacked.' she continued in her head. "I'll just input that data on your family, one moment."
Angels? Gohan noticed a look of sadness cross her face as she looked back down to her screen. She looked puzzled for a minute then put her hand to her earpiece to listen, unknown to her he could hear the transmission.
"Okay Maya, this is why you are doing this instead of me. I am aware I am perceived as being too blunt or harshwith children. Be kind and reassuring and ask the next question. His DNA came back mostly human but not quite so he may well be from another world and was trapped in the Dirac Sea from there."
After reading her device, she then looked him in the eyes with an expression that was both serious and curious at the same time, but not angry.
"I have no record of you under that name, are you being completely honest with me? It is ok, you are safe here and can tell me anything."
Gohan had feared the giant robot thing had taken him out of the Hyperbolic Time Chamber into another world and what he overheard all but confirmed it. He sensed that the voice over that earpiece had been correct, that this Maya was a nice person that he could trust.
"I don't think I'm from around here..."
He explained about his encounter with the giant armoured being that he thought had a boy inside it and how he thinks it must have dragged him from the altered time dimension he was training with his father in to here, an alternate earth. He explained they were training to defeat Cell and the room let them spend a year inside while only a day passed outside. He noticed her eyebrows raise a number of times yet she kept quiet and patiently waited until he had finished.
"Maya, can you ask him to demonstrate what he means by fly and by this Super Saying?"
"I can hear you you know, and it is 'Super Saiyan'." Gohan replied to the voice slightly annoyed, before he blushed feeling guilty for eavesdropping. Looking down towards his feet he murmured, "Sorry."
The door opened and a slightly older and taller woman with bleached blonde hair entered the room, Maya stepped back behind her.
"Hello Gohan, my name is Dr Ritsuko Akagi. I apologise for the deception, children tend not to like me so I thought my assistant Lt. Maya Ubuki would be a more suitable first contact person for you to meet. So, I take it you have some kind of super hearing, or is it psychic abilities? Is that what you mean by 'Super Saiyan'?"
"Well, I kind of have both super hearing and telepathic abilities, actually. Though Super Saiyan is something else again."
Both of their eyes widened hearing his voice in their minds while his smiling mouth stayed firmly shut.
"Sorry, that was actually pretty hard to do, I've never done it before other than with people like my Dad and Mr Piccolo, I doubt I could have done it if you weren't in the room with me."
The younger woman fell back into the chair behind her but the Doctor while clearly disturbed, outwardly composed herself. She hoped if he did have these kind of abilities, others watching would be able to save them if need be. She shuddered at the thought that he may have already disabled the cameras or altered their minds with no way for her to know it had already happened.
"Can you read our minds then? Or insert thoughts into them? Wipe memories?"
"No, just talking telepathically. My Dad did read my mind once, though he didn't teach me how to do it and he had to put his hand on my head to do it." He paused looking thoughtful, "I guess in a way talking telepathically is kind of inserting thoughts someone's head isn't it? I mean, I can't hear your thoughts unless you could telepathically talk back to me, it is kind of a one way thing I guess."
He paused for a breath before continuing, "When I said I could hear you before, I meant I could hear the little speaker in Maya's ear. Both my hearing and vision are much more sensitive than most people's. Also I could sense you in the next room; I can sense people all around here actually, but that is a different kind of sense to sight and hearing. I can feel people's life forces in my mind." He paused again, looking thoughtful, "Actually all of my abilities beyond those of normal people are life force based now I think about it, including the telepathic conversations, flight and other things. I mean, I don't think I could talk to an android telepathically if they were purely mechanical, even if their AI was so advanced that they were sentient as they aren't alive, I guess a soul matters too then."
Suddenly he cut off his digression looking worried, "Speaking of robots, was there really a boy inside that big... I guess cyborg thing? I'm pretty sure it was alive and not a robot, because I sensed two presences, a boy and something I didn't understand. Did it eat the boy or did you get him out? His life force was fading right before I got knocked out."
Still uneasy, both about this boys abilities and apparent intelligence for his young age, Ritsuko continued on, "You are essentially correct, that big thing is a cyborg. It is what we call an Evangelion, or shortened to Eva, in this case Evangelion Unit-01. The boy you sensed inside is the pilot and his life support systems were failing, it is a miracle that he is alive. He is actually in this very hospital in a less secure area and is expected to make a full recovery."
Gohan paused & let his senses feel out his surroundings further than the next couple of rooms he had already automatically felt. "He is about two floors up and sleeping at the moment, I sense someone in the room with him and someone else just outside his room, girls his age I think?"
Ritsuko and Maya simultaneously checked the surveillance footage of Shinji's room via their hand-held computers, sure enough he was asleep with Rei sitting at his bedside and Asuka was sitting just outside his room. Their eyes widened for what felt like the millionth time today when they saw Shinji wake up and start talking to Rei, suddenly the boy in the room with them spoke.
"Oh, I think he just woke up? I'm glad he is ok."
Maya was sitting staring at the now smiling boy with her mouth agape, the Doctor continued her questioning.
"So, you can pinpoint the location of people you are familiar with and even tell the gender of those you are 'sensing'?"
"Yes, to a degree. Everyone's light in my mind is different, I guess it may be their souls and their life energy together that I can sense. I've honestly never really thought about it that much but that must be why they are unique."
"As amazing as that ability is, would you mind moving on and showing us some other things you can do like flight? If you need more room we can arrange somewhere else for you to demonstrate. Also, could please explain this 'Super Saiyan' thing, what is a 'Saiyan' and what is so super about it?"
In answer the boy got out of his bed, then started to levitate about a foot off the floor.
"Obviously I'd have to be outside to go faster, I'm not actually sure exactly how fast I am other than faster than the sound barrier. My altitude is pretty much limited by my ability to hold my breath, I can protect against the temperature and pressure changes with my aura, which looks like this."
He was suddenly surrounded by a flame like plume of white light, he then relaxed floating back down to the floor and the light faded out. Both of the women's eyes were bugging out of their heads.
"Can I ask you a question please Doctor Akagi?"
"I can't guarantee an answer but sure, go ahead"
"You mentioned the, um, Eva and I were in what you called a Dirac Sea, I think that is what I referred to at the Hyperbolic Time Chamber, or at least maybe a portal into it." Pleading in his eyes, he finished simply, "Can you help me get home?"
She sighed, "I honestly don't know. When the Angel opened up the Dirac Sea and swallowed up Eva Unit-01 and a bit over a city block of Tokyo-3 it was the first experience of one we have ever encountered, previously it was just something in a theoretical Physics textbook." Seeing him sit back on the edge of his bed looking sorrowful, she continued, "But you never know, we have made unbelievable advances in the past fifteen years since Second Impact, we might be able to send you home some day but it would likely be at best months or years in the future, not days or weeks. I'm sorry."
Ritsuko felt awkward as the boy started to cry, luckily Maya sprang to her feet and hugged him straight away. This was exactly why she had sent Maya first, she simply couldn't comfort people. When the boy had calmed down and composed himself, her assistant sat back down so the blonde scientist asked her next question.
"Can you explain what a Saiyan is?"
Wiping his eyes, he explained, "'Saiyan' is the name of a race of aliens from another planet. They are visually and genetically almost indistinguishable from humans except for monkey like tails and a few other special life force energy related traits. I was born with a tail but it was removed, it is kind of a safety thing that is hard to explain, it also lets me blend in with normal humans. My father is one of only two full blooded Saiyans left alive in the universe, sorry... my universe." He sniffled and wiped an eye again, "Neither my father nor the other survivor Vegeta have tails any more either. My mother is a normal human so I'm half and half, though it seems most of the special Saiyan genes are dominant. Humans can do all the stuff I've shown you if they learn how, I could teach you in theory if you were open to it."
Mind boggled and unsure if they could take any more of this, Dr Akagi asked one more question.
"So, does 'Super Saiyan' just mean you are an exceptional Saiyan?"
"It is actually a transformation, I'll show you in a moment."
He paused and closed his eyes to centre himself, a few moments later he reopened his eyes.
"When I first learnt how to do it it was quite destructive, I'd probably have blown up the bed & knocked you into the walls. I'm good enough at it now I won't damage anything, but as it is tied to emotions I had to calm myself down first. Are you ready?"
The women, eyebrows raised, nodded in unison. Gohan nodded back & transformed. They saw his eyes had gone from black to greenish blue and his hair and eyebrows from black to a golden blonde. Bizarrely he appeared slightly taller even more well muscled than he already was.
"My aura goes gold too, though that might be a little much in this small room so I didn't..."
Suddenly alarms went off on both women's hand-held terminals. Looking at their devices, Maya went white as a ghost while the Doctor gasped, then dragged her assistant from the room locking the door behind them with a loud 'thunk'. Gohan stared at the door perplexed.
"What do you mean by 'Pattern: Unknown' Dr. Akagi?"
Ritsuko looked across the desk to the commander, unreadable with tented fingers in front of his reflective glasses as always.
"When he transformed into what he called 'Super Saiyan', the Magi alerted us that a new pattern had been detected, it couldn't have been a coincidence so we'd assumed he was a new type of Angel and pretty much ran for our lives. Clearly if he meant us harm we wouldn't have been able to leave the room, in fact I doubt the building would still be there."
"Explain."
"Upon further analysis all the Magi really came up with was errors. No AT fields detected, all tests including his DNA revealed the boy to be closer to a normal human than Rei yet still not totally human, I can't explain it though it does all fit his story. The most concerning thing after the Pattern error is the sheer power the Magi registered from him, it is comparable to the S2 engine within an Angel. He mentioned his transformation was destructive when he had first attained it and with these readings I don't doubt that at all, he is potentially as dangerous as a living N2 mine, even though he has shown no signs of hostility at all during all our monitoring from the moment he arrive in this world."
"Keep him confined and continue studying him, perhaps he contains the key to another power source as an alternative to S2 engines to give us an edge over the old men. A much more secure location may be in order but I'll leave the particulars to you. Dismissed"
"Yes sir."
Once she had shut the door, Sub-commander Fuyutsuki stepped to the front of the desk where Ritsuko has been moments before.
"Well, this is unexpected."
"Thank you for stating the obvious, Professor"
"The Dead Sea Scrolls said nothing about this, it seems unlikely something this strange won't impact the scenario. And what of SEELE, surely they will know about this?"
"For now we have nothing to tell them so if they ask we simply tell the truth. As for the scenario, time will tell. The S2 test at Second Branch is still scheduled for next week is it not? Nothing has really changed, yet."
Gohan had been left alone for quite some time now, hours at a guess. Seeing as the room was almost empty and had no windows, he had alternated between pacing back and forth and meditating, at present he was doing the latter and had noticed more people come back to just outside his room including the Doctor from before, he felt anxiety radiating from them. Suddenly a speaker crackled into life carrying her now sharp voice.
"Gohan, can you please transform back to normal?"
"Uh, okay."
Moments after he let his power fall away from him he heard a hiss, then a strange odour found its way to his nose. If they were gassing him apparently they weren't going to help him get home any time soon, he sighed.
"This won't work you know, I could have escaped any time I wanted to. I'd just hoped you might help me get home."
In answer a dozen armed men wearing gas masks burst into the room. Rolling his eyes he quickly removed all the masks and dropped them in the next room at the feet of the stunned but still masked Dr Akagi. She stared at him in silence as the last of the men passed out and hit the floor with a dull thud.
"I haven't done anything to hurt you, why are you doing this?"
Fear colouring her voice, she tried to explain, "You must understand, you have unbelievable powers and contain an unfathomable amount of energy. Your mere existence is threatening."
"I need time to think, seeing as you are probably my only hope of ever getting home I will come back. Just, please don't try to follow me, I don't want to hurt anyone."
Ritsuko blinked and he was gone.