Standing thirty stories high JetAlone stared into the darkness of the steel hanger it was now confined in. A gargantuan testament to supposed Japanese technological superiority in red and white metal, JetAlone had been created to become Japan's defender and a shining, dynamic avatar of the "New" Japan built after the Second Impact catastrophe. But after a disastrous maiden deployment that ended in failure and embarrassment the giant robot had been deactivated and decommissioned and consigned to its home in the outskirts of Old Tokyo on the former engineering testing grounds of the Japan Heavy Chemical Industries Corporation (or JHCI).
Because JetAlone contained a heavy water nuclear reactor as its primary power source, the robot couldn't simply be disassembled because of the several kilograms of uranium at its reactor core that could not be safely removed without extensive and expensive efforts. Instead JetAlone just sat inside of its old hanger collecting dust while the former owners of JHCI fought each other in the courts about who owned it and who would have the rights to either demolish it or try and re-start the research project anew.
Now JetAlone was only a footnote in a much larger saga, and if anyone on the street was asked what "JetAlone" was most would be hard pressed to remember anything about it. A few might recall that it was a competing prototype to the Evangelion, but nothing more than that.
But ask those same persons "what was Evangelion" and then you'd get an answer from just about anyone: gigantic biomechanical units, some piloted by anonymous teenagers, that were used to fight the so-called "Angels," meta-physical monsters from parts unknown and then later to fight amongst each other to the near destruction of the Earth itself. Even three years after the Angel War, the Evangelions still filled the human imagination with awe and dread, and the events of that war were so wide-reaching that everyone still had a strong opinion on it.
Time had passed however and three years later even Evangelion was less in the news and now more the subject of history and of popular culture. The world had strived to put the horrors of the war behind them and the UN, one-world government was gone as were the old, evil men behind it. Those who remained on Earth felt freer than they had been in a long while and had set about recreating the world and trying to put as much distance between themselves and the very unpleasant memories of the recent past. And that rush to a better future had left JetAlone behind, alone and abandoned in its steel eggshell, a titanic-sized testament to human failure. So, the white and red painted robot stood silently and waited for its fate.
As JHCI was still in litigation hell a holding company named Murobachi Combine had the current legal custodial rights to the JHCI assets, including JetAlone, but Murobachi couldn't do anything with JA as the robot became to be called until the lawsuits were finished. So, it simply padlocked the steel hanger where it remained and posted a solitary guard on it.
On a cold February night Takeru Shoji drew the short stick and was posted to stand guard outside JA's hanger. Takeru was one of several security guards hired by Murobachi to secure the old JHCI grounds, and each week they'd take turns to randomly draw out who got to guard JA. Because of JetAlone's still functioning if dormant nuclear reactor it was a thankless task to stand there for eight hours strapped to a radiation monitor and "guard" a fifty-meter tall robot, so the job was assigned by drawing straws. That night Takeru drew badly and ended up standing in front of the hanger.
Dressed in a dark blue security uniform with parka, gloves, and a wool cap, Takeru looked around to see if anyone else was in view. The JHCI testing facility was several kilometers long, and with only a handful of hired guards and no one else here he found himself practically abandoned, much like JA itself he mused. Seeing that the coast was clear, Takeru broke with the facility rules and pulled out a cigarette and lit it in the cold, breezy night.
What a stupid job this was, the guard thought to himself as he looked down at the small electronic box harnessed to his utility belt. The unit was a Geiger detector, warn in case anything happened with JA's reactor. There was a slight amount of activity that crackled and lit up the unit the whole night, as JA still had highly enriched uranium in its fuel rods. So much for me having healthy kids, he cursed as he took a long drag from his cigarette and blew out the smoke into the night.
Takeru couldn't help but think of an old comedy movie from England set in medieval times, one he had seen while he was younger. In the film there was a ridiculous scene where a guard is arguing with his master about what his job was, and a misunderstanding ensues where the guard thinks he is guarding another guard instead of some prince. That's what I'm doing here, he thought, why the hell do I have to guard this thing, like someone's going to just walk in and steal it? I'm pretty sure you turned that thing on it could take care of itself, yeah?
He took another long drag on his cigarette and then heard a slight crackling sound. Looking down onto his belt Takeru saw the radiation monitor had significantly spiked up.
What the hell, he wondered as the needle on the Geiger counter jumped far to the right. Did JA's reactor just suddenly go haywire? Before he could do anything else the guard heard a loud banging against the steel walls of the enclosure and looked upward. Takeru could see dents being formed in the steel walls high up in the structure that were being created from inside the hanger.
The guard fumbled for his radio as the banging became louder. Suddenly there was a deafening crash and the giant steel doors in the structure bent out and away from the edges, being pried open by two giant mechanical hands. Takeru looked upwards and saw a glowing light shining from JA's head, its visual sensors were turned on with lights facing forward, and it was moving.
"HOLY SHIT!" the guard screamed as he rushed to get out of the giant robot's way as he wrestled with the radio controls while panicked. Takeru finally got the radio out and working, and then shouted into the microphone to his supervisor.
"JA! JA's moving!"
An annoyed voice came back on the audio. "Seriously, Takeru? Are you smoking weed again?"
The guards screamed back the reply as he watched the robot tear its way out of the hanger and step outside. "JA's fucking moving, I tell you! It just broke out of the hanger!"
"So what do you want me to do?" The annoyed voice came replied. "Call the Air Force? NERV? Ultraman?"
As he argued with his disbelieving supervisor, Takeru watched as JetAlone stood on the concrete tarmac and looked around. The robot then swiveled towards the northwest and then started walking briskly, its gargantuan arms swinging as it picked up speed. With its long stride it only took a few seconds for JA to make its way out of the compound and into the darkness of the Kanto plain.
Frustrated with his supervisor's attitude, the guard screamed into the radio microphone as he watched JA run out of view "I'm telling you again, you moron! Jet Alone has escaped!"