I'm going to clear up a few things before I continue:
If you're looking for a deep, philosophical story about existentialism and whatnot, stop right here. This is basically a fever dream of mine where Guts just fucks shit up in the Eva world, and it probably won't get much more complex than that.
There probably won't be any ships, at least with the Eva characters.
Things from the original Eva story may be changed for plot convenience.
This is Black Swordsman Guts, before he formed his new squad and all that.
Chapter 2
"I didn't expect to see an Angel here. This isn't part of the plan, is it?"
Kaji talked rather nonchalantly into the phone in his room aboard the Over the Rainbow, where outside all hell was breaking loose. He peeled open the blinds to one of the portholes and looked out of it, seeing a massive wave that moved far too unnaturally darting around the carrier battlegroup. The sounds of the batteries sending off round after round hammered his ears and shook the entire cabin, and plumes of smoke could be seen off in the distance from ships that were unlucky enough to have taken a direct impact from the mysterious entity. Kaji was rather disappointed, honestly; he was having the time of his life "catching up" with Misato.
"An attack such as this is specifically the reason you have Unit 02 with you," another indifferent voice replied on the other end of the line, "and I've graciously given you a second pilot as a reserve. Besides, if worst comes to worst, you know you can escape on your own, right?"
Kaji put down the binoculars he was using to look out into the Pacific and sighed slightly.
"Yeah, I know that."
"Anfang der Bewegung. Anfang des Nervenanschlusses. Auslösen von Linksneigung."
The pilot of Unit 02, Asuka Langley Sohryu, spoke inside of her Entry Plug. Asuka was ecstatic to hear that an Angel was attacking them, as this would be the perfect time to show off her, in her opinion, amazing piloting skills to the Third Child who was also crammed into the cockpit with the fiery redhead. Shinji was a little cute, she admitted to herself, but his personality was about as tasteful as a glass of tap water. Nevertheless, that forty percent sync ratio he had for his first time ever piloting an Evangelion both impressed and annoyed her. Asuka spent years training to pilot, and here comes this kid doing things the Second Child could only dream of when she was first starting out. 'Whatever. It's not like I care what his sync ratios are or that he's killed three Angels or anything.'
"Synchro, start!" Asuka called out and the Entry Plug filled up with LCL and began to flash through various patterns. All was going well, until everything went dark and a glowing red error sign surrounded the pilots.
"Program error! What happened?" Shinji called out from his position behind Asuka. It was rather cramped in the Entry Plug, Shinji thought to himself, as he was only centimeters away from Asuka. It didn't help that he was forced to put on a plug suit that was one size too small and obviously created for a member of the opposite sex. 'This is humiliating.'
"There's too much thought noise, stupid!" Asuka shouted back to him. "Try thinking in German!" Shinji gulped and looked up at the curved ceiling of the Entry Plug, trying to recite what limited German he knew, which was basically anything he heard Asuka say in the short time he met her.
"Uh...Der von des —"
"Ugh, forget it!" Asuka shouted aggressively, rudely interrupting Shinji's thought process. "I'll just switch the language to basic Japanese. Happy, Third?"
'She's rather feisty,' Shinji thought to himself, his eyes staring at the back of Asuka's head and taking in those long, gorgeous, silky smooth orange locks of hers. 'Oh well. At least she's attractive.'
The Entry Plug once again flashed through various patterns, this time without a hitch in the system. Asuka crinkled her brow and leaned forward slightly, getting her body ready for the ensuing fight.
"Unit 02, activate!" At Asuka's command the giant mech slowly began to rise, its massive red body still cloaked by the tarp being used to conceal it during its transportation to Japan.
"No! Abort the activation sequence!"
"Don't listen to him, Asuka! Go for it!"
"What are you doing!? Eva and its pilot are under our control!"
"What are you talking about!? This is an emergency!"
The sounds of Misato and the captain arguing over the loudspeakers carried over the two pilots.
"You do know Unit 02 is still using the B-type equipment, right? If we fall into the ocean, we'll sink like a rock!"
"Yes, but if we don't fall in we'll be fine, alright?" Asuka argued back. She was starting to get a little cranky and just wanted to jump off this ship and kill the Angel.
The Angel, Gaghiel, suddenly shifted course underwater and began to charge directly at the ship holding Unit 02, the waves its movements created spraying seawater everywhere and nearly tipping some of the smaller vessels over because of how fast it was moving.
"Here it comes!" Shinji said a tad nervously. Despite having three confirmed Angel kills under his belt, the sight and thought of fighting them still scared the Third Child. Asuka caught the small crack in his voice and shook her head slightly, starting to question that forty percent sync ratio.
"Launching!" Asuka called out and jumped off of the ship. Gaghiel careened into the spot where Unit 02 was standing only a second earlier, splitting the ship in two and sending debris flying in all directions. Asuka shifted the trajectory of her Eva mid-air and landed on another destroyer nearby, her eyes frantically scanning the waters for her enemy. The now tattered tarp still clung to the Eva's body like a cape.
"Where is it?"
"That way!" Shinji answered, pointing to Asuka's left. The Second Child wanted to go directly towards the Angel, but there was a bigger issue at hand.
"We only have 58 seconds of power!" Asuka heard her copilot yell behind her.
"I know that! Misato, get the external power supply socket onto the flight deck!"
"I'm on it!" she heard the purple-haired woman call out. Asuka's attention reverted back to Gaghiel, which was charging at them from underwater once again. "Hang on, Third! We're gonna jump!"
"Jump?" Shinji repeated, before he suddenly felt his stomach rise up into his throat as Asuka threw the tarp away and began to hop from ship to ship to reach the power cord. The threat of Gaghiel's presence took a back seat momentarily to Asuka's rather reckless piloting. 'I'm going to be sick,' Shinji thought to himself.
"The power socket is in place! The deck is ready for Eva landing!" Everyone on board braced for impact as Asuka landed on the carrier. Despite the vessel's massive size, the sheer weight of Unit 02 still sent almost all of its fighter jets overboard and nearly capsized the ship itself.
"This is ridiculous," the captain muttered, picking himself off of the floor. The amount of money all of this would cost was already making the seafaring man sweat. That, or the fact that a giant monster was trying to kill them all. Misato and Kensuke, who had his one eye glued to his video camera, slowly lifted their heads out the window, and Toji lay face down on the floor, a bruise on his cheek from Misato's elbow.
Despite the speed that Asuka jumped at, Gaghiel never let up and was closing in fast. "It's coming in at nine o'clock!" she heard Shinji exclaim. The redhead quickly kneeled and moved Unit 02's arm behind her and found the socket, inserting it into the back of the Evangelion.
"Switch to external power complete!" Asuka said. The Eva stood back up and turned to face its enemy, which was still darting around underwater.
"How are we going to fight," asked Shinj, "we don't have any weapons."
"No worries. The progressive knife should be enough," Asuka replied. A compartment in Unit 02's left shoulder opened and the hilt of a knife slid out. Asuka grabbed the knife with the Eva's right hand, thrust both arms outwards, and flipped the blade open. As Asuka braced herself and her Evangelion, the blade began to glow a faint pink.
As Gaghiel swam closer with alarming speed it poked its head out of the water, giving the two pilots their first good look at what they were up against. It was tan in color and had a large, long mouth that no doubt held rows of razor sharp teeth. Even though its head was the only part of its body exposed, there was no doubt that Gaghiel was a large Angel and dwarfed Unit 02 with ease.
"It's huge," Shinji said more to himself than to Asuka. The redhead had to agree with the Third Child. The only option for dealing with a head-on attack from Gaghiel, like what was going to happen right now, would be to dodge. Unfortunately for Asuka she could do no such thing, as there were no more ships in the vicinity she could safely jump on. Even if there were, Misato and everyone else were still onboard, and Gaghiel would no doubt effortlessly destroy the carrier if nothing was done to stop the Angel.
"Brace yourselves!" Asuka called out. Her warning came just in time, as Gaghiel suddenly jumped out of the water and dove onto Unit 02, rocking the aircraft carrier and sending even more planes and debris up into the air and into the ocean.
The damage would have been far more severe, however, had Asuka not grabbed Gaghiel at the last moment and moved him just shy of the control tower where everyone was currently taking shelter. Her progressive knife, during the impact, managed to escape from her grip and was currently embedded on the flight deck on the other side of the Angel.
"Scheisse," Asuka grunted, straining her body to keep the monstrous Angel at bay. Suddenly, as Gaghiel was slowly pushing Unit 02 back, its foot stepped on one of the jet lifts and caved in under the weight, causing Asuka, Shinji, and the Angel to fall into the ocean.
"Asuka!" Misato called out, "it's impossible to fight underwater with B-type equipment!"
"You'll never know unless you try!" was Asuka's reply, but she wasn't putting up much of a fight at the moment. Gaghiel had the Eva in its mouth and was currently dragging it through the underwater ruins of an old pre-Impact city.
"How much cable is left?" Misato asked, glancing at the giant spool of wire that gave power to Unit 02 unwinding rapidly.
"About another 1200 meters," was the answer. Those 1200 meters didn't last long, and Misato quickly warned everyone to prepare for the shock. The cable went taught and simultaneously rocked the ship and freed Unit 02 from Gaghiel. As the submerged Eva helplessly drifted in the deep waters, Gaghiel started to turn itself around to launch another strike.
"Oh my God! A Yak 38 Custom!"
Kensuke's cry of amazement drew Misato's attention away from the ocean where Unit 02 and Gaghiel resided and to the flight deck. One of the last operational lifts on the Over the Rainbow slowly brought up a blue jet. Inside that blue jet was none other than Kaji.
"Hey! Katsuragi!" he called out from the copilot's cockpit.
"Kaji!" Misato smiled and leaned out the window of the control tower, which had subsequently lost all of its glass after Gaghiel crashed into Unit 02. Misato was, for a change, glad to see her ex-lover, as he would hopefully be able to help her get Asuka and Shinji out of their current predicament.
At least, that's what she thought.
Kaji flipped the visor on his helmet up and looked at Misato, flashing her a sheepish grin. "I've got something to deliver, so I'll be taking off now."
Flabbergasted, Misato watched as Kaji's jet took off from the deck and started flying God knows where. Misato stared into the horizon where the jet disappeared off into for some time, her mind still processing what happened. Toji, standing right next to her, was equally floored.
"He ran away. I don't believe it."
"Dammit," Asuka yelled, her knuckles going white underneath her plug suit gloves from gripping the control sticks too hard. She yanked the yokes frantically in every direction possible, but nothing would make the Eva respond. "Why won't anything work!?"
"It's because this is B-type equipment." Shinji said wearily, doubting what Misato warned Asuka about earlier stayed between her ears.
"What are we going to do!?" Asuka looked back and asked, panic evident on her face. Shinji just sighed; there wasn't much someone who was crammed in the back of an Entry Plug could do."You're the Third Child, aren't you? Do something!" Shinji was going to retort, but seeing Gaghiel start to charge them again became a much more pressing matter.
"Here it comes!" the Third Child yelled. Both he and Asuka squeezed their eyes shut and braced for the weight of the Angel to barrel into them, but it never came.
"Huh?" Asuka murmured, opening one eye slowly to see out into the deep blue abyss. Gaghiel had suddenly stopped moving just short of Unit 02 and was twisting and moving in weird ways and making strange noises.
"W-what's happening?" Asuka asked, but Shinji was just as clueless as the Second Child. Suddenly, Gaghiel let loose a strained roar and started to balloon in size, and Shinji's prior combat experience told him immediately what was about to happen.
Before Shinji could move to do anything, Gaghiel reached its limit and burst like a nuclear balloon. Seawater and Unit 02 and Angel guts were sprayed into the sky hundreds of meters up, and some of the ships that were unfortunate enough to be near the explosion capsized due to the massive waves generated by the shockwaves. Unit 02 did a good job shielding the pilots' bodies from most of the extreme trauma from the blast, but it still felt like the most wildest, dangerous roller coaster either had been on in their lives. Gravity eventually began to work its magic, and the Evangelion started plummeting back down to Earth with its two shrieking pilots before safely falling into the ocean near the carrier battlegroup.
"What the hell was that!? Asuka, Shinji! Are you two OK!?" Misato frantically called into the radio. While the Over the Rainbow was a decent ways away from Gaghiel's violent death, the carrier was still rocked slightly and the explosion was very visible. There was nothing but static for a few seconds, but eventually the sounds of someone trying to retain their lunch reached Misato's ears.
"Yeah, we're fine," Asuka groaned, "but I've practically gone deaf thanks to the Third Child!"
"Hey! You were screaming louder than I was!"
Misato sighed happily and fell back into one of the swivel chairs in the control tower; Shinji and Asuka bickering meant everything was alright. "Hold tight, you two. We're sending in a crew right now to pick Unit 02 up."
A dinghy detached itself from the Over the Rainbow and made its way out to the middle of the ocean where Unit 02 was floating. A larger vessel with a crane to load the Evangelion followed suit. Asuka ejected the Entry Plug and stepped out onto the small boat, taking a whiff of the fresh salty air and letting her hair flow in the breeze. Shinji crawled out behind the redhead and took a seat on the boat on the opposite side of her. As Shinji stretched himself out, thankful to finally be able to properly move his limbs again, he caught the strange look the operator of their dinghy was giving him.
"...What?" Shinji asked, before noticing the man was looking at his body, or rather what was on his body. Shinji looked down and cried out, remembering that he was still wearing the plugsuit Asuka gave him. "Agh! No! It's not what it looks like!"
Asuka laughed so hard her sides hurt as Shinji tried his best to explain why he was wearing a skintight suit obviously intended for a girl.
"Yeah, Shinji, why are you wearing a girl's plugsuit?"
Shinji shot Asuka a cold glare, but it only made the Second Child laugh harder.
The tiny boat pulled away from Unit 02 to give room for the crane to extract it and slowly moved across the waves and back to the over the Rainbow.
The driver and Asuka both soon forgot about Shinji's unfortunate dress situation and the poor Third Child be. Shinji and Asuka didn't say or do much for a little while, each simply looking out over their respective sides of the boat and throwing an occasional awkward glance at the other when they thought they weren't looking.
Shinji let his fingers drag through the water as the boat moved, enjoying the cool, wet sensation. As he looked out into the ocean, a glare caught his eye about a dozen meters out on his side. Shinji focused on the object of interest and saw a large, tattered piece of black cloth and a piece of shiny metal poking out from underneath it. The metal looked too well-polished for it to have come off of the hull of a ship, and Shinji had no idea what the cloth would be used for. Neither the driver or Asuka seemed to notice what he was staring at, and as the boat made its way closer Shinji cleared his throat and pointed out towards the strange entity.
"Hey, what's that?" Shinji asked the driver. The man followed Shinji's finger and squinted, trying his best to get a good look at the cloth and metal. Her interest piqued, Asuka stood up and walked over to Shinji and leaned over the side to get a good look herself.
"What do you mean, 'what's that?'?" Asuka straightened herself up and crossed her arms. "It's just some debris from one of the ships. This entire place is littered with that crap, Dummkopf."
Shinji ignored Asuka's insult and shook his head. "No, I don't think it's from a ship. Look, the metal is too shiny, and what would they use that cloth for?"
"So you're saying I'm wrong?" Asuka said in an offended tone, getting in Shinji's face. "It's from a ship. There is no way it could be anything—"
"Ahem," the boat driver interjected, "I can just drive us over there if you're really interested in knowing. I really don't feel like listening to two kids yell at each other right now." Shinji and Asuka gave each other glares before nodding at the driver. The dinghy diverted course slightly and moved towards its new target. The boat slowly parked up alongside the piece of cloth, and as Shinji and Asuka both looked down into the water Asuka's victory speech died on her tongue.
"See! I told you it was a…"
Well, it was most definitely not a piece of a ship.
"...It-it looks like a, like a hilt to a sword," Shinji said, confusion etched on his face. That wouldn't make any sense, though. Why would a sword be floating around in the middle of the ocean? Unless it was a decorative piece for a captain's quarters from one of the destroyed vessels, and the cloth was simply wrapped around it for protection.
Asuka tried to lift up the cloth to see underneath, but found it was attached tightly to whatever was below the hilt and was too tough to tear. The redhead then reached down to grab onto the hilt to lift it up, but to her astonishment she couldn't lift the blade out of the water at all. "Come on you stupid, little..!" As Asuka strained herself to lift the mysterious object her grip slipped, causing the hilt to disappear underneath the water. "Dammit, Third!" she looked up from the water and at Shinji accusingly, "why didn't you help me!?"
"W-well, you never asked me—" Anything Shinji had on his mind to combat Asuka's wrath died when he noticed some bubbling from where the mysterious hilt and cloth previously floated. A large, shadowed object could be seen just below the surface, and when "it" broke through the water Shinji let out a loud gasp.
"What!?" Asuka asked, annoyed, as she turned to look back at the spot where Shinji was staring at. "What could you possibly — Oh mein Gott!"
A man was floating on his back where the hilt and cloth once were. He was unconscious, but alive; his chest calmly and rhythmically moved up and down as he breathed. Asuka gained her senses back first and leaned over and grabbed one of his arms out of the water. Realizing that the man was much heavier than anything Asuka would be able to lift, she looked up at both Shinji and the boat operator, who were frozen like a deer in headlights. "Well!? Don't just stand there you two! Help me!"
The Second Child's words snapped the men out of their stupor and they both moved to help. Asuka turned the man sideways in the water and Shinji grabbed the man's other arm while the operator grabbed his legs. On Asuka's command all three of them, with every ounce of strength they had combined, dragged the man up over the side of the boat and onto the deck. Thankfully the dinghy was constructed for carrying heavy loads, or else it surely would have capsized under all the extra weight of the man.
"Jesus Christ! How much does this guy weigh?" the boat operator exclaimed, hands on his knees as he struggled to catch his breath. Shinji and Asuka, who were also out of air, simply nodded as they sat down and got their first good look at their mysterious new passenger.
He was massive. He had to be at least six feet, and his body had more muscle on it than seemingly possible for a human being. His face was handsome and chiseled with a sharp jawline, large lips, and numerous small scars. The man's hair was short and spiky, with a few strands hanging just above his forehead like a crew cut. Of course, it wasn't his body that garnered most of the attention.
It was all of the stuff on it.
Black plate armor adorned his torso and shoulders, with matching black pants and boots. A sash ran across his chest with small knives stashed inside of them, and a belt around his waist stored a larger knife, a codpiece, and some other supplies. The most striking characteristics about what he wore, however, were the black cloak and metal hand on his left arm.
"No wonder he was so heavy," Asuka said, getting down on her knees to get a better look at the man. "He looks like someone straight out of a medieval fantasy comic, what with all this gear on him." The redhead knocked on the man's chest, the hollow sound of pounding metal reaching her ears. "This is all solid iron. How the hell can someone walk around with this stuff!?"
"Hey! It's the hilt!" Shinji called out, also getting down onto his knees by the man's head and grasping the linen-wrapped metal. They couldn't see any further than that because he was on his back with a cloak and all, and there was no more room on the dinghy to flip him on his stomach. As the two pilots squabbled over the man's body, the operator, who was standing over the three of them, interjected.
"I think the main thing we should all be concerned about here is where this mysterious person came from. It's not every day you see some medieval knight floating in the Pacific Ocean."
Shinji and Asuka looked up at the operator, then at each other, and nodded. This would have to be reported to Misato and NERV immediately. No one on the boat had any idea how the man ended up in the middle of a carrier battlegroup during an Angel attack, but MAGI could probably figure it out. Also, it wasn't like they could hide him anyways.
"Right," Shinji said, "we'll tell Misato about this immediately." With that the driver got behind the wheel of the dinghy and gunned it back to the Over the Rainbow.
I have mixed feelings about these first two chapters. I rushed them, I know I did, but only because I want to get to the parts with Guts actually interacting with everyone and doing shit. Things may seem forced/awkward now, but hopefully as I go on my ability to write gets better. Anyways, Guts may or may not do something next chapter. I don't know, it depends how much I want to write.
