"You mean to tell me," said the Operations Director of NERV, "That you fried 8000 miles of expensive, internal wiring, almost shut off the Quincunx, and spent 85 billion dollars worth of electricity to kill the what you believe to be only the first of these Angels?" Thomas shrugged rather sheepishly. The Operations Director chuckled and straightened the paperwork in front of him.

"I see you still have your flair for the dramatic. Please keep it up, Colonel. We can all use a little cheering up what with the situation we're in right now."

"Permission to speak freely, sir?"

"Granted."

"Why the hell don't you shave that beard off? It bothers me to no end to see you looking like that."

"Well Thomas, would you believe it irks my father just as much? Plus, my better half says it makes me look more masculine."

"Well I'm sure it helps you get allowed into Bed and Breakfasts."

"Thomas, that is not very amusing."

"You're right. You got barred from a bed and breakfast with your wife because you grew your hair out a bit. They thought you were having a lesbian affair. That, my friend, is hilarious."

As much as it irritated Shiro Miura to hear his long time friend drag that incident back to light (God was that ever embarrassing), the way he told it still made him smile.

"So, I don't suppose you could look into getting past the lock down sector of NERV Japan's HQ?" Thomas inquired. He doubted it, but it never hurt to ask.

"Sorry, but there are some things even I can't manage. Whatever's still down there is down there for good. I'm sorry, but you're going to have to let that one rest, Colonel.

Thomas smiled as he got out of his seat.

"Well, it was worth a shot. Thanks for the time, Commander. I do appreciate catching up."

"Likewise, Colonel."

As Thomas left the office, he grit his teeth and clenched his fists. He wasn't going to let this one rest. He couldn't... just let it rest. Something was down there. Something he needed to find. He just needed to figure out what.

Chapter 2: Welcome to New Houston.

Antonio Guerra woke up under an unfamiliar ceiling. This in itself wasn't really a bother; but the fact that he was in the same bed with a humongous snoring Catholic guy was. He rolled out of the bed, amazed to see it was just after 9 AM.

Geez, man. They let a guy sleep in pretty well here. I could get used to this!

He put on a fresh set of clothes, both amazed and slightly bewildered by the fact his laundry wasn't wrinkled for a change. That meant...

"They do your laundry for you! Awesome. This has gotta be the best gig ever!" Antonio nearly shouted. Peter stirred, but then drifted back into jet lagged sleep.

Awhups, sorry big guy. Didn't mean to be so loud.

He padded out of the room in his socks, moving down the hallway to the bathroom. He knocked, so as to avoid the unfortunate possibility of seeing another guy's package, he waited for a moment before entering. Oddly, the shower was running and it was awfully steamy.

"Who left the shower running? That just isn't cool..."

As Antonio went to turn off the shower, twenty pounds of irate, warm water penguin slammed into his stomach, bowling him over. Boy and penguin stared at each other for a moment. Antonio got up wordlessly and sprung a leak, while the penguin went back in the shower, likewise wordless.

He made the motion to flush when there was an angry "WARK" from inside the shower. He decided it would be best not to chance it.

Zipping up and leaving the restroom, Antonio came face to face with Thomas Rydell.

"Scuse me, but what are you doing here?" the pilot asked.

"Well, We sort of live here in the same NERV owned apartment."

"Homes, you're shacking up with a couple 15 year olds, an' one of 'em's a catholic choir boy. Does anybody else find that a little off?"

"Nope! Not at all!" said the pretty girl as she made her way to the bathroom in only a nightgown.

"Homes, you got some issues."

Thomas smashed his palm into his face.

"Look, Antonio. This is tradition among pilots. 'Everyone stays at the Combat Operations officer's apartment, we all get along, we make friends, and we kill some Angels'. And yes, The penguin is part of the tradition too." There was a flush, a feminine scream, and what Antonio approximated to be penguin swearing coming from the bathroom. Peter opened the door to the hallway, and sleepily stepped out, only to nearly be barreled over by a screaming, sopping wet Helen, whom he caught deftly for the second time in 24 hours.

"T-t-THERE'S A PENGUIN IN THERE!" She stammered, and as Peter looked down at her, he went fire engine red.

"Is this a tradition too?" asked Antonio dryly.

"Sadly," said Thomas, "it is."

000

18.

That was the number of anomalous objects that had escaped from the asteroid belt, and were currently on collision course with Earth. Their distances were staggered, and some were accelerating or decelerating with no apparent cause or reason.

"They're almost certainly the Angels." stated Dr. Weller in a manner of fact tone in front of a group of assembled NERV officers. "The first of them may be here in less than ten days. The last, perhaps six months or more. We need to be prepared." The Doctor continued, almost in monotone.

To be perfectly honest, Dr. Weller really didn't care about humanity. He'd seen enough of its underbelly to realize that maybe having humanity gone wasn't such a bad thing after all. Of course, he wasn't going to overtly sabotage NERV, after all, they gave him money to do what he loved to do. But, if the world was going to end, he wanted a front row seat, and that front row seat could only be provided by NERV Houston. Thus, why he was giving a powerpoint to some bored looking junior officers.

Maybe later he could do some real science, but for now, this menial task.

000

The three children walked to school. It was a late start, seeing as they'd had an attack just the previous night. Around them, the various buildings of New Houston rose from the Geofront below. A sweet breeze rustled through the trees lining the sidewalks, and for a moment, all seemed right and decent with the world. Then, as they rounded the corner to the school, they heard shouting, and saw a group of kids clustered in a circle around something, or rather, someone. There was tall, gangly boy getting the tar beaten out of him by a shorter but far stockier boy in athletic gear.

"And that is for looking at me funny, Nancy! With a solid thump of fist on face, the boy was knocked to the ground a final time before the stockier kid leaped off him, and casually walked away from the scene.

The boy wiped at a bleeding nose as the crowd dispersed. Helen rushed over to him, but Peter and Antonio stayed back. She yelled over to them.

"Sorry, I've got my reasons." said Antonio, all the while eying the other kids on the school yard. Peter just looked nervous.

"But, homosexuality is against God's will-"

Helen nearly facepalmed.

"Just because they called him a Nancy doesn't mean he's gay, come on Peter!

The gangly boy finally seemed to find his legs and stood up.

"It's okay, Miss. I'll be fine in a few hours. Thank you for your concern, though." He hefted his backpack over his shoulder and trudged off to the school building.

Helen was nearly shouting at Antonio as they walked inside.

"Why wouldn't you help him? Come on, those guys nearly beat him unconscious! Aren't you going to do something!" Antonio put his index finger up to quiet her down . This only appeared to make her more irate, but the Hispanic pilot grabbed her arm and gave it a none to kind squeeze before she could say anything else.

He pulled the others off to a corner for a moment before class started.

"Okay, maybe you two could use some street thinking before you barge in there. So, that kid obviously had a thing against Nancy out there. Notice how not a soul went to help him? Prolly because he's on the bad side of someone you don't wanna mess with, or because he's done something seriously bad. Either way, we don't wanna get involved. Now, let's just do school, okay?"

The day went by uneventfully until Lunch. Antonio wound up at the same table as Helen and Peter, and as they sat down, She was still giving Antonio the cold shoulder.

"Look, if it makes you feel any better, I dug up some stuff on him. His name is Eric Greenway, and he's a serious oddball. They said he sometimes has these... Fits. He'll look all funny and smiley and then say things that will totally rock your world. Like, the reason he's getting punched around? He said in front of pretty much the whole school that the guy who was beating him up was batting for the other team. Now the kid's on the warpath, taking care of anyone who'd stand up for Eric. Can't really say I blame him. Something like that can kill your rep dead forever if you let the rumor grow. "

"So he's beating a kid up for calling him a puff. Why didn't he just deny it, punch him once and call it quits?" Helen asked, still thoroughly irritated with Antonio's belligerence to help.

"Did I mention he circulated... 'Photographic Evidence' around the school beforehand?"

Helen made a silent "Oh".

"So, my whole point is, the kid set himself up for this. If he's gonna get pummeled, he's gonna get pummeled. Not much we can do."

Helen stood up, a dangerous look in her eyes.

"Maybe not you, but I can."

000

After school that day, Eric walked out of the building as casually as possible.

Not like it matters. They'll tell him where I am anyway.

Sure enough, the stocky kid came barreling out of the gym before Eric had made it halfway to the edge of campus.

"Hello, James." Eric said lightly.

"I told ya, I'm gonna keep beating the ever loving shit out of you until you leave this school, Nancy. I'm a pretty generous guy, or else I would've sent you to the hospital already. Not sure if I'm feeling so generous right now.."

James smashed his fist into Eric's stomach. Eric's body decided now would be a good time to see lunch again.

James laughed. On cue, all the kids who had come out of the gym laughed with him, albeit rather nervously. Eric was on the ground, still vomiting. He was trying he best, he really was.

Don't see red don't see red don't see red please of god don't see red

His vision swam, then cleared. He was getting close to his limit, but he could take a bit more. He was tired of transferring schools, tired of making enemies. He just wanted this to be over.

The Eva pilots were up in the library, looking for Eric on Helen's insistence when Peter saw what was going on out in the school yard, and motioned Helen over.

Helen, with a double-take, stood there for just a moment and then ran out of the library, in the direction of the stairs down to the main floor.

"What've we gotten ourselves into?" Antonio groaned, then dashed off behind her.

000

Deep in the bowels of the Geofront, in the second lowest level of the artificial Terminal Dogma, there is a place called the Containment Zone. This is the place where any NERV jurisdiction item, object, or being is kept that is too dangerous to keep anywhere else; or is either too risky or impossible to destroy.

There are multiple levels of the Containment Zone, and in the very bottom of it, there is an Eva Graveyard. All of the parts deemed unsafe, unusable, or unstable are deposited there, smothered in Bakelite, and hopefully forgotten about. A skeleton crew of NERV's least favorite maintains this area, setting the occasional Bakelite shower and making sure nothing comes out. Everyone down there can hardly wait to get off "The List" and go back to working topside. All, except for one man.

His name is Kensuke Aida, and he is, by nearly anyone's standards, a thorough kook. He's been with the Evangelion program for over a decade now, since graduating with a Doctorate in Biomechanical Engineering from MIT at age 19. In his short stint as program head for the new EVA project, he completely revolutionized the way Evangelion functioned almost from the ground up. Building off the original design with many insights gleaned from combat data from the first Angel attacks, he also put his own strange ingenuity into the project, eventually developing a completely remodeled Eva. Unfortunately for Aida's career, the Eva went berserk on first activation, destroying an entire test facility in Nevada. Most of the responsibility for the incident was shunted onto Aida, and he was tossed from the Eva program.

Aida knew that wasn't right, though. All of the responsibility should have been shunted onto him, because that's how he designed the damn thing. When the Dead Sea Scrolls had changed, Shiro Miura had approached him with some of the details of what was to come, and a challenge. They needed a way to kill the unkillable, for the scrolls prophesied the coming of an Angel so powerful and fearsome, its rage would scour the Heavens and Earth.

Kensuke had delivered. Evangelion unit 10 was the most sophisticated weapons platform ever developed by mankind, combining 22 years worth of cumulative research. It had been eight years since the test had gone awry. Eight years since his "Failure". Showed how much they knew. The experiment had been a rousing success; The Evangelion had power. If Shiro would have deemed the project a failure, he would have axed Aida right then and there.

No, Aida knew that he was biding time until the right pilot showed up. Evangelion Unit 10 was to have one pilot and one pilot only: The Ninth Child. Those fools who had ordered its test had been told this, but they had been impatient.

And after eight years of waiting, Kensuke Aida knew all about patience.

He strode from one computer terminal to another. He hadn't just been sitting down here sedentary all this time. What is a mad genius supposed to do with nearly a full decade, a giant, unmanned, yet fully automated facility, an unlimited budget for 'Containment Zone Maintenance" and the knowledge that weapons need to be developed to destroy a series of increasingly powerful perfect lifeforms?

He's going to build an arsenal, goddamnit.

Sure, maybe Progressive knives and sheer luck had killed most of the original Angels, But with the revised Dead Sea Scrolls practically leaking gloom and doom, Kensuke Aida knew they'd need a better set of weapons.

Somewhere between designing the shotgun that fired a blast of Progressive knife blades (He called her "Bertha") and the Magnetic acceleration sniper rifle that shot a 20 foot long tungsten spike at escape velocity, he sort of forgot that he was going to tell Shiro about his little projects.

He was double checking the schematics for his newest weapon, an Eva scale drill attachment with a synthetic diamond tip. For, uh... Cracking the tough ones.

Fervently swearing to himself that he wasn't still some child enamored with drill wielding giant robots, He stepped over to the window showing the Eva graveyard. His magnum opus knelt in the middle, covered in a foot and a half or so of Bakelite. He stared out into the gloom. Something was wrong, or rather... Something was different. He could see a glow from under all those layers, right where...

Where the unit's eyes were.

"So, the Ninth child's been found, eh?"

000

Somewhere between Mars and the Asteroid Belt, one of the 18 Angels speeds ahead of the rest.

Brothers!

Rejoice, for we near our task.

Father has selected me as the successor to Abruel

And I shall go forth and crush their blasphemies.

The power of God lies vested in me

and I shall not disappoint him.

I shall vanquish his enemies

With their bodies I shall form a pyre in tribute.

Rejoice, my brothers!

For I Turiel, The Rock of God

Will be VICTORIOUS.

The Angel speeds even faster. It will not be stopped by the likes of mere Lilium.

000

Helen stood over collapsed form of Eric, between James and the boy.

"I've had enough of you." She said simply. James sneered.

"So, what are you gonna do about it?"

"I'll make you a... proposition." she gave a coy smile. James raised a bro.

"This better be good, girlie."

"We play a game. If you lose, You stop bullying Eric here. If you win though, I do whatever you want me to do for a full day. No questions asked, no holds barred~"

James whistled appreciatively.

"You drive a hard bargain. But, what game? And how do I know it's not fixed?"

She smiled again. Antonio got the shivers. That's a crocodile grin if I ever saw one. Remind me to never really piss her off.

"You call the game, you call the place. Just keep it fair, and the offer stands."

"You're on Girlie. I'll be back in an hour with the game and location. You just wait here." James jogged off, back in the direction of the gym.

Eric crawled to his knees, shakily standing after a couple tries.

"Oh my God, you look awful." Helen said, stepping over to him, steadying him. "Come on, let's get you to the nurse's office. Peter! Antonio! Come on... Well? What are you waiting for?"

Antonio nodded to himself and Peter just shook his head. Helen turned around and saw Eric walking away, albeit unsteadily, from the group. Helen was left standing there her jaw working but no words coming out.

"Face it, that hombre has some serious issues."

000

The game began as scheduled, even without Eric present. Helen had been challenged to a game of Pool in the gym's lounge area by James. Most of the girls looked concerned, because of the wager, and because his victory was a foregone conclusion. He went to tournaments on the weekends, and he very frequently won. The guy was definitely a shark, and Helen was about to get devoured.

Helen put down the pool manual she'd been reading as "A refresher" With the awkward angle she was holding the cue at before she'd asked for it, the manual had almost certainly been more of a primer for her. James was about to break when she asked an innocent question.

"Are we playing slop or called shot?"

"Called shot of course. Ball-in-hand, too."

"So that means ALL the rules are in effect?"

"Yeah. Problem?" He sneered again.

"A little one. May I go first please?" she said with a bright smile.

"You mean break, right? Sure, why the hell not."

She took a loaner cue from the rack, and got ready to break. The entire lounge was utterly silent. Just as she made her shot, someone sneezed, and Helen's shot went completely off course.

The shot, which would probably gone right into the corner pocket and lost her the game, smashed into the other pool balls for a break so loud it sounded like she may have snapped her pool cue. Four balls went in.

James just looked shocked. "No way did she just sink four on the break, and all solids to boot!"

Helen Smiled at him, and then put her cue down, dusting off her hands.

"What are you doing? We still have a game to play-"

She smiled brightly, and then moved over to the table and plucked the 8 ball out of the far left corner pocket.

"Pretty sure if I make this on the break I win, right?" James' eyes bugged. Some savvy kid in the way back began a slow clap. Quickly, the applause built up to a fever pitch and the whole lounge was roaring.

Helen left the building with James still in shock next to the pool table. She was about to force the group to go look for Eric, when all three of their cells rang at once. Their NERV issued Smartphones all flashed the same message:

"Anomalous Object detected: Arrival in T minus 40 Hours. Be prepared, Pilots."

"Well, I guess that shoots our Saturday in the foot." Said Helen.

"Could be worse. Last time around they just drove me here and tossed me in an Eva."

Peter said something for the first time in hours.

"If they're giving us this much time to prepare, maybe they won't try and kill us this time?"

"Or maybe they're just that cocky, Vato."

All three of the pilots walked home in silence that evening.

000

Eric made it to the couch back home before collapsing. His grandmother was in the other room watching some stupid sitcom. She didn't bother saying hello to him. He returned the favor.

He made himself some crappy TV dinner, ate in silence, and went off to his bedroom. Closing and locking the door, he let out a silent scream, and folded into a crying heap. Dammit, why...? Why did they help me? I said I didn't want help. I don't need help... I don't... need anything. I don't need anyone. All I need is myself. I'm strong enough. I can make it. I don't need to have any help.

As he fell asleep, the tears still warm on his face, something whispered to him from The Deep. This wasn't the first time he'd heard The Deep. This wasn't the first time he had made out words in the whispers.

speak my name

free me from my prison

show the cattle that a God walks among them

purge the weak

clean the filth from this world

call my name and accept your destiny

boy, who shines brighter than anyone else

rise to become a legend.

It was the first time he whispered its name.

From the bottom of his suffering, from the abyss of his hate, he called its name.

...Kali...

Then sleep claimed Eric entirely.

000

Klaxons blared throughout NERV Houston. Evacuations were being carried out as fast as possible, but the tremors were being felt even all the way to ground level. There was no wind, yet the trees lining the boulevards swayed and lights flickered.

Deep in the Containment Zone, Kensuke Aida struggled to free himself from his bed. It was a very fortunate thing that Kensuke had made a paranoid habit of sleeping between two mattresses, because there was now a few hundred pounds of broken glass on top of him. He managed to wiggle out, and stepping carefully into his shoes, he dashed over to the only non-broken computer console. Figuring that some things come first, he took the pendrive with all of his schematics, jammed it in his underwear, and scurried to the emergency elevator.

"Good, Still working." Before getting onto it, he paused a moment, and then pressed the "Up" button. The doors closed, there was a 'ding' and the elevator ascended for several seconds, before he heard a horrible screeching, and then, the unpleasant sound of an emergency elevator entering free fall.

There was a small crunch 25 seconds later quite a ways below.

"Paranoia wins again!" Kensuke held up his hands in victory, then remembered he was stranded over a mile underground with no easy way to get back topside, as well as having no way to access his clothing. (It was buried next to his bed. Under all that broken glass. Thank God for thick mattresses.)

Time to improvise! Kensuke thought to himself, striding over to the last working computer terminal. He managed to get access to the 12th hangar before the terminal finally gave up the ghost.

Eh, that'll work.

He hopped over enormous steel girders and broken piping leaking god knows what, ducked under twisted catwalks, and dodged a couple blasts of steam getting there, but he made it. Sitting in unfinished hangar in front of a bedrock wall was his favorite toy design of all time. He strapped on the mining helmet that was sitting in the thing's cab, and clicked on the light, hopping in.

"Maybe I am still some giant drill obsessed kid on the inside, but dammit, this is gonna save my life."

Before he could turn the key to start it up, he heard something. Geez, was that... Crying?

He hopped out of the cab, and looked around, mining helmet lighting up the dark. He saw a door ajar on the other side of the hangar, and he cautiously stepped through. Sitting there in a ragged and dirty NERV uniform was a mousy young woman. There was a closed Elevator shaft next to her, and Kensuke could do nothing other than boggle.

What on earth was she still doing down here?

"I. Err.. Excuse me, Miss?"

The sobbing continued for a moment, then abruptly stopped. The woman looked up, utterly shocked, and then broke down again as she almost bowled over Kensuke grabbing at him.

"Please tell me you're real! PLEASE."

"HURK." was all he could manage. He had forgotten that girls actually weighed anything. She was shaking him now.

"Yes, I God, God DAMMIT. I AM REAL!" The girl backed off for a second, and then gave him a bear hug. Kensuke felt his back cracking.

"Now, if I can breath... What happened? Why are YOU still down here?" The evacuation orders went out at least 2 hours ago!"

"The others, they, they went on the elevator, said they'd send it back down for me... and... and...The cable broke..."

She stopped hugging him for a moment, looking down. It then dawned on her that Kensuke was only wearing his whitey tighties.

And, and there was this bulge...

Kensuke looked down, Gulped, and then stood up very very quickly.

Goddamn pendrive.

"W-we can discuss this when we get out of here, Okay?"

She nodded sheepishly, and he lead her to the hangar. By the hand... Dear God man, what are you doing? YOU SWORE OFF GIRLS... FOR SCIENCE. His logical half boomed.

Though... That was kind of the only option. He mentioned to himself.

The young woman stopped in front of Kensuke's escape mechanism.

"You... built this?" She breathed.

"I, uh, yeah. Kinda dorky, I kno-"

"THAT IS SO UTTERLY RAD."

Kensuke's heart stopped.

Is this love?

Then they hopped into Kensuke's utterly rad, custom designed, custom built Drill Car and hightailed it to the surface.

000

In the main shaft of the Artificial Terminal Dogma, shit was seriously hitting the fan. Having escaped from The Containment Zone, Eva Unit 10 was now climbing up the main shaft itself. Its clawed hands pierced the steel, the pointed boots gouging out footholds as it ascended to the surface. There was a swarm of VTOL Jets around it, keeping just enough distance to not be swatted out of the air by the thing's two free arms.

In his office, Shiro Miura had just hung up the phone on the president of the United States.

Damn politicians. Wanted to keep property damage to a minimum? How about civilian casualties? Were they so blind as to realize human life was priceless? Some days he wondered if he'd made the right choice all those years ago.

He picked the phone and tried dialing Kensuke one last time. The NERV landline down to the Containment zone had been cut by the rampaging Eva, along with most power lines, and it was a long shot any cell signal could make it down there, it he had to try. He wasn't just going let the man die down there.

If he hadn't already...

No. No time for those thoughts. Get people organized, deploy counter measures, and stop that thing before it can destroy half of Houston.

000

In his fitful sleep, Eric dreamed darkly.

He saw flashes of destruction, pain, and death.

But he felt power. Not just fleeting strength, but pure, raw, undefinable energy coursing through every bit of him. He was untouchable. He was invincible, and he was angry. He didn't hear the evacuation sirens, he didn't hear the cars honking past, he didn't hear his grandmother pounding on his door to try and rouse him. In utter enraptured bliss, he slept the sleep of an angry God.

In his mind, Kali roared.

And the city burned.