Alright everyone. Second chapter of this thing.
Slicerness, Shinji's personality is an odd mix between his anime persona, where he cared too much, his manga persona, where he didn't care at all, and Master Chief. Yes. You read that right.
As for Gendo, it'll all make sense in this chapter.
And on that note, there'll be a lot of mixes between the Evangelion anime and the manga.
-}+{-
September 2004
"Pay attention to your teacher boy." Gendo Ikari told his son as he walked away. "He will make you strong and teach you to follow orders."
"Daddy!" Shinji shouted after his father. "Don't go! I wanna be with you daddy!"
"Then become strong and learn to follow orders." Gendo told him coldly. "Then I will call for you."
Shinji heard a bell ring loudly in his sleep. He tucked up into his bed, only to receive an electric shock that jolted him into the world of the walking.
A large man with a police baton with a low-level tazer blended into the design in his hand loomed over the boy.
"Perhaps you didn't hear Spartan 108." The man stated. "Out of bed. Clothes off. Into the shower. Wash. Out of the shower. Dressed. Outside for a run. Double time."
The four-year old boy bolted from the bed to the sound of running water, crying freely as he took his clothes off.
Boys and girls alike shared the communal shower without any barriers between them, but none of the children cared.
If they were older, they still would have been too terrified to protest.
After the shower, all the children dressed in matching clothes of a dark green colour.
The run turned out to be a two-mile hiking course under the night sky that the children ran through as fast they could as the bad men chased them with their batons.
When they reached their destination, all but one of the children collapsed to the ground, Spartan 104 managing to stay on his knees.
"SPARTANS! " Chief Mendez shouted. "Up. 2-minutes of jumping jacks. First one to slow down gets a shock. Anyone who does less than a hundred has to continue for twice that time."
The children looked at the man in horror.
"NOW!"
Two minutes later, all thirty children fell flat on their backs, gasping for air.
"Two minutes pushups." Chief Mendez ordered. "First to slow down gets a shock. Anyone who does less than fifty has to do double."
Shinji couldn't take it anymore.
He rolled onto his side, shaking.
A baton struck his stomach.
Last nights dinner left his mouth violently.
"Pushups 108." The warden told him. "Now."
Sobbing silently, Shinji rolled over, pressing a hand into his own vomit and began to lower his exhausted body into it.
Two minutes later, bottles of water were handed out.
Shinji tore his bottle open and began gulping it down.
It was warm.
It was slightly salty.
It was the best water he had ever tasted.
He wiped his mouth as he looked around. The sun was beginning to rise through the forest. All the other children had confused feelings of fear and tiredness, but most of that was completely covered by the exhaustion and their sheer joy of having the water.
He hadn't been counting, but he knew that he hadn't done anywhere near enough to pass the impossible bar given to them by their teacher.
So… why hadn't anyone had to do it again?
"SPARTANS ON YOUR FEET!" Chief Mendez shouted. "Enough rest. We're going for another run!"
Shinji leapt up, downing the rest of the bottle before throwing it away, not wanting to be left behind.
Mendez watched the wardens lead the children through the forest. "Keep them exhausted." He told the head warden before he went with the others. "Don't let them think, don't give them time to think."
"They mustn't think about what we're doing to them." Mendez told the warden. "It'll break them."
2015
Shinji woke up to see the white light.
He sat up and took in his surroundings as he tried to piece together what had happened.
He was in a hospital.
Daylight was streaming through the windows.
There were crickets chirping outside.
So, it was morning...
People were working.
Shinji leant back in the bed. "I don't know this ceiling." He muttered, thinking of all the other times he'd thought that in his life.
So, the angels have returned, eh? It's so sudden.
It's the same as it was fifteen years ago. A disaster comes as it will, without warning.
I could say that it was fortunate, in the sense that our prior investments were not a waste.
You can't be sure about that yet. If it doesn't pay off, it's a waste all the same.
Precisely. Now that the angels, and the fact that we have been manipulating information, have become public knowledge, NERV must operate in a speedy and prudent manner.
"It's already been taken care of." Gendo told the circle of black columns. "You can rest assured of that."
"So, we're hushing the truth again?" Misato asked, fanning herself.
"At least the PR people are thrilled." Ritsuko replied with a shrug. "They finally have something to do."
"We're being pretty casual about it." Misato pointed out.
"I don't know about that." Ritsuko said, not looking up from her computer. "I think everyone's actually pretty scared."
Misato stopped the fan. "Of course we are."
Well, we must acknowledge that.
Speaking of which, Ikari, isn't there a better way to utilise NERV and the Power Coins?
First, there are the repairs to the Triceratops Zord, and now to the Dragonzord, which you all but totalled in its first battle. It's enough to bankrupt a small country.
We also understand that you gave that particular toy to your son.
Manpower, time and money. How much more do you and your family plan on wasting?
And that is not your only responsibility.
The Human Instrumentality Project. That should be your top priority.
Precisely. Under these desperate circumstances, that project is our one and only hope.
In any case, we cannot excuse any delays to that project's schedule, due to the reappearance of the angels. We will consider the issues regarding the budget. Now, the rest of this meeting concerns only the committee.
Your presence was much appreciated, Ikari.
The black columns faded, except for one.
Ikari, there's no turning back.
"I know." Gendo said from behind his gloved hands. "Mankind has no time left."
The red column opposite him laughed menacingly.
It was the only one without a red number on its face.
Instead, a silver letter.
Shinji walked through the hospital, getting to know the surroundings out of habit.
Chief Mendez had trained him to never let his guard down, especially if you are somewhere you don't know.
So Shinji got to work on knowing this place.
It helped calm him down.
Analysing every corner of the hospital and judging every face in terms of threat level was much better than thinking right now.
He passed by a blue-haired girl covered in bandages being wheeled on a hospital trolley. Shinji didn't know her, but from the contempt in her eyes, she knew Shinji.
From her muscle tone, Shinji assumed that she may be another Ranger, one too injured to take part in the previous battle.
That, or she was injured in the previous battle.
Shinji watched as she was wheeled away.
If they were to be allies, then he would have to break any misconceptions the girl had for him.
Bitterness wasted lives.
Bitterness turned allies against each other.
Bitterness made one ally favour another, rejecting other teammates.
Squad Three was a perfect example of that.
Misato picked up the phone. "Captain Katsuragi." She answered with a groan.
The groan vanished as she processed what was being told her.
"Say that again." She ordered with fear in her eyes.
_\_ "Another angel just appeared in Tokyo-3!" _\_ Sergeant Ishida shouted. _\_ "It's much smaller than the last one, but our weapons aren't working!" _\_
"What is it?" Ritsuko asked.
Misato grabbed the carphone and pointed it at her. "Call the hospital." she ordered. "Get Shinji ready for battle."
Shinji was doing pull-ups in the hospital gymnasium when the soldiers burst in. "Shinji Ikari?" he shouted.
Shinji dropped from the bar. "Yes." He nodded.
The soldier opened a metal briefcase containing the Power Morpher. "There's another angel." He reported. "You will be briefed on the details on the way."
Shinji nodded, walking over and taking his Morpher.
"IT'S MORPHIN TIME!"
"DRAGONZORD!"
Shinji ran alongside the convoy as they relayed ordered into his helmet, which had somehow been repaired since the last battle.
The current angel was unnamed. It was only seven and a half feet tall, but it had already killed seven civilians before the military ordered the evacuation and took action.
It's AT-Field was impervious to arms-fire, but due to its size the military hadn't attempted to use heavy artillery or military vehicles yet, much less an N2 mine.
The angel was a dull gray with pulsating tumours all over its body. One hand was an unwieldy claw, and the other was a thick stump ended at the elbow, leading to three smooth tentacles. It's sores culminated into one massive green eye that moved wildly, picking out targets and attacking.
It seemed to be able to summon human-shaped drones from the ground to attack, but they were easily mowed down by conventional weapons.
Misato Katsuragi took control of the operation as the Green Ranger jumped over the barricade and landed next to her. "Awaiting orders captain." Shinji reported.
"Shinji…" she said with surprise. She hadn't expected him to get here so fast.
Or to be so willing to fight.
"Am I to assume that my standing orders are to kill angels?" he asked, observing his foes movements. It wasn't doing much, just occasionally leaning back and waving its 'arms' to create more drones.
"Correct." Misato said, matching her subordinate's professionalism.
"The Magi are treating this as an offshoot of the previous angel Sachiel, and not an angel in its own right." Ritsuko told Shinji. "Their DNA is much similar, despite their radically different appearance, so we're calling it a Golem for now. It's been reported to stretch its tentacles to stab those that get too close, and to summon drones we are calling Putties for now. As you can imagine, this time you will have to battle outside the Dragonzord."
"Can you do it?" Misato asked.
Shinji nodded. "Please have the soldiers stop firing at the golem, focusing only on targeting the putties that come close to leaving the combat perimeter." He drew the Dragon Dagger and reversed the grip, then drew his bolter. "Do I have any other weapons?" he asked.
"Not yet." Misato replied. "But you can reconstruct the blaster into another knife."
Shinji glanced at the weapon, and flicked what he initially thought was a hammer, but the blaster straightened and flicked out a short blade, about the same length of the blaster barrel, but now half the length of the current handle.
"You have to push it manually to return it to the blaster form." Ritsuko explained. "Are you ready?"
Shinji pressed the blaster knife back into gun form with his dagger and placed a foot on the sandbag wall, nodding.
Behind the mask, he smiled.
A challenge.
"Go!" Misato shouted.
Shinji pounced, twisting in the air to fire at the golem from above. The energy blasts sparked against an invisible barrier a good few feet from its body, catching the golem's attention as Shinji landed.
The Green Ranger ran to the left, firing as the golem turned and stretched a tentacle at Shinji, retracting it as it missed but stretching another immediately after. They behaved a lot like Sachiel's arm spike, but the arm rotated as the tentacles retreated and lunged, like a three-barrel revolver.
Shinji stopped in his tracks and back-stepped.
The golem's tentacle rushed in front of him.
Shinji jumped against a building as the golem fired again, then jumped from the wall as the next attack launched, missing him completely.
So he can dodge.
Now how to attack?
He'd have to get up close, because the blaster isn't strong enough.
But if he gets too close, the golem could use the tentacles to trap him.
However, what could happen doesn't change what has to happen for the success of the mission.
Shinji dodged a tentacle and stabbed the Dragon Dagger into it.
The golem screamed as blood burst from the wound. It dragged the tentacle away as it 'reloaded', making the gash much greater, to the point that the flesh above the wound tore off as the next tentacle lashed out at the Green Ranger.
Shinji jumped out of the way, landing behind the soldier's line of fire as he observed the golem.
It wasn't regenerating.
Shinji pocketed his blaster and took a machine gun from the table and charged back into battle. He dodged each attack as the golem began to panic.
It wasn't fear.
It wasn't like a rabbit in a trap.
No, not at all.
It was like a fox trapped in a den as a badger dug after it.
Primal fear.
Fear of one predator against a greater predator.
Fear of a wounded rat meeting the dog that took its leg.
It remembers.
Shinji rammed the Dragon Dagger into the golem's AT-field, cutting a hole for the gun's muzzle to fit through, then pulled the trigger.
Flying lead tore the golem's flesh apart as the AT-field collapsed.
Shinji fell to his feet, then rammed the Dagger into the golem's throat and slashed up through its eye. The green armour was soaked in blood as a small, fist-sized orb showed inside its gullet.
No time to think, Shinji dropped the gun and snatched it from the pulsating gray flesh.
It broke into shards in his hand.
The golem fell to its stump-like knees.
Dead.
Shinji backed off from the corpse as the soldiers finished off the remaining putties.
He turned around and walked back to Misato and Ritsuko.
"That wasn't the suit." Misato said told her friend. "The suit doesn't teach you to fight like that."
"That would be the ten years of solid combat training." Ritsuko told her as Shinji arrived. "That boy is a living weapon, even outside the suit."
Misato held her tongue as the Green Ranger strode towards them.
As she drove Shinji to his living quarters, Misato had to admit, Ritsuko was right.
This wasn't a teenage boy sitting next to her.
Even when off duty, he was constantly alert and focused.
Always watching. Always thinking.
"Captain Katsuragi?" he asked.
"I'm off duty right now." Misato laughed, trying to break the ice. "Call me Misato."
Shinji nodded. "Misato. Am I going to be living with my father?"
She thought about it. "No." she replied. "He lives inside the Geofront, but he wants you to attend school like a normal student, but that would be impossible if you also lived that deep inside the base."
"I see." Shinji nodded.
Misato raised an eyebrow. "Don't you find a problem with that?" she asked.
"I've never lived on my own, but I can take care of myself." Shinji told her. "Anywhere is fine."
Misato growled, then spun the car around.
Shinji grabbed the handle of the car door. "What're you doing?" he shouted.
Misato ignored him, grabbing a phone and hitting a speed dial. "Belay the shipment of Shinji Ikari's luggage." She ordered. "Transport it to my address."
"What?" Shinji shouted. "Why?"
"Just do it!" Misato shouted into the phone. "I'll get the permission later!" she hung up, then glared at Shinji. "You're living with me from now on."
"Well, we'll have to have a party tonight!" Misato declared after getting off the phone with Fuyutsuki.
"What for?" Shinji asked her.
"A welcoming party for my new roommate, of course!" she winked, swerving into a convenience store's car park.
Shinji sighed and undid his seatbelt.
He had a feeling that he would have to vet Misato's party food.
"I hope you don't mind if we make a little stop along the way." Misato asked her companion.
Shinji as he looked through the case in dismay at what Misato snuck through his filter. "Where?" he asked as Misato pulled up against the hill.
"Someplace really cool." She said, unbuckling her seatbelt and getting out of the car.
Shinji placed the shopping bag by his feet and followed her. She'd brought him to a lookout point where he could see the sunset over the city.
Shinji liked sunsets.
It's when the light turns to darkness.
Just enough light to see. Plenty of shadows to use. And this late, people get sloppy.
Sunset is when Shinji felt at ease.
"It's time." Misato told him, looking at her watch.
A siren rang through the city.
Sections of floor opened up.
Towers ascended from the ground.
Shinji was amazed.
He'd briefly studied architecture, it terms of how to navigate, scale and destroy buildings.
Things this size shouldn't be moved this easily.
Shinji thought those towers at the top of the Geofront were… he had no idea what he thought they were for.
But moving buildings this easily was impossible.
Skyscrapers need foundations just to not collapse on themselves.
This display was an insult to gravity itself.
It was amazing.
"This city is a fortress," Misato told him. "Designed to protect against the angels. This is New Tokyo-3." She turned to him with a smile. "This is our city. It's the city you helped to protect."
Shinji looked over the city.
His city.
With his unit from home in these Ranger suits, he could take it in a day.
He wouldn't be able to use it though.
The entire thought was ridiculous.
But it was an interesting thought.
"Truth is, I just recently moved into this city myself." Misato told Shinji as she opened the door of her apartment. "Come on in." she told him as he hesitated.
He nodded, silently walking in.
She sighed. "Shinji, this is YOUR home now." She told him. "You're supposed to say something."
Shinji looked up at her. "Uh… I'm home."
She smiled.
He smiled sheepishly back.
"Welcome home." She said, closing the door behind her.
"As you can see, the place is a little bit messy." Misato apologised as she lead the way. "But make yourself comfortable."
Shinji stared in horror. "You call this… a little bit messy?" he scraped a clear space for the bag of shopping. "Misato, I've been beaten for not making my bed in a morning. This is not messy."
She flinched. "What?" she asked shakily, turning around. "Just where did you grow up? The workhouse?"
"We were trained well." Shinji told her, reaching for a loose bin bag. "Want to give me a hand?" he asked her with a smile. "Roommate?"
While she was happy that the kid was acting more like a human now that he was warming up to her, it didn't change the fact that he was asking for a punch.
As the room was progressively cleared, Shinji began to learn more of Misato's life without her saying a word.
The fridge was filled with beer, ice and snacks, but very few fresh ingredients.
Her clothes and underwear were strewn across the apartment, one thong actually being found under a cushion that Misato snatched from Shinji with a laugh.
There was all kinds of garbage that didn't find its way to the bin, with several tied up bin liners filled with trash already against the wall.
But Shinji couldn't find any trace of any contraceptives.
She drinks, she's slobby, has little decency when off duty, but she's not sexually active.
For a woman of her appearance, that was surprising to Shinji. Not even any trace of one-night stands.
Of course, the real surprise was the penguin in the three foot tall sauna built into the wall.
That said, when Shinji considered asking Misato why there was a penguin walking towards the fridge with a towel around its neck, he just shrugged. Why not?
After all, in the past twenty-four hours he had seen a colossal angel of destruction, had fought in a massive robot like the protagonist in some bizarre Saturday-morning cartoon and had gone hand-to-hand with a mutated abomination.
A pet penguin was a nice return to sanity at this point.
"So, isn't this nice?" Misato asked as Shinji once the room was something resembling tidy. "Having dinner with someone else?"
Shinji was wolfing down the microwavable meal, but gave her a quick thumb up to show he agreed.
"Starting today, this is your home." Misato told him told him with a wink. "So you can take advantage of everything here."
Thumb up.
"Man, everything with you is Yes, Yes, Yes, Yes!" she complained. "It's so depressing! You're a boy, aren't you!" she shouted, pushing his head down, making him choke on his noodles. "Start acting like a man!"
Shinji thumped his chest, pushing her hand off his head as he coughed up the food lodged in his throat. "I don't think that would be appropriate, Captain Katsuragi."
She blinked, then sat back in her chair laughing. "Go take a bath kid." She wheezed, whipping a tear from her eye as she grinned. "Make sure to scrub that filthy mind of yours!"
Shinji couldn't remember the last time he had a bath inside a bathtub.
He remembered that time he, John and Kelly had found that hotspring in the mountains on an orienteering mission. After years of cold showers, that felt so good.
John and Kelly hadn't been Japanese. There were a lot of children from the UK, Russia and Canada whose parents died in Second Impact that trained with Shinji.
Although, they couldn't have trained all the orphans like that. Funding would have been impossible, and even then, Shinji wouldn't have gotten in.
No, Kelly was taken from the streets during a police raid where one of the older kids ratted them out after getting captured. Shinji was surprised to hear about that, but Kelly had been four at the time, so of course the police would catch her.
John never wanted to talk about his past. Not many of the kids from the group did. He and John were probably the only ones who knew about Kelly, after all.
If it hadn't been for that Ryoji, Kelly would probably still be on the streets. He'd never say it to her, but he was glad she was betrayed. Because of that, Shinji got to know Kelly.
That said, if he ever met him, Shinji would probably make him suffer for betraying the team.
You don't betray the team.
Especially your unit.
Shinji shook his head.
People hadn't been trained like him and Kelly. Kelly even admitted that before she was brought to the school, she might've even done the same thing.
People were weak.
Spartans were not.
Spartans didn't fail.
"I won't fail." Shinji told himself, getting out of the bath. "That would be letting the team down."
He wouldn't betray the team.
His old one or his new one.
He won't be like Ryoji Kaji.
"So, how was Rei today?"
Gendo glanced away from the metal, blue triceratops to see Ritsuko standing behind him. "You went to the hospital today, did you not?" she asked him.
Gendo looked back to the machine. "She'll be ready to battle in twenty days." He told her. "That gives us plenty of time to repair the Triceratops."
"It would have been half that if your son hadn't passed out." Ritsuko sighed. "It must be hard on those children."
"There is no one else who the Ranger Coins will accept." Gendo said. "As long as they survive, that is what I will have them do."
"With no regard for what they want?" she asked him.
"They want it." Gendo said. "Otherwise, the coins wouldn't accept them."
Shinji crept out of the window in the dead of night, zipping up his jacket against the night sky.
He was starting school tomorrow.
He'd never been to civilian school before, but according to Misato, making friends were important.
Shinji wasn't that good at making friends, but he made sure to get on with everyone on the team. He was usually grouped with Kelly and John, but Chief Mendez liked to mix things up once in a while.
That orienteering expedition where they all had only a portion of the map for example. Shinji still couldn't believe John got promoted for leading an attack against the men sent to pick them up, though they were in the wrong for not identifying themselves.
They certainly didn't come across as friendly.
Which reminded him.
He walked back into the room and took out a marker pen and wrote a message for Misato in case she checked up on him.
Gone for a run, I'll come back when I'm tired. Took my communicator if you need me.
Shinji looked at the device on his wrist. It was a lot like an oversized watch, but it was a direct secure line of communication with whoever was on his network, which currently included Misato and NERV HQ.
He felt his Power Morpher attached to his belt under his jacket. He'd been ordered to keep that with him at all times too, but it wasn't exactly subtle, so Shinji questioned just how secretive he was supposed to be about his identity as a soldier amongst the civilians.
He certainly hadn't been ordered to hide his status, so why should he?
Shinji walked back to the window.
He definitely wasn't going to brag about it.
That would be foolish.
He jumped over the ledge and slid ten storeys down the drainpipe before jumping off the building wall, twisting in the air to grab the ledge of the next building's rooftop.
He looked across the city skyline.
In his room was another ceiling he didn't know.
In this city, nothing was familiar.
He'd probably spend the next week scouting this city before that fact changed.
"Shinji, I'm coming in."
Misato opened the door to see the window open and the empty bed.
The towel from her hands fell to the ground.
She turned the light on.
Shinji wasn't there.
She sighed.
Not that she could blame hi-
Gone for a run, I'll come back when I'm tired. Took my communicator if you need me.
"Oh." Misato said, suddenly feeling somewhat foolish.
She smirked.
He left his marker pen on the floor.
Time to write him a reply.
Shinji ran through the alley- tic-tacking up the walls on either side until he could grab the iron staircase of the fire escape. He span himself up, then silently ran up until he found an open window in the hospital.
He pushed himself over the edge and shimmied himself across the narrow ledge until he could climb through it.
It was dark inside, so he pulled up his dark-blue hood and slunk silently past the sleeping inpatients.
Misato lay on her futon, checking the clock.
Midnight, and he still wasn't back yet.
Her phone rang.
Shinji.
She twisted over and grabbed it. "You had me worried Shinji." She told him.
_\_ "Did you read my note?" _\_ he asked her.
She grabbed her forehead. "Yeah, I did, but still-"
_\_ "Is the other Ranger in NERV a blue-haired girl?" _\_ Shinji asked, interrupting her. _\_ "Around fourteen, maybe fifteen years old, with recent injuries?" _\_
"Yeah, Rei Ayanami." Misato replied. "Why are you-"
_\_ "Written as 'Twill Wave', as in the old Fubuki class destroyer ship?" _\_
Misato growled. "Yeah, but-"
He hung up.
Misato almost threw the phone across the room, but Shinji clearly wasn't aware of a function called Call Return.
Room seven-zero-four.
Shinji shut down the computer at the reception desk as his wrist beeped a little jingle.
He pushed the 'Answer' button and moved silently, covering his wrist to hide the sound as he moved quickly to avoid the guards.
Ten seconds later, he hissed into it. "What?"
_\_ "Where are you?" _\_
"I'm breaking into a hospital to talk to Rei Ayanami." Shinji told her. "Since I'm in the Inpatient wing outside of visiting hours, I'd prefer not to get caught."
Misato took a moment to process this.
_\_ "What?" _\_
"She's unhappy with me and I want to know why." Shinji breathed into his wrist. "I'll call you afterwards, either from the communicator or from the police station, and I'm sure you know which one you'd rather be called from."
Shinji hung up, grabbing his forehead.
He wasn't normally that aggressive outside of battle.
He rarely got that annoyed by anything not concerning his father either.
That said, it terrified him when his communicator almost gave his position away like that.
His heart was still racing- he hadn't had to deal with a snag like that for months.
If it wasn't for the kid playing on his game boy in the room opposite him, Shinji would have had to deal with a guard that knew about his presence.
Although, Shinji was surprised.
Guards weren't supposed to give up that easily.
Mendez's wardens would have known instantly that the sound came from the desk, not from the kid's game.
Prepare for the worst, hope for the best indeed.
Now to find Rei.
Shinji stepped out into a black palm that slammed him to the ground.
He was helpless against this strength, and as his assailant crept closer, Shinji could see why.
"Well well." The Black Ranger chuckled. "Aren't you a little young to be sneaking into girl's bedrooms in the middle of the night?"
-}+{-
CLIFFHANGER!
Nah, not really, but I hope I've better explained Shinji's character and role here.
And now would be a good time to point out that this isn't exactly a Power Ranger/Evangelion crossover.
It's an Evangelion/Halo crossover with a helluva lot of Power Ranger motifs involved.
