Chapter 2: Knockin' on Heaven's Door
Disclaimer! I don't own anything, so please don't sue me.
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It was an average day for Shinji, the sun was shining, the alien birds were chirping, and there was the ever-present breeze coming from the sea. Shinji guessed it must've been around noon, judging by where the sun was. He paid no mind though, no his task was too important to care what time it was.
Shinji had decided to expand his second base in the castle's courtyard and was currently working on making himself a hammock. He didn't know where he was going to actually put the hammock, considering the courtyard had no trees, but dammit he wanted it.
"Might as well live comfortably…" He had told himself. He wondered why it took him so long to decide in making the area his own but didn't dwell on the issue. Best to actually get the work done instead of pondering about it.
He had almost finished weaving the last bits of his vine hammock together, when suddenly a loud sonic boom sounded off from far above him. Shinji jumped in surprise and looked skyward. To his astonishment, there was a flying object approaching the castle.
"Oh...shit…" He breathed.
As quickly as he could, Shinji grabbed his spear and dove headfirst into the nearby row of bushes. He carefully peered out of the bushes and watched the object as it slowed and flew towards the castle. As it neared, the absurdity of what he was seeing set in.
What appeared to be a gigantic, metal lion was going to land in the castle's courtyard.
"You have got to be shitting me…" He babbled.
When the lion landed it shook the ground due to its massive size. Now that Shinji could see the metallic beast up close he was stunned at its size. If it stood on its hind legs it would be roughly the height of an Eva.
It was then that he noticed that parts of the castle were now lit up. They had activated when the lion had gotten close to the castle but Shinji was too focused on the potentially dangerous lion to notice until now.
'Ohshitohshitohshitohshitohshitohshitohshitohshitohshit...' He internally panicked.
He took a breath to calm himself and gripped his meager spear tightly. He knew the lion would most likely kill him but he wouldn't go out hiding in a bush, his inner warrior wouldn't allow it. He had fought angels, a giant metal lion was nothing.
Shinji jumped again when the beast lowered its head and opened its mouth. Shinji's eyes nearly bugged out of his head when a section of its jaw lowered and four people that looked to be around his age descended from within the lion's head.
The first person off the lion's jaw ramp was a boy shorter than him. He was about a head shorter than Shinji, with shaggy dirty blonde colored hair and large, round glasses. He wore a mostly white shirt with green, orange, and black highlights. He also wore grey shorts that reached his knees and shoes with the same style of orange, black, and white as his shirt. (In reality, this boy was actually a girl but Shinji, being the clueless person he was, couldn't tell the difference.)
AN: Pidge will be referred to as male until Shinji figures out the truth.
The second person to exit the beast was a boy around Shinji's height with jet black hair in the style of a mullet. He wore a navy blue shirt and a red jacket with white and yellow highlights over the navy blue shirt. He had simple black jeans, and boots that had the same red, black, and white highlights as his other clothes. And attached to his belt were what looked to be holsters or pouches.
Next was a strong looking boy with tan skin and dark hair. He had a yellow shirt with a green vest over it. His pants were a light brown with dark patches on the knees. His shoes looked to be a kind of boot similar to the kind the boy in front of him wore with black and orange highlights. The boy also had a bright orange headband wrapped around his head.
The last person off the jaw ramp was another boy. His skin was also tan but not as much as the strapping boy in front of him. He had brown hair and wore a grey shirt with a brown jacket over it. His pants were an old pair of blue jeans and a grey pair of tennis shoes rested on his feet.
Shinji didn't think the four individuals that exited the lion looked dangerous but he wasn't taking any chances. He sat as still as he could in the bushes and merely watched the group. He nearly screamed and gave himself away when the blue lion suddenly roared and the castle's main door opened.
He could see one of them saying something when the gigantic cat had roared but he couldn't hear what it was. Shinji wasn't a lip reader so he hadn't a clue of what the boy had said but judging by looks on the boys' faces, they were scared.
'Aw screw it, here goes nothing. If I die, I die. Not like I have much of a chance of surviving anyway...' He thought.
The group in front of Shinji all screamed when he stuck his spear through the bush and loudly tapped the ground to get their attention. It seems they were really were scared. Seeing as he had their attention, Shinji asked them who they were.
"Anatahadare"
The short boy was the first to shake off the shock of seeing a potential alien and spoke up.
"W-what?" He stuttered.
Again, Shinji repeated himself and asked who they were. The boy with glasses spoke once more, this time slowly and softly as to not provoke what he perceived as an alien.
"We can't understand you." The boy explained while gesturing to himself and the others.
The Third Child now understood his error. They didn't speak Japanese but luckily Shinji could speak English. After Second Impact, many countries had to take in people from foreign countries that didn't speak their native languages. As a result, the UN passed a law that enforced that all nations must have all future children study a foreign language of their choice from a young age until they graduated high school as to lessen the confusion of the language barrier..
The law went into effect before Shinji started school so when he started there were several languages to choose from. Due to the increasing amount of English speakers in Japan, his sensei recommended the children take English so young Shinji did so. Over the years, English was one of the few subjects Shinji actually excelled at. He had spoken the language for years and was quite good at it.
Now was his chance to put it to good use.
"I-I c-can speak English." He stuttered.
The group of boys gasped in shock at hearing him speak their language. His Japanese accent creeped into his words but they understood what he had said loud and clear. It was then that the big guy in the yellow shirt took a step forward and spoke to him.
"It's ok, come on out. We're not gonna hurt you." The boy assured.
Shinji was hesitant but the reassuring look on the large boy's face made him feel like he could trust them. And if not, well that's why he had his spear.
Ever so slowly, Shinji edged himself out of the bushes into their line of sight. The boys gasped again when he stood upright. The four had apprehensive looks on their faces upon seeing his spear and ragged clothing.
The thing that disturbed them the most were the amount of scars that Shinji's body had. Over the years he spent alone, Shinji had come into contact with the species of predatory alien lifeforms that first chased him out of the forest but the encounters were never anything he couldn't handle. They had occasionally gotten in some bites and scratches on him though.
"Am I seeing this right now? Are we really talking to a space-hobo?!" The boy in the brown jacket asked aloud.
"Hey! I'm not a space-hobo, I'm from Earth!" Shinji rebutted defensively.
The four boys looked amongst themselves before looking back at him. The boy in the red jacket stared at him and opened his mouth to question Shinji on how true his statement was. Before he could, the boy in yellow suddenly shouted.
"WHOA! What is that?!"
They all turned to him and saw he was pointing at something away from the castle. His three companions followed his gaze to see what he was pointing at. Their jaws dropped at seeing the massive humanoid figure lying inside of a crater not too far away. Shinji kept his eyes trained on them the whole time. He wasn't about to get caught off-guard.
Realization struck the smallest boy and he turned to his companions.
"Guys, he's telling the truth...that's an Evangelion in that crater." He gasped.
Shinji clutched his spear tighter and steeled himself for battle in response to the boy's comment. The only people who really knew anything about the Evas were the people in the defense industry and the citizens of Tokyo-3. Any information that leaked was destroyed by the MAGI's protection protocols. The fact that this boy knew what Unit-01 looked like was highly disturbing to Shinji.
The group noticed Shinji's posture and took a step back, except for the boy wearing glasses.
"You're its pilot, aren't you?" The boy asked cautiously.
Shinji nodded and waited for the boy to continue.
"I'll explain everything but you gotta lower the spear, ok?" The boy pleaded.
"Ok…." Shinji responded.
He hesitantly lowered his weapon but still held onto it tightly. The short boy scratched his head awkwardly before clearing his throat.
"Well since this might take a while, we might as well introduce ourselves. I'm Pidge." He smiled.
Pidge turned and pointed to each of the other boys and told Shinji their names. The boy in red was named Keith, the boy in the brown jacket was Lance, and the big guy was Hunk. Shinji's hardened gaze lightened and he lessened his grip on his spear. The group seemed much less threatening now that Shinji knew their names.
"I'm Shinji Ikari, nice to meet you all." He introduced himself with a small bow.
It felt strange to introduce himself with his given name first but none of the boys were Japanese so Shinji recalled what Asuka had told him about foreign customs. No need for honorifics either.
"Alright we got that out of the way, now can you please explain what's going on?!" Lance exclaimed.
"Yeah! What's an Eva doing on an alien planet anyway?" Hunk added.
"I don't even know the answer to that question, I'm not sure how I even got here. But first, I wanna know how you know what Unit-01 looks like. That information is classified." Shinji answered.
"Like I said, we'll get to that but I need you to calm down ok?" Pidge asked the pilot.
He nodded and took a calming breath.
"Shinji, how long have you been here?" Keith asked.
"I don't know but it's been far too long. Please...you obviously know about the Evas so please tell me what happened! What's going on with the Angel War?!" Shinji yelled at the group.
Shinji's yell struck a chord with Pidge and he decided that Shinji was not going to be calmed until he found out what happened in the years following his absence. And Pidge knew how hard it was to not know what happened to important people in his life so he began to spill the beans.
"You might wanna sit down, a lot of things have happened since the War." Pidge informed him.
Shinji did as he was told and plopped down on the ground. The other boys followed suit.
"Lemme start this off by saying that the Angel War is over, we won." Pidge said happily.
"As for how we know all this stuff, well after the War most of the details were declassified. All the details about the battles anyway, the pilots' identities were kept confidential." Hunk added.
Tears began to well up in Shinji's eyes and soon began flowing down his cheeks. They had won! Shinji wiped his tears away as best he could so Pidge could continue the story. Hunk gave him a pat on the shoulder and a big smile to try and calm him down.
Surprisingly, it worked. None of them made fun of him for crying so that was a good sign in Shinji's eyes.
"S-sorry…" He sniffled.
"No sweat dude. I'd be emotional too if I were in your shoes." Lance told him.
Shinji took another calming breath and waited for Pidge to continue but before he could, Keith spoke out.
"Shinji, you've been here since the 12th Angel right?" Keith asked.
He nodded.
"Well that confirms it, you've been here for about 4 years. Pidge start from the defeat of that Angel." Keith ordered.
'Four years, huh? That'd make me 18…' Shinji thought.
"Right. Well after Unit-01 was swallowed by the Angel, NERV was forced to drop all remaining N2 mines into it in hopes to kill it." Pidge started.
Shinji's eyes nearly burst from his skull when Pidge told him that. From what he remembered NERV still had over 900 mines remaining!
"What actually happened was that somehow the tremendous force mixed with the Angel and turned it into a black hole. The unstable mix is most likely how you ended up here." Pidge theorised.
Shinji was shocked but kept quiet, he needed to know what happened. Pidge continued the story and by the end Shinji was nearly hysterical.
When the black hole closed in Tokyo-03, another opened in Nevada and spat out NERV's Nevada base exactly where it had been originally before closing. All the staff were nowhere to be found but all the technology was still there. The lack of qualified staff meant that the base was essentially now useless so the United States government handed it off to NASA, who happily took it.
The 13th Angel had been a devastating fight with an Angel having infected Eva Unit-03. Units 00 and 02 had barely managed to take down the beast but the plug had been damaged and the pilot had sustained major injuries.
The 14th Angel had been had been hell on Earth. Zeruel had come much sooner than any of the other Angels before it and it had laid waste to anything before it. It even managed to take out Unit-00 before something no one could've expected happened. Unit-02 went berserk and transformed itself into a beastial vision of hatred.
Zeruel didn't live long after that. Unit-02 tore the Angel to pieces but not before the Angel could it one last pot shot to the face. The blast had only pissed the Eva off more but reports say the pilot sustained injuries to the face from it.
Shinji could only hope his fellow pilots were ok.
Next came the 15th, which had attacked Unit-02 with some sort of psychic beam. The pilot had managed to hold out for a while and shoot at the beast with the giant sniper rifle Shinji himself had used in Operation Yashima. But the shots couldn't penetrate its AT Field and the psychic attack rendered Unit-02 useless.
Unit-00 was sent to retrieve some weapon Shinji had never heard of from Terminal Dogma. It was a massive spear that had been dubbed the Lance of Longinus. After reaching the surface, Unit-00 hurled the colossal spear at the Angel and it was all over.
The Lance tore through the Angel's AT Field like it was paper and kept on going. It finally stopped when it entered lunar orbit.
The 16th Angel had been the most harrowing battle of all the Angel battles. The beast had attempted to take over Unit-00 and Unit-02 and very nearly succeeded. It was known that the Evas were unstable machines that could go berserk pretty much whenever the hell they wanted, and the day the 16th attacked just so happened to be the day Unit-00 went out for blood.
The blue Eva had absorbed the Angel and destroyed it. It then proceeded to smash everything in sight. Unit-02 tried to stop it but the crimson Eva was overpowered and knocked out of commission. Unit-00 went on to destroy any buildings, tanks, or aircraft that dare block its path.
The Eva's rampage was only quelled due to it running out of power. The thought of Unit-00 on a rampage chilled Shinji to the bone. He had been suspect to the azure titan's fury during the cross-Eva synch tests.
Unfortunately for Shinji, Pidge said the details surrounding the 17th Angel were still classified. What Pidge didn't know was that NERV kept the "battle" secret for good reason. The idea of Angel assuming human form would've caused a panic.
What Seele had planned did not go down well. The 17 Angel, Tabris, was supposed to infiltrate NERV under the guise of being the Fifth Child with the intent of traumatising Shinji. But since there was no Shinji, Kaworu simply marched to the command bridge, babbled something about timelines, and announced himself as the 17th with a little flare of his AT Field to prove it.
What he hadn't counted on was Rei to be there nullifying his AT Field with her own. He quickly met the business end of Misato's Heckler & Koch USP and that was that. The mighty 17th Angel taken out with a mere handgun.
The 24 hours that followed Kaworu's death would go down in history as the Battle of Tokyo-03.
Seele sent in the JSSDF to infiltrate and destroy NERV from the inside but they had one major flaw that led to their demise. They couldn't kill the one person who could stop them.
Major Misato Katsuragi.
Kaji told her what Seele and Gendo were planning and gave her all the data he'd collected before Seele had the man killed and Misato didn't let his death be in vain. As soon as she had dispatched the 17th action, the Major began putting her plan into motion.
She ordered all remaining civilians to be evacuated from the city and all NERV employees to return to the pyramid base. Section-2 was ordered to hand out firearms to all employees and set up defensive perimeters. Misato informed Section-2's Captain, Chiron, of Gendo Ikari's plans and he happily arrested the Commander.
Gendo didn't dare resisting, especially since his scenario was now pointless now that his Yui was gone for good. Sub-Commander Kozo Fuyutsuki happily sold out the rat bastard's location and headed to the command bridge with Dr. Akagi in tow to help with the upcoming battle.
Gendo was thrown in a cell while Ritsuko set up the Magi's defense protocols and flooded all the entrances with bakelite. The Evangelions were prepared and on standby. NERV had fortified itself like no other place on Earth could ever think of being.
And soon enough Seele's goons came knockin' on Heaven's door, only to find that God wasn't about to open it for 'em.
Seele's original plan was to blow open the Geofront with an N2 mine to let the ground forces in but they'd used all of their mines during the 12th Angel's assault and they hadn't finished making any new ones so they were forced to improvise. Sure they still had other kinds of explosives but none that could penetrate the Geofront's many layers of thick armor and tunneling through all the bakelite would take time.
And time was not something that was on Seele's side. After she put the 666 Firewall Protocols into place, Ritsuko began uploading all the information Misato had acquired on Seele onto the internet and sending the info to every government in the world.
The part of the Japanese government not in league with Seele began arming itself and fighting with those who were. Soon after, the American and Russian militaries began closing in on the city to make short of the ground forces.
And make short work they did. But they were sitting ducks for Seele's ultimate weapons, the Eva Series. Unlike the other Evas, these didn't their monstrous nature. The white behemoths used their flight advantage and weapons to decimate their enemies.
But the smiling freaks weren't prepared for Units 00 & 02 to suddenly be deployed. The harpy-like Evas had the advantage of regeneration and melee weaponry but the red and blue Evas were no slackers. Misato sent them armed to the teeth. All the available remaining weaponry NERV had was sent up alongside them.
When the pilots found out that Seele's Evas could regenerate, the kiddie gloves came off. Both Units went berserk and slaughtered the Eva Series. Unit-02 went for all of the entry plugs with Unit-00 following behind it, smashing the cores. Together they carved a path through albino Evas with ten seconds of power remaining.
And that was the end, the battle was won.
In the following days, the members of Seele were all captured and sentenced to life in prison. Death was too good for them. They would rot in a cell while the world they hated would live on. Gendo Ikari was also sentenced to life in prison as well, per Fuyutsuki's suggestion. Gendo would live the rest of his life in a cell knowing he would never see his wife or son ever again.
Fuyutsuki was pardoned due to the fact that he had been forced to go along with the insanity or die. Ritsuko was sentenced to life in prison as well when the UN found out her connection to Gendo and Seele but Misato was able to get her old friend's sentence reduced to a house arrest of sorts.
She would never be able to leave the Geofront again but she was fine with that. Ritsuko knew she deserved far worse for all she'd done. But she'd make the most of her second chance. A therapist was brought in to help her and everyone else who needed counselling after it was all said and done.
Due to her actions, Misato had been promoted to Supreme Commander of NERV Japan. She had no objections but hated the increase in paperwork. Fuyutsuki had chosen to remain as the Sub-Commander and he now actually enjoyed his job, much like everyone else at NERV.
Immediately after the battle, the public began demanding to know if the documents Ritsuko had flooded onto the net were real so NERV released an official briefing with specific names removed except for those who were a part of Seele and Gendo. The information within shocked the world and the remaining members of NERV were hailed as heroes for exposing a plot to destroy humanity.
The UN decided it best that NERV stick around in case of future extra-terrestrial attacks so the organization was changed into a multi-purpose agency with NERV Japan being tasked with guarding Lilith in case the Angels returned.
NERV's Nevada base that had been occupied by NASA received a massive increase in budget and technology was rebranded into the Galaxy Garrison, with the mission of exploring space and finding hospitable planets. Once NERV Japan caught wind of this, the Galaxy Garrison received even more funding and new shiny toys. Soon NERV's other base in Massachusetts was converted into another Galaxy Garrison base and the missions into space began.
Two years after the end of the Angel War, the Garrison launched the most expansive space mission in human history. To send a team of astronauts to Kerberos, a satellite orbiting Pluto at the edge of the solar system. Sadly, the ship and its crew never returned from the mission and the Garrison had no idea what happened to them,
Pidge explained all that happened during the War as best he could. Of course, there were details that Pidge, like the rest of the public didn't know. The statement NERV released did only have the names of people that the general public considered supervillains.
By this point, Shinji was a nervous wreck. The fact that his father would do such things made him violently sick to his stomach. In fact…
"Excuse me for a second." Shinji blurted before jumping to his feet and emptying his stomach into the bushes.
The other boys jumped to their feet as well to check on him. Shinji waved off their cries of concern and simply walked back to his spot and slowly sat down again.
"Shinji, what's wrong? What was with that reaction?" Pidge asked, bewildered.
Shinji had turned very pale and had to force himself to look Pidge in the eye.
"Y-you said Gendo Ikari was one of the people trying to destroy humanity, right?" Shinji stammered.
"Yeah, he was one of the ones. Why?" Pidge replied.
"H-he's my father…" The Third Child croaked.
Looks of pure shock pervaded all boys' faces and they gaped at him. Shinji was sure they were going to attack him now. How could they not? His father wanted to destroy the human race and almost succeeded.
"Can't believe we didn't see that coming, he even introduced himself as 'Shinji Ikari'." Keith commented.
Shinji didn't reply, he simply stood there with his head lowered in shame.
"Look man, the things your dad did was on him, not you. You didn't do anything wrong." Hunk reassured.
"Could you please excuse me again?" Shinji asked the boys.
"Go ahead dude." Lance replied.
And with that Shinji stood up once again walked over to the bushes again before letting out a bloodcurdling scream and began stabbing said bushes with his spear again and again. He had finally processed all the emotions flowing through him and rage had been the one that won out.
After hearing Pidge's story, Shinji knew he hated his father. Back when he lived in Tokyo-03, he had always had a bit of hope that maybe somehow, someday he and his father could be a proper family. But those hopes were shattered into a million pieces now and all that was left was seething hatred for a man that abandoned him to resurrect a dead woman.
Shinji loved his mother but he knew she was gone for good. He didn't understand why his father just couldn't let her go and be the dad he was supposed to have been. It was infuriating and oh so very frustrating for the lad.
But at least he knew Misato would always be there for him.
During his internal struggle Shinji didn't realise that his body was reflecting his feelings. He was still stabbing the bushes and had reverted back to screaming obscenities at his father in his native tongue. He looked at the group of boys and they took back in fear of the rabid look on his face.
Pidge would never admit it but in that moment he felt the most afraid of a person he had ever been in his life. The look in Shinji's eyes was that of a predator sizing up its prey. He felt as if he were a helpless gazelle standing before a lion.
Shinji blinked and breathed in before wiping the maddening look from his face.
"Sorry, I've had a rough relationship with my father but that...it's a lot to process." The Third Child apologised.
"Yeah…" Lance trailed off.
"Shinji, are you ready for the rest of the story?" Pidge asked.
"Not really but I'd rather not think about my father right now so go ahead." Shinji answered.
Pidge went on to explain how the group were enrolled in the Galaxy Garrison's cadet program, well except for Keith, he was a dropout. Pidge told Shinji how he, Hunk, and Lance had snuck out to monitor possible alien activity. They were shocked beyond belief when they actually got something and a UFO crashed a couple miles away from the Garrison.
As soon as the craft had crashed, the Garrison sent a team to retrieve it and whatever was inside. The boys had been watching from afar when they noticed a team of men in hazmat suits carry someone into a makeshift medical tent. Pidge proceeded to hack their security and take a peek at what they were keeping in the tent.
Instead of an alien, strapped to a table was the leader of the Kerberos mission, Takashi Shirogane. He was out cold and the hazmat team was giving him a once over for injuries. The boys were about to hatch a plan to rescue the man but Keith beat them to the punch with a series of explosions to draw away the guards.
Lance then sprung into action to beat his self-proclaimed rival with Hunk and Pidge right behind him. When they arrived at the tent Keith had knocked out the hazmat team and cut Shiro's restraints. Keith was about to lift the man when he woke and started babbling about hostile alien forces and a superweapon they were after before passing out again.
Before Keith could attempt to lift Shiro again, the guards arrived and the four were forced to make a retreat on Keith's hovercraft that he "liberated" from the Garrison. Soon their speedy retreat became a harrowing chase through the Nevada desert while being shot at by the Garrison. Keith hated himself for leaving Shiro behind but it was either run and try to break him again or get caught and rot in a cell or worse.
They eventually managed to outrun the Galaxy Garrison's forces and took refuge at Keith's hideout. They conversed about the forces Shiro mentioned and Keith revealed his findings of the ancient cave paintings in a place not too far from his base. Pidge spouted some technobabble that Shinji couldn't begin to understand and told him they set out to try and find whatever weapon Shiro had mentioned with a little technical ingenuity from Hunk.
Keith's hunch about the paintings being relevant to the weapon were right and the group stumbled upon the colossal blue lion that they arrived in. Pidge scolded Lance for his impromptu idea to climb inside the metallic beast when its jaws opened to allow them entry into the cockpit. Before they knew it, all were inside the cockpit and lion was up and moving.
It burst from its underground hiding spot and was soon in space. Hunk nearly had a heart attack when a massive alien ship suddenly appeared in front of them. Lance made the quick decision to attack the ship before it got the chance to try and descend onto the Earth below. After that, the lion seemed to go on autopilot and took Lance's control away.
It turned and began speeding away from the planet with the alien ship following quickly behind it. In a matter of seconds the lion reached the edge of the solar system near Kerberos and opened what appeared to be a wormhole.
The group was powerless to stop the lion as flew through the wormhole and towards a planet on the other side.
"And it flew down and landed, you scared the shit out of us, and thus here we are." Pidge finished the story.
Shinji turned towards Lance.
"Is there any chance you can get that thing back to Earth?" Shinji inquired.
"Man, I don't even know how I got it here! But I guess I can try." Lance offered.
Lance and the others stood up and walked over to the front of the Blue Lion and looked up at it.
"Ok, here goes nothin'. Please don't kill us..." Lance gulped.
He raised both his arms toward the Lion and stared at intenly before screaming.
"LIONUS OPENUS! I COMMAND THEE TO TAKE US HOME!"
The Blue Lion didn't move an inch.
The other boys stood slackjawed at Lance's eccentric method of trying to get the mechanical beast to respond. Pidge's left eye twitched. Keith opened his mouth to berate what he perceived as Lance's idiocy.
"Seriously? It's an extra-terrestrial war machine, not a magic spellb-"
ROOOOOOOAAAAAR!
The boys spun around at the sound of a different lion's roar coming from behind them, deep from within the castle.
"Calm down, that happens all the time." Shinji announced.
"So uh, say Shinji, what's in there? Another lion?" Hunk asked nervously.
"I have no clue, I never found a way in...until you guys showed up." He explained.
"Should we go in?" Lance inquired.
"Not like we have much choice. There might be a way get home in there." Keith responded.
"I knew that…" Lance grumbled.
"We need a plan if we're going in there. Anyone got any suggestions?" Hunk asked.
"I do." Shinji broke in.
"You do?" Pidge wondered.
"Well it's less of a plan and more of a battle formation. It's nearly sunset and staying out here is not an option, it's dangerous at night. Some of the animals here are nocturnal hunters and I don't have enough space for all of you to stay safe." Shinji admitted.
"So what'd you have in mind, Shinji?" Keith queried.
"We go in single file. I'll take point, Hunk goes behind me and shines his phone's flashlight over my head to light the way. Pidge and Lance come next, they'll be in charge of watching our flanks. And Keith at the back to watch our rear." Shinji explained.
"Ha! Poor Keith gets stuck in the back!" Lance goaded his rival.
"Shut it. We don't have time for this." Keith warned.
"Well, Shinji's plan sounds pretty sound. Any objections?" Pidge asked the group.
There were no objections.
"Alrighty then, continue on Shinji." Pidge addressed.
"Wait! I have a question!" Lance spoke up.
"Yes, Lance, what is it?" Shinji replied.
"Why do you get to go first in line?" He asked.
Keith rolled his eyes at the other boy's question.
"Because I have combat training and I have a weapon." Shinji answered while holding up his spear.
"Oh...that makes sense." Lance agreed.
There was another reason Shinji took point than just his combat experience but the group didn't need to know it. He had the least lose. Everyone on Earth thought he was dead, and he doubted he'd get a welcome party when he returned due to his being Gendo Ikari's son. Plus he was sure the boys in front of him all had families waiting for them back home.
Shinji gave the group a sweeping look before speaking again.
"Are there any more questions?"
There were none.
"Ok, everyone get in line and no matter what happens, stick together! We're a bigger threat as a group, if we scatter we're dead meat." Shinji ordered them.
The boys nodded and got into formation. Hunk pulled out his phone and switched on its flashlight. The others followed suit and the group set off slowly down the dark hallway leading into the castle.
Five minutes into the trek the only sound that could be heard was the group's heavy breathing and the chattering of Hunk's teeth.
"Guys, I really don't like this. Going inside abandoned alien ships is a surefire way to die! Haven't you guys seen the movie 'Alien'?" Hunk whined.
"Shh, keep it down big guy." Lance whispered from the back.
Shinji held up his hand and motioned for the group to halt. They had reached the end of the long hall that led outside. The room in front of them was large and empty with a only a staircase leading up to what Shinji assumed were the upper floors.
The boys scanned the room with their phones and upon spotting no apparent danger, moved further into the room. What they didn't expect was for the lights to suddenly turn on and a voice speaking a language they couldn't understand to start talking.
Shinji brandished his spear in every direction, searching for the origin of the voice. He found no one but kept his guard up, something was off. A blue aura surrounded the group and flashed red. That turned Shinji's fight or flight response into overdrive but before he could give the order to haul ass out of the castle he felt a sharp sting at the back of his skull.
A look at the others told Shinji they felt it too. Everyone began rubbing their heads to make the stinging sensation go away. The disembodied voice returned again and this time they could understand it.
"You have been outfitted with a language conversion chip. It is currently set to Galactic Standard, the most used language in the universe. Hold for identification scan."
The blue aura returned and flashed green this time.
"Identification confirmed. Welcome Paladins."
The group stood still for a few seconds to see if the voice would return but nothing happened. Hunk then proceeded to freak the hell out.
"THE SHIP LAID EGGS IN US, IT'S JUST LIKE ALIEN!" He screamed.
"Hunk, calm down will ya? You heard it, it said it put some sort of translator in us." Pidge assured.
"I think he's right." Keith added before spinning Lance around and pointing to the base of his head.
"Hey! Lemme Go!" Lance squirmed.
Keith let him go before turning around give Lance a look at what he was pointing out. The base of their skulls each had a tiny puncture wound and irritated skin. The wound was no larger than a prick by a needle but boy did it sting. A quick inspection of each member of the group revealed each had the same thing as Keith and Lance.
"Wonder what it meant by 'Paladins'? You think it was meaning us specifically, or...?" Hunk asked.
"I got a feeling we may find out soon enough." Pidge replied.
"Well now what? Should we go forward? Could be dangerous." Lance pondered.
"Hey, where are you going?" Hunk asked.
The others turned to see what he meant only to see that Shinji was halfway up the large flight of stairs.
"What happened to sticking together?" Pidge sassed.
Shinji stood where he was and didn't turn around.
"Look, I get you're scared, I am too. But I don't have time for standing around wondering on what to do. I've been on this planet too long, I'm going home and nothing is gonna stop me. You can come if you want but I can't guarantee your safety. If I find a way home, I'll come and get you." He answered honestly.
Shinji said his peace and continued walking up the stairs. Four years was a long time and Shinji was tired of waiting. Now that he had whatever translator thingy in his head he was sure he could talk his way out of it if things went bad. Or if not he'd fight with all his for his right to return home.
Shinji had nearly reached the top of the stairs when the others shared a look and came rushing up the stairs after him, calling for him to wait up. They couldn't see it but that made Shinji smile. These guys were ok in Shinji's book before but that little act made him respect them a whole lot.
Upon reaching the top of the stairway the group saw another long hallway that was lit, as if beckoning them forward.
"Guess we're going this way…" Pidge said.
"Looks that way. Alright, everyone back in formation." Shinji ordered.
The group went back into the formation they entered in and set off for parts unknown. After ten minutes of being led around up and down flights of stairs and through rooms the boys were tired of the silent approach. Of course yelling 'hello' in unknown (and possibly hostile) territory on an alien planet wasn't a smart idea but the teens were tired of corralled around like cattle.
Eventually, the boys found themselves in a large, more open room with a strange device in the center. Towards the outward sides of the room were massive, obelisk-like objects with the same glowing blue highlights that the group saw on a variety of things on their way to the room.
The group spread out across the room to take a closer look at the strange structures. Pidge paid them no mind, his focus was on the object in the center of the room. It looked like a computer terminal.
If it was a computer terminal, maybe it knew a way to get back to Earth! And Pidge was a genius, after all. Surely he could figure out this object in front of him. What was the worst thing that could happen?
Pidge slowly reached out and touched what he thought might pass for a key on the terminal. Instead of doing what Pidge expected, the terminal beeped once and began glowing brighter.
"Pidge...what'd you do?!" Hunk squeaked.
They'd soon find out.
XXXXXX
Here it is, kiddies! Here's the chapter 2 you've been waiting for. I apologise for the long delay but my schedule doesn't really allow for me to write very much and I wanted to wait until Voltron had a very big chunk of its story finished. And after binging season 7, I just had to finish a chapter. And I promise the wait for chapter 3 won't be nearly as long.
Got a couple ideas for some oneshots so I may get around to writing those as well as this story. And wow, I'm baffled at the amount of love this fic has gotten. I'm glad you guys are enjoying my silly story and a appreciate all the reviews you guys are giving, it's really quite motivating.
Sayonara, Peace!