Evangelion

Cat's Cradle

Problem One: Forget it, I forgot it

'Pluralitas non est ponenda sine neccesitate'

"No, not now!" Ritsuko Akagi cried out in the mobile Command Center that rested on top of the mountain beside Evangelion Units One, and Zero.

The Date was 2015 AD, just after midnight and Tokyo 3 was under attack by the diamond shaped fifth Angel known as Ramiel. Ramiel dominated over the skies of the city slowly but methodically drilling a hole to its target. Unit One's sniper shot went wide, and its super-heated photon wave was distorted by the passing particle beam energy fired from the Angel directly at Unit One. When the two hillsides on opposite sides of Tokyo 3 ignited in to a fireball or energy and light, the impact could be felt all the way down to terminal dogma. When Unit One readied its second shot, it was just at that moment Ramiel penetrated into the Geo-Front, with it's A.T. Field tipped drill. With most resistance out of the way it sped to its objective, deep within Nerv itself.

Deep underground in Terminal Dogma, in the darkened Room of Gauf, that had not seen any visitors for some time, the hum of electronics broke the silence, as computer screens begun to activate all around. Their monitors had lighten up the room with multi flashes of colors. Printouts begin to spit out, as the main lights turn on, with the sea of Rei's visible for anyone to see. A sound of suction then dominated the room as the center cylinder filled with the blood of Lilith, LCL. Once filled, like a cork in water, a Rei clone floated into the tube. It was cold and lifeless a mere doll like in appearance wrapped in the fetal position.

After some time, the sound of electricity was building into its crescendo. The overwhelming sound of the hiss and crackle filled the air as sparks sprung into mass eruption from the equipment. Without warning an explosion of electricity engulfed the tube of LCL, the clone jolted back and forth violently, as electricity coursed through its body. The light show ends in a flash as computer terminals around the room exploded and wires blew out from the ceiling. In an instant the power escaped from the room entirely. After some time the lights flickered back on, and in the center tube, the clone floated in a standing position.

'Being in pain would be a measureless understatement.' The clone thought to herself, as she made a bubbly scream of agony. Soon to follow was the unmistakable panic of drowning, yet as her lungs filled with the thick liquid, suffixation did not follow.
'Everything down to the tips of my fingers, to the balls of my feet hurt.' She floated, unable to gain motor function to her limbs, but was more than able to remember, why she was there.

'To fight.' The clone thought, as feeling came back to her arms, she concentrated even more. Soon she felt the cold, damp tingle, of the thick liquid between he toes. 'I'm here to save my son, and the world.' Still blind but wanting to leave such a small space, she pushed off the bottom and up to the surface of the tube. 'I am…'

'Why does my head hurt, it felt like I just pushed myself in to a steel plate… to be more accrete, why does my body hurt.' Slowly, the clone trapped inside the tube, opened her eyes, to see blurry figures, and flashes of light. 'Wait I'm floating… No I'm drowning!' She raced as fast as she could, to whatever surfaces her limited vision could provide. She slammed in to a hard metal plate at the top of the slippery glass like cocoon. Once more, she franticly felt around, as the pain in her lungs slowly faded. 'Well that must be what caused my head to hurt…' She thought as she tapped at the metal lid. 'I am going to die! Wait a minute… Just who was about to die.'

Drowning seemed to become the furthest from her mind, now, as she contemplated on who she was. 'At least the LCL is protecting me from drowning.' She paused for a moment in confusion. 'Just how do I know this, and yet I can't remember my own name?'

The thin young clone crossed her arms in a pout. For some reason, she knew that the computers were still scanning her; however she did not know why she knew. She waited for nearly ten minutes until the top opened, and she floated to the surface. Chocking and spitting out LCL, she went to take her first breath. With much dismay, it was even more pain full then the feeling of drowning. 'I must be suffering from focal muscular atrophy.'

'Wait a minute!' For some reason, her mind knew a lot more then she was aware. 'This did answer my blurry vision, pain in my body and the lack of energy to move problem. Of course I have this urge to think of the human genome.'

The girl thought as she floated in the LCL, trying to remember her name. 'Y!' It started with a Y!'

A huge smile struck her face as she was remembering more than just the human genetic code. "Damn it, stupid human genetic code." Noticing that her voice was as useful as most of her random facts, the clone tried to clear her throat. This venture quickly turned into her coughing uncontrollably.

She returned to her thoughts, although for some reason, her mind could not get past the debate of this LCL, chemical components. On the good side, her vision was improving at least for color, light, and depth perception.

"Meow." The cat like sound was soft and dry, as she spoke under her breath as something brushed by her leg. She tried her best not to freak out. Nevertheless, she felt knowing who she was, was more important than a little thing called fear. When she was touched a second, and then third time, she got mad, and reached down grabbing something that felt like a hand. Alarmed that she was not alone, she pulled it up with all her strength, only to see a naked blue haired girl. She came to the surface, with a lifeless bob to her head.

"Y… Shit!" She grabbed her mouth, as she heard an echo bounce off the walls of this pool of LCL. 'This LCL it's so gooey, and… well gooey.' She waited for a moment before curiosity got the best of her. She reached out, and poked the lifeless girl in the head. The body's only reaction was to slowly sink back in to the pool.

'Meow' The clone became very sad; the first person she met in her life was dead. 'Maybe I was supposed to be dead too.' It was a discouraging thought, but it made sense to her. She pulled the body up once more.

"Well nice to meet you." She whispered, giving her voice some practice. "So is there anything else to do besides die in a pool." After waiting for the response, she looked around, to see the shadowy figures, of lifeless bodies, at the bottom of the pool. The girl, who looked like all of them except for one unique future, frowned at the sight.

"I guess, not."

With some strength building in her body, she decided to put it to good use, by finding a way out of this place. She also felt, she should say good-bye to her first friend. Even if the person was dead, she did not distinguish it as a problem. "Good night and thank you blue haired girl. You completed your task what more can I ask of you now. That will be all, if I need you I will call, but I don't think that's likely somehow."

After a minute of swimming, she found a ladder that led out of the pool. Pulling herself out would seem to be more difficult then she imagined. With a lot of pain, moaning, and wincing, the young girl reached the surface. She looked around the large hollow room, she found that there where dozens of pools around her.

'What a weird place.' Nothing registered to this clone's almost childlike mind; everything was so foreign to her, yet it was also fun. She went to thinking once more, as she laid on her back, naked and cold, unable to build the strength to stand.

'I do not even remember what I look like, but random useless facts seemed to be abundant.' She then took the time to 'guesstimate' the diameter and circumference of the pool. 'Who ever I was, I needed to get a life, because the information got me nowhere.' After sometime of more thought, she forced herself to sit up. This was surprisingly easy; her body was rebounding from atrophy, faster then she thought. Smiling she began to sing.

"In to the darkness away I go,

all it may be in vane I know,

In to the darkness even so

I have to take the journey.

In to the darkness to find some clothes."

Her adventure had begun but in only thirty minutes, she was walking warily down a hallway exhausted and in pain. It was pitch black, but with her vision still out of whack, it made no difference. She was relieved when she finally found a door that she could open.

Once inside the clone stumbled around, until she finally found a light. 'Bad idea!' She thought as she turned on and quickly off the lights. Holding her eyes in pain from her photo sensitivity. 'There's a good lesson for you sins.'

After a minute, the girl decided on a safer approach, and began to crawl around like a child touching, and feeling her way around. Thanks to a stroke of luck she managed to find a cabinet full of assorted clothing. It was only disposable hospital scrubs; it was better than her birthday suit. Once dressed she stood up, this time with the pain in her feet only a slight annoyance to her.

'I need something to allow my eyes to get used to the light.'

Her thought was at first discouraging, but soon her useless talent in random facts gave her an idea. She searched around until she found a bandaging cloth. Pulling a appropriate length she tore it with her teeth, she then tied it around her head, blindfolding herself. She felt around in the dark, until she found the light switch once more. Less painful than before and she could distinguish shapes, and this pleased the clone as she gave a smirk. "If there is one thing I'm learning about myself in this experience, is that I am a freak'n genius."

Allowing time to get used to the light, she went to leave but the door started to slide open by itself, so she quickly shut it. Once more, it was sliding open so she hit the close button again and called out, "Who is it?"

"Nerv Security Forces! Open the door!" The voice sounded mad to her, something she did not want to be a part of, and decided to calm it down, as she looked for something to brace the door

"Oh, really." The clone stepped back feeling franticly for something to help her. "You see, we really don't need any security forces because we already got one."

The door slid open before she even reached to close it again. In the doorway, was a tall figure and he immediately registered to her as a dangerous person. "Nerv Security Forces! Don't move!"

"Meow!' As if by reflexes, the young clone attacked whoever it was in front of her. The first attack was a faint punch, than a grapple of whatever was in his hands. As if her mind could have found a better time to bring up useless facts, she began to think about what she just grabbled away from this man, using her apparent skill in Wing Chun martial arts.

'H&K MP-5 SD 9mm… side-by-side double magazines and a sure-shot light…' Her thoughts ended, by a slap to the head from the man's nightstick. 'I deserved that.'

Not in the best shape to fight some people totting, submachine guns, and assortment of objects made for killing people really fast. Therefore, the girl leaped for the soldier's shoulders; once more as if by second nature, she spun in midair, landing on the other side of the door. For all her acrobatics, it did not save her from falling on her ass as her dismount. She quickly looked to identify the shapes, of a group of tall figures, using a SWAT tactic called a stack formation, facing her; therefore, she decided to run.

'Besides it was a boring conversation anyways.' She thought.

She retreated like the French in war. She ran as fast as her slender legs could take her, only to have another useless fact to come to mind.

'The only time the French have one a war in the past two hundred years was against themselves'

She went around corners, and up a flight of stairs, finally she ran into a pair of elevator doors. Franticly pushing the up button, the seconds felt like an eternity. She could hear the pounding of steel toed boots, running in her direction she felt the fear of death for the first time.

"Come to me, now, elevator! I command it!" She put her hands on her hips, as she thought back in her random knowledge. 'Come to think of it, what's a SWAT style stack?' The elevator saved her for the torment of telling herself the answer. She dashed inside it and quickly closed the doors just as she saw the glare from the MP-5's, sure shot light strike her blindfold. The weak girl began to gasp for air as she fell back against the side of the elevator. It was as if she never ran before in her life. The elevator never seemed to stop for her either. She guessed pressing the up button a million times would do that. After twenty minutes, she started to worry.

'This must be the elevator to heaven.'

Next Problem: Boy meets girl, girl meet name…