1B: Tower of Hope
The holographic map made it clear: the military was losing. Only a few triangles remained around the blinking dot now, marking a scattered handful of military assets. The voices of the technicians had mostly died off into cold terror. Only the occasional shouted report broke the silence.
"Platoon Echo reports 5% strength. They are retreating and regrouping."
On one of the lower levels, one of the olive-suited men stood from his seat. "What's the status of the N2 mine?"
"En route to the target," another of the technicians replied. "ETA, three minutes!"
On the highest platform, the two men remained impassive.
"How many civilians are in the area?" the olive-suited man asked.
One of the other technicians spoke up. "None. All shelters report their sectors clear."
"Once the mine is laid, tell the bomber to fall back to a safe distance and report in." He turned to look up at the bearded man. "Well now, commander Ikari, It's looking like your services won't be needed."
The bearded man did not reply, and after a moment the Olive-suited man returned to giving orders.
"That mine won't be able to breach the angel's AT field," The grey-haired man commented.
"Let the general find that out for himself," commander Ikari replied.
They had been traveling for almost ten minutes, and Shinji's face had gone completely numb. His initial panic at their speed had faded somewhat, leaving him with a queasy unease. Unfortunately that did not translate to any greater comfort, as Misato's warm body was still pressed against him.
Looking for anything to distract himself, he glanced back in the direction they had come. Despite the stinging wind, his eyes went wide in surprise. Walking out of the city was a humanoid monster as tall as a skyscraper.
"What is that?" he screamed.
The girl in front of him stiffened, but did not take her eyes off the road. "An Angel. It's what NERV was designed to fight."
Shinji frowned in thought as he absorbed this new information. He was curious how this strange girl fit into the situation. If what she said was true, that his father's company was some sort of military organization in addition to being scientific, then Misato was even more out of place. She did not look like any sort of scientist or soldier, so why was she there? Why was he there, for that matter?
"How do you know all of this?"
Misato simply looked down at the motorcycle. "Come on! Please give me 250! I know you can do it!"
Shinji looked back at the advancing monster. It seemed so surreal, like something out of a film. As he watched, a VTOL aircraft moved toward it, dropped something in its path, then turned and shot off at high speed.
Misato glanced up as the craft passed them. "Hey Shinji? Did that plane drop something?"
"Yeah, didn't you see it?"
She shook her head. Misato seemed agitated, not willing to look at the creature. "How far away is the angel?"
"I don't know," he replied, "a couple kilometers?"
"Too close!"
Their current stretch of highway ran along a hilltop, with banks blocked off by guardrails sloping down on either side. Down the slope on the side opposite the angel was a dirt access road, barely more than a track. Misato slowed the bike so quickly that Shinji felt himself yanked forward. As they reached a gap in the railing, Misato turned the bike, sending them off the highway and down toward the access road. They bumped along down the slope, Misato somehow keeping the bike from crashing despite it pitching and bucking from the uneven surface. They were only halfway down the slope when the sky behind them lit up with an intensity a hundred times brighter than the sun. Moments later, they felt the shockwave, which sent them careening out of control.
One of the technicians looked up from her console. "N2 mine detonated. Electromagnetic pulse incoming!"
Moments later, the video feeds were replaced by loud static. Lights flickered as the shockwave played havoc with the electrical grid. For a few moments, the room was completely silent.
Non-Nuclear high-yield explosives, or N2 for short, were the most power strategic weapons allowed by the UN. When detonated, they caused explosions in the kiloton range, though without the residual radioactivity of nuclear weapons. This lack of fallout did not, however, diminish their destructive power.
The general on the lower level raised his fist in triumph. "Yes! We did it!" he glanced up to the two men on the highest level. "Too bad, Ikari."
Commander Ikari stared at the screen full of static. "Hmmm."
Several seconds passed, and the room fell silent. Everyone in the room turned to look at the video feed as well. When the feed returned, it showed a blasted hellscape where a peaceful rolling countryside had been before. A large crater had been blasted into the hills, and the trees were sticks of charcoal laid flat around it for hundreds of meters. At the center of the devastation, standing intact and defiant, was the angel. Gill-like structures on its shoulders opened and closed with the rhythm of breathing.
One of the men seated next to the general stood in surprise. "No! it's not possible!"
The shouts of the technicians immediately began once again.
"No affect on the target!"
"Target appears to be venting heat. It's moving again!"
Several minutes passed in complete anarchy. The general and other olive-suited men began arguing, then one of them picked up a desk phone and spoke to a person on the other end of the line. The technicians continued to announce their reports, their voices overlapping at a frantic pace. All the time, the blinking dot on the holographic map moved ever closer to the center.
Finally, the general hung up the desk phone and turned to look up at Commander Ikari. "We have exhausted all our options. As of this moment, we are transferring control of this operation to NERV. I hope this toy of yours really works, commander."
Beneath his folded hands, a smile spread across commander Ikari's face.
"Unit 0 is still in stasis," the grey haired man commented. As the commander remained silent, he came to a realization. "You can't mean to activate Unit 1? Rei can't pilot. She's still injured from the activation test."
Finally, commander Ikari replied. "A new pilot has been located. I've just received word that he will be delivered shortly." As he spoke, he rose and crossed to a small lift built into the platform's floor. "Fuyutsuki?"
The grey-haired man straightened. "Yes?"
"I have preparations to make. I leave the rest in your hands."
Fuyutsuki nodded. "Understood."
Commander Ikari pressed a button and the lift descended, into the floor and out of sight.
When they finally skidded to a stop at the bottom of the hill, both Shinji and Misato had been thrown off of the bike. Despite Misato's best efforts, the two of them had spun out and tumbled down the slope. The hill had taken the brunt of the explosion, fortunately. Only a small fraction of the shockwave's force had struck them, and virtually none of the bomb's heat. The guard railing on the road above them, however, had been twisted out of place and thrown a hundred yards past them.
With a groan, the two of them rose to their feet. Misato brushed herself off, sending off clouds of dust and wincing as she touched a scrape on her knee. "Well, that was exciting!"
Shinji gripped his shoulder. "Ow. That was scary."
Crossing to the motorcycle, Misato examined it. Most of the damage seemed to be superficial, with deep dents and scratches on its body panels and a sizeable gouge in its windscreen. She was also not sure about the shock absorbers; they had slammed down hard several times during their descent, and even the reinforced pistons were not meant to handle such rough treatment. But it looked like it would still run, and that was the important part.
With a grunt of exertion, she righted the bike and threw her leg over it. She glanced down the dirt track. "It looks like this road leads back up to the highway after a bit," she commented. "If we're in luck, we won't lose too much time."
"Shouldn't we wait for someone to come find us?" Shinji asked. "After an explosion like that, we should stay put."
"We need to get to NERV now, don't we?" she pointed out. "I mean, Tokyo-3 is the safest place to be."
The boy looked pale and clammy from their experience. Reluctantly, Shinji climbed back on the motorcycle behind her. Immediately she restarted the motor, shifted into gear, and took off once more.
Their ride the rest of the way was much rougher. The fall from the explosion had definitely damaged the shock absorbers. Every slight bump in the road jostled them, and Misato was forced to reduce speed just to keep from wiping out. All the while, the sounds of explosions and enormous footfalls echoed from behind them. Clearly the N2 mine had done nothing to slow the angel's advance. That gave her a rush of fear. If strategic weapons could not destroy it, then what could? Hopefully Commander Ikari and NERV had some plan for this. She had overheard uncle Kaji and Dr. Akagi talking about something called "Evangelions," but what they were and how they could possibly help, she had no idea.
They rounded one final curve in the road. A few hundred yards away was a tunnel in the side of a mountain, and inside it the train station leading directly to NERV central command. Desperately wanting to reach the safety of the high-speed train to Tokyo-3, Misato gunned the engine once more, bringing the bike up to full speed. In a matter of seconds, they were through the mouth of the tunnel and safe. Artificial lights flashed by overhead, their dim amber bands flickering across the bike's windscreen. When Misato had made her way into the city that morning, it had taken her ten minutes to walk through the tunnel, but on the motorcycle that same trip was a matter of seconds.
The tunnel ended abruptly at a train station. A heavy car train was waiting there, its doors wide open. Misato swerved and braked. The motorcycle's tires skidded and squealed as they slid across the platform and into the train. As they passed through the train car's doors, she realized that she had misjudged the distance. She heard a crunch as the bike's wheels crashed into the steel of the train car's far wall. An oily liquid began to leak onto the floor. That had done it: the bike's shock absorbers were really and truly shot. At least they had made it to the train.
Shinji was ashen and ever so slightly green as he climbed off the motorcycle. "Let's never do that again!"
Misato frowned. "You're no fun, you know that?"
The boy winced once again. He settled back against the side of the train car and said nothing more. The doors closed, and the train moved away from the station.
Misato was baffled by the boy, his reactions, and his very presence. Was he really the Commander's son? She thought back to her few interactions with the man. He had been cold and distant, but with a settled confidence. This boy, by contrast, seemed to wince at every challenge presented to him, no matter how exciting it might seem.
Deep down, she wondered what had prompted the commander to call him to Tokyo-3. There had to be a reason, but whatever it was she could not see it.
Ten minutes later, the train burst out of its dark, narrow tunnel and into the light. The train was running on a track suspended from the ceiling of an enormous cavern. A smooth dome enclosed a space kilometers wide. A city hung suspended from its ceiling, with inverted skyscrapers dangling like manmade stalactites. Far below them, the floor of the cavern had been sculpted into a natural-looking landscape, complete with rolling hills and a lake. At its center was a pyramid-shaped building at the edge of an inverted pyramid-shaped pit. A dozen large windows ringed the city, giving the cavern natural light from the surface.
Shinji rushed to the nearest window, excitement and wonder on his face. "Wow! A real geofront! I never thought I'd see something like this in real life!"
Misato grinned. "Welcome to Tokyo-3! And NERV!"
After twenty minutes of wandering through various elevators, escalators, and moving sidewalks, Shinji was beginning to suspect they were lost.
"Umm, Misato, are you sure you know your way around here?"
"Yeah, yeah," she replied, clearly distracted, "I'm just a little turned around right now. They make this place so big and confusing."
Shinji shrugged. This girl was strange. She was so confident and friendly, but there was also something off about her he could not quite place. At least she had brought him to the facility; that was all that really mattered.
The NERV facility was an enormous labyrinth of corridors, open bays, and artificial canyons. Some sections were little more than a scaffolding of I-beams and poured concrete, clearly still under construction. Escalators and moving walkways spanned the largest of the gaps, connecting a collection of balconies and landings which led to the more developed areas. What few areas were complete had a utilitarian feel, with modular steel panel walls, modular linoleum tile floors, and modular steel panel ceilings with industrial fluorescent light fixtures. Every corridor looked identical to every other one, with nothing to distinguish them but a set of letters and numbers painted onto the walls.
The escalator dumped them on a small platform which led to a network of walkways and platforms. Misato looked from side to side, examining their possible routes. There was not a single other person in sight.
"It's got to be around here somewhere. Come on, I think it's this lift here."
Shinji followed her reluctantly. As the elevator doors closed, Shinji watched Misato choose a level. Instead of the typical columns of buttons for individual floors, the lift had a ten-button keypad. As he watched, she typed "22" into it and hit enter. Moments later the lift shuddered to life and shot downward at an alarming speed. As he leaned on the wall for support, he noticed the words "Lift C-53" painted on the side wall.
"How big is this place?" he asked.
Misato shrugged. "Central Dogma—his pyramid—is where all the important stuff is housed, but it pretty much takes up all of the geo front. Tokyo-3 is supposed to be some sort of fortress against the angels or something."
The lift continued downward, floors ticking by in mere seconds. Misato tapped her foot impatiently. Shinji still had no idea how she fit into what was happening, but against all odds she seemed to be involved with his father's company. Somehow.
"How exactly do you know so much about all of this?" he asked.
Before she had a chance to reply, the lift stopped. Misato stiffened as the elevator door opened to reveal a tall woman with bleached blonde hair and a white lab coat.
"D-d-dr. Akagi" Misato exclaimed. "I wasn't expecting to see you here!"
"I could say the same for you. You know you're not supposed to be running around this facility without supervision."
"It was sort of an emergency. We were trying to find our way to the command center."
Dr. Akagi sighed. "It's a good thing Kaji called ahead, or we wouldn't have known where you were. Just where was it you ran off to this morning?"
Misato laughed a little too loud. "Well, you know, I just wanted to get out of town for a day. I was going to take the train back, but, well, then everything shut down, and one thing led to another. I wasn't expecting an angel to attack like that."
"At least your trip wasn't completely pointless." The doctor looked at Shinji. "So, this is the third child?"
"He's the kid uncle Kaji was supposed to pick up," Misato agreed.
"Hello ma'am!" Shinji introduced himself. "I'm Ikari Shinji."
The blonde nodded a greeting. "I'm Dr. Akagi Ritsuko. You showed up just in time, Shinji." She motioned for the two of them to follow her. "This way."
Dr. Akagi led them through a series of moving walkways and two separate escalators to a far more inhabited area of the facility. The trip took a remarkably short time, and before long they found themselves at yet another lift. This one was far larger, open-sided, clearly meant for moving very large objects. As Dr. Akagi pulled a lever to make the lift descend, she began to talk.
"We're preparing our counterattack against the angel right now. Everything is set to launch, as soon as the commander gives the word."
"This mysterious 'Evangelion' project you've all been working on?" Misato asked. "Isn't it dangerous to use it"
"The chance of successful activation is 0.0000001%" she explained.
Shinji spoke up. "So you mean it doesn't work?"
Dr. Akagi shrugged. "Well, it's not a zero chance."
The elevator came to a halt with a splash and a harsh chemical odor wafted into Shinji's nose. The three of them stood on a bridge over a pool of dark liquid in a dark room. He could not see anything else, not even the outlines of the walls. Then, with a loud click, spotlights snapped on. Shinji found himself staring into the face of a purple, armored helmet the size of a small house. It was sculpted into a terrifying face, with deep-set eyes, a jagged mouth, and a single horn projecting from its forehead. As the lights slowly brightened to their full intensity, Shinji realized what he was looking at. It appeared to be a giant suit of armor, almost a hundred meters tall, submerged up to its neck in a crimson liquid. Large pylons projected from its shoulders, jutting up to connect with a metal cage which held the armor in place.
He heard Misato exclaim next to him. "Th-this is…!"
Shinji's eyes grew wide. "A giant robot? What is this?"
Dr. Akagi looked up at the large suit with a look of pride. "This is mankind's ultimate weapon against the angels. The artificial cybernetic lifeform Evangelion!"
"This is what my father was working on?"
A voice boomed from speakers set into the walls. "That is correct!"
Shinji's gaze snapped up to try and find who had spoken. At the top of the room was what seemed to be an observation lounge, its large windows looking out across the Evangelion and pool of liquid. Standing at the windows was a familiar figure with a dark beard and orange-tinted glasses: Shinji's father. Shinji had not seen him in almost ten years. He had changed very little from what he could remember, perhaps gaining a small amount of weight but otherwise the same. His demeanor certainly had not changed: Ikari Gendo stared down at Shinji with the same cold expression he always had.
His father continued. "Evangelion Unit 01 was built to fight against the angels. You will pilot it."
Shinji finally found his voice to call back up. "Father! Is this the reason you wanted me to come here?"
"Correct." His father's voice remained cold and impassive. "I had a use for you. That's the only thing which is important."
"But I can't!" Shinji protested. "I've never even seen something like this!"
What little hope Shinji had held of reconnecting with his father had evaporated. Of course his father would not have called him there for something so sentimental, something so human. He never contacted Shinji unless he wanted something. Still, this went far beyond anything he could have imagined.
"You just need to sit in the cockpit," Dr. Akagi added, "That's all we're expecting."
"But…but…" Shinji stammered. He could feel panic rising within him. "I can't!" he finally shouted.
"Then leave! If you are not going to pilot, then I have no use for you."
Several seconds passed in shocked silence. This was cold, even for his father. To be called in so callously, then expected to pilot a weapon he had never seen before against an indestructible enemy, it was far more than he could stand. He felt closed in on all sides. His father wanted him to pilot, and so did this Dr. Akagi. Shinji looked around the room for anyone who might be on his side. The girl who had brought him to the facility had been silent for quite a long time. Where had she disappeared to?
He finally found her crouched against the wall, hugging herself as she shivered. The girl's cheery demeanor had evaporated, and she had begun to mutter. "Dad? Dad? Where are you? Adam…Adam…Adam…"
He called over to her. "Misato?"
The girl did not respond, just kept muttering to herself.
Up in the observation lounge, his father pressed a button on the comm system beside him. "Rei, the new pilot is unusable. You will pilot."
A thin, musical voice replied. "Right."
His father turned back to glare down at Shinji. After a minute of silence, a door to one side of the room opened and a gurney was wheeled out. As it passed him, Shinji caught a glimpse of the girl lying on it.
He was shocked when he saw her. She seemed to be roughly his age. Her hair was a pale blue, her eyes crimson, and her skin an albino white. It was the girl he had thought he had seen back in the city, just before his first encounter with Misato. Here she was, in the flesh. Most of her body was covered in bandages, and a thick cast covered one of her arms. An IV drip bag hung from a pole on the corner of the gurney, and a repetitive beeping emerged from a heart monitor. She looked up at him with an expressionless gaze, not unlike a broken doll.
Suddenly, the entire chamber shook as the sound of an explosion echoed from high above. The blue-haired girl was knocked from the gurney, crying out in pain as she struck the ground. Without thinking, Shinji ran over to her and gently lifted the girl to a seated position. She continued to wince in pain as he cradled her in his arms. Shinji saw blood seeping through her bandages, coating his arms and hands.
Moments later, a panicked voice blared over the intercom. "Commander! The Angel has reached Tokyo-3"
Another explosion rocked the room. Ducts and metal struts, loosened by the tremors, bent and fell. There was no time for Shinji to run out of the way. He raised his arm instinctively to cover his head against inevitably being crushed by falling debris.
The liquid around the bridge suddenly rolled as a purple-armored hand emerged, reaching up to cover Shinji. The debris bounced harmlessly off its fingers, splashing down to either side of the bridge.
Dr. Akagi called out from the other side of the room. "Unit 01 activated on its own! That should be impossible!"
Shinji glanced back and forth between the bleeding girl in his arms, the panicking girl against his wall, his father glaring coldly down at him, and the Evangelion which had just protected him. All of them were counting on him to pilot the Evangelion, each in their own way.
I mustn't run away, he thought to himself, I mustn't run away, I mustn't run away, I mustn't run away!"
"Okay," he said out loud, "I'll do it!"
