Well I have to admit I am surprised with how many people have gotten into this, been checking my emails all through the weekend while at work and seeing all the reviews too. Thank you everyone.

- Kojo208- Oh yes I have something very special in mind for Sawyer don't worry, she WILL be making an appearance in the story. I really like her as a character and she doesn't get nearly enough screen time in the anime.

- Lone Gundam- I'll try and work something in later on but Shinji is more like a mini- Rock, but he does know how to use a gun so we'll see…

-Dark0w1- Yes I'm not a fan of Asuka as I used to be, while I doubt I'll have him choke her she isn't going to be well liked by Shinji. And yes the middle finger will be seen in this chapter too.

Any way on with the chapter….


After an hour Shinji arrived at the train station at Tokyo-3 that he was meant to be picked up at, however the clear lack of people at the station told him that he either missed the woman or that she was late. Looking at his watch he settled on the latter.

Wandering around the empty station he would of at least thought that there would be some employees about, but as he reached the station steps he decided that he had arrived at a ghost station. Or ghost city would be a better way to describe his current situation.

"Am I even in the right place?" Shinji wondered as he walked over to the public phone and dug out some loose change he had, dialling the number that was on the back of the photo and looked at the woman yet again, "Crap." he looked away from the photo as a recorded message started to play over the phone.

"I'm sorry but the number you have dialled is currently not in service due to the current state of emergency. Please head for the nearest shelter or your district supervisor." before the message could loop Shinji slammed the handset back onto the receiver and yelled at the phone, "Arrrghhhh! You fucking old bastard, you set me up!" he kicked the phone only realising after he felt the throbbing pain in his foot, that he was wearing sandals.

"What else could possibly go bloody wrong?" he asked himself through clenched teeth only for a dull explosion reach his ears, followed soon after by a VTOL aircraft crash into a building two blocks down from were he stood.

"And there it is." he stated just as a large green foot smashed it into pieces, the following explosion was blocked by his sight by a blue Ford Alpine skidding to a stop in front of him.

"Hey sorry I'm late." a woman said opening the passenger door, "That's a damn understatement." Shinji piled himself into the car as he threw his bag in the back, "You're a hard kid to find Shinji.", "Would have been easier if you were on time." Shinji said looking out the window as the alpine went over the registered speed limit in a few seconds.

"So care to tell me why I just saw a giant green foot smash a plane to bits or is that a big secret." Shinji said as if his life wasn't in any sort of danger, "That thing? That was an Angel, not the ones you know though." she said causing Shinji to snort a laugh out, "What's so funny?", "There were no Angels were I lived Miss…", "Misato Katsuragi. And you can drop the miss, it makes me sound old." Misato said taking her eyes off the road as she reached for something at her feet.

She passed him a booklet, "Here this sound explain a few things.", "Welcome to Nerv?" Shinji read out the title of the pamphlet, "Is this were my old man works?" Shinji merely tossed the paper into the back after Misato nodded, loosing all interest in it, "Let me guess. Don't have at lot of love for your father?" Misato asked as Shinji continued to stare out the window, "Yeah you could say that." the way he said it made Misato drop the subject.


As the Alpine tore through the city streets they ended up driving along a area under construction, "What are they up to?" Shinji said looking to the area in the sky were all the VTOL aircraft were hovering only for them to begin to move back, "Let me see." Misato said stopping the car and leaning across Shinji with a set of binoculars, while leaving him trying to fight back a blush that was creeping across his face.

"What the… There going to use an N2 mine! Get down!" Misato yelled pressing herself into Shinji who found himself in an interesting position, pinned to a seat with Misato's breasts pressing into his face. Not that he was complaining.

The force of the following explosion knocked the car end over end a dozen times leaving them both feeling what being in a washing machine felt like.

"Okay that really hurt." Shinji groaned as he slowly stood up, "Your telling me." Misato said rubbing her back, looking down at her ruined dress, 'I can't believe this. I only brought this the other week.' Shinji turned around and looked at the car seeing that it was on its side he walked over and flipped it back onto its wheels, "Wow. That was impressive Shinji." Misato said, surprised at the sight of a fourteen year old boy flip a car without effort.

Shinji shrugged as he went under the hood and began checking everything over, thankful for all those lessons on mechanics that Dutch had taught him, of course his bosses expertise reached out to cars and a old torpedo boat so he was almost as good as Dutch in his opinion, at least when it came to cars. Dutch could always get the Lagoon working no matter what happened to it.

With a couple of minor adjustments to the power supply the engine turned over with no problem.

"That should hold until we get to where we're going. But I'd take it to a garage when you can." Shinji said clearing his shades before climbing back into the alpine. Within a couple of minutes and a short phone call they arrived at a thick steel door with a strange emblem looking like a maple leaf or something, "So this is NERV?" Shinji asked, his boredom apparent.

"Yes. We're an organization that answers to the UN, and the best line of defence against the Angels.", "Just nuke it." Shinji said as the door opened and what looked like a platform appeared on the other side, once the car was parked the platform shuddered and began to move downwards before picking up speed.

"What do you think they've just done? That wasn't a firework they just dropped it was a N2 mine." Misato said only for Shinji to shrug, "You don't really seem to care do you?", "Anything involving my father doesn't interest me in the slightest." Misato grumbled something as she rested her head on the wheel, she really couldn't believe that this was the same kid that was meant to be shy according to the psyche report that she was given, but he was anything but.

'And what is he wearing? He looks like a drifter. I mean who wear's sandals anymore? This is more then a little confusing for me.' she thought as the lift opened out into the geo-front, which seemed to catch the kids attention, "That's pretty cool. I've never seen a real geo-front before.", "This is humanities last stand against the Angels. Our last fortress of hope if you want to think of it that way.".


The car train finally stopped and they left the car, and attempted to make their way through the maze of corridors that was Nerv, and finally Shinji decided to voice a very important opinion, "Are we lost?", "No! Of course not…" Misato said a little to quickly to be even slightly convincing, "Yeah right." he whispered.

He looked up and saw the same sign that they had passed less then three minutes ago, twice in fact, "Face it we're lost. Just admit it.", "I only moved here a short time ago, and this place is just one giant maze. Give me a break." she stuck her tongue out at him as they passed through another door into a very windy walkway.

This gave Shinji, who was standing behind Misato a clear view of her behind as the wind lifted up the bottom of her dress, "Not bad." she turned around and looked at him, "Did you say something?", "Nope." he said simply trying to suppress the grin that was threatening to give him away.

Passing through several doors they arrived at a different crossroad just as a blonde woman wearing a lab coat stepped out from one of the nearby doors, and she didn't look happy. "Your late Katsuragi." she said sternly as she stopped in front of them, "Sorry Ritsuko, I kinda got turned around." Misato said embarrassed, "She got lost." Shinji said clearly causing both the women to turn to him.

Clearly not seeing the funny side of it as she stared daggers at him, "This is Shinji Ikari, the third child. As listed by the Marduke report.", "Pleasure to meet you Shinji. I am Ritsuko Akagi, head of Project-E." the blonde said offering a hand to the clearly bored boy. "Yeah ditto." he said folding his arms behind his head after he shook her hand, "Listen not to sound rude but could we just get this over with, that old man better have a damn good explanation for sending for me." Shinji said as they began walking down a corridor which led to a large set of steel doors, "I take it you didn't brief him on the situation.", "Well we had a bit of trouble with the Angel trying to kill us, oh and an N2 mine. It kind of slipped my mind.".

The doors opened and the trio entered a large dark room, with echoed with each step they took, they stopped as the doors slammed shut behind them.

The lights gave to life and Shinji found himself face to face with a giant purple face, "Jesus…What the hell is that!?" he yelled pointing to the huge robot, "That is Evangelion unit one. Our best hope against the Angels.", "Alright…What's that got to do with me?" he asked not taking his eyes of the Eva, "It needs a pilot!" Misato said, clearly not getting the bigger picture.

"One has just been delivered." a voice said looming above them, "You can't mean…", "Yes. Shinji you will be the pilot." Dr. Akagi said facing the boy who had turned to see the source of the voice, "Well, well, well. Look who it is." Shinji said with a huge grin, "Long time no see, Gendo." Shinji said, knowing that using his name would piss him off, not that you could really tell.

"You will pilot it Shinji." Gendo said from behind his folding hands, "Fuck you!" he yelled back, flipping him both birds, surprising both the women and the older man standing behind his father.

"You abandon me. Never call me, not so much as a damn letter. And now you telling me I have to pilot this… thing even when I don't know how! Yeah that's a Gendo brand idea." he shook his head at just how stupid it all sounded. "What a fucking moron. I honestly don't know how your in command of all this? A fish has got more brains then you." Shinji gave a little laugh as he glared up at Gendo's emotionless face.

"Fuyutski our spare is useless. Wake up Rei.", "You can't be serious, after what happened can she even do it?" the older man said trying not to loose his temper, "She's still alive isn't she?".

Shortly after saying that a girl similar in age to Shinji was wheeled in, wearing a white skin-tight suit, reminding Shinji had seen when he was doing a run to Roland's place back in Roanapur. The girls blue hair was her biggest feature next to her extremely pale skin, whether or not that was because of all the bandages and the I.V drip, even from where he stood Shinji could tell that this Rei girl was clearly in pain as she tried to lift herself from the trolley.

Shinji shook his head, there was no way he would be able to sit back and let her pilot this thing in her condition, he knew his own life hadn't been easy by far but Rock taught him what it means to be human. Something his so called father was far from being.

"Take her back. I'll do it." he said clearly, his voice firm with determination, "Your one sick bastard Gendo. I hope you burn in hell for this." Shinji said as he walked towards the Eva dragging Ritsuko with him, "So how the hell do I pilot this thing?" he asked as she began to walk him through the basic operation procedures.


Once he sat inside and the cockpit was sealed behind him, he stared in disbelieve at the strange controls before him, 'Just what the hell kind of set-up is this? What would be wrong with a standard game controller?' he sighed as he sat back in the odd shaped chair, just as two holes by his feet opened up and started pouring an orange liquid into the plug at a fast rate.

"Oi! What the hell is this?" he yelled through the comms, "Don't worry Shinji. You can't drown in it. The LCL will oxygenate your blood directly so stop being such a baby." Ritsuko said as if this was a normal thing in life. "Well then why don't you come in here and join me!" he yelled just as the LCL reached his head and topped off the plug with the foul liquid.

After holding his breath for a moment he decided to let it into his lungs, only to wish he hadn't, "This tastes like blood!" he said only to get ignored, "You knew that though didn't you?" he smiled through the comms and leant forwards slightly before giving a sigh of relief, seeing a few bubbles raise up, "You didn't just do that!" Misato yelled, "Serves you bloody right. Now tell me how to work this piece of junk.".

"This is a highly advanced piece of equipment, not a piece of junk!" Ritsuko said not sounding the least bit impressed at his choice of words, "Just focus on walking, once you get to the surface. Just think about walking and you'll walk, it works by reading your thought patterns.", "So I can't do back flips?" Ritsuko shook her head, "No. Just focus on walking for now." she turned to the technicians around her, "Activate the connections." as the cockpit began to change colour and looked like something out of a drug trip.

"You have got to be kidding" Ritsuko deadpanned as she looked over a technicians shoulder at the data readout, she couldn't believe what she was seeing.

"What's wrong?", "His synch ratio is sixty percent. Even Rei didn't score remotely that high on her first time." Ritsuko began double checking the data as the techs typed over their controls rapidly, "Doesn't matter at the moment. Launch!" she called as they sent the Eva up to the surface at high speeds.

However all that could be hears from the Eva was Shinji's insane laughter as he hit Mach one going straight up.

"That was so cool." he said shaking his head clear as he appeared on the surface, right in front of the Angel, "That however is not." he began to move forwards with relative ease, which surprised the hell out of him, "Did you have to bring me up right in front of him!?" he cursed as he looked around him, not wanted to cause any 'unnecessary' damage.

"Shinji concentrate and listen up. Because we didn't have a lot of time to outfit the weapon stores your only armed with a Progressive Knife which is in your shoulder pylon." Ritsuko said only for the now annoyed pilot, "Can I hear this from Misato?", "Why?", "Because I like her a lot more then you at the moment!" he shouted as he equipped the knife and was a little pissed at the size of the thing.

"It looks more like a box cutter." he was expecting something like a Bowie knife but then he noticed the Angel turn towards him, looking like something between a quarterback in a green jumpsuit and someone trying to dress up as a bird, only the bird like mask seemed to shift around in a way that freaked Shinji out.

"Any ideas?" he asked not really thinking that going for the eyes would work, "Aim for the core.", "What the hell is that?" he yelled as the Angel suddenly began moving towards him, "The big red thing!" Misato called through the comms, which made a lot of sense to Shinji rather then Ritsuko's explanations of everything.

As the Angel reached out to grab Unit-01's arm, Shinji lashed out with a foot as a defensive move which the Eva complied, catching the Angel just under the red core sending it back a couple of blocks, "Nice." he began moving towards the Angel to try and end it quickly however just before he got within striking distance he was stopped by something invisible.

"It's an A.T field! Shinji you'll have to neutralize it with your own if you want to get near it!" Ritsuko said, "And how do I do that!?" he asked only for the Angel to reach out and grab the Eva's left arm and yank it towards itself, breaking something in the process.

Letting out a primal scream Shinji held his left arm, it felt like the Angel had just smashed it in with a crowbar, "Shinji calm down. That's not your real arm your feeling, it's the Eva. Whatever damage you suffer is what you'll feel." the scientist said and at once wished she hadn't said anything, "YOU WHAT! Why the flying fuck didn't you tell me this before I got in the damn thing!" he took several breaths as he staggered backwards trying to get some space between him and the Angel.

However the Angel reaching out with its arm was the last thing Shinji would remember before everything went black.


Well here we go. Chapter 2. Hope you like Shinji's first battle and his encounter with his father, expect more like it in the future. And Sawyer too.