Evangelion: A Fool's War

Written by AgentKaji

Disclaimer: I do not own Neon Genesis Evangelion or any of its associated properties/materials. Evangelion belongs to A.D.Vision and Gainax and any other companies associated with its creation and development.

Author Note:

Okay, Chapter 5 is up. Finished my (current) batch of coursework so YESSSS! I got on this straight away, I'm happy with it. That's all I'm saying. Thanks to everyone who reviewed, it gives my life meaning :)

Hope you like it…

Chapter 5 : Lucky me, Lucky you

The blue Alpine sped through the quieting streets of Tokyo-3. Rush hour had long been over and now, as the sun was setting, only a handful of cars made their way through the empty roads. The darkening sky melded with the sunlight and produced a blurred orange/pink tinge as nightfall began to wash over Japan. The light reflected off the glass surfaces of Tokyo-3's tallest buildings, illuminating them like beacons across the skyline.

"Stupid light!"

Of course this had nothing to do with one Captain's inherent rush to reach Nerv Headquarters. Knuckles almost white, as her hands held tightly onto the steering while. The look on her face was one of grim determination and did well to hide her inner thoughts to any who might have been looking at the time. She angrily flipped down the shade so that the light was not in her eyes.

C'mon, c'mon…can't this thing go any faster! She mentally yelled, she pushed the foot down on the accelerator and found it couldn't go down any more. Cursing under her breath, she concentrated on finding the quickest possible route to the Geo-Front, already worrying about the possible consequences of being late in an emergency. Ritsuko would have my head…

An emergency…what could it be? And why weren't the Eva pilots told to come along as well? Ritsuko had not been very detailed when telling Misato all the details, but from Ritsuko's tone of voice she could tell that something was definitely wrong. Already her mind was trying to sort out some of her theories ranging from a new type of Angel to some sort of disaster.

Eventually she reached the Geo-Front and upon finding a spot at the car park she was rushing through the maze of corridors that was Nerv H.Q. She noticed various personnel from technicians and engineers to those that worked in the Command Centre walking hurriedly to their destinations. She could hear the alarms, however they were different than those used for a normal emergency.

Finally reaching her destination she spied Ritsuko conversing with a seated Ibuki. Hyuga and Aoba were sat at their seats working at their terminals. She spared a glance towards them and then turned to face the Commander and Sub-Commander. Both were quietly talking to each other, about what she didn't know. Just as she was about to ask, Aoba cut in;

"Sir! Were getting a feed from the site right now. Putting it on the main screen."

The holographic projection materialised in front of them, what it showed confused Misato even more. It was obviously being taken from the air she surmised as the camera bobbed up and down unsteadily. Relics that would once have been called buildings emerged from the depths of the waterline. Old Tokyo…but why are we being shown this?

Just then the camera panned round 180 degrees, for a brief second she could the inside of the jet, and then a vast space was seen in front of her. Almost as big as the Geo-Front itself she thought looking at the landscape in front of her. Several small buildings could be seen to the side, dwarfed by a large dome sitting next to them. An even larger and taller building stood off in the distance, with the sun behind, it resembled something akin to a dark monolith she recalled having seen in some pre-Second Impact film.

It was then that Misato noticed another silhouette, its shadow shifting and moving erratically. As the plane flew closer she noticed that it was some sort of bi-pedal figure An Angel! But soon they were close enough to see more distinguishing features. She recognised it almost instantly. She'd seen the specs and heard a little about it, but never seen it until now.

What? Jet Alone!...they finished it? What the hell isgoing on!

It didn't seem to have any visible 'head' of sorts, a number of rods emerged from it's back, it's long flexible arms swung back and forth as explosions rocked across the hardened surface of its body. It was had been 'walking' at a quick pace and had now reached the domed building, expecting it to stop, Misato was surprised as it continued on its course, stepping through and crushing the roof underneath its feet. Soon the speakers emitted a high pitched 'WHOOSH' as several JSSDF jets flew past, circling once round the robot they lined up in formation, the radio operator aboard, what Misato found was the command jet, ordered them to fire.

Missiles disconnected from undercarriages and wings, streaking towards the target, leaving streamlined trails of dense smoke in their wake. At the same time a contingent of ground forces ranging from tanks to MRLS that had been stalking it from behind unloaded their deadly payload. Soon the Jet Alone was once more engulfed in smoke and fire, the camera visibly shook as the shockwaves rocked the jet.

Misato sighed, she had seen the specs and knew that the armour plating was almost equal to that of the Evas. A few missile and shells wouldn't even slow it down. Emerging from the smoke apparently unharmed the Jet Alone turnedin one swift movementand crushed a tank that got too close. Two of the JSSDF planes behind it were caught unawares as they were swatted out of the sky with a very human like roundhouse kick. Another was grabbed, half crushed and hurled towards one of the smaller buildings, a plume of smoke arose from where it crashed.

Then with sudden speed it jumped high into the air, extending one leg as it descended on the group of artillery. Needless to say, they were crushed instantly.

Misato pulled her eyes away from the carnage on screen and turned once more to the Commander.

"Sir! What is going on here! Why is this happening?" The Sub-Commander spoke.

"The Mishima Heavy Industries prototype Jet Alone has gone out of control, the JSSDF were asked to intervene-"

"But sir! Shouldn't the Evas-" The Commander chose to speak this time.

"The Japanese Government felt it best to handle this with its own forces, after all Nerv was commissioned to combat Angels, this… Captain Katsuragi is not an Angel." He smirked slightly.

She stared, dumbfounded at the Commander for a second before turning back to the screen.

She knew the Commander knew that the JSSDF would not be able to hold off something as powerful as the Jet Alone, Nerv and the Evas would not be called in until they were all destroyed or unable to fight. Politics…She thought bitterly.

Commander Ikari watched her for a few seconds before she turned away, Fuyutski chose this moment to spoke up.

"Did you try to explain it to them?" He questioned, a note of exasperation in his voice.

"Yes. They said they would be able to handle the situation without assistance from us."

"You call this… 'handling it'?" He said motioning towards the screen. The Commander smirked and clasped his hands in front of his face.

"They will learn soon enough…until then, we wait."

Fuyutski sighed at his old friend's attitude, but chose not to press further. His hands behind his back he looked up just in time to see the Jet Alone casuallycrush a group of tanks with a sweep of its arm. This is going to be a long day…

Misato, meanwhile had been interrogating Ritsuko.

"Do we know what happened? Did someone activate it?" Ritsuko eyed her for a moment, wondering how best to put it into a language the Operations Director would understand.

"Misato…this thing isn't like the Evas…you don't 'activate' it its all remote control."

"So someone's controlling it?"

"Hmm…possible but not likely. Were not registering any signals being emitted towards it, whatever is controlling that thing is on the inside-"

"An Angel!" Ritsuko sighed and wished she'd brought her packet of cigarettes with her, a quick fish into her pockets told her she hadn't.

"No, we would've detected a blue pattern…I don't know it's… it's something else." Ritsuko looked away as she said that, Misato chose that moment to ask what she meant…

"What do you me-" She was interrupted as Hyuga's voice filled the vast room.

"Communiqué from the JSSDF…they say…they relinquish control of the operation over to Nerv, I repeat control of operation has been transferred to Nerv!"

The whole command centre was sent up in chaos as once stoic technicians and bridge operators rushed to their posts and tasks. Misato looked up at the Commander…he gave a curt nod, she nodded back. Turning back to the three bridge crew, she gave out her orders.

"Get the Eva pilot's here immediately! I want Eva Units-00 and 01 prepped and ready for launch in 10 minutes!"

As the words left her lips a different set of alarm klaxons sounded, ones that Misato aslwell as the rest of Ners were more familiar with. It was confirmed by Hyuga

"What the…! Blue pattern detected!"

"An Angel! Inside the Jet Alone!"

"Negative! The Angel…it's…it's above us! The Angel is directly above us!"

"What!" Misato couldn't help but feel that there was something was very wrong with her life. Cursing once more, she reiterated her orders and turned to her superiors, a plan already forming in her head.

BREAK

Shinji felt nausea setting in as the liquid that was L.C.L. fill his lungs. Snacks and soft drinks it seemed, were not an ideal combination with the yellowy/orange liquid. He chose to ignore the sick feeling in his stomach as he remembered how he got here;

They were just settling into the 'party', the usual talk about school and homework had moved onto friends and just as Touji and Kensuke were asking some rather embarrassing questions about his association with Rei, a knock was heard at the door. Silently thanking whichever deity had allowed this to happen he got up.

He excused himself and opened the door only to be faced with two eerily familiar Section-2 agents. "Shinji Ikari, you and the First Child are to report to Nerv Headquarters immediately."

He recalled one of them saying, as he was about to ask what was going on, Rei seemingly out of nowhere, appeared behind him agreeing to their 'request'. He soon found Rei and himself shuffled quickly into the back of a black car and they sped off towards Nerv.

His musing were interrupted as he felt himself synchronise with the Unit-01, letting the strange but now recognisable sensation wash over him, the ever present hum getting slightly louder. The view of the cages appeared in front of him, he could feel his limbs become heavy as they were held back by restraints. Looking over to his left he saw Unit-00 lift its own head up as it activated. Memories, or rather lack of them, of the last battle worried him immensely and Shinji couldn't help but think why he was entering this…this…whatever it was again.

His musings were cut off as a Misato's image flashed in front him. He jumped slightly. She seemed to be in some small compartment, a headset in her hands.

"Okay Shinji, Rei this is what were going to do… you, Shinji will engage the Jet Alone, Rei will fight the Angel."

What! Slightly confused at this Shinji decided to voice his concerns…

"But Misato…wouldn't it be better if we fought together?" He was slightly worried at their chances of success and didn't want to leave Rei fighting an Angel on her own. That last battle was pure luck…

Misato sighed, but then resumed her composure, a resolute expression flashing across her face.

"We've thought of that Shinji, but currently the Angel has engaged some sort of energy beam directly beneath us…it will breach the armour plating in 20 minutes. The Jet Alone is on course towards the city of Atsugi, E.T.A. is 30 minutes we have no choice but to deploy both of you to separate targets."

"Also since Unit-01 no longer needs power from an umbilical cable it would mean your manoeuvrability will be much better suited to fighting the Jet Alone. Understood?" She directed the question to Shinji and Rei.

Both nodded.

"Yes."

"Understood."

"Okay, good. Shinji were loading you and Unit-01 into the plane now. You'll have to be ready to fight as soon as we get to the intercept point, that's why you synchronised with your Eva now. Rei is being moved to the launch pad she will launch in 2 minutes.

"Okay."

He turned to the screen showing Rei and as he looked up saw Unit-00 moving towards the launch bay. Looking back down he gave her a small smile and nodded.

"…er, good luck, Rei." She tilted her head slightly, confusion evident on her features, replacing the calm exterior that was normally present

"Luck?" She asked in her quiet voice.

"…erm, yeah, you know 'Good luck!'?" He asked, worrying slightly at what he might've gotten himself into.

"No." Was her reply, Short, straight to the point Shinji thought, and absolutely useless a small voice added in his mind. He ignored it,shaking his head. He saw Rei looking at him and jumped slightly.

"Oh!… er, well…it something you say to er, your friends… before they leave…" He trailed off uncertainly head down, slightly embarrassed at his attempt at anexplanation.

Rei stared at him for a few seconds, aware that she was about to be launched, then…

"Good luck."

"Wha-!" Shinji looked up at her voice, her words registering in his ears. He saw her looking at him and was about to reply when…

"Eva launch!" And in a blaze of sparks she was gone.

"Shinji! Were attaching Unit-01 to the plane right now. You may feel a few bumps here and there, don't worry. I'll be with you on this one, on the plane. Commander Ikari will supervise the battle against the Angel."

His mood instantly dropping at the mention of his father, he looked down, hands in his lap. Misato noticing her faux pas instantly sought to remedy the situation.

"Don't worry, I'm sure Rei will be fine." She gave him a reassuring smile, which grew as he gave a small but genuine one in return.

Once all launch preparations were complete he felt the plug, as well as his Eva begin to shake rather violently as the massive jet black plane took off. He gripped the butterfly handles as he looked down at the runway. He felt slightly sick as he saw the white stripes pass him at an extremely fast pace and soon they left the runway altogether as it took flight, powered by six large engines, all roaring in unison. Most of the sounds however were muffled by the plug, but Shinji had no doubt they were loud.

The edge of the city limits, the country side several lakes… not that he could see that much, the sun had practically set. They passed all these and more, after a while Misato's image came up once again.

"Okay Shinji…Jet Alone was created to be a fighting machine, like the Evas, however it doesn't have pilot, its remote controlled-"

"So who's controlling it?"

"As far as we can tell… nobody. It's gone out of control, we have to stop it. It's heading in the direction of Atsugi, who know how much damage it will do. You have to stop it Shinji!" She hated putting so much pressure on him, but she didn't have a choice…

"Oh…and another thing Shinji… Jet Alone is powered by an internal nuclear reactor, if it is destroyed it will blow. You have to stop it before it reaches any major population centre. Understo-"

"But what about-"

"Don't worry you'll be fine, the Eva can take it and Ritsuko assures me you won't get any of the radiation. And I'll be up in this plane so don't worry okay?"

Shinji saw Misato look away as she talked to someone off screen and nodded her head. Looking back Shinji saw her features had noticeable hardened.

"Okay, were nearing the drop point, get ready and brace yourself. Good luck!"

Shinji sat there for a couple of seconds, looking down at the darkened landscape sliding past him, he braced himself and waited… and waited. Suddenly there was an audible click and the ground was rushing up to meet him. Giving a small shout in surprise, he watched as he got closer and closer to the earth. However he came to his senses and snapping out of his daze and counter acting purely on instinct he managed to land unsteadily on his feet, one hand reaching for the ground. He felt the earth buckle and crunch underneath him, but he managed to rise slowly to his feet.

He became aware of Misato's voice in the plug…

"-et Alone should be directly in front of you. Engage it in hand to hand combat. Just remember what we did in the simulation and you should be fine. Remember Shinji, stay calm."

"Yes." Shinji sat there staring into the darkness of the countryside…nothing but fields and the odd farmhouse here and there. Scattered forests littered the landscape-Wha-?

He saw…something in front of him…a dark silhouette against an even darker background, it was moving he could tell and…growing. Oh hell!

Bracing himself as it came into view, not…running exactly more like a very fast walk, it's arms swinging idly at it's sides. In other circumstances Shinji would've found it funny. But now…facing such an enemy… scared him. His heart rate increased and a slight sweat developed on his forehead, which quickly merged with the L.C.L.

He waited as it came closer, for a second he thought it would simply run through him, ignoring him as it did everything else in its mindless journey towards Atsugi.

Such thoughts were quashed however as it suddenly bent its legs and leapt at him, its arms outstretched as it ploughed into him. Knocked to the ground and slightly dazed, he soon found an intense pain in his chest as the Jet Alone beat its mechanical fists into the armour. The plug was soon immersed in loud metallic bangs, further disorientating Shinji. Ignoring Misato's voice while he regained his bearings despite the pain and noise, he quickly used one leg to brace against the ground, while the other he used to kick at the mech's lower torso, pushing it away.

He quickly stood up and looked at the direction of his fallen foe, it was already running at him once again. Prepared this time for the eventual blow, he put his hands up in front of him, ready to catch and hopefully throw the Jet Alone away once more.

At the last second the robot spun away to the side, falling to the ground, extending it's legs.

Wha-!

Shinji fell to ground once more, feeling the hard ground against his back. Looking up his eyes widened and he barely rolled out of the way as a large knee embedded itself into the earth. Stopping his roll, he stood up and turned round to see the Jet Alone still kneeling. He waited to see what it would do.

It got up…slowly, this time fragments of earth dropping from it's leg. It stood facing him, arms at it's sides…almost as if waiting for him to make the first move…

"-nji! Shinji! Are you listening to me! You have to destroy the control rods! Activate your progressive knife!"

Misato's voice registering in his ears, with one smooth movement the progressive knife was firmly gripped in his hand, vibrating in his hands. He stared at the Jet Alone, caution lined his features, his hands almost twitching as he grew increasingly nervous at this lack of…action from a supposedly crazed robot. Okay…I mustn't run away! I mustn't run away! Okay…GO! He mentally yelled as he took the initiative and charged.

Expecting to be attacked the Jet Alone put one hand in front, ready to stop any attack, the other swung back ready to deal a crushing blow, it's legs dug into the ground. Unit-01 ran towards the target, progressive knife braced behind it…it was soon brought forward and in one smooth movement sliced off the 'forearm' of the Jet Alone. An unexpected development, caused the Jet Alone to process this new information for a few seconds, seconds Shinji used to slice off the other arm, sparks flying as it was reduced to a stump of metal and cables.

"Now Shinji! Destroy the rods! Do it!" It was at this point the new information had been processed and it came up with a viable solution.

Before Shinji even brought the knife anywhere near the control rods, Jet Alone executed it's final contingency plan.

A bright light was all Shinji saw as Unit-01 was engulfed in nuclear explosion that lit up the area around them for several miles.

"SHINJI!"

End of Chapter 5

Author Note:

Well, there you have it. I'm happy with it, if you're happy with it (or not) tell me. What happened to Shinji? What about Rei? You may ask, but you won't know until the next chapter where I might, read it MIGHT introduce our favourite German red headed princess :)

Don't expect thatuntilat least next weak.

Anyway thank you for reading. Please Review, I welcome all constructive criticism.

Until the next chapter…