Standard Disclaimer: "Neon Genesis Evangelion" and "Bio-booster Armor Guyver" are the creative property of Hideaki Anno and Yoshiki Takaya respectively. I own nothing but the clothes on my back and a few licorice sticks, so stop hounding me about my fanfiction!

Other Standard Disclaimer: This fanfic is rated PG-13 (or T) for violence, swearing, and mild sexual references.

Introductory Author's Note: IIIIIIIIIII'MMMMMMMMM BAAAAAAAACCCCCCCKKKKKKK!!! (with a chapter pre-read by James Ray Edwards to boot! ;-P)

KEY
"spoken"
'thoughts'

Out of Control
A Neon Genesis Evangelion/
Bio-booster Armor Guyver Fusion
By: Mares Guyver

Chapter 9: Mysterious Shadow

For what seemed like the umpteenth time that day, Shinji sighed as he gazed skyward. Baring when his father left him and his arrival in Tokyo-3, fewer days had gone as absolutely down the drain as his first day at school. He had hoped that things could be different—that he could make a fresh start, with no expectations laid out about who he was supposed to be or how he was supposed to act.

But now that people knew that he was an EVA pilot . . .

Shinji bowed his head. Since that first, impromptu announcement in class, the entire day had been an endless stream of people coming up to him, peppering him with questions and mock adulation. The boy was not so stupid as to realize that the praise and goodwill being thrown his way was empty—the baseless adoration of status-seekers and glory leeches. The compliments, the requests for autographs and dates, they were all meaningless. And worse, as soon as the wave had settled, he was left by himself, alone again. Segregated by his own status as a hero.

At least, that was how it was 'til lunchtime rolled around.

That event had brought the first genuine show of emotion all day—pure hatred. A group of boys whose homes were wrecked in the Angel battle had confronted him, demanding payback for his obvious inadequacies as a pilot.

Shinji had been prepared to take the punishment—after all, it was his fault that their homes were obliterated. But then Touji had stepped in like some latter day knight, swinging his fists around like a prizefighter and daring any one of the other boys to step up against him. The result was a mob of mockery as the boys collapsed in a fit of laugher, pointing at Shinji and calling him a "baby" in need of his "big brother" Touji.

'From hero to zero in less than four periods . . .' Shinji thought as he trudged past the school gates and began the long walk back to Misato's apartment. He stopped though as he heard his name being shouted behind him. Cringing, Shinji slowly turned around, but then relaxed slightly as he saw that it was Touji and the bespectacled boy, Aida.

Running up to Shinji, Touji stopped and bent over to catch his breath. "Ikari," he said between breaths, "I want ya to do me a favor."

"Yeah?" Shinji replied with a bit of hesitation.

"Hit me."

Shinji blinked as his brain tried to process what he had just heard, "Wha-what?"

"I want ya to hit me as hard as ya can," stated Touji with all seriousness.

"What, like in the face?"

"I don't know, surprise me."

"This is so stupid—I mean, are you from some kind of fight club or something?" asked Shinji.

"Shin-man, the first rule you learn is you never talk about the club. But the point is, I won't be satisfied until yous pays me back for all the wrongs I did to you today. So fuckin' hit me already!" Touji replied with rising irritation, red-faced and one vein beginning to throb on his temple.

Shinji glanced around the track-suited teen to the freckled boy behind him, "Is he always like this?"

"Yeah, pretty much," Kensuke said with a smile and nod, "And once you get him worked up, he gets as stubborn as a waterlogged M-14 bolt-action."

'Riiiiiiiiiiiiiight . . .' Shinji thought as he looked up at Touji, who's face was set seriously, eyes narrowed, jaw set, and arms crossed. Yep, he certainly had the "tough guy" pose down pat.

With a defeated shrug, Shinji made a fist and drew it back behind his head. Taking a deep breath, the young EVA pilot twisted and threw his hand towards the other boy's face.

"Wait!" Touji said just as the fist was about to impact, "Don't hold back."

Shinji gulped, but nodded and stepped back away from Touji. Once again Shinji raised his fist behind his head, and once again he took a deep breath as he focused on his intended target. Finally, the boy yelled and closed his eyes, letting his fist fly forward in a blurred streak of motion.

A very audible smack echoed across the school yard, along with Touji's pained "umph" as he flew backwards in a tumble. When the dust settled, both Shinji and Kensuke could see that a long rivet had been dug in the ground, and that at the very end, nearly 100 yards away, sat a dazed and very woozy Touji.

Blood dripping from his nose, the track-suited boy swayed from side to side unsteadily before finally collapsing on the ground. Shinji and Kensuke rushed up to their downed classmate, whose body twitched spasmodically while his pupils spun in mini spirals.

"L-lovely . . ." he whispered, and then closed his eyes and passed out. Shinji and Kensuke gaped for a few seconds before finally looking at one another with shared shock. The ridiculousness of the situation finally settled, and both boys began laughing despite the fact that Touji was still oozing blood out his nostrils.

"Well . . . he did tell you to hit him with everything you had," Kensuke said with a grin.

"Heh, heh . . . yeah," Shinji replied as he scratched the side of his face. Without a word, the two boys each grabbed one of their prostrate companion's arms and began dragging him along the ground to the nurse's office.

"So, Ikari, do you have any plans this afternoon?" Kensuke asked amiably, and Shinji glanced at the boy before looking forward again.

"Not really . . . NERV doesn't need me today. I thought I might go visit Ma—Suzuhara's sister, since I've been caught up in tests all this last week," Shinji replied after a pause, and then chuckled, "Besides the last thing I want is for this guy to think he needs to take that punch back because I didn't keep my promise."

"Heh, heh . . . you're probably right," Kensuke said with a laugh of his own, "Well, after you stop at the hospital, you wanna go to the arcade? Touji and I can also show you all the best places to hang out around Tokyo-3, if you'd like." Shinji looked at the freckled boy in shock.

"S-sure . . . if you really want to. I don't want to be a burden," the suddenly shy Shinji stated, and Kensuke laughed at his classmate's reluctance.

"Ha, of course not! That's what friends do around here," Kensuke said with a friendly smile, which slowly morphed into a more mischievous grin, "And as your friend, I'd love to hear anything you can tell me about what it's like to be an EVA pilot!"

Shinji groaned, Kensuke laughed, and together the new trio made their way into the school, Touji's head bumping on the ground every step of the way.

Click . . . click . . . click . . . click . . . click . . .

In a dim, steel-lined corridor that would be the envy of any military establishment, a young woman in a conservative black suit and skirt strode purposefully down the hall, her heels clearly announcing her presence to any who happened to be in front of her. With her long ebony hair trailing behind her like a fanciful cape, she passed several burly men in military fatigues who instantly pressed themselves against the wall to let her through. Though they quickly snapped their hands up in salute, she barely gave the taller men a glance from behind her large round spectacles before continuing on her way. The scene would be fairly odd to anyone unfamiliar viewing it, not only because the rough-and-tough soldiers seemed to tremble even after the girl had passed them by.

But also because the girl looked no more than thirteen years old.

Eventually, the young woman reached a single, rather unremarkable door along the passageway. The only distinction the door held was a large red "Z" emblazoned upon it, bisected by an iconic yellow lightning bolt. Knocking once, the girl let herself in and then bowed reverentially after she had closed the entrance behind her.

"Master, forgive my intrusion, but I believe there is something you should see," she stated to the desk on the opposite side of the room.

Immersed in shadows, the figure seated behind the massive mahogany structure grunted in assertion. With nary a pause, the girl stood upright and made her way over to a computer terminal on one side of the room. Removing a disk from her pocket, she inserted it into the device and then turned as a large screen burned to life.

"What you are witnessing is a low resolution video capture from a personal video recorder. The footage was posted anonymously on a third-rate website, and almost slipped past the attention of our intelligence teams, were it not for the date of recording," she stated, as a grainy, heavily blurred video began playing behind the girl, "As you can see, the time index corresponds exactly to the . . . occurrence for which you initiated the investigation. Our video experts have thoroughly analyzed the source material and their assessment is that this is legitimate."

Back on the screen, the video finally settled on the middle of a large city, apparently shot from a good distance away. In the middle of the city was a creature that could have come out any of the various giant monster movies made in Japan before Second Impact. As the gangly, lopsided figure shot some sort of energy beam into the ground, another being emerged from beneath the city and, after a pause, began doing battle with the first entity.

"Impressive . . ." a deep, masculine voice from behind the desk mused, rising with wicked mirth as the second, purple figure began tearing the first bizarre being apart, "Most impressive."

Eventually, the battle onscreen reached an impasse, with the first creature turning to liquid and flowing about the purple fighter like an amoeba. There was a final flash of light, and then the video dissolved into static. As the screen went dark, the room lights burned to life, finally revealing the mystery man from behind the shadows.

Like the girl, he was dressed in a stylish black suit, his long dark locks gelled in a severe backwards pull on his head. Physically, he seemed no older than his early twenties, but his face, with thick brows and a cruel, sneering mouth, conveyed a much older soul behind it. Folding his hands atop the desk, he looked sharply at the young girl across the room, who met the stare confidently.

"What do we know about the events captured here?" the man finally asked, and the girl glanced at a folder she had been carrying with her.

"The UN has been feeding cover stories to all global news agencies, ones which do not match up with any informal accounts," the girl stated evenly, "However, our own inside sources have stated that the dark-green creature is an alien entity codenamed 'Angel'. Apparently this is the third such entity encountered, though we currently have no information on the previous two."

"The purple creature is a bio-mechanical construct known as Evangelion, which in turn is operated by a UN-contracted organization called NERV. Information on both the Evangelion and NERV is scarce, and closely guarded on both legitimate and illegitimate levels of inquiry."

"Hmm . . . what DO we know about this NERV?" the man asked.

"It is highly organized, with four branches that we are aware of—two in the United States, one in Germany, and their main branch in Tokyo-3—where the Angel Attack took place. It also seems to have near unlimited financial support from the UN, and holdings in numerous corporations that may prove to be dummy fronts," the girl replied, finally closing her folder to look up at the man, "Beyond that, there is little we have been able to uncover. They seem to have a top-line computer system, as our hackers have as of yet been able to put a dent in their security firewalls."

"And of the Evangelion?"

"Next to nothing, other than that they are piloted and that there are currently three operable units," the girl said, while the man sat back and rubbed his chin.

"There is one . . . troubling factor," the girl said unsteadily, continuing when the man raised a curious brow, "While we have not been able to find any personal information on the pilots, we have discovered that they are given the designation 'Children' and are selected by an organization called the Marduk Institute. We managed to gain access to a file to mentions some of the qualifications that must be met to pilot."

"One of these . . . is that a pilot candidate must have been born AFTER Second Impact," she finished.

"So . . . the pilot of this purple EVAnGELion, would barely be fifteen years old . . ." the man pondered, while the girl just looked on. Several minutes of silence passed between the two, but eventually the man stood and began to pace behind his desk.

"Most intriguing . . . You were right to bring all of this to my attention. Inform the intelligence division that NERV, the Evangelion, and all things associated that the UN is hiding has become our top priority. I will make my own inquires from the public front. Hopefully, there is something here that we can turn to our advantage," he said, and the girl nodded and turned to leave.

"Hold just a moment," the man said, and the girl turned back impassively, "You have done well, Setsuko. I am . . . pleased."

The girl's face remained still as stone, but if one really looked, they could see the teen's eyes light up momentarily before dimming again. Quickly and shakily, the young woman bowed so that her long hair curtained her face from view.

"This one humbly accepts your praise . . . Otou-sama," she breathed, then whirled around and hurried out of the room.

The dark man smirked amusedly at the girl's actions, reaching into his breast pocket and removing a cell phone. Pressing a short sequence to activate his speed dial, the man raised the device to his ear and waited for the other end to pick up.

"This is an unsecured line," he stated as way of greeting when the final mumbled hello came through, "We need to talk, in person. It regards the . . . mutual incident from a week ago. I expect that you will be available this weekend?"

A barely audible series of statements followed, and the man nodded understandingly.

"Bring her along as well then—our discussion may involve her at some point," he said, and smirked as the final agreement came through, "Indeed . . . I will look forward to the day, G-1."

Closing the cell phone, the man who at one time or another been known as the son of Genzo Makashima, the poster child of the Chronos Corporation, the possessor of the Third known Guyver unit, and now simply "Zeus," sat down in his large office chair. Seizing a remote, he replayed the footage of the Battle of Tokyo-3, smiling as again and again the purple mecha went berserk and tore into the sinewy Angel, forcing it to self-destruct.

Pausing at the moment when the Angel used its energy beam to pierce the EVA's head clean through, the head of Zeus Thunderbolt sat back and steepled his hands before his face. Regarding the image, he remembered back to a little over a week before, when he and two others had simultaneously felt a blinding pain, akin to a spike being driven clean through their skulls. Since nothing was overtly wrong with any of them, they could only reach one conclusion—that another like them was somewhere out there, unintentionally sending his pain through the telepathic connection they were forced to share as part of their common legacy.

Shaking his head, Zeus unfroze the image and watched as once more the purple behemoth roared to the heavens—out of control, and attacking with a merciless fury familiar to anyone involved with the Guyver. Laughing harshly, the reminisced over the relative tedium of the last decade and a half—a time where the power of the Bio-booster Armor was not needed or welcome.

It seemed, things were about to get interesting once again.

END CHAPTER NINE

TRANSLATION GUIDE:
-sama: Reserved for individuals of extremely high rank or nobility (like royalty, or world leaders), but also can be used to display an extremely high level of respect/affection.
Otou-sama: "Father", but with a particularly respectful and formal connotation.

Author's Notes: Sorry I've been gone for a while, but I guess I just needed a break from fanfic writing to get my life back in order. I won't elaborate on some of the things that have been going on, but let's just say that recent changes have forced me to totally restructure my educational plans for the next few years, and that I've had to play catch up in terms of figuring out what I'm going to do. Anyways, I'm back, and I definitely plan to continue with this story, in addition to a few other projects.

Now, for the Reader Responses!

Tallwhitemocha: Hmm . . . it is possible that damage to Shinji's Control Medallion would cancel out the age suspension mechanism. I imagine that, were this to occur, Shinji would merely start growing at the normal rate, as if nothing had ever happened. The main problem is that any damage to the Control Medal is also likely to be fatal. The metallic orb, for all its power, is a very delicate instrument, and when damaged it has been seen to perform abnormally (a la Guyver II). Even a slight amount of harm could cause the Medal to deteriorate to the point of self-destruction. And when that happens, the host of the Guyver is good as bio-booster chow. :-(

Jake: The site is (www)(wallgarden)(com)(sg), also known simply as "Wallgarden(dot)com".

Robert Cartwright: Do you really want me to give someone like Asuka access to one of the most destructive and powerful weapons ever conceived? Oh wait, NERV already did that. ;-P In answer to your question, no, I'm not planning on giving Asuka a Guyver unit. The legal ramifications of the resulting destruction would be too much to handle.

Brax the Great: Think of it this way—EVA is the continuation of Guyver, and Guyver is the prologue to Evangelion. ;-)

Ten-Faced Paladin: Zoanoid fights later on, yes. Other Pilots with Guyver units, maaaaaaaaaaybe.

bytbyt: You're on the right track, my friend.

AN: Thank you once more to everyone that has read, reviewed, and supported my story since its creation nearly two years ago. I apologize once more for my frequent absences, but my determination to continue this story and eventually finish it has never wavered. Thank you, and on to the next chapter!