Hope from the Past

by Traitor of All Traitors

Eons ago, in a time before time, when human beings lived like gods, they created a species that became their undoing. To save their world, they created a being that would eradicate them no matter where they were, but were too late to save themselves. Now, years after a calamity, the ancient enemy has returned...along with some new ones.

7. Research and Discovery

Creation began on 12-12-20

Creation ended on 05-07-21

Neon Genesis Evangelion

Hope from the Past: Research and Discovery

With only the remains and an ancient tablet that had been translated, NERV was forced to be open-minded about just what it was they were dealing with…and what they could be dealing with later on.

"…Is this believable?" Ritsuko questioned Fuyutsuki, holding a copy of the translation from the destroyed tablet. "Gamera and Gyaos?"

"That's right," the sub-commander explained. "We have reason to believe that the flying creatures are referred to as Gyaos. This Gamera, whatever it is, is another creature that is meant to kill these things."

"Yet, you're not certain as to what exactly Gamera is," went Gendo. "This is based only off a tablet you and your colleague found on an atoll in the Pacific Ocean. We should focus on what we can understand over what we know very little about."

Even with Hiroko with him during this meeting, Fuyutsuki had his doubts that Gendo would find any relevance to what the tablet had informed them of when they realized its meaning. Even if the atoll itself was Gamera, there was uncertainty over whether or not it was a threat to the human race, or if it was just another Angel.

"What do we know about the flying creatures?" Gendo asked Ritsuko.

"With additional assistance from Ms. Shinjo, we were able to analyze what we could from the eggshells and corpses," Ritsuko revealed. "The first results are startling, however. Carbon dating on the eggshell fragments indicate that they were formed over ten-thousand years ago. The mucus membranes are only a few days old, suggesting that these creatures can lay dormant in development for thousands of years at a time if left completely undisturbed. And as far as the genetic testing goes, dissecting the corpses that were mostly intact revealed some anomalies that might be problematic."

"Which would be?" Fuyutsuki asked.

"All the corpses were female," Hiroko revealed. "We kept checking and rechecking, but the results were all the same. As best as we can determine, the ones that attacked that other creature to eat it were also female."

"If they're all female, then how do they reproduce?" Gendo questioned, but then came to his own conclusion over this discovery. "Or rather…they can't reproduce? The ten that devoured the Angel, they're the last of their kind."

"You can't be for certain that they'll not attack people in their hunt for food," Fuyutsuki told him. "Even if people were to put a price tag on their potential value, they can't ignore the danger the Gyaos represent."

-x-

Even after eating their fill of whatever they could find out in the wilderness, the Gyaos were still hungry…and they soon knew where to find their next meal.

"Rrrraaurgh!" They shrieked.

-x-

Surfacing from the ocean, Gamera took to the air, on the hunt for his ancient foe. Wherever the Gyaos were, he would eliminate them and preserve the natural order in the world.

-x-

"Huh?" Shinji went, looking up at the sky. Did I just hear someone say something?

School had just ended for the day and he was on his way to NERV. Except now, he felt like he needed to go…somewhere else.

"Hey, stupid," went Asuka to him, and then he ran off. "Hey! Hey, where are you going?!"

Rei took notice of this and wondered the same thing: Where was the Third Child going that was not NERV HQ?

-x-

The alarms at NERV went off at the discovery of another attack somewhere.

"What do we have?" Misato questioned.

"A blue pattern was detected two minutes," said Hyuga, "originating from Mt. Asama."

"An Angel?"

"Yeah."

On the screens, the whole of Central Dogma could see the Angel emerging from the volcano, looking like some kind of cross between a dragon and a flatfish. There appeared to be attack helicopters nearby firing missiles at it, but the creature's hide was too thick to cause it any harm.

"How long until the Evas can intercept it?" Misato wanted to know.

"Units-00 and 02 will be intercepting in five minutes," Maya answered her.

"And Unit-01?"

"We can't launch Unit-01. The Third Child didn't show up with the First and Second Children."

"What?! Where is he?!"

"We don't know."

"Find him, immediately."

Misato didn't like this. It was bad enough that the last Angel was turned into a buffet by some strange creatures, but this was a new threat against the human race, and they had one pilot absent from the priority that was to stop it. And there was also the fear that what happened with the Seventh Angel was going to happen again if those creatures showed up again, even with orders to kill all but three of them.

"Be on the lookout for these Gyaos," she instructed the crew.

-x-

It was mere luck that Shinji had found a perfectly-good scooter in someone's garbage pile and used it to travel outside of the city towards where he needed to go. He felt like he needed to get out of Tokyo-3. He wasn't sure why, just that he needed to get to Mt. Fuji.

-x-

"It looks like the Angel is heading towards Tokyo-3, but has to get over Mt. Fuji first," went Hyuga to Misato, informing her about where this Angel was going.

"How long before reaching Mt. Fuji?" She asked him.

"At its current speed, it'll be an hour from now."

"Where the Hell is Shinji at a time like this?"

Meanwhile, Units-00 and 02 were being launched into the city limits to head towards Mt. Fuji.

"Oh, no," went Shigeru, "we got more incoming."

"Another Angel?" Fuyutsuki asked.

"Worse. Those creatures from the last Angel attack. The Gyaos!"

"How many are there?"

"There's…there's only eight of them now."

"Only eight? What happened to the other two?"

"Unknown, but they're flying towards the Angel."

"They're on another hunt for their next meal."

-x-

Mount Fuji, a tourist attraction for some, a symbol for most, and now a location being traversed upon by some strange creature that had a mission to reach the NERV base beneath the city up ahead.

"Mmmmm!" The Angel howled.

"Aaaauurgh!" It heard up at the sky, seeing these flying creatures that were bizarre. "Aaaurgh!"

If it could, it would've attacked them…except that it didn't know what these creatures were capable of.

-x-

Even from a distance, Shinji could see what had to be the Gyaos and the Angel on Mt. Fuji, about to engage in conflict. But due to the events of the last attack, Shinji didn't have much hope for the Angel. If the Gyaos viewed this Angel the same as the previous one, then it wasn't going to be a battle. It was going to be a buffet for some ravenous fiends.

"Oh, no," he uttered, seeing the Gyaos dive towards the Angel.

-x-

By the time the Evas made it over there to deal with the Angel, the Gyaos would've finished devouring it. However, NERV was now tasked with capturing these Gyaos for the purpose of killing them. But Gendo had also decided that just one of these creatures would be sufficient for research purposes, too.

"Oh, you gotta be kidding me," went Asuka, seeing one of the Gyaos gobbling up what remained of the Angel.

Right now, the Gyaos were about forty meters in height with a wingspan of twenty-two meters.

"Unit-02 to HQ," went Asuka over the intercom, "we might have a problem here."

"These Gyaos are bigger than they were last time," added Rei; with the Evas armed only with rifles, there were no telling how affective their weapons would be, and these creatures were most likely immune to the AT-Field.

Soon enough, the Gyaos were looking at the two Evas…and then took to the sky. They didn't have time to waste on these humanoid beings that couldn't fill their guts with their foul-smelling flesh that was…cheaply produced. There were other creatures on the planet that were worth eating and hunting.

"Shoot them down," Misato told the pilots, and they opened fire on the Gyaos.

Ding! Some of the bullets bounced off their wings and they turned to face the Evas.

"Haaaurgh!" They shrieked, and the shrieking was getting louder and louder until…

BLAST! Several thin, yellow beams of light shot out of their mouths at the Evas.

SLICE! Unit-00 fell after having its legs cut off by the light beams, sending small streaks of red blood into the air.

"Aaaurgh!" Asuka yelled as Unit-02 had its hands sliced off at the wrists, sending bluish-purple blood spraying into the air. "Verdammt! Verdammt!"

"Haaaaurgh!" The Gyaos shrieked again, no longer believing these two humanoids were able to bore them, and resumed their flight away from this mountain.

But then…

BOOM! One of the Gyaos exploded in midair, sending remnants scattering down!

-x-

"What the Hell was that?!" Misato questioned, seeing something new had entered the fray after Units-00 and 02 were crippled.

It was some type of…creature they weren't sure of whether or not was a friend or foe. From a distance, its height was undeterminable and its overall form was roundish, with dark gray or black coloring.

"It took out one of the Gyaos," went Maya, who then got a closer look at the new creature. "It looks like a…a turtle."

"A turtle?" Hyuga responded. "No way that's a turtle! Turtles don't shoot fire or fly!"

-x-

Shinji looked up at the creature and couldn't believe his eyes, and he had seen the impossible several times before.

"Gamera," he uttered, feeling like this monster was here for a reason…and a benevolent one.

To be continued…

A/N: Sorry to leave you guys with another cliffhanger. I just needed to get this chapter up and running for people to see. But, yeah, Gamera has returned to save the day. At least to those that know why he's come back. I was forgetting to keep track of the number of Gyaos, but that will be straightened out as the chapters progress, and the threat of the Angels will be rendered a thing of the past because of Gamera and Gyaos. Bear with me.