Ultraman Evangel – Ultraman vs. Evangelion!
Episode 2 – Evangel Rises; The "Impaler Angel", Sachiel Arrives!
Disclaimer: The Ultraman series and Evangelion series are properties of Tsubaraya Productions and GAINAX Company, respectively.
Aleutian Islands, January 8th, 2045 AD
"Hah!" Ultraman Evangel sparred with his mentor, Ultraman Dyna in the isolated reaches of the remains of the Aleutian Islands. It was part of Shinji Ikari's weekend training to be the hero that his world would soon need. Both he and Shin Asuka practiced relentlessly, with the latter giving the former all manner of Ultra martial arts and TPC standard military training.
Evangel wrestled with Dyna as the two giants traded blows. While the initial months of Shinji's training were just near-beatdowns due to Shin/Dyna's skill and experience, the fruit of the older Ultra's mentorship began to show as Shinji used Evangel's arm and leg braces to block and channel his strength and energy attacks. Dyna fired a lower power energy beam from his right arm, which Evangel blocked and absorbed with his left arm brace. Evangel then swung around and unleashed a wide beam arc, which hit and shocked Dyna back. Evangel leapt into the air and came down with a kick. Dyna recovered and caught the younger Ultra by the foot and spun him around before tossing him. Evangel recovered and spun himself back up right.
Dyna fired a series of energy bullets from his arm, but Evangel rolled sideways with incredible reflexes, causing all shots to miss their mark. Evangel then powered up his right foot brace and ran back towards Dyna. As Dyna waved a low power Flash Buster, Evangel ducked underneath the beam and slid hard, hitting Dyna with his foot and tripping him up. Dyna fell hard and did not seem to move for a bit. Thinking that he beat his mentor, Evangel walked back to help Dyna to his feet. Suddenly, Dyna swept his legs and fell Evangel to the ground. The younger Ultra was shocked at the move. Before he could respond, Dyna thrust his fingertips right in Evangel's face. Evangel could not move... he had been cornered.
Dyna untensed his hand and offered Evangel help getting up. The younger Ultra wearily accepted it and was lifted back on his feet. "You've improved with your tactics and overall combat reflexes," Dyna/Shin critiqued, "but you made a foolish assumption towards the end. You assumed I was beaten too soon. Do that in a fight with some crafty alien invader like Bat-seijin or Etelgar, it could be a fatal mistake."
"Sorry, Dyna," Evangel/Shinji apologized, "but thank you for the lesson all the same."
"No problem," Dyna/Shin replied with a fist bump, "but with this kind of progress, you'll be a full-fledged Ultra Warrior in no time!"
It was then that a new voice cut in. "Don't be so flippant in your teaching style, Dyna." The two Ultras turned to see the newcomer. "If you are not disciplined in your lessons to your student, how can he be disciplined in a real battle?"
"80," Dyna greeted with a slight groan. Ultraman 80 walked up to the two Ultras, having been brought to this universe upon Ultraman King's promptings.
"Even young Ultras are impressionable, Dyna," 80 remarked, "take it from someone who teached thousands of pupils for millennia." The seasoned headmaster looked upon the golden Ultraman. "You have made great strides, Evangel, but you must be more focused in battle. The Children of Adam are not your average kaiju, and they will show no mercy to the weak."
"80," Dyna said, "you and Ultraman King have said that... I've lost count now."
Shinji still wondered about the Children of Adam that 80 and King kept talking about so much, and Evangel had not been so talkative as he had hoped for an Ultra that was bonded to him. It was then that 80 turned to face Evangel.
"Greetings, Evangel," Ultraman 80 said in a friendly tone, "I hope your mentor has not been too difficult to keep up with."
Evangel hummed and just shrugged. "Nah, he's not that difficult, just likes to mess with me," Evangel jested, to 80's chuckle and Dyna's dismayed headshaking. "What brings you out here, Master 80?"
"We've been monitoring your world's aura in the past six months since you awakened as Ultraman Evangel," Ultraman 80 told him, "as much as we prayed against it, the shroud of darkness has only intensified. I fear that the time for the Children of Adam to emerge from their slumber is near."
"I need to know something," Evangel then spoke up, "what are these Children of Adam you and King keep talking about, and why do I seem to have more and more dreams of them?" Evangel, or rather Shinji had been having more visions of these mysterious entities. He had been seeing flashes of a civilization on fire... fifteen shadowy figures attacking him and him fighting back.
80 glanced sideways, seemingly not sure of what to say. "80," Dyna said, "if I'm going to be training this kid and sending him into a battle against these 'Children' or whatever they are for the fate of his world, he has the right to know."
80 looked the younger Ultra duo in the eyes. "I cannot say that I have a lot of answers concerning this realm, but this is what I do know based on what Ultraman King has shared with the Space Garrison," Ultraman 80 began, "the Children of Adam are responsible for the destruction of an advanced ancient civilization and are somehow connected to the event known as the Second Impact, which completely changed the face of the Earth."
"The Second Impact... wasn't it some sort of meteor impact on Antarctica in 2026?" Shinji was going off the history lessons of an event that happened before he was born, but since becoming Evangel, something about what he was taught did not jive right with him.
"That's what your world's governments do say," 80 remarked, "but the way it tore a fabric into the space-time continuum and stability of your world is far from natural. Whatever caused the Second Impact gave off intense dimensional energy readings similar to what the Children of Adam emit."
"So what... are you saying that these Children of Adam caused the Second Impact?" Evangel asked.
"That's the most logical conclusion at this time," 80 answered, "but there is still much about this world unknown to most outsiders."
"Whatever is going on, and whoever these Children of Adam are," Dyna resolved, "we are going to find out and help Evangel save his world." He grasped Evangel's hand tightly in a brotherly grip. "Evangel, we will save this world from whatever is thrown at us."
Evangel nodded. While Shinji was a bit apprehensive with the weight of this responsibility, he knew that he had Evangel's power and the help of Ultramen from other worlds. For the first time in a long time, Shinji felt he had a reason to live and a reason to fight.
Nagoya, Japan
Shinji rode his bike back from Shin Asuka's garage to his Uncle Yoshide's house. He was wearing his baseball uniform and carrying his gear on his back for his alibi with his uncle and school friends, though it was not entirely pretend as he and Shin both enjoyed a few rounds between themselves. While the human side of Shinji was supposed to be very weary from the intensity of the training and the excitement that now came into his life, he found himself enjoying every moment of being Ultraman and training with Dyna. The military training and mechanic lessons Shin gave were also as fun as they were invaluable, with Shinji learning how to shoot guns, fight human hand-to-hand, fix machines, and even drive and pilot vehicles! Shinji grew to appreciate and admire his Uncle Yoshide's air force pilot background more as he piloted the Alpha Superior with Shin in the instructor's seat. If Shinji was considered fit before as a baseball player, he now had the build of a young soldier in training.
When members of the Space Garrison observed him and Dyna training out of interest, many were impressed with Shinji's rapid progress as Ultraman Evangel, with some such as Ultraman 80, Ultraseven, and even Ultraman Mebius giving him additional training and advice to help him grow further. Shinji recognized many of them from the old Ultraman shows he began rewatching in his free time, which also helped him to grow closer to them. Shinji was probably now the luckiest Ultraman fan of his world, and he savored every moment of friendship with his fellow Ultramen.
Shinji rode through the gates and parked his bike in front of the house. "I'm home," he called as he opened the door.
"Hello, Shinji," Yoshide greeted, but he had a visible expression of distress as he held an envelope in his hand.
"Uncle?" Shinji blinked, "what's the matter?"
Yoshide showed the envelope. "It's addressed to you... from your father." He handed it to Shinji, who was digesting the words.
Shinji was now curious as to why his father was now contacting him after years of silence, and with a letter of all things. He tore the envelope open and pulled out the letter with a photo and a photo ID that had his picture on it. Shinji frowned as he saw that the letter simply read:
'Come to Tokyo-3 immediately. I have use for you.
-Gendo Ikari'
Yoshide grunted in dismay and anger over the wording. "That scumbag couldn't even be bothered to ask if you were doing well, let alone express any love," he said. He would have been fine to raise Shinji the rest of his life without Gendo butting in ever again.
Shinji then looked at the plastic ID card and saw that it was indeed registered to him, from an organization called NERV. The other photo was of a dark purplish-haired woman in a dress uniform looking like she did not want to stay still for the camera. There was a caption on the photo, identifying the woman as 'Misato Katsuragi' with a phone number just below the name.
"Uncle Yoshide..." Shinji said, with Yoshide putting his palm out and shaking his head.
"No, Shinji," Yoshide told him, "I will do the calling and tell this 'Misato Katsuragi' what I personally think of that man and his request. You just let me handle this." He pulled out his cell phone and took the photo from Shinji to dial the number. Guessing as to what his uncle was going to say, Shinji just went to his room and closed the door. He pulled out his wireless earbuds for his personal playlist on his phone to drown out the highly probable shouting that would ensue and began texting Shin about his negligent father's sudden re-entry into his life.
'Hey Shin,' Shinji texted, 'I got home and the first thing that greeted me and my uncle was a letter... from my father.'
Shinji sent the text. He began to think about his father again when Shin surprisingly responded quickly.
'That's out of the blue,' Shin replied, 'what did he say?'
'He just said that I should come to Tokyo-3, that he has use for me. -_-' Shinji added an emoji towards the end.
Shinji made out some hints of his uncle yelling in his 'military drill sergeant' voice through the walls. Putting his calming classical music volume up, Shinji continued to talk with Shin.
'That's real cold.' Shin said.
'Tell me about it,' Shinji replied, 'but that's my old man for you.'
It was then that Shin texted, 'Mr. Yamato wants to talk with us after school tomorrow. You available?'
Shinji narrowed his eyes. Ultraman 80 had apparently caught wind of this to call a sudden meeting. He nonetheless texted back in the affirmative.
It was then that Shinji got a knock on his door. He shut off his music and took the earbuds off as he opened it, to see his frustrated and weary-looking uncle on the other side. "Uncle, you okay?"
Yoshide pursed his dry lips and shook his head. "No... and the nerve of that bastard," he expressed, "not only is he refusing to take 'no' for an answer, but he's had custody papers signed for you to go to Tokyo-3 or have me charged with kidnapping. He's using a court order to FORCE me to send you on the earliest train tomorrow."
"You're kidding," Shinji facepalmed.
"I wish I was..." Yoshide expressed as a pall fell over the house. Not knowing what else to say at the moment, Yoshide said, "I'll... get dinner ready," and left for the kitchen.
Shinji found his seat and collapsed. He texted Shin again about his abrupt departure tomorrow. A few minutes passed before Shin gave an answer.
'Be ready to sneak out when your uncle goes to bed,' Shin told him, 'Mr. Yamato insists that he and his brothers meet with you.'
Shinji stopped on his keypad. The Ultra Brothers were here...
Shinji waited for about half an hour after saying good night to his uncle. After he had determined that it was quiet enough to go out, he sent a text to Asuka to meet him. Shinji felt for the Evangel Splendor to make sure it was on him, and sure enough he felt its warmth in his vest pocket. He opened the window, and slowly crawled out. He jumped the gate with his heightened reflexes and ran across the street into an alley. Sure enough, Shin was where he said he was on a motorbike.
"Hey stranger," Shin jokingly greeted.
"A bit late for a hangout, don't you think?" Shinji chuckled back as he got onto the back of the bike. With a smooth hum, Shin pulled the hybrid bike onto the street and took off at high speed. The two rode into a secluded part of the woods outside of Nagoya, parking the bike and walking the rest of the way. Little did either of them know that they were being followed...
"There they are," Shin pointed to a small campfire. Shinji squinted his eyes to see that there were six men roasting meat and vegetables on kebab sticks by the fire. He knew who they were, as they had visited him during his training with Dyna.
They were six of the Ultra Brothers from the World of the Land of Light in their human forms: Ultraman 80 (Takeshi Yamato), Ultraman (Shin Hayata), Ultraseven (Dan Moroboshi), Ultraman Jack (Hideki Go), Ultraman Ace (Seiji Hokuto), and Ultraman Taro (Kotaro Higashi). Takeshi looked up from the fire to see Shin and his young charge and smiled. "Welcome, Dyna and Evangel," he greeted.
"Please, refer to us by our human names," Shin put up his hands.
"Same," Shinji said, following his mentor.
"Ah... the young Ultra warrior of this world," Dan grinned as he waved a kebab, "how good of you to join us tonight."
"Is it just me," Hideki jested, "or has Asuka's young mentee grown a few centimeters since we last saw him?"
Seiji beamed as he looked at the duo. "Is that because your master has been giving you a good diet or is it despite his love for sandwiches and fast food," he joked.
"Hey," Shin laughed, "I eat healthy, and so does Shinji here."
"Oh really?" Seiji raised an eyebrow, causing everyone to chuckle.
"Alright," Hayata called, "as good as it is to be together like this, we have important business to discuss." He patted a spot next to him. "Asuka, Shinji, sit please."
The Ultra duo took their spots, legs crossed as they relaxed. Kotaro reached out with two kebabs. "Hope you both are hungry."
"Thank you, Kotaro," Shin accepted.
"Thank you," Shinji said, taking his stick and roasting it over the fire.
The eight Ultra hosts sat together, though apparently unaware of two unwanted guests spying on them through the woods. They were men in black sweaters with shades modified with night vision and earpieces trying to pick up on the conversations.
"What is that Ikari kid doing out here?" One asked his partner.
"I don't know, but Commander Ikari will have our heads if the kid does anything else than to go to Tokyo-3. We might have to call for back up to bring him to HQ and take these interlopers into custody." The second agent was about to reach for his radio when someone came up behind them.
"I would put that away if I were you," an elderly but strong man with black hair and a black samurai kimono spoke, spooking the two agents. The two pulled their suppressed pistols on him.
"I-Identify yourself," the first agent demanded.
"I would ask that of you," the samurai-looking man retorted, "but I heard just about every word, and you will not remember a thing about tonight."
"Oh yeah, say who old man!?" The second agent defiantly aimed his gun at the mystery man's head.
"Me and my brother, agent of NERV," the man raised a fist, showing a lion-styled ring with a glowing ruby in front.
Before either agent could respond, they were wacked from behind by an identical-looking man with superhuman strength and reflexes.
"Project E?" Shinji asked Hayata.
Hayata crossed his arms as he explained, "apparently some sort of secret weapon that the governments of your Earth have collaborated on. They too seem to be cognizant of the Children of Adam but are keeping this knowledge from the population."
"And that troubles you, that they're developing this weapon?" Shinji asked the Ultra Brothers, but inside he was also feeling that there was something about the name. It sounded... familiar
"Actually, young one," Dan Moroboshi spoke up, "what concerns us is your father's involvement with other certain individuals."
"My father?" Shinji blinked his eyes.
"Here," Kotaro pulled out a crystal hologram, which he passed on to Shin, and finally to Shinji. "Open it," Kotaro prompted, "there is intel we compiled inside."
Shinji studied the crystal device for a bit before pressing on the touch panel, causing the hologram to activate. He saw the profile of his father translated into Japanese. It was a series of files the Space Garrison had put together. "Where did you get all this?"
"It wasn't easy, Shinji," Hayata spoke again, "but we've been watching this world for many years, and your father has quite a story to him despite his various attempts to destroy any paper and electronic trails of his own life."
"You should see what we found out about Gendo Ikari from the time of the Second Impact," Takeshi advised.
Shinji moved the holograms around, until he came upon a news article dated from shortly after the Second Impact. He saw that it was about the 'Katsuragi Expedition', a group of researchers who had died when the continent of Antarctica had been destroyed. What caught Shinji's attention was his father being listed as a member who survived due to having left Antarctica a day before the tragedy. "W-what was he doing in Antarctica of all places?"
Hayata shook his head. "We don't know all of the details, but our analysts believe that your father has a deep involvement somehow with the events of the Second Impact. The fact that he is now the Commander of NERV and is heading Project E, along with the fact that many who tried to uncover the truth behind his involvement have either gone missing or turned up dead."
Shinji rubbed his head, which was now hurting from the revelations and the idea that his father was involved in some sort of conspiracy. "So... what am I supposed to do? Refuse and stay away from NERV?"
"I'm afraid that will not be as simple as that," a new voice interrupted. Everyone turned to see the two identical twins in their samurai style kimonos dragging along two spies that were knocked out cold. Shinji immediately recognized the twins by their glowing rings, especially the lion-shaped one. They were the twins Ultraman Leo (Gen Otori) and Ultraman Astra (going by the alias of Jun Otori).
"Mr. Otori," Shinji greeted with surprise.
"And how long have you two been there?" Shin Asuka wondered aloud.
"Long enough," Gen answered as he and Jun tossed the knocked-out agents in front of them. "You were followed, Asuka," Gen chided, "Jun and I managed to knock them out before they could contact NERV."
"They were likely sent by Gendo Ikari to make sure that his son did not attempt to refuse and run," Jun followed up.
Shin stood up and said, "you know what, I think I agree with Yoshide that the bastard does not deserve to have Shinji. He really looks like a shameless excuse of a dad if I've ever met one!"
"Shin," Kotaro shook his head, "the problem is that if we don't have Shinji get on the inside, we may not have another opportunity to learn what is happening inside NERV. Don't forget that the Children of Adam are about to be unleashed onto this world, and we need to get on the action right away."
"Well Shinji can clobber those Children of Adam, away from the clutches of his freak dad," Shin insisted.
"Listen," Takeshi broke in, "Shin... I understand your concern for your mentee here. I too hate the thought of him having to go into that den that Gendo Ikari holds sway over, but if Shinji is to be of any help to this world and mature as an Ultra Warrior, it will be a decision he has to make himself."
Takeshi looked to Shinji. "Shinji Ikari," he said, "I know that this is on short notice, but are you willing and prepared for what lies ahead with both the Children of Adam and your father?"
Shinji glanced down as he contemplated. While he dreaded having to see his cold and uncaring father again, the growing Ultra Warrior side of him was felling him that the battle for the future of this world was indeed imminent, and that it involved having to face his past for the sake of the future. He then thought of his Uncle Yoshide, and the smiling faces of the friends he had just made in the six months of meeting Shin Asuka. Yes, he knew... it was time...
"Yes, Mr. Yamato," Shinji finally answered, "while I do not wish for this, I now know that my battle draws near. If it means I have to face father in order to face the future, so be it."
"Besides," Shinji pulled out a photo he had saved from the photo collection of his mom, "I have tough questions for him, and I want answers." It was the wedding photo of both his smiling parents.
There was a pause over the whole group, before Takeshi said, "very well, Shinji. Just know that whatever happens next, the Space Garrison has your back."
"I'm still not too hot about this," Shin Asuka admitted, "but I'll go where he goes." He patted Shinji on the back. "I'll be flying air cover at a distance and ready to swing in if you need it." Shin put a thumbs up. "Ultra Brothers, you and I?"
Shinji returned the thumbs up. "Roger!" He replied like a Super GUTS member would. This brought smiles and chuckles from the older men. Shinji then looked to the two men who had tailed him and Shin. "And what about them?"
"Leave that to me and Jun," Gen said, "they won't remember a thing about what they did or saw tonight."
"We'd best get going then," Shin said as he finished what was left of his kebab. He and Shinji stood up and shook hands with each of the Ultra Brothers.
"Thank you for the kebabs, Mr. Yamato," Shinji said with a smile. He looked at all the Ultra Brothers, "and thank you all for the company tonight. Your friendships mean a lot to me."
"And we will pray for your health and victory," Dan returned.
As Shinji and Shin left, Hideki then asked, "you think Evangel will succeed?"
Takeshi looked at the departing young Ultramen with a musing gaze, then back to the two NERV agents who Gen and Jun worked on wiping their memories of the night. "Evangel... Shinji Ikari will have us and Dyna by his side," he answered, "because if he succeeds, he will save his world along with many others."
Takeshi looked up to the stary skies above. "Ultraman Evangel and Ultraman Dyna... may light shine upon you your paths and futures."
Ouside Tokyo-3, January 9th, 2045 AD
"We are sorry, all cellular lines are busy at the moment due to the state of emergency."
Shinji frowned as he looked at his cell phone. He was outside of the train station, awaiting his NERV contact, Misato Katsuragi, but his attempts to call her were falling on empty ring tones. He then called Shin Asuka on their secure personal line. "Hey Shinji," Shin answered.
"I've been trying to call this Misato Katsuragi over and over," Shinji said as he looked over the photo of the woman, "but I keep getting this alert about a state of emergency." He looked up into the sky, knowing that Shin Asuka was somewhere in his Alpha Superior, out of sight. "Can you see anything from up there?"
"Negative... other than several lines of main battle tanks and VTOL attack aircraft in the distance, the whole city looks dead from up here," Shin reported.
"Looks pretty dead down here too, like a ghost town," Shinji murmured. He then joked a bit, "I suppose they aren't waiting to surprise me and roll out the red carpet, are they?"
Shin laughed at that. "Nah... you couldn't even look the celebrity part even if you wanted to!" Shinji laughed back at Shin's retort. It was then that the conversation turned serious again. "Anyways," Shin continued, "from what the Space Garrison told me, this Tokyo-3 is supposed to double as a military fortress, so it's probably safe to say that they are preparing for something to come."
"Let me guess... the Children of Adam?" Shinji raised an eyebrow.
"That's what I was thinking," Shin said, "oh... wait, I see something in the distance kicking up dust. It's massive. Must be a kaiju."
Shinji grunted in exasperation. He had just arrived in a ghost town, and now a monster was headed his way. 'Much sooner than I thought too,' Shinji thought, 'what a welcoming party.' He then talked to Shin again, "okay, so what now?"
"I'm gonna see what it is," Shin answered, 'try to reach this Katsuragi woman, and I'd probably get away from the train station soon."
"You sure about that?" Shinji asked, "she might miss me if she's looking for me."
"Two things," Shin laid it out, "one, she is terribly late for your arrival. Two, if a kaiju hits town, all bets are off. Trust me, get away from the station and be mobile. Make yourself less vulnerable."
Shinji exhaled, realizing that his mentor had a good point. "Okay then, but you be careful up there."
"Same to you,"
Shin replied, "and be alert going to NERV. Over and out." The call ended.
Shinji put away the phone and began his trek through the city. It was eerily quiet for a city. Not even the birds seemed to want to breathe. Meanwhile, he also began to think back on what the Ultra Brothers told him about Project E. 'I know that name from somewhere, but why?' Shinji thought quietly to himself as he felt for the Evangel Splendor. While he would have liked to talk with Evangel about these mysteries, it seemed that Evangel kept silent most of the time and could only be seen in certain dreams some nights.
It was then that Shinji saw a strange sight down the street: a girl about his age, stood with a school uniform and strange blue hair. Shinji stared in confusion at this strange girl, who seemed to stare back at him with red eyes. 'Who is she?' Shinji wondered as he suddenly felt the warmth of the Evangel Splendor in his vest pocket. He glanced away for a moment as he felt for the device, then looked back to see that the girl had since disappeared.
'Who was that?' Shinji wondered, 'and why did the Splendor warm up like that? Was it reacting to something?'
Shin Asuka stealthily flew at high altitudes with his radar jammer active to avoid detection. He looked down upon the massive form that was kicking up dust clouds. He saw it was a lumbering giant, about the same size as an Ultra, with green skin, long lanky arms with armored grey shoulders in a hunchback shape, a white bird-like face that looked like more of a mask, and an exposed, glowing red orb in the middle of its ribbed chest.
Explosions ensued as a squadron of VTOLs fired missiles as they flew backwards, retreating from the walking kaiju.
"That has got to be the ugliest son of a gun I've seen," Shin Asuka remarked in disgust as he hovered over the battlefield.
Shinji stood and watched as he saw the strange kaiju come into view from the hills surrounding the city. If he had been an ordinary human boy, he would have been shocked and frozen in fear, but instead felt more of a disdain as he saw the creature.
'I've fought a few wild kaiju for practice,' Shinji thought as he scrunched his face, 'but none as ugly as that thing!' It resembled none of the kaiju he had encountered or seen in the Space Garrison database Ultraman 80 and the Brothers showed him a few times. 'That must be one of the Children of Adam!' Shinji had to duck as more missiles and cannon fire whizzed by and exploded on the creature, none of which did any real damage. He watched as the display of mass firepower seemed to do little more than put on a fireworks show that did not even knick the kaiju's skin. "Surely the military's got better weapons for monster fighting," Shinji muttered to no one in particular.
One VTOL that got a little too close to the monster was suddenly impaled through an engine wing by the creature's energy pike shooting out of its claw and fell out of the sky.
"Ah!" Shinji hit the ground and covered his face as the VTOL crashed and ground to a stop in front of him. He expected it to immediately explode, but it did not. All of a sudden, he felt something in his vision, as though there had been a spike of clarity. He looked up at the cockpit and saw that the pilot was injured but alive!
Seeing that the green monster was occupied with the cover fire from the other VTOLs, Shinji moved into action. Feeling that amazing burst of intuition and energy, he grabbed his baseball bat from his duffel bag and ran towards the downed VTOL. He swung towards the cracked cockpit canopy that was dipping towards the ground, and with a hard whack it shattered.
Shinji climbed in and worked the harness on the pilot. Seeing that it was stuck tight, Shinji grunted in frustration and pulled out of his vest a fixed-blade military knife, a TPC-issued suvenoir from Shin Asuka. He took the laser-cut razor edge to the harness, and it easily cut the straps.
Shinji then saw the giant alien leap up and was about to land on top of him and the downed plane. "Agh!" Shinji barely managed to pull the surviving pilot out and stumble away with a burst of superhuman strength before the creature's foot crushed and exploded the wreckage. Shinji's mind was screaming as he looked up at the giant alien monster.
'Come on, Shinji,' he found himself thinking, 'you've been in scrapes with kaiju already! So what if it's a Child of Adam or whatever?'
Shinji looked to the pilot and saw he was bleeding from his forehead under his helmet. He did not remove the helmet but checked his neck for a pulse. He sighed in relief when he felt the man still breathing. With a look of anger up at the creature, Shinji stood up and was about to reach into his vest for the Splendor.
Suddenly, there were tires screeching as a beat-up blue car pulled up in front of him. Shinji grunted as he withdrew his hand. The car door opened to reveal the driver, the woman in the photo marked as his NERV contact, Misato Katsuragi.
"Shinji Ikari?" Misato asked.
"That's me," Shinji said with a nod.
"Come with me now!" Misato yelled.
Shinji then knelt down and picked up the unconscious pilot by the shoulder. "This pilot's badly hurt! Can you help him too?"
Misato blinked her eyes in surprise as Shinji lifted the man. While the pilot was larger, Shinji was showing a muscular and fit build, and seemed to have little problem lifting someone nearly a third larger than him. She got over the shock and got out to help the pilot into the back seat. "There," Misato said as she strapped him in, "now let's go!"
Shinji jumped into the passenger seat and buckled up. Misato quickly shifted the car into gear and throttled away over the speed limit. Shinji grit his teeth as he felt the car jolt and shake as they raced away from the battle. 'Not even Shin's GUTS Eagle was this bad during evasive maneuvers!'
The car finally was on a highway when Misato spoke. "I'm so sorry," she apologized, "but all those abandoned cars on the expressway forced me to take detours, and by the time I got to the train station, you were gone!"
"Well, the payphones were out of order and the cellular network was a little busy," Shinji answered with a firm matter-of -fact tone, "and I was not given the clearest of instructions by a certain someone sending me a letter out of the blue."
"Oh... why did this have to happen today!? The UN and JSSDF aren't exactly killing it with their fireworks either!" Misato whined loudly as she hurriedly set the GPS for NERV HQ. She turned to look at Shinji, and saw that far from being frightened, he looked more like a young soldier ready to go and fight as he stared out towards the VTOL squadrons shooting at the monster.
'I can't become Evangel now,' Shinji thought, 'not with this lady next to me and that wounded pilot in tow. I guess I'm going to NERV first and waiting for the next chance.' He then turned his attention to the injured pilot. "I need to check on him again," he said, "he's got a pretty bad cut underneath that helmet."
Before Misato could respond, Shinji quickly unbuckled and slipped into the backseat legs first. She noticed how smoothly he moved as he got up next to the pilot. He carefully removed the helmet, and there was indeed a wide gash in his forehead. Shinji looked down at the helmet and frowned to see a large chunk of sharp metal debris enbedded in it. He glanced to Misato. "Do we have a medical kit, or something to wrap his head?"
"No..." Misato shook her head as she facepalmed, "I was expecting an in-and-out pick up, not a battlefield medvac."
Shinji rolled his eyes, before reaching into his backpack. He found a spare white shirt and regarded it shortly before ripping a cloth out of it. Misato glanced back a bit as she saw Shinji tightly wrapping the ruined cloth around the man's head as an improvised bandage. "That should stop his bleeding," Shinji said, "though the glass and concussion will be later problems for the hospital to manage."
Shinji then slipped back into shotgun seat. He then softened up and looked back towards Misato. "Thanks for bailing us out of there, Captain Katsuragi."
"Please, you can call me Misato," the woman said smiling. She had to admit that Shinji was very different from his stated personnel profile; he was quite brave.
"Okay then, Misato. Now, care to tell me a bit about our towering Grim Reaper back there?" Shinji asked, not because he did not know, but rather was interested in her official answer as a NERV officer.
"That Grim Reaper," Misato could not help but snirk at Shinji's choice of words, "you won't believe it... is called an Angel."
"Angel?" Shinji stared with a raised eyebrow, "looks more like a reject out of Satan's demon horde."
Misato shrugged, but then could not help but snicker again. "Don't look at me, I'm not the one naming these things."
"Intensify the barrage! Hit it with everything we've got!" A JSSDF general yelled into an intercom to the squadron commanders.
Another added, "forget conserving the ammo, just kill that thing already!"
A streaking wave of cruise missiles launched from over the horizon in conjunction with two UN Forces bombers firing their retro fitted SRBM payloads.
"Let's see how it likes thermobaric warheads."
The Angel blinked at the sight of the missiles as the gunfire bounced off its hardened skin. It then raised both claws and grabbed the large missiles. Both shredded themselves against the claws as the cruise missiles hit home. The Angel was engulfed in explosions.
"We got him!" One general celebrated, only for the giant to step through the conflagration with only slight burns. "No! What is that thing made of!?"
Another general whispered to the leading general of the group. The older officer nodded with a grim look. "Very well," he said, "I give the green light. Withdraw our forces and set detonation to two minutes."
Sitting behind the generals, two men watched the whole battle unfold on the main monitor in the cavernous and highly advanced command center. The older of the two, who was standing, simply remarked, "that is an AT Field. No conventional weapon can penetrate that."
"Indeed," the younger one with a dark uniform and orange-tinted glasses mused in his chair, "which means the time has come for Project E to be unveiled..."
"Tsk," Shin shook his head, "not only is that thing ugly; it's as tough as Golza." As tempting as it was to get in on the action Shin knew better than to rush in headlong on this one. The defense forces would no doubt be very unwelcoming towards him, and he knew that this Child of Adam was no ordinary kaiju to tackle. His first order would be to watch over Shinji and see that he made it to his destination.
Shin looked down at the blue car caring his young friend and saw that it was still racing along toward Tokyo-3. "Come on," he said, "just get there as fast as you can." HE then saw that the UN aircraft surrounding the monster stopped shooting and began to quickly scatter. "What now? Are they planning something?"
It was then that his Dyna sense began to spike with a sense of foreboding danger. As the Child of Adam took another step, a flash suddenly almost blinded Shin. He realized it was a massive explosion. "Crud!" He pulled on the stick hard and climbed as the mushroom cloud rapidly rose into the sky. "Shinji!" He cried out as he saw that the shockwave was racing across the landscape towards the little car.
Misato swore as she saw the explosion to the left of the car. "That's an N2 mine!" She pushed her car even harder as she tried to outrace the inevitable shockwave.
Shinji grit his teeth as the air suddenly heated up from the blast. He realized that there was no way to outrace an explosive shockwave like that, and if the car flipped over if it was not totaled first, the concussion had the chance of seriously injuring or killing himself, Misato, and their unconscious passenger. 'It can't end like this,' he thought as he squinted from the bright flash and covered his ears for the deafening boom and shockwave. He heard the boom through his covered ears and felt the car jolt, but strangely did not flip over as he had expected.
Shinji opened his eyes and realized that Misato had been stunned and they were about to careen into the road railing. With fast reflexes, he reached over with his foot and pressed hard on the brake pedal while pushing the throttle to neutral. As the car barely halted a hair's width from hitting the railing, Shinji realized that the car had been surrounded in a golden shield of light. He felt the Evangel Splendor giving off a great warmth in his vest and saw that it was shining through the clothing a bit; it was generating a shield which had protected them from the blast. The Splendor then stopped glowing and the shield went down.
Misato groaned as she came back to her senses. "Oh..." she groaned, "what happened?"
"We're still alive," Shinji answered, a bit shaken but relieved, "though we almost flew into the railing."
Misato then looked at herself and the car and found that neither seemed to be badly scratched. She looked bewildered at Shinji. "How? We would have been at least overturned by now!" Her blue car stood intact compared to the rest of the blown-out landscape that glowed orange from the N2 mine blast.
"A miracle," Shinji said simply, knowing that Misato had been too dazed to realize that Evangel had saved their lives. He then heard a groan from the back seat. He smiled a bit upon hearing that and turned to see the pilot coming to. "And our other passenger's still breathing too."
"W... Where am I," the pilot groaned, "... what... just happened?"
"A plane crash and a nuclear detonation happened," Shinji answered as he looked the pilot in the eyes, "and I saved your life."
"Saved? I... ow!" The pilot hissed as he felt a sharp pain from his bandaged head wound.
"Easy," Shinji held his hand, "you got hit with a metal shard through your helmet. I bandaged you as best as I could."
"A rather good job he did, too," Misato complimented as she looked at Shinji. He seemed to be rather calm and composed for a 17-year-old boy who had to her knowledge not seen battle. The fact that he braved the battle to save this pilot was also impressive, hardly the actions of a boy who was supposed to be timid and shy.
Shinji looked back out towards the explosion and saw the shadow of the Angel through the light. "They detonated a nuke and that thing is still standing?" Shinji had heard many times from the Ultra Brothers that the Children of Adam were above ordinary kaiju, but this level of durability on the part of the Angel was ridiculous.
"N2 mine, not nukes," Misato corrected, "otherwise we'd be getting radiation sickness now." She then put the care back into gear as they resumed their journey. "Let's get to HQ, we might have something that can really stop that thing."
Shinji guessed that Misato was talking about the secret Project E but looking at the Angel's still-mighty form at ground zero, he thought that nothing except the power of Ultraman could stop it now.
NERV HQ, Tokyo-3
"Impossible! That was our greatest and last resort weapon!" One of the generals raged as drone and ground camera footage displayed the Angel, burnt but very much alive and regenerating. "How can it survive something like the N2!?"
The lead general looked back with a weary and begrudging expression towards the dark man in the glasses. "Well, Commander Ikari, it looks like you will have your chance to test your little toys. I hate to have to say this, but we give you the green light to take over the rest of the operation. Kill that monster and consider NERV operational."
"Consider it done. NERV will not disappoint or fail," Gendo Ikari answered with a hint of cold condescension.
"We'll be monitoring the rest of the battle from our own theater command," the lead military officer said as he and his staff rose up to leave, "do not let us down." With that, the military personnel left.
The older man looked to Gendo, "you do realize that Unit 01 has no pilot, and that Rei is in no condition to pilot after the accident."
"I know, Fuyutsuki-sensei," Gendo said, "that is why I had Captain Katsuragi sent to pick up the replacement pilot."
Vice Commander Kouzou Fuyutsuki grimaced a bit. "You do know that replacement pilot is your own son," he reminded.
"I know," Gendo said with no hint of affection or concern, "proceed with the launch preparations for Unit 01."
Shinji barely listened to Misato's talking on her cell phone as he watched the Angel regenerating in the distance. With his improved eyesight, he was seeing how the Angel seemed to shed its damaged skin with fresh stuff growing underneath, and even the face mask seemed to give way to a second face underneath. 'These Children of Adam have some really gross features,' he thought, 'I wonder if that is on purpose for freaking the rest of us out.'
"I can't believe anything could survive a blast like that," the pilot watched with his savior from the back, "and to think I almost got crushed by that thing." He shuddered at the thought of being crushed in his plane with his gunner, who had already probably died during the crash before. He then looked to Shinji. "Thanks for getting me out of there, kid."
"Roger," Shinji gave the thumbs up with the Super GUTS greeting, "Shinji Ikari."
"Donnie Reagan," the pilot greeted, "US Army helicopter pilot stationed in Japan, attached to the UN Forces as a VTOL pilot." Donnie was an American man in his late thirties with dark brown hair and eyes.
Shinji then turned back to Misato as she got off her phone. "So, what was that about?"
"Ah, just telling them that I have things covered and you under my protection," Misato answered rather tiredly, "and I did tell them about our extra passenger needing some medical attention."
"Thank you," Donnie smiled, "you guys really pulled me out of a frying pan."
"Well, it was the least we could do for the fact that you guys only made fireworks that did absolutely nothing," Misato replied rather flippantly.
"Hey," Donnie talked back, "at least we gave it an effort! We probably at least slowed it down!"
"Right, slowed it down and lost several planes in the process, not to mention billions of yen of munitions wasted," Misato remarked with a headshake.
"Wasted!? I oughta-" Donnie's threat was cut short when his head started throbbing again. "Ow!"
"Donnie, just rest," Shinji chided, "you've got enough of a headache as is."
"Ugh... right," Donnie relented as he felt fatigued and collapsed back into his seat.
Shinji then looked out towards the front, as Misato drove onto the car train to Tokyo-3. As it started to move underground, Shinji asked, "so Misato, what is this organization, NERV?"
"Well," Misato began, "we're a secret organization with ties to the United Nations and world governments. Your father is basically the head of NERV. We are responsible for developing and maintaining the only weapons that can kill that Angel you saw."
"Basically, a monster attack team," Shinji surmised aloud as he thought of the Super GUTS team of Shin Asuka's world, "only that it's got my father running it." He expressed the last part with a hint of bitterness.
"You... sound like you don't care for him all that much," Misato remarked about the way Shinji regarded his father.
"Well, when you consider that he abandoned me after my mom died, and then barged back into my life threatening her brother, my uncle..." Shinji answered, "you'd understand why I'm not particularly warm about him."
"Ouch," Donnie said overhearing the whole thing, "now that's just cold."
"That's my dad, unfortunately," Shinji said, "and get this: he sent a letter simply saying that he had 'use' for me. He doesn't even have the guts to bother asking me if I was alright and doing well."
Misato realized that the conversation was just not happy one and decided to change the subject. "By the way, you do have your ID card, right Shinji?"
"Yeah, though..." Shinji frowned as he saw his picture on the card, "honestly, it's creepy how you guys somehow got my most recent picture. Were you all spying on me?"
Misato gawked a bit, and then changed the subject again. "Oh! Here we are!"
Shinji squinted a bit as the view brightened from the train exiting the tunnel. "Whoa!" Shinji shouted as he got a full view of the humongous cavern. "This is a geofront!" He looked down at the myriad of buildings and forests down below.
Donnie sat up and looked out despite his headache and marveled at the sight. "I've heard rumors of NERV having an underground base... but I never thought it was this big..." He then saw a black pyramid. "Hey Shinji, look there in the middle."
Shinji looked in the direction of the geofront center and saw the dark shape of the pyramid. As he stared at it though, he felt a sort of dark, cold vibe that seemed to befit the ominous appearance of the building. "That's... that's got to be where my father is..."
"That's our headquarters," Misato said, "our destination." She saw that Shinji stared at the building with a hardened look, while clutching his vest hard. Little did she know that Shinji was squeezing the Evangel Splendor underneath for warmth as he sensed darkness emanating from the pyramid.
"Attention, Chief of Project E, Dr. Ritsuko Akagi! Please contact Captain Misato Katsuragi immediately!"
Ritsuko Akagi just rolled her eyes as she oversaw the final preparations of Project E from her control room. She pulled out her phone and began dialing Misato's number. She waited a few seconds as it rang. muttering frustratedly for her friend to pick up. She was finally answered with, "hello, Rits!"
"Misato, where are you," Ritsuko spoke loudly into the phone, "you are extremely late, and we are already completing our launch preparations!"
"We had to drop off a guest of ours in the infirmary!" Shinji just listened as Misato talked on her cell while walking, "and you know that this place isn't exactly the easiest to navigate!"
Shinji was getting a bit angsty, however. After dropping off pilot Donnie Reagan with a group of physicians and nurses, he was about ready to bolt back to the surface and turn into Evangel to finish off the Angel. He had to play along though, as the Ultra Brothers warned him to keep his Ultraman alterego a secret around NERV.
Eventually, Misato found her way to the control room, where an impatient Ritsuko greeted her with a glare. "About time, Misato," the scientist glowered, "we have very limited time for you to get lost."
"Actually, to be fair, she had an app to help her," Shinji stood up for Misato, "the place is still rather big, and we had to detour a bit to drop off a pilot I helped."
Ritsuko then gazed upon Shinji. "So this is the Third Child... Shinji Ikari," she said.
"Yes, according to the Marduk report," Misato followed up.
Shinji's thoughts swam with the codename that he had apparently been given. One part of him felt miffed at being tagged like that, and another wondered about who were the two before him. However, the pulsing of the Evangel Splendor reminded him of the kaiju Angel above, and he refocused on thinking how to defeat it.
"Shinji Ikari," he introduced himself to Ritsuko, deciding to take the polite tact, extending his hand, "nice to meet you."
"Nice to meet you too. I'm Dr. Ritsuko Akagi," the scientist extended her as she looked upon the boy. As their hands touched, Shinji suddenly felt something... familiar about Ritsuko.
Shinji then asked, "sorry, but have we met somewhere before? It feels like I know you somehow."
Ritsuko raised an eyebrow for a bit, but then changed the subject as she noticed Shinji's build and physique. "You look... taller and stronger than I thought you would be," she remarked.
It was then that Shinji remembered: his picture on his ID was of his old self; the spry and shy boy he was before he his fateful meeting with Shin Asuka/Ultraman Dyna. How big a difference those past months made in his life...
"Well, you could say that I had a makeover, if that's what you're talking about, " Shinji answered with a shrug, "I took up some sports and exercise with a friend." He smiled slightly as he thought of his mentor. He then decided to throw a curveball, "so is that monster above us the reason why my sorry excuse of a father called me here, to be some sort of personal attack dog?"
"Wha-" Ritsuko and Misato were both caught off guard. This was very unlike the personality NERV had on profile. The Shinji Ikari standing with them was a very different person than they were briefed on; he was assertive and quite daring to speak his mind. He was also quite open about his negative opinions of his own father. "How did you-" Ritsuko was about to ask.
"Come on," Shinji said with a shrug, "I started putting two and two together about my father's 'insistence' that I come when that monster showed up and Misato here banged up her car to get me out of Dodge."
Misato laughed nervously at how blunt but right on Shinji was in his assessment. "If you put it that way, I guess that is one way to sum it up," she said, "yes, we have need of young personnel for a top-secret project to combat the Angels."
"Which is where Project E comes in," Ritsuko added, "we just didn't expect the Angel to attack so soon."
Shinji's head throbbed slightly at the mention of the name, but it was a bit stronger coming from Ritsuko. He had heard of this somewhere before, but how and why? "So... you're going to put me into some superweapon that is top-secret, I have no experience handling, and pray for the best?" Shinji raised an eyebrow to emphasize how absurd it all sounded, while hiding his wondering about Project E.
"That's... quite accurate," Ritsuko admitted, "we're in a desperate situation as you can see."
"And apparently desperate to use underaged soldiers," Shinji retorted, "but I suppose we have little choice..." He lowered his voice a bit, reflecting on his inheriting Evangel's power despite being a minor.
"Follow me," Ritsuko said as she led Shinji and Misato down to the cage. As she did Ritsuko made slight glances back at Shinji, both amazed and a little uncomfortable with his blunt and assertive personality.
Shinji listened to tidbits of Misato arguing with Ritsuko about 'Unit 01' and how it had a slim chance of activating. However, in the back of his head, he was thinking more of how he could slip away and defeat the Angel above them. As the trio entered the cage, Shinji's sense of familiarity started to spike. However, this was a discomforting sense of deja vu, with the Splendor not even providing any warmth to his chest. It was also very dark, adding to the foreboding sense of secrecy. 'Why do I feel like I've been here before?' Shinji began asking himself, 'Evangel, what's this... darkness I feel?'
"Let me guess," Shinji decided to hide his discomfort, "you're intending to surprise me with whatever this Project E is."
"Well," Ritsuko said with a bit of a smirk, "no point hiding it any longer." She pressed a remote, and suddenly the lights came on.
Shinji was almost taken aback by the sight of a large purple monstrous mech. He almost reached for the Splendor on reflex before he stopped to look at the kaiju-like mech. "Project E?" Shinji wondered aloud.
"Multi-Purpose Humanoid Combat Machine, Evangelion Unit 01," Ritsuko introduced the monster machine to Shinji. He stared at the humanoid giant. It had a fierce-looking face with its pointed helmet, white eyes, and a metallic jaw. It was armored similar to an Ultra but hunched over.
"This is Project E? My father's pet project?" Shinji asked.
"Yes, if you put it that way," Ritsuko answered. Shinji had broken yet another expectation; he was surprised indeed, but yet there was staring the machine down with a contemplative and steeliness in his eyes. His profile indicated that he would be a timid and nervous wreck of a boy; instead, Shinji looked as though he had faced down giants before.
Shinji, on the other hand, felt something familiar about this Unit 01. He tried to remember where, but his memory was a haze. He almost wished that Evangel would actually speak to him right now. It was then that he felt another presence... and this happened to be the same cold one that abandoned him at the age of three. Without turning his head, Shinji took a deep breath.
"Father..." Shinji called out, "you left me all those years ago for this, didn't you?"
"And now you are here because I have use for you," that emotionless voice behind Shinji confirmed his suspicions. Shinji turned around and looked up at the observation room window to see his father staring down at him.
Shin Asuka hovered over Tokyo-3 as he watched the grotesque Angel regenerate its body. "Whatever this thing is," he muttered, "it's really disgusting."
It was then that the green alien giant shuddered and became active again. Shin bit a curse as he observed the monster. He tried to text Shinji about its movements, but there was no response. The NERV underground headquarters was too deep for Shin to reach his young friend by cell.
'Come on, Shinji, Evangel...' Shin thought, 'this world could use you right now...'
"You have use for me..." Shinji repeated with sarcasm in his tone, "you barge back into my life and threaten my uncle in order to throw me into battle against that 'Angel'. On top of that, with this 'Evangelion' having a slim chance of working and me having no training or combat experience." Of course, as Ultraman Evangel, he had been given plenty of training and coaching by Ultraman Dyna and the Space Garrison, not to mention the few side missions he had alongside the Space Garrison battling rogue kaiju and aliens, but his father need not know those things.
Misato felt chilly and uncomfortable in the room as the father and son stared each other down. At the same time, she was astonished at how a boy that was supposed to be shy and lonely was confronting the enigmatic commander of NERV with no hint of fear on him. She wondered how Marduk could get the psychological profile completely wrong.
"You will pilot Unit 01, because you are the only candidate determined to be qualified," Gendo coldly answered, "and if you do not, humanity as we know it is doomed."
Shinji responded with a huff and stared back at Unit 01 with a turn of his back. Shinji just shook his head and crossed his arms. "Very funny, Father," he disdained with a chuckle, "so you abandon me after Mother died so you could play savior to mankind? You may have fooled everyone else, but not me."
Gendo frowned at Shinji's act and words of defiance. This was not the weakling little boy he had expected to bend to his will. Shinji Ikari was proving to be strong-willed young man. His intelligence people had told him about a mysterious man who had befriended Shinji months ago, and whoever this Shin Asuka was, he had some role in Shinji's changes. Gendo raised his cellphone and spoke into it, "Fuyutski, send in Rei at once."
Shinji perked up at what his father said. 'Rei?' Shinji thought as the doors to the Evangelion cage opened, and a group of doctors and nurses were wheeling in a girl on a gurney. "Wait a minute!" Shinji yelled as he ran up to them. He looked down and saw that it was the same blue-haired girl he saw in the suburbs earlier. However, the girl, Rei, was in very bad shape: right arm in a heavy cast and right eye covered with a bandage over the same half of her face. Shinji was nearly overcome with compassion and horror over Rei's state, before glaring back up at his father in anger. Gendo was using the girl as leverage against him, with the threat of sending her out to pilot the mech.
"You're insane!" Shinji called Gendo out vocally, "do you want to kill this girl!?"
"If you're so concerned about her," Gendo still maintained his cold voice and persona, "you will pilot Evangelion."
"You..." Shinji's voice trembled as he felt the Evangel Splendor heat up. For whatever reason, this blue-haired girl he had just met seemed to elicit these protective responses from him, and the Splendor also reacted to her. There was then another rumble from an explosion above, and some debris came loose. Shinji sensed that Rei was underneath one large chunk threatening to crush her and leapt towards her. He scooped the girl up in his arms as the doctors and nurses scattered before the debris crushed the gurney. The girl yelped in pain as the two teens hit the floor.
"Shinji!" Misato yelled in fright as more debris fell over the two teens. Shinji grunted as he was about to reach into his vest, before a large purple hand shot over his head, blocking the ceiling pieces from him and Rei. Everyone froze in astonishment as it was Unit 01 that extended that hand, protecting Shinji and Rei.
"Impossible!" Ritsuko gasped, "it can't move without an entry plug inserted!"
"It protected him without an interface?" Misato wondered, but then smiled a bit. "Shinji can do it!"
However, Shinji was more focused on seeing that the girl, Rei was alright. "Are you alright?" He asked gently. Rei groaned as she tried to ignore the pain, looking at Shinji with her one uncovered eye. She stared at him for a bit before her eye widened in surprise and shock. She briefly saw Shinji replaced with a silver and gold figure with a sleek silver face with glowing eyes and an angelic gold chest piece. The vision faded, and Rei nodded in the affirmative before squeaking from her injuries. "Just stay here and don't move," Shinji told her, "I will protect us." Shinji handed her off to the medics before he stood back up and looked at the purple mecha that shielded him.
"Get me inside that robot and launch me into battle," Shinji declared, to the surprise of all in the room, "that giant monster up there is going to continue rampaging whether I say yes or no, so let's not waste any more time." He then glared back up at his father. "And you," he pointed at Gendo, "you've given me another reason to fight: to protect others like that girl from suffering the neglect you put me through. You're no savior." Gendo sneered at Shinji's defiance and insult.
Ritsuko then called a technician over. The technician held a pair of white clips in her hands. "Wear these A-10 clips on top of your head," Ritsuko said, "the Eva utilizes a brainwave synchronization control interface, and these will facilitate your connection." Shinji took the A-10 clips, and regarding them with a weird look, clipped them to his hair.
The Eva cage was soon drained of the red storage liquid and the entry plug containing Shinji was inserted into Unit 01. Shinji observed the layout of the cockpit as he grabbed onto the control sticks. He thought to himself, 'here I was, thinking that I would be piloting a space fighter jet like Shin and the Space Garrison veterans. How am I supposed to transform into Ultraman if I can't do a discrete emergency landing or autopilot?' His thoughts were then interrupted as an orange fluid suddenly filled the cockpit. "What the- Hey! This thing is flooding!"
"Relax," Ritsuko radioed him, "that LCL will provide oxygen once it fills your lungs. It won't harm you."
Shinji gulped in the LCL, but almost wanted to gag. "Man... this stuff tastes awful!"
"Well, suck it up," Misato called, "it is what it is."
Shinji grunted in discomfort and disgust as he felt the LCL fill his lungs with oxygen. Now he was beginning to wonder why he even bothered to go down to NERV at all.
It was then that a young woman in a brown NERV uniform and with short bobbing brown hair came up on his display. Shinji already guessed that she was his operator. "Hello," she greeted, "my name is Maya Ibuki. I'm your operator for this first mission."
Shinji saw that she seemed to be friendly and sensed a genuine sympathy in her smile. He decided to start cordially. "Nice to meet you, Miss Ibuki," he greeted, "but do relay to Father that if this goes horribly wrong... it's on his hands."
Shinji's words reverberated throughout the command center. Everyone looked to Gendo, who seemed to be hiding his reaction behind his stoic expression and tinted glasses.
"We... heard you loud and clear," Maya replied. It was then that she, her two fellow bridge bunnies Makoto Hyuga and Shigeru Aoba, and other technicians began reading off command protocols for the launch of the Evangelion.
"Lt. Ibuki, synchro rate," Ritsuko then asked for the readout.
"It's..." Maya read before she gasped in surprise, "no way... 51.4 percent!?"
"Say again?" Misato wondered, just as surprised as Ritsuko, who did a double take.
"It's there," Maya was scanning her screen again to make sure she was not seeing things, "it's 51.4 percent."
"Already that high?" Ritsuko mused with a slight grin, "now that is good news." She turned to Misato and said, "it seems that we might have a hope after all."
"It looks that way," Misato allowed herself to smile a bit too. She then gave the command, "prepare Unit 01 for launch!"
As the Eva was released from its cradle, Misato looked to Gendo for final confirmation. "Are we ready for this?"
"Of course," Gendo said with hands fixed together, "there is no other way to save humanity's future."
"Very well," Misato said. She then shouted, "EVA LAUNCH!"
Fuyutsuki and Gendo watched with everyone as the Eva rocketed towards the surface. "Do you think this will work?" Fuyutsuki wondered.
"It will," Gendo answered, "because she will make it."
Over Tokyo-3
Shin watched as the revitalized Angel made its way towards the center of the city. He was screaming against every fiber of his own being to turn into Dyna and confront the being himself. Ultraman King and Ultraman 80 made it clear that he was in a support role, and that the burden of facing the Children of Adam fell on Evangel's shoulders.
"Come on, Shinji," Shin muttered, "I know you are down there somewhere." Suddenly, he saw a panel on a street in front of the Angel open up. He saw a large purple robot the size of an Ultra emerge on rails. Shin watched as the Angel stopped in front of the robot. He then felt that familiar young, but powerful presence from the robot, and knew that Shinji was inside.
"That's Project E..." Shin realized and continued to observe as he felt Shinji's presence for the first time in a while.
Shinji stared at the Angel through the monitor, whose core seemed to glow an eerie red in response to his appearance. He felt a human sense of fear clashing with the power and courage that emanated from Evangel's presence. As the launch restraints released, Shinji took a deep breath, remembering his combat training for the real deal.
"Shinji," Maya Ibuki advised over the coms, "the Eva responds to the thoughts of the pilot. First try to think of walking."
"Walking?" Shinji wondered, before giving it a try. The Eva took a step, as though an extension of his thoughts. It was not as fluid as Evangel's movements, but Shinji defintely felt it. 'So it responds to my thoughts. Not quite the same as being Evangel, but...'
Shinji grinned and steeled up. "Thanks for that Maya," he said, "that's all I needed to know." He then made the Eva flash a fighting pose and leapt forward. He pounced the Angel by surprise and delivered a right hook to the dual faces. The Angel threw its claw at Unit 01, only for Shinji to sidestep it and kicked the Angel backwards.
"It worked..." Shinji grinned confidently. He then taunted the green monster. "Let's roll, Ugly!" He lunged forward, resuming his assault.
The entire NERV command center watched stunned at Shinji's moves as he countered the Angel's attacks and thrashed it about.
Misato was speechless before looking to her friend and colleague. "Ritsuko, I thought Shinji was not supposed to be experienced with piloting an Eva?"
"That's what his profile indicated," Ristuko muttered in disbelief. At this point, she had even less faith that the Marduk report was accurate about anything regarding Shinji Ikari.
"Wow," Maya exhaled in wonder.
"No way," Hyuga added.
"Well, he's getting the job done," Shigeru said nonchalantly.
Gendo, on the other hand, was perplexed and silently fuming at this turn of events. This was not what he had forseen of Shinji. Whoever was in charge of profiling him at Marduk was going to have to answer some serious interrogation.
However, Fuyutsuki was more than just in awe. Something in him stirred as he saw Unit 01 move... as if he had seen this before a long time ago...
The Angel, Sachiel, the Third Child of Adam, was growing increasingly annoyed as this purple interloper continued to punch and kick him.
His assault on Tokyo-3 was supposed to have been simple: get into the city, smash through the annoying feeble resistance the humans put up, free the Mother which he and his siblings sensed, and level the whole place for their insolence in keeping her captive. While he and the other Children had yet to locate the Father, Adam, they would do the same in freeing him from wherever these humans kept him. Instead, Sachiel was having to put up with this thing. He sensed for signs inside Eva Unit 01 and became angry.
'They created this... abomination from Mother's flesh!' Sachiel thought to himself as he blocked one of Unit 01's punches and flew back slightly. Now incensed, Sachiel blocked Unit 01's punch with his claw and grabbed Eva Unit 01's head with his other. Unit 01 raised its left fist and threw a punch which Sachiel evaded. In response, Sachiel raised the Eva off the ground and grabbed the left arm in a vice, crushing down hard. 'Now I have you!'
Shinji yelled out in pain as he felt Sachiel's crushing grip through his left arm. It hurt worse than even when Evangel was hurt from fighting kaiju!
"What's going on with the Eva's defense system!?" Shinji heard Ritsuko through the coms.
"The AT Field is not developed! No signal detected!" Maya yelled. Shinji guessed that it was some sort of force field, but his train of thought was cut short when Sachiel snapped Unit 01's arm like a twig!
"Argh!" Shinji bit his teeth together as he recoiled in his seat. He had no time to recover as the Angel began to batter on his Evangelion's helmeted head with its energy impaler spike. He clutched his head in pain as it felt like he was being shot multiple times without dying. Before he knew it, with three blows, the Angel's spike penetrated and sent Unit 01 flying into a building, with a red substance like blood spewing from its head.
"Head damaged! Critical system failure!" Hyuga reported.
"Nerve controls are severing! No response from the pilot!" Maya shouted.
"We're getting flatlines over here," Shigeru yelled, "we can't confirm his vitals!"
"No! Shinji!" Misato screamed as her heart sank.
"No..." Shin winced as he clutched his Lieflasher through his uniform at the gutwrenching sight. He was about to pull out his device when a voice rang, 'do not fear, Dyna. He is not dead. This battle is for Evangel to win.'
"Ultraman King?" Shin asked.
'Remember, this world's fate rests on his shoulders. You are here to support him as needed, but now watch and see the fruition of your teaching him.'
Shin withdrew his hand as he continued to stealthily observe the battlefield, praying that Shinji and Evangel were alright.
The fourteen other Children of Adam watched from their dimensional space as their brother Sachiel brained the purple giant that the humans had sent against him.
Among them, the youngest known as Tabris, the Seventeenth Child watched as Sachiel stood victorious over the fallen giant.
"So... the last obstacle is removed..." One of the siblings said.
"Now all that is needed is to liberate Mother," another said.
"Yes..." Tabris added, "so it seems..." Yet, he felt a familiar presence coming from the battlefield, but somehow could not completely discern what it was.
Inside the darkened cockpit of Eva Unit 01, Shinji seemed to have been knocked out, only to stir with a groan as the Evangel Splendor suddenly started to warm and glow.
"Gah..." Shinji fought through the phantom pain from the damage transmitted from the Eva as he reached into the vest and pulled out the Splendor, whose golden wings gave off that soft gold light. He looked around and saw that all systems were down, meaning no coms as well. He also heard what seemed to be the footsteps of the Angel coming to finish him off. He then stared at the device in his right hand.
"Evangel..." Shinji gasped softly, "I don't know what is going on inside NERV, and whatever Father is planning... but right now... I need you to help me. I need your strength and power to fight the Children of Adam and face my father, for the world... for the future!" In response, the Splendor glowed brighter.
Mustering confidence and strength, Shinji managed to sit up and flexed the Splendor to his heart. It flashed a bright gold as it gained more energy from the light within Shinji.
"EVANGEL!" Shinji yelled as he flexed the Splendor upwards. Both golden wings opened to reveal a crystal blade extending from the base, flashing white and bathing Shinji and the cockpit in light.
Sachiel lumbered towards the fallen Eva to destroy it. He raised his claw and flashed his impaler spike from it. 'Now you will suffer for your interference.' He poised himself to plunge the spike forward as a bright light flashed from the heavens above. A bright figure suddenly raced down and hit him blowing him backward from the Evangelion. 'What!?' Sachiel slid on his back as the light figure hovered over him, bathing the area in light as it descended.
"What is that light?" Maya asked as she stared at the monitor.
"Unknown high energy signature detected," Hyuga reported, "I-I can't seem to get a lock on it!"
"Waveform pattern?" Ritsuko asked, "what is its waveform pattern?"
Maya then went to her scanner to see if it was pattern orange or blue, the latter indicating an Angel. "Scanning now. It's... I don't know... wait... white?"
"White?" Ritsuko was befuddled. A pattern white? This was not within any of their catalogues for lifeforms.
Misato stared up at the screen at the glowing figure. She almost wet herself in shock, thinking it was a certain giant from her past. As it descended though, it was shaped differently, and the light seemed... warm and comforting...
Gendo frowned to himself behind his glasses. This was not part of the scenario. It seemed that an unknown intruder had entered the battlefield. It was then that he heard from Fuyutsuki beside him, "it can't be... is it him?"
"What is going on!?" One JSSDF Major Naoto Arashi was watching the whole debacle of a battle with the Angel with the rest of the military officer contingent. After the failiure of their forces and now this Evangelion to halt this monster, a new light was intruding on the battlefield.
"Great, another one of Ikari's surprises, or another invader!?" US Military and UN Forces liasion Colonel Mary Ashmore groaned as the monitors were filled with light from the drone feeds of the unknown being.
The whole JSSDF and UN officer group watched perplexed with this turn of events.
"Who dares to interfere with us once again!?" One of Tabris' siblings bellowed.
The whole congregation of the Children of Adam were watching the unexpected event unfold.
Tabris watched as the glow began to fade from the figure. He began to recognize this presence... a truly familiar one. "It is him..."
Shin watched as the light began to take form. "Yeah! Now that is what I'm talking about!" He cheered for his friend, Shinji.
Ultraman King and Ultraman 80 watched the whole battle with the Angel known as Sachiel from their perch overlooking Tokyo-3
"The time has come... he is going to battle the Children of Adam!" Ultraman 80 said.
"Yes," Ultraman King said as he raised a hand.
"Go forth... young prince."
Everyone stared as the light faded to reveal a silver giant with gold stripes and gold angelic patterns on his chest protector, arm braces, and shin protectors, topped off with a silver face with glowing white eyes and a blue light on its chest. He gave off an ambient white aura about him as he stood tall and mighty, fists at his side, between Sachiel and the fallen Eva Unit 01.
Inside the giant, Shinji Ikari opened his eyes and found himself in the warmth and light of the giant; he had become Ultraman Evangel, Prince of the Nebula.
"The time has come, Evangel," Shinji muttered as he looked towards the Angel with a determined glint in his eyes and a smile.
NERV Hospital
Rei Ayanami stared at the screen from her bed with her one good eye as the nurses and doctors around her sat stunned in silence as the new gold and silver giant stood facing the Angel in front of the fallen Unit 01.
"What is that?"
"Another alien!?"
"Who is it? A friend, a foe?"
Rei continued to stare, thinking of how it looked like that vision she saw of Shinji.
Everyone in the NERV command center stared at the new being, not sure of what to make of this newcomer.
"What is that?" Maya gasped in surprise and awe of the giant.
"Ritsuko, what on Earth is that?" Misato asked her friend.
"I..." the blonde scientist was dumbfounded, "I don't know..."
"It can't be..." everyone turned to see that Fuyutsuki was not only in awe but seemed to recognize the being.
However, Gendo was crossing his fingers tightly at this intruder, an unwelcome new factor interrupting his plans.
Sachiel rose back to his feet as he looked upon the gold and silver giant. Upon getting a full look at him, Sachiel felt a deep anger and hatred welling up in him... one that had been dormant for millennia, and perhaps even more intense than the hatred he and his siblings had for the humans. He knew who it was. His form bristled as it took on a spikier form. More armor formed on his arms and legs with two more clawed 'fingers' growing to complement the existing three on each arm, and even his 'ribs' formed a bony armor around his now intensely red glowing S2 organ.
Sachiel's old 'mask' completely fell off, reverting back to one face, whose twin eyes burned with a very angry red. "Ultraman..." His voice echoed with a menacing whisper throughout the city.
Misato's jaw dropped in shock among many shocks of the day. "Did... did that Angel... just speak?"
"Its..." Ritsuko gasped, "he's... referring to that gold and silver giant?"
"Ultraman?" Maya questioned.
"Ultraman..." Fuyutsuki breathed out, causing Gendo to give a sideways glance at him.
Evangel assumed his prepared fighting stance with right hand extended and left hand drawn back. 'He knows me,' Shinji/Evangel thought as he mentally steeled himself for what was undoubtedly going to be an intense battle between an Ultraman and this Child of Adam. He could tell that this Angel had some sort of past acquaintance with him and was not at all happy to see him.
"Ultraman," Sachiel flexed his arms and muscles. "EVANGEL!" The armored green kaiju rushed forward with its menacing red eyes flashing.
"Hah!" Evangel also flexed and dashed forward to meet Sachiel head-on. He ducked under Sachiel's claws and delivered a left punch followed by a right one to his face. Sachiel stumbled back before Evangel delivered a kick, sending him flying back to the ground.
"RRAAAHHHHH!" Sachiel bellowed as he jumped back up and rushed back at Ultraman Evangel. The two proceeded to deliver punches and kicks to one another. Just behind them, Unit 01 seemed to observe the fight, despite its inactivity.
"EVANGEL!" Sachiel attempted to grab Evangel, only for the latter to grab the former by the arm and deliver several punches to his face.
"Wow! Look at him go!" Maya gasped. Meanwhile, Hyuga was loudly cheering for Ultraman Evangel as he delivered blow after blow to the Angel.
"Woohoo! Yeah! Way to go!" Hyuga was out of his seat and making cheering gestures. "Kick that Angel's butt!" Everyone else looked at him awkwardly, only for Maya to suddenly join in.
"Go Ultraman!" Maya cheered, "beat that Angel and save Unit 01!"
"Hyuga, Maya! Stop that, you're both embarrassing yourselves!" Misato yelled at them, but then heard cheers from the upper observation deck.
"Go for it, Ultraman!" It was Fuyutsuki with both hands on the railing as he reached excitedly over for a man of his temperament, "save that boy and win! Win for us, Ultraman!"
Misato and Ritsuko stared up befuddled at Fuyutsuki's sudden cheering, which seemed to have the effect of causing the rest of the technicians and operators around the center to raise their voice with him, Hyuga, and Maya as they cheered on Ultraman, who evaded one of the energy spikes and delivered a right hook, sending the Angel flying up and falling into some empty buildings with a hard crash. All the while, Gendo stared at his old professor like he had gone mad.
Even the combined JSSDF and UN troops were cheering on Ultraman despite their superiors' orders to calm down.
Sachiel raised his claw and grew the energy spike into a saber. "EVANGEL!" He charged with the new energy blade and swung at the Ultraman. Evangel proved to be much faster as he avoided getting cut and did a backflip to avoid a stab. Evangel leapt backwards and landed gracefully on his feet as Sachiel used his AT Field to jump up with his saber poised for a downward stab.
Evangel charged his right arm brace with energy and shot a Brace Pulse from his hand which hit Sachiel in his ribbed chest. Evangel ducked out of the way as Sachiel landed clumsily and missed cutting him. The young Ultra then charged the shin protector on his left foot to deliver a Charge Kick to the Angel's back, sending him grinding head-first through the pavement.
"It's alright, Yoshi," a young girl was racing along the street with a little puppy in her arms. She had gone back for the puppy despite the evacuation orders, sneaking away without her older brother knowing. While she would likely be scolded later, she could not bear the thought of her cute new little pet being crushed by a giant monster.
Sakura Suzuhara, a little girl with short brown hair, glanced back at the fight between Ultraman Evangel and Sachiel. She was almost scared out of her mind at the sight of the grotesque green monster, but the gold and silver giant seemed to radiate a glow that seemed to say that this giant was here for good purposes.
"Sakura!" Sakura heard a yell in front of her. She saw that it was her older brother, Toji, accompanied by his friend, Kensuke, who was holding a camcorder. "Toji!" She yelled back as she ran with Yoshi.
"Sakura, what are you doing!? You went back for the dog!?" Toji scolded, "what were you thinking!?"
"I couldn't leave him behind," Sakura said with a headshake, "he was lonely and scared!"
Kensuke, on the other hand, was excited as he recorded the battle between Ultraman and the Angel. "Wow! A real Ultraman and a real kaiju! I never thought I'd get to see either one!"
"Come on, Ken!" Toji chided, "this ain't one of your silly old cartoons! This is a real disaster and it's not- LOOK OUT!" He grabbed Sakura and Yoshi and ducked as Evangel was sent soaring over them, crashing into a block of buildings. "Argh!" The three heard what must have been the silver giant's grunt of pain. They watched him get back up as debris fell off his body. "Unreal!" Toji gasped.
It was then that Sachiel's eyes glowed with energy and released a deadly laser beam. Evangel blocked with his braces, causing the beam to deflect around him, only for some of the deadly energy strands to impact a tall skyscraper and explode it in the middle, causing the top half to come falling down. Toji's eyes widened as he saw that it was coming down on him, Kensuke, and Sakura.
"Sakura!" Toji embraced his sister, hoping against the odds that he could somehow shield her. He heard a loud thud, almost thinking that he had been crushed by the debris. Feeling sensation, but a lack of pain, Toji dared to open his eyes and look up. He saw that the gold and silver giant had rushed underneath the falling skyscraper and had caught it, saving the trio.
Evangel looked upon the three kids with his glowing eyes, giving them a friendly nod as he held the building on his back.
"Wow! Not only do we get to see a real Ultra fight," Kensuke was fangirling now, "we get to be saved by one!"
Toji and Sakura looked up to Evangel in wonder for saving them. Evangel stood up and lowered the building half behind him, kicking up some dust as it slightly crumbled. Yoshi barked happily up at the giant, while Sakura found herself pulling out her little phone and recording the Ultraman.
Shin Asuka had landed his craft when he saw the little girl and ran to try and save her. He found her with a puppy two older teens who seemed to be her older brother and a friend. He then looked up and saw Evangel. He beamed and flashed a thumbs up to him. "Way to go, brother," he said.
Misato watched as the monitors showed the drone feed of Evangel catching a dropping building and saving three bystanders who were somehow still in the combat zone.
"He saved them?" Misato wondered aloud as the rest of the bridge watched in awe.
Fuyutsuki smiled, as seeing Ultraman save those kids brought back some good memories from his past. However, he then saw that the Angel was charging up another attack. He yelled, "Ultraman, look out!"
Ultraman Evangel was suddenly hit with another beam from Sachiel from behind. "Aaahhh!" He fell headfirst into the broken bottom half of the skyscraper. Evangel shook his head and saw that the three kids and puppy were now running away, with the jockey holding the little girl in his arms, who continued to hold her phone out as she watched the whole battle. He then saw Shin waving them over to himself and taking them away to safety. While Evangel was glad that he had saved three lives who were now being cared for by his mentor, he was now having to face Sachiel's increased energy attacks as he was pelted by eye beams.
Sachiel swung his claws and spikes at Evangel, drawing sparks and grunts of pain as he battered the Ultra. "EVANGEL!" He continued to bellow in rage as he worked to exact the revenge that he and his siblings yearned for the past millennia. He then grabbed Evangel by the chest, lifting him as he struggled with both hands against his vice-like grip. He rammed his impaler spike, which did not penetrate Evangel's Ultra armor skin, but still sent him flying into another series of empty buildings, crushing them.
"Agh!" Evangel twitched in pain on the ground as his color indicator began to audibly ring with a red light. Inside, Shinji felt the weariness and the pain from throughout the battle really starting to take a toll on his endurance and body. "Running out of time," he groaned.
The NERV command center watched as Evangel seemed to struggle to get up.
"What's that flashing light on his chest?" Misato asked.
"That... cannot be good," Ritsuko grimaced, "looking at the way he's struggling, that light must mean 'danger'."
"A-are you certain?" Maya questioned her superior.
"That's the only logical explanation," Ritsuko said as the rest of the bridge looked on in worry, except for one.
Gendo hated unknowns, and this 'Ultraman' was one such unknown. The fewer unknowns meant that his scenario was less likely to be interfered with going forward. He smirked to himself as he watched Ultraman attempt to rise up with his diminishing strength.
On the other hand, Fuyutsuki yelled out, "come on, Ultraman! Don't give up! Fight and win!" Gendo looked uncomfortably again to his subcommander with his unusual behavior; he would have to confront and ask Fuyutsuki about his apparent knowledge of this being.
Ultraman Evangel was seeing blurs in his vision as he attempted to stand up, only to fall to his knees. He could see through the blurs that Sachiel was walking towards him, this time with both spikes extended into sabers. If he took more blows, he doubted he could survive, let alone sustain his form with the decreasing energy.
"Ultraman!" He heard a familiar voice with his Ultra hearing. Evangel turned to see that it was Shin with the three kids. He was cupping his hands and calling out to him. "Don't let this creep beat you! Ultraman rises up and beats the kaiju no matter what!"
Suddenly, to the surprise of the brother, the little girl was also calling out. "Ultraman! You can do it! Beat that mean monster!"
Both Shin and the girl began chanting his name, "Ultraman! Ultraman! Ultraman!" Soon enough, the two boys were joining in. Somehow, Evangel/Shinji felt his resolve being renewed, with a spark of energy and strength coming to him.
"DIE!" Sachiel raised both sabers and swung down on Evangel.
"NO!" Misato yelled out as she and the rest watched in horror. However, instead of the deadly blows she dreaded, Evangel suddenly raised his arms crossed and blocked the deadly energy blades. She felt the wind go out of her as she fought not to collapse.
"Yes!" Fuyutsuki cheered, feeling a new hope welling up in his heart.
"Hah!" Evangel's braces glowed as he focused his remaining energy into them. He forced Sachiel back and stood up. Sachiel was now confused at Evangel's sudden burst of strength, but then renewed his assault with a beam attack.
Evangel blocked with his braces more effectively, then rushed forward and started delivering punch combos stronger than the last ones. He beat Sachiel back as the Angel's shell started to crack under the sustained blows.
Sachiel then reignited his right arm saber and swung down, only for Evangel to catch it with his left hand. With a firm grip, Evangel quickly flashed his right brace into forming an edge and swung it into the Angel's arm. The Angel stumbled back and shrieked in pain as its right arm was sliced off. Evangel stepped back and flashed his left brace. He waved it and shot a Charge Cut at Sachiel's armored core, cutting and blowing off the 'ribs' and exposing it.
Evangel glanced down at his color timer, seeing that it was blinking faster. He had to finish the fight before reaching the limit. Taking a breath, Evangel crossed his arms in an x-shape across his chest and flexed them out in a cross-shape, causing a flash of his aura. His braces and chest protector flashed gold as he brought his arms together in front of him, his color indicator seeming to absorb energy from the air as the golden armor pieces flashed brighter.
"EVANGEL!" Sachiel ignored his pain and ran towards Evangel, intending to self-distruct his S2 organ and take Evangel and as much of the city as possible with him.
With a final gleam of the braces, Evangel pulled them back and crossed his arms back together in a cross-shape with an audible 'cling' sound. He fired his finishing Evangel Cross Ray as a cross-shaped golden beam stream was emitted from the braces.
Ritsuko winced a bit at how bright Evangel's golden beam was. The drones monitoring the battle shook slightly from the shockwave of Evangel's beam.
She watched as the Angel put up an AT Field to block the attack. "That won't do..." she muttered as she remembered her previous studies on how only an AT Field could be defeated by another AT Field.
The beam hit the barrier of light, pushing Sachiel back slightly. To everyone's surprise, the AT Field suddenly began to strain and show cracks.
"No way, that beam is actually defeating the AT Field!?" Misato gasped. As if to answer that, the live feed showed the field shattering like glass, and the Angel taking the full blast to its core.
"Impossible," was all Ritsuko could say.
Sachiel felt his core spark as he twitched in shock and pain from the Cross Beam attack. As he fell backwards, he felt his whole body coming apart at the seams.
"We... will... not... be... denied!" Sachiel bellowed out one last time before exploding.
Ultraman Evangel uncrossed his arms and stood tall and proud, having achieved his first victory against an Angel.
"He did it!" Kensuke whooped as he, Toji, and Sakura celebrated and cheered for Ultraman defeating the monster.
"That was so cool!" Sakura beamed excitedly.
Toji also could not help but smile at having been saved by Ultraman. He then turned try and thank the stranger who also helped them, but found he was gone.
As Shin Asuka made his way back to his Alpha Superior, he saw his Ultra mentee basking in his aura of victory. "You earned it," he said, proud of Shinji.
"Yahoo!" Donnie Reagan hollered from his hospital bed at the screen showing Evangel victorious. His celebration was only cut short by his aching head.
Evangel saw that his work was done for now. Raising his head to the sky, he jumped up and took flight at supersonic speed.
"Send fighters after him. Track him," Gendo barked orders.
"He's too fast, sir," Shigeru reported, "and he's already out of range... wait, now he's disappeared from radar."
Gendo silently fumed as Fuyutsuki whispered with a smirk. "Looks like the old men won't be too happy about this," he remarked.
Gendo then stood up and just said, "I leave the rest to you at this point." He briskly walked out of the room.
Fuyutsuki just shook his head at Gendo's coldness as he looked back to the monitors. Now Misato was barking orders for retrieving Unit 01 and rescuing Shinji.
Shinji felt himself rematerialize inside the Eva cockpit. He felt himself slump back as the day's events had sapped him of his energy. The warmth of the Splendor in his hand seemed to put him into a gentle healing sleep as the systems started to come back online.
Unbeknownst to everyone else, an invisible presence in the cockpit embraced Shinji gently and looked upon him and the Splendor in his hand. The device shined slightly for a second in response to the presence before it faded back into the Eva.
"Shinji..."
Episode 2 – Evangel Rises; The "Impaler Angel", Sachiel Arrives!
Finally, the episode we have all been waiting for!
This was both among the easiest, yet hardest episodes to point. While it was easy to draw inspiration from other fanfics I've read, including the defunct Ultraman EVA by Zindakku Hirokai, it was another chaplenge to throw in new twists and turns. Hopefully it was accomplished with Sakura being saved from her injuries by both Evangel and Shin, and the fact that Sachiel seemed to remember Evangel and attacked him with greater power and malice.
Anyways, I would also like to take a bit of a small poll out of curiosity: of all the Evangelion children, which of them would make for suitable Ultra Hosts, to which Ultra, and why? It's no guarantee at this point, but I'm interested in your thoughts on the matter.
As always, read, fave, review, and stay tuned for the next Ultraman Evangel episode and battle! God bless and (hopefully) a Happy New Year!
P.S. - Also feel free to suggest insert songs from both Evangelion and Ultraman!