Creation began on 01-26-19
Creation ended on 03-20-19
Neon Genesis Evangelion
Mysterious Danger
This time, Shinji's synchronization score was higher. At least one-hundred-ten percent, and this was surprising after hearing about a murder that had occurred last night in the Tokyo-3 just half an hour ago. NERV wanted to suspect that it was Yuki-Onna, having returned to her predatory habits, but according to the forensic people that were called to the crime scene after the police found it, these three dead bodies couldn't be pinned to the human/dinosaur hybrid because of how they were murdered. And Shinji himself doubted that Yuki-Onna could go harm anyone now unless she was attacked and getting away wasn't an option.
"Why couldn't the police accuse the creature of murder?" Maya asked Ritsuko.
"According to their forensics," the faux-blond stated, "the woman and her children were killed by some sort of heated blade with traces of rust. Whoever…or whatever killed them was unsanitary. The police are hoping that one of the boys had managed to take a picture of whatever killed them; he was holding a camera phone before he was cut up, so it's possible he took a picture of their killer."
Then both women turned to face Yuki-Onna, who was in the room watching Shinji on the monitor, paying them no mind…until she turned to face them.
"Why would I want to hurt anyone that hasn't hurt me, that doesn't know me?" She spoke to them, making it clear that their suspicion of her being the culprit was misplaced; so long as Shinji wasn't harmed, she had no reason to harm anyone else.
"One day, you're going to find yourself on someone's bad side," Ritsuko informed her.
"In the world of public opinion, just because of the way I look, I'm already on people's bad side," she countered with her own common sense.
"People that choose to have a problem with you, Yuki-Onna," went Shinji; he was listening to their conversation. "People that choose to have a problem with you."
"Must you really defend her at every opportunity?" Misato asked him, as she was also present monitoring the test.
"If I don't, who will?" He responded.
Ritsuko then compared the new score with previous scores related to the First and Second Children…and sighed at how the Third Child was now superior to them…and the primary cause of this was not his connection to the Eva…but his relationship to the Riptor hybrid. It was strange how instead of establishing a solid connection with the cybernetic humanoid, he was solidifying his relationship with a relic of genetic engineering not unlike what NERV's predecessor agency, GEHIRN, did when they created the Evas.
"I hope you don't plan on taking her out on the city again like before," Misato told Shinji.
"I'm sorry, but are you telling me that you're putting Yuki-Onna on lockdown?" Shinji asked her, feeling like the woman was trying to get in the way of his plans to spend time with Yuki-Onna. "Didn't the police say that she had nothing to do with those murders from last night…or do you suspect her of being the murderer?"
"I believe it's too soon to tell," Misato explained, "and if the police report turns out premature, things out there on the streets could get ugly."
"You mean uglier," Shinji told her.
"What?" Ritsuko questioned.
"Last night, I had an unusual dream. It was about the city, and it was empty, but the strangest thing about it wasn't that it was empty, but what was left in it. There wasn't a single trace of structural damage, but there were some people laying on the ground, scattered like broken action figures, missing pieces of themselves…and there was some sort of… Some sort of knight. I think I might've seen something like it before, but I can't recall where or when."
"You have a very vivid imagination."
"Did you see anyone fight this knight, Shinji?" Yuki-Onna asked him, which surprised them.
"I saw you…or someone like you, Yuki-Onna, fighting this knight."
"Do you…see the outcome?"
"No. The last thing I see before waking up is the knight…and you…jumping into the air at each other, as if making a last stand."
"If you can recall its aesthetics…could you draw a picture of the knight, Shinji?"
Misato and Ritsuko were stunned to hear Yuki-Onna ask the boy such a question.
"Sure, Yuki-Onna," Shinji answered her.
-x-
"…They were just cut to pieces?" Jago asked Hisako when she met up with him on the rooftop of a building. "You didn't see who or what did it?"
"No, but it wasn't the Riptor," the ghost girl told him. "It was something else…and was old. If it was the Riptor, the bodies would've been ripped to pieces and bitten into. Whatever killed these three was just out to do just that. There was no literal hunger or predatory instinct involved."
Jago then thought about it, wondering what could've killed people…just by cutting them up.
"Have you encountered anyone or anything that was able to kill in this fashion?" Hisako asked him, floating over to his face.
"Maybe just one thing," he answered her, "but when Ultratech was taken down, it went with them in the aftermath."
"What went with them?"
"Fulgore."
"What's Fulgore?"
"A robotic soldier for war built by Ultratech, a cybernetic being with wrist-mounted blades that surged with electrical energy, which made it an effective killing machine for the future if put into mass production by the corporation."
"A robotic soldier, meaning it's soulless?"
"Yes."
-x-
"…It does look like a knight," went Maya as she saw the drawing Shinji made and showed to Yuki-Onna.
The knight depicted was black, somewhat medieval, and had curved blades on their wrists that were blue, as if shining or glowing with electrical energy. An orange plume sticking out the back of its armor-like head and its eyes were aglow in red.
"I think it looks like the Evas a little," Ritsuko expressed as she looked at the drawing.
"Oh, really?" Shinji asked her. "I might've only seen this in a dream I had last night, but this thing, this…knight…looked better than the Eva, which looks like someone's twisted idea of a protector because it scares me…and I'm sane enough to admit that it scares me."
"Sounds a little unfair to say the Eva is twisted," said Misato to him.
"To each their own opinion," he countered.
Yuki-Onna looked at the drawing and felt a degree of intimidation from the would-be knight. She had never seen this being before, but already she felt like it was a danger to Shinji if it did exist out there in the world.
Shinji took notice of her eyes glaring at the drawing and decided to say, "You're the great dragon that slays the dark knight, Yuki-Onna."
She looked at him and just patted him on his head.
"And you're the captive prince the dark knight uses as bait to try and slay this great dragon," she added on.
-x-
"…You're saying that those people were killed by a Fulgore that just decided to show up in this city?" Orchid asked Jago and Hisako as they met in an alley where they couldn't be seen. "I thought the Fulgore series never made it past the initial prototype stage."
"Since when does any corporation keep one prototype?" Jago questioned; it was a fact that any company would often have more than just one type of prototype, basically having a few extras to test out in case one they planned to show off was compromised.
"Hmm?" Hisako went, looking up at the sky above.
"What is it?" Orchid wanted to know.
"I thought I heard something just now."
-x-
On the far side of the city, having torn through a metal grate, a lone figure hid in the sewers for a brief period, having searched for a power source to plug into and repower itself for later on. Right now, in the darkness, a series of random segments of code were running rampant in its program matrix. These codes weren't part of its usual programing, but it was to carry them out once translated. The first order was to reactivate itself, the second was to come to Tokyo-3 and initiate its recirculation mode, which it carried out with three targets, and now a fourth order had been translated into its programing matrix.
No matter what now, it had to carry out this new directive, and it would without question.
"New directive as followed," an electronic voice uttered in the darkness. "Locate foreign target. Program abnormality detected. Cleansing protocol initiated. Program directive translation: Infiltrate Geo-Front, locate and terminate target Shinji Ikari."
Raising its rusty arms up as it ripped a cable from its frame, the figure immediately ran through the sewers to carry out its new objective.
-x-
Gendo didn't like this. Not only was the Riptor bonding with the Third Child in a way that wouldn't satisfy his scenario, but the boy's synchronization with Unit-01 only got the way it did because of the creature's relationship with him. And the drawing that Ritsuko informed him of that the Third Child drew in compliance to the creature's request to understand a recent dream he had, the knight depicted by him seemed to mirror the specs NERV had obtained on Ultratech's Fulgore design.
"Is there any indication that the Third Child saw the design specs on the Fulgore beforehand?" Gendo asked Ritsuko in his office.
"No, sir," she answered. "There's nothing to indicate that he even knows what it is. As far as he knows, it's just some sort of knight…that he dreamed of facing his pet dinosaur."
"Where are they now?"
"After synchronization testing ended, they left to explore more of the city. According to Captain Katsuragi, Section Two made a joke about the two holding hands."
-x-
Pretty much like before and in his dreams, the city streets were almost deprived of people, something Shinji found to be unsettling to a degree. Tokyo-3 was supposed to be this techno marvel of the future, and it looked more like an empty maze of skyscrapers.
"This place didn't have that many people in it to begin with," Yuki-Onna expressed.
"Really, Yuki-Onna?" He asked her. "There were few people here to begin with?"
"I can smell very few scents that reveal not so many people were here…or have been here for a long time. What do you think of this city?"
"Personally, I wouldn't want to live in a city that's going to be attacked every now and then by giant creatures I don't understand, that nobody from the public seems to be aware of. If it becomes a ghost town, it's not worth living in because people need to be around other people, even if they prefer to live alone."
"Alone…but not in complete isolation?"
"Exactly, Yuki-Onna. No matter how we're viewed from a scientific viewpoint, we're a social species and need to be in the presence of other people. We can't survive on our own forever."
"Nobody should have to be on their own…except those that choose to be alone."
"People that choose to be alone…aren't the most social. People that don't want to be alone try to be social."
Yuki-Onna stopped walking and turned around to face the black car that had been following them ever since they left the Geo-Front; the guys in the black suits and glasses assigned to watch Shinji did nothing but bother her with how they were not social, but socially disturbing. As much as she understood now that their only purpose in this…business function…was to protect Shinji from a distance on his father's orders, someone that merely watches and waits for potential danger to strike instead of just being with who they're supposed until potential danger strikes…were two very different things…and she would prefer the latter over the former. She would stick with her friend and protect him from such danger instead of simply watching him.
"There is a difference…between watching over…and being with someone," she stated.
"What?" Shinji, who had stopped walking and turned around upon realizing that she had stopped a while ago. "What'd you say, Yuki-Onna?"
"There is a difference between watching over and being with someone," she repeated.
"Yes, there is."
BOOM! The car the Section Two agents were in suddenly exploded behind the two and caught their attention.
"Whoa!" Shinji gasped, looking at the smoldering flames and burning metal.
"Grrrr!" Yuki-Onna growled, sensing danger was near.
Something appeared in the flames and shoved half of the car aside, revealing itself to them.
"Aah!" Shinji reacted, recognizing the being from before. "The knight!"
-x-
Looking down from a rooftop, Jago and Orchid saw the destroyed car and the Fulgore that caused its ruination.
"It is a Fulgore," Orchid realized and accepted.
Then they saw it step out of the flames and look at the boy from before and the Riptor. It raised its right arm up, its energy blades superheated, and it pointed towards the boy!
-x-
"…The Section Two agents assigned to monitor the Third Child have been killed by some sort of vigilante!" Hyuga informed Misato as the whole of Central Dogma had been made aware of the new situation.
On the screens, thanks to access to the city's traffic cameras, they could see the person that destroyed the car with the agents inside it walking out of the flames.
Fulgore?! Ritsuko thought. But how?
"Command priority override complete," they heard an electronic voice say, coming from the dark being. "Unnecessary individuals terminated. Priority target located. Objective now as follows: Terminate the threat that is Shinji Ikari. Command is to be carried out in the next fifteen seconds. Fourteen…thirteen…twelve…"
"What the Hell?!" Misato gasped, reaching for her cell phone to call Shinji and order him to run.
But then Yuki-Onna got in front of the boy and glared at Fulgore.
"You will not harm my friend," she uttered, spreading her legs, extending her claws and baring her fangs. "I will protect who matters the most."
To be continued…
A/N: You probably have a lot of questions regarding what the Hell just happened here, but this will just be the reminder of how instructions and orders can be deviated on a whim at any time. So the culprit was Fulgore, and it's carrying out someone's orders, but now it has to contend with some resistance. What do you think will happen next?