Neon Genesis Evangelémon: You Can (not) Catch 'Em All
Episode 2: Shinji pops a NERV
Shinji gulped and sputtered as he found himself submerged in the smelly orange liquid that filled the entry plug. He fought the urge to vomit, but that did little good, because at the time his own major intestine seemed to be considering evacuating it contents through his mouth. Once he had gotten over the unpleasantness of it all, he realized that he could actually breathe,despite being immersed in the liquid.
The interior of the entry plug was cramped, and lined with strange-looking controls that must have been attached to the mechanical armor Genesect wore. But before Shinji could try any of them out, a headset with goggles slipped over his face, and his view suddenly changed to a dark vertical tunnel.
Where am I? Shinji asked himself. He lifted one arm, then the other, and each time he did, Genesects metallic purple claws moved in front of him. He was seeing through Genesect's eyes.
"Prepare Unit 01 for launch!" the voice of Dr. Akagi shouted over a loudspeaker.
Another voice—his father's—replied, "Launch preparations are complete. Genesect is ready for deployment."
I most certainly am not ready for deployment, thought Shinji. But, I suppose, if this is what I was brought here to do, then so be it. I mustn't run away.
As Shinji gradually accustomed himself to maneuvering the giant cyborg Pokémon he suddenly felt himself shot upward through the tunnel at blinding speed, landing in the middle of the streets of Pallet Town 3.
It was here that he had his next shock. When he had first laid eyes on Genesect, he had no idea how much of it lay below the surface of the orange liquid. As he could now tell, it was quite tall indeed. It stood about three times as tall as the largest building in Pallet Town 3, though this was not as impressive as it sounded given that most buildings there were only a few stories in height. Nevertheless, it was larger than any Pokémon he had ever heard of, and he wondered whether its size was due to NERV's experimentation rather than a natural feature of it.
Regigigas, meanwhile, was doing the same thing it had been doing the entire time; that is, making its way in a straight line toward the center of the city and generally causing a great deal of destruction and chaos. The KSSDF was still attempting to fight it, this time with Pokémon of their own, but still having little effect.
OK, let's at least see what attacks this thing has, thought Shinji, maneuvering Genesect so it stood straight across from Regigigas. He wasn't sure exactly how Pokémon knew what was an attack they could use and what wasn't, and why they were only able to know four at a time. It was just one of those arbitrary things you had to take for granted as a Pokémon trainer.
Normally, when he caught a Pokémon, he could use his Pokédex to check what attacks it knew. Here, however, he had no such option—he had to control Genesect himself and find out how to use whatever techniques it had. As he thought about this, a display of options flashed in front of him in his field of view.
Hyper Beam. X-Scissor. Bug Buzz. Techno Blast. "I think I might as well go with Hyper Beam," Shinji said to himself. As he said this, he felt himself—and Genesect—involuntarily crouch down. This was followed by an aching pain in he back of his neck, as if he had pulled a muscle there. He reached his hand backwards to feel it, forgetting that doing so also caused Genesect's hand to move, but felt nothing wrong.
Suddenly, there was a blinding flash of white light—nearly as bright as the N2 mine Shinji has seen the KSSDF using—followed by a tremendous explosion in the distance. Shinji felt himself stand back up, and the pain in the back of his neck ceased. That was when it hit him. He had been feeling Genesect's stress.
As the smoke from the Hyper Beam attack cleared, it revealed Regigigas collapsed on its back amid the remains of several buildings. Cautiously, Shinji and Genesect stepped towards it. Regigigas did not move, and the eyes on its "face" no longer glowed. Feeling that the Legendary Pokémon was probably now knocked out, Shinji reached one of Genesect's arms to touch it.
When he did, Regigigas's eyes suddenly lit up. The Colossal Pokémon slowly raised itself to its feet, then, suddenly, lunged forward in a manner that seemed to defy all the laws of physics. Why Shinji was questioning this only now, despite having grown up in a world where even the average insect was over a foot long and fire-breathing reptiles were considered common household pets, was not something he preferred to dwell on.
Regigigas clamped its arms around Genesect's body, and Shinji felt a harsh, squeezing pain in his own body. The first thing he saw as he glanced up was Regigigas's eyes glowing. The last thing he saw, before he blacked out, was three beams of light—red, blue, and green—shooting towards Genesect's head.
When Shinji awoke, he was no longer inside the Entry plug. He was lying on a hospital bed, his arms and legs held in restraints and an ice pack on his head.
Taking in the room around himself, Shinji finally called out, "Hello?"
"You sustained serious injuries in your battle. You need to rest."
Shinji turned to see who was talking. It was Dr. Akagi. This time she had a different Pokémon alongside her—a Chansey, which wore a nurse's hat on its head. The pink Pokémon held a glass cup of strange green liquid in one had, which Shinji sincerely hoped was not medicine he was going to have to take. His hoping did not last long, unfortunately, because Chansey pushed the cup up to his lips, forcing him to swallow the liquid in one gulp. Shinji nearly gagged, but then lay back down.
As he did, he noticed that the hospital bed next to him was also occupied. Rei, whom Shinji had not seen since before his encounter with Genesect, was lying in it, still heavily bandaged up. Shinji turned to speak to her, but her deadpan expression told him that it would be useless. At least they're actually bothering to give her medical attention, he thought.
"Bone?"(I'm sorry about that), whimpered Cubone, who had been sitting on the foot of Shinji's bed. "Cu-cu-bone," (I wish I could have helped you out there). It crawled up next to Shinji and let him scratch it on its skull mask, which he knew it enjoyed.
"Look, Cubone," said Shinji, not entirely sure the Ground-type Pokémon could understand him. "You're lucky. You don't have the fate of the world resting in your hands. That doesn't matter to you. I'd give anything for that."
Meanwhile, Gendo Ikari was having anxieties of his own. He had been contacted by another organization, one even more secretive than NERV. SEELE, as they called themselves, did not like to show their faces in public, but it was they who really pulled the strings behind NERV- and, indeed, behind the governments of every nation in the world.
Gendo had been invited to a video conference with the SEELE representatives in charge of Kanto, Johto, Hoenn, Sinnoh, and Unova. When he arrived, the first thing he noticed was that the representatives were not shown in person. Instead, each was represented by a tall, monolithic tablet. Above each tablet floated a number of flat black objects that were shaped almost like letters.
Unown, Gendo thought. The language of the Pokémon Instrumentality Project.
One of the monoliths—the one that stood for Hoenn—began to glow, and the Unown floating above it jostled about to form the words "SEELE 01". Then, a voice began to emanate from the monolith.
"We have been expecting you here, Gendo Ikari," it said. Gendo nodded in apprehension. While he did have his own personal goals for the Evangelémon program, for now it would pay to follow through with those of SEELE—and he sincerely hoped they were not disappointed.
The Hoenn representative went on, "As you no doubt know, this is the first time in the fifteen years following Second Impact that a so-called Legendary Pokémon has shown itself. That much is foretold by the writings found in the Ruins of Alph. However, we urgently advise you not to let this cause your work for NERV to fall behind schedule. Do you understand?"
Gendo nodded again.
"I see," said the SEELE representative. "Then in that case we shall see what NERV can continue to do for us.
"But," inquired the SEELE member from Johto, "Do you not think it is rather unnecessary to force these. . .these children to control such powerful creatures? Surely there are more favorable ways of bringing about Instrumentality?"
Somewhat annoyed, Gendo scowled at the monoliths. "It seemed like a good idea at the time," he said at last.
Shinji, meanwhile, had recovered fully and been brought to what was to become his new residence during his tenure at NERV—Misato's apartment. Misato lived by herself in an old apartment building on the outskirts of Pallet Town 3. When Shinji opened the door to it, the first thing he noticed was the overpowering stench of stale alcohol. Something told him that there had been a mistake.
The second thing he noticed was that Misato was nowhere to be seen. Instead, he was greeted at the door by a Pokémon he had never seen before. Someone with an entirely different upbringing than himself might have said that it resembled a penguin, but of course Shinji had no way of knowing what that was. Instead, he found himself struggling to mentally describe a beaked, feathered creature as tall as himself that looked as if it were wearing a light green tuxedo and a gold crown.
"Oh, hello!" Shinji spun around to see who was talking
"Whaa—oh, hey, Misato."
"I see you have already met Pen-pen. He's my Empoleon. Got him in Sinnoh back when he was a Piplup." She petted the birdlike Pokémon on the head, to which it gave a "Wark" of approval, before following Shinji into the apartment.
Shinji scanned Empoleon on his Pokédex ("Empoleon-the Emperor Pokémon") and noticed that the one in his picture was dark blue, not light green. He inquired about this. "Glad you noticed," said Misato. "Pen-pen's a Shiny Empoleon—he's a different color from a normal one. But anyway, come on in!"
The apartment was a mess. The bed was disheveled, and the floor was littered with napkins, drink cans, and other unnamable things. "Do you ever. . .clean this place?" Misato stared at him.
At the same time, Gendo and Dr. Akagi had much more serious matters to discuss. Gendo had brought Dr. Akagi to a secret bunker far beneath NERV headquarters, where he intended to show her something just as revolutionary as Genesect.
The room was dimly lit, and, like the room where Genesect had been kept, it was taken up by a large tank. This one, however, was filled with a solid red transparent substance, almost like ice. Inside the frozen prison, Dr Akagi could see another Pokémon in suspended animation inside.
Unlike Genesect, this Pokémon was unarmored and vaguely humanoid except for its thick whip-like tail and its two pointed ears. Also, like Genesect, it was enormous, filling up most of the tank. Somehow, Dr. Akagi was sure she had seen a Pokémon like this somewhere, and her belief was vindicated when Gendo spoke.
"What you see here, is the original prototype of the Evangelémon program. It was cloned directly from the remains found at Second Impact. Right now, we are calling it Unit 0, but it has come to be known as simply. . .Mewtwo."
Dr. Akagi looked confused. "I knew it looked familiar. But. . .Mewtwo. I have heard that name before, and I must say that this is not identical to the one in the Pokédex by any means. Has it been modified the same way that Genesect has?"
Gendo nodded. "Correct. This is not the Mewtwo that you probably know, Ritsuko. It has undergone a great deal of modification—just as no ordinary human can withstand the psychological rigors of being an Evangelémon trainer, no naturally occurring Pokémon can hope to hold their own against the wrath of a Legendary Pokémon. So we had to create our own."
"There were countless attempts—the results were never pleasant—but eventually NERV perfected the Evangelémon program that has become the spearhead of its battle against the Legendary Pokémon. Mewtwo was the first. It was constructed from the DNA of Mew, the ancestor of all Pokémon."
Dr. Akagi scowled slightly. "I suspect there's something you're not telling me," she said.
"No," replied Gendo, "everything is going according to plan. Rei has been assigned as Mewtwo's trainer. No matter what happens, the children must continue to perform their functions at NERV."
Shinji was in his bed, listening to music on his cassette player. Why he had a cassette player, in a world where instant matter-to-energy transfusion was possible and living creatures could be traded over computers, he also had no idea. As he listened, he fell asleep and reflected on the events of the previous day.
He was unconscious. Unable to control Genesect, he fell backwards in the Entry Plug as Regigigas's attack struck Genesect in the head. Genesect stumbled back a few steps (very large steps, of course) but then it steadied itself and focused the cannon on Regigigas and prepared to fire again. This time, Genesect used a Techno Blast attack, which struck Regigigas in one of its legs. For a moment, Regigigas stood still, its body crackling with electricity, but then it shook off the effects of the attack as though they were nothing!
Regigigas stood its ground, then, without warning, stamped both its feet on the ground. The result was a shockwave that shook all of Pallet Town 3, and Genesect dropped to its knees to avoid being knocked off its feet.
As Genesect raised itself to its feet, it fired off a second Techno Blast, hoping—if the gigantic cyborg Pokémon felt such emotions—to achieve a better result this time. At first the hope seemed justified—the Techno Blast struck Regigigas directly on its "face"—but there was no reaction.
Inside NERV HQ, Misato and the computer technicans had been watching Shinji's battle with interest. "Genesect and Shinji are no longer in sync! I repeat, Genesect and Shinji are no longer in sync!" Misato shouted.
"Is there any way for the entry plug to eject?" the nearest computer technician, whose name was Maya Ibuki, had asked.
"Does it LOOK like there is?" said Misato.
"No," said Maya, "but—Did you see that? REGIGIGAS JUST USED AN AP BARRIER!"
She pointed at the viewing screen, which currently was displaying Genesect's latest (failed) attempt to attack Regigigas. The Techno Blast had simply bounced off a force field with which the Legendary Pokémon had surrounded itself.
If Genesect was being slowed down, it was certainly not showing any signs of it. It brandished the blades on its arms, which began to glow purple, and charged straight at Regigigas. Regigigas stood still, riveted to the spot, as Genesect rushed toward it (and in doing so demolished several convenience stores, a fire station, and a PokeMart).
Genesect ran in a straight line toward Regigigas, its arms held up in front of it in preparation for an X-scissor attack. It didn't seem to matter what was in its way, buildings or cars or telephone poles, and it certainly didn't seem to take into account the AP field. Regigigas still did nothing. It did not need to—the moment Genesect's attack came into contact with AP field, its arm shattered upon colliding with it. Now short one arm and dripping orange liquid, Genesect staggered backwards and dropped to one knee.
Underneath its purple metal armor, the Pokémon's actual fleshy body—and its internal organs—could be seen. A casual observer earlier might have believed Genesect to be a robot or some other sort of machine, but there was no mistaking now that it was actually a living creature.
Genesect did not even seem to notice the loss of its arm. Indeed, as it got to its feet to face Regigigas again, its arm had already partiallly regenerated, and while it no longer had its armor, it was once again functional. Once its arm had fully regenerated, Genesect took two enormous steps backward, and lowered its head. The cannon on the back of its neck began to glow, but instead of projecting a Hyper Beam or a Techno Blast, an AP field—just like the one Regigigas had—formed in front of Genesect.
The two AP fields collided, cancelling each other out in a flash of light almost as bright as Genesect's Techno Blast. When the light faded, Regigigas was still standing, but it no longer had its AP field to protect it. Now it was time for Genesect to perform its finishing move. Just as it had before, it brandished its arms in front of itself and charged headlong at Regigigas for an X-scissor attack.
Watching from NERV headquarters, Misato and the technicians were speechless at what followed. The monitor turned a brilliant white for a split second, which faded to reveal a glowing symbol etched in the sky over where Regigigas had fallen. It consisted of two circles, one within the other, connected by four spokes—the sign of Arceus.
None of that could compare, however, to the sight of Genesect walking triumphantly away from the site of the battle, badly damaged but nevertheless clearly the winner. "Regigigas is unable to battle!" declared Misato, holding up a can of Shuckle juice in celebration. "Genescet wins!"
As Shinji finally regained consciousness, he found himself still in the entry plug, but now in the storage bunker where he had first met Genesect. As he was escorted out of the room, he turned around, and he could swear he noticed the Pokémon's demonic-looking red eye staring at him. He screamed.
Shinji woke up in a cold sweat. He had just beaten Regigigas, sure, but . . .was this what he was really doing when he did that? He had apparently screamed for real, since he had woken up Cubone and Pen-pen, both of whom were complaining loudly. This, in turn, attracted Misato, who was wearing her Psyduck-print pajamas.
"Bad dream?" she asked, half-teasingly. "By the way, thanks for saving Pallet Town 3. I knew you could do it. Don't forget to try to be the very best!"
"Yeah right," grumbled Shinji to himself. "The very best like no one ever was."
WHO'S THAT POKÉMON?
This Pokémon lived 300 million years ago. Its signature attack varies in type based on the Drive inserted into the cannon on its back.
Last episode: It's . . .Cubone!