Chapter 2

            It was a bright, sunny day in Dallas, as thousands packed into the city's most famous stadium for the Super Bowl. The year was 2020… and the football game was a much-needed break from reality for the United States. It had only been five years since the tense situation in Japan, and since then, there had been multitudes of terrorist actions perpetrated by the shady groups known as SEELE and NERV. Also, there was great unrest in Europe, with Germany flexing its newfound military muscle, under its mysterious young new supreme commander, Asuka Langley Souryu. To add to the tension, a little over a month ago, the Germans' Evangelion Unit 02 had been seen in California. The United States government had attempted to cover up the incident, but the media was vigilant as ever, and most of the US population was now convinced that another World War was just over the horizon.

            And so, against this backdrop, in the mass of spectators flooding in through the stadium gates, two people walked through the crowd, a man and a girl. The man was tall, nearly six-two or so. He wore a cowboy hat, a black leather duster, cowboy boots, and a huge belt buckle that rivaled most professional wrestling championship belts. Obviously a good ol' Texas cowboy, despite his Asian appearance. He held the hand of a little girl who was no more than ten or eleven, also of Asian descent. She wore denim overalls and carried a big plush teddy bear, and her dark hair was tied back in pigtails. They approached the obligatory security checkpoint. The security officers were doing pat downs, as well as using hand-held metal detectors.

            The two waited in line patiently until their turn arrived. The guard looked them over.

            "I've had to raise her since her momma passed away a few years ago," explained the man, in a thick Texan drawl.

            "I see. I'm sorry to hear that," said the guard, his face softening. "Just going to need to check your coat, sir."

            "No problem, pardner'," smiled the tall man, as he took it off and handed it to the guard. The guard looked through the pockets, and found a can of chewing tobacco, some keys, and the man's ticket stubs. Handing the coat back, the guard glanced momentarily at the little girl's smiling face and teddy bear, and then motioned for them to go through the checkpoint.

            "You two have a great day," the guard said as they passed by.

As soon as they could, the two crept into a part of the stadium with few people around. Nonchalantly, the man opened a door to a storage room, and he and the girl slipped in.

            "That went well," commented Ryo, as he took off the huge belt buckle and started assembling the small pistol it had concealed. After putting it together, he screwed on a suppresser. "Now, assuming that both Ikari and SEELE make their respective appearances today, this trip might actually be worth it."

            "What do you want me to do with this, Papa?" asked Tomoyo, holding up the bear. Ryo smiled.

            "You don't have to call me that, now that we're in, unless you just want to."

            "I do," she said earnestly.

            "Well, to be honest, I always wanted a daughter, so I guess 'Papa' is fine. Oh yeah, the bear. Just hold onto it for now. The GPS beacon is in it, we'll need it to call our ride out of here if everything goes down the way it's supposed to, plus it'll make the disguise that much more plausible." He took off his cowboy hat and set it gently on Tomoyo's head. "You look really cute, Tomo, just like a little cowgirl. All right, we're ready to go. Just remember, stick close to me as usual, and if any shooting starts, stay behind me."

            Nonchalantly exiting the storage room, they strolled back towards a crowded concession booth. One of the popcorn venders caught his eye. A young Japanese man, he had just picked up his vending tray and hung it around his neck. Ryo smiled to himself, and walked towards the vender.

            "Excuse me," he said, as he came up behind the man. "But can you tell me what sport the Angels play? I had mistakenly thought they were a football team, but I guess I was wrong."

The man turned, a disgusted smile on his face.

            "With all due respect, sir, that's a terrible joke. Mr. Kaita, I presume?"

A few minutes later they were back in the storage room. Ryo looked the young man up and down, and then nodded, obviously satisfied of something.

"You look just like your old man, even without the beard."

"I'd rather not talk about him."

"Really. And yet, you took over Gendo's position. I thought you would have wanted to start a new life after everything you went through."

Shinji sighed.

"It's not that simple. Even if I had tried, do you think for a second that SEELE would have let me?"

"You've got a point there, Ikari. I tried to walk away, and ended up running. For my life."

"I stopped running away five years ago, at the Geofront," replied Shinji. "I'm not going to beat around the bush, Mr. Kaita. I know you have no love for SEELE. We're horribly short on personnel right now, to the point that I'll take anyone with training in a heartbeat. Plus, you're fairly familiar with the enemy's interior workings. What do you say?"

"Trying to sign a free agent, huh? Tell me something, Ikari, since the Angels are all gone, is NERV basically just a rogue government agency that refuses to call it quits?"

"More like anti-terrorist vigilantes, actually. All of us that are left lost nearly everything because of SEELE. Call it jealous revenge if you want, but we owe them. But, you know all about that, I'm sure. What about you, Mr. Kaita? Why do you hate them so much?"

Ryo glanced at his watch.

"We don't have much longer. Halftime starts soon."

"Please, answer my question."

"Fine. This girl, Commander Ikari." He held Tomoyo's hand, and glanced at her for a second.  "SEELE killed her mother. I was working for them, an organization that takes little girls' mothers away. They probably would have killed Tomoyo, too, given the chance. I can't forgive myself for having anything to do with them. To atone for my sins, and to avenge her, I'm willing to do whatever it takes to make sure that Chairman Keel burns in hell. If that means temporarily aligning myself with NERV, then so be it. Tomoyo means everything to me, Ikari. So, I guess our mutual desire for revenge brings us together."

 "'The enemy of my enemy is my friend', eh Mr. Kaita?" smiled Shinji.

"I might as well throw my two cents into your corner."

"Thank you."

"One more thing, though," added Ryo. "What is your political position when it comes to the Germans?"

This question was answered by Shinji lowering his head.

"We… are neutral," he muttered.

"I see. So… you're not planning to reform the old Axis powers? Japanese and Germans together again, you and Asuka, could be quite a team-"

"That's enough! Please don't mention her again!" interrupted Shinji harshly.

"Fine, fine. I'm just trying to get a grasp on the situation, Ikari. About the Evas: I know that Asuk- I mean, that Germany has Eva Units 02 and 10. The US government has the rebuilt 03, 05, 06, and 07. SEELE had 10 through 12, until they lost 10 in the little fiasco last month. The Japanese government ended up with 09. And I know you have Unit 01. That leaves 08 and 13 MIA. Granted, I know that there was a lot of chaos right after the Geofront battle, but I find it hard to believe that two Evangelion units could just disappear."

"We have 01,and 08, and the remains of Unit 00."

"I see. So, only 13 is unaccounted for. Interesting." Ryo suddenly looked at his watch. "Damn, it's almost halftime! I've got to get moving!"

"Huh? What's going on?"

            "And you call yourself an anti-terrorist group?" scoffed Ryo. "The president's making a speech at halftime!"

            "So?"

            "So, I have it on good authority that SEELE's planning to assassinate him. Tomoyo, thank you for waiting patiently through that boring grown-up conversation."

She smiled at him.

"No, it wasn't boring at all, Papa."

"Wait here, and lock the door. Pile stuff against it if you have to. I'll be back as soon as I can." He knelt before her, placing his hand on her shoulder. "Hold on to that bear. If something happens and I don't make it back, press its nose, and my backup will be here for you. "

She looked up at him, sadly.

"Please be careful. Promise me you will."

 He kissed her gently on the forehead.

"I give you my word, Miss Daidouji." Ryo gave her one last hug, and then exited the closet, Shinji right behind him. Ryo tucked the pistol into his shoulder holster, and then they hurried off, down the long tunnel of the stadium's understructure.

The FFA had highly advanced radar systems monitoring the airspace of all major US cities, with connections to nearby military airfields in cases of emergency. Unfortunately, their radar wasn't good enough to spot the solitary stealth jet with a seven-eyed crest on its wing that tore through the skies above Dallas. Inside the cockpit, the pilots checked and rechecked launch preparations, until the signal from their superior came in over the satellite link. Acknowledging, they flicked a series of switches on the console.

            Outside the plane, a huge threaded cylinder hummed with the activation, and rotated smoothly into the white mass protruding from the jet's underside. The final safety locks disengaged, and Evangelion Unit 11 slumped out of the storage bay and began to freefall momentarily, until its wings snapped into position and it began gliding down, to the city below.

"Now, if I remember my SEELE assassination training correctly," remarked Ryo as he and Shinji sprinted along the maintenance hallway behind the stadium's spectator area, "They'll have agents as close as possible to the target, probably right down on the field, so what we need to do is-"

He was cut off abruptly as the sound of thousands of people screaming in unison cut through the air and reached his ears. Seconds later, there was an earthshaking roar, that rattled the stadium's foundations.  The two of them rushed over and opened an access door. They looked out, and there, in the middle of the field, Astroturf shredded beneath its massive feet, crouched Unit 11, still braced from its landing. There was a terrible gust of wind as its wings retracted, and then it slowly stood up. Ryo and Shinji simply stared, in disbelief, at the scene that was unfolding before them.

"Unbelievable! Do they not even care about civilians at all?" gasped Shinji.

"What the hell are they doing?" screamed Ryo in outrage. "This is ridiculous! I can't believe this!" Ryo sighed, and shook his head in disgust. "Bastards."

"I can have Unit 08 here in about an hour-" started Shinji, but Ryo cut him off.

"Don't bother. I was going to play Good Samaritan and save the president, but I know the US government has Unit 05 stationed nearby. It's their problem now, I don't take on Evangelions. That's way out of my league. I'm getting out of here, I suggest you do the same." He turned to leave.

"Wait! Where are you going?" demanded Shinji. "You and Tomoyo can evacuate with us!"

"I have some business to take care of before I join you. I'll meet you on Okinawa soon."

Shinji stared at him.

"How the hell did you know where our new headquarters is?"

Ryo looked over his shoulder at the commander of NERV, and smiled smugly.

"I have my sources. Let's just say you might want to talk to your head of security when you get back. Toji obviously hasn't been doing his job well enough. Sayonara, Ikari-kun."

Ryo tore around the corner at a run, as he heard the horrific crash of the Eva destroying a nearby section of the stadium. He started banging loudly on the supply closet door.

"Change of plans, Tomo! We're getting out of here! Let's go!" She opened the door, and stepped out, smiling.

"I'm glad you're okay."

"Me too, Tomo. Hand me the bear, and I'll call our ride." She passed it to him, and he attempted to activate the beacon, but nothing happened. "Damn it! There's some sort of jamming going on!" He handed the bear back to her.

"What are we going to now?" she asked him, in a frightened voice.

"Now… we run like hell!" As if to punctuate his statement, a nearby girder buckled and groaned in protest.

The military had their hands full, trying to evacuate civilians and contain the Eva, so Ryo and Tomoyo managed to slip out in the confusion completely unnoticed and get back to their car. As they fought their way through the bedlam of the panicked traffic, Ryo glanced upward to the sky, and caught a momentary glimpse of a black military helicopter with a red leaf logo highlighted against the Dallas skyline.

"See you on Okinawa, Ikari."