Chapter One : Idols Of Silver And Gold/Grudge
By The Critical Dr. X

Misato woke up more early than usual, it wasn't like her but she knew the reason. She had gone to bed early the night before, sans beer, because today was important. The new Tokyo-3 superstructure: the Tokyo-3 Needles was being opened, and delegates from all over the world were attending to see to the new funding for the city and Eva defence. If things went off well then they could be set off for years, if not they'd have to cut down to a skeleton staff and the earth would be left safe. She knew which delegates were baying for cuts and she'd have to keep them out of her way otherwise she'd be likely to give them a piece of her mind.

Still, she knew she had to keep this from her mind, she was there to represent the NERV, not argue for it, and she had to do the best she could. There were other NERV employees to do that. It was still dark out and Misato decided to get something to drink first before she woke the Children up. She made her way to the kitchen and put the gas grill on. Then she put the coffee machine on and put oil in a pan. She set the coffee machine to "brew" and began heating up the oil, watching as the blue flame of the gril grew brighter and brighter. The sun was rising below the horizon, and in the distance across the city she could see the black silhouette of the new Tokyo-3 Needles rising into the sky. She went back to cooking and took bacon from a plastic pak, beginning to cook it in the superheated oil. She loved the smell of it cooking and got herself her coffee.

At the door appeared Shinji.

"Good morning!" he said, still groggy and wiping the sleep from his eyes.

"Good morning!" Misato said, more awake. "Would you like some coffee and bacon?"

"Mm, it smells nice," Shinji agreed, sitting down hard and slumping hard over the table.

"Just one more thing we can enjoy," Misato said, handing out the bacon and a cup of coffee. Shinji began eating.

"Yes. So why are we up so early today?" Shinji asked through a mouthful of meat.

"Yeah, and why couldn't you tell us before?!" Asuka shouted, standing at the door. "You two woke me up, you bakas!"

"Damn, take a chill pill, Asuka!" Shinji told her, finishing off his coffee.

"You shut your mouth, or I'll tell Misato what I heard you doing all night!"

"Shut up you slut! At least I wasn't thinking of Kaji!"

Misato's eye bulged.

"Shut up!" She screamed. Shinji and Asuka shocked and quieted down. "Now, getting back to the point, today the Tokyo-3 Needles are being officially opened. We're going as part of the NERV delegation, since there's going to be representatives from all over the world and they want to use the venue to discuss further budget measures for Nerv Worldwide."

"So there's going to be reps from other branches?" Asuka asked, desperate for the hope of meeting new company.

"Yep!" Misato said, drinking her coffee.

Asuka laughed and kicked Shinji under the table.

"Ha! Won't have to put up with you for long!"

Shinji rubbed his leg and was about to say something when he remembered what he wanted to ask.

"Hey, why couldn't you tell us this before?!"

"Yeah, why did you have to get us up at the crack of the dawn and spring this on us?!"

"Well, we couldn't make this common knowledge, could we?!" Misato answered. "For security reasons. Now come on, we've got to get ready, we need to be there for seven so they can run through everything in plenty of time!"

"Seven? Are you insane?!" Asuka screamed, standing up. "I'll bet the whole thing doesn't even start until midday!"

"Eleven thirty, actually," Misato corrected. Shinji laughed and ran into the shower but Pen-Pen slammed the door in his face. Misato and Asuka laughed. Their conversation ended on this.

----

At the same time Kaji was driving to the NERV HQ to meet Gendo, Fuyutski and the rest of the security planners to go over the day's plan once more. Kaji was going to act as main intelligence officer for the Nerv delegation as well as for the foreign branch delegations. Gendo would remain at the Geofront with a skeleton staff in case of an emergency or Angel attack and Fuyutski and Ritsuko would make up the core of the negotiation team to speak to the worldwide ambassadors over the money issue. Kaji was cool, all he had to do was lay back and talk his way through the guests.

He was taking the last turn to the underground entrance when he saw something. A parked car with four men inside at the side of the road. there was no other traffic. He passed it and saw another man hanging around at the side of the road. As he came up to the entrance he saw two figures suddenly run away from the glare of the lights. He slammed into a stop and jumped out, gun at the ready.

"Who's there?!" he demanded, running after the figures. He saw one of them duck around the corner, shouting in a foreign language.

Kaji ran after them. Suddenly the nearest one stopped and pulled a gun from inside his coat. Kaji dropped down, knowing he couldn't fire first he aimed his gun as the man began firing and hitting the road around Kaji. Kaji pulled the trigger and three shots slammed home into the man. He screamed and fell over backwards, still firing the gun in agony as blood came out of his mouth. His accomplice panicked and ran back, dropping his own gun as he came. Kaji jumped up and kicked him headlong into the wall before he could retreive it, pushing his pistol into the man's face and holding him.

"Who the hell are you?" Kaji sneered, cocking the gun. The man had dark skin and smelled vaguely of spice; he was obviously a stranger to this place. He said something in a foreign language again and Kaji began to pull the trigger to scare him.

"I... no... speak..." the man said. But Kaji knew this was only a bluff since the guy was trembling. Just after he said it he began crying. Suddenly the car from earlier skidded up behind, gunshots rang out and Kaji dived away to see the men from earlier and from the street corner drag their member and the body into the car. One got out and pointed a gun at Kaji, he laughed evilly but one inside the car shouted something and the man laughed again and made a bang noise and got in. They drove off.

Kaji stood up and went inside the NERV to report this directly to Gendo and Fuyutski. He found them in Gendo's office with Ritsuko.

"You are late," Gendo said.

"Sorry, I had some trouble at the gate," Kaji laughed.

"Hell of a time for the computers to start screwing around," Ritsuko said. "I'll have Maya look at it."

"No no, not that kind of trouble. I mean there were men hanging around there."

"What kind of men," Fuyutski asked.

"They pulled a gun on me but I drove them off," Kaji admitted.

"Yes, I know," Gendo said, crossing his hands in front of his face. "I watched it on my outside monitor." Even Fuyutski seemed surprised at this. "My intelligence shows them to be no threat, they're petty criminals."

Ritsuko nodded but Fuyutski's silence was damning.

"I see no reason to dedicate any more time of this briefing to this event. We shall go over today's plans. I will remain in the Geofront with a skeleton staff in case of an attack or an emergency. Fuyutski, you will go with Ritsuko in order to discuss monetary matters. You will make up the financial part of Tokyo-3's NERV branch delegation. Kaji, you will be responsible for assessing the dangers within the metting venue. You will be the intelligence officer, you will have counterparts from the other NERV branches, here are their dossiers, learn them well, they will working with you against any threat. Our intelligence here will make sure of everything else. Misato and the Children will act as the rest of the deleagtion, but their role is entirely token. Does everyone understand?"

Everyone agreed. The meeting was ended, but fear lurked in Kaji's heart.

--

Gendo went into his office with Fuyutski before they were to separate.

"Are you sure about that, sir?!" Fuyutski asked. "Those men were serious!"

"You've always been a fool, Fuyutski!" Gendo replied cooly. "They're just gangsters. My intelligence is good, I got it from our intelligence division, and we all know that those girls work overtime. Their new head: Rosenburg, has done very well. She has given me all the information I could need. Yes, she and her deputies Pr. Finkelstein, Dr. Wiesel and Cmdr. Israel have assured me categorically that they have dealt with any issues which could have otherwise arisen."

"You're right sir," Fuyutski said, ahving faithin their intelligence but not believing his words. "But what if you're not!"

"Everything I say, and everything I do are history. I cannot be wrong." Gendo replied. "Now do your mission, there will be no more insubordination." Fuyutski saluted and went out and Gendo sat down, he began to consider the day ahead and hoped that his staff would be successful since the combatting of the Angels and any further threats depended on it.

"I cannot be wrong." Gendo repeated.


--End Of Chapter 1