Creation began on 07-28-22

Creation ended on 10-16-22

Neon Genesis Evangelion

Welcome to your Escape: Flesh and Blood, Wires and Metal

A/N: There is a fine line between wanting to do the right thing all the time…and just wanting to be right all the time. To have control over a situation…and to be in control of others. But what happens when you cross the line between morality…and immorality?

Shinji never once lifted any weights, as he never had any desires for muscles, but since the Clover Team had all this free time on their hands, he had ample opportunity to develop his upper body strength until the next Zoid match came up.

"Uh, Shinji," went Valerie as she took notice of his lifting small dumbbells as he laid on the bench, "have you ever lifted anything heavy before in your life?"

"Hardly," he replied. "I'm scrawny. I admit it."

"Scrawny, yes…but not a wuss. Try lifting the barbell instead of the dumbbells."

Shinji obliged and put his hands on the bar that had no weights connected to it; the bar itself was heavy as is and Shinji would have to be able to lift it multiple times before any weights could be added to help him further. He was impressive at running, but he needed to have a combination of strength and speed if he was ever going to be able to defend himself or others in the future.

Valerie came over and looked down at him as he tried to lift the bar up.

"So, Liger Rogue has a black box of sorts inside it?" She asked him.

"Yes," he answered, slowly raising the bar up off the supporters.

"And it's likely that it has some connection to some Zoids that were modified?"

"That's a possibility."

"Are you suggesting or telling?"

"Telling!"

The bar was raised up and Shinji started lowering it up and down, careful not to injure himself.

"What do you think are your chances that you'll be able to lift at least one-hundred-thirty pounds by the time of the Royal Cup?"

"Not very likely, but that's a goal to reach."

"You asking me or telling me?"

"Telling you!"

"Badass, Shinji. Badass."

-x-

It was a close call. A real close call for NERV. But they were able to mitigate the damage and avoid loss of life when the next Angel attacked, courtesy of another text to Misato Katsuragi, who informed Fuyutsuki, who was currently in charge of NERV.

"How could we not have seen this coming?" Fuyutsuki had asked Misato when she revealed her text to him. "How were we saved by information provided by the same girl that hacked the MAGI and picked Ikari's son to join her Zoid team?"

If Misato knew the answer to that question, she'd probably share it with her superior. But this was a shock to her, too. It wasn't something that usually happened for NERV to handle.

The Ninth Angel, unlike the previous Angels, had encroached upon an Evangelion that had been sent from the States to Japan via aircraft, and the text Misato had received gave suggestions on how to deal with it…and she chose to detonate the Eva in order to destroy the Angel. The Angel didn't make itself known until the explosion occurred at the coastal ruins where they had the Eva dropped onto an N² mine, burning away as the cybernetic behemoth was bathed in intense heat. While NERV was down an Evangelion, they were fortunate to have protected the people and one of their own pilots from an inescapable fate.

"…Maybe it was a good thing you opted for an N² mine to destroy this Angel," Misato heard Kaji say to her as he came over and observed NERV's security personnel doing secondary sweeps and liquidation of any remnants of the parasitic Angel.

"I believe we're all very fortunate that Commander Ikari was suspended after the previous Angel," she responded. "I don't want to imagine what the situation would've been like had he been in charge."

After the previous Angel attack, following the Eva Team's loss to the Clover Team, the Committee, mostly because of Misato's concerns that Gendo could no longer look the other way in regards to the Third Child's refusal to return to Earth and pilot the Eva, put the boy's father on suspension until he straightened out his priorities, putting Fuyutsuki in charge of NERV. While this left the paramilitary agency unscathed by the change in command, it still left the biggest question that had yet to be answered by any of its personnel: What to do about the Third Child when and if he should return to Earth?

"On the plus side, we may not have to worry until the next Angel shows up," Kaji stated.

"So long as there are Angels attacking, every day is a day we have to worry about being our last day," Misato retorted, "and the only person that isn't worried about anything on the planet isn't even on the planet…and his whole family of relatives are completely apathetic towards him. It's no wonder he chose to pilot a machine animal on another planet for a tournament. And now, everyone into Zoids knows who he is."

"What would you have done if it was you being offered an opportunity to pilot a Zoid over an Evangelion, or just wanting to get away from your family…or just your father?"

"I'd probably… I'd probably do the same as he did if his relatives refused to actually give him the time of day or confide in him why they wanted him to come to Tokyo-3 to begin with instead of holding off until the very last minute when danger's approaching."

Kaji just gave a small smile. The fact that this Shinji Ikari was the talk of most people that were into Zoids and knew about the matches and this Royal Cup tournament that the teams and soloists participated in annually, this gave the unshaven man the means and opportunity necessary to do his job while at NERV. It seemed like most paid more attention to what the broadcast matches were about than what went on at NERV, which actually worked out well to his advantage, since NERV was an agency that nobody from the general public was even supposed to know of. He found it odd to fathom how a secret, paramilitary group had less attention than a kid that was light years away from Earth on the other side of the Milky Way on a planet that had a large patch of land to serve as a battlefield for large beast machines that were able to be piloted like they were toys, but he wasn't going to question it so long as nobody could learn of his priority outside of his job at NERV.

"At least Asuka was pleased with this outcome," Misato stated.

"Yeah, who else but Asuka would want the glory of defeating an Angel?" He questioned.

-x-

A more extensive scan of Liger Rogue was required to make sure they were seeing every possible layer of this black box that existed inside the biomechanical beast that Shinji piloted for the Clover Team. This led Nico to requiring her parents for searching for the guy that had the Zoid before they bought it.

"How could we not know about this?" Her mother, Faye Megumi, asked while on a tablet her daughter was holding to communicate with her daughter and husband; Nico's father was closer to where she currently resided with her Zoid team while her mother was doing a search for the previous owner of Liger Rogue.

"I don't know," her husband, Burt Kaizer, responded as he sat at the control console while the scanners conducted a deeper evaluation of the Zoid in question. "Nico, you sure this wasn't overlooked before?"

"Liger Rogue has only seen combat for less than three months," his daughter expressed. "If I had seen this earlier, I would've informed you. If this was something that placed Shinji in danger, I'd have operation of the Zoid suspended until the matter was resolved properly. This isn't a safety hazard for Shinji, is it?"

"So far, there's nothing to indicate that this black box has a hidden danger to it. No radiation inconsistencies, no electrochemical imbalances, not even so much as a spike in temperature. But as soon as we get Shinji Ikari's medical status update, we'll know more about whether or not his safety has been compromised using this particular Zoid."

"But Nico, you mentioned that Liger Rogue likes the boy, right?" Nico's mother asked her. "There shouldn't be any risk to him continuing to pilot it."

"That's what I'm hoping for, Mother, but since this is something we don't understand fully, I don't want to do anything that will endanger any of the Clover Team members. It's scarier than the thought of seeing Shinji submerged in a liquid that smells and is required for liquid breathing in a cybernetic behemoth that's used as a war machine."

As the scanners finished on Liger Rogue, Burt took a deeper look into the strange, black box that had his daughter worried. At first glance, he suspected that it was another attempt at integrating an Organoid System into a Zoid to enhance its performance, but looking harder at the anomaly, he found that there didn't seem to be any sort of wiring, tubes, cables of any kind connecting it to the Zoid beyond being inside it and near its core. And the way this anomaly was positioned near the core, it almost seemed to resemble…

"Well, this isn't an Organoid System," he told his wife and daughter. "It looks more like an Organoid Preservation System. Except that I've never seen one this…ancient and preserved."

"An Organoid Preservation System?" Nico questioned. "I thought those were prohibited due to their instability in preserving Organoids."

"Eureka!" They heard Faye exclaim on the tablet. "I found our guy."

-x-

Shinji found his medical evaluation to be simple and not unlike whenever he had to go to the hospital just to be examined. The only thing he liked that was different here on Zi than on Earth was he wasn't stuck with a needle just to draw blood; the Zoidians had this device where you just needed to press your thumb on a button and it extracted the blood without any signs of cutting through the skin (A/N: Think of the device used in The 6th Day). As he waited for the doctor to return to the room he was redressing in with his results, Shinji only expected one thing to be mentioned about his overall health…and that was how he was underweight. That was probably the only thing that was wrong with him…other than his lack of upper body strength that he needed to get back to work on as soon as he could.

The door opened and the doctor returned with a tablet in her hands.

"Okay, Mr. Shinji Ikari," she told him. "With the exception of being less than seven pounds underweight, you're in considerably good health. Hearing and vision are normal, blood work is acceptable, you're up to date on all your vaccinations, and you don't have a single cavity in your teeth. You're practically in just as good shape as any other person from Earth here to pilot a Zoid for the tournament."

"Thank you," he responded, and then she gave him a plastic card.

"Your prescription to help you build up your missing seven pounds," she explained. "The pharmacy is down the hall to the east wing."

Shinji nodded and left out the room.

"So," went Geisha to him as she sat in the waiting room for him; she had been the one to make sure he got to his examination and back, "how did it go in there?"

"I'm just seven pounds underweight," he explained, holding his prescription card. "Other than that, the doctor says I'm fine."

"That's good to hear. Let's go get your prescription and head back to the hangar."

-x-

The ride to the location of the previous owner of Liger Rogue was quiet. Mainly because Nico and her father weren't speaking; it wasn't that they had nothing to say, but rather, there was nothing to say yet that was a start to a conversation. Because the guy lived on a different continent than the one they lived on, they took the father's fastest Zoid, a modified Raynos that carried an additional seat in the cockpit.

Beep! Nico's tablet received a message alert and she tapped on the screen to see what it was.

"Good news?" Burt asked his daughter in the back seat.

"Yeah," she replied. "Shinji's medical evaluation came back with flying colors. Excluding his weight, which is just off by seven pounds, there's nothing wrong with him. He can continue piloting Liger Rogue."

"What a relief. Why the questioning of his weight, though? What, how much is he supposed to weigh? One-hundred-twenty?"

"The average weight is between one-hundred-five to one-hundred-fifteen pounds. He's seven pounds shy of one-hundred-fifteen."

"One-hundred-eight pounds is underweight for him?"

"I just chalk it up to him not eating that much. Or he just needs to build up his muscles. I don't really complain about his weight; so long as he can still do what he needs to do, what he wants to do, it's not really a problem to me if he's skinny."

"It's only a problem if it becomes a problem for other people that have an issue with him."

"The only people that have an issue with Shinji so far are the ones that didn't do right by him."

"How is he coping, by the way?"

"Shinji's adjusted. He's away from his family, so they can't really hurt him any more than they have in the past. And…he's not going to go back to that fate that was cruelly designed for him before his life began."

"And…how are you coping?"

"I can handle whatever comes my way with a clear perception."

"Are you sure of that?"

"Yes, Father."

Beep! Burt's Raynos was closing in on the other continent they were heading to and he reduced his Zoid's speed from Mach Five to Mach One.

"Tell me something, Mana," he spoke up again to his daughter, "what do you suppose are the chances that NERV is able to survive the harsher attacks by these creatures they call Angels?"

"It would all depend on how far they're willing to sacrifice the most important part of themselves to survive."

"Which is?"

"Their humanity. As a whole, the human race is diverse, with many different belief structures and sense of realization. But individually, their desires are not the same and only a few of them are able to realize that some goals are not worth pursuing. Personally, it's the people behind this SEELE that worry me about Earth's future. They're the primary cause of what's wrong on Earth, with every other faction or organization, including NERV and the United Nations, acting as secondary problems, symptoms of a larger problem. I have yet to expose all of these problems to the world and instigate a global cataclysm that could shake the planet to its very core. There hasn't been any sign of Gendo Rokubungi-Ikari stirring up trouble for Shinji after the defeat of the Eva Team, but I doubt he's given up on trying to make Shinji return to Earth."

"Your mother and I talked about him and what was hidden inside that MAGI of NERV's, and regardless of what his reasons are or even why he chose to do what he did to Shinji, nothing he says or does justifies any of his decisions. He can't just…leave his own son with people he barely knew, for the majority of his childhood, seeing him only a few times whenever he decided he had time to spend with him, treating him like he was less than a person in favor of his own interests, and then just call out of the blue and expect him to take part in something so life-threatening and beyond reasonable levels of insanity and immorality…just because he and a bunch of other brainiacs built something based off of something beyond themselves that's more of a rush job than a miracle…that only people born after that black-hearted catastrophe they caused can operate."

"Yeah. If he had chosen to do things properly, such as tell Shinji everything when he was younger, trained him, informed him of the risks, Shinji might've been duped into following him wherever the situation took them."

"Can you honestly believe that revealing the truth about what happened before one's life even began would've made any difference in Shinji's case?"

"Honestly…no. People that choose to hide things like that, secrets that have…unpleasant consequences…I can't see making a difference in any young person's life…even if they were told at an early age. You choose to keep things from people that are wrong, no matter how right you want to believe they are…and you cause more pain and suffering than you ever thought was possible for you to cause."

The Raynos tilted to their right, and Nico looked out the cockpit window, seeing a small town located on the coastline.

"Is that it, Daddy?" She asked her father.

"Yep," he answered. "That's Laudarant. That's where the man your mother and I bought Liger Rogue from lives."

"Laudarant…one of the homes to several Zoids with open-air cockpits."

The Raynos descended to an open field less than a mile away from the town; they would have to walk into the town and locate the residence of the man they were looking for.

-x-

The loss of Evangelion Unit-05 wasn't so detrimental to NERV's operational status against the Angels as one would have expected. Unlike Units-03 and 04, Unit-05 was still in the experimental stage, trying to replace as much of the synthetic properties of the Eva with mechanical parts, creating a fully robotic version of the artificial life form that the Ninth Angel took possession of. In addition, the pilot assigned to it, the Sixth Child, had been a different option that was also experimental; nobody in their right mind would've chosen a twelve-year-old girl with no familial ties if they were going to suspect an issue, especially if she was from the slums of New York.

"…Maybe that's why she was picked," Asuka heard one of the twins say as they were in the locker room changing out of their plugsuits for the day. "People with no ties to anyone are seen as expendable. If we didn't have our big brother, we'd probably be in the same boat as her or this boy that everyone's been talking about. The Ikari kid whose father and other relatives don't really care much about."

"I wouldn't know about that; someone that was expected to do one thing, but chooses to do something else instead because a window of opportunity was presented to them, it can only go one way or another," the other twin responded. "Still, Zoids are the most popular thing still being spoken about. It's crazy to hear that a over a decade ago, the planet was visited by an alien race that looks exactly as we do, from the other side of the Milky Way, and a bond was formed that allows for travel between here and Zi. I hear that Zi is similar to Earth in almost every way, except for the fauna."

"Remember what our brother promised us when we go home?"

"Still holding him to it. We get to go to Zi."

"Why are you two so interested in that place?" Asuka questioned the twins on the other side of the screen that separated the men from the women.

"As a result of Second Impact, Zi has become a type of refugee spot for people looking to start anew elsewhere where the climate is tolerable and the opportunities are more diverse," one of them responded.

"That sounds like running away."

"It's only running if you choose to view it that way," the other twin responded. "It's getting harder to live in the USA because of the climate change and rising crime rates. If we relocate after the Angels are defeated, then we relocate. It's a choice. It's just a personal decision that nobody else can really make for you if you don't want them to."

"And if one of the opportunities was to operate one of those robotic animals like the Third Child chose to?" Asuka wanted to hear.

"We'd be all for it," both twins responded.

Asuka threw her plugsuit into her locker and walked out of the room, leaving Rei alone.

"I really don't know what everyone's problem is with this Ikari guy," she heard one of them say. "It's not like anyone here actually gives a damn about him. We've seen his Zoids profile as it gets periodically updated by him, and despite having an open channel to receive messages and emails from anyone that reads it, he hasn't received one contact from anyone related to him. Nothing from his father, his aunt or uncle, nobody. Maybe he's the only person in his family that's deliberately treated like a black sheep, which gives him a reason to not come back."

"Hard to imagine being related to him if he's never done anything wrong to anyone," the other twin stated. "So, he chose not to pilot the Eva. So, he chose to pilot a Zoid. So, he chose to go to Zi during the midst of a crisis he was not made aware until after he showed up. People make decisions like that all the time based on the information given to them or the opportunities presented to them. Is he truly at fault for how his family chooses to view him?"

"Is anyone truly at fault for how others choose to view them?"

Rei didn't know the answer to that question herself, but did see that most people were, to various degrees, displeased with the Third Child because he wasn't around to pilot the Eva when he was expected to. But in the end, it all came down to that one factor that broke the noise and left nothing but silence: Choice…and how those that react to it. The boy made his choice to go to Zi, leaving the country and NERV during a crisis he was not informed of, just to join a team of these upcoming people from different backgrounds and win a tournament. Nobody really forced him; the factors that led up to the boy making his choice were unexpected and took everyone by surprise. Everyone that had expected the boy to be at NERV, that is.

Closing her locker, she left the room to retire for the day.

-x-

"…You two got back before Nico did," said Drake as Shinji and Geisha returned to the hangar as the sun started to go down.

"What?" Geisha went. "You mean, she's still out with her father?"

"Yeah," Valerie told them. "Who would think that information gathering would be longer than expected because of a Zoid nobody else has in their possession?"

"Liger Rogue is…one of a kind…as far as I know," Shinji stated, looking over at his Zoid, and then outside the hangar towards the vast terrain. "Have either you or Drake eaten anything since we were out at the hospital?"

"Valerie up and told me straight in my face that I'm a mediocre cook," Drake uttered; he was upset over this revelation.

"Eh-heh… Drake," said Geisha to him, "you have a small number of meals that you stick to."

"Seventeen dishes isn't that small."

"It depends on what those dishes are and how often you eat them," Shinji stated.

"I'm not big on anything with a combination of barbecue and hot sauce. I had a bad experience with a dish with that combo at the age of twelve; I couldn't taste anything for three months, and when my tastebuds grew back, everything tasted bland for three weeks."

"It's routine eating; you stick to what you know you like, no matter how dull it becomes. But might I suggest something different, Drake?"

"Huh?"

"Have you ever tried Asian cuisine expanded upon by the use of more or different ingredients?"

"One time, the Chinese food I tried was of the worst quality due to the beef not being cow."

"Yeah, that's what gives the cuisine a negative impression of being poor in quality," said Geisha. "The meat has to be chicken, pork or cow-derived beef. Shinji's an amateur chef when it comes to cooking…and he's skilled at what he makes."

"That's true," went Valerie. "Maybe he can prepare something new."

Even if they were to put it to a vote, Shinji knew he'd lose because of two reasons. One, because he was up against two beauties that knew how to throw down when they needed to. And two, he was the only person out of the Clover Team that had adequate skills when it came to cooking; everyone else was either too young or had insufficient expertise.

"Okay, seriously," he had to express, "I hate it when you guys gang up on me."

"Are you admitting or are you telling?" Drake asked him.

"Telling!" He yelled at them.

"Nicely done, Shinji," Geisha praised.

To be continued…

A/N: There's more in store.