Evangelion Fighters
Part 1
A tall youth stood in the cover of a payphone as he tried to get a call through to wherever.
A message played over the phone, "A state of emergency has been declared in this area, all phone lines have been disconnected, and this is a recording."
The youth sighed as he put the phone back onto its cradle, "What is this?"
Looking around, he saw a young girl in a school uniform, 'Why is that girl here,' Shinji thought in surprise.
Looking around for his bag, he decides to go and ask her what she doing out here, in the few seconds it took him to grab his stuff, she disappeared.
Swearing softly, "Huh, she disappeared. What is going on around here?"
Looking around, at the deserted street, 'Heck, where did everyone go, and when is this Katsuragi person picking me up'
Suddenly his sixth sense spiked, a sense trained rather well by his teacher. Looking up, Shinji spotted several aircraft in battle formation flying against a giant green monster with bony bits of exoskeleton on its shoulders and sides, with a sick parody of a ribcage on the centre of its torso, housing a red orb, located under a bone-like avian face. The battle was not going too well for those in the aircraft, as their projectiles just seemed to explode harmlessly metres away from the monster. A spike of luminescent energy shot out from the thing's hand and blasted an airborne fighter, puncturing the cockpit window and exiting the aircraft's back. The damaged aircraft, careened into a building sending flaming wreckage toward Shinji
.
With a yell, he swore and ran for it, somehow grabbing his bag and his guitar case containing his Rickenbacher, a gift from his sensei. Avoiding flying debris, he noticed a blue car, skidding towards, and threw himself sideways to dodge it.
The passenger door popped open, and a rather attractive woman, in a black dress and driving gloves, leaned over, and said, " Get in, am I late or what?!"
Shinji just threw himself and his stuff into the car, replied, "Move. Go go go! Out of here, first. Introductions later!"
The woman instead of replying grinned and put her foot down. Swerving her way out of the now cluttered street, she dodged debris from the collapsing buildings and explosions from all the downed aircraft. Finally getting untangled from his stuff, Shinji asked, "Miss Katsuragi, I presume?"
"Misato will do fine, you're Shinji Ikari then?" Shinji just nodded. "Not very talkative are you?"
Instead of replying, he just grunted an affirmative and tried to re-arrange his clothing.
Misato, with half an eye on the road, checked out her passenger with the other eye. 'He's actually not bad for a 14 year-old' she noted, as she gave him the once-over, 'he's definitely different from the report.' She noted he wore boots with dark leather pants with a piece of leather strung between the knees, he wore a white button up shirt with a black leather jacket over it and what seemed to be some sort of fighting gloves. It wasn't just his clothes that were strange; he looked almost absolutely nothing like his photo, even though it was taken some time ago. In the photo, he was about average height, a slight, thin frame that had the tone of a swimmer and brown hair that was cut short. Now he had a tall frame with broad shoulders, and seemed quite muscular underneath the shirt, Misato blushed, also noting that he had slightly parted hair with a light reddish tinge that fell forward in bangs that seemed to cover his eyes sometimes. Snapping her attention back to the road, she thought 'he looks more like a 17 year old, than a 14 year old' all the while, blushing. Seeing where she was, she slammed on the brakes and slid sideways onto a shoulder.
Shinji not expecting the sudden shift found his face buried in Misato's lap. Blushing furiously, he carefully extracted himself, while one part of his brain kicked him for doing so. To Misato's amusement, he blushed even more and looked away, "Why have we stopped, Miss Misato?" he asked, his voice was quite deep for his age.
"Not what you're thinking of, you dirty little boy," she replied with a grin.
With a yelp, he stammered, "I'm sss-sorry, I wasn't expecting that!"
"It's okay, I just wanted to stop and check out what's happening out here."
"Well, it seems to be the same thing that's happening, when you picked me up, those guys are getting their butts kicked in," he replied with a shrug.
"Okay, I just like to make sure, just in case," Misato drawled.
Leaning over him, with a pair of binoculars, she spied out onto the battle. Shinji, feeling a bit uncomfortable, tried to rearrange his suddenly tight leather pants, found that he was unable to do so, without touching the woman over him somewhere inappropriate. Settling down, he let his thoughts wander back to the last conversation he held with his guardians. Interrupted by a pair of arms and a yell, he suddenly was pulled down and covered by what he assumed to be Misato's well-developed body. A blast of heated air hit the car, causing it to roll several times, before coming to rest on its side.
Meanwhile, a certain Gendo Ikari observed the mockery of what was considered the heads of the JSSDF. Watching through tinted glasses and hands folded underneath his nose, he observed the generals' efforts to stop the gigantic being.
A voice behind him said, "Seems like an AT-field, hmmm?"
To this Gendo replied, "Of course, conventional weapons are no match against the Angels".
As he spoke, a general ordered an N2 strike, which filled the big screen up front, with garish light, until the shockwave knocked out the video feed. As the generals cheered, he humphed and thought 'how pathetic'. Once the screen was back online, their cheers died and faces filled with triumph, faded to disbelief. One of the generals, received a phone call, and in a tired voice, replied a 'Yes, sir'.
A while later, after watching the fireworks, Shinji asked, "What the hell was that?"
Spitting out dirt and dusting herself off, Misato answered, "Which one, the boom or the thing in the centre of the explosion"
Also spitting out his fair share of dirt, he cried, "Err, both of them!"
"The explosion was caused by an N2 mine, courtesy of the JSSDF, and the thing that stepped on it, was the reason why you were asked to come here, I'll tell you more when we get to HQ. First we got to get the car upright."
Shrugging his shoulders, Shinji just knelt down, grabbed the top part of where the door meets the roof with one hand and heaved with a grunt. Misato on the verge of saying, "You can't do that by yourself." cut short in mid-sentence, dropped her jaw.
Picking up her jaw, she thought, 'how strong is he?' and said, "You're pretty useful to have around, Shinji"
Shinji just looked at her, and replied, "Thanks, I'll take that as a compliment. Let's go".
Once the car parked and the car-train set off, Misato leaned back, giving anyone a good view of her figure in that body-hugging dress, asked, "Hey Shinji, did your father send you an ID card."
"Yeah sure"
With that he pulled out a heavily scrunched up piece of paper out of his bag.
"Good, it looks all okay!" and hands him a brochure that said 'Welcome to NERV, for your eyes only'
"NERV? What's NERV?" Shinji asked.
"NERV? It's a top-secret government agency controlled by the UN. I work there as does your father." Misato answered cheerily.
"So you're in the admirable job of defending humanity?" Shinji snorted.
Misato frowned. "Hey, what's with the sarcasm?"
"Oh, nothing. NERV. My father's agency, so he asked me here to get me to work for him, right. What the heck am I saying? He wouldn't bother sending me a letter, unless he wanted something". Shinji muttered sullenly
"You sound like you don't get along with your dad, just like me", Misato said with a sigh.
"You have no idea. It's time to call in a debt." Shinji grimly muttered as he clenched his fists.
Light suddenly burst into the car-train, light glittered along buildings hung from the ceiling of this cavern like stalactites, and flowed softly onto a lush forest below surrounding a giant pyramidal structure, this is the Geo-front.
To which Shinji just stared, and said, "Now that is cool!!"
"Yeah, it is isn't it, Welcome to our base, NERV Central".
"Oh, the old secret underground base, controlled by a megalomaniac, hell-bent on dominating the earth, huh, sounds like the old man got his dream come true". Misato laughed aloud, and couldn't stop giggling until the car-train stopped.
Gendo got up once he received word of Captain Katsuragi's arrival, he said to the man next to him, "Fuyutsuki, handle the rest of this!"
The silver-haired man just nodded, and smiled ruefully, "It's been five years."
He turned his attention back to the control bridge as Gendo descended on a platform lift to the Cage, "Alright. Upgrade alert status to level three."
Shinji flicked through the brochure; closing it he worked his shoulders to loosen the kinks and to settle his leather guitar case on his back. He had been unwilling to let it of his sight, much to Misato's exasperation even as she got them hopelessly lost in the labyrinth that is NERV.
In a burst of intuition, Shinji called out, "We're lost aren't we, Misato?"
Misato scratched her head and looked over her map to her young charge, "Sorry! I'm not used to this place yet!" she said dejectedly.
"It's okay. I think we should take this turn and use that elevator"
"Why not?" Misato agreed with a shrug, causing quite a bounce.
In another place, a blonde woman in a wetsuit looks up to an announcement, she sighed, "Is she lost again?"
In the elevator, Misato is entertaining thoughts of having Ritsuko hunting her down with an elephant gun, while Shinji done away with the book. He leans on the wall with hands in pockets, looking bored. When the elevator stopped, a blond woman wearing a lab coat with a swimsuit underneath stepped into the elevator. She stared at Misato frigidly for a few moments, making the purple haired woman back away, muttering apologies as she did.
Finally the blond woman directed her gaze to Shinji, noting the guitar case next to him. Shinji returned the stare with an emotionless one of his own.
"This is the boy?"
To which Misato returned with a prompt 'Yes' and something about an institute, which were ignored, as Shinji straightened to his full height, a few inches above the women and continued to stare coldly at scientist.
The air warmed slightly when Misato made the introductions, "Shinji, this is Dr Ritsuko Akagi, NERV's top scientist. Ritsuko, this is Shinji Ikari, the Third Child".
Shinji glowered at Misato, and said, "I resent that 'child' comment".
"Oh! Its nothing but a code for the order in which you have been chosen," answered Dr Akagi.
"Chosen, for what exactly."
"You'll find out" she replied, as they exited the elevator and boarded a Zodiac.
The doors closed with a thump, leaving the trio in darkness, fortunately the lights switched on a few seconds later, to reveal a giant horned face of a purple robot-like object. "Shinji, this was why you were chosen, you are the designated pilot of this artificial life form, Evangelion Unit One." Ritsuko declared.
Shinji flicked a glance from Unit One and the scientist, "Let me get this straight, you want ME to pilot THAT and take it up upstairs to fight the giant outside."
"CORRECT!" answered a deep voice, amplified by loudspeakers, then it added, "It's been awhile".
Shinji looked up, and saw one of the things he hated most: his father. Readjusting the position of the large guitar case on his back, he looked relaxed, nonchalant to be the point of arrogance. Drawling sarcastically, "So it has been. How nice it is to see you again."
Gendo raised an eyebrow, as he fumbled to keep his smirk on his face and mask his surprise, he directed his answer to his son's companions, "We're moving out"
Misato gasped, "Moving out! Unit Zero isn't ready yet, is it?"
Realisation dawned on her, "You're going to use Unit One, but we don't have a pilot."
Ritsuko answered coldly, "We just received one."
"But, but" stammered Misato.
"He just needs to get in the seat," Ritsuko said, leaving no arguments, she turned to face Shinji, "Shinji Ikari, you will pilot it"
"Hm hm hm hm, heh heh heh heh, HA HA HA HA HA HAAAAA!!!" Gleeful, maniacal laughter echoed off the metal walls of the Cage.
Misato and Ritsuko stared at him in shock, at this young man, holding his forehead with one hand, looking like a homicidal maniac laughing his guts out, it was actually quite scary. As his laughter subsided, he kept an insane grin on his face as he answered, "I don't think I will"
Jaws dropping, the only other that kept his composure was the Commander of NERV, who looked at this unexpected behaviour from his son, who ran away from him three years ago, with a tension which nobody noticed.
Gathering his thoughts, he spoke, "Then leave!!"
His son looked up and said in a low growl, "So you only called me here because you thought you had a use for me isn't that right?"
Gendo, with his words taken out of his mouth, managed a low, "Correct"
"Go screw yourself!"
"Shinji, I'm ordering you to pilot and you will respect my orders," Gendo roared.
"Why should I do this?!" Shinji sneered, "When I hate you to the core."
"Your hate is insignificant. It doesn't not matter in the face of the enemy." Gendo sneered dismissively.
"I've come here for an old debt. One that has waited for ten years, I will not leave without collecting," Shinji's dark blue eyes travelled up to the platform where Gendo was standing. Gendo met the cold stare head on and fear an unfamiliar, yet oh so familiar feeling rise in him, claws threatened to tear out his stomach from the inside, as he saw the promise within Shinji's eyes, a promise of pain and suffering, pain that would be unleashed upon him for one who is going to inflict it has endured just as much.
Gendo breaking eye contact and with a sense of his loss in control, turned to a screen, "Fuyutsuki, wake up Rei".
He was proud that his voice didn't shake at that moment. He had to regain equilibrium within himself before he lost the rest of his composure.
"Is she useable?"
"She isn't dead, yet. Rei, our spare is unusable, you will pilot again." Gendo said softly, as he felt himself calm. 'Yes, this will work'
A feminine voice utters softly, "Yes, sir"
Ritsuko and Misato finally picked themselves up off the floor, astonished at the exchange and seeing the Commander lose his cool, for the first time ever, pulled themselves together and started shouting orders. At one point, Misato walked up to Shinji, who stood hunched like an animal with his hands in his pockets, his reddish hair fell forward covering his eyes, she got an ominous feeling from him, and tried to guide him out of here. At the same time, a pair of double doors opened, admitted a troupe of doctors surrounding a pale young girl on a stretcher. As she passed Shinji, he seemed to wake up a bit to stare at the girl, who was heavily bandaged but wearing a white skin-tight suit with parts cut away to allow for bandages.
Suddenly the place shook, like a child's toy, the red liquid underneath him sloshed around, and the walkway he was on shook violently, spilling the young girl onto to the ground. Above him, a tearing sound announced that beams broke loose and were falling from the ceiling. During this he stood calmly, never losing his balance, until he heard the tearing sound, to which he reacted instantly, flashing a glance upwards, he pushed Misato out of the way, and burst into motion, blurring his way towards the blue-haired girl. At that instant, Unit One's hand broke free from its restraints, with a tearing sound that rivalled the one before it, covered Shinji's path towards the pale-skinned girl.
With gentleness, belying his size and look he picked up the girl and felt something-warm trickle onto his arm. Even without looking he confirmed what it was: blood, he could smell it, this girl was seriously injured before and putting her into battle would be suicide. Hearing the girl's pain-filled, yet soft cry decided him, he called out, "I will pilot this time, but I will collect that debt."
As he slowly unshouldered his guitar case, he noticed the giant hand shielding him. Scrutinising the titan's face, something tickled his memory. Shrugging it aside, he flipped the stretcher upright; he laid the girl on it. He was shocked to see her red eyes, a small wave of dizziness passed over him as he tried to fathom the pain-clouded depths of her crimson orbs. She felt familiar, like he had seen her somewhere before, his eyes widened as he remembered concentrated on her blue hair. He had seen her earlier today, on his way here but that wasn't the point, she felt familiar on some deeper level. He felt he should be close to her but he was sure he had not met her before. Something in her eyes, past the pain, told him that she was feeling the same instinctively, something beyond words connected them. The pain that wracked her frail body broke the moment.
He looked at her as her breathed evened out and her body relaxing slightly, and spoke, "Rest now. Your burdens have eased for now"
Nodding slightly, she drifted off into sleep, to be trundled out by the doctors. Shinji looking up at his father, who had a slight smirk on his face nodded slightly.
"I have a price if I'm to pilot that toy of yours" Shinji's calm voice silenced the beginnings of the Evangelion's preparation.
"We'll see. First I believe you have another enemy to deal with." Gendo smiled slightly and walked away.
A hand touched Shinji's shoulder, he turned snarling, startling a slightly freaked and awed, Misato, she pointed to the white tube standing out of the back of the Eva's neck, and said, "You get in it there."
Shinji nodded and walked towards that direction, while Misato rushed off to join Dr Akagi in the control room. Misato reached the control room just as Shinji was secured into the entry plug and the preparations for Unit One completed, opening a communications window, she addressed Shinji.
"Now that you're in the Entry Plug or the cockpit, if you like, you'll see two plastic knob things, Okay. Put them on. Good, these are neural interfaces, which transmit your thoughts to the Eva, being partly organic, can respond to your thoughts, understood? Let's get this show on the road! Launch Eva!"
Shinji felt a weird distortion of his senses; he felt 40 storeys tall and 6'2 feet at the same time. Suddenly, he got slammed down onto his seat, as the Eva got launched into the city. Breathing this liquid, LCL, wasn't too uncomfortable even though it smelled like blood.
A jerking stop, told him that he reached the city above, one question bothered him though, "Hey Misato, if I can transmit my thoughts to this organic robot, does it transmit what it feels to me?"
Dr Akagi answered, "That's right, Shinji, if the Eva gets damaged, you will feel it but remember it's not actually you who gets damaged".
"Jeez…that's comforting," he deadpanned.
Giggling at this, she said, "Don't worry Shinji. Just stay calm and keep focused".
Turning to Dr Akagi, she asked, "What are his readings?"
"They're fine, a bit tense though, his synchronisation rate is at 43.3 and the connections are stable"
Misato gasped, "How is his sync ratio so high? I mean it took Rei seven months just to synchronise with Unit 00"
"I don't know but I do know, we were extremely fortunate to get him here in time," Ritsuko answered.
At this moment, the Third Angel decided to enter the scene, stepping around a building, it turned to face Unit One. Shinji coolly observed the monster being, in front of him, not noticing his release from the brace that held him. A slow pulsating glow emitted from the red globe in the centre of the being, Misato is calling an Angel, as if it was warning him. He thought, 'What weirdo decided to call this thing an angel!' He didn't realise he had spoken out loud until Misato replied, "I think it was your father"
Instructions came over the communications window, something about just trying to walk first, Shinji decided to ignore it, and began to focus. Reaching in himself, he imagined a flame that burned away unnecessary thoughts and emotions, leaving an emptiness that allowed him to focus on himself, and if he understood correctly the Eva unit itself. Calls demanding his acknowledgment, and approaching enemy fell on his deaf ears, forcing his concentration into an iron point, he set his mind to become one with himself and this weapon he is controlling.
In the control room, Misato frantically tried to get Shinji's attention futilely, while one Maya Ibuki looked up, and yelled, "No, how is this possible, his synch ratio just jumped up another 40 points!!"
"WHAT?!!!!" exclaimed Misato and Ritsuko at the same time.
Gendo, sitting in his trademark position just raised his eyebrow and smirked, which went unnoticed, over the cries of the Operations Manager and NERV's top scientist.
Misato just looked at the main screen, which split into two views, one observing the city outside, and one into the entry plug's interior. The view of the city showed the Angel approached Unit One cautiously, which hasn't done anything since being released except looking more slouched. The other one showed Shinji, with his eyes barely visible through his hair, sitting there unresponding to hails and other stimuli. Suddenly he raised his head, and the Eva unit burst into motion, moving so fast that it was a blur on the screens, slamming into an orange wall, radiating a hexagonal pattern.
Exchanging a glance at Dr Akagi, who looked over the young bridge operator's, Maya's, shoulder, and confirmed her suspicions, when Dr Akagi cried, "His field's not up!"
Gasping Misato gasped in horror, "It's not up! Do something!"
Ritsuko desperately yelled, "We're trying, but we're not getting through to the pilot"
"Huh!" Misato looked at the city view again, just as the Angel let off an energy blast from its eyes, which flared into a cross shape and threw Unit one into a building, a couple hundred metres away. The Third Angel advanced and continued striking Unit one with its energy beam. When it drew close to the downed Evangelion, it reached down and grabbed Unit One by the arm. Unit 01 dangled in the grasped of the Angel, suddenly the muscles in the Angel's arm bulged. Within seconds, Unit 01's arm snapped in the strengthened grip of the celestial being. In the control room, everything was going haywire, the operators yelled out, saying the circuits are breaking, massive damage to the Eva's left arm and torso, that they are losing readings on the pilot, that the Eva was shutting down. Desperately, Misato cried out, "SHIINNJJII!"
Shinji felt the pain caused by the sudden action by the Angel, hatred and fury rose in him crystallising his thoughts and rage, into a single objective, drawing on himself, he attacked, as a red haze clouded his vision.
Suddenly chaos erupted further into the mayhem of the control bridge. Shocked, the faces of the bridge crew just stared as the giant purple behemoth re-activated and launched itself at the Angel again.
"Oh my god, a berserker" Ritsuko Akagi uttered in awe. "The way he's moving, he shouldn't be at this level"
Misato cried out, "Shinji! Is he still controlling the Eva?"
The people who were in hearing range just stared in blatant horror. They watched as the Eva once again slammed against the Angel's AT-field. Rumbling and eyes glowing, the Eva unit opened its jaws with a tearing of metal plates and roared in insane rage. Clutching its left arm, the right hand glowed with purple light, once removed showed a rejuvenated left arm, along with rejoined armour plates. Roaring loudly, the Eva leapt at the Angel again, and began to claw at obstruction between it and the Angel, with broad swiping blows.
Misato and Ritsuko both uttered, "Oh my god, its incredible!"
While in the background, Maya suddenly cried out, "The Eva unit is producing its own field and is neutralising the phase space".
"WHAT?!"
As in response to Maya's shout, the Eva raised its right hand in a claw and punched through the barrier, and grabbed the Angel's face in one savage motion. With a burst of static, Shinji's eerily angry voice filled the bridge with a shout, "DIE!"
Misato felt numb with shock, "He just ripped through the Angel's AT-field like it wasn't there"
The Eva twisted its arm and with an upward sweeping motion, threw the Angel by its face into the air. Crashing upside down into a large building, it lay stunned but the Eva wasn't finished, with a bloodcurdling howl, echoed by Shinji, it leapt into the air. The Evangelion thrust its knees forward landed on the Angel, the impact drove the knee blades into the red orb in the Angel's chest, cracking it open like an egg. The Evangelion roared in bloody rage, it lashed out at the Angel dissecting it with its claw-like fingers. The Angel obviously deciding that it didn't want to become sushi coiled and snapped its legs at the Eva's torso, throwing it off. Stumbling around the Eva caught itself, stood up, slightly hunched like a rabid animal, growled at its opponent. Without a moment's pause, it seemingly glided along the ground, and caught the Angel with a right hook, followed by a left punch, which sent its opponent flying, not waiting; the Eva burst forward off the ground and slammed down on the Angel's chest orb, with a joined fist slam, smashing the Angel into the ground. Still growling the Eva took hold of the red orb with its claw on Shinji's command intent on crushing it.
Shinji raged, "DIE AS YOU ARE!!"
The cold, deadly voice sent shivers into the people who heard it in the control room, including Gendo's, who was rather shocked at his son's savagery, as he realised Shinji was in control the whole time.
Sensing its imminent demise, the Angels battered and cracked visage, looked up as if in understanding, and seemed to liquidify. Wrapping its fluid arms around Unit one's head. It pulled itself up and curled into a ball, perched on Unit one's shoulders.
Misato shaking herself out of her reverie, recognised the intent in the manoeuvre and yelled, "It's gonna to self-destruct"
At that moment the chest orb illuminated the surroundings with a bright build up of light and consumed Unit one in a column of white fire.
End part 1
I'm rewriting this after I got stuck with chapter 22. I felt I should readjust some of the things that happened in the chapters preceding 22.
I didn't change all that much in this one as I was pretty satisfied with it. All I did was rearranged the formatting, fixed up some errors and rewrote a couple of sentences. I decided to keep some of the Japanese here mainly because SHI-NE and SONO MAMA SHI-NE, sounds a bit better than DIE and JUST DIE AS YOU ARE.
Only posting one now just to test the waters.
Email me if you have any ideas on that you feel like sharing for this fic and a new title for this fic as Evangelion Fighters is a bit lame.