Memories flared as he thought of the last time he had faced the person he'd begun to refer to as the bearded bastard.
"Your worthless now," his father had said while walking away all so long ago.
He'd ended up with a friend of his fathers, one that hadn't even heard from the man since college.
Alexander Lucas, a man who had spent the first half of his life bouncing from one science to another, a man with a mind that could never really stay put. Well, until Project: Four Horsement captured the brilliant scientists immagination.
Alexander had hated Gendo after seeing that, he'd raised Shinji as his own son, in fact things had been processed at one time for him to adopt Shinji, but the old man had died in the fiasco that awakened Azrael for the first time. Afterwards, he'd become Shinigami, and the American government granted him citizenship and emancipation.
The old mans last words of advice concerning the bearded bastard were ones he still smirked about, "If an' when the idiot decides to use ya. give 'im 'ell for me as well."
And while he would have loved to terminate the bastard in front of him, he couln't take the risk at the moment, instead he planned to play with the man a bit.
"Now then," Shinigami said with a chuckle, "How can I help you?"
"So what can I do for you?" Janus White said with a tone close to that of a mad cacle as he dangled by his knees off the bunk in his room.
Mitchel calmed himsel for a moment, enough to keep from strangling the nut who'd bonded with Unit-Alpha, "Michael's tests are over, you're being sent to join Shinigami in Japan."
"So Death and War get to play in Tokyo," the teenager cackled in a mad tone of voice, "So much fun to be had, so little time!"
Crap, Mitchel berated himself as images of Michael and Janus trashing the city just to cause for fun.
Janus was not really anyones choice of a pilot, save for Michael, and Michael was pretty much the only one who mattered in the process of choosing a partner. The kid was a loose cannon, but one that was one of the best people Shinigami could have to watch his back in a hostile situation.
Janus was rather unnerving to everyone but the occasional sniper or fighter pilot, a calm and happy killer was not to helpful for keeping ones sanity in check. And with a pair of additional ZPG's being installed in Unit-Alpha to power it's primary weapon, the psycho had one of, if not the, most powerful weapon below WMD level.
Azrael was getting bored as his sensors tracked all motion in the launch bay.
He was getting board, and with how far underground he was, getting a satelite hookup was out of the question. A part of him was even starting to with that Gabriel or Michael were there, even Raphael would deal with the boredom.
A part of the entity briefly brushed the memories of his lost friend, the only one of the original design other than himself to exist.
"Names Shinigami," he said calmly as he smirked at the man before him, "Captain, US Airforce."
The shoulder guards of his jumpsuit flexed slightly as he gave a bow that fit more into that of a european fairy tale than anywhere else.
"Gendo Ikari," the man responded with a look that he knew was meant to make him look all knowing.
"I know," he responded, his voice seeming odd through the helmet, though his tone was one of bemusement, "We've met before, some time ago."
"I'm sorry, but I don't seem to remember that," the man responded with a slight shrug.
"Perhaps we can talk another time, at the moment I need to inform my commander as to what happened, perhaps we can talk afterwards," Shinji said with a smirk, "If you would be so kind as to direct me to where I can use a phone."
"Yes, perhaps another time," Gendo said with a show of exasperation, "I have a meeting I must attend as well."
The bearded man climbed to his feet and turned to Misato, "Captain, please escort Shinigami to the communications room."
A moment later, after his father headed out, Shinigami shrugged, "Well, that went well."
Omake: What if War was assigned to come at the beginning...
Janus smiled as he charged up the primary weapon as the draconic looking Michael swooped past overhead, energy building up within as he settled in the streets.
And he pulled the trigger, releasing a full charge from the ZPG's tied to the buster cannon.
And 90 of Tokyo-3 vanished in a flash of light.
"Crispy!" Michael cackled with his partner as they looked for more targets to deal with.
The jaws of everyone in NERV hit the floor at the sheer size of the destruction caused by the new Eva...
"Janus, the control circuitry of the cannon were totaled, I think we overdid it for a trial run..."
"Michael," the pilot said calmly, "Remember the Rule!"
"I know, there is no such thing as overkill, just fire and reload," the technorganic entity responded, "But that doesn't take into account accidental destruction of your own weapon just to cause a bigger bang!"
Review Responses
Innortal: Sorry about how short it was, but I uploaded it about fifteen minutes before I had to take off for a few days.
Seia: I am still working on Wargames, but every try I make at the next chapter doesn't come out right, I am still working on other things in the universe though.
maleficus-lupus: Here is the next section.
Pyramidgirl89: Here's an update, as for the Piers Anthony book, I didn't know about it, I'll probably have to look it up soon but I was trying to think of a name that fit this fic. As for the plot, I'm trying to work it out and this ought to give some more to it.
Yo: This chapter finishes what I wanted to cover with the last one, I ended up cutting most of what I planned for Gendo because of problems with getting it to sound right, so I postponed much of their conversation.
Sleepy kitty: The four AI's are Azrael (Death), Michael(War), Gabriel(Famine), and Raphael(Plague). As for the colors, they really don't match that well other than on the unit patch. The coloration of Azrael is basically to help in stealth and can be activated as a chameleon coating. The others I'm still thinking of though.
AN: This section covers the rest of what I wanted for chapter 2, but I'm keeping it seperate for the time being and this chapter was a bit harder to write. But I had to cut most of what I had wanted for Gendo because I couldn't make it sound like Gendo. And for Shinigami's rank, while it is technically Major at the moment, he has not yet been informed of that, so he did introduce himself correctly.