Disclaimer: I do NOT own Evangelion; Anno does...

Chapter 03: "Bondage anyone?"

It had been a few days since Shinji joined NERV, and between school and Eva training, his life had been very tiring.

"Ok Shinji, how are you feeling today?" Asked Dr. Akagi through the inter-comm.

"Now that you mention it, I'm a bit uncomfortable" he said while scratching his lower back "can I un-pressurize this thing?" he asked her, referring to the button on his plug suit's wrist.

"For the last time, no." She answered while rubbing her forehead.

"Oh! C'mon!" he whined, "This damn thing is getting up my ass!"

"Shinji, the plug suits are designed to allow an optimal synchronization between the Eva and its pilot, not for long walks through the park or anything like that" Scolded the doctor.

"Ok, ok, calm down" he said holding his hands in front of him as a peace offering.

The good doctor sighed and went on with the test "Maya, start the simulation program"

"Yes ma'am"

A few moments later the view on the entry plug changed to one similar to the streets of Tokyo-3.

"Well" said the now relatively calm blonde "Since you already trained in the basic Eva motions, I think this is a good time to test the artillery."

"All right!!!" replied the now very excited kid.

Poor Dr. Akagi suddenly didn't fell that this was a good idea. "Ok Shinji, first we're going to try the progressive knife" she said as the figure of the third angel appeared before him. "There's one in each of your shoulder wings, now begin."

Sure enough the right shoulder wing opened exposing the Prog. Knife's holder.

Shinji quickly grabbed it and went to a fighting stance, half expecting a sword of some sort to appear from the holder, when he pressed the button on it, only a relatively small knife came out of it. He didn't move for a few seconds, but, finally, he brought the weapon to the Eva's face, staring at it curiously.

In the test room, Ritsuko, Misato, and the bridge bunnies stared oddly as the Evangelion started to shake and bump the back side of the knife as if it was a stuck up ketchup bottle. "Shinji; is there anything wrong?" asked Misato.

"I think it's broken" he replied "I mean, it's too short!"

"Actually…" answered Maya "That's its full size."

"So, you're telling me that the Eva, the ultimate battle machine's main hand-on-hand weapon is a freaking, humming envelope opener? You people are lame," he muttered as he whirled the knife in his hand.

"Ok…" said the good doctor as she rubbed her temple and tried to stay calm "lets try some long distance weapons then."

"Now you're talking!" said Shinji as an Eva sized AK-47 appeared from an armament building, and tossed the Prog. Knife over his shoulder.

In the test room everyone was still paralyzed after the knife impaled itself a few meters below the window panel, and they all agreed that those were enough tests for the day.

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It was a normal day at Tokyo 3 public High School, a few students were reunited in small groups chatting around the desks waiting for the teacher to come and begin with another long and boring day in class 2-A.

"Mister Aida" said a pigtailed girl as she approached a boy who was currently playing with an UN scale VTOL model "I hope that you delivered those print outs to Mister Suzuhara yesterday as I asked you."

"Oh? Class Rep. How are you?" He replied nervously "Print outs? Well you see, I was a bit busy and..." he trailed off not finding a proper excuse.

"Kensuke, I can't believe you!" she shouted angered "Isn't Touji supposed to be your best friend? Aren't you at least a bit concerned as to why he hasn't showed at school lately!?"

"Don't worry about him" he ensured her "Touji is a strong guy"

She nodded as she turned slowly back to her seat, at that moment; said jock was entering the classroom. "Good morning class rep, S'up Ken"

"Hey man" said the bespectacled boy "where have you been all these days?"

"I was visiting my sister in the hospital."

"What!? What happened?"

"She got injured during the last battle with that damn robot. If I ever meet the stupid pilot of that damn thing I'm gonna..."

"Well, you know, there's this..." Aida started but was interrupted when the teacher entered the classroom and everybody hurried to their seats.

"Stand! Bow! Sit!"

"Good morning students, I hope you all had a nice weekend, now lets start this." Said the teacher "Now lets see...Aida, Kensuke?"

"Here"

"Aizawa, Katsue?"

"Here"

"Ayanami, Rei?"

"She's absent today" answered the class rep. the teacher nodded and continued.

"Enomoto, Chomei?"

"Here…"

"Fukuyama, Kaori"

"Here!"

"Hokari, Hikari?"

"Here"

"Ichimonji, Hideki?"

"Ah, wha...oh, here!"

"Ikari, Shinji?" but this time there was no response.

"Ikari, Shinji?" the teacher asked again, without a response, he was about to mark him 'absent' in the list when the door abruptly opened.

"Here!!!" Yelled a very tired and sweaty Shinji Ikari in between pants.

"Mister Ikari, please wait in the hall until this class is over; and please fix your uniform."

"Yes…sir" Replied tiredly Shinji as he buttoned up his shirt.

Eventually, the teacher let Shinji enter, and continued with the class, most of the students were already asleep due to the boredom of the lessons, others were surfing or chatting in their laptops, and others were just talking about mindless issues.

"Hey Touji..." Whispered Kensuke to his friend.

"What do you want" muttered the jock.

"See that kid? The pony tailed one?"

"Yeah, what about him?"

"He's the new comer I wanted to talk you about" said Kensuke "he got transferred here a couple of days after the attack"

"Really?" he whispered getting interested.

"Yeah…Hey, wait a sec…" Kensuke replied "You think he's the pilot?"

"There's only one way to find out" Touji answered "Hey, Keiko, Yuki!"

"What do you want?" said Yuki annoyed

"Could you do me a little favour?"

Meanwhile, Shinji was sound asleep in his desk, dreaming about an orange-pink haired girl riding a motorcycle and swinging an electric guitar, when his laptop decided to beep waking him up. "What the…" he yawned as he checked the screen "New message?" he just shrugged and clicked on the link.

Are you the pilot of the giant robot?

"What?" he said as he started scanning the room, noticing a couple of girls waving at him, deciding to play along, he answered them.

Yep!

But unknowingly to him, that conversation was being seen by everyone in the classroom, and when he replied, all the students surrounded him asking stupid questions.

"Hey! What's the name of the robot!?"

"Why is it purple?"

"How's the inside of the inside of the cockpit?"

"Ikari! Make me yours!!!"

"Its called Eva...err...I dunno...I can't tell you that!... Hey! I'm only fourteen!!!" He answered nervously as he looked around for some way out.

"So, it was him…" Touji growled from the back of the classroom.

"Calm down man, don't do anything stupid"

"Don't worry Ken, you know me."

"That's why I'm saying it…"

"Everyone go back to your seats now! Hey, are you even listening to me!? Show some manners!!!" Yelled the class rep as she tried to regain the order.

Eventually, the bell announcing lunchtime sounded and everyone turned out of the classroom.

"Damn, at last…I managed to escape…" sighed Shinji as he scanned the school yard from the rooftop.

"Hey; new kid!"

Shinji turned around and saw two guys approaching "Hey, what's up!" he greeted them; his smile faded immediately as one of them tried to hit him.

"Hold still will ya!?"

"Hey!!! What's wrong with you!!! Why are you trying to hit me!!!" Yelled Shinji at the track suited guy.

"He believes that it was your fault that his sister was injured during your last battle" answered the bespectacled boy "that's his excuse anyway."

"Really, is that true?" Asked Shinji to the jock as he stood up, "Well, if that's the case…you can hit me…it's only fair" he said looking at his attacker in the eyes.

"Ok…" Said a not very convinced Touji "If that's what you want…!" He growled as he prepared to hit him.

"Just one second!!!" Shinji suddenly said, dodging the punch and making Touji nearly fall in the process.

"What the hell!!!" Yelled the now ready to kill jock.

"You have to promise me to take me see your sister with you first" he said getting a curios look from the other boy "I mean, I have to apologise to her, right?" he said in his common childish smile.

They stared at each other in the eyes, Touji was confused by the request, was he toying with him? But after a little while, he decided to trust him. "Deal"

"Don't hold back then" Shinji said closing his eyes and putting his hands in his pockets.

"Ouch…" Aida winced as he saw his friend sending the other boy to the ground with a hard blow to his jaw.

"Well" Said Touji as he rubbed his knuckles "You told me to not hold back."

"Yeah, now I regret it" Shinji thought as he rubbed his jaw, when he opened his eyes he noticed the helping hand offered by his attacker and the sly smile on his lips.

"The name's Touji" he said helping him up "And that four eyes geek over there is my friend Kensuke"

"Shut up!" cried said geek, jokingly, as he approached the other two boys.

"Nice to meet you…Hey!" Exclaimed Shinji "Are you free this afternoon? Maybe we could go to the…" but he was interrupted by the sounds of a now very familiar alarm that erupted around the city "…Arcades…damn!" he cursed as he rushed to the roof door "Don't worry guys!" He yelled over his shoulder "I'll be more careful this time!"

"Good luck!!!" screamed Kensuke as their new friend ran to the school's front gate to a black car parked in front of it.

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"Ok Shinji, once you get to the surface, expand your AT field, we'll send you an assault riffle once you're there." Said Dr. Akagi through the intercom.

"Sure thing" replied seriously Shinji, a pang of pain and guilt came to him as he remembered his encounter with his new friends.

"He believes that it was your fault that his sister was injured during your last battle"

"Ok Shinji, new rule" he thought "Don't break the city."

"Eva launch!!!" Misato's voice echoed through the command bridge, and the Evangelion was once again sent into action. "Begin the attack!" she ordered, Shinji got out of the elevator building and shot a volley at the weird looking angel; it looked like a mix of a bug, a worm and a lobster. "You idiot!" scolded the captain "you're only hitting it with your smoke!"

"Don't worry, its dead" he ensured her as he stopped firing "What the…!!!" he yelled as two light whips came out of the smoke cloud, he managed to dodge them, but not without loosing the pallet rifle first.

"I'm sending you a spare gun" said Misato through the intercom "Go get it, now!"

He was about to stand up when he noticed his enemy already on top of him, he managed to doge the attack again, this time loosing the power cord in the process.

"External power disabled, switching to internal power, five minutes left of activation," informed Maya as a countdown appeared on the main screen.

Meanwhile, Shinji was dodging all the angel's attacks, watching in horror how many buildings had been destroyed in the process. "Damn…so much for the new rule…" He tried to get to the spare riffle again, but the angel managed to grab the Eva's talon dragging the mecha closer.

"Hey! Let me go you freaking monster!!!" He yelled as his enemy hung him upside down. The Eva started to struggle to release itself, but the angel slammed it to a couple of buildings and tossed it to a nearby hill.

Clouds of dust raised as the Eva slammed heavily on the hill side, levelling trees and stone, creating a humanoid shaped crater.

Inside the entry-plug Shinji slowly rubbed the back of his head when he noticed some movement near the Eva's left hand. "Touji, Kensuke!? What the hell are those idiots doing here!?" He was about to yell at them through the Eva's outside speakers to go back to a shelter when the angel floated above him, determined to finish his work.

Touji and Kensuke were in total shock, they could move after the robot barely missed them, and now the enemy was right above them, ready to attack "What the hell? Why isn't he fighting back!?" Touji screamed as the Eva caught both of the Angels whips.

"We are in the way!!!" His geek friend answered "he can't fight back because of us!!!" he yelled as the two titans struggled to dominate the other.

Suddenly, the back of the Eva opened, and the entry plug came out, "You two get in there! Now!!!" a female voice boomed as the entry's hatch opened to allow them entrance, seeing no other option, they quickly climbed the mecha's back and entered the plug.

"What the hell! Is this water!?"
"My camera! My camera!"

Both boys screamed frantically as the entry plug sealed and they were surrounded by blackness, suddenly, the walls of the plug lit up and they could see, with a bit of static, the outside of the cockpit.

Then, the Eva tried hurl the angel as far away as it could, but it managed to wrap one of its whips to one the robot's wrists.

Shinji didn't had the time to react, and his enemy took advantage of this and started to strangle him, while it stabbed and slashed his chest with its free whip.

"Shinji, get out of there!!! Retreat!!!"

"Hey Shinji, didn't you hear her!? She said retreat!" shouted Touji as he put a hand in his shoulder.

He was trembling, his head was lowered, and he seemed to be muttering something.

"Hey man, what's wrong with you" asked Kensuke as he approached Shinji.

"…kill…kill…kill…" he began muttering a bit louder; both of the other boys slowly backed away form the pilot as he continued repeating that word as if it was an unholy mantra. "…kill…kill kill kill" he kept chanting as he raised his head, a twisted smile formed in his lips as he gripped the controls. "Kill!!!" he finally exploded, the walls of the entry plug turned red, signalizing the imminent shut down due the short power supply.

The Eva caught the angel's whips again, and pulled it slamming it to the hill, the robot quickly rolled over the angel and started pounding it heavily on its core.

The angel tried desperately to free itself, it stabbed both of its tentacles on the mecha's abdomen, but it wasn't enough.

The purple beast quickly got hold of its progressive knife and started stabbing mercilessly at its enemy's diamond hard core.

"Oh!!! C'mon!!! Die already!!!" Shinji growled as he kept staving the angel, finally, he managed to penetrate the core with his knife; sparks flew everywhere as the blade dug deeper and deeper in the red orb. Shinji screamed in pain and anger as the angel twisted its whips in the Eva's flesh trying to get free without avail and he pushed with both hands in the right control to increase the pressure in the knife.

Inside the plug, every second seemed like an hour as both titans tried to kill each other.

Finally both the angel's core and the Eva's eyes lit off, the purple mecha felt limp on top of his prey, the sunset last rays of light dancing on top of both behemoths, signalising the end of a gruesome battle.

"The Eva has de-activated" informed Maya "Target has gone silent; entry plug last readings indicate that the pilot and his 'passengers' are ok."

Misato kept a neutral expression as she stared silently at the main screen.

"Hey Shinji, you ok?" Asked Touji as he approached the downcast pilot

"Shinji, c'mon" Asked Kensuke as he gently shacked the pilot.

Shinji was clutching his head, and appeared to be slightly sobbing "D-Did…we win?" he asked softly "Is it dead?"

"Yeah" answered Touji.

"You were amazing man" continued Kensuke excitedly, seeing that his friend was back in a relatively good state.

"…Good…" the young pilot whispered before passing out.

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Shinji slowly opened his eyes, after adjusting them to the lights, he noticed a rather familiar spot "You again…" he muttered at the hospital ceiling.

"Ahem."

He turned around to see what the source of the noise was, and found himself face to face with a serious looking Captain Misato Katsuragi. "Good to see you are awake."

"How long was I out?" he asked as he moved to a sitting position.

"That's not important now" She answered, "Do you know in how much trouble you have gotten yourself into?"

"What?"

"You disobeyed direct orders," she answered, "You put the whole operation at risk, and the city as well, do you have anything to say to that?"

"I had to do it, there was no choice…otherwise everyone would hav…" he was interrupted with a hard slap that sent him back to the bed.

"Do you ever think about what you say!?" she yelled angrily "You put hundreds of lives at risk today, not to mention your own!"

"It's not like that!" he replied rubbing his check "I did it cuz I didn't want anyone to die." Receiving an unconvinced look from his guardian he continued "You weren't there Misato, if I had run away like you say, many people may have died" he said, remembering the incident in the school's rooftop "I couldn't let that happen…after all, a true hero always fight his best for the good people of the world…no matter the risk…" he trailed off looking at his guardian once again.

Misato, for her part, just stared at him, finally, the meaning of his words sank in and she couldn't help but give him a sad smile "Shinji, You're such an idiot…"

"Hehe, yeah, I know…"

To be continued…

Thanks to my pre-readers Dark Machine and StormofDragons. Cavalier, good luck with college and EVA-01X, sorry I didn't wait for your opinion, but I'll be busy and wont be able to hold this anymore.

Thanks to the people who gave me a review too, glad you liked it!

Anyway…

Any opinion, comment, etc. just let me know

Until next time!