Disclaimer: See the Prologue
Chapter 5 – They're Here
Darkness. That is all what Gordon saw. Darkness.
Even when his eyes are closed and unconscious, he can still see his Hazard Suit status, like if they were imprinted on his eyes.
'Am I dead?' he thought, 'Has Third Impact hit? Is this my Instrumentality?'
Gordon then began to hear someone speaking to him.
Someone… very familiar.
"Rise and shine, Mr. Freeman."
"Huh?" he replied weakly.
"Rise and shine, Mr. Freeman," the sinister voice of the G-Man repeated.
His eyes begun to open and they found themselves staring into the eyes of a yellow haired woman in a lab coat.
"Wha…?"
"Dr. Freeman?" the woman begun, "You're awake. Finally!"
Gordon sat up on the bench, to find he is still in his Hazard Suit. The woman was smiling at him, her scanner on the table.
"Something went wrong, didn't it?" Gordon asked softly.
"We don't know," she replied, "But when that S2 Organ was in proximity of Unit-01's core, something explainable happened…"
Gordon sighed.
'God, I'm so stupid!' he thought, 'That crystal was the same one from Xen. What was it doing in an S2 Engine?'
The woman continued, "Unit-01's power skyrocketed for 20 seconds. We detected an energy surge throughout all our systems. It all shutdown for 5 minutes, before the MAGI reactivated it a short time later.
Gordon nodded, taking in what was going on while he was unconscious, "How long was I out?"
"An hour," she replied.
"How did you guysget me out of there?" Gordon asked curiously.
"We waited for what was going on in the cages to stop, before Major Katsuragi ran in and got you out," she replied, "She was really bent on seeing you safe."
Gordon mind clicked at that.
"Oh, and by the way," the woman said, "Commander Ikari want's to see you in his office."
"Right," Gordon acknowledged, getting up and makjng his way to the door.
"Dr. Freeman?"
He turned around to face her.
"Ritsuko Akagi," the woman finally introduced herself, smiling, "We haven't met."
Gordon smiled back, "Gordon."
He left the infirmary and headed for the commander's office. Along the way, he thought on his situation: Why did he agree to take part in the experiment? How come that organ had a Xen crystal in it? He wanted to object, to refuse, but something told him to do it.
'What is happening to me?' he thought, ignoring every NERV personnel he passed who gawked at him in his suit, 'I just wanted to be a great scientist.' He wasn't just that, to a lesser extent; but he was an agent for a mysterious man in a suit who works for who knows what employees.
He was soon standing outside Commander Ikari's office. He took a deep breath, exhaled and stepped through.
The office was where he left it: Dark and spooky. With the commander himself, sitting behind a desk with the sub-commander Fuyutsuki standing by.
"Dr. Freeman," Gendo greeted, smiling, "I see you survived that little accident?"
"You're not surprised?" Gordon asked.
"Not at all," Gendo replied, "That Hazard Suit is state of the art technology. Developed at the same time as the Evangelions themselves.
Gordon nodded, taking in that bit of history.
"Have a seat," Gendo said.
"I prefer to stand," Gordon replied.
"Please yourself," Gendo replied, "Let's get to business. During the experiment, did you encounter anything out of the ordinary?"
"What?" Gordon replied, slightly startled, 'Is this guy for real? Everything out of the ordinary happened!"
"Well?"
"Well what?"
"Did you?"
"Apart from that massive S2 Organ activation and the near destruction of NERV," Gordon begun sarcastically, taking a stand against Gendo, "Nothing happened."
'Damn,' Gendo thought, 'I thought Unit-01 would do it this time.'
'What the f#$# did I just say?' Gordon cursed at himself.
"Well, that experiment could be considered a partial success," Gendo concluded, smiling darkly, "Wouldn't you say, Fuyutsuki?"
"Yes sir," Kouzou answered.
"You are dismissed, Dr. Freeman."
Gordon turned and left the office, leaving Gendo and Kouzou.
"He is not of any concern, is he commander?" Kouzou asked his long-time friend.
"Maybe…maybe not," Gendo replied, "I am thinking of reporting him to the Union. He could be problematic."
"What do you think they would do to him?" Kouzou asked again, frowning a bit.
"I have not idea," Gendo said.
As Gordon walked away from the office, he was once again thinking.
'I gotta find Katsuragi,' he thought, 'I just know something's wrong.'
Suddenly the lights went out, causing him to almost jump. He almost reached for his crowbar.
"Now what?" he cried.
Deep below Section One in the Engineering level, technicians Kari and Yamato were observing a computer screen.
"I don't understand!" Kari exclaimed, holding a torch as the power was out, "Power systems are rising and falling at critical level."
"But the power cells are intact!" Yamato added, typing away.
Suddenly the power turned on, the lights activating. Gordon was standing in the brightened hallway at the moment.
He frowned.
"That's it!" he said to himself, "Where the hell's Misato?"
He stormed off.
Back at Engineering…
"I'm gonna go check the cells!" Yamato said, grabbing the torch and heading for the ladder into the maintenance hatch.
He saw a shadow appear and disappear in the hatch.
"Hello?" Yamato called out to the figure questioningly, before turning back to Kari who was at the terminal, "Hey Kari, we got anyone working this level?"
"Not that I know of," she replied.
Yamato stared curiously into the hatch, before climbing in and shuffling through the narrow passage, not noticing a grating behind him lift slowly.
Yamato heard a bug-like sound emit behind him.
"What the…ARGH!" his screamed was muffled.
Kari had heard the noise, she was near the hatch.
"Yamato?" she called out, concerned, "You ok in there?"
She climbed the ladder and faced the hatch. She didn't have time to scream as something leaped at her.
In control, Misato was practically pacing the floor, before looking over at Makato.
"Status report," she said.
Diagnostics of the entire complex filled the massive screen. Makato looked up at it and gulped.
"I…I don't understand it," Makato said, sweating, "Systems are failing everywhere. I mean this has happened before, but not like this!"
"Yeah," Shigeru said, "The powers fluctuating at a massive rate on all levels, the MAGIs are beginning to shut down and worse, there is unidentified movement all over base…HUH!"
"What?" Misato cried.
Suddenly, red dots begun to appear all over the map of the facility.
Warning! Unidentified movement detected!
At the moment, as Gordon decided to head for the control room, he had passed a door, which he heard muffled banging at the other end. A tech heard it as well. Gordon turned to him.
"What's that?" Gordon asked.
"I don't know," the tech replied, drawing a gun, "It does not sound friendly."
He opened the door slowly, gun drawn. Since it was a storeroom, it was dark. They saw someone standing in the shadows.
"Hey pal," the tech said, disturbed, "What the hell are you doing in here?"
That someone stepped into the light. Gordon's throat instantly went dry.
"Oh my God!" the tech cried.
The figure dove forward and knocked them both onto the ground, where it begun to slash away at the tech. He screamed, his blood decorating the hallway.
Gordon stared in horror. It was a zombie, a headcrabbed zombie. It soon finished carving up the tech and turned at Gordon.
"SECURITY!" Gordon cried.
A Guard rushed forward from a corner, where he was instantly frozen in pure shock.
"Holy shit!" the Guard cried.
The zombie noticed him and growled. Recovering his strength, the Guard opened fire with his 9mm, giving Gordon time to get up and run from it. It soon fell.
Gordon was breathing harshly, still in shock over what just happened.
"What the hell is that thing?" the Guard cried, "What the hells going on here!"
In control…
"MOTHER OF…!" Makato cried.
The dots on the map grew larger till the whole facility was covered. Misato jaw was left gaping as the radio transmissions begun to pour in throughout all the levels of the base…
Control! What the hells going on here?
Systems have just failed, what…what was that? OH SHIT!
What the f$#$!"
HOLY SHIT! WE'RE UNDER ATTACK HERE!
OH GOD! HELP!
Kouzou had just entered control. He stood there, all eyes on him, especially Misato.
'Its happening,' Kouzou thought, 'They have come!'
Suddenly, a green orb of energy opened up in the control room. Everything backed away from it.
"Sweet…" Shigeru cried.
Then, out stepped a bipedal reptile-like creature. It had one big eye, followed by a smaller one slightly above it, three arms and looked like it was wearing a collar.
"Holy shit!" Shigeru said softly; mesmerised in his first look at a Vortigaunt
It was his last. The creature charged up green energy before letting loose a bolt of green lightning at the technician. He screamed, the bolt tearing through his chest, blood spluttering all other the computers and unto Maya.
"Oh God!" Maya screamed.
Shigeru gave a small hiccup, before falling down face first onto the ground dead before the Vortigaunt, which then let off a victory cry and more energy sprouted from it.
"NOOOOOO!" Makato screamed, whipping out a pistol and firing at the creature, as did Misato. The bullets tore through the creature's hide, effectively downing it. It kicked and squealed, before dying.
Everyone was at a state of shock of what just happened. Kouzou was the first to speak up, in authority.
"RED ALERT!" he cried, "GENERAL ALARM!"
Everyone in control returned to his or her posts, ignoring Shigeru's corpse. Misato reloaded her gun.
"Where the hell's Gordon?" she said, building up her fighting spirit, "He knows what the hells going on!"
