---Rebirth of the Evangelion---
"What would you like us to do about this sir?"
Trieze Kushrenada sat behind his desk and stared intently at the officer in front of him. There had been a bizarre twist of events lately, which made Trieze question his original scenario that he had so carefully planned. Nevertheless, he thought, things should continue to proceed as planned.
"I have planned a scenario, yet I would first like to study a few of these details. Humor me please."
The officer was a bit taken aback by how Trieze had a way with dealing with matters, but he shrugged it off and played along not really caring what he would have to follow to keep his line of work. He handed him a disk which Trieze immediately inserted into his desk computer and watched the screen while the officer began his speech;
"At 11:41 hours, there was an energy spike detected in the center of one of our recently captured cities. We were lucky that we still had a good collection of armed vehicles and Mobile Suits at the ready during that time, because we weren't expecting such a disturbance." The officer took out a small remote from his pocket and clicked it once. The information scrolling accross Trieze's computer screen was replaced by a photo of a huge red figure that resembled in some ways a mecha. Trieze stared at his screen in shock for a few moments before regaining his posture.
"Can you tell me what it is?"
"We don't know sir."
"Did you do an analysis on it yet?"
"No sir, what we have found out though is that it is definitely human design and construction. We have confirmed that the few symboles on the outside armor are half japanese and half english, while the materials themselves seem to be easily accessible form Earth."
"Do you know what it is?"
"No, sir, we do not. Though right now all evidence supports that it is considered by whoever built it as an 'Eva'."
"What does Eva mean?"
"I do not know sir."
"Okay then, continue. What happened?"
"We were taking all the possible precautions, sir. We had all our tanks, artillery and Mobile Suits surrounding the target and placed at intervals in the streets. The civilians were evacuated. There were no casualties at this point, but many were injured when this 'thing' appeared out of the sky above them. It just had to land right in the middle of the city." The officer shook his head. "I have no idea how it got there though, our sensors didn't even have time to give us a warning."
"Is this relevant?"
"Yes sir. Shortly after the evacuation, the being seemed to activate itself. Power readings went off the scale and seemed to look around itself. At that point the General ordered that all forces were to open fire..."
"He what?" Trieze asked this question politely but his face became tense as he frowned.
"He ordered all our units to open fire on it."
"Was it behaving hostile before he did so?"
"Uh, no sir, I don't believe so sir. I was there and all it did was stand up and look around."
"What happened after they started attacking it?"
"Well, it seemed to try and duck for cover, but it ran into even more of our forces. I was shocked to see that none of our ammunition was actually penetrating through its armor. It seemed as if all the bullets veered off in another direction before they actually came in contact with this thing. Any bullets that did hit it didn't do any damage anyways."
"Okay, you will continue in a second. I am telling you now before you are to leave that the general who ordered the attack is to be restricted and discharged. He will also recieve a court marshal. Now please continue." The officer nodded while he jotted down a note, trembling slightly, glad that he wasn't the one who ordered the attack. He then continued:
"We hit it with and AC-509 Armor Buster but it seemed just to give the mech a push in the direction it was headed. Everyone at the scene of this battle was already getting ready to flee; we had no way of attacking it. It had already taken out more thanhalfof our ground forces. Then it just stopped."
"Excuse me?"
"All energy readings dropped and disappeared. It became silent and it hasn't activated since."
"That's intriguing. What have you done with it?"
"We have left it where it was knocked down by a second AC missle. This time it actually damaged some of the armor on it's back. I ordered all of the units to cease fire. What would you like me to do with it sir?"
"I am not entirely sure myself." Trieze began without hesitation. "Though I do believe that this is officially our prize. I want you to bring it to this facility immediately. Treat it with extreme care, this isthe prize for our hard work. Once it's here I will give you further orders General."
"Yes si-...Excuse me sir?"
"That's right, General."
"Thank you very much sir. It will be done immediately.
---
Shinji new instantly when he had found Rei.
After 3 or 4 hours of continuous running and jumping over hills and mountains, he had detected Unit-00's power signature. He had very little problem getting to their rendez-vous point. They marked coordinates that were marked by the Earths gravitational field, so they could never get lost no matter where an Eva happened to be.
Shinji had little problem getting there, he had to go around a huge city. That alone, proved to him that he was indeed still on Earth. He didn't stop to spend much time observing the city though. All he knew was that the city looked even bigger and more advanced than Tokyo-3. He was also worried by the fact that there were what looked like huge statues placed around the city holding these mean looking rifles.
Shinji finally came up and over the last hill and he landed next to Unit-00. He saw that it was kneeling and he did the same. He brought his Eva down next to Rei's and tried to contact her through the radio, but he didn't get any response. This made Shinji slightly worried, so he shut down all the systems and ejected the entry plug.
If he had thought calmly he would have just figured Rei was saving her internal battery power in case of an emergency. Shinji in his nervous state forgot all about that though and he thought Rei might be in trouble. He climbed down the back of the Eva carefully using the almost invisible indented ladder on the back of the Eva to get to the ground. When he reached the the grassy floor, he finally looked up to see Rei's entry plug had also been ejected. He squinted but could not make out if someone were inside it or not, so he started to jog to Unit-00 when a voice from just to his right caught him off guard.
"Ikari!"
Shinji turned his head to see Rei emerging from behind her Eva's foot. "Ayanami!" Shinji would have liked to have run up and hug her at this moment, but he was able to restrain himself. "Are you alright?"
"Yes, I am well, Yourself?"
"I'm okay..." There was silence, then Rei spoke again.
"Were you able to make contact with pilot Sohryu?"
Shinji was brought back to the fact that Asuka wasn't here. He dropped his head before responding. "No,...but is she even here, on this planet I mean?" Shinji knew he was just making an excuse to delay the inevitable, but his questions would not be answered yet.
"I do not know. I can not seem to remember what must have occured to bring us to this position Ikari, though it must have been important."
'Thanks for stating the obvious Rei," Shinji thought. "Well, I've been trying to remember, but every time it seems to hurt my head if I do."
"It is the same as myself."
"Well,..." Shinji started when he didn't know what else to say. He knew there were too many questions, but he knew even better he wasn't going to get them all right away. "...What should we do now?"
Rei was silent for a moment as she pondered before coming up with what she thought was a suitable answer: "We go by protocol."
"What...what protocol?"
"In the event of an emergency; the Eva's are to be considered our life support in any hostile environment or emergency." Shinji stood patiently making sure he caught everything Rei was saying. "Since this is considered an emergency, we are to make sure our Eva's will work properly."
"Well, Unit-01 seems to be working alright..." Shinji figured out what Rei was reffering to before he finished his sentence. "You mean...of course."
"My internal battery is almost depleted; Commander Ikari was prepared for such an emergency and had installed backup supply cables into the left storage compartment on your Eva."
"M-my father was prepared for this?"
"As much as it sounds Ikari, this was no more than a coincidence."
'Of course it was," Shinji thought. He couldn't believe that this was a coincidence, he could bet that this was another of his father's schemes. Whichever, if it was a test, Shinji was going to make sure he completed it and make his father see that he was worthy. "Okay. Uh, Rei? I didn't even know there were extra things like that on my Eva, do you think you could help me install them on yours then?"
"No, I do not mind, we are in an emergency." Shinji smiled and followed Rei as they climbed up onto the Eva to start preparing.
---
The teenage boy watched as a seemingly infinite list of numbers scrolled down the computer screen in front of him. The whole room was almost completely surrounded in darkness, the only lights coming from the room were from the computer monitor itself. He keyed in a command and the numbers instantly became letters and he began to read through the files.
"Heero."
The boy turned in his chair to see another figure in a doorway couple meters behind him. "What is it?"
The lights flickered on and Heero squinted his eyes slightly.
"I know you're used to working in dark conditions, but it's actually not very good for your eyes I heard." Duo Maxwell walked into the room carrying a folder by his side and sat down next to Heero by the desk. "So what are you looking through? More Oz files? I just got out from the hangar, our Gundums will bu in top shape in a few more days!"
"Yes." Heero turned back to the computer screen and Duo sighed.
"Heero, I need your attention. If your going to be looking up something it had better be concerning that rumor."
Heero stopped typing and looked at Duo. "You know about it?"
"Very little I admit, I was going to ask you if you found any evidence."
Heero turned the monitor slightly so Duo could see the image portrayed on the screen. The picture showed a city that was half detroyed from the inside out. The buildings in the middle had the most damage to them while the outside ones on the edge seemed to have nothing touched.
Duo frowned and looked at Heero for an explanation. When he didn't get one he asked out loud. "What do you think it's about?"
"It's one of two possibilities, or maybe both; Oz is either secretly developping some sort of new weapon..." Duo waited as Heero seemed to think through his response before giving it..."or maybe they found one..."
Duo shot up at this. "You mean there's another Gundam from the Colonies?!"
"That may be, but these are only hypothesis'. We need more information."
"So there IS a chance that Oz has captured a gundam?"
"You know as much as I do at this moment, but I'm going to find out more right now." With that, Heero got up from the chair and started towards the door. He was just exiting the room when he felt a hand on his shoulder.
"Wait up Heero, I'm coming with you."
"Why?"
"Because I'd like to know more too, meet me out front in 15."
"And the others?"
"I'll leave them a note, this'll just be me and you. Just like old times alright?"
"By old times you mean a few months ago don't you?"
"Well, uh, kinda. Jeez, never mind, get your stuff together, I'll meet you out front."
Both teens departed in opposite directions, beginning to prepare themselves for a major discovery.
A/N You are at the bottom of the page, you have no viable reason not to leave a review...
...well, unless you enjoy annoying me...