Neon Genesis Evangelion: Altered Destinies
Launch Twenty-Two

Kensuke Aida was a otaku, and proud of it. Starting out as a military geek the light brown haired boy had moved on to being a fan of the Evangelions and their pilots. 'Especially Asuka,' he admitted as he carefully made his way down a deserted street.

The striking redhead had drawn his eye the first time they met, in a arcade in the city. She had been playing videogames when he and Toji met her, and had accidentally flashed them her panties. Then she tried to charge them a viewing fee! As they argued they drew the attention of a bunch of punks and a fight broke out, Asuka wailing on them with surprising skill.

'I don't think I ever saw anything more stunning,' Kensuke admitted to himself as he creeped forward through the deserted city.

An Angel alert had been called a hour ago, and everyone hustled off to their shelters. He, Toji and Hikari had ended up in a shelter together as usual, their friend Hikari taking command as usual. Kensuke wanted to see the angel and talked Toji into distracted Hikari long enough for him to slip away from their class and get outside the shelter.

Kensuke looked around a corner, sighing as he tried to guess how far there was to go. 'Too bad the trains aren't running,' he thought.

It took nearly ten more minutes for Kensuke Aida to reach the spot, but it was worth the effort as he took in three Evangelions, as well as the lumbering Jet Alone. They were spaced out around a strange, sphere like object that hovered in midair, patterns swirling across it's surface as it cast a dark shadow over the ground.

'Wow,' Kensuke thought as he used his camera to sweep over the four machines.

The three Evangelion were largely similar in that they were humanoid shaped fighting machines, the differences being in how refined the technology was. From what he could determine the single eyed unit was the oldest, while the red one with four eyes was the latest model.

Jet Alone looked far less refined than the others, though Kensuke noticed it had been refitted since it's last launch. The body was a bit less like a giant carrot, and the arms looked a bit more human and less like a bad '50s science fiction reject. But it still wasn't as cool looking as a Evangelion.

Panning his camera around Kensuke made his way forward, nearer to the strange shadow the Angel was casting. Maybe he was too distracted by the sights, or maybe he was too excited, but somehow someone spotted.

"Aida!" Asuka growled, her voice booming over the Evangelion's loudspeaker, "What the hell are you doing here?"

'Oh shit,' Kensuke paled, knowing that Section 2 goons were probably already on the way. As the Evangelions started to move he scanned the area, wondering where to run. From how the mecha were placed he realized the best way to escape was right between them, so he ran forward right into the Angel's shadow.

Shinji yelled, "No, don't!"

As Kensuke ran he realized he wasn't moving. Looking down he yelped as he saw he was sinking into the shadow somehow, right up to the waist, "Oh shit," he cursed, disbelievingly.

"Hold on," Rei grabbed for him with her Evangelion, but it was too late.

Kensuke looked up with desperation as the shadow enfolded him, then the world was gone into pure darkness.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

"Oh, you have GOT to be kidding me," Misato Katsuragi muttered as the black haired woman sat back, her expression grim. The command center of NERV was busy as they tried to analyze the Angel, it's attacks and try to determine it's next move.

Gendo was, thankfully, not there watching over their shoulders, but his deputy Kozo was managing just fine in his place. The older man looked grim as he said, "How did a boy manage to wander onto the battlefield?"

"That's primarily Section 2's responsibility," Maya Ibuki pointed out reasonably. "And we assume that the civilians will stay in their shelters where they are reasonably safe."

"True," Kozo conceded grimly.

Shinji Ikari's face came up on the view screen, the black haired young woman looking grim. "Do we know what happened to Ken?" she asked.

Ritsuko Akagi rubbed her eyes, feeling oddly tired. "We have a tentative theory, based on what the sensors on the Evangelions recorded," she admitted.

"You don't sound happy," Kozo noted grimly.

"This may be the oddest Angel yet," Ritsuko sighed. "As best as I can determine, the Angel is actually the two dimensional shadow, NOT the sphere."

"Seriously?" Asuka blinked, also monitoring the conversation.

"Yes," Ritsuko nodded, :"and worse, it appears to be some kind of.. dimensional opening, but to where I have no idea."

"One of us needs to go in after him," Rei said flatly.

"No," Misato said firmly, "not until we have a clearer idea of what we're dealing with."

"But...," Shinji started.

"I don't like leaving a civilian in this situation any more than you do," Misato said flatly, "but he chose to put himself there. If he stayed in his shelter he would have been fine."

"Is that your last word on the subject?" Mana Kirishima asked, the young woman frowning from the cockpit of Jet Alone.

Kozo leaned forward as he said gruffly, "No NERV staff will attempt a rescue at this time."

"That's clear enough," Mana smiled grimly, "thankfully, I'm not NERV staff." Before anyone could stop her Jet Alone wrapped a spare power cable for the Evangelions around it's arm, then took two steps towards the shadow.

"Mana, don't...," Ritsuko started.

"Asuka, keep a grip on that cord!" Mana yelled then leaped into the shadow, disappearing into the darkness with barely a ripple.

"Crap!" Misato cursed, slumping back in her seat as the Evangelions grabbed at the cable, feeding it out as Jet Alone sank into the void.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

Kensuke Aida became aware almost as soon as he realized he wasn't alone. He found himself sitting on what looked like the hills outside Tokyo-3, the area he usually liked to go camping out in with army surplus gear. He made his way through the long grass to the camp site, blinking in surprise as he saw the grizzled looking older man there, dressed in army fatigues.

"About time you got here," he said, looking at him through glasses just like his own, the same shaggy hairstyle falling into his eyes.

"Dad?" Kensuke blinked.

"No," he said, chuckling softly, "want some k-rations? They're authentic JSDF issue."

Ken walked to his side, sitting on a log pulled up by the fire, the army tent nearby. "You're... me?" he asked quietly.

"Not exactly," the older Ken answered thoughtfully as he put the water filled kettle by the fire, letting it heat for tea, "I'm a possibility."

"A possibility," Ken echoed weakly.

"Hmm," the older man nodded, opening his ration tin and starting to eat. "I never became close to people, other than Toji and a few others," he said to him conversationally as he shoveled the food in, "and that stopped after Toji's death. I retreated from people into my army games, and I ended up out here living like some crazy survivalist."

Ken paled a bit, looking into the fire, "Oh."

The rustling of grass brought the older Ken to wary attention, them man holding a pistol as he glared into the night. He relaxed after a moment, "Of, it's you," he sighed, putting the gun away.

The Kensuke Aida who emerged from the darkness was about the same age as student Ken, but was otherwise very different. He wore a purple and silver plug suit that looked embarrassingly snug, and he frowned as he studied them both. "How did you get in the Dirac Sea?" he asked flatly.

"Dirac Sea?" Ken echoed, feeling dumb.

"It's a pocket dimension Leliel contains within him," pilot Ken explained patiently, "I got pulled in while I was exploring it." He looked at the two of them, "Though I suppose I'm just a possibility, not a probability, now."

For a moment Ken wondered how many possible Kens there were in the Dirac Sea, as well as how many probable other pilots too, all finding counterparts to themselves. For a moment he was overwhelmed by the idea of infinite Kens making a infinite number of possible choices, then he shook his head.

"You made a decision?" soldier Ken asked, pouring them each tea.

Ken took the cup and drank, noting it had no real flavor too it. "I have to get out of here," he looked at the metal cup, "before one of those crazies comes in after me."

Pilot Ken shrugged, "They already have." As both of them looked at him he continued, "Mana followed you in Jet Alone, I picked it up on my Evangelion's sensors. Problem is she's lost, and she only has limited life support."

Ken looked at his pilot counterpart, aghast. "We have to help her!" he exclaimed, feeling a flash of guilt for his part of the situation.

"WE can't," the older Ken said flatly.

Ken looked at the other two then into the fire, a surge of terror filling him. It was easy being a observer, playing military games and having fun. Could he change? SHOULD he change? Ken stood up, calmly setting his cup aside as he made a choice.

Pilot Ken nodded slightly, "You ready?"

"No, but what the hell," Ken answered, shrugging. He looked up at the starless night sky, realizing in his gut that he really was in a alien place. "I think I'm gonna need a ride out of here," he mused to himself aloud.

Pilot Ken grinned as the soldier seemed to fade away, "I have just the thing."

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

As the time ticked down Shinji sighed, watching the shadow grimly. Jet Alone had been gone nearly a day, now, with no sign of contact. Worse, the cable had gone slack almost as soon as the war machine disappeared, severed somehow by the shadow.

"Let me go after them," Asuka nearly begged, the orange haired girl messy and visibly stressed. It seemed she had gotten a lot closer to Mana than any of them had thought...

"We're going through with the plan to bomb it with N2 mines," Misato said firmly, "The Magi compute it's the best chance to deal with this." She gentled her tone a bit, "I'm sorry..."

"Energy spike!" Maya yelped as alarms suddenly screamed.

"Look!" Rei called, moving Unit-00 into position as the shadow bulged strangely.

The pilots watched as the substance of the angel bulged and shifted, then it tore gruesomely as a metallic arm ripped through. A silvery figure emerged from the rent hauling Jet Alone behind it, staggering away as the angel shrunk away, blood pouring out of it.

"Mana!" Asuka yelled as she established a communications link.

"I'm here," Mana smiled back tiredly, "What a ride..."

Misato took in the silvery Evangelion in shock. "That's Unit-04!" she yelped, "But it's supposed to be in the United States! How did it...?"

"We got a report it disappeared in a S2 engine test," Ritsuko mused, "Could it be that...?"

The rear armor of the Evangelion shifted aside, and the entry plug partially unscrewed from the back of Unit-04. As the hatch opened a familiar figure in glasses stood up, his student uniform wet with LCL. After coughing and hacking up LCL Kensuke Aida smiled weakly, "Hey, what'd I miss?"

To be continued...