Green Lantern: New Genesis
Training Day
I don't own Green Lantern or Evangelion
Shinji woke up early the next morning, or at least he thought it was morning. It turned out the barracks had advanced shower facilities that didn't even use water. He didn't know how it worked but when he walked out, he felt clean and his breath tasted better. He flew to the commissary and got breakfast among a smaller crowed than yesterday. Tomar, Kilowog, and Laira weren't there so he found a table to himself and ate silently.
"Um how long until basic training?" Shinji asked his ring. He didn't feel excited about boot camp with the mean looking Kilowog, but he didn't feel he had any choice.
"Story of my life" he thought.
"Basic training begins in one hour in training ground 1" the ring answered in a computerized voice, not the Ion voice he had grown comfortable with over the past few days.
"Ion are you there" He asked the ring quietly.
"The being called Ion cannot be located" The ring responded.
"Great, so Ion has abandoned me too" He thought bitterly as he took his dishes back up to the counter.
"So where is training ground 1?" Shinji asked, and the ring began to pull him by his finger.
"Okay, hold on" He said and started flying in the direction of the rings pull. After ten minutes of flying the ring pulled him down to a building and the pulling stopped.
"Guess this is the place" He said to himself and walked inside. He found that the building was nothing but an empty space, like a giant hanger, or a gym.
"And I'm the first here, terrific" He grumbled and sat down against a wall to wait.
"It would go a lot faster if I had my old SDAT" He said to himself imagining the small player he had left back at NERVE. Instantly a green version of his player (complete with ear buds) appeared in front of him. He gingerly put the ear buds in his ears and pressed the play button. Instantly his old music came pouring out of the headphones. Resting his head against the wall, he let the music wash over him. When one song ended the other began, then fed into another without him having to press the rewind button. Shinji sat there a whole hour in a daze, and only jerked out of it when he felt a hand on his shoulder. Looking up in surprise and saw a pretty girl looking down at him, a puzzled look on her face.
"Um Hello, I'm here for basic training, I still had an hour before it started, so I thought I would come here and wait" He said lamely. He had never been good around people, but girls in general were always a weak spot.
"Never met anyone eager to take Kilowog's basic training course" The girl said teasingly as Shinji got to his feet. Now that they were both standing, he saw that she had blond hair, blue eyes, pointed ears and Orange skin. She was also wearing a white blouse and short green skirt that flattered her figure. She wasn't just pretty she was beautiful.
"I'm not really, but I didn't have anywhere else to be, and I didn't want to make him angry by being late" Shinji said rubbing the back of his head.
"Well you certainly aren't that" the girl said smiling at him
"So, you're her for basic training too?" He asked feeling more and more stupid the more he talked.
"Unfortunately. I mean I help save the universe and I still have to take basic training" She sighed.
"You saved the universe?" Shinji asked, impressed.
"How new are you?" The girl asked.
"I just got my ring a few days ago" Shinji said.
"So, this is the new human recruit huh?" A gravelly voice said behind him. Turning Shinji looked up, and up, and up into the face of a living rock.
"What does that make now, four of you?" the stone asked.
"Come on Fraggle, there are only two human green lanterns" The girl said.
"Two too many if you ask me" The rock said.
"Will no one asked you" A soft voice said, and a small figure stepped out from behind the living rock. It was another pretty girl, this one with orangish skin and black hair in a skintight uniform that left little to the imagination.
"Are all the female lanterns dressed like this?" He wondered as he blushed again.
"Soranik Sinestro, and you are?" The girl said thrusting out her hand.
"Shinji Ikari" Shinji said shaking the girl's hand uncertainly.
"I'm Arisia Rabb" The orange skinned girl said offering her own hand which Shinji shook.
"I heard the Guardians mention you. They said your family had a long history with the Corp" Shinji said.
"Um, yeah. My mom, dad, granddad and uncle were all lanterns" Arisia said.
"Were? What happened to them?" Shinji asked.
"They died" Kilowog said behind them. The four of them turned to face their instructor.
"And let that be your first lesson. A Green lanterns life expectancy is short. Very few of us actually retire" Kilowog said.
"So, still want to be a Lantern?" Kilowog said staring Shinji in the eye.
"Well, I don't even know what it really means to be a lantern" Shinji said quietly dropping his eyes and causing Kilowog to grunt in disgust.
"Green lanterns are intergalactic peacekeepers. That means we try to keep trouble in the universe to a minimum. But it's dangerous work, so if you're not sure about being here, take off your rings and leave, or you'll be sure to end up dead" He explained walking up and down along their line.
"Well, I'll ask one last time. Do any of you poozers want to quit?" He asked.
"No sir" They all said in unison.
"I won't run away; I don't have anywhere to run too" Shinji said silently to himself.
"Alright, let's get started. The old instructor, the cold-hearted bastard who trained me, stripped us of our rings and put us through one hell of a world after another. I don't do that. What I will do is put you through endurance and training exercises with your rings that will make you wish I would do that, or just kill you" He said.
"Let's get started" He said giving a sadistic grin.
Many of those days were hard for Shinji to remember. Kilowog was as good as his word, training them to make whatever constructs he ordered and punishing them with physical training when they failed. As it turned out Arisia was the best. She was able to make whatever Kilowog wanted with only one or two mistakes and they held up reasonably well under his assaults. Soranik was second. She was able to make constructs, but they were fragile and couldn't stand up to the trainers' assaults for very long. Shinji was fourth and the opposite. Perhaps because of his training as an Eva pilot whatever constructs he made were iron hard and couldn't be broken no matter what Kilowog threw at him. However, he had trouble moving beyond basic blocks and shapes. Fraggle was the weakest. He could barely make anything advanced and it wasn't very strong. However, the physical training seemed to bore him more than anything else, while it left Shinji sore and exhausted and ready to collapse at the end of every day. More often than not Arisia and Soranik were right beside him, Kilowog having found some flaw to punish them for or just because he felt like it. After about a week of just making things, they moved onto free form combat. First up were Arisia and Soranik who were fairly evenly matched. However, Arisia's ability to hold her constructs gave her the victory. Next up was Shinji against Fraggle. In this area Shinji excelled. It was almost like fighting in his EVA again where everything was controlled by his will. His former combat experience came to the forefront as the rock man started by firing a laser at him. Shinji threw up a shield that absorbed the blast, a shield that looked like an A.T. field. Shinji dropped the shield and formed a pallet rifle on instinct and began firing at Fraggle, his ability to make more complicated shapes easier in the thick of the fight than being asked too. The trainee threw up his own shield, but it only held for a second before collapsing under the hail of bullets. The rock alien stood under the hail of bullets and launched himself at Shinji who dodged on instinct. As the trainee flew by, Shinji willed a hand into existence, a hand that looked like an EVA's claw. The hand grabbed onto the mountain like trainee and straining Shinji pulled the trainee over his head and slammed him into the ground. He hovered, waiting to see if Fraggle would get back up. After a moment he pushed himself to his feet and turned to face Shinji, before launching himself toward Shinji, only to meet a wall of green.
"Enough" Kilowog said.
"Not bad kid" the man praised him, and Shinji blushed. It went like that for another week. The four of them were paired off for individual combat, with the loser doing physical work as punishment. Shinji won more than he lost, but he still performed quit a few exercises. His hardest opponent was Arisia. She was more experienced and more imaginative, beating him every time. Not that he minded. He felt himself growing to like her. Arisia was kind, sweet and brave, everything that Shinji wasn't but wanted to be. The final week was basic hand to hand combat, in case their rings failed them, and they had no other options. Since Fraggle was too large and strong for the others to face equally at least at this stage in their training Kilowog told them, he worked exclusively with Fraggle.
"But what if we meet someone like him with a dead ring?" Shinji asked.
"You'll learn that eventually, but not yet" Kilowog said. So, in the end Shinji took turns sparring with Arisia and Soranik and taking a time out while they sparred with each other. It was only a crash course in hand to hand, but it was more than he had ever received, even at NERVE. and at the end of the three weeks of training he was in the best shape of his life though he was still stick thin much to his chagrin. That was when they actually took turns sparring hand to hand with Kilowog and Fraggle.
"Sometimes you're gonna meet someone bigger and stronger. You can't take em out right, but you can turn their power against them and control the battlefield" He said. It was one of the toughest most painful things Shinji had ever endured, particularly when either of them actually hits him. The bruises and broken bones were healed by his ring and every match he learned something new about using their strength against them and keeping out of there way while keeping control of the fight.
"All right poozers, it's been three months and all of you have made good progress" Kilowog said.
"So, what now sir?" Fraggle asked.
"Now, it's time for your first mission to see if you're ready to become fully fledged lanterns" Kilowog said.
"There's a warship of unknown origin that's attacked and decimated three worlds. Our job is to find it and stop it" Kilowog said.
"Just the four of us against something like that? Is that possible?" Shinji mumbled to himself.
"As green lanterns, it is our duty to make it possible" Soranik said.
"That's it exactly. Remember, your rings run on will. If you got the will, nothing can stop you" Kilowog said holding up his ring. The others did as well, and when Shinji did, he felt something unfamiliar, pride, and excitement.
"Alright poozers, let's get to it" Kilowog said.
Well, next chapter up. If Shinji still seems shaky and uncertain, that's because he is. Remember he's always hesitant until he's actually in action. I also didn't want to make him a Gary Stue, so I'm also trying to have him grow into his role as a lantern and as a hero. His evolution will continue when I merge this story with young justice.