"Gentlemen." He hadn't been looking forward to this, but he knew it was better to get it over and done with, sooner rather than later, and still try to keep the advantage before the fools found out for themselves. Hopefully the information blackout he had managed to set up had worked. That hope lasted approximately three seconds.

"Ikari, Ikari, Ikari. I think we would dearly like to hear your 'expert' opinion as to the possible damage to the Scenario caused by your 'visitors' and why no action has been taken to mitigate any impact they may have." Right. They knew. Of course. He could almost see that decrepit fossil Lorenz Kihl trying to raise his fingers, even with his bionics, to make air quotations. Old fart. Oh well.

"Yeah Ikari, and why we were not informed by you?" SEELE 03 chimed in, in that grating accent of his. Of all the SEELE members, 03 was probably the most aggressive towards Gendo. And all stemming back to a simple joke about renaming his precious building Madison Square Aquarium, 03 was so sensitive about anything connected to his business interests.

"Simple, gentlemen. What good would it have done if I had told you the current situation, given how little information we had at the time? What would you have done? What could you have done? As it is, we're still trying to figure out what has happened, we will be giving you full details on what has happened, and I would greatly appreciate any assistance you, or your technical advisors could provide." A fairly shocked silence greeted him. Were they actually hearing Gendo Ikari admitting he was not in complete control and even more stunningly, actually asking the Committee for help and advice? This was not going how Kihl and company had expected.

"Very well, Ikari. What can you tell us right now?"

Gendo kept himself from smiling. First crisis averted. "Our visitors, from initial conversations, and study, appear to have come from, I suppose for want of a better term, an alternate reality Earth, an Earth that has developed along almost identically to ours up until Second Impact. They have not had one, and as a result their planet has not gone through the same upheaval. On the other hand, we have probable evidence that their have had contact with multiple alien species, some threatening, others not. In fact, I believe the robot they use may be a result of conflict with one of the more aggressive species, though how it ended up in the hand of what appears to be a civilian, I do not know. We will find out, however." he finished, raising his voices over the increasing volume of muttering coming from the Committee.

"Aliens. Real genuine aliens? Little green men from outer space?" 03 again. Gendo fought the instinct to facefault. The only reason he had made it onto the Committee was his wealth, rather, his father's wealth. It certainly wasn't his intelligence, or his musical ability, Gendo though, inwardly shuddering remembering how the cretin had once played a recording of his band at a high level meeting. Biting down a joke about one of 03's sporting organisations and the film Space Jam, Gendo answered in the affirmative. "In one persistent case, very large green men, very predisposed to violence and very, very large weapons. I have not been made privy to any more at the time being, but our visitors have made it clear they are more than willing to share their data, just in case we encounter similar issues in our universe."

"Hmph. Naturally, you will share it with us as soon as you can, Ikari." Kihl again.

"Of course." A nod of the head.

"Very well, now, I assume by now you have plans on how best to use your 'guests' and their 'talents'?"

Gendo nodded, knowing Kihl was doing those infernal air quotes again. 'Sooner I can get someone capable enough to hack your infernal bionics and have you twitch yourself to death, the better.' he thought to himself. "Steps have been taken to help, shall we say, integrate them into NERV, in order to make it easier to monitor them. Captain Katsuragi was easy to manipulate into doing so. Currently, they are helping train the pilots. I will take any advantage we can get over the Angels, and no matter what skills they may learn, they will still make no difference when the time comes for Instrumentality. If our visitors have not returned to their universe by then, they can join Instrumentality too."

"But what of their souls? If they are not of our Lilith? What if they are not part of Complementation?" This was SEELE 04.

Gendo's smirk was evident. "Not our problem. They have a robot, allegedly capable of interstellar travel - it's a big universe." There were a few sniggers at this.

"Could we not take their robot for ourselves? After all, what if we could find something among the stars that would benefit us?" 03 again. This started a spirited discussion amongst some of the other members, though 03 cursed loudly when someone muttered something about "still winning nothing, even with alien hockey players".

At this Kihl had had enough. "Gentlemen, enough. We have had discussions along these lines in the past, we will not be having anymore. We are set along this path, and there is no alternative. Humanity has a course to take, and we are the ones who will guide it. This meeting is over."

As the last light went out, Kihl spoke up again. "I do not like this situation one iota, Ikari. Convince me why you believe these visitors should be not be disposed of. Immediately."

Nodding his head Gendo kept his face straight. This was it. "That was my first thought. After all, the Scrolls have to be followed. But something this big should have obviously been in them, but it wasn't. I cannot help but find myself wondering what else is lacking. They have been correct with regards to the Angels, but what if it turns out they were more like cliff notes, rather than the full story? What if other things occur that we are not expecting, yet the Angel attacks continue as predicted? I would wait until after the next Angel. If it is Sahaquiel from the skies, then the Scrolls are still correct, and I believe we should proceed as planned."

Kihl thought this over. "Dangerous thinking Ikari. If the other council members feel you are considering disregarding the Scrolls, there is no telling what may happen." Gendo fought the urge to roll his eyes at this, the other council members? They wouldn't even wipe their own backsides unless Kihl told them to. Kihl carried on. "And what of the order is disrupted? What if things change, and the Scrolls become useless, will it be too late to mitigate the impact these visitors have had? What makes you willing to gamble humanity's future on this? Don't tell me a gut feeling."

"A gut feeling, Chairman? No." Gendo smiled. "Merely weighing up the pros and cons and the evidence. After all, they are but mere humans, with simple thoughts and dreams like the rest of humanity. Albeit ones who have fought with large green men. We will use them to get to our destination. No more, no less."

"Very well, Ikari" Kihl nodded his head, " By the way what are they doing right now?"

"Showing the Second Child there is more to fighting and winning, than being a mere child genius." Gendo's grin was almost feral, one that was soon matched by Kihl's.

"Yes, Soryu's brat could do with a few lessons in humility. Very well, you may proceed with your plans. But do not forget, we will be watching closely, Ikari, very closely." And with that the connection was cut, leaving the room in darkness and silence.

Fuyutsuki broke the silence. "Seems the Chairman and you have a mutual disdain for the Second Child. I have to say, that was clever pushing the 'Scrolls merely tell the general outline of the story, while leaving some of the minor storylines out' angle rather than suggesting the Scrolls were off. Think it worked?"

Thinking it over, Gendo nodded. "For the time being. Kihl is so desperate for the Scrolls to be accurate, he'll grasp at anything that still lets him believe that. It all comes down to whether Sahaquiel is next. If it is, then Kihl can think 'Okay, the visitors came, but had no major effect - the Scrolls are still good', and we can continue as normal from there. If Zeruel or one of the others are next, we're in trouble. Nothing we can do about that."

"And what do you think yourself?"

Gendo just looked at Fuyutsuki, a ghost of a smile on his face. "What, and spoil the surprise?"

Fuyutsuki returned the expression. "Same old Ikari. Will this change the plans for the Antarctica trip?

"No. We still need the Lance."

===The Katsuragi Apartment===

"Food's here!"

Shinji looked up from where he was doing his homework, as he heard Misato's voice. "Coop and I decided to pick up some McDonalds for all of us, so no cooking for anyone tonight. Dig in!" she said as Asuka walked in, then stopped dead as she saw Kiva. "Uhh, I'm not that hungry, besides, Hikari needs some help with a school project."

"Oh, really? That's curious, as I invited Hikari round this evening, and she said nothing about any work. Something you want to tell us?" Misato asked, glancing at Kiva with a knowing smirk. 'I'll have to ask Kiva exactly what she did to Asuka, and if she can give me tips on how to keep her in line like this" she thought. Asuka was saved by the doorbell chiming. "I'll get it!" she yelled charging away from Misato. And Kiva.

Opening the door she saw four familiar faces. Hikari, Toji, Kensuke and Rei. "Hi Hikari! Come on in! Oh. Stooges, Wondergirl, I didn't think Misato had invited you as well. Fine, you may as well come in too. Close the door after you", turned and stalked off, with Hikari trailing her.

"Charming as ever, ain't she?" Toji said to no-one in particular.

Unexpectedly, it was Rei who replied. "Pilot Soryu may be a little agitated owing to a training session today," drawing looks from Kensuke and Toji, especially when they saw the hint of a smile on Rei's face. "She was most dissatisfied with the outcome."

"Great. The Red Devil messed up, and probably took it out on Shinji, didn't she?" Kensuke asked.

"On the contrary, there has been a decided lack of hostile behaviour from her after the debrief. I am at a loss to explain why. Perhaps our new guests have something to do with that."

"Guests? I wonder if they're the ones who pilot that awesome robot that showed up a few days ago!" asked Kensuke.

"I am not at liberty to say, but I am confident that is the reason for our invitation this evening."

Toji then interrupted. "I dunno 'bout you guys, but that smells like McD's! What are we waiting for?"

Misato was first to spot the three of them. "Hey guys! Get some food, Rei, there's some meat free options for you too. And let me introduce you to our new neighbours!"

Introductions were made, hands were shook, and predictably, Kensuke asked Kiva about the robot. "Is that your robot?" As Kiva tried to explain, Kensuke let rip. "What kind of robot is it? Is it a Gundam? How do you pilot it? What kind of reactor does it have, and what kind of weapons does it have onboard? And have you taken on an Eva in it yet? And-" only to be cut off by Kiva.

"Sorry, Kensuke, was it?" At his nod, she continued. "Megas is not actually my robot, it belongs to my friend Coop. No, it's not a Gundam, it's actually a prototype Mechanized Earth Guard Attack System that was modified by Coop. I could give you the bare specifics of it, but with the amount of work Coop's done on it, even I'm not sure of what it's fully capable of doing these days." Turning to Coop, he was about to unleash a barrage of questions, but Toji shoved a burger in his mouth. "Eat first, interrogate later, Ken", earning a grin and a thumbs up from Coop.

After the food had been demolished, the gang moved to the living room, Toji was the first to speak "So, how did you guys end up over here anyway? We don't see many Americans in Japan these days, unless they're military." Kiva looked to Misato. "Is our being here any kind of secret?" Misato shrugged, "With the amount of people who've seen Megas? Doubt it, though," looking hard at Kensuke and Toji, "But understand this, what we talk about here stays here, understood?" Nods. Looking over at the Megas crew, she shrugged again. "Your story, I'll let you guys tell them what you want. After all, it's not like your background is a state secret, is it?"

Jamie started. "We are weary travellers, from a place far beyond- oof!" as he was hit in the face with a cushion. "Fine, let Kiva tell the story."

Kiva proceeded to tell the story, without embellishment. Embellishment was provided by Jamie, however.

Meanwhile, in the room, Asuka and Hikari were eating and playing video games on Asuka's console. Hikari finally asked the question that had been bugging her all night.

"Whay are you avoiding your guests, Asuka? It's not a very nice thing to do."

Rolling her eyes, Asuka hmphed. "Guests, they're the worst kind of guests, The fat guy is an unfunny slobbering pig, and his friend is a perverted creep. I don't even know why Misato hasn't locked him up."

By this point in their friendship, Hikari knew Asuka well enough to chalk Coop as a guy who clearly overeated, but had probably a good sense of humor, and Jamie was probably another Shinji. But that left one person unmentioned.

"And what about that Kiva lady, Asuka? She does seem like a pretty nice person. "

"Hmph. Don't let her fool you. She's a monster, she's short tempered, a real nasty attitude, and gets violent at the smallest of things."

"Sounds like another redhead I know." Hikari muttered.

"I heard that."

"Well, I'm going out to join the party, it seems to be going well, and if you want to remain antisocial, don't let me stop you."

"Who's side are you on anyway?"

"Come on Asuka, do you really think she's going to beat you up with everyone present?"

"Fine. But when she breaks someone, don't say I didn't warn you."

After the food had been demolished, Misato had a little announcement to make. "So, Coop and I were thinking how best to break the ice with you guys, and as he pointed out, what better way than...video games!"

Kensuke punched the air. "Interdimensional video games! Yes!" Then. "Wait. You did bring a console, or are we just going to use the one here?"

Jamie answered him. "We've seen the one here, and while it was good for its day, you ain't seen nothin' yet. How's it going Coop?"

"Sweet, everything's hooked up, we ready to go?"

"What kind of console is that?"

"PS4."

Kensuke failed to hide his disbelief. "But, there's no such thing! "

A confused Coop asked him. "What, did we end up in a world where Sega beat Sony, or something? Even worse, Atari Jaguar Planet?"

Shaking his head, Kensuke elaborated. "We've only got the PS2, it only came out a couple of years ago. Sony were almost wiped out as a result of the Tokyo attack, and they're only really gotten back in the business the last couple of years. Sega got hit even harder than Sony, there's still rumours about a Dreamcast 2 down the line."

Even Jamie was surprised by this. "Dreamcast 2? In our world, Sega got out of hardware after their Dreamcast. What about Microsoft's Xbox or Nintendo? Lemme guess, Nintendo got nuked too."

Misato chipped in. "Yep, and with the state the world was in, console manufacturing was well down the priority list for anyone. Microsoft were kinda coerced into concentrating on working for the US military and GEHIRN rather than trying anything with the home PC and game market for the first few years after Second Impact."

"Wow. That sucks big time. Well, you're in for a treat." said Coop, as he switched on the PS4.

What are we playing? asked Asuka.

"Oh, just the latest in the GTA series. GTA 5. Came out a couple of years ago, but I reckon GTA 6 should be along in another year or two."

Looking at the PS4 menu with all the games Coop had played, Kensuke whistled, All to soon, the Rockstar logo appeared. The loading screen. Then the Yankton bank job. Silence, as they watched, jaws dropped at the graphics, and Hikari tutting at the language. After a few minutes of the regular game, Coop, paused it, and turned to the crowd.

"Pretty cool huh?" snickering at the nodding heads. "Okay, this is what we're gonna do. I've already finished the game, so I've got the characters with full weapons, properties etc,. What I'll do is I'll load it to my last save, and then we'll let everyone have a go. Not gonna bother with the invincibility cheat for now, and everyone gets to do what they wanna do til they die, and the next person gets to go. Basically go crazy, so, who's first?"

Everyone looked at Kensuke.

"I'm okay for now. I'll wait my turn."

"What are you, sick, Geek Stooge? I would have thought you'd be the first to want to go, judging by the way you were staring at it."

"Simple, I'll let some of the other have a go first, so I can see what to do, and what not to do. I want to be able to play as long as I can."

"Clever strategy, dude.

So, the gaming started, everyone enjoying themselves, and being surprised at Hikari's love for the minigun, which had Toji feeling a little nervous. The look on the Megas crew as they watched a penguin go on a tank rampage reduced Misato to tears of laughter. Even Asuka joined in. Eventually, though it was...

"Rei's turn!" "Do I have to, Captain Katsuragi? This does not seem to be an efficient use of time."

Jamie chipped in. "Look on it as training for improving hand eye co-ordination, and getting to know your teammates that little better."

At Misato's thumbs up, Rei nodded. "Very well."

As Rei began playing, Coop leaned over to Jamie. "You seemed to be eager to watch her play? How come?"

"I figure with her being all robot-y herself, she's going to be amazing to watch. She'll be flying under bridges, landing on the Maze Tower in a jet, the works. This is going to be fun."

Fifteen minutes later...

Everyone was trying to get their two cents in. "Another passenger? There are other things you can do beside picking up taxi fares." "Yeah, it's called Grand Theft Auto for a reason!" "And stop stopping at every light!" "Why not at least try to run someone over?" "I've seen more action in Myst!" Finally, Rei pulled over to the side of the road and parked correctly. Turning to Asuka, she explained matter of factly. "I am merely following the local laws, I do not see the purpose of drawing the attention of the local authorities to me. As a result of my strategy, I have now survived longer than everyone else, except Aida. Before too long, i shall overtake his time and be declared the winner." As she was saying this, a character hijacked her taxi, throwing her character into the road, whereupon they were run over and killed by a passing car.

Much to everyone's amusement.

Except Rei's.

"...most... annoying..."

"Oh yeah, who's the King! I am! Who's Number 1! I am!" Kensuke didn't help by jumping up and down, proclaiming himself as the champion, only to be silenced by equally threatening glares from Asuka, and much more disurbing, Rei. "Okay, I clearly fluked that win, let's just leave it at that, okay? Guys?"

Misato had one of her ideas. "Hey, you wouldn't mind bringing that into NERV someday? I just want to see Ritsuko's mind blown by the processing power that thing has, for all the size of it. I'd say we can repurpose one of the big screens on the bridge too. Aoba and Hyuga'd love to have a crack at this too. "

"Sure." Turning to the others, "Okay, we're going to show you what our world is like, and some of the stuff we've come up against."
"Cool!" was the general reaction.

Ten minutes later, most of them were started to get a little fed up, Asuka nominated herself to act as the spokeswoman. "Okay, we get it. You love cars, Misato loves cars, but the rest of us don't share anywhere near the same interest in them. Can you please show us something other than car shows, or is that all your world does for fun?

Rei interrupted. "But Pilot Soryu, I find those old cars that were bouncing up and down most fascinating."
Without missing a heartbeat, Asuka continued. "Point made."

Jamie grinned. "Yeah, Coop, show them Gorrath."

Hikari was intrigued by the name. "What's a Gorrath? That would be a strange name for a car, wouldn't it?"
Kensuke was almost bouncing. "With a name like that's he's got to be the evil alien you guys have to deal with, right?" he asked Jamie.

"Very good. You win a cookie. Hit it, Coop."

Their eyes bugged out as they watched footage from Coop's first encounter with the Glorft. Predictably, Kensuke was drooling over the hardware, Toji was impressed. "Waitasecond, you were actually using wrestling moves to defeat an alien army. That was awesome."
"Thanks," Coop acknowledged."Old Squidhead doesn't seem to know when to quit though, he keeps coming back with bigger and bigger plans, which seem to go wrong quicker and quicker. I'll show you some at some other time."

Hikari on the other hand, was more than a little disturbed at the devastation asking how many casualties there had been.
"Funnily enough, nobody got hurt. Well, apart from some teachers' feelings when the school got smashed, but on balance, that was probably a plus."
Hikari actually let out an outraged squeak. "But what about the children's education?"
Jamie laughed. "Spoken like someone who has never endured the eldritch horror that is the State of New Jersey public education system."

"It's that bad?" she whispered. Jamie just shuddered theatrically.

Asuka had been studying the fight so intently, she didn't realise Kiva had sat down next to her, until Kiva asked her "What did you think?" Asuka almost jumped. "Relax, I'm not going to bite. As one combat pilot to another, I'd like to know what you thought of that fight?"

Calming herself, Asuka thought for a few seconds. "Reckless. Showing off. Though while some of those moves were incredible, either he had a lot of luck, and or the enemy were very incompetent. Some nice weapons though."
Kiva nodded. "I agree with you. We don't have the footage, but would you believe that ten minutes before the Glorft showed up, he and I got into a fight? I had two fully independent combat drones, and he basically cleaned our clocks." Asuka just stared. The fat fool wiped the floor with Ms Kill-A-Lot? Kiva continued. "Yeah, he's reckless, and some of those moves shouldn't work, but they do. They're unbelievably effective. And while I will be teaching you more orthodox tactics, don't be surprised if he shows you some of his more unorthodox moves. Though at least he probably won't be installing some of his gadgets in your Eva." She snickered at that, then went to the kitchen for a glass of water.
Asuka frowned. She hadn't thought about that possibility. The bottle blonde bitch would have kittens at the thought of the fat guy messing round with the Evas, not to mention her Unit-02.

Though the idea of missiles, missiles and more missiles at her fingertips did hold a certain appeal...

Misato caught her attention. "Okay kids, time to call tonight's festivities to a halt. Guys, thanks for coming round, we'll have to do this again some time."

The guests all thanked Misato and Coop for the food, and entertainment. Goodbyes were said, and Rei, Hikari, Toji and Kensuke left to go home, Kiva and Jamie headed back to their apartment, leaving Coop and Misato in the living room. Asuka had already retreated to her room, while Shinji cleared up.
As Coop unplugged everything, Misato spoke to him. "I still can't believe you used your robot as a mere home cinema projector, just to play video games on."
Coop shrugged. "Well, considering your little CRT TV you have, I figured this was the best way to watch it all in HD, right? You gotta agree it was better. Besides, who'd notice?"

Outside, the few hundred people who had gathered in amazement to watch the activities that had been projected on the nearby warehouse wall slowly dispersed, talking amongst themselves of the wonders they had just witnessed. For some reason, more than a few doing very good vocal impressions of Trevor Philips.