Sorry for the wait. Busy as usual, but I'm going to try to post another chapter by next week. In any case, here is the next chapter of You Must (Not) Run Away.
Unknown SHIELD Facility, Somewhere in the State of New York
Reed Richards is alone in a large room where they could fit EVA Unit 13 into. He is on a steel bridge, full of equipment and computers with the ends of the bridge having doors to enter and exit. On the front end of the room, is a large figure casting a shadow all over the room. On the back of the room, are the two Spears of Longinus, back on into their original form and parts of the armor from EVA 13 taken off, including the armor of the head.
For the last three days, Reed Richards has been in and out of the facility, due to prior plans with his family as well as talk show he been invited to. He, Tony Stark, and Hank Pym have been working together to solve the mystery of the unknown machine the fell to the Earth. For the first day, Reed Richards and Tony Stark decided to remove the red poles out of the EVA, using the government Sentinels, which are mostly used to defend against super-human threats. When they remove the two Spears of Longinus, they gone back to their original form, with having the bottom end turning in two tines as the rest of the body becoming a double-helix. Reed Richards left the second day to Hank Pym and Tony Stark, where they use the Sentinels to carefully take off the armor. Before they did it however, it was decided they shall use machine hands to touch the EVA.
When they pulled out Shinji Ikari out of his entry plug, they discovered he was unconscious, unable to talk. Upon discovering that an adolescent boy was in the EVA, The Avengers, Mr. Fantastic, and Nick Fury became completely surprised, until Fury pointed out that it could be a disguise to catch them off guard. Fury then ordered his men to take Shinji prisoner and place him into the hands of SHEILD scientists in the SHIELD Helicarrier. The Avengers protested, saying they should try to wake him up first, but Fury wouldn't budge. Mr. Fantastic then volunteered to investigate the EVA, in which Tony Stark then offered his services. While Fury won't let Tony Stark near an investigation like this, the nature of the EVA and its abilities need to be found out, resulting in Nick Fury agreeing. Tony then suggested bringing along Hank Pym due to being one of the world's foremost expert on biochemistry, in which Fury also agreed.
During the third day, when Tony Stark and Hank Pym managed to pull out the second entry plug out of the EVA, they also opened it. What they found inside the right entry plug, is nothing. Since there were two entry plugs, they suspected that there might be a co pilot in it, but there was no one in it. No sign that someone was inside.
The door on the bridge opened and coming in is Tony Stark and Hank Pym.
"Reed what did you find?", asks a curious Tony Stark, who also a little worried based on some discoveries they found about EVA 13.
"Distributing things Tony.", says Reed who feels a bit uncomfortable as he sits down on a chair.
"I know right. I had just extracted some interesting data from the cockpit", Stark says while bring out a device that shows a holographic EVA Unit 13, "From what the system under the seat tells me, the name of this thing is called, Evangelion. More precisely, Evangelion Unit 13."
"Evangelion?", wonders Reed Richards, "So it's a gospel for something."
"Gospel?", wonders Hank Pym, "What do you mean?"
"In Catholicism, it refers to as a Gospel Book.", explains Richards.
"I didn't think you knew something about religion, Reed.", says Stark with his eyebrow raised.
"I once read book about religion during my time at the Empire State University.", explains Reed Richards, "To help understand references. You guys discover anything else?"
"So far, no.", answers Hank Pym, "All we have is its model name. The question that is it from Earth or not still remains a mystery, especially with that kid we pull out from the cockpit and his cassette player."
"Which doesn't exist.", adds Tony, "And not from it being old fashion, but from the fact that it model doesn't exist. I checked all data on all of Sony's cassette player and there is nothing about an "SDAT". But the fact that the kid has a product from a company from Sony means that ether the kid was sold a fake, a hidden product, or he from somewhere, I'm guessing another Earth, where it is sell this cassette player."
"Another Earth.", repeats Reed Richards as he check the data in the computer, "It about 44% possible with the cassette player alone."
"So what have you discovered Reed.", asks Tony as he looks at the data.
"From the sample we've obtained from the "Evangelion".", Reed says and he gets up and starts explain his discovery, "I can say that the Evangelion is "similar yet different" from human DNA."
"What!?", yells a shocked Hank Pym who was not expecting an answer like that.
"How could that be.", wonders Tony Stark who is equally shocked as he looks at Reed's computer.
"Look at the DNA structure.", says Reed as he shows a model of human and the EVA's DNA, "While the substance of what the Evangelion and humans are completely different, the structure itself are completely similar. If I didn't analyze a couple of the substances that made up the Evangelion, then I could have sworn this used to be human."
"Just the thought of that.", says Tony as he looks at the giant figure hanging on the side of the giant room.
It was EVA 13, with its four arms out as they are spread out, with the arms attached to the wall. When on the second day, when they tried to remove the armor of EVA 13, the discovered it was not armor. It was it own skin. Even though they managed to collect a DNA sample, they were visibly disturbed.
"Tell Fury to lock it up.", says Reed as gather his things, "What ever this is, I have a feeling that without the information we need, we could end up creating damage."
"I think you could be right Reed.", replies Hank as he helps gather the equipment, "So far, the only thing we can manage to hack from the cockpit is the name."
"Then it decided.", said Tony as he try to contact Fury, "Evangelion Unit 13 is under lock down until its needed."
?
Somewhere in the world, in an unknown time, in an unknown place. Someone is starting to wake up. As they slowly open their eyes, they saw a couple of green figures around the bed he was in. As their eyes full opens, the green figures turn out to be various men in green uniforms with yellow straps and belts. They hide their face with green masks as they stand in a line around the bed.
Suddenly, the men in front of the bed separate, creating two lines from the side of the bed. The eyes of the person in the bed then looks at a man coming straight at them. The men from the two lines stick their hands straight forward, above their hands as he walks to the person in the bed. The man the person in the bed is watching, is a lean, yet tall bald man wearing a black uniform and a silver belt. There were two unusual things about this man. First, are the scars on his head that look like cuts. His made the man more intimidating. Second, is his right eye, which holds a monocle. The man smiles at the person in the bed as the person in the bed closes their eyes.
SHIELD Helicarrier, Medical Room
Another pair of eyes open up. It was not because they finish resting or something outside woken them up. It was because of the dream they had. The dream we just witnessed. The pair of eyes in the Helicarrier belongs to the protagonist of this story, Shinji Ikari. Shinji is looking at the ceiling for a while before looking to his left. On his left, is a door. It was then that Shinji realizes that he is in the same room he was before.
"I'm back here again.", thought Shinji as he looks back up in the ceiling.
As Shinji looks straight up at the ceiling of the room, he tries to think back on what happened to him. He remembers waking up the first time here, remembering that the room has a mirror in it. At that moment, Shinji then remembers the pale boy with white hair and red eyes and the pale girl with sky blue hair and red eyes.
"Just who on Earth are they?", thought Shinji as he tries to remember anything more about them, but couldn't, "It no good. I can't remember."
Shinji then tries to remember far back from when he first woken up, but couldn't.
"Why can't I remember from beyond when I first woken up.", thought an increasingly frustrated Shinji, "How come? Do I even remember my name?"
"Shinji-kun.", a male voice said in Shinji's head follow by a female voice, "Ikari-kun."
"Shinji... Ikari.", repeats Shinji as he looks at the ceiling with a stoic expression on his face, "Is that...my name?"
"Probably."
Shinji almost jump up from a voice in the room that startled him. He gets his head up and turn his eyes to a man sitting in a chair in front of his bed. He is handsome man with long fluffy-like brown hair with a calm, yet friendly face.
"Well at least that what our top experts from this world found out from that thing they pulled you out from.", said the man as he gets up, "Well that just your name off of the systems from the thing."
Shinji became more confused.
Who is this man? Why is he here? For what reason?
"I'm sorry, but who are you?", asks Shinji with a confused tone.
"That right, we should make introductions first. I'm the one who going to keep an eye on you until someone higher than me says that enough.", announces the man, "Agent Blake Sanders of SHIELD."
"Blake...Sanders.", repeats Shinji slowly, getting the name right, "SHIELD?"
"Strategic Hazard Intervention Espionage and Logistics Directorate.", Blake says as he repeats what the anagram means, "In short, we are an espionage and law enforcement given jurisdiction by the United Nations."
"Espionage? Law enforcement?", repeats Shinji, wondering what do they mean.
Suddenly, the definition of law enforcement reaches Shinji's head as his eyes widen from the revelation.
"The police!?"
"D-did I do something wrong?", Shinji asks as his voice cracks in the beginning as he starts to shake a bit, "What is it that you want from me? Did I do something wrong?"
"That depends, do you want to do something wrong?", asks Blake as his voice became a little more serious.
Shinji thought about that question as he starts to panic a little more.
"Do I want to? What does that mean?", thought a very confuse and frighten Shinji before saying to Blake, "I don't know what you're saying! Just... just what is going on!?"
"Try to stay calm.", Blake says as he tries to reassure Shinji, "Do you remember anything before you first came to this room?"
"I...I..."
Shinji starts to hesitate as he kept saying "I", trying to find what to say. In the end, he couldn't.
"I don't know."
"You don't know?", questions Blake, "Even though you know your name."
Shinji just sits there, as he puts his legs close to his body and grabs them as he holds himself.
"Just know my name. Isn't that enough?", whimpers Shinji in a soft tone, "Don't know much. I really don't. It like I said, I don't what going on."
Blake looks at Shinji, completely skeptical, but a small part of him wants to pity him. A part of Blake wants to believe Shinji didn't really know what he is doing, but until there is proof that Shinji doesn't really know what he is doing, he has to continue his duty of finding more about Shinji. As Shinji lowers his head down, Blake quickly took a glance at the mirror, which is one way mirror, as Shinji and Blake are being watched by two agents, Agent Sitwell and Agent Woo.
"This guy is acting like a kid.", comments Sitwell.
"He is a kid.", replies Woo.
"I know.", responds Sitwell, "I meant that if he acted like he meant to attack the Avengers and almost kill a bunch of people, then he wouldn't be sulking like this."
"This kid like what, fourteen. There is a reason why people tend to look down on kids in the military.", comments Woo.
"You mean like that kid who tries to blow himself up for the 72 virgins.", said Agent Sitwell with grin, "I heard that kid was made fun of after that. Kids can be so cruel."
"You should have heard the stories when Phil was in middle school.", snarks Agent Woo, "That was cruel."
"But, seriously, what do we do now?", wonders Agent Sitwell as Woo rubs his head, "Contact Sanders and tell him that we can't treat this like a normal questioning."
"Will do."
Blake, who wearing a small ear piece on his right ear, receive Agent Woo's message. As he looks at Shinji, who still cradling himself and sighs a bit. He then walks up to the right side of Shinji's bed and then sits there. Shinji then looks up at him as Blake then places Shinji's SDAT, along with his headphones wrap around it, next to him.
"What is this?", demands Shinji as he grabs the SDAT.
"This what we found along with you. Sorry if I was being a bit cold. It part of my job to be little cold. Until your ready to talk, I can wait.", says Blake as he gets up and leaves the room, leaving Shinji alone.
As the door to the room closes, Blake walks a few steps away from the door before putting his back against the wall. Blake sighs a bit as he then start to think about some things.
"So this is how it feels like working with someone who hasn't grown up.", thought Blake as he though someone, "Didn't think I'd be on the opposite side of it."
"Hey Sanders, what do you think after talking to him?", asks Sitwell through the communicator in their ears.
"What do I think?", repeats Blake as then starts tapping his head, "I know I been pull into this questioning due having a friendlier face then the two of you, but I don't think we are going to get much out him. I my opinion, lets, for the time being, consider him a loss cause."
Shinji looks his SDAT with confusion. He looks around the tape player as he unwrap the headphones on it. As Shinji inspects his SDAT, a sense of familiarity reaches him as he tries to open the SDAT. As it opens up, Shinji takes out the cassette in it. It was just an ordinary cassette with no labels. Shinji just stares at the cassette for a few seconds, completely still before putting the cassette back to the SDAT.
Shinji looks around the room as he grips his SDAT. He starts to shake a bit as closes his eyes.
"Here, it should work just fine now."
For a brief second, Shinji then finds himself in an empty room, with only three things in it. The first one, is a small tree planted on the ground. The second is a grand piano with the key board closed and the third thing on the piano's chair. The third one, is a young boy with light gray hair and red eyes giving Shinji the SDAT.
As Shinji opens his eyes to see that he is still in his room. As Shinji then looks at his SDAT, he then plug in his headphones to his ears as he plays his SDAT. As the 27th track starts to play, Shinji lays down of the bed and turn to his left side, away from the door.
Engine Room of the Third Engine
The first SHIELD Helicarrier was originally designed by three experts in machinery. Tony Stark, Reed Richards, and Forge of the X-Men. It was such a complex design that Stark Industries became the ones to construct the entire thing. After that, several more Helicarrier were created, the standards for engineers increased.
One of these engineers, is a young woman with brown curly hair and narrow frame glasses. She was not pretty or ugly, just normal. Growing up, she learned about cars at a young age due to her father. Her mother left them when she was about two and her father ends up with different women after that as drown his sorrows with alcohol after that. The young woman became insecure after that, believing that it was her fault her mother left. As a result, she had little friends during elementary school, and isolation that carried on to middle school. She doesn't talk to anybody and nobody talked to her. She soon believed that she would be lonely for the rest of her life, until one day in collage, she was approached by a man.
This man is a normal looking man, with average looks and height. But at first, he had an energetic personality, approaching the woman with a lot of confidence as tries to start a conversation with her. This clashes with her shy and paranoid personality, as the first couple of times he approached her, it was extremely awkward for her at the time, but, as time went on, she started to respond to him more, as soon after, he became her only friend. At this time, her father's life was taken away by a deadly car crash, resulting in her coming into the man's arms for comfort.
Original, the man only approached her for help with his schooling, as she was at the top of her class. But during the time of her father's death, made him realize that she completely relied on him. He tried to break things off, but couldn't. He sympathizes with her too much. One day, she discovered something about him. He was a Hydra agent in training, as well as being a third generation Hydra solider.
She suspected something about him for a long time. At first, she thought he was seeing someone, which resulted in her becoming more paranoid, but kept it quiet as she doesn't know..., or rather, doesn't want to confront him. When she did however, he forced coming clean. At first, he was closed to having to kill her to keep his secret, but when she said that she'll follow him, he ends up recruiting her to Hydra. After college, she ends up being assistants to several Hydra scientists as the man she clings to, ends up becoming a full fledged agent of Hydra.
After a couple of years, the man decided to come clean to the woman trying to break things off. The women started to become confuse during the man's talk with her as it starts to become clear for the woman that he intends to let her go. Before he can finish however, a SHIELD raid on the Hydra base happened. The Hydra base was on an unknown island, but with the island surrounded by military boats, the only way out is through submarine. The man, gave his life to woman as he helped her escape from the base as the top officers from Hydra decided to take the SHIELD agents out by self-destructing the base.
The woman became confused. The man gave his life for her, even though he was letting go of her. After coping with that fact, she came to the conclusion that he still loved her. She was struck with grief and anger, believing that with the world rejecting her, along with her father and lover dead, he has nothing else to live for. The woman looks at power source of engine 3 as she plants a short length cylinder device on the machine holding the power source. Her name is Bridget Arlo and she is going to die today.
Mess Hall
"Today is the day."
This is the thought from a young man with short brown hair and green eyes, who'd finally finished waiting for the plan to come to fruition. The young man had joined Hydra for over five years. It wasn't until three years ago however, when he infiltrated SHIELD. It was pretty easy not because of his ability as an agent, but for one thing and one thing only. SHIELD is starting to build a psi-unit, meaning a unit of psychic agents capable of extracting information as well as other mind tricks. Some were meta-humans that gain these powers during their lifetime or some willingly became products of experiments the SHIELD been working on.
The young man we are talking about gain his psychic powers as a young child growing up in the southwest. His mother calms she can hear the minds of the dead growing up, which resulted in everybody in her hometown believing that she is a freak. It only got worse when she was an adult as she can barely hold down a job due to her powers growing, forcing her into prostitution. This resulted in the young man birth. To this day, nobody has any clue on who the father is.
Growing up, a couple of children makes fun of him for having a freak of a mother. He resented them, but at the same time, he resented his own mother. She was always off somewhere doing who knows what, with who knows who. She always talk to herself, never saying a lot to her own son. At night, when the young man had nightmares, she out in the streets, selling herself. The young man had a good understanding of sex thanks to his mother when he was only 8 years old.
At the same time as he learn about sex, his own powers start to manifest. At first, it started out like whispers to his ears when he usually look behind him at times. But as he grew older, he began to hear more voices as one day, during his English class, he almost suffered a meltdown due to the voices just coming in at once. He tried to talk to his mother about it, but the distance between them stop that option completely.
One day, she left the house and never came back. The young man back then, was then placed in an orphanage where the constant surrounding of other people made his situation worse as the voices continued to increase. As time went on, the boy began to isolate himself as the rejection from his peers started to make him reject them. Soon he was adopted by a mysterious pair. This mysterious pair had been listening to the rumors in his town, that soon led them to him.
The pair that adopted him, were two agents of Hydra, that promise him that they help him control his abilities. They so convince him that a new world needs to be created, a world where he'll no longer be rejected by letting the world be controlled by one ruler. They guided him into believing the ideologies of Hydra as after they finished training him, they decided to put his abilities to the test, and infiltrate SHIELD until the time is right. Now it is that time. The young man name is Adrian Matthews, and he is betting his life on this plan.
Adrian gets up from his table, which usually has nobody else in it. His eyes scan on the agents in the mess hall, which contains at least ΒΌ of SHIELD agents that he helped in installed psi-shields on them, to prevent things like mind control and mind reading. That was what the psi-unit is made for other than gaining information. While SHIELD psi-shields are tough, tough enough to give someone as experience in this subject like Professor Xavier of the X-Men a bit of tough time, Adrian knows he made a backdoor on those psi-shields just for him.
Infirmary
"Can you feel this?"
The nurse is lightly taps her reflex hammer on the left knee of Shinji Ikari. This was the same nurse that Shinji met days ago. Shinji, who sitting on the left side of the bed, with his SDAT on the table to the right of his bed, answers the women, but is looking at his right.
"Yes."
The eyes of Shinji Ikari look dead. Barely any life in them as Shinji just do what the nurse tells him to. At this point, there no telling what in store for Shinji. He didn't know what to expect. They tell him that he did something, but Shinji doesn't what it was. He was a bit scared on what going to happen now, but that just half of his problems.
"Why can't I remember?", thought Shinji his right hand twitches a bit.
Shinji thought about what Blake meant by if he meant to do something. Shinji just couldn't grasp it. At what Blake is saying. Blake said that Shinji did something, but Shinji kept denying it. He kept denying, because he believed he didn't do anything.
"I didn't do anything."
"Now your right knee."
As the nurse taps Shinji's right knee with her reflex hammer, Shinji then grabs his SDAT.
"I can feel it.", says Shinji with an emotionless tone, "Is that all?"
"Not quite.", answers the nurse, "I need to give you more proper test now that your fully conscious."
Shinji didn't like that answer. He becomes more frustrated as he stops twitching his right hand.
"Why?", questions Shinji in a low, but demanding, "Why me? I didn't do anything wrong. I don't know what's happening. So why are you people doing this?"
"Sir, please remain calm.", orders the nurse as Shinji still isn't meeting her gaze.
"Why should I?", says Shinji as he put his head down, "You people aren't telling me anything. You have me here in this room not telling me anything! So why should I calm down!?"
Shinji suddenly turns his head at the direction of the nurse and looks angrily at her. The nurse then reaches for her gun inside her outfit.
"Sir, I'm asking you for the last time.", orders the nurse in a strict yet threatening tone, "Calm down."
Shinji looks at the nurse for a couple of seconds before turning away. The nurse takes her hand of from inside her uniform grabs a clipboard and writes something down.
"They told me you'll get your answers when your more emotionally controlled.", said the nurse as she finishes writing something down, "Don't snap at me just because I can't give you answers."
The nurse leaves the room, leaving Shinji alone in the room by himself. The moment the nurse left, quietness took over the room. Shinji grabs his legs and curls himself as he closes his eyes.
"I hate this.", Shinji says to himself as he has bad feeling in his stomach, "I feel sick."
A few seconds after Shinji says that. A few seconds after Shinji reaches for his SDAT. A few seconds after the quietness over took the room, the room shakes as a loud explosion. Shinji jumps up a bit as the nurse comes inside a few seconds after the explosion.
"Sir, we need to have you evacuated.", says the nurse as she then grabs Shinji's hands.
She then takes out two metal bracelets with a small cube on the side of them. She places them on Shinji's wrist as the nurse press something on the right bracelet. Suddenly, the bracelets become attracted to each other, as the cubes from the two become attach to each other.
"Wh-what is this?", asks a shocked Shinji as he looks at the nurse.
"These are magnetic handcuffs.", answers the women, "They are place to prevent you from escaping me. Right now, we need to evacuate."
"Prevent me... from escaping?"
The nurse opens the door as the lights on the ceiling blinks red with "red alert" repeating over the helicarrier. The nurse grabs Shinji's arms and lead him to the hallways. The hallway is pretty chaotic, with agents running up and down the hallway. As the nurse tries to take Shinji to the path that led to the hanger, where a couple of transporters are ready to take the non-combatants away, in case the Helicarrier really is going down.
However, Shinji stops his legs from running as the nurse pauses when she realizes Shinji stopped. Shinji pulls his hands away from the nurse's grip and clutches his hands.
"If you wanted to get me escape from this place, then why did you put these things on me?", whimpers Shinji as he releases his hands.
"This not the time a place to talk about this!", screams the nurse, "We have to get to the transporter, otherwise..."
"RUN!"
The shout came from a man behind the pair as the nurse and Shinji turns around to see a black hair SHIELD agent, pointing his gun at the two. By the time the two just realized what happening, the agent pulled the trigger.
The sound of the loud pop from the gun echo across the hallway. Shinji couldn't tell what just happened. In his mind, he being taken by the nurse to a "safe place", then a man wearing the same outfit as Blake Saunders came out of nowhere, pull out a gun, and shot at their direction. When Shinji heard the pop from the gun, he flinched and closes his eyes. When he reopened them, he sees the agent, who face is filled with shock, regret, and fear. He turns to his right side to find the nurse, fallen to the ground, holding to her lower right side.
"Gaahh!", screams the nurse as she look at her hands to see blood.
Shinji just stood there, petrified with fear. He didn't know what just happened. Why was this man attacking them? What going on? Why is this happening? These questions filled Shinji's head as the man then point his gun at him.
"Run away kid."
That voice came from the agent with the gun. He looks down on Shinji as tone of his voice is a mix of desperation, like a tortured prisoner. As the man aims his gun at Shinji, time stood still for Shinji, like all of life slowed down just for him.
"Why did he tell me to run away?", thought a traumatized Shinji Ikari, "When he pointing his gun at me?"
Shinji faces the barrel of the gun, as fear took over him, resulting in him falling to his knees. He couldn't do anything. Not even make a single sound. All he can do watch as the man's gun aims at his head.
"GODDAMN IT KID! RUN AWAY!"
At that moment, Shinji's body reacted by on its own. It started to get up even when Shinji's consciousness couldn't comprehend what going on.
"Why is body moving?"
The right leg leans forward to pick up the rest of Shinji's body.
"Is it trying to get away?"
As the rest of his body slowly moves up, Shinji then realizes something.
"No, I'm trying to get away."
As his body finally gets up, Shinji then had another thought.
"Is it because I want to live? Is that it?"
For a few milliseconds Shinji just stood there, comprehending everything that happened to him so far. For a while now, the only experienced he knows of, are ones in that room. To him, he hasn't even lived in this world for 24 hours, and the experiences he know of are fear, loneliness, confusion, frustration, and anger. Despite that, his body... no, he himself wants to live.
The trigger is finally pulled. The agent's gun releases its bullet at Shinji's head, as a loud pop can be heard to anybody but Shinji's ears. Coming out of the corner of the hallway, Blake arrives just in time to see the trigger being pulled. His eyes widen as his hand start to move for his gun, but by the time he grabs it, the bullet would have already killed Shinji.
As the bullet is no less than 3 inches, Shinji finally realizes something. Despite what he experienced, there was something in this world he still wants.
"I want to live."
For a single moment, the eyes of Shinji Ikari turn red, fast enough that no one saw it. At that moment, the bullet gets deflected as an A.T. Field appeared around Shinji. For a while the whole froze as Shinji then realized what happened.
"Wh-what happened?"
Next Chapter:
The will to live. The will to survive. Can leave you with hope or can leave you with guilt. The hands of a child is stained with human blood.
Some of the plan things that mention last chapter I'm leaving for the next one. Please review to tell me the things I need to work on, the things I'm doing well in, or if you have questions (guest questions I'll answer in my extras). Follow or Favorite this story if you like it well enough. Hope you all have a good day!