A/N: Hey folks back with the long awaited Third Chapter, sorry it has been so long had some trouble with this one as trying to write a characters personality that is almost complete opposite of your own is a little difficult for a new writer like myself. Anyway First proper action scene here and I hope it is to most peoples liking.
Again Reviews are welcome as it will help out if by any chance I've missed something from previous chapters.
Enjoy :D
Chapter 3: Into the Fire
"Analysis Patten confirmed as Orange, it's not an Angel!" the Tech announces grabbing everyone's attention instantly.
"What do you mean Orange?" Akagi asks. "The only confirmed Orange patterns are Evangelion Units." She looks at the screen showing the Silver behemoth. "Are you telling me that's an Eva?"
"Yes ma'am."
"How? Unit-00 is in cryostasis and Unit-01 is deployed against the Angel." Akagi asks looking for response even though she knew if anyone could answer that, it was her.
"Zoom in on the shoulder." Gendo orders firmly from out of the blue.
The Tech responsible for camera control does so to reveal the Arabic Numbers 04 in the same stylisation and placement as Unit-01's.
Akagi upon seeing this. "Eva Unit-04? But that's impossible the US only just got approval from the UN two weeks ago."
"Clearly they have either had it built already without anyone knowing, before seeking approval or, judging by its arrival, something or someone else is at play." Gendo levels with Akagi. 'I will have the Pilot interrogated for every drop of information they know'. He mentally adds.
"Sir, Ma'am, the Angel has resumed its attack." A Tech reports.
Back outside the Angel now realising the newcomer is a potential threat just like the first one it held in its hand, launches one more Spear attack into Unit-01's head, spearing it clean through and sending it flying into a high rise building, the defunct left arm crashing down on a smaller building pancaking the top four floors. As the energy spear is retracted the gaping hole left in Unit-01's head sprays LCL everywhere with no response from Shinji to indicate he was still alive.
"Massive damage to the head details unknown." A report comes through
"Synchronisation graph is inverting, Pulse reversing!" the Tech replies.
"Break the circuit, try to stop it!" Akagi orders with concern etched in her voice.
"No good it's rejecting the signal, we're locked out!"
Misato approaching one of the male techs with glasses. "How's Shinji?"
"No response, condition unknown." He replies watching all the graphs flat line.
"Unit-01 has completely shut down!" another report is announced.
"MISATO!" Akagi shouts hoping her friend can think of a way around this.
Misato with a look of distaste at the situation. "So, that's it." She turns to the Techs. "Abort Mission, Pilot safety is Top Priority, Eject the Plug get him out of there!"
The female Tech shouts over her shoulder. "It's no use all remote links have been severed."
"NO, Shinji!" Misato Gasps with worry.
Gavin having just witnessed what had happened to Unit-01 suddenly became slightly more aware of the situation he was in.
'Jesus, talk about out of the frying pan and into the fire. I hope that guy is alright.' He muses to himself, then notices the (to him) unidentified monster start to approach him in a slow determined manner.
Realising he is going to have to fight to get out of this Gavin's demeanour changes. "Alright big guy, let's dance." He says to himself, then wills Unit-04 to charge toward the Angel.
"Captain, the unidentified Eva has engaged the target!" the Tech reports.
Misato with a slight look of relief. "What? And the Angel?"
"Has left Unit-01 alone and is moving to engage the other Eva."
"At least whoever he/she is, he's bought us some time, try and re-establish contact with Shinji."
"Yes Ma'am." Akagi meanwhile is furiously typing away on a terminal looking through what seemed to be frequency codes.
Meanwhile on the top level. "The unknown Eva has engaged the Angel, what do you make of it Ikari?" Fuyutsuki asks his former student.
"Judging by his initial reaction, it is quite possible this is the first Angel he or she has seen, and by engaging the Angel they are trying to avoid the same outcome happing to them, as what has happened to our useless excuse for a Pilot." Gendo theorises. "Besides I will study this person's actions, and how they handle the situation as to better be able to question them later." Ending with a smirk.
Fuyutsuki slightly frowning at what Gendo is implying but understanding of the situation, since the scrolls did not foretell this sort of event happening.
Gavin charging forward at great speed towards the Monster draws Unit-04's fist back and throws it as hard has he could straight into the Monster 'face' sending the lumbering beast flying backwards into some buildings.
"Hmm… that wasn't so hard, I hope the other gu…" Gavin was interrupted when he himself was thrown back as the Monster recovered and fired its energy pulse at Unit-04. Gavin holding his midriff as it ached and throbbed from the attack "Damm maybe it will be as hard as I thought then." Gathering his nerve he brings Unit-04 back to its feet. "Now what, clearly hitting it didn't work and I have no ranged weapons so I can't stay at distance I'll get blasted again." Gavin's ears then perked up when he felt a connection being made to his Eva and burst of static comes through the Comm. Suddenly overcome with emotion Gavin basically cries. "HELLO! Emily? Is that you? Come In. I can't quite hear you." A look of confusion then comes across his face as it was not English that he could hear but Japanese.
For a moment Akagi stops her transmission to the unknown pilot when she hears a Loud but broken up response not in Japanese. 'Well that's not surprising if indeed this is Unit-04 we are dealing with.' She continues her transmission hoping the pilot speaks at least some Japanese.
"Pi..t .. uni..ti..ed Ev., ple… respo... I Pilot of.. uniden..fied Eva, please respond." A woman's voice finally breaking through the static as the frequencies eventually matched up.
Gavin quickly diving Unit-04 behind some buildings for cover opens the Comm. Link up and speaks his heavily accented and slightly broken Japanese. "Who is this? Where is Doctor Saracen? Where am I?" all the usual questions running through his head after being seemingly transported to a different place.
"There's no time for that." The woman replies. "We need you to take out that Angel, aim for its core it's a red sphere located on its body." She continues.
Gavin suddenly clueing on to what the woman just said. "Wait… did you just say Angel?"
"Yes I did."
Gavin now getting a sinking feeling in his stomach at the realisation he has being trading blows with the very thing he was training to combat back in Nevada. "I've never fought one before what do I do?" Gavin now starting to panic slightly.
Ritsuko sensing the panic creeping into the Voice. "First of all calm down, the last thing we want is for you to panic, secondly I want you to activate your Progressive Knife and pierce the Angel's Core. Do you think you can do that?"
"I'll try." Was all Gavin could say while also mentally cursing himself for forgetting about his Progressive Knife in the heat of the moment swallowing as he tried to steel himself as he withdrew his Prog Knife from his left shoulder pylon.
"That's all I ask for." The woman responds calmly.
Gavin now commands Unit-04 to leave cover and once again charge the (now known to him) Angel, gripping the Prog Knife in both hands with blade facing forwards, Gavin begins to scream until he gets within 50 meters of the Angel and thrusts his Knife forward aiming for the Core. The Angel seeing this raises its last defence. Gavin's battle scream suddenly stops as his thrusting action is prematurely halted. "What the…?" He asks looking at the place where he should have hit, he instead sees the tip of the Knife and a shimmer of Orange Octagon shapes blocking his attack.
"AT Field detected!" The female Tech announces.
"What? Why isn't it neutralised?" Akagi asks.
"The unknown Eva isn't producing one to counteract the Angel's."
Just as Ritsuko was about to inform the unknown Pilot about his lack of AT Field the worst happens.
The Angel now safe from attack thanks to its AT Field quickly grabs Unit-04 by the shoulders and charges up both Arm spears and just as quickly both fire straight into the chest and abdomen of Unit-04. Gavin now with the new feeling of being speared from neck to stomach from both sides Screams in absolute agony both hands leaving the control yokes and grasping the opposite shoulder and leans forward in a futile attempt to reduce the pain.
"AAHHHHHH! This Bloody Hurts! GRRRRRRRR!"
The Angel now seeing that Unit-04 is crippled, retracts both its spears and fires an Energy Pulse into the face of Unit-04 this sends Unit-04 flying in the cross shaped wake of the blast, straight into a residential district flattening and damaging numerous buildings on the way through. Blackened and looking more like skewed kebab than before, LCL pouring out of both spear wounds. Gavin, who was close to passing out from the pain of the two spears alone, was out cold long before Unit-04 hit the deck form its short flight.
"Damm it!" Both Ritsuko and Misato shout at the same time.
"The Unknown Eva has completely shut down, no energy readings." A male tech announces.
"Is this it then?" Misato asks no one in particular.
Fortunately for everyone at NERV someone somewhere decided fate would not win this day. Unit-01's remaining Eye re-lights up and tries to open its Jaw as if wanting to scream.
"Unit-01 is reactivating." Someone announces.
"What! That shouldn't be possible!" the female Tech responds.
Unit-01 then proceeds to break open the Jaw restraints and a large amount of steam exits through the mouth.
"Oh no…" Misato stares at the screen worry and fear across her face.
"It's going berserk…" Akagi mutters not believing she is seeing it again.
Unit-01 then lifts its head up opens its mouth wide and unleashes a deafening roar, well deafening for anyone who was foolish enough to stand outside during all this.
It then crouches all the way down mustering its strength then launches up into the air doing a full summersault and landing squarely on top of the Angel forcing it to lean back at an awkward angle.
The Angel then gets both its arms and pushes at Unit-01 trying to remove it off its body.
Unit-01 jumps off the Angel and lands in a crouch down the street, to which it stands up and turns to face the Angel. "We've done it." Fuyutsuki comments just as Unit-01 charges the Angel again.
Just as Unit-01 is about to body check the Angel, the Angel straightens itself up and activates its AT Field causing Unit-01 to bounce off with its face, Unit-01 responds by beginning to pound on it with its unbroken arm.
"Damm it, It's that AT Field again!" Akagi announces the obvious.
"This is bad… as long as the Angel has that AT Field up" Misato starts. "Then we won't be able to touch it." Akagi finishes.
At this point Unit-01 steps back and holds out its broken arm, suddenly the broken section swells up and arm twitches as it regenerates and heals itself.
"Left arm restored!" a Tech announces. "No way!" Misato exclaims in response.
Unit-01 now has both its hands grappling with the Angels AT Field struggling to breakthrough. "Unit-01 has also deployed an AT Field, it's neutralising the Angels!" the female tech shouts out. "It's breaking right through it…" Akagi says with awe.
Slowly but surely Unit-01 starts to rip apart the Angels AT Field and with one mighty pull the AT Field is torn asunder. Misato with disbelief written all over her face. "It just tore through that AT Field like it was nothing."
Unit-01 lets out another loud roar right into the Angel's face just as the Angel lets loose an Energy Pulse into Uni-01's face, Unit-01 stands in the cross wave of the attack and then proceeds to grab both the Angel's arms in one hand and then turns its hand over and snapping both the Angel's arms in what can only be described as mocking revenge for what the Angel did to Unit-01 earlier in the fight.
Unit-01 then proceeds to front kick the Angel in the Core sending it crashing down the street into a building stopping its flight, Unit-01 not content with this charges down the street and body tackles the Angel completely flattening the building in the process.
Now Unit-01 after coming to a rest on top of the Angel proceeds to beat and pound on the Angel's Core, seeing that it's having no effect Unit-01 then grabs the protruding 'Ribs' of the Angel and yanks one of them off, Unit-01 then reverses its grip on the now makeshift weapon and with both hands starts hamming the Core with the Rib using it as a knife.
Each hit of the makeshift knife cracks the Angel's core more and more, sensing that it was going to die the Angel decides to try and take Unit-01 with it, a scream and a flicker of the eyes, it wraps itself around Unit-01 swells into a ball and self-destructs. Exploding into a Giant Cross that can be seen for miles.
Everyone in Central Dogma stare at the huge display screen in stunned silence for a few moments before realisation dawns on Misato's face and she suddenly asks. "Where's the Eva?"
The smoke and flames from the explosion die back slightly revealing a blackened and damaged form of Unit-01 slowly walking out of the blast area.
Not everyone gasped at the sight of the large behemoth seemingly shake off a blast of such a magnitude but those that did were loud enough for everyone to hear. Akagi was first to speak. "So now we've seen it…" "Eva's true form." Misato finishes Akagi's train of thought.
Gendo sits silent on his chair smirking at not only causing Unit-01 to go berserk but the fact he has someone he can interrogate for information.
Shinji slowly regains consciousness as his Eva comes to a stop next to some buildings. He hears the reports of the Techs relaying his status. He looks over to his right to see a reflection of the Eva he is in. a black shadow quickly passes his vision and he looks down to see the Armoured Helmet of the Eva fall off, the integrity finally failing after all the abuse it has taken. Shinji once again looks to his right to see the exposed head of the Eva and a hole where the eye was supposed to be, suddenly the Eye regenerates and opens up and stares at its reflection but to Shinji it looks like it is staring at him, hit with the shock of seeing the regeneration and freaked out by the thought of the Eva staring at him was too much to wake up to so Shinji promptly passes out again.
Somewhere in an undisclosed location a collection of 5 monoliths are gathered around a man sat at a desk with his hands folded in front of his face covering his mouth.
"So after 15 years the Angels have finally returned."
"It was rather sudden."
"That's the nature of disasters they come without warning."
"On the plus side, it seem our investments were not as wasteful as we had feared."
"I wouldn't be so sure about that yet, if it doesn't pay of it's still a waste."
"Correct, now that news of the Angels has become common knowledge, it is down to NERV to control how this information is presented to the public."
"I can confirm that Unit-02 and its pilot are undergoing final preparations and you can be rest assured that the matter has already been taken care of, don't worry." Gendo responds to the question/statement aimed at NERV.
"Indeed, there is one matter I wish to discuss with Ikari privately, gentlemen if you please."
At this the other 4 monoliths fade into nothing.
"It has come to my attention that a 3rd party was involved in the defeat of the 4th Angel." The monolith spoke to Gendo.
"Correct, an unforeseen circumstance was a contributing factor, but I can assure you the situation is completely under my control." Gendo firmly replied.
"See to it that it remains that way, any discrepancies from the scrolls will need to be carefully monitored to make sure they don't interfere with the Human instrumentality Project."
"I will have further information about this person when I interrogate him myself." Gendo replied with a slight glint in his eye.
"Jesus, look at the state of this place. How much damage can a single fight cause?" Misato asks while looking at the devastated city from the aircraft circling above.
"About 10.6 Billion Yen give or take a Billion." Akagi offhandedly replies while concentrating on her laptop.
Misato with a stunned look, blinks at the stated figure. "How much? How are we going to afford it all if every fight goes the same way?"
"Well the idea is that we engage the Angels away from the city, after all this city is supposed to be used as a last resort." Akagi informs Misato.
"Oh great, so as long as we keep the fighting away from the City we can fiscally keep going. No pressure there then." Misato sarcastically replies.
"Well look at it this way, One bankrupt organisation, or one destroyed world, I know what I would pick." Akagi taking Misato's reply more seriously than she should have.
Misato blinked at the no-brainer options she was given then suddenly remembering the other Eva that took part. "Change of topic any idea who that other pilot was in the other Eva?"
Without looking away from her laptop Akagi instantly replies. "Can't say much Section 2 swept in and took him away before we commenced clean-up operations, what I can say is that he isn't Japanese in origin and you have seen how he handles his Eva, he's had some level of simulation training." A notification pops up on her laptop. "Oh, by the way, it seems Shinji is finally awake."
Shinji opens his eyes to see a plain white tiled ceiling, he blinks a couple of times to get the slightly blurriness out of his vision. 'Hmm… Another unfamiliar ceiling.'
Shinji slowly sits up to survey the room he woke up in. The room was bare white in everything but some slight décor in the form of a plant in the corner, the bed he was sat on was in the middle of the room against one of the walls near the door, some monitoring equipment was by the bedside as well as an IV bag pole and a table.
After a minute or so for his body to fully wake up Shinji noticed that his left arm felt slightly different from normal, he holds it up and stares at it. 'What's wrong with my arm, it tingles sligh…'. "GAH!" At the trail end of that thought Shinji had a flashback to the pain he felt during the battle with the Angel, specifically the point where his left arm was snapped in 2, he reached up to his right eye and touched around the area to find that too was slightly numb.
'What the hell is going on?'
Shinji after a few moments of staring at his arm, gets up out of the bed and heads outside his room into the corridor of the hospital he was obviously in. directly opposite of his room are some windows with a clear view of the Geofront and the Pyramid Head Quarters in the centre, while he was staring at that he noticed movement in the corner of his eye, he turned to look to see the girl from before getting wheeled past him on her way to another room somewhere. Shinji just looks at her as she goes by. 'Who is she?' he asks himself.
Meanwhile in a not too comfortable place.
"Grrr…God my head is killing me… and my body throbs…oh yea, the Angel speared me." Gavin says aloud to himself as he groggily sits up on his bed as he begins to stir. After a yawn and a rub of his eyes he tries to get up only to find his left wrist handcuffed to the bed he is on. 'What the?' he quickly looks at the door to his room and notices the vertical bars in the window slot "HEY!" He shouts out at the top of his voice. "What's the meaning of this? What did I do wrong?" after a few moments of no response, Gavin lays back down on the bed with a huff. 'Now what Gavin? You lose contact with your friends, get stuck inside the Eva for god knows how long, ended up being transported to Japan god knows how, fighting an Angel only to blackout and end up waking up here.' Just as Gavin finished running through the past events through his head he sees a shadow block the light through the bars in the door window.
"Good you're awake; the boss wants to see you, and I'm here to take you to him, this is not a request." With that the guard opens the door and proceeds to de-cuff Gavin from the bed. "What am I cuffed for?" Gavin asks to a mute response and only to be re-cuffed, both hands together, as the guard shoves him out the door.
Shinji is sat waiting for someone to come pick him up from NERV's hospital, soon Misato comes by. "Hey Shinji, come on lets go get your paperwork sorted."
Without looking Shinji gets up and mutters softly. "Ok."
Misato just looks at him with concern then follows Shinji out of the Hospital.
Gendo Ikari is sat stoically at his desk with his usual pose and behind him over his right shoulder stands Kozo Fuyutsuki observing his former student. A small buzz of the intercom on Gendo's desk gets both men's attention.
Gendo presses the button. "Yes."
"The pilot you requested for questioning is here sir." Says the voice of the receptionist on the other side of the intercom.
"Send him in." Gendo flatly responds before turning off the intercom.
1 minute later and the two large doors at the front of the office open up to reveal Gavin flanked by two guards.
"You are dismissed." Gendo indicates to the guards.
As the guards turn to walk out Gavin lifts his head up to look around then at the man in charge. The office Gavin assumes is a very dark one with only three sources of light, two lights in the ceiling and the windows in the far distance, it gave off a feeling of intimidation and by this, Gavin already knew how this was going to turn out before it started. The guards walked out and closed the doors behind them.
"Afternoon, I appreciate your acceptance of my invitation to have a chat with me." Gendo starts.
"It wasn't much of an invitation." Gavin deadpanned.
"Perhaps, but this discussion would have occurred regardless." Gendo flatly states. "Now, I don't suppose you mind telling me what you are doing with an Evangelion Unit in your possession?"
Gavin stares at Gendo for a second before speaking. "Being the current pilot of Unit-04. I do not own the Evangelion, it belongs to the UN with operational control granted to NERV Second branch based in Nevada, USA."
Gendo just stares back at Gavin. "Is that so, well then do you mind telling me who you think you are talking to and perhaps where you think you are?"
Gavin blinks at the question. "I do not know who you are sir, as for where we are… (Gavin looks around) A dark dingy office in an underground bunker somewhere in Japan since we are all speaking Japanese."
Gendo not fazed by the smart comment. "Indeed you are correct, in assuming you are in Japan, Tokyo 3 to be exact." Gendo pauses to see Gavin's reaction, to which Gavin eyes slightly widened. "But what you fail to understand is that there is no Unit-04 in active service and thus there is no designated pilot for it." Gendo glances down at the open file on his desk detailing the status of Unit-04. All hidden behind his reflective shades of course.
Gavin stood momentarily speechless. 'What is he talking about?' "No disrespect sir, I am clearly stood right here and Unit-04 is clearly sat where ever it is at the moment, and to be frank only senior members of NERV have access to the information you know." Gavin threw that barb hoping to catch this guy off about the fact he knows information he shouldn't know.
Again Gendo unfazed by the attempted barb. "You haven't worked it out yet have you? You are currently located in NERV HQ and right this moment, talking to the Supreme Commander."
Gavin really was lost for words at this point, he thought he was talking to some government spies or a terrorist organisation that support the Angels but talking directly to the Supreme Commander of NERV was NOT on his list of possibilities. "Wait… you're the Gendo Ikari?"
"Correct… Now are you going to tell me who you are?"
Gavin catches onto to something. 'Wait a minute if he's Gendo Ikari that must mean that over Eva pilot must have been his son… which means… oh god…'
Gendo now slightly annoyed by the lack of response. "PILOT! You will tell me who you are?"
Gavin now snapped out of his mental musing. "I'm Gavin Takayama, Pilo…" Gendo cuts him off.
"Incorrect, I see that I will not gain any useful information out of you, I have no further use for you." Gendo presses a buzzer under his desk. Two guys in suits come into the office. "Take the prisoner back to his cell, and keep him there until further notice."
"But…" before Gavin can even retort, he is grabbed but the guards and dragged out of the office.
Door closes. "Was that really necessary?"
Gendo glances to his former Sensei. "Until I can establish who he is and what he is doing with an Eva, he is a security risk and shall be treated as such."
Fuyutsuki just looks at his former pupil and sighs.
Outside the office down the corridor Misato is walking with Shinji. "Come on Shinji we'll talk with your father about your living arrangements."
"Really? I'm fine with where ever they put me." Shinji mutters out.
"Yea I want to make sure everything is ok for you." Misato chippers back in a happy tone.
"Oh… thank you Misato." Shinji replies a lot more mellowed out than Misato. Suddenly they both hear shouting coming from the direction of the office.
"PLEASE LISTEN I'M THE PILOT OF UNIT-04." The teenage boy shouted as he was getting dragged away by two guards. "PLEASE SOMEONE HELP ME TO GET HIM TO LISTEN." The boy looks at Misato and Shinji as he was dragged passed the two.
Misato catching what the boy said. 'Pilot? Unit-04? He must have been piloting the other Eva.' Misato speaks up. "Excuse me?" the guards halted. "Where are you taking him?"
One of the Guards reply. "Back to isolation ma'am, Commanders orders."
"Oh…" was all she could say before the Guards carried on dragging the boy away.
"Looks like I got another thing to talk to your father about." She said to Shinji while not taking her eyes off the guards and the boy.
"Yea..." was all that Shinji said.
A/N: Again Reviews are welcome. Chapter 4 will be School, Introductions, and some slightly upsetting news for Misato. Thanks for reading, till next time. :)