Chapter 4: The Third Child Targeted
Chapter 4: The Third Child Targeted
It is almost completely deserted, the long-since abandoned zoo, which has since fallen into decay and disrepair. Only one individual loiters on the premises, a 14-year old boy, whom, by all appearances, looked like an ordinary high school student. He was wearing a typical school uniform, as well as headphones over his ears, listening to the SDAT player in his hand. The boy is effectively cutting himself from the world as he wanders on with his head down and with a gloomy look on his face.
The boy's attention is snapped back into reality as he raises his head, only to find himself encased in a circle by a group of Mass Monsters.
"What? W-who are you guys?" Shinji Ikari called out nervously. He doesn't exactly have a good feeling about this.
His intuition is soon justified, as he feels the earth shake periodically, each quake growing in intensity. It sounds like the steps of something big coming from behind him so Shinji looks behind him, and, to his shock, a giant statue shaped like an impish looking monster was heading his way. Panicked, he only thinks of running away from the statue.
The statue chases Shinji halfway around the entire zoo, crushing anything in its path. Shinji tries desperately to get away, but he simply can't outrun it. Shinji even tries to take the offensive a few times, but the statue is completely impervious to all of his attacks.
Eventually, Shinji trips over a snag growing out of the cracks in the concrete. Somehow, Shinji manages to trap his leg underneath the snag. "No!" Shinji cried to himself. Struggling to free himself does Shinji no good and with statue only a few steps away; Shinji cowers and braces himself for his inevitable end.
But just in the nick of time, the statue gets shot in the face by a laser, knocking it off its feet. A brown-haired guy holding a human-sized beam rifle and wearing a mostly blue military uniform steps in between Shinji and the statue.
"Amuro Ray!" Shinji gasped.
As the statue gets back on his feet, Amuro Ray, the renowned and legendary Gundam pilot, takes another shot with his beam rifle. This time, the beam hits dead in the chest, piercing through the stone completely and comes out through the other side. A brief pause later, the statue combusts completely, revealing a mech shorter than either of them. The mech more-or-less looked liked a purple sphere with arms and legs. Through the windshield, Amuro could see the mech's pilot, a short blue imp wearing a blue and red cap with a star in front.
"So you destroyed my remote-controlled statue, eh?" Emperor Pilaf said from inside his mech. "But if you want to surrender, now's the time. My Pilaf Machine is more powerful than you think!" he added.
"Uh…yeah, right," Amuro snarked sarcastically.
"You dare insult me, the emperor and future ruler of the world?" Pilaf roared. "Fine then, let's see how you like THIS! Mai! Shu! Get over here, now!" he ordered.
Two bigger mechs join Pilaf's side, one of them pink and piloted by a beautiful woman, the other one green and piloted by an anthropomorphic dog in a ninja-suit.
"Yes, sir!" Mai and Shu complied.
"Let's do it!" Pilaf told them. They each leap into the air and the three mechs combine into one, Shu being the legs, Mai the torso, and Pilaf the head.
"Shocking, isn't it?" Pilaf said lamely.
"Okay, that was impressive," Amuro admitted.
Shinji finally frees himself from under the snag. "Hey kid, aren't you the pilot for Eva 01?" Amuro asked him. Shinji nods meekly. "Then what were doing running then? Didn't NERV issue you weapons in case you get attacked?" Amuro pried.
"They did," Shinji answered docilely.
"Then USE THEM!" Amuro suggested loudly.
"Okay," Shinji obeyed.
Shinji pulls out a pallet gun, accommodated for his size, and joins Amuro at opening fire at the new combined Pilaf Machine. They do moderate damage to it.
"Oh, yeah? Get a load of this! Fire the lasers!" Pilaf commanded.
Two hatches open up from the machine's…er, bust, and lasers are fired at the pilots, but they dodge in time.
"That…was just wrong," Amuro pointed out.
The Pilaf Machine turns around and slaps its butt, taunting the pilots. "How do you like us now?" Pilaf mocked.
But Pilaf soon learned how foolish a mistake this was, as Amuro shoves a beam saber right in the unmentionable.
"As Kakashi would say, Sennen Goroshi!" Amuro called out.
The mech turns back around, sword still impaled.
"Fine! You leave us no choice then! Fire the missiles!" he directed.
The Pilaf Machine proceeds to fire a missile from…its crouch.
"What is wrong with you guys?" Amuro wondered.
Shinji manages to shoot down the missile before it gets near them.
"Now it's time we finish this," Amuro announced. "FIN FUNNELS!!"
Controlling them with his mere thoughts, Amuro summons six miniature fin funnels. They flutter around the battlefield haphazardly at an amazing speed, firing on the Pilaf Machine so fast that it couldn't counterattack in time. The ongoing barrage of attacks was too much for the mech to handle and it explodes, leaving its pilots charred but only unconscious.
Shinji runs to Amuro's side. "Whoa! You're able to control those things?" Shinji asked.
"That's right. All of them custom built by yours truly and specifically designed to channel into my thought patterns," Amuro bragged a little.
"That's amazing," Shinji said in awe. "Unlike me," he added sadly.
"Awww, isn't this sweet?" said a voice.
They look up on a high stump to see Marik pointing a Dark Cannon at them.
"I really do need to find better mind slaves," Marik noted. "But no matter. You'll make an excellent addition to my trophy collection, newtype."
He fires a shot at Amuro, but he effortlessly sidesteps it. Undeterred, Marik fires several more shots in rapid succession, but Amuro evades all of the arrows easily and gracefully.
"It seems that your reflexes are too good, newtype," Marik commended. "So I guess I'll just have to settle for the wimp."
He aims the cannon right at Shinji. Amuro sees this and, just as the Dark Cannon fires again, makes a mad dash towards Shinji, yelling "Get out of the way, you idiot!" He pushes the Eva pilot out of harm's way, taking the hit for him.
As Amuro falls to the ground, trophified, Marik hops down to retrieve his next victim with Shinji looking on in horror. Shinji gets up and flees, looking over his shoulder to see Marik holding his prize up, laughing evilly in the middle of a thunderstorm, which came out of nowhere.
Shinji got as far away from Marik as he could. He was now on the other side of the zoo. Shinji waddles on with his head held low until he accidentally bumps into someone. That someone was a short kid wearing a blue school uniform and sporting black spiky hair with red outlines and multi-layered blond locks on his fringe. Yeah, this guy's hairstyle is WEIRD! Anyway, he was also wearing a chain around his neck with what looked like an upside down pyramid attached to it, as well as an arm-blade looking plate strapped on his left forearm. He was Yugi Muto, the Duel Monsters Champion.
Just ahead of both of them were another mob of Mass Monsters.
"Oh no! Not these guys again!" Shinji screamed.
"You've actually seen these guys before?" Yugi asked.
Shinji nods softly, Yugi taking note of the fearful look on his face.
"Don't worry, I'll handle this," Yugi assured him. "YU-GI-OH!"
The "upside down pyramid" emits a blinding light and vibrates wildly. When the light fades away, Yugi is suddenly much taller and more mature-looking. For some odd reason, no one notices the difference.
"It's my move now," Yami Yugi asserted. Yami takes a card from his deck and places it on his Duel Disk. "I summon Osiris, the Sky Dragon!"
"Osiris?" Shinji asked, perplexed.
"There will be no honoring 4Kids Executive Producers in this fanfic!" Yami dictated.
"Oh. That makes perfect sense," Shinji reasoned.
The hologram of a long, ferocious red dragon with two mouths materializes in front of Yami.
"And now, Osiris the Sky Dragon, ATTACK!" Yami commanded.
Osiris spits out a massive energy blast from its bottom mouth and incinerates the entire crowd of Masses in one shot, leaving nothing but a huge pile of ash.
"I win!" Yami declared.
The Osiris hologram fades back into nothingness as Yami walks off without saying a word. Shinji thinks about protesting, but he loses his nerve. Just then, flashes of the trophified Amuro hitting the ground and of Marik holding up the trophy in triumph rush into Shinji's mind.
"No. I mustn't run away. I mustn't run away. I mustn't run away," Shinji repeated to himself.
"Hey, wait up!" Shinji called out to Yami.
A/N: And so began an unusual partnership. Will Shinji get his chance to avenge Amuro? If it does come, will Shinji be up to the task? And what will become of the famed Gundam pilot? Find out…eventually on the Shadow Realm Emissary!
Preview: Three swordsmen form an alliance to fight the new threat. And we get a little insight on the invader's POV. Until the next time.