If you are not familiar with the Destroyer series of novels, I highly recommend them if you have thick enough skin to deal with the social commentary. Which takes the form of gross misogyny, racism, etc. There were written beginning in the 60's and are contemporary to the older James Bond and Jason Bourne books. They are available on Amazon or there are a couple torrents of the series out there. There is also a movie of okay quality, Remo Willims: The Legend Begins. If you just want a quick introduction, the TV tropes page will give you enough to get Remo for the most part.
If you want the locations I found them online, PM me.
Just to make it clear, I am trying to write Remo true to the books, including his faults. His apprentice has taken on some of those without the wisdom to offset it.
Chapter 10
Gendo stepped forward and extended his hand. "Remo Williams, welcome to NERV."
It was a very American gesture, none of the bowing and honorifics typical of these things in Japan. Gendo had approved the man as soon as his name came across his desk, familiar with his work for CURE. These sorts of men were necessary in the world they lived and Gendo respected those who could do what needed to be done
The elder man in the leather jacket took Gendo's hand and they shook. He was taller than the commander, but not extremely so. He had a straight nose with high cheekbones and full hair starting just forward of his ears. He looked to be just on the outside of middle age, with deepening lines on his face and more grey than brown in his hair. Everyone there was aware however that Remo was the eldest present, at 76 senior to the Vice Commander by 16 years.
"Commander Ikari I presume, pleased to finally meet you."
Gendo gestured to the Vice Commander and the Captain. "Mr. Williams, allow me to introduce Vice Commander Fuyutsuki Kozo and Operations Commander Captain Katsuragi Misato. You will be working with them, as well as Dr. Akagi with whom you are already familiar, during your time here."
Remo shook hands with both then pointed his thumb over his shoulder at the young man unloading two large duffle bags from the VTOL. "That's Vitali, my lazy apprentice."
"Says the guy not carrying his own dang bag!" The young man yelled in reply, approaching with a bag over each shoulder. He didn't sound Russian, or even eastern European Misato thought. If anything, he sounded American like Remo. His hair was longer, but only down to his chin and hung down straight with roughly cut ends. He was skinny in that way that young soldiers are, all lean muscle. Actually quite handsome, but he walked like a thug thought Misato.
"Vitali, these are our hosts: Commander Ikari, Vice Commander Fuyutsuki, and Captain Katsuragi." Remo gestured to each in turn and Vitali nodded to both of the men the turned to Misato.
"How you doin' babe?" Vitali said to the captain with a smile.
Misato's face screwed up in a grimace. "Perhaps it was not explained to you Vitali-san, but NERV is a paramilitary organization. I would prefer that you address me as Captain Katsuragi or Ma'am."
"And I'd prefer to call ya babe… babe." Vitali's swagger was interrupted by a slap upset the head from his master that sent him to the ground headfirst.
"I apologize for my rude student, we have spent the last several years in much less… civilized parts of the world and…" Remo said then paused as Vitali began to get up. Remo hooked the toe of his shoe behind the young man's knee and pulled his leg out from under him, sending him back to the deck with one smooth motion.
"As I was saying, and I have been neglectful in teaching Vitali the finer points of manners. He is very sorry as well, aren't ya Vitali?"
"Uuugh, Yes Ssem, very sorry" Vitali said as he picked himself up again and shouldered the bags.
Neither Gendo nor Kozo said anything during the exchange, but both were ready to move proceedings on.
"Mr. Williams, I suspect you'd like to meet the pilots right away." Gendo said and motioned to a waiting buggy. The carts were open topped and used for moving people and equipment around where one of the electric cars would be inappropriate. It was electric, but that gave it the enormous torque to move aircraft and munitions about the airfield.
A short while later…
Shinji and Rei were sitting in two of a long row of folding chairs set up along the wall of the large storage room that had been converted to a training area. Three large straw mats spanned the length of the room and most of its width. In the thin strip not occupied by the mats were chairs, storage crates, some tables and a water cooler. The door was on one 'short' side of the rectangular room.
Rei was free of bandages, the first time Shinji had seen her so and he had caught himself staring, though if Rei minded she did not react. Shinji wore bandages around his forearms and hands, and even more around his chest beneath his shirt. He had suffered mild sympathetic burns from the battle, but Dr. Akagi had confirmed after several tests what the weird nurse had told him. There was nerve damage over most of his torso and arms. He had only very basic sensation in the affected areas and fine movement was something he would have to work on. He had tried writing as part of one test and could barely make the characters for his own name.
His first night home he hadn't noticed he cut himself making dinner until he saw the blood. The positive was he was able to teach Misato some correct knifework, so she could help with dinner now.
When the door opened, both pilots stood as the commanders and Misato entered, followed by their new instructors. They were introduced, and both children bowed.
"Alright then, let me have a look at ya." Remo said and approached Shinji first. "Looks like you took a few good ones out there Shinji. You don't mind if I just call you Shinji, do you?"
"Yes-Uh I mean no, sensei. Its okay." Shinji responded. He kind of liked Remo already, despite just meeting him. He didn't know what he had expected, but he surprised by how he spoke to him and how he carried himself. He was proud, but not arrogant.
"Good. So you are the one who went out against the first two, right? I read about what happened. I think you did alright under the circumstances." Remo was gentle when he picked up Shinji's arms, turning them a little, looking at his muscles. "Been in many fights?"
"No, well, um, on the receiving end I guess, if that counts?" Shinji replied. Remo let his arms go and laughed.
"Yeah, well that's not going to be a problem for you anymore." The man turned to the adults. "What's the outlook on his injuries? Is he clear for heavy activity?"
"Yes Williams-Sensei, his surface burns are almost totally healed and while he suffered some loss of fine motor skills, his gross motor movement is unaffected and he should regain any lost ability with physical therapy." Misato reported.
"Good, and just Remo is fine, Ma'am." Remo said then proceeded to Rei after patting Shinji on the shoulder. He looked down at the blue haired girl, then bent down and looked into her eyes, his face mere inches from hers. Rei stared back, tilting her head after several minutes.
"Is something the matter Remo-sensei?" The girl asked.
"Your name is Rei, correct?" Remo asked. Of course he knew her name, but that wasn't the point.
"Yes Remo-sensei." She replied, and Remo watched how her face moved, the little muscles around the eyes, her jaw, and her lips as she spoke. Remo straightened up and turned to the adults.
"Alright, who wants to explain to me why this little girl is so doped up?" He asked, locking eyes with the commanders and the captain in turn.
Gendo stepped forward and answered. "Mr. Williams, Rei's behavior is the side effect of a hormone imbalance caused by a medical i-"
Remo stepped right up to Gendo, chest nearly touching the man, and cut him off.
"Horseshit." Remo said and it was if the temperature of the room dropped to freezing in that moment. Nobody questioned Gendo Ikari at NERV, it just didn't happen. The man was a king in all but name.
"Mr. Williams, I will not-" Gendo said but was cut off again.
"Look Commander…" Remo said, the venom dripping from his voice when he used Gendo's rank and his eyes were locked with Gendo's. "I can deal with the kid having issues, can probably even fix them better than any pill. If you want her to fight then I will make damn sure she can, but I can't do that with her stoned. So don't lie to me. I have been lied to too many times and I am too old to deal with it."
They stood like that for a moment, and Shinji thought of two rams with their horns locked together, neither willing to move first. It was Gendo who looked away, and Misato and Kozo were inwardly shocked while Vitali grinned.
"I am not able to discuss Rei's medical history with you, you would have to speak to her doctor…" Gendo said, But Remo had already turned back to Rei. It was probably the same doctor telling her to take them he thought, so he should just talk to the girl.
"How many pills do you take each day, Rei?" He asked.
"Twenty-four Remo-sensei." She responded.
"Do you know what they do?" Remo continued.
"No Remo-sensei." Rei replied.
"Who told you to take them?"
"Dr. Akagi."
Remo turned back to Gendo. "Well, I will be killing two birds with one stone after we get done here then. Commander Ikari, if you do not mind, I would like to begin immediately."
"As you wish Mr. Williams, speak with Captain Katsuragi if you need anything else." Gendo said with very audible displeasure that clashed with his polite words. "Professor, we have matters to attend to."
With that the commanders left. Remo turned back to the children.
"Now then, yes, my name is Remo Williams, and yes I am your new combat instructor. However that is hardly all of the story." Remo said then took off his jacket, which he handed off to Vitali. Remo strode onto one of the woven straw mats and took a seat near the center.
"Come, come, sit down. You too Captain, come on." He said, and Shinji sat down with his legs crossed like his new sensei. Rei and Misato, in skirts, kneeled, and Vitali took up position flanking his teacher.
"Now, where to begin… I mean I could tell you about me, but really not much to tell, I have been killing bad guys since way before any of you were born. I used to do it to support a stupid little fishing village in Korea, and you know, protect American interests, make the world a better place, all that. Then impact happened, the village is gone, the agency I worked for doesn't exist any more, and so I have just kind of been doin' the whole kill bad guys thing for fun and profit. It was news to me that this place, you know NERV, had in fact absorbed my former employers and so I was technically still an employee, so they asked me to come back and teach you kids how to fight giant monsters trying to wipe out all life on earth. With me so far?"
Shinji was just staring at him in some mix of shock and awe, while Misato was pleased as a peach with her self for finding this man. Rei, though she showed no exterior sign of it, was actually quite pleased with the new instructor. Both children nodded.
"Great. So I am going to be teaching you a very old style of fighting called Sinanju. You probably have not heard of it, neither had I when my teacher sat me down like I am sittin' you down now. Course he also turned off my lungs for a minute to show he wasn't going to take my crap, but that was just his way of doing things. Anyway, the way he explained it to me was all the ways of fighting in the whole wide world are shadows, and sinanju is the sun. It is the origin, it is superior, and until we all met just now, the whole of it never left a master and an apprentice. The master died, the apprentice took his place and took an apprentice of his own. However, the current situation being what it is, when asked to come teach you kids how to fight, I felt it was time to abandon that tradition. I am also going to ignore the one about not training women, because I am not really fond of the idea of having one kid and one giant robot protecting the whole planet with no back up, despite having been in that position myself a few dozen times. So, any questions?"
Misato was reconsidering her feelings on the situation, as she seemed to have stepped into a bad martial arts movie. Shinji was awestruck, and Rei… well somewhere inside that doped up little mind, under all the terrible secrets and horrible memories, Ayanami Rei was happy.
Remo Williams sat facing his newest students, his apprentice Vitali at his side. Captain Katsuragi was present as well, but she was not in Remo's thoughts. He considered the boy and the girl in front of him.
The boy, small and dark, had a fire in him. Remo had seen video of both battles, and the brutality, the just raw savagery of it spoke of something driving the boy. Even if he was the boss's son, Remo did not think that was the real motivation, there was something else there stoking that fire. He didn't just hate daddy, the way he fought the angels was like he hated those things' very existence.
The girl though, now she was going to be a mystery, at least until whatever they had in her to dumb her down was gone. Her hair and eyes were physically remarkable, but it took more than albinism to get Remo's attention. Remo had learned long ago that the little things in a person's behavior could tell you everything about them. How they walked, how they talked, how they looked around a room, it all revealed details. This girl though, there was nothing but the dullness of her movement that told him something was something slowing her down. She had a weird speech pattern, but it only made Remo think of someone who learned a second language from too few teachers. Like she was imitating one person, then another, but had never developed a speaking style of her own.
"… So, any questions?" Remo said as he finished his very much condensed explanation of who he was and his purpose at NERV. The blue haired girl raised her hand.
"Yes Rei?"
"What should we wear during instruction? School uniforms are not appropriate for intense physical activity." Rei asked.
"Oh, I'm sorry I should have given you these before." Misato said as she rose to her feet and walked over to the stack of storage crates. She dug through one than another before she found what she was looking for. She lifted two large packages wrapped in brown paper and gives them to the pilots
"Here ya go kids. Remo-sensei, you didn't specify a color, so I hope white is okay." Misato says as the children unwrap the packages, both containing white karategi. The NERV fig leaf had been printed in red on the left breast of each uniform.
"You also didn't specify a style, so supply division got these. I guess they are cheaper and since we don't know how long this is going to last, they figure we will have to buy more as they wear out or the kids grow.
"One is as good as another Captain, thank you. Normally I wouldn't even bother with it, but if we are going to be doing this all day, every day they may as well only stink up one set of clothes." Remo said as he got up. "No need to get changed today kiddos, I have need to go have a talk with the good Dr. Akagi. Vitali, get them started on breathing properly."
"Yes Ssem." The young blond said and moved himself over to the pilots.
"Captain Katsuragi, would you mind accompanying me, I'm afraid of I don't know my way around yet."
"Of course Remo-sensei."
"Please, just Remo."
Vitali watched them leave then turned back to the pilots. He had moved so they were sitting in a tight circle.
"So yeah, I'm Vitali. I am Master Remo's apprentice, which means I am probably gonna be teaching you most of the basic stuff. I see why we gotta train you, I am cool with that, but to be honest I have my reservations about training a girl. No offense, I just figure if it hasn't been done for a few thousand years, there is probably a reason." Vitali said, looking at Rei.
"Long as you can keep up though, its worth a shot. You're probably gonna want to sit like me though. Don't worry, we ain't gonna look up your skirt." He continued. Rei moved to sit with her legs crossed like Vitali and Shinji, whose face had taken on color.
"Hehe, calm down kid, it was a joke. Alright, so despite the fact you have been doing it for the past, what about 14 years, you are breathing wrong. So lets start by learning how to do it right. Okay now draw it in with your chest, not your stomach…yeah like that. Okay now pull it down, all the way…"
Meanwhile, Remo Williams and Misato Katsuragi were in an elevator, heading to the lower levels where Ritsuko Akagi's lab was. Misato was leaning against side of the car, arms crossed across her chest and her head down.
"Something has your panties in a twist Captain. Care to share or you want me to start guessing?"
Misato breathed a sharp breath out through her nose and looked at the man. She was concerned for the welfare of the children, it was her job to be in her mind. She also was not too happy about being asked about her panties after the apprentice had called her babe.
"Mr. Williams, Remo, whatever, I am the head of all combat operations for this facility and that includes making sure the pilots are taken care of. Do you expect them to forego school and spend all day here, with you?"
"Yes Captain, given the circumstances, I do."
"And that's my concern. They are children, they are entitled to an education and as much of a normal life as we can give them."
"Captain, right now they are the only thing standing between humanity and the big giant monsters. They can go back to school when that is done."
"And what if it doesn't end? What if they just keep coming and this war lasts until Twenty One Fourteen?"
"Then they won't need whatever they were supposed to learn. They just need what I have to teach them."
Misato let out an exasperated growl and slammed the stop button with a closed fist. Remo was actually kind of impressed with how fast she was in his face, wagging her finger under his nose.
"You look here mister! Those kids have never had a normal life. They have been manipulated and abused because my boss, Shinji's father, thought making psychopaths was the way to saving humanity. It happened, I can't go back and change it, but I will be damned if I don't give them something normal in all this bullshit they shouldn't even have to deal with! I will not take their humanity from them to save us!"
"Fine. I get them for the first week solid, after that I get them after school every day and all day on the weekend until I am satisfied anything less will suffice. If there is a way for them to practice in the robots, I will supervise sessions during their time with me. Does that work for you, ma'am?"
Misato breathed through her nose, her face still grimaced, before stepping back and restarting the elevator.
"I'll take that as a yes then, captain."
The pair arrived at Dr. Akagi's workspace a few minutes later. Misato immediately sensed something off about the usually chaotic room. It was actually clean and did not stink of cigarette smoke for one. When she saw her longtime friend leave her desk though all intuition and guessing went out the window. Dr. Ritsuko Akagi's was wearing a white halter blouse with a neckline ending just below where any useful bra would have been, and a dark blue skirt that Misato would generously describe at 'unprofessional'. She wore dark stockings as usual and Misato was quite sure those shoes had never seen the office before.
"Mr. Williams, so lovely to see you again." Dr. Akagi said as she greeted Remo, shaking his hand in both of her own.
"Please Doctor, just Remo is fine."
"Well, only if you call me Ritsuko." The girlish lilt in her voice made Misato feel like gagging.
"Well, Ritsuko, I have just come from meeting the pilots, or what did you call them in your reports again?"
"The first and third child. The girl is the first, Shinji is the third."
"I see, you will excuse me if I stick to calling them pilots then. I think we can all agree this is not a job for children. Before we proceed I actually need to discuss Miss Ayanami with you."
"Oh, why would you need to do that, we have so much else to talk about."
"Of course Doctor, but we will need to discuss it as soon as possible. Now the information you forwarded briefly explained how the robots-"
"Evangelion."
"S'cuse me?"
"The evangelions aren't robots in the conventional sense. They are-"
Remo cut her off again. "My apologies Ritsuko, I will try to remember it in the future. Now, they have muscles and nervous systems that work like ours, right?"
"Yes, that's correct."
"So if the pilots developed muscle memory, could the evangelions?"
"Hmmm, I suppose, but the muscles of the units would have to experience the same impulses as the pilots for that to occur. If you are suggesting we have the pilots practice in the units, my concern is upkeep and maintenance on the evangelions would cause too much downtime."
"Not to mention the space requirements. Would it be possible to artificially stimulate the muscles with the units inactive? Say if we were to map the pilots nerve impulses then send them through the machines?"
"Yes… Yes I think that could work, but what is your goal?"
"To carry over the benefits on reaction speed and strength to the evangelions. You are the expert of course but without a trained body to carry them out, the lessons I impart will be far less valuable in the field."
"Of course, of course…" Ritsuko said, scribbling furiously on a note pad. "I will look into it. Here, take these."
Dr. Akagi took two thick folders from her desk and held them out for Remo. "Due to the damage both units have incurred, we will be integrating this more durable equipment into the reconstruction. These are plans for the F-type concept. It provides more armor and will allow us to store more energy on the unit. Please take a look and tell us if there are any changes you want to make them more effective in melee. You too if you would Misato, I think your input would be valuable. Give them knuckles or something I suppose…" Ritsuko Akagi trailed off, still sketching writing with abandon on the pad in front of her.
"Dr. Akagi, there was also the matter of Rei, the first child." Remo said and Misato could clearly see her friend's shoulders slump at the mention of the blue haired girl.
"Very well, I assume this is regarding her condition." Dr. Akagi said, very much lacking in her former enthusiasm, as she stood and opened a file cabinet beside her desk.
"It is." Remo replied, and Dr. Akagi withdrew a thick black file folder from the metal cabinet that she then gave to Remo.
"The first child suffered from an extremely severe hormone imbalance at the onset of puberty. This may be linked to a genetic flaw related to her albinism, but we have not confirmed that. The problem was corrected by removing her ova and continuing drug therapy."
"Ah yes the drugs." Remo said, flipping through the file. "Lets see, here we are… Alpha blockers, benzodiazepines of various stripes, dopamine inhibitors…"
"Yes Mr. Williams, you can read my notes, but I assure you that-"
"That these are all psychoactive medications. Depressants and tranquilizers if memory serves. While I will admit my knowledge of anatomy is perhaps somewhat limited, I do not believe your purpose in their prescription was to aid in correction of a hormone issue, was it Dr. Akagi?" Remo flipped the folder shut and pressed it into Ritsuko's hands. He kept pressing it towards her and took a step forwards, his hand over the folder against her chest and her back against the cold metal cabinets. His head beside hers, she felt his hot breath pass her ear as he spoke.
"Before you answer, know that more frigid broads than you have tried lying to me and it didn't work out very well for them."
Misato had instinctively moved her hand to her gun, in its patent leather holster on her officer's uniform, as Remo had approached her friend aggressively. She was prevented from acting further by her own inner conflict about the conversation. She knew nothing about medicines past a working knowledge of what to take for a headache (or to ease a hangover). It was the way he spoke when he questioned the doctor that made her hesitate.
What if it is all part of that damn program she thought. What were they doing to these kids? No, what were we doing to them she mentally corrected herself. She was part of this and that tore her up inside. She had only known Shinji a few weeks but the boy had awoken the need to nurture within her. As his commanding officer she felt the weight of responsibility for how fucked up he was.
Dr. Akagi nearly growled as she screwed up her face, any happiness at the man's presence gone.
"I will not stand here and be-" She stopped as she looked into Remo's eyes. Before his gaze she felt naked and not in a way she at all enjoyed. It felt like no matter how she tried to hide or cover herself, he saw everything. She looked down, away from his piercing gaze, and found herself shaking. Ritsuko slammed the file down on her desk and held onto the edge to stop her hand from betraying her further.
"I directed the first child to take those medications as part of the long running conditioning program she has been raised through. I cannot predict her behavior should they be withdrawn."
"Have they made her a better pilot?"
"We don't know, she hasn't had a successful activation test in unit 00, and the tests we conducted in unit 01 did not result in a high enough synch ratio to move the unit."
"Thank you for your cooperation Doctor, I think I understand the situation a little better now. Being that she is unable to turn the robot on, if I understood correctly, in her current state and is also totally incapable of learning what I have been directed to teach her in that state, I do not see the harm in trying this my way."
"Fine!" She spat out. "But the commander will hear of this."
"I suspect he already has."
"Out!" She shrieked. As Remo turned to leave Ritsuko turned to Misato. "And you! Standing there and gobbering like an idiot while that pig practically assaulted me, out!
A few minutes later, Misato and Remo waited in the corridor for an elevator to reach them.
"Was that necessary? You have to work with her. I have to work with her."
"Of course it was. Your commander sought to use her as a way to control me. It was a rather clumsy attempt, so much so I doubt even Vitali would have been ensnared. She is just angry cause it didn't work."
"Oh yeah, and what makes you think I don't have the same mission, Mr. Williams?"
Remo shook his head and chuckled to himself. "Because you hate that uniform Captain Katsuragi, and no woman tries to looks good in something she hates. Instead she makes it clear to the world with every move that she hates it." It made Misato smile as the elevator announced its presence before opening. It was true she did hate this uniform.
"Well then Remo, back to the kids?"
"No, Vitali will still teaching them how to breathe at this point. If it's okay, I want to see the evangelions." He responded and Misato pressed the correct button. "Don't you people get tired of that word, its not Japanese, it can't be easy to say."
"We call them Eva."
"Eva, huh… sounds like a pretty woman, not a war machine."
An elevator ride and half-a-mile of hallway later they stood in front of the damaged unit 01, wrapped in bandages but for its toothy mouth and one undamaged eye. They stood in darkness in front of the brightly lit repair bay, the giant's head directly in front of them.
"Eva, you are one ugly bitch."
"Yeah, I thought they were freaky in the armor but the first time I saw one like this…" Misato shivered and made a disgusted sound. She knew it was inactive, but it still felt like the giant was examining them. Like a kid looked at bugs.
Remo flipped open the folder on the f-type equipment and started reading, holding up pictures alongside the body suspended in front of him. "So the armor is like its skin?"
"No it has skin of its own, we just didn't know what we would be facing, thus the light armor. They consume so much energy that we try and keep them on external power when they are active. They only have five minutes of power at low activity in onboard storage. But if we added more batteries, it adds weight, power consumption goes up, it is a losing battle."
"What about the fins in these pictures, the ones on the shoulders? Is it like an anti-static thing moving something big through the air, are they weapons, what?"
"We call them pylons. They can hold weapons, the two evas we have here have a knife in each one. The production models have ordinance launchers in one and a knife in the other. The main reason for the pylons is transport though. Rather than launching them from a central point and walking them into position, we have an underground electric railway network that covers the area.
"Makes sense with limited onboard power and extension cords. So this new armor will have more onboard power capacity?"
"Yeah, not a lot, but more. We were hoping you might have some ideas to make the Evas better in hand-to-hand combat during the rebuild."
"Yeah I think I got a few."
End
So this is going to be the more regular schedule, about a chapter a week. As always, please read and review, I really appreciate it. Especially the criticism, I know I need to get better. Look forward to minor rewrites of some earlier chapters as part of the next update. That Gendo/firing squad bit is embarrassing.
Oh and if this thing ever ends up on TV tropes as a rec or heaven forbid its own page, I will be horribly embarrassed and beside totally beside myself in glee. Go show the Destroyer series page some love it needs it.