Disclaimer: I do not own NGE and all related characters, except for my OC's. Studio Gainax and Hideaki Anno own it, so please don't sue me. I know I'm repeating my original disclaimer almost verbatim, but, hey, repeating something adds emphasis.
Author's Notes: Well, folks like I said, this chapter features Shinji starting his adventures with Nerv, but he's got Dr. Gannon along for the ride. Misato is gonna need some Tylenol, and a lot more beer!
Shinji Ikari was looking at the pay-phone receiver in his hand like it was something toxic and alien, and put it back on its cradle rather gingerly. He backed away several steps, never noticing Dr. Gannon also backing up, but with a distinctly nervous look on his face. He had a good reason to be nervous, as Shinji removed from underneath the duster coat he was wearing, an enormous side-arm that looked like a high-tech blend of a .44 magnum, pump-action shotgun, and grenade launcher. The drum was an extra-large version of a magnum's ammo drum, the muzzle looked like it belonged on a grenade launcher, and it was just long enough to accommodate a pump-grip. Shinji had taken to naming the weapon 'Happy-San', because every time he fired it, he cheered up. Plus, using ammo with sixteen times the stopping power of dum-dum rounds, it was in Gannon's opinion, a miniature cannon with a custom pistol grip.
Gannon was roused from his musing when he heard the disturbingly heavy sounds of 1) the gun's safety being released, and 2) the hammer being pulled back. Gannon prayed to God that Shinji would reconsider what he was about to do, but the sudden, bone-jarring boom of "Happy-San" squashed that. Gannon looked to heaven and whispered, "Father, forgive him...he was raised by a gun-happy Yankie and a nutty bugger of a German. I tried to be a good role model, but all I ended up doin' was give 'im an appreciation for red-head's. Oh, and the occasional Asian mix!" He snickered under his breath as he thought about that special lady that stole his heart those years ago, "Oh, Lordy, I'm cracked! I'm gonna burn in Hell".
Shinji had re-holstered the huge side-arm and swept his inky black hair back with a gloved hand, not noticing his glove came away shiny, adjusting the deeply-tinted sunglasses he wore as well. He knew what he had just done was wrong, but he was in no mood what-so-ever to put up with some kind of automated BS. Years ago when Dr, Gannon had come to his Aunt and Uncle's home, he had learned the terrible truth about the what and how's of his Mother's Death. He had even learned the why's. He had at one point even learned about how Dr. Gannon and others had been changed by a remarkable power. What no one expected was that Shinji would find a way to change himself in a similar fashion, but with the same remarkable results. He knew that there would be questions when they got to Nerv, but those could wait. Chairman Keel had warned him that his Father had several times tried to stop the installation of special up-grades that Dr. Gannon and Dr. Carmine had developed to give the Eva's an edge, but his Father kept insisting that the Evangelions would be far more 'effective' without the upgrades then with them.
That little comment got Gendo chewed out by the entire Human Instrumentality Committee for well over eight hours straight, plus adding insult to injury would be that Dr. Gannon would be joining Shinji when his time to pilot came. Gannon was just about to give Shinji a piece of his mind, plus a solid thump in the head when they suddenly heard the sound of heavy gun-fire, missile explosions, and the detonations of other heavy ordnance. The two looked at each other and realized that they also experienced a strange sensation, almost like angry whispering in the back of their minds, with crackling lightning in the back ground. They also picked up on a very distinctive, and a very ANGRY presence roaring hatred and violence in equal parts.
"STINKING WRETCHED APES! WHERE IS THE ALL-FATHER! HE IS THE FIRST AND THE LAST, AND YOU DARE TO PRESUME YOURSELVES HIS MASTERS, HIS EXECUTIONORS? BURN FILTHY VERMIN!"
Shinji and Dr. Gannon were so powerfully hit with the mental bile the hostile presence was throwing out, they dropped to their knees and almost never noticed a VTOL flying backwards from down a side street, firing madly, and then suddenly exploding into a white-orange fire ball and globes of flying whites hot slag. They stayed down and the debris just barely missed them. They staggered to their feet and were just about to make a dash for it, but the sound of screeching tires caught their attention. A blue Renault sports car zipped around a corner so fast that when it took the turn, it almost flipped over, but either the skill of the driver, sheer dumb luck, or a hefty sprinkling of both keep the car on its wheels. The driver slammed on the brakes, skidding to a heart-fluttering stop no more than two feet from Shinji who had ducked again, fearing becoming road custard. The young Ikari whipped his head up just in time to get a face full of door as it was swung open with a great deal of force.
"WHOLPH!"
Shinji grunted in pain as Dr. Gannon finally got to his feet and staggered over to the boy, still disorientated from the Angel's mental assault. The driver of the car spoke up, not realizing they had smashed Shinji in the face with the door. "Sorry, did I keep you waiting?" the driver asked in a playful tone of voice. Dr. Gannon looked through the open door and was greeting by a lovely young Japanese woman with flowing purple hair wearing sunglasses, sports gloves, and a rather nice sleeveless black-dress. Dr. Gannon was about to openly comment about her looks when Shinji leaped into the passenger seat and practically screamed, "GO, GO, GO!" Dr. Gannon leaped over a startled Shinji into the back seat of the car as the woman floored the accelerator. As the car sped away, a gigantic grotesque stepped from around the corner. It had no discernible head, but had a sharp white mask-like structure that seemed to grow from between its massive bulbous shoulder which were encased in sweeping bone shells that made it look like it wearing macabre shoulder armor equipped with gills. Its ribs were protruding from its chest and seemed to grip a huge red sphere that also emerged from its chest, like razor sharp claws grabbing at a priceless treasure.
"Well, now, isn't that an ugly bugger!" Dr. Gannon grumbled in English as he tried to settle in the back seat of the woman's car, even as she swerved and weaved through streets like a maniac. She took a quick glance in her rear-view mirror, trying to get a better look at the handsome fellow who had accompanied the boy she was sent to pick up. He had platinum blonde hair and she was pretty sure he was an albino, but he had on odd accent that she was sure was European, but she wasn't quite sure what it was. He and Shinji were talking in English, making her wish she had actually put some effort in to Mr. Tanaka's foreign language course in college instead of texting to Ritsuko about boys they liked. They suddenly switched back to Japanese, with Shinji re-aligning his nose with a crunch and grumbling, "You have to be Katsuragi-san. Nice to meet you, I'm a grade-A whack job. I hope you like 'um young 'cause I know I like you".
Misato had absolutely no idea how to respond to that, if the boy was mad about getting the door smacked into his face and this was his way of dealing with it, or if this was how he was normally. She decided to grin and bare it. She chuckled nervously and murmured, "Well, Hello to you, too!" She giggled at Shinji's odd behavior, but almost started screaming when he stuck his whole upper body out the window, shouting to the older man in back, "Hey, Doc! Give me your gun!" Misato had a bad feeling about that comment; 'Gun?', she thought, and felt her face drain of blood as Shinji pulled out his coat the biggest side-arm she'd ever seen. The man that Shinji referred to as 'Doc' handed Shinji a similarly massive weapon, and mumbled something about kicking an American idiot , when Shinji clicked off both guns safeties, leaned out the window and actually started firing at the Angel. ''Is He nuts?', Misato mentally screamed to herself and Shinji fired like a drunken loon, screaming "Yippie-kiya, Mother Fucker!" like it was some kind of battle cry, while the albino European man kept trying to both pull the boy back in to the car, yelling at him to be more careful, while simultaneously trying to get the guns from him and try shooting the Angel himself.
She shook her head at the insane shenanigans and put a call into headquarters, being answered by her long-time friend and co-worker Dr. Ritsuko Akagi. Akagi responded tersely, "Yes, Captain?" She sounded upset about something, and while Misato was loathe to further aggravate the faux blonde, she needed to keep her appraised. "Hi, Ritzy! I picked up the kid, but he's fairly wacky. He's actually shooting at the Angel! Yes I said 'shooting'! As with guns! I picked up somebody else along with him. Who is he? I don't know, wait a second!", and she looked over her shoulder at the pale man and flirtatiously asked him, "Hey cutey, what's your name?"
He smiled at her and calmly answered, "Emil Gannon, darling", that strange but attractive burr in his voice rolling the R's. Misato relayed the name, but almost leaped out of her seat when Akagi screamed down the line, "What is that Scottish bastard doing here? I thought that quack was still in the States?"
Gannon swiped the phone from Misato, and screamed down the line himself, "Akagi, you bleach-blonde skank! You tried to shut down my projects ever since you heard of me, and you even tried to sabotage the exo-shell program I was runnin' with Dr. Joseph Carmine! We're trying to save the world, just like you, but you can't fuckin' understand that we don't give a damn about credit or who gets the glory, but for whatever reason, YOU DO!"
He snappishly added, "Oh, by the by, we need an express train car. See ya in five!" He snapped Misato's phone shut and slipped it back to the shocked woman, who simply kept on driving, and Shinji decided to save his ammo since his guns weren't really doing any damage, and also he had lost sight of the enormous monster. Misato had no idea what was going on between Dr. Akagi and the foreigner in her back seat, but what the two had screamed at each other over the phone was something that she felt held a lot of bad blood on both sides, and what was this about Ritsuko trying to sabotage some kind of project? Her old college friend could be passionately competitive, but actively trying to sabotage somebody else's work? Come on! But still...
Whatever the case, she was just going to have get answers later, as the car was almost at the entrance to the base. The winding road offered those in the car a clear view of the clearly one-sided battle as the military forces were vanquished with almost chilling ease. Misato pulled over the car and stopped, getting out and checking out the battle with a pair of binoculars while the two passengers climbed out too, both wondering why they stopped. Misato suddenly tensed as the JSSDF plans suddenly pulled back.
"Oh, God, they're gonna!...", but never got the chance to finished as a thunderous boom echoed across the valley, a fiery mushroom cloud rising skyward. The shock-wave and wind were certainly going to flip her car, but when she spared a look, she saw Shinji and the Scottish man holding their hands out as though to ward stop the incoming wave. She thought they were both nuts, until their hands started glowing, and suddenly a hexagonal patterned energy field sprang from their hands and did exactly that.
'Holy shit, that's an AT-Field! Who...WHAT are they?' Misato mentally barked.
The lashing winds and initial shock wave hit the AT-Field like a freight train, but warped around the energy barrier they threw up, completely protecting everyone from the jarring impacts. Misato had no idea what was going on, and she was mentally fighting herself on whether to draw her gun on them, which her rational mind told would do no good, but her purely emotional side told her to shoot them dead, they were the same kind of monster that was attacking but in human form.
She realized they were both looking at her, even while keeping up the field, smiling at her, with Dr. Gannon giving her a mischievous wink and Shinji looking at his elder like he was going to kick him for some unknown offense. As the howling winds and shock-waves finally dissipated, the two dropped the field and brushed themselves off. Shinji turned to the Doctor and asked, "Dr. Gannon, she saw us use our abilities, what do we do?" Dr. Gannon was about to answer when Misato pulled out her gun, clicked off the safety and pointed it at them. Her grip they noticed was a bit shaky, but considering what she had just witnessed them do, they were both surprised she wasn't a babbling mess. Misato needn't have drawn, as her weapon was swiped from her hand by Dr. Gannon, who prompted crushed it like a empty pop can and threw it over his shoulder. He bent the hip and said a single word: "Don't".
He called over Shinji while he was trying to calm down the Captain, but was having the opposite effect.
"GET THE HELL AWAY FROM ME, YOU FREAK SHOW!"
Shinji winced as Captain Katsuragi tried slapping Dr. Gannon, but he caught her wrist in his hand, whipped off his designer sun-glasses and stared right into her eyes. She gasped loudly enough to make Shinji initially think something was wrong with her, then quickly remembered why someone would gasp like that when looking into Dr. Gannon's eyes. The whites of his eyes had turned completely black, and his iris' were a shocking electric blue. Shinji knew those eyes very well; for one thing He saw those same eyes years ago when He met Dr. Gannon for the first time, and the second thing was he had eyes just like those. When Dr. Gannon had said that he and Shinji had changed in similar ways, he had it partially wrong; Where Dr. Gannon had been exposed to a bizarre energy generated by an accidentally created hybrid DNA sample of extra-terrestrial origin, Shinji's transformation had been more...direct.
That was beside the point at the moment, as Shinji realized that time was ticking by, and also that Dr. Gannon had gotten the Captains car on all four wheels again. Misato was standing slightly off to one side, her arms folded over her chest in a way that conveyed not annoyance or anger, but uncertainty. Shinji had been so wrapped up in his own thoughts, he had missed what Dr. Gannon had said to Misato, but that could wait for another time. Dr. Gannon had begun opening up the hoods of several abandoned cars and taking the batteries out.
"Oh, wonderful, Las Vegas all over again!" Shinji grumbled. Gannon swung his head out from underneath a car hood and snarled, "Hey, hey, don't you dare be bringing that up again! It was bad enough going through that God forsaken mess in the first place! We are not going down that particular memory lane, not if I have anything to say about it!" Shinji all but jumped out of skin at Gannon's surprise fit, and Misato looked like she wanted to scream and run away. Shinji quickly threw on a look of apology and Gannon went back to pilfering car batteries, grumbling about "damn zombies chihuahuas" and "mutant strippers" all the while. Misato now had a look of perplexity and downright confusion spread across her pretty features, one eye brow almost touching her hairline.
"U-um, just who the Hell are you guys, and how can I get out of this crazy nightmare?" Misato asked as she watched Gannon thrash about under yet another car hood. He was swearing in what She thought was Gaelic, and now had extricated himself from underneath the car hood.
Well, he tried to.
He stood up far to quickly and banged his head on the hood, which came loose and slammed him back down onto the engine block, pinning him. Misato actually started laughing, while Shinji had to fight to restrain himself and went over to help his fiery mentor. After several minutes of Gaelic epithets and some straight forward swearing, plus giving Misato and Shinji withering dirty looks, the youthful Scotsman took the pilfered batteries and dumped them into the back seat, using jumper cables and long coils of wire to jury-rig them to Misato's car battery. He also took out what looked like a small carrying case from underneath his coat and opened it. Attached to the inside of the lid were three vials of silvery liquid. Small tools were the primary contents of the container. He simply poured one vial of liquid onto the engine, the other two being poured little by little onto any part of car that Gannon could get at. Misato went to get in the car and speed off, not trusting these Angels in human form, which is exactly what she thought they were. Unfortunately, Gannon held her back, checking an antique pocket watch he pulled out of a coat pocket, waiting for something to happen.
That something was a lot of muffled metallic clicking, something like electrical buzzing mixed with whirring, and what Misato would later swear to as metal warping and bending. Misato took a closer look at her car, and realized her car was actually fixing itself! Gannon had an arrogant smirk on his face and Shinji walked up behind her and tapped her hard right at the base of her skull, knocking her out. He caught her as though she weighed nothing. Shinji and Gannon both shared a sad look, realizing that while they should have tried to convince Captain Katsuragi that they were not a threat, they simply did not have the time. 'The wonders of a psychic link', Gannon thought as Shinji threw the unconscious woman over his shoulder, walked over to the now pristine Renault, open the passenger side door and slid up the seat so her could put gently in the back seat. Dr. Gannon got in the driver seat while Shinji rode shotgun. He dialed Dr. Akagi's number on Misato's phone and told her that the Captain had been hurt, though not very badly, and to expect them any minute, along with a call from Lorenz Keel himself.
Whatever argument or insult she was going to hurl at Gannon was stifled in her throat. She nervously asked, "C-Chairman Keel? Why would he be calling me?" She got her answer in a smugly delivered retort of "He found proof that you did sabotage My exo-shell, that's why" and the connection was abruptly severed. As Ritsuko Akagi felt her hands go numb and skin go cold, her stomach twist into knots, her cell phone slipped out of her hand and clattered to the floor of her office. Her mind reeled as she tried to figure out how she had been found out. The Commander had wanted the exo-shell program scrapped, and so she had traveled to America, found an isolated spot outside the base where the shell was being developed, and covertly hacked into the base mainframe, and then what she thought had been the exo-shell systems. She now realized what she had hacked into had been dummy systems, diversions while the real exo-shell systems were running through system diagnostics and final prepping.
And now Chairman Lorenz Keel was going to expose her and have her arrested for espionage, and probably have her killed for trying to interfere with his two favored scientists. No, first he would have her 'questioned' as to who was giving her her marching orders, but he probably already knew, and would just want some legal proof that Ikari was involved, and then He'd bury them both...in every sense of the word. She was just about to make a bee-line for the door, try just to get some distance from Nerv when her office phone began to ring. She realized if She didn't answer, Keel would realize she was trying to run and have His men intercept her, and none too gently she guessed. She shakily picked up the receiver, put it to her ear and softly asked, "Hello?"
"You know, Dr. Akagi, I always thought you and your mother were a bit, well, off. I just never thought you were stupid. You will be taught some manners young lady, and you will remember these lessons well", was the menacing answer she received, and Ritsuko knew who had given it to her. Before she could respond, a heavy hand clamped over her mouth, chloroform-soaked rag muffled her initial scream, and silencing it as she passed out. She was hastily thrown over a broad shoulder, which she couldn't see by the way, completely without regard for her safety, and taken out of her office. Before unconsciousness completely claimed her, Ritsuko realized her abductor had to duck and turn to get through her office door, indicating quite a bit of height, and that also the halls were empty, a rare thing considering the high alert level the base had been placed at.
As Ritsuko's mind began to finally shut down, she heard her assailant snicker in a voice like a rolling storm, "Boy oh boy lady, did you piss off the wrong guy! He's gonna smack you up so bad, your mommy's gonna feel it!"
Gendo Ikari was not having a good day at all. Well, that's not entirely true. The military representatives who were watching their forces be slaughtered by the Third Angel Sachiel, and finally conceding defeat after the N2 mine failed to finish the creature off, had passed mission authority to him, which pleased him greatly. He was having Unit-01 prepped for combat when he got a very angry call from Chairman Keel, who had found out about the sabotage of the combat exo-shell being developed and was 'taking steps', as he put it, to make sure Ikari paid for it. For starters, Keel himself was coming to Japan to directly oversee Nerv operations, but keeping a low profile publicly. He was going to make damn sure there was no more interference with either Gannon or Carmine, the latter of which was also on his way to Japan to give Dr. Gannon some support. They would be made co-directors of Project E as he was having Dr. Akagi 'questioned' as to her involvement with the attempted sabotage of the Exo-shell.
'Well, this whole day has gone to pot', Gendo thought angrily as Keel dropped his last bomb-shell: the three of them had raised Shinji into an out-going and fun loving boy while also giving him the proper training to operate an Evangelion. Keel added salt to Gendo's many wounds by describing many of Shinji's unique 'quirks' as he put it. Gendo did a double-take toward the receiver on his private phone like it had sprouted eyes and started ogling him. Gendo swore underneath his breathe as he heard his immediate subordinate Kozo Fuyutsuki snickering behind him, enjoying Gendo's grief just a bit too much from a professional stand-point. Gendo wanted to glare at his former college teacher, but decided to refrain as Keel was demanding his full attention.
"Let me be very clear, Commander", Keel growled during the phone call, biting off Gendo's title with sarcastic emphasis, "You will not be having your way, Rokubungi. You will be stripped of your rank and privileges if you continue to interfere in things that do not concern you. Just use the weaponry provided and stop whining about your wife's reputation, or so help me, boy, I'll literally have you boned like a fish! Now get back to work and deal with the damn Angel before I arrive and deal with you!"
The fact that Keel had used Gendo's original family name meant that he was not kidding or simply mouthing off. Lorenz Keel was going to systematically destroy him in every sense of the word, and he was powerless to prevent should Keel drop his wrathful hammer. Things simply couldn't get any worse.
Gendo had no idea how completely wrong he was. Things could, and would, in fact, get very much worse, and he was going to have front row seats to all.
Author's Notes: Well, after all these months, I've finally updated. I know the chapter isn't what people probably were hoping for, but I hope the twists I threw out were entertaining. I'll see you all again in "Round One: Fight! Fight! And Fight Some More!".