Creation began on 06-26-16
Creation ended on 07-30-16
Neon Genesis Evangelion
Baptism by Faith
They weren't anything like the ribbon she had received from her previous trainer, but Asuka had to admit that she admired what her new trainer had gotten for her.
Shinji, to replace the ribbon Asuka had lost prior to being captured, purchased a pair of elastic/metallic wristbands that he had engraved, "To Asuka, to symbolize a new beginning."
"Me… Char…" She expressed, raising her arms up and examining the bands that now covered her bandages. "Char."
"I take it you like them?" Shinji asked her.
"Meleon," she nodded.
The next stop they made was to the Celadon Gym, which, according to the Nurse Joy of the Pokemon Center, specialized in Grass Pokemon than anything. But with a Badge Guardian there, the chances of facing Grass Pokemon were slim. Although, even if there was a chance of it happening, Shinji didn't want to put Asuka in a battle so soon after she just left the hospital.
The gym was quite large, but for some reason, it just reminded Shinji of a large, metallic flower with a new paint smell to it.
"Time to earn another badge, Misato," he told his Eevee.
"Eee!" She agreed with him.
"Meleon," Asuka added in, and they followed Shinji into the gym.
-x-
"… I take it that SEELE wasn't in agreement that the Giovanni Corporation should be in compliance with NERV, Ikari?" Fuyutsuki asked Gendo, noticing that the latter was in another one of his moods after a meeting with the masters behind the paramilitary agency whenever things didn't go his way.
Gendo, displeased with being ordered by SEELE not to mess with a corporation that wasn't interfering with the scenario (even though their current research involved the Third Child), felt that the Giovanni Corporation would've gotten better results much faster if NERV had a more direct involvement. But because he was ordered not to bother their way of handling their project, there was little he could do beyond the receiving of video footage from the corporation whenever Major Katsuragi was informed.
"By the time they could get anywhere with their project, we could be at the mercy of the Angels," he expressed, but this was just to mask his own goals of completing his scenario before the Angels or SEELE could achieve theirs. "Or the Third Child could be old enough to no longer be useful at the pace he's going."
Fuyutsuki then expressed, "He's not sure how many of these…Pokemon he needs to catch in order to return to this dimension, Ikari, but if he's trying to catch as many as possible, it's not something you can rush just because you desire it to be so. He's just one person in a world surrounded by strangers, trying to survive. And he was asked to question whether or not his goal to return will be worth his hardships."
Worth his hardships? Gendo thought, feeling that anything his son did wasn't worth even his most barest of attention. If he can't pilot the Eva, what use is he at all?
Meanwhile, in the NERV cafeteria, Misato was replaying the old footage of Shinji in the other dimension on a tablet, reviewing the creatures he had seen or caught during the time he was there (along with trying to estimate the age he was in the footage that showed him being much older than a teen or young adult). So far, she could guess that he would've been there for over twenty years or so if he was still looking for a way back home, meaning he had to be at least over forty years old over there…and he had probably encountered over two-hundred-ninety different Pokemon…and it still wasn't enough to get him home.
I really don't want to have to see him on or near his deathbed by the time he comes back, she thought, really hoping to the gods that Shinji or the Giovanni Corporation found a way back for the boy.
In nearly every photo image, one of the most common of these Pokemon Shinji was seen with was the brownish fox that he nicknamed after the purple-haired, which didn't seem to show much in the aging department; in fact, the fox didn't look like it aged much at all like Shinji did.
-x-
"…Mite," the Badge Guardian's Magnemite went as it stopped floating and fell onto the field.
"Aaaurgh!" He groaned, taking out his Poke Ball and recalling his Pokemon.
The battle had only started, and Shinji was doing well with Toji as he demonstrated his new technique that allowed for Asuka to be captured. He found out it was called Stone Edge, and it was really effective against Electric Pokemon like Magnemite.
"Way to go, Toji!" He cheered his Larvitar.
"Tar! Larvitar!" Toji replied with a small bow.
"Char…" Asuka congratulated the little Pokemon for his victory against the Magnemite.
Erika had to give the boy praise for defeating the Badge Guardian's first Pokemon, but wanted to see how he was going to fare against his remaining two.
"Let's see how well you do against Cloyster!" The Badge Guardian declared, tossing his second Poke Ball, unleashing a man-sized clam onto the parched field.
"Oh, my gosh!" Shinji gasped; he had never seen anything like this before in his time here, and took out his Pokedex to identify it.
"Cloyster, the Bivalve Pokemon, and the evolved form of Shellder," it revealed. "The durability of its shell makes it resistant to most explosives. Cloyster only opens its shell when engaging in attacks."
"Good grief," Shinji expressed; the Cloyster displayed by his Pokedex looked intimidating enough. And it's a Water/Ice Pokemon. Toji's no match against either right now. My best recourse is Kenji.
And with that, he called his Larvitar back and released his Pikachu.
"Chu!" Kenji expressed, looking at the Cloyster. "Pika!"
"Just do your best, Kenji!" Shinji encouraged him.
"Meleon!" Asuka clapped her claws in support of the Pikachu.
"Eevo!" Misato added in.
-x-
"…For the Unit-03 activation test, we'll be using the First Child," said Ritsuko to Misato as they walked down the hall to the faux-blond's office, "and for the Unit-04 activation test, we'll be using the Fourth Child."
"The Fourth Child's been found already?" Misato questioned; she didn't receive any report from the Marduk Institute."
"I received the report eight minutes ago. This is who was picked."
Misato was left hollow at the picture of the boy picked to pilot Unit-04. She thought it would've been someone a bit more stern or headstrong like Asuka, but not this kid. For once, she was glad that Shinji wasn't here right now to question this, because she suspected that he would be against it.
-x-
"…She volunteered to activate Unit-03?" Fuyutsuki asked Gendo, concerned that Rei actually requested to participate in the activation of one of the two Production Evas.
"She insisted on doing so," Gendo explained. "She explained that with the advancement of the Production Evas, Unit-00 has become an obsolete design."
"She's actually right. Unit-00 is just a prototype with some errors that can't be fixed. But why not have her pilot Unit-01 instead of Unit-03?"
"She'll pilot Unit-01 after the Unit-03 activation test, after which, we'll find a permanent pilot for Unit-03. As we're short a pilot, we need to be prepared for future Angel attacks."
"And not only because we may not have the time to wait for your son to return on his own?"
"There's no guarantee that he'll even be able to return."
Fuyutsuki didn't like how Gendo looked down on Shinji and didn't have any faith in him to find his own way back from this other world he was in. He, on the other hand, had faith in Shinji's ability to get back on his own. And as he had said earlier, this wasn't something you could simply rush.
"The activation tests will take place three days from today," Gendo informed him.
-x-
"…Chu!" Kenji shouted, using his Thunderbolt on Cloyster, electrocuting it after narrowly dodging its Spike Cannon and Aurora Beam attacks.
Shinji hoped that, because Cloyster was primarily a Water-Type with Ice-Type capabilities, his Kenji's electrical attacks would be able to outdo the Bivalve Pokemon's defenses and earn him another step closer to his entry into the Kanto League.
"Cloy… Cloyster," the Cloyster moaned in minor agony. "Cloyster."
It had been electrocuted by Kenji at least five times, but it continued to put up resistance and Shinji wasn't sure how much longer Kenji could go until he ran out of electricity.
"Cloyster," the Cloyster then turned to its right side and fell over, its facial expression that of a person knocked out in a battle.
"Aaurgh, my Cloyster!" The Badge Guardian groaned in defeat of another of his Pokemon, and recalled it back to its Poke Ball.
"Way to go, Kenji!" Shinji praised his Pikachu.
"Eevo!" Misato added in.
"Char, char!" Asuka expressed, as well.
"Pika!" Kenji responded back.
"You might've gotten lucky with my first two Pokemon, but now the kid gloves come off!" The Badge Guardian stated, holding up another Poke Ball. "Meet my strongest Pokemon!"
He tossed the ball and it unleashed a new creature that Shinji had never seen before.
"Aaaurgh!" The Pokemon grunted, stomping its front legs.
To Shinji, it looked like an animal he once heard of called a cow, but the coloring was wrong, and it had three tails.
"Who's that Pokemon?" He wondered, using his Pokedex to identify it.
"Tauros, the Wild Bull Pokemon," Dexter addressed. "When taking aim at a target, it will whip itself with its three tails to raise up its determination. Tauros are among the more endangered species of Pokemon due to being hunted by poachers."
"Yikes," Shinji expressed; he had faced large Pokemon before, but a Tauros was a new one for him, and this one was frightening enough. I've already used Toji and Kenji so far, but they're not likely going to be strong enough to face this Tauros. Who else is there? I can't use Rei. Kensuke's attacks would be minimal at best. And Misato wouldn't stand a chance against it.
He left out Asuka for the reason being that she was still recovering from her time on her own after her previous trainer abandoned her. He never heard of any trainer using an injured Pokemon to fight. Then, holding out Kensuke's ball, he prepared to make his choice.
"Char!" Asuka stopped him by grabbing his left arm, keeping him from throwing the ball. "Char."
He looked at her and then at the Tauros.
"Are you sure?" He questioned. "You're still recovering. I wouldn't want to put you through a battle until you were well."
"Meleon!" She gave a smile that seemed full of confidence, but the attitude made it look sadistic in a strange way.
Shinji then looked down at Misato…and then over at Kenji, who was already experiencing fatigue from overuse of his electrical energy.
"Eevo!" Misato encouraged him to make a better choice.
"Do your best out there," he uttered. "I choose you, Asuka."
-x-
Kensuke Aida couldn't believe his luck when he was asked to the principal's office two days ago. At first, he thought it had something to do with his skipping school to film warships associated with the Navy and Air Force factions, but then saw the woman with blond hair and she said that NERV wanted him to become a pilot for one of their Evas. It was like a dream come true for him when he accepted without so much as questioning the dangers involved. All he really knew was that one of his friends was stranded in another dimension, and that left an opening until there was a way for him to return to this one. He had no ill will towards Shinji, whatsoever.
And now, he stood before Unit-04, the Eva he was picked to pilot as it was being prepped for its activation test.
"Marvelous," he expressed.
"What is marvelous?" He heard Rei ask him, and he had forgotten that she was here, too, testing Unit-03 for NERV until another pilot could be found.
"Oh! Rei, I… Unit-04 looks marvelous. That's all." He explained.
The albino girl looked at the silver Eva and responded, "I wouldn't really know for certain. The activation tests for both Evas will begin in the next hour."
And so he left to change into his plugsuit.
-x-
"A Charmeleon, huh?" The Badge Guardian expressed. "Would it, by any chance, be the one I heard was harassing other trainers on the road between here and Saffron? I'm surprised that you would want anything to do with another trainer's problem."
"You take the time to bond with a Pokemon, and you'll find what others have claimed to be either honest…or false in their beliefs," Shinji retorted; he saw no sign of weakness in Asuka, neither before he caught her or after they left the Pokemon Center. "Okay, Asuka, use Flamethrower."
"Char!" Asuka spat out a stream of intense flames at the Tauros' head, leaving burns all over its fur and horns. "Charmeleon!"
"Aaurgh!" Tauros reacted, whipping itself with its tails.
"Use Take Down, Tauros!" The Badge Guardian ordered, and Tauros charged towards Asuka.
"Asuka, evade!" Shinji commanded, and the Flame Pokemon leapt out of the way.
"Okay, maybe I've underestimated you a little more than I intended to, but you're still no match for Tauros," the Badge Guardian declared. "Now, attack with Ice Beam!"
Ice Beam?! Shinji thought, seeing Tauros turn around to face Asuka, opening its mouth…and unleashing a glowing stream of blue light.
Asuka dodged, but her left arm was still struck by the beam, encasing it in ice!
"Oh!" Shinji gasped, never believing that a bull could use a move associated with Ice-Type Pokemon. "Asuka, are you alright?"
Asuka looked at her frozen limb…and breathed fire on it, thawing it out.
"Meleon!" She growled.
"Okay, use Slash!"
She raised her claws up and charged towards the Tauros.
SLASH! She got it on its left side, leaving three slash marks.
"Aaaaurgh!" Tauros groaned; this Charmeleon was tough for a Pokemon smaller than itself.
"Use Ice Beam again!" The Badge Guardian commanded again. "Turn that fire lizard into an ice cube!"
-x-
Misato didn't like this. It wasn't that NERV was performing an activation test on two new Evas, but that Kensuke Aida was selected as the Fourth Child. The only thing that interfered with her presence being a requirement for the tests was the Giovanni Corporation needing her present because they were going to perform another live feed test with Palkia.
To remedy this, the corporation gave the paramilitary agency a telepresence drone for Misato to participate in the test at the facility in Matsushiro.
"I don't understand how it's necessary for you to be there if it's just to activate something," Antonio told Misato as she used the tablet to communicate with Ritsuko while he sat at the control console as his team prepared to begin the filming process.
"It's just that a commanding officer is always needed," she explained.
"If you ask me, I don't find it morally ethical to use kids as soldiers in a war against giant monsters."
"As much as I agree with you on that, the Evas are only compatible with people born after Second Impact. And now we're short a pilot."
"Personal question, but has anyone died using those Evas?"
"Not yet."
"That bothers me. The 'yet'."
"We're ready to begin the experiment again, Mr. Giovanni," one of the women informed Antonio.
"We're about to ago ahead with the activation test, Misato," went Ritsuko through the intercom of the drone in Matsushiro.
"Great," both Antonio and Misato responded.
"Great?" Ritsuko echoed. "You do know that if these two become operational, they'll be under your command authority."
"Operational authority on four or five Evas? If NERV wanted to, we could conquer the world."
"If we can break inter-dimensional travel, I'll be among those that will abandon that world if it falls into another dictatorship," Antonio expressed his personal concerns.
In front of the drone in the Matsushiro facility, Ritsuko felt that Antonio Giovanni lacked any measure of faith in NERV or the Evas.
-x-
Asuka blocked the Ice Beam with her Flamethrower, creating a standoff, but she had to admit that this Tauros was stronger than she was.
"Hang in there, Asuka!" Shinji encouraged her.
Unfortunately, because she was nowhere near the full strength she would've been fully recovered, her Flamethrower wasn't as strong as the Ice Beam. The stalemate was starting to shift in the Tauros' favor.
"Asuka, duck!" Shinji ordered her, and she ceased her Flamethrower to dodge the Ice Beam. "Slash!"
She ran over and slashed the Tauros on the right side.
"Take Down, Tauros!" The Badge Guardian commanded.
"Aaurgh!" Tauros snarled as it tried to smash Asuka into the ground, but she managed to avoid its assault. "Aaaurgh!"
It tried Take Down again, but Asuka evaded again.
Shinji noticed how Asuka was doing well for a Pokemon not yet fully recovered, but then noticed the flame at the end of her tail looking smaller. He then took out his Pokedex again to understand more about the Charmander species that Asuka came from.
"Charmander, the Lizard Pokemon," Dexter went. "The flame on its tail sparks right from birth. It is said that a Charmander dies if its flame ever goes out."
When he checked and found that this applied to all of its evolutionary stages, he felt the need to worry more about Asuka. He wanted to call her back, but she seemed to have the battle under control, so long as she avoided the Ice Beam.
Skid! Asuka backed away from the Tauros, panting as she caught her breath.
"Char… Char…" She panted.
"Asuka, take a break!" Shinji then suggested, seeing that she needed to rest some more.
"Meleon!" She shook her head in the negative; this Tauros was a strong combatant, and she wanted to be the one to defeat it. "Charmeleon!"
"You got a toughster for someone that looks like they should still be in the Pokemon Center," the Badge Guardian praised Shinji, "but how long can it go on before it succumbs to fatigue?"
Shinji had no answer to that question, even if he wanted to know the answer.
"Ice Beam, Tauros!"
Tauros used Ice Beam again, but this time, Asuka was ready with Flamethrower. It created another standoff, lasting much longer than the previous one.
"Eevo!" Misato cheered Asuka on.
Unfortunately, the standoff didn't last…as the Ice Beam pushed the Flamethrower backwards.
"Asuka, get out of the way!" Shinji ordered, but it was easier said than done.
FLASH! The Ice Beam stopped the Flamethrower…and encased Asuka in ice.
"Oh, no!" Shinji gasped, seeing how the ice had covered the entire Charmeleon, down to even her tail. "Asuka!"
"Eee! Eevo!" Misato went.
Crack! The ice surrounding Asuka cracked, began to thaw, and shattered, releasing the Charmeleon from the icy imprisonment.
"Char!" Asuka snarled, enraged by the attack that caused a halt in her fiery assault.
GASP! Everyone watching the battle awed at the Flame Pokemon.
Or rather, what they couldn't see.
"What on Earth?" The Badge Guardian covered his mouth; this was a first in his history of seeing extreme happenings in the world of Pokemon.
-x-
"…Harmonics are well in the green and his synchronization is holding at fifty-three percent," a female technician informed Ritsuko, going over Kensuke's connectivity to Unit-04.
"The First Child's synchronization, however, is unusual," another female technician uttered from her console. "It keeps fluctuating between forty and seventy percent."
"Rei, concentrate on what you're doing," Ritsuko ordered the girl.
"I am, Doctor Akagi," responded Rei to her.
Suddenly, the alarms went off.
"What's going on?" Misato asked through the telepresence drone present.
"We're getting an unknown reading from Unit-03!" A male technician revealed.
The observation room in front of Unit-03 began to rattle, and the drone turned to face the black Eva, which started move, despite the restraints put in place to keep it from doing so.
"There's a blue pattern!" Another male technician shouted, and the back of the Eva's Entry Plug's external, protective casing began to pull away from the rest of it.
"It can't be," Misato said through the drone. "An Angel?"
The last thing Misato saw through the drone was a blinding light…and the connection between the drone and the tablet was severed.
-x-
"Oh, no," Misato sighed, putting the tablet down, realizing that she needed to get to NERV HQ quickly to prep Unit-02. "I gotta go."
"Go," Antonio responded to her. "The footage is being recorded. You'll get it when the test is done."
"Thank you."
-x-
Someone could've said to stop the match. Someone could've said that she needed to get to the Pokemon Center. But nobody said anything. And the Charmeleon…didn't seem at all affected by what happened to her.
Her tail, which had the flame that symbolized her lifeforce, now lacked the very flame.
Shinji ran over to Asuka and checked her arms, waist, neck and tail, but other than her previous injuries, she seemed fine.
"Asuka…are you alright?" He asked her.
"Char!" She nodded in the positive.
Shinji wanted to ask someone that knew more about Fire-Type Pokemon, but he wasn't sure about anything right now. Except for what his Charmeleon informed him, and that was that she was okay.
"Uh…we're good here," he told them all.
"Are you sure?" The Badge Guardian questioned. "Your Charmeleon's… It should be… This can't be right. I mean, the flame's out! It should be dead!"
"You're not the only one that feels that this is unusual, sir."
Even though it was, without a doubt, the craziest thing ever seen in a match, the referee permitted the battle to resume.
"Okay, Asuka, use Slash!" Shinji commanded.
"Meleon!" Asuka responded, charging at the Tauros with her claws held high.
"Tauros, use Fissure!" The Badge Guardian ordered.
Oh, no, not Fissure, Shinji realized; Fissure, like Horn Drill, was a one-move that could end the match.
Asuka must've realized this, as well, and jumped up off the ground as the Tauros raised its front hooves, avoiding the Fissure attempt by landing onto its head, grabbing its horns, being swung around.
The Tauros performed its ordered attack, but since the Charmeleon wasn't on the ground, it was a missed attack.
Asuka then slammed her tail on Tauros' head, hard, knocking it to the ground.
"Grrr!" It roared, getting back up on its feet. "Grrr!"
"Char!" Asuka roared, opening her mouth…and unleashing an attack that clearly wasn't a Flamethrower in Shinji's eyes; he had never seen a Fire-Type attack that reminded him so much of an Asian character.
"Whoa!" He gasped; even Misato was surprised by the attack Asuka unleashed.
When the flames given off by the attack dissipated, the Tauros and Asuka were seen standing several feet away from each other, panting from the exhaustion and injuries they had sustained from the latest attack employed by Asuka. The Tauros' head was covered in burns, but it still looked like it had some fight left in it to keep going.
"What was that?" Shinji wondered.
"Eee," added Misato.
Suddenly, the Tauros fell onto its left side and fainted, leaving Asuka as the only Pokemon left standing that could continue.
"My Tauros!" The Badge Guardian cried out, and then recalled it into its Poke Ball. "Congratulations, kid. You beat my best Pokemon. I've never seen anyone take on a Fire Blast head-on before."
"That was Fire Blast? I had no idea. I didn't know Asuka knew that move."
Asuka came over to Shinji and raised her right claw up, performing a gesture he recognized, even though it lacked two more digits (so long as it was recognized by people that had seen the gesture, there was no offense). But what had her new trainer on edge still, though, was the lack of flame on her tail.
"Here's your Rainbow Badge," the Badge Guardian awarded him, presenting him with his fifth badge. "You should probably get your Charmeleon checked out at the Pokemon Center."
"That's where I'm heading," he told him, wanting to make sure that Asuka was fine.
-x-
It was disturbing. The Central Dogma bridge crew were left appalled by the latest Angel. It looked just like Unit-03, but its arms dangled in a fashion similar to the Third Angel's. There was no denying that it was the Eva that was being tested alongside another Production Eva, but how it became an Angel was unknown to them.
An attempt was made to force-eject the Entry Plug, but the unusual, fungus-like growth that appeared around the plug prevented it from being removed from the possessed Eva.
"What about the pilot?" Fuyutsuki asked the crew.
"We're still getting a pulse from within the plug," went Hyuga, "but beyond that, nothing else."
Gendo didn't react to this revelation with much emotion and declared, "Send out Unit-02 to engage the target at Mt. Nobe."
It was the way he announced it. He addressed Unit-03 as a target, not as an Eva. He didn't even consider the pilot's life, either.
-x-
All he could do was wait for Nurse Joy to return with news of Asuka's condition. He had his concerns, even after she had claimed she was fine. The small thought that returning her to her Great Ball would somehow undo the lack of flame on her tail long forgotten as he sat in the waiting area with Misato, trying to reevaluate what was going on.
"Eee?" Misato went, getting his attention. "Eevo."
"I'm sure Asuka's fine," he told her, but still looked up at the door to the room, waiting for Nurse Joy to show up. "She's tough, but it's never wrong to get a second opinion."
The door suddenly opened and Nurse Joy and a Chansey came inside.
"Your Charmeleon really took an Ice Beam from a Tauros and survived?" She asked him.
"Yes, ma'am," he answered. "Is she…doing well?"
"This is actually beyond my knowledge of Pokemon physiology. Anyone that knows everything about this type of Pokemon knows that it can't survive without its tail flame…and yet, this one's doing just that. Besides her previous injuries and the lack of a tail flame, your Charmeleon's recovering."
She led him to the room where Asuka was recovering in, and saw her with the other Chansey, but there was no flame on her tail.
"Do you think her tail flame will come back at a later time?" Shinji asked her.
"I examined her tail, and the portion where the flame should be shows no signs of the type of regeneration associated with the species. I'm sorry to say, but her tail flame may never return." She explained to him. "It might if she evolves at a later time, but only time will tell."
Shinji then took out his Pokedex and looked up Asuka's evolutionary stages, stopping at the final form her species took.
"I don't understand how this species evolved over time to require a flame at the end of their tails," he revealed to Nurse Joy.
"Pokemon evolve and adapt differently, depending on their environment. There have been some beliefs, however, that there are Pokemon in other regions, like the Hoenn Region, that have survived for hundreds of millions of years without changing in the slightest degree."
"The Hoenn Region? Just how many regions are there, exactly?"
"Over five of them have Pokemon you wouldn't find here or in the Johto Region."
Shinji soon had the feeling that he would have to visit these regions in order to catch more Pokemon in order to get closer to his way home.
-x-
It may have went against Commander Ikari's orders, but Asuka, rather than attack the possessed Unit-03, got behind it and ripped the Entry Plug out and tripped the black Eva to the ground. After setting the plug down, she proceeded to rip the Eva to shreds. Even if she hated the girl, Asuka couldn't risk NERV being outdone by the Angels due to a decrease in the number of pilots. And on a personal level, she couldn't imagine the response from Shinji if he ever did return and find out that a number of people were gone while he was away and had to find his own way back.
When there was nothing left of Unit-03 to rip into pieces, the redhead announced, "The Angel has been dealt with."
"Good job, Asuka," went Misato over the intercom; even if Commander Ikari had tried to override her authoritarian command over the operation as Ritsuko had with the Twelfth Angel, the purple-haired woman was pleased with the choice Asuka made to save Rei instead of doing away with her and the Thirteenth Angel.
-x-
"…You managed to win your fifth badge with your Charmeleon, even though it seems like her tail's flame is permanently extinguished?" Professor Oak questioned Shinji over the video phone.
"Yes," he answered back. "I still have my concerns for her, though. Her species need their tail flames to survive, but now she's without hers, which I blame myself for because I didn't anticipate the level of that Ice Beam attack, and it doesn't seem to affect her in any way that is fatal."
"It's one of the amazing things about Pokemon. They're full of mysteries and surprises. You can spend decades studying them, and they'll still surprise you with what they're capable of. Still, I must say, congratulations on capturing your Charmeleon and obtaining your fifth badge. I look forward to seeing you when you return to Pallet Town after you obtain your eighth badge. Good luck."
When the transmission ended, Shinji breathed a breath of relief.
"Yeah, they do surprise you with what they're capable of," he agreed with Oak's choice of words.
"Eevo?" He looked down at Misato and smiled.
"Well, you do surprise me when you do things I have no clue about."
-x-
"…We found another survivor over here!" Ritsuko heard as she awoke from her concussion. "Get me some help over here!"
"Ohh…" She groaned as she tried to get up.
"I wouldn't try to get up just yet," she heard Kaji's voice cut through the noise around her. "Your left leg has three fractures."
She turned her head to the right and saw him, sporting a sling on his left arm.
"What happened to Units-03 and 04?" She asked him.
"Unit-03 had to be taken out as an Angel," he answered, "and as for Unit-04, it only suffered minor damage. The only problem right now are the pilots."
"What happened to the pilots?"
"Well, Rei got a broken arm and two broken ribs…but the Fourth Child's in a coma."
"A coma? How is that possible? You said the Eva he was in suffered only minor damage."
"You would refer to it as cerebral hemorrhage due to blunt force trauma. When the Angel caused the explosion, the boy somehow banged his head against the plug."
"Careful with his head there," Ritsuko heard another man and saw a stretcher being carried away, holding the incapacitated Fourth Child with a bandaged head.
-x-
"How are you doing, Asuka?" Shinji asked his Charmeleon as he, her and Misato walked down the path as they left Celadon City over an hour ago.
"Charmeleon," Asuka responded, and gave him a thumb's up with her right arm.
For the time being, he was letting her recover from her injuries and malnutrition outside her Great Ball and accompany Misato. He looked up at the afternoon sky and saw a twinkle in the sky.
"Huh?" He went, seeing something falling towards him. "Oh!"
He, Misato and Asuka ran for cover near the trees nearby and waited for the impact to occur. It felt like two minutes, but he took a peek and saw something that seemed impossible. But the problem with that belief was that he had seen the impossible constantly.
A boy, around his age, dressed in a greenish outfit that looked just like his plugsuit, laying on the ground, soaked in a substance.
"Oh, my!" Shinji gasped and ran over towards the boy; right now, he couldn't concern himself with what was going on, just that he had to help the person.
He wasn't prepared for who the person was he was attempting to aid.
"Kensuke?" He uttered, turning the boy over, finding him out cold.
To be continued…