Creation began on 04-01-20
Creation ended on 04-12-20
Neon Genesis Evangelion
Unova Region then Kalos Region
A/N: This chapter will probably have some time skipping, but only because of some act of hatred. The coronavirus will affect my way of progressing this story for the time being.
"…So, we're really heading for the Unova Region first?" Asuka asked Shinji as they were in his room whilst the Pokémon Trainer was packing his backpack for the new region.
"Yeah," he answered her, finishing his packing. "Even though there won't be a Pokémon League there for more than a year, that doesn't keep anyone looking to participate in it from visiting the region, traveling around the towns and cities, facing the Gym Leaders and catching new Pokémon before venturing off to the Kalos Region."
"Eevo!" Misato chirped as she sat beside Shinji.
"But tell me," Asuka had to ask, "how do you know we'll likely be where you'll be if we disappear on the way or after you leave?"
"You guys were able to keep track of me before you attempted to travel here subconsciously…"
"…So we're likely to keep up with Shinji, no matter where he ends up," Antonio told the others as they stood outside of the modern house belonging to Shinji. "I just hope that we don't get any more blackouts like the first one that affected the experiment with Kensuke."
"If a blackout did happen, it wouldn't be too bad," Toji admitted, which Hikari found hard to believe due to being unsure of how they'd cope mentally.
"It's best not to tempt fate, Toji," Misato told him.
"Jynx!" They heard Katsuragi as she gave Shinji another bear hug.
"Gaah!" Shinji groaned. "Thank you, Katsuragi. Until we meet again."
"Eevo!" Misato added, earning a pat on her head by Katsuragi.
"Okay," Shinji greeted everyone outside, "who's ready to fly?"
"On that Rayquaza again?" Ritsuko asked him, concerned with all of them having to sit on that Dragon-Type Pokémon for over an hour.
"Gosh, no," Shinji clarified. "I'm talking a regular plane. Metal, plastic, glass, wires and carpet. Unova and Kalos are too far for Flying Pokémon to carry people."
"Sweet," Hikari stated and noticed a large van coming their way. "Is that our ride?"
"Yep," Kensuke answered.
-x-
His attempts to discredit his son weren't working. Every time Gendo checked to see if anyone had anything negative to say about the Third Child, all he found was responses to his reviews questioning his negativity towards the Pokémon Trainer that had become a celebrity to them and the social media world. And worse was that six days had passed, and all he heard from Rei when he asked her what Shinji was planning to do was that he was making plans to venture in this Unova Region for a few months and then head to this Kalos Region. Even if he complained in a future review, all he'd get is more negativity from those that admired his son rather than despise him.
So now, he was attempting to carry out a move that was, more or less, out of spite.
Those people from that other world actually built him a house while he's there?! He thought, looking at the building's exterior power box and holding a fire axe in his hands. That ungrateful brat! It's like he actually lives there now, and he's taking all my chess pawns from me for his own amusement! I'll show you!
"Hey!" He was caught by the building's security. "Hey, what are you doing?!"
But he wasn't going to risk losing to his son…and swung the axe against the box, causing it some damage before he fled.
Boom! The box sparked and caught on fire, forcing the security guard to retreat for an extinguisher close by.
-x-
"…Not a big fan of flying?" Misato asked Antonio as they sat on the plane as it took off.
"On the contrary," he responded, "I enjoy flying. Just not on big planes. Small, commuter planes on account of being easier to manage, maintenance-wise."
"No offense, Mr. Giovanni," went Toji to him, "but you look a little under the weather."
"None taken," Antonio stated, and then opened a barf bag and tossed his crackers.
"I told you not to eat that burrito," Misato told him as she looked up and saw Shinji looking out the passenger window at the Kanto Region below.
"I feel like we're on vacation," Asuka confessed.
"Honestly, with the way things are going, all the time spent here with Shinji might as well be viewed as a vacation."
"Amen to that, Ms. Katsuragi," said Kensuke to her. "We got the world in our hands."
Laying his head back, Shinji had dozed off to sleep; the flight from Kanto to Unova would be at twelve hours.
"How long exactly is this flight, Shinji?" Ritsuko had asked him.
"Twelve hours," he explained.
"Twelves hours?!" Asuka reacted. "What are we supposed to do on a plane for twelve hours?!"
There was plenty to do on a plane for twelve hours; the passengers could talk, eat, sleep, listen to music on headphones or even watch films. With Shinji, it was as simple as running across the terrain or traveling around on his Gyarados' back at sea. People just needed to find their way to chill and allow time to pass them buy.
"You've traveled with Shinji on a plane before, Mr. Aida?" Fuyutsuki questioned Kensuke.
"Uh, yeah," he answered back. "We took a plane to Sinnoh instead of a boat. It was the first time I've ever seen him unsettled by a mechanical transport vessel that wasn't on the ground. I actually thought he was going to throw a fit or something."
"Why do you feel like this is a vacation, Soryu?" Ritsuko asked Asuka.
"Because I couldn't go to Okinawa because of the Angels," Asuka explained. "Only this feels better than that because we're not expecting any trouble."
"It's hard to anticipate trouble when you're not really aware of the danger," Hikari expressed, seeing Shinji's Eevee fall asleep on Shinji's lap. "Well, they don't feel like we're in any danger."
Rei then put on a pair of headphones and began listening to some music.
"…A new adventure…" She started singing the lyrics to herself, bobbing her head.
-x-
"…Fortunately, the fuse box wasn't connected to anything down here, so we're okay until the power company sends people over to replace it," the man whose building housing Palkia and the Giovanni Corporation people and the Japanese personnel helping with the interdimensional project involving the Spatial Pokémon explained to the people present.
"Thank you, sir," one of the women praised him, grateful to know that their project hadn't been compromised by the damage done to the main power box.
"Hey, my kids love the fact that they get to see someone who inspires them to believe in something that could've been put on TV someplace, so I'm really grateful that your work here gives them a new hero to look up to."
Palkia looked down at the man and merely grunted in the positive.
"Pokémon," the man sighed. "If this were a dream, I hope not to wake up from it."
"Maybe you should take a picture and show your children that you got to see one up close," Palkia suggested.
"Uh…would it be cool if I took a picture of your Pokémon to show my kids, please?"
The lady sighed and responded, "Since my boss is currently indisposed because he's helping in the project, yes, it would be cool if you took a picture with Palkia here."
The man took out his phone and aimed it at himself with Palkia behind himself.
Click.
"Thank you very much," he praised them and left.
-x-
"…Hmm?" Shinji grumbled as he came to, thinking he was still on the plane, but found himself standing on a beach. "Where…am I?"
"Eee?" He looked down on his left and saw Misato with him, just as confused as he was.
"Misato?" He went, picking her up and looking out at the ocean. "What's going on here?"
The ocean was reddish-orange and the sky was dark with a red steak across it. And the land around the beach, for some reason, was as dark and lifeless and parched soil, sending a chill down the boy's spine.
"This place feels so desolate," he told Misato.
"Eee," she agreed with him.
Suddenly, something emerged from the ocean from afar, frightening the pair. It was massive, quadruped, and covered in dark blue and gray, metallic scale designs.
"Dialga?" Shinji recognized the creature as the Temporal Pokémon.
"Grrrraurgh!" Dialga roared, sending out vibrations across the world around it.
Shinji and Misato saw the world around them react to Dialga's power unleashed, seeing time flow backwards, showing how their current environment became the way it had been. To the Pokémon Trainer's surprise, it had been the result of a colossal being of light with a multitude of wings, wielding a sphere of darkness. Above this being was something that, to Shinji, resembled an Evangelion, wielding a large, red trident of some sort.
"Grrrraurgh!" Dialga roared again. "Prevent this from happening! Change the fate of existence! Await the end! Grasp the beginning…and escape fate! Grrraugh!"
FLASH! Shinji then found himself and his Eevee floating in front of Evangelion Unit-01, looking rather…demonic and unpleasant to be around.
"Eee!" Misato gasped, hiding behind Shinji, who was just as frightened by the purple behemoth.
"You can't have me go through that nonsense again," he told the Eva. "I remember what happened all those years ago. What happened, you brought that on yourself. What you chose to have happen, I won't become a part of it any further. You can't have me! You can't have me again! You can't have me!"
The Eva opened its back and revealed its Entry Plug, and then reached for Shinji.
Gasp! Shinji opened his eyes and found himself back on the plane en route to Unova.
Stupid dreams, he thought as he looked out his window, seeing the sun had gone down and it was close to midnight. I'll do whatever I have to NOT to go back to being an Eva pilot or exploitable by my parents.
-x-
The last thing Gendo heard from the Committee was that they had begun construction on new Evas in their facilities across the planet, taking advantage of the fact that the Fourteenth Angel was incapable of freeing itself from the spatial anomaly that Palkia created. Despite his insistence that the Angel would likely find a way to escape in the future, Gendo couldn't persuade the old men to enforce some measure of how it was necessary for the pilots to resume synchronization testing with the Evas they currently had available because they preferred seeing the Third Child, who couldn't offer anything to benefit their goal to defeat the Angels so long as he was displaced in another dimension taking his time finding his way back. The only benefit to Gendo's liking was that everyone that left the Geo-Front to visit the facility would be returning today…and he would stress that it was necessary for them to focus on dealing with the Angels and not wasting time on someone that wasn't here to do what was required of him.
The door to his office opened and he saw Fuyutsuki and Dr. Akagi step inside.
"Do you think you can explain why you were reported seen at the Giovanni Corporation's warehouse facility attempting to cause a power outage by smashing the power box?" Fuyutsuki asked him.
"I have no idea what you're talking about," Gendo responded.
"They saw you there," Ritsuko added. "You were on camera, too. One claim is that you were trying to cripple their program by disabling their power needs. But you failed, and quite miserably, too."
"We don't have time for this unnecessary interference."
"You call it unnecessary, Ikari," Fuyutsuki stated, "but other people see interest in this project to open doorways to other dimensions. For the other pilots, it's every opportunity to see their friend. And for your son, it's every opportunity to see people from here that haven't forgotten about him. Whatever your feelings are for what Shinji has done with his time, you have to put them aside and turn the page…just like he did."
But Gendo couldn't let go of what he felt was his son rubbing his face in his inability to control the situation they were all in. He was dealing with a problem that couldn't be resolved until the Fourteenth Angel was defeated and the pilots were kept in line.
Meanwhile, in the locker rooms, each of the pilots had their own thoughts on how to make the time go by without having these extended synchronization tests drive them crazy. Their first step onto the land of the Unova Region was exhilarating due to the sight they had of the place from up high in the sky when the sun started to come up. It was beautiful and made them think even less about Japan, about Tokyo-3…and pretty much every other place that they couldn't see that had existed before Second Impact occurred.
"Based on looks alone, this region echoes the aspects of New York," Asuka recalled how Antonio had expressed to them as they walked around the city they had landed in.
"What kind of city was that?" Shinji had asked.
"It went by many names and was a major city like Tokyo was."
They were fortunate that there was a Pokémon Center nearby and could crash there until morning, when they would meet this Prof. Juniper, who would get Shinji setup for his time in this region and for the Unova League when he returned to compete in it.
Man, I wish I was back in Unova, thought Toji as he pressed the button on his plugsuit to fit his frame. I'm bored as Hell around here!
I don't want to go back into Unit-01 again, thought Rei as she switched on her plugsuit; ever since the last time she tried to sortie out in Unit-01 when the last Angel attack occurred and it didn't go well, she has been syncing with Unit-00 due to that failed sortie…and developed a slight fear of piloting that particular Eva after her repeated visits to the Pokémon world to see Shinji. Any other Eva is better than that one.
"…I'm guessing that a sojourn to the Pokémon world for three days is quite the escape, Katsuragi?" Hyuga asked the commanding officer in the testing room as the pilots were placed inside the test plugs.
"Among other things," Misato expressed as she watched the screens display the children. "Shinji has planned his new Pokémon journey quite carefully. He's going to spend some time in this Unova Region to gather badges for the Pokémon League there that won't be happening for fifteen months, and then head over to the Kalos Region to participate in the Pokémon League that will be happening there."
"Fifteen months until this Unova League?!" They heard Maya gasp. "That's…a pretty long time to wait for a Pokémon League to occur. I'm wishing I was where he was right now."
"Yeah, if I could risk being unconscious for three days and spend a year or two in another dimension, I'd call it an overdue vacation that makes up for my off days."
"Say, did Shinji catch any newer Pokémon just before returning to the Kanto Region to recoup?" Hyuga asked Misato.
"Yeah, a Rayquaza. A…Sky High Pokémon. It's a large, flying serpent."
"A Dragon-Type Pokémon?" Maya asked her.
"Yeah."
"Okay, let me know when you're going back. I wanna come see this world for myself and see how Shinji has managed to endure such a transition from Eva pilot to Pokémon Trainer. He has become an idol to people."
"You'd have to have a positive desire to see him."
"I do. I swear."
"Unova's like New York, only better," went Ritsuko.
"Please, show me a picture," Hyuga begged.
-x-
The ruins of the Dreamyard were mysterious to Shinji and Misato as they explored the place before going to the Striaton City Gym to begin the Gym Leaders and acquire the Unova League badges.
"Eee," Misato went, knocking over a burnt piece of debris, revealing some weeds growing underneath. "Eee."
"And some people say that great things were happening here a long time ago," Shinji sighed, wondering what else had been done here before it became nothing more than ruins. "You think we'll do well until we find some new Pokémon to befriend from this region, Misato?"
"Eevo," she expressed her opinion that they would do fine. "Eee?"
Shinji and her looked over as some tall grass that started moving. The Pokémon Trainer then reached into his pants' left pocket and pulled out a handful of Pokémon food that he had for Misato, and tossed some in front of the grass, hoping that the scent of the food would attract whatever was hiding in there.
Something within the grass moved closer to where Shinji and Misato were. What crawled out surprised them.
"Whoa," Shinji reacted, not expecting a Pokémon of this sort at all.
It was about as tall as a small human, pink with blue eyes and strange ears that reminded Shinji of stethoscopes used by medical physicians.
"Audino," it went, picking up the cast aside Pokémon food. "Audino."
Shinji took out his Unova Pokédex and identified the new Pokémon.
"Audino, the Hearing Pokémon," it revealed in a female voice. "By using its ears, Audino can evaluate the overall health of other Pokémon. Its hearing is so acute that it can track the faintest of sounds undetectable by humans."
"Audino," Shinji repeated, watching it eat the Pokémon food.
"Eevo," Misato greeted the Audino.
"Au? Audino." It greeted back.
Shinji took out one of his regular Poké Balls and held it up.
"I look forward to knowing more about you, Audino," he expressed, and Misato understood where this was going to go.
"Audino," Audino uttered, realizing where this was going to go now…and finished eating the Pokémon food Shinji had tossed to draw it out.
To be continued…
A/N: At first, I wanted Shinji to begin his collection of Unova Region Pokémon by catching a Munna or its evolved form, but I didn't know if Munna could speak its own name, so I opted for Audino, since I have some memory of it from the anime. If anyone can find out which Unova Region Pokémon say their own names, I'd appreciate it. Peace.