NEON GENESIS: EVANGELION REFOLDED
I do not own Neon Genesis: Evangelion or any Neon Genesis: Evangelion-related media, those works are owned and in the hands of Gainax and Hideaki Anno, this is simply an unofficial fan-driven story based on the characters and story present, to be written in a new way for people to enjoy.
A Passing Daydream
One Month Before Combat
The skies above Shinji were wide and clear of any clouds floating along the breeze or birds that soared through the air above the rapidly clearing meadows, that were now being filled with steel apartment blocks stretching into the horizon that could, in theory, quickly sink in a controlled manner into the ground that would revert the skyscraper into a flat beam barely poking out of the grass, for what reasons whenever people questioned the government, was kept vague to the public.
Shinji stood under the sun-roof of a bus-stop, though his intentions of boarding one were incorrect, quickly thinking to himself as the sunlight shined its pillars of light down his eyes, almost blinding him by its glory, forcing Shinji to look back down into the bleak concrete of the sidewalk, blasted with the prints of others to the point it was uniform and seamlessly colored, however the tiny edges of the tips of their toes provided small outlines that showed that there was some individuality amongst the monotonous grey.
He shuffled out of his pocket the picture of his driver, provided to him by a suited man that escorted him on the train ride from Matzuki to here.
The photo contained a young looking woman standing tall in front of a large black pyramid structure, she didn't seem to be much more older than him and was in a modest military beige and red uniform with multiple badges sticked on her left breast alongsde with a bright ruby beret with the letter V in yellow plastered on the frontal left temple of the hat – despite how formal she looked, her wide smile made her look like juvenile rookie than a supposed Major, at least that's what the agent told him who she was before the man left him here on the curbside of the road.
Shinji looked across the lengthy stretches of road extending out from the quiet rolling hills to the busy urban landscape just below the horizon, the sun rising further into the sky that blinded him once again, forcing Shinji to shift his eyes back onto the floor, before a screech of rubber suddenly grinding against the surface of asphalt, revealing a glowing red car reflecting the harsh sunlight into another corner, further polishing the custom red paint.
"Shinji Ikari?" The same woman from the photo appeared like a flash of a camera, sitting in the driver's seat with a hastily worn uniform from the photo provided to him, though she managed to look even messier than what she looked like in the picture.
"Uhh.." He paused awkwardly, verifying her appearance to the major in the photo. "..yes, that's me – You are Katsuragi-san?" Shinji bowed his head slightly as a greeting then turned his mouth to a polite smile, despite how difficult it was to make a semi-convincing one, she returned it with an even wider one – her face did help to alleviate his own.
"Mhm, that's right, you're coming with me to your very own tour of NERV HQ!" She excitedly exclaim, giggling to herself, and ushered in Shinji quickly and sped towards, what he heard was called, the Geofront – he sat in the side-passenger seat of the Red Alpine.
It was comfortable inside the semi-sporty car, furnished with black leather covering the seats and the dashboard alongside a cushy rubber flooring that made him quite relaxed inside her vehicle, causing him to let his back loosen up and cushion further into the soft seat – after fully immersing himself into the seat, he'd shift his focus towards the rows of rapidly ascending buildings as they sped across the expressway, before being cleared by a row of immensely large trees that covered his peripheral vision before reverting to a low land dominated by a large lake.
"That's Lake Ashi, it's a scenic lake relatively close to the city, it makes the perfect picnic area."
Misato blurted out as she noticed Shinji's piqued interest in the crystal clear lake, reflecting light in such a way that made it seem like the surrounding mountains peaked out from above and below that created an almost ethereal experience as they passed the sight, alongside rows of cars of tourists taking pictures of the area – they actually hindered the view slightly, at least for Shinji.'s viewing pleasure.
"You can also call me Misato, I don't really like it when people call me 'Major', it's a tad-bit overstatement for what I essentially do." She continued to drive along the route, the lake would disappear into the foreground then covered by more hills and groves then what followed from the hills, struck into a sharp downward incline to reveal a monolithic structure that suddenly in front of them, a black pyramid just like the photo provided in the picture, though it was more massive than he originally thought.
Shinji could only bear a small nod to Misato's request as he continued to survey the new surroundings, mostly composed of military checkpoints, rows of either white or black sedans and the titanic pyramid that grew the closer they got to the entrance, which was an elongated black block, jutting out of the midpoint at the base of the headquarters.
They soon got out of the red Alpine, that stuck out like a sore thumb to the other vehicles present in the parking lot.
"This, Shinji-kun, is NERV Headquarters!" Misato announced with her open hand pointing towards the mega-structure, accompanying her eager posture was a wide grin with the sense of pride washing over her like a tidal wave, in fact some it got on Shinji, sharing the same smile as the accomplishments of humanity, making him muffle out the previous memories he associated the organization with, perhaps the world could be different, and for the better part — at least this once.
Suddenly a lightning fast rush of wind gushed into the mountain complex, almost knocking the both of them off their feet from the ground of the gray concrete floor that was the path to the monolith, revealing a squadron of VTOL Aircraft marked with NERV's Insignia plastered on the side of the main body of the aircraft, armed to the teeth with rockets and machine guns that could probably rip this entire thing down.
However, one VTOL caught his attention, a full black one, unlike the olive drab ones, it was not equipped with any arms nor any large insignia, except for the insignificant number of two zeroes, aside from its special distinction, Shinji did not know why this particular aircraft caught his attention more-so than the other, more awesome-looking ones.
The strange VTOL felt vaguely familiar, except for the very big fact that he had only seen such aircraft whenever they did drills in the valleys for something he couldn't exactly know why.
"Come on, Shinji-kun, we need to get a move-on before we start training you!" Misato eagerly went along the path, whistling the way down, despite the fact the echoes of the VTOL Aircraft still rang out into the air like discordant artillery shells raining down, this obviously left Shinji slightly disoriented so he reacted slower than he usually would, still he followed along into the now much more ominous complex.
"Wait, training..?" Shinji asked, perplexed on what that meant for him and had no answer from Misato, he assumed he was here for something, but to train? And for what? The thought clawed at the walls of his mind as they continued to wander around the spiraling corridors and narrow passageways filled to the brim with technicians and engineers all shouting and yelling about work and orders to be done for the day.
It didn't take long for the stream of NERV Staff to slowly fizzle out into a few stragglers as they approached the lift to the underground portion of the base, why they couldn't go upstairs boiled to… "It's just bureaucracy and politics up there, it'll be too boring!" And Shinji couldn't agree more with how much- or how little he had actually heard about the place, except he agreed by just replying with only simple acknowledgment using another small nod.
They entered the lift with no apparent problems, Misato simply whistling to an old cartoon song, it probably ran before Shinji was born, simply because he had never actually heard this tune before, however the whistle was reminiscent of the Kid TV Shows that played whenever he had finished lunch, laughing alongside his mother and father as they sat together on a couch, all happily on their facades of a uniform cohesion of a family unit.
A loud thud emanated from the polished floor of the lift, sending the both them to announce a slightly loud "oof" as they bend down on their knees at the recoil of the elevator that had descended quite a distance into the Earth, it was hard for Shinji to breathe properly as a whiff of icy air flushed the small compact lift as it opened its doors to a brightly illuminated minimalist hall.
Misato scratched the back the ruff of her purple hair, bowing her head in an attempt of an apology to Shinji as she led him out of the elevator into the various halls of the complex.
The halls were decked with multiple ventilators and closed metal doors as they continued to move along, the only thing that would've guided them was the PDA given to Misato, and as she explained, was lost during a routine check-up of the Geofront.
"Wasn't the Geofront the outside portion of the base Misato-san?" Shinji asked politely for more clarification on the matter, "The Geofront is.." Misato said slowly as they walked through another monotonous doorway, before he was blinded by the rays of the sun cheekily peeking over a large ellipse, that lighted up the forest below them through a large panel of glass that displayed nature in its former glory, in shades of green and warm yellow, alongside a large building in its center standing stalwart among the glades of trees and shrubs, it slightly ruined the view with the contrast of the natural and unnatural.
"This." Misato finished her sentence, proudly displaying the work of NERV with her hands in a sweeping large flourishing movement as far as her arms could reach, mirroring her wide genuine smile at the fixture of life.
"It's beautiful." Shinji replied at the sight, despite the repulsive tower of gray that shadowed the forests, it was still magnificent to his dull eyes; the view held him there in its tight grasp for a time before Misato had to pry him from the view and drag him into a larger corridor, a green neon sign glistened the halls, presenting: "Training Center" on the ceiling.
"This is where you'll be training for your missions." Misato said plainly with Shinji, continuing to lead him into more rooms of the large complex that made boggled his mind further to he complexities of such a large installation.
"What type of training..?" Shinji asked sheepishly at the sight of racks of weaponry, a large stage for sparring and three individuals, one watching from a control room, and the other two, one obviously younger than the other, fighting with large pylons with rubber covers on the ends of it on a second stage adjacent to another two in a 3×1 row inside the large room.
"Combat training."