Welcome to your Escape

by Traitor of All Traitors

He doesn't want to see his father, and he doesn't want to be in Japan. He just wants to be somewhere else for a while and fit in with people that want him. On the day he's supposed to meet his father, Shinji Ikari gets a different offer that allows him to do just that. Enter the world of Zi, home to the Zoids, and waiting for him is one that will bring out his chance to defy all.

16. Intimidation

Creation began on 01-16-24

Creation ended on 03-04-24

Neon Genesis Evangelion

Welcome to your Escape: Intimidation

A/N: I waited for more votes on the poll to decide what was going to happen here. Since not a lot of votes were cast, this is how it goes.

"Liger Rogue's progress is dependent on your being worthy of her, Shinji," Nico had informed Shinji upon learning that Liger Rogue was not a special Zoid in any sense of the word…but was special in that she deemed the young man worthy of herself. "So, believe in Liger Rogue…because she believes in you."

She believes in me, Shinji thinks as he lies in his quarters after dinner, facing up at the ceiling. Liger Rogue chose me. Out of so many people in existence, half of them better than I am…and the other half worse than I am…and she chose me. Well, I want to be worthy her. I want to be worthy of her.

This…and learning that his father was trying to compete in the Royal Cup as a soloist…had the Clover Team on edge, with each member trying to put the latter detail out of their minds by making sure that they were ready for the day when they would have to face the man that was out to get his own son. Although it had been a week since Gendo had shown up on Zi and was still at a ZBC site where he was likely going through a series of tests to find the right Zoid for himself, and the Clover Team had obtained another win against a rival team to maintain their status as Class "A" competitors. There was a questionable peace that made the Clover Team feel like it was short because of the lack of assurance that Gendo was going to walk away any time soon if he wasn't able to achieve what he had come to Zi for. But the peace was helpful in allowing the team to make sure their Zoids were in top form for when the Royal Cup was to begin.

"How long until the Royal Cup?" Valerie asks Nico as she was in the simulation cockpit of her Geno Saurer, wandering around a holographic forest terrain.

"Two months from now," the little girl answers her. "So far, there are twenty teams currently set to participate…and eight soloists."

"I can handle the soloists. They'll try to avoid facing teams for as long as possible, but they're easy targets because they stand alone. Take out the soloists first, and the other Zoid teams become the primary concern."

"Why should the soloists become the first concern?"

"Something Geisha once mentioned from a book she was reading. Matters that are considered small should be treated seriously by the people that consider them to be small. The rival teams should be considered big concerns we should treat lightly until after the soloists have been dispatched. Rival teams will often eliminate the soloists to remove opposition from the lone individuals that want all the spoils for themselves."

"The reason I said eight was because that number could change later on."

"Yeah, that's true, but how many soloists are able to get to Class "A" status and maintain it until it's time fight for the status of Class "S" and become living legends?"

"Not many."

"Exactly. Not many."

Still, it was that understanding that Gendo was preparing to enter the tournament as a soloist, and if he won the Royal Cup, he would obtain all the spoils of war, the fortune and the glory. But like everyone else that ever dreamed of winning the Royal Cup, the Clover Team had their separate ambitions and united concerns that connected to winning or losing the tournament…and each member of the team had their reasons, both professional and personal, for why they wanted to win. So, they couldn't afford to let a man like Gendo win if he managed to join in later.

For Nico, her team winning would prove she was able to turn a small band of overlooked nobodies into a force to be reckoned with against other competitors.

For Geisha, she would be among those that proved once more that, regardless of one's background and cultural tastes, they could become influential to people of the next generation.

For Drake, he would become a champion like his grandmother and make his mark without having to rely on something as ridiculous as his ancestral coattails.

For Valerie, she could prove to herself that by playing the game with integrity instead of underhanded tactics, she was different from her relatives' ancestors and was not someone that wanted to manipulate others or rig a game to become the strongest when she wanted to be strong the right way.

And for Shinji, it was to the be able to achieve the first ambition that he decided to embrace and follow through with it after learning of what his parents had desired of him…and wanting nothing to do with such a goal they had, rather washing his hands of their twisted intentions and forge his own path in life.

-x-

NERV's strategy for the next Angel was rather narrow, but because the JSSDF was also informed that the next Angel would be exceedingly difficult to contend with, and the information sent regarding it was as crystal clear as it could get, the chances of defeating it with minimum loss of life…was under forty percent so long as the higher-ups at NERV knew what was going on and made no attempt to try and deviate.

Fuyutsuki, now the man in charge of NERV, going over every possible outcome for the next predicted attack, had to consider the possibility that…no matter how much he wished it was avoidable, there was no way to survive the next Angel…so long as NERV housed Lilith and used her as a lure to attract the Angels. When Nico Megumi hacked the MAGI for information to give to Shinji when he went to Zi, the little girl took everything they had anticipated and practically knew more than they thought they did, but didn't reveal any of it to the world when she told Shinji about it all, and even after Gendo's failed intimidation against the Clover Team by using an Evangelion against them, the girl still hadn't exposed the paramilitary agency to the world. But that didn't mean that she wouldn't, just that she hadn't yet, which gave the little girl, light years away on the other side of the Milky Way, leverage of the highest sort to use against NERV if they had crossed the line in the future against her Zoid team.

Beep! His cell phone had received a text from none other than the same girl that poached Shinji from NERV before he could be brought to the Geo-Front during the Third Angel attack…and he sighs over what she was telling him.

"We may come from two different worlds, Kozo Fuyutsuki," her text to him read, "but I do care for people having a future, and the future you probably believe in…isn't the future you must feel the world you live in deserves. Surely, there must be a future that you can live with that doesn't require the sacrifice of lives that don't deserve to be taken by the shadows. Now that Shinji's father has been removed from the equation, it's up to those that remain that have a conscience to do the right thing…to do the right thing. But what is the right thing? Do you know?"

But even if I do so, he thinks as he walks down the hall of the base towards the Eva pens, they will not be pleased with the outcome if it came at the cost of losing Lilith. Without Lilith, the Human Instrumentality Project will be for naught. They'll demand that someone answer for it.

Except the next Angel would be difficult to face, and the Evas they had, the pilots they had…wouldn't be enough because of how Gendo's scenario was designed around the matter. In the end, it would've come down to Shinji inside Unit-01 standing between the Angel and the end of the human race. But with Shinji on Zi and unwilling to return after learning what he found out from Nico, and Unit-01 being piloted by Rei, there were no other alternatives that would mitigate the potential fallout. The only way to neutralize the situation permanently…was to remove Adam and Lilith from the whole equation, but if he did that, SEELE, if they were to know of such an act that they would be against, would silence him.

"What is the right thing?" Nico's question to him repeated in his mind. "What is the right thing to do? Do you know?"

She's an alien that looks exactly like a human, with all the same or similar traits that a human possesses, including morality and compassion, he thinks. But does she really care about people as a whole? She cares about Shinji; she wouldn't have chosen him out of every other person on the planet if she didn't believe in him being what her team needed to get where they currently are, and Shinji's no doubt grateful to her for choosing him over someone else from the half of people his age that were better than he is or someone from the other half that is worse than he is. And she gave him a Zoid of his own that he does best with and has had time to learn how to control because he's not under pressure or facing a crisis.

He enters the chamber housing Unit-01, sighing over how much he wanted to do the right thing, but what was right and what was easy…were two different things in his current situation. But on the umbilical bridge, he saw Captain Katsuragi, looking down at her phone.

"What are you doing out here?" He asks her, and she turns to face him.

"Just looking at the Third Child's Zoid profile," she answers him. "Some new information about Liger Rogue was uploaded. Apparently, his ability to pilot the Zoid is a bit mystical when you consider his initial lack of knowledge regarding Zoids."

"Mystical? In what way?"

"Similar to how people look for their first car. Some drivers pick their cars, but other times, it's the other way around, with the cars picking their drivers. Shinji didn't choose Liger Rogue. Liger Rogue chose Shinji. She believes in him, that he's worthy of her."

"The Zoid chose Shinji?"

"It's weird…but apparently true."

For a time, Fuyutsuki didn't believe in any of that old nonsense about what people of the times before his own were into. He was a scientist, a believer of what was possible as long as it was grounded in facts, but when it came to Zoids, Zoidians, the relationship between Earth and Zi, there was a bit more to it than what he originally understood. It was disgraceful to believe in anything relating to…to chakras or energy or…or the power of belief when belief didn't really help anyone during dangerous times, when all it seemed to do was inspire fanatics and cults. But learning from Katsuragi that a Zoid chose Shinji, a biomechanical beast from a world on the other side of the Milky Way, because it believed in him…was something he found almost impossible to believe in because…there was no tenable proof. But then again, there had been no proof that Shinji was likely able to pilot the Eva if he had no training or memory of it after more than a decade of absence from the Geo-Front; the mere fact that they had been putting their lives in the hands of someone that didn't know what was going on at the time and was estranged from his father…was among the worst things they could've done with the time they had.

"So, Liger Rogue chose Shinji," he repeats.

"If Zoids can choose their pilots," Misato says to him, "then he must be special if the Zoid believes in him."

To think that Shinji Ikari, a young man with no actual relationships with anyone in the whole of Japan, on the whole planet, originally destined to pilot the Evangelion and save the world, chosen by a biomechanical beast from another planet…was due to something as trivial as a belief. There was a difference between being destined to do something…and being chosen to do something else. Destiny was something you just ended up having to put up with due to having no choice in the matter…but being chosen…was an option; most couldn't walk away from a resigned fate, but being chosen meant you could walk away whenever you wanted…and not be condemned by your decision. And Shinji accepted that he was chosen by Liger Rogue because it believed in him; he didn't have to be destined to do anything to pilot it, only to be worthy of it.

Just like that myth from Norse history, he thought as he reflected upon the fable of the god that wielded the hammer. Liger Rogue is like Thor's hammer. So long as Shinji is worthy of it, he can bring out its power.

-x-

Crash! Gendo had crashed and burned in another simulation with another Zoid that he had proven to be incompatible with.

"Aaaurgh!" He grunted, ripping the helmet from his head.

"Well, the Blade Liger is not for you," he heard a male voice say to him over the intercom. "Shall we call it a day and try again tomorrow?"

"One…more…time," Gendo demanded.

"Very well."

He put the helmet back on and entered a new simulation.

"What Zoid is he trying now?" A woman asks in the room feeding the simulation to Gendo.

"He's been through twenty of them, basic and modified. The only ones we haven't tried yet are the blacklisted ones."

"Oh, there's a reason why we don't use them. They're rare and dangerous."

"How dangerous?" Gendo's voice was heard. "How dangerous are these blacklisted Zoids?"

"Basically, they would be like the equivalent of a child playing with a loaded gun," the man tells him, "except every time they pull the trigger, the bullet that gets fired has the same amount power as a tactical nuke. You try messing around with one of those Zoids without any safety measures, you put yourself and other people at risk."

"How many Zoids are in this list?"

"Seventeen."

"Let's try one."

"I must caution you against this, Mr. Ikari. These aren't regular Zoids. They're like untamed beasts that will not bend for anyone, no matter who they are or what they're after."

"Which one would you avoid? We'll start with that one."

-x-

"…What are these Zoids?" Shinji asks Nico as they were accessing the list of Zoids that were around.

"They're blacklisted Zoids," she tells him.

"What does that mean? They're forbidden?"

"Not exactly. They're the Zoids listed by the ZBC as being dangerous for regular use…and regular people. Each Zoid listed is a force to be reckoned with if you own one, and I don't mean for things like joyriding or friendly competitions. Each carries a risk of causing harm to a lot of people. You'd have to be extremely disciplined and refined to be able to pilot any of these Zoids without repercussions from anyone in the ZBC."

"What kind of Zoids are they?"

Nico clicked onto the list…and Shinji soon wished she hadn't. There were only seventeen Zoids, but each one was dangerous enough to shelf them or prohibit their usage in any sport. Even the Berserk Fury was blacklisted as a dangerous Zoid, along with the Gojulas and Death Saurer. However, he also discovered that the Geno Saurer and Geno Breaker were also listed for being dangerous, which meant that Valerie was very disciplined in controlling her Geno Saurer.

"To operate any one of these, one has to demonstrate total self-control," Nico explains to Shinji.

"Whoa," he responds. "I can't imagine why this one (he points to the Death Saurer on the screen) would be seen in any tournament. It's massive."

"The original Death Saurer was massive. Over the ages, there have been attempts to create downsized versions of it for combat use, and there was one near-success, but it didn't pan out. It was about the size of the Berserk Fury, but it still moved slow."

Part of the reason most of these Zoids were dangerous was due to their possession of the Charged Particle Gun, which made them akin to weapons of mass destruction if used extensively. Another Zoid listed, but lacking the CPG, was the Energy Liger, a powerful Zoid with a short operational range in combat. This made Shinji assume that this was a Zoid that represented the belief that if you start a challenge quickly, with plenty of firepower, then it would end quickly. And he found himself thinking that the operational limit was similar to the Evangelion he wouldn't pilot due to its energy limits; anything meant to serve as a weapon that had a time limit was not the type of weapon one usually accepted unless it was able to do more.

"I think if someone had each of these in their possession and had no qualms over using them to hurt others, they'd be dangerous," he tells Nico.

"Yeah," she agrees with him. "The only people that can control the most powerful of Zoids on Zi are the ones that can only be known as the most powerful people on Zi. There was even the belief that if one could control the original Death Saurer, they would become the most powerful person because of such a move."

Shinji then had the darkest fantasy of seeing his father on the head of a large Death Saurer, laughing maniacally as it waded through the ruins of a vast city of charred buildings with a red sky. He shudders at the mere thought of his father having possession of such a Zoid, no matter how impossible it felt.

"Don't let the thought of power corrupt who you are, Shinji," Nico tells him. "Any power that can corrupt a person, even absolute power, is power that corrupts absolutely. It's okay to want power, but not okay to let it corrupt you."

"I don't want power, Nico," he replies. "I… What is power to someone that has never wanted power to begin with? That has no need for it?"

"A reasonable person. A good person."

Shinji accepts this logic and then turns away from the girl to head to the kitchen area. As he does so, Nico sighs and clicks onto the previous page that listed all the Zoid pilots that were soloists participating in the Royal Cup. So far, the number of them was still eight, but that could change to nine at any time if Gendo ever found his Zoid match…and she was constantly waiting for the update that would say for certain if he became another small matter to be taken seriously. And the only drawback of operating as a soloist was the fact that, as a soloist, the Zoid pilot had no backup, no support crew, no allies whatsoever to cover for them if something went wrong. But that was a choice for those that didn't wish to share in the spoils yet to be obtained.

A man that can't leave his son alone because he wants things to go his way, she thought as she viewed the Zoid team pages, finding her Clover Team was getting several likes more than the dislikes for lesser reasons. They might be viewed as a quartet of nobodies for now. Maybe with just a shot at winning the Royal Cup…but they're my quartet of nobodies with a shot at winning the Royal Cup…and I'll stand by them all the way.

-x-

Fuyutsuki hated this job right now. If it wasn't being the leader of the paramilitary agency that was underprepared for the Angels most of the time due to the difficulties therein of finding and preparing the pilots to face the monsters that sought their extinction, it was the many, many secrets that NERV had that put the people of Tokyo-3 and the world itself in danger. In front of him was the cause of Second Impact, brought to him by Ritsuko Akagi, and he showed it to Misato Katsuragi, explaining that her ex-boyfriend, Ryoji Kaji, had brought it over to Japan from Germany under orders from Gendo Ikari.

"You bastard," Misato calls her ex, reasonably upset over this. "You brought this thing here?! The Angels could've made contact with this and kill us in an instant…and you brought it here?!"

"That's not entirely true, Captain Katsuragi," Fuyutsuki tells her, no longer able to hide behind the lies. "While it is true that the Angels were looking to return to Adam, the First Angel wasn't here when the Angels initially attacked. They were being drawn by something else."

"The Evas?" She suggests.

"No. It was…the Second Angel, Lilith."

Ritsuko didn't like this revelation, but it seemed as though Fuyutsuki was deviating from everything related to Gendo's scenario now that he was no longer in charge.

"The Second Angel?" Misato questions.

"Kept in Terminal Dogma beneath our feet," Fuyutsuki states. "It's believed that should an Angel make contact with Lilith, then all life on the planet, down to the last microbe, gets replaced with new life forms related to the Angel that initiated Third Impact. That's why the Angels were attacking the country. That's why Ikari desired his son to come to Tokyo-3 to begin with, only to find out that he was approached by Ms. Megumi of Zi and joined her Zoid team once he learned of what his parents were doing…and made his own choice that went against their intentions."

"And I'm to assume that Ms. Megumi told the Third Child of this?"

"It's within reason to believe that the girl told him everything NERV had in the MAGI prior to his arrival on Zi; the truth behind the Evas, the Angels and their goals, the UN that funds our agency, everything that would've been kept from him because his father didn't want him to know until it was too late for him to turn away."

"So, what, exactly?" Kaji asks. "Dispose of these two Angels…and the remaining Angels just…they just stop?"

"That is the belief of some."

"Then why not just do that? If it was that easy to achieve, then nobody would need to suffer as much as they have suffered within the last fifteen years. Why prolong their suffering?"

"If it were only that easy to do."

Misato didn't see it as being difficult to do. If this was Adam, and it was the cause of Second Impact, the cause of her father's death and the deaths of other people across the planet, then all anyone needed to do was put their foot down on it and that was the end of the sad and horrible story of the First Angel. And if there was another Angel in this Terminal Dogma that was under their feet, then all that was needed was an N² bomb and gone would be that threat, as well.

"There's no concrete evidence that the Angels will stop if they're destroyed," Ritsuko claims.

"If there's even a chance that they will stop, I'm all for it," Misato tells her, and picks up the Adam embryo. "If it was this easy, I would've done it myself the second I heard of it."

She dropped the small case to the floor…and brought her left foot down on it, crushing it with every hateful fiber of her being.

Ritsuko's eyes widened in panic as Adam was now reduced to pulp.

-x-

"Aaah!" Shinji hears Nico scream from within his quarters and runs out to find out what was the cause.

He spots Valerie, Geisha and Drake in the common room where Nico is sitting at the table on her computer, panting with wide eyes.

"What?" He asks, concerned.

"Your old man just got listed on the soloists," Drake reveals. "He's able to pilot two Zoids from the blacklist."

Shinji came over to them and looked at the monitor at his father's profile. Not only was Gendo registered as a soloist Zoid pilot, but the two Zoids he had optional use of were from the blacklist of Zoids that required a lot of restraint to operate. One was a Berserk Fury…and the other was a Death Stinger. Both Zoids were intimidating by sight alone, but what really worried Shinji was the reason his father put down on his profile for why he wanted to win the Royal Cup: "To be better than all else!"

"No matter how he says it," went Valerie, "that's not what he means at all. Now, he can carry out his vendetta."

"But if he crosses the line and kills someone," Drake says, "even just one person, he'll screw himself over because murder in the tournament is prohibited."

"Yeesh!" Geisha shudders. "Nobody's used a Death Stinger ever since the days of the Guylos Empire! Over a hundred people have tried to operate one, but none of them were able to bring out its power. My grandfather says that the Death Stinger only responds to the soul of someone that is truly malevolent, malcontent towards all others that stand in their way…and is willing to bring about the end of days to achieve absolution."

"What are our chances against a Death Stinger?" Shinji asks.

"With its size being considerable," Nico expresses, "and the fact that it carries an arsenal of weapons in addition to having a CPC…how does one on Earth say that…this man has got crap we have never seen before?"

If this was Nico trying to spare Shinji's feelings, it was an impressive attempt, but Shinji just wanted the truth as far as she knew.

"If it's not zero, I'm stilling willing to kick his butt into the ground," he tells her.

"If he hasn't done much practice with it yet, I'd give you all a…twenty-three percent chance of being able to beat him as a whole," she tells them.

"Twenty-three percent?" Valerie says. "Well, that's still not zero. Thanks, Nico. All the more reason to want to beat this guy that thinks he can do whatever he wants and not expect us to respond to his foul behavior."

"Geisha," Drake spoke, "what is your take on this?"

"A Death Stinger piloted by the father of a teammate of ours? This is not a small concern that should be taken seriously. This is a big concern that should be taken seriously. I know I fancy the Japanese culture and everything, but this is a Japanese man that I am uncomfortable with winning the Royal Cup."

"You can say that again," Shinji utters, as he is also uncomfortable with the idea of his father winning the Royal Cup. But out of the two Zoids he showed compatibility with, on his profile, it says he chose the Death Stinger as his primary Zoid with the Berserk Fury as his secondary. Why would he choose a sea scorpion-type Zoid over a dinosaur-type as his primary Zoid?

Even though Nico gave them a twenty-three percent chance of winning against a Death Stinger, she still refused to give them a zero percent chance because she was committed to this team winning the Royal Cup, going from overlooked nobodies to the next envy of the generation. And with it being less than two months away, she decided she needed to do something that was…as unorthodox as her being in charge of a Zoid team.

Still, I need to be responsible for these four, she thought as she sees Shinji balding his left hand as he raised it up on front of himself. And I need to make sure Gendo knows how to keep himself in check while here. You four may have met him to make sure he knew you wouldn't be intimidated by him, but it's my job to make sure that he doesn't cross the line.

-x-

Just because Gendo demonstrated compatibility with two dangerous Zoids, it didn't mean that he was untouchable. It just meant that he had to improve his skills before he could progress to the next phase of his entry into the Royal Cup, and that meant exercising; the majority of Zoid pilots had to be physically fit in order to perform to their most demanding of requirements, and Gendo was a man that was, lack of a better term, physically unfit and had to put in the effort to refine his performance. Lifting weights, running, basically everything a person did to get in shape, Gendo had to do to meet the requirements of his chosen Zoid.

This blows, he thought as he ran up and down the exercise track at the ZBC training facility. To think that this was a requirement for piloting a Zoid.

Gendo was a man that hardly engaged in exercise, but if he wanted a shot at taking his son out, he had to go through Hell.

"Gendo Ikari," he hears his name on the PA system loudspeaker, "please report to the visitor's center. You have a visitor. That is all."

Who's here to see me? He wonders.

To be continued…

A/N: As I have no clue if most scientists even exercise, I'm putting it as a requirement for Zoid pilots to exercise in order to meet the demands of their combat-oriented Zoids, meaning Gendo has to put in the work to pilot his own. And as for Misato stepping on Adam after Fuyutsuki makes a choice that will have repercussions later on, who wouldn't want her to kill Adam after what she went through with Second Impact? If given the opportunity to stop an enemy from escalating, any chance to defeat them without sacrificing any more lives is a must. Until the next chapter in the future.