Chapter 2: A Friend
""I'm here to help you"
That's what he said, thought Shinji, as he helped himself to coffee and toast. It has been over a week since the battle. He thought back to how the rest of that evening had gone. Misato had just spent the better part of an hour lecturing him, so Shinji was in no rush to get home. The boys walked and made some small talk.
"So do you pilot an EVA too?" Shinji had asked
"EVA?" responded Draven. "Nope, I'm the pilot of Brandt Industry Combat Unit 3, the robot you saw earlier; the techs back in America nicknamed it the Danner."
Draven led Shinji to an apartment building not far from his own. In the elevator, Draven looked at a piece of paper and then pressed the button for a higher floor.
"Supposedly, my stuff was dropped off while I was at NERV," explained Draven.
"I thought only EVAs could fight Angels," said Shinji.
"Yes and no," replied Draven. "The biggest hurdle is the A.T. Field. Only the EVAs can create one to neutralize the Angels, but once the field is neutralized, I can hit those bastards at full power."
The elevator dinged, and the door slid open. Draven. checked his paper again, looking for the right number. He stopped midway down the hall. "Here we go," he said, pulling out a key.
Shinji followed him inside. The place was smaller than Misato's, and the living room was currently stacked with boxes.
"I hope they didn't break anything," muttered Draven.
On the kitchen table, Shinji noticed a large silver case.
"What's in there?" he asked
Draven looked up. "Good, they were careful with that at least."
Opening the lid, he pulled out a silver cylinder about a foot long.
He clicked the device on, and the top of the device extended about three feet on a bar that came from the rear of the device. Then a green light beam filled the space between the handle and the now-extended top.
"This is a beam katana," explained Draven.
"Is it dangerous?" asked Shinji.
"Not lethal, if that's what you mean," answered Draven. "More like a taser, give someone a nasty shock so they back off."
Draven pointed to a dial near the bottom of the handle: "The intensity setting for the power goes from a little tingle to you're not going to feel that arm for a few hours. I used the weaker setting for training.
"Training?" asked Shinji
Draven laughed. "I say train, but mostly it's just going over drills I read in books. I've had firearms training, but since hand-to-hand is the best way to fight the angels, I needed more close-quarters weapon experience. One of the tech guys at my old base gave me this. He claimed to have used one when he was younger."
He noticed Shinji looking at the blade intently.
"Interested?" he asked
"Huh? Me?" replied Shinji.
"Sure, why not?" said Draven. "I could use a sparing partner. There are enough here to make at least one more with parts to spare."
"I don't know..", started Shinji
Draven, reaching into the silver case, removed an old and battered book.
"Look this book over, then let me know," he said, handing it to Shinji.
The book was about different sword styles. Shinji could see several sections of the binding had worn from being made to lie flat. Over the last couple of days, he had looked through the book several times. The idea of sword practicing seemed interesting, but could he do it?
Misato's entrance interrupted his thoughts and brought him back to the present. She sleepily walked to the fridge to grab a beer.
"Good morning," Misato muttered groggily.
"Good morning," Shinji replied.
In her usual morning routine, Shinji sipped his coffee and watched.
When the doorbell rang, Shinji answered it. A teen with auburn hair stood in the hallway. He was wearing the basic school uniform.
"Morning, Draven," greeted Shinji.
"How's it going?" asked the teen as he stepped inside the apartment.
"The same as every morning," replied Shinji.
"So Misato's had her morning six-pack?" asked Draven
"I heard that," shouted Misato from the kitchen. "For your information, I've only had two."
"She just started on her first when I came to answer the door," remarked Shinji.
"And she's up to two already," commented Draven. "Rare ability, that one."
The doorbell rang again. Upon opening it, Toji and Kensuke were standing there.
"Good morning, Shinji," they said in unison.
"Good morning, Misato, we're leaving," they called.
"Bye," called Misato in her flirtatious tone. The two boys were all but drooling.
"Knock it off," said Shinji as he and Draven dragged them away from the apartment.
This has become the usual morning ritual. Shinji gets up and ready, Misato gets up and grabs a drink, Draven shows up, and then the other two show up just in time for Shinji and Draven to drag them away from Misato before they drool all over the floor.
Later that day, at NERV
Misato and Ritsuko were reviewing the battle with the 4th Angel.
"I'm impressed," said Ritsuko, looking over the data. "This unit is more powerful than I originally thought."
"Draven can certainly handle it," said Misato. "Even Asuka can't make her EVA dodge like that."
"From what I've gathered, Draven's been in simulators for this robot since he was quite young," replied Ritsuko.
"He's been training that long?" asked Misato, surprised.
"Yes and no," answered Ritsuko. "The original pilot was a man named Michael Serwan. He was Draven's guardian after his parents died. It seems he let Draven play in simulators that weren't being used."
"So where is this Michael Serwan now?" asked Misato
"Dead," replied Ritsuko. "He was killed in whatever incident destroyed the other two combat units. When it came time to select a new pilot, none of the candidates could handle Combat Unit 3 as well as Draven, so they trained him officially."
They watched the video as the Danner waved its hand in front of EVA-01, trying to get its attention.
Misato let out a chuckle. "I wonder how he'd do as an EVA pilot," she wondered.
"He's never been tested," answered Ritsuko. "Commander Ikari wants him added to the synch tests. He may have some latent potential that the Marduk Institute missed."
Deeper in NERV HQ
A second pair watched the same footage.
"This was unexpected," muttered Commander Fuyutsuki. "I thought the Combat Unit could be a decoy; I didn't expect it to be able to fight the Angels this well."
"Neither did the committee," said Commander Ikari, "which is exactly why this weapon will be of use to us." Behind his hands, Gendo smiled slightly.
TOYKO-3 HIGH SCHOOL
The four boys gathered around the desks, waiting for lunch to end.
"Do you guys really have to do that every day?" asked Shinji
"Hey, we just want to show Misato how much we appreciate her," said Kensuke.
"You two are going to get a cleaning bill from the apartment complex if you don't stop leaving huge puddles of drool in the hallways every morning," said Draven.
Toji's response was halted by the wail of a distant alarm that sounded.
"Angel," said Shinji worriedly.
"You two, get to the shelters and stay there this time," shouted Draven to Kensuke and Toji as he and Shinji bolted for the door.
Less than twenty minutes later, we found them in the changing room.
Shinji struggled to get into his plug suit, while Draven put on his uniform.
"I hate these things," muttered Shinji.
"They do seem a bit uncomfortable," commented Draven.
The loudspeaker in the locker buzzed, and Misato's voice came over it.
"Shinji, Draven, get out there and stop that angel." Misato ordered
"Roger," said the boys in unison.
They moved quickly to their respective machines. In moments, they were heading up to street level.
"We're getting high energy readings from the target," reported LT Aoba.
On-screen, they saw energy forming into a beam aimed at where the EVA was about to appear.
"Shinji Look out!" shouted Misato.
As soon as the EVA emerged from the elevator, a powerful beam hit its chest, and Shinji started screaming.
"DRAVEN DRAW SOME OF THAT FIRE AWAY FROM SIHNJI," ordered Misato.
"Roger," said Draven, grabbing a rifle from a weapons building.
The Danner fired several shots before the angel stopped the attack on Unit-01 to concentrate on its new enemy. The high beam of energy fired again, this time at the Danner.
Draven swore as he moved his machine out of harm's way and started running, the beam following his movements.
"Hurry and retrieve Unit-1," ordered Misato. She watched as the Danner moved and jumped out of the way of the energy beam frantically. He was running purely on adrenaline, avoiding the beam as the angel tried to zero in on him.
"How can I counterattack if I can't even get a moment to think?" muttered Draven.
He paused for a moment to return fire. That was all the angel needed. The deadly beam came again, destroying the rifle and the building in front of him. The explosion threw the Danner to the ground. It rolled to keep out of the way of the angel's next attack. When Danner stood, the beam fired again, acting on pure reaction. Draven jumped into the air, and the beam moved upward and severed Danner's left arm. The machine crashed to the ground.
He swore again when Misato gave a new order: "We've retrieved Unit-01; get out of there!"
The beam kept coming, and Draven could barely avoid it. With the loss of his arm, Danner was not as responsive as normal.
"Open the shaft," ordered Misato, as an elevator shaft opened, the Danner slid in and down. With all its enemies vanquished, the angel's attack ceased. A drill was lowered from underneath the angel, and it began to drill.
"How's Shinji?" Draven asked as he met up with Misato after getting back to the cage area.
"He's unconscious but alive," she answered. "Are you injured?"
"Shaken but not hurt," answered Draven.
"Get over the medical wing to have them look you over." ordered Misato
When Shinji woke up several hours later, he found Draven sitting in the room.
"What happened?" asked Shinji.
"You got blasted," replied Draven. "How are you feeling?"
"My chest burns a bit, but other than that, I think I'm OK," answered Shinji. He rubbed a sore spot on his chest.
The door opened, and Rei walked in.
"Ayanami," said Shinji, sitting up.
"What's up?" asked Draven
She had a tray of food. "I'm to brief you on the operation."
The plan was simple. Shinji and Rei would arrive at the main operation zone, and Shinji would take up a sniper position. Rei would intercept with a shield if needed in case the angel returned fire. Draven was to go to the secondary operation zone and use NERV's long-range rifle as a decoy to draw the Angel's fire and lessen the pressure on Rei.
She handed him a new plug-on suit. "Don't show up looking like that," she cautioned.
Shinji looked at her for a moment, then, realizing that he was a bit overexposed, covered himself.
"Sorry," said Shinji. "It seems I've been apologizing since yesterday."
Rei walked out after making Shinji an offer for him to stay in bed and that she would pilot Unit-01.
The boys watched her go. Once the door shut behind her, Draven turned to Shinji.
"So what happened yesterday?" he asked.
As the time came to move out, Shinji was still anxious.
He didn't want to get hurt again. Arriving at the launch site, he saw the Unit-00 and a one-armed Danner.
"What happened?" asked Shinji
"Hm? asked Draven "Oh, yeah, well, I was playing with that angel a bit longer after they got you back in."
"But you only have one arm." said Shinji
Draven shrugged. "New parts are in route from the US, just not in time for this."
As the units deplored and proceeded to the temporary base, They passed high school.
Draven called Shinji, "Look over there."
Shinji looked, and he saw Toji, Kensuke, and several other boys from his class on the roof of the school. They were cheering. He could see their faces alive with hope, believing in him and the others.
"Good reason to fight," said Draven.
"But what if I mess up?" asked Shinji.
"Do what you did today; get up and fight again," replied Draven. "And keep fighting until you win."
It was the kind of thing his brother had always gone on about. The fire in one's heart and soul.
A man, a human must protect what is most important to him.
"If the Angels threaten what is most precious to you, mow them down! Let nothing stand between you and those you love," his older brother had said.
Michael was gone now, like his parents. Draven had never known his parents; they were just names and faces to him, with no real attachment. Michael Serwan, while not a blood relative, raised Draven, treating him like a little brother.
Shinji and Rei made their way to the primary location. The sniper rifle was an overwhelming sight. Far larger and more complex than the basic rifle he had trained with. Ritsuke warned him about missing. It would take time for the weapon to cool down, replace the breakers, and reload. She stressed that it would be optimal to end this with the first shot. It was all Shinji could do to stop his trembling hands.
Draven drummed his fingers on the controls; he was anxious.
"I'd rather be sitting with Shinji and Ayanami right now";he thought"I'd rather be the one with the shield."
He was stationed some miles to the south of the angel. NERV's sniper rifle was set up. It wasn't powerful enough to penetrate the A.T. field. That wasn't his role. He was the decoy.
On his right, he could see a light begin to glow.
"Finally," he said to himself. "Showtime"
The Angel must have sensed the threat; its middle began to light up, just as it had during the last battle.
There was no time to radio anyone. A blast of energy shot from the angel, and at the same time, a shot came from the primary location. The two shots met in the middle, curved, and danced around one another before shooting off in different directions, both missing their targets.
"Damn," whispered Draven, readying his rifle.
He saw the energy build up again, and the enemy fired a second time. He watched as something blocked the blast. Like water being diverted around a stone.
"Ayanami," he whispered, then he started shooting. The shot bounced off the A.T. like it was nothing. The Angel didn't react.
"Come on, you bastard, shoot at me!" Draven muttered, and he fired again.
A moment later, he got his wish. The beam aimed at the primary location ceased and then fired toward the secondary location. Draven jerked the control to roll away before the beam hit, destroying the rifle. A second shot came, the Danner barely out of the way in time.
The damage from losing an arm is worse than I realized. thought Draven
A third blast grazed Danner's leg, sending it tumbling. The machine landed badly.
Draven struggled to get in a better position to move. He saw the energy building up in the angel center.
From the primary location, a bolt of energy was fired. It ripped through the angel easily, ending the threat.
Draven let out a sigh. "I knewyou could do it, Shinji"
The Danner began limping to its primary location. He saw EVA-00 and EVA-01 sitting together.
Through a zoomed-in image, he saw the entry plug on the ground and Shinji gently helping Rei out.
The Danner stopped moving and sat down where it was. "I think I'll wait here," he said to himself. "I wouldn't want to ruin this touching moment."
End