Ok, let's try this again.......
A long time ago in a land far, far away I was first getting into Eva (back in the 2 episodes on VHS cost 25 bucks for a dub, almost 35 for a sub days) I came up with an idea of doing my own version of Eva in comic form where I would put my own little spin on the story and explored a few theories I came up with will watching the show (back then I had no internet so all I had to go whatever half backed ideas me an my friends would come up with though given some of the weird ideas thrown around in the early days maybe that was for the best).
In the end however I never got around to it and that idea just sorta sat around in the back of my head for over a decade until I came across this place and Eva fan fiction for first time (as well and fan fiction in general).
I then started mulling over the idea of taking my comic idea and doing as a fan fic and finally after being inspired by my comrade in arms GasMask Avengers works (namely his hilariously obtuse dark comedy take on Eva, Ayanami: Vengeance) I finally said what the hell, dust off and clean up what still worked about that idea and here I am now.
So with that said I give you all my first fan fic Neon Genesis Evangelion: To the Victor which much like Legendary's excellent but sadly unfinished Rewrite of Evangelion (though mine's going to be a standard fic and not a script style one) is a reimagining of Eva done the way I would of handled it.
Most of the changes are in tone and style as well as expansions to the main plot (since I'm not limited to trying to cram a epic story into 26 episodes less then 20min apiece) with a few new or altered plot points here and there.
The biggest change I have in store for it is more then likely going to be the most controversial; this version of Eva is set in America though not all the characters are going to be anglicized (I'll save who is and who isn't for you to discover as the story unfolds).
Now the reason for this was originally do to the fact back in the day when I stated with this idea I knew very little about Japanese culture and didn't feel like I could do a story set in Japan that didn't feel like I was using just a bunch of stereotypes and such but now all these years latter while I feel I could do a decent job at a Japaneses setting now I'm keeping that idea intact since for one thing I feel it'll add some character and a interesting twist (your mileage may vary of course) to my story but the bigger reason is that now I got some plot related reasoning for it, as to what that is you'll find out in do time.
Alrighty, I could go on a about what my fic is doing differently and all that but I think reading it will do that better then my trying to describe it and I think you'll get the over all idea of where I'm going with this after the first volume is done and you compare it to the first two episodes of the series.
Lastly as for how often I'm going to be updating this, for the fist volume while I can I'm trying for a chapter a day but do to my life being a bit chaotic at the moment I'm probably going to have to cut back to a chapter a week for chapter two, maybe two chapters as I have the time.
EIDT: For those of you who are interested (or care) I just a slight clean up of my first couple of chapters spacing them out a bit as par GasMask Avenger suggestion. I have also cleaned up my above intro post making it less of a wall O' text and cleaned it up a bit making my intentions for this fic clearer (I hope).
Ok, enough of me blabbing; let's get on with it.
To the ladies and gentlemen of Evageeks Forums I give you.....
NEON GENESIS EVANGLION: TO THE VICTOR
Vol: 1 Dark Messenger
Prologue
Abyss
Monday August 24, 2015
228 kilometers off the cost of Delaware
2:43PM EDT
Lt. Eric “One Eye” Baker struggled to keep himself upright as the tumblehome hull of the U.S.S Robert A. Heinlein (DDGN-1007) clashed against the chop as another machine gun burst of lightning flared across the sky. The ship steadied and he again took his position leaning against the hanger's sidewall, arms crossed and waiting impatiently for that group of civvie paramilitary contractors to finish mucking around with his baby, the SH-60H Advanced Capacity Seahawk anti-submarine helicopter that was stationed on board. He wasn't too found of any of the unsavory rumors going around the normal channels about this origination those civvies were a part of but he liked this strange electrical storm they were moving through even less. The whole day it was nothing but clear blue skies, just what all the weather charts showed, but then BAM! Out of nowhere the seas started getting rough and the sky exploded with one of the worst electrical storms he had ever seen but that alone wasn't what made him feel uneasy. Just before the horizon at what appeared to be the center of the storm was some strange ribbon of undulating colors, kinda like an aurora but... not. He had never seen anything like it and had no clue what it was but something about it just didn't sit right with him and to make matters worse THAT was what they were steaming towards.
He shot a glance over to his Airborne Tactical Officer, Ens. Jacob “Slasher” Cook, which conveyed everything he wanted to say about this situation they found themselves in but knew better to. Jacob just smirked, lowered his head and shook it in response. Po2. Daniel “Capt'n” Morgan, his Aviation Warfare Systems Operator, however was the lucky bastard of the group not getting to suffer though all this fun since his station was being taken over by one of those civvie A-holes.
It was about two hours ago when this whole mess began.
Eric and Jacob had just stat down at their usual spot for lunch in the officers mess (Daniel being a wiener had to stick with the rest of the sub-humans in the enlisted-man's mess) when the call to action stations blared over the intercom and the seven ship detachment of Destroyer Squadron EIGHTY-SIX (named such despite almost half of it's force being composed of Cruisers) transformed into battle configuration. Stealth covers hiding their rail cannons, laser turrets and point defense missile batteries lifted up and folded away while the ships changed course at full steam kicking up massive rooster tales in their wakes. Twenty minutes later their Squadron met up with Destroyer Squadron SIXTY-FOUR and Cruiser Squadron EIGHTEEN followed shortly after by two full carrier battle groups and then finally by two Leviathan class battleships, the Tiamat and Kraken[ (BBGN-112 and BBGN-115 repetitively), assembling the largest fleet either pilot had seen since the wars that followed that hellish September day Fifteen years ago when the Heavens met with the Earth bathed in fire and horror.
It was then approximately thirty minuets ago THEY showed up.
Representatives of an private paramilitary organization chartered under the UN were lead into the pilots ready room by the ships XO, Lt crd. Frederick Bell. They consisted of two heavy “suits”, one taller then the other by a good two inches, whose casual killer eyes, complexions and accents gave them all the signs of being former Mossad agents who acted as the groups “spokesmen” and with the rest just seeming to be a couple of techs dressed up in orangeish-red jumpsuits. The XO then went on to explain that they would be in charge of leading an operation that required the use of their Seahawk and it's crew but of course, like always, he kinda forgot to included the why. After the introduction was over the taller of the two suits stepped up with a folder in hand and promptly dismissed Daniel telling him he wouldn’t be needed for this mission and the lucky son of a bitch left muttering, “Can't believe this bull.” while shaking his head in disappointment and the suit went on to open up the folder and proceeded to inform the two copter pilots with a dry, almost emotionless tone that everything about this mission was classified TOP-SECRET and that they could not speak to anyone with out the proper clearance and the consequences of them failing to head his warnings would included some rather serous jail time. You know, the usual BS. He then went on to explain that after the techs installed a new sensor package to the helicopters dipping sonar array they would fly them on a survey mission, the nature of which the suit wasn’t at liberty to discus, of course, and with that he closed his folder, turned and nodded at the XO and motioned for the techs to follow him out of the room. The pilots then followed after them, there was no way they were going to stay cooped up in there while those civvies defiled their baby. It was when they made topside that the storm began, a perfect omen if either of them ever saw one.
And after another forty minutes had passed since then Jacob nudged Eric in the side to get his attention and then pointed towards their helicopter. One of the techs was leaning part way out of the copter's side door giving the suits the A-OK sign. Eric nodded and they both stretched the fatigue out just as the tall suit started to yell for them to head over. They reluctantly made there way over as the sky lit up brilliantly followed by another bang of thunder, this one loud enough that it almost startled the pilots as the taller suit gave them their marching orders, “Alright once again. I must stress everything that happens form this point must remain confidential do you two both understand?”
Before answering Eric looked him over and noted how the suit seemed to be almost obvious to the phenomenon happening behind them that was now growing more intense as the ship drew closer though the tech standing next to him seemed to be doing his best to act like he didn’t, his eyes were twitching as he forced them not to glance up at the party in the sky. Whatever they were doing it was obviously going to be about that. He then gave the obligatory yes sir with just the right tone of discontent which was followed by the same from his co-pilot and the suit continued either dismissive or oblivious of their obvious contempt of him.
“Your orders are simple, you are to fly us to coordinates 37.48 by 72.24 and...”
“You mean over to that psychedelic light show back there.” Eric cut him off, pointing back towards the phenomenon with his thumb and the suit shot him a displeased look before responding with, “Yes, you are to head over to the anomaly and hold station where we will man the AWSO and deploy the dipping sonar. You two are then to await further orders from us. Do the both of you understand?”
They both nodded yes despite not liking this set up on bit.
The suit nodded back then added, “Lastly, for this mission you will be backed up by Seahawk HS-7-64 D from the U.S.S Michael Monsoor. Alright that is all.”
With the formalities over the two copter pilots sprung into action and boarded their copter quickly surveyed the damage that's been done to her as they made their way to the cockpit noting that what appeared to be a new pressure guarded mangometer senor package had been added to the dipping sonar which puzzled them; they're sensor suit already incorporated the latest MAD gear. Eric then looked across over to the AWSO station which to his displeasure had been run through pretty roughly with panels removed and wiring exposed with two laptops jerry rigged into it. He then hopped into his pilots chair to the right, his ATO took his place to his left and the tall suit and two techs hope on board, one taking up the AWSO while the other sat by one of the rigged laptops, the shorter silent suit seemed to be staying behind which was fine by them. Eric then informed the civvies to plug their headsets into the copters intercom system and then went over the preflight check list calling up his back up while doing so.
“Seahawk HS-7-64 Delta this is Seahawk HS-7-67 Foxtrot. Over.” Eric transmitted.
“HS-7-67 Foxtrot this is HS-7-64 Delta, what’s the biz One eye? Over.” Came the reply.
“What’s up Big Rollin’, how are thing on your side? Over.”
“Never been better! Got some new friends over here helping us out. Over.”
“So how’s the game? Over.” Eric asked, his question a code to let Big Rollin' know he wanted to know the stuff he wasn't suppose to tell about.
“The Cardinals are doing hot. Over.” Big Rollin' answered, translation: their bird was hot, they were carrying live ordnance. Eric already didn’t like how things were going but the fact whatever they may be investigating might have to be shot at was just… He didn’t know. It just didn’t seem like something that should be really happening, like this was all just a movie or something but sadly that just wouldn’t be his kind of luck.
“Bah, the Cubs are going to take it this year, I can feel it. Over.” Eric continued on, switching back to banter mode after hearing all he really needed to know.
“You say the same shit every year, we've already been through one apocalypse and they still haven't brought home the pendant, it's going to be the Cardinals all the way. Over”
“Whatever. Alright; follow my lead and try not to look to much like an ass out there. We got civvies to impress! Over.”
“Same to you, need I remind you of who it was that over shot the ship. Over.”
“Asshole that was back in flight school, try bringing up some more recent history. This is One Eye over and Out.”
He then double checked the current weather charts, for what they were worth right now, got permission to launch and then he pulled back the yoke sending his Seahawk skyward, giving all of them an even more impressive view of the… Of what ever the hell it was. To his right out the corner of his eye he saw his wingman rise up from the deck of the Michael Monsoor.
They drew closer to the anomaly, lighting flashes now arced down all around them forcing Eric to banked hard on the stick, slamming everybody hard against the sidewalls of the cabin as he did everything he could to not be where a bolt was going to land. He glanced up at the horizon and noticed that the aurora seemed to be moving Eastbound towards the flooded district at about 68 knots. A pit started to form in his stomach, nothing about this was making any kind of sense. What the hell was causing this? If this thing was air borne why did they need a anti-submarine helicopter? What the hell was a dipping sonar gonna find out? And to top it off just who were theses guys bossing them around? Why was a paramilitary origination investigating a weather phenomenon?
But the thing that disturbed him the most about all of this was the fact his wing man was carrying live ordnance.
Something caught his eyes jarring him from his frustrations, it was his instruments. His altimeter, compass and other every other dial and doodad on his glass cockpit display along with his back up analogs were starting to given erratic results.
“Shit!” he muttered to himself before calling over to his ARO, “Your instruments acting funny?”
“Yeah.” He shot back.
“No good, no good, I’m gonna call up Rollin' and let him know what’s up.”
Eric flipped on the radio and called up his wingman, “Seahawk HS-7 Delta this is Seahawk HS-7 Foxtrot this is One Eye again. Over.”
“Seahawk HS-7 Foxtrot this is Big Rollin’, what’s the news.? Over.”
“Be advised that this…. “storm” is giving off some kinda interference that’s impeding instrument operations, I repeat the storm is impeding instrument operations. Over.”
“Roger that, storm is impeding instrument operations, anything else I should be advised about. Over?”
“That’s all for now, this is One Eye. Over and out.”
Eric then called out to the civvies in the back, “Alright things might get a bit bumpy, the storms messing with my instrument panel so I got to eyeball this.” as he flew into what appeared to be the densest part of this “storm”. He really had to keep his eyes open now.
“What the hell is that?” He heard Jacob call out as he pointed down towards the ocean. Following his ARO’s lead Eric looked down at what he was pointing at to see something gliding about eighty feet beneath the waves. It looked like it could of been a biologic but was larger then any he ever seen but it was too small to be a submarine, long enough but far to thin. It was also moving faster then anything thing he’s ever seen before going by his best guess at around 68 knots… 68 knots!
Eric looked up and sure enough the leading edge of that aurora was positioned right over whatever the hell that thing was. THIS had to be what they were looking for! But what was it? He glanced one more time at it noticing it looked almost….. humanoid before he informed the freeloaders, “Hey, we got a unidentified object moving at almost seventy knots underwater.” He then pointed in the direction of the object, “That’s what you guys are looking for?”
The suit leaned forward to get a better view then answered, “Correct, set a holding station as close as you can to it.”
Eric nodded and ran down the math taking in account how long it would take to for the sonar to be lowered to that things depth on top of how long it normally takes to get a good signal and figured 600ft in front of it should do it and he jerk his copter hard to the left just narrowly avoiding a lighting bolt while turning 40 degrees to the left to cut it off, it was fast but nowhere fast enough to out run his baby.
He then set his station hoping to God that another lighting bolt didn’t suddenly decide this was a good spot to come down at while he heard the distinctive grinding noise that singled the lowering of the dipping sonar. He then waited as he watched that… thing get closer with the aurora trailing after it.
“We’re getting erratic singles, it's overloading everything!” Eric heard the tech manning the AWSO shout over the intercom.
The two pilots were now starting to get impatient, just what the hell did we need to know about this thing? They already had a visual and if they were going to attack it… But before he could finish his thought he heard a loud-piercing beep over his headphones followed by that tech relaying to the suits, “It’s confirmed sir, pattern is blue!”
A second later the suit came over the line telling the pilots, “Alright your mission is finished, return to your ship.”
Those words were a million burdens off both of their chests, this whole thing was just too weird and the sooner he could forget abut it the better. Eric replied, “Roger.” then banked his copter back around while radioing his wingman to inform that he was out of there.
As he headed back he watch from the corner of his eye Big Rollin’s Seahawk pull up sharply as it dropped two parachute retarded torpedoes into the water, Marks 58’s by the look of them. They both splash into the water followed a blast of bubbles as the super-captivating torpedoes rockets kicked in sending the projectiles racing in towards that bizarre underwater figure...
Hope you all enjoyed this first installment, please post any questions, comments and honest critiques you guy's got!
[Fic] Neon Genesis Evangelion: To the Victor
Moderators: Derantor, Board Staff
[Fic] Neon Genesis Evangelion: To the Victor
Last edited by Ryjin on Tue Jun 26, 2012 2:52 pm, edited 8 times in total.
"It is the Thunderbolt that steers the universe."~ Heraclitus
The people who voted for Obama or Romney are fucking idiots. Wake the fuck up.
"The Constitution was our last, best hope for peace... It failed. But, in the Year of the War against the Globalists, it became something greater: our last, best hope
The people who voted for Obama or Romney are fucking idiots. Wake the fuck up.
"The Constitution was our last, best hope for peace... It failed. But, in the Year of the War against the Globalists, it became something greater: our last, best hope
Alright got some views but so far no comments, well I was able to crank out the first chapter faster then I thought I would; it's a bit short but hopefully the first real chapter will generate a little more interest.
NEON GENESIS EVANGLION: TO THE VICTOR
Vol: 1 Dark Messenger
Chapter One
Thrust and Parry
Eastern NORTHCOM Base just out side of Alberta, Virginia
3:58PM EDT
A UV-38C tilt-rotored transport kicked up a thick cloud of dust around the landing pad as it touched down outside the Eastern North American Command base. Upon it’s sides and top of it’s left wing it bared the blood red logo of it’s operators, the word NERV partly covered by a half fig leaf with the cryptic motto “GOD IS IN HIS HEAVEN. ALL IS RIGHT WITH THE WORLD” in a half circle beneath it.
The aircraft's rear hatch lowered with a hydraulic whine and a explosion of personal clad in tanish gray uniforms poured out, each holding folders, document books and large banks of data tapes. Waiting to greet them were the signal and information corps men of the various military branches stationed there who directed them towards the various facilities they would be need at on the compound.
The last to step out was a man wearing a black command version of the uniform who's very presence seemed to radiated a sense of cool, command and power. He held a hawkish, almost predatory face that show strong traces of his Slavic descent. His jaw outlined by a neatly kept donegal style beard that lined up with the thin auburn brown cesar cut he wore upon his head. His sharp-dark bister brown raptor-like eyes where shaped into a piercing scrawl and any of the few emotions that may have betray his demeanor were masked by the dark orange tint of the glasses he wore.
He walked down off from the hatch and then came to a stop, adjusted his glasses back into place and proceeded to glance over at the base with both disbane and humor. It was an ugly collection of office buildings that were formerly owned by a major telecommunications company until the location was bought out by the federal government do to it’s built in facilities making it ideal location to temporarily house it’s military command after the Pentagon was lost to the terrorist event that claimed the capital.
He was not pleased having to waste time coming here, the facilities at his base of operations were far better optimized to track this event and relay relevant information about it but instead the joint chiefs “requested” his presence as a tactical adviser on the capabilities of the approaching anomaly the military had codenamed “Intruder”.
“Commander! This way please!” He heard someone call out from his right.
Glancing over to the direction of the voice he saw it had came from an army signal corps private who was trying to wave him over. He nodded and followed him into the large main building passing by the entrance check point and bypassing the metal detectors and body scanners letting a slight smile briefly cross his face as the men guarding the entrance stood at attention and saluted. The building stank of sterileness in spite of the poor state of repair it was in, paint on its walls were already fading and it’s galvanized floor with it’s tacky patterns was worn and scuffed and in heavy need of proper buffing. A tang of disgust now filled the place that a few seconds ago was housed by humor, he would never let any facility under his command fall to such a level of disrepair but such was all to familiar in government buildings-the symptoms of the parasites that dwelled within.
The private finally lead him to an elevator which took them down two levels opening into a short and slightly better maintained corridor that ended with a set of double doors guarded by two more marines. They saluted and opened the doors for him and his guide led him through into the electric hum of the bases darkened main command center where he was greeted by the Secretary of Defense, Gen. Robert Adams. He offered his hand out to the commander for a quick handshake while blurting out in a tone that tried too hard to sound like one would take with an old friend, “Gregory Ikari! Good to see you made it!”
He took the Secretary of Defense’s hand with a firm handshake doing his best to cover up his annoyance at the mans obvious attempt belittle his status by to failing to addressee him by his proper rank and replied with a simple, “Indeed.”
The Secretary of Defense then patted Commander Ikari on the shoulder and waved for him to follow him crossing over the room to it's center table which provided an excellent view of the room's three main “flat” 3D screens and main holographic projector. The vector graphics presented on each of them recreated an abstracted version of the Delawarean coast line on which different colored shapes representing the various military units where gathering as from the cost a large red “I” encased in a circular outline was approaching rapidly. From what he could see their battle plan was based around having a ring of probing units who would open up fire on the target to learn the “Intruders” tactics and weaknesses followed by further rings of ever increasingly specialized units which would then be directed depending on what it seemed most susceptible to. It was a well thought out plan he admitted to himself.
Seated at that table were three of the joint cheifs of staff, Fleet Adm. David Fletcher, Gen. Joseph Fairchild of the Airforce and Gen. Leroy Adams of the US Marine Corps. They each turned back to the commander, mumbling out a half hearted greeting to which Ikari nodded in reply. He then reached into his open jacket and pulled out a set of blank cased data disks and handed them over to the Secretary of Defense who took them with an, “Oh!” being mildly surprised to see the disks being produced without having to ask for them. He held them in his hand for a second almost as if he was testing their weight while asking mostly rhetorically, “Is this all the data on the target?”
Ikari gave him a slight nod while answering, “Oh course, they contain all the data you asked for.”
The Secretary of Defense nodded back then handed the disk off to an orderly and then offered him a seat which Ikari refused and a second later a female voice came over over the intercom.
“The Intruder will reach the coastline in five minutes.”
The collection of brass seated before Ikari took on the tension of a group of high school kids eagerly awaiting to be put into play on their football team. The Secretary of Defense stood up and ordered, “Tell all units to go weapons free as soon as they make contact with the Intruder!”
Ikari let an almost visible smirk graze his face, he already knew full well what the outcome of this battle would be.
Coastal Hyw Sussex County, Delaware
4:07PM EDT
2nd Lt. Arnold Jackson, commander of the 32nd tank platoon, held up his range finder and increased it’s magnification while mentally blocking out the near oppressive wine of the ever present cicadas as lighting cackled about the near cloudless sky all around him. Through it he saw the surreal sight of a rippling rooster tail being kicked up on the surface of the bay by the still submerged inbound Intruder as it pass by some of the taller buildings that still broke the surface in the sunken area taken when the floods came and claimed most of the old coast.
He then looked up at the even stranger aurora in the sky that seemed to be following it.
It would be any minute now he thought to himself as he lowered his finder. He sifted around the hatch of his M1A2 Abrams main battle tank and looked back at the rows of his tank that lined Coastal Highway not much liking the set up one bit. Not only was this do to the lead pit resting in his stomach that was growing proportionally to the shorting distance between him and the Intruder but it also was do to the fact that nobody was bothering to tell them just WHAT the hell this “Intruder” thing was. What he was seeing out there gave him more then enough suspicions to that end, it was just he wasn't quite ready to accept where THAT line of thought was taking him. Then there was his orders, they were to set up a “blanket of firepower”. That meant he needed to pack his tanks in nearly end to end making them nothing more then fancy artillery pieces which in turn made any type of retreat a bad joke at best.
He was shook from his morbid line of thinking by the rumbling of a jet over head and he continued his scan of the area noting the various other military pieces set up along the coast ranging from multiple missile launchers to lighter tanks. To his left he glanced at the lines of battle frames, a new generation of bipedal IFVs, still in their “wheeler” mode and thought to himself, “Lucky bastards, they might have half the fire power but at lest they’ll be able to maneuver their way out of here when things go FUBAR.”
Suddenly the cicadas stopped and for a whole second the world turned dead silent. Then with an explosion of sound his ears were filled with the caws of a thousand birds as a massive flock of birds rose up from the surrounding area in a mass migration fleeing the coastline, ominously highlighted by the now constant flash of lighting.
He brought his attention back across the beach, the aurora was now almost over it. A second latter a pillar of water exploded into the air as something massive rose from beneath...
NEON GENESIS EVANGLION: TO THE VICTOR
Vol: 1 Dark Messenger
Chapter One
Thrust and Parry
Eastern NORTHCOM Base just out side of Alberta, Virginia
3:58PM EDT
A UV-38C tilt-rotored transport kicked up a thick cloud of dust around the landing pad as it touched down outside the Eastern North American Command base. Upon it’s sides and top of it’s left wing it bared the blood red logo of it’s operators, the word NERV partly covered by a half fig leaf with the cryptic motto “GOD IS IN HIS HEAVEN. ALL IS RIGHT WITH THE WORLD” in a half circle beneath it.
The aircraft's rear hatch lowered with a hydraulic whine and a explosion of personal clad in tanish gray uniforms poured out, each holding folders, document books and large banks of data tapes. Waiting to greet them were the signal and information corps men of the various military branches stationed there who directed them towards the various facilities they would be need at on the compound.
The last to step out was a man wearing a black command version of the uniform who's very presence seemed to radiated a sense of cool, command and power. He held a hawkish, almost predatory face that show strong traces of his Slavic descent. His jaw outlined by a neatly kept donegal style beard that lined up with the thin auburn brown cesar cut he wore upon his head. His sharp-dark bister brown raptor-like eyes where shaped into a piercing scrawl and any of the few emotions that may have betray his demeanor were masked by the dark orange tint of the glasses he wore.
He walked down off from the hatch and then came to a stop, adjusted his glasses back into place and proceeded to glance over at the base with both disbane and humor. It was an ugly collection of office buildings that were formerly owned by a major telecommunications company until the location was bought out by the federal government do to it’s built in facilities making it ideal location to temporarily house it’s military command after the Pentagon was lost to the terrorist event that claimed the capital.
He was not pleased having to waste time coming here, the facilities at his base of operations were far better optimized to track this event and relay relevant information about it but instead the joint chiefs “requested” his presence as a tactical adviser on the capabilities of the approaching anomaly the military had codenamed “Intruder”.
“Commander! This way please!” He heard someone call out from his right.
Glancing over to the direction of the voice he saw it had came from an army signal corps private who was trying to wave him over. He nodded and followed him into the large main building passing by the entrance check point and bypassing the metal detectors and body scanners letting a slight smile briefly cross his face as the men guarding the entrance stood at attention and saluted. The building stank of sterileness in spite of the poor state of repair it was in, paint on its walls were already fading and it’s galvanized floor with it’s tacky patterns was worn and scuffed and in heavy need of proper buffing. A tang of disgust now filled the place that a few seconds ago was housed by humor, he would never let any facility under his command fall to such a level of disrepair but such was all to familiar in government buildings-the symptoms of the parasites that dwelled within.
The private finally lead him to an elevator which took them down two levels opening into a short and slightly better maintained corridor that ended with a set of double doors guarded by two more marines. They saluted and opened the doors for him and his guide led him through into the electric hum of the bases darkened main command center where he was greeted by the Secretary of Defense, Gen. Robert Adams. He offered his hand out to the commander for a quick handshake while blurting out in a tone that tried too hard to sound like one would take with an old friend, “Gregory Ikari! Good to see you made it!”
He took the Secretary of Defense’s hand with a firm handshake doing his best to cover up his annoyance at the mans obvious attempt belittle his status by to failing to addressee him by his proper rank and replied with a simple, “Indeed.”
The Secretary of Defense then patted Commander Ikari on the shoulder and waved for him to follow him crossing over the room to it's center table which provided an excellent view of the room's three main “flat” 3D screens and main holographic projector. The vector graphics presented on each of them recreated an abstracted version of the Delawarean coast line on which different colored shapes representing the various military units where gathering as from the cost a large red “I” encased in a circular outline was approaching rapidly. From what he could see their battle plan was based around having a ring of probing units who would open up fire on the target to learn the “Intruders” tactics and weaknesses followed by further rings of ever increasingly specialized units which would then be directed depending on what it seemed most susceptible to. It was a well thought out plan he admitted to himself.
Seated at that table were three of the joint cheifs of staff, Fleet Adm. David Fletcher, Gen. Joseph Fairchild of the Airforce and Gen. Leroy Adams of the US Marine Corps. They each turned back to the commander, mumbling out a half hearted greeting to which Ikari nodded in reply. He then reached into his open jacket and pulled out a set of blank cased data disks and handed them over to the Secretary of Defense who took them with an, “Oh!” being mildly surprised to see the disks being produced without having to ask for them. He held them in his hand for a second almost as if he was testing their weight while asking mostly rhetorically, “Is this all the data on the target?”
Ikari gave him a slight nod while answering, “Oh course, they contain all the data you asked for.”
The Secretary of Defense nodded back then handed the disk off to an orderly and then offered him a seat which Ikari refused and a second later a female voice came over over the intercom.
“The Intruder will reach the coastline in five minutes.”
The collection of brass seated before Ikari took on the tension of a group of high school kids eagerly awaiting to be put into play on their football team. The Secretary of Defense stood up and ordered, “Tell all units to go weapons free as soon as they make contact with the Intruder!”
Ikari let an almost visible smirk graze his face, he already knew full well what the outcome of this battle would be.
Coastal Hyw Sussex County, Delaware
4:07PM EDT
2nd Lt. Arnold Jackson, commander of the 32nd tank platoon, held up his range finder and increased it’s magnification while mentally blocking out the near oppressive wine of the ever present cicadas as lighting cackled about the near cloudless sky all around him. Through it he saw the surreal sight of a rippling rooster tail being kicked up on the surface of the bay by the still submerged inbound Intruder as it pass by some of the taller buildings that still broke the surface in the sunken area taken when the floods came and claimed most of the old coast.
He then looked up at the even stranger aurora in the sky that seemed to be following it.
It would be any minute now he thought to himself as he lowered his finder. He sifted around the hatch of his M1A2 Abrams main battle tank and looked back at the rows of his tank that lined Coastal Highway not much liking the set up one bit. Not only was this do to the lead pit resting in his stomach that was growing proportionally to the shorting distance between him and the Intruder but it also was do to the fact that nobody was bothering to tell them just WHAT the hell this “Intruder” thing was. What he was seeing out there gave him more then enough suspicions to that end, it was just he wasn't quite ready to accept where THAT line of thought was taking him. Then there was his orders, they were to set up a “blanket of firepower”. That meant he needed to pack his tanks in nearly end to end making them nothing more then fancy artillery pieces which in turn made any type of retreat a bad joke at best.
He was shook from his morbid line of thinking by the rumbling of a jet over head and he continued his scan of the area noting the various other military pieces set up along the coast ranging from multiple missile launchers to lighter tanks. To his left he glanced at the lines of battle frames, a new generation of bipedal IFVs, still in their “wheeler” mode and thought to himself, “Lucky bastards, they might have half the fire power but at lest they’ll be able to maneuver their way out of here when things go FUBAR.”
Suddenly the cicadas stopped and for a whole second the world turned dead silent. Then with an explosion of sound his ears were filled with the caws of a thousand birds as a massive flock of birds rose up from the surrounding area in a mass migration fleeing the coastline, ominously highlighted by the now constant flash of lighting.
He brought his attention back across the beach, the aurora was now almost over it. A second latter a pillar of water exploded into the air as something massive rose from beneath...
Last edited by Ryjin on Tue Jun 26, 2012 2:53 pm, edited 6 times in total.
"It is the Thunderbolt that steers the universe."~ Heraclitus
The people who voted for Obama or Romney are fucking idiots. Wake the fuck up.
"The Constitution was our last, best hope for peace... It failed. But, in the Year of the War against the Globalists, it became something greater: our last, best hope
The people who voted for Obama or Romney are fucking idiots. Wake the fuck up.
"The Constitution was our last, best hope for peace... It failed. But, in the Year of the War against the Globalists, it became something greater: our last, best hope
- GasmaskAvenger
- Re-Gyption Strut
- Age: 34
- Posts: 3691
- Joined: Sep 23, 2009
- Location: Fresno, California, USA
- Gender: Male
alright your oft-delayed fic has finally landed on EGF surface!
so far so good, with the first chapter being very intriguing and the prologue a nice sort of "misdirect" to the readers (if it was in visual form and some random person was watching it on TV)
now...my only complaint so far is that parts of the text comes off as walls of text.
space things out a little to be read easier and more digestible but keep up the good work.
so far so good, with the first chapter being very intriguing and the prologue a nice sort of "misdirect" to the readers (if it was in visual form and some random person was watching it on TV)
now...my only complaint so far is that parts of the text comes off as walls of text.
space things out a little to be read easier and more digestible but keep up the good work.
Satsuki Kiryuin wants you to turn that frown upside down...
My AU Evangelion Fanfic | My Street Fighter fanfic
XBOX Live: GasmaskAvenger | PSN: GasmaskAvenger
Official "Grindhouse of Evangelion" Discussion, Updates and Cast Sign Up Thread.
My AU Evangelion Fanfic | My Street Fighter fanfic
XBOX Live: GasmaskAvenger | PSN: GasmaskAvenger
Official "Grindhouse of Evangelion" Discussion, Updates and Cast Sign Up Thread.
@GasMask Avenger: Heh, cool. Thanks man for the reply and I will do on spacing thing out a bit when I get the chance.
Now with that being said I'm still on a roll with turning out these chapters so I figured for this first part of my fic I'll keep them coming as I get them finished so with out further ado here's chapter 2!
Hope you all enjoy
NEON GENESIS EVANGLION: TO THE VICTOR
Volume One: Dark Messenger
Chapter Two
Longing
N. Dupont Blvd. Amtrak station Georgetown, Delaware
4:23PM EDT
“I’m sorry, but do to the special state of national emergency no lines are currently available. If it’s an emrg…..” -*CLICK*-
A young Asian teen stood alone near the entrance of a train station sighing to himself as he hung up the payphone he had just used as another burst of lighting bolts filled the sky. He then glanced up trying to get a glimpse of the approaching storm front that must have been producing all this lightning but he only see that strange ribbon of light had drawn closer.
He then looked across the empty stretch of tracks to his left. It was just after arriving he had found that his train had been canceled do to some “national emergency” and everyone was informed to leave the train station and evacuate the area. Then, at what almost seemed like the same time, air-raid sirens started going off along side the rumble of thunder; that’s when he first noticed that odd light in the sky.
Since it looked like he wasn't going to be going anywhere any time soon his first instinct was to call the person who was supposed to pick him up when he got to his destination, he had told himself that it was just to inform her that he was going to be detained but the real reason was right now he needed to have someone he could talk to but unfortunately that had just proven to be fruitless.
He took a second to compose himself and then looked down at the picture he held that had his pick up's phone number was written on. He then lifted his gaze up and slightly to the right to the image of the raven-haired woman with the inviting smile, posed half bent forward on a bike while leaning on the handlebars and then re-read the writing she had scrawled across the left side of the picture:
“I’ll be the one picking you up. Keep an eye out for me, ok.”
He then went to read the “P.S.” below the main text but hesitated for a second until his curiosity becomes enough to overcome his embarrassment:
“Oh, and keep and eye out for theses too!”
It was accented by a cherry-red kiss mark as well as the dash marked line that the teen hesitantly but eagerly followed where they terminated with a circling of the woman’s more then ample cleavage, which he found himself staring at for few seconds more then he planed. His embarrassment finally got the better of him and he picked his duffel bag off the station’s floor and stowed the picture back in the bag's large side pocket. He then took on last look around the empty station thinking, “Well looks like I won’t be meeting you now Ms. Kelling.”
The fact that he was alone was now starting to get to him, normally... he was pretty used to being alone but now...
He tried his best to calm himself and clear his head, he really needed to figure out what he was going to do.
“... Should I find try to a shelter? Start walking back home?”
“Home...”
That wasn’t seeming like a bad idea right now, it wasn’t that far. Maybe…
- *FWWWWWWOOO-SHWOOOOOOOOSH!* -
He was startled out of his thoughts as several jet fighters came screaming in over head so low they nearly clipped the stations overhang throwing him into a panic and before he even had realized he had ran out of the station he was already over 3 blocks away.
Realizing this he started to calm down a little, he stopped running and take a quick breather before trying to figure out his next move. He first made sure he grabbed his duffel bag, check, and then took a look around, trying to see movement, people he could follow to safety but the block he was on was all most totally empty with nothing but a few cars abandoned in the middle of the street. He then looked back down the block in the direction he had ran from when he found himself nearly jumping back with shock when he noticed someone standing there, behind him.
It was a girl, she appeared to be Asian with an almost ghostly appearance. Her skin was nearly pearlescent in color perfectly complementing her smooth, doll like face that was somehow both plain yet striking in beauty. She held a page-boy style bob cut made of sapphire blue hair, and then he noticed it. Her eyes. Those explosive drops of crimson with feline pupils enclosed within beautiful almond shapes.
He took a few steps back both frighten and intrigued by her unearthly beauty and then, once more, his ears were pierced by the screams of a low-flying jets. He instinctively looked up in time to see several small, skinny, aircraft pull into a climb as two stick like objects fell from each of their bellies, A torch of flame erupted from behind each of the sticks and they rocketed forward. With that it finally hit him filling him with an deepening feeling of dread and panic.
A war was approaching.
He shot his attention back towards the girl, he had to warn her! But when he looked back she was gone with out a trace. A pang of disappointment and abandonment swept over him at that fact, he was once again alone and at a lose as what to do.
A flash then caught his eye followed by a loud -*BANG!*- that caused the ground to rumble slightly as a ball of smoke and sparks rose above the lines of buildings.
Then another -*BANG!*- went off, followed by another and another. Panic had him totally once more and motivated by almost pure instinct he began to run, just run, as far from the approaching explosions as possible. The explosions started getting closer, their blast starting to ring together like some great hollowing beast giving him chase. So was the lightning and that strange light, but that was the farthest thing from his mind right now.
-*THUMPVVVVVVVVVVVE-Wuuuup-ppppppppppp*-
He came to a stop as he nearly lost his footing do to the ground… not so much shaking as it rebounded, causing the power lines that lined the streets to whip about.
-*THUMPVVVVVVVVVVVE-Wuuuup-ppppppppppp*-
It happened again. He was certain that this wasn’t do to an explosion, it just didn’t feel like one.
-*THUMPVVVVVVVVVVVE-Wuuuup-ppppppppppp*-
With the third one a horrid wailing filled the air. He would of said that it kind of sounded like a whales's call but... that wasn't quite right, it had that echoing quality to it but the pitch and compensation... just didn't sound natural and not in the sense it sounded mechanical either. It simply sounded like nothing he had ever heard before in this life.
-*THUMPVVVVVVVVVVVE-Wuuuup-ppppppppppp*-
But before he could dwell on his line of thought the ground rebounded again followed by the wailing, but this time there was another noise growing on top of it. It took him a monument to figure what it was, it was screaming, he heard a mass wave of screaming and a second later from the end of the block a small herd of people came pouring down the street, terror gripping their faces as they surged forward piling over each other as a bang of crashing metal and concrete filled the air just before a dying aircraft came spiraling around the corner after them. It smashing into and rebounded off of the side an apartment sending bits of masonry and flaming metal flying across the street as it spiraled two more times trailing thick black smoke before finally smashing into a small corner story pantry in an explosion of dust, glass and metal.
Every nerve, every cell of his body told him to flee to some imagined safety “over there” but he couldn’t so fixed with fright he was, so out of his experience this was to him.
Then something moving caught his eye's attention.
It was coming from inside the crashed aircraft. One of that things pilots was still alive but there was something behind him was trapping him, he couldn't move. His gloved hand began banging against the cockpit in a vain attempt to brake it open or get someones attention.
The pilots and the boys eyes met and locked on each other. He saw the look on the pilots face go from horror to joy at the prospect of someone noticing his plea but then a flash of over powering light blinded the teenagers eyes as he felt his body begin lifted and thrown by a rolling wall of heat.
He arched in pain as his body slammed back down into the asphalt, around him the air filled with the metallic tinge of kerosene mixed with something acidic and after a few seconds that felt like it might as well have been a life time to him later he found himself coming out a daze but his body recoiling at the thought of moving.
He was surrounded now by the sounds of missiles, bullets, jets, explosions and screams mixed with the ever present rumble of thunder.
And then there was that unearthly, hideous, wailing.
He slowly sat up as the tension in his muscles started to relax. He rubbed the flash-spots from his eyes and tried looking around though he was at a lost at what to do.
“What the hell was going on?”
“Who was attacking us?”
“Where could I go?”
“ Maybe I should just stay here and hope...”
“But... Why did I even come? Why did I even bother? It's not like he really cared.”
He then noticed that his skin was tingling, he looked down at his left arm to see the hair on it start to stand on end. All around him electricity started to arced between cars, the spaces between buildings and discarded cans left on the ground. Above him the ribbony light in the sky started to pulsate, radiating lines of color like ripples in a pond and then the ground recoiled as a great blast of dust and light came from several blocks away on his right. Some great thing then casted a shadow over him as it passed over head landing several blocks away to his North-West with a force so great the ground rippled out from the point of impact like a wave, blowing our windows and knocking him back down to the ground as the street heaved under him.
His mind fought with the realization of the impossibility that now stood just several blocks away. It was simply titanic in it’s massiveness, towering over the city like an adult would stand over a child’s doll house. It's gargantuan form was the mockery of a mans, it held a muscular chest atop an impossibly gangly waif-like waist. A large parts of it's body had, what appeared to be, feet thick sections of coral growing off of it, entangled with clumps of sea plants giving it the impression that some portion of the sea floor had awakened and taken semi-human form. Between the parts covered by sea life was a molted dark, almost blackish green, mesh that seemed to sift and waft as if it was made of smoke or shadow that appeared to be it's skin. From under the coral around it's back, shoulders, top of it's thighs and chest appeared to be thick, spiked, bone-like, armored protrusions while long-sharp spikes protruded out of the back of it’s elbows. It's arms each ended in three short claw-like fingers and at it's top a short, thick, muscular, neck housed a mask-like face shaped almost like a the skull of a longed beaked owl that held no visible mouth or nostrils. Only two large black-empty orbits that seemed to be it's eyes marred it’s smoothness.
What was it? How was it? His mind raced with both questions and horror at this strange and alien thing as several aircraft like the one he saw crash came screaming in from the North, ripple firing salvos of missiles and rockets at it. The projectiles streaked across the sky at it but with a yellow flash most of them exploded harmlessly several feet from the titan, falling to strike a single blow against it. The rest missed entirely and began to crash into near by buildings with two streaming right towards where he was standing!
The boy sprung into action before he even could consciously think about it, trying to put as much distance between himself and where he was as possible. He took a quick glance back to check on the missiles but failed to spot them, he then turned his head back just in time to see a blue car barreling right at him! He came to a stop, shifting his weight to keep form falling over, and braced for the impact only for the car to swerve around him into a one-eighty. The two missiles slammed into an apartment complex behind the car to his right gutting it and blasting out pieces of streaming debris which were now plinking of the idling vehicle's side.
The passenger-side door swung open and a raven-haired women wearing a brown dress and a crucifix necklace around her neck leaned over from the drivers seat.
It was her he realized, the woman who was supposed to pick him up, Ms. Megan Kelling!
“Are you William Ikari?!” She yelled.
“Ye….yes.” The boy stuttered in reply.
“Then get in!” She yelled while reaching over and half pulling him into the car herself.
She took a look back at that thing the military was fighting and bit her lower lip then yelled, “Strap in, we need to get out of here NOW!” as she promptly proceeded to promptly floor it, peeling rubber as she raced out of the city.
Now with that being said I'm still on a roll with turning out these chapters so I figured for this first part of my fic I'll keep them coming as I get them finished so with out further ado here's chapter 2!
Hope you all enjoy
NEON GENESIS EVANGLION: TO THE VICTOR
Volume One: Dark Messenger
Chapter Two
Longing
N. Dupont Blvd. Amtrak station Georgetown, Delaware
4:23PM EDT
“I’m sorry, but do to the special state of national emergency no lines are currently available. If it’s an emrg…..” -*CLICK*-
A young Asian teen stood alone near the entrance of a train station sighing to himself as he hung up the payphone he had just used as another burst of lighting bolts filled the sky. He then glanced up trying to get a glimpse of the approaching storm front that must have been producing all this lightning but he only see that strange ribbon of light had drawn closer.
He then looked across the empty stretch of tracks to his left. It was just after arriving he had found that his train had been canceled do to some “national emergency” and everyone was informed to leave the train station and evacuate the area. Then, at what almost seemed like the same time, air-raid sirens started going off along side the rumble of thunder; that’s when he first noticed that odd light in the sky.
Since it looked like he wasn't going to be going anywhere any time soon his first instinct was to call the person who was supposed to pick him up when he got to his destination, he had told himself that it was just to inform her that he was going to be detained but the real reason was right now he needed to have someone he could talk to but unfortunately that had just proven to be fruitless.
He took a second to compose himself and then looked down at the picture he held that had his pick up's phone number was written on. He then lifted his gaze up and slightly to the right to the image of the raven-haired woman with the inviting smile, posed half bent forward on a bike while leaning on the handlebars and then re-read the writing she had scrawled across the left side of the picture:
“I’ll be the one picking you up. Keep an eye out for me, ok.”
He then went to read the “P.S.” below the main text but hesitated for a second until his curiosity becomes enough to overcome his embarrassment:
“Oh, and keep and eye out for theses too!”
It was accented by a cherry-red kiss mark as well as the dash marked line that the teen hesitantly but eagerly followed where they terminated with a circling of the woman’s more then ample cleavage, which he found himself staring at for few seconds more then he planed. His embarrassment finally got the better of him and he picked his duffel bag off the station’s floor and stowed the picture back in the bag's large side pocket. He then took on last look around the empty station thinking, “Well looks like I won’t be meeting you now Ms. Kelling.”
The fact that he was alone was now starting to get to him, normally... he was pretty used to being alone but now...
He tried his best to calm himself and clear his head, he really needed to figure out what he was going to do.
“... Should I find try to a shelter? Start walking back home?”
“Home...”
That wasn’t seeming like a bad idea right now, it wasn’t that far. Maybe…
- *FWWWWWWOOO-SHWOOOOOOOOSH!* -
He was startled out of his thoughts as several jet fighters came screaming in over head so low they nearly clipped the stations overhang throwing him into a panic and before he even had realized he had ran out of the station he was already over 3 blocks away.
Realizing this he started to calm down a little, he stopped running and take a quick breather before trying to figure out his next move. He first made sure he grabbed his duffel bag, check, and then took a look around, trying to see movement, people he could follow to safety but the block he was on was all most totally empty with nothing but a few cars abandoned in the middle of the street. He then looked back down the block in the direction he had ran from when he found himself nearly jumping back with shock when he noticed someone standing there, behind him.
It was a girl, she appeared to be Asian with an almost ghostly appearance. Her skin was nearly pearlescent in color perfectly complementing her smooth, doll like face that was somehow both plain yet striking in beauty. She held a page-boy style bob cut made of sapphire blue hair, and then he noticed it. Her eyes. Those explosive drops of crimson with feline pupils enclosed within beautiful almond shapes.
He took a few steps back both frighten and intrigued by her unearthly beauty and then, once more, his ears were pierced by the screams of a low-flying jets. He instinctively looked up in time to see several small, skinny, aircraft pull into a climb as two stick like objects fell from each of their bellies, A torch of flame erupted from behind each of the sticks and they rocketed forward. With that it finally hit him filling him with an deepening feeling of dread and panic.
A war was approaching.
He shot his attention back towards the girl, he had to warn her! But when he looked back she was gone with out a trace. A pang of disappointment and abandonment swept over him at that fact, he was once again alone and at a lose as what to do.
A flash then caught his eye followed by a loud -*BANG!*- that caused the ground to rumble slightly as a ball of smoke and sparks rose above the lines of buildings.
Then another -*BANG!*- went off, followed by another and another. Panic had him totally once more and motivated by almost pure instinct he began to run, just run, as far from the approaching explosions as possible. The explosions started getting closer, their blast starting to ring together like some great hollowing beast giving him chase. So was the lightning and that strange light, but that was the farthest thing from his mind right now.
-*THUMPVVVVVVVVVVVE-Wuuuup-ppppppppppp*-
He came to a stop as he nearly lost his footing do to the ground… not so much shaking as it rebounded, causing the power lines that lined the streets to whip about.
-*THUMPVVVVVVVVVVVE-Wuuuup-ppppppppppp*-
It happened again. He was certain that this wasn’t do to an explosion, it just didn’t feel like one.
-*THUMPVVVVVVVVVVVE-Wuuuup-ppppppppppp*-
With the third one a horrid wailing filled the air. He would of said that it kind of sounded like a whales's call but... that wasn't quite right, it had that echoing quality to it but the pitch and compensation... just didn't sound natural and not in the sense it sounded mechanical either. It simply sounded like nothing he had ever heard before in this life.
-*THUMPVVVVVVVVVVVE-Wuuuup-ppppppppppp*-
But before he could dwell on his line of thought the ground rebounded again followed by the wailing, but this time there was another noise growing on top of it. It took him a monument to figure what it was, it was screaming, he heard a mass wave of screaming and a second later from the end of the block a small herd of people came pouring down the street, terror gripping their faces as they surged forward piling over each other as a bang of crashing metal and concrete filled the air just before a dying aircraft came spiraling around the corner after them. It smashing into and rebounded off of the side an apartment sending bits of masonry and flaming metal flying across the street as it spiraled two more times trailing thick black smoke before finally smashing into a small corner story pantry in an explosion of dust, glass and metal.
Every nerve, every cell of his body told him to flee to some imagined safety “over there” but he couldn’t so fixed with fright he was, so out of his experience this was to him.
Then something moving caught his eye's attention.
It was coming from inside the crashed aircraft. One of that things pilots was still alive but there was something behind him was trapping him, he couldn't move. His gloved hand began banging against the cockpit in a vain attempt to brake it open or get someones attention.
The pilots and the boys eyes met and locked on each other. He saw the look on the pilots face go from horror to joy at the prospect of someone noticing his plea but then a flash of over powering light blinded the teenagers eyes as he felt his body begin lifted and thrown by a rolling wall of heat.
He arched in pain as his body slammed back down into the asphalt, around him the air filled with the metallic tinge of kerosene mixed with something acidic and after a few seconds that felt like it might as well have been a life time to him later he found himself coming out a daze but his body recoiling at the thought of moving.
He was surrounded now by the sounds of missiles, bullets, jets, explosions and screams mixed with the ever present rumble of thunder.
And then there was that unearthly, hideous, wailing.
He slowly sat up as the tension in his muscles started to relax. He rubbed the flash-spots from his eyes and tried looking around though he was at a lost at what to do.
“What the hell was going on?”
“Who was attacking us?”
“Where could I go?”
“ Maybe I should just stay here and hope...”
“But... Why did I even come? Why did I even bother? It's not like he really cared.”
He then noticed that his skin was tingling, he looked down at his left arm to see the hair on it start to stand on end. All around him electricity started to arced between cars, the spaces between buildings and discarded cans left on the ground. Above him the ribbony light in the sky started to pulsate, radiating lines of color like ripples in a pond and then the ground recoiled as a great blast of dust and light came from several blocks away on his right. Some great thing then casted a shadow over him as it passed over head landing several blocks away to his North-West with a force so great the ground rippled out from the point of impact like a wave, blowing our windows and knocking him back down to the ground as the street heaved under him.
His mind fought with the realization of the impossibility that now stood just several blocks away. It was simply titanic in it’s massiveness, towering over the city like an adult would stand over a child’s doll house. It's gargantuan form was the mockery of a mans, it held a muscular chest atop an impossibly gangly waif-like waist. A large parts of it's body had, what appeared to be, feet thick sections of coral growing off of it, entangled with clumps of sea plants giving it the impression that some portion of the sea floor had awakened and taken semi-human form. Between the parts covered by sea life was a molted dark, almost blackish green, mesh that seemed to sift and waft as if it was made of smoke or shadow that appeared to be it's skin. From under the coral around it's back, shoulders, top of it's thighs and chest appeared to be thick, spiked, bone-like, armored protrusions while long-sharp spikes protruded out of the back of it’s elbows. It's arms each ended in three short claw-like fingers and at it's top a short, thick, muscular, neck housed a mask-like face shaped almost like a the skull of a longed beaked owl that held no visible mouth or nostrils. Only two large black-empty orbits that seemed to be it's eyes marred it’s smoothness.
What was it? How was it? His mind raced with both questions and horror at this strange and alien thing as several aircraft like the one he saw crash came screaming in from the North, ripple firing salvos of missiles and rockets at it. The projectiles streaked across the sky at it but with a yellow flash most of them exploded harmlessly several feet from the titan, falling to strike a single blow against it. The rest missed entirely and began to crash into near by buildings with two streaming right towards where he was standing!
The boy sprung into action before he even could consciously think about it, trying to put as much distance between himself and where he was as possible. He took a quick glance back to check on the missiles but failed to spot them, he then turned his head back just in time to see a blue car barreling right at him! He came to a stop, shifting his weight to keep form falling over, and braced for the impact only for the car to swerve around him into a one-eighty. The two missiles slammed into an apartment complex behind the car to his right gutting it and blasting out pieces of streaming debris which were now plinking of the idling vehicle's side.
The passenger-side door swung open and a raven-haired women wearing a brown dress and a crucifix necklace around her neck leaned over from the drivers seat.
It was her he realized, the woman who was supposed to pick him up, Ms. Megan Kelling!
“Are you William Ikari?!” She yelled.
“Ye….yes.” The boy stuttered in reply.
“Then get in!” She yelled while reaching over and half pulling him into the car herself.
She took a look back at that thing the military was fighting and bit her lower lip then yelled, “Strap in, we need to get out of here NOW!” as she promptly proceeded to promptly floor it, peeling rubber as she raced out of the city.
SPOILER: Show
Just for fun, here's a concept sketch I did of our little intruder. Note that here he is shown without his collection of coral and sea weed
Last edited by Ryjin on Tue Jun 26, 2012 2:54 pm, edited 4 times in total.
"It is the Thunderbolt that steers the universe."~ Heraclitus
The people who voted for Obama or Romney are fucking idiots. Wake the fuck up.
"The Constitution was our last, best hope for peace... It failed. But, in the Year of the War against the Globalists, it became something greater: our last, best hope
The people who voted for Obama or Romney are fucking idiots. Wake the fuck up.
"The Constitution was our last, best hope for peace... It failed. But, in the Year of the War against the Globalists, it became something greater: our last, best hope
- GasmaskAvenger
- Re-Gyption Strut
- Age: 34
- Posts: 3691
- Joined: Sep 23, 2009
- Location: Fresno, California, USA
- Gender: Male
pretty good
also, interesting Americanization of some of the names I say
also, interesting Americanization of some of the names I say
Satsuki Kiryuin wants you to turn that frown upside down...
My AU Evangelion Fanfic | My Street Fighter fanfic
XBOX Live: GasmaskAvenger | PSN: GasmaskAvenger
Official "Grindhouse of Evangelion" Discussion, Updates and Cast Sign Up Thread.
My AU Evangelion Fanfic | My Street Fighter fanfic
XBOX Live: GasmaskAvenger | PSN: GasmaskAvenger
Official "Grindhouse of Evangelion" Discussion, Updates and Cast Sign Up Thread.
@GasMask Avenger: Thanks once again for the feed back. I tried my best to find names that seemed to fit and whenever possible had a similar meaning as the original Japanese but in the end having a name the felt right was more important then one that had the same meaning but didn't seem to fit the character.
Well onto chapter three. Things are picking up now, the first angel of this retelling has hit land, the military is going all out trying to stop it and Capt. Megan Kelling is caught in the middle of a war zone trying to get the young William Ikari to safety.
So sit down, strap in and read on; shit's about to get real
NEON GENESIS EVANGLION: TO THE VICTOR
Vol: 1 Dark Messenger
Chapter Three
Desperation
Eastern NORTHCOM Base just out side of Alberta, Virginia
4:25PM EDT
The updates and reports came streaming into the command room at an nearly overwhelming rate creating a near incomprehensible babble of voices echoing across the command room:
“All incoming fire is being neutralized with a hundred percent chance of intercept, it’s currently unknown if this is do to some form of directed energy or some type of force field.”
“We have reports that an orange or yellow glow is being seen just before fire is intercepted.”
“No visible damage to the Intruder.”
“Weapons with Radar, laser designation, LADAR and emissions homing guidance are failing to lock on!”
“Massive interference is detected, coming off from the Intruder.”
“We’ve lost contact with the 87th tank platoon!”
“No, we tried that... lasers are being deflected too.”
“We need a med evac here now!”
“Where the hell is that artillery?”
“Get every unit that's still in fighting shape and have them set up a flanking maneuver from the North-East.”
Adding to this cascading near steam of consciousness was the assembled brass.
They stood, half-hunched over the table, yelling out orders in a desperate gamble to reclaim some kind of order out of this cluster fuck. Things were starting to exceed even their worse case estimates, but at lest so far they have had the fact that the Intruder has only attacked units that have gotten too close. God help them if that changed.
Behind them Commander Ikari stood, half forgotten in their panic, thinking to himself, “Let them learn this lesson well.”
A voice then came over the intercom.
“Fifteen minutes to Thor’s Six and Nine are in an intercept orbit.”
S. Bedfordd st, Georgetown, Delaware
4:24PM EDT
Young Roberto Vega sat in the backseat of his father's car looking out the window at the ocean of traffic that surrounded them. He was felling pretty scared, though he did his best to keep it to him self not wanting to upset his younger sister any more then she already was. He didn't really have a clue to what was going on but he did know it had to be bad.
Eighteen minutes before this he was back at home just messing around on the computer when his dad grabbed him by the shoulder shouting that they had to go and then he had everybody grab what they could and run out to the car. They then took off with his father speeding down the road until they got caught up in the most traffic he had ever seen out at the same time.
He glanced over at his sister, she was still just sitting there with her eyes wide and watery just like their mother. His father on the other hand, was a bit more active. He was almost beat red, yelling out the window and banging on the horn like it was a drum.
Then something he heard up ahead caught attention.
It was a rumbling yet squeaky sounding noise that made the ground shake as it grew closer. He pressed himself against the window as much as he could, trying to see if he could get a look at what was it was just as six large tanks came rumbling pass them on the inbound lane tearing up the street behind them as they headed towards the city.
The boy's eye went wide in excitement at what he saw, that was most exciting and coolest thing he had ever seen and, at lest for the monument, the fear he was feeling was gone as he let out a cheer. His fathers eyes also where left wide by that sight but not in amazement like his sons however. He knew all to well what this meant.
106 W. Anderson st, Georgetown, Delaware
4:26 PM EDT
Anna Cooper ran out of her apartment and down the hall towards the stairway carrying a bag full clothes along with as many keep sakes she could manage cram into it. Behind her, her husband of the past seventeen years, followed carrying boxes of bottled water and canned food.
This wasn't the first time in their life they had to do something like this but that didn't make any of this any easier. Though, truly, the hardest part of this for her was giving up her apartment. It was small, and to be honest wasn't worth half the rent they paid for it, but they had lived there long enough to see this town grow up from a small community before the Impact to a bustling coastal city. The walls of it were practically caked with the memories of some of the best, and worse, moments of her life and in end, that's what marks somethings real worth.
She bounded out the front door and down the steeps towards the car when she heard something horrid, a sound like some twisted whale's call overpower the consent wail of the air-raid sirens. She looked up in the direction it was coming from and stopped dead in her tracks as she saw something monstrous standing over the city. She couldn't believe what see was looking at, this... this thing just couldn't be real. Things like this just can't happen!
She felt he husband grab on to her shoulder and give her a slight jolt while yelling, “Come on Anna, we need to go!' bringing her back to her senses.
She nodded slowly and bent over to pick her bag back up as over head she heard what sounded like jets. She and her husband looked up to see eight kite-shaped aircraft streak over head towards that thing. She turned to her husband and buried her face in his chest, tears started streaming down her face. She knew that she should really be running, that her emotions could wait, but deep down inside her she knew that there was little point now, that this was it, and she wanted to face whatever time she had left with the man she loved in her home, not on the run.
523 W. Edward st Georgetown, Delaware
4:23 PM EDT
2nd Lt. Keith Peterson sprinted up his tenth flight of stairs, huffing under the weight of the FGM-148 Javelin anti-tank missile launcher that he had prepped and readied resting on his shoulder, as he lead his mechanized unit up to the roof. He bounded around the corner to the last leg of the steps only to nearly defecated himself as he was greeted on the other side by the screams of two teenage girls.
“Why the hell are they.....” Peterson started to think to himself before realizing that it didn't really matter, only the fact that they were did. He looked back and called out Privates Anderson and Fredrick from the rear of the group to escort these girls to their Stryker IAV. The first private's job was to provide cover fire for the unit with an M-240 Bravo 7.62mm machine gun and the other was to act as “ammo bitch” feeding the formers weapon, so the lieutenant figured they weren't all that needed right now since if that Titan started firing back at them their presence sure wouldn't make a damn lick of a difference. The two privates nodded and led the terrified girls back down the stairs. After they disappeared around the bend Peterson waved his unit on and began advancing up the steps again and out onto the roof where he nearly shat his pants again.
He froze dead in his tracts as he saw this monster's true, terrifying, enormity for the first time as it stood less then a block away. As he stood there gazing out at that monster he found that his training was beginning to give out to his common sense as he briefly entertained the thought to just say fuck this and get the hell out out of here while he still could. But he was solider and that meant he was paid to ignore such silly things like wanting to stay alive. He shook his head and cleared his mind thinking, “I must be that brave or just that stupid.” and he ran towards the the rim that lined the roof, setting up and resting his missile launchers tripods on it as the rest of his unit followed.
He switched on the launchers CLU and selected direct fire, NFOV mode, not even bothering to activate the infrared snooper since this thing was somehow jamming all forms of weapon guidance. He then lined up the cross hairs with the target (which at this point was so close they would of had to actively tried to of missed) and pulled the trigger, feeling the launcher kick back as a bust of compressed gas shot the Javelin missile 60m into the air before it's motor kicked in rocketing it towards the Intruder in under a second only for it along with the rest of the missiles fired by his squad and the eight other squads who lined the roofs of the other nearby buildings, to explode hopelessly in an orangeish flash several feet short of their target.
Peterson then hit the deck laying as flat as he could against the roof cursing to himself. As much as he logically knew that it would just be a futile jester, his pride wanted another shot at it. But it was too late for that, it was the Air Force's turn now and all he and his unit could do now was brace for it.
In the air above Georgetown, Delaware
4:27 PM EDT
A flight of eight FB-22C Delta Raptors tipped forward into a steep dive, breaking the sound barrier eleven seconds into it, streaking downward at their target like hawks diving for prey coming in at a seventy-eight degree angle.
Each fighter-bomber's Weapon Systems Operator cried out, “Pickle, pickle pickle!” as they thumbed the trigger on their stick and each jet lurched as two massive bombs fell from their bellies. Each birds driver then pulled their plane out of the dive trying to bleed off enough velocity so that they didn't follow their payloads into the ground.
After falling 181 meters and losing around 62 meters per second of velocity, the rocket motor on each of the bombs kicked in blasting each depleted uranium cored tungsten projectile to mach 3.6 as they raced in towards the walking titan below.
Just outside Georgetown, Delaware on Rd 62
4:27PM EDT
Lt. Fredrick Jackson, commander of what was left of his squad of M1A2 SEP main battle tanks, raced down a small side road between wheat fields that was just barely holding up under them.
He put his eye to his targeting sight in time to watch several large streaks flash into what had become an all to familiar orange flare before the streaks busted into a brilliant torch of fire and sparks around sixty feet off from that strange walking… thing... that has become almost uniformly labeled the Titan by all the engaged forces though his personal name for it had become “Swamp Thing”.
Everything that they had done to it so far failed to even slow it down and despite the fact he knew full well the futility of his actions he had to do… something.
“Range! 620! Elevation! Five! Traverse! Fourteen!” The tank commander ordered to the gunner feeling the turret spring to life at his command.
“Load one DU-SAA-BOT!” He barked to the loader who reached back and pulled an arrow tipped Armor Piercing Fin Stabilizing Discarding Sabot- Depleted Uranium round from the tank's magazine, placed it into the breach, fisted it in, locked it and then flattened himself as tightly against the side of the turret wall as possible before yelling, “Loaded!”
Jackson nodded to himself thinking in a half prayer, “This will be the one.”
He then yelled, “Fire!” and felt himself jerk back under the recoil.
Just outside Georgetown, Delaware on Asbury Rd
4:28PM EDT
2nd Lt. David O’Neil tore down the road with the rest of his squad in his M83 Carlson Main Battle Frame in “wheeler” mode at 63kph kicking up trails of dust and broken asphalt.
The M83 Carlson was the latest addition to the US Marine Corps., a nearly five meter tall semi-humanoid shaped bipedal fighting machine armed with a variety of anti-tank and anti-personel weaponry. It traded armor and high speed for maneuverability, excellent performance on uneven terrain and domination over other units in urban and forest/jungle combat.
Sadly right now however he was where his machine was at it’s weakest, in open terrain.
He twisted the right control stick swinging it's torso forty-three degrees to the left bringing that massive beast into view as a salvo of tank rounds traced a path across the sky. A flash of that ever-present lighting caused him to blink reflexively (his helmet mounted display auto-filtered such things but it couldn’t filter out his ingrained reflexes) after which he saw most of the rounds collide with nothingness, two rounds just glanced right off.
Despite knowing nothing would come of this he had orders to follow. He rolled the selector on the weapons-op stick highlighting his 90 mike-mike, adjusted the cannons elevation and depressed the trigger. After the recoil dissipated he then added in his final two anti-tank missiles.
Atlantic Ocean, 37km of the Coast of Delaware
4:30PM EDT
The Leviathan class battleship U.S.S Hydra (BBGN-111) brought it’s three, massive, three-gun turrets of 382 Megajoule Rail Cannons to bear. A blast of luminous plasma mushroomed out of each of it’s barrels as they fired, causing the water under it to depress almost two full meters, propelling it’s 500kg saboted rounds to over 1.2km/s as they cross the bay towards it’s inland target.
After the last round was fired by the mammoth ship the rest of the ships in the assembled fleet added their own big guns to the salvo and then, once they stopped osculating from the recoil, the sky lit up as each one in turn began ripple-firing off their compliment of cruise missiles.
A total salvo of 146 missiles reached an altitude of 140m, each one dropped their boosters in turn after which their turbo-jet’s kicked and they leveled off as they each dropped to eighty meters from the surface.
In the air above Baltimore County, Maryland
4:30PM EDT
A flight of six B-3As, the air force's newest stealth heavy bomber, were flying in a “V” formation 4,000m above the unincorporated community of Owings Hills. Each one carrying forty armor-piercing, high-explosive tipped cruise missiles each, twenty-four where carried in an internal bay with sixteen more on optional wing mounted hard points.
They each fired off their sixteen winged mounted missiles, then, using explosive bolts, blew off the no longer needed hardpoints and finally banked hard and to the right moving into a holding patterned above the battle field.
Just outside Georgetown, Delaware on Seashore Hwy
4:37PM EDT
“…so how long to that air-lift gets here? Well it can’t be help, alright, thank you Marry. This is Captain Kelling out.”
Megan hung up her cell phone, folded it and put it down in it’s spot by the clutch as she sighed to herself. She didn’t like having to leave behind her han-blue Renault Alpine A310 1600 VE sports car but, she didn't like the thought of having to drive through a war zone either and given how important her charge was she had little choice. But then there was the damage that explosion did to her car... that was going to cost a few hundred just to hammer out the dents let alone repaint them and then there was the fact her next payment was due on it Friday…
“Well my accounts fried for the next two weeks.” She bemoaned to herself, lamenting over the fate to be for her prized baby. After she calmed down, she glanced at the clusters of traffic desperately trying to flee the city using the out bound lanes. She was using the mostly empty inbound ones to make her escape knowing full well that was going to happen and felt sorry for all those people, except for the few others who had followed her lead, that were stuck in that mess. She then looked down at her young charge from the corner of her eye, his eyes were still wide and fixed forward from partial shock and he was leaned in as far as the safety belt would let him clutching his knees like he was trying to curl up in to the fetal position.
She also noticed that while his Japanese side was dominated most of his appearance, tell tale characteristics of his father also stood out. Especially in his jaw-line, the shape of his nose, the shade of his hair and his eyes. His eyes were his fathers.
They had been searching for him for almost the full three years she had been part of the paramilitary organization NERV. It was about then when he had ran away from his guardian, which just happened to be only a few days before he was going to be contacted originally, and since he never used a credit card, his social security number or had anything put in his name he was next to impossible to track. It wasn’t until a by-chance satellite photo turned up with him visible in it that they found out that he was living in a small shed turned studio apartment, paying his expenses by do the odd job for his land lord, though that little old lady seemed to mostly be letting him live there by her good graces.
She noticed William's left eye twitch a nervous look at her. He then quickly let out an abortive, “Miss Ke... Kell…”
An look of embarrassment crept across his face before he straighten out and tuned to look at her while stating to ask, “Ms. Kelli...”
“Just call me Megan, don’t need to go all formal on my account.” She cut him off with a pleasant smile.
He nodded and started to reply, “Ms. Ke…”, out of habit before stopping. He corrected himself and then continued, “Megan... what… what was that THING back there… Where did it come from?”
Megan paused for a moment, weighting her duty against her desire to give this poor kid some piece of mind… but would telling him the truth do that? She decided to choose her words carefully, “Well… the agency I work for code names it Angel, Angel: Zero-Two. The military is just calling it Intruder right now. Unfortunately that’s all I can tell you, even what I just said is skirting the line, but don’t worry after you get to NERV I’ll be able to tell you more.”
The fact she called it Angel: Zero-TWO worried him more then just a little bit, if this was number two was there another one?! He really wanted to press her on that but first he needed to build up his courage again to do so. He began to think of a way to brioche it but was distracted by a loud, crackling explosion coming form behind him that was joined by another one, then another until the continual explosions started to remind him, oddly enough, of popcorn popping.
His curiosity got the better of him and he turned to see an uncountable swarm of large missiles incoming from both the North-West and the East. Group by group, they each slammed into that thing Megan called an “Angel” creating a literal curtain of fire around it which it walked though with casualness, barely even seeming to notice the bombardment it was under.
Just what in the hell was that thing?!
Eastern NORTHCOM Base just out side of Alberta, Virginia
4:40PM EDT
The brass was desperate now, they were running out of options.
The ground forces had failed, the air strike with BLU-238 Rocket boosted Deep Penetrators had failed, the mass missile strike had failed. They only had a few more options left to pull this off.
From over the intercom came, “Thor’s Six and Nine are now in a attack orbit.”
The Secretary of Defense shot up out of his seat like that announcement was the sweatest thing he had ever heard. He slammed his palms down on the table in an overly dramatic manner and shouted, “Initiate Operation: Silver Forest! Tell our boys to find some cover!”
LEO, 625km above the Atlantic Ocean
4:40PM EDT
The two Thor kinetic bombardment satellites (ASDK SV-6 and ASDK SV-9) moved into position, their extended radiators giving them the look of giant metal moths. Both attack satellite's optical and thermal cameras tracked their target making thousands of calculations based on it’s size, heading and speed firing it’s venires, making finite adjustments to it’s altitude to bring it’s revolver like weapons pod to bare. After they both had a firing solution that satisfied their programming requirements each loaded a round into their barrel, capacitors then discharged into the solenoids that lined the barrel giving each 1000kg tungsten projectile just enough kick to brake orbit.
Each one then fired twice more.
The projectiles fell at a acceleration of 1g gaining 9.8m/s ever second of free fall getting it’s speed boost off of the Earth's very rotation, imparting them each with a final velocity of 8.6km/s by the time they had hit significant atmosphere. Their composite sabots acting a ablative heat shields, shedding off as air friction heated each rod to over a thousand degrees Celsius.
Just outside Georgetown, Delaware on Seashore Hwy
4:44PM EDT
William heard another series of thunder claps rock the sky, which normally wouldn’t have been that warranting of his interest since he’s been hearing them all day but this one sounded… different. He turned to look back and saw what looked like six meteors falling across the sky.
In light of everything that has happened to him today he still found the fact that meteors were now falling from the sky odd.
Just outside Georgetown, Delaware
4:44PM EDT
The massive, alien, marauding being, called Angel to some, Invader to others and with a thousand names on the tongues of all the soldiers who faced it, walked forward. Seemingly oblivious to theses small things that moved around it as lighting cracking around all around.
But then, suddenly it stopped, as if it sense something. It turned it’s head gazing skyward.
Something different was coming.
In the skies above Sussex County, Delaware
4:45PM EDT
The salvo of massive space-borne projectiles trailed a sheath of plasma around themselves boring a vacuum through the atmosphere, causing the air around them to expand outward at super sonic velocity.
Each projectile by now had been braked by atmospheric forces to only 6.3km/s packing 19.8 gigajoules of kinetic energy focused on a cone with a diameter only a foot across.
Just outside Georgetown, Delaware
4:45PM EDT
The projectiles where almost at their mark when their target did something different, the lighting and aurora above it increased, radiating in power. It twisted it’s body, spaced it’s legs digging it’s tridactyl feet into the ground.
It then spun it’s torso forwards lunging it’s right arm out and in a sudden pulse powerful muscles bulged down it’s arm, shattering the corral formations growing on it, raining their fragments to the ground below, as a blueish glow formed around the boney spike protruding out of its elbow.
The timing of this was such that it’s three fingered hand made contact with the first of the projectiles to just as it reach him. The sky flashed orange and for a brief second a new phenomenon was present, a hexagonal pattern was now visible at the point of impact and in a fraction of a second it’s elbow spike quickly retracted into it’s arm and out of a hole in it’s palm, colliding with the projectile which instantly flashed into a sphere of plasma and sparks. The rest of the rounds them came down around it, two of which missed it entirely, and between them every structure standing for 168m around the target was blown into dust.
Outside Georgetown, Delaware on Seashore Hwy
4:45PM EDT
With a deafening blast the ground violently shook while shock waves battered the rear of the car forcing Megan to fight with the wheel to keep form swerving while William looked back to see six balls of plasma and smoke mushroom into the sky.
Eastern NORTHCOM Base just out side of Alberta, Virginia
4:46PM EDT
The brass watched the incoming flow of Intel with bated breath with just one question on their mind, did they get it?
Reports came in that the lighting has stopped and the aurora above it had started to dim.
But did they get it?
No further movement, as of yet, had been detected.
Did that mean they got it?
The Security of Defense let out a long held breathe, the other two high ranking officers to his left and right watched his lead and followed suit. The man behind them simply stood there, indifferent to the situation.
“Was it over?” The Security of Defense thought to himself, “Was this monster finally dead?
Over the intercom a voiced yelled out in panic and disillusionment, “Energy reading at the epicenter!”
Outside Georgetown, Delaware
4:47PM EDT
Suddenly the lighting stated back up, the aurora in the sky intensified and arcs of electricity jumped between the mushroom clouds left by the kinetic impactors and a brilliant glow was seen within.
Communications between the troops and command was growing erratic, some of the closer units where cut off entirely. Panic started to overcome the troops in spite of their training.
A halo of plasma formed above the monster, encircling the stems of the still rising mushroom clouds and with a burst of light the pillars of smoke wear cleared from around the beast. It’s horrid alien form was now fully visible in it’s entirety for the first time, all the sea life cleared from it. Great fountains of pure white light then started to poured form it’s eyes like burning torches and it arched it’s back, raised it arms and then it yelled. A horrifying, unnatural, wail filed the air forcing all open troops to cover their ears in pain as the lighting discharges filled the air with their power. The aurora above it pulsed and radiated as a glow like St. Elmo’s fire formed around the Titan.
A sound like some great force being concentrating into it's self began to fill the air as the soldiers looked on at this with an awe that border on the religious, so beyond was this to anything seen by human eyes.
The sound reached a crescendo and the glow discharged into a great pillar of light that shot sky ward, parting the clouds and destroying several over head satellites. Several more plasmatic halos appeared around the pillar forming almost a hemispherical shell and then the pillar and with a flash pulsed outward, propelling the shell of halos at great speed.
Men, vehicle and aircraft tried to flee but all were consumed by it, leaving only fiery points of light drifting skyward to mark the spot where living beings once stood.
For three kilometers around there was nothing but the Angel, the Intruder, the Titan, with sets of forked lighting shooting off of it’s back in filamentary arcs giving it the appearance of having mock wings.
Outside Georgetown, Delaware on Seashore Hwy
4:47PM EDT
Megan watched all of this from the corner of her eye. Her mind trembled at seeing this as memories, images long buried of THAT day forced their way back into her consciousness, filling her mind.
A voice, she heard someone…what was it? Her name, someone was calling her name.
“Ms. Kelling what’s wrong!”
She was snapped back to the sound of William shouting in fear and worry coming to as she saw him reach over and grab the wheel with his left hand, keeping them form going into a ditch.
She shook her head trying to regain her sense muttering out, “I’m fine, I’m fine.”, mostly... to convince herself. She looked back at the Angel in the distance with it’s out stretched “wings” and spray of light coming from it’s head. It was then it had truly struck her, not on an intellectual, logical level but on a deeper, inner sense that truly, the Angels where back.
Outside Georgetown, Delaware
4:47PM EDT
The Angel arced back slightly and the lightening “wings” and outpouring of light from it’s eyes stopped. It then titled it’s head and began to shift from the left and then to the right. It then peered forward, leering at the movement of tiny figures that tried to dart away from it and the great being lunge foreword in pursuit emitting a new, sharper wail that despite it’s sheer alieness conveyed a basic, simple, primordial message that was understood by all.
It was angry.
Great lances of light pulsed from it’s eye blasting heaps of earth up from the ground with force, shattering scores of both tank and men in a single blow and for the first time, soldiers of the most powerful military force the human race had ever yielded now turned and fled, abandoning equipment, machines and comrades as this great alien being brought it’s vengeance upon them.
Eastern NORTHCOM Base just out side of Alberta, Virginia
4:52PM EDT
The Secretary of Defense stood staring out at the read outs below him. Eight minutes, eight whole minutes until the next set of Thors would be in attack range, the current two rendered useless by the EMP generated by the Intruders blast. Not to mention all the surveillance, communications and other assorted satellites from several different nations that were also taken out on top of that.
“And we just finally had rebuilt our satellite force we lost after the Impact…One, just one of these god damned things did this and we are supposed to face more in the future! How are we going to beat these things?”
He fell back into his chair trying his best to not show his complete and utter feeling of defeat but it was plain to all who looked at him. Several privates and corporals looked away from their stations at him and felt their own despair grow.
A phone then rang on the table and he looked down to see that it was THAT one. With a reluctance befitting of schoolboy who knew he was about to be belittled by his teacher in front of class he swiped his clearance card through the reader unlocking the red colored phone and picked it up.
“…Yes sir… I… I understand sir. I’ll carry it out right away sir…”
With procrastination he slowly hung up the phone, his hand slightly trembling at the thought of what he now had to do. He stood up and with a somber expression on his face as he ordered, “Operation: Fail Safe is in effect as of now!”
Above the skies of Amelia County, Virginia
4:55PM EDT
A solitary B-3 cruised above the ground below at a speed of 300kmph, it’s belly holding only sixteen large cruise missiles.
It’s bomb bays door opened, dispensing a single missile. The missile deployed a set of small wings and took off under it own power breaking the sound barrier 3 times.
Over 418km away above the skies of Caroline County, Maryland, another B-3 did the same as just off the Maryland/Delaware border the flight of six B-3’s which had engaged in the missile strike against the Intruder earlier dropped twelve more missiles each from each of their bellies.
The two solitary missiles and the swarm of seventy-two all move onto a course that would merge them all into one large salvo.
NERV First Branch Headquarters, Command Center
4:56PM EDT
Vice-Commander Kenneth Franklin stood at his usual place to the left of the commander’s chair atop the command tower. Though he currently was the acting commander he preferred to stay in his traditional spot, both out of habit as well as the fact he was a man who preferred standing. It kept one’s mind active after all.
He looked across the flat and holographic displays that lined the console in front of him trying not be overloaded as he skimmed them for relevant data. Of course all the information streaming here had been pre-screened for what was “relevant” but the Vice-Commander knew full well that relevancy was a very subjective word.
He then glanced over at the large holographic map projected in the center of the cavernous room and the panoramic wide flat 3D screen that lined the wall at the far end of the room grazing for anything deem “not relevant” he could still use, then down at the Ops. Station deck, four meters below him, looking over the three Lieutenants, Shawn Adams, Michel Haynes and Marry Illich, stationed there who acted as the final buffer between the Commanders and the over powering tide of information hard at work at their consoles. Farther down below them was the three Magi Super Computers on their independent monitoring stations, that which with out, the base could not even function. He then quickly glanced over at the two side wings on the lowest level which were busy with activity, lower ranked staff ran between counsels ferrying data sheets and records amongst the ever present hum of fax machines and telephones which have become an ever present source of bother for him. You see, through a work of acoustic genius the room was designed so if for whatever reason the intercom system was ever out, the Commanders could shout orders which would be bounced off the walls and relayed for their subordinates as well as the sounds from the lower decks would be refracted up to the Command pier. The problem of that was all the mechanical humming from below was constantly being re-broadcasted back up here with perfect clarity much to his old ears's disbane!
As for the Vice-Commander himself, he was a man in his late fifties to early sixties by appearance (fifty-eight years to be exact) with a long, fatherly, face topped off with a silver-gray pompadour styled hair and graying eyes.
“Sir! We’ve just got a report that Operation: Fail Safe has gone into effect!” Lt. Illich yelled over the intercom, her shock audible in her tone.
“So they’ve finally gotten desperate.” The Vice-Commander thought to himself, a smirk appeared on his face in appreciation of the dark humor of the operations name. Verification of the order then appeared on one of his screens.
“Sir!” the young Lieutenant yelled, “We have confirmation of launch!”
Three separate windows opened in one of his holographic displays showing satellite footage of two single and one fleet of six B-3s firing cruise missiles.
“Where’s the Captain current position?” The Vice-Commander asked.
“She’s on North-West bound on Seashore Highway outside of Georgetown. Delaware.” Was the replied. At the same time a 3D map replaced the looping footage of the Bombers with a satellite view showing Capt. Kelling's heading.
“What kind of yield are we looking at and how long to they hit?” He asked sizing up the situation.
“Based on the type of cursive missile used, information is still hard to come by, but I'd say it’s a good guess that they have the new W-92 warhead. It’s a multi-yield design with a max yield of 300 kilotons, minimum yield of 13, and they will reach the target in about six minutes.” Lt. Illich answered.
As she spoke, graphics representing the various effective blast radii of the weapon's initial radiation pulse, thermal pulse and blast wave, assuming that both warheads hit at their full 300 kiloton yield was used and the weapons was airbursted at 104m from the ground, the accuracy of this simulation was given a 99.99999862% chance of likelihood by the Magi.
Franklin looked over the map. Ok, she was too far to be effected by the initial radiation, the fallout could be dealt with later. She was also far enough that he heat from the blast wouldn’t kill them out right but it was enough to potentially burn them both pretty bad. The shock wave however was still a danger and if both missiles hit, the sympathetic resonance between the two shock waves would make things worse.
He studied the image of the Major's car and scanned the map looking for something, anything that could save her and her charges life.
He found it!
Up ahead was a small man made hill and he crunched some numbers in his head. She could make it, if just barely. It wasn’t perfect but at lest the hills will block the thermal pulse and eat up some of the shock wave's energy going over it. He then scanned the map to the North-West, 3D images of the air rescue team that were sent to pick them up were visible and if they got any closer they risked being knocked out of the air.
Franklin then called Lt. Illich over the intercom once more, “Get me Capt. Kelling on a secure line and then tell the Flight UV-One-Elven Charlie to fall back into a holding orbit.”
Outside Georgetown, Delaware on Seashore Hwy
4:58PM EDT
Megan heard her cell phone go off with the ring tone she had set aside for the commanders. She grabbed it and flipped it open bringing up to her ear with a slight reluctance, command never called her directly unless it was bad.
“This is Capt. Megan Kelling speaking sir… They’ve what?! I… I understand sir, thank you very much sir!”
Capt. Kelling hung up her cell phone and simply dropped it.
She glanced ahead scanning for a couple seconds until she finally laid eyes on that sad lump that the Vice-Commander said would act as her shield. It wasn’t that far off but she put even more force on her foot in the vain hope that somehow, if she stomped down on the accelerator pad just a little more, the car would understand and eke out just a few more miles per hour.
She then kept one eye on the car’s radio clock. She should of set her wrist watch but she currently had the irrational fear that somehow doing that would make this situation more real. She then, without looking over at him, asked William once more if he had his seatbelt on trying her best to talk calmly but failing.
Noticing the tone in her voice he asked, “What… what's wrong?”
“It’s nothing, nothing’s wrong.’ She lied again, just as much to herself as to him.
Outside Georgetown, Delaware
5:03PM EDT
The swarm of missiles where now 20km away from their target. Suddenly they all dipped to the right and then to down and then back up to the left resembling a school fish in flight from a predator.
There was now 14km between them.
The Angel noticed and turned to look at these incoming objects, it remembered them from before. They were but a annoyance, not normal worth it’s time. But... that was before they angered it. With a flash from it’s eyes twenty missiles where blotted form he sky. It fired again and again but each time the swarm of conventional tipped missiles did their job, acting as shields for the two nuclear tipped ones which drew ever closer.
They were now sixty meters...
Forty meters...
Twenty meters...
And then all became white.
Outside Georgetown, Delaware on Seashore Hwy
5:04PM EDT
Capt. Kelling slammed down hard on the brakes, almost forgetting she had to stop. The car skidded to a halt, lunging them forward in their seats before throwing back into them and with out skipping a beat she threw off her seat belt and tossed herself over William covering him. The boy grunting as the added weight of her dug the waist strap of his seatbelt deeper into his chest.
She then closed her eyes as tight as she could and told him to do the same and a tense heartbeat later a bright, brilliantly white, flash filled the car then receded. It was followed by a second brighter, longer lasting flash that enveloped everything bleeding even into the clutched eyes of the Captain and her charge.
The ground then started to rumble, to vibrate as the air filled with the sound of rushing of water crossed with a stampeding heard. It grew and grew… and then…
-*BA-BOOOOOOOOOOOM!*-
The sound of the monstrous booming of the explosion alone was enough to rattled the car, it’s windows and it’s occupants teeth.
Kelling clutched William even tighter, holding on to him for her own peace of mind as much as she was for his protection. Then it came, rolling over the hill like a clashing wave. It slammed into the front left hand side of the car, bending the frame inward, crumpling the hood, shattering part of the windshield and driver side window, showering Megan with crystallized safety glass. A fraction of a second later the second part of the blastwave made it's way around the base of the hill and slammed into the rear of the vehicle tearing off the trunk’s door, blasting in the rear window and finally, flipping it.
“I’m in the air…” Megan thought to herself with a calm matter of factness that for a split second, surprised her.
And then...
Her world went dark.
Well onto chapter three. Things are picking up now, the first angel of this retelling has hit land, the military is going all out trying to stop it and Capt. Megan Kelling is caught in the middle of a war zone trying to get the young William Ikari to safety.
So sit down, strap in and read on; shit's about to get real
NEON GENESIS EVANGLION: TO THE VICTOR
Vol: 1 Dark Messenger
Chapter Three
Desperation
Eastern NORTHCOM Base just out side of Alberta, Virginia
4:25PM EDT
The updates and reports came streaming into the command room at an nearly overwhelming rate creating a near incomprehensible babble of voices echoing across the command room:
“All incoming fire is being neutralized with a hundred percent chance of intercept, it’s currently unknown if this is do to some form of directed energy or some type of force field.”
“We have reports that an orange or yellow glow is being seen just before fire is intercepted.”
“No visible damage to the Intruder.”
“Weapons with Radar, laser designation, LADAR and emissions homing guidance are failing to lock on!”
“Massive interference is detected, coming off from the Intruder.”
“We’ve lost contact with the 87th tank platoon!”
“No, we tried that... lasers are being deflected too.”
“We need a med evac here now!”
“Where the hell is that artillery?”
“Get every unit that's still in fighting shape and have them set up a flanking maneuver from the North-East.”
Adding to this cascading near steam of consciousness was the assembled brass.
They stood, half-hunched over the table, yelling out orders in a desperate gamble to reclaim some kind of order out of this cluster fuck. Things were starting to exceed even their worse case estimates, but at lest so far they have had the fact that the Intruder has only attacked units that have gotten too close. God help them if that changed.
Behind them Commander Ikari stood, half forgotten in their panic, thinking to himself, “Let them learn this lesson well.”
A voice then came over the intercom.
“Fifteen minutes to Thor’s Six and Nine are in an intercept orbit.”
S. Bedfordd st, Georgetown, Delaware
4:24PM EDT
Young Roberto Vega sat in the backseat of his father's car looking out the window at the ocean of traffic that surrounded them. He was felling pretty scared, though he did his best to keep it to him self not wanting to upset his younger sister any more then she already was. He didn't really have a clue to what was going on but he did know it had to be bad.
Eighteen minutes before this he was back at home just messing around on the computer when his dad grabbed him by the shoulder shouting that they had to go and then he had everybody grab what they could and run out to the car. They then took off with his father speeding down the road until they got caught up in the most traffic he had ever seen out at the same time.
He glanced over at his sister, she was still just sitting there with her eyes wide and watery just like their mother. His father on the other hand, was a bit more active. He was almost beat red, yelling out the window and banging on the horn like it was a drum.
Then something he heard up ahead caught attention.
It was a rumbling yet squeaky sounding noise that made the ground shake as it grew closer. He pressed himself against the window as much as he could, trying to see if he could get a look at what was it was just as six large tanks came rumbling pass them on the inbound lane tearing up the street behind them as they headed towards the city.
The boy's eye went wide in excitement at what he saw, that was most exciting and coolest thing he had ever seen and, at lest for the monument, the fear he was feeling was gone as he let out a cheer. His fathers eyes also where left wide by that sight but not in amazement like his sons however. He knew all to well what this meant.
106 W. Anderson st, Georgetown, Delaware
4:26 PM EDT
Anna Cooper ran out of her apartment and down the hall towards the stairway carrying a bag full clothes along with as many keep sakes she could manage cram into it. Behind her, her husband of the past seventeen years, followed carrying boxes of bottled water and canned food.
This wasn't the first time in their life they had to do something like this but that didn't make any of this any easier. Though, truly, the hardest part of this for her was giving up her apartment. It was small, and to be honest wasn't worth half the rent they paid for it, but they had lived there long enough to see this town grow up from a small community before the Impact to a bustling coastal city. The walls of it were practically caked with the memories of some of the best, and worse, moments of her life and in end, that's what marks somethings real worth.
She bounded out the front door and down the steeps towards the car when she heard something horrid, a sound like some twisted whale's call overpower the consent wail of the air-raid sirens. She looked up in the direction it was coming from and stopped dead in her tracks as she saw something monstrous standing over the city. She couldn't believe what see was looking at, this... this thing just couldn't be real. Things like this just can't happen!
She felt he husband grab on to her shoulder and give her a slight jolt while yelling, “Come on Anna, we need to go!' bringing her back to her senses.
She nodded slowly and bent over to pick her bag back up as over head she heard what sounded like jets. She and her husband looked up to see eight kite-shaped aircraft streak over head towards that thing. She turned to her husband and buried her face in his chest, tears started streaming down her face. She knew that she should really be running, that her emotions could wait, but deep down inside her she knew that there was little point now, that this was it, and she wanted to face whatever time she had left with the man she loved in her home, not on the run.
523 W. Edward st Georgetown, Delaware
4:23 PM EDT
2nd Lt. Keith Peterson sprinted up his tenth flight of stairs, huffing under the weight of the FGM-148 Javelin anti-tank missile launcher that he had prepped and readied resting on his shoulder, as he lead his mechanized unit up to the roof. He bounded around the corner to the last leg of the steps only to nearly defecated himself as he was greeted on the other side by the screams of two teenage girls.
“Why the hell are they.....” Peterson started to think to himself before realizing that it didn't really matter, only the fact that they were did. He looked back and called out Privates Anderson and Fredrick from the rear of the group to escort these girls to their Stryker IAV. The first private's job was to provide cover fire for the unit with an M-240 Bravo 7.62mm machine gun and the other was to act as “ammo bitch” feeding the formers weapon, so the lieutenant figured they weren't all that needed right now since if that Titan started firing back at them their presence sure wouldn't make a damn lick of a difference. The two privates nodded and led the terrified girls back down the stairs. After they disappeared around the bend Peterson waved his unit on and began advancing up the steps again and out onto the roof where he nearly shat his pants again.
He froze dead in his tracts as he saw this monster's true, terrifying, enormity for the first time as it stood less then a block away. As he stood there gazing out at that monster he found that his training was beginning to give out to his common sense as he briefly entertained the thought to just say fuck this and get the hell out out of here while he still could. But he was solider and that meant he was paid to ignore such silly things like wanting to stay alive. He shook his head and cleared his mind thinking, “I must be that brave or just that stupid.” and he ran towards the the rim that lined the roof, setting up and resting his missile launchers tripods on it as the rest of his unit followed.
He switched on the launchers CLU and selected direct fire, NFOV mode, not even bothering to activate the infrared snooper since this thing was somehow jamming all forms of weapon guidance. He then lined up the cross hairs with the target (which at this point was so close they would of had to actively tried to of missed) and pulled the trigger, feeling the launcher kick back as a bust of compressed gas shot the Javelin missile 60m into the air before it's motor kicked in rocketing it towards the Intruder in under a second only for it along with the rest of the missiles fired by his squad and the eight other squads who lined the roofs of the other nearby buildings, to explode hopelessly in an orangeish flash several feet short of their target.
Peterson then hit the deck laying as flat as he could against the roof cursing to himself. As much as he logically knew that it would just be a futile jester, his pride wanted another shot at it. But it was too late for that, it was the Air Force's turn now and all he and his unit could do now was brace for it.
In the air above Georgetown, Delaware
4:27 PM EDT
A flight of eight FB-22C Delta Raptors tipped forward into a steep dive, breaking the sound barrier eleven seconds into it, streaking downward at their target like hawks diving for prey coming in at a seventy-eight degree angle.
Each fighter-bomber's Weapon Systems Operator cried out, “Pickle, pickle pickle!” as they thumbed the trigger on their stick and each jet lurched as two massive bombs fell from their bellies. Each birds driver then pulled their plane out of the dive trying to bleed off enough velocity so that they didn't follow their payloads into the ground.
After falling 181 meters and losing around 62 meters per second of velocity, the rocket motor on each of the bombs kicked in blasting each depleted uranium cored tungsten projectile to mach 3.6 as they raced in towards the walking titan below.
Just outside Georgetown, Delaware on Rd 62
4:27PM EDT
Lt. Fredrick Jackson, commander of what was left of his squad of M1A2 SEP main battle tanks, raced down a small side road between wheat fields that was just barely holding up under them.
He put his eye to his targeting sight in time to watch several large streaks flash into what had become an all to familiar orange flare before the streaks busted into a brilliant torch of fire and sparks around sixty feet off from that strange walking… thing... that has become almost uniformly labeled the Titan by all the engaged forces though his personal name for it had become “Swamp Thing”.
Everything that they had done to it so far failed to even slow it down and despite the fact he knew full well the futility of his actions he had to do… something.
“Range! 620! Elevation! Five! Traverse! Fourteen!” The tank commander ordered to the gunner feeling the turret spring to life at his command.
“Load one DU-SAA-BOT!” He barked to the loader who reached back and pulled an arrow tipped Armor Piercing Fin Stabilizing Discarding Sabot- Depleted Uranium round from the tank's magazine, placed it into the breach, fisted it in, locked it and then flattened himself as tightly against the side of the turret wall as possible before yelling, “Loaded!”
Jackson nodded to himself thinking in a half prayer, “This will be the one.”
He then yelled, “Fire!” and felt himself jerk back under the recoil.
Just outside Georgetown, Delaware on Asbury Rd
4:28PM EDT
2nd Lt. David O’Neil tore down the road with the rest of his squad in his M83 Carlson Main Battle Frame in “wheeler” mode at 63kph kicking up trails of dust and broken asphalt.
The M83 Carlson was the latest addition to the US Marine Corps., a nearly five meter tall semi-humanoid shaped bipedal fighting machine armed with a variety of anti-tank and anti-personel weaponry. It traded armor and high speed for maneuverability, excellent performance on uneven terrain and domination over other units in urban and forest/jungle combat.
Sadly right now however he was where his machine was at it’s weakest, in open terrain.
He twisted the right control stick swinging it's torso forty-three degrees to the left bringing that massive beast into view as a salvo of tank rounds traced a path across the sky. A flash of that ever-present lighting caused him to blink reflexively (his helmet mounted display auto-filtered such things but it couldn’t filter out his ingrained reflexes) after which he saw most of the rounds collide with nothingness, two rounds just glanced right off.
Despite knowing nothing would come of this he had orders to follow. He rolled the selector on the weapons-op stick highlighting his 90 mike-mike, adjusted the cannons elevation and depressed the trigger. After the recoil dissipated he then added in his final two anti-tank missiles.
Atlantic Ocean, 37km of the Coast of Delaware
4:30PM EDT
The Leviathan class battleship U.S.S Hydra (BBGN-111) brought it’s three, massive, three-gun turrets of 382 Megajoule Rail Cannons to bear. A blast of luminous plasma mushroomed out of each of it’s barrels as they fired, causing the water under it to depress almost two full meters, propelling it’s 500kg saboted rounds to over 1.2km/s as they cross the bay towards it’s inland target.
After the last round was fired by the mammoth ship the rest of the ships in the assembled fleet added their own big guns to the salvo and then, once they stopped osculating from the recoil, the sky lit up as each one in turn began ripple-firing off their compliment of cruise missiles.
A total salvo of 146 missiles reached an altitude of 140m, each one dropped their boosters in turn after which their turbo-jet’s kicked and they leveled off as they each dropped to eighty meters from the surface.
In the air above Baltimore County, Maryland
4:30PM EDT
A flight of six B-3As, the air force's newest stealth heavy bomber, were flying in a “V” formation 4,000m above the unincorporated community of Owings Hills. Each one carrying forty armor-piercing, high-explosive tipped cruise missiles each, twenty-four where carried in an internal bay with sixteen more on optional wing mounted hard points.
They each fired off their sixteen winged mounted missiles, then, using explosive bolts, blew off the no longer needed hardpoints and finally banked hard and to the right moving into a holding patterned above the battle field.
Just outside Georgetown, Delaware on Seashore Hwy
4:37PM EDT
“…so how long to that air-lift gets here? Well it can’t be help, alright, thank you Marry. This is Captain Kelling out.”
Megan hung up her cell phone, folded it and put it down in it’s spot by the clutch as she sighed to herself. She didn’t like having to leave behind her han-blue Renault Alpine A310 1600 VE sports car but, she didn't like the thought of having to drive through a war zone either and given how important her charge was she had little choice. But then there was the damage that explosion did to her car... that was going to cost a few hundred just to hammer out the dents let alone repaint them and then there was the fact her next payment was due on it Friday…
“Well my accounts fried for the next two weeks.” She bemoaned to herself, lamenting over the fate to be for her prized baby. After she calmed down, she glanced at the clusters of traffic desperately trying to flee the city using the out bound lanes. She was using the mostly empty inbound ones to make her escape knowing full well that was going to happen and felt sorry for all those people, except for the few others who had followed her lead, that were stuck in that mess. She then looked down at her young charge from the corner of her eye, his eyes were still wide and fixed forward from partial shock and he was leaned in as far as the safety belt would let him clutching his knees like he was trying to curl up in to the fetal position.
She also noticed that while his Japanese side was dominated most of his appearance, tell tale characteristics of his father also stood out. Especially in his jaw-line, the shape of his nose, the shade of his hair and his eyes. His eyes were his fathers.
They had been searching for him for almost the full three years she had been part of the paramilitary organization NERV. It was about then when he had ran away from his guardian, which just happened to be only a few days before he was going to be contacted originally, and since he never used a credit card, his social security number or had anything put in his name he was next to impossible to track. It wasn’t until a by-chance satellite photo turned up with him visible in it that they found out that he was living in a small shed turned studio apartment, paying his expenses by do the odd job for his land lord, though that little old lady seemed to mostly be letting him live there by her good graces.
She noticed William's left eye twitch a nervous look at her. He then quickly let out an abortive, “Miss Ke... Kell…”
An look of embarrassment crept across his face before he straighten out and tuned to look at her while stating to ask, “Ms. Kelli...”
“Just call me Megan, don’t need to go all formal on my account.” She cut him off with a pleasant smile.
He nodded and started to reply, “Ms. Ke…”, out of habit before stopping. He corrected himself and then continued, “Megan... what… what was that THING back there… Where did it come from?”
Megan paused for a moment, weighting her duty against her desire to give this poor kid some piece of mind… but would telling him the truth do that? She decided to choose her words carefully, “Well… the agency I work for code names it Angel, Angel: Zero-Two. The military is just calling it Intruder right now. Unfortunately that’s all I can tell you, even what I just said is skirting the line, but don’t worry after you get to NERV I’ll be able to tell you more.”
The fact she called it Angel: Zero-TWO worried him more then just a little bit, if this was number two was there another one?! He really wanted to press her on that but first he needed to build up his courage again to do so. He began to think of a way to brioche it but was distracted by a loud, crackling explosion coming form behind him that was joined by another one, then another until the continual explosions started to remind him, oddly enough, of popcorn popping.
His curiosity got the better of him and he turned to see an uncountable swarm of large missiles incoming from both the North-West and the East. Group by group, they each slammed into that thing Megan called an “Angel” creating a literal curtain of fire around it which it walked though with casualness, barely even seeming to notice the bombardment it was under.
Just what in the hell was that thing?!
Eastern NORTHCOM Base just out side of Alberta, Virginia
4:40PM EDT
The brass was desperate now, they were running out of options.
The ground forces had failed, the air strike with BLU-238 Rocket boosted Deep Penetrators had failed, the mass missile strike had failed. They only had a few more options left to pull this off.
From over the intercom came, “Thor’s Six and Nine are now in a attack orbit.”
The Secretary of Defense shot up out of his seat like that announcement was the sweatest thing he had ever heard. He slammed his palms down on the table in an overly dramatic manner and shouted, “Initiate Operation: Silver Forest! Tell our boys to find some cover!”
LEO, 625km above the Atlantic Ocean
4:40PM EDT
The two Thor kinetic bombardment satellites (ASDK SV-6 and ASDK SV-9) moved into position, their extended radiators giving them the look of giant metal moths. Both attack satellite's optical and thermal cameras tracked their target making thousands of calculations based on it’s size, heading and speed firing it’s venires, making finite adjustments to it’s altitude to bring it’s revolver like weapons pod to bare. After they both had a firing solution that satisfied their programming requirements each loaded a round into their barrel, capacitors then discharged into the solenoids that lined the barrel giving each 1000kg tungsten projectile just enough kick to brake orbit.
Each one then fired twice more.
The projectiles fell at a acceleration of 1g gaining 9.8m/s ever second of free fall getting it’s speed boost off of the Earth's very rotation, imparting them each with a final velocity of 8.6km/s by the time they had hit significant atmosphere. Their composite sabots acting a ablative heat shields, shedding off as air friction heated each rod to over a thousand degrees Celsius.
Just outside Georgetown, Delaware on Seashore Hwy
4:44PM EDT
William heard another series of thunder claps rock the sky, which normally wouldn’t have been that warranting of his interest since he’s been hearing them all day but this one sounded… different. He turned to look back and saw what looked like six meteors falling across the sky.
In light of everything that has happened to him today he still found the fact that meteors were now falling from the sky odd.
Just outside Georgetown, Delaware
4:44PM EDT
The massive, alien, marauding being, called Angel to some, Invader to others and with a thousand names on the tongues of all the soldiers who faced it, walked forward. Seemingly oblivious to theses small things that moved around it as lighting cracking around all around.
But then, suddenly it stopped, as if it sense something. It turned it’s head gazing skyward.
Something different was coming.
In the skies above Sussex County, Delaware
4:45PM EDT
The salvo of massive space-borne projectiles trailed a sheath of plasma around themselves boring a vacuum through the atmosphere, causing the air around them to expand outward at super sonic velocity.
Each projectile by now had been braked by atmospheric forces to only 6.3km/s packing 19.8 gigajoules of kinetic energy focused on a cone with a diameter only a foot across.
Just outside Georgetown, Delaware
4:45PM EDT
The projectiles where almost at their mark when their target did something different, the lighting and aurora above it increased, radiating in power. It twisted it’s body, spaced it’s legs digging it’s tridactyl feet into the ground.
It then spun it’s torso forwards lunging it’s right arm out and in a sudden pulse powerful muscles bulged down it’s arm, shattering the corral formations growing on it, raining their fragments to the ground below, as a blueish glow formed around the boney spike protruding out of its elbow.
The timing of this was such that it’s three fingered hand made contact with the first of the projectiles to just as it reach him. The sky flashed orange and for a brief second a new phenomenon was present, a hexagonal pattern was now visible at the point of impact and in a fraction of a second it’s elbow spike quickly retracted into it’s arm and out of a hole in it’s palm, colliding with the projectile which instantly flashed into a sphere of plasma and sparks. The rest of the rounds them came down around it, two of which missed it entirely, and between them every structure standing for 168m around the target was blown into dust.
Outside Georgetown, Delaware on Seashore Hwy
4:45PM EDT
With a deafening blast the ground violently shook while shock waves battered the rear of the car forcing Megan to fight with the wheel to keep form swerving while William looked back to see six balls of plasma and smoke mushroom into the sky.
Eastern NORTHCOM Base just out side of Alberta, Virginia
4:46PM EDT
The brass watched the incoming flow of Intel with bated breath with just one question on their mind, did they get it?
Reports came in that the lighting has stopped and the aurora above it had started to dim.
But did they get it?
No further movement, as of yet, had been detected.
Did that mean they got it?
The Security of Defense let out a long held breathe, the other two high ranking officers to his left and right watched his lead and followed suit. The man behind them simply stood there, indifferent to the situation.
“Was it over?” The Security of Defense thought to himself, “Was this monster finally dead?
Over the intercom a voiced yelled out in panic and disillusionment, “Energy reading at the epicenter!”
Outside Georgetown, Delaware
4:47PM EDT
Suddenly the lighting stated back up, the aurora in the sky intensified and arcs of electricity jumped between the mushroom clouds left by the kinetic impactors and a brilliant glow was seen within.
Communications between the troops and command was growing erratic, some of the closer units where cut off entirely. Panic started to overcome the troops in spite of their training.
A halo of plasma formed above the monster, encircling the stems of the still rising mushroom clouds and with a burst of light the pillars of smoke wear cleared from around the beast. It’s horrid alien form was now fully visible in it’s entirety for the first time, all the sea life cleared from it. Great fountains of pure white light then started to poured form it’s eyes like burning torches and it arched it’s back, raised it arms and then it yelled. A horrifying, unnatural, wail filed the air forcing all open troops to cover their ears in pain as the lighting discharges filled the air with their power. The aurora above it pulsed and radiated as a glow like St. Elmo’s fire formed around the Titan.
A sound like some great force being concentrating into it's self began to fill the air as the soldiers looked on at this with an awe that border on the religious, so beyond was this to anything seen by human eyes.
The sound reached a crescendo and the glow discharged into a great pillar of light that shot sky ward, parting the clouds and destroying several over head satellites. Several more plasmatic halos appeared around the pillar forming almost a hemispherical shell and then the pillar and with a flash pulsed outward, propelling the shell of halos at great speed.
Men, vehicle and aircraft tried to flee but all were consumed by it, leaving only fiery points of light drifting skyward to mark the spot where living beings once stood.
For three kilometers around there was nothing but the Angel, the Intruder, the Titan, with sets of forked lighting shooting off of it’s back in filamentary arcs giving it the appearance of having mock wings.
Outside Georgetown, Delaware on Seashore Hwy
4:47PM EDT
Megan watched all of this from the corner of her eye. Her mind trembled at seeing this as memories, images long buried of THAT day forced their way back into her consciousness, filling her mind.
A voice, she heard someone…what was it? Her name, someone was calling her name.
“Ms. Kelling what’s wrong!”
She was snapped back to the sound of William shouting in fear and worry coming to as she saw him reach over and grab the wheel with his left hand, keeping them form going into a ditch.
She shook her head trying to regain her sense muttering out, “I’m fine, I’m fine.”, mostly... to convince herself. She looked back at the Angel in the distance with it’s out stretched “wings” and spray of light coming from it’s head. It was then it had truly struck her, not on an intellectual, logical level but on a deeper, inner sense that truly, the Angels where back.
Outside Georgetown, Delaware
4:47PM EDT
The Angel arced back slightly and the lightening “wings” and outpouring of light from it’s eyes stopped. It then titled it’s head and began to shift from the left and then to the right. It then peered forward, leering at the movement of tiny figures that tried to dart away from it and the great being lunge foreword in pursuit emitting a new, sharper wail that despite it’s sheer alieness conveyed a basic, simple, primordial message that was understood by all.
It was angry.
Great lances of light pulsed from it’s eye blasting heaps of earth up from the ground with force, shattering scores of both tank and men in a single blow and for the first time, soldiers of the most powerful military force the human race had ever yielded now turned and fled, abandoning equipment, machines and comrades as this great alien being brought it’s vengeance upon them.
Eastern NORTHCOM Base just out side of Alberta, Virginia
4:52PM EDT
The Secretary of Defense stood staring out at the read outs below him. Eight minutes, eight whole minutes until the next set of Thors would be in attack range, the current two rendered useless by the EMP generated by the Intruders blast. Not to mention all the surveillance, communications and other assorted satellites from several different nations that were also taken out on top of that.
“And we just finally had rebuilt our satellite force we lost after the Impact…One, just one of these god damned things did this and we are supposed to face more in the future! How are we going to beat these things?”
He fell back into his chair trying his best to not show his complete and utter feeling of defeat but it was plain to all who looked at him. Several privates and corporals looked away from their stations at him and felt their own despair grow.
A phone then rang on the table and he looked down to see that it was THAT one. With a reluctance befitting of schoolboy who knew he was about to be belittled by his teacher in front of class he swiped his clearance card through the reader unlocking the red colored phone and picked it up.
“…Yes sir… I… I understand sir. I’ll carry it out right away sir…”
With procrastination he slowly hung up the phone, his hand slightly trembling at the thought of what he now had to do. He stood up and with a somber expression on his face as he ordered, “Operation: Fail Safe is in effect as of now!”
Above the skies of Amelia County, Virginia
4:55PM EDT
A solitary B-3 cruised above the ground below at a speed of 300kmph, it’s belly holding only sixteen large cruise missiles.
It’s bomb bays door opened, dispensing a single missile. The missile deployed a set of small wings and took off under it own power breaking the sound barrier 3 times.
Over 418km away above the skies of Caroline County, Maryland, another B-3 did the same as just off the Maryland/Delaware border the flight of six B-3’s which had engaged in the missile strike against the Intruder earlier dropped twelve more missiles each from each of their bellies.
The two solitary missiles and the swarm of seventy-two all move onto a course that would merge them all into one large salvo.
NERV First Branch Headquarters, Command Center
4:56PM EDT
Vice-Commander Kenneth Franklin stood at his usual place to the left of the commander’s chair atop the command tower. Though he currently was the acting commander he preferred to stay in his traditional spot, both out of habit as well as the fact he was a man who preferred standing. It kept one’s mind active after all.
He looked across the flat and holographic displays that lined the console in front of him trying not be overloaded as he skimmed them for relevant data. Of course all the information streaming here had been pre-screened for what was “relevant” but the Vice-Commander knew full well that relevancy was a very subjective word.
He then glanced over at the large holographic map projected in the center of the cavernous room and the panoramic wide flat 3D screen that lined the wall at the far end of the room grazing for anything deem “not relevant” he could still use, then down at the Ops. Station deck, four meters below him, looking over the three Lieutenants, Shawn Adams, Michel Haynes and Marry Illich, stationed there who acted as the final buffer between the Commanders and the over powering tide of information hard at work at their consoles. Farther down below them was the three Magi Super Computers on their independent monitoring stations, that which with out, the base could not even function. He then quickly glanced over at the two side wings on the lowest level which were busy with activity, lower ranked staff ran between counsels ferrying data sheets and records amongst the ever present hum of fax machines and telephones which have become an ever present source of bother for him. You see, through a work of acoustic genius the room was designed so if for whatever reason the intercom system was ever out, the Commanders could shout orders which would be bounced off the walls and relayed for their subordinates as well as the sounds from the lower decks would be refracted up to the Command pier. The problem of that was all the mechanical humming from below was constantly being re-broadcasted back up here with perfect clarity much to his old ears's disbane!
As for the Vice-Commander himself, he was a man in his late fifties to early sixties by appearance (fifty-eight years to be exact) with a long, fatherly, face topped off with a silver-gray pompadour styled hair and graying eyes.
“Sir! We’ve just got a report that Operation: Fail Safe has gone into effect!” Lt. Illich yelled over the intercom, her shock audible in her tone.
“So they’ve finally gotten desperate.” The Vice-Commander thought to himself, a smirk appeared on his face in appreciation of the dark humor of the operations name. Verification of the order then appeared on one of his screens.
“Sir!” the young Lieutenant yelled, “We have confirmation of launch!”
Three separate windows opened in one of his holographic displays showing satellite footage of two single and one fleet of six B-3s firing cruise missiles.
“Where’s the Captain current position?” The Vice-Commander asked.
“She’s on North-West bound on Seashore Highway outside of Georgetown. Delaware.” Was the replied. At the same time a 3D map replaced the looping footage of the Bombers with a satellite view showing Capt. Kelling's heading.
“What kind of yield are we looking at and how long to they hit?” He asked sizing up the situation.
“Based on the type of cursive missile used, information is still hard to come by, but I'd say it’s a good guess that they have the new W-92 warhead. It’s a multi-yield design with a max yield of 300 kilotons, minimum yield of 13, and they will reach the target in about six minutes.” Lt. Illich answered.
As she spoke, graphics representing the various effective blast radii of the weapon's initial radiation pulse, thermal pulse and blast wave, assuming that both warheads hit at their full 300 kiloton yield was used and the weapons was airbursted at 104m from the ground, the accuracy of this simulation was given a 99.99999862% chance of likelihood by the Magi.
Franklin looked over the map. Ok, she was too far to be effected by the initial radiation, the fallout could be dealt with later. She was also far enough that he heat from the blast wouldn’t kill them out right but it was enough to potentially burn them both pretty bad. The shock wave however was still a danger and if both missiles hit, the sympathetic resonance between the two shock waves would make things worse.
He studied the image of the Major's car and scanned the map looking for something, anything that could save her and her charges life.
He found it!
Up ahead was a small man made hill and he crunched some numbers in his head. She could make it, if just barely. It wasn’t perfect but at lest the hills will block the thermal pulse and eat up some of the shock wave's energy going over it. He then scanned the map to the North-West, 3D images of the air rescue team that were sent to pick them up were visible and if they got any closer they risked being knocked out of the air.
Franklin then called Lt. Illich over the intercom once more, “Get me Capt. Kelling on a secure line and then tell the Flight UV-One-Elven Charlie to fall back into a holding orbit.”
Outside Georgetown, Delaware on Seashore Hwy
4:58PM EDT
Megan heard her cell phone go off with the ring tone she had set aside for the commanders. She grabbed it and flipped it open bringing up to her ear with a slight reluctance, command never called her directly unless it was bad.
“This is Capt. Megan Kelling speaking sir… They’ve what?! I… I understand sir, thank you very much sir!”
Capt. Kelling hung up her cell phone and simply dropped it.
She glanced ahead scanning for a couple seconds until she finally laid eyes on that sad lump that the Vice-Commander said would act as her shield. It wasn’t that far off but she put even more force on her foot in the vain hope that somehow, if she stomped down on the accelerator pad just a little more, the car would understand and eke out just a few more miles per hour.
She then kept one eye on the car’s radio clock. She should of set her wrist watch but she currently had the irrational fear that somehow doing that would make this situation more real. She then, without looking over at him, asked William once more if he had his seatbelt on trying her best to talk calmly but failing.
Noticing the tone in her voice he asked, “What… what's wrong?”
“It’s nothing, nothing’s wrong.’ She lied again, just as much to herself as to him.
Outside Georgetown, Delaware
5:03PM EDT
The swarm of missiles where now 20km away from their target. Suddenly they all dipped to the right and then to down and then back up to the left resembling a school fish in flight from a predator.
There was now 14km between them.
The Angel noticed and turned to look at these incoming objects, it remembered them from before. They were but a annoyance, not normal worth it’s time. But... that was before they angered it. With a flash from it’s eyes twenty missiles where blotted form he sky. It fired again and again but each time the swarm of conventional tipped missiles did their job, acting as shields for the two nuclear tipped ones which drew ever closer.
They were now sixty meters...
Forty meters...
Twenty meters...
And then all became white.
Outside Georgetown, Delaware on Seashore Hwy
5:04PM EDT
Capt. Kelling slammed down hard on the brakes, almost forgetting she had to stop. The car skidded to a halt, lunging them forward in their seats before throwing back into them and with out skipping a beat she threw off her seat belt and tossed herself over William covering him. The boy grunting as the added weight of her dug the waist strap of his seatbelt deeper into his chest.
She then closed her eyes as tight as she could and told him to do the same and a tense heartbeat later a bright, brilliantly white, flash filled the car then receded. It was followed by a second brighter, longer lasting flash that enveloped everything bleeding even into the clutched eyes of the Captain and her charge.
The ground then started to rumble, to vibrate as the air filled with the sound of rushing of water crossed with a stampeding heard. It grew and grew… and then…
-*BA-BOOOOOOOOOOOM!*-
The sound of the monstrous booming of the explosion alone was enough to rattled the car, it’s windows and it’s occupants teeth.
Kelling clutched William even tighter, holding on to him for her own peace of mind as much as she was for his protection. Then it came, rolling over the hill like a clashing wave. It slammed into the front left hand side of the car, bending the frame inward, crumpling the hood, shattering part of the windshield and driver side window, showering Megan with crystallized safety glass. A fraction of a second later the second part of the blastwave made it's way around the base of the hill and slammed into the rear of the vehicle tearing off the trunk’s door, blasting in the rear window and finally, flipping it.
“I’m in the air…” Megan thought to herself with a calm matter of factness that for a split second, surprised her.
And then...
Her world went dark.
Last edited by Ryjin on Tue Jun 26, 2012 2:58 pm, edited 5 times in total.
"It is the Thunderbolt that steers the universe."~ Heraclitus
The people who voted for Obama or Romney are fucking idiots. Wake the fuck up.
"The Constitution was our last, best hope for peace... It failed. But, in the Year of the War against the Globalists, it became something greater: our last, best hope
The people who voted for Obama or Romney are fucking idiots. Wake the fuck up.
"The Constitution was our last, best hope for peace... It failed. But, in the Year of the War against the Globalists, it became something greater: our last, best hope
NEON GENESIS EVANGLION: TO THE VICTOR
Vol: 1 Dark Messenger
Chapter Four
Surrender
Eastern NORTHCOM Base just out side of Alberta, Virginia
5:36PM EDT
The Secretary of Defense looked on at the footage displaying a great ball of fire raising up into the heavens and the burning ruins that surrounded it with both guarded hope and despair. A half an hour had past since the strike and the Intruder remained silent, it’s ever present curtain of lighting had ceased and it’s aurora had faded from the skies.
“It has to be dead, it took the full blast... there’s no way it could of survived.” He thought under his breath as he waited for the Nuclear Emergency Support Team, NEST, to finish setting up the unmanned recon helicopter they would use to confirm whether or not the Intruder had in fact been destroyed. But then again... he had thought that before.
“NEST-5 is ready to deploy.” A serviceman announced.
“Give me a secure direct line to their command post and then tell them to deploy.” The Secretary of Defense ordered and the footage of the devastated countryside moved to another screen and was replaced with a view of the soft top back cab of an M998 open back cargo Humvee.
A voice then cracked over the intercom, “Ummmmm, sir this Ronald Quaker, commander of NEST-5, we’re... we're ready to go here.”
After he spoke, the image if the Humvee began to rock violently and rings of dust where kicked up around it’s sides as the long, dragonfly like, robotic helicopter lifted off, tipped forward and flew towards the mushroom cloud. As it drew closer to point zero, brief glimpses of the giant hidden within could be seen as the rolling bands of smoke bended and parted and while it was expect that a large amount of it would still be partly intact based on it’s shear size, most viewing this hoped deep down that somehow that monstrous thing would have simply been evaporated away.
“Ummm, alright sir.” The NEST commander began to inform them, “First we’re going to switch over to secure transmission mode. There’s going to be a lot of ionization from both he mushroom cloud and the crater which could interfere with or cut off our datalink with the URAV and this will help with that but, do to the compression needed, that’s going to cause the videos resolution to take a bit of a hit. We’re also going to switch the camera over to DWEI mode which will let us see through the smoke and give us a slightly clearer picture despite the lower image quality.”
And as he finished speaking the footage they were getting took on a grainier, more pixilated, quality while it’s colors took on a more unnatural and saturated tone and the smoke became semi-opaque fully reviling the giant within it’s veil.
The camera zoomed in, focusing on the Intruder. Most of it’s skin was charred black, having the look of burnt paper laced with lesions and weeping boils. Most of the bone-like protrusions showed little damage outside of some minor scorch marks with the exceptions of it’s bony mask of a face, it appeared to have been eroded down to the underlining cartilage in it’s center with the outer edges scorched soot black and made brittle looking.
The NEST commander let out a whistle at this sight and then blurted out, “That guy’s... that guy's got some nasty burns. Ummm... while I’m no medical expert, I’d say this thing looks pretty dead.”
The Secretary of Defense wanted to really believe that this was it, that it was over but he needed an more expert opinion on this assumption before he caste his lot. He went to turn back to get the NERV commanders thoughts when he noticed what seemed like a small movement on the Intruders surface, a shimmering of the skin on a baldly burnt patch near it’s right thigh prompting him to ask, “Ummm, NEST-5 do you… do you see that shimmering near it’s right thigh?”
“Yeeee-ah, what the heck is THAT.” Was the reply. The camera paned down and zoomed in on the patch which was now being enveloped by what looked like rows of bubbles, as they popped fresh unburned skin was reviled. Another member of NEST-5 was heard gasping out in the background, “It… it’s regretting!”, as more burnt patches all over it's body began to do the same!
“It’s a God damned demon!” Adm. Fletcher bleated out in dismay as a flash blared out the footage for a split second. Over the intercom a NEST member yelled, “We’ve got heavy lightning forming but no visible cloud cover and... the aurora has reappeared and it's starting to grow in intensity!”
Suddenly the muscles in it’s short-thick neck began to convolute and twist, it’s broken and burnt face mask doing the same. A bulged pulsed down it and with torn sinew and a sicking, tearing, noise the mask popped off, hanging to the side just barely connected by a few stands of flesh like a torn toenail and a fresh, shorter beaked, mask then emerged from beneath.
It’s then moved it’s neck to it’s right and titled it’s new face slightly looking dead on into the camera, it’s eyes flared and the screen went dead.
“NEST-5 get the hell out of there!” The Secretary of Defense yelled. As he did so the dead screen was replaced with footage showing the giant walking out through the climbing smoke of the mushroom clouds stem, it’s eyes once again indiscriminately pulsing out great lances of light.
The Secretary of Defense had to fight off the desire to simply crumple back down in his chair in defeat so in utter dismay he was over just how easily this thing shrugged off over half a megaton…“But wait… it was still heavily injured by it…”
“Call back the bombers! Have then set up for an…” he began to order only to be cut off by the ring of a phone, THAT phone again.
“Sir?... But sir, if we hit it again we sho…Yes sir, I understand sir.”
He placed the phone back on it’s receiver and gave himself a good second, he then looked at the men under his command across the room and then relayed his orders, “As of oh-eighteen hundred and seven Eastern Standard Time NORTHCOM is no longer in command of this operation. Instead, command is hereby transferred to Special Agency NERV…” He then turned around to face the man he was surrendering authority to, “Commander Ikari is now in command of this operation.”
Commander Ikari gave a slight nod keeping his eyes fixed on the Secretary of Defense's face then replied, “I’ll be transferring command to NERV HQ since it’s much better …” He let his words drop off pretending to be searching for more diplomatic words before continuing, “equipped for such matters.”
He then began to turn around to head towards the door as the secretary yelled out, “Ikari!” to get his attention. Ikari turned back to face him and then he asked, “Are you sure you can beat that thing?”
Ikari pushed his tinted glasses back into place and then replied with a subtle smugness, “Of course, this is why NERV exists.”
Outside the ruins of Georgetown, Delaware on Seashore Hwy
5:40PM EDT
Slowly her vision came back to her, blurry and out of focus at first.
She looked up and through the fog wondered for a second why her seat was on the ceiling of the car as she felt a thousand tiny things prick at her side. She tried to readjust herself so that she displace her weight on whatever they were in a slightly less painful way and then noticed that her left knee felt like some great hand was squeezing it in a vice grip.
Her mind was still slightly fuzzy. What had happen? Where was she?
She felt something brush against her left shoulder and she turned to see what it was only to force back a shock induced scream. It was a pale skinned child hanging upside-down from the “roof” of her car. It all then came back to her and a tinge of shock and fear came over for the fact she didn’t know if William was even still alive do to how pale he looked and how little he was moving as well the fact she didn’t know how if she was out long enough for the fallout from the blast to start. She took three heavy breathes and calmed herself enough to focus and and then patted Williams check while repeating, “Hey, hey William, William. Can you hear me?”
To her relief he began moving, he stretched out his arms as if he was waking form his bed and then quickly retracted his arms to clench his forehead while wincing in pain and blurting out, ‘Ahhhhhhh, my head.” He then looked over at Capt. Megan Kelling, his eyes wide with surprise.
First he asked, “What, what happened?” then he looked down and asked, “Why am I upside down?!”
“The explosion, it flipped the car.” Megan explained as, despite the great protest of pain her body gave her, she flipped herself over and backed herself partway out of the car through the open windshield. Then she looked back up at William and explained, “Ok William, I’m going to help you down form the chair but after I get you down we need to hurry; I don’t know how long we’ve been out so I don’t know if the fallout…”
Williams’s eyes went wide in shock.
“Fallout!” he repeated as the thought of invisible particles of energy eating away at him filled his mind.
“Yeah that was a nuclear explosion we just lived though.” She informed him trying her best to deliver it in as calm a way as possible, “And... and we’re going to need to keep an eye for what looks like dirty snow either falling from the sky or already on the ground and we're going to need to travel up wind since the fallout is going to mostly fall in a teardrop patter around the blast area following the direction of the wind. Thankfully I think it was under a megaton so the fallout shouldn’t... ummmm, fall out that far... Pardon the unintentional bad pun.”
She swept the area around the chair clear of as much safety glass chucks as possible and then reached up towards his seat belt buckle and then said, “OK, after I unbuckle you-you’re going to need to learn to your right so you don’t land on your head, I’ll try to hold you up as best I can, ready?”
He took a breath then replied, “Yea… yeah.”
Megan then unclicked his buckle and did her best to hold him up as he shifted his weight to his right side and William hit the “floor” of the car with a thud and a “Oooph!”
“Are you ok William?” Megan asked him to which he replied with a forced, “Yeah.”, as he reached back and grabbed his bag and then slide himself out.
After he was out Megan went to stand only to have her left leg buckle out from beneath her and in a yelp of pain she fell, collapsing into a sitting position.
“Ms. Kelling!” William yelled as he rolled over and hoped up besides her, “Are... are you alright?!”
“I’m fine, I’m fine.” She replied, pain clearly in her voice. She then hiked up her service dress over her left knee to find it swelled to three times it normal size.
“Shit! I must of cracked it against the dashboard!” She yelled out before looking up at the wide eye William to asked him, “Could you give me a hand?” He nodded then helped her up, letting her rest her weight on his shoulder. Megan then took a moment to looked back at the flipped wrecked of her A one-thirty and cringed, “I was so close…”
She then looked up at the mushroom cloud billowing up from behind the hill and the city to the left of it which was now a sea of burning orange, reds and yellows. She then moved her glance over to William, he was also staring at the burning embers of the city that has been his home for three years. The look on his face was hard to read, there was a trace of sadness and regret in it but mostly it looked like he just didn't know what to think, she felt much the same way. She then glanced back at the mushroom cloud noting how the suction of the fire ball was messing up the air flow around this area which meant she wasn’t going to be able to tell which direction was upwind of for a while. She then took a look around and saw that there didn’t seem to be any fallout either falling or on the ground so they had some time. She finally looked over at the hills and told herself, “That copter has to be on it's way and standing on top of that hill would give them a better chance of spotting us, then again if the fall out came first...”
“Come on William, let’s take cover over by the hills.” Megan told her charge. He nodded and with her on his shoulder they began to make their way over the hill's base.
As they made it to the base of the hill Megan heard something in the distance and motioned for William to stop. The sound grew louder and a smile came to her face as from over behind the hill top came a tilt-rotored transport flaked by two heavy VTOL attack craft all flying her origination’s logo.
Their air lift had finally come.
NERV First Branch Headquarters, Command Center
5:42PM EDT
“We’ve just received confirmation that Flight UV-One-Elven Charlie has them. They report that they are a bit beat up but nothing to serious.” Lt. Illich informed the Vice-Commander lifting a weight from his chest.
He looked over the map showing the flight path of the transport and muttered to himself “It’s been three years since they last saw each other.” And then, for a brief second, he let himself laps into thinking that this place would bring safety to that poor child.
In the air above Arlington, Virginia
5:48PM EDT
Commander Ikari looked down at the country side below him letting a smile once more crack the cold exterior of his face.
Everything so far had gone just the way he wanted it to and soon the third child would be delivered and his plan would finally be set in motion.
“Soon, soon it will be the time... I hope you can wait just a little longer.”
In the air above Grasonville, Delaware
5:50 PM EDT
82 km away from the commander's flight Capt. Megan Kelling too was also glancing out the window next to her at the country side below.
She was not in a pleasant mood.
It wasn't do to the fact that a medic was placing a brace around her smashed knee and she'd be stuck using crutches for at lest 2 weeks. Granted it was part of it but it still wasn't quite what pushed her over the edge.
Nor was it the fact that her baby, her pride and joy was now just a pile of twisted wreckage. Granted that was also a part of it but still not what set her off.
No, it was the fact that she had just found out that THING, that monster was still alive.
But... now how were they going to stop it? Where they just going to nuke it till it stop? NERV couldn't do anything yet, they had no useable...
“No... they couldn't be... He had no training!”
She looked over at William, he was a bit banged up but thankfully nothing major. He was, however, a little out of it though from everything but that was understandably.... he was a strong kid, stronger then he seemed to realize. She hadn't told him the news yet, no need to bother him with it... he.. he didn't need to worry about it, it wasn't his concern anymore.
Unless....
No, they couldn't be expecting him to do that... they just couldn't.
Sixteen minutes later the transport craft touched down.
“... no that’s ok, I got it from here.” Capt. Kelling informed the head of the medic team. She looked down at the brace around her left knee then tested her weight against the crutches she would need to assist her walking for the next two weeks. After that she looked over to her charge standing at her right and offered him her hand and said, “ Don't worry, this isn't the first time I've had a pair of these. I'll be fine. Now come on William, let’s go.”, and led him down the transport’s ramp and out on to the asphalt.
William looked out at this new place he now found himself at, cringing slightly at the sound of the distant air raid sirens and the memories that would be forever associated with them. Up ahead was a small bland building that looked like an squat upside-down pale made of white concrete which Ms. Kelling was leading him to. It had an open entrance behind which was what appeared to be a train station style turn-stall guarded by two men wearing grayish white uniforms with a red version of those “commando caps’ he seen soldiers have on TV, armed holding large, sleek-looking, machine guns. To the right was a large, heavily occupied, parking lot and behind both the this and the building was a small, bleak looking, city whose skyline was dominated by large construction equipment and three tall structures on the far end of it that looked like a hollow cylinder cut in half with a highly relative glass surface on the inside.
He looked over at Ms. Kelling and asked her, “Mis… Megan, where, where are we?”
“Oh here?” She began to answer, “This is one of the entrances to my base of operations, NERV HQ.”
“No I meant the location. You know, “where on the map”?”
“Oh, we’re just outside D.C..” She answered, she then pointed towards the empty looking city, “While they’re still working on it but most of the city has been rebuilt already.”
Williams mind shot back to his guardian telling him about the terrorist nuke set off there fifteen years ago that kicked off a world war.
“Wait!” William shot out to Ms. Kelling, “If... if this is the capital, ummmm isn't... isn't there still radiation?”
She shook her head no and replied, “Oh no, we got that all cleared out. It wasn't that big of a bomb and it was a pretty modern design so there wasn't much fallout. We were just keeping the idea of there area being irradiated to keep people out while we were rebuilding. Once we're finished, it's going to become the capital again.”
“Oh.” William replied back, a bit more reassured as they passed by the guards who gave the Captain a firm salute and they made their way over to the turn-stalls.
Megan looked over at William and asked, “Hey William, you still got that temporary ID your dad sent you right?”
A puzzled look came over him at first and then it hit him, “Ummm, yeah. Yeah I do.”
He unzipped the top of his bag and after rummaging through some clothing he half pulled out a large manila envelope, opened it, and pulled out an army green NERV new recruit primer guide (still with it’s tamper proof tape still intact) along with a crinkled and folded piece of paper. He then slid the primer guide back in, unfolded the paper which held the card and then presented it to her for confirmation. As he did that Megan noticed had a scribbled over the note from his father on it along with the fact the whole note had previously been torn apart and then carefully tape back together, telling her more then words could of his relationship with him.
“Yeah that’s it.” She replied with a nod, she then pointed at his duffel bag and told him, “You also might want to start going over that guide, we sent it to you for a reason you know.”
“Oh! I’m, I’m sorry…. I just didn’t… get around to it.” He replied back in embarrassment quickly pulling the guide back out while putting his fathers note back in the envelope. He then broke the tape around the booklet and started to flip though it.
“I didn’t mean right now.” Megan chided him with a giggle, “But whatever. Come on, let’s get you home.”
“Home.” That word shot though William stirring up a kaleidoscope of associated memories, back when he still lived with father and the mother who he lost while so young, her face was lost to time with only blurred images and emotions left to him and then to being left, abandoned...
He came to from being able to push his memories back in as Ms. Kelling was explaining something to him, as she talked she swiped a card through a reader on one of the turn-stalls, there was a beep and a green light lit up. “And then you just walk though the turnstile.” She finished doing the same steeping out on the other side of the barrier.
He nodded his head pretending to have been paying attention, swiped his card and passed though the turnstile and then followed her down a short ramp onto a forking platform lined with four short train cars. They then made their way to the second train car from the left and Megan pulled out her battered cell phone, dialed something on it and the train car lit up and opened it’s sliding doors. She then looked over to William with a smile and a wink that read, “Ain't that cool?”
They boarded and after they took to the seats she enter another command into her phone and the train car departed.
William glanced quickly out the window behind him only to see darkness briefly illuminated every couple of feet by yellow side light and from the slight tilt of them he could tell they were going down, he then looked over at Ms. Kelling thinking of starting a conversation about… well he didn’t know yet and while part of him did wish to talk to her, she was nice and...
But another part of him just wanted be left alone, it’s easier that way. But... he needed to do something to take the edge off of the emotions that were whirling around him, both from what had happen as well as what is about to, but after seeing that she was busy fixing her knee brace he found it a good enough excuse to drop it and instead he opened the booklet, flipped past it’s table of contents to he found the
first page with text and began to read:
002459-CFM-72 NERV
This CFM-72 Field Primer Guide is for issuance to NERV personal only. If you are not a NERV personal member turn this manual over to the nearest available police, army or NERV station. Unauthorized use of this manual can carry fines of up to $10, 000 or up to 5 years in prions or both.
This CFM-72 Field Primer Guide will instruct you in all necessary protocol, duties and regulations you will be excepted to comply to as well as provide combatant commanders with trained and ready
forces capable of decisive action across the range of military operations and spectrum of conflict and technical personal with a full run down of the skills needed and the programs they will be handling.
As a member of NERV the highest degree of discipline and professionalism will be expected of you as you will be handling or in charge of some of the most advanced material ever developed and failure to use these tools properly will cost live, fortunes and valuable resources. You will also be expected to keep much of the functions behind your duties confidential and…
Eventually the text blurred into an unreadable mess of it’s own dryly written mediocrity as he quickly lost interest in really reading it and instead he began flipping threw it hoping to find a chart, graph or random picture that would catch his eye, but that only started to make things seem more and more real. His mind filled with the memory of the day father left him, of himself standing there in tears as he walked away from him leaving him with his guardian, a friend of father from his lodge who he would live with for the next seven years of his life… Though it wasn’t really that bad living with him, he could be cold and somewhat remote he... he wasn’t to unkind, it was just that he…
After that father only would come to see him once a year... once a year on THAT day.... and then came that year he could not take it any longer and he lashed out. They fought and he left his guardian, his father, all of it to lived on his own in that city that was now a ruin of fire...
“Ms. Kelling… am I… am I really going to be seeing my father?” William asked hesitantly, hardly raising his head from the booklet.
Megan stared at him for a second and then answered, “Ummm, while given what’s gong on it might not be right away but yeah, you’ll be seeing him soon.”
He looked over at her with air of disappointment and replied, “Oh.”
“Don’t get along with your father huh?” She asked with a laugh, “Looks like you and I got something in common them.”
William shot his head up surprised to hear her say that. He stated to ask her about what she meant by that only to have his eyes briefly over powered by sunlight, he blinked the stars from his eyes to find himself steering out in shock at what laid just outside the windows, rows of large armored skyscrapers were… hanging from the ceiling!
He couldn't believe his eyes as he looked up at them again to confirm that what he saw was really happening as Ms. Kelling giggled to herself at his surprise.
Yeah, there were really large armored buildings hanging from the top of a large domed ceiling laid out in a cruciform like arrangement while sun light shined down from large panels around it.
From what he could tell he was in a large underground hemisphere that he guessed to be at lest 4 miles wide by over a mile high with a forested area at the bottom at the center of which was a strange, large pyramid shape building with what appeared to be a invited one filled with water next to it. He shot a gasped look over to Ms. Kelling in hopes of some kind of explanation for what he was seeing.
She was ready for his inevitable surprise with a smirk already in place. “This is the Geofront William, NERV’s hidden intercept base. And... if all goes to plan, this place will become a fortress for all mankind.”
Vol: 1 Dark Messenger
Chapter Four
Surrender
Eastern NORTHCOM Base just out side of Alberta, Virginia
5:36PM EDT
The Secretary of Defense looked on at the footage displaying a great ball of fire raising up into the heavens and the burning ruins that surrounded it with both guarded hope and despair. A half an hour had past since the strike and the Intruder remained silent, it’s ever present curtain of lighting had ceased and it’s aurora had faded from the skies.
“It has to be dead, it took the full blast... there’s no way it could of survived.” He thought under his breath as he waited for the Nuclear Emergency Support Team, NEST, to finish setting up the unmanned recon helicopter they would use to confirm whether or not the Intruder had in fact been destroyed. But then again... he had thought that before.
“NEST-5 is ready to deploy.” A serviceman announced.
“Give me a secure direct line to their command post and then tell them to deploy.” The Secretary of Defense ordered and the footage of the devastated countryside moved to another screen and was replaced with a view of the soft top back cab of an M998 open back cargo Humvee.
A voice then cracked over the intercom, “Ummmmm, sir this Ronald Quaker, commander of NEST-5, we’re... we're ready to go here.”
After he spoke, the image if the Humvee began to rock violently and rings of dust where kicked up around it’s sides as the long, dragonfly like, robotic helicopter lifted off, tipped forward and flew towards the mushroom cloud. As it drew closer to point zero, brief glimpses of the giant hidden within could be seen as the rolling bands of smoke bended and parted and while it was expect that a large amount of it would still be partly intact based on it’s shear size, most viewing this hoped deep down that somehow that monstrous thing would have simply been evaporated away.
“Ummm, alright sir.” The NEST commander began to inform them, “First we’re going to switch over to secure transmission mode. There’s going to be a lot of ionization from both he mushroom cloud and the crater which could interfere with or cut off our datalink with the URAV and this will help with that but, do to the compression needed, that’s going to cause the videos resolution to take a bit of a hit. We’re also going to switch the camera over to DWEI mode which will let us see through the smoke and give us a slightly clearer picture despite the lower image quality.”
And as he finished speaking the footage they were getting took on a grainier, more pixilated, quality while it’s colors took on a more unnatural and saturated tone and the smoke became semi-opaque fully reviling the giant within it’s veil.
The camera zoomed in, focusing on the Intruder. Most of it’s skin was charred black, having the look of burnt paper laced with lesions and weeping boils. Most of the bone-like protrusions showed little damage outside of some minor scorch marks with the exceptions of it’s bony mask of a face, it appeared to have been eroded down to the underlining cartilage in it’s center with the outer edges scorched soot black and made brittle looking.
The NEST commander let out a whistle at this sight and then blurted out, “That guy’s... that guy's got some nasty burns. Ummm... while I’m no medical expert, I’d say this thing looks pretty dead.”
The Secretary of Defense wanted to really believe that this was it, that it was over but he needed an more expert opinion on this assumption before he caste his lot. He went to turn back to get the NERV commanders thoughts when he noticed what seemed like a small movement on the Intruders surface, a shimmering of the skin on a baldly burnt patch near it’s right thigh prompting him to ask, “Ummm, NEST-5 do you… do you see that shimmering near it’s right thigh?”
“Yeeee-ah, what the heck is THAT.” Was the reply. The camera paned down and zoomed in on the patch which was now being enveloped by what looked like rows of bubbles, as they popped fresh unburned skin was reviled. Another member of NEST-5 was heard gasping out in the background, “It… it’s regretting!”, as more burnt patches all over it's body began to do the same!
“It’s a God damned demon!” Adm. Fletcher bleated out in dismay as a flash blared out the footage for a split second. Over the intercom a NEST member yelled, “We’ve got heavy lightning forming but no visible cloud cover and... the aurora has reappeared and it's starting to grow in intensity!”
Suddenly the muscles in it’s short-thick neck began to convolute and twist, it’s broken and burnt face mask doing the same. A bulged pulsed down it and with torn sinew and a sicking, tearing, noise the mask popped off, hanging to the side just barely connected by a few stands of flesh like a torn toenail and a fresh, shorter beaked, mask then emerged from beneath.
It’s then moved it’s neck to it’s right and titled it’s new face slightly looking dead on into the camera, it’s eyes flared and the screen went dead.
“NEST-5 get the hell out of there!” The Secretary of Defense yelled. As he did so the dead screen was replaced with footage showing the giant walking out through the climbing smoke of the mushroom clouds stem, it’s eyes once again indiscriminately pulsing out great lances of light.
The Secretary of Defense had to fight off the desire to simply crumple back down in his chair in defeat so in utter dismay he was over just how easily this thing shrugged off over half a megaton…“But wait… it was still heavily injured by it…”
“Call back the bombers! Have then set up for an…” he began to order only to be cut off by the ring of a phone, THAT phone again.
“Sir?... But sir, if we hit it again we sho…Yes sir, I understand sir.”
He placed the phone back on it’s receiver and gave himself a good second, he then looked at the men under his command across the room and then relayed his orders, “As of oh-eighteen hundred and seven Eastern Standard Time NORTHCOM is no longer in command of this operation. Instead, command is hereby transferred to Special Agency NERV…” He then turned around to face the man he was surrendering authority to, “Commander Ikari is now in command of this operation.”
Commander Ikari gave a slight nod keeping his eyes fixed on the Secretary of Defense's face then replied, “I’ll be transferring command to NERV HQ since it’s much better …” He let his words drop off pretending to be searching for more diplomatic words before continuing, “equipped for such matters.”
He then began to turn around to head towards the door as the secretary yelled out, “Ikari!” to get his attention. Ikari turned back to face him and then he asked, “Are you sure you can beat that thing?”
Ikari pushed his tinted glasses back into place and then replied with a subtle smugness, “Of course, this is why NERV exists.”
Outside the ruins of Georgetown, Delaware on Seashore Hwy
5:40PM EDT
Slowly her vision came back to her, blurry and out of focus at first.
She looked up and through the fog wondered for a second why her seat was on the ceiling of the car as she felt a thousand tiny things prick at her side. She tried to readjust herself so that she displace her weight on whatever they were in a slightly less painful way and then noticed that her left knee felt like some great hand was squeezing it in a vice grip.
Her mind was still slightly fuzzy. What had happen? Where was she?
She felt something brush against her left shoulder and she turned to see what it was only to force back a shock induced scream. It was a pale skinned child hanging upside-down from the “roof” of her car. It all then came back to her and a tinge of shock and fear came over for the fact she didn’t know if William was even still alive do to how pale he looked and how little he was moving as well the fact she didn’t know how if she was out long enough for the fallout from the blast to start. She took three heavy breathes and calmed herself enough to focus and and then patted Williams check while repeating, “Hey, hey William, William. Can you hear me?”
To her relief he began moving, he stretched out his arms as if he was waking form his bed and then quickly retracted his arms to clench his forehead while wincing in pain and blurting out, ‘Ahhhhhhh, my head.” He then looked over at Capt. Megan Kelling, his eyes wide with surprise.
First he asked, “What, what happened?” then he looked down and asked, “Why am I upside down?!”
“The explosion, it flipped the car.” Megan explained as, despite the great protest of pain her body gave her, she flipped herself over and backed herself partway out of the car through the open windshield. Then she looked back up at William and explained, “Ok William, I’m going to help you down form the chair but after I get you down we need to hurry; I don’t know how long we’ve been out so I don’t know if the fallout…”
Williams’s eyes went wide in shock.
“Fallout!” he repeated as the thought of invisible particles of energy eating away at him filled his mind.
“Yeah that was a nuclear explosion we just lived though.” She informed him trying her best to deliver it in as calm a way as possible, “And... and we’re going to need to keep an eye for what looks like dirty snow either falling from the sky or already on the ground and we're going to need to travel up wind since the fallout is going to mostly fall in a teardrop patter around the blast area following the direction of the wind. Thankfully I think it was under a megaton so the fallout shouldn’t... ummmm, fall out that far... Pardon the unintentional bad pun.”
She swept the area around the chair clear of as much safety glass chucks as possible and then reached up towards his seat belt buckle and then said, “OK, after I unbuckle you-you’re going to need to learn to your right so you don’t land on your head, I’ll try to hold you up as best I can, ready?”
He took a breath then replied, “Yea… yeah.”
Megan then unclicked his buckle and did her best to hold him up as he shifted his weight to his right side and William hit the “floor” of the car with a thud and a “Oooph!”
“Are you ok William?” Megan asked him to which he replied with a forced, “Yeah.”, as he reached back and grabbed his bag and then slide himself out.
After he was out Megan went to stand only to have her left leg buckle out from beneath her and in a yelp of pain she fell, collapsing into a sitting position.
“Ms. Kelling!” William yelled as he rolled over and hoped up besides her, “Are... are you alright?!”
“I’m fine, I’m fine.” She replied, pain clearly in her voice. She then hiked up her service dress over her left knee to find it swelled to three times it normal size.
“Shit! I must of cracked it against the dashboard!” She yelled out before looking up at the wide eye William to asked him, “Could you give me a hand?” He nodded then helped her up, letting her rest her weight on his shoulder. Megan then took a moment to looked back at the flipped wrecked of her A one-thirty and cringed, “I was so close…”
She then looked up at the mushroom cloud billowing up from behind the hill and the city to the left of it which was now a sea of burning orange, reds and yellows. She then moved her glance over to William, he was also staring at the burning embers of the city that has been his home for three years. The look on his face was hard to read, there was a trace of sadness and regret in it but mostly it looked like he just didn't know what to think, she felt much the same way. She then glanced back at the mushroom cloud noting how the suction of the fire ball was messing up the air flow around this area which meant she wasn’t going to be able to tell which direction was upwind of for a while. She then took a look around and saw that there didn’t seem to be any fallout either falling or on the ground so they had some time. She finally looked over at the hills and told herself, “That copter has to be on it's way and standing on top of that hill would give them a better chance of spotting us, then again if the fall out came first...”
“Come on William, let’s take cover over by the hills.” Megan told her charge. He nodded and with her on his shoulder they began to make their way over the hill's base.
As they made it to the base of the hill Megan heard something in the distance and motioned for William to stop. The sound grew louder and a smile came to her face as from over behind the hill top came a tilt-rotored transport flaked by two heavy VTOL attack craft all flying her origination’s logo.
Their air lift had finally come.
NERV First Branch Headquarters, Command Center
5:42PM EDT
“We’ve just received confirmation that Flight UV-One-Elven Charlie has them. They report that they are a bit beat up but nothing to serious.” Lt. Illich informed the Vice-Commander lifting a weight from his chest.
He looked over the map showing the flight path of the transport and muttered to himself “It’s been three years since they last saw each other.” And then, for a brief second, he let himself laps into thinking that this place would bring safety to that poor child.
In the air above Arlington, Virginia
5:48PM EDT
Commander Ikari looked down at the country side below him letting a smile once more crack the cold exterior of his face.
Everything so far had gone just the way he wanted it to and soon the third child would be delivered and his plan would finally be set in motion.
“Soon, soon it will be the time... I hope you can wait just a little longer.”
In the air above Grasonville, Delaware
5:50 PM EDT
82 km away from the commander's flight Capt. Megan Kelling too was also glancing out the window next to her at the country side below.
She was not in a pleasant mood.
It wasn't do to the fact that a medic was placing a brace around her smashed knee and she'd be stuck using crutches for at lest 2 weeks. Granted it was part of it but it still wasn't quite what pushed her over the edge.
Nor was it the fact that her baby, her pride and joy was now just a pile of twisted wreckage. Granted that was also a part of it but still not what set her off.
No, it was the fact that she had just found out that THING, that monster was still alive.
But... now how were they going to stop it? Where they just going to nuke it till it stop? NERV couldn't do anything yet, they had no useable...
“No... they couldn't be... He had no training!”
She looked over at William, he was a bit banged up but thankfully nothing major. He was, however, a little out of it though from everything but that was understandably.... he was a strong kid, stronger then he seemed to realize. She hadn't told him the news yet, no need to bother him with it... he.. he didn't need to worry about it, it wasn't his concern anymore.
Unless....
No, they couldn't be expecting him to do that... they just couldn't.
Sixteen minutes later the transport craft touched down.
“... no that’s ok, I got it from here.” Capt. Kelling informed the head of the medic team. She looked down at the brace around her left knee then tested her weight against the crutches she would need to assist her walking for the next two weeks. After that she looked over to her charge standing at her right and offered him her hand and said, “ Don't worry, this isn't the first time I've had a pair of these. I'll be fine. Now come on William, let’s go.”, and led him down the transport’s ramp and out on to the asphalt.
William looked out at this new place he now found himself at, cringing slightly at the sound of the distant air raid sirens and the memories that would be forever associated with them. Up ahead was a small bland building that looked like an squat upside-down pale made of white concrete which Ms. Kelling was leading him to. It had an open entrance behind which was what appeared to be a train station style turn-stall guarded by two men wearing grayish white uniforms with a red version of those “commando caps’ he seen soldiers have on TV, armed holding large, sleek-looking, machine guns. To the right was a large, heavily occupied, parking lot and behind both the this and the building was a small, bleak looking, city whose skyline was dominated by large construction equipment and three tall structures on the far end of it that looked like a hollow cylinder cut in half with a highly relative glass surface on the inside.
He looked over at Ms. Kelling and asked her, “Mis… Megan, where, where are we?”
“Oh here?” She began to answer, “This is one of the entrances to my base of operations, NERV HQ.”
“No I meant the location. You know, “where on the map”?”
“Oh, we’re just outside D.C..” She answered, she then pointed towards the empty looking city, “While they’re still working on it but most of the city has been rebuilt already.”
Williams mind shot back to his guardian telling him about the terrorist nuke set off there fifteen years ago that kicked off a world war.
“Wait!” William shot out to Ms. Kelling, “If... if this is the capital, ummmm isn't... isn't there still radiation?”
She shook her head no and replied, “Oh no, we got that all cleared out. It wasn't that big of a bomb and it was a pretty modern design so there wasn't much fallout. We were just keeping the idea of there area being irradiated to keep people out while we were rebuilding. Once we're finished, it's going to become the capital again.”
“Oh.” William replied back, a bit more reassured as they passed by the guards who gave the Captain a firm salute and they made their way over to the turn-stalls.
Megan looked over at William and asked, “Hey William, you still got that temporary ID your dad sent you right?”
A puzzled look came over him at first and then it hit him, “Ummm, yeah. Yeah I do.”
He unzipped the top of his bag and after rummaging through some clothing he half pulled out a large manila envelope, opened it, and pulled out an army green NERV new recruit primer guide (still with it’s tamper proof tape still intact) along with a crinkled and folded piece of paper. He then slid the primer guide back in, unfolded the paper which held the card and then presented it to her for confirmation. As he did that Megan noticed had a scribbled over the note from his father on it along with the fact the whole note had previously been torn apart and then carefully tape back together, telling her more then words could of his relationship with him.
“Yeah that’s it.” She replied with a nod, she then pointed at his duffel bag and told him, “You also might want to start going over that guide, we sent it to you for a reason you know.”
“Oh! I’m, I’m sorry…. I just didn’t… get around to it.” He replied back in embarrassment quickly pulling the guide back out while putting his fathers note back in the envelope. He then broke the tape around the booklet and started to flip though it.
“I didn’t mean right now.” Megan chided him with a giggle, “But whatever. Come on, let’s get you home.”
“Home.” That word shot though William stirring up a kaleidoscope of associated memories, back when he still lived with father and the mother who he lost while so young, her face was lost to time with only blurred images and emotions left to him and then to being left, abandoned...
He came to from being able to push his memories back in as Ms. Kelling was explaining something to him, as she talked she swiped a card through a reader on one of the turn-stalls, there was a beep and a green light lit up. “And then you just walk though the turnstile.” She finished doing the same steeping out on the other side of the barrier.
He nodded his head pretending to have been paying attention, swiped his card and passed though the turnstile and then followed her down a short ramp onto a forking platform lined with four short train cars. They then made their way to the second train car from the left and Megan pulled out her battered cell phone, dialed something on it and the train car lit up and opened it’s sliding doors. She then looked over to William with a smile and a wink that read, “Ain't that cool?”
They boarded and after they took to the seats she enter another command into her phone and the train car departed.
William glanced quickly out the window behind him only to see darkness briefly illuminated every couple of feet by yellow side light and from the slight tilt of them he could tell they were going down, he then looked over at Ms. Kelling thinking of starting a conversation about… well he didn’t know yet and while part of him did wish to talk to her, she was nice and...
But another part of him just wanted be left alone, it’s easier that way. But... he needed to do something to take the edge off of the emotions that were whirling around him, both from what had happen as well as what is about to, but after seeing that she was busy fixing her knee brace he found it a good enough excuse to drop it and instead he opened the booklet, flipped past it’s table of contents to he found the
first page with text and began to read:
002459-CFM-72 NERV
This CFM-72 Field Primer Guide is for issuance to NERV personal only. If you are not a NERV personal member turn this manual over to the nearest available police, army or NERV station. Unauthorized use of this manual can carry fines of up to $10, 000 or up to 5 years in prions or both.
This CFM-72 Field Primer Guide will instruct you in all necessary protocol, duties and regulations you will be excepted to comply to as well as provide combatant commanders with trained and ready
forces capable of decisive action across the range of military operations and spectrum of conflict and technical personal with a full run down of the skills needed and the programs they will be handling.
As a member of NERV the highest degree of discipline and professionalism will be expected of you as you will be handling or in charge of some of the most advanced material ever developed and failure to use these tools properly will cost live, fortunes and valuable resources. You will also be expected to keep much of the functions behind your duties confidential and…
Eventually the text blurred into an unreadable mess of it’s own dryly written mediocrity as he quickly lost interest in really reading it and instead he began flipping threw it hoping to find a chart, graph or random picture that would catch his eye, but that only started to make things seem more and more real. His mind filled with the memory of the day father left him, of himself standing there in tears as he walked away from him leaving him with his guardian, a friend of father from his lodge who he would live with for the next seven years of his life… Though it wasn’t really that bad living with him, he could be cold and somewhat remote he... he wasn’t to unkind, it was just that he…
After that father only would come to see him once a year... once a year on THAT day.... and then came that year he could not take it any longer and he lashed out. They fought and he left his guardian, his father, all of it to lived on his own in that city that was now a ruin of fire...
“Ms. Kelling… am I… am I really going to be seeing my father?” William asked hesitantly, hardly raising his head from the booklet.
Megan stared at him for a second and then answered, “Ummm, while given what’s gong on it might not be right away but yeah, you’ll be seeing him soon.”
He looked over at her with air of disappointment and replied, “Oh.”
“Don’t get along with your father huh?” She asked with a laugh, “Looks like you and I got something in common them.”
William shot his head up surprised to hear her say that. He stated to ask her about what she meant by that only to have his eyes briefly over powered by sunlight, he blinked the stars from his eyes to find himself steering out in shock at what laid just outside the windows, rows of large armored skyscrapers were… hanging from the ceiling!
He couldn't believe his eyes as he looked up at them again to confirm that what he saw was really happening as Ms. Kelling giggled to herself at his surprise.
Yeah, there were really large armored buildings hanging from the top of a large domed ceiling laid out in a cruciform like arrangement while sun light shined down from large panels around it.
From what he could tell he was in a large underground hemisphere that he guessed to be at lest 4 miles wide by over a mile high with a forested area at the bottom at the center of which was a strange, large pyramid shape building with what appeared to be a invited one filled with water next to it. He shot a gasped look over to Ms. Kelling in hopes of some kind of explanation for what he was seeing.
She was ready for his inevitable surprise with a smirk already in place. “This is the Geofront William, NERV’s hidden intercept base. And... if all goes to plan, this place will become a fortress for all mankind.”
Last edited by Ryjin on Tue Jun 26, 2012 3:00 pm, edited 4 times in total.
"It is the Thunderbolt that steers the universe."~ Heraclitus
The people who voted for Obama or Romney are fucking idiots. Wake the fuck up.
"The Constitution was our last, best hope for peace... It failed. But, in the Year of the War against the Globalists, it became something greater: our last, best hope
The people who voted for Obama or Romney are fucking idiots. Wake the fuck up.
"The Constitution was our last, best hope for peace... It failed. But, in the Year of the War against the Globalists, it became something greater: our last, best hope
NEON GENESIS EVANGLION: TO THE VICTOR
Vol: 1 Dark Messenger
Chapter Five
Reunion
NERV First Branch Headquarters, Command Center
5:49PM EDT
“No sir, there hasn't been any change in Angel's course. It's predicted destination is still the same.” Lt. Illich informed the vice-commander.
“So, look's like it is coming straight here.” Franklin though out to himself, “Those damn old men were right.... Well no point in complaining now.”
The vice-commander straightened his postured and wore a determined look upon his face as he yelled, “Set action stations to level one and tell all forward batteries to open fire on that son of a bitch as soon as it enters range! Target it's feet and the ground around them, don't worry about stopping it. We just need to buy a little more time.”
Liner station B-22 Echo, NERV First Branch
5:50PM EDT
The train came to a stop and Megan grabbed her crutches, stood up and motioned for William to do the same, “Alright William, I got something neat I gotta show ya.”
“What... what is it?” William asked as they walked, their steeps echoing out onto the boarding platform as they made their way over to a row of elevators down a short hallway to their left.
“It's a secret.” She answered with a wink, “You'll like it, trust me. Just follow me and we'll be there in no time.”
Central Dogma B-21
6:09PM EDT
“Now where was I suppose... hmmmm... Oh, maybe I should of made a left once we passed High Energy Lab B-22...” Megan half mumbled to herself as she looked over her map of the bases layout she had on her phone trying to make heads or tails of where she was going.
William, meanwhile, had resorted to looking back over the NERV manual so tired was of seeing the same drab identical looking narrow and gray corridors again and again and again...
They past through yet another hexagonal shaped Security door and William was caught off guard by a sudden, powerful up draft as the entered the next chamber leading to a people-mover cat walk crossing a huge chasm filled with piping, air ducts and other utilities.
“It's things like that-that make me regret having to wear a skirt around here, they really need to fix that.” Megan remarked, noticing Williams surprise. She then glanced back at her map, “Ok, once we get to the elevators on the other side we should should be back in business.”
At lest that's what she hoped.
“Are... are you new here Megan?” William asked, peeking up from his book.
“Yeah, I just got here the other day. I was originally stationed over at one of the German branches when I started working for NERV.” She answered as they made their way to the elevators.
“Oh.” William replied. German branch? How many NERV bases were there?
“Yeaaaah, as you can see I'm still kinda learning the layout, it's a pretty big place.” She added as she went to hit the elevators call button just as the door on her right opened on it's own. William then saw Megan rear back in surprise while saying in an apologetic tone, “S... sorry for being late.” with a force laugh at the end to someone on the other side of her.
“You know we don't have the TIME or man power to be running around after you! Especially at a time like this!” replied a stern females voice from the other side of the door.
“Hey I returned him in one piece, mostly, didn't I Rachel? Cut me a little slack, not like I knew this was going to happen today.” Megan shot back sounding a little more relaxed as she finally stepped into the elevator, holding the door for William.
He followed her in and finally saw the tall blonde hair women wearing what looked to be a lab coat that Ms. Kelling was talking too. He looked up at her stern blue eyes and knew why Ms. Kelling seemed to be scared of her.
The women Ms. Kelling called Rachel selected a floor and then glance over at him and then back to Ms. Kelling.
“So he's the one hum?” She asked the captain, her tone taking on a friendlier feel.
“Yeah, he's the trouble maker.” Megan replied back with a laugh.
William was now starting to feel nervous, closed in... He wasn't use to being the center of attention, to people talking about him like this...
Rachel looked back over at William as he went back to reading his NERV manual with a smirk, “Well boy, you have any idea how much trouble you've caused us trying to find you?”
“Oh! S... sorry...” The he replied looking up from the book briefly.
Rachel let out a slight laugh, “Well at lest you're finally here.” She then leaned in closer to him and introduced herself, “Now in case you're wondering my name is Dr. Rachel Ammadon. I'mmmm... basically in charge of the science departments here. And now that's out of the way we've got something I need to show you, if I left it to her you'd be roaming these halls for the next three years.”
“Hey! It's not my fault that I'm new here and this place is ridiculously huge!” Megan shot back in protest as William replied, “Nice.. nice to met you Dr. Ammadon.”, lowering the book and greeting her with a nod.
“Not one for socializing are you?” She remarked back at his tone and mannerisms.
“Yeah, in that regard he's just like his father.” Megan interjected much to Williams dismay, he didn't like being talk about and liked being compared to his father even less... He was nothing like that man.
“Ohh, looks like you hit a nerve there captain.” Rachel laughed noticing Williams reaction.
“So... so.. why... why am I here? I mean outside of this surprise you have to show me?” William quickly asked both truly wanting to know why it was he had to come all this way here as well as to change the subject.
“Oh that's a secret.” Rachel answered, “You'll see soon enough but what I can tell you it's going to be really important. But for now let's keep it a surprise ok?”
It wasn't sitting well with William that no one wanted to answer him on this, why was it so secret?
Central Dogma B-20
6:15PM EDT
“Sooooooo, what's the chances that it would fully activate?” Megan asked looking over the doctor as she leaned back against the guard railing of the large cargo lift they were taking to take a load off from her crutches.
“Hmmmm, as of right now I'd say it's a zero point zero, zero, zero, zero, zero, zero, zero, zero, oh-nine percent chance of working.” Rachel answered back nonchalantly.
“Gahhh!” Megan balked not liking the odds.
“Hey, at lest it's not a zero.” Rachel countered with a smirk.
“It is if you round.” Megan shot back sticking out her tongue.
“How's the leg?” Rachel asked raising an eye brow as she looked down at Megan's brace.
“Gonna be out for the next two weeks, not gonna be able to put to much weight on it for at lest a month after that.”
“Ouch, well at lest this time you don't need to be embarrassed to tell people how you got this one, not like that last one when the three of us went skiing.” Rachel reminded her chiding her friend.
“Never gonna live that down am I? “ Megan replied dryly. “It's been what, like seven years now?”
“Yeah... those were good times.” Rachel remarked, tilting her head back letting the nostalgia of younger days roll over her.
William, still buried nose deep in his book, was oblivious to massive arm that they passed that reached out from behind a tank of purplish-pink liquid, it's out-stretched hand seemingly wretched in pain and anguish...
Central Dogma B-20 entrance to Staging Cage 03
6:35PM EDT
Rachel led William and Megan into a small room with another door at the end and rows of large coats like the kind William seen people wear in arctic conditions lining the side walls. Rachel grabbed two and tapped William on his shoulder to get his attention then handed him one of the coats while telling him, “It's going to be a bit on the cold side in that next room, it might be a bit big though... but it shouldn't be by much.”
He took it with a , “Oh... thank you.”, and put it on while Rachel helped Megan with hers. Rachel put one on herself and then slid her card through a reader and the door at the end of the room open as a wave of cold, heavy air came rolling in. They all stepped through the door and onto a railed catwalk that spanned over a large vat of the strange pinkish-purples liquid that seemed to be the source of the cold, at the end was a large metal wall with yet another door which Rachel once again opened with a swipe of her card. On the other end the catwalk continued with yet another door at the end. Just off from the door was a small cargo lift that lead upward and under them was still more of that cold purple liquid.
As William followed he felt something, like some great presence staring at him. He looked up from his book and turned his head to left and let out a yell of shock and horror at what he saw.
Steering at him with narrow eyes was a large, metallic, masked face.
“What the hell is an Angle doing here?!” William yelled in disbelief at seeing the giant that stood before him. He turned to Megan, “Is this the first one? You said the one we nuked was number two... And you already had one? Why... why didn't you warn people?!”
“William it's not an...” Megan began to explain until Rachel shot her a stern look.
“Well I guess it can't be help, he was going to know sooner or later.” Rachel thought to herself. She faced William and told him, “No, it's not an angel.”
“Then what is it?!”
Rachel looked up at the giant face, “This is Evangelion Unit 01, a weapon developed here in secret to fight the angels.”
“Evangelion?” William looked over the giant's massive semi-humanoid, shark like head clad in a dark purple armor with a single large horn like protrusion coming out of it's forehead, a large open ceratopsid like frill coming off from it's sides and long pointed chin coming of a what looked like a mouth that almost seemed to be grinning.... Outside of that only a small amount of it's neck and shoulders which the “walls” of this room clamped around that was that seemed to be visible, the rest of it was covered beneath that freezing purple liquid. But there was something about it... Why... why did it seem...
William's mind filled with questions but the most important one that came to him was as he turned to look between Megan and the doctor, “Did father build this? Was this what he was working on?”
“That is correct.” A voice answered from seemingly all directions at once. It was a voice all to familiar to William, a voice he found that he truly wasn't ready to hear yet.
William looked around trying to find where the voice came from, he looked up and standing in an semi-enclosed observation station hanging from the ceiling was a man with a cold, piercing stare.
“Father..”
Gregory Ikari looked down at his son, it was now time for it to be set in motion.
“Get the new pilot prepped for operations and then begin launch procedures.” The Commander of the first branch of NERV ordered.
“You can't be serious!” Megan yelled out to Rachel in protest. Deep down she knew all to well the boy's fate after finding out the angel had survived but hearing it out loud and seeing the look on the young boys face was still too much, “He just got here! It took Ayanami seven months to just synchronize with her Eva let alone to learn how to use it enough to fight in combat!”
“All he needs to do is sit in the cockpit, we don't expect anymore then that.” Rachel shot back, anger crossing her face at the captain's insubordination.
“We need someone who can do more then that if we expect him to survive!” Megan countered letting her emotions get the better of her.
“Listen Capt. Kelling, if we have someone who has even the slightest chance of synchronizing with an Eva it is our duty to at lest make an effort. Untold lives are at stake here!” Rachel explained as calmly as she could reminding the captain of her duty.
William found himself confused at what was going on around him, what did his father mean? He looked up towards the man yelling, “Father! What's going one here? Why did you send for me?!”
“Because I have a need for you, you are here as pilot for that Evanglion Unit in front of you and you are needed to sortie out.” Was his fathers answer.
“Pilot? Sortie?” William repeated in confusion, “What do you mean father? Pilot? You want to to pilot that thing?! How? I'm just a kid! I've never seen anything like this before!”
“I expect you to do so because you are the only one who can, you will be instructed on how to operate it. Now, you have two choices, you can either except your responsibility and pilot the Evangelion or you can leave. Make your choice quickly, we do not have the time waste on your indecisiveness.” His father answered once more, his tone now growing inpatient.
“Time? You tell me all this and expect me just to except it just like that?! What the hell is so damn important that you don't have the time for me FATHER?!!” William yelled back on the verge of tears, the coldness of his father tearing at him.
“Because the angel will be here shortly and if we don't have an Eva Unit ready by then we will have no means of stopping it.”
“The angel?! But.. but we nuked it.... “ William protested.
Megan was the one to answer, “It.. it survived the blast... I'm sorry for keeping it from you William.”
The boys eyes went wide. He couldn't believe this.
“It survived that blast?!” He shot out in shock. He looked back up at his father, “You expected to fight that thing in this... this over sized action figure?! This... this is just crazy... There... there's no way I can be expected to do this... that anybody could be expected... I can't... I just can't!”
Megan came closer to the boy and in the most comforting voice she could muster, “William... I... I know this is hard... and we're... I'm asking lot of you but we really do need you... a lot of lives are counting on this. Please... please don't run away from this.” She hated having to do this but Rachel was right, far too much was hanging on this.
William looked up at Ms. Kelling in almost disbelief at what she was saying. He then shot a glance over to Rachel just for her to tell him flat out,“Just do it.”
He couldn't believe this, ow could all these people expect him to stand against that monster... To pilot this giant... thing... How could the put this all on him?
“No... I .. can't... just can't... I'm sorry...” William apologized, this was just too much for him to bear. Was this all his father wanted? Was this all that he was to him?
Observational command box, Staging Cage 03
6:43PM EDT
The commander was done with this, he had no time to waste on an uncooperative child. He hit a button on the counsel to his right and a screen showing the vice-commander appeared.
“Franklin, the third child is unusable.” Ikari informed his second in command, “Wake up Rei.”
“Wake her up?!” The vice-commander replied back in shock that even he'd would entertain the thought of using her in her current state, “But... she's in no condition to pilot...”
“She not dead yet.” The commander coldly cut him off.
“I... I understand.” Franklin reluctantly complied.
A split second later a new face was visible on the screen.
“Rei?” Ikari asked, his voice taking on a softer tone.
“Yes sir?” a weak, strained feminine voice replied.
“I need you to pilot Unit 01, our new pilot refuses.” He informed the the girl.
“Understood.” She wisped out as her screen went black.
A voice then came over his intercom announcing, “Angel: Zero-Two has broken through the final defensive line, it will be arriving in the D.C. built up zone in five minutes.
Main umbilical bridge Staging Cage 03
6:44 PM EDT
Rachel shot a disappointed look at William and then ordered, “Alright, dump the current one and set OS compatibility to Rei's.” She then shot a look over at Megan, “Capt. Kelling, get THAT child out of here.”
Megan nodded and put a hand on Williams shoulder, “I.. I'm sorry I had to put you through all of this. To put all of this on a child.”
William lowered his head in defeat in reply, he new it. His father didn't want him after all....
“Alright William, let's go.” Megan told him as she started to lead him back out the way they came in but before they got to the door it opened on it's own as three medics brought in a stretcher.
William looked over at the stretcher and found himself drawn to it the person on it. It was girl, maybe no older then him, wearing what looked to be an armor like suit of some kind. The area of the suit around the shoulders were removed showing that bandages wrapped most of her chest. Her left arm also was in a cast and a IV ran into her right one.
Then he saw her face... He couldn't believe it! It was almost identical to the girl he saw when the bombing began, the only difference he could make out was that she lacked the blue hair and red eyes of the other and instead she had simple black hair and brown eyes… at lest her right one was brown, the other one had a patch covering it.
“What happened to this girl?” William thought as Megan noticed his shocked look and asked him, “Is anything wrong? It looks like you just seen a ghost.”
But before she could receive an answer she found her self struggling to keep her footing as the whole room shook violently, over the intercom it was announced, “Angel: Zero-Two has opened fire on the city, direct hit on the central block. The first three armored layers have been preached!”
The room shook again and again!
“Armor layers four through ten have now been beached... wait... some of the buildings in the central block have been structurally weakened... several have just broken lose! Brace for impact!”
Eight tense seconds later the massive armored buildings stuck ground sending powerful shock waves surging throughout NERV HQ. Megan, Rachel, William and the medics struggled to keep standing but failed and t he girl on the stretcher was thrown to the ground while several hundred feet above William several light fixtures were knocked lose and they started falling right towards him!
William looked up an noticed the incoming death and instinctively went to curl up, Megan forced her body up, ignoring the protest coming from her knee, trying to cover the distance to shield boy with her body but it would be no use, there was no way she could cover the ground quickly enough. It all seemed hopeless for the child as the debris set to rain down on him when something unexpected happened...
With the sound of metal straining the walls that locked the Eva's massive right shoulder down gave and up sprang form the purple coolant a massive armored arm whose giant hand reached out and covered William, blocking him from the wreckage!
One of the fragments bounce off and shot up at observation box the commander stood in just barely being deflected by the glass wall that allowed him to look over the area, as this happened Ikari just stood there seemingly unfazed by all this with a look of simple satisfaction.
Back on the umbilical bridge Rachel looked at the out stretched arm covering the shocked child with disbelief. She got her self back up and yelled over her comlink, “Can any body tell my just what in the hell happened?! How the hell did it's arm move?!”
“The termination plug is still in it ma'am, there were no impulses recorded by the Magi... everything says that didn't just happen!” Lt. Illich replied.
Megan also stood in disbelief at what had happened, did it just protect him? Did the Evangelion just act of it's own will to protect something?! But... how? How could a machine do that?
William just laid there shocked for a second looking up in terror at the massive hand raised over him. What... what the hell just happened? He slowly sat himself up and looked around and saw that girl on the ground flinching in pain. Before he even realized what he was doing he had made his was over and held her, trying to bring the girl some small comfort while the medics helped themselves up and made their way over. William found himself lost looking at her face, it was was a surprisingly beautiful face but so full of pain right now. He then noticed that he had a bad grip on her and adjusted where his right hand helped propped her up only for her to wince and let out a gasp of pain. He quickly withdrew his hand to find it full of blood...
Were they really going to send this girl out there to fight that thing? He looked up and over at the giant masked face of the machine they wanted him to pilot. He then looked back down at this poor girl.
No, it wasn't fair... but someone had to do it... But ….
Every fibber of his begin wanted to leave, to run away, to forget this day ever happened but then there was this broken girl in his arms...
“I mustn’t run away.”
“But how can I?!”
“I can't let them do this to that poor girl, I mustn't run away.”
“But this is insane!”
“They said so many people are going to die if I don't... maybe even this poor girl, I mustn't run away!”
“But how can you let father win?”
“Because I won't, I won't let him win. That's why I will not run away.”
William looked up once more at the face of this thing they called an Evangelion then over at Megan who was looking back at him with great concern in her eyes.
He then looked up at his father leering down from above.
“I'll do it! I'll do it father! I'll pilot this God damned thing!”
Vol: 1 Dark Messenger
Chapter Five
Reunion
NERV First Branch Headquarters, Command Center
5:49PM EDT
“No sir, there hasn't been any change in Angel's course. It's predicted destination is still the same.” Lt. Illich informed the vice-commander.
“So, look's like it is coming straight here.” Franklin though out to himself, “Those damn old men were right.... Well no point in complaining now.”
The vice-commander straightened his postured and wore a determined look upon his face as he yelled, “Set action stations to level one and tell all forward batteries to open fire on that son of a bitch as soon as it enters range! Target it's feet and the ground around them, don't worry about stopping it. We just need to buy a little more time.”
Liner station B-22 Echo, NERV First Branch
5:50PM EDT
The train came to a stop and Megan grabbed her crutches, stood up and motioned for William to do the same, “Alright William, I got something neat I gotta show ya.”
“What... what is it?” William asked as they walked, their steeps echoing out onto the boarding platform as they made their way over to a row of elevators down a short hallway to their left.
“It's a secret.” She answered with a wink, “You'll like it, trust me. Just follow me and we'll be there in no time.”
Central Dogma B-21
6:09PM EDT
“Now where was I suppose... hmmmm... Oh, maybe I should of made a left once we passed High Energy Lab B-22...” Megan half mumbled to herself as she looked over her map of the bases layout she had on her phone trying to make heads or tails of where she was going.
William, meanwhile, had resorted to looking back over the NERV manual so tired was of seeing the same drab identical looking narrow and gray corridors again and again and again...
They past through yet another hexagonal shaped Security door and William was caught off guard by a sudden, powerful up draft as the entered the next chamber leading to a people-mover cat walk crossing a huge chasm filled with piping, air ducts and other utilities.
“It's things like that-that make me regret having to wear a skirt around here, they really need to fix that.” Megan remarked, noticing Williams surprise. She then glanced back at her map, “Ok, once we get to the elevators on the other side we should should be back in business.”
At lest that's what she hoped.
“Are... are you new here Megan?” William asked, peeking up from his book.
“Yeah, I just got here the other day. I was originally stationed over at one of the German branches when I started working for NERV.” She answered as they made their way to the elevators.
“Oh.” William replied. German branch? How many NERV bases were there?
“Yeaaaah, as you can see I'm still kinda learning the layout, it's a pretty big place.” She added as she went to hit the elevators call button just as the door on her right opened on it's own. William then saw Megan rear back in surprise while saying in an apologetic tone, “S... sorry for being late.” with a force laugh at the end to someone on the other side of her.
“You know we don't have the TIME or man power to be running around after you! Especially at a time like this!” replied a stern females voice from the other side of the door.
“Hey I returned him in one piece, mostly, didn't I Rachel? Cut me a little slack, not like I knew this was going to happen today.” Megan shot back sounding a little more relaxed as she finally stepped into the elevator, holding the door for William.
He followed her in and finally saw the tall blonde hair women wearing what looked to be a lab coat that Ms. Kelling was talking too. He looked up at her stern blue eyes and knew why Ms. Kelling seemed to be scared of her.
The women Ms. Kelling called Rachel selected a floor and then glance over at him and then back to Ms. Kelling.
“So he's the one hum?” She asked the captain, her tone taking on a friendlier feel.
“Yeah, he's the trouble maker.” Megan replied back with a laugh.
William was now starting to feel nervous, closed in... He wasn't use to being the center of attention, to people talking about him like this...
Rachel looked back over at William as he went back to reading his NERV manual with a smirk, “Well boy, you have any idea how much trouble you've caused us trying to find you?”
“Oh! S... sorry...” The he replied looking up from the book briefly.
Rachel let out a slight laugh, “Well at lest you're finally here.” She then leaned in closer to him and introduced herself, “Now in case you're wondering my name is Dr. Rachel Ammadon. I'mmmm... basically in charge of the science departments here. And now that's out of the way we've got something I need to show you, if I left it to her you'd be roaming these halls for the next three years.”
“Hey! It's not my fault that I'm new here and this place is ridiculously huge!” Megan shot back in protest as William replied, “Nice.. nice to met you Dr. Ammadon.”, lowering the book and greeting her with a nod.
“Not one for socializing are you?” She remarked back at his tone and mannerisms.
“Yeah, in that regard he's just like his father.” Megan interjected much to Williams dismay, he didn't like being talk about and liked being compared to his father even less... He was nothing like that man.
“Ohh, looks like you hit a nerve there captain.” Rachel laughed noticing Williams reaction.
“So... so.. why... why am I here? I mean outside of this surprise you have to show me?” William quickly asked both truly wanting to know why it was he had to come all this way here as well as to change the subject.
“Oh that's a secret.” Rachel answered, “You'll see soon enough but what I can tell you it's going to be really important. But for now let's keep it a surprise ok?”
It wasn't sitting well with William that no one wanted to answer him on this, why was it so secret?
Central Dogma B-20
6:15PM EDT
“Sooooooo, what's the chances that it would fully activate?” Megan asked looking over the doctor as she leaned back against the guard railing of the large cargo lift they were taking to take a load off from her crutches.
“Hmmmm, as of right now I'd say it's a zero point zero, zero, zero, zero, zero, zero, zero, zero, oh-nine percent chance of working.” Rachel answered back nonchalantly.
“Gahhh!” Megan balked not liking the odds.
“Hey, at lest it's not a zero.” Rachel countered with a smirk.
“It is if you round.” Megan shot back sticking out her tongue.
“How's the leg?” Rachel asked raising an eye brow as she looked down at Megan's brace.
“Gonna be out for the next two weeks, not gonna be able to put to much weight on it for at lest a month after that.”
“Ouch, well at lest this time you don't need to be embarrassed to tell people how you got this one, not like that last one when the three of us went skiing.” Rachel reminded her chiding her friend.
“Never gonna live that down am I? “ Megan replied dryly. “It's been what, like seven years now?”
“Yeah... those were good times.” Rachel remarked, tilting her head back letting the nostalgia of younger days roll over her.
William, still buried nose deep in his book, was oblivious to massive arm that they passed that reached out from behind a tank of purplish-pink liquid, it's out-stretched hand seemingly wretched in pain and anguish...
Central Dogma B-20 entrance to Staging Cage 03
6:35PM EDT
Rachel led William and Megan into a small room with another door at the end and rows of large coats like the kind William seen people wear in arctic conditions lining the side walls. Rachel grabbed two and tapped William on his shoulder to get his attention then handed him one of the coats while telling him, “It's going to be a bit on the cold side in that next room, it might be a bit big though... but it shouldn't be by much.”
He took it with a , “Oh... thank you.”, and put it on while Rachel helped Megan with hers. Rachel put one on herself and then slid her card through a reader and the door at the end of the room open as a wave of cold, heavy air came rolling in. They all stepped through the door and onto a railed catwalk that spanned over a large vat of the strange pinkish-purples liquid that seemed to be the source of the cold, at the end was a large metal wall with yet another door which Rachel once again opened with a swipe of her card. On the other end the catwalk continued with yet another door at the end. Just off from the door was a small cargo lift that lead upward and under them was still more of that cold purple liquid.
As William followed he felt something, like some great presence staring at him. He looked up from his book and turned his head to left and let out a yell of shock and horror at what he saw.
Steering at him with narrow eyes was a large, metallic, masked face.
“What the hell is an Angle doing here?!” William yelled in disbelief at seeing the giant that stood before him. He turned to Megan, “Is this the first one? You said the one we nuked was number two... And you already had one? Why... why didn't you warn people?!”
“William it's not an...” Megan began to explain until Rachel shot her a stern look.
“Well I guess it can't be help, he was going to know sooner or later.” Rachel thought to herself. She faced William and told him, “No, it's not an angel.”
“Then what is it?!”
Rachel looked up at the giant face, “This is Evangelion Unit 01, a weapon developed here in secret to fight the angels.”
“Evangelion?” William looked over the giant's massive semi-humanoid, shark like head clad in a dark purple armor with a single large horn like protrusion coming out of it's forehead, a large open ceratopsid like frill coming off from it's sides and long pointed chin coming of a what looked like a mouth that almost seemed to be grinning.... Outside of that only a small amount of it's neck and shoulders which the “walls” of this room clamped around that was that seemed to be visible, the rest of it was covered beneath that freezing purple liquid. But there was something about it... Why... why did it seem...
William's mind filled with questions but the most important one that came to him was as he turned to look between Megan and the doctor, “Did father build this? Was this what he was working on?”
“That is correct.” A voice answered from seemingly all directions at once. It was a voice all to familiar to William, a voice he found that he truly wasn't ready to hear yet.
William looked around trying to find where the voice came from, he looked up and standing in an semi-enclosed observation station hanging from the ceiling was a man with a cold, piercing stare.
“Father..”
Gregory Ikari looked down at his son, it was now time for it to be set in motion.
“Get the new pilot prepped for operations and then begin launch procedures.” The Commander of the first branch of NERV ordered.
“You can't be serious!” Megan yelled out to Rachel in protest. Deep down she knew all to well the boy's fate after finding out the angel had survived but hearing it out loud and seeing the look on the young boys face was still too much, “He just got here! It took Ayanami seven months to just synchronize with her Eva let alone to learn how to use it enough to fight in combat!”
“All he needs to do is sit in the cockpit, we don't expect anymore then that.” Rachel shot back, anger crossing her face at the captain's insubordination.
“We need someone who can do more then that if we expect him to survive!” Megan countered letting her emotions get the better of her.
“Listen Capt. Kelling, if we have someone who has even the slightest chance of synchronizing with an Eva it is our duty to at lest make an effort. Untold lives are at stake here!” Rachel explained as calmly as she could reminding the captain of her duty.
William found himself confused at what was going on around him, what did his father mean? He looked up towards the man yelling, “Father! What's going one here? Why did you send for me?!”
“Because I have a need for you, you are here as pilot for that Evanglion Unit in front of you and you are needed to sortie out.” Was his fathers answer.
“Pilot? Sortie?” William repeated in confusion, “What do you mean father? Pilot? You want to to pilot that thing?! How? I'm just a kid! I've never seen anything like this before!”
“I expect you to do so because you are the only one who can, you will be instructed on how to operate it. Now, you have two choices, you can either except your responsibility and pilot the Evangelion or you can leave. Make your choice quickly, we do not have the time waste on your indecisiveness.” His father answered once more, his tone now growing inpatient.
“Time? You tell me all this and expect me just to except it just like that?! What the hell is so damn important that you don't have the time for me FATHER?!!” William yelled back on the verge of tears, the coldness of his father tearing at him.
“Because the angel will be here shortly and if we don't have an Eva Unit ready by then we will have no means of stopping it.”
“The angel?! But.. but we nuked it.... “ William protested.
Megan was the one to answer, “It.. it survived the blast... I'm sorry for keeping it from you William.”
The boys eyes went wide. He couldn't believe this.
“It survived that blast?!” He shot out in shock. He looked back up at his father, “You expected to fight that thing in this... this over sized action figure?! This... this is just crazy... There... there's no way I can be expected to do this... that anybody could be expected... I can't... I just can't!”
Megan came closer to the boy and in the most comforting voice she could muster, “William... I... I know this is hard... and we're... I'm asking lot of you but we really do need you... a lot of lives are counting on this. Please... please don't run away from this.” She hated having to do this but Rachel was right, far too much was hanging on this.
William looked up at Ms. Kelling in almost disbelief at what she was saying. He then shot a glance over to Rachel just for her to tell him flat out,“Just do it.”
He couldn't believe this, ow could all these people expect him to stand against that monster... To pilot this giant... thing... How could the put this all on him?
“No... I .. can't... just can't... I'm sorry...” William apologized, this was just too much for him to bear. Was this all his father wanted? Was this all that he was to him?
Observational command box, Staging Cage 03
6:43PM EDT
The commander was done with this, he had no time to waste on an uncooperative child. He hit a button on the counsel to his right and a screen showing the vice-commander appeared.
“Franklin, the third child is unusable.” Ikari informed his second in command, “Wake up Rei.”
“Wake her up?!” The vice-commander replied back in shock that even he'd would entertain the thought of using her in her current state, “But... she's in no condition to pilot...”
“She not dead yet.” The commander coldly cut him off.
“I... I understand.” Franklin reluctantly complied.
A split second later a new face was visible on the screen.
“Rei?” Ikari asked, his voice taking on a softer tone.
“Yes sir?” a weak, strained feminine voice replied.
“I need you to pilot Unit 01, our new pilot refuses.” He informed the the girl.
“Understood.” She wisped out as her screen went black.
A voice then came over his intercom announcing, “Angel: Zero-Two has broken through the final defensive line, it will be arriving in the D.C. built up zone in five minutes.
Main umbilical bridge Staging Cage 03
6:44 PM EDT
Rachel shot a disappointed look at William and then ordered, “Alright, dump the current one and set OS compatibility to Rei's.” She then shot a look over at Megan, “Capt. Kelling, get THAT child out of here.”
Megan nodded and put a hand on Williams shoulder, “I.. I'm sorry I had to put you through all of this. To put all of this on a child.”
William lowered his head in defeat in reply, he new it. His father didn't want him after all....
“Alright William, let's go.” Megan told him as she started to lead him back out the way they came in but before they got to the door it opened on it's own as three medics brought in a stretcher.
William looked over at the stretcher and found himself drawn to it the person on it. It was girl, maybe no older then him, wearing what looked to be an armor like suit of some kind. The area of the suit around the shoulders were removed showing that bandages wrapped most of her chest. Her left arm also was in a cast and a IV ran into her right one.
Then he saw her face... He couldn't believe it! It was almost identical to the girl he saw when the bombing began, the only difference he could make out was that she lacked the blue hair and red eyes of the other and instead she had simple black hair and brown eyes… at lest her right one was brown, the other one had a patch covering it.
“What happened to this girl?” William thought as Megan noticed his shocked look and asked him, “Is anything wrong? It looks like you just seen a ghost.”
But before she could receive an answer she found her self struggling to keep her footing as the whole room shook violently, over the intercom it was announced, “Angel: Zero-Two has opened fire on the city, direct hit on the central block. The first three armored layers have been preached!”
The room shook again and again!
“Armor layers four through ten have now been beached... wait... some of the buildings in the central block have been structurally weakened... several have just broken lose! Brace for impact!”
Eight tense seconds later the massive armored buildings stuck ground sending powerful shock waves surging throughout NERV HQ. Megan, Rachel, William and the medics struggled to keep standing but failed and t he girl on the stretcher was thrown to the ground while several hundred feet above William several light fixtures were knocked lose and they started falling right towards him!
William looked up an noticed the incoming death and instinctively went to curl up, Megan forced her body up, ignoring the protest coming from her knee, trying to cover the distance to shield boy with her body but it would be no use, there was no way she could cover the ground quickly enough. It all seemed hopeless for the child as the debris set to rain down on him when something unexpected happened...
With the sound of metal straining the walls that locked the Eva's massive right shoulder down gave and up sprang form the purple coolant a massive armored arm whose giant hand reached out and covered William, blocking him from the wreckage!
One of the fragments bounce off and shot up at observation box the commander stood in just barely being deflected by the glass wall that allowed him to look over the area, as this happened Ikari just stood there seemingly unfazed by all this with a look of simple satisfaction.
Back on the umbilical bridge Rachel looked at the out stretched arm covering the shocked child with disbelief. She got her self back up and yelled over her comlink, “Can any body tell my just what in the hell happened?! How the hell did it's arm move?!”
“The termination plug is still in it ma'am, there were no impulses recorded by the Magi... everything says that didn't just happen!” Lt. Illich replied.
Megan also stood in disbelief at what had happened, did it just protect him? Did the Evangelion just act of it's own will to protect something?! But... how? How could a machine do that?
William just laid there shocked for a second looking up in terror at the massive hand raised over him. What... what the hell just happened? He slowly sat himself up and looked around and saw that girl on the ground flinching in pain. Before he even realized what he was doing he had made his was over and held her, trying to bring the girl some small comfort while the medics helped themselves up and made their way over. William found himself lost looking at her face, it was was a surprisingly beautiful face but so full of pain right now. He then noticed that he had a bad grip on her and adjusted where his right hand helped propped her up only for her to wince and let out a gasp of pain. He quickly withdrew his hand to find it full of blood...
Were they really going to send this girl out there to fight that thing? He looked up and over at the giant masked face of the machine they wanted him to pilot. He then looked back down at this poor girl.
No, it wasn't fair... but someone had to do it... But ….
Every fibber of his begin wanted to leave, to run away, to forget this day ever happened but then there was this broken girl in his arms...
“I mustn’t run away.”
“But how can I?!”
“I can't let them do this to that poor girl, I mustn't run away.”
“But this is insane!”
“They said so many people are going to die if I don't... maybe even this poor girl, I mustn't run away!”
“But how can you let father win?”
“Because I won't, I won't let him win. That's why I will not run away.”
William looked up once more at the face of this thing they called an Evangelion then over at Megan who was looking back at him with great concern in her eyes.
He then looked up at his father leering down from above.
“I'll do it! I'll do it father! I'll pilot this God damned thing!”
Last edited by Ryjin on Tue Jun 26, 2012 3:01 pm, edited 5 times in total.
"It is the Thunderbolt that steers the universe."~ Heraclitus
The people who voted for Obama or Romney are fucking idiots. Wake the fuck up.
"The Constitution was our last, best hope for peace... It failed. But, in the Year of the War against the Globalists, it became something greater: our last, best hope
The people who voted for Obama or Romney are fucking idiots. Wake the fuck up.
"The Constitution was our last, best hope for peace... It failed. But, in the Year of the War against the Globalists, it became something greater: our last, best hope
So far this looks pretty good, but I've only had time to read the first chapter so far. Nice angel pic too.
Parasite Galaxy: An experimental webcomic
http://www.parasitegalaxy.com/ Updates Monday and Thursday. Vote for me on top webcomics
If you want to support this comic buy something from me on amazon
http://www.parasitegalaxy.com/ Updates Monday and Thursday. Vote for me on top webcomics
If you want to support this comic buy something from me on amazon
@Defectron: Thanks man, I'm trying my best to make this something special.
"It is the Thunderbolt that steers the universe."~ Heraclitus
The people who voted for Obama or Romney are fucking idiots. Wake the fuck up.
"The Constitution was our last, best hope for peace... It failed. But, in the Year of the War against the Globalists, it became something greater: our last, best hope
The people who voted for Obama or Romney are fucking idiots. Wake the fuck up.
"The Constitution was our last, best hope for peace... It failed. But, in the Year of the War against the Globalists, it became something greater: our last, best hope
- GasmaskAvenger
- Re-Gyption Strut
- Age: 34
- Posts: 3691
- Joined: Sep 23, 2009
- Location: Fresno, California, USA
- Gender: Male
so far it's great
taking EVA, Americanizing it and giving it a gritty (mostly) hard sci-fi route really makes it stand out from the handful of EVA fics i've read
and yes, this fic really needs more readers. It's pretty damn good and can easily be the best basis for Live Action Evangelion Movie (if executed right)
taking EVA, Americanizing it and giving it a gritty (mostly) hard sci-fi route really makes it stand out from the handful of EVA fics i've read
and yes, this fic really needs more readers. It's pretty damn good and can easily be the best basis for Live Action Evangelion Movie (if executed right)
Satsuki Kiryuin wants you to turn that frown upside down...
My AU Evangelion Fanfic | My Street Fighter fanfic
XBOX Live: GasmaskAvenger | PSN: GasmaskAvenger
Official "Grindhouse of Evangelion" Discussion, Updates and Cast Sign Up Thread.
My AU Evangelion Fanfic | My Street Fighter fanfic
XBOX Live: GasmaskAvenger | PSN: GasmaskAvenger
Official "Grindhouse of Evangelion" Discussion, Updates and Cast Sign Up Thread.
@Gasmask Avenger: Once again thanks man. Like I've said I'm really trying to make this fic special; to make it feel fresh while still feeling like Eva.
Oh and fuck a movie, if I got my say I'd do a live action series. There's just no way you can really cram all of Eva into three movies and do a take everyone will dig; just look at the hate Rebuild is getting and it's about the best compromise you can get (your millage may very >.>).
And lastly I'd like to thank the people who have taken the time out of their busy live to read my silly little fic and given it 350+ views already.
[NEON GENESIS EVANGLION: TO THE VICTOR
Vol: 1 Dark Messenger
Chapter Six
Fear
Washington D.C. Metropolitan area just outside of Capital Heights
6:52PM EDT
The Angel began it's advanced into the city and as it passed by the low-level buildings that lined the suburbs of the D.C. area it's behavior began to change.
It would start off by periodically stopping and then firing off great lances of light at the city like normal with some of the shots would fly random and others would strike at the armored layers that covered NERV HQ slowly opening a path to the Geofront below. It then would begin to pace back and forth almost like an agitated cat, then it would begin it's walk towards the city again for a bit and start this pattern over again.
Deep beneath the city the the staff of NERV were at a lose for why it was acting like this, all they new was that despite it's odd behavior it was still approaching the city much faster then anyone cared.
Staging Cage 03
6:53PM EDT
Three thousand meters below the city, hundreds of NERV technicians swarmed into action in a race against time. Bulge pumps were stressed near their bursting point trying to drain the coolant from the Eva's cage as fast as possible while they locked the Eva's arm back down checking and double checking every single one of the Evangelion's systems, equipment and operational software making sure that whatever that earlier “incident” was it wouldn't happen again. This was going to be it's first real combat action and they were going to make damn sure that that it'll be at one hundred percent operational capacity when they send it out to do battle.
Main Pilot Boarding Platform, Staging Cage 03
6:56 PM EDT
William stood on a platform that over looked the back end of this thing he had reluctantly agreed to pilot. His shirt was open with a dozen wire sticking out connected to bunch of electrodes attached to his chest that lead to a device strapped to his pants that he found himself fiddling with while Dr. Rachel Ammadon explained how this Evangelion thing worked... or at lest was trying. William found himself mostly standing there nodding with a blank look on his face as the incredible technicalities of how this thing worked mostly washed over him.
Behind the doctor were two NERV technical personal in orangeish-red jump suits waiting for the doctor to finish, behind him was a large chair like thing that looked to him more like of some kind of torture device that was attached to some kind of robot like crane arm and behind that just off from the platform was a large white cylindrical tube marked with various warning and danger labels that he was told was called an “entry plug” which seemed to be it's cockpit. On his left was a rimmed basin on the floor with a drain in the center of it that he hadn't the slightest clue as to what it's purpose was.
He also finally got a good look at the Evangelion since they now had drained most of that pool of strange liquid which thankfully had brought the temperature up a bit. It was massive, that was for sure, possibly as big as that thing he had to fight, 40 meters tall from what he was told which if he remember how metric converted to imperial made it about 132 feet. It was also a surprisingly human looking machine, well sort of. From what he could tell it seemed to have a strangely thin waist and extremely broad shoulders, not as extreme as the Angel's but still outside the human norm. It's whole body was covered in purple colored armor like it's head with a few dashes of green highlights here and there and it had a large heavily armored shell like compartment on it's back. It was pretty impressive looking to be sure but all this did little to wilt the fear that clawed at him and he was still far from convinced that this thing could stand against the Angel.
“You know, you really shouldn't be fiddling with those wires. We kinda need them to keep track of your vitals.” Dr. Ammadon warned him, trying to get his attention back to what she was explaining.
“Oh... sorry...” William apologized as he tried to regain his focus.
“Don't worry, later we'll have a proper plug suit for you. They do the same thing as that mess of wires as well as offer you some basic protection and life support functions.” she informed him, “Now remember William, you don't control this thing like car or any other vehicle you would be familiar with. Instead it uses an extremely advance mind machine interface to let you control it like it was your body, you pilot it like you pilot yourself. Alright, any questions?”
Those he did, more then he could ever hope to ask. He thought it over and tried to quickly sort out what he thought were the most important and then reasonably asked,“Ummmm... why... why is it that you need me to pilot it? Or that girl Rei? I mean why not some, you know, trained soldiers or something?”
She nodded and then answered,“Well the short answer is we don't know fully... You see in order to get the precision we needed to make the Eva practical we had to invent brand new ways to get the human mind to interface with a machine and well... there's still a few quirks we haven't worked out. Namely that they're not only extremely picky with WHO they synchronize with but what age group they do, might have something with the higher dopamine levels that teenagers have. We were hoping to have this worked out before the angels attacked buut... consideration doesn't seem to be one of their strong points. Ok, we've got time for one more question but then we need to get you out there.”
“They're sending me out in a weapon that still has “quirks”?!” He thought as part of him wanted his next question to be, “Are you all crazy?”, but he thought better of it and instead asked about something that was nagging him about it since he first saw it's “face”.
“Why... why is it... purple?”
That one earned a laugh from the doctor, “Well you see the Eva's are suppose to draw the angels away from the city and to make sure they stand out enough for them to do that we felt colors that clashed with the city scape would work best, think of it like how male birds use bright flashy colors to draw predators away from their mates.”
“To draw predators away from their mates.” William repeated in his mind. Her answers to his questions didn't make the idea of this any easier...
“Alright, let's get you boarded.” The doctor told the young pilot as she walked closer to him, pulling out an odd hair band like device that had two grayish horn like protrusions upper top corners and then handed it to him saying, “Here, put this on sliding the bends there around your ears. It might look goofy but it'll boost your brains connection with the Eva. Think of it like a cell phone antenna for your brain.”
William nodded and then put it on running his hand over one of the protrusions. The two NERV techs then walked him over to the pilot seat and helped him up onto it while the tech to his right told him, “Don't worry son, you're in good hands.”
They then strapped him in tight, locking down his chest and limbs, and then they closed a cover that encased almost all of his body leaving only his face exposed giving the impression he was inside of a large metal sarcophagus.
The right hand tech then asked him, “How do you feel? Anything too tight?”
“Umm no... I'm... fine.” He answered not knowing how to really tell him, this all felt so odd.
“That a boy.” The tech said trying to comfort him, “I know your scared but you'll pull through this, you got all of us watching your back ok.?”
Strangely enough his words did make him feel slightly better.
The tech double checked all the locks and restraints and then warned him, “Alright, I got to lock in the final piece now, it's going to cover your face and it's going to be pretty dark for a little bit so hang in there.”
William nodded and the final cover was slid into place turning his world to darkness. Now the weight of this was starting to come down on him, he stated to breath heavier, panicking as he felt himself being moved through the air. It stopped for a second and then he felt himself being lowered, he heard the the chair came in contact with something metallic and then he heard lock bolts thump into place.
Over an internal intercom he heard a females voice announce, “Throne has been inserted, removing termination plug... Plug removed, lowering entry plug.”
He then felt himself being tilted forward at an angle and then lowered again until he felt the plug clang as it made contact with something.
The same announcer then said, “Inserting entry plug.” and suddenly he felt himself begin spun around four times ending with the announcer exclaiming, “Plug inserted, all lights are green.”
Command Center
7:00PM EDT
Megan was standing at her spot on the Ops. station deck between Lieutenants Illich and Haynes carefully watching William being loaded into the Eva while the commander and vice-commander watch from their tower above. A door opened on the other side of the deck as Rachel made her way from the staging cage taking her position opposite of the captains.
“Plug inserted, all lights are green.” Lt. Illich informed everyone as the entry plug finished twisting and locking into place. A large armored hatch then closed and locked over area securing the plug.
She then announced, “Attaching umbilical.”, and a large cable was lowered and hooked up to plug just under the armored “shell” that covered the entry plug, “Voltage is nominal, moving onto LCL insertion. Filling the throne.”
Entry Plug
7:01PM EDT
“Filling the throne? “ William thought to himself... “With what? “
Just as he finished that though he began to feel water seep into his shoes and then up his pants leg and then to his waist...
It was flooding! This thing that he was locked into was flooding!
“Help me! I'm going to drown! Why the hell is this thing filling with water?!” William yelled in terror and confusion as he tried to move only to feel straps bite into his skin, forgetting that his limbs were strapped down.
“Well if you paid attention to what I was telling you, you would of known this was going to happen.” He heard Rachel scolded him over the line, “Once your lungs fill with LCL you'll be oxygenated directly, you can breath this stuff. It also acts as a medium to transmit your mental waves to the Eva. Don't worry just breath it in.”
You can what? He had never heard of a liquid you could breath before but as he was thinking about it the liquid was now up to his chin! While he knew that he was just told it was safe for him to breath in this liquid his instincts said otherwise. He found himself fighting against letting the liquid in as much as possible, trying to keep his noise above the water line and then holding his breath once the whole compartment was filled. Unfortunately he was never good at holding his breath and he was forced to let go less then a minute later, he exhaled and when he went to inhale but all he got was that liquid. Panic gripped him again as he felt the liquid fill his lungs, feeling the fluid like lead bricks, and once again he tried to move his bounded limbs in a desperate, instinctive bid to free himself. Back in the command center, Megan cringed as she watched his vitals spike all over the place, she could only imagine how terrifying it had to be to go through this the first time.
He knew it! he could feel it! He was drowning... but... he wasn't...
William slowly regained control of himself as realized he WAS breathing... only without actually breathing. It was just like the doctor said, but knowing something and going through it were two very different things.
He now felt slightly calmer, feeling the liquid surround his body was actually sorta comforting.... somehow it felt safe here now... somehow familiar.
The only thing that bothered him was the smell, it had the smell of blood.
William then reared back in shock as his mind's eye exploded in white light followed by electric patterns of neural circuitry printed in surging geometric shapes...
Command Center
7:02PM EDT
The air in the command center took on a tense tone as they moved into the next part of the activation, a sequence that need the captains or the commanders permission to begin.
“Begin synchronization.” Megan ordered after taking a deep breath followed by Lt. Illich acknowledging, “Understood, beginning synchronization.”
Rachel Leaned in over Lt. Illich's shoulder watching her display carefully as the lieutenant began a countdown, “Passing C one-twenty, C one-thirty, C one-forty, approaching the absolute boarder line...”
At that everyone on the deck eye's were on that screen...
...“C-one fifty.” Lt. Illich continued, “C-one sixty, C-one-seventy, the boarder line has been reached...”
The chart on her screen held there struggling to climb to the next number and then...
“C-one eighty! We are passed the absolute boarder line!” She informed everyone with exuberance returning to her tone.
The tension was lifted from the command center as it's personal let out a collective sight of relief.
Lt. Illich then announced, “The pilot is now synchronized with the Eva. Synchronization rate is... my god! It's 44.3 percent!”
“44 percent?!” Rachel repeated in amazement, this kid might have potential after all!
Entry Plug
7:03PM EDT
The young Eva pilot had no idea how to express what he was going through right now.
As he looked on various pieces of equipment around the area would suddenly become highlighted as a box appeared within his vision with a list of details highlighting information on that object.
He looked down and saw the Eva's body... and his own at the same time, like they were somehow super imposed over one another...
He looked to his left and he could see the Eva's shoulder enclosed by the wall of the cage as well as his own.
He could feel the metal of the Eva's armor and he could feel his own skin at the same time... as well as something else.
He felt so disorientingly huge and yet at the same time, so insignificantly small.
Another box appeared in his vision, this time it was an image of Megan. Needless to say he found seeing her now a bit reassuring.
“Hey William, how are you? You hanging in there?” He heard her say to him as if she was speaking right into his head.
“I... I feel... weird.... it's like I have two bodies at one time.” He replied trying to find a way to describe this.
“I bet. Now don't worry, this is only since you're new at this. It'll feel more natural as you build up your synchronization with the Eva.”Megan reassured him, “Oh, and hey. Guess what?”
“Hum? What is it?”
“You've just broke our first time synchronization record, by a long shot!” Megan told him hoping that would boost his confidence. “Ok now, William, see if you can move your hands.” Megan then instructed him.
While they felt very odd while he did it, he was still able to clench his fist with no real problems with the hands of the Eva following his lead.
“Umm... yeah... I can.”He replied, “They still feel kinda odd but I can move them... can't move my arm really... but... but yeah the Eva is following my movement. This... this is kinda neat.”
“Ok, that's very good. Now listen up, we're running out of time here and... and I know how scary this is going to be for you but I need you to keep your cool out there and listen to what me, Rachel and... and your father tell you...”
“Father... father is there?” William asked in both anticipation and foreboding.
“Yeah, your father is overseeing the whole thing William. Now like I said we all will guide you through this, just follow what we say and you will get through this ok?”
“I... I'll try.” he answered nervously.
Command Center
7:05PM EDT
Megan stared at the screen with reluctance at what she now had to do, it was time to send him up there... to send this poor kid with zero training against an enemy who just single handedly brought the greatest military power this planet had to offer to it's knees. But the only other choice they had wasn't much better.
Life is just to good at giving you two devils out of a situation.
Capt Megan Kelling took a deep breath and put all of that out of her, clearing her head. It was now time to be professional. She looked dead on at the image of the Eva on the main screen and ordered, “Begin launch procedure!”, and at her command thousands of the lock bolts that held down the Eva released, the side walls of the cage that enclosed the Eva's arms opened and moved forward leaving the Eva standing on a platform mounted on a rail way with the only one set of restraints left that lock hims in place on the platform the Eva was on.
Megan then leaned back in looking into the camera mounted to the control panel and open up her comlink to William again, “Ok William, now we're gonna to equip you an assault cannon...”
“A what?! I... I don't know how to use a gun... or anything like that!” He shot back over the line.
“Don't worry, just follow our lead and shoot when we tell you to shoot. You can do this, I believe in you.”
Entry Plug
7:06PM EDT
I believe in you.
He had never heard anyone say that to him before... not even from father...
“Al... alright Megan...Yeah...I can do this.”
A crane arm then carried over to him a large, sleek looking, weapon that resembled a giant machine gun and he grabbed onto it's grip holding tight, feeling it's weight in his hands.
“Might I add that you look like quite the bad ass with that cannon you're holding there.” Megan added causing Williams face to flush red. She then continued, “Ok William, now if you look to your left and right you'll that there's a pylon like structure on each of your shoulders. They'll be the black things you see on them.”
William looked left and right noticing them, they covered his shoulders and most of his upper arm and had a rectangular“fin” like structure on top of them. He did remember seeing them when he first looked at the Eva but at the time he just thought they were part of what was locking the giant in place.
“Ok... I see them”
“Good.” Megan replied nodding, “Those pylons hold support equipment, right now they hold secondary weapons. In the right side one is a special Eva sized knife called a progressive knife, prog knife for short. It uses progressive waves to cause the edge to vibrate at a super high frequency which makes the weapon extremely sharp. In your left side pylon is basically what amounts to an Eva sized version of pistol, it's got shorter range then the rifle but it's easier to use if you find yourself to close to the Angel. Now to activate them you'll just need to focus on opening them, just tell yourself “right pylon open” and it'll do so. Now while you probably won't need them try to keep this in mind.”
She waited for him to nod and then told him, “I'm gonna switch over to Rachel now, she's got something very important to tell you.” Megan's face then was replaced by the doctor's, needless to say he found seeing HER again less then reassuring.
“Need to make this quick so listen up. I need to go over a few things again since I know you didn't listen to me when I first explained all this. Alright, You know how that Angel took no damage from most of the weapons we hit it with, well that's because it had an A.T Field...”
“An AT what?” He asked in confusion.
“An A.T. Field.” She repeated, “It's a type of force field, kinda like what you'd see on Star Trek only far more powerful. So long as the Angel has it up it's almost invincible but we got something that can beat it. The Eva can generate a A.T. Field as well and when two A.T. Fields meet they start to cancel each other out which weakens them and with it's A.T. Field weakened it can be punched through and the Angel can be hurt but be careful, the weakening effect is a two way street. Your field will be weakened as well.”
“Ok... Ummm how... how do I use it?” He asked, trying to take all of this in.
“When we tell you to unfold your field just start concentrating, it'll come naturally to you. You got all that?”
“Yeah, I got it.” He replied wishing he had more time to go over this all, or that he had paid attention when she first gone over this.
“Good, it's time to move you out.”
Command Center
7:08PM EDT
Megan waited for the all clear singling that no one was in the path of the Eva's transportation line before moving on to her next command.
“Move Eva Unit 01 catapult number zero seven one, let's give him some distance.” She ordered and the Eva began to roll backwards as the platform it was on followed the rails into the main catapult room where several launch tubes lined the walls providing the Eva with paths to the surface.
Eva Unit 01 moved into it's launch tube and a quick check was made to make sure the route was clear and in working order, it came back green. Evangelion Unit 01 was ready for launch.
“Alright William, this is it. Are you ready?” Megan asked the young pilot.
“Ye... yeah.” He lied.
She then looked up at the commander and despite her better judgment asked, “Sir, can we really do this?”
The commander looked back down at her, his hand's folded over his mouth betraying no emotion as he replied, “We have little choice but to.”
His answer gave her no solace but she wasn't really expecting it to. She took a long hard look at the massive Eva as it stood in it's launch bay seeing past it and to the small child it held within.
It was time.
“Launch Eva!”
Catapult Room 71
7:06PM EDT
William winced as he found his body, both of them, instantly accelerated to 3 gees rocketing up the launch tube at impossible speeds as he was shot up to the surface.
He then felt himself decelerated almost as fast and with a heavy jerk he came to a rest standing in the middle of a large road in the middle of a city with warning lights going off around the spot the platform was now resting. It took a few seconds for him to calm himself, that would have been almost fun if he knew to expect it!
He took a look around as various buildings and other objects were highlighted just like in the cage. The city looked so empty and desolate, the only thing breaking the stillness besides the smoke rising up from several fires started around it was the flashes of lighting and that aura that shun almost beautifully in the night sky.
The Angel it's self however, was no where to be seen.
Megan popped back on screen and asked him, “So... how was it?”
“Ummm... it... it was pretty intense.” He told her with great understatement. He then asked her back, “Ummm so... where... where is it? Where is the Angel?”
“It's going to be heading your way, you should see it in a few more seconds. Figured I'd set up so you could get use to your new body first.” She informed him and he replied with an “Oh.”
She then said, “We're gonna set you lose now, you're gonna be standing for the first time under your own power like this so try not lose your balance.”
He nodded in response as he braced himself. He then heard her order, “Release finally safety locks!”, and felt the final clamps holding him down let go and for the first time he felt how truly massive he now was.
Rachel then came back over the line. “Ok William, very good. Now try walking, just do it like you wanted to move your own body, just take into account your now over a hundred feet tall.”
“Walk... I can do this... it shouldn't be that hard.” He muttered to himself as he thought about walking and slowly lifted his leg, the Eva's followed and then he put it down. The command room came alive as it did, he was really doing this!
He then moved his next leg up just as he saw the Angel come from behind a group of buildings about a mile away. It was huge! At lest TWICE as big as his machine! He locked onto the monster's hollow eyes and the monster looked on back, tilting it's head almost as if it was intrigued by this new thing it saw and William lost it. He brought his leg down wrong and found he couldn't fight the Eva's weight and as he toppled over, falling face first into the ground like a bomb blast. William grabbed his face in pain, it had felt like HIS face had hit the ground.
The Angel watched on as the Eva fell and then looked as if it noticed something and then reared back letting out a displeased sounding wail as it began to charge towards the fallen Eva, picking up speed as the aura above intensified.
William looked on at the charging titan and his mind went blank with fear, over the com line Megan and Rachel yelled for him to calm down and get up but he was beyond that now, pure instinct now drove his actions.
With a terrified yell William propped himself back up, raised his weapon and pulled the trigger feeling the cannon jar back under the force of it's recoil as a burst of rounds exploded from it's barrel! Three of the rounds manged to make their way over to the Angel flashing into balls of smoke against it's A.T. Field., the rest missed entirely blasting gaping holes from the sides of the surrounding buildings. He then dropped the weapon and turned to run but it was too late, the Angel was upon him, towering over the Eva as if it were a child.
With one hand it grabbed the Eva's head and forced it back around while lifting the Eva's great weight as if it was a doll. William flailed his arms around in desperation and the Angel reach in with it's other arm and grabbed his left one. A surge of muscle shot down the things arm and it snapped the Eva's like a twig raining shards of metal down to the ground along with something else, a red, blood like fluid.
William exploded with pain, he could feel it, he could the Eva's arm break as if it was his own!Over the com Rachel yelled, “Relax! That's not really your arm!” Little did that do to calm him, the pain told him otherwise.
“Your field William! Try unfolding your A.T. Field! Concentrate! You need to do this now!” She continued to yell in desperation but William was still locked in panic, this was far too much for him.
A sharp pain to his right eye then snapped him back to reality. He looked out at the Angel standing in front of him and saw a glow formed around the Angel's elbow spike and it shot out from it's palm slamming into the visor covering the Eva's right “eye”.
William clenched in pain, frozen with the shock of it as the spike shot out again and again and again.
Finally the visor's armor gave way and the spike impaled it's way through the Eva's head erupting out the back of it in a shower of red fluid. All singles were cut from the Eva and William's vitals dropped to zero.
Some other place, some other time...
“Oh. Come in William, it's alright, I don't mind an audience.”
“Yes... yes sir.” William meekly replied to his guardian, staring in interest at the strange instrument he was playing. Despite now living with this man for over a year now he still found him to be somewhat intimidating.
“Do you know what this is?”
The boy shook his head looking at the instrument he was playing, he had never seen one before though it did kinda looked like a giant guitar to him.
“It's called a cello... You know your father used to be quite the violin player and he wasn't bad with the guitar either. Sadly he never went anywhere with it.”
“Daddy...”
“Would you like to learn to play the cello, I could teach you.”
William thought about it and nodded.
“That's good... Hmmmmmm I... I think I still have my first one from when I was a lad stashed up in the attic. I'll retrieve it for you tomorrow and I can begin giving you lessons.”
William nodded again with a faint smile. Maybe if I learned to play it I would be special and if I was special maybe my daddy would love me again and then he would take me home.
“I just want my daddy to love me again.”
Oh and fuck a movie, if I got my say I'd do a live action series. There's just no way you can really cram all of Eva into three movies and do a take everyone will dig; just look at the hate Rebuild is getting and it's about the best compromise you can get (your millage may very >.>).
And lastly I'd like to thank the people who have taken the time out of their busy live to read my silly little fic and given it 350+ views already.
[NEON GENESIS EVANGLION: TO THE VICTOR
Vol: 1 Dark Messenger
Chapter Six
Fear
Washington D.C. Metropolitan area just outside of Capital Heights
6:52PM EDT
The Angel began it's advanced into the city and as it passed by the low-level buildings that lined the suburbs of the D.C. area it's behavior began to change.
It would start off by periodically stopping and then firing off great lances of light at the city like normal with some of the shots would fly random and others would strike at the armored layers that covered NERV HQ slowly opening a path to the Geofront below. It then would begin to pace back and forth almost like an agitated cat, then it would begin it's walk towards the city again for a bit and start this pattern over again.
Deep beneath the city the the staff of NERV were at a lose for why it was acting like this, all they new was that despite it's odd behavior it was still approaching the city much faster then anyone cared.
Staging Cage 03
6:53PM EDT
Three thousand meters below the city, hundreds of NERV technicians swarmed into action in a race against time. Bulge pumps were stressed near their bursting point trying to drain the coolant from the Eva's cage as fast as possible while they locked the Eva's arm back down checking and double checking every single one of the Evangelion's systems, equipment and operational software making sure that whatever that earlier “incident” was it wouldn't happen again. This was going to be it's first real combat action and they were going to make damn sure that that it'll be at one hundred percent operational capacity when they send it out to do battle.
Main Pilot Boarding Platform, Staging Cage 03
6:56 PM EDT
William stood on a platform that over looked the back end of this thing he had reluctantly agreed to pilot. His shirt was open with a dozen wire sticking out connected to bunch of electrodes attached to his chest that lead to a device strapped to his pants that he found himself fiddling with while Dr. Rachel Ammadon explained how this Evangelion thing worked... or at lest was trying. William found himself mostly standing there nodding with a blank look on his face as the incredible technicalities of how this thing worked mostly washed over him.
Behind the doctor were two NERV technical personal in orangeish-red jump suits waiting for the doctor to finish, behind him was a large chair like thing that looked to him more like of some kind of torture device that was attached to some kind of robot like crane arm and behind that just off from the platform was a large white cylindrical tube marked with various warning and danger labels that he was told was called an “entry plug” which seemed to be it's cockpit. On his left was a rimmed basin on the floor with a drain in the center of it that he hadn't the slightest clue as to what it's purpose was.
He also finally got a good look at the Evangelion since they now had drained most of that pool of strange liquid which thankfully had brought the temperature up a bit. It was massive, that was for sure, possibly as big as that thing he had to fight, 40 meters tall from what he was told which if he remember how metric converted to imperial made it about 132 feet. It was also a surprisingly human looking machine, well sort of. From what he could tell it seemed to have a strangely thin waist and extremely broad shoulders, not as extreme as the Angel's but still outside the human norm. It's whole body was covered in purple colored armor like it's head with a few dashes of green highlights here and there and it had a large heavily armored shell like compartment on it's back. It was pretty impressive looking to be sure but all this did little to wilt the fear that clawed at him and he was still far from convinced that this thing could stand against the Angel.
“You know, you really shouldn't be fiddling with those wires. We kinda need them to keep track of your vitals.” Dr. Ammadon warned him, trying to get his attention back to what she was explaining.
“Oh... sorry...” William apologized as he tried to regain his focus.
“Don't worry, later we'll have a proper plug suit for you. They do the same thing as that mess of wires as well as offer you some basic protection and life support functions.” she informed him, “Now remember William, you don't control this thing like car or any other vehicle you would be familiar with. Instead it uses an extremely advance mind machine interface to let you control it like it was your body, you pilot it like you pilot yourself. Alright, any questions?”
Those he did, more then he could ever hope to ask. He thought it over and tried to quickly sort out what he thought were the most important and then reasonably asked,“Ummmm... why... why is it that you need me to pilot it? Or that girl Rei? I mean why not some, you know, trained soldiers or something?”
She nodded and then answered,“Well the short answer is we don't know fully... You see in order to get the precision we needed to make the Eva practical we had to invent brand new ways to get the human mind to interface with a machine and well... there's still a few quirks we haven't worked out. Namely that they're not only extremely picky with WHO they synchronize with but what age group they do, might have something with the higher dopamine levels that teenagers have. We were hoping to have this worked out before the angels attacked buut... consideration doesn't seem to be one of their strong points. Ok, we've got time for one more question but then we need to get you out there.”
“They're sending me out in a weapon that still has “quirks”?!” He thought as part of him wanted his next question to be, “Are you all crazy?”, but he thought better of it and instead asked about something that was nagging him about it since he first saw it's “face”.
“Why... why is it... purple?”
That one earned a laugh from the doctor, “Well you see the Eva's are suppose to draw the angels away from the city and to make sure they stand out enough for them to do that we felt colors that clashed with the city scape would work best, think of it like how male birds use bright flashy colors to draw predators away from their mates.”
“To draw predators away from their mates.” William repeated in his mind. Her answers to his questions didn't make the idea of this any easier...
“Alright, let's get you boarded.” The doctor told the young pilot as she walked closer to him, pulling out an odd hair band like device that had two grayish horn like protrusions upper top corners and then handed it to him saying, “Here, put this on sliding the bends there around your ears. It might look goofy but it'll boost your brains connection with the Eva. Think of it like a cell phone antenna for your brain.”
William nodded and then put it on running his hand over one of the protrusions. The two NERV techs then walked him over to the pilot seat and helped him up onto it while the tech to his right told him, “Don't worry son, you're in good hands.”
They then strapped him in tight, locking down his chest and limbs, and then they closed a cover that encased almost all of his body leaving only his face exposed giving the impression he was inside of a large metal sarcophagus.
The right hand tech then asked him, “How do you feel? Anything too tight?”
“Umm no... I'm... fine.” He answered not knowing how to really tell him, this all felt so odd.
“That a boy.” The tech said trying to comfort him, “I know your scared but you'll pull through this, you got all of us watching your back ok.?”
Strangely enough his words did make him feel slightly better.
The tech double checked all the locks and restraints and then warned him, “Alright, I got to lock in the final piece now, it's going to cover your face and it's going to be pretty dark for a little bit so hang in there.”
William nodded and the final cover was slid into place turning his world to darkness. Now the weight of this was starting to come down on him, he stated to breath heavier, panicking as he felt himself being moved through the air. It stopped for a second and then he felt himself being lowered, he heard the the chair came in contact with something metallic and then he heard lock bolts thump into place.
Over an internal intercom he heard a females voice announce, “Throne has been inserted, removing termination plug... Plug removed, lowering entry plug.”
He then felt himself being tilted forward at an angle and then lowered again until he felt the plug clang as it made contact with something.
The same announcer then said, “Inserting entry plug.” and suddenly he felt himself begin spun around four times ending with the announcer exclaiming, “Plug inserted, all lights are green.”
Command Center
7:00PM EDT
Megan was standing at her spot on the Ops. station deck between Lieutenants Illich and Haynes carefully watching William being loaded into the Eva while the commander and vice-commander watch from their tower above. A door opened on the other side of the deck as Rachel made her way from the staging cage taking her position opposite of the captains.
“Plug inserted, all lights are green.” Lt. Illich informed everyone as the entry plug finished twisting and locking into place. A large armored hatch then closed and locked over area securing the plug.
She then announced, “Attaching umbilical.”, and a large cable was lowered and hooked up to plug just under the armored “shell” that covered the entry plug, “Voltage is nominal, moving onto LCL insertion. Filling the throne.”
Entry Plug
7:01PM EDT
“Filling the throne? “ William thought to himself... “With what? “
Just as he finished that though he began to feel water seep into his shoes and then up his pants leg and then to his waist...
It was flooding! This thing that he was locked into was flooding!
“Help me! I'm going to drown! Why the hell is this thing filling with water?!” William yelled in terror and confusion as he tried to move only to feel straps bite into his skin, forgetting that his limbs were strapped down.
“Well if you paid attention to what I was telling you, you would of known this was going to happen.” He heard Rachel scolded him over the line, “Once your lungs fill with LCL you'll be oxygenated directly, you can breath this stuff. It also acts as a medium to transmit your mental waves to the Eva. Don't worry just breath it in.”
You can what? He had never heard of a liquid you could breath before but as he was thinking about it the liquid was now up to his chin! While he knew that he was just told it was safe for him to breath in this liquid his instincts said otherwise. He found himself fighting against letting the liquid in as much as possible, trying to keep his noise above the water line and then holding his breath once the whole compartment was filled. Unfortunately he was never good at holding his breath and he was forced to let go less then a minute later, he exhaled and when he went to inhale but all he got was that liquid. Panic gripped him again as he felt the liquid fill his lungs, feeling the fluid like lead bricks, and once again he tried to move his bounded limbs in a desperate, instinctive bid to free himself. Back in the command center, Megan cringed as she watched his vitals spike all over the place, she could only imagine how terrifying it had to be to go through this the first time.
He knew it! he could feel it! He was drowning... but... he wasn't...
William slowly regained control of himself as realized he WAS breathing... only without actually breathing. It was just like the doctor said, but knowing something and going through it were two very different things.
He now felt slightly calmer, feeling the liquid surround his body was actually sorta comforting.... somehow it felt safe here now... somehow familiar.
The only thing that bothered him was the smell, it had the smell of blood.
William then reared back in shock as his mind's eye exploded in white light followed by electric patterns of neural circuitry printed in surging geometric shapes...
Command Center
7:02PM EDT
The air in the command center took on a tense tone as they moved into the next part of the activation, a sequence that need the captains or the commanders permission to begin.
“Begin synchronization.” Megan ordered after taking a deep breath followed by Lt. Illich acknowledging, “Understood, beginning synchronization.”
Rachel Leaned in over Lt. Illich's shoulder watching her display carefully as the lieutenant began a countdown, “Passing C one-twenty, C one-thirty, C one-forty, approaching the absolute boarder line...”
At that everyone on the deck eye's were on that screen...
...“C-one fifty.” Lt. Illich continued, “C-one sixty, C-one-seventy, the boarder line has been reached...”
The chart on her screen held there struggling to climb to the next number and then...
“C-one eighty! We are passed the absolute boarder line!” She informed everyone with exuberance returning to her tone.
The tension was lifted from the command center as it's personal let out a collective sight of relief.
Lt. Illich then announced, “The pilot is now synchronized with the Eva. Synchronization rate is... my god! It's 44.3 percent!”
“44 percent?!” Rachel repeated in amazement, this kid might have potential after all!
Entry Plug
7:03PM EDT
The young Eva pilot had no idea how to express what he was going through right now.
As he looked on various pieces of equipment around the area would suddenly become highlighted as a box appeared within his vision with a list of details highlighting information on that object.
He looked down and saw the Eva's body... and his own at the same time, like they were somehow super imposed over one another...
He looked to his left and he could see the Eva's shoulder enclosed by the wall of the cage as well as his own.
He could feel the metal of the Eva's armor and he could feel his own skin at the same time... as well as something else.
He felt so disorientingly huge and yet at the same time, so insignificantly small.
Another box appeared in his vision, this time it was an image of Megan. Needless to say he found seeing her now a bit reassuring.
“Hey William, how are you? You hanging in there?” He heard her say to him as if she was speaking right into his head.
“I... I feel... weird.... it's like I have two bodies at one time.” He replied trying to find a way to describe this.
“I bet. Now don't worry, this is only since you're new at this. It'll feel more natural as you build up your synchronization with the Eva.”Megan reassured him, “Oh, and hey. Guess what?”
“Hum? What is it?”
“You've just broke our first time synchronization record, by a long shot!” Megan told him hoping that would boost his confidence. “Ok now, William, see if you can move your hands.” Megan then instructed him.
While they felt very odd while he did it, he was still able to clench his fist with no real problems with the hands of the Eva following his lead.
“Umm... yeah... I can.”He replied, “They still feel kinda odd but I can move them... can't move my arm really... but... but yeah the Eva is following my movement. This... this is kinda neat.”
“Ok, that's very good. Now listen up, we're running out of time here and... and I know how scary this is going to be for you but I need you to keep your cool out there and listen to what me, Rachel and... and your father tell you...”
“Father... father is there?” William asked in both anticipation and foreboding.
“Yeah, your father is overseeing the whole thing William. Now like I said we all will guide you through this, just follow what we say and you will get through this ok?”
“I... I'll try.” he answered nervously.
Command Center
7:05PM EDT
Megan stared at the screen with reluctance at what she now had to do, it was time to send him up there... to send this poor kid with zero training against an enemy who just single handedly brought the greatest military power this planet had to offer to it's knees. But the only other choice they had wasn't much better.
Life is just to good at giving you two devils out of a situation.
Capt Megan Kelling took a deep breath and put all of that out of her, clearing her head. It was now time to be professional. She looked dead on at the image of the Eva on the main screen and ordered, “Begin launch procedure!”, and at her command thousands of the lock bolts that held down the Eva released, the side walls of the cage that enclosed the Eva's arms opened and moved forward leaving the Eva standing on a platform mounted on a rail way with the only one set of restraints left that lock hims in place on the platform the Eva was on.
Megan then leaned back in looking into the camera mounted to the control panel and open up her comlink to William again, “Ok William, now we're gonna to equip you an assault cannon...”
“A what?! I... I don't know how to use a gun... or anything like that!” He shot back over the line.
“Don't worry, just follow our lead and shoot when we tell you to shoot. You can do this, I believe in you.”
Entry Plug
7:06PM EDT
I believe in you.
He had never heard anyone say that to him before... not even from father...
“Al... alright Megan...Yeah...I can do this.”
A crane arm then carried over to him a large, sleek looking, weapon that resembled a giant machine gun and he grabbed onto it's grip holding tight, feeling it's weight in his hands.
“Might I add that you look like quite the bad ass with that cannon you're holding there.” Megan added causing Williams face to flush red. She then continued, “Ok William, now if you look to your left and right you'll that there's a pylon like structure on each of your shoulders. They'll be the black things you see on them.”
William looked left and right noticing them, they covered his shoulders and most of his upper arm and had a rectangular“fin” like structure on top of them. He did remember seeing them when he first looked at the Eva but at the time he just thought they were part of what was locking the giant in place.
“Ok... I see them”
“Good.” Megan replied nodding, “Those pylons hold support equipment, right now they hold secondary weapons. In the right side one is a special Eva sized knife called a progressive knife, prog knife for short. It uses progressive waves to cause the edge to vibrate at a super high frequency which makes the weapon extremely sharp. In your left side pylon is basically what amounts to an Eva sized version of pistol, it's got shorter range then the rifle but it's easier to use if you find yourself to close to the Angel. Now to activate them you'll just need to focus on opening them, just tell yourself “right pylon open” and it'll do so. Now while you probably won't need them try to keep this in mind.”
She waited for him to nod and then told him, “I'm gonna switch over to Rachel now, she's got something very important to tell you.” Megan's face then was replaced by the doctor's, needless to say he found seeing HER again less then reassuring.
“Need to make this quick so listen up. I need to go over a few things again since I know you didn't listen to me when I first explained all this. Alright, You know how that Angel took no damage from most of the weapons we hit it with, well that's because it had an A.T Field...”
“An AT what?” He asked in confusion.
“An A.T. Field.” She repeated, “It's a type of force field, kinda like what you'd see on Star Trek only far more powerful. So long as the Angel has it up it's almost invincible but we got something that can beat it. The Eva can generate a A.T. Field as well and when two A.T. Fields meet they start to cancel each other out which weakens them and with it's A.T. Field weakened it can be punched through and the Angel can be hurt but be careful, the weakening effect is a two way street. Your field will be weakened as well.”
“Ok... Ummm how... how do I use it?” He asked, trying to take all of this in.
“When we tell you to unfold your field just start concentrating, it'll come naturally to you. You got all that?”
“Yeah, I got it.” He replied wishing he had more time to go over this all, or that he had paid attention when she first gone over this.
“Good, it's time to move you out.”
Command Center
7:08PM EDT
Megan waited for the all clear singling that no one was in the path of the Eva's transportation line before moving on to her next command.
“Move Eva Unit 01 catapult number zero seven one, let's give him some distance.” She ordered and the Eva began to roll backwards as the platform it was on followed the rails into the main catapult room where several launch tubes lined the walls providing the Eva with paths to the surface.
Eva Unit 01 moved into it's launch tube and a quick check was made to make sure the route was clear and in working order, it came back green. Evangelion Unit 01 was ready for launch.
“Alright William, this is it. Are you ready?” Megan asked the young pilot.
“Ye... yeah.” He lied.
She then looked up at the commander and despite her better judgment asked, “Sir, can we really do this?”
The commander looked back down at her, his hand's folded over his mouth betraying no emotion as he replied, “We have little choice but to.”
His answer gave her no solace but she wasn't really expecting it to. She took a long hard look at the massive Eva as it stood in it's launch bay seeing past it and to the small child it held within.
It was time.
“Launch Eva!”
Catapult Room 71
7:06PM EDT
William winced as he found his body, both of them, instantly accelerated to 3 gees rocketing up the launch tube at impossible speeds as he was shot up to the surface.
He then felt himself decelerated almost as fast and with a heavy jerk he came to a rest standing in the middle of a large road in the middle of a city with warning lights going off around the spot the platform was now resting. It took a few seconds for him to calm himself, that would have been almost fun if he knew to expect it!
He took a look around as various buildings and other objects were highlighted just like in the cage. The city looked so empty and desolate, the only thing breaking the stillness besides the smoke rising up from several fires started around it was the flashes of lighting and that aura that shun almost beautifully in the night sky.
The Angel it's self however, was no where to be seen.
Megan popped back on screen and asked him, “So... how was it?”
“Ummm... it... it was pretty intense.” He told her with great understatement. He then asked her back, “Ummm so... where... where is it? Where is the Angel?”
“It's going to be heading your way, you should see it in a few more seconds. Figured I'd set up so you could get use to your new body first.” She informed him and he replied with an “Oh.”
She then said, “We're gonna set you lose now, you're gonna be standing for the first time under your own power like this so try not lose your balance.”
He nodded in response as he braced himself. He then heard her order, “Release finally safety locks!”, and felt the final clamps holding him down let go and for the first time he felt how truly massive he now was.
Rachel then came back over the line. “Ok William, very good. Now try walking, just do it like you wanted to move your own body, just take into account your now over a hundred feet tall.”
“Walk... I can do this... it shouldn't be that hard.” He muttered to himself as he thought about walking and slowly lifted his leg, the Eva's followed and then he put it down. The command room came alive as it did, he was really doing this!
He then moved his next leg up just as he saw the Angel come from behind a group of buildings about a mile away. It was huge! At lest TWICE as big as his machine! He locked onto the monster's hollow eyes and the monster looked on back, tilting it's head almost as if it was intrigued by this new thing it saw and William lost it. He brought his leg down wrong and found he couldn't fight the Eva's weight and as he toppled over, falling face first into the ground like a bomb blast. William grabbed his face in pain, it had felt like HIS face had hit the ground.
The Angel watched on as the Eva fell and then looked as if it noticed something and then reared back letting out a displeased sounding wail as it began to charge towards the fallen Eva, picking up speed as the aura above intensified.
William looked on at the charging titan and his mind went blank with fear, over the com line Megan and Rachel yelled for him to calm down and get up but he was beyond that now, pure instinct now drove his actions.
With a terrified yell William propped himself back up, raised his weapon and pulled the trigger feeling the cannon jar back under the force of it's recoil as a burst of rounds exploded from it's barrel! Three of the rounds manged to make their way over to the Angel flashing into balls of smoke against it's A.T. Field., the rest missed entirely blasting gaping holes from the sides of the surrounding buildings. He then dropped the weapon and turned to run but it was too late, the Angel was upon him, towering over the Eva as if it were a child.
With one hand it grabbed the Eva's head and forced it back around while lifting the Eva's great weight as if it was a doll. William flailed his arms around in desperation and the Angel reach in with it's other arm and grabbed his left one. A surge of muscle shot down the things arm and it snapped the Eva's like a twig raining shards of metal down to the ground along with something else, a red, blood like fluid.
William exploded with pain, he could feel it, he could the Eva's arm break as if it was his own!Over the com Rachel yelled, “Relax! That's not really your arm!” Little did that do to calm him, the pain told him otherwise.
“Your field William! Try unfolding your A.T. Field! Concentrate! You need to do this now!” She continued to yell in desperation but William was still locked in panic, this was far too much for him.
A sharp pain to his right eye then snapped him back to reality. He looked out at the Angel standing in front of him and saw a glow formed around the Angel's elbow spike and it shot out from it's palm slamming into the visor covering the Eva's right “eye”.
William clenched in pain, frozen with the shock of it as the spike shot out again and again and again.
Finally the visor's armor gave way and the spike impaled it's way through the Eva's head erupting out the back of it in a shower of red fluid. All singles were cut from the Eva and William's vitals dropped to zero.
Some other place, some other time...
“Oh. Come in William, it's alright, I don't mind an audience.”
“Yes... yes sir.” William meekly replied to his guardian, staring in interest at the strange instrument he was playing. Despite now living with this man for over a year now he still found him to be somewhat intimidating.
“Do you know what this is?”
The boy shook his head looking at the instrument he was playing, he had never seen one before though it did kinda looked like a giant guitar to him.
“It's called a cello... You know your father used to be quite the violin player and he wasn't bad with the guitar either. Sadly he never went anywhere with it.”
“Daddy...”
“Would you like to learn to play the cello, I could teach you.”
William thought about it and nodded.
“That's good... Hmmmmmm I... I think I still have my first one from when I was a lad stashed up in the attic. I'll retrieve it for you tomorrow and I can begin giving you lessons.”
William nodded again with a faint smile. Maybe if I learned to play it I would be special and if I was special maybe my daddy would love me again and then he would take me home.
“I just want my daddy to love me again.”
Last edited by Ryjin on Tue Jun 26, 2012 3:04 pm, edited 4 times in total.
"It is the Thunderbolt that steers the universe."~ Heraclitus
The people who voted for Obama or Romney are fucking idiots. Wake the fuck up.
"The Constitution was our last, best hope for peace... It failed. But, in the Year of the War against the Globalists, it became something greater: our last, best hope
The people who voted for Obama or Romney are fucking idiots. Wake the fuck up.
"The Constitution was our last, best hope for peace... It failed. But, in the Year of the War against the Globalists, it became something greater: our last, best hope
Alright guys, sorry about the delay but thing's been kinda crazy the past few days on my end but now with this posting volume one comes to an end.
I'll be taking about a week break before starting on the next volume and once I start posting again it'll probably only be updating twice a week; kind spent all my free time pumping out each chapter of the first volume and while it was fun it's not something I can keep up if I plan on finishing this project.
Now in the mean time however I'll probably be looking over chapter one and making changes and edits to it trying to fix things that are nagging me or I missed.
So thanks to everybody whose put down the time and effort to read this project of mine, if I helped someone enjoy their day then I've proudly done my job.
NEON GENESIS EVANGLION: TO THE VICTOR
Vol: 1 Dark Messenger
Chapter Seven
Beginnings
Tuesday August 25th, 2015
Angel blast site near the Potomac river west bank, Washington D.C.
5:52AM EDT
Most of what was once the south-western side of the city was now a blasted out ruin crawling with an army of NERV personal clad in orangeish-red hazard suits. Armed with a collection of geiger counters, bio-chem sensors along with high-pressure hoses they searched the area block by block for any samples left by the angel that could unlock any clues about it's nature while washing away any possible contaminates while behind them, near the edge of the blast site, suited construction workers examined what few buildings that still stood to see if any were worth salvaging while massive, earth shaking, construction vehicles cleared debris and demolish condemned structures.
Amongst this, in the center of the main blast crater, a large crane removes from the rubble the charred remains of the massive, mask like, face of the Evangelion Unit that sortied the night before...
Commanders conference room, NERV HQ
Meeting with the Human Instrumentality Council: In session
6:02AM EDT
Commander Gregory Ikari sat at the end of the conference table in a room almost totally enclosed in darkness pierced only by the dim of red lights lining the wall giving some shape to it along with the color coded lighting overhead vaguely highlighting each of the members of the council whom he has been meeting with.
Blue for the Russian representative to his immediate right.
Yellow for the French representative to his left.
Green for the American representative on the far right hand corner.
Red for the English representative on the left hand one.
And finally white for the German representative who sat at the head of the table, his dark eyes locked on to Ikari betraying no emotions. Of all the powerfully men gathered here he was the only one Ikari gave any heed to.
“So now, after 15 years the Angels have finally begun to awaken.” Said the Russian in an surprisingly casual manner.
“Yesss, but this was far sooner then was predicted. This could... complicate things.” Hissed the Frenchmen in much the same manner.
“Well such is the way with disasters, they come and go with out warning. But the commander here knows that all quite well.” Said the Englishmen, continuing the line of thought, his eyes focused on Ikari looking to see if he had drawn blood.
“This maybe so but it is simply a fact we must deal with and adapt to.” Replied Ikari through his steepled hands, “And in any case we have found ourselves fortuitous that it was the fourth angel that awoken first.”
“Indeed, most fortuitous. Had it been the third one with our current unready position things could... of gotten interesting.” Agreed the American who added, “But all in all it would seem out investment here has not been a total waste.”
“I would not be so sure to agree to that yet.” Countered the Russian, “In the long run this may still cost us more then it gains.”
“Yes, the projected costs to repair Unit 00 along with those projected for Unit 01 and the damage done to the city in addition to their normal operating costs is... simply staggering.” Agreed the American putting emphasis on his last two words.
“And then there's the fact you gave that toy to your son.” Continued the Russian, “Time, money and manpower. How much more will be consumed by you and your family before begin sated Ikari?”
“And on top of that what about the fact that you are behind schedule on the Human Instrumentality Project. Angels or not this should be you top priority.” The Englishmen berated.
“Agreed.” Said the German speaking for the first time, “Ikari that project above all others is our best hope and I can not tolerate any further delays. I may have to reconsider the budget.”
The German took a look across the table at his fellow councilmen and the NERV commander and then ordered, “That being said, I think we have covered all the main points for this day. We are done here, meeting adjourn. We will meet again at our standard schedule.”
And with that the lights over the heads of the councilmen went out and they each vanished for view, their presence there the whole time being nothing but a holographic projection. Now only the commander and the German remained. He looked dead across the table at Ikari, “You do know there is now no turning back from the course we have chosen.”
“I know that all too well Kiel.” Ikari answered back. The German then nodded in reply before finally disappearing himself.
Ikari then spent a moment steering out into the darkness that enfolded his vision before solemnly stating, “This is the fate we have cast on ourselves.”
“We can only pray that those fools realize that as well.” Replied the vice-commander as he stepped out from the shadows behind Ikari, “Otherwise the Angels will be the lest of our problems.”
Room 101 First Cranial Nerve Advanced Trauma Center, main pyramid section A-10 NERV HQ
6:30AM EDT
Wa-ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!
-*Umph-haaaaaaa*-
-*Umph-haaaaaaa*-
-*Umph-haaaaaaa*-
-*Umph-haaaaaaa*-
William Ikari shot up from the bed into a sitting position, his back drenched in sweat, as he tried to clear the images from his mind that had violently awaken him. Images of war, of pillars of fire, of him savagely attacking a monster, yelling like a beast, a man trapped in a crashed fighter and all the death that stood in his wake. At end of it all was... was his mother. Not her face or image, just the presence of her.
He looked down at his left arm while rubbing his right eye with his other hand. They weren't in pain, there just was something odd about how they felt. They just felt wrong.
He then looked around the room he was in confused. It seemed to be a hospital room but he had no idea of how he got there or where “here” was. He looked out the row of windows to his right giving him a view of a large forest bathed in the gray haze of early morning sun and then laid back down staring up at the ceiling trying to make sense of all this.
“What the hell happened to me?”
Angel decontamination site operations deployment tent
6:42AM EDT
Capt. Megan Kelling grabbed a pop from the cooler and plopped down on her seat next to her friend and co worker Dr. Rachel Ammadon, giving her battered armpits a rest from the constant abuse her crutches gave them. She opened her can up and took a swig and then went back to hog as much of the fan that sat on her “desk” luke-warm air as she could on this particularly brutal August day. It was hot almost all year round now but August was still the worst.
They were both in charge of overseeing the clean up of the blast site or more precisely, they were in charge of overseeing the clean up. Their shift as the operations leaders had just ended. Megan's was also almost over for the day as well, just a few more reports to file and she could go home, and they were taking a quick break before the headed back to HQ.
Megan took one last look at the live feed of workers patrolling a blown out apartment complex on her laptop before closing it while thinking outloud, “If this is what victory looks like...” and then flipped on the small portable TV someone brought along hoping to catch a few minutes of something amusing only to find every channel had the same “Special news event” of some nameless member of the presidents press core lying to the American people that nothing special has happened the day before.
“Soooo, public scenario B-84. Can't believe they're going with this bullshit.” Megan commented as she switched off the TV back off.
“Yeah.” Rachel replied while tossing an empty water bottle into a can mark recyclables, “Public relations is pretty happy, they finally have something to do.”
“Well I'm glad someone is finding something to be happy about in this.” Megan remarked back sarcastically, “But you know, they could try telling people the truth. Crazy I know.”
“The truth?!” Rachel repeated in mock bewilderment acting like it was the dirtiest word she ever head, “You are crazy, the government has an reputation to up hold after all!”
Rachel grabbed another bottle of water then asked, “ Wanna head back?”
“Yeah, let's go.”
The two of them made their way over to motor pool where their truck was parked passing by what seemed to be a normal eight story apartment complex with inspectors checking over it, normal until with the sound of heavy hydraulics pushing each floor above the first three slide forward slightly and opened up revealing rows of metal boxes. Hatches at the top of each box opened and cranes started removing large missiles from each box lowering it to the ground where NERV personal began to inspected them.
Looking up at the missile battery disguised as an apartment complex as she garbed the handle on the passenger side door Megan remarked, “You know with Eva and this city, once we get it up an running, we might just be able to do this after all.”
“You're such an optimist” Rachel shot back with a laugh, shaking her head as she climb into the truck
Just outside room 101
6:45AM EDT
William Ikari gazed out of the windows that lined the hallway just outside of his room. He looked out past the forest that surrounded the area and the few noticeable buildings that dotted the landscape and to the strange doomed wall that laid at the end, something long and metallic seemed to be going up a spiraling path along it.
“So I am really in a Geofront... but if I'm underground... how is there sunlight?”
As he looked around for the source for the sunlight he noticed something to the left. He leaned in closer against the window to get a better view of what it was seeing two of the large armored buildings like the kind he remembered seeing when he first entered the Geofront with Ms. Kelling crashed into the ground. One was impaled right into the ground like a giant stake with it's bottom few floor crushed into each other to the point where they had merged, the other one was laying on it's back and the lower half of it was bent upward in an odd way. Around both buildings large construction vehicles where trying to dismantle them.
Coming from his left side he heard a stretcher being pushed down the hallway towards him. He turned to look and saw that it was that poor girl Rei lying on it being pushed by a nurse.
She looked right into his eyes and William let out a barely audibly, “S... sorry.”, as she passed him by disappearing as she went around a corner.
How could he ever forgive himself? How could he ever forgive himself for putting her through that?
On 14th street heading North bound
7:01AM EDT
“So your cars a total wreak?” Rachel asked her friend, who now stripped down to a tank top and practically molesting the AC vent in front of her, getting a depressed, “Yeah.”, in reply.
“That sucks.” Rachel sympathized.
“Yeah, at lest they're letting my borrow a car until I can deal with my insurance company. Assholes are giving me the run around, calming that no where does it say their coverage deals with military actions. Can you believe that crap!” Megan vented.
“Yeah, they got loopholes for ever...” Rachel began to say when her cell phone went off. She took it from her pocket while asking Megan to excuse for a minute while she took it the call.
“Yeah... oh, that's good... Yeah keep me updated.”
Rachel hung up the phone told Megan the news, “Well looks like our little pilot is up.”
“How is he? Is he alright?” She asked Rachel in a worried tone.
“He seems fine. Nothing's physically wrong though... his memories of last night seem to be a little muddled.”
“Think it could be brain damage?!” Megan half yelled out.
“Naaaaw.” Rachel replied, “He just went through a lot, he'll be fine.”
She then glanced over her friend again, “Want me to drop you off by the hospital?”
“Yeah.”
Main lobby First Cranial Nerve
7:42AM EDT
William sat waiting in a chair in the hospitals waiting room to be picked up while staring at his left arm. While the doctors said he was fine his arm still felt... off.
From behind him he heard a familiar voice ask, “William, how.. how are you feeling?”
Despite the calming effect of hearing her voice she wasn't who he really wanted to be picking him up and all he could answer with was a shrug of his shoulders.
“Ok... let's... let's get going. You got some paper work you need to go over.” Megan explained.
“Ok.” William replied as he got up.
They made their way over to the elevators crossing the hospitals hexagon patterned floor and Megan hit the down button. A few seconds latter the third elevator to their left opened with a ding and they went to enter it when they saw it had an occupant. It was Williams father.
William's eyes lit up and he waited for his father to tell him he came to pick him up but only found him silently looking at him as if he was a complete stranger. He then lowered his head in dismay looking at the two hexagons that stood at his feet between him and the elevator. The elevator's door closed and his father was gone.
Megan look on at the boy with sadness in her eyes, what kind of man could do that to his own son? How could the commander be so cold?
NERV New Recruit Orientation Center, NERV HQ
11:02AM EDT
For the next three hours William sat through hundred pages of paper work, meet three recruitment officers and even had to sit through new personal orientation video that made the manual he read through look absolutely riveting in comparison. Through all of this Megan stayed by his side.
William had decided to stay as an Eva pilot, Megan was surprised.
“You're quarters are going to be in barracks number three, two and a half blocks south of the main building, I'll have a map with directions for you before you leave.” The recruitment office told NERV's newest member after which he ask, “Any questions?”
“No, none that I can think off.” Williams replied.
Something just felt wrong to Megan about this, it was bad enough that his father wasn't going to have his own son live with him but to make him live all on his own?”
“William.. are you ok with this? With being alone?”
He looks back to her with a false smile on his face and replies, “It's alright Megan, I'm use to it. I'm alone anyways. Anywhere will be fine.”
Hearing him say that was her final straw, she had to do something.
Head Chairpersons Office Project E Main Science Dpt., main pyramid section A-10 NERV HQ
1:016PM EDT
Dr. Rachel Ammadon snuffed out the butt of her cigarette into her overflowing white ashtray adorn with a cute drawing of two cats and promptly lit another.
Technically NERV was a smoke free environment but she was one of the few people here in the special situation of NERV needing her a whole lot more then she need NERV, With her credentials she could walk out the door today and have a job at any university, computer company or A.I research center in the world she wanted the next day which needless to say earned her a few perks.
Sadly it also earned her a never ending workload with just enough free time to at lest sleep at her apartment. Or it had, with the work load she had in the aftermath of the Angel's attack she wouldn't be sleeping at home anytime soon. It did help that she was a workaholic who found it easier to relate the work place then “real life” but even she was she really starting to feel the strain.
“Maybe I'll give Megan a call later and we can go out tomorrow night, I really do need to get out of here.” She thought as she leaned back, puffed a few drags and took a sip from her equally cat themed coffee cup. She then waited for the combination of nicotine and caffeine to kick in and went to get started back on finishing her report on the rather lack luster findings they got from the few tissue sample the Angel left behind when her cell phone rang.
“Hey Megan, could you make it quick. I got to get this report done with in the next hour... What was that?!”
What was this idiot thinking?
NERV Tactical Operations, Capt. Kelling's Office, NERV HQ B-12 Central Dogma
1:20PM EDT
“You heard me. He's going to be staying with me, it's already been approved!” Megan replied laying back in her chair, feet up on her desk while William sat on a stool a few feet behind her.
“Are you sure you can handle it? He is a teenage boy.” Rachel asked knowing full well that she was in position to try to take on the responsibility of handling a kid, let alone a hormonal teenager!
“What? I'll be fine.” She replied completely sidestepping the question, “Don't worry, I promise not to make any passes at him?”
“What?! What would even think of such a thing?!” Rachel yelled in surprise over her friends choice of words loud enough that William heard it from where he was sitting prompting Megan to pull the phone away from her ear lest suffer permanent hearing loss while muttering, “Jezz, sometimes you got not sense of humor at all.”
Heading East on Benning road
6:43PM EDT
“You know we're gonna have to go all out tonight right?” Megan said to William with a warm smile as she drove her loner down the street as the sun started to set in the sky.
“Why is that?” William asked puzzled trying his best not show just how out of place he felt right now. It wasn't that he was afraid of Ms. Kelling, no it was far from that, it was just... something he couldn't place made him uneasy.
“Well I got to have a welcoming party for new roommate of course.” She answered with a wink.
She's just had gotten off of a long day of work, William had made a full recovery and she now had a new roommate. Sounded like a good reason to party to her. Well that and the city as well as the world still being here, there was that.
After driving for a few minutes in silence Megan pulled into the 7-11 near her apartment and took William in to grab some snacks and pop he liked while she grabbed two cases of Miller Light and then made it over to the check out counter. While everything was being rung up William heard two women talk behind him while they waited in line. It wasn't like he was trying to listen in on their business but the subject of their discussion made it hard for him not to.
“So you're really leaving town tomorrow?” The taller and older looking of the two asked the smaller younger looking one.
“Well after what happened last night Phillip told me that I should just take the kids and move in with Beth until things blow over.” Replied the younger one.
“My God Liz, it was horrible... Sara's place was totally destroyed, nothing but a hole in the ground. Oh! And did you hear about the shelter that collapsed?” Continued the older one.
“No... my goodness. But it figures, probably cut corners to pocket a little extra money. But really you should go to, just get the hell out of this place. I don't care what NERV has, if it can't stop this from happening to the city then what good are they?” Said the shorter one as William heard all he could take, lowering his head down once more in despair.
“Why did it have to me? Why did father have to chose me for this... I can't even save these people...”
Megan look over at William with concern in her eyes, she too heard the conversation behind them and knew full well how deep those words were cutting at him. He was going to need something a little extra special to pick him up and she had just the thing in mind.
They made it back to the car and Megan started it up and took off heading back in the direction they came. She then looked over at William telling him, “We're going to be taking a little detour before we head home alright?”
“Where... where we going?”
“Somewhere really cool.” Megan vaguely hinted with a wink. He's was going to like this.
After twenty minutes of driving Megan made her way to the outskirts of the city and over to a raised area of land set up as a tourist site that offered a beautiful view of the city and it' officials capitalized on the fact lining the railing with rows of coin operated binoculars.
She parked and took William up to the edge and waited while William looked across at the city dabbed in shades of crimson and gold highlighted by the setting sun. While the view combined with the time of day was breathtaking the city still look somehow bleak to him. There was also how different it looked now from pictures he had seen of it, before the bombing. The Pentagon was gone completely, apparently the nuke was set off from inside a van no more then eighty feet away leaving only a crater that was turned into a small lake to mark where it once stood. Then there was the fact that most of the city was made up of “historically significant architecture” which in turn meant that most of the city burned like dry kindling, in fact from what William was told by his guardian the wood frame of the Washington monument caused it burn like a giant candle for days after the blast. Sturdier buildings like the Library of Congress and the Capital Building still were mostly wood on the inside and housed liberal amounts of paper leaving them beyond repair while the White House was only partly leveled. It was later physically moved from it's location, decontaminated and was now undergoing extensive renovation and reconstruction. The only familiar landmarks he could make out were the Lincoln and Jefferson memorials and the National Archives building (though it helped that the former building was a more modern one, designed to survive a nuclear blast).
The rest of the city was new and expanded though most of it was just rows of the same small clusters of buildings you would find in most medium sized cites. The only new things that jump out at him where the large grid of metal plates several blocks in size that lined the middle of the city like a giant cross and the three large reflective towers to the North-West corner of the Potomac which he figured was what was bringing light down to the Geofront.
Then there was the damage. Several large craters dotted the city scape, some so deep that they just looked like black pits, along with the leveled buildings that surround them. The worst of them was just off the South-West corner of the Potomac river were the largest of the craters laid, the surrounding area for blocks around it looked like someone ran over it with a giant black paintbrush.
“Why? Why did she bring me here? I know already how much I messed things up...”
Megan pulled her cell phone from her pocket and looked at the time: 6:59.
Air raid sirens started up filling the air with their harsh wail and William's eyes widen.
Dotted lines of reds lights appeared on each of the metal metal plates as several large hatches opened and out from them equally large armored buildings sprang forth and William's eyes went wide again, this time from surprise and wonderment.
“This... this is amazing! It's almost like they're growing!”
Megan looked on Wlliam's change of mode and smiled.
“William, this is your city now. The city you saved.”
Lovely Suites Condominiums 17
7:25PM EDT
Megan lead William off of the elevator and down to her apartment at the end of the hallway just before it bended off to the left. As they walked down the hall Megan noticed it was filled with more boxes then usual. People must be moving out but then again, who would want to live in a warzone?
As they made it to the door Megan pulled a key card from her pocket while informing William, “Your guardian sent us a bunch of your stuff a few years back, we got at over at HQ. They should have it shipped up here sometime tomorrow.”
“Oh... he did? Alright.” William replied while Megan slide the card across the magnetic reader and the door slide open and stepped in.
William followed Megan up to the doorway's edge and stopped. The line that divided the hall from the apartment was now a threshold for him, once he crossed it he knew that was it, this was to be his life now and no longer just something that he just acknowledged at the back of his mind and he wasn't sure if he was ready for this yet.
“What wrong William?” Megan asked seeing his reluctance and with a smile and out stretched arm she told him, “This is your house too, now come in.”
He nodded and took her hand and finally steeped inside. “I... I'm home.”
“Welcome home William.”
William followed his new roommate down the apartment's entry way and into it's living room where he found it to be an explosions of half empty boxes, car magazines, empty pizza cartons and a small mountain of empty bottles of booze and beer cans! He had never seen any place so... so... messy! How could anyone live like this?! Let alone a woman?!
“Don't mind the mess, I just moved in two days ago and haven't really been home since the home warming party.” Her explanation did little to curve William's astonishment at the condition of this place.
She then started to give him a quick tour of her place, “Alright, this is the front room. TV's over there in the corner, I got a couple of games systems. Feel free to play em'.” She then had him follow her to the other end of the room. “This end's the dinning room, we eat there.” she said pointing at the cheep dinning room table sitting in the middle of the room with four chairs surrounding it. Then she pointed to the room to her left, “That's the kitchen, we make food there. There's also a laundry room in there, we wash our dirty drawers there. Balcony’s behind me, we chill there. Room to my right is my room, I sleep there... sometimes. If the door's close knock before entering unless you want to see me naked... ummmm forget that part, moving on. Door to to the left of the kitchen is the bathroom, we poop and bath there... ewww didn't sound as nasty when I thought of saying it.” She lead him back towards the living room and open a door to a small room that housed a gym mat, some small weights thrown about, a exercise machine and a radio sitting on small cabinet next to the mat just off from being on the opposite side of the place from the bathroom, “This was suppose to be a office room but I made it my exercise room.” She then finally she took him to the last room in the place, “ And this is the guest room though from now on it's going to be your room.”
William took a look into his new room and was surprised to see it was actually clean, just in need of a little dusting. It was a decent sized room, about the same sized as the one he lived in back in Georgetown but with a queen sized bed in the left hand corner and a dresser already there. All and all it wasn't bad.
Megan was pleased to see he seemed to like the room.“Now remember William, that's your room. Feel free to do whatever you want with it... well so long as you don't knock any holes in it or something.”
After William was done checking out his room to be and had steeped back out into the living room Megan took a look around the place and said, “Alright,William mind putting the food away? I'm gonna go change out of my work close and after that let's get this place straitened up a little before we got to partying, nothing to major, if you don't mind.”
“Oh no, I don't mind.” William replied as he grabbed the bags and beer and took them into the kitchen while Megan stepped into her room, She sat on her bed and took off that annoying knee brace, rubbed her knee down with lotion and then wrapped with some elastic bandages and gauze before changing into shorts and a tank top.
William finished putting away to snacks as best he could, he didn't know how she liked to keep her things but on the other hand it didn't seem like she would of cared anyways. He stepped back out into the living room where he saw Megan leaning on her crutches looking around the place and her face lit up like she just remembered something, “Oh yeah, before we start we got to split up the chores around here.”, and before he could even respond she threw out her hand yelling, “Rock, paper, scissors!”
With no time to react William just left his hand out open, unfortunately for him she had picked scissors.
“Ha! Scissors cut paper!” She yelled in victory maybe a little to exuberantly. “Looks like you handle cleaning tomorrow, alright let's try for Thursday! Come on kid, better step up!”
Fifteen minutes later...
“Well that was a really fair way to split of the work load.” Megan exclaimed with a shit eating grin as she marked on which day each of them had the daily chores on the calendar with an initial of their first name. William felt otherwise as he look over the calendar for the next four weeks and the insubordinatelly high numbers of times his initial came up over his roommate, he almost said something about it but... well it wasn't THAT big of a deal.
They then got to cleaning up the place and after about an half and hour of no real head way Megan decided to call it and get something to eat. She told William to go relax and she disappeared into the kitchen for about fifteen more minutes then came back out with dinner, two Tyson's microwavable chicken dinners as well as a case of beer.
“Alright, soups on!” She yelled as she placed the dinners down on the table. William took a seat while Megan grabbed a beer, leaned her crutches against the was and sat down in the chair opposite of him, chugged it down like a champion! She grabbed another one, then announced, “Let's eat!” with a light slur to her voice, this was her eight beer for the night so far, and dug in.
As she finished her second beer (for the dinner that is) she noticed that William wasn't really eating, just sorta picking at he meal.
“Hmmmm? William? Don't you want to eat? I mean yeah, it's not a fresh cooked meal but it's still pretty good.”
“Ah, it's just that... that I'm not used to this sort of thing.” William replied embarrassed that he brought this kind of attention to himself.
“Too good to eat his food is he?!” Megan thought mistaking what William meant. She slammed the empty can down and leaned forward yelling, “Oh no! I'm not gonna have some finicky kid waste food at my table!”
“No... it's... it's not that it's just ahhhhhh...” William muttered out trying to explain himself when he noticed with her leaned over and her tank top hanging down that she wasn't wearing a bra... he didn't mean to stare but... there they were, two nice and pump B-cups and he couldn't look away.
“Hmmm, well isn't this nice.” Megan said sweetly.
William face turned red (well redder) thinking she had caught him looking. “Huuuh, what?” he stummered out both trying to play dumb as well do to the fact he simply didn't know how to respond.
“Having someone with you while you eat of course.” Megan explained with a smile.
“Oh, yeah... yeah.” William let out meekly. He started to calm a bit now that he realized she didn't seem to have noticed.
Megan then leaned back down into her chair and grabbed another beer.
“Don't for get, that this place is your home too so feel free to take advantage of anything you want. Ok?”
“Y... yeah...” William replied weakly again.
Megan folded her arms while her expression turned slightly annoyed.
“Yes, yes, yes. What's with you? Always acting so proper? You're a boy! Started acting like one!” Megan then leaned in over the table aggressively with he arm reached out. William froze as she leapt forward her action triggering a brief flashback of the night before, of some great hand grabbing his own. As he snapped too he found himself in a light head lock as Megan rained nuggies upon his noggin while yelling, “Come on, get more aggressive! Start acting like a man!”
She then relented leaning back, “Oh well. I guess this is just your way. If you don't feel like eating right now, why don't you go and take a bath? Go relax your self, you've had a pretty rough past two days and besides... ehehheh, you're hairs a mess.”
William touched the top of his now frizzed up hair with minor annoyance and agreed with another, “Yeah.” It wasn't that he really felt like a bath, it was just being in the spot light like this... was off putting.
William excused himself and headed over to the bathroom while Megan traced him with her eyes. After he disappeared behind the door she finished of her current beer and thought to herself, “I guess... I'm trying to much to relate with him...” She sat her beer can down next to the others, “Maybe I'm the one who needs to grow up.”
William laid soaking in the bathtub, letting the steaming water relax his body. “Megan Kelling. She seems to be a nice person...” His mind remembers back to her smiling face picking him up from the hospital. “And then there's that girl, Rei...” his mind then flashed back to seeing her being being brought into the Eva's cage on that stretcher and the shame that made him feel while at the same time remembering back to that girl he saw who looked so much like her. “... who is she?”
And then his mind settled on the image of his father, his cold stare as he turned his back on him.
“Father... Rei...”
“Why is this all happening?”
2nd Experiment Site, Terminal Dogma B-32
9:28PM EDT
“How was Rei?” Rachel asks as she stepped into the heavily damage control room, crunching glass, as she ducked around a tangle of wiring that hanged from an exposed spot where the armored ceiling tile had fallen away.
Towards the front of the room, highlight only by the red emergency lights that hung from the ceiling, Commander Ikrai stood stood silent not answering Rachel's question as he looked out the smashed operational windows and into experimental operations cage at the yellow armor clad one eyed giant that stood within. It was half hunched over with it's right arm smashed fully through the wall sealant poured around it to keep the coolant that surrounded the room keeping it a controlled environment from leaking in. It's other other arm clenched it's head almost as if it was cradling it from some great pain while it's lower half was cemented in place with a super resilient quick dry synthetic resin called durabakelite.
Rachel asked again, “You went and saw her this morning didn't you?”.
This time he responded, without looking back at her, “She will be able to work again in twenty days. By then repairs and testing should be done on Unit 00”
“It's just so hard putting this all on the shoulders of children.” Rachel said somewhat shocked at the coldness of his answer as she walked closer to him until she stood behind him.
“You know full well these children are the only ones who can do this, so long as they survive it is what I will have them do.” The commander replied not once moving his gaze from the giant before him.
He was right, she knew this all to well but... knowing something and dealing with the realities of it are two very different beasts. The human mind has an amazing capacity to fool it's self in that regard and she found herself projecting her own anger at herself for playing this part in all this as she yelled, “And with no regard for what they may want?!”
Megan’s apartment
9:49PM EDT
“Yeah, after all this even though he agreed to stay I don't know if he'll be up to piloting again.” Megan explained over her cordless while relaxing in the tube after finishing up with William's welcoming party.
“Maintaining him is your joooob.” Rachel chided her from the other end with a mock condescending tone.
“You know Rachel.... to tell the truth I am kinda scared, I don't think I know how to deal with him.”
“Bitching already? It was your great idea to take him in, “Oh! I'll be fine!” Rachel reminded her getting an overbearingly loud, “Oh shut up!” followed by the click of Megan's phone hanging up.
Megan look down at her self feeling shamefull, Rachel was right... as much as she hated to admit it.
“I'm no different from her am I? In the end I'm still thinking of him as a tool.”
She looked back her phone sitting on the side of the tub and then back up at the ceiling.
“Even though we destroyed that Angel... why... why don't I feel happy?”
William laid in his bed listening to his MP4 player in silence, his “welcoming party had ended. It was fun he had to admit but, he didn't think he could ever get use to being the center of attention like that.
He changed the track back from fifteen to sixteen and rolled onto his back looking up at the ceiling.
“Just like that hospital, this is still an unfamiliar place for me....though really...” He sighed to himself, “... There's nowhere that's familiar to me here.”
He thought back to Megan welcoming him in with her outstretch hand.
“Why am I here?”
“What am I doing?”
“I should of just run away...”
“Father... why did you have to put this all on me?”
William once again turned the tack back to sixteen as he roll over onto his side and curled up.
Megan finished up her bath and stood up bearing the pain from her knee, thankfully the beer was helping with that, and steeped out of the tub using the wall for support. She grabbed a towel and then sat down on the toilet and started drying her self. She then re-wrapped her bandaged around her knee then wrapped the towel around herself as a robe, grabbed her crutches and made her way over to her room stopping when she reached the edge of William's open door. She looked in seeing the poor boy laying there.
“Will... William, mind if I come in?” She asks getting no reply in return.
She leaned in more but didn't fully enter and said, “I... I forgot to tell you. You did a great and noble thing William... You should be proud of yourself. “
She leaned back out to “her” side of the door way still receiving no reply.
“Well good night William.... Hang in there.”
With that Megan closed the door to his room and left. William closed his eyes and curled up even more tightly and soon had fallen off to sleep. Then, the nightmares came again.
NERV Command Center, twenty seven hours ago.
The main screen displayed a video feed showing an aerial shot of the battle as the command staffed watched helplessly as the Angel rammed it's arm spike straight through the Eva's head showering the streets with an explosion of red fluid gushed out of the back of it. The Angel drew it's weapon back and then tossed the now limp, lifeless, Eva into a building towards the end of the block and then it turned and walked away, another annoyance dealt with.
“We've lost all contact with Unit 01!” Lt. Illich yelled out as all of the monitoring screens on her counsel dropped to nothing.
“Any chance it's do the Angel's interface?” Shouted Capt. Kelling. “Please... please be alright...”
“Negative, the umbilical is still attached, we should be getting something!” Lt. Haynes replied looking back from his counsel at the captain.
Megan looked up at the screen showing the Eva leaning over the now half demolished building it landed on looking all in the world like a massive dead body, red fluid steadily streaming from the damage areas around it's eye and arm. She then leaned in closer to Haynes asking, “Mikey, how's William?”
“I've got nothing ma'am, the monitors are all down, I can't tell if he's alive or dead!”
She knew this was a bad idea. How could they expect a child, especially one who's never had even the slightest combat training, to pull this off... Of course she also knew full well she was the one who handed him over to them, that she was just as much to blame for all this. She took one more look at the battered Eva and imagined the child’s body mangled and broken with in it. They needed to get him out of there.“Alright, under my authority we're aborting the operation!” Capt. Megan Kelling yelled, “Marry! Get him the hell out of there!”
“I can't!” Lt. Illich yelled back in panic, “They system says it's accepting the ejection command but... the plug isn't moving!”
“Break the circuits and try a manual override!” Dr. Ammadon ordered to Lt. Illich as she leaned in closer, looking over her screen for anything the lieutenant might of missed. Illich frantically went over every deactivation program and every back doors she knew but nothing!“I can't! It's somehow physically refusing the signal!”
Something then caught her eye on he screen, it was the Eva's activation protocol! “Wait! Unit 01... it's starting back up!”
“What was that!” Megan asked in surprise, it couldn't be... could it? She then noticed slight moment coming from the Eva, it's right hand started to twitch and it's mouth started to move slightly and then...
-*PANG!*-
The Eva's great maw opened fully as all the restraining bolts that held it close where ripped free. It then rose from the rubble, leered forward and let out a howl of unimaginable savagery.
Angel battle site near Launch Route 071
The streets heaved under the Eva's great bulk as it steeped forward and knelled. Up head the Angel turned to look back at what had just caused this disturbance behind it just in time to see Eva Unit 01 launch it's self into a flip, ripping the street half out of the ground below it as it did so! It then landed squarely onto the Angel's massive chest before it could even react with such force that it was nearly knocked back over it's self. The Eva then clawed at the Angels boned face, cleaving half of it off reviling the ossified structure below it.
The Angel let out a wail and a surge of lightning bolts rained down from the skies. It thrust out it's arm and garbed the Eva's arms lifting it off of it's chest as the Eva snarled and wrenched trying to break free. It then tossed the Eva forward and shot a lance of light from it's eyes while it was still in the air but with an orange flare the blast flowed around the Eva consuming the surrounding buildings.
The Eva landed back on it's feet with an explosion of dust and asphalt, bending it knees and using it's good arm to absorb the energies of the impact. It looked up at the Angel as two more pulses of light shot from it's eyes, the Eva dodged to it's left taking part of a five story building with it as the Angel's blasts leveled what was left of the block.
The Angel looked around, trying to track it's target. It looked to it's right as the Eva came around over from the next block over and launched it's self, smashing through several rows of buildings, trying to tackle the Angel from it's right side but was stopped with a flash as an large orange hexagon flared into existence where the Eva impacted into the Angels A.T. Field. The Eva reared back and glared at the Angel, it raised it's broken arm as almost to show the Angel what it has done. The Eva clenched it's eyes and let out a low growl and with a surge of bubbling flesh it's arm snapped back into place completely healed and with a clenching of it's left fist it showed the Angel it's arm wasn't broken anymore.
NERV Command Center
“Left arm had just totally repaired it's self!” Lt. Haynes yelled out in amazement as Megan looked on almost in awe. “How... how did it do that?! “
Angel battle site
With a roar another great flash appeared in front of the Eva as it's now manifested A.T. Field impacted the Angles, forcing it to bow under it's force! The Eva then grabbed at the field with it's claw like hands ripping through it as if it was cellophane! The Angel reared back almost as if it was in shock and tried to fire at the Eva again only for it's shot to pass around it like water once more. The Eva reached in and grabbed the Angels arms and with a wench, snapped them both off just above the Angels wrists spilling blue fluid onto the ground as the Eva the pulled the Angel in closer by it's stumps and looked dead into the Angel's hollow eyes before The Eva sent it flying backwards with a swift and brutal kick to it's chest were it smashed into a building at the opposite end of the block.
The Eva brought it's head down and charged horn first into the Angel howling as it smashed the Angel through the building and down the street and into another one and then another one finally coming to stop four blocks latter flinging the Angel like a rag doll into side of a ten story complex. The Eva took another leap into the air landing knee first right under where the Angel's rib cage would have been if it was human as the Angel let out a hapless wail.
The Eva then straddled the battered Angel who now laid there almost submissively, the aura dimming around above it and the Eva began to tear at the spot it landed on ripping flesh from it's body until it uncovered something, a large, red, highly reflective orb and the Eva began to bring it's fist down into it producing a burst of sparks and shock waves in the air with each blow but even with that the Eva seemed to be getting no where. It stopped and looked across it's victims body coming across the rib-like protrusions that surrounded the orb and then ripped one straight off of the Angel's chest and began to stab it into the red sphere with furry until it started to crack.
With that the Angel suddenly sprang back to action, it's torn arms became wipe like and wrapped around the Eva. The Eva responded by standing up and trying to claw it off to no avail as the rest of the Angel body turned playable and wrapped it's self around the Eva bring it's chest orb as close to the Eva's own chest as possible. The aura above it started to glow the brightest it has been seen as lightning bolts crackled around it and in a great flash of light the Angel exploded exploded sending up a fiery funeral pillar towards the heavens.
NERV Command Center
Megan look up at the screen with horror on her face. She began to ask, “Eva... Unit 01... is... is it?”, when from the sea of flames the Eva stepped forth like a devil out of hell. it's one eye glaring-reflecting the the fire behind it.
From above them Commander Ikari watch on, satisfaction in his veiled eyes. Everything had gone exactly as he had hoped.
Inside the entry plug, Eva Unit 01
William began to awaken ... or at lest he though we was waking up... he couldn't quiet tell, so muddled was his mind.
He noticed that he, that he felt huge and the air around him was searing hot. He then finally he noticed that his right eye felt weird, that he couldn't see out of it. He then turned to see where he was only to see nothing but fire when he felt something give from his head, hitting the ground like a bomb.
He started to look down at what had fallen but a reflection off from a rows of windows from a building to his right caught his attention and he turned to face it only to find it wasn't his face staring back. What he saw reflected back at him was the face of a gray skinned monster missing it's right eye.
He stood there looking in stunned silence, he rose his left hand up to touch it... to touch the Eva's face when he felt his... and the Eva's right eye surged and bloat out. He clenched back under the discomfit of the feeling as flesh around the Eva's damaged eye rippled and bubbled out as a new emerald green eye formed and emerged back into it's socket. The Eva's Eye moved on it's own with out his input, somehow without effecting his own vision. Then the eye focused back on him, seeming to peer into his soul, as he felt a presence reach out and grab him...
Volume one end.
Coming [s]soon [/s][s]sometime[/s] [s]maybe[/s] right freakin' now, finally, in Volume two: Self and Others
To meet others is to risk pain.
Three weeks have past now since William Ikari arrived in D.C and slowly he adjusts to his new life as he is enrolled into public school for the time where he learns that that his actions may bring him praise from some and anger from others as the peace is broken when another Angel arrives and attacks the city.
I'll be taking about a week break before starting on the next volume and once I start posting again it'll probably only be updating twice a week; kind spent all my free time pumping out each chapter of the first volume and while it was fun it's not something I can keep up if I plan on finishing this project.
Now in the mean time however I'll probably be looking over chapter one and making changes and edits to it trying to fix things that are nagging me or I missed.
So thanks to everybody whose put down the time and effort to read this project of mine, if I helped someone enjoy their day then I've proudly done my job.
NEON GENESIS EVANGLION: TO THE VICTOR
Vol: 1 Dark Messenger
Chapter Seven
Beginnings
Tuesday August 25th, 2015
Angel blast site near the Potomac river west bank, Washington D.C.
5:52AM EDT
Most of what was once the south-western side of the city was now a blasted out ruin crawling with an army of NERV personal clad in orangeish-red hazard suits. Armed with a collection of geiger counters, bio-chem sensors along with high-pressure hoses they searched the area block by block for any samples left by the angel that could unlock any clues about it's nature while washing away any possible contaminates while behind them, near the edge of the blast site, suited construction workers examined what few buildings that still stood to see if any were worth salvaging while massive, earth shaking, construction vehicles cleared debris and demolish condemned structures.
Amongst this, in the center of the main blast crater, a large crane removes from the rubble the charred remains of the massive, mask like, face of the Evangelion Unit that sortied the night before...
Commanders conference room, NERV HQ
Meeting with the Human Instrumentality Council: In session
6:02AM EDT
Commander Gregory Ikari sat at the end of the conference table in a room almost totally enclosed in darkness pierced only by the dim of red lights lining the wall giving some shape to it along with the color coded lighting overhead vaguely highlighting each of the members of the council whom he has been meeting with.
Blue for the Russian representative to his immediate right.
Yellow for the French representative to his left.
Green for the American representative on the far right hand corner.
Red for the English representative on the left hand one.
And finally white for the German representative who sat at the head of the table, his dark eyes locked on to Ikari betraying no emotions. Of all the powerfully men gathered here he was the only one Ikari gave any heed to.
“So now, after 15 years the Angels have finally begun to awaken.” Said the Russian in an surprisingly casual manner.
“Yesss, but this was far sooner then was predicted. This could... complicate things.” Hissed the Frenchmen in much the same manner.
“Well such is the way with disasters, they come and go with out warning. But the commander here knows that all quite well.” Said the Englishmen, continuing the line of thought, his eyes focused on Ikari looking to see if he had drawn blood.
“This maybe so but it is simply a fact we must deal with and adapt to.” Replied Ikari through his steepled hands, “And in any case we have found ourselves fortuitous that it was the fourth angel that awoken first.”
“Indeed, most fortuitous. Had it been the third one with our current unready position things could... of gotten interesting.” Agreed the American who added, “But all in all it would seem out investment here has not been a total waste.”
“I would not be so sure to agree to that yet.” Countered the Russian, “In the long run this may still cost us more then it gains.”
“Yes, the projected costs to repair Unit 00 along with those projected for Unit 01 and the damage done to the city in addition to their normal operating costs is... simply staggering.” Agreed the American putting emphasis on his last two words.
“And then there's the fact you gave that toy to your son.” Continued the Russian, “Time, money and manpower. How much more will be consumed by you and your family before begin sated Ikari?”
“And on top of that what about the fact that you are behind schedule on the Human Instrumentality Project. Angels or not this should be you top priority.” The Englishmen berated.
“Agreed.” Said the German speaking for the first time, “Ikari that project above all others is our best hope and I can not tolerate any further delays. I may have to reconsider the budget.”
The German took a look across the table at his fellow councilmen and the NERV commander and then ordered, “That being said, I think we have covered all the main points for this day. We are done here, meeting adjourn. We will meet again at our standard schedule.”
And with that the lights over the heads of the councilmen went out and they each vanished for view, their presence there the whole time being nothing but a holographic projection. Now only the commander and the German remained. He looked dead across the table at Ikari, “You do know there is now no turning back from the course we have chosen.”
“I know that all too well Kiel.” Ikari answered back. The German then nodded in reply before finally disappearing himself.
Ikari then spent a moment steering out into the darkness that enfolded his vision before solemnly stating, “This is the fate we have cast on ourselves.”
“We can only pray that those fools realize that as well.” Replied the vice-commander as he stepped out from the shadows behind Ikari, “Otherwise the Angels will be the lest of our problems.”
Room 101 First Cranial Nerve Advanced Trauma Center, main pyramid section A-10 NERV HQ
6:30AM EDT
Wa-ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!
-*Umph-haaaaaaa*-
-*Umph-haaaaaaa*-
-*Umph-haaaaaaa*-
-*Umph-haaaaaaa*-
William Ikari shot up from the bed into a sitting position, his back drenched in sweat, as he tried to clear the images from his mind that had violently awaken him. Images of war, of pillars of fire, of him savagely attacking a monster, yelling like a beast, a man trapped in a crashed fighter and all the death that stood in his wake. At end of it all was... was his mother. Not her face or image, just the presence of her.
He looked down at his left arm while rubbing his right eye with his other hand. They weren't in pain, there just was something odd about how they felt. They just felt wrong.
He then looked around the room he was in confused. It seemed to be a hospital room but he had no idea of how he got there or where “here” was. He looked out the row of windows to his right giving him a view of a large forest bathed in the gray haze of early morning sun and then laid back down staring up at the ceiling trying to make sense of all this.
“What the hell happened to me?”
Angel decontamination site operations deployment tent
6:42AM EDT
Capt. Megan Kelling grabbed a pop from the cooler and plopped down on her seat next to her friend and co worker Dr. Rachel Ammadon, giving her battered armpits a rest from the constant abuse her crutches gave them. She opened her can up and took a swig and then went back to hog as much of the fan that sat on her “desk” luke-warm air as she could on this particularly brutal August day. It was hot almost all year round now but August was still the worst.
They were both in charge of overseeing the clean up of the blast site or more precisely, they were in charge of overseeing the clean up. Their shift as the operations leaders had just ended. Megan's was also almost over for the day as well, just a few more reports to file and she could go home, and they were taking a quick break before the headed back to HQ.
Megan took one last look at the live feed of workers patrolling a blown out apartment complex on her laptop before closing it while thinking outloud, “If this is what victory looks like...” and then flipped on the small portable TV someone brought along hoping to catch a few minutes of something amusing only to find every channel had the same “Special news event” of some nameless member of the presidents press core lying to the American people that nothing special has happened the day before.
“Soooo, public scenario B-84. Can't believe they're going with this bullshit.” Megan commented as she switched off the TV back off.
“Yeah.” Rachel replied while tossing an empty water bottle into a can mark recyclables, “Public relations is pretty happy, they finally have something to do.”
“Well I'm glad someone is finding something to be happy about in this.” Megan remarked back sarcastically, “But you know, they could try telling people the truth. Crazy I know.”
“The truth?!” Rachel repeated in mock bewilderment acting like it was the dirtiest word she ever head, “You are crazy, the government has an reputation to up hold after all!”
Rachel grabbed another bottle of water then asked, “ Wanna head back?”
“Yeah, let's go.”
The two of them made their way over to motor pool where their truck was parked passing by what seemed to be a normal eight story apartment complex with inspectors checking over it, normal until with the sound of heavy hydraulics pushing each floor above the first three slide forward slightly and opened up revealing rows of metal boxes. Hatches at the top of each box opened and cranes started removing large missiles from each box lowering it to the ground where NERV personal began to inspected them.
Looking up at the missile battery disguised as an apartment complex as she garbed the handle on the passenger side door Megan remarked, “You know with Eva and this city, once we get it up an running, we might just be able to do this after all.”
“You're such an optimist” Rachel shot back with a laugh, shaking her head as she climb into the truck
Just outside room 101
6:45AM EDT
William Ikari gazed out of the windows that lined the hallway just outside of his room. He looked out past the forest that surrounded the area and the few noticeable buildings that dotted the landscape and to the strange doomed wall that laid at the end, something long and metallic seemed to be going up a spiraling path along it.
“So I am really in a Geofront... but if I'm underground... how is there sunlight?”
As he looked around for the source for the sunlight he noticed something to the left. He leaned in closer against the window to get a better view of what it was seeing two of the large armored buildings like the kind he remembered seeing when he first entered the Geofront with Ms. Kelling crashed into the ground. One was impaled right into the ground like a giant stake with it's bottom few floor crushed into each other to the point where they had merged, the other one was laying on it's back and the lower half of it was bent upward in an odd way. Around both buildings large construction vehicles where trying to dismantle them.
Coming from his left side he heard a stretcher being pushed down the hallway towards him. He turned to look and saw that it was that poor girl Rei lying on it being pushed by a nurse.
She looked right into his eyes and William let out a barely audibly, “S... sorry.”, as she passed him by disappearing as she went around a corner.
How could he ever forgive himself? How could he ever forgive himself for putting her through that?
On 14th street heading North bound
7:01AM EDT
“So your cars a total wreak?” Rachel asked her friend, who now stripped down to a tank top and practically molesting the AC vent in front of her, getting a depressed, “Yeah.”, in reply.
“That sucks.” Rachel sympathized.
“Yeah, at lest they're letting my borrow a car until I can deal with my insurance company. Assholes are giving me the run around, calming that no where does it say their coverage deals with military actions. Can you believe that crap!” Megan vented.
“Yeah, they got loopholes for ever...” Rachel began to say when her cell phone went off. She took it from her pocket while asking Megan to excuse for a minute while she took it the call.
“Yeah... oh, that's good... Yeah keep me updated.”
Rachel hung up the phone told Megan the news, “Well looks like our little pilot is up.”
“How is he? Is he alright?” She asked Rachel in a worried tone.
“He seems fine. Nothing's physically wrong though... his memories of last night seem to be a little muddled.”
“Think it could be brain damage?!” Megan half yelled out.
“Naaaaw.” Rachel replied, “He just went through a lot, he'll be fine.”
She then glanced over her friend again, “Want me to drop you off by the hospital?”
“Yeah.”
Main lobby First Cranial Nerve
7:42AM EDT
William sat waiting in a chair in the hospitals waiting room to be picked up while staring at his left arm. While the doctors said he was fine his arm still felt... off.
From behind him he heard a familiar voice ask, “William, how.. how are you feeling?”
Despite the calming effect of hearing her voice she wasn't who he really wanted to be picking him up and all he could answer with was a shrug of his shoulders.
“Ok... let's... let's get going. You got some paper work you need to go over.” Megan explained.
“Ok.” William replied as he got up.
They made their way over to the elevators crossing the hospitals hexagon patterned floor and Megan hit the down button. A few seconds latter the third elevator to their left opened with a ding and they went to enter it when they saw it had an occupant. It was Williams father.
William's eyes lit up and he waited for his father to tell him he came to pick him up but only found him silently looking at him as if he was a complete stranger. He then lowered his head in dismay looking at the two hexagons that stood at his feet between him and the elevator. The elevator's door closed and his father was gone.
Megan look on at the boy with sadness in her eyes, what kind of man could do that to his own son? How could the commander be so cold?
NERV New Recruit Orientation Center, NERV HQ
11:02AM EDT
For the next three hours William sat through hundred pages of paper work, meet three recruitment officers and even had to sit through new personal orientation video that made the manual he read through look absolutely riveting in comparison. Through all of this Megan stayed by his side.
William had decided to stay as an Eva pilot, Megan was surprised.
“You're quarters are going to be in barracks number three, two and a half blocks south of the main building, I'll have a map with directions for you before you leave.” The recruitment office told NERV's newest member after which he ask, “Any questions?”
“No, none that I can think off.” Williams replied.
Something just felt wrong to Megan about this, it was bad enough that his father wasn't going to have his own son live with him but to make him live all on his own?”
“William.. are you ok with this? With being alone?”
He looks back to her with a false smile on his face and replies, “It's alright Megan, I'm use to it. I'm alone anyways. Anywhere will be fine.”
Hearing him say that was her final straw, she had to do something.
Head Chairpersons Office Project E Main Science Dpt., main pyramid section A-10 NERV HQ
1:016PM EDT
Dr. Rachel Ammadon snuffed out the butt of her cigarette into her overflowing white ashtray adorn with a cute drawing of two cats and promptly lit another.
Technically NERV was a smoke free environment but she was one of the few people here in the special situation of NERV needing her a whole lot more then she need NERV, With her credentials she could walk out the door today and have a job at any university, computer company or A.I research center in the world she wanted the next day which needless to say earned her a few perks.
Sadly it also earned her a never ending workload with just enough free time to at lest sleep at her apartment. Or it had, with the work load she had in the aftermath of the Angel's attack she wouldn't be sleeping at home anytime soon. It did help that she was a workaholic who found it easier to relate the work place then “real life” but even she was she really starting to feel the strain.
“Maybe I'll give Megan a call later and we can go out tomorrow night, I really do need to get out of here.” She thought as she leaned back, puffed a few drags and took a sip from her equally cat themed coffee cup. She then waited for the combination of nicotine and caffeine to kick in and went to get started back on finishing her report on the rather lack luster findings they got from the few tissue sample the Angel left behind when her cell phone rang.
“Hey Megan, could you make it quick. I got to get this report done with in the next hour... What was that?!”
What was this idiot thinking?
NERV Tactical Operations, Capt. Kelling's Office, NERV HQ B-12 Central Dogma
1:20PM EDT
“You heard me. He's going to be staying with me, it's already been approved!” Megan replied laying back in her chair, feet up on her desk while William sat on a stool a few feet behind her.
“Are you sure you can handle it? He is a teenage boy.” Rachel asked knowing full well that she was in position to try to take on the responsibility of handling a kid, let alone a hormonal teenager!
“What? I'll be fine.” She replied completely sidestepping the question, “Don't worry, I promise not to make any passes at him?”
“What?! What would even think of such a thing?!” Rachel yelled in surprise over her friends choice of words loud enough that William heard it from where he was sitting prompting Megan to pull the phone away from her ear lest suffer permanent hearing loss while muttering, “Jezz, sometimes you got not sense of humor at all.”
Heading East on Benning road
6:43PM EDT
“You know we're gonna have to go all out tonight right?” Megan said to William with a warm smile as she drove her loner down the street as the sun started to set in the sky.
“Why is that?” William asked puzzled trying his best not show just how out of place he felt right now. It wasn't that he was afraid of Ms. Kelling, no it was far from that, it was just... something he couldn't place made him uneasy.
“Well I got to have a welcoming party for new roommate of course.” She answered with a wink.
She's just had gotten off of a long day of work, William had made a full recovery and she now had a new roommate. Sounded like a good reason to party to her. Well that and the city as well as the world still being here, there was that.
After driving for a few minutes in silence Megan pulled into the 7-11 near her apartment and took William in to grab some snacks and pop he liked while she grabbed two cases of Miller Light and then made it over to the check out counter. While everything was being rung up William heard two women talk behind him while they waited in line. It wasn't like he was trying to listen in on their business but the subject of their discussion made it hard for him not to.
“So you're really leaving town tomorrow?” The taller and older looking of the two asked the smaller younger looking one.
“Well after what happened last night Phillip told me that I should just take the kids and move in with Beth until things blow over.” Replied the younger one.
“My God Liz, it was horrible... Sara's place was totally destroyed, nothing but a hole in the ground. Oh! And did you hear about the shelter that collapsed?” Continued the older one.
“No... my goodness. But it figures, probably cut corners to pocket a little extra money. But really you should go to, just get the hell out of this place. I don't care what NERV has, if it can't stop this from happening to the city then what good are they?” Said the shorter one as William heard all he could take, lowering his head down once more in despair.
“Why did it have to me? Why did father have to chose me for this... I can't even save these people...”
Megan look over at William with concern in her eyes, she too heard the conversation behind them and knew full well how deep those words were cutting at him. He was going to need something a little extra special to pick him up and she had just the thing in mind.
They made it back to the car and Megan started it up and took off heading back in the direction they came. She then looked over at William telling him, “We're going to be taking a little detour before we head home alright?”
“Where... where we going?”
“Somewhere really cool.” Megan vaguely hinted with a wink. He's was going to like this.
After twenty minutes of driving Megan made her way to the outskirts of the city and over to a raised area of land set up as a tourist site that offered a beautiful view of the city and it' officials capitalized on the fact lining the railing with rows of coin operated binoculars.
She parked and took William up to the edge and waited while William looked across at the city dabbed in shades of crimson and gold highlighted by the setting sun. While the view combined with the time of day was breathtaking the city still look somehow bleak to him. There was also how different it looked now from pictures he had seen of it, before the bombing. The Pentagon was gone completely, apparently the nuke was set off from inside a van no more then eighty feet away leaving only a crater that was turned into a small lake to mark where it once stood. Then there was the fact that most of the city was made up of “historically significant architecture” which in turn meant that most of the city burned like dry kindling, in fact from what William was told by his guardian the wood frame of the Washington monument caused it burn like a giant candle for days after the blast. Sturdier buildings like the Library of Congress and the Capital Building still were mostly wood on the inside and housed liberal amounts of paper leaving them beyond repair while the White House was only partly leveled. It was later physically moved from it's location, decontaminated and was now undergoing extensive renovation and reconstruction. The only familiar landmarks he could make out were the Lincoln and Jefferson memorials and the National Archives building (though it helped that the former building was a more modern one, designed to survive a nuclear blast).
The rest of the city was new and expanded though most of it was just rows of the same small clusters of buildings you would find in most medium sized cites. The only new things that jump out at him where the large grid of metal plates several blocks in size that lined the middle of the city like a giant cross and the three large reflective towers to the North-West corner of the Potomac which he figured was what was bringing light down to the Geofront.
Then there was the damage. Several large craters dotted the city scape, some so deep that they just looked like black pits, along with the leveled buildings that surround them. The worst of them was just off the South-West corner of the Potomac river were the largest of the craters laid, the surrounding area for blocks around it looked like someone ran over it with a giant black paintbrush.
“Why? Why did she bring me here? I know already how much I messed things up...”
Megan pulled her cell phone from her pocket and looked at the time: 6:59.
Air raid sirens started up filling the air with their harsh wail and William's eyes widen.
Dotted lines of reds lights appeared on each of the metal metal plates as several large hatches opened and out from them equally large armored buildings sprang forth and William's eyes went wide again, this time from surprise and wonderment.
“This... this is amazing! It's almost like they're growing!”
Megan looked on Wlliam's change of mode and smiled.
“William, this is your city now. The city you saved.”
Lovely Suites Condominiums 17
7:25PM EDT
Megan lead William off of the elevator and down to her apartment at the end of the hallway just before it bended off to the left. As they walked down the hall Megan noticed it was filled with more boxes then usual. People must be moving out but then again, who would want to live in a warzone?
As they made it to the door Megan pulled a key card from her pocket while informing William, “Your guardian sent us a bunch of your stuff a few years back, we got at over at HQ. They should have it shipped up here sometime tomorrow.”
“Oh... he did? Alright.” William replied while Megan slide the card across the magnetic reader and the door slide open and stepped in.
William followed Megan up to the doorway's edge and stopped. The line that divided the hall from the apartment was now a threshold for him, once he crossed it he knew that was it, this was to be his life now and no longer just something that he just acknowledged at the back of his mind and he wasn't sure if he was ready for this yet.
“What wrong William?” Megan asked seeing his reluctance and with a smile and out stretched arm she told him, “This is your house too, now come in.”
He nodded and took her hand and finally steeped inside. “I... I'm home.”
“Welcome home William.”
William followed his new roommate down the apartment's entry way and into it's living room where he found it to be an explosions of half empty boxes, car magazines, empty pizza cartons and a small mountain of empty bottles of booze and beer cans! He had never seen any place so... so... messy! How could anyone live like this?! Let alone a woman?!
“Don't mind the mess, I just moved in two days ago and haven't really been home since the home warming party.” Her explanation did little to curve William's astonishment at the condition of this place.
She then started to give him a quick tour of her place, “Alright, this is the front room. TV's over there in the corner, I got a couple of games systems. Feel free to play em'.” She then had him follow her to the other end of the room. “This end's the dinning room, we eat there.” she said pointing at the cheep dinning room table sitting in the middle of the room with four chairs surrounding it. Then she pointed to the room to her left, “That's the kitchen, we make food there. There's also a laundry room in there, we wash our dirty drawers there. Balcony’s behind me, we chill there. Room to my right is my room, I sleep there... sometimes. If the door's close knock before entering unless you want to see me naked... ummmm forget that part, moving on. Door to to the left of the kitchen is the bathroom, we poop and bath there... ewww didn't sound as nasty when I thought of saying it.” She lead him back towards the living room and open a door to a small room that housed a gym mat, some small weights thrown about, a exercise machine and a radio sitting on small cabinet next to the mat just off from being on the opposite side of the place from the bathroom, “This was suppose to be a office room but I made it my exercise room.” She then finally she took him to the last room in the place, “ And this is the guest room though from now on it's going to be your room.”
William took a look into his new room and was surprised to see it was actually clean, just in need of a little dusting. It was a decent sized room, about the same sized as the one he lived in back in Georgetown but with a queen sized bed in the left hand corner and a dresser already there. All and all it wasn't bad.
Megan was pleased to see he seemed to like the room.“Now remember William, that's your room. Feel free to do whatever you want with it... well so long as you don't knock any holes in it or something.”
After William was done checking out his room to be and had steeped back out into the living room Megan took a look around the place and said, “Alright,William mind putting the food away? I'm gonna go change out of my work close and after that let's get this place straitened up a little before we got to partying, nothing to major, if you don't mind.”
“Oh no, I don't mind.” William replied as he grabbed the bags and beer and took them into the kitchen while Megan stepped into her room, She sat on her bed and took off that annoying knee brace, rubbed her knee down with lotion and then wrapped with some elastic bandages and gauze before changing into shorts and a tank top.
William finished putting away to snacks as best he could, he didn't know how she liked to keep her things but on the other hand it didn't seem like she would of cared anyways. He stepped back out into the living room where he saw Megan leaning on her crutches looking around the place and her face lit up like she just remembered something, “Oh yeah, before we start we got to split up the chores around here.”, and before he could even respond she threw out her hand yelling, “Rock, paper, scissors!”
With no time to react William just left his hand out open, unfortunately for him she had picked scissors.
“Ha! Scissors cut paper!” She yelled in victory maybe a little to exuberantly. “Looks like you handle cleaning tomorrow, alright let's try for Thursday! Come on kid, better step up!”
Fifteen minutes later...
“Well that was a really fair way to split of the work load.” Megan exclaimed with a shit eating grin as she marked on which day each of them had the daily chores on the calendar with an initial of their first name. William felt otherwise as he look over the calendar for the next four weeks and the insubordinatelly high numbers of times his initial came up over his roommate, he almost said something about it but... well it wasn't THAT big of a deal.
They then got to cleaning up the place and after about an half and hour of no real head way Megan decided to call it and get something to eat. She told William to go relax and she disappeared into the kitchen for about fifteen more minutes then came back out with dinner, two Tyson's microwavable chicken dinners as well as a case of beer.
“Alright, soups on!” She yelled as she placed the dinners down on the table. William took a seat while Megan grabbed a beer, leaned her crutches against the was and sat down in the chair opposite of him, chugged it down like a champion! She grabbed another one, then announced, “Let's eat!” with a light slur to her voice, this was her eight beer for the night so far, and dug in.
As she finished her second beer (for the dinner that is) she noticed that William wasn't really eating, just sorta picking at he meal.
“Hmmmm? William? Don't you want to eat? I mean yeah, it's not a fresh cooked meal but it's still pretty good.”
“Ah, it's just that... that I'm not used to this sort of thing.” William replied embarrassed that he brought this kind of attention to himself.
“Too good to eat his food is he?!” Megan thought mistaking what William meant. She slammed the empty can down and leaned forward yelling, “Oh no! I'm not gonna have some finicky kid waste food at my table!”
“No... it's... it's not that it's just ahhhhhh...” William muttered out trying to explain himself when he noticed with her leaned over and her tank top hanging down that she wasn't wearing a bra... he didn't mean to stare but... there they were, two nice and pump B-cups and he couldn't look away.
“Hmmm, well isn't this nice.” Megan said sweetly.
William face turned red (well redder) thinking she had caught him looking. “Huuuh, what?” he stummered out both trying to play dumb as well do to the fact he simply didn't know how to respond.
“Having someone with you while you eat of course.” Megan explained with a smile.
“Oh, yeah... yeah.” William let out meekly. He started to calm a bit now that he realized she didn't seem to have noticed.
Megan then leaned back down into her chair and grabbed another beer.
“Don't for get, that this place is your home too so feel free to take advantage of anything you want. Ok?”
“Y... yeah...” William replied weakly again.
Megan folded her arms while her expression turned slightly annoyed.
“Yes, yes, yes. What's with you? Always acting so proper? You're a boy! Started acting like one!” Megan then leaned in over the table aggressively with he arm reached out. William froze as she leapt forward her action triggering a brief flashback of the night before, of some great hand grabbing his own. As he snapped too he found himself in a light head lock as Megan rained nuggies upon his noggin while yelling, “Come on, get more aggressive! Start acting like a man!”
She then relented leaning back, “Oh well. I guess this is just your way. If you don't feel like eating right now, why don't you go and take a bath? Go relax your self, you've had a pretty rough past two days and besides... ehehheh, you're hairs a mess.”
William touched the top of his now frizzed up hair with minor annoyance and agreed with another, “Yeah.” It wasn't that he really felt like a bath, it was just being in the spot light like this... was off putting.
William excused himself and headed over to the bathroom while Megan traced him with her eyes. After he disappeared behind the door she finished of her current beer and thought to herself, “I guess... I'm trying to much to relate with him...” She sat her beer can down next to the others, “Maybe I'm the one who needs to grow up.”
William laid soaking in the bathtub, letting the steaming water relax his body. “Megan Kelling. She seems to be a nice person...” His mind remembers back to her smiling face picking him up from the hospital. “And then there's that girl, Rei...” his mind then flashed back to seeing her being being brought into the Eva's cage on that stretcher and the shame that made him feel while at the same time remembering back to that girl he saw who looked so much like her. “... who is she?”
And then his mind settled on the image of his father, his cold stare as he turned his back on him.
“Father... Rei...”
“Why is this all happening?”
2nd Experiment Site, Terminal Dogma B-32
9:28PM EDT
“How was Rei?” Rachel asks as she stepped into the heavily damage control room, crunching glass, as she ducked around a tangle of wiring that hanged from an exposed spot where the armored ceiling tile had fallen away.
Towards the front of the room, highlight only by the red emergency lights that hung from the ceiling, Commander Ikrai stood stood silent not answering Rachel's question as he looked out the smashed operational windows and into experimental operations cage at the yellow armor clad one eyed giant that stood within. It was half hunched over with it's right arm smashed fully through the wall sealant poured around it to keep the coolant that surrounded the room keeping it a controlled environment from leaking in. It's other other arm clenched it's head almost as if it was cradling it from some great pain while it's lower half was cemented in place with a super resilient quick dry synthetic resin called durabakelite.
Rachel asked again, “You went and saw her this morning didn't you?”.
This time he responded, without looking back at her, “She will be able to work again in twenty days. By then repairs and testing should be done on Unit 00”
“It's just so hard putting this all on the shoulders of children.” Rachel said somewhat shocked at the coldness of his answer as she walked closer to him until she stood behind him.
“You know full well these children are the only ones who can do this, so long as they survive it is what I will have them do.” The commander replied not once moving his gaze from the giant before him.
He was right, she knew this all to well but... knowing something and dealing with the realities of it are two very different beasts. The human mind has an amazing capacity to fool it's self in that regard and she found herself projecting her own anger at herself for playing this part in all this as she yelled, “And with no regard for what they may want?!”
Megan’s apartment
9:49PM EDT
“Yeah, after all this even though he agreed to stay I don't know if he'll be up to piloting again.” Megan explained over her cordless while relaxing in the tube after finishing up with William's welcoming party.
“Maintaining him is your joooob.” Rachel chided her from the other end with a mock condescending tone.
“You know Rachel.... to tell the truth I am kinda scared, I don't think I know how to deal with him.”
“Bitching already? It was your great idea to take him in, “Oh! I'll be fine!” Rachel reminded her getting an overbearingly loud, “Oh shut up!” followed by the click of Megan's phone hanging up.
Megan look down at her self feeling shamefull, Rachel was right... as much as she hated to admit it.
“I'm no different from her am I? In the end I'm still thinking of him as a tool.”
She looked back her phone sitting on the side of the tub and then back up at the ceiling.
“Even though we destroyed that Angel... why... why don't I feel happy?”
William laid in his bed listening to his MP4 player in silence, his “welcoming party had ended. It was fun he had to admit but, he didn't think he could ever get use to being the center of attention like that.
He changed the track back from fifteen to sixteen and rolled onto his back looking up at the ceiling.
“Just like that hospital, this is still an unfamiliar place for me....though really...” He sighed to himself, “... There's nowhere that's familiar to me here.”
He thought back to Megan welcoming him in with her outstretch hand.
“Why am I here?”
“What am I doing?”
“I should of just run away...”
“Father... why did you have to put this all on me?”
William once again turned the tack back to sixteen as he roll over onto his side and curled up.
Megan finished up her bath and stood up bearing the pain from her knee, thankfully the beer was helping with that, and steeped out of the tub using the wall for support. She grabbed a towel and then sat down on the toilet and started drying her self. She then re-wrapped her bandaged around her knee then wrapped the towel around herself as a robe, grabbed her crutches and made her way over to her room stopping when she reached the edge of William's open door. She looked in seeing the poor boy laying there.
“Will... William, mind if I come in?” She asks getting no reply in return.
She leaned in more but didn't fully enter and said, “I... I forgot to tell you. You did a great and noble thing William... You should be proud of yourself. “
She leaned back out to “her” side of the door way still receiving no reply.
“Well good night William.... Hang in there.”
With that Megan closed the door to his room and left. William closed his eyes and curled up even more tightly and soon had fallen off to sleep. Then, the nightmares came again.
NERV Command Center, twenty seven hours ago.
The main screen displayed a video feed showing an aerial shot of the battle as the command staffed watched helplessly as the Angel rammed it's arm spike straight through the Eva's head showering the streets with an explosion of red fluid gushed out of the back of it. The Angel drew it's weapon back and then tossed the now limp, lifeless, Eva into a building towards the end of the block and then it turned and walked away, another annoyance dealt with.
“We've lost all contact with Unit 01!” Lt. Illich yelled out as all of the monitoring screens on her counsel dropped to nothing.
“Any chance it's do the Angel's interface?” Shouted Capt. Kelling. “Please... please be alright...”
“Negative, the umbilical is still attached, we should be getting something!” Lt. Haynes replied looking back from his counsel at the captain.
Megan looked up at the screen showing the Eva leaning over the now half demolished building it landed on looking all in the world like a massive dead body, red fluid steadily streaming from the damage areas around it's eye and arm. She then leaned in closer to Haynes asking, “Mikey, how's William?”
“I've got nothing ma'am, the monitors are all down, I can't tell if he's alive or dead!”
She knew this was a bad idea. How could they expect a child, especially one who's never had even the slightest combat training, to pull this off... Of course she also knew full well she was the one who handed him over to them, that she was just as much to blame for all this. She took one more look at the battered Eva and imagined the child’s body mangled and broken with in it. They needed to get him out of there.“Alright, under my authority we're aborting the operation!” Capt. Megan Kelling yelled, “Marry! Get him the hell out of there!”
“I can't!” Lt. Illich yelled back in panic, “They system says it's accepting the ejection command but... the plug isn't moving!”
“Break the circuits and try a manual override!” Dr. Ammadon ordered to Lt. Illich as she leaned in closer, looking over her screen for anything the lieutenant might of missed. Illich frantically went over every deactivation program and every back doors she knew but nothing!“I can't! It's somehow physically refusing the signal!”
Something then caught her eye on he screen, it was the Eva's activation protocol! “Wait! Unit 01... it's starting back up!”
“What was that!” Megan asked in surprise, it couldn't be... could it? She then noticed slight moment coming from the Eva, it's right hand started to twitch and it's mouth started to move slightly and then...
-*PANG!*-
The Eva's great maw opened fully as all the restraining bolts that held it close where ripped free. It then rose from the rubble, leered forward and let out a howl of unimaginable savagery.
Angel battle site near Launch Route 071
The streets heaved under the Eva's great bulk as it steeped forward and knelled. Up head the Angel turned to look back at what had just caused this disturbance behind it just in time to see Eva Unit 01 launch it's self into a flip, ripping the street half out of the ground below it as it did so! It then landed squarely onto the Angel's massive chest before it could even react with such force that it was nearly knocked back over it's self. The Eva then clawed at the Angels boned face, cleaving half of it off reviling the ossified structure below it.
The Angel let out a wail and a surge of lightning bolts rained down from the skies. It thrust out it's arm and garbed the Eva's arms lifting it off of it's chest as the Eva snarled and wrenched trying to break free. It then tossed the Eva forward and shot a lance of light from it's eyes while it was still in the air but with an orange flare the blast flowed around the Eva consuming the surrounding buildings.
The Eva landed back on it's feet with an explosion of dust and asphalt, bending it knees and using it's good arm to absorb the energies of the impact. It looked up at the Angel as two more pulses of light shot from it's eyes, the Eva dodged to it's left taking part of a five story building with it as the Angel's blasts leveled what was left of the block.
The Angel looked around, trying to track it's target. It looked to it's right as the Eva came around over from the next block over and launched it's self, smashing through several rows of buildings, trying to tackle the Angel from it's right side but was stopped with a flash as an large orange hexagon flared into existence where the Eva impacted into the Angels A.T. Field. The Eva reared back and glared at the Angel, it raised it's broken arm as almost to show the Angel what it has done. The Eva clenched it's eyes and let out a low growl and with a surge of bubbling flesh it's arm snapped back into place completely healed and with a clenching of it's left fist it showed the Angel it's arm wasn't broken anymore.
NERV Command Center
“Left arm had just totally repaired it's self!” Lt. Haynes yelled out in amazement as Megan looked on almost in awe. “How... how did it do that?! “
Angel battle site
With a roar another great flash appeared in front of the Eva as it's now manifested A.T. Field impacted the Angles, forcing it to bow under it's force! The Eva then grabbed at the field with it's claw like hands ripping through it as if it was cellophane! The Angel reared back almost as if it was in shock and tried to fire at the Eva again only for it's shot to pass around it like water once more. The Eva reached in and grabbed the Angels arms and with a wench, snapped them both off just above the Angels wrists spilling blue fluid onto the ground as the Eva the pulled the Angel in closer by it's stumps and looked dead into the Angel's hollow eyes before The Eva sent it flying backwards with a swift and brutal kick to it's chest were it smashed into a building at the opposite end of the block.
The Eva brought it's head down and charged horn first into the Angel howling as it smashed the Angel through the building and down the street and into another one and then another one finally coming to stop four blocks latter flinging the Angel like a rag doll into side of a ten story complex. The Eva took another leap into the air landing knee first right under where the Angel's rib cage would have been if it was human as the Angel let out a hapless wail.
The Eva then straddled the battered Angel who now laid there almost submissively, the aura dimming around above it and the Eva began to tear at the spot it landed on ripping flesh from it's body until it uncovered something, a large, red, highly reflective orb and the Eva began to bring it's fist down into it producing a burst of sparks and shock waves in the air with each blow but even with that the Eva seemed to be getting no where. It stopped and looked across it's victims body coming across the rib-like protrusions that surrounded the orb and then ripped one straight off of the Angel's chest and began to stab it into the red sphere with furry until it started to crack.
With that the Angel suddenly sprang back to action, it's torn arms became wipe like and wrapped around the Eva. The Eva responded by standing up and trying to claw it off to no avail as the rest of the Angel body turned playable and wrapped it's self around the Eva bring it's chest orb as close to the Eva's own chest as possible. The aura above it started to glow the brightest it has been seen as lightning bolts crackled around it and in a great flash of light the Angel exploded exploded sending up a fiery funeral pillar towards the heavens.
NERV Command Center
Megan look up at the screen with horror on her face. She began to ask, “Eva... Unit 01... is... is it?”, when from the sea of flames the Eva stepped forth like a devil out of hell. it's one eye glaring-reflecting the the fire behind it.
From above them Commander Ikari watch on, satisfaction in his veiled eyes. Everything had gone exactly as he had hoped.
Inside the entry plug, Eva Unit 01
William began to awaken ... or at lest he though we was waking up... he couldn't quiet tell, so muddled was his mind.
He noticed that he, that he felt huge and the air around him was searing hot. He then finally he noticed that his right eye felt weird, that he couldn't see out of it. He then turned to see where he was only to see nothing but fire when he felt something give from his head, hitting the ground like a bomb.
He started to look down at what had fallen but a reflection off from a rows of windows from a building to his right caught his attention and he turned to face it only to find it wasn't his face staring back. What he saw reflected back at him was the face of a gray skinned monster missing it's right eye.
He stood there looking in stunned silence, he rose his left hand up to touch it... to touch the Eva's face when he felt his... and the Eva's right eye surged and bloat out. He clenched back under the discomfit of the feeling as flesh around the Eva's damaged eye rippled and bubbled out as a new emerald green eye formed and emerged back into it's socket. The Eva's Eye moved on it's own with out his input, somehow without effecting his own vision. Then the eye focused back on him, seeming to peer into his soul, as he felt a presence reach out and grab him...
Volume one end.
Coming [s]soon [/s][s]sometime[/s] [s]maybe[/s] right freakin' now, finally, in Volume two: Self and Others
To meet others is to risk pain.
Three weeks have past now since William Ikari arrived in D.C and slowly he adjusts to his new life as he is enrolled into public school for the time where he learns that that his actions may bring him praise from some and anger from others as the peace is broken when another Angel arrives and attacks the city.
Last edited by Ryjin on Tue Jun 26, 2012 3:10 pm, edited 1 time in total.
"It is the Thunderbolt that steers the universe."~ Heraclitus
The people who voted for Obama or Romney are fucking idiots. Wake the fuck up.
"The Constitution was our last, best hope for peace... It failed. But, in the Year of the War against the Globalists, it became something greater: our last, best hope
The people who voted for Obama or Romney are fucking idiots. Wake the fuck up.
"The Constitution was our last, best hope for peace... It failed. But, in the Year of the War against the Globalists, it became something greater: our last, best hope
Wow.... *Blows the dust off of this thread* … *Cough-cough* It's been a while...
Well to let anyone who's still interested know this fic had not been abandoned, long story short my computer died on me and... well, given my current (lack of a) economic situation it just took this long to get her up and running again.
The first chapter of volume two is coming, just have to get back into flow of things but to tide things over I've gonna back over all the chapters of volume one and really overhauled them using some really good suggestions and tips I got on other sites I've posted this fic.
So yeah, this fic will be back up and running soon but just to let you all know I'm gonna be kinda slow on the updates, both to make sure I'm not rushing them and do to the fact I got another personal project that I've started back up on that's taken precedence on my free time.
Well to let anyone who's still interested know this fic had not been abandoned, long story short my computer died on me and... well, given my current (lack of a) economic situation it just took this long to get her up and running again.
The first chapter of volume two is coming, just have to get back into flow of things but to tide things over I've gonna back over all the chapters of volume one and really overhauled them using some really good suggestions and tips I got on other sites I've posted this fic.
So yeah, this fic will be back up and running soon but just to let you all know I'm gonna be kinda slow on the updates, both to make sure I'm not rushing them and do to the fact I got another personal project that I've started back up on that's taken precedence on my free time.
"It is the Thunderbolt that steers the universe."~ Heraclitus
The people who voted for Obama or Romney are fucking idiots. Wake the fuck up.
"The Constitution was our last, best hope for peace... It failed. But, in the Year of the War against the Globalists, it became something greater: our last, best hope
The people who voted for Obama or Romney are fucking idiots. Wake the fuck up.
"The Constitution was our last, best hope for peace... It failed. But, in the Year of the War against the Globalists, it became something greater: our last, best hope
I like this, keep writing it. It's cool how you described what happened to DC and its landmarks. Also, contrary to what I thought, it seems like giving the characters different names to fit the locality isn't such a terrible idea after all.
It's amazing how many words just two episodes' worth (that was two episodes' equivalent, right?) of writing takes.
It's amazing how many words just two episodes' worth (that was two episodes' equivalent, right?) of writing takes.
Oh hey man, thanks for the words of encouragement. Sorry it's taken me so long to reply but real life hasn't been too kind to me or my ability to write my fic. I still plan on getting back to it but right now what free time I have has been dedicated to another personal project of mine that eats up time like candy.
But yeah, I did my best to find American names that captured the feel of the originals as I could. Originally I tried to find western names that had the same meanings but those often ended up not sounding right. Also a few of the names I picked also happened to have meanings that seem to mesh well with the concept of the character so I got lucky there heh.
Now as for episode to volume ratio, it's more that each volume covers a "story arc" for the most part. If that arc was across two episodes then the volume will cover two episodes, if it was just a one episode story (such as Day Tokyo III Stood Still) then it'll just be one episode BUT as things go along (if I can ever get back to it heh) this fic will start to pull a Rebuild and start taking it's own spin on things (well kinda, while in some ways the story is gonna depart form the original like Rebuild, it's also gonna stay a bit closer to the original as well).
Oh, and one last thing. There is a pretty good reason that I picked DC to be where the angel's are heading too, I'll give ya a hint or two. First, there's a figure on top of the Capitol Buildings boob... er dome. Do a little research on who it is. The other hint, as you might know, a good deal of the founding fathers were free masons. Well they were a type of mason known as a "green mason" and a lot of the initial planing for the American revolution was made in a place know as the Green Dragon Masonic Tavern and Lodge. I'll let you figure out what this has to do with anything on your own
Ahhhh damn it, now I'm kinda re-inspired to get back to work on it. Though I can't guarantee it I'll try to get the fist chapter of Volume two out by some time near the end of next week.
But yeah, I did my best to find American names that captured the feel of the originals as I could. Originally I tried to find western names that had the same meanings but those often ended up not sounding right. Also a few of the names I picked also happened to have meanings that seem to mesh well with the concept of the character so I got lucky there heh.
Now as for episode to volume ratio, it's more that each volume covers a "story arc" for the most part. If that arc was across two episodes then the volume will cover two episodes, if it was just a one episode story (such as Day Tokyo III Stood Still) then it'll just be one episode BUT as things go along (if I can ever get back to it heh) this fic will start to pull a Rebuild and start taking it's own spin on things (well kinda, while in some ways the story is gonna depart form the original like Rebuild, it's also gonna stay a bit closer to the original as well).
Oh, and one last thing. There is a pretty good reason that I picked DC to be where the angel's are heading too, I'll give ya a hint or two. First, there's a figure on top of the Capitol Buildings boob... er dome. Do a little research on who it is. The other hint, as you might know, a good deal of the founding fathers were free masons. Well they were a type of mason known as a "green mason" and a lot of the initial planing for the American revolution was made in a place know as the Green Dragon Masonic Tavern and Lodge. I'll let you figure out what this has to do with anything on your own
Ahhhh damn it, now I'm kinda re-inspired to get back to work on it. Though I can't guarantee it I'll try to get the fist chapter of Volume two out by some time near the end of next week.
"It is the Thunderbolt that steers the universe."~ Heraclitus
The people who voted for Obama or Romney are fucking idiots. Wake the fuck up.
"The Constitution was our last, best hope for peace... It failed. But, in the Year of the War against the Globalists, it became something greater: our last, best hope
The people who voted for Obama or Romney are fucking idiots. Wake the fuck up.
"The Constitution was our last, best hope for peace... It failed. But, in the Year of the War against the Globalists, it became something greater: our last, best hope
Finally, the fist chapter of volume 2 is here. It's taken me far too long and far too many computers (My original computer died, got a “new” one few months latter but that one crapped out a week later that and it wasn't until three or four months after that I was able to Frankenstein my two dead computers into one that at lest kinda works) but I finally found the time and energy to blow the dust off my fic and get back to work. Once again I would like to LeoXiao for the motivation, if I didn't read his post I probably wouldn't of ever gotten back to this since, well, if no one was reading why bother. Sooo, anywho I'm gonna try to shoot for at lest a semi-regular update schedule of at lest one a week or so (might be more or less depending on my motivation and or how much time a pretty large personal project of mine takes up).
Oh, and one last thing. I made a bit of a research fail in the last volume. Washington D.C. Is on Eastern Daylight Time (EDT) NOT Eastern Standard Time (EST), whoops. I made the corrections for this chapter and will go back and fix the earlier ones as I get the time. If anyone else finds any whoopsies that I made be sure to let me know.
But enough chit-chat. On to Volume Two!
William tried to calm his mind as he gripped the handle of a matte black Beretta M9A2 9mm pistol with both hands, trying his best to keep it steady. He could feel his hands tremble with fear and exception while sweat began to bead down his forehead, clouding the inside of his shooting glassed, as he raised the pistol up until it's front and rear sight lined up and prepared to pull the trigger. This was his first time firing a gun, for all practical reasons, and something about the anticipation of it going off scared him. But, he had to get over it. He was now the third qualified pilot designated by the Marduk institute. The third child, and operator of the Evangelion Unit designated zero-one. This meant he was what made the Eva work, what he thought it did. So in order to fight effectively in his Eva, he had to know how to fight himself.
He closed his eyes and took three deep breaths like his firing coach had instructed him and felt the trembling slightly calm. He then checked his stance and doubled checked his aim. His target was a circle just under the chest of a target silhouette made up to look like the Angel that had attack the city almost two weeks ago. This spot was called the core and was what, in so far as NERV could tell, made the Angel work. It was it's only weak point, any other part of an Angel would regenerate, given enough time, so long as the core was still functional. Any time he battled an Angel taking this out would be his top priority. The only problem was that on the Angel that he fought is was buried deep in it's body, protected by thick plates of bone like armor and to make matters worse predictions made by the bases super computers, the three Magi, gave a high probability to the chance that different Angels might have the core hidden in different spots.
William closed his eyes again, took another three deep breaths and then finally pulled the trigger. He heard the muffled report through his ear protectors and could feel the bang ring through him as his hands rock back under the recoil but to his surprise it wasn't as bad as he imagined. He opened his eyes and looked down the range to his target and failed to spot a hole in it.
From his side his coach told him to try again, this time with his eyes open and he ran through the motions again.
“Line the front sight with the rear and pull the trigger.”
-*BANG!*-
He shot high and to the left missing the paper again.
“Line the front sight with the rear and pull the trigger.”
-*BANG!*-
He shot high and to the left again but this time hitting the paper outside of the silhouette.
“Line the front sight with the rear and pull the trigger.”
-*BANG!*-
This one found it's mark.
“Line the front sight with the rear and pull the trigger.”
“Line the front sight with the rear and pull the trigger.”
“Line the front sight with the rear and pull the trigger.”
“Line the front sight with the rear and pull the...”
NEON GENESIS EVANGLION: To the Victor
Vol: 2 Self and Others
Chapter One
Price
Eva Simulation Range 12, Central Dogma B-26
Sunday, September 13th 2015
8:43AM EDT
“Alright William, have you memorized the locations for all deployment route, recovery area, power umbilical stations and armament station buildings?” Dr. Rachel Ammadon asked the third child while looking out the window of the observation box at the tube and wiring covered, partially formed, upper torso that composed the bulk of the simulation body the boy was piloting.
William took a second to think about how to best answer the question as he scrolled over the overlapping wall of menus covering each of locations he had to learn. “Ummm, yes.” He replied. He didn't really of course, but he did remember some of them and that was close enough for him. After all, who was suppose to be able to memorize all this!
“Good.” Rachel replied. “Now to overview, in order to operate continuously the Eva unit needs to be supplied consonantly with electrical power which is normally handled by the power umbilical attached to the Eva's back. However, if it is ever severed or needs to be detached for whatever reason you will be switched over to an emergency internal battery that can only run the Eva for about five minutes under normal combat situations, one minute at peak output, and sixteen hours in minimum gain mode. Though in reality the amount of time you have will vary depending on your load out and actions you take. Got all that?”
“But why only five minutes? That seems... that seems a little on the low side.” William responded not liking the prospect of being in the middle of a fight with just a few minutes of operational time available to him.
“Sadly, energy storage is one area that is still lagging behind most other fields. Even though the Evas use experimental pure elemental lithium batteries that were barely even theoretically possible a few years back, this is the best we could do without resorting to nuclear power which would carry the risk of leaking radiation if the reactor compartment was breached during combat.” She answered. “Now let's get started with today’s lesson.” As she spoke a nearly photo-realistic 3D simulation of the city appeared around him.
“To begin, we're going to start simple. We're just going to practice attaching and reattaching the umbilical. To do so just focus on the umbilical and a menu of options should appear. Just think about removing it and a pomp asking if you're sure will pop up, mentally agree to disengage the safety then reach around until you feel it's handle. There'll be a pressure bar, kinda like what you would find on a gas pump nozzle, which you just need to press and then pull it off. Got all that?”
“Yeah, seems simple enough.” William replied back.
“It is, now anyway. Keep in mind that with out practice you'll fumble around with things that are pretty simple in everyday situations when you're in the thick of battle so we need to drill these maneuver into you until they become second nature. Now, get at it.”
“Yes ma'ma, on it.” William answered as he followed her instructions, he disengaged the locks, grabbed the umbilical handle while depressing the lever and then pulled it off. As soon as the connectors broke contact with the socket a warning display with accompanying annoying beep popped up in his field of vision with a timer counting down how many second of activations time he had remaining.
“Good William. Now to put the plug back in, while keeping the lever held down just move the plug back into place. You should feel it lock in place, then just let go of the handle and that's it. Give it a try.”
William nodded in reply and reattached it causing the warning window to close up and the noise to stop.
“Lastly, in a case of emergency you can use explosive bolts to blow of the umbilical. Keep in mind though that the shock of this can disable the umbilical so be sure that there's another umbilical station near by if you need to do this. In order to engage the explosive bolts, bring up the disengage prompt. Then concentrate on emergency disengagement, you'll be asked if you are sure, agree and then the cord will be blow off.”
“Alright, I got that.”
“Now let's just keep practicing the motions. Keep removing and reattaching your umbilical until your got it down to muscle memory.”
William again nodded in agreement and began.
After another four hours of suffering through repetitive, monotonous training William was finally finished for the day. He closed his eyes and gave himself a second to adjust to his normal body again as the connection to the titanic machine he piloted was severed. Then, with the familiar motions, the entry plug was twisted out from the back of the Eva simulation body and he felt the crane arm swing him over to the staging platform. Now came the part he had to come to dread. The LCL that filled his “coffin” was slowly pumped back into their storage tanks and his body was once more exposed to normal air and it's pressure. Instinctive reflexes kicked in, yearning to breath normal air and to purge the LCL that still remained in his lungs he began to gag as the fluid began to be painfully forced from his system. The throne was detached from the entry plug and lowered to the staging platform and a team of technicians scrambled to quickly undo the straps that held the teenage pilot in place and the umbilicals that attached to his combat plug suit and then help him over to the basin on the left hand side of the platform where he unceremoniously collapsed to his knees and vomited.
Lovely Suites Condominiums 17
Monday, September 14th 2015
6:58AM EDT
*Kock-knock*
“Hey Megan, it's almost seven. Time to get up.” William called out apologetically as he tried to rouse his roommate and guardian from her sleep, a task he had learned was seldom easy. After a few minutes with no reply he opened her door slightly to check if she was actually in there. Sure enough there she was rolled up tightly in a ball, completely covered by her thick red and maroon check patterned velvet blanket.
“Megan, it's morning. Time to get up.” He called out once again to the amorphous lump that lied beneath the covers. This time he got a response.
“Uuuuughhhhh....” The lumped moaned back as the sound of Williams voice jarred her from her not quiet fully asleep state. “Mmmm... I don't need to be in till later this afternoon... I just got home not even two hours ago.”
“Oh... sorry.” William stood there for another minute waiting for her to ask him about... he didn't know what, he just wanted her to say something. Well, I'm off then. See you later.” He said somberly after realizing that was all the effort he was worth. As went to close the door Mega let out a deep yawn and then said, “Take care... Oh, before you go could you run out the trash?”
“Oh... yeah, sure.” William replied, a little vigor returning to his voice. It wasn't exactly what he was looking for but at least it was something. He then finished closing the door before heading into the kitchen, grabbing the bag of trash and then heading out through the back door.
As soon as she heard the door close Megan promptly flipped to her side, covered her face with her pillow in an attempt to black out the world around her some more and tried to think of nothing as the the sweet, comforting embrace of sleep began to wash over and blanket her.
Then her cell phone rang.
“God damn, mother fucking.... wa-arrrrrgghhh!” She yelled as threw her pillow in rage at her tormentor, knocking it off of the nightstand is was laying upon. She then pulled her cover up over her head and tried to ignore it as it rang again and again and again...
“Hello! Who is it!” Megan finally answered in the most disgruntled tone she could muster.
“Soooo, how's your boyfriend?” Came the reply.
“Why do you hate me so Rachel? I just want to get some sleep in before I have to go back to work. Just a teensy, little amount...” Megan whined as she sat herself up.
“Ohhh, quit your bitching Megan. At lest you get sleep in your own apartment, I haven't seen my own bed in almost five days.”
“Don't give me that, the commander won't be back from his conference for two whole days. You could slack a little if you wanted too. Face it, you're an inhuman workaholic who enjoys doing this to herself for some twisted reason.”
“Workaholic I maybe but even I have my limits. I really wish I could slack off a little but going over all of Williams test data is a big priority right now, the more real world results I can get the the more kinks we can work out of the system.”
“Yeah, I gotcha. But anyways... ummmmm William is doing fine I guess, he's still kinda quiet and I don't think he's gotten used to school yet. I mean I got him his own cell phone, the things really nice, but... I don't anyone's called him yet.”
“Just give him some more time, he was home schooled when he was living with his guardian and then was on his own for three years. That and he's... well kinda reserved by nature. Heh, he's a real case study for the Hedgehogs dilemma.” Rachel assured her.
“Hedgehog? … Oh, those guys with the spiky hair... European porcupines.”
“Umm hum. You see; even though two hedgehogs may want to get closer to each other, the closer they do get the more they just end up hurting each other with their spines. Sadly it's the same with some people. William is just afraid that if he gets to close to anyone he'll just end up getting hurt, this is why he comes off as so quiet and timid and somewhere along the line he convinced his own heart that he's coward deep down inside.”
“Well... he's just going to have to learn that growing up mean... just having to learn how to keep the right distance between yourself and another that you don't get hurt by each others “spines”. *Yawwwwwnnnnnnnnnnn!* Man Rachel... laying it on thick with the philosophic stuff this morning? Ain't this just a little out of character for you?”
“Heh, maybe. My minds probably just calling out for help at this point but anyways, I guess I can let you get some sleep. Laters.”
“You're soooo kind Rachel, whatever would I do without you? Have fun, bye.” Megan finished. She then hung up her phone, dropped it off to the side of the bed and tried to get back to sleep. For five minutes she laid on her side trying to find sleep but it would not come, she more she tried to sleep the more awake she felt.
“Ahhh fuck it!” She grumbled as she sat back up. She rubbed lotion around her bad knee and put her brace on around it, thankfully she no longer needed to use crutches to walk around. Running was still out of the question but at lest it was getting better. She then put on her bunny slippers, slid out off of the bed and walked out into the front room and smirked to herself as she looked it across at just how spick and span it was now since she had William to “help” with the cleaning. She then headed over into the kitchen were not single dish was left in the sink and as an added bonus, William had left out a bowl and spoon, cup and a box of her favorite cereal.
“Well, at lest he's handy to have around the house.”
Ronald M. Crown Municipal Middle School, Classroom 206
8:47AM EDT
“Fffffffff..... frooooooooommmmm! Urrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr! Tat-tat-tat-tat! Ba-Bom!” Urrrrrrrrnnnnnnn!!!” Kennith Allison onomatopoeiaed to himself as he sat at his desk while filming his model of a AV-12B Striker Heavy VTOL attack craft banking and diving with his high end Canon Proshot VX-2100 one gigapixel camera. He was an average looking boy of fourteen years with messy blond hair in a semi-undercut style and light brown eyes covered by a pair of not particularly trendy looking glasses. “Ripple fire missile! Stop this thing at any cos...” He continued dramatically until he sensed that someone was behind him, he turned to look back and found the face of a rather impatient looking, freckled faced young women looking back.
“What's up class prez?”
“You dropped off those flyers at his place like I asked you right?” She asked in reply. She was almost universally known as the class prez even though class election wasn't until later this fall since she has been the class president of almost every class but one she's been part of since the 4th grade. Of course it didn't hurt that she always did her best to be the teachers little helper generally earning the ire of her other classmates. She was a relatively pretty girl with coffee brown hair done up in twin tails and matching eyes who was about a month time Kennith's senior. Her real name was Haley Hacklemen which lead to her other nickname among friends being H2.
“What ummm..... wellllll...” Kennith began to answer nervously. “Well, as far as I can tell no one's been home and he hasn't answered any of my e-mails...”
“Kenny, you're his best friend. Aren't you even a little worried? As far as I know no one's seen him in almost two weeks.”
“Y... yeah... Man... I hope he wasn't hurt during that fight.” He leaned back while put down his camera and model. He for the most part just blew off the fact his friend has been gone not really paying attention to how long it's been but now the weight of that thought began to sink in.
Haley too was beginning to feel worried. “Hum? But the news said no one was seriously injured during that incident.”
“And you actually believe the news?” Kennith asked with a smirk. “Right, they had almost the entire Atlantic fleet deployed, had fighters and bombers scrambled from Langley to Dover and everything in between. They even dropped a friggin' nuke and you think no one got hurt? There had to be at lest a couple thousand casualties.”
“But they said that was a conventional... how... why would they cover something like that up?”
“You really are naive aren't...” Kennith began to chide her with as he turned his head to see had just entered the class room as the class president did that same. Who it was came as quiet a surprise.
“Tito!”
“Valdez!”
Tito walked to his desk seemingly ignoring his friends as he wore a stern look on his face. He tossed his bookbag onto it and panned a look across the almost empty classroom. “I'm gone for two weeks and the whole class up and leaves on me.” Tito said, indirectly addressed to his friends. “Hum, still see little Ms. Freak is here.” He added as he glanced over to the Asian girl with the eye patch and the bandaged arm in a sling starring out the windows seemly oblivious to the world outside her.
“Well yeah man, most of them got the hell out of here after that robot thing showed up and caused a ruckus. They're gonna be bringing in the other eight grade classes and merging them with ours.” Kennith answered. “After all, after that battle in the middle of the city there ain't too many people who want to stick around.”
“Yeah, you're probably the only crazy mutha fucker who actually excited for all this shit.” Tito replayed as he leaned back his chair.
“Though that may be... So... ummm dude. Where the hell have you been man? Did you get caught up in the cross fire or something?”
Tito sighed. “Look... it's... well I don't want to talk about it right now man. Maybe later alright?”
“Yeah man, gotcha.”
The three of them turned to look as a quiet, cautious looking, boy entered the room seemingly lost in his MP3 player. The boy glaceed over at the bandaged girl by the window and took a seat at a desk in the middle row.
“Who the fuck is that? I thought you said people were getting the fuck out?” Tito asked.
“Oh yeah, him. His names William or something...”Kennith answered after which Haley added,“Yeah, his name is William Ikari. He came in two weeks ago, right after you up and disappeared.”
“He transferred after the fight? Family must be brave or stupid.” Tito said a bit surprised that anyone would want to live in this city so soon after what had happened.
“Yeah odd isn't it? I got my ideas on him though.” Kennith said coyly while adjusting his glasses.
“Oh, gawd. This again?” Haley moaned.
“What? What's up?”
“Oh, I got a theory on him buuut I'll wait till I got my prof before I let you in on it.” Kennith answered with a sly smile.
“Man, you're always on some crazy conspiracy shit.”
Classroom 206
2:49PM EDT
The classe's rather aged teacher continued his final lecture for the day as his as most of his now combined class of students kept their eyes on the clock as it counted down towards their freedom. “And then in the last year of the twentieth century a deceptively small cometary fragment came racing into our solar system on an orbit that put it on a direct approach towards Earth. The fragment, moving at relativistic velocity, was both far too small and fast to be detected by any of our instruments at the time and at 8:42AM Eastern Daylight Time on September 13th of the year 2000 it impacted Mt. Markham located in the Markham Plateau region of Antarctica with a force greater then the combined detonation of the total nuclear arsenal of every nation on the plant. Insistently the fireball vaporized over sixty percent of all the continents ice sending a cloud of vapor as high as the stratosphere. Over the next few hours the shockwave moving at over 600mph hit land causing massive tsunamis to flood every coastal city on earth ending roughly two billion lives. The sound waves of the explosion alone was able to rattle windows as far north as Siberia. This was the so called Second Impact. Crops failed, new diseases surfaced, economies collapsed and wars both civil and global seemed to spring up everywhere in the aftermath. Those who survived the impact found themselves in a living hell that claimed another billion lives before things began to stabilize. It has been only fifteen years since then and through sweet and effort we have restored thing to how they were before that disaster. At the time I was living in Coral Spring, Florida, now laying at the bottom of the sea... Oh!”
And with that the final bell for the day rang and the classroom became alive with the sounds of excited teenagers ready to be set free.
As the his classmates gathered what books they would be taking home Kennith moved his eyes towards his query and he could taste the excitement on his lips. It was time to move his plan to action, but first he needed his bait. He then moved his gaze over who he just had in mind, Ashley Coleman. She was one of the more attractive girls in the school and was known for willingness to do certain favors, so long as the price was right and her being moved to his class had made things much easier for him. Now he just needed to persuade her. He waited for a minute after she had left the room then gathered his books and followed after her to her locker and leaned against one next to hers.
“What do you want nerd?”Ashley greeted him with a tang of disgusted in her voice.
“Nice to see you too. But anyway. I got a little favor to ask you and trust me, it will make this worth your while.” He answered frankly.
“No way I'm going on a date with you nerdboy.” She said with heavy emphasis on the no.
“Oh no, that is not what this is about. I just need you to ask someone a question for me, that's all.”
“Oh god, you mean that stupid theory you have about the new kid?” She asked shaking her head in dismay.
“Yep.”
“What's in it for me?”
“Four front rows seats to the Sara Silvermoon concert next week, sounds good?”
She took a minute to weigh things in. “You're absolutely sure you can get them?”
“Have I ever left a favor unpaid?”
"What the hell, all I got to do is ask some kid a stupid question and I got front row seats to see Sara Slivermoon...." She thought to herself. “Fine, deal. His name's William right?”
Kennith nodded in reply.
“When do you want me to ask him?”
“Right now if you could, he's right down the hallway, right there.” He informed her, pointing William out as he went through his locker.
“God, this is stupid but might as well get this over with.” She closed up her locker and made her way over to the boy and tapped him on his shoulder while asking in calmest and warm sounding voice she could muster, “Excuse me, you're William Ikari right?”
“Oh!... Ummmm... well, yes.” William replied nervously.
“No need to be shy, just wanted to ask you a little question.”
“Oh... ummm... re.. really? About... about what?”
“Ohhh, there's just a silly little rumor going around the school that you're somehow the pilot of that big robot that fought that monster. Yeah, I know. It's silly right? But I just wanted to hear it from the source. There's no way you you're that things pilot right?”
“Oh... well..” William wonder how to answer her, he knew he should really tell her that he wasn't but... she was cute... “Well actually I am, yeah. In fact...” He reached into his wallet and pulled out his NERV personal card and showed it to her “Here's my ID.”
Ashley looked over the card “Wait..” No... it couldn't be but... why would someone his age have a NERV card. It didn't make much sense that someone his age would be some kind of military pilot, especially for some top secret robot weapon, but why else would he have that card? “No fucking way... I mean... you... you're that things pilot? For real?
“Yeah. I mean... what I did was me just... being lucky. I really don't remember much from that fight aside from being scared.”
“No... fucking... way... no... shit.” There was just something about how he said that, she could tell that he honestly believed... he really was that things pilot. “Holy fuck guys, Kennyboy was right! This kid is that things pilot!” Ashley shouted load enough for everyone in the hallway to hear. All the students who heard stopped and turn to look at the new kid and Ashley in confusion. It was too hard to believe but, someone as popular as Ashley wouldn't state something this outlandish is it wasn't true... right?
William suddenly found himself both surrounded by his classmates and regretting his decision to tell the truth. There were just too many people surrounding him now, it felt like everything was closing in on him and there was just too much noise as they bombarded him with questions.
“Hey man, what's it like piloting that thing?”
“Well... kinda scary I guess.”
“What's it called? Angela or something right?”
“Ummmm, it's an Evangelion Unit.”
“What kind of weapons does it have?”
“Lot's of them.... One's like a knife that generates and ultrasonic wave or something like that.”
“How did you end up as a pilot?”
“I picked, had something to do about how they work though I don't think I'm suppose to talk to much about though.”
As William tried his best to hide his panic Kennith watched, smirking to himself at a job well done. “My powers of observation are just too amazing.”
Tito was also watching from across the hall. His hands balled into firsts as rage began to fill him at the sight the boy who had been reviled to be an Eva pilot.
Outside Ronald M. Crown Municipal Middle School
3:14PM EDT
After escaping from the crowd William found a quiet spot outside the school to sit and calm himself as he leaned against a wall. His breathing was heavy, he could feel his heart beat racing and his mouth was dry and clammy. He wasn't quit so much sacred as nervous. He felt just too much pressure from being the center of some many peoples attention. Though... he did have to admit, it did feel a little good seeing all those people look up to him... just a little though. He soon found himself calmed back down and it was time to head back home to do his homework before he had to be at NERV for more training.
“Hey! New kid! Get up off yo ass!” He heard a vaguely familiar voice yell as he was starting to stand back up. He looked in the direction the yell came from to find that tall, athletic looking, Hispanic kid with the spiky black hair form his class charging at him with his fist drawn back and before he could react his field of vision became filled with the sight of a large fist flying at him as the athletic kid shouted, “So I can knock yo punk ass back on it!”
The punch connected right under Williams left eye filling his vision with a multicolor burst of stars. His head rocked back and his body gave out and he collapsed to the ground in an unceremonious mound. As his vision came back to him William looked up at the blurred visage of his assailant who was standing above him with his right fist pressed firmly against his left palm. His attacker leaned in closer while saying, “That's what you fucking get. I owed you this one big.”
William just stared up at him, he had no idea what to do... he felt sacred... and lost. Why was this happening to him? Why was he attacking him? What did he do to deserve this? Then from behind his attacker heard another somewhat familiar high pitched voice yell out, “Hey! Tito! What the hell are you doing?!”
“What the hell am I doing? I'm doing?!” Tito said as he looked back to that blond, glasses wearing kind from his class. “This... this piece of shit...” He then swung his arm around and pointed directly at William. “He doesn't seem to understand that fucking concept of what protecting our fucking city means! And fuck you Kennyboy for not fucking telling me who this piece of shit was when I got here!”
“Wait... I didn't know you want to!” Kennith protested. “But... what are doing? What did he do?”
“When that thing came and attacked the city my old man and abuelo was off at work at the lab and it... it was just me and my sister... the sirens went off and we heard the explosions and she was fucking scared man... fuck I was fucking scared.” He looked down and took a monument before he continued. “We headed on down to the apartments shelter, which you know, we're all told about how safe they are and they can take bombs and shit. Next thing I know I hear a loud ass boom and the ceiling just came down all around me... somehow it all missed me, somehow I'm still fucking standing. I look up and shit man... I just see shithead here's robot smashing that monster right through the complex just not giving a fuck. I'm looking up at it not believing what I'm seeing... this shit just doesn’t happen you know... And then... and then it hits me...” Tears began to form in his eyes. “Where's my fucking sister? I look down and see a pool of blood... just... just flowing all round my shoes. I... I... follow... I follow the blood to where it's coming from and... and my sister... my little precious sister... is pinned under a ton of fucking rock... she's laying there... convulsing... her eyes... all bugged out and dilated, foaming at the mouth. I didn't know if she was alive or dead man... But she might as well of been, she's never going to walk again... never going to be able to take care of herself again... and that's even if she wakes the fuck out the coma she's in.”
“Holy shit man... why... why didn't you tell me?” Kennith replied to his friend in utter disbelief and shock.
“So yeah, that's why. I'm gonna make this mother fucker feel everything that my little sister did.”
“I...” William weakly mutter out as he propped himself up into a semi sitting position with his arms. “I didn't pilot that thing by choice, they... they didn't leave my with any choice in the matter...”
“You didn't have any choice?” Tito yelled back, the rage back in his voice, as he grabbed William by his shirt lifting him up partly. “No one put a gun to your head African-American brother, you had a fucking choice. But no one, not no one gave my sister one and now... she's never going to be able to have one again.” Tito the threw him back to the ground with disgust in his eyes and then walked off with his shocked friend in tow trying his best to calm him.
William felt his check and tip of the right side of his lips puff up as he laid against the ground for what felt like forever, he could of died in this spot for all he carried at the moment. It just didn't seem like anything matter, no matter what he did all he did was mess up and fail.. This guys sister... those ladies at the Seven-Elven who were evacuating... all the peoples who lives he has ruined... How could he ever apologize to them... to him... to his sister. Some hero he was, all those people who just praised him... if only they knew just how wretched he really was, how much of a coward he felt he was.
William suddenly sensed that he was not alone and looked up to see a girl standing over him.. it was Rei. How could he ever apologies to her either.
She stared down at him, seemingly inquisitively for what seemed like minutes to William before in a soft, quiet voice telling him, “There's been an emergency... I'll report in first.” And then running off.
His cell phone then went off, ringing with the tone set aside for when someone at NERV really needed to contact him as the air exploded with the sound of air raid sirens chilling his body to the core. He wasn't ready for this, he didn't want to do this. Why did THEY have to come back... why did he have to face them again...
On it's sixth ring William finally answered.
Oh, and one last thing. I made a bit of a research fail in the last volume. Washington D.C. Is on Eastern Daylight Time (EDT) NOT Eastern Standard Time (EST), whoops. I made the corrections for this chapter and will go back and fix the earlier ones as I get the time. If anyone else finds any whoopsies that I made be sure to let me know.
But enough chit-chat. On to Volume Two!
William tried to calm his mind as he gripped the handle of a matte black Beretta M9A2 9mm pistol with both hands, trying his best to keep it steady. He could feel his hands tremble with fear and exception while sweat began to bead down his forehead, clouding the inside of his shooting glassed, as he raised the pistol up until it's front and rear sight lined up and prepared to pull the trigger. This was his first time firing a gun, for all practical reasons, and something about the anticipation of it going off scared him. But, he had to get over it. He was now the third qualified pilot designated by the Marduk institute. The third child, and operator of the Evangelion Unit designated zero-one. This meant he was what made the Eva work, what he thought it did. So in order to fight effectively in his Eva, he had to know how to fight himself.
He closed his eyes and took three deep breaths like his firing coach had instructed him and felt the trembling slightly calm. He then checked his stance and doubled checked his aim. His target was a circle just under the chest of a target silhouette made up to look like the Angel that had attack the city almost two weeks ago. This spot was called the core and was what, in so far as NERV could tell, made the Angel work. It was it's only weak point, any other part of an Angel would regenerate, given enough time, so long as the core was still functional. Any time he battled an Angel taking this out would be his top priority. The only problem was that on the Angel that he fought is was buried deep in it's body, protected by thick plates of bone like armor and to make matters worse predictions made by the bases super computers, the three Magi, gave a high probability to the chance that different Angels might have the core hidden in different spots.
William closed his eyes again, took another three deep breaths and then finally pulled the trigger. He heard the muffled report through his ear protectors and could feel the bang ring through him as his hands rock back under the recoil but to his surprise it wasn't as bad as he imagined. He opened his eyes and looked down the range to his target and failed to spot a hole in it.
From his side his coach told him to try again, this time with his eyes open and he ran through the motions again.
“Line the front sight with the rear and pull the trigger.”
-*BANG!*-
He shot high and to the left missing the paper again.
“Line the front sight with the rear and pull the trigger.”
-*BANG!*-
He shot high and to the left again but this time hitting the paper outside of the silhouette.
“Line the front sight with the rear and pull the trigger.”
-*BANG!*-
This one found it's mark.
“Line the front sight with the rear and pull the trigger.”
“Line the front sight with the rear and pull the trigger.”
“Line the front sight with the rear and pull the trigger.”
“Line the front sight with the rear and pull the...”
NEON GENESIS EVANGLION: To the Victor
Vol: 2 Self and Others
Chapter One
Price
Eva Simulation Range 12, Central Dogma B-26
Sunday, September 13th 2015
8:43AM EDT
“Alright William, have you memorized the locations for all deployment route, recovery area, power umbilical stations and armament station buildings?” Dr. Rachel Ammadon asked the third child while looking out the window of the observation box at the tube and wiring covered, partially formed, upper torso that composed the bulk of the simulation body the boy was piloting.
William took a second to think about how to best answer the question as he scrolled over the overlapping wall of menus covering each of locations he had to learn. “Ummm, yes.” He replied. He didn't really of course, but he did remember some of them and that was close enough for him. After all, who was suppose to be able to memorize all this!
“Good.” Rachel replied. “Now to overview, in order to operate continuously the Eva unit needs to be supplied consonantly with electrical power which is normally handled by the power umbilical attached to the Eva's back. However, if it is ever severed or needs to be detached for whatever reason you will be switched over to an emergency internal battery that can only run the Eva for about five minutes under normal combat situations, one minute at peak output, and sixteen hours in minimum gain mode. Though in reality the amount of time you have will vary depending on your load out and actions you take. Got all that?”
“But why only five minutes? That seems... that seems a little on the low side.” William responded not liking the prospect of being in the middle of a fight with just a few minutes of operational time available to him.
“Sadly, energy storage is one area that is still lagging behind most other fields. Even though the Evas use experimental pure elemental lithium batteries that were barely even theoretically possible a few years back, this is the best we could do without resorting to nuclear power which would carry the risk of leaking radiation if the reactor compartment was breached during combat.” She answered. “Now let's get started with today’s lesson.” As she spoke a nearly photo-realistic 3D simulation of the city appeared around him.
“To begin, we're going to start simple. We're just going to practice attaching and reattaching the umbilical. To do so just focus on the umbilical and a menu of options should appear. Just think about removing it and a pomp asking if you're sure will pop up, mentally agree to disengage the safety then reach around until you feel it's handle. There'll be a pressure bar, kinda like what you would find on a gas pump nozzle, which you just need to press and then pull it off. Got all that?”
“Yeah, seems simple enough.” William replied back.
“It is, now anyway. Keep in mind that with out practice you'll fumble around with things that are pretty simple in everyday situations when you're in the thick of battle so we need to drill these maneuver into you until they become second nature. Now, get at it.”
“Yes ma'ma, on it.” William answered as he followed her instructions, he disengaged the locks, grabbed the umbilical handle while depressing the lever and then pulled it off. As soon as the connectors broke contact with the socket a warning display with accompanying annoying beep popped up in his field of vision with a timer counting down how many second of activations time he had remaining.
“Good William. Now to put the plug back in, while keeping the lever held down just move the plug back into place. You should feel it lock in place, then just let go of the handle and that's it. Give it a try.”
William nodded in reply and reattached it causing the warning window to close up and the noise to stop.
“Lastly, in a case of emergency you can use explosive bolts to blow of the umbilical. Keep in mind though that the shock of this can disable the umbilical so be sure that there's another umbilical station near by if you need to do this. In order to engage the explosive bolts, bring up the disengage prompt. Then concentrate on emergency disengagement, you'll be asked if you are sure, agree and then the cord will be blow off.”
“Alright, I got that.”
“Now let's just keep practicing the motions. Keep removing and reattaching your umbilical until your got it down to muscle memory.”
William again nodded in agreement and began.
After another four hours of suffering through repetitive, monotonous training William was finally finished for the day. He closed his eyes and gave himself a second to adjust to his normal body again as the connection to the titanic machine he piloted was severed. Then, with the familiar motions, the entry plug was twisted out from the back of the Eva simulation body and he felt the crane arm swing him over to the staging platform. Now came the part he had to come to dread. The LCL that filled his “coffin” was slowly pumped back into their storage tanks and his body was once more exposed to normal air and it's pressure. Instinctive reflexes kicked in, yearning to breath normal air and to purge the LCL that still remained in his lungs he began to gag as the fluid began to be painfully forced from his system. The throne was detached from the entry plug and lowered to the staging platform and a team of technicians scrambled to quickly undo the straps that held the teenage pilot in place and the umbilicals that attached to his combat plug suit and then help him over to the basin on the left hand side of the platform where he unceremoniously collapsed to his knees and vomited.
Lovely Suites Condominiums 17
Monday, September 14th 2015
6:58AM EDT
*Kock-knock*
“Hey Megan, it's almost seven. Time to get up.” William called out apologetically as he tried to rouse his roommate and guardian from her sleep, a task he had learned was seldom easy. After a few minutes with no reply he opened her door slightly to check if she was actually in there. Sure enough there she was rolled up tightly in a ball, completely covered by her thick red and maroon check patterned velvet blanket.
“Megan, it's morning. Time to get up.” He called out once again to the amorphous lump that lied beneath the covers. This time he got a response.
“Uuuuughhhhh....” The lumped moaned back as the sound of Williams voice jarred her from her not quiet fully asleep state. “Mmmm... I don't need to be in till later this afternoon... I just got home not even two hours ago.”
“Oh... sorry.” William stood there for another minute waiting for her to ask him about... he didn't know what, he just wanted her to say something. Well, I'm off then. See you later.” He said somberly after realizing that was all the effort he was worth. As went to close the door Mega let out a deep yawn and then said, “Take care... Oh, before you go could you run out the trash?”
“Oh... yeah, sure.” William replied, a little vigor returning to his voice. It wasn't exactly what he was looking for but at least it was something. He then finished closing the door before heading into the kitchen, grabbing the bag of trash and then heading out through the back door.
As soon as she heard the door close Megan promptly flipped to her side, covered her face with her pillow in an attempt to black out the world around her some more and tried to think of nothing as the the sweet, comforting embrace of sleep began to wash over and blanket her.
Then her cell phone rang.
“God damn, mother fucking.... wa-arrrrrgghhh!” She yelled as threw her pillow in rage at her tormentor, knocking it off of the nightstand is was laying upon. She then pulled her cover up over her head and tried to ignore it as it rang again and again and again...
“Hello! Who is it!” Megan finally answered in the most disgruntled tone she could muster.
“Soooo, how's your boyfriend?” Came the reply.
“Why do you hate me so Rachel? I just want to get some sleep in before I have to go back to work. Just a teensy, little amount...” Megan whined as she sat herself up.
“Ohhh, quit your bitching Megan. At lest you get sleep in your own apartment, I haven't seen my own bed in almost five days.”
“Don't give me that, the commander won't be back from his conference for two whole days. You could slack a little if you wanted too. Face it, you're an inhuman workaholic who enjoys doing this to herself for some twisted reason.”
“Workaholic I maybe but even I have my limits. I really wish I could slack off a little but going over all of Williams test data is a big priority right now, the more real world results I can get the the more kinks we can work out of the system.”
“Yeah, I gotcha. But anyways... ummmmm William is doing fine I guess, he's still kinda quiet and I don't think he's gotten used to school yet. I mean I got him his own cell phone, the things really nice, but... I don't anyone's called him yet.”
“Just give him some more time, he was home schooled when he was living with his guardian and then was on his own for three years. That and he's... well kinda reserved by nature. Heh, he's a real case study for the Hedgehogs dilemma.” Rachel assured her.
“Hedgehog? … Oh, those guys with the spiky hair... European porcupines.”
“Umm hum. You see; even though two hedgehogs may want to get closer to each other, the closer they do get the more they just end up hurting each other with their spines. Sadly it's the same with some people. William is just afraid that if he gets to close to anyone he'll just end up getting hurt, this is why he comes off as so quiet and timid and somewhere along the line he convinced his own heart that he's coward deep down inside.”
“Well... he's just going to have to learn that growing up mean... just having to learn how to keep the right distance between yourself and another that you don't get hurt by each others “spines”. *Yawwwwwnnnnnnnnnnn!* Man Rachel... laying it on thick with the philosophic stuff this morning? Ain't this just a little out of character for you?”
“Heh, maybe. My minds probably just calling out for help at this point but anyways, I guess I can let you get some sleep. Laters.”
“You're soooo kind Rachel, whatever would I do without you? Have fun, bye.” Megan finished. She then hung up her phone, dropped it off to the side of the bed and tried to get back to sleep. For five minutes she laid on her side trying to find sleep but it would not come, she more she tried to sleep the more awake she felt.
“Ahhh fuck it!” She grumbled as she sat back up. She rubbed lotion around her bad knee and put her brace on around it, thankfully she no longer needed to use crutches to walk around. Running was still out of the question but at lest it was getting better. She then put on her bunny slippers, slid out off of the bed and walked out into the front room and smirked to herself as she looked it across at just how spick and span it was now since she had William to “help” with the cleaning. She then headed over into the kitchen were not single dish was left in the sink and as an added bonus, William had left out a bowl and spoon, cup and a box of her favorite cereal.
“Well, at lest he's handy to have around the house.”
Ronald M. Crown Municipal Middle School, Classroom 206
8:47AM EDT
“Fffffffff..... frooooooooommmmm! Urrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr! Tat-tat-tat-tat! Ba-Bom!” Urrrrrrrrnnnnnnn!!!” Kennith Allison onomatopoeiaed to himself as he sat at his desk while filming his model of a AV-12B Striker Heavy VTOL attack craft banking and diving with his high end Canon Proshot VX-2100 one gigapixel camera. He was an average looking boy of fourteen years with messy blond hair in a semi-undercut style and light brown eyes covered by a pair of not particularly trendy looking glasses. “Ripple fire missile! Stop this thing at any cos...” He continued dramatically until he sensed that someone was behind him, he turned to look back and found the face of a rather impatient looking, freckled faced young women looking back.
“What's up class prez?”
“You dropped off those flyers at his place like I asked you right?” She asked in reply. She was almost universally known as the class prez even though class election wasn't until later this fall since she has been the class president of almost every class but one she's been part of since the 4th grade. Of course it didn't hurt that she always did her best to be the teachers little helper generally earning the ire of her other classmates. She was a relatively pretty girl with coffee brown hair done up in twin tails and matching eyes who was about a month time Kennith's senior. Her real name was Haley Hacklemen which lead to her other nickname among friends being H2.
“What ummm..... wellllll...” Kennith began to answer nervously. “Well, as far as I can tell no one's been home and he hasn't answered any of my e-mails...”
“Kenny, you're his best friend. Aren't you even a little worried? As far as I know no one's seen him in almost two weeks.”
“Y... yeah... Man... I hope he wasn't hurt during that fight.” He leaned back while put down his camera and model. He for the most part just blew off the fact his friend has been gone not really paying attention to how long it's been but now the weight of that thought began to sink in.
Haley too was beginning to feel worried. “Hum? But the news said no one was seriously injured during that incident.”
“And you actually believe the news?” Kennith asked with a smirk. “Right, they had almost the entire Atlantic fleet deployed, had fighters and bombers scrambled from Langley to Dover and everything in between. They even dropped a friggin' nuke and you think no one got hurt? There had to be at lest a couple thousand casualties.”
“But they said that was a conventional... how... why would they cover something like that up?”
“You really are naive aren't...” Kennith began to chide her with as he turned his head to see had just entered the class room as the class president did that same. Who it was came as quiet a surprise.
“Tito!”
“Valdez!”
Tito walked to his desk seemingly ignoring his friends as he wore a stern look on his face. He tossed his bookbag onto it and panned a look across the almost empty classroom. “I'm gone for two weeks and the whole class up and leaves on me.” Tito said, indirectly addressed to his friends. “Hum, still see little Ms. Freak is here.” He added as he glanced over to the Asian girl with the eye patch and the bandaged arm in a sling starring out the windows seemly oblivious to the world outside her.
“Well yeah man, most of them got the hell out of here after that robot thing showed up and caused a ruckus. They're gonna be bringing in the other eight grade classes and merging them with ours.” Kennith answered. “After all, after that battle in the middle of the city there ain't too many people who want to stick around.”
“Yeah, you're probably the only crazy mutha fucker who actually excited for all this shit.” Tito replayed as he leaned back his chair.
“Though that may be... So... ummm dude. Where the hell have you been man? Did you get caught up in the cross fire or something?”
Tito sighed. “Look... it's... well I don't want to talk about it right now man. Maybe later alright?”
“Yeah man, gotcha.”
The three of them turned to look as a quiet, cautious looking, boy entered the room seemingly lost in his MP3 player. The boy glaceed over at the bandaged girl by the window and took a seat at a desk in the middle row.
“Who the fuck is that? I thought you said people were getting the fuck out?” Tito asked.
“Oh yeah, him. His names William or something...”Kennith answered after which Haley added,“Yeah, his name is William Ikari. He came in two weeks ago, right after you up and disappeared.”
“He transferred after the fight? Family must be brave or stupid.” Tito said a bit surprised that anyone would want to live in this city so soon after what had happened.
“Yeah odd isn't it? I got my ideas on him though.” Kennith said coyly while adjusting his glasses.
“Oh, gawd. This again?” Haley moaned.
“What? What's up?”
“Oh, I got a theory on him buuut I'll wait till I got my prof before I let you in on it.” Kennith answered with a sly smile.
“Man, you're always on some crazy conspiracy shit.”
Classroom 206
2:49PM EDT
The classe's rather aged teacher continued his final lecture for the day as his as most of his now combined class of students kept their eyes on the clock as it counted down towards their freedom. “And then in the last year of the twentieth century a deceptively small cometary fragment came racing into our solar system on an orbit that put it on a direct approach towards Earth. The fragment, moving at relativistic velocity, was both far too small and fast to be detected by any of our instruments at the time and at 8:42AM Eastern Daylight Time on September 13th of the year 2000 it impacted Mt. Markham located in the Markham Plateau region of Antarctica with a force greater then the combined detonation of the total nuclear arsenal of every nation on the plant. Insistently the fireball vaporized over sixty percent of all the continents ice sending a cloud of vapor as high as the stratosphere. Over the next few hours the shockwave moving at over 600mph hit land causing massive tsunamis to flood every coastal city on earth ending roughly two billion lives. The sound waves of the explosion alone was able to rattle windows as far north as Siberia. This was the so called Second Impact. Crops failed, new diseases surfaced, economies collapsed and wars both civil and global seemed to spring up everywhere in the aftermath. Those who survived the impact found themselves in a living hell that claimed another billion lives before things began to stabilize. It has been only fifteen years since then and through sweet and effort we have restored thing to how they were before that disaster. At the time I was living in Coral Spring, Florida, now laying at the bottom of the sea... Oh!”
And with that the final bell for the day rang and the classroom became alive with the sounds of excited teenagers ready to be set free.
As the his classmates gathered what books they would be taking home Kennith moved his eyes towards his query and he could taste the excitement on his lips. It was time to move his plan to action, but first he needed his bait. He then moved his gaze over who he just had in mind, Ashley Coleman. She was one of the more attractive girls in the school and was known for willingness to do certain favors, so long as the price was right and her being moved to his class had made things much easier for him. Now he just needed to persuade her. He waited for a minute after she had left the room then gathered his books and followed after her to her locker and leaned against one next to hers.
“What do you want nerd?”Ashley greeted him with a tang of disgusted in her voice.
“Nice to see you too. But anyway. I got a little favor to ask you and trust me, it will make this worth your while.” He answered frankly.
“No way I'm going on a date with you nerdboy.” She said with heavy emphasis on the no.
“Oh no, that is not what this is about. I just need you to ask someone a question for me, that's all.”
“Oh god, you mean that stupid theory you have about the new kid?” She asked shaking her head in dismay.
“Yep.”
“What's in it for me?”
“Four front rows seats to the Sara Silvermoon concert next week, sounds good?”
She took a minute to weigh things in. “You're absolutely sure you can get them?”
“Have I ever left a favor unpaid?”
"What the hell, all I got to do is ask some kid a stupid question and I got front row seats to see Sara Slivermoon...." She thought to herself. “Fine, deal. His name's William right?”
Kennith nodded in reply.
“When do you want me to ask him?”
“Right now if you could, he's right down the hallway, right there.” He informed her, pointing William out as he went through his locker.
“God, this is stupid but might as well get this over with.” She closed up her locker and made her way over to the boy and tapped him on his shoulder while asking in calmest and warm sounding voice she could muster, “Excuse me, you're William Ikari right?”
“Oh!... Ummmm... well, yes.” William replied nervously.
“No need to be shy, just wanted to ask you a little question.”
“Oh... ummm... re.. really? About... about what?”
“Ohhh, there's just a silly little rumor going around the school that you're somehow the pilot of that big robot that fought that monster. Yeah, I know. It's silly right? But I just wanted to hear it from the source. There's no way you you're that things pilot right?”
“Oh... well..” William wonder how to answer her, he knew he should really tell her that he wasn't but... she was cute... “Well actually I am, yeah. In fact...” He reached into his wallet and pulled out his NERV personal card and showed it to her “Here's my ID.”
Ashley looked over the card “Wait..” No... it couldn't be but... why would someone his age have a NERV card. It didn't make much sense that someone his age would be some kind of military pilot, especially for some top secret robot weapon, but why else would he have that card? “No fucking way... I mean... you... you're that things pilot? For real?
“Yeah. I mean... what I did was me just... being lucky. I really don't remember much from that fight aside from being scared.”
“No... fucking... way... no... shit.” There was just something about how he said that, she could tell that he honestly believed... he really was that things pilot. “Holy fuck guys, Kennyboy was right! This kid is that things pilot!” Ashley shouted load enough for everyone in the hallway to hear. All the students who heard stopped and turn to look at the new kid and Ashley in confusion. It was too hard to believe but, someone as popular as Ashley wouldn't state something this outlandish is it wasn't true... right?
William suddenly found himself both surrounded by his classmates and regretting his decision to tell the truth. There were just too many people surrounding him now, it felt like everything was closing in on him and there was just too much noise as they bombarded him with questions.
“Hey man, what's it like piloting that thing?”
“Well... kinda scary I guess.”
“What's it called? Angela or something right?”
“Ummmm, it's an Evangelion Unit.”
“What kind of weapons does it have?”
“Lot's of them.... One's like a knife that generates and ultrasonic wave or something like that.”
“How did you end up as a pilot?”
“I picked, had something to do about how they work though I don't think I'm suppose to talk to much about though.”
As William tried his best to hide his panic Kennith watched, smirking to himself at a job well done. “My powers of observation are just too amazing.”
Tito was also watching from across the hall. His hands balled into firsts as rage began to fill him at the sight the boy who had been reviled to be an Eva pilot.
Outside Ronald M. Crown Municipal Middle School
3:14PM EDT
After escaping from the crowd William found a quiet spot outside the school to sit and calm himself as he leaned against a wall. His breathing was heavy, he could feel his heart beat racing and his mouth was dry and clammy. He wasn't quit so much sacred as nervous. He felt just too much pressure from being the center of some many peoples attention. Though... he did have to admit, it did feel a little good seeing all those people look up to him... just a little though. He soon found himself calmed back down and it was time to head back home to do his homework before he had to be at NERV for more training.
“Hey! New kid! Get up off yo ass!” He heard a vaguely familiar voice yell as he was starting to stand back up. He looked in the direction the yell came from to find that tall, athletic looking, Hispanic kid with the spiky black hair form his class charging at him with his fist drawn back and before he could react his field of vision became filled with the sight of a large fist flying at him as the athletic kid shouted, “So I can knock yo punk ass back on it!”
The punch connected right under Williams left eye filling his vision with a multicolor burst of stars. His head rocked back and his body gave out and he collapsed to the ground in an unceremonious mound. As his vision came back to him William looked up at the blurred visage of his assailant who was standing above him with his right fist pressed firmly against his left palm. His attacker leaned in closer while saying, “That's what you fucking get. I owed you this one big.”
William just stared up at him, he had no idea what to do... he felt sacred... and lost. Why was this happening to him? Why was he attacking him? What did he do to deserve this? Then from behind his attacker heard another somewhat familiar high pitched voice yell out, “Hey! Tito! What the hell are you doing?!”
“What the hell am I doing? I'm doing?!” Tito said as he looked back to that blond, glasses wearing kind from his class. “This... this piece of shit...” He then swung his arm around and pointed directly at William. “He doesn't seem to understand that fucking concept of what protecting our fucking city means! And fuck you Kennyboy for not fucking telling me who this piece of shit was when I got here!”
“Wait... I didn't know you want to!” Kennith protested. “But... what are doing? What did he do?”
“When that thing came and attacked the city my old man and abuelo was off at work at the lab and it... it was just me and my sister... the sirens went off and we heard the explosions and she was fucking scared man... fuck I was fucking scared.” He looked down and took a monument before he continued. “We headed on down to the apartments shelter, which you know, we're all told about how safe they are and they can take bombs and shit. Next thing I know I hear a loud ass boom and the ceiling just came down all around me... somehow it all missed me, somehow I'm still fucking standing. I look up and shit man... I just see shithead here's robot smashing that monster right through the complex just not giving a fuck. I'm looking up at it not believing what I'm seeing... this shit just doesn’t happen you know... And then... and then it hits me...” Tears began to form in his eyes. “Where's my fucking sister? I look down and see a pool of blood... just... just flowing all round my shoes. I... I... follow... I follow the blood to where it's coming from and... and my sister... my little precious sister... is pinned under a ton of fucking rock... she's laying there... convulsing... her eyes... all bugged out and dilated, foaming at the mouth. I didn't know if she was alive or dead man... But she might as well of been, she's never going to walk again... never going to be able to take care of herself again... and that's even if she wakes the fuck out the coma she's in.”
“Holy shit man... why... why didn't you tell me?” Kennith replied to his friend in utter disbelief and shock.
“So yeah, that's why. I'm gonna make this mother fucker feel everything that my little sister did.”
“I...” William weakly mutter out as he propped himself up into a semi sitting position with his arms. “I didn't pilot that thing by choice, they... they didn't leave my with any choice in the matter...”
“You didn't have any choice?” Tito yelled back, the rage back in his voice, as he grabbed William by his shirt lifting him up partly. “No one put a gun to your head African-American brother, you had a fucking choice. But no one, not no one gave my sister one and now... she's never going to be able to have one again.” Tito the threw him back to the ground with disgust in his eyes and then walked off with his shocked friend in tow trying his best to calm him.
William felt his check and tip of the right side of his lips puff up as he laid against the ground for what felt like forever, he could of died in this spot for all he carried at the moment. It just didn't seem like anything matter, no matter what he did all he did was mess up and fail.. This guys sister... those ladies at the Seven-Elven who were evacuating... all the peoples who lives he has ruined... How could he ever apologize to them... to him... to his sister. Some hero he was, all those people who just praised him... if only they knew just how wretched he really was, how much of a coward he felt he was.
William suddenly sensed that he was not alone and looked up to see a girl standing over him.. it was Rei. How could he ever apologies to her either.
She stared down at him, seemingly inquisitively for what seemed like minutes to William before in a soft, quiet voice telling him, “There's been an emergency... I'll report in first.” And then running off.
His cell phone then went off, ringing with the tone set aside for when someone at NERV really needed to contact him as the air exploded with the sound of air raid sirens chilling his body to the core. He wasn't ready for this, he didn't want to do this. Why did THEY have to come back... why did he have to face them again...
On it's sixth ring William finally answered.
"It is the Thunderbolt that steers the universe."~ Heraclitus
The people who voted for Obama or Romney are fucking idiots. Wake the fuck up.
"The Constitution was our last, best hope for peace... It failed. But, in the Year of the War against the Globalists, it became something greater: our last, best hope
The people who voted for Obama or Romney are fucking idiots. Wake the fuck up.
"The Constitution was our last, best hope for peace... It failed. But, in the Year of the War against the Globalists, it became something greater: our last, best hope
NEON GENESIS EVANGLION: To the Victor
Vol: 2 Self and Others
Chapter Two
Acropolis
Outside Ronald M. Crown Municipal Middle School
3:23PM EDT
“Come on man talk to me. This isn't like you.” Kenny pleaded to his friend as he placed his hand on Tito's shoulder, trying to get him to stop and talk.
Tito shrugged off Kenny's hand and kept going on for a few more steps before leaning back against the wall. He signed and then looked over at his friend, his eyes wide and just barely holding back tears, “I don't know man... I just don't know. If I lose my hermana... I... I don't know what I'm going to do.”
“Come one man, your sister isn't going out like this. She too strong headed, like her big brother. Yeah... it's gonna suck with her not going to be able to walk... but you're there for her man, hell I'll be there for her too. If she's gonna pull through this, she's gonna need you to be positive.”
“Yeah... I know, but this shit's like a weight you know. It just seems to want to drop your ass down the deepest pit it can find.” Tito said as he slide against the wall into a squatting position, burring his head in his hands.
“Doing anything man, want to chill out at my place, maybe grab something to eat?” Kenny asked as he squatted down beside him.
“Nah man, I'm gonna go back to the hospital and watch over my sister.”
“Mind if I come along?”
“Sorry man, maybe later on but right now...”
“I gotcha man, no proble...” Kennith began to say until he was cut off as the air exploded with the wail of air sirens and emergency protocol recordings.
“Attention, attention. To all students and facility still on school grounds, a state of special emergency has been declared for *the New D.C. area* *and the surrounding suburbs*. Please proceed calmly and follow the lighted arrows to the nearest entrance to the schools emergency shelter. Please evacuate to the nearest shelter immediately as the city will be undergoing full transition to Ancile Fortress Defense mode in *fifteen minutes*. We repeat, to all students...”
“No man, not now... not again... I can't handle this shit.” Tito said, dismay heavy in his voice as he looked up in the direction of the continually repeating announcement. As it repeated one word in the broadcast caught his interest, “... What the hell is An... Ancile defense mode?”
“Ummm... I've heard that my dad say something about that once but... I don't know what it is. But... come on man, let's get going.” Kenny said motioning to his friend the direction of the nearest shelter.
“No man, no. I got get to my sister, I gotta get to the hospital before it slides underground.”
“Dude, you'll never make it in fifteen minutes.”
“I don't give a fuck, I'm gonna make it!”
NERV Command Center
3:34PM EDT
“Yes, understood.” Lt. Illich replied before handing up, she then turned partial around towards the command staff and relaid the message she had revived, “Word from the Cape May observatory, the targets confirmed. It's the third Angel and it has just penetrated our territorial waters. It's still airborne on an inbound course traveling at about 700kph.”
“Just my luck the third Angel would appear while the commander isn't here.” Megan sighed as she watched the confirmation report on Lt. Haynes screen. “It's a lot sooner then I would of wanted.”
“Yeah no kidding. The last time we got fifteen years, this was just barely two weeks. I hope this isn't a trend.” The Lieutenant agreed.
“They never seem to be concerned with our needs and conveniences... Just the type women hate the most.”
“No kidding, they could of at lest given us three more week so we could of put the fortress system through it's first proper shake down test... Or better yet, waited until the third phase was finished, as it is we got less then forty seven percent of the infrastructure up and running.”
The arrival of the first and Third child was announced over the intercom and Megan straightened up and started to focus. It was almost game time.
”Now we just have to hope he's ready for this too.”
16th Street, just off of North Carolina Avenue
3:45PM EDT
“Come one man, we're almost there. Pump those legs!” Tito yelled as the top of his sisters hospital started to come into view.
Despite the fact his legs felt like rubber and he was breathing in gasping, burning, breaths Kenny kept up with, if just barely, with his more athletic friend. His attention was elsewhere however, as he ran he tried his best to keep his camera focused as clearly as he could on the approaching electrical storm and aura like ribbon in the sky that was quickly approaching the city from the east far faster then any normal storm should be able to move. “Man, this thing is getting closer... and we're running out of time. We got just over a minute till this city goes into lock down mode.”
“I don't care man, we just need to get there.”Tito said back. Whatever the hell these thing that have been attacking the city be damned, he couldn't let his attention drift from his sister. He needed to be there, by her side, to keep her safe. He need to focus, to keep pushing himself faster and faster. And then the emergency broadcasting system began to blare.
“Attention all residents, you have one minute to find safety before the city enters fortress transition mode. We repeat, you have on minute to find safety before the city enters fortress transition mode.”
NERV Command Center
3:46PM EDT
“All blocks have reported in, evacuations have been complete! Magi are asking for conformation to being transformation.” Lt. Illich yelled, informing the command staff.
“Alright, conformation granted. Activate the Ancile defensive system.”Megan replied. It was time to sink or swim.
“The Angel is now entering the D.C no fly exclusion zone.” A communications specialist announced.
The vice-commander smirked to himself, ”It's just like the old men said...” He then looked out at the image of the approaching Angel on the main screen and then announced,“All personal, assume level one battle stations.”
16th Street
3:46PM EDT
The ground started to rumble and suddenly the sidewalk light up bright red beneath Tito's feet. Tito glanced down out of curiosity and saw that the lights were spelling something out. “Caution: Lock Bolt Exit Zo...” Began to read to himself when with the sound of sliding metal a row of large metal lock bolts shot of out the ground in front of him!Tito fell back in shock and surprise as the bolts came just inches from slamming into him!
“Holy shit!” Kennith shouted out at the sight of his friends close call. He then muttered,“What the...?” As he felt himself being lowered downward, he looked down and saw that the part of the sidewalk he stood on, as well as the rest of the block behind him, was being lowered underground! Kennith ran frantically towards the wall of the metal pit he was being lowered into and with a kick off the wall he tried to jump back up to the street only to come up just short.
Tito looked blankly at the lock bolts, breathing heavily in shock. The world around him had disappeared as flashes filled his mind; of screams, of his sister, of concrete falling towards him, of memories of that day jostled forth by what almost happened to him. Then from behind him, he heard a voice cry out, “Heyyyyy! Tito! Hellllppppp!!!”
He shook his head to clear it and then hopped back to his feat and looked back in the direction of his friends yell, puzzled by the fact that the block behind him was now sinking beneath the ground. “Hey Kenny! Where are you?!” Tito yelled as he ran towards the edge of the pit.
“Down here man, I can't make the jump and I don't see anything that I can climb on!” Tito heard his friend reply frantically from within it. Tito looked down, spotting a very panicked Kennith. He was a good ten feet down by now and Tito's mind raced to figure a way to get him out. “Alright man, I'm gonna need you to try to kick off the wall and try to jump like you're little white boy ass never jumped before man!” Tito yelled as he dropped down and leaned himself down over the edge, reaching his arm out as far he could. Kenny nodded, looked up at his friend, took a deep breath and then ran at the wall, pumping his legs, kicked off it and threw up his right arm as high as he could... only to come a few inches short. He landed back down hard, lost his balance and fell over. He looked up and himself began to panic as he watched the his friend get farther and farther away.
“I can't do it man... I'm stuck down here... I don't know what's going to happen to me...”
“Come on Kenny man. Snap out of it! You can do it, try one more time.” Tito yelled as he swung himself over the edge and braced his weight on his left arm as best he could to try to make enough friction to keep from falling in. “Come one man, once more. You miss I'm coming down with you.”
Kenny nodded again letting out a weak, “Yeah.” He picked himself up then braced himself, ran at the wall and hopped off of it, propelling himself upward. He reached out for his friend as Tito reached out for him, but Kennith could tell that he wasn't going to make it high enough. He closed his eyes and shot his arms out in one last desperate act to grab onto anything that would keep him from falling back down into the pit as he felt gravity cancel out his inertia and start drag him back down. To his surprise he felt something cloth like and he latched his hands around it as he heard Tito yell out, “Shit man!”
Kenny opened his eyes to see that he was hanging from Tito's right foot. He then looked up to see Tito looking down at him, his face both grimacing and full of panic as between his momentum and added weight, he was starting to pull Tito down. Tito grunted under the strain as he swung his right side up, throwing his arm over the top, re-bracing himself with both arms. He then tried to lift himself up but Kenny's position so below his center of gravity was effectively magnifying his friends weight and he couldn't budge, he also didn't know how long he could hold himself up like this.
“Hey Kenny man, I don't know how long I can hand on like this. I'm gonna try and lift up my leg then I'm gonna need you to get off it and get on my back or something.”
Kenny nodded in reply and Tito clenched his brow as he struggled to lift up his leg with his friends weight attached and managed to just barely lift him high enough that he could, rather awkwardly, get one hand on Tito's waist line and the other on his left side pocket. Kenny then pulled himself up, onto Tito's back and the up back onto the streets followed shortly after by his friend. The both watched as the the last of the blocks buildings disappeared underground followed by four large blast shutter closing over the massive hole where a city block once stood.
The site of “main block” buildings being lowered underground was a familiar one to this city but as the last them moved beneath the ground something new was happening. Several large, gray, monolithic looking armored buildings covered in banks of sensor and commutations arrays beginning to rise up across the city. Several of them began to either slide open reviling rows of missile launch cells or had ports open up revealing clusters of heavy artillery turrets along with anti-air cannons, missile launchers and laser towers. Along the edges of the city larger versions of these armament buildings with larger or more plentiful weapons arrays started form a incomplete wall around it. On large platforms built into the side of the hills to the east of the city massive armored shutters disguised as parts of hill rolled open and massive battleship caliber rail cannon turrets rolled out from their armored hideaways and locked into position.
Tito and Kenny stood in silent shock at the sight of their city turned into a massive, heavily armed hi-tech fortress. To his right Tito noticed that the storm was now just a few miles off from the city and at it's center, flying just below the aura, was a massive gleaming, purple, cylindrical shaped object.
“Hey, is... do you that's that's it? An Angel?”Tito asked shaking as the realization that they were standing in the middle of what was going to be a warzone finally hit him.
Kenny took out his camera and zoomed in on the object reviling it's bizarre, alien form. Unlike the last one which had a vaguely humanoid appearance, this one looked like some weird mixture of a nephropidae and a prying mantis partly covered in patches of harden earth and vegetation. It's “main body” was a long, bent, bottle shaped cylinder, toughed out at the sides giving it the look of an exaggeratedly long figure wearing a cloak with a “hump” on it's top front end resembling a hood completing the look. The bottom side of it had a concaved pit near the top end filled with what looked like an exposed spine and with a deformed ribcage resembling rows of folded insectoid legs while at it's shoulders were a pair of collapsed mantis like arms. It's “head” was a large, flat, shade shaped dish with two green eye spots on top and a duel pair of mandibles, a lager pair protruding out for the front tip of the spade and a smaller set on the underside of it. The top side of it's body was covered in dark purple, chitin like, armored plates, the reset of it was a shade of pinkish purple with a glossier sheen to it.
“Well it is an ugly sonna bitch.” Kenny said in reply. Unlike his friend his shear curiosity was so far out weighing his fear.
“Hey Kenny...”
“Yeah man?”
“You were right, this was a fucking stupid idea.”
NERV Command Center
3:52PM EDT
The command center was filled with reports of the city's transformation into Ancile fortress mode.
“Air defense systems are reported at 47%.”
“Tactical missile systems are at 52%”
“Larger caliber artillery checks in at 13% operational deployment.”
“Jericho outer wall defensive perimeter is at 72% operational deployment.”
“Target is in range and is slowing. All gunnery departments check in and are ready, they report that only optical and emission homing sensors are tracking it. All others are being jammed or are otherwise infective.”
Vice-Commander Franklin looked on at the image of approaching invader and the bristling armaments of this fortress city and sighed as he ordered, “Tell all departments to disengage safety’s. Weapons free, fire at will, I repeat, fire at will.” While they had some success slowing down the last Angel with a partially deployed version of this set up he knew that this all was just going to be a waste of the tax payers money. He wished that they could just send up the one weapons NERV had that would actually be effective against it but they had to wait until the president authorized it's deployment and he new that the joint chiefs would be pressuring him to wait until the last possible minute before doing so. He hoped that between this battle and Ikari's meeting will put a stop to this.
16th Street
3:53PM EDT
“Yo man, are you just going to stand there and film that thing? Come on man, we need to get going!” Tito yelled as the Angel approached closer to the city.
“Actually, yeah. How many chances am I going to get to record something like this? You know that media is just gonna black this out again so someone has to get this out on the net and show people what's really going on.” Kenny replied as he messed with his camera's settings, trying to find the right contrast to get the most highest resolution possible on the Angel.
And then the sky flashed white followed by a thousand thunderclaps as the untold scores of cannons and missile launchers that now filled the city flared to life filling the sky above the teens with a hail of fire power. The rounds screamed towards the Angel, blotting it out from view in bursts of red, orange, black and yellow. The teens watched in awe as the sky above them filled with smoke and sparks rained down to the earth while concussion waves blew back their hair and tremored the ground..
“Did... did we get it?” Tito asked with cautious hope.
The Angel answered.
A bright glow was briefly seen from behind the smoke and a fraction of a second later great pillars of light rose from the center of the city, blasting dust and chunks of buildings skyward and rattling the ground with such furry that Tito and Kenny were barley able to keep from falling over. The Angel entered the air above the city proper, flying through the could of smoke, fire and flak undaunted by the magnitudes of destructive energy being unleashed upon it. It came to a stop, hovering over a spot about a mile and a half in from the cities edge. It then changed it's orientation upward, lowered it's head down, unfolding it's spindly arms and descended down to the streets below.
NERV Command Center
4:02PM EDT
“Launch authorization has been granted!” Lt. Illich shouted to command staff.
“It's about time!” Megan said as she turned and looked up to the command podium, “Vice-commander, do I have permission to launch?”
“Permission granted, get Unit-01 out there so we can stop this thing.”
Megan nodded and walked over to Lt. Haynes council, “Hey, Michel. Patch me through to William.”
Entery Plug of Eva Unit-01, Catapult Room 68
4:02PM EDT
“LCL pressure is nominal, readings are clear.”
“Synchronization at forty nine point nine seven percent, projects lag at point zero six three miliseconds .”
“There's some feedback coming from the left arm torque sensors, it's within tolerances but get that checked out when this sortie is over.”
William tried to calm his mind over the never ending flood of reports and updates as he stood on the platform waiting. ”What am I doing here? Why am I even here? Why am I piloting this thing again... even though father isn't here...” He felt the pressure and swelling below his eye. ”Even though all it did was get me beat up.” He remembered back to the ladies he over heard in the store and then to hearing what happened to his attackers sister, ”Even though I can't protect anyone...”
Megan's face then appeared on is “screen”.
“Will... how are feeling? Are you ready are you to head out again?”
“... Yes.”
“Alright, that's good. Now listen to me. The target is now at ground level. Just head out, spread your field to max, aim your cannon and fire a short burst at the Angel's center mass. The Magi and our analysis teams will be observing your hits and the enemies behavior and will be directing you where to shoot based on what they can ascertain as the most likely placement of it's core. Just remember your training, follow my lead and you'll be find.”
“Right.” William replied, just wanting to get this over with.
He was loaded with an assault cannon and then rolled into the launch tube. He clenched his eyes in anticipation as he heard Megan call out, “Launch!” He then felt his own weight slam down on him at three times over as he was shot up at high velocity towards the surface and the whole way he cursed himself.
”Why did I lie and say yes?”
”Why am I going through with this...”
”Why didn't I just run away from all this?”
…
”I'm not ready for this...”
Vol: 2 Self and Others
Chapter Two
Acropolis
Outside Ronald M. Crown Municipal Middle School
3:23PM EDT
“Come on man talk to me. This isn't like you.” Kenny pleaded to his friend as he placed his hand on Tito's shoulder, trying to get him to stop and talk.
Tito shrugged off Kenny's hand and kept going on for a few more steps before leaning back against the wall. He signed and then looked over at his friend, his eyes wide and just barely holding back tears, “I don't know man... I just don't know. If I lose my hermana... I... I don't know what I'm going to do.”
“Come one man, your sister isn't going out like this. She too strong headed, like her big brother. Yeah... it's gonna suck with her not going to be able to walk... but you're there for her man, hell I'll be there for her too. If she's gonna pull through this, she's gonna need you to be positive.”
“Yeah... I know, but this shit's like a weight you know. It just seems to want to drop your ass down the deepest pit it can find.” Tito said as he slide against the wall into a squatting position, burring his head in his hands.
“Doing anything man, want to chill out at my place, maybe grab something to eat?” Kenny asked as he squatted down beside him.
“Nah man, I'm gonna go back to the hospital and watch over my sister.”
“Mind if I come along?”
“Sorry man, maybe later on but right now...”
“I gotcha man, no proble...” Kennith began to say until he was cut off as the air exploded with the wail of air sirens and emergency protocol recordings.
“Attention, attention. To all students and facility still on school grounds, a state of special emergency has been declared for *the New D.C. area* *and the surrounding suburbs*. Please proceed calmly and follow the lighted arrows to the nearest entrance to the schools emergency shelter. Please evacuate to the nearest shelter immediately as the city will be undergoing full transition to Ancile Fortress Defense mode in *fifteen minutes*. We repeat, to all students...”
“No man, not now... not again... I can't handle this shit.” Tito said, dismay heavy in his voice as he looked up in the direction of the continually repeating announcement. As it repeated one word in the broadcast caught his interest, “... What the hell is An... Ancile defense mode?”
“Ummm... I've heard that my dad say something about that once but... I don't know what it is. But... come on man, let's get going.” Kenny said motioning to his friend the direction of the nearest shelter.
“No man, no. I got get to my sister, I gotta get to the hospital before it slides underground.”
“Dude, you'll never make it in fifteen minutes.”
“I don't give a fuck, I'm gonna make it!”
NERV Command Center
3:34PM EDT
“Yes, understood.” Lt. Illich replied before handing up, she then turned partial around towards the command staff and relaid the message she had revived, “Word from the Cape May observatory, the targets confirmed. It's the third Angel and it has just penetrated our territorial waters. It's still airborne on an inbound course traveling at about 700kph.”
“Just my luck the third Angel would appear while the commander isn't here.” Megan sighed as she watched the confirmation report on Lt. Haynes screen. “It's a lot sooner then I would of wanted.”
“Yeah no kidding. The last time we got fifteen years, this was just barely two weeks. I hope this isn't a trend.” The Lieutenant agreed.
“They never seem to be concerned with our needs and conveniences... Just the type women hate the most.”
“No kidding, they could of at lest given us three more week so we could of put the fortress system through it's first proper shake down test... Or better yet, waited until the third phase was finished, as it is we got less then forty seven percent of the infrastructure up and running.”
The arrival of the first and Third child was announced over the intercom and Megan straightened up and started to focus. It was almost game time.
”Now we just have to hope he's ready for this too.”
16th Street, just off of North Carolina Avenue
3:45PM EDT
“Come one man, we're almost there. Pump those legs!” Tito yelled as the top of his sisters hospital started to come into view.
Despite the fact his legs felt like rubber and he was breathing in gasping, burning, breaths Kenny kept up with, if just barely, with his more athletic friend. His attention was elsewhere however, as he ran he tried his best to keep his camera focused as clearly as he could on the approaching electrical storm and aura like ribbon in the sky that was quickly approaching the city from the east far faster then any normal storm should be able to move. “Man, this thing is getting closer... and we're running out of time. We got just over a minute till this city goes into lock down mode.”
“I don't care man, we just need to get there.”Tito said back. Whatever the hell these thing that have been attacking the city be damned, he couldn't let his attention drift from his sister. He needed to be there, by her side, to keep her safe. He need to focus, to keep pushing himself faster and faster. And then the emergency broadcasting system began to blare.
“Attention all residents, you have one minute to find safety before the city enters fortress transition mode. We repeat, you have on minute to find safety before the city enters fortress transition mode.”
NERV Command Center
3:46PM EDT
“All blocks have reported in, evacuations have been complete! Magi are asking for conformation to being transformation.” Lt. Illich yelled, informing the command staff.
“Alright, conformation granted. Activate the Ancile defensive system.”Megan replied. It was time to sink or swim.
“The Angel is now entering the D.C no fly exclusion zone.” A communications specialist announced.
The vice-commander smirked to himself, ”It's just like the old men said...” He then looked out at the image of the approaching Angel on the main screen and then announced,“All personal, assume level one battle stations.”
16th Street
3:46PM EDT
The ground started to rumble and suddenly the sidewalk light up bright red beneath Tito's feet. Tito glanced down out of curiosity and saw that the lights were spelling something out. “Caution: Lock Bolt Exit Zo...” Began to read to himself when with the sound of sliding metal a row of large metal lock bolts shot of out the ground in front of him!Tito fell back in shock and surprise as the bolts came just inches from slamming into him!
“Holy shit!” Kennith shouted out at the sight of his friends close call. He then muttered,“What the...?” As he felt himself being lowered downward, he looked down and saw that the part of the sidewalk he stood on, as well as the rest of the block behind him, was being lowered underground! Kennith ran frantically towards the wall of the metal pit he was being lowered into and with a kick off the wall he tried to jump back up to the street only to come up just short.
Tito looked blankly at the lock bolts, breathing heavily in shock. The world around him had disappeared as flashes filled his mind; of screams, of his sister, of concrete falling towards him, of memories of that day jostled forth by what almost happened to him. Then from behind him, he heard a voice cry out, “Heyyyyy! Tito! Hellllppppp!!!”
He shook his head to clear it and then hopped back to his feat and looked back in the direction of his friends yell, puzzled by the fact that the block behind him was now sinking beneath the ground. “Hey Kenny! Where are you?!” Tito yelled as he ran towards the edge of the pit.
“Down here man, I can't make the jump and I don't see anything that I can climb on!” Tito heard his friend reply frantically from within it. Tito looked down, spotting a very panicked Kennith. He was a good ten feet down by now and Tito's mind raced to figure a way to get him out. “Alright man, I'm gonna need you to try to kick off the wall and try to jump like you're little white boy ass never jumped before man!” Tito yelled as he dropped down and leaned himself down over the edge, reaching his arm out as far he could. Kenny nodded, looked up at his friend, took a deep breath and then ran at the wall, pumping his legs, kicked off it and threw up his right arm as high as he could... only to come a few inches short. He landed back down hard, lost his balance and fell over. He looked up and himself began to panic as he watched the his friend get farther and farther away.
“I can't do it man... I'm stuck down here... I don't know what's going to happen to me...”
“Come on Kenny man. Snap out of it! You can do it, try one more time.” Tito yelled as he swung himself over the edge and braced his weight on his left arm as best he could to try to make enough friction to keep from falling in. “Come one man, once more. You miss I'm coming down with you.”
Kenny nodded again letting out a weak, “Yeah.” He picked himself up then braced himself, ran at the wall and hopped off of it, propelling himself upward. He reached out for his friend as Tito reached out for him, but Kennith could tell that he wasn't going to make it high enough. He closed his eyes and shot his arms out in one last desperate act to grab onto anything that would keep him from falling back down into the pit as he felt gravity cancel out his inertia and start drag him back down. To his surprise he felt something cloth like and he latched his hands around it as he heard Tito yell out, “Shit man!”
Kenny opened his eyes to see that he was hanging from Tito's right foot. He then looked up to see Tito looking down at him, his face both grimacing and full of panic as between his momentum and added weight, he was starting to pull Tito down. Tito grunted under the strain as he swung his right side up, throwing his arm over the top, re-bracing himself with both arms. He then tried to lift himself up but Kenny's position so below his center of gravity was effectively magnifying his friends weight and he couldn't budge, he also didn't know how long he could hold himself up like this.
“Hey Kenny man, I don't know how long I can hand on like this. I'm gonna try and lift up my leg then I'm gonna need you to get off it and get on my back or something.”
Kenny nodded in reply and Tito clenched his brow as he struggled to lift up his leg with his friends weight attached and managed to just barely lift him high enough that he could, rather awkwardly, get one hand on Tito's waist line and the other on his left side pocket. Kenny then pulled himself up, onto Tito's back and the up back onto the streets followed shortly after by his friend. The both watched as the the last of the blocks buildings disappeared underground followed by four large blast shutter closing over the massive hole where a city block once stood.
The site of “main block” buildings being lowered underground was a familiar one to this city but as the last them moved beneath the ground something new was happening. Several large, gray, monolithic looking armored buildings covered in banks of sensor and commutations arrays beginning to rise up across the city. Several of them began to either slide open reviling rows of missile launch cells or had ports open up revealing clusters of heavy artillery turrets along with anti-air cannons, missile launchers and laser towers. Along the edges of the city larger versions of these armament buildings with larger or more plentiful weapons arrays started form a incomplete wall around it. On large platforms built into the side of the hills to the east of the city massive armored shutters disguised as parts of hill rolled open and massive battleship caliber rail cannon turrets rolled out from their armored hideaways and locked into position.
Tito and Kenny stood in silent shock at the sight of their city turned into a massive, heavily armed hi-tech fortress. To his right Tito noticed that the storm was now just a few miles off from the city and at it's center, flying just below the aura, was a massive gleaming, purple, cylindrical shaped object.
“Hey, is... do you that's that's it? An Angel?”Tito asked shaking as the realization that they were standing in the middle of what was going to be a warzone finally hit him.
Kenny took out his camera and zoomed in on the object reviling it's bizarre, alien form. Unlike the last one which had a vaguely humanoid appearance, this one looked like some weird mixture of a nephropidae and a prying mantis partly covered in patches of harden earth and vegetation. It's “main body” was a long, bent, bottle shaped cylinder, toughed out at the sides giving it the look of an exaggeratedly long figure wearing a cloak with a “hump” on it's top front end resembling a hood completing the look. The bottom side of it had a concaved pit near the top end filled with what looked like an exposed spine and with a deformed ribcage resembling rows of folded insectoid legs while at it's shoulders were a pair of collapsed mantis like arms. It's “head” was a large, flat, shade shaped dish with two green eye spots on top and a duel pair of mandibles, a lager pair protruding out for the front tip of the spade and a smaller set on the underside of it. The top side of it's body was covered in dark purple, chitin like, armored plates, the reset of it was a shade of pinkish purple with a glossier sheen to it.
“Well it is an ugly sonna bitch.” Kenny said in reply. Unlike his friend his shear curiosity was so far out weighing his fear.
“Hey Kenny...”
“Yeah man?”
“You were right, this was a fucking stupid idea.”
NERV Command Center
3:52PM EDT
The command center was filled with reports of the city's transformation into Ancile fortress mode.
“Air defense systems are reported at 47%.”
“Tactical missile systems are at 52%”
“Larger caliber artillery checks in at 13% operational deployment.”
“Jericho outer wall defensive perimeter is at 72% operational deployment.”
“Target is in range and is slowing. All gunnery departments check in and are ready, they report that only optical and emission homing sensors are tracking it. All others are being jammed or are otherwise infective.”
Vice-Commander Franklin looked on at the image of approaching invader and the bristling armaments of this fortress city and sighed as he ordered, “Tell all departments to disengage safety’s. Weapons free, fire at will, I repeat, fire at will.” While they had some success slowing down the last Angel with a partially deployed version of this set up he knew that this all was just going to be a waste of the tax payers money. He wished that they could just send up the one weapons NERV had that would actually be effective against it but they had to wait until the president authorized it's deployment and he new that the joint chiefs would be pressuring him to wait until the last possible minute before doing so. He hoped that between this battle and Ikari's meeting will put a stop to this.
16th Street
3:53PM EDT
“Yo man, are you just going to stand there and film that thing? Come on man, we need to get going!” Tito yelled as the Angel approached closer to the city.
“Actually, yeah. How many chances am I going to get to record something like this? You know that media is just gonna black this out again so someone has to get this out on the net and show people what's really going on.” Kenny replied as he messed with his camera's settings, trying to find the right contrast to get the most highest resolution possible on the Angel.
And then the sky flashed white followed by a thousand thunderclaps as the untold scores of cannons and missile launchers that now filled the city flared to life filling the sky above the teens with a hail of fire power. The rounds screamed towards the Angel, blotting it out from view in bursts of red, orange, black and yellow. The teens watched in awe as the sky above them filled with smoke and sparks rained down to the earth while concussion waves blew back their hair and tremored the ground..
“Did... did we get it?” Tito asked with cautious hope.
The Angel answered.
A bright glow was briefly seen from behind the smoke and a fraction of a second later great pillars of light rose from the center of the city, blasting dust and chunks of buildings skyward and rattling the ground with such furry that Tito and Kenny were barley able to keep from falling over. The Angel entered the air above the city proper, flying through the could of smoke, fire and flak undaunted by the magnitudes of destructive energy being unleashed upon it. It came to a stop, hovering over a spot about a mile and a half in from the cities edge. It then changed it's orientation upward, lowered it's head down, unfolding it's spindly arms and descended down to the streets below.
NERV Command Center
4:02PM EDT
“Launch authorization has been granted!” Lt. Illich shouted to command staff.
“It's about time!” Megan said as she turned and looked up to the command podium, “Vice-commander, do I have permission to launch?”
“Permission granted, get Unit-01 out there so we can stop this thing.”
Megan nodded and walked over to Lt. Haynes council, “Hey, Michel. Patch me through to William.”
Entery Plug of Eva Unit-01, Catapult Room 68
4:02PM EDT
“LCL pressure is nominal, readings are clear.”
“Synchronization at forty nine point nine seven percent, projects lag at point zero six three miliseconds .”
“There's some feedback coming from the left arm torque sensors, it's within tolerances but get that checked out when this sortie is over.”
William tried to calm his mind over the never ending flood of reports and updates as he stood on the platform waiting. ”What am I doing here? Why am I even here? Why am I piloting this thing again... even though father isn't here...” He felt the pressure and swelling below his eye. ”Even though all it did was get me beat up.” He remembered back to the ladies he over heard in the store and then to hearing what happened to his attackers sister, ”Even though I can't protect anyone...”
Megan's face then appeared on is “screen”.
“Will... how are feeling? Are you ready are you to head out again?”
“... Yes.”
“Alright, that's good. Now listen to me. The target is now at ground level. Just head out, spread your field to max, aim your cannon and fire a short burst at the Angel's center mass. The Magi and our analysis teams will be observing your hits and the enemies behavior and will be directing you where to shoot based on what they can ascertain as the most likely placement of it's core. Just remember your training, follow my lead and you'll be find.”
“Right.” William replied, just wanting to get this over with.
He was loaded with an assault cannon and then rolled into the launch tube. He clenched his eyes in anticipation as he heard Megan call out, “Launch!” He then felt his own weight slam down on him at three times over as he was shot up at high velocity towards the surface and the whole way he cursed himself.
”Why did I lie and say yes?”
”Why am I going through with this...”
”Why didn't I just run away from all this?”
…
”I'm not ready for this...”
"It is the Thunderbolt that steers the universe."~ Heraclitus
The people who voted for Obama or Romney are fucking idiots. Wake the fuck up.
"The Constitution was our last, best hope for peace... It failed. But, in the Year of the War against the Globalists, it became something greater: our last, best hope
The people who voted for Obama or Romney are fucking idiots. Wake the fuck up.
"The Constitution was our last, best hope for peace... It failed. But, in the Year of the War against the Globalists, it became something greater: our last, best hope
NEON GENESIS EVANGLION: To the Victor
Vol: 2 Self and Others
Chapter Three
Pride
16th Street, just off of North Carolina Avenue
4:04PM EDT
“Come Kenny, let's just get going man. We need to find somewhere safer then this.” Tito said as he followed his friend up from a fire escape and onto the roof top of an near by apartment building.
Kenny walked up to the edge and raised up his camera with an excited grin on his face at the excellent view this vantage point gave him. “We're good for now, if this thing starts heading our way then we get the hell out of dodge.”
“You're crazy as shit man.” said Tito shaking his head as stood just off to his friends side.
Kenny's smile turned to a smirk at Tito's words. He had dremnt of doing something like this his whole life, being there at the front lines of some world shaking event to shine the light on it before the truth was covered up. Now it was his time to shine and he was ready.
Tito on the other hand just looked on at that gigantic... thing... as it slowly advanced towards the center of the city. He had no words that could really describe it outside of it being huge and and being alien. It's sight also unnerved him deeply, something felt “off”. There was that it was just terrifying but that wasn't the reason he felt unnerved, there was something just disturbing about it, not just how it appeared, but just the very concept of it. Why did these things have to come to his city? Why was it his apartment that was hit... why...
Why couldn't of been him that was in that hospital rather then his sister...
Why didn't it just go away...
Tito turned his gaze towards the massive armed buildings that filled the city, “What the hell are those NERV assholes waiting for? Why aren't they doing anything?”
Armored Deployment Building #68
4:05PM EDT
William felt his entire body thrust against its self as he decelerated to a stop inside a dimly lit building just barely wider then his Eva was with a large blast shutter in front of him. It was almost time and he could feel his heart pound against his chest, sweat bead his brow, the skin around his black eye swell and fear grip his mind.
“Alright William, just remember; center mass, short controlled burst got that?” Megan reminded him. Seeing her, hearing her words did help calm him a bit.
“I got you.”
“Now, when you leave this deployment building the Angel will be approaching the end of the block to your right. Keep your eye on your tactical map, we have his location marked on it.”
“Ok.” William glanced down at map screen on his lower right hand side and say the approaching circled A. He started to feel the felt panic return.
“Ok William, go get him.” Megan fished with a smile. She then turned to look off screen and order the final safety locks released and William once again felt the enormous bulk of his new body. The shutter opened filling the building with dimming sunlight. William looked out on to the street and ordered to himself, “A.T. Field full power!”. He then watched the air ripple in front of him and charged out onto the street.
16th Street
4:07PM EDT
“Bout fucking time...” Tito mouthed to himself as he saw NERV's giant battle machine charge out from one of the armored buildings. He then closed his eyes and remembered back to that day, to seeing it stand over above him like some great beast. He just felt so conflicted. while he knew that Angel thing had to be stopped and this robot was somehow able to do just that it was just... how could he ever forgive it's pilot?
H Street, just off of Florida Avenue
4:07PM EDT
William made his way over to the last building on the block and pressed his back against and watched the Angel to approach closer on his map. He then closed his eyes and breathed deeply three times trying his best to braced himself, counted to three and then flung himself around the corner like he was taught and raised his weapon. He open his eyes again to sight his cannon and they went wide with shock and terror as he laid sight on the monstrous, inhuman visage of the Angel and all the training , all the tactics he went through were now gone from his head and replaced with pure instinct as he backed up while jamming down on the selective fire trigger. Shots exploded from the barrel at twenty rounds per second spraying the area with a three to one mix of 200mm HEAT and APFSDS rounds as the cannons barrel bucked up and around under the massive recoil, filling the air with smoke and fragments obstructing his target from his view.
“What the hell are you doing?! You just gave the Angel perfect cover with all that smoke!” He heard Megan yell, snapping him out of his panic as his ammo count reached zero. He tried to explain himself but all his words seemed to trip over his tongue before he could let out. It also didn't help that he didn't even know how to explain it. Megan wasn't in the mood to wait for his response, “Stop standing there like an idiot and fall back while switching to infrared! I'll send you up a new rifle.”
As Megan finished giving her order Williams map highlighted the armament building he need to get to. He then began to fall back towards it but before he could finish his first step a blue flash emanated from deep within the smoke cloud and a fraction of a second later two dazzling blue objects whipped out and lashed at him. William let out a yell as he threw himself back to avoid getting hit, he impacted the ground with explosive force bouncing all the surviving cars up on their suspensions and blowing out the windows of every building with in a one block radius.
16th Street
4:08PM EDT
“He's losing already?!” Tito blurted out in disbelief and disappointment as he watched the cities supposed defender fall over backwards. What the hell was NERV thinking giving this thing to that punk ass kid?
“Guess you really messed him up man.” Kenny quipped back as he messed around with the zoom.
“Hey! Wait! Don't you try to pin this one me!”
H Street
4:08PM EDT
William grunted as the force of the impact shot through him, stiffening up his body. No mater how many times that they told him that what he felt in an Eva wasn't real pain didn't seem stop it from feeling just like it. He came to with the sound of Megan shouting for him to get back up in one ear and a warning tone informing him that his weapon had suffered a critical operations failure. He looked to his right to find his assault cannon cut neatly in half, the partly melted edges still sizzling with white hot heat. He then reared back in fright as he looked up and saw the Angel advance towards him hovering just off the ground, hunched forward with it's head titled at an angle as if the sight of the Eva before it was amusing to it while a pair of whip-like tendrils hung from is scythe like arms, tracings circular patterns in the air as the Angel ungulate them in a writhing manner as brilliant blue plasma danced and arched across them. No matter how much he tried he couldn't move as he gazed upon this thing and despite the fact that his “body” now was effectually a 40 meter tall mass of armor and metal he felt just so small and insignificant. What could he do? How was he going to be able to fight these things?
It grew closer and began to let out an ethrealic wail while flailing out for towards him with it's tendrils. William began to lose it, he couldn't move, couldn't fight. He had failed them, failed everyone who needed him.
“William get off you ass and MOVE!”
Megan's words jarred him form his stupor and back to his senses. He glanced at his map, he needed to get himself down to that armament building ASAP. He tossed what remained of his cannon at the Angel and jumped back onto his feet and made dash down the block and the buildings shutter opened up revealing two 200mm assault cannons resting on a cradle. As he reached out to grab one the building to his left exploded into dust as the Angel slashed through it and in a blink of an eye the cannon and the armament buildings along with it met the same fate!
William pivoted to his left to face the Angel and hopped back to get some distance as he tried to figure out how to make it the next armament building that could resupply him. He started to contemplate his odds if he tried using his “pistol” at this range when Megan informed him that they'll try to give him some cover. Several light rail cannon batteries turned to track the Angel and with rolling string of thunder they rippled fired, blanketing the Angel in a shower of sparks. Wasting no time he turned and ran as fast as he could to the next building as several rows of armor plates rose up from the streets behind him, covering him. He reached in and grabbed another cannon as a series of white flashes emanated from the Angels “eye spots” blasting apart the buildings that were giving him cover. It then came back at him, slicing through each of the plates like paper. William readied his new weapon, took a deep breath and then swiveled around the corner and clenched his brow as he strained himself trying to deploy his A.T. Field at the fullest power he could. He then waited until he felt the Angel's field press against his own and then pulled the trigger to it's midway point blasting out four groups of three round bursts at his target. The first three group hit across it's upper torso and exploded before they could reach the Angel, the last three however managed to lanced through the Angels A.T. Field and impacted the lower left side of it's head blasting off chunks from it's chitin like armor while sprouts of red ichor sputter out from the wound and the Angel rared back, letting out a unpleased wail.
A smile sprouted across Williams face, these things could be hurt after all. He leaped back to avoid a retaliatory swipe of the Angel's tendrils and then brought his gun to bear again as he focused and concentrated his A.T. Field and began opening fire on specific spots as Megan instructed him as more armament building batteries joined in and plastered the Angel from all sides. Everything was finally clicking, all the training, the drills, the repetition he had to do these past two weeks all started to make sense, he was really doing this! He had the rhythm down, he would pop off a few three round bursts, hop back and fire again and every few round would make it through and blast a hole in the Angel. He fired another burst, the first two rounds exploded against it's field but the last one flew right under the “hinge” where the cowl of it's head and body met and a shower of sparks shot out from inside it as the Angel make a horrified wail. That was it! Deep down he just knew that's were the core had to be and he already began to carefully take his aim as Megan start to give him that very order. He had his sights just about perfectly lined up and he felt electrify, he never felt so alive before as he could taste his victory on his lips. He started to carefully pull the trigger when the aura above the Angel pulsed and he was blinded by a bright white flash and some great force explode against him, sending him flying down the block as the buildings around him disintegrated in the blast. He came to a stop colliding into the front of a large apartment complex crumpling it's walls, causing it's floors to explode like toothpicks and the structural frame of the build bend and give as if it was plastic under his Eva's bulk. He felt his body lock up under the force of the impact and could do little but try to strengthen his A.T. Field as he saw the Angel lean back and then slam down onto him with both of it's tendrils, knocking him through what was left of the building.
William hit the street on the other side landing on the back end of the armored shell that covered his entry plug, he then bounced and flipped clipping the tip of the Eva's helmet “horn” off before coming to a stop resting on his chest, his left leg smashed through the front of a neighborhood connivance store. As he came to once again he found his head filled with a warning tone and a large screen displaying a count down. His had no time to mess around now, his cord had been cut and he now had five minutes left to get to a umbilical station. Despite the very loud protest made by his body William forced himself back onto his feet, ejected what was left of his umbilical and made a dash for his dropped cannon only for the Angel slice it apart just as he leaned over to grab it. The Angel swung at him striking the ground just before his feet forcing him to hop back, it swiped at him again and again forcing him back but oddly wasn't making any real attempt to really hit him.
“Is it toying with me? Or does it know that I'm running out of time?” William thought to himself. Either way it was still running down his clock and he didn't have time for this but if he just made a dash for the station he doubt he could get there before the Angel did...
“Screw it!” He had to try.
He asked Megan to increase his cover fire then quickly pivoted around and as he tried to make a leaping start when something hot wrap around his leg and with a powerful jerk William felt his face smash into the ground. The Angel snapped him up into the air flipping him over and then whip cracked him back down to the ground. The frill on the back of the Eva's head smashed into the ground, cracked and partially crumpled, William felt something snap and a surge of pain flowed through him. Then Angel snapped him back up, whipped him into the side of a skyscraper and then flung him in a high arc across the sky.
16th Street
4:13PM EDT
Kenny pulled back on the zoom as he watched the Evangelion fly through the air. He couldn't believe that he was actually here to see all this, to get this all on tape. Even though they seemed to be losing it was still an amazing advent.
From his side he heard Tito yell about something but he was too drawn in to pay attention... at first. As he watched the Eva start to fall it finally dawned on him.
“This thing's gonna land right on top of one us!”
Evangelion Unit 01
4:13PM EDT
The Eva struck, landing shoulder first, onto the ground shattering the shoulder 's pylon and the Eva sized hand gun within. It then bounced and flipped over, tumbling on to it's side and then onto it's bottom in where is slid across the street until it came to a stop slamming into the front of another building. The back of Williams head pulsed with pain and it felt like it could be bleeding, his body was stiff and sore and the area the Angel garbed on his leg felt like it was on fire.
“William! Are you alright?” He heard Megan ask as his mind recovered from being stunned. A painful grunt was the best he could do muster as a reply. 'Alright William, get yourself out of there. Fall back to Recovery Area 32. We're gonna to have to try and rethink our tactics and do this again.”
“Alright...”
As he replied he noticed moment on the roof of the building he was now leaning against. He turned his head to get a better look and saw someone dressed in a black track suit knelling over something, shaking it. He looked closer and saw that it was a bond hair kid about his... It then came to him who those two where. It was the kid who assault him, Tito was the name he believed he heard, and his friend... who wasn't looking so hot. While he couldn't tell how bad Tito was from this angle, the blond kids face was cut up pretty bad and there was blood coming out of his nose and William almost began to fear the worse until he finally open his eyes and Tito started to help him up. But still...
“What the hell are...”
Nerv Command Center
4:14PM EDT
“... those idiots doing out there?!” Megan yelled as her feed showed the two teens on the roof. The computers identified them and displayed their picture and information.
“Wait one second... I recognize those two...”
She then glanced over at the map tracking the Angel, whatever those two were up to it didn't mater right now.
Evangelion Unit 01
4:14PM EDT
“William, just get moving. They'll be safer once you get away from there. Hurry.” William heard Megan order and he nodded in reply. William went to get up but as he did so he felt the top half of the building start to slide foreword, part of the right side of the building collapsed and his classmates fell over and began to slide towards the edge of the roof. He then promptly sat back down and leaned back, the weight of the Eva was the only thing holding this thing up!
“Megan, I cant'! If I move this building is going to be coming down!”
Nerv Command Center
4:14PM EDT
Megan did everything to keep herself from wanting to yell, they didn't have time for this, the Angel would be there any second now and he was about to run out of power. She took a moment to calm herself, she hated what she had to do, she hated it even more for what it was going to have to make William do.
Evangelion Unit 01
4:15PM EDT
“William, I know this is going to sound cold but it's they're own fault that they're out here. If you're Eva shuts down they're dead anyways along with you and the whole city. The Angel's almost there and we don't have time to argue, move it now!”
It took a second for her words to sink in, how could she order him to do something like this! Even though he hit him... how could he just let them die!
“Megan I can't! I can't just leave them!”
Megan's face turned the brightest shade of red he's ever seen a human turn, “William god damn it! We don't... Shit! It's here!”
William saw the faces of his classmates go wide in terror, he looked up to see the Angel hovering over him. It struck out with it's tendrils and he needed to act fast if wanted to save these two so he did the first thing that came mind. He concentrated his field around his hands and shot his arms out, grabbing the ends of them before they could hit. At first the A.T. Field kept out the heat but then it started to leak through and warm up the armor covering his palms and in a matter of seconds the armor stated to melt and he felt his skin start to char. After his hands started to numb he brought his knee up and focused his A.T. Field around it's pylon while thrusting back hard with his arms pulling down the Angel and jammed his knee deep into it's torso, shearing off the pylon and some of the surrounding armor in the process. William then shoved the Angel forward with both his legs and arms and sent it flying back, it flew back a few blocks before it's unseen propulsion countered it's momentum and it began to hover back towards him. It wasn't much but he bought himself a few seconds, he ignored Megan's yelling in the back ground and ordered Eva to hold on his last command and release the entry plug.
Tito stood there looking at the Eva, frozen in horror. It was almost like reliving that night all over again. Why the hell was this all happening? What the hell were these things? What the hell did they want? He heard a dripping noise and noticed that some red liquid was dripping out from the Eva's smashed open frill. He looked closer... “is that... is that blood?”
Here then heard a loud hydraulic sound and then a massive armored hatch on the back of the giant machine raised up and a large metal tube then spun out from it with a man sized hatch opening on it. He then heard a familiar voice call out over a PA system, “You two, there's some hand rail on the shoulders. Climb up here and into the entry plug. And hurry!”
Tito looked to Kenny who just shrugged and shook his head, he then looked over to his left and saw that the Angel was coming back again. That was all the motivation he needed. The both of them made their way over to the Eva and Tito help his injured friend friend up.
Once both of them were at the hatches opening William told them, “Alright, climb on to the throne, the large metal thing you see below you and hand one tight!”
Tito helped Kenny down onto it then looked at the strange piece of machinery that this things pilot called a “throne”, especially the large sarcophagus looking box at it's middle. What that were he was, where he piloted it from?
William watched Tito climb in from on of the camera's inside the plug and after he found a some place to secure himself William closed the hatch, blanketing them in darkness, switched the camera to night vision and then gave them one more warning, “Ok, last thing I got to tell the both of you. When I stand up this plug is gonna lean at a pretty steep angle so watch out for that and also try to keep your feet off from the sides, the throne moves on a rail so you want to ovoid getting your feet caught. Ok, hang on guys, I'm gonna start this thing back up!”
Following the pilots instructions Tito and Kenny hung on to the throne for dear life. They then felt themselves being spun around slowly as they moved downward and heard lock bolts snap into place and then at the bottom of the plug a red glow started to shine giving the two teens at lest some illumination to see what was going on. They then heard him say, “Reengage synchronization and return control to me.” and the “throne” began to move move towards the glow at the bottom as the air tingled with a slight electric charge. Tito just had no idea on how to make sense of what was now happening to him, Kenny didn't even try. He just got as much of this on film as he could.
After William was back in control of the Eva Megan's rather unpleased looking face was waiting form him.
“Done playing hero?”
“But Megan...”
“I don't want to hear it! You have any idea what could of... forget it, we don't have time. Just get you ass back to base and that is an ORDER SOILDER!”
“But what if the...”
“NOW!”
The shear abolitionism of Megan's tone stuck William just as hard as any of the blows the Angel had dealt. So this was all he was to her? Just something she needed to do a job?
“So... she is just like father after all...”
He looked out at the city and the approaching Angel and then glanced down at image of the two classmates there were now in his care. William stood himself up slowly, letting those two get used to the change in slope and the top half of the building behind him leaned forward and collapsed into the lower have leveling the structure and kicking up a geyser of dust. He then took one more look out at the city... his city. The city he had to protect. He couldn't just run away from this... could he? No, he would show her... show father what he was worth.
“Megan, I can do this. It's my duty to protect this city and if I fall back who knows what this thing might do, right?”
She couldn't believe what she was hearing, this little idiot couldn't be thinking of trying to fight with only a minute and a half of power could he?!
“William! Fall back to the recovery area now! My god, if you run out of power...!”
“End transmission and run diagnostic mode!” William ordered before Megan could finish. He had to do this... he had to.
“Alright guys, I'm about to take on the Angel. Tito... I'll show you that I can protect everyone... I'll make things right for you sisters sake. Now hang on TIGHT!”
Those words struck across Tito like an unexpected punch leaving him a daze of guilt and remorse... Why couldn't he just of been the asshole he imagined, why couldn’t he just let him hate him?
A piecing beep announced that there was now approximately one minute of power at this current level of energy usage. It was now or never! William charged at the Angel hovering overhead while trying to devise a some kind of plan to get it to come down.
The Angel began to lance out it's tendrils at the Eva and William jumped to the right to avoid the first one and used the momentum of the jump to spin around the second as Tito and Kenny held on for dear life.
“Come on... just come in a little closer...”[/i}
The Angel struck out again, it flung out it's left tendril in a sweeping motion forcing William to jump over it. It then immediately dashed out with it's right striking at the ground in front of the Eva making him hop back just like it wanted. It coiled around it's left tendril and as William landed from his dodge it thrust it right through the Eva's A.T. Feild, piercing the Eva's lover back and coming out the front! William froze as he let out a scream of total pain as he felt his inside begin to cook and the Angel wasted no time to begin striking at the armor plate covering the abdomen just below the chest him through the chest with it's other.
Nerv Command Center
4:15PM EDT
“[i]God damn that stupid idiot! This is exactly why I told him to fall back! His ass is so grass when he get's back!” Megan cursed to herself as she watched hopelessly at the situation that William had gotten himself into. Now she had to figure a way to give that fool some kind of chance.
“Tell heavy missile batteries 48 through 52 and medium rail gun batteries 45 through 78 and all available UCAV's to open fire on the Angel! Don't worry about collateral damage, just try to take as much attention of the Eva as possible.”
She then held the cross on her necklace and prayed.
H Street
4:15PM EDT
“Come on! I don't have the time for this... get it together!”
William tried his best to clear his mind and ignore the pain but every time the Angel stuck that spot under his chest the most intense, undecipherable sense of pain shot through out him, drowning out everything else including the sun hot tendrils writhing inside him, it felt like his very soul was being stuck. He tried to move anything he could but every time the pain died down enough for him to do so the Angel would strike again and again.
“What the hell am I going to do?!”
Suddenly the air exploded around the Angel as salvo after salvo of large missiles swarmed into it. The blasts stunned the Angel slightly giving William enough time to strengthen his A.T. Field and weaken the Angels increasing the effectiveness of the blasts and soon the Angel had to divert it's attention from the Eva to shooting them down. William now had his chance. He braced himself for the pain then reached around and grabbed the tendril behind him with his right arm while grabbing the Angel's now free one with his left. He wrapped the them around his arms, grunting under the pain, and pulled down with them while dropping down onto one knee forcing the Angel out of the sky and slamming it into the ground. He then wanked back, fling the Angel towards him. He then let go of the tendrils and brought his left arm up and checked the Angel with his forearm pylon slashing open the Angel's right arm with a spray of thick fluid and satisfying crunch as it came flying to him. The Angel bellowed in pain as it's right tendril plasma sheath faded as it fell limp to it's side.
With thirty seconds left William sent the command and his remaining shoulder pylon opened up and deployed it's progressive knife. He pulled it out and activated it, feeling it hum to life faintly in his numb hand, while smashing his other arm into the underside of the Angels head, forcing it up and exposing the connecting tissue. He jammed the knife into it's neck where his round had pieced earlier and cut away at the skin, ripping open the wound to revival a crystalline sphere shining from within with a nebula of brilliant reds. His face grew ecstatic and the excitement help numb some of the pain as he gazed upon it's core, it was time to end this.
Nine seconds were left, William held the Angel down as it struggled to break free.
Eight seconds were left, he brought up his knife knife arm and aimed his strike.
Seven seconds, with one fluid motion he brought it down hard digging the tip into the core.
Six seconds, the Angel let out a howl and the aura about it strobed but it did not fall. The knife did not cut deep enough.
Five seconds, William let go of the Angels head and rested his full weight onto the blade trying to force it down.
Four seconds...
Three seconds. The core didn't seem to want to give and William started to panic. He was to close now, it couldn't end like this, it just couldn’t.
Two seconds left and he made one last effort. He raised both of his arms over his head and balled his hands together.
Just one second of power was left, he swung down with all his strength and using both hands like a hammer he struck down towards the handle of the knife.
*BEEEEEEEPPPPPPPPPP!!!*
His blow struck just as the last joule of energy ran out driving the blade down to it's handle like a nail. William let a smile cross his face as his world turned dark and the Eva collapsed to the ground.
The Angel failed around in panic as fluid and sparks rained down from it core, the ribbon above convulsed and pulsed with color.
It pulled it's working tendril out of the Eva and then pulled out the knife. It then looked down at the Eva as fountains of light began to pour out of it's eye spots.
Nerv Command Center
4:17PM EDT
“We are reading a massive energy surge coming off the Angel, it's on par with what we read off the last angel before it took out a 3km area!” Lt. Haynes yelled as he watched the Angels emissions readings spike almost off the chart.
“Get him out of the now! Force eject the entry plug!” Megan shouted in panic. Why... why did he have to do this... what was he trying to prove?
H Street
4:17PM EDT
The air around the Angel crackled with electricity as the storm and aura blossomed with intensity. The torches of light flared out like daggers as the Angel screeched in anger, it's eye spots flashed and then...
The street rumbled as an explosion of flames erupted from the wound in it's core! The Angel convulsed and then dropped from the air landing on the base of it's main body. It lifted it's head as high as it's wounded neck would allow and seemed to gaze sky word, the glow in it's core dimmed to nothing, the storm and aura faded and the Angel just stood there frozen and silent.
Nerv Command Center
4:18PM EDT
“The Angel has fallen silent, the Magi confirm cessation of the target has been achieved.” Lt. Illich reported.
At those words everyone in the command room mentally breathed a sigh of relief. Everyone except for Megan. Instead she clenched her firsts until the insides of her palms turned white.
Evangelion Unit 01
Tito sat in the cold dark metal of entry plug holding his hand to side of his head. He had banged it pretty hard during those seconds of pure fear when the Eva fell over and split the skin. This time however Kenny seemed to had come out a bit better off of the two with just a few additional bruises, well that was at lest what Kenny told him. Even if he could see past his nose at the moment to see how bad they both really were what little sight he did have was pretty blurred.
He had no idea what was going to happen now, how much time had gone by and didn't know if that kid piloting thing was alright or not. He had banged a few times against that coffin looking thing he was inside of but got no reply.
He let out a deep breath and tried turning his thoughts to his sister but that just made things worse...
A few more minutes when both of their eyes went wide as they heard the sound of lock bolts releasing. They were both relived that they were finally getting out of this thing and terrified at the thought of how much trouble they were going to be once they were. They felt themselves spun upward and then the hatch above them opened and both the teens shielded their eyes as the sudden change in illumination overpowered them. A pair of NERV technicians helped the teens out of the hatch and passed them off to another two who helped them down to the ground where they saw four NERV security personal wearing mean dispositions waiting for them, a blond haired women wearing both a lab coat and an even meaner disposition to her behind them and a ambulance and group of medics waiting with a stretcher.
One of security agents grabbed Kenny's camera while the other three surrounded them and escorted them towards an armored van, both of them were two tired, hurt and scared to try and stand up to them.
Tito looked back towards the Eva and watched as the techs brought it's pilot down just before he was lead into into the van.
As soon as the pilot had touched the ground he fell over, dropping to his knee. He wrenched and vomited up some kind of yellowish liquid and then fell to his side as the medics ran towards him.
A wall of guilt fell upon him like a wave and he pushed back again being put in the van and began yelling to the agents, “Is he alright, what's going to happen to him? Come man, what's wrong with him!”
The agents said nothing back as two of them grabbed him by the shoulders and another by the legs and forced him in then closed the doors.
Vol: 2 Self and Others
Chapter Three
Pride
16th Street, just off of North Carolina Avenue
4:04PM EDT
“Come Kenny, let's just get going man. We need to find somewhere safer then this.” Tito said as he followed his friend up from a fire escape and onto the roof top of an near by apartment building.
Kenny walked up to the edge and raised up his camera with an excited grin on his face at the excellent view this vantage point gave him. “We're good for now, if this thing starts heading our way then we get the hell out of dodge.”
“You're crazy as shit man.” said Tito shaking his head as stood just off to his friends side.
Kenny's smile turned to a smirk at Tito's words. He had dremnt of doing something like this his whole life, being there at the front lines of some world shaking event to shine the light on it before the truth was covered up. Now it was his time to shine and he was ready.
Tito on the other hand just looked on at that gigantic... thing... as it slowly advanced towards the center of the city. He had no words that could really describe it outside of it being huge and and being alien. It's sight also unnerved him deeply, something felt “off”. There was that it was just terrifying but that wasn't the reason he felt unnerved, there was something just disturbing about it, not just how it appeared, but just the very concept of it. Why did these things have to come to his city? Why was it his apartment that was hit... why...
Why couldn't of been him that was in that hospital rather then his sister...
Why didn't it just go away...
Tito turned his gaze towards the massive armed buildings that filled the city, “What the hell are those NERV assholes waiting for? Why aren't they doing anything?”
Armored Deployment Building #68
4:05PM EDT
William felt his entire body thrust against its self as he decelerated to a stop inside a dimly lit building just barely wider then his Eva was with a large blast shutter in front of him. It was almost time and he could feel his heart pound against his chest, sweat bead his brow, the skin around his black eye swell and fear grip his mind.
“Alright William, just remember; center mass, short controlled burst got that?” Megan reminded him. Seeing her, hearing her words did help calm him a bit.
“I got you.”
“Now, when you leave this deployment building the Angel will be approaching the end of the block to your right. Keep your eye on your tactical map, we have his location marked on it.”
“Ok.” William glanced down at map screen on his lower right hand side and say the approaching circled A. He started to feel the felt panic return.
“Ok William, go get him.” Megan fished with a smile. She then turned to look off screen and order the final safety locks released and William once again felt the enormous bulk of his new body. The shutter opened filling the building with dimming sunlight. William looked out on to the street and ordered to himself, “A.T. Field full power!”. He then watched the air ripple in front of him and charged out onto the street.
16th Street
4:07PM EDT
“Bout fucking time...” Tito mouthed to himself as he saw NERV's giant battle machine charge out from one of the armored buildings. He then closed his eyes and remembered back to that day, to seeing it stand over above him like some great beast. He just felt so conflicted. while he knew that Angel thing had to be stopped and this robot was somehow able to do just that it was just... how could he ever forgive it's pilot?
H Street, just off of Florida Avenue
4:07PM EDT
William made his way over to the last building on the block and pressed his back against and watched the Angel to approach closer on his map. He then closed his eyes and breathed deeply three times trying his best to braced himself, counted to three and then flung himself around the corner like he was taught and raised his weapon. He open his eyes again to sight his cannon and they went wide with shock and terror as he laid sight on the monstrous, inhuman visage of the Angel and all the training , all the tactics he went through were now gone from his head and replaced with pure instinct as he backed up while jamming down on the selective fire trigger. Shots exploded from the barrel at twenty rounds per second spraying the area with a three to one mix of 200mm HEAT and APFSDS rounds as the cannons barrel bucked up and around under the massive recoil, filling the air with smoke and fragments obstructing his target from his view.
“What the hell are you doing?! You just gave the Angel perfect cover with all that smoke!” He heard Megan yell, snapping him out of his panic as his ammo count reached zero. He tried to explain himself but all his words seemed to trip over his tongue before he could let out. It also didn't help that he didn't even know how to explain it. Megan wasn't in the mood to wait for his response, “Stop standing there like an idiot and fall back while switching to infrared! I'll send you up a new rifle.”
As Megan finished giving her order Williams map highlighted the armament building he need to get to. He then began to fall back towards it but before he could finish his first step a blue flash emanated from deep within the smoke cloud and a fraction of a second later two dazzling blue objects whipped out and lashed at him. William let out a yell as he threw himself back to avoid getting hit, he impacted the ground with explosive force bouncing all the surviving cars up on their suspensions and blowing out the windows of every building with in a one block radius.
16th Street
4:08PM EDT
“He's losing already?!” Tito blurted out in disbelief and disappointment as he watched the cities supposed defender fall over backwards. What the hell was NERV thinking giving this thing to that punk ass kid?
“Guess you really messed him up man.” Kenny quipped back as he messed around with the zoom.
“Hey! Wait! Don't you try to pin this one me!”
H Street
4:08PM EDT
William grunted as the force of the impact shot through him, stiffening up his body. No mater how many times that they told him that what he felt in an Eva wasn't real pain didn't seem stop it from feeling just like it. He came to with the sound of Megan shouting for him to get back up in one ear and a warning tone informing him that his weapon had suffered a critical operations failure. He looked to his right to find his assault cannon cut neatly in half, the partly melted edges still sizzling with white hot heat. He then reared back in fright as he looked up and saw the Angel advance towards him hovering just off the ground, hunched forward with it's head titled at an angle as if the sight of the Eva before it was amusing to it while a pair of whip-like tendrils hung from is scythe like arms, tracings circular patterns in the air as the Angel ungulate them in a writhing manner as brilliant blue plasma danced and arched across them. No matter how much he tried he couldn't move as he gazed upon this thing and despite the fact that his “body” now was effectually a 40 meter tall mass of armor and metal he felt just so small and insignificant. What could he do? How was he going to be able to fight these things?
It grew closer and began to let out an ethrealic wail while flailing out for towards him with it's tendrils. William began to lose it, he couldn't move, couldn't fight. He had failed them, failed everyone who needed him.
“William get off you ass and MOVE!”
Megan's words jarred him form his stupor and back to his senses. He glanced at his map, he needed to get himself down to that armament building ASAP. He tossed what remained of his cannon at the Angel and jumped back onto his feet and made dash down the block and the buildings shutter opened up revealing two 200mm assault cannons resting on a cradle. As he reached out to grab one the building to his left exploded into dust as the Angel slashed through it and in a blink of an eye the cannon and the armament buildings along with it met the same fate!
William pivoted to his left to face the Angel and hopped back to get some distance as he tried to figure out how to make it the next armament building that could resupply him. He started to contemplate his odds if he tried using his “pistol” at this range when Megan informed him that they'll try to give him some cover. Several light rail cannon batteries turned to track the Angel and with rolling string of thunder they rippled fired, blanketing the Angel in a shower of sparks. Wasting no time he turned and ran as fast as he could to the next building as several rows of armor plates rose up from the streets behind him, covering him. He reached in and grabbed another cannon as a series of white flashes emanated from the Angels “eye spots” blasting apart the buildings that were giving him cover. It then came back at him, slicing through each of the plates like paper. William readied his new weapon, took a deep breath and then swiveled around the corner and clenched his brow as he strained himself trying to deploy his A.T. Field at the fullest power he could. He then waited until he felt the Angel's field press against his own and then pulled the trigger to it's midway point blasting out four groups of three round bursts at his target. The first three group hit across it's upper torso and exploded before they could reach the Angel, the last three however managed to lanced through the Angels A.T. Field and impacted the lower left side of it's head blasting off chunks from it's chitin like armor while sprouts of red ichor sputter out from the wound and the Angel rared back, letting out a unpleased wail.
A smile sprouted across Williams face, these things could be hurt after all. He leaped back to avoid a retaliatory swipe of the Angel's tendrils and then brought his gun to bear again as he focused and concentrated his A.T. Field and began opening fire on specific spots as Megan instructed him as more armament building batteries joined in and plastered the Angel from all sides. Everything was finally clicking, all the training, the drills, the repetition he had to do these past two weeks all started to make sense, he was really doing this! He had the rhythm down, he would pop off a few three round bursts, hop back and fire again and every few round would make it through and blast a hole in the Angel. He fired another burst, the first two rounds exploded against it's field but the last one flew right under the “hinge” where the cowl of it's head and body met and a shower of sparks shot out from inside it as the Angel make a horrified wail. That was it! Deep down he just knew that's were the core had to be and he already began to carefully take his aim as Megan start to give him that very order. He had his sights just about perfectly lined up and he felt electrify, he never felt so alive before as he could taste his victory on his lips. He started to carefully pull the trigger when the aura above the Angel pulsed and he was blinded by a bright white flash and some great force explode against him, sending him flying down the block as the buildings around him disintegrated in the blast. He came to a stop colliding into the front of a large apartment complex crumpling it's walls, causing it's floors to explode like toothpicks and the structural frame of the build bend and give as if it was plastic under his Eva's bulk. He felt his body lock up under the force of the impact and could do little but try to strengthen his A.T. Field as he saw the Angel lean back and then slam down onto him with both of it's tendrils, knocking him through what was left of the building.
William hit the street on the other side landing on the back end of the armored shell that covered his entry plug, he then bounced and flipped clipping the tip of the Eva's helmet “horn” off before coming to a stop resting on his chest, his left leg smashed through the front of a neighborhood connivance store. As he came to once again he found his head filled with a warning tone and a large screen displaying a count down. His had no time to mess around now, his cord had been cut and he now had five minutes left to get to a umbilical station. Despite the very loud protest made by his body William forced himself back onto his feet, ejected what was left of his umbilical and made a dash for his dropped cannon only for the Angel slice it apart just as he leaned over to grab it. The Angel swung at him striking the ground just before his feet forcing him to hop back, it swiped at him again and again forcing him back but oddly wasn't making any real attempt to really hit him.
“Is it toying with me? Or does it know that I'm running out of time?” William thought to himself. Either way it was still running down his clock and he didn't have time for this but if he just made a dash for the station he doubt he could get there before the Angel did...
“Screw it!” He had to try.
He asked Megan to increase his cover fire then quickly pivoted around and as he tried to make a leaping start when something hot wrap around his leg and with a powerful jerk William felt his face smash into the ground. The Angel snapped him up into the air flipping him over and then whip cracked him back down to the ground. The frill on the back of the Eva's head smashed into the ground, cracked and partially crumpled, William felt something snap and a surge of pain flowed through him. Then Angel snapped him back up, whipped him into the side of a skyscraper and then flung him in a high arc across the sky.
16th Street
4:13PM EDT
Kenny pulled back on the zoom as he watched the Evangelion fly through the air. He couldn't believe that he was actually here to see all this, to get this all on tape. Even though they seemed to be losing it was still an amazing advent.
From his side he heard Tito yell about something but he was too drawn in to pay attention... at first. As he watched the Eva start to fall it finally dawned on him.
“This thing's gonna land right on top of one us!”
Evangelion Unit 01
4:13PM EDT
The Eva struck, landing shoulder first, onto the ground shattering the shoulder 's pylon and the Eva sized hand gun within. It then bounced and flipped over, tumbling on to it's side and then onto it's bottom in where is slid across the street until it came to a stop slamming into the front of another building. The back of Williams head pulsed with pain and it felt like it could be bleeding, his body was stiff and sore and the area the Angel garbed on his leg felt like it was on fire.
“William! Are you alright?” He heard Megan ask as his mind recovered from being stunned. A painful grunt was the best he could do muster as a reply. 'Alright William, get yourself out of there. Fall back to Recovery Area 32. We're gonna to have to try and rethink our tactics and do this again.”
“Alright...”
As he replied he noticed moment on the roof of the building he was now leaning against. He turned his head to get a better look and saw someone dressed in a black track suit knelling over something, shaking it. He looked closer and saw that it was a bond hair kid about his... It then came to him who those two where. It was the kid who assault him, Tito was the name he believed he heard, and his friend... who wasn't looking so hot. While he couldn't tell how bad Tito was from this angle, the blond kids face was cut up pretty bad and there was blood coming out of his nose and William almost began to fear the worse until he finally open his eyes and Tito started to help him up. But still...
“What the hell are...”
Nerv Command Center
4:14PM EDT
“... those idiots doing out there?!” Megan yelled as her feed showed the two teens on the roof. The computers identified them and displayed their picture and information.
“Wait one second... I recognize those two...”
She then glanced over at the map tracking the Angel, whatever those two were up to it didn't mater right now.
Evangelion Unit 01
4:14PM EDT
“William, just get moving. They'll be safer once you get away from there. Hurry.” William heard Megan order and he nodded in reply. William went to get up but as he did so he felt the top half of the building start to slide foreword, part of the right side of the building collapsed and his classmates fell over and began to slide towards the edge of the roof. He then promptly sat back down and leaned back, the weight of the Eva was the only thing holding this thing up!
“Megan, I cant'! If I move this building is going to be coming down!”
Nerv Command Center
4:14PM EDT
Megan did everything to keep herself from wanting to yell, they didn't have time for this, the Angel would be there any second now and he was about to run out of power. She took a moment to calm herself, she hated what she had to do, she hated it even more for what it was going to have to make William do.
Evangelion Unit 01
4:15PM EDT
“William, I know this is going to sound cold but it's they're own fault that they're out here. If you're Eva shuts down they're dead anyways along with you and the whole city. The Angel's almost there and we don't have time to argue, move it now!”
It took a second for her words to sink in, how could she order him to do something like this! Even though he hit him... how could he just let them die!
“Megan I can't! I can't just leave them!”
Megan's face turned the brightest shade of red he's ever seen a human turn, “William god damn it! We don't... Shit! It's here!”
William saw the faces of his classmates go wide in terror, he looked up to see the Angel hovering over him. It struck out with it's tendrils and he needed to act fast if wanted to save these two so he did the first thing that came mind. He concentrated his field around his hands and shot his arms out, grabbing the ends of them before they could hit. At first the A.T. Field kept out the heat but then it started to leak through and warm up the armor covering his palms and in a matter of seconds the armor stated to melt and he felt his skin start to char. After his hands started to numb he brought his knee up and focused his A.T. Field around it's pylon while thrusting back hard with his arms pulling down the Angel and jammed his knee deep into it's torso, shearing off the pylon and some of the surrounding armor in the process. William then shoved the Angel forward with both his legs and arms and sent it flying back, it flew back a few blocks before it's unseen propulsion countered it's momentum and it began to hover back towards him. It wasn't much but he bought himself a few seconds, he ignored Megan's yelling in the back ground and ordered Eva to hold on his last command and release the entry plug.
Tito stood there looking at the Eva, frozen in horror. It was almost like reliving that night all over again. Why the hell was this all happening? What the hell were these things? What the hell did they want? He heard a dripping noise and noticed that some red liquid was dripping out from the Eva's smashed open frill. He looked closer... “is that... is that blood?”
Here then heard a loud hydraulic sound and then a massive armored hatch on the back of the giant machine raised up and a large metal tube then spun out from it with a man sized hatch opening on it. He then heard a familiar voice call out over a PA system, “You two, there's some hand rail on the shoulders. Climb up here and into the entry plug. And hurry!”
Tito looked to Kenny who just shrugged and shook his head, he then looked over to his left and saw that the Angel was coming back again. That was all the motivation he needed. The both of them made their way over to the Eva and Tito help his injured friend friend up.
Once both of them were at the hatches opening William told them, “Alright, climb on to the throne, the large metal thing you see below you and hand one tight!”
Tito helped Kenny down onto it then looked at the strange piece of machinery that this things pilot called a “throne”, especially the large sarcophagus looking box at it's middle. What that were he was, where he piloted it from?
William watched Tito climb in from on of the camera's inside the plug and after he found a some place to secure himself William closed the hatch, blanketing them in darkness, switched the camera to night vision and then gave them one more warning, “Ok, last thing I got to tell the both of you. When I stand up this plug is gonna lean at a pretty steep angle so watch out for that and also try to keep your feet off from the sides, the throne moves on a rail so you want to ovoid getting your feet caught. Ok, hang on guys, I'm gonna start this thing back up!”
Following the pilots instructions Tito and Kenny hung on to the throne for dear life. They then felt themselves being spun around slowly as they moved downward and heard lock bolts snap into place and then at the bottom of the plug a red glow started to shine giving the two teens at lest some illumination to see what was going on. They then heard him say, “Reengage synchronization and return control to me.” and the “throne” began to move move towards the glow at the bottom as the air tingled with a slight electric charge. Tito just had no idea on how to make sense of what was now happening to him, Kenny didn't even try. He just got as much of this on film as he could.
After William was back in control of the Eva Megan's rather unpleased looking face was waiting form him.
“Done playing hero?”
“But Megan...”
“I don't want to hear it! You have any idea what could of... forget it, we don't have time. Just get you ass back to base and that is an ORDER SOILDER!”
“But what if the...”
“NOW!”
The shear abolitionism of Megan's tone stuck William just as hard as any of the blows the Angel had dealt. So this was all he was to her? Just something she needed to do a job?
“So... she is just like father after all...”
He looked out at the city and the approaching Angel and then glanced down at image of the two classmates there were now in his care. William stood himself up slowly, letting those two get used to the change in slope and the top half of the building behind him leaned forward and collapsed into the lower have leveling the structure and kicking up a geyser of dust. He then took one more look out at the city... his city. The city he had to protect. He couldn't just run away from this... could he? No, he would show her... show father what he was worth.
“Megan, I can do this. It's my duty to protect this city and if I fall back who knows what this thing might do, right?”
She couldn't believe what she was hearing, this little idiot couldn't be thinking of trying to fight with only a minute and a half of power could he?!
“William! Fall back to the recovery area now! My god, if you run out of power...!”
“End transmission and run diagnostic mode!” William ordered before Megan could finish. He had to do this... he had to.
“Alright guys, I'm about to take on the Angel. Tito... I'll show you that I can protect everyone... I'll make things right for you sisters sake. Now hang on TIGHT!”
Those words struck across Tito like an unexpected punch leaving him a daze of guilt and remorse... Why couldn't he just of been the asshole he imagined, why couldn’t he just let him hate him?
A piecing beep announced that there was now approximately one minute of power at this current level of energy usage. It was now or never! William charged at the Angel hovering overhead while trying to devise a some kind of plan to get it to come down.
The Angel began to lance out it's tendrils at the Eva and William jumped to the right to avoid the first one and used the momentum of the jump to spin around the second as Tito and Kenny held on for dear life.
“Come on... just come in a little closer...”[/i}
The Angel struck out again, it flung out it's left tendril in a sweeping motion forcing William to jump over it. It then immediately dashed out with it's right striking at the ground in front of the Eva making him hop back just like it wanted. It coiled around it's left tendril and as William landed from his dodge it thrust it right through the Eva's A.T. Feild, piercing the Eva's lover back and coming out the front! William froze as he let out a scream of total pain as he felt his inside begin to cook and the Angel wasted no time to begin striking at the armor plate covering the abdomen just below the chest him through the chest with it's other.
Nerv Command Center
4:15PM EDT
“[i]God damn that stupid idiot! This is exactly why I told him to fall back! His ass is so grass when he get's back!” Megan cursed to herself as she watched hopelessly at the situation that William had gotten himself into. Now she had to figure a way to give that fool some kind of chance.
“Tell heavy missile batteries 48 through 52 and medium rail gun batteries 45 through 78 and all available UCAV's to open fire on the Angel! Don't worry about collateral damage, just try to take as much attention of the Eva as possible.”
She then held the cross on her necklace and prayed.
H Street
4:15PM EDT
“Come on! I don't have the time for this... get it together!”
William tried his best to clear his mind and ignore the pain but every time the Angel stuck that spot under his chest the most intense, undecipherable sense of pain shot through out him, drowning out everything else including the sun hot tendrils writhing inside him, it felt like his very soul was being stuck. He tried to move anything he could but every time the pain died down enough for him to do so the Angel would strike again and again.
“What the hell am I going to do?!”
Suddenly the air exploded around the Angel as salvo after salvo of large missiles swarmed into it. The blasts stunned the Angel slightly giving William enough time to strengthen his A.T. Field and weaken the Angels increasing the effectiveness of the blasts and soon the Angel had to divert it's attention from the Eva to shooting them down. William now had his chance. He braced himself for the pain then reached around and grabbed the tendril behind him with his right arm while grabbing the Angel's now free one with his left. He wrapped the them around his arms, grunting under the pain, and pulled down with them while dropping down onto one knee forcing the Angel out of the sky and slamming it into the ground. He then wanked back, fling the Angel towards him. He then let go of the tendrils and brought his left arm up and checked the Angel with his forearm pylon slashing open the Angel's right arm with a spray of thick fluid and satisfying crunch as it came flying to him. The Angel bellowed in pain as it's right tendril plasma sheath faded as it fell limp to it's side.
With thirty seconds left William sent the command and his remaining shoulder pylon opened up and deployed it's progressive knife. He pulled it out and activated it, feeling it hum to life faintly in his numb hand, while smashing his other arm into the underside of the Angels head, forcing it up and exposing the connecting tissue. He jammed the knife into it's neck where his round had pieced earlier and cut away at the skin, ripping open the wound to revival a crystalline sphere shining from within with a nebula of brilliant reds. His face grew ecstatic and the excitement help numb some of the pain as he gazed upon it's core, it was time to end this.
Nine seconds were left, William held the Angel down as it struggled to break free.
Eight seconds were left, he brought up his knife knife arm and aimed his strike.
Seven seconds, with one fluid motion he brought it down hard digging the tip into the core.
Six seconds, the Angel let out a howl and the aura about it strobed but it did not fall. The knife did not cut deep enough.
Five seconds, William let go of the Angels head and rested his full weight onto the blade trying to force it down.
Four seconds...
Three seconds. The core didn't seem to want to give and William started to panic. He was to close now, it couldn't end like this, it just couldn’t.
Two seconds left and he made one last effort. He raised both of his arms over his head and balled his hands together.
Just one second of power was left, he swung down with all his strength and using both hands like a hammer he struck down towards the handle of the knife.
*BEEEEEEEPPPPPPPPPP!!!*
His blow struck just as the last joule of energy ran out driving the blade down to it's handle like a nail. William let a smile cross his face as his world turned dark and the Eva collapsed to the ground.
The Angel failed around in panic as fluid and sparks rained down from it core, the ribbon above convulsed and pulsed with color.
It pulled it's working tendril out of the Eva and then pulled out the knife. It then looked down at the Eva as fountains of light began to pour out of it's eye spots.
Nerv Command Center
4:17PM EDT
“We are reading a massive energy surge coming off the Angel, it's on par with what we read off the last angel before it took out a 3km area!” Lt. Haynes yelled as he watched the Angels emissions readings spike almost off the chart.
“Get him out of the now! Force eject the entry plug!” Megan shouted in panic. Why... why did he have to do this... what was he trying to prove?
H Street
4:17PM EDT
The air around the Angel crackled with electricity as the storm and aura blossomed with intensity. The torches of light flared out like daggers as the Angel screeched in anger, it's eye spots flashed and then...
The street rumbled as an explosion of flames erupted from the wound in it's core! The Angel convulsed and then dropped from the air landing on the base of it's main body. It lifted it's head as high as it's wounded neck would allow and seemed to gaze sky word, the glow in it's core dimmed to nothing, the storm and aura faded and the Angel just stood there frozen and silent.
Nerv Command Center
4:18PM EDT
“The Angel has fallen silent, the Magi confirm cessation of the target has been achieved.” Lt. Illich reported.
At those words everyone in the command room mentally breathed a sigh of relief. Everyone except for Megan. Instead she clenched her firsts until the insides of her palms turned white.
Evangelion Unit 01
Tito sat in the cold dark metal of entry plug holding his hand to side of his head. He had banged it pretty hard during those seconds of pure fear when the Eva fell over and split the skin. This time however Kenny seemed to had come out a bit better off of the two with just a few additional bruises, well that was at lest what Kenny told him. Even if he could see past his nose at the moment to see how bad they both really were what little sight he did have was pretty blurred.
He had no idea what was going to happen now, how much time had gone by and didn't know if that kid piloting thing was alright or not. He had banged a few times against that coffin looking thing he was inside of but got no reply.
He let out a deep breath and tried turning his thoughts to his sister but that just made things worse...
A few more minutes when both of their eyes went wide as they heard the sound of lock bolts releasing. They were both relived that they were finally getting out of this thing and terrified at the thought of how much trouble they were going to be once they were. They felt themselves spun upward and then the hatch above them opened and both the teens shielded their eyes as the sudden change in illumination overpowered them. A pair of NERV technicians helped the teens out of the hatch and passed them off to another two who helped them down to the ground where they saw four NERV security personal wearing mean dispositions waiting for them, a blond haired women wearing both a lab coat and an even meaner disposition to her behind them and a ambulance and group of medics waiting with a stretcher.
One of security agents grabbed Kenny's camera while the other three surrounded them and escorted them towards an armored van, both of them were two tired, hurt and scared to try and stand up to them.
Tito looked back towards the Eva and watched as the techs brought it's pilot down just before he was lead into into the van.
As soon as the pilot had touched the ground he fell over, dropping to his knee. He wrenched and vomited up some kind of yellowish liquid and then fell to his side as the medics ran towards him.
A wall of guilt fell upon him like a wave and he pushed back again being put in the van and began yelling to the agents, “Is he alright, what's going to happen to him? Come man, what's wrong with him!”
The agents said nothing back as two of them grabbed him by the shoulders and another by the legs and forced him in then closed the doors.
"It is the Thunderbolt that steers the universe."~ Heraclitus
The people who voted for Obama or Romney are fucking idiots. Wake the fuck up.
"The Constitution was our last, best hope for peace... It failed. But, in the Year of the War against the Globalists, it became something greater: our last, best hope
The people who voted for Obama or Romney are fucking idiots. Wake the fuck up.
"The Constitution was our last, best hope for peace... It failed. But, in the Year of the War against the Globalists, it became something greater: our last, best hope
Sorry for how long it took for this chapter to come out but things hadn't been very conductive for my writing the past two weeks.
NEON GENESIS EVANGLION: To the Victor
Vol: 2 Self and Others
Chapter Four
Repercussions
NERV Open Gardens Food Court and Cafeteria, Main Pyramid Building A-12
Wednesday, September 16th 2015
6:28AM EDT
The early morning light painted a faint crimson glow through the large, vaulted windows of the food court. NERV personal filtered in and out as they grabbed a quick bite to eat from one of the many franchised and privately owned restaurants that lined it's west end before they started their shift or ended it or to just relax in the surprisingly large park that sat at it's center. Megan sat alone at a table on the upper balcony over looking the park with her uneaten breakfast left off to the side. Disquieted, she read over a letter laid out on the table before her for the eighth time hoping that somehow this will be the time that it's contents somehow magically transform its self into good news. Things have been stressful enough since yesterday already and this letter was not helping things. Her frustration began to turn into a headache and had long since exasperated the pain in her braced knee and her patience to deal with them both had run out. She folded up the letter and set it to the side then reached over into her purse, dug out a packet of Advil, leaned her head back, popped them in and washed them down with a swig from her water bottle. She then glanced over at her breakfast in a vain attempt to convince her stress addled stomach that it was hungry and noticed Rachel approaching with her usual morning meal of black tar.
“My, aren't we in a good mood today.” Rachel smirked, noticing her friends sour look as she set down her mug and took a seat. Megan just gave a slight shake her head in reply as she grabbed the letter between her index and middle finger and with a quick flip of her wrist presented it to Rachel who took it, glanced it over and quickly came to understand her friends mood.
“So we're going to be short on our replacement missiles I see.” Rachel said as she passed the letter back.
Megan sighed then replied, “Yeah, this is what we get for buying the lowest bidder and letting them outsource parts. Now Lockheed Boeing gets a shipment of gyroscopes not made to spec and we end up with less then a third of the SSA-23's we ordered. Of course on top of that we still got two weeks before our first shipment of heavy weapons for our Evas arrive, assuming nothing goes wrong with that order, and we can't get our only DEW prototype to get more then eight shots off before it's capacitor blow. Not to mention, lord knows when the next Angel is going to arrive... I'm surprised after the battle that they haven't decided to just put us out of misery already.” Megan then glanced towards Rachel, “Speaking of which, have the Magi figured out when we can expect our next visit?”
Rachel took a ship of her coffee and then set her mug down before answering, “Sadly no. We just haven't had enough Angels show up yet to try and guess at any pattern, if there even is one.”
“Great.”
“Oh, and speaking of the prototype; we're going to be running another in a few days. Lt. Commander Nicholson thinks she figured out why the capacitors are over heating, we just gotta run the test and see if she's right.”
“Hope she's right, could use some good news.” Megan said as the thought of the penitential for something good to happen gave her a little bit of an appetite back. She grabbed a piece of toast from her tray and ate a bite of it and then decided to see if she could maybe get a little more good news in, “So, how's the repairs on Unit 01 going?”
“Well outside of the hole through it's torso, most of the damage was rather minor. We also got lucky that the Angel's tendril didn't hit anything to vital when it made that hole, not a lot of structural damage either but still it's going to be at lest another week before it's up and running again.”
“A week huh? Well, let's cross our fingers and knock on wood that nothing eventful happens during that week.”
Rachel finished off her coffee and while she was anything but superstitious, she decided it was best to move thing on to another subject just to be safe. “How's William doing?”
Megan felt her self tense up as she heard Rachel ask that question, “He's doing fine, the hospital is releasing him this afternoon. I'm going to be busy though so I'm gonna have to have someone from his security detail pick him up.”
Megan's apprehension did not go unnoticed by her friend. “You shouldn't put this off Megan, you're gonna have to have a talk with him sooner or later before he gets himself killed, followed shortly there after by the rest of us.”
“I know and I'm not trying to put this off. I just don't think I should drop this on him right after he gets out of the hospital. I don't need to be in till the evening tomorrow so I'll have him take the day off from school and then I'll sit down and have our talk. That and it'll give me a chance to treat myself before hand, I think with everything that's going on I derive a little something.”
“Oh, what are getting?”
“Found out my lawyer called when I checked my messages last night. My insurance company finally agreed to settle and between that and what I've been saving up I got enough to make one hell of a down payment on a car I've wanting for a very long time now.”
Ronald M. Crown Municipal Middle School, Classroom 206
8:56AM EDT
Tito sat at his desk, leaned back and feet up, while looking across his now even emptier classroom. Since the Angel's attack the other day, what was left of the class had dropped down to less then half of what it was. Kenny and himself had spent most of yesterday seeing off four of their friends... the last four of them who had stayed. He looked over at Kenny and wondered how long before his family got smart and left, then who would he have? He then focused on Kenny's nose brace and the bandages, how was it he kept on coming out without a scratch while everyone else got hurt? Most people he figured would of counted themselves lucky but how could he if it came at the cost of everyone he cared about?
Kenny resisted the urge to scratch his braced nose as he got to work trying to finish his model of that “throne” thing they both rode on while inside the Eva while his memory of it was still fresh, NERV security had confiscated his tapes so that's all he had left to go by. He stopped and looked over his work as he noticed that his proportions seemed off and noticed Tito looking at him with guilt on his face.
“So Tito...Ummm, when do you want me to come over tonight so you can show me your new place? After all, I think with how well we dodged the bullet the other day we deserve a little party time.”
“Humm? Oh, yeah. Dude, I was half expecting to end up in one of those FEMA camps you talk about, never to be seen again and shit. Hell, we didn't even end up getting grounded, so yeah. No kidding. But ummmm, well I'm going to seeing my sister after school soooo... say six. Just to let you know man, there ain't much at the crib right now. We lost everything when our building got smashed and our insurance check just came in a few days ago so we've only had time to get the basics with the little extra cash that my dads work kicked to us. I'm mean I got bed and a computer and everything but not too many games and shit.”
“That's alright man, I can bring over some of my stuff. Hell, you can borrow it till you get everything worked out. Also I'll bring the snacks and the party favors. You're dad and grandpa ain't going to be home till late right?”
“Yeah, though the place still smells like new apartment so we're gonna have to toke it up outside.”
“No problem... Oh, and Tito, take this.” Kenny reached in and pulled out a small, folded piece of paper from his pocket and handed it to him.
“What's this?” Tito replied as he took it and began to unfold it.
“The pilots number.”
“What the fuck am I going to do with this?”
“Come on man, you don't need to keep that act up around me. I know how much you regret what you did. You don't need to go hold his dick or anything, just call him up and say you're sorry.”
“Say you're sorry...” Kenny word rang through Tito's mind as he looked down at the phone number. It wasn't that he wasn't right but... how could he? This was a double headed question, on one side he wanted to but what words could make up for knocking the shit out of him? Then on the other side there was his sister, how could he forgive someone who had a part in taking away everything from her but her life?
Just outside Lovely Suites Condominiums 17
3:12PM EDT
The NERV owned BMW G42 came to a stop just off from the condominium's front door and two black suited NERV agents stepped out from the car. One of them opened the curb side passenger door and William stepped out and followed them as they escorted him to the elevator and up to his floor. He walked up to the front door, held his “key” up to the door's sensor and heard it beep. One of his escorts open the door for him, he walked in and they closed the door behind him before heading to their surveillance post in one of the empty nearby apartments.
While William found it strange that Megan wasn't the one who picked him up, or even came to see him for that matter, he was glad to be out of that hospital and back home. He headed into the living room and made his was towards the couch with the intention of doing nothing but laying back on it with his feed up and vegging out to some television while he soaked in the comfort of being in familiar territory once more. He started to sit down when he noticed the door to Megan's room partly open, normally it was closed when she wasn't home. Was she here after all?
“Hey Megan, are you home?” He called out as he made his was to the door. He waited a few seconds for a reply then he decided to peak in a little just to check things out. He opened the door and scanned across the room, not seeing anything out of place or amiss but something did catch his attention. On her bed was an open car magazine with a two page spread of a fancy looking classic car with a thick circle and the words “Mine-Mine-Mine” drawn around it. His curiosity peaked and he walked over to her bed to get a better look at it.
“Alpine A110 1300G...” William read out loud the text listed under the picture. “Not bad looking... kinda looks like an older version of the car she picked me up in... Buuut, maybe I shouldn't be lingering in here to much longer...”
As William turned to head towards the door, something else caught his attention. On her night stand was a journal that had something written on it's cover that caught his eye. “Project-E, Third Child Observation Report...” The weight of the realization of what the words he read meant fell under it's self and formed a pit in his stomach. Was this the only reason she wanted him here? So he could be some kind of lab rat? A feeling of outrage came over him and he flipped open the journal to it's first page and began reading what Megan had to say about him:
Tuesday August 25th, 2015
Sunny
Maj. Wilson Kennedy, head of NERV Intelligence and Security division, agreed with my plan to keep the Third Child under my supervision and has authorized a detachment to be stationed near my condominium to keep watch. The only opposition to the plan so far has been Dr. Rachel Ammadon, head chairperson of the Advanced Science and Research department, but so far it has been minor.
As planed he has moved in with me and is now occupying my guest bedroom. So far he seems to be adjusting as well as one could expect though he is still shaken about had has happened the night before.
I will continue my observation of him and report on his activities and any changes in behavior.
He flipped a couple of pages ahead.
Sunday August 30th, 2015
Sunny
The Third Child has so far seems to be having trouble adjusting to his combat training. I've tried to get him to open up to me about what may be wrong but he still remains distant. He will be start attending Ronald M. Crown middle school soon so hopefully his interaction with other children his age will help him adjust.
As always, I will continue my observation of him and report on his activities and any changes in behavior.
He flipped through a couple of more pages.
Monday, September 14th 2015
Cloudy
The Third Child got into a fight today with one of his fellow students, one Tito Valdez, age 14, who was accompanied by a Kennith Allison, also age 14. Security asked me if they should take any special precautions and I informed it would not be needed, it was simple a school yard scuffle and nothing to be concerned about...
William had read enough, “So... this is all I am to her after all.”
Tito's Apartment
5:52PM EDT
Tito sat on the side of his bed staring blankly out through his window as rain began to fall across the now empty skyline on the other side of it.
“Just two days ago I could see so many tall buildings from my window...”
…
“They were huge and armored and I can only imagine how long and hard they were to build... but now they're gone... just like that, it didn't even take that thing any effort at all... ”
Tito looked down at his lap and cupped his face.
“Why... Why can't I stop focusing on that thing? I just want to focus on my sister... focus on hanging out with my friend... my only friend that's still here... Why can't she wake up... why couldn't it be me in that hospital right now? What wasn't it my nose that got broke? Why did it have to be my city that this was happening in? Why is this even going on? What the hell are these things? Why the hell am I so helpless...”
He laid back onto his bed.
“Evas... Angels... it's like... it's like there's something terrible clawing away at the edge of reality... some great unrealness trying to force it's way into our lives...”
He spent a minute starring up at the ceiling trying to clear his head but none of this would leave it, something was nagging at him from the back of his mind. He turned his head to the side and looked at his cell phone he had charging on top of a small dresser he used as a nightstand and after some hesitation he finally grabbed it while at the same time pulling the number Kenny gave him earlier this day and dialed it. He then went to hit the send button but stopped and just stared at it before hitting the end button instead.
“I'm not ready... just not yet.”
Megan's Condominium
9:43PM EDT
Megan burst through the door excitedly while kicking off her boots just feeling great. There were few things more glorious to her then the calming feeling of coming home after a long day at work and to top it off, tomorrow she was going to first pick up her insurance check from her lawyer and then get herself a much needed new car! All in all she figured that this called for little celebration. She step round the bend and gave William a, “Hi William, I'm hoooome!” as she saw him sitting on the couch watching some TV. She then made her way to her room but stopped when William turned and looked at her with accusing eyes.
“Huh? What... is it? Need to talk about something?”
William got up and and started to speak but the words tripped over his tongue on the way out. Embarrassed he looked down.
“William, if you got something to ask me or say then say it.”
He clenched his right hand, looked up and forced it out, “All... all I am to you is some sort of lab rat? I'm just here so you can observe me?”
“Where... where did you get that idea from?” Megan replied confused over what this was about and more then a little annoyed. “And I was having such a good day...”
“Where did I get that idea from? Your little Third Child progress report, that's where!.” He answered while pointing towards her room.
“My... wh... What the hell were you doing snooping around in my room?!” She yelled, him going through her stuff is where she drew the line.
“I wasn't snooping around it! I saw you're room was open and... Wait, this isn't the point!”
“You're right, that isn't the point.” Megan said as she folded her arms, if this was the way he wanted it she was going to give it. “Well, I was going to wait till tomorrow before I brought this up to give you some time to recuperate but it seems you're all wiled up and ready to go right here and right now! Have a seat.”
“What?” William mutter in both confusion and anger over how this was turning out.
“I said HAVE A SEAT, NOW!”
Megan's tone had William dropping back onto the couch before he even realized had done so and afterwords Megan walked around to face him before continuing, “Ok William... we need to have a little talk about your actions the other day...”
Megan's Condominium
Monday, September 21st 2015
6:00AM EDT
Blaring pop music woke Megan from her sleep as her cell phone's alarm went off. He first instinct was to swipe a pillow at the foul machine that dared wake her from her slumber but before she could complete the act some higher part of her brain kicked in and reminded her that she really had to get up. The realization of why that was made her just want to climb right back to bed and sleep until she could postpone what she had to do till tomorrow... But deep down she knew she had to do it and with a begrudging moan she rose from her bed, rubbed the stiffness out of her almost fully recovered knee, slipped on her bunny slippers and made her way over to her charges room.
*Knock-Knock*
“William, can I come in?”
Megan waited a few seconds and after no reply came she knocked again then said, “William, come on now. It's been five whole days, you really need to get back to school now and get back to training too. Eva Unit 01 is almost fully repaired and it needs it's pilot.”
She wait a few more seconds and still no reply came, now she was getting mad.
“Ok William, I know this is only going to confirm how much of a big, bad monster I am to you but this has to stop. I'm coming and I'm going to drag back to school if I have to!”
She open the door to his room and found herself paradoxically both shocked and unsurprised as she found it empty both William and anything small enough for him to carry in his duffle bag. On his dresser he had left a note but she didn't need to read it to know what it said, it was plain to see. He had run away.
NEON GENESIS EVANGLION: To the Victor
Vol: 2 Self and Others
Chapter Four
Repercussions
NERV Open Gardens Food Court and Cafeteria, Main Pyramid Building A-12
Wednesday, September 16th 2015
6:28AM EDT
The early morning light painted a faint crimson glow through the large, vaulted windows of the food court. NERV personal filtered in and out as they grabbed a quick bite to eat from one of the many franchised and privately owned restaurants that lined it's west end before they started their shift or ended it or to just relax in the surprisingly large park that sat at it's center. Megan sat alone at a table on the upper balcony over looking the park with her uneaten breakfast left off to the side. Disquieted, she read over a letter laid out on the table before her for the eighth time hoping that somehow this will be the time that it's contents somehow magically transform its self into good news. Things have been stressful enough since yesterday already and this letter was not helping things. Her frustration began to turn into a headache and had long since exasperated the pain in her braced knee and her patience to deal with them both had run out. She folded up the letter and set it to the side then reached over into her purse, dug out a packet of Advil, leaned her head back, popped them in and washed them down with a swig from her water bottle. She then glanced over at her breakfast in a vain attempt to convince her stress addled stomach that it was hungry and noticed Rachel approaching with her usual morning meal of black tar.
“My, aren't we in a good mood today.” Rachel smirked, noticing her friends sour look as she set down her mug and took a seat. Megan just gave a slight shake her head in reply as she grabbed the letter between her index and middle finger and with a quick flip of her wrist presented it to Rachel who took it, glanced it over and quickly came to understand her friends mood.
“So we're going to be short on our replacement missiles I see.” Rachel said as she passed the letter back.
Megan sighed then replied, “Yeah, this is what we get for buying the lowest bidder and letting them outsource parts. Now Lockheed Boeing gets a shipment of gyroscopes not made to spec and we end up with less then a third of the SSA-23's we ordered. Of course on top of that we still got two weeks before our first shipment of heavy weapons for our Evas arrive, assuming nothing goes wrong with that order, and we can't get our only DEW prototype to get more then eight shots off before it's capacitor blow. Not to mention, lord knows when the next Angel is going to arrive... I'm surprised after the battle that they haven't decided to just put us out of misery already.” Megan then glanced towards Rachel, “Speaking of which, have the Magi figured out when we can expect our next visit?”
Rachel took a ship of her coffee and then set her mug down before answering, “Sadly no. We just haven't had enough Angels show up yet to try and guess at any pattern, if there even is one.”
“Great.”
“Oh, and speaking of the prototype; we're going to be running another in a few days. Lt. Commander Nicholson thinks she figured out why the capacitors are over heating, we just gotta run the test and see if she's right.”
“Hope she's right, could use some good news.” Megan said as the thought of the penitential for something good to happen gave her a little bit of an appetite back. She grabbed a piece of toast from her tray and ate a bite of it and then decided to see if she could maybe get a little more good news in, “So, how's the repairs on Unit 01 going?”
“Well outside of the hole through it's torso, most of the damage was rather minor. We also got lucky that the Angel's tendril didn't hit anything to vital when it made that hole, not a lot of structural damage either but still it's going to be at lest another week before it's up and running again.”
“A week huh? Well, let's cross our fingers and knock on wood that nothing eventful happens during that week.”
Rachel finished off her coffee and while she was anything but superstitious, she decided it was best to move thing on to another subject just to be safe. “How's William doing?”
Megan felt her self tense up as she heard Rachel ask that question, “He's doing fine, the hospital is releasing him this afternoon. I'm going to be busy though so I'm gonna have to have someone from his security detail pick him up.”
Megan's apprehension did not go unnoticed by her friend. “You shouldn't put this off Megan, you're gonna have to have a talk with him sooner or later before he gets himself killed, followed shortly there after by the rest of us.”
“I know and I'm not trying to put this off. I just don't think I should drop this on him right after he gets out of the hospital. I don't need to be in till the evening tomorrow so I'll have him take the day off from school and then I'll sit down and have our talk. That and it'll give me a chance to treat myself before hand, I think with everything that's going on I derive a little something.”
“Oh, what are getting?”
“Found out my lawyer called when I checked my messages last night. My insurance company finally agreed to settle and between that and what I've been saving up I got enough to make one hell of a down payment on a car I've wanting for a very long time now.”
Ronald M. Crown Municipal Middle School, Classroom 206
8:56AM EDT
Tito sat at his desk, leaned back and feet up, while looking across his now even emptier classroom. Since the Angel's attack the other day, what was left of the class had dropped down to less then half of what it was. Kenny and himself had spent most of yesterday seeing off four of their friends... the last four of them who had stayed. He looked over at Kenny and wondered how long before his family got smart and left, then who would he have? He then focused on Kenny's nose brace and the bandages, how was it he kept on coming out without a scratch while everyone else got hurt? Most people he figured would of counted themselves lucky but how could he if it came at the cost of everyone he cared about?
Kenny resisted the urge to scratch his braced nose as he got to work trying to finish his model of that “throne” thing they both rode on while inside the Eva while his memory of it was still fresh, NERV security had confiscated his tapes so that's all he had left to go by. He stopped and looked over his work as he noticed that his proportions seemed off and noticed Tito looking at him with guilt on his face.
“So Tito...Ummm, when do you want me to come over tonight so you can show me your new place? After all, I think with how well we dodged the bullet the other day we deserve a little party time.”
“Humm? Oh, yeah. Dude, I was half expecting to end up in one of those FEMA camps you talk about, never to be seen again and shit. Hell, we didn't even end up getting grounded, so yeah. No kidding. But ummmm, well I'm going to seeing my sister after school soooo... say six. Just to let you know man, there ain't much at the crib right now. We lost everything when our building got smashed and our insurance check just came in a few days ago so we've only had time to get the basics with the little extra cash that my dads work kicked to us. I'm mean I got bed and a computer and everything but not too many games and shit.”
“That's alright man, I can bring over some of my stuff. Hell, you can borrow it till you get everything worked out. Also I'll bring the snacks and the party favors. You're dad and grandpa ain't going to be home till late right?”
“Yeah, though the place still smells like new apartment so we're gonna have to toke it up outside.”
“No problem... Oh, and Tito, take this.” Kenny reached in and pulled out a small, folded piece of paper from his pocket and handed it to him.
“What's this?” Tito replied as he took it and began to unfold it.
“The pilots number.”
“What the fuck am I going to do with this?”
“Come on man, you don't need to keep that act up around me. I know how much you regret what you did. You don't need to go hold his dick or anything, just call him up and say you're sorry.”
“Say you're sorry...” Kenny word rang through Tito's mind as he looked down at the phone number. It wasn't that he wasn't right but... how could he? This was a double headed question, on one side he wanted to but what words could make up for knocking the shit out of him? Then on the other side there was his sister, how could he forgive someone who had a part in taking away everything from her but her life?
Just outside Lovely Suites Condominiums 17
3:12PM EDT
The NERV owned BMW G42 came to a stop just off from the condominium's front door and two black suited NERV agents stepped out from the car. One of them opened the curb side passenger door and William stepped out and followed them as they escorted him to the elevator and up to his floor. He walked up to the front door, held his “key” up to the door's sensor and heard it beep. One of his escorts open the door for him, he walked in and they closed the door behind him before heading to their surveillance post in one of the empty nearby apartments.
While William found it strange that Megan wasn't the one who picked him up, or even came to see him for that matter, he was glad to be out of that hospital and back home. He headed into the living room and made his was towards the couch with the intention of doing nothing but laying back on it with his feed up and vegging out to some television while he soaked in the comfort of being in familiar territory once more. He started to sit down when he noticed the door to Megan's room partly open, normally it was closed when she wasn't home. Was she here after all?
“Hey Megan, are you home?” He called out as he made his was to the door. He waited a few seconds for a reply then he decided to peak in a little just to check things out. He opened the door and scanned across the room, not seeing anything out of place or amiss but something did catch his attention. On her bed was an open car magazine with a two page spread of a fancy looking classic car with a thick circle and the words “Mine-Mine-Mine” drawn around it. His curiosity peaked and he walked over to her bed to get a better look at it.
“Alpine A110 1300G...” William read out loud the text listed under the picture. “Not bad looking... kinda looks like an older version of the car she picked me up in... Buuut, maybe I shouldn't be lingering in here to much longer...”
As William turned to head towards the door, something else caught his attention. On her night stand was a journal that had something written on it's cover that caught his eye. “Project-E, Third Child Observation Report...” The weight of the realization of what the words he read meant fell under it's self and formed a pit in his stomach. Was this the only reason she wanted him here? So he could be some kind of lab rat? A feeling of outrage came over him and he flipped open the journal to it's first page and began reading what Megan had to say about him:
Tuesday August 25th, 2015
Sunny
Maj. Wilson Kennedy, head of NERV Intelligence and Security division, agreed with my plan to keep the Third Child under my supervision and has authorized a detachment to be stationed near my condominium to keep watch. The only opposition to the plan so far has been Dr. Rachel Ammadon, head chairperson of the Advanced Science and Research department, but so far it has been minor.
As planed he has moved in with me and is now occupying my guest bedroom. So far he seems to be adjusting as well as one could expect though he is still shaken about had has happened the night before.
I will continue my observation of him and report on his activities and any changes in behavior.
He flipped a couple of pages ahead.
Sunday August 30th, 2015
Sunny
The Third Child has so far seems to be having trouble adjusting to his combat training. I've tried to get him to open up to me about what may be wrong but he still remains distant. He will be start attending Ronald M. Crown middle school soon so hopefully his interaction with other children his age will help him adjust.
As always, I will continue my observation of him and report on his activities and any changes in behavior.
He flipped through a couple of more pages.
Monday, September 14th 2015
Cloudy
The Third Child got into a fight today with one of his fellow students, one Tito Valdez, age 14, who was accompanied by a Kennith Allison, also age 14. Security asked me if they should take any special precautions and I informed it would not be needed, it was simple a school yard scuffle and nothing to be concerned about...
William had read enough, “So... this is all I am to her after all.”
Tito's Apartment
5:52PM EDT
Tito sat on the side of his bed staring blankly out through his window as rain began to fall across the now empty skyline on the other side of it.
“Just two days ago I could see so many tall buildings from my window...”
…
“They were huge and armored and I can only imagine how long and hard they were to build... but now they're gone... just like that, it didn't even take that thing any effort at all... ”
Tito looked down at his lap and cupped his face.
“Why... Why can't I stop focusing on that thing? I just want to focus on my sister... focus on hanging out with my friend... my only friend that's still here... Why can't she wake up... why couldn't it be me in that hospital right now? What wasn't it my nose that got broke? Why did it have to be my city that this was happening in? Why is this even going on? What the hell are these things? Why the hell am I so helpless...”
He laid back onto his bed.
“Evas... Angels... it's like... it's like there's something terrible clawing away at the edge of reality... some great unrealness trying to force it's way into our lives...”
He spent a minute starring up at the ceiling trying to clear his head but none of this would leave it, something was nagging at him from the back of his mind. He turned his head to the side and looked at his cell phone he had charging on top of a small dresser he used as a nightstand and after some hesitation he finally grabbed it while at the same time pulling the number Kenny gave him earlier this day and dialed it. He then went to hit the send button but stopped and just stared at it before hitting the end button instead.
“I'm not ready... just not yet.”
Megan's Condominium
9:43PM EDT
Megan burst through the door excitedly while kicking off her boots just feeling great. There were few things more glorious to her then the calming feeling of coming home after a long day at work and to top it off, tomorrow she was going to first pick up her insurance check from her lawyer and then get herself a much needed new car! All in all she figured that this called for little celebration. She step round the bend and gave William a, “Hi William, I'm hoooome!” as she saw him sitting on the couch watching some TV. She then made her way to her room but stopped when William turned and looked at her with accusing eyes.
“Huh? What... is it? Need to talk about something?”
William got up and and started to speak but the words tripped over his tongue on the way out. Embarrassed he looked down.
“William, if you got something to ask me or say then say it.”
He clenched his right hand, looked up and forced it out, “All... all I am to you is some sort of lab rat? I'm just here so you can observe me?”
“Where... where did you get that idea from?” Megan replied confused over what this was about and more then a little annoyed. “And I was having such a good day...”
“Where did I get that idea from? Your little Third Child progress report, that's where!.” He answered while pointing towards her room.
“My... wh... What the hell were you doing snooping around in my room?!” She yelled, him going through her stuff is where she drew the line.
“I wasn't snooping around it! I saw you're room was open and... Wait, this isn't the point!”
“You're right, that isn't the point.” Megan said as she folded her arms, if this was the way he wanted it she was going to give it. “Well, I was going to wait till tomorrow before I brought this up to give you some time to recuperate but it seems you're all wiled up and ready to go right here and right now! Have a seat.”
“What?” William mutter in both confusion and anger over how this was turning out.
“I said HAVE A SEAT, NOW!”
Megan's tone had William dropping back onto the couch before he even realized had done so and afterwords Megan walked around to face him before continuing, “Ok William... we need to have a little talk about your actions the other day...”
Megan's Condominium
Monday, September 21st 2015
6:00AM EDT
Blaring pop music woke Megan from her sleep as her cell phone's alarm went off. He first instinct was to swipe a pillow at the foul machine that dared wake her from her slumber but before she could complete the act some higher part of her brain kicked in and reminded her that she really had to get up. The realization of why that was made her just want to climb right back to bed and sleep until she could postpone what she had to do till tomorrow... But deep down she knew she had to do it and with a begrudging moan she rose from her bed, rubbed the stiffness out of her almost fully recovered knee, slipped on her bunny slippers and made her way over to her charges room.
*Knock-Knock*
“William, can I come in?”
Megan waited a few seconds and after no reply came she knocked again then said, “William, come on now. It's been five whole days, you really need to get back to school now and get back to training too. Eva Unit 01 is almost fully repaired and it needs it's pilot.”
She wait a few more seconds and still no reply came, now she was getting mad.
“Ok William, I know this is only going to confirm how much of a big, bad monster I am to you but this has to stop. I'm coming and I'm going to drag back to school if I have to!”
She open the door to his room and found herself paradoxically both shocked and unsurprised as she found it empty both William and anything small enough for him to carry in his duffle bag. On his dresser he had left a note but she didn't need to read it to know what it said, it was plain to see. He had run away.
"It is the Thunderbolt that steers the universe."~ Heraclitus
The people who voted for Obama or Romney are fucking idiots. Wake the fuck up.
"The Constitution was our last, best hope for peace... It failed. But, in the Year of the War against the Globalists, it became something greater: our last, best hope
The people who voted for Obama or Romney are fucking idiots. Wake the fuck up.
"The Constitution was our last, best hope for peace... It failed. But, in the Year of the War against the Globalists, it became something greater: our last, best hope
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