Inheritance of Light [Ultraman Tiga/Evangelion fusion-crossover]

[silentechy]

Very much inspired by @Thuktun F Leviathan. I am hoping to bring more elements of Ultraman Tiga and see how it can work with Evangelion.

Inheritance of Light

At the dawn of the 21st century, and nature was beginning to be restored to its original pristine state. The devastating second impact had ironically brought about a new era of peace as humanity sought to rebuild itself after the wake of the destruction. The promise of world peace, long-awaited by all living beings on this planet was finally becoming a reality. Soichiro Sawai, the UN Secretary-General, conducted a tour of all nations of the world urging them to join a new movement of worldwide armistice and peace in the aftermath of the second impact. In a time when racial strife was still rampant, Secretary-General Sawai's actions were widely thought to be idealistic at best. But Mr Sawai focused his wide-reaching efforts on the scientific community, stressing the need for mankind to move into a new era, and it was all the more necessary for the people of the world to stand together in order to rebuild human civilisation.

The end product of his effort was the Peace on Earth Coalition, TPC for short, an international organisation that works to protect the Earth from natural disasters and hazardous phenomena of unknown origins. They maintain bases of operations and research facilities all over the world. Their facilities also include a moon base and a space station. All these facilities operate under the direction of the Far East Command Center located in Japan. It was a hope that through these efforts, an event like the second impact would never happen again. However, all their hopes and dreams will be severely tested.



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Ten-year-old Shinji Ikari was lost. While on his school field trip to the Tohoku Region, Shinji had been separated from his classmate while they were hiking up the mountain trails. He had fallen asleep while the class was taking a break from the hike, and being the typically quiet and unassuming boy that he is, Shinji had been overlooked by his teacher and classmates.

This is my fault, Shinji thought to himself. All he could remember was falling asleep into a strange dream about a strange woman telling him about an ancient prophecy before waking up. When he woke up, he realised his class had moved on from their resting spot. Panicking, the boy began to shout for his class and teacher but to no avail. I really shouldn't fall asleep, Shinji blamed himself, I hope they have not ventured far. Picking up his pace, Shinji started climbing the steps of the mountain trails. Shinji hoped he would be able to find his class once he reached the end of the mountain trail.

As Shinji pushed forward on his journey, he found himself coming across a dangling rope bridge. While crossing the bridge, Shinji heard a faint whisper of a woman, calling out to him. Shinji. Shinji. Thinking it might be his teacher or his classmates calling out to him, Shinji looked around desperately hoping that someone will be nearby. Yet he could not locate a single soul near him.

Shinji. Shinji. The call of his name continues relentlessly as Shinji continues to look around for the source of the voice. As he turned his head towards the small river stream running along the mountain, he saw what looked like a golden pyramid in the distance. Wait, a pyramid in Japan? No one has ever mentioned Japan having a pyramid, Shinji thought.

Although Shinji was frightened of venturing off the mountain trail, curiosity got the better of him as he began to head towards the pyramid. It's not too far from the trail, and maybe his class would have come across the pyramid and might be in the area! As he came closer to the pyramid, the golden hue of the pyramid was unmistakable to Shinji. However, what was strange about the pyramid was that it was glowing as opposed to being merely painted in golden paint. Did the pyramids at Giza glow?

When Shinji finally reach the base of the pyramid, he looked up at it, estimating it to be over 60 meters in height. This pyramid is absolutely massive! Why did no one even mention this pyramid in school? Shinji reached out his hands towards the glowing pyramid, with its brightness being almost strong enough to bind a person. Yet when he stretches his hands hoping to touch the pyramid's surface, his hands simply felt like they were only touching thin air.

Strange, Shinji thought. It is almost as if there is no surface! Despite multiple attempts, his hands simply passed through the surface as if it was merely a mirage. The pyramid only seemed to glow brighter with each passing attempt of his, until Shinji decide to enter the Pyramid. Shinji waved his hands around as he entered as if he was feeling his way around a thick fog. The glow eventually subsided as he reached the main hall of the pyramid.

As he opened his eyes to look at what was inside the pyramid, Shinji saw three massive giant humanoid statues right in front of him. Each statue towered over fifty meters, and while the giants looked similar, they each have their own unique faces and head. Giant bubbling eyes aside, one of the giants looked as if it had an inverted horn on its head, another had what looked like a crown, and finally the last one had a sloped ridge on its head.

Shinji felt drawn toward the statue in the rear, as it seems like he had some connection to the giant. He climbed the steps leading up to the platform the giants were standing on, and slowly but carefully, he reached out his hands to touch the feet of the giant. As his fingers touched the stony surface of the giant, visions started entering his mind. Images of a lost ancient civilisation entered his mind, as if he was watching a film narrating its rise and decline over the course of its history.

The ancient civilisation had far surpassed the technology of our time, Shinji thought as he watched its history unfolding in front of him. Yet despite all of its advanced technology, this ancient civilisation was unable to defend itself against a constant onslaught of kaiju attacks. When all hope seemed lost, giant guardians similar to the statues that Shinji found defended this ancient civilisation. At that moment, the woman that Shinji had dreamt about earlier reappeared in his vision.

"I am Yuzare, the leader of an Earth defence force," the woman announced to Shinji, " the fact that you can hear me is a signal that the planet is once again about to be visited by a series of great catastrophes. The start of a second impact will mark the beginning of these events. Only the titan Tiga can save Earth from these catastrophes. After serving as the guardian of Earth, the titan was laid to rest in the pyramid of Tiga. Leaving behind his physical body, he returned to his original form as a being of light and returned to the nebula his people had come from. Shinji, you are called to raise this titan once again. There is but one way to resurrect this titan. You, Shinji must become light. The name of this titan is Ultraman Tiga!"

Just at that moment, Shinji blacked out.

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The first thing Shinji saw when he reopened his eyes was the look of his very concerned teacher Miss Hikari looking over him. "Oh thank goodness! You're awake!" The teacher cried as she hugged Shinji. "I am so sorry we lost you!"

Shinji looked around at his surrounding at what looked like a small local hospital ward. "When did I get here?" said a confused Shinji.

"We found you lying unconscious next to a small river stream. I am really sorry it took us so long to find you. I am so glad you're awake now!"

"Was I not inside a pyramid, Miss Hikari?"

"A pyramid?" replied a confused Hikari. "No, you were just on a small patch of the field right next to the river. You must be feeling so confused after suffering from dehydration! I believe this toy is yours, you were holding onto it when we found you." Hikari reached into her bag and handed over what looked like a small marble wrench to him.

Shinji received the device from her, and holding onto the device, he whispered, "So this is the sparklens…"

"Come again?" Hikari asked, not quite catching what Shinji had just said.

"It's nothing! I am just glad I am back, that's all" Shinji quickly answered. Little did Shinji know that his life and that of Earth will be transformed from that day onwards.

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Four Years Later



"Today At 12.30 Pm, a Special state of Emergency is being declared for the entire central Kanto Region, with the Tokai District at the Epicentre. All Resident Should quickly and calmly evacuate to their designated shelters. We repeat. At 12.30…" The announcement echoed throughout the train station as not a single soul bar a schoolboy was in sight.

"All phone lines are currently disabled due to the special state of Emergency…"

Shinji Ikari sighed as he hung up the public phone. The boy of fourteen in his school uniform stood outside of the train station in a nearly deserted city carrying nothing but a small backpack on his shoulders and holding onto a postcard of Major Misato Katsuragi, the person that was supposed to pick him up pictured in an all too revealing swimsuit.

"I shouldn't have come," Shinji muttered to himself and looked at his watch. Wandering around the deserted city, he hoped his chaperone will arrive soon. Perhaps I should look for a shelter soon if Misato is not going to be here on time, Shinji thought to himself. He had been summoned by his father to Tokyo 3, ten years since Shinji's father abandoned him at his uncle's house. After all this time, what in the world does he want from me?

As the sounds of fighter Jets' sonic boom echoed around the city, Shinji began to head towards the closest shelter. Just at that moment, an explosion suddenly rang loud in his ears. He turned around to locate the source of that noise when he saw a number of TPC VTOLs flying past the outskirts of the city, followed by what could only be described as a giant Kaiju.

Towering over forty meters, the giant monstrosity strolled past the city, with each step crumbling whatever man-made structures in its wake. Its presence only signalled one thing, the angels have returned, and it made landfall in Tohoku.

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NERV HQ, Tokyo 3

"Third Angel has made landfall in Tohoku, I repeat, Third Angel has made landfall in Tohoku." The announcement began ringing as footage of the angel in Tohoku started emerging onto the giant screens deep inside NERV HQ. Perched right at the top of the command centre stood two men looking at the screen.

"It's been fifteen years." Said Kozo Fuyutsuki, the more elderly of the two men.

"Yes, there is no doubt about it," replied Gendo Ikari, the younger bespectacled man, "it's an angel."

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Waves upon waves of explosion and shockwave smashed through the city, as TPC forces unleashed a missile barrage at the Angel. Despite the onslaught of explosives hurled toward the giant kaiju, the Angel seemed barely unaffected. The Angel, if one could be described as having human emotions, seemed mildly annoyed as it launches an energy blast at the TPC VTOLs, slicing a number of them into pieces. The Angel then leapt forward into the air, before landing one of its legs right beside Shinji. The resulting shockwave hurled Shinji back to the ground, shocked at how close the action was to him. Just when Shinji began to panic over where he should run towards, a zooming blue car stopped right in front of him and a woman opened the door.

"Sorry! Been waiting long?" Misato Katsuragi said cheekily as if she was unbothered by the chaos surrounding her. Shinji quickly got into the car, barely having time to recognise she was the person he had been waiting all this time. Not waiting any longer, Misato stepped hard on the gas pedal as she drove away from the action as quickly as possible.

As the car sped along the motorway towards Tokyo 3, Misato picked up her phone and started calling her superiors.

"Yes, not to worry. His protection has top priority Right, I am the one who said I would go meet him so I'm keeping my word. Bye." Said Misato while speaking on the phone before hanging it up. Turning to Shinji, Misato apologised, "Sorry I'm late!"

"N-no, I'm the one who was late…" Shinji replied as he turned behind to look at the ongoing onslaught against the kaiju.

"It looks like TPC's main battle tanks have been wiped out! No matter how many missiles and rounds they lob at that thing, they don't cause any significant damage." Said Misato observing the situation.

"So, um… what IS that thing?" Shinji asked.

"That thing… is an Angel," Misato answered.

"An Angel?"

"No time to go into the details, we need to get out of the battlefield as quickly as possible." Just at that moment, the giant kaiju seemed to have noticed the car and began chasing it. Stepping onto the pedestal, Misato attempted to speed up the car. In response, the kaiju began to leap into the air with the aim of crushing the tiny car.

Just at that moment, another giant humanoid creature charged and rammed its body onto the kaiju, sending it flying back a few city blocks. Dazed for a second, Shinji asked Misato, "Another one?"

"This one on our side!" Misato answered as she recognised the new arrival. "Okay, we got to get away from here as quickly as possible!"

As the two sped away, the two giants continued their clash. The giant being known as the angel began to use its weight to smash against the new incomer, causing it to fell flat to the ground. It then lift up the new humanoid figure and threw it into the air, sending it tumbling into a block of flats. The weight of the giant was too much to bear as the buildings were crushed underneath it.

"It looks like our guy is getting clobbered!" Shinji said.

Hearing Shinji's comments but choosing not to reply to him, Misato thought to herself, we knew this was going to happen! It is just too much of a burden for Rei right now.

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"Pilot's heart rate and blood pressure are dropping! Neural interface is down to 5 percent!" an operator announced.

"She is haemorrhaging through the chest plate seams!" another reported. " Three minutes and counting until Operation N2!"

"It can be helped, commence recovery at maximum speed through Route 192!" Gendo ordered.

The giant robot heeded the command as it crawled towards a platform located on one of the main streets. Once it had reached the platform, the platform opened up and a lift began to transport the robot beneath the ground of the city.

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Shinji had noticed all of the TPC forces had begun pulling back from the battle against the angel. "Looks like all the forces are retreating!" said Shinji.

"They won't… They are going to deploy the N2 Mine?!" she exclaimed as she realised what was going to happen and promptly barked at Shinji, "Get down!"

Before Shinji could say anything in response, a wave from the explosion rippled through the entire area, sending the car flying into the air.

"Ouch…" cried Shinji as he recovered from the knock in their upturned car. Unbuckling his seat belt, he turn towards Misato and quickly realised she was unconscious. He crawled out of the car to survey the damage. More than half of the city had been wiped clean in the blast. Surely the angel has been defeated?

As Shinji began to prod Misato hoping for her to wake up soon, a roar was heard as a silhouette began emerging from all the smoke from the blast. The angel! It is still alive? At that moment, Shinji knew what he had to do. Reaching into his bag, he reached out for the sparklens that he had always carried around with him ever since the incident four years ago. Standing and facing against the giant angel, Shinji activated the device as his entire body began to be engulfed in light.

The light of Shinji grew in size until it matches the size of the angel. Emerging from the light was a silver giant with purple and red stripes running along its body. Ultraman Tiga had arrived.



NERV HQ, Tokyo 3



"A second contact has been detected! No reading of any AT field in the new contact!" a personnel at NERV reported.

"What? It's not an angel?" Fuyutsuki asked.

"We are not sure, Sir. The new contact is an unknown titan of fifty-three meters in height, but MAGI is unable to derive any further information," Maya Ibuki answered.

"It looks like the titan is about to engage the angel!" Makoto Hyuga shouted.

Gendo, looking at the news footage of the titan, could not help but to bite his teeth in frustration. This is not going to his plan.

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Tokyo 3

The two towering titans were standing face to face with each other, with the new silver giant assuming a combat pose against the Angel. Easily a match for the Angel in size, it started charging towards the Angel. With a raised fist, the giant smashes it into the face of the Angel, sending it howling in paint. The AT field that had protected the Angel from weapons as powerful as an N2 Mine simply crumbled in face of the attack by the giant. Whatever protection the AT field had offered for the Angel, it simply was not working against this giant.

Before the Angel could react any further, the giant landed a kick toward its torso. Another hit, another failure of the AT field. The sheer momentum of the kick knocked the Angel to the ground, seemingly dazed.

Perhaps realising a need to respond to the attacks, Sachiel unleashed its energy lance and began swinging it at the giant. Luckily for Sachiel, one of its swings landed on the giant, sending it tumbling back. Seizing upon the chance, it tried to launch another strike at the giant. Yet despite its immense size, the giant could only be described as athletic as it calmly doges these attacks with side-flips. As the giant moves back beyond Sachiel's striking range, it raised both arms to its head and with a blink of an eye, the purple stripes along its body had all turned to red. The now red giant began charging towards Sachiel once again with an increased speed, and just when Sachiel attempted to strike at the giant with its lances again, the giant fended off the strikes with an energy shield around its body. The giant then body-slammed into Sachiel, sending the Angel to a flinch. Before the Angel can respond, the giant warped both of his hands around Sachiel's body with immense strength and lifted the massive Angel. Carrying it up from the ground, the giant slammed Sachiel into the ground, causing it to bellow in pain.

Shaken but not defeated, Sachiel once again stood up and grabbed hold of the giant. Unleashing its lance for yet another time, it managed to land a blow on the giant, causing the giant to flinch for the first time. At that moment, the blue light in the chest of the titan began to turn red and started blinking. The giant looked down at its chest, seemingly more wary about Sachiel. However, before Sachiel could take advantage, the giant managed to change the colour of its stripes to purple from Red. This change seemed to have granted the giant immense speed as it skilfully avoided Sachiel's strikes as if it was in slow motion. The giant then rolled away from Sachiel, keeping distance from the Angel. The giant then outstretches its arm, with energy seemingly gathering into one of its hands. It then unleashes the gathered energy and fires it towards Sachiel. The energy blast broke through Angel's shield just like how its physical attacks had brushed it aside, striking the very centre core of the Angel. The resulting energy was too much for the Angel to handle, as it exploded into million pieces.

The giant stared at the debris, seemingly happy that it had ensured no real damage to most of the city. The giant then raised both of its hands and leapt into the air and flew away from the battle scene.

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NERV HQ, Tokyo 3

"What just happened? Report!" Fuyutsuki demanded, looking shellshocked at just how quickly the event unfolded right before him.

"The Angel…it's gone, Sir," Maya answered.

"We've lost track of the new titan after it flew off! It just disappeared…," Shigeru Aoba added.

"This can't be right! The titan was able to defeat the Angel without an AT field!" said Ritsuko Akagi, chief scientist at NERV. "This goes against everything we knew about the Angels!"

Looking over the bedazzled crew at NERV, Gendo was not a happy man. The new titan had thrown a wrench into his plan.

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Tokyo 3

The first thing Misato saw when she reopened her eyes was Shinji staring right at her, looking extremely anxious and with eyes full of concern.

"Are you alright, Misato-san," Shinji asked.

"Ouch…I'm fine, my head hurts a little but I should be fine," Misato replied.

"Oh, that's good to hear! I think some military personnel are coming our way," said Shinji.

"That would be NERV personnel, actually." Said Misato. " What happened? Are you alright? Where is the Angel?"

"Another titan showed up and defeated the Angel that you mentioned, we should be safe now. I am quite alright, no injuries, I think."

"Another titan? But we have no spare pilot…? Never mind that, we can have a full debrief when we reach NERV headquarters. This is going to be a long day!"


NERV HQ

Misato and Shinji were riding in one of NERV's Humvees as the vehicle transversed the wrecked battlefield of the giant and the angel. Turning away from the scene of the battle, Shinji turned towards Misato and asked her, "Misato, what is NERV?" Shinji asked. While Shinji was familiar with the work done by TPC, he had never heard about NERV as an organisation.

"Right, it is a secret organisation directly attached to the TPC. It is our job to defeat the threat of the Angels."

"Angels? That was what you have been calling the kaiju, isn't it? I thought the TPC has already formed GUTS as an anti-Kaiju task force?"

"Angels are considered a sub-category of Kaiju. While GUTS is meant to deal with Kaiju attacks as a whole, NERV is specifically an organisation that deals with Angels." Misato answered. "Unlike most Kaijus, conventional weapons do not work at all against the Angels. Thus it requires NERV to specifically deal against the Angel threat."

"Is this where my father had been working this whole time?"

"Yup! Do you know what your father was doing?"

"A teacher told me he had an important job of protecting humanity." Said Shinji, as his thoughts trailed to his childhood when he was all but abandoned by his father. "Am I supposed to do something here? Otherwise, he won't call me to come."

"Well, you will soon find out! We're here!" said Misato as the vehicle drove onto a platform at the entrance of the base. Once the vehicle was parked steadily on the platform, clamps held onto the wheel as the vehicle was being slowly lowered underground via an escalator. Shinji began to look out of the vehicle once again as the dull panels alongside the escalator eventually gave way to a magnificent scenery. What could only be described as an entire underground city appeared before Shinji's eyes.

"Oh Wow! That's Geo-front!"

"That's right, over there is our secret base, NERV headquarters! The key to rebuilding the world!" Misato exclaimed. She then turned to her bag and took out a file labelled NERV and top-secret for Shinji to read. "Here, read through this, okay?"

"Welcome to NERV…? That is my father's life work…" Shinji said quietly as he began to digest all the information and history of the organisation.

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Inside NERV, a gathering of individuals from the organisation known as SEELE gathered in a meeting. While SEELE was the primary funding body and organisation behind NERV, they officially do not exist. Instead, each SEELE member was all officials of TPC in some category tasked with various oversight roles in the organisation. This enabled SEELE to advance their interest with minimum interference from Inspector-General Sawai of TPC and the rest of TPC's upper brass. However, none of the members was physically present in the meeting, instead, they were all communicating via holograms. Each member was represented by a colour underneath the hologram, Red, Green, White, Yellow and Blue.

"This is making us look like fools, Ikari," said Green. "The Angels have returned and our Evangelions were made to look like a redundant piece of hardware in front of this new giant."

"Not only did Unit 00 fare badly in the fight, but you also failed to even deploy Unit 01 in time for combat," said Blue.

While Gendo was irked by the criticisms, none of his expressions nor his mannerism betrayed his thoughts. "I understand. While the performance of Unit 00 and its pilot was clearly disappointing, there were ample time for Unit 01 to be deployed before the Angel came anywhere close to Geofront," Gendo replied as calmly as he could.

"This is not good enough, our standings within TPC have suffered immensely with your failures. Our entire investment in the EVA project is being questioned. We have many members at TPC wanting to fold NERV under the command of GUTS, given that they no longer believe a need for two separate anti-kaiju task forces." Yellow added in response.

"Regardless of the fact that the new giant was able to defeat the Angel's AT field, the battle did demonstrate TPC's conventional forces to be inadequate against the Angel. Until TPC or GUTS is able to develop anti-Angel weapons of their own, I do believe NERV's existence is justified." Gendo replied.

"Be that as it may, Ikari, we will need results from your operation soon." Said Green.

"You are lucky the damage to Unit 00 and Tokyo 3 was limited, otherwise it would be hard to justify the price tag for your operations!" said Red.
"Price tag aside, let's not forget our main focus for this meeting, gentlemen," said Keel Lorenz, who was the chairman of the entire committee. "The appearance of the giant."

"The dead sea scrolls give no mention of a giant being able to combat the Angels!" said Green in frustration, "that is going to severely complicate our plans for the Human Instrumentality Project!"

"I concur! The project needs to remain on schedule," said Yellow, "the project is humanity's only hope."

"Find all information regarding the giant, Ikari. Nothing must stand in the way of our project," Keel Lorenz commanded.

"Understood," Gendo replied. All of the SEELE members then vanished leaving Gendo alone to contemplate his thoughts.

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Somewhere in space

A small meteorite that had been drifting in space for aeons suddenly began to change course. Flying across space at immense speed, its trajectory began to shift until it had a final destination in its course. Earth.

A small piece of Earth's history is coming home.

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TPC Far Eastern headquarters, Japan
Dive Hangar

Just off the coast of Tokyo, an immense structure began to rise from the surface. Shaped akin to a pyramid, this was the Dive Hangar. Acting as the headquarters of the Far Eastern division of TPC, it is also the primary office of the current TPC Secretary-General, Soichiro Sawai. In addition, it is also the main base of operation for the GLOBAL UNLIMITED TASKFORCE, nicknamed GUTS for short. Made up of seven elite members, GUTS is a specially formed division of TPC that specialises in the investigation of paranormal phenomena. All Kaiju incidents and attacks aside from that of the Angels were under the jurisdiction of GUTS.

One by one, members of GUTS reported to the main GUTS command room wearing their distinctive white uniforms. A recent asteroid impact in Japan had caught their attention, more specifically what was contained within it. The unusual composition of the asteroid, with an indication that it is hollow and contained something inside it had warranted the attention of GUTS. The entire team were all seated behind Professor Reiko Kashimura, who was carefully cutting the asteroid apart with a laser cutter. Soon, the small asteroid was split in half, revealing what looks like a cone-shaped metallic object beneath it.

"This is no natural meteorite. It's synthetic," Professor Kashimura declared.

"What? Really?" Masami Horii exclaimed. Horii was the Kansai-dialect speaking chief scientist in GUTS, who had been nicknamed the "brains of GUTS" and was responsible for the invention of multiple equipment and mecha in use by GUTS.

The team carefully remove the asteroid's outer layer from the device and placed the cone shaped object on their main analytical desk Suddenly, before anyone was able to inspect the device any further, the lights in the room dimmed and a small opening in the device opened, revealing what looks like a projector. A silver-haired woman had appeared in the middle of the room as a hologram.

"It looks like it is saying something," said Horii. "we may be able to make sense of it with the sound translator!" Running across the room, Horri called out another member of GUTS, "Yazumi, please input the audio into the computer mainframe."

"Understood," said Jun Yazumi, the young eighteen-year-old computer genius on the team.

The garbled audio gradually became clearer as the computer was able to decipher the language. "I am Yuzare, the leader of an Earth defence force," Yuzare announced, "the fact that you have received this message meant the ancient titan Ultraman Tiga has been revived. The titan was once the guardian of mankind thirty million years ago when mankind was threatened by a series of catastrophic events. Once again, the cycle will repeat itself with a new wave of catastrophe. Not only will mankind face the threats of the Angels, but other ancient forces will also once again threaten humanity. Only with the help of Ultraman Tiga will humanity stand a chance in this upcoming war."

"This is long before humanity ever existed!" Horii remarked, not sure what to believe.

"That means we have to accept the idea that there was once an ancient civilisation with technology far surpassing our own," Professor Kashimura added.

As the room devolved into a series of debates and arguments over the nature of the message, the voice from Yuzare announced to the team, "I can answer your questions." This shocked everyone at the table, being surprised that the hologram can answer them.

"Aren't you just a hologram," Rena Yanase asked, the ace pilot on the GUTS team.

"This is a hologram, but one instilled with artificial intelligence," Yuzare replied calmly. "The meteorite will provide you with radioactive elements to show it has originated from a stratum of Earth from somewhere between 38,000,000 to 25,000,000 of your current human years ago."

"This is in the third period of the Cenozoic era!" said Horii.

"If your civilisation was so advanced, what happened to all of you anyway?" Megumi Iruma, the captain of GUTS asked.

"Some perished, while others left for distant shores," said Yuzare with a sad tint in her voice. "In order to revive mankind once again, some of our scientists created the seeds of life project to ensure humanity will once again evolve on this planet. They created a primordial being known as Lilith that will eventually give birth to the rise of humans once again."

"I believe that is the LCL theory that has been advanced by some, most notably those at NERV?" GUTS Vice Captain Seiichi Munakata said to Iruma.

Acknowledging her vice-captain's points, Iruma asked, "What about the Angels? How are they connected to your civilisation and humanity?"

"The Angels are the product of mankind's folly, in our attempt to match the powers of Ultramen for our own purposes. One of our scientists, Adam, sought to become a being of immense power by becoming a primordial being much like Lilith. With the seed of life, he sought to create a new race of beings known as the angels to surpass humanity. Corrupted by power, he sought to destroy humanity. We managed to stop him by placing him in suspended animation. However, his progenies will eventually seek him out to revive him and carry on his project of genocide. It is up to you, my descendants to stop him." Said Yuzare as a matter of fact.

"What about the ancient titans? Even they were not able to protect you?" Tetsuo Shinjoh asked, another member of GUTS.

"Ultramen never interfere in the decisions of man because they are beings of light," Yuzare answered. With that said, Yuzare vanished, and the cone-shaped device shut down on its own.

"Well, that is just convenient," Ryoji Kaji the last and final member of GUTS remarked sarcastically.

Iruma remained rooted to her chair as she quietly digested all the information. After being deep in thought for a minute, Iruma announced to her GUTS team, "I will pass all the information to Inspector-General Sawai. We will need to be prepared for an upcoming fight against all sorts of threats if what this message said is true. You will all have to be ready!"

"Understood!" All the GUTS members said in response.

[silentechy]

NERV HQ

What could only be described as a giant humanoid head stared down at Shinji. The head easily being the size of a small house gave Shinji a hint of its immense size. While the head was visible, the rest of the humanoid body was beneath a pool of liquid. Yet, despite its gargantuan features, Shinji was not entirely surprised by its size. He had after all, seen the Ultramen statues when he was younger. The giant humanoid robot in front of him brought a sense of familiarity to Shinji. It was almost as if someone was attempting to copy the Ultramen, Shinji thought to himself. A very pale imitation.

"This is the ultimate multipurpose decisive combat weapon system created by man. The Artificial Human Evangelion!" Doctor Ritsuko Akagi proudly announced. "Unit 01 of the series." She added, "this is mankind's very last trump card."

"Is this what my father had been working on all this time?" Shinji asked, thinking about all the years his father had abandoned him because of 'work'.

"Correct," a voice replied, echoing around the entire facility. Looking up towards the origin of that voice, Shinji saw a man standing above them on a platform. Wearing an unmistakable pair of glasses, Shinji knew who that man was. His father, Gendo Ikari. "It's been a while, son," said Gendo with none of the warmth you would expect from a father calling his son. The man was attempting to intimidate his own son with his presence.

"Father…" The words barely left Shinji's mouth as he struggled to acknowledge the man that was supposed to be his father. The man who had abandoned his own son because his work was more important than him. Shinji felt a wave of complex emotions overcoming him as he stared back at Gendo. Anger? Yes. Frustration and disappointment? That as well. However, being intimidated was not one of them. However, Shinji managed to keep most of his emotions well hidden.

Gendo on the other hand quietly smirked with the expression Shinji was giving him. I have him cornered, he thought.

"Why have you sent for me, father?" Shinji asked back at his father, attempting to make the exchange as cold as it possibly could with his father.
"For the reason that you are thinking."

"You want me to get inside this thing and fight kaijus?" Shinji asked, with a small hint of sarcasm in his voice. "Me, a fourteen-year-old boy?"

"Correct."

"What if I don't want to do that? I thought you left me because you didn't need me?" Shinji continued his cold exchange with his father.

Misato was quietly observing the exchange between the father and the son, noting that the boy was responding as if he was someone carrying the weight of the world on his shoulder.

"I do now, so I sent for you," Gendo replied, as he started to notice the boy no longer carried the sense of vulnerability and shyness that Shinji once had when he was younger. This is going to be interesting, Gendo thought.

"Why me?"

"Because it's impossible for anyone else."

It's not the first time I heard such words, Shinji thought to himself. His father's words echoed Yuzare's own words about him becoming Ultraman Tiga. It seems like this is my fate, destined to be the special chosen one again and again.

"Then what about the other pilot?" Shinji asked as he remembered another similar looking Evangelion had already battled the Angel.
Gendo was a little surprised that his son had caught his small lie, even if all the clues were right before him. Attentive. That was unexpected.

"Show him the other pilot," Gendo responded, remarking at the giant screen beside him. One of the several panels on the green switched from focusing on Shinji to show an image of a heavily bandaged girl lying on the hospital bed.

Shinji gritted his teeth at the image being shown. Not only was the girl heavily injured, but he could also see for himself how young she is. She's my age, he thought to himself. Shinji sighed, now realising that he never had any real options in the first place. I can't let anyone else be hurt on my behalf.

"I'll do it. I'll be the pilot!" Shinji said after all his consideration.

======================================\*/========================================
There was a distinct sense of discomfort as Shinji sat in the entry plug, waiting to be lowered into Evangelion 01. It was the sense of being trapped on a broken rollercoaster ride, feeling helpless while you await all the mechanics to get the whole ride moving. The so-called plug suit did not help things either, as the skintight suit made the feeling of constriction even worse for Shinji.

Slowly, the entry plug was inserted into the neck of Unit One, and the noise of the mechanical clamps can be heard as it was being locked into the Evangelion.

"Flooding entry plug," an unidentified voice can be heard as Shinji awaited what could come next.

"Huh? What is this stuff?" Shinji exclaimed as he start to feel his feet becoming wet. Looking down at the floor of the entry plug, he noticed a form of liquid was rapidly rising to his height. I am going to drown, he thought, as he began to hold his breath.

"Don't worry, once your lungs are filled with LCL, it will feed oxygen directly into your bloodstream. You'll get used to it in no time." Ritsuko announced to him. Shinji, no longer able to hold his breath, relaxed upon hearing Ritsuko's words and opened his mouth, allowing the liquid to completely envelop him.

"This is so gross," Shinji muttered.

"Deal with it! You're a big boy!" Misato exclaimed over the intercom. Shinji could only smile warily at her response.

"Main power connections complete!"

"Feeding power to all circuits"

"Initiating level two contact!"

Amongst all the clutter of voice on the intercom, Shinji started noticing all of his surroundings had begun to light up. A warm glow of light had completely engulfed the entire entry plug, sparking a sense of familiar feeling for Shinji. It felt as if the light itself was calling out to him.

"Opening bilateral circuit." Maya Ibuki announced from her cubical at the command centre. Looking closer at the pilot status screen, she began to read the various information being presented to her.

"Synchronisation ratio climbing…forty percent…fifty percent…sixty…eighty…ninety…and still climbing!" Maya exclaimed as the rest of the command staff gathered around the status screen. "One hundred! And still climbing!"

"This is getting into dangerous territory! The Eva will become berserk at this rate! Shut it down" Misato shouted in panic while being confused about how Shinji managed to achieve such a ratio in his first attempt at piloting an Eva.

Inside the entry plug, all Shinji could feel was the light becoming increasingly bright with a growing sense of warmth. I want to become one with it, Shinji thought to himself as he can feel his body merging with the entire Evangelion. Then all of a sudden, everything turned to black as all power was cut off in Unit One. Shinji blacked out.

NERV Medical Wing

The first thing Shinji saw when he opened his eyes was an unfamiliar ceiling in front of him. I don't know this ceiling, he thought to himself, It looks like I am in a hospital. Shinji groggily sit upright and surveyed his surroundings. It was devoid of any soul, with only the blips on the medical devices attached to him being the only sound in the room.

Just at that moment, the door of the room opened. Misato, with a very relieved face, entered the room. "Thank goodness you're awake", Misato exclaimed.

"What happened?" Shinji asked as he tries to recall the events before he woke up in a hospital bed.

Misato pulling a chair to sit beside Shinji, sat down and answered, "You blacked out during the sync ratio test. It was getting into dangerous territory, and we had to pull the plug on the test."

"Sync ratio…?"

"Your synchronisation rate with the Evangelion unit. The higher it is, the better control you have over it." Misato replied.

"And mine was getting too high?"

"You were achieving over a hundred percent sync rate. Climb any higher and we would have lost you to the Evangelion unit."

"You mean merged," said Shinji, seeking clarification on what had happened to him.

"Yes. We've lost people to such process over the years." Misato replied carefully.

"What is going to happen to me know? Am I to go back to the Uncle if I can't pilot the Eva unit?" Shinji asked, feeling as if he would be thrown away by his father once again just because his father might deem him useless.

"Doctor Ritsuko is working on figuring out what went wrong when you were inside Unit One. In the meantime, you are going to stay in Tokyo-3."

"Am I going to get a room or bunk inside NERV?" Shinji asked.

"Don't be silly! You are going to be my new roommate!" Misato answered cheekily with a wink of her eye.

"Wait, what?" Shinji exclaimed, his face turning red as Misato started hugging Shinji.

"I've been appointed your new legal guardian. Vice-commander Fuyutsuki already let us know about your issue with your father. So, I figured I should step in given that I've more than enough space at my apartment!" Misato answered happily, as if she felt that this was akin to having a sleepover party. Looking at Shinji's surprised face, she added with a pout, "unless you aren't happy about the arrangement?"

"No, I'm fine with it!" an embarrassed Shinji answered her.

"That's decided then! Once you've been discharged, we are going to do some shopping!" said Misato with a huge grin on her face.

"What for?"

"Party for my new roommate, of course!"

======================================\*/========================================
Gendo's Office

Seated in a dimly lit room was the three most senior personnel at NERV. Gendo was seated in front of his desk facing Fuyutsuki and Ritsuko.
"What went wrong with the pilot?" Gendo asked in a matter-of-fact tone, seemingly not too concerned about the welfare of Shinji.

"We don't know for sure. All diagnostic of Unit 01 suggests no malfunction of the equipment. Which would suggest the issue is with the pilot. The medical team have performed a full check up on the third child. Nothing extraordinary can be found despite extensive examination," Ritsuko replied, as she reached into her pocket to grab a cigarette.

"It seems that nothing is really wrong with the third child nor with Unit 01. Instead, the problem is everything seemed to be working too well," Fututsuki added with a heavy emphasis at the end of his sentence.

"Nevertheless, the high sync ratio would mean Unit 01 would potentially be uncontrollable in the hands of the third child. It brings an element of chaos," said Gendo, with a small hint of frustration in his voice hidden beneath his impassive face. "Also, that means we are potentially left with the first child as the only available pilot."

"Who remains incapacitated for the next few months. Time we cannot afford to waste in case of another Angel attack," Fuyutsuki continued Gendo's line of thought.

"It is…theoretically possible we can artificially suppress the sync ratio between the third child and Unit 01. It would severely limit the performance of the Unit and create a whole list of secondary issues, but the unit should be capable of basic combat operations." Ritsuko opined as she started smoking her joint.

"How long would that take?" Gendo asked.

"Months. Weeks at best if we focus our entire operations on making such modifications."

"Get to it. I will ensure you have all the necessary resources to ensure the modifications can be done as soon as possible," Gendo answered her.
"What are we going to do in the meantime, in case of another angel attack?" Fuyutsuki asked.

"I've made a request for the second child and Unit 02 to be transferred over to Japan early. In the meantime, the superiors at TPC have decided that GUTS will support NERV in Angel operations, with a view towards more joint-operation between the two branches in the future."

"GUTS? They are a paranormal phenomenon branch, they have no heavy weapons to speak off against most kaiju, much less against Angels." Fuyutsuki retorted, feeling annoyed that NERV's operations were being undermined by a rival branch.

"There have been rumours that TPC HQ wants to equip GUTS mecha with weaponry. I would not be surprised if we will get news of such confirmation soon." Gendo replied before turning to Ritsuko. "I hope you understand why the modifications to Unit 01 need to be completed as soon as possible, if NERV is to retain its current influence within TPC."

"Understood," Ritsuko replied.

"Alright, you're all dismissed."

======================================\*/========================================

Mining Site, Kurara Island

Mining had been an ongoing activity on Kurara Island for generations, going as far back as the Edo period. The caverns not only contained various rare earth materials necessary for modern industries, but they used to contain a vast ecosystem full of diverse animals living within the caves. For a long time, various myths and stories formed a major part of local folklore and culture. However, in recent years, intense mining from companies has all but damaged the region's ecosystem, leaving nothing alive in the caverns but humans and their machinery.
Okubo Kazuhiro had been working in the mines for most of his life. The master hewer was climbing his way down the mines after hearing reports of his junior hewers reporting issues down the mines. Sighing to himself, he hoped that this was just a minor issue that can be tackled easily. He was due to depart for his holidays tomorrow and hoped to be able to leave the mines early today to pack his luggage. As he reached his junior hewers, he saw them crowding around some pieces of rocks. "What's going on here? Do you have problems with your equipment?"

"Senpai, the rock formations in this region had been particularly unstable. Despite our best attempts at excavating this part of the caves, the rock formations seemed to have shifted every time we returned from our shifts." A junior miner reported to him.

"Shifted?"

"Yes. Some have been saying it's the work for Gakuma…" the junior miner answered warily.

"Don't be superstitious! Gakuma is just a myth" another of his colleagues rebuked him.

Before Kazuhiro was able to say anything on the matter, the mines started shaking with tremendous force. "Earthquake!" Some shouted as the miners ran for cover. As the shaking continued, various chunks of the rocks started breaking apart. Being an experienced miner, Kazuhiro spotted a gap opening along with one of the walls of the cave. As he looked closer, he noticed what looked like a pair of giant yellow eyes staring back at him. It cannot be, Kazuhiro thought as his mind recalled the various stories he had heard as a child. Stories described a kaiju with big yellow eyes and a great horn called Gakuma. The image was enough to terrify the experienced miner as he back off as quickly as he could from the opening. "Ga…Gakuma!" He cried out with a great sense of panic and fear. "Gakuma!"

The miners around him heard his shout as they looked at what Kazuhiro was looking at. The image terrified them in equal regards as they began to echo Kazuhiro's own cries. "Gakuma! Run!" The miners began to pick up their pace as they rushed towards the exit lift. Continuing their cries as their voice echoed throughout the mines, fear filled the caverns. "Gakuma is after us!"

Despite their best attempts at fleeing, the source of the tremors caught up with them. A blinding blue flash of ray shined onto the miners. The pain began to pierce their skins, with the protection equipment being of little help to them. Before long, all the miners had stopped moving. Their bodies stood rooted into the ground, embedded within the caverns. The miners had turned to stone.

======================================\*/========================================

GUTS HQ, Dive Hangar

Seated around the round meeting table inside GUTS headquarters were Captain Iruma, Yazumi and TPC Chief of Staff Masayuki Nahara as they analysed the battle site between the Angel and Ultraman Tiga in Tokyo-3. "These are the surveillance photo taken of the site from above. Neither radar nor heat-sensors were able to detect any signs of this Ultraman Tiga after the battle. It was as if he just disappeared entirely after the battle," Iruma reported to Nahara.

"No sign at all?" Nahara enquired.

"None. The staff at NERV were not having any luck either tracking down the giant," Iruma replied. Before she could speak any further, a message-call appeared on their screen. The message bearing a unique TPC logo, indicated it could only come from one person. The Inspector-General of TPC was calling. Yazumi quickly picked up the call and displayed the caller on the screen, Inspector-General Saiwai appeared in front of them.

"This is a priority-one announcement. The TPC council and I are granting GUTS to conduct combat operations against Kaiju, including Angels." Sawai announced to Iruma.

"But GUTS isn't at all prepared to directly combat kaiju!" Iruma replied, surprised at the sudden announcement.

"I understand. However, given the recent appearance of the Angel in Tokyo-3, as well as the operational issues that NERV continued to face, we all feel it is necessary to ensure GUTS will be able to respond to any major paranormal threats. In addition, I would need you to retrofit GUTS vehicles with weaponry for battle." Saiwai answered, before turning to Nahara, "I need you to get on this immediately, Nahara."

"Yes, Sir." Nahara responded, nodding his head and turning to Yazumi.

Yazumi, understanding his response, picked up the GUTS communication speaker and announced, "All members report to the control room. All members report to the control room." It is now time for GUTS to be ready for combat.

======================================\*/========================================

Misato's apartment

Shinji stood amazed as he entered Misato's abode. If it could even be described as such.

"I know it's a little cluttered, but don't let it bother you," Misato said with her characterised happy voice, seeming unbothered at the absolute mess she left behind in the house.

"She calls this…a little?" Shinji muttered, astounded by the beer cans laying all over the living room, bottles of opened alcohol completely filling up the table and bags of trash left lying around the place.

"Sorry, could you put the groceries in the fridge?" Misato asked, peeking her head out from the bathroom.

"Yeah…sure," Shinji replied as he walked around the room looking for the fridge. Noticing the room have two fridges, Shinji decided to open the smaller fridge first. What was inside the fridge further amazed Shinji as he started to better understand what sort of person Misato was. Beer. Some snacks. Ice. More Beer. I am starting to feel like I might be living with an alcoholic, Shinji mused. Shinji turned towards the other refrigerator, hoping to find more space to place the groceries. Opening the fridge, he almost had a heart attack when he saw what was inside. A very grumpy and annoyed Penguin.

"Wark!" The Penguin replied to Shinji, sounding as if he was telling him off for waking him up.

Quickly slamming the door of the refrigerator shut, Shinji shouted for Misato, "Misato-san! There's something inside your fridge!"

"Oh him? Don't worry about it. He's a new hot-spring penguin, Pen-Pen. My other roommate!"

Shinji felt he could faint from the ridiculous nature of it all…

======================================\*/========================================

TPC field HQ, Kurara Island

A bunch of miners crowded around the small tent acting as the TPC field HQ for the local branch of TPC investigators. Amongst the murmurs of the miners, a feeling of anger and tension was shared between them. One of the miners shouted at one of the TPC officers with an air of desperation, "What's the point of you even being here If you can't explain what is going on?!"

"Please be patient, we are still investigating." The poor TPC officer acting as the crowd-control officer responded.

"What we are saying is at least tell us what's happening in there." one miner added.

"We've lost men, you know!" another shouted.

Inside the tent acting as the field headquarters, dozens of computers and all sorts of advancement equipment occupied most of the floor space. Uyeda Koki, the local TPC branch director sat with other members of his team as they stared at the screens monitoring for life-signs in beneath the mines. "Nothing there? That's impossible" Koki answered over the radio as he continued to monitor the screen. "We're reading the strongest life signs from that area. There may be something embedded within the stone."

"Roger," the squad leader of the field investigation team answered. Carrying torches and heavy field gear on the team's backs, the team had yet to encounter anything that could be deemed unusual despite the hearsay of the miners. Turning to his team, he asked, "You two."

"Yes sir?"

"Head over there." The field leader point towards a small opening, supposedly the last known location of the missing miners. The two squad members, carrying their scanning equipment, headed deeper into the caves.

Back above the ground, Koki stepped out of the tent as he attempted to answer the questions the miners had. The miners, upon seeing this, crowded around him and started asking all sorts of questions. "Director! So what is all of this?" a miner asked.

Koki, attempting to put the miners at ease, replied, "Please be patient, everyone. The investigation is still underway."

One of the miners, his voice full of disappointment said, "They must all be dead. All turned to stone by Gakuma."

"Gakuma?" Koki asked.

Before the miners could respond further, an angry shout was heard, "What is going on? No hanging around when there's work to be done!" Wearing the distinct grey supervisor jacket, the man was red and fuming as he approached the crowd.

Koki, seeking more clarification, asked the supervisor, "What is this Gakuma I heard about?"

A miner responded to him, "This very Kurara Island is home to Gakuma, a kaiju that creates stones."

"That's enough of that!" the supervisor rebuked the miner before turning to Koki, "I don't know what brought you here, but this is no business for the TPC." He then turned around facing the miner and said, " And you, this story about Gakuma is all lies! And it--"

"Gakuma truly does exist!" another miner interrupted him.

"Yes, it does!" the rest of the miners agreed.

"Nonsense! What a pathetic excuse to get out of work!" the supervisor responded, his voice fuming.

"No, we're not lying!" the miners cried out angrily.

Beneath the caves, one of the TPC team started noticing his scanner pinging as it detected more life signs in the vicinity. He turned around and asked his colleague, "hey, I've picked up something."

"What is it?" the other member responded. However, before a reply could be given, the ground started shaking and a cry was heard. The two TPC members looked up towards the source of the cry as they saw another member of their team grabbed by what could only be described as a giant claw.

"Harada!" one of them shouted as he ran towards his teammate. Unfortunately for him, a blinding light flashed in front of him when he approached the spot where Harada was taken. He was turning into stone.

The last surviving member of the team, shocked at what happened in front of him, started running for his dear life. Stumbling as he tried to escape, he noticed a pair of giant yellow eyes staring right back at him. He dropped his equipment as he climbed back up, picking up his pace as he hoped to survive what he just saw.

Koki, on the other hand, was curious as he heard more stories from the miners about the kaiju. "A stone-eating monster?" he asked.

"Yes. Humans mined too deeply, leaving no animals for Gakuma to prey on," one of the miners answered him, "then to top it off, men mined out the stone stockpiles Gakuma had stored up. Gakuma got angry and finally began to attack human-"

"Who are you to play innocent?" the supervisor rudely interrupted the miner. "You're human too. How would you make your living if not by mining?"

Just as the miners were about to respond, someone shouted, "Hey!"

The crowd turned towards the shout and saw two men carrying a heavily injured TPC squad member back to the campsite.

"Are you okay?" Koki asked. "Hang in there!" Members of the TPC team rushed to their injured teammate, trying their best to keep the man awake and conscious. Koki, worried about what had happened, asked," What happened? Where are the others?"

"A kaiju," the man panted, "a kaiju turned them all to stone!"

Upon hearing this, the miners murmured amongst themselves. "Gakuma! I knew Gakuma is real!"

TPC HQ, Dive Hangar

Off the coast of the Boso peninsular in Japan, massive waves parted as an impressive structure began rising from the sea. The Dive Hangar was an impressive sight as it rose from the sea as if it was the mythological lost city of Atlantis. Aside from acting as the Far Eastern headquarters of TPC, it also acted as the main office and residence of the current TPC general-secretary Soichiro Sawai. The pyramid-looking structure was an engineering marvel that contained the most advanced technologies known to mankind, rivalling Geo-front as a base of operations. Constructed by the TPC in the aftermath of the second impact, the building housed not only the senior staff of TPC, but also a wide range of leading scientists and engineers. It aims to gather the leading minds of humanity together in one location as humanity sought to rebuild itself from the devastation of the second impact. As a result of Sawai's push for humanity's advancement to be driven by science, the Dive Hangar stood as the physical embodiment of humanity's future.

As the Dive Hangar stood fully risen from the surface of the sea, a landing platform was extended, allowing the passengers of the NERV VTOL to disembark. One by one, Fuyutsuki, Ritsuko and Misato disembarked from the aircraft. The trio had been invited to TPC as part of the discussions regarding the future of NERV operations and its future partnership with GUTS. Misato can almost taste the sea breeze blowing in the air as she walked alongside the catwalk from the landing platform. Misato had been mixed about the meeting with GUTS. On one hand, she was excited to work with the various personnel at GUTS, including Rena who she knew beforehand, but that also meant she will be meeting Kaji once again. Her other two colleagues at NERV were much less enthusiastic about the upcoming meeting, as they both feel that GUTS is intruding on their turf as a rival branch.

The trio were escorted by TPC security personnel towards one of the many meeting rooms at Dive Hangar. Misato was feeling thankful for them, as without them she would be lost inside the base for hours given that she was never good with directions to begin with.

"Inside, please," a TPC security personnel said as he ushered them into the meeting room. Seated on one side of the table were GUTS Captain Iruma, her vice-captain Munakata, GUTS ace-pilot Rena Yanase, as well as Shinjoh and lastly Kaji. NERV had already been informed that two GUTS members, Horii and Yazumi would not be present in an earlier email as they were busy modifying the GUTS vehicles with weaponry. The trio from NERV took their seats opposite GUTS as they took out their respective files and documents for the meeting.

"Thank you for making the journey here, vice-commander Fuyutsuki, Dr Ritsuko and Major Katsuragi. I hope your journey has been pleasant," Captain Iruma greeted their peers from NERV with a warm smile.

"Thank you, the journey was pleasant enough. The Dive Hangar remains an impressive sight every time I visited!" Fuyutsuki laughed as he greeted Iruma on behalf of his colleagues. "However, there remains much to discuss today."

"Indeed, lets' get down to business, shall we?" Iruma responded as she began the meeting. "Now, TPC has requested that both GUTS and NERV are to cooperate on joint operations against Kaiju threats. We are here to discuss how both branches can work smoothly together against such threats for the benefit of humanity."

"Yes, indeed. We at NERV welcome the support of GUTS in our operations against the Angel threat," Fuyutsuki answered back, not entirely convincing in his words. "The scientific expertise of GUTS would be especially welcomed."

"We here at GUTS would be more than happy to oblige, however, there are issues that go beyond GUTS providing scientific support," Iruma replied as professionally as she could, noting Fuyutsuki's pointed comments. That wily old fox is clearly trying to ensure GUTS operations remain limited to science, she thought.

"You are talking about field operations?" Ritsuko remarked cooly, clearly wanting to get to the main point of contention of the meeting. "With respect to GUTS, you guys have been mostly limited to search-and-rescue operations. You've had no real experience against kaiju."

"The same can be said about NERV," Munkata interjected, "while you had your first operations against the Angel in Tokyo-three recently, the angel was disposed of by an external force."

"The key difference being we at NERV had at the least the weaponry to neutralise the Angel threat," Ritusko replied.

"And GUTS are being equipped with weaponry as we speak. Horii is working hard at adapting the GUTS-Wings with the latest weaponry," Rena added.

"From a safety viewpoint, won't it be better to create new vehicles from scratch?" Misato interjected.

"We could never create anything superior to the GUTS-Wings," Rena responded, "its range and speed remain unrivalled by any other vehicle in existence."

"Not to mention, aren't NERV's Eva pretty much limited in range to Tokyo-three?" Kaji added, prompting Misato to send him a glare.

"Eva's operational area can be extended beyond Tokyo-three via aerial support, but its combat ability will be limited by its internal battery," Misato clarified.

"Unfortunately, reports on kaiju sightings extend far beyond Tokyo-three. While I am inclined to believe NERV's report that the Angel threat remains confined to the Tokyo-three area, there is a need to ensure a response can be deployed to other areas in sufficient time." Said Iruma, trying to shift the conversation back on topic.

"You are right, Captain Iruma. While NERV can assure TPC that we remain well-equipped to deal with the Angels, our operational range remains limited." Fuyutsuki responded in kind.

"Vice-commander, I can assure you GUTS have no interest in stepping on NERV's jurisdiction in Tokyo-three," Iruma replied, "we will only act in support of NERV in regard to the Angels."

"Thank you, Captain."

"Captain, perhaps I have a solution that will please both task forces?" Shinjoh asked, turning towards Iruma.

"Go ahead."

"The ability of the GUTS-Wings to be deployed to almost any territory in Japan and East Asia in a quick amount of time means GUTS can function as a rapid response unit in the event of an emergency. We can buy time before NERV deploys its Eva unit in the event a kaiju attack occurs outside of Tokyo-three."

"NERV would act as the heavy support element?" Misato asked, seeking clarification.

"Correct."

"That is a proposal I can accept. It will avoid having the two branches stepping on each other's toes," said Fuyutsuki, entertaining the idea.

"I am glad that is acceptable for you. I am thinking, in the interest of facilitating our operations, that a GUTS officer be attached to NERV as a liaison? That way, when NERV do request support from GUTS, we can ensure smooth operation?" Iruma asked.

"I find that acceptable. Do you have a candidate in mind?"

"I will request officer Ryoji Kaji be attached to NERV, if that is acceptable?" Iruma replied, giving Misato a shock when she heard his name.

"I am fine with it. We will be pleased to welcome you, officer Kaji to NERV." Said Fuyutsuki as he rose from his chair to offer a handshake to Kaji.
======================================\*/========================================


NERV HQ

"Good morning, Shinji-kun. How are you feeling?" Ritsuko asked over the intercoms as Shinji sat inside the entry plug for the second time since the disastrous first attempt at syncing with the Eva. Over the past few weeks, Ritsuko and the team at NERV had been busy implementing all sorts of safeguards to ensure Shinji's sync rate will not go into dangerous territory. The sync rate inhibitor, as called by those at NERV, would ensure Sync rate with the Eva will be limited to no more than fifty percent. However, aside from limiting the combat effectiveness of Unit One, it came with all sorts of other downsides.

"I'm fine. I am used to it now," Shinji responded, unwilling to betray the fact that the plug suit felt extremely uncomfortable.

"Good. Now listen, because of the inhibitors we've implemented in Unit One, we will not be able to communicate nor monitor you once we've started the synchronisation process. So do remember what we have discussed about controlling Unit One." Ritsuko replied.

"I understand, I will proceed with the movement as we have practised in the simulator," Shinji replied.

"Good. We are now initiating level two contact." Ritsuko said, before turning to the operations team and nodding at them.

Maya, monitoring the screens as usual announced, "Opening bilateral circuit!" Once again, the screens on the command centre began displaying the sync rate between Unit One and her pilot. "Synchronisation ratio climbing…twenty percent…thirty…forty…activating inhibitor…Fifty! And…holding! The inhibitor is working as reported!" Maya exclaimed with a massive sigh of relief shared by everyone at the command centre.

The eyes of Unit One glowed, showing that Shinji is now in full control of the Eva without any major problems. The massive humanoid began raising its arms and picked up a huge gun that was equivalent to its size. As the Evangelion began pressing the trigger, no actual bullet left the gun. Instead of shooting at real Angels, Shinji was merely shooting holographic rounds at the simulated target. After a few minutes of simulated combat, Unit One began to lower the weapon indicating it had completed the simulated training.

Ritsuko watching the success of her project, smiled. Unit One is now ready for operations.

======================================\*/========================================
TPC field HQ, Kurara Island

Despite protests from many members of the staff at TPC, Sawai had personally ventured to the mines at Kurara Island. Although he had spent years of his life in politics, Sawai was always a scientist at heart. In his younger years, he had spent his time as a paranormal investigator, helping unveil many aspects of science that were often cast aside as conspiracy nonsense. As such, Sawai remained deeply committed to ensuring no one was left unturned when it comes to any news about the paranormal. Stepping out from his personal TPC VTOL, Sawai wearing his unmistakable purple TPC suit approached the TPC outpost that had been set up on Kurara Island.

Koki, the local TPC branch commander, ran up and greeted Sawai. "Thank you for coming, Sir," Koki said as he took off his cap and bowed.

"What's the situation?" Sawai replied, eager to assess the local situation.

"Sir, three miners and three of our investigators are missing," Koki reported as he walked with Sawai to meet the miners.

The miners delighted that their concern was addressed by the TPC secretary-general himself, gathered around the TPC tent and around Sawai. Sawai, seeing the crowd that had gathered around him, asked, "Have any of you actually seen this Gakuma?"

One of the older miners eagerly responded, "Yes. It's a large stone-like kaiju. With one big horn!"

Another miner, tapping his friend and remarked at him, "old pal, are you blind? Gakuma has two horns!"

"Right! It has two!" another miner joined in the conversation.

"What are you talking about? Gakuma has one horn!" Other miners began to come to the defence of the first miner who spoke up.

As the crowd began a debate amongst themselves over what the kaiju looked like, Sawai turned to his subordinate and asked, "So no one has actually seen it?"

"No, Sir," Koki answered. Sawai sighed as he look at the crowd. This is going to be a longer day than I hoped.

======================================\*/========================================
Tokyo-3 High School

Shinji chuckled to himself as the school bell rang. Despite a whirlwind of events the past few weeks, Shinji was still expected to go to school. It felt surreal to him that after the battle against the Angel and spending weeks doing all sorts of tests at the top-secret NERV base, life had continued as if nothing had changed at all. Well, almost nothing, Shinji thought as he looked at the half-empty classroom.

The parents of many of his classmates at school had deemed Tokyo-three too dangerous after the Angel attack. Despite the fact that the city remained one of the most fortified cities on Earth, many of the parents had decided to take their chance elsewhere. Soon there will not be any place that is considered safe, Shinji thought, Yuzare had mentioned that kaijus will soon appear in almost every corner of Earth. Ignorance is bliss. Shinji looked around for an empty seat as the students began taking their seats for class. Finding an unoccupied table in the corner of the room, Shinji sat down and unpacked his bag.

Shinji looked around at his classmates as he took in his new surroundings. One of the boys, a bespectacled one, was playing with a toy model of a GUTS-Wing while filming it with his camera. A girl, with an air of authority around her, came up to the boy and said, "Do grow up, Aida-kun. Aren't you getting too old to be playing around with toy planes?"

Kensuke Aida looked up at who was speaking, smiled with a hint of embarrassment and replied, "First, it's a model, not a toy. Second, it's not just a plane, it's GUTS-WING 01! I'm going fly one when I'm qualified to join GUTS!"

"Huh, you're still obsessed about GUTS aren't you?"

"It's a family tradition! One of my cousins is an officer of GUTS!" Aida defended indignantly.

"Family or not, you need top marks to enter GUTS, marks that you've yet to earn," Hikari Horaki said with some resignation before adding, "Did you deliver the study guides like I asked?"

Aida, scratched his head as he gave another embarrassed smile back at HIkari "Yeah, I did. Toji said he will be coming back to class today actually!"

"Koji has been discharged?" Hikari asked.

"Yes, his injuries weren't severe to begin with. The doctors just wanted to perform some additional check-ups on him," Aida replied. "Oh, and here comes the devil!" He waved towards a boy coming into class wearing a black tracksuit.

The boy, Toji Suzuhara, sat down on a table beside Aida before exclaiming, "Well damn. Looks like there's a lot fewer of us left."

"Welcome back," said Aida, "They've all transferred out. No one wants to be around another huge battle again. How are you feeling?"

"Better, but my injuries weren't severe to begin with. Have you been able to find out more about the silver giant?" Toji asked his friend.

"Silver giant?" Hikari questioned, her eyes blinking.

"The giant who saved mine and my sister's life from the Angel," Toji answered, "we would be buried under a rubble if not for the giant."

"The news said the Angel was defeated by the robots of NERV, there's no mention of a silver giant anywhere," said Hikari.

"Of course, that's what they want people to think. They don't want people to say their taxpayers' money has been wasted," Aida remarked smugly. "Actual eyewitness to the battle like Toji here knows better. Although I've some insider information saying they'll release more information soon!"

"My old man and uncle are keeping their mouths sewn shut about the incident as well," Toji replied.

"Maybe we can ask the new pilot at NERV?" Aida remarked, his face turning towards Shinji. Shinji, realising eyes were upon him, turned away from them and stared at the windows.

"Wait, him? Isn't he the new transfer student?" said Toji.

"It's all too coincidental, isn't it? There's a lot of talk about the new pilot and in comes the new student right around the time those rumours began," Toji said in a hushed voice.

Luckily for Shinji, before anyone could ask him any questions, the teacher arrived. It was a long history lesson as the teacher droned on about the second impact and the formation of TPC. His talk of how humanity had overcome this great trial and how TPC had ushered in a new scientific age with humanity now developing technologies that will enable them to expand into new worlds had only vaguely interested Shinji as he continued to stare outside his window. "This is how we are now in a new era of genuine idealism and intellectual curiosity. Some have begun calling this age the 'Neo Frontier Age'…" said the teacher as Shinji remained deep in thought. What makes me qualified to become Ultraman Tiga? Why me?

Before long, the bell finally rang as the class came to a close. Before he knew it, a small crowd gathered around him and began asking him all sorts of questions.

"Are you the new pilot?" Aida asked with much enthusiasm, "what's is it like to pilot the robot?"

"How did you get selected?"

"What weapons does the robot have?"

Shinji answered their questions one by one, as best as he could until Toji asked him a question. "If you ever meet the silver giant, do thank him for saving my sister and me. We won't be alive without him."

Shinji betraying none of the information that he was the silver giant in question, answered Toji and said he would indeed pass the thanks to the silver giant if he ever met him again. Deep down, Shinji was feeling nice about the compliment. It's good to be appreciated.


======================================\*/========================================

*Kensuke Aida's cousin is in fact a member of GUTS. Namely Tetsuo Shinjoh. In Ultraman Tiga, Shinjoh had a kid cousin that wanted to join GUTS. I thought we might as well make Kensuke that cousin in this universe, given he would have a desire to be part of GUTS in a world where GUTS were the ultimate "cool" team to join.

NERV HQ, Gendo's office

The two senior commanders of NERV were seated around a table playing a round of Go as they discussed their conundrums with TPC.

"So, the brass at TPC wants us to be deployed to Kurara Island?" Gendo asked as he placed another piece of white stone onto the board.

Fuyutsuki carefully studied the Go board, and satisfied that it was not a threatening move, replied, "Yes. The ongoing investigation at Kurara Island does suggest that a kaiju might be active in the area. And given that GUTS' vehicles are still undergoing modifications, they want NERV to deploy one of our EVA units to the area as a precaution."

"And what do you think?" Gendo asked as he watched Fuyutsuki carefully place his black stone on the board.

"It is very risky on our part. The First child remains incapacitated for the time being, and while Ritsuko managed to get Unit one working with the second child, this meant we have to deploy our only working Eva unit to the Island while Tokyo-three remains undefended," Fuyutsuki replied with a small strain in his voice.

Gendo looked up and him and raised an eyebrow, "but?"

Fuyutsuki continued his speech, "but given that the brass felt that NERV had not performed as well as expected against the third Angel, they expect us to prove our worth against the kaiju on Kurara Island."

Gendo reaching into his pile of stones picked one and placed another white piece on the board. "In the meantime, Tokyo-three could be subjected to another Angel attack at any time. The next Angel would not wait for another twenty-one years to launch its attack."

Fuyutsuki studied the board again, starting to see the moves Gendo was making. He placed his piece onto the board, hoping to stall Gendo's attacking move. "That is our main concern. With the expectations that NERV will have to deploy our Eva units outside of Tokyo-three, even having two units in Japan will not be sufficient."

Gendo placed his next stone onto the board, seemingly confident and assured of his move. "I've already made arrangements for the second child and Unit three to be deployed early to Japan as a response. That way, we can ensure we have two units in reserve at Tokyo-three even if one of the Evas is deployed outside of the city."

Fuyutsuki blinked hard at the board as he desperately sought a wave out of the moves Gendo was making. Feeling cornered, he played his only possible move on the board. "That early? Those in Germany aren't going to be too happy about it."

"They don't have a say. TPC has given us full authority over the entire Eva project in return for us providing support to GUTS." Gendo discussed calmly, seemingly as though the fact that NERV had become one of the most powerful organisations in the entire human instrumentality project did not warrant a major cause of celebration for the people at NERV. It seems that Gendo's latest powerplay was no different to him playing his new stone piece. Before Fuyutsuki could study the board to find out what moves Gendo had made, Gendo got up from his seat picking up his mug as he went towards the exit. "And Fuyutsuki? Make sure the brass don't ever question the performance of our Eva again." Fuyutsuki looked back down at the Go board. Gendo had won the game, leaving Fuyutsuki with no options left to break out of his encirclement.

======================================\*/========================================

Tokyo-three Airbase

The airbase was in a flurry of activities as mechanics and all sorts of flight operation crews were busy sorting out the mess involved in transferring the Eva Unit One onto the biggest military cargo plane known to man. While the plane was impressive for its size, almost every inch of space was being filled up not just by the Eva unit, but also by all of its accessories. Shinji watched the impressive operation with Misato by his side. "Wow," that was the only word he could say as he was amazed by the operation. Turning to Misato, he said, "You've still not told me where we are going, but as far as I can tell, I am not going to anywhere near Tokyo-three."

"Sorry Shinji-kun, the classified nature of the job means I can't reveal it to you until now, but we are going to Kurara Island." Misato was very apologetic when she answered him.

"Kurara Island…? That's in the southwest archipelago. Isn't it?" Shinji asked, curious about what could be going on down there. I was a mere mining town based on what he had read up about the area.

"The TPC investigation and intelligence department have spent several weeks trying to verify the existence of a kaiju in the area," Misato replied as she walked with Shinji to the boarding gate.

"I guess they want me there as a precaution?" Said Shinji, now having a much clearer picture of his little "holiday" trip. Shinji having never left the main islands of Japan, was actually a little excited to travel to the other islands, even if it was not a holiday destination Island like Okinawa or Hokkaido.

"Yes, but only as a last resort. While your performance in the simulation has been nothing short of perfect, this is going to be your first attempt at a real combat operation. Are you feeling fine about all this Shinji?" Misato clarified and asked with concern. She had hoped Shinji can be spared from getting entangled in such fights at his age, but orders were orders and no one else could pilot the Eva. How she wished anyone could pilot these Eva but children. The science simply disagreed with such a notion.

Shinji smiled back at Misato and said, "I am fine, I am as prepared as I could ever be." It's not exactly my first fight, he thought, but Misato shouldn't be knowing this.

"You should read the report file on the Kaiju, code-name Gakuma after the local legends," Misato said as she handed over a file to Shinji.
Shinji read the file as they travelled along the travellator. "There's all sort of confusion about the kaiju. It can't even decide whether it had one or two horns!" Shinji was a little annoyed by the relatively poor research file that has been done on this kaiju. It seems most of the information was supplied by common folklore with very little scientific knowledge that can be applied.

"That's what happens when you deal with the paranormal. You have to assume you are lacking a lot of knowledge and react as you go on," a man's voice added to the quiet halls of the airbase. The man, a good-looking man in his early thirties greeted Shinji with a charming smile. His all-white uniform with red stripes revealed his identity as a GUTS officer, and the name of his back spelt out his name in the English alphabet as Kaji. Turning to Misato, he smiled at her and asked, "Miss me yet?"

"Not at all," Misato said grumpily, hinting to Shinji that the two people in front of him had some history together. Picking up her voice very reluctantly, she introduced the man, "This is Kaji Ryoji, GUTS officer and current attaché to NERV."

"Oh please to meet you, Mr Ryoji," Shinji greeted and bowed towards the man.

"Just call me Kaji, I'm not a fan of formalities," The man smirked. "I heard you have been living with Katsuragi?"

"Yes," Shinji replied, not exactly sure how he should read this man before him.

"She used to flop around in her sleep. Does she still do that?"

Misato on hearing those words, her face turned as red as an apple, and all sort of panic can be read from her expression alone "What are you talking about?!" Misato exclaimed at the top of her lungs.

Kaji smirked at her response and said to Shinji, "I take It she hasn't changed at all, has she? Shinji Ikari?"

"Um…no. How do you know my name, if I may ask?"

"Why won't I? You're the pilot that managed to achieve over a hundred percent sync ratio on his first try! A very impressive feat that spreads quickly in our circle," Kaji informed him.

Shinji, embarrassed about all the compliments he is getting, said, "I'm just lucky, I guess."

"Luck is a part of destiny. You have a gift, pure and simple." Shinji did not know what to say to that in response. "Now, we need to get boarding before the brass starts wondering where did our pilot go." Kaij smiled once again and he led the pair onto the massive transport craft to take their seats.

The giant cargo plane, starting its engines with a massive blast of sound, started taxiing as it approached the runway. With the approval of those in the air control tower, the massive aircraft took to the sky with its giant cargo and its pilot towards Kurara Island.

======================================\*/========================================
TPC field HQ, Kurara Island

What was once a small field headquarters consisting of nothing more than a few TPC investigators had become a hive of activity with hundreds of TPC staff and many other members of NERV undertaking various tasks. While the NERV personnel were busy setting up Unit 01 ready for combat, TPC crews had been busy laying underground explosives, mines and all sorts of advanced scanning equipment to detect the kaiju underneath the mines.

Shinji was surprised to meet Secretary-General Sawai, who had largely been in charge of the whole area. Sawai had a natural air of humility around him, being able to connect with all sorts of workers regardless of their rank. The man had been very impressive based on what Shinji had read about him, the figure who almost singlehandedly pull humanity from its depressed and demoralised state after the second impact and ushered in a new year of peace and prosperity as humanity worked together for a greater future. Shinji could not help but be impressed by this man. Sawai was the symbol of hope for humanity.

Which unfortunately for Shinji, meant he was at a near-complete loss for words when Sawai came up and spoke to him. "I am very pleased to meet you, young Shinji-Ikari," Sawai spoke with a smile and with warmth in his voice.

Trying his best to pick up words and give a response, "Thank you…sir! I am very happy to meet you to Secretary-General Sawai sir!"
Sawai smiled at the boy, aware that his presence had intimated the boy, "You can call me Souichiro if you like. You are doing too much for humanity at such a young age to be calling me Sir. OR you can call my Oji-san if you want." Sawai chuckled, hoping to put the boy more at ease.

"Is Mr Sawai acceptable?" Shinji was almost whispering as he replied.

"That is fine. And I guess you are fine with me calling you Shinji-kun?" Sawai asked in return.

"Yes sir!" Shinji's almost militaristic salute at his reply had brought a chuckle from Sawai.

Sawai bent down and put his hands around Shinji's shoulders. "You are very brave to become the pilot for the Evangelion, Shinji-kun. It is asking a lot from you and the other children to do so much for humanity. If it was possible, we would never have let you children be the pilot defending humanity. But alas, there simply aren't any other solutions. I hope in the future GUTS will do all they can to support you and your fellow pilots. Do know this. You are not alone in this fight. The whole of humanity is fighting with you, supporting you in every way we can."

Shinji felt grateful to hear those words. He had always felt a sense of being alone all his life, after his mother's death and his abandonment by his father. But here was someone who is the de facto leader of humanity. The great Souichiro Sawai had brought humanity out of darkness telling him how proud he was and that everyone was supporting and cheering him on. For the first time in a long, long time, Shinji felt connected to people.


Sawai had been called back to the field HQ as several TPC officers reported several unusual readings on their scanners. Entering the tent and looking at the readings Koki had pointed to him. One of the screens had indicated something large with body heat was rapidly moving underground. Large was an understatement judging by the scale of the creature. It dwarfs even the largest sauropod dinosaur known to man. This was the kaiju.

The ground was trembling as the staff inside the tent evacuated it and went out to see the source of the commotions. Sawai turned behind once he exited the tent and saw one of the hills starting to cave in. Amongst the rubble and debris that covered the area, something huge was emerging/ Crawled out would be the better word, Sawai thought. The beast walked on four legs, seemingly covered entirely in stone with bright yellow eyes and a great yellow horn at the front of its face. It looked almost Rhino-like, if Rhino had the mouth of a carnivore and massive stone spikes on its back. Oh, and it was nearly fifty to sixty meters long. This thing was big.

Luckily for all the personnel and members of TPC and NERV, the kaiju had emerged at quite a distance away. However, they were close enough for the kaiju to inspire fear amongst most of them as they ran to their respective tasks. Whether they were scared or not, they had a job to do. Shinji quickly ran towards his Eva Unit One and got ready to enter the entry plug.

Misato ran up to him just as he was about to enter and gave him words of advice and caution. "Listen Shinji, once you are inside and synced, we will have no way to communicate or monitor you until we can extract you from the entry plug. So remember your training. You are ready."

Shinji nodded as he entered the entry plug, and before long the entry plug was inserted into the neck of the Eva and remained firmly securely. With the wires finishing charging the Eva, it rose from his sitting position and roared at Gakuma.

Gakuma, hearing the noise of a challenge, turned towards Unit One and roared back. However, before it could advance far, an explosion filled the ground that Gakuma had stepped on. TPC personnel had been busy laying remotely detonated mines along the suspected path of Gakuma. The immense explosion sent rocks flying into the air as debris as a wave of cloud hindered the view from the ground. As the smoke began to clear, it showed that the explosion did nothing to the kaiju. Not even a scratch.

[silentechy]

======================================\*/========================================

Dive Hangar, GUTS HQ

Iruma had kept her GUTS PDS close at hand due to the investigations at Kurara Island. She knew GUTS needed to be deployed at any moment once TPC have confirmation of the kaiju. Just as she was walking to her office inside the Dive Hangar, her DPS began blipping and she took it out to answer it, already knowing who was calling on the other side. To no surprise, it was Secretary-General Sawai. "All GUTS members, please depart immediately." Iruma knew the time for action had arrived.

Rushing to the flight facility and control room at Dive Hangar, Iruma looked at her colleagues and informed them that with authority that the GUTS-WINGS needed to be deployed. "This is an emergency. There is no time to waste."

Professor Reiko, who had been in charge of the GUTS' Mecha and their conversion into combat vehicles, feel anxious as she tried to give an adequate answer to Iruma, "Impossible. You said it's an emergency, but the GUTS-Wings are still in pieces. Can't you wait until the reconstruction is completed?"

Rena, seeing everyone's frustration, came up to Iruma and said, "They are not completed, but if one ship is enough…"

"Stay out of this." Reiko rebuked her.

Horii, who had been seated deep in his work, rose from the chair and said, "It will be fine!" Turning towards Iruma, he said, "And we've replaced the signal flares with laser cannons."

Iruma, feeling relieved that at least one vehicle is ready, thanked Horii, "Thank goodness. Please deploy it"

"It still hasn't been tested." Reiko pleaded.

"I'll pilot it. I am sure it will work." Rena replied to the crowd with a look of fierce determination and confidence. She was the best pilot at GUTS after all.

With those words, Iruma gave the approval, and the launch bay crew began getting ready GUTS-Wing 01 for deployment. The yellow-painted VTOL betrayed its initial origins as a search and rescue vehicle before it was armed as a fighter jet. GUTS had decided to retain its original colour scheme as they had felt their mission in search and recuse was always their primary objective. They might be tasked with fighting Kaiju, but their role is to always ensure the safety of civilians first.

Rena and vice-captain Munataka were seated in GUTS-Wing 01 as it began its launch operations. "GUTS-Wing 01 preparing for take-off. The G-force might be a little intense," Rena announced as the plane was slowly being lifted up into the launch bay. Once it was in place, the fighter panel of the Dive Hangar opened. Rena started the engine as both of the engine exhausts located at the back of the wing of the plane began to glow and pump out exhaust air. The GUTS-Wing accelerated to flight speed in barely a second as it took off from the Dive Hangar.

Rena pulled the plane up as it began to climb to the stratosphere. While Rena had been used to pulling high-G manoeuvres all her life, Munataka seated at the back of the plane could only murmur to himself "Only a little?" as the full weight of the G-Force blasted on his face. The GUTS-WING was on its way.

======================================\*/========================================

TPC field HQ, Kurara Island

The explosions rocked most of the mines, but it seemed it had only managed to rile up Gakuma even more as it increased its pace and charged towards Unit One. Shinji brought up the massive Pallet Rifle and aimed toward the kaiju. Without much hesitation, Shinji pressed the trigger as the automatic rifle unloaded rounds after rounds at the kaiju. However, none of the rounds seemed to have penetrated the skin armour of the Kaiju. Maybe it is really made of rock, Shinji thought. Gakuma, now even more mad, galloped towards Unit One.

Shinji understood this was now a matter of close combat if his rifle was useless. Throwing the rifle down on the floor, Shinji raised the arms of Unit One as it attempted to catch the charge of Gakuma. Gakuma, with the full force of its weight, slammed into Unit One and push the giant back by several meters. Shinji, straining the controls to push Gakuma back, used one of the Eva's hands to repeated punched the now exposed underbelly of the kaiju. This seemed to have worked as the belly of the kaiju was far less protected than the rest of its body.

Gakuma howled as it retreated. Crawling back to a standstill, the creature roared once again. Shinji took the respite to take out his progressive knife that was contained inside the left shoulder pylon of his Eva. Called prog knife for short, the blades of the knife vibrated at a high frequency, allowing its edges to cut through nearly any target on Angel and Kaiju alike. Griping the blade with two arms, Unit One lunged at Gakuma like a Samurai with his sword. The sharpness of the blade worked as intended, slicing through the stone armour of Gakuma and leaving it with scars all over the body.

The Kaiju twisted and turn as it attempted to deflect the blows of the knife with its body armour. Luckily for Gakuma, it was able to send the knife flying from Unit One's hand as its grip was not secured as Shinji thought. The Kaiju, instead of charging at Shinji once again, opened his mouth. A blue beam shot out of the kaiju's mouth as Shinji moved the several thousand tons Unit One away from the line of sight. Luckily Shinji had avoided the attack, but looking at where the attack had landed, it was not so lucky for the construction digger had turned to stone. In his report on Gakuma, it was mentioned that the kaiju might have the ability to turn anything into stone. While Shinji was a little sceptical when he first read it, he felt relieved that he took the warning seriously.

The fight against Gakuma, however, had turned into a game of dodgeball as Shinji shifted and dodged Gakuma's beam attack, hoping not to be turned to stone himself. Then, just as Shinji was feeling he had run out of options, he could hear the noise of a fighter jet flying into range.
The expertly flown GUTS-Wing flew loops around Gakuma as if it was an annoying fly to the kaiju. Shinji had never seen a plane or a VTOL that manoeuvrable in his life. Thinking back to his classmates, he began to understand why Aida had such a fascination with the plane. It is very impressive, he thought.

In the cockpit of the GUTS-Wing, its two crewmembers knew simply buzzing the kaiju was not a sufficient response. They had to attack. Muntaka made the announcement first as they are going to test their experimental weapons for the first time, "Firing laser cannons."

"Firing laster cannons!" Rena repeated the order as she pressed the trigger. The GUTS-Wing began firing its pair of laser cannons in several repeated blasts. The sheer intensity of the heat from the laser blast hit one of the back armour of the kaiju. Despite the armour's impressive protection, the sheer heat from the blast still managed to hurt Gakuma as it flinched and howled in response.

Munataka, seeing that their weapons were effective, barked out an order, "Get behind the kaiju!"

"Roger," Rena answered back as she flew the craft to the Kaiju's rear, hoping to have another safer angle of attack. However, that manoeuvre was not successful as a tail whip from Gakuma hit the wings of the craft. Destabilised from its flight path, the GUTS-Wing crashed to the ground. While the craft was damaged, they looked light to Shinji. Shinji instinctively stood his Eva up and moved to protect the pilots from the kaiju. Turning back to look at the pilots, he was glad to see both of them unharmed as they crawled out from the cockpit. Looking back, however, was a mistake as Gakuma charged at Unit One sending it tumbling to the ground.

The kaiju now pressed all of its body weight on the fallen Unit One, preventing it from making any further moves. Shinji looked around and saw his prog knife lying not far from him. Stretching and reaching out towards the knife, Shinji hoped to use it and inflict a lethal blow on Gakuma. However, the Kaiju noticing this turned towards the knife and fired its energy beam at it, turning the prog knife into a useless stone statue sword.

Gakuma then turned towards Shinji, intending to do to the Eva what it had already done to the sword. Shinji closed his eyes as he feared the worst. Instead, a pair of laser blasts were fired at Gakuma, sending it hurling backwards in pain. Shinji looked behind to find out where the blast had come from. Didn't the GUTS-Wing crash? The answer soon came to him as another yellow-coloured VTOL climbed into the air in the rocks behind him. It was another GUTS-WING!

The new GUTS-WING looked a little different from its predecessor. Looking far bigger in size, the middle of the craft began to split apart, revealing a big cannon just in front of the cockpit. That's GUTS-WING 02. Or that was what Aida Kensuke had told him in school.

Down on the ground, Rena and Munakata sighed in massive relief as they saw their comrades arriving. "It's GUTS Wing 2! They completed retrofitting GUTS-Wing 2 in hyper mode!" Munakata cried out in relief.

GUTS-Wing 2, carefully positioning its cannon at Gakuma, began to charge up intending to blast and finish the kaiju once and for all. Inside GUTS-Wing 2, Horii began issuing orders to Shinjoh, his teammate in charge of the new weapon. "Okay! Shinjoh, let's see how it likes our Dexus beam."

"Roger. Firing Dexus beam!" Shinjoh said with much joy. Now the kaiju will learn not o mess with humanity, he thought. The cannon from GUTS-Wing 02 fired out a massive yellow plasma beam as it impacted the giant kaiju. The blast send the kaiju flying backwards, however, it had remained clearly alive.

Shinji, spotting an opportunity with the kaiju now exposed underbelly ran and grab the Pallet Rifle that he had left on the ground earlier and began unloading the rounds onto the kaiju. Without the protection of its armour, the explosive rounds began blasting the kaiju before the kaiju exploded into pieces.

Everyone who saw the end of the fight began cheering as Shinji sat the Eva down on the floor. Unit One's energy had been completely spent in the fight as it began shutting down. Shinji was just relieved that he was able to win the battle in time before the limited internal battery ran out of juice. His first combat as a pilot was a success.

======================================\*/========================================

Half an hour after the battle

The crew of GUTS had disembarked and been debriefed by their field commander vice-Captain Munakata before heading over to the TPC field Headquarters to join in the small party that was developing as the miners, TPC crews and NERV crews alike celebrated defeating the kaiju. Spotting Sawai, Misato and Shinji amongst the crowd, the GUTS team walked over to them.

Sawai had been speaking to Shinji, praising him for his effort and excellence in defeating the kaiju. The boy was red with embarrassment before he replied, "I was not alone in this. I really want to thank GUTS for the help!" Shinji turned toward the GUTS members and bowed. The GUTS all laughed and smiled at Shinji as they began thanking him in response.

"Thank you Shinji-kun. Your actions have saved my life!" Rena said sweetly at Shinji, rubbing the boy's hair.

Shinji's face turned even redder as the young and pretty-looking pilot praised him. "It's nothing! I was just doing what's right!"

"You're a fine man, Shinji," Shinjoh added as he tapped him firmly on the shoulder. Shinji could only smile back. Shinjoh turning towards Kaji, joked, "Out of all of us, you're the most useless here."

Kaji smirked back at his friend, "I was the one being attached to NERV. Unlike you guys, I don't get a fancy GUTS-Wing to fly around in." This prompted laughter from the GUTS crew.

Sawai, now turning attention towards GUTS, said, "Excellent work retrofitting the vehicle this well in such a short time." Horii, the main engineer and the one who was responsible for the retrofitting project, bowed as he accepted the praise.

Munakata, deciding to shift the conversation back onto a serious topic, said, "If kaijus keep appearing all over the world, it will mean real trouble."

Sawai bowed his head down deep in thought as he tucked his hands into his pocket, and replied "Yes. Once I return, I am considering positioning TPC stations in all quarters of the Earth. "

Shinjoh, looking around at the group said, "In the meantime, GUTS and NERV will keep things under control."

"NERV will do our best to provide support whenever possible," Misato smiled back.

"Well, that was a breeze," Horii joked. "I almost look forward to our next meeting with a kaiju!"

Everyone laughed, including Shinjii as he felt a sense of relief with the group. Together, we can face almost every challenge, he thought.
Just at that moment, it seemed words have been spoken too soon. The ground began shaking again as panic sets in amongst everyone.
"Is this an earthquake?" Rena asked.

"A landslide?" Horii suggested.

Shinji looked around at his surrounding as he observed a hole was rapidly forming on the ground. The ground next to where GUTS had parked their GUTS-Wings and where he had left his Eva. Oh no, he thought. As the ground continued to cave in, a kaiju emerged from the sinkhole. It was another Gakuma, Shinji realised, but this one looks a little different. It has two horns!

Sawai, looking at the new threat, commented, "There are two Gakumas. So that's where the confusion was coming from."

Everyone, realising that access to their vehicles and weaponry were blocked by the incoming Gakuma could only scatter and run. Amongst all the confusion, Shinji realised what he had to do. Sneaking to the back of the TPC tents, he opened his plug suit and took out the sparklens that he had carried with him at all times. Asa the foot of the Gakuma was about to crush the TPC tent, Shinji activated the Spark Lens and a blinding piece of light emerged from the ground.

The Gakuma, being blinded by the light, stood back and started retreating. It looked up at the newcomer rising tall from the ground. The silver giant had returned. Ultraman Tiga was now ready for his fight.

Down on the ground amongst the crowd, Rena exclaimed in surprise as she tapped the shoulders of Horii. "The Titan! The Titan is here to save us!" Next to her, Misato stood in awe as she stared at the giant. It feels right somehow, just by looking at the giant, Misato thought, hope is here.

The new Gakuma began howling as it assessed the new threat. Assuming a combat pose, Ultraman Tiga charged at the Gakuma as he tried to expose the Gakuma's weaker underbelly for an attack. With a single kick, Ultraman Tiga sent the Gakuma flying to the edge of a hill. Seeing the Gakuma stunned, Tiga jumped onto the back of the Gakuma and began plummeting the kaiju with his energy fist. The kaiju, howling in agony, flung Tiga away from its back and sent the giant tumbling to the ground. Wasting no time, the Gakuma fired its energy mean at TIga seeking to turn the giant to stone. However, Tiga' speed was far too much for the kaiju as he leapt into the air to avoid the attack. Tiga then grabbed hold of the Kaiju's throat as he sought to restrain the Gakuma.

However, the two horns of the Gakuma began to charge up, forcing Tiga to release the kaiju due to the horn's sheer intense heat. Gakuma, sensing another opportunity, extended its claws as it began slashing furiously at Tiga. While the skin of the Ultraman was able to protect himself from any severe cuts, nonetheless the claws were about to hurt the titan. Before Tiga could recover, the Gakuma backed off a few steps back, turning its horns sharply at Tiga and dove in with all its might. The horn attack sent Tiga flying back to the ground. Tiga, weakened but not out of the game, started climbing back up and facing the kaiju once again. This time, instead of launching another physical attack, the Gakuma fired its beam from his mouth at the legs of Tiga. Tiga soon realised his legs were stuck, them having been turned to stone.

Horii, watching the turn of the event, could only exclaim, "Oh no! The Titan is being to stone!"

Soon, Tiga struggled as he watched more and more parts of his body turning to stone. At that moment, the light on his chest began to turn from blue to a set of blinking red lights. Tiga realising he had to do something before his entire body became stone once again, lifted his still intact arms to his forehead and gathered all the energy left in his body. A bright red light emitted from the forehead of Tiga as the colour on his body turned red with energy. With an immense cry, the energy of his body was able to break apart all the rocks that were starting to engulf him. Assuming a new combat pose, Tiga was not ready to face whatever the Gakuma could throw at him. With his now immense strength, Tiga lifted the Gakuma up and exposed its weaker underbelly. Then with all the strength he could muster, he landed a heavy punch on the underbelly of Gakuma.

The Gakuma, heavily injured but refusing to give up, began charging its horn again hoping to land another energy beam hit on Tiga. Tiga, who refused to let the same attack happen again, leapt into the air and with a chop of his hands, broke the horns of Gakuma. The Gakuma howled in pain, but its eyes continued to stare viciously at Tiga. Feeling he needed to end the fight soon, Tiga poured all of his strength into his arms as he lifted the heavy Kaji. He threw Gakuma onto the ground, landing on a loud thud that shook the ground. As the Gakuma sought to launch yet another attack at Tiga, Tiga gathered all of his remaining energy into a fireball and hurled it towards the kaiju.

The intense energy hit Gakuma, as the mighty beast fell to the ground with its eyes closed. Soon, the corpse of the kaiju turned into rock as it crumbled to the ground. Tiga, knew the fight was over. Raising both of his arms, Tiga leapt into the air and flew away.

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Dive Hangar, GUTS HQ

Shinji and Misato had been invited by GUTS in the aftermath of the battle to visit the Dive Hangar for a small celebration and for Shinji to visit their impressive base for the first time. Shinji had happily agreed as he had hoped to spend a little more time with GUTS. The members of GUTS had treated Shinji extremely warmly and he was appreciative of that fact. At the Dive Hangar, Shinji felt warmth and love amongst the people that he now calls his fellow comrades. As they sat around the dining halls at Dive Hangar, various members of GUTS began reflecting on the battle.

"You know, if the titan hadn't turned up, we all might have been turned to stone." Said Shinjoh to the group.

"We owe the Titan a lot," said Misato, reflecting on the impression that Tiga had left her.

Shinji shyly lifted his arm hoping to speak amongst all these adults. Rena, noticing Shinji's shyness, said, "You can say what you want Shinji-kun." Encouraging the boy to speak up.

"I have been thinking…," Shinji said with a small pause, "When even these kaijus and Angels have names of their own, it doesn't feel right to just keep calling him 'the titan'."

The group all expressed agreement on their faces as they began thinking about suitable names for the titan. Munakata was the first to speak, "He is the size of a mountain…so how about 'Mountain Gulliver'?"

Shinji, not exactly a fan of that name, wanted to speak out to reject it. Luckily Horii was the first to reject it, as he said, "That sounds like someone groaning in a bathroom stall!" Everyone laughed at that suggestion.

Shinji quietly raise his voice again, "Um…what about Ultraman Tiga? I head that was the name used by the women in the time-capsule isn't it? I've read the reports sent by TPC on him…" Shinji's voice grew soft towards the end, as he prayed everyone would not find it strange that he had read the TPC report on Tiga. While the report remained classified, he did have the necessary authorisation as a top NERV personnel to read it.

Horii brightened up with that suggestion, "You think it's a great name too, Shinji-kun?"

"Ultraman Tiga?" Misato whispered to herself.

"Sounds cool to him," Kaji added.

"That's decided then! Let's use the name Ultraman Tiga!"

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End of Part 1