I have been petitioned into resubmitting this.
Here it is: Honor's Duty, Stanza One.
-------------
****
Disclaimer: The original Neon Genesis Evangelion belongs to
Gainax. This particular plot devation was constructed by me, JJ
Corley, and has been dubbed an 'Alternate Universe (AU)'.
Therefore, the term Alternate Universe or AU shall serve as my
disclaimer for any future posting of this series. Do not sue
me, for if you do you'll only get a few bucks and an old 486DX
with a copy of edit.com. What A Prize. I've made my point.
****
Ludicrous Configuration! Productions
Presents
A Neon Genesis Evangelion Alternate Universe
By JJ Corley
Evangelion: Honor's Duty
'I've only had one cherished dream.. and even then it is not
truly mine. I share it with my adoptive father.
'I don't aspire to any particular career or profession in the
future...
'And so far, in the sixteen years of my life, things have
happened as fate would have it. And, that is how it shall
continue...
'Note: thank mother, if she's listening in whatever afterlife
there is, for that. Life with Saotome-san has never, never been
boring.
'And the training trips keep me out of school. Dual thanks,
mom.
'And Father....'
Ikari Shinji's further thoughts were jarred from him as the
train suddenly stopped. He disembarked, the only person aboard,
and silently set off for the next train he would need to take
for Tokyo-3. He hesitated for a moment, and turned to look over
the surrounding terminal, relapsing into thought.
"Father.."
[_}~`\-/'~{_] Neon Genesis Evangelion: Honor's Duty
^ " ^ Stanza One: Angel's Choir
/REVISED!!/
"We're sorry, but the Tokyo-3 telephone systems have been
taken off-line due to the emergency. Please remain in your
shelter. Repeat: The Tokyo-3 telephone systems have been ta-"
Shinji set the pay-phone receiver back into its cradle gently.
Something was going on. Something big. He reached into the
pocket in the white Chinese pants he wore, removing a letter
and a makeshift postcard. The letter he had received from his
father. As for the postcard.. it had once been an enticing
photo of a purple haired vixen, but its previous owner had
decided on using it as so much stationary. 'I'll come and pick
you up, so please wait! Katsuragi Misato' was what it read.
Well, that and an arrow pointing at the woman's ample cleavage
saying 'P.S.: Take a LOOK at this!'.
The sporadic tremors started again; the faint vibrations
traveling through the sidewalk were slightly more pronounced
this time. Yes, something was going on, and that something was
very wrong.
An erie silence slowly settled, and an almost tangible feeling
of apprehension lay thick in the air; Shinji suddenly wished it
was tangible, then he could just beat the crap out of it and
his senses could get out of their danger zones.
The tremors became immense, until they were audible. After
listening for a while, he decided that if one of the
surrounding skyscrapers had decided to get up and walk away,
this would be the sound it would make. The buildings were
violently shaking with the tremors, and nearby windows rattled.
Shinji reflexively slipped into a defensive stance, his years
of Martial Arts training coming into the fore. His warning
sense screamed.
Someone was watching him from behind.
Shinji turned to face the person; his eyes narrowing as he saw
her, roughly 12 meters away. Blue hair, cute face, standard
sea-green girl's school uniform with a red bow tie, white
socks, and black shoes.
An exceptionally large tremor struck, and his attention was
diverted to the -as yet unseen; lovely mountains, though-
source to his left. He looked back to the girl.
She was gone.
"Weir-" Tremor, "d-d-d-d-d-da.." Shinji had turned back to the
now seen source of the tremors. A monstrous black figure loomed
over the surrounding buildings, locked in unarmed combat with
an equally monstrous purple figure. Ikari Shinji summed it up
as best he could.
"Holy Schnikies!"
[_}~`\-/'~{_]
^ " ^
Misato belted the navigational-computer a good one. Said
Navi-comp filckered, beeped, and finally blinked the correct
map of the area on its screen..
For all of twelve seconds.
Misato growled. She wasn't having a good day.
"G-r-r-r-r.. Stupid thing! Damn!! Why'd I have to lose him at
a time like this?!?" As she sighed, she noticed a guy sitting
on the sidewalk. The car skidded, slid, and came to a stop with
a sickening crunch. From the sidewalk, and now a full meter
away, Shinji winced.
Misato opened the driver's side window. "Hey, You Ikari
Shinji?" The boy, dressed in a blue Chinese silk shirt and
white pants, pulled his attention from the sky and nodded
weakly. "Good. Get.."
*Swoosh* *Slam!* *Click*
"..in." Misato blinked.
"If you wanna live.. I SUGGEST YOU DRIVE, VERY FAST, VERY
NOW!!!"
"Huh?" It was then that Misato noticed the falling angel, the
end result of Unit-01's sloppy shoulder throw. Misato quickly
threw the vehicle into reverse. Tires squealed as rubber
burned; and the car screamed backwards, finally finding
friction. Shinji white-knuckled the dash as Misato chanted her
mantra. "oh my god we'renotgonnamakeit we'renotgonnamakeit,
we'renotgonnamakeit..."
Sachiel slammed into the cement and surrounding buildings,
impacting into the ground with a large cracking sound. Misato's
vehicle barely avoided being smashed by debris before the
shockwave caused an upset, spilling the car onto its roof.
For the briefest of moments, Shinji thought of moving to the
valley between two hills, as it was indeed a comfortable place
to rest. Misato, however, apparently didn't want anything to do
with the change of address forms; she pulled Shinji's head from
her cleavage and scowled at him.
"Err.. Sorry?" he said, sheepishly.
"I'll let it slide.. this time." She smiled wanly. "You should
really buckle up. For safety." The car shook for a second, then
slowly began to rise from the ground. It was turned right side
up and placed back down again.
Misato looked at the upside down Shinji, his head where his
feet should have been. "That looks painful.."
"Incredibly so.." Shinji squeaked. Misato mercifully opened
the door. Shinji tumbled out, tucked into a roll, and stood up
- his neck bent to the right at a strange angle. "Thanks, I
think.." Shinji winced as he straightened his neck. "Oww."
Misato poked her head out of the opened door. "Thanks, Rei!"
She said, waving to the purple giant. Then to Shinji, "Come on,
we gotta go!"
As Shinji re-situated himself into the vehicle, he asked "Just
what is that thing?"
Misato hit the acelerator before answering. "The black one's
an Angel, and the purple one's the Eva. The Eva's on our side."
Shinji blinked, then looked to Misato. "But, arn't Angel's
supposed to be the messengers of God?"
Misato took a hand from the steering wheel, subconsciously
fingering the small white cross around her neck. Shinji watched
her, awaiting an answer; and finally, after a few moments, she
sighed.
"I just don't know any more. I just don't know..."
[_}~`\-/'~{_]
^ " ^
From inside Unit-01, Ayanami Rei watched the two depart.
Something inside both her and the Eva wanted to run to the
boy's side, to protect him from any threat. "Why do I feel this
way?" She asked to no one in particular.
While Rei was doing that introspection thing, Sachiel had
picked himself up off the ground.
He was not in a good mood.
First those annoying 'Humans' had bothered him with their
'Airplanes'. Now this dark servant of the Lillim, who's soul
was vying with the artificial soul of the rider for control -
or, were they the same? - , had dared to throw him, HIM!, The
covering of God, angel of the order of Hashmallim, resident of
the first heaven (and sometimes vacationer of the sixth), heir
bringer of the dreaded Monday and wanderer of the south into a
building??!? WELL, WE'LL JUST SEE ABOUT THAT, NOW WONT WE, YOU
FOOLISH PUNY PSEUDO-MORTAL?!?!?
Sachiel ran, building momentum, interlacing the three digits
of each hand to supply an
almighty-swinging-whap-to-the-back-of-the-head to be felt by
the artificial child's next clone. Rei, to her credit, turned
Unit-01 just in time to see it coming.
*GATSU!*
The Eva spun head first into a building, collapsing a wall and
several floors. Sachiel followed his attack with an excellent
'Boot to the head' maneuver. It was a truly mighty kick, a kick
to make all previous Low Earth Orbit launching kicks look
minuscule in comparison. Not that anyone would ever bother to
do such a comparison, mind you.
Fortunately for Rei, the umbilical cable snapped taut, halting
the Eva's LEO ascent at 200 feet. And thus, the Evangelion came
tumbling down, unceremoniously crashing through an abortion
clinic.
Sachiel looked to the sky, leaving Unit-01 to crawl out of the
rubble. There was just something symbolic about two of man's
own creations destroying that which man used to destroy
himself. Sachiel shrugged, leaving the ways of God to be
pondered at a later date. Perhaps he could find some more of
those 'Airplanes' to destroy..
[_}~`\-/'~{_]
^ " ^
Ikari Gendo Sat behind his desk, staring impassively at the
screens that displayed the battle before him. The reports began
to come in.
"Pilot's blood pressure is dropping... Neural link is
reversing! ... A10 synchrograph is down 8 percent!! .... 3
minutes and counting until Operation N2 ... She canna take much
more o' this, cap'ian!"
Gendo sighed. "It can't be helped. Commence recovery at
ludicrous speed through route I-5!"
Hyuuga Makoto swiveled in his chair. "Sir, we can't! The
umbilical cable's locking mechanisms were damaged when it went
taut; we can't disengage it from here!"
Ikari slammed his hands onto his desk. "Damn! Rei, disengage
the umbilical cable." After waiting for a few moments, he
called again. "Rei?"
Ibuki Maya turned from her station. "Sir? Pilot Ayanami has
lost consciousness."
Defeated, Ikari Gendo slumped back into his chair. "It seems
Ikari's little toy is out of order.." One member of the
military advisory panel, seated behind him, scoffed.
"Perhaps it will be destroyed during Operation N2, and save us
the trouble of dismantling it..?" Said another.
"Rest assured, gentlemen," Ikari intoned menacingly from his
chair, "It will remain unharmed from your small display of
idiocy."
Fuyutsuki smirked, and added another point to Gendo's side of
the scoreboard.
Unnoticed by all, Gendo pulled a copy of 'The Big, Big Book of
Angels, Including the Fallen Angels and Those Angels Most
Likely To Attack Large Cities' from his desk, placed it on his
lap, and searched through it. Finally, he copied something out
of said book onto a piece of paper. He then turned the paper
upside down and wrote 'this way up' on the top. He placed the
book back into its drawer and snapped for his pet.
"Fuyutsuki!"
The old professor was by Gendo's side in less than a moment.
"Yes sir?"
Ikari handed the slip of paper to his second, then resumed his
normal sitting position. "This is the flight pattern for
operation N2. Be sure they follow it EXACTLY."
'But this Sigil is...' Fuyutsuki frowned. "You're mocking him
on purpose, arn't you?"
Gendo simply smiled behind his hands. "Feh."
[_}~`\-/'~{_]
^ " ^
Lt. Phillips looked to his co-pilot, Lt. Yamamoto. "Are you
sure this flight pattern is correct?"
"Hey, that's what I said. But the guy's on the horn were
insistant we follow it to the line, soo.."
"Right.." Lt. phillips rolled his eyes. Flipping on the con,
he announced: "All right, Bujoku Squardron, form up.."
[_}~`\-/'~{_}
^ " ^
Sachiel stopped running, jumping, and generally causing
massive amounts of chaos, to cock his head to the side and
blink in a destructive-as-all-get-out-but-cute kind of way as
he noticed the fighter planes of 'Operation N2'.
The Angel's left eye began to twitch and water. What kind of
idiot bothers to write 'Sachiel' upside down in the sky?
From inside of Nerv HQ, Commander Ikari smiled. The Angel had
stood perplexed long enough for the bomber to to aquire a
target lock and lauch the N2 mine.
[_}~`\-/'~{_}
^ " ^
"Ouch.. That HAD to Hurt.." Shinji said sympathetically for
Unit-01. "You said the purple one's on our side, right?"
Misato nodded. "Yep, that's right."
"Well.. I hate to say it, but.. It's getting beaten. Rather
badly, too."
Misato groaned. "..Oh, I told them not to place such a burden
on Rei. But did they listen, Nooo, sir - don't listen to
Katty.."
Shinji waited for Misato to calm herself before asking another
question. "Err.. Miss Katsuragi.. Why are the planes running
away..?"
Misato looked from the road she was speeding on long enough to
glance at Shinji, then followed his gaze. "oh shit." was all
she said.
Unknown by all, Sachiel was thinking much the same thing.
Then the world turned an interesting shade of off-pink...
[_}~`\-/'~{_}
^ " ^
The government cronies were estatic. "Got it! .. Yes! ... We
did it! .. Nothing could have survived that, absolutly nothing!
... Such is the power of our N2 mines! ... Ha ha ha! .. Do you
know what this means? The Eva's are no longer necessary! ...
More funding for us, yea!"
And through the entire outburst, Ikari sat emotionless,
staring at the screens. "Status report?"
"Continuing EMP shockwave interference from the explosion.
We're still on standby for target destruction confirmation!"
One of the miltary advisers laughed. "With a blast of that
force? Can there be any doubt?"
Hyuuga checked another monitor. "Sir! The blast has severed
Unit-01's umbillical cable. Beginning recovery through Route
66, due to extensive damage in Route I-5 and HWYS 99 & 32.."
Aoba Shigeru put down his manga long enough to shout, "Sir!
I'm getting energy readings from ground zero!"
The entire military panel fell over in shock. "
_W_H_A_T_?!?"
"Visuals are back online!"
Sachiel stood in the epicenter of the crater, basking in the
heat as his new head was formed. The Angel's only thought was
'Oww..'
Ikari smiled. "Indeed."
The military panel slowly sat down, each of its members at a
loss for words. "Our last gambit.. for nothing! ... We
destroyed an entire city! ... It's a monster.. .... A demon.."
Ikari smirked. "As god created both, is it not fitting his
minions recieved such qualities as well?"
As the board grumbled amongst themselves, one of them got off
the Hot Line. "Ikari, HQ has informed me that total command of
this operation has been transferred to YOU. Don't Screw Up."
And with that, the entire military panel, desk and all, sunk
under the floor.
"There they go, playing turtle, and leaving us to do the hard
work.." complained Aoba.
Ibuki and Hyuuga nodded in agreement; then paused, realizing
just who they were agreeing with. Aoba studiously ignored the
glares his fellow techies directed at him as he returned to his
manga.
[_}~`\-/'~{_}
^ " ^
Shinji blinked his eyes furiously, tring to rid himself of the
flash-induced blindness. Fortunatly for them both, Misato's
sunglasses had spared her from the worst of it, and she had
continued driving.
Feeling the inertia of the car slow, then speed up twice as
fast as before prompted him to say something. "Where are we?"
"Car lift, express. Don't worry, we're almost there." She
picked up a packet and placed it on Shinji's lap. "Here, read
this."
Shinji vainly rubbed his eyes, wishing he could see.
He and Misato sighed at the same time. This caused Misato to
laugh. "What is it?"
"Miss Katsuragi.."
Misato waved her hand in a dismissive gesture, smiling. "Oh..
don't worry about all that formal stuff. Just 'Misato' is
fine."
He shrugged. "Can you tell me what my father does?"
She blinked, twice (
*Squeegy-Squeegy*). "You mean you don't
KNOW?"
He sighed again. "No.. not really. All Saotome-san ever said
was.. 'He thinks it's important to the future of Humanity.
Don't worry to much 'bout it, though.'"
"Saotome-san?"
Shinji nodded, his sight on the verge of returning. He turned
to the greater glob of grey that he figured -correctly- was
Misato. "Yeah. Saotome-san was my guardian, teacher, and foster
father." His sight finally returning, he looked at the pamphlet
in his lap. "Nerv? What's that?"
"It's a secret government organization directly under the
control of the UN." Misato smiled and leaned forward to check
her makeup in the rear view mirror. "Hummn.. I work there, too
-you know, as an international civil servent.." She said,
pulling out a compact and powdering her nose. "So does your
father. Ah.." She glanced over at Shinji nervously, putting the
compact back into her purse. "Your, err.. biological one, I
mean."
Shinji chuckled slighly, shaking his head. "Don't worry. I
know who you mean when you're referring to my 'Father'." He
shook his head again, this time sadly. "So.. you're in 'the
admirable job of defending humanity', eh?"
Misato frowned. "What's with the sarcasm?"
"I just don't think peace can be achieved through threat of a
greater force, that's all." He leaned back in his seat, idly
fliping through the pages of the pamphlet. "Heh.. 'One can only
achieve true peace after conquering oneself'." He said softly.
"You sound like a philosopher.."
Shinji smiled. "No, I'm just a Martial Artist.. Although it's
been said that both are the same, after a fashion. Philosophy
teaches one the disipline of the mind, while Martial Arts
teaches one the disiplines of mind, body, and soul..." He
trailed off.
Misato watched Shinji with a bemused expression as the
Geo-front came into view. Shinji's eyes widened as the
buildings of Tokyo-3 cast their shadows across the car lift,
looking for a moment like the world was standing on its head.
"Holy.. Schnikies!!" He whispered in english.
Misato caught it, but didn't understand. "'Shi.. nai.. kii..'?
What?"
He blinked, coming out of his stupor. "Huh? Oh, That? It's
just an expression I picked up from one of Saotome-san's gaijin
students."
"Ah."
[_}~`\-/'~{_}
^ " ^
Rei slowly broke through the black veil of unconsciousness,
disoriented. It took her a moment to realize she was still
within the confines of the entry plug. Hurt. A world of Hurt.
The feeling of her head being used as a football. The pain of
the Eva was the pain of the pilot. She clutched her head and
moaned, "Can you reduce this pain?"
Her answer came as the pain retreated. Rei slowly blinked away
the tears, and watched as the saline floated upwards. She
voiced her thanks to the Eva, then wondered aloud. "Who was
that man?"
Again, the answer came unbidden into her soul. "Our Son?" A
slow smile played across Rei's features. "Shinji-kun.." Another
thought came into her, and she agreed whole heartedly. "We must
protect him."
"This," Both halves of Ikari Yui's soul vowed - Rei I and Eva
Unit-01 - "I will do unto death."
[_}~`\-/'~{_}
^ " ^
"At last. It has begun." Said the monolithic holograph labeled
'SOUND ONLY - SEELE 08'.
"Yes," Said another, identical except for the number: SEELE
04. "The angels have attacked us, after only fifteen years."
"Perhaps we should have lent more.. enthusiasm to our
'Requests' of the UN. The situation is acceptable, but if there
is a loss now.." SELE 07 allowed the rest to go unsaid, leaving
the others to their own dark speculations..
The tweleve SEELE monoliths sat silent for a moment, all but
one questioning their actions. SEELE 01 spoke. "It is too late
now for speculation. We have commited ourselves to this course,
and there is no possibility of turning back."
Several other monoliths grumbled agreement, a few opting to
stay silent.
"What is the status of the First Child?" SEELE 06 queried.
"The pilot of Unit One is becoming mentally unstable, as in
accordance to the plan." SEELE 04 answered, adding: "The
reserve pilot, and his value to us, is still an unknown."
At this, SEELE 01 chuckled. "He is Ikari's son, and therefore
his value is immesuarble to us. Besides, if he does prove
troublesome, we can eliminate him -since we have the Second
Child already in our thrall, due to Agent R."
"Ah, yes.. Her." SEELE 12 blanched behind his monolith. "I
believe you place too much value upon her. Elimination of the
Third Child should only come as a last resort. There are, as
they say, more than two ways to persuade a catspwan."
[_}~`\-/'~{_] Neon Genesis Evangelion: Honor's Duty
^ " ^ Stanza One: Angel's Choir
End
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