This is an Idea I've been bouncing.

Enjoy!

Once the second part is complete, it will be posted as a revised whole.

===========


The vast plane sped through the skies, heading east.

The pilots, snug in the cockpit, could see Japan on the horizon, and the sun 
seemed to be rising from it.

"Hell, I�ll be glad to get this bugger off our hands."

Co-pilot Mark Anderson, sick already of flying, was referring to the vast 
bulk of Unit 05, slung beneath the plane. It was a bright green and pale 
pink, lending credence to the theory among NERV personnel that the person 
responsible for the colour scemes was colourblind. It had a massive set of 
compound eyes, supposedly the best new innovation.

"Don�t talk like that," warned Captain Montgomery. "You know how they�ve 
been keeping an eye out for sedition."

"I know, but I can�t get the disaster with Unit 3 out of my head. What 
happened there? I�m just glad that we�re not going to be doing this again 
for a while."

Montgomery Grinned. "That�s where you�re wrong, Son. We transport Unit 6 
from NERV-UK next week."

"What? I heard that it wouldn�t be ready for a month?"

"They found  a new pilot, didn�t they? Supposedly, he�s going to blow the 
Third Child out of the water."

"No shit? What�s his name?"

"John Harwood."

They flew in silence for a while.

"I feel sorry for those kids. They�re going to die in those damn machines."

"Maybe, Maybe not..."

***

[In the aritficial amniotic sac, the man stirred. All he had was his faith, 
and the cold, hard belief that he was now linked irretrievably to this 
instrument of the Devil.

A spiderweb of umbilicals stretched from him. He could no longer see, and 
the only light was shed from the technological centipede fused to his spine, 
as the blinking of the links confirmed to any watchers that the drugs were 
being administered, and that everything was all right.

He squirmed again.

Big change coming.

The destruction of the Synagogue of Satan was at hand... perversely enough, 
by this weapon of Beelzebub.

Big change coming soon.

And then the Earth would be purified.]

***

A Neon Genesis Evangelion Fanfiction

Fundamentals

By Matthew Harrison

***

"Finally."

For the  first time, a smile of happy satisfaction spread across Ikari 
Gendou�s face.

"Finally, a new EVA delivered without any problems."

"Counting your chickens, Commander?"

A small frown crossed Gendou�s face, replacing the smile.

"Kaji? What is it? I require not your ministrations."

"Well, Commander, things can go wrong even with the best of plans."

"Not with this one." He raised his arms. "It is eqiupped with an S^2 engine, 
and can..."

"Nauseate the enemy?" Kaji blew a small cloud of smoke into the air. "You 
should know that anything can go wrong with one of these.  Particularly with 
that feature."

"This will be infallible, Kaji."

"I hope you�re right, commander."

"And you can tell your masters the same."

"I don�t know what you�re talking about."

"You do. Now good day."

***

"�And in downtown Tokyo-3 today, an explosion destroyed a small apartment. 
There was one casualty, a man associated with the group "The Church of the 
Flaming Sword". This has been noted in recent months for it�s lobbying 
against NERV...�"

A gunshot rang out, and the short man fell to the ground. He struggled 
onward, and as he dragged himself forward, a slight shadow fell over him. He 
screamed as a small, pale hand dug its fingers into the wound in his 
shoulder, forcing him to stop.

"Who sent you?"

"The Abbot... The Abbot that will save us all!"

"Only Ikari-san will save us." The voice was flat and emotionless. The hand 
flexed, and the man screamed, and fainted.

Rei Ayanami stood up, looking curiously at the scarlet stain on her hand  
She had seen her own blood many times, and was fascinated by this. She had 
never killed a man yet, and this was the first time that she had had to use 
the sidearm issued to her by Commander Ikari.

She licked at the trickling fluid, cleaning the mess from her hand. As she 
waited for the NERV troops to arrive, she wondered if she would ever have to 
do this again.

***

"She�s WHAT?"

Asuka Souryuu Langley was going ballistic at bad news again.

It wasn�t bad news, really, it was just the way she interpreted it.

"I said, she�s moving in here for the minute. Rei has nowhere else to stay 
since her apartment got blown up. And she�s bunking in your room until the 
boxroom is cleared."

That would take a few days, reflected Misato. It was crammed with junk... 
stuff she should have put in storage years ago. But now she was being forced 
to do it. This fundamentalist group had maqde a lot of attacks in the past 
few weeks, destroying buildings connected with NERV all over the world. They 
believed that NERV was the work of the Devil, destroying the Angels sent to 
cleanse the Earth. So they had thus to destroy NERV.

The recent attack on NERV-UK had been halted, and they�d managed to reach 
the EVA cages that 05 and 06 were being stored in; but no damage had been 
sustained to the units.That, Misato thought, was some relief.

Asuka stormed off to her room, while Misato watched as Shinji started 
clearing the main room for the visitor. It didn�t look right on him, she 
thought, looking at the sidearm he wore. It was policy now, since these 
loonies had started their demonstrations. And the shooting of Hyuuga... he�d 
survrved, but he�d never walk again. There was too much of his spine missing 
to allow that.

"How are you coping, Shinji?"

"Hmmm?" He looked up, and realised she was looking at the holster on his 
belt. "Oh, fine. It feels a bit weird, y�know, but I feel fine about it. 
It�s necessary." He frowned. "I wish I didn�t have to wear it, but since 
father insisted, I do."

He�d been most worried about  Kensuke, but that was not a problem. Not since 
the recent developments. He�d been sure Kensuke would have been all over it, 
wanting to know the calibre, the capacity, the spin..
It was a standard NERV special, �adapted� for children to use...  but with 
the speed it had been issued, he was wondering if they hadn�t considered 
this eventuality from the start. He was not particularly surprised that this 
had been planned for by his father. And he�d been surprised at the lack of 
outcry, until he thought about it. Every day, he could take charge of a 
machine  capable of destroying cities, a pistol was nothing compared to 
that.

Misato had been worried in another way. Shinji and Asuka often argued and 
fought. Considering Asuka�s hotheadedness, an argument could have got very 
messy if  she pulled her gun. But a week had gone by, and Shinji was still 
alive.

No more to worry about.

***

In NERV-UK, there was a lot to worry about.

John Harwood had gone beserk, by all the accounts.

Unit-06 was smashing up the countryside. It had picked up a rifle and a LOT 
of ammunition, and was carving its way out.

"Eject the Plug!"

"We�re trying!"

There was panic in the command centre. It had been a standard activation, 
until something in the harmonics had run amuck, and the blue-and-orange 
Evangelion had started smashing things.

"Plug ejecting!"

General Smith breathed a sigh of relief. He�d had horrible visions of having 
to order an N-2 strike against the EVA, and on British soil. At least the 
EVA would stop now.

The Entry Plug sped into the air.

Unit-06 spun and caught it, crushing the plug and the pilot like paper.

Then it strode off  towards the coast... and disappeared.

"Get me NERV-Japan on the line." Snith hung his head, thinking about what 
might happen. At the least, he�d be cashiered. At worst, he�d be executed. 
"And get a flight of Bombers after that thing. It must be destroyed."

He�d lost a magnificent pilot, and an EVA.

He was in trouble...

***

"Fascinating."

"That�s all you have to say? Fascinating?" Fuyutsuki was beside himself. 
According to the report, the best pilot they�d ever found was dead, and 
there was a rogue EVA on the loose. "What are we going to do about this 
fiasco? If the UN decides to scrap the EVA project after this, do you know 
what this could mean? A hundred Jet-Alones, that�s what it could mean! It 
costs less than a tenth of an EVA to build one of them, you know. And a lot 
less time! We could be wiped out! At least one person knows what you did to 
Jet Alone. And what if they talk? We could be executed!"

"We will be fine. This is a flawed pilot with an automeme that transferred 
to the unit. We thought his medication could stop it. Obviously not. It is a 
trifling matter."

"TRIFLING?!" Fuyutsuki was lost for words. Not since Unit-03 went berserk 
did they have such a problem And Unit-03 had been stopped within a short 
while. But Unit-06 had disappeared.

"How did it vanish, anyway?"

"I seems to be a new application of the AT-Field. Bending the light around 
it so it seems not to be there. A truly magnificent achievement."

"So what do we do?"

"We wait."

"Wait?"

"We wait. Patience is a virtue."

Gendou smiled.

Fuyutsuki shivered.

***

"Oh yes OH YES OH YES!"

Kensuke Aida, newly drafted into NERV, was ecstatic at seeing thee new EVA 
for the first time. It was his, after all. Getting to wear a gun had simply 
been the icing on the cake to him.

In all honesty, you could have butchered his family and shown him a picture 
of his sister with a sparkler up her ass and he wouldn�t have blinked.

He couldn�t wait to get into it and try the controls.

All the weaponry in NERV was his to play with... and he made the butch, 
muscled, heavily-armed grunts of NERV security nervous.

Shinji sighed and shook his head as his friend went into raptures around the 
new EVA. If he knew exactly what he was in for, he wouldn�t be so happy.

"Hey, Kensuke. Let�s go. We�re going to see Touji, remember?"

"Yeah... but isn�t it cool?"

Asuka sighed this time. She agreed, it was a nice design, but nothing to get 
that excited about, was it? Unit 2 was much nicer looking. It was also very 
reliable. Thinking about what the new EVA might get up to was not something 
she likedto think about. And Kensuke should NEVER have been issued with a 
sidearm. No matter what the regulations said.

"Come ON, Kensuke!"

"Okay, okay..."

They walked on. Rei wasn�t with them; she was having some sort of tests at 
HQ.

"So what�s it like, piloting an EVA?"

Shinji thought for a moment, thinking for a good description.

"Nasty."

"Nasty?"

"Look, Kensuke, if an Angel breaks your EVA�s arm, you get the pain. If 
anything happens to your EVA, you feel it. Remember when I was skewered?"

"Yeah..."

"That was not nice."

"And that verdammnt spider-thing..." Asuka shuddered.

"Eh?"

"Acid." She shuddered again.

"She still has nightmares."

"HEY! I do not have bad dreams!"

"Well, Asuka, what do you call them when you wake up screaming that the 
skin�s coming off your back? Flashbacks?"

Asuka opened her mouth to reply, but was silenced by a boom.

>From the third floor of the hospital, smoke was billowing out of the 
windows.

***

"�At 1:15 today, a bomb went off at the NERV military hospital. Twelve 
people were killed,including a pilot for NERV, who was recovering from the 
incident last month. The Curch of the Flaming Sword has caimed full 
responsibility for the attack, saying that the act was entirely 
justifiable...�"

***

Touji�s funeral was a somber, quiet affair.

Rei, Asuka, Shinji and Kensuke were there, along with Hikari, Gendou, Misato 
and many, many others.

Hikari  threw in a large bouquet; his parents brought other mementos of the 
short-lived pilot.

"Present-ARMS!"

The honour guard of NERV troops fired three shots into the air, saluting a 
soldier in the fight for humanity. Rei,  Asuka and Shinji were among them, 
firing their rifles. It was a somber day; none of them had really accepted 
the fact that they  might actually die while in NERV.

They watched as Touji�s mother was presented with a banned emblazoned with 
the NERV emblem, and a package that contained a full dress uniform for 
Touji- not that he�d ever worn it.

There would be, it was agreed, a lifetime compensation plan for his parents. 
They had no doubt that it would go towards helping Touji�s sister as she 
recovered.

After the short ceremony, Touji�s mother came over to the pilots, clutching 
the package in her hands.

"You... served with my son. Was he everything he should have been?" There 
were tears in her eyes; all of them nodded.

"Mrs. Suzuhara, I was proud to have your son as my friend and partner. He 
would have done anything to save us. I just wish that this hadn�t been the 
way that things had to go."

She smiled, a small, watery smile. "Thank you. I know he wasn�t perfect..."

"He gave his life for Earth. No-one can ask more."

This came from Rei, who had remained silent throughout. It shocked everyone 
to hear her say that; no-one had thought that she thought very much of the 
other pilot.

"Thank you." Mrs. Suzukara turned, and walked away, slowly; he husband 
supported her as she stumbled towards the car waiting.

Shinji started as he felt a hand squeeze his shoulder. "C�mon. Let�s get 
drunk."

Shinji just nodded.

***

Around the table were six people.

Three of them were having trouble staying upright.

Rei, somewhat unbelieveably, was finishing her third bottle of  Sake, while 
Asuka, Shinji and Kensuke were nearly passed out.

Misato was flabberghasted.

Penpen was noncommittal.

"What is the purpose of this?"

"Drung... Drunkenesh ish helb... helpful in times of shtresh, Rei."

"It is?"

"It�s also the tradizional thing for sad evendsh."

"I fail to see why. Misato-san, I think I will retire."

"Go ahead..."

***

None of them were at school the following morning.



End part one.

There is another part to come.

This will be released in the next couple of days... can anyone guess what�s 
going to happen?


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