[Marvel/EVA][fanfic] The Evangelion Four, Chapter 2 of 5
By Henry J. Cobb
All of these characters are the creation of Hideaki Anno or Stan Lee, but
the inspiration for this story can be blamed on a throw away line from John
Biles & Rod M.
Chapter Two: The Fourth Child, or It's Clobbering Time.
The house was completely dark except for the glow from my computer screen
as I watched the video I had downloaded a hours before. I hit freeze then
I zoomed in until that face filled the screen.
I heard a clatter in the darkness behind me.
"Stay there," I said, "I'm coming over to help." I stood up and turned on
the lights.
The next morning I got off the bus at the stop next to my school. I lived
close enough to walk, but I had to go someplace else before school. It was
my new routine. Just one more thing to look after from now on.
"Hey Toji," Kensuke greeted me as I entered the classroom, "Did you get
that video of the battle?"
"Yeah," I took my usual seat.
At that moment, Rei walked in with bandages around her head, right eye and
arms and with her right arm in a sling.
"Geeze, what happened to her?" I asked.
"Well, I guess that's why she hasn't been at school for the past two
weeks," Hikari observed, "What's your excuse Mr. Suzuhara?"
"Family medical problems."
"Your sister, right?"
"Yeah, I don't want to talk about it." I got my books out.
Hikari emailed me her class notes from yesterday. I had already read the
ones from before.
"Thanks," I started reading it.
A new boy walked in. His face was too familiar.
"Who's that?" I asked Hikari.
"He's Shinji Ikari," she said, "He started the day after the battle."
Between classes I got up, grabbed Shinji's nose, stretched it out a foot
and let it snap back.
"Ow!" Shinji put his hands over his nose.
"So, you're the freak who set off that bomb?" I asked.
"I didn't have any choice. It's the only weapon they gave me."
I went back to my desk.
"You're the one who saved the city?" Most of the girls in class gathered
around his desk.
"Well, Rei helped."
"Show us, show us!" The girls said.
"Ikari." Somehow Rei's voice cut through the confusion like a knife.
There wasn't any emotion in it, there never was. It's just that she spoke
so rarely, that every time she did everybody stopped to listen.
"Uh, yes Rei?" Shinji looked over to where she was seated.
"Do not discuss classified matters with civilians."
"Yes Ma'am."
"Aw," One of the girls pulled Shinji's left ear out a few inches and
released it, but they took their seats as the next teacher entered.
After classes I waited outside the school. I had to be someplace, but I
had 30 minutes before I had to catch the bus. Plenty of time for what
needed to be done.
"Sorry, new kid," I spoke to Shinji as he came out of the school, "but I'm
going to have to make you pay for what you did to my sister when you set
off that bomb."
"Th - there was somebody out in the open when it went off?"
"You didn't think to check, did you?" I stepped up and swung my right fist
into his gut. It went in an inch then bounced back. I hit him on the chin
with my left and his head moved back a few inches then snapped back.
"I'm sorry, they didn't give me any choice," He backed up a few steps.
"Hold still, damn you!" I ran up and hit him several times, to no effect.
"Everybody had plenty of time to make it to the shelters," Shinji stretched
out his arms out of his short sleeves and wrapped them several times around
me, pinning my arms at my sides. "It's not my fault that your sister's
dead."
"Dead? Dead?" I could feel the color rising in my cheeks as I struggled
against his freakish strength, "She's not dead. It would be easy if she
were dead. No, she's going to have to suffer for the rest of her life.
Thanks
to you, she's blind!" With a surge of strength I broke free of Shinji's
grasp, then ran up and delivered a powerful right punch to his gut with a
much more satisfying sound to it.
"St - stop it!" He held up a hand. He really looked frightened now. Good.
Suddenly there was a shimmer in the air and I was knocked off my feet. I
got up and looked back.
Rei had dropped her bookpack and was standing there with her left palm held
out towards me. "Look at yourself."
"Look here Rei, you've got no right to tell me what to do!" I pointed my
right index finger at her and stopped.
The finger was orange. My right hand was covered in rocky orange scabs and
only had three fingers and a thumb. My left hand was the same, and my arms
were covered with those rocky orange scabs. I looked at my reflection in
the school windows. My hair had fallen out and those rocky orange scabs
covered my entire body. My body was huge, bigger than a sumo wrestler, and
horribly disfigured. Only my black eyes remained the same.
Kensuke stood there staring, his jaw agape.
"Don't look at me!" I fell to my knees and crossed my arms over my head.
"Toji!" Hikari ran up, "What happened to you?"
"Stay away!" I didn't look at her, I couldn't bear to see her expression.
"They've turned me into a monster. I don't want it to happen to you too."
I sat for several minutes, crying like a baby.
Then two men in black suits walked up. "Mr. Suzuhara, please come with
us."
I followed them to a black van. The suspension creaked as I got in the
back.
A few hours later I sat on an examination table as a blond woman in a white
lab coat ran tests on me. Her nametag said Dr. Akagi.
"So, you are not in any discomfort?" She asked.
"I'm hideous, isn't that enough?"
"Well, other than your transformation, you seem to be perfectly healthy.
So I won't detain you any longer."
A Japanese woman in a military uniform entered carrying a folded piece of
dark blue fabric, "Dr. Akagi, It's ready."
"Oh good," Dr. Akagi turned the fabric over in her hands, "I'm sorry about
the lack of coverage, but we just used up most of our supply for a special
order for Germany and we didn't expect you to turn out so big or so soon."
"You didn't expect? You knew that this would happen to me!" I grabbed her
by the right shoulder and pinned her against the wall.
"Ritsuko!" The Japanese woman said, but kept back from me.
"It's ok, Maya," Dr. Akagi looked me in the eyes, "We didn't know that
exposure to one activated child could trigger another. If I had known,
then I would have put signs on Rei and Shinji warning people not to bully
them."
"Yeah, go ahead and laugh. What do you mean activated?"
"There are some children, between the ages of 14 and 15, who were
prenatally exposed to the second impact event and now have the potential to
activate cosmic powers. But there is hope for you."
"What?"
"Your new form is much more massive than your usual body. That mass did
not come from your environment."
"So?"
"Since it came from elsewhere in an instant, perhaps you have the ability
to change back in a instant? If you will let me go, I can get started on
studying this."
"OK, I'll give you some time on that," I released her and she slumped to
the ground.
She grabbed the blue fabric and held it up towards me. It was a huge pair
of boxing shorts. They were blue with black trim and had the digit 3 in a
white circle on the side. "In the meantime, would you mind wearing this?"
I looked down at myself. The shreds of my pants and underwear only just
covered my dignity. I turned away from the two women and fumbled with my
clothing and it tore off like tissue paper. I quickly put on the shorts.
They seemed to be made of much tougher material than any kind of fabric I'd
seen before, and yet were still comfortably flexible against my bare, well
rocky, skin.
Just then an alarm sounded.
Dr. Akagi switched on a communicator, "What is it?"
"There was a problem on the hydrothermal power sensors so I sent
maintenance down and they reported seeing a monster on level 20, but
there's no orange signal," A man's voice responded, "The two Children are
on their way. Rei's ETA is five minutes."
"Maya, get Mr. Suzuhara to the surface while I work on the sensors,"
Dr. Akagi walked out of the examination room.
"I'm not running away," I followed her.
Dr. Akagi stopped and looked at me, "Do you mind dealing with this problem
then?"
"Yeah, I'd like to pay them back."
"You're too heavy for our pod system. Maya, show him how to get down to
level 20." Dr. Akagi used a wall communicator, "I'm sending the fourth
Child down now."
I followed Maya into an elevator, "You're coming down to face the monster
with me?"
"No thanks," she replied, "I'm just going to show you the stairs down from
level 18, if that's ok with you. This elevator doesn't go to 20."
"Mr. Suzuhara," that same man spoke from my belt level.
"What?" I looked down.
"I'm testing the communicator in your suit, Mr. Suzuhara. We just got a
glance at the monster in the security cameras and it's a bit bigger than
you, but nowhere near the size of the first monster."
"Just call me Toji."
"Sure. My name's Shigeru."
Maya punched 18 and the elevator started went down as it counted up from 2.
"Why does it skip 12 through 16?" I asked.
"That's class--" Shigeru started.
"This is an express elevator," Maya cut him off.
When we reached level 18, Maya pointed the way to the stairs then took the
elevator back up.
As I walked down the stairs I asked, "What's on level 20 anyway?"
"It's our backup hydrothermal power supply," Shigeru said.
"Toji," Dr. Akagi's voice came from my belt level, "This facility must
never lose all power. That is your top priority."
"Why, what would happen?" I asked.
"There is no point evacuating this facility in the event of a complete
power failure," she replied, "there is nowhere on Earth we could run to."
As I passed level 19 twin six inch thick armored bulkheads opened and then
closed behind me, but when I came to level 20 the bulkhead didn't move.
"I can't open the bulkhead," Shigeru said.
"I can see why," I replied, "It's been bashed from the inside. Is this
door the same strength as the one on level 19?"
"Yes," he replied.
"OK, I'm going to try to force it."
"Go ahead."
I managed to get just my fingertips in the crack where the two sides had
been slightly forced apart and I scraped the metal, but the doors remained
shut. "This is no good. Is there another way in?"
"Punch it," Dr. Akagi said.
"What?"
"You managed to bruise Shinji through his AT field with a punch. Therefore
a punching action must serve as a focus for your cosmic power."
"Sure," I punched the door and it dented a little bit.
"That's not good enough," she said, "You need to concentrate."
I took a step back, closed my eyes and imagined Shinji's face superimposed
on the door. "Why you stupid hunk of metal!"
Kaboom! The armored doors flew inwards and bounced off the floor.
I stepped in and looked around at a twenty foot high chamber filled with
industrial equipment.
"He's to your left," another woman's voice sounded from my belt.
"What?" I looked down.
There was a rush of motion to my left. I turned towards it, but it hit me
and threw me to the side.
I scrambled to my feet and looked at it.
It seemed to be carved out of gray stone with double rows of stone slabs
growing out of its back. It was hunched forwards like a bear or ape with a
huge round head. It seemed to have no toes and its fingers were just stone
spikes sticking straight forwards from its circular hands.
"Toji," The woman's voice continued, "My name's Misato, I'm in charge of
tactical. Rei and Shinji are on their way down and should be there in
three minutes."
I turned to the monster, well the other monster, counting myself, "Look,
I've got no beef with you. I wasn't a monster myself before today.
Whatever they did to you we can talk it out."
It said nothing and lunged forwards.
I stepped to one side, grabbed its arm and threw it. It was very heavy.
"What are you doing Toji?" Misato asked.
"Talking to him, he's just another kid like me, right?"
"That thing does not have a blue or orange signal," Dr. Akagi said,
"Whatever it is, it is nothing like you."
The monster attacked again and I tried to throw it over me, but it kept
pushing forwards and forced me on my back. I kicked forwards with both
legs and tossed it over me. "Just stop it right there," I struck with both
hands together against its back and the floor gave way.
We both fell and I lost track of it. Finally I landed on my side and it
hurt a little bit. I looked around and saw nothing, it was too dark.
"Dr Akagi, Misato, Shigeru?"
There was no answer from my belt.
I stood up and waited. Finally my eyes began to adjust to the gloom. In
the distance I saw a figure.
As the figure moved towards me I could see that it wasn't as big as the
monster and its movements were more human.
"How odd," the figure spoke with the voice of a boy around my age, "except
for the fingers and toes your skeleton is almost completely human."
"How can you tell that?" asked.
"You can speak?"
"I am human." I replied, "Or at least I was until a few hours ago. How
can you tell what my bones look like in this gloom?"
"I lost most of my sight in a cave-in last year," he stepped towards me,
"But I gained so much more. The ability to speak to the monsters who dwell
below the surface and a vibration sense, like a mole. Now follow me, this
section is not stable."
I followed the boy over some rubble for a while and then we came to a
larger area with a smoother floor.
He lit a small torch, by its dim light I could see that he was a dwarf,
barely four feet tall, yet massively built. His large head seemed to sit
almost directly on his shoulders. His shoes, jumpsuit and cape were all
dark green. Over his huge nose he wore blue goggles that had narrow
horizontal slits over his eyes. In his hands he carried a wooden stave.
"Amazing," He looked me over, "You say your appearance was normal before
today?"
"Like you I have special powers," I replied, "I'm the one who caused that
last cave-in. Why was that monster up in our building and why are there all
these caves below it?"
"I sent my stone friend up there to scout around. Don't worry, you haven't
harmed him. As for these caves, I have had my monsters dig them. A few
weeks ago I felt a flash of energy from this location and a great
earthquake centered here. I knew that with that energy I would be able to
take over the world."
"What? Why would you want to do that?"
"The people of the surface ignored my father's brilliance. They called him
ugly and denied his funding. That is why we were alone in that cave-in last
year and why he died buried under all of those rocks. But I will avenge
his death. So swears the Mole Man!"
"You're more like a Mole Boy. There is a place up there where they can
help people like us."
"Is it the same group that turned you into a monster? Join we me, become
my right hand man and we shall turn that power that transformed you against
all of those petty humans."
"You've lost it, come with me," I walked towards him.
He reached for a rope and as he rang it a bell sounded, "You are too
human," he said.
Dozens of monsters swarmed in from all directions.
"Destroy him my pets!" He said.
I struck at the floor with both hands and the shockwaves knocked the
monsters back.
"You fool," he said, "You've cut the steam lines!"
The roof started to cave in, but I couldn't see a way out as the steam
stung my eyes. I blundered around for a bit and started having trouble
breathing.
Two arms wrapped around me several times then pulled me back up to level 20
as the walls finally gave way.
I blinked several times then looked at Shinji and Rei, "How did you find
me?"
"Dr. Akagi adjusted the scanners to work through rock and we followed your
blue signal," Shinji said, "Are you ok?"
I coughed a bit then replied, "Yeah. There was another boy like us down
there. I don't know if he survived or not. Poor kid lost his family and
tried to take it out on the world. Wait! My sister, I got to go get her.
I'm hours late to pick her up!" I got to my feet.
"Don't worry about it Toji," Shigeru said, "A miss Hikari Horaki called and
said she had your sister over at her house tonight."
"Yeah, that's fine," I looked around at the remains of the hydrothermal
power systems then walked back to the stairs.
Over the next two weeks, I settled into the lab at NERV HQ. My ID card
seemed to give me unlimited credit with the vending machines in the break
room. Dr. Akagi rigged up some exercise equipment and I did a bit of
reading. I avoided checking my email.
I was in the middle of a minor workout one afternoon when Hikari walked
into the lab.
"What are you doing here, Class President?" I put down my four ton
dumbbells, "Didn't you see the signs, U.N. Authorized Personnel Only?"
"I got a guest pass," She held up her photo ID.
"I'm surprised that Kensuke didn't kill you for that."
"He don't know about it and he don't need to know. He ain't the problem
here, you are. You've been avoiding school and your sister."
I sat there a moment, "Yeah, sorry about being such a bother, I'll come
pick her up and take her home."
"She is home. She lives with us now. My sisters have been evacuated so we
got two rooms available. We've had all of your things moved to the other
room."
"Yeah, isn't it strange how your older and younger sisters were removed,
but you were left behind and you're just about the same age as I am?"
"So you're two months older than I am, so what? I got responsibilities
here to look after the jerks in our class."
"Stay away from me. I'm not going."
"I'm standing right here until you come home with me Toji. Your sister
will just have to make her own dinner."
"Damn you girl!" I grabbed my boots, overcoat, dark glasses and big hat
and followed her out.
I took off the boots at the entrance way to Hikari's house. "I'm home," I
said with as much sarcasm as I could muster.
"Brother!" My sister felt her way along the wall, "You're here." She
stopped a few steps away, "May I touch?"
"What did you tell her?" I asked Hikari.
"Everything, now are you going to let her touch your face or imagine
something worse?"
"Come here," I reached out gently for my sister's hands.
She stopped and ran her fingers over my hands for a bit then I guided her
to my face.
"Th - that's not so bad," she said, then stopped when she got to my eyes
and felt my tears, "Did I hurt you?"
"Only my feelings."
"Hikari told me how brave you were, saving the world and everything. She
didn't need to. When the world needs saving, I know you'll always be
there. You never give up."
"Enough of that. Hikari promised to make your dinner."
"I'm on it. You two feel free to talk and catch up. Then we can go over
your missing homework. Saving the world is no excuse for skipping school
you know."
Back in NERV HQ, behind the door marked Ikari, Gendo spoke on the phone,
"Is she active yet? No. I've had enough of your excuses. Germany has yet
to activate a single Child or decoy a single attack. Pack up everything
and send it here."
Next chapter: The Second Child, or Fish out of Water.