Neon Genesis Evangelion Fan Fiction ❯ Crossroads ❯ Introductions/Discoveries ( Chapter 2 )

[ Y - Young Adult: Not suitable for readers under 16 ]

Crossroads:
A Neon Genesis Evangelion and Rifts crossover

Neon Genesis Evangelion is used without permission. It is copyright by
Gainix (wonderful folks!) and ADV has the domestic distribution rights.
"Rifts®, Palladium Books®, Mechanoids®, The Mechanoid Invasion®,
Megaverse®, RECON®, and After the Bomb® Are registered trademark owned
and licensed by Kevin Siembieda and Palladium Books, Inc. Cyber-
Knight(TM), Coalition States(TM), Triax(TM), Nightbane(TM), Nightlands(TM),
Heroes Unlimited(TM), Villains Unlimited(TM), Beyond the Supernatural(TM),
Boxed Nightmares(TM), Ninjas & Superspies(TM), Mystic China(TM), Palladium
Fantasy RPG(TM), Mindwerks(TM), Vampire Kingdoms(TM), The Juicer Uprising(TM),
Phase World(TM), Wormwood(TM), Psyscape(TM) Mega-Damage(TM), S.D.C.(TM),
I.S.P.(TM), P.P.E.(TM), SAMAS(TM), Splugorth(TM), Cyber-Knight(TM), Glitter
Boy(TM), Juicer(TM), Mind Melter(TM), Psi-Stalker(TM), Northern Gun(TM), Erin
Tarn(TM), Naruni(TM), ... and other names and titles are trademarks owned and
licensed by Kevin Siembieda and Palladium Books, Inc."... and are also used
without permission. Please don't sue me! I am a poor college student! If
you sue me I won't be able to waste my money on your wonderful products! 8^)

With that out of the way, on with the fic! As you may or may not
remember from last time, a group of mercenaries from the post-
apocalyptic world of Rifts earth have been rifted to the world of
Evangelion while trying to escape the forces of the Coalition States.
Meanwhile, on the Earth of Evangelion, Shinji Ikari, third child and
designated pilot of Evangelion Unit 01, has gone to the forest near
Tokyo 3 in an attempt to escape the wrath of Asuka and the pressures of
his life. It seems that Shinji has had the luck (good or bad is up to
you...) to run into our intrepid band of sell swords, figuratively
speaking because they don't use that many swords after all. This
encounter has proven to be too much for the young robot jockey and has
resulted in him passing out cold at the feet (paws?) of the Wolfen
Feris Bloodclaw. But wouldn't you if you had never seen an 8-foot-9-
inch bipedal wolf-man before?


Crossroads Chapter 2: Introductions/Discoveries


There was a piercing, broken howl coming from a certain clearing
in the woods, not far from the city of Tokyo-3. A howl filled with
mirth. As if a great hound or wolf was howling, literally, with
laughter. This would be an accurate guess.

["Howhahahahahaha, howhahahahaha! Did you see that? Passed out
dead cold!"] Ferris's laughter continued on, undaunted by the glares
of Amber and Hector. Kyle and Melissa were trying hard not to join the
Wolfen in laughing. Alister was still out cold himself, so he couldn't
truly appreciate the situation. As for Anika, after seeing the boy had
passed out, she chuckled and returned to her patrol. One unannounced
visitor was more than enough.

["Ferris, grow up would you?"] Amber snapped, ["This poor kid
was terrified."] With an exasperated sigh, Amber walked over to the
prone form of the boy and knelt beside him. As she touched his
forehead in order to use her psi-diagnostic ability, she was overcome
by a massive empathic blast. A knot of jumbled and confused emotions
washed over her, roaring through her defenses till she was able to
strengthen them, closing her mind from the other. The others only saw
the Mind Melter gasp and pull back her hand as if burned.

["Amber, what iss it? I believe I felt ssomethingg just now. A
resonance of ssome sssort..."] Hector asked as he slithered over. Kyle
and Ferris, who was no longer laughing, rushed over as well. Melissa,
who was still looking after her lover, Alister, glanced over, concern
plain on her face.

["When I touched him, I picked up a massive psionic transmission
from this boy... it tore through my barriers before I could react."]

["Is that possible? I mean, you're a mind melter, how could he
unless, unless he's a mind melter."] Kyle trailed off. He was starting
to finger his guns.

["That ssort of raw power could eassily be available to a master
level pssionic. Even an untrained one."] Hector paused for a moment,
considering the situation, then continued, ["Tell uss Amber, what type
of thoughtsss did he transsmit?"]

["Hold on, I'm still trying to sort them out, give me a moment"]
Amber sat very still and after a brief pause continued, ["Most of it
was feelings of hopelessness, abandonment, fear, confusion, a lot of
old pain, some new pain, just a jumble of negative stuff with only a
few threads of positive. He's hurting, a lot, but is trying to hide it
from himself as much as anyone else. There's also a tinge of what
could become a deep hatred. But such a gift... he is radiating raw power
into the ambience around him. This level of potential is incredible."]
There was a hint of awe in her voice.

Shinji groaned softly and started to move. ["Looks like he's
coming out of it. Ferris, go check on the box, would you? Last thing
we need is for him to faint again."]

["Sure thing, Kyle."] Ferris walked towards the APC, chuckling
to himself again.

["I will go with him, I wissh to further sstudy our cargo. I do
not like myssteriesss, esspecially onesss the Coaltion hasss such a
vessted interesst in."] With that, Hector went after the Wolfen.

["Where the hell are we?"] Kyle muttered to himself.


The first thing Shinji noticed when he crept back to
consciousness was the warmth of the sunlight all about him. Next was
the hard, lumpiness of the rock that had somehow found its way into his
bed. Then he remembered where he was. He sat bolt upright with a
startled yelp and tried to stand. A hand resting firmly on his
shoulder stopped him from rising beyond a sitting position. "What, let
go! Monster! Monster! Hel(mufugh)!!!" Shinji started to yell before
a gloved hand covered his mouth.

["Sure is nervous, ain't he?" a male voice asked in an amused
tone.

["I think he's speaking Japanese."] Another voice, female this
time, said. ["Let me try to talk with him."]

There was the sound of some shifting, a few moments passed, and a
pretty young lady sat down in front of him. She looked a few years
younger then Misato, with bright blue eyes and black hair tied back in
a ponytail. She was wearing denim pants and a white tank top. She
cleared her throat and started speaking in Japanese "Um, hi. My name
is Melissa, and if you promise not to scream, I'll have Kyle take his
hand of your mouth. OK?"

Shinji nodded his head and felt the hand on his mouth leave. The
hand on his shoulder didn't move an inch. "Who... who are you?"

"That's, difficult to explain. But don't you think it would be
polite of you to introduce yourself?" Melissa asked with a smile.

Shinji blushed deeply, "I'm sorry. My name is Shinji. Shinji
Ikari." Why am I apologizing to them? They're the ones holding me
captive.

"That's OK, Shinji, we weren't that forward ourselves." She
switched back to English and addressed the man holding his shoulder.
["Kyle, let 'em up, ok? Thanks"]

Shinji felt the hand leave his shoulder and then saw it offered
to help him to his feet. As Shinji grasped the cold metallic hand
offered he looked up and noticed the face of the man that was
restraining him. It was not an unhandsome face, despite the trio of
long jagged scar running down the right side of it, what took him back
was the right eye. It was obviously artificial and its center glowed
with a soft blue light.

["Up you go, kid. You OK?"]

Shinji dumbly nodded his head.

["Do you speak American? Ya know English?"]

Shinji again nodded his head wordlessly.

["Right. Take it from here Melissa, I'll watch Alister for ya."]

["Thanks Kyle"] Kyle nodded to Melissa, put on a pair of mirror
shades and walked to where another man lay stretched out on a cot.

"Well, Shinji (right?), how are you feeling?"

"Fine, I guess, but who are you people?"

"Well, my name is Melissa. The guy who was covering your mouth
is Kyle." She said, indicating him with a nod of her head.

["Yo."]

"The man on the cot is Alister, and the lady hanging back in the
trees is Amber."

Shinji hadn't even noticed her.

"You already met Anika, she's the one who... escorted you into
camp, and Hector and Ferris aren't around. We are an independent
mercenary company, although we're barley big enough to be called a
squad really. We specialize in escorting/body guarding, seek and
destroy, light infiltration, and scouting."

Shinji looked at her, agape. "Mercenaries? You're kidding,
right?" Shinji looked around. He looked at the guns, the strange war
machines, the odd, fatigue-like clothing Kyle was wearing. "No... you're
not, are you? What are you doing here? Does it have something to do
with Eva?" Shinji paused for a moment. "... and what was that wolf...
thing?"

"Well, for starters, we don't really know where 'here' is. Why
we're here is a long story, and I don't know what an 'Eva' is." She
paused for a moment and broke into a grin. "What the 'wolf thing' is,
well what he is, is a Wolfen. His name is Ferris."

["Tell him, Melissa."]

["What? Tell him what, Amber?"]

["Tell him how we got here."]

["You're kidding, right? I don't know if that's too smart."]

"Tell me what? What about how you got here?" Shinji was
becoming more confused by the moment.

["Melissa, we can't keep it secret from him, hell he's already
seen too much. If he can grasp this, we can come to an, arrangement
with him."]

["... Damn it, you're right. I'll tell him."] Melissa didn't sound
comfortable with it thought.

Melissa turned and looked at Shinji with a searching, penetrating
gaze. The boy pulled back a little under it. "How we got here...
Shinji, I have to ask you one question first. Where and when are we?"

"What do you mean, when are we?"

"Just what I said. Where and when are we?"

"Well, we're in Tokyo-3, in Japan. The year is 2015." Shinji
was getting confused, and nervous.

"Wow... Well, about a half-hour ago, we were in the continent of
North America, Midwestern area and the year was 112 Post Apocalypse.
We think that's about 2390ish AD or so." She let that sink in for a
minute before she continued. "The man sleeping over there, Alister, he
opened a portal in the fabric of reality and we used it to come here."

There was a moment of absolute silence.

"You-you're joking right? Open a portal in reality? That's
impossible! How could you do something like that?!" Shinji was
closing and opening his fist slowly. Somewhere in the back of his mind
a voice was telling him that she wasn't... "NO, that just can't be true!"

"Well, it is. And how he opened the portal, the rift, was by
magic. He's a mage."

Shinji was about to tell her that magic wasn't real when he
realized that a glowing yellow sphere had appeared over her open hand.
"How...? is that...?"

"Magic. I'm learning, no where near as powerful as Alister, but
I know a few useful tricks."

"How do you do that?" Shinji was gazing wonderingly at the 'Globe
of Daylight' that hovered above the woman's hand. If she had a
response, the ringing of a cell phone cut it off.

["The hell is that?"] Kyle was on his feet and was holding a
handgun of some sort.

["Umm... that's my cell phone."] Shinji dug through his backpack,
silently cursing the 'amusing' ring that Misato had insisted it have.
Finally finding it, he flipped it open, stopping the insistent ringing
and put it to his ear. "Hello?"

"Shinji! We need you to report to HQ ASAP! There's an angel
approaching! Where the hell are you?" Misato's slightly agitated
voice responded, "Rei and Asuka are already here."

"Ahhh, I'm in the woods, near the edge of it. By the bus
station." That was a safe answer; the bus station was only about a
kilometer from where he was.

"All right, I'm sending someone to pick you up, wait at the bus
station."

"Yes Misato." The line went dead; she had hung up.

As Shinji got up to leave, he could almost feel Kyle's gaze rest
on him. ["Where do you think you're going?"]

Shinji looked at the merc and suddenly realized that the gun was
now casually pointed in his direction.

["What's going on? Kyle, what's with the gun?"] A deeper male
voice suddenly asked. Shinji looked over at the source of the voice
and couldn't have missed it. The source of the voice was well over
eight feet tall, maybe nine. It was the wolf-thing. Suddenly it
grinned, revealing an impressive set of teeth, and winked at him.
Shinji felt like he was going to faint again. "I must be having a
nervous breakdown," he thought.

["Kyle, it sounds like someone needs him somewhere. We can't
just hold him hostage,"] Melissa said.

["So, what - we should just let him walk away so that he can tell
all his buddies out there about us? If it gets back to any sort of
local authorities... I'm not going back on some operating table. Not
again."] There was a kind of wild look in his human eye, something
like a caged animal. The other mercs looked at each other.

["Then, we musst trusst that he will not sspeak of usss. We
musst assk for him to give usss hiss word that he will tell no one, at
leasst until we get a better undersstanding of the ssituation. After
thisss crisssissss is ressolved, he will return here to, dissscusss
thiss with usss in more detail. Are thesse termsss acceptable for you
Kyle? Sshinji?"]

Kyle stood quietly for a moment, breathing deeply. He looked
like he was trying to calm himself. After a few seconds, he nodded his
head. ["Alright, I'll trust your instincts on this one, Scaly."]

The rest looked at Shinji, who dumbly nodded his head in reply.

["Excellent! Now, you had besst hurry."] Shinji needed no more
encouragement, and ran, full tilt, from the clearing.

["Anika?"] The Pythonan said. There was a shimmer in the air
next to him and a suite of environmental armor appeared.

["Ya, 'Scaly'?"] Anika's voice said from within the protective
shell.

["Do you sstill have thosse tracking devicesss?"] He asked.

["Sure do. I'm on it."] As the ranger moved to follow the path
Shinji took, the armor's surface shimmered again and faded into the
background.


Shinji had barely made it to the road when the black section 2
van pulled up and the slid door slide open. "Hop in, kid," one of the
agents said. No one noticed the slight shimmer by Shinji's foot, much
less the extra few milligrams of weight that the micro tracker added to
his shoe. Shinji hopped into the truck, and it drove off rapidly
towards the city a short way distant.

["Mission accomplished."] Anika whispered to herself. She then
turned and began to walk back to camp.


"The third child has been secured, we are returning to the geo-
front."

"Good, send him to the fifth briefing room when you get here."
Captain Misato Katsuragi put the phone down and turned to the raised
area where the commander and sub-commander were seated. "The third
will be here in a few minutes, Sirs."

"All right. Launch the Evas as soon as possible; we'll have to
engage this one on the coast. Understood?" Commander Gendo Ikari
asked in a level tone.

"Understood sir" Misato replied. She then left for the briefing
room where Rei and Asuka were already waiting.


While the other two pilots were indeed waiting in the fifth
conference room, it was with varying degrees of patience. This
translates into Rei sitting calmly in one of the chairs and Asuka
pacing back and forth mumbling angrily under her breath.

Asuka suddenly stopped pacing and said, quite loudly, "Where the
hell is he!?" As luck would have it, her question was instantly
answered.

"He's right here Asuka, no need to get so worked up." Misato
said as she walked into the room followed closely by Shinji.

"Well, it's about damn time too." Asuka said as she sat down.
Shinji walked over and sat down close to Rei.

Misato looked around, and then began her briefing. "Here's the
situation, the next Angel has been sighted a few miles off coast and is
advancing quickly. Currently, the intercept systems here are down 68%,
so we will engage the Angel on the coast. Understood?" The three asked
no questions. Shinji seemed more nervous and distracted than normal, but
luckily no one really took notice, except Rei, who didn't make any
comment on it. "All right, Asuka and Shinji will have their Evas
airlifted to the coast, where portable generators are being set up.
OK? OK. Get suited up and in your Eva's, you leave in 15 minutes,
you'll be at the coast in approximately 35 minutes from now.
Dismissed." The children got up and left, Asuka complaining about
having to share her first victory over Japanese soil with Shinji, and
Shinji being even more quiet and subdued than usual. Misato, who
finally noticed, hoped that there was nothing wrong with him. She
resigned herself to ask later.


A little more than a half of an hour later the two immense war
machines were standing on the coast, waiting for their opponent to
arrive. They didn't have to wait long. As the equally immense form of
the 7th Angel broke the surface of the water, Asuka in Unit 02 charged
it, while Shinji in the purple Unit 01 provided cover fire. The Angel
made no move to block or counter the red Eva's progressive halberd; it
didn't even try to dodge it. The weapon did its work well, splitting
the monster neatly in half. However, even as Asuka turned to gloat
over her easy victory, the Angel's two halves suddenly animated as two
separate entities. The two halves each turned to face one of the two
Evas, and fired a powerful, and unexpected, energy blast. Luckily for
humanity, the UN was standing by with an N^2 mine which it gladly
dropped on the Angel, stopping it in its tracks. However, the Angel
wasn't defeated, just delayed. Humanity had a week to prepare itself
for this new development.


On a rise a safe distance from the battle, Ferris and Kyle
watched in awe as the two bots and the monster duked it out.

["Damn..."] Ferris whispered as the N^2 mine impacted.

["You can say that again,"] Kyle replied.

["OK, 'Damn.'"] The Wolfen looked at his human friend and
grinned.

["Smart ass."] Kyle responded with a chuckle. They both
continued to listen on the Nerv com frequency for a few more minutes
before either said anything more.

["So, you think that kid we met today is the same one we herd on
the radio?"] Kyle asked.

["Sure seems that way. I think they called him Shinji a few
times and Ikari at least once. I think he sounded the same too, but
it's hard to tell with the unitrans (author: universal translator)."]
Ferris answered.

Kyle suddenly grinned. ["Hey. I think the one piloting the red
mech might be your kinda girl."]

["Well... she did sound kinda bitchy."] Ferris grinned back.

["Always stealing my best lines."] The two laughed and walked
back towards the hover cycles they had used to get to the battle scene.
["We better get back and tell the others about this. This whole damn
situation smells bad."] Kyle looked back at the smocking remains of the
two monsters and the pair of gargantuan robots being hauled away.
["Were the hell did we end up?"]

The two mercs mounted up and drove away.


...to be continued

Author's notes

Chapter two finally typed, many more to go. C&C is more than
welcome, send it to isamu@evangelion.com or isamu@nerv-hq.zzn.com. I
check both more or less daily. My ICQ number is 20130664. No GM's
corner this time, but next time I will have a listing of new tech on
the Black Market for all you Rifters out there! I think there will be
enough new stuff by next time. In case people are wondering though, I
will list off the vehicles the group has with them, and their current
condition. At some later fic I will list Alister and Melissa's spells
and Amber psionic powers etc. I might even give full character sheets,
but I doubt it. I would have to get those away from the people who
played them... Anyway, here they are:

1 Coalition Mark V APC (stolen, used to store spare parts and gear, as
well as a pair of hover cycles and a stolen SAMAS). Amber or Alister
usually drives it. Minor damage to the external armor, out of
grenades, rail guns are almost empty (down 80%), and will need an
engine overhaul soon (within a few about 10,000 miles or so).

1 Triax Dyna-Max 2000 Robot Vehicle outfitted with a Naruni Enterprises
medium force field (black market). This is Kyle's. Currently the
force field generator is down, maybe for good, the main body armor is
down about 60%, only about 100 rounds are left between the two rail
guns, 3 mini missiles left, and the 'slammer' missiles are long gone.

1 IR-2040 Destroyer Robot Vehicle outfitted with a Naruni Enterprises
light force field (again, black market). This is Ferris'. The force
field is down, but repairable (but not on this Earth), armor is down
30% and rail guns have about 300 or so rounds left and the missiles are
spent.

1 CS Super SAMAS! (Kyle stole this one himself, it got him his 6th death
sentence from the CS). One quarter gernades (micro-fusion, but they have
enough high-explosive and/or plasma to fully load it), with particle beam
rifle. Not a scratch on it.

1 Northern Gun 'Prowler' hovercycle, nuclear engine. This is Anika's.
A few scratches, but otherwise fine.

2 Mantiques Imperium MI-2020 Desert Fox hovercycle's, electric engines.
Technically these belong to Ferris and Kyle, but the others use them as
necessary. These are also in good condition except for a few scratches
and dents.

I would also like to thank my prereaders:

Annie the Laughing Kookaburra
Sarevock
Draven Killjoy
Chris
Vash
Alan Slaughter
Josh Z

And as before, my other friends who read and gave me side
comments, as well as the people who have offered to read and I haven't
had the time to send prereader copies of my fic to. Don't worry,
chapter 3 should be ready for prereading in about a week.

That's all for now!

Rough Draft: v 1.0 11-30-2000
Rough Draft: v 1.2 12-25-2000
Rough Draft: v 1.3 01-08-2001
Final Draft: v 2.0 01-14-2001