Neon Genesis Evangelion Fan Fiction ❯ Crossroads ❯ New Teachers ( Chapter 5 )
[ Y - Young Adult: Not suitable for readers under 16 ]
Crossroads, An Evangelion/Rifts Crossover
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Welcome back to 'Crossroads' everyone! How are you? Good I
hope! Well, last time we left on an interesting point. Alister and
Melissa, as well as the rest of the mercs, now know that there is
something funny about the EVA's; namely, they are somehow alive. While
they have seen some strange things on the world they come from, this is
just weird. How will they react to this? Will they, at first? Will
they tell Shinji? What is in the rune-encrusted case that they guard?
And what is the secret ingredient that my Mom puts into her brownies to
make them taste so damn good? (No, it's not any sort of narcotic; my
mommy isn't like that!) Maybe all of these questions, and perhaps a
few more besides, will be answered! I make no guarantee though.
Chapter 5: New Teachers
Melissa was in the back of Margaret, the Mark V APC that she and
her friends used as a sort of mobile base/home, sitting in a padded
chair amidst a jumble of wires, electronics, and other strange high-
tech gizmos. She was typing sporadically at the space in front of her
hands, about a half-foot above her computer. A wire led from the
computer to a neural interface plug at the base of her skull. Bulky
glasses, attached to the computer by more wires, adorned her face. She
looked to have been sitting there for a little while. Suddenly, in an
excited tone, she said, ["Bingo!"]
Hector looked at her from where he was studying the enscroled
case that had gotten them into this mess and said, ["What issss it?"]
["I'm 'online.'"] Melissa declared proudly.
["Wonderful. Well done Melisssa."] Hector slithered over to
where the hacker and amateur mage was sitting and looked intently at
the screen displaying some sort of search program.
["Alright, let's see what I can find..."]
For the next five hours, Melissa was 'jacked-in,' routing through
the vast expanse of the 'net on hacked codes and pirate signals. She
hacked into the Swiss bank account of a drug czar who died in the
second impact and 'liberated' millions of American dollars. After
setting up a series of dummy and blind accounts for the money, she went
to online software depots to download things like encyclopedias (and
computer games for Kyle, Ferris, and Hector); stumbled through adult
site after adult site till she learned to avoid them. Finally, she
even 'ran the Magi with impudence for fake ID's and certifications.
The most difficult of these was avoiding the porn sites. ["All the
information in the world at their fingertips, and half the 'web-sites'
out there are for porn..."] Coming from a world where computers are
defended by alien AI's, magic Black ICE, and psionicly protected data
forts, the defenses and encryption's of 2015 were child's play to
counter. Finally, with a contented sigh and stretch, Melissa pulled
the plug from her head and declared, ["Finished!"]
Alister and Amber had joined Hector during this time and were all
looking eagerly at Melissa. ["Where there any... dificcultiessss?"]
Hector asked.
["Not a one! Grab the others and I'll give a rundown on our
situation."] As Amber went to get the others, Alister began giving his
wife's tensed shoulders a rub. When they were all finally assembled,
Melissa continued. ["Now, here's the rundown. I did some record
changing to get us all some fake ID's and backgrounds; there's a
printout for each of you so you can become familiar with yourself. I
tried to find as much pertinent data as I could on what the hell is
going on around here; I was able to snag some very choice stuff from
NERV's mainframe, all REALLY classified. I couldn't get at the highest
level stuff, Seraphim, without some more time, so I let it be... for
now. Finally, with the money I'm tapping I got us a trio of apartments
on the outskirts of town."] She tapped at the static field keyboard
she used and brought up a set of blueprints. She then pointed to three
adjacent apartments. ["I made sure to get three that were side by side
but had no load-bearing walls between them. I figure a vibro-blade
will slice right through those walls, and we got us one big
apartment."]
["What about the bot's and Maggie?"] Ferris asked.
["Glad ya asked!"] She tapped the field a few more times and the
blueprints for a warehouse came up. ["This building is right across
the street. It's big. It's empty. And, it's ours."] Melissa was
almost crowing with self-satisfaction.
["Aren't you worried that this raised all sorts of red flags?
You threw an awful lot of cash around, and moved a lot of things in a
very short period of time. No matter how good our covers are, they
probably won't stand up to any heavy poking."] Kyle commented.
["Already covered. While I was 'running that AI, barely even
sentient if ya ask me, called Magi I realized that almost all city
functions are also routed though it, as well as a bunch of city-related
stuff - including housing reports and census-type data. So, anyway, I
get the apartments and the warehouse and decided to take one more
stroll through the Magi to make sure I didn't forget anything and all
my tracks are covered, and guess what? Red fucking flags all over the
place. I look at 'em and sure enough, it's about my purchases. So, I
took them all down as checked and cleared. I am sooo good!"] Now, she
was crowing.
["So, when do we move in then?"] Anika asked evenly.
["We move in tomorrow."]
Shinji couldn't take much more of this. Ever since the defeat of
the Seventh Angel, Asuka had been giving him hell about whatever she
could, whenever she could. This was becoming quite a frequent
occurrence. It had only been two days but it was starting to feel like
much longer... Misato wasn't here to act as a buffer, either. It was
only a little after ten and it looked like Asuka was winding up for
another round, and to make matters worse, there was a low buzz in the
back of his head from the headache he was getting. All this added up
to one potentially miserable day. Shinji realized that it was time for
a tactical retreat. So, he went to his room, grabbed his SDAT and the
com-unit and, after biding a hasty farewell to Asuka, left the
apartment.
Asuka looked up from the kanji she was studying to watch as
Shinji walked out the front door. "Wonder what got into him?" She
shrugged and walked into the living room, flopped onto the couch and
began to watch some trashy soap opera, promptly forgetting about her
homework and Shinji.
Shinji sighed with relief as he rode the elevator down.
"Freedom," he whispered. He carefully attached the microphone and
earpiece. As he walked out of the elevator he hit the blast button and
waited for a reply. He didn't have long to wait.
["This is Lady Ghost, I read, over."]
This was not the response Shinji expected. ["Ahh, hello..."]
Shinji was leaning against the wall of his building, wondering if he
accidentally switched frequencies.
["Oh, hey Shinji! It's Melissa. How ya doing?"] She laughed
softly. ["I didn't confuse you to much with my handle did I? I didn't
even think that you wouldn't know it. You planning on heading our
way?"]
["Well, yes... if that's all right."] Shinji was walking along
again, relieved. Then, in a flash of inspiration, he took out his cell
phone, pretended to dial in a number, and put it against his ear like
he was talking into it. After this bit of deception was established
for the benefit of section two and so that the average passerby
wouldn't think him slightly crazed to be talking into thin air, he
continued his conversation with Melissa. ["I just wanted to make sure
that is was ok before I came."]
["Yeah, no problem! You can see our new place. You are sooo
going to love it!"] Melissa said cheerily from the other end.
["New place?"]
["Yep, I'll tell ya how to get here."] With that she began to
guide him and his section two escort across town.
As Shinji approached the building that had become the Rifters'
temporary haven, Kyle began to scan the area around Shinji from his
vantage point on the apartment building's roof. ["Three... six...
seven... eight, nine, ten...twelve, thirteen, and.... fourteen. No
holes and alert. More of them too. Trained professional bodyguards
just like before. Wonder if Melissa was as careful as she thought with
those red flags."] With that, Kyle lifted up the service door set into
the building's roof and began to climb down.
Shinji of course was unaware of the mercs' observation - or of
the amount of guards around him, for that matter. He was far too busy
attempting to follow Melissa's rather confusing directions that seemed
to be based on a random mix of street names and landmarks. Finally,
after a few backtracks and circles, he had arrived at one of Tokyo-3's
nicer apartment complexes. The close proximity to the warehouse
district probably wasn't good for business though.
["Found it? Kick'en! Head on up to room 503, see ya here!"]
With that, Melissa cut the transmission.
Shinji closed and pocketed his cell phone, then walked up to the
door, which buzzed him in before he could press a button. He pressed
the button for the elevator and calmly waited for it. "Were did they
get the money for an apartment?" he mumbled as the door opened.
"This is Sigma team leader to base, do you read, over?" The man
stood in the shadows of the warehouse facing the apartment building
that the Third Child had just entered. He genuinely liked being
assigned to watch Shinji; the kid was courteous, unlike Asuka, wasn't
quite as... odd as Rei, didn't seem to notice or even mind his shadows,
and when he did encounter one of them he didn't make a big deal out of
it. An overall good kid, even if he did have a knack for ditching them
every now and again.
"This is base Sigma Leader. What can I do for you Johnson?" A
pleasant female voice responded.
"The Third just entered an apartment outside his normal routine,
mind running a check on it?"
"You are WAY to protective of him. I don't think his dad cares
this much about him. What's the address?"
"1156 Imperial. And his father's a cold-hearted bastard. If
Shinji had a pet goldfish it would probably care about him more then
the Commander." His jibe was answered by laughter.
"I got to pass that one along to Beta team. All right got a
response. A group of Americans moved into three of the apartments
yesterday. Magi didn't flag them so it must check out. Anything
else?"
"A yes to the idea of dinner on Friday night would be nice, but
other then that, no. Thanks for indulging my overprotective
tendencies."
"The answer is still no, Johnson, I don't date coworkers. But
maybe I would if that goldfish joke ever gets back to Ikari, cause then
you're sure to get canned!"
"Well, in that case, Sigma leader out." Despite the
reassurances, something was still out of place. He didn't know what,
but something.
Shinji walked up to the door and hesitantly knocked on it. After
a moment that felt like it wouldn't end, a smiling woman he didn't
recognize opened it.
["Hi Shinji, I'm Anika, come on in."] She said pleasantly.
["Thank you."] Shinji suddenly placed the voice. ["Hey wait...
you were the one that..."] Shinji trailed off when he realized he was
about to say 'stuck a gun in my back.' He gulped nervously, not
knowing what to expect as a response. Her response was not what he had
expected. She smiled and laughed softly.
["Yep, that was me. Sorry about that whole gun thing back in the
clearing."] As Shinji walked in and took his shoes off, Anika closed
the door and walked into the living room. ["Shinji's here, everyone."]
A wave of warm and pleasant greetings met the boy as he walked
into the apartment and looked around. ["Hi..."] he responded, with
only the slightest trace of uncertainty in his voice. Shinji walked
into the apartment proper and looked around. It was obviously a nice
apartment: roomy, new carpets, new paint job, and new appliances, but
he could tell it had been... modified. The windows had heavy drapes
added, probably so that Ferris and Hector could walk about freely.
More noticeably, one of the walls had been cut through to give access
to the next unit over. There was also that lived-in touch: furniture
(some new, some well used), home stereo system (currently playing some
Bach), bookshelves (already loaded with books), and, finally, weapons.
Lots and lots of weapons. Rifles, pistols, knives, swords, missile
launchers, grenade launchers, a few swords, and even a battle-axe were
all present. Most were fully assembled and seemed to be neatly stowed
around the room, while others were taken apart (Ferris was currently
working on a large rifle of some sort), and others were close at hand.
It was the very picture of ordered chaos. For a moment the site
stunned Shinji, then he shrugged and decided that at least it wasn't
empty beer cans.
Shinji continued to look around the room, but this time looking
at the individuals who inhabited it. Amber was cooking something at
the stove; Alister was studying charts of some sort; Melissa was
working at a computer and a collection of small monitors; the snake
(Hector, Shinji reminded himself) seemed to be meditating in the next
apartment. Anika had walked over to the table where Ferris was working
and began to reassemble the other rifle. There was no sign of Kyle.
For the first time, Shinji had a chance to get a good look at his
new friends. Anika looked to be in her late 20's, maybe early 30's.
She was tall, with a good figure (although not as full as Misato's)
with a definite leanness to her. She had light brown hair that was
held back in a thick ponytail that went down just a little past her
shoulder blades. Her most distinguishing feature was the thin scar
running down the lower right part of her face. While it would probably
stop her from winning any beauty pageants, it didn't destroy her
natural looks.
Then there was Ferris. He was just... big, and furry. Shinji
had never seen an actual wolf, but the resemblance was undeniable. His
fur was a dark brown and looked like it covered his entire body.
Shinji wondered if all members of his race were as muscular as he was.
Shinji guessed that the wolfen could probably bench-press a few hundred
pounds. What kept him from looking truly monstrous was his ready grin
and the twinkle of humor in his eyes.
Alister seemed to be the odd one in this mix, more a scholar then
a warrior. Tall and lanky, he was clean-shaven with sandy blond hair
and a serious expression. Shinji felt vaguely uncomfortable as he
began to notice a resemblance that the mage had to his father. Yet,
when he had come into the apartment, Alister had looked up and smiled
warmly at him before returning to his charts (that he could now see
were star charts).
He began to look curiously at Hector, trying not to stare. The
snake looked like he was coiled into a sitting position, and had his
eyes closed, and every few seconds his tongue would flick out with a
slight 'hissing' sound. The snake was large, resembling a python, with
emerald green scales and metallic black highlights. Shinji could only
guess at how large the serpent might be. Maybe as long stretched out
as Ferris was tall.
Finally, there was Amber. She was a little less than six feet
tall and incredibly lithe. She had dark black hair falling loosely
down her back, light colored skin, slanted green eyes, and pointed
ears. She almost looked like an elf.
["That's because I am."] Amber turned and said.
["A... are what?"] Shinji stammered.
Amber smiled pleasantly. ["An elf. I am an Elf."]
Shinji froze. Everyone was now looking at the two of them (even
Kyle who had just returned from the roof). Shinji was starting to
sweat and feel incredibly nervous. In fact, the only one who wasn't at
least a little on edge was Amber, who had gone back to her cooking.
["Musst you frighten the boy like that?"] Hector was no longer
meditating but was moving across the floor to 'stand' by Amber. Once
there, he coiled himself so that he could look the elf woman in the
eye. ["I understand that you feel some obligation to inssruct the boy,
but couldn't you find ssome better way to sstart?!"]
["No. I. Couldn't! The gods know when I would get another
chance to bring it up."] Amber snapped back.
["We disscusssed thisss! We weren't going to sspring it on him
like thisss!"]
Shinji was having a hard time following their conversation.
However, the other mercs were chuckling and returning to their tasks.
["Come on kid, after they get done arguing with each other
they'll explain things to you."] Kyle said sympathetically.
["Did... did she really read my mind?"] Shinji nervously asked.
["Probably, but if you think too 'loudly' around her she says
that she can sometimes pick up stuff. She doesn't go routing around in
other peoples heads, if that's what you're worried about."] Kyle led
Shinji into the next apartment over. This one was set up as a dojo
with mats, punching bags, and mirrors. There were quite a few weapons
in this room as well, but most of these were those you would associate
with martial arts, and most of them looked like those you would use to
practice. ["I got to change. Feel free to look around, but be
careful, some of the weapons are edged."] Kyle then walked into a
bedroom and closed the door.
As Shinji started to look around, he could still hear Amber and
Hector arguing in the next room. Shinji felt bad about that, but no
one else seemed to mind, so maybe it wasn't anything to worry about.
Shinji walked to the other side of the apartment where another section
of wall had been removed to make a doorway into a third apartment.
That one seemed to be set up as a kind of lounge area with sofas,
recliners, and a big flat screen TV and a top-of-the-line home theater
system. "Wow..." Shinji whispered, wondering again where they had been
able to get the cash for all of this; maybe Alister had used his magic
or they had gold or something...
Shinji's train of thought was derailed as Kyle's voice came from
the dojo room asking: ["So, what brings you here today?"]
Shinji turned to find Kyle dimming the lights and taking off his
mirror shades. He was now wearing a sleeveless t-shirt and gi pants.
Shinji shrugged and said, ["Had to get out of the house. My
friend Touji is visiting some family and my other friend Kensuke is
camping this weekend. I guess I couldn't think of anywhere else to
go."]
["Good enough. You know any martial arts? I was just about to
practice,"] Kyle responded as he began to do some basic stretches.
["I study tae-kwan-do; I just got my black belt a little while
ago. You almost have to know some sort of hand to hand combat with the
Eva,"] Shinji said.
["Oh yeah, that reminds me. Damn good job on that beastie the
other day. Although, you and that gal fighting at the end was
classic!"] Kyle replied with a grin.
["We both got chewed out pretty bad for that one."] Shinji was
looking at his feet, ashamed of himself.
["What do they expect? Both of you are what, fifteen? Sixteen
maybe?"]
["I'm fourteen, Asuka is thirteen, but she's turning fourteen in
a few weeks."] Shinji said in reply.
["That is seriously sick. Well, the least I can do is teach you
a little of what I know about fighting. Come on, let's see what you
got."] Kyle was now standing on one side of a sparring mat and was
indicating the other side to Shinji.
Shinji took off his school shirt and socks and nervously took his
place opposite the mercenary. They bowed to each other and began to
fight. Shinji wasn't that bad, but it was soon obvious that Kyle was
much better. The two kicked and punched back and forth for almost
three quarters of an hour, stopping every now and again to get water
and for Kyle to help Shinji out with his forms and offer advice. By
the end, Shinji was breathing heavily and was glad that he had taken of
his t-shirt as well as his button-up school shirt. If he hadn't, they
would both probably be uncomfortably damp with his own sweat. Kyle on
the other hand hadn't even broken a sweat and still looked like he
could continue to spar for hours. About fifteen minutes in, the other
mercs, with the exception of Anika, who said that she was going to keep
an eye on the monitors as way of excuse, had entered the room and begun
to watch the bout. After Kyle said they were done, the two combatants
bowed to each other as their audience broke into applause.
Ferris tossed the two of them towels and said, ["I'm impressed,
pup. You're pretty damn good."] The wolfen paused for a moment before
he continued. ["Of course you never really stood a chance, but still,
you'd kick Alister's ass any day of the week in a strait-up fist
fight." This banter brought a good-nature laugh from all present,
especially Alister. Amber sobered quickly though.
["I'd like to speak to Shinji. Alone please."] This was
delivered with an air of authority and confidence. Her 'elvish noble
voice' the other called it. That was probably why they all seemed to
ignore her statement.
["So, how long have you been studying, pup?"]
["For a few years now. My uncle started in on it when he was on
a health kick, and got my aunt and I to start it too. Since no one
told me to stop, I just kept doing it. I'm still not very good though,
kinda like my cello playing..."] Shinji was blushing as he toweled
himself off and accepted the can of juice that Alister offered.
["Not very good? You're shitting me, right? You lasted damn
near an hour against me and I've been studying Triad for most of my
adult life. You're underestimating yourself if you think that's 'not
very good,'"] Kyle said with a grin.
["WILL. YOU. LISTEN. TO. ME."] Amber's words were more a
demand then a question. Seeing that she now had their attention she
preceded more calmly. ["I need to talk to him."]
["By all meanss then, pleasse do."] Hector replied, a small grin
on his serpentine face.
Amber looked like she was about to resume her argument with the
snake but stopped. ["Alright then. Shinji Ikari, as a member of the
order of the Mind's Light, as a psionic trained by the Academy of
Psychic Powers and Knowledge of Psyscape, I offer to help you train
your gift as tradition and unwritten law demands."] Amber looked
incredibly proud of herself. She had always wanted an apprentice.
["What do you mean...?"] Shinji had a distinct feeling that his
life was about to get even stranger.
["You have an immense psionic gift, easily mind melter level. I
am offering to teach you to harness and control it."] She smiled
again, and this time with no hidden smugness and such. :It's really
quite easy when you get the hang of it.:
Shinji gasped and stared at Amber, confusion and a little bit of
fear mingling on his face. Amber wasn't done yet though.
:Calm yourself and listen. There's noise just on the edge of
your perception, right? That's the background thoughts and feelings of
those around you. Because of your gift, you are tuned to that mental
frequency. I can teach you how to tune that noise out. To harness
your potential.:
["But why? Why would you do that for me? Why are you all so
willing to help me like this?"]
Alister looked at him for a second and then answered. ["Because
we want to? Because we feel that it's our responsibility? Because
it's the right thing to do? Do we really need a reason? We look
around and see a boy who is fighting to save his world from some sort
of monsters, and we want to help..."]
Kyle continued, ["I look and see this kid who is being sent into
combat half trained, and utterly unprepared for the fallout. I see
someone who kinda reminds me of myself when I was younger. I see a
chance to do something good, to maybe balance the books a little bit.
I also can't stand aside and watch people get hurt when I could do
something to help."]
Melissa looked at him and smiled. ["Besides, we need some way to
keep ourselves busy until Alister can get us back to our world."]
Shinji looked at the mercs and with new confidence in his voice
said, ["When do we start then?"]
["Right now if you like. Hector has offered to help as well."]
Amber said. Hector nodded his head in agreement.
["All right then... thank you."] Shinji was right, his life had
just gotten a whole lot stranger.
["We will sssee if you are sso grateful in a few hoursss young
man."] Shinji couldn't tell if he should be afraid or not.
Ten grueling hours later, Shinji knew. He should be a little bit
of both. Grateful and exhausted. But at the same time, he was elated.
He had done it! He had finally been able to erect a barrier around his
mind and even hold it against some simple attacks. That had seemed to
open the door to his powers. In the last hour of his training, he had
begun to get the hang of telepathy and had been able to move some
pencils around telekinetically. His teachers had been thrilled. Hell,
he was thrilled. It was all so, so, peaceful now. Even though he was
drained both physically and mentally, he was happy.
"Yes sir, commander Ikari. No sir, I didn't. I'm quite sure.
Yes sir, understood." Captain Johnson, Sigma team leader, put down his
cell phone and addressed his team. "Alright, Ishtawa, Hiro, and
Nojisko, keep this place under observation. You'll be relived in about
thirty minutes. Sorry."
The trio shrugged their shoulders and sat down again. The rest
spread out around Shinji, a human wall to protect the pilot.
["Hey, Johnson,"] the other Americans on Sigma Team said.
["Yeah Smith?"] The captain answered.
["Think he'll catch hell from Red?"]
["Hell ya..."]
Shinji was still feeling quite good when he got home that night a
little before nine o'clock. "I'm home." He cheerfully called.
"Well, it's about damn time too, Third Child!" Asuka was almost
screaming, she was so mad.
Shinji was taken aback. Not because of his roommate's reaction,
but because of the effect. He could almost feel her emotions beating
against the mental barriers he had spent the day building. He
panicked. "I'm sorry Asuka. I... I... lost track of the time." He
had to calm her down.
"Well you should be! I've been stuck here all day penguin
sitting and bored out of my mind!" Another corner of her mind tried to
bring up the fact that Pen-Pen could more then take care of himself,
but she quickly squashed it. "Misato had to work a double shift and
Hikari was busy with school stuff and Kaji was gone so the only company
I had was the stupid bird!" At this moment, Pen-Pen stuck his head out
of the kitchen and on seeing Shinji let out a squawk of pure joy.
"Finally, someone who is half sane, and somewhat good at chess! My God
was I bored!" the penguin thought as he ran to hide behind Shinji's
legs.
"Sorry, sorry. Come on Pen-Pen, let's get you fed." Another
squawk of happiness accompanied this declaration, and the two quickly
escaped to the kitchen.
Asuka fumed for a few more seconds. Then she mumbled, "Where has
he been all day?" There was a hint of what could almost be concern in
her voice.
"The Third has returned home, Ikari." Sub-Commander Fuyutsuki
said.
"So, he has made contact with these unknown again?" Commander
Gendo Ikari answered plainly.
"Yes. He spent almost the entire day at an apartment that they
have apparently moved into recently. A background check shows that
three apartments in the same building, all next to each other, as well
as a warehouse across the street were recently leased/purchased. Magi
didn't find anything odd about it so it was ignored."
"Have Dr. Akagi run a check on the Magi, and have a more through
background check done," the commander replied.
"Worried about your son, I see," Fuyutsuki said.
"On the contrary, this could alter my scenario. That is all that
matters." Gendo replied coldly.
The next day dawned bright and early for Shinji. Early as in
5:00 a.m. early. He groaned and pulled himself out of bed. He put on
his gym uniform and, after splashing some cold water on his face,
stumbled outside to meet Anika and Melissa. The physical part of his
training was about to begin. He went outside to find the two already
waiting.
"What took you so long?" Melissa asked cheerily.
"It's early..." Shinji mumbled in response.
"Welcome to boot camp. The first week WILL be the worst, trust
me," Anika replied in only slightly accented Japanese. Shinji was
still too tired to really register that she was speaking in his
language, or the slightly artificial sound the translator implant she
had gave her voice. "Ready to run?" she continued.
"Well, I guess... but where's Kyle? I thought he would be here
too." Shinji wasn't so tired that he didn't notice the look on Anika's
face. "Now what did I say?" Shinji asked himself.
Before he could broach the question aloud though, Melissa
answered his original one. "He said that he prefers to do his run at
noon. Says it's more of a workout for him that way. I just think he's
crazy. Let's get going then, shall we?" With that the two women
started off at a brisk jog. Shinji had no choice but to start in after
them. An hour later his legs were burning and his lungs were a little
more then sore as the trio came back upon his apartment building. Most
of the jog/run/walk was done in silence, except for when they slowed to
a walk. Even then their conversation was nothing too heavy, just
anecdotes of this and that and discussion of what type of training
schedule Shinji could make. They hammered out that Shinji would try to
come over about three times a week for lessons on psionics, combat
stuff, or physical training. If he wanted to, he could join them for
their morning run every day except Sunday, when they didn't run anyway.
Shinji was more then happy about this arrangement. "But what.... if
I... want to.... just... come over sometime..." Shinji said between
breaths.
"Hey, you're a friend, the door is always open. Our place is
yours!" Anika replied.
"Thanks..." Shinji replied with a smile on his face.
As the two women waved goodbye and continued on their run Shinji
pushed the elevator button. He didn't know if he could make it up the
stairs if he tried. After staggering down the hall into his apartment
and getting a clean school uniform, he went to the bathroom for a long
soak.
A mile or so away, Melissa suddenly snapped her fingers.
"What is it?" Anika asked.
"I forgot to tell him that the others would be 'training' him
when ever he least expects it." Melissa replied.
"Don't worry, I'm sure they'll go easy on him at first." Anika
said matter-of-factly.
"Sure they will..." Melissa said, sarcasm dripping from her
voice.
It was a fairly typical day in class. Their sensei was droning
on about second impact yet again and most of his classmates were
catching up on sleep or using their computers to chat with friends.
Rei was absent today, but that was normal. Shinji was just drifting
off into dreamland when a voice intruded on his thoughts, literally.
:Hello, ready for some more lessons?:
"Epp" Shinji squeaked. Luckily those around him weren't paying
enough attention to notice their classmate's reaction to the telepathic
communique.
:Don't worry Shinji, it's just me.: Shinji recognized Amber's
mental voice this time. :Try to talk back at me, let's see how well
you do with that and we can go from there.: Shinji looked around the
class. He could repeat his sensei's lecture on the second impact by
from heart and most of the class was slipping into the catatonic state
that was so common. He looked at the clock. An hour before this class
ended and lunch began. He began to concentrate on broadcasting his
thoughts to where he figured Amber was. He was still trying to get the
hang of it when lunch began. He almost didn't hear the bell. But
apparently Amber did. :You're doing exceptionally well, Shinji. We'll
continue this some other time. Enjoy your lunch.:
The rest of the week passed almost just like this. On Monday he
had a synch test with his EVA, and after realizing that he needed to
take down his Mind Block to do this, his score jumped up several points
over his last results. Tuesday was a slightly longer run, with less
time running, and more time jogging, followed by some martial arts and
weapons training from Kyle and Ferris after school. He found that he
was rather adept at the weapons portion; using some of the same
principles he had learned in Unit 01, he had a solid foundation to
build off of. His teachers were impressed. Wednesday was his morning
run, a surprise psionics lesson during gym (summoning inner strength
turned out to be fairly useful on his swimming test). That evening he
went to a movie with Touji and Kensuke, some American martial arts
movie. Strangely enough they met Asuka and Hikari (as well as Hikari's
older sister) going to the same movie and almost had a pleasant evening
together, except for Asuka and Touji's fighting. Thursday saw almost a
repeat of Monday's lessons except that Kyle had a surprise sparring
match lined up for after school. Shinji fought hard, but even with the
strange hunches that he was starting to get, Kyle was still the obvious
winner. The section two agents (Charlie Team today) almost interceded
a few times at first, but in the end they just gathered around and
cheered their protectee along. Afterwards, Shinji accompanied Kyle
back to the mercs' impromptu headquarters for a few hours of weight
training. When he got done with this, Shinji went home, and, after
finishing his homework, collapsed into bed. When he woke up on Friday,
he wasn't as sore as he had been, and while tired at the end of the run,
it wasn't as bad as before. There were no additional lessons at school
that day and after school he wound up going to one of the local arcades
with Touji, Kensuke, Hikari, and Asuka. While Shinji asked Rei if she
wanted to come along, she declined, saying that she had things to do at
base. When they got to the arcade, they found Melissa and Alister were
also there. Alister was being introduced to the joys of the arcade game,
and was being beaten soundly at them by his wife. After some brief
introductions where the two mercs were firmly established as being old
friends of Shinji's, the group proceeded to hit every arcade in the
Tokyo-3 Mall. The so-called "adult supervision" was barely even noticed.
After several hours of this, the two grown-ups offered to pay for dinner
at the food court. As Shinji, Touji, Kensuke, and Hikari were sitting
down with their food, the other three waiting in line for some more
western cuisine, Kensuke looked enviously at his friend.
"Damn it Ikari, you get all the luck, you know that?" He said.
"How so?" Shinji asked between mouthfuls of ram¢n.
"Isn't it obvious?" Touji continued for his friend. "You're not
only living with a babe like Misato, even if you do have to live with
the red devil too, but you got a cool friend like her too! She even
offers to buy us all dinner!" Touji just shook his head. Hikari just
chuckled under her breath before she threw her two yen in as well.
"He's right about the nice friend bit. So where did you meet
Melissa, Shinji?" It was an innocent question that almost threw Shinji
for a loop.
"She was a... neighbor when I live with my uncle before coming
here. She used to... baby-sit me when I was younger. Yeah, that's
it." Shinji quickly filled his mouth with his soup and until the other
three returned with their food. The conversation went into safer
territory and the rest of the evening passed without incident, Touji
and Asuka even behaved themselves for the most part, only breaking out
into a small argument over a 'newlywed' jibe directed at Shinji and
Asuka.
Being that it was Saturday, Shinji's run with Melissa and Anika
was about two miles longer then it had been previously. By the time
Shinji got back, Misato was already up and about (surprisingly early in
fact). After Shinji's bath, he joined Misato in watching her Saturday
morning cartoons as he ate some cereal.
"So, how was the run, Shinji?" Misato asked in between bites of
the toast she had burned for her own breakfast.
"It was tiring. I think we went about four miles today." Shinji
replied.
"Nice of them to let you tag along. So, what brought about this
new health kick? Is there a... girl you're interested in?" Misato
asked slyly. Shinji almost choked on his cereal.
"No. not really at least." Shinji kinda stammered out.
"Awww, who is it?" Misato paused for a minute then asked, "Is
it Rei?" Shinji just looked into his cereal and didn't comment. "Not
Rei then, huh." Misato paused again and looked like she was in deep
thought. "Is it. Asuka?" she asked.
"No, it's nothing like that. I just felt like getting in shape,
and Melissa and her friends offered to help. That's all," Shinji
replied quickly.
"Well, I'll take your word on that for now. But I will get the
truth out of you yet!" Misato stood up and scruffed Shinji's hair
playfully before going to the kitchen to get her fourth beer of the
morning. Later that day, Shinji went over to the mercs place and ended
up practicing telekinetics with Hector most of the day. He seemed
pleased with his young student's progress, but still pushed him harder.
["There iss a great deal of potential in you. I think we will sssee
how much sshortly..."] Shinji spent his Sunday catching up on his sleep
and homework and spent the evening at Kensuke's, watching some old
anime with him and Touji.
The next week passed almost exactly like the first, except that
he found that he wasn't quite as winded after his morning runs. He
also found that his sleep schedule was rearranging itself around his
early mornings. The mental training he was receiving was also getting
more intense and Hector said that in a few weeks they could maybe get
him working on some more advanced techniques. He had synch tests on
both Monday and Wednesday night so he spent his Tuesday, Thursday and
Friday evenings with the mercs instead. They continued his lifting
program and introduced him to energy weapons (they had a range set up
in the warehouse they owned). Every day he had surprise mental visits
from Amber, and by then end of the week he was getting pretty good at
seeing auras, and was even starting to figure out what they meant. Rei
was only in class on Monday and Tuesday, but at one point during
Shinji's practicing, she looked over at him intensely before returning
her attention to the world outside her window. Saturday morning dawned
rainy and overcast but this didn't stop the morning run. Luckily, the
sky cleared up after awhile so they weren't rained on. After getting
home, bathing, and being quizzed by Misato on the identity of his
mystery girlfriend, he was left alone with his cartoons. All was
peaceful until about ten o'clock when Asuka emerged from her room and
walked went into the kitchen were Misato was playing chess with Pen-Pen
(who looked like he was winning).
"Well Misato, have you made up your mind yet?" Asuka asked
pleadingly.
"This is awfully short notice Asuka... but yeah, I guess it's ok,
you only turn fourteen once. But only if Shinji is OK with it," their
guardian replied.
"But Misato... can't you just send him over to one of the other
stooges' places for the night? The last thing I want is that little
idiot around when my friends are over. He'll probably do something
perverted and make himself look stupid anyway..." Asuka almost whined.
"Hey, it's his home too. I won't just kick him out to satisfy
one of your whims. If he doesn't mind, then it's OK with me; otherwise
you can just deal with him being here, or call it off," Misato said in
a tone broaching no arguments.
"All right, fine then. I'll ask. Ohh Shinji..." Asuka called
sweetly.
"What is it, Asuka?" Shinji replied.
"Do you think you could do me a really big favor next weekend?"
"What is it?" Shinji asked cautiously.
"Well, I want to have some friends over next week for my birthday
so I was hoping you could make yourself scarce next Saturday night."
Shinji sighed. "Let me talk to my friends..."
"Thank you Shinji!" Asuka smiled cutely and went off to the
bathroom for her morning bath. Shinji suddenly felt a shudder, as if
cold fingers were running down his spine. He looked around the
apartment, but seeing that nothing was amiss, he went back to watching
his cartoons. He only had a few hours before Ferris expected him for
some more lessons of some sort.
A few miles away, deep inside the Geo-Front, Commander Ikari was
deciding his son's fate. "Report, Major Yokamano." Ikari was sitting
behind the desk in his office; Fuyutsuki stood off to the side and
behind him, as was customary.
"Yes Sir. We have had the subjects' domicile under observation
for the last two weeks. The Third was visited on six separate
occasions, runs every morning with the same two of them, and has met
outside of these on three other occasions. Their intent is still
unknown and while I have suspicions, I have no way to confirm them."
He paused here to see if the commander wanted him to offer any of them.
It didn't appear so, and the section two agent continued. "We have
identified five, maybe six individuals total, and are quite sure that
their three apartments can be moved between freely."
"Excuse me, Major, but what do you mean that you have identified
'five, maybe six'?" Sub-Commander Fuyutsuki asked.
The head of section two's Omega team put down a file folder on
the commander's desk. "These are pictures and dossiers on the
subjects," he hesitated for a moment, "and also what we have on the
sixth as well."
The commander Ikari picked up the file and began to page through
it, Fuyutsuki watching over his shoulder. The section two agent
continued.
"The individuals are a former United States Army Ranger Anika
Blake, honorable discharge, mission information classified. The next
is an astronomer and physicist named Alister Renault, his wife Melissa
is a computer programmer and was the first to make contact with the
third. Next is Kyle Walkin, former USMC Recon, honorable discharge;
most of what he did is classified as well. Finally there is Amber
Julia Purin, a psychologist." The major paused, waiting for the
commander to see the final set of pictures.
"This is a joke, correct?" Gendo said as he tossed the pictures
of Ferris onto his desk. "If it is, I am far from amused by it."
"No sir. These pictures seem to show an approximately seven and
a half foot tall wolf, creature. Our analyses of the pictures show
that it is not a projection or some sort of hologram. We also doubt
that it is a person in a costume." The major stood there while the
commander studied the photos for several minutes.
"What of the warehouse?" Ikari asked without looking up.
"Sir, what warehouse?" the agent asked in confusion.
Ikari and Fuyutsuki looked at each other briefly before the
commander continued. "This is all classified. You and your men are not
to breathe a word of this to anyone. Tell the other section two teams
the same. You know the consequences of speaking of this," The
commander said evenly.
"Yes sir." He knew. He had enforced it in the past.
"Dismissed."
As the agent turned and left, Dr. Akagi entered. After the
section two agent had left and the door had closed behind her, she
addressed the commanders. "I have the report you wanted."
"Go ahead."
"The Magi were hacked within the last month. It was the work of
a master too. I could barely find any traces that it had been done.
It seems that he or she was able to gain access to all but Seraphim
level files. It's nothing that SEELE doesn't have, so it might be the
UN, but if so they would have acted on it. The Japanese government
might have done it, but they too would have acted on the information
gained as well. It might be some new faction, but what are they going
to do with this information?" Ritsuko put the first of the folders she
had with her on the commander's desk. "As for the third, the day after
his first 'visit' there was a synch test. At first his synch ratio was
abysmally low, then before I could comment on it, his ratio jumped to a
full five points above his last test. It's been going up ever since.
He will probably surpass Asuka's in a few weeks. Also, Misato
commented that he's been a lot more confident recently."
"Do you believe there is a connection?"
"Almost certainly. May I ask just who it is that is causing this
remarkable change?"
The commander looked like he was about to say no, then paused and
indicated the folder left by the section two agent. Ritsuko picked it
up and began to leaf through it. "Former military, scientist, computer
expert, another former military, a psychologist, and... the hell?!"
The doctor was staring wide-eyed at the pictures of Ferris.
"I want you to analyze the pictures of the wolf-thing and report
back by the end of the week. Understood?"
"Yes sir." Ritsuko was now reading through the section two
agent's report.
"Is there anything else?" The commander asked.
"One other thing. We found some sort of, communications module
on one of the rail tracks leading into the Geo-Front. The technology
that it contained was decades ahead of anything we have. I don't even
know if we will be able to reverse engineer it successfully. However,
if we can figure out its micro-power-cell, we could probably adapt its
technology for use in the EVA's to almost triple their internal power
capacity. I have an engineering team working on it right now. That's
all." Ritsuko had almost forgotten about it upon seeing the pictures
of the Wolfen.
"You are dismissed then."
The doctor left with the file containing the pictures, leaving
only Ikari and Fuyutsuki. "What will you do now Ikari? Does a giant
bipedal wolf fit into your scenario?"
"No, it doesn't. But neither does it fit into the Council's,
professor. As long as the Old Men remain ignorant of these, new
factors, events can still be played out correctly. I must consult the
Scrolls to see what they can tell me though."
["The Scrolls? What scrolls?"] Kyle asked the mage, hacker and
serpent.
["These scrolls."] Melissa pointed to the open file on her
screen. ["This was the only document not written in a modern language,
so I used that Techno-Wizard translating module to decipher it for me.
It took the damn thing two weeks to do it too. What we got out of it
is disturbing, really fucking disturbing. Alister, Hector."]
The two looked at each other and Alister began to speak. ["Well,
they are prophecies. The gist of them is that at an appointed time
brought about by certain events, mankind will face trial by combat
against seventeen messengers, or Angels. If mankind fails, it will
mean their, our, distraction. If they succeed on the other hand, it
could still mean their destruction. It could also mean their
ascension, or maybe something else, a purging of some sort. It gets
vague at this point. More then anything else, it would seem that we
are in the middle of it."]
["Does the kid know?"] Kyle asked. Shinji was in the next room
over, learning small unit robot vehicle tactics from Ferris. He didn't
seem to like the subject matter that much, but he had a knack for it
all the same.
["I don't believe so. The prophecies seem to speak of armor, and
I quote: '...Made from the flesh of their enemy, given form by the
souls of the of those who gave birth to the Children warriors who will
pilot them.' That's one of the clearer parts of this damn thing."]
["Bio-Wizzardry... dissgusssting. Sssplynn would probably love
to get hiss tenticless on thosse thingss."] Splynn, the monstrous
ruler of Atlantis, and his minions, practiced a dark form of magic,
similar to necromancy, which is based on the violent and controlled
mutation and alteration of living creatures for the purpose of
supernatural augmentation. Besides the Bio-Wizardry, Splynn, and other
Splugorth entities, were slavers (most of Hector's race was enslaved by
them).
["So Alister, do you think that's what the, whatever it was, in
your dream was warning you about?"] Kyle asked the mage.
["Yes, however, where the box fits into this is anyone's guess.
I do have a hunch that it's more important to this world then it is to
ours."] The mage and the others turned to the computer screen where
the scroll's translation was being displayed.
["It just me, or does this whole thing smell rotten?"] Kyle
asked quietly as he took off his sunglasses in the darkened room and
continued to read the prophecies.
["To the core my old friend, to the core..."] Hector answered
solemnly. ["And I believe it will just get worssse before it getss
better."]
A few miles away, in a now deserted forest clearing, there was a
sudden flare of blue light that became steadily larger until in the
middle of it, what looked like a hole in the air appeared. The hole
got larger until it was an oval nearly twelve feet tall and eight feet
wide. Through this rift walked a group of four men followed by...
creatures; strange bestial things that looked to be made of shadows and
given a mockery of life. After a dozen or so of the shadow beasts
stepped through, an open top hover jeep drove through. Its pilot
quickly got out and ran back through the rift to his own world. After
he had left, one last man came through. As he stepped through, the
rift closed behind him.
It was an odd assortment of all five men. The first, and
obviously the leader, was a little over six feet tall and wearing what
looked stylized to be archaic plate and banded mail, with a helm shaped
like a skull crowned with large goats horns. A viscous looking
greatsword was strapped across his back and in his hands he held a
rifle that crackled with magic energy. After him was a giant of a man,
easily 7 feet tall. This one wore armor made of some sort of scaled
animal hide, with a strange harness attached to various parts of his
body, tubes connected the various bands and bracers to an armored
chemical pack on his chest. His weapons looked more modern then the
first's and consisted of immense rail guns and plasma ejectors.
Weapons usually usable only by power armor units and full conversion
cyborgs. He carried them with ease though, despite being only flesh
and blood. Standing slightly apart form the others were a pair of men
in environmental armor, bristling with weapons. The last to come
through was obviously a mage of some sort in flowing red robes. For
those that could tell the difference, this one had not the appearance
of the relatively common ley line walker. Nor did he have the look of
a techno-wizard or necromancer. While he might have been a Shifter,
his Aura, to those who knew how to look, didn't fit those of that
discipline. The fact was, practitioners of his discipline were some of
the rarest in the Megaverse. He was a Spatial Mage.
The man in the archaic armor turned to the others; ["We have our
orders. Lord Dunscan wants the Box, and its contents, intact. He
doesn't care a whit about the couriers though. The mage with which he
has provided us has tracked them here. Now we must find them. Go
shadows, find them and report back to me!"] The creatures all bowed
and then slipped away, moving quickly through the dark underbrush
towards Tokyo-3.
...to be continued.
Author's Notes:
Another chapter done, lord knows how many there are left to be
written. So, a new factor has been introduced to the world of Eva,
Mercenaries sent by Dunscan, king of the Federation of Magic. This
chapter is a little bit longer (OK a lot longer) then I usually write.
The simple explanation is that it is two chapters combined into one.
It probably won't happen again. I am grateful for all the positive
feedback I've been getting, and the distinct lack of negative. Chapter
6 should be out in a little over a month; I have finals in a few weeks
and really need to get my Philosophy grade up. Come Summer I'll either
have more time to type, or frighteningly less depending on my work
schedule (which will probably involve a 60-70 hour work week.).
Summers are hell for me. Anyway, Magma Diver is coming up, and so is
Asuka's birthday. Shinji will probably end up hanging out with the
Rifters that night, but what will the Rifters have planned? I also
plan on including an Omake in upcoming installments; I have a really
good idea for one after the next chapter. 8^) Keep your eyes open for
Chapter 6, New Lessons, and now, GM's corner.
Two big things, one: the martial art that Kyle is using. This is not
the Triad from the Rifter, but one I found online and slip in whenever
I can. You can find it here:
http://www.users.qwest.net/~bhegr/marts/newhth.html.
This is from Brett Hegr's Unofficial Palladium RPG Page, the URL for just
that is:
http://www.users.qwest.net/~bhegr/frames.htm.
This is a pretty good site for toy's as well as new psi powers, spells
and super powers (great place for super powers in fact! I love what
they did for the Super Soldier!) Some other good pages (as long as I'm
on the subject) are Mad Dog's (even if it no longer has the great book
of skills):
http://24.237.92.133/Palladium/Main.html,
and the Quality in Rift's homepage:
http://home.golden.net/~pover/rifts/rifts.htm.
Enjoy, I hope to have my own page built before to long. Now, I also
presented a new TW (Techno-Wizard) device in this chapter so I figured
I might as well stat it out.
TW-Translator Computer Module. This looks like a small, flat box,
6"x4"x2". It has the Rift's Earth equivalent of a USB cable that allow
it to connect to almost any Earth built system (specifically any North
American, NGR and most other European, Russian, Australian, Japanese,
and English. South America uses a slightly different plug, but
converters can be found. Atlantis as well as the Phoenix Empire in
Africa uses a different standard, but again, converters can be
purchased.) What this does is allow your computer to translate, with
magical accuracy, files in other languages (adds +30% to decryption
roles). The decryption aspect alone makes this a useful device for
hackers, and many scholars find it useful for alien or just hard to
decipher documents (with a portable scanner, you're all set!).
_P.P.E. Cost_: 22. _Spells Needed_: Eye's of Thoth and Tongues. _Physical
Requirements_: The casing unit with the connection cord, a circuit board
of some sort (inside the casing) and a green quartz crystal worth no
less then 700 credits. _Duration of Charge_: 1 hour. _To Recharge_: 18
P.P.E. or 36 I.S.P. _Time_: 3D6 days to build. _Cost_: 75,000 credits.
Fair to poor availability.
This is one item I haven't had a chance to play test, so if anyone has
recommendations for changes, I am more then welcome to them.
Otherwise, enjoy!
Last but not least, I would again like to thank my wonderful
prereaders:
Alan Slaughter
Qut/Draven Killjoy
Incantor
Sarevock
Nevyn
Josh Z
and finally my editor, Annie the Laughing Kookaburra!
See you all next time!
Rough Draft Version 1.0: 04-26-2001
Rough Draft Version 1.1: 05-03-2001
Final Draft Version 2.0: 05-04-2001, 3:45 am (Central Time Zone. To think, I
wanted to get to bed early tonight...)
Neon Genesis Evangelion is used without permission. It is copyright by
Gainix (wonderful folks!). Rifts®, Palladium Books®, Mechanoids® The
Mechanoid Invasion®, Rifts®, 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), Coalition States(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^)
Welcome back to 'Crossroads' everyone! How are you? Good I
hope! Well, last time we left on an interesting point. Alister and
Melissa, as well as the rest of the mercs, now know that there is
something funny about the EVA's; namely, they are somehow alive. While
they have seen some strange things on the world they come from, this is
just weird. How will they react to this? Will they, at first? Will
they tell Shinji? What is in the rune-encrusted case that they guard?
And what is the secret ingredient that my Mom puts into her brownies to
make them taste so damn good? (No, it's not any sort of narcotic; my
mommy isn't like that!) Maybe all of these questions, and perhaps a
few more besides, will be answered! I make no guarantee though.
Chapter 5: New Teachers
Melissa was in the back of Margaret, the Mark V APC that she and
her friends used as a sort of mobile base/home, sitting in a padded
chair amidst a jumble of wires, electronics, and other strange high-
tech gizmos. She was typing sporadically at the space in front of her
hands, about a half-foot above her computer. A wire led from the
computer to a neural interface plug at the base of her skull. Bulky
glasses, attached to the computer by more wires, adorned her face. She
looked to have been sitting there for a little while. Suddenly, in an
excited tone, she said, ["Bingo!"]
Hector looked at her from where he was studying the enscroled
case that had gotten them into this mess and said, ["What issss it?"]
["I'm 'online.'"] Melissa declared proudly.
["Wonderful. Well done Melisssa."] Hector slithered over to
where the hacker and amateur mage was sitting and looked intently at
the screen displaying some sort of search program.
["Alright, let's see what I can find..."]
For the next five hours, Melissa was 'jacked-in,' routing through
the vast expanse of the 'net on hacked codes and pirate signals. She
hacked into the Swiss bank account of a drug czar who died in the
second impact and 'liberated' millions of American dollars. After
setting up a series of dummy and blind accounts for the money, she went
to online software depots to download things like encyclopedias (and
computer games for Kyle, Ferris, and Hector); stumbled through adult
site after adult site till she learned to avoid them. Finally, she
even 'ran the Magi with impudence for fake ID's and certifications.
The most difficult of these was avoiding the porn sites. ["All the
information in the world at their fingertips, and half the 'web-sites'
out there are for porn..."] Coming from a world where computers are
defended by alien AI's, magic Black ICE, and psionicly protected data
forts, the defenses and encryption's of 2015 were child's play to
counter. Finally, with a contented sigh and stretch, Melissa pulled
the plug from her head and declared, ["Finished!"]
Alister and Amber had joined Hector during this time and were all
looking eagerly at Melissa. ["Where there any... dificcultiessss?"]
Hector asked.
["Not a one! Grab the others and I'll give a rundown on our
situation."] As Amber went to get the others, Alister began giving his
wife's tensed shoulders a rub. When they were all finally assembled,
Melissa continued. ["Now, here's the rundown. I did some record
changing to get us all some fake ID's and backgrounds; there's a
printout for each of you so you can become familiar with yourself. I
tried to find as much pertinent data as I could on what the hell is
going on around here; I was able to snag some very choice stuff from
NERV's mainframe, all REALLY classified. I couldn't get at the highest
level stuff, Seraphim, without some more time, so I let it be... for
now. Finally, with the money I'm tapping I got us a trio of apartments
on the outskirts of town."] She tapped at the static field keyboard
she used and brought up a set of blueprints. She then pointed to three
adjacent apartments. ["I made sure to get three that were side by side
but had no load-bearing walls between them. I figure a vibro-blade
will slice right through those walls, and we got us one big
apartment."]
["What about the bot's and Maggie?"] Ferris asked.
["Glad ya asked!"] She tapped the field a few more times and the
blueprints for a warehouse came up. ["This building is right across
the street. It's big. It's empty. And, it's ours."] Melissa was
almost crowing with self-satisfaction.
["Aren't you worried that this raised all sorts of red flags?
You threw an awful lot of cash around, and moved a lot of things in a
very short period of time. No matter how good our covers are, they
probably won't stand up to any heavy poking."] Kyle commented.
["Already covered. While I was 'running that AI, barely even
sentient if ya ask me, called Magi I realized that almost all city
functions are also routed though it, as well as a bunch of city-related
stuff - including housing reports and census-type data. So, anyway, I
get the apartments and the warehouse and decided to take one more
stroll through the Magi to make sure I didn't forget anything and all
my tracks are covered, and guess what? Red fucking flags all over the
place. I look at 'em and sure enough, it's about my purchases. So, I
took them all down as checked and cleared. I am sooo good!"] Now, she
was crowing.
["So, when do we move in then?"] Anika asked evenly.
["We move in tomorrow."]
Shinji couldn't take much more of this. Ever since the defeat of
the Seventh Angel, Asuka had been giving him hell about whatever she
could, whenever she could. This was becoming quite a frequent
occurrence. It had only been two days but it was starting to feel like
much longer... Misato wasn't here to act as a buffer, either. It was
only a little after ten and it looked like Asuka was winding up for
another round, and to make matters worse, there was a low buzz in the
back of his head from the headache he was getting. All this added up
to one potentially miserable day. Shinji realized that it was time for
a tactical retreat. So, he went to his room, grabbed his SDAT and the
com-unit and, after biding a hasty farewell to Asuka, left the
apartment.
Asuka looked up from the kanji she was studying to watch as
Shinji walked out the front door. "Wonder what got into him?" She
shrugged and walked into the living room, flopped onto the couch and
began to watch some trashy soap opera, promptly forgetting about her
homework and Shinji.
Shinji sighed with relief as he rode the elevator down.
"Freedom," he whispered. He carefully attached the microphone and
earpiece. As he walked out of the elevator he hit the blast button and
waited for a reply. He didn't have long to wait.
["This is Lady Ghost, I read, over."]
This was not the response Shinji expected. ["Ahh, hello..."]
Shinji was leaning against the wall of his building, wondering if he
accidentally switched frequencies.
["Oh, hey Shinji! It's Melissa. How ya doing?"] She laughed
softly. ["I didn't confuse you to much with my handle did I? I didn't
even think that you wouldn't know it. You planning on heading our
way?"]
["Well, yes... if that's all right."] Shinji was walking along
again, relieved. Then, in a flash of inspiration, he took out his cell
phone, pretended to dial in a number, and put it against his ear like
he was talking into it. After this bit of deception was established
for the benefit of section two and so that the average passerby
wouldn't think him slightly crazed to be talking into thin air, he
continued his conversation with Melissa. ["I just wanted to make sure
that is was ok before I came."]
["Yeah, no problem! You can see our new place. You are sooo
going to love it!"] Melissa said cheerily from the other end.
["New place?"]
["Yep, I'll tell ya how to get here."] With that she began to
guide him and his section two escort across town.
As Shinji approached the building that had become the Rifters'
temporary haven, Kyle began to scan the area around Shinji from his
vantage point on the apartment building's roof. ["Three... six...
seven... eight, nine, ten...twelve, thirteen, and.... fourteen. No
holes and alert. More of them too. Trained professional bodyguards
just like before. Wonder if Melissa was as careful as she thought with
those red flags."] With that, Kyle lifted up the service door set into
the building's roof and began to climb down.
Shinji of course was unaware of the mercs' observation - or of
the amount of guards around him, for that matter. He was far too busy
attempting to follow Melissa's rather confusing directions that seemed
to be based on a random mix of street names and landmarks. Finally,
after a few backtracks and circles, he had arrived at one of Tokyo-3's
nicer apartment complexes. The close proximity to the warehouse
district probably wasn't good for business though.
["Found it? Kick'en! Head on up to room 503, see ya here!"]
With that, Melissa cut the transmission.
Shinji closed and pocketed his cell phone, then walked up to the
door, which buzzed him in before he could press a button. He pressed
the button for the elevator and calmly waited for it. "Were did they
get the money for an apartment?" he mumbled as the door opened.
"This is Sigma team leader to base, do you read, over?" The man
stood in the shadows of the warehouse facing the apartment building
that the Third Child had just entered. He genuinely liked being
assigned to watch Shinji; the kid was courteous, unlike Asuka, wasn't
quite as... odd as Rei, didn't seem to notice or even mind his shadows,
and when he did encounter one of them he didn't make a big deal out of
it. An overall good kid, even if he did have a knack for ditching them
every now and again.
"This is base Sigma Leader. What can I do for you Johnson?" A
pleasant female voice responded.
"The Third just entered an apartment outside his normal routine,
mind running a check on it?"
"You are WAY to protective of him. I don't think his dad cares
this much about him. What's the address?"
"1156 Imperial. And his father's a cold-hearted bastard. If
Shinji had a pet goldfish it would probably care about him more then
the Commander." His jibe was answered by laughter.
"I got to pass that one along to Beta team. All right got a
response. A group of Americans moved into three of the apartments
yesterday. Magi didn't flag them so it must check out. Anything
else?"
"A yes to the idea of dinner on Friday night would be nice, but
other then that, no. Thanks for indulging my overprotective
tendencies."
"The answer is still no, Johnson, I don't date coworkers. But
maybe I would if that goldfish joke ever gets back to Ikari, cause then
you're sure to get canned!"
"Well, in that case, Sigma leader out." Despite the
reassurances, something was still out of place. He didn't know what,
but something.
Shinji walked up to the door and hesitantly knocked on it. After
a moment that felt like it wouldn't end, a smiling woman he didn't
recognize opened it.
["Hi Shinji, I'm Anika, come on in."] She said pleasantly.
["Thank you."] Shinji suddenly placed the voice. ["Hey wait...
you were the one that..."] Shinji trailed off when he realized he was
about to say 'stuck a gun in my back.' He gulped nervously, not
knowing what to expect as a response. Her response was not what he had
expected. She smiled and laughed softly.
["Yep, that was me. Sorry about that whole gun thing back in the
clearing."] As Shinji walked in and took his shoes off, Anika closed
the door and walked into the living room. ["Shinji's here, everyone."]
A wave of warm and pleasant greetings met the boy as he walked
into the apartment and looked around. ["Hi..."] he responded, with
only the slightest trace of uncertainty in his voice. Shinji walked
into the apartment proper and looked around. It was obviously a nice
apartment: roomy, new carpets, new paint job, and new appliances, but
he could tell it had been... modified. The windows had heavy drapes
added, probably so that Ferris and Hector could walk about freely.
More noticeably, one of the walls had been cut through to give access
to the next unit over. There was also that lived-in touch: furniture
(some new, some well used), home stereo system (currently playing some
Bach), bookshelves (already loaded with books), and, finally, weapons.
Lots and lots of weapons. Rifles, pistols, knives, swords, missile
launchers, grenade launchers, a few swords, and even a battle-axe were
all present. Most were fully assembled and seemed to be neatly stowed
around the room, while others were taken apart (Ferris was currently
working on a large rifle of some sort), and others were close at hand.
It was the very picture of ordered chaos. For a moment the site
stunned Shinji, then he shrugged and decided that at least it wasn't
empty beer cans.
Shinji continued to look around the room, but this time looking
at the individuals who inhabited it. Amber was cooking something at
the stove; Alister was studying charts of some sort; Melissa was
working at a computer and a collection of small monitors; the snake
(Hector, Shinji reminded himself) seemed to be meditating in the next
apartment. Anika had walked over to the table where Ferris was working
and began to reassemble the other rifle. There was no sign of Kyle.
For the first time, Shinji had a chance to get a good look at his
new friends. Anika looked to be in her late 20's, maybe early 30's.
She was tall, with a good figure (although not as full as Misato's)
with a definite leanness to her. She had light brown hair that was
held back in a thick ponytail that went down just a little past her
shoulder blades. Her most distinguishing feature was the thin scar
running down the lower right part of her face. While it would probably
stop her from winning any beauty pageants, it didn't destroy her
natural looks.
Then there was Ferris. He was just... big, and furry. Shinji
had never seen an actual wolf, but the resemblance was undeniable. His
fur was a dark brown and looked like it covered his entire body.
Shinji wondered if all members of his race were as muscular as he was.
Shinji guessed that the wolfen could probably bench-press a few hundred
pounds. What kept him from looking truly monstrous was his ready grin
and the twinkle of humor in his eyes.
Alister seemed to be the odd one in this mix, more a scholar then
a warrior. Tall and lanky, he was clean-shaven with sandy blond hair
and a serious expression. Shinji felt vaguely uncomfortable as he
began to notice a resemblance that the mage had to his father. Yet,
when he had come into the apartment, Alister had looked up and smiled
warmly at him before returning to his charts (that he could now see
were star charts).
He began to look curiously at Hector, trying not to stare. The
snake looked like he was coiled into a sitting position, and had his
eyes closed, and every few seconds his tongue would flick out with a
slight 'hissing' sound. The snake was large, resembling a python, with
emerald green scales and metallic black highlights. Shinji could only
guess at how large the serpent might be. Maybe as long stretched out
as Ferris was tall.
Finally, there was Amber. She was a little less than six feet
tall and incredibly lithe. She had dark black hair falling loosely
down her back, light colored skin, slanted green eyes, and pointed
ears. She almost looked like an elf.
["That's because I am."] Amber turned and said.
["A... are what?"] Shinji stammered.
Amber smiled pleasantly. ["An elf. I am an Elf."]
Shinji froze. Everyone was now looking at the two of them (even
Kyle who had just returned from the roof). Shinji was starting to
sweat and feel incredibly nervous. In fact, the only one who wasn't at
least a little on edge was Amber, who had gone back to her cooking.
["Musst you frighten the boy like that?"] Hector was no longer
meditating but was moving across the floor to 'stand' by Amber. Once
there, he coiled himself so that he could look the elf woman in the
eye. ["I understand that you feel some obligation to inssruct the boy,
but couldn't you find ssome better way to sstart?!"]
["No. I. Couldn't! The gods know when I would get another
chance to bring it up."] Amber snapped back.
["We disscusssed thisss! We weren't going to sspring it on him
like thisss!"]
Shinji was having a hard time following their conversation.
However, the other mercs were chuckling and returning to their tasks.
["Come on kid, after they get done arguing with each other
they'll explain things to you."] Kyle said sympathetically.
["Did... did she really read my mind?"] Shinji nervously asked.
["Probably, but if you think too 'loudly' around her she says
that she can sometimes pick up stuff. She doesn't go routing around in
other peoples heads, if that's what you're worried about."] Kyle led
Shinji into the next apartment over. This one was set up as a dojo
with mats, punching bags, and mirrors. There were quite a few weapons
in this room as well, but most of these were those you would associate
with martial arts, and most of them looked like those you would use to
practice. ["I got to change. Feel free to look around, but be
careful, some of the weapons are edged."] Kyle then walked into a
bedroom and closed the door.
As Shinji started to look around, he could still hear Amber and
Hector arguing in the next room. Shinji felt bad about that, but no
one else seemed to mind, so maybe it wasn't anything to worry about.
Shinji walked to the other side of the apartment where another section
of wall had been removed to make a doorway into a third apartment.
That one seemed to be set up as a kind of lounge area with sofas,
recliners, and a big flat screen TV and a top-of-the-line home theater
system. "Wow..." Shinji whispered, wondering again where they had been
able to get the cash for all of this; maybe Alister had used his magic
or they had gold or something...
Shinji's train of thought was derailed as Kyle's voice came from
the dojo room asking: ["So, what brings you here today?"]
Shinji turned to find Kyle dimming the lights and taking off his
mirror shades. He was now wearing a sleeveless t-shirt and gi pants.
Shinji shrugged and said, ["Had to get out of the house. My
friend Touji is visiting some family and my other friend Kensuke is
camping this weekend. I guess I couldn't think of anywhere else to
go."]
["Good enough. You know any martial arts? I was just about to
practice,"] Kyle responded as he began to do some basic stretches.
["I study tae-kwan-do; I just got my black belt a little while
ago. You almost have to know some sort of hand to hand combat with the
Eva,"] Shinji said.
["Oh yeah, that reminds me. Damn good job on that beastie the
other day. Although, you and that gal fighting at the end was
classic!"] Kyle replied with a grin.
["We both got chewed out pretty bad for that one."] Shinji was
looking at his feet, ashamed of himself.
["What do they expect? Both of you are what, fifteen? Sixteen
maybe?"]
["I'm fourteen, Asuka is thirteen, but she's turning fourteen in
a few weeks."] Shinji said in reply.
["That is seriously sick. Well, the least I can do is teach you
a little of what I know about fighting. Come on, let's see what you
got."] Kyle was now standing on one side of a sparring mat and was
indicating the other side to Shinji.
Shinji took off his school shirt and socks and nervously took his
place opposite the mercenary. They bowed to each other and began to
fight. Shinji wasn't that bad, but it was soon obvious that Kyle was
much better. The two kicked and punched back and forth for almost
three quarters of an hour, stopping every now and again to get water
and for Kyle to help Shinji out with his forms and offer advice. By
the end, Shinji was breathing heavily and was glad that he had taken of
his t-shirt as well as his button-up school shirt. If he hadn't, they
would both probably be uncomfortably damp with his own sweat. Kyle on
the other hand hadn't even broken a sweat and still looked like he
could continue to spar for hours. About fifteen minutes in, the other
mercs, with the exception of Anika, who said that she was going to keep
an eye on the monitors as way of excuse, had entered the room and begun
to watch the bout. After Kyle said they were done, the two combatants
bowed to each other as their audience broke into applause.
Ferris tossed the two of them towels and said, ["I'm impressed,
pup. You're pretty damn good."] The wolfen paused for a moment before
he continued. ["Of course you never really stood a chance, but still,
you'd kick Alister's ass any day of the week in a strait-up fist
fight." This banter brought a good-nature laugh from all present,
especially Alister. Amber sobered quickly though.
["I'd like to speak to Shinji. Alone please."] This was
delivered with an air of authority and confidence. Her 'elvish noble
voice' the other called it. That was probably why they all seemed to
ignore her statement.
["So, how long have you been studying, pup?"]
["For a few years now. My uncle started in on it when he was on
a health kick, and got my aunt and I to start it too. Since no one
told me to stop, I just kept doing it. I'm still not very good though,
kinda like my cello playing..."] Shinji was blushing as he toweled
himself off and accepted the can of juice that Alister offered.
["Not very good? You're shitting me, right? You lasted damn
near an hour against me and I've been studying Triad for most of my
adult life. You're underestimating yourself if you think that's 'not
very good,'"] Kyle said with a grin.
["WILL. YOU. LISTEN. TO. ME."] Amber's words were more a
demand then a question. Seeing that she now had their attention she
preceded more calmly. ["I need to talk to him."]
["By all meanss then, pleasse do."] Hector replied, a small grin
on his serpentine face.
Amber looked like she was about to resume her argument with the
snake but stopped. ["Alright then. Shinji Ikari, as a member of the
order of the Mind's Light, as a psionic trained by the Academy of
Psychic Powers and Knowledge of Psyscape, I offer to help you train
your gift as tradition and unwritten law demands."] Amber looked
incredibly proud of herself. She had always wanted an apprentice.
["What do you mean...?"] Shinji had a distinct feeling that his
life was about to get even stranger.
["You have an immense psionic gift, easily mind melter level. I
am offering to teach you to harness and control it."] She smiled
again, and this time with no hidden smugness and such. :It's really
quite easy when you get the hang of it.:
Shinji gasped and stared at Amber, confusion and a little bit of
fear mingling on his face. Amber wasn't done yet though.
:Calm yourself and listen. There's noise just on the edge of
your perception, right? That's the background thoughts and feelings of
those around you. Because of your gift, you are tuned to that mental
frequency. I can teach you how to tune that noise out. To harness
your potential.:
["But why? Why would you do that for me? Why are you all so
willing to help me like this?"]
Alister looked at him for a second and then answered. ["Because
we want to? Because we feel that it's our responsibility? Because
it's the right thing to do? Do we really need a reason? We look
around and see a boy who is fighting to save his world from some sort
of monsters, and we want to help..."]
Kyle continued, ["I look and see this kid who is being sent into
combat half trained, and utterly unprepared for the fallout. I see
someone who kinda reminds me of myself when I was younger. I see a
chance to do something good, to maybe balance the books a little bit.
I also can't stand aside and watch people get hurt when I could do
something to help."]
Melissa looked at him and smiled. ["Besides, we need some way to
keep ourselves busy until Alister can get us back to our world."]
Shinji looked at the mercs and with new confidence in his voice
said, ["When do we start then?"]
["Right now if you like. Hector has offered to help as well."]
Amber said. Hector nodded his head in agreement.
["All right then... thank you."] Shinji was right, his life had
just gotten a whole lot stranger.
["We will sssee if you are sso grateful in a few hoursss young
man."] Shinji couldn't tell if he should be afraid or not.
Ten grueling hours later, Shinji knew. He should be a little bit
of both. Grateful and exhausted. But at the same time, he was elated.
He had done it! He had finally been able to erect a barrier around his
mind and even hold it against some simple attacks. That had seemed to
open the door to his powers. In the last hour of his training, he had
begun to get the hang of telepathy and had been able to move some
pencils around telekinetically. His teachers had been thrilled. Hell,
he was thrilled. It was all so, so, peaceful now. Even though he was
drained both physically and mentally, he was happy.
"Yes sir, commander Ikari. No sir, I didn't. I'm quite sure.
Yes sir, understood." Captain Johnson, Sigma team leader, put down his
cell phone and addressed his team. "Alright, Ishtawa, Hiro, and
Nojisko, keep this place under observation. You'll be relived in about
thirty minutes. Sorry."
The trio shrugged their shoulders and sat down again. The rest
spread out around Shinji, a human wall to protect the pilot.
["Hey, Johnson,"] the other Americans on Sigma Team said.
["Yeah Smith?"] The captain answered.
["Think he'll catch hell from Red?"]
["Hell ya..."]
Shinji was still feeling quite good when he got home that night a
little before nine o'clock. "I'm home." He cheerfully called.
"Well, it's about damn time too, Third Child!" Asuka was almost
screaming, she was so mad.
Shinji was taken aback. Not because of his roommate's reaction,
but because of the effect. He could almost feel her emotions beating
against the mental barriers he had spent the day building. He
panicked. "I'm sorry Asuka. I... I... lost track of the time." He
had to calm her down.
"Well you should be! I've been stuck here all day penguin
sitting and bored out of my mind!" Another corner of her mind tried to
bring up the fact that Pen-Pen could more then take care of himself,
but she quickly squashed it. "Misato had to work a double shift and
Hikari was busy with school stuff and Kaji was gone so the only company
I had was the stupid bird!" At this moment, Pen-Pen stuck his head out
of the kitchen and on seeing Shinji let out a squawk of pure joy.
"Finally, someone who is half sane, and somewhat good at chess! My God
was I bored!" the penguin thought as he ran to hide behind Shinji's
legs.
"Sorry, sorry. Come on Pen-Pen, let's get you fed." Another
squawk of happiness accompanied this declaration, and the two quickly
escaped to the kitchen.
Asuka fumed for a few more seconds. Then she mumbled, "Where has
he been all day?" There was a hint of what could almost be concern in
her voice.
"The Third has returned home, Ikari." Sub-Commander Fuyutsuki
said.
"So, he has made contact with these unknown again?" Commander
Gendo Ikari answered plainly.
"Yes. He spent almost the entire day at an apartment that they
have apparently moved into recently. A background check shows that
three apartments in the same building, all next to each other, as well
as a warehouse across the street were recently leased/purchased. Magi
didn't find anything odd about it so it was ignored."
"Have Dr. Akagi run a check on the Magi, and have a more through
background check done," the commander replied.
"Worried about your son, I see," Fuyutsuki said.
"On the contrary, this could alter my scenario. That is all that
matters." Gendo replied coldly.
The next day dawned bright and early for Shinji. Early as in
5:00 a.m. early. He groaned and pulled himself out of bed. He put on
his gym uniform and, after splashing some cold water on his face,
stumbled outside to meet Anika and Melissa. The physical part of his
training was about to begin. He went outside to find the two already
waiting.
"What took you so long?" Melissa asked cheerily.
"It's early..." Shinji mumbled in response.
"Welcome to boot camp. The first week WILL be the worst, trust
me," Anika replied in only slightly accented Japanese. Shinji was
still too tired to really register that she was speaking in his
language, or the slightly artificial sound the translator implant she
had gave her voice. "Ready to run?" she continued.
"Well, I guess... but where's Kyle? I thought he would be here
too." Shinji wasn't so tired that he didn't notice the look on Anika's
face. "Now what did I say?" Shinji asked himself.
Before he could broach the question aloud though, Melissa
answered his original one. "He said that he prefers to do his run at
noon. Says it's more of a workout for him that way. I just think he's
crazy. Let's get going then, shall we?" With that the two women
started off at a brisk jog. Shinji had no choice but to start in after
them. An hour later his legs were burning and his lungs were a little
more then sore as the trio came back upon his apartment building. Most
of the jog/run/walk was done in silence, except for when they slowed to
a walk. Even then their conversation was nothing too heavy, just
anecdotes of this and that and discussion of what type of training
schedule Shinji could make. They hammered out that Shinji would try to
come over about three times a week for lessons on psionics, combat
stuff, or physical training. If he wanted to, he could join them for
their morning run every day except Sunday, when they didn't run anyway.
Shinji was more then happy about this arrangement. "But what.... if
I... want to.... just... come over sometime..." Shinji said between
breaths.
"Hey, you're a friend, the door is always open. Our place is
yours!" Anika replied.
"Thanks..." Shinji replied with a smile on his face.
As the two women waved goodbye and continued on their run Shinji
pushed the elevator button. He didn't know if he could make it up the
stairs if he tried. After staggering down the hall into his apartment
and getting a clean school uniform, he went to the bathroom for a long
soak.
A mile or so away, Melissa suddenly snapped her fingers.
"What is it?" Anika asked.
"I forgot to tell him that the others would be 'training' him
when ever he least expects it." Melissa replied.
"Don't worry, I'm sure they'll go easy on him at first." Anika
said matter-of-factly.
"Sure they will..." Melissa said, sarcasm dripping from her
voice.
It was a fairly typical day in class. Their sensei was droning
on about second impact yet again and most of his classmates were
catching up on sleep or using their computers to chat with friends.
Rei was absent today, but that was normal. Shinji was just drifting
off into dreamland when a voice intruded on his thoughts, literally.
:Hello, ready for some more lessons?:
"Epp" Shinji squeaked. Luckily those around him weren't paying
enough attention to notice their classmate's reaction to the telepathic
communique.
:Don't worry Shinji, it's just me.: Shinji recognized Amber's
mental voice this time. :Try to talk back at me, let's see how well
you do with that and we can go from there.: Shinji looked around the
class. He could repeat his sensei's lecture on the second impact by
from heart and most of the class was slipping into the catatonic state
that was so common. He looked at the clock. An hour before this class
ended and lunch began. He began to concentrate on broadcasting his
thoughts to where he figured Amber was. He was still trying to get the
hang of it when lunch began. He almost didn't hear the bell. But
apparently Amber did. :You're doing exceptionally well, Shinji. We'll
continue this some other time. Enjoy your lunch.:
The rest of the week passed almost just like this. On Monday he
had a synch test with his EVA, and after realizing that he needed to
take down his Mind Block to do this, his score jumped up several points
over his last results. Tuesday was a slightly longer run, with less
time running, and more time jogging, followed by some martial arts and
weapons training from Kyle and Ferris after school. He found that he
was rather adept at the weapons portion; using some of the same
principles he had learned in Unit 01, he had a solid foundation to
build off of. His teachers were impressed. Wednesday was his morning
run, a surprise psionics lesson during gym (summoning inner strength
turned out to be fairly useful on his swimming test). That evening he
went to a movie with Touji and Kensuke, some American martial arts
movie. Strangely enough they met Asuka and Hikari (as well as Hikari's
older sister) going to the same movie and almost had a pleasant evening
together, except for Asuka and Touji's fighting. Thursday saw almost a
repeat of Monday's lessons except that Kyle had a surprise sparring
match lined up for after school. Shinji fought hard, but even with the
strange hunches that he was starting to get, Kyle was still the obvious
winner. The section two agents (Charlie Team today) almost interceded
a few times at first, but in the end they just gathered around and
cheered their protectee along. Afterwards, Shinji accompanied Kyle
back to the mercs' impromptu headquarters for a few hours of weight
training. When he got done with this, Shinji went home, and, after
finishing his homework, collapsed into bed. When he woke up on Friday,
he wasn't as sore as he had been, and while tired at the end of the run,
it wasn't as bad as before. There were no additional lessons at school
that day and after school he wound up going to one of the local arcades
with Touji, Kensuke, Hikari, and Asuka. While Shinji asked Rei if she
wanted to come along, she declined, saying that she had things to do at
base. When they got to the arcade, they found Melissa and Alister were
also there. Alister was being introduced to the joys of the arcade game,
and was being beaten soundly at them by his wife. After some brief
introductions where the two mercs were firmly established as being old
friends of Shinji's, the group proceeded to hit every arcade in the
Tokyo-3 Mall. The so-called "adult supervision" was barely even noticed.
After several hours of this, the two grown-ups offered to pay for dinner
at the food court. As Shinji, Touji, Kensuke, and Hikari were sitting
down with their food, the other three waiting in line for some more
western cuisine, Kensuke looked enviously at his friend.
"Damn it Ikari, you get all the luck, you know that?" He said.
"How so?" Shinji asked between mouthfuls of ram¢n.
"Isn't it obvious?" Touji continued for his friend. "You're not
only living with a babe like Misato, even if you do have to live with
the red devil too, but you got a cool friend like her too! She even
offers to buy us all dinner!" Touji just shook his head. Hikari just
chuckled under her breath before she threw her two yen in as well.
"He's right about the nice friend bit. So where did you meet
Melissa, Shinji?" It was an innocent question that almost threw Shinji
for a loop.
"She was a... neighbor when I live with my uncle before coming
here. She used to... baby-sit me when I was younger. Yeah, that's
it." Shinji quickly filled his mouth with his soup and until the other
three returned with their food. The conversation went into safer
territory and the rest of the evening passed without incident, Touji
and Asuka even behaved themselves for the most part, only breaking out
into a small argument over a 'newlywed' jibe directed at Shinji and
Asuka.
Being that it was Saturday, Shinji's run with Melissa and Anika
was about two miles longer then it had been previously. By the time
Shinji got back, Misato was already up and about (surprisingly early in
fact). After Shinji's bath, he joined Misato in watching her Saturday
morning cartoons as he ate some cereal.
"So, how was the run, Shinji?" Misato asked in between bites of
the toast she had burned for her own breakfast.
"It was tiring. I think we went about four miles today." Shinji
replied.
"Nice of them to let you tag along. So, what brought about this
new health kick? Is there a... girl you're interested in?" Misato
asked slyly. Shinji almost choked on his cereal.
"No. not really at least." Shinji kinda stammered out.
"Awww, who is it?" Misato paused for a minute then asked, "Is
it Rei?" Shinji just looked into his cereal and didn't comment. "Not
Rei then, huh." Misato paused again and looked like she was in deep
thought. "Is it. Asuka?" she asked.
"No, it's nothing like that. I just felt like getting in shape,
and Melissa and her friends offered to help. That's all," Shinji
replied quickly.
"Well, I'll take your word on that for now. But I will get the
truth out of you yet!" Misato stood up and scruffed Shinji's hair
playfully before going to the kitchen to get her fourth beer of the
morning. Later that day, Shinji went over to the mercs place and ended
up practicing telekinetics with Hector most of the day. He seemed
pleased with his young student's progress, but still pushed him harder.
["There iss a great deal of potential in you. I think we will sssee
how much sshortly..."] Shinji spent his Sunday catching up on his sleep
and homework and spent the evening at Kensuke's, watching some old
anime with him and Touji.
The next week passed almost exactly like the first, except that
he found that he wasn't quite as winded after his morning runs. He
also found that his sleep schedule was rearranging itself around his
early mornings. The mental training he was receiving was also getting
more intense and Hector said that in a few weeks they could maybe get
him working on some more advanced techniques. He had synch tests on
both Monday and Wednesday night so he spent his Tuesday, Thursday and
Friday evenings with the mercs instead. They continued his lifting
program and introduced him to energy weapons (they had a range set up
in the warehouse they owned). Every day he had surprise mental visits
from Amber, and by then end of the week he was getting pretty good at
seeing auras, and was even starting to figure out what they meant. Rei
was only in class on Monday and Tuesday, but at one point during
Shinji's practicing, she looked over at him intensely before returning
her attention to the world outside her window. Saturday morning dawned
rainy and overcast but this didn't stop the morning run. Luckily, the
sky cleared up after awhile so they weren't rained on. After getting
home, bathing, and being quizzed by Misato on the identity of his
mystery girlfriend, he was left alone with his cartoons. All was
peaceful until about ten o'clock when Asuka emerged from her room and
walked went into the kitchen were Misato was playing chess with Pen-Pen
(who looked like he was winning).
"Well Misato, have you made up your mind yet?" Asuka asked
pleadingly.
"This is awfully short notice Asuka... but yeah, I guess it's ok,
you only turn fourteen once. But only if Shinji is OK with it," their
guardian replied.
"But Misato... can't you just send him over to one of the other
stooges' places for the night? The last thing I want is that little
idiot around when my friends are over. He'll probably do something
perverted and make himself look stupid anyway..." Asuka almost whined.
"Hey, it's his home too. I won't just kick him out to satisfy
one of your whims. If he doesn't mind, then it's OK with me; otherwise
you can just deal with him being here, or call it off," Misato said in
a tone broaching no arguments.
"All right, fine then. I'll ask. Ohh Shinji..." Asuka called
sweetly.
"What is it, Asuka?" Shinji replied.
"Do you think you could do me a really big favor next weekend?"
"What is it?" Shinji asked cautiously.
"Well, I want to have some friends over next week for my birthday
so I was hoping you could make yourself scarce next Saturday night."
Shinji sighed. "Let me talk to my friends..."
"Thank you Shinji!" Asuka smiled cutely and went off to the
bathroom for her morning bath. Shinji suddenly felt a shudder, as if
cold fingers were running down his spine. He looked around the
apartment, but seeing that nothing was amiss, he went back to watching
his cartoons. He only had a few hours before Ferris expected him for
some more lessons of some sort.
A few miles away, deep inside the Geo-Front, Commander Ikari was
deciding his son's fate. "Report, Major Yokamano." Ikari was sitting
behind the desk in his office; Fuyutsuki stood off to the side and
behind him, as was customary.
"Yes Sir. We have had the subjects' domicile under observation
for the last two weeks. The Third was visited on six separate
occasions, runs every morning with the same two of them, and has met
outside of these on three other occasions. Their intent is still
unknown and while I have suspicions, I have no way to confirm them."
He paused here to see if the commander wanted him to offer any of them.
It didn't appear so, and the section two agent continued. "We have
identified five, maybe six individuals total, and are quite sure that
their three apartments can be moved between freely."
"Excuse me, Major, but what do you mean that you have identified
'five, maybe six'?" Sub-Commander Fuyutsuki asked.
The head of section two's Omega team put down a file folder on
the commander's desk. "These are pictures and dossiers on the
subjects," he hesitated for a moment, "and also what we have on the
sixth as well."
The commander Ikari picked up the file and began to page through
it, Fuyutsuki watching over his shoulder. The section two agent
continued.
"The individuals are a former United States Army Ranger Anika
Blake, honorable discharge, mission information classified. The next
is an astronomer and physicist named Alister Renault, his wife Melissa
is a computer programmer and was the first to make contact with the
third. Next is Kyle Walkin, former USMC Recon, honorable discharge;
most of what he did is classified as well. Finally there is Amber
Julia Purin, a psychologist." The major paused, waiting for the
commander to see the final set of pictures.
"This is a joke, correct?" Gendo said as he tossed the pictures
of Ferris onto his desk. "If it is, I am far from amused by it."
"No sir. These pictures seem to show an approximately seven and
a half foot tall wolf, creature. Our analyses of the pictures show
that it is not a projection or some sort of hologram. We also doubt
that it is a person in a costume." The major stood there while the
commander studied the photos for several minutes.
"What of the warehouse?" Ikari asked without looking up.
"Sir, what warehouse?" the agent asked in confusion.
Ikari and Fuyutsuki looked at each other briefly before the
commander continued. "This is all classified. You and your men are not
to breathe a word of this to anyone. Tell the other section two teams
the same. You know the consequences of speaking of this," The
commander said evenly.
"Yes sir." He knew. He had enforced it in the past.
"Dismissed."
As the agent turned and left, Dr. Akagi entered. After the
section two agent had left and the door had closed behind her, she
addressed the commanders. "I have the report you wanted."
"Go ahead."
"The Magi were hacked within the last month. It was the work of
a master too. I could barely find any traces that it had been done.
It seems that he or she was able to gain access to all but Seraphim
level files. It's nothing that SEELE doesn't have, so it might be the
UN, but if so they would have acted on it. The Japanese government
might have done it, but they too would have acted on the information
gained as well. It might be some new faction, but what are they going
to do with this information?" Ritsuko put the first of the folders she
had with her on the commander's desk. "As for the third, the day after
his first 'visit' there was a synch test. At first his synch ratio was
abysmally low, then before I could comment on it, his ratio jumped to a
full five points above his last test. It's been going up ever since.
He will probably surpass Asuka's in a few weeks. Also, Misato
commented that he's been a lot more confident recently."
"Do you believe there is a connection?"
"Almost certainly. May I ask just who it is that is causing this
remarkable change?"
The commander looked like he was about to say no, then paused and
indicated the folder left by the section two agent. Ritsuko picked it
up and began to leaf through it. "Former military, scientist, computer
expert, another former military, a psychologist, and... the hell?!"
The doctor was staring wide-eyed at the pictures of Ferris.
"I want you to analyze the pictures of the wolf-thing and report
back by the end of the week. Understood?"
"Yes sir." Ritsuko was now reading through the section two
agent's report.
"Is there anything else?" The commander asked.
"One other thing. We found some sort of, communications module
on one of the rail tracks leading into the Geo-Front. The technology
that it contained was decades ahead of anything we have. I don't even
know if we will be able to reverse engineer it successfully. However,
if we can figure out its micro-power-cell, we could probably adapt its
technology for use in the EVA's to almost triple their internal power
capacity. I have an engineering team working on it right now. That's
all." Ritsuko had almost forgotten about it upon seeing the pictures
of the Wolfen.
"You are dismissed then."
The doctor left with the file containing the pictures, leaving
only Ikari and Fuyutsuki. "What will you do now Ikari? Does a giant
bipedal wolf fit into your scenario?"
"No, it doesn't. But neither does it fit into the Council's,
professor. As long as the Old Men remain ignorant of these, new
factors, events can still be played out correctly. I must consult the
Scrolls to see what they can tell me though."
["The Scrolls? What scrolls?"] Kyle asked the mage, hacker and
serpent.
["These scrolls."] Melissa pointed to the open file on her
screen. ["This was the only document not written in a modern language,
so I used that Techno-Wizard translating module to decipher it for me.
It took the damn thing two weeks to do it too. What we got out of it
is disturbing, really fucking disturbing. Alister, Hector."]
The two looked at each other and Alister began to speak. ["Well,
they are prophecies. The gist of them is that at an appointed time
brought about by certain events, mankind will face trial by combat
against seventeen messengers, or Angels. If mankind fails, it will
mean their, our, distraction. If they succeed on the other hand, it
could still mean their destruction. It could also mean their
ascension, or maybe something else, a purging of some sort. It gets
vague at this point. More then anything else, it would seem that we
are in the middle of it."]
["Does the kid know?"] Kyle asked. Shinji was in the next room
over, learning small unit robot vehicle tactics from Ferris. He didn't
seem to like the subject matter that much, but he had a knack for it
all the same.
["I don't believe so. The prophecies seem to speak of armor, and
I quote: '...Made from the flesh of their enemy, given form by the
souls of the of those who gave birth to the Children warriors who will
pilot them.' That's one of the clearer parts of this damn thing."]
["Bio-Wizzardry... dissgusssting. Sssplynn would probably love
to get hiss tenticless on thosse thingss."] Splynn, the monstrous
ruler of Atlantis, and his minions, practiced a dark form of magic,
similar to necromancy, which is based on the violent and controlled
mutation and alteration of living creatures for the purpose of
supernatural augmentation. Besides the Bio-Wizardry, Splynn, and other
Splugorth entities, were slavers (most of Hector's race was enslaved by
them).
["So Alister, do you think that's what the, whatever it was, in
your dream was warning you about?"] Kyle asked the mage.
["Yes, however, where the box fits into this is anyone's guess.
I do have a hunch that it's more important to this world then it is to
ours."] The mage and the others turned to the computer screen where
the scroll's translation was being displayed.
["It just me, or does this whole thing smell rotten?"] Kyle
asked quietly as he took off his sunglasses in the darkened room and
continued to read the prophecies.
["To the core my old friend, to the core..."] Hector answered
solemnly. ["And I believe it will just get worssse before it getss
better."]
A few miles away, in a now deserted forest clearing, there was a
sudden flare of blue light that became steadily larger until in the
middle of it, what looked like a hole in the air appeared. The hole
got larger until it was an oval nearly twelve feet tall and eight feet
wide. Through this rift walked a group of four men followed by...
creatures; strange bestial things that looked to be made of shadows and
given a mockery of life. After a dozen or so of the shadow beasts
stepped through, an open top hover jeep drove through. Its pilot
quickly got out and ran back through the rift to his own world. After
he had left, one last man came through. As he stepped through, the
rift closed behind him.
It was an odd assortment of all five men. The first, and
obviously the leader, was a little over six feet tall and wearing what
looked stylized to be archaic plate and banded mail, with a helm shaped
like a skull crowned with large goats horns. A viscous looking
greatsword was strapped across his back and in his hands he held a
rifle that crackled with magic energy. After him was a giant of a man,
easily 7 feet tall. This one wore armor made of some sort of scaled
animal hide, with a strange harness attached to various parts of his
body, tubes connected the various bands and bracers to an armored
chemical pack on his chest. His weapons looked more modern then the
first's and consisted of immense rail guns and plasma ejectors.
Weapons usually usable only by power armor units and full conversion
cyborgs. He carried them with ease though, despite being only flesh
and blood. Standing slightly apart form the others were a pair of men
in environmental armor, bristling with weapons. The last to come
through was obviously a mage of some sort in flowing red robes. For
those that could tell the difference, this one had not the appearance
of the relatively common ley line walker. Nor did he have the look of
a techno-wizard or necromancer. While he might have been a Shifter,
his Aura, to those who knew how to look, didn't fit those of that
discipline. The fact was, practitioners of his discipline were some of
the rarest in the Megaverse. He was a Spatial Mage.
The man in the archaic armor turned to the others; ["We have our
orders. Lord Dunscan wants the Box, and its contents, intact. He
doesn't care a whit about the couriers though. The mage with which he
has provided us has tracked them here. Now we must find them. Go
shadows, find them and report back to me!"] The creatures all bowed
and then slipped away, moving quickly through the dark underbrush
towards Tokyo-3.
...to be continued.
Author's Notes:
Another chapter done, lord knows how many there are left to be
written. So, a new factor has been introduced to the world of Eva,
Mercenaries sent by Dunscan, king of the Federation of Magic. This
chapter is a little bit longer (OK a lot longer) then I usually write.
The simple explanation is that it is two chapters combined into one.
It probably won't happen again. I am grateful for all the positive
feedback I've been getting, and the distinct lack of negative. Chapter
6 should be out in a little over a month; I have finals in a few weeks
and really need to get my Philosophy grade up. Come Summer I'll either
have more time to type, or frighteningly less depending on my work
schedule (which will probably involve a 60-70 hour work week.).
Summers are hell for me. Anyway, Magma Diver is coming up, and so is
Asuka's birthday. Shinji will probably end up hanging out with the
Rifters that night, but what will the Rifters have planned? I also
plan on including an Omake in upcoming installments; I have a really
good idea for one after the next chapter. 8^) Keep your eyes open for
Chapter 6, New Lessons, and now, GM's corner.
Two big things, one: the martial art that Kyle is using. This is not
the Triad from the Rifter, but one I found online and slip in whenever
I can. You can find it here:
http://www.users.qwest.net/~bhegr/marts/newhth.html.
This is from Brett Hegr's Unofficial Palladium RPG Page, the URL for just
that is:
http://www.users.qwest.net/~bhegr/frames.htm.
This is a pretty good site for toy's as well as new psi powers, spells
and super powers (great place for super powers in fact! I love what
they did for the Super Soldier!) Some other good pages (as long as I'm
on the subject) are Mad Dog's (even if it no longer has the great book
of skills):
http://24.237.92.133/Palladium/Main.html,
and the Quality in Rift's homepage:
http://home.golden.net/~pover/rifts/rifts.htm.
Enjoy, I hope to have my own page built before to long. Now, I also
presented a new TW (Techno-Wizard) device in this chapter so I figured
I might as well stat it out.
TW-Translator Computer Module. This looks like a small, flat box,
6"x4"x2". It has the Rift's Earth equivalent of a USB cable that allow
it to connect to almost any Earth built system (specifically any North
American, NGR and most other European, Russian, Australian, Japanese,
and English. South America uses a slightly different plug, but
converters can be found. Atlantis as well as the Phoenix Empire in
Africa uses a different standard, but again, converters can be
purchased.) What this does is allow your computer to translate, with
magical accuracy, files in other languages (adds +30% to decryption
roles). The decryption aspect alone makes this a useful device for
hackers, and many scholars find it useful for alien or just hard to
decipher documents (with a portable scanner, you're all set!).
_P.P.E. Cost_: 22. _Spells Needed_: Eye's of Thoth and Tongues. _Physical
Requirements_: The casing unit with the connection cord, a circuit board
of some sort (inside the casing) and a green quartz crystal worth no
less then 700 credits. _Duration of Charge_: 1 hour. _To Recharge_: 18
P.P.E. or 36 I.S.P. _Time_: 3D6 days to build. _Cost_: 75,000 credits.
Fair to poor availability.
This is one item I haven't had a chance to play test, so if anyone has
recommendations for changes, I am more then welcome to them.
Otherwise, enjoy!
Last but not least, I would again like to thank my wonderful
prereaders:
Alan Slaughter
Qut/Draven Killjoy
Incantor
Sarevock
Nevyn
Josh Z
and finally my editor, Annie the Laughing Kookaburra!
See you all next time!
Rough Draft Version 1.0: 04-26-2001
Rough Draft Version 1.1: 05-03-2001
Final Draft Version 2.0: 05-04-2001, 3:45 am (Central Time Zone. To think, I
wanted to get to bed early tonight...)