From: Diazo Subject: [Eva/Descent] Descent to Evangelion Hope you enjoy: Descent to Evangelion By: Diazo V 1.0 Welcome to my fic, hope it's acceptable. Be aware that this is not a "classic" EVA fic, but more something that's been rattling around in brain the past few days. If you not familiar with the game Descent, go to http://www.descent2.com/archives/images/gra0001.jpg Both ships in the pic are Pyro's. On to the fic... ================================================================================ Prologue: "Good work Material Defender. Your work is now complete, return to earth." 'Heh, I would hope I'm done, seeing as how I just destroyed the "Mother-Bot"' was Wedge's initial response to this, but he was trying to be civil to Dravis, he had already been forced into one "contract extension" and Wedge wanted to avoid anything that would make Dravis fabricate another. Instead "Roger that, setting co-ordinates for earth now." was all Wedge said. Matching actions to words, Wedge began punching in the co-ordinates for home. Completing the task, he took one last look around and thought, 'Space may be exciting but I'll be happy to see home.' Turning back to the com screen that showed Dravis, his PTMC contact, he searched for something dramatic to say to commemorate the destruction of the last of the infected bots and his voyage home, but all he managed was "Vertigo-01 now engaging warp drive" in a concise and formal voice. "Acknowledged Vertigo-01, see you here." was Dravis's response, and then his screen shut down, signaling the end of the com-link. Nodding, Wedge engaged the warp drive. The warp core's characteristic background hum immediately presented itself and began spooling up, but after a few seconds, it HIC-upp-ED, only for an instant, but as it resumed charging, the hum was now much higher, almost a wail and much more frantic. Wedge immediately called up a warp core diagnostic, it reassuringly told him that the wail was a symptom of the greater strain being put on the core as this was the longest jump to be attempted yet. However, what Wedge failed to notice was that down in the bottom right hand corner of the diagnostic a warning that fuel line #7 was getting erratic pressure. Perhaps it isn't surprising that Wedge didn't notice it, as only one of 8 fuel lines, it was hardly a critical problem and therefore no warnings had been associated with this type of malfunction. This was unfortunate because this was merely a symptom of a greater problem. By now, the wail was so piercingly loud that Wedge was forced to cover his ears to save them. He endured this for the 3 minutes necessary for the core to build up to warp capacity, but at T -10, just as the warp field was being deployed, the whole warp core diagnostic, which Wedge had fortunately left active, flashed red and a warning buzzer sounded, not that he could hear it anyway. It took Wedge three seconds to realize what was happening, a warp field imbalance, the worst thing that could have happened, 5 1/2 seconds to code in and emergency reactor shutdown, the only thing that could stop the warp sequence now, 1/2 a second to hit the execute key. This left him with a full second to sag back into his chair with relief.... and to read the warning some programmer had seen fit to include: Do you wish to shut down the fusion reactor (Y/N)? Wedge immediately lunged for the console where his Y key was located. He was too late, with his finger 5 cm from the button, the malfunctioning warp drive engaged and Vertigo-01 and its pilot disappeared from the universe in a flash of light. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Chapter 1: KJHTYU Wedge sagged back in his chair, Is this death? he wondered. All around his Pyro was blinding white light. His console was showing that KJHTYU at him and for some reason he found this incredibly funny. Stifling his laughter even though no one was around, he watched as the KJHTYU metamorphosed into Reactor Shutdown in Progress.... Realizing that this was the last thing he wanted to have happen, he began reaching for the cancel key, but was interrupted as his eye caught what was happening outside. The intolerable light had cleared and Wedge saw that his Pyro was now inside a crater, looking back to the other side, he saw this huge black wall that seemed to be rippling! Next thing he saw was a huge wrecking ball swinging right towards him. Instinctively grabbing the stick, he tried to dodge, but his console mocked him with the report: Reactor Shutdown Complete, and his Pyro shutdown around him. *WHAM* The wrecking ball arrived and slammed into the side of his Pyro, sending it flying as easily as a child would flick away some annoying bug. Without power and therefore without any control over his flight Wedge just stared at what had hit him. "That wasn't a wrecking ball, it was a hand!" Then his Pyro landed on the side of the crater, slamming Wedge's head against the canopy, and everything went dark. "What is the target's status?" "We're unable to confirm due to all the interference" Inside Central Command, everyone was tensely waiting to hear if the N2 mine had worked, but they already knew that the 3rd angel had been destroyed, NOTHING could withstand a direct hit from an N2 mine! "It must have been destroyed, you saw the size of that explosion" one of the generals exulted to his companion beside him. "Sensors restored." one of the technicians announced. As she said this, the main screen cleared and a grid showing the crater appeared on it... With a spike, denoting an energy reading right at the center. "We've got an energy reading in the crater!!!" another technician shouted, almost wailed. "It can't be!!!" The same general screamed in disbelief. Unnoticed was the fact that the spike had decreased almost by half, then a few seconds later, it dipped again, although not as much. The sole technician who saw this assumed that it was after affects of the N2 explosion and didn't realize what it really was, an indicator that Tokyo-3 now had another visitor besides the Angel. "Visual display restored" the first technical announced and sure enough the main screen cleared to show the Angel standing still, in the crater created by the N2 mine. Chapter 2: "Launch!" Trailing sparks, EVA-01 raced towards the surface and it's meeting with the angel. Arriving with a CLANG that shook it to its core as it hit the stops on the rails, Shinji just stood there looking at the Angel as the final locks were released. "OK Shinji, just try walking for now." "Yes" Shinji responded. Concentrating on this, Shinji managed to make the EVA take a step, trying to take another, he tripped and fell flat on his face. "Shinji, get up!" Responding to this shout from the control center, Shinji managed to get the EVA's head up just in time to see the angel pick him up by the head. Shinji just stared at the Angel, amazed that it could lift the EVA so easily, giving it that crucial second it needed to grab EVA's left arm and begin twisting. Wedge groaned as he woke up inside his dead Pyro. Taking a look around, he spotted the med-kit. Deciding that it would be a good idea to do something about this headache he was developing, Wedge treated himself to some painkillers. He then decided to take a look at his craft from the outside, he was no longer in danger because he had been out for a bit, almost half an hour by his watch, and if that THING had meant to destroy him, it could have done so already. Outside, the Pyro looked the worse for wear: it had fortunately landed belly first into the dirt thankfully, that made it so that critical things like the engines and most of the maintenance hatches were clear. The landing gear was on the belly so it was probably useless now, but Wedge wanted to know what had gone wrong with the warp core. It seemed that he was back on earth anyway, but he had to know what had gone wrong before he started the reactor back up again! Thankfully the core was just inside one of those top hatches that was clear. Coming up to the hatch, Wedge saw a cut in the hull that only could have been from a lifter. With a sickening feeling he opened the hatch, to his relief the core seemed undamaged, it seemed the lifter's claw had just pierced the hull and done no damage. However, closer inspection showed that it had penetrated, if only a little bit, and clipped one of his fuel lines, letting it leak plasma all over the place. Nodding to himself, Wedge quickly patched up the leak and slammed the hatch closed. Taking a quick walk around inspection, Wedge saw that the Pyro was in great shape, sure it was pretty banged up, but that was all superficial, it seemed that only that one hit over the warp core had penetrated the hull plating. Getting back into the cockpit, Wedge started the Pyro back up. System after system started up, showing him a reassuring green on his status board. Completing this task, Wedge freed himself from the crater, it was easy thanks to that belly first impact. Turning to the com panel, he tried to raise Dravis, he wanted to know what that thing was and why it warranted such extreme measures. While doing this, he started to follow the footsteps that the thing had left. Unfortunately, all he got in reply was static, trying all the other standard PTMC channels got the same response, static and more static. Wedge was confused by this, maybe his com system was being blocked by an ion storm or something. 'Have to try someone local', turning to the GUARD frequency, he broadcast "This is Vertigo-01, could someone please telling me what's going on around here?" He got a response, but he couldn't understand it, 'Great, I have to crash land in some foreign country.' "Could you get someone who understands English please?" This time he got a broken "Eng-lishh?" back. "yes, someone who speaks English please." Something came back, Wedge hoped that it meant they were getting someone who spoke English to come to the radio. While he was waiting, his Pyro crested a hill, revealing a city, or what seemed like a city anyway, but it had none of the skyscrapers that defined a city in the modern age. Also the buildings seemed to be trembling, although he felt nothing thanks to his inertial compensator. Rising higher to see above the buildings, he noticed that thing again and quickly ducked back down before it could notice him. Anything further was stalled by a voice coming over the radio "Eng-lishh... who are you and what are you doing on this channel." It was broken and heavily accented, but quite understandable. 'This is better', and with that thought, Wedge replied "This is Wedge, piloting Vertigo-01 on contract to PTMC and I'm on this channel to try and figure out what is going on around here, with that thing and why it looks like a war zone around here." A few moments of silence followed, then his response came "Pee-Tee-Mmm-Cee? Is that part of NERV?" It was obvious that this guy was rather confused, so Wedge gambled and said "Yes, section 3 of NERV" hoping that he would be connected with NERV and that they would have someone who knew what was going on. "OKay.. hang on" and a minute later "Goto frequency 132.4 and talk to NERV command." Yes! Wedge exulted, "Roger that, frequency 132.4, talk to NERV command. Thanks." Something then came back, but Wedge couldn't understand it, so he ignored it and switched to 132.4 "NERV command, this is.. SHIT!" Wedge exclaimed as two bars shot up on either side of his Pyro, he immediately floored the throttle and ducked between two buildings off to the side. Turning around, he saw what could only be a robot shoot out of the ground and jarring to a stop as it hit the end of the bars. Deciding he was safe enough between these two buildings, he tried the com again "NERV command, this is Vertigo-01, requesting sitrep. NERV command, this is Vertigo-01, requesting sitrep." Sitting back Wedge waited for a response. While his attention had been concentrated on the com, that thing had come around another corner and had attacked the robot, twisting and breaking its left arm. Wedge decided that he wasn't going to get involved until he knew what was going on, maybe the robot was the bad guy... "Who was that!?!?" Ritsuko demanded. The com tech just shrugged, "I don't know, I didn't understand him, he was on a NERV frequency though." Ritsuko was tempted to just tell him to shove off, but he had gotten this frequency and he was interrupting NERV during an Angel attack, which meant he was either the stupidest prankster in the world or someone important. Taking a look at EVA-01, she decided that Misato had things in hand, well, there was nothing she personally could do right now. Turning back to the com officer, she told him "Let me talk, that's english and I'll figure out what the idiot is doing on that channel." Ritsuko sat down in the chair and slipped the headphones on "Vertigo-01, this is NERV command, now may I ask why you are interrupting NERV during an angel attack?" she asked. Wedge looked at the com in confusion, there was no picture, but the speaker's annoyance was still painfully obvious. Turning back to look outside, he was glad that he had backed off from the fight some more, the thing was now shooting the robot in the head. He wondered why it didn't fight back, but that wasn't his problem. Turning back to the com, "Well, I've currently got some black thing beating up on some sort of robot not 40 meters in front of me and I'd kind of like to know what's going on here before I intervene if you get my drift..." Ritsuko stared at the speaker from which the pilot's voice came, 40 meters?!? there shouldn't be anyone above ground thanks to the evacuation. Turning to the sensor tech at the console beside her, she ordered "Scan a circle 60 meters around the Eva and the Angel." The tech looked at her oddly, but subsided at Ritsuko's glare and did so. A few seconds later the scan came up, once again the grid showing the terrain with a spike at the center where Shinji and the Angel were, and 38 meters to the south west another spike. "ID that" she told the technician. The technician got busy at his board, a few seconds later "I don't know ma'am, nothing that the computer has seen before" Ritsuko frowned at this, if the Magi didn't recognize it, that meant at the very least it was some prankster. Deciding to see where this went, she answered the question "It's simple, the black thing as you call it is an Angel that is currently attacking this city, Tokyo-3, the robot is an Evangelion, our only defense against the Angels." Telling that unknown pilot about the EVA's brought Ritsuko's eyes back to the main screen, just in time for the Angel to shoot the Eva in the head and send it crashing back into a building. Wedge grimaced that lance of the black thing slammed into the robot's head again. Then NERV command replied "It's simple, the black thing as you call it is an Angel, the robot is an Evangelion, our only defense against the Angels." Before Wedge had a chance to think about this, the lance hit the robot, but this time it penetrated, sending the robot flying back down the street where Wedge could no longer see it. The thing then thundered down the street after the robot and disappeared around the corner as well. This respite let Wedge think about the transmission from NERV. So obviously, the black thing is and Angel and the bad guy, while the robot is an Evangelion and a good guy. Turning back to the com link, he heard commotion through it, it had been left open on the other end and it seemed that they were in a panic. Needing to see what was going on, he moved up to, and slid around the building corner. Now he could see why NERV seemed panicked, the Evangelion was slumped against a building, obviously inactive and the Angel was standing over it, about to use it's lance again. Deciding that he now knew enough, Wedge transmitted to NERV, since they were obviously in command here, "Vertigo-01 engaging Angel" NERV command was in a state that borderlined on controlled panic. Misato and Ritsuko were on the backs of the technicians, Misato trying to re-activate unit 01, Ritsuko trying to get information on the angel, having completely forgotten about that odd conversation she had been having. Only Commander Ikari was calm, or at least appearing to be calm in the control room. Nothing had really much been done when Ritsuko heard, thanks to the earphones she was still wearing, "Vertigo-01 engaging Angel" She stopped in surprise at this, then started turning back to the com station to warn him off, it would be suicidal for anything except an EVA to attack the angel. Before she could do so however, a pair of purple streaks appeared from off screen and slammed into the Angel, staggering it. Wedge waited a couple of seconds to see if NERV would reply, when nothing was forth-coming, he decided he had to intervene before the angel completed the total destruction of the Evangelion. Selecting fusion cannon, his most powerful single strike weapon, he charged it for a couple seconds.. and shot at the angel. It hit a little to the right, catching it on the shoulder instead of the center of the back where he had been aiming. Pausing to analyze the results of the shot, Wedge could see that it was regenerating already, worse, the angel was turning towards him. Once again, Wedge shot off his fusion, this time the first two shots hit, one on the shoulder, the other lower, in the side. The rest then hit some sort of shield that interposed itself just in front of the angel. By now, the angel finished it's turn, facing him squarely. Wedge wasn't worried, it seemed that the lance had to be right there to hit you and there were no other weapons obvious... until the red ball on the chest started glowing, and before Wedge could do anything, shot a bolt at him that hit him square on the nose. Quiet was instantaneous, so far nothing except the N2 mine had inflicted damage on the angel, now this purple thing had come out of no-where and damaged the angel, if not much. Two more sets of streaks hit the angel, noticeably shaking it, but the next of the streaks and the rest hit the angel's at field that it had raised. This seemed to shake the control center awake. Misato was the first to order "Focus on where those shots came from!" Immediately, the main screen flickered and focused in on a gray ship, a few seconds later, stats appeared along the bottom, the command crew had only a second to look at these before the Angel's shot impacted on the ship, sending it careening backwards, bouncing off buildings. "Launch the rescue team, get Shinji out of there while the Angel is distracted!" Misato all but screamed, Ritsuko adding "Get a second one out, rescue that ship and it's crew." 'If we can get a hold of that weapon and scale it up to EVA size, we'd finally have a worthwhile projection weapon.' Ritsuko's motivation perhaps wasn't as noble as Misato trying to save Shinji, but to date EVA only had the progressive knifes and their fists to destroy the angels, so she was right as well. "Uhhh.. Ma'am..." Ristsuko turned towards the technician who had spoken, who seemed rather flabbergast and just pointed towards the main screen. Ritsuko blinked a few times, she couldn't believe her eyes, checking the stats still scrolling along the bottom, she made sure that she had seen it right the first time, she had and she couldn't believe it, a ship 5 METERS long had just survived a direct hit from the Angel!! and didn't even look damaged!!! She didn't think it was possible, that shot had all but vaporized one of NERV's VTOL's, which was 15 meters, from a near miss!! But this mystery ship was already steadying itself and it slid SIDEWAYS between two of the buildings, cutting off the Angel's line of fire. "Unnnnn...." Wedge groaned, his shield system had saved him and his ship, but hadn't been able to absorb all the energy in that blast and had sent him flying backwards. He though he bounced off about three buildings, maybe more, before he got his Pyro back under control and then ducked between two buildings, cutting off his view of the Angel and it's ability to fire on him. He realized his mistake in assuming this when a bolt ripped through the building in front of him and passed off to his right. Quickly, he began moving his Pyro further away from the Angel, basically picking streets at random and flying down them. When he got about 5 streets away, his com crackled at him "Vertigo, just what was thing?!?!" It was the same voice as before, from NERV command. Seeing no danger in replying and knowing that he needed more information, he replied, a bit confused mind you, "That was just a standard Fusion Cannon, why?" Ritsuko stared at the radio, so far, only that 'Fusion Cannon' had managed to even scratch the Angel and he was asking why?!? Mind you, it was pretty obvious that he didn't have a clue what was going on, having to ask what an angel was when it had been all over the airways for the past three hours. Realizing that he was waiting for a response, Ritsuko replied, still incredulous "That 'Fusion Cannon' of yours is so far the only thing besides a N2 mine to even scratch the Angel and your asking why?!?" Ritsuko could hear the pilot's surprise in the few seconds of silence that followed this, then his reply just served to confuse her even more "Uhh.. If that's things such a danger, why didn't you get one of the ASAT lasers in here? The Fusion a popgun compared to that thing." By now, Ritsuko was basically beyond surprise and was just accepting what this pilot told her at face value, so this time there was no stunned display before she replied "We would have done that if we had access to or even knew what and ASAT laser was." "uhhh, well never mind, what is that shield thing it had, it's nothing like any shield that I've ever met before?" Wedge was basically staring at his com, he couldn't imagine why they hadn't brought in an ASAT laser, it was the most powerful focused damage weapon that existed, yes, nukes were more powerful, but they spread their damage out in all directions, an ASAT-L could deliver more damage to a focused point. Telling NERV this, "Uhh.. If that's things such a danger, why didn't you get one of the ASAT lasers in here? My Fusion a popgun compared to that thing." When the reply came back that they didn't even know what a ASAT-L was, he decided to drop it, their was something screwy going on here and he began to take everything at face value. Coming back to the Angel, he asked about it's shield, he would have to get through it before he could do any damage. "Well, it's 'shield' is an AT Field, it has to be canceled out by another AT Field before you can do any damage to it, nothing can get through, it protected it from a direct hit by a nuke." Wedge considered this, that was a pretty formidable shield, one that he wouldn't be able to wear down like he did the robot's shields. Then he remembered his lasers, they weren't even close to as powerful as any of his other weapons, but they could go THROUGH shields. He didn't use them because Plasma cannons would wear down their shields really fast and it only took a single hit on bare hull by plasma to destroy a bot, compared to lasers which didn't have to wear the shields down, but did take several hits on the hull to destroy a bot. Hoping that this AT field was similar enough to normal shields that this held true, he asked "You tried hitting it with a simple laser?" "No, we can't get more that a couple of kilo-watts out of any portable system we've got, why?" Nodding to himself, he replied "Good, in that case, I might have a plan, before I start, do you have any shield recharges?" "uhh.. No, what are shield charges anyway?" Wedge sighed, did he have to explain everything to these people?!?! "Shield charges are blue orbs that I can pick up to recharge my own shield system, that hit I took earlier wiped 90% of my shield away, I won't be able to survive another one without those recharges that you don't have!" He almost screamed the last, his frustration at the amazing ignorance of these people, perhaps fueled by his fear of taking on such a powerful enemy also showing itself in his voice. Taking a deep breath and calming himself down, he told the voice on the other end of the com, normally this time "I'm going to begin my attack now, I would suggest however that you get that robot back up and running, I'm not going to be more that a distraction to it." This was true unfortunately, his fusion cannon, his most powerful weapon, had no more that scratched the enemy, so all he could do was buy time for the robot to get back up on it's feet. Turning his Pyro around, he began to seek out his enemy. Of course, what do you think we're doing? Ritsuko scorned at the person on the other end of the line. Taking a look over at Misato and her crew, it was pretty obvious that she wasn't making much progress. Deciding that this unknown ship and it's pilot were their best hope, she decided to actively help him, so she transmitted "Aim for the red sphere on the chest, that's its weak point." "Red sphere on the chest, right." The unknown pilot acknowledged. Turning to the sensor tech who was beside her, she told him "Get three sets of sensor records, on close in on the angel, one close in on that ship and one of the ship and angel in the same field of view." "Yes ma'am" the tech responded and began typing on his console. "Ritsuko!" Ritsuko looked up, saw it was Misato who had called her. Standing up, she gave the com tech his seat and headset back, "If he calls again, get me over here no matter what I'm doing!" "Ma'am" The tech replied as he claimed his seat back. Arriving beside Misato, Ritsuko waited for what she needed "Your the EVA genius around here, why can't we get the synchronization to hold?" Taking a look at the synchrotron, she could see that synchronization was flickering between about 3 and 10%, way to low for anything to happen. "What are the pilot's stats?" Ritsuko asked. A tech answered "Unknown, med-sensors off line." Nodding, she turned to Misato "I'd say that the pilot in unconscious and therefore we can't hold the synchronization because the pilot isn't helping us. All we can do is wait for him to revive. It won't be long however, if he was totally unconscious, there wouldn't be any synchronization at all." She hastily added the last when Misato looked like she had been about ready to kill her. "Damn! Alright, retrieve EVA-01, we'll launch again when the pilot recovers!" "Bad idea Misato, all we'll be doing is risking more people, it'll take almost three hours to get the EVA to the nearest recovery zone." This time Misato did jump upon her. "So we are just supposed to sit down here and do nothing while the Angel goes and beats up on the EVA?!?!" She all but screamed in Ritsuko's face. Keeping her voice calm, if not totally level, Ritsuko replied to this assault "Don't worry, I've already got a distraction lined up." Misato just looked oddly at Ritsuko, but turned away as their was really nothing she could do. Naturally, Misato's eyes were drawn to the main screen, currently showing both the EVA and the Angel on a split screen, the Angel currently advancing on the downed EVA after seeming to wander around aimlessly after shooting that mystery ship down. As if on cue, streaks of green light came from off screen and slammed into the Angel's core. Immediately Misato order "Focus on point of origin!", although she all but knew what it would show, sure enough, it was that mystery ship, back for another round with the Angel. Another salvo of light came from the ship and hit the Angel's core, the same as last time, it had no effect. Therefore the ship switched targets, the next salvo hit beside the core, digging into the Angel's flesh and actually penetrating almost half a meter. Seeing that this had was actually damaged the Angel, the ship began exclusively targeting that spot. This made the Angel almost frantic, it began to fire back, but the ship seemed to have learned, it was ducking every which way, preventing the Angel from hitting it again. This continued for almost half a minute before one of the technicians hesitantly spoke up "Ma'am... I'm not sure what to make of this, but those shots are PENETRATING the Angel's AT Field!" In a flash, both Misato and Ritsuko were beside the tech, leaning over his chair and looking at a representation of the Angel's AT field. Sure enough, the next shot from that unknown ship appeared on the screen, passed THROUGH the AT field and hit the Angel. "It's not penetrating the Field, it's IGNORING the field, it's like the AT Field doesn't even exist for that ship!" Ritsuko exclaimed. Misato then turned to her "This is you distraction isn't it?" Ritsuko just nodded, eyes still on the screen, watching the next shots once again pass through the AT field. Misato stood up and began turning, but what she was going to do would never be known for that was when one of the Angel's shots hit the unknown ship. Unlike last time, this time the ship staggered, slamming into the building behind it and instead of bouncing off, it collapsed in a heap at the building's base. It was on it's belly, so at first the people in the control room thought that it was going to rise again, but then they took in the crumpled nose, the wings on the one side snapped off and realized that this time that wouldn't be happening. This was proven when the ship's canopy began to rise and the pilot scrambled out, trying to get away before the angel shot again. He was too late, his feet just touched down on the ground from jumping out of the cockpit when the Angel's next shot hit the Pyro square on. When the smoke cleared, there was simply a crater where there had used to be a ship, the pilot and ship both having been vaporized by that shot. "UGNNN..." Shinji moaned as he came awake with a start. This stabilized the synchrotron down in NERV command, although no-one noticed as they were all watching the spectacle that Shinji himself now became entrapped by: the unknown ship ducking and weaving as dodged the Angel's blasts and kept pouring it's own fire into the one spot beside the Angel's core. Shinji watched this along with the NERV command staff, albeit from a closer point of view, until one of the Angel's shots slammed into the EVA chest. At this low synch rate, only about 15%, it was more like a tap on the chest that being shot at, however Shinji recognized it as what had woken him up. Turning his attention back to the fight, he saw the Angel's shot hit the ship, saw the ship slam into the building just down the street, saw it collapse, obviously damaged. He could see something going on, however the ship was too far away to make it out, then a zoom-window popped up, the Eva, even at this low synch rate responding to Shinji's desires. Shinji could now see the canopy rise, the pilot scramble out, and the Angel's shot slam into the ship, wiping them from the universe. Shinji just froze when he saw this, the flight part of his fight or flight reflex kicking in. However, his synch rate was still to low for him to command the EVA and all he could do was stare helplessly at the Angel as it approached. However, he WAS synched with the EVA, so the EVA could feel Shinji, although only the sub-conscious part of Shinji's brain could be understood by the Eva. From this part of his brain, the EVA pulled out the more primal part of what Shinji was currently experiencing, the fight part of the fight or flight reflex. Perhaps because Shinji was experiencing so much distress, perhaps because the EVA picked up Shinji's will to live, perhaps because the EVA itself wanted Shinji to live, the EVA picked up on this reflexive will to fight and AWOKE!! -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Epilogue: Misato was sitting outside Shinji's hospital room. She had a picture on her lap that had been taken earlier. It showed the unknown pilot abandoning his ship, unknowingly looking straight at the camera. "Who are you?" she wondered. "Ma'am?" Misato looked up at the nurse who had spoken, "He's awake now." Misato immediately stood, brushing the picture out of her lap and forgetting about it. She never even gave it another thought as she went to see how Shinji was doing. Ritsuko was in her office, pouring over records of the EVA's battle with the Angel. More specifically, the records they had amassed of that mystery ship before it had been destroyed. Sighing, she punched up the report she was currently working on. To: Commander Ikari From: Research Division Subject: Unknown Ship that Intervened in Battle with Third Angel This ship demonstrated remarkable powers that NERV would be wise to attempt to discover for itself. Unfortunately, the ship and it's pilot were totally destroyed in the battle and sensor logs are insufficient to even begin to try and replicate the ship's technology. Therefore it is the Research Division's reluctant suggestion that the ship and it's weapons capabilities be ignored in preference to technology already under development. Ritsuko pondered this for a minute, then hit the Execute key, making the report official and sending it to the commanders office. She then picked up the next report in the file, putting the question of the mystery ship and it's unknown pilot out of her mind. =============================================================================== As always, C&C can be sent to diazo@hotmail.com Couple of points about the fic, the GUARD channel, I presumed that is a channel that everyone monitors, even in the future in cases of emergency. Another point is Vertigo's arrival, the energy spike just after the N2 mine is the Angel, the Pyro, and the Warp Field, the first drop in the spike is when the Warp Field disappears, leaving just the Pyro and the Angel. The second drop is when the Pyro's reactor shuts down, leaving just the Angel's energy signature. Hope everything makes sense :), if not please send me an e-mail (address above) and I'll definitively clear it up.