Genesis 1:01 - Phoenix Light
 

             The morning sun slowly made its way over the hills to illuminate the city of Tokyo-03. Children from all
over the town began the morning grind of getting up, getting dressed, and going to school. The day of one Shinji
Ikari was no different.
    " Hey! Asuka! Wake Up!" Shinji shouted from the kitchen as he prepared himself and his roommates
breakfast. He heard a groan from the next room. Shinji sighed. Asuka was always like this at the best of times. He
sighed again and sat down to eat his breakfast. Asuka walked in a moment later wearing a yellow dress.
    " Asuka, it's a school day." Shinji pointed out as Asuka yawned loudly. She cursed, in German, under her
breath and walked back into the room she came from. Shinji laughed to himself quietly. He stood up and picked
up his school bag. He looked at the clock above him. ' Oh good. I still have a while yet before school.' He
thought to himself, sitting back down. Misato walked  in tiredly from another room. Yawning loudly, she
proceeded to the fridge and grabbed the first can of beer in reach. Opening it, she downed half the can quickly,
and whooped with delight. Shinji laughed inwardly again. ' The pick me up' He thought. Misato walked over to
the table and sat down behind one of the plates. She quickly began to shovel it down her mouth.
    " Morning Misato." Shinji said.
    " Morning Shinji." Misato replied between mouthfuls. Asuka walked in wearing her school uniform and sat
down. She quietly began to eat her breakfast. Shinji picked up his empty plate and took it over to the sink when
the doorbell rang.
    " I'll get it." He said, walking out of the kitchen. He opened the door. Toji stood outside.
    " Toji?" Shinji asked. Toji nodded.
    " In the flesh." Toji replied. He waved his left arm in front of Shinji. " All of it." He added.
    " What are you doing here?" Shinji asked.
    " Meeting you before school. I wanted to come a few minutes early, though, and show you the new limbs."
Toji replied. He indicated behind Shinji. " Can I come in?" He asked. Shinji nodded.
    " How'd you get them back?" Shinji asked as he shut the door behind Toji.
    " Their cloned. Don't ask me how, I couldn't understand or remember the medical mumbo jumbo the doctors
told me." Toji explained. Shinji and Toji walked into the kitchen.
    " Who was......" Misato began, as she turned to face Shinji. " Oh." She ended, seeing Toji. Asuka glanced up
for a moment. She swallowed the food that was in her mouth, and looked down again, desperately trying to
ignore the suprise guest.
    " Hi Misato." Toji said.
    " I was going to tell them you had been placed back into active duty after breakfast, Toji, but I see that's not
necessary any more." Misato said. Toji nodded.
    " I couldn't let you tell everybody now could I?" Toji asked cockily. He smiled.
    " Now that you mention it, I've got something to tell you all." Misato continued. Shinji and Toji sat down at
the table. Asuka finished her food and looked at Misato. " The real fifth child has been found as is being sent
here for active duty." She explained. Asuka's jaw almost dropped.
    " Another Pilot? Where from?" She rushed. Misato was about to reply.
    " Which Eva is he piloting?" Shinji interrupted. Misato sighed inwardly.
    " He's from America, and he pilots Eva Unit-04. He's going to be here in about two days."
    " I thought that Unit-04 was destroyed." Shinji said.
    " It wasn't. We actually found it under a pile of rubble. It's A.T. field activated itself just before the explosion,
and it was buried. Or so I heard." Toji looked surprised.
    " Not even a day out of hospital and already there's a new pilot." He complained. Misato smiled.
    " Look on the bright side. At least you're not getting replaced." She said.
    " I suppose." Toji replied, unenthusiastically. Shinji looked at his watch.
    " We'd better be going, or we're going to be late." He said. Misato nodded.
    " Hurry up then." She said. Standing up, she left the kitchen. Shinji, Asuka and Toji picked up their bags and
left for school.  Asuka slowed down and took a detour just to be away from the other two.

                 Toji and Shinji arrived early for school and took their seats. Everybody in the class was talking. Hikari,
who had been keeping the noise down , walked over to Toji and Shinji.
    " Suzuhara? You're back?" She asked. Toji smiled.
    " Yeah." He said. " Isn't it cute?" He asked playfully. Hikari tried not to blush as Toji walked past and sat down
on his seat. The class piped down a bit as they heard footsteps, but they weren't the teachers. A 15 year old boy
walked into the room, wearing earphones and humming loudly.  Shinji looked at him as the kid opened his eyes.
He was tall and thin, and had orange hair, styled in the same way Kaworu Nagisa's hair had been. He had bright
red eyes, wore a white shirt with the sleeves rolled up to the elbows, with a black T-shirt underneath it. He also
wore black trousers and black cycling gloves, and had a black and red backpack slung over one shoulder. Several
members of the room fell silent. 'The only people who every  join this class are fourth level Eva pilot candidates,
or Eva pilots. I wonder if he's that new pilot for Unit-04.' Shinji thought.
    " Guess what? Aren't you all unlucky? I'm BACK!" The kid shouted, sitting down on Asuka's seat. Taking out
the earphones and stopping the CD-Player they were connected to, he planted his feat on her desk, and leant
backwards, hands behind his head, and looked at the roof. Hikari walked beside him.
    " That stains gone. And that light fixtures been fixed. And they repainted the ceiling. How dare they?! That's
years of hard vandalism wasted?" The kid said, pointing upward with his right hand.
    " You were only here for a couple of months Matt." Hikari said to the kid. The kid, obviously called Matt,
wrapped his arm around her waist.
    " You think I care?" He said, turning his head to look at her head. She maneuvered her head to look him in the
eyes.
   " You remember what happened the last time you did that to me?" She said to him. Matt hand moved away
slowly, and he put it back behind his head.
    " You're dangerous." He said. Asuka walked into the classroom and stopped by Matt, on the other side of him
to Hikari.
    " HEY! That's my seat!" She shouted. Matt turned slowly began turning to face her.
    " I'm sorry, did I make a-" He finished turning his head, and looked at her breasts. "  Boooob......Boob!" He
finished. Pointing with his left hand, he shouted " Look at the size of those!" Asuka slapped him.
    " Perverser mench!" She shouted at him, which everybody recognized as German.
    " Zwei Bierre Bitte!" Matt shouted back, which people recognized was also German. Asuka slapped him. As
Matt rubbed his sore cheek, Asuka pushed him off of her seat. He stood up next to it as Asuka sank into her
seat. Matt was about to push her off the seat in return, but the teacher walking in stopped him. The other kids ran
to their seats and quietened down to a level of noise not audible to the teacher, which wasn't much quieter than
the level of noise that they had been at.
    " Class, we have two students rejoining our class after a long time away in their own country. However, for the
benefit of those who have not met them, they will reintroduce themselves. Matt stepped forward.
    " I'm Matt Blake, as far too many of you know." He grinned an evil, playful smile at Asuka, who growled
menacingly. The rest of the class laughed. The other kid stepped forward.
    " I'm Mel Smee." She said quietly. The laughter subsided and everyone acknowledged her.  The teacher
pointed to two available desks, one next to Toji, and the other next to Asuka. Mel began walking towards the one
next to Asuka Matt walked up beside her and held her back.
    " Oh no you don't. I've got dibs on that desk. I must annoy that cute girl next to it." He said. Mel sighed.
    " You'll only last a day there before they swap us over, if that." Mel replied. Matt smiled.
    " And You're point is.....?" The question was left hanging in the air as Matt walked over to the desk, planted
his feet on it, and leant backwards. He looked left to see Asuka desperately trying to ignore him, and typed a
quick message on the laptop that he had placed on his lap.. A message flashed up on the screen of her laptop.
Absent-mindedly, she pushed the call receive button. The message read   ' I can see you're underwear.' Asuka
stared at the message for a moment, and it appeared again in German. She sent the message 'Pervert' back to the
owner of the last message, and looked to her right to see Matt type something else, before smiling and waving at
her. Another message appeared, reading ' I know.' Asuka growled quietly in anger, and sent another message. It
read, 'Send another message, and I'll kill you' Another message appeared on Asuka screen. 'Make me' it read.
Asuka reached into her bag, picked out a book, and threw it at Matt. It hit his head with a loud 'thump' noise.
The teacher, who had be talking the whole time looked up to see the two troublemakers. After several more
minutes of hassle, he swapped Matt and Mel over.

                 A few hours later, the bell rang and announced in its own way that it was lunchtime. Matt and Toji both
shouted simultaneously.
    " All right! Lunchtime!" The two looked at each other, before Matt got up and joined Toji, Kensuke and Shinji.
    " So, exactly what was the teacher talking about?" Matt asked, stopping and leaning on Toji's desk.
    " Weren't you listening?" Kensuke asked. He then shook his head and added: " Stupid Question really."
    " Second Impact." Shinji said. Matt took out his earphones.
    " What was that? I was listening to Rammstein again," Matt said.
    " Second Impact." Shinji repeated. Matt nodded an 'Oh' He picked up his school bag and opened it.
    " So, what've you got for lunch?" Toji asked Matt. Matt fished out a plastic container.
    " Guess?!" Matt said. Toji shook, his head, and Matt opened the pot. The smell of fried bacon filled the room.
    " What a surprise." Toji said, grinning about the private joke. Shinji looked blankly from one to the other.
    " Huh?"
    " Newbie." Matt said. Shinji, now utterly confused, asked what was going on.
    " Don't worry, when you get to know Matt, which you no doubt will, you'll understand." Toji replied. Matt
nodded again, and the two walked off to the roof, leaving the bewildered Kensuke and Shinji behind.
    " They're old friends." Kensuke said in explanation.
    " When'd they meet?" Shinji asked.
    " 'Bout three year's ago. Matt was only around for a couple of months, before he went back to England."
Kensuke explained, before he and Shinji began making their way to the roof.

         " So, who's the red head I pissed off?" Matt asked, chomping on a bacon sandwich. Toji looked across
the hills.
    " Red head? Oh, you mean Asuka."
    " That's her name? She's cute."
    " No, she's not. She's a complete bitch."
    " What gives her the right to be a bitch? I wanna be a bitch too."
    " She's a pilot, and as far as she's concerned it makes her all powerful."
    " Pilot?"
    " Eva Pilot."
    " Oh. The Eva's. I heard about them in England. They said the fighting got pretty rough at times."
    " Then why'd you come back?" Matt shrugged., and finished his sandwich.
    " My dad wanted me back here. He said something about the military." Toji made a pfft sound.
    " Military stuff. That's all your dad's about."
    " Yep." The two stared silently at the horizon, and a moment later the school bell rang.
    " Bloody school." Matt said, before mumbling something strange about cabbages and dynamite. Toji ignored
him as he went back to the classroom.

                 As the school bell that signaled the end of the day rang, Toji walked out to the bike locks with Matt.
    " So, have you still got the same apartment?" Toji asked as Matt fiddled with the lock on his bike.
    " Nope. They rented it out to someone else long ago. Some girl called Rei I think."
    " Rei Ayanami?" Toji asked.
    " Yeah, that's the one. You know her?"
    " She's in the class. Surely you should have noticed her."
    " Which one?" Matt looked genuinely confused.
    " She's that blue haired girl that sits by the window."
    " Her?" Mat asked. Toji nodded in response. "She reminds me of an albino." Matt added
    " I know what you mean." Toji replied. Matt mumbled something about his lock in response, before snapping
it. Toji looked slightly amazed.
    " I needed a new one anyway." Matt said as he pulled his bike out.
    " So where are you gonna live?" Toji asked. Matt shrugged.
    " I figure I'd get one of the ones in that block on the edge of the city."
    " Shinji lives round there."
    " I'll have to gate crash his house sometime."
    " Try it, and Asuka would kill you."
    " Asuka? They live together? I don't get that. Asuka seems to hate Shinji. And everybody else, for that
matter."
    " There both pilots. Misato, their commander, took them both in so she could make sure they work together."
   " Military, Military, Military." Matt sighed. " See ya 'round."
    " Yeah, see ya." Toji said. Matt climbed onto his bike and rode off. Shinji, who had been standing near them,
not near enough to hear the conversation though, walked over to Toji, and began leading him to NERV HQ.

    " What do you mean there's no spare apartments!" Matt shouted at the confused attendant. He had been
waiting for at least an hour for the attendant, only to find that there were no rooms available. Matt sighed as the
attendant dropped a load of papers, and leant down to pick them up. This was the last apartment block at the
edge of the city, and if they didn't have an apartment, then he'd either have to back to his old place or find a
friend to stay with. 'I wonder if Mel is having better luck?' Matt thought, but his mind was interrupted as the
attendant spoke.
    " Oh, I'm mistaken. There is a room available." He said, giving Matt the paper. He looked it over. It was a small
apartment, with a kitchen and three other rooms. Matt figured that there wasn't anything better around, so he
agreed, signed up, and set up all the other crap that was necessary to gain the apartment.
    " The apartment is room 14B, on the 12th floor." The attendant informed Matt, although it was unnecessary,
seeing as the address was on the paper. The attendant picked up the keys to give them to Matt, and dropped
them.
    " First Day?" Matt asked sarcastically, and picked up the keys. He walked over to the lift. However, just before
he stepped through the door's though, a familiar voice called out to him and stopped him.
    " Hey!" The familiar voice called. Matt turned around to see Mel running towards him. He held the elevator
door open as she ran up to him, and stopped inside, breathless. He stepped in after her and the doors closed.
    " Hey  to you too." Matt said. Mel smiled at him, and placed a hand over her heart. A moment later, she had
enough breath to speak.
    " I noticed you were at the desk. You got an apartment here?" Mel asked.
    " Yeah...........Why.........?" Matt asked slowly.
    " I haven't found one yet. I wondered....if...I...could,...um,...like.......move in....... with ........you....." Mel asked
very slowly, as if regretting every word. Matt digested the speech for a moment, and burst out laughing. Mel
stared at him angrily for a moment, and decided that the best way to silence him was to poke him sharply in the
ribs with her elbow. The theory worked, and Matt's laughter subsided to a gentle giggle. He wiped the tears of
laughter from his eyes.
    " Okay, okay, I see no reason to refuse you. It's probably safer anyway. After all, you know how to cook. All I
know is how to damage." Matt replied. Mel laughed softly for a moment.
    " That's the first thing you've gotten right all day." She said.
    " And It'll probably be the last as well." Matt added. Mel smiled. The lift stopped and the doors opened. Matt
sarcastically bowed and gestured towards the door.
    " Ladies first." He said. As Mel walked out, Matt finished being stupid and followed her to their new apartment.

                 Meanwhile, Ritsuko stood in the control room watching over the rebuilt Unit-03. Shinji and Misato
stood next to her, watching the activation test below.
    " Begin activation test." Ritsuko said.
    " Beginning test. Inserting the Entry plug." Maya said. The robotic loader inserted the entry plug into the
Eva's neck. The opening shut behind it.
    " Filling Entry Plug." Maya said. The entry plug began to fill. Toji mumbled 'I hate this part.' A moment before
the LCL filled the plug.
    " How do you feel Toji?" Ritsuko asked over the radio.
    " Weird." He replied
    " What do you mean by weird?"
    " Like there's a load of stuff holding me in place." Toji replied. Reflexively pulling on the control stick, he
turned his head to the left, to face the control box. The Evangelion copied his movement exactly. Toji let go of the
control stick instantaneously. " This is weirder than weird." He mumbled. In the control box, Ritsuko turned to
face Maya as Shinji let out a sigh of relief, the words 'Thank God' going with it.
   " What's his synchronization?"
    " 55%" Maya said. Ritsuko looked puzzled.
    " That's higher than Shinji's first synchronization."
    " This is Toji's second sync, Ma'am." Maya said in a way of reply. Ritsuko turned to Misato, who simply shrugged.
Ritsuko turned back to the radio.
    " Toji, were going to start a basic movement test in the Geofront." Ritsuko said as Maya tapped in the restraint
release commands. After the restraints had been released, Unit-03's platform moved to one of the catapults.
    " Yes Ma'am." Ritsuko turned to face Shinji.
    "We're going to send you up there to help him, and remove the entry plug if something goes wrong." She
ordered. Shinji nodded, and turned to change into his entry plug suit. Toji grimaced as the catapult flung him and
his Evangelion up to the Geofront.

    " Look, It's really not that hard." Shinji said as Toji fell over for the umpteenth time.
    " Yeah it is." Toji replied as he stood up. Throughout the fifteen minutes he had been in the test, that was the
only thing he had managed to master. Shinji sighed to himself.
    " Look, just pull on the control stick and concentrate on walking." Shinji said. Toji did what was asked.
Unit-03' took a step forward, and another, before tripping over its own feet and crashing to the ground.
    " Treat the Eva as an extension of you're own body." Ritsuko commanded as Toji once again stood up.
    " I told you, it's difficult. Get of my case!" Toji replied irritably. He pulled on the control stick again and,
wobbling, managed to take about five steps before tripping over. Ritsuko sighed.
    " Forget the movement for a moment. We'll send you a rifle. We'll test you're stationary firing ability." Ritsuko
said. Toji got up and Shinji held out the rifle that had been sent up. Toji carefully took it.
    " Now, to fire, line up the-" Ritsuko's explanation was cut short as the first automated target popped up, and
promptly fell down again as a hail of bullets blasted into it. Toji looked down at the smoking barrel of his Eva rifle.
    " Cool." He said. As the second target popped up Unit-03' twisted to it's right and ripped a hole in the centre
of it with the rifle. This accuracy continued for the next few targets, as heads, individual limbs and vital areas
were targeted and attacked with suprising accuracy.
    " Very good." Ritsuko said. " We'll try you out with moving targets."
    " Okay." Toji said. The first moving target popped up and began sliding to it's left. Unit-03' followed it with its
rifle and blasted it two seconds later.
    " Okay, now that we know you can shoot, lets start you on movement training again." Shinji took the rifle from
Toji and placed it back in it's holder. Toji groaned as Ritsuko began explaining to him about how to make the Eva
walk again.

                 Three hours later, a tired and thoroughly bored Toji climbed out of Unit-03's entry plug. Shinji waited
for him at the entrance to the changing rooms.
    " Is all piloting that boring and difficult?" Toji asked, yawning.
    " No. It gets much easier." Shinji replied. Toji shook his head as the two went into the changing rooms.

                             Ritsuko sat at her desk, writing up a report of the training session that day. It read:
    Date: 13-8-2015              Time: 23:19         Subject: Toji Suzuhara (Fourth C.)
                 The Fourth Child has spent three and a half hours in training, supervised by Unit-01. The pilot has a
high degree of firearms accuracy, and is a good shot at short and medium range. He has yet to master the basics
of movement, such as walking, running, and crawling. Neither he, nor Unit-01's pilot, have mastered the usage of
their Evangelions S2 organs, although the ability to activate them is still not known to anyone. Unit-03' has, so
far, proven to be controllable, but it has not been deemed whether supervision is still required, it will still be
monitored by another Evangelion. The pilot still cannot activate the Unit's arm extension capability.
                 The Fourth Child's current synchronization ratio with Unit-03' is 55%, which is higher than any other
child's initial synchronization. It is suspected that it has something to do with the fact that he was present in the
entry plug of Unit-03 when it was possessed by the thirteenth angel. Presence of the thirteenth angel in the
genetic structure of Evangelion Unit-03' is still unconfirmed, but there has been no evidence that it still exists.
The S2 organ that was cloned into the Unit may have been accidental, but it may also show that the angel is still
present. Until confirmed otherwise, we assume that the angel that populated Unit-03's body is dead.
                                               Report Ends.

                 Ritsuko sighed, picked up and sipped a cup of now cold coffee. Making two copies of the report, she
placed one in a folder on her desk and took the second with her. She entered a code into her security door, and
left, unaware of what was about to happen.

                 The security door clicked, and opened. A shadow slid across  Ritsukos office, in search of something.
The figure it belonged to slowly and stealthily walked up to the desk and opened the file that contained the
Fourth Child's report. Picking out the report , the shadows owner read through it slowly and carefully, absorbing
every detail and sentence. Roughly half an hour later, the report was carefully placed back in its file and returned
to its position on the desk. The person spoke quietly to themselves, as if thinking out loud.
    " So, they did rebuild Unit-03. They didn't mention any new weapons, aside from the S2. I wonder....." The
sentence trailed off into nothing as the spy entered a password. The door to Ritsuko's office opened and they
left as they had come in, sliding among the shadows and under the security camera's.

                 Only fifteen minutes later, in the central region of Terminal Dogma, Ritsuko and Gendo looked up at an
Evangelion. It's crimson armour plating shone grimly in the minimal lighting. A lone figure walked onto the
gangplank from the left.
 " Are you just gonna stand there and admire it, or are you gonna get it out of cryo-fucking-status?" The
figure asked. Gendo turned to look at him.
    " The thawing process is beginning. You will have to wait."
    " Yeah, I know I gotta screwin' wait, I wish you'd just hurry up about gettin' it out and not stand here looking
at it!" The person shouted. Gendo began looking annoyed, but somehow remained calm.
    " It is thawing itself out. We cannot speed up the process, nor can we let information about the existence of
either this unit or Unit-05C."
    " And you plan to leave me too wait until you're bothered to tell them, right?"
    " As long as they have not guessed either of you're secrets, then we are O.K."
    " Well, I think there close to getting the first." The person said. Gendo shook his head.
    " Geez, shut up!" Another person said, walking up behind the first that had come in.
    " Oh, and you're happy to wait are you, wingding?" The first voice argued.
    " You know as well as I do that there's no way to speed this up." The second voice argued back, unbashed.
The first person made a pfft sound, and, giving up, walked off.
    " Is he always like that?" Ritsuko asked.
    " No. He's probably just pissed off 'cause despite the fact you said it would take about a year, it took three
years to complete this." The other voice answered.
    " We did not realize that it would take that long. It was no fault of ours." Gendo explained.
    " Tell him that." The other person replied, before walking off. Gendo shook his head in dissatisfaction, and
began to walk off. Ritsuko, obligated by command, followed him.

                 The next morning was gray and bleak, and showed all the signs of a nearby storm. Shinji looked out of
the window as Asuka made breakfast, seeing as it was her turn. Misato's whoop of joy as she finished her beer
broke through Shinji's concentration, and before it could return to the window, the telephone rang. He walked
over to pick it up.
    " Ahh, The invincible Shinji returns to answering telephones once again!" Asuka said, desperately
trying to annoy Shinji, who ignored her as usual.
    " Hello?" Shinji asked. He listened for a moment, and handed the phone to Misato.
    " It's Ritsuko." Misato took the phone.
    " Yes?" Misato asked. She listened to the call for a moment, and put the phone down.
    " We're wanted at Headquarters. Ritsuko wants to take a quick sync test, and you're wanted on standby." She
said, and picked up her car keys. Asuka, who had just finished with breakfast, cursed quietly in German under her
breath, picked up the food and put it into a bag to take with her. She would let nothing stop her from having
breakfast.

                 Twenty minutes later, at NERV HQ, Misato, Asuka and Shinji walked into the synchronization test box,
to see Ritsuko and the other technicians waiting, and Rei and Toji already suited up.
    " All right Children, get suited up." Shinji and Asuka nodded, and walked towards the changing rooms.
Ritsuko turned to Misato.
    " How can you manage to be late, all the time?" Ritsuko asked. Misato gave an embarrassed smile, shrugged,
and looked away. Ritsuko sighed. Shinji and Asuka walked out of the changing rooms, and stood with Toji and
Rei. Ritsuko turned to face them.
    " Get into you're test plugs children. We'll begin the test as soon as possible." The children nodded, and
began walking towards their test plugs, when the alarm sounded. Ritsuko looked to the technicians in a moment
of confused panic, and calmed herself.
    " What is it?!" Ritsuko half cried, half asked.
    " A target has been located not to far from here. It's pattern is green."
    " Green? What the hell does that mean..?" Misato asked. Ritsuko turned in a with an expression made of
calmness and fear.
    " It means it's probably not an angel." Misato was paralyzed with fear for a moment, and was silent.
    " If it's not an angel, then what is it?!" Asuka shouted, bringing Misato out of her trance. She turned to Maya.
    " I can't get a visual from here, We've got to go to the command deck." Maya replied. Misato nodded, and
everyone left the test control centre, and headed towards the command deck.

                  Five minutes later, Misato half ran, half stumbled onto the command deck, followed four confused
pilots, Ritsuko, Maya, and a host of other technicians. The technicians all sat in their appropriate seats, while
Ritsuko and Misato stood in the centre. Maya began punching up a visual of the enemy. All eyes turned towards
the screen to see what they were fighting. It was almost identical to Sachiel, the third angel, except that it's skin
was pure black, and it only had one head. The S2 orb on its chest was a deep blue, and the elbow tendrils glowed
a dull red, identical in colour to the two glowing lights emanating from the beasts two eye sockets. It lumbered
through the outskirts of Tokyo-3.
    " It looks identical to an angel...." Misato began.
    " It's genetic structure is 30% more refined than any previous angels, and it's producing a 50% greater power
outage." Maya said. Misato didn't even finish what she was going to say.
    " Course of action?" Ritsuko asked.
    " Dispatch all four Evangelions. Arm Unit's 00', 01 and 02 with close combat weaponry and arm Unit-03 with an
Eva assault rifle. Deploy at the edge of the city. Send all civilians into the shelters and put the city into defense
mode." Misato ordered. The pilots nodded, and headed off to the cage elevator, while the technician staff
prepared the launch catapults and send up the weapons.

                     About five minutes later, the four catapults launched, sending the four Evangelions up to the surface.
As the safety locks on the shoulders of the four Evangelions released, Unit-03' fell over and smacked into the
ground.
    " Ow! Crap!" Toji shouted. A Holo-Screen communication window opened, and Asuka's sniggering face
appeared.
    " What's the matter? Can't you make it walk yet? Awww!" Asuka said in a very childish voice, obviously
mocking Toji. He, however, braced Unit-03's foot against the catapult and leapt forward, grabbing the machine
gun from it's building storage container. He landed in a standing position several hundred metres from the
catapult. He swiveled round and raised the machine gun in Asuka's direction.
   " No, but I could blast a tin can from off your head." Toji replied smugly, smirking slightly. " And I've mastered
getting up!" He added, even more smugly. Asuka growled, and shut off the communication. Toji then lowered
the machine gun, and smirked even more. Asuka, grabbed a progressive axe out of one of the storage buildings,
and Unit's 00' and 01 grabbed spears. All four Evangelions turned to face the city limits, and Unit-03' fell over
once again.
    " How can you get these things to walk!?!" Toji asked, his Eva standing up once again. He took a slow careful
step forward. Misato, on the command deck, shook her head.
    " Toji, forget it. Stay there. Shinji, support him. I don't want the... Urm... Angel..type...thingy to knock him flat
before he has a chance to fight." She said. Toji nodded, his Eva copied the movement, and in the confusion Toji
fell over again. Misato, Ritsuko, and Shinji sighed simultaneously. As Unit-03' stood up, Unit-01 moved back
towards it and Units 00' and 02 moved out into the outskirts. A moment later, a blue flash came from the creature,
and it disappeared momentarily. Misato redirected Unit's 00' and 02 to look for it.

 Down in the fourteenth shelter, Matt Blake beckoned to Mel, who crawled over to the corner of the
room, out of average earshot.
    " Did you get the signal?" He asked. Mel nodded, and handed Matt a camera, with the TV Aerial extended.
    " Be careful. It's picky at the moment." She warned, just before Matt could fiddle with the aerial.
    " The picture's fuzzy." He mumbled. Mel made a quiet 'hmmpf' noise.
    " I'm not a wizard." She retorted.
    " No, but you're not normal either." Matt replied. He looked down at the screen. As he watched, Unit-03' span
on the spot from his viewer. "Heh, heh, heh..." He said quietly, as he watched the exact same video feed as NERV
HQ through one of their own security cameras.

                 What seemed to Toji like hours, but was in fact only twenty minutes, went by. The target was still not
on radar, and Unit's 00' and 02 desperate running back and fourth around the city limits trying to find it had
proved useless. Toji yawned noisily, and shook his head in an effort to keep awake.
    " Ma'am. Toji's sync ratio is dropping." Maya said. Misato open the Holo-Screen line.
    " Don't fall asleep." She ordered.
    " But all this silence and inactivity is boring." Toji replied, stifling another yawn.
    " Stay alert. It won't last forever." Misato ordered, and sure enough, she was right. A deep red tendril sliced
across Unit-03's back, and Toji screamed in pain as the Eva toppled forward. The machine gun want off, and
blasted a hole in the tarmac road, before being dropped by Unit-03'. Unit-01 span around to see the target retract
it's tendril and reach down for Unit-03'.
    " No!" He cried, throwing the spear like a javelin towards the target. The creature looked up, and it's tendril
shot out and sliced the end off, before retracting again. The two sections of the spear fell with a clank beside
Unit-03', which was struggling to get up. The creature walked forward and grabbed Unit-01 by the head. Unit-01
reached up and grabbed the arm, only to be lifted off of the floor.
    " Help!" Shinji shouted. The creature moved Shinji over to one side, and looked at the approaching Unit-00',
which had responded to Shinji's cries. A bright red flash from the creatures eyes ensured, and Unit-00' was
blasted off of its feet by a huge blast of energy. The creature began attempting to crush Unit-01's head. Unit-03',
however, managed to get back on it's feet.
    " No....." Toji began, picking up the metal pole end of the broken spear. With a huge show of strength, he
thrust the pole violently forward. It smacked into the flesh at the side of the creature, and ripped through it. The
creatures right leg buckled slightly as It began straining under the weight on it's injured hip. Toji then picked up
the blade of the spear, and tried to reach round to get at the S2 core. The Eva's arm extended outward as Toji
reached round, and the blade smashed with a crunch into the blue S2 core. It began flashing and pulsating wildly.
    " Get out of there! It's gonna explode!" Misato shouted. A red haze appeared in front of Unit-01, before the
entire screen, and in fact, city, was engulfed in a huge ball of glowing blue light. There was a loud crash a few
second later. Misato stared up at the screen, and the bright light slowly faded away.

                 The bright light made Matt wince, and he only just covered the screen to stop other people noticing the
feed.
    " If that's not an angel, then what was..." He asked Mel, who shrugged.

                 As the light faded, the screen in the command deck showed the cityscape. The metal and tarmac floor
was scarred and pitted slightly. On this ground lay Unit-01, and slightly further away, Unit-00'. Even further
away, Eva Unit-03' was embedded in its Eva catapult, the metal spear pole jutting out of it's hip..
    " The Eva's...." Misato began, never intending to finish the sentence. That was, of course, just as well, as
Unit-01 and Unit-00' began stirring and scraping across the ground, painfully standing up. They both looked
over at Unit-03', which lay silent.
    " Toji...." Shinji said. A second later, the communication screen opened, and Toji's face, cut slightly, showed
itself.
    " Please tell me piloting's not as painful as that all the time...." He said, a lopsided smile dominating his face.
Misato smiled in relief.

                 Meanwhile, behind her, Commander Ikari smiled in satisfaction, though it was hidden by his carefully
placed hands. 'The Unit-03' reproduction plan was a success. Even with minimal training, the pilot mastered
destruction of an advanced angel based enemy. SEELE will not stand a chance against this many combat
effective Eva's.' He thought. ' And with the Cyclone Model Evangelions, they don't even stand a prayer.'

                 Three hours later, the Eva recover crew eventually dug Unit-03' out of the catapult, much to Toji's
distaste. The crew finally opened the entry plug hatch, and the plug twisted out of position. The levered open
the top plate and the LCL drained around them. Toji climbed out slowly and painfully.
    " I did good, didn't I?" HE asked, and almost collapsed. The medical support team led him to an ambulance,
where they saw to the large, feedback caused, gash in his side.
    " I Don't believe it! Even the Toji can do better than me!!!" Asuka screamed, and continued to complain and
rant as Maya hit the switch that muted her sound system. Misato shook her head in distaste at Asuka's actions.
However, the first battle with Unit-03' had been a success, and anyone who was possibly connected could be grateful.

                 At that very same moment, Millions of Miles away, several advanced creatures 'sat' around a 'table',
and began speaking. Their high pitched, squeals would have been painful to any human close enough to hear
them. The first one spoke.
    " Glac'trta screveti mikreen, timosisa cotolo'asoto floosenta. Lacheera monoskaya fant'siria." Is roughly the
sound you would have heard, had you been there. That, however, translated to:
    " The first of our warriors has failed." The closest one to him responded, also in the same language.
    " That's what happens when you deploy a weapon that has already failed once." Another commented.
    " There will be no more mistakes. There will be no more copies of failures. We deploy our own weapons now."
The first ordered. The others agreed, and a 3D projection of the next appeared in front of them, as the warmasters
of the Skynyn race developed their next weapon.

                                         The Final Genesis of Mankind had begun.
 

Nice story, isn't it? :)
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