Neon Genesis Evangelion Book 2

A Tangent by James King

2 NGE 1:1

+ Evan’s training is going spectacularly well. Once he became used to the armour, his balance proved uncanny. I am at a loss to explain his remarkable abilities, but I will not complain.

Also, I received a memorandum from others in the organization: The others are having similar success. I become more optimistic with each passing day.

2 NGE 1:2

:: The dummy flashed in front of me, almost faster than I could see, but I still caught it with the knife in the ‘throat’ before it passed. I’ve wondered if the implants may have kicked my reflexes up some, but Dr. N denies they would. I can’t explain it any other way though.

I slash at the approaching dummies, changing my grip on the knife as I change the direction of my swing. On the last downward swing, I forget to change my grip, thus stabbing the dummy that just appeared behind me in the
stomach.

‘Hey, I didn’t know that one was there.’ I still don’t know why Mary and the Doc burst out laughing. I was serious.

2 NGE 1:3

+ I think it’s time for Evan to meet the others. John and Magda agree.

2 NGE 1:4

:: I had no idea what Dr. Neon wanted with me, but the training program was reset a half hour earlier than usual, so I guessed it was big. As I left the ‘gym’, I approached Mary.

‘What’s your dad want, d’ya know?’

Mary shook her head. ‘No, I didn’t even know he had anything planned.’ She sounded as puzzled as I. ‘And he said he wouldn’t stop your workouts for anything.’

‘I just hope it’s not trouble.’

‘Evan, Mary, come, come!’ He seemed cheerful at least, and that was a good sign, though rare for the Doc. ‘Evan, you have asked me a number of times how I expect you - alone - to hold off the Geeps. I don’t. You are only the
first of the Genesis Warriors.’ He stepped to the side revealing a doorway I’d never seen before. ‘ENTER!’ It was a grandiose display, but, it was certainly appropriate. Two figures walked out, wearing armour similar to my own. ‘Evangelion, meet Mospeada and Gaiarth.’ Mospeada’s Armour was a matte black, with what appeared to be a spear attached to his back - it seemed to be his version of my knife. Gaiarth’s was a mix of green and brown, giving him the look of - well, I guess a forest, though I’ve never seen one myself. He had a sword, again, instead of a knife or spear.

We all reached for, and removed our helmets at once and ... I had to revise my use of pronouns. Gaiarth was a young woman, probably a little older than me. She pulled a patch over where he left eye should be, but was instead filled with some electronics. ‘Call me Gaia, that’s my real name.’

‘Um, Evan.’ I extended my hand - the right one - funny how you get used to it, and Gaia took it, giving it a firm shake.

Mospeada for his part was male - and quite badly injured at some point, from what I could tell. He, like Gaia was missing his left eye - but he was also missing a good deal of the left side of his face. The skin and muscle were
mixed with metals and plastics. He was also significantly older than myself or Gaia, perhaps as old as Dr. Neon. Which could explain the ugly but effective patch job done on his face - he could have been Voided soon after
the Voiding of Defectives began. ‘Name’s Peter.’ He extended his hand, which I took. His grip almost crushed my Glove.

‘Mary?’

‘Yes, Father?’

‘Could you run the three of them through a training session please?’ He checked his watch. ‘I must be going. Magda will be joining you in an hour or so. So long.’ Dr. Neon rushed out the door.

2 NGE 2:1

// It’s been two days since the Genesis Warriors were introduced, and already problems are beginning to surface. We should be glad that it’s happening so soon, so we can deal with it before it gets them killed.

After Peter and Evan broke into a fistfight, I stopped the simulation and took Peter aside.

‘What the hell are you doing, Peter?’

‘Magda, I...’

‘Peter! Under the circumstances do you think you should be being so familiar?’

‘Sorry, Ms. Morrison.’

‘Now, explain yourself.’

‘Ma’am, I am not the one to blame. Evangelion cannot take criticism. He threw the first punch.’

‘I am aware of that Peter, and Dr. Neon will deal with him. However, it is not your place to criticize your team-mates. If you find Evangelion or Gaiarth consistently doing something you feel to be a problem, come to me, Dr. Neon, or Major Stone, or, if we are unavailable, to Mary, so we can deal with the situation properly. Do you understand?’

‘Yes, Ma’am!’

‘Now, what was it that you felt the need to correct Evangelion for, Peter?’

‘He’s not serious about anything. He feels the need to - for lack of a better word - banter while we fight. He’s a child.’

‘Does his banter distract you?’

‘No, Ma’am, I simply find it frivolous.’

‘Peter, if it doesn’t keep any of you from doing what needs to be done, I don’t care how frivolous it is. He could paint his armour like a clown, if he wanted, as long as he still fought well - which his scores in the simulations indicate he does.’

‘If you say so, Ma’am.’

‘I do. And Peter?’

‘Yes, Ma’am?’

‘Lighten up, Dear, I didn’t marry a robot.’

2 NGE 2:2

[] After my dressing down, Evangelion approached me.

‘Peter....’

‘Yes, Evangelion?’

‘Please, call me Evan. Um, I want to apologize. For hitting you. I was out of line.’

‘Yes, Evan, you were. However, I, too, was out of line when I called you a frivolous child. I also wish to apologize.’

‘Cool. We’re square then.’

‘Evan, Peter, into the simulator, now! We’re going to finish this session before I leave!’ Magda reset the simulator, and several more dummies fell into place. I noticed, too, that Gaiarth was not in her armour, but was instead chatting with Mary.

‘Yes Ma’am!’ Evan and I rushed in to take our punishment.

2 NGE 2:3

:: Ms. Morrison had upped the sim to several levels above what we’d done before, and Gaia wasn’t even with us. She definitely wanted to punish us. The two of us were back to back, surrounded by dummies - the quarters were to tight for Peter to use his spear, and my knife wasn’t making any kind of a dent in them - there were too many.

‘We’re fucked, we’re definitely fucked.’

‘Evan, please, there is no call for obscenities. If this were the real thing, would you want your last word to be ‘fuck’?’

‘Petey-boy, I don’t want to have a last word.’ I kicked at one of the dummies, and cut the power source of another.

‘Then, I have a plan.’ Suddenly his voice was coming over the private channel, rather than his helmet’s speakers. I still hadn’t figured out how to do that. ‘I’ll brace myself, and you can use my back to get over the dummies. That will get you out of the way, so I can use my Pike.’

‘But you’ll be on your own!’ My mike had automatically switched to the radio when Peter had opened the channel.

‘With luck a few of the dummies will follow you. If not, well, if this were the real thing, the sacrifice wouldn’t be in vain.’

‘Right.’ I wasn’t sure, but hey, it was better than both of us getting screwed, eh? ‘Ready?’

Peter knelt on one knee, steadying himself with his spear. ‘Ready.’

I put my right foot on his back and pushed off - hard. I got good air two, and was a good way past the dummies - when one of them finally figured out that he could grab my ankle and brought my down - on the opposite side, luckily, but my breath was knocked out of my. I kicked, and slashed at them, but they piled on top of me. If it were real, I would, as I said, have been fucked.

Suddenly, the dummies backed off, and headed back to wherever the Doc stored them when we weren’t training. I looked over at Magda.

‘You two had better hope you never have to deal with that many cops.’

2 NGE 3:1

+ It is time to give the Genesis Warriors some experience in the field. As useful as the workouts with the dummies are proving to be, they cannot give the Genesis Warriors a proper appreciation for how the Geeps work. So, Magda and I have decided that it would be best to send them into Void Town. John thought that we should send them into the ‘Land of the Living’, but we ruled it out - the chances of being justified in attacking the Geeps is much higher among the Voids, and we felt it best that they have every form of justification....

2 NGE 3:2

:: It wasn’t long before we found our marks. Two Cops, hassling a pair of Defectives. I knew the Defectives too - August and Bernadette.

I approached the group. ‘Excuse me, is there a problem?’

The taller of the two Cops - Blues, not Reds, by the way - the taller of the two turned to me. ‘No problem, just putting the fear of God into these Defectives. Hey....Nice armour. You guys Feds?’

‘No, no, we’re not. And I was talking to the Defectives.’ I picked the nearer - shorter - Cop up by the throat and threw him against a nearby wall. Mospeada and Gaiarth went to work on the better prepared, and, as it turns out, better armed of the two. My adversary pulled a knife which I promptly wrenched from his hand - one of the Doc’s improvements was the locking mechanism mine uses. I picked him up again. ‘Now, tell me again, what you were doing.’

‘L-L-L-Leaving?’

‘Good answer!’ I threw him again, this time down the street.

I noticed that the guy the others were working on was also running away. Gaiarth was snapping the blade of his knife, and Mospeada was spinning his gun around his spear.

‘Well, guys?’ I walked up.

‘Quite easy, easier than I expected.’ Gaiarth tested the edge of the Cop’s knife against her armour - didn’t even scratch the paint. Another improvement of our weapons, I guess.

‘They’ll know us next time, however. They’ll be prepared.’

‘Bring ‘em on, just...’ My thought was cut short by a scream from a few blocks away. ‘What was that? C’Mon!’ I didn’t wait for Mospeada and Gaiarth to follow, I just bolted. More Cops, maybe - maybe a few Reds!

But, no, when I got there, an Irredeemable raping a young woman - a blind Defective - MADELINE!!!! I picked up the Irredeemable - a big guy, by the way, close to seven foot, and threw him down the street, like he was some mangy sewer rat - charitable description of him though that is.

‘Leave her alone!’ I picked the bastard up, and slammed him against a wall.

‘Fuck you, asshole, fuck you!’

‘I’m sorry, I didn’t hear you.’ I pulled my knife and held the blade against his throat. ‘Care to repeat that?’

He glared at me, defiant. ‘I said....’ I drove the knife in, drawing blood. ‘I said.....’ He swallowed hard. ‘I said, I’m sorry, I’ll leave now.’

‘Good boy.’ I sheathed the knife, then switched the hand I was holding him with. ‘Now....’ I gave him a shock with the stunner in my right hand. Enough to scare him, not to hurt him. ‘Remember that.’ I dropped him and he stumbled off.

I walked over to Madeline. ‘Are....are you ok, Ma....Ma’am?’

‘Yes, yes, I think so. Evan? Is that you?’

‘Er....no, no, my name isn’t Evan.’

‘Oh, I’m sorry. Yes, you couldn’t be him.’

2 NGE 3:3

[] Back in the barracks, I confronted Evan. ‘What the hell do you think you were doing out there, kid?’

‘What do you mean Peter? I was doing what we went out there for....’

‘You know what I mean, the man you roughed up. The Irredeemable.’

‘Oh, that...just protecting one of our own.’

‘The Irredeemables aren’t our enemies, The Governing Police are. The man you harassed is, as you say, one of our own.’

‘Bullshit, Peter. Bullshit.’ I could see his hand forming into a fist.

‘Evan, are you really as stupid as you.....?’

‘PETER, EVAN, STOP IT!’ Gaia stepped between us, probably stopping us from coming to blows. ‘Peter, Evan couldn’t just let that girl be raped.’

I exhaled slowly. ‘Granted, but he still over-reacted. Electrocuting the man....’

‘Peter, just shut the fuck up. He deserved everything he got.’ Evan sat down.

‘Evan, we can’t just go around beating up on normal people!’

‘Peter, cool it!’ Gaia wheeled on me. ‘We can’t go second guessing each other. We’ve got to work together - we can’t be bickering over something like THIS!’

I stared at her. I looked at Evan. Gaia was right, of course, but still.... ‘Alright.’