All Purpose Evangelion Fanfiction Thread

A little boy looked at image of the giant monolith of steel, which had been silent and unmoving for several seconds. Only barely registering the worried voiceovers from the news reporter and camera crew, he turned and asked, "Mommy? Did the Power Rangers lose?"

His mother was about to answer, when something suddenly happened on the screen. It was just a small difference, that most people might not have noticed at first.

One colossal finger had begun to move.

After that, came another, and then another, until the Megazord had clenched its gigantic fist.

The mother began crying in relief, as the defender of world continued to slowly, shakily get back up. "No, they haven't lost."

The Megazord had risen to a knee, by now.

"And as long as we believe in them... They won't lose, ever."

__________

Back on its feet, the Megazord had begun to self-repair some of its smaller wounds.

Spreading its legs to shoulder width, the Megazord then opened up its circuits to the Morphing Grid - the omni-universal quantum energy field born from the never-ending clash between good and evil - and powered up.

And then, with a deafening roar from its thruster, took flight.

"It's because their fighting for our lives."

Sachiel attempted to shoot them down with another energy blast, but couldn't aim quickly enough or accurately enough to even scratch the Megazord in flight.

"Not just yours or mine, or even for Angel Grove. They're fighting for everyone. The fate of the whole world is in their hands."

The Megazord's left arm began to glow a bright blue, as it continued evading the barrage of particle beams.

"That's why they can't lose, why they won't ever allow themselves to lose."

Meanwhile, the Angel was beginning to get visibly frustrated. It knew, it knew, that it would completely destroy its foe if only it could land one more hit. So then, why?! Why couldn't it land a damn blow on those insipid Earthnoids?!

"They might be hurt, and they may even be knocked down. But they will always get back up."

Certainly, the Rangers also knew that they were completely finished if they took another hit from the Angel. So they simply refused to let themselves be hit again, even one more time.

"Even when it looks like they've been defeated, they will always rise up again, even stronger than they were before."

Sachiel, well and truly on the verge of panic, was at that point just firing blind in a desperate attempt to keep the soaring Megazord at bay.

That small hope was absolutely crushed, when the Megazord violently landed in a crouch just in front of the Angel.

Sachiel raised up its AT Field for protection, only an instant before the Megazord slammed its shining blue arm forward.

For several seconds, the Megazord's shining fingers shoved against the AT Field, a torrent of sparks flying everywhere.

All of a sudden, the Angel let out a psychic wail of agony from the pressure being exerted on its very soul.

And then, the very next instant - the AT Field shattered, and the Megazord's shining hand clamped down on Sachiel's face.

Once again, the Megazord began to fly high into the air, ignoring the evil being's desperate flailing about, until suddenly the Angel stopped moving.

Not because it was dead, but out of sheer and complete terror.

One of the fundamental truths of the universe, is that as long as there is life, there will be forces that seek to pervert it to their own twisted and evil ends.

However, there is also another truth of the universe, which overrules that truth.

And it is this second truth, that the Angel was finally beginning to understand, in what it knew to be its final moments.

'Wherever there is evil, someday, heroes will always appear, in order to defeat it.'

And the reason for the Angel's terror in this situation, was best understood from looking out of its own eyes!

Because, looking in-between the Megazord's brightly shining blue left hand, it was able to see the right hand, clenched into a fist and cocked back for one last attack, that would certainly end the fight instantly.

And that right hand, WAS BURNING RED!

With a ferocious roar, the Megazord swung its fist, and completely smashed the Angel's core into atoms, before releasing that energy and blasting Sachiel even further into the sky!

Gracefully, the great steel titan fell back down to Earth, between Angel Grove and the enemy, spreading out its body as a shield.

No sooner had it done so, than the Angel detonated, creating a tremendous explosion.

Thanks to the efforts of the Power Rangers, Angel Grove - and the rest of humanity - would survive to see another week...

As the officer reviewed Shinji's files, she eventually set them down and made eye contact. "Trainee."

Shinji gave a prompt salute. "Yes sir."

"...what the hell are you doing here?"

Shinji was silent for a moment or two, resisting the urge to tilt his head in confusion. "...am I supposed to be somewhere else, sir?"

"Looking at the pace you've put yourself through in order to keep up with your peers, quite frankly I'd expect you to be completely bed-ridden. You've apparently been keeping yourself on the edge of a total burn-out since the second you arrived here, and I still don't know how the hell you've managed to keep this a secret from your parents."

She was referring, of course, to the RF 6 training incident in which Captain Takamachi had corrected a pair of her students for secretly putting themselves through strenuous training without authorization and overworking themselves, some years prior. The finer details weren't common knowledge, but the general outline of the story often made the rounds through new recruits as a sort of cautionary tale.

Shinji shrugged, maintaining his silence. He knew he'd catch hell from Nanoha - and probably from everyone else, too - if she/they found out about his unhealthy training habits, but he honestly didn't really care. So long as he got the end result he wanted, he'd accept whatever punishment was to be in store for him.

The Commander ran a hand through her brown hair in exasperation. "So tell me, trainee. Give me one good reason to approve you for field work."

Shinji was silent for a few moments, with a blank face. Eventually, he gave his answer. "...Sir. I'm aware that I probably raise certain flags on psych eval, and that my personal training habits up to this point have been rather... self-destructive. That said, I've consistently achieved results in training missions. Though my acting skills are sub-par, I've shown that I can take any kind of action in order to maintain a cover. In training, I have overcome nearly every target put before me, by whatever means were necessary. Most were stronger, so I couldn't overpower them. Many were tougher, so I couldn't outlast them. Some were faster, so I couldn't outrun them. A lot of them were also smarter, so I couldn't out-think them. But in every single case, I still got the results that were asked of me. Because there is one thing that I've truly learned to excel at."

Suzuki scowled, and glanced at a video data recording that was playing out on the wall. It showed a VR simulation, running assorted clips of occasions when Shinji had disabled an opponent through ambush, and then doing his damnedest to beat them to within an inch of their lives - as often as not with his bare hands. Finishing the trainee's thought for him, Suzuki muttered, "You might be one of the most twisted individuals I've ever seen on this side of the law, Ikari. You try hard enough to act like a human being, but deep down you're more like a beast. And if you weren't here asking for us to put you on a leash, there's a part of me that's inclined to put you down like the rabid animals you seem to emulate."

Heaving a sigh, she then leaned back in her high-back seat. "But, as you've said, you've consistently achieved whatever results were asked of you, and aside from deliberately overworking yourself every opportunity you get, you're not recorded as having any major disciplinary issues. Despite having absolutely zero capacity to use magic, you somehow managed to scrape your way into the competence zone. However, there's something else that needs to be discussed with you."

Shinji nodded. "Sir."

"A situation has come up," the Commander began, "where your… particular circumstances could make you a considerable asset."

Shinji blinked, but didn't change from his attentive posture. "My circumstances, sir?"

Commander Suzuki leaned forward, her hands clasped together in front of her mouth, light from her desk lamp glinting off of her glasses. "My superiors have... advised me to consider putting you on through, despite your only having passed by the skin of your teeth, so that you can be deployed on an information-gathering mission on your homeworld ASAP."

After taking a moment to process that, Shinji nodded. "…understood, sir."

"Knowing that you have less than 72 hours before deployment, do you still wish to graduate?"

Shinji almost said that he would throw away whatever he had to in order to keep stepping forward, just as he had repeatedly abandoned his health in order to make it as far as he had. He almost said it, but didn't, suspecting that it would be counterproductive. So instead, he simply replied, "Sir. Yes, sir."

Suzuki heaved a sigh, and stamped his papers with an official seal, before handing him a folder. "Against my better judgment… welcome to Special Operations. Now get out of my sight and get yourself some goddamned rest. That reckless behavior of yours might have gotten acceptable results up to now, but you're worthless to me if it suddenly catches up and incapacitates you before you can be put in the field."

As he snapped to a perfect salute, for the very first time in his life, Shinji felt some small measure of pride in himself. "Sir, yes, sir!"

Time until mission start: 63 hours

Kaworu: Asuka's mother?

Asuka's dad: Yep.

Kaworu: I heard what happened. She was three at the time, right?

Asuka's dad: Two; her birthday's in December. Anyway, considering that I spent two years in an asylum after the Occupation to get my head sorted out and still have nightmares from time to time, you can see why I never told anyone. They would've tossed my ass back there in a heartbeat.

Kaworu: That bad?

Asuka's dad: Worse than you think. Let me tell you this: only one other guy saw what I did and lived to tell the tale. One. People kiss the very ground he walks on now.

(Beat)

Asuka's dad: We all have our demons. Some of our own creation, some not. Mine are not, but I had to go through that crap anyway. Same with Asuka. That's just how things are.

Kaworu: You accepted it?

Asuka's dad: Hell no. But short of traveling back in time, there are some things that can never be fixed. (motions towards the window) Take this world, for example. How do you suppose things would've gone if Second Impact never happened? I never would've met Kyoko and Asuka wouldn't have been born, for one. Or maybe she would've been born to some other guy and would be a redhead.

Kaworu: Did Asuka get her name from her mom?

Asuka's dad: Nope, she got that from Kyoko's dad Albrecht. Kyoko's family name was Soryu, from her mom Matsuko. Asuka's half-German, half-Japanese on her mother's side.

Kaworu: Did you ever meet them? Your wife's parents, I mean.

Asuka's dad: Albrecht died during the Occupation; Overwatch got wind of him being in cahoots of the resistance. He stayed behind to buy time while the girls made a run for it. I did Matsuko, though; strong woman, that one. Even after she got diagnosed with cancer, she still hung on long enough to lead her daughter to the altar.

Kaworu: Asuka's got good pedigree, then.

Asuka's dad: Damn right she does.

Asuka doesn't care either way, as they're cohabiting anyway.