Children Of The Genesis (ENG)

Episode Two: Emergency Loss Of Control: Kentaro I

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   EPISODE TWO: "EMERGENCY LOSS OF CONTROL: KENTARO I"
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(Music: NGE OST – Eva-01)
- Release the EVA! – Artorias ordered, and so the two towers that adjusted the EVA into the launchpad finally set the robot free.
The EVA-01 moved forward with heavy arms, and Kentaro fixated his eyes on Sachiel.
- "Focus on the enemy... Just like at school, don't worry about what everyone's thinking of your final act!" – He thought, trying to motivate himself.
- Kentaro, try to walk forward, just to test. – Communicated Atsushi over the comm link in the Interface Headset.
- "Walk..."
Kentaro pressed the control yokes forward, thinking about his walking form.
The EVA-01 raised his right foot, flexing its knee, to then give way to a potent step forward that shook the entire streets, even breaking a phone booth not too far away from there.
- He made it! – Smiled Gonta, in utter amazement at the new milestone for NERV.
- Let's see if he's able to keep the bot on its feet. – Artorias commented, expectant.
- "Everyone's expecting a lot coming from me... Got to step with the other one now, then!" – Kentaro thought, determined.
He made the EVA raise its other foot the same way the other one had, and basing it on those two actions took a rhythm of one step every three and a half seconds.
- "I can do it... I can walk!" – Thought the newly programmed pilot, anxious and amazed.
- Kentaro, try not to go too far away from the Umbilical Cable or you'll stop receiving an infinite source of energy if it disconnects due to a brash move! – Artorias communicated.
Kentaro nodded, but didn't really understand what the problem was with the time limit.
He felt confident enough to face the Angel in three seconds and win, but...
He knew it wasn't like this.
He was just feeling special because he could make a dumb robot step forward.
He only felt brave because he was disregarding orders, just because boys his age thought that was cool.
He was just... Scared.
Suddenly, the EVA tripped, slamming its face on the street, forming a fissure in the field.
(Music: NGE OST – Angel Attack)
- Kentaro, get up! – Artorias ordered in worry.
Kentaro lifted his head up, horrified at the sight of the Angel looking directly at him with those holey, empty and soulless eyes.
- "You mustn't run away, you mustn't run away, you mustn't run away..."
Repeating this mantra constantly, he tried to raise the EVA's body once again, so as to confront Sachiel.
Its movements were admittedly rusty and clunky, but the EVA landed a hit on the Angel with its open right palm, pushing it away.
- Be rougher, punch him! – Ordered Artorias.
Kentaro nodded inside the Entry Plug, thinking about forming a fist, yanking the left control like he was pulling out a sword.
The EVA-01 answered to his pilot's command, forming a fist with its left hand, launching it forward.
A strong jab whipped Sachiel's head, and so the Angel answered with the use of its right arm, slamming a whip-like attack into the EVA-01's attacking arm.
- Ugh...! – Kentaro groaned in response to the strike, gripping his left arm, feeling the same pain of the EVA due to the synchronization.
- Relax, Kentaro! That isn't your real arm! – Communicated Atsushi.
- Shit! Shit! DAMN IT! – Screamed Kentaro, slamming the EVA's right fist into Sachiel's chest.
Nevertheless, the semiliquid composition of Sachiel's body seemed to nullify the damage, then absorbing the EVA's fist and sucking on it violently like a mosquito sucking blood, causing the EVA's arm ligament to break.
- UUUAAAAGH! AAAAARRRGH! – Shrieked Kentaro, hopelessly screaming while the feeling of pain never left him, even though his arm was completely fine due to this not being a case of 75% synch-rate or above.
Sachiel brought out a kind of hard light laser from its right elbow, emerging from the elbow to the palm.
This same lance of light was shot forwards, drilling on the EVA's cranium, with the robot trying to resist the attack with the use of its other limbs.
- Eject him from the Entry Plug! He can't take it anymore! – Ordered Artorias, desperate. – Abort mission!
- I can do it... - Murmured Kentaro, trying to hold in his fears, but hopelessly paralyzing himself upon looking at Sachiel's face, one which would disturb him in his nightmares forever, nightmares which would be accompanied by the endless sound of a train station's beeping upon arrival.
Just then, the EVA's cranium was entirely penetrated, getting the robot shot through the city and slammed into a building.
All of its functions halted, and the EVA's eyes lost all color, while Kentaro passed out due to the incorporeal pain of a stab wound in the head.
The EVA-01 lowered its head idly, and its stabbed cranium gushed a torrent of blood from the frontal and occipital lobe.
- The EVA, it lost... - Murmured Gonta. – Synchronization turned off, and the EVA isn't responding to any of the commands. Harmonics are going awry as well...
- God damn it! – Complained Artorias, slamming his fist on his desk. – Kentaro...
Sachiel looked at EVA-01 in the eyes, in an absolute show of mysticism.
Suddenly, the EVA's left eye shined in a bright white light, as was normal.
What wasn't normal was the fact that the EVA had activated without batteries.
(Music: EVA 2.22 OST – Sin From Genesis)
The EVA-01 emitted a sound akin to that of an opening iron door, this due to the fact that it was opening its facemask to let loose its beastly hexagonal teeth, red on the inside and blue on the outside.
- OOOOWRRRRRUUUUOOOAAAAARRRRRRR! – Roared the EVA, looking up while its beastlike voice was accompanied by the sound of acute and constant computer beeping.
- What the hell...? – Muttered Artorias.
- It's gone Berserk... - Noted Gonta, fascinated and in disbelief.
The EVA-01 flexed its legs, displacing itself on the air with a monumental jump, spinning on itself and falling on both legs into Sachiel's chest.
Sachiel gripped the EVA on its arms, using them like whips yet again, but the EVA freed itself from the Angel's grasp upon thrashing backwards, loosening Sachiel's arms and letting it kick the Angel in its Core to separate the both of them.
EVA-01 ran forward to face Sachiel, all while the Angel was trying to stand up.
Sensing the imminent danger, Sachiel deployed what everyone called an AT-Field, an hexagonal orange field that worked like a frontal shield.
- Crap, it can't penetrate an AT-Field just by charging at it! – Noticed Artorias.
- While an Angel has its AT-Field activated, there's no touching it!
Nevertheless, the EVA-01 pushed the AT-Field on itself by sinking its fingers on the energetic fabric, ripping on the AT-Field like it was a wall of spider-silk.
- What?!? It's opening the field?!? – Shouted captain Armael, in pure amazement.
- No... It's eating it away with another AT-Field! – Answered Atsushi, bewildered.
Just then, both adults saw something unusual.
The gigantic robot that was on a raging battle, used the AT-Field's absorption to concentrate the energy on its broken arm, generating a flow of meaty organs that ran on the arm, deforming it and restoring it to its normal state.
- Left arm restored! – Communicated one of the technicians.
- Amazing... - Murmured the captain, amazed beyond human belief.
EVA-01 made its way through the AT-Field, sinking its fingers on Sachiel's chest, pushing it backwards and revealing the Angel's Core, a bright ruby red sphere.
- WRRRUUUOOOOO! – Roared the EVA yet again, yanking one of Sachiel's ribs off, starting to use it like a mace and slamming it repeatedly on the Angel's Core.
Sachiel started vibrating while its eyes turned of a bright red color, and its Core took on a pink colored light that formed a sphere of energy.
An energetic cannonball shot away at the EVA, leaving a cross-shaped pattern of light on the streets and having the EVA slam itself into a building yet again, to no avail.
The EVA-01 got up like it was nothing, charging forward against Sachiel with the Angel's ribs in each hand.
- NWRRRUOOOOOORRRRRR!
The EVA's howl shook the entire district, and the robot itself jumped into Sachiel, striking its core with the Angel's own ribs.
With the left one, the EVA slammed the Core like a caveman killing a wild animal, and with the right one, it broke Sachiel's face, deforming it with each strike and generating fissures in its skeletal face.
Sachiel, with the rage of a real God brewing inside it, extended the bones of its arms to grab the EVA's head, but the robot, with a cynical look that demanded carnage, grabbed Sachiel's hands and violently squeezed them, making both limbs spew a purple liquid that looked like an imitation of the blood on the cardiovascular system.
The EVA left its eyes half-shut in a menacing way, slamming a punch on Sachiel's head, to then beat it into the floor after charging at the Angel with its purple horn, nailing its fingers on the Angel's Core, as if wanting to break it from the inside.
Sachiel, seeing no other alternative at its disposal, made its own eyes shine in green, becoming a semiliquid ball that enveloped the EVA-01's upper half while it started inflating at a fast rate.
- It's trying to kill itself! – Denoted Artorias in alarm.
- Protect the EVA, now! – Ordered Atsushi.
But alas, it was far too late.
Sachiel detonated, and its body became a rain of trash green colored skin, all the same forming a green cross-shaped explosion that aimed for the sky, there for the world to see.
- Damn it... - Murmured Gonta.
- ¿The EVA? – Questioned Artorias to particularly no one but himself, because nobody answered him.
From the inside of the smoke caused by the explosion, there emerged a menacing form.
It was gigantic, possessed extended pylons and it had a long horn clung to its head, aside from those white eyes.
The EVA-01 had gone into Berserk Mode, thus achieving victory in the end.
- The real power of the EVA... - Muttered the entire tech team in unison.
Rintaro smiled, with his hands barely containing the look of his satisfied smile.
Kentaro wasn't even aware, but he had piloted a giant robot for the first time, and had, albeit unintentionally, defeated a colossal enemy for the first time as well.
Truly the dream of every teen his age.
Isn't that right?
No, not for him.
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Long after the previous night, the NERV cleanup personnel took the EVA-01 back to its launchpad by force, pinning it again and returning it to its cage to then extract the Entry Plug, afterwards getting Kentaro out of it.
The team took the boy to the hospital after going through the LCL decontamination process, and left him there.
All of this was just to ensure that he'd be ready for the next day, not precisely because anyone was worried about him or his health.
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Rintaro currently found himself in a dark room, reunited with an ample variety of people, whom apparently represented distinct countries in the whole world, all of the present being a part of an ONU-linked organization named "SEELE".
All of them were found sitting in front of a long black desk, perfect for a political-economic reunion.
- Ishiki, do you honestly believe the counterattack against the Angel won't cost you anything? The costs for the EVA's reparation, the costs for the reconstruction of every damaged building... SEELE won't take care of this, so use NERV's funds as you see fit. – Adverted one of SEELE's representants, whom had a small France flag sitting in front of him in the desk.
Rintaro had his elbows planted on the desk and his hands covering his mouth, so as to not let any of the SEELE members deduct what he was precisely feeling about all this.
- Ishiki... Are you really going to deploy your confidence into your son and EVA Unit-01? The boy was unbearably sluggish during the first battle, and EVA-01 merely exceeded the expectations because it went into Berserk Mode. – Chipped in another representant, this time coming from Germany.
- I have faith that if we are to guide him correctly, the Fourth Child shall exceed expectations himself. – Murmured Rintaro.
This made the entire SEELE team groan in response.
- This legal infraction to the protection of humanity will not go unaccounted, if this is to occur yet again. Make sure the brat learns to pilot the EVA, or we will never reach further in our goals for the Human Instrumentality Project. – Growled the one who looked to be the oldest in the room, and had a label in the left side of his chest that read "Keel Lorenz", slamming his fist on the desk.
Rintaro didn't respond, and his glasses shined upon contact with his barely lit section of the room.
As it appeared, Kentaro's father wasn't precisely the adequate person to carry out human relationships, much less inspire any sort of confidence.
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(Music: NGE OST – Hedgehog's Dilemma)
In the exact moment of his wake, he observed the hospital ceiling with a mix of confusion and curiosity.
- Mm? An unknow ceiling... - He whispered.
Kentaro kept looking at the ceiling for a hot minute, until he finally moved his legs to the side and got up from bed.
He looked at the arm that he felt was broken the night before, but the limb seemed to be completely uninjured.
- "Does this have anything to do with the supposed synch that a pilot has to carry out with their EVA?" – The boy thought, confused.
He left the place, walking to the waiting hall of the Tokyo-3 hospital, sitting in one of the chairs there to pass the time.
He waited for someone to come for him.
He waited.
And waited...
But nobody ever came, not even in three hours.
At least, all this sitting was doing wonders to help him regain strength.
Suddenly, a similarly aged boy stepped in front of him, a boy consisting of pale as-his-skin blue colored hair that was pushed backwards ending in a sort of comet tail form, and red eyes like a shining apple.
The boy looked like he was wounded, with a bandage covering his entire left arm, a medical patch in his right eye, and a stitch covering his left cheek.
(Music: NGE OST – Rei I)
- Excuse me... Are you from NERV? – Kentaro asked.
- Yes. I am the pilot Takanashi Roku, assigned to EVA-00. Are you the so-called Kentaro-kun? – The crimson eyed boy inquired.
- Y-yes. That's me.
- Commander Ishiki told me about you.
- What did he tell you? – Kentaro asked, expecting nothing less from his father than public shaming just for fun, just because the man thought that would turn the boy into a person just like him.
- He said you had arrived at NERV merely yesterday morning, and you were piloting the EVA as expected of you. He said he had to give you credit for having the guts to get into the EVA, Unit-01 none the less.
- And what's wrong about piloting 01? – Inquired Ishiki, raising his left brow in confusion.
- It is a very unstable EVA, prone to go out of control, due to the fact that it is a Test Type model, one focused in testing the newer update of physical and synchronic limits, making it more difficult to synchronize with it without a great risk of lingering pains or mental contamination, or even making it go Berserk Mode, while EVA-00 is a Prototype model, made to easily synchronize with most of the teenagers the population consists of, this due to the Prototype EVA being a sort of simulation dummy that imitates the presence of a pilot inside its Entry Plug.
- I understand... Just a little. - Kentaro confessed.
Takanashi nodded his head, returning into his walking state and leaving the hospital.
Kentaro looked at the closed door of the reception room in confusion.
- "What the hell did he mean by all of that?" – He thought. – "I've got to ask someone."
Not too long after, Artorias arrived and took Kentaro with him, taking him to Rintaro's office.
- Father... - Whispered Kentaro.
- Kentaro... You have to sharpen your synchronization rate, and focus your mind. This is the only way we will finally be able to defeat each and every Angel. – Rintaro repressed, with a permanent poker face.
- I understand. I'll try to do my best.
Afterwards, Artorias had to make some negotiations, since Kentaro had been sent to spare a glance at the apartment complex he would be living in for his stay in Tokyo-3, and he didn't like it because it was situated in such a rotten and broken neighborhood, so horrible that his apartment had fissures all over it and every metal in the entire complex was rusty and old, not even mentioning the fact that everything looked like a straight-up 750 kilometer long-and-wide dump.
In the end, Artorias successfully negotiated with Rintaro, and the Commander allowed the younger Ishiki to live in the captain's apartment.
After the negotiations, Kentaro and captain Armael found each other at the battle operations site of NERV, and the aforementioned adult took the young pilot to the exterior of Tokyo-3.
The both of them embarked on Artorias's car and took off to the road.
(Music: NGE OST – Tokyo-3)
Kentaro watched as the sun slowly set itself below the road, making the sky dye itself in orange and crimson colors, something that captivated the teenager's vision.
At the same time, he found out that at that hour, the buildings below the Geo-Front raised into city view, contributing to the semi dystopic but beautiful landscape of Tokyo-3.
- Captain... Is this the city I'll be protecting as long as I stay alive? – Kentaro asked.
- Yep. Why do you ask?
- Well... I think this is a view worth protecting. This doesn't mean I'm feeling obligated to pilot the EVA, or that I'm thinking of it as simply playing with a titanic toy... But this gets me more motivated to follow orders, I guess. – Commented the 14-year-old boy.
Artorias smiled, and later took the boy to a 24-hour store because it was the closest store before entering the city.
In the store, there were two adult women chatting about Sachiel's invasion occurred the day before.
- What do you think about the Angel invasion from yesterday? I think they could've managed it a little better, maybe calling the EVA pilot with prep time or something, or using someone else as the pilot.
Kentaro was hearing all this, and his expression changed from silent and relative calm to a furrowed brow of annoyance.
- "They wouldn't understand. You can't just bring a young kid to a super military establishment and tell him to pilot a 75 meters tall mechanic humanoid without expecting him to decline due to how dangerous all of that sounds!" – He thought, pressing the floor with his left foot.
- Yeah... Thanks to the pilot, my sister's apartment fell apart due to an explosion. It's a relief that she was still traveling, but now I'm going to have to weigh my money between her needs and my needs...
Kentaro put the brakes on his psychological tantrum, poking out his eyes at the two women, now feeling a pang of guilt in his chest.
- "So it's my fault an apartment fell apart? God... That's got to be a lot of money, and probably a lot of people turned out near dead... Or not even alive at all."
His lips lowered, curving themselves into a shape that mirrored sadness and shame.
- What a ruckus... They need people that can better maneuver those beasts.
- Yeah, that's what I'm saying!
Kentaro looked at the shop's counter, fixating his view on a pack of gummies.
- C-captain... Can I get some gummies for myself? – The boy asked, timidly.
- Sure. – Responded Armael.
Kentaro used his leftover money from when he lived in Tokyo-2, a national section which he had moved out of not longer than 24 hours ago, to buy the gummies.
- Thank you very much. – He mentioned after finishing the payment process, and walked to the entrance, sitting on the floor to wait for Artorias while he listened to music in his SDAT and opened one of the gummy packs.
Later, when the captain came out with several bags of food and beer, he took Kentaro to his apartment complex, finally arriving in Central Tokyo-3.
In the fifth floor's hallway, Kentaro observed that this same zone possessed a long and symmetrical set of ceramic railings, which gave way to a clear view at the NERV headquarters, as well as an astonishing view of the city at night.
- Um... I'm home. – Kentaro whispered, slightly smiling in shyness at the very moment he went to Artorias's apartment door.
The adult, in turn, smiled as well.
- Welcome home.
Then, Artorias introduced the boy to his entire floor, showing him literally everything like it were a luxury hotel tour.
(Music: NGE OST – Misato)
The place was unbelievable, with cans of beer scattered everywhere, water puddles in the entire kitchen, and a three-door refrigerator that Kentaro didn't even want to touch unless it were strictly necessary.
- Do you... Live here on your own accord or was it my dad who assigned you this place? – The boy asked, utterly bewildered by the animal quantity of trash in the entire site.
- I decided to come here myself, and the disaster is of my own doing. It's an everyday occurrence, nothing that I can't clean up. – Artorias said, posing pridefully, as to say "Look, I'm a responsible adult".
Kentaro's mouth fell to the floor like a broken drawer upon opening the second door of the refrigerator, because there lied an abnormal sewer of canned food.
- "I'm gonna die here before I even get to have dinner..." – The boy thought, horrified.
- What's with the shocked face? A captain's lifestyle isn't as relaxing as movies make it look. Now, help my nose and have a shower, kid, you're smelling like a dead Angel.
- Y-yes.
Said and done, Kentaro was on his way to the shower, and totally on the nude.
Suddenly, the door beside him opened, revealing the figure of what looked like a small adult penguin with red horns in the sides of his face.
- HOLY! – Shouted Kentaro, covering his lower parts with a towel as fast as he could, at the same time screaming in surprise due to the sudden apparition.
- Waaark! – The penguin expressed, walking to the living room without a care in the world, to then go inside the refrigerator's third door compartment.
Kentaro ran to the same room, amazed.
- C-captain, there's a p-p-p...!
- Oh. He's a friend of the house. You could call him a pet if the term didn't get him so riled up, and that it damn does. – Smiled Artorias. – His name's Pen-Pen.
- Pen-Pen... - Whispered Kentaro.
- Hey, and... Could you sheath that sword, please? – Adverted the captain, because in his perspective, Kentaro's nearly visible balls were invisible thanks to a long row of beer cans.
- WUUUH! – Screeched Kentaro in complete embarrassment, seeing that his towel fell during the walk to the living room, and running back to the showers as if nothing had ever happened.
All the while, Pen-Pen opened the refrigerator's third door again, and threw himself inside to sleep.
- Wark. – The penguin whispered, bored as hell.
While Kentaro was in the shower, he spared a glance at his hands.
- "Captain Artorias doesn't seem like a bad person... I think it was a good decision to come live with him." – He thought.
Then, he clenched his fists.
- "On the other hand... Dad, why are you doing this to me? What have I done to you to make you put me inside a ran-over department that looks like a damn rathole...?"
Angry, the boy struck the bathroom's wall slowly with his fist, conscious of the possible damage that could come from a hard hit.
- "Can't lose my cool... What am I going to do while I'm at NERV? Who are all of these people? Who or what is Takanashi Roku? What am I doing in this place...?"
After the bath, Artorias took the boy's place in the shower and Kentaro went to have dinner.
As expected, dinner was nothing fancy at all; three miso ramen cans, an insanely big pack of ketchup, and nothing else.
The teen tried to get used to it, seeing as whatever he initially thought was miso soup felt more like muddy yellow dirt upon sinking his spoon inside the can.
- Captain, living like this isn't healthy at all! – The boy reprimanded, without receiving any answer, all the while struggling with what he'd start calling "stone soup", till he finally could pry away a good piece of the "soup", then drinking a glass of water so as to dissolve the food.
- "At the very least it's better than eating trash..."
Later, Artorias got out of the shower and sent Kentaro to sleep.
In the boy's room's door, Armael placed a sheet of paper with the words "Kentaro-kun's Cool Room!" in it.
Kentaro laid in his new bed, throwing himself to the right side and shrinking himself into a ball, without even covering his body with a blanket.
He put his hands over his pillow, and with the right hand he searched for the SDAT player, putting it on and playing music at a volume not too high and not too low, so as to not disturb Artorias.
- Hey, Kentaro... You did a good job. Everyone's gonna like you now... - Commented Armael.
Kentaro tried to raise the music's volume, but swiftly realized that doing something like that would give away the fact that he wasn't asleep yet, so he backed away from that and kept listening.
- I know that... It'll take time for you to get used to this. Living between adults, with not many people to interact with... Nevertheless, I believe that you're a strong kid.
Kentaro switched his position so as to lay with his mouth on the pillow, closing his eyes and pretending to be in a soporific state, as they say. (Author's note: Soporific is the same as sleeping but I thought it was fancier, besides the OG translation sounds even fancier so don't take it out on me here)
Artorias decided that it'd be better if he left now, and did just that, abandoning the room.
Kentaro opened his eyes, looking at the ceiling while listening to "Back In Black".
- "Another unknown ceiling... It's natural, I don't even know anything about this entire national sector in itself. For some reason, my mind keeps playing over fake memories of me having visited this place before, but that couldn't possibly be true..."
He ignored all that was going on inside his head, and solved it by thinking the best he could do for now was just sleep and relax his bones.
In that exact moment, the boy enters a true state of sleep...
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Kentaro woke up in a run-down city, sitting in the Entry Plug seat of a completely made-over Unit-01.
The EVA-01 was now peeled off of any flesh and skin in its body, with putrid and brown bones, a longer and sharper chin, equally sharp as its cartoonish jaw, which now looked even more terrifying.
- The EVA? – Muttered Kentaro.
He saw that the skies were of a complete red, and every single building was on fire.
The boy opened his eyes wide like saucers, and looked over to the windows in the Entry Plug, connected to the EVA's view, all the same looking in a mirror and seeing the face of the giant monster.
The mechanical titan let his frontal mask loose, letting it fall to the floor and showing its true form.
With a comet shaped head, a brownish-skinned and green eyed being, with reptile pupils looking right at the pilot, except for the right eye, which instantly regenerates and fixates on the boy inside it.
Curious, yet undeniably enraged.
Inquisitive, yet completely unforgiving.
- Haa... Haa... - Kentaro gasped repeatedly, eyes trembling at the sight before him.
And then, a blood-chilling scream comes with the end of the dream.
------------------------------- EPISODE TWO, END ------------------------------