"The English Shinji" Evangelion: Darkness By The English Shinji Prologue Setting: Set in the EvaR episodes, just after the appearance, and consequential destruction, of the 18th 'Angel'. The power outage and technical difficulties caused by the Angels attack has caused serious problems in Nerv HQ. Some areas of the massive underground complex have little or no power, sensors are malfunctioning, and new problems occur at regular intervals. Nerv is in a very weak state. We join two Nerv engineers as they encounter one of these such problems, and investigate. Their names are Shigeru, and Akamoto. Deep in the bowls of Nerv, in the less used parts of the massive underground complex, a pair of engineers, heading for their posts at LCL plant 012, have just finished their lunch break and are chatting casually about recent events. "That stuff they call food at the canteen tastes light crap. For all the money they stick in this place they could at least give us some decent food." Comments the annoyed Akamoto. He is a tall, lean man, in his late twenties, and is always complaining about something. "What do you mean, 'tastes like crap', I think it tastes great. If you don't like it, why don't you bring your own, like some of the others do?" says his full hardy friend Shigeru. Slightly shorter than Akamoto, but better built, is one who likes life as it is, and hardly ever complains about anything. He is younger than Akamoto, being in his mid twenties, and loves his work. Akamoto likes the work they do, but does not show it. Akamoto frowns, "Oh yeah, I forgot. You don't have any tastebuds left after all those smokes you go through each day." Shigeru "Shutup, I have tastebuds. I don't smoke that much." the two walk in silence for a moment, then, suddenly, Shigeru stops. Akamoto looks back at his friend. "Whats wrong? Why'd you stop?" Shigeru motions for silence. The pair stand in silence for a few seconds. "What is it?" "I thought I heard something." "Huh? What do you mean, you thought you heard something? I told you workingin the plantdoes your head in." Shigeru motioned for silence again. They stand listening to the almost silent throb of the nearby plant. Over the low throbbing, can be distinctly heard a crackle of electricity sparking, somewhere above them. The two men slowly follow their ears to an access ladder, leading up into the ventilation duct system. "Must be a loose wire or something. The power lines follow the duct system. We better check it out." "What do you mean 'we better check it out'?" complains Akamoto. "We don't have to do anything. Thats maintenances job, not ours." "I suppose, but what if its to do with the plant? I don't wanna get stuck in there without power. Anyway, I'm feeling adventurous." Shigeru grins at his colleague. "Yeah, and you don't like the dark, I know." "Shutup, I'm not afraid of the dark, its just I don't wanna try and work in it, thats all." "Ok, ok. I'll wait down here while you go check it out." "Ok, won't be long." Shigeru takes old of the access ladder and starts to ascend. He is soon lost from view as he enters the duct system. Leaving the agitated Akamoto alone at the bottom of the ladder. A few minutes pass and Akamoto starts to get impatient. "What is taking him so long?" he mumbles to himself. He looks up at the duct entrance. "WHAT THE DAMN HELL IS TAKING YOU SO LONG YOU DAMN IDIOT?" he shouts up, hoping his friend is still within earshot. "Damn, I hate it when he does this." Nearly a whole half hour passes, and Akamoto gets ever more annoyed and frustrated. 'Damn that bastard, he knows I hate those damn ducts.' he thinks, as he begins to ascend the ladder. "HEY, SHIGERU, WHATS TAKING YOU SO LONG?" he shouts as he enters the duct system. He looks left and right, down both directions of the duct, but sees no sign of his friend. He slowly moves further into the duct, taking the left turn, he saw his friend take half-an-hour ago, shuffling along on hands and knees in the confined space of the duct. He soon comes to a junction. Looking ahead, then left and right, he sees no apparent sign of Shigeru."I'm going to kill that bastard if he thinks this is funny..." Akamoto mumbles off, as he tries to decide which way his friend must have gone. The ducts are dimly lit, and the crackle of the damaged wire can be heard not far away. Then Akamoto notices a small flickering of light coming from around a corner at the end of the right turning. Against the flickering light, he can see a moving sillouette. "Christ, must be so busy with the wire that he didn't hear me, idiot." Akamoto mumbles to himself as he makes his way towards the sillouette. ----------------------------- Evangelion is the property of Gainax (thank you, you wonderful people). ADV Films has the rights to the English translation. Neon Genesis Evangelion: R is property of Orbit productions, creators of the perfect second series for NGE. ----------------------------- Notes This is basically an experiment to see what comes to peoples minds when they read this, and of course what they think. So, your thoughts are appreciated. If you hate it, why? If you love it, why? Even if you don't email that much, please, email your thoughts. On whether this will continue, well, it will. Maybe only slowly at first, I do have Revelations to work on, but this will be finished. -- The English Shinji