Fuu

Because of the emergency situation, all normal phone lines are disconnected now.....

"I shouldn't have come here...." Shinji Ikari thought as he grimaced at the pre-recorded phone message. "I mean, why would my father want to see me after all this time?" He hung up the phone and looked around. The train station was completely empty, and all trains were out of service. All the cars were parked, and nobody was in sight. "I guess I will go to the shelter too.... I don't think I'll be meeting her." He took an envelope out of his duffel-bag and looked at the picture inside. It was of a pretty long-haired woman. She seemed like a bright, outgoing young woman, from the scribbles on the picture. "Misato Katsuragi... She seems like a nice person. Oh well." Shinji put the picture back in the envelope and walked out of the station — when he saw a giant creature in the distance.

The creature was taller than most of the skyscrapers that he remembered from his hometown. It was slowly walking towards the center of the town, each step sending trembles all the way to the train station. Planes were in the air and tanks lined the sides of the mountains, both firing missiles at the creature. The creature stood unhurt, even seemingly mocking the relative weakness of the missiles. It picked one of the planes from midair, crushed it, and threw it down — towards Shinji. As he started running away from the falling plane, a blue sports car cut him off.

"Sorry I'm late! Hop on!" The driver smiled. He jumped into the car, and it bolted out of the area.

As the car bolted out of the area, the crushed helicopter crashed into the spot where the car was just moments earlier.

"I'm sorry that I can't give you a tour of Tokyo-3.... but this is an emergency and I have to get you to our headquarters ASAP." Misato smiled. "I'm sure you're looking forward to meeting your father again anyway."

"Not really."

"Really? That's a shame."

"All I know is that he's working on 'saving mankind'...."

"You don't like your father too much, do you?"

"Well, it has been years since I met him. It's just bothersome to deal with him at this point."

"He's not the most sociable person.... I guess you took after him."

"By the way.... Do you know what that is?" Shinji asked Misato.

"An Angel."

"Angel...." Shinji started wondering what he was getting himself into. At that moment, the remaining helicopters started to fly away.

Misato looked over. The tanks had also disappeared.

"It can't be.... They're going to use the N² mine!? Shinji-kun, duck!"

A flash of light engulfed the car.

The next thing Shinji felt was a freefalling sensation... but he could not see anything as he fell through the darkness. He lost consciousness before he entered a world that he has never seen before, where a vast ocean covers most of the land. He did not see the volcano in the distance, nor the floating continent. He felt nothing as he was lifted up by a gentle yet strong wind, and softly landed in a meadow.

Kaworu Nagisa looked up from the water mirror that showed Shinji falling through the air. "So the Third Children has been summoned..... We shall see if they will be able to save ADAM and restore the Instrumentality of Man Project."

Shinji woke up and looked around. "Misato-san?"

The woman, nor her car, was in sight.

"Where... am I?"

Behind Shinji was a cliff, beyond which there only was sky and clouds. In front of him, as well as directly under him, was a green meadow surrounded by a small forest. He could hear the birds tweeting in the distance. He started walking towards the forest. The trees rustled gently in the wind as he walked by. He walked on, as if looking for a way out of this maze. He came upon a small clearing.

Shinji laid down in the middle of the clearing and muttered to himself, "This definitely isn't Tokyo-3....."

A voice yelled overhead, "Are you an idiot? Of course this isn't!"

Shinji jumped up and turned around to the origin of the voice. There stood Misato — with two girls.

"Misato-san!" Shinji thought.

The owner of the voice was the girl with shoulder-length brown hair and blue-violet eyes. She continued, "I can't believe Misato thinks that this idiot is the Third Children!"

The other girl, a girl with short blue hair and red eyes, ignored the brown-haired girl looked Shinji in the eye. She spoke carefully, "I am Rei Ayanami, the one that Guru Katsuragi calls the First Children. I am fourteen years old."

The brown-haired girl smiled confidently. "I guess I should introduce myself, now that the goody-goody has. I'm Asuka Langley Souryuu. Call me Asuka. I'm supposedly the Second Children, and I'm also fourteen."

Shinji cleared his throat. "I'm Shinji Ikari. Fourteen years old."

Asuka gave a look of surprise. "What!? You're fourteen!? You can't be the same age as I am! You're so..... so..... OOOOH!!"

Misato gave Asuka a stern look. "Calm down and stop saying nonsense."

"Nonsense? You can't control me, you aren't my mother! Hell, you just met me two minutes ago!!"

"Two minutes ago...?" Shinji thought.

"Guru Katsuragi has a point.... She has to explain what we are doing here...." Rei quietly commented.

"Oh you shut up, you goody-goody! Just because you have known Misato longer than me....!" Asuka fumed.

"Only by five minutes," Rei replied in a monotone.

"Um... anyway.... How do I go back to Tokyo-3?" Shinji looked at Misato.

"You can't." Misato shook her head.

"Can't go back... can't go back... can't go back..." Misato's words echoed inside Shinji's head.

"Unless you save this world... save Cephiro. Then you might be able to return to your world using the Instrumentality of Man Project to Complete your souls."

"Misato, why didn't you tell me that when I first asked?" Asuka glared at the older woman.

"Because I was waiting for all three Children to be here together."

"What are Children, anyway?"

"Children are the ones that will save Cephiro in its time of crisis. According to the old legend three Children will be summoned from another world in Cephiro's time of need, to save Cephiro from doom. Cephiro is truly in a crisis — Kaworu abducted ADAM, the key figure in the Instrumentality of Man Project, the project that runs every basic function in Cephiro and can Complete humans."

Rei nodded. "Misato-san, how do we save Cephiro?"

"In order to restore the project to its normal functional status, you must become true Children and revive the Evangelion."

"E.... Evangelion?" Shinji thought to himself.

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