//Artist: Metallica  Title: Elektra  Track: "The Unforgiven"//

            Oh-My-God-What-The-Hell-Was-I-Thinking Productions, Inc. 
                             is proud to present

                             A Cyclone Production

			   Neon Genesis Evangelion:

			       Order and Chaos

                            By Micah D. Potasnik
                               a.k.a. 'Cyclone'

Chapter 1
Death and Rebirth
Part 1
***************

	"For those who believe in God, most of the big questions are answered.
But for those of us who can't readily accept the God formula, the big
answers don't remain stone written. We adjust to new conditions and
discoveries. We are pliable. Love need not be a command or faith a
dictum. I am my own God. We are here to unlearn the teachings of the
church, state, and our educational system. We are here to drink beer. We
are here to kill war. We are here to laugh at the odds and live our
lives so well that Death will tremble to take us." 
--Charles Bukowski 

***************

	Micah slammed the door to his room shut, and began to tear of his
school uniform.
	*Those goddamned bastards,* he thought vehemently as he slipped on a
pair of shirts and a comfortable T-shirt.  *Those goddamn fucking
bastards.*
	It had been, sadly, a extremely bad day for Micah at school, and a good
portion of it had to do with 95% of the schools population that had
somehow decided unanimously to annoy the hell out of him, and make his
day a living hell.  
	He tore the headphones off from their appointed place on top of his
stereo system, put them on, slapped in a Metallica CD at random, pumped
the volume to the max, and stabbed angrily at play.  
	He leaned heavily against the shelve where his stereo was, letting the
music relax him, draining his pent up anger and frustrations.  
	He let his head fall, hitting the shelf with a *thump*, his long,
golden blond hair falling around his gold wire framed glasses, sighing.  
	Micah was a loner, strong willed and stubborn.  He had never had any
close friends over the years.  He had friends, yes, but, in all his
life, he never had someone who could make dealing with those jackasses a
little easier.  His solitary state was deeply ingrained into his psyche,
making it hard to interact with fellow humans, usually choosing to
escape into a book or computers instead, with gave them even more
reasons to ridicule him.  
	Micah's feeling of depression slowly lost there hold on him as the
music began to soothe him.  Yes, he was a loner, and damn proud of it. 
All those ignorant shitheads could go to hell for all he cared.  Who
gave a shit what they though, it was *himself* that really mattered, in
the end.  
	Micah had just lost his bought of depression when he had just switched
over to Guns n' Roses CD and was listening to "Knockin on Heavens Door",
when somebody tapped him on the shoulder.  
	He jumped.
	And said something to the effect of "AUUGGH!"
	Micah whirled around, ready to go off on a tirade on his mother for
sneaking up on him like that, when he faltered.  Mouth gaping wide,
Micah came to two realizations.  One, that he doubted that John De Lance
would decide to visit him, and two, he seriously doubted he would wear a
red starfleet uniform while doing so.  
	"..." said Micah.
	"Well, that was certainly original," commented Q.  "Much better than
Picard.  He usually goes of on a tirade of his when I show up."
	"You... You're..."
	"Yes, I am Q," said Q.  "And the exact same Q you are thinking about."
	"And you are here for..." asked Micah, recovering his wits.
	"I'm here for you," replied Q.  
	Micah simply stared at Q, wondering what the heck he was talking about.
	"All right, let me put it to you this way," said Q.  "I need to show
you something.  And, in doing so, you will get a rather large amount of
information for that head of yours.  If you allow me to show you what I
need to show you.  Deal?"
	Micah considered it.  For about .0005 seconds.  "Sure!" With these
words, Q snapped his fingers.

*Flash*

	"You show surprising patience and strength, Human."  Said the Minbari
Ranger hovering just outside of Micah's attack range.  "That is good. 
For as Valen said, those who are strong within, are strong without."

*Flash*

	"Congratulation Cadet."  Said Admiral Necheyev.  "Most of the time I
don't pay much attention to cadets graduating, but you are a special
case.  Graduating first in his class in Science, Engineering, *and*
Medical."

	"Thank you Admiral," Said Micah.

*Flash*


	"Sweet Mother of Mercy," murmured Micah.  "That puts a entirely new
spin on the words 'information overload'."  
	Micah held his head as not to disturb the cascade of memories that
bounced around inside his skull.  If he wanted too, he could recall with
crystal clarity each and every part of his training in Starfleet or the
Rangers.  It was astounding.  
	He finally became more conscious of his surroundings.  He looked
around, and he saw...
	...he saw...
	...My God.
	Micah saw, and he doubled over in pain, agony and nausea from the
strain that had just been put upon his system.  
	Q glanced down in sympathy at the doubled over form of Micah.  Pure,
unfiltered Chaos was taxing on his system, and he had just seen first
hand what it could do to a human, and he had barely even glanced at it.  
	How exactly *does* one go about describing the awe, the majesty of
pure, unfiltered Chaos, the one constant that permeated all of
Existence, that was present in nearly every form of Reality and
Non-Reality known to Q, that was the Heart of the Storm?
	You can't, really.  Not using any human language, anyway.  Perhaps one
using a language of The Ancients, of the First Ones, perhaps, you might
begin to start.  No, only in the language of pure thought could one
fully communicate what the Heart of the Storm was, the theoretical heart
of all the Multiverse, all of Existence.  
	Q gazed at it, and was slightly comforted to see the presence of
Chaos's bane, of its equal and opposite, of its regulator.  Order. 
Chaos had created and shaped Existence, yet Order is what held it
together.  Order was the spit and twine that held the infinitesimally
thin walls of Existence separate from each other.  It was the force that
dictated that *this* goes *there*, *that* goes *here*.  It was the force
that made sure that a single atom of Hydrogen all ways possessed the
atomic weight of 1.0079, and not 7.9903.  
	"Good God," said Micah, still not daring to look up.  "What is that
thing?"
	Q anserwed almost immediately.  "The Heart of the Storm."
	Micah's eye's widened in surprise and horror.  He knew what the Heart
of the Storm was.  And here he was, in it's presence.
	This was definitely a Bad Thing.  
	Just as he thought that, Micah felt himself being pulled into the Heart
of the Storm.  He screamed in rage/anger/pain/surprise as the two forces
seem to suck him in.  Then, he heard two words:
	"I'm sorry."	
	And Micah Potasnik plunged straight into Hell.


	One one stood back and took a good look at what Q was doing, they would
soon realize that it was nothing short of Insanity, born from
desperation.  Sending, of all things, a human, into the depths of The
Heart of The Storm.  Micah could not only be dead, but burned away from
the face of Existence entirely.  Q felt a rare jolt of guilt and sorrow
for what he was doing.  
	But this was war.  War for the continued state of stability of
Existence, war of the continued existence of the Q continuum, war for
the very survival of Reality.  And in war, sometimes the innocents got
hurt.  
	Micah's DNA patterns were somehow attuned to that of the Heart of the
Storm.  He didn't know how.  That it merely *was* ought to show that
there was indeed a infinite number of impossibilities if someone like
Micah could exist.  That the natural attunation would allow him to tap
into the Heart of the Storm, more specifically the Order part of it, was
a very, very, very risky gamble.
	But what if he couldn't?
	What if he tapped into the Chaos side of it?
	What if he was dead?
	In the multidimensional ether, the normal laws of Reality did not rule.
There was no such thing as multiple outcomes.  
	Or, even more horrible, what if he became another... Trelane?
	But what if he was correct?  
	If he was correct, then he would have a very, very good chance of
coming out on top, regardless that the Q continuum would perform the
equivalent of flaying him alive when they found out about this.  They
probably knew about it all ready, although they were probably staying
the farthest away that they could possibly be.  Ground Zero and all
that.
	And if he wasn't correct...
	Well...
	Then he, and all of Existence, was fucked.  Big Time.    


	Pain.
											Anger.
			Rage.
					Existence.
What?
		Where am I?
									Who am I?
What is I?
				I is me.
							What is me?
	Me is I
			Paradox.
	Micah floated through The Heart of The Storm.  He had lost all
identity, all self, in the tides and currents that even Q could not even
begin to contemplate existed.  He could not tell if all eternity
			Eternity?
									   passed in a blink of an eye, or if all the agony and pain of
his soul, body and mind being torn apart lasted no more that a billionth
of a second.  
	Then, he encountered something.
	By the time he met this entity/non-entity/sentient, his mind and soul
had been reduced to shreds of its former self, merely a babbling
sentient, and not by much.  His body had long been destroyed by the
Chaos inherent in the Heart of the Storm.  That he had not been totally
blasted into non-Existence, totally wiped from all that was, was merely
plain luck.  
	But then, Chaos favored the lucky.  
	But Order favored the wise.
	{Who are you?} asked the entity/non-entity/sentient.
	*hurtsstoppleasestophurtsagonypainnon-pain*
	The entity/non-entity/sentient regarded the empty husk that was once a
human with interest.  
	{You have potential,} said It/He/She/Sentient.  {But then, there is no
one else.}
	*hurtsstoppleasestophurts*
	{Yes.}  
	Micah's soul was then blasted with the two powers.  He screamed, but
the scream shortly became one of a true Sentient, capable of rational
thought and feeling.  His body was recreated with a mere thought,
constructed in resemblance of his old one as to minimize psychological
trauma.  His soul died and was reborn under the direct assault of Chaos
and Order.  His mind was repaired in an instant and all eternity,
changed slightly as to handle the power that he would need.  
	{Go, my son.  Speed well.  And perhaps, we shall meet again.}
	

	The area of Reality around the Heart of the Storm seemed to change for
a moment.  The rest of Existence continued Infinity's march, but this
small part of it changed, for barely a moment, as the Heart of the Storm
opened up.  A figure emerged from the orderly and chaotic surface, a
figure glowing with the residual energy of the Heart of the Storm.  
	Micah watched as Q took a step back.  He supposed that he should have
been angry at the being, but strangely, he wasn't.  
	He understood now.  What was nessacary.  What he had done it for.  
	For once, the ends *did* justify the means.  
	Micah ignored Q's defensive posture.  He spoke.  
	"I understand now.  What you did.  Why you did it."  He paused, as if
thinking something through.  "Yes, that will be nessicary.  As will...
other things."
	He looked once at the omnipotent sentient (within boundaries), then
turned his attention to the Heart of the Storm.  
	Raising a hand, a shining orb of energy emerged from its surface, and
came to rest in Micah's hand.  It wasn't much, but it was more than
ample for its purpose.  Bringing his hands together, he began to
concentrate.  He wondered idly if he would be able to control even
*this* small amount of Order energy, but then he didn't have to wonder
anymore.  
	He could feel himself accelerating towards his appointed place in time,
space, and dimensions.  He knew what he had to do.  But, strangely, he
was  hesitant to do it.  It was wrong, in a way, what he was about to
do, to himself and others.  But, unfortunately, it was nessacary.  
	God damn it for being so.  
	And so, the last thought that occurred to him before his last action
using the Order energy was:
	*Forgive me.*


	"Huh?  What tha... hell?"  said Micah.  "Wha?"
	Micah felt a whiteness envelop him, thinking it was part of the
transportation process.  Then he realized it was the sun streaming in
his eyes, so he closed them to allow them to adjust.  Blinking his eyes,
he slowly opened them.  
	Micah noticed that he felt... smaller, for some reason.  He looked down
at his body, and discovered something very significant.  
	He was no longer in his own body.  
	It belonged to a person that was shorter then Micah, and much more
compact.  His skin was slightly paler than his own, which was slightly
tanned over all the sun he got living where he lived.  He was wearing a
pair of dark gray pants and a dark green T-shirt.  Looking around, he
noticed that he was in just outside a train station of a sorts.  He also
noticed that everything around him was written in Japanese, yet he could
understand it perfectly.  Looking around, he noticed his reflection and
stared at the face that was now his own.  
	For a minute, Micah almost didn't believe who he was looking at.  Then,
his mind spit out a anserw.
	Shinji Ikari.  Pilot of the Evangelion unit 01.  From the Anime series
Neon Genesis Evangelion.
	It took a large amount of control on Micah's part not to collapse from
shock and surprise.  He took a few large gulps of air to calm down. 
Then, the next thought came unbidden from his mouth.
	"What the hell am I *doing* here!?!?"
	Micah tried to recall what Q had done to him.  He remembered training
in the Anla'Shok on Minbar, his Starfleet training, and then...
	Nothing.
	That can't be right.  
	Why the hell would Q send him *here* of all places!?!?
	Noticing something in his pocket, Micah automatically reached in and
pulled it out.  It was a picture, showing a women with dark hair, he
couldn't quite place the color, with message on it.  "SHINJI-I'LL PICK
YOU UP AT THE TRAIN STATION."  And with a footnote:  "P.S.-lOOK AT
THIS".  A small part of Micah's mind noted the "look at these" might
have been a bit more appropriate.  
	Sighing, he put the picture back in his pocket.  He forced logical
though to become dominant once more as he began to think through his
predicament.  
	"What to do, what to do," he mumbled.  Luckily, no one was around.
Striking this as somewhat odd, Micah began to pace.  
	His mind reeled when the full implications began to present themselves
to him.  He sat down heavily on a bench that was, luckily, near him.
	When Micah sat down, the backpack that had been perch precariously on
his shoulder fell to the ground.  Seeing something to get his mind of
his current predicament, he began to search through it.  
	"Weird," commented Micah.  "How the heck did this stuff get here?"  His
source of confusion was the fact that the backpack carried a number of
favorite books and CD titles of his.  
	"I seriously doubt Shinji likes Savage Garden, Guns n' Roses, and
Queen.  Or Micheal Crighton, J.R.R. Tolkien, and Piers Anthoney."  A
thought crossed Micah's mind, and he dug deeper into the pack.  A slow
smile formed on his face as his fingers closed around a metal cylinder
nestled in the bottom of the pack.  Withdrawing it, Micah extended the
Denn'bok to its full length, twirling it around with a jubilant smile on
his face.  Closing it, he put it in his pocket, making sure it wasn't
noticeable.  It could come in handy.
	He idly wondered how all the stuff got there.  But if Q was behind it,
then that would explain it.  
	He began to think about it.  Q had sent him into two separate
universes, then sent him... here.  
	Why?
	What could be behind Q's reasoning and logic when he had sent him here?
	Micah's head snapped up, to see a car rapidly bearing down on him.  
The car stopped, and the figure that he had seen in the picture stepped
out of it.
	"Misato Katsuragi, I presume?" asked Micah, smiling slightly.  "I was
wondering when you'd get here."
	Misato smiled and blushed slightly.  "And you must be Shinji Ikari. 
Sorry about not getting here on time.  Hop in, we have to go."
	"What's the rush?"
	"You'll see."


	"What's this?"  Asked Micah when Misato handed him a rather large
handbook.  
	"The NERV handbook,"  explained Misato.  "You're apart of NERV now, so
you'll be needing it."
	"NERV,"  Said Micah, as he flipped through the handbook.  It was filled
with a collection of blant propaganda, rules, regulations, and the
like.  In short it said, 'you screw up, your ass is cooked.'  "That's
the organization Professor Ikari runs?"
	Misato gave Micah a curious look, when Micah realized what he had
said.  He wondered if he should call him 'father'.  *Naaah.*  Thought
Micah.  *At worst, all it will do is annoy him.  Or flatter him. 
Whichever.*  
	"Yes,"  Said Misato, anserwing his earlier question.  
	"Hmm,"  replied Micah, thinking.  Gazing out at the scenery, a small
part of his mind noticed the scenery was *moving*.
	"What the hell is that?" asked Micah, brought out from his train of
thought by a huge lumbering Giant.  It looked like some type of
monstrous hunchback, with only a vague humanoid shape.  But what the
most unnerving to Micah was the creatures 'face', whose closest
comparison Micah could think of was one of those goddamned hockey masks
from the "Friday the 13th" movies.
	He always hated those movies.  
	"An angel,"  replied Misato, literally standing on the accelerator to
get away.
	The creature vanished from sight as the car arrived at a type of
transport pad in the tunnel they had entered, and the car started to
descend.  As he watched, the transport pad exited the tube, and the
feeling of incredible speed he had felt a moment before was lost as the
pad entered the huge underground Geo-Front.  "Impressive..."  escaped
Micah's lips as he gazed out at the underground recreation of a
bio-sphere.  
	Misato grinned at Shinji.  She had to admit, the Geo-front could make
anyone stop short with awe.  "Welcome to Tokyo-3.  Humanity's fortress
against the Angels."
	"I'm impressed,"  stated Micah, a smile lighting his features as he
gazed at the artificial cavern around him.  "Very impressed."


	"This place is huge,"  remarked Micah as he and Misato walked through
Central Dogma.  
	"Yea, it is,"  replied Misato.  Dammit, this is the third time she had
gotten lost!  *I need a map of this place,*  She thought.
	While the two walked and tried to navigate there way through Central
Dogma, the large pyramid shaped building located inside the Geo-Front,
Micah studied Misato.  He would have to be deaf, dumb, and blind to see
the most obvious thing, that she was quite beautiful.  Especially with
that dark purple hair of her's, and the friendly, open way she could
look at you, made her even more attractive, by Micah's standards.  
	She and Micah rounded a corner, to come upon a women with blond hair
and green eyes, wearing a dark stockings, a black leather miniskirt and
a
tight blue zip-up top with a ring on the throat high zip tab, and a
white lab coat, which seemed somewhat odd to Micah.  She looked to be
around Misato's age and height, and she too, was a beautiful, but it was
a arctic sort of beauty, rather than Misato's friendliness and
cheerfulness.  
	"Err, hi Ritsuko,"  Said Misato sheepishly, blushing slightly.
	Ritsuko sighed.  "Misato, you realize that we don't have the time nor
the manpower to find lost NERV operatives."  She leveled her gaze at
Micah.  "Is this the Third Child?"  
	"Shinji Ikari,"  replied Micah.  *God, I'm gonna have to get used to
that.*  Slightly annoyed at the way that Ritsuko looked at him, he gave
her what best could be described as a 'roguish' smile, meeting her
gaze.  "Pleased to meet you,"  he glanced at her name tag, noting the
doctor prefix attached to her name, "Doctor."
	Ritsuko smiled slightly, barely noticeable, but it was there.  "I'm not
exactly used to being called 'Doctor'."
	"I find that surprising," Commented Micah as they all stepped into the
elevator.  Micah leaned against the back of the elevator, tuning out
Ritsuko and Misato's conversation about a failed synchronization of
something or other, as he let his mind wonder.  When they arrived at
there destination he followed behind them automatically, not really
paying that much attention.  When the lights suddenly went out, his head
snapped up from his ruminations as he got ready, for, well, anything. 
Then the lights came back on.
	Micah would admit that it took a lot to impress himself.  After seeing
most of the things he had seen in his lifetime, it took a rather large
and spectacular surprise to fully impress him.  
	However, right now, Micah was *very* impressed.  
	He was standing on a type of scaffolding, suspended above a sort of
pinkish liquid that he couldn't readily identify.  Coming out of that
liquid was a head that, what looked to Micah, a giant mecha that, if his
scale was correct, rivaled the Friday the 13th Jonny wannabe rampaging
around above in Tokyo-3.  It was colored in a combination of dull purple
and fluorescent green, and a huge horn came out from its head, which
Micah could see no apparent reason for.
	"Nice,"  commented Micah.  He looked at Ritsuko.  "Does it come in
black and silver?"  
	Despite the seriousness of the situation, Misato and Ritsuko had to
hold in a smile from breaking out on both there faces.  "This,"  said
Ritsuko, with a touch of pride in her voice, "is the ultimate Humanoid
fighting weapon.  Evangelion."
	"Ah."  Stated Micah, gazing at the now named Mecha.  He appeared
unperturbed that the Evangelion appeared to be looking right at him.  "I
take it it's built to fight that monstrosity on the surface?"
	"Correct.  And you're going to pilot it."  
	Micah arced his head above him to see a type of control room where the
voice had originated from.  Through the thick looking glass of the
Control Room windows, he could see and recognize one man that apparently
spoken through the outside speakers, a tall, thin looking man wearing
glasses, and appeared to be wearing a permanent scowl on his face.  
	"Professor Ikari, I presume?" said Micah, although it was more a
statement, not a question.
	Ritsuko's face turned quizzical as she turned toward Misato.  Misato
merely shrugged.  Ritsuko found it somewhat odd to refer to your father
that way.  *Or maybe not,*  She thought, *with all the things between
them.  Shinji doesn't seemed intimidated by his father, either.*
	"Yes,"  replied Gendou.  He was not put off by the way his son was
apparently acting toward him.  In fact, deep down, he was somewhat
pleased by it.  "And you are Shinji Ikari, and you are here to pilot the
Eva."
	What happened next transcended fear, or anger, or aggression.  The
event that occurred next had reaching that the three humans that
surrounded Micah could only begin to fully understand the implications
off.  Micah himself, at the time, didn't know *what* had happened, just
that it *had* happened.  
	Micah felt something, something that his soul seemed to shrink away
from and erect a barrier against, something that he had both known and
conquered and at the same time shied and hid away from.  He felt it,
quite literally, slide up next to him, and then *push* him aside.  
	What the body of Shinji Ikari spoke next was not Shinji himself, nor
Micah speaking.  It was something else.  
	"No!  I won't!  I don't want to, and you *can't make me*!!!!!"
	Micah was in a state of turmoil as he felt something take control of
the motor skills of the body his soul was currently inhabiting.  He
could feel the words come from his mouth, but it wasn't him speaking
it.  
	Ritsuko, Misato, and Gendou were all taken aback by this sudden and
rapid change in attitude.  A second before, a calm, cool, and totally
unimitaded person had stood before them, and now Shinji Ikari seemed
anything but those three things.  
	Gendou could feel a momentary flicker of anger.  "You will do as I
say!  You will pilot the Eva and defeat the Angel!"
	"No!  I won't! I won't! I won't! I won't!... Aahgh!"  
	To the three humans who stood watching him, Shinji seemed to end his
childish tirade as he collapsed to the floor, clutching his head. 
Misato gazed at shock as Shinji clutched his head, kneeling on the
floor, his face contorted in a semblance of pain.  


	Gendou was taken aback by this turn of events.  He turned to Koujou
Fuyujuki, second in command of NERV.  "Go wake Rei."
	Fuyujuki looked at his superior officer with hint of shock in his
voice.  "You can't be serious."
	Gendou returned the gaze with cold, unyielding eyes.  "She's not dead,
is she?"  
	For a brief moment, Fuyujuki looked as if he would disagree.  Instead,
he nodded, and went to go carry out the order, and tried not to think
that he may have been given a death sentence for a 14 year old girl.  


	Inside Shinji's body, a war struggled between two separate powers.  
	*You... have... no... right!!!* thought Micah as he spoke to the other
powerful entity inside Shinji's body.  *Leave!!!!  NOW!!!!*
	*Right?  I have no right, Micah Potasnik?* thought/spoke the other
entity.  *You have very small leeway to talk.  Invading a poor, small,
helpless child's body, displacing his very soul...*
	*NO!!!!!* shouted Micah.  *I had no choice!  You do!  Leave.  NOW!!!!*
	*You have very little power here Micah,*  said the Voice inside
Shinji's body, taking on a cold, emotionless tone.  *I do.  This
universe, and its inhabitents, are MINE, and mine to do as I please, you
have no sway here...* 
	Regardless of the Voice's words, Micah was slowly, very slowly, getting
back full control, pushing back the other entity's control.  
	*Get... Out... Of my... HEAD!!!!* thought Micah.  With the last word,
he regained full control once more, and stood straight up suddenly,
taking in the entire situation in one broad sweep of his head.  Just as
he had won, Micah saw a doctor wheel a girl in on a gurney.  
	She looked about to be around 14, by Micah's guess, and was covered in
bandages, with a IV attached to her one arm not covered by a cast.  She
was wearing a skin-tight suit of some kind, that Micah guessed might
have something to pilot the Evangelions in.  She had the palest skin
Micah had ever seen, with matching pale hair that appeared a silver-blue
in the complex's lights.  
	Micah's eye's widened slightly, and then he realized what Gendou was
planning to do.  His head whirled, to match Gendou's gaze with equal
intensity.  His message was clear.  Go and defeat the angel, or I'll
send this girl to die in your place.  
	Micah drew a sharp intake of breath as their eye's met, his grey-blue
steel, her's a startling red.  In that moment, he felt a sort of...
kinship, to this person.  Had half heard, half dreamt of a voice saying
that "this is the one!"  The one what, he didn't know.  In that moment,
he knew that this was a person that could actually *know* him, know his
thoughts, his feelings, someone that he could confide in, someone whom
he would give his life for to save and protect.  He felt a great
wellspring of emotions erupt from the very bottom of his soul, tumbling
end over end of one another, a jumbling, confusing mass of emotions.  
	And, truth be known, it scared him, actually.  Shook him to the very
core of his soul.  
	Time seemed to speed back up to a normal pace as he watched the doctors
wheel Rei to a stop, and he watched as her frail body, wracked with
pain, try to get up.  Micah could take it no more.  
	"Stop," he started to say.  "There's no need..."  Whatever Micah was
about to say was suddenly cut off by a large *BOOM* that seemed to
originated from over head.  
	Misato, Ritsuko, and Gendou all stumbled, but Micah remained planted
firmly to the spot like the Old Man of the Sea.  He watched in horror as
Rei was thrown off the gurney and emitted a gut-wrenching cry of pain as
she impacted against the floor.  He ran over to her, so intent on
reaching her that he did not see the large piece of scaffolding break
off and plummet toward him.  
	While Micah's conscious mind was not aware of the danger, his
subconscious was.  While it did not threaten his soul, the scaffolding
presented a rather serious threat to the body Micah currently resided
in.  Reaching out into the fabric of the universe, it willed for Fate
itself to change the odds.  
	The Evangelion unit was suddenly seized, as its arm broke away from its
restraints, as it interposed itself between the scaffolding and Micah. 
It crashed aside, harmlessly, the danger averted.  
	Ritsuko and Misato stared in shock, slow realization dawning on there
face what had happened.  In the control room, Gendou smiled a cold,
vindictive smile.  
	Ignoring all of this, Micah knelt down beside Rei as he supported her
back using one hand, and brushed her hair aside from her brow with the
other, offering a small comfort from physical contact.  Her face and one
uncovered eye contorted with the pain of re-opened wounds as blood
flowed hot and sticky onto the floor, seeping past her bandages and into
Micah's clothes.  Micah felt as if he had been stabbed as Rei took
short, gasping breaths through the haze of pain.  He brought he hand up,
and saw that it was now covered in Rei's blood.  
	Laying her slowly and carefully to the floor, Micah stood up.  He swept
his gaze from Misato, to Ritsuko, and then Gendou.  Ritsuko to a
voluntary step back, because for a moment she would have sworn that
Shinji's eyes were actually *glowing* a fierce, cold blue...
	"There will be a day of reckoning, Ikari, for this,"  Micah said
softly.  He spoke up.  "All right.  I'll do it."


	Micah was currently sitting in what appeared to be a large cockpit,
and, he had to admit, it was relaxing in the entry plug.  
	As he had thought, the suit Rei had been wearing was indeed required to
pilot the Eva's, because he was wearing a blue, green, and white version
of the skin tight 'plug suit', as Ritsuko had called it.  In Micah's
opinion, it showed off a bit *too* much, yet, felt oddly comfortable. 
He wondered idly *what* exactly *were* the requirements for piloting the
Eva's.  *I would love to get a look at the systems for this baby,* 
Micah thought.  *Small chance of *that* happening.  I bet Ritsuko would
be surprised that I could probably make a large number of improvements
to them, too...*  Engineering had, after all, been Micah's favorite and
best class in Starfleet.  
	Micah felt the familiar stirrings of fear in his gut, some slight
apprehension, the part that was screaming at him "What in HELL's name
are you DOING!!!!????"  He ignored it.  It was easier than he expected,
actually.  
	Micah was brought out of his musings when a thick, yellow-ish liquid
started pouring from vents in the side of the Entry Plug.  Only mildly
concerned, Micah cupped his hand into the liquid and let it slowly drain
away.  He began thinking as the Plug began rapidly filling with the
fluid.  Suddenly his mind came up with a anserw.  *Hi-Oxygen Liquid!  Of
cource!*  He frowned at the thought.  *But why would a pilot need to
breath Liquid Oxygen?  If this thing was designed for battle, the Liquid
would be heated far more faster than normal air.  Even though it gets
oxygen to the organs faster, it could quickly turn deadly.*  He
shuddered momentarily.  The idea of his lungs cooking from the inside
out did not exactly appeal to him.  
	*It could be for insulation from high acceleration,* thought Micah. 
*Although, nothing that a inertial dampening field couldn't do better.*
	Micah watched, only slightly concerned, as the liquid slowly reached
his head level.  Then, taking a deep breath, he slowly held it as the
Liquid Ox flowed up around his head, and then slowly let it out, and
then sucked the liquid in, emitting a small burp of air bubbles, but
otherwise felt fine.  
	"Shinji, can you hear me?"  Asked Misato over the Plug's speakers. 
"You didn't freak out when we flooded the Plug with the LCL fluid.  Very
good."
	Micah took on the same tone that he had heard his Vulcan Mentor use
when he had studied Science on a brief intern in the Vulcan Science
Academy.  "It would be illogical to assume that you were trying to drown
me, considering all the trouble you took to get me here."
	Misato got a quizzical look on her face, but didn't reply.  "We're
beginning the Syncro process."
	"Syncro rate holding steady at 41.5%," report Maya Ibuki, the Room's
brown haired chief operations technician.  
	"Impressive," commented Ritsuko, "considering the Eva he's using."
	To Micah, it was as if someone had taken his soul and put it in a much
larger body, and he was adjusting to it.  His perception widened as he
felt himself become larger, more taller than before.  The sensation was
not at all unpleasant, it fact, Micah could learn to enjoy it.  
	If only the people running it weren't such jerks...
	Most of them, anyway.
	"Shinji, how do you feel?" asked Misato.
	"When I find the word to describe it I'll tell you," replied Micah.  "I
feel, just, taller somehow."
	Misato nodded.  She turned to Gendou, who was standing in the back,
highlighted by the red-on-black NERV emblem.  "Can we really do this?" 
she asked.
	"Yes,"  replied Gendou.  "If we don't, then humanity is doomed."
	Misato turned back to the main command board.  She nodded.  "Evangelion
Unit 1, launch!"
	With those word muttered, the platform that the Evangelion had been
standing on was suddenly rocketed up the launch tube.  Micah could feel
the G forces affect both him and the Eva as they both sped toward the
surface.  
	In one of Tokoyo-3's many streets, a large portal opened up, as the Eva
was suddenly decelerated, and came to a rest on the surface level.  
	"Releasing the Gantry Bolts,"  reported Maya.
	On the platform, the massive bolts that had held the Eva secure
suddenly retracted, and the Evangelion stood slowly up.  The Eva slowly
pivoted its massive head as it took in its surroundings.  
	"All right, Shinji, just concentrate on walking," said Misato.  
	"Right," replied Micah, sarcasm dripping in his voice.  He slowly
closed his eyes.  *All right, think,* he thought.  *All the Eva is is a
very large body.  If what I think Misato is talking about is true, then
all I *am* is nothing more than the brain of the Eva.  So... all I have
to do is simply *move* as I normally would.*  He sighed.  *I hope this
works.*
	The Evangelion took a very shaky first step, as the foot came crashing
down, impacting on the hardtop of the street.  Gaining confidence, Micah
to a second step, then a third.  *I was right,* thought Micah.  *I am
the brain's of the Eva.  Nothing more, nothing... uh, oh.*
	Something or other had apparently drawn the Angel away from its attack,
and it had found the Eva.  The Angel and the Eva stood facing each
other, somewhat akin to two gunfighters, waiting for each other to make
the first move.  
	"Err, Misato?" asked Micah.
	"Yes?" she replied.
	"What onboard weapon systems does the Eva have?"
	"None.  The main weapon is your progressive knife, which you can
deploy..."
	Micah glanced sharply at the speaker.  "*Please* tell me your... oh
shit!"
	A silent alarm bell began ringing in the back of Micah's mind, and the
Eva jumped up suddenly and came crashing down to avoid the strange
energy blast the Angel had sent toward him.  He deftly avoided a second,
and a third, but, unfortunately, the fourth caught him, damaging his leg
armor.  He could actually *feel* the sharp, shooting pain radiating up
his leg as the blast gouged into his armor.  The Eva stumbled and fell
flat on its face.  
	"Shinji, get up!" cried Misato.
	"Working in... urk!"  Micah cried out as the massive Angel firmly
grasped Eva-01 neck.  He could actually *feel* the hands, as if they
were actually squeezing his own neck.  Firmly latching on, the Angel
began the methodical procedure of trying to tear either the Eva's arm or
head of, or both.  Micah could hear a sickening snap as he screamed in
pain, the Eva's left arm hanging limp, useless.  The Angel brought up it
hand and pounded the energy blast into Eva-01's head.  A torrent of
images and pain that wasn't his own flooded Micah's mind as the energy
hammered into Eva-01's skull.  He mind frantically tried to struggle out
of its grasp, but then the energy blast punched *through* Eva-01's head,
sending Micah screaming in a torrent of indescribable pain, as the Eva
flew back, slamming it into the ground with considerable force.  
	Micah slumped in the cockpit, dimly aware of Misato yelling into the
speakers, demanding a status report.  He felt his consciousness
slipping, and he slowly closed his eyes, the energy draining away.  The
last vestiges of consciousness brought Micah's fall into the abyss
short, as he concentrated, he could actually hear soft *laughter*,
mocking him.  

//Artist: Kenny Loggins  Title: Top Gun Soundtrack  Track:"Into the
Danger Zone"//

	Adrenaline surges through his, and due to the synchronization, through
Eva's veins as pure anger emerged from Micah's psyche.  His head snapped
up, his hazel eyes glowing a faint blue.  The face armor of the Eva
cracked and shattered, and both it and Micah drew there head's back and
emitted a inhuman shriek of rage that could be heard and felt straight
down into Central Dogma.  
	Eva-01 jumped up from its fallen position.  Clenching it's left fist,
the arm was made whole once more.  The Eva crouched to the point where
it's knees where touching the ground, then kicked off effortlessly as it
charged the Angel.  The Angel saw the Eva and it fired off a energy bolt
at the charging juggernaut, only to be blocked by a type of invisible
shield of some sort that protected the Eva.  
	"Eva-01 has regenerated it's arm!" reported Maya.  "And it's deploying
it's AT-field!"
	Said Eva rushed the Angel, ignoring the energy blast that deflected
harmlessly of its AT-field.  The Angel and Eva collided together, as the
Eva seemed to be trying to pull apart two stuck doors, energy
discharging as the two AT-fields met and collided.   
	"The Eva's AT-Field is neutralizing the Angel's phase space!" exclaimed
Maya.
	"Amazing," muttered Ritsuko, commenting on both Shinji's fighting
skills and the fact that his syncro rate was steadily climbing as the
battle increased.
	The Angel's AT-field suddenly disintegrated as Eva-01 penetrated it. 
For the first time in a while, Micah spoke.  "All right you bastard," he
growled.  "Time to die."  Eva-01 drew its fist back and then rammed it
home, penetrating flesh as it dug deeper.  Micah withdrawing the fist, a
bluish liquid spraying from the wound.  The Angel screamed in pain,
receiving a tight, wolfish grin from Micah.  Eva's arms lanced out, and
firmly grasped the Angel's shoulders.  Gripping tightly, Micah heard a
sickening *snap*-ing of what passed for cartilage and bone in the Angel
as he twisted the shoulder, inflicting major damage to the Angel's bone
structure.  Releasing the shoulders, Micah drew Eva's fist back and
smashed it into the Angel's chest, sending it flying through the air and
crashing into the ground.  The Evangelion crouched to the points its
knees were touching the ground, and jumped, flew through the air, turned
a complete somersault, and smashed it's foot directly on the red orb in
the Angel's chest.  A scream of pain and outrage came from the Angel,
and with sickening unease, Micah whatched the Angel suddenly became a
black liquid, wrapping itself around the Eva, and then exploded.
	A cheer erupted from the Control Room as the Evangelion unit emerged
from the explosion.  Although it was slightly damaged, and some of the
armor would have to be replaced, the Eva unit was fine, as was the pilot
inside.
	Inside the Eva's entry plug, Micah felt pretty damn good.  *That wasn't
so bad, all considering,* he thought.  *I've been through worse.  *Much*
worse.*  Then Micah noticed the Eva's reflection in one of the buildings
next to him.  Turning, he noticed that the Entry Plug's perspective must
have been from the head of the Eva, due to the fact that he was now
looking at the Eva's 'face' stare back at him.  Studying it, he watched
in fascination as a real, honest to goodness eyeball emerged and looked
straight at him.  Eyes widening, he got the distinct feeling that he was
looking back at himself.  
	He blinked.
	And then, much to his annoyance, fell back into the seat, unconscious.  
	As Misato shouted orders in the Control Room for a recovery team to
retrieve the pilot, Ritsuko's eyes widened in awe and a little fear as
the Syncro ratings suddenly peaked at 86%.
	In the back of the Control Room, Gendou smiled.
	Most definitely *not* a good sign.




-- 
- Micah D. Potasnik                                      
aka Cyclone   				potas@i-55.com

Homepage at:
http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Lair/6195/   

"This is the White Star Fleet.  Negative on surrender...we will not
stand down."
"Who is this?  Identify yourself."
"Who am I?  I am Susan Ivanova, Commander, daughter of Andrei and Sophie
Ivanov.  I am the right hand of vengeance, and the boot that is going to
kick your sorry ass all the way back to Earth. I am Death incarnate, and
the last living thing that you are ever going to see.  God sent me."
--Commander Susan Ivanova and Earthforce Advanced Destroyer Captain
James, From the Babylon 5 episode "Between the Darkness and the Light"