Gendo Ikari paused as he feverishly worked on the controls of the latest series of Evangelion prototype, his short black hair falling into his eyes. "You want me to lecture the pilots on the basics of the Evangelion technology?" he asked. Maya Ibuki nodded firmly, for a moment wishing that Ritsuko could be down there instead of her. "Yes, sir," she confirmed, "I believe that Commander Ritsuko is worried that the pilots are attempting to maintain their own EVAs, possibly even modifying them." "A dangerous idea," Gendo looked up, his glasses gleaming, "considering the effects of raw Protoculture or the Instrumentality components," "You've adopted the enemy's word for the power cores," Maya blinked, "Protoculture?" "It seems workable, for a word," Gendo replied thoughtfully. His labcoat swirled around his legs as he thought, "All right, I'll do it." "I'm glad," Maya sighed in relief. "... but I want Shinji, Asuka and Rei there." "Why?" Maya looked at Gendo curiously. Gendo beamed, "So that I can impress them with my utter brilliance!" Maya sweatdropped. 'Yup, Gendo is really creeping me out,' she sighed. "All right, we'll get the meeting organized in a few days," she said then all but fled the room. A few days later in a conference room of the SDF-1 a group of impatient pilots sat around, looking rather bored. "So why are we here again?" Asuka asked, her orange hair pulled back in a simple but comfortable ponytail. "I don't know," Rei answered calmly, her light blue hair falling into her red eyes as she continued on, "but I have noticed that almost everyone in this room has been known to repair systems on their Evangelion fighters." "But I haven't...." Shinji protested. "Not me," Asuka paused as she felt both her wingmen's eyes resting on her doubtfully and modified what she was going to say, "well, not lately, anyway." "You are aware it's against the rules, right?" Shinji reminded her. "Of course she knows," Rei defended Asuka firmly, a faint blush coloring her cheeks, "she just wants to have a hands-on knowledge of her EVA." Asuka reached out to cover Rei's hand with her own, "Thanks." "That's so sweet," Hikari sighed from behind them, the brown haired girl's hair tied back in it's usual twin ponytails. "Disappointed a few of the single pilots," Toji admitted as he casually tried to take a look down the front of Asuka's top. Hikari hit him on the back of the head, "Idiot." Aida shook his head mournfully as he sighed, "I wonder if any of the single men can talk them into threesomes?" "Asuka would murder you," Toji told him seriously. "Yeah," Aida grinned, "but what a way to go!" "Idiots," Hikari sighed again, but she was smiling slightly. Maya cleared her throat at the front of the room, the boyish looking officer announcing, "Gendo Ikari is here to speak with you." Right on cue Gendo burst from the side door, running inside with his long white lab coat flapping around his thin body. He stopped by the podium and pushed his round glasses up smoothly as he said intensely, "Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen." He looked around then waved spontaneously as he cheerfully called out, "Hi, Shinji!" Shinji slumped a bit in his chair, feeling deeply embarrassed. "Hi, Dad," he mumbled. Gendo beamed then instantly went back into serious mode as he addressed the room, "All right, who can tell me the origin of the Evangelion?" There was a moment of dead silence in the room, each of the pilots waiting for someone else to answer. Finally Rei raised her hand with a sigh, "I know, sir." Gendo gave her a wry smile, "As we both know." He looked around, then just like a school teacher he instantly narrowed in on the pilot who least wanted to be called upon and asked, "Toji, would you care to give it a try?" The gangly young pilot groaned softly, Toji rising to his feet reluctantly. "Sir," he nodded formally, "from what I understand the Evangelion technology was developed from the study of the technology of this ship, which crashed to earth on New Year's Eve 2000." Gendo smiled approvingly, "Simplistic but correct." He began to pace restlessly, "The arrival of this ship was well timed, interrupting a period of dangerous military adventurism, but what we discovered inside brought on new problems." "A race of alien giants," Asuka spoke up, "who's own records confirmed they were interested only in conquest." "Correct," Gendo agreed, "we still don't know what the race of aliens call themselves or where they come from, but their military technology was unmatched. The United Nations established NERV to study and repair the ship we eventually dubbed the Super Dimensional Fortress One." "Assuming we'll have a SDF-2 and so on?" Aida offered hopefully. "I believe that's the plan," Maya nodded. "What's this I hear about you and Ritsuko getting married?" a pilot called from the back row. "Uhm, I..." Maya's face went bright red. Gendo cleared his throat, "Getting back on topic... we studied tissue samples from the aliens, and using that along with experimental technologies we crafted the first Evangelion." "You're saying the EVAs are organic?" Hikari asked disbelievingly. "Only the core," Gendo crisply explained, "what we're now calling Protoculture, a word provided by our new adversaries." "Protoculture that is surrounded and monitored by Instrumentality," Maya added, "that channels the unique Protoculture energies to the rest of Evangelion and allows for the transformation from EVA to fighter mode." "So why shouldn't we repair and maintain our EVAs?" Shinji asked, knowing that he was practically feeding his father a straight line. Gendo flashed a smile for his son then went serious. "Accidental exposure to Protoculture has unpredictable effects," he took off his glasses a moment to reveal unearthly looking silver eyes, "as you can see." He looked regretful, "In the case of my former lab assistant a more complete change happened, though why we do not know." Rei Ayanami stiffened slightly as he talked, then seemed to relax a bit when she wasn't mentioned by name. Not that her story wasn't known by most of the crew anyway, but that didn't mean she really wanted to go into it again, either. "So," Gendo looked around eagerly, "are they any other questions?" There was a moment of silence then Aida piped up, "Maya, are you going to be entering in the Miss Macross contest?" "Ah, I'm not sure that's really relevant," Maya stuttered cutely. "How about any of the other bridge crew?" another voice called. "I don't really know," Maya blinked. "Idiots," Hikari growled.
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