2010-07-15 - Shinji Finally Gets Kidnapped

Those goddamn Getter Robo people know something.

Well, maybe not them. The Saotome Labs, however, is precisely the kind of organization that might know something about the seedy underbelly of the government. Professor Saotome himself is a shadowy, ominous figure that is seemingly capable of parlaying his way back into the good graces of the Federation by simply offering to share some of his work with them. No one knows how Getter Robo works. No one knows what Getter Rays are. No one knows why the Saotome Labs get countless brilliant young grad students and incredible amounts of funding.

The difference between NERV and Saotome's outfit is that Saotome employs criminally insane people who like to talk. Specifically, a man known as Hayato Jin, who famously led a terrorist organization out of high school and is theoretically responsible for thousands of deaths and millions in property damage, including government officials and state secrets. He's not in jail. He works for Saotome. That got him off free, somehow.

The labs themselves are nestled deep in the mountains, far away from any sort of civilization. There are no roads that lead to the complex, cut into the side of an artificially active volcano.

Those goddamn Getter Robo people know something, and Akira wants to know what.

He's been on the tail of NERV for months now, always a couple steps behind. He'd only really narrowed it down to Tokyo-03 and a train station there, with vague images of a bearded man in glasses. Conspiracy theories abound, but none of them really helped Akira. The advent of NERV Order 3066 got him that much closer to the truth, and to where they were hiding... but not what they were doing.

Akira Tadokoro, former Gundam Fighter for Onigashima Island and one of the finalists in the last Gundam Fight, is as skilled and powerful a human being as they come. He commands unreal psychic power, ranging from teleportation to telepathy to telekinesis to elemental manifestations. He's been shot by mech-scale weaponry and shrugged it off with the aid of some kind of barrier. He's even fought Master Asia in hand-to-hand combat (and lost, but lived).

Saotome Labs still completely unnerves him by mere proximity.

A soft pop of displaced air is the only sign that Akira has arrived at the labs. He teleports nearby, landing within arm's reach of a small pool of water near the base of the volcanic complex. He ascends on foot, approaching the hangar entrance with psychokinetically-aided leaps and bounds, closing in with all the determination he can muster. He thinks he'll need it, to get inside.

Once he spots a door of any sort, he knocks in his own special way: with a telekinetic hammerblow and a dead sprint.

"GETTEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEERS!! /WE NEED TO TALK/!"

He figured calling ahead wouldn't really be their style. This might be.

Akira only gets near enough to the heavily guarded labs if he ignores the harmonica.

If he did, he'd have to go through the guard towers and the sensors and all that sort of security. He probably could, unless that huge radar visible for miles around is some sort of Getter Ray... well... it's hard to say how teleportation, or anything, interacts with Getter Rays.

The harmonica fades in and out as Akira ascends, always nearby. It's just a matter of finding it if he wants to!

The problem with heavily-guarded lab complexes is that you need a map to find anything, doors included.

Akira frowns down at the legs of the guard unfortunate enough to be behind the door he battered in. He'll probably be okay when he comes to, but for now, Akira has found what looks like a break room from Hell at the base of... something. He thought it was a way into the main complex; it looks more like a connecting tower to the outer security.

"Aw, man," he sighs, running a hand through his hair. "I knew I should'a aimed for a bathroom and just skipped this."

Akira stalks out and looks around again. He takes a few steps back and to the side, spotting even more buildings higher up, and that radar. His jaw drops a little. How was he going to--?

He turns. There's that noise again. He ignored it at first, assuming it was just someone on his radio screwing with him or something. Now he's pretty sure it isn't. He starts back the way he came, backtracking a little and cautiously looking for the source of the harmonica. Beats breaking into /another/ heavily guarded lab of questionable safety.

Long story.

It's not difficult to find. Once Akira starts actively paying attention to the sound, it stops moving.

A tall, thin man leans up against a tree. He plays a few more bars before dropping his hands from his mouth, holding the harmonica between a thumb and forefinger.

"You know, Akira, breaking into government property is a very serious crime. Lots of bad things could happen to you right now."

A-ha.

"How--nevermind." Lots of people know who he is. He shouldn't be surprised in the least. He hooks his thumbs on the pockets of his long coat, watching the man against the tree. He seems harmless enough, but rumor has it that everything around here is anything but. He wouldn't be surprised if the harmonica was some kind of secret ninja weapon.

"Yeah, well, done it before, an' I'll do it again. Worth it, last time. This time..." He shrugs a shoulder.

The man laughs. It's almost a giggle, but too subdued. His smile is big and threatening and self-assured. There's something wrong with his eyes.

"I think whether or not you coming here for the dirt on NERV will be productive based on the next few days rather than what happens now. You'll have to take my word on that one."

The laugh isn't as noteworthy as the man's eyes. Akira doesn't know what it is, but he doesn't want to look him in the eye for more than a moment. It feels... wrong, making the hairs on the back of his neck stand on end.

"What--" Akira cuts himself off with a scowl, practically biting his tongue. How the hell does this guy know what he's here for? There's no use hiding it, though; he watches the tall man suspiciously, eyes looking him up and down. He doesn't admit it's because of those eyes.

"Alright, fine. If you've got somethin', then spill. I /know/ you guys know somethin'." Just not what.

Almost is on cue, a kid drops out of a tree nearby. He seems to be tied up and struggling to break out of his restraints. This doesn't seem to be working very well. Shinji looks up at Akira and Hayato, smiling nerviously. This was the first time he'd gotten kidnapped because of his affliation to NERV. Admittedly, it didn't surprise Shinji since...Nerv seemed to be a organization run by his jerk of a father and some equally shady men. Sure, Fuyutski and Misato were alright but that seemed to be it for the upper command staff.

"Um..." He struggles a little more, trying to get out of his restraints. "Damnit, why did I have to be taken. I mean I'm the guy who doesn't know anything..."

Hayato continues to laugh. He flicks his wrist. His harmonica goes whistling through the air, grazing the rope holding Shinji's arms together. The instrument is buried in the ground before the ropes have a chance to come apart.

"My name is Hayato Jin. I want both of you to help me destroy NERV and expose SEELE to the public."

YEARS AGO

The news is calling it 'Hayato's Schoolhouse.' The windows are boarded up and the doors barricaded. The national militia has made several attempts to breach the school nonviolently, only to be cut down by gunfire. No one knows where the students got automatic weapons. A few tries with guns, aerial insertions, and even a tank have been met similarly. The bombed out shell of the vehicle is still plowed halfway through the front entranceway.

The senior student, Hayato Jin, is broadcasting on open frequencies. He wants all of Japan's students to rise up and kill the adults that are lying to them. He wants the government to deliver him information on a laundry list of projects, some of which don't even exist. He executes a special forces soldier on air.

NOW

Hayato raises his fingers to his lips, breathing on them gently. "I thought you'd be interested."

Akira looks surprised when someone falls out of a tree, jumping and raising his hands to defend himself. He /knew/ something was going on here; these Getter guys are probably--

Oh. It's just him. Akira lowers his clenched fists, blinking a couple of times at the teenager sprawled out on the ground and physically bound. He recognizes him. It's important to know the name of the person whose giant living robot ate you once, if only so you can knock their teeth out later. Akira is mostly okay with the guy in particular, though. "Yo, Ikari."

He looks back at the tall man. Hayato Jin. His eyes widen briefly in recognition of the name, but then narrow in suspicion. "Yeah, I'm interested. Been wantin' to get back at those bastards for years." He drives his fist into his open palm. Akira's friends and family were nearly turned into liquified humans for a project of theirs, once. He holds a grudge. "How do we do it?"

Shinji looks over at Akira and nods. Didn't his Eva eat that guy? Yeah. It's been awhile since then. Shinji just nods, going back to struggling in his restraints. Why didn't Master Nagare teach him how to get out of this kind of thing. Shinji thinks back to the lessons of the Nagare School of Martial Arts.

He recalls the time Ryouma pushed him into the Panda cage at the zoo.

Shinji's face goes white and he tries to forget the lessons of the Nagare school of Martial Arts...Mostly. Ryouma has made Shinji stronger despite some new fears instilled in him.

"Do what? What is going on?"

Hayato blithely walks over around Shinji, picking his harmonica up from the ground. He taps the reclined Eva pilot with the toe of his boot. "Come on up to the lab. I'll show you what I uncovered during my attack on the Geofront."

Wait, wait. There was no attack in the news.

Hayato continues up the mountain. With him around, getting through the security is easier, and they even are provided a car waiting on the road when reaching the internal transit system of the compound.

Akira just shrugs at Shinji. /He/ remembers getting eaten by the Evangelion pretty clearly, and getting thrown up by it. Shinji might recall the pressure increasing to cause that. It really wasn't a good day for either of them.

He follows Hayato up the mountain. Getting past security like this is something he could almost get used to. There's a certain visceral appeal to charging in and beating everyone down, but here, it seems more like a chore. Partway up, he asks, "Attack on the Geofront?" Oh, hey. Car. That works for him.

Shinji looks up at Hayato with a blank stare. Was this guy really one of ryouma's co-pilots? I mean this guy kinda just kidnapped him and tied him up. Now he was expected to just follow him. The pilot of Unit 01 just frowns, struggling to his feet. Finally, he manages to loosen the rope around him hands and get some freedom.

Attack on the Geofront? Shinji doesn't recall anything like that. Then again, there was a lot he didn't know. This was probably the first time he was going to get answers. So rather than try to run, Shinji walks behind the two free thinking rebels, keeping his caution up. After all, he probably could at least get a punch off before things got too bad....maybe.

Shinji gets into the car, keeping his mouth shut. Maybe he'd run into Ryouma or Musashi. Maybe they would keep this other guy from hurting him.

The car makes its way up the mountain. It passes several security checkpoints without stopping. They must have some sort of system in place for this sort of thing. Hayato drives silently for several moments, neglecting to answer Akira.

"We attacked a portion of the NERV operating network for information. Just under two hundred people were killed and we burned the place to the ground. It was not reported. There were witnesses of the attack, though not of who executed it. None of them came forward. The site has been bulldozed and marked as a new construction area. No one will say that there was a building there."

Hayato turns, a strange look in his eyes, kind of like amusement. "A lot of people around that area have disappeared since then. I'm thinking because they wouldn't play game."

Akira frowns to himself, waiting to hear a response from Hayato. It takes a minute. He's patient, or at least fakes it pretty well. He drums his fingers on one of his knees as they go, watching out the windows of the car for the security points and observing them while they pass. He takes note of them, but isn't exactly a trained professional. Mostly he wants to know how he can get out if he has to hoof it, though there is an awful large amount of ordinance.

It would be tough.

"Whoa." He's impressed, and maybe a little frightened by the amount of damage he claims to have done. That many people, and that thorough a job... yeah, he'd rather be on his side than working against him. "Yeah, that... sounds about right."

Shinji watches Hayato, frowning slightly. So Ryouma's co-pilot was a terrorist. A pretty successful one at that. He listens to him explain the attack on Nerv and is kind of skeptical. It sounded like something out of a movie. Shinji is just going to have to remain quiet until he can really add anything. He is pretty sure Hayato isn't interested in the info Shinji has. It would be things such as how to get the busty chick on this one dating sim.

Akira seems to believe the story as well. Something didn't make any sense. I mean Nerv couldn't be that far reaching. It was just an organization that was trying to save the world from aliens...right?

The car drives around another bending turn, still uphill. The parking lot of the great Saotome Research Labs stretches out in front of them. It's more of a landing ground than for cars, considering the remoteness of the complex.

Hayato continues: "They're set up in a cell formation. Like terrorist cells. The only way we could catalogue everything NERV has been up to would be to rip apart the organization entirely."

The car stops near the stairs. Hayato doesn't bother finding an actual parking spot. He exits and continues. "They own front companies. They're into cloning."

"HAYATO, YOU SON OF A BITCH!" another voice shrieks. Ryouma Nagare leaps off of an observation deck, landing with fists clenched. Hayato talks over him. "They're very into cloning."

Akira figures the roads are more for the security guys than anyone coming to visit, if they even do that. Maybe disposing of bodies, if this is like some of the movies he's seen. He kinda hopes it isn't. That'd be surreal.

When the car stops, Akira climbs out with Hayato, watching him for a moment and then looking up at the source of the voice. He seems kind of familiar. He thinks he's yelled at him before and been yelled at back, but he can't really remember. It was a while ago and on the radio, so it's fuzzy.

"Cloning? They were trying to break down people into this orange goo stuff last time I saw 'em. Said it made 'em more powerful spiritually and psychokinetically or somethin'. But clones..." He shakes his head. "That's new."

"Cloning?" Shinji repeats silently. This wasn't Nerv. He hadn't seen any sign of this. There were front companies or dummy projects in the Nerv he knew. Just how in the dark was he? Shouldn't he know more? He piloted the most top secret part of Nerv....At the same time, he had just learned the truth of his Evangelion from Kaworu. There was a lot going on here.

Shinji follows along silent, not sure if he was going to be shot for any of this. Maybe it was some kind of prank. Shinji looks at Akira, trying to graps what he just said. They want to melt people? How did fighting the Angels tie into that? How did any of this tie together?

He stops when he sees Ryouma confirm part of the story. Shinji's eyes widen, trying his best to just blend into the background.

"OOOORRRRYAAAAAAAAAAA!" Ryouma bellows, leaping impossibly through the air with his leg swinging like an axe. Hayato drops into a hunched, bestial stance, almost disappearing. The two end up locked somewhere between the ground in the air, punching and tearing at each other. Hayato wins the luck of mounting, wrapping his legs around one of Ryouma's arms to immobilize it while choking the other pilot with his arms. Ryouma gags, staggering across the parking lot. His head and arm wrench about in impossible directions, but somehow he flexes enough to not be torn apart.

Ryouma begins to slam Hayato against the wall of the lab. Cracks spiderweb out from the impact point. Hayato, breathing heavily, raises his voice: "There's no technical specs on the Evas or Angels!" Slam, slam, slam. "But the Angels start numbering at three, not one!"

Now /this/ is what Akira /thought/ would happen. Sort of.

Akira takes a step back and raises his hands, ready to defend himself if they were to come this way. Hayato seems to have Ryouma well in-hand. And then Ryouma has Hayato instead. It's the kind of fight that he did not expect to see, but he expected a fight of /some/ kind; it's nice to see /something/ be predictable.

Slam, slam, slam. "What? But the first one was--" He stops, raising his hand and counting off Angels. He's fought almost all of them. "...they're missing a couple. And the Evas..." He looks at Shinji suddenly, voice sharp. "Do you know anything about this?!"

The angel count starts at three? What does that mean? No specs on the Evangelions? Yes there were! How did they fix them if there were no plans on how they worked. All of this was wrong. It had to be. Shinji almost shivers at the thought. This wasn't real. It couldn't be.

Shinji jumps back to look at Akira when addresses him. "What do you mean? I don't know anything" Shinji flinches, wondering when the interrogation starts. Damnit. Where was Section 9?

"RGHHAHAARRAAGGGHHHHH!"

Ryouma starts spinning and doesn't stop until Hayato's grip is loosened enough. Hayato goes flying, but lands nimbly on his feet. He runs a finger along the gashes opened on the side of his face, licking at the blood he finds. "They're hiding everything. They're stockpiling weapons. There's nothing on SEELE. They're run unlike any other entity within the Federation. They anticipated someone like me coming after them and made it as difficult as possible to find any information."

Ryouma pants. He staggers a few feet, but looks attentive rather than ready to chase Hayato down and beat him until candy comes out. The front doors swing open, a fat teen bumbling out. Ryouma raises his hand to him to stop.

Hayato cracks his neck and rolls his shoulders. "That's probably where 3066 came from. Why would an organization developed to keep a single point safe be so horribly inept at it?"

"NERV's primary goal is not defense. It's to hide something."

Shinji flinches. Akira gets nothing. He frowns, and turns away from him. He won't get anything out of him. But...

Akira enjoys the 'show,' except when their smashing means that concrete chips fly up and nearly slice him up. They're not bad at this, though; one of them gets an advantage and the other takes a beating. And then... they stop. For now, anyway.

"Hiding something?" Akira echoes. "If they're hidin' somethin', they shouldn't bring so many people in to guard it. Unless that's... how they make it better hidden," Akira says slowly. He's not dumb, but he's not really used to this kind of intrigue. He's a very straightforward kind of person. "So what is it? Do they have some Angel down there? Why do they keep attackin' that same spot?"

"Hide...something?" Shinji is pretty intimidated at this point. Sure the old him would be cowering and whining. Now he just finds himself sort of pale and shivering as he realizes he is surrounded by crazy people. "I...don't know what." He really didn't.

Shinji looks at Akira and then to Ryouma again. he wasn't even sure why he was here. It was just like he was an impartial observer. maybe they wanted him to know all of this.

Ryouma staggers a few steps before regaining his balance. He breathes normally. Hayato watches him with curiosity.

The pilot of Getter-1 raises a hand, fist clenched. "I've had feelings about... this. Feelings from Getter! Old man Saotome may have secrets of his own, but there's something about this NERV bullshit that I can't abide."

Hayato, hands in his pockets, saunters over to join Ryouma. The fat, younger fellow looks incredibly grumpy before joining the other two in solidarity. Ryouma punches him in the shoulder. "Alright! Shinji! Other kid! Get over here! You're officially being drafted into the Getter Army! We'll demand answers from NERV!"

The fat kid eagerly switches from rubbing his shoulder to joining Ryouma's manly fistbump. "Haha! Getter Army! I like that! But, ehh, do you think gramps will go for all this?"

"Haha, Musashi! Like we're going to ask."

Hayato neglects to add his vote. He shakes his head. "It would be better for Shinji to go back for now. We don't have any spare machines for him to pilot." The terrorist turns his eye toward Shinji, grinning affectionately. "What do you say, kid? Feel up to stealing your Eva to find out what's really going on?"

Akira /could/ just read Shinji's mind and figure out if he's lying to him, but from what he's seen, he doesn't think he's got enough backbone to consider it at a time like this. Akira just sighs. Will he really be able to help them?

"Getter Army, huh?" Akira steps closer, now that the brawl is actually over. "I like the sound of that. Awright! The name's Akira, and if it means we're gonna get those NERV bastards to talk, me and Buriki Daioh are with you!" He raises his hand, clenching it into a tight fist in front of him, grinning wildly. Gold light plays across his eyes for just a moment, his excitement nearly tangible.

It's time to pull them out into the light... and then knock their teeth in.

"Um, I'll do my best." Shinji finally knows what is going on. It would seem the Getter Team is going to make Nerv pay for everything. If all of this was true, then Shinji would need to help put an end to this. However, he didn't want to just kill his father. Not yet. After all, he had things to answer for that directly effected Shinji. However, now it was time to do something about all of this.

He wasn't sure if he was strong enough but he made a promise to Rei. He would be a better man when all of this was finished.

"I'll help in whatever way I can." Shinji daps the team, smiling. These were his friends. His brothers in arms. With their help, he has come closer to a certain wholeness he once lacked. With their help, he would beat all of this.