It is the year 2015 and a young boy only 14 years of age had just reached the outskirts of the city known as Tokyo-3. The boy's name was Shinji Ikari and although he did not know it at the time, he had just started on his path towards saving the world.

Shinji looked around trying to find the woman who was supposed to be picking him up, but he couldn't find any sign of her. He decided to walk over to a nearby payphone and try to call the woman with the number he had been given. Shinji picked up the receiver and held it to his ear as he started to dial the number, but all he could hear through it was static.

"Great." Shinji muttered sarcastically to himself. "The line's dead."

He looked around some more and noticed plumes of smoke drifting over from further in the city. It was then a large, looming form of some sort of giant, dark blue creature standing as tall as the skyscrapers around it rose up from the city's skyline. The creature's body was covered in bony protrusions, including an exposed rib cage encasing some sort of giant red orb, three fingers on each hand, leg plating, giant mounds jutting from its shoulders and spikes surrounding its face, which resembled a mask shaped to represent a bird's skull.

Shinji was about to start panicking from the overwhelming sight of the creature when his attention was pulled away from it by a blue sports car that drove up in front of him. The driver's side window pulled down to reveal a woman with long, dark blue hair. She was wearing a red jacket over a simple black dress and a large, white cross necklace hanging around her neck.

"Sorry to keep you waiting." She said. "I'm Misato Katsuragi, but you probably recognize me from the photo I sent with your dad's letter."

"Yeah, about that," Shinji said with a nervous tone to his voice, "I don't think that was really an appropriate picture to send."

Misato gave Shinji a look of confusion. "What are you talking about?"

Shinji held up the photo and explained. "Well, I'm just saying, this picture feels a bit too 'adult' to be sending to a stranger, let alone one that's underage. What, with the seductive clothes and-"

Misato cut him off by snatching the photo from him as her face turned a bright red.

"That… that wasn't the photo you were supposed to get…" she stuttered, "that one was supposed to go to someone else… you were supposed to get one with clothes."

Hesitantly, Shinji walked around the car and sat down in the passenger side seat despite his misgivings about the situation.

"So… uh, Shinji… how are you?" The words seemed to stumble out of Misato's mouth, as she was still extremely embarrassed because of the photo mix-up.

"Well, let's see: I'm about to meet my father, who I haven't seen or heard from in nearly ten years and might as well be a complete stranger to me; the woman taking me to see him is a complete stranger who sent me a dirty picture of herself as a form of introduction; and to top it off, the city we're driving into is under attack by a giant monster. This isn't exactly my best day, but I can't say that it's my worst, either."

"Wait?" Misato glanced as Shinji. "What could be worse than-"

"Don't ask." He cut her off before she could finish her question.

The two spent the rest of their ride in awkward silence until they finally reached their destination: the lowest level of a deserted indoor parking structure.

"What are we doing here?" Shinji asked the woman who he was starting to suspect was not actually the woman who was supposed to pick him up but in fact a deranged psychopath.

Misato flipped a switch on her dashboard and suddenly one of the walls opened up. On the other side of the wall there was another parking lot, though this one was filled with cars. She pulled into an empty spot, turned the car off and the two got out. Shinji followed Misato to an elevator as she pushed the down button.

After a few minutes of waiting, the elevator doors opened and the two got in. Misato pulled out an ID card and swiped it through the control terminal and a retinal scanner popped out and scanned Misato's eye. The small, red light next to it turned green and the elevator began its descent.

The elevator dropped faster than Shinji had ever known an elevator to go before. Soon Shinji realized the sides of the elevator were made out of what looked like glass. This fact did not reassure Shinji, and in fact, it only enforced his growing belief that either he had gone crazy or he was about to die. Most likely both.

After a few seconds, the elevator dropped into an underground cavern of some sort. At first glance, it seemed almost as if they were back above ground again but further inspection showed the ceiling of a cave where the sky should be, which had an entire city's worth of skyscrapers hanging from it like they were stalactites. Below them was a forest, with a huge pyramid in its center and a lake off in the distance.

"What is this place?" Shinji wondered aloud in amazement.

"This is the GeoFront, Shinji, headquarters of NERV."

The elevator came to a sudden stop that nearly threw Shinji off of his feet but barely seemed to affect Misato. The doors opened to reveal that a blonde woman in a white lab coat was waiting for them.

"It's about time that you got here." She said to Misato before turning her attention to Shinji. "Hello, you must be Shinji Ikari. I'm Doctor Akagi, the head scientist here at NERV."

"What kind of scientist are you?" Shinji asked.

"Yes."

"That didn't answer my question."

Dr. Akagi ignored Shinji's comment and started walking towards the entrance of the main building, clearly meaning for Shinji to follow her.

"Here at NERV, we strive to make the world a better place by protecting it monsters like the one attacking the city above."

"Good job with that."

As they walked deeper into the facilities, Dr. Akagi gave a long speech about the history of NERV, but Shinji didn't really catch any of it. Eventually, they ended up on a catwalk above a large room that held what Shinji felt was the most surprising thing he'd seen all day, which was saying a lot.

"This is Evangelion Unit-01." Dr. Akagi proudly proclaimed as she waved her arm towards the giant purple robot.

Unit-01 stood over 250 feet tall, with its head being just above the catwalk they were standing on. It had a demonic look about it, with a single horn protruding from its head and massive shoulder pylons. The robot's color scheme was primarily purple with a lot of black sections and a few yellow highlights on its neck and upper chest. Some of the black panels were reflective and looked like they were probably meant to light up.

Shinji's attention was then drawn away from Unit-01 by the sound of someone clearing their throat up above. He looked to see another room overlooking the one they were in. Inside the room were two men looking down on him. One was an older man Shinji had never seen before, while the other was a dark-haired, bearded man wearing orange-tinted sunglasses indoors. Shinji had not seen this man in eleven years, yet was somehow able to identify him instantly.

"Father."

"Shinji." Gendo Ikari's voice had a bitter tone to it. It was clear he did not care to see his son again after all this time. "I will make this as clear as I can. You are going to pilot the Evangelion and use it to fight and destroy the Angel attacking the city above.

"What Angel?"

"That's what we call the monsters like the one above." Dr. Akagi clarified.

"That sounds like a terrible name to call a monster. It seems disrespectful to-"

"It doesn't matter what you think of the name." Gendo interrupted.

"I wanted to call them Kaiju." Misato muttered in a barely audible whisper.

"But why do you want me to do it?" Shinji asked his father.

"I don't want you to do anything. Unfortunately for us all, you are the only one who can do it right now. The only other who can pilot it is Rei Ayanami." Gendo made a beckoning motion towards one of the doors and a couple of medical personnel came in with a stretcher, stopping right next to Shinji.

On the stretcher was a girl with bright blue hair and eerily pale skin. The girl was covered in bandages, her arm was in a sling and she was visibly having trouble breathing. One of her eyes was covered up in bandages while the other eye, a bright piercing red, stared up at Shinji.

"If Rei were to pilot Unit-01 right now, she would die. Her life is in danger just being here instead of in her hospital room right now."

"Then why did you bring her here?"

"To make a point. Dr. Akagi will show you how to get ready." With that, Gendo walked off, the older man following him.

"The boy has a point." The older man, Kozo Fuyutsuki, told Gendo. "You could have just had a video monitor displaying her current condition, or even just shown him a picture. There was no need to physically bring her out here."

Gendo pulled out a flask from his jacket pocket and took a long drink.

"I have my reasons." He said when he was finished.

"Yes, but I fear those reasons are just the alcohol clouding your judgment."

Shinji was taken to a locker room where he was told he was to change into the 'plug suit' inside locker #3. He opened up the locker and found a strange blue and white outfit inside of it.

"Am I really supposed to wear this?" Shinji turned around and saw he was the only one there. "Well, at least I get some privacy while I change."

Shinji found that it fit him perfectly, which he found more than a bit disturbing. After a moment, he walked back out where Misato and Dr. Akagi were waiting for him.

"How did you know my measurements to make this?" He asked.

"We didn't." Dr. Akagi answered him. "The plug suit is designed to form to the wearer. It could fit anyone as long as they can get it on."

Shinji was brought to the area behind Unit-01's neck, where there was a large capsule sticking out of it that Shinji was told to climb into. The "Entry Plug", as Dr. Akagi called it, was filled with a strange orange liquid and Shinji thought for a moment he was going to drown when the entry hatch closed behind him.

"Take a deep breath and let the LCL fill your lungs." Misato's voice came over the radio. "It has a high oxygen level that will allow you to breathe once it fills your lungs."

Shinji, figuring that he would drown either way, took a deep breath and found that he could, in fact, breathe normally despite being submerged. He swam over to a seat in front of the control panel and sat down in it. The space in front of Shinji suddenly lit up with Unit-01's view and the light up panels on the outside turned a bright green. It was at this point that Shinji realized that he had no idea how to actually control the Evangelion.

"You're probably wondering how to pilot the Eva." Misato spoke over the radio. "Well, unfortunately, we don't have time to teach you that right now so you're going to need to figure it out on your own."

And on that less than encouraging note, Evangelion Unit-01, with Shinji inside of it, was launched up to the surface of Tokyo-3 at breakneck speed.

"I think I'm going to be sick."

Shinji grabbed onto the joysticks to either side of the control panel and moved them both forward to see if that would make it move. It worked too well, causing Unit-01 to run at top speed and crash head first into the Angel. Both Eva and Angel were knocked down from the impact. As the Angel stood back up again, Shinji felt he could hear its speech, which sounded as if it were coming from inside of his own head.

-I am Sachiel. All who oppose the will of GOD shall be vanquished.-

The Angel grabbed Unit-01 by its shoulder pylons and threw the Eva over its head and into a nearby building. Shinji tried to get the Eva back up onto its feet but was unable to do so before Sachiel came up to him and grabbed Unit-01 by the face. A blade of bright red energy shot out from the Angel's hand, stabbing Unit-01 through its left eye. Shinji let out a sound somewhere in-between a scream and a roar as he felt a huge surge of pain shoot through his own eye as if he were the one that had that had been stabbed.

"Sorry about that." Misato's voice came over the radio again. "We forgot to activate Unit-01's pain inhibitor. It's on now, so you shouldn't need to worry about that happening again."

This news would have cheered Shinji up a little more if he wasn't still writhing in pain. He couldn't see anything out of his left eye, and he was pretty sure it was bleeding, though it was hard to tell as blood blended in with the LCL. Regaining his composure somewhat, Shinji tried messing with the controls, but Unit-01 proved unresponsive.

As Sachiel pulled its arm back for another blow, Unit-01 suddenly began to move on its own. The green-lit panels over the Eva's body turned bright red as the Eva grabbed Sachiel's face without any prompting from Shinji. It was Sachiel's turn to scream as Unit-01 suddenly grabbed it by the face as ripped it off. A new face grew out from where the old one had been, but before the Angel could do anything more, Unit-01 held the removed bird skull-like face in both hands and began using it to bash in the strange red orb sticking out of Sachiel's chest until the orb cracked apart and shattered into pieces.

Sachiel let out another scream as its whole body began to light up and the Angel exploded into a white, cross-shaped explosion. The force of the blast sent Unit-01 flying back through two skyscrapers before crashing into a third, knocking Shinji unconscious in the process.

Gendo sat in Central Dogma, the command center of NERV. His seat was on a raised platform in the center of the room, and he had his hands clasped in front of his face, covering his mouth. Fuyutsuki stood diligently beside him, as he always did.

"He actually did it." Gendo said. "That was more than I expected from the boy."

"Then what did you expect?"

Instead of answering Fuyutsuki's question, Gendo took another long drink from his flask. Down below them, some of the other members of NERV cheered over the success against the Angel, while others worried over Shinji's loss of consciousness or Unit-01 having acted on its own.

"This may actually go according to plan after all." Gendo muttered ominously to himself.