Angel of light. By Weebee.

Summary. NERV detects a blue pattern entering Tokyo 3… but it’s too soon! The first angel isn’t expected to attack for weeks yet. What is going on? Well, Maybe this strange pigtailed boy can answer that question. After all, the AT field pattern is coming from him…

(Notes. This is what happens when I watch FAR too much EVA and study HTML code for hours on end… Sorry, but “Finding a home” is on indefinite suspension until this works it’s way out of my system. Also, I can’t write a Gendo who’s as holeish as the original, so I ain’t even gunna try. This is an Alternate EVAverse.)

Chapter 1. ANGEL ATTACK! …or not.

Ranma walked down the hall, looking at her own reflection in the mirrored steel surface of one of the doors. A fourteen year old girl stared back and a gun toting guard could be seen standing behind her. ‘Now, How did I get myself into THIS mess.’ Ranma thought, frowning at her own image.

/Flashback/

Dr. Ritsuko Akagi sat in front of a terminal in the NERV command centre, studying readouts. Unit 0 had gone rogue only a week before, and she knew that SOMEONE was going to blame her and her team eventually. Government officials were just like that. Recalibrating a camera and heat sensor cluster on the outer edge of the City, she noticed an odd reading from one of the MAGI, popping up next to the image. Pulling the display with the reading to the centre of the screen, Ritsuko gasped and hit the alarms.

Gendo Ikari sat in his office, his hands steepled in front of his face and looking over a piece of paper. Shaking his head, he reached out to pick up the paper… when the base’s alarms went off, followed by a voice over the intercom. “Blue pattern detected. I Repeat. Blue pattern detected!”

Gendo cursed, standing from his chair. It had to be a false alarm… it just had to. The first angel wasn’t supposed to attack for another two weeks. Shinji wasn’t even here to pilot unit 1 yet and even HE wouldn’t be stupid enough to make Rei do it in her current condition.

Running out the door to his office, he left the papers sitting on the desk. Unknown to Gendo, the second from the top was a warning from SEAL…

“What the hell is going on!” Captain Misato Katseragi barked as she ran into Central Dogma.

Ritsuko looked panicked as she studied the readouts on her computer screen. “I don’t know Misato. The MAGI are reporting an angel’s AT field in the area, but I can’t see anything.”

Misato blinked. “An angel? But we don’t have unit 0 running yet and Unit one hasn’t even been activated. Let alone the fact that we don’t have a pilot.”

Just then, Gendo walked into the room, coolly asking Ritsuko for a status report. Shortly after, all of the other officers that usually manned Central Dogma had shown up and taken positions.

“I think I’ve got a visual.” Ritsuko reported, sounding somewhat hesitant.

“Well, let’s see it!” Misato barked.

A Large screen at the front of the room lit up, showing something that no one had expected to see. “That’s an angel?” Misato asked, surprise clearly evident in her voice.

Ritsuko shrugged. “Well, he does seem to be emitting a blue pattern.”

Gendo sighed. “Miss Akagi, please run a diagnostic on the MAGI’s sensor system… and try not to give us false alarms like this ag..”

Gendo was cut off by seeing the boy on the screen suddenly blur for a moment, and then be replaced by a girl.

“That was strange.” Misato commented, quirking an eyebrow.

Some smart mouth in the back spoke up. “So the angels are evil sex changing alien teenagers?” and was immediately glared at by Gendo, making him want to go off and die.

Gendo stroked his chin and then spoke up. “I don’t know if that is an angel, but send out a guard detail to detain it for questioning. I want to know why it’s generating an AT field. Ritsuko, don’t worry about checking your sensors.”

Ritsuko nodded and Maya quirked an eyebrow. “It, sir?”

Gendo shrugged. “what else do I call it?”

On the streets of Tokyo 3, Ranma cursed the sky for picking right NOW to start raining. She had almost gotten into town without a problem. Shrugging, she consoled herself with the fact that it was a lot easier to get lodging for the night if she looked like a poor, soaked young girl rather than a wandering martial artist. Of course, given the fact that she looked all of 14 years old at the moment, Ranma doubted that she could pass as a wandering martial artist anyways.

How was she to know that there was one of those aging mushrooms kicking around in the back of her pack… It was a good thing that it was a pretty long one, and it had only changed her age to that of a thirteen year old or so. Ever since that had happened, about a year ago, it had been kind of hard to get people to take her seriously in the martial arts, especially in her girl form.

As she wandered through the wet streets, Ranma wondered why the town she was in seemed so empty. She had only seen a few dozen people since she had entered the city limits and many of the buildings around her felt empty to her Martial artist trained senses.

When she rounded a corner, Ranma noticed several people in military uniforms walking towards her, with a woman with long black hair leading the group.

“Hey!” She yelled, waving the group down. “Can you guys tell me where I am? I’m lookin for Tokyo…” She stopped as she saw the group turn around and point guns at her. “Um… Hey. What’d I do?”

The black haired woman stepped forward, making sure that the group of people behind her still had a clear firing arc to hit Ranma, and spoke. “Hello. I am Captain Misato Katseragi of NERV. We’ve been ordered to take you in for questioning.”

“Huh?” Ranma asked intelligently, looking rather confused. “So… you’re arresting’ me or somethin?”

Misato shrugged and dropped the formality. “Yeh. Pretty much.”

Ranma sighed. “So, what’d I do?”

“Well, NERV’s sensors picked up something… strange about you. We just wanted to take you in and make sure you aren’t a threat.”

Ranma snickered. ‘Something strange, she says.’ But kept her thoughts to herself. Throwing her hands up in the air in defeat, she walked over to the older woman. “All right. Cuff me or whatever.”

Misato laughed. “Don’t worry. Just follow me.”

/End Flashback/

And, here she was. That Misato lady had left her for some other guards to escort when they had gotten to the “Geofront,” whatever that was, and she was apparently being shown to a holding cell. She had contemplated just cutting and running, however she had intended to stay in Japan for the next little while and didn’t really want the military after her.

Ranma was brought out of her musing by one of her guards saying, “Here we are.” In a rather cheerful voice, and opening a door. She stepped inside and the guard closed the door, standing in front of it for further orders.

Ranma cast a look around her current quarters. The room was small, only about two times larger than she was tall. Given the fact that her girl form had lost a good two inches after the mushroom incident, this wasn’t really all that big. There was a small bed against one wall, as well as a sink in the corner. All in all, it was a lot better furnished than some places she had stayed.

Throwing her pack, which NERV hadn’t bothered to confiscate, onto the ground, she flopped onto the bed and closed her eyes… and dreamed.

Ranma was standing in the Tendo Dojo’s front yard, looking around for Akane. She had said that she was going to meet him here after school, however she was nowhere in sight.

‘C’mon Akane.” He thought, tapping his foot on the Dojo’s side wall. That’s when he heard it. It was a sort of rushing sound, kind of like the noise that he usually heard before one of Ryoga’s perfect Shi Shi Hokodan blasts hit. Quickly looking around, he didn’t see any lost boy launched projectiles and dismissed the sound as some random street noise… until the concussion wave hit.

Ranma’s whole body was overwhelmed with an intense blast of pain as he flew backwards, slamming into and through the wall of the Dojo. The wave didn’t stop there, either. His body slammed through every room in the house and was only stopped when it hit one of the main support beams, which were extra re-enforced due to the large martial artist count in the district.

The last thing Ranma saw before blackness claimed him was the ceiling of the Dojo falling towards him.

“AHHH!” Ranma screamed, bolting upright in her bed and in a cold sweat. “Just a dream… Just a dream.” She said, trying to comfort herself and stop shivering.

Ritsuko cursed in frustration as she pounded a hand against her console. “Damn it, I don’t understand!” She yelled, wishing that the Data on her screen would just spontaneously combust.

“What is it Ritsuko?” Misato asked, leaning over her shoulder.

“It’s these damned readings!” Ritsuko complained. “When that girl fell asleep she still registered a blue pattern, but it was fainter. The cameras just recorded her waking up, apparently from a nightmare, and the pattern’s so strong that it’s causing wide field interference.”

“So?” Misato asked, not getting the point. “Is she an angel or what?”

Ritsuko put a hand to her head. “I… don’t know. I mean we’ve had misregisters before, but I’ve never seen a human cause one. Her life energy signature should be so different from that of an angel that it would be easy to spot a sensor glitch that’d cause a mis-read. The problem is that I’ve tried every sensor grid in the base and they ALL read her as a blue pattern.”

Misato shrugged. “So just ask her.” She said. I mean, if she is an angel what harm could she do? There’s no way something that small can do any real damage.”

Ritsuko nodded and walked out of the room, dragging Misato behind her.

Gendo met up with Ritsuko and Misato on their way to the holding cells. “So, you’re going to talk to our guest?” He asked, looking questioningly at Ritsuko.

“Yes, sir.” She responded. “Do you want to join us?”

Gendo nodded, falling in with the two women. After a few minutes of Ritsuko updating Gendo on what she had learned the three reached the door to the holding cell. At a gesture from Gendo the guard punched in a code at the door, causing it to slide open.

The girl inside the room flipped off of the bed and to her feet, causing Misato to reach for her gun and only stop when the girl put her hands behind her back.

“SO, the boss’s comin to interrogate me eh?” The girl asked, casually.

Gendo blinked, taken aback at how the girl had talked to him.

“Look. I don’t know what Pop did to you twenty or thirty years ago, but I ain’t takin the fall for it.” Ranma said, in a way that made it clear that she had had LOTS of people come after her for what her father had done.

“Um, Miss. Your father didn’t do anything to us.” Ritsuko interjected, saving Ranma from the truly brilliant remark that Misato may have made.

“Oh, all right.” The girl said, relaxing. “So, what do you want?”

Gendo spoke up. “Do you know what an angel is?”

Ranma blinked. “Isn’t that the Christian messenger of god or something?”

“Well, not exactly.” Ritsuko interrupted. “Angels are something…else. NERV was founded to fight them and you seem to be one.”

Ranma blinked. “So… you wanna fight me? Like in a sparring match or something?”

Misato and Ritsuko face faulted, Gendo keeping calm, as always.

A few minutes later, after several more …interesting… exchanges, Ranma had finally gotten the point. “So you guys’re supposed to fight some kinda aliens that caused second impact?”

Gendo nodded.

“Where do I sign up?” Ranma asked, looking straight into Gendo’s eyes.

The older man blinked at this. “Excuse me?”

“Look. Second impact Killed my whole Family… Remember the Nerima fault line incident?”

Gendo blinked. The Nerima fault line incident was one of the worst disasters of second impact to effect Japan, and in fact was one of the reasons that Tokyo 3 had been built the way it had. A fault had opened along the edge of Nerima ward, due to the tremendous shock to the planet of the Angel, ADAM’s detonation. After things had settled down the fault had closed back up… and sent out a concussion wave large enough to flatten the entire area. Then Gendo connected the dots. “Wait a second. That happened fourteen years ago. How could you have lost your family in it?”

“That’s a long story.” Ranma responded, “Let’s just say I’m about 18 years older than I look.”

Ritsuko spoke up next. “So, if you’re not an angel, how did you change like that?”

Ranma looked nervous. “Um… change?” She thought, desperately hoping that they didn’t mean what she thought they did.

“Well, When we first picked up your AT field and focused our Cameras on you, you were a guy.” Misato answered, looking quizzically at the short, red haired girl in front of her.

“Oh… That.” Ranma said, her heart sinking.

Fifteen minutes, a lot of water, and six demonstrations of the curse later, Ranma stood in front of the three officers in male form.

“That’s amazing!” Ritsuko exclaimed while studying Ranma from top to bottom. “But where does the extra mass come from?”

Ranma shrugged. “I dono.”

“So, which are you?”

“I’m a guy!” Ranma responded, reflexively. Seeing Ritsuko flinch back he scratched the back of his head embarrassedly. “Sorry… it’s just that everyone asks me that one.”

Misato sat in Gendo’s office, looking at him in shock. “So you want me to put him up?”

Gendo nodded. “We need to keep him around. He could be useful to us… especially with that strange energy field he has. Besides, even if he isn’t mentally he is apparently physically about 14. We may be lucky and he’ll be able to pilot one of the EVA units.”

Misato’s jaw dropped. “You’re going to put a possible angel in the cockpit of an EVA?”

“Of course not. We’re going to make sure that he is human before we try to put him in an EVA. But if he is human, think of the possibilities. A human with a natural AT field to compliment the EVA’s own.” Of course, what Gendo WASN’T going to tell Misato was that Rei Ayanami also emitted a blue pattern and he had had to order Ritsuko to program the MAGI to filter her out… but Misato didn’t need to know that.

Misato reluctantly nodded. Even without any real EVA combat Data she could tell that extra power was always a good thing. “Alright… But why does he have to stay with me?”

“Because Maya’s apartment is too small, Ritsuko doesn’t even get a CAT because she’s afraid she can’t take care of it and you were going to put The Second and third children up when they got here.”

“Speaking of which, which child is this one, anyways?”

“I believe he would be the third, since the second has already gone through sync tests and Shinji hasn’t arrived yet. Now, you’re dismissed. Go retrieve your new charge and give him the new officers’ briefing.”

Misato Got out of her chair on the other side of Gendo’s desk and left the room, grumbling about superior officers under her breath.