Omegagouki wrote:In the famous words of Hubert Farnsworth: Good news, everyone!
I am currenly writing the next chapter in this tale. Today, inspiration just hit me like a sack of bricks made from ground up doorknobs!I should have it up sometime tonight, probably. So, watch this space!
...Correction! The next chapter is now FINISHED! Thank you, inspiration. So, here we go... the next exciting chapter of...
Sonic the Hedgehog: Genesis
Chapter Five: Variable of X to Y
The bloody mess of what once had been the Twelfth Angel now lay strewn in the middle of Tokyo-3, hazmat and military crews already beginning to wash and cart away its scattered remains.
In the meantime, NERV’s Eva team were already beginning the process of ejecting and opening Eva-01’s entry plug to rescue the pilot within. His vital signs were low, almost nil from the outside readings, and once the plug was opened, Shinji was found to be alive, although quite unconscious. If his Eva had not gone berserk when it did, he would have probably died. Misato had come with the crew, and refused to leave Shinji’s side for the time being.
In the meantime, Eggman had joined one of the search crews, to look for Sonic. The men he was with were decked out in special-issue armor, and wielding high-powered automatic weapons, at the ready for any encounter with the “Angel”. It wouldn’t be so bad for Eggman if he wasn’t waist deep in Angel blood. This day was just getting better and better. He was really hoping Sonic had been lost in the Dirac Sea, this way he would have no worries and his plans would go unallyed.
“Any luck?” he asked the team leader.
“None so far, Doctor,” he responded “There’s just so much blood, that if the creature is still alive, it’s probably drenched in the blood, making it hard to spot. We’ll find it, though.”
Eggman nodded. “What will happen when you find him? Will he be destroyed?”
“That’s what we’re supposed to do, yes. These ain’t standard weapons, and the critter certainly seems to have a weak AT Field, so this will be cake.”
“Don’t be so sure of that…” the round doctor mused to himself “He’s been faced with large beams of energy and survived them… he’s gotten past security checkpoints and crushing objects that should stop any man… large spans of lava and spike traps , he’s soared over them all. Everything I’ve employed against him, from booby traps to large mechanical weapons, to creatures like himself… He’s gone through…”
His thoughts were stopped, when the team leader shouted the order to halt… He looked up, and noticed they were looking at a chunk of flesh that had crushed a parked car on the road, a lump sitting on it, no, a figure, with its face buried in its knees, shivering lightly. The spines that protruded from its head were a dead giveaway.
“So you survived, Sonic… I knew you wouldn’t go down that easily…” he thought with a look of impression. For every defeat, despite how horrible it was for him, even when he was angry with the hedgehog, Sonic never ceased to amaze him with his versatility “Is he… er, it asleep?”
‘Would seem so,” one of the soldiers replied with a whisper.
“All weapons at the ready, men,” murmured the leader “If we can attack while it’s sleeping, we should be able to terminate it easily.”
“I leave this in your hands, gentlemen,” Eggman said, backing away to let them try their thing.
The soldiers quickly used the surrounding environs to clamber onto the chunk of flesh, silently surrounding Sonic, their fingers ready to pull the triggers on their guns.
“Ready,” the leader whispered “Aim…”
The soldiers aimed, and were ready to fire, when Sonic turned his head around a little, his green eyes opening, half-lidded, before speaking.
“So, so much… so much blood… why…?”
The leader blinked.
“It… it speaks human language…”
“What, what was that beast, that terrible beast…?” Sonic muttered “That roar, that figure… the blood.”
The leader and his men were hesitating, actually hesitating… It was as if they were about to take down another human being, unarmed, and at their mercy. They were almost willing to take pity.
“What are you doing?!” Eggman shouted “Stop hesitating and fire! It’s an Angel, don’t let it trick you!”
The leader and his men nodded, stopping their hesitation and readied their weapons again.
“Ready…”
“Aim…”
“Stop!” called out a female voice, and the soldiers once again lowered their weapons and then turned around to see the source… Dr. Ritsuko Akagi, standing waist-deep in the blood, her white lab coat’s lower half completely ruined, standing with several armed NERV personnel and one of their collaboration units. And Eggman knew it was her favorite coat, too.
“Ritsuko, what are you doing?!” Eggman exclaimed “They’re about to take down the Angel… They are to be destroyed, aren’t they?”
“New orders. Commander Ikari called us when he found out about the incident. Seems the Sub-Commander told him what was going on after you and Misato’s little squabble. We’re to bring the Angel back to NERV, whether alive, or dead… Is it still alive?”
“Yes,” replied the team leader “The Angel is still alive, and somewhat conscious, but in a shocked state. We were just about to finish it off, and…”
“Yes.” Eggman responded “Allow them to do their job, and then we’ll take the corpse, and…”
“Commander Ikari said if it was still alive, Doctor,” Ritsuko said, holding out a manila folder “That we are to bring it back to NERV alive! A living Angel specimen that could be easily contained, it’s something that might help us… And I have the signed papers to prove it.”
“But…”
“Standing down and taking capture procedures,” the leader said, lowering his gun and taking his finger from the trigger, Eggman attempting to protest, to get an orderly, firm response “She has paperwork, Dr. Eggman. We can’t do anything about it right now!”
Sonic looked up at them for a moment, blinking, before uttering one more word before falling unconscious.
“Eggman…”
With that, capture procedures began, as they placed Sonic onto a stretcher, restraining his arms and legs with specialized metal restraints that were meant to hold much larger things in a bigger state, rather than these miniaturized versions, before loading him onto a helicopter and headed to NERV‘s helipad.
“So, Commander Ikari ordered it, Ritsuko?” Eggman inquired as they rode in the helicopter.
“Yes,” she responded in an orderly fashion “There’s nothing I can do about it. He’s got the authority to. I don’t. Besides… we just grabbed ourselves a living specimen. And of an easily containable size. We can find more about what makes them tick, even moreso than the Fourth Angel, as this one, is alive.”
“You don’t need to study what makes them tick… you already know. And authority? You have access to the central and terminal--”
“Quiet!” Ritsuko replied with a glare “These people aren’t supposed to know that. You know it’s top secret stuff that you shouldn’t really be sticking your nose in, yourself.”
Eggman twitched and frowned. “I apologize. I seem to have forgotten we were talking in a helicopter with other people. But I suppose you’re right. You’ve now got a living Angel specimen to study.”
Ritsuko nodded, before replying. “Damn, I ruined my favorite lab coat wandering over there. I should have changed clothes.”
“Don’t worry about it, Ritsuko… I’ll buy you a new one, if the Commander doesn’t buy you one, first.”
“Nyeh, I don’t think he would do that,” Ritsuko said with a chuckle “Just not something he’d do. And, thanks.”
“No problem,” Eggman said, adjusting his glasses, as the two sat in silence for the rest of the trip.
The next few hours were a blur, as Sonic was quickly taken into NERV HQ, cleaned up, and quickly placed into a super-reinforced glass tube, his restraints removed for something lighter, but still as durable, before it was filed with LCL, and a special cryostasis chemical to try and keep him sedated, his shoes, socks, and gloves removed. His hands, underneath the gloves were humanoid, and yet, each finger had a chitonous claw rather than a regular fingernail, his feet nearly the same way, only with three toes instead of five, which all looked quite bestial.
Already, fur, nail, and blood samples had been taken, actually before he was placed in the tube, which continued to study and map his body while the samples were taken care of.
“This creature is amazing, ma‘am,” Maya said in awe “Never seen anything like it, even for an Angel. It’s almost like someone just took human and fuzzy animal genes and spliced them together, though the spines kind of remind me of shark fins, somehow, even though as far as can be noted, they’re actually bundles of quills imposed together into these sleek forms.”
“Small quills forming larger quills in such intricate patterns,” said one of the nameless members of the science division “Like, a crazily mutated hedgehog or a porcupine… only… it’s an Angel, and well, they all look like mutant things, some to the point of insane abstraction.”
“Yes, the Angel is quite interesting,” Ritsuko replied “It must be very creative, to have chosen this form…As for the animal, I’d say more of a hedgehog than a porcupine, from what the scans say, it, well, he doesn’t have the standard rodent teeth, they’re kind of a mix between insectivore and human teeth. Almost like a hedgehog somehow evolved into a sentient intelligence. We’ll know more as the tests get results.”
“It’s almost as if this creature isn’t an Angel at all, but a new life form altogether,” Maya noted “Eggman said that he knew it was an Angel, right? Something isn’t adding up, ma’am. He may know what this thing is, whether Angel or not… But he’s being secretive. Isn’t that the way for everyone here, keeping secrets?”
“If he knows something, I’m sure he’ll tell me. I don’t think he’s really the kind to keep a secret this big forever. We’re both scientists, he’ll tell me. I trust him at least that much. I know you’re not fond of him, Maya, but he’s the best we’ve got, now. He’s the Angel expert, he knows when they are to arrive, he knows their patterns…”
Maya frowned, and then sighed. “I don’t like him because everything he does or says, regarding to this… it, everything’s all to convenient. He’s leading many astray… Dare I say he’s like the Commander, maybe even worse? He’s got his own agenda, I can feel it.”
“I trust them, Maya,” Ritsuko grumbled “There’s nothing more to be said. Yes, they may be secretive, but I can still trust them.”
“You going to start ‘trusting’ him like Commander Ikari?”
Ritsuko balked at Maya’s statement. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“I know you’re sleeping with him, ma’am. It isn’t that hard to figure out, especially if you make observing things your life‘s work.”
Ritsuko could only stare at her apprentice. Maya knew about her and Commander Ikari. Smart, observant girl, there. Her stare turned to a glare.
“Enough, Maya. We have work to do, so I expect you to do your share.”
“Yes, ma’am,” she said dejectedly.
Not too far away, Dr. Eggman was watching, trying to hear their conversation, but only getting bits and pieces, and began to think to himself.
“Maybe you should listen to her, Ritsuko. After all, once those tests are complete, you’ll know that Sonic isn’t an Angel. I suppose it doesn’t matter… the Old Men… Hmm. I will probably have to meet with them… again, soon.”
Several days would pass after that, the experiments and tests continuing off and on. Several times, Sonic almost awoke again, but they managed to keep him sedated.
In the meantime, at the hospital, Shinji was still unconscious, being checked on occasion by his fellow pilots, his friends, and his guardian. It was, that on the fourth day after the incident, he awoke. After being told what had happened, minus a few details he wasn’t privy to knowledge to, his recovery would go by quickly and smoothly, and he would soon be able to go home.
Commander Ikari had returned on the second day, quite irritated, yet also quite interested in the current situation. Eggman had made a spectacular fool out of himself from the inaccuracy of this incident and how he had predicted it, and thereby adding chaos to what was supposed to be order. However, from this failure, Eva-01 was safe, the Twelfth Angel was defeated, and they had gathered a live specimen, this blue, spiny humanoid creature. Tests were going on to see just what it was, whether Angel or something else entirely. He was anticipating these results, despite the irrelevance in his grand scheme of things, as it could easily become quite relevant.
And it was thus, that the sixth day, the results would come. Sonic had been moved to a high-security area and put into an enclosed environment within NERV. The security, however, was lax enough so people could come by and look at Sonic, as if they were going to the zoo.
On this sixth day, a few people had gathered to look at Sonic from behind the super-reinforced glass, including Misato and the Children, including a recovered Shinji. It was a Sunday, no school for them today.
“S-so that’s the Angel that we encountered?” Shinji asked “It’s so small for an Angel.”
“Well, so was that one that hacked into the Magi and infected the test bodies, but look at what it did, dummy!” Asuka replied.
“And then Eggman uses a sample of it to create a new technology and make it a weapon for our own use…” Misato mused to herself “He’s knee deep in this one’s existence too, I’m betting. I hope Kaji finds that information on him soon… Now, now, Asuka, there’s no need for that… We don’t even actually know if this thing is an Angel or not. We’re still waiting on the test results.”
Asuka humphed, before continuing. “Well, whatever. I’m just telling Shinji here that bad things come in small packages, kinda like your penguin, Misato. That, thing, was peeping into my room while I was changing yesterday! I swear, if it wasn’t an animal, I’d throttle it so hard! He needs to know the concept of personal space! At least the pervert knows that much!”
Shinji could only sigh. Some things would never change, it seemed, and he continued looking.
“So, what if it isn’t an Angel?” Shinji finally asked “Then what will happen?”
“Knowing NERV, they’ll probably keep it around for a while,” Misato replied “According to the reports, this one knows human language. Even if it isn’t an Angel, it’s something very different from the norm. If it is an Angel, I’m hoping they’ll destroy it after they have the results they need. Damned Angels…”
“Knowing you, Misato,” Asuka mused “If it isn’t an Angel, you’ll want to bring it home before you know it! Isn’t that always the way, picking up strays like the penguin and the idiot?”
“Considering I’m your guardian, as well, that makes you a stray too, Asuka.”
“Oh, shut up,” Asuka growled, defeated.
They continued to observe for a few more moments, nothing especially interesting happening other than a few twitches from Sonic’s prone figure.
“This is boring,” Asuka said with a sigh “Can we go now? It’s obvious it’s gonna sleep all day.”
“I suppose so, Asuka,” Misato replied “Let’s get going. Come along, Shinji.”
Shinji was about to nod, only to stop when Rei suddenly arrived, still in her school uniform, despite it being a Sunday. Asuka always wondered how the hell she did it without the thing looking ratty or messy. Boringly stale and consistent outfit for a boring, stale, and consistent girl.
“Hi, Rei,” Shinji said with a wave.
“Oh, great, just when things couldn’t get any worse, here comes Wonder Girl!” Asuka grumbled.
“Pilots Ikari, Soryu, Major Katsuragi,” Rei said, bowing.
“What are you doing here, anyway, Wonder Girl?”
“I came to see Specimen XY-257, as you seem to have been doing.”
“Well, it isn’t doing anything but sleeping, so there’s nothing to really see,” Asuka chirped “Then again, knowing you, you’d enjoy watching it sleep all day. You’re just as boring as it is. And hey, you both have blue hair, so maybe you’re related or something!”
“Well, your hair is pretty blue, Rei,” Misato said with a giggle “Pay no mind to Asuka, you know how she is.”
“Do not worry, Major Katsuragi,” Rei stated “I try not to. Besides, our hair is a different shade of blue from each other. Looks more like Pilot Soryu’s eyes, than my hair.”
The other three blinked, before Asuka gave off a glare, Misato smiled, and Shinji, well, he just kept on blinking.
“Yes?” Rei asked.
“Rei, did you just… make a joke?” Misato asked.
And with a blank stare, she replied. “That was not my intent. I was being serious.”
Misato looked at Rei for a moment, Rei looked right back.
“Damned poker face, how am I supposed to tell if you’re lying or not?” she said with an exasperated sigh “Remind me, that if we ever wind up playing poker together, that I should just forfeit of Rei‘s playing?”
Shinji and Asuka nodded.
“I don’t get it.” Rei stated plainly, before turning back to the window to watch Sonic sleep.. But, as soon as she turned to look at the glass, Sonic began to move suddenly. Misato and the other two stopped in their tracks and turned around.
“It’s waking up…” Misato mumbled “Be ready to head to the lockers at a moment’s notice. It’s a really secure cell, but if it’s an Angel…”
Asuka and Shinji nodded quickly, however, Rei continued to watch.
The first thing that happened was Sonic sitting up, before stretching out his arms and yawning, his mouth wide enough to see his teeth. He groaned, his eyes still closed before standing up slowly, before semi-unconsciously doing some calf stretches, as if he was preparing for a race.
Misato blinked on in amazement.
“Calf stretches? It’s… behaving like a regular human like that, doing morning exercises.”
Sonic continued his little session, his eyes opening half-lidded now, the vibrant greens of his irises shining through despite that fact, before moving on to stretching and popping his back.
“It’s exercising?!” Asuka exclaimed “I, I don’t believe this. You’re right, Misato, it’s like watching a normal human… only that thing isn’t human at all! What a strange Angel.”
Sonic yawned again, before reaching behind himself to scratch his butt, followed by a loud, reverberating belch that could be heard from behind the glass. This is when he blinked, and twitched a little, and looked at his hand, clenching it several times in his view. He blinked. Where were his gloves? He looked at his other hand, and then down to his feet. It was with this, he realized he was in a large, metal room with an observation window, there were people there, watching, as he suddenly turned beet red, realizing he was completely naked, his hands quickly moving down to cover his crotch, even though nothing was showing, and he only wore shoes and gloves most of the time. But he was actually truly naked, as he wasn’t wearing a thing. He looked around, in embarrassment.
Rei didn’t bat an eye.
Misato looked completely dumbfounded.
“It… it’s embarrassed that it’s naked?”
“Duh, Misato,” Asuka replied, as flabbergasted as her guardian “Wouldn’t you do the same if you were naked and you realized there were people watching you?”
Rei just looked onward, Shinji turning around to give Sonic his privacy.
“Oookay, so, you’re naked, in an unfamiliar place, and there are people looking at you like you’re some zoo exhibit,” Sonic though to himself “And it’s really, really freaking embarrassing and unnerving at the same time. How did I get here… Wait, I…. Oh…. I… the blood, the darkness, the… it wasn’t a dream. And I’m now a captive of this agency, or whatever it is… Which means Eggman’s involved.”
Sonic looked around a bit, noticing there was a bed and a water dish in one corner of the big, metal room, giving its otherwise barren nature some personality. Ugh, so they thought he was just a crazy animal, or an angel, or whatever. He sighed, lowering his hands, and walked over to the glass to look at the closest person there, which just happened to be Rei.
“It’s… it’s coming toward us!” Misato exclaimed “Get ready, anything might happen, here!”
Shinji, Misato, and Asuka backed off, a little frightened, but also curious at Sonic’s movements, but Rei, she stood her ground and looked at Sonic, her head and gaze tilting down to level with him. Sonic kept his head down for a moment, before looking up to meet her gaze, crimson eyes meeting emerald, and they stared at each other, in silence, Sonic’s hand moving up to touch the glass, Rei’s own hand suddenly doing the same, their hands together on the glass.
The other three stopped, and stared, blinking, unsure of what to say.
And meanwhile, several levels away, Ritsuko was sitting in her lab, one hand drumming fingers on her desk, her other hand holding a lit cigarette, which she put to her mouth to take a drag, when…
“Ma’am, we, we just got the results,” Maya said, coming into the office, holding a large manila envelope, Ritsuko quickly putting the cigarette in the ashtray on the desk.
“Hand it here, Maya,” Ritsuko said, Maya complying quickly, before opening it, and began to sift through the papers, full of genetic and scientific technobabble she knew how to read by heart. She continued reading, at first blinking slowly, then blinking quickly, then slowly again, and then balking as she began to sift and read rapidly, before setting the papers down, turning to Maya and looking at her wide-eyed.
“Is something wrong, ma’am? What are the results? Is it an Angel? Should we go get some help?”
“It’s… not possible. It can’t be scientifically possible…” Ritsuko murmured “There’s no way, I don’t believe this.”
“B-believe what?” Maya inquired, quite surprised, before Ritsuko handed her the results, and she looked through them, and paled as she finished her reading, before responding “Y-y-y-you sure? This, has to be wrong…”
“No, these results were done by the book, checked multiple times. I know how thorough these guys are. He certainly isn’t an Angel, that’s for sure… It should be Angel, Human, or not… but… not… Not a straight zero percent!”
To be Continued
...well, maybe not that exciting. Ah well, I'm glad I'm finally getting this moving, again. I've played this chapter out in my head many times, getting quite a few variations, until this one just poured outta my skull and onto my word processor.
So, I'll be going back to lurking around now... Tell me what you think!
("Slight" edit 4-1-07: The over 100 percent human ratio, which I thought was interesting at the time began to bother me greatly, so another percentage came to mind... 0% ...Just as strange but far more explainable/plausible.)
