In which things come to an abrupt halt . . .

In something of a foul mood from the questioning he'd gotten from those NERV goons (worthless and dishonorable lot, full of themselves), he angrily pulls out his keys to this new apartment he finally managed to wrangle. Oh, he supposed it beat living in the open bay barracks back on base, but only by a slight margin.

Still, it really wasn’t his place to complain. He HAD insisted on getting quarters out in town . . . and in this particular neighborhood. He had a mission in this time. Since he could not die he might as well find something to LIVE for, and over the centuries he'd found and fought for various causes. Noble causes.

This time around he decided after meeting one of the few people who could actually fight these invaders . . .the least he could do was help ONE of them. If he couldn't fight he'd help one who could!

He had to work hard and soon... find a way to get Rei Ayanami to stop being a slave.

How he'd met that young girl . . .the story was rather round about . . .

Oh, initially he'd joined up with the UN Army out of the idea of fighting for humankind against extinction from the hands of these . . . Angels. However, soon enough the reality of the situation set in and in a HARSH way.

It . . .was a very sick joke, going against an Angel invader with conventional weaponry. Hell, even WITH some rather unconventional weapons (like that failed attempt at using a sub-nuclear bomb on one of those critters) . . . The AT field of those freaks stopped anything humans threw at them cold, with the DEAR exception of the Evangelion units and their . . . 15 year old pilots.

. . .

The fate of the world rode on the shoulder's of teenagers. . .Fred would have died screaming if he could have. It wasn't FAIR! This was supposed to be the "modern" world. He'd left things like THIS (boys barely out of their childhood) back when he'd left the Southern Caverns and mysteriously found himself HERE on this world called . . . Earth.

. . .

A world with a lot of differences . . . like there being no real magic here and that instead of his ethnicity being considered "Western" it was more like . . .Oriental . . .

. . .

What?! You thought that with Fred being able to be able to get away with taking a name like Tashimoto it wouldn't at least be looking like the native people of Japan? Thought he might be Caucasian? Well, admittedly he could have been and taken that name. Done it (legally) but it would be rather odd to do it IF he wants to keep a low profile

That's just parallel worlds for you.

Anyway, Fred was "bummed" at the lot in life he'd found himself in until he met one of the actual PILOTS of the Eva units and know . . . he needed to help this girl: Rei!

It had been in a VR roleplaying session, for goodness sake!

On a bet, he'd taken up this toy and . . . gotten rather hooked.

This gaming session, anyway, he had taken on the role of (naturally) of a noble knight. Even taken up his old family name (though he'd had more than a little bit of foreboding about it for some reason . . . and more than a bit of twinge of guilt over memories to what he had done to family whilst under the sway of madness).

He'd been more than taken aback at how the online DM had woven the very beginning of the session (almost word for word, as it were), but then again there had always been those odd . . . double echo of his old life back on his old life and world.

You'd think he'd gotten used to it by now enough to just put it down as karma or something like that... The uncaring gods having their fun with him and all that...

Still, he put it aside and had not thrown off his VR headset and gear in disgust and fear. Had thought it had started getting interesting with the twist of him being cast into the role of a demonic entity or some such (re: 922). However, it started going down hill when things started to get weirder and weirder after reality itself (or what passes for it in VR) warped into a clubhopping event (re: 924), culminating in what could only be the most ASSININE game twist: a dojo down in the sewers who's martial arts master wanted HIM to join (if he was worthy, re: 17503).

He had refused, giving the other "kung fu" idiots a piece of his mind (as well as the Dungeon Master) for putting THIS lame stuff into the game. He DID, however, compliment Miria on HER superb roleplaying....

Then he jacked out in disgust, back into the dull reality of the barracks. Soon enough, however, he was surprised to get a contact message from that same young girl who'd been playing. Her real name was Rei and at first she'd been rather . . . different but . . .

There was a really interesting person underneath.

No, there would be no romance here between him and Rei (immortality aside there is the real fact that Rei was WAY too young for such thing between her and him), but . . .

Well, Fred thanked whatever gods out there who were listening--not like he did that often: thanking divinity--that that other pilot named Shinji Akari had suggested she take up a hobby to branch out and that rot . . .

She and he talked and it was interesting (SHE was interesting to say the least), but . . .things soon came to light that was causing a slow burn within Fred. The director of the program to fight the invaders, Gendo Ikari (the father of Shinji), was . . .using poor Rei in ways that was just short of slavery . . .and she . . .

Something has to be done! Just has to be DONE! He was working on it and had contacted this one guy who was investigating NERV. Somebody who was something of a slob, but okay really. At least he had good tastes in women, Fred admitted to himself. Was a high up in the organization, that girl friend of his contact, Misato. . .

But any other thoughts about the matter come to a screeching halt as he opens to the door to his new place. The movers had already dropped off his stuff here and left (bastards). At least they had left it all in something of a neat pile . . .which a bunch of . . .

"Kitsune?" Fred whispered (in his old tongue, discretion forgotten), suddenly chilled.

First warrior women and wizards and now this? Yeah, he'd not mentioned (not even wanted to speculate) what those kinds were doing here about, but a deep suspicion had been that Tokyo 3 was no longer in "Kansas" as it were. . . There had been rumors of something having happened a bit ago to another squad (but he'd not been able to really get anything before being swept up and all that).

1. Yeah, definitely not Kansas any more! For him and this displaced family of demifoxes and kitsune female (who'd mistaken this dump for being abandoned and perfect to hide out within) . . .

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