Colossus By Design: Season 3 - Excerpt 43

[April 17, 2168]
[STRQ Industries Underground R&D Centre]
[Nagoya, Japan]
[Japanese Mainland]

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The past few days have certainly been an exciting few, especially on the Japanese mainland.

Despite all of this, though, the work and research trudges forward in the underground development centre on the prototype Evangelion unit meant to house the remaining four guiding minds of the former Warmongers. Today, another one of the myriad simulations for coordinating the four 'pilots' into a singular cohesive mind is being run by Jiro Ifukube and some of the other researchers.

As the former Project Warmonger director looks at the console and takes note of the simulation's stability and the pilots' scores, a notification audibly rings on his datapad, signifying that he's receiving a hail for an open COMMS line.

The weathered old Japanese man motions for one of his associates to cover the simulation whilst he takes his call.


(Jiro Ifukube): Anna, what happened? You don't call me in the middle of a simulation unless something is gravely important.

(Anna Maximoff): [COMMS] That damn Mechagodzilla was brought in to try and capture Jira!

(Jiro Ifukube): So it was her, then. Rasczak, you damn fool.

(Anna Maximoff): [COMMS] Wait, did you know about this?!

(Jiro Ifukube): I... did contact the Governance Council to discuss how they should go about handling Gojira.

(Anna Maximoff): [COMMS] You WHAT?!

(Jiro Ifukube): Anna, please, let me--


Anna Maximoff ends the COMMS line immediately, leaving Jiro Ifukube staring at his datapad blankly. Just as he's about to turn his datapad off and return to monitoring the simulation, he gets two COMMS hails, this time from from Wei Ho and Eobard Thawne; Jiro Ifukube activates the multi-way call function to start a three-way call between himself, Wei Ho, and Eobard Thawne.


(Jiro Ifukube): I take that little exchange a few seconds ago to mean that Anna's not exactly happy with me.

(Wei Ho): [COMMS] I'm really sorry about that, sir, we're both really emotionally involved in the situation here on Jiran Island.

(Jiro Ifukube): It's fine. I'll let her cool off a bit. Thawne, what did you need?

(Eobard Thawne): [COMMS] I don't mean to intrude, sirs.

(Jiro Ifukube): No problem. We're all professionals and friends.

(Eobard Thawne): [COMMS] Right. Well, you two might want to turn on your video feeds.


Jiro Ifukube and Wei Ho both activate their video conference functions, as does Eobard Thawne.

The two high-profile leaders of their fields from Japan and China are left quite stunned at what they see. But what is it that they're looking at on Thawne's feed? Why, none other than the Gorgon's Head himself; more specifically, the physical casing that holds the Atlantean A.I. representation of 'Zeus' that was adapted from the original Mimetic hive nexus.

The casing is resting on a table with multiple cables and conduits hooked up to the circuitry in openings in the outer shell.


(Wei Ho): [COMMS] Is that really Zeus?

(Eobard Thawne): [COMMS] Yep. He's being held here at the Atlantis Capital outpost for the time being, though he'll be transported to the STRQ Industries facility that Jiro's at in another day or two.

(Wei Ho): [COMMS] How did you capture him?

(Eobard Thawne): [COMMS] We didn't. As you can tell, he's incredibly damaged, and he sorta just surrendered himself over. Now don't worry, I don't trust him, so I've been careful to maintain a whole bunch of security precautions and have warned the G.U.D. to do the same. But if he's even a tiny bit honest about providing valuable information, I think he'll be a big boon to the research you're conducting in Nagoya, Jiro.

(Jiro Ifukube): Alright, thank you for notifying us ahead of time. I'll keep an eye out for when he arrives.


Jiro Ifukube ends his COMMS hail and puts his datapad away.

As he returns to the console to monitor the pilots' progress in the simulation, his attention is suddenly drawn away. It seems it's not just him, however, as most of the staff in the underground facility are running up to the tank holding the prototype Evangelion unit that forms the centerpiece of the facility. But why is everyone so interested in it at the current moment? What could've changed?

The Evangelion unit is moving, and moving quite frantically, in a completely unexpected manner; the unit presses its right hand against the reinforced glass and moves its head close to the catwalk that Jiro Ifukube is standing on.


(Eva Unit-01): Sir? Is..... Is that you?


Everyone is absolutely stunned to hear the Evangelion unit actually speak. However, what's most surprising about everyone's reactions is that Jiro Ifukube, the man who's ordinarily quite unphased when it comes to new and shocking developments, looks almost horrified at what he's experiencing right now.


(Eva Unit-01): What.... are we? What..... am I? We...... I....... feel wrong. Please, sir...... Please, Director Ifukube.... help us. Help........ me.


The Evangelion unit falls limp and returns to its usual comatose state soon after its plea to the facility's research head. All eyes now fall onto Jiro Ifukube, who is still staring at the Evangelion unit.