Colossus By Design: Season 3 - Excerpt 69

[April 27, 2168]
[Otaru, Japan]
[Japanese Mainland]

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A battle between 2 scarred giants rages in the Japanese city of Otaru.

Evangelion Unit-01, still going berserk from its personality dissociation, is viciously whipping Gojira with the bladed whip that it transmutated out of a whole chain of bullet train cars. With every supersonic strike, Gojira's already open and exposed musculature is further opened up, causing dark red blood to slowly pour out of the growing wounds. Upon landing its next strike, Unit-01's bladed whip wraps around the disfigured Godzillasaur's neck and tightens, cutting into her flesh; the Evangelion yanks on the whip, causing it to constrict further and start strangling Gojira.

While this is going on, another smaller-scale but equally important battle rages on within the Eva Unit's own mind.

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Inside the mind of Unit-01, a see-through projection of it completely towers over the four representative avatars of the ex-Warmonger pilots. It seems quite angry at them and continually tries to squash them like the bugs they are to it, forcing them to constantly dodge and weave to avoid being destroyed.


(Karen Marais): *mental* Stop this! We're supposed to be one and the same!

(Unit-01): *mental* NO! NOT THE SAME! I AM MYSELF!


The Eva projection brings its balled-up fist down where Karen's standing, forcing her to jump out of the way; she lands next to her fellow pilots. Unit-01 then sweeps its arm from where it smashed into the mentally-fabricated ground, sending them all flying. Before they can regain their bearings up, the mental representation of the Eva Unit brings its left fist down on the group; they only just manage to all catch it together.


(Feng Lee): *mental* Dammit...... PUSH! PUSH!

(All): *mental* ARRRGGGHHHHH!!!!!!


Against all odds, the four avatars manage to push back Unit-01's fist, sending it falling down on its back from the force.

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Back in the real world, coinciding with the four pilots managing to overwhelm the representation of their whole, the physical Unit-01 loses its grip on its own actions and lets go of the bladed whip to clutch at its head. Without the iron grip of the Evangelion behind it, the whip starts to loosen up, though it doesn't fall off due to it being embedded into Gojira's neck. As with the snapped-off horn earlier, Gojira's flesh pushes out the blades as it begins to heal.

Now that she's been freed, Gojira prepares to charge up her atomic breath once again. However, she stops charging when she notices that her opponent is going through a mental breakdown. The Evangelion is shaking and shivering as it clutches its head with both hands, struggling to regain control of its own body and mind. As the biomechanical unit deals with its personality dissociation, Gojira takes this lull in their battle to look down at her own small and deformed hands. She then stares at her reflection in the windows of a skyscraper to her right, looking over the entire length of her misshapen and mutated body.

At first, some tears begin to form in her eyes; she quickly blinks repeatedly to get rid of them due to being unable to physically reach up and wipe them away with her arms.

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Within the mind of Unit-01, the pilots watch on as the representation of their whole is lying on the ground, clutching at its head, and screaming incoherently. There is visible worry seen in the expressions of the ex-Warmongers' avatar representations. At first, no one knows what exactly should be done. Eventually, though, Feng Lee and Satoshi Yamane take the lead and walk up to the projection of Unit-01; they're joined by Karen Marais and Sasha Kalashnikov shortly after. The four of them come up next to Unit-01's head, prompting it to move its left eye toward them.


(Satoshi Yamane): *mental* We're not gonna be yelling anymore, alright?

(Feng Lee): *mental* We know now that our arguments with each other have caused you a lot of stress, and we want to put a stop to it. So, Unit-01....... what do you want to do?


Upon being asked this question, the mental representation of Unit-01 stops shaking; it then rolls over and gets on its hands and knees to look down at the group of its pilots.


(Unit-01): *mental* What I want?

(Feng Lee): *mental* Yes. Our mission together is to help Gojira out. She's my friend, and I want to help her.

(Satoshi Yamane): *mental* I want to ensure that we perform to the best of our abilities.

(Karen Marais): *mental* I want to protect people from further harm.

(Sasha Kalashnikov): *mental* And I want to have fun fighting larger-than-life battles!

(Feng Lee): *mental* So what do you say?


Unit-01 leans in closer; for awhile, it simply stares at the group. Eventually, it puts its open hand down in front of the group; then four ex-Warmongers step onto its open palm. The Eva Unit-01 brings the group right up to its head, and the five of them begin to be overtaken by a bright golden glow that engulfs them and the entirety of the mentally-fabricated room that they're residing in.

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Back in the real world, the true Unit-01 stops shaking; this instantly grabs Gojira's attention. It then releases its grip on its head and stares directly at its Godzillasaur opponent. The Evangelion Unit balls up its fists and brings its arms inward towards its body, then spreads its feet out a bit. This pose in particular stirs some strong emotions within Gojira, as it's the same one that Satoshi Yamane taught her many years back when she was a juvenile only just learning how to control the immense energetic potential that rested within her.

This time, however, instead of releasing the energy in a singular pulse like Serizawa's Light taught young Gojira to do so long ago, Evangelion Unit-01 expends all of its latent excess Ki not used in maintaining its bodily function outwards into the rest of the city of Otaru. The sudden flow of invisible rippling power warps the surrounding air and blows away loose and fragile objects like windows and cars. The force is so overwhelming, in fact, that Gojira struggles to maintain her footing and has to squint hard so as to protect her eyes from harm. Soon enough, the Ki energy becomes intense enough to take on visible colour, creating a half-sphere of orange light over a kilometer in diameter that fills the atmosphere entirely.

While all of this goes on, Unit-01's armour is blown off piece-by-piece until, eventually, the mechanoid is left completely bare. After ejecting all of its armour, Unit-01's emanating Ki suddenly stops expanding; any objects that were sent flying and still in midair also stop, remaining frozen in the moment. As suddenly as it stopped, the energy starts flowing again.

This time, though, it does so in the opposite direction.

The orange Ki of Unit-01 rushes back towards its body at much greater speeds than it expanded out, taking with it the loose debris and expelled pieces of its armour. As the energy flows back into the Eva, its body begins to be covered from head to toe in broken infrastructure and armour plating; Unit-01 is eventually entirely covered, leaving no part of its true form exposed. Soon after, the entirety of Unit-01 starts to glow so brightly that Gojira has to close her eyes fully. From what little can be made out, Unit-01's form begins to morph and contort from what its shape originally was; in particular, the top of its head starts deforming into a pointed shape.

While this transformation is under way, the hooded spy for the Axis Alliance watches from a sheltered position within a far-off skyscraper.


(Spy): Dr. Savage, are you--

(Vandal Savage): [COMMS] Yes, I can see, but it's still unbelievable! Continue to monitor, we need to account for any and all changes in form and strategy!