2040: Last Resort
A Bubblegum Crisis / mystery spamfic
By Lara
[email protected]
Daley Wong stepped into his apartment with the events of the day still weighing heavily on his shoulders like a physical thing. He shut the door and locked it, more out of habit than anything, and removed his jacket. This entire ritual of returning home after a day of work was performed on auto-pilot, his mind a hundred thousand kilometers away.
Far away, out of the city, away from his apartment, away from AD Police, away from the boomers... It sounded wonderful.
He unbuttoned his vest as he entered the kitchen to prepare some tea. Tea and a nice hot bath would work out the tension of the day. As long as Leon didn't call him for something inane in the middle of it as he seemed to do with annoying regularity.
But Leon was his partner, and Daley put up with a lot of shit for and from his partner. One day, this would all come full circle, and he'd get a huge favor out of Leon. Definitely.
Daley's eyes looked up absently to the calendar on the opposite wall. His mother's birthday, marked in huge red letters, and he had forgotten. This was what the ADP did to a good son.
With the water heating for the tea still, there was no reason to put it off any longer. Daley retrieved his phone and dialed. It wasn't that he disliked speaking to his mother; it was just with all the pressure on him, with the boomers and all the bad press the police were catching...
And sometimes, his mother could be... difficult.
Before his thoughts went further, the phone beeped, and the other end was picked up. "Hello?"
"Hi, Mom. Happy birthday," Daley said cheerily and was glad she couldn't see the bored look on his face.
"Oh, Daley! I thought you had forgotten!"
"Of course not, Mom. I'd never hear the end of it if I did." And that was the absolute truth.
There was a short laugh, and then his mother's voice became more serious. "I was worried about you."
"There's nothing to be worried about. I don't know why--"
"You think I don't watch the news? The police are decimated every time they go against a boomer, and I know you're in the middle of it. I don't like it. I don't like that you have no idea what you're up against!"
"Well, thank you, Mother," Daley snapped, his patience worn thin. "And just what do you expect we do? Just go up to GENOM's door and please ask them recall all boomers? You don't understand--"
"I understand more than you think. Before you were born, I probably could have solved the entire problem by myself."
Daley rolled his eyes as he listened to his mother rant. She did this every once in a while, claiming how, if it hadn't been for the earthquakes, she would have owned GENOM, etc etc. "Look, boomers aren't just sophisticated robots. All your computer stuff won't just fix everything. These have biological components that don't shut down when you unplug them!"
There was a brief silence. "If you wouldn't be adverse to some... outside assistance, I know... someone who might be able to help."
Daley frowned as he considered his mother's words. "Someone? More of these mysterious people you used to work with? I've heard this at least a hundred--"
"It's your father."
"Dad?" he answered almost immediately, but had a strange feeling that's not what she meant.
"No, your biological father."
*** The road wound its way into the hills, far out of the bright shine of the city lights. Daley was surprised at how barren it was, how few people had decided to populate this secluded area in the hills. He surely couldn't understand the way a person lived in such isolation, with the nearest store down at the edge of the city.
Daley tried to put that all out of his mind; this wasn't a personal visit at all. This was about the boomers, and maybe this man could provide some helpful information.
He pulled up in front of a small, darkened house, surrounded by a fence, and with a single unremarkable vehicle sitting out front. As the headlights swept across the front of the house, Daley saw a man dressed in black walking around to the rear of the house. The silhouette of another was visible in the car.
Bringing the car to a stop, Daley checked his weapon, unsure of the intent of the men also there. He got out of his vehicle cautiously, but the man in the car didn't turn to look at all. Still wary, Daley walked up to the front door, his hand on his weapon the entire time.
After he pressed the bell, it was at least a full minute before there was the sound of the door being unlocked. It opened and Daley was able to look at the man who was his father. Thin, white-haired, bespectacled, and totally plain.
"Yes?" His voice was soft and raspy around the edges, like old sandpaper.
"My mother said you might be able to provide me with some information. Ritsuko Wong--er, Akagi when you worked with her, I believe."
"I haven't heard that name in a long time." The old man's gaze was somewhat distant as he looked past Daley into the darkness.
"So you are Gendo Ikari? The AD Police would like your assistance."
That brought his gaze immediately into focus and on Daley. "I can't help you. I can't help anyone." He started to close the door, but Daley stopped him with his hand against the dark wood.
"Please, you might have the key to stopping the boomers from going berserk." Daley wasn't sure why he was putting so much faith in his mother's opinion of this man, but a slim chance was still a chance. "I'm sure some sort of compensation can be arranged if that's what you want."
The stern lines that cut into the old man's face grew deeper as he frowned. "That has nothing to do with it. Even if I wanted to, the government would probably object. Now, if you please..."
"At least let me talk to you about it," Daley said desperately, his hand still on the door to hold it open. "I wouldn't do this unless I thought it was very necessary."
With a sigh that reminded Daley of dry leaves in the wind, the old man stepped back and opened the door. There was the very real feeling Daley got that this man was used to getting his way, and that this intrusion was just one in a long line of insults.
"I don't mean to bother you, but we're looking into every possibility. The situation is getting more serious every day." Daley stepped inside, making sure he was apologetic in voice, posture and mannerisms. "We don't think GENOM is being as helpful as they could be," he continued and started to remove his shoes when he noticed there was no place for it in the darkened hallway.
Gendo noticed and snorted. "Forget that. It's not my floor; I don't clean it." He turned on the hallway light, and led Daley into the living room. With one almost skeletal hand, he gestured to the worn couch, then sat slowly in a facing chair.
As Daley sat, he saw the old man reach out and switch on a small lamp that illuminated the room in a soft, pale glow. He let his eyes wander quickly about the room, taking in very few details since there was little there to see. The only item of remark was a picture under the light of a young woman. "She's very lovely; is that your granddaughter?"
Immediately, Daley could tell he had made a mistake. The man's body stiffened, and his eyes narrowed. When he spoke, it was with a dangerous voice. "That is my wife."
Daley was too slow to hide the look of surprise on his face. Wife? Then what about his mother? It was naive for him to think like this, but it was a surprise to him.
"She died almost 40 years ago," Gendo said simply, still sitting rigidly.
"No, that's not what I meant! It's just that..." He couldn't explain it, couldn't tell the truth. "I'm sorry for your loss, and for my insensitivity," Daley said instead, bowing from his seat.
A grunt. "You'd think I'd be over it by now. Being up here gives a person a lot of time to relive past mistakes though."
Daley looked up, and for a moment, he wondered if the man knew, but no. Those brown eyes, one paled by the onset of an untreated cataract, were fixed firmly on the photograph. "Why? Why here? There's nothing--"
"They didn't have enough evidence to execute me outright. Maybe they thought for what I did do for them, I deserved a little mercy. This is better than prison after all." Gendo picked up the picture frame and held it tenderly. "I would have preferred it to this." His gaze returned to Daley, no longer hard, but now deeply saddened. "Death is better than 25 years alone."
"You mean you've lived here for all that time alone?" That seemed to go beyond any sort of cruel and unusual punishment.
"They call it house arrest, but I have nowhere else to go. My son wants nothing to do with me, and I don't think I even care anymore. So I wait, and one day maybe I'll see her again." His eyes returned to the picture, and his features grew slack, like he was ready to fall unconscious.
When Daley spoke again, it was with the gentleness he would use with a frightened child. "I think, if you have something that might help us, I could get a pardon, or at least an exception to this." He leaned forward, urgency becoming evident in his voice as he said, "You shouldn't have to live like this; you're being denied all the advancements... of..."
Gendo waved his hand. "You think they care? They're just waiting for me to die so they don't have to send me any more food and won't have to watch over me. I think I've only lived this long to spite them."
Daley nodded because he had no idea how else to respond.
"Sometimes I wonder who else has survived. I know their names, but not their faces." Gendo leveled his gaze at Daley once more. "Most of their faces. Some I remember."
His eyes narrowed, and Daley resisted the urge to squirm under them. "I'm sure something could be arranged. You don't need to stay here if you have something to offer the city, if you can help us protect the city."
"Why did she think I could help if she couldn't?" Gendo asked, and sat back, his scrutiny gone as quickly as it had appeared.
"I really can't answer that. When I told her about the boomers, she suggested I talk to you." Daley shrugged apologetically. "She gets carried away about these things sometimes, reliving her glory days." He smiled in the same manner as his previous shrug.
"She was... very good." Again his gaze grew distant, but quickly snapped back to Daley. "I don't see what it is about these boomers you need my help with."
"We're not sure ourselves, except that they're a combination of mechanical components, that everyone knows about, as well as biological components. When I mentioned that--"
"Then that must mean..." Gendo removed his glasses and started to clean them with the corner of his shirt. When he slipped them back on, his one clear eye seemed to burn brighter than before. "I'll help... if you can convince the government that I have a use now."
Daley stood and nodded. "We'll worry about the details later. Let's go."
2040: Last Resort Bubblegum Crisis & Evangelion
Updated 12-22-2000