[Evangelion Xgouki]

Time for a little backstory on the Riders...

Spoiler for Masked Rider System:

"Lt. Nagisa, Lt. Nogami. Enter."

The two Bureau mages stepped into the lightly decorated office. Per training they stood at attention in front of Colonel Fuyutsuki's desk in their standard issue TSAB uniforms. It had already been about 2 months since they had been transfered to NERV and they were curious as to why they had been summoned.

"At ease, lieutenants."

Shamsel was the first to speak up, "You requested to see us sir?"

Kouzou leaned back in his chair, "That I did. As you know, NERV was founded to deal with local and high-threat Lost Logia. You two are currently the only team we field to deal with the missions since the Council felt a large funding for such a specialized Division was not required. However, I have been informed of some good news."

He reached behind his desk and pulled out two folders, handing them to each lieutenant.

"You'll find the information on your new teammate in those folders."

Both paused for a moment, staring at the folders in their hands, "New teammate?"

"That is correct, Lt. Nogami. I suggest you read through the file for further information. And you might find you have a bit in common, lieutenant. Dismissed."

They saluted and promptly exited the office before making their way to the mess hall. It was the late afternoon so it was fairly empty. Grabbing an empty table, they broke the seals on the folders and began to skim through the file.

"Let's see...Evangeline Kamishiro...a girl?!"

Ryotaro chuckled a bit at his partner's reaction, "Well, maybe they thought that we handled missions a bit too roughly."

"Heh, maybe. Look at this; she was supposed to have transfered over at the same time we did but they wanted to run additional tests on her new Device...a Zector prototype."

"Yea," he nods, "Looks like it's some kind of new system from this Project ZECT. There's some information on the next..."

Shamsel looked up from his papers as his friend paused in mid-sentence, "Ryotaro? What's wrong?"

"Her Barrier Jacket...take a look at it."

Being a bit curious himself, he flips over few pages until he found the section. It had a few specifics on the Barrier Jacket itself as well as a few pictures.

"That's her? But that looks like..."

"...my Barrier Jacket."

Indeed, the armored Barrier jackets with full helmets were similar in design. Ryotaro leaned back in his chair, "It must be another Rider."

"Another Rider? What do you mean?"

He straightened out in his chair and paused for a moment, "Dr. Akagi had told me about it when I asked her about the odd Barrier Jacket design after I started on Project DenLiner. Apparently the general concept behind the Den-O system was not her idea.

"Two years prior at a research conference they were focusing on Barrier Jackets and melee combat. During the conference it was proposed that they should design some sort of armored barrier Jacket to protect the wearer for efficiently rather than relying on the jacket's own defensive barrier. Especially with the rise of Neo-Belka users, there were a lot more mages who used close-range weapons rather than long-range spells."

"Which is why both your Barrier Jackets are more like armor rather than what what I use," Shamsel interjects.

"Pretty much. The general concept was drawn up over the next few days at the conference until they had hashed out the basic concepts. It would become known as the Masked Rider System. From there, several groups began to explore fundamental uses for this new system...Project DenLiner being one of them that actually got approval from the TSAB."

"And Project ZECT being another," Shamsel adds in. He flips through another page of the file, "Though...why are the two of your Devices so different? Hers has that additional armor and that, uh, Clock Up thing. While yours has multiple AIs and modes."

"Well, they only planned out the basic system at the conference. I guess the two Projects had different viewpoints on how to apply it."

"I guess that makes some sense. Though this should be interesting."

"Eh? What do you mean?"

Shamsel couldn't help but grin a bit, "Two prototype Device users on the same team. Isn't that essentially putting the fruits of two rival projects together?"

"Ha! Are you saying that I'm going to be showed up by her? Have you forget that I start and end at a climax?!"

His friend couldn't help but chuckle at his little antics. Though it would be nice to get a new face to talk to. A glance at the clock showed that they should be head out back to HQ before it got too late.

"Say, Ryotaro..."

"Hm? What is it?"

"How do you think Mayura would react to this? I mean given her interests and all."

The young man paused in mid step as he considered the question for a moment, "Oh boy. Maybe I should keep her away from HQ for a while..."

"What? Afraid this new 'Masked Rider' is going to steal your girl away?"

"Hey!"

Shamsel started laughing at the reaction and took off running, Ryotaro taking up the chace behind him.