Issue #2
Written by Cody Fett
Edited by Bob Regent, and Cyclone
SOESOE
The day after the attack by the laser tentacle monster Angel, Sakura was sitting in English class, waiting for her teacher to pass out their homework sheets for the next week. There was a shifting sound as he handed them to students and a thud when he got to her station. The young girl looked down to find a sizable folder on her desk.
"Mr. Batson!" Sakura whined.
"You got more because you'll be able to do more, Sakura," William Batson, the head English teacher at Tokyo-3 Municipal Middle School, informed his student. "You'll certainly have the time to after your little stunt yesterday."
Sakura groaned and once again regretted running outside the shelter on that day.
SOESOE
"I'm telling you, Nozomi, I don't know how I'm going to handle this next week," Sakura told her best friend as she struggled to pack the folder into her bag during the gap between classes.
"I don't know, but I'm guessing that it won't involve running into a warzone," Horaki Nozomi told her cheekily.
"Gee, you're a real pal, Nozomi," Sakura replied sarcastically, as was proper in an English class taught by an American, at least under the correct circumstances. Navigating that treacherous minefield in a competent fashion was just one of the reasons she was the top student in the class.
"Yeah, yeah, so what did it look like?" Nozomi asked, her eyes lighting up.
As one, the rest of the class seemed to lean in closer as well, and Sakura suddenly realized a certain upside to her previous actions.
"Well, I don't mean to understate things, but it was pretty awesome," the brown-haired young girl said conspiratorily.
"I knew it!" one of the boys at the back shouted.
As the class descended into a chaotic mess of questions and speculation, the door opened to reveal their math teacher, Miss Asaji. She took in the situation with all the grace afforded to her by years of teaching experience, and then dropped a large stack of books on the desk. The loud, reverberating thud made all look in her direction.
She looked each of them in the eyes before continuing, an odd grin on her face the whole time. "Congratulations, class. We're starting on algebra today, I hope you all brought your rulers, because you're not going to be using any calculators."
The class collectively groaned, and as Miss Asaji turned around, Sakura couldn't help but cross her arms in frustration. It seemed that it was just going to be one of those days.
SOESOE
Later on at lunch, Sakura was waiting in line to get her food from the lunch counter and reflecting that she had only been partially right. Math had turned out to be another one of Miss Asaji's grueling exercises, but history had been pretty fun. The teacher seemed to turn his mood around completely from earlier that year, and rather than filling the days with groaning about Second Impact and all the despair that followed, had instead animatedly talked about the Age of Heroes and all the great things that had come out of it.
For instance, Sakura had no idea that The Atom had been the one to invent the antimatter-matter reactor. It was a subject that the teacher had told them they should all be very interested in because of the three AM reactors that powered Nerv, Tokyo-3, and anything else that connected to their power grid because they just had so much of it. She was interested in it, but not for the reasons the teacher had told her to be. Even with the shame of her actions the previous day weighing down on her, she couldn't help but enjoy superheroes.
Captain Marvel, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, The Flash, Martian Manhunter, that lighty fellow she couldn't remember the name of, Hawkgirl, Green Arrow, Doctor Fate, Blue Beetle, Black Canary, and so many more. The heroes of the past had filled her dreams, and now that the heroes were returning, her dreams were filled with the heroes - or rather, heroines - of the new.
Her musings were cut short by the approach of one of the biggest boys in the school. Towering over everyone stood in a sentry stance Feodor Ivaciovich Kalinin of class . . . actually, now that she thought about it, Sakura didn't know what class he was in, but he was the editor-in-chief of The Torch, and that's what everyone knew him as. Well, that, and as "that guy who sucks on bundles of uncooked spaghetti like they're cigars."
"Can I help you with something, sir?" Sakura asked helpfully.
The rest of the students turned away and tried to look inconspicuous, while the large boy looked down at her and took the spaghetti bundle out of the corner of his mouth. "Perhaps," the big blue-eyed editor said evenly. "I am looking for Aida. I need to discuss plans for a radio station, and he said he had managed to capture some pictures of Batgirl last night. I want those pictures on the front page!"
Sakura's eyes lit up like their American neighbor's house on the Fourth of July. "Batgirl?! Holy smokes! There's a successor to Batman in this city?! That is so gas!"
"Nyet!" the editor said suddenly and with a very bold hand gesture. "It is not at all 'gas'. This 'Batgirl' is a masked menace that F. I. Kalinin shall help drag into the light before she harms anyone in our fair city!"
Sakura was taken aback by that, but she was hardly one to back down in the face of an influential angry Russian immigrant in a hurry who was three times her size. "Well, what has she done so far?"
"Just beat up gangsters, but you mark my words. I have a keen instinct about these sorts of things, and this Bat is going to go mad and kill soon, unless she's stopped." Suddenly, the editor's eyes were taken in by a distraction that just so happened to be his original objective. "Aida!" he shouted through the cafeteria before walking off. "You're eating squid at a time like this? Your instincts are terrible!"
Sakura watched him go with what she assumed was the same confused face that everyone else was sharing, but something else had sparked in her mind. What was it that Mr. Kalinin had said? Something about a radio station?
"Hey, Sakura," the girl in question's heart stopped at the sound of a young boy's voice, and she turned back around to see the heroic Ikari Shinji. "Have you seen Toji?" he asked dashingly.
"Eagle-snort quees nob . . ." Sakura sputtered out, her tongue and lips flailing about at random while her vocal cords spasmed uncontrollably, all while her mind desperately tried to compute that she was talking to her idol.
"He's over at table two," Nozomi explained from her spot in front of Sakura, pointing to the part of the cafeteria where Kensuke was being chewed out by his editor.
"Thanks, Nozomi," Shinji replied, walking off.
"Snorgle plotch geen kay!" Sakura called after him with a wave of her hand and a big smile before turning to hide her head in shame. "Oh, man, I blew it, Nozomi."
"Relax. It's not like we're the normal target of bullies, so they won't be looking out for such a juicy thing to tease you with," Nozomi explained in what she hoped was a helpful manner.
Sakura just moaned in pain and hid her face in her palms.
SOESOE
The rest of the week had passed mostly uneventfully, but had changed with the advent of Saturday. On that day, which started like any other, they once again found themselves under attack by an Angel. They had gone into the school shelter, and this time, Sakura was not leaving the shelter.
The fact that her brother was latched onto her like a barnacle had nothing to do with that. Instead, it had everything to do with her own shame; it was something she came back to often during her time in the shelter. Even the big event of trying to cobble together a connection to the other shelters to search for Kensuke and Hikari did little to raise her mood. After all, they were lost again, and that was nothing to get excited over.
Her mood only improved when the all-clear sounded, and it was safe to go out. She just hoped that every Angel attack wouldn't trigger that feeling of shame, though she knew it probably would.
SOESOE
Not long after the Angel attack and a little over 80 kilometers away from Tokyo-3, an enterprising scientist and his staff were preparing for the future.
"Is the fusion exploder ready yet?" the man in charge asked.
"Why not just call it a bomb?" one of the technicians muttered.
"Because it is not a bomb!" came the roared response. "The fusion exploder initiates a self-sustaining series of controlled microexplosions, not an uncontrolled release of energy!" He sighed at the confused look. "It creates a lot of little explosions, like the engine in a car, you nitwit." He paused, and added, "And besides, focus group testing says 'fusion exploder' is better for the company image. But nevermind that! Is it ready?"
"Uh, yeah, it's ready," the technician reported.
"Excellent! With that, the reactor will be ready to have the kryptonite fuel inserted on the day of the test, and when that happens, the Jet Alone will march into a bright tomorrow! And this company will march alongside it, headed by me, Doctor Thaddeus Bodog Sivana!
"BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAA!" Doctor Sivana, CEO of Sivana Industries, laughed maniacally. The small bald man continued to laugh for almost a solid minute, almost doubling over at several points. Eventually though he caught his breath and slowed down. "Haha-heee . . . whoa! Heh. I needed that."
A glass of water was offered to him from off to the side, and he took it. "Thank you, Tokita. That was most refreshing," he said after finishing the glass.
"You're welcome, sir," Tokita Shiro replied with a smile. "Everything seems to be on track for a successful launch, doesn't it?"
"Indeed. It's been a long hard road, but after 15 years, Sivana Industries will finally be on top of the defense contracting world when the Jet Alone beats out the competition at Nerv as the best monster killing machine. After all, it is the fate of all creepy cyborgs to be beaten by radical robots," Sivana exposited happily.
Tokita was smiling too, glad at the idea of the company he worked for being successful. Suddenly, his expression fell as another thought popped into his head. "Sir, what if the UN doesn't accept the Jet Alone as a replacement to the Evas?" he said, sharing that thought with his boss.
"Then we'll just sell it to someone else. It's a giant fighting robot; those things sell like hot cakes every time a new one comes out," Sivana explained. "As long as nothing goes wrong at the test, we'll be fine."
"But what if something does go wrong at the test?"
"Then we'll correct the problem and try again. As long as the prototype survives, we'll be OK."
"But what if the prototype doesn't survive?"
"Then we'll be asking my children for a loan," Doctor Sivana said before shaking his head. "Believe me, we do not want to go down that road."
Shiro thought about that idea for a second, and then shuddered. "I suppose you're right. Nothing can stop us now, and worrying will just guarantee someone making a mistake on that critical day."
"Quite right. At this rate, what could possibly go wrong?" the goblin-like man asked before getting a wistful look on his face. "And to think, all this was possible because I finally accepted Captain Marvel's advice and went legitimate. I wonder where the Big Red Cheese is now . . ."
SOESOE
Sakura sighed happily as she finished the last of her English homework in her folder. It had been difficult, but she had completed all the assignments with plenty of time to spare. It seemed that Mr. Batson had gone for quality over quantity this week, and as a consequence, she was able to get through it all in a reasonable amount of time.
After all, Suzuhara Sakura was a genius when it came to the English language, and that wasn't bragging. It was just a fact.
That done, she decided to engage in a time honored tradition of youth: goofing off. Granted, she would have liked to have been outside playing with Nozomi or one of her other fellows, but she was still grounded. Thus, she was left with only one option on what to do.
Walking into the living room she moved to the bookshelf and turned on the radio mounted on it. She adjusted the dial and hoped that she would be in time to catch her favorite program. It wasn't, but she decided to keep the dial turned to the station so that she'd be able catch when it did turn on. Until then, she'd read a magazine.
It wasn't five minutes later, though, that her wait was over though.
"We say goodbye to the cast of Kayoko's Stalwarts for today, and as we do we welcome another patriotic heroine of a different color . . ."
As a stylized version of "Yankee Doodle Dandy" came over the radio's speakers, Sakura was already putting away the copy of Whiz magazine. That done, she quickly went about straightening her T-shirt in joy, doing her best to make sure the stylized star-spangled logo appear straight. All before sitting down in front of the radio
"By day, she's a normal American teenager, but when trouble's about, she dons the Cosmic Converter Belt and picks up her trusty Cosmic Staff to become Stargirl! She bands with her father, donning the powerful S.T.R.I.P.E. armor, and together they fight the forces of injustice and tyranny! So join us now for Stars and S.T.R.I.P.E.!"
"YATTA!" Sakura cheered, raising her fist into the air as the theme music started in earnest. "Go get 'em, Stargirl!"
"Today, we join our heroine in a familiar scene, at home with her father on a normal American Saturday morning . . ."
"Gee, Dad, thanks for fixing up my Power Converter Belt."
"No problem, Daughter. It was a cinch, thanks to my mechanical knowhow."
Her fangirling aside, Sakura did have to admit to herself that the dialogue was a bit off. It was a sacrifice to protect the heroes' secret identities though, and she was fine with it. After all, it wasn't as if their civilian names mattered . . . her mind flashed to a smooth stone in her bedroom . . . did they?
*ring* *ring*
*click*
"Yes, officer, this is S.T.R.I.P.E. . . . I see. Don't worry officer, we're on our way."
"Trouble, dad?"
"I'm afraid so. Icicle's on the loose, and he's holding the Opal City Zoo hostage."
"The fiend! He'll rue the day he ever tried."
"I'll get my suit, and we'll fly there in a jiff."
*various mechanical noises*
"Using the incredible power of her Cosmic Staff, Stargirl flies to the scene of the crime, and beside her in the Special Tactics Robotic Integrated Power Enhancer suit is her father. They blaze through the sky and arrive to find many of Opal's finest frozen in stasis ice while many an animal cower in fear."
"This ice is no match for my Cosmic Staff. I'll have these good men out in no time."
*whirring hiss*
"Keep alert, Stargirl. There's no telling where that criminal could be."
"I'm here, Powered Protector!"
*Viiisssst crackle*
"Ah-ha-ha-ha! The city has no chance. Either they pay me the four million, or they'll never be able to use the zoo again!"
"AGH! His freeze ray has disabled me! Daughter, run!"
"No can do, Dad!"
*POW!*
"Ow! You'll pay for that, you star-spangled brat!"
"You'll pay far more for your destruction of property, reckless endangerment, and animal cruelty, Icicle!"
"Fool! You'll never escape my . . ."
*rapid beeping*
"We interrupt this program to bring you a special news bulletin. The Jet Alone robot being tested at the old Tokyo proving grounds has run amok, its reactor has started to overload, and it's on a collision course with the city of New Yokosuka. The UN special security organization Nerv has deployed Eva-01 in an attempt to stop it, but things are looking grim. The superwomen are all otherwise occupied, and as the world waits with bated breath for more news one can only hope that all will turn out alright. We turn now to our reporter in the field."
Sakura's jaw was completely slack by the end of the introduction, and she rushed over to the TV to confirm what the radio was saying. She tuned it to the news station and saw a lanky robot walking towards her city's twin. The text and voices were just the despicable icing on the traumatic cake.
Nerv was on the job, and valiant Shinji would surely save the day, but . . . but she was in a position to help too. She was still grounded, but her dad had always told her not to let regulation stand in the way of doing the right thing, so hopefully, he would understand. Besides, it wouldn't harm anything to just test if she had imagined things that week past.
After turning everything off and making sure that her door was safely locked, Sakura began running for the rooftop. She ran and ran, and eventually threw open the door to the roof of her apartment complex. It was bright and well-lit, but there was also a Nerv missile battery that obscured people's views of the roof and drew their attention. She would be safe, she thought.
As she moved aside some of Mrs. Kamakura's laundry she felt her heart beating faster than it ever had before. If this didn't work out, then she would go back down to her family's apartment and pray that Nerv would succeed. If it did . . . she didn't know what she would do. She'd been told she was worthy, but she wasn't sure she believed it.
Her heartbeat pounding louder than a jet engine inside her ear she advanced towards the edge of the roof. It was showtime, the point where she found out if she was a heroine or not. One word, that's all it would take. One word to change her life forever. She might as well shout it.
"SHAZAM!"
A terrific bolt of lightning came down from a cloudless sky with an ear-splitting crack and struck the young girl perfectly. Bright gold energy and piercing noise consumed her for all of a second, and then, just as quickly as it had appeared, it was gone. When the smoke cleared, Sakura was gone, and in her stead was a brown-haired woman in the prime of her life.
She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Information was flooding into her mind at a rate that would surely break the light speed barrier. Entire libraries and archives of information were at her instant beck and call, and more than that, she instinctively knew and felt that she would have the wisdom to use it properly.
There was a great commotion down on the street, and many a person were trying to make their voices heard. The woman confidently stepped towards the edge and looked down at the gathering crowd, who in turn looked up at her.
"They're looking at me, looking for a hero, or rather heroine, to save the day," she realized aloud.
Her face became resolute. "They'd need not fear, Miss Marvel is on the job!"
Like a red, white, and gold streak of light, Miss Marvel rocketed up into the sky towards Old Tokyo.
"Incredible. I can fly, and do so much more! Thanks to my mind's increased capabilities in this form, I don't need to waste time learning what my powers are at all."
Flexing her muscles and locking onto her target she did a corkscrew through a cloud.
"It isn't just my mind that's been enhanced in this form either. My eyes and reflexes are profoundly better than normal, and body has been given great strength and the form to match. I better be careful or else the press will label me as having the beauty of Atalanta as well, and that would just be awkward for everyone involved."
There was a tremendous booming as the white-caped superheroine broke the sound barrier.
"And speed to boot! Is there anything this body can't do?"
SOESOE
In his command center, Doctor Sivana was sweating bullets. His precious Jet Alone had gone berserk and wasn't listening to commands, and worse, the reactor was overloading despite it being physically impossible for it to do that. This wasn't new to him - during the First Age of Heroes his creations had run amok many a time - but back then, he didn't feel that there were any real consequences to his actions, and Captain Marvel or one of the other superheroes would just come in and stop said creation from rampaging. This time, there was no hero coming to save the day, and there were more consequences to his actions than he even wanted to think about.
"Tell Zmeck to start pushing buttons randomly. Maybe that will do something," Sivana ordered desperately. Nothing happened, of course. The Jet Alone just kept walking forwards.
"Eva-01 has been deployed, and Captain Katsuragi is beginning her insertion," Tokita reported.
"Good. Maybe we'll be able to help her fix things with two people in JA, somehow," Sivana said, knowing that it was a long shot at best. He paused to pick up a bottle of water and unscrewed the cap before drinking the entire thing in one go. "This was definitely sabotage. Most likely someone modified the autopilot system to bypass the activation inputs and modified the kryptonite reactor with explosives or sensor spoofers."
"Eva-01 has delivered Captain Katsuragi, and Zmeck is reporting that the inside has gotten really bloody hot," someone reported.
"HOW?!" Sivana replied. "Did someone replace the kryptonite reactor with a fission pile covered in napalm when I wasn't looking? Because I'm not seeing how else any of this is possible!"
"Sir, things just got even more impossible," Tokita reported. "Look at screen five."
Sivana looked at the screen, and his mind froze. He couldn't believe what he was seeing.
"It's Mary Marvel, sir," Tokita said, confusion and wonder in his voice.
"That's not Mary," Sivana said quietly.
SOESOE
"Gadzooks! That robot is quite the big catch. Luckily, Unit-01 seems to have the situation well in hand," Miss Marvel said as she arrived on the scene.
Evangelion Unit-01 had been deployed, and was currently holding the Jet Alone like it was a gridiron football player at Big Stadium in Tokyo-3.
"While he's holding it back, I'll fly in and stop everything from blowing up in his cute face," the red-clad superwoman said as she floated down to the Jet Alone's back.
"If this robot was designed with any kind of sense, the entrance should be right... here."
Miss Marvel dove into the back of Jet Alone and through several layers of shielding and electronics.
SOESOE
"NO! What is she doing?!" Sivana shouted at the top of his lungs. "The entrance was just five feet to the left! She didn't need to do that!"
"Sir, several of the regulators have been destroyed, and the reactor's self-destruct mechanism has been tripped!" Tokita reported in a manner most panicked.
Sivana wasn't sure how to respond to that, but eventually found the appropriate phrase. "Oh, biscuits."
SOESOE
Bare hands tore open the door to the cockpit, and through the newly created hole stepped the rookie heroine.
"Who are you?!" Captain Katsuragi demanded, her glare just barely visible behind the transparent top of her radiation suit.
"Miss Marvel, I'm here to . . ."
". . . Screw everything up!" Zmeck, the Jet Alone's pilot, cut her off. "You tripped the reactor's self destruct mechanism and blew through the shielding!"
Miss Marvel was not expecting to hear that, and before she could respond, there was a large explosion. She was knocked off her feet, and when she got up, she saw that the cockpit had been flooded with a silver liquid metal and more forms of radiation than even her incredible super-senses could detect. Both Zmeck and Katsuragi were lying partially submerged in the metal with various ruptures in their suits.
"No. No! . . . I've failed, but I can't let this get any worse!"
Miss Marvel shot out with the swiftness of Zephyrous and picked up the two injured adults with the strength of Hippolyta; she ran as fast as she could out the hole she had made earlier. She launched herself off the back of the Jet Alone and flew through the air back towards the proving grounds and the medical staff on station. It wasn't as fast as she would have liked, but it was fast enough.
"They've been seriously injured and need help."
The paramedics, in response, let loose a litany of uncouth words as they struggled to assess the damage done to the two humans.
Miss Marvel never got the chance to hear what they were saying, though; she was already flying back to the Jet Alone at supersonic speeds. The robot had slumped and stopped moving, thanks to the destruction of its reactor, but the white-caped heroine didn't need her super senses to tell her that it was still a danger.
"I shall take care of this machine! You go tend to your friend back at the proving grounds!" she shouted loud enough for the Eva to hear.
As the Eva moved out of the way, Miss Marvel caught the robot's falling form. "I'd like to say I'm saving the day to you, but you're both danger to others and not alive. So with a mighty ooph from my super strength, I shall lift you into the air and up into the sky!"
And that she did, rising high and higher at a rapid pace with the Jet Alone until she was breaking through the ionosphere and even further. She continued to speedily ascend until she fully cleared the atmosphere and threw the Jet Alone as hard as she could.
"Off you go! Now you can detonate safely . . . Any second now. Any second. . . . Huh. That's not at all odd and is perfectly in line for the design specification. How surprising. Well, in any case, it's good that I threw it on a collision course with Neptune using my fantastic super brain. After all, as Miss Asaji is fond of saying, one never eyeballs a firing solution, because Sir Isaac Newton is the deadliest man in space."
As she watched Jet Alone continue to quickly drift away, her eyes suddenly got very wide.
"Hokey smokes. I can survive and talk in space."
SOESOE
William Batson, the English teacher in Tokyo-3 in his early thirties, sat in his small apartment watching the television with absolute awe as images of a bygone age played, while the sanity of the world slowly slipped away. All in the focus of a breaking news segment.
"Today in the Kanto prefecture, the day was saved after the Jet Alone mecha, manufactured by Sivana Industries, suffered a catastrophic malfunction that almost caused the machine to self-destruct in a populated area. Fortunately, a new superheroine, introducing herself as Miss Marvel, was on hand to stop the robot, and she was helped by an unlikely supporter: Nerv deployed their Evangelion Unit-01 to help literally stop the robot in its tracks. Unfortunately, the Jet Alone pilot, retired US Air Force Major Clifford Zmeck, and Nerv Operations Director Captain Misato Katsuragi were both injured in the incident and are in critical condition at Hakone General.
"Doctor Thaddeus Sivana, CEO of Sivana Industries and former supervillain, had this to say on the incident..."
The screen changed to show Doctor Sivana weeping on the ground outside the Old Tokyo Proving Grounds Main Building.
"They threw it into space! Those fiends, those wretched fiends, they destroyed it! Years of work ruined. Ruined! I swear this day an oath of vengeance! Vengeance! I swear an oath of vengeance against the Marvel Family who tore apart my beloved Jet Alone! And I swear an oath of vengeance against Nerv and/or Japan Heavy Chemical Industries, who are the most likely causes of the foul sabotage that led to Miss Marvel ruining it! Vengeance! I—I—I... oh, so many years of work down the drain."
"Doctor Sivana declined to clarify if this was a new oath of vengeance against the Marvel Family or a reinstatement of the old one. In other news, a baby panda was rescued from a tree in Hokkaido by the local fire department."
By the end of the segment, Mr. Batson's head was firmly cupped in his hands.
SOESOE
As he stood on the balcony of his apartment after a dinner of cheap miso soup and hot dogs, William Batson looked out on the city he had come to call his home with renewed eyes. It was wonderous, it was depressing, it was fantastic, and it was horrifying, but now, it was something else. Somewhere out there, the magic had been reborn, and someone worthy had been found.
He just wondered if he was still worthy, or if something was missing.
Inhaling deeply, he said a single soft word.
"Shazam."
SOESOE
Cody's A/N: Remember how I said that I wanted at least one update a week? Life did not agree, and I burned out. Hopefully this chapter will get me over that, but I'm not sure. Elite: Dangerous is, after all, still on my hard drive.
Fun fact though, the sequence with the radio play was a compressed version of the events of Stars and S.T.R.I.P.E. #0, which featured a double story focusing on the first Star-Spangled Kid in the past while Courtney and her father teamed up with Starman in the future. The past story had Icicle as he held the Opal water treatment plant hostage for four million USD, and the future story had his son being very creepy and threatening in a zoo.
As for Kalalin sucking on a bundle of pasta. Well, it's an old habit of mine, and a reference to the fact that he was originally named after an Italian warship. He was called Akiyo U. Maiale, and his personality was . . . pretty much the same, actually, just less developed due to a lack of time.