Disclaimer: Neon Genesis Evangelion is the creation of Anno and Gainax. I don't own it, make no claims to it, and am making no profit from this fan fiction. No infringement of copyright is intended. In other words, please don't sue.
Disclaimer: I do not own DC comics or anything associated with it and am making no profit off this fan fiction. No infringement of copyright is intended. In other words, please don't sue.
Chapter Nine: Meeting of the Metals, Part Two
"Come on, come on…"
After all the ordeals Mana Kirishima had gone through recently, she thought that she knew the feeling of panic as well as anyone. Yet only now did she realize that she hadn't known true panic up until this moment.
"Come on…"
True panic wasn't coming home one day, finding her front door left swinging open and knowing immediately, down in the pit of her soul, that something was very wrong. It wasn't even having a small army of thugs in black suits coming after her and having no idea how she was going to escape from them.
"Come on…!"
True panic was knowing that someone she cared about had only moments to live unless she saved them, and thinking that she wasn't up to the job.
"Come on!" she screamed.
She had only seconds before the missile Metallo had fired struck the roof of a nearby skyscraper, where the metal man had stranded Hikari and her younger sister. A targeting reticule repeatedly appeared on her HUD one moment only to vanish the next as she desperately tried to get a lock on the thing. Her targeting computer was simply not designed to deal with extremely fast, small targets in mind. Steel had more expected to be dealing with people when she'd made her weapons.
Even if she did, by some miracle, get a lock, there was still no guarantee she'd manage to shoot the missile down. Her rivet guns, like her targeting computer, simply hadn't been designed for such a thing.
"Please, please," she said, begging for aid from whatever deities might be listening as she frantically tried to shoot down the missile that Metallo had fired
Her targeting computer emitted a weak tone as she finally managed to get a partial lock. It would have to be good enough; Steel was out of time. She fired…
…and missed, the rivet falling far short of ever hitting the missile.
"No," Steel moaned, feeling her heart plummeting down into her stomach as she watched the missile moving toward its helpless targets.
Hikari and her sister were going to die, and she couldn't do anything about it.
An instant before the deadly ordnance could impact, something blue and red streaked upwards from the ground, intercepting the missile. The shell erupted into an orange fireball, unleashing a shockwave that knocked the two Horaki sisters off their feet, but otherwise left them unharmed.
For the briefest of instants, Steel could only stare at the rapidly shrinking cloud of fire and smoke in complete bewilderment, unable to comprehend the miracle that had spared Hikari and her younger sister.
Then a girl tumbled out of the smoke, her blond hair flying about wildly as she fell limply toward the ground, and Steel belatedly realized what had happened.
Supergirl, despite having already been half-dead when "the other Girl of Steel" had arrived on the scene, had gotten in the missile's way and taken the hit herself in order to spare Hikari and her sister.
Steel was briefly overcome by a fresh wave of awe for her idol; she had never doubted that Supergirl was a true hero in every sense of the word, but to actually see such an act of courage with her own eyes…
Then the girl in the metal suit snapped back to the present, immediately plunging downwards in an attempt to catch Supergirl before she could hit the ground. However, she knew almost at once that she wouldn't make it in time, and she could only wince as she watched her hero hit the sidewalk, fervently hoping that Supergirl could withstand just that much more abuse.
A moment later, Steel landed next to her. The street was deserted, almost eerily so, with everyone having fled the area as a result of her clash with Metallo. The sight of the invincible heroine looking so battered and beaten was more than a little disturbing, the armored girl decided.
"Supergirl! Are you all right?" she asked. "Please, wake up. Say something."
The superwoman's sky blue eyes opened just a crack, and she mumbled something that sounded a lot like, "Damn clouds," before passing out again.
Steel blinked, looking up at the sky for a moment before turning back to Supergirl. Why would the original Girl of Steel care if there was an overcast?
Then she shook her head, dismissing the question. "Medical scan," she ordered, suddenly feeling very glad that she'd installed this particular feature.
She was instantly treated to a view of Supergirl's skeleton as it appeared on her HUD, along with readouts on her vitals. To her surprise, the superwoman had no serious injuries that she could detect, though she had sustained a plethora of superficial wounds.
God, she's tough, Steel thought as she carefully gathered Supergirl up in her arms.
It wouldn't do to have people see the great super heroine like this, after all.
Igniting the jets in her boots, Steel took off, landing on the first convenient rooftop and gently setting Supergirl down there. Now that she was confident the superwoman wasn't on death's doorstep, she could divert her attention back to another pressing matter.
Metallo.
The mechanical man had apparently made a run for it after firing that missile, but even in Tokyo-3, a one-armed robot drew quite a bit of attention, doubly so when he obviously didn't care about hurting people who got in his way. Steel took off through the air, following the trail of destruction and panic Metallo left in his wake. It wasn't long before she caught sight of the machine man.
"Hey, big man, forget about me?" Steel asked, firing a few rivets off at him.
Metallo's only response was to growl and dive out the way of the projectiles, his great weight cracking the sidewalk below him as he landed. He regained his feet in an eye blink, though, and was once more off again at top speed.
Steel growled in frustration as she fired more rivets at him, all with similarly lackluster results. She would've let the exploding ones fly, but the innocent civilians in this part of the city hadn't had a chance to get away yet.
Damn he's fast, she thought. Even with my jets, I'm barely keeping up with him. How am I supposed to stop him?
She was still pondering the question when Metallo scrambled over to one of the access points which led into the bowels of the vast metal plate that separated Tokyo-3 from the Geofront below. The machine man, despite being down one arm, was easily able to rip the heavy metal door right off its hinges. Tossing it carelessly aside (and almost crushing a young man who barely managed to avoid it), he plunged inside.
Steel grinned beneath her helmet. Metallo was probably hoping to lose her in the labyrinth of maintenance tunnels that existed inside the plate, but she was the one who'd have the advantage down there. Mayumi used the tunnels extensively to get around Tokyo-3 without being seen, and Steel had downloaded the maps she'd created into the new Exosuit's hard drive.
Calling up those maps with a quick verbal command, Steel plunged down into the tunnels after Metallo.
"You made a bad move coming down here," she called out, even as she ran after Metallo. "A really bad move."
"Go to hell, bitch!" he shouted back at her from a distance.
Steel just shook her head, still unable to figure out why something that seemed like a robot could have such a (nasty) human personality.
As she continued to chase Metallo through the tunnels, she realized to her surprise that she was catching up to him. She'd assumed that she'd need to use the maps to find shortcuts and get ahead of him that way, but the constant twists and turns must have been forcing him to move at well below his top speed.
I'm gonna catch him, she thought as she finally got within sight of her quarry. Then maybe I can finally find out who—and what—this guy is.
Unfortunately, Metallo seemed to realize at that very moment just how close his pursuer had gotten. With a growl, he raised his remaining arm, and the compartment on his forearm opened for a second time that day, revealing another small missile.
"How many of those things do you have?!" Steel exclaimed, caught by surprise.
Metallo didn't answer, instead opting to fire his second missile. The girl in the metal suit had just enough time to brace herself before it hit, hoping her armor could withstand the explosion.
Only the missile didn't hit her. Metallo hadn't aimed for her. Instead, the thing struck the roof of the tunnel between the two of them, causing steel and concrete to come raining down as that section collapsed. Steel was only barely able to stop and reverse course quickly enough to avoid being completely buried in the avalanche of debris. As it was, she ended up face down on the floor, her legs pinned by fallen chunks of metal and concrete.
With a grunt of effort, along with a loud whir of servo-motors from her armor, Steel managed to free herself, but one look at the collapsed section of the tunnel made it obvious that she wasn't going that way.
"Map," she growled irritably, bringing up the chart of the tunnels in the plate once again.
Her shoulders slumped at what she saw; the tunnel she and Metallo were in branched off into dozens of others, which themselves diverged into still other tunnels. With no idea of which route he would choose, she had no chance of looping around and catching him.
Damn, she thought, just knowing that Metallo would be causing her problems in the future. She sighed. Well, I guess I should check on Supergirl.
Using her map to find the nearest access point, Steel returned to the surface, quickly flying back to where she'd left the unconscious superwoman.
Only to find no one there.
Suddenly feeling uneasy, the girl in the metal suit glanced up at the sky, but she saw no sign of the caped heroine. Looking toward the building where Metallo had left the Horaki sisters prisoner and zooming in on it with her HUD, Steel saw no sign of anyone there now. The other superwoman had likely helped them to the ground.
Steel might've thought that Supergirl was a great hero, an example to be followed, but there was certainly no guarantee that the original Girl of Steel had similar feelings about her.
If anything, it was much more likely that Supergirl thought she was some rank amateur, who was more of a danger than a help to Tokyo-3 and its denizens.
Steel was suddenly very afraid that Supergirl would order her to quit the superwoman business if she encountered her again. She had no idea how Metallo had managed to best the original Girl of Steel so easily, but Steel still wasn't willing to bet that her own armor would hold up any better than the average soda can against Supergirl's might.
I'd better get out of here, she decided, igniting her jets and taking off in the direction of Yamagishi Manor.
Unfortunately, this was apparently the worst thing she could have done, so far as avoiding the attention of the other superwoman was concerned. The instant she was above the roof of the building, she heard a voice calling out to her.
"Hey!"
Turning her head, Steel saw that Supergirl was indeed flying after her. Reacting on instinct, she immediately switched the jets in her boots to maximum burn and went streaking through the sky.
A second later, she felt ready to kick herself for how stupid she'd been. There was no way she could hope to out fly Supergirl. Trying to escape would probably only give the superwoman an even worse impression of her.
Yet when she turned her head to look, it seemed like she was getting away. Supergirl must've still been suffering the effects of whatever Metallo had done to her. Steel felt hope rise up within her.
"Hey, wait!" the original Girl of Steel called, as the gap between them widened. "Stop!"
Steel didn't stop, filled with an overwhelming fear that if the other superwoman caught up to her, it would inevitably lead to a clash between Supergirl and Batgirl, as they feuded over whether or not Steel should be allowed to continue her activities.
"Wait up!" Supergirl called. "Mana!"
Steel abruptly came to a halt in midair, thunderstruck by the revealation that Supergirl knew her name.
How could that be? She wondered.
She had read in the Tokyo Tattler that Supergirl was supposed to have X-ray vision, and if that was true, she could've easily seen what Steel looked like beneath her armor. Still, that didn't explain how Supergirl had known her name.
Her mind was still reeling when the other superwoman finally managed to catch up to her; even though she clearly wasn't at a hundred percent, Supergirl was still very fast, and she managed to close the gap between them in only a second or two once Steel stopped.
"Mana!" Supergirl exclaimed, placing a hand on Steel's armored shoulder as she moved to face her, the two of them hovering high above the city. "I'm so glad to see you! I was so worried when you disappeared and we saw that your house was destroyed!"
"What…but…how do you…?" she stammered in confusion, before realizing abruptly just why Supergirl seemed so familiar. "Wait a second. Asuka?"
Supergirl smiled broadly, and in that moment Steel knew, even before the other girl confirmed it. "That's me, all right," she said. "Now—"
"Oh my god! This is so cool!" Steel shrilled, sounding every bit like the teenage girl she was. "I'm friends with Supergirl!"
"Yeah, awesome," Supergirl said grumpily, and it was only now that Steel was over her anxiety and surprise and the following elation that she realized just how unwell her friend looked. Supergirl was pale, and her shoulder slumped; she looked exhausted.
"Are you all right?" she asked.
"I could use some sun. Come on," Supergirl said, flying off.
Small breaks in the clouds over Tokyo-3 had formed, allowing a few shafts of golden sunlight to make their way down to shine on the city. Asuka quickly located a convenient spot high on the roof of skyscraper that was bathed in the glow from one such sunbeam and sat down, her legs kicking over the ledge of the building.
Almost instantly, Steel saw an improvement in her friend's condition. Her color improved, returning to normal, and she straightened her slumped shoulders.
"Sunlight fuels your powers?" Steel asked curiously as she gingerly came down for a landing and sat next to Supergirl.
"Yeah, but never mind that," Supergirl replied, giving her friend a serious look. "We need to talk."
Steel sighed, and reached up to undo the clamps holding her helmet in place. It came off with a soft hiss, and she set it down next to her.
"Okay," Mana said solemnly.
"Who's after you?" Supergirl asked. "Who really kidnapped your mother?"
Mana sighed. She knew that Asuka would ask that sooner or later, but she'd hoped for later. "I can't tell you that," she said.
"Why the hell not?" Supergirl demanded. "Mana, these people are dangerous. I can help you stop them if you'll just let me!"
The auburn-haired girl felt a lump forming in her throat, and she couldn't reply right away. With the way her mother's job had them constantly moving from place to place, Mana had only ever had the most casual of friendships before. Now here was Asuka, ready and more than willing to go to the mat for her against the organization that was after her, even though they hadn't known each other for very long at all. It was probably something Supergirl would do for anyone, but Mana was still extremely touched by it.
"I'm not trying to shut you out, here, Asuka," Mana said, "but I can't put you in that kind of danger."
"Uh, hello?" Supergirl said, pointing to the S-shield emblazed upon her chest.
"Yes, I know, you're Supergirl, you're bullet-proof," Mana said, heaving a sigh.
"So why won't you let me help you? Just explain everything to me, and we can go after the bad guys together," Supergirl pressed. Then her eyes narrowed. "Is it because of Batgirl? Has she ordered you not to tell me anything? Is she mistreating you, Mana?"
"No, it's not like that," Mana rushed to reassure her friend. "Batgirl's been more than fair to me, and she's never threatened me or anything. I just…"
"Just what?" Supergirl prompted.
Mana sighed, looking down at her armored hands. How was she supposed to tell Asuka that the group that had left her mother in a coma and was now out to get her was NERV? The very same organization that Asuka had devoted much of her life to? The one that was still charged with the critical mission of stopping the Angels?
"God, I want to tell you so much. I'd love your help," Mana said. "But I just can't. It would be…terrible for you—you personally—if you knew."
"What do you mean?" Supergirl asked, her eyes narrowed.
But Mana just shook her head and continued to look down at her hands.
Supergirl sighed. "So that's how it is, then? You'll work with Batgirl, but not with me?"
"It's not like that!" Mana exclaimed. "Believe me, I'd much rather be working with you!"
"But you can't. You've got this crazy idea that whoever you're dealing with is too dangerous even for Supergirl, and nothing I can say will change your mind, will it?" the original Girl of Steel said.
She sounded so bitterly disappointed that Mana was tempted to tell her everything anyway. It was only with a supreme force of will that she resisted the impulse.
"No," she said.
Supergirl's lips pressed into a thin line. "What happened to that Metallo…thing?" she asked. "Did you manage to stop him?"
Mana shook her head. "He got away."
Supergirl nodded. "You saw that glowing green rock he had in his chest?" she asked. "That was a piece of something called kryptonite, and it's the only thing that can hurt me so far as I know."
"So that's why Metallo was winning your fight with him," Mana said, all that suddenly making sense now.
"Yeah," Supergirl said. "That thing might've been after you, but it was made to fight me. These people can make stuff that can hurt even me, Mana."
"All the more reason to keep their attention on me, and for you to stay out of it," the girl in the metal suit countered.
"Okay, and what happens when they make something specially designed to fight you?" Supergirl asked.
"They can't. Their tech's not that good," Mana said, fervently hoping she was right about that.
"Fine," Supergirl said, finally relenting.
She stood up, reaching out a hand to help Mana up. The auburn-haired girl took it, and despite the great weight of her armor, Supergirl pulled her to her feet effortlessly.
"If you change your mind, you know where to find me," Supergirl said. "And it was good seeing you, even if you're being stupid and keeping secrets."
Mana smiled. "It was good to see you, too," she said. "When this is all over, we'll go to the mall and hang out, just like before…everything."
She felt very silly, standing before Supergirl and talking about going to the mall with her, even though, she realized with some amazement, that she had already done so, several times in fact.
"Okay," Supergirl said, then cast her gaze out toward the open sky. "I have to check on something. There's only one place I know of where that kryptonite could've possibly come from."
"Right," Mana said. "See you soon." She added, hoping she was speaking the truth.
Supergirl responded with a curt nod, and Mana could tell her friend was still upset. Then she was off, streaking through the sky at a blisteringly fast pace. The auburn-haired girl tried to watch her go, but she blinked, and then the superwoman was gone.
I should head back to the Batcave, Mana thought, picking up her helmet and putting it back on.
However, she paused just before she took off. It was clear that Asuka wasn't heading back to her apartment, and Mayumi was no doubt angry at her already…
Why not? Steel thought with a smile, taking off into the sky.
Meanwhile, Shinji Ikari sat in the apartment he called home, blissfully unaware of how close Hikari and Nozomi Horaki had come to death just minutes earlier, playing his cello.
Or at least, he was trying to play his cello. With Asuka having gone out, Misato still at NERV, and no sync tests scheduled for that day, the Third Child had found himself with a rare afternoon of solitude and peace before him. So he had gotten out his instrument, intending to enjoy it.
Unfortunately, he was finding that he just couldn't. Every time he tried to play, his mind would wander, and he'd start missing notes until the melody he was trying to coax out of the instrument deteriorated into a series of noises that didn't resemble music in the slightest.
After his latest attempt went similarly awry, Shinji sighed and set the bow down.
Mana…
The auburn-haired girl had never been far from his thoughts since Batgirl had taken him to visit her, and Shinji had found that he was even more worried about her than he'd been before he'd known what had happened to her.
Also, though he knew this was of far less importance, it hadn't escaped him that he might've been out spending the afternoon with his new girlfriend, if things had been more normal.
His girlfriend. The phrase seemed so strange and wonderful, because Shinji had never really expected to have a girlfriend.
And he didn't just have a girlfriend; so far as the pilot of Unit One was concerned, he had an awesome girlfriend. Mana was so beautiful, smart, and kind that Shinji normally would've been disinclined to believe that she really wanted to be his girlfriend, despite the fact that she'd kissed him. Yet she'd actually referred to herself as such, eliminating away any seed of doubt that might've sprouted later.
So, an amazing girl actually liked him, but he never got to spend any time with her now.
God, what is wrong with you? He chastised himself. Mana's in a horrible situation, and you're feeling sorry for yourself because you have no one to go on a date with right now.
He sighed softly as he gazed at the cello's case, settling for wishing that things could be more normal.
"If only there was something I could do to help make that happen," he muttered to himself, finally giving up on playing his cello all together and moving to put the instrument away.
However, he had barely gotten the case open when something blocked out most of the light coming from the room's far window. Turning to look, Shinji started at the sight of an armored figure hovering in midair outside, just beyond the balcony. He was so surprised that he let go of his cello and had to frantically grab at the neck of the instrument to prevent it from falling to the floor.
The armored figure responded to his panicked fumbling with a very girlish laugh, confirming what Shinji already knew.
"Mana!" he exclaimed, taking only a moment to set his cello down before rushing to open the balcony doors.
"Hi, Shinji," she replied. Her helmet distorted her voice slightly, but it was unmistakably Mana Kirishimia beneath Steel's armor.
He stared at her, barely daring to believe that after what felt like an eternity of pining for her, she was right here before him.
Then he abruptly snapped back to the present. "Mana! Please, come inside," he invited her, gesturing toward the apartment.
"I would, but I don't think this balcony will be able to hold me. This armor weighs a ton. And I don't think my jets will do good things to the rug in there," she added, gesturing to the gouts of flame shooting from the bottom of her boots. They were remarkably quiet, Shinji noted absently. "Can you meet me up on the roof?"
"Sure," Shinji agreed at once.
Nodding, Steel ascended, quickly vanishing from his line of sight. Shinji instantly ran for the door to the apartment, all but sprinting up the stairs of the apartment building. He reached the roof just as Mana was taking off her helmet.
"Hi, Shinji," she said, suddenly acting shy now that he could see her face.
Mana had an acute case of hat hair from her helmet, she was visibly sweaty even from across the roof of the apartment building, and she was of course still clad in her imposing armor from the neck down.
Shinji thought she looked absolutely gorgeous.
Wordlessly, he rushed toward her, placed his hands on her cheeks, and gave her a long, clumsy, lingering kiss, a seeming eternity of longing expressing itself in one uncharacteristically impulsive action.
"Ah, sorry," he said as soon as they broke apart, embarrassed by his own boldness.
Mana was blushing a bright red, but she grinned at him. "Don't be," she said.
"God, I'm so glad to see you—"
"I could tell," Mana said with a small smirk.
"—I've been worried about you," he finished.
Mana sobered. "Yeah, I've been worried about you, too."
Shinji blinked. "Me? Why?"
She gave him a look. "You are still an Evangelion pilot, right?"
"Oh, uh, yeah, I am, of course, I just…" he stammered, her point catching him entirely by surprise. Compared to the predicament Mana had found herself stuck in, his life seemed very safe and secure, but of course it wasn't. "I'm just still not used to having people worry about my safety, is all."
"That's…kind of sad," the auburn-haired girl replied with a frown, then she smiled. "Well, you have someone to worry about you now." She said, placing a hand on his shoulder.
Shinji did his best not to wince at the feel of the mechanical gauntlet, dearly wishing he and Mana could spend time together under more auspicious circumstances. "Do you have any idea yet when you'll be able to go back to a normal life?" he asked.
She shook her head. "No more than I did before," she answered. "I probably shouldn't even be visiting you like this. Bats won't like it, I'm sure."
Shinji's eyes widened. "Are you going to be okay?" he asked. "I'm happy to see you, but I don't want you to get hurt for it."
"It'll be fine, Shinji. Relax," Mana reassured him. "Batgirl's bark is worse than her bite. At least where people she views as allies are concerned." She added.
"Oh, good," Shinji said, not entirely comforted.
"But still, I can't stay long," Mana said. "So let's just enjoy the few minutes I'm stealing here."
He smiled. "Would you like me to hold you again? Like last time?" he asked.
"Oh, I'm sure the last thing you want to do is hug me while I'm wearing this," Mana said, rapping on her armor with her knuckles, producing a metallic clang. "You don't have to…"
She trailed off, gratefully falling silent as Shinji wordlessly wrapped his arms around her armored form.
As Shinji and Mana were enjoying their all too brief reunion, Supergirl was just crossing into German airspace, having trekked about halfway across the world in what was record time, even for her.
Prior to her run in with Metallo, Supergirl had only ever encountered kryptonite once before in her life, and it had been in the possession of a man named Emil Hamilton, who also happened to be the one responsible for her having superhuman powers to begin with.
It had been Hamilton who'd told her about her origins, about what she was. More than that, he had had a large role in motivating her to try to truly be the great hero that people saw when they looked at her. He had been a friend of her mother, and the original Girl of Steel considered him a friend, too, even if she'd only met him once before.
So Supergirl had spent her entire time in transit hoping against hope that wherever Metallo had come from, he'd gotten that piece of kryptonite in his chest from somewhere other than Emil Hamilton's basement.
Those hopes were dashed the moment she spied Hamilton's house with her super vision. Yellow police tape surrounded the property, and a peek inside with her X-ray eyes revealed only more disheartening sights. There were obvious signs a struggle, and a layer of dust was starting to accumulate on most of the surfaces, indicating that no one had occupied the house for some time.
It didn't take long for her to track down more information; the news of Hamilton's disappearance had been in the local papers, but neither the police nor the most intrepid of journalists had turned up very much. There was no body and no blood at the scene of the crime, so the authorities were presuming that Hamilton had been kidnapped. They currently had no suspects.
Supergirl's hands clenched into fists. The police might not know anything, but she did. She knew that whoever was after Mana now had Emil Hamilton in their possession.
Scowling, she starting heading back toward Tokyo-3.
"Welcome back."
These words, delivered entirely without any sort of warmth, caused Steel to cringe as she entered the Batcave. She knew, of course, that she wouldn't get off Scot free after her actions that day, but she had hoped to beat Mayumi home and enjoy at least a brief respite.
Also, she couldn't quite tell where the raven-haired girl actually was in the dim cave, which just made the whole thing significantly creepier.
"Hello," she replied in a carefully neutral tone, taking off her helmet.
Mayumi stalked out of the shadows, her jaw set. The heiress had apparently rushed straight back from whatever business meeting she'd gotten roped into that day; she was still dressed in a charcoal gray pants suit, along with a pair of shoes with very modest heels. They were black, of course.
Most fourteen year old girls would've appeared comical in such an ensemble, like a kid trying too hard to look like an adult and only appearing all the more childish for it. In fact, that was probably the very image Mayumi had done her best to project when she'd been meeting with the corporate bigwigs at Yamagishi Enterprises earlier.
Now, however, Mayumi's intimidating presence was in full force, and there was nothing even remotely amusing about her at all.
Mana quickly grew tired of enduring the other girl's imposing glower. "Okay," she sighed. "Go ahead, let me have it."
"What the hell were you thinking?" the raven-haired girl growled.
"I was thinking that one of my friends was in danger, and that I couldn't just leave her twisting in the wind," Mana said, mustering as much defiance as she could. "Hikari could've died if I didn't go help her! So could Supergirl, it turned out."
Mayumi's dark eyes narrowed, and it was suddenly all the auburn-haired girl could do not to quail in the face of the heiress.
"Listen to me," she said, as though there was any doubt that she had Mana's full and complete attention. "You work for me, Kirishima. Until our agreement is concluded, that armor you're wearing is my property. It is not yours to what you want with, and I will only allow you to keep using it for as long as I think you'll be more useful than detrimental with it. Do I make myself clear?"
"Yes," Mana said in a small voice. She was sweating.
"Good," Mayumi replied, then turned, stalking toward the door that led out of the cave and into the manor.
Mana's shoulders slumped once the other girl's back was turned. She suddenly felt as limp as a rag doll.
"Oh, and for the record," Mayumi said as she reached the door, not turning to look at the girl in the metal suit, "I would never ask you to leave a friend to die like that. But I don't care how good you think that armor of yours is, you don't go charging straight into an obvious trap without an ace up your sleeve. If you'd had the patience to wait a few minutes after hearing about the situation, I could've given you one, and maybe this Metallo would be our prisoner right now."
Mana blinked, then opened her mouth, feeling like she needed to make some kind of response to that. However, she soon found that she had no idea what that should be. An expression of gratitude? An apology? A promise to do better next time?
Before she could decide, Mayumi slipped through the door, ending the conversation.
By the time he made it back to NERV headquarters, Metallo was in an even more terrible mood than he'd been upon making his retreat. Unlike Steel, he had no maps of the tunnels beneath Tokyo-3 instantly available to him. Since it would have been imprudent at best for him to go above ground again, he'd been forced to wander around for hours until he'd discovered a path leading down into the Geofront itself.
Getting into NERV headquarters from there without setting off an alarm had been an entirely different, but no less severe, headache.
"What went wrong?" Gendo Ikari demanded, striding down into Terminal Dogma.
If not for the firmware in his head that prevented him from doing so, Metallo could have rushed over to the Commander and cheerfully throttled him. This was not the homecoming he had hoped for.
"Steel's armor made her more powerful than I am, that's what happened," he growled.
"Are you certain?" the Commander frowned.
"I do have firsthand experience, you know," Metallo growled. "I'm faster, but not by as much as I'd hoped. She's stronger and more heavily armed. Also, she can fly. I can't beat her in a straight fight. Not like this."
"It would appear that the daughter is at least as talented as her mother," Gendo mused, speaking more to himself than to Metallo, "and that you and your team only managed to gain a small portion of Dr. Kirishima's technological secrets before she was badly injured."
"That wasn't my fault," Metallo said defensively.
"The issue of blame is irrelevant now," Gendo said. "What is important is the conundrum we now face."
"And what exactly is that?" Metallo asked. He tried to cross his arms, only to be reminded of the fact that he currently had only one.
Damn that little bitch and her stupid progressive axe, he thought.
"Your current form is insufficient for apprehending Kirishima," Gendo explained. "You require an upgrade for that, but the person most qualified to give you one is Kirishima."
"So?" Metallo asked, wondering if the Commander had always been this needlessly dramatic, or if the man was only showing this side of himself now because the programming in his head rendered him completely harmless to Ikari.
Gendo pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose. "Clearly we must search for…alternate means of getting you new hardware."
By the time Asuka returned from wherever she'd been for most of that day, Shinji had finally managed to keep his mind focused long enough to play a complete song on his cello. He was teasing a melancholy tune from the instrument's strings when he heard the door open.
"Shinji? Where are you?" Asuka shouted from the kitchen.
The Third Child rolled his eyes. She could've followed the sound of the music easily enough, but instead she wanted him to come to her. Despite his mild annoyance, however, he put down his bow and carefully set the cello aside, getting up.
"What is it?" he asked as he entered the kitchen.
"Do you know what happened today, baka?" she demanded.
He blinked, the question's vagueness catching him by surprise. Nevertheless, he had an idea of what she meant. Shinji had noticed that Mana's armor was scuffed and scratched in various places, and while he'd been too caught up in the moment to ask her about it, he'd assumed that she'd been in some kind of fight.
"Uh, not exactly," he said.
"Do you never turn on the news?!" Asuka practically growled at him.
"I do sometimes. I just…didn't today," Shinji said defensively. "Something happened with Mana today, though, didn't it?"
"Yes," Asuka said, crossing her arms, "and I saw almost the whole thing."
Quickly, she related the tale of how she'd been passing through the city streets when she'd learned that some kind of robot, of all things, was keeping two girls hostage on the roof of a skyscraper. Those two girls had been Hikari and her younger sister Nozomi, as Asuka had discovered to her horror. However, before the Second Child could call NERV and demand that they do something, both Supergirl and Steel had arrived, driving the robot off.
"Are Hikari and her sister okay?" Shinji asked, shocked.
"They're fine, thankfully," Asuka said. "But don't you get it? Hikari is Mana's friend, too. That robot thing probably kidnapped them because it knew Mana would come for them."
"You think that whoever's after Mana can have killer robots made just to catch her?" Shinji asked, his eyes wide.
"Well, why else would it kidnap Hikari and her sister?" Asuka asked. "Her father's not rich or anything."
"Could it have just grabbed them randomly?" Shinji suggested. "I know it's unlikely, but…"
Asuka shook her head. "I spoke to Hikari afterwards," she said. "The damn robot knew her name. It was after her specifically."
"Oh," Shinji said in a small voice.
"Any way you look at it, whatever organization is after Mana has some serious resources to draw off of," Asuka said. "Maybe even more than Batgirl has."
Shinji stomach gave an unpleasant lurch at the idea of his new girlfriend being in such peril. "Unfortunately, I can't say I disagree with you."
"And you know what? I'm sick of being in the dark about everything," Asuka proclaimed. "I intend to find out what's going on so I can try to help her. Are you with me, Shinji?"
For a split second, the Third Child hesitated, not liking the idea of poking into the affairs of the shadowy yet extremely powerful group that was after the auburn-haired girl.
Then his resolve solidified. Nothing could be worse than just sitting around idle and worrying about Mana, utterly helpless to do anything about her predicament. Besides, he was Mana's boyfriend now. Wasn't it his duty to do what he could to protect her?
"I'm in," he said.
Author's Notes: And at last, we get the second half of Steel and Metallo's first confrontation. Along with a few other confrontations.
Nothing else to really say about this chapter, so thanks as always to my readers and reviewers, and thanks to my beta reader as well.
Omake
Unwanted Upgrades
"And you know what? I'm sick of being in the dark about everything," Asuka proclaimed. "I intend to find out what's going on so I can try to help her. Are you with me, Shinji?"
For a split second, the Third Child hesitated, not liking the idea of poking into the affairs of the shadowy yet extremely powerful group that was after the auburn-haired girl.
Then his resolve solidified. Nothing could be worse than just sitting around idle and worrying about Mana, utterly helpless to do anything about her predicament. Besides, he was Mana's boyfriend now. Wasn't it his duty to do what he could to protect her?
"I'm in," he said. "…but you know, I'm not really sure how I'm supposed to be useful in this quest."
"Yeah," Asuka agreed, stroking her chin. "You could really use some super powers."
"Hey, how it about, author?" Shinji called. "Can I finally get some super powers here, please?"
There was a flash of light, and suddenly Shinji was clad in a maroon and yellow costume, holding…a glue gun.
"What the—?! Paste Pot Pete?! Really?" Shinji exclaimed, while Asuka snickered, stifling a full blown gale of laughter. "C'mon, something better please!"
There was another flash, and this time Shinji found himself with…buck teeth and a big, poofy tail.
He let out a cry of frustration as Asuka finally erupted into a fit of giggles.
"Squirrel Boy?! Really!?"
"I think…I think you'd…better give it up, Shinji," Asuka forced out between guffaws. "You're not getting any good powers out this, obviously."
"Fine," the Third Child groaned.
There was a final flash of light, and Shinji was restored to normal.
"Tell me," the pilot of Unit One grumbled, "was giving me my ghost powers from 'Shinji Ikiryo' too obvious?"