Green Lantern New Genesis
Chapter 6
I do not own Evangelion or Green lantern.
A week after they had arrived on earth, Hals "friend" gave him a whole new identity as the son of a fellow pilot from Japan who was staying with Hal indefinitely. So, he was going to school, a local high school near Hal's apartment. Despite his training as a green lantern and all he had been through; he was still uncomfortable in large crowds. So, when Hal dropped him off at school, he kept his head down, and nervously fingered his ring. Hal wanted him to take it off and keep it in his pocket or someplace where no one could see it until they found that Shinji didn't understand a word of English without the ring to translate. Standing in the shadow of a tree looking at the student's conversing with each other, he wished he had his SDAT player and suppressed the urge to form it as his ring glowed. Looking over at the bench near the tree, he saw a girl sitting with her head in a book. Shinji cautiously walked up to her. She was slender wearing a white T-shirt with blue arms, and messy dirty blond hair. "Excuse me, may I sit here?" he asked. The girl looked up and Shinji saw that she was cute, wearing purple rimmed glasses with deep purple eyes.
"I've never seen purple eyes before" He thought. The girl stared at him, as if surprised he was talking to her. "Um, sure" She mumbled and went back to reading her book. Shinji sat down across from her and kept watching his new classmates.
"Um, Hello, I'm new here" He said, not looking at her.
"Um, hm" She said not looking up from her book. Anyone else would think they were being blown off, but Shinji saw that she was just trying to read, so he didn't bother her.
"I'm Amy" The girl said after a moment, not looking up from her book.
"Shinji" He said, trying to get used to the idea of people giving their first name instead of their last name.
"What are you reading?" He asked.
"A book on programming" She said pushing it over to him. He looked down at the text and realized that he couldn't read of word of the English print.
"Um, interesting" He faked pushing it back. At that moment the bell rang. Without another word the two parted ways as they went to class. Shinji did fairly well in most classes. He was a fairly good student, and science and math were basically the same everywhere. It was history and English that had him terrified. He didn't know anything about this world, least of all of America, and he didn't know how to tell anyone he couldn't read English without them thinking he was a complete idiot, and Hal hadn't told him what to do. So, he kept his head down and listened and wrote down all the names and dates recited in history, and in English listened and took notes on everything the teacher said as he looked at the book trying with all his might to make sense of the text. The bell finally rang, and he sighed with relief. He took the bus back to the rather nice apartment he was sharing with Hal. It was large enough to have two bedrooms, a kitchen and a bathroom. He opened the door and took off his shoes before going to his room a small space that only had his bed. He opened the small closet that held his power battery.
"In brightest day, in blackest night, not evil shall escape my sight. Let those who worship evils might, beware my power, green lanterns light"
He recited as he charged his ring. Feeling better with the ring on and fully charged he went back into the living room to do his homework, though how he would complete it when he couldn't read English he didn't know. Still he opened his English book, trying to get the hardest part out of the way first. He looked at the first page of the reading and willed himself to understand it, and it was like the top of his head become unscrewed and information was dumped in. He couldn't move as the knowledge flooded into him his mind feeling like it was on fire, and his head felt like it was going to explode. Just as he felt he would either die or go mad, he passed out, falling forward on the table.
"Shinji, Shinji, come on wake up" A voice called. Shinji opened an eye and found he was lying face down. He slowly pushed himself up and found Hal standing over him, his face worried.
"Oh, man, you had me worried their kid. What happened?" He asked.
"I was doing my homework and I couldn't read the book, even though I tried my hardest and then it was like something was being dumped into my brain" He said rubbing his head which was starting to pound.
"And you were wearing you're ring when you were trying that hard right?" Hal asked looking at the hand with the ring on the table.
"Yes, but why should that matter?" He asked as his roommate went to the cabinet and got a glass and some pills. He filled the glass and brought it and the pills back to him.
"Take these, your heads going to feel like it's going to split apart, if it hasn't already" He said. His head giving a particularly vicious stab at him, Shinji downed the pills.
"You should have told me you can't read English" Hal said.
"I didn't want to complain" He said.
"About missing a critical part of being able to function in school?" Hal chided gently.
"What could you have done?" Shinji asked.
"I don't know, but I could have thought of something. Kid, I'm your superior in the corps, but I'm also you're guardian, and you're still a kid. If you have a problem, let me know so I can help" He said sternly.
"Okay, sorry" He said.
"Do you want me to start dinner?" He asked, and Hal raised an eyebrow. "I got us take out" He said picking up a bag of Chinese food.
"I still need to finish my…" he said and stopped when he turned back to his homework. Looking at the English book, he found he could read the words and understand them as easily as he could Kanji.
"You can read it, now can't you?" Hal asked, and he nodded.
"You willed yourself to be able to read English and you're ring responded by downloading the entirety of the language into you. You can probably speak it without the ring to translate too" He said.
"No wonder my brain hurts" Shinji responded rubbing his head.
"Here, I'll help you. I'm smarter than I look" He joked taking a seat next to him. True to his word Hal had a good grasp of everything and a knack for explaining, and in about an hour and a half they had finished.
"Thank you, I really appreciate your help" Shinji said bowing a little in his seat as Hal set out the food.
"Are you always this polite to everyone, because it's kind of creepy" Hal said.
"I'm sorry" Shinji said.
"And apologizing for everything is just annoying" He said, and Shinji almost apologized before biting it back.
"I'm sorry for being so terse. I'm not used to dealing with someone who's so formal, especially with someone he lives with" Hal said.
"You're a boy right, you should act like it" He Joked, and Shinji's eyes widened at the statement as he saw a familiar figure sitting across from him, saying the same things that another had said what seemed like a lifetime ago.
"Thank you for taking me in" Shinji said smiling, and Hal just sighed. "You're one weird kid" Hal said.
They finished eating and Shinji took a shower in the American type shower with no bath. "Isn't showering then bathing a waste of water?" Hal asked and Shinji had given him a flat look. He was making his way to bed when Hal grabbed his arm. "Where do you think you're going?" He asked.
"To bed" Shinji said.
"It's barely nine o clock" Hal replied.
"I have school tomorrow" He responded.
"So, do your classmates who party until 1 and do fine. Come on, we're going on patrol" Hal said, and his ring lit up as he was encased in his uniform. Obeying orders Shinji encased himself in his suit and flew out the kitchen window after Hal. They flew over the city as Hal mapped it out for him. The high-end district, the slums where they easily stopped a group of muggers by shining their rings and scaring them away. Next was the shopping center the beach and the naval yard with the docked ships and finally the outskirts of the city where a number of laboratory's and testing fields resided.
"You have to be careful out here. You don't know what you'll encounter" He said.
"Like what?" Shinji asked.
"Mutant's, escaped robots, that kind of thing" Hal said, and Shinji couldn't tell if he was joking or not. It was as they were flying home that Shinji saw it again, the shadow within a shadow that had been following them everywhere there had been buildings. They had left it behind when they went into the desert, but it had shown up the second they were back among the buildings as if it was waiting and knew where they would be.
"Hal" Shinji said stopping in midair and looking at the spot the shadow had vanished.
"So, you noticed him to huh." Hal said.
"Him?" Shinji asked.
"The friend that got the paperwork for you. He probably wants to see you for himself. Come on, I'll introduce you" Hal said flying to the building the shadow had stood on, Shinji following. He hovered over the top of the tall skyscraper and made a green flood light from his ring.
"You can come out batman. You wanted us to see you, right?" Hal asked and a figure stepped into the light. In a word he was, scary. He was dressed in what looked like black body armor with a yellow belt around his waist. A long black cape hung down his back, sweeping the ground, and his head was covered in a cowl with pointed ears that left only his mouth open. Hal had called him Batman, and the name certainly fit. Ring or no, Shinji knew instinctively that he didn't want to come face to face with this man in a dark alleyway.
"Kid let me introduce you to the Batman, the resident superhero of Gotham city" Hal said slowly descending and standing on the roof across from the batman.
"Don't forget about me" A young high-pitched voice said, and with a highly acrobatic flip a boy about Shinji's age leapt out of nowhere to land at the man's side. Where the batman was dressed in black to hide in the darkness, the boy was all bright reds and greens. He wore scarlet body armor with a yellow belt, black leggings and a yellow cape that was black on the outside, and he had on a small domino mask.
"And robin, the boy wonder, batman's sidekick" Hal said.
"Yo, nice to meet you" He said giving Shinji a jovial wave.
"Um…nice to meet you" He replied giving robin a courteous bow.
"So, GL, you got a sidekick to?" Robin asked rhetorically.
"No, the kid here is a fully-fledged member of the corps and a green lantern in his own right" Hal explained.
"I didn't think the corps recruited at such a young age" Batman said.
"He's an exception" Hal explained.
"Is that why you took him in, an exception?" Batman asked giving Hal a piercing stare.
"I took him in because he didn't have anywhere else to go" Hal said.
"And what about his family?" Batman asked.
"I am right here you know" Shinji said, and Batman turned his intimidating gaze on him.
"Who are you, really?" He demanded, and Shinji averted his eyes. He didn't want to explain the horror and pain of the angel war, and his many failures to this man whose gaze and demeanor reminded him so much of his own father.
"If you wanted to know that badly, then why did you forge his new identity no questions asked?" Hal demanded.
"Because you never told me how young he was" Batman said.
"And is that my problem that you didn't ask? "Hal asked talking over his head again.
"I trusted that the corps didn't recruit a child" Batman growled,
"Oh, like your one to talk." Hal shot back when Shinji felt a tap on his shoulder. Looking over his shoulder he found robin looking at him, a playful smirk on his face. "Why don't we leave them alone to talk" Robin whispered.
"But their talking about me" Shinji answered back.
"Yeah, but their talking over you" Robin said as the two adults continued to jab at each other, completely ignoring the two teens.
"Come on, I hardly ever get to work in a new city, you've gotta show me around" Robin pleaded brightly.
"Alright" Shinji said as Batman made another cutting remark about Shinji's age.
"Wait thirty seconds then meet me on that rooftop" Robin said pointing, and Shinji nodded. He looked back and didn't hear or feel anything behind him as the boy vanished. He counted to thirty then turned to Hal.
"If you don't need me here, I'm going to fly around town on my own" Shinji said.
"Oh...sure" Hal said.
"You're letting him go off on his own?" Batman asked.
"He's his own lantern with full training. I know he can handle himself" Hal said as Shinji flew off toward the rooftop, keeping high. As he flew overhead, he saw Robin who followed beneath him, leaping from roof to roof until they were completely out of sight two blocks away.
"So where do we start?" Robin asked.
"We could go back to the slums, but all we found there earlier were two muggers" Shinji said. "Then you weren't looking hard enough" Robin said and leapt off the building with a laugh. Shinji followed as robin swung from a metal cord from roof to roof.
"That's awesome" Shinji said marveling at the ease that the boy leapt from a roof top into thin air, only to shoot out a line and swing around a corner.
"Say's the guy with the magic ring" The boy joked as they reached the edge of the slums. Robin disconnected the line and dropped to a building.
"So, what are we looking for?" Shinji asked.
"Just watch" Robin said and leapt off the building, shooting out a line and swinging toward a man on a corner wearing a dark hoody standing under a streetlight. He looked up as robin's cape created a shadow as the boy landed on him. Shinji flew down as the man was quickly disarmed of both a knife and a gun he was carrying.
"What do you want man, ain't you supposed to work Gotham?" The man asked as robin slammed him up against a wall.
"I'm just visiting, seeing the sights, meeting interesting people, like your boss" Robin said. "No…no way man, I'm not giving you my boss" The man responded answered.
"Really, is that you're final answer?" Robin asked punching the wall next to the man's head, causing a small explosion of brick dust. The man flinched slightly but looked more angry than afraid.
"This ain't Gotham punk. Guy's round here ain't afraid of freaks in costumes. We got real superheroes to deal with" The man said showing a mocking, vicious smile. Robin drew back for another punch, but stopped
"Hey Lantern, get down here" He called Shinji had hovered over the scene, and was impressed and a little surprised by Robin's methods, and came when he called.
"Search him for drugs" Robin said.
"Ring" Scan for drugs" Shinji said.
"Drugs found" The ring responded, and a thin tendril of power entered into the man's pocket and emerged with a bag of white powder.
"Come on, don't you lanterns have better things to do than bust a low-level pusher?" The man asked when robin hit him with a punch that knocked him out.
"Scan the chemical contents of the drugs and match them to locations around the city" Robin said. Shinji willed the ring to do as the boy said, not completely understanding it, and the ring brought up a map of the city where a number of spots were highlighted.
"Let's start here" Robin said, pointing at one. The next few hours were spent taking down various drug dens around the city, two in warehouses, and three in apartment buildings. In the warehouses Shinji went in first blasting the dealers and ignoring their bullets as they blasted off his shield. At the apartment's robin crashed through the window, beating everyone into un-consciousness before they could get a shot off. After the fourth drug den was dealt with Shinji had to admit he was having fun. Robin was lighthearted and fun, taking what they were doing seriously, but also with a lighthearted enjoyment that baffled him.
"So, having fun yet?" Robin asked landing on a rooftop.
"Yeah, is that weird?" Shinji asked rubbing the back of his head.
"Maybe, but then that makes us both weird" Robin said grinning. That's when things went wrong; starting with the helicopter that suddenly appeared overhead.
"Robin, this is Coast City P.D. put your hands in the air" A voice boomed out of a megaphone. Robin didn't say a word as he ran and leapt of the building, the helicopter following. Shinji flew after and caught up to the boy as he landed on a building and started running.
"What's happening?" Shinji asked him as he flew next to the boy leaping from rooftop to rooftop.
"Batman and I aren't regarded very well in some places" Robin said as the helicopter fired bullets, pelting the roof in front of them and making the boy stop.
"Robin that was a warning shot. Surrender. We won't tell you again" The helicopter said. Shinji saw the boy reach into his belt for something and focusing his mind shot a small green glob toward the helicopters window. The ball exploded in a flash of green light and the helicopter veered to the right, into another building. With a feeling of horror Shinji sent out tendrils of light to wrap around the chopper as its rotor chewed into the windows, glass and brick flying everywhere. His willpower was strained to its limit as he tried to hold the chopper aloft. That was when robin dove from the roof and before he hit the ground launched a line, swung under the helicopter and back up, landing on the edge of the building and tying it off to take the weight of the chopper. Slowly the helicopter lowered to the ground as the rotors stopped. People got out of their cars to look at the chopper as the crew staggered out.
"We should go" Robin said and before Shinji could respond swung away.
"Hey, wait" he said and before the boy could get to far caught him in a glob of green light.
"Hey" Robin said beating at the walls of the globe.
"What was that? Those cops were shooting at you like you were a villain" Shinji said.
"Batman and I don't have the best reputation with the authorities" Robin explained, standing inside the dome and folding his arms.
"I thought you were superheroes?" Shinji asked.
"We are, but some people don't like the way batman and I work" Robin explained. Shinji hovered there and mulled that statement over as he lowered the boy to the ground the orb fading out of existence.
"There you are" Hal said hovering out of the sky as batman came out of the shadows.
"We saw the helicopter parked on fourth and park. Explain" He demanded.
"It was an accident." Robin said.
"You know how the cops see us" Batman said.
"Which is why I told you no working" Batman said, his eyes narrowing.
"Come on batman, how are we going to change our image if we don't let people see us doing good?" Robin demanded.
"Don't be too hard on the kid. I'll smooth things over with the CCPD" Lantern said.
"You need to stop being so lenient" Batman said before he and Robin leapt into the night.
"Sorry Hal" Shinji said, head down, waiting for the man's rebuke.
"Don't worry about it, and could you stop looking like a kicked dog, it's creeping me out" Hal said.
"Um, okay" Shinji said looking up. He looked at Hals face trying to find anger, but only seeing concern and wry amusement.
"Seriously, kid, don't let Batman get to you" Hal said. "Are you sure it's alright?" Shinji asked as the rose into the sky.
"Hey, whose partner, are you?" Hal asked
"You are sir" Shinji said softly. "Good, then listen to me when I tell you not to worry and lighten up. If you stay this stressed out, you'll die before you hit puberty" Hal said grinning, and Shinji couldn't help but smile back.
So, Shinji went on some nighttime hijinks with Robin. Next, he and Hal will be cruising to central city and meet up with the scarlet speedster and his partner. I hope I'm hitting Hal's nature well enough.