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 the fan fiction. No infringement of copyright is intended. In other words, please don't sue.
Chapter Two
Day of the First Battle of Tokyo-3…
Ever since a Third World War was barely averted in the wake of Second Impact, most countries on Earth had belatedly erected shelters for civilians in the event that all hell did break lose after all. They were largely unnecessary in the age of relative peace ushered in by the reforms the UN had undergone, and most local governments had begun to grow lax about performing regular drills to make sure the people knew where to go and what to do in the event of an emergency.
Tokyo-3 was a rather huge exception to this. The MAGI staged at least two drills per month, often more. So when the sirens went off, the populace calmly made their way down to the huge, modern shelters, totally undisturbed by the cries of "This is not a drill!" mixed in with the various other announcements.
Anything could become mundane if it also became routine.
It was a Sunday, so Hikari didn't have to worry about making sure that all of class 2-A made it to the shelter. Her only concerns were her sisters, since her father had been called into NERV, and they got to the shelter with no difficulties.
"How long do you think we'll be here?" Nozomi asked.
"No way to tell, I suppose," Kodama replied, unrolling a sleeping bag just in case it was a while. "What do you think, Hikari-chan?"
Hikari didn't reply. The middle Horaki had her head turned away from her sisters and appeared to be gazing off into space.
Kodama snapped her fingers in front of her sister's face. "Hikari!"
She jumped. "Oh, gomen, Kodama, what were you talking about?"
"We were just wondering how long we'd be stuck down here," Kodama answered. "Are you all right? You're not afraid, are you?"
"No, of course not," Hikari replied a bit more sharply than she'd intended.
The truth was that she was afraid. Terrified in fact, and not because of the fact that "this is not a drill." What really scared her was that she could sense the monstrosity that had made everyone's flight to the shelters necessary. She wasn't entirely sure how she could sense it, but if forced to put it into words, she would say she could detect it in almost the same way one could feel it when someone was looking at them.
The thing was huge and powerful, and it sent shivers down her spine to focus on it for too long.
Just ignore it, she told herself. NERV will take care of it, that's what NERV exists to do.
Up above, a boy named Shinji Ikari was being informed that no phone lines were currently available due to the state of emergency.
"Mari!" Toji Suzuhara called as he jogged through the shelter. "Mari! Where are you?"
The jock was growing increasingly frantic with every second that his younger sister failed to materialize. The longer he searched and failed to find her, the more likely it seemed that the worst could have happened.
Mariko Suzuhara was mildly claustrophobic, and being stuck underground for hours on end didn't sit well with her. She had promised him that she wouldn't try and sneak above ground, but he had seen her getting more jittery and anxious with every hour that passed.
He had only taken his eyes off her for a few minutes to go to the bathroom, and when he'd returned, she'd vanished.
"MARI!" he shouted at the top of his lungs.
There was no response from his little sister. However, a number of people did give him dirty looks or snap at him to not be so loud. Toji managed to resist the urge to give those people the finger, but it was a very close thing.
"Suzuhara?"
Startled, he quickly spun around to face the person who'd called his name. Toji was surprised to see the class rep, though he didn't know why. He knew they lived near enough to each other to be in the same shelter, but seeing the class rep on a Sunday still felt very odd, almost like seeing Christmas decorations in August.
"Hey, class rep," he said. "Have you seen my sister anywhere?"
"Your sister? No, I haven't," Hikari answered. "She's missing?"
Toji nodded. "Yeah, I'm starting to suspect that she went up top. She hates being underground," he sighed. "Class rep, would it be too much to ask for you to search for Mari down here while I go to the surface and look for her?"
"What?! Suzuhara, you can't go to the surface!" she exclaimed, instantly snapping into class rep mode.
"This isn't a school day, class rep," Toji said firmly. "If you don't want to help me, you don't have to, but I'm going up top to look for Mari."
Hikari sighed. "All right," she said. "I'll help."
Toji bowed. "Thank you, Hikari-san."
She blushed slightly as he quickly sped off. He called me by my name, she thought dreamily.
Hikari quickly composed herself, however, as the gravity of the situation began to sink in. Her crush's little sister was in danger, and while it was possible that Mari was still in the shelter somewhere, it didn't seem likely that the girl could have missed hearing her brother bellowing for her.
If Mari was outside, she was in a huge amount of danger, of that Hikari had no doubt. And if she'd wandered away from the entrance to the shelter, then finding her presented a near impossible task, even in a city that was otherwise deserted.
Unless, of course, she could search from high up, and move very quickly.
Reaching a snap decision, Hikari went back to where her sisters were and told them that she was going to help one of her classmates find his lost sister. She asked Kodama to keep an eye on Nozomi, and then rushed off.
It looked like Toji had already managed to get out of the shelter by the time she arrived at the exit, finding the heavy doors that led to the surface left standing open. Only the final one was sealed, Toji apparently having closed it behind himself when he left. Hikari easily opened that one and stepped outside, shutting it behind her.
There was no sign of either Toji or Mari in the eerily silent street outside the shelter's door. Taking a deep breath, Hikari rushed back to her house as fast as her legs could carry her.
She couldn't go flying through the city in her regular clothes, after all. The chance of someone—most likely someone from NERV—getting a good look at her was simply too high. Fortunately, she already had an idea in mind for a disguise.
Hikari made her way straight to Kodama's cluttered room as soon as she was inside, searching through the depths of her sister's chaotic closet. Luck must have been with her, because she soon came up with what she sought: a costume, complete with mask. Kodama had worn it the one time she'd tried cosplaying, back when she was roughly Hikari's age.
With her object in hand, Hikari wasted no time heading down to the kitchen, where she got a knife and carefully cut slits in the back of the costume for her wings. She then ran back upstairs, to her own room this time, to change.
The top of the costume had its own underwire, so Hikari opted to discard her bra as well as she changed. When she actually got into the thing, however, and realized just how low cut it was, she wished that she hadn't.
What the hell was Kodama thinking? She wondered as she strapped on the mask, blushing and trying not to take note of just how well she filled out the crazy getup.
Well, she was in too much of a hurry to worry about her appearance. Besides, the whole point of the costume was to keep anyone from knowing who she was, and she suspected that even her father might not recognize her in it, especially once she transformed.
Speaking of which…
"I have wings," Hikari said, striding outside her house, and pulling the ties out of her hair for good measure, undoing the pigtails and allowing it to flow freely.
She felt the feathery appendages emerge from her back, and she was soon in the air, flying over the streets of Tokyo-3 in search of Mariko Suzuhara.
Toji was so relieved when he finally caught sight of his sister, long after late afternoon had turned to night, that he very nearly burst into tears. He restrained himself, however.
Crying wasn't manly, after all.
Still, concerns about manliness didn't stop him from hugging his panicked sister as tightly as he could, not caring as her tears were soaked up by his track suit.
"What the hell made you leave the shelter?" he demanded, the fear he'd been experiencing for the last few hours suddenly morphing into anger. "I told you not to leave!"
"Gomen nasai!" Mari sobbed, still hugging him. "I…I couldn't stand being in that cave anymore! Even being…even being near the entrance was giving me chills! So…so I decided to walk about a block away. And I got turned around somehow and I've been wandering around looking for the shelter since then! I'm sorry, nii-chan! I'll never do it again, I promise!"
Toji sighed, his anger quickly evaporating. Clearly Mari had suffered more than enough for her stupid decision.
"Come on, let's—"
He stopped mid sentence when the earth shook beneath them. Toji and Mari turned to see the behemoth figure of the Third Angel stride into view from behind several massive skyscrapers.
"What is that?" Mari whispered, as though the giant might hear her from its position a good thirty blocks away.
"I don't know," Toji whispered back. "An Angel?"
A moment later, a huge trap door behind the monster opened up, and an equally huge purple robot was risen up through it, appearing to glare at the dark green monster.
"Is…that what NERV built to destroy the Angels?" Toji wondered aloud.
Mari didn't reply, too transfixed by the sight of the two titans staring one another down. Toji, too, felt like he was bolted to the ground all of a sudden.
The purple robot tried to took a step forward…and promptly fell flat on its face, causing the ground to tremble beneath the two kids' feet again. "Geeze, who's driving that thing?" Toji exclaimed.
The Angel marched forward and grabbed the robot's head. Mari looked away as the Angel proceeded to beat the hell out the robot, but Toji kept his eyes glued to the battle.
Suddenly, just when he had given up all hope of the robot even putting up any kind of a fight, the tide turned dramatically. The purple robot swung back into action, charging the Angel, but soon slammed into a wall of orange light. The pilot of the robot was apparently not to be denied, however, as the robot tore through the orange shield as though it were made from cellophane and continued on. The robot leapt at the Angel, landing right on top of it and clawing at the thing. It shrugged off all the Angel's attempts stop it, eventually charging it, slamming into the beast and sending it flying down the street.
Which had the effect of abruptly bringing the battle far too close to the Suzuhara children for comfort.
"Run!" Toji cried, grabbing Mari's hand and half-dragging the girl along as he broke into a sprint.
For several seconds, Toji thought there was a chance that they could get far enough away in time. Then, he tripped and both of them went sprawling to the pavement. Ignoring the scrapes he got from the fall, Toji turned to look at the battle again.
He was just in time to see the Angel latch onto the robot and explode spectacularly, turning night into day in Tokyo-3.
Toji and Mari screamed as debris from the explosion flew toward them at terrifying speeds. The jock clutched onto his sister, shielding her as much as possible, and squeezed his eyes shut.
The seconds dragged out, and to Toji's surprise, nothing hit the two of them, pain didn't explode from any part of his body, and Mari didn't scream in agony.
It must still be coming, he thought. I'm so afraid time is stretching out…or something.
"Nii-chan," Mari whispered.
He finally risked opening his eyes…and gasped.
Standing before him was one of the most attractive girls he'd ever seen. She had long silver hair that glowed in the moonlight, and large white wings. Yet even these unusual features could not hold his full attention for long, not when he realized just how…impressive her figure was. Her yellow skirt only came down to about mid thigh, giving him a good look at her long, shapely legs. Her top was white with gold trim, and hugged her body in places like a second skin. It was also rather low cut, so much so that Toji felt a nosebleed coming on and quickly snapped his gaze up to the girl's red eyes, which peeked out through a gold colored mask.
He rushed to his feet, pulling Mari to hers along with him.
The winged girl smiled impishly at him. "So, what are a couple of cuties like you two doing out at a time like this?" she asked in a sultry voice.
"Uh…" Toji stammered dumbly, feeling like a deer caught in the headlights.
"I left the shelter because I don't like being underground," Mari spoke up in a small voice. "My brother here came to look for me. Arigato for saving us."
"It was my pleasure," the girl said. "I can't let a kawaii girl like you get hurt, now can I?"
She then turned to Toji with a such a hungry look in her eyes that the jock was actually kind of intimidated by it. "Or a handsome guy like you," she added, running the tip of her index finger down the bridge of his nose.
Mari giggled. "Oooh, nii-chan's got a girlfriend!"
"Mari, shut up!" Toji hissed.
Any response the little girl might have made was cut off as the sound of sirens filled the air, probably NERV emergency vehicles on their way to see to whatever crazy idiot was inside the giant robot, Toji realized.
"I have to get going," the winged girl said, suddenly sounding much less playful than she had a moment ago. "You two should probably head back to the shelter, too. If you're lucky, no one will realize you were gone and you won't be punished for leaving."
"Hey, wait a second!" Toji blurted out. "What's your name?"
"Are you an angel?" Mari added.
The winged girl hesitated, turning to look at the now giant robot and the remains of the Angel. "No, I'm not," she said. "Call me…Spirit."
And with that, she beat her wings and was soon flying through the sky. Mari let out a squeal of delight at seeing their savior fly like a bird. Toji, as soon as he got over the additional shock, tried to catch a glimpse of her panties, but to no avail.
"The Angel's pattern has vanished," Makoto announced from his place in the NERV command center. "The target has been destroyed."
"Thank goodness," Misato breathed. "Stand down from first stage alert and scramble recovery teams immediately! The pilot is our—"
"AT field detected!" Aoba suddenly shouted, cutting her off.
"What?" Misato demanded, feeling her heartbeat starting to accelerate rapidly. "Is there another Angel?"
This was very bad, she realized. They hadn't counted on more than one Angel attacking at once, and NERV was almost completely tapped out. With Shinji and Unit One down for the count, all they had left was a severely injured Rei Ayanami and Unit Zero, which was still trapped in bakelite.
"The pattern is red/blue," Maya said. "It's the same anomaly from before."
"Anomaly?" Misato asked with a confused frown.
Commander Ikari ignored her. "Pinpoint it," he barked. "I want it found and identified. That is your first priority!"
"Roger!" the bridge techs replied as one and turned to the task.
A very confused Misato watched as they brought up a map of Tokyo-3 on the main screen. A moment later, a roughly circular blob of red was overlaid on the map, which was marked as the "Search Area." It began to shrink the instant it appeared on the screen as the MAGI honed in on whatever they were looking for.
Then it began to move to the west.
"Target's on the move," Makoto reported.
"We can see that, Lieutenant," Fuyutski commented dryly.
All of a sudden, the red blob winked out, the words "Target Lost" appearing over the map of the city.
"Gone again," Aoba said. "Sorry, sir, but we've lost it. The MAGI can no longer detect any AT field or unusual waveform patterns."
"I see," Gendo said. "All records of this encounter with the anomaly are to be deleted, save for a single hard copy."
And with that, the Commander of NERV left the command center, followed closely by Fuyutski. Misato watched them go.
What the hell was that all about? She wondered. Ugh, never mind. I have more important things to worry about right now.
"Stand down from first stage alert!" she ordered again. "Get recovery teams moving now! The pilot is our first priority!"
Author's Notes: Well, there you have it. We've finally entered the actual series, and Hikari got to enjoy her first romp as a superhero. If you were surprised by her wildly different behavior, I can't say I blame you. It'll be explained next chapter, but for now I'll just say that the reason for it is more mundane than you probably believe.
By the way, the thing with Toji trying to look up Spirit's skirt was largely just a joke/reference to Shinji's dream in episode 26, where Toji excitedly asks him if he's seen Rei's panties. Please don't think too poorly of the boy for it.
Before you ask, I don't know who Kodama was cosplaying as. I was too lazy to go looking through female anime characters to find one with the kind of outfit I had in mind for Spirit's debute. Knowing how common girls with short skirts and low cut tops are in anime, however, I'm sure there must be some character in one anime or another that dressed like that.
As always, many thanks to all those who reviewed. Your comments are well appreciated.
Fifth Horseman, thanks. I recently earned my BA in journalism, and as a result of education I tend to be really anal about spelling and grammar, even when writing fanfiction.
Dragoon, no powers for Shinji, I'm afraid. Him not getting super powers is kind of the point of the Superwomen of EVA series, since he so frequently gets powers in other fics.
Animefan, thanks for pointing that out. I try to be careful about the Japanese, but I tend to mix up nee and nii despite my best efforts.