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 Thirteen
"Hikari, can I ask you a question?" Shinji asked.
Hikari looked up and considered pointing out to him that he just had. It was something she'd done to Nozomi a lot when they were a little bit younger. She soon thought the better of it, however. Shinji looked very serious, and she noticed that he'd chosen a moment when the two were relatively alone. Asuka was busy giving her fan club the play-by-play of the last battle (in which she gave every detail of how she'd stabbed the Angel's core, while barely mentioning that Unit One had caught it), and Rei was at NERV for some kind of tests. It was just the two of them at their usual table, something she felt sure he was aware of.
"Of course, Shinji," she said.
"What's your father like?"
She paused, the question catching her by surprise. Shinji misread her hesitation and quickly added, "You don't have to tell me if you don't want to. It's—"
"No, it's all right," Hikari interrupted. "Dad's…he's a good man. He works long, chaotic hours at NERV these days, so we don't see him much. But my sisters and I know he loves us. He's always been willing to stand up for us if we ever needed him to."
She paused, collecting her thoughts. "He really loved our mother, too. I think a part of him died with her. He hasn't been out on a date since she passed away. He sort of became overprotective of us afterwards. I think it's because my sisters and I are all he has left of her."
Shinji's mind flashed back to that terrible day of ten years ago, remembering the hot tears streaming down his face as he stood and watched his own father's retreating back in horrified disbelief. Why had Hikari's father responded to the death of his wife by clutching more tightly to his children while his own father had reacted to the same thing by doing just the opposite?
"Why did you want to know?" Hikari asked. "If you don't mind my asking that is."
"I don't know," Shinji said with a sigh. "After the last battle, my father called me by my name and praised me. It's the first time he's ever done either since we were…separated."
Hikari's eyebrows rose. "Shinji…I can understand wanting to be closer to your father, but after everything he's done to you…"
Then again, I might be a little biased, considering all the times your father's tried to have me captured or killed, Hikari thought.
The boy sighed again. "I guess you're right," Shinji said. "My father has been up to some pretty shady seeming things, and I still don't know why he hates Spirit so much. But it felt so good when he praised me…"
"You shouldn't need your father's praise to feel proud about what you've done," Hikari said gently. "After all, I'm sure you've saved a lot of people by piloting the EVA."
Shinji nodded. He wasn't at all sure sure that he was capable of dismissing his desire to hear his father praise him, but he had to admit that her words made sense.
"Thanks, Hikari," he said with a soft smile.
"Captain Chiron, your report," Gendo asked the Chief of Section Two as the man entered the Commander's cavernous office.
"The attempts to discover Spirit's identity by seeking a girl of the appropriate age that failed to evacuate were not successful," Chiron said. "I take full responsibility for this failure, sir."
"No," Gendo said. "It would have been impossible to keep track of the people boarding the helicopters without informing them and still evacuate the city in a timely manner."
"And we can't even be sure that was the reason she decided to sit out this battle was because of your efforts," Fuyutski added.
Gendo nodded in agreement, then felt silent for a moment as a truly terrible idea struck him. What if Spirit could somehow predict the strength of the Angels and had sat out the last battle because she had known that the Tenth would simply be too much for her?
Recalling how Spirit had nearly been killed by the Fifth Angel, he soon discarded the idea and calmed down. Gendo silently chastised himself for giving the Spirit in his mind powers she had never been observed having. To see his opponents as some invincible boogeymen (or boogeywomen, as the case might be), would not help him at all.
Spirit was just another player in the game. An unexpected and powerful player, yes, but she was far from invincible.
"Sir?" Chiron spoke up as the silence went on.
"You are dismissed, Captain," Gendo said.
Chiron saluted and made his way out of the office.
"You're taking this awfully well," Fuyutski commented once the Section Two Chief had left.
He remembered only too well the reckless and expensive trap Gendo had set for Spirit. The Commander of NERV hadn't shown it back then, but Fuyutski had known he was absolutely fuming at the time.
Gendo smirked slightly. "It is because I have absolute faith that Spirit's meddling will be removed by the time of the completion of the scenario."
Fuyutski arched an eyebrow, knowing that Gendo never had faith in anything without a very good reason. He was about to ask his former student to elaborate on his curious statement but then thought the better of it. The less one knew about EVA and the Angels and NERV, the better off one was.
He had learned that lesson the hard way.
"There, butt naked and sent through the wash seventeen times, just like you asked!" Asuka snapped irritably as the three EVA pilots finally emerged from what was essentially a human car wash, each still in their own separate stalls.
"Good," came the disembodied voice of Dr. Akagi from unseen speakers. "Now, we need you to walk down the hallway and get inside the simulation plugs."
"WHAT?!" Asuka shrieked. "You can't be serious! This is so embarrassing!"
"Don't worry, Asuka," Ritsuko replied. "We've turned off the visual feed. We do respect your privacy, you know."
"Oh, I'm sure," Asuka said sarcastically, crossing her arms.
"Asuka, this is an order," came Misato's voice.
The Second Child growled softly but didn't quite dare to talk back to her commanding officer.
Shinji cleared his throat. "I'll, uh, I'll go first," he stammered. "That is if you promise not to look."
"As if there was anything to look at," Asuka grumbled.
"We promise, Ikari-kun," Rei said.
"Right," Shinji said. "Uh, I'm going now."
Asuka rolled her eyes, but she then shut them to give him his privacy. She soon heard him scampering down the hallway, followed by the hiss of his simulation plug's hatch opening and then closing again. The Second Child opened her eyes and then she and Rei headed for their own plugs. Seconds later, the plugs had been inserted into the headless simulation bodies.
"How does it feel?" Akagi asked once the test had begun.
"It is different," Rei responded.
"It's weird," Asuka said. "The right arm feels normal but everything else is fuzzy."
Akagi had them move the simulation bodies about as best they could for a few minutes before telling them to get settled in. The test would take three hours.
Asuka sighed. What a pain. All this nonsense for a stupid autopilot system.
I could disrupt the test if you wish,a voice spoke up in her mind. Corrupting the data would be child's play for one such as I. Their little project would never reach fruition.
Don't bother, Asuka replied. They'll never need to use it with my Unit Two, and no autopilot could hope to compete with me, so what's the point? Now keep quiet, or they might detect you.
Back in the pribnow box's control room, Maya frowned as she observed the readings coming in through the EVA's. "That strange variation in her brainwave pattern is back, sempai," she said.
"How bad is it?" Ritsuko asked, moving to look over her protégé's shoulder.
"It shouldn't interfere with the data recordings," Maya said. "The variation was very minor and was detectable for only a moment."
"I'd still like to know what's causing it, though," Misato murmured.
"I really wouldn't worry about it," Ritsuko advised. "It's been present for a while now and nothing—"
She was interrupted by an ominous groaning coming from above them. It sounded like metal creaking as it buckled under pressure, and it filled Ritsuko with quiet anxiety.
"What was that?" Ritsuko asked. "Another water leak?"
"No, there's corrosion on the level above us," Maya answered.
"Will it disrupt the test?" Ritsuko asked.
"Not at present," Maya replied.
The blond scientist nodded. "Then let's continue. We can't easily restart this test," she smirked and added, "Commander Ikari would chew my ass off if I aborted it unnecessarily!"
Any chuckles her joke might have elicited were cut off when klaxons suddenly began blaring throughout the base, red light flooding the control box as "ALERT" warning flashed everywhere.
"What's happening?!" Ritsuko demanded.
"The corrosion is spreading explosively!" Maya exclaimed. "They've cut off the pipelines in Sigma Unit but it still isn't stopping! It's spreading from wall to wall!"
"Ready the polysomes!" Ritsuko ordered.
Maya rushed to comply, her hands blurring as she frantically typed in commands at her keyboard. A few seconds later, several doors in the water filled chamber that contained the simulation bodies opened up and a number of robots armed with lasers swam out.
"Get ready to blast the contaminant the moment it gets here, whatever it is," Ritsuko ordered grimly.
"Hai," Maya said, her finger hovering over the button.
Several tense seconds passed as they waited for their strange new foe to manifest itself. It didn't happen at all as they expected.
"Rei's simulation body is moving!" Maya exclaimed.
"No, that's impossible!" Ritsuko replied.
Impossible or not, it was happening. A massive hand slapped against the bullet-proof glass of the control box with enough force to crack it.
"Fire the laser!" Ritsuko ordered.
Maya complied, and the polysomes fired their weapons, easily slicing off the arm of Rei's unarmored simulation body.
"Blue pattern detected!" Maya shouted. "It's an Angel!"
"Eject the plugs!" Ritsuko barked. "Get the pilots to safety! Do it now!"
"Roger!" Maya said, typing in the appropriate commands.
A moment later, the simulation plugs shot out of the dummy bodies and went rocketing into the Geofront.
This is torture, Hikari thought to herself as she worked on preparing dinner, thankful for the fact that she was so used to cooking that she could do it on auto-pilot.
She had sensed the presence of a new Angel in the middle of the school day and had been waiting for the sirens to go off for hours now but to no avail. The city's emergency alert system had remained stubbornly silent.
It's never taken this long after I sensed an Angel for NERV to find out about it, she thought.
What made her even more anxious was the fact that she sensed the Angel was below her, which meant it was inside the Geofront. Had the Angel somehow managed to bypass the city and its defenses and get directly down there? And if so, had the Commander not sounded the alarm because he wanted to keep Spirit oblivious so NERV could handle it alone? Or perhaps NERV didn't even know about the Angel?
Or had NERV set up another elaborate trap for her, somehow creating a fake Angel to lure her into their territory?
"All right, what's wrong?" Nozomi asked, looking up from her homework, which was spread across the kitchen table.
"Nothing," Hikari answered at once.
"Is that why you put one of your textbooks in the oven instead of the fish?" Nozomi asked in a very off-handed manner.
"Eep!" Hikari squeaked, and quickly saved the slightly roasted book.
Okay, maybe I can't cook dinner without thinking about it, Hikari thought.
"So, what's up? Another Angel?" Nozomi asked once the book had stopped smoking.
She sounded far too casual about an Angel showing up, in Hikari's opinion, and the older girl silently wondered if Nozomi was again starting to believe that Spirit was invincible.
"I think so," Hikari said slowly. "Down in the Geofront."
"Then why aren't you going?" Nozomi asked.
"Kodama won't be back from classes for another couple of hours…" Hikari said uncertainly.
Nozomi's brow twitched. "A couple hours? The world could be over in a couple hours! I'll be fine by myself for a little while. I am eleven, after all," she said importantly. "And I can look after all the food you've got going. I'm not Kodama, after all."
Hikari couldn't help but smirk slightly at the last bit, but she soon grew serious again. Part of her was loathe to seem to give into Nozomi's argument, not to mention venturing down into the Geofront, the self-sufficient colony that NERV ruled absolutely. On the other hand, though, just sitting around while she could sense an Angel and running through all the "what-if's" was driving her completely crazy.
I guess I could just…investigate, she thought as she put the fish into the oven. I'll just take a quick look around, and if there's nothing out of the ordinary, I'll head back. So long as I'm careful, I should be all right even if NERV's set up another one of those crazy AT field neutralization zones.
"All right," Hikari said, "I'll go. Now, while I'm gone, I want you to remember to stir the soup. Take the fish out of the oven when the timer goes off, and don't forget to use a pot holder or oven mitts. And—"
"Nee-chan, I've watched you do this a million times," Nozomi interrupted. "I can handle it."
"Really? Then maybe I should have you do all the cooking around here from now on," Hikari said, smiling dangerously.
"Heh, heh, gomen," Nozomi said, visibly sweating.
Hikari smirked and headed upstairs to change into her costume.
"This is so stupid," Asuka grumbled as she sat inside one of three plugs that were sitting on the ground inside the Geofront, more or less abandoned while NERV dealt with the Eleventh Angel. "I'm an EVA pilot! Hell, I'm the best EVA pilot! I shouldn't have to deal with this crap!"
Being forced to tolerate such nonsense is far beneath you, Zarathos oozed in agreement.
Asuka rolled her eyes, by now accustomed to the way the demon in her mind often buttered her up to keep its host happy.
Really, you should head back into NERV and give them a piece of your mind…at least, the demon added, always eager to go after the top brass at NERV, most of whom were irredeemably stained with sin.
The Second Child smirked wickedly Zarathos's anger and ruthlessness infected her. The fact that she was naked didn't seem to matter nearly so much as it had a moment ago. Now all that was really important was giving that phony blonde an earful.
Silently thanking whoever designed the plugs for including independent power sources, Asuka pushed the button to open the hatch and climbed out, LCL dripping off of her and onto the dirt ground. She grimaced as she felt small rocks and twigs biting into the soft soles of her feet.
Akagi won't be able to hear properly for a week by the time I'm done yelling at her, Asuka thought as her anger continued to build, absently closing the plug hatch again out of habit.
Tip-toeing along in a largely futile effort to avoid hurting her feet further, the Second Child started making her way back to headquarters, in search of clothing and revenge, in that order. She grumbled softly to herself about the multitude of stupid things and people she had to put up with on a daily basis as she walked.
The quiet flapping sound that reached her ears caused her to abruptly cease her complaints and snap her head upward. Her blue eyes widened at what she saw.
Spirit! What the hell is she doing down here? Asuka mentally snarled.
Zarathos was silent for once.
Asuka watched Spirit silently for a while. There was sufficient distance between the two that she didn't need to worry about being easily spotted, even with her red hair. Besides, Spirit was looking in the wrong direction, anyway. The winged girl appeared to be searching for something, but Asuka had no idea what it could be.
A feral grin split Asuka's face as she eyed the blissfully oblivious winged girl. This is my chance! Screw yelling at Akagi! I can finally get back at that bitch for stealing all the glory from me!
This isn't a wise idea, Zarathos warned, unusually reluctant to enter combat. Remember, the flames of Hell cannot harm one of innocent blood. Not only is the girl powerful, but she is an innocent as well.
Asuka looked up and saw that the demon was correct. No dark marks of death swirled around Spirit, which was a shame from her point of view.
Oh, so all your incredible power really isn't so great after all then, huh? Asuka sneered.
My powers are sufficient to slay any living thing! Zarathos snapped indignantly.
Good, Asuka replied. Then fulfill your part of our deal. This girl is my enemy, and I want my revenge against her!
You don't have your weapons, or your motorcycle, Zarathos pointed out. You don't even have any clothing.
Form my things from hellfire, Asuka commanded imperiously, thoroughly enjoying bossing Zarathos around for once. All of it.
I'll need to use some of my power just to maintain them! That will tilt the odds even further against us! Zarathos hissed. I had you obtain the objects through mundane means for a reason, you know.
Keep your end of the deal or I'll stop keeping mine! Asuka growled.
Zarathos snorted. He knew he could force Asuka to keep serving him, and he knew that Asuka knew it as well. But while he didn't strictly need her cooperation, he wanted it very much.
Asuka knew that, too.
Very well. I shall uphold my part of our covenant, Zarathos said at last.
And with that, Asuka Langley Soryu burst into flame. She threw her head back as her body became the center of the demonic inferno, laughing. The pain of her flesh burning away was incredible. Every nerve ending she possessed cried out in agony as they were incinerated.
But it was wonderful. Nothing could compete with the unbridled feeling of power that flooded her now, save for piloting her Unit Two.
The Second Child's flesh was eaten from within by the infernal blaze inside her, reducing her to a bare skeleton. Huge, curved horns grew from her skull as the flames that consumed her body solidified, becoming new flesh.
She smiled, her bony face filled with savage pleasure. Asuka Langley Soryu had gone, and in her place stood the Ghost Rider.
Doesn't seem like there's anything out of the ordinary here, Spirit thought as she hovered inside the Geofront.
She could still sense the Angel, but it seemed to be in the pyramid that she knew was NERV headquarters. And there was simply no way that she was going in there. It would be reckless in the extreme at best, and plain suicidal at worst.
Still, something was nagging at her, something besides being able to sense an Angel inside of the heart of the organization created to destroy them.
It's too quiet, she realized.
Spirit had had to break down a few doors on the access route she'd taken down into the Geofront, and Shinji had told her that NERV could detect her presence with their Angel alert system. The ability to pinpoint her location unless she stayed still for a good while continued to elude them, much to her relief, but they at least should have known she was coming.
So if there was no Angel, why wasn't she greeted by a swarm of VTOL attack fighters, or even EVA Unit Two? If it was a trap, why hadn't it been sprung? Was NERV actually expecting her to go to the pyramid?
Her thoughts were interrupted the roar of an engine. Blinking, Spirit whirled about in midair and looked down, doing a double take at what she saw.
On the ground was a girl on an utterly huge motorcycle. She was clad in fairly typical biker gear, but her head was like a horned skull wreathed in red and orange flame. Blue fire burned hatefully in her eye sockets as she looked up at Spirit.
The Ghost Rider, Spirit thought, remembering her from the tabloid Nozomi had been reading. What in the world is she doing here?
"Um, hello?" Spirit called down, the bizarre situation leaving her unusually uncertain. "You're the Ghost Rider, right? What are you doing here?"
The horned rider laughed. "That's what they call me, though I'm also known as the spirit of vengeance! As for what I'm doing here, well, I'm here to get my revenge on you!"
"M-Me?!" Spirit exclaimed. "What did I ever do to you?"
The Ghost Rider chuckled. "If you have to ask, you'll never know."
Spirit knew she should have either attacked or fled, but something stayed her hand. There was just something maddeningly familiar about the Ghost Rider, though Spirit didn't have the slightest clue as to what it was. She almost felt as though she'd seen her before, but she was certain she would have remembered that meeting.
So instead she just continued to hover and look down at the other superwoman with curious eyes, confident that her flying ability would keep her out of the fiery girl's reach.
"Look, there's no need for us to fight," Spirit said reasonably. "This is a bad place for it, anyway. NERV doesn't exactly trust our kind, and they can be very opportunistic when it comes to catching us, believe me."
"I don't have to worry about NERV," the Ghost Rider retorted, "but maybe I'll let them have you when I'm done with you."
Spirit crossed her arms. "And how do you intend to get at me, Ghost Rider?"
"Like this!" the Ghost Rider replied.
She gunned the engine of her motorcycle, which let out a thunderous roar as it raced forward, trailing fire behind it. Spirit wondered what she was hoping to achieve, until the Ghost Rider sped onto a small hill, sending the bike flying into the air when she reached her the end of her makeshift ramp.
She's got to be kidding, Spirit thought with the proverbial sweat drop. There's no way she'll manage to get high enough to…
Her thought trailed off as the Ghost Rider reached the apex of her jump, and the tires of her monster bike folded downwards. Flames poured out from the bottom of the tires, thwarting the pull of gravity and boosting the Rider higher into the air.
Spirit turned and flew off, not realizing that she was heading toward NERV headquarters. "Can't we talk about this?" she called.
"No!" the Ghost Rider snarled, accelerating as fast as she was able.
What the heck has she got against me? Spirit wondered. And what is she anyway? I don't think NERV made her. I'm not sensing anything Angelic about her, anyway.
She turned her head, relieved to see that she was slowly but surely putting distance between them. At least I've got the advantage in the air. Maybe I should—
Spirit stopped in mid thought as a familiar but very unwelcome sensation swept over her. The combination of sharp fear and incredible desire nearly overwhelmed her as she again felt the presence of the strange Angel she had sensed back on the Over the Rainbow. A wave of nausea swept over her and her heartbeat accelerated as she fought the urge to storm the NERV pyramid and seek it.
She didn't notice that she had stopped, but the Ghost Rider did.
Not hesitating to take advantage of this opportunity, the Rider quickly grabbed the chain that was draped over her left shoulder, the metal bursting into flame as she channeled her power into it. She held it over her head, spinning it, then sent it flying with a flick of her wrist toward her enemy.
Spirit screamed as the burning metal links wrapped around one of her ankles, the pain bringing her back to reality immediately. Unfortunately, she was too stunned to stop what came next.
The wheels of the Ghost Rider's bike returned to their normal position, and gravity reclaimed its hold on the spirit of vengeance and her mechanical steed. Spirit let out a shout as she was dragged downward along with them.
The bike landed back on the ground with a bone jarring thud that failed to so much as phase the demonic young woman who sat upon it. Without giving Spirit an extra second to react, the Ghost Rider pulled savagely on her chain with all her superhuman strength.
Spirit cried out in pain as she was slammed into the ground, certain that the impact had broken at least a few bones. She dismissed the pain, however, confident that her injuries would be no more in several seconds at the most. Ignoring her body's screams of agony, she sat up and began to untangle the chain from around her ankle. She was shocked to see that, painful though the touch of the flaming metal was, it was somehow failing to burn her skin at all.
"Well, well, well," the horned superwoman said as she rode up to her, just as Spirit had freed herself from the chain. "Looks like the little Angel isn't so wonderful after all."
The winged girl's eyes narrowed. "I'm not an Angel," she said. "I'm Spirit."
She fired off a cross blast at the Ghost Rider, sending her and her motorcycle flying backwards several meters. The Rider was quickly parted from her Ghostcycle, which went spinning through the air until it slammed into a tree and burst into a cloud of flame that quickly dissipated and vanished.
The horned girl herself landed painfully on the ground. The blast hadn't caught her full on, but a large chunk of her side had been just obliterated by the white energy. The Ghost Rider hissed as flames leapt up from her body and reformed the blazing flesh, her clothing likewise repairing itself a second later.
"Want another?" Spirit taunted, white light forming in her palm as she took to the air again and hovered several meters above the ground. "Or are you finally ready to talk like a civilized person?"
"No, thanks," the Ghost Rider replied curtly, grabbing one of her sawed off shotguns from its place at her hip and pulling the trigger.
Instead of slugs or buckshot, fire erupted from the double barrels of the weapon, streaking toward Spirit. The winged girl was not going to be caught by surprise again, however. She threw another cross blast at the Ghost Rider just as the fireball slammed into her AT field, causing the orange shield of light to flicker dangerously.
The Ghost Rider threw her body into a roll, just barely managing to dodge one of the arms of the cross blast. Without getting up, she grabbed her second shotgun from its holster, aimed, and squeezed the trigger.
This time the blast punched straight through Spirit's weakened AT field, slamming into the girl. The fires of hell couldn't truly hurt the winged heroine, but it was enough to stun her and send her tumbling to the ground again.
"Die, bitch!" the Ghost Rider screamed, sprinting over to her fallen enemy.
She was truly lost in the grip of demonic fury by now, all plans to spare her and give her to the eggheads at NERV to poke and prod as they wished abandoned. Despite what everyone said, Spirit was an Angel, she was certain of it. And killing Angels was what she had been raised to do.
"Die!" she yelled again.
Spirit came back to her senses and looked up to see her foe pulling out something that looked like some kind of sword which had been strapped to her back. Her eyes widened.
Is that a chainsaw?!
The winged girl brought her hands up just in time, gripping the flat of the "blade" between her palms as the Ghost Rider swung down, careful to avoid the spinning chain. She was able to stop its descent mere centimeters from her face.
Spirit's lips peeled back as the two fought with all their might. Though neither was the strongest woman in Tokyo-3, both possessed many, many times the strength of the average man. With the Ghost Rider using all her strength to complete her sword's arc, while Spirit gave her all to halt it, it was the classic case of immovable object meets unstoppable force. Something had to give soon.
It turned out to be the sword itself. The guide bar snapped off from the "hilt" of the sword. The chain snapped and went flying harmlessly away into the forest before it burst into a small plume of flame. A moment later, the rest of the sword followed its example and was no more.
The Ghost Rider looked down dumbly at her empty hands, unable to believe her vengeance had been so close only to slip from her fingers.
Spirit wasted no time and shot a cross blast up at the Ghost Rider, sending her flying through the air. The demonic young woman flailed her arms and legs about, even as her flesh was vaporized by the blast and then reformed from more hellfire.
"No more Miss Nice Girl," Spirit growled at she got to her feet.
The winged girl shot up into the air, reaching the Ghost Rider just before gravity was able to claim her again. Spirit grabbed the Ghost Rider's wrist and flipped her, hurling her down to the ground with every ounce of strength she could muster. The Ghost Rider groaned as she slammed into the hard earth.
"That was for what you did with the chain!" Spirit shouted. "And this is for the fire balls!"
She fired another cross blast straight down at the Ghost Rider's prone form, the energy hitting her dead on and drilling into her. A gaping hole was left in her torso, and much of her scarlet skin was burned away. More fire blazed up and repaired the damage, but it was clear that the Ghost Rider couldn't just shrug off the assaults.
Spirit returned to the ground, landing next to her foe. "And this," she said, leaning over and cocking her fist, "is for that crazy chainsaw sword."
The Ghost Rider lunged forward before Spirit could shatter her jaw, wrapping her hands around the winged girl's throat. The fiery motorcyclist pulled Spirit down on top of her, and then rolled over, pinning the silver haired heroine beneath her as she strangled the life out of her.
Spirit flailed about wildly, desperately trying to throw off her assailant, but the Ghost Rider would not be deterred, never allowing her iron grip to waver.
"You should've stayed in the air, little girl," the Ghost Rider sneered, gazing into Spirit's eyes, wanting to see the moment when the light was extinguished from them, when the life of her enemy, the one who had repeatedly stolen the glory that should have been hers, was destroyed. "Or better yet, you should've never tangled with me!"
Spirit finally realized that her panicked struggling would get her nowhere and grabbed her enemy's wrists, trying to pull the hands from her throat. But the oxygen deprivation was already starting to sap her strength, and she couldn't budge the Ghost Rider's hands.
Is…is this it? She wondered, feeling surprisingly calm as her vision dimmed. Never thought I'd go out this way…
Just before Spirit's red eyes slid shut, a bolt of energy suddenly slammed into the Ghost Rider, throwing her off her prey and sending her sailing ten meters with a cry of pain and rage before she landed on the ground.
Both she and Spirit snapped their gazes toward the source of attack.
It was a girl who appeared to be made of living quicksilver that stood on what looked like a surfboard of the same material, which hovered about a meter off the ground.
"The Silver Surfer," Spirit breathed, too quietly for anyone but her to hear, as she staggered to her feet.
"I will not allow you to harm her further," the Surfer told the Ghost Rider in a calm but firm tone. "Spirit has been a force for only good in this city."
The Ghost Rider chuckled darkly as she pulled herself to her feet. "Well, I guess I have no choice but to give in. After all, I'm outnumbered," she observed. "Two on one's not a fair fight. Not fair."
Spirit tensed at the amused tone in the Ghost Rider's voice, but the Silver Surfer's eyes widened slightly as a tiny bell inside her mind rang. Unfortunately, she couldn't seem to grasp the reason why. She found that she associated the Rider's words with the Seventh Angel.
But why? I did not even take part in that engagement. I just observed.
She chose exactly the wrong moment to become lost in thought. A rope of flame abruptly formed in the Ghost Rider's hand, quickly transforming into a new chain. She whipped it out toward the Silver Surfer, encircling the herald's waist. With a savage tug and an equally savage yell, the Ghost Rider ripped the Surfer from her board and sent her flying through the air without it. The Surfer slammed into Spirit, and both girls fell to the ground in a heap.
"So long, losers!" the Ghost Rider cackled, as a ball of flame blossomed near her feet, soon transforming into her bike. She jumped onto it, gunned the engine, and took off with a roar.
"The board!" the Surfer hissed as her metallic skin lost its silvery sheen, becoming a much more dull color.
The Ghost Rider had not been so foolish as to try to claim it, and the board hovered motionlessly where it had been. Still, the Surfer summonsed it to her the moment she managed to extract herself from the tangle of limbs she had been stuck in with Spirit, quickly getting back on.
"We should pursue the Ghost Rider," the metallic heroine spoke before Spirit could say anything. "I have ignored her in the past because she has only targeted dangerous criminals up to now, but that is no longer the case."
"Right," Spirit said, nodding.
The two super powered teenagers took to the air, flying above the treetops as they searched for the Ghost Rider, but after several minutes of looking, they turned up nothing.
"I don't get it," Spirit said. "How can someone like that just disappear?"
Down on the ground, Asuka pressed her body up against a tree, grimacing at the feel of the rough bark against her bare skin. She glared hatefully up at the pair of other super beings as they flew overhead, clenching her fist.
I was so close to making sure that Spirit never stole my thunder again! And I would've succeeded, too, if not for that Silver Bitch!
Now what? Zarathos asked.
Now we sneak back to the plug and pretend I never left it, Asuka replied.
I told you this was a bad idea!
Shove it! Asuka snapped, as she began to pick her way back to her simulation plug.
"We may not know the full range of the Ghost Rider's abilities," the Surfer said. "In any case, I do not believe we will have to deal with her again today."
"Thank goodness," Spirit said. She then gave the Silver Surfer a smile. "Thank you very much for your help. I don't know how I'll ever repay you."
The Silver Surfer gave her a small, mysterious smile. "Let's just call it even."
"Huh? But I've never done anything for you!" Spirit said, more confused than ever.
The Silver Surfer fell silent for a moment, mulling over whether or not to reveal her identity to Spirit. Should I?
It is your choice to make, child, Lilith said gently. Do you trust her?
I do, the Silver Surfer replied. And…and I believe it might benefit our friendship if I were to tell her. There are not many others like us, not many who can understand the burden of the secrets we carry. In any case, I know who she is. Would it not be…fair to tell her who I am?
I suppose, Lilith replied mildly, refusing to make the decision for her herald. But you have concerns, too, do you not?
The Commander seeks Spirit's capture, the Surfer replied. If he succeeds, he may place her under extreme duress and cause her to reveal me to him. That would not help either of us. I would be able to do nothing to aid her if I had to elude capture myself.
The Second Angel was stubbornly silent, and the Silver Surfer gave a quiet sigh.
Spirit cleared her throat, regaining the Surfer's attention. "Are you all right?" she asked. "You spaced out for a moment there."
"I am fine," the Silver Surfer answered. "If possible, I will explain why I feel you owe me nothing at a later date. Now, however, I must go."
"Wait, what about the Angel?" Spirit asked.
"The Eleventh Angel has taken an unconventional form," the Silver Surfer replied, conveying a condensed version of what Lilith had told her of it. "We cannot fight it and must hope that NERV is up to the task of destroying it."
Spirit nodded. She considered asking about the other Angel, the one that filled her anxiety and wanting at the same time but decided against it. After her battle with the Ghost Rider, all she wanted was to go home and be Hikari again.
"All right," she said. "Thanks again for your help. I hope we meet again!"
A small smile graced the Silver Surfer's face as Spirit flew off. "Don't worry, we will," she said softly. "I will be seeing you at school tomorrow, after all."
The Silver Surfer flew back down to where the three abandoned simulation plugs lay, unaware that she had just missed Asuka's return. She opened her own up and dismissed the shadow of herself she had left there in her place. Ordering the board to return to its hiding place, she banished her metallic covering and sat in her command chair to wait until someone arrived to take the pilots back to headquarters.
"Hello!" she heard Shinji call out. "Is anybody out there?"
The corners of Rei's lips quirked upwards.
Some time later at the Horaki house, a very tired Hikari trudged downstairs.
What a crazy day, she thought. The Ghost Rider has a grudge against me for no reason, and the Silver Surfer apparently felt like she owed me something, also for no reason.
She was not entirely surprised when she reached the kitchen to find what had once been fish but now was a lump of charcoal sitting on the kitchen table, with Kodama and Nozomi arguing loudly.
"It's your fault!"
"No, it's not, you little brat! It's your fault!"
"You were supposed to watch it!"
"No, you were! I told you to wait for the timer to go off!"
Hikari grabbed a large wooden spoon and smacked it against the wall, causing her sisters to jump and turn toward her.
"I really don't care whose fault it is," Hikari said in a soft voice that simply radiated danger, fully taking on her matron persona. "One of you throw that away, and the other one order a pizza. I do not feel like cooking a fresh meal."
"Uh, okay," Kodama said, heading for the phone.
"Sure thing, nee-chan," Nozomi said, picking up the tray and moving for the trash can.
"Oh, and Nozomi-chan?" Hikari asked.
"Yes, nee-chan?" the little girl asked, looking more than a little nervous.
"I am never, ever going to let you talk me into doing something so reckless again," Hikari said. "Now I'm going upstairs to lie down for a little while. I'm exhausted. Come get me when the pizza gets here."
"Of course," Nozomi said.
Hikari wordlessly left the kitchen and headed back up the stairs. Kodama gave Nozomi a questioning look as she held the phone to her ear, clearly wondering what Hikari's problem was. The youngest Horaki just shrugged in response.
Author's Notes: First of all, I want to thank orionpax09 for giving me permission to use his superwomen of EVA, and for being so kind as to furnish me with the info I needed for the Ghost Rider's appearance here. This chapter would have been pretty dull without it. And, don't worry about not PMing me right away. It was my fault for being lazy about my profile and forgetting to turn on the PMs. I hope you enjoyed this and don't mind the few extra powers I gave Asuka. I tried to keep it to stuff Johnny Blaze could do (or at least stuff wiki says he can do, as I've never been that hugely into Ghost Rider), like creating stuff from hellfire. I'm pretty sure he could make the bike from it, for instance. I couldn't have her fighting Spirit unarmed and unclothed (that's She-Hulk's bit).
Now, I know a few of you were aware that Ghost Rider would make an appearance, but I hope I caught you by surprise with the Silver Surfer. It just seemed appropriate to have her and Spirit fight side by side at least once, if only briefly, since they're the only two superwomen so far who are friends both when they're being superheroes and normal people.
Konous the grey, once the twisted romantic relationships go past being triangles, I just call the love polygons. :D
Zoro50, I admit that the last bits of the previous chapter were somewhat lackluster, but I couldn't think of anything else to do besides type out the unaltered battle against the Tenth Angel, and I didn't want to do that. Anyway, thanks for the suggestion, I'll almost certainly make use of it.
Reform Joms, I think the manga where Shinji has the gun is fan made, and if you start counting AUs that were created by the fans, there would be hundreds. Anyway, just to let you know, the Angel from the last chapter was the Tenth, which was the living bomb that they had to catch before it could hit the ground.
Kenzie, it's good to have you back. I was wondering what had happened to you. :) Anyway, the thing with Misato having passed out was a nod to events in orionpax09's "Superwomen of Eva: Emerald Fury." It never happened in the anime, which is probably why you're confused.
Anyway, I hope you all had as much fun reading this chapter as I had writing it, and thanks to all my readers and reviewers.
Omakes
Some Crossovers Should Never Happen
Down on the ground, Asuka pressed her body up against a tree, grimacing at the feel of the rough bark against her bare skin. She glared hatefully up at the pair of other super beings as they flew overhead, clenching her fist.
I was so close to making sure that Spirit never stole my thunder again! And I would've succeeded, too, if not for that meddling Silver Surfer and her board!
"Pen-Pen Pen-Pen Doo!" Misato's pet penguin suddenly squawked, appearing from seemingly nowhere.
"Argh!" Asuka shouted, jumping a foot in the air in surprise.
Overworked Spirit of Vengeance
Down on the ground, Asuka pressed her body up against a tree, grimacing at the feel of the rough bark against her bare skin. She glared hatefully up at the pair of other super beings as they flew overhead, clenching her fist.
I was so close to making sure that Spirit never stole my thunder again! And I would've succeeded, too, if not for that Silver Bitch! That's it! She just made the list!
Zarathos groaned as, using the magic of animation, Asuka pulled a scroll of paper out from nowhere and allowed it unroll. It easily reached her feet and with paper to spare. At the top was the heading "People/things to get revenge upon and/or destroy."
"Let's see," Asuka muttered as she looked at it, trying to decide where to place the Silver Surfer on it. "I'll put her below Commander Ikari, Shinji, Rei, that admiral who called my Unit Two a toy, the Japanese written language, and the Japanese school system, but below that hairdresser who made me look like a boy when I was nine…"
Zarathos sighed. I should've known there had to be a catch with making her the next Rider…