Review responses:

Shinji Ikari01: Ha. Don't worry he will be wearing a costume, but it's gonna be heaps cooler than the one the real Superman wears!

Cyber-Undead: Well to answer your review, Shinji had been trying to avoid Toji and Kensuke and had successfully done so. His hair is only slightly longer, but I forgot to write that as he went to school he straightened it out a bit. His muscles are big, but not big enough to rip through his clothes! And Section 2 sucks. They couldn't track an Angel if they even wanted to.

Minstrel24: Well the whole "trench coat" idea won't work because Superman isn't a bad boy like Batman or someone else, he's heroic, glorious and an icon! I'm not changing the personalities of any of the characters in the story to match Superman – you don't even have to read it like a Superman story if you don't want to either!

To the story…

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Shinji had now circled the city several times. It was the most relaxed he had ever been in years, perhaps in his life, running at several thousand kilometres per hour with everything blurring around him.

Suddenly, his new hearing picked up something…

"HELP! Somebody help me!"

The young pilot screeched to a halt, spinning around to locate the person.

HELP! PLEASE!"

"Shut up bitch, or else you'll be in a world of pain!"

He quickly found the source, running at normal speed towards it.

Turning into an alleyway, he saw a girl surrounded by a group of thugs.

I can't let this go on! Even with his powers, he still had doubts. I mustn't run away, I mustn't run away, I MUSTN'T RUN AWAY!

"HEY!" Shinji shouted.

The thugs all turned around to see him. In the darkness of the alleyway, it was almost impossible to discern Shinji.

"You! Go bash him!" One of the thugs said to another. The guy nodded, running towards Shinji with his knife flicked out.

Even though the person was running towards him armed with a weapon, Shinji wasn't afraid. His new abilities had not just blessed him with superpowers – they blessed him with a strong, steely backbone.

The person seemed to run so slow, it was like he was trapped in mud. Shinji suppressed a yawn, and gave him one soft punch when he came into range.

BAM! The thug went flying through the air, slamming into the wall and sprawling onto the ground unconscious.

The other would-be rapists looked stunned.

Then they all turned, running to attack him…

But Shinji easily kicked and punched his way out, taking their own hits like they were nothing!

And soon, the thugs were all laying there unconscious.

Shinji quickly ran across to help the girl. "Are you okay?" He asked.

"I'm fine…thank you…" The girl said, flustered. "Hey…do I know you? I recognize your voice!"

Shinji's eyes grew wider as he then realized it was Hikari. "Uh, no…" He said in a deeper and more mature voice. I'm sorry Hik…miss, I don't know you."

He led her out the alleyway where it was brighter.

The class rep frowned as she tried to ID his face. "I'm sure you look familiar!"

In shock, Shinji realize he didn't have his glasses on, simply because they got in the way when he was running at super-speeds and were now in his pocket. Furthermore, his hair had become slightly looser when he ran and now a curl hung out onto his forehead.

He gave a dazzling smile, daring to be as dashing as he could (those superpowers seriously change someone) while he was still unrecognized. "I'm sorry, but I don't think we've ever met!"

Hikari felt herself blushing at his handsome face and smile. "Oh well…uh…thank you anyway!"

"HEY BITCH!"

They both turned around to see a thug on the ground, Shinji cursing himself inwardly for not keeping aware of their surroundings.

He was holding an Uzi. "See you both in hell!"

RAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!

At once, Shinji had jumped into the air, grabbing Hikari and shielding her with his body.

The thug looked at him in horror. "WHAT ARE YOU?!"

Hikari opened her eyes. She looked at her savior, then looked down to see the ground several metres below. "You…you can fly!"

Shinji's jaw dropped when he realized this. Just how many powers do I have?!

The two floated easily to the ground.

"I'VE STILL GOT ENOUGH BULLETS TO KILL YOU!" The thug screamed as he emptied his magazine.

Shinji took the bullets to his back, not even feeling anything. He then spun around, using his heat vision to melt the guy's SMG and ran towards him at super-speed, knocking him unconscious.

The pilot turned towards Hikari. "You'd better go. And don't go out and night again!"

The class rep nodded, and as she slept that night she would be dreaming of her manly and hunky saviour coming to rescue her from the clouds.

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"WAAHHHH!" Shinji screamed in fear as he flew through the sky at a dizzying pace.

It had been easy to figure out how to fly again, but harder to control it as he spun, dove and flew higher in random circles and loops.

Okay…okay…calm down! Shinji stopped in mid-air, calming his beating heart. I'll just take this slowly and try to learn control!

That plan seemed to work. As Shinji flew slowly, getting to grips with turning, diving and flying higher, he increased the speed and could soon fly decently but it would still take some practice.

As he flew home, Shinji pondered what he should do with these new powers.

Maybe with these powers I can finally stop others from dying and from getting hurt. Yeah! Maybe I could be a superhero, like those in the mangas that Kensuke always reads…

He gave it no further thought, returning to his apartment and sneaking inside.

Everything was just as he left it. Misato was still drunk and unconscious, the lights were off and Asuka was probably asleep, as it WAS 12 pm. They must've thought he had already gone to bed.

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As Shinji prepared to head out the next day, even more refreshed and revived that he actually got up earlier to make breakfast, Toji and Kensuke run out to meet him.

"Hey man, look at you!" Toji exclaimed. "You're so tall, what happened?"

"I dunno," Shinji said meekly. "I must've had a growth spurt or something."

"Well if Rei likes tall guys, then you're in the game!" Kensuke said.

At this Shinji pretended to blush. He now realized why they teased him – it was all in good-natured fun that he was taking too seriously.

"Hey, stooges!"

All three of them groaned. "Beware the red devil," Toji said with sarcasm dripping from his lips.

"What was that, stooge?!" Asuka roared. "Did you say something about me? Well say it to my face!"

Before Toji could come back with another smart remark, Shinji quickly butted in. "Asuka, are you coming with the rest of the class to the museum today?"

Asuka smirked, folding her arms. "Of course not! I've already graduated from university, why do I even need to go to the museum?!"

"That's from someone who's failing!" Toji yelled.

Kensuke and Shinji both sighed in unison as the two began arguing once again.

At school, Hikari looked like she was daydreaming, with stars in her eyes as she stared out the window.

"Hikari?" Asuka asked as she sat down beside her. "What's up? You look as if you've met a real cute guy!"

The class rep gave a girlish sigh. "You have no idea, Asuka…"

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When they arrived at the museum, the class was told they could freely explore until the end of the day.

"Hey, check that out!" Kensuke said as he pointed to a strange small machine and cable. On the small card it read:

Dial-up. To connect to the Internet Dial-up utilized phone lines as a means, although this meant that the phones couldn't be used for calling. It was also at only a speed of 56k.

"I don't think I could ever survive it being so slow!" Kensuke said. "I'd die!"

As they walked through the Pre-Impact rooms, Shinji eventually got bored and decided to wander off by himself.

He had originally intended to go to the café to get a snack, but he took a wrong turn and inadvertently stumbled into the 'Unsolved Mysteries' section.

There was a lot of junk there that Shinji was bored of (after all, who wanted to know if Napoleon won in Waterloo or not?).

However, as he was walking through, he noticed something…

It was a metal plate, with a strange, diamond shape. Inside it was an 'S'.

The plaque read:

This insignia was found inscribed into a strange black material found after the events of Second Impact. Nothing has been made of it, but many strange theories have been presented, from relation to Angels to…

Shinji stopped reading, then went to look at the symbol again.

That 'S'…

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"Sempai, Shinji's sync ratio has increased by a whole ten points!" Maya exclaimed in surprise.

"That's incredible!" Ritsuko said as she looked at the charts. "And it's holding steady as well. That new plugsuit is working like a charm!"

Before the sync test, Ritsuko had given the pilots a set of new plugsuits. The new suits were skin tight as usual, but they were far less bulky and much more sleeker. "And to top it all off," Ritsuko said, obviously very proud of her work, "These will survive and endure much longer than the originals, in case the pilots ever get caught out in the wilderness after ejection!"

But they didn't increase their sync ratios.

Shinji's new confidence did.

As Shinji finished washing in the showers, wiping off the LCL, he slipped out of his plugsuit and put it on the rack.

Then he spotted something.

Among the rows of blue and white plugsuits, a sleek black one caught his eye…

He took it out and looked at it.

Below the chest, it was jet black and shiny.

Over the chest and down the arms, it was silver…

And Shinji did something he never would've done before.

He smirked.