Disclaimer: I do not own Evangelion or DC Comics. Please don't sue me, I'm poor.
Summary: The loss of her ability to walk devastated Chiyo Suzuhara, the younger sister of Toji. That is, until she came across a discovery of her mother's. One that lifted her up into the clouds.
Chapter Three: Bird of Prey
"We are not pleased by this, Ikari."
Distorted voices echoed through the black void, empty save for eight holographic monoliths and a single man standing on a long stretch of darkness.
"The safety of Pilot One is paramount to the scenario," stated SEELE-04. "If he is killed before we can begin we'll have less than nothing to start again with."
"Completely unacceptable," added SEELE-07.
"Well Ikari, what have you to say for yourself?" asked SEELE-03.
Deliberately taking the time to adjust his ever-present sunglasses, Gendo presented the outcome in a calm tone of voice. "The event is undesirable but will have no lasting impact on our plans. The situation has been handled and the pilot is now safe again," Gendo reported. He made no mention of the other hostages. "In addition, Section Two's lax agent has been... appropriately disciplined. Such an event will not re-occur in the future."
"See to it that it does not," replied SEELE-01 darkly.
"What about this new superwoman?" asked SEELE-06.
A holographic image materialized between the towering monoliths, a three-dimensional image of the newly christened Hawkgirl, albeit distorted by the poor medium in which it had been taken. Even with digital enhancement, they could not identify her, nor get any particularly clear details.
Within the past few months there had been numerous reports of women with extraordinary, even otherworldly powers, appearing in Tokyo-3. They seemed to flock to it for some unknown reason. Some of them were merely content to fight crime, some had even gone up against the Angels themselves, with varying levels of success.
The public adored them, and in that one respect they were useful, all too frequently news about NERV was sidelined against more colorful displays of heroism performed by the superwomen. And whatever kept the public and government from digging too deep into their affairs was welcome. But some of them were still a genuine threat to operations, so neither SEELE or Gendo cared for them.
Deep down, Gendo suspected part of it was out of a deep rooted jealousy. The arguably most powerful men in the world occupied SEELE, who could overturn governments and influence the United Nations to do virtually anything they wanted. Yet they were undermined and made impotent by females who had the power to block bullets and lift cars.
This new one, evidently, did not phase them nearly as much.
"She is a child," replied SEELE-01 dismissively. "No threat to us."
"The pilots are children too," Gendo stated calmly, more to be contrary than anything else. "Yet at the critical moment they will hold the power of life and death in the palms of their hands."
"Are you suggest we worry about this little girl and her toy club?" asked SEELE-04 in an incredulous tone of voice.
"Hardly," replied Gendo evenly. "Our focus will remain on the other, more prominent superwomen. We're already prepared and executed countermeasures for some of the more persistent ones. If we learn anything new about this... Hawkgirl... she'll be removed from the equation just as easily."
The 3-D image winked out like a candle that had been snuffed.
"If that is all you had, I have other business to attend to," Gendo said as politely as he could manage to stomach.
"That is all," intoned SEELE-01. "For now."
One by one the glowing monoliths winked out as the members of SEELE terminated their link to the meeting. Finally, only one man stood in the expanse of darkness.
"Paranoid old fools," muttered Gendo. "They'd have us jumping at shadows whenever anything with two X chromosomes put on some colorful spandex."
Chiyo was a for-real-live superwoman!
And she was SO bored!
Grimacing, she floated over to one of the smaller skyscrapers and sat down on the edge of the roof, tugging the mask back and rubbing her eyes in frustration. This wasn't anything like what she'd been hoping for.
For the first two days absolutely nothing happened. Not a back alley mugging, not a car wreck, not even a cat stuck in a tree.
On the third day she'd heard sirens and swooped in to save the day, but she'd arrived at the scene long after the Tokyo-3 police had pulled over the criminal and handcuffed him, leaving her with nothing to do.
A week after that, she'd been almost overjoyed (almost, she was worried about those people after all) to hear the bridge across the river was collapsing due to poor maintenance and a truck was starting to tip precariously over the edge by the time she'd arrived. But as luck would have it, she'd been beaten to the punch again, as a colorful blur swept past her, and before she could even blink the Amazon Princess had been handily saved the truck with her lasso. Leaving Hawkgirl with nothing to do but glide away before anyone noticed her.
And now, four days later, still nothing. She was starting to grow bored with her new hobby, it wasn't half as exciting as she was hoping for. So she'd split her time between patrols in the sky and tinkering back at the apartment with the other artifacts. She had learned a bit more about some of them, and she thought she had a resaonable command over the various tools she was not utilizing. It seemed to come like second nature to her.
Frankly, the only item she hadn't been able to figure out had been the ankh. The rest was easy, but the ankh seemed almost added to the mix like an after-thought. It wasn't part of the outfit, and it seemed to have no use. She'd tinkered and juggled and willed her mind at it for hours and it refused to do anything other than sit there like she suspected any normal Egyptian relic would do.
She'd just finished a sweep around the edge of the city, hoping she'd hear or see something coming from the slums to the southeast, at the very least, but the entire city was quiet as a mouse. Heck, at this point she'd welcome an Angel attack, nevermind she had no idea if she was capable of handling something that big.
Noon came about, and Chiyo sat on the edge of a skyscraper's roof, mace across her lap, chin resting in the palm of her hand, and gave a mighty sigh.
"What am I doing wrong?" she wondered aloud.
Maybe this whole superhero thing was a fluke, she thought. I got lucky rescuing that little boy, and even Toji... but maybe I'm just not cut out for this kind of thing.
Its not like she had anyone to show her the ropes, she couldn't get in touch with any of the other superwomen, and there was no way she could tell her family about her extra-curricular activities. She briefly toyed with the idea of getting Toji in on it, forming a brother-sister crime-fighting duo, but in the end, she wanted to keep things simple. That way if things turned out horribly bad she'd be the only one in trouble.
But right now all she was getting was capital B bored.
How am I to find crime to fight? she continued to wonder.
Chiyo was blissfully unaware of the fact that her perch was stories above a sign, proclaiming the building she'd chosen as her resting place to be the First National Bank of Tokyo-3.
Chiyo was just about to call it a day and go back home when she smelled smoke. Sniffing the air, she confirmed it, and she leaned forward in her seat, spotting smoke rising up from the lowest floor of the building below. And although it was distant, she could hear an alarm ringing from down below. People were alternately fleeing or watching from a fearful distance, which meant something was happening.
"Oh... well... that works I guess," she said.
She tugged the mask back down and grabbed up the mace, pitching herself off the side of the building and letting her wings catch her descent. After so many days of flying, it had become almost second nature to her. Gravity held no more power over her, and no more fear.
The hawkish superhero caught an updraft only a few feet above the ground. A black humvee had been crashed through the glass wall of the building's lowest floor, no doubt as a prelude to their robbery of its contents. Shards lay scattered all over the ground. The front of the vehicle was crumpled like a tin can, smoke billowing forth from its broken engine. She spotted six or seven of them, wearing ski-masks and leather jackets. Armed with machine guns and a few pistols, and holding bags. Seriously? In this day and age they still wanted to steal physical bills? Money that could be traced? And barely worth the cost of replacing their damaged car? Even Chiyo wasn't that dumb, but then again she'd never made it a habit to be a career criminal.
Too many to swoop in and take out all at once though. Bullets would fly and she'd be at risk. Or some of the bank tellers and customers might be.
Time to try a new trick.
It was one she'd learned only the other day, and it took a lot of concentration. Gritting her teeth, she slipped in through the broken glass opening and climbed upwards, almost brushing her head against the ceiling, and focussed her will on her wings. When next they flapped downwards, several feathers, metallic and razor-sharp, flew through the air. Three hit their intended targets, knocking the guns out of the criminals hands. Two missed completely, and one imbedded itself in a thug's leg instead, dropping him like a sack of potatoes.
Cursing silently, Chiyo dropped down to ground level, mace primed and ready, lightning crackling along its frame.
"Get her!"
The two hoodlums still on their feet opened fire, and Chiyo dodged and ducked, the wings and harness pulling out of the way faster than she could've moved on two functioning legs, and she sped forward, giving a war-cry as her mace swung out, smacking down one criminal and then knocking the gun out of the hands of the next one. Another picked up his lost weapon and opened fire on the Hawkgirl, determined to bring her down before she spoiled everything.
She dodged his clumsy shot and used his wings to spin around, building up momentum. Chiyo swung out with her mace, catching the robber right in the side and sending him crashing into the far wall, almost hard enough to dent the plaster with his body.
"Ball four, take your base!" she exclaimed joyfully, even as she winced in the back of her mind. Still using too much strength. She needed a much lighter touch or she was going to seriously injure someone before too much longer.
That, and she needed to seriously learn to pay closer attention to her surroundings.
One of the burglars, previously unnoticed in the corner of the room, grabbed up a machine gun from one of his fallen comrades and pulled back on the lever, taking aim.
"Hey birdy, new game! Count the shells!"
With no time to dodge out of the way, she dropped to her knees and threw up her arms in a vain effort to protect herself. As she did, her wings responded to her subconscious desire for protection and whipped around faster than the eye could follow in a protective cocoon. As bullets flew from the weapon, they impacted against the steel wings, bouncing off as harmlessly as if they were raindrops. Chiyo wasn't even jostled by the impacts.
Refusing to accept defeat the gunman continued shooting until he'd emptied his clip, and then ejected the empty magazine, fumbling with another to try and reload and continue the deadly assault. Stunned to be alive but not taking the time to question it, Chiyo spread out her wings and took to the air again, swinging around in a wide arc so she could smash the weapon clean out of his hands, sending chunks of metal crashing to the ground.
"No way!" he cried out, his hands stinging.
"Way!" she replied.
She gave him a light rap atop of the head, but it wasn't quite enough to knock him out. All he did was go down, clutching his noggin and cursing up a storm.
Okay, too little that time. Really have to figure out just the right amount of strength to use, she mused.
She heard sirens in the distance, things were wrapping up here, but saw that one of the hoodlums was making a break for it out the opening they'd made earlier. The humvee was smashed, there was no hope of using it for his getaway, but obviously he was still intent on escaping. Satisfied most of the others were down and the occupants of the bank unharmed, Chiyo spread her metallic wings and swooped out of the open doors, grabbing the masked crook by the scruf of his collar and immediately pulling into a climb. He struggled, which didn't help, but quickly stopped when they ascended past the fourth story and kept going higher.
"Put me down, you crazy-!"
"If that's what you wa~aant!" she sing-songed, shaking his collar but being extra-careful not to lose her grip.
"No, wait!" his strugglings increased, nearly shaking himself loose. She decided to cut to the chase before he fell by accident.
"Now you listen up!" Chiyo yelled. "When I put you down, you're going to turn yourself over the police and never rob another bank in your life. Got it?"
"Are you for real?" he shouted back.
"GOT IT?"
"Yes! Yes, I swear!"
"And you'd better not," she yelled in her angriest voice, giving him another shake for good measure. "Because if you do, next time I really will drop you, got it?"
"Yes! Oh god yes! Please don't drop me!"
Chiyo set him down unceremoniously right in the middle of the police blockade right in front of the bank, giving him absolutely no where to run to by right back into the arms of the law. To her relief, she saw he did just that, evidently preferring a lengthy jail sentence to being dropped to his death. Good thing too, because she hadn't ever had any intention of doing such.
Her watched beeped, and Chiyo's eyes widened as she realized she was late. Speeding through the air as fast as she could, she dove and ducked between buildings, not wanting to go overhead and waste anymore time. Her father was meeting her at the hospital soon. Something about some big appointment. If she was late...
The wind blew through her hair as she sped along even faster, metallic wings flapping.
Ichirou Suzuhara was not given to panic, but where it came to his family, especially his precious little daughter, he could get decidedly nervous. In a city on the precicipe of war with an enemy of untold magnitudes, this was a reasonable mindset to be having. Especially after most of his family had been through near-death encounters within the span of a single month.
"And she hasn't checked in yet?"
"I'm sorry sir," replied the nurse. "We were just about to call you and verify she was scheduled for this time. But there's been no sign of Chiyo Suzuhara. She hasn't checked in."
"I'd better give a call," he said, reaching into his pocket to pull out his cell phone, dialling her number.
She didn't answer. After six rings, he went directly to voice mail.
"She isn't answering. Maybe I should go lo-"
"I'm here!"
Chiyo rolled her wheelchair up the ramp and forward into the lobby, breathing heavily. She hadn't had enough time to return home and hide everything, but she'd managed to tuck everything underneath the wheelchair out of sight. Her father never suspected a thing as he leaned forward and gave her a hug.
"Sorry I'm late dad," she said, out of breath. "Lots of traffic on the sidewalks today."
"Well it's alright, we weren't waiting long. Ready for your check-up?"
She nodded. "Mhm!"
Chiyo wheeled her chair forward, and her father was about to leave her to the care of the medical professionals when he spotted a splash of red on the bottom of her chair, where her feet rested.
"Chiyo you're bleeding..."
"Huh?"
He knelt down beside her chair, and her heart started hammering. If he lifted up the cover he'd discover her things. She'd be completely busted!
Thankfully, all he did was lift up her left leg, showing a shallow cut in the bottom of her foot. It looked like it was already healing over reasonably well, but even so, the fact that she hadn't noticed it sent her into a tizzy.
Oh damn! she thought, realization coming to her. It must've been one of the pieces of glass from the bank robbery. I didn't even notice it!
"I uhm..." Think think think! "I broke another glass dad. I guess a piece cut me when I was cleaning it up. I'm sorry dad." To her relief, he bought it, though she felt her stomach twist a little at having to lie to her own father.
"I'll get a bandage for that," said one of the attending nurses.
"Honestly, you have to be more careful, Chiyo-chan," said her father, ruffling her hair. "I'll be back to pick you up in an hour or so, I have to run an errand. Be good."
"Stand! Bow! Dismissed!"
Reacting with mechanical precision, Class 2-A responded to the instructions of Class Representative, then dispersed for the day as ordered. A few stayed behind to handle cleaning and maintenance, some more were heading over to their respective sports teams for practice. Shinji Ikari just picked up his SDAT player, shouldered his bag, and made for the door.
"Hey Shinji! Check this out!"
Startled at being addressed, he relaxed a moment later when he saw it was only Toji and Kensuke trying to get his attention. Inches from the door and escape, he hesitantly made his way over to join them in the back of the room. Toji was packing up his bag, but Kensuke was waving him over to check out a magazine he was holding.
"Check it out. Latest Tokyo Tattler came out. Didn't get a chance to look it over during class."
"Is that why you were running late this morning?" asked Shinji.
"Yeah, that place took forever to open this morning. But check it out. It's the angel who rescued us from the crazy cultists!"
He slapped the article down on his table, prominently displaying the picture of the new superwoman.
"Hawkgirl," murmured Shinji.
"Yeah, yeah, whatever, she's a guardian angel far as I'm concerned. And isn't she gorgeous?"
He spread his hand across the paper. Today's photo was a much better shot than the one taking during her debut, Hawkgirl was perched on one of the many rooftops of Tokyo-3 like her namesake, lying in wait for something to strike. Probably hadn't even realized she was being photographed, since the picture was taken from an angle and gave a view of her profile. The headline read "Bird of Prey keeps watch over Tokyo-3" in big black letters.
Even if it was only on page three, having been bumped off the front by a report about a politicians embezzlement, it was still fairly impressive.
"Oh what I wouldn't give to have some gorgeous guardian angel come swooping in to save me from certain doom," Kensuke sighed dreamily.
Toji snorted. "Yeah well, all I'm saying is don't go jumping off tall buildings just to get her attention."
Shinji actually laughed at that.
"Besides, she's like... flat as a pancake, look at her!"
"I know that, but check out those abs... mmf, beautiful..."
"I dunno, she just... I dunno," said Toji, throwing up his arms. "Not my type, I guess. I'll stick to Wondergirl."
"Pschw, and after she goes to the trouble of saving you from falling to certain death. So ungrateful," muttered the military geek.
Shinji continued to smile at their banter, but was slowly tuning out their conversation as his own thoughts rose to the surface. Talk of girls had reminded him of what he'd been told by his guardian. That the Second Child would be arriving in Tokyo-3 later today, and that she was a girl not much older than he was. Just like Ayanami. It seemed a bit sudden, but he supposed it would be nice not to always have to bear the brunt of the responsibilities that came with being an Evangelion Pilot.
Then again, he remembered how Ayanami was. So... distant. It took nearly dying to get her to smile. And of course there was the matter of his own mood. Hopefully the new pilot would be more... normal.
"What do you think Shinji?"
Snapping back to reality, the Third Child took just a moment to process the question and catch up on things before he took another look at the article and the masked, winged, flying superwoman prominently displayed on it.
"I guess she's kind of pretty," he reluctantly said, more to satisfy them than out of genuine interest. "And she has really nice... uh... wings?"
Chiyo pulled herself out of the wheelchair and settled onto the edge of the hospital bed with a practiced movement, sighing wearily. Oh how much easier it was to move with the wings. Stupid secret identity, she thought.
The nurse was standing nearby, consulting her chart, when another doctor came in and spoke with her in a low, hushed whisper. Startled, she turned to depart.
"Wait here," she said.
"Is something wrong?" asked Chiyo, suddenly feeling nervous.
The nurse smiled in that patronizing way adults did when they didn't want to explain things. "Just wait here," she said again, and slipped out of the room. Leaving Chiyo all alone.
Idly she wondered what could be delaying her appointed check-up.
The door slid open. But it wasn't the nurse from before.
It was a young girl, not much older than Toji, with raven hair in two ponytails and a delicate mole on her chin. She was wearing the school uniform of Tokyo-3's school, and a pair of glasses. Behind her was an elderly gentleman in a crisp business suit, a jacket and briefcase resting over his arm and in his hand, respectively.
"Chiyo Suzuhara?" asked the girl.
"The one and only," Chiyo replied proudly.
Satisfied she had the right room, the other girl gave a shy smile and held out a hand to shake. "I'm Mayumi Yamagushi. Its very nice to meet you," she said formally.
"Likewise," Chiyo replied, still puzzled. "Something I can do for you?"
"Quite the opposite. I'm here to do something for you."
This threw Chiyo for something of a loop. "Uhm, what is it?"
"It's called Genitronic Rejuvenation Surgery," Mayumi explained, adjusting her glasses. "Have you heard of it?"
"Can't say I have," the younger girl replied. And she'd done more than a little reading on the topic.
"Its an experimental procedure, but if it works like my top scientists say it will, it should completely restore your neural pathways along your spinal column. Its not too dissimilar from the process involved in how the Eva's work, as I understand it. The mix of LCL and bio-electricity..."
Chiyo blinked, unable to keep up with the complicated chemistry involved.
"Mayumi-san," interrupted the older gentleman.
The mousy girl started, then lightly rapped her knuckles against her head. "Sorry, I get caught up in the work. I mean, it'll make it so you can walk again. All under your own power."
It was too incredible an offer to even contemplate. It was like a man dying of thirst in the desert suddenly finding an oasis. No scratch that, Chiyo thought. More like an entire ocean! To walk again, to run again, to even just be able to stand again...
But for some reason she was suspicious of the sudden good turn of events.
"But... why me?" she asked, remaining perfectly polite. "Surely there are plenty of others..."
"Your name was selected randomly from a list of potential applicants," replied Mayumi. "The procedure requires certain qualifications in order to guarantee success, one of them is age. You have the best chance of recuperating fully. That's the public reason, at least."
"Public reason?"
The mousy brunette looked a little reluctant to part this next bit of information, fiddling with her glasses for a moment. "Well... in part, it's for Shinji Ikari."
Now she was lost. "I don't understand."
"Ikari-san is a friend of mine from school, as well as an Evangelion pilot. I don't suppose you've ever met him?"
The younger girl shook her head. "No, but big brother has."
"He carries a great deal of guilt regarding your accident-"
"Which isn't his fault," Chiyo cut her off.
"I know that. And we could both tell him that until we're blue in the fact and he won't listen. Or at least, won't believe. So... this is a way I can help him as much as you. Right?"
"But... there's no way we could possibly repay you for this," Chiyo replied.
Mayumi smiled, adjusting her glasses again. A stray ray of light caught the lenses, rendering her eyes invisible. "Oh I'm sure something will come up in the future. It's always good to have allies in my line of work. So, what do you say?"
She hesitated perhaps half a moment longer, but then stretched out a hand and shook Mayumi's. "Thank you. Thank you very much."
"We'll get your father's approval for the procedure, of course, but I doubt he'll object, there's virtually no chance it will go wrong and, even if it does, you'll be no worse off than before. We could have you back on your feet in just under a month, if things go smoothly."
Deep within NERV, in the room dubbed by most 'the lair' for its ominous and gloomy atmosphere, Commander Gendo Ikari sat at his desk, deep in thought. Things were not going smoothly by any stretch of the imagination.
First there had been that explosion of the Bethany Base and his agent Ryoji Kaji narrowly escaping with the real prize, the Key to Nebuchadnezzar. Then there was that incident in the bay, with the strange Seventh Angel, which had not been anything like expected. No Angel of Music and Dance, no Twin Angels joined as one, just... some sort of odd hybrid creature that had been taken out solely by the spirited offspring of Kyoko Zeppelin Shikinami.
And while they'd secured the arrival of the Second Pilot and Unit-02, he was troubled by the appearance of the Angel in the bay outside of Tokyo-3. It had not been part of the prophecy in the Dead Sea Scrolls. The Angel had no name, no title, and no part to play in the scheme they'd spent decades bringing together. True, it had been defeated by minimal effort by the Second Child, but he was far from pleased. Because SEELE had not known it was coming, and neither had he. The Dead Sea Scrolls had made no mention of it.
Which meant either their information was inaccurate from the translations... or they had delibertly kept the information from him. Neither idea was promising. Which meant that Gendo needed to find more accurate information of what was to come next. As luck would have it, he had a good idea of where to start.
However, if SEELE was keeping information from him, it was for a purpose. He had no desire to tip his hand just yet. This required stealth and discretion.
There was a chime at the door, and he flicked a switch, letting it open. His old professor, Fuyusuki, stepped into the darkness and made his way to stand before the desk.
"You called?" he asked.
Gendo nodded, hands interlaced before his face, hiding his expression. "I did, yes. I have need of you to get a hold of one of our unorthodox contacts. This one," he added, sliding a folded paper over to his Vice-Commander, who took it and opened it, checking its contents without letting them be seen. Though neither of them suspected any listening or monitoring devices were present in the room, they could never be too careful.
"He'll demand a fee, even just to speak to," Fuyutsuki remarked.
"Wire him the usual amount through our off-the-book accounts. That'll wet his appetite for now. The rest can come when he's here. I need someone capable for this."
"For what purpose?"
"What else is a thief good for?" Sunlight glinted off those ominous, ever-present glasses.
"I want him to steal something for me."
Next Time!
Every other piece of her gear worked flawlessly. It responded to her will as if it was an extension of her body. But this was just a useless hunk of metal and gemstone, so far as she could determine.
She needed answers. From people way smarter than she was.
"Maybe its time for a field trip," she said.
Omake – Bad Gestures
"Goddamn bird brat!" spat the criminal, even as a policeman threw him over the hood of the car and cuffed his wrist behind his back.
Hawkgirl smirked as she hovered a moment over the scene, and made a universally impolite gesture.
The crook looked a little shocked. "Did she just...?"
The police officer glanced up. "I think she just flipped you the bird."
Authors Notes:
Due to her age and size, I've had to bump up the arsenal at Chiyo's disposal to put her on par with some of the other superwomen that Mike313 and OrionPax have re-imagined. This included making her wings metallic and her feathers dart-like, not unlike Archangel from Marvel. Plus, its set up for future plot elements.
Still waiting on Rebuild 3.0 before I make any solid plans, but hopefully this exposition will whet your appetites for now, and lead into future developements.