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 Six: Echoes of the Past
The new treatment worked like a charm, she was walking again in no time. The Genitronic Rejuvenation Surgery had worked like a charm, her mobility was completely restored, her spine as good as new. And although her first few steps weren't up to par, in no time at all she was back to standing, walking, and even jogging just like before.
Of course, this wasn't to say she didn't need rest. She was being kept at the hospital for a few days to fully recuperate before she'd return home. And was receiving frequent visits by doctors and specialists who wanted to ensure the procedure was working well, since she was just a guinea pig to them. She hadn't seen Mayumi since, but she really hoped she could soon so she could thank her properly for all she'd done.
Right now, she was bored, so she decided to do some sketching, tracing her pencil along the paper to create images. For some reason, nothing concrete was coming to her, just some odd shapes and designs. Kinda like hieroglyphics, but more... angular.
There came a knock at the door, and she glanced up from her sketchbook.
A pale face greeted her, ruby eyes shining above a mirthful smile.
"Kaworu," she said, grateful to see someone at long last. Then, remembering her manners. "Er I mean, Nagisa-sensei."
"Kaworu's fine," he replied. "I just came to check on you and make sure everything was going well."
"Oh well... thank you," she said, genuinely touched.
"And I brought your math homework as well," he said, holding up a few sheets of paper. His smile widened.
Chiyo sighed. She'd rather be sketching, but she obediently took the assignment and did her homework, jotting down numbers and kanji in the correct places to fill up the sheet. After a few minutes, she was done, and she offered it back to Kaworu with barely a sideways glance.
He, too, barely gave it a look, but seemed to take it all in at once.
"Mmhmm, every single one right," said Kaworu, nodding in approval. "Very excellent work."
Chiyo frowned, taking the paper back and eyeing it curiously. Math wasn't her favorite subject, so she'd expected to get at least one of the questions wrong. At least, she'd thought he would ask her to show her work on some of the problems, like her teachers were always demanding. Had it been an easy assignment?
Then she blinked, taking a real, good long look at the paper.
"Wait a minute... this isn't from my math class. This looks like Toji's calculus class."
"Is it?" asked Kaworu with a knowing smile. "Oh, my mistake."
She blinked at the paper again, puzzled. In an odd way, the questions made sense, in another, it was like staring at something written in a foreign language. She could sort of see where problems started but had no idea where they ended. Or the other way around. Her mind had jumped from A to D without going through B and C.
Chiyo pressed a hand to her temple as it started to ache, unable to figure out what was wrong.
Kaworu gently took the paper back from her. "Let's try something else. Brief physics lesson, maybe?"
The petite girl nodded, wondering what her tutor was getting at. Either way, her headache was already subsiding a bit as she cleared her brain to await his questions.
"What can you tell me about what happens when... two magnets, both positively charged, are brought near one another?"
"They'd repel each other, they have the same charge," Chiyo replied automatically. That one was easy. She probably saw that in a cartoon when she was seven.
Kaworu was pleased by her quick response. "Properties of gold?"
"Malleable, conductor of heat and electricity," she replied without even thinking about it.
"Atomic weight of Neodymium?"
"144," she rattled off.
"Who came up with the theory of the Dirac Sea?"
"Paul Dirac, British Physicist, 1930."
Technically that was a history question, not physics. Kaworu gave a knowing smile. "And what can you tell me about Thanagar?"
Blink. That question completely threw her.
"Thanagar? Is that somewhere near Egypt?" she asked, puzzled by the odd name. "Are we moving on to geography?"
"The information must still be settling in your head," remarked Kaworu thoughtfully.
Blinking in confusion, Chiyo asked, "What information?"
Her pale-haired tutor didn't answer, he just smiled that infuriatingly annoying little smile of his and collected up her papers. "I'll make sure to get the correct assignment next time. Have a nice day, Chiyo Suzuhara," he said, giving a bow that was half-formal, half-mocking before he slipped out of the room.
Leaving a twelve-year-old girl sitting very confused as she puzzled out just what had happened. She'd breezed through physics and mathematics on a level that was far above anything she'd known before her accident had pulled her out of formal education. And sure, she'd been studying some medicine to learn more about her injury and later the procedure, but this was something wholly all together different. Her head started to hurt again, and she called a nurse to ask for some painkillers.
Chiyo sighed and sank into the covers of her hospital bed, the painkillers making her sleepy but not quite knocking her out. She couldn't wait to get out of here. All this thinking was driving her nuts. She needed to get out and do something. Physical therapy was relaxing but it wasn't enough.
She wanted to stretch her wings and fly already.
That night, Chiyo Suzuhara had an odd dream.
Granted, most of her dreams had been sort of... chaotic... even since the incident at the Museum. But she usually didn't remember them. This one she recalled in vivid detail.
She'd awoken on something solid instead of soft, and her back ached. Grimacing, she sat up, and blinked in confusion. Her hospital gown had been replaced by the yellow of her Hawkgirl outfit, though the mask was not present. It was the only thing that was amiss, however, for the wings were unfolded along her shoulders, and the mace rested beside her on the stone slab she'd awoken on.
This she could tell by touch, since it was incredibly dark, and she couldn't make it more than dim shadows. Quickly she grabbed up the mace and tugged on the handle to activate it. Lightning crackled as it lit up, providing illumination. Like a torch, she held it over her head to show where she was.
Chiyo's eyes widened as she took in her surroundings. It was some sort of Egyptian tomb... it could be no where else on Earth. The high stone walls were covered in hieroglyphics, as were the four central columns that ascended in each of the room's corners. She sat on a slab in the middle of the room, which presumably would've held the sarcophagus of the entombed pharaoh. The ceiling wasn't visible; it was beyond the light of her mace, obscured in shadow. And the only door seemed to be wedged into place perfectly. She remembered her mother telling her once these tombs were airtight when finished, so that was no way out.
Chiyo started to breath more heavily as she realized she might've been buried alive.
"Beautiful, isn't it?" came a voice behind her. She spun around.
Although she'd already taken one look around and seen no one here, she was starting to get used to Kaworu sneaking up on her after having been apparently hidden in plain sight. The albino boy was dressed in some khaki shorts and a jacket, looking like some sort of tome raider or adventurer, but otherwise he appeared exactly the same as he always did.
"What... what is this? Is this real?"
"Could be. Ever hear of a racial memory? Perhaps deep down you're descendant from a race of alien visitors to our world, and this is a memory fragment passed on in your genetic code, only recently awoken."
She looked up at his features, but as always, his face was impossible to read. She couldn't tell if he was lying or not. Even so...
"I don't buy it."
"Maybe an alien device downloaded its information into your brain and its trying to settle, and manifests as your dreams to your subconscious."
"Okay now that's just impossible!"
He laughed at that.
"Could be a dream you're having. Maybe I'm some sort of spirit guide?"
"I think I would've preferred a coyote," she grumbled.
"Not a hawk?"
"Shut up," Chiyo said, ignoring how rude it was. It didn't phase the albino boy across from her, however. If anything, his smile only grew wider.
"There's also a chance that I am familiar with physics mankind has yet to fully understand, and part of that is warping the illusion of time and space to my whim. And to demonstrate that I brought you here."
"But why here?" she asked, not convinced that was the truth either. Kaworu was weird, sure, but he was a normal boy. Wasn't he?
"To fulfill my purpose as tutor... and educate you, Chiyo Suzuhara," he said. He stepped around a pillar, and spread out his arms wide at a wide wall suddenly displayed. It was covered in hieroglyphics. Curious, Chiyo raised her mace higher, the light from its crackling head providing illumination.
"But I don't... I can't read Egyptian..." she protested. But as she looked back...
She blinked...
And it was like suddenly all the chicken scratches and vague half-symbols were suddenly written in plain, ordinary Japanese. She read it as easily as she might've the Sunday paper.
"Behold the shape of things to come," she read aloud, more to herself than Kaworu. "That thirteen messengers will descend upon the Earth... Angels," she realized. The word Angel originally meant messenger, after all. "... and, uhm... be battled by the... offspring? That doesn't make sense. Ah, here... three shall hold the Keys to Armageddon, the End of All Things. But that's..."
"Third Impact," he confirmed. His dead serious tone of voice caused Chiyo to look up in alarm.
Kaworu had stopped smiling.
She felt a chill run down her spine. "What does that mean? What's...?"
"It's what happens when an Angel unites with an Evangelion and a Human soul. If done incorrectly, as it was done during Second Impact... it will mean countless deaths of all of Earth's indigenous life forms. If, however, it is done correctly this time... mankind will ascend. Heaven and Earth will be re-written, swept aside in favor of a new making. The spirits united in one glorious whole. Or so they say," he added, more light-heartedly.
High up in the ancient Egyptian chamber, resting along the ceiling amidst the shadows, a patch of darkness blacker than black hid amongst its natural element, as the Shadow finally located his prey.
Following its instructions from SEELE, the Shadow had gone out into the world to find Hawkgirl and learn more about her for their twisted scenario.
Finding her had been simplicity itself. The Shadow did not see the world as mortals did, with all its myriad colors and lights. It saw shades of gray, everything was dark and colorless. The only exception was those of prominent auras, like the Pilots or the Angels. Superwomen stood out almost painfully bright. He could have tracked down any of them in an instant, though he'd never volunteered this information to SEELE, and they'd never used him for such a purpose.
Hawkgirl shone like a beacon, and had drawn him to the hospital almost the moment he'd been unleashed to find her. The purple aura was very distinct, and it was wrapped around little Chiyo Suzuhara, younger sister of one of the Potentials. The irony was staggering, and the Shadow gleefully lapped it up. The next part of his assignment had been dull. Watching her full time was not an option, as he required time to replenish his energies, and even more if he was working in the daylight. All he saw was that Chiyo was in recovery from a traumatic surgery, and unlikely to be a bother to SEELE. He'd reported both facts to the council, who were deliberating on what to do, and they ordered him to remain vigilant because of her connection to Toji (and by association, Shinji).
Then today... she had up and vanished. He'd had to cast his gaze very, very wide in order to follow her all the way to Egypt. She'd never even boarded a plane, let alone tried to fly here on her own two little wings. He was still musing over how she'd accomplished it when the answer presented itself, stepping into his field of vision below.
Well well, what was this? he mused, catching sight of the one she was talking to. This one he recognized instantly. He'd spoken to SEELE often enough for the Shadow to recognize Tabris on sight. His blue aura was unmistakably bright to the eyes of someone who saw the world in only shades of gray.
My masters will be very interested to learn about this turn of events, the Shadow mused. More importantly, this would cause trouble for Kaworu. Maybe even get him very badly hurt.
And the Shadow liked seeing others hurt.
He slithered down along the side of one of the pillars, well out of the light cast by that irritating mace, and listened in more closely to their conversation.
"There's more," Kaworu said, indicating the wall again. Chiyo looked back. In addition to the writing, there were half a dozen images scattered along the stone. Like someone had added pictures to a book. And the weirdest part was some of the images were familiar. It was like looking at a window into the past... expect this one reflected the future. And although she'd only rarely witnessed Angel attacks, and usually from afar, the papers were often full of snapshots of mankind's enemies.
These stone carvings, thousands of years old, looked almost identical to the sort of thing she could find in the Tokyo Tattler.
And then there was that repeated motif. Seven eyes in a vague 'V' shape. She brushed a hand lightly over the stone, feeling the etching of the image, and frowned. It was important somehow, she knew. But she wasn't sure how. Apparently her newfangled translator brainwave thingy didn't include pictures that were actual pictures. Just words.
Then there was the image of a hexagonal pattern that kept cropping up, usually surrounding one of the Angel images.
"What's this?" she asked softly.
Surprisingly, Kaworu gave a straight answer. "Mankind refers to them as the AT Fields. Absolute Terror," he explained. "The light of an Angel's soul is unlike anything else. It is a sacred barrier that protects all that would intrude upon such. Without its AT Field, an Angel is an ordinary creature, subject to ordinary combat. When two opposing AT fields meet they nullify one another, though a stronger AT field can overcome a weaker one."
"One minus one equals zero," said Chiyo, catching the gist of it.
"Crudely put, but yes. Of course some AT fields are far stronger than others."
"So is it technology? Or... magic?"
"Both... and neither. Perhaps you've heard of Clark's law?"
She racked her brain but ultimately couldn't come up with anything. "No."
He didn't seem disappointed, just a bit surprised. "A Science Fiction writer came up with it. Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. He had the right idea... he was just a bit ahead of his time."
Chiyo tuned him out as she looked up at the hieroglyphics again. If they depicted Angels that had already attacked, maybe she could see ones that were coming. She jumped to the end of the mural, but paused when she reached it.
A pyramid with an ominous looking Omega symbol on it. Chiyo felt a shiver run down her spine. Even she knew enough to sense a very foreboding air about this image. The images of two males stood opposite the pyramid, hands upraised towards it and one another.
"At first we thought it was just two," explained Kaworu, indicating the figures and the pyramid. "But then we discovered this," he said, brushing away some grit from a littler higher up. Above the pyramid a third figure became visible... a winged woman with a very distinctive mace. She completed a triangle with the other two. Appropriate, considering they were at points on a pyramid.
"Me?" she breathed, eyeing the image. It was unmistakably a Hawkgirl... yet it was over five thousand years old. Even the history on the Hawkmen she'd gotten from Kensuke didn't go back that far. Was their legacy really that old? And what did it all mean?
"Well, this is actually supposed to be depicting Queen Chay-Ara, wife of the great Pharaoh," Kaworu explained. "But, there is something about that name now, isn't there? Chay-Ara."
"Why does that name... resonate so strangely?" she asked.
"Well, sound it out... names repeated over generations tend to sound different over time..."
Puzzled, she thought hard on the name, imagining how the passing millennia would alter it. Chay-Ara... Chayera... Chiyero... Chiyo...
"Oh god," she said, as her mind connected the dots.
"Yes, Chiyo," Kaworu said gently. "You. Whatever happens, somehow you are involved in the Third Impact."
"But... but how do I help? Can I stop it? Its foretold in the future... literally set in stone!" she exclaimed.
Kaworu smiled enigmatically. "Oh Chiyo-chan. Destiny is never set in stone... but shaped by choice. As for what you can do, well... I'm sure you'll figure it out. But know that Shinji is the key."
"Shinji?"
"I think that's quite enough," hissed a new voice, cutting through the air like a knife.
Kaworu and Chiyo both sprang back as something slithered down the nearby pillar, pooling on the floor. A shadowy shape rose up out of the darkness, forming into the rough shape of a man. Darker than the ambient darkness around it, it seemed to be made of nothing but shadows.
"What are you doing, Tabris?" hissed the Shadow menacingly.
Kaworu didn't have a chance to reply before Chiyo was suddenly standing in front of him protectively.
"Who are you?" asked Chiyo, holding up her mace towards the menacing Shadow, who backed away slightly from its lightning-lit head. "Or... or what are you?"
"Mind your own business girl... you'll live longer..."
He turned, as if to move away, then suddenly lashed out with an arm that moved with unnatural fluidity, slapping at her side. The impact caught her in the gut and slammed her against the far wall. Her wings cushioned the impact some but she still slumped down, out of breath, on the verge of passing out. The Shadow slid closer to Kaworu, who backed up against the hieroglyphics until his back was to the wall.
"They said not to engage the little bird brat, but nobody said anything about you... you're off schedule... out of line... looks like you need a reminder of who is in charge here..."
Kaworu glared up at the Shadow defiantly, his red eyes glinting like rubies in the dim light. Amused, the Shadow formed his fingers into razor-sharp blades, and lunged at the pale boy.
"Get away from him!"
The sharp fingers impacted against an electrified mace and bounced off, and the Shadow gave a hiss of annoyance as Hawkgirl intercept his attack and blocked with her own. She now stood defiantly in front of Kaworu, who was watching with a confused look. He almost looked positively stunned.
"Out of my way, birdie," hissed the Shadow menacingly, willing himself to grow and loom over her, twice his regular size.
"No," she said, trembling but refusing to look away. "Leave him alone."
He hissed and moved in close, snake-like and sinister. "Don't think you're safe from me, you little..."
Hawkgirl swung instinctively. Her mace tore through a chunk of his shadowy essence, right where the ribcage would be on a normal man. It ripped through it like it was tissue paper, leaving a jagged hole behind. Her opponent gave out a glass-shattering screech from the attack.
The Shadow hissed, clutching at his translucent side. The little harpies weapon had hurt him. Nothing hurt him.
Hawkgirl sensed it, too. Giving a battle cry, she swung again, her wings spurring her forward. But the Shadow split and spread himself in a several directions, avoiding her attack as she passed through him, and re-formed at the other end of the room.
"This isn't over... either of you. They will hear of this."
The winged superwoman just glared. "Who?"
The Shadow laughed, slowly fading from sight.
She took another swing at him, burying her mace in the far wall, but by then he'd faded into the ambient darkness and vanished. Hawkgirl scanned the room, waiting for his next strike, but after a few moments, she felt safe enough to stop and look back at her mace in puzzlement.
"He must be afraid of the light," she reasoned, guessing that shadow didn't like light, logically enough. "I think he's gone now."
"You... you saved me," he said, gazing at her in a mixture of awe and confusion.
"Of course, what else would I do?" she asked. Even if she hadn't been in her Hawkgirl outfit, she was positive she would have at least tried to protect Kaworu regardless. Yet he seemed... incredibly touched by her gesture.
"What else indeed," he murmured, phrasing it not so much as a question as a statement.
"What happened? What was that? Is this really a dream?" she asked, getting more and more convinced it wasn't.
"Eventually you will understand, but for now, I ask but a simple question."
Chiyo nodded, feeling ready.
"Who are you?"
And just like that she wasn't again. Her mouth opened, but... she couldn't bring herself to answer. Really, who was she? he wasn't just one person now, she was two. Chiyo Suzuhara... and Hawkgirl. And maybe she was more than that too. The reincarnation of some Egyptian Queen. Or the descendant of some alien. A guardian angel? A champion of justice? A superwoman? A lost little girl? She might've been all of those things, how could she possibly sum all that up to answer one little question?
"I don't... I don't know," she said, honestly. How could anyone answer a question like that? It was impossible. "I don't know!"
Kaworu smiled knowingly. "You will, Hawkgirl. For now... you may want to wake up." He snapped his fingers.
Chiyo sprang upright, blinking in shock. She was back in the hospital, back beneath an unfamiliar ceiling, and she gave a sigh of relief. It had all been a dream. She'd never been to Egypt, never seen all those things, never spoken with Kaworu or learned about the End of Days. Just a series of strange nightmares brought on by poor hospital food.
"Whoa, what a weird dr-..." Chiyo trailed off as realization hit her. Hesitantly, she looked down.
She was still wearing her Hawkgirl outfit.
Thankfully she'd managed to hide the outfit underneath her hospital gown, and then change into the regular clothes that her brother had brought for her the next day. Another day of careful observation after that, and she was deemed fit as could be and released from the hospital. One of the nurses wheeled her to the doors for the very last time, as was medical policy, before she'd say farewell to the wheelchair forever. Thankfully not before she'd hidden the harness under her shirt and the mace in the fresh bouquet of flowers her father had brought her.
She held onto them tightly as three generations of Suzuhara men greeted her, as well Kensuke Aida. There was no sign of Shinji Ikari, and Chiyo bit back a sigh, really wishing she could thank him in person, but alas, it seemed today was not going to be that day. Nor was Mayumi Yamagushi here, though Chiyo had finally managed to send her a message thanking her for everything. Unfortunately, being the heiress to a successful business and attending school both cut deeply into her time, and she'd been unable to come to witness this.
Toji was clinging to her like a lifeline, as if he'd been the one through a life-altering surgery. And he was oh so proud as he hugged her. She stifled a grimace of embarrassment, trying to smile for their sake. Oh how she hated her brother, sometimes.
"Listen I gotta run, I'll be late for school otherwise," said Kensuke, turning and taking off down the sidewalk.
"Hey, Aida!" Toji called out. "Tell Shinji... tell him forget about the whole thing, okay? He'll know what I mean."
"And make sure he knows I'm thankful too," Chiyo added. "Okay?"
Kensuke tossed off a two-finger salute as he jogged off backwards. "You got it!"
There were times when Dr Ritsuko Akagi absolutely hated being right.
She ran the data through the MAGI one more time to make absolutely sure. To anyone else, it was nonsensical numbers and symbols. Misato barely even paid it any attention anymore, her focus was instead on the pilot who was about to fire up Unit-05. Ritsuko had in fact already run those simulations already.
The activation test was routine, after all. She was mostly here to be on hand in case anything unexpected happened. So in the meantime, she was conducting an experiment of her own.
As one of the leading experts (okay, one of the only experts) in the field of Angels and Eva biology and technology, she knew a great deal about what made both of them tick. When it came down to it, both were similar. One thing caused another, if you understood the process involved. Causality. Cause and effect. Gears and circuits were no different than muscles and nervous structures. Machines broke down, organic beings got sick. Repair one, heal the other.
Which was why AT Fields made more sense to her than most, whereas most wrote it off as spiritual nonsense or even magic. Angels and Evas had AT Fields, Humans did not. Normally, there was no way to switch between the two, you were either in one category or another.
Rei Ayanami was the sole exception up until recently. Because she had a mix of Angel DNA in her genetic make-up, she switched to a blue pattern when she was projecting an AT Field outside of an Eva. Gendo Ikari might've now been able to do the same thing, ever since he implanted Adam into himself. They were both capable of switching from red patterns to blue, and back again.
But as Ritsuko looked at the data more closely, she altered the flow of data to pursue another kind of angel. And there... right there...
In a split second normally overlooked, during the transition, the subjects read as pattern purple. The MAGI confirmed it.
"My God," breathed Ritsuko. "Hawkgirl has the same sort of power that Rei does..."
Nearby, Misato glanced up. "Hmm? Did you say something, Ritsuko?"
The faux blonde ignored her. She didn't need to know... yet. "No, nothing... we're ready to begin."
"Right then," replied the Colonel. She turned back to the screen. "Asuka? You all set?"
Ritsuko ignored the two of them as they began the start up sequence. This new revelation definitely changed the game that her lover was playing. Rei was his trump card, his means of upsetting the Scenario that the old men in SEELE had labored on for so very long. But if Hawkgirl had similar abilities, perhaps even stronger abilities, given her permanent purple pattern, she could disrupt everything both sides had worked so hard to achieve.
The faux blonde glanced over at the phone resting on the nearby desk, and reached out to grab it, but hesitated.
Hawkgirl was only a child. And she knew full well what Gendo would do with the information she was about to give him. id she dare?
Did she even have a choice?
She picked up the phone.
"Connect me to the Commander," she stated briskly. "Secure channel, maximum encryption."
Nearby, the black form of Eva Unit-05 stirred.
The walk home was a joy unparalleled, even if she almost stumbled more than once or twice. It just felt so damn good to be able to walk under her own power. She felt like dancing, but that was of course out of the question. At least for the moment. She needed to build up her strength.
Toji was her strength in the meantime, however. He stayed by her side the entire time.
Finally, they arrived back home. It had been an unusually hot day out, and Toji went to the kitchen to get himself a drink.
Chiyo, meanwhile, had collapsed onto the couch, taking up all three seats by lying fully across it. Her legs were working again but they were worn out from so much walking after such a long period of inactivity. Atrophy, the doctors had called it. The muscles needed more time to rebuild.
Toji was smiling as he poured himself some juice. "I don't think I've ever seen you look so happy."
"I don't think I've ever been so happy!" she exclaimed, kicking her legs up in the air before letting them fall back down. "This is the absolute best!"
Well, okay, maybe not as good as flying, but still...
"I'll bet. Pretty soon you'll be back in class with everyone else, so enjoy your freedom while you've got it, little sis."
"Yeah yeah..." she waved dismissively. "At least I don't get stuck with that boring old fossil you're always complaining about. Miss Yukari is plenty fun."
"And luckily suicidal enough to think living in Tokyo-3 is a good idea," muttered Toji.
"I will miss my tutor though. He's..." she stumbled over a suitable word. "Interesting."
"I guess you really like him then," Toji said, finding the idea puzzling.
Chiyo shook her head, not wanting to discuss it further. "So, enough boring talk, what've you got planned for today?"
"Shinji's doing some sort of family dinner thing, so it's just me and Kensuke today once he gets out of school. Wanna come along?"
"Actually, I think I'll pass. Maybe I'll invite Nozomi over for a visit," she said. "I haven't seen her in a while. I wonder what she's been up to?"
"All right, catch you later then."
Chiyo smiled as Toji slipped out of the apartment to join his friends, and stood up, still going slowly, feeling the full weight of her body on her still healing legs. She almost wished she could just fly her way over to see Nozomi, but as it was now... she felt more than a little reluctance to put on the wings again. After the revelation she'd shared with Kaworu in Egypt (or her mind, though she really questioned that after having physical evidence otherwise) she worried regarding her future.
But, she decided, she was just going to take this superheroing thing more slowly for the time being, which didn't mean she needed to give it up entirely. She just needed some practice. Then she'd be able to take on a real superhero challenge, just like the previous Hawkmen and Hawkwomen had.
And then maybe she'd be ready for... for whatever destiny was coming her way.
"Maybe I'll just go for a flight after I visit Nozomi..." she mused. "Or... maybe its time I finally trusted someone with this," she thought.
Well, someone other than Kaworu, who seemed to know. She wasn't even sure how that was possible, but nothing was adding up when it came to that boy. "Maybe Nozomi would be good? I mean she's my best friend... and... well I guess it's good that her family would probably never believe her even if she told them."
Her mind made up, Chiyo slid on the harness, then zipped on a light jacket over it to conceal it.
She had almost made it to the door when she paused, hearing a sound. Something coming from outside. Curious, she made her way over to the window, taking a look outside. From here, she could more clearly hear a distant rumble, and she saw the buildings were already transforming.
Angel attack, she realized.
Her trip to the Horaki residence cancelled, her first destination should've been one of the shelters. She could already see some of the buildings starting to transform, and the alarms going off indicated this one would be too as soon as it was evacuated. Lifting a hand to shield her eyes from the glare of the setting sun, Chiyo scanned the skyline for their enemy. The head of the purple Eva was barely visible against the hilltop, but it was very distinct, and she saw it. It looked like it was lying in wait.
Well, if she was hoping for a better invitation to get a real superhero challenge, she'd found it. She reached up and unzipped her jacket, slapped a hand against the center of her harness, and let her wings unfurl. She tugged down the mask that covered the top of her face, grabbed up her mace, and Hawkgirl was ready to fly.
"Let's do this," she said, leaping off the balcony and taking flight.
Chiyo's flight took her higher than she usually soared, above the very skyscrapers of Tokyo-3, in an effort to find out where the Angel was coming from. Doing so brought her into a patch of clouds, however, and she momentarily lost sight of the ground. Dipping down lower, she arrived just in time to see the fight stretched out below her.
She spotted the purple Eva easily, and in front of it were a line of tanks, already opening fire. She turned her head and spread out her wings to hover in place a moment, wanting a good look at her target.
Her eyes widened in shock behind the mask of Hawkgirl as she beheld it.
It stood as tall as the Evangelion unit, and abruptly she realized why. The shape and form was identical. It was an Eva. Apart from the paintjob (a rather ominous shade of black with white highlights), it looked almost identical to the purple unit lying in wait for it.
"M-maybe it's a reinforcement?" she asked, hoping against hope as the black Eva marched forward, slashing through some power lines like they were nothing more than cobwebs in its way.
Then the obsidian monstrosity roared, and crouched down. A ragged halo of light, a bending of the visible spectrum, appeared above its head, and there was no longer any doubt left in her mind. It was an Angel. A very big, very angry sounding Angel.
Her eyes widened.
"Oh God," she breathed, unable to take it in. Not only was it an Angel, something her conscious mind was aware of, it was in the shape of an Evangelion. Something her subconscious mind latched onto. She'd never blamed Shinji for what had happened to her, but all the same, she could not help herself. An Eva had been responsible for the accident, and she'd nearly been killed.
"I-I can't..." she stuttered, all her self-confidence gone. There was no way she could do this. She needed to run. Needed to retreat.
Down below, the black Eva obviously didn't have any ideas about retreating, as it launched itself into the air and struck at the purple Evangelion. Unit One went crashing to the ground from a vicious double kick, while the ebony Angel landed crouched like some four-legged beast. Neither seemed to have noticed the tiny figure of Hawkgirl in the skies above. It was a prime opportunity to swoop in and attack.
But she couldn't do it. She could only watch in horror as the scene played out beneath her.
M-maybe he won't need my help? Chiyo thought desperately.
The black Angel thrust out one of its arm, and before Chiyo's eyes it stretched, morphed, grew, and reached out to twice its normal length, then further still. Its hands clamped down on the throat of the purple Evangelion, and began to crush it. It wasn't even fighting back.
No. No stop this. Get back. Fight! FIGHT!
"Fight it!" she shouted weakly, though neither could hear her so high up as she was.
Chiyo wasn't the praying type, but at this point she'd gladly live the rest of her life as a miko if it meant her prayer for help would come, for her and the pilot of Unit One.
Supergirl? Blue Beetle? Steel? she thought frantically. Hell at this point I'd settle for Copperhead!
But no one was coming. What could she do with her tiny little mace? If she was smart, she would've turned and ran, gotten help.
But she couldn't. All of her thoughts focused on one simple question:
What if it had been Toji down there?
Gritting her teeth, Hawkgirl dove.
Next Time!
Unit One engaged the enemy, swatting aside its freakishly long arms and stepping in close, grabbing holds of its own throat, snarling viciously. Hawkgirl, meanwhile, had reached the broken entry plug. The winged woman shoved aside broken fragments of the plug without effort, finding them lighter than feathers.
The pilot...
"Oh god!" she gasped, covering her mouth.
They were covered in blood.
Omake – Princess of Thunder
Meanwhile, in the Superwomen of Eva 1 Universe...
On a rooftop in the midst of Tokyo-3, two of the three stooges stood, the one pleading with the other (who was wearing a ridiculous get-up with the largest horns he'd ever seen) to stop his mad schemes.
Toji, however, only backhanded Shinji, sending him sprawling as if he'd been struck by a car.
"What reason have I? Insufferable insect. You dare to think you have power, to believe us equals? You think you can comprehend the wrongs done unto me? The horrors I have witnessed?"
Shinji glared back at the fiend wearing his friend's face. He said nothing, but his look was clearly challenging despite the blood dripping from his brow.
The Asgardian glared out the eyes of his puppet. "Revenge, mortal. Thor loved Midgard. And it loved him. So I will see it burn."
The portal shuddered, then opened fully, wide as three skyscrapers and nearly as tall as one. Great snakes began to emerge from the distortion. Big as battleships and vicious as rabid hyenas, they launched themselves at the city, teeth gnashing and roaring fit to shatter glass. Already anti-Angel artillery was being called to bear against them, but there were so many it was hard to make a dent in their ranks.
"Children of Jormungander, the World Serpent," explained Toji, brandishing his staff, lit with eldritch flames. "Even your precious Evangelions will be no match against the likes of my army!"
And indeed, he seemed to be right. With Shinji as his captive, Unit One was out of the picture anyway, but in the distance, Shinji could see Unit Two was being deployed, the crimson battle type unloading payload after payload at the draconic attackers. Asuka seemed to be doing pretty well, but even the addition of her Eva wasn't going to turn the tide here. Not completely.
And then the sky began to darken, as storm clouds gathered overhead.
Noticing the change in lighting, Toji glanced upwards, and glared. "No..."
Electricity crackled overhead. Lightning ripped through their green scales like bullets through tissue paper, and with great roars of pain, both the serpents came crashing down. Several buildings were flattened, but the city of Tokyo-3 had seen worse damage during Angel invasions. The rooftop on which Toji and Shinji were on, however, had been spared, and both boys looked up in shock at their savior as they arrived.
"The Princess of Thunder," breathed Shinji, not quite able to believe his eyes.
Chiyo landed, the wind rippling along her red cape as she glared across the rooftop at her brother and her enemy.
"Toji!" she shouted, raising up her hammer and letting it spin. Lightning crackled along it. "We would have words with thee!"
Authors Notes:
Those who might critique Toji being given Calculus math classes in high school, given his lack of aptitude and young age, must remember that Evangelion is set in the 'near future' where I expect courses are likely to be a bit further along. In addition, nobody said he was any good at it.
I had originally planned to put Toji in Eva Five/Angel Nine (this scene was the original inspiration to write the story), but realized I didn't want to make him a continued Dude-in-Distress in the story, it would seriously ruin some of his character. Plus, this story takes place largely in Rebuild continuity, so Asuka was the victim to keep things stable, even if the encounter went just a bit differently than normal.
Today's omake is a special case, as I've been giving a lot of thought recently to another SWOE story, this time with Chiyo inheriting the powers and mantle of Thor, with her brother Toji being possessed by Loki (Toki? Loji?) to continue the "I love you but must fight you" dynamic they share. It'll likely never to happen, especially since I can't even finish this story, but I thought I'd share.
Specials thanks to Mike313 and OrionPax09, the former of who beta read this chapter, and the latter of whom has produced a stunning fan artwork of the Chiyo Hawkgirl.