Allies of the Superwomen of EVA #20: Raven
"A couple of years following the end of the Post-Second Impact Wars, Souichi and Keiko Tomoe, a pair of scientists specializing in anthropology and sociology, with a particular interest in studying the behaviors of cults, infiltrated the Japanese sect of the Church of Blood, a cult that worshipped the powerful demon lord known as Trigon, as part of their latest research endeavor. At one point in their infiltration, the high priestess of the sect, the so-called Lady Kaolinite, discovered the couple's ruse and had them seized. As punishment for their deceit, she decides to use them in a ritual that would summon Trigon himself to the earthly plane, with Souichi forcibly used as the vessel. The ritual succeeds, and Trigon possesses Souichi; the demon goes on to have his way with Keiko, who had been put into a hypnotic trance to make her into his 'willing' concubine, before his human vessel 'burns out' due to the massive amount of power Trigon possesses, forcing him to return to the plane in which he had been trapped. When the brainwashing wears off, Keiko, horrified by the memory of what she had endured and discovering her pregnancy, secretly manages to escape the cult's compound and flee, with cultists chasing after her. She wound up cornered in an alley and surrounded, until she was saved by a group of monks belonging to a holy order from the extradimensional realm of Azarath. She would be brought back with them to their sanctuary, where she eventually died giving birth to her daughter, whom she named Hotaru with her last breath.
Under the protection and guidance of the order, Hotaru, due to her half-demonic nature, was trained and raised to maintain her emotions in order to suppress and control the abilities and powers she inherited from her father; these included great empathic abilities that allowed her to sense pain and disease, and even remove both from the affected person by assimilating them into her own body and expunging them, with the process itself being particularly painful for her. She was also found to be capable of manifesting a powerful astral body called her 'Soul-Self', in the shape of a large, mystical black bird. (Using this power requires her to utter the incantation "Azarath-Metrion-Zinthos".) She was further trained in the use of a weapon strong enough to pierce even Trigon, known as the Glaive of Azarath. All this time, Trigon himself was aware of Hotaru's existence and whereabouts, but rarely made his presence known.
At age thirteen, when she learned of her father's intent to escape his extradimensional prison and conquer Earth with the aid of his followers, Hotaru, despite her teachers' protestations, leaves Azarath to seek help in stopping Trigon. Her return to Earth did not go unnoticed by Trigon, who sent cultists after the girl to capture her. Despite what skill she possessed, Hotaru was at a numerical disadvantage, and would have fallen into their clutches were it not for the intervention of Haruka Tenoh and Michiru Kaioh, a couple who used powerful magicks to drive off the cultists. Thanking them for their help, Hotaru accompanies them back to the Empire Victorian house where they reside; once there, she is introduced to the third resident of the house, Setsuna Meioh, who operates a fortune-telling parlor in the Juban prefecture of Tokyo-2, the sibling city of Tokyo-3, which had been the central location of the main branch of the U.N. special agency NERV. Setsuna informs Hotaru that thanks to her precognitive abilities, she foresaw the girl's plight and sent Haruka and Michiru to rescue her. She further detailed that Haruka and Michiru are the modern-day reincarnations of, respectively, the mystic detective known as Doctor Occult and his longtime partner, Rose Psychic, and operate as private investigators specializing in the supernatural; Setsuna herself was once a graduate student researching the occult who found herself succeeding Nimue Inwudu, a seer from Arthurian times, as the mystic advisor known as Madame Xanadu.
Knowing full well of Trigon's plans and Hotaru's desire to stop them, the trio train Hotaru further in the use of her abilities and her skill with the glaive; she is also given a costume to reflect her purpose, and the girl adopts an alias inspired by the shape her Soul-Self assumes: "Raven". Once done, the now-a-quartet approach Earth's major team of superheroes, the Justice League (made up of certain women and teen girls directly or peripherally involved with NERV) for their assistance in defeating Trigon. Though one of the magic-users of their number, Zatanna (former NERV tech Maya Ibuki) is wary of the quartet, especially due to Raven's demonic heritage, the other mystic among them, Doctor Fate (scientist Yui Ikari, whose former husband Gendo once led NERV) vouches for them, due to her predecessor Kent Nelson's previous association with the original Madame Xanadu as well as friendship with the past lives of Haruka and Michiru. Pooling their skills and resources together, the quartet and the League prepare for Trigon's first attempt at invading the Earth, and soon find themselves fighting off a large swath of cultists from the Church of Blood. At the head of this invasion are not only Lady Kaolinite, but the head of the Church himself, Brother Blood. Despite the numbers before them, the League and their newfound allies are able to beat the Church's forces back, though Hotaru and Setsuna warn them that this was only the beginning.
Months later, Trigon tries a different approach by sending his three sons-in a sense, Hotaru's brothers-to lead another assault. The brothers prove to be a challenge due to their ability to induce the Seven Deadly Sins in any living being, with Joutaro embodying envy, Junta embodying wrath, and Junsei embodying lust. In spite of the difficulties posed by the brothers, Raven, her guardians, and the League are able to send them into retreat.
Eventually, Trigon is able to escape from his imprisonment and come to Earth, nearly taking control of Hotaru (along with almost destroying Azarath) in the process. The League tries to help her, only to be contaminated by his influence (with the exception of Doctor Fate, Zatanna, and Miss Marvel (Sakura Suzuhara)). The corrupted League members nearly kill Hotaru, only to be repelled by the timely arrival of the reinforcements Setsuna had summoned: the magic-based superhero team known as the Shadowpact. Thanks to the time bought by their intervention, Doctor Fate, Zatanna, Doctor Occult, and Madame Xanadu are able to cast a powerful spell to purge Trigon's influence from the League, along with breaking his hold on Hotaru. The magic users then prepare another spell, this time to open a portal to Azarath and channel its holy power through Hotaru and her glaive. With the League and the Shadowpact distracting Trigon, the spell succeeds and Hotaru, using her glaive as a medium, strikes her father out of existence with a beam of purifying light, purging him from the earthly plane. The beam also has the unexpected effect of untethering Trigon's influence completely from Hotaru, allowing her to use her powers without any fear of falling under his control. With a sigh of relief, Hotaru then collapses from exhaustion, her fall caught by Michiru.
In the aftermath, Hotaru and her guardians are welcomed into the Shadowpact, and establish strong ties with the League as thanks for their efforts. Hotaru would become the ward of Haruka and Michiru, and begin attending high school in order to give herself some semblance of a normal life. As far as her 'extracurricular activities' went, among other things, she would assist her foster parents and Setsuna with gathering together another group of superpowered young women who could stand alongside the Justice League. These six girls, all from Juban, would be taught to fight together as a modern day version of, ironically, an American team from World War II: the All-Star Squadron.
Several years later, in her late high school and early college years, Hotaru wound up meeting and began dating one Garfield Logan, alias Beast Boy, the shapeshifting member of a quirky American superhero team called the Doom Patrol."
*Author's Note(s)*
For this new 'wave' of heroic and antiheroic allies, the theme is supernatural heroes, and anchoring the DC half of this wave is a take on the fan-favorite mystic member of the Teen Titans, Raven. What spurred this idea, and this particular combination, was a piece I stumbled upon a while back that DeviantArt user Cobrawolf86 crafted, and on giving it more thought, Hotaru Tomoe (normally known as Sailor Saturn) has a few things in common enough with Rachel Roth that putting her in the Raven role seemed like a great fit. From there, it snowballed into ways that I could integrate the rest of the Outer Senshi and eventually the Inner Senshi into this whole shebang, and I'd say what I came up with for them worked out very nicely. (Expect an All-Star Squadron entry at some point in the future.)
For the visuals (found on my DeviantArt page), I turned to the artistic skills of another DeviantArt user in Kitt-Fishy, with this being my first commission from them. They did a terrific job bringing my idea to reality, in a way that even both Naoko Takeuchi and the late George Perez would appreciate, so a big thanks, once again, for their efforts. (Incidentally, this piece is also dedicated to Perez's memory.)