Bonus Hero Bio: Red She-Hulk

"In the aftermath of the ill-fated demonstration of the giant robot known as Jet Alone, the robot's parent company Japan Heavy Chemical Industries was beset with scandal and ended up going bankrupt. The incident sowed the seeds for the eventual emergence of the gamma-powered superwoman dubbed She-Hulk (secretly NERV tactical operations director Misato Katsuragi), but in truth, she wasn't the only gamma mutate to emerge from the Jet Alone fallout. While surveying the decommissioning operation of Jet Alone-specifically, the supposed safe removal of the gamma material from the robot's core-Shiro Tokita, the head of development for the project, was accidentally sprayed with the gamma-irradiated liquid waste when a barrel containing the material unexpectedly burst open. Showing no ill effects at first, over the next few days Tokita suddenly found himself growing smarter than before, while his skin turned green and his cranium became enlarged. Using his newfound genius, Tokita built a specialized antigravity harness to keep himself balanced. In addition to his intellect, his ego and bitterness over Jet Alone's failure grew, culminating in Tokita 'disappearing' from regular society for a time, as he sought to fine-tune his plans and ambitions.

Deducing that NERV had been responsible for the sabotage of Jet Alone, Tokita-who would assume the alias of "the Leader"-further developed his plans, both involving robotics and genetic engineering. Using one of the insect-sized spy drones he had developed, he was able to steal data from NERV HQ's computer systems, including that of a side project the organization's lead scientist, Ritsuko Akagi (who wound up with powers of her own when she became the hero known as Spider-Woman), had been working on in the wake of She-Hulk's emergence, dubbed by her as "Project: Titania". Tokita, upon studying the data, came up with a plan to sow discord within NERV, and for the plan to be executed properly, he recruited the services of a renegade American geneticist named Miles Warren, who specialized in cloning. From there, they set about covertly acquiring the secrets of the cloning technology hidden away at both NERV-Central and the Third Branch in Berlin, Germany; it was at the latter location that they learned of a secret project being conducted by one of the branch's more unscrupulous scientists after they had somehow gained information on the Ayanami series of clones. The scientist, in turn, sought to create a similar series based on the DNA of Evangelion pilot Asuka Langley Sohryu, dubbing his work "Project: Shikinami"; Tokita and Warren were able to spirit away the lone, fully-stable clone the scientist was able to create before they anonymously exposed the scientist's work to NERV's high command.

Once the Asuka clone was in their clutches, Tokita and Warren modified her by infusing her with gamma energy in a way similar to how Misato Katsuragi was; this in turn would provide the clone with a similar transformation and power levels as the She-Hulk, but only at Tokita's command via nanomachine-based control. Once done, Tokita used another device of his own invention to implant duplicated memories of Asuka's into the clone and awakened her, training her to be his sleeper agent within NERV-Central. The clone was inserted into NERV-Central following the battle with Iruel the 11th Angel, when the computer systems were temporarily under repairs and the real Asuka was unexpectedly absent (due to her being on a mission as the demonically-powered vigilante known as the Ghost Rider). The clone was able to pass herself off as the real thing, and while she was able to keep everyone fooled for the several weeks that followed, over time she began to realize that the people at NERV weren't entirely who her creator had made them out to be, and started to doubt her mission. Those doubts finally came to the forefront when the real Asuka returned, to the shock of all who knew her. Seeing this through one of his spy drones, Tokita decided that the infiltration plan was now a wash and remotely triggered the clone's transformation. The clone soon grew into a teenage She-Hulk, though with ruby-red skin, golden eyes, and jet-black hair with a set of bangs the same shade of red. Induced into a savage rage, the clone began tearing her way through NERV HQ, leading to the intervention of not only Misato as her (green) She-Hulk self, computer tech Maya Ibuki as the multi-powered Ms. Fantastic, Ritsuko as Spider-Woman, and the recently-gamma-powered psychiatrist Dr. Leonard Samson, but also was the impetus for Asuka to reluctantly reveal herself as the Ghost Rider. The five of them were eventually able to subdue the red She-Hulk and took her into custody, where their examination would reveal her genetically-engineered origins. On discovering the nanites within the clone, Ritsuko and Maya were able to engineer a means of not only shutting them down, but flushing them out of the clone's system permanently.

After awakening some time later, the clone found herself surrounded by her captors, and on learning that they wanted to help her in any way they could, she told them as much as they could about her mission, though due to a mental failsafe among her implanted memories, she was unable to reveal Tokita's involvement. Feeling sorry for the girl's situation, the others decided it was better to have her on their side, especially as more and more of the endgame of SEELE (the secret backers of NERV) began coming to light. Asuka was hesitant (to say the least) at first, but soon realized she'd gained a bit of family in her newfound 'sister'. Said sister, in turn, decided to really distinguish herself by taking on a new name: "Ruby Shikinami". Ruby proved to be as much an opposite of Asuka in a number of ways, aside from her strawberry-blonde hair color and obvious different set of powers; based on a session with Dr. Samson, it was determined that she somehow embodied all of what Asuka had repressed for so many years in her drive to become the best Evangelion pilot around. In stark contrast, Ruby wanted to do the stuff kids their age normally did-have fun, make friends, go on dates (whether or not she was in her normal or She-Hulk form). Both she and Asuka did share something in common in that they found themselves elated when their mother, Kyoko Zeppelin Sohryu, returned to life following the battle with Arael the 15th Angel in the ebon-armored form of Darkhawk. It would take Kyoko, in turn, some getting used to when it came to the idea of having a second daughter (not to mention two daughters who both had superpowers). Once the remaining Angels were defeated, all three Sohryus would fight alongside their fellow superwomen in what would be dubbed the "Final Battle of Tokyo-3", where they helped thwart both SEELE's and Gendo Ikari's respective plans to bring about Third Impact. In the rebuilding that took place afterwards, the three moved into their own apartment in the same building where Misato lived. Given how close Asuka had grown to her fellow pilot, Gendo's son Shinji Ikari, Ruby began a recurring gentle ribbing of him by referring to him as her future brother-in-law.

A year following that battle, Ruby was part of the efforts to prevent Earth from becoming the next meal of the world-devouring being Galactus, where she was on the team sent to deal with Firelord, one of his four Heralds. Following Galactus's defeat, she was present when her fellow superwomen decided to band together as a team of superheroes known as the Avengers, with herself being a reserve member. Ruby wound up making more friends outside her usual circle when she joined up with an Avengers-adjacent team of young heroes known as the Defenders, who dealt with more esoteric threats. In her adult years, Ruby became an operative for a sister agency of S.H.I.E.L.D. called A.R.M.O.R. (which deals with incursions from other worlds in the multiverse), at one point striking up a friendship with the acerbic humanoid waterfowl known as Howard the Duck."

*Author's Note(s)*

Given how much (what TVTropes terms) canon-welding I do with my Tribute series, it's inevitable that I have to work to reconcile certain details in the normally-disparate stories of the source material. One such comes from the most recent chapter of the story that started it all, OrionPax09's "Emerald Fury", which saw Misato become a version of She-Hulk. *Spoilers from here on out.* In the last chapter they put up before going into their self-imposed 'retirement', an attempt at curing Misato of her gamma-fueled alter-ego, like most Hulk comics, goes south, resulting in not only the story's version of Leonard Samson gaining his comic book counterpart's powers (and trademark hair and physique)...but also Asuka being unexpectedly bathed in the gamma-irradiated liquid as well, resulting in her undergoing her own transformation into a red She-Hulk-while also experiencing a split in personality that sees everything she pushed aside brought to the forefront, resulting in something of a teenage 'gentle giantess'.

With Asuka's less-than-flattering portrayal in "Emerald Fury", and in stark contrast how she's depicted in "Vengeful Devil" (where she becomes Ghost Rider), I knew that for my tangential 'sandbox' (for lack of a better term), I'd need to pull something like I did for the DC-based side of the SWOE fence; thus, "Ruby Shikinami" was born. Not only did it allow me to introduce another bit of character development for Asuka (now finding herself taking on something of a 'big sister' role), but it also gave me a means of hitting on a number of beats only Red She-Hulk hit (such as her Defenders membership, which occurred during Matt Fraction's run as writer on the 2011 run of the title). For the visual side of things (found on my DeviantArt profile), I was hit by inspiration after stumbling upon a piece commissioned by DeviantArt Nescaro many moons ago for their "Eva-Hulks" narrative environs.

From there, I put what little Photoshop skills I have to full use, especially when it came to transforming a bikini-clad figure into a more fully-costumed one, which I can say is a bit better than what I previously did with Orion's Misato/She-Hulk two years prior. (Probably helped that because it was uncolored, I could erase or paint over smaller details.) This is also the first major coloring I did since I gave the same treatment to Orion's unfinished piece based on his one-shot fic "Triple Threat". I decided on a blend of the Betty Ross Red She-Hulk's mostly-black outfit from her Defenders days, with purple from the one-piece (similar to fellow She-Hulk Jen Walters') she wore for a time prior to that. Whereas Betty had two long streaks of hair that were red, I opted for a full set of red bangs instead just to give more contrast.