Allies of the Superwomen of EVA #31: Slammers, Inc.
"While Tokyo-3 proved to be the epicenter of humanity's conflict with the otherworldly creatures codenamed 'Angels', as well as the growing presence of superpowered individuals, its sibling city Tokyo-2 was not without its own examples of this particular phenomenon. One such example came in the form of some of the least likeliest of people: the recently-established girls baseball team of the Kisaragi School for Girls (the 'sibling' to a similar private boys school that had its own, more well-known baseball team). Brought together by the chair of both schools, Keiko Himuro, and coached by former professional ballplayer Shinsaku Kido, the team of girls from multiple walks of life were united by the goal of making it to the Summer Koshien, the biggest high school baseball tournament in Japan, all while proving that girls can really compete in baseball (not just softball) alongside the boys. As they trained and practiced together, the girls developed genuine friendships between one another thanks to their shared 'trial by fire'.
One day, their lives changed in the most astonishing way when, while engaged in a training camp in the countryside, the field the girls were on was unexpectedly struck by a great flash of light that enveloped the area for a brief but shining moment. (The press, later on, would dub this the "White Event", based on the testimony of some eyewitnesses who were far from the site but managed to catch a glimpse.) When the light ultimately dissipated, Kido and the girl's classmate and self-appointed team manager, Nene Mori, having shielded their eyes beforehand, became shocked at the sight of all nine girls lying unconscious on the ground. After calling paramedics, the girls were rushed to a nearby hospital to recover; the doctors and staff on-hand soon tested them, and determined that none of them were seriously injured, but wanted to keep them overnight for observation. The following morning, the girls awakened, confused at how they'd ended up in a hospital; Nene and Kido filled them in on what had happened, and immediately the girls wondered if they'd been affected in any way by the strange light.
After being discharged from the hospital, the team decided to resume their training camp in an attempt to put that weird business behind them, but it was during their next practice that the effects of the White Event were made apparent-each of the nine girls began to develop superpowers, akin to the superwomen who'd been emerging in Tokyo-3. Figuring this needed more investigating, Kido suggested they move to a more isolated area, away from prying eyes. Once done, he had each of the girls experiment with their new abilities, Nene taking down a dossier as they did.
Ryo Hayakawa, the team captain and star pitcher of the team, now possessed flight, superhuman-level strength and invulnerability, and the ability to fire off energy blasts of varying levels and intensities; additionally, when her powers were active, her hair color changed to a glowing white, and an odd mark appeared on the back of her right hand. (Incidentally, she now found herself ambidextrous.) Based on further observation, the amount of power Ryo now possessed could potentially be infinite, limited only by her imagination. Thankfully for all, Ryo was raised to be a very responsible young woman, given her initial desire to help her mother run their family's oden bar.
Izumi Himuro, the third basegirl and Keiko's daughter, found herself able to generate psionic objects in her hands, unconsciously manifesting them as baseball bats for offense, and tennis rackets (her having previously been Kisaragi Girls High's star tennis champion) for defense. She could also fire off energy blasts from her right hand, while generating defensive structures in her left. Additionally, she could now see people's auras, allowing her to determine instantly if a person was inherently 'good' or 'evil'. Her eyes would glow a distinct shade of magenta while her powers were active.
Seira Morimura, the second basegirl (as well as a former school dropout and star track-and-field athlete), was now able to move at superhuman speeds; her initial manifestation of these powers left her temporarily unable to stop moving, while also increasing her metabolism to the point where she continuously needed to eat large quantities of food. With further training, she was able to overcome the former drawback, but still had to deal with the latter.
Hikaru Yoshimoto, the first basegirl, developed the power to make herself, anything she touched, and any other object she thought about within a limited range friction-free enough to make the object or person slide effortlessly. With further training, she learned to make her power object-specific or to increase friction to stick things together.
Koharu Hotta, the center fielder, could now absorb moisture from the air and release it as pressurized streams of water; she at one point mused if it had to do with her coming from a seaside town.
Mao Daidoji, the catcher, now had the ability to transform her skin into an organic metal that was super-durable, as well as also increasing her already-formidable strength.
Kanako Mita, the shortstop and daughter of the school's principal (who disapproved of the team's creation, necessitating her playing on the team in disguise), found herself able to project from her body a dark, almost-ethereal figure roughly shaped like herself, which could fly, become intangible, and project its memories to another person through physical contact. Further training enabled Kanako to project multiples of these constructs, as well as have them join together and form a sort of 'armor' around herself. (While her powers were active, she discovered that her hair would turn the same shade of green as the wig she used as part of her disguise.)
Yuki Azuma, the left fielder, was now capable of projecting illusions into another person's mind, and accidentally found herself able to enter and manipulate the dreams of others while she and the other girls were asleep one night. She could also open portals between any two points if given the coordinates, which manifest as light-blue energized patterns resembling halos gravitating around and off of her skin and clothing; these 'energy halos' also allow her to disperse and direct concussive force blasts from her person.
Yoko Tokashiki, the right fielder, discovered she now had the power to heal and energize others by physical contact, the use of which was accompanied by the appearance of twinkling stars. When not used to heal, her power makes her superhumanly strong (able to lift about 1 ton), fast (can run as fast as a speeding car), and agile (twice that of a normal human). For her, since she was the only one on the team who hadn't played baseball (or any sport, for that matter) before joining, this allowed her, in her mind, to actually keep up with her teammates.
Nene, a huge manga fan (among other hobbies) and already excited by her friends' newly-empowered state, was absolutely bursting at the prospect of them potentially becoming superheroes, a sentiment not everyone shared, given their focus on making it to the Summer Koshien. Kanako also pointed out that, were people to find about about their powers, they could very well be disqualified from playing anywhere over a perceived advantage. It was soon agreed upon that only a few other people would be let in on their situation: Keiko, given her stake in the team's success and since Izumi was her daughter; Ryo's mother, Shino Hayakawa; and, with some convincing on Ryo's part, her longtime best friend Seishiro Natsume. With that out of the way, the team continued practicing for their first major game.
Said game would be against the boys team from Rinkai High, a Koshien regular. In the course of the game, Seira, Hikaru, and Yoko instinctively tried to trigger their powers, but found themselves unable to, leaving them relying on their own skills instead; they informed Coach Kido of this between innings, something he had Nene note for later discussion. Following the girls managing to win over Rinkai High, Kido and Nene met with the girls and discussed Seira, Hikaru, and Yoko's discovery. Kanako and Izumi theorized that their powers must have a built-in limiter of some sort, preventing their users from employing them in any form of official competition, which to Ryo and Coach Kido made a considerable amount of sense.
Some time later, for the girls' first game at regionals leading up to Koshien, they found themselves facing the boys team at Hori Private Academy, said by some to be a school full of thugs and bruisers. (Not helping matters for morale was how the guys on the team were five times the size of the girls.) Right when the game was headed into the fifth inning, with Hori Private up to bat and the Kisaragi Nine on defense, the ground beneath the ball field began to rumble unexpectedly, until finally, in front of everyone's astonished eyes, the pitcher's mound began to rise up from the ground, causing Ryo to leap away. The thing that arose soon gazed at the onlookers with a pair of grim eyes and a very large mouth, and revealed itself to be an alien being known as Spragg, declaring itself the conqueror of the human race! As the mountain that walked like a man rose further into the air till it was hovering a good five stories off the ground, all while the people in the stands started fleeing the ball field, followed by the Hori Private team. With the Kisaragi Nine, however, the girls (after helping evacuate the field) instinctively felt their powers being 'unlocked', meaning that with their game effectively over for the time being, they could use their abilities freely, which they did as they battled Spragg, holding their own against the alien's psychic and telekinetic powers. Eventually, after most of the girls succeeded in weakening him considerably, Ryo struck the finishing blow by channeling some energy into a more powerful version of her "Lightning Ball" pitch; the impact of the energy ball she threw was strong enough that it sent Spragg flying back into space at a considerable speed.
In the aftermath of the fight with Spragg, the girls were informed that the game would be postponed until the ball field was rebuilt, much to their slight disappointment. On the other hand, Coach Kido, as well as Keiko, expressed how proud they were of the girls for helping the civilians (including their own opponents) get to safety, as well as sending Spragg packing. Jumping in on this, Nene again made the case that the girls might make good superheroes, if only on a part-time basis; furthering her point was how she secretly had Seishiro, a budding artist, design costumes for each of them, which she then had manufactured. She then revealed that she'd been trawling through news reports of various sightings of strange creatures around the country, some of which hadn't been seen in the world since the late 1950s. Nene convinced them of how much good they could do in investigating these while they traveled around for their games, and should they run into such creatures, keep them from harming people who may not be able to help themselves against the monsters. Realizing Nene had a point, the girls decided to give the 'part-time heroes' thing a shot, much to the delight of Nene, who'd already crafted a logo for their fledgling team of monster-busters for hire: "Slammers, Inc.".
From that point on, the road to Koshien became a whole lot stranger for the Kisaragi Nine, each of whom adopted a codename whenever the need for Slammers, Inc. arose:
Ryo takes the name "Star Brand", after the mark that appears on her right hand.
Izumi adopts the alias "Justifier", based on her aura-reading ability.
Seira decides to go by the nickname "Blur", given her being impossible to see while moving at super-speed.
Hikaru went for the simple when going by the codename "Friction".
Koharu, quickly shooting down Seira's joke of a suggestion in 'Sponge', adopts the moniker "Waterspout".
Mao, following Hikaru's lead, settles on the name "Chrome".
Kanako, aspiring to become a medical doctor when she gets older, goes for a bit of wordplay in that profession's vein when she dubs herself "Antibody".
Yuki, inspired by a manga she used to read and given how stronger her powers function during the night, comes up with the alias of "Nightmask".
Yoko, inspired by the starry effects that appear when using her power, takes on the name "Glitter".
For each game they played in on the way to Koshien, the girls, as their costumed alter-egos, would sometimes be called upon or hired to deal with either a strange monster menacing the town they were playing in, or dealing with the occasional mad scientist or supernatural phenomena. They would first encounter the superwomen of Tokyo-3 (all of whom were either certain women or teen girls directly or peripherally-involved with the since-dissolved U.N. special agency NERV) when the some of the younger members of the superhero team they formed, the Avengers, attended one of the games the girls were playing in; as it turned out, Hikaru's cousin, one Toji Suzuhara, was the boyfriend of one of the young Avengers, Spirit (secretly middle-going-on-high school student Hikari Horaki), and those two had brought along their friends to show some support for Hikaru and the others. History seemed to repeat itself when the stadium the game took place in was suddenly attacked by a returned Spragg, now joined by other rogue members of his race who were in hiding on Earth, the so-called "Hill People". Spragg himself had also gotten something of an upgrade, as he'd collected rocks from the rings of the planet Jupiter that he'd turned into smaller clones of himself. Both the younger Avengers and Slammers, Inc. sprung into action while Toji and the rest of the former team's non-powered friends helped evacuate the fans from the stadium. The two teams were able to subdue the living meteor shower, allowing for Spragg and his forces to be taken into custody by S.W.O.R.D. (the sister agency to S.H.I.E.L.D. specializing in extraterrestrial incursions); having earned the other's respect, the young Avengers let Slammers, Inc. know they'd see about bringing them on as part-time auxiliary members, with them getting to use their specialized training facility as a start.
During the events of what came to be known by its participants as the 'Secret Crisis', Slammers, Inc. was one of a number of Avengers allies called upon to assist in the quest for the twelve objects of great power that served as objectives for both the Avengers and their alternate-universe counterparts, the Justice League. They ended up being sent to locate one of those objects, only to find themselves up against the group of heroes allied with the League who were guarding it: the modern-day successors of the World War II All-Star Squadron. Later on, some time after the Secret Crisis, Slammers, Inc. would be assisted by the Avengers in finding out the cause behind the White Event, which they learned was the result of an experiment by the cosmic entity known as the Beyonder."
*Author's Note(s)*
For the Marvel half of the 'wave', I decided on doing something a bit unique involving one of my favorite female-centered anime, the baseball-based saga of Princess Nine. (Timely, considering the World Series is going on right now.) What did I end up doing? Turning them into a team of part-time heroes based on certain characters and concepts from Marvel's ill-fated New Universe imprint from the mid-to-late 1980s, while giving them a bit of a gimmick like Scooby-Doo involving Marvel's Atlas-era monsters. Like with the All-Star Squadron, I don't know how I got spurred into this particular combination, but the more I thought about it, the more it somehow made sense to me. (Plus, the team name was a good play on that of one of the original titles under the New Universe banner, Kickers, Inc.) Making their first villain Spragg (one of the many monsters created by Marvel during its Atlas Comics days, debuting in 1961's Journey Into Mystery #68) stemmed from the at-first funny idea of the girls having to fight the very pitcher's mound they were standing on. Giving their powers that particular limit was my way of keeping them from being too overpowered. I'll elaborate more on my choice of blends (again, as with the All-Star Squadron) in a series of follow-up bonus entries covering the members of the Kisaragi Nine/Slammers, Inc. (and for the versions found on DeviantArt, each with more clear looks at their respective outfits).
Speaking of, for handling those visuals (seen in my DeviantArt gallery), I once again turned to the talents of artist Ishida1694, who I'm glad was enthusiastic to tackle this after I gave them my pitch (no pun intended) on my birthday two months ago. Not only did they do justice to my design ideas for the outfits, they threw in the background and the team's logo at no extra charge. All of this resulted in a real grand slam of an entry for my series, and I cannot thank them enough for going into extra innings for it.