Interludes After the Seventh Angel, Part 3

Note, the parenthesis indicate languages other than Japanese, in this case, English and Interlac.
Please Read and Review. I'd like to know what I'm doing right (to keep doing it), and what I'm I doing wrong (to correct it).

Tokyo-3
Katsuragi-Ikari Apartment
Spiritual Plane

Shinji had just placed his cello and bow back in the case, when he noticed the familiar color shift around him. He looked around; to find the Phantom Stranger, comfortably seated in the couch; softly drumming his fingers on the armrest, nodding appreciatively.

"I didn't want to interrupt you. It is rare I have a chance to enjoy music." He said, as he stood up. Shinji blushed. He wasn't used to praise. Rei had told him that she enjoyed hearing him play, but he had attributed it to their friendship, and maybe to her little knowledge of music. Asuka certainly hadn't mentioned anything, if she had heard at all. "How… how long have…?"

"A few minutes, enough to listen you play the last piece." He allowed Shinji a few seconds to recover. "We must talk, follow me."

The door of the apartment lead directly to the street. Shinji had long ago decided to not bother himself with the evident impossibility of the shortcuts the Phantom Stranger lead him into, both in time and space. He had the impression that the Stranger thought better while walking. As if the man just needed to move around, despite his general stoicism.

Once outside, the Phantom Stranger spoke. "In a few days, the next Angel will appear. I have delayed it as much as I can, but it will emerge soon. NERV will receive the order to mobilize and try to capture it before it hatches. NERV cannot be allowed to study the Angel's larval stage."

Shinji nodded, "What do I do?"

"Miss Soryu is the one who has the best chance to destroy this Angel, but it is hidden in a very dangerous place, her life is at an even higher risk. You cannot help her directly."

Shinji pursed his lips and nodded.

The Stranger continued. "At least, not until she has come back with the Angel. There's a risk it will hatch prematurely. If that happens, you should use all resources available to end its threat." Shinji nodded again. The Stranger turned towards him, stopping for a moment.

"It is my understanding that you have been studying some history, is that correct?"

"Well... yes. Our Sensei at school rambles a lot about life before Second Impact, and he spoke about the metahumans soon after we met. I thought it would be good to know more about them, so I've been tracking every bit of info I could."

"Good." The man's cloak flared around him. "I have shown you the dark side of this world, it is past time I show you the bright side of it. The Flashes will help you with the next task."

"But they are all d… gone." Shinji guessed the first Flash would have probably died sometime before Second Impact, hopefully from old age. The second one had sacrificed his life to stop the universe's destruction at the hands of the Anti-Monitor. And the third had simply disappeared a few weeks after Second Impact.

"They are gone, yes, but not forgotten. And for as long as their memory endures, they will show you the way. It is time you witness a heroic legacy."

All around them, the city had changed. All the store's signs were in English, and the people around them were all of western ascent.

No one noticed their presence.

Suddenly, a red and blue streak passed next to them.

A Possible XXVIth Century
Ruins of NERV-2 (Nevada)
Evangelion Unit-04 Cage

It had been nearly twenty minutes since Dr. Canus had tried, against his own will, to attack Kamandi like a wild beast. The young human sat on his haunches, ready to jump into action at the least sign Canus had another episode of violence. To steady his nerves, Kamandi watched intensely the slow movement on the chest of his friend.

Canus was securely tied up, his wrists and ankles tied together in a complex know. The scientist had a big bump on the side of his head. Kamandi had a strange expression on his face, his brow deeply furrowed in worry.

Still, Canus seemed to be simply sleeping.

Kamandi's mind paid some attention to the far away noise of running water. A few times he had had the chance to wash under a bucket of water, with holes in the bottom. But there was no bucket big enough for that amount of water. To distract himself, he began to work out in his mind exactly how something similar could be rigged. Maybe a barrel… No, still too small… A tank, maybe? Hmm… yes… that could be it.

The strange girl, Mari, returned; rubbing her hair vigorously with a thick piece of white cloth. She had changed clothes. Now she wore a kind of tunic, white in color, plus a beautiful kilt. He had seen clothes like that during his travels. He was familiar with skirts, of course, being one of the simplest garments humans still wore, but the pattern on the cloth itself probably meant something, like her tribe or status. Hopefully, she could tell him the meaning. Canus would surely like to know.

"(Hey, blondie! I don't want to get too close to the doc. Just in case he goes loco again. Could you check if I still smell like LCL… I mean, like before.)"

"(Sure.)" Kamandi checked the knots once again. And walked to Mari.

He sniffed the air as he got close to her. "(You smell nice. Like… flowers. No, like flowers and fruit. Did you find something to eat?)"

"(Ah, no. It's just soap, shampoo and deodorant. I thought it would be best if I washed up real good, and then used the other smells to cover up the one that set your friend off. Speaking of which… Is he okay?)"

Kamandi turned around, "(You knocked him pretty hard, but I don't think there was any lasting damage beyond a bump on his head. He's breathing fine. And his fur is back to normal.)" He shook his head. "(I have never seen him like that.)"

"(Yeah… He was quite scary. I thought we were getting along well…)"

A pained groan interrupted them. Canus opened his eyes with a start. "…grooooo…" He looked around, evidently scared, Kamandi was at his side in an instant.

"(Dr. Canus! Are you okay? What happened?)"

"(Kamandi? Oooh… My head…)" He tried to cradle his head, but his hands were securely tied to his ankles. "(By Grant… I had the most horrible nightmare. Are you okay? Both of you?)"

"(Uh, yeah, doc; what do you remember?)" Mari asked, keeping distance.

"(Blood. I felt the smell of blood in my brain, but it wasn't normal blood. Grant knows I… we… have seen a lot of blood spilled, but this smells weird. Like no blood of animal or human I've ever seen.)"

"(Can you still feel it, doctor?)"

"(It's very faint now, my friend, I don't want to smell that blood again. It turned me into a savage beast! I could have killed you! I wanted to kill something… so badly I could barely think!)"

Mari was leaning against a railing. Deep in thought. "(Must have been the LCL. I… I don't know what they make it from, but everybody I know hates the way it smells.)" She looked around, at the dilapidated state of the most advanced place the science of the XXIst Century had ever built. Well, apart from the GeoFront, of course. "(Everybody I knew…)" she corrected herself, sadly. "(I was the only one who liked it…)"

Both Kamandi and Canus looked at her, then at each other, and back to Mari. She was mumbling to herself. "(If the Evangelion is a biomechanoid… then that means… Oh, god!)" Her eyes opened as wide as saucers. She turned around, looking distinctly green and covering her mouth with a hand. She managed to control her stomach for a moment. "(I've been breathing it!)" She doubled herself over the railing, retching, though her stomach had been empty for a long time.

Sometime later, Mari had recovered from her nausea. Canus had suggested Kamandi to go to get some water. Mari had mumbled the route back to the pilots dressing rooms. Outside them, there was a drinking fountain, with a helpful painting showing how to use it. Kamandi followed the instructions, and after a cautious sniffing of the water, he filled a waterskin with fresh water.

"(Thanks.)" Mari sloshed some water around her mouth, ridding herself of the bile taste before spitting it over the railing. She drank several big gulps.

"(Better?)" asked a worried Kamandi.

"(Yeah…)", she nodded weakly, "(Boy, when I was chosen to pilot Unit-03, no one told me I would be breathing freaking blood…)" A strange expression crossed her face. Her eyes brightened up, "(Heeey! I'm hardcore, man! I breathe blood and spit bubbles!)", she mumbled to herself. For some reason, she nodded enthusiastically several times, not only with her head, but with her whole torso, while raising her left hand over her head with some fingers extended, making her pigtails fly around her.

Kamandi sat next to Canus. "(I think we should rest for a while. Doctor, can I untie you now?)"

"(I think it would be prudent to keep me tied for a while. I would like to eat something, though…)"

"(Wait here. I'll see if I can find something.)" Mari went to a wall full of glass windows. She pushed a few buttons, and the screens lighted up, showing various places. She pushed more buttons. "(Ah. All clear, no monkey-boys in sight. Wait here. I'll be back soon.)" She took a loaded rifle, and expertly checked it was in working order. "(Don't go anywhere, doc.)"

Kamandi and Canus stared at her, doubting between remarking about the ropes that tied the scientist or not.

September the 21st, 2002,
Gotham City, Wayne Manor
Main Study Room

"(Master Richard? I believe there is an… intruder… in the basement.)" The old butler, Alfred Pennyworth, approached hesitantly to the last survivor of the extended family of his old employer and ward.

Dick Grayson put down the files he was reading, the last reports Lucius Fox had sent about the R&D the kids in Waynetech had been busying themselves with. "(Thanks, Alfred, please go with Barbara and make sure she is prepared for anything. I'll go down to check. Ask her to activate the cameras and feed me the info.)"

"(Immediately, Sir. Please be careful)." Alfred had seemed to get twenty years older, since the news of the death of the Batman and most of his team. More like family, actually.

"(Alfred? Please stay with her. Keep her company.)"

"(Certainly, Master Richard.)" The old man closed the door after him. Grayson had no doubt his friend and confidant would do

Grayson opened a secret compartment in the side of the chimney, taking out a wide belt. Clumsily, he put it on over his shirt. He put a micro-bead in his right ear, before taking a couple of darts, plus a smoke bomb. He might have a lame leg and a semi paralyzed hand, but he was still able to protect his wife from an intruder. Hell, if needed, he could collapse the roof of the Batcave on the intruder's head.

He smirked. '(Of course, there's not exactly a whole lot of our old Rogues Gallery left. Damned clown made sure of that.)' he thought.

Opening the grandfather's clock that hid the entrance to the Batcave, he tapped twice on his ear, to activate the bead. A soft voice answered. "(I'm here, Dick. The cameras show some movement, but so far, the only thing our intruder has done, is to sit at the chair of the lab. He or she put a bundle of clothes over the table, but hasn't taken any other actions. His or her movements are very slow and deliberate. If I have to trust on our lessons on body language, and I do; I'd say the intruder is very weak or very old, probably both.)"

"(Good. Let's see who is it.)"

Carefully, he descended the long stairs, tapping the bead every few steps, the 'clear so far' signal.

Finally, he arrived to the floor of the almost abandoned Batcave. Most of the old trophy cases had been covered with canvas sheets. Waiting. He himself didn't know what to do with them. The trophies were painful reminders of the missing friends and father, yes; but it would be the worst disrespect to get rid of them, painful as they were. So, they had decided to simply cover the cases and redesign the security systems.

However, between his rehab therapy and all the stuff he had to do as heir of the Wayne fortune and enterprises…. Well, he hadn't found the time to do it. The death of so many villains and gangsters in the Iceberg Lounge Massacre had shifted his focus to simpler crimes. And the Batcave had fallen down in the list of priorities.

Slowly, Dick got closer to the lab, maneuvering behind the cases, keeping himself hidden from view.

He got close enough to hit the figure with a knock-out dart. However, the figure turned around slowly, looking at him with old eyes.

"(Hello, Richard. Glad to see you are better.)" The voice was raspy, old, frail, and wheezing. The voice of an old woman.

Grayson raised an eyebrow, something in that voice was… familiar. Very familiar.

"(I know. I am not the woman you remember.)" The old woman continued, "(Not anymore. Finally, my true age has caught with me.)" She waved vaguely. "(I'm about to die. But I ask you, as my beloved's adoptive son, to help me one last time. With my beloved's blood son)."

Slowly, painfully, she uncovered the bundle on the table. Dick tensed, ready to throw a dart at the first threatening move. A little hand came out of the clothes, followed by a gurgle. "(Meet Ibn'al Xuffasch. The son of the bat.)"

Now, recognition stroke him like a lightning bolt. "(Talia?)"

Author Notes

Shinji is about to start a new trip to the past. This time, into the DCU proper. And who better to show him how to think fast under pressure, than the Flashes? Especially, Barry Allen, who tended to pull victories from thin air by using his scientific knowledge.

And that is, as the man himself used to say, a Flash Fact!

By the time Second Impact hit, the first Flash, Jay Garrick was practically retired; but he got back into action and disappeared during the Impact Wars

The second Flash, Barry Allen, died during the Crisis on Infinite Times (my retouched version of Crisis in Infinite Earths), maybe I will elaborate on how the Crisis was remembered in Universe, post-Crisis; interestingly, I can only remember a version of Crisis-Post-Crisis (I mean, how was the Crisis remembered after all the changes the Crisis itself caused in the timeline of the DCU), in a JLA miniseries, Incarnations, written by John Ostrander. Seven issues, covering seven different eras of the JLA, each written in the style of the time. Very good story, BTW.

The third Flash, Wally West, was one of the JLA members who died after Second Impact. He will get his own death scene in a future interlude.

About the other speedsters, Impulse, Max Mercury, Jonny and Jesse Quick, well... that's a story for another day.

XS is safe and sound in the XXXIst Century.

Kamandi and Canus will stay with Mari at the NERV ruins for a while, How could I deny the good doctor the chance to talk at lenght with a pre-Great Disaster survivor?

Kamandi, of course, is more practical, and will want to make sure they are not surprised (again).

Personally, Demian Wayne is very far of being a favorite of mine. Too abrasive for my taste; however, I did like the old Supersons stories back in the 70s! And of course, Batman Beyond is one of the coolest sequels I have ever seen.

So, I got the idea of mixing the Supersons with DCU Beyond. This is the first step in that direction, and of course, his character will be way different than in canon, being raised by Dick and Barbara Grayson, without any influence from Ra's al Ghul and the League of Assassins.