Love Hina Fan Fiction / Neon Genesis Evangelion Fan Fiction / Bubblegum Crisis Tokyo 2040 Fan Fiction ❯ Bat Tales ❯ Orders ( Chapter 3 )

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Shinji emerged from Asuka’s room, before carefully closing the door behind him. He looked up into scarlet and brown eyes.

“I’ve planted her collection of Batman comics,” Shinji reported quietly. “And tucked her in.” Maya and Rei nodded.

“I believe my engaging in a monologue from Shakespeare has ensured that the Second Child will conclude her entry into the cave was a dream,” Rei stated.

“Well, that, or Shinji, er… Starting to strip tease,” Maya pointed out, blushing slightly. Shinji smirked in a very un-Shinji-like fashion.

“Hopefully…” A scream was heard from Asuka’s room. All three turned and entered, to see the red headed Eva pilot sitting up in bed, panting.

“You-Gah-I saw-!” Her stutters were halted by the stack of comic books next to her bed. She coughed, trying to resume her usual arrogant air.

“Get out, Shinji-no-Hentai! Before I clobber you!” She snarled. Shinji nodded, making some fearful apologies, before darting back into the hallway and shutting the door behind him with a smirk.

“Mission accomplished,” he stated flatly. Rei nodded, as Maya sighed.

“That was close…”

“Let’s just be more careful next time,” Shinji advised. “And Rei? Did you have to hit her so hard?”

Red eyes crinkled in a smile only an Ikari could pick up on.

“Yes.”

---

“Four robberies, and he still hasn’t taken the bait we’ve offered,” Misato sighed in Ritsuko’s laboratory. The faux blonde shrugged.

“He’s got Batgirl and Robin with him. Maybe we’re just too much for him to take?”

Ritsuko frowned. “And Maya hasn’t had any luck, even though he meets him for every nightly patrol, to find out who he is.”

“Guess the ol’ Bat Charm won her over,” Misato noted with a grin. “Asuka’s been going out as ‘The Crimson Avenger’, but still, no takers.”

“You know Misato,” Ritsuko began, “I’ve noticed something.” The blonde called up a holographic image of Eva Unit 01, at the last battle against the Ninth Angel. NERV had been suffering from an internal and external assault from some of the Commander’s enemies, resulting in a extremely trying situation. They’d barely survived as it was.

“Yes, Rits?” Ritsuko ran the clip, which showed how Shinji threw a piece of metal at the Angel in question with such force and precision it had knocked the alien through an armored wall. Rei had struck with the force of her unit’s foot, before Asuka finally finished the Ninth off with her prog knife.

“Notice how Shinji threw that metal shard,” Ritsuko stated, before calling up some of the security footage of Batman foiling another robbery. “Now, watch Batman.” The video ran. Batman threw a batarang, knocking a twelve-gauge shotgun out of the hands of one of the bank robbers, before his partner Batgirl landed a killer kick into the criminal’s face.

Misato frowned.

“See the similarities?” Ritsuko pressed. Misato nodded.

“So… What are you saying? That Shinji and Rei are Batman and Batgirl?” Misato grinned at that thought. “And they fight crime at night and save the world?” Both women looked at each other, before laughing hysterically.

“Oh… Oh God, Rits… You’ve got one hell of a sense of humor,” Misato gasped.

“I… I just noticed it,” Ritsuko cackled. “I don’t believe it myself! HA! Like those two could be those two… Honestly…”

“So, I hear you and the Commander are working on the latest plan to attract Batman to NERV,” Misato grinned, after getting over her giggles. “What did you two have in mind?”

---

The Bat Signal had been cast upon the clouds over Tokyo-3 for about three hours now, and Gendo Ikari, though he was hiding it, was becoming frustrated.

“Somehow, I doubt that the Batman is that gullible,” noted Fuyutsuki for the umpteenth time. Gendo ground his teeth. Nearby, on the roof with them, Ritsuko Akagi bit her lower lip.

“I’m… I’m sure he’ll show, soon,” the false blonde reassured her lover. She winced at the scathing look he shot her, promising that he was going to take out his frustrations on her this night. She shuddered.

“I’ll see you tomorrow, Doctor,” the Commander stated shortly, turning and heading down the stairs. Fuyutsuki gave Ritsuko an apologetic look as he followed his former student. The blonde slumped against the searchlight, looking miserable.

Gendo had become rougher, over the last few weeks. Ever since the Ninth Angel attack, he’d let his frustrations out on her in his bed. She absently rubbed her bruised cheek, covered under heavy make-up, but still throbbing.

I won’t cry… I won’t cry… I don’t cry… Even this affirmation didn’t keep some moisture bubbling up at the corners of her eyes.

SMASH! Ritsuko jumped and fell onto her side. She looked up with wide eyes, at the shattered Bat-Signal. Amid the snapping and crackling electronics, jutted the wing of a bat-shaped blade. She heard the sound of a heavy fabric waving in the wind, and followed it to it’s source. She gaped.

“Doctor Akagi,” Batman greeted, bowing his head slightly. Next to him, his partner, Batgirl, in her black full-face mask, stood like Batman‘s shadow. The yellow bat-silhouette on her chest was the only thing distinguishing her from the night behind her.

“Wha… What do you want?” Ritsuko stammered, clumsily getting to her feet. The Batman’s opaque eye covers narrowed.

“You lit the signal. We’re here now. I believe I should be asking you that,” the vigilante noted in his gruff voice, though the blonde felt there was a hint of bemusement in his tone.

“I… Well… Um…” Ritsuko took a deep breath, and assumed a professional demeanor. “As a representative of NERV, sanctioned by the United Nations Security council in 2011 to defend the human race against the threat of the Angels, I am officially extending greetings and a proposed alliance to you, the Batman of Tokyo-3.” The blonde paused, watching the reactions of the two vigilantes. Neither moved, standing like statues.

“Er… NERV feels that your considerable skills and talents would doubtless contribute to the defense against the Angels. Commander Ikari is fully willing to compensate you for your services and-”

“No.” Ritsuko blinked.

“Um… Excuse me?” Batman’s glower noticeably deepened.

“I serve justice. Not NERV. Find some other stool pigeon,” Batman stated, turning and heading for the edge of the roof. Batgirl followed, still silent.

“Hey! Wait! You can serve justice with NERV! Come back!” Ritsuko yelped. She ran after Batman, reaching out for his shoulder. A powerful, painful grip catches her wrist before her fingers make contact. Batman’s hand has her. He looks back over his shoulder.

“I said no.”

“But… Um…” Batman had turned to face her completely, making her fidget. His other hand had gently grasped her chin, as he surveyed her face completely. She couldn’t help but shiver under his intense gaze, even behind the eye covers it made her feel so… Naked.

“Batgirl.” The other vigilante was looking over Batman’s shoulder. She nodded.

“Commander Ikari’s fist,” she said in a quiet voice. Ritsuko could swear she’s heard that voice before, but the mask was muffling Batgirl’s words to an anonymous female tone. Batman’s eyes seem to widen slightly, before narrowing again.

“Don’t worry about him. We’ll take care of it,” Batman said flatly, gently letting Ritsuko go and running to the roof’s edge. He leaped off, firing off a zip line, with Batgirl copying the maneuver and following him into the night. Ritsuko watched the two depart, feeling faint.

“Take… care of…?”

---

Gendo Ikari frowned. He checked his watch.

“Driver, can we hurry this up?” The Bastard King of NERV stated flatly from the back of the limo. “I have matters to attend to.”

And frustration to vent, he thought of his ’date’ tonight with Dr. Akagi. She needed punishment for her most recent failures, and Gendo needed anger relief. Their arrangement would kill both birds with one stone.

“Sorry sir, the motor’s acting funny,” the driver apologized, just before the engine of the limousine sputtered violently and died. The limo came to a halt, as the hood began to smoke.

“Excuse me, sir, I’ll check it out,” the driver stated, getting out and heading to the front of the car. The driver was confused. Why was a blade stuck in the hood of the limousine?

He took a closer look. He gaped, just before a black fist sent him crashing to the pavement.

Gendo saw the driver fall, and sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. Why do I pick the clumsy ones?

Because you had the good ones killed, a sardonic voice in his head noted. Gendo frowned, getting up out of the limo, a hand on his hidden sidearm. Paranoia helped keep him alive during his rise to power, and there was no reason to quit on it now.

“Driver, get the hell up and-” A dainty fist rammed into the back of his head, and he blacked out.

Some time later, Gendo Ikari woke up with an agonizing headache. He didn’t want to open his eyes, but he knew he had to.

He wished he hadn’t. He wished he’d been a coward for once in his life.

Once?

Shut up.

He was staring at himself, wrapped like a caterpillar in it’s cocoon with black, high-tensile rope. Faintly through the semi-reflective glass, he saw a number of people staring and whispering amongst themselves in an office.

He gritted his teeth and looked down. He was suspended at least twenty stories above the streets of Tokyo-3. News and rescue vehicles, along with a large crowd of people, were below him. He looked back up at his reflection.

A single sheet of paper was stuck to him. It bore the visual of the Bat, and a short note:

Enjoy the view.

~BM

Gendo Ikari decided right then and there, that this was one man who wouldn’t live to humiliate him again. This was one man who would die a horrible, painful death. Even more horrible than anything he’d visited upon his enemies!

This was one man… Who had taped up images of him abusing Dr. Akagi onto the glass.

Gendo decided things were bad enough without shrieking like a mad man that Batman was dead and he’d better get his fucking will together.

---

Misato had been holding Ritsuko in the lab for over an hour now, as the blonde savant cried for the first time since her mother’s death. The major tried to soothe her best friend, rubbing her back.

“So… Don’t worry, Ritsu. Even if he does come back… And he probably will… He’ll have a restraining order and a taser bracelet attached to his ankle,” Misato sighed. Ritsuko sniffled slightly.

“I… I don’t know whether to be sad for Gendo… Angry at him… Happy or angry at Batman…” The blonde shrugged helplessly. “I’m so… So confused…”

“Psychology never was one of your strong classes,” Misato confirmed. Ritsuko glared at her.

“Least I didn’t flash the professor,” she muttered, as Misato flushed.

“Okay… But look: You’ll be just fine, okay? I’m here… And Shinji’s invited you to dinner tonight.” Misato smiled impishly. “I’m starting to think he’s got a crush on you… From how he’s been acting towards you lately.”

“Great. Another Ikari attracted to me,” Akagi moaned. “That’s the last thing I need…”

---

“So, you’ll pay the fine, wear the ankle tracker, and just don’t do anything remotely evil for the next few months,” Fuyutsuki tried to consul his former student. “It won’t be that bad. The Committee was willing to overlook the whole thing once they stopped laughing.”

“I fucking hate Batman,” Gendo said for the umpteenth time from behind the reinforced glass. “I fucking hate him, Sensei. And I’m going to kill him. Oh yes, I’m going to enjoy watching him die…”

“Yes, Gendo,” the older man sighed. As if his obsession with Yui hadn’t been bad enough.

“I’ll have rats nibble his fucking skin off! I’ll use a beaver to chew his balls off! No, I’ll have Shinji in Unit 01 pinch his genitals off!” Gendo continued, in an eerily calm voice.

“Right, of course, Ikari,” Fuyutsuki nodded.

“You are taking these down, right Sensei?”

“Of course, Gendo.”

“Excellent. While we’re at it, I’ll have Shinji join me in hunting and killing Batman! Father-son bonding! It’ll be perfect! I’ll turn him into the most ruthless son of a bitch the world has ever seen! Aside from me, of course.”

“Yes, Gendo.” Fuyutsuki was beginning to wonder if taking up Toudai University on it’s ever-present offer to join the faculty might not be such a bad idea.

“I’ll mold him into the most evil, ruthless, diabolical monster in history! I’ll give him a harem! He’ll love me forever! We’ll both get Yui back! He can get rid of his Oedipal issues with us! I wonder if Yui would mind having a threesome? She never objected when Naoko joined us…”

Yes, a nice, peaceful professorship was looking better and better every day, reflected Fuyutsuki.

---

“The Commander is not pleased.”

“That was kind of the point, Rei-chan,” Shinji pointed out, as the two went over a Yakuza case file in the Cave. Rei nodded thoughtfully.

“He has asked me to begin… ’Turning you into a man’.” The sound of Shinji typing abruptly ceased.

“… Any reason why?”

“His explanation was that you needed to stop being such a pussy,” Rei re-iterated, making the entire scene even more surreal with her deadpan tone.

“And… How would you go about turning me into a man?” Shinji asked. Rei blinked at him, a ‘Some Greatest Detective in the World you are’ look on her face.

“By having sexual intercourse with you.” Shinji began coughing violently.

Rei was like a sister to him. She was his partner. They trashed biker gangs together, for God’s sake! It wasn’t exactly the best foundation for a romantic relationship.

Not to mention that Maya might have some objections to Rei making a move on him. Shinji couldn’t be sure, but the fact that Maya didn’t wear anything under her Robin costume, and used the Cave shower after every mission in front of him and was always asking him to ‘wash her back’ seemed to indicate that she wasn’t averse to his presence.

“O… Kay…” Shinji coughed. “Were you ordered to do this?”

“Yes.” Rei was staring at him intensely. Shinji took a deep breath.

You are Batman, you are Batman, you are Batman, you are Batman…

“Do you intend to carry out this order?” Rei stood up, and in one fluid motion, ripped her school uniform off. Shinji stared, slack-jawed, at the overwhelming evidence that Rei’s natural hair color was indeed azure.

“Yes. However, in order to lessen the tension this would bring to the mission, I requested Lieutenant Ibuki’s assistance.” From behind him, Shinji felt Maya’s warm breath tickling his neck. He shivered.

“And it wouldn’t be good to refuse the direct orders of the Commander, now would it, Shinji-kun?” The lithe Lieutenant asked playfully.

THUMP!

“He can handle terrorists, giant monsters trying to destroy mankind, and violent psychopaths,” noted Maya with a sigh. “But two women who want to have sex with him is too much?”

“I now see the wisdom in the Commander’s orders,” Rei noted, as she bent down to remove Shinji’s pants. “Will you assist me, Lieutenant Ibuki?”

“Of course, Pilot Ayanami,” Maya smirked.

---

I think we’ll leave Shinji to his doom. Er, I mean, orders. Heh.

Now… Regarding some of your questions: Yes, Shinji is essentially the same outside of the costume as he is in the series. That’s the point: Who would seriously entertain the idea that mild-mannered, pathetic Shinji, is in fact the Batman?