Love Hina Fan Fiction / Neon Genesis Evangelion Fan Fiction / Bubblegum Crisis Tokyo 2040 Fan Fiction ❯ Bat Tales ❯ Homecoming Part 1 ( Chapter 10 )

Well, took some time off, and I’m going to summer college. But oh well. It’s life. Meh.

For those of you who don’t know, Mana Kirishima is a character from the Evangelion video game Girlfriend of Steel. Apparently, she’s supposed to be a clone of Rei and Asuka-What Rei and Asuka’s child would look like if they could have one together. And the perfect spy for the JSSDF. And a mecha pilot. (shrug) Go figure.

Anyway, the disclaimer in the first chapter still stands: I don’t own Evangelion or Batman, and I’m not making profit off this story. If I were, you wouldn’t see me on this site. And there’d be a movie version of this and other of my fics in the works. And I’d be richer than God. Which is a weird phrase, considering God doesn’t need money and doesn’t even want it. (shrug)

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Shinji felt his head hit a hard wooden floor, which was odd considering that the last time he’d checked, he’d been dancing on the moon with Rei to Frank Sinatra.

He then opened his eyes, and groaned as the morning light shone through a window.

“Oops… Sorry about that, Shinji,” a girl’s voice apologized. He felt himself be lifted up, slowly, as though he were being pulled up by a crane. The resistance against his wrists and the hardness at his back and under his legs told him he was tied to a chair.

Mana Kirishima stood sheepishly before him, a nine millimeter in her hand. Shinji quickly ran his eyes around the room. He was in some sort of cabin, probably remote considering the sparse furnishing. The air pressure was different-He was in the mountains.

And Mana Kirishima was his kidnapper.

“Why am I here, Mana?” He asked calmly. The redhead sighed.

“Orders. I’m to… Keep you out of the way.” Shinji glared.

“For what? What are you doing, Mana?”

“I can’t tell you… You’ll find out later, Shinji.” The spy shrugged slightly. “I am sorry about this, but… I didn’t think you’d come quietly.”

“No. I wouldn’t have,” Shinji said flatly. He let some of the hurt he was feeling out. “Mana… I thought you were my friend.”

“I am your friend, Shinji,” Mana whispered. “That’s why… I made sure you were out of the way.”

“What’s going to happen? A bomb? An attack?” Shinji pressed. Mana turned away and sighed deeply.

“I’m sorry. All I can say is that… No matter what happens, I’ll be there for you, okay?” With that, the redhead turned and left the cabin. Shinji glowered.

Let’s see… What do we have to work with here? Shinji tried shaking the chair. It was nailed down to the floor. He narrowed his eyes. He then realized he still had his watch on.

Ah ha…

It took a lot of hard knocks against the chair back, but the Third Child managed to break the glass on his old-fashioned analog watch. Gripping a shard of the broken glass, he went to work whittling away at his bonds, when Mana came back in with a few bottles of water and some containers of food.

“Sorry… I left some things where we were… Dropped off.” She stared at Shinji, who slowed his fingers. Mana sighed and walked over to Shinji, kneeling down so that her eyes were level with his.

“I’m sorry about this, Shinji. I… I care about you. That’s why I had to get you away. Away from the mess back in Tokyo-3.”

“Mana… What’s going to happen? I deserve to know, don’t I?” Shinji pleaded, still carefully cutting away at his bonds. Mana sighed again.

“… Asuka and Rei are also being held somewhere safe, because… Well… The Japanese government doesn’t trust NERV. I know, I know, it’s run by your father and you’re probably loyal to him-”

“Not really,” Shinji said, entirely honest. Mana nodded.

“Then you understand why we’re doing this? Your father… He’s, well, too powerful. He’s into a lot of bad things. He’s had people murdered and killed.” She shrugged. “We hoped that Batman would be able to handle him… But it’s been a month since anyone’s seen him. My superiors thought that Gendo had killed him.”

“Maybe he did,” Shinji shrugged, somewhat. It was hard when one was tied to a chair. But, that wouldn’t be an issue for long. However, Shinji had to get as much intel as possible.

“So, my superiors decided that we would take over control of NERV. The pilots, we’re keeping safe. The command staff…” Mana shrugged. She smiled encouragingly at him.

“Shinji, think about it. No more fighting on your own against the Angels! You’ll have the support of the entire JSSDF! Whenever you want it! You’ll have a commission, get paid, get your own home…” Mana blushed. “… me.”

“What?” Shinji asked, genuinely shocked. She nodded.

“I… Like you, Shinji. A lot. And, well… I want to be with you.” She moved her lips to Shinji’s ear and whispered, “any way you want me to be with you.”

Shinji gritted his teeth. Here was a major conflict of interest. On one hand? Yes, he wanted to be with Mana. He’d be lying if he said he wasn’t attracted to her, physically, and personally. And his father gone would definitely make the world a better place, in his view.

However…

“What about… Misato? Ritsuko?” Mana breathed in his ear, making him shiver.

“Don’t worry about them… They’ll be just fine,” she punctuated this remark by sucking on his earlobe. Shinji shook slightly, before willing his resolve.

“Mana… I can’t… If you’re going to kill innocent people to get my father-”

“It’s the only way to do it,” Mana sighed. “The security around your father? Impenetrable. Completely. It will be… Unfortunate.” Mana caressed Shinji’s cheek.

“But don’t worry about them… Don’t think about anything but-”

Mana slumped into Shinji’s lap, his free fist hovering above her. Shinji took a deep breath, trying to focus and regain his calm.

“I’m sorry,” he said quietly to her, as he picked her up and laid her on the single bed in the cabin. He kissed her forehead before heading out, taking her cell phone and dialing a special number. He then went outside to wait.

It wasn’t thirty minutes before a black shape appeared over the horizon. Quickly, the Bat-plane approached, before coming to a near-silent hover near Shinji, and settling down on the ground with it’s VTOL engines. Shinji approached the aircraft, faster, stealthier and more maneuverable than most military fighters. A panel opened on the side of it’s sleek hull, from which Shinji removed a spare Batman suit.

“I thought I was done with this,” he sighed. He shook his head, before quickly putting on the costume, jumping into the plane, and taking off.

Unbeknownst to the vigilante, a pair of wide green eyes had been watching him from the moment the strange plane landed. Mana narrowed her eyes.

“Batman, huh?” Her scowl turned into a sultry smile.

“I believe, Mr. Ikari, that you and I are going to have some good times,” she whispered, her smile growing as the Batplane shrunk over the horizon.

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“I still don’t know how you talked me into this,” grumbled Gendo Ikari, as a smirking Fuyutsuki followed his commander to the press conference through the hallways of NERV. The older man was resisting the urge to snicker.

“We do need some good press… And I thought you were in good spirits, considering you-know-who hasn’t been seen in a month.” Gendo sighed.

“Life seems infinitely boring without a worthy opponent,” he commented philosophically. Fuyutsuki rolled his eyes.

“Okay okay, I’m glad the bastard’s gone, allright?” Gendo harrumphed, before checking in a pocket mirror to make sure he looked especially menacing today. Then, he remembered that today he was not supposed to look menacing, and tried a smile.

Crack!

“Damn… That belonged to my wife, too,” Gendo grumbled at the shattered mirror, tucking it into the inner pocket of his jacket. He then took a deep breath, tried a somewhat less evil-looking half smile, and marched into the press room.

He cursed the brightly flashing cameras mentally as he sat down in his usual position at the desk. Misato, Ritsuko, and Fuyutsuki were arranged around the desk as well. Gendo cleared his throat and spoke into the microphone, mindful of the cameras and intense eyes watching him.

Wait, what do I care about the media? I own it! With this cheering thought, Gendo began.

“People of Tokyo-3, Commander Ikari here. This press conference is to announce a new, public relations program that NERV is launching. Due to many questions, concerns, even fears about NERV and what we do, I felt it only prudent that we try to reach out to our public, the people we protect.” Ikari rose, and went to stand near a table covered by a blue cloth. He glared at Misato, who looked half-asleep, Ritsuko, who looked bored, and Fuyutsuki, who looked fit to laugh himself to death.

“So, without further ado… I present to you, the people of Tokyo-3, the NERV merchandizing campaign kickoff!” Gendo dramatically pulled the cloth off the table. The reporters gasped. Gendo smiled, and picked up a cereal box with an Eva on it.

“Evangelion, the nutritious breakfast cereal!” He put this down and picked up a coloring book.

“Evangelion, the coloring book! Evangelion, the lunchbox! Evangelion, the toilet paper!” Gendo paused, looked at the roll of toilet paper with an image of Rei’s emotionless face on it, and discretely threw it away.

“Forget that last one… Ah ha! Evangelion, the doll.” He held up a super-deformed, plushy Rei that was smiling. The male reporters talked excitedly amongst themselves. Gendo revealed a Shinji plushy, which made many female reporters talking excitedly.

The plushy Asuka brought interest from both sexes, but Gendo decided to ignore that. He then picked up a model of Eva 01.

“Evangelion, the action figures! Now you too can join the battle against the Angels… In your imagination, of course, but who cares?” The commander of NERV, most feared man on the planet, held up an action figure of the Third Angel and made it fight Eva 01, complete with sound effects.

Misato and Ritsuko, by this point, were watching as though Gendo was sporting a tie-die Mohawk-in other words, gaping in shock. Fuyutsuki was laughing under the table.

“And, finally… Evangelion, the timed detonator.” The audience began to talk excitedly, as Gendo held up the ticking time bomb. Gendo then paused and looked at it.

“Ahem…”

A loud shout of surprise came from the entrance to the press room, and Gendo shifted his attention away from the bomb in his hand just in time to see Batman rush for the stage. The reporters began to shout, as the Section 2 agents raised their weapons.

“Excuse me,” Batman said flatly. He then shoved the Commander away and grabbed the bomb, quickly tying it to the rope of his grapnel gun. The reporters began to scream, as everyone began to move towards Batman. The vigilante pointed the grapnel gun at one of the skylights above and fired it. The bomb crashed through the glass, ascended a hundred feet into the air and curved over one side of the building, before it detonated loudly, making everyone in the pressroom fall to their knees.

Gendo got up, shaking slightly. He hadn’t been that close to death in a while. Batman rose at the same time, as the reporters and other people in the room began to get up, their talking growing in intensity. Gendo and Batman stared each other down.

“You… Saved my life,” Gendo observed. Batman snorted.

“You’re on drugs if you think I did this just for you.”

“I’m going to find out who you are, you know. And when I do…” Gendo growled quietly. Batman smirked.

“Bring it on, Amish Boy.” With that, Batman fired another zipline through the skylight, and winched himself up, just as the reporters began to yell.

“Batman! Please! Wait! Batman!”

“Batman, just a comment?!”

“Batman, where have you been?”

“BATMAN!”

As the vigilante vanished, they turned their sights on Gendo.

“Commander Ikari, what is your relationship with Batman?”

“Was the attempt on your life just a publicity stunt?”

“Does Batman work for you?”

Gendo groaned silently. I knew this was going to be a bad day…

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Stay tuned for chapter 9! R&R!