Nice to see you back in action, man.

Great Chapter. I want more.

Why would someone NOT want a sonic cannon?

This was... well, despite the horrifying nature that's always there in Bardiel fights, this wound up being a kind of sweet chapter.

I have to ask-and I have no idea how I didn't think to ask this earlier-will the Joker ever be showing up? Or is there just not enough time in this story to do justice to the Batman/Joker "relationship"?

Little changes spreading to create bigger changes. Now Mayumi has Asuka owing her a favor. That should prove useful down the line, especially when the chained angel program makes a come back. Though I am kinda seeing a BatEVA showing up first. Until next time.

Welcome back! Glad you're not dead! Lol

Anyway, I'm not sure how to feel about this chapter. I can't say it really grabbed me in any meaningful way, but it was nice to see the story moving forward and I def got the WAFF with the reveal of Hikari getting the prosthetics. I don't really believe the Cyborg angle is out of reach either. Pretty sure we don't have a Cyborg in SOEverse yet. (Or maybe we do. My memory is getting a little spotty on that).

Anyway keep up the great work!

WOOHOO! ANOTHER CHAPTER!

Oh man, good times all around. Mostly sad, poor Hikari, but overall still went better than canon went, since Shinji was unconscious and Mayumi is there to front the bills on replacement limbs. So all in all the kids are alright. Which naturally means something horrible is just on the horizon.

Good to have you back Mike, and as always, thank you for the hilarious omakes.

No matter how this scenario plays out, the end result is always the same: Gendo is an unforgivable prick that deserves only to die. Please, kill Gendo soon.

SEELE or NERV has the pseudo-Angel from Chained Wings. Just calling it now.
I suppose it could have been used in the production of the Evas-they were made from the Seed of Life, except for Unit-01 who was made with the Seed of Knowledge-and in a very real sense they are partially Angels themselves. Stealing research from others isn't beyond them at all, and Unit-01, at least, is drastically different from the other Evangelions.

I can't imagine anyone from Batman's rogue's gallery who'd be able to fight an ANGEL, though... they're usually about skill, cruelty, brilliance, or insanity. Even Killer Croc is pretty small, as far as things go. Not being/fighting giant monsters.

AAARRGGHHH, I am so sad to see that this story hasn't been updated in so long! Do you still have any intention of continuing it at some point, or is it well and fully abandoned?

I must say, my favorite part about these stories is the secret identity reveal. But the way that Mayumi originally _was_ just using him, grew to like him while denying her attraction, and now feels that the attraction may be holding her back... that adds whole new levels to the event. The possible feelings of betrayal-or Shinji's willingness to overlook it. He can be awfully forgiving, at times (considering how long it took for him to start actually hating Gendo, the bastard). I think the thought that he hasn't had much opportunity to know the *real* Mayumi would hurt him the most, though (although considering how much she's actually blushing and that she is highly educated, other than the shyness the personality might not be all that off?).

But something I've really been wanting to see for a while was for the topic of Shinji and NERV to come up when he's talking to Mayumi, and for him to actually talk about it. About the bullshit his father pulled to make him pilot, how his father sent him away to raise some other girl (then makes her live in a dump), how terrible piloting is and how much it frightens him (but makes him feel wanted, for the first time). I'm pretty sure that whatever Mayumi guessed was the relationship between Shinji and Gendo, it wasn't as awful as the truth. And the LCL smelling like blood is probably the nicer thing about piloting.

Batgirl plans a lot, so she probably knows the history of a lot of the people at her school. Has she seen the connection of none of them having living mothers yet? And now that the idea that his mother may have been murdered has been planted in his head (although I don't think Mayumi quite intended that when she was feeling out what he might think of her own desire to avenge her parents), will that go anywhere? I mean, he was actually there when she died... he knows how monstrous Eva can be... and really, it doesn't take much imagination to think of how many ways one could "accidentally" make such an experimental procedure go horribly, horribly wrong. I certainly don't think he'd take on any sort of quest for vengeance himself-his personality definitely doesn't fit it, and he has no way to come across the information-but the idea is sitting in his head now.

I wonder what they offered to recruit Toji as a pilot? Toji didn't really think much of piloting, but accepted because they'd pay for his sister's treatment. That isn't really on the table now.

Things will really be kicking off in the upcoming chapters, huh? Regardless of whether Toji lives or dies in Bardiel's attack, if Gendo activates the Dummy Plug system to make Shinji fight he is going to totally freak out. He does have reason not to just leave Tokyo-3, and even to not quit piloting... but still, things won't be good. To say nothing of the pure havoc Zeruel will bring. I hope none of Batgirl's enemies try to get her to fight while he's showing up. It won't end well. (Although it wouldn't be nearly as bad as if someone challenged her during Arael's appearance. Hallelujah mind-rape had a pretty wide area of effect. I only someone the Joker (not the only person from Batman's rogues gallery, just flat out the only person (without psychic powers)) would possibly be capable of acting during that, much less being able to return to a semblance of normal behavior afterwards.)

And if Shinji/Unit-01 snaps and eats Zeruel... and Mayumi sees it... well, I don't think highly of how well she'll be able to handle that. Especially with the following month of him being a mush of LCL. I don't even anyone stupid enough to commit a crime during that month. Batgirl hasn't been as brutal as Batman has occasionally been willing to be... but people can be pushed too far.

And, in closing, may I just say that the way you took Bane down was absolutely incredible? After building him up so much and letting us see his confidence, power, and borderline invincibility, getting to watching him be reduced to the same level of fear as the common street thug was *wonderfully* satisfying.

And you finally used THE Batman line. Pure happiness.

"But it WAS just…something I did because I was feeling sad," Mayumi said.
Wasn't! WASN'T!
Blood Type Black detected! It's a Typo!
Fortunately the context makes it clear, but... she's technically saying that she actually *was* just using him. O-O

But wow. Can't imagine what it must feel like to see your boyfriend do... *that*. It always stood out to me as one of the more horrifying scenes of the anime. Nothing on the level of Asuka's death, Arael's mind rape, or the disembowling and devouring of Zeruel, but...
You know, I wonder if she realizes how deeply some of his issues run? One of the theories about Unit 01's berserking that I've always liked is that it's Shinji's repressed anger running rampant (powered by dear old mum, of course). There are some out there that have better in-universe support, but I always liked this one.

Honestly, I'm impressed at how well she manages to go through school when she's recovering from a knife wound. Hiding that can't be easy. I wonder if Mayumi knows that synchronizing with the Eva means that the pilot can feel whatever the Eva feels, like... say... having a spike driven through one's head, being impaled by energy tentacles, being burned alive, being nearly bitten in half by a shark-thing, or having the force of an asteroid land on your arms (I loved Rebuild's depict of Sahaquiel, btw. I don't mind that your stories follow the Evangelion plotline, but redoing Ramiel, Sahaquiel, or Zeruel in the Rebuild style would be, in the most polite of terminology, bitchin'). He may not have experienced as much combat or actual damage as her, but he certainly isn't a stranger to pain. Or things like getting stabbed. He could probably sympathize with that.

Hi mike just wondering if your alright, you haven't but anything up since november and I was worried

Isn't creating an artificial Angel exactly what NERV did? I mean I can understand if having a competitor to make the one weapon that could fight Angels would make SEELE nervous. Actually, now that I think about it, could the project have been a threat to NERV? In this chapter you said it was the combined effort of the military (I assume you mean Japanese) and Yamagushi. Even with breakthroughs I don't see how they could have the budget to build more that 2 or 3 at best. Further more I would think the UN, at SEELE's secret behest, would try to get Chained Wing's would come under NERV's authority, to prevent any single nation from gaining a virtually unstoppable weapon.

Cheap tactic or not, Batgirl beautifully played Bane's own tactics against him, wearing him down with the police, classic shadow strikes, and intimidation. Forcing him into a confrontation where she broke him before he broke her. Masterfully done. I had chills just as much as Bane did, I'm sure.

And now we finally have some backstory on Chained Wings and the idea that artificial Angels could be manufactured. Given the lack of other Superwomen in this story, this prototype could give Batgirl some necessary firepower to join in the last battle. Alternately, could be even worse trouble for her. Alternate origin for another of the Rogues Gallery, maybe?

Looks Lady Shiva or Cheshire are about to join the fray, and possibly more. Trained assassins keep coming after Mayumi like a flock of bats.

I was wondering when/if that plot point would show up...

Gotta start with the bad today so I can move onto the good.

The Bad: I feel like the Chained Wings reveal was a little underwhelming, somehow it felt like it was delivered in a ho-hum sort of way. It wasn't bad per say but I guess I was expecting something more after all the build-up through the Bane section and before.

The Good: My first thought after reading this was that this would be a Spirit tie-in of some kind, but then I remembered this was a DC story. Still, looking forward to where you take this. The scene between Shinji and Mayumi was sweet and I enjoyed it a lot.

The Other: Hooray for your stock Unit-04 disappears scene! :D

So the truth comes out that the government almost had something pretty close to EVAs in development before SEELE and NERV took it down. Looks like it'll just throw gas on the fire in regards to her vengeance quest. Plus the missing prototype is a disturbing wrinkle in the mystery. Interesting to see how this goes along with her involvement with Shinji. Until next time.