Disclaimer: all trademarked characters and items are owned by there respective companies.

There are stories of great people. People whom with their own hands shaped the world it is today. Men like Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr., and Leonardo Da Vinci and women like Marie Curie and Joan of Arc are a few who, through their actions, have forever cemented their place in history. These people's lives were forever linked together, whether it is in similar fields or by drawing inspiration from one another. In some cases these memorable individuals are linked in ways that are not known or could not be comprehended. In the case of Marie Curie and Joan of Arc as well as Cleopatra, the last queen of Egypt, and Florence Nightingale, the first nurse of the Crimean war, it was a unique item. An item long sought out by the greed of men but only bestowed upon the women whose fate it forever scars.

This is the Witchblade.

Some call it a righteous sword blessed by god. Others call it the severed hand of the devil himself. No one knows for sure what it is. Regardless of what people call it, it has passed through the ages, seeking out its next bearer while they act as the balance between order and chaos.

But this story is not about the Witchblade. Not entirely, anyway.

It was late in the afternoon in Tokyo-3. Schools had just let out and the students made their way for home. One student, however, did not. Kensuke Aida was this student. If there was one thing he loved, it was military weapons. His admiration for the hardware had labeled him an Otaku by his classmates Personally, he preferred arms aficionado. Anyway, the young lad had studied the images and names of nearly every kind of weapon known to man. But there was one that he had longed to sit in, one that he was glad he lived in this city, NERV's Evangelions.

Ever since their first appearance, Kensuke searched long and hard to learn as much as he could about them. Sadly, all related info was classified so the only likely way to know more was to become a pilot. A ray of hope came to him in the shape of a new student by the name of Shinji Ikari. Their first meeting along with his old time friend, Toji, didn't turn out so well. The jock's sister was greatly injured in the first angel attack, and he was the only one to visit her since his father and grandfather was so busy at the lab. Naturally he turned his aggression on the pilot. Their luck continued when another angel appeared and Kensuke wanted to watch this battle with his own eyes. This came back to bite him in the ass when he and Toji were almost crushed by the Eva. They were saved when they were let into the cockpit and got a front row seat to this battle. Afterwards, He, Toji and Shinji reconciled and became friends. He kept tabs on all the Eva's battles and would now and again ask if they needed any new pilots.

However, the answer was always no and besides, there has been a steady decline in the Eva's popularity. Why? The rise of the city's superwomen. He, like many of his classmates, had become enamored with new sensation. He wondered who they really wore and how did they get their powers and such. The fact they were all total babes was an added bonus. He may have a new interest in the city's new protectors but war machines will always be his first love.

The youth's thoughts were broken when he came to stop in front of small building. Judging from the numerous vintage items, it had to be an antique store. Normally, those of his generation wouldn't bother with a place like this, but this time was different. He had a strange feeling about this place. It felt as if something inside was calling to him. Despite his strong desire not to, he entered the shop. Across the room, at the cashier desk sat an elderly man with his chin propped up with his left hand while stared bored at a computer screen, no doubt this was the owner. The sound of the bells attached to the door drew the old man's attention to the door.

"Welcome to my humble shop. Can I help you find anything?"

"I was wondering if you had any antique guns."

The shopkeeper scoffed.

"Bah guns, shmuns. If you want a really impressive weapon, stick with an old fashioned sword. Come on, I'll show you some of my best ones."

The shop keep walked out from behind the counter. Kensuke's eyes darted to the man's right arm. Arm, actually, would not be the appropriate word. From the elbow, there were various scars that ran up into the sleeve of his shirt; everything below the elbow was missing. The store clerk noticed the young man seemed distracted.

"What's the matter?"

He glanced to what was left of his right arm.

"What, that? Lost that quite some time ago."

"How did it happen?"

"That is a story for another day."

The elderly shopkeeper watched Kensuke browse through his antiques, feeling a bit of mirth as the youth eyed the old swords and ancient battle armor from across the world with awe. He felt an odd yet familiar tingle in his old bones and turned his gaze to the backroom or to be more precise, a certain box in the backroom. It was roughly two and a half feet long made of polished wood. It was a pretty plain box; there were no intricate designs on the outside lid or base. There were no jewels or such, just a simple iron lock. The lock though seemed to have a yellow light seeping out of the keyhole. It flickered and flashed with such vigor that one would think something was alive in there.

"Are you angry at me, again?" he asked in an annoyed tone.

The flashing and flickering continued as if it were speaking to him. The old man turned back to the bespectacled boy then back to the box.

"No… it's him you want, isn't it?"

The light gave off one last long shine, silently answering the man. He returned his gaze to the young man in his store who, at the time, was eyeing a 17th century rapier.

"You seem to really like weapons, my boy."

"Yeah, my classmates say it's a bad habit of mine," Kensuke chuckled uneasily.

"What's your name, kid?"

"Kensuke Aida"

" Well, Aida-san, I think I have something you might like,"

The old man walked into the back room while Kensuke approached the counter. The shop-keep emerged from the back with a box under his arm. The old man then laid the box on the counter and ran his hand over the lid.

"Within this box is perhaps my greatest acquisition, a weapon of biblical proportions. Now, this is no old gun, mind you. There are no old tales of heroic warriors and their mighty firearms."

The bespectacled boy leaned forward in anticipation.

"This is a world famous blade. This is the great Excalibur, the legendary sword of King Arthur himself."

"But I thought that all the old tales of King Arthur were just stories."

The old man smirked at the youth's statement.

"I thought that, too. But then I found this and I was proven wrong."

"Can I see it?"

"… No."

"No?"

"No, because this particular item is not up for sale."

"I don't want to buy it, I just wanna see it."

A gleam twinkled in the old shopkeeper's eye.

"Are sure you don't want it?"

"Huh?"

"Normally, I wouldn't even dream of selling this piece of art. However, since you walked into my store, I've had a gut feeling about you. Something tells me that this blade wishes to be with you."

"The blade wishes to be with me?"

"Sure, weapons these days are just large hunks of metal. But the ones of the old days were said to have souls of their own. And this one wishes for a new wielder."

Kensuke mulled over the man's story. A part of him screamed he was being conned and shouldn't fall for it. Another part said to take the chance.

"How much is it?"

"How much you got?"

Kensuke dug into his wallet and pulled out the remainder of his allowance. He counted the bills carefully then held them up.

"500 yen?"

"Sold"

The old man snatched the bills from the boy's hand and pushed the box forward. The bespectacled youth then tried to open the lid, it didn't move.

"The box is locked. You're gonna need this."

The old man held up a small key. Kensuke reached for it but the old man pulled his hand back, complete seriousness leaked from his eyes.

"Know this, sonny, if I hand this key over to you then the transaction will be final. Once that happens, I cannot take it back, Excalibur will be yours. This is your last chance to back out, are you sure you want it?"

The bespectacled boy stared at the shopkeeper in confusion but nodded his head anyway. The old man gently handed the key over, of which the young boy moved to use. He was stopped when the old man slapped the top of box.

"Not here."

Again, the boy was baffled by the shop keep's actions but shrugged and walked out the door. The old man's eyes followed the boy as walked out and disappear from the window's view.

"Good luck, Kensuke Aida. You're going to need it, especially with that thing."

Several shady individuals stood in a room illuminated by a single overhead lamp. In the center was a round wooden table with various file folders piled up on top of a map. One of the men stepped forward in to the light.

"Everyone here?"

There were several grunts of approval from all those around. One voice spoke out.

"Why did you call us all together?"

The apparent leader snarled as he slapped a black and white picture on the table before him.

"Cobblepot has been muscling in on our turf lately. It's high time we showed that gaijin freak what happens when you mess with us."

Another of the audience made himself known.

"The guy's got a lot of guns and muscle. Even if we got everyone together, we wouldn't stand a chance. How do you expect to take him on?"

"I'll show you."

He nodded to one of the men up top. Said man then turned on a projector, showing an image of large building with no windows.

"While he was out, one of our old buds, Usui, found a storage warehouse that was owned by Hokkaido Heavy Industries about 6 miles outside the city. There's not much security around the place save a few cameras. They probably forgot about the place before the company went under. Anyway, our old buddy Usui sneaked in and took a look around. What he found was some experimental weapons that were scrapped for either being too expensive to mass-produce or they were faulty. Those little toys sounded very tempting but this little number caught my eye."

The image changed again, this time showing a trio of large tank-like machines. Each bore a large barrel on the large turret and rested on four treads.

"Gentleman, say hello to the AAST-651."

"AAST?"

"Autonomous Assault Spider Tank. They're equipped with a 30mm bunker busting cannon, a pair of turret-mounted 9mm miniguns and can move on any terrain. These three were experimental robot tanks that got their plug pulled due to lack of funding 10 years ago. If these babies are still operational, we're gonna crush anything that Cobblepot throws at us."

"That is assuming they're still operational and if they even work right."

"Either way, there's enough firepower in that place to splatter that gaijin and his gang all over this country."

"When do we move?"

"Tonight. Set your watches for 11:00. We'll meet up here," he pointed to the 'x' on the map.

Kensuke sat in his room with his new purchase in front of him. His father was off at the base again, this way Kensuke wouldn't need to worry about him popping in unexpectedly. He slowly inserted the key and rotated. There was definite click, signaling the lock was now open. He placed both hands on the lid and took a deep breath, excitement was building in his entire being.

'I know I can't take it back after this. But then again, it was 500 yen. So it wasn't really that expensive '

He shut his eyes and quickly opened the box. A smile graced his lips as he could barely contain his thrill. That thrill and grin left him when he opened his eyes.

Inside was a wicked looking and ornate right-handed gauntlet. It appeared to be made of twisted bone shards that crisscrossed at different points. The areas for the fingers were open and had loops for the digits to slide in to; ending off in claws, all connected to the main body on segmented shards. On the back of the hand area was a yellow jewel that, to Kensuke, was more like an eye that was looking at him.

He picked it up and studied it with a skeptic eye.

"This is Excalibur? I thought it was a sword not a freaky glove. I knew was getting conned."

After he looked at it from all angles, he slipped in on for size. He flexed his fingers a bit to see if it might be too big. Fortunately, it fit flawlessly. Figuring he had seen enough of his newest purchase, the bespectacled boy pulled on the armored glove to free his hand, however, to his surprise, the gauntlet didn't budge. He tugged on it for a bit more and found that it didn't want to give.

"What the hell? Let go!"

The mysterious gauntlet only responded by tightening its grip on his trapped arm. The jewel began to shin a bright yellow as the armor began to travel up the boy's arm. Pain then lanced through his arm. It felt like some kind of tentacles was digging into him. He dropped to the floor clutching his arm in agony, his glasses fell from his face and rolled off to the side. There was one last shot of intense pain before his mind slipped out of consciousness. His eyes shot open, only instead of his usual brown eyes, they were an eerie gold.

All was quiet in the city. The clock had struck midnight; the lights were dimming, and the sidewalks were void of life. The streets were not so barren. A convoy of six cars and three tanks slowly marched down into the center of the city, making a b-line for the greasy end of slums. Inside one of the cars, the boss was smoking a cigar to his seemingly flawless victory. He turned towards one of the boys in the car, holding a laptop.

"How goes everything?"

"Good, the AASTs are running smoothly. No problems whatsoever."

The boss chuckled eagerly at this. He couldn't wait to see Cobblepot's ugly face when they run down his little bar and blow it sky high. His musings were cut short when the car came to a jerking halt. The boss reached for his radio.

"Why'd you stop?"

"There's someone standing in the road!"

"Is it one of the superwomen?"

"No, it's not one of them. I don't know who or what it is."

The boss pulled out his weapon and stepped out of the car. Many of the men were staring at something at the front. He quickly navigated through the mob until reached the front, what he saw was what many would call weird; even if they lived in this city.

It was a young man clad in bizarre black body armor. He had long crimson hair that was wild and coarse, reaching down to his thighs. The armor covered most of his body except for the front of the torso, showing off his toned abs and chest. The armor contoured and segmented to the muscles of the body, from the bottom, the feet had five clawed 'toes.' The armor continued up the legs and completely covered the pelvis before sweeping backward to the sides and back. It covered the entire back and peaked over the shoulders. The right arm was the most unique of the entire armor. Each of the fingertips ended with a little blade. On the back of the hand was a yellow jewel that gave a haunting glow. The greatest feature was a blade on the forearm that ran from the elbow all the way up to the wrist where it jutted outwards into a point. The face was adorned by tattoo-like red tribal marking. His eyes were odd, the sclera was pitch black while the iris glowed a golden color. The one thing that was starting to spook the hijackers was the kid's smile. It wasn't a happy one or a smug one. It was cold, sadistic and silently promised unspeakable pain.

The blade on the forearm suddenly extended to a four feet long sword. The armor-clad boy raised the blade until it was level with his mouth. The armor-clad redhead licked the blade as he eyed the individual before him with a vicious and hungry gaze. The tanks suddenly aimed their cannons at the boy who's smile only widened as he casually walked forward. The leader turned to the controller.

"What's going on?"

"The tanks have marked the kid as an A-level threat."

"What for? This kid's out of his gourd."

The two were drawn back to the strange youth when the heard a sound. It was the tip of the boy's blade being scraped across the pavement. The redhead continued forward, all the while his grin grew more and more predatory.

"Let's play"

A/N: Yes, I'm doing a "Supermen of Eva" series. I wanted to have the series title to not sound similar to Mike313's or orionpax09's but couldn't think of anything. Anyway tell me what you think.