Eva-01 vs White Tigerzord

Description

Neon Genesis Evangelion vs Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. Two pilots forced into a conflict to save the world, two powerful sentient 90's mecha, and only one can be crowned the winner. Which mecha will survive this retro showdown, the Evangelion or the Thunderzord?

Interlude

MegaSonic: What is it that truly makes someone a hero? Is it making the choice to risk your life for the safety of others, facing down all the odds to protect your friends regardless of your own fears or responsibility thrust upon you? Or is it possessing a giant badass fighting robot that can cut down skyscraper sized monsters?

Sharaku: Both. It’s definitely both.

MegaSonic: Eva-01, the first Evangelion piloted by Shinji Ikari.

Sharaku: The White Tigerzord, the sixth Thunderzord piloted by Tommy Oliver.

MegaSonic: As both of these characters are known for having some form of additional help in battle, it’s important to clarify that for this battle, there will be no additional help of any kind. That means no Asuka and Rei, no other Power Rangers, no Gendo Ikari, and no Zordon.

Sharaku: That means they’re both going to have to fly solo for this titanic clash of east meets west. He’s MegaSonicZX and I’m Sharaku Jr.

MegaSonicZX: And it’s our job to analyze their weapons, armor, and skills to find out who would win a Death Battle!

Eva-01

Sharaku: It’s the year 2015. Several years ago, the world suffered an incredible cataclysm called Second Impact, melting most of Antarctica and flooding much of the planet. Tokyo has been split up into three different subdivisions as technology progressed further along. Then… on an unassuming day… the Angels, aliens from the depths of space, began to attack.

MegaSonic: Because of course they picked Japan. Why is it always Japan? You'd think they’d have enough with Godzilla…

Sharaku: The organization simply known as NERV had planned for this day, as it was written in the ancient Dead Sea Scrolls, and created the Evangelion Units, powerful mechanical marvels standing over 200 feet tall. They allowed humans to control them through the Sync Ratio, a system where the more in-sync one gets with the Unit, the more powerful they become. But as a drawback, they also become more and more vulnerable to the Pilot inside.

MegaSonic: Clearly, someone there was a fan of MechaGodzilla. And who else were picked to pilot these giant half-sentient mecha and get tasked with saving humanity from Space Angels? …teenagers. Fourteen year olds, to be precise, because apparently they’re the optimal age for syncing with the Evangelions.

Sharaku: That, and the Entry Plugs made to fit them were too small for normal adults. Not gonna lie, chief, that just sounds like an easy engineering fix instead of a crucial aspect of your big mechs. But no! You just have to let the children pilot incredibly unnatural bio-organic monsters!

MegaSonic: And naturally, NERV’s Commander Gendo Ikari chose not just any child to pilot the bio-organic monster while being crushed under the metaphorical weight of the world…no, he chose his own child, Shinji Ikari.

Sharaku: Shinji Ikari did not have the exact ideal childhood. His mother died in a… mysterious accident, to keep it brief, and his father left him all alone at a train station for a tutor he hired to pick Shinji up and keep him around indefinitely. So when Shinji was called into Tokyo-3 by his dad, he wasn’t really sure what to think. Why now? Why him of all people?

MegaSonic: Not to make up for not coming back with the milk, that’s for sure. It was to make Shinji the pilot of an Evangelion. And not just any Evangelion, but the strongest of them all, the Evangelion Unit-01 TEST TYPE! But you can just call it Eva-01 for short. And let me tell you, this thing is a beast! Weighing in at 62,000 metric tons and standing almost 200 feet tall, this thing could level a skyscraper by accident. Or lift Boomstick’s ex-wife.

Sharaku: Who the fuck is that?

MegaSonic: The better question is…what is a better question, shit?

Sharaku: Anyways, uhh, yeah, the Evangelion Unit is a tough beast. I say “beast” because unlike typical 80’s or 90’s mechas, the Evas aren’t entirely made of machines. They’re cyborgs, taken to the extreme. Now, I’m sure you’re wondering. “What in god’s name is big enough to make clones out of to fit a cyborg shell over?” Well, other Angels, of course! Specifically, they’re clones of the first ever Angel known as Adam, who came to Earth billions of years ago.

MegaSonic: Adam? EVE-angelion? Angels? I’m sensing a certain source of inspiration.

Sharaku: Funny story about that. The directors didn’t put those in to make any sort of religious allegory. They put it in because Christianity was uncommon in Japan and they thought the imagery just looked really cool. Also, Hideaki Anno loved referencing Ultraman. So uh, yeah, take that, 8 hour long video essays on why Shinji is Jesus.

MegaSonic: …Aye, fair enough. Anyways, once the Eva actually gets into battle with these space angels, it certainly has plenty of options for taking them down. And I’m not just talking a good ol’ one two punch, I’m talking a giant building sized knife that works like Raiden’s High Frequency Blade, vibrating at intense frequencies to boost cutting power. But why use a knife when you got a goddamn gun! The Eva’s arsenal is fully loaded with all sorts of firearms. There’s the basic Handgun, the Pallet Rifle, and the EM-226 Evangelion Portable Revolving Multi-Barrel Gatling Gun, which goes boom…and then there’s no more anything for the next 50 miles. Oh, and fun fact, the ammunition for the Evangelion’s firearms contain uranium, because why not?

Sharaku: Evangelions are also capable of projecting A.T. Fields, which are the light of the soul of the pilot and the Unit itself. They’re massive defensive octagonal force fields which can appear directly in front of or behind the Unit. They can defend against physical attacks, projectiles and can even cause their own miniature shockwaves of energy. Though it shouldn’t be understated that many creatures have pierced them before, and anything with a force that can overpower the A.T. Field will be able to break through it.

MegaSonic: So I know what you're thinking? “It’s got soul powers and firearms? The Eva sounds unstoppable!” And…well, you're half right. There’s no beating around the bush, these things have atrocious battery life. You thought the Sega Game Gear had a shitty battery life? An Eva can’t even last five minutes without being directly connected to a power source via an umbilical cord…yeah, okay, I just said that. Anyways, the umbilical cords are the Eva’s main source of power, and while they have backup batteries for if the cords are severed, they only last the aforementioned five mentions.

Sharaku: However… Evangelions have a very dark secret hidden beneath. See, when something’s cloned in Evangelion, it doesn’t automatically come with the mind of the being it was cloned from. As such, a soul needs to be transplanted into each Evangelion. And Shinji’s Evangelion… just so happens to contain the soul of Yui Ikari, his mom. And when his mom gets pissed, oh man, it gets PISSED.

MegaSonic: She ain’t your typical Reddit Karen folks. When Yui takes over the Eva, shit gets real and bodies start dropping! Also known as the Eva’s berserk state, not only does the Eva unit lose most of its physical limitations and just start rushing in blind, throwing strategy to the wind, it also gains a ridonculous healing factor that can regenerate from almost anything.

Sharaku: Well, almost anything is a stretch, but it can regenerate broken limbs or even regrow entire ones within a matter of moments. And since it devoured an Angel when it went nuts that one time, when the Evangelion goes Berserk, the Super Solenoid or S2 Engine kickstarts, meaning those battery life problems just went away. Good for the environment!

MegaSonic: Why…why only when it goes Berserk? What, does Yui not trust Shinji with the keys to unlimited batteries? Because I think the practicality of not having to worry about battery limitations is kind of important when he’s fighting for all of humanity.

Sharaku: …Y’know, it was rather unclear. Just like a lot of things in this series. But there’s a few more things to discuss. First, the legendary Lance of Longinus, a towering red spear that was used to seal away Lilith, another powerful Angel. While Shinji himself has never actually used it himself, it was actively drawn to him during the events of The End of Evangelion, and people like Rei have used it perfectly fine in the past before, so it’s no stretch to say he’d be able to wield it in some regards. The Lance is insanely powerful, able to split clouds and pierce through A.T. Fields like nobody’s business. Hell, one time it killed an entire Angel in a single shot with a killer throw from Rei.

MegaSonic: Woah, that’s pretty cool. But, when all else fails, he unlocks the Evangelion Unit’s true power, even beyond that of the Berserk state. Commonly called the “God Evangelion”, the Evangelion sprouts massive wings of light and its power increases dramatically, able to cause storms just by existing alone. The Eva’s so powerful at this point that it very well could have destroyed the Earth. Thankfully, the God Form nullifies the effects of the Berserk State, meaning Yui can’t go ham with god-like power. It’s all in Shinji’s. Shinji’s…dubiously reliable hands…Sharaku I don’t mean to shit on your favorite anime protagonist but are we sure Shinji should be the one with this kind of power? He’s got some…issues.

Sharaku: Nah, don’t worry, he’s definitely got some. I’m sure not having a dad around and having repressed memories of your mom’s demise rattling around in your brain for years on end didn’t help the situation, but Shinji’s stability only grew worse as the series continued. During which, let’s be fair, he accomplished some quite impressive showings of power. For one, he tanked a mountain-sized blast from an Angel self-destructing right in his face. And since he can fight against the beings that can harm him to begin with, he should scale in AP as well.

MegaSonic: Plus, the thing can casually run at mach speeds. Hell, remember the Lance of Longinus? Of course you do, we talked about it two minutes ago. That thing flew from the moon to the earth in 7 seconds. In order for it to do that, it would’ve had to have been moving at almost 18% the speed of light, and Shinji was able to react to the Lance moving that fast! Oh, and there’s also the time when the Lance fused with the Eva to become the Tree of Life. Ya know…that thing…that uh…Sharaku what the fuck happened with the Tree of Life again?

Sharaku: Well uh, basically the Tree of Life was one of the things used to start off Third Impact. Basically, SEELE and NERV were conspiring to merge every human soul into one collective consciousness, where everyone would live out their own eternal paradise. Doesn’t sound too bad on the surface, but it’s kinda implied that their consciousnesses wouldn’t be able to process the dreamscape to begin with, and the fact that it’s done by literally wrenching the souls out of the bodies of others and turning them into a strange orange liquid… yeah, not good. So, what happens when you give a mentally unstable Shinji Ikari the choice to pull the plug on humankind? Especially after he: nearly got killed several times by monsters beyond his comprehension, was neglected by his father for a fourteen year old clone of his mother, sent into a void with little means of escape, partially seared from the inside of a volcano, liquidized and merged inside the Evangelion’s unstable consciousness, aaaaaand forced to kill his new friend because surprise, they too were an Angel. Yeah, uh… he kinda just said “Fuck it! Everything sucks!” and everyone on Earth became the aforementioned collective consciousness.

MegaSonic: …and then, he kind of came to a realization. That despite being used as a tool by his neglectful, and let’s be honest deadbeat, dad…that he still had value as a person. That he still mattered to others, and he has a will to live. Shinji came to accept that the world may be harsh, but that doesn’t mean he should run away, but to accept the pain that comes with the real happiness he feels with others. And so, he rejected the Tree of Life, Individual Existence, the Human Instrumentality Project. He chose to move forwards towards tomorrow.

Sharaku: He escaped by killing Rei-Lilith, a massive being who was powerful enough to cover a massive portion of the planet. Even just spreading her wings released an enormous amount of kinetic energy, enough to completely eradicate a small planet. But Shinji knew he had made wrong decisions, and even though he had completely messed up things for everyone else, they deserved the right to choose to come back from their eternal paradises. And so Shinji ended up on a red-stained beach, alongside his fellow Evangelion Pilot, Asuka. While it may seem bleak, Shinji knew humanity had an unparalleled force of will. If someone like him could come back, there’s no doubt that humans could rise once more and reclaim the Earth.

Shinji Ikari: “I mustn't run away!”

White Tigerzord

MegaSonic: 10 Thousand Years ago, the vile witch Rita Repulsa was at war with the galactic sage Zordon to determine the fate of good and evil in the galaxy. In a last ditch effort, Zordon sealed Rita away in a space dumpster, yes I’m being serious, but not before she trapped him in a Time Warp. Ten Thousand years later, Rits escaped, and waged war on earth with the forces of her Monsters against Zordon’s team of heroes, the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers.

Sharaku: Rita Repulsa and the Rangers fought it out for a good while, and every time, the Rangers would emerge victorious against Rita’s near endless supply of gigantic monsters. Until, Rita realized that if she wanted to beat the Power Rangers and Zordon for good, she needed an evil Ranger of her own. Enter: Tommy Oliver.

MegaSonic: Tommy Oliver was an orphan for most of his early life before being adopted by the Oliver family, but was also a talented martial artist capable of matching the Red Ranger, Jason Lee Scott. So, Rita brainwashed Tommy into the Evil Green Ranger, using him as her tool to destroy the Power Rangers. Luckily, Jason destroyed the completely unrelated Sword of Darkness, reversing the spell and turning the Green Ranger into a force for good. Unfortunately, the Green Ranger powers were not meant to last. Using an evil Green Candle, yes I’m being serious, Rita was able to strip away the Green Ranger’s powers, effectively removing him from the team. Despite a brief return thanks to energy from Zordon, the Green Ranger soon met his end due to the arrival of Lord Zedd.

Sharaku: Lord Zedd, Rita’s own master, had his sights set on gaining Tommy’s Ranger abilities for himself. After Zedd sent a bunch of bad dreams to Tommy like some scammer sending me spam emails, Zedd was eventually able to drain what was left of Tommy’s power for himself with the Green Crystal, effectively ending the Green Ranger’s existence.

MegaSonic: However, that was not the end of Tommy Oliver. After going through a trial to see if he was worthy and meeting a talking floating sword, Tommy emerged with new resolve and new power. He had become...the White Ranger. And just in the nick of time too, because Zedd had a monster on the prowl that was too much for even the Thunder Megazord, and so Tommy stepped up to the place with his new Zord, the White Tigerzord.

Sharaku: The White Tigerzord is powered by Tommy’s own White Light of Goodness. But, eh, we all know it’s powered by the same thing that powers every Zord in the series. The Morphin Grid, an incredibly wide-spanning force of energy that the Rangers draw from to access their special abilities.

MegaSonic: It’s The Force, but instead of Jedi Powers, you get spandex. And speaking of, the White Tigerzord is certainly a beast when Tommy takes the wheel. Its tiger form may be speedy and nimble, but everyone really knows it for its warrior form, standing 152 feet tall and weighing 136 metric tons, the Tigerzord is a fearsome Zord to face in battle. But should Tommy ever not be able to pilot the Tigerzord, his sentient sword Saba can. Aside from the power of being alive, Saba can fly, shoot lasers, and speak…bird, which we dare not show proof of, else you’ll probably die of stupidity.

Sharaku: While they can sometimes butt heads, they make an excellent team with each other. It helps that Tommy can control the Tigerzord through his own movements, which is even further enhanced by the fact that Tommy’s a damn good martial artist, even without stuff like the Morphin Grid backing him up. Safe to say even just bare-handed, the Tigerzord can throw down just as good as any other big mecha.

MegaSonic: But when the good old' fisticuffs aren’t enough, the Tigerzord’s arsenal is more than packing. It wields a giant golden sword made from its tail that can even be lit on fire, shoot stun foes with Sonic Boom, boost its speed with hyper speed, and shoot the horribly localized “Thunderbolts”, which anyone with half a brain can tell are CLEARLY FIREBALLS! The Tigerzord even makes the Japanese Kanji for fire when shooting them, how did they mess that up!? What, are Fireballs too dangerous to show kids in a show where monsters regularly explode, Hiam Saban!?

Sharaku: You think that’s bad? When Saban briefly took over Dragon Ball Z’s dubbing that one obscure time, the Kamehameha was called the Kaio-Ken. No fuckin’ joke, look that up. Evidently they needed to take more Japanese lessons for a company that imported shows from… well, Japan.

MegaSonic: Saban’s horrible localisation practices aside, the Tigerzord can’t always cut it on its own. In these instances, Adam, Kimberly, Billy, and Aisha summon the Lion, Phoenix, Unicorn, and Griffith Thunderzords to aid Tommy. However, while Tommy’s friends won’t be able to assist him today, there have been instances where Ranger’s have called on Zord’s on their own to form a Megazord, Tommy tending to be a repeat offender of this in some way.

Sharaku: Guess he’s just that fuckin’ awesome!

MegaSonic: And when the five Zords come together, they form the Mega Tigerzord. Standing at 207 feet and weighing 336 tons, the Mega Tigerzord is a sheer goliath of a Zord.

Sharaku: In the Mega Tigerzord, all of Tommy’s capabilities are boosted massively, as you normally would when fusing with several other animals. For example, it’s got multiple energy fields and blasts, and oh, you know, it just fires an entire fucking Zord at you for its finishing move.

MegaSonic: It even survived having that own finishing move deflected back at it, and then just fell over looking more surprised than actually hurt. Obviously, the Mega Tigerzord has never lost a match. However, for all the Tigerzord’s strengths, it doesn’t have many overt showings of power. Thankfully, we know the Tigerzord should be capable of everything Tommy can do as the White Ranger, and thus analyzing Tommy’s showings of strength and speed can let us solidly lock the Tigerzord’s stats.

Sharaku: With that said, here’s the Ranger’s flying through space to another planet! Where are they going? Oh, only the galaxy furthest away from the Earth’s position!

MegaSonic: In order to make such a trip in the time frame shown within the episode, which is fairly small, the Rangers would’ve had to have been moving over 21 TRILLION times faster than light. The Thunderzords making the same trip in seconds helps solidify this scaling.

Sharaku: As if he wasn’t just absurdly fast, Tommy’s helped fight alongside the Dino Charge Power Rangers, who took on the villain Sledge, whose power is comparable to his boss Lord Arcanon. Said villain destroyed an enormous part of a planet called Sentai 6 (nice one, guys), which comes out to around 181 yottatons of TNT. Enough to wipe away a large planet from the face of the cosmos. Funny how that works.

MegaSonic: And since the Tigerzord mimics Tommy’s movements and actions in real time, it must be capable of these feats as well, and is likely even stronger due to being, well, a giant robot. The Tigerzord has taken on a whole army of Monsters, taken on Zedd’s number one and two minions Goldar and Scorpina, and even managed to overpower the Thunder Megazord in a fight. However, it does have one fatal flaw: If its connection to the Morphing Grid, or Tommy himself, is cut or hampered, the Tigerzord’s power becomes severely limited, like the time when Tommy was cloned, which forcefully drained away most of Tommy’s strength, weakening the Tigerzord as a result.

Sharaku: And due to the fact that the Tigerzord ain’t exactly the slimmest Zord around, it often gets hit a lot during its fights. Fun fact, the sparks flying off the Rangers or the Zords whenever they get hit is, in reality, the Morphin Grid taking attacks for them. Too much will actually overload many of the systems in the Zords, forcing a shutdown.

MegaSonic: This eventually led to the Tigerzord’s demise, as it was slain by Rito Revolto, Rita’s brother.

Sharaku: Why does he have a different last name??

MegaSonic: Shhhhush, shut up, it’s not supposed to make sense. But while the Tigerzord’s time has come and gone, its power lives on through Tommy Oliver, who will continue to fight for ages to come. Perhaps one day, the Tigerzord may somehow rise again.

Tommy Oliver: “I need Tigerzord power, now!”

Pre-Fight

Sharaku: Alright the combatants are set, let’s end this debate once and for all.

MegaSonic: It’s time for a GIANT MECHA DEATH BATTLE!!!!

DEATH BATTLE!

Somewhere in Tokyo 3

Dark gray clouds loom over a partially wrecked large city, covered in a gray hue. Flames cover much of it, the populace having been evacuated several hours earlier in preparation. An Angel, a lifeform unknown to the majority of humanity that had come from the depths of space was trying to reach a certain underground location and trigger a cataclysmic event that would wipe out humanity. Said Angel, however, was dead, its body burning in a large crater large enough to swallow a city block. Killed in a struggle between itself and one of humanity’s only viable options against the end of the world.

The Evangelion Pilot, Shinji Ikari, surveyed the wreckage, sitting inside the towering biomechanical Unit-01. He felt quite guilty when his eyes noticed how much had been wiped out. He had meant to cause as little collateral as possible, but things got out of hand. He made concessions where he could, but it didn’t seem enough. The storm overhead had been messing with his communications connection to NERV’s command central. He was on his own, and couldn’t really call for any sort of backup. Thankfully, his internal systems detected that many of the buildings scattered around the city that contained several of the Evangelion Unit’s weapons were intact, in case something else came along.

And then, something came along. A white streak raced overhead, landing down in the middle of the flaming ruins of the city. It was none other than the Mighty Morphin White Ranger, Tommy Oliver.

Tommy: Oh man, it’s just like Zordon said, the city’s in ruins! Those Angels must be in league with Zedd and Rita!

Saba: I think we should get the big guns out, before something catches us by surprise.

Tommy: Right Saba. White Tigerzord, power up!

In a flash of white light, the White Tiger Thunderzord touched down in the city, and Tommy leaped into the air to land on its head. Leaping into the cockpit, the Zord converted from its Tiger form upwards into the more battle-ready Warrior Form.

Tommy: Alright, now where are those creeps?

Saba: Incoming readings, it matches the data of the Angels Zordon has!

The White Tigerzord turned around as the Evangelion stepped into frame, the two massive mecha staring each other down, unsure of the other’s true nature. Within the Tigerzord’s cockpit, however, Tommy remained steadfast and sure of himself.

Tommy: So that’s our monster. Well then, let’s show the Angels the strength of the Power Rangers!

At that same moment, Shinji stared down at the Zord from within the Evangelion’s cockpit.

Shinji: That doesn’t look like any kind of Angel I’ve seen. At the same time, it doesn’t look super friendly, though. It reminds me a lot of that Jet Alone thing. Doesn’t look like I’ll be talking them out of this.

The Tigerzord raised one hand, motioning for the Eva to come at it, while in its other hand it raised the Golden Tiger Sword. Taking the challenge, Shinji thrusted the control sticks forwards, and the Evangelion charged forwards at its new foe.

Pulling his arm back to deliver a powerful strike to the Tigerzord’s chest, the Evangelion burst towards Tommy, causing a sonic boom behind him. Raising both arms to block the tiger face on the Zord’s chest from being hit, Tommy blocked the powerful punch delivered by his purple foe. The hit, while strong, didn’t push the Tigerzord any further back. Tommy motioned the large mech to grab the Evangelion’s arm.

Tommy: This guy can run pretty quick, but let’s see if he can take a good hit!

Immediately, the Tigerzord delivered its own powerful punch to the Evangelion Unit, who was able to react in time and caught it with its forearm. This, however, knocked the Evangelion into a nearby building, shattering all its windows. The Tigerzord dove after him, but Shinji was able to pull himself off the wreckage in time and duck underneath the incoming body blow, causing the Tigerzord to plant its upper body into the building. Taking advantage of his opponent’s temporary blindness, Shinji grabbed the Tigerzord by its leg and tossed it further behind him, using the mech’s own weight against it, crashing into the rest of the building and toppling it completely. Quickly getting up, Shinji jumped back and took notice of some moving rubble. The Tigerzord got up and was generally unfazed, which Shinji had anticipated. He needed to find a way to gain some distance, as while it wasn’t as tall, its arms were certainly bulkier and could pack larger punches. A few too many of those and Shinji wouldn’t be sure how long he could survive. He needed a way to safely deal damage without taking as much.

Tommy: What’s this guy thinking? These Angel guys don’t really talk as much as Zedd’s other goons.

Saba: Stop messing around and start fighting back!

Tommy: Right. Haha, go long! White Tiger Thunderbolt, armed and ready!

The kanji for fire lit up in the Tigerzords month as it locked on to the Evangelion.

Tommy: FIRE!

And the fireball flew outwards, flying straight through the air and blasting into the Evangelion, sending it recoiling backwards into the building behind it. Shinji winced as he jerked the right joystick to get the Eva back on its feet, his eyes quickly scanning the rubble of the building for something that he’d felt them crash into, and found his keen eye paying off as the Evangelion grabbed its Progressive Knife.

Tommy: How about another one! White Tiger Thunderbolt, fire!

As another fireball shoots through the air, Shinji quickly makes his move to react and counterattack.

Shinji: Not this time.

Raising its left hand, the Evangelion activated its A.T. Field, creating a hexagonal orange shield that blocked the fireball and caused it to disperse. As the shield dropped, the Evangelion readied its knife and took off running, getting in the Tigerzord’s face and swinging the knife to clash against the Golden Tiger Zord. However, Tommy was more than ready for Shinji’s attack, taking hold of Saber and swinging the blade.

Tommy: HIYA! ZIC-HIYA!

The result saw sparks fly as the Knife and Sword clashed, but Tommy’s strikes quickly started putting the Evangelion on the back foot and making the offensive approach a struggle for Shinji to maintain as the Tigerzord landed a clean strike across the Evangelion’s chest to send it stumbling backwards a few steps.

Shinji: Ngh! He’s too comfortable up close. I need to put some distance between us.

Leaping backwards, Shinji took note of another building and shoved the Evangelion Unit’s hand through it, grabbing its Pallet Rifle and taking aim at the Tigerzord. And with a squeeze of the trigger, the uranium bullets started flying through the air and causing the Tigerzord to stagger backwards before it began raising its arms to block the bullets.

Saba: Tommy, those bullets contain uranium!

Tommy: Uh-oh! Alright then, Hyper Speed!

The Tigerzord roared as it suddenly dashed forwards, should-slamming the Evangelion through an apartment complex to disarm it of the Pallet Rifle before grabbing the mech by its torso and lifting it upwards, then quickly slamming it downwards into a highway with a big hefty impact. But the Tigerzord would find this accomplishment cut quickly short, as Shinji raised his hand while grounded and projected the A.T. Field directly in front of Tommy, blasting it back due to the sheer force of the energy output. Quickly getting to its feet, the White Ranger noticed that the Tigerzord’s body had been singed from the strange force field.

Saba: I’d suggest you don’t get hit by that again!

Tommy: Yeah, you and me both buddy.

Meanwhile, Shinji let out a deep breath as he started to focus on the structure of his enemy, searching for a weak point he could exploit. Looking for something like an exposed joint or an obvious crystal like many of the Angels had, it had… none to speak of. Looking behind him, he had somehow managed to keep the Umbilical Cord connected to his back through the fight. Warily hiding the cable from view, Shinji raised his Progressive Knife again to defend against the Tigerzord, which was charging straight for the Evangelion. The Tigerzord threw a powerful punch, but the Evangelion used both hands and gripped both ends of the knife to block the fist, and used the quick opportunity to plant a direct kick to the Tigerzord’s midsection. Knocking the giant Zord back, Shinji then dashed forward at breakneck speeds, performed a massive jump up into the air and used the force of him traveling back down to perform a flying divekick into the Tigerzord’s head, kicking it to the ground. The Tigerzord quickly got up, performing a headbutt directly into the Evangelion, which was still standing near it.

Tommy raised his hands, the Tigerzord mimicking his movements as he weaved passed the Evangelion’s next attack, a stab with the Progressive Knife for his chest, and countered by knocking the Evangelion’s arm back before planting a swift punch to the Eva’s chest to properly stun it again as Tommy moved forwards and unleashed a quick string of martial arts blows, a rapid barrage of punches before a striking kick send Shinji down onto the ground.

Tommy: You might be good, but your attacks are sloppy.

Saba: Tommy, look! The cord on it’s back, it’s powering that thing!

Tommy: An external power source? Oh man, this thing could be a new Serpantera if it needs more power.

Shinji: Get back!

The Evanfelion’s A.T. Field suddenly activated again, exploding outwards in a shockwave that threw Tommy and the Tigerzord backwards off their feet as Shinji hurried the Evangelion back onto its own pair of legs, running down the no longer inhabited city streets before it came across a building housing another weapon, the EM-226 Multi Barrel Gatling Gun. Revving the weapon up, Shinji took aim at the approaching Tigerzord, and squeezed on the trigger.

The bullets whizzed through the air and began forcing the Tigerzord back through sheer force before it suddenly brought his guard, causing the Tigerzord to slip back and crash into a building, completely flattening it underneath its weight.

Tommy: Ngh! Where’s he getting all these weapons!? It’s a little too convenient!

Saba: Tommy! We need to cripple its power supply, now!

Tommy: Right! White Tiger Sonic Boom!

As the Tigerzord began to push itself back onto its feet, the Tiger head on its chest suddenly unleashed a massive sonic wave that broke Shinji’s focus, causing him to clutch his ears in pain as the Evangelion staggered, but also stopped firing its gatling gun. In that chance, the Tigerzord dashed forwards and raised its sword as it got behind the Evangelion, and with one clean strike cut the Umbilical Cord clean off of it, much to the shock of Shinji.

Shinji: NO!

Tommy: Yeah! Alright Saba, let’s can this bitch!

The Tigerzord raised it’s sword again at it lit on fire, and Tommy swung it down…only for the Progressive Knife to suddenly cut the Tigerzord’s sword clean in half. As the now dull blade fell to the ground, the Tigerzord stepped back while looking at the severed hilt in the confusion.

Tommy: What!? That’s impossible!

Saba: Tommy, it’s power levels are increasing!

Tommy: WHAT!?

A heavy impact caused the Tigerzord to go flying back as the Evangelion unlocked the restraint bolts around its mouth and gave a deafening roar, body-slamming into the Zord with all its strength to pin it to the ground.

Tommy: How’s it gaining more power!?

Saba: I don’t know!

The now Berserk Evangelion roared again as its jaws opened, and it latched onto the Tigerzord in an attempt to take a bit meaty bite out of the Zord. Tommy, thinking quickly, raised one of its knees to knee the Evangelion in the gut before firing a White Tiger Thunderbolt to blast it into the air and get it off of them so he could focus on getting the Tigerzord back onto its feet. Shinji himself was hardly in the right state of mind, drifting in and out of consciousness. With a shout, the Evangelion burst forward and did a spinning flip over Tommy, grabbing the Zord, lifting it up and slamming it down, causing a massive crater to form in a comically similar shape to the Zord.

Roaring once more, the Evangelion grabbed its Progressive Knife, which it had dropped earlier. The unhinged beast began to slam the blunt end of the weapon into the face of the Tigerzord over and over, cracking it. Turning the knife around, the Evangelion stabbed downward, but the Zord quickly moved its head out of the way of a potentially fatal strike. Slamming the Evangelion off of it with one of its free arms, the Tigerzord attempted to get up, only for the Evangelion to grab the arm it used and toss it over its shoulder, slamming it into the ground again, this time face forward.

Tommy: Ugh! This isn’t good!

Saba: Quick Tommy, call for backup!

Tommy: Right! I need Thunderzord power now!

In an explosion of lightning, the Evangelion was knocked back as four streaks of colored lightning appeared in the sky, the Pink Phoenix Thunderzord, the Black Lion Thunderzord, the Yellow Griffin Thunderzord, and the Blue Unicorn Thunderzord.

Tommy: Alright, let’s do it! Mega Tigerzord, power up!

The Tigerzord reached out, embracing the other Thunderzords into it. The Griffith and Unicorn’s became the legs, the Lion fused with the body, and the Phoenix embedded itself in the right arm of the Zord.

In a fabulous explosion, the Mega Tigerzord had formed.

Tommy: Alright, let’s finish this! HIYA!

The Mega Tigerzord stepped forwards as the Evangelion let out a harsh roar, as if accepting the challenge of this new, enhanced foe.

Tommy: Even for an insane monster, it still has a lot of guts!

The Evangelion ran forwards, throwing a few claw slashes that the Mega Tigerzord deflected with a simple backhand before drawing its fist back, punching the Evangelion hard enough to stagger and disorient it. As the Evangelion looked back upwards, a sudden kick to the gut forced it back again as the Mega Tigerzord came in swinging with a quick punch to the gut, followed by a roundhouse kick that sent it flying into the ground, kicking up a whole city block as it fell.

Tommy: It’s time to finish this!

As the Mega Tigerzord stepped back, however, a surge of energy began to emit from the Evangelion. Golden energy began to fill the air as the Evangelion stood back up, golden wings spewing from its back as the Spear of Longinus flew down from orbit and was caught by the Evangelion. Inside, Shinji Ikari had returned to his senses, despite a newfound cut on his forehead that was bleeding, for his resolve had been steeled.

Shinji: Can’t cause any more destruction… You’re going down! I won’t run away from the likes of you!

Tommy: You want to play like that then? Okay, show me what you can do!

Tommy raised his arms, the Mega Tigerzord assuming his martial arts stance as the Zord gave a nod to Shinji, accepting his own challenge of wit and resolve. It was clear to them both only one of them would be the winner, regardless of personal feelings anymore.

The fight would end, here and now.

Saba: GO!

Both fighters took off running, drawing their fists back and throwing two rapid punches to clash, shockwaves blasting outwards as Tommy ducked the Mega Tigerzord under an attack from the Spear of Longinus before throwing out a jab that Shinji was able to block as it took off into the sky. Flying around the Mega Tigerzord, Shinji zoned in on one of the extra Zord’s that made up the Mega Tigerzord and charged through the air, landing a kick that pushed the Tigerzord back before he span the Spear of Longinus around and stabbed it into the Mega Tigerzord’s right leg, causing a golden surge of lighting to blast into the air.

Saba: Ah! We can’t afford to take too many hits from that thing!

Tommy: Right!

Retaliating quickly, the Mega Tigerzord punched the God Evangelion back before it could be hit with the spear again, raising its hand to create and throw its giant energy ball through the air that the Evangelion managed to block with its A.T. Field.

Roaring, the Evangelion tossed the Lance of Longinus at unparalleled speed. The ensuing shockwave parted the clouds above and blew away much of the dust and smoke in the area, tearing away the buildings behind Shinji as the projectile flew through the air. Tommy had little time to react as the Lance struck the Tigerzord’s left arm and pinned it directly to the ground, splintering straight through it.

Shinji: Ha…yes! I got it!

The Mega Tigerzord however, firmly planted it’s feet onto the ground as it pulled it’s out from the Spear of Longinus with a big hefty pull, the golden sparks emanating from both the spear and the Mega Tigerzord’s arm showing that it had taken a lot of effort to remove the spear, but it nonetheless had shocked Shinji.

Shinji: N-no! That’s impossible!

Tommy: Mega Tigerzord, Firebird Finishing Sequence, armed and ready! FIRE!!!!

The Mega Tigerzord raised it’s right arm, aiming it directly at the Evangelion as the Phoenix Thunderzord blasted straight through the air, the Tigerzord’s chest blasting out a wave of fire that engulfed the Phoenix Thunderzord. The firebird flew directly through the air, blasting into the Evangelion just as it barely had time to raise its A.T. Field, but even with it up it took a massive explosion to the face, one that shook the earth below it as shockwaves flew outwards all around it.

The Mega Tigerzord stepped back, glancing through the smoke.

Saba: Is it over…?

And then, from the smoke, stepped the Evangelion, its golden wings still shining.

Tommy: Not yet it isn’t!

Shinji: Haaa…haaa…Asuka…Rei…I promise…I WILL WIN!!

Thrusting the control sticks forwards, the Evangelion, battered and battle damaged, charged forwards at the equally worn down Tigerzord. The two mecha charged each other, the pilots seeing eye to eye as Shinji raised his right arm for one clean shot at the Mega Tigerzord’s head.

Tommy: …YOU’RE OPEN!

The Mega Tigerzord suddenly threw its hand out, smashing it into the Evangelion’s arm to block the attack, however in doing it, it also snapped the Evangelion’s arm clean off, shattering part of it like a twig. The result was that Shinji suddenly snapped, yelling in pain as he felt his left arm snap!

Tommy: HIIIIIIIIYAAAAAAAA!!!!!

And with one final punch that Tommy put all of the power he could channel from the Morphing Grid into, and shoved the Mega Tigerzord’s fit straight forwards into the Evangelion’s chest, blasting through it and wrenching the mecha in two with one messy slice. Shinji let out another yell of pain, one that was cut short as he went limp, and the Evangelion’s power system finally began shutting down.

The Evangelion’s legs and torso fell forwards in opposite directions, sparks flying from both sides as the Mega Tigerzord stepped backwards, sparks flying from its damaged points, but it remained active. It had won.

Tommy: Man… Zedd’s really got us in for a rough fight this time.

Saba: Indeed. Now…wait, what’s this?

Tommy: Saba?

Saba: Tommy, that thing was manned! I’m detecting human life on board!

Tommy: What!? Oh no!

Leaping out of the Tigerzord’s cockpit with Saba in hand, Tommy leaped out of the Tigerzord and down onto the ground, where he took off at a full sprint to start climbing the wreckage of the Evangelion. Running up to the cockpit, Saba fired a laser to cut them open a hole, one that Tommy pulled open for good measure.

Tommy: The pilot! Grab my hand!

Reaching his hand in to grab the barely conscious Shinji, the White Ranger hesitated for a moment before he reached back, lifting his helmet off to show his human face underneath.

Tommy: Here. Can you reach?

As he held his hand out again, this time using Saba for some extra distance. Shinji, with his right hand, reached out and grasped the handle of the Tiger Saber and pushed himself upwards with his legs, letting Tommy grab onto Shinji and help him out of the cockpit.

Tommy: Your arm's gonna be okay?

Shinji: Yeah… I didn’t think they were making manned robots these days. You looked like you were really good with controlling it… at least, from what I was able to make out. I have to ask… where did you even come from?

Tommy: I’m from Angel Grove, over in America. Sorry about the mix up, I was looking for an Angel, and found you by mistake.

Shinji: You…came to fight Angels?

Tommy: Yeah. I’m the Leader of the Power Rangers, and we’re here to help.

Saba: Off to a great start, White Ranger.

Tommy: Not now Saba.

Shinji gives a weak chuckle before he looks upwards, and Tommy turns around while looking upwards as well to see Evangelion Unit-02 and Unit-00 loomed over them.

Asuka: SHINJI!!!

Tommy: …friends of yours?

Shinji: Yeah…that’s Asuka… the other one’s piloted by Rei. They’re a real handful… but I dunno what I’d do without them.

Tommy: Yeah…I know what you mean.

Conclusion

MegaSonic: Now that was a Morphinominal fight!

Sharaku: While Shinji was undoubtedly a very tough foe for Tommy, the White Tigerzord simply had everything it needed to stop the Evangelion’s wrath from completely tearing him apart. Guess you could say he had the… White Ranger Tiger Power?

MegaSonic: That’s right Sharaku! Shinji’s skills as a prodigy pilot were impressive, but don’t quite stack up to Tommy’s decades as a Power Ranger piloting Zords and fighting monsters, while the events of Evangelion span only a single year. Simply put, Shinji didn’t really have a way to edge out against Tommy's experience outside of his larger and more varied arsenal. Even when Shinji could keep Tommy at long range to use something like his Pallet Rifle or Gatling Gun, the Tigerzord’s blazing speed shut that down quickly, because Shinji really, really didn’t stand a chance in the speed department. He may have been able to react to the Spear of Longinus moving almost 18% the speed of light, but Tommy could fly through galaxies at over 21 trillion times faster than light.

Sharaku: There was hardly anything that prevented the White Ranger from completely blitzing the Evangelion Unit a million times over before Shinji could even react. But unfortunately for him, this ain’t the only nail in the coffin for the Evangelion. The Unit’s base form only cracks into the mountain destruction range at its best, which is something that the Tigerzord can do quite easily. This isn’t helped by the Tigerzord directly scaling to Tommy himself, who scales to planetary levels of destruction through the Dino Charge Rangers, as well as through fighting Lord Zedd.

MegaSonic: The Evangelion could potentially match the Tigerzord’s strength with its god form, but that was dubious at best, and just didn’t matter at worst when the Mega Tigerzord just completely eclipsed the God Eva’s existence. I mean, the Base Tigerzord was already able to match the Thunder Megazord, and the Mega Tigerzord could utterly squash monsters that beat the Thunder Megazord. Unfortunately for Sharaku’s favorite anime protagonist, Shinji really just lacked the means to keep up with Tommy in a straight fight. It’s not helped that Tommy is a trained martial artist who could match Jason in a karate match before ever becoming a Ranger, and while Shinji does have some basic self-defense training, it hardly compares to Tommy’s far more advanced martial arts skills. The moment Tommy got in close, it was basically all over for him.

Sharaku: Additionally, Shinji’s mental stability, while admittedly a bit of a shaky point to make, is a bit of a hindrance to him. At his core, Shinji is an emotionally broken individual with lifelong trauma brought out by highly stressful events. Good for character development, but awful for when it comes to hand-to-hand combat against a foe who not only is faster and stronger, but also does explicitly not have those same mental blocks holding them back. Oh, and Third Impact was a no-go. Not only is it far too long to set up, it requires multiple outside factors in order to be even possible. It’s hardly something he can actually use in combat either. He can't whip it out like a Super Saiyan transformation.

MegaSonic: And with the Evangelion’s berserk form pretty much just being another monster of the week from Tommy’s perspective, the White Ranger’s victory was ultimately fairly a clear cut one.

Sharaku: I guess the Thunderzords do strike twice for the End of this Evangelion.

MegaSonic: The winner is the White Tigerzord.

Next Time

NEXT TIME ON DEATH BATTLE!!!

Pyra vs Nero Claudius (Xenoblade 2 vs Fate/Extra)