The evacuation warnings blared throughout J City every five minutes, echoing on the emptied streets. The announcements of threat level had gone up soon after the Heroes' Association had officially acknowledged the danger, repeated, marking the urgency. People looked for shelters or drove away. And when the roads became clogged they left the cars and continued on foot. It was fairly standard procedure.
Giant screens had hidden the publicity and showed news and updates to whoever was left to hear and see.
Monsters rampaging. The first wave had been defeated by Stinger. Then something bigger had appeared and more had followed. Fallen heroes. More monsters. Threat.
Rain poured and thunder roared as Mayu ran, panting, soaked, chased.
Caught on the bakery where she had ventured to treat herself after a deadline met along with the employees and a group of kindergartners with their teacher. It was safe until the windows were shattered by a tentacle.
Fish with legs and arms and teeth and too many weird appendages and sharp edges tried to get to the kids inside. Hastily after making the shocked woman at the counter answer Mayu ushered the group into the walk-in freezer while making as little sound as possible, trying make the creatures believe only she was there.
So she had dashed out, taunted the beasts, turned the other way and kept running.
They had followed amused by the hunt and partially insulted apparently.
With the situation and the warnings and the updates there had to be heroes coming... The rain that made the road slippery under her flats was of no help at all.
A hopeless situation turned for the worse when lightning struck, pain roaring through her, searing, making her trip, falling flat on the wet concrete. The roar of thunder around her was deafening, the flash strike direct, burning from within. Lightning flowers bloomed red over her skin, branching from her fingertips to her shoulders and neck as electricity hummed through her body.
"The snack is still alive." A watery voice growled, approaching, claws hissing against the ground.
Not dead? Mayu realized through the lessening pain, hands clenching, surprised. People usually did not survive... that... She grunted, pushing herself up, coughing, wet pink hair fluffed up from the shock.
"I like them squirmy." Another hissed.
Lightning rustled around her, twining around her body, moving in a ring around her, dancing upwards. Head clearing Mayu staggered, standing, glaring. The discharge was sudden, thunder following, the lightning, her lightning, frying the sea monsters into crispy bits of seafood.
Mayu gawked, staring at her hands. Superpowers? White, blue and yellow wisps gathered around her fingers once more, the burn marks the lightning had left on her skin illuminated by it, still angry, red and raw. The rain kept falling. Amai Mask was discoursing about his new album, ignoring any question about the need of heroes in J City. And then everything vanished.
The ointment was itchy under the bandages. Mayu grimaced staring at the TV, sitting on the centre of the hospital bed with a notepad, trying her best to ignore the prickling and the need to scratch. Bandaged fingers were also of no help when trying to write things down.
The news and specials were dealing with the aftermath of the Sea creature's invasion again and again, most of the times adding nothing to what was known. Reports, reassurance, damage calculations, singing praises or putting down the heroes' efforts. Showing clips of the fights. And she had been shocked to find footage of her scorching the behemoths in the rain amidst them.
Doctors had been amazed at her state and the display of suddenly acquired power and quickly discovered that they should not touch her without rubber gloves. Thick ones. One of the nurses had been shocked into a faint already. To be completely honest Mayu had been unconscious when that one happened and already apologised to the now curly-haired and overly-cautious woman.
"Aida Mayu." There was a portly man in a dark suit at the room's entrance. Mayu sat straighter, pushing her hair out of her face, lilac eyes narrowing slightly, confused. "The Hero Association would like to talk to you." Two of the wounded heroes ran through the corridor fleeing in terror when the man was trying to be serious and solemn, breaking a bit of the effect.
People would fear someone with weird powers unless they were registered. Even so a heroic status was not a total guarantee of acceptance. And the Association had already made it very complicated for her to answer «no» by allowing footage of her to appear on the news amidst their members.
Control over the newfound powers was not easy to achieve and after two futon fires and random flares in public when not fighting weird abominations or pursuing "hero" actions she decided it was best to move out to a place where she would not endanger anyone when idle.
Z City's abandoned district was place Mayu targeted as she reorganized her life after qualifying, keeping in mind the new needs. Cheap rent. Little to no people to harm in case of an accident. Monsters cropping up frequent for training. It seemed reasonable.
Sighing, a bit breathless having hopped over the fence that kept the regular populace away, crossed the emptied streets, some neat and rebuilt and others half-wrecked or bearing signs of fights, finding the building and climbing the stairs, she let go of the trolley handle and reached for the key.
The door of the apartment to her left opened abruptly, a blond cyborg walking out, staring her down. Startled the lightning flared free, making the light-bulbs on the corridor flicker to life, brighter than they would normally be. Fortunately they didn't shatter or blow their fuses.
"Hello..." Mayu greeted, recovering due to the pink apron taking away some of the intimidation, smiling easily, breathing deeply, focusing to quiet down the wisps. "I'm Mayu." And it was hard to clamp down the electricity when it was tangling. "Nice to meet you."
"Genos." He answered after a pause, relaxing a fraction, scanning the newcomer. The landlord had indeed warned them about the arrival of a new tenant. Aida Mayu, rank 102 B-Class, entering a day after Sensei due to «special circumstances». Lightning-based powers. They seemed a bit volatile at the moment. Recently acquired so it was understandable... a small alarm triggered his reflexes, moving, catching a suddenly unconscious woman by the midriff, folded over his right arm.
Genos' eyes narrowed, feeling the energy course through his body in a sharp peak. It would be enough to knockout and harm a regular human. According to his readings it had recharged him bypassing sleeper-mode, bio-fuel conversion and even activating the secondary batteries. Shaking his head, switching focus from the odd effect, he became concerned, scanning her. There seemed to be no wounds and her vitals were stable... She just had fallen asleep, already entering REM state. Abnormal but not life-threatening. At a loss of what to do he just picked the limp body up and, bracing her against his shoulders, taking her inside.
Saitama tilted his head, trying to understand why a pink haired woman in a sky-blue dress mumbling about pudding was dozing off on his futon. He sat down after leaving the groceries by the fridge, reaching for her shoulder to shake her awake. A tingle erupted over his skin, buzzing and insistent, spreading through his body like an overly strong phone on vibrate. It stopped when he took his hand away. It came back when he tried again. And stopped with no contact. And happened again when he tried the same trick.
"Genos who is this again?" He asked, finding his voice trembling in an almost auto-tune effect as he kept the electrical loop through absent-minded grab. She was either a battery or a girlfriend.
"She fell asleep on the corridor." Genos stated, finishing putting the dry plates away, joining him, sitting behind the table, opening the laptop. It didn't really elaborate much. "With such an odd sleep cycle I suspect she suffers from something."
"Narcolepsy." Mayu mumbled, waking. A bit of smoke rose from the fabric, prompting a small sneeze. She sat up, glancing down, patting the spot that had started to smoulder, glancing around, shaking off the drowsiness, taking a moment to suppress the lightning. "The only banal effect to happen instead of… you know…" She paused, staring at the man that was blankly looking at his own hand on her shoulder. She did recognize him as the one that had delivered the final blow to the Sea King. But more importantly she noticed the fact that he was neither unconscious nor writhing in pain nor in a coma.
"Exploded and/or melted internal organs, severe internal and external burns, ruptured eardrums, heart conditions, amnesia, concussion, confusion, chronic pain, dizziness, instant death…" Genos spoke up calmly, citing the most likely outcomes of a lightning strike. "Would you like some tea? Sensei?" The cyborg offered without even making a pause to separate the subjects, standing, heading for the kitchenette.
"He is very cheery." Mayu arched an eyebrow chuckling. "And I absolutely love the fact that you are not hurt by touching me but you can take the hand away now."
"Ah, right." He agreed easily, taking his tea from Genos.
"I'm Mayu, by the way." She introduced herself, thanking the cyborg for her cup.
"Saitama." He answered, sipping.
"If you're going to introduce yourself you may want to keep it under 20 words." Genos sat down with his own tea.
"A word challenge is it?" Mayu closed her eyes, thinking. Then she clicked her tongue, opening a cell-phone, typing, opening her public hero profile, placing it between the two men. "Can we train together because neither of you got hurt on contact?" She counted twelve. "I'll treat you to dinner often."
19 words and a visual presentation. Genos looked impressed and slightly interested. For some reason Saitama just oozed resignation.