Garou's POV
Prepare.
The white-haired martial artist perked up. "What?"
The wall exploded, a purplish streak shooting out of the hole. When the dust cleared, the door to his cell and the surrounding wall had been torn off the hinges, freeing him.
A grin spread across his face, as he eyed the confused A and C-Class guards staring at him.
Amai's Mask's POV
"-and protection of the weak. Yes, this is the ideal hero."
"Thank you Amai Mask." His interviewer wiped away a tear as the audience cheered. "That was beautiful."
"Sweet Mask! Please sing us a sample from your latest song!"
"Yes! Please!"
"Please!"
The A-Class smiled warmly. The acoustics of the Hero Association HQ meeting room where this interview was taking place was poor, but he would never turn down his fans. "Of course. Any more requests?"
"Yes."
A hand erupted out of the wall, grabbed his head, and smashed it into the floor.
"Can you do us all a favour, and just shut the fuck up."
King's POV
"Ah! You're the S-Class Hero, Mr King!"
"Yes."
"Ah, it's an honor sir! You know, my home was destroyed by that purple Monster, Vaccine Man I think. That's why I moved and set up shop so close to the Hero Association. Thank you so much for destroying that Monster for us."
The Rank 7 S-Class shifted uncomfortably. It was always awkward to hear people sing his praises, especially now that he knew who actually accomplished 'his' feats".
"So what can I get you?"
"Just three packets of pork ribs please."
"Rightaway sir!" The man hurriedly scurried away, humming as he fished up dripping pieces of meat-covered bone from a large pot.
A deafening, cracking crash caused him to leap half a foot into the air, his heart palpitating madly. The Hero Association HQ shook, multiple parts of its structure smoking and crumbling, before an enormous hole was blown in its side.
He's escaped!
The tanks and artillery emplacements roared to life, belching fire at the HA HQ. For several seconds they fired freely, before they were suddenly all destroyed and disabled, their turrets and barrels flying off. One of Metal Knight's Robots charged forward, but a massive piece of debris flew upwards and crushed it.
A crater formed in the center of the four-legged robot, and it crashed to the ground, before its head went flying off into the distance. Multiple fighter jets swooped in, firing well over two dozen missiles at a point on its body. Several more of Metal Knight's drones soared in behind them and fired additional salvos of missiles, which all impacted and crumpled up body and created a fireball taller than the HQ.
A shockwave rippled out of the fireball, knocking all the planes and robots out of the sky, a glowing speck leaping out and landing safely on the ground below. The ground around the HQ began to glow. He recognised it, it was the Hero Association's last ditch defense. A self destruct mechanism, using technology found from the alien ship, it was designed to completely tear apart the lands around the HQ, killing even Dragon Classes, although leaving the HQ intact.
But the glowing stopped, and a small swarm of black debris flew up into the sky. One landed near his feet, and his eyes widened. That thing had pulled out all the fuses!
His phone rang, and he absentmindedly picked it up.
"Mr King! The prisoner has escaped! It is heading in your direction, please, intercept it!"
"O-Of course."
Garou's POV
Cackling with glee, the new Hero Hunter kicked the B-Class Pink Hornet aside and unleashed two blows upon another B-Class Jet Nice Guy, tearing his cyborg body apart.
Wonderful! There was so much fresh meat here, ripe for the taking! Slamming his fist into the C-Class Red Muffler's face, he dodged a counter strike from a bloodied Pink Hornet and kicked her through a window.
He had just broken out and he had already dispatched an A-Class Forte, as well as several other B and C-Classes and even several weak monsters. Carefully picking himself over a pile of rubble, he pressed on. Maybe he would have the chance to face something higher than them today.
Out of the wreckage burst the S-Class Demon Cyborg. His left arm and collarbone area was missing, although the rest of his body remained intact. However, there was hardly any part of his body not damaged in some way, most of his body was exposed metal instead of the flesh coloring shown in the HA handbooks, the only exception being his face, which was still flawless.
But that didn't matter.
"An S-Class! Finally! HAHAHA, I'm so pumped!"
The robot looked at him disdainfully. "You are the criminal we arrested two days ago. Stand down. I have no time to deal with a minor pest like you."
"Minor pest eh?" Grinning, the new Hero Hunter got into a stance. "I will hunt you".
His opponent snarled, and crouched, his palm glowing.
Garou's eyes flickered over his prey. His enemy's weakness was his arm, or more specifically the lack of one. He shifted his center of gravity, intending to attack at the vulnerable left flank.
He flinched as a blade sliced through his shins, and he held up his arms in defense, only to quickly spring away as a fist slammed into where he was just standing.
Another S-Class? No, two, the one known as Child Emperor was standing behind him, his backpack fully activated, although he was covered in bruises and looked to be barely on the verge of consciousness. Beside him was the bodybuilder Superalloy Darkshine, looking completely fresh and ready for battle.
He huffed, tensing up his muscles. This could be a problem. He was only about on par with Demon Cyborg at this moment, two S-Classes he might have been able to handle, but three was a little much at his stage.
Child Emperor was weak and half conscious, but he was occupying the role of support. In this cramped environment Demon Cyborg's beams were risky, so it would fall on the child's longer ranged robotic weapons. Cyborg and Darkshine were in front, on either side of him. If he was going to fight them he needed to seperate them.
Discreetly, he readied to pounce. He would quickly disable Demon Cyborg, avoiding Darkshine as he did, and then take out Emperor. He could then turn his full attention to Darkshine and the cyborg, if he wasn't yet defeated.
But he didn't get the chance to carry out this plan. Fire bursting out his back, Demon Cyborg spun around and kicked down on the ground, cracking and shaking the ground. Trying to take advantage of the disruption of balance, Darkshine swung at him.
The punch was so strong that even though he dodged it he could still feel the force pushing on him. Yelling, he unleashed multiple precise blows on the vulnerable spots on Darkshine's chest, arm and ribs, but to his horror all his strikes were completely ineffective, in fact judging from the popping feelings it was his hands which were wounded.
Multiple weapons sliced at him, and he deflected or broke them, but a metallic tentacle wrapped around his ankle and flung him into the air. Pushing aside an airborne charge from Demon Cyborg, he hung on to the wall, tore off a piece of debris and leaped downward, intending to use it as a cover against the backpack but instead sacrificing it to block a downward fiery blast.
Looks like his enemy could use the beam weapon after all. Grabbing onto a flail being flailed at him, he tore it off, but he kicked to the ground by Demon Cyborg, bouncing messily and feeling pain spike through his body.
Shit, this wasn't good. Lunging forward, he attempted to strike at the child, but a fiery blast forced him to twist midair, and he was grabbed by the ankle and slammed into the ground. He leapt out of the crater, blocking a kick from Cyborg, and somersaulting over the head of Darkshine, only for Demon Cyborg to appear in front of him.
"Machine gun blows!" In a furious exchange he managed to block the blows, but a piercing pain shot through his abdomen as a knife pierced into his ribs. He pulled it out and stabbed it into the cyborg's head, but it shattered and he only got a punch to his chest for his efforts.
No, this was his chance. Grabbing his enemy's arm, he pulled forward to strike at the Cyborg, who simply ducked down.
Darkshine was behind the S-Class, and unleashed a punch upon him.
It was a ruse! He held up his arms, but as it connected he coughed up liquid and slammed into the wall. He frantically blocked another punch, but the strike was once again too strong to block fully and he was smashed through the wall, tumbling through the next room and through a hole in the wall, landing outside the Hero Association HQ.
Slowly, he pushed himself to his feet. The S-Classes were already in front of him, Darkshine in front, Child Emperor at his flank and Demon Cyborg floating above, ready to chase if he tried to make a run for it.
The sky darkened, and an enormous rock rolled between the two groups, forcing them to leap back. A series of metallic crunches sounded from beside him, and he turned around to see that the rock had smashed into Child Emperor's backpack's weapons, disabling many of them.
The wind was immediately knocked out of his lungs as something grabbed onto, and sped away, running at such a speed that it disorientated even him.
When he came to, he was greeted by the sight of an asleep glowing bald man, the glow a dark blue which extended up to his throat and chin, although strangely not at his left foot, forcing him to balance on his one unlimp leg. He had a bottle of pills in one hand, and a bottle of whiskey in the other.
"Always wondered what it tasted like. I saw him pass a shop with this brand over a hundred times, but he never bought it, probably because it's really expensive for a whiskey." He popped the pills into its mouth and swallowed, before following it with a swig of the beverage.
"It's disgusting." He tossed it into the ocean. "I rather drink the seawater." He paused, before looking at his other hand. "Or maybe that's due to the medication…"
Suddenly, his face was grabbed with such force that his bones cracked, and he was lifted off the ground. Holding up its hand, the glowing man flicked two fingers at his abdomen, causing him to cough up another burst of blood and both his arms to be dislocated. It then casually tossed him aside and turned away.
He spat out the blood. "Who the fuck are you? And why did you take me away from there?"
"Who am I? I am, well, you'll know soon enough. As for the second question, I want you to grow. Grow, Garou. Become strong. Because when I devour you, I want my meal to be satisfying."
And it sped away.
Metal Knight's POV
Unbelievable.
His robotic forces, completely decimated in the most one-sided fight in the Organization's history. Only by a quick retreat had he managed to save any of his robots. They were heavily damaged, their sensors were destroyed and their weapons disabled, but they were salvageable.
He needed to send the data to the Organization and Association as soon as possible so that they could prepare counterplans. It was obvious now, the enemy strength was unimaginable, at this moment it was debatable whether either organization could handle him, it would likely take all the combined forces they could muster. As they limped into his secret base, he closed the doors and prepared to make the necessary repairs.
"Warning: proximity alert."
His gaze snapped to the screen. What?
"Proximity alert. Proximity alert. Warning: unauthorised presence detected. Warning, external systems breached. Warning, critical damage to main entrance."
He watched as his base's front blast doors, both three feet in thickness, made of the strongest materials on Earth, the ones designed to take point blank nuclear explosions and survive, got ripped apart like cardboard.
"Found you…"
Tatsumaki's POV
A electronic beeping caused the green haired ESPer to perk up.
"A Monster?" Putting down her chopsticks, she pulled out her phone.
"What's this? A distress signal from… Metal Knight? Must be a glitch."
Pocketing her phone, the petite ESPer went on with her day.