The team of S classes had reached the final room of the spaceship. "According to Child Emperor, the largest power source in the area is coming from this room," Drive Knight said, relaying the information he received through the com-link, "This must be where the leader of these aliens is."
"Alright, let's get this over with." Tornado said, trying to maintain her tone to sound bored, not wanting fear to slip into her voice. She was the second most powerful S class. She wasn't allowed to be afraid."
"King," Zombieman said, "I think you should be leading this one. Tornado can provide telekinetic support from behind, me and Drive Knight will flank. Sound good to everyone?" He asked, knowing that King would want to be the one to strike first from how intensely the King Engine was sounding off; the hero's heart pounding with such powerful killing intent that it was nearly frightening even to them.
"No." King said simply, somewhat shocking the other heroes.
"What? Why not!?" Tornado questioned. Strong as King supposedly was, Tornado was fairly certain she could at least deal with him by keeping him away with her ESP. "You aren't losing your nerve now of all times are you?"
"I.. I have to admit something now." King said, looking down to avoid the eyes of his teammates. "The truth it.. I.." King sighed, deciding against a full admission, "I.. need time. I cannot attack outright."
"What do you mean?" Zombieman questioned.
"My final attack, the Ultimate Hellfire Motionwave Cannon, it requires time to charge up. It's my one weakness, hence my keeping it under wraps," King explained, "I was charging up the attack during the entire battle with the multi-mouthed alien, and in all that time I was only able to reach the ten percent mark.
"If I'm to be of any use in this battle, I'll need time to remain still and out of sight while I charge the attack. This monster will certainly need a one hundred percent attack, so I'll need you to keep the alien distracted while I stay out here. I'll give you the signal to get out of the way when I'm ready to fire."
King's calm, collected tone made it much easier to convince the others that he was telling the truth. His hope was that they would be able to defeat the enemy before he had to do anything. With some extra luck, the fight would end in such a way that he could say he'd fired off the Ultimate Hellfire Motionwave Cannon like it had before.
The heroes bought the ruse, telling him to wait outside the room while they went inside and kept the villain's attention. "Don't hold back on it," King said, not wanting them to spend the time not really fighting, as they'd be assuming they just needed to wait, "If the creature thinks for a moment that you're holding back, it may catch on to our plan and avoid my attack. Go all out, one hundred percent."
"Got it." Zombieman said, making sure both guns were fully loaded ready to fire. Drive Knight shifted into centaur mode, and Tornado lifted from the floor, "Let's go."
The door was flung open, the three heroes rushing inside to confront the ruler of the alien invasion. They were surprised to find that when they did, the cycloptic alien didn't immediately stand to fight them. "Hello." He greeted politely, "I suppose you're here to fight me."
"Yes." Tornado said, keeping her calm as the armored alien stood from his chair.
"Wonderful. Before we fight, let us exchange names. I lead the pirate band known as Dark Matter, and I am the Dominator of the Universe. My name is Boros."
"I am Tornado, these are my fellow heroes Drive Knight and Zombieman," Tornado said, "We're the defenders of this place. We've been sent to prevent you attacking further." She wasn't much for monologues, but it would buy King more time to charge up.
"Understandable," Boros said, "But allow me to explain why I am here. You see, there exists a prophecy.
"I was once a traveler, exploring the universe, ravaging everything in sight. But I was too strong; eventually, I found there were none left that could face me. I came to know the torment of utter, all-encompassing boredom.
"Then one day, a great seer told me somewhere on a faraway planet, a being exists who is my match; one who could rekindle my passion for battle. That was nearly 20 years ago; have you any concept of the distance I've traveled to get here? My men thought the prophecy was a ruse, a fairy tale meant to focus my attention and lure me away.
"I am not yet convinced that they are wrong," Boros gave a semi-amused grin at the heroes, "And yet, you're the first to ever make it this far. Let's see if you were worth the time it took. Come, bring stimulation to my life!"
And with that, Boros jumped from the bottom of the stairs across the room towards Tornado, correctly assuming her to be the most powerful of the three based on the look of her floating and telekinetic aura.
The S class just barely reacted fast enough to drop underneath the attack, feeling the force going over her head. She knew from it that if it had hit, she could have been killed almost instantly by it.
Zombieman fired both guns, hitting Boros with each shot as Tornado began to pry chunks of metal from the walls and send them at the alien. The alien ruler punched the metal out of the way, barely registering the bullets as they hit.
Before he could attack back though, Drive Knight got close with his centaur form, charging into the alien and forcing him back. He shifted from centaur to Silver now that he'd gotten close, driving the powerful blade into the alien's body.
The blade clashed with the armor, powerful enough to cut into it, but needing more strength to cut through it. Seeing this, Tornado focused her ESP to lift Boros and Drive Knight into the air, holding Boros in place and driving the Silver blade through the armor with as much force as possible.
The blade pierced the armor and the body of the alien. The armor didn't break entirely though, and Tornado felt that she had an idea on how to finish this off. She remembered how Geryuganshoop's gravity wave attack had felt, and believed that if she concentrated with her telekinesis, she could mimic it.
She didn't direct the gravity to the ground though, instead focusing the gravity wave on the center of Boros' body, trying to crush him internally with it.
His entire body was pulled inward towards itself, the armor shattering off of his body and then being pulled into it like shrapnel, tearing through skin and muscle in Boros' inside. Tornado grit her teeth as she maintained the gravity wall, increasing it even further to try and crush the alien entirely.
After a few solid seconds, she released the grip and allowed Boros to fall. Drive Knight was waiting for him at the floor, using his sword to cut the alien in two before it hit the ground to finish it off.
"Is that it?" Zombieman asked, semi-hopefully.
"I think.." before Tornado could say anything further, the mutilated remains of Boros began to move, reconnecting to each other and returning to their original shape. Boros stood, a cruel smile on his face.
"That armor.. It provided no defensive properties," He said, "Quite the opposite actually. It actively supressed my power, making me slower and weaker. You were able to destroy it. Perhaps this is proof that the prophecy was true. Let's find out!"
A wave of energy fired from Boros' body as he entered his true combat form, launching himself at Tornado again. This time he was kept away only by an intense pulse of telekinetic power; and even then it only slowed him down enough for Zombieman to get Boros' attention instead by way of firing into him as he charged across the room in the alien's direction.
Boros launched from the ground as if fired from a gun, energy radiating off of his body. Zombieman switched rapidly to Revenant Mode so he could survive the impact from the alien.
He… did technically survive it, but he also got to feel what it was like for his special move, and entire healing factor, to be burnt out in a single strike. Boros essentially back handed him, sending him out of the room, through all the metal, and out of the ship. He landed a few miles away, finding it difficult to breathe. He would survive, but it would be hours before he could move again.
The impact had actually caused him to collide with King, who'd more or less been buried by his impact with the ground.
Meanwhile back in the ship, Tornado was flying fast through the ship's throne room. She wasn't even trying to fight anymore, just trying to stay out of the way of the alien pirate's powerful attacks.
She could handle his distance attacks, as they lost power after they left the field of energy around his body, and could be easily dodged or even redirected with her own telekinesis. But Boros simply plowed through his own attacks, not slowed down even for a second.
She caught glimpses of Drive Knight preparing something with his morph box, and she hoped he would hurry it up before Boros caught up to her and sent her flying out of the ship like he had with Zombieman.
Boros had started to laugh as he approached the flying ESPer, enjoying the actual challenge that her powers presented. He couldn't imagine what he'd have done had his lieutenant been this powerful with his psychic powers.
Knowing she couldn't fun forever, and assuming (hoping) from the bright lights starting to come from Drive Knight's morph box that he was about to be ready, Tornado switched tactics. She came to a complete holt, allowing Boros' momentum to carry him right passed her. She sent a wave of telekinetic force after him to send him crashing into the floor.
Not wanting to waste any time, she'd unleashed as much of her psychic power in one go as possible, creating a large crater in the floor with Boros at the center. Once he was there, Tornado tried again to mimic the gravity well technique, keeping him pinned at the floor for a few seconds longer before his strength allowed him to break free of it and jump in her direction.
Thankfully for the small ESPer, a bolt of lightning impacted Boros before he could punch her and reduce her to a liquid mass of former human.
Turning around, Boros saw what Drive Knight had been up to while he had been distracted trying to catch up to Tornado.
The S class cyborg had been taken the various bits of metal debris Boros had been unintentionally creating and absorbing them into the morph box, using them for extra mass so he could create a new form just for battling Boros. He'd gathered as much as he could, and then created a bit more and absorbed it to just for safety.
Finally, he'd merged with the morph box to activate the new combat form he had created for himself. The result of Archangel Form.
Two large wings extended from his back. One arm had been shifted not just into the Silver form's lightning blade, but an entire arm and hand of claws made from the lightning blade's material. His entire body was covered in thick armor, and his eyes had been upgraded so he could lock onto Boros.
Drive Knight was certain that this form would burn out the morph box in a matter of minutes, but he hoped that the time it bought would give Tornado time to rest for another powerful psychic attack, or maybe even give King enough time to fire off his final attack and end this battle finally.
Drive Knight flew at Boros, lightning arm outstretched to grab the alien. Boros moved much faster though, getting into the air above the cyborg and expelling the power in his body down at Drive Knight. The S class' eyes widened as the world vanished into a wall of fire and power, his Archangel form burnt away almost instantly as a hole was searched through the ship.
Tornado acted more on instinct than anything else, but happily doing so allowed her to exploit a quirk of Boros' powers. He could expel all the energy from his body in powerful attacks, and regenerate all of the power back rapidly, but for a short time after he had expelled the energy, he was much, much weaker.
Not nearly weak enough for Tornado to kill mind you, still strong enough to be on par with three dragon level threats minimum. But still weaker, enough that Tornado was able to grip him with her psychic power and send him flying out of the hole he'd just created.
The heroes outside the ship had more or less finished up. The robots, soldiers, and monsters had stopped coming after the psychic support from within the ship had stopped sending orders to the others. Melzargard had been defeated, and all seemed to be well.
And then Boros landed on the ground in the center of them all, hitting the ground with enough force to send cracks across the ground for almost a mile in every direction, and sending all but the S classes flying away with the force of it.
It was easy to tell that Boros was an alien, and seeing the debris being thrown by Tornado's psychic hold made it clear he was to be fought. The other heroes began to close in on Boros to attack together.
Flashy-Flash and Sonic attacked first, using their speed to create a sort of scissor slash attack at near light speed. The attack itself wasn't even seen, just the ground below Boros split in two directions as two deep cuts formed across his body.
Both began to heal instantly, and Sonic turned on his heels, firing Hell of Carnage to trigger several detonations around Boros. A single swing of his hand cleared the smoke, but no sooner did he do that was he hit by perhaps the most powerful S class combination attack in the history of the hero association.
It started with Atomic Samurai's Atomic flash, leaving powerful lacerations across the alien overlord's body. He was kept off balance by Flashy-Flash and Sonic using Wind blade kick together from either side, allowing Silverfang to get in close and rapid attack with his Water Stream Rock Smashing Fist and his Fang Interpolation together.
The powerful S class martial artist's assault lasted ten seconds. Ten seconds of Silverfang's fangs striking Boros' body with unrivalled physical strength and metaphysical power. In the first four seconds, Silverfang landed roughly forty strikes with it. But as he did this, he felt the power of his target, and activated his Abandonment technique, releasing all mental blockages and putting everything his body was capable of into the last six seconds into the attack.
He landed another two hundred strikes with this before jumping away from the alien, allowing the next S class to attack. They couldn't let up. If they did, even for a second, Boros would be able to gain his bearings and take them all apart.
Metal Bat stepped forward, focusing all of the force of his Savage Tornado attack into one powerful swing that sent Boros flying out of the crater and towards the next S class. Watchdog Man had exited his Attack Dog mode for this, entering his more powerful, and less controllable Mad Dog Mode, letting out a feral howl before laying into Boros, thrashing the alien with all that he had, only moving back when Child Emperor had Underdog man fly into Boros as a kamikazee.
Boros had only barely gotten back to his feet when Tank Top Master and Superalloy Black Luster combined their most powerful attacks in a double lariat, knocking Boros' body to the side before it was punched into the ground by Puri-Puri Prisoner's Dark Angel Rush.
The rapid combo of punches from Puri-Puri Prisoner lasted several seconds before he backed off, panting heavily from the release of physical power. Genos aimed his hand at Boros, firing off his Incinerate attack at Boros, the fire engulfing and burning the alien's body.
Once it faded, Boros was still standing, broken body steaming as it still attempted to heal. And then Pig God sank his teeth into Boros' arm. He didn't want to risk waiting to get a bite or two out of Boros, and simply activated his final attack; letting all of energy within his body, built up from his constant feasting, all jettion from his body like an organic bomb.
From his feeding on the Seafolk and the alien monsters, he had more energy built up inside him now than when he'd blasted the meteor apart, and as the bright blast began to extend, Tornado added her telekinesis to help the attack out. She formed a sort of psychic barrier around Boros, compressing the power of the explosion into the small area, focusing it all on the alien rather than letting it expand.
The ground around them was vaporized by the intensity, and Boros' body was seared away bit by bit. In this moment, thanks to their hard trained power and moment of skillful teamwork, they were finally winning, they were overcoming the Denominator of the Universe.
And then Boros stopped playing around.
Boros' elbow collided with Pig God's stomach, firing him like a bullet in the other direction. The alien shot upwards into the air, busting through Tornado's psychic barrier as easily as if he were flying through open air.
His body was now glowing a bright pink. These heroes with their varied powers may have been able to counter him by putting everything they had into a single powerful combo, if only in his base form. But while using Meteoric Burst, they would be helpless.
He began to move, but the heroes only knew this because of the fact that their colleagues were one by one being sent flying in various directions, Boros rushing too them too fast to be countered, his presence alone melting the rock beneath him as he did.
Single strikes, occasionally with a single finger, send the S class heroes in different directions, knocking them unconscious with potentially mortal damage inside and outside of their bodies.
Genos, seeing this from a distance, resorted to the most powerful thing he could think of. He opened his chest, taking out his power core and putting it into his arm cannon, letting him put everything he had into a single, powerful blat of fire in Boros direction.
Boros turned to see the wall of hell fire on its way towards him. He swatted his hand through the air, creating a current of wind that dispersed the flames, crushed the earth beneath them, and sent Genos flying into the ship above.
Only Tornado was still conscious now, the ESPer being the only one not hit before Genos had attacked. Her eyes widened more as she watched Boros' Meteoric Burst technique slowly reduce class S, the most powerful heroes in all the world, to a pile of broken bodies on the ground.
Bullets, arrows, bombs, and any other weapon that could be used from a distance began to pour into Boros as the other heroes of class A and B began moving in to try and help. Tornado tried to call to them to warn them, but Boros was faster.
She didn't even see what he did. All she was a flash of movement, a pink streak across the ground like a bolt of lightning, and then dozens of heroes and soldiers were all sent to the ground or into the air, all defeated in less time than it took Tornado to blink.
She'd lowered to the ground now in defeat, a sense of despair flooding her as the weight of Boros' power settled over her. It was over now. There wasn't anything they could do at this point.
Even when Metal Knight finally arrived, an army of powerful combat drones coming in place of him arriving physically, Boros dispatched them with ease. He held up his hand, a wave of energy pulsing through the air and leaving the sky full of ruined wreckage, every single drone reduced to charred pieces in a single move.
Boros began to approach Tornado, the air heating up around him from the energy leaving his body. "I thank you for the attempt," He said, coming to a halt in front of Tornado and raising his fist, "It was.. Ever so slightly amusing, but I'm afraid this planet does not have what I was looking for."
Tornado closed her eyes, expecting that at least it wouldn't hurt. Considering how quickly he'd defeated the others, it would probably only a second or two of pain before everything went black.
And yet.. The hit never came. Tornado looked up, speechless at the sight that she'd been rescued. The final S class had finally arrived, S class rank one, Blast, had stepped in the way of Boros attack, catching the alien's fist.
"Didn't I already tell you not to count on others to save you?" Blast questioned Tornado.
"Yeah.. guess I wasn't as prepared as I thought I was.." She said softly as she got back to her feet.
Blast snorted, slightly amused by the response, "Think you've got enough left in you to get the others out of here? Like, out of city A altogether?"
Tornado nodded, levitating up and starting to fly off, extending her ESP to lift all the heroes who'd come to help and carry them out with her. Blast turned to face Boros again, who watched him curiously.
"I didn't sence you approach," Boros said, "Nor did I see you when you arrived. There's a great power in you. Perhaps you're who the prophecy was talking about."
"Prophecy?" He asked, "On second thought, "I really don't care."
The Meteoric Burst form was starting to wear on Boros' body, but he was too curious about the new challenger to stop now. If nothing else, it'd probably be slightly amusi-
Tornado was miles away, carrying everyone from city A with her telekinesis. Even from city G, she could see the mushroom cloud that was rising over what was left of city A.
She couldn't even speculate what kind of battle was taking place, or if it was even a battle. Blast had a habit of vanishing after battles, making it difficult to know if he was even still alive.
They couldn't find him, just Boros' remains and a burnt out inner hull of his ship, but Tornado didn't believe for a second that he was dead. If there were anything that could defeat Blast, she thought, the human world would have been annihilated by now.
And that's all she wrote for now, though quite fortuitously as I write this, One Punch Man season 2 has been confirmed, so expect more chapters when that comes out ^^ for now, let me know what you've thought of this so far.
Looking back at some my earlier chapters, I definitely still have room for improvement on this story.
As for potential characters being used, if anyone's got any head canon/neat ideas for Forte, Pink Hornet, Smell Master, Bone, Tank Top Girl, Dynamite man, or Peach Terry, I'd love to see them in the reviews.
Until next time.