Chapter 29

"So, how does it feel Snek?"

Melee stayed home today. However, Garou insisted that someone remain with her at all times. Snek offered to stay and has since been helping her with the twins. He got Aoki at the moment and was holding him as he slept.

"Weird… it's not every day you get to hold a human infant in your arms." He said gently.

"Thank you for doing this, I know you want to spend time with your kids…"

He snorted a laugh. "Drax, Pythan and Bo insisted on doing patrols in the area. I think it's their way of helping out the family. Angie goes off on her own, I have no idea where. Conna is out with her boyfriend, and I don't want to interfere with that. So, yeah, this, this is fine," he insisted.

She was grateful for his help. But also her heart melted when she heard that his sons were doing patrols for her sake. As she continued to sooth Juro, Melee thought about what to make for dinner. Her powers were slowly returning to her, and just in time too. She was starting to wean the twins. 'Perhaps that's why they were gone for the time being…' she thought to herself.

But slowly, they began to return to her. She has some telepathic ability, but not as much as before.

"Hmm, what to make?"

Then the door opened.

No knock, or anything. She assumed the kids or Garou were home. Yet as she peered, she was stunned to say the least. Tatsumaki floated in! She looked about the place with a rather unimpressed look. "Guess your niece knows what she is doing…" she said offhandedly.

She was followed in by Knuckle, who was carrying bags of food and was followed close behind with floating groceries. "What's this?" Melee asked.

"We're gonna make dinner!" Knuckle said and smirked. "Tatsu is invited right?"

She didn't know what to say about it, but nodded her head. Tatsumaki was quick to take over the kitchen, even esper pushing Melee out of it! "I don't need an audience!" she decreed.

"Now, now, her house remember? She's also my little sister,"

Tatsumaki settled a little. "Fine," she said with a sigh. "Melee, I am going to take over your kitchen, please don't interfere." She said in a halfhearted request.

"Okay, thank you for making dinner."

"See, she's not bad!" Knuckle said.

"Whom are you directing that to?" Melee and Tatsumaki asked at the same time.

Knuckle paused. "System failure…"

"Nice try, you don't short out," Melee muttered. "Either way, do what you like, and thank you again,"

She took a seat next to Snek, Snek however was unsure as to what was going on, not to mention too fearful to say anything! Aoki however began to act up funny. Melee has never heard him make such a strange sound before.

But what concerned her was how Tatsumaki was reacting to it.

She would pause every so often and look at Aoki oddly. Snek would glare back at her and she went back to cooking. But it also took Knuckle by surprise. "Something going on Tatsu?" he asked.

She kept quite but Aoki acted up again. He started weeping and then full out crying! "Whoa, hey kid, what's wrong?"

He wailed for a good few minutes until Tatsumaki came over. She placed a single hand on his head and he settled instantly! Melee was impressed. "What did you do?" she asked.

"Nothing special." She insisted and floated back to the kitchen.

However, Melee couldn't help but feel she did something. Snek appeared to have the same idea in mind as well. There was a look of concern on his face as he looked to Aoki who was instantly soothed with a mere touch of his head.

She left it be for now, instead she enjoyed the show of Knuckle and Tatsumaki cooking together. Despite the fact that she doesn't get along with the powerful esper, seeing her brother smile and laugh was something she couldn't argue against. She made him happy, and she appears to be happier with him as well.

'Damn it, she's going to be my sister in law' Melee thought.

'Damn right!'

"GET OUT OF MY HEAD!" Melee scolded, yet Tatsumaki was smirking.

"What I miss?" Knuckle asked.

"Nothing…"

Melee kept her thoughts to herself, she couldn't put up that mind barrier yet either. Still, the fact remains, that esper woman is going to marry into her family! Why did it have to be her of all people!?

Next to return was Garou.

He stepped into the house but took in the scent of the meal. "Mmm, something smells good…" yet as he peered into the kitchen, he froze. "Why is the green bitch here?"

"HEY!" Knuckle shouted. "She is my girlfriend!"

Garou froze. "You and her? It's that serious?!" he demanded.

"Brawlers don't love and leave. When a Brawler loves you, its pretty much forever!" Knuckle stated.

"Wow…" Garou whispered as he gave a coy grin to Melee. "Forever huh?"

She blushed, Snek however was curious. "If that's the case, what happens if the partner becomes unfaithful?"

Knuckle had a 'oh boy' look on his face. "Happened a few times. Cousins of ours, girls, one married this ass hat of a guy. He thought a Brawler girl can take a hit, and liked to test that out on her daily." He said as he peeled some veggies. "Problem was… you mess with one Brawler, you mess with the family. So his punishment was justified, he never did it again… not like he could… we didn't kill him if you are asking that."

Snek suddenly looked a little pale, Garou on the other hand pulled up a chair. "Do tell!" he said with great interest.

Knuckle smirked. "Brawler justice is simple. Depending on how long and how many times you hit someone… you get struck back… by every member of the family." He explained.

Melee was stunned. "I didn't know about this," she whispered.

"You weren't around when it happened. I didn't participate in that either. Street and I were just kids when we saw it happen. Dad made sure we watched too, warning is if we ever struck a woman like that. He wouldn't hesitate to beat our asses!"

"So… how many punches?" Garou asked curiously.

Knuckle paused. "Let's see, he struck her about three times a day, they were married for six months, he began hitting her after they got married, and at the time there were twenty Brawlers…"

Garou's smile dropped. "Really?"

"Oh yeah, but not all the shots got in. Everyone got to hit him at least 30 times. I'll give the asshole credit that he lasted that long too. In the end, his arms and legs got shattered, broken ribs, and I think Uncle Jaxs accidently broke his spine…"

The room got quite, you could only hear the bubbling pots on the stove, even Tatsumaki froze. "They punished him that badly?" she whispered.

"He got off lucky." Knuckle stated. "He didn't pay the full price."

"Damn…" Garou muttered.

"Good thing you treat sis right, if not… oh man, I wouldn't want to be you!"

Garou however appeared curious. "Oh? Not to sound like a total asshole here, but… what could you and Street have done to me?"

Knuckle paused. "I ain't going to say it." He said.

"Aren't or don't want to?" asked Melee.

"Both,"

Now she was curious. "Really? Is there something you aren't telling me?"

Everyone was staring at Knuckle now. Even Tatsumaki. "Does your family have a special ability or something?"

He sighed to it all. "Yeah… yeah we do," he muttered. "But this does not leave this house!"

"Okay, what the hell is it?" Snek demanded.

Knuckle paused from his veggie peeling, he rolled his eyes and sighed aloud. "We have the ability to become stronger in an instant but for a short while. Think of it as Garou's genius combatant skill. Except for us, we are somehow able to obtain the strength of those greater than us for a mere few moments, seconds even after they strike us. For example, Saitama. If we took a single strike from him, we can obtain his strength for a very short period of time."

"If you survive, then again, when Saitama hits a person, he doesn't aim to kill… personal experience talking here," said Snek.

Melee froze. "Wait… is that how…"

Knuckle nodded. "I think so sis. When you were on the brink of death when Garou turned you, it triggered. It's rare for it to happen to the Brawler women, but it worked with you. It obtained the strength you needed to live. Street and I have been trying to figure this out for a while. Yet looking at the timeline it makes sense. When you were battling for your life, Garou put his skin on you right?" he asked. She nodded her head. "With the Brawler ability to absorb strength, since it happens so fast and not to mention when you take a hit, it's very fast, not a lot of time to absorb the other person's strength, yet when his skin was on you directly… your body just drew it right into you. Since it wasn't removed, it melded. It's never happened before by the way. Yet when this occurred, you absorbed Garou's abilities, hell. I don't even think you know how strong you really are! I mean, if you have been able to take the strength of everyone you have come in contact with…"

She thought it over. It's true, she rarely fights as it is, normally she is able to end a battle rather quickly or is too busy getting innocent people out of the way.

Garou however froze as he turned to Melee. "She is as strong as me!?" he asked with excitement.

"Maybe even more so now. Remember, she's got most of the S Class abilities in her too, not finely tuned like they are but they are there. If she trained each of those abilities to their finest…" he said offhandedly.

"Knuckle… can you and Street still do that? Absorb another's power?" she asked.

He thought it over. "I think so? Boros said something that if we consume part of a monster we can obtain their strength, same with DNA from people. It's how I can do this…" he suddenly shape shifted into Zombieman!

"Shit, since when…" Garou demanded as he got out of his chair in shock.

"A while," he said in Zombieman's voice. But snickered. "I love the fact I can scare you shitless!"

"That's a bonus feature I like about him," snickered Tatsumaki.

He turned back shortly after. "The thing is sis, I don't know the extent of this. But, with you…" he paused as he turned to Garou oddly. "She could probably take you on, and down." Knuckle warned.

"She's already done that," he said with a smirk.

"Ew," muttered Tatsumaki.