Good morning, my readers! I'm posting this chapter a little early because my next weeks will be rather busy, but i still hope i can find some time to write. Also, that new chapter is getting longer and longer and the one after will be even harder to write...so yeah, if i finish the chapters, expect there to be an hiatus.
Now for the responses!
To Exodus12345:well, this is the second part of the story, which is more focused on the plot and action, byt there will be some romance moments. And, if you really want to know, the third part if the story will be concentrated on the romance (but i have yet to write that part and i also want to find a healthy balance between romance and plot).
With that out of tge way, i believe we can start this chapter!
Shinko, Gobold and Beeline were walking in the sewer system of the ghost town, but so far had no luck at all.
Everything seemed so ordinary, aside from the place looking really old:the pipes were rusty, while the walls showed fungi-filled cracks, sign of years of abandonment and the lights were burned.
"Those fungi look delicious, they must a real charm when grilled..." Gobold grinned, his attention to the task already lost.
"There's nothing odd or out of place in these alleyways! It's shame i can't break the place, but if i were to do that the entire structure would collapse!" Shinko said frustrated to himself, trying to not mind his greedy partner.
"Don't be mad, Shinko. It's been four days and nobody found anything in general, not even traces of blood" Beeline said to console her partner, then turned to Gobold "It's like nobody was even here or if they did, they left a long time ago"
Gobold sighed "I feel you, Belly. This place is worthless! Not even trash remotely valuable can be found here!" he then shouted in anguish to the ceiling.
"Stay focused, you two. Maybe the others had luck this time" Shinko said hopefully.
X X X
"I don't want to sssound like a bummer, but we're not having any luck in thisss sssearch" Nark said hollowly and his usual grin couldn't be found on his face.
"Are you ok, honey? You haven't been yourself in these four days..." Lamia told Nark worriedly.
From the other side of the underground corridor, while Gelgo was scanning the walls with the light coming from his antennas, Mizuki sighed.
In these four days she lived and trained in Shinko's house, getting to know better the Wastelanders:even though they were monsters, they weren't exactly 'bad', they were kind of like normal people...but she still had to remind herself that her job was to slay any that dared to threaten humanity.
Still, Mizuki made a list which ranked the members based on her most favourites:Gaia definitely ranked in first, tying with Lamia and Hulkaber since these three were the most friendly (and Lamia seemed to know Shinko for quite some time...Perhaps she would ask the dog later about this).
In second place were Monoculor, Gelgo and Beeline since the three of them were polite and courteous all the time (she even found Gelgo's timid attitude quite adorable).
In third place tied Gobold, Nark, Malware and Beetle-Roach;she didn't think much of them.
Then in fourth place tied Ariol and Sandscale.
The former was sometimes passive-aggressive with his eyes alone, but at least he was quite calm and never tried anything.
Mizuki would never forgive Sandscale for attacking Atomic Samurai's disciples in the name of a 'spar'...
...However...he was courteous both with her and Shinko, despite the latter's feelings about him.
Hell, she could say that there was some sort of mutual respect between Sandscale and Shinko.
Was it because they fought once? Or because Shinko didn't see Sandscale as a threat?
She disliked their relationship a bit, but she wouldn't do anything to break that bond.
Because Shinko...was becoming more mature, and...she liked that.
Pondering about him also made Mizuki think about these few days:waking up on the couch with a shirtless Shinko just exiting his bedroom and telling her "Good morning!" with a radiant smile was a really good way to start the day.
However, her train of thoughts was interrupted by a few tugs to her leg.
Mizuki looked down to find Gelgo, his antennas still emitting a bright light. Darkness really seemed to upset him for some reason.
"Oh, sorry. I just wanted to tell you that this place is indeed empty. I couldn't find any trace of blood, not even with my light!" Gelgo said, making some distance between them "Also, i'd like to note that the cracks on the walls and floor don't make this place any safer"
"Yeah, we better not try and break stuff here or an entire sector of the city might go down..." Mizuki agreed with the slug monster.
"I wonder...did the humans make any maintenance in this place?" Lamia said aloud.
"They didn't make any because of the monsters roaming in the area" Mizuki said with a harsher tone than she intended. The only one who stiffened was Gelgo, while Lamia remained surprisingly calm.
"Not even after the Antlion invasssion?" Nark asked the hero, but his voice was failing him a bit.
Mizuki sighed:the construction team did what it could to repair the damages done by the nest, but they didn't really rebuilt anything in the affected area of the ghost town (even if it was surprisingly small).
"No" Mizuki said.
"Whatever then, we might asss well call it a day and return to the sssurface if SSShinko can't sssmasssh through the floor without killing usss all and causssing assstronimical property damage" Nark dismissed as he tried to force his usual attitude. Gelgo agreed silently with the reptile and Lamia looked at him in a concerned way.
"Is there anything wrong, dear?" she asked Nark gently.
Nark was silent for some seconds, then said "Thessse corridorsss...bring me bad memoriesss to mind. Better to be left alone" and left.
Or he would have, if Mizuki didn't sprint and grabbed him with one hand.
"Wait, are your bad memories linked to whatever may be lurking here?" Mizuki asked Nark as she was trying to stop her hand from crushing the snake by accident.
Again, another pause preceded his answer "No:we're talking about an organized group of monssstersss here, but the being in my memoriesss...isss a human, precisssely a female from what i can remember. Definitely not a good person, but ssstill a human"
Mizuki froze and let go of the monster, while Lamia was hurrying to his side.
"That's better than nothing, but why did you keep it to yourself?" Mizuki asked with suspicion in her voice.
"I don't remember a lot from my childhood assside from little hintsss and fleeting momentsss. None of them good. Honessstly they're jussst sssenssslesss rantingsss at the end of the day" Nark said truthfully.
Mizuki looked at him for 5 thick seconds, then sighed as her muscles relaxed.
"Ok, i believe you. Let's go to the surface and tell Monoculor about what we know" Mizuki said and she turned to way they came.
X X X
"Well, this doesn't help at all" Sandscale Dragon said aloud as he viewed nothing but empty corridors and the usual clumps of fungi littering the walls and ceiling. He then took one of said clumps and ate it out of boredom. Beetle-Roach, seeing the samurai reptile eating, went closer and asked "Are these fungi poisonous or are they safe? I'm starving here"
"There's safe alright, but a bit mushy. You should probably cook them if you don't like soft foods" Sandscale Dragon said and Beetle-Roach immediately launched himself to a clump as he started ravenously devouring it.
Monoculor, who was near them, made a noise between a groan and a sigh "Seriously, you two. We're on a mission that could very well result in our deaths, can't you focus on this matter?" he told them angrily.
"Relax Monoculor! There's nobody living down here anyway! No blood, no footsteps, nothing at all!" Beetle-Roach played it off as he kept eating and Sandscale Dragon seemed to agree as he said "Looks like these rumors were just rumors after all. Either that Phoenix Man was just recruiting monsters for his personal army or the Monster Association exists, but is located elsewhere. Maybe not even under a city"
Monoculor was fuming now as his teammates' attention was lost to the darkness of the corridors, but calmed down as Malware came near him.
The floating virus monster said "I understand how you feel, but so far we haven't found anyone or anything hinting at this association even exists. My life heat sensors haven't picked up nothing unusual, how about your vision?" he then asked.
Monoculor sighed yet again and simply said "Nothing"
"So we call out the search?" Sandscale Dragon said suddenly.
"Yes"
X X X
The utter silence certainly helped the Wastelanders' search. What it DID NOT help was Hulkaber's anxiety issues (aside from Gelgo's).
He was currently looking at the walls, wondering how many creatures once traveled these very corridors. Anything to distract himself from the creepy atmosphere that permeated the place.
Gaia was at the center of the corridor with her eyes shining of a lime light, looking at every inch of the rooms and double checking. Ariol was nearly glued to her, his senses at the maximum level.
Ever since that incident in the industrial complex, Ariol was even more protective of her and while Hulkaber found that warming, he contributed little to the research.
"I can't find anything" Gaia suddenly said as her eyes returned normal.
"If you say so sister, we can return to the surface" Ariol said to Gaia, then turned to Hulkaber and asked "Have you found anything, Hulkaber?"
The latter was broken out of his trance and said "Nothing, are we returning to the surface?"
"Yes. It's useless if we can't find anything" Ariol said as picked up his sister and started walking. Hulkaber soon followed.
X X X
"So you didn't find anything?" Monoculor slowly asked a second time.
"Yeah, we didn't..." Shinko said a second time, while Mizuki chimed in "What did you even want us to find?"
Monoculor sighed and said "I knew i should have explained this BEFORE starting the search and i'm sorry about that:among monsters there was a rumor that, under this city, lived a group of elite monsters. I'm talking about dragon levels here. But, apart from that, we couldn't get any sort of information about this group" Monoculor finished with a sigh.
"Nobody even knows the way this 'group' recruits its members, or if it even exists" Sandscale Dragon added with a serious tone, making Ariol enter the conversation "Exactly. Knowing how loudmouthed some monsters are, you'd think at least one of them would screw up and reveal the secret"
"Maybe they act very rarely?" Shinko suggested, but Mizuki suddenly interrupted the conversation "This group of elite monsters is just a rumor, right? Besides, i don't think that a group of dragon level monsters could stay put in the underground for so long" she said.
"You got a point" Monoculor said "Therefore, because of this, i officially call off the research"
Everyone let on a sigh of relief.
Mizuki, however, stood up and turned to Shinko.
"If that's so, then i have to leave. Darkshine called me to start another training regimen" Mizuki said seriously.
There was the slighest hint of agitation within Ariol's body, but Gaia, from the top of his head, calmed him down.
"Really? Well, if you say so" Shinko said happily.
They hugged each other and Mizuki said "Say hi to Saitama for me!" before exiting Shinko's house.
"What a lovely lady" Sandscale Dragon said to Shinko as the former smiled.
Monoculor was smiling as well, but not because of the scene which unfolded.
"What is the matter, Monoculor?" Malware suddenly said.
"Oh, nothing. I think that it's time for a long-awaited family reunion" he said and Shinko smiled as well, perfectly understanding what he meant.
X X X
Meanwhile, in the depths of Z city, a 'celebration' was in place.
A small monster, along with many others, was serving all kinds of foods, including raw and fresh monster meat.
This particular small monster was clad in a light blue mage robe and his head was obscured by a light blue hood, his lively yellow eyes shining through its darkness. On top of the hood was a shiny, cyan-colored crystal, which gave off an icy aura. The monster's hands were also covered by with white mitten gloves.
That monster was Flake Mage, an oddity in the Association:his ice attacks were strong enough to warrant him the tiger level, but his poor defense was akin to one of a wolf level monster.
So Gyoro Gyoro declared that he couldn't fit in either group, making him the prime target of bullying by tiger levels and the scape goat of wolf levels.
Since then (and even before) he regretted his decision of joining this blasted association with all of his being:at first he was just a mere monster living in the snowy mountains where he could happily make snow angels and eat ice sticks all day without a care in the world, but then a raise in temperatures caused the snow to melt away and he was forced to go to the plains.
From there his personal hell started, always running away from heroes or other monsters.
Sure, after some time, he adapted to the climate and his ice attacks returned to their former strength, but it didn't get any better from there.
Until, or so he thought, he heard a rumor about a place where monsters lived with one another.
Oh, how naive he was back then, he still didn't understand how he survived three years in this hell hole.
"More wine, slave. Oh and bring another ball of yarn" a tall, cat-like monster said.
Flake Mage cursed under his breath and hurried with the bottle of alcohol and the silly object of entertainment.
"Good" the cat-like monster smiled at him, baring each and every one of his long and sharp teeth.
Flake Mage's sweat suddenly became hot like lava.
As the small monster runned away, Gyoro Gyoro called the guests from the center of the 'fancy' room, first adressing the servants "Alright, now we have to speak of important matters, you get back to your posts" it said and the wolf levels did as ordered.
"Now that the small fries are away, i wanted to congratulate you all on closing off all the passages to the hideout. It would have been troublesome if our enemies had info on us" Gyoro Gyoro said as it opened its arms.
The other monsters in the room didn't seem to share its enthusiasm:Nyan was too engrossed with that yarn ball of his, Bug God didn't really care (but at least pretended to), Royal Ripper was cackling and Homeless Emperor was fuming along with Milotanus.
The last monster's appearance was somehow worse than Fuher Ugly:his body resembled one of an anorexic old man, his long beard was dirty and thorned, his hands and feet were disproportionate compared to the rest of the body, his face was littered with black points and and scars and his skin was dark brown and way too stretched in certain points.
Truly a disgusting sight to behold.
He spoke, revealing his horrid, yellow teeth "Why don't we just attack them and be done with it?! I was sure master would like to have that boy in his room!"
"Please Milotanus, just a have a little more patience. Also, remember where your loyalties have to lie" Gyoro Gyoro told the ugmon calmly, then explained "This decision was crucial to keep our forces in peak condition. We can't allow ourselves to lose anyone, not even one monster, especially now that we are so close in launching our first attack and leave a mark on our enemies. Until then, we can't allow ourselves to make conflicts with the Hero Association" At that, Milotanus merely sighed and shut up.
"It was pretty easy honestly, these hidden walls and passages are a blessing! I'm sure we can even use them when the heroes will arrive!" Bug God said with well hidden fake excitement, merely to diffuse the situation.
Royal Ripper suddenly stood up and stormed out of the room, killing a monster immediately after leaving.
"What is up with that guy recently? Honestly, today's living beings are just too impatient, they should all try to learn some patience" Milotanus commented as he stroke his beard. Some pieces of grime and muddled hair fell off and, when they came in contact with the ground, they sizzled melted some of it.
'Eh? What just happened?' Nyan thought as he cracked an eye in the direction of the others, interrupting his short nap and taking his yarn ball off the ground.
A sigh of exasperation escaped Gyoro Gyoro's...whatever really and said "Now that that issue is taken care of, i wanna ask you all...WHERE IN THE FLYING FUCK IS BLACK SPERM?! HE COULDN'T STILL POSSIBLY BE AT THE ANTLION NEST!?" it exploded in rage at the mere thought that one of the strongest members of the Monster Association was in a secluded (and currently inaccessible) location.
X X X
'Holy shit, i've hit jackpot' this time!' Black Sperm thought as he stuffed himself with the corpses of the antlions.
Ever since the total annihilation of that nest, Black Sperm made his home there and scavenged it in search of even the tiniest bit of the antlions' flesh.
Why? Because that kind of meat gave him so many proteins that one of their bodies amounted to 30 human ones!
Such a golden opportunity to truly build up his number of cells could not and would not be passed!
'Screw Gyoro Gyoro! When it'll see how strong i've become, it will eat its own arms in envy!' Black Sperm though as he found more bodies of antpedes.
However, as he ate the fifth one, a purple bolt struck his side and cut him in half.
To Black Sperm this was merely an annoyance as the two parts of his body began regenerating.
Now there were two Black Sperm, currently facing down a peculiar looking antlion:this one was purple and skinnier instead of orange and beefier. He was also wielding a staff with a purple, malicious looking eye on top.
"Who dares to desecrate the antlions' tombs?!" he said with a voice akin to an old guy's.
"Me, and who the hell asks?" Black Sperm said uninterested, since this guy couldn't possibly give that many proteins, given his frailty.
"The Necroanter, of course!" the monster proclaimed proudly "Now stop eating my kins' corpses so i can revive them into an army to destroy humanity!" he then said very fast.
Black Sperm, now reformed into one being, raised an eyebrow, then had an idea. A splendid idea.
"Hey, stop there for a sec'. You said you can revive people?" Black Sperm asked calmly.
"Why yes, but they're more like zombies" Necroanter answered, confused by where this conversation was going.
"Look, i'm a cadre from the Monster Association and i want to offer you a job" Black Sperm said.
"Did you say 'Monster Association'?! Why didn't you say so already?! Of course i'm up!" Necroanter said excitedly.
"Good, just let me finish to eat these corpses, then follow me. I got the perfect role for you" Black Sperm said, a bit surprised that his plan actually worked out well.
At least THAT would spare him from Gyoro Gyoro's lectures, once he was back at the base.
X X X
Flake Mage came to a stop in one of the dusty corridors of the hideout and wiped the sweat iff his forehead.
He kept thinking about what stuff the higher ups might be talking about...Maybe something about the how they kept the heroes from discovering them? Something that the lower-level monsters (including himself) occupied themselves with?
Perhaps it was that or something along those lines, but he didn't get to think about it any further.
The reason manifested itself in the form of a black-furred hand with sharp fingers.
"Oh, hey Sharp Stripe. How's it going?" Flake Mage tiredly greeted the monster, who in turn laughed.
"Very well, if i say so myself, but you look like an undead to me" Sharp Stripe shouted loudly, yet a little worried. Nonetheless, she slapped his shoulder with the intent to cheer him up.
"Come on! Do you know that now is the time for our daily training? We really gotta work on that stamina of yours!" she said excitedly.
'Oh god, i forgot' Flake Mage thought with dread, but he turned to Sharp Stripe and followed her anyway.
As he did that, her figure was revealed:the she-monster had short, black fur all over her body (except on her face, frontal neck and central body, where it was milky white), a lithe but strong and toned body (with six pack abdominals and a small-to-medium chest), short black spiky hair, two long wolf-like ears, sharp teeth, a fox-like tail and goat feet.
As for her height, she was way taller than him:without counting the crystal on his head, Flake Mage's height would be just up her waist, counting it made his height arrive just along her fore-arm.
As the two made their way on these corridors, Flake Mage began to think about his relationship with Sharp Stripe:he considered her an hot-headed monster who picked a lot of fights with monsters near her level, sometimes a bit higher (in almost all of them, she would come out victorious). But he didn't care about that, because she was the only one who reached out to him when everyone else shunned him. So that's how she got his respect and how they became friends, or as she would also put, "training buddies"
That was the oddest thing about her:Flake Mage in those three years saw humans performing "training" by repeatedly lifting heavy stuff, including their own bodies! He didn't really care about it since he had to survive and that looked like a waste of energy and time, but Sharp Stripe disagreed, saying that it was worth it. He trusted her because she seemed to get stronger every day with this 'training'.
"Here we are!" she said as they entered their room:it was quite empty and not really big, with only two mattresses at the far end and some weights laying around.
Flake Mage also noted new cracks aling the walls, these ones being as big as his body (without the crystal).
"To my personal hell..." he muttered hollowly.
"Oh, come on! Don't be like that, Magey!" Sharp Stripe said to revive his enthusiasm, also using his much hated nickname "You know that we have to improve your physical prowess! Just look at how strong i got!" she added, motioning to the cracks on the walls "The older me would have never reached this kind of power, so if i can do it, you can too!" she then proclaimed.
Flake Mage sighed "Look, i know you're doing this for my own good and i thank you for your kindness, but this isn't working out. I don't feel like i'm getting any stronger!" he said to her, being honest with the both of them.
Sharp Stripe however, wasn't deterred as she ignored his speech entirely and said "Yeah right! You don't need to listen to those idiots just because they're stronger than you, you've got your own mind!"
Huge mistake she made there, because then Flake Mage snapped. He punched the wall he was nearest to with his right fist and angrily shouted "If you say i've got my own mind, then let me take my own decisions! This training, with everything else in between, is slowly killing me, but you don't seem to care! This is the problem with you! I really hate your stubbornness sometimes!"
Sharp Stripe remained silent, but she didn't flich in the slightest. Instead the pointed her finger at the point in which Flake Mage punched and said seriously "Magey, look at the wall you punched"
"Why should i?!" he said annoyed, but looked anyway and froze (metaphorically, that is):his punch formed a crack in the wall twice the size of his fist. His hand didn't even wince at the impact.
Flake Mage kept still, having being disproven by himself, then slowly said "Sharp...I'm sorry for before, you were right all along"
"Don't worry Magey. The thing about my stubbornness was true...but that doesn't mean i'll ever change that!" she said with a huge, toothy grin on her face, then she turned worried "But about the part where you were slowly dying-" "I meant that metaphorically Sharp, i'm not gonna die any time soon" Flake Mage interrupted her, placing his hands on hers.
That gesture made him realize how small were his hands compared to hers and how soft the latter's were. Sharp Stripe froze, but the sensation of Flake Mage's hands was refreshing.
A minute passed and the situation was getting awkward, so they let go of each other.
"Now let's start with the training! I'm confident that in mere months we'll become demon levels!" Sharp Stripe said to 'break the ice'.
"Don't you think that's a bit of a stretch?" Flake Mage said. "Why would it be? If we train hard every day, we're going to shatter every limit ahead of us!" Sharp Stripe replied.
He was puzzled about her talk of 'limits' and such, but tackled it as an afterthought as the two began training.
X X X
"Honestly, Child Emperor, how could you let this happen? You're an S class, for crying out loud, you shouldn't have too much trouble with a demon level...Anyway, at least you did a good job in obtaining the needed information. I'll dispatch some robots of mine to track down this monster and fix this mess" Metal Knight said and then shut off his side of the communication, leaving a frustrated Child Emperor to think about what went wrong.
At first it was going smoothly:he captured some wolf levels in E city and interrogated them, getting the info that it was indeed a humanoid monster who broke out Metal Knight's base.
But then the impossible happened:Sandscale Dragon, the monster who defeated three A class heroes (who also were Atomic Samurai's disciples), barged in his laboratory, broke a lot of equipment, snatched one of the captured monsters and caused the others to escape.
And of course it had to be the one he wasn't done interrogating yet and who was the most collaborative .
He tried to kill that monster, but his swordmanship proved to be superior, destroying both his backpack's weapons and three watchdog men.
The child hero glared at the shut off screen, muttering something about "how he was the one to let his base get hacked in the first place".
Thinking about it distracted Child Emperor from his rage:the ones who hacked that base were certainly experts in that field, who must have planned the attack for quite some time, especially since they could keep it for a whole week without Metal Knight noticing.
The only reason Metal Kinght DID notice...was because of that monster.
The information of the outbreak wasn't exactly public, only trusted members of the government knew about it and they were told that the monster was a low dragon level...
...What a full-blown LIE that was!
When he inspected the damaged base, Child Emperor couldn't find a single drop of blood of tissue that belonged to that monster (if anything, he couldn't even find any information regarding its looks).
The camera recordings were also corrupted for some reason, meaning that he had to work on this case even harder to get even the slightest bit of information (thankfully Zombieman was helping him at the time and made everything easier).
The walls and armaments within that base were enough to stop a low dragon level, but to find them all destroyed...
...meant that this monster was something to be reckoned with.
Child Emperor sighed tiredly. All this gloomy thinking, coupled with Metal Knight's shenanigans, were REALLY doing a number on him.
He'd definitely need to treat himself with a lot of sweets for all his hard work.
So yeah, initially i was going to only show Shinko and Mizuki (with respective side characters) exploring the underground, but then i decided to also add the others.
Another thing is that, at the time of writing this chapter, i was at a roadblock because Shinko (or any other character) would most definitely discover the hideout, until the solution presented itself to me:secret passages and structural damages impeding Shinko from smashing everything (i'll definitely have to remember these details as to not create a plot-hole by accident).
Also we have two "new" characters because i wanted someone else conspiring behind the Monster Association other than Phoenix Man. Also we'll have another character fully entering the story, of course you know it's Belphimet...
Anyway, i hoped you enjoyed the chapter, see ya!