CHAPTER 7:

Before

Bad had to have been about seven or eight years old. The man tied to the pole in the basement cried, already dripping blood from his swollen head.

Abinobo pushed Bad forward, her garishly long fingernails painted a glittery orange that hurt his peripherals. But he could hear the other children, all under the age of ten, snickering around him.

"Finish him," the old woman whispered.

The older kids groaned. "He's too weak," they protested. "He's still a baby!"

Though while the last sentence might be said with rationality and sensitivity, these children spoke with disdain. As if Bad's young age and inexperience with torture and murder made him disgusting.

"Nonsense!" Abinobo waved away their concerns. "It's in his name! He's built for this tough work." She crouched down to look Bad in the eye. "Aren't you, Bad? My new, special boy."

Abinobo kissed his cheek and ran her fingers through his hair, but much more sensually than was appropriate. Not that the children present were surprised. They rolled their eyes, going through the motions.

Bad, himself, barely noticed. He was too busy staring at the beaten man, begging for his life in a voice no one could hear, if they even tried to listen. The man was fat, in a suit. Pictures of his children lay scattered before him. He moaned in continuous agony.

"Let's play a game," said Abinobo, still on Bad's level. "Let's pretend that this man killed your parents."

"This man?" asked Bad. "But it wasn't him, it was a monster."

"Yes, yes," dismissed Abinobo. "But let's pretend that his man called the monster and told it to kill your parents."

"Why would he do that?"

"Because he's evil," snapped Abinobo. "He is a menace, he is a liar, and he will only hurt more people if we let him live."

"No!" the man cried, finding his voice desperately. "No! I won't! I promise! I'll stay home, I'll spend time with my kids, I just want to go home to them." He sobbed anew. "Please, please, just let me go, I'll never bother you again."

"Now I can't take that risk," Abinobo told him calmly. "And I need Bad here to prove his manhood." She squeezed Bad's shoulder, her fingernails digging in painfully. "You want to prove you're a man, right?"

"I g-guess," stuttered Bad.

"Your sister," whispered Abinobo. "Is just a baby. She needs you to be a man."

"Yeah," Bad shuffled his weight.

"Well," Abinobo reached over and grabbed a metal baseball bat from the nearest child. She handed it to Bad. "Men do what needs to be done."

"But," Bad watched the man cry. "I-I promised to kill monsters, not people!"

"He is a monster," Abinobo assured him. "The way he was touching our girls? He'd touch your sister like that too."

"No!" screamed the man. His eyes caught Bad's and held them there with a desperate look. "No! I wouldn't! I swear, I won't do that anymore."

"Too late!" Abinobo stood and yelled at the man with a venom that made all the children recoil. "One of my Little Hostesses is damaged, and you can't afford to cover what she's worth! So you can't afford to live!" She turned her ire straight to Bad. "Finish this bitch! NOW!"

"Finish this bitch! Finish this bitch!" The other children chanted, beating the ground and tables like drums. "FINISH THIS BITCH!"

Bad gripped the bat and approached the man. Both winced as the boy liften his arm, and brought the metal weapon down, barely making a noise as he lightly tapped the man's temple.

A searing pain suddenly cut across Bad's back. He screamed, and turned to see Abinobo wielding a whip, tipped with points of aluminum. Bad could feel the blood drip down his back.

"I said NOW," shouted Abinobo. "Or your sister will replace the damaged Little Hostess. As soon as she turns three, I swear to your dead fucking parents!"

She whipped Bad again, adding cuts on top of cuts.

"Finish this bitch!" the kids kept chanting. "FINISH! THIS! BITCH!"

"Aah!" Screaming, Bad swung the bat with all his might.

He struck the man, but the blow only made him cry harder.

"You're evil," the man said. But when he looked up, he stared over Bad and at Abinobo. "Convincing a child to do your killing. So you don't get your hands dirty."

"And what about your hands?" retorted Abinobo. "Keep going," she commanded Bad.

Bad hit the man again, and again. At first, it only seemed to be a slap. But after a while, the crying stopped, and even the man's head ceased to look human. To young Bad, it looked more like a cantaloupe in a wig being broken apart. He convinced himself that that's what he was attacking: a suited scarecrow with a cantaloupe head, filled with meat, wearing a wig. The boy clung to this imagery, tried to convince himself that the crying and begging was all made up. He had to convince himself that this man was a monster. Of course he was. Who else would have a wigged cantaloupe for a head?

He realized that his bat slapping the shell of this scarecrow's head was the only sound in the basement. Bad stopped, unsure, and looked to Abinobo. For approval, for word on what to do next, for any knowledge or guidance about what he had just done.

The old woman smiled. "That's my special boy," she said proudly, planting a kiss on his temple.

The tunnel whizzed by. The deeper they went, the more monsters spontaneously attacked. They collapsed the tunnels behind them, purposely pulling and breaking the earth around them.

Master Warhead was able to support three people without losing speed. Atomic Samurai drove, Aiko perched on top of the windshield, holding on to a rearview mirror with one hand. With the other, she swung her katana with expert control, cutting away imps popping from the ground in front of them. Whatever monsters were too far away, she channeled her energy and blasted them with slicing air.

"That was a hundred slashes!" she cried gleefully. "I did it! I did the Atomic-"

"Nope!" corrected her father. "That was only fifteen! Sorry sweetie!"

"How do you confuse fifteen for a hundred?" asked Metal Bat from the back seat.

"Shut up!" countered Aiko. "I'm not a thinker!"

"Clearly!"

Bad stood as a surfer would to better wield his bat with both hands. As he wailed against assailants swarming from the rear, rocks from the cave-in came at them faster and faster. Their surroundings were closing in.

"I know it's a tall ask," he shouted over the engine and commotion. "But could we go any faster?"

"There!" cried Kamikaze. "The end of the tunnel!"

As they approached, however, an enormous mole-like creature appeared at the exit, and charged them head-on. Four clawed paws kicked up dirt as it ran, almost concealing its brown fur-covered body. But the glowing red eyes still gave it away.

"Alright," Aiko smiled. "Bring it!"

The closer they got, the more the mole monster seemed to change. Its jaw elongated to almost a barracuda-like snout, the drool from its numerous teeth shining in the headlight. The eyes, too, grew bigger, and the thing started to shriek. Softly, at first, then louder, as its body became almost too big for what remained of their tunnel.

The larger it grew, the more hair fell off. Soon enough, it was hairless. Then skinless, shedding flesh as it came at them faster and faster.

"Aiko!" cried Kamikaze. "Take the wheel!"

Snapping out of a trance, Nuclear Samurai obeyed, sliding under her father as he climbed over to stand on the windshield. Aiko had to dip her head sideways to see, but could keep them going straight.

"Slow down," said Atomic Samurai. "Wait for it."

Aiko slowed enough to start the engine cooling, but kept them at a solid trajectory forward. This tempted the monster to come at them even faster, which is what they wanted.

Metal Bat sank on his haunches, putting one hand on the passenger handle, while keeping the other poised for attack. All the other imps had disappeared, clearly knowing what was in store.

The now-skinless, white-eyed mole-thing screeched with a maw that extended the height of the tunnel.

The heroes were now stuck between two collapsing ends, one of which had teeth. They held their breaths, waiting for that right moment.

"NOW!" hollered Atomic Samurai.

Aiko punched the gas. Master Warhead roared with a new life, its second wind sending them soaring to meet the mole-maw head-on.

"Atomic Slash!" cried out Kamikaze.

A blue flash of light blinded the way ahead of them, disintegrating the mole to pieces. They soared straight through their self-made threshold of loose limbs, displaced teeth, bones, and monster goo.

They emerge from the tunnel, finally, onto a bridge going over a massive underground chasm. The darkness beneath them was heavy, filled with sound.

Atomic Samurai got back in the driver's seat. His daughter scooted behind him, while Metal Bat stood on the passenger foot pegs and held onto Aiko's shoulders.

Suddenly, from the depths of nowhere, an enormous purple arm rose and smashed the bridge from under them.

"Oh crap!" hollered Metal Bat.

They freefell into the darkness, surrounded by a deep, rumbling laughter.

King fell. From how high, he couldn't tell, but he wasn't hurt. That didn't stop him from shaking head-to-toe and sweating profusely.

Tatsumaki floated before him, examining his face. "Are you alright?" she asked. "Are you cold, or hot?"

"I-I don't know," King fought to keep his composure. His heartbeat rose louder than his voice.

This brought a smile to Terrible Tornado's face. "Perfect," she said excitedly. "You're so pumped with adrenaline, ready for a fight! Me too! Now." She looked around the tunnel where they stood. "We were supposed to have gone to the throne room. What happened?"

She tried again, throwing out her arms and wrapping them both in a green force field. They teleported out, but reappeared right back again.

Tatsumaki frowned. "There's some kind of psychic protection around the throne room. Damn it, we'll have to get there manually. C'mon!"

She started down the earthen corridor. King followed, not wanting to be alone.

He cleared his throat, to keep it steady. "Maybe we should check the Hero's Association app? See what others have found in the chat?"

"You can if you want," responded Tatsumaki. "I'm trying to follow this psychic trail. Orochi is protected with special power, that's for sure. Strong psychic power."

"Well, I'm sure it's nothing you can't handle."

"Of course not," snapped Terrible Tornado. "But I will need you to take care of Orochi himself, while I eradicate whomever is putting up these protections."

"King Orochi?" King's head started to ring. "Take care of King Orochi? Me?"

"Who else?" Tatsumaki sounded impatient. "You're the strongest man, right? Who else is there to take down Orochi? This psychic presence must be their other leader. I'll have to-"

She stopped talking. A headache struck her, and a vision overtook her senses: A frowning blue eye. Tiny pink hands lined up in a row. Every city, ruined.

"You're finished," an echoing voice hissed in her head. "Humanity, finished. The age of the monster has come!"

There was a flash, and too much pain. Tatsumaki fell to the ground, crying out. King caught her just in time.

"Tatsumaki!" He checked her temperature. "You're burning up! What happened?"

"Th-they know," she managed to mumble. "We have-no surprise attack. They know."

"Hang in there," pleaded King. "We will win! Just-"

She fell unconscious.

"No!" King cried out loud, shaking her. "No, Tatsumaki, wake up! Don't leave me here like this!"

A panting, creeping sound stopped his voice. Holding his breath, King listened in quaking apprehension as it got closer and closer.

Turning his head, reluctantly, he saw what he thought was a man at first. It had arms, legs, torso, and head. But its arms were attached to its stomach by long appendages, and its legs dragged on the floor from the knees down. There were no eyes, nose, or mouth to be seen, just indents where those parts would be. Its skin, if it wasn't scales, looked as though a person had been set on fire and left to melt.

The creature pulled itself across the floor, one side at a time. King clutched Tatsumaki to his chest and tried to crawl away.

The second he moved, however, the thing's head snapped up.

"King?" it asked. Its entire face stretched past its head in a large, macabre smile. "King? And Terrible Tornado? In one swoop! Lucky day!"

It broke out in raucous, unnerving laughter. The appendages holding its arms down stretch out like javelins, aimed straight at them.

"Aah!"

King screamed and bolted out of the way. He carried Tatsumaki around the corner and ran with all his might.

The monster paused, perplexed. "Run away?" it asked. "Why run away?" When King didn't stop, it grew livid. "Why run away?"

The lower half of its legs stretched, pushing the monster's upper half around the corner and after King.

"No!" cried King. "Please!"

"Why run away?"

The javelins jabbed on either side of King and trapped him in a straight line. The monster's true arms snaked in between and grabbed the hero with stretching fingers.

"Let me go!" He bit one of its hands, but the hold stayed true.

"Why not fight me?" the monster asked. "Why this insult?"

King didn't answer. It's facial dents contorted with rage. Suddenly, it threw its chin back so far, the center of its neck was prominent in King's face. The neck opened, revealing a swirling cylinder of spiral teeth and what looked like a squid beak.

"I'm worthy!" It shrieked in an ear-splitting, eye-watering tone. "I'm worthy or die!"

Its beak stretched to swallow them both.

A sound of earth and dirt breaking, and a white fuzz flashed through King's peripherals. He heard the bark and growl of his cohort, S-Class hero Watchdog Man, just before the crawling hero sank his teeth into the monster's arm.

"Aah!" it cried. "Get off!"

The grip around King loosened. He took the opportunity to bite again, kick harder, and wriggle himself and Tatsumaki to freedom.

The monster reached for them again, but Watchdog Man grabbed its arms and ripped them both apart with a strong twist.

"Curse you!" the monster railed. "I wanted to fight King! King!"

It tried to catch Watchdog Man, but the hero on four limbs was too fast for the creature literally dragging its feet. He punched down onto its beak, causing a gush of monster goo.

The monster made a strange gurgling sound until Watchdog Man drove his paw through its center one more time. It stopped and fell over, lifeless.

Watchdog Man looked at King over the carnage and met his eyes.

"Thank you," said King, sincerely grateful. But as the furred hero continued to pointedly stare, he became aware of the awkwardness of the situation. "Um, it caught me off-guard. Tatsumaki had just fainted."

It wasn't a complete lie, and it seemed to remind Watchdog Man that Terrible Tornado had been unconscious this entire time. He clamoured over on all fours, sniffing at the girl.

"There you are!" Flashy Flash ran out of the hole that Watchdog Man had entered from. "I thought I'd lost-King!" He looked around at the carnage, then chuckled. "Busy, I see."

Watchdog Man snarled.

"Terrible Tornado fainted," said King, desperate to change the subject. "She ran a fever, said something about the monsters knowing, then passed out. She seemed to have a headache."

"An intense psychic vision," assessed Flashy Flash. "She might wake up from it on her own. We shouldn't move her; should try to keep her warm."

Watchdog Man wagged his tail, and pawed at Flashy Flash's knapsack.

"You're right," agreed the ninja. "I should make some tea. She should probably have a blanket too."

Soon enough, they set up a little camp, inside the smaller tunnel that Watchdog Man had made, at King's insistence. He was paranoid of being attacked out in the open. The other heroes concurred.

Tatsumaki lay in Flashy Flash's sleeping bag. Her temperature did go down, but she still flinched, as if in pain.

"Is she going to be alright?" asked King concernedly.

"I hope so," said Flashy. "I really don't know how deeply psychic attacks affect the body. I didn't even know they could cause things like fevers."

"Neither did I." King took a sip of tea. "Thanks, for the tea, and the help."

"When did you two come down?"

"Just now," said King. "Tornado teleported us both down here. That's why we didn't pack anything; we thought we'd be in and out."

"Typical Tatsumaki." Flashy Flash rolled his eyes. "So reliant on her powers, she's forgotten the reality of being human and how to survive practically."

Watchdog Man whined and nodded. He licked at his tea.

"Didn't even prepare for a potential emergency like this." Flashy Flash shook his head, but then contemplated King, and smiled. "Then again, she probably figured she didn't have to, with you by her side. Maybe bringing you was her contingency plan!"

"Yeah, maybe," King stared at the floor, especially avoiding the eyes of Watchdog Man. "But, uh, we were, um, using her powers to navigate. So, now I'm not sure where to go."

To his relief, they nodded understandably at the excuse. "We've been following Waganma's trail," Flashy Flash told him. "I found the throne room yesterday-"

"Yesterday?" interrupted King. "How long have you been here?"

Flashy Flash looked at Watchdog Man and shrugged. "Maybe two days now? There's no way to tell time."

"Your phone?" suggested King.

"Why would a ninja, a master of reconnaissance and espionage, have a hackable, identifiable cell phone?"

"Fair point," King conceded. "Anyway, sorry, you said you found the throne room already?"

"Yes," Flashy Flash sipped the last of his tea and sighed. "But it was empty. Apparently, King Orochi has been moved to a more secure area, and Waganma, I've learned, has been moving locations every day."

"Every day? Why?"

"To throw off early infiltrators such as myself, I suppose. Watchdog Man has been able to follow his scent, but it's hard when he keeps moving. We keep going to places he's been, but not where he is."

Watchdog Man barked and wagged his tail.

Flashy Flash nodded. "But we are getting closer."

"Could he be kept with King Orochi?" asked King.

"Maybe, I haven't garnered enough details. The other monsters don't seem to care about that aspect of the plan so much as taking over the world."

"Figures." King, too, finished his tea and handed the empty cup back. He suggested in the most serious voice he could put on, "I think we should stay together, and look for them both. Where one is, the other must be nearby. King Orochi won't want to risk his best leverage."

"You're right."

That was fast and easy, King sighed in relief. Thank God!

"We could use the additional back-up," conceded Flashy-Flash. Watchdog nodded.

"But say we find Waganma," King started to sweat. "Do we have a route back out?"

"Even if we did," explained Flash. "It seems the monsters were waiting for us all to gather deeply enough. Now they've started collapsing all the tunnels. It's nothing but solid ground from here on up. Are you alright, King? You look really pale."

King stutters hopelessly. "N-no? No, I mean, I don't feel very pale...I mean, look very pale. Do I? Ahem, well, never mind, we should probably go ahead and dig our way out, that way we have a clear route to the surface after securing Waganma."

Watchdog Man raised a hand and wagged his tail.

"That's right," agreed Flashy Flash. "Watchdog Man is a master digger. We'll still be out of here in no time."

"Oh," squeaked King. "Good."

Tatsumaki stirred. Flashy checked her temperature.

"She might be waking up soon," he said. "We should get ready to move out as soon as that happens."

"Great, sounds like a plan," said King, not even trying to hide the sarcasm. His cohorts, however, didn't seem to notice.

This is the worst day of my life, King decided.

Garou writhed on the ground, hands over his ears, trying to stop the voices in his head. Just as he began to understand what some of them were saying, more shouted over or convoluted whatever revelation he was close to achieving.

He got on his knees and fought the urge to throw up. His memories were being clashed together so harshly, he started questioning whether or not this reality was, truly, the real world. Or if everything he remembered was fabricated and, therefore, meant nothing.

The ground shook around him, but Garou was so preoccupied mentally that he failed to notice. Even when the 8-foot tall, four-armed, twok-headed fighting monster stepped right up to him and lifted him by his jaw.

"So this is the hero hunter?" questioned the left head.

"Being broken in by Gyoro-Gyoro," observed the other. "Obviously."

The monster dropped him painfully. It shook Garou from the mental hold for a second. But then his visions became hallucinations, swarming the physical realm.

"Stop," he grunted, fighting back the headache.

Both the fighter's heads laughed.

"Oh, man," cried the right head. "He's downright pathetic!"

"See, Omitan?" scoffed the left. "Too easy. He's not worth our time."

"King Orochi sent us here to break him, Opishan," reminded Omitan. "So break him we should."

"Yes," smiled Opishan, drooling slightly. "Break him!"

Omitan's two right arms withdrew a massive halberd from the holster on his back, blades on both the top and bottom. One of Opishan's arms unsheathed a massive scimitar, while the other wielded a heavy, spiked flail.

"Break him," they said together.

For his part, Garou could only see an eight-foot warrior with Bang and Bomb's heads. Surrounded by shadow children from the playground, faceless dojo disciples, and a younger, more serious, pre-alcoholic Aiko.

Bang and Bomb's heads growled at him disapprovingly. "Break him," they hissed. "Break him!"

"Break him," all the children repeated. "Break him!"

Garou struggled to his feet. He still couldn't step too far away from the wall, with the shackle around his neck, but he got into his fighting stance.

"Just come," he breathed through the pain filling his head, now going down his neck and back. "Just come, and try it."

He started getting dizzy, so dizzy his vision blurred.

Omitan and Opishan laughed cruelly.

"Let's put him out of his misery," Omitan aimed his halberd at Garou's neck and jabbed.

Despite not seeing clearly and everything going double, Garou managed to catch the halberd by the staff and twist it, almost pulling it from Omitan's grasp.

The monster, however, maintained its footing and pulled its halberd back.

"Stubborn bastard," scoffed Omitan.

"My turn!" Opishan swung his flail.

Garou ducked just in time, but couldn't dodge Opishan's countering sword. It sliced into his gut from the side, leaving a mean, bleeding gash. He stepped back, eyes closed.

When he opened them again, he saw not a monster nor even Bang and Bomb, but Aiko, her katana dripping with his blood.

"You've always been weak," she smirked, stepping into her stance for another blow. "Weak. Pathetic. Weird. And ugly!"

All the children behind her guffawed in deafening voices.

The hero hunter reached to throw a punch, but it was too slow, and feeble. Aiko took hold of his wrist and gave him a hard left hook.

He thought she had broken his neck, his head whipped to the side so hard. In reality, it had been Opishan's blow from his flail handle that had knocked Garou.

"Just stab him already," grunted Omitan impatiently. "Like this."

He brought forth his halberd again. Again, Garou dodged, the massive bladed weapon embedding itself in the wall.

"Damn it!" cried Omitan, struggling to free it.

Opishan cackled. "Oh, you clumsy loser!"

He thrust his sword. Garou slumped to the ground, avoiding impact. Opishan, too, got his weapon stuck in the rock.

Garou smiled. He breathed in his pain, and exhaled anger. Inhaled strength, breathed out focus.

"Now I have you where I want you," he sneered, again seeing Bang and Bomb as two heads on a massive monster body.

He jumps up with a battle cry, Opishan and Omitan frozen in shock.

Child Emperor tapped his keyboards in silence, monitoring his robots and Zombieman's progress. Pig God grew increasingly bored, and had started eating the debris around them. The area looked much cleaner; without all the broken stone, even the air smelled nicer.

Approaching footsteps pulled him out of his snacking.

"Hey," he cried sharply, as Abinobo came into view. "We told you to evacuate! Did you get your sister out?"

"Oh, no," giggled Abinobo. "Old bat's as stubborn as ever. I was, actually, hoping you heroes could help me out with that."

"We really can't leave this area," said Pig God.

"But you have to," countered Abinobo, her voice suddenly dark. She smiled widely, almost too wide for a regular person. "And you will."

Pops erupted all around them. Startled, Child Emperor turned to see what was happening.

Darts stuck out from all over Pig God's body. More were coming in, from behind the skeletons of buildings and whatever hills of broken concrete remained.

"R-aah!" Pig God threw his arms up and rushed towards one of the streams of darts.

A child emerged from behind a broken pillar, dart gun at his lips. He blew more and more, trying to stop the charging giant.

Pig God did stop. "A kid? I can't...hurt a...kid…" His movements slowed, his speech slurred.

"Pig God!" Child Emperor ran to the large hero, as he began to faint backwards. "Pig God, hang on!"

Another small boy jumped in his path, about the same size and age as Child Emperor himself.

He looked even more frightened than the boy hero.

"Sorry," he said regretfully, before shooting a dart into Emperor's neck.

The last thing he saw before passing out was a group of barefoot children, smashing his computer and monitors into oblivion.

Down below, about thirty miles downward, Zombieman watched as the drones, mid-fight with a horde of imps, went limp and silent.

He blinked, and tapped the face of the nearest one. "Um, hello?"

No response.

Zombieman pressed the side of his headpiece. "Child Emperor, come in. Come in, Child Emperor."

Static.

The imps, some a foot taller than Zombieman, move in on him slowly, deliberately. Others were busy closing in the hole he had descended from. He was trapped.

"Oh, hell," Zombieman sighed and readied a semi-automatic rifle. "Here we go."