Chapter 2: Mosquito Girl
"—bright orb was sighted flying around A-City, causing immense destruction wherever it floated above—"
"—crater—"
"—hundred people were in the tower that was launched at what sources are saying was a Dragon level threat. The tower was lifted hundreds of feet in the air—presumably by Terrible Tornado—and then thrown down at an incredible speed. Authorities say there was a very small chance of anybody surv—"
"—a massive cavern underneath—"
It had been a week since Tatsumaki flew off from the battle and holed herself up in her apartment. The blinds were all drawn, which didn't matter because she spent most of her time buried under blankets and pillows on her bed, but sometimes she'd turn on the TV for a few seconds before shutting it off angrily.
Knock knock.
It had been a week since Tatsumaki fought Vaccine Man. What a dumb fucking name. Vaccine Man. Who the hell would call themselves that? And yet he almost beat her. She couldn't absolutely wipe the floor with him. She couldn't throw him around with her powers. She couldn't even loosen his grip. She had to resort to underhanded tricks and deception. She had to run.
Knock knock.
Tatsumaki tightened her grip on a pillow across the back of her head and over her ears. It had been a long time since she wasn't invincible.
"Tatsu? I'm going to come in."
Tatsumaki heard the door telekinetically unlock and open. Her sister walked in as Tatsumaki lay curled on the coach, a pillow still over her head.
"Tatsu… Please, sis, you can't do this to yourself. Nobody's seen a Dragon since the Hero Association was created—no one had any idea what was coming!"
Tatsumaki's eyes narrowed under the pillow.
"I-, I'm so proud of you, big sis. You did more than anybody else could've dreamed of doing, you're the best hero I know."
Fubuki moved to put her hand on her sister's shoulder.
"Please, let me help y—"
Tatsumaki threw her across the room. The TV fell and the plastic screen cracked.
"I'm fine!" Tatsumaki yelled, and then realized what she had done. Fubuki stared up at her sister in terror. Tatsumaki turned her head, shattered her balcony windows, and flew out of the apartment.
It was dark out in Z-City. Tatsumaki wore a hoodie to hide her green hair. She was walking around in the worst parts of the shittiest city. "Hey! A little girl like you shouldn't be here." Shouted someone from behind her. She ignored them. She passed a bar, but they wouldn't have let her inside without identification, and she didn't feel like pulling out her Hero Association card. Instead, she found some vending machine and bought a soda. Her stomach ached with pain. She hadn't eaten in at least three days. She bought a bag of chips and munched it down, annoyed. She walked for what might've been hours until she reached the roads where street lights stopped working and windows were boarded up.
It had been a long time since she slept in an alleyway. She stared at her empty soda as she sat on the cold hard ground. She leaned her head against a dumpster and tried to fall asleep, but her stomach still ached so badly. And it still ached when she woke up to the glaring sunrise. Maybe she'd finally die of starvation here. As she stood on the sidewalk, her stomach panged and hurt so loudly that her eyes stung and her ears buzzed. And it continued to buzz so bad that she didn't notice when a homeless man covered in rags tackled her back into the alley.
"Kid, hide!"
A huge swarm of mosquitoes passed by the alleyway. It resembled a black metallic cloud, but also a heat-seeking missile, and also a wriggling worm digging through the air.
"Didn't you hear about the alert? God damn it, do you have a death wish?"
The swarm turned around, hearing the commotion, and started to fly at the two. The man quickly covered Tatsumaki with his body. As the swarm engulfed them, Tatsumaki heard his grunts silenced by mosquitoes flowing up his nose and into his lungs, down his throat and through his organs, through his ears and into his brain. Small black bugs entered and left red and bursting with blood. His corpse shriveled up fast like a timelapse and the pockmarked skin stretched taught across his skull bounced against the ground next to Tatsumaki. The swarm dissipated from the body and alleyway to continue its hunt. Her eyes were wide as she slowly removed the cadaver from herself. She could just barely notice a blond man standing in the middle of the road, facing down the swarm, which was thinning to form a cloud around a flying mosquito, girl?
"There's more dinner, my babies! Suck him dry!"
The mosquito girl directed the swarm into a buzzing stake that propelled itself straight at the man, who drew out his glowing arm like a cowboy and blasted the swarm into bug dust with an orange beam. The heat quickly burned off all his clothes and Tatsumaki noticed that he seemed to be a cyborg, or maybe a robot. Mosquito girl had just moved out of the way of the attack and was now crossing her insectoid arms.
"You think you can beat me?" she scoffed. "Well, bad news, buckaroo. My babies, come and fill your queen with your delicious blood!"
All of a sudden, black clouds rose from every street and from behind every building into the sky, before congregating around the mosquito queen in one huge dense sphere of pulsating blood. As the red emptied from the mass of iridescent fly wings and exoskeletons, dead mosquito bodies slowly spilled onto the ground from the sphere, flooding the street in a river of chitin.
"Little girl, get out of here!" shouted the robot as he noticed Tatsumaki. But then a jet of dark red burst through the remaining mosquito sphere, the shock wave sending splashes through the countless dead bugs on the ground. The upgraded mosquito queen speared the robot with a long spike on her head straight through his abdomen and turned her flight upwards into the sky, the robot still attached. He desperately fired heat-rays with his hands at her but she deftly dodged. Changing strategy, he engaged his heel boosters and dragged their trajectory straight back down at the ground.
"What the hell are you doing?" She began slashing at his torso with her razor sharp claws, to which he tried to burn them off by releasing flames from the gaps in his metal body.
"Tryna bring me down with you, huh?" snarled Mosquito Queen as they both hurtled through the atmosphere, their faces burning from the air resistance.
"Not quite."
The cyborg suddenly swiveled underneath the queen and prepared a jet-powered suplex. That is, until he felt a burst of energy ripple through the air and noticed a hole where the queen's head was, before suplexing only himself into the pavement. Climbing out of his sizzling crater, he saw the little girl floating in the air. Her hoodie was down and her green hair radiated from her skull as she breathed heavily.
Tatsumaki's pupils constricted. She hated that she was no longer invincible. Tatsumaki balled up her fists. But she could never, ever let anyone save her again. Tatsumaki flew off into the skyline, tears streaming out of the corners of her eyes. For the first time in her life, she was going to train, and she was going to train so hard that no monster would ever pose a challenge to her ever again, and she was going to train so hard that no one would ever need to save her. Not even Blast.
Tatsumaki arrived back at her balcony. The windows had been replaced. Opening the sliding door and walking back into her apartment, she noticed a Post-it note on a new TV, which she promptly ripped off and threw into the trash. Looking over the trash bin, she noticed that the trash bag had also been replaced. Now only a single pink sticky note lay at the bottom. Tatsumaki breathed deeply in and out, and then doubled over in pain.
"So fucking hungry," she groaned to herself. Cursing, she walked over to the fridge, opening it in hope that her sister also left her some food. No such luck. And now, someone was knocking on her door again. Clutching her stomach, she barely summoned the energy to float to look through the peephole. It was that robot from before. She turned away, planning on flying out of her balcony to a nearby restaurant to gorge herself, but immediately the pain came back. Tatsumaki had no choice now but to walk. She opened the door.
"Look, I'm busy, and I'm going to get food, so shut up before I get even angrier."
Tatsumaki strutted out past the robot and into the elevator. As it descended, she came to regret asking the Hero Association for a top-floor penthouse. When she finally reached the bottom floor, the doors opened just for her to see the robot again, huffing and puffing.
"Wait! Terrible Tornado, S-Class Rank 2 Hero, my name is Genos and I would like to be your disciple!"
Tatsumaki looked at him incredulously.
"Ok, are you some B-Class bum asking for help? I already told you I'm bus—"
Tatsumaki bent over in agony.
"Are you alright, ma'am?" The robot put his arms around her. Tatsumaki would have pushed him away, but right now it just hurt too much.
"Do you need food? Come on, I'll take you." Tatsumaki accepted his grasp and allowed him to lead her. In a trek that felt like years, they finally arrived at some cheap ramen stand.
"Your biggest dish, please," requested the robot to the fat stand owner who looked remarkably depressed. He turned around and started cooking.
"Ma'am, please sit down." The robot gestured toward a humble bench. Tatsumaki reluctantly complied. She continued to hold her stomach and looked away from the robot. After what felt like another twelve years, a giant styrofoam bowl of the spiciest looking ramen ever conceived was plopped down in front of her. In one of the top five least flattering moments of her life, Tatsumaki wolfed down the 50% Off! Ultra-Spicy Jalapeno Shrimp JUMBO Special. Her eyes practically leaked capsaicin at this point and her tongue felt like a barbeque, but she finished the whole thing rather quickly. Downing a glass of water that the robot must have brought some time ago, she slouched back on the bench, her stomach popping outwards from her otherwise lithe body.
"Glaagh," she garbled, rubbing a less sore tummy in satisfaction. She noticed the robot sitting across from her. "Please don't tell the public about this." Attempting her best dignified walk out of the cheap ramen plaza, she once again heard the voice of the robot.
"Ma'am, I need to become stronger! Please take me as your student." Turning around, she noticed him kowtowing on the ground. Tatsumaki sighed, realizing that she did owe him one, and that he was decently powerful so he wouldn't be that much of a drag.
"Fine. But I don't have the time to take you as a, uh, a full-time student. What do you want to learn anyways, robot? I use telekinesis, and I don't think you can do that, no offense."
"I am ever gracious, master. Also, I am a cyborg—"
"Don't call me master, um," He looked ridiculous bowing. "What's your name again?"
"Genos."
"'Kay, Genos. What do you want?"
Genos looked up to make sure she had finished, and then looked back down again.
"Teacher Terrible Tornado, I am well-versed in your multitudes of accomplishments as the Hero Association's second ranked hero. Although our methods of fighting are different, I believe I have much to learn from your fighting instincts and the control you wield over your abilities. While I struggled with the … four years ago I was only fifteen and still fully human when a rogue cyborg attacked my town … constantly improving myself through rigorous training and data analysis … my favorite color is yellow—"
"Holy shit, stop! Ok, I get it. Fine, fine!" Tatsumaki brought a hand to her face. Now that she planned on training herself to become the most powerful being ever, she had to admit that keeping someone as diligent as Genos around would be a great way to stay in routine. Tatsumaki took a deep breath.
"I'll let you be my stupid disciple or whatever, ok?, but you'll have to do everything I say."
Genos stood straight up with cybernetically enhanced posture.
"Understood, Teacher Terrible Tornado."
Tatsumaki rolled her eyes.