Chapter 4: Beefcake
A few minutes prior.
"Yes!" declared Fukegao. "Brother Marugori, soon we will become the most powerful people to have ever lived!"
Fukegao's brother lay strapped to an operating table, gagged. His eyes were widened with pain.
"No more will you have to waste your precious life slaving away in a gym trying to become stronger."
Fukegao went to caress his brother's large bare muscles. Marugori tried to scream through the towel in his mouth.
"You didn't even do it right. Don't you know? So-called 'bodybuilding' won't increase your strength as much as powerlifting. But all of those methods are insignificant for what I have prepared for you next, brother."
Fukegao pointed at dozens of missing person fliers across the walls of the disheveled laboratory.
"I had to use so many test subjects to fine tune the final part of my plan. It's a shame I couldn't devise a correct method sooner."
He sat on a old swivel chair, foam poking out of ruptured seams in the pleather, and rummaged through rusty filing cabinets. Finally, he held up a large bloody Bowie knife. Fukegao cackled.
"Just a few more steps, Marugori. You'll have to stay awake for this."
Marugori struggled with the thick cords that immobilized him. Fukegao increased the adrenaline drip into Marugori's veins and began removing the rest of the skin on Marugori's arms. Fukegao's knife found leverage underneath his brother's skin, like he was peeling an orange. Ugly flesh began to reveal itself.
"Ah, such beautiful musculature. It's a shame that your disgusting skin's been hiding this your whole life."
Fukegao paused to dance giddily.
"I've been dreaming of doing this for as long as I remember. Remember I was always the brains and you were always the brawn when we played cowboys? We can still play the games we loved again!"
Fukegao cleaved off the remaining skin that covered Marugori's tendons and then turned to his brother's penis. With a shaky cut, he slashed at it, but missed. Part of his brother's testicles hung off while fluid spilled out of the wound. Marugori violently shook and let out a muffled yell.
"Ah, sorry, brother."
Fukegao swung his knife again and finished the job. He then turned around and pulled out a hammer.
"Remember, you're the brawn. I'm the brains. You don't need this."
The fucked up killer swung at his brother's skull. Once. Twice. Marugori's eyes unfocused and rolled up into his skull, staying there. Three times. A crack sounded. Fukegao lit up. His trembling fingers dropped the hammer as he went to taste the blood leaking out of Marugori's forehead. Breathing heavily, he retrieved a vial from his pocket. Biceps Brachii King.
"I-It's strawberry flavor, brother, you're favorite."
He jammed it into the hole in Marugori's skull. Immediately, Marugori began to seize, and then his body started growing in size. Fukegao quickly grabbed onto his brother's back as he expanded through the roof of the abandoned hospital. A few seconds later and Fukegao was riding on the shoulder of his titanic brother in the mist of the clouds.
"Ha ha! We did it! We're finally the strongest in the world! Let's test it out! Go destroy that city!"
Presently.
"Tatsumaki," Sitch tried to find words. "Tatsumaki, you know this means we… we don't have anybody else who can deal with this."
Tatsumaki stared at a piece of broken china. Slowly, she rose.
"I'll do it."
With a beam of green energy, she punched through the ceiling of the restaurant and flew off to B-City.
"Yes, brother! Let's destroy the rest of the city! Show them who's strongest!"
The 7000 foot tall titan stomped carelessly around the city, kicking down smaller buildings and ripping taller buildings off their foundations. With each step or swing, at least a thousand people must have died. From the corner of Fukegao's eye, he saw the floating figure of Tatsumaki, aghast at carnage she'd never seen the likes of.
"Hggh, another hero, huh? Brother, protect me from her."
What used to be Marugori shoved its palm in front of Tatsumaki, who quickly retreated from the blow. Wind from the force blew Tatsumaki back another hundred feet, the turbulence ringing in her ears. The titan resumed stomping. Tatsumaki knew that every second she wasted was another mass fatality. At first, Tatsumaki tried to move the arm of Marugori, but it was just to massive.
"Fuck!" Tatsumaki shouted into the monstrous wind. The oxygen was thinner here. She wished she hadn't spent the previous two weeks moping around like a lazy bitch and did some training. Tatsumaki tried to navigate around the palm, but the titan's arm followed her. What was he protecting then?
"Let's kill a million people, brother!" Fukegao continued to scream. The currents muffled any sound he made, except to the husk of his brother he clung to and ordered around.
Tatsumaki had an idea. Maybe she could unbalance the titan via his arm. The titan's palm still following her, she dived across his body and just barely dodged the titan's other palm which now blocked her out. She tried to fly between his legs but the hands kept following. Tatsumaki retreated a few thousand feet out to rethink her plan. She extended her own arms out pretending she was the titan and felt for the most uncomfortable position. Finally, she arrived at extending her arms straight backward, hugging her shoulderblades together.
Tatsumaki quickly flew behind the titan, who as expected brought both his hands behind him. The titan flailed wildly, his previous years as a body builder not necessarily helping his flexibility. To balance itself, the titan leaned forward violently shaking Fukegao.
"Brother, stop!"
At this moment, Tatsumaki noticed between the titan's palms the speck that was Fukegao. She launched a bolt of telekinetic energy at him and left a splatter of blood and white lab coat on the back of Marugori's neck.
All of a sudden, the titan shuddered to a stop, its arms still behind its back as if handcuffed. Unseen to Tatsumaki, Marugori's pinprick pupils rolled back down. It then opened its leviathanic jaws and bellowed.
The air rippled like a pebble cast into a pond, crushing any buildings that were still standing directly under the titan's face. Tatsumaki plugged her ears as the sound waves echoed back off the ground at her. The yell lasted too long, but when it was done, Marugori started to fall. All 7000 feet of Marugori was going to fall on a relatively intact 7000 foot long stretch of city. With newfound energy, Tatsumaki stretched out her hands and channeled every newton of force she could to keep the titan off the ground.
The first hour.
Tatsumaki had landed on the ground a few minutes after her Herculean hold. The air already began to stink. Ambulances and heroes rushed through the districts of B-City, searching through the rubble of Fukegao's rampage for survivors and a death count. Evacuations also were sounded through the untouched streets that the titan was about to fall on. Marugori's shadow loomed overhead.
The second hour.
Evacuating the most populous mile-long stretch of B-City was an incredibly tough ask. The elderly were asked to first leave, but nobody listened and cars jammed every available bridge and highway. Rescue teams struggled to get in and out. Trains worked overtime. Any available heroes from A-City to C-City were commanded to help, but many heroes arrived from as far as M-City. The stench of Marugori's body overwhelmed the air. Special teams arrived on helicopters to begin draining the methane and other natural gasses out of the corpse. The chance of a spontaneous explosion was very high. Tatsumaki could barely keep her eyes open.
The third hour.
Tatsumaki heard Sitch's voice and opened her eyes. She was still holding the titan. Sitch held out a needle with yellow liquid.
"Adrenaline," he simply stated, and stabbed it into one of Tatsumaki's limbs. She couldn't feel which. "We'll bring some more later."
She noticed blood trickling down her hands and arms, and then a team of doctors surrounding her. One wiped the blood off.
The fourth hour.
Tatsumaki found herself in a hospital bed, but still with her arms outstretched by metal sticks. Marugori's ugly eyes still stared down at her.
"… there's a high chance of aneurysm if we continue…"
"… irreparable nerve damage…"
Temporary supports were being erected underneath the titan's body. Small sections of its body were being cut off and carried away. Tens of thousands of drones, maybe Child Emperor's, maybe Metal Knight's, swarmed the corpse like flies, along with the millions of actual flies.
The fifth hour.
"… pushing the limits…"
"… death…"
All of a sudden, Tatsumaki felt pain. She screamed. Her hands had long been burned off by her psychic energy. Bandages covered the stubs at the ends of her wrists. The pain covered the sensation of a pinprick in her neck.
The sixth hour.
Had Tatsumaki been conscious, she would've noticed a huge machine surrounding her, having been drawn up by the combined genius of Child Emperor and Metal Knight, and extravagantly funded by the Hero Association's biggest donors (Sitch had spent the past three hours convincing them that a revolutionary multi-million dollar life support system was needed to save the association's biggest asset).
The seventh hour.
All the living were estimated to have been rescued or died by now in the area trampled by the titan. Evacuation efforts were being directed to the 7000 foot stretch of the most densely populated civilian center not in A-City. Civilians were now being forced to leave their cars due to the traffic they caused and now hordes of people walked along streets. Many still insisted on driving and carrying along various pieces of luggage while Tatsumaki lay dying.
The eighth hour.
Half of Tatsumaki's forearms had disintegrated now. Only an estimated 15% of the local population had not been evacuated yet. The Hero Association was seriously considering leaving them for death. Hundreds of leaked photos of Tatsumaki's condition were being spread around on the internet. Millions of people called for the association to stop burdening Terrible Tornado. Those that hadn't left the city yet were probably looters or overly greedy people anyways. #Dropthebody quickly became the most posted tag on every major social media platform.
The ninth hour.
It was decided that in another two hours, the titan's body would be let go. Tatsumaki would almost certainly die in the next six hours at the current rate, even with potentially billions of dollars of medical equipment dedicated to her survival. Another four hours would definitely lead to brain death.
The tenth hour.
Tatsumaki and the life support machine were airlifted out of B-City into the Hero Association intensive care. Approximately 5% of the local population under the corpse was left as Marugori finally fell to the earth.