"I have rejoined the Hero Association as an S-Class hero."
"I suppose I should too," remarked Fubuki.
"Am I still dead?"
Genos and Fubuki looked at her.
"… Yeah." Fubuki managed. "Do you want to come back? It was suspicious that Genos joined and then left in such a short period of time, and there are people who think that you're still alive."
Tatsumaki thought, and then responded.
"I'll do it. Just give me a bit."
"Currently, my assignment from the Hero Association is to investigate an extremist group known as the 'House of Evolution.'"
"Tatsumaki, I think that if you'd like to get back into the Hero business, you should go with Genos."
"Hm. Well, I want to train first, before I go on any weird adventures."
"Fair enough."
Far away in the forests surrounding Z-City.
"Now, to discuss the resurrection of Terrible Tornado, our surveillance team was able to obtain footage of her discharge from the Hero Association's top-secret hospital, confirming our hypothesis that she is still alive. However, the Hero Association's agents have prevented us from being able to continue monitoring her. Nevertheless, we have learned that she is amputated below her elbows due to the incident a year ago, and that she is close with Hellish Blizzard and Demon Cyborg."
The shadowed face concluded his report.
"Thank you."
Dr. Genus, hooded in shadow, smiled.
"Before this meeting concludes, I would like to remind us all of our current goal: It would be a large boon to the House of Evolution if we could obtain a specimen displaying the characteristics of advanced evolution. Terrible Tornado, a formerly indomitable being, is now in a heavily weakened state and prime for capturing. Neither will the Hero Association want to launch a large and publicized campaign to recapture her, as they would like to keep her existence confidential. I cannot stress the bounds we will be able to make in our research by obtaining this once in a lifetime sample. Dismissed."
The sounds of briefcases clicking closed, footsteps exiting the room, and finally the many doors of the meeting room shutting could be heard. Dr. Genus lay back in his chair. His father had founded the House of Evolution in a quest to accelerate the capabilities of the human species. In a stroke of luck, they were able to purchase a certain Tatsumaki and her sister from her indigent parents. The two siblings simply radiated exuberant psychic potential, but perhaps in the universe's attempt to restore karmic balance, an accident released a prototype subject. Not only were Dr. Genus' father killed in the chaos and invaluable time and research lost, but the psychic sisters were lost as well. It did not sit well with Dr. Genus when eventually Terrible Tornado became the famously powerful esper that she was. Capturing her was no longer just a matter of science. It was a matter of his pride.
Tatsumaki's apartment.
Genos and Fubuki had left a while ago. Tatsumaki was now spending her time on the living room floor in front of the couch moving marbles around with her mind, and only her mind. There would be no more channeling through her arms. A small oven timer lay on the ground too. When it rang, the marbles collectively dropped into a bag and Tatsumaki fell on her back, exhausted. She reckoned that she now had the psychic capabilities of her sister. There was definitely improvement, but she wanted to improve faster. Wasn't there something about a House of Evolution? That could be all she needed to get back in shape. She called Genos.
"Yes, Teacher Tatsumaki?"
"Are you busy?"
"Not at the moment."
"Um… have you s-started the, uh, evolution house thing, whatever, yet?" Tatsumaki eeked out.
"The House of Evolution?"
"Y-yes."
"Not yet. Would you like to accompany me?"
"Of course not! I'm just—there's nothing to do right now. And I want to do something. That's why."
"Understood. I will come over as soon as possible, Teacher Tatsumaki."
Teacher Tatsumaki hung up. An hour later and Genos arrived at her front door.
"Apologies for my lateness."
"Okay… So, this house is some small-fry thing?"
"I don't think—"
"Let's deal with this as quickly as possible."
"Yes, Teacher Tatsumaki."
They took off from her balcony.
Z-City Airspace.
Bzzz "Agent Mantis!"
"Yeah?"
"We have new information that the target is approaching us. Keep a lookout" Zzzt.
"Roger."
The humanoid mantis, currently speeding through the air, suddenly noticed two black specks in the distance.
"Teacher Tatsumaki, I am detecting a high-speed object approaching. I will deal with it."
Genos clamped his metal fists together and exhaust valves opened on the back of his hands. A fiery blast rocked out of his fingertips, and before the mantis could react he was turned into roasted pieces of jagged chitin. Still in motion and about to fly into the shards, Tatsumaki instinctively put up a psychic bubble that deflected the exoskeleton remnants. She paused. Her arms weren't directing any of her power. She barely contained the urge to celebrate out loud in front of Genos.
"Are you alright, Teacher Tatsumaki?"
"Uh, yea. That was one of those guys down, right?"
"Yes. I think we caught them off guard. We should continue at ground-level to stay more stealthy."
Tatsumaki nodded. She wasn't going to admit that she was getting a little exhausted by all the flying. They descended into one of the emptiest places Tatsumaki had ever seen. There were a lot of sparsely-inhabited places in Z-City, dangerous because of an unusually high amount of monsters, but you'd still find homeless people or squatters at least. But nothing was here. No people, no birds, no wind whistling across the streets. It was a void.
"I don't like this," said Tatsumaki.
"Agreed. We must remain vigilant."
A circumspect Tatsumaki turned her head and saw something green move in the corner of her eye.
"I think there's someone here."
Genos darted his eyes around and slowly spoke.
"I have no idea what you're talking—"
Tatsumaki barely registered a flurry of katana swings that were blocked by Genos. The attacker leaped backwards: it was a strange frog-person wielding a short sword. Tatsumaki then felt the characteristic earth-shaking force of an esper. She looked behind to see stout slug thing on the roof of a building. It was waving its hands in front of it, channeling energy.
"You take the frog, Genos!"
"Understood!"
Tatsumaki could feel the slug trying to force her and Genos into the pavement. She resisted and sent out a counter-energy. Meanwhile, Genos fired blast after blast at the frog, who nimbly dodged every shot. It was strange that he kept on jumping around in the open instead of retreating into an alleyway, Genos thought. His scanners then detected a faint presence underground. The frog was stalling for something.
"Teacher, we have to fly!"
Tatsumaki's concentration was broken, and the slug's telekinesis began advancing at the duo again.
"Shit, okay, got it!"
Tatsumaki lifted herself in the air while trying to push back the slug's ESP. Esper duels mostly went like this—both would start with a flat barrier of psychic energy dividing the two perpendicular to each of them. It could be visualized as each esper being a dot and the barrier being the line in a division symbol. Rookie telekinetics could only maintain a small barrier, and fights were generally won by diverting parts of the primary barrier to flank the opponent. On the other hand, Tatsumaki in her prime could create a barrier stretching from the ground to the limits of the atmosphere, and from one of earth's curves to the other. She could then easily push this barrier into a bubble around whatever poor psychic monster she was fighting and crumple them into atoms.
Right now, Tatsumaki could only muster a barrier about a mile high and long. The slug was slightly less powerful, but pushed through some some of Tatsumaki's weaknesses when she lost concentration. Just as Genos was about to leave the ground, a powerful hand grasped his ankle from below and dragged almost his entire torso into the dirt. The cyborg flailed his jet propulsion.
"Genos!"
Tatsumaki diverted some energy to psychically zap the frog who attempted to finish off the immobilized cyborg. Suddenly, two deep rumbles sounded. From one side of the road, something that resembled a robot stomped into view. On the other side, a huge lion-like humanoid at least 12 feet tall appeared.
"Good job, Ground Dragon," the lion roared. "Frog Man, hold off. I want to finish the cyborg. And Slugerous, keep holding the girl."
That slug, holding her? Tatsumaki started becoming angry.
"You fat fucks! You think you're winning? Against me?"
Tatsumaki's brow furrowed. Slugerous' eyes widened as Tatsumaki's barrier began encircling him in a shrinking bubble.
"DIE!"
The slug screamed as his brain and the rest of his organs were slowly compressed, and finally stopped when his vocal cords collapsed. The lion simply smiled.
"A challenge, then? Fantastic. Armored Gorilla, I'll let you take care of the cyborg."
The lion leapt into the air, pistoning the ground into pulverized rubble as he jumped, and took a fierce swipe at Tatsumaki. The lion was not even within 20 feet of her when he swiped and Tatsumaki felt the urge to put up her most powerful shield. Nevertheless, as the lion fell back to the earth, Tatsumaki felt a cold stinging across her chest. It felt like a foot-long paper cut. And then three whip-snaps of sound pierced past her ears. She looked down. Parallel rivers of blood were running down her cut-up dress. Just the air that the lion propelled with his claws was enough to blow past her toughest barrier. She looked at Genos desperately shooting at the fat gorilla and coward frog while still being dragged helplessly into the dirt.
Now she was mad.
Tatsumaki divebombed through the air back at the lion. It grinned and went for a slash, but Tatsumaki had already predicted that. She rolled to the side, narrowly missing a building, and forced a dart of energy up into the lion's face. The lion fell on its ass as Tatsumaki flew back into the sky, but then she felt another slash, this time across her back.
"AAGH!"
Tatsumaki, furious, stared back at the lion on the ground. Its stupid face looked at her as if expecting more. Tatsumaki's telekinesis hadn't even bent his whiskers.
"What's taking you all so long?"
"Beast King?"
Beast King turned away from Tatsumaki toward Genos.
"Why isn't the cyborg dead? Are you guys afraid of a little singe?"
The lion charged full speed at the helpless cyborg and bumped his torso off his legs. Genos' upper body landed far down the street. A mole-thing popped out of the ground near Genos' sparking legs.
"NO! GENOS!"
Shock began turning into a new unbridled rage. Tatsumaki's arms moved with her psychic energy, but she didn't care anymore if she lost the rest of her elbows. A massive storm of psychic energy formed in the road. The vortex dragged the surrounding empty buildings off their foundation. Beast King's eyes narrowed, and he attempted to slash through the esper's Terrible Tornado, but to no avail. The sky suddenly darkened as the swirl collated far away storm clouds and it began thundering. The mass of Omega Waves that spewed out of Tatsumaki's head drilled straight up to the heavens and the deepest Tartarean depths.
And then it stopped. Buildings that floated in the sky fell back to the ground, like rain. Under the pitter-patter of debris, Tatsumaki looked at the green translucent streams that extended from her elbows in long, lanky strands. No blood or pus leaked out from the ends of her arms. Instead of controlling her telekinesis, her telekinesis now controlled her. It was a hungering feeling; a divine feeling. A greedy feeling. She was now a God in the rain.
Genos. This God still needed to see if Genos was alive. Tatsumaki flew over to where she thought she saw him before. She located him next to a ruined building, crawling.
"Teacher—"
"Genos! Are you alright?"
"I'm fine. My legs are replaceable. But you're bleeding a lot!"
"What do you mean?" Tatsumaki giddily waved her uncalloused elbows in front of his face. "I'm completely fine! I've figured it all out."
"No, that—that's not it. Your body…"
Reality slipped from Tatsumaki. It was like when she went canoeing once with her sister. One moment, everything was fine. And then it all started tipping over, and there was nothing you could do about it, but fall.
Tatsumaki fell.
