Guys, I am so sorry this story is taking so long to be updated. I can't believe it's been over two years since I started and I don't know how close we are to finishing. Maybe we're halfway done, maybe we're not. But I will make a point to have this story done before 2022 is over. Thanks for hanging in there with me. I wanted to have this done before WarioWare Get It Together came out, but...well you can see how that went. Anyway, here we go.

Chapter Nine.

Battle of the Superhumans.

Danny stood before his foe, prepared for the fight. In his own mind, they both had their own advantages. Danny was nimbler and sprier; the palooka was older and tougher. Maybe they would balance out. But his thoughts were breached by the sight of his foe quickly closing the gap between them, planting his fist into Danny's stomach. The air was forced out of his lungs, but the palooka was only getting started. He followed up with an uppercut that sent Danny into the air. Danny tried to catch himself but wasn't fast enough. The monster of a man flew at him again. The younger one threw a punch, but the Palooka dodged, and hit Danny's back with both fists, sending him down to the street.

The teenager slammed into the asphalt, standing and trying to clear the stars from his vision. He looked up, just in time to dodge the monster slamming into the ground, and countered with a few good blows to the chin, before kicking his opponent a few yards away. The palooka recovered faster than Danny anticipated and flew forward again. Danny flew up to dodge his grapple, lining up a kick to the back of the man's head. It connected, but he spun around and grabbed Danny's ankle in a vice-like grip, and he could feel the bone crack. He gritted his teeth, but the monster slammed him into the street. The blow left Danny stunned, trying to get up but unable to.

"I guess I might as well tell you my name before I kill you." Said the palooka. "My name is Butch Juarez. I'd tell you not to forget it, but you won't be alive in the next minute." The monster looked and found a street sign. He walked over to it as Danny struggled to fight through the pain. Butch put his foot against the bottom and ripped it out, leaving a razor-sharp end. He took his makeshift spear and walked to Danny. The hero looked and fired his eye lasers, but his opponent easily blocked them before using his own against his chest. The man stopped, smirking down at the teenager with a devilish look on his face. But before he could crucify the young hero into the ground, a brick shattered against his head, followed by a shoe bouncing off it, and various other projectiles.

"Leave him alone!" A few pedestrians had taken to assault this man, throwing whatever they had on hand to do it. Of course, their assault had all the effects of throwing snowballs at a stone wall. Butch dropped the sign, shaking his head.

"If you wanna lay down your lives for this weakling." He said, raising up his hands, "I can certainly arrange that." A ball of red energy began to form on his hands. Danny, through sheer will, if nothing else, managed to move in front of Butch, preparing his own energy. When the beams clashed, the resulting shockwave shattered all the glass in a ten-yard radius. The people assisting their hero wisely chose to flee. It seemed like forever ago that Danny had fought and defeated Wrecking Crew, and that energy clash had been easy. But now? The teenager put everything he had into it, and all he could do was watch in dismay as the red beam overpowered his green one.

The explosion sent Danny flying through a storefront, and Butch followed him in, picking him up by the neck and throwing him through the opposite wall, into an alleyway. Danny sprang to his feet as the palooka came barreling out of the store. He dodged to the side just in time, clocking the monster in the cheek with a solid haymaker that would make any street brawler proud, then followed with an uppercut that sent his opponent upwards.

The teenage brawler followed him up, fist raised and punched the monster again before he had time to recover. He diverted Butch's flight path and followed him. But faster than Danny could prepare for, Butch recovered and stopped his advance by grabbing his neck.

"You're starting to irritate me!" Butch snarled, flying downward, holding Danny out, thus slamming him into the ground. "You just don't know when to admit defeat!" He stomped on Danny's chest, and the shout he made told him he'd broken a few ribs. "You couldn't beat me in a thousand years!" Butch grabbed Danny by the collar and hoisted him up, before clocking him in the chin. The younger one's head snapped back, his teeth smashing into each other, then the older one shoved him into a wall, pinning him there.

"Leave him alone!" Shouted a voice, one Danny recognized. Both heads turned to see Mona, shakily holding a gun, pointed at Butch.

"Mona!" Danny spat, "run away!" Mona did not heed. She fired the gun straight at Butch's chest, sending out a bright blue beam. Much to the surprise of everyone, Butch was knocked back a fair bit. The girl raised the gun to fire again, but this time, Butch was ready. His eyes flared red, blasting solid beams at the gun Mona was holding. The gun was knocked away, and she grabbed her wrist in pain. Butch flew at her, grabbing her neck and hoisting her up.

Mona struggled but kicking him only resulted in stubbed toes. But before he could do much, a loud, thunderous boom played out. Butch dropped Mona, grabbing his back. She looked up, just in time to see Danny swing around in front of him and deliver another strong punch to his stomach. Butch shouted in pain, bending over, grabbing his gut. Danny uppercut him into the air again, then followed him up and tackled him away.

…

"We interrupt this broadcast to bring you an emergency warning." The news anchor in the suit and tie said as he came on screen in lieu of what people wanted to be watching. "The two Superhumans in Diamond City have locked horns in a destructive battle. We go live to the scene with Roxanne Ridges. Roxanne?" The camera shifts to a reporter on the ground, her blond hair blown into a windswept mess.

"Thank you, Bill." She said, "I am standing just a few hundred feet below the battle, and-" A crash behind her, sending up a spire of stone and debris as the two slammed into the ground. The black-haired man in the red shirt got up first, blasting his eye lasers at the younger, blond one. But the blond kid moved out of the way, blasting the other man with green energy, sending him flying back. "These two are going at it tooth and nail!" Roxanne commented. "Citizens are advised to stay in their homes and-"

"Ridges!" Shouted another voice, "We gotta go, now!" The cameraman's feet came on screen as he pointed the camera down at the ground to run. He scrambled into a helicopter and strapped himself in before pointing back at Roxy, the open door behind her, as she strapped herself in and picked up her mic. Out the door, the camera caught the two combatants going at it with full force, before the older man and the younger one hit each other at the same time, creating a sonic boom, blowing both back from each other. The helicopter jerked to the side, Roxanne letting out a surprised yelp. After a few nail-biting seconds, the helicopter righted itself and they could see the battle again. The older one threw the younger one away like a rag doll, then directed his attention to the helicopter.

"Take us out of here, Ryan!" Shouted Roxanne. The helicopter picked up speed and the view of the palooka was lost. Roxanne looked at the camera again. "This is-" Suddenly there was a loud bang outside, and the helicopter started to spin.

"We're hit!" shouted the pilot, "we're going down!" The camera's view bounced up and down madly, everyone inside screaming. Then, it stopped, the spinning ceased, as the view outside now showed the city. "He saved us!" Shouted Ryan, "the kid saved us!" The camera went back to Roxanne again, whose hair was even more of a disaster.

"Please, stay in your homes and pray to whatever deity you worship that the hero defeats this menace soon. This is Roxanne Ridges, signing off. Back to you, Bill."

…

Danny knew he had to end this fight soon. He dove forward, throwing a punch at the monster of a man. But Butch grabbed his fist and crushed it, breaking the bones in Danny's hand, before headbutting him into the ground. Danny shouted in pain.

"Wake up and smell the coffee!" snarled Butch. "You have no idea what I'm capable of!" He picked up the kid by his collar and planted his fist into the kid's cheek, sending a tooth flying from the teenager's mouth. "And on top of that? You can't be everywhere and save everyone." He threw an uppercut, sending Danny hurdling diagonally upwards, dragging along a roof, and knocking off a whole mess of shingles. Even after he cleared the roof, he kept flying. Butch followed him and delivered a powerful punch that sent Danny crashing onto the ground below, just outside a gas station. He laid there, writhing in pain. Butch took a moment to enjoy the sight before continuing. "Sooner or later, you're gonna slip up. And when you do, I will make sure it is the worst mistake of your life." Butch saw a fuel tanker and flew towards it. The driver just barely made it out of the cab and bolted. Butch ignored the driver for the moment, hoisted the tanker over his head, and slammed it down onto Danny's body, and pushed through the ground like he was planting a giant tent stake.

Then, he lifted himself up ten or twenty feet into the air, held out his hand, and blasted a huge energy beam onto the tanker. The explosion was so powerful it even sent him flying. But he recovered. That blast had to have incinerated everyone in a thirty-foot radius…except the kid, of course. Satisfied with the carnage, and with putting the kid in his place, Butch flew off.

The air was eerily still after the explosion. Several of the buildings in the area had caught fire if they weren't completely destroyed, and many people were killed in the blast. Where the explosion had occurred, there was a crater, the bottom filled with rubble. A yellow taxi pulled up to the area. The occupants emerged: Dribble, Spitz, Kat, Ana, and Mona.

"Oh no!" Shouted Ana, "so many innocent lives…" She started to cry. Kat comforted her while Mona made a beeline for the crater. Before she could reach the lip, a blast of green energy burst forth, destroying a good amount of the debris, making everyone skip back. Danny stumbled out of the pile. His right arm hung limply by his side like a wet noodle. His shirt was totally destroyed, even after Crygor's enhancements. His skin was covered in gashes and cuts, blood oozing out of all of them. Danny's face was badly bruised, bloody, and his left eye was swollen shut. Blood was leaking from every natural hole in Danny's head, eyes, nose, ears, and mouth especially. Looking at him was hard. But the teen didn't seem too concerned with that.

"Where is he?!" Danny snarled. "Where did that monster run off to?!"

"Danny, slow down!" Cried Mona, putting a hand on his shoulder, then pulling it back from how hot his skin was.

"She's right, Dan," said Spitz. "You're pretty banged up after that. You're in no condition to fight him again. You'll get another chance. Live today, fight tomorrow."

"I don't care!" snapped Danny, "He threatened me! I'm gonna…gonna…" This was the last of Danny's strength. The hero fell to the ground and lay still. Before too long, multiple sirens came roaring up. Thankfully, the taxi was reloaded with its passengers, plus Danny, and fled the scene before any police cars rolled up.

…

Six hours later, the sun had set. Diamond City Observatory was somehow untouched in the chaos of the battle between superhumans. Last week, Wario's comment had been announced to be passing by Earth and looking at it with their telescope, it was shown to be closer to Earth than ever before. In fact, it was a bit concerning how close it was. The scientist used his instruments and many years' worth of knowledge to calculate its course. When the results came to him, they were…in a word, upsetting. He ran the test two times, three times, four times, just to be sure he hadn't made a miscalculation. But no, each time he ran the test, the results came back the same.

"What have you found, Irving?" one of his colleagues asked. "You look like you're about to have a heart attack." Irving was shaking so hard, he couldn't speak. He simply stood up to let her look over the computer screen. And so, she did, and when she did, her gasp was not quiet.

"What's going on, Lisa?" Asked another worker, as the others came to see what was the matter.

"Wario's comet…" said Lisa, grimly, "is on a collision course with Earth!" Everyone felt it, the fear, the pressure. They scrambled back to their workstations and ran all the numbers. In all the chaos, someone remembered to call the mayor.

"Mr. Mayor," said Lisa in a panic. "Wario's Comet is going to hit the Earth, and Diamond City is where it will land." Less than an hour later, the mayor had shown up. By this point, the scientists had come up with their conclusions.

"Okay," said Mayor McHall, trying to keep his cool just as much as the scientists were. "What has your research found? Is there any way we can stop it? Divert it? Destroy it?"

"N-no sir," said Lisa, "the comet is moving too fast for any missile to lock onto it, and even if it could, it's so huge it could never destroy it. And it's too close to the earth to divert it away…it's going to hit us, sir."

"What…what's going to happen when it does?" The mayor asked Grimly.

"Well, we don't know for sure." Said Lisa shakily, "but we have three guesses."

"Start from best-case scenario to worst." Instructed the Mayor.

"Best case." Began Lisa. "The comet does not wipe out all life, at least not instantly. But we believe it's radioactive, highly so. The explosion will decimate Diamond City. On top of that, we don't know what kind of nasties it could be carrying, and infecting any survivors with Palutena only knows what kinds of diseases. The ones that survive will be so immune-compromised that a common cold would finish them. And they won't stay in Diamond City, either. The second worst-case scenario: The comet damages the planet so badly that it can no longer sustain life; plants would wither away in a matter of seconds, and all oxygen would be gone in a heartbeat. We'd all be dead in a matter of hours."

"Good lord." Said McHall, "what could possibly be worse than that?"

"The absolute worst-case scenario…" said Lisa, a tear running down her face, "is that the planet is completely destroyed, as in, it explodes." Silence fell on the group, A thick, engrossing silence. But finally, one of the younger, more naive doctors broke it.

"But is there a chance the Superhero could save us?" he asked, trying to bring some hope into the situation.

"I suppose it's possible," said Lisa, "but just in case; the comet will hit us in three days, I suggest you tie up any loose ends you have now."

"I'm…not sure if we should announce this to the good people of Diamond City." Said McHall, gravely. "We're already dealing with this palooka. We need this like we need a bag on our hip. I hope you're right, young man, about the Superhero saving us. He's our last hope."

…

As Danny was driven off, the same dark figure from before surveyed analyzed the scene from a far-off distance. Though it was quite far, you didn't need binoculars to see the spectacle that took place.

"Heh… so the kid's not invincible after all… perhaps he'll finally grow some merit in his fighting style…"

The vibrating sound of the figure's earpiece interrupted his rather uncaringly toned delivery. Once more, he presses a button.

"What now?..."

"..."

"Yes… I'm watching him closely, what of it?..."

"..."

"He got mangled in that fight, but there's still no telling how this conflict will end up…"

"..."

"If you insist…"

With an uncaring final word, he hangs up once more and travels on foot, his presence being masked by the police force that had just arrived…