"-and you said that Ben likes seeing fat men wrestling each other to the ground? Why?"

Garou and Gwen browsed the cereal aisle, the shelves holding the Sumo Slammer brands, as they discussed Ben's likes and dislikes. Garou squinted his eyes at the cartoonish picture of the fat man on the cardboard, trying to understand why Ben found the Sumo Slammer thing interesting.

"Yeah, he was practically obsessed. Mostly because of the video games, I think. I don't understand it much either." Gwen honestly explained, observing the multi-colored Sumo Slammers Cards on each box.

"The games are not even that good…" Garou would rather fight the baldy again then to suffer boredom. "What about the cereal? Are the oats even worth the money?" Garou asked if she tried the brand before.

"No. Not even close." Gwen spat in disgust, remembering the time she had to rinse out her poor taste buds after eating one piece of the dreaded cereal.

"Huh. Now, I feel sorry for you." Garou wondered how the girl could stand such an obnoxious ego. Not even he was that annoying when he was ten.

"Yeah, but that's Ben's thing. I usually practice real fighting like Taekwondo and Jiu-Jitsu."

The mention of martial arts reminded him of his secondary objective. He wanted to check this world's Martial arts to expand his repertoire of skills.

"Oh? You're a martial artist?" Garou asked.

"Yup. I may not look like it, but I'm a fighter through and through! But I can't do things like cutting up machines or beat up criminals." Gwen's jubilance slightly disheartened once comparing her feats to his. "So, what kind of martial arts did you study?"

Studied? Garou only spent his time mastering one art first. The rest he learned on the fly through direct combat.

"Now that I think about it, I only mastered one martial art; then I developed my own down the line after I left the dojo." Garou ruminated his years of harsh training and trials to this point, a laborious yet fulfilling experience now that he looked back.

Gwen's smirk fell flat from Garou's answer.

"Really? You've created your own martial art?"

Her skeptical tone instilled a strange urge to boast in Garou. For some reason, he felt different when he entered this body. He uncovered a few traits he usually did not have before. Either Garou was inheriting some of Ben's personality or his age was the reason.

"I'll have you know that I made it at the climax of my Hero Hunting career. It's the culmination of the twelve prime martial arts I absorbed, and it has no weaknesses." Garou spoke with pride, smirking with his nose held high.

"And you still lost to the baldy?" Gwen chimed with a growing smirk, breaking Garou's momentum like a hammer to glass.

"Shut iiiiit! You'll eat that grin when he pummels every alien you got in that watch!" He indignantly raged defensively, pointing his finger at her when Garou gnashes her teeth.

Gwen nearly busted her gut laughing, "Pfff, Ahahahahahahahaha!" She had never heard of anyone losing to someone so ridiculous, a martial art master losing to a 'stupid Caped Baldy.' The more she learned of Garou's background, the funnier it was to tease him.

"It's not funny!" Garou shouted back, grinding Ben's teeth with indignant anger. Hearing Garou says that with Ben's voice only fueled her laughter.

"Ahahahahahahahaha! I-I can't stop laughing if you're like that!" Gwen continued her laughter, occasional snickers leaking out after she laughed out all of her energy to laugh as she smiled at Garou's angry frown. She wondered how funny it would be if Garou frowned in his original face.

"Are you done?" Garou asked, not amused by her sly grin and spent chuckles.

"Haha… ha… yeah. Anyways, overpowered baldies aside, think you can tell me about your 'no weaknesses' martial art, by any chance? I've been in tournaments before, but I'm always looking for ways to improve." Gwen asked with anticipation, her green eyes glowing with excitement.

Garou stared at her for a moment before reviewing her abilities by this point. Her fighting style was very unpolished, unrefined, her experience with combat natal, and her potential was opaque, but there was a light at the end of that tunnel.

"Well, I'm not sure if you can use it, but there are a few styles we can try. We can start with the Water Stream Rock Smashing fist. I grew up learning it from the old geezer."

Gwen's ears perked at the mention of a teacher.

"Really? What's his name?"

Garou recalled the dojo, the steep stairs leading to the mountain atop, the harsh days of training under the sun day by day… it felt nostalgic — an irony since he was now passing his teachings on to another person.

"Well, they call him Bang. He is also the Number 3 Hero, Silverfang." The reason that Garou entered his dojo was that he was strong, the top number 3 hero when he was ten. He trained under his dojo for years, to stand up against the many that oppressed him. In a sense, he got his wish… but not without leaving mistakes along the way.

"Wait, so your master is a hero himself?!" Gwen's emerald eyes sparkled at the thought. To be trained by a Monster Slaying hero must be an opportunity of a lifetime! She always wanted to train under one of those true Kung-Fu masters before, but finding one was just an ideal dream… now, it was within arm's reach.

"Yeah. It was the reason why I joined in the first place when I was ten. The old fart is as strong as his reputation… maybe even more so," he admitted.

During their conversation, Garou picked up a cereal box from the shelf. He stared at the Sumo Slammer Logo on the cardboard, finding the sight of the overweight man repulsive.

"Hold up, if your master was a hero, when did you decide to hunt them down?" Gwen wondered in a less excited tone.

"When I was eighteen. I am still eighteen on the inside." Garou replied as he looked at the back, the sides, and top of the cereal box out of morbid curiosity.

"That doesn't really explain why, but… you don't have to tell me." Gwen exclaimed quietly, not wanting to put too much pressure on him.

"...ever wonder what makes a hero?" Garou asked, placing the cereal box on the shelf.

"The willingness to protect the innocent and save lives? Or standing up for what's right, even if you don't have the power to do so?"

"...then tell me. What is the definition of 'right'?" Garou asked, bringing Gwen into a realm of uncertain truth, the line between right and wrong.

"I… it's difficult to explain. Like what's morally sound, maybe?" Gwen shrugged nervously.

"I know what you mean. But what if the definition of 'right' meant taking down anyone they see as 'evil?' Or in the 'wrong?' Even if they aren't," Garou asked.

"I mean… I'm smart enough to know that the world isn't black and white. Some people considered evil nowadays were probably seen as good by the people they ruled over." Gwen shared her thoughts, images of the Roman Empire appearing inside her head. He might be going through a form of weltschmerz.

"And if such trust was abused by the 'hero' to abuse the weak, what would you do if all you believe to be good turned out rotten from the inside?"

Gwen paused for a moment, trying to think of a logical response to this very possible situation. What would she do if someone close to her committed some act of betrayal? Like Grandpa Max, for instance.

"...those I looked up to before turned out to be fakes. I took the mantle of Hero Hunter to show the world the true nature of the heroes they rely on and break free from the rigged system. I want to show the world how fragile their justice and their failings to see the rot within the Hero Association," He cursed.

Gwen was starting to understand where Garou was coming from.

"I understand what you're feeling, Garou, but… hunting down those same heroes isn't any better." Gwen reminded him of the gray morality laced in his actions.

"They represent everything that is wrong with the current society's justice. If they see their idols of justice fall, then it would mean everything they believed in is wrong in return. To represent justice, you need to become a symbol, and to represent the opposite, I must become the antithesis. I wanted to become the Symbol of Fear to fight against this biased justice… but now… it doesn't matter anymore. I've lost in the end in a fair fight regardless. And now I am stuck in the body of an idiot that liked to see fat men fight each other and rot his brain in video games."

Gwen spluttered in laughter upon hearing his end joke, complaining about Ben even though he was not here.

"N-now, I'm wondering what you would do if you actually met him in person." Gwen laughed playfully, wiping a stray tear from her eye.

"That depends. What would he say if we met face to face?" Garou dryly asked.

"Hmmm, oh, I know! 'You're not so tough. I bet I could destroy you in Sumo Slammers!'" Gwen mockingly imitated Ben's whiny voice, adding a few voice cracks for good measure.

Garou snickered as he chuckled. "What the hell, that sounded worse than I thought. Oh god, I now want a voice change…" Garou snickered, his voice now sounding like how Ben would laugh.

"Too bad. You're stuck with it." Gwen giggled while playfully wagging her finger.

Garou only rolled his eyes with sarcasm, "Oh, shut up. Back to our shopping list, what should we bring to the Rust Bucket? Anything you want?"

"You tell me. You're a walking garbage disposal." Gwen pointed out Garou's inhuman metabolism. Neither she nor Garou could comprehend how or why his hunger persisted even after emptying their fridge. She didn't even know that the human body could store or process that many calories in the first place. Not only that, Garou did not also go to the bathroom that much despite the amount in bus gullet. Where did it all go entering his mouth?

"If you ask me, I will hoard one of everything, but I don't think there's enough room in the Rust Bucket," Garou quipped.

Gwen couldn't agree more, "Maybe we should find my grandpa first."

Hopefully, Max had some extra storage space in the RV.

But, suddenly, a loud crash exploded from the entrance, then a loud rumble vibrating their feet. The two pseudo-cousins looked at each other for a moment before they walked towards the source of the noise. What they didn't expect was an unusual sight customarily reserved for Garou's world, or so the former villain thought.

Before the duo's very eyes was a giant bullfrog with four red and black eyes, it had two light greenhorns and many dark orange spots. Sitting on top of its neck was a strange old man with pale skin and a dark green tank top. He wore red goggles and a pot-like helmet that was firmly attached to his head using earmuffs. The individual also had long, white hair and sharp fingernails that were unusually long.

The two looked at the mount and rider, one looked shocked to see the strange combination, while the latter dropped his jaw upon seeing such a combination happening in a quiet supermarket.

"-you said that there aren't monsters here, right?" Garou asked for confirmation.

"Y-yeah. Positive." Gwen gulped a growing lump in her throat.

"You sure? It looks exactly like something that would pop up back home." Either this was a first-time occurrence or something went wrong after he arrived. He hoped it wasn't the latter, however.

"W-What usually pops up in your world, anyway?" Gwen whispered.

"There was that one time a Giant popped up. It was so tall that its head reached the clouds, and it wiped out City D with one swing of its arms. When King killed it, it fell on City B, flattening that one, too." Garou gave a morbid example of what lies in his realm.

"You're acting as if that's normal!" Gwen screeched in surprise.

"Hey, I faced worse, honestly, and I'm fine."

"You're a superhuman… something! Of course, you'll be fine! That's not normal!" Gwen retorted.

In the background, the weird scientist jumped off of his 'pet' and took a burlap sack. He set his sights on some circuit boards hanging off of a rack and proceeded to throw them into his sack bunch by bunch.

"Gwen, when things like that happened weekly, you will treat it as normal. I never said it was a safe world, remember?" Not even Garou could predict the number of monsters that would pop up now and then. No one understood how the monster phenomenon occurred in the first place.

"Hah. Fine, fine! But what about that thing?" Gwen cringed at the sight of the over-sized amphibian as it patiently waited for its master to return.

"That one is a more common occurrence. But we should get moving, or he'll get away. Do you want a go at them, or should I prepare the fridge for the meat?" Garou offered her a choice: fight the giant frog head-on or leave him to butcher the mutant into meat for the fridge.

Gwen rolled her eyes at Garou's suggestion to turn the giant frog into food.

"I think it's best if we both handle this. Just to be safe."

Gwen's sly smile insinuated something else otherwise. From his time spent with her, he had a good idea of her intent.

"-you're calling dibs on the frog, aren't you?" Garou soured.

Gwen had enjoyed teaching the former Hero Hunter the art of 'dibs' and other slang in the interim.

"See? We're getting to know each other so well!" Gwen patted Garou's back happily, grinning at Garou's grumbling. He sounded more like Ben, but much more fun whenever he was like this.

The doctor would soon have his vengeance. Those idiots that dared deny him what was his had no idea the dedication and zeal he poured into developing a new branch of biology. No longer shall he endure that run-down apartment, skipping months of rent just to get by as he poured his everything into his work. How dare they foolishly picked someone else for the award instead of him.

He would make them pay. He would make them all pay! He would-

"BLEH?!"

XLR8 smacked him out of his thoughts before he could finish his internal monologue. Gwen knocked him out of his mount, catching his attention as the doctor growled at his attacker.

"Who dares interrupt the great work of Dr. Animo?!" He shouted.

"Great work? I wouldn't call excess robbery 'great.' Especially the frog." Gwen jokingly mocked, a blue and black visor shifting up to reveal her blue, reptilian face. XLR8, otherwise classified as a Kineceleran, was a bipedal lizard with black wheels for feet. She wore a blue jumpsuit that matched her usual shirt and a long blue tail with five lightly tinted stripes. The transformation also granted Gwen three black claws on each hand and spiked elbows.

Animo gnashed his rotted teeth, infuriated by this… creature's mockery of his crusade.

"How dare you, freak! Destroooy her!" He shouted, commanding his enthralled mutant bullfrog to do his bidding.

Croaking, it roared before it lashed its putrid tongue at the blue lizard. However, it did not hit her. Instead, it felt something hitting its sides.

"Too slow! Got to be faster than that!"

Gwen laughed as she zipped again. XLR8 was fast, but Garou did mention her flaw in controlling her speed. He advised that she should practice her control over her mobility first more than pure velocity for now. What was even more surprising was that Garou was actually as fast as her… probably even faster. His control over his movements was far cleaner as well since she could not cancel her momentum in high speed as effectively.

"Grrrr, I'll show you!" Dr. Animo growled hatefully, looking around the store for something to mutate. His eyes caught sight of a section dedicated exclusively to selling animals as pets, housing birds, hamsters, and more. Taking advantage of this, Animo twisted the dial in the center of his chestplate. In response, a lightning bolt of red electricity surged to life on top of his helmet and careened towards said intended area.

Once it did, it struck the bird as it changed, growing in size, its white color darkening, and its aggression amplified as it screeched under Animo's command.

"Huh, so that's how you made the Giant Bullfrog."

"Huh?!" Animo looked behind him. He saw a boy, brown hair, white shirt, baggy jeans, no more than ten years old appearance-wise. Both of his arms behind his back and his feet pressed together, and he stood with his back straight as he looked up at him.

"And whoooo are you, brat?! Go run away like the others!" Animo roared.

However, the kid's response was a smile, before he raised his leg and smashed something Animo only used to release his ammonia.

The boy smashed his crotch with an upward kick, the impact crushing his scrotum as if trying to bury it into his intestines. The pain… science could not describe such agony. Oh, how could such pain even exist?

Dr. Animo's eyes popped out of their sockets, white foam bubbling out of his mouth as he collapsed onto his knees. The 'great' scientist unceremoniously passed out entirely in an instant. The monstrous parakeet, outraged by its master's defeat, lunged at the unconcerned Garou with a high-pitched screech.

The bird cawed at the boy, beak open and ready to maim the boy of ten. However, the closer it got to him, it stopped when it saw something… monstrous. A dark, oppressive aura emerged from the boy, forming into a demonic skull staring down at it. The boy's size seem to triple… no, quintuple. It was still growing as the weight of the pressure bore down on it, as if it were drowning in water.

The moment the bird was about to crash into the boy, it stopped and perched the floor, bowing its head down to the ground before the boy as he looked down on it with a stern gaze and a smirk. Those who were still present watched as the monstrous bird kowtowed before the kid, unable to parse the scene with their minds.

Grandpa Max, holding a shopping cart filled to the brim with groceries, was one of those witnesses. The boy was even petting the bird, showing no signs of fear, only casual dominance.

"That boy scares me sometimes," Max mumbled, shaking his head in disbelief. Never in his years did he saw a mutant yield to a kid the age of ten.

Meanwhile, XLR8 was panting, but she stood over the bullfrog in victory.

"Come on, Gwen. We're done." Garou said as he walked over to Animo and stomped on his headgear, smashing it to fragmented bits. Once the machine was destroyed, Animo's bullfrog and parakeet reverted to standard size.

Peace returned to the mall, scars of the battle remaining with the aftermath still glowing warmly. Shelves toppled and dust crumbling from the giant hole in the wall, the civilians slowly made their way back to the scene, spotting the two victors over the maniacal doctor and his former mutant pets, one of them walking over to the old skinny man while transforming back to her human form in a bright flash of red

"Wonder what he was trying to do, anyway?" Gwen pondered. He marched in here to steal some circuitry for some purpose. Gwen nor Garou didn't even give the robber a chance to declare his intentions. He did give his name, though.

"Who cares? He's beaten. Let's just leave with the food before he wakes up and rant nonsense. I'm hungry as heck." Garou shrugged as they walked away.

As Gwen was about to leave, she noticed the same parakeet happily flying around Garou's head. She smiled at the warm sight, finding the bird circling around a former villain's head cutely.

"Looks like you have a new friend." Gwen chuckled lightheartedly.

"Hm?" Garou looked up, seeing the bird chirping circles. "Eh? Go away. Shoo." Garou tried to wave it away, but it still circled his head.

Gwen started to giggle when the bird landed on Garou's head, chirping in response.

Max, noticing the heavily damaged cash register and store shelves, rolled his cart over to the cashier. "Can I still pay for this?" Max whispered in pure curiosity.

The cashier poked his head from the counter, looking at him and the defeated scientist and creature. His eyes then fell on the two children that supposedly saved the day, strange as they may be.

"…are they yours?" He pointed at them.

"Yeah, those are my grandkids," Max replied proudly.

"Oh… take them. It's on the house." The cashier gave Max a thumbs up. "Your kids have a bright future. Though they do seem strange…"

"Just like their grandpa." Max joked.

A month's supply of food: acquired.

Four days had passed since that random encounter.

From that point on, the traveling three encountered more strange happenings ever since Garou entered Ben… or Gwen obtained that strange watch.

The next day after defeating the Dr. Animo weirdo, the three encountered a lake Kraken. Some idiot was trying to poach her eggs. The cops carried the poachers to jail as they lost their family jewels. Max did not approve, but Gwen laughed when she saw him crush their pride through their groins. But she didn't support Garou taking a piece of the Kraken to sample as meat.

The second day, they visited a kind woman named Aunt Vera, the sister of Max Tennyson. Her personality matched her obesity, the kind that tends to invade personal space much to Garou's chagrin. For some reason, a host of aliens decided to snatch the neighbors to colonize on the surface. It was the first shape-shifting species Garou encountered, and he did not approve of the betrayal.

The fate of the alien colony laid beneath the Earth, puddles of goo slipping away from life and memory next to their burning ship.

The third day was Garou fulfilling his promise to teach Gwen Martial Arts. However, it involved much intensive labor and focus, forcing her to carry heavy things for a mile like rocks or a shopping cart of groceries on her back. Garou found her struggles amusing, Gwen was livid that he enjoyed her suffering. She released her stress against Garou through their sparrings. Afterward, they arrived at a strange town outside the arid desert, one filled with an alien species the locals called Megawatts.

After Gwen accidentally destroyed a giant rubber band ball using Four Arms, hundreds of these annoying little imps wreaked havoc on the inhabitants of Sparksville. They were speedy and equally irritating.

Discovering a new technology-bonding alien called Upgrade, Gwen decided to win the battle with brains over brawn, the way she usually solves problems in human form. She transformed into Heatblast and tricked the group of electric miscreants into sealing themselves inside the World's Largest Fish Bowl. The mayor then converted it into a lightbulb, cashing in on the spectacle as a tourist attraction. He also constructed a sign that stated, "In case of emergency, do not break the glass."

Garou laughed at the miscreants trapped inside with great mocking joy, and he laughed harder when they banged on the glass enraged. He really sounded like Ben when he laughed, though the two Tennysons weren't sure. All in all, it was an eventful four days, with Gwen discovering three new aliens in the process.

Now, they stayed in a hotel for a single night, somewhere around New York as the two children wandered around the place, one of them eating a kebab of roasted tentacles he got from the Kraken.

"How do you still have that?" Gwen shivered with a disgusted face.

"Mm." Garou gulped before answering. "Savoring it for quite a while. Still got some leftovers in the fridge if you want." Garou smirked before biting into his tentacle.

"I don't think you should be eating it, though. We don't know where the Kraken's been." Gwen scolded in worry, thinking of how many possible infections it could possess.

"Hey, it's cooked. Besides, I've eaten raw monster meat before, and look at me," Garou replied.

Gwen nearly hurled at the mention of Garou eating raw… monster. She still couldn't picture what kind of monster he meant, but she did not want to find out.

"WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT?!" Gwen shrieked with shrunken irises, comically flailing her arms all over the place.

"Why couldn't I?" Garou's tone grew solemn. "I was losing a lot of blood on my way to save a kid from the monsters. It was either die or do what must be done."

Every retort Gwen could think of died in her throat when Garou doled the severity of his side of the story.

"Oh. But, still… please don't eat that type of stuff in public." Gwen suggested, calmly. She did not want to be next to the guy that was eating a strange tentacle kebob. There was no such thing as a blue-ish octopus tentacle such as that, and such colors would indicate a high probability of poison.

"What? It's tasty." Garou smugly smirked, irking Gwen with his stubborn refusal.

"No, it's weird and gross. Just finish it up before anyone sees us."

Garou finished it with a few large bites; his cheeks puff with alien meat as he swallowed faster than she could form a retort.

"Mmm. Already did." Garou tosses the skewer to the public trash can as it landed.

She stared at his puffed cheeks as he chewed triumphantly, almost as if teasing her for his amusement.

"I-I… hah, just…" Gwen gaped in defeat, trying to regain her lost composure.

"Yep." Garou snickered.

Gwen rolled her eyes as she shook her head in defeat.

"Alright, freak. You're gonna pay for what you did." Gwen and Garou heard the gruff, impatient voice of a teenager. Attracted by the sound, the two turned around the corner. They encountered a possible mugging already in progress.

Four men surrounded another boy their age… well, bodily age. Garou was still eighteen inside. They were pinning up a kid with unkempt black hair against the wall, one arm ready to hit the kid with a face of anger. They were ganging up on the kid, defenseless and alone in the alley, something that Gwen could not stand by and let happen.

On instinct, Gwen was about to walk over to them, ready to shout and stop them with force if necessary, but she held her words when she saw Garou walking in the alley without a second thought.

His eyes were sharpened, the shape mirroring his eyes from before, now in battle mode. Gwen could feel the hostility radiating from him like an overclocked heater.

"This won't end well…" Gwen sighed as she quickly ran after him.

One of the four gangs caught the boy walking up to them. He nudged the others, grabbing their attention as they looked at the approaching kid.

"Hey, you lost or something?" One of them asked.

They looked down at the boy, not their age, who was looking up at them with a piercing glare… they admit his eyes were intensely sharp for someone his age.

"Beat it, pipsqueak. Go find your mommy." Another gang member snorted aggressively.

"I'll give you a choice. If you don't leave with your tail behind your legs, I will tear out your spine and shove it in your ass." He snarled with a vicious comeback, unbefitting his appearance.

The gang members, plus the black-haired kid and Gwen, hung their jaw at the threat. What kind of kid would say something so morbid his age? The leader of the four, wearing a cap above his brown skin, walked up to the ten-year-old brat, towering over him with a sneer.

"Look, kid, I don't know where you got your vocabulary from, but you better go home before things get ugly, you hear-OHHHHGHHS?!"

The teenager lurched forward, eyes popping out of his eyes. Gwen dropped her jaw when Garou smashed his lunging elbow into his crotch, crushing fragile thing with painful force.

"Ohhhhhhhhh…" The black-haired kid flinched at sight, watching the victim topple to the floor, hugging his man-jewels in pain.

Not only that, the boy wasn't finished. Below his chin, Garou leaped and slammed his elbow into him from below, knocking out a tooth and the whites of the lead punk's eyes. Then, as an insult to injury, Garou reached his face and slammed his head down with all his weight into it.

"Anyone else wants a piece of this?" Garou asked, daring the rest to come at him.

The remaining three looked at each other for a moment, intimidated.

"H-Hey man, we don't want no trouble." The rest of the three raised their hands in surrender, not wanting to share their friend's fate. The kid sent the message loud and clear that he did not want to play with them.

"One more time. Leave now, or I will break you like an egg. The shell will be your bones. The omelet…" He warned them again, slowly raising his fist to promise the pain that would come if they refuse.

"W-whatever you say, bro." They conceded without resistance.

Garou scoffed as he stepped off the guy's head, letting the trio grab the limp body of their leader by the legs and bolted the premises without another word.

The other boy stared at his savior, his awe-slack jaw spreading into a smile of adoration on his side.

"Woah! That was sick, dude!" The boy complimented with a broad smile, his brown eyes sparkling with wonder.

Gwen walked over to Garou

Garou sighed, rolling his shoulders. Turning around, he took a good look at him from head to toe. The boy seemed to have long black hair with blue highlights. He wore a slightly ripped black tank top and cargo shorts of the same color. Along with wristbands and black boots, the boy had a gray medallion wrapped around his neck.

"You okay?" Garou asked he caught sight of his hands. They were riddled with blisters, like those of a mechanic. As for his eyes, they looked slightly malnourished. Not only that, his attire. It reminded him of his time on the streets, alone as well.

"Yeah, thanks to you. How did you do that, man?!" The streetwise kid wondered eagerly.

"Well… I am a martial artist." Garou flexed his little boy muscles jokingly. What he didn't know was how much his efforts paid off. Despite being lithe, his arms looked… ripped, thick muscles compressed into a form with purpose. His spindly arms upgraded themselves significantly since last week through his relentless training.

"Garou!" Gwen came into view, and an annoyed scowl etched on her face. "Don't just leave me behind like that! And why'd you have to go overboard with them?! Didn't you promise to hold yourself back?!"

Garou did not make eye contact as he whistled nonchalantly, pretending that she wasn't there.

"Don't you ignore me like I'm not here!" The orange-haired wielder of the Omnitrix lashed out.

Crap, she read his mind.

"Who's this, your girlfriend?" The street boy assumed curiously, looking at Gwen's body with an unimpressed frown. Her face flushed a deep red in response to this sudden question.

"N-no. For your information, we're cousins!" Gwen huffed embarrassingly, playing with her hair as a nervous tick.

"Yeesh. Don't bite my head off, red." The stranger scoffed in annoyance, massaging his aching ears, tired of her annoying, loud voice.

"Don't mind her. So…" Garou narrowed his eyes. "Are you a mechanic by chance?" Garou asked just in case.

"Yeah… how'd you guess?" The boy stated hesitantly in surprise.

"Your hands." Garou pointed at his calloused hands. "Those are calluses usually found on workers, either construction or mechanic. I did not see any scraped skin on you, so I assumed it was the latter." He pinpointed.

Gwen and the stranger looked at Garou in surprise.

"You didn't tell me you can read people like that." Gwen retorted.

"I can do a lot of things." Garou gloated.

"Man, you know your stuff, kid! What's your name?" The street kid asked.

Offering his hand, Garou answered, "Benjamin Kirby Tennyson. But people usually call me Garou. What's yours?" Garou asked back with courtesy.

"Kevin. Kevin Levin." The boy introduced himself, taking Garou's hand in acceptance as they shook.

However, Garou noticed something wrong when he did it. Kevin, on the other hand, flinched, instantly breaking off their handshake.

"Aaahhh!" Kevin winced in pain, looking at the smoke billowing from his hand.

Garou paused, digesting the reaction in his eyes. He then understood the next moment.

"What just happened?" Gwen questioned in confusion, not spotting any noticeable injuries on Kevin to speak of.

"Something I didn't expect… Kevin, are you human?" Flexing the hand Kevin touched, Garou asked, curious about his ability. He felt something tingling the moment their skin made contact. It was a completely alien feeling, so he could only assume.

"Um, yeah." Kevin sheepishly rubbed his head as he hissed a little from the pain. Garou could see the steam rising from Kevin's hand, something abnormally heated.

"But I am kind of a special case, you see." He waved his steaming hand around for emphasis.

"What'd you try to do to me?" Garou asked, wondering what Kevin did to react like that.

"Ack, uhhh, I don't know. That only happens when I absorb large amounts of energy. I've had that power ever since I was born." Kevin explained truthfully, not even knowing the origins of his absorption abilities himself.

"Hoh?" Garou then asked, "So you used your power to test whether I'm human or not?"

Understandable given Garou's unique situation.

"Kind of? You just took down a guy five years older than you like he was nothing. And your 'martial arts' were pretty freaky looking."

"He has a point." Gwen agreed somewhat.

"Hahahaha!" Garou laughed, liking Kevin already. "Yeah, but it's the truth. It is all pure technique. What you saw was years of culminating hard work." Garou smiled, finding another interesting thing the moment they arrived.

"Man, you need to show me! I could stea-" Kevin caught himself before he could reveal his true intentions. "I-I mean do so much with that."

"Hm? Like defending yourself?" Garou tilted his head, his eyes narrowing slightly with suspicion.

"Yeah. A lot of people don't seem to like me all that much. I've been living on the streets for quite a while." Kevin frowned in the recollection of his shaky upbringing.

"By yourself?" Gwen gasped in disbelief.

"...so you don't have a place to call home?" Garou asked. He reminded Garou of himself somewhat, but at this age… it was only sad.

"Well, I have this hangout in the subway. It's messy, but I manage alright." Kevin scratched the back of his head, feeling a bit self-conscious.

"That is a base. It is not a home." Garou corrected him. "Were you abandoned here in the streets? How'd you end up here?" Garou asked.

"Nah. My step-dad is a pain, so I ran away. I couldn't handle it anymore." Kevin hatefully growled as he furrowed his black eyebrows.

"Oh." Garou nodded, accepting his reason. "I can relate." his parents were ignorant, worse. They betrayed him for common ideals.

"That's so… so selfish! What about your mom? Don't you care about her?" Gwen argued against Kevin's actions, already having some semblance of maternal instincts.

"Tsk. Who asked you? It's none of your business, so butt out, princess." Kevin spat irritably, getting up in Gwen's personal space with an accusatory point.

"Hey! Garou!" Gwen turned to him to talk some sense into Kevin.

"...I ran away too, once." Garou looked up to the sky. "Years ago, I did."

"Really?" Gwen and Kevin replied in unison, pausing to frown at each other with crossed arms.

"Yeah. How'd you think I ended up living in a dojo for so long in the first place?" Garou asked Gwen.

She blinked, her mouth opening and closing at speechless intervals. She did not think that he abandoned his parents; she thought he was an orphan.

"I just assumed you were raised there. My mistake." Gwen apologized in momentary embarrassment.

"Yeah… don't worry about it. I did it for myself more than for them." Garou shook his head.

"What did you do?" Kevin inquired with great interest.

"I climbed a mountain," Garou replied.

""...eh?""

The two pictured a young boy less than ten climbing up a mountain. On foot…

"Holy crap! That is… hardcore." Kevin gasped in amazement, his smile getting even bigger as he learned more about this kid.

"Yeah. It is hard… core…" Garou smacked his lips. He was not used to slang, now that he thought about it.

"How'd you do it?" Gwen asked, almost whispering with a hand raised.

"There were stairs leading to the dojo. But it doesn't change the fact that the mountain is still high as hell." Garou reminded the pain that will remain.

"So, are we talking Everest height or…" Kevin gestured with his finger pointing up.

Garou's brain shut down a little when he heard 'Everest.' He had no idea what an Everest was, but he would not specify.

Knowing his poor knowledge of Earth's geography, Gwen leaned over to Garou's ear.

"Everest is the highest mountain in this world. It's about 29,029 feet tall." Gwen whispered informingly with a hand clasped over the side of her mouth.

"Oh… let's just say a working adult can't get there without bathing in their sweat. Kids around my age aren't allowed to get there, usually," Garou informed.

"Sounds pretty epic. I wish I could pull off a stunt like that." Kevin wistfully pictured himself pulling off the same feat.

"Yeah…" It was a shame. He wanted to see if Kevin and Gwen could make the trek. He imagined Gwen dropping face down on the dirt while Kevin panting with all life drained from his eyes.

"Could be interesting to see you all become dry prunes," Garou smirked.

As they chattered in the alley, screams suddenly filled the streets. The sound of metal clanking on pavement got louder and louder as a strange being approached the alleyway into their view. It was a robotic automaton with four yellow and brown legs, each producing cracks in the road as their owner walked. Its left arm had a giant crab claw where a hand should be, a gray nozzle concealed in between both pincers. The robot also had small yellow eyes and a hexagonal faceplate. It scanned the surrounding area, attempting to spot a particular object of abnormally high energy. Then, its optic lenses zoomed in on Gwen's wrist.

"The Omnitrix…"

I hope you guys like the prewritten/redacted chapter. The reason why Garou met Kevin in that situation was that he was a day earlier than in canon. I also made Garou had his conversation with Gwen like that because he has lost most of his cockiness after Saitama beat the crap out of him, physically and psychologically, allowing him to open up a little with Gwen. That and another factor which I will not divulge. Let me know what you guys think at least.