One Punch Man: Attitude Adjustment
Ch.21: All Out Assault
The elevator descended to Spade's office once again, he was accompanied by Rose down the hallway until they were stopped by a brief tremor.
"Sounds like someone got the party started." Spade said with a humored grin.
Keeping up their pace again, Rose checked the computer on Spade's desk while the boss walked behind the bar to pour himself a drink. A simple, but catchy tune was hummed by Spade as he placed the ice into his glass.
"You might want to look at this." Rose said, adjusting her glasses as she watched the monitor.
"I'm coming, I'm coming..." Spade replied. "Okay, let's see what we...bloody hell!" He said with wide eyes, watching the security camera feed that showed the burning remains of his blockade and the fence that was in front of it. "Looks like something Metal Knight would pull out." Spade said, not hiding his excitement.
After pulling the chair closer to the desk, Spade leaned on his elbows to watch every second of the security feed without missing anything. He saw men groaning in pain on the ground, some rolling and getting a frantic pat down to put out their flaming cloths. Candy was in the middle of it all, trying her best to keep their forces together.
"Get up!" Candy yelled, forcefully pulling one of the Wild Pack up to their feet. "And you get back here!" She ordered a group of Bella Zerra's goons, who were used to running away from fire.
The sound of engines roaring in the distance gave Candy nervous goosebumps. She made all of the henchmen back up and ready their weapons at whatever came out of the wreckage. As the engines got closer, trees collapsed and branches snapped. Candy could see treetops falling in a straight line until The Bulldog plowed through the treeline. The armored car lead a convoy with John's Aston Martin second in line, followed by the ambulance with Amazoa, Crossing Guardian and Master Wing taking up the rear on foot.
"Let 'em have have it!" Candy ordered as she pulled out two switchblades.
Thousands of bullets bounced of The Bulldog's armored plating as it drove into the power plant. Candy thought the Heroes were crazy enough to ram the crowd at first, but was caught off guard by a well done drifting maneuver that let The Bulldog do a 180 spin. With the backdoor facing the villains, it popped open with several paint cans flying out a split second after. Before the henchmen could shoot through the door, the whole crowd was caught in a collosal blast of rainbow smoke.
Kathy's team used this distraction to exit out of The Bulldog, John Burns and Tennis Tammy quickly left the Aston Martin. The Class A duo rushed into the fray immediately along with the revered martial artist and the ambulance drove straight into the mass of henchmen. Bushwhacker was behind the wheel, with Nordic and Mr. Olympian hanging off the sides.
"Hahaha, Charge!" Nordic shouted before smacking one of Jackson's soldiers in the face with his hammer.
Even though he was afraid, Mr. Olympian would not let his nerves get in the way being a Hero. He let out a shrill battle cry as he dove from the ambulance, tackling two Daddy-O's and using his professional grappling skills to struggle with them on the ground.
The fighting quickly turned into a massive brawl, with henchmen getting tossed and smacked away in every direction. Randal was in the center of the action, taunting more enemies to try their luck after he shoulder checked his way through four of them.
"Come on, who wants some?!" Randal yelled as ten henchmen ran towards him.
Jeremy took every paint can he could into his pockets and the side of his pants, he tried to make them count and mostly rely on his own two hands. As he punched out a member of the cartel, Mia knocked out one of the Wild Pack with a flying kick close by. One of Bella Zerra's henchmen swung at Mia's head with an ice-pick, but he was stopped by Mia sweeping his legs and following up by bringing her heel down on his stomach.
"Open fire!" One the mercenaries shouted, pointing at Amazoa.
Bullets bounced and grazed off the massive shield as Amazoa used it to push through a crowd of Jackson's men. One of them had a gun pointed at the back of her head. In a split second, her gladius cut the barrel from the merc's assault rifle and then she to sent him flying with a push kick. Another Humvee came driving into her view, making her run from a line of heavy fair that chased after her. While running, Amazoa was able to throw her shield like a Frisbee and hit the front tire with enough force to make the vehicle do a half flip and land of it's roof. "
"Halt!" Crossing Guardian Bellowed to a members from every, sticking his Stop Sign Ax into the ground. "Like a good driver giving right of way to walking pedestrians, I to will be courteous and offer the chance to make amends for your insidious ways!" He said with complete conviction.
Hearing that made every henchmen ready to attack stop, look at each-other and then burst into a fit of hysterical laughter. None of them could believe the brightly dressed moron in front of them was being serious. Crossing Guardian did not mind, it provided a handy diversion. He reached behind his cape before stepping forward in a blur of motion. The henchmen were still laughing until they were all knocked unconscious in only a few seconds. When the short scuffle was done, Crossing Guardian was the only one standing with a pair of red traffic batons in his hands.
"Always watch the road...and your opponent." Crossing Guardian like he practiced that line before, spinning his batons in a flashy way.
Many tried to lay a hand or weapon on Master Wing, all of them failed and were left severely injured for their mistake. He flowed through an entire crowd of henchmen like a bird gliding through trees. Being middle aged did not leave his joints stiff; he was flexible enough to effortlessly dodge attacks from multiple opponents at the same time and dispatch them all with a single, punishing counter.
Kathy lead the Heroes who preferred to fight from a distance. John Burns and Tennis Tammy helped her form their own small firing line. Using the Bulldog and the Aston Martin for cover let them be careful and pick their target. Kathy was heavily armed, using an assault rifle with her Winchester strapped behind her back and sawed off shotgun holstered on her left leg. The magnum revolver was holstered on the right and she had a next to her, it was filled with ammo and a handful of grenades for drastic measures.
Bushwhacker eventually joined the other ranged Heroes, after his poor driving made the ambulance lean and fall to it's side. This caused a trail of spars as it was skidding along the ground. Seeing his sidekicks incompetence coming, Nordic had already jumped off to engage the various enemies on foot. This last the C Class Hero all by himself while a woman from The Wildpack climbed onto the ambulance. With hatchet in her hand, she playfully climbed on the vehicle as she approached the passenger side window.
"Come on out and...gghhhaaa!" The Wildpack woman cried out in pain, a moment after leaning into the open window a bolt from Bushwhacker's crossbow went into her shoulder and knocked her onto the ground.
"Why do I always have to drive?" Bushwhacker mumbled as he climbed out of the window.
After Bushwhacker crept over to Kathy's side of the battlefield, their combined fire power proved to be quite effective. This made two of Jackson's mercenaries decide to use their stealth experience to avoid the battle entirely and end up behind the Heroes firing line. They put silencers their sidearms, using hand signals to agree on the pair of targets. They might have succeeded if Tennis Tammy did not see them in the faint reflection of the Astin Martin's window. With a sudden turn, Tammy used an overheard serve to launch a tennis ball. Her shot was well placed enough to bounce off one of the henchmen's heads and then ricochet onto the other.
"Nice one." Kathy said with a pleased smirk.
"Thanks, it's all in the wrist.' Tammy replied with a big, bright smile.
The likes of Nordic, Randal and Master Wing had no issue with leaving their enemies in a brutalized state. But unlike them, John had no problem killing the henchmen in his way with a cold and calculated form of execution. He wounded when he could but if a simple bullet between the eyes made sure Mr. Olympian was not shot in the back, the trigger was pulled without a second thought.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa man! What are you doing?!" Jeremy cried out, running over to John after seeing him shoot a cartel member in the chest. "These aren't monster, we're fighting people! You can't just go around and..." He was stopped by John Burns handing over a laminated card in the midst of shooting, Jeremy was left looking baffled after he examined it. "Is...is this an actual license to kill?"
"Yes, keepsake from my last job." John replied, not taking his eyes off the fight.
"Wh-what the heck did you do?' Jeremy asked with a stunned expression.
"Well, I could tell you but...well..." John said with awkward chuckle as he took the card back.
"Umm...never-mind...keep up the good work." Jeremy said as he quickly backed away.
As the battle raged on, Spade observed using the security cameras. Rose noticed an odd silence, she was expecting a more energetic reaction. But as Spade refilled the glass on the desk, his face showed only melancholy.
"Is this it?" Spade asked, leaning back in his chair. "I count a dozen on their side, and not one S Class in the bunch. Where the bloody hell is the real army?"
"Hmm, I've been wondering the same..." Rose said, typing on her tablet. "Oh, I see. Apparently there's a rather nasty Dragon Level monster tearing apart City-B, news reports say that it's giving the S Class Heroes a rough time."
"You're telling me one monster has all the big boys attention? Let me see what they're dealing with." Spade said, holding his hand out for the tablet.
"I...honestly don't think you should." Rose said stiffly after checking the news photo again. "Trust me on this one."
An unhappy glance was enough for Rose to concede and give up the tablet. Using his left hand, Spade looked at the creature keeping most of the Heroes occupied and it made him crack glass that was being held in his right hand. Rose sighed as he prediction came true and waited for Spade to collect himself with a few deep. After handing back the tablet and dropping the glass in a small trash bin next to him, Spade slowly stood and walked back over to the bar. He took a moment to examine the bottle he was pouring before chugging the rest in second and throwing the bottle at the left-side wall, making it shatter.
While the boss drank, his soldiers were getting dwindled down by the small by skilled team of Heroes. Randal was in the middle of throwing off two Wild Pack members that jumped on his back, it almost left him open to be shot by a Daddy-O but he was saved by Kathy hitting a well placed shot to the foot. Randal took a moment to look back and giving a thankful nod before running back into the fight. Kathy replied with a playful wave before lining up another target.
Even though he was cut, bruised and still a little bit sick; the C Class Hero Mr. Olympian was still strong enough to lift one of Bella Zerra's men by locking the waist and slamming them onto the ground. He was too busy admiring the pace he was keeping to stop a high-heeled foot kicking him between the shoulder blades. Now on the ground, he turned onto his back with just enough time to react and roll away from the switchblade tossed at his head. After scrambling to get up, he stood face to Candy as reached behind her back for another knife.
"Think you can put a hand on me?" Candy asked teasingly, raising her arm to throw her another switchblade. "Ahhhh!" She cried out in shock after the blade of her knife taken off with a perfect shot.
"Sorry old chap, but I'll be stepping in." John said to Mr. Olympian, his silenced pistol pointed at Candy. "The two of us have some unfinished business."
Candy smirked, not minding the idea of ending what they started back at the bank. Mr. Olympian hesitated at first, but decided to listen to the higher ranked Hero and ran off to find more henchmen to grapple with.
"There's no monster to save you this time, care to see if your knives are faster than a bullet?" John said with suave confidence.
"Who said anything about knives?" Candy asked with a sinister grin.
With a quick, fluid motion Candy was able to slip he feet out of her high-heels and kick them towards John Burns. He was able to twist and duck out of the way, but the distraction let Candy get in close. Years of training let John avoid the first flurry of cuts and stabs, but a swing at his feet made him jump back to avoid it. Landing caused a terrible surge of pain in the leg that still was not fully healed. Instinctively clutching his thigh left John open for Candy to attack. The first kick knocked the gun out of his hand and the next hit John dead center of the face with her bare foot to add insult to injury, causing his nose to bleed after falling onto his back. Without delay, John pointed the watch he was wearing at the Daddy-O's leader and tapped its face. A green laser sight emitted from the watched and onto Candy's stomach, making her her flinch.
"What...did you run out good gadgets?" Candy asked with a laugh, thinking it was a glorified laser pointer.
"Not quite.' John Burns replied playfully.
The sound of an engine starting caught Candy's attention, she turned to see the Astin Martin speeding towards her without a driver and managed to dive out of the way before it drove straight into her. Thanks to custom design, the car was able to perfectly drift and keep pursing Candy in a matter of second. She wasn't expecting such a quick response and tried to jump over the car, but the windshield caught her legs and she tumbled into the drivers seat. Before she could leave, John typed a command into a holographic touch screen that was projected by the watch. Suddenly, two seat belts crossed each-other over Candy's torso to keep her bound in the driver's seat.
"D-Dammit!" Candy yelled, trying to cut the belts.
After typing in another command, Candy was left screaming in terror from the ejector seat kicking in. She was high into the air, a parachute deployed shortly after the rocket under the seat cooled down. Thanks to his quick wit and typing fingers, John knew Candy would out of the fight for quite a long time.
"Hope you enjoy the flight." John said as he watched propel through the air.
The fight was already going in the Heroes favor, but without Candy to provide coordination the henchmen's forces began to fall fast. Some of them noticed this and started running away, others bitterly fought until to the end. As Spade and Rose kept watching the security footage, Rose was given another report into her earpiece.
"Looks like the first line of defense has been compromised." Rose explained, adjusting her glasses.
"That's fine...let the pets out." Spade replied with clear agitation.
"The prick went this way!" Randal called out to the others, leading them to the main building.
The team of Heroes accompanied by Master Wing ran through the crowds of beaten henchmen. They were confident and determined, but stopped once they heard a savage roar coming from a nearby warehouse. Before anyone could question the noise, an entire wall broken through by a horde of monsters of all shapes and sizes. Their were dozens, each of them implanted with one of Spade's control devices.
"Ohh come on...that's just not fair." Mr. Olympian said, looking distraught.
"Foul beasts! We will slay them all!" Amazoa said, pointing her sword at the monsters.
The monsters under the command of attack any intruder on sight. They ran, fly and slither toward the group of Heroes in a frenzied rage . Everyone stood their ground and Kathy used one of her grenades', throwing it into the center of the approaching horde. Two Wolf-Level threats were destroyed by the blast, but a much larger Tiger Level monster came charging out of the smoke. Randal decided to fight head on, picking the Living Statue of a civil war general as his opponent and then ran to tackle the monster.
The rest did the same, clashing with various monsters. Tennis Tammy was almost blindsided by a green, bipedal hedgehog with surprising speed until Crossing Guardian intercepted the creature and cleaved it in half. with his ax. Amazoa struggled to hold back the jaws of a red, bus sized Soldier Ant wearing a large army helmet. Mia and Jeremy used their two for one combo to knock a ten foot minotaur onto it's back while Master Wing jumped into the fray beside them.
"Now sidekick!" Nordic yelled, clashing hammers with the Construction Worker Centaur.
While Nordic had the monster occupied, Bushwhacker shot the centaur in the behind with one of his bolts. The sudden pain provided enough distraction to bash the monster in the face. With that done, Nordic stood on the monsters neck and proudly held his hammer in the air.
"Another mighty win for us!" Nordic said like a noble warrior with Bushwhacker snickering beside him.
John Burns faced a rather annoying creature. It was a blob of red, jello like substance that pulled off a piece of his suit after getting too close. A bad feeling told John that luck stopped him from getting absorbed into the gelatinous mass. Knowing simple bullets wouldn't work, he reached into his back pocket to pull out what appeared to be a bottle of breath spray. The monster tried to overwhelm him again, but the spray turned out to be a powerful acid that made the creatures body buddle and steam on contact. After letting out an inhuman cry, the Red Blob started to back away in fear.
"Oh no you don't..." John said, ignoring the pain in his leg to lunge forward and spray the blood until it was a bubbling puddle on the ground.
"Tap! I said tap dammit!" Mr. Olympia yelled, applying a painful ankle lock to human-sized Jackal.
Unfortunately, the monster was not intelligent enough to understand the concept of tapping out, but Mr. Olympian was too busy applying the hold to notice. Jeremy tossed another smoke bomb before kicking a loincloth wearing Cyclops directly in the eye. After the monster fell onto it's back with a loud thud, Jeremy put his conscious aside to seize the opportunity. Stepping on the monster's torso for a boost, Jeremy leaped into the air and aimed his landing so that both feet together would end up crushing the Cyclops's throat. After cringing at the monsters broken bones and dying, gurgled gasp; Jeremy thought he had a second to rest but then felt a sticky substance attach to his leg he looked down to see a large, amphibious tongue sticking to his ankle. It was connected to a car-sized, brown Bullfrog with real bullhorns sticking out from its head.
"Aaahhhhh, let me go! I don't taste good!" Jeremy shouted frantically as the tongue dragged him towards the Bullfrog's gaping mouth.
While Jeremy tried to avoid getting eaten, Mia had was doing her best not to get cut in half. She was fighting a very odd form of mermaid with the usual halves' reversed. The legs and hips belongs to a human man, wearing black speedos and a pair of wooden Geta. The top half was a swordfish that was deep blue except for it's white stomach. It was over seven feet tall, with softball sized fish eyes on both sides of it's head and pointed nose that was the same length as a claymore. It was also razor-sharp, carving up the concrete multiple times as the monster's tried to cut it's prey.
Mia had no clue about finding the weak spot on fish, but she knew more than enough about human anatomy to make up for it. The Mermaid Swordfish slashed upward, leaving it's nose pointed it the air for a moment. Mia used this and her smaller size to roll in between the monsters rather hairy legs. Now behind the monster, she pushed her legs into the back her knee with enough force to make the monster's leg buckle. It blubbered in pain as Mia used both feet to hop off the ground and performed a spinning back-kick to the left side of the Swordfish Mermaid's head. Being top-heavy, it made the monster do a half spin nd land nose first. The nose was mostly stuck in the ground, leaving the Swordfish Mermaid to flail helplessly upside-down.
"Hmm...it'll do." Mia said with an amused grin.
Suddenly, a large shadow was cast over Mia. A towering, bright purple Rock Candy monster that seemed to be made of rock stood in front of her. It moved faster than it's hulking body appeared, giving Mia only enough time to hold her arms up and block the monsters massive foot. She was thrown back over twelve feet, her back sliding on the ground before she stopped. After getting up to one knee, the monster used one quick lunge to be standing over Mia again. The Rock Candy Creature raised it's left hand, ready to smash Mia into oblivion. Mia put up her arms again even though they were still shaking.
The monster's fist came down, only to be stopped before reaching it's target. Having such a large hand meant the Rock Candy Creature had to lean it's head in order to see what was underneath, but what the brutish monster saw caused an expression of legitimate fear. Master Wing was standing under the fist, one arm blocked the monster's attack while the other was tucked behind the martial artist's back. The eyes that locked with the Rock Candy monster did not seem human, they were eyes that resembled a savage beast; ready to protect it's cub.
With a prefect standing split-kick, the monster's arm was pushed above it's head. Master Wing jumped to meet his opponent face to face, his right hand forming an eagle's claw once again. In less then a blink of an eye, Master Wing slashed the monsters head and left it in three sections. Before the pieces could finishes falling, Master Wing fished with a two palm strike into Rock Candy Creature's chest. The center of it's torso shattered as the monster was knocked back and killed before it finished hitting the ground.
"Thank you." Mia said a hint of shame.
"Focus Mia, we're not through this yet." Master Wing said, only giving his daughter a glance before attacking another monster.
The fighting was bloody and brutal with each Hero taking victories and receiving injurious as they took on the monstrous horde. Mr. Olympian's chest was cut by the jagged branch of a Living Tree, Amazoa was burnt by a demonic Firefighter who was in an ironic state of constant combustion and Randal was getting pelted by coins from a Slot Bot that appeared to be half humanoid and half slot machine.
"Help, Nordic!' Bushwhacker screamed as he ran from a bus-sized Skeleton Dragon.
"Little...busy...here!" Nordic grunted, his hammer holding back the jaws of a bloodthirsty Poodle Cerberus.
Tears of terror streamed down Bushwhacker's face as the monster stomped closer and closer. He kept crying out for help, but no one seemed to answer as the Skeleton Dragon was just seconds away from chewing him up.
"Crossing...!" A sudden, dynamic voice said as Crossing Guardian Lunged into the air. "Clever!" He shouted like a battle cry, cleaving the monster's neck in two with one powerful swing from his Stop Sign Ax.
"Ohh thank you thank you thank you thank you than you thank you!" Bushwhacker cried repeatedly, crawling over to Crossing Guarding to grab and start kissing his feet.
"No problem my friend, but we must keep up the good fight." Crossing Guardian said, striking another heroic pose. "S-seriously...get off me." He said while trying to shake Bushwhacker off with his leg.
After Randal turned the Slot Bot into loose change and spare parts, he was about to help Mia deal with a Giant Bat that was hard to get a hand on. He was stopped when something charged him from the back, knocking him down. Randal turned around and caught the monster's mouth in time, but he was still suspired to see what was trying to bite off his face. It was the Shellhound that Ted, Chuck and Horace managed to capture. As it snarled and tried to bite at Randal's head, he could see the control device placed around the neck. With the moment of shock gone, Randal was able to push monster up and leave it knocked out with one stiff punch.
"Bad dog..." Randal mumbled after checking the Shellhound was down.
It was a difficult struggle, but the Heroes eventually managed to thin the monsters numbers enough to help each other deal with the more dangerous threats. Spade could see which way the wind was going and turned the computer off before lazily walking to the door.
"Give em the rest, it's time to go see Nova." Spade said, not bothering to look back at Rose while going to the elevator.
"Keep going! We've almost won!" Amazoa shouted after plunging her sword into the side of an Ogre.
The last handful of monsters scurried back, standing prone like cornered animals. Being exhausted and hurt did not stop the groups attitude from being positive, but that mood was quickly taken away when a portion of the power plants old paring lot opened up. Ascending from a very large platform was just as many monsters as before, with all new terrifying and baffling forms. Seeing these new allies made the surviving monster's from the first group much more confident.
"You just had to say it..." Bushwhacker said to Amazoa with a sour look.
"This is getting us nowhere." Kathy remarked, getting another grenade ready.
"You're right..." Master Wing replied, turning to look at the main building. "Take you're team and go."
"Seriously? What about the rest of you?" Kathy asked.
"Worry not fellow amazon, we will fight these monsters even it means drawing our last breath." Amazoa answered with determination.
"I never signed up for that and why do they get to leave the fight?!" Nordic yelled in protest.
"Because they've dealt with Spade more than any of us, giving them the best chance inside." Master Wing said before looking back to Kathy. "Get going, we'll follow once this is done."
"I've actually gathered quite a bit of intelligence about this place." John Burns remarked, putting a fresh magazine into his silenced pistol. "But I don't mind staying topside for a bit."
Although not her favorite plan, Kathy knew their was not much for better options and the approaching monsters gave them no time for another plan. Aside from Nordic and Bushwhacker, the other Heroes seemed willing to stay. She quietly checked with her team. knowing all of them were trusting her to make the right call.
"Okay." Kathy said with single nod. "Let's go guys, move out!"
"Mia..." Master Wing said, stopping Mia just before she left. "Be careful..."
"Of course." Mia said, smiling softly before running to catch up with her friends.
Seeing that Mia was not afraid put Master Wing at ease, it would allow him to focus on the new monsters standing in their way. Seven Heroes and a martial arts master stood against a tide of horrors while Kathy's group rushed inside Spade's compound to finally put a stop to his plans.