All that stood in front of them was a bald, young adult. What remained of Face Ripper was splattered on the side of a nearby building and the street he had been standing on. A few yards away, and yet way too close, stood Phoenix Man and Venus Mantrap, staring in awe and fear at the sight before them. The demon-level threat was dead without so much as a struggle. Never before had the two surviving monsters met something that could utterly eliminate a high-powered monster like that with no effort and no time.
One of their stronger allies, dead so easily. It seemed like they had met a monster in human's skin. Whatever power they were facing down, they were not prepared to meet head-on.
"Come on, let's get moving!" yelled Mantrap. As though Phoenix Man felt any differently. And so they turned around and fled.
Venus Mantrap wasn't particularly fast, but it wasn't going to slow down any less for it. It knew that if this being wanted to, it could almost certainly catch up to it and kill it. It knew it wasn't going to take an attack any better than Face Ripper was, and so knew that if it was caught, that was its end. Phoenix Man had the advantage of flight and moderately higher speed, so Venus Mantrap knew that if anyone was going to die first, it would be itself.
Which is why it was surprised when nothing caught up to them. They stopped together a block past the gate of the ghost town to discuss what they had found.
"Why didn't it pursue us?" Questioned Venus Mantrap. "What is that thing, why didn't it chase us, how was it powerful enough to destroy Face Ripper, how did it destroy Face Ripper, what should…"
"Quiet." Stated Phoenix Man. "This is clearly a force we are not prepared to have all the answers to yet. We have to gather together what information we learned before we can discuss what that information means. First, we learned that in the ghost town, there exists at least one being powerful enough to destroy a demon-level threat with no real battle. Secondly, this being chose not to chase after us. This means that either the being had no desire to chase us, or couldn't, which could mean a few things we can use."
"What kind of monster was that?" Questioned Venus Mantrap. "Did it believe that shape-shifting into that form would allow it to go unnoticed? Was it that sadistic that it would use such a form to bait monsters into attacking it? If it really is that sadistic, why didn't it attack us?"
Phoenix Man sighed. "We still don't know what kind of monster it is. Perhaps it was just being territorial, and backed off of attacking us because we didn't approach it. Perhaps it was simply too slow to chase us, considering we found it walking towards us when we met it rather than running. Perhaps it is some high-level pawn of the Heroes Association sent here to watch over it, to find the source of the power just as we are. Perhaps we should meet up with Maiko Plasma and see if she can check the Heroes' Association's website for if that thing is one of their heroes. Anyways, whatever it is, we are going to need to get some assistance from other mysterious beings in order to find out more. "
"Do all dudes with swords need to come swinging in all the time to try and make a point or something?" Saitama wondered, while watching the two monsters flee. "Maybe they should just relax. They need to pick up some hobby other than sword swinging. That ninja guy seemed to have a lot of stress he needs to release, too. I wonder what they are all so worried over."
"So you're saying there is one confirmed powerful being in the ghost town?" Maiko Plasma asked.
"Yes. Why we were allowed to survive the encounter is still a mystery to me, but I'm glad to be out of there." Venus Mantrap stated.
Phoenix Man and Venus Mantrap had met Maiko Plasma at a secret part of T-City to discuss plans of action regarding the newly-confirmed power in Z-City's ghost town. They decided to come to Maiko Plasma due to her ability to send and receive information from anywhere using her power over computers. She had become an unofficial information relay among some monsters who were willing to work together. Their collective goal at the moment was to discover what force was causing monsters to convene and, subsequently, die in Z-City.
"This is the first major lead we've gotten on what we're up against!" Maiko Plasma exclaimed. "It's not very encouraging to hear that this is a being who will attack even monsters that come to it, but know we have some clue as to what we are up against."
"Perhaps we should get in contact with some of those with relations to being s that have died there," suggested Phoenix Man. "We know the history of a few beings that have met their end there. For example, the being named Mosquito Girl, we noted that she was related to an organization named the House of Evolution. Perhaps if we traced that line of thought back, we could find someone who might know something about how she died. They must have done their own investigation into the death of one of their beings, shouldn't they have? Maybe they'll have a bit more information regarding how the ghost town led to her death."
Maiko Plasma lit up at this. "Yes, in fact, I know how I can get some records of beings controlled by the House of Evolution stored that I can bring up and look over. Just give me a minute to find it." With that, Maiko Plasma left her spot with the other two, and went over to a computer that she had waiting nearby to call up information she needed. As she worked on the computer, Phoenix Man and Venus Mantrap could see some sparks of electricity transferring from her arm into the computer she was working with. Maiko Plasma was an electricity based monster, able to control it just as well as though electricity was a third arm for her; completely naturally. Within minutes, she had managed to dredge up information on the House of Evolution from the House's archived files.
"It appears that the information has been stopped updating for some time now," Maiko stated. "For some reason, the House of Evolution no longer updates the files they have archived online. This means that the information we find here could be off by a little amount of time. What they do have here, though, mentions information on Mosquito Girl and her cohorts as 'Experiments in Evolution'."
"What does it say about the mysterious beings other than Mosquito Girl?" inquired Phoenix Man. "Could we get an idea of where to find them, or what they might be doing now? We need to know where we might find some information regarding the ghost town's being."
"Sure can. Let me just look into one of the other files here. For example, if we take a look at one of them, let's say the being named Beast King…" but then Maiko Plasma stopped. In the file for Beast King, she found a status report. "Status: Deceased. Eliminated by the mission target in Z-City."
"The mission target?" questioned Phoenix Man. "In Z-City? Could they mean that other members of the House of Evolution went into the ghost town and were killed as well?"
"It could be that they went after the killer of Mosquito Girl like we had assumed they might." stated Maiko Plasma. "Perhaps they sent some stronger monsters into the abandoned city to avenge Mosquito Girl, and lost the life of this one in the process?"
"Maybe see if you can find any reports in the archives about the mission Beast King was part of." Suggested Mantrap. "If we can find out what they know about this 'mission target', maybe we can learn more about the abandoned city."
Maiko was already on the job. She quickly found their last mission reports that were archived. She looked over them quickly, and soon found an image near the bottom, under the final line, "Prepare for the release of Carnage Kabuto." The image didn't seem anything special to Maiko Plasma, it depicted a bald man picking his nose next to an angry man appearing to be a robot or cyborg. But this image caused Phoenix Man and Venus Mantrap to start freaking out a bit.
"What's wrong?" Maiko Plasma asked. "What is wrong with this report?"
Phoenix Man calmed down enough to say, "The one on the left. That's the mysterious being we met inside the ghost town!"
"What? That bald dude?" Maiko retorted. "He doesn't look like he could kill much of anything."
"We witnessed it kill Face Ripper!" Mantrap shot back.
"Give us any information you can find on what survivors there might have been of the House of Evolution immediately." Phoenix Man said. "If the House of Evolution took on that thing, and we saw it kill Face Ripper after, that means that they lost. If you can find any reports on beings that might have escaped, please tell us. We need to track them down and get more information on its powers."
At a small Takoyaki shop, Dr. Genus and Armored Gorilla sit, watching the shop and waiting for more customers to come in. They weren't doing badly, not at all, it was just a slow day. Suddenly, they heard the door ring as some people came inside to the shop. Dr. Genus was getting ready to welcome them, until he noticed that they didn't appear to be human.
Phoenix Man decided he should be the one to speak first. "You appear to be Dr. Genus of the House of Evolution. We mean you no harm coming in here, we just want to ask you a few questions."