"Oh!" Maiko Plasma thought. "I've found a match. Looks like that thing is probably human after all."
After searching the internet for similar images to the one found in the House of Evolution's archives, Maiko Plasma had managed to find a few matches connected to the Hero Association about the identity of the mysterious being found in the ghost town.
"It says here that he is listed as a B-Class Hero, nicknamed 'Caped Baldy', real name 'Saitama'. Why would this nobody be able to take down so many powerful monsters?" questioned Maiko. "We need more evidence of this man's power. Perhaps he is using some trick to knock down these mysterious beings that we just need to investigate a little into in order to defeat him. Maybe this trick of his could even be learned by us to take down Heroes in the future?"
"Anyway, I suppose I should get in contact with some monsters who can get us evidence of this man's ability. Electric Catfish Man can probably get a recording of it and burrow away quickly. That means we need some monster we can use to bait this hero into attacking. Who could we get to do that, I wonder…"
"So he just let you two live?!" shouted Venus Mantrap.
"Yeah. He didn't seem interested in fighting me anymore, he just left to catch a bargain day sale." Stated Dr. Genus. "Armored Gorilla here survived after telling him and his follower our whereabouts. After seeing the power that the man had, I don't blame him for it."
"Thanks for that, Doctor." Armored Gorilla said.
"Anyway, you say he is a human who punched through your strongest creation and eliminated him in a single punch?" Phoenix Man asked skeptically. "Sounds like the punchline to a bad joke. He wasn't an artificial being or anything?"
"No, not at all," Dr. Genus said. "I analyzed the information I got from his fight with Mosquito Girl and Carnage Kabuto. He is a human who seems to have surpassed any limits that normally keep people together, and has managed to gain an immense amount of power. His fight with the House of Evolution has taught me that it is I who need to change, not to create…"
"No need for sappy stories." Cut off Venus Mantrap. "We get that he is unreasonably powerful for his appearance. What we need to know is if there is anything you might have learned about how he fights. What did he do to kill this Carnage Kabuto? Did he create a beam of energy from his hands? Did he use psychic powers to rip it apart? What method did this man use to destroy these monsters?"
"…he just punched them." Dr. Genus said, confused. "That's really the only form of attack I've seen him pull out on any of my creations. He punches them, and they are obliterated by the power of that punch. Even my strongest creation, Carnage Kabuto, couldn't live after a single punch by him. He didn't need to do anything else to finish off Mosquito Girl either."
"This is ridiculous." Phoenix Man stated. "Perhaps he was using psychic powers, but punched through your creations while ripping them apart with his mind? There is no way a simple punch, no matter how strong, should be able to take down something as powerful as the beings you've shown to have created."
"I'm sorry, but that really is all there is to tell you about that man," Dr. Genus sighed. "If he really was using any sort of psychic or artificial enhancement in his fights, it didn't appear that way. No noticeable psychic aura was about him, there were no visible mechanical limbs or devices, it was just a punch."
"So what are we after? Is there supposed to be some monster we're going to fight in the ghost town or something?" Senior Centipede asked.
"We should be careful not to engage in a battle with it, Maiko Plasma says," Electric Catfish Man replied. "This being is dangerous. It killed Face Ripper from the most recent investigation without a second thought. We just need to analyze it, get it to attack something, and record the hit."
Electric Catfish Man had an interesting camera rig attached to his head, in order to get a video of the mysterious being that they were after. This video they would take should provide valuable information to them about what kind of fighting style and power this being had. He knew he wasn't a very powerful fighter; he normally had to team up with Maiko Plasma herself to deal with certain threats that needed the attention of electricity-based fighters. The reason he and Senior Centipede were told to be on this team was because they could both burrow into the ground to escape from any potential conflict they might find on this mission.
"Eh? Maiko doubts my power as a demon-level monster?" Senior Centipede said. "What could we be facing that would get her to tell us to back down? Does she think I can't handle myself on a mission like this? If something fights me, I'm gonna fight back. Heck, if something doesn't fight me, I might fight it anyway, if I'm feeling like it. No mysterious being is gonna boss me around like this one is trying to."
"Remember, Senior," Catfish said. "There are monsters in this world stronger than us. Trying to handle everything with brute strength will not lead us anywhere. We need to gather this video to develop information about what we, as a group, can do to take down this threat if need be. Maybe we can even recruit it, and it wouldn't be easy to recruit something we made an enemy of."
"Yeah, yeah." Senior Centipede said. "We've been looking for a while anyway, and haven't seen much. Where is this supposed mysterious being?"
Looking around them, the abandoned district of Z-City certainly lived up to its name. Nothing but rubble and barely-standing apartments seemed to surround them. However, Catfish Man was starting to feel some electrical current nearby, as though a robot was nearby…
Wait, maybe that was the mysterious being!
"Hey Centipede, I sense something nearby!" Electric Catfish Man relayed as quietly but as excitedly as he could. "A few blocks down, there is something that might be an autonomous unit. It could be the mysterious being we heard about, we need to get closer."
"No problem!" Senior Centipede said, burrowing his way a bit too aggressively towards where Catfish Man indicated.
"Wait, you idiot! We need to…" but Centipede was already halfway there.
Popping out of the ground, Senior Centipede came close to the source of the power and startled the being. It appeared to be a robot, like Catfish Man had proposed. But the face and design seemed to lend itself to much more likely being a cyborg. Its face was almost human-like, and if the only thing you saw of it was that face, you might think it was human. Cyborgs seemed to tend towards keeping a human face more often than robots created a human-like face with robot features. But now Senior Centipede was getting off-track.
"Hello. You must be the one causing so much trouble in this place, aren't you, Mr. Cyborg?" Senior Centipede said.
"What business do you have here?" Genos stated. "State your purpose here, and be quick about it. I have places to be."
By now, Electric Catfish Man had caught up, and was recording the interaction. Perhaps this being could be reasoned with, perhaps they might find a weakness of it during the conversation. Either way, getting the recording done was the number one priority of their mission here, and keeping the video undamaged meant that Catfish stayed out of range of any potential conflict.
"I heard you might be pretty strong. I was wondering if you might try and prove your might against me, the Senior Centipede!"
Genos was already firing up his arms as Senior Centipede was finishing. "If you have some qualm with me or my master, forget it. I'll be forced to eliminate you if you are the one trying to start trouble here."
This confused Electric Catfish Man a little. What did the cyborg mean, his master? Was there some more powerful being that existed over this place, controlling robots like this one? Was this not the mysterious being that they had been told to investigate? Senior Centipede, however, was too busy preparing for a fight to think much of his opposition's speech.
"I'll make this city your grave, robot boy!" Senior Centipede declared. He charged at the cyborg, mouth open and ready to bite down on him. Genos jumped out of the way quickly and aimed it at his new target.
"Machine Gun Blows!" Genos attacked Senior Centipede from the side with a flurry of punches that knock the centipede off of its course a bit. Centipede gets up and, with a roar, starts to surround Genos with his long train of a body. It was his turn for a special attack of his own, to show this uppity cyborg who the stronger being was.
"Centipede Parade!" he shouts, encasing Genos in a whirlwind of claws and scales as he was unable to avoid the attack fully from Senior Centipede.
All the while, Electric Catfish Man was watching and recording the fight from where a relatively safe location. The fight seemed clearly in Senior Centipede's favor. Perhaps the power of the mysterious being that Face Ripper lost to was exaggerated. If this truly was the being they were after, video recordings of it would be fairly useless, considering it looked like he was about to die anyway…
"Hmm?" Electric Catfish Man saw someone coming out of a nearby street. He looked to be some bald guy carrying a grocery bag, as if nothing of consequence was happening. He was moving towards the fight between the cyborg and the centipede, looking to not have a care in the world.
And then, he seemed to disappear.
"Hahaha, Mr. Robot. None can survive the death march that is the Centipede Parade. Not even…" but Senior Centipede was suddenly cut off. Electric Catfish Man couldn't even see what happened, and then he noticed that Senior Centipede's head wasn't connected to its body anymore.
Off to the side of the monster, Electric Catfish Man noticed that the bald guy was standing next to where the cyborg was now laying down, damaged and beat up as it was.
Electric Catfish Man froze in fear. What happened? How did Senior Centipede die? What did the bald guy do? He needed to get back as quickly as possible. Senior Centipede, his demon-level backup, was gone. Just as though he were nothing. And Electric Catfish Man was afraid for his life.
He waited there, in his hiding spot, patiently. If he made a sound, he was worried that he would be noticed. He wasn't going to go out there and try and interact with this being. He couldn't risk the video recording getting destroyed, and so he waited as quietly and as fearfully as he could until the bald guy had carried the cyborg away. And then he blasted into the underground and dug back to base as quickly as he could manage.
Author's Note
Sorry about the slower update. Not quite used to writing fights, and so tried to spend more time working on that section compared to the other parts.