My great thanks toTodaBruh, who kindly chose to use some of his free time to be my beta reader!
A-city, Hero Association Headquarters.
There was a serious atmosphere in the meeting room for S-class heroes that day. For once, this meeting was unscheduled, which was rare as most S-class heroes tended to be very busy individuals, and thus unavailable unless warned in advance. The fact that almost the entirety of the S-class was present today anyway only added to the fact that this was not normal.
Second was the way they had been summoned. The Association had made it clear that this was something of an emergency… or at least, very close to it. An emergency important enough for the vast majority of the S-class to be called for.
This was, needless to say, a ridiculous amount of concentrated raw power in one room.
And yet, the Association still called upon them all.
And thus, they have answered its call.
"Almost everyone is present today." mused Demon Cyborg, glancing at the empty seats of Metal Knight and Blast.
Metal Bat grunted, a sharp smirk on his lips, his feet crossed on top of the table. "Demon or Dragon, bring it on!" he declared with utmost confidence.
Child Emperor, meanwhile, was eating candy and frowning towards Blast's empty seat. "Rank 1 is still a no show? I was hoping to see him."
Silver Fang, however, glanced around with a serious expression on his face.
"So, why are we all here?" he asked, hoping that someone had an answer.
"Who knows?" replied Tornado of Terror, glaring in frustration. "I have been told to drop everything and then come here. That was two hours ago."
She glanced at me, before looking away grumbling… with a faint blush darkening her cheeks. "I was supposed to go on a date this afternoon."
I smiled at her. "Don't worry, I'll make it up to you."
Her blush darkened, but she gave me a pleased smile before glaring at the heroes currently looking at her with amusement.
"Excuse me, can I have some tea?" requested Saitama, seemingly utterly unaware of the tension in the room.
Knowing him, I wasn't entirely sure if he picked on it and chose to ignore it, or missed it completely.
Saitama got his tea a few seconds before the doors to the meeting room opened, letting in Sitch, the Minister of Justice for the Hero Association. He glanced around, nodding once in greetings. "We still do not know the whereabouts of Metal Knight or Blast, nor can we reach them. No sense waiting any longer, so let's begin this emergency meeting."
He straightened. "For those of you who have yet to meet me, I am Sitch, and I work for the Association. I will be briefing you." his expression hardened. "So let's get right down to brass tacks. You heroes are here because you're the best of the best. And now…"
He slammed his hands on the table we were all gathered around.
"We're asking you to save the Earth!" he said bluntly, looking right in the eyes of all gathered here. "However, even with your Class S skill, there is no guarantee of survival. Walking away also takes courage. Should you do so now, you will retain class S status." he informed. "But those who stay and hear me out will not be allowed to walk away. You will be confined here until the incident is over in order to avoid a general panic."
He took a deep breath, everyone watching him closely… except Saitama, who was casually drinking his tea.
"Are all of you willing to hear this?" he asked.
"Whatever's going on, it better be worth calling all of us here." warned Metal Bat. He looked away grumbling. "I skipped out on my little sister's piano recital for this."
He glared at Sitch. "If it's a load of crap, I'm going to tear this whole building apart." he growled.
Tatsumaki scowled. "Agreed." she hissed, still visibly pissed about our date being skipped. "I don't like my time being wasted, or being jerked around like I'm a puppet you can control."
"Hurry up and get on with it." coldly said Flashy flash, staring impatiently at Sitch. "Otherwise one of those two numbskulls is gonna do you in."
"Hey, who are you calling numbskull?" growled Metal Bat, while Tatsumaki's eyes flashed a deep green.
"Enough."
Silence fell as all turned towards me.
"Let him speak."
Sitch nodded at me gratefully, even as the S-class heroes gathered went back to looking at him with various degrees of patience.
"The great seer, Madame Shibabawa, has made her gravest proclamation yet in her career." he said grimly.
There was a ripple across the S-class at those words, as most present at least vaguely knew of the greatest seer in the world.
"Shibabawadid that?" Zombieman said with surprise.
"Correct." Sitch nodded gravely at him. "While looking into the future for the next 6 months, she became agitated and eventually made her great proclamation."
On the side, I saw Saitama lean towards King and ask him about the seer, but I ignored it.
Originally she was meant to die choking on a cough drop, but my true self easily prevented that event from coming to pass.
Of course, somethingelsealso interfered…
"Madame Shibabawa wasn't able to consistently foresee every disaster, but those she did foresee always came to pass, so the Association made sure to give her a privileged position." informed Sitch to the room. "The crux of the problem, however, is her latest, greatest prophecy."
Sitch took out a folded piece of paper from a pocket of his vest, and then put the full paper down on a scanner built in the table.
"A prophecy that will absolutely come to pass. Here it is."
Everybody leaned forward to read what was written, as a hologram displayed the note.
""Th-The Earth… is in trouble?!"" shouted everyone.
"What?" Child Emperor blinked. "That's so dumb." He frowned. "Can I go? I have cram school."
Sitch frowned back at him, dismissing the note from view.
"I know that you are a prodigy, Child Emperor, but if you cannot grasp the danger it reveals how-"
I cleared my throat, pinning Sitch with a look. "Perhaps you could provide some additional context and explanation before anything else?" I suggested, even if all knew it was no suggestion at all.
Sitch swallowed, then nodded, Child Emperor visibly biting back a few choice words he wanted to throw at the man.
"Listen up!" Sitch spoke up. "Madame Shibabawa's predictions are 100% accurate! She has predicted many catastrophes in the past. A few of them resulted in the loss of countless lives. But not once did she ever use the word 'trouble'."
He pinned everyone present with a grim look. "Something more dangerous than a Dragon level catastrophe or monster is on its way. And it will occur in the next 6 months!" he shouted dramatically.
"Can't we ask Madame Shibabawa for details?" asked Zombieman.
"Unfortunately, no." said Sitch grimly. "Not soon after her prediction, Madame Shibabawa was suddenly taken by seizures. She is alive, but has lost all her knowledge of what she had foreseen." He paused. "Andonlyof what she had foreseen." he finished, the implications clear for all.
"Something wiped her memories." gravely said Zombieman, and Sitch nodded.
"Well, what about them, then?" Metal Bat asked, pointing at me and Oedon. "They ought to know, right?"
Me and my wife exchanged a look, but before we could say anything Saitama spoke up.
"In the next 6 months, that means it could be today, or tomorrow." he pointed out.
Sitch blinked, visibly stunned at the idea. "That's… true, One Punch Man."
The bald hero smirked.
"Good thing I'm here."
And then, before anything else could be said, the entire building began to violently start shaking, everybody looking up in surprise.
"The building is under attack!" shouted Genos.
"That's impossible!" replied Superalloy Darkshine. "This is the Hero Association HQ!"
I couldn't help but give him a look at those words. Someone definitely needed a reminder of the dangers of arrogance and the false belief in one's invulnerability…
But I couldn't say anything to him, as I had more important concerns.
I could feel the build up of energy above us, could feel thespaceship of Borosabout to unleash its firepower upon A-city.
I blinked out of the room, coming out on the rooftop and creating a barrier across the entire city a second before the sky glowed purple-
KAAAAA-BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMM!*
-and then the heavens above suddenly became filled with fire as the spaceship's guns started firing on my barrier, a sea of explosions rippling along the length of the entire city's skyline.
I scowled, knowing I had just saved millions of people in an instant by blocking the spaceship from blowing up the city.
Then, my eyes flashed with the lights of distant stars and the all-consuming Void between realities as I forcibly teleported the entire ship and all of its inhabitants outside the city, far enough away from people that the heroes could fight without worrying about collateral damage and innocent lives lost.
I glared coldly at the distant sight of the spaceship. A part of me wanted nothing more than to blast it all out of existence…
But no. This was the time for several S-class heroes to shine, and especially Saitama.
I would have to focus on protecting people, instead.
Well, at least the death toll of this whole mess ought to be significantly reduced compared to canon.
"What was that?"
"What's going on out there?"
"I don't know, communications are being overwhelmed right now."
"Damn it…"
Tatsumaki ignored the people panicking around her, and instead narrowed her eyes towards the ceiling… and what lies beyond.
She could feel Aeon's power protecting the city, much like she could feel the volatile clash between it and a rather impressive amount of explosions taking place all over what had to be a city-sized barrier-
She blinked.
Huh. Aeon apparently just teleported whatever was attacking them outside the city. Useful.
She glanced around, scowling at the various S-class heroes milling about in confusion.
"Listen up!" she shouted, her words carrying the authority of being the Rank 2 of the S class causing everyone to turn towards her. "Aeon is protecting the city from our attackers! I'll open a portal to where he teleported them safely out of the way, go through it and then let's get to work!"
Without another word, she turned and opened a portal, going through it to look up… and blinked at the sight of the giant spaceship hovering above vast plains at a fair distance from city A.
"Aliens… That's new." she muttered, before putting it out of her mind. It didn't matter where these assholes came from, what mattered was that they were dealt with.
She could feel her sister and the other S-class go through the portal, most of them pausing to stare and occasionally curse at the sight of the spaceship above them.
Tatsumaki frowned, her senses picking up a number of lifeforms across the ship, several of them powerful, and one of them…
She froze, then her expression hardened.
"Sister, help the others deal with anything that tries to get out of this ship."
Then she turned, taking in the sight of all the S-class present, before her eyes settled on One Punch Man.
"You." she pointed, the bald hero blinking at her for being singled out. "You come with me. We don't have time to waste." she said grimly.
Her sister looked at her curiously. "Can't you just destroy the ship, sis?"
Tatsumaki's face turned as hard as stone. "No. The leader of that thing is powering its shields. I will have to fight them directly."
Unspoken was the admission that they were powerful enough to block evenherwell enough that her best shot at dealing with the ship was to go fight them in person.
By the sudden flash of concern in her sister's eyes, she had understood what Tatsumaki had implied about the power of the enemy leader.
Tatsumaki didn't let Fubuki say anything, however. Instead, she glanced at One Punch Man, to see him look at the spaceship curiously.
"Come on." she said grimly. "We need to go in there and find their leader. Follow me, and don't fall behind."
Then she looked back at the ship and, in a flash of green, flew towards it at high speed.
A moment later, she heard a small explosion behind her, followed by One Punch Man having obviously jumped towards the ship as he blurred towards it.
Tatsumaki was a bit concerned the ship would try to open fire on the heroes still on the ground, but they had Fubuki to protect them from its guns. And, if need be, Oedon was there as well, though the goddess was hanging back, playing support and healer as needed.
She put those concerns out of her mind. What mattered was finding the leader of this ship, and killing anything standing in their way of doing that.
And she had a feeling it wasn't going to be easy. She could feel a powerful psychic presence in the ship… a very, very powerful psychic presence.
But even that didn't concern her as much as the obvious leader of these aliens.
Because for all of her powers… Tatsumaki could feel no end to the energy casually leaking off them to her senses.
They weren't as powerful as Aeon, whoever they were, but she had a distinct premonition that she couldn't handle both whoever was their leader, and that psychic presence as well.
… As it was, the psychic alone was going to give her a good fight, she could feel that much.
She glanced at One Punch Man. If he really was as strong as Aeon, they might just need that to deal with their leader.
It would explain the gods hanging back like this. They weren't worried about defeating the aliens…
They were worried about the potential collateral damage doing so could cause Earth and Humanity.
Child Emperor pursed his lips in concentration, working quickly.
Two stealth drones were following after Tornado of Terror and One Punch Man, the cameras installed within them allowing him to see the interior of the spaceship through his personal laptop.
It would also let him know how the fight with whatever lives inside that ship will go, since they were dealing with a lot of unknowns here, and the fact that the Good Hunter had decided to focus on protecting A-city, even now, implied concerning things about the power of the aliens.
As did Tornado of Terror being unable to merely destroy the spaceship.
Still, with both her and One Punch Man, they should be good.
… He crossed his fingers and prayed to the gods, just in case.
"Team B here, we have engaged the first target." came Silver Fang's voice from the communicator attached to his ear.
"Copy that." replied Child Emperor, glancing at a screen showing Silver Fang, Atomic Samurai, Puri-Puri Prisoner, Sweet Mask and Metal Bat fighting some kind ofmulti-headed humanoid alienwith impressive regenerative and shape-shifting abilities.
"Team C here, we have engaged the second target." came the voice of one of the Summer Twins, as both of them, the daughter of Aeon and Oedon, Superalloy Darkshine and Genos fought some kind ofhumanoid, acid spitting, man-eating plant looking alien.
"Understood." he replied, looking away from that battle.
He glanced to the side, towards where King was, armed crossed and face showing nothing but calm focus.
"King, anything you can do about the ship?" Child Emperor asked. He didn't expect anything, since even the ever-proud Tornado of Terror had admitted her inability to just destroy it, but he lost nothing by asking.
"No." King replied, as expected. "The energy of the ship seemed to be linked to the life-force of the aliens' leader. As long as he lives, I can do nothing to it, and he is too strong to merely overwhelm him with raw power."
Child Emperor paused.
"The entire ship is powered by the alien leader? That's…" he trailed off, thinking of the implications.
Not only about how powerful that leader had to be, but also the fact that if he died…
Child Emperor hit his communicator.
"Attention, to all teams: the energy of the ship is linked with the alien leader's life-force. If he dies, the ship will most likely start crashing down on the ground. Be ready to evacuate from the area at a moment's notice."
He listened to the acknowledgement from the various teams, before glancing at the reserve team.
King, Flashy Flash, Drive Knight, Pig God, Zombieman, Tank Top Master…
And himself, if need be.
Watchdog Man already left back to his city, but that was to be expected, that guy was focused entirely on protecting his territory above all else.
And of course, there was still The Good Hunter and the Lady of Blood in the worse case scenario.
All in all, it should be more than enough to see off even an alien invasion.
He focused back on his laptop, doing his best to use the data from the drones inside the ship to analyze it and the technology within it.
In a time like this, every bit of knowledge counted, and with Metal Knight nowhere to be seen, it was his job to deal with unknown technology.
A part of him was fascinated by the thought of studying genuine alien tech, but he couldn't let himself be distracted. There was just too much at stake.
If the seer's Prophecy held true, the fate of the world could easily be determined in this very battle, after all.
Silver Fang narrowed his eyes at the shape-shifting alien, the cruel monster trying yet again to overwhelm him by creating dozens of razor-sharp spikes from one of his limbs currently doing its best to stab him, though his mastery of martial arts allowed him to easily keep deflecting each and every attempts at doing so. His body's youth continued to be a blessing, as Silver Fang easily dodged that which he could not parry, while all of his counter-attacks covered the land in alien gore, the alien's body all but exploding at each and every touch of his hands… before regenerating each and every time.
Puri-Puri Prisoner was doing his best to pummel the enemy with fearsome blows, shockwaves blooming like full-blown explosions from dozens of punches delivered at every second, while Metal Bat was showing his mastery of some techniques taught to him by Aeon, causing each swing of his bat to create dozens of strikes all over the alien's body. Sweet Mask meanwhile was doing much like Puri-Puri Prisoner, if with a grace more resembling Silver Fang's, each strike struck with deadly precision and skill, each causing parts of the alien's body to explode into gore… a second before he regenerated from the damage.
And then there was Atomic Samurai, the man actually fighting a separate "body" from the main one, each swing of his sword cutting the monster to pieces instantly… Before those pieces near-instantly formed back together into a whole body, one constantly shifting forms between focusing on speed, agility, or strength, the alien visibly trying to find which form would serve him best to fight the swordmaster.
The damn thing even tried to turn into a swarm of flying insects at one point, but Atomic Samurai's swing still cut them all down instantly, so he kept shifting into more and more strange and alien forms by the moment.
Not that he was having any luck with it so far, but for how long that will remain true…
"We will kill you all."
"That is good."
"Yes."
Oh, and the various heads of the alien just refused to shut up, too.
How deeply frustrating.
Summer Rose, silver-eyed Huntress extraordinaire, gritted her teeth as she dodged yet another dozen blobs of acid thrown her way at supersonic speed.
The rest of her team was doing much the same, as that alien plant monsterthinghad mutated to grow dozens of heads from its body and was using them to try to melt them with acid.
To say nothing of its limbs going underground and then bursting out to try and grab them while covered in acidic slime, or the "Acid Breath" technique that created a wide area of acidic fog, or-
Well. Point was, their enemy was a pain in the ass as even trying to hit his skin with a weapon was most likely to end up with it melting rather than anything else.
Though she wasn't sure the other Team had it better, considering how much of an insane shape-shifter their foe apparently was.
"Grobibas will feast upon your flesh!" the alien shouted with a wild laugh, and Summer barely avoided a venus fly-trap like mouth filled with teeth suddenly extending from his belly towards her, the teeth of the acid-filled mouth snapping shut inches away from her own belly.
The damn thing was fast, and damnably agile. Not as utterly insane as Aeon himself, that guy could make world-class gymnasts blush in envy, but it still left her team bouncing all over the empty field they were fighting in as they tried to pin the acid-spitting bastard down so that they could kill him quickly.
Unfortunately, this was easier said than done. Even Sherry was left cursing a few times when the plant-like body of their enemy allowed him to make otherwise impossible dodges, and his reaction time was fucking bullshit- andshewas the one saying that!
Adding Genos' fires mixing with the acid only turned parts of the whole area into a steaming death-trap to boot, and while all of them could survive it for a time, none of them were particularly eager to walk into that hell.
Summer's Twin was constantly chanting prayers, her entire body surrounded by a field of stars and black holes orbiting her, the stars occasionally shooting plasma beams at the alien, while the Black holes served as protection, intercepting any incoming acid projectiles and consuming them entirely.
Summer herself had tried to use her Silver Eyes on that thing, but the bastard had unleashed a fog of acid that had physically fought back against the light from her eyes. She didn't even think that to be possible, but apparently no one told the acid-loving jerk that it wasn't, so he did it anyway.
"Team C, status update." came the calm voice of Child Emperor from her communicator.
"Still fighting." growled Summer, her Dust bullets missing her slippery and shockingly agile enemy by an inch, while the rest of her team all tried to shoot or throw spells or fireball at the bastard. "Call back later, he-Stay still!He doesn't want to fucking die!" she cursed as somehow that alien bastard shifted one of his head a second before Sherry's sword would have cut it off.
"Copy that. Team B is the same."
Summer's lips curled. "Figures. Right, let me get back to it, that green jerk will get unlucky at some point-"
She paused.
Then she smiled evilly.
"Hey, sis! You think you cancursethe bastard?"
Her twin's blue eyes widened, even as one of the black holes gravitating around her ate yet another acid blob.
Then, her smirk matched Summer's own.
"Let's find out! In the Name ofAeon, the Prime Megistus, I curse you with death! In the Name of the Master of Fate,The Grand Opus, I curse you with the coming of death! In the Name of He who is the End of all Things,Ex Nihilo, I curse you with the End!"
For the first time, the alien stumbled, a scream of pain coming from his many mouths aspowersurrounded him, making him slower, less agile and just plain weaker, his green skin paling unnaturally as his very life force was saped out drastically.
"It worked! Let's get him!" shouted Summer at the sight, before they all fought even harder, sensing the sudden weakness of their foe.
A brown-haired woman with a serious face looked ahead of her, hands clasped before her on top of the table she was seated behind, at her right a video played of the massive spaceship floating in the air, while explosions bloomed underneath it in two distincts areas.
MYSTERY CRAFT APPEARS IN THE SKY ABOVE CITY A, declared the title.
"We have more information about the enormous flying object that suddenly appeared in the skies above city A." said the anchorwoman with only a hint of nervousness breaking through her professionalism.
The video shifted, showing a black-haired male reporter surrounded by people standing at a safe distance from the ship… and the battles taking place underneath it.
"I'm here at the scene, as you can see in the distance, various S-class heroes are currently fighting against what appears to be two distinct enemies, the S-class heroes having separated into two teams to fight them with. The first team is made up of Silver Fang, Metal Bat, Atomic Samurai, Puri-Puri Prisoner and Sweet Mask, while the second is sadly fighting too far for me to say for sure, the presence of Demon Cyborg and the Summer Twins has been confirmed."
The reporter glanced at the spaceship, before looking back at the camera.
"We have been informed that Tornado of Terror and One Punch Man have both entered the flying craft, though no additional information has been given at this time. Furthermore, as you can see-" the camera turned to face City A, showing a gigantic white bubble surrounding the city "-The Good Hunter remains within City A itself, apparently having decided to act as its protector until such time the danger has passed."
The camera looked back to the grim-faced reporter.
"Currently, all the main roads leading to City A have been closed, and officials are on high alert. According to locals, the craft has tried to open fire upon the city, though the ship's guns were thankfully blocked by the barrier created by the Good Hunter an instant before a wide-scale tragedy could have come to pass. Additional S-class heroes are present, held back in reserve to handle any additional attacks from the ground by the invaders-"
KA-BOOM.*
The reporter paused, turning to look in the distance as a mushroom cloud denoting an impressive explosion could be seen blooming from where the second team was fighting.
"It seems as if the fighting is only growing more intense- wait…" the reporter squinted into the distance, before his eyes widened. "Wait! The second team seemed to no longer be fighting at all! Did that explosion heralded their victory, or defeat? Will more heroes have to enter the fray to fight off overwhelming odds? Stay tuned for more information as the situation develops!"
"Team B, Team C has been victorious over its enemy. What's your status?"
Silver Fang sighed.
"No progress, Child Emperor. Our enemy remains frustratingly invincible. Its regenerative abilities are truly fearsome."
"Understood. Do you need back-up?"
Silver Fang pursed his lips, even as he dodged an alien limb in the shape of a spike bigger than one of his arms from piercing his heart.
"Not yet, but be ready to send them in at any moment." he replied, willing to give his team a moment more to try and figure out a way to victory before dragging more people into this mess. "What about team A? Any progress on that front?"
"Limited, I am afraid." replied Child Emperor through the communicator. "Both heroes have torn their way through every alien they have encountered without difficulty, but neither of them has yet to fight any of the two overwhelming presences that Tornado has made mention of sensing. I expect things to get more complicated very quickly once contact is made."
Silver Fang frowned, understanding that it would be best if his team had finished off their opponent before the real battles began.
He absently deflected a limb the size of a tree trunk with the sharpness of a razor before responding.
"Copy that. We'll do our best to finish this as fast as possible. Silver Fang out."
"What's the word, Silver Fang?" shouted Atomic Samurai over the sounds of the battle raging around them.
"Team C got their win before us, and Team A has yet to make contact with the enemy leadership." replied Silver Fang while exploding a dozen tentacles trying to kill him through a brutal combo of his Water Stream Rock Smashing Fist.
"Damn it. This fucking self-healing bastard is a real pain in the ass." growled Atomic Samurai, visibly none too pleased at the news the other team defeated their target first.
"We need to find a weakness, or-"
"Don't worry, I got this. I was holding back this technique to see if there was some trick to killing this bastard first, but fuck that. I'm done playing around." Atomic Samurai spat on the ground, glared at the grinning face of the body of the alien he was fighting, and took a stance.
"Aeon, this one's for you!" he shouted, a moment before he swung his sword.
"Atomic disintegration!" he screamed, and Silver Fang's eyes bulged as he felt what the technique was all about thanks to decades of learning martial art and understanding the flow of the world's energies.
The alien Atomic Samurai was fighting suddenly disintegrated into nothing, as the swordmaster used his sword to cut through each and every atom making up the alien's body, effectively erasing him from existence in a blink of an eye.
Atomic Samurai's sword arm shook from the aftershock of using that technique, but the man was grinning like a madman in triumph.
"See? I can cut that apple too, you divine bastard." he gasped while panting for breath.
Silver Fang had a lot of questions about how Atomic Samurai learned such a move, but something else had caught his attention.
"A marble!" he shouted to everyone, and they all, the alien included, paused to look at him. "He's got marble-like cores within his body! Destroy them to kill him!"
The alien's face twisted.
"You fucking monkey, it took me a hundred years to grow that head! I won't-"
Metal Bat silenced him with a brutal strike from his bat, the man grinning widely. "Finally! I've been wanting to smash your face in from the moment I saw your ugly mug, but that marble thing of yours will do!"
He smashed the alien to bloody chunks, catching a glinting marble among the gore and then holding it up.
"Noooooo-!" The alien tried to scream, but a moment later, with a sound of shattering glass, the marble was shattered, and yet another "head" of the alien died, melting off into foul-smelling goop.
The S-class heroes of Team B all grinned towards the alien, who looked to be a lot less confident all of a sudden.
And then the alien jerked towards the ship above, before grinning.
"No matter!" growled the alien. "You will all die here!"
"What the-"
"Team B! The energy levels of the ship are rising- it's about to fire!" shouted Child Emperor in Silver Fang's communicator, along with the rest of the team.
The heroes paled.
The underside of the ship glowed a bright purple, and the S-class heroes gritted their teeth at the sight.
"It's over." smugly declared the alien. "Evasion is impossible. Instant death comes for you. I will regenerate… you cannot."
Silver Fang glared at the alien… before a new voice spoke up.
"I beg to differ. I'm not Aeon, but this much is easy enough to deal with." said Fubuki, before she raised a hand glowing green towards the ship.
The heroes of Team B blinked at the sight happening above their heads.
The explosive shells from the ship's cannons all froze in mid-air, glowing a bright green, and Fubuki smiled coldly. "Here, you can have it all back."
She pointed a finger upwards, and the shells flew straight up where they came from, a carpet of explosions blossoming across the underside of the ship as the shells hit its shields.
"All of you would be dead without me." cheerfully declared Fubuki towards Silver Fang's team. "You owe me one, and I'll collect one day."
Silver Fang took a good long look at the explosions happening above him, and then glanced back at her.
"Fair enough."
Atomic Samurai was grumbling about how he could have totally taken the explosions by just cutting through them, but Sweet Mask merely shook Fubuki's hand and promised that he would gladly help her out in return one day, the genuine earnest gratitude for her help in his voice making Fubuki's smirk soften into a more kind smile.
Metal Bat, meanwhile, was grinning coldly at the alien, who was looking yet again a lot more fearful than at the start of the fight.
"So. Marbles, huh?" the hero said with ruthless glee.
"You damn apes." growled the alien, before he sent a dozen razor-sharp limbs towards the hero-
And then Atomic Samurai appeared behind him.
"You forgot the real threat, you idiot."
He swung his sword again.
And yet again, a miracle of the sword was wrought upon the world, as a deadly alien warrior died against all odds.
"Damn you smug bastard with your sharpened piece of metal! I had him!" complained Metal Bat.
… To a complete lack of any thanks.
Atomic Samurai scoffed. "I found out about the marble, he was mine to kill."
Metal Bat growled, rising his bat in anger-
KA-BOOOOOOOOOOOMMMM!*
And then part of the spaceship exploded, everyone was thrown ass over head before being slammed face first against the ground, screams echoing in the distance as a star of purple light fought a star of dark green across the sky. Uncharastically, Child Emperor began cursing loudly across the comm channel.
"Sister…" groaned Fubuki, struggling to get up to one knee as she squinted up at the two people fighting above them.
And at the sheer amount of terrifying power both figures were casually throwing around.
Tatsumaki had been right.
The psychic presence she had felt was definitely no weakling.
Making her way through the ship had been an annoyance more by dint of trying to find her way throughout the twisting corridors than anything the inhabitants of this ship did to slow her down, but with the presence of the psychic to act as a beacon of power to track down, she had eventually found her way to the control room of the ship.
One Punch Man and her had separated, as she had sent him to deal with the enemy leader. The psychic was hers to kill, it was only right, and she could still come and help fight the leader after killing the psychic.
Said alien had turned to bea purple octopusof some kind with bright glowing eyes, introducing himself as the most powerful psychic in the universe.
Tatsumaki had laughed in his face and told him she had met gods, and he didn't come to even a fraction of their might.
His reply was to change the gravity surrounding her to one more communally found in a Black Hole.
Tatsumaki was not impressed. Aeon loved throwing literal stars and Black Holes at her like they were running out of style.
So she had sneered, and mocked him again, completely uncaring of the gravity around her seeking to crush her.
The alien had fallen silent… and then unleashed a psychic explosion of such power a star would have struggled to fully match the raw energy thrown at her.
And that was how, after tanking that blow as best she could, part of the ship was now a blown-out wreck, and both her and the glowing alien were now floating in the sky.
"Your miserable planet is doomed, fool." declared the flying octopus. "No one can stand against us… and especially not our leader. Lord Boros has brought death and destruction to countless worlds across the universe! Do you think you are the first to defy his will? He will crush you as he has done to all others before you."
Tatsumaki scowled. "You talk too much."
She snapped her hand towards him, unleashed several blasts of energy stronger than even his own attack had been.
The sky turned a blinding white for a moment… before Tatsumaki scowled harder when she saw a psychic shield having deflected her attacks towards A-city, though thankfully Aeon's barrier held strong.
"You're going to pay for trying that." she hissed hatefully, before closing her right hand, a hundred portals opening and discharging enough power to obliterate the Earth with ease at her enemy.
The floating octopus somehow managed to sneer at her a moment before he teleported away, reappearing close to her, glowing tentacles snapping up to try and seize her.
She created a complete bubble of pure Entropy around her, the alien flinching and hissing in agony as every part of his tentacles coming too close to her began disintegrating into nothing.
"What the fuck was-" he began cursing loudly before Tatsumaki concentrated her entropy shield bubble into a single point and shot a beam of raw entropy at him.
His glowing golden-white eyes bulged in shock and fear at the move, before he teleported away again.
She frowned even as she tracked him through the opening in pace-time his teleportation caused, Tatsumaki teleporting as well and creating a blade of Entropy that she tried to skewer him with.
A shield of pure purple psychic power came up, and her blade slowed when meeting it… but did not stop, much to the obvious shock of the alien who frantically pulled away one of its tentacles before he could lose it to her blade.
"What kind of technique is that?" he exclaimed, a measure of unease in his voice.
She grinned coldly.
"The kind that will kill you." she bluntly replied, before bombarding his shielded form with a barrage of glowing psychic bullets.
The alien's eyes narrowed, pebbles rising from the ground and suddenly flying at her near lightspeed, her own green eyes bulging as shockwaves spread out from the spot they were launched from, even as the pebbles themselves crashed straight through her barrier and through her body… or rather, where her body was meant to be, Tatsumaki having long since dimensionally shifted herself precisely to avoid fundamentally physical attacks like those.
She growled, and then teleported straight at the alien while he blinked in surprise at the fact she didn't die from his latest attack.
The alien tried to get out of the way, but with a shout she unleashed a shockwave of power that sent him flying back… straight through a portal into the sun.
The portal closed, and for a moment she just took a few deep breaths…
And then her head snapped up towards the sun, her green eyes bulging as a pillar of light came out of the star and extended itself more and more towards her world… towards her very position right now, too, if she wasn't wrong.
She scowled, opening a portal to the star, and seeing the alien manipulating the cosmic force of it staring hatefully towards her.
She smirked coldly as she saw the way his body had visible burns over most of his flesh, some of them being downright vicious-looking.
Quite clearly, he didn't survive his little trip to the sun without a few wounds to show for it.
"Your world will die, ape." he growled, the pillar of light coming from the sun coming closer and closer to Earth.
To his visible surprise however, she merely laughed.
"The only one here who will die is you." she replied with a cold smirk.
The alien visibly tensed… but it did not help him.
His power was vast, no doubt about it.
But he made one fatal mistake.
He stayed close to the sun, and tried to weaponize it.
"Aeon." she spoke.
The alien blinked-
And then the pillar of light he had previously held perfect control over suddenly froze, gathered on a single blinding point in space, and then shot right back straight at him.
The alien barely had time to let a startled shout of terror while summoning the strongest barrier he could muster before the concentrated energy of a planet-killer technique hit him and disintegrated him entirely.
Tatsumaki stared in satisfaction at the spot where the alien used to be, smirking at its folly.
Really, trying to use a star as a weapon when Aeon was around was just suicide with extra steps.
Now then, time to get back to-
"Ghh! Ahck"
She froze, gasping for breath.
With wide, bulging eyes, she glanced back towards the Earth, where she suddenly felt power, so, so much power that it made her tremble and shake.
What the hell was-
KA-BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!*
Her eyes bulged even wider as a good chunk of the moonsuddenly disintegrated-
And then the void of space lit up with explosions bigger than planets by thethousands.
Saitama kept running forward, following after the drone guiding him towards where the enemy leader should be.
That kid hero had apparently managed to get access to some of the plans of this place, and combined with the raw power of whatever was powering this place, it made finding the path to their leader much easier.
So as Saitama ran through a long corridor, he jumped towards the closed doors at the end and with a single punch, shattered the doors to pieces.
And he finally got a good look at the alien leader.
His eyes met the single eye of thearmored blue-skinned alien, a contest of will sparking between them as they took in each other's measure, the alien sitting upon a throne while a massive glowing purple orb shone in the background.
"This planet's finest warrior…" muttered the alien as he stared at him, though Saitama easily heard him anyway. "I can sense no limits to his energy."
The alien calmly stood up, his singular eye never leaving Saitama.
"You're the boss of these invaders?" questioned Saitama, just in case.
For all he knew, he stumbled upon the head janitor or something, after all.
The alien said nothing, instead he merely stared at him creepily for a moment… before he spoke up.
"Wonderful!" he said dramatically. "Before we fight, let us exchange names. I lead the pirate band known as Dark Matter, and I am Dominator of the Universe. I am Boros." the alien leader declared, thankfully confirming that he wasn't, in fact, the head janitor.
Saitama held back a sigh of relief. That would have made things awkward.
"I'm a hero for fu-" he paused, blinking once as old habits took over.
But no, he wasn't a hero just for fun anymore, was he?
"I mean, I'm aprofessionalhero." he corrected. "My name's Saitama."
The alien's single eye widened slightly, a delighted grin on his face. "Saitama." he repeated, as if tasting the word, and enjoying it.
Saitama frowned at him. "Look, I don't know what the Denominator of the Universe wants with Earth… but you sure tried to trash city A, if it wasn't for Aeon protecting the city."
"What I want with Earth?" repeated Boros.
The alien leader moved, beginning to slowly walk down the stairs before his throne as he made his way towards Saitama. "There exists a prophecy." the alien declared.
Saitama stared at him, thoughts racing. "A prophecy? You mean…"
"Once, I traveled the Universe, ravaging everything in sight." said Boros, still slowly walking towards him. "But I was too strong. Eventually, there were none left who could face me. I came to know the torment of utter, all-encompassing boredom. Then one day, a seer told me…" Boros took a deep breath, then spoke his next words with relish. "On a faraway planet, a being exists who is my match, one who could rekindle my passion for battle. That was nearly twenty years ago." finished Boros, finally to a stop not far from him.
The alien gave him a firm look. "Do you have any idea the distance I have traveled to get here? My men thought the prophecy to be a ruse, made up to lure me away."
The alien gave him a wide, excited smile of glee. "But now, I am certain. Come! Give stimulation to my existence! That is why I am here!"
KA-BOOOOM!*
The alien did not have time to blink before he was sent rocketing backwards, Saitama staring at the spot where he crashed against the distant wall of this room with a flat expression on his face and an extended, slightly smoking red gloved right fist.
"Are you stupid?" replied Saitama, with a bored look on his face. "You can't just go attacking other planets just to liven up your boring life. Even telemarketers wouldn't think that."
The cloud of dust hiding the alien guy finally dissipated, showing him deeply embedded into a crater going deep into the wall.
And then… the alien spoke.
"Don't you think that punch was a bit… light, Saitama the hero?"
Saitama blinked, even as the alien calmly pushed himself out of the crater he was sent flying into, a wry grin on his lips.
"Come now. That punch was but a miniscule fraction of the power you possess. If you wish to defeat me, you will have to do better… Much better." the alien said, visibly completely unruffled by Saitama's punch.
"Before we begin, I should let you know. The armor I wear restricts my power, as it is the only means through which I could not immediately crush all who opposed me. Should you manage to break it, then your world will end, for I shall no longer hold back… and only by defeating me utterly will you be able to protect your people, for you would have shown yourself the man of prophecy."
"Really?" said Saitama, looking curiously at his armor. "And you really think I'm your prophecy guy?"
The alien grinned. "Absolutely. That punch you threw was weak, but I can tell that you were immensely holding back. For twenty years, I have been met with nothing but disappointment, but you, the mere sight of you and the power I can feel laying dormant within you is enough to reawaken my fighting spirit, and-"
"TWENTY WORDS OF LESS, DAMMIT!" screamed Saitama abruptly, already getting bored of all this talking.
Boros blinked, taken by surprise by his loud shout… before the alien grinned widely, a glint in his eye. "We fight, one of us will die, and that is all."
And on those words Boros smirked, a grin of such glee and passion that members of his crew would have thought impossible to see from their usually composed leader, before he jumped, his body moving faster than the human eye could follow… But Saitama's eyes were the furthest thing from normal.
Even so, Saitama didn't move, letting Boros punch him, the alien grinning wider when Saitama didn't even flinch when his fist hit Saitama's face.
"Good, good, I see that you too can handle this much, this should be fun!" growled Boros, before unleashing a flurry of blows at Saitama, each of them creating deafening shockwaves as they hit him… and yet Saitama still did not even blink.
Nonetheless, Saitama was getting curious, since this alien guy had taken one of his punches while weakened. After letting the alien guy keep punching him for a little while, Saitama counter-attacked, moving at faster speed than Boros had displayed so far, and throwing a stronger punch than anything Boros sent at him.
And yet, this time, Boros didn't even move from where he was standing. Instead, he took the punch head-on, his one eye not even closing as he withstood the attack.
"It seems we both are holding back a bit too much. Let us escalate." declared Boros, a moment before he punched Saitama hard enough to send him flying back through the entire length of the wide open throne room in an instant, crashing through pillar after pillar without even slightly slowing down before hitting the far wall.
With a wide grin, Boros jumped and broke every pillar Saitama went through on his way across the room before delivering a brutal dropkick to Saitama's face.
Then a moment later both men ran across the room, running upwards a remaining pillar before smashing their way through every layer of the ship, blooming shockwaves spreading at their back as they outran every explosion born from the clashes of their fists.
Getting through the supposedly incredibly tough armor of the ship and then separating once they stood on the exterior of it, both men stared at each other with sharp focus.
Saitama then glanced at his outfit, seeing how it was getting dirty, a slight scowl coming to his face as he thought over the pain that cleaning his outfit will be-
Boros broke his train of thought by kneeing him in the face, followed by a vicious 4 punch combo that ended in a brutal uppercut.
Saitama finally reacted, eyes narrowing as he spoke.
"Consecutive normal punches."
Boros' one eye widened as he got hit by Saitama's punches, the alien flying backwards throughout the air at shocking speed before he twisted in mid-air and dug his feet into the ship's armor, leaving deep gouges for dozens of feet before he finally came to a stop.
There was a moment of silence, followed by a single *clunk.* sound as a piece of Boros' armor fell over and down on the rooftop of the ship.
Boros stared at the broken piece for a moment, before looking up at Saitama.
"A good effort, but not enough… not yet."
He grinned, a mad glint in his eye.
"Let us fight harder, Saitama!"
And then he charged, and Saitama's eyes widened-
An instant before Boros' fist hit him in the face, and the skyline turned blinding white.
And then he was punched again, and again, and again-
Before an incredibly powerful uppercut sent him flying up, and up, through the air and beyond, a massive shockwave spreading across an entire hemisphere on Earth while Saitama kept going up-
KA-BOOOOM!*
Until Saitama suddenly hit something hard.
He blinked, then stared at the Earth from where he lay upon the soil of the Moon.
"...Huh."
Saitama slowly stood up, rather impressed by that alien guy. The number of people able to send him flying out of the Earth could be counted on one hand with fingers to spare… but that number just went up by 1.
Still, he should probably head back-
KA-BOOM.*
Saitama blinked, as not far from where he was the alien guy suddenly appeared, a wide smirk on his face as he stared at Saitama's utter lack of injuries.
He could almost feel the satisfaction and joy oozing from the guy in waves.
And then the alien dude held up a fist.
And Saitama knew that the next punch was going to be a big one.
Despite himself, his lips twitched slightly in eagerness.
There was no need for words. One moment both men stood facing each other…
The next, Boroscharged.
And punched Saitama in the face hard enough that a quarter of the Moon exploded from the barest fraction of the full power of the punch coming into contact with the celestial object.
Saitama flew across the solar system, but before he could hit anything else Boros was once again there, readying a punch.
This time, Saitama did the same.
They both threw their punch forward at the same time, their fists meeting in the middle…
And then a massive explosion engulfed this part of the solar system.
And then another. And another. Andanother.
In mere moments, the solar system shook under the blows of the two men fighting each other, the strength of their punches only rising more at every second that passed.
Saitama had a small grin on his face, Boros a wild smile full of glee.
The reason for their eagerness was simple.
Neither of them had yet to get serious.
"What in the world…"
Child Emperor stared at the screen of his laptop in shock, and it took him a moment to acknowledge that it was him who had just spoken.
His drone had caught the beginning of the fight between One Punch Man and the alien leader, but then things had gotten… Crazy.
And quickly so.
He looked up, staring with wide eyes at the moon way up in the sky, its faint white presence still noticeable… as was the way the Moon had beenwrecked.
A quarter of it had been shattered, pieces of the celestial being spreading out of its once uniform body like blood and gore from a deadly wound.
The mere sight of it was enough to make him sweat, but that was nothing compared to the rest of the sky.
The sky was on fire.
The entire skyline, as far as his eyes could see, was dominated by constant, awe-inspiring explosions taking place across the breadth of the solar system, most of them visible from the Earth from the sheer scale and might of said explosions.
It looked as if a war was being fought in the heavens, and one that was raging with an intensity such that humanity was but mere ants in comparison to the gods fighting it out above them.
Child Emperor glanced at his laptop, swallowing thickly when the data began to appear on the estimated energy within even one of those explosions.
"This is… too much…" he muttered.
There was nothing he could do.
He was a S-class, yes, but this was… this was far beyond him.
Even his strongest weapons and armored suits couldn't help him here.
"By the gods…"
Child Emperor glanced at Superalloy Darkshine, his fellow hero looking stunned as he kept staring at the exploding sky above them.
"Child Emperor, what's going on with the sky?!" asked Silver Fang through his communicator, a note of panic in the usually composed Martial art master's voice.
For a moment, Child Emperor kept staring at the blooming carpet of explosions filling the skyline, before he managed through great willpower, to tear his gaze away.
"One Punch Man met the Alien leader." replied Child Emperor, paling slightly at the data still streaming down on his laptop's screen. "They… they are currently fighting. We're just seeing the aftershocks of that fight."
"That's…" Silver Fang trailed off, and Child Emperor understood.
He felt much the same.
Especially as the data indicated that, if anything, the explosions were only growingstronger.
That thought made him blanch in terror, a horrifying suspicion forming in his mind, and he began to frantically type on his laptop, checking if his theory was…
Was…
"Shit." he breathed out in horror, staring numbly at the data shown on screen.
"Child Emperor, what's going on? Child Emperor?" came the voice of Silver Fang, the man' voice growing more tense by the second, and Child Emperor idly noted he should have cut the comms before he began cursing.
Then his mind pointed out that it hardly mattered, at this point, if the data before his eyes was anything to go by.
"They are going to destroy Earth." he finally said, his eyes fixed on the cold, uncaring calculations showing on the screen. "At the rate their battle is escalating, we've got two minutes and 10 seconds before the sun becomes a collateral of their fight. At that point, all life on Earth will near-instantly die."
There was a deafening silence from Silver Fang, and the heroes around Child Emperor stiffened and stared at him in shocked horror.
"Is there nothing we can do?" questioned Silver Fang, and Child Emperor thought it a miracle that he didn't break down laughing hysterically at the question. There was no way-
No way-
His head snapped towards A-city, hope flooding his heart and making him almost woozy with relief.
"The gods." he breathed out. "The gods! We need to-"
A flash of light from above.
Part of Child Emperor's genius mind noted that his calculations didn't involve stray shots hitting the planet.
Well fuck, the rest of his genius mind thought.
He could see the heroes around him stiffen in a split-second before-
KA-BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMM!*
The sky was filled with light.
And yet-
"I'm alive?" muttered Child Emperor, blinking. "How-"
He looked up, and stared.
Stared at the planet-wide barrier protecting the Earth, the same color as the barrier protecting A-city.
Child Emperor kept staring, before he started laughing in pure relief.
"The Gods!" he gasped between bouts of laughter. "Gods, thank you! Thank you!"
Child Emperor kept laughing… until the sky once again turned a blinding white.
When he blinked back white spots in his vision, he couldn't help but stare at the sky.
"... Oh. Well, there goes the sun…" he muttered, staring at the exploding ball of light in the sky that he was fairly certain used to be the sun.
Before both warriors fighting above blew it up.
He glanced back at the barrier, which was apparently somehow ensuring that humanity didn't die off instantly from their sun exploding.
Then he snorted as a thought came to mind.
"Writing the after-action report is going to be insane."
The sudden explosion eclipsing the exploding sun a moment later and filling the sky with pure white seemed to him like the universe agreeing.
A.N: Alright! Here is the next chapter in which we continue the One Punch Man Arc!
And the stat of the Boros Arc. Most of the chapter is actually about the other heroes and aliens fighting it out, and yes I actually made use of that one alien who was supposed to be a General level villain for Boros… but in canon crossed paths with Saitama. With predictable results.
At least this way I can try and make sure most S-class heroes get to have a fight to show off in.
Well, except King. I didn't want the chapter to start and end with "King arrived. The aliens died of terror. The End."
Sorry King, you are just too powerful for the story!
Even if I did boost the aliens to ensure they could put up a fight, explained in-universe by God trying to break free and causing the overall power level of every living thing to get crazy.
Also, Tatsumaki did win her fight through calling another for help, but to be fair… weaponizing a star where Aeon is watching was just really, really dumb.
And I couldn't pass up the hilarity of Tatsumaki using the greatest cheat technique of all time: "Summon Bigger Fish."
Still, with all that being said, I hope you all enjoyed this update! Next time, we continue OPM, as we conclude the Boros Arc and get ready to end the One Punch Man jump.