CHAPTER TWO: VICTORY DISEASE
"Next time you ain't gonna be this lucky, you little punk. Get in,
now." He ordered gruffly, shoving a rather bruised and dazed thug into the back of an oversized Police Force truck.
Yet another wannabe hoodlum thinking a shot of Trigger would make them invincible. Hah, as if! Unfortunately for the desperate bastard, he had bought a phony, cheap imitation of the black market drug, and his little plan had backfired
big time.
In his drug-spurned bout of brazen overconfidence, he had dared to try and rob Death Arm's favorite convenience store. It was bad enough that the idiot was wrecking one of the few stores in town that carried the hero's preferred brand of cigarettes, but to make matters worse for himself, somewhere along the process of wreaking wanton property damage, the thug had also injured a woman and her child.
When Death Arms got the Hero Network call, he was
doubly pissed.
Amusingly, just as he had intervened, the cocky punk felt lucky enough to try and challenge him head-on. An enlightening beatdown later, and the hapless man had been taught a vital lesson in humility and respect.
"Eiji's crew has been terrorizing the neighborhood for a few weeks," One of the officers spoke up as the group got to work attaching an intricate system of shackles around the criminal's torso, arms, and legs. It was nothing like an Iron Maiden, as it was missing the powerful Quirk-suppression equipment, but it was more than enough to subdue most low-tier Quirk users. "He was the last one still on the loose. Thanks for your help, Death Arms."
"Sure thing. See ya around." The brawler grumbled as he lit his last cigarette, stepping away from all of the buzz around the crime scene as he sought a quiet and secluded spot to take a much-needed break. He was still pissed off, and he needed some time—and nicotine—to clear his head.
On the bright side of the ordeal, the woman and child were safe, so there was that. On the other hand, the store's smoke section was trashed, meaning this would be his last good cigarette for some time.
He growled at the prospect, cranky beyond relief. Taking a drag, he settled against a brick wall on one of the city's shaded alleys, thoroughly enjoying the taste of the imported smoke. Already feeling the soothing effects of nicotine, he closed his eyes—
—until the heavens rumbled.
"The hell?" Sensing trouble, he darted out of the alley to get a clear view of the sky. Peeking upwards, he was able to catch a glimpse of an ominous swirling cloud seemingly made out of pure, inky darkness. Almost as quickly as it appeared, it dissipated into nothingness, but not before angrily spitting out a blazing object at worrisome speeds.
The burning wreckage streaked in a downward path across the sky, and before he knew it, he had started to sprint towards it.
A bone-rattling
boom followed as the object finally crashed out of sight, the street lights and cars nearby quivering in protest. The citizens around him started to scatter and panic, running around aimlessly as they attempted to figure out what in the heck was going on. There was a nauseating feeling that settled itself in the pit of the hero's stomach, but he did his best to shake it off.
High-pitched warning chimes went off on his mobile device right away as the Hero Network lit up with the GPS coordinates of the incident and heroes on their way. From then on, all he had to do was to follow the ever-increasing amount of blaring sirens heading its way and the concerning clouds of black smoke starting to rise over the tallest buildings.
Checking on the coordinates of the two Pro Heroes closest to him, he slowed down his jog momentarily to rendezvous with them.
"'Sup, man!" The excruciatingly upbeat Flare shot out of a side alley, greeting Death Arms through ragged, deep breaths. After pushing those spindly legs of his further, the youth had finally managed to catch up with the massive man, who appeared to be having little to no trouble jogging for long distances, even with his rather unhealthy and heavy smoking habits.
Death Arms noted Flare was already fully suited up in his new and rather annoyingly bright bodysuit that shone like a ripe lemon, and he was wearing those oversized Quirk-enhancing gauntlets he often teased him about.
"About time you get back to work, ya shiny slowpoke!" He chided lightly, his gruff tone somewhat hard to interpret as it was typical for the reserved hero, especially in his current agitated state. He then shifted his stern gaze ahead as he heard the familiar pattern of Gunhead's combat boots approaching fast at the upcoming intersection.
"Flare, Death Arms." Gunhead acknowledged the two as he joined the fray, their overall speed increasing as they approached ground zero.
The Battle Hero wasn't sure what they'd be up against in the next minutes, but he was already preparing himself for every possible combat scenario. His Gatling arms were loaded and ready to go, and he pushed his Quirk further to stockpile more of the keratin-based projectiles just in case. Quickly assessing the abilities of his current teammates, he felt confident they'd be able to deal with whatever was waiting for them up ahead.
The group remained silent until Flare spoke up with some effort. "Any idea...of what we...we're dealing with?"
"Beats me," Death Arms answered bluntly. "All I know is that it came out of some sort of swirling cloud in the sky."
"Interesting," Gunhead muttered to himself, committing that tidbit to memory for further research. Being in the dark as the others were, he shrugged when they shifted their attention to him, his helmet-warbled speech seemingly unaffected by the arduous cardio as he took the lead. "I'm not sure. The report only describes something
or someone crashing onto the street. Based on the radio chatter, we have to assume it's—"
Whatever the Battle Hero was about to say got lost in the massive, deep reports of riot shotguns reverberating in the distance. The trio shared a grim look before continuing their sprint toward the unraveling chaos beyond. Cars and pedestrians alike—now certain of the general direction the pandemonium was coming from—fled the opposite way.
After a few more seconds of tense silence, the men were about to breathe out a sigh of relief, trusting the capable F.R.U. forces had taken care of the situation without complications. As they continued their advance, however, the crisp crackle of assault rifles rumbled through the streets. They were deliberate, controlled bursts; a fact that set Gunhead at ease.
That feeling quickly faded, because a cacophony of frenzied firing soon followed. And then, slowly but surely, the erratic gunfire dwindled to nothing.
A burst of white noise in their communicators startled the heroes.
"Evacuate the damn neighborhood while you still can! He's taken almost everyone out! Oh God, he just killed Hirano!" A pause, followed by a desperate outburst of gunshots.
"N-no, get away from me!" The frantic man screamed, and the sound was cut short by what sounded like a sledgehammer hitting a fleshy obstacle with a sickening crunch. Immediately after, the radio went offline with a blast of static.
Shit. This was much worse than they had imagined.
"Let's go!" Death Arms and Gunhead roared in unison, renewing their momentum with a fresh burst of speed. Flare was struck still for a moment before following them, thoroughly disturbed by the transmission. What in the heck were they getting into?
Turning into the boulevard that leads to Hasan street, the trio had to jump out of the way to avoid being flattened by the dozens of emergency vehicles and fire engines hightailing it out of the scene. Behind the fleeing vehicles, crowds of wailing and screaming citizens ran in the same direction. A few officers were in their midst, most of who were doing their best to direct or carry the injured to safety.
The Pro Heroes slowly pushed forth through the thinning crowd, eventually stumbling upon the last men at the intersection, who were attempting to maintain a defensive retreat line to protect the fleeing masses. Among them were the remains of the extremely terrified but brave Police Force officers and four banged-up but otherwise capable First Response Unit members. They were forming a hasty and shaky barrier with their riot shields and weapons as they deliberately backstepped away from an unseen foe. A shout later, a final salvo of tear gas canisters was deployed in an attempt to keep the foe at bay. After that, they booked it out of there.
"Officers! What are we up against?" Gunhead pressed, moving in the path of the retreating group to get their attention. All of them were frazzled and pale, seemingly lost in their thoughts until they heard the gruff Pro Hero's stern question.
An older, gray-haired officer snapped out of it first, sighing in relief at their arrival. He had taken off his riot helmet, and his brown eyes were distant as he spoke in a weak whisper. "Oh, thank goodness you're here! We don't know...that—that
monster took everything they threw at him! He just killed—"
Gunhead nodded, listening intently to all of the gruesome details and adjusting his plan accordingly. When the officer's panicked jabbering began to devolve into pure nonsense, he grabbed him by the shoulders to gently shake him. "Focus. Did any of you get a good look at him?"
"We sure did. The big bastard's freakin' pink and he's got a purple cape, you won't miss him!" With that, the officers scrammed as fast as their feet could carry them.
Once they were a safe distance away, the heroes resumed their march, moving through the intersection that connected to Hasan street. As the remains of the tear gas dissipated, they got their first, true glimpse at the havoc wrought upon the neighborhood.
Hason street was in shambles, as far as the eye could see. Buildings that stood in the path of the crashing object had chunks sheared off their sides as if a knife had sliced through soft butter. Smoke arose from upturned vehicles and most of the damaged stores. Street lights and trees laid warped, broken, and twisted. Glass coated every surface on the sidewalks.
The trio moved past the crime scene tape walling off the worst part of the wreckage with extreme caution. A few hundred meters down the road, an enormous crater became visible. As they neared the crater, they had to hold back the urge to curse loudly as they gazed upon the bodies left behind.
Gunhead tapped the side of his helmet, activating a vital signs scanner as he swept through the downed men. Most appeared to be seriously injured but still alive. Three were fading quickly. He walked past another, his body crumpled awkwardly into a sitting position, the scanner blaring a dire flatline. He crouched by the man's side to get a better look—
—and he stumbled back, shuddering at the shocking sight. A good chunk of the man's skull was
gone, helmet and all. Well hidden behind the comfort of his old mask, he closed his eyes and breathed deeply, doing his best to stomp down on the foreboding feeling creeping into his mind as he focused on maintaining his steely resolve.
As bad as the situation appeared to be, he was still fairly confident they could take on whoever was out there. No matter how one looked at it, even the most well-trained
Quirkless men did not fare well against a Quirk user. It was just the harsh reality of this world and
human evolution. Quirks often granted their wielders enhanced physical resilience other attributes that'd be nearly impossible for regular men to achieve. To put it bluntly, the Quirkless were frail and brittle in comparison.
The First Response Unit was a capable bunch, but this was exactly why they couldn't fully rely on the elite team to subdue Quirk-empowered villains. It could easily turn into a bloodbath.
Glancing down at his mobile device a final time, Gunhead noted more Pro Heroes were well on the way. It would be a good five to fifteen minutes for their arrival—far too long for some of these folk. He tagged the location of the injured and dead in the Hero Network's global positioning system before taking a decisive step forward. "We can't wait any longer for the others, we need to deal with the threat
now to minimize casualties."
Death Arms grumbled in eager agreement, his mouth twisted into a deep scowl as he took in the damage. He cast a solemn look at the dead man, his temper flaring. He could not wait to pummel the bastard who did this!
"Jesus," Flare muttered to himself, brown eyes wide behind his domino mask as he processed the terrible neighborhood-level carnage. When he saw the bloodied corpse, he heaved. "I think I'm going to throw up."
All around him, empty bullet casings practically coated every inch of the road, and they had to push past many pieces of uplifted asphalt, rocks and assorted street litter to move on. It looked like a post-apocalyptic scene from a damn zombie movie.
Walking by a downed officer, Flare couldn't stop himself from crouching to check on him. He was barely conscious, just enough to writhe and twist in pain. His tactical helmet had been smashed to bits by an unknown object, although it had done its job preventing a mortal injury. Most of his body armor was in a similar deplorable state.
Before he could do anything, an arm held him back.
"Don't try to move them—it might make matters worse for them if they have spinal injuries. We need to find the culprit and we need to get them away from this area. The sooner we do it, the faster rescue teams can move back in." Gunhead stated through grit teeth. He raised one of his Gatling arms as he resumed the search, wary of potential ambushes from the countless hiding spots around them.
When no enemies made their presence known, he made his way up the incline surrounding the smoky crater to observe what laid beyond. Looking down at the ten-meter gouge on the street, he noted how its inner surface had been turned into a powdery, glassy substance, with everything surrounding it being downright carbonized. For something to survive
this level of damage, they were certainly not to be trifled with. If they were still around—
"Yum yum! Buu want!" A high-pitched, child-like voice shouted in excitement not too far in the distance.
The trio's heads snapped to the sound's general direction. They shifted their stances, bracing for a surprise attack—
—but it never came. Instead, they caught a glimpse of something massive and pink crashing into and
through the front of a building, the resounding clatter of broken glass making them wince.
Flare instantly recognized the fading neon colors adorning the large signs above the store. He quirked an eyebrow at the strange development. "Did...did they really just break into the
Amedama Bakery?"
Gunhead turned to hush him with a finger brusquely settled over his mouth, signaling for them to take advantage of the perp's distraction to pursue a stealthy approach. As quietly as they could make it through the messy roadway, they hurried along until they were right across the street from the perp, where they could finally get a proper look.
Ogling at the wide assortment of bakery items stocked from wall to wall, there stood a ginormous caped figure, possibly nearing seven to eight feet in height. They were just as massive width-wise, their obese frame easily dwarfing Death Arm's muscular body and then some. They were happily giggling in pure joy as they ripped apart a glass display case to get access to the sweets within, tossing the heavy panels aside carelessly and with little effort. The glass exploded against a far wall, peppering the villain with broken shards that appeared to cause little to no harm.
"What the hell are they doing?" Death Arms whispered, baffled as to why someone in their right mind would ravage a store half a block away from a crime scene. It was too obvious and
downright stupid. Did they
want to be caught? No matter, they'd get what was coming to them now!
"Obviously they love their sweets," Flare half-joked, trying to break the building tension. His comrades didn't laugh, but it let him take his mind off the gruesome sight from earlier. As a novice hero in his first year, he had yet to fully experience the inevitable and much darker side of their career.
Gunhead stared at the perp, trying to make sense out of everything. It was to no avail. Something didn't feel quite right about this. They—whatever or whoever they were—should have been on the run by now.
"It doesn't matter," He answered Death Arms tersely after a brief delay, raising both arms to aim with his revolver-like Gatling bracers. "He's not getting away with any of this. Get ready." He said, taking a deep breath as he shifted his body weight forward to counter his weapon's heavy recoil. He could hear Death Arms and Flare moving into defensive positions behind him. Good.
Three, two, one... "Not so fast, you punk!" He called out loud enough to make the villain halt for a moment, his voice greatly enhanced by his helmet speakers. "Come out and surrender peacefully and you will not be harmed." His Gatling arms let out a
thunk as a round was chambered, emphasizing the imminence of violence.
The pink, rubbery tentacle above their head sprung up in attention as they spared an apathetic glance at the heroes, the creases the villain had for eyes marred with a faint frown of annoyance. "You leave Buu alone! Buu hungry!" They yelled back dismissively, their voice more akin to that of a bratty six-year-old boy. Assessing their clothing choice, physical traits, and speech inflection convinced Gunhead they were, in fact, male.
After blowing raspberries at the trio, the villain proceeded to rip away another glass cover, flinging it aside with excessive force as an act of callow defiance. He gave Gunhead a dirty look before moving towards the exposed bakery goods. Were they dealing with a destructive, indulgent,
murderous manchild?
The Battle Hero growled in frustration, shifting his aim to the objects the pink giant yearned. He hated to cause more collateral damage, but he wasn't wasting any more time with pleasantries. They needed to get his attention and draw him away from this area,
now. "You asked for it, pal!"
Boom. Every display case in the bakery exploded into a messy cloud of shrapnel, pulverized sugar, and flour as they were torn asunder by the hardened keratin-based projectiles produced by the Battle Hero. Only when the chambers clicked empty did he stop firing. Hopefully, the message was loud and clear to the perp and he'd realize he was outgunned
and outmatched.
Buu's squinty eyes twitched sporadically, cracking wide open in horrified shock as he stared at the devastation before him. Nothing remained of the tasty food! Why would he do this?!
"Gun-man ruin food!" The upset Majin whined in a shrill tone, a flabby, bloodied hand pointed accusingly at the bakery's remains as he waddled around to face them. Small rivulets of steam shot out of the large pores dotting his head.
"That I did, villain," Gunhead replied cooly, forcing a new batch of rounds into his Gatling braces as he spoke. He tried to ignore the blood splatter matting the pink foe's hands, refocusing the brewing enmity he felt into raw conviction. It appeared his shock and awe tactic hadn't worked the way he expected, although he
did get the pouting villain's full attention.
A fight it was, then.
Next to him, Death Arms grew impatient and much angrier. "What's gumball going to do about it?" He taunted, smashing both of his meaty fists together, issuing a rather direct challenge. His fists would do the talking now.
The humongous manchild stomped forward, his golden gloves creaking loudly as he balled his fists tight. He markedly ignored Flare and Death Arms
, pointing a sizable finger towards the bad gun-man that took his sweets. "BUU WILL HURT YOU!
" He screeched, driving a foot down into the shop's floor hard enough it pulverized the tiles.
"Uh, you guys really pissed him off," Flare noted with growing alarm as he positioned himself out of physical range.
Buu's eyes drifted to the loud punch-man
, who had smashed his oversized fists together once more to draw his undivided attention. Roaring a battle cry, punch-man launched himself towards the Majin at full speed with a fist cocked back, aimed directly at his face. Out of the three strangers bothering him, this one was the largest and closest to his size, and perhaps the biggest threat.
"Leave Buu alone!" He warned, shifting a portion of his massive upper body with appalling ease as if it were made out of elastic at the very last moment, making the Pro Hero's hefty swing miss by a few inches.
As Death Arms attempted to reign in his surprise at the villain's unreal show of flexibility, he dug in his boots on the asphalt to regain his balance for his next attack. Having little to grab onto in the crumbling road, his boots briefly skid over the loose surface. It was an almost imperceptible slip, for he was almost fully recovered in a fraction of a second and ready to strike again.
Unfortunately for him, Buu was
much faster. When he noticed the misstep, his mouth broke into a faint, mischievous smile. "Punch-man go bye-bye!"
Smack. The Pro hero did not get enough time to process the pink villain's simplistic sentence before he was backhanded across his exposed, broad chest. Even though he was a rather tall and well-built man at 6'9, he was sent flying through the road a good thirty feet, ending up stuck on the side of a van that was partially buried in a collapsed storefront. The vehicle's frame caved in with absurd ease around his body, and the force of the impact left him breathless as his airways spasmed.
Gunhead was thoroughly startled upon seeing Death Arms getting flung aside as if he weighed nothing. The man was tough as nails, so he wasn't worried about his health at the moment. Casting aside the surging wave of unease to focus on the deceivingly dangerous and agile foe standing before him, he turned to face the hesitant Lighting Hero
. "Flare
, any time now!"
"Here goes nothing," Flare whispered as he swallowed the fear welling up in his throat, charging forward with his gauntlets shimmering. "Hey, doughboy!" The youth hollered at the pink behemoth, gaining his undivided attention.
Buu was surprised to see the skinny yellow man charging at him. He snickered, spreading his arms wide open expectantly as he prepared to crush him with a bear hug.
"Buu gonna break mean stick-boy and then Buu break gun-man and then punch-man!"
Just as Flare was within the Majin's reach, a pair of thick, open-palmed metal gauntlets were presented. "I don't think so!" He taunted, and Buu's bulbous forehead twisted into a confused frown. "Say cheese!
Photon Beams!" The Lighting Hero shouted, the focusing lenses centered in his palms snapping open to let out a high pitched whirr.
With the click of a shutter opening, an eye-searing blast of pure light enveloped the oblivious Majin. Buu let out a pained shriek, stumbling backward until he fell into a nearby concrete pillar, his body sinking into it with ease as he desperately rubbed his eyes.
"Buu blind! Buu blind!"
Not too far from the stunned villain, Death Arms struggled to recover, his lungs still unwilling to take in air. He craned his head up to track the faint hum of a helicopter circling them; the news stations were already here. Just great!
What were they going to think about this? A random punk smacking Death Arms around like he was nothing? Hell no.
Today was turning out to be an awful day. He was positively fuming now.
Suddenly able to breathe without issues thanks to the fresh wave of adrenaline-induced fury, he pulled himself from the remains of the van with little effort. He dropped to one knee briefly, letting out a few expletives in frustration as his balance remained off-kilter. Feeling around his ribcage, he was thankful no ribs had been broken. As he stood up, he was forced to avert his gaze upon hearing Flare's gauntlets whirr and go off a second time, their trademark cornea-searing light surging through the street like a flashbang grenade.
While the massive villain squealed in pain, he wasted little time rejoining the battle. By the time he made it back, Gunhead had unleashed a volley of projectiles at the walls and support structures above the pink freak. The weakened material crumbled apart, collapsing onto him and stunning him. A perfect opening for Death Arms to strike.
"Your turn, big guy!" The Battle Hero shouted.
Death Arms happily complied, letting out a fierce roar as he barrelled towards Buu. Making quick work of the distance, he shouldered the blob with all of his considerable momenta into the building.
"Ow-ow-ow!" Buu cried out throughout the onslaught, his boots leaving deep gouges on the store's ceramic flooring as he was forcefully tackled and punched backward. Concrete, rebar, and an assortment of building materials rained down upon the groaning villain's head, and Death Arms refused to stop his ferocious charge through the commercial structure until they came out of the other side of the building. Ducking low into the behemoth's bloated gut as they plowed through everything, the villain had become an impromptu debris shield for the aggressive hero.
With the sound of breaking glass and smashed concrete, the battling duo breached into the warehouse section of the building. The Majin had been able to remain upright through most of the tussle, but his luck ran out the moment his legs met great resistance against the solid foundation of the loading dock. He stumbled and teetered over the edge briefly, his weight being partially held up by the remains of a creaking steel roll-up door he had broken open.
Death Arms didn't skip a beat, delivering a thunderous kick into the villain's gut that sent him over the edge.
Losing his precarious balance, Buu screamed as he fell a good six feet into the street with a
thud that left a sizable indentation on the surface. The ground shook with his fall, and the momentum unwillingly forced him to roll over himself a few more times until he finally came to rest face-down on the shattered asphalt, his body rippling like a water bed until the kinetic energy dissipated.
"Had enough yet, ya murderous freak?" Death Arms taunted the downed oddity as he jumped off the loading dock. With the score settled and his pride partially restored, the hero spat out a mixture of dirt and plaster derisively, dusting himself off as he puffed his chest assertively. "I'm not in a good mood today, Tubbs, so ya better give up now or I'm going to pummel you until you beg for mercy."
"Buu not done!" The Majin shouted defiantly, his speech muffled by the purple cape awkwardly wrapped around his head and face. He dug both of his meaty fists onto the asphalt, and the forceful action tore the road apart as he pushed himself to his knees. Fuming in chagrin, he wrestled with his cape until he managed to place it back into its rightful place.
Buu blinked. Then he blinked some more, his mouth sliding into a soured pout. Thanks to stick-man, all he could see were bright, faint outlines and swirling afterimages that made no sense to him. Frustrated, he swung at one of the moving punch-man silhouettes.
Death Arms sneered, dodging the clumsy attempt by a wide margin. It looked like he'd get to avenge those hurt and killed today, after all. "You want some more then. Fine by me!" What a stubborn fool!
Charging forward once more
, he launched a flurry of fists into Buu's torso. Each punch sank into the villain's flesh with absurd ease and it felt as if he was hitting a sack of sand. After a few seconds of no progress, his frustrations began to mount. Every bit of energy behind his punches was trickling away into the tissue nearby like waves dispersing in an ocean, and even worse, the villain was barely showing any signs of injury or pain!
Was he even hurting him?! This reminded him too much of his sparring sessions against Fat Gum back in the day.
'If he's like Fat Gum, maybe I just have to hit him harder and where it counts!' Putting most of his power output into his next flurry of hits, he roared as he threw an uppercut into the villain's double chin and a final haymaker right where his nose should have been. There was no way those hits would fail to knock the villain out for good—
—almost in slow motion, he watched as the impacted tissue provided no resistance, caving in a good three to five inches under his punches, pink splatter flying out everywhere as his face broke apart.
The Pro Hero stiffened, withdrawing his fist with dawning horror. Did he just shatter the villain's skull?
"Death Arms
, stand down!" A mortified Gunhead ordered as he emerged through the warehouse dock to forcefully grasp Death Arm's shoulder, pulling him away. The Battle Hero's voice was dangerously low as he gaped at the villain's battered body, which was coated in massive indentations all over. Worst of all, his face had been turned into a gruesome, pulpy crater.
"Holy shit! Talk about overkill, man!" Flare cried out as he jumped off the dock.
"I didn't—it was an accident! I swear, it's like he's made out of dough or something. He's tough and I—I thought he'd be able to handle it..." Death Arms' voice trailed off remorsefully as he took a few steps back to take in the excessive physical injuries. His knees threatened to buckle beneath him.
Gunhead shook his head somberly. This should have ended without such brutality on their part.
On the bright side, the villain had yet to collapse, somehow managing to remain upright through sheer willpower. That was a good sign. Musutafu's Villain Hospital was as well-equipped as the city's top hospitals, so Gunhead had no doubt the villain would recover...
eventually. Hopefully, this would teach Death Arms a lesson in self-control too. He understood his outrage, but they were Pro Heroes! There was
always a way to win without resorting to brutal violence or death.
The Commission would probably chew him out as well, and perhaps even discipline or temporarily suspend him.
Sighing, he turned to the pallid and very distressed brawler, who was pacing while muttering to himself. As much as he hated to do it, he
had to be blunt. "Your excuses are irrelevant, Death Arms. You know your strength and you overdid it. You let your emotions take control. They saw it too," He nodded towards the helicopters circling the scene. "Lucky for you, he's still alive. We need to call an—"
A deep, unexpected mumble from the pink giant halted Gunhead's oncoming diatribe. The words came out twisted and smothered through the villain's heavily concaved face, making little sense. The heroes cautiously moved forward, prepared to both render assistance
and cuffing him for their own safety...
...but they stopped at the last moment. Something didn't feel quite right, and it made them hesitate with unease.
Ruffled by his inability to see or speak, Buu began to wave his arms around frantically until he was able to massage his jaw into a functional shape. Cracking open a portion of his warped mouth, the Majin took in a mouthful of air, forcing it to pressurize his pitted upper body. With a puff of his cheeks and a loud
pop, the indentations in his torso vanished. Another deep breath and his face sprung back to its original shape, any signs of visible injures gone altogether.
Two beady eyes snapped open, as good as new. They settled briefly on the skinny man that blinded him and the one that punched him silly, and he eyed them with disdain. They would pay for hurting him—
Buu's thoughts ground to a halt when he noticed the masked man that stood just behind punch-man. He recognized those wrist-mounted weapons right away. His left eye twitched as he relived the moment the bakery's sweets were blasted to bits by them.
No, not by them—
he did it! He did it! The Majin's countenance darkened ominously as his stomach began to growl again, tunnel vision fully locking onto gun-man.
A wave of ill intent and palpable tension saturated the air at once.
Instinctively, the heroes stiffened, suddenly feeling vulnerable being stuck in the cramped, tactically unsound space between the warehouse, rows of tractor-trailer trucks, and the villain. They made a hasty move for open ground—
"Gun-man ruin yummy time!" The villain cried out, catching them off-guard with a burst of incredibly fast motion very unfitting for someone his size. The behemoth barrelled through Death Arms and Flare, his attention never faltering from the one responsible for his grief.
"Whoa—" Flare exclaimed in alarm as he threw himself sideways, readying another
Photon Blast to disorient the villain. Barely caught within Buu's arms reach, he was whacked aside in what could be considered a gentle and lazy manner. Even then, a part of his protective chest plate buckled and the air was kicked out of his lungs.
He skidded and tumbled harshly across the road for a good 10 meters, his padded suit protecting him from the gnarly effects of road rash until the material disintegrated around his right shoulder, knees, and forearms. He stifled a scream as bare skin grated against unforgiving asphalt until he finally came to a miserable, rough stop.
Unlike Flare, Death Arms was well within the villain's striking range. He didn't see the vengeful stubby arm that struck him, but he surely felt the sharp, stabbing pain it caused as some of his ribs fractured, making him blackout for a few heartbeats. Putting little resistance against the brute force imparted, he was unwillingly sent airborne with startling velocity. He regained consciousness upon crashing through the guts of two semi-trailers and a brick barrier. As he came to an unceremonious stop over a broken fire hydrant, he came to the realization they had royally goofed up by underestimating the villain.
Standing the farthest from the pink foe, Gunhead
knew he had more than enough room to dodge
. Mind you, he
had been far enough to avoid the villain's clumsy swipe that struck his fellow heroes, and he had instinctively jumped up and away into the dock ramp for good measure. He was all but certain he had given himself a perfect window of opportunity to counterattack—
—but he had been terribly wrong. In the time it took him to blink, the villain had decided it'd be a good time to defy physics by stretching one of his arms a good fifteen feet towards him like an unwinding roll of rubber.
Gunhead's eyes widened in alarm as he made a mad dash out of its path. Unfortunately, the gum-like appendage adjusted its trajectory like a homing missile, and soon enough it was upon him. The Battle Hero grunted out a rare expletive—
—that was cut short, becoming a stifled, gurgling sound instead. The moment he had opened his mouth to express his dismay, his windpipe had constricted dangerously, courtesy of the inhumanly large glove that had clamped itself around his neck like a boa.
The villain then hoisted him off the dock to slam him against a relatively unscathed wall.
Shit.
"Buu—make—gun—man—pay!" The extended pause between each word was emphasized by his back crunching painfully as it hit unyielding concrete, every successive impact burying the Battle Hero deeper into it. He tried to maneuver himself into a better position to mount an offensive, but the villain's comically elongated arm prevented him from causing any significant harm.
Thoroughly amused by his struggle, the pink menace shouted "Buu!" gleefully just before bashing Gunhead's skull against the crumbling concrete even harder. Bloodied spittle shot out of his mouth as his lungs and trachea seized further with the worsening internal injuries.
His lungs began to burn and his heart rate skyrocketed. He tried to remain calm and delay the overwhelming symptoms of asphyxiation from taking over. With the dwindling strength he had left, he tried to pry open the villain's huge fingers—which were three to four times the size of his own—but it was to no avail. The grip was unrelenting and tightened even further the moment he renewed his struggle.
After another two hits, his helmet's diagnostic suite began to wail damage reports. He barely noticed them, for his thoughts were already drifting into incoherencies. The next impact made his helmet crack. He could now see light through an opening near his forehead and the advanced heads-up display covering his vision flickered, becoming tinted with red hues and distortions. Was that blood or a glitch?
He tried to concentrate. With Death Arms and Flare unable to assist right away, he was out of options. At this pace, one of two things would happen sooner rather than later; either his helmet would buckle and his head would pop like a ripe watermelon, or his windpipe would be crushed to a pulp. Perhaps both would happen at the same time. No doubt the outcome would be equally grim.
Finding himself stuck between morbid thoughts wrought by oxygen deprivation and an immediate threat to his life, he knew he had no other options. Growling vehemently, he raised both of his Gatling arms and unleashed a torrent of low penetration projectiles into the villain's center mass. Every nail-like shot embedded itself into the pink giant's flesh, quickly turning him into an eight-foot pincushion.
Buu sputtered a disgruntled whine, peeved by the foreign objects painfully and rapidly entering his body against his will. As retribution, he shifted his free hand to grasp the hero's left Gatling arm, giving the built-in weapon a
soft squeeze as he grinned deviously. "Boom-boom go bye-bye!"
Gunhead gasped out a groan of pure misery, his vision dulling. Deep pain bloomed through his arm and shoulder the moment the outer revolver-like structure warped inward, the nerves within firing up like a million hot needles as broken metal shards dug into them.
Bullheaded as he was, he refused to stop firing with his remaining functional arm—
—until the villain squeezed even harder, outright crushing the sensitive tissue to a pulp. The pressure worsened, and he felt the ulna and radius bones around his wrists giving way with a nauseating
snap. This time, the raw agony elicited a guttural scream out of him, and he screamed until his throat became hoarse. Unable to focus on his Quirk any longer, the painful hail of keratin peppering the vile villain dwindled to nothing.
Managing to crack a tearful eye open, Gunhead noticed movement directly behind the pink menace, the large, blurred silhouette vaguely familiar as it approached with a noticeable limp. Knowing what he had to do, he bit down hard on his bottom lip, drawing blood. It allowed him to regain a semblance of clarity and control throughout his battered body, and he used the bitter taste of copper and relentless waves of pain to refocus and take aim with his remaining Gatling arm.
'You left me with no choice. This ends now!' Willing every last drop of his Quirk into modifying and enhancing projectile mass, he unleashed a powerful barrage of heavy slugs point-blank into the villain's fat face. This time, the rarely used rounds didn't just nick the surface of his skin; they sank
deep and disappeared beneath.
That did the trick. Although the shots did not take him down, the villain
did shriek in pain when one of his eyes was perforated by a stray shot, the hold on Gunhead's throat slackening right away.
Keep going! Able to breathe again, the Pro Hero took advantage of the fleeting opening, planting his combat boots right over Buu's bloated cheeks before kicking with all of the force his exhausted muscles could provide. The first hits did little, but by the time he had delivered half a dozen brutal kicks, the villain's head had been forced to snap and bend backward into an unnatural, strained angle. With a muted grunt, the bastard finally staggered in a daze, letting go of the exhausted hero with a forceful shove.
Upon being thrown back onto the street, Gunhead's legs gave way and he collapsed into a wheezing, lightheaded heap. Ignoring the alarms blaring in his ears, he felt around his utility belt until he found two undamaged stimpacks. He plunged one of the devices into his neck and one just above his shattered arm, allowing the medical concoction to do its magic.
While his vitals stabilized, he watched as the villain wobbled around helplessly, whining and unbalanced by his contorted, hole-filled head. Upon regaining some mental clarity, Gunhead noted with apprehension that most of the older perforations all over the villain's body courtesy of his Gatling arms were shrinking rapidly, the gashes flooding with pink goop. Even the deep-tissue damage he had just done to his head was mending.
For all intents and purposes, he should have been dead or grievously wounded. He
was a true regenerator. That by itself was worrisome, but not as much as the fact he also wielded super strength, enhanced speed, and an unknown Mutation-type Quirk that granted him incredible physical malleability.
Possessing so many Quirks wasn't possible, at least not
naturally. Was he one of those
things his fellow heroes encountered in Hosu City? No, he didn't have the time to ponder about this! They needed to take him down,
now.
"Do it!" He croaked towards Death Arms, who had finished collecting an impromptu weapon off the sidewalk. He loomed behind the villain, prepared to strike.
With The Battle Hero out of harm's way, Death Arms grit his teeth, ignoring the constant pounding ache in his ribcage as he made his move. He tightened his hold against the street pole, letting out a grunt of exertion as he swung the half-ton of steel against the oblivious pink foe
, who was still cradling his ugly, hole-ridden face.
"Hey, ya oversized balloon!" He called out mid-swing.
Just as Buu turned around to glare at him through a single, misshapen eye, the blurred piece of fast-moving, unforgiving steel met pink flesh with a terrible, fleshy
clang. The vents around the Majin's body spit out clouds of pressurized air, the force behind the swing warping the pole around his deflating frame. His feet left the ground as he was thrown back, and he came to a stop after crushing an upturned car. Even as he slid down the wreckage, the deep indentation remained across his midsection.
Not done with his assault yet, Death Arms flipped the pole around, raising the heaviest side of the mangled piece of steel overhead. He screamed as he put every ounce of force available in his body into the downward motion, allowing all of its weight and momentum to do the rest as it smashed into Buu's body with astounding force. The vehicle and downed Majin ended deeply buried in a newly formed crater thanks to the impromptu hammer, his upper body flattened onto the sedan's frame as if the villain had melted apart.
"You think that finally got him?" Flare asked as he hobbled to stand by Death Arms. The Lighting Hero was a mess, his once bright yellow hero outfit was now bloodied, stained, and shredded to bits. He shifted his gaze from the unmoving remains of the villain to watch Death Arms drop the warped light pole aside. The brawler was hunching over and panting with exertion and countless aches.
Hopefully, this was the end of it. This fight had gotten gnarly real quick.
"I doubt it," Gunhead muttered grimly, cradling his arm as he limped towards them. He waved Flare aside as the youth rushed to check on his significant wounds, unwilling to show weakness at such a critical moment. His helmet had a hairline crack that spread through the top and down its sides, with a portion of its bottom piece missing altogether, exposing his bloodied jawline. A few more hits earlier and it would have given in.
"He...he's a Class-C regenerator, at least." He elaborated raspily, doing his best to not look at the mangled mess his arm had become. Even now, his vision would blur and become hazy every few seconds from the head injuries he had taken. It would be a shock if he wasn't concussed. He had no doubt his vocal cords were damaged too.
Unseen by the distracted trio, the crushed sedan's battery had split and short-circuited, spreading a glitter-like cloud of sparks into the vehicle's engine bay, moving dangerously close to the leaking gas tank and fuel vapors. Before they knew it, the wreckage had burst into a fierce fireball of shrapnel and molten steel, the villain still buried within the blaze without hope of escaping unscathed.
"Betcha
that did it." Death Arms grunted with a tinge of satisfaction and annoyance, his eyes still glued to the fire.
The heroes had to protect their faces as a secondary and much stronger explosion hit them. They couldn't help it but breathe out a collective sigh of relief and sorrow as they watched what remained of the vehicle fall to pieces. It was a sad and unfortunate development, but not all villains could be contained, subdued,
or saved. Too many lives had been needlessly lost today already.
"Let's call the crews back in," Gunhead said, his somber voice cracking and hoarse as he fetched his mobile device to send the message. The trio stepped away from the uncomfortable heat, leery of any further explosions.
"You need to get yourself looked at. Your arm looks like crap," Death Arms' rigid speech was tinged with a trace of concern as he finally caught a glimpse of the Battle Hero's shattered arm and the crimson droplets falling onto the street.
Gunhead shook his head adamantly. "I'll be fine. I've hard worse. I can wait until—"
"Uh, guys..." Flare interrupted, instantly slashing through the fleeting sense of safety and relief as his voice climbed into a fearful high pitch. The other heroes slowly followed his shaky finger as he pointed at the burning wreckage.
A foreboding chill ran down their spine.
Among the flames, random chunks of pink tissue began to bubble and spasm, their consistency turning somewhat liquid as they tried to pull themselves together, even as the blaze continued to tear them apart. Warbled squeals of pain echoed through the street as chunks of the villain's flesh turned to ash, but it was glaringly obvious his regeneration abilities were outpacing the damage wrought by the fire. Soon enough, larger chunks of pulsating, amorphous flesh shifted on their own through the blaze to merge into a single point.
Gunhead took a deep, unsteady breath. His regeneration was
beyond Class-C. At this rate, the villain's body would be fully reformed in minutes, if not
seconds.
"Oh, God..." Flare surmised their overall thoughts quite well. "He's like that freakin' liquid metal Terminator!"
The trio warily created some distance between themselves and the freakish force of nature.
Gunhead glanced down at his remaining Gatling arm, his countenance grim. After using its heavy-fire mode, it was down to a meager five percent of its capacity and reloading at an abysmal rate of one round every ten seconds. The steel firing chamber was moderately warped due to excessive heat output as well. To make matters worse, the reloading process was slowed down further by his injuries. His body was splitting its energy between healing
and his willful desire to replenish his weapon's cache.
Death Arms was in a better state, albeit barely, but it was becoming far too obvious brute force wouldn't be enough to down this villain. Neither would small explosions, for that matter.
Flare—as a sprightly, dainty hero heavily focused on Support roles during battles—wouldn't fare well in direct combat against this brute either.
This wasn't going to end well.
Gunhead swallowed the literal lump in his throat as the regenerating pink monstrosity took a more familiar form, looming over the hellfire. "We're going to need some serious backup..."
__________________________________________________________________________________________________
A/N:
Everything is unfolding slowly but things will spiral out of control. Since Buu doesn't have Babidi telling him to go on murderous sprees or to act maliciously, our folks will be dealing with a slightly less genocidal and more playful/patient Majin. Unfortunately, when dealing with extreme threats, this society tends to lash out first and ask questions later. Very bad mix.
So far, our heroes and villains believe they have a fighting chance...but do they?