"Fist of Flowing Water, Crushed Rock!" Bang spoke as he demonstrated his fighting style. It was kind of hard to imagine it in action. It kind of appeared like a weird modern dance. "It goes like that. So? Give it a try? Saitama and Genos, you two have good instincts, so I'm sure you can master it right away."
"Thanks," Ryo said sarcastically sitting on the dojo floor.
"I just came 'cause you said you'd show me something cool, gramps. But you're recruiting me?" Saitama asked. "I'm not interested. Genos, you do it."
"No. I will refrain," Genos said. "Instead of self-defense, I seek absolute destruction. Ryo you could benefit from self-defense."
"I'm sure about that," Ryo nodded. "But I have a business to run, I don't have time to play ninja."
The student who had been sitting quietly in the corner lost his cool. "Do not insult the Fist of Flowing Water, Crushed Rock! I am Charanko! Bang sensei's best disciple!"
Genos dealt with the boy by going straight for Charanko's neck until he shouted: "I give!"
"You're his best disciple?" Genos asked, letting the boy go. "Bang, I expected better from your dojo."
Bang sighed. "Well, there is one who stands unchecked. He has incapacitated so many talented disciples that many others quit in fear."
Saitama hopped on that train quickly. "Is he strong? What's his name?"
"Garou," Bang spoke ominously. "He was once my finest disciple, but I beat him up and drove him out."
"Damn," Ryo responded.
"You kick butt, gramps!" Saitama grinned.
"Haven't you ever heard of the hero named Silverfang?!" Charanko shouted. "Class S! Rank 3! Silverfang!"
"Yes," Ryo glared at him. "He invited us here."
"With moves like flowing water, he toys with his opponents!" Charanko continued. "He is the master of martial arts who -like raging water- can pulverize a massive rock with one punch! You're a little squirt who just joined Class B! Take Master Bang lightly and you'll get hurt!"
Ryo and Genos glared Charanko, but Bang stopped his disciple swiftly. "Charanko! Do not disgrace me! Saitama is much more powerful than I!"
Charanko stared at Bang in shock. "M-Master... Surely you're kidding..."
"Mr. Silverfang!" A man shouted bursting into the dojo, panting from the long climb of stairs he had just made. Everyone stopped what they were doing, even Genos stood from the floor. "I'm from the Hero Association! There's an emergency summons of Class S Heroes! Please you must come to headquarters!" The representative from the Hero Association then took notice of Genos. "Oh! Is that Genos? You're Class S, you should come too!"
"Is it threat level dragon?" Genos asked.
"Oh dear," Bang grumbled. "Charanko, watch the dojo for me."
"Be careful!" Charanko yelled.
"Master they may need your strength," Genos said to Saitama. "Will you come too?"
"Sure I got time," Saitama said grinning.
Ryo thought for a minute. "I've got some errands to run in City A, so you mind if I tag along?"
"Genos and I do need our best cheerleader," Saitama said as they all walked to the long flight of stairs.
In City A Ryo wasn't even admitted to enter the building with all the heroes. "Damn," she grumbled. "That would have been a great opportunity to get other S Class heroes wearing my costumes! Plus Metal Bat would have been there. And Drive Knight!"
"You were shucked out too, huh?"
Ryo nearly screamed, turning to the person who had spoken with wide eyes. "I'm so sorry I thought I was alone."
"Apologies, I did not mean to startle you," The man bowed politely. He wore a full suit of silver armor and had a sword on his side. "I am-
"Iaian! Class A rank 2, hero name Iairon!" Ryo interrupted. "You're Atomic Samurai's top disciple!"
Iaian smiled politely. "Awe, so you're a fan."
"No," Ryo responded, maybe a little too quickly. "I'm a costume designer."
"Oh really," Iaian continued, not minding her quickness to dismiss the idea of her being his fan. "Who are you waiting to come out?"
"Genos and Saitama," Ryo smiled, rocking on her heels, looking up at the tall building. "Why weren't you allowed in?"
"My Master told me that it was a meeting meant only for S Class Heroes," Iaian explained with a noble look on his face.
"Really? Saitama is only Class B."
"What?!" Iaian dropped his holier than thou attitude for a minute. Ryo waited quietly for Iaian to suggest something for them to do while they waited for their companions to return from their meeting, but he just simply returned to his stoic guard position saying. "Master must have his reasons for not inviting me in."
Ryo growled. She was not going to be waiting around for what could be hours. "Alright, Mr. Iairon! I need your assistance."
Iaian then turned back to her with a serious face. "I will be honored to assist the sidekick of another S Class hero."
"Okay first off," Ryo rolled her eyes. "Not a sidekick! I am my own woman who chooses to cheer from the sidelines."
"Understood," Iaian nodded.
"And second, I need a hero to..." Ryo elongated her silence to build the tension, then grinned from ear to ear. "Take me to my favorite ice cream place on a date!"
"No," Iaian said swiftly, clicking his heals into an attention stance. "Master Atomic Samurai is inside, I must wait till he returns."
"Come on man," Ryo begged. "You said it yourself! We were shucked out. Left on the sidelines to fend for ourselves until their boring meeting is over."
"You have yet to tell me your name, and yet you ask me on a date?" Iaian side-eyed her from under his metal helmet. "Plus I do not date."
"My name is Ryo, nice to meet ya," Ryo held out her hand and he shook it gently, the cold metal armor sent a shiver up her arm.
"It is a pleasure to meet you as well," Iaian responded, playing into Ryo's game.
"There! Now we're friends," Ryo grinned placing her hands on her hips. "Now as friends, we should go and get ice cream while we wait for our S Class friends and my B Class friend to return."
Iaian didn't mean to let grin fall on his features. "I guess Master did not say I have to wait right here for him to return."
"Yes!" Ryo grinned. "Ice cream time!"
As they walk Ryo interrogated Iaian with many questions about both S Class and A Class heroes. She only let up on the questions once she had ice cream to shove in her mouth, which came as a great relief to Iaian. "You sure do have a lot of questions about the Hero Association," Iaian said as the two sat down on a bench together.
"I know I'm being annoying, but it's literally my business to know which heroes might be in need of my services," Ryo explained and she placed a spoon full of purple sweet potato ice cream into her mouth
"So am I just a means to an end for you?" Iaian joked.
"No, no, of course not!" Ryo grinned. "What Ice cream did you get?"
"Squid ink," he said, biting into his ice cream cone.
"Weird man," Ryo laughed. "Do you always wear your helmet?"
Iaian shook his head, "Of course not."
"Then why are you wearing it while you eat ice cream, you look so serious," Ryo laughed and pointed out people who were staring as they passed. "I guess it's good publicity, isn't it?"
"I don't personally worry too much about that," Iaian admitted. "But you are right, being seen interacting with the public is good for my image as a hero."
"You even have paparazzi," Ryo said pointing at people with professional cameras taking pictures of them.
"Just ignore them, they cannot write their silly articles if you give them nothing to work with," Iaian explained. Ryo didn't have the heart to tell him that being seen in public with a woman would lead to many stories in teen pop magazines. Ryo was about to ask another question when an explosion shook the city. "What was that?!"
"Up there Iaian!" Ryo pointed to the top of the Hero association building. It looked like giant bird people attacking the building.
"Those monsters are attacking the hero association!" Iaian gritted his teeth, dropping is ice cream. "I must stop them-"
A massive shadow then loomed over the city, "Wait Iaian," Ryo said grabbing his hand. They both watched in horror as a giant space ship loomed over the city.
Bright lights started to fire up on the bottom of the ship. "They're going to carpet bomb the city!"
"We need to run!" Ryo said, but Iaian pulled her into a store.
The A Class Hero made her sit on the ground. He covered her with his body as he yelled to the patrons of the store: "Take cover!"
Ryo covered her ears and tried to block out the noise of what sounded like raining fire. She pressed her eyes shut and Iaian pressed Ryo closer to his armor. The roof collapsed on Iaian's back. After a few minutes, the roaring fire finally stopped. Ryo opened her eyes. Iaian still had his arms wrapped around her, but it was now too dark to see. Ryo couldn't see any light in the rubble of the store.
"Do you think the attacks over?" Ryo whispered.
Iaian struggled to unwrap himself from Ryo to throw the rubble off of them. "One way to find out." Iaian pressed his hands against the piece of ceiling that landed on his back. Ryo protected her head from the rubble, the sun slowly burned her eyes as Iaian freed them both. As Ryo's eyes got accustomed to the light her jaw dropped. Iaian spoke, "The city..."
"Its completely leveled!" Ryo gaped looking over the once beautiful and buzzing city. Her favorite ice cream shop was completely gone. There were no people in sight. "Did everybody... die?"
"Surely there are survivors," Iaian looked around. "There! the hero association it's still standing." He started to walk towards the facility, but Ryo still couldn't stand, staring up with an agape mouth at the mass destruction. "This is unforgivable,"
Ryo turned to look at Iaian, only to see a giant monster with multiple heads and veiny skin standing behind him. "Iai!"
SWAT
Ryo gasped and her hands shot to her mouth. But Iaian was standing without his helmet a little ways away from the monster, unharmed. "Did you think I wouldn't notice such impending menace?" He slashed his sword and cut right through the monster's body. He looked over at Ryo with a smirk. "I told you I don't always wear a helmet."
He then went back to attacking the monster, slashing deep cuts into the monster. Ryo was impressed at his swiftness with his sword. But this beast's healing factor was faster than Iaian's sword.
"A bellicose life-form. And cautious," the monster mumbled to its other heads. "Let's kill him. That is good. That girl too. No survivors. Hurry, hurry, kill."
Ryo got to her feet, ready to hide so Iaian could focus on the fight, but there was nowhere to hide in the flattened city. The monster reeled his hand back and it morphed into a hammer. Ryo couldn't even tell what had happened. She saw a hole carved into multiple corners of buildings. At first, Ryo thought that Iaian had made a narrow escape, but then she saw the blood shooting from where his arm should have been.
"What the..." Iaian muttered, realizing he lost the lower part of his left arm.
The monster's head started to stretch apart all talking to each other. "What an inferior species. Is this all we face? An easy kill. That is good. But remain alert." The heads were splitting apart into separate entities. "I'll kill him," The first one said.
"I want to torture the little girl," one with a sharp blade for a hand jeered.
"That building I destroy it."
"That is good."
One flipped out his bat-like wings, "I protect ship."
Ryo stepped back unsure of what she could do. But then all five of the beasts were sliced in half. Their top halves landed with a thud.
"Iai..." Atomic Samouri spoke calmly. "You're alright?"
"Master!" Iaian cried.
"Uhn?" he glared at his disciple's maimed limb. "Your left arm.."
The monster generated again, blocking Atomic Samurai's view of Iaian. His disciple tried to warn him. "Master! Swords have little effect on this monster! Forget me and retreat with the civilian!"
"Get out of my way!" Atomic boomed, bursting through the monster's body. "Iai! The path of the sword does not end for you yet! So stop bleeding!"
Ryo saw a small grin on Iaian's face from his master's response to his missing arm. "Y-yes... Master."
She was thankful that Genos could never permanently lose an arm because Saitama would not know how to handle himself.
Behind Atomic Samurai the monster formed again, laughing. "Gwa ha ha! A life form on this planet can fight me? Go on! Resist our invasion!"
"Planet? You're from space? And more of you are on that floating toy?" Atomic Samurai put the pieces together. "I doubt you caused all this destruction by yourself."
A hand was placed on Ryo's shoulder. "Ms. Ryo? You're alight," Bang asked squeezing her shoulder. "Genos and Saitama will be relieved. Atomic Samurai, we will help you."
Ryo looked on her other side and had to bite the insides of her cheeks to keep from grinning. Metal Bat slamming his bat into his hand with an irked expression on his face. "Did you destroy this town?"
The alien laughed. "Heh heh, and if I did... what then?"
Puri-Puri Prisoner appeared behind the beast, shouting "I shall avenge the fallen men!"
The real fight had started and Ryo jumped into action. She pulled Iaian away from the monster and beside a fallen building, giving the two of them the slightest cover. Ignoring her own embarrassment, Ryo started to unbutton her button-up white shirt.
"What- What are you doing?" Iaian asked, averting his eyes from her. His face was redder than hers and she was the one taking her shirt off.
"You heard your master," Ryo said as she used the cloth to tie off Iaian's arm stump. "He told you to stop bleeding. Let's do, that alright?"
As she wrapped his arm Iaian watched the fight. Puri-Puri had pummeled multiple holes into the alien's torso. "But it's still no good! It regenerates too fast! And it hasn't hit him yet! It took my off my arm in an instant!"
The beast then moved to take out Puri-Puri as he had with Iaian. "No! Dodge! Iaian shouted.
"Pardon me," Bang said as he took the lead in the fight. Sending the alien flying into the dirt.
Metal Bat glanced back at the two who could not fight, but he quickly turned his back. "Iairon! Why is your girlfriend naked?"
"I am neither his girlfriend nor am I naked," Ryo insisted, putting pressure on Iaian's arm. "Maybe you should focus on the fight." She may be a big fan of Metal Bat, but Ryo would not be talked down to.
Metal Bat dropped his coat on her shoulders with a bullheaded scoff. "How can I focus, with a lady like yourself here? And I am payin' attention!" He shouted as he launched off the ground, swinging his bat into a head that had detached itself from the main body. "You're goin' nowhere!"
"Scum!" the alien head with wings screeched as it fell to the ground.
Metal Bat lined up the perfect swing and shouted, "Don't you ever talk back to me!"
Ryo grinned, thoroughly impressed by Metal Bat's strength. She pulled his jacket around her torso then cursed under her breath.
"What?" Iaian asked worriedly.
"This jacket," Ryo grumbled. "It's perfect. I mean there's nothing I could even improve on! Feel the texture. His costume design is already perfect and now I can't even offer him better materials!"
"Is now really the time?!" Iaian yelled.
Ryo rolled her eyes but returned her hands to his arm and kept applying pressure.
"You're mincemeat! Take that!" Metal Bat jeered. "Huh?"
The alien head that had been completely pulverized still managed to reform. "Yes. That is good." it grinned as it talked down at Metal Bat. "I'll rip your limbs off and decorate the ship."
Metal bat spit on the grip of his bat and muttered, "You healed you freak!" He launched into another attack shouting "Fights on! Grah! You're batting practice!"
"Metal Bat! Master! Everyone!" Iaian shouted, "Direct physical attacked don't work on that! Let's retreat and use heat or find some other way!"
"No way!" Metal bat boomed, smashing the floating head again. "All I can do it hit!"
Bang agreed, "And this is all I can do. Old folks can't learn new tricks."
"Same here," Puri-Puri said, clenching his fist. "Sorry, Iairon."
Atomic Samurai positioned himself into another strong fighting stance. "Iai, don't you trust me? There's nothing I can't cut!"
The fight continued and the monster appeared to be a bit distracted, looking up at the ship frequently. Ryo kept her eye on each enemy that the heroes were fighting. Maybe he'd get careless, let his weakness slip. Ryo watched Metal Bat's fight since that was the easiest enemy to watch. Metal Bat bashed the head again, but again the beast reformed itself.
"It's no use." Ryo noticed the head formed around a blue ball. "But waste your strength. That is good."
"What the hell is that?" Ryo whispered to herself, leaning towards Metal Bat's fight. She wasn't the only one who noticed that ball.
Metal Bat snatched the marble out of the air. "What's this thing?" He looked down at his hand and Ryo strained her neck to see what it was. "A marble? What's it doing in your head?"
"Give that back!" the flying head demanded.
"Hup!" Metal Bat destroyed the marble and the alien head melted to the ground. "Whoa! Gross man! Are you dead?"
"Jesus," Ryo gaped. "He's powerful and smart!"
"Hey! This one had a marble inside!" Metal Bat announced to his comrades. "It's their weak spot!"
"Well done!" Atomic Samurai grinned, now attacking with a purpose. "I'll slice away until I hit it!"
After a bit of fighting, a second head was destroyed and Puri-Puri crushed a third marble in between his teeth, leaving only two heads left.
"Is it time yet?" the alien mumbled to his other head. "Ship will concentrate fire soon.
"Wait what?" Ryo asked before the underside of the ship above her started to light up with a second attack "No way."
"From above?!" Atomic Samurai shouted.
"It is over," the alien leered over them. "Retreat is impossible. Die."
Giant bullets dropped from the ship, but they stopped suddenly, surrounded by a green light.
"What happened!" Bang asked looking up at the ship.
Puri-Puri answered. "She stopped them..."
"You're all hopeless without me!" Ryo turned and saw a little girl with green hair glaring out over the battlefield. This power definitely belonged to Tornado of Terror the S Class rank 2, but Ryo hadn't realized that this hero was a little girl. "It takes this long to beat one small fry? You should start over in Class C!" The shells flipped over with a turn of Tornado's finger. "I'm returning these."
The shells destroyed the underbelly of the ship and Ryo stared in awe. The alien screeched before going into another attack, multiple limbs whipping in all directions. Puri-Puri trapped multiple of these limbs under his arms. Bang used this opportunity to swiftly slice through one of the heads, extracting the marble in the head.
"Got it!" he cheered, smashing it quickly.
The alien shot out another limb at Bang and Iaian shouted, "Bang! Watch out!"
But it was too late, the limb hit Bang, dead on.