You'd think that, after all this time in the Hero Association, that Tornado would become popular enough even amongst the monsters for them to know not to mess with her. Get in her way, threaten someone close to her, any of that stuff.
Another thing that one would think about is knowing that, if one is a psychic user and their biggest threat currently is Tornado, focusing on her and her alone to stop her is kind of important.
Psykos, however, was not having any of that at the moment. In fact, it was the exact opposite. Here she was, lounging about on her couch, legs kicked back onto one of the arms with her head resting on her hand as her other hand held a wine glass in it.
She'd been enjoying it all pretty easily. She'd been able to spectate some of the heroes fighting the lackeys she'd sent out there so she could examine them, send out the cadres to deal with them accordingly, all that good stuff.
Of course, considering how there were more S-Class heroes than there were cadres, not all of them could be accounted for. At the moment, her biggest worries were two heroes: Tatsumaki, who she'd seen enter with some random schmuck, and King.
King being the bigger worry for her. Not just because he was supposedly the Hero Association's greatest asset other than Blast, but because he was completely unaccounted for. He wasn't with the group when they entered City Z, and all of her scouting hadn't turned anything up.
Hell, not even the monsters she'd sent out to search for him had come back.
She scoffed. She didn't expect him to be such an anomaly and a thorn in her side that he would be able to take out some of her more stealth-oriented allies without a single one slipping away. She feared that she'd have to take matters into her own hands.
The issue with that was the fact that it'd make her more visible, give away her hiding location. That wouldn't do her any good.
She rapped her fingers on the couch, humming as she pondered over what course of action to take.
However, in a flash, she gasped, a shiver rolling down her spine in waves. As she sat up quickly, she looked around her for any signs of danger.
Immediately, she couldn't find anything. Nothing that she'd wanted to make it into her room had, which seemed pleasant enough. In a moment or two, though, she narrowed her eyes, knowing exactly what that meant.
There was an intruder who was able to get past her barrier. Normally, she'd think nothing of it. After all, most of the monsters who were strong enough to get past that thin barrier were those who she'd approved of as cadres, and had thus earned the right to do so.
And most of the time, the monsters would just go through without a second thought, one mass just walking through after going through hit like jelly. Homeless Emperor and Black Sperm were the exceptions, though. The former because of the energy balls that he just insisted he orbit around himself for some apparent reason, and Black Sperm because he had this odd habit of keeping himself split apart in a group of nine just because it looked cool.
It didn't.
Regardless, they'd went through the filter and it came with a burst of feelings that someone had went through, whether it be someone like Nyan or a multi-parted monster like Black Sperm, it was that, and that was it. It went by and that was it.
This felt...different. Like an itch that kept persisting.
She felt a single organism pass through the membrane, which wasn't too much of an anomaly. She'd become used to that feeling over time, and didn't pay it any mind. Some of the cadres liked to wander. They did, of course, pretty much had free reign over themselves.
The issue came when she felt the presence return, as if simply standing on the membrane that she'd produced. Like they were...aware of it. There would be no reason for the membrane to constantly be opened, and she knew that the cadres weren't fans of staying still for any particular reason.
Other than Homeless Emperor. He was weird.
She felt a soft sifting around, and she knew right then and there that there was another psychic in the area. There'd be nobody who'd genuinely pay mind to what the barrier was, who could sense the barrier and see it around them.
And therefore...there were two options. Fubuki, the Hellish Blizzard, or Tatsumaki, the Tornado of Terror.
And knowing that Fubuki was weaker?
It was the perfect time to confront the other psychic.
"Yo, what's up," She heard deep within her ears. "You've been here this entire time? I thought you'd have already come out of hiding or something."
She believes it! Psykos gasped mentally. She must be underestimating my psychic power and just thinks that it's Gyoro Gyoro behind everything and the psychic powers! I can take her out with a surprise blow!
///
So...I guess I have to take out this puppet before I get to the main thing? Tornado silently wondered, a little bored with the meat puppet in front of her that clearly was just formed with energy alone. Well...I don't think it'll hurt to wait a bit. If the main thing's anything like that alien, it should take Saitama a minute or two before anything actually happens.
"Oh my..." The six-armed monster hummed contently. "How nice of you to come here. I thought I would have had to search for you instead...this makes it so much more convenient for me."
Tornado looked around her, casually eyeing the way that the room around her looked like a bunch of cells. Did the monsters store other monsters or hostages in here, she wondered. It came together like a sphere, though she knew that there weren't any other rooms that could've went to where she was at the moment. She smashed through tons of walls to get there, and only saw one entrance when she landed.
It seemed to realize something before floating down to meet Tatsumaki eye-to-eye, "Oh, where are my manners? I must've failed to introduce myself...I am Gyoro Gyoro, the strategist for the Monster Association." It played with its fingers as its eye narrowed, focusing in on Tatsumaki.
The shorter woman hummed, tapping her fingers on her forearm when she crossed her arms, "So, you're the thing behind all of this? And what about that gigantic lightning bolt that I saw like...twenty seconds ago. That was you, or the main boss here?"
Gyoro Gyoro narrowed its eye, "What about a lightning bolt? I wasn't aware of anything like that going on recently..."
Tatsumaki smirked, glaring back at the monster as she tilted her head arrogantly, "I see...so your control over this place isn't as great as I thought it'd be...where are all of your backup monsters? I remember we came across one of your...what was it called? Cadres? At the stadium...he was pretty weak, I'll be honest."
Gyoro Gyoro growled a little bit, fingers wiggling ominously. Tatsumaki watched on with bored eyes, running her fingers through her hair softly, lightly groaning when she realized that some of the ends seemed damaged.
Damn it...I'm really going to have to cut my hair, won't I? She sighed quietly, before realizing her predicament at the moment.
Around her were thousands of pounds of rocks all buried on top of her. She sighed, watching all the rocks shift closer together in an attempt to lock her in rather pathetically.
She saw the pulses of her own power just passively float around her, completely stopping any and all attempts to crush her in rubble.
She sighed, "Man, I...there's no creativity here, is there..."
The esper tiredly reached out to touch the orb of rubble around her, causing bolts of lightning to splash around her in a wave of destruction.
Gyoro Gyoro flinched, backing off a little but still paying attention to the scene in front of it. In what seemed like less than a second, the entire ball of rubble that the monster had gathered had morphed into one mass, before darkening with light crackles all over it.
Yet another surprise came when it was forced to form a barrier out of nowhere as a gigantic blast came from where Tornado was supposed to be, a pure pillar of energy popping out of nowhere as the crushing force had completely been negated with little to no effort.
In the middle of the pillar was Tatsumaki, hair blowing upwards to reveal the rest of her head as she brushed some of it back, yawning as her dress pressed closer to her body while she taunted in a bored manner, "That all you got?"
Gyoro Gyoro's eye widened slightly, the tentacles on its head wiggling ever so slightly in terror. As it watched Tornado pick up some of the small pebbles around her, it got on guard, forming multiple layers of its barrier on guard.
This should be enough to block her, It thought, feeling the seven layers pulsate all around.
"Hmph," Tatsumaki sighed. "How...disappointing. You're supposed to be one of the Monster Association's strongest, right?"
With a wave of her finger and a flick of her wrist, in a flash, the pebbles were sent flying towards the monster at a blinding speed, the only indication being the shattering of its multi-layered barrier.
She cracked through all of it?! Gyoro Gyoro realized incredulously, looking at its bleeding slot where the left arm was supposed to be.
Its voice was blood-curdling, scratching against the walls as the ground began to slightly shake beneath them, "I won't hold back, then! I can take you down with my true form!"
True form? You mean something that isn't this meat puppet, or what? Tornado mused silently, crossing her arms, one finger tapping her chin lightly as she watched a bunch of eyes open up on the monster, similar to the rag from before.
Gyoro Gyoro suddenly inflated, becoming far larger than before. While it was probably three, maybe four times as big as Tornado beforehand, it had become massive, easily over 7 times as large now, its eyes all focusing on the esper.
"What's wrong?!" Gyoro Gyoro taunted as it added some extra force to the battlefield. "Never met a psychic stronger than yourself before?! Well, enjoy it!"
Tornado raised an eyebrow as it screamed out its attack, "Super raging waves of gravity!"
Super raging waves? Tornado wondered to herself as she felt like a gentle feather landed on her shoulder, when in reality she was pushed down to the ground. Sounds like bullshit King'd come up with to justify one of his moves.
"You'll be feeling the weight of 300-G's!" Gyoro Gyoro chuckled, the main eye just speaking volumes of its arrogance. "I'll flatten you like a pancake!"
Tornado raised her hand lightly above her, seeing some of the rubble coming to crash down before settling onto her palm. She hummed, barely even feeling it.
She yawned, before looking up at the monster while rubbing her shoulder, "Well, at least you're strong enough for this, I guess. You think you can press on my right shoulder a little harder? Like focus on it for a bit, please? It'd be a great massage."
She sighed, seeing Gyoro Gyoro struggling to even maintain the output that it was currently going at. Well, I'm going to have to take that as a no, won't I? She clicked her tongue, dissatisfied. So much for this thing being one of the strongest. Shouldn't the main thing have come out already, or is it a diversion to something? I dunno, honestly. I don't care either.
"Well...I guess this is the end for you, puppet," Tornado muttered, lifting her hand to completely counteract the waves of gravity that were nothing more than a minor inconvenience for her. Easily pushing the force back, she hummed, waving her finger in the air to slice off the puppet's arms and legs.
However, in the slight moment before she ripped off its head, a vicious, blood-curdling scream emitted from the monster, panic in its main eye, bloodshot as it glanced around nervously, hoping that the response'd come as quick as possible.
"No! Wait!" It cried out. "Lord Orochi! Help me! Destroy her!" It wiggled around, trying to get its voice out there somewhere in some way. Tornado raised an eyebrow, already having an inkling as to what they were referring to.
"Orochi?" Tatsumaki held a hand up to interrupt it. "I remember hearing that name. What's up with it?"
Gyoro Gyoro narrowed its eyes, an arrogant look trickling in despite its predicament, "Monster King Orochi...is the boss of our place...even I, his creator, cannot possibly fathom his strength!"
It chuckled nefariously, "He'll finish you off fast, Tornado. Faster than you could even blink."
Tornado shrugged, looking around her. She stopped tapping her feet, trying to listen for any signs of life other than the shriveling form in front of her.
"Looks like nobody's coming," she sighed; she knew what that most likely meant. "Y'think another hero's after him? 'cause I know the others are pretty strong. Just not as strong as..." she trailed off her words there, realizing that she was mainly talking to herself rather than the monster in front of her.
But that's impossible! Gyoro Gyoro incredulously thought. I brainwashed Orochi to never defy my orders! It soon registered the words of the psychic in front of her. Wait? An opponent so strong that Orochi would be forced to defy me?! But Tornado's standing right in front of me!
"That's a shame...I'm gonna have to finish you off, I guess. Thanks for the...nah, I can't say it was fun. You were pretty boring too."
~~~
Saitama stood up, quickly brushing the rubble off of him. He saw the gigantic tunnel carved into the ground, and realized that he was at one end of it. Taking a few seconds to brush the dirt out of his belt, he rolled his eyes and started to jog casually (meaning: sprint faster than sound) towards the monster once more.
Soon enough, he was able to see the shining flames of the attack marking the walls, and rolled his eyes. Fire blasts wasn't anything original, nor anything he hadn't seen before. He'd seen it every day that he hunted monsters alongside Genos.
By the time he'd gotten back to the monster, he saw it was almost done retracting its arms, finger dragons still howling with their mouths open for another target to attack and hopefully obliterate.
Saitama honed in on a certain rock that seemed to be at the perfect angle, and launched himself off of it. He held his fist out, confident that if the fist were to make contact that the force from kicking off would be more than enough to kill the beast.
However, to his surprise, one of the hydras on the monster's head lashed out like a whip, quickly biting onto his torso. As if lured by the first one, six more hydras came out of nowhere, trying to snatch a piece of the hero for itself.
Orochi leered as he saw bits and pieces of the wild beasts fly off of him, before exploding in a pile of guts and gore, Saitama flailing his arms boredly to shake off whatever had landed on him. His suit, however, was completely undamaged.
Watching him leap off another hydra that attacked, Orochi's chest began to open up, a faint humming coming from the crackling torso. It looked like Overgrown Rover's mouth, yet opening at a far larger rate, pure energy seeping out of it. Orochi leaned over to face Saitama, dragon hands at the ready, hydras focusing in on the bald hero.
All at once, light filled the entire room as a gigantic series of blasts from the entire monster morphed into one, spread so wide that it couldn't miss Saitama.
That being said, it didn't mean that he would be remotely injured from the thing, or even that his hero suit would be scratched or damaged.
As he watched some of the entire area they were fighting crumble down into nothing, he landed on a piece that hadn't completely turned into nothingness yet, hopping back upwards before it completely dissolved.
He felt all the heat blast around him, and knew that it was supposed to burn him to a crisp.
However, looking all around him, he was searching for something, any sign of injury. Even any sort of mark on his suit.
Nothing.
Dang, guess I was wrong about the strength for this guy. I'd probably move him down to a B, around B- specifically. Yeah, he couldn't even compare to Boros, he internally sighed, feeling his fist rip through the monster's flesh, bone, brain, and the rest of its skull without any effort. Landing on a nearby ledge that was above where Orochi was floating, he watched the monster fall down into the void, the rest of its body crumbling with it.
"What...was that?" It asked, its voice nearly silent yet still deep and commanding as it usually was. Even in death, it held its pride.
Saitama sat on the ledge, feet hanging off as he answered casually, "A normal punch."
Orochi's one remaining piece of consciousness slowly closed its eye, So this is...terror...
~~~
Tornado held Gyoro Gyoro up, slowly crushing it closer like a vice as her impatience started to rule over her emotions, "So? Where the hell is your boss?"
"I'm trying!" It choked out, looking through its drone.
After a moment of flying, Gyoro Gyoro's drone came across a piece of flesh. It narrowed its eye before widening it, What?! Orochi's dead?!
It looked around wildly, seeing the rest of its corpse scattered across the area, Whoever killed him can't be far. I'll find him, analyze his abilities, and stop him!
As the drone flew around, it saw a flash of yellow, and knowing the color palette of almost all of the monsters that lived in the Association, there was no monster that had that sort of color that it knew of.
Flying up to it in a flash, Gyoro Gyoro suddenly found its drone blinded, gasping from the flash of pain, "What...was that?! I haven't seen that man before!"
It looked at Tornado for information, "You! Are there any new S-Class heroes that appeared after the first attack on City A?!"
"City A?" Tornado wondered quietly, putting a finger on her chin as she leaned to one side a little bit. "You talking about the aliens or the Vaccine guy? 'Cause I remember both of them."
"Aliens?" Gyoro Gyoro balked, before shaking its head. "No, no, what aliens? I only recall the event of City A being nearly demolished by that one natural monster. I was never allied with whatever aliens you speak of!"
"So...you were the one who told that guy to attack City A? Wait...no, wasn't that guy from City Z? No, I could've sworn it was City A."
"Yes, and no," it muttered. "It came down crashing on Earth, but I was just lucky enough to be present and ally ourselves with us. A shame that it fell, though. I heard you took care of it, correct?"
Tornado warily eyed the monster, choosing her next words carefully as she slowly walked up to it, her legs softly touching the ground with each step, "No, that wasn't me. It was...this bald hero. I got to know him...decently well. Now, what does any of this have to do with there being any new S-Class heroes?"
"A bald hero!" Gyoro Gyoro exclaimed, a few light waves of energy coming from it. "Was this bald hero in yellow and red, by chance?"
The shorter hero's eyes narrowed, her emerald eyes turning calculating in a flash, "Yellow and red, you say? Was his expression...really bored, like a fish's face or something?"
Gyoro Gyoro froze. Normally, it would've said yes to the request, digging for information in a flash. However, right now?
It was afraid that the result of whatever answer she gave would cause such destruction that the puppet's source, Psykos herself, would be injured, if not destroyed from it. Even if Orochi was dead, that wasn't her biggest worry, for this sudden burst of potential rage could be a larger threat to her plan.
Gyoro Gyoro lightly nodded, eye downcast, "Mhm...didn't even look injured."
Silence filled the room, and Gyoro Gyoro gulped. It knew from the stories that Tornado was often prone to anger, sometimes even threatening to take it out on civilians. If those stories were true from the Monster Association's admittedly partially outdated information (as indicated from the lack of information from a supposed bald hero), then there would need to be extra precautions taken.
Surprisingly, the rage seemed to be...contained. While she could feel the sudden pulse, the release of energy coming from Tornado in flurrying waves, almost enough to knock down the entire room in which they fought, it didn't seem like she was willing to absolutely slaughter the rest of the Monster Association.
Of course, that was mainly because Orochi was dead. Psykos desperately believed that most, if not all of the cadres, would be needed to take Tornado on, given that Orochi wasn't there.
"Where...the hell...is he."
It was a command, her high-pitched, girly voice suddenly sounding very threatening, true malice bleeding into it. It wasn't a question. No, not a kind, polite request either to the same monster that Tornado had just practically eviscerated.
It was a demand, one that Gyoro Gyoro and likely the entire Monster Association in addition to some of the heroes within the hideout would likely pay for if it didn't answer.
"H-He's in the main room!" Gyoro Gyoro sputtered out, knowing that the entire plan could be derailed if this really went off track. "Northwest of here!"
"Good," Tornado scoffed. "It's not like he's got a path. I'll probably be able to find him in five minutes."
She turned her attention back to the monster, "Now...with you..."
She took a deep breath, before smirking, "Why don't I see my real opponent just yet?"
~~~
A gentle chuckle, and a swirl of the wine bottle, before a deep sigh, "Well, I never expected a meat puppet of mine alone to be able to beat Tornado herself.
"That said, I doubt that most of the cadres would be able to beat Tornado, even if half of them were to fight her together. It's just an unlikely possibility that isn't worth taking the risk for," Psykos spoke to herself more than anything. "However, if Homeless Emperor and Black Sperm were to unite, they could take down anyone that I so desire they do."
Luckily for the strategist of the monsters, Tornado's mere psychic output, even passively, was enough for any other esper worth their salt to be able to detect her. It was like she put a tracking device on herself, practically.
"Once the cadres eliminate their respective heroes, I'll send a telepathic signal to corner where Tornado is," Psykos hummed. "As Homeless Emperor and Black Sperm are undoubtedly going to be able to defeat their foes, they'll be available. The rest can consider themselves backup if that's what pleases them."
The monster smirked deeply, "I'll make a new puppet. And all the while, Tornado's going to be searching for that bald man that defeated Orochi for whatever reason. All the monsters can probably gang up on him..."
It sighed contently, gaze fixed on its wine, "While I observe the entire thing from underground...not even the other monsters know where I am..."
Lightly chuckling, it shook its head arrogantly, "The new Monster King'll rise, and I'll go down as the one to revolutionize the world!"
It felt Tornado's passive waves float by, "As the cornerstone of this entire operation...you'll be the first one to die, Tornado!"
Silence. Suddenly, an eerie silence came roaring, and Psykos tried to pinpoint it.
Wait... Psykos's eyes widened for a moment, before narrowing. Those passive waves. Where did they go?
"Ah..." Tornado's voice was quiet, but rang into Psykos's head. "Found you."
Found me? I'm over a mile away from her! I even had to set up relay points so that my waves could even function at that distance!
"I'll admit, your little puppet here was decent, but nothing that could fool me. I knew that you weren't even showing yourself," she clicked her tongue, her ferocious gaze focusing in on Psykos. "I'm glad that you didn't try to completely disconnect from your puppet, since that'd mean it'd just dissolve without something keeping the show up, right?"
"Well..." Tornado lifted her fingers up, before pointing them back down at Psykos, psychic energy literally at your fingertips. "Why don't you join the party and come up here?"
~~~~~
Hey! Important note here!
The upcoming chapters are gonna have a different release date. They're pretty much some of the last chapters of this story, and I really want to invest time into it, like, really invest time into it.
So, my bad, but I really want to make those chapters something that I really wanna say I'm proud of, so the release dates of the next chapters are gonna be three weeks apart. So, since I'm releasing this on the 16th, the next chapter will be on May 7th, if I'm not mistaken.
TL;DR:
Because I want to put a lot of work into these next chapters, I'll be taking three weeks to release them.