Chapter Text
Badd woke up with a throbbing headache.
Where…? He thought. …Where am I?
He tried to sit up, but his shoulder pinched in the process, causing him to collapse. “Shit,” he winced.
“Oh, you’re awake,” a voice said.
Badd instinctively reached to grab his bat, but it wasn’t beside him. He glanced at where the voice came from and saw a nicely dressed woman, except the sleeves and bottom of her dress were torn. Her pale hands and face were scratched up as well.
“Don’t move too much,” she said. “I was only able to heal your worst wounds. You still have cuts and bruises.”
Badd looked the woman up and down. She seemed familiar, but he’s sure he hasn’t seen her before. It didn’t matter now though. “Thank you…?” He raised the end of his thanks in a question.
“Blizzard,” she answered. “Hellish Blizzard, leader of the Blizzard Group.” She smiled at him. “It’s nice to finally meet you, Metal Bat.”
Now that’s a name he’s heard before. He’s pretty sure she was a B-Class hero, but he couldn’t be certain. He was never updated about other heroes.
“Thank you, Blizzard,” he said, showing some proper gratitude. He carefully sat up, finally taking in his surroundings. His jacket and bat were at the bottom of his feet and–
They were in the woods? How’d he end up in the woods?? He was just in R-City! That was one of the citiest-cities on the map!
“Where are we?” Badd asked. “I was just in R-City.”
Blizzard’s chin jolted back a bit as she stared at him in disbelief. “R-City?”
Badd barely nodded his head.
“We’re in K-City.”
Badd’s jaw dropped. “K-City?!”
Blizzard nodded. “Yes. I don’t know how you managed to get here, but you did.”
“But what about the rat?” He saw the other hero cock her head in confusion. “I-I was fightin’ a rat. A super-sized one with wild regen stats. Didja kill it?”
“No,” she said, shaking her head, her brows pinching more as if what he said was crazy. “I’ve been here with Silver Fang and Bomb for the past halfday.”
“Silver Fang is here?” Badd’s shoulders eased – he didn’t realize they were tense. He had no idea who Bomb was, but Silver Fang was strong. Badd felt better knowing that someone of his power was here to help when his body was screwed up. “That’s good.”
“It is. He’s been a great asset as we walked through this mountain. His brother too,” she said. “The Hero Association told us that there were an abundance of monsters here, and since we were closest, they left it to us.”
“We’re on a mountain?”
“Yes, keep up,” she snapped. Badd’s face scrunched at the attitude. “Anyway, the two of them are finding food. They put me in charge of watching you in the meantime.”
“So all yer good for is babysittin’?” He saw how offended she looked out of the corner of his eye. Didn’t matter because he needed to go. He reached forward and grabbed his jacket. As he slid his arms through the sleeves, he grabbed his bat and looked back at Blizzard. “I’m headin’ out.”
“What?! No!” She wrapped her hand around his forearm. “You need to rest.”
“Sorry, but I’ve got a job ta do. I can’t jus’ sit here all night,” he said, tugging his arm from her grasp before slowly getting up. Every muscle in his body was telling him to lie back down, but he ignored it. He knew what he signed up for when joining the Hero Association.
Blizzard grit her teeth in irritation. “Don’t be so stubborn! I’m trying to make sure you live! People are going to need your strength!”
“People need it now. Monsters don't stop jus' 'cause it's nighttime,” Badd bit back. “So I’m goin’ whether you like it or not.” He began to walk into the forest, his back to the other hero. Suddenly, he felt a tug at his shirt. When he glanced down, he saw it outlined in a green glow. “The hell?”
“Sit back down, Metal Bat.” He glanced over his shoulder and saw the same green glow around her hands as they shook in the air. Her face was determined. “I won’t ask again.” Badd had to admit, she had guts – standing up to an S-Class hero. Most people didn’t dare to test higher-ups, but there were a select few. For example, Amai Mask, and now this one too.
“Psychic, huh?” He took a large step forward, straining as he pushed to break out of her hold. “I deal with a bratty one already, I don’t need another one buggin’ me.” The woman faltered at his comment, and he managed to pull free. Before she could say anything, Badd bolted.
Ferns tickled his ankles, the back of his jacket rippled in the wind, and the cool air felt nice. Too bad his legs gave out and he fell on his face. It hurt even more so because he managed to get to the edge of whatever mountain they were on, landing on jagged rock.
When Badd pushed himself up, his gaze met with a midnight sky. Clouds drifted along, but they weren’t large enough to cover the dark navy hue, and in the center of it was the moon. The rings around it mimicked that of a halo, and on the moon itself was that large crater that had appeared recently. No one had found out what caused it yet. Badd took a moment to admire it as he got to his knees.
There’s no time to rest, Badd thought. I need to get back out there. So, he propelled his body weight to his feet before rising up to his full height again, walking toward the edge. He took a glance over and saw how far down it went. It went down very far.
I oughta keep away from the edge, so he took a few steps back.
Once he was a safe distance from the edge, he took a deep breath in, savoring how clean the air here was. Unfortunately, he smelled something foul after exhaling and getting back to breathing normally. “The hell issat?” He glanced to either side of him. Nothing. The trees weren’t swaying out of the ordinary as if something was jumping from branch to branch. The small plants weren’t moving around either, so was something burning? It smelled of burnt plastic or rubber. He hadn’t smelled it earlier, but he wondered if he had been distracted by Blizzard enough to have not noticed.
Badd tossed his bat back and forth between his hands, loosely gripping it each time. There was something close, for sure. The smell got stronger, but there was no movement around him. Being out in the open was dangerous, but if he went back in the woods, whatever opponent that was lurking out there would probably get the upperhand.
“C’mon out,” he called. “I know yer here.” His grip tightened around the handle of his bat despite nothing coming out. The tension was rising, he could feel it. He didn’t know how long he stood there until the monster finally came out. He didn’t need to see it to know; the smell itself was enough.
He glanced over his shoulder, seeing a goopy dark green mess. There were spores along its – well, what should be in its place – arms and legs. Rusty metal – was it melting? Must be a corroding type of slime monster – and fungus were hanging off its body. Crowning its head was a worn down tire which was also melting. So that’s what he’d smelled!
“Eyuck. Ya look like someone shit ya out. Ya smell like it too.”
The slime-like monster stared his way – he thinks; it had no eyes – and stood there. It was as if it didn’t hear him. Badd would have said something, but he didn’t feel like talking anymore, so he swung his bat. It easily glid through middle of the monster’s body, and its upper body splattered in a wide arc on the ground beside its lower half. He swished his bat to the side, flinging off the excess gunk, and watched as rock dissolved underneath the monster’s split body.
“Damn, it woulda been bad if ya knew how ta fight,” he muttered as the slime went deeper, and deeper into the rock, and… it was gone. "Well, that was easy." He thought to check if the monster was actually dead, but his arms were aching. Adrenaline was wearing off, and fast. Lack of sleep was catching up too; he could feel his lids growing heavy every second. "Maybe I do need a break," he said with a sigh, looking up into the night sky. "Yeah, that'd be nice."
Without warning, the ground quaked. Badd's arms flew around to keep him steady, but the tremor was too great, and Badd fell on his rear. When he did, he swore he heard something crack. He didn't feel it in him; it was somewhere around him. That's when he saw a rock on legs trudging toward him.
Its body was weathered and cracked, lines driving deep inside. Its chest, shoulders, and forearms were thick with hairy moss, and its hands were dripping with mud. Its head was square and its eyes were on either side of it, the black of its eyes looking everywhere but at Badd.
Badd gripped his bat tightly before standing back up and getting into a swinging stance, grounding himself against the aftershocks of the monster's steps.
The monster wasn't making any sudden moves, just making its way to Badd. It… didn't seem to be harmful, and Badd relaxed a little, but he tensed when he saw how the mud that the monster's hands were dripping turned into rocks when it separated from it.
That could be a problem if I ain't careful, Badd thought.
Badd remained wary as the monster stopped in front of him. It was almost double his height, like that stupid rat from earlier. Wait, how'd I even get knocked out? I was abouta ruin that rat's ass. Did I get jumped by some other monster? But then how did I get here? Badd groaned. Can't think about this now.
Rocks continued to drop from the monster's hands, and they gradually got larger, heavier. Badd could hear that cracking sound from earlier and realized that it was coming from below him. He glanced down and saw that he was right where the slime monster got wasted. Lines crackled through the land on which he stood.
Oh shi-
The ground crumbled beneath him and Badd fell along with the edge. The cliff broke into many segments, hitting and cutting Badd's skin as he tried to grab onto something. Luckily, he felt something thick and latched onto it. A tree root. Thank goodness. Badd let out a huge sigh of relief. "That damn slime," he cursed as he swung back and forth before pulling himself up and threw his legs over, cautiously sitting on the root. He took his brief resting moment to inspect the damage.
Pieces of rock were still breaking off the cliff and that's when Badd noticed that the layers that were usually supposed to be visible, were melded. So it was 100% the slime's fault.
Okay, maybe not 100% since Badd was the one who killed it. Wait, is it even dead? He held onto the root tighter as he looked down to see if there was anything, but from this height, he couldn't tell if anything green was on the land beneath him. Damn it, can't see shit. Whatever. The damage's done anyway, I gotta get back up. He looked above again and saw the rocky monster staring down at him. The rocks were much smaller now, like pebbles, and they came zooming down, hitting Badd every so often.
Badd took a deep breath in and exhaled before slowly scooting to where the root was protruding. He ran his hand along the rock wall. It ain't grippy enough to climb, so he lifted his bat and hit it against the wall, breaking a chunk out. He slipped his fingers in the dent and pulled down, checking to see if it was stable enough. It was, so he added another dent two feet above the first one. While he wanted to stay seated as long as possibly, he couldn't reach high enough to add another dent, so, carefully, he brought his feet to the root as he grabbed onto the first indent with his free hand. He slowly stood up and hit another three dents in the wall. After creating a decent path and checking if they were sturdy enough to hold his weight, he began to climb, putting the handle of his bat in between his teeth.
It went pretty well until he ran out of dents. He knew that the five pieces he chucked off wouldn't be enough, but it still pissed him off, so he reeled his fist back and punched the rocks. The skin on his knuckles peeled, but he punched again and again until his fingers could fit in the slit he managed to make. He switched hands shakily, wincing at how his hand ached, but he shoved it down and used the other hand — the ulnar side this time — to make another slit, slamming it into the wall many times. It hurt, sure, but it was much better than screwing up his knuckles.
He repeated the process a few more times before he reached the feet of the monster. Why is it still here? It hasn't done anything… Is it mindless? Maybe I could… Badd pulled himself up one last time and grasped the foot of the monster with one hand. Like he hoped, it didn't move, so he took that as a green light and swung his other hand up, and kicked off the cliff to leverage himself up.
It went well for a few seconds, but when Badd craned his neck to look at the monster, he saw that its eyes had zeroed on him. The mud drops became thicker, producing larger, heavier rocks.
This can't be good.
Before Badd could do anything else, the monster raised the leg he held onto, and it began to rotate. Slowly at first, but it picked up speed in just a few seconds, making Badd fly around in circles. He could feel his stomach flipping, and he wanted to throw up, but he held on.
That didn't go on for very long because while he was spinning, the monster brought its hand forth and slapped Badd off its leg as if he was an ant.
So, down Badd went.
Falling to his doom.
Damn it.
Damn it, damn it, DAMN IT!!
I can't die like this!
He frantically scanned for anything that could possibly keep him from reaching the bottom of the mountain, but nothing. He was too far from everything.
No. I refuse to die. I need to stay alive.
I need to stay alive for Zenko.
I can't leave her.
Memories of his younger sister came flooding back like a raging river. Each thought lasted less than a second, all starting from Zenko's first breath in this world to the shopping days they had every so often. Is this what people mean when they say your life flashes before your eyes? And really, Zenko was his life. She was the only reason he was still here. Without her around, he'd probably been gone long gone after his parents…
Now memories of his parents came in. These memories didn't flash by like the ones of his sister. These were drawn-out, slow, passive. It'd been so long since he thought of these moments.
His mother's baseball card collection.
His father's love for pillow forts.
Their love for the park, and just nature in general. The amount of hikes and national parks they had gone on and to were countless. Those memories were so distant. It'd been so long.
Tears welled in Badd's eyes.
He didn't want to go out like this.
He couldn't.
Not when Zenko was waiting for him.
But the ground was growing nearer. Maybe if he used his bat to land? It was unbreakable, so it could break his fall. The impact though…
Whatever! At least I'll still be alive!
He spit out his bat and caught it before it could drift away in the wind. He just needed to face the ground and-
What the hell is that?
A swoosh of black and flaming orange jumped from the cliff and dove toward him in what was probably less than a milisecond because it practically crashed into him, knocking the wind out of him. That's when he felt an arm wrap around his torso.
A monster?!
In the corner of his eye, he saw jagged black horns with a thick line of orange going up the length of it and to its eye-
What the fuck.
That eye looked so familiar.
Suddenly, the monster launched itself off of literal falling debris and zoomed up. It hopped from rock to rock, and at the speed it was going, Badd felt like he could slip out at any moment, so he wrapped his arms around its neck — it was built awfully humanoid if he ignored the shoulder pauldrons poking his shirt — and held on tight, digging his face into the cold layer of armour on the monster's neck. If it weren't for the clawed hand on his head, his neck would've snapped from the speed.
In just a few seconds — had the monster slowed down for him? — he felt weightless. Was he in the air? Then gravity did its thing and pulled them down. The monster's feet skidded in the rock as it landed, and it held Badd just as tightly as he was to it. His legs flailed in the air, finally falling when the monster managed to stop.
Badd panted heavily. His arms shook, his hair was flipping in different directions, and his head spun evermore. He gagged, but swallowed it. He didn't want to appear vulnerable in front of a monster. Two monsters, actually! The rocky one was still at the edge, staring down. It probably hadn't processed the speed of the monster holding him. Speaking of—
He was practically sitting on the monster's leg, and he couldn't even get off because its hand was on his hip, its grip tight as if it was a warning.
He peered to the monster's head, catching that familiar eye again.
It was staring right back at him.
That shade of yellow.
It can't be—
"Garou?"