A bright light lit up the skies and the countries below. It fell in the middle of a farm, and a figure could be seen emerging from within the glow. After a few seconds, everything returned to normal. The figure was Boss 18, and he began to walk through the farm, taking it in with open curiosity. He noticed an elderly couple milking cows and feeding pigs.
He stood watching them, intrigued, until a voice shattered his peace of mind.
"Go kill them now, or hurry off and kill those 'heroes,'" the unknown voice echoed inside his head.
Boss 18 shivered and blinked rapidly. Suddenly, a barrage of bright, colorful lightning slammed into the farm and the elderly couple. Their screams were agonizing, as if their souls were being pierced along with their bodies. The animals bolted, but some were caught in the blasts and instantly reduced to ashes.
"Let's see if that gets you moving on your mission," the unknown voice told him again.
The Boss could only watch the massacre in silence. Then, he clenched his fists and walked away without looking back. As he went, he pulled out a tablet and began studying the information he had been given on the "heroes."
Kiro: Age 18, height 1.77 m, weight 75 kg, main ability: "Fist Strikes"
Worh: Age 19, height 1.88 m, weight 80 kg, main ability: "Fist Strikes"
Sone: Age 18, height 1.77 m, weight 73 kg, main ability: "Kicks, hedgehog-type attacks, and rolling into a ball"
Sebastián: Age 17, height 1.77 m, weight 74 kg, main ability: "Emotion Modes"
"Well, they seem interesting," he murmured.
He drew a black pistol marked with a bluish train logo, aimed at a city, and fired.
Three trains shot out at full speed and tore into the buildings. A man spotted one coming and lunged for his car keys, but the train smashed into the very building he stood in. The silhouette of the vehicle filled his vision before it ran him down. There was no scream, no cry, only the roar of a train at full speed. All that remained of the man was blood spread across the ground.
The second train plowed into a family's home and struck the gas tank, causing an explosion that set the whole house ablaze.
The mother, asleep beside her husband, jolted awake and understood at once. She raced to the children's room, but the beds were empty—the vehicle had carried them off inside. Without wasting a second, the couple climbed out a window and left the fire behind.
The third train crashed through several buildings, bringing them down and killing everyone nearby.
The Boss noticed the train carrying the children, and then a hedgehog-like silhouette running after it. He realized it was Sone, and without a second thought, he sprinted off at full speed. He conjured the stone powers of the late Boss 10 and blocked Sone's path with enormous rocky spikes that reached the clouds.
I won't let you stop me from saving those two little ones, Sone thought.
Sone curled into a ball and sped up, the ground cracking beneath him from the power he was unleashing to boost his versatility. He leapt at the spikes in that form and burst through them, though they tore at his skin. He uncurled and checked himself. There were scratches near his face and legs, but he had no time to process them before a punch crashed into his back.
He shot forward, but within seconds he recovered his balance and looked behind him. Boss 18 stared at him calmly, purple energy gathering in both fists. Worh, who had been scanning the area, felt a chill run down his spine. He remembered feeling that same power in someone he had fought long ago. He remembered the moment Leslie made the exact same move.
"Damn, I know that power," Worh said under his breath. "I have to get to where that energy is coming from, fast."
Without wasting a moment, he started running and readied his fist for an "Ultra Strike."
Meanwhile, the Boss finished preparing his attack and, without another word, lunged at Sone. Sone braced himself, but with every blow the Boss's speed and intensity climbed, and the young man could not keep up for long. Exhaustion was already closing in when Worh arrived. The Boss spun around and threw his purple-charged punch. Worh's strike was already in motion, and the two fists collided. A massive explosion followed, taking with it all of Germany, the Netherlands, and part of the new France.
Everything was swallowed in flames. There was no trace of human or animal life, only a vast desert. A body lay on the ground. It was Kiro. He got to his feet and coughed hard from the smoke, wiped his face with his shirt, and looked around. Everything was desolate. Without warning, a voice echoed in his mind.
"Well, well. Looks like the hero couldn't prevent the catastrophe. You couldn't save anyone, though your friends are still alive, just far from where you stand. You are an error on an endless board of numbers, a canon event you stopped in order to save your friend 'Sukori,'" the unknown voice said, calm and grave.
"Who the hell are you? What are you doing in my head? And what's this about me stopping a canon event?" Kiro shouted, clutching his skull.
A pounding headache overwhelmed him, and distorted memories surged in: his friend being hit by a truck, and his "past self" frozen in place, paralyzed and traumatized by what he had witnessed. He slammed his head against the ground. The pain faded, and his memories settled back to normal.
What just happened to me? Did that really have to happen, or should I simply not have saved her?
The thoughts tumbled through his mind. He took a deep breath, pushed himself up, and started running toward where the others had to be.
Sone opened his eyes, coughing up blood from the damage of the explosion. He slowly stretched out and rose, gripping a rock for support. The place was destroyed, without a spark of life, only fire and ash.
"Worh?" he called into the emptiness.
Where could he be? With that question in mind, he began to search, but the only thing he found was a piece of his friend's sleeve.
Then he saw a purple crack that seemed to glitch. Curious, he stepped closer and reached out a hand. He touched it and nothing happened, but he felt a strange visual distortion. He grabbed both sides and pried them apart. A vast space opened before him, and inside it he saw two wounded silhouettes fighting at tremendous levels. They were Worh and Boss 18, teleported there by the energy of the blast. Each was hurling attacks at the other.
Worh used Strike Plus, and multiple bolts of lightning slammed into the man's body, but the Boss turned it to his advantage. He caught one bolt and struck Worh with it, then drove a knee straight into his jaw. Worh's vision spun a full 360 degrees. Then, the Boss seized his face and began smashing it into the ground again and again.
Kiro felt a familiar energy and ran toward it. He found Sone watching from the crack.
"Sone?" Kiro asked.
"Look," Sone said.
Kiro stepped closer and saw Worh being slammed into the ground. He tried to force his way in, but the crack would not let him through.
"I'll handle this," a familiar voice called out from behind them.
They turned and saw Eduin, sword in hand. Without a word, he walked up to the crack and began hacking at it with his blade. The crack reacted, distorting even more and letting out an unfamiliar glitching sound.
His cuts grew stronger, and the crack widened. For a moment, it revealed someone who looked like Kiro, wearing a red bandana marked with blue lines, a dark blue shirt, gray pants, dark hair, sky-blue eyes, and black shoes with blue laces.
The three of them stared at him for a second before the space tore wide open. From another universe, that alternative Kiro also looked at the three heroes for a second before they vanished from his sight. He watched his universe carry on as normal, but a thought crossed his mind: Why did a hole suddenly appear in front of me and show me those three people?
He turned around and continued on his way. In the main universe, Kiro, Sone, and Eduin were able to enter the space. Kiro smiled, and a powerful gust of wind pushed the Boss slightly off Worh. Worh seized the moment and kicked him in the groin. Boss 18 spat and backed away.
"So you must be the rest of the team," the Boss said. "Huh? Who's that kid with the sword?"
"He's new to our team. His name is Eduin, and you'd better get ready to lose," Kiro said with a confident smile.
They all lunged at the Boss, who barely had time to react before he was hit by a storm of fists and blades. His body began to bleed from the strikes. He closed his eyes, and an image came to his mind.
"Wake up, sweetheart," said a sweet, innocent voice.
"What is it, love?" young Boss 18 asked softly.
"We'll get married when we grow up, right?" the girl asked, looking at him with bright eyes.
"Yes, we'll get married," the boy answered with a warm smile.
They each kissed the other on the cheek, then shared a quick, tender kiss.
Back in reality, tears slipped from his eyes as he remembered when he had been that boy, and not a soul placed in the body the unknown voice had built for him. He let the protagonists beat him down and accepted his fate.
He fell to the ground, battered and half dead, a sincere smile on his face. Kiro only watched, then announced that the Boss was as good as dead. The team began to leave the space, but Kiro stayed behind.
"I won't kill you. Whatever memory put that smile on your face, you'll have to make it come true," Kiro said calmly, and then he left as well.
The crack closed behind Kiro. Worh stretched and began walking toward nowhere in particular, and the others followed, talking among themselves.
Back in the isolated space, Boss 18 got up and gave a thumbs-up.
"So I'm the only Boss to survive without some second transformation pulled out of nowhere, hahaha," he said with a little chuckle. "Though Leslie is a mutant, so she doesn't count as a Boss."
With that, he left, heading wherever the road would take him.
In a town in Mexico, someone dressed in black like a ninja was watching the streets. He had felt the destruction of the European country. He sharpened his katana and prepared to hunt the heroes.
"I am the hunter!"
The shout rang across the whole city. Sone, with his sharp senses, realized that someone was now coming after them.