In a dark place, a silhouette began to piece itself back together. Boss 17 was coming back to life.
Slowly his arms and the rest of his limbs appeared, and the Boss opened his eyes. He scanned his surroundings. He was in the same spot where he was supposed to have died: Germany.
He began to walk, noticing in the distance that everything had already been rebuilt. His expression darkened as he remembered Sebastián and how he had killed him.
"I'll get my revenge... I'll kill you all, you bastards," he said aloud.
A citizen started filming him. His appearance had been circulating on social media, and seeing him alive, the man clearly saw a chance to report the story and rack up views.
Boss 17 kept walking. He clenched a fist and destroyed a building along the way with a stream of blood, a warning for everyone to keep their distance. The building collapsed, and everyone inside died instantly.
He went on, taking in his surroundings.
*Everything has changed since I thought I had died, though luckily one of my cells survived. As far as I can tell, it's been three weeks, or maybe a month, since I died. It was a struggle, but I suppose new Bosses have shown up by now,* Boss 17 thought.
Suddenly he stopped near a citizen who was watching a video on his phone. It showed Kiro and the others fighting a man with a weapon, while a hybrid watched from the background. He instantly deduced that the hybrid was Boss 19.
The citizen sensed his presence and turned around fast, then froze. He recognized that presence as Boss 17, who had been killed when Sebastián fled in a flash of light.
"Don't be scared, but I need one of those. Where can I get one?" the Boss asked.
"They're at the sto... store over... over there," the boy said, his voice trembling.
Boss 17 nodded and walked toward the phone shop. When he got there, he opened the door and looked around for the best phone in the place. His eyes settled on one with 8 GB of RAM and 250 GB of storage.
Without hesitation, he grabbed it and slipped it into his pocket. The employees noticed right away.
"Excuse me, sir, give that phone back right now," said one of the workers.
The Boss looked at her with indifference, reached a hand toward her, and knocked her out with a blow to the neck. He had moved so fast that everyone in the shop was left terrified.
"I won't kill anyone. I just need information, and your technology will give it to me. Bye," the Boss said, and left the shop.
Along the way, he unlocked the phone and walked into a café, where he sat at a table by the window. He connected to the internet, opened the browser, and found several viral videos of the heroes. Their presence was global. Some people asked where they had gotten their powers, how strong the heroes really were, and why the Bosses were evil. That last question caught his attention.
*It's not that we're evil. We were simply sent with the objective of killing the heroes, not hurting people. All they'd do is keep people subdued under their will, not necessarily kill them. Now that I think about it, that "Supreme" makes the Bosses vanish if we're too arrogant and disobey the recommended objective. But well, he only strips our rank if we survive and fight. If we don't fight, he kills us himself,* Boss 17 told himself.
Boss 17 sighed and scrolled through the trending posts about the heroes. There were several theories.
One said they were divine punishment, another that they were evil incarnate. But a third, with a lot of analysis behind it, caught his eye: the world is full of corruption, and there was a hospital whose name nobody knew, but where many people had been taken, and the doctors were strange. What if something at that very place had given the heroes their power, and that had drawn someone's attention? That would explain why the Bosses appeared so much more often now. Before, they hadn't existed, nobody knew about them, and then suddenly they showed up.
Boss 17 grew thoughtful. The theory made a lot of sense and was right on target in many ways. His eyes moved to the account's name: Scientist Max.
Curious, he opened the account and found a recent photo of the heroes, but one of them he didn't recognize. It was a young boy, and the caption said his name was "Eduin." He had never seen him before, but he deduced he was a new ally of the heroes.
Slowly he turned off the phone and stood. When he stepped outside, he took a deep breath and started to run, crossing one country after another in a matter of seconds, searching for the protagonists so he could face and defeat them. On the way he realized his rank was unchanged, as if the Supreme hadn't stripped it because he had known Boss 17 would come back. A sudden chill ran through him at the thought. He stopped a few meters short and watched the laboratory from a distance.
At that moment, the video of his return went up. It quickly racked up 100,000 views in a minute. His phone buzzed with a notification, and he watched himself walking away down the street, destroying the building, and then disappearing. The video was about twenty seconds long.
Inside the laboratory, the scientist, watching through a camera, noticed the Boss's presence. Kiro stepped out of the special room, but on the television he saw the news that Boss 17 had returned. His expression turned dark, and he clenched his fists.
*How is it possible, if Sebastián killed him? Damn it, now we'll have to face him again. Though next to the other Bosses, he's practically an angel in attitude and actions, but that doesn't change the fact that he's a demon,* Kiro thought.
Worh walked into the living room and watched the news too. A flashback crossed his mind.
He saw himself, his abdomen stained with blood, watching Sebastián flee and kill Boss 17 in the process. He had felt a tiny signal of energy, but it was so small that he hadn't paid it any mind, thinking it was the wind. It had been one of the Boss's cells.
Out of the memory, Worh shook his head. Eduin and Sone watched him in silence.
Then the scientist came over and showed them the footage. Boss 17 was close by.
Sone and Worh tensed. Eduin felt nothing, since he didn't know the Boss.
Meanwhile, Boss 17 turned into an alley and found a door. When he opened it, his expression turned dark and wary. Inside, with his back to him, stood the Unknown Voice.
"I didn't take your rank because you stayed alive. And if you're wondering why I took the others', it's simply because they fought and failed, though they survived. Like Boss 18 and Boss 19. I took their rank. But one more thing," the Unknown Voice explained.
Boss 17 stayed silent, waiting to hear what he would say.
"Boss 16, called MegaFlash, is still alive. He's a sick freak for putting his hands on Kiro's sister, but oh well. He'll surely come, so good luck to you and the others," the Unknown Voice said, and vanished in a flash of light.
The door disappeared from existence as if it had never been there. Boss 17 clenched his fists. How was it possible that MegaFlash was still alive, when as far as he knew he was dead?
He slowly walked out of the alley and started toward the laboratory. He didn't know it, but he had the same power as before and more abilities he hadn't shown yet. He still had them, and he could make use of them. He remembered that he had more techniques than Boss 18, and he was already planning to use them, gathering his energy.
Elsewhere, out at sea, a figure was gathering seaweed and combining it with his DNA to regenerate. It was Boss 16. He was coming back to life because he had been killed near the sea, his natural environment. His mind was already set on using Kiro's family to subdue him and gain even more power.
Boss 17 sensed MegaFlash's energy and his intentions.
*He really is sick. But whatever, all he cares about is revenge,* Boss 17 thought.
The protagonists stretched their arms and legs to loosen up, ready for a possible fight. Boss 17 walked toward the laboratory, and Boss 16 had already returned to life.