"Burning Cannon!"
"Boom!!"
A never-ending, dazzling torrent of superheated, molten firepower erupted into the sky. A handsome cyborg stood braced on a rooftop, unleashing his ultimate technique at the meteor falling from above!
"So strong!"
"That's an incredible—and gorgeous—move!"
"Just as expected of the newly promoted S-Class hero, Demon Cyborg Genos!"
Standing beside the cyborg was an elderly man in a martial arts gi.
"Damn it… it's doing nothing!"
But no matter how the old man praised him, Genos—the guy with the biggest budget and the most embarrassing damage output—kept his brow furrowed as he stared up at the meteor. His firepower simply wasn't enough to destroy it.
"It's over. This city's finished."
Not far from Genos, a massive armored robot scanned the meteor overhead and delivered its conclusion.
"Like hell I'm giving up before the last second!"
Hearing that, something stubborn flared inside Genos. Or maybe it was just this: he'd sworn to become the strongest hero, and he refused to go down like this. If he couldn't save even one person, then he didn't deserve to be called a hero.
"Full power release!"
Electric light crackled through Genos's pitch-black eyes. He pulled out his core and mounted it onto the incineration cannon in his right arm!
"Burn for me!!!"
With Genos's roar—staking everything—his endless firepower exploded to an even higher level.
Boom!
The recoil alone spiderwebbed the rooftop beneath them with countless cracks. That overwhelming, ferocious output hammered the meteor's surface nonstop. Even if Genos couldn't completely destroy it, he looked ready to shove it back into space through sheer force.
"So fierce! So flashy! It looks like the meteor's getting pushed back!" the old man in the gi marveled.
"Really?!"
That single bit of praise lit Genos up, stoking his fighting spirit. For a moment, his output seemed to intensify again.
"Ah—no. Sorry. I saw it wrong."
And right in the middle of Genos's glorious barrage, the old man shook his head apologetically.
"Just get crushed by the meteor already, you useless old fossil!" Genos snapped, his expression twisting.
"Looks like we're out of options," the old man sighed, still shaking his head as if he'd accepted it.
But it was funny—he talked like a man resigned to death, yet his body quietly shifted into a stance. He hadn't come here to die.
"It's… over…"
Genos's energy ran dry. He collapsed onto the rooftop, staring up at the meteor as if he'd finally given up.
"Genos, you did good."
Just as Genos let everything go, a bald man in a yellow rubber jumpsuit appeared on the rooftop—right beside Genos and the old man—like he'd been there all along.
"This is…" The old man's eyes brightened.
That sudden arrival—moving in a way that slipped past even his perception—was impressive. Extraordinary.
"Master!" Genos exhaled, relief flooding him.
He knew that if this man was here, everything was going to be fine.
"I'll handle—"
The bald man rolled his shoulders, ready to face the massive meteor head-on.
"Ahhhhhh—!"
But right as he was about to move, a piercing scream ripped into the ears of the bald man, Genos, and the old man in the gi.
In the next instant, the gi-clad old man's exceptional dynamic vision caught it: a white shadow split the clouds and slammed straight into the meteor.
"Huh?!" The bald man paused when he saw someone beat him to it.
"Identifying target…"
"Target suspected: Hero Association S-Class Rank 17 hero, Freedom—Jovian…"
The moment Genos spotted the white figure, he recognized Jovian.
"A newly promoted S-Class hero…?" Genos thought.
Before he could finish the thought, his smart support system picked up something else—something clipped at the white-clad man's waist: a red, drum-shaped belt. And then it produced a second identification.
"Identifying target…"
"Target suspected: Hero Association S-Class Rank 2 hero, Tornado of Terror—Tatsumaki (jaw dislocated)."
Genos stared at the result and fell silent.
"What the hell is a 'jaw-dislocated Tornado of Terror' supposed to be?"
His brain felt like it was refusing to process reality.
Boom!
While Saitama watched like it was a show, Genos's system spiraled, and the old man prepared to fight—
The meteor detonated into countless fragments.
"Mmmph… mmmph…!"
Tatsumaki hovered near Jovian, muttering nonstop—but with her jaw dislocated, she couldn't form words at all.
"He actually shattered it?" the old man narrowed his eyes at the debris field. "This new S-Class hero isn't simple."
"But the real danger was never the meteor," he thought grimly. "It's the fragments after it breaks."
He knew exactly what kind of devastation a shattered meteor could still rain down on the world.
"Mission complete!"
Floating in the air, Jovian looked satisfied. He'd just saved a city. Not bad at all.
"Mmmph… mmmph…!"
Tatsumaki stared at the meteor fragments falling toward the ground, trying to rant through a useless jaw. What came out was basically just incoherent noise.
"Damn it… at this rate the city still gets wrecked," Genos growled, eyes burning as he watched the meteor shower spread across the sky. "Damn it—if Metal Knight hadn't attacked on his own and had actually coordinated, this wouldn't have happened…"
Genos's anger surged. Even if Z-City avoided total annihilation, the damage would still be catastrophic. He couldn't guarantee nobody would get hurt in this meteor rain.
And part of that fury was aimed at the huge mech not far away—the one belonging to the Hero Association's S-Class Rank 6 hero, Metal Knight. Genos had thought Metal Knight came to destroy the meteor and was ready to cooperate, but after asking, he learned the truth:
Metal Knight was just testing his weapons. He didn't care about stopping the meteor at all.
Boom!
As everyone watched the meteor fragments descend toward the city—powerless to stop them—the red drum-shaped belt clipped at Jovian's waist…
The S-Class Rank 2 hero, Tatsumaki, lit up with eerie green light in her eyes. In an instant, every fragment of the meteor froze—suspended in midair as if reality itself had been grabbed by the throat.
"Hm?" Jovian raised an eyebrow as Tatsumaki flexed her power.
Looks like Dr. Genus had miscalculated. Tatsumaki's abilities were far stronger than expected—strong enough that the superpower limiter he'd invented couldn't effectively erase her power.
Snap!
While holding the meteor fragments aloft, Tatsumaki tore the red limiter off her body. Green light surged around her as she rose into the air.
Click.
With her power, she forced her jaw back into place.
"What kind of 'mission complete' is that supposed to mean?!" Tatsumaki shouted at Jovian.
"My mission was to stop the meteor from destroying Z-City. I did that!" Jovian replied casually. "As for everything after that—this is the job of you weak heroes."
He glanced down at the rooftop.
"So it's Genos, Saitama, and Bang… Genos still ended up sticking with Saitama. And Saitama…" Jovian's senses caught a constant stream of high-energy signals. He shook his head. "He's kind of strong."
With that, Jovian shot upward, turning into a streak of afterimage that vanished into the sky.
"You jerk—just like that, you're dumping me here?!" Tatsumaki yelled after him, seething. "You think what's between us ends that easily?!"
Genos looked up at her. "Uh… are you Tornado of Terror—Tatsumaki?"
"Hmph."
"You people are a bunch of useless trash!" Tatsumaki snapped, dumping all her rage onto everyone else. "So many S-Class heroes and none of you could stop a meteor! In the end, it still took me to clean it up!"
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