An unknown man is walking down the street at night, he’s tall and handsome, with black hair. He walks into a jazz bar and takes a seat. A beautiful woman walks on stage in a red sparkling dress, she approaches the mic and the pianist begins to play a song, as he does she starts to sing along. Her voice is soft but just as beautiful as her looks. The man listens to her entire set and as she finishes he stands up and applauds her. She sees him, faintly smiles and walks off stage.
Backstage he approaches her. “Hey, long time no see, you sing just as beautiful as I remember, and that’s not the only beautiful thing I remember about you” she looks at him completely unfazed and responds wittingly “you know, keep talking to me like that and the boss will finally end your sorry little ass” he chuckles and leans in towards her in a seductive manner “ah what the boss doesn’t know won’t hurt him” again unfazed she replies “the problem is the boss knows everything” they pause and the guy clears his throat. “Talking of the boss, he’s gathering us all tonight, no exceptions”. She carries on packing her things with a look of worry in her face, “he hasn’t called a meeting since you had to go into hiding”. The man looks at her “I guess he’s ready to start playing again” they both look at each other and he continues “tonight, midnight, on the dot, don’t be late, you might be his favourite but that doesn’t mean he will give you any special exceptions” she laughs, “a queen arrives exactly when she’s supposed to” as she says this a chess board is seen and a queen piece is placed down.
The same unknown man is walking down a long flight of stone stairs, the whole area is dark but faintly lit by torches, he continues deep into the bowels of a castle where he finds a large wooden door, he opens the door to find a sickly looking man facing the wall, stood in the dark, “it’s been a while reaper, how have you been?”. He replies in a dark, sickly voice, “oh you know just waiting for orders” the man replies “well no need to wait any longer, I know you’re the rookie but the boss is ready to play and this time you’re going to get to play too, meetings tonight, midnight, time to come out of your little cave”. He turns around slowly to reveal a large scar around his mouth creating a smile. Due to the room being dimly lit his face can only just be made out, he begins smiling in a creepy and sadistic way. As he does so the chess board is seen again, a rook is placed on it.
He is seen walking into an old abandoned church, he sits in the confession box and begins to speak “forgive me father, for I have sinned” a voice is heard on the other side “haven’t we all my friend, so what brings you to the unholy temple of the wretched”. “Hey you know I don’t believe in all this unholy shit but the boss is gathering everyone together and I needed to come to give you the message.” The priest replies “well receiving messages is what I do, I’ll be there don’t you worry, and will the rookie be there also” he replies “yes, the Reaper is one of the 4 chosen commanders”. The priest shudders “Hmm he even gives me the creeps”. The priest sighs and continues “well if Check has decided it then you know I will follow his orders.” The man replies “As you should, we all have a reason to follow the boss and if he’s ready to play then we need to be ready to move” the priest laughs manically “Oh I can just tell this is going to be fun”. The chess board appears again a Bishop is placed on it.
A large clock strikes midnight, the unknown man is seen emerging from darkness with only his head shown, he continues to walk forward and as he does he places on a helmet, the helmet lights up on fire on the inside, the chess board shows again and the knight piece is placed on it. PyroKnight continues to walk out of the darkness and he is joined by Queeie, Reaper and the Bishop of death. They stop together in front of a chair and a voice is heard in the darkness “my 4 commanders, it’s been a long time, it’s wonderful to see you all again” they all get on their knees and bow. “My Rook, my queen, my bishop and my knight it is nearly time for the games to begin, all the pieces are being laid and all the moves are being prepared, the pawns are finally all together”. A large group of withered are seen behind the 4 commanders. The chess board is seen again and many pawns pieces are placed on it.
The man in the shadows continues to speak “Today our plans and this game will begin, soon Titan along with all his heroes will be dead, I’ll make it so there are no more moves left to play, soon it will be… checkmate” as he says this he leans forward, his face comes into the light and the chess board is seen again this time a king piece is placed.
In a large bank, everyone is going around their day-to-day business. A group of 4 walk into the bank, all of them wearing sinister-looking outfits, one of them emits a shockwave from his body, it ripples through the bank scaring all the people inside and shattering all the glass. The guy steps forward and begins to speak. “You all know how this goes down on the ground and no one gets hurt” 2 heroes walk out from the other room and one of them shouts out to them “you lot must be some sort of dumb to have not done your homework when robbing a bank, if you had you would know that due to the clientele and money that goes through this bank, it’s double hero protected at all times”. Shockwave snickers “We didn’t do our homework but the boss did. Oh and who said we were here to rob it. No, we‘re here to say hello to you two”. The heroes look at each other confused “shockwave I know who you are, why would a group of D lister withered wanna pick a fight with us” shockwave and his men laugh “D listers, oh come on now you’ll hurt our feelings, no I don’t think we’re D listers… especially not anymore. Don’t worry I’ll forgive you for your insult, unfortunately, I don’t think my friends here are so forgiving” The 3 men behind lunge toward the heroes.
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One of the heroes, Chromium becomes completely metallic and shiny, 2 of the withered run towards him and the other larger withered run towards the other hero who takes a fighting stance. Shockwave sits back and watches. Chromium begins to throw punches at both villains, one takes a hit to the face and falls backwards whilst the other stretches his torso around his arm and then wraps his elongated body around the hero. The villain on the floor sits up and starts to breathe a long, thin stream of fire on chromium's chest, Shockwave shouts out “now I know you’re pretty hard but even metal begins to melt with enough heat”. Chromium starts to look worried.
The other hero, chasm, and villain both seem to have strength enhancements. Several punches are thrown, taken and dodged, and the fight continues until the withered hits Chasm in the rib cage. The sound of bones breaking is heard and another punch is thrown to the face. Chasm falls to the floor and the villain walks toward him slowly. The villain stands over him and laughs. Chasm quickly pushes himself up and returns a punch to the villain's face, in doing so he knocks off his mask and knocks him a few steps back. The hero stands up and looks confused. “Hey, I know you I’ve fought you before, you’re that D-rank villain Brutus, how the hell did you get this strong so quickly” the villain smiles and puts the mask back on. “I’d tell you but there’s no point telling a deadman anything” he then begins with another barrage of punches.
Chromium grabs the stretchy villain by the head and pulls him over the flame, he screams out and unravels from his body, the other stops breathing fire and instead extends out his claws and sprouts wings, he goes flying up into the air but chromium lunges for him, grabs him by the throat and slams him to the floor, he takes off his mask and once again looks shocked. “Dragon newt another D rank villain, I don’t remember any report about you being able to breathe fire, last time you just had the wings and sharp claws” dragon newt smiles and spits flames again at chromium’s face. He covers his face with his arm and then takes a strong, fast swing into newts face knocking him unconscious.
Shockwave steps forward “Do I have to do everything myself” he shouts to the stretchy villain on the floor. “Hey Armstrong hold this guy down for me”. Chromium turns around to see the stretchy villain has got up and once again begins to stretch himself around his body and hold him down, chromium tries to struggle out but this time the grip is much firmer. Shockwave walks up to him and holds his hand to his head. “What was that about being D listers, I know I said I would forgive you but for some reason, I just can’t seem to get it out of my head, it’s like this ringing noise that just won’t go away. Look I’ll show you, it’s a bit like this” as he says this vibrating waves start coming from his hand and into chromium’s head. He starts to look uncomfortable as the vibrations increase, “you know you might be metal on the outside but your internal organs are all still human tissue, including your brain, so soon enough these vibrations will turn it to mush”. The vibrations amplify, chromium begins to scream as he does blood comes from his ears and nose and he falls to the floor.
Chasm looks over, “CHROMIUM… NO!”. Brutus gives him another punch to the face and knocks him to the floor “don’t worry, you’ll join him soon”. He continues to throw multiple punches into chasms face, the punching continues until his fists are bloody. He stands over his body and looks around at all the scared civilians. “And you call these guys heroes, they couldn’t even protect themselves let alone you” shockwave steps forward, “that’s fine boys our jobs done here, Brutus pick up Newt off the floor and let’s get going.” They begin to walk towards the exit and as they door the door swings open. Titan is standing in the doorway. He looks at the ground to find his 2 fellow heroes dead in a pool of their blood. He then looks up at the withered. Brutus turns to shockwave “Urm we weren’t told Titan would be getting involved” shockwave smiles “that’s ok, now it’s time to prove exactly just how strong we’ve become”.
Within an instant the 3 of them all receive strong punches to the face, together they fall back and are all knocked unconscious. Titan hears a voice through his earpiece “Titan 4 more attacks are happening all around this block, I’ve dispatched a few heroes that were closer to support the banks further afield but are you able to make it to Toshiyuku bank west of here.” He replies “I’ll be there” as he flies off, a number of Protection Agency officers storm the building, they place a metal circle on their chest which attaches to them, and energy pulsates from it. The withered are escorted into the Protection Agency van. Titan once again bursts through another bank door this time he sees a single dead hero on the floor, the 3 withered turn and look at Titan. Again all 3 are hit in the face with a super fast punch and fall to the floor almost simultaneously.
A news report comes on. A female news reporter is standing in front of the bank as a body is brought out on a stretcher covered by a blanket. “Tonight during several attacks it has been confirmed that 9 heroes have been killed, however at this time we can not yet confirm the names of the heroes. All the villains involved in the attack have been apprehended, restrained and brought back for questioning, it seems all of them were D ranked withered and yet somehow were able to match up to C or B rank Heroes, is there strength in number or should we be raising the question, just how did they overpower them. After a brief interview with some of the hostages, it also seems that the villains were not there to take the money but were only there to fight and kill the heroes, why, we are yet still unsure. Luckily this terrible night is over and now it’s time to mourn the incredibly brave heroes we just lost.”
Shockwave is sitting in a chair, still with the energy pulsating disk on his chest. Titan walks into the room and stands on the opposite side of the investigation table. “Why?” Shockwave smiles and replies “No chitchat from the big number one hero, I finally get to meet the most popular hero in Japan and he doesn’t want to have a proper conversation with me” Titan slams his hands on the metal desk destroying it “I’ll ask again… why, why did you rob a bank just to kill the heroes, and why were there so many attacks at once” Shockwave laughs “just following orders, who knew taking orders could be that fun” Titan grabs him by the collar and pulls him closer “who’s orders” Shockwave smiles as he does a pulsating energy comes from his core, his face starts to struggle and he looks like he’s in pain, he screams out and instantaneously dies. Titan looks confused, drops him to the floor and rushes outside the interrogation office. “What the hell just happened” the whole office is in disarray. A PA officer rushes up to him “it’s not just him sir, they’re all dead” Titan looks disgruntled and asks “who’s dead?” The police officer replies, “all of them” Titan walks into the prison cell to see all the villain's bodies laying on the ground.