Chapter 21: A Singular Punch

[Tavish POV]

I finish slicing off the remains of a cast as I think back to my latest test.

[Flashback]

At some point Saitama and Genos had started hanging out together at Fantasia.

I'm actually a little concerned because I appear to be missing that particular segment of memory on when they started doing it.

Just one day, bam! They were a common face in the restaurant.

But regardless, Saitama was a mildly entertaining presence and Genos was Genos.

At some point, during a somewhat drunken debate, we got on the topic of actual strength.

Genos's strength was easy enough to calculate by reading his operating specifications, while mine were slightly harder to calculate but still easily tracked.

The problem was Saitama, his sheer strength and speed was, at least so far, incalculable to any standard unit of measurement.

So we set out on a quest to assign a number to Saitama's strength.

Strapping a reinforced impact plate to myself and using fortify seemed like a great way to provide an indestructible target, and to calculate the measurement itself.

For all my brain power, it wasn't until moments before he punched that I thought it might be a bad idea.

[Flashback End]

On the bright side, my physical durability went up significantly after that hit, even if it resulted in a temporary cast. Once I had a proper night's rest, I was back up like nothing had ever happened.

Wincing a little at the memory of the pain, I set a little mental reminder to never do that again.

On a different topic, my armor for V was finally complete, at least to the point where she could go out and do hero work.

Target designation, flight, firepower, durability, I crammed as much as I could into this armor as I could. While V was augmented, it wasn't even close to the degree that I was when using my technomancy.

Her armor was definitely lower profile than some of the armors I developed, sleek armor plates coating her frame, a visor protecting her face when piloting the armor. A set of bladed sentinel energy wings finished the ensemble.

She was currently practicing movement in "hover mode" in the suit, her evasion speed increasing as she dodged every practice projectile fired at her.

Holding out her arm, the metal shifted and formed into a belt-fed configuration, the barrel extending out.

V started firing rounds into a moving target, the high-speed rounds not letting up until she ran empty.

Bolting forward, the arm shifting back to normal, she rained blows on the target, using arms, legs and wing to met out damage to the target.

She finished out with both feet impacting the chest of the dummy, the blast from her thrusters launching and embedding the dummy into the wall.

She finally took notice of me when she stopped to catch her breath.

"How's the new armor working V?" I ask, getting swooped up in a hug in response.

"It's fantastic Tavish! Its beyond anything I imagined having myself. The interface is so seamless as well!" She stated excitedly, twirling me around in response.

This hallmarked a significant change in V's combat style. While she did specialize in ranged combat, it was ranged combat by Night City parameters.

It was an important consideration when evening out the playing field between V and the monsters she would encounter in the one-punch universe. Adding speed and maneuverability were essential to maintain the distance she needed to pull off some of the more powerful attacks she has come up with.

I cannot wait to see what she is able to accomplish with this drastic change in hardware.

An alert pings from my computers signifying another shipment of metal has been brought back from the supposed asteroid.

Overall, I was aware that the asteroid could be a bad thing, I didn't realize just how bad until I started studying its trajectory, astrology for this world, and confirming what caused it to veer off course into earth.

Looking at the star map for this planet, it had virtually identical constellations to my original world.

With one glaring exception.

Checking with astrology reports and confirming multiple times, I pulled up the live feed of the constellation Perseus.

The Demon Star Algol, was missing from the pattern. I first grew suspicious when shipments of Dwarf Star Alloy were being brought back by the mining crews. As far as I was aware, that type of material could be mined from stars themselves, and while I was ecstatic to work with the new materials, what was being brought down made me suspicious.

Thus, the research began.

I was definitely missing parts and pieces of data due to lacking deep space sensing capabilities, but trajectories, material, and the fact that a fucking binary star was missing directly in the estimated trajectory, well, I could put two and two together.

My hypothesis as it currently stood, was that someone, took that star and gathered extra material around it, extinguishing the star, and used the remainder of the released energy as fuel to launch the star towards earth.

By my calculations, it would have passed by harmlessly, but something caused it to veer towards earth as it was flying by.

The amount of power required to do any of these actions was simply astronomical. Forcing a star to die so you could launch it at a planet to test its defenses, and then altering its course near its destination?

I felt a chill down my spine at the implications. Assuming that Boros and his crew were responsible, and that Saitama killed most of them, was an indicator of the true power levels of the universe.

If I informed the hero association of this development, they'd probably shit a brick.

I was already starting to have issues with Bofoi. His satellites had caught wind of my mining operations. He even went as far as to bring it up at a hero meeting.

[Flashback]

[Hero HQ]

I had just been introduced as a new hero to the other S-class before we hopped straight into analyzing the status of various cities. Mostly it was giving instruction on where to focus hero activities as well as how to account for increased monster activity.

Most of the S-class who showed appeared not to be paying overly close attention to the presentation, but I knew better. These people were S-class for a reason, they wouldn't just neglect potentially helpful information.

As the meeting was being brought to a close Bofoi's robot spoke up; "Before we end today, I have one last point of order I would like to bring up." He stated bringing up images and star charts.

I recognize some of the images as Thunderhawk transporters while others were marking out a structure in orbit. The final one was concerning the asteroid.

"Recently, I've noticed a new presence operating within our galaxy, harvesting a meteor, building satellites and various other never before seen presences. Care to explain, no-name?" Bofoi stated his optics glaring at me. I hadn't received a hero name yet, and he seemed to want to find ways to rub me the wrong way.

"To you? Not particularly. I kind of got bored a few weeks back so I threw together a basic operational space force." I stated lazily, hearing a cough of laughter off to my right.

Fairly certain that it came from Metal Bat, but I couldn't confirm while Bofoi continued;

"Explain what you're doing up in space then? How did you even get up there?" He stated again leaving no room for misinterpretation.

"Ah so that's the real reason, your upset that I beat you up there! Well, I shan't tell you! Innovation and all that. Huge fan of it really. But I'll give you a hint, combustion engine is the wrong path to be on for cheap and efficient space travel." I bullshit. I could tell he was starting to get frustrated.

"Your willing to put the safety of earth on the line, just so you can keep your little secret?" he started ranting before I interrupted him.

"There is really no point in telling the association since the only assets they have in space are strictly for communications and monitoring. The only people that would gain anything is those with personal interests." I reply blandly.

"Mr. Byrne, if the association wished to deploy more satellites or infrastructure in orbit, would you be amiable to offer your services as transport?" One of the board members sitting at the meeting interjected, overriding further protest from Bofoi.

"I suppose I could work out a contract of some sort to that effect." I speculate cheerfully, receiving a nod of thanks from the board member.

"Then that is sufficient. That concludes today's meeting. Thank you all for coming!" The board member finished.

[Flashback End]

Since then, Bofoi has been trying to spy on me non-stop.

Trying, being the operative word here.

His attempts proved to be a great source of entertainment to counter as I simply shut off his network, or would cause it to go on the fritz unexpectedly.

Eventually I just got bored of him and wrote a program to do it for me, turning my attention to other projects.

Pulling up my map of the world, I could see my alert network slowly coming online.

While the hero association already had a network in place it would never measure up to some of the A.I. I can implement.

Enter Oracle.

The A.I. was purpose built to detect and respond to threats the police couldn't handle by issuing an alert to hero's.

All hero's.

Hero's below S-class were often left out of the loop and forgotten when dragon and god level threats were encountered. Oracle would grow to design the appropriate framework so hero's could respond and coordinate on anything from search and rescue, to natural disasters, to monsters of every threat level.

Knowledge was half the battle, so making that data readily available to every hero would hopefully make them more prepared.

I was taken by surprise as a red dot appeared on the map issuing an alert across the fledgling system.

[Warning!]

[Demon Level Threat Identified!]

[Requesting Hero Response!]

I hadn't enabled Oracle's communication to the hero network so she wasn't sending out alarms to everyone yet.

Flipping open my phone, I dial V's number and I get a response; "Hey Tavish. Whats up?"

"Ready for some hero work V?" I question, pulling my armor out of my inventory.

[Mumen Rider POV]

Wincing I get to my feet once more as buildings burn around me, and pick up the person I was carrying.

No matter the situation, I always respond to hero alerts when I am out on patrol. Even if I can't fight the more challenging enemies, help was always needed to protect the civilians.

Another blast of fire explodes overhead as this new monster launches Stinger into a building.

"Foolish to think you can match the Flame Empress, with a simple bamboo spear!" She tutted, flying overhead.

Her body was made of molten fire while covered in rock armor, flames burned around her, protecting her from most attacks.

My mind quickly flashed back to my initial attack to distract her from killing Jet Nice Guy. While I managed to save his life, my bike was incinerated by the Flame Empress.

Gritting my teeth in effort, I lift the unconscious person over another wall of rubble as I try to escape the damaged area.

A wall of fire manifested in front of me blocking my path to freedom.

"Trying to escape? Don't worry, I haven't forgotten about you." She taunted, fire licking around her hands.

Trying to protect the unconscious man I was carrying; I brace for the flames when a voice rings out over the screams.

"Anchor Hold!" And a surge of blue energy coated everyone in sight.

The fire blasted into me and while I could feel the heat, the fire just surged around me and the man I was protecting.

"What the hell?!" The monster raged before she was kicked in the back of the head.

By a metal angel.

Following up her initial attack she grabbed me and the man I was carrying, lifting us up over the flames and away from the monster.

I heard a scream of rage from behind us and the woman spoke; "Don't worry about her. She has bigger problems to deal with."

Rain started pouring down from the sky, tamping down the fires as she set us down outside of the disaster zone.

"Good luck from here Mumen. I'm going to do a quick pass for survivors before helping take the bitch out." She informed, before she launched herself skyward with a roar of her engines.

Standing there for a moment in shock, I quickly shake my surprise off and carry the man to a nearby ambulance before diving back into the danger zone. I don't know who just arrived, but they were obviously allies, so all I could do was continue saving as many lives as I can.

[Flame Empress POV]

I raged about my lost prey as I attempted to incinerate the downed heroes in glorious flame.

Every time I tried though, that damnable blue energy protected them! What was worse was that the rain was undoing all my hard work to engulf the city in flames!

"That won't work you know." A voice calls out from the flames.

I can see the outline of a figure through the flames, before the flames die down revealing an armored figure glaring out from his visor.

"The moment I entered the battlefield, they all fell under my protection. The only way you can get at them, is to go through me." He snarled, a shield appearing on his arm and a axe in his hand.

"Go through you? Look sweetie, while that's adorable thinking that will deter me, that won't save your friends here." I mocked trying once more to engulf the hero's in flame.

Oddly enough, some of the hero's started to stir as my flames washed around them, their burns and wounds from earlier slowly healing.

Refocusing on the armored figure, I analyze him once more realizing the source of the phenomenon.

A sense of cold enveloped me for the first time as I watched water swirl around him like a whirlpool.

"Good! I'd be disappointed if you were that easy to frighten." The man's voice changed as I felt a trickle of fear down my spine.

He launched himself forward in an explosion of power as I braced for a fight for my life.

[Tavish POV]

Perk activated!

[Defender]

Grants 25% of your current endurance stat to allies.

The fallen hero's around us just received a massive boost to their own healing capabilities.

Casting repair on Jet Nice Guy to reassemble his cybernetics, I call out to the groggy hero's.

"Alright Lads and Ladies, up and at 'em! Start search and rescue or help me put this bitch in the ground!" I roar, the water around me forming into spear's and rapid firing into the Flame Empress.

The monster evaded some spears while getting torn apart by others. She quickly started burning brighter as she rapidly regenerated the torn off bits. Two stun rods were suddenly jammed into her back halting the regeneration as her nervous system tried to right itself.

Flame Empress danced away revealing a slightly battered Lightning Genji, rapidly rewiring his battery as he made space.

"Thank god we finally got back-up! Is their anyone else with you?" He questioned cranking up his power output to max.

Gunfire echo's out from overhead as V zooms by firing her guns at the monster, receiving a roar of rage in return.

"Guess that answers that. Can you keep her penned in big guy?" Lightning Genji asked, strapping the battery back on.

"As long as needed." I answer, shifting Stormreaver to its lance form.

Leaping the distance between myself and Flame Empress. I coat the lance in a coating of water. spinning up the water, I drive the tip through her chest obliterating it. This chase continued for a few minutes as I'd obliterate part of her, and she would regenerate.

A few other hero's rejoined the fight before the monster shouted; "Enough! I have been playing with you long enough!" Her flames exploding outward and upward.

Her body coalesced into a colossal rock and magma form.

"Playtime's over children! Time to show you a glimpse of my true power!" She mocked, raising her arms, a flaming ball of rock forming overhead.

Perk Activated!

[Atlan]

When she went to launch the destructive ball, I caught it with the giant metal hands of my Atlan.

I held that sphere for a moment before hefting it up and launching it skyward, well out of the way of causing any harm.

"You've got to be fucking kidding- ." She started out before I cut her off by caving her face in.

Grabbing ahold of her, her flames licking around my gauntlets, I start summoning water.

[Drowning Water Prison]

She was being surrounded completely in water, forcing her magma body to turn to rock. Her flames extinguished as she was forced into a statue made of rock.

After several minutes of this, I released the spell, letting the water slowly disperse as the rain came to a stop.

Lifting the statue, I drop it into my inventory for later examination as I examine the destruction around me.

I could see ambulances flashing about five blocks away, as hero's and EMS alike tried to remove people from the damaged area, as the fires were dying out.

V flies by the head of the Atlan, giving me a quick wave before heading off in the direction of the Cauldron I set up.

Deactivating the Atlan perk, I deploy my Medi Gun servo arm and head to the triage area.

[Time Skip]

"A fire based monster proclaiming itself the Flame Emperess attacked City-Z today causing mass casualty in a five block radius. Multiple hero's ranging from C-class to A-class attempted to down the monster with little to no success." The news caster stated, bringing a new image of V carrying Mumen Rider and his cargo.

"New hero's stepped forth to fight against the threat. A-Class hero Battle Angel, was able to pull the hero's out of harms way, as her compatriot, the newest S-class hero, Atlas, engaged the enemy."

"The beleaguered hero's rallied to Atlas's presence and used the opportunity to push back the monster, wounds healing rapidly thanks to his strange energy."

"Then monster tried to regain the upper hand by growing to a titanic size, but Atlas did not let up for a second, transforming into his own massive form. The fight ended with Atlas entombing the monster within her own body and disposing of the remains."

I turned off the TV and turned back to the small party on fantasia with the rest of the hero's.

After the clean-up was finished, I invited them over for food, something that was readily accepted, and we sat down and had a drink together.

While it was an easy thing for me, it was the implications of the gesture that meant the most. A celebration of our victory over the monster.

Anyone below S-class had a hard time getting recognized for their achievements, dragging them forward into the limelight like this was just my little way of fighting back against the current hero culture.

It currently had no element of a guidance system for lower class hero's, and you had a hell of a time climbing in the ranks.

Looking back, I probably prefer the MHA system better. It listed the top ten hero's in the world, learning institutions for newer hero's and a decently even playing field as far as expanding your skills.

But, this is what I had to work with so I'll roll with it.

Some of the hero's were a bit nervous at first, rubbing shoulders with an S-class hero like myself but thankfully they got over it quickly. Was it such a rare occurrence that they actually didn't know how to talk with an S-class?

Well I had a quick solution for them . . .

Alcohol!

Copious amounts of it!

Several beers later and everyone was laughing and joking with me just like anyone else.

Stories were told of various battles, jokes and funny situations regaled to the attendee's, this continued late into the night.

[Time Skip]

Reclining back in my beach chair, I take a sip of my coke.

Today I decided to kick it with B.O.B. for a bit. He really was primed for full blown relaxation at the moment.

A sun hat perched on his head, some shades, a large Hawaiian shirt, a small boombox, and a cooler full of drinks and mineral oil, with a huge umbrella to complete the ensemble.

He's been happily chilling here without a care in the world, and honestly, I was a tad jealous.

I had no idea that their was a beach so close-by, so when I found out B.O.B. was a regular here, I decided to join him.

Glancing further down the beach, I could see Eleanor playing volleyball with some of her class mates from school. While this isn't exactly a normal world, I'm glad she is having fun.

V was snoozing next to me on her own chair, simply enjoying the sun.

Picking up my book once more I get back to reading.

[Time Skip]

After hours of research, I step away from my newest creation.

[Genetic Ball] (Epic)

Unlike a standard Pokeball, a Genetic ball is capable of scanning, extracting, and storing the DNA of monsters you run across in your travels! (Warning! Does not actually capture monsters!)

It looked similar to a Pokeball except the outside was covered in genetic sequences and designs. My initial thought process, while successful in capturing a monster was deemed impractical as most of the monsters were not in a position to be tamed due to a multitude of factors.

I glance back at the demon person I had trapped in a tube, suspended in a stasis fluid. In a separate tube off to his right I had a cultivation of monster cells I had extracted from him.

Turns out, most monsters are just an entity of some sort that came into contact with these cells. Sometimes they just created single monsters, while other times they cause entire species to develop. Demon people were just one of those races that happened to develop.

The Pokeball worked great on capturing this particular group of idiots, the problem lies in the fact that they are exactly the same people as before when I capture them. They are still going to try and kill me if I tried to use them in a Pokemon battle.

Thus, cloning was always an option.

I have the genetic ball scan the demon person before I set it in a little indent on a shelf and label it. This world has plenty of monsters, and it would be pretty cool of I could get a genetic scan of all of them, so I was building drones to that effect.

Anytime Oracle detected a disturbance or reported a monster attack, a drone would be dispatched to collect a sample of its genetic makeup. Once the DNA is acquired, it is cataloged and archived with the data being uploaded to GAEA back at the fortress.

While I didn't want to jump full blown into genetics at the moment, I also couldn't ignore the sheer opportunity offered by this world either.

My train of thought was interrupted by the familiar whooshing and whirring sound as the Tardis materialized behind me in its full size.

Periodically, it would vanish from time to time. I assumed because it was exploring the surrounding time and space of the area. It started as a standard cylindrical shape common for most Tardis's. Then it decided to give itself a makeover, taking on the form of that classic blue police box.

It was honestly driving me nuts because I know someone watched Doctor Who with him. My primary suspect was Eleanor, but I had no proof. Just a smug feeling over our link when the topic was brought up.

She must have figured that I suspected her because she dismantled the link after that.

Still, it really was the only way I knew a Tardis on sight, it would probably be really weird if it cropped up as anything else.

"How was your trip? Find anything interesting?" I ask the curious machine.

It gives me a couple of beeps and clicks in return.

"Well of course you'll get eaten. The terror lizard clan isn't exactly known for their manners." I reply getting an angry whistle in return.

"Yes, I agree they should have some common decency, but what can you expect from them? They literally though it would be a good idea to sleep for 300,000,000 years and then take over the world." I state consolingly.

The Tardis made a low horn noise before its front doors opened and several dozen giant eggs rolled out causing me to freeze.

"Please remind me to teach you about context cues and how they might be relevant to a conversation." I state in a strained voice.

It replied with a questioning beep.

"It would be helpful to know that they were trying to eat you because you stole a bunch of their eggs." I said massaging my forehead, receiving an affirmative beep in return.

I think the young machine may be taking after me too much.

Regardless though, he brought me a very nice gift so I will be thankful and just accept it.

It was easier than trying to figure out how he accomplished such a feat with no arms to speak of.

"Well thank you regardless." I address the Tardis, tossing the eggs into my inventory for later.

The doors remained open and It makes a questioning noise.

Glancing at the time, I answer; "Well as long as your offering, I don't see why not."

Stepping foot into the front doors of the Tardis for the first time, I glance around its interior.

The metal walls and floors expanded outward presenting the large circular room, the command console sitting square in the center of the room. The walls had a variety of things from a book shelf, to a computer station. Looking down over one of the railings I could see other pathways and staircases leading deeper into the machine. The entire interior was lit with a gentle blue light, sometimes changing based on the Tardis's mood.

A couple of beeps sounded out around me and I felt a new pressure on my mind.

[Tardis attempting to establish familiar link.]

[Do you accept?]

[Y/N?]

"Needed me to be inside before you made the offer huh?" I ask, hearing a beep of confirmation.

"Well then, who am I to keep you waiting?" I reply, hitting yes.

[Telepathic link establishing!]

[Connecting . . .]

[Connected!]

[Inducting Tardis into Gamer System!]

[Loading . . . .]

[Complete!]

[New Familiar Acquired!]

TARDIS

Gamer Edition

Age – 1 year

Lvl - 1

HP –50,000,000/ 50,000,000

Thoughts – Happy, Excited, Curious

That is distinctly odd.

I've never had a familiar specified as inducted into the gamer system before.

What changed?

-It is an entity that became a part of you. -

-It would have come up earlier but you forgot about the other one.-

What other one?

My inventory activated and spat out a dark egg covered in lightning designs.

[Familiar Egg]

Channel mana into the egg to hatch a familiar gifted by aspect of the storm.

-That one you dipstick. –

Ah right.

Should I activate it now?

-Might be a good idea. –

I channel mana into the egg causing a loud crack and a flash of light.

When the light faded, I was holding what appeared to be a tiny snake. No, scratch that, a tiny snake with feathers.

Storm Couatl

Lvl – 1

Age – 15 seconds

Thoughts – Sleepy

A familiar gifted to the gamer Tavish Byrne by the aspect of the storm. While it has been blessed by the storm, who knows how it will develop in the future.

I gently set the sleeping snake on my shoulder as I continue exploring the Tardis. The central control panels fascinated me. Their was just so many shiny buttons to press! So many levers to pull.

Getting a feeling from the Tardis, I pushed a button and a drawer opened revealing a metal hand.

Sonic Hand (Epic)

A good multifunctional tool gifted to Tavish Byrne by the Tardis for accepting her offer to travel with him.

"So you're a she?" I ask getting a so-so feeling from the Tardis.

"Ah, at the moment huh? I forget your capable of regeneration as well." I comment getting an affirmative response from the ship.

I integrate the hand into my cybernetics and I watch the doors shut.

The surrounding machinery starts powering up as the Tardis takes off.

"Whoa! Where are we going?" I ask, getting a mischievous beep in return.

The doors open suddenly and I'm urged out by the Tardis.

Stepping out, I find myself standing in the Fortress.

"Now how the hell did you manage this?" I question, getting a smug hum from the machine.

-It appears that the Tardis figured out how to use the portal system to jump between worlds you already visited. –

-She might be a power gamer. –

-A very odd occurrence considering your play style. –

Wait what do you mean? Did she get his own system?

-Not really. –

-She just received access to her familiar abilities screen.-

-Bit of an experiment on my part, but as she is your first fully sentient familiar, -

- I gave her access to help control and adjust her development. –

Well, it will make thing interesting, I guess.

Stepping back in those doors, we head back for my workshop.

[Time Skip]

I had almost forgotten about the tiny couatl on my shoulder. He abruptly made his presence known by chomping down on my earlobe.

"Ah, FUCK!" I yell, the couatl dangling from my ear.

[Imprinting in Progress.]

[Please do not remove Familiar.]

The hell Iris?! Why is this required? None of the other familiar's needed to do this! Why this one?!

-He's a baby, and he needs to imprint on a parental figure.-

-Suck it up.-

Goddammit! His little needle teeth hurt!

After a couple of minutes, it released me and started nosing around.

Was he hungry? I start making my way towards the kitchen to see if we had anything I could feed the little critter.

After a little trial and error, he seemed to develop a taste for most of the meat I kept around, particularly the boar.

As I observed the familiar, swallowing yet another piece of meat, I could just make out a pair of wings folded in tightly against his back.

"We're going to have to come up with a name for you little guy." I commented, picking up the familiar.

It watched me expectantly as I thought about it for a moment, mulling over some options while discarding others.

"You're a Storm Couatl, but it would be silly to give you a name based off of that, so that probably rules out the name's of storm gods like Thor or Taranis. Your definitely going to become a mighty being when you reach full size, so something fairly unique would be nice." I muse, watching him wrap around my wrist once, relaxing into his new perch.

"I don't suppose you'd settle for a gem like William Snakespear, right?" I question the little Couatl, receiving a very angry hiss from him.

"I though not. How about Ouro then? Like the Ouroboros? Short and sweet, and uniquely your own." I offer.

The Couatl cocked its head for a moment before nodding its acceptance to the new name.

I play with the newly named Ouro for a little before he fell asleep. Gently picking him up, I set him in my front pocket, before heading back to the Tardis.

After all, I wanted to see space with my own eyes.

Shutting the doors behind me, I follow the Tardis's directions as I start flicking levers, twisting knobs and charting a course.

The ship comes to a stop and I open the doors and view everything for the first time.

The Earth itself.

We parked just in its orbit, and was now floating along with the gravitational pull of the earth.

Gently flipping myself up onto the roof of the Tardis, I sat down to just appreciate the beauty around me. Ever since I saw that first glance of space and time, I wanted to see it all.

From the beginning to the end, all of time and space was out there, just waiting to be explored, across multiple universes and dimensions, so many stories to be uncovered and experienced.

Activating my byakugan for the sole sake of observing everything at once, my insignificance was impressed upon me, compared to the majesty of the wider universe.

What I would get up to next, only time would tell.

That last thought gave me a smile as I crossed my legs and dropped into a meditative state.

[Time Skip]

[Bastion POV]

Ever since Tavish came and grabbed me and offered a new world to explore, I was excited! Their was only so far you could explore within the walls of Paradis so being able to explore the wider world was a welcome bonus.

After a quick warning about the entity's of this world, I set off on my happy way.

One thing I was quick to realize when I started my collection of hats, was that their wasn't much of an industry for them in Paradis. They had a total of three options on the entire island! The one that I got from Kenny Ackerman was a specialized order apparently. But now! Now I could indulge appropriately in this hobby I am attempting to start.

The sales man convinced me that I would look good in a Stetson, and he was right! It also provided more than enough space for Ganymede to perch. While I did receive a few strange looks, many people found amusement in my hobby.

My current objective? Get a hat from every city. I have my eye on a jester hat in City-H that looked nice.

[Leonidas POV]

Leaning against the bullhead of the Thunderhawk, I watch as our newest medivac team prepped for deployment.

This was the third of this type of team I oversaw the deployment of this week with many more to come.

The end goal was world wide deployment to help offset the need for hero response. Standard Spartans were capable of going one-on-one with almost all wolf and some tiger level threats, but higher-level threats required full fireteam deployments.

Glancing over at the Titan training field, I saw some of the Skitarii loading into Vanguard class Titans for a practice spar.

The Titans would serve as support for these fireteams, and a proper deterrent against bigger monsters.

The newest program initiated was every pilot, and every Titan was outfitted with a Sentinel power core. So in theory, if they survive long enough, they could become a true force to reckon with on the battlefield.

While we have yet to truly release a Titan into the field, that day was coming soon, and we will be ready when it does.

In a nearby bay, a Tech-Priest was re-tooling a Battle Automata for orbital deployment. They would serve as both fire and close combat support when the Titans were deployed for field work.

Stopping to let a compliment of troops pass, I take note of the heavy weapons being wielded by the Skitarii of this group. Odd, what was happening?

Activating my interface into our internal network, I try to ascertain what is happening.

-Connection Established. –

-Leonidas-0001 Reporting. –

-Acknowledged.-

-Hail the Creator! -

-Deployment Update? –

-Stand By . . . . –

-Alert! –

-Seafolk Emissary Spotted! –

-Outcome: Immediately terminated by the One-Punch Man. –

-Standing Orders: Prepare for Seafolk incursion. –

-All Current assets are to standby for deployment. –

-Estimated time till incursion: 3-7 days. –

-Glory to the Omnissiah!-

The message continued flowing but I got the gist.

Tavish uploaded a guideline of a possible chain of events that would happen in this world. So far most of his predictions had been correct, but we were told not to rely on this president. While the overall size of their forces seemed small according to the show this world was portrayed in, we don't know if their was fighting going on elsewhere.

Grabbing a Skitarii ranger Alpha, I grab his attention; "Soldier, grab squads 141, through 201 and meet me at the armory."

"Why? What's happening?" The Skitarii commander questioned, his blue optics glowing intently.

Sending him the bulletin, he froze for a moment before giving me a nod; "It will be done!" He stated simply, before taking off to notify fellow officers and subordinates.

Arriving at the armory several squads had already arrived with more showing up by the minute.

Without a word I propagate the message to every unit, communicating faster than any speech.

Turning around, I unlock the back portion of the armory and pull out a crate of nano spikes.

Understanding what to do, the troops gathered up a few each as they marched to war. People would notice a bit of a spike in our activity, but this would allow us to start from an advantageous position, so hopefully they could chalk it up to better monster response.

My final action was to send the alert to Tavish. He often got caught up in what he was doing so a high priority alert should get his attention.

[Tavish POV]

Time had lost all meaning during my meditation as I reached out with my senses. One of the remaining thoughts still floating around my brain was a name for the Tardis, it would be a bit unfair to name one familiar and not the other.

Personally, the only reason I was fussing with a name, was because I hopped through universes on a regular basis, and I wanted to avoid confusion with another Tardis. I also got the distinct impression that Tardis's don't particularly care about names.

"How about Nova?" I offer the Tardis after some time of thinking it over. It seemed like a fairly neutral name to account for regeneration, and it nicely fit into the other half of its abilities of traveling in space. I got a series of noise pitches and a general feeling of agreement from the newly named Nova.

Nodding in satisfaction, I was about to drop back into meditation fully when I received Leonidas's alert.

Sighing in exasperation, I start climbing back down. Ain't no rest for the wicked I guess.

[Time Skip]

I was contacted by the hero association regarding the movements of the Spartans within a day.

The urgency of their movements was setting some of the higher ups on edge. I could pass it off As a training exercise for a few days, but afterward I would have to bring them in on what I knew.

Most initial prep was done within two days, so by the time the third day rolled around our movements had reduced back to normal levels, leaving us in a good position to strike. Cities J and K were right on the ocean so they would be facing the brunt of their assault while I sent token forces to the other cities on the off chance that my suppositions were wrong.

After the initial movement thing started quieting down once more. I even got the chance to redo my Pig God quest.

[Hero of Gluttony]

Pig God has arrived at Fantasia for lunch. Feed him till he is full within an hour.

Objective 1: Feed Pig God (734/500) Plates [x]

Objective 2: Finish within an hour. [x]

Reward: New ID unlocked, Front Door Enchantment Unlocked, New Perk awarded

New Perk Added!

[Hell's Kitchen]

You are able to thrive in the hellish conditions of the culinary world. Add a 25% bonus to the quality of food produced in difficult environments.

New Instant Dungeon Unlocked!

[The Gourmet World] (Legendary Dungeon)

An entire world transformed into a ecosystem of delicious ingredients. Are you powerful enough to survive the beasts that developed here?

Front Door Enchant available!

[Restaurant to Another World!]

On the day of your choice, your front door will open to another world. Are you capable of selling your food to the denizens of that universe? Only time will tell.

This Foodgician class was starting to pay off in dividends! While it wasn't a super powerful class, it was a fun support class to spend time doing. While I wasn't sure about activating the door enchant just yet, I would definitely use the Gourmet world ID. If it was anything like Toriko, then it definitely would be a world worth exploring.

I have to admit, I was a little skeptical when I selected the class, but all of those worries were washed away in the new wave of good food and drink I was able to create. Recently, I got into mead and wine for a variety of mixed results.

[Blueberry Mead] (Rare)

Sweet, Smooth, Blueberries!

[Wine] (Poor)

Is often mistook for vinegar.

Maybe it was because I needed a special skill or class in brewing? I'm guessing class because Foodgician magic only affected it when it was being added to a meal.

I could possibly use alchemy to create the liquor with a magical aspect, but I feel that mixing magic and booze may lead to some wacky shenanigans.

Oh well. If I mastered everything in an instant, I'd get bored. Or get up to too much mischief, so its probably a good thing that I didn't figure out how to do this properly yet.

Caving someone's head in was relatively simple in comparison. Hammer, plus head, equals caved in skull. See? Simple.

But learning artisanal skills required a degree of finesse that makes you take the time to pick up their nuances to be truly successful.

Machines and their inner workings was probably the most developed of my skills thus far because I spent years practicing it. I haven't reached the apex of the skill yet, but once I did, where would I go from there?

Glancing down at the incomplete transonic blade upgrade, I shrug off the thought. I was still a long way off before considering something of that nature. Right now, I'll just focus on getting this damn transmitter to work on the collapsible version before worrying on anything more advanced.

[Time Skip]

Fire Affinity (Max)

The notification popped up while I was practicing the Water Stream Rock Smashing fist. I was honestly curious on what would happen if I added affinities to any of the martial arts styles and I can honestly say I am impressed.

It enabled me to discover multiple different styles by incorporating the elements into my existing styles.

New Styles Created!

[Hellfire Fist]

[Storm Smashing Fist]

[Forest of Fists]

To my understanding, the styles I discovered are based off the ones I have, then have the personal adjustments I made regarding any elemental additions.

The Hellfire fist for instance was the result of adding flames to the brutality of the Slayers fist.

As far as my elementalist class is concerned though, the mastery of five basic elements is considered the completion of the class, so I have a new class to pick out.

[You have selected the Bard class]

[Bard] (1/100) (+5 to Cha per Level)

Inspire your allies, demoralize your enemies, learn cantrips and much more through your artistic medium of choice!

[Warning!]

[Applicable Perk being re-written!]

New Perks Added

[Inspire] (1/100)

Boost your allies stats based off your Cha*1/2 Perk Lvl.

[Bardic Cantrips] (1/100)

Enables you to cast bardic magic.

[Jack of all trades] (Passive)

Provides a 15% bonus to learning new skills.

Unfortunately, it didn't appear that I got any spells with the new class. But it shouldn't be that hard to acquire some.

Actually, scratch that, would I need formal tutoring for these spells? The classes that enabled my magic use so far just had me create different spells so I was flying by the seat of my pants here.

The only bard spells I could remember was Prestidigitation, and Color Spray. And that was assuming it is similar to DND spells

[Prestidigitation]

This spell is a minor magical trick that novice spellcasters use for practice. If you cast this spell multiple times, you can have up to three of its non-instantaneous effects active at a time.

[Color Spray]

A dazzling array of flashing, colored light springs from your hand blinding anything within a 15-foot cone.

[Color Spray Paint]

A minor trick invented by Tavish Byrne to serve as a bardic medium.

The last spell was something I came up with. It conjures an ethereal can of color changing paint. Saves me having to lug around a bunch of cans of paint for my next plan.

Artificer allowed me to inscribe various spells and abilities into various objects with a magical medium, so theoretically, this should work.

[Time Skip]

"Good morning everyone, I am Agent N, and this is the Hero News Network."

"Citizens of City-Z woke up this morning to a new piece of art on the side of a corporate office in the downtown area."

"A massive art piece of the hero "Mumen Rider" was spray painted on the upper quarter of the north side of the building. The word "Determination" is stenciled in bold underneath."

"When questioned, Mumen Rider had no idea who did the art piece and verifying an alibi for the evening."

"Local's have taken to the heroic depiction of the C-class hero with a fervor unseen before. Multiple people have testified that the piece of art serves as an inspiration and started a petition to have it preserved."

"This caused Mumen's popularity to soar as the hero association asked him once more if he wants to advance to B-class."

V muted the TV and gave me a look as I back innocently, polishing a beer glass in my hand.

"Tavish, would you mind telling me where you were last night?" She questioned, accusation creeping into her tone.

"No I wouldn't mind V." I cheerfully answer, letting a silence fall between us.

"Tavish, please tell me you were not the one to vandalize the side of that office building." She growled out, slowly losing her temper.

"Alright! I wasn't the person who vandalized the side of the building!" I state dutifully, my grin spreading wider.

She sighed, rubbing her forehead; "How is it that every time I turn my back, you're off doing something unconventionally complicated and blowing it off as a simple task?" She said in exasperation.

"Dunno. Hey speaking of, want to help me with the one I'm doing tonight? I was thinking of doing a piece on Mizuki outside of the sports stadium. We can get dinner somewhere after?" I offer innocently, causing V to break down laughing.

"Goddammit Tavish. I'm trying to reproach you for your blatant vandalism." She huffed crossing her arms.

"So is that a no to dinner?" I ask with a grin.

[Time Skip]

Straining, I lift the dwarf star alloy weights again as I finish another set.

Quest added!

[Strength of a Star!]

You decided to augment your body with another alloy. Build up the strength needed so you can without repercussions!

Objective: Develop a workout regimen around the new alloy.

Objective: Complete the training regimen to be able to safely integrate the new alloy.

Reward: increased muscle density, new augments?

The nano machines wanted to upgrade to the dwarf star alloy, a assessment that I was in total agreement with implementing. But a problem quickly arose, it's weight.

The metals sheer density made it damn near impossible for anything to penetrate or escape from the alloy, but it may break my body if I added it to my cybernetics.

So we came up with a solution. During normal exercise, muscles are torn and rebuilt to become stronger than before, so while I exercised, the nanobots optimized, and altered the rebuilding process to increase the muscle density.

This resulted in my muscle profile to reduce slightly so that's good. It was also discovered that in order for it to work fully, my base skeletal structure would have to be enhanced to hold the new weight.

Which made everything else needlessly complicated. I now had to find a way to integrate an alloy, to be a natural part of my skeleton. I was afraid I would have to extensively research the subject, but the solution was surprisingly simple.

Bone lacing!

A very underused augment that when installed, can be added as a supportive lace to your existing skeleton protecting you from breaks, fractures, and murderous machines trying to rip your legs off!

The biggest issue I ran into afterwards was weight management, as I tended to leave distinctive foot prints in the floor where I walked.

It was actually thanks to V that I managed to find a solution. She was rather irritated at the amount of weight she had after the sentinel augment. While I thought it was a very silly thing to worry over considering she could bench press a car, she continued to fret over it. So, for her birthday, I altered her augments with a little mithril to grant a new setting.

Feather Weight.

Using a certain sequence of characters, I can make it possible to reduce the overall weight of an object!

It was honestly a pain in the ass to figure out the sequence needed but V's priceless expression and the very enthusiastic thanking I received later that night made it well worth it.

While it did have limitations on how much weight was reduced, she was happy with the end result.

I had a significantly heavier amount to reduce the armor by, but I managed to almost completely eliminate my problem as well. It only showed up if I'm not carful or get excited now. It would serve as an acceptable solution for the time being. I would need a mineral if I wanted to alter the bones themselves. I had a couple of materials in mind, and my nano bots would have to run some tests to see if they were feasible.

My thoughts were cut short as an alert blared out over the internal network. An image of Sea people popped up on the screen. Looks like they began their assault.

Broadcasting to the standby units, I issue orders; "To All Skitarii units, commence evacuation operations of locals. Spartan's, stand by for heavy fire support. Tech-Priest's, stand-by for Titanfall."

Switching to another screen, I activate the local defense grid and start notifying all my allies and friends.

[Omake: Gotta Catch 'Em All!]

[3rd Person POV]

Boros's form was glowing with power as he stared down the shiny headed human that was giving him so much trouble, excitement was causing his fists to tremble.

He traveled the entire expanse of the universe to find someone capable of challenging him.

Leaning forward his form started to glow blue as He prepared to go all out against the bored being standing against him, when a small purple ball hit him, poking him in the eye.

Boros was absorbed into the little purple ball. When it finished absorbing him, the ball continued twitching for a few seconds before coming to a halt.

Saitama blinked once as he observed Tavish picking up the master ball.

"Apologies for cutting that short, but he was just going to disappoint you." Tavish stated, tossing the ball from hand to hand.

"Unfortunate. I thought he might have potential." Saitama replied looking slightly crestfallen.

Tavish turned and started walking away before Saitama spoke up; "What are you planning on doing with him now?" He asked, curiosity evident on his face.

"Well, I was thinking on training him up a bit. Then I was thinking of making a trip to a place called the Kanto region." Tavish stated, a grin creeping onto his features as he peered at the master ball.

"Will he become stronger after the training?" Saitama questioned, slightly hopeful.

"Who knows? Maybe he will. Or maybe he could start a brand-new trend. Thousands of possibilities really. Maybe he'll start a fanbase that will catch monsters and make them fight in mock battles." Tavish speculates.

"Well, if that does happen, let me know. That might be amusing to see." Saitama replied, turning and hopping off the giant space ship floating above the city.

Giving one last look to the master ball before sticking it in his inventory, Tavish makes his departure.

"Gotta Catch them all." He murmurs, glancing around for another errant monster to catch.