Loud screaming filled the air as the Branch workers all yelled. The metal ship twisted and shattered, half of it caving in and the other half pulling away. The Emperor's army having a monster that could control metal was something no one had heard of before, and not knowing such a thing was possible was about to cost them.
Glass and bolts exploded, sending shards in all directions. Lady Time quickly drew her sword, the one that looked like a short clock hand, and she swung it out at the collapsing ship they were all still in, in hopes of making it break more slowly. Mister Man, meanwhile, just phased through the ship and dropped out, saving himself.
The metal closed in, and in a roar, the flying ship folded and crumbled, turning into a ball. Up in the air, Polaron closed his hand into a tight fist, causing the metal to keep shrinking and balling up until all that was left was a golf-ball-sized hunk of iron. It was also thanks to his powers that he knew that no one had actually died in that attack.
In a flash of red, Ruby appeared down in the little hamlet, her arms holding up a bundle of twelve different people, which she casually dropped. Strapped tightly into a harness on Ruby's back, Lois giggled. A moment later, Mister Man came crashing down next to her, along with Lady Time. Ruby had simply grabbed everyone and jumped out of the crushed ship too fast for anyone to notice. As soon as she was on the ground, a blue shimmering portal appeared beneath her, and it attempted to swallow the red-haired hero up, but Ruby simply smashed her foot down and shattered it, causing the portal to break apart and fracture.
Polaron's eyes narrowed, and he folded his arms. He remained over Daffodil City, standing upon his dragon, but his focus was no longer on the city. "Do you know who that is?" The dragon asked, the creature's voice coming out in a loud, high-pitched rumble.
"Yeah." Polaron nodded. "I don't know her name, but I know that she's been a pain in our sides. She keeps showing up and ruining our missions. She's very bad, and she must die."
The dragon let out a growl, and its chest puffed up and expanded. Its mighty jaws began to open, and a wave of fire started to pour out. "In that case, I will kill her." Hell itself poured out of the dragon's mouth, twisting into a thin beam of pure heat that sliced through dozens of buildings and launched out toward Ruby and the others who were in the hamlet.
More of the Branch members let out loud yelps, but Ruby calmly stepped forward and smashed her fist out. She hit the air so hard it created a booming shockwave that twisted through the beam and split it in two. The air carried forward at godlike speeds and rammed into the dragon's head so hard the creature was sent twisting back through the sky, and it began to fall. Its heavy body crashed down into a series of buildings, shattering them, and it collapsed, letting out a loud groan.
Ruby folded her arms and casually turned back to look at the others. "Alrighty, so here's how we're going to do this. I don't like that they're attacking that city, so Lois and me are going to go kick their ass. Lady Time, Mister Man, you two go find whoever it is we're supposed to get, got it?"
"That's not your mission—" Laps began, but it was too late. In a loud crack, Ruby vanished as she blasted herself through the air and jumped in the direction of Daffodil, the sounds of a baby's giggling trailing away with her. Laps let out a sigh and pinched the bridge of her nose. "Never mind." She turned to look at the other heroes who stood there awkwardly. "You heard her. Let's go!"
Back in Daffodil, the many destroyed buildings began to rise and move, lifting into the air, as the metal bent to Polaron's will. He lifted the debris off of himself and the dragon he stood on. The four-legged beast stood back up and shook its head, groaning in pain.
"P!" A loud voice called out, and Polaron looked down, finding Mars King and Demonica standing on the ground, looking up at the dragon and him. "Are you okay?" Mars King asked.
"I'm fine," Polaron grunted. "But we have trouble—"
Another shockwave blasted through the street as Ruby came ramming down as hard as she could. She landed on the street, kicking up a mile-high wave of dust and sending stone flying in all directions. Casually, she folded her arms and smirked as she came face to face with the other monsters, who looked at her, stunned. "Hey," Ruby said. "What's up? What are you guys doing?"
"Is that her?" Demonica questioned. "Is she the one who is ruining everything?" The Emperor had already dealt with Full Monarch and the group known as the Enforcers as well. That meant there was only one thing left standing in his way besides Lucifer. A single girl with long crimson hair. And... a baby, strapped into a harness on her back.
"She's shorter than I thought she would be." Mars King grunted and folded his arms. "And is that a baby? That seems irresponsible."
"Don't let your guard down." Polaron shook his head. "My mother told me of her. She was the first creation and the only one that was able to reach the power that goes beyond Supers. She is the closest thing to an artificial Lord. She also stands in our way and is stopping us from taking the world that is rightfully ours. She alone is our enemy, and she is the one that we will stop at nothing to defeat." The dragon he stood on flapped its wings and did a slight hop with its four legs, causing itself to rise into the air. It lifted, getting higher and higher, and flying alongside it were jagged shards of metal that twisted and bent, becoming dozens of floating blades and spears. "Today, we will defeat her. We will kill her!"
All the weapons came blasting down toward the lone hero. Polaron wasn't the only one who was attacking, either. Demonica charged up a large ball of fire, and she sent it blasting out. While that happened, Mars King's body began to sprout large bone spikes that jutted out of his flesh and blasted forward. Lastly, the dragon's wings expanded out and flapped so hard they kicked up a wave of twisting wind. It swirled the metal, bones, and fire all together into one massive tidal wave of carnage that came crashing down on the number one hero. Ruby Admiral stared up at it all and folded her arms, not even bothering to dodge. Lois gleefully clapped her tiny hands together, unaware of the imminent danger.
The attack smashed down, causing a loud sonic boom that collapsed the street. More buildings fell, the road caved in, and cracks spread throughout Daffodil. More dust was kicked up, and when it was all said and done, Ruby stood there in a massive crater, perfectly fine. Her skin was flawless, her long red hair glowed brighter, and even her outfit was perfectly fine, with not a scratch on it. Her hands were on her hips, and she kept her cocky smirk. A quiet giggle echoed out from Ruby's back, the infant unfazed by the surrounding destruction.
"So," Ruby began, speaking in a slow tone. Her eyes scanned from villain to villain. "Who wants to be thrown into orbit first?" She asked, cocking her head to the side.
Mars King let out a loud growl. "You bitch—"
In a flash, faster than light, Ruby appeared before the monster and simply grabbed him by his throat. Mars King's eyes shot wide open in panic and fear as her fingers began to dig into his neck. He gurgled, and Ruby's eyes stared dead into his. "Thanks for offering yourself up first." She pulled her arm back, took aim, and got ready to throw the monster, but before she could, there was a black ball of energy that expanded and twisted. It appeared right on Mars King's flesh, and he vanished out of Ruby's hands, appearing on the other side of the block. Ruby frowned and dropped her arm. "What?"
Mars King landed on his knees and breathed heavily, his eyes wide. "Thanks for the save, Ears..."
On a nearby roof, Ears gave a nod and held his palms out. A wave of acidic earwax launched out and soared toward Ruby.
"Gross." Ruby stomped down so hard the entire city sank deeper into the ground, causing the acid glob to go flying over her head. In another instant, she launched toward Ears, but just like with Mars King, he vanished, a black orb carrying him off. He reappeared on the dragon where Polaron stood. Ruby sighed and shook her head. "Great. A teleporter. His is different from those portals. It's instant. That must mean it can't go as far as the portals or grab as many people." She rubbed the back of her neck and tried to think. "If I want to hit any of them, I'm going to have to deal with that guy first."
"Maybe you should watch your back." Demonica roared, and she appeared above Ruby with super speed and launched down a beam of purple fire. Ruby lazily dodged out of the way and threw out a powerful, shockwave-launching punch, but before the attack reached Demonica, she was zipped away by the annoying teleporting monster.
Up top, Polaron lifted his arm, causing the metal shards around the battlefield to compress and unfold, forming more swords, which tried to impale the hero but simply bounced off of her flesh. "It doesn't matter how strong you are." Polaron taunted. "You can't touch us."
Ruby remained in place, letting the swords slam into her, but they were unable to cut through her costume or flesh. She kept her frown and looked up at the villains who stood on the dragons. "You guys know you can't hurt me, right? I'm, like, crazy durable. Hell, you wouldn't even be able to hurt this kid."
"Even the strongest rock will shatter after being hit enough times." Polaron declared. An avalanche of metal poured down, but once more it failed to do any damage to Ruby. "You're in the same boat as us, also. You can't get to any of us—"
Ears fell back, smashing into the back of the dragon. The monster let out a gasp and grabbed at his stomach, which now had a small hole through it that went all the way out of his back. Purple blood gushed from the wound, and it suddenly became impossible for the monster to think straight and use his power. But what had hit him? He hadn't been able to see it.
Back on the street, Ruby wiped her mouth with her sleeve. She had launched out a glob of spit so hard it had blown a hole through the teleporting bastard. It had also been so small he hadn't even been able to react to it. She was really OP...
Polaron let out a loud yell as he saw Ears bleeding out. "No!" He yelled. "Watch out—"
Ruby twisted through the field and appeared in front of Mars King. The monster barely managed to lift his arms up before she punched him. She hit the monster so hard both his limbs exploded into a shower of blood and bones. Mars King was sent flying back and rammed through a wave of buildings, over half his body crumbling and shattering. He would have been dead in an instant if not for the fact that he was a monster. Even being a monster, he still was in a bad state and would need to be healed if he wanted to survive. Demonica let out a loud scream and moved toward Ruby, sending out a ball of fire.
Ruby sliced out with her hand and split the fireball in two. Demonica moved fast, becoming a literal blur, but Ruby was much, much faster. Demonica struck out and sliced toward the hero with her claws, but her attack phased through Ruby as she only managed to attack the girl's afterimage. The real Ruby Admiral appeared behind Demonica and reached out with her hand. Her fingers dug into Demonica's shoulder, tearing through bone and flesh. The villain howled and struck out, hitting Ruby so hard that Demonica's hand exploded. Ruby kept her tight grip and pulled up, nearly ripping Demonica in two and splitting her shoulder off.
"Let go of her!" Polaron roared, and the dragon he stood on came flying down. Iron dust swirled around the monster, forming dragonic armor, but it did little to block the damage Ruby unleashed. The hero punched up, launching another shockwave out that tore through the iron armor and launched the dragon away. Polaron and Ears were thrown off the beast's back. Ears slammed into a nearby building, which then collapsed onto him, while the dragon was sent out of the city walls. Polaron managed to catch himself with his powers and stopped his fall. "How dare you?" He let out a curse and caused more of the dust to compress around Ruby, forming a ball around her, but Ruby simply shattered and broke it.
Calmly, the hero walked forward and flicked her hand out. The air compressed and tore a hole through Polaron's side, ripping past his armor and metal flesh. Polaron groaned and collapsed to his knees and grabbed at his wound as a wave of blood flooded out of him.
"What was that you were saying earlier?" Ruby asked curiously. "You were taunting me and saying a rock would break if you hit it hard enough?"
"What are you?" Polaron groaned.
"The real number one villain." Ruby pointed her thumb back at herself. "Your master can kiss my ass; I'm the ruler of this planet, not him! So go and tell him!" Then Ruby stopped and frowned. "Actually, don't tell him. That implies that I'm letting you escape with your life, which I'm not. Totally going to kill you!" Ruby stepped forward, about to throw a city-shattering punch out, but before she could, another surge of energy appeared beneath Polaron. This one wasn't black, though, and instead was a very familiar blue. Space twisted and cracked as a portal opened underneath Polaron, Mars King, Demonica, and Ears, yanking them all in. "Damn it!" Ruby stomped her foot down in rage, generating an earthquake, and she glared up at the moon. "Stop doing that!" She shook her fist up at it.
Luckily for her, the fight wasn't over because two more blue portals expanded a few meters away from her, and two new villains stepped out. "Look, Alien, the annoying girl still lives."
"I see that, Daemon. We should fix that."
Alien, father of Mars King, and Daemon, father of Demonica, appeared.
Alien looked similar to Mars King, only much bigger and more twisted. Jagged horns jutted from his flesh, and he stood at fourteen feet tall. One of his arms was jagged and looked like a sword, while the other had a shield formed out of bones growing out of it. His flesh was covered in thick, heavy-looking red armor that flowed like a liquid, and spider-looking legs formed out of his lower half, each one sharp and pointed, that impaled the ground as he walked. Alien would later on in life go on to become the largest recorded monster in the world and expand to the size of a small country, taking over most of the planet's oceans. That was a long way away, though.
Daemon was similar to Demonica. He had pitch-black skin that looked almost like bondage gear but was in fact his flesh. He was covered from head to toe, making it impossible to see his face. Purple fire ran down his back and head, and he was a lot taller than Demonica, standing at ten feet tall. His arms were also triple-jointed and unnaturally long, going all the way down to the ground, and at the end of his fingers were knife-like claws. Daemon would go on to join forces with a man named Grove and would later be killed by the Lord known as Wish in the near future.
Ruby placed her hands on her hips and let out a hum. "Oh great. The Bad Timers. You two come to try and take me on? I've even got a baby on my back. That should be enough of a handicap, right? Or did you just come to strike a pose?"
"No." Alien surged forward and came swinging down with his blade arm. "We came to kill you." Ruby lifted her arms up and blocked the strike but actually winced a little as the powerful blow caused her to go sliding back. Before she could fully recover, Alien lifted one of his many spidery legs, which fired out like a machine gun. They expanded and grew, becoming much longer and slamming into Ruby's cheek hard enough to snap her head to the side. Afterwards, the legs pulled back and fired off again, like a spring, allowing them to go back and forth. The attacks left a few faint bruises on Ruby's body, actually causing pain. With a growl, the hero punched the ground, sending out a shock wave and getting some distance.
That just put her at a further disadvantage, though, as Daemon took to the skies. He flew, going high into the air, being carried by his fire, which gushed out of his hands. Once he was in the sky, he lifted both his lanky arms up, and more purple fire began to bend and twist into existence. It formed into an enormous orb of energy, which then began to rapidly shrink and compress, keeping its raw power but becoming a smaller, manageable form. Gravity started to distort and break down by the sheer power the orb was giving off, which got so small that it became as big as a golf ball. Daemon then took the orb in between his pointer and thumb and flicked it down toward Ruby.
"Bang." The villain said.
Ruby felt the orb slam into her back and was caught off guard by the sheer power of it. It caused her knees to buckle, and she actually gasped as the weight rammed into her. The fire erupted out, bathing the area in a bright purple flash, and most of the city was wiped off the face of the earth, being reduced to ash. She would have been worried about the people, but for whatever reason, whenever the monsters would attack a city, those same blue portals would also teleport each civilian to safety, leaving just the heroes behind, so she wasn't worried about anyone innocent being caught in the blast.
The attack sent her deep into the ground as it fully unleashed all its might and reduced Daffodil to rubble.
"Think she's dead?" Alien asked, growing a pair of wings forged out of liquid blood, which allowed him to fly up to where Daemon was.
"Not at all. That was everything I had, and I think it just slightly hurt her." Daemon sighed. "She's too strong for her own good. Only a Lord or someone akin to a Lord can hope to match her power."
The city rumbled, and a second later, Ruby broke out of the debris she was buried under, letting out a loud yell. Her skin was covered in a bit of dirt, and her uniform was slightly burnt, but other than that, she was fine. If anything, the attack had just pissed her off. "You two are so dead!" She declared. The completely unscathed baby's concern-tinged babbling on her back only seemed to emphasize Ruby's nigh-invulnerability. Somehow, she had managed to keep the baby entirely safe and scratch-free, even after the city-cracking blast.
"I think we're done here." Alien hummed.
"As do I." Daemon nodded.
"Don't you fucking dare!" Ruby let out another rage-filled yell as the two portals opened beneath the villains and sucked them in. "Damn it! I really want to hit something!" Ruby stomped her foot down in anger, but that was when she noticed something. Something was shifting and rising in the debris. Something else that had remained in the city... Ruby turned and watched as the dragon weakly stood up. Its red scales were burned, and it looked in bad shape, but it was still alive. "You'll do." Ruby shrugged and started walking toward it, pulling her arm back. "Die!"
"Wait!" The dragon suddenly let out a cry, and its body started to shrink. "I give up!" Ruby's fist stopped inches away from the dragon as its form changed into something else. "Please don't hurt me; I was just listening to Big Brother!"
Ruby blinked, taken aback. Gone was the dragon. Now, all that remained was a young girl. Younger than young, actually. A child. Likely no older than eight or nine. She was small and frail-looking with pale skin and scared-looking black eyes. The girl had long red hair and scales that covered her body, along with a tail that was wrapped protectively around her waist. Ruby grumbled slightly, annoyed. She was mad, and she hated the Emperor and his army, but even she would avoid killing a literal child...
"I didn't want to; they forced me!" The little girl explained. "They said I had to carry them down here and attack this place—"
Ruby grabbed the girl by the scruff of her neck, bent the girl over her knee, and gave her the spanking of a lifetime. "Bad girl! This is what happens to evil people! Don't be evil anymore!"
The little girl cried out and sniffled once she was dropped to the ground, now with a very sore bum. "I'm sorry..."
"You should be." Ruby folded her arms and frowned, trying to figure out what to do with the little girl. There weren't any more blue portals. It was likely the villains assumed the dragon had died and were now no longer watching the city or keeping tabs on what was happening, so they weren't going to teleport the girl out of there. "What's your name, kid?" Ruby asked, pinching the bridge of her nose.
"Wyvern..." The dragon girl said quietly. "My name is Wyvern... I- I'm sorry..." The girl said again.
Ruby hummed and then casually picked the girl up, throwing Wyvern over her shoulder. "Alright, well, here's the deal, Wyvern. I've decided what to do with you."
"Y- You have?" Wyverk squeaked out.
"Yep. From this day on, you shall be my new dragon!" Ruby Admiral announced. "And I'm going to use you to fly to the moon so I can kick the Emperor's ass!" She pointed to the sky as Lois, happily giggling in the harness on Ruby's back, tried to catch a floating piece of ash in tiny fingers.
Meanwhile, in the little hamlet outside of Daffodil, most of it was destroyed due to all the earthquakes that had occurred. Mister Man used his ability of phasing to go through the ground, taking Lady Time and the other Hero Branch workers with him.
As they phased through the ground, all the grass and dirt vanished, replaced with thick white metal, and they all dropped down, landing in a large open room. It looked sort of like the bunker in Lillian but was much smaller, made for only a few people. There were dozens of tables filled with what looked like potions from some fantastical setting, along with rows of black and white boards scattered around. The entire room also smelled awful, as if the people who had been living in it hadn't bathed in days.
"See, Alma," a voice barked out. "What did I say! I told you help would come! You're in luck; a few hours later and I would have eaten you!"
"Um, sir," a second voice said, a little sheepishly. "We still have months' worth of rations?"
"I know, but to be honest, I've been looking for any excuse to become a cannibal."
"What!"
Mister Man blinked as he heard the conversation, and he turned, finding two men. The first was a rather young-looking guy with dark skin and messy hair. He wore a white lab coat and was twirling a pen around in his fingers. The second guy was older and a bit plump. He had a long build and wavy hair. He was also very colorful. His hair and beard were dyed every color of the rainbow, and his coat was covered in what looked like dozens of different paint stains. The man gave a toothy grin.
"Hello. I take it the Branch sent you?"
"Yeah?" Lady Time nodded hesitantly, and she shot a look at Laps. "Who the hell is this guy? Why is he so important? We had to come save him?"
"That guy is Doctor Nicholas Alma," Laps said, gesturing to the dark-skinned man. "He's not that important."
"Hey!" Alma said, clearly offended.
"As for the other one... Believe it or not, he's fairly important." Laps muttered, clearly not happy about it.
The colorful man's smile just grew, and he held his hand out. "You can call me Doctor Blue, or just Doc. I'm the man that's going to end this war."