One Punch Man: Venomized

One of the best places to go and clear your head is the beach. The warm light from the Sun, the sight of the vast ocean, and the sunlight reflecting off the water is a beautiful sight for all. Even Garou can admit to this as he walks down the beach, the sand crunching under his bare feet. The beach is the best place for Garou to find some peace and quiet.

He has been stuck thinking about what happened last night about his fight with Amai Mask. Especially about the new weakness he discovered the suit had. He should’ve known that not everything is as good as it seems. There’s always a price to everything.

Garou sighs, “Still can’t believe that my weakness is loud noises. That’ll surely be a major problem in the future whenever the heroes find out.” 

Garou then stops in his tracks before he says, “But… it’s not the only problem. I keep saying ‘we’. Am I just… going crazy or something?”

It was in the heat of the moment, and everyone makes a small mistake when speaking. Garou thinks to himself. Garou sighs and says, “Maybe. Or maybe… there’s more to this suit than I thought.

Garou begins to walk again before suddenly hearing the cry of a young boy. Curious as to who made the cry, Garou follows where the cry came from. Garou then comes across the sight of a boy being picked on by other kids around the boy’s age. Squinting his eyes, Garou recognizes the kid getting bullied as Tareo.

Garou sighs in annoyance, “I just can’t seem to get away from this kid for too long.” Garou is about to leave, not caring about the situation. But right when Garou is about to leave, he hears what the bullies are saying.

“Yo, Snotty Nose! Why aren’t you hurt yet?!” Bully 1 asked while throwing a rock at Tareo.

“He’s probably a monster too! Let’s beat him up!” Bully 2 yelled.

“Please! Stop! It hurts!” Tareo yelled as he is bombarded by rocks.

Hearing Tareo being called a monster… well it makes Garou remember his past. “… Dammit all.” Garou said.

The suit covers Garou’s body before he leaps toward the kids. As the bullies continue to throw rocks at Tareo, Garou lands in between them and Tareo. The bullies stop as they watch Garou sit up, fear slowly crawling up their spines as their teeth chatter. Garou takes a deep breath, and then “RRRROOOOAAARRRR!!!”

The roar, combined with Garou’s appearance, makes the bullies pee themselves before running away. They cry out for their mommies as they run away. Garou chuckles to himself before the suit turns back into clothes. He then turns around to see a scared, yet surprised Tareo looking at him.

Garou smirks and says, “Been a long time, turd.”

Tareo then hurries to his feet while saying, “Mister! I thought I’d never see you again!”

Garou sighs in annoyance, “Would you stop calling me that?”

Garou kneels down to Tareo’s level before asking, “Who were those kids anyway?”

Tareo looks down upon hearing the question and stutters, “Th… They’re my friends.”

“You’re friends? They the same ones you told me about at the shack?” Garou asked, earning a nod from Tareo.

“Last I checked, friends don’t throw rocks at each other or call the other a monster.” Garou said.

“We… We were playing a game, and they wanted me to be the monster… again.” Tareo said, saddened.

Garou, feeling some familiarity with the kid, says, “I know what that’s like.”

Tareo looks up at Garou, “You were forced to be the monster by your friends?”

Garou chuckles sadly and says, “Kinda, but I didn’t have any friends back then.”

“I… I could be your friend.” Tareo said, wanting to make Garou feel better.

Garou is surprised and snorts, “Don’t be ridiculous. You don’t want to be friends with a monster like me.”

“Well… I don’t think you’re like other monsters.” Tareo said.

“You’re not bad like other monsters and you… you protected me at the shack last week.” Tareo said.

“In all honesty, you’re more like a hero than a monster.” Tareo said.

Garou’s nearly about to pop a vein upon hearing this. However, not wanting to scare Tareo, he calms himself down. This is the second person to have told me that in the last 48 hours. I’m really starting to get ticked off. Garou thinks to himself. Garou then stands while the suit covers his body once again.

“Turd, look at me.” Garou said as he showed Tareo his appearance.

“Do I really look like a hero when I look like this?” Garou asked.

“Well, no. But—”

“But nothing. You’ve got to get it through your thick skull.” Garou said.

“I’m a monster. I don’t save people, I don’t ride off into the sunset, and I don’t get the girl.” Garou said.

Tareo is silent before saying, “Well, yeah you do look scary. But… my parents always tell me to not judge a book by its cover.”

Garou falls silent upon hearing this. He honestly doesn’t know what else to say to that. Damn kid is cleverer than I thought. Garou said. However, before anything else happens…

“Boohoo. I’m shedding a tear at this.” A deep voice suddenly said. Garou whips his head around to see two monstrous figures. The one who spoke is a large, muscular, bug-like monster. The other one is more slender with bandages covering his whole body, is wearing a butcher apron, and has two large blades instead of hands.

Tareo gets scared at the sight of the two monsters and hides behind Garou. Garou stands his ground while glaring at the two monsters who dare to cross him.

“Who the hell are you two?” Garou asked.

The one with blades for hands says, “I am Royal Ripper.”
Royal Ripper points his blade at the other monster and says, “And this is Bug God. We are members of the Monster Association.”

“The Monster Association? What do you idiots want this time?” Garou asked.

“Why, you. Our leader, Orochi, has sent us to retrieve you and bring you to the association.” Royal Ripper said.

“You have piqued his interest. Especially after you killed Phoenix Man with little to no trouble.” Bug God said.

Garou smirks, “Really? Well, tell your boss that I have no interest in joining your group, you freaks.”

“You misunderstand…” Royal Ripper drags his blades against one another. “It wasn’t a request.”

Garou narrows his eyes upon concluding that there’s no way out of this situation without a fight. Garou, however, does not want Tareo to get caught in the middle of it.

“Turd. You need to get out of here. Right now.” Garou said in a low voice.

However, Tareo shakes in fear as he says, “I… I… I can’t! I’m scared!”

“Tsk! Stop your whining! This is no time to start panicking!” Garou yelled.

“B… But–”

“No ‘buts’! You listen to me and listen closely! Those monsters will kill you if you stay!” Garou yelled.

Garou then looks behind him at Tareo and says, “So stop being afraid, and be brave for once in your life!”

Tareo is left stunned by Garou’s words, but before he can even process it, Royal Ripper chuckles, “Aw. It seems that the Hero Hunter has a heart.”

Bug God, however, says in a menacing voice, “Disgusting. And he dares to call himself a monster when he can’t even take the life of an annoying child.”

Garou growls and glares at the two before yelling, “Leave him out of this! You want a fight, well here I am!”

“... Heh… Hehehe… HAHAHA!!!” Royal Ripper laughs maniacally.

He stops laughing and says, “Oh, you thought we were going to fight you? No. That honor goes to our pet dog.”

Garou is confused, “Pet dog?”

That’s when the ground beneath Garou and Tareo’s feet shakes. The ground begins to crack as the sand on the beach falls into the cracks. “M… Mister?” Tareo said in a scared tone. Garou stays close to Tareo before his senses go wild. Garou suddenly grabs Tareo by the collar of his shirt and leaps off the ground toward a safe distance.

BOOM!!!

The ground where the two once stood explodes as a beam of red energy bursts through. Garou lands on his feet before tossing Tareo to the ground and turning toward the giant hole made. A loud growl can be heard as both Tareo and Garou feel fear creep up their spines. A large shadow emerges from the hold with six glowing, red eyes staring into the pair’s souls. The large shadow walks to Garou and Tareo as it growls louder.

“RAAAAAAA-K-K-K-K-K!!!” A large black furred dog monster roared as its mouth emits a bright red glow.

Tareo stutters in fear, “W… Wha… What is that thing?”
Bug God chuckles and says, “Garou, meet Rover. A Dragon Level monster and one of the most powerful executives of the Monster Association”

“Play well with your new toy, Rover! We’ll enjoy the show.” Royal Ripper said before cackling.

Garou breathes hard at the sight of this huge monster, but he controls his breathing to the best of his ability. Garou gets into a fighting stance while Rover growls at him. Garou glances back at Tareo, “Turd…”

“RAAAAAAA-K-K-K-K-K!!!” Rover leaps at Garou, his mouth wide open.

“RUN!!!” Garou yelled.

Garou grabs Rover’s jaws before they clamp down on him. Garou is clenching his teeth while his muscles bulge as he holds Rover’s mouth open. Tareo watches this with wide eyes, but he quickly gets to his feet and runs away while crying. Mister… please don’t die! Tareo thought to himself

Garou glances back and sees Tareo running away, something he’s grateful for. However, his attention is brought back to Rover as the monster suddenly throws its head up. Garou held tight grip when Rober did this, so he’s being thrashed around too. Garou tries to hold on tight, but then is slammed into the ground by Rover, which makes a huge crater.

Garou feels some of his ribs break, but the suit quickly heals him. Rover, not letting Garou rest, charges up a beam in its mouth and aims at Garou while he’s on the ground. Thinking quickly, Garou grabs some sand and throws it in Rover’s eyes. Rover howls in pain as he throws his head up and fires the beam toward the sky.

Once his sight returns, Rover looks at where Garou last was, but Garou is gone. Robert, however, can smell that Garou is still nearby. He growls as he looks around for Garou but fails to notice something holding onto a nearby lamp post. That’s when the thing on the lamp post leaps off and kicks Rover in the jaw.

Rover growls in pain before trying to bite whoever kicked him. He misses and then is struck by multiple blows to his side. Rover, irritated by this, fires his beam again and swings his head around to try and hit whoever is attacking him. Luckily for Rover, the beam hits the attacker’s back and causes him to fall to the ground in pain.

The attacker then reveals himself to be Garou, who went invisible to attack Rover. Well, that didn’t work. Garou thought to himself. Garou looks up and sees Rover is charging another blast. Without thinking, Garou dashes to his right as Rover fires the beam. 

Rover maintains the beam as he tries to hit Garou, but Garou uses his speed advantage and out runs the beam. Garou then turns his heels and launches himself at Rover while tendrils spring from his back. Rover can’t react in time as Garou uses a symbiote punch to disorientate Rover. Using the opening, Garou uses the tendrils to get on Rover’s back.

Rover tries to buck Garou off, but Garou shoots a tendril from his right-hand pins Rover’s right paw to the ground. Garou does it again, but to Rover’s left paw. Garou then has multiple tendrils sprout from his torso and around Rover before fully pinning Rover to the ground. Garou then has more tendrils wrap around Rover’s head and mouth.

“I’ve got you now, monstrous freak!” Garou said, believing he has won. However, Rover isn’t giving up that easily. He manages to rip his own mouth open and release a very loud roar. Luckily for Rover, the roar is loud enough to affect the suit and causes Garou to scream in pain as the tendrils lose their grip.

Rover manages to buck Garou off his back right as he gets to his feet. Rover turns to Garou and roars at him before running away and into the city. Garou manages to recover from the sonic attack, but he is pissed off. He glares at the direction Rover ran to and yells, “You’re not getting away from me!” Garou’s wings form on his back as he launches himself into the air and chases Rover.

With Bug God and Royal Ripper. They watch as Rover runs into the city and forces Garou to give chase. The two are very much pleased by this. All is going according to Gyoro Gyoro’s plan.

Royal Ripper then looks toward the streets to see Tareo still running and asks, “Now do we grab the boy?”

“Yes, but do not kill him. We need him alive if Gyoro Gyoro’s plan is to come to fruition.” Bug God said.

“Ugh! Fine, but I get to kill him after all this.” Royal Ripper said.

“Deal.” Bug God said before both dash off toward Tareo.

Back with Garou. Rover is causing chaos in the city as he runs across the streets, destroying vehicles and stomping on people that get in his way. Meanwhile, Garou isn’t far behind as he soars through the air with his wings. Rover catches a glance at Garou before using his feet to send a car flying at Garou.

“Woah!” Garou barely dodges the flying car as it crashes into a building. This damn mut doesn’t know when to quit! Garou thought to himself. He picks up more speed as Rover causes some explosions to go off. Garou simply flies through the flames as he maneuvers around buildings.

However, much to Garou’s dismay, the explosions caught the attention of some low A-Class and high B-Class heroes. Great! As if this day couldn’t get more stressful! Garou thought to himself. Garou watches as some speedster heroes try to take Rover down, but to no avail. Instead, the heroes are met with Rover firing his beam at them briefly.

The beam destroys the street and sends some heroes flying all over the place. Rover then makes a sharp right turn at a city block, but Garou is coming in hot when Rover does this. “Gotha!” Garou yelled before tackling Rover and uses his strength to lift Rover in the air. However, Rover fights back, causing Garou to crash both of them into a building.

Garou falls onto the floor groaning while his wings retract back into his back. However, he has no time to recover as Rover leaps on top of Garou and tries to bite him. But Garou quickly grabs Rover’s jaw and stops him from biting Garou. Garou grits his teeth as he manages to push Rover off of him before throwing a symbiote punch into Rover’s face, sending flying back out of the building.

Garou gives chase and jumps through the hole. He then brings out his wings again and chases Rover as the monster begins to run away once more. Garou is not far behind Rover, but then Garou sees that more heroes came. Only this time some of them can fly.

Garou curses under his breath before dodging an incoming projectile from a flying hero. That same hero then yells, “Do not let the Hero Hunter escape!”

“Uh, buddy! I think you should be more worried about the rampaging dog monster!” Garou yelled.

The hero doesn’t listen as he launches another projectile, Garou dodges and flies at the hero and lands a solid blow to his gut. The hero curls in pain and falls to the ground with some heroes on the ground catching him. Focusing back on Rover, Garou soars higher in the air to find Rover’s current location. Luckily, he sees that Rover has stopped due to heroes making a roadblock.

Seeing the opening, Garou dives at Rover before landing hard on Rover’s back. Rover roars at this before firing his beam again, obliterating some heroes and slicing through a few buildings like butter. Jesus! This guy isn’t letting up! Garou thought to himself while holding onto Rover’s back for dear life. Rover stops his movements briefly before glancing at a nearby building.

Garou notices and says, “Don’t you even–” Rover jumps toward the building and uses his claws to dig into the building’s side. He then begins to run up the building while Garou holds on, digging his claws into Rover’s skin. Rover simply roars and manages to buck Garou off him, but Garou quickly reacts and uses tendrils from his hands to wrap around Rover. Garou now looks like he is water skiing on the building as Rover pulls him up the building.

When Rover reaches the roof of the building, Garou jumps over him and lands right in front of Rover. “Nowhere to run now! So, why don’t we both finish this right here?” Garou asked, mockingly as he got into his fighting stance. Rover growls as he charges up a beam in his mouth. However, both combatants have their attention drawn to a hero flying right above them.

The hero appears to be a tech-based hero with a jetpack, but he also possessed two massive cannons on his shoulders. It is this detail that makes Garou worry. His worries are proven fruitful as the cannons suddenly come to life and charge up. Neither Garou nor Rover have time to react before the hero fires a massive blast at the two.

The blast, though does not damage the two combatants, causes them both to go flying off the roof. Garou is falling and tries to have his wings return, but Rover stops him by using his massive claws to grab Garou. Garou struggles to free himself and yells, “Let me go, fur ball!” Rover simply roars before both he and Garou realize how close they are to the ground.

Garou panics, “Oh, no! OH SHHHIIITTTT—”

BOOM!!!

Both fall through the concrete ground, creating a massive hole. The heroes around the area circle around the hole but cannot see anything within the large opening. One hero curse under her breath and says, “We have to inform the Hero Association! We need S-Class heroes right now!” The others nod in agreement before they pull their phones out to call for backup.

Garou’s vision is blurry as he awakes to see the massive hole in the roof. He groans as he looks around to see that he is in some large open area in the sewers. Garou tries to sit up but then yelps in pain from his left arm. Fuck! What the hell?! Garou thought to himself.

He looks at his left arm and sees it’s completely broken. “Oh, Jesus. Argh! Should’ve known this would happen after falling through concrete.” Garou said to himself, grunting as he clutches arm. However, tendrils from the suit wrap around Garou’s broken arm, something that surprises Garou since he didn’t think of the suit to do that. Huh? What is it doing–

SNAP!!!

“GGGRRRAAAGGGHHH!!! OHOHO!!!” Garou screams in pain from the suit suddenly snapping his arm back into place. 

Garou clutches his healed arm and yells, “Fuck, that hurt!”

Suddenly…

BOOM!!!

Rover bursts from the floor, his fur soaked in sewage water, and a clearly angry scowl written on his face. Garou returns the scowl and growls, “Let’s finish this. Right here. Right now.” Rover growled in response, signaling that he agrees.

With that, Garou roars as he goes into his surge mode and charges at Rover. Rover responds by firing his beam at Garou, but Garou is too quick and lands a solid blow to Rover’s jaw, stopping Rover from firing. Garou then follows the punch up with a flurry of attacks using Water Stream Rock Smashing Fist. After finishing up the barrage, Garou kicks himself away before symbiote yanking Rover’s face into the ground.

Rover growls as his mouth glows brighter before freeing himself from Garou’s tendrils. Rover then fires his beam at Garou, causing Garou to jump out of the way as Rover’s beam destroys the wall behind him. Garou begins his speed to jump from wall to wall in a blur of motion. Rover is unable to keep up before being attacked by after images of Gaoru.

Blow after blow lands on Rover’s body as he feels some of his bones breaking. However, Rover shakes the pain off before finally landing a blow on Garou by catching Garou in his teeth. Garou screams in pain as he feels Rover’s teeth dig into his flesh. But Garou uses the pain to fuel his rage and uses a symbiote blast in Rover’s mouth to free himself.

Rover is forced to let Garou free from his mouth while Garou lands on his teeth as his injuries heal. Rover’s injuries also heal as well before he launches toward Garou again. However, Garou parries Rover’s attack using his tendrils before kicking Rover away with a powerful kick. Rover is sent sliding back as Garou begins to mock him, “What’s the matter?! I thought those other two said you were strong!”

Garou smirks and says, “Well, guess they were wrong about you because you’re not that impressive!” Rover gets pissed and prepares to shoot another beam, but Garou appears right under Rover’s mouth in the blink of an eye. Garou delivers a powerful uppercut on Rover’s jaw. Rover is sent flying in midair before feeling tendrils wrap around his feet and then getting slammed back onto the ground.

Garou then creates four large tentacles on his back, which he uses to lift himself up onto Rover while also restraining Rover’s limbs. Garou then points his arm at Rover’s face before tendrils shoot out and forces Rover’s jaw to open. Rover begins to feel fear for the first time in his life before he begins to whimper like an actual dog. However, Garou doesn’t feel any sympathy for the monster’s whimpers.

“Time to put this dog down.” Garou said, menacingly. Garou then thrusts his free hand into Rover’s mouth and reaches far back. Rover gags before grunting and howling in pain as Garou pierces the skin in the back of Rover’s throat. Garou roars with all his might as he uses strength to rip Rover’s skull and spine out of his body.

Rover’s body stops moving and falls back dead. Garou breathes hard as his surge mode deactivates and he returns to normal. He then looks at the giant skull he has in his hand before dropping it. Garou steps off Rover’s body and begins to walk away before collapsing to his knees.

“Ha… Ha… I did it.” Garou said before looking at Rover’s corpse.

“But… that was more brutal than what I thought.” Garou said, feeling a little bad for giving Rover such a brutal death.

Garou then hears some voices coming from the hole in the roof and figures that the heroes are finally coming. Shit. I need to get out of here. Garou thought to himself. He looks around before seeing a small tunnel nearby. He runs toward it and into the shadows right as some heroes reach the bottom and come across Rover’s body.

Later in an alley with a sewage drainage lid. Garou opens it before hopping out and into the alley, noticing the sun had set. He looks around quickly for any threats before sighing in relief. He leans against a wall and begins to think to himself.

“That monster… sure he needed to die, but… that was a more brutal death than he deserved.” Garou said.

Relax. It was just a monster, nothing more. You did what you needed to do.

Garou sighs, “Maybe… and that turd called me a hero.” Garou laughs to himself at his sarcastic joke.

He doesn’t understand. No one does, and we don’t need anyone. Not Bang. Not Ursula. And not even that pathetic little brat–

CRUNCH!!! 

Garou’s hand digs into the ground as he is filled with both anger, and fear. “I… I would never think of the turd like that. Sure, he is annoying, but I don’t think he’s pathetic.” Garou said. 

He then looks at his hand shakily before he says, “... Those weren’t my thoughts.”

He then looks down at the suit. Ever since he wore the suit, he’s been acting very weird. Not to mention that weird things have been happening to him, like that dream. But now, finally realizing that some of his thoughts are not his own… he’s done with waiting.

Garou stands up and says, “I need to find the man who created this thing. I need to know what it is.” Garou then has his wings form on his back before taking flight into the sky.