Spider-Man and The Esper

5. Evolution Ends, Burning Building

"I wish to take him on, Sensei," Genos claimed, arming himself for battle. "I wish to test out these new upgrades." The cyborg walked up to the battlefield, taking a combat stance.

"Ehhh?" Carnage Kabuto sneered. "You against me?! Fine!" He had a clearly arrogant smirk on his face, his eyes shot with bloodlust and pent up rage. There was no sense of urgency or care about the battle, as if he just oozed confidence.

Genos threw his hands in front of him, his flames recharged and yelled, "INCINERATE CANNONS!" Just as they did before, flames erupted from the various cannons that came out of his arms. As they approached the beetle, there was yet no sense of urgency to dodge.

Instead, Carnage Kabuto only retaliated by blowing back the flames. Without much effort, he repelled the flames to the point where they were directed back at Genos, who was too shocked to realize what had happened.

In an instant, Genos was captured by his own raging flames, before the heat slowly faded away to reveal a heavily damaged Genos. Multiple parts of his body were short-circuiting visibly, clearly not resistant enough to the scorching heat. He fell to his knees, though determination was clear due to his futile attempts to stay upright.

"Hm," Doctor Genus sighed. "How foolish of him to think he could take on my strongest creation." At this, Tornado raised an eyebrow.

"Strongest creation? What do ya mean?" Tornado asked impatiently, annoyed at how Doctor Genus only spoke cryptically. "Spit it out already."

"It appears you must be as impatient as the bald man," he noted as Saitama walked towards Genos without a word. "If you must know...Carnage Kabuto was one of my attempts at artificial human evolution. Of course, I vastly improved his capabilities. However, it was at the cost of his humanity, his sanity and control. That is why I consider him my greatest failure, and thus why he is contained underground. I have no doubt he would wreak havoc amongst innocent civilians if unleashed."

"BALDY! WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!" Tornado lectured angrily, considering how reckless Saitama seemed to be acting. Sure, it was justified due to his strength, but to Tatsumaki, there was no reason he should let his guard down so often.

"I got this, Tats," Saitama explained, turning his attention to Genos. "Don't sweat it, Genos. I got it from 'ere."

"S-Sensei...I'm fine," Genos tried to reassure as he attempted to rise up, though to no avail. The true nail in the coffin, though, was Genos' hair puffing up into an afro at his attempt to seem fine.

"Dude, you're not fine!" Saitama noted, a sweat-drop on his forehead. "Look at your hair!" He heard snickering and turned to see Tornado taking a picture of Genos' afro, no doubt saving it for later humiliation of the cyborg.

Spider-man stayed on the sidelines with his arms crossed letting out a few chuckles.

Saitama sighed, before turning to Carnage Kabuto, "You turned my friends into pieces of modern arts...guess it's my turn." At this, the beetle monster cackled again, taking another battle stance. There was no noise for a few moments, silence filling the large white room.

Carnage Kabuto sprinted at a speed that was clearly leagues faster than in the hallway, moving faster than Genos could notice.

"Such speed!" Genos gasped. Tornado was in a similar state of thought, though in a different direction.