The following page (Ultraman Leg Episode 2) is fan fiction, it is in no way an attempt to make profit of any form off of copyrighted characters by Tsuburaya Productions and other companies. It is meant for the enjoyment of other fans of Ultraman and similar copyrighted characters.
Saying that the Space Garrison training facility was in shambles was putting it very, very lightly.
The mighty fortress that mere minutes ago had towered imposingly over the mountainous landscape of the rocky moon it stood on had been all but ground to a pile of glittering dust and pebbles.
Its unfortunate inhabitants - instructors, trainees, mess hall chefs and unlucky bystanders alike were scattered all over the ground like dusty Ultra-sized bowling pins, mostly unhurt but in a state of deep shock. Most were unconscious, some would occasionally let out pitiful whimpers, a few even openly wept out of sheer terror.
From the rocky moon’s vast dark skies tiny translucent shards of green crystal rained upon the scene of destruction like snowflakes.
And amidst that pandemonium the mysterious dark-timered Ultra stood proudly, dusting off his knuckles with an arrogant smirk on his face.
“WHA....WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT?”
A few paces away from the scene of destruction Leg stared on in open-mouthed shock, having just witnessed the other Ultra completely raze the training facility to the ground with a swift barrage of punches and kicks.
“My body was feeling kinda stiff, so I decided to warm up a bit.” the intruder replied nonchalantly.
“Y-YOU CALL THIS “WARMING UP”?”
“Um, yeah.”
“Dude...It’s not like this place meant a lot to me or anything, but randomly destroying people’s stuff makes you a bit of a dick, ya know.”
“Listen up, dweeb,”
“It’s Leg, dick!”
“Whatever, Legdweeb. There are two things I want you to know. One. I don’t care about what others think of my actions. Two. My name is not “Dick”.”
“Then what is it, Mr Edgy?”
“I AM ULTRAMAN BROTEIN! THE ULTRA WHO WILL ONE DAY BECOME THE STRONGEST WARRIOR IN THE UNIVERSE!” the horned Ultra declared proudly, and his voice rang across the rocky wasteland like clashing steel.
Once again, Leg found himself grinning ear to ear. This Ultra, Brotein...He was nothing like Hakarl...The unwavering confidence with which he carried himself...His godlike body, that looked as though it had been carved out of pure Plasma Ore...His fighting spirit, that burned with an intensity so great that it was visible to the naked eye, manifesting as a turbulent crimson aura that rose off his frame like steam...It all made Leg’s lightblood surge hotly in his veins.
There was no mistaking it.
Brotein was strong.
Freakishly, monstrously strong.
A demon among Ultras.
And every single atom of Leg’s being burned with the desire to fight him.
“Alrighty then, Brotein The Edgelord...” the blue Ultra sneered, taking a fighting stance “Now that you’re all warmed up...Bring it!”
And suddenly, Brotein was right beside him.
...
What the hell?
Just half a second ago there was a considerable distance between them, but now they were so close their faces were almost touching...
How?!
How could this guy move so damn fast?!
Leg had no time to voice his surprise before Brotein’s fist violently collided with his chin, sending him crashing into a rockface a good ten kilometers away.
The speed of the blow was so great that Leg’s nervous system couldn’t keep up, rendering his entire body numb. Only when he finally collided with the rockface in an explosion of debris did the pain hit him, feedback from contused muscles and cracked bones setting his body alight with blinding agony, ripping a gurgly, broken scream from his lips.
Blearily peeking through the haze of pain and the lightblood streaming down his face from his cracked headcrest Leg noticed the approaching Brotein, a stalwart figure against the backdrop of the moon’s inky skies, the glow of his eyes piercing the darkness like two burning embers.
“Oh, come on!” Brotein exclaimed impatiently, “Quit fooling around and get up already! There’s no way somebody strong enough to wipe the floor with Hakarl would drop dead after taking only one punch from me!”
Buried under a pile of boulders, Leg let out a raspy laugh, hacking up a mixture of lightblood and stone dust. The pain from the blow was nothing compared to the excitement coursing through him. His assumptions were correct. For the first time in his life he was indeed facing off against a worthy opponent. Not a weakling pretending to be tough, like Hakarl, but the real deal.
The blue prodigy burst through his rocky grave, gracefully flipping through the air before landing and striking a pose.
“Right you are, Brotein!” he smirked. His wounds - hardly severe enough to incapacitate an Ultra of his caliber - were already in the process of healing, the hairline fractures in his bones swiftly knitting themselves together.
“I NEVER SAID ANYTHING ABOUT TWO PUNCHES THOUGH!” Brotein yelled, once again launching his fist at Leg with that monstrous speed. Leg hastily dodged to the side, the other fighter’s fist slamming into a cliff and splintering it to smithereens. Not wasting a single millisecond, Leg rolled out of Brotein’s way before launching himself into the air.
“LEG KICK!” he exclaimed, aiming his signature dropkick at Brotein. Right as the kick was about to connect, Brotein’s leg suddenly shot up, countering the Leg Kick with a staggeringly powerful high kick of his own. Leg yelped as he was knocked off course, painfully hitting his still-healing head crest against the rocky ground, and barely had the time to roll out of the way before Brotein brought his foot down in a devastating axe kick, carving a deep crevasse into the ground, exposing the moon’s glowing purple bedrock.
Skidding to a stop, Leg rose up, slightly short of breath, licking off the lightblood seeping out of the fairly deep cut on his cheek that had formed from the sheer pressure of Brotein’s missed punch.
“Brotein...” he laughed breathily, “I am honestly having so much fun right now!”
He jumped high into the air, crossing his legs, streams of pale blue energy snaking across his body, congregating on the surface of his right shin. Brotein regarded him with a perplexed look, having never seen this kind of attack before.
“LEG LASER!!!” Leg shouted, an electric blue beam bursting forth.
He expected Brotein to counter with a beam of his own, or at least to dodge, but, surprisingly, the red and silver warrior stood his ground and let the Leg Laser hit him square in the chest, grunting and wincing.
“YOU COCKY SHOW-OFF BASTARD! LET’S SEE HOW YOU HANDLE THIS!” Leg yelled, hurtling down from the skies with his body aflame, “THIS IS MY...”
Brotein tsked, scowling.
“HOT LEG!!!”
Yet again, Brotein didn’t dodge or counter. The full brunt of the flaming kick violently slammed into his midsection. He hissed through gritted teeth, but refused to be knocked down or moved from where he stood, completely nullifying the power of Leg’s attack with nothing more but the brute strength of his muscles.
“W-what the hell? You f*cking show-off...What the hell is wrong with you? WHY WON’T YOU DODGE OR COUNTERATTACK?!!!” Leg yelled in frustration. He didn’t quite know why yet, but an anxious feeling was brewing inside him, uneasiness making his skin crawl. Suddenly, he wasn’t having a lot of fun anymore.
“DAMMIT! FIGHT BACK!!! WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU!!???” Leg yelled, shocking himself with how freaked out he suddenly sounded. With a wordless battle cry, he launched a flurry of swift Leg Kicks at Brotein, each and every one of those kicks making contact perfectly. Once again, Brotein made no effort to dodge, parry or counterattack. Crying out in frustration, Leg continued his relentless assault until he had no choice but to stop to catch his breath.
“W-what the hell...” he panted, “Quit showing off...Haa....and fight back, you horny bastard!!! You’re creeping me out...”
No response followed.
Growling, Leg rose up, intending to pummel Brotein some more to hopefully knock some sense into his stupid head. But just as he was about to start charging up another Leg Laser...
...He made eye contact with Brotein.
And suddenly a horrible feeling of nausea washed over him.
Those eyes...
There was something painfully familiar about them.
Why, of course they were familiar.
After all, every day for so many centuries...
The exact same eyes had stared back at Leg from the mirror...
He could never mistake that look of soul-crushing boredom.
Brotein was bored with him.
Suddenly, not even the slightest thing about this fight was fun anymore.
Suddenly, as irrational as that desire was, all Leg wanted...Was to go home...
“Goddamit, Leg.” Brotein spat, his look changing to that of utter contempt, “To think that someone like you would have the nerve to challenge me to a fight!”
“W-wha...” Leg mumbled, suddenly finding it very hard to form coherent words, his previous bravado gone without the slightest trace. He had never felt like that before in his entire life, and that feeling was horrible, like all of his energy had been drained from him all of a sudden, leaving behind a pathetic withered husk of his former self. It made him feel small, worthless...Was this how Hakarl felt when he found out his strongest attack was useless? Was this how Ligan and Xoolot felt when they couldn’t catch up to Leg in the obstacle course challenge even though they pushed their bodies beyond their limits...
Was this...defeat?
“Shut the hell up! I already know everything I need to know about you from the way you fight!” Brotein’s face contorted into a disgusted scowl, “Your attacks...THEY HAVE NO WEIGHT BEHIND THEM AT ALL!”
“W-weight? What are you t-talking about!?” Leg stammered nervously, Brotein’s disgusted glare suddenly making him want to dig a hole in the ground and crawl into it.
“These kicks...These beams...These are the attacks of someone who has led an easy, sheltered life, without facing any hardship at all! People like this make me sick to my stomach!” Brotein snarled, glaring daggers at Leg “And to think...That someone like you is challenging me to a fight...IT MAKES MY LIGHTBLOOD BOIL!!!”
Leg could only stare at him, slack-jawed...Just from the way he fought...Brotein had read him like a book...
"Ya know...I should've been long dead right now." Brotein let out a bitter chuckle, "I was supposed to die over 3000 years ago. I was supposed to rot away nicely on some backwater planet, away from prying eyes. But I didn't. And ya know why? BECAUSE I NEVER GAVE UP NO MATTER HOW MUCH EVERYTHING SUCKED! NO MATTER HOW MANY PEOPLE WANTED ME DEAD! NO MATTER HOW BADLY THE UNIVERSE ITSELF WANTED ME DEAD! I OVERCAME ALL THOSE HARDSHIPS! I! NEVER! GAVE! UP! THIS IS WHY I AM STRONG! THIS IS WHY I WILL BECOME THE STRONGEST IN THE UNIVERSE!"
"B-Brotein..."
“You think that being a truly powerful warrior is all fun and games, huh?” the dark-timered Ultra hissed, the crimson tendrils of his aura swirling around him like a hurricane, “You think you can just coast on that puny little talent you have and succeed without overcoming any hardships?!
YOU. F*CKING. IDIOT!!! NEVER IN MY LIFE HAVE I SEEN ANYONE SO MISTAKEN ABOUT THE TRUE NATURE OF BEING STRONG! Hakarl...Even though it turns out he was just a pathetic weakling with an overinflated reputation...EVEN HE KNEW MORE ABOUT IT MORE THAN YOU DO! BECAUSE WHATEVER WEAKASS POWERS HE HAD, HE GAINED THEM FROM SCRATCH BY WORKING HIS F*CKING ASS OFF FOR THEM! AM I RIGHT, LEG!?"
“...”
“ANSWER ME, YOU DUMBSH*T!”
“Y-yes...” Leg croaked out, feeling his legs buckle underneath him. Every single one of Brotein’s words was suddenly worse than being punched in the face by him. He was right...Dammit, he was right...Everyone around him worked hard, constantly doing their best to better themselves...And he...He never even had a challenging training session ever since he enlisted in the Space Garrison...All those powers granted to him by his genetics...He didn’t deserve them! He didn’t deserve them at all! No wonder Brotein was writing him off as a weakling! All this time he had been doing nothing but stagnating, stuck with the same base stats ever since he was born!
Brotein smirked bitterly.
“Tch...And just like that, you abandon your pride. Typical. All too typical of people like you...You’re so cocky until you meet someone stronger than you...But as soon as the going gets tough, you completely fall apart until you’re nothing but a mushy pile of BIRDON SH*T!!! ALL BECAUSE YOU’RE SO UNACCUSTOMED TO FACING HARDSHIP! BEING STRONG ISN’T JUST ABOUT HOW POWERFUL AND COOL-LOOKING YOUR ATTACKS ARE, YOU DUMBASSES!!!” exasperated, Brotein slammed his fist into a nearby cliff, reducing it to billions of tiny pebbles.
...Abandon his pride...?
What the...
What the hell was he doing???
Was he really...On the verge of falling to his knees and groveling for mercy in front of that clown simply because he was pretty good at trashtalking???
Just what the hell had come over him?!
Dammit, he was here to have a good fight, not GET UTTERLY DESTROYED AND HUMILIATED TO BOOT!
He couldn’t let Brotein beat him!
"Stop...” Leg croaked out, disgusted at how pathetic he sounded.
“What?”
“STOP!”
“Heh, I hit a nerve, haven’t I?”
“STOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOP!!!!!!” Leg yelled at the top of his lungs, desperately charging up a Leg Laser, pouring every last ounce of power he had into it, everything, EVERYTHING TO WIPE THAT SMIRK OFF THAT BASTARD’S FACE!!!
Brotein chuckled, cracking his knuckles.
“Well then, Legdweeb...I shall give you your first taste of true suffering...”
The Leg Laser erupted into the air, painting the rocky moon’s barren landscape a vibrant electric blue.
Smirking, Brotein brought his fists up to cheek level, as though intending to block the attack.
“IleLeumina...” he snarled lowly...
The beam hurtled closer and closer towards him, its blue glow reflecting off the armor plating on the dark-timered Ultra’s chest...
“BUSTER!!!”
And suddenly, something bright, powerful and above all absolutely incomprehensible collided with Leg’s beam with such force that it filled his entire body with a dull ache despite him not having taken any damage.
A beam attack?
No.
This was nothing like a regular beam attack.
What the hell was it?
Something like this shouldn’t have existed.
No, this wasn’t an energy beam...This was...
Wait a second...
No way...
These were...
PUNCHES?!
A BEAM...MADE OF FISTS!?
You’ve got to be kidding me.
This kind of ridiculous attack was about to overpower his beam?
This kind of ridiculous attack was about to defeat him?????
“RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGH!!!!!”
Desperately, Leg poured more and more power into his beam. Still, the IleLeumina Buster was steadily pushing the Leg Laser away. More! MORE! Even as his vision swam and his head reeled from the exertion, Leg continued feeding energy into his beam. His body felt like it was made of lead, so heavy, so sluggish, and at the same time it seemed that every single cell in his body was on fire, but dammit, he couldn’t lose this beam struggle, he couldn’t lose, he couldn’t let Brotein win, he couldn’t let Brotein be right...
Vision...getting blurry...Is he going to go blind? Screw it, as long as their attacks are clashing, he knows where Brotein is! To hell with vision! Every last bit of energy he has needs to be diverted to the beam struggle...As long as that bastard goes down, it doesn’t matter if he goes blind, it doesn’t matter if he loses the ability to move, it doesn’t matter how hurt he gets as long as he wins. BROTEIN!!! YOU’RE GOING DOWN NO MATTER WHAT!!!
...Something gave.
Something just gave.
The beam struggle just got a whole lot easier.
He did it.
He overpowered Brotein’s IleLeumina Buster!
With all that charge, as soon as the Leg Laser hits Brotein, there’s no way he’s gonna walk away from it unharmed!
Any second now, Brotein is going to get hit!
Any second now...
And then, Leg’s body was engulfed by overwhelming heat, as though some horrifying fire-breathing beast had devoured him. All he could do was scream in agony as he was struck with thousands of simultaneous punches. The last thing he remembered was the sickening sound of his own bones snapping before his vision completely went black.
IleLeumina Buster.
A beam made of fists.
...So strong...
When Leg came to, he was lying facedown in the dirt. He half-heartedly tried to get up, but his legs literally folded under him like wet noodles, the bones completely shattered. He shook with the pain, whimpering.
Brotein stood nearby, leaning on his motorcycle, a painfully familiar bored expression on his face. Absolutely disgusting.
It didn’t take too long for the reality of what had just happened to sink in.
Leg had lost the battle.
No.
That wasn’t it.
Their confrontation was never a real battle to begin with.
It was nothing but a farce.
“Bye, weakling! Fighting you has been nothing more but a waste of life!” Brotein sneered, slinging his leg over the seat of his motorcycle, “I’m going off to become the strongest warrior in the universe! The likes of you are merely pebbles under my feet! It’s a shame, though...All of that potential you have has amounted to nothing more than Birdon sh*t! Tch!”
Spitting on the ground next to the incapacitated Leg, Brotein revved the engine of his motorcycle, slowly lifting off the ground.
“W-wait...” Leg wheezed pathetically, choking on his own lightblood...And something else...Something he couldn’t quite understand...
“Huh? Ya got something to say, weakling?”
Gritting his teeth against the agony of his injuries, Leg shakily lifted his head off the ground.
“..I w-will...D-defeat you...” he rasped, his voice breaking.
“What? I can’t hear you!”
“I WILL DEFEAT YOU!!!” Leg yelled almost hysterically, and suddenly there were hot tears welling up in his eyes and streaming down his face like waterfalls.
“Really?” And there it was, there was that mocking smirk again. Leg wanted to wipe it off his face so badly...But now he understood all too well that the way he was now, he was completely powerless to do anything about it. “Do you really think someone like you can become stronger than me?”
“I...I will t-train....” Leg shook with sobs, his tears dripping onto the lightblood-stained ground of the battle-ravaged moon “I w-will t-train harder th-than you ever h-have...A-and someday...I w-will d-definitely....I w-will d-definitely...I...!!!” Leg collapsed back onto the ground, wheezing painfully from the effort of this declaration of rivalry.
Maybe it was just the brain damage playing tricks on him, but for a second Leg could swear he saw Brotein’s mocking smirk turn into a genuine smile.
Then, without saying anything else to his defeated opponent, the dark-timered Ultra hit the gas on his motorcycle.
“Roar, Brebs!” he commanded. The demonic machine let out a hellish bellow, its exhaust pipes erupted like miniature volcanoes, and just like that Brotein, the mysterious Ultra with a non-functioning Color Timer and a burning desire to become the strongest in the universe, disappeared without a trace.
Feebly banging his head against the rocky ground in helpless rage, the broken young Ultra, who less than an hour ago was an undefeatable genius, broke down and wept.
At that same moment, in the Land of Light, a tall, heavily scarred Ultrawoman with two bionic arms let out a sigh and shut down the video feed from the moon on the screen of her datapad.
"Well, it didn't quite go the way I intended, but fortunately that Zombie Challenger showed up and got the job done instead. All we have to do now is wait."
"Ka ka ka ka ka..." chortled the screen.
Next episode preview:[]
Leg: DAMMIT! I LOST! THIS BITES! ALRIGHT! FROM NOW ON I'M GOING TO TRAIN HARD SO I CAN WHOOP BROTEIN'S...
Cyborg Ultrawoman: Don't you think you two cursed enough in this episode?
Mysterious Old Man: Do you have what it takes not to end up in my portfolio?
Leg: What the hell are you talking about, old man?
Mysterious Old Man: Old Man? I'd rather you call me Master!
Leg: Are you seriously going to train me with a shiny rock?
Old Master: For an entire year it will be your best friend and your worst enemy!
Leg: But it's a freakin' rock!
Leg: Next time, on Ultraman Leg...Hero or Devil!? The Enigmatic Eeznus' Hellish Training!
Leg, Master and Cyborg Ultrawoman: You wouldn't wanna miss it!