Shitty Teen Squad

SPOILER WARNING! This article contains spoilers from the manga

Shitty Teen Squad
GENERAL
One Punch Man
Character	Garou
Character	Genos
Character	Metal Bat
Canonical?	Fanon
Status of Relationship	Rivals/Occasionally allies (Batarou) Acquaintances/Former enemies (Gearou) Colleagues (BatGenos)
IN FANDOM
Type (?)	Friendship

1

Shitty Teen Squad is the friendship between Garou, Genos and Metal Bat from the One Punch Man fandom.

Canon

Garou and Genos

Their relationship is complicated due to Genos first being very hostile towards Garou and Garou reacting to his hostility by being one towards him also (though not as "menacing" as Genos was). They met during the Monster Association Arc when Garou had defeated the heroes that had tried to surround and stop him. However, one of the heroes had managed to send an emergency signal that led to Genos finding their unconscious bodies and Garou. This leads to a battle between them. Garou has been weakened by the other heroes so he can't keep up fully with Genos' speed and power. After a while, Bang and Bomb also appear to intercept their fight. Eventually Garou escapes the battle (although reluctantly) with the help of Phoenix Man.

At one point, thanks to Bang, Garou wakes up after he has gained his monster form and he saves Genos and the other heroes by attacking Platinum Sperm and Evil Natural Water who would have killed them if he hadn't intervened.

In the last few chapters of the MA arc Garou (influenced by "God") manages to kill Genos by ripping his core out of his chest as he tries to piss off Saitama and get him to use his full power. After Garou's sacrifice, Saitama manages to travel back in time to stop the "out-of-control Garou" before he manages to kill Genos and the other heroes, which leads to everyone avoiding the catastrophic ending. When Garou escapes from the heroes that beat him up in the end, Genos believed Garou would become a repeat offender, but Saitama said he doesn't believe so.

Garou and Metal Bat

Their relationship seems to be very interestingly special. They met during the Monster Raid Arc when Garou first intervened with Metal Bat's fight against the Elder Centipede. When Metal Bat realized who Garou was (the Hero Hunter), he was pissed off that he would dare to piss him off by trying to hunt him in the middle of his job. They start to battle. Despite whatever Metal Bat does to Garou, he can't hit him and Garou seems to really like mocking him for it. However, Garou soon notices that Metal Bat doesn't fall down and instead increases in power and speed the more damage he takes. This surprises and confuses him and leads to him questioning how he works. Metal Bat simply answers that it's fighting spirit (VIZ MEDIA: "I'm just pumped up").

After a while of battling, and after Garou finally manages to knock him down for good (or so he thought), Garou turns his back and lowers his guard and Metal Bat surprises him by almost hitting his head with his baseball metal bat until his sister, Zenko, intervenes with their battle. In the end Garou ends up respecting Zenko and Metal Bat's family promise/rule to not show her any violence and he leaves them alone. When Metal Bat loses his consciousness (thanks to Zenko hitting his head), a couple monsters notice this and try to kidnap his sister, but Garou stops this (though Zenko and Metal Bat are unaware of this). In a way Garou ends up protecting them from the monsters when they leave them alone.

At one point in the story Metal Bat starts looking for Garou and Garou takes inspiration from him when he discovers his version of "fighting spirit". They meet again in the end point of the Monster Association Arc and team up to fight against Sage Centipede. They seem to argue a lot, but also it's shown that they have a strange connection and their powers seem to be able to resonate and amplify each other, making them stronger in the process. They even managed to surprise and confuse Sage Centipede who started wondering how a monster (Garou) and a hero (Metal Bat) could cooperate so well. (Even though they didn't even try it.)

In the very end of the Monster Association Arc, Metal Bat defends Garou by telling the other heroes to stop beating him up as he is already injured. When Sweet Mask wants to advocate for Garou's death, Metal Bat is strongly against it. Eventually Garou disappears (escapes) and Metal Bat is left surprised with the others.

Genos and Metal Bat

Their relationship is very non-existent since neither of them have canonically spoken or reacted to each other, but are fellow S-class heroes, and there's not really any animosity or otherwise between them.

Fanon

Shitty Teen Squad is very liked fanon friendship in the One Punch Man fandom and mainly includes Genos (who is 19 years old), Garou (18) and Metal Bat (17). A lot of the fanworks includes these teens doing all kinds of things together, acting like the teens they should be as canon timeline hardly gives any break for them nor lets them act like teens. There are various versions of their dynamic, including Genos and Metal Bat being the more level-headed ones while Garou causes chaos. There are also versions where Genos is the only level-headed one from these three, but people also like that they all could act like lively teens sometimes.

Some fans are also waiting more from certain other teen characters in the canon story so people could include them to the "shitty teen squad". One of them is Suiko, who is 18 years old herself.

Fandom

FAN FICTION

Garou & Genos & Metal Bat tag on AO3

Shitty Teen Squad tag on AO3

TUMBLR

Shitty Teen Squad posts on Tumblr

Shitty Teen Squad tag on Tumblr

TWITTER

Shitty Teen Squad hashtag on Twitter

Shitty Teen Squad posts on Twitter

Videos

Shitty teen squad (bonus Amai and Zombieman) playing Inside the Backrooms.

Variations

Batarou refers to the ship between Garou and Metal Bat

BatGenos refers to the ship between Genos and Metal Bat

Gearou refers to the ship between Garou and Genos