As the helicopters travelled through City Z and into the abandoned section, Child Emperor couldn’t help but muse on the information he gained about the place. Both the locals and the media called it Ghost Town, but that title is misleading. The truth is that the abandoned section of City Z is actually a district that was once a major part of the city’s infrastructure. Both the local government and private corporate entities invested heavily in it, and as such, the district can be classified as a metropolitan area.

As they flew over the abandoned district proper, the youngest S-Class hero spied residential homes, various small and large businesses, multi-story apartment buildings, massive skyscrapers, and even a highway, among others. Looking at it all from a bird’s eye view puts into perspective just how large the district is and how anyone could mistake it for a mere ‘town.’ Even more confusing was the fact that the local government hasn’t done anything with it all this time.

Yes, frequent powerful monsters showing up were cause to abandon it, but it has been years, and the Hero Association could have salvaged the place by getting rid of the monsters. Hell One-Punch Man has been living in the area for three years now, and the monster sightings have had a significant drop in that time.

‘Though that could also be attributed to the Monster Association consolidating their power’ he thought pensively.

Still, the fact remains that there hasn’t been a petition to the Hero Association for a purge of the monster population inhabiting the abandoned district and reconstruction of it.

‘This reeks of politics’ Child Emperor thought with a shake of his head.

He was staying far away from that particular rabbit hole.

‘Given everything that’s happened, maybe it was for the best that this place remains abandoned.’

Turning his thoughts away from the city, his eyes roamed over the occupants, which consisted of the S-Class, their compatriots (Atomic Samurai’s students and Silver Fang’s brother), and... Amai Mask. It made for a rather cramped experience, and the Child Emperor was afraid he would have to suffer through the endless complaints for that; however, to his surprise, his fellow heroes were rather reticent.

Not to say there weren’t any grievances at all, but they were token at best, with sneers from Tatsumaki and Amai Mask at the start. For the majority of the journey, however, both and really most of the heroes were busy in quiet contemplation. Well, Flashy Flash, Atomic Samurai, Silver Fang, and his brother sat in silent contemplation. Tatsumaki and Amai Mask were more or less brooding in their corners. Metal Bat and Tank Top Master each had a tablet and were familiarizing themselves with the information they missed during the briefing, mostly on the dragon-level monsters that make up the Monster Association leadership.

Pig God was snacking on burgers and a mega-gulp shake. Puri Puri Prisoner was chatting up Atomic Samurai’s students. It was mostly Okamaitachi who was engaged rather enthusiastically while his fellow disciples tried their hardest to ignore whatever was being said. One-Punch Man unsurprisingly looked bored out of his mind yawning for emphasis, earning a glare from Tatsumaki despite being the farthest away from him. Thankfully, she said nothing and instead turned away with a scoff.

As for the Child Emperor, he had his personal monitor out and was going over final preparations before disembarking. Even with the information on their enemies, knowing was only half the battle, and their increased numbers did increase his confidence for the support team’s survival, but he imagined this trap to be a meticulous and multi-layered one.

‘There are still so many variables’ he thought while chewing multiple gumballs ‘but in the end it will come down to finding Miss Nova.’

After that, their mission is accomplished, and they can purge the Monster Association in earnest either through Tatsumaki’s powers or even Metal Knight's bombs. A good thing about a district written off by the government is that they won’t mind if you destroy it.

And speaking of...

"We’re entering the abandoned district now," the Child Emperor informed.

“Whelp, that’s my cue." One-Punch Man muttered, unhooking the seatbelt and standing up with a stretch.

"Ours as well," said Silver Fang as he and his brother followed the bald hero’s example.

As they discussed earlier, the team to infiltrate the Monster Association will be split into four teams. Team one, consisting of Child Emperor, Puri Puri Prisoner, Darkshine, Atomic Samurai (and his students), Zombieman, Pig God, Tatsumaki, Metal Bat, and Tank Top Master, will go through the ‘front, so to speak. They will spring the trap laid out for them and weather whatever the Monster Association throws at them, essentially acting as a major distraction.

Team Two, which will consist of Silver Fang, his brother, Amai Mask, and the mysterious informant, will be the team actually infiltrating the Monster Association to find Director Nova and facilitate her escape. Originally, the team didn’t have Amai Mask on it; however, the man was very insistent about joining them, and though the elder martial artist was reluctant, the other heroes saw the opportunity for what it was: a chance to be rid of the pompous idol.

His attitude aside, everyone was still on the fence about whether the number one A-Class hero was even qualified to be infiltrating the Monster Association along with the S-Class. Atomic Samurai’s students had leeway since not only did the S-Class hero vouch for them, but their skills are well known and they would be working together. Amai Mask, on the other hand, made it very clear that he would be working alone, which was a problem because no one, least of all the Child Emperor, wanted to be responsible for his death due to him overestimating himself.

But if he wanted to accompany Silver Fang’s group to go behind the scenes and away from the main action, then Child Emperor was more than happy to oblige. Eventually, the pressure from everyone caused the contemplative Silver Fang to reluctantly agree to have the idol hero accompany them. He did warn, however, that the informant may not like having Amai Mask tag along, though neither the A-Class hero nor the Child Emperor were overly concerned with that.

Finally, there was Team Three, which isn’t actually a ‘team’ since it’s just One-Punch Man going in alone. He’s basically there to serve as a deliberate wild card, a metaphorical wrench thrown into the machinations of the Monster Association. His job is to cause as much chaos as possible (without bringing the whole place down) and split the enemy’s focus even further so that Team Two can better fulfil their objectives.

So as One-Punch Man, Silver Fang, his brother, and Amai Mask stood up, the Child Emperor made sure that they had their earpieces for communication. He feared for Silver Fang and his brother with how reluctant and belligerent they were about it; however, for once, Amai Mask reassured him that he would keep in contact. The helicopter doors opened without slowing its pace, and as a few of the passengers wished them luck, they leapt out the open door and into the derelict city below.

A few more minutes of travel, and they made it to the heart of the abandoned district. The Child Emperor chose this specific location due to the placement of the hidden entrances, and this one happened to be in the rough centre of it all.

If there was a ‘main front door’ to the Monster Association, then this would be it.

The helicopters didn’t stick around after dropping them off, and as he watched them leave, making sure there weren’t any surprises that would take out their future transports, he turned to the crowd.

"We still have a fair bit of walking to do, so let’s go."

He hadn’t been joking about it either, but since he knew exactly where he was going, he was able to pick a route that was close enough to their destination for the choppers to drop them off. Afterwards, they would only have to walk a couple minutes before they arrived at their destination proper.

Why not just drop them on top of the entrance itself?

Aside from the dangers to the chopper being so deep into known monster territory, a few scout drones Child Emperor sent ahead to maintain an aerial view picked up the sudden emergence of multiple heat signatures. They remained hidden from plain view, so it was clear they were gearing up for an ambush, and just as he hypothesized, the moment they got close enough, the monsters sprung their trap.

They came out of seemingly nowhere and were everywhere. From within derelict buildings, upturned cars, sewers, and so on If Child Emperor didn’t already know about the ambush, he would have felt mildly disconcerted with how quickly they managed to surround them. How they could go from walking down an abandoned street to having literally dozens of monsters surrounding them in half as many seconds. His fellow S-Class heroes didn’t seem worried about the ambush, though, fully confident in their ability to take care of the monsters.

The same couldn’t be said for the lower-class heroes and Sekingar, who complained about Gyoro Gyoro not keeping his word about not playing any ‘tricks, to which the Child Emperor mentally scoffed. As if the words of a monster held any kind of significance. There is a part of Child Emperor that suspected the director to already have been killed and that they were going through all this trouble for nothing; however, until he confirmed this, he (and by extension, the other heroes) would play along.

‘Speaking of…’

He tapped the modified hands-free headset he based off of a popular anime he liked, and with a chirp, it scanned the surrounding area.

"In terms of heat signature, there are 91, 100, 160 monsters gathering, and the number keeps getting higher."

"Put away that toy Child Emperor," Tatsumaki interrupted with arms folded. "Counting these worthless peons is pointless."

As she said, one of the monsters made itself known as the apparent leader, or rather, the strongest monster of the group. He was a large, imposing creature covered completely in a dark cloak, with only his hands left purposefully unconcealed. Said hands had eyes of various sizes and colors implanted on them all along the exposed forearms and palms. The Child Emperor knew this monster from the data as Evil Eye, a demon-level monster with psychokinetic abilities.

With a guttural exhale, the monster began to speak: "I heard that the Hero Association would be meeting us with their ‘full force, but is this it?"

As the other monsters began to jeer while the heroes prepared for combat, Evil Eye flicked his clawed finger upwards. That single gesture was preceded by the surrounding buildings uprooting from the ground, sending the lower-ranked heroes into a panic.

As several multi-story buildings began levitating around the heroes, Evil Eye began his monologue, gesturing to the eyes covering his exposed forearms, "These are the eyes of all the monsters slaughtered by heroes like you."

As he continued to monologue his backstory and motivations (as monsters seem to do before every battle), Tatsumaki turned to the Child Emperor.

"Do you have the location of where we’re supposed to go?"

"I do," Child Emperor confirmed.

"What’s the distance from here? Be specific," she added, and Child Emperor rattled off the coordinates, for which Tatsumaki nodded, "then there’s no reason to waste our time with this trash."

And with that said, Tatsumaki’s psychic aura flared absolutely blinding to everyone else, especially the monsters. Before they knew it, the heroes found themselves covered in a faintly transparent green barrier dome. Outside the dome, hurricane winds swirled around the vicinity, with the eye being Tatsumaki, who floated just beyond the barrier itself, covered in a shimmering emerald outline.

The monsters tried to fight against the winds, some of them even attacking; however, this ordeal betrayed their bravado as, faced with true danger, they turned out to be what Tatsumaki described to the Child Emperor not a few minutes earlier: fodder. The only one who seemed to be able to put up a decent enough resistance was Evil Eye, whose many eyes shone with malevolency even as he yelled in an effort to control himself.

"WHOOOAAAAAA!!!!"

Tatsumaki was less than impressed before finally having enough of this farce and, with the most contemptuous of "hmphs," using her hand to cut a sharp yet careless line across the air as if she were swatting a gnat.

The results…

It would be false to say that an explosion occurred in that instance. From one moment to the next, the winds picked up into the most violent cyclone to ever be recorded before dissipating a dozen or so seconds later. There was no gradual increase or decrease in winds between them either. By the end of it, everything, from the monsters to the buildings and the street, was gone, leaving the heroes standing at the epicenter of a barren wasteland.

Naturally, all of the lower-ranked heroes were shocked and astonished by the display of power.

"I see, Tornado of Terror indeed," commented one of the lower-ranked heroes.

Some of the other S-Class heroes were astonished to various degrees, though largely for different reasons, while the others were grateful for not having to waste time.

As for Tatsumaki, she didn’t care one way or the other as her gaze went back to Child Emperor: "How many are around now?"

The Child Emperor knew the answer but checked for propriety’s sake anyway.

"None."

"Then let’s go."

~O~

"Uwah, why is it so windy all of a sudden!?" Saitama complained as his cape smacked him in the face.

All around him, the vicinity became disturbed enough by the sudden windstorm. Thanks to his cape obscuring his vision, he couldn’t see the massive tornado that spontaneously formed in the distance or bear witness to the debris flying about. By the time he managed to get his cape under control, the winds had stopped as if it had not happened in the first place. It left Saitama mildly confused as he looked around the changed landscape and blinked.

"Must’ve been a pretty strong wind," he muttered, scratching his head.

With that bit of distraction, he went about doing his task, only to pause. What seemed like a pretty strong wind to Saitama was actually a gale force comparable to an EF-5 windstorm. The resulting exposure, as brief as it was, did cause significant damage to the street, rendering it nigh incomparable to what it once was. That was bad because last night, after their dinner party, Tomoro actually took Saitama directly to where he needed to go to fulfill his part of the plan.

Last Night…

"This is the spot," Tomoro spoke as they both stood over a manhole cover. "Once you’re down there, just punch a hole through the side wall until you appear in a massive tunnel."

"Won’t that collapse the streets or something?" Saitama questioned him blandly.

"I mean, what are the chances that this place is still going to be here once you guys are done dealing with the Monster Association?"

Saitama took a moment to think about it, particularly Tatsumaki’s words earlier, and conceded "point."

Anyway, pay attention to anything you can use to find this place after your meeting. How you separate from everyone else is going to be up to you."

"Wouldn’t it be easier to just stick with the others since they’d want me to fight the Monster King anyway?"

"…"

"What?"

"Keep this up, Saitama, and I’ll have to stop calling you an idiot."

"You shouldn’t call me that in the first place! I graduated high school, you know!"

"And I’m sure you’ve been putting that diploma to good use ever since," he deadpanned, "living in a half-demolished building, doing odd jobs, taking handouts, mooching off of your neighbour…"

“Alright, I get it! Stop talking!" Saitama yelled, slapping a hand over the older man’s mouth.

Pushing his hand away, Tomoro spoke, "And to answer your question, knowing your reputation and what you did to Elder Centipede, if this Gyoro Gyoro has any sense, they won’t waste any valuable resources on you, so your path would most likely be a straight shot to the Monster King." Then he smiled, "But why make it easy for them?"

"Seems like a waste of time since the point is to kill the Monster King."

“Saitama, the whole point of this mission is to rescue the hostage," Tomoro said with an exasperated tone.

"Ah…I forgot."

“Clearly," he shook his head, "and look at it this way: if you kill the Monster King before the hostage is rescued—"

"Then they’ll use her to try and escape," Saitama finished.

"I am so proud to be your keeper," Tomoro fake sniffled.

A moment later, he easily swayed out of the way of a fist aimed at his head.

Present Day…

They agreed on a location, and Saitama committed it to memory, but now the surrounding area didn’t really look like how it had been just a scant few minutes ago, and Saitama was at a loss for what to do. After thinking about it for a while and wandering around looking for something familiar, Saitama gave up. Remembering everything he bothered paying attention to from the briefings about the Monster Association headquarters, the caped baldy set his sights on the ground.

"I guess if their base more or less covers the entire area underground, then I’ll eventually reach it if I just go down, right?"

The idea was sound to him, and even though he was going at a casual pace so his infiltration might coincide with the others, he felt he was at least somewhere on top of the Monster Association.

And so, with a nod to himself at yet another genius (to him), Saitama crouched where he stood, raised a gloved fist, and struck the ground beneath him with the force of a demolition charge.

~O~

"It’s time."

Tomoro’s sudden statement drew the attention of the other three occupants in the room. The tension was high; everyone’s expressions screwed into stern concentration as they regarded each other until...

A smirking Suiko laid her cards on the ground triumphantly, revealing a pair of black aces and eights and a red queen.

"Two pairs!"

There was a round of clicked teeth and scoffing from Suiryu and Do-S respectively as they also held cards in their hands. At some point Tomoro roped the three of them into some card games to pass the time and he thought they were actually going very cordial.

Suiko’s hand earned a whistle from Tomoro "careful Suiko, that there is what’s called a dead man’s hand."

This drew a confused look from the young woman "why?"

He was about to say TLDR and leave her in suspense when her brother answered "because supposedly that was the winning hand held by a famous folk hero before he was assassinated during a poker game."

"I’m surprised you’d know that," Tomoro said.

Suiryu simply shrugged and said, "Meh, I got the same hand while I was playing in an underground poker tournament against some mafia guy. He told me the story before he tried to kill me and take my winnings."

Neither Tomoro nor Do-S really thought much of the story other than that it was a rather quirky piece of knowledge but the same could not be said for his sister.

"What!? When did that happen!?"

Realizing his mistake, Suiryu could only give out a drawn-out "uuuh..." before Suiko continued.

"You know what? Never mind," she shook her head with an aggravated sigh, "let’s see what you got."

Suiryu lets out a smirk, "speaking of assassination." He laid down his cards, "four nines and a four." He then made a finger gun at his sister, "bang."

"Dammit!"

Meanwhile, Do-S scoffed at "children."

Turning an annoyed look at the monster, Suiko pointed, "and what do you have?"

With a smirk under her mask, she laid down her cards, all hearts going from five to nine, making it a "straight flush."

Tomoro went to comment on the hand only to pause and say "looks like it's starting."

They all knew what he meant by that, with Suiko asking "really?"

"Bang and Bomb are on their way," he frowned, "along with someone else who is definitely not Genos or Fubuki."

This caused the others to stiffen, with Suiryu hazarding a guess "is that bad?"

“Depends," he shrugged, "those two must have a very good reason for letting someone else in on the plan—oh, and before I forget," he laid his cards on the ground, "Royal Flush."

“Oh, come on!"

"That is some bullshit!"

Tomoro couldn’t help but smile because, so far, he’s won every game. Even when they took away his dealing privileges, he still managed to pull off some of the most insane and off-the-cuff wins.

"You cheating bastard," Do-S sneered, much to his amusement.

Tomoro scoffed ‘that’s ironic coming from you.’

Of course he was cheating, but then again so was Do-S and even Suiryu. The only one who wasn’t cheating was Suiko.

Tomoro stepped out to greet Bang and Bomb, but his smile dropped once he saw just who they brought.

‘This is going to be a problem; I can feel it.’

"Suiryu, Suiko, let’s go greet our guests." He allowed the siblings out the door first as he stayed behind to address the monster woman, "stay here."

"That was the plan to begin with," Do-S remarked.

Downstairs, Bang and Bomb waited along with Amai Mask, who scrunched his nose up in distaste at the near-condemned apartment building.

‘One-Punch Man actually lives here?’

He could believe that the legendary hero chose to seclude himself in this part of the city for both his privacy as well as a means of picking off dangerous monsters before they entered the populated part of City Z (before the formation of the Monster Association, of course), but it didn’t sit right with him. The building lacked a certain level of opulence that the first ranked A-Class hero felt was due to the strongest man in the world.

‘Perhaps its appearance is by design?’ The question caused him to internally chuckle in both realization and mild relief. ‘Of course, it wouldn’t do to stick out in such hostile territory, so it only made sense to leave the outside as is.’

For all he knew, One-Punch Man could have converted the interior into a modern palace of sorts.

Any further musings were interrupted by the arrival of two individuals, one of whom Amai Mask recognized.

‘That’s…’

"Suiryu, Suiko," the elder martial arts hero greeted, "you two will be joining us then?"

Yes, sir," answered Suiko.

"Looks like it," Suiryu said, with only the tiniest bit of apprehension lacing his voice.

"Did that man rope you into this?" Bomb questioned with a frown, "I’ll tell you right now, you don’t have to if you don’t feel comfortable."

“No, it’s fine,” Suiryu placated. "I want to help," he emphasized.

Amai Mask observed the interaction with a frown, asking, ‘What is he doing here?’

The idol hero knew Suiryu from reports given to him by the Hero Association as a possible recruitment candidate. The recommendation was based not only on the fact that he held the record for most wins in the Super Fight Tournament, but with Silver Fang getting older and retirement becoming a very real possibility in the not-so-distant future, naturally the Hero Association needed a successor for him, so to speak.

As far as he knew, they had yet to make their pitch to him, which makes his appearance here both fortuitous and suspicious.

‘Is he the informant?’ he thought, ‘or did Silver Fang involve him in this?’

The first thought was plausible yet improbable, but the second one held merit. Unfortunately, he was not privy to the happenings of the martial arts world, but with Silver Fang being as famous as he is, it didn’t surprise him to see that he and Suiryu knew each other.

‘In that case, asking him to join the Hero Association will be easier.’

Even better is the fact that he would be able to gauge the man’s abilities for himself during this mission.

His thoughts were then interrupted by a shout from Suiko, who was pointing at him in wide-eyed recognition, "Ah, you’re Amai Mask!"

At Suiko’s shout, all the attention turned to him, and Silver Fang spoke, "Ah yes, Amai Mask has volunteered to accompany us."

At the older man’s words, the girl raised a brow and asked, "Is that okay?"

He expected it, but Amai Mask still felt mildly irritated at his strength being questioned. It wouldn’t have mattered to him as much if not for the personal importance of this mission to him. Having his strength questioned was like this; it’s as if they were telling him that he was too weak to save Solaria. Such words to him could be considered one of the highest insults.

Amai Mask went to speak, only to be beaten to the punch by the voice of a third individual who landed lightly amongst them.

"You shouldn’t judge a book by its cover, Suiko," the man lightly admonished. "I’m sure if Bang allowed him to come here, then he must have confidence in his abilities" the man looked at him "right?"

The martial artist nodded, "that is correct."

The man nodded, turned to Amai Mask, and introduced himself as "Tomoro Sazaki."

Amai Mask met the man’s gaze for a moment before speaking: "You are the informant working for Miss Nova?"

Difficult as it was to see the man’s eyes from under his bangs Amai could tell he rolled his eyes. "I don’t work for Solaria. We’re partners."

Amai Mask’s eyes narrowed slightly in both suspicion and anger at the man’s tone and casual way of addressing Solaria.

At that point, Bomb interrupted, "Were you able to find them?"

"I have," Tomoro confirmed.

"Them?" Suiryu voiced Amai Mask’s question.

"I’ve spent a good amount of time gathering last-minute information," Tomoro informed. "I believe I know where they are keeping Solaria and Garou," he added as he glanced at the two elder martial arts grandmasters.

At the mention of the Hero Hunter, Amai Mask frowned but remembered that Silver Fang had a vendetta against his former student. The idol hero did not have a problem with this, though he was a bit leery of the older hero considering he somehow let the ma escape despite having what amounted to two S-Class heroes as backup in the form of his brother and Demon Cyborg.

"We might have a problem, though." Tomoro continued, "There is a chance other humans could be down there."

"What?" Suiko exclaimed.

"Are you sure of this?" Bang questioned him with a stern face.

"I am," he paused, "although it’s been a while since I’ve heard this, so whether or not these people are still alive is up for debate."

"It doesn’t matter," Amai Mask interrupted. "Thinking about this now won’t matter. Once we’re inside we can find out for ourselves if there are any more innocents inside. For now, we should get going."

"Alright let’s-"

"WAIT!" All eyes turned to find Do-S standing by the open door wearing her human guise of a pair of sunglasses and a medical mask. "I’m coming too."

Really?" Tomoro raised an eyebrow. "You made it very clear that you wouldn’t be joining us."

“I change my mind."

"Why?" Suiko questioned her curiously.

"None of your business," she bluntly stated.

“Uh-huh,” Tomoro hummed, having already discerned the cause of this change of heart but deciding not to even hint at it for now.

Mostly because he had something urgent to deal with.

"Tomoro…" a voice laced with a deadly edge spoke.

‘Oh boy’

And that something happened to be diffusing the Amai bomb.

The air around the top-ranked A-Class hero shifted as he glared at the new arrival, who stiffened under his gaze.

"Why are you colluding with a monster?"

His words caused the monster to shiver lightly under his intense scrutiny.

For his part Tomoro scoffed "how else did you think I got such in-depth information about the inner workings of the Monster Association?" He gestured to the monster woman, “Do-S, here is my contact, and she’s under my protection," he emphasized in a deadpan tone.

His declaration caused Amai Mask to take his eyes off the woman in question and glare at the man. The staring match continued until a massive windstorm swept through the area. This unnatural weather phenomenon caused everyone to shield their faces, or in Do-S’ case, keep down her skirt. They all beheld the formation of a massive tornado off in the distance.

"What is that!?" Suiryu yelled over the storm.

Bang answered, "Tatsumaki, she must be fighting someone exceptionally strong."

"Or clearing out the riff raff," Tomoro muttered.

Moments later, the tornado abruptly dispersed, cutting down the wind in an instant.

‘Well, it looks like those guys have already started, which means that Saitama should be in the tunnels.’

With a clap, he gathered everyone’s attention.

"Alright, we’ve dallied enough; let’s go." He turned to Do-S "stick close."

He didn’t give her a chance to respond before he began walking off. The others fell into step behind him, and a moment later, Do-S came up beside him, conveniently the farthest away from Amai Mask, who kept shooting her looks.

~O~

"Damn you, Tatsumaki," Gyoro Gyoro grumbled with a scowl as the drone he sent out to monitor the first engagement was destroyed in the diminutive esper’s attack.

The psychic cyclops had allowed the monsters, who had been eager for blood up top, to engage the heroes as a means of probing their defences. Of course, expecting much from them was wishful thinking since the majority were just disposable Tiger-level fodder, but any kind of data accrued could only be a good thing at this point. At best, he hoped those minions could have at least taken out some of the lower-ranked heroes.

And speaking of the heroes, Gyoro Gyoro couldn’t help but notice the absence of One-Punch Man, Silver Fang, and Demon Cyborg among the S-Class. The tactician did not even entertain the thought that they would commence the raid without them, especially the former.

‘How cute, they’re trying to utilize a pincer maneuver.’

As someone who spent a great deal of time and resources meticulously planning the destruction of the Hero Association, he made sure to account for all enemy moves. Even things such as Tatsumaki levelling the place or Metal Knight dropping a nuke were taken into consideration. So of course he anticipated the heroes splitting up in an attempt to divide and conquer, especially with how he found drones (most likely belonging to the Child Emperor given their toy-like design) snooping around several entrances.

‘I just have to find out which one they’re using and plan accordingly.’

Demon Cyborg, Silver Fang, and his brother Bomb can easily be dealt with; however, having One-Punch Man traipsing about the base without supervision was cause for some concern. Out of all the S-Class heroes, One-Punch Man was the only one whose combat strength he has not been able to accurately analyze. The same can be said for Blast and Tatsumaki, but Gyoro Gyoro was confident in his ability to handle the latter and as for the former, it is his opinion that the top-ranked S-Class hero is either dead or incapacitated, and the Hero Association is covering it up.

How else can it be explained that a hero who was fairly active for a long time suddenly disappears from the face of the earth one day and hasn’t been seen in years since? Why else would he still remain incognito despite the threat posed by the Monster Association? There is always the possibility that he could be wrong and Blast shows up at the 11th hour, in which case they would have to use that, but he remains confident that it would not be the case.

Other than the missing S-Class, another peculiarity was the presence of two particular S-Class heroes. Seeing Metal Bat and Tank Top Master was a bit of a surprise, if only because he heard they encountered and were subsequently beaten by Garou, for which he had Gyoro Gyoro’s thanks.

‘Yet here they are completely healthy and hale.’

Could it be that their injuries weren’t that severe?

‘…I suppose it hardly matters now.’

"An impatient one, isn’t she?" The voice caused Gyoro Gyoro to break away from his musing and regard the other presence. "You’ve lost quite a bit of soldiers from her outburst just now," the diminutive scientist continued.

Gyoro Gyoro wasn’t surprised that the man had his own means of surface surveillance. Frankly, he’d be shocked if the not-so-good doctor didn’t have his own set of eyes in and around the base. As a matter of fact, he knew he did because he'd already found some but left them alone. It is better to feign ignorance and control the flow of information than to tip his hand.

As for his words, Gyoro Gyoro waved a dismissive hand "inconsequential. More importantly, how is your assignment fairing?"

Dr. Psycho snorted, though he lost some of his "the boy is proving to be difficult."

"Oh? That’s a surprise; I wouldn’t think a mere brute would be a match for one of the greatest telepaths in the world." Gyoro Gyoro commented mockingly while looking down on the man, both figuratively and literally, while seated on his throne.

Dr. Psycho gave the monster a narrow-eyed gaze and said, "we both know that boy is no mere brute. His will is strong, and his mind is somehow building immunity to my intrusions. And his injuries are recovering at a staggering rate."

"He’s evolving even now," Gyoro Gyoro muttered in wonder. "Will you be able to finish the procedure in time for him to participate in the raid?"

"It can be done; however, I will have to use alternate methods. The results won’t be as ironclad as I would like, and with his continued evolution, there is always the chance he could break free."

"Do it," Gyoro Gyoro ordered. "I have use for him yet, and even should he slip our leash," the Cyclops shrugged, "for what I have in mind, he will play his part in this willingly."

Dr. Psycho huffed with a roll of his eyes "this is beneath me; I should be focusing on Solaria rather than helping you reign in some partially monsterized brat."

"And how is our hostage?"

"Sedated and ready to be moved," he answered.

"Don’t move her yet."

"She’s proven to be more difficult to handle," the doctor ordered "just keeping her under has taken an inordinate amount of time and resources that are woefully scarce in this drab place."

"If she’s already sedated, then it should be fine."

"She’s sedated for now," he grounded out "I don’t have nearly enough drugs to keep her under for more than an hour or two at maximum."

"That is more than enough time for me to take down Tatsumaki."

He scowled, "You aren’t strong enough to fight Tatsumaki—ERGH!"

In the next moment, Dr. Psycho slams into the ground as the gravity around him suddenly doubles.

"I don’t remember asking for your opinion, doctor," Gyoro Gyoro states in a low, menacing tone.

"Your vendetta against the psychic sisters is clouding your judgment, and it will be your downfall," he gritted out.

Gyoro Gyoro’s lone eye narrows. "We’ll see."

Following that, the pressure was lifted, allowing Dr. Psycho to stand up. Curiously, the man didn’t seem any worse for wear, and as he brushed the dust off his clothes, he glared at the Cyclops.

"Have him primed and ready to greet the intruders," the monster ordered.

Fine," the diminutive man agreed before turning away.

‘Stupid, ignorant child, the man silently fumed, looking down at what he knew for a fact was a secret underground bunker inaccessible to most.

Psykos was a interesting case.

As an individual, Psykos is undoubtedly brilliant, able to teach herself the intricacies of several branches of science, conduct research, experiment, and ultimately succeed in discovering methods of successfully creating artificial monsters and monsterization. She created an organization of monsters for monsters, oversaw the recruitment and/or subjugation of multiple dragon-level monsters, and acted as their leader through her pet experiment Orochi and meat puppet Gyoro Gyoro. She accomplished all this, but her most noteworthy accomplishment for him was the fact that she managed to track him down, a feat not even Solaria has been able to do.

It is likely that she used her special ability to aid her in this, but regardless, she did manage to convince him to come out of hiding and invest in a partnership that has proven rather lucrative for him so far. For this as well as her other accomplishments, particularly in the scientific field of study, Dr. Psycho has acknowledged her as a scientific peer.

The same cannot be said for her skills as an esper. To be fair, Psykos was above average when it came to the power and versatility of her psychic abilities, even by his metric, and has much potential for growth. She even managed to somehow unlock true clairvoyance in the form of her Third Eye ability, even if she seldom uses said ability for reasons not even the doctor can fathom. He hypothesizes that she didn’t have much control over it, and that is the crux of Psykos’ issue.

For all her brilliance, drive, creativity, and power as both a scientist and a psychic, there was one thing the woman undoubtedly lacked, and that thing is experience. He’s seen it when she stormed his base of operations and fought his artificial espers; he’s observed her brief encounter with Garou through the meat puppet, and it all points to a lack of combat awareness and application. It’s clear that in the pursuit of her scientific endeavours, Psykos sacrificed properly training her psychic abilities, and the worst part is that she hasn’t even realized it.

As someone who worked in creating artificial espers, Dr. Psycho’s successful subjects did not have nearly as much potential as natural espers, let alone Psykos and the psychic sisters who have some of the highest potential of any natural esper. They had to be extensively trained to exhibit the kind of power that would make them effective against natural espers, and even then, more often than not, they did not come close to exhibiting the kind of powers a natural psionic connection could induce. It’s the reason why his artificial espers focused their training on control and precision.

Psykos’ method is near the complete opposite, with her placing more emphasis on raising her personal power without proper training to utilize it. Not to say that she has no training, as she has developed some of her psychic skills, but they seem to have been developed more incidentally or as a means to an end than anything else. For example, psychokinesis is the most basic of the basic skills for an esper, and gravity control is just a precision increase of psychokinetic pressure around an individual. It is a skill that is the ‘next step’ for someone with significant psychic power.

Her skill in telepathy was developed as a way to control her meat puppet and run surveillance of the outside world through psychic bio-drones. The only noteworthy psychic skill that Psykos has that wasn’t developed for convenience was her energy projection, and even then it’s rather rudimentary.

Compare that to the Psychic Sisters, who not only have the benefit of Solaria’s mentorship but have also dedicated themselves to actually mastering their abilities. As pro heroes, they have plenty of opportunities to put that work into practice.

‘She thinks she’s a match for Tatsumaki; how laughable.’

Dr. Psycho has kept a very close eye on his former test subject. Once upon a time, he made plans to reacquire that ultimately fell through. It wasn’t just that Solaria kept a keen eye on her; eventually, it just wasn’t feasible. Not only did the Tornado of Terror have more potential than Psykos, but unlike the Bluenette, she spent a great deal of her time training and developing her more nuanced psychic abilities. Combined with her overwhelming and staggering potential for growth, there is a reason why the only other esper to surpass the green-haired woman is essentially a psychic goddess.

As Dr. Psycho continued to walk down the spacious and empty corridor, he continued to think. For all the criticisms he laid out about Psykos, he at least expected her to be reasonable, as she’s proven to be in the past. Yet the closer it came to confronting Tatsumaki, the more erratic and emotional the esper has become. Of course, she still tried to project the same cool, calculating, and arrogant exterior; however, such things are meaningless to a telepath of his calibre. To him, her outward calm was betrayed by her mental turmoil, not in the sense that she was nervous or anxious but in how ostensibly focused she was on fighting Tatsumaki to the point of obsession.

Obviously, the woman has something to prove, and defeating Tatsumaki is the instrument through which she could deliver her proof. Unfortunately, her action has degraded Dr. Psycho’s respect which is a pity but not a great loss. Dr. Psycho would have liked nothing more than to put that arrogant brat in her place, but he recognized that she had her own uses. Let the girl gain some humility, and hopefully Tatsumaki will leave her alive for him to pick up at a later date. After all the real reason why he bothered to go along with this farce of a plan was because of Psykos’ possession of the Third Eye ability.

Frankly, the gift of true clairvoyance is wasted on that woman.

‘Erebus.’

A moment later, an individual materializes from the shadow wearing a long dark trench coat over a black suit, leather gloves, a fedora, and a white mask with a large smile and star cross patterns running horizontally across the forehead.

‘Yes, doctor?’ the man answered telepathically.

‘Prepare Solaria for transport.’

‘It will be done. What of the other?’

‘Leave him be; I will handle him. Focus on getting Solaria back to the new base.’

He won’t let Psykos’ obsession and short-sighted pride get in the way of his progress.

His fists clenched ‘I can see mankind’s future.’

With a telepathic hum of affirmation, the agent slipped back into the shadows, like he was never there to begin with.

As for the other one...

‘Psykos wants a beast to set loose on the heroes; she will get one.’

~O~

A year and a half ago, Komobi took the Hero Entrance Exams and became a C-Class hero. Unlike a majority of the others who took said exam, Komobi was neither a weirdo with delusions of grandeur, had a particular set of skills that would serve him well as a hero, had a lack of skill in anything else besides, or was particularly desperate for any monetary pay. If Komobi was being honest with himself, he became a hero solely for the experience during his ‘gap year.’

And yes, it also helped that the pay was good.

Make no mistake, being the realist that he is Komobi was fully aware of the inherent dangers of being a hero. This is why he operated in places with little to no monster sightings and low crime rates. Rather than fight monsters and stop crime, he did what amounted to community service. Then he had his first run-in with a monster. In retrospect, the monster wasn’t anything special—just a disaster-level Tiger talking up a big game—but for a previously civilian high school graduate with moderate fitness, little combat experience, and no experience dealing with monsters, it was the scariest thing.

To make a long story short he ended up getting pretty beaten up. Komobi seriously thought he would die right then; however, before the monster dealt the final blow he was saved by a trio of men wearing tailored black suits. Through excellent teamwork they took down the monster with relative ease. It was the most incredible thing he’d ever seen, and Komobi was sure that the three men were B-class, but he was wrong.

It turns out his saviors were all C-class, just like him, though much higher ranked. That information floored Komobi because he’s met other C-Class heroes before, and from what he could see, he thought the C-Class were essentially a dumping ground for unskilled, barely trained civilians like him who are basically being paid to do the equivalent of odd jobs. The fact that a C-Class hero’s weekly quota could literally be met by doing odd jobs as ‘public service’ lends credence to this thought.

What these men demonstrated, however, is what he expected of actual competent and trained heroes. The reason for how they became like that was told to him as he waited for the ambulance and clean-up crew. All of them started out like him, basically civilians; however, they joined a group, received training, and became stronger for it.

They offered to take him up if he was interested and even gave him a card. Komobi realized that he didn’t have to take them up on their offer. He didn’t really have a skin in this game and could very much write this whole thing off as a bad idea, quit, and return to civilian life with no issue. Unfortunately, the physical and verbal abuse he suffered at the hands of that monster lit a fire in his belly that would not be satisfied with anything less than retribution.

He never wanted to be that helpless again.

So rather than have doubts about his life choices, he doubled down and took the men up on their offer. Following a somewhat difficult vetting process, Komobi found himself among the ranks of the Blizzard Group. It turned out to be the best decision he could have made, as through them, Komobi eventually came into his own as a hero, growing stronger, gaining experience, and climbing the ranks at a steady pace.

Unfortunately, despite the proper training and actual support he received from the Blizzard Group it cannot be said that Kemobi had enough talent to rise up in the rankings in an appropriate manner. Even after nearly a year in the Blizzard Group, while most of his peers went on to B-Class, he barely managed to break into the top 50 in C-Class. A shame, but he didn’t let it bother him considering he didn’t want to be a hero permanently anyway.

It seemed the leadership agreed, as he was eventually called in to a meeting with Miss Fubuki herself and two of her executives. He expected to be let go by the group, but the reality turned out to be much different. After noticing his struggles, they ran a background check and deduced his intentions of wanting to be a hero as a temporary way to pass his gap year. At the same time they also recognized that Kemobi liked being part of the Blizzard Group, which worked for what they wanted to propose to him.

Rather than let him go, however, she made a proposal for him to help the Blizzard Group in another way. It turns out that in order to preserve the Blizzard Group’s continued rising dominance in the Hero Association, Miss Fubuki would send out unremarkable yet trustworthy members of the group to act as spies and informants. The criteria for who can be chosen for this are very stringent, and it just so happened that, despite lacking as a hero, Kemobi managed to meet the criteria for being one of her spies.

It's funny how things work out.

In any case, after spending a few weeks getting his credentials up to snuff and with the full backing and support of Fubuki and the Blizzard Group, Kemobi applied for a position as a member of the janitorial staff at the Hero Association HQ. You’d think, given that he’s a former hero suddenly applying for a position to work at the Hero Association HQ would raise some flags, but it never did. Even in his interview, his being a hero only came up once before the interviewer moved on.

It turns out that it’s not uncommon to have those who couldn’t cut it as heroes apply for jobs within the organization itself. And just like that, Kemobi became a member of the Hero Association’s janitorial staff. Going from a moderately successful hero (even if it was C-Class) to a janitor made Kemobi reasonably upset at the downgrade. That was initially the case, but as time went by, Kemobi began to appreciate his newfound position. Not only did the job pay well with benefits but Kemobi was also able to relay important information back to the Blizzard Group from things he overheard or saw during his rounds.

After all, no one really pays attention to the janitor.

Things have gotten difficult as of late following the death of an executive by a Monster Association infiltrator. Kemobi was able to avoid getting axed by complying with certain demands, which included a periodic screening and being barred from leaving the premises. Essentially, he’s been living in the Hero Association HQ for a few days now and won’t be able to leave until the Monster Association is put down.

Not everyone was given the same option, with nearly the entire security team and all non-essential personnel fired. Then there are those who quit willingly because they’ve given up hope and want to spend what they feel are their last days on earth doing whatever it is they wanted. It meant that now the building operated more as a fortress that was effectively being run by a skeleton crew of staff, guarded by the now inexplicably recovered heroes and Metal Knight’s automated security system.

As a janitor, even his movements were being scrutinized. Thankfully having been employed for several months and coordinating with other Blizzard infiltrators who have unfortunately left, Kemobi was able to pick up on a few tricks. One of said tricks was making connections with the other staff members one of whom worked in the medical wing and, through gossip, informed him that they saw the Tornado of Terror reserve a private room in the medical wing for the Blizzard of Hell and demanded that she be put in a medical coma.

Naturally, Kemobi informed the Blizzard executives about this, and he got confirmation that Miss Fubuki has indeed been kidnapped by her own sister. They didn’t have a reason for it, and the second ranked S-Class hero was being very obtuse and belligerent about why she brought the other psychic there. Neither Kemobi nor the other executives cared for her reasons either way. All they knew was that their leader was kidnapped and they needed to save her.

It felt like his entire stint as a spy was setting him up for that very moment, and so Kemobi spent several hours preparing. With the Monster Association’s deadline coming up, he had the perfect opportunity to enact his plan. The appearance of even more heroes put a cramp on things, but this was balanced out by the appearance of the previously hospitalized Blizzard Group, including all the executives.

Together, they revamped his plan, starting with the takeover of the building’s security. One member who had a background in computer engineering walked him through hacking the security system and giving him temporary control of the cameras. Meanwhile, with the excuse of meandering, using the bathroom, and going for some snacks, several of the Blizzard executives split off.

Glasses, the most unassuming executive, meet with him to get medical uniforms, and together they are able to gain access to the medical wing without raising suspicion. Since access to Fubuki’s room is highly restricted, both men make a detour, and through the excuse of their janitorial duties, they are able to swipe the doctor’s keycard to gain access. All the while, the Blizzard Group’s hacker is subtly manipulating the cameras to not give them away.

Once in position, the cameras close to Fubuki’s room are put on a temporary loop as they enter. Once inside, Glasses reads the information provided on the medical charts present to determine what was done to their comatose leader and, through intuition as well as a few internet searches, manages to find the means of disrupting the chemically induced coma and waking her up.

With Kemobi acting as lookout, Glasses oversees Miss Fubuki’s slow transition into consciousness. It started with a fluttering of her eyes, a moan, and a grumble as she woke up.

"Glasses?"

"Miss Fubuki," he greeted.

Then, as if a switch had been flipped, the woman jerked upward into a sitting position, only to stagger as she was hit with a bout of vertigo.

Glasses was immediately at her side, helping her position herself as she swung her legs over the bed. "Careful, you’ve been under for a while now."

"W-what happened?" Her eyes blearily looked around. "Where are we?"

"We’re at the Hero Association headquarters in City A."

"City A? How..." she held her head with a groan.

"You were taken here last night by your sister."

"My sister..." she trailed off in thought.

Glasses allowed her this, as she seemingly recalled the events of the night prior. Her expression turned from disgruntled to confused before realization hit and rage overcame her.

"Tatsumaki."

There was a very brief moment where an emerald aura flashed before all traces of fatigue were swept away, despite just waking up from a chemically induced coma. When she stood, it was on steady feet; when she spoke, it was with a clear voice; and all the while her expression remained displeased.

"Get dressed; we’re leaving."

Yes, ma’am," answered both men as they discarded their janitorial uniforms to reveal they wore black tailored suits in shockingly pristine condition.

As Fubuki made her way to the door, Kemobi opened it for her. She paused by the doorway to give him a full glance. "You did well Kemobi; welcome back."

The man smiled brightly, incidentally puffing his chest, and said, "Thank you, Miss Fubuki; it’s good to be back."

With a nod, the second-ranked A-Class hero Blizzard of Hell left the hospital room, flanked by two of her most trusted and loyal subordinates.

~To Be Continued~