Mayari had come over to Saitama's apartment again. She was here to accompany him on his usual patrol, but she arrived far earlier than she intended and found Saitama still in his pajamas. Confused, he had told her that he had no plans to go out on patrol and was only going to the grocery store, but she still elected to come with him. She reasoned that the duo would still encounter villains and monsters while on his shopping trip; a reason that made almost no sense to Saitama. But when he had pointed out that Mayari could just go out and find monsters on her own, she simply brushed him off and ignored him. Saitama was surprised by Mayari's response (and maybe just a tad offended), but on the other hand, he didn't care all that much. Mayari was in his living room, helping herself to Saitama's small collection of manga, while the latter was in his bathroom brushing his teeth. A newscast was playing on the TV. The goddess had turned it on as background noise to listen to as she read.

"As you can see, City Z is slated to be next in the current path of the mosquito wave," the newsman said, gesturing to a digital diagram of the current trajectory of the mosquito wave. "Now, today we have an expert with us; Mr. Kafetch, an expert on mosquitos who has written several books on the subject."

The camera panned to the left of the newsman to reveal an elderly man in business attire sitting with his hands clasped together. "Thank you," Mr. Kafetch said, bowing his head. "Now, these mosquitoes are an entirely new species. Therefore, I know nothing about them and I strongly suggest running for your life if you see a swarm of mosquitoes."

The newsman was not impressed with the so-called expert. "What!? Come on! What good is that!? Get him out of here!" he snapped. The sudden outburst from the TV caused Mayari to look up from the manga she was reading. She saw a large man in a black t-shirt walk into the shot and grab Mr. Kafetch by the coat, rather forcedly yanking him out of the chair and out of the camera shot. After the so-called expert was vacated from his seat the camera panned back on to the newsman, who was recomposing himself. At the display of unprofessionalism, Mayari let out a chuckle.

Saitama, who had finished brushing his teeth and was now making for his balcony, paid the news no mind. Instead, he focused on taking care of his cactus.

This little cactus was more or less Saitama's most prized possession, barring his hero suit. He's had it for as long as he could remember. So long, in fact, that he had since forgotten how it had come under his possession. It was probably a gift from someone in his family or a purchase from some garden store. Saitama didn't know, nor did he care. All he was focused on right now was watering it, just as he did every day. Not that he had to. It was just a habit that he fell into. The gentle sound of water splashing onto the prickly plant was soothing in a way. Especially when compared to the usual dead silence of his neighborhood, or the hustle and bustle of all the other cities.

But the calming sound of the water would not last for long, for another sound would invade the bald hero's peace and tranquility. A terrible noise that was the bane of all barbecuers and picnic-goers alike. A dreaded discord of horror, known to incite panic and disarray to all who hear it.

That sound was the buzzing of insect wings. Mosquito wings.

But mosquitoes weren't that much of a problem, right? Well, of course not! Especially not for a man that could obliterate entire continents with a flick of his wrist. Those were, more or less, Saitama's thoughts when the little parasite landed on his wrist, presumably to suck his blood. Completely unconcerned, Saitama slowly raised his free hand and brought it down swiftly on the mosquito.

POW!

The bald hero vanquished his foe, swiftly and absolutely… or, maybe not. Because when Saitama lifted his hand to see his kill, the mosquito flew out from underneath, completely unharmed. Mildly perplexed, Saitama made another attempt to crush it in midair, only to miss his mark by a surprisingly wide margin. Now the bug's droning wingbeat was almost getting on his nerves. This time, with just an extra ounce of effort, he pinpointed the mosquitoes' exact location, reached out his hand, and grabbed it. But he narrowly missed once again!

"The hell's going on?" Asked Mayari, who was standing in the doorway to Saitama's balcony. She had been disturbed by Saitama's noisy attempts at pest control; what with the miniature sonic booms caused as a byproduct of his strength. The bald hero just harshly shushed his house guest, continuing to scan his surroundings. "There's a mosquito here. Trying to kill it." Saitama deadpanned, for he was too far deep in concentration to give a proper response.

"A mosquito? Seriously?" Mayari said. She was understandably not convinced. After all, this was the strongest human… hell, the strongest being she knew. How could he have this much trouble catching a lowly insect? But her suspicions were quickly proven wrong when she saw the mosquito land on the side of his head and Saitama smacked it with more force than she expected.

BAM!

Silence followed the devastating attack. Saitama internally hoped that the silence would persist this time, while Mayari fully expected that it would. But unfortunately, it would not. The buzzing began again! Mayari was thoroughly confused. How could it still be alive? Either this mosquito was some king of a mystical specter, or Saitama simply wasn't as sharp-eyed as she thought. The bug buzzed and whirled around them, before finally coming to rest on Mayari's left forearm.

"Here, I'll get it," she said in a mocking tone, and she gave the parasite on her arm a good smack. A blast of air blew out from the impact, though it was still much smaller compared to the blasts created by Saitama. The lunar deity smirked in triumph, but when she lifted her hand, the mosquito flew out from underneath! Shocked and perplexed, she swung her hand several times at the parasite in a vain attempt to catch it. Yet it evaded each of her attacks with seeming ease.

Fully convinced and committed, Mayari slowly set down her manga while Saitama put down his watering can. The two stood like statues with constricted pupils until finally, they pounced. They zipped and jumped around the balcony to kill their insectoid quarry, causing ear-shattering booms with each attack. Mayari was like a blur, running back and forth from both ends of the tiny patio. But Saitama was moving so fast that he appeared to be disappearing and reappearing out of thin air.

"Hahahaha! Buncha pussies! Thanks to that warning, all these stores are ripe for the picking," said a smug robber, armed with a crowbar and exiting a broken-in storefront.

A good distance away, outside of Z-City's abandoned neighborhood, a warning had gone out an hour prior, urging all civilians to stay inside. Of course, as with most disasters, some people will take advantage of the chaos and fear. In this case, it's a single man going on a looting spree. The burglar tossed his newest piece of loot into his bag of plunder, swollen to enormity with his stolen treasures.

"I mean, who's gonna die from a couple of mosquito bites?" he said, twirling his crowbar in confidence. "And what're a few rashes here and there when I can waltz away with all this?"

But in a world of gods, heroes, and monsters, nothing can be so simple. As the burglar slung the large and heavy sack over his shoulder to move on to his next quarry, a great gust of wind blew over him, blowing off his beanie and nearly knocking him over. He looked up to the sky, seeing a dark amorphous shape rise into the sky and fly off into the distance.

"What the hell was…?" He muttered, unnerved.

A loud, droning noise sounded off behind the man, and he turned around and froze in horror. He saw another dark shape in the sky, but this time he could fully make out what it was composed of. It was… a swarm of insects… a swarm of mosquitoes! Panicking, the man abandoned his loot and made a run for his life. But he was quickly overtaken and enveloped by the swarm of parasites. He felt their thousands of tiny needles pierce his skin, and he flailed around frantically to get them off, only for more and more mosquitoes to latch onto his skin. He quickly exhausted himself in his desperation, and because of the mosquitoes quickly sucking out his nutritious blood. Soon enough, his movements slowed more and more, and the swarm around him turned blood red. Then, as soon as they had appeared, the swarm dispersed, leaving behind the mummified corpse of the man.

The swarm of mosquitoes flew high into the sky, joining other crimson-colored swarms rising above the city. They circled and climbed higher and higher and congregated into a massive orb of insects, floating in the sky. Amongst the crimson and dark brown, the obscured outline of a vaguely human shape could just be made out. A voice could also be heard moaning; sultry and seductive in its tone. The voice and the orb persisted for a brief moment and the red coloring of the mosquitoes gradually disappeared. Then the swarm dispersed, revealing the mysterious being levitating within. The creature vaguely resembled a slender human woman, but with the added features of a mosquito. Her arms and legs were extended and multi-jointed, like an insect, but with large metallic hooks for hands and feet and with the thorax of a mosquito where her tailbone would be. She hovered in the sky with long, iridescent wings, and a short yet sharp spike jutted out from her forehead.

"Ugh! What's wrong with you guys?" she whined. "That wasn't nearly enough blood. Go get some more!"

As she commanded, the mosquitoes spread out and began to fly away in search of more prey for their master. The insect swarms were so dense and numerous that the surrounding buildings were practically coated in flying, buzzing mosquitoes…

"Target acquired."

As soon as she heard those mysterious words, the mosquito woman was nearly immolated by a rocketing blast of fire. With a wave of her claw, she narrowly commanded a portion of her mosquitoes to intercept the projectile, destroying them mosquito girl immediately scanned her surroundings for her attacker, and she saw a humanoid figure standing in the distance. With the sheer density of the swarm, she could only see the silhouette of a young man and his glowing yellow eyes. The newcomer spoke out to the monster with a synthetic, almost robotic voice. "I see. So you command the mosquitos using some sort of signal. And you use them to suck the blood of any living creature in your radius and then have them deposit it back into you," it stated coldly and factually. "So perhaps if you were to die, the swarm would disperse?"

The mosquito monster only smirked and laughed at the being's remark. "We've found some fresh food. Go drain that fool dry," she commanded. At once, all the mosquitoes in the area converged and smothered the silhouette in their life-sapping embrace. The mosquito woman could almost taste that arrogant fool's succulent blood, and she licked her lips and hummed in excitement.

"Incinerate."

An explosion of heat and flame consumed the mosquitoes, and the mosquito woman shielded her eyes from the blinding flash of light. When the light subsided, she saw that all of her mosquitoes had been burned to nothing. With her swarm gone, she could now clearly see her adversary, standing amongst the scorched earth. He appeared to be a young cyborg, with mechanical arms and black eyes with golden pupils. He had spiky blonde hair and was dressed in a white sleeveless shirt, blue jeans, and brown leather boots. He was holding out his glowing palm towards the mosquito woman.

"I am here to eliminate you, monster," he said. "Stay right where you are."

As the two combatants stared off, a large, obscured figure crept across the roof of a nearby building. While the monster's attention was fixed upon the cyborg, the shadowy silhouette crept closer and closer to her.

"You? Eliminate Me?" the mosquito girl chuckled at his presumptuous challenge, and her facial expression quickly shifted from mild bemusement to a wild bloodlust. "I'd like to see you try!"

But a mighty shout interrupted the standoff, and the mosquito girl swiveled in midair to block a surprise ice-spear attack! Her attacker this time was a woman - a large woman with snowy blonde hair, and… deer antlers on her head! She was also dressed in clothing composed of various animal pelts.

"What the hell!?" the mosquito girl exclaimed. But the antler-ed woman said nothing. Instead, she held out her hand, in which an ax made of ice manifested out of thin air. She then swung it at blinding speeds at the monster's throat with another earthshaking cry.

POW!

Saitama clapped his hands together one final time. Veins were bulging on Saitama's hands and forehead, and his face was warped in a mixture of frustration and exasperation. He stood completely still and remained dead silent for the next few moments, listening intently for the dreaded noise of insect wings. But thankfully, only the sound of his and Mayari's breathing could be heard.

"Didja get it?" Mayari asked, looking over his shoulder.

"Yeah, I think so," Saitama answered, triumphantly.

The two shared a sigh of relief having finally vanquished their vampiric foe… until the buzzing started once again. The stupid little bug was still alive! It even buzzed around their heads and in front of their faces, as if to mock them for their "slow" and "clumsy" attacks. Saitama and Mayari slowly rose again, their eyes twitching and veins bulging on their heads. Needless to say, the two were pissed.