"Man, the city sure is different when no one's around." King noted as he walked through the currently empty City Z.
Both King and Saitama had become used to the rather noisy and rambunctious nature of the city's population, to the point where in times like this when no one was around it was honestly quite shocking. Try as he could the man known as the world's second strongest hero, due to his companionship with the first, could not spot a single person in any building or alleyway as he travelled to his best friend's apartment. And while most might be unsettled by this, the overwhelming silence and stillness that consumed the world around them, both men when these times did rarely happen actually enjoyed them. Though in their defense you might find such moments of graveyard like peace pleasant too, if nearly every day you had to hear hordes of people chanting and cheering as if that was their life's purpose.
"Bet Saitama's in a great mood right now, not often he gets to wake up on his own without his human alarm clock going off." He thought jokingly as he looked down at the object he was carrying, "Maybe after we play this for a bit we could head to the arcade and spend the day there, it'd be great since we wouldn't be suffocated by his fans." He considered.
Growing ever closer to his destination King began hearing some noises that sounded like someone talking, which he assumed was either Saitama speaking aloud or a few people who were bold enough to come out even though the monster was still at large. But as he was able to just barely see the front of his apartment building as he neared the end of the street, he found himself immediately taking cover for a terrifying sight came into view. Feeling his heart pound and his legs start to shake, he cautiously peaked around the building he had pressed himself against to make sure he wasn't seeing things.
"Man, place sure is quiet." A MASSIVE brown beetle man monster said as he looked around.
"Mhm, I knew Mosquito Girl caused everyone to run scared, but you'd think with One Punch Man living here that they'd all feel pretty damn safe." Another equally large and intimidating creature replied, this one resembling a lion instead of an insect.
"What the hell?! Why are there two monsters standing in front of Saitama's building?!" King wondered in a panic as his heart rate went faster and faster with each passing second.
Almost as if on cue to make things worse, a third monster this one appearing to be a robot of some kind came out from right side of the building, almost as if he was patrolling around it.
"Any signs of anyone else?" The beetle asked as it approached.
"Negative, only the others, One Punch Man, and an unidentified cyborg are present near the vicinity." It responded in a very electronic sounding voice.
"Dude, how many times do we got to tell you that voice doesn't make you cooler, it honestly sounds like someone crushed your wind pipe." The lion said.
"...I think it sounds cool..." The robot replied though this time in a far more normal voice, still very deep and intimidating however.
Slowly turning away from them and looking ahead of himself, if anyone else could see him right now they'd think King was having a heart attack. Sweat was drenching his clothes quite quickly, his heart was beating so fast and so loud you could actually hear it from inside his chest, and his eyes were as wide and panicked as a deer who just realized it was being surrounded by a pack of wolves.
"O-Okay, think King think! There HAS to be some kind of explanation to this!" He reasoned, finding it near impossible that any monsters would be allowed near Saitama's apartment unless he was cool with it.
"Hey, do you guys hear that?" The voice of the robot asked, causing every fiber of King's form to tense up in an instant.
"Yeah, what the hell is that? Sounds like some kind of drum." The beetle chimed in.
"Think it's coming from over there." The lion said no doubt pointing to where he was exactly.
"...Whelp...I'm gonna die..." King resigned, not even going to try and run away as his legs currently felt like they were made of wet paper.
Whether it was due to divine intervention, or just his sheer baffling dumb luck when it came to monsters and scary situations in general, before the terrifying trio could take one step in his direction his "guardian angel" appeared. Hearing the sound of what he knew had to be Saitama's apartment door opening thanks to the silence, he felt brave enough to peek around the corner again to see if he actually was coming out. And while his heart began to rapidly slow down as he saw the shining domed visage of his best friend step out from the building, his mind would race with questions as he wasn't the only one. Following right behind him out of his apartment was some guy wearing glasses who looked pretty important, a blond haired stoic faced cyborg, and a bunch of monsters who he could tell were clearly with the other three.
"So how far is this place again?" Saitama asked as he closed the door behind them once they were out, making sure to lock it so no stalkers could get in while he was gone.
"It's actually not too far from City Z, though I promise that is pure coincidence." The man answered as they all headed for the stairwell.
"Huh, that's convenient, still how are you planning to get there quickly? I can run pretty fast and I assume you can fly or something right Genos?" Saitama asked.
"Not exactly, I can propel myself into the air with controlled blasts of heat from my arms, but I am not capable with my current design of achieving sustained flight, I can however move quite quickly so keeping up with you and everyone else shouldn't be an issue." The cyborg explained.
Losing track of their conversation once they were in the stairwell, King kept his eyes focused on the entry door at the bottom waiting for them to come out, which would only take a few seconds.
"Ah, so that's how." Saitama said as they stepped out, looking over his shoulder at one of the monsters who followed, "Guess I should've known you'd be giving him a ride, since you can fly and all." He admitted.
"Wait...is that?!" King questioned with widened eyes, as he now recognized one of the monsters as the one who attacked the city yesterday.
"Mhm! If anything I might get him back to the building before you reach it One Punch Man! I am pretty fast in the air after all." She replied with a proud smile.
"How were things out here? Were there any issues to report?" The man asked the three monsters as they reached them, seeming to address them with authority.
"No sir, we thought we heard something just before you came out but it seems to have stopped, probably was just some cat or dog banging around in a trash can." The beetle answered.
"Whoa, you guys are huge." Saitama commented as he stood in front of them.
"Hell yeah we are!" The beetle exclaimed as he then flexed his muscles, "Just goes to show how great the house of evolution is huh?" He said.
"It...certainly is interesting..." Saitama replied as he looked to all of the monsters, trying his best to find some way to compliment them without it seeming sarcastic.
"Trust me when I say you'll be much more impressed once we return." The man assured as he then climbed onto the back of the mosquito woman "So, shall we leave?" He asked.
Responding with just a simple nod Saitama would wait until the mosquito woman, along with both the man on her back and the beetle who spread his own hidden wings took to the sky and flew off in a direction. The other monsters who could not fly weren't going to be left behind though, the one that looked like a mole from what King could tell burrowed into the ground, where as the remaining three that were a frog, a slug, and a mantis of some kind were all picked up by the lion and carried away, with the robot managing to keep pace with him. Once they were a decent bit ahead of them to where they could follow without slowing down too much, both Saitama and the cyborg then disappeared in a flash, having left with such speed King believed they were almost out of the city already.
"Man...this is insane!" He thought as he finally could breathe easily again, "I have no idea what is going on, or even how those monsters and that guy convinced Saitama to follow them, and who even was that cyborg? He didn't seem like he was with them..." He went over in his head, before then pulling out his cellphone from his pocket "I don't want to get everyone riled up ESPECIALLY not tornado, but I can't keep something like this from the association, hopefully they'll keep a level head about this situation and not go into red alert right away..." He hoped as he hit the speed dial for the organization
Despite having so many personnel, heroes, and branches that make up the association which could cause some miscommunication, very rarely if ever is there a moment when things are not functioning like clockwork. Everyone and everything serves a specific purpose to ensure both the safety of the world and its populace, but also that its employed heroes are not put into situations beyond their capabilities. The "frontline" of this system was the operators, in every single building where association employees were stationed they were on standby, ready to receive every single call and report from both heroes and citizens. From there they would inform their superiors of the information received and a course of action would be determined, starting of course with threat assessment.
Now everyone including the general public knew about the threat rankings, wolf, tiger, demon, dragon, and finally god, but the method of evaluating which was given was only known by the association. Several factors were carefully considered, how large is the threat and/or disaster, if it is something sentient how powerful does it appear to be, and from there which heroes besides those that may be nearby would be best suited to fight it? However there was one exception to this system as you may expect, One Punch Man being the hero that he is could literally handle anything, so regardless of threat level if he was there then he'd be called and that was that.
And by relation his reputation was known by everyone, hence why any villains or monsters who found themselves in his presence just automatically surrendered. So you can imagine that heart stopping shock that was being experienced right now by association employees, who had just received the following phone call from his sidekick/well known best friend.
"Yeah, it's me." The voice of King spoke, the start of his side of the call being a response to the operator who answered it by saying his name, "So uh...here's the thing...I have something to tell you...but I need you to PROMISE me that you're not gonna freak out, that anyone who hears this isn't going to freak, and you're going to try and approach this as rationally as possible." He began followed by the operator saying they promised, "Okay good, so...the reason I called you out of nowhere like this is um...well...how do I put this...Saitama...er...One Punch Man...he's uh...left City Z with a group of monsters, a guy who I think made them, and a blonde headed cyborg..." He told the operator.
After that a long period of silence occurred in the recording, as the operator was sent into a state of shock while King realize how bad of an idea this was.
"...Shit...you know what? Ignore this call please, I uh probably am just thinking of um...a video game, that's it, totally not actually One Punch Man leaving City Z with a bunch of monsters...sorry for wasting your time..." He apologized before ending the call, followed by the operator doing the same.
Of course to what would become King's dismay later the operator couldn't keep from freaking out, as she ran straight to her superior who was a rather scruffy looking man. And when she told him what King had told her he too was sent into a state of shock, which didn't last long as they needed to react to this. However this was truly a first time occurrence, never once in the entire history of the organization was there ever a moment where a hero and a monster seemed so friendly with each other. Now King didn't say they were friendly, but seeing as how One Punch Man didn't kill these monsters and they weren't begging for their lives, meant that whatever was going on was BIG.
Yet they needed to be careful about what their next move was, if they weren't then they could unintentionally cause a panic or just bring unwanted attention to the situation. This is why both the operator and her superior decided to inform the higher ups, and after a lengthy deliberation came to a decision that they believed was completely reasonable and justified.
"So we're all in agreement then?" The meeting's head asked earning a shared nod from the others, "Very good, then we should waste no time in assembling all of S class, and we'll need to make sure we inform them this is a matter involving One Punch Man, that alone will convey the gravity of this situation." He said.