Chapter 2 - Just a Guy who's a Hero for Fun

"I'm just a guy who's a hero for fun. But you call me Cape-" He stopped and quickly corrected himself. "You can call me Saitama."

Peter sat up a little and held a hand out for Saitama to shake. Saitama took his hand, and they shook.

"And I'm Spid-" Now it was his turn to correct himself. Saitama had already seen his face so he figured that it wouldn't hurt more to tell this guy his name. Plus, he had an idea forming in his head. "I'm Peter. Peter Parker."

"Nice to meet you, I guess. Why are you all the way out here, in the middle of… well, here?"

"Oh, well, I'm a hero and I…" He trailed off, not knowing how to explain that he had no clue where he was, or why he was here.

"You're a hero too?"

Peter was surprised at this. The man didn't look particularly hero-like, although he knew that he himself wouldn't look much like a hero if he weren't wearing a red and blue colored spandex suit.

"Yeah, I am. I'm your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man." He smiled a little.

"I've never heard of you, but cool, I guess." Saitama looked down at Peter's body, which was badly scratched. "Uh, what happened? Should I take you to the hospital or something?"

"Oh, right, I-" Peter was cut off as he felt his Spider-Sense tingle. "Look out!" he said, just before a larger version of the worm monster from earlier burst out of the ground behind Saitama.

Peter was about to jump and tackle Saitama to the ground, but Saitama simply turned and struck the creature with a single fist, killing it instantly. Guts, bits of skin, and everything else that made up the monster rained down on them.

Saitama turned back around to face Peter; his face looked bored even though he had just killed a giant monster. His fist was smoking.

"Should we get going?" Peter was astonished. Saitama looked and sounded as bored as if he had been playing chess.

"How did- You just-" Peter was struggling to find words. "You… killed that thing with a single punch!"

"Oh, right." It seemed like Saitama only just now noticed that. "That happens sometimes." He started to walk back to his apartment, not looking to see if Peter was following. "Hey, you should probably come this way."

Peter hurried after Saitama. He was sure he was in shock, which was why he had no problem running to catch up. Saitama was walking at a normal speed, and Peter stared at him, still attempting to figure out who this guy was.

"How did you…" Peter's brain scrambled for an explanation. "How'd you do that?"

"What do you mean?"

"Like, how did you get so strong?"

Saitama looked at Peter, and with a completely straight face, he said;

"I trained."

After that, they walked in silence until they reached the door of Saitama's room. Peter expected that once they got inside, he'd see bodybuilding gear. This man was so strong, Peter was sure he'd be able to hold off the Hulk for a while.

But when they stepped in, what they saw was a normal room, with a TV, rack of books, a closet, a beanbag chair, a small kitchen, and a door which presumably lead to a small bathroom.

Peter suddenly remembered where they were supposed to be going. He gazed at Saitama, who was now grabbing a bag that was on the floor.

"Hey, I thought we were going to the hospital." Saitama stood up straight, and with a bag in hand, he shrugged.

"Well yeah, we are, but I needed to grab something. Plus, you're healing pretty quick, I don't think that you'll need much help." Saitama's voice was fascinating to Peter. It was always so monotone, no matter what was happening at that second.

"Okay, fair. But what's that thing that you're holding?" Saitama showed his first sign of emotion. A slight grin.

"This," he said, holding up the bag to show Peter. "Is my hero suit."

Genos leaped and fired his leg boosters, flying at the monster's face. He held a single arm out, getting ready to fire.

"After this long fight, you hideous beast. I have now found out your only weakness. You have no protection on the inside." His arm laser fired just he was about the enter the monster's mouth.

The creature let out a loud roar as the intense heat hit the inside of his mouth. Genos quickly changed direction by turning his legs and landed safely to the side of the monster.

As he landed, the beast fell to the ground behind him, shaking the earth, and destroying a few buildings.

The crowd gathered nearby cheered and started praising Genos. He saw everyone in the crowd yelling at him. Businessmen, children, women, they all were either crying in joy or on the verge of tears.

"How can we ever repay you?!" a man shouted, holding his arms out towards Genos. Genos, face still serious, walked to the crowd. As he did, the shouting died down.

"You need not repay me. I simply do this for you, the people. Your safety is payment enough." This brought more cheers from the people.

"He's so modest!" a young girl shouted.

After a few more minutes of listening to the crowd, Genos was eventually able to walk away. He was far away from City Z, where he and his master lived. But, with the robotic enhancements built into his body, the cyborg was able to run home in just a couple minutes.

He swerved, dodged, and duck under many obstacles on his way to the faraway city. But even with all of these impediments, he didn't take long. He did have to carefully crouch when he reached the broken fence which leads to the broken part of City Z as to not break it further, but after that, he was running at top speed again.

Once he got close, he slowed to a walk. He turned a corner and spotted his apartment on the second floor of a damaged building. The door was wide open.

Quickly, he hid behind a nearby bush and activated his scanner. There were two figures in the room, and one he recognized as his master, Saitama. But the other was new.

This unknown person did have human characteristics from what he could tell, but something was off. It was as if his body was just slightly different than a normal human.

"Master might be in trouble! What if that thing is attacking him?!"

He immediately ran up the stairs and to the door. After he got there, he held out the same hand which had destroyed the monster from before. It started to glow as he aimed at the unfamiliar man in the spandex suit.

"Who are you and what are you doing to Saitama?!" he barked out.

At this, the man turned, held his hands up, and his eyes filled with surprise. But before Genos blasted him to bits, Saitama, who was still holding his hero suit, ran between Genos and Peter.

"Woah, hey, this guy's a hero!" Saitama yelled over the sound of the arm cannon powering up. He was holding his arms out, shielding Peter.

"Oh. I see." Genos stopped readying his cannons and put his arms at his side. "I apologize, master. I thought that this man might be attacking you."

"I wouldn't attack him, even if I was a villain or something! He's way too strong…" Peter trailed off, deep in thought. Then he smiled a little (even though he was a little spooked still) and walked past Saitama.

He held out his hand.

"I'm Peter by the way. Peter Parker. Or, Spider-Man if you'd like." He wasn't used to giving out his name like this, but he figured he would be safe if this guy was Saitama's friend. Even if this cyborg guy scared him a bit.

Genos took his hand and shook. His hand felt as hard as steel, which might actually be what they were made of.

"I am Genos. Or, you could call me Demon Cyborg." His voice, Peter noticed, was about as monotone as Saitama's, but for this guy, it sounded more robotic.

"Demon… Cyborg? Cool name, but doesn't it sound kind of evil?"

Genos narrowed his eyes a little. Peter scrambled to fix what he had just said.

"Oh, I didn't mean it like that, I'm sure you're a good guy or whatever, I just, uh, mean that…" He didn't know what to say next. "Uh, hey, Saitama, you're a hero too, what's your hero name?" he said, quickly changing the topic.

He looked away from Genos since he was still scared of him, but he could feel the gaze of the cyborg lingering on his back.

Saitama's normally bored expression now became… sad? Disappointed? Peter didn't know. Whatever it was, it couldn't be a good thing.

"It's Caped…" Saitama barely whispered the last part.

"Uh, sorry, Caped what?" Saitama's expression grew more intense.

"Caped… Baldy…" Saitama choked out the last bit. Peter just stared at Saitama.

"No offense or anything, but that's kind of a dumb name."

"Yeah, I know." Saitama's expression changed to something that Peter could understand, embarrassment.

"Why don't you change it?"

This time, Genos spoke up.

"Your hero name is assigned to you by the Hero Association. You should know that." Genos now glared harder at Peter, and Peter shrank away a tiny bit.

"What's the Hero Association?" Genos and Saitama both looked at him a little strangely, with Genos' look being more hostile.

He just looked back in confusion

"What? Is that like SHIELD but for this… place…" Peter realized he still didn't know where he was. "Wait a minute, where am I?"

"City Z," Genos said, still staring.

"Where's that? Is it in America, or am I in a different country?" Peter was puzzled now since he'd never heard of a place being called something like City Z.

"America? Country?" Saitama asked. "The heck are you talking about?"

It was then that Peter's suspicions were furthered. He believed that he was in another universe.

"Stark." Steve Rogers walked into the Stark Laboratory, where Tony was working. "Made any progress?"

Tony looked up from his work. He standing in front of a holographic monitor. On it was displayed several equations, models, and text, none of which Steve could fully understand.

They both stood in silence for a second as Tony breathed in.

"No," he said begrudgingly. "I haven't. Not much anyway." Tony looked back down and started to erase several things. "Has the wizard gotten closer to figuring things out?" He had a tinge of anger, resentment, and disappointment in his voice.

"A little maybe," Steve replied, a somber look on his face. "He has somewhat of an idea where the kid went."

"Where." He didn't say it as a question. Moreover, he made it appear to be a statement.

"Another universe."

"Well no duh." Tony was completely angry now. He threw his hands down on the glass desk where the holograms were being projected from. "But he doesn't know which universe. I figured that out a while ago, considering that the thing that sent him away was a universe leaping device."

Steve cleared his throat. He had no words. He knew that Tony was the one most affected by this. Sure, everyone else missed him and was worried, but Tony had the unfortunate problem of believing it was his fault.

After a pause, he worked up something to say.

"Tony, you know that this isn't your fa-"

"Yes, it is! It is my fault. You, Strange, Banner, you all can keep telling me that 'it's not your fault' or 'you did the right thing' or whatever crap you'll make up."

The room was plunged into silence again, but this time Tony started to work on a new model.

Steve started to say something to Tony.

But he didn't. He couldn't. All he could do was leave the room. And that's what he did. He left Tony's lab, leaving everyone in the world a little more worried about where the amazing Spider-Man went.