The Caped Baldy did nothing but watch as the Saiyan Prince retreated in his pod. Sure, he could have easily stopped the pod while it was midair, but he didn't think it was really worth the trouble. He'd let Sonic escape, even though he knew he was an assassin, and nothing bad had really come of it. What was the worst that could happen?

But what perplexed him was how the smaller saigan or whatever they called themselves let the bald comrade behind. I mean, these two were like partners. What kind of partner leaves the other partner behind with nothing? No way to go anywhere, no way to contact him, and no energy to even stand. That wasn't cool in Saitama's book. That was fucking weak.

Saitama nonchalantly and lazily walked over to the bald saiyan. Nappa was a complete mess. His armor was cracked, completely torn in every spot that Saitama had hit with his Consecutive Normal Punches. His tail was crushed under the weight of the many rocks scattered all over his body. Barely conscious enough to register Saitama's presence, he stared contemptibly into Saitama's eyes. "So what now? Are you going to kill me? Torture me?" Nappa's chest tightened up on him and he began to cough up blood. Saitama's Consecutive Normal Punches had done a number on his lungs and ribcage. Simply inhaling was enough to make Nappa wince in pain.

Saitama shrugged. "I'm not into that kind of stuff. Sounds gruesome. Not really my kind of style. Although the Hero Association might not be so happy about what and your tiny friend did to City D.

"You weren't all that bad. If I had to rank you, you'd probably be around the third to fifth strongest guy I've come up against. I mean sure you weren't hard to beat, but at least you got me out of the house for the day. There hasn't been anything good on the movie channels these past few days, and I've spent most of my time just flipping through the channels without finding anything remotely substantial."

"Bastard…" This was all Nappa said before he passed out from overwhelming pain and exhaustion. "Dude? You still with me?" Saitama poked Nappa's head and chest like a child to see if he was still conscious, but sadly enough, Nappa was out cold. Was he dead? He put his fingers on the vein of Nappa's throat. There was a slow but steady pulse. "Look's like it's your lucky day. Well, that depends on how you look at it, but at least you're not dead."

A bright beam of light emanating from the rising sun shone in Saitama, much to his annoyance. "Ah! What gives?" Lying alone on a small rock was Nappa's scouter, completely intact and undamaged.

Saitama picked up the scouter in mild fascination. He had never seen anything so plaid yet so cool looking. From what he could make from its design, it just seemed to be a pair of really big red sunglasses cut in half. That was cool enough in his book.

Fidgeting and playing with the scouter like a child with a toy truck, he latched the scouter onto his ear. The scouter had features one would not have expected on such a device, such as interior cushioning that made the scouter feel comfortable. "Cool feature. Wish I had headphones as comfortable as this thing," said Saitama to no one in particular.

Saitama slapped his forehead with the palm of his hand. He had completely forgotten about Genos. Knowing that Genos had taken a pretty big hit from Nappa's Breaker Cannon, Saitama jogged over to Genos at a medium pace. Next to the unconscious cyborg were Speed-O-Sound Sonic and three other guys who he had absolutely no knowledge of. All five of them were beaten mercilessly, with Sonic and Lightning Max's injuries being the most grave. "They took a real doozy."

A faint buzzing filled Saitama's ears. "Not this time…" Saitama slapped both his ears with rigorous force from his hands, believing that the noise was coming from more mosquitoes coming in to ruin his day. To his confusion, no tiny bugs fell on the ground. Saitama scratched his head like a monkey trying to solve a jigsaw puzzle.

As the sound was getting closer, he realized the sound was repeating in a spinning-type motion. Whirring in the air were five small droids all circling around Genos. "Hey! Get off of him!" Saitama swatted one of the droids away, effectively destroying it, and was about to do the same to the other four when Geno's eyes were relighted. "Genos?"

In a daze from his forced shutdown, it took him a few moments to register everything around him. As his internal visual scopes readjusted, he saw the vast, barren, and demolished landscape. He smiled when he saw his master hovering over him

"So what are these annoying things?" Saitama's blurted out the comment, interrupting Geno's analysis on his master's worried expression. "As I have stated before, my parts are easily replaceable due to my cybernetic body. However, my internal hard drive is stored deep within the center of my cranium."

"Crani what now?"

"My head. The codes harbored inside my internal hard drive contain my thoughts, my emotions, personality, and all my memories of my life before the destruction of my hometown. In a way, that hard drive is effectively me.

"Anyway, these drones were designed by the good Doctor Kuseno for the sole purpose of retrieving my cranium and any other parts that are still intact."

Their sleek appearance and multitude had been slightly off-putting, but now that Genos explained it, he realized that there were no weapons that they were more for reconnaissance or recovery than for offensive purposes, and he dismissed them.

The teenage cyborg turned to the drones and waved them off. "Return to the laboratory. Tell Dr. Kuseno I am simply in need of a systems reboot and energy core replenishment." The drones blinked and shook up and down and flew off into the sky.

"That was a real mouthful," said Saitama, the veins on his forehead marginally throbbing and his teeth clenched to some degree. "My apologies master."

Saitama waved his hand in dismissal. "It's fine."

"Wait master! Did you defeat the two dragon level beings?" asked Genos, even though he knew the answer to the question. "Oh yea. They turned into some really weird monkeys. They went on about something called blutz waves that are emitted from the moon and how they were able to create their own waves." Normally Saitama wouldn't have given two shits about long-ass explanations, but his gut told him that these two weren't just any normal mysterious beings, or at least normal by earthly standards, and mentally remembered as much as he could, believing the information could be important for later.

This statement surprised Genos. "So your saying that these two warriors were able to go in and out of this transformation at will?"

Saitama nodded. "It also made them a lot stronger, but they lost a ton a speed when they changed. The smaller guy shot a really small white ball into the air, and then they changed into huge apes. The smaller one put up a better fight than the big guy, but neither of them had any power to back up their talk." Saitama sighed. "It was pretty disappointing. Anyway, I managed to knock out the bigger guy with my consecutive normal punches, and I think I broke the other guy's nose.

"I guessed that the orb was responsible for keeping them as apes, so I figured it the orb was gone, they would go back to normal, and I was right. The smaller guy, I think Vegerna was his name, got in a small pod to escape. The bigger guy tried to ask him for help, but he just left him behind. He's lying unconscious over there." Saitama pointed to where Nappa was lying.

"Are you sure it was a wise decision to leave them alive? Both were dragon level threats who effortlessly defeated 3 A class heroes the other warrior."

"Ohh yea that guy was that Speed-O-Sound guy. He's about as powerful you are."

"So why didn't you finish them off like any other mysterious being?"

"Well I mean…" He shrugged his shoulders. "I just wasn't comfortable with killing him. I don't like killing people, and this guy was a decent fighter, so I figured what the hell?"

The Caped Baldy turned his attention back to the other four unconscious fighters. "So what do we do about the other guys who got their asses whooped?"

The cyborg sternly gazed at the four other unconscious fighters. Their wounds ran deep from the fight they were just in, and from what his processors could analyze from the severity of the wounds, it would take them quite some time to recover. If they were lucky, they would be up and running in about a week or two, and worst-case scenario, all four would be out of commission for two months. "I believe the Hero Association will send some scouts to retrieve the unconscious heroes and re-imprison Speed-O-Sound Sonic once again, although if I were the Hero Association, given his uncanny speed and impressive assassin skills, I'm assuming they would put them in a much more secure and fortified cell much deeper underground to ensure his imprisonment."

"Master, what are you wearing?" Saitama took off Nappa's scouter and looked at it in fascination, still fixated on its unique design. "Those two had these things on them. Here take a look." Saitama handed the device to his disciple. "To what purpose did they use this device?"

"I dunno. Although the smaller guy had one too, but it blew up for some reason when he looked at me with it."

"Really?" The device was destroyed when it looked at Master Saitama? That still wasn't enough information to tell him what its purpose was. He would need to discuss with Dr. Kuseno its purpose. "Master, would you accompany me to the lab with Dr. Kuseno?" This was a first for Saitama. He'd always wondered where it was that Genos was repaired every time he was broken, and for his heightened senses and awareness, he'd been pretty stupid not to notice the mini drones before. At least today he would have that question answered. "Sure."

"Here we are Master." The Demon Cyborg and his master stood at the door of the doctor's laboratory. Some great minds think alike, as the laboratory was hidden deep within the lush, vast forest between the City X and City Y, somewhat similar to Dr. Genus' lab. Within this laboratory contained Dr. Kuseno's most prized works throughout the many years of his work. Dr. Kuseno was widely known throughout the scientific world, and in public, he resided in City Y. He often attended important meetings within the community, but unlike many, Dr. Kuseno preferred his privacy and hid his private laboratory deep underground. Genos knew first hand how powerful and effective his robotics was. They were even more dangerous and powerful than the workings of the two greatest scientists known to man: Child Emperor and Metal Knight.

"Is this really where this guy lives?"

Genos shook his head. "The great doctor lives in a small apartment inside City Y during the weekdays, he spends most of his time working publically, working on his lesser, more menial projects. His weekends are spent in his private workshop, either helping rebuild me or focusing his efforts on his other important projects Let us enter."

From the stonewall popped out a jet-black keyboard. Genos typed a 12-digit code with lightning fast fingers. At first, nothing happened. A few seconds later, the wall gradually opened to the two heroes. "What the…"

"Yes, the Doctor was very thorough in the concealment." Genos nudged the dumbstruck B class hero forward into the tightly concealed lab. The entrance led to a very dimly lit hallway with small light bulbs hanging overhead. At the end of the hallway, a long flight of stairs motioned the two heroes downward.

Robot parts were everywhere. Everything was in a disarray of spare parts, papers, and boxes of take out lunch for the nights when a good night sleep wasn't on his mind. The walls were a dull gray, and the floor was covered with several panels, with some being only a foot or two long, and others being as big as 10 feet. On the doctor's right was a large table with at least a dozen or more computer monitors were running numbers, speedily calculating the exact parameters, sustainability, and other coding required for his projects with several Dr. Kuseno's left was some sort of operating table with at least 8 mechanical arms hovering just a few feet above. "That table is where the doctor installs my upgrades and rebuilds my limbs," said Genos, practically reading Saitama's mind.

The doctor was typing rigorously on his multi-screen desktop that stood to the right of the large operating table. "Didn't he hear us coming in?"

Genos shook his head. "When he's caught up in his work, he has laser like focus. When he first found me, he didn't sleep for three days straight." Saitama smirked. He seemed to be just as determined in his work as Saitama was during his training.

"Dr. Kuseno."

He quickly turned his head, alarmed that someone had intruded his secret laboratory, but he sighed a breath of relief when he saw it was only Genos. "Ah hello Genos. How are you?"

"I am fine doctor. Is the operating table ready for the reboot?"

"Yes I just finished the last code encryption." Dr. Kuseno noticed the odd and ridiculous looking person standing right behind Genos. He quizzically stared at Saitama. "And who might this be?"

"This is my master, Saitama." Dr. Kuseno shot a look of disbelief and awe at Genos. "This is the master?!" Saitama felt an uncomfortable chill rush through his spine as Dr. Kuseno began circling around Saitama like a predator stalking its prey. The smell of take out food and the sensation of him breathing down his neck only made the sensation more awkward. Taking it a step further, he changed levels. "So you are the person who has saved Genos on several occasions and have taken him on as your disciple?"

Saitama could do nothing but nod his head; still feeling like the doctor was trying to kill him with only his eyes, he hesitantly met the eyes of the doctor who was now standing right in front of him.

The tense air completely lightened when Dr. Kuseno let out a warm and hearty laugh. "Oh I must thank you for all the help you've been to Genos." Placing his arm on Saitama's right shoulder, his eyes softened, conveying the deep-seeded appreciation he felt. " If it wasn't for you, Genos would have been done for sure, and I don't know what I would do." He forced himself to blink back tears. "All I can say is that I'm extremely grateful for all you've done for Genos."

"Uhhh… Sure… No problem…" A sweat drop fell down Saitama's face in an anime-style fashion. Realizing Saitama was getting uncomfortable, the doctor cleared his throat and turned his attention back to Genos. "So Genos, shall we begin your systems reboot?"

"Yes, if we may. But before we do, I would like you to take a look at this device." He opened up a compartment on the right side of his waist and showed Dr. Kuseno the device. "What is it?"

"It was some sort of contraption that the two dragon-level beings had on their eyes, like a monocle. One of them self destructed when it was aimed toward master, so it would be best not to turn the device on while Master Saitama is in close range."

"Understood." Dr. Kuseno examined the scouter in the same manner as Saitama did, turning it and staring at it with a child-like fashion. "I'll focus on that later. Right now you need to rest on the table before your energy core can receive any more damage."

"Yes Dr." The teenage cyborg obeyed the doctor and sat on the platform. He restrained himself with the iron cuffs connected to the table as he had done more times than he could count.

"Lets begin then." All 6 monitors on the desktop went bright blue as Dr. Kuseno began typing on his keyboard. Several different folders began popping up on each screen, and the doctor selected the folder titled 'Energy Core Repair'. "Genos, just so you remember, your internal core will be shutdown so there are no altercations in the reboot."

"I remember doctor." When his body was returned to the doctor after his fight with Mosquito Girl, he had to have an internal core repair. He remembered it feeling similar to when he was sleeping, as if he was in a dark, dreamlike state where nothing but a dark void lay ahead. But that wasn't what was on Geno's mind at the moment.

Genos had spent enough time with Saitama to effectively notice all his master's facial expressions and little idiosyncrasies or even his, such as when he the dark lamb chops he liked was a dollar more than the week before, when the television company took off 5 of the movie channels from the monthly package, or the most grievous event was when he left the oven on overnight with a bowl of pasta, ruining the pasta and consequentially, the pot. The face of despair on his master's face was unbearable, and it was something that Genos could never forget. Yet he distinctly remembered the face his master had when the large fighter's beam overcame his incineration cannon, he quickly glimpsed to his master who was already jumping up toward him, and there was something in his eyes that he had rarely if not ever seen from his master. It was exactly the same look that he had seen when his master saw him lying seemingly dead on the ground. The nominal but still present look of distress when Genos was seemingly deceased. But what could cause his master such worry?

The wires and gears in his cranium clicked. His pensive thoughts were interrupted, and he fell into a peaceful sleep. Saitama was standing mouth agape. Doctor Kuseno was typing like a madman, programming the robotic arms standing still on the ceiling for the energy core operation. One of the robotic arms dropped down and scanned Geno's entire body to check for any burn marks or broken limbs.

The blue light turned a bright red, and the beams focused on a large burn mark on his right let, exposing several large wires running through his body. "Wait, I thought you said you were just replacing his energy core."

The doctor let out a hearty laugh, leaving Saitama only more confused. "Ah Saitama, if you know Genos, you'd see he takes great pride in his strength. When you were walking with Genos, didn't you notice he had a slight limp?"

"Oh yeah. Now that you mention it, he was running a little bit slower than usual, and his walking pace was more erratic."

The doctor nodded. "Ever since he became your disciple, he's shown great disappointment whenever he fails an assignment. You should have seen how distraught he was the time when he didn't make it to a time sale. He must have been talking about it for at least an hour."

"Oh yeah! We had sukiyaki that night! Genos really saved dinner with that entrée. Haven't had anything that good in a while." Dr. Kuseno smiled. "That's Genos for you. Even as a boy, he was always striving to be the best he could be. Even when he was equipped with prototype models still in progress, he would always sneak out of the lab and practice using his mechanical parts. A dedicated boy, he is. Let me ask you, how has he been?"

Saitama shrugged his shoulders. "He's fine. He's pretty high up in the Hero Association."

This was no surprise to the doctor. Dr. Kuseno secretly kept track of all mysterious beings eliminated by Genos, and was always checking the Hero Association website to make sure he was aware of Geno's ranking in the Hero Association. "No, I mean his general mood. Has he ever mentioned to you the robot that destroyed his town?"

Saitama's face-hardened to a more serious and somber expression. "Yes, he told me his life story when he asked me to be his disciple."

The doctor sighed. "It was quite a tragedy. When I found him, he was just barely breathing. All of his limbs were fractured, his insides decimated beyond repair. A pool of blood encompassed him, and his eyes were red and swollen from all the tears he shed for his lost family.

"I immediately brought him back to my secret laboratory. It took over a week for me to create the technology I had only conceived of on paper, and another two weeks for me to download the contents of Geno's brain into an internal hard-drive. I didn't sleep for a single minute. Keeping Geno's human body alive was hard enough, but getting the equipment and resources needed was nearly impossible. When I look back, I'm still surprised how I managed to save him in such a short amount of time.

"By the third week, Geno's body was complete. When he woke up, he was in a state of bewilderment and disorientation. I told him my name and how I made his body robotic, and he remained silent. But the heart wrenching pain of losing his family was too much, and he eventually cried once I finished explaining the situation, bawling on the floor like an infant. I comforted him and let him mourn his loss." The doctor closed his eyes and chocked back a sob. "Anyway, after he got acquainted with the situation, he begged for me to make him into a cyborg of justice, and eventually I accepted. I equipped some pyrokinetic weaponry and more offensive armaments, then began to teach him how to use his robotic parts to the best of my abilities. It was challenging at first, but overtime, he learned that his pyro-kinetic abilities were nothing more than an extension of his new, more durable body. For the most part, the early years of his new life were spent in the laboratory, running tests and training him to hone his abilities and call upon them as quickly as a man might blink. On occasion, I would allow him to explore the surrounding area and on some afternoons, let him roam free in the woods, but it was only at the age of 18 that I was confident enough he had mastered his new body and allowed him to fight evil.

"You've helped Genos a lot to calm down the fury boiled within him, to ease the temper of rage against villainous beings and realize not everything is black and white, and that is more important for Genos than any upgraded parts."

Saitama stood silent. He had reached his breaking limit and he was about to bark at the doctor to shorten the story, but the doctor stopped just as he was about to open his mouth. He then proceeded to respond to the doctor's comment, his temper now gone. "I haven't done anything. Genos learned these lessons for himself; I was just there."

"You still guided him to that path, and I'm eternally grateful for that, no matter what you might argue." Saitama smirked at the doctor's persistent attitude of thanking him. That was one thing he and Genos apparently had in common. The two stood for a while and watched as Geno's repairs begun.

The blue blur of the small spacecraft flew through the empty, star-filled void of space. Housed inside was a disgraced, forsaken, shattered prince. The destined ruler of the most powerful race in existence, who defeated countless hoards of enemy soldiers and annihilated each planets most powerful warriors within an inch of their life, and while it wasn't a particular pride to admit it, one of Lord Frieza's most powerful warriors. The Saiyan Prince had his eyes closed and his head down, his face buried against his knees in complete shame.

He had been absolutely decimated, destroyed, taken out even in his ultimate form: the Oozaru, the most powerful conceivable transformation used by the Saiyan race, next to the legendary super saiyan. He had been defeated by a bald idiot with the worse sense of clothing he had ever seen. Someone like Vegeta, a warrior who held the glory, legacy, and life-blood of the saiyan race, a prince who could topple planets at the age of a toddler, who was destined to become the super saiyan of legends, ousted by a simpleton like that.

But there was one single thing that was overshadowing his defeat more than he cared to admit, a single factor that only made his loss all the more devastating, more heart wrenching, more demoralizing than any other defeat in his life: the bastard's sedate face.

Nearly every second he was fighting with him, he mocked him with his stoic attitude, his expressionless demeanor, and his elementary combat style. He took no defensive stances, displayed no advanced fighting style, and showed absolutely no seriousness in battle. But for him, technique and defensive stances were completely irrelevant, since he had his god-like power that more than compensated for his sub-par fighting knowledge. No, for him, the Prince of Saiyans wasn't even worth the effort of getting out of bed.

And to add insult to this monumental injury, Saitama didn't even finish the job and let him escape, even though Vegeta knew full well he could have done so. He had escaped on a long shot in the hopes that he'd catch him off guard and narrowly leave by the skim of his nose. But when he looked down, he saw Saitama staring right at him, not even exasperating the effort to intercept him.

After 10 minutes in space, the feeling of humiliation and disgrace began to truly sink in, and he wished he had been killed and been spared this torment. At that moment, his pride had completely vanished, along with his fighting spirit, leaving nothing left but a hallow soul, overwhelmed with nothing but shame. And to make matters even worse than they already were, if that was even possible, he had to give a mission report to Frieza. Knowing Zarbon and Dodoria, it would only take about an hour for every soldier on the ship to know of his failure, and only a week for the entire Frieza Force to deem him a laughing stock.

He had about a week until he reached Frieza's ship, so that would give him plenty of time to find the words least likely to make him sound like an incompetent stooge. The Prince pinched the bridge of his nose. This could not be happening.