"I must praise you, Sensei," Zukos began, "our erratic movement pattern shall easily throw off any enemy pursuers. Clearly, you are a master of evasive maneuvers."
"Uh...I dunno where I'm going..." Saitama realized, looking over the atlas.
"I told you so," Sokka glared at the cyborg.
"An irrelevant setback!," Zukos rationalized,"Sufficient topographical analysis indicates that our destination is near the ocean." He points to the sea on the map.
Sokka blinked, and pointed outward, where the team could see nothing but the endless expanse of the ocean itself."That could be anywhere!"
In case the reader is wondering: yes, Saitama and his fledging team of heroes were in fact riding over the sea atop a giant flying bison, which they had taken from the Southern Water Tribe from a stable full of the tribe's flying bison to depart upon. It turns out that flying bison was a widely used method of travel all over this new world Saitama was getting used to. Apparently, the Monster Nation made it a point to set the bison of the four Air Temples free as they laid waste to the temples so that they themselves could use the beasts as mounts. It made sense, Saitama noted, as who in their right mind would have knowingly driven an entire species of airborne beasts of burden to extinction? That would have been quite an unnecessarily evil decision, even for a literal race of villains.
So, it was quite convenient that they had a live-flying bison or their own to travel with. Katara told Saitama that this particular bison's name was "Appa"; but Saitama objected to that name immediately, and decided to rename him "Watchdog", after an old S Class Hero he knew back in the day. They rode upon Watchdog in search a particular landmass by the name of "Speed O' Sound Island" - The Caped Baldy simply found this title to personally be far too glaring for him to ignore, and so they set course for this island. On the upside, he was told this island was native to giant fish called elephant coi, and his anime genes simply screamed for any excuse to go fishing.
After having landed on the coast of said island, Katara and Zukos set up camp while Saitama and Sokka went off to fish for said giant fish. The two stopped at the beach; Sokka took out a pair of fishing rods for himself and Saitama. But when Saitama took the rod, a sudden thought occurred: despite his people's religious love of fishing, he himself was unable to recall the last time he had ever gone fishing. Thankfully, Sokka assured Saitama that he would walk Saitama through it.
The two cast their lines; Saitama, with a lazy extension of his arm, caused a supersonic whiplash that rocked the entire island with a powerful soundwave; his lure was launched well beyond the atmosphere, rending the clouds apart.
"Dammit, now I remember why I stopped fishing..." Saitama blinked.
"You overshot it," remarked Sokka,"It happens to everyone. I remember back when Dad taught me how to fish, and I hooked a sky whale instead of a regular whale!" he chuckled.
Saitama thought that was a little biased of Sokka to not consider a sky whale to be a 'regular whale', but he asked something else:"So what kinda guy is your father?"
"His name's Hakota," Sokka said,"He's one of the greatest martial artists in the world; he's a total master of the Flowing Water style, but he was never given the title of one, which is a real bummer."
"Flowing Water?" Saitama repeated."Sounds like a style that this one guy I knew practiced."
"Really, who was that?" Sokka asked. He blinked."Wait, don't tell me you knew Grandmaster Bang!? Wait, what am I saying, of course you did, you were the Number 1 Hero!"
"I told you, I was never number 1," Saitama reminded, then he smiled."Yeah, Bang was pretty cool, but I wasn't talking about him, I was talking about..." but then Saitama stopped smiling, suddenly staring into the sky with an expression that was slightly more lifeless than his resting face.
"Something the matter?" Sokka looked concerned.
The Caped Baldy's brow creased."...that's weird, I can't remember the name of the guy I was talking about; I can't even picture his face. The only thing. I can remember is how hard it hurt when he-ARG!" the caped hero immediately grabbed his temple and fell to his knees.
Sokka dropped his fishing pole in shock, and went down on one knee to meet the hero."Saitama, are you alright!?"
In the next beat (before it, really), Zuko's screeched to a halt behind Saitama with the confused Katara in unwilling tow."MY SENSORS INDICATE THAT SAITAMA IS NOT ALRIGHT!"
"What's wrong with him!?" Katara exclaimed.
"I dunno!" said Sokka."We were just talking about Dad and martial artists he used to know and-"
But they were all interrupted by another sonic boom, then another, and another; it sounded like the sky was going off like fireworks. Strong winds swept up around the group. Katara, Sokka, and Zukos formed a defensive perimeter around the compromised hero.
"Guys, I think we're about to find out why this place is called Speed O' Sound Island...!" Sokka dreaded, before getting struck from behind.
The blindfolded team was coaxed awake with bucket-fulls of water. When they were conscious, they realized that they had been attacked, captured, and tied to some kind of cylindrical structure with huge heavy chains.
"Where are we!?" the restrained Zukos demanded."Identify yourselves!"
"That's what we were about to demand of you!" said an aggressively female voice."What were you doing on our island!?"
"We were just fishing for some elephant coi!" Sokka explained.
"Then how to do explain that powerful force that shook the land and sky!?" asked the voice of an old man, possibly the chief.
"Sorry, I overshot my first cast," Saitama lamented.
"We're not in the mood for jokes, stranger!" the girl said.
"Well I'm not in the mood for being tied up," Saitama replied, calmly shattering the great chains with his outstretched arms, frightening the villagers. As he and his team took their own blindfolds off, they could finally see said villagers, and for Saitama, it was actually one hell of a sight: the whole town was occupied by people donned in more or less the exact same black, sleek and lightly armored jumpsuits as one of his most memorable and relentless adversaries."...You gotta be shitting me." he stared in dumbfoundedness.
"Stay where you are, strangers!" Suki warned, extending her katana,"For we are the Speed O' Sound Warriors, and we can kill you all before the next blink of your eyes!" she was backed up by her fellow squad of ninja girls, all ready to pounce.
"Who are you to threaten us!?" Zukos growled, clenching his burning robot fists.
"Zukos..." Katara blinked,"She literally just told us who they are..."
"I'm aware of the redundancy!" grunted Zukos."I'm trying to establish ourselves as ones not to be trifled with!"
"Then we have something in common, monster," smirked Suki."I am Speed O' Sound Suki, Captian of the Speed O' Sound Warriors of the Speed O' Sound Ninja Clan of Speed O' Sound Island, all three of which were founded by great Speed O' Sound ninja founder, the legendary Speed O' Sound Soni-"
"GODDAMNIIIIIIT!"
The entire island was once again rocked by a powerful soundwave, this time emitted from the mouth of the enraged Saitama, powerful winds blowing his cape. For the second time, Katara, Sokka, and Zukos beheld Saitama in his terrifying Serious Mode, as the hero scowled at the ninjas."Of all the bullshit I was looking forward to being gone after one hundred years, now there's a whole TOWN full of these assholes!? ZUKOS!"
The cyborg stood at attention.
Saitama pointed at the moderately innocent civilians."...destroy them..."
The latest Demon Cyborg pounded his knuckles together, his mechanical arms glowing orange; from his back emerged three jet thrusters that roared like a speeding aircraft.
"But wait!" tried Katara."We meant them no harm!"
"Sorry, sis, we're doing this..." Sokka whipped out his boomerang.
"DIE!" Speed O' Sound Suki cried, as she and her squad lunged forth.
The opposing teams faded out of sight, kicking up more powerful winds. Living blurs crisscrossed all over the island, as Saitama, Sokka and Zukos clashed weapons with the supersonic ninjas. The so-called hero took an uncharacteristic amount of pleasure in overpowering these weaker opponents, their sword strikes bouncing harmlessly off his shiny head, followed by him slapping the ninjas away, tossing them aside, or even blowing them away with his breath - a little trick he learned from Carnage Kabuto. Katara all the while, was actually using her waterbending to protect the villagers from collateral damage.
Sokka had to block all the rapid and vicious attacks delivered by Suki."Just so we have an understanding, I have no idea why he suddenly wants to kill you!"
"Worry not: he WON'T!" Suki replied as she parried Sokka's wing, then used his own momentum to grab his swing arm and shoulder, and pinned Sokka against a tree with enough force to partially unroot it.
Zukos used his hand thrusters to spin like a top and delivered a Genos-style roundhouse kick to Suki's temple, launching her far away from Sokka."Be careful, Sokka, your fragile organic body can only withstand so many blows like that!"
"Thanks for the save, Zukos," Sokka nodded,"But I think maybe Katara has a point: shouldn't we try to figure out why Saitama has a beef with these ninjas?"
"Well, according to my archives," Zukos computed,"Sensei had multiple encounters with a ninja assassin during his career; this villain was known as Speed O' Sound Sonic, and he was capable of moving at speeds equal to that of Genos."
"Speed O' Sound Sonic?"
"Yes, Speed O' Sound Sonic," Zuko nodded.
Sokka held up his hand."So, you're saying that his name was 'Speed of Sound' and 'Sonic'? Doesn't 'sonic' also mean 'speed of sound'? Why didn't he just call himself 'Sonic'?"
"Aside from avoiding a potential lawsuit," Zukos explained,"the term 'sonic' does not necessarily refer to the speed of sound, but to the nature of sound in general."
Sokka flung his arms up."Okay, that makes way more sense, now he was basically calling himself 'Speed O' Sound Sound'; thanks for clearlin' that up, Half Man Half Robot Cyborg."
The two heroes in training looked at a huge dust cloud that forming in the distance.
Speed O' Sound Suki and the Speed O' Sound Warriors tried their best to brace themselves against the dust storm that was being formed by Saitama, as he performed the Fornite dance at inconceivable speed.
"Ya like fast!? I'll give ya fast!" taunted Saitama as he continued to get down with the boogie at lethal levels.
"Saitama, please! You have to stop jigging and jiving!" Katara pleaded, also bracing against the wind.
"You don't have to watch if you don't want to!" Saitama reasoned as he began to do the Gangnam Style dance at a hypersonic rate.
"Oh HEELLLL NO!" Katara scowled."POWER OF THE ELEMENT: Encompassing Freeze!" with her swift waterbending motions, she hurled a colossus of cold mist that enveloped the entire island, covering everything visible under a layer of ice. Almost all life was frozen solid, but it was just enough to get Saitama to stop dancing.
"Hey! What's the deal!?" Saitama demanded, easily breaking free from the ice.
"Why are you fighting these people!?" Katara demanded."You don't even know them!"
The hero paused, and took a moment to survey the area, noting the destruction he wrought along with the freezing power it took to snap him out of it. A wave of uncomfortable shame passed up his bones."Damn...you're right..." he muttered, then he spread his hands wide and performed a thunderclap that shattered all the ice on the island, freeing everyone and blanketing the island with a pleasant snowfall.
Speed O' Sound Suki and The Speed O' Sound Warriors shivered under the coating of snow; the ninja watched Saitama calmly approach her and extend his hand in a friendly manner.
"Wanna go fishing?" the hero asked placidly.
Later that night, after the group brought in a haul that would feed the village for the rest of the winter, they all sat down for a nice seafood barbecue, courtesy of Zukos.
"Masaka..." Speed O' Sound Suki was struck speechless,"I can't believe the strongest hero sits before us!"
"Well, where should I be?" Saitama asked, munching on some elephant coi."Seriously, I have no idea how I got frozen in that iceberg."
"Neither do we," said Katara,"Me and my brother just found him there out of nowhere."
"I intercepted the burst of energy and attempted to terminate him," Zukos stated factually,"But after coming to the conclusion that no force in the known universe could hope to bring harm to this being, I instantly surrendered to him, as should all of you."
"That's not so different from what Speed O' Sound Sonic did," Speed O' Sound Suki stated sedately,"After Saitama disappeared, Speed O' Sound Sonic realized he could never defeat him either; sometime after he founded my clan, he took his own life, and left his sword to be welded by the captain of the Speed O' Sound Warriors." she unsheathed said sword in looked upon it in humility.
Saitama wanted to tell everyone to stop saying "Speed O' Sound", but then he also looked at the sword - had he really caused that man to kill himself? Maybe if he had just fought him one time, he could have sat him down, and tried to befriend him as he did with Tornado. Too little too late, as Saitama tended to be...
"Hey, speaking of Saitama getting harmed," Sokka recalled,"while we were fishing, you said something about some guy that actually hurt you really hard."
"I did?" Saitama blinked.
"Do NOT emotionally compromise Sensei!" bellowed Zukos.
"Alright alright!" Sokka raised his hands."I won't bother him with it."
"Even so..." Katara quietly said to Sokka."We don't know how he got in that iceberg...do you think it had something to do with, you know...?
"I know what?" Saitama eavesdropped.
"You're not supposed to be listening! That's why we're talking out of earshot!" Sokka grumbled.
"Surely you're referring to his battle with the first Monster Lord?" Speed O' Sound Suki also eavesdropped.
"The what?" Saitama questioned.
"My great grandfather," Zukos said,"You disappeared just before he rose to power; no one knows the name he was given at birth, because he abandoned it. along with any trace of humanity he ever had, and took his place as the Ultimate Monster Lord."
"huh..." Saitama acknowledged,"Welp, I'm drawin' a blank."
"But before he disappeared as well, the Ultimate Monster Lord made a very bizarre decree," Zukos related.
"Go ahead, hit me with it," the Caped Baldy said, used to the strangest of occurrences.
Zukos looked deep into Saitama's eyes."Even after the Hero Association was wiped out, he declared to the world that you, Saitama, were the true number one Hero."
Saitama's own heartbeat briefly sped up at that news."huh...?"
"Some speculate that," Zukos went on," The Ultimate Monster Lord knew you personally, and knew how strong you truly were."
"Aw shit," Saitama cursed,"It sounds like this Ultimate Monster Lord was King: he was one of the only S rank guys that knew me, and he was the one taking credit for all my wins anyway, the douche..."
"Are you saying you were defeated by King?" Speed O' Sound Suki speculated.
Saitama scoffed."Yeah, sure, at Street Fighter; other than that he was just a regular guy with a cool scar, he was a total fraud the whole time."
"Seriously," Sokka asked.
"Yep," Saitama nodded,"But he had enough power over the Hero Association to do something like making me legit."
"That can't be," Zukos objected,"The Ultimate Monster Lord was a godlike entity that all life feared; he one created a gamma-ray burst with a thought alone!"
"That sounds like a spell that this bad guy could cast in one of King's favorite RPGs." Saitama remarked."Sounds like some crap King would make up. Also, you said he was you great grandfather, Zukos, and you're basically a normal human also. Use your head, bro." he tapped his bald head.
Zukos looked at the campfire in dismay."My entire life...could be a lie?"
"Aaaaaaaanyway," the caped baldy got up to stretch, and scanned Speed O' Sound Suki,"that's why I'm on this adventure: I'm lookin' for super cool people like you, who can become new Heroes so we can take on the Monster Nation. What do you say, Speed O' Sound Suki?" Saitama smiled...internally in disbelief he actually said that name int its entirety, but at least it wasn't as redundant as the other guy's name.
Suki was beside herself before this question."...I think..."
All waited anxiously for her response...
She got up and shook Saitama's hand."I think my name is too long; you don't have to say the whole thing," she smiled.
The two had been staring at the wreckage for some time.
"...So, to summarize," the Monster Nation officer, clad in bulky black armor with a flame paint job, began,"Your ship was suddenly launched clear off the ground, a hundred miles through the sky, where it landed squarely onto this dock, by a man who sent it flying with just one punch?"
"Yes," Professor Uncle nodded,"I would have made up a cover story, but could not think of anything more farfetched than what actually happened."
"So...the rumors might actually be true..." Hammerhead Zhao smirked as he felt his chin."The Strongest Hero has returned.
