This is an idea that originally came from me thinking of what a story without Genos would be like. But somehow, it turned into this big thing. I plan to post more chapters. Reviews would be appreciated, they really help to focus me. Expect more in the next week, or this week. Who knows.

"Dialogue"

'Thoughts'

There stood two men. All around them, there was nothing but destruction, mayhem and chaos. The screams of people could be heard in the background, voices barely raised above the roaring of flames. Buildings were crumbling with giant holes ripped in them like a cannon had fired into the walls point-blank and debris rained down on the landscape below like snow. It was an apocalyptic scene. And the cause stood right in front of these two men. A freak of nature with a large, purple body chiseled beyond belief, perfectly unharmed with a sure smirk on its' face. A mysterious being, a monster, that had wrought destruction on this city: City A.

Yet, these two men stood strong. One had the symbol of a lightning strike on his cheek, and on the heels of his sneakers, too. He had a torn, dusted black tank top which exposed a bruised, painfully purple chest. Cuts and burns were all over his body, including his legs, which left him stumbling despite standing still.

"Smile Man…I've thought of everything I can, and I don't think we can defeat this monster. This is above A-class. It's impossible for us. Impossible for me." He spoke in ragged breaths, his usually slicked-black blonde hair frayed to both sides. "Damn it…when it really counts, I can't even do anything…!" He exclaimed in frustration.

"I know." The A-class hero identified as Smile Man replied. His simpler outfit, consisting of nothing but a red bodysuit with a smiley face on the front and a belt that was absolutely torn to shreds. He was breathing harder than the other hero. "I know that feeling too well, Max. The feeling that we're way out of our depth, and yet…" His hands which were gripping his weapon of choice, a giant kendama, tightly, despite the tons of burns that littered his arms. "You know that we can't back down, Lightning Max. Not only because the association sent us here, but we have more to do than just winning this fight." He grit his teeth, a rare occurrence for the usually calm-looking hero.

There was a closer noise behind them, the small, almost unnoticeable noise of a little girl's wailing. This is the noise that, despite the overwhelming, almost assured possibility of defeat, pushed the two A-rank heroes to fight to their last breath. It was even more natural than the last breaths they could possibly end up taking that day.

"You didn't even have to say it. This sort of thing should be second nature…" Lightning Max took up a fighting stance, arms raised and eyes narrowing.

"Because we're heroes." Smile Man followed up, raising his kendama to the air.

And with these final words, the A-Rank heroes, Lightning Max, Rank 20, and Smile Man, Rank 27 launched off toward the monster, filled with determination to defeat it.

In a simple response, the monster grinned viciously, showing of a row of jagged spiked teeth, while both of its' clawed fists expanded with sickening cracks, growing to impossible proportions. They were nearly ten to twenty times the size of the heroes standing in front of the monster. Killing intent flooded the area in a wave, and the monster's eyes grew to be piercingly red.

"Finally done preparing for your death, I see. You foolish humans. No matter how much you struggle in the end, I, Vaccine Man, shall cure the earth of your presence. DIE, LIKE THE VIRUSES THAT YOU ARE!" With these words, the monster, Vaccine Man, bore down on the courageous heroes.

"How is it looking?!" A black suit asked from behind a set of holographic displays, urgently leaning over his desk to set eyes on another suit, this time a female operator who was staring at her own set of displays with a worried face. "Damn it, I asked you what is going on, operator Naomi?!" The man reinstated, banging his hands down on his desk. "Smile Man and Lightning Max reported in fighting the monster a half-hour ago, and since then, we haven't heard anything from their end! What we do know, however, is that the destruction of City A is continuing!" He brought his hands up to his balding grey hair, staring up to his monitor in dismay. A large video feed was projected to the middle of the room, currently displaying nothing but white noise.

"Not to mention the drone stream is off, how can we confirm anything at this rate?!" He looked down at the woman sitting in the front of the room. "Operator, I asked you..!" Before he could continue his rant, the feed in the middle of the room came back, showing Vaccine Man wildly firing at the cityscape, with a collapsed and unconscious Smile Man and Lightning Max in the background. There was a tense silence in the room.

"Lightning Max and Smile Man are currently considered out of commission." The operator, Naomi responded with a hesitant tone, breaking the silence. "City A's destruction levels are at 25%. The threat level has been elevated to high demon, possibly dragon, if this continues. I…I believe that we should attempt requesting S-Class assistance." She clarified all of this in complete silence.

"No." A voice from behind them spoke, causing both to turn back. There was a man with short black hair and brown eyes wearing a suit similar to theirs. His most distinguishable feature was a "We can't involve the S-Class in this. If our A-Class can't dispatch a threat of this level, then the public's faith and approval in the Hero Association might fall significantly So, for now…"

The older man nodded slowly, and Naomi looked forward to the screens. "Understood." The Z-Branch operator spoke. "Searching for A-Class heroes to disp-"

"What do you mean, 'we can't involve the S-Class in this?" Another voice popped up from behind them, as a door opened leading into the room. "You mean, you plan to involve rejects who can't even finish moving up their ranks finish off this job? Implying that, compared to the abilities of a lowly A-Class, I am somehow less fit for the job?" A clearly feminine, high-pitched voice spoke, causing everyone in the room to collectively shudder. All kept quiet except for the bearded worker, who raised his hands up in defense.

"N-no, Miss Tatsumaki, we weren't saying that, we were just, t-the public opinon,-"

"I don't need to hear any of your useless mumbling. I'll be taking care of this problem like it should have been handled, from the beginning. Useless lackeys." The presence left the room, and a collective sigh of relief was had.

"Naomi, cancel that hero request. We have a more than capable hero on the way, already…" He spoke, noticeably dejected.

Naomi nodded and returned back to her station, typing away. The previously panicked mood in the control room had now disappeared, but she still had her own thoughts running through her mind.

'What an incredibly short-tempered hero…' She thought, with an obvious look of exasperation betraying her usual professional appearance.

In a small apartment in the completely abandoned section of a certain City Z, there was a third party taking in the situation. A plain looking man, staring at his television with a bored expression. He flashed between multiple news reports talking about a rampaging city-destroying monster in City A. He hummed with a small spark of interest popping up in his head and he and sat up, turning around to head into the shadows of his apartment.

'This monster could actually be kinda worth it if they're making a big fuss like this over it…plus, it'll kinda be a problem if it keeps rampaging like this.'

"Guess I'll head out." He exited the abandoned apartment in a yellow and red jumpsuit, a white cape fluttering over his back, while he raised a single fist into the air. Compared to Vaccine Man's aura of death and seemingly mindless destruction, what came from this man was an aura of pure, unyielding justice.

Vaccine Man, who had long since reverted to his 'regular' form, stood far from the unconscious bodies of Lightning Max and Smile Man. He was still untouched, and grinned pridefully. He continued to effortlessly blow up the city in front of him with balls of giant purple light energy that whistled through the air. The monster gave a pause to his destruction for but a second, satisfied with his work. He turned back around to walk back over to the unconscious heroes with the purpose of finishing them off.

"To challenge the apostle of Mother Earth, you really were fools. If this is all the resistance the human race has to put up, then my job will be made much easier!" His focus immediately turned to the still crying girl, who hadn't even noticed the fight behind her, nor the approaching form of Vaccine Man. "Truly, humans break so easily in front of the mighty nature of Mother Earth's apostle!" His hands buffed up once more, with his right hand looming over the girl's defenseless form. Only with his shadow looming over her and his killing intent showing rearing its' ugly head, did she finally notice that something was wrong. She looked up from her cowering position, pupils shrinking in fear.

"M-Mommy, D-daddy…" Her voice broke, her entire body shaking in pure fear. She couldn't even find the strength to try and run, like her parents had told her to during a monster attack. She closed her eyes to prepare for the crushing pain of her body being torn to pieces…but it never came. Slowly, she opened her eyes. Above her was a plain-looking face that she'd expect to see on one of her grandpas or uncles, almost completely clueless. Despite his face, though, she could clearly feel the firmness of his grip, and the sureness in his contradictory blank voice when he simply said,

"Go ahead and take a nap. I'll handle this." Placing her down beside the two downed heroes before turning to the monster. The last thing the girl remembered was the smoothness of his bald head in the sun, overshadowed by the fluttering of his white cape. Exhausted and shocked, she passed out. This just left the man and the monster to face off.

"Hmph." Vaccine Man withdrew his fist and threw a curious look at the caped bald man. "You actually managed to move through that attack. I'll give you credit for being fast. Just who are you?"

"Saitama." He responded, arms folded. "Just a hero for fun. It's a hobby."

"Eh?" Vaccine Man cocked his head to the side, a noticeable vein forming in his forehead. "Just what kind of bullshit backstory Is that?" He lifted his head up, as if looking down on Saitama. "I, meanwhile, have a story much more superior. I AM VACCINE MAN!" He passionately placed a clawed fist against his chest. "Mother Earth is a single living organism, and you humans are nothing but viruses sickening her and killing her from the inside out, stealing away her life force!" All of the muscles across body began to bulge up, with his body rapidly growing in size by large increments during his speech. Saitama meanwhile watched with a blank expression, clearly unimpressed or unaffected. Probably both. "In order to destroy the civilization built from exploiting her resources and restore the natural order of things, Mother Earth in all her infinite wisdom, HAS GIVEN BIRTH TO ME!" Vaccine Man now ascended to almost the height of a large building. "AND YOU SAY YOU DO THIS FOR FUN? FOR FUN?! HOW DARE YOU CONFRONT MOTHER EARTH'S VERY OWN APOSTLE FOR THAT MUNDANE AND RIDICULOUS REASON?!" He easily towered over Saitama, nearing the height of a skyscraper, eyes glowing red as a concentrated laser beam and veins popping out all over his grotesque, muscular, giant form. "YET, WHAT COULD BE EXPECTED FROM MERE HUMAN SCUM-"

In a flash and a spin, Vaccine Man's monologue was cut short, along with the upper half of his body sent flying away somewhere into the world. His innards rained out around the area and hislower half fell limply to the broken concrete. Saitama, though, did not celebrate. He looked down at his fist with a pissed-off expression, smoke rising from his red-gloved hand.

"No, not again…" He began, in near disbelief, before looking to the sky and yelling out, "JUST ONE GODDAMN PUNCH AGAIN?!"

With his exclamation, the dust-covered girl muttered out a last word in her sleep.

"Sai…ta…ma…"

The hero for fun was drawn from his frustration at the girl's words, and sighed, looking down at her.

"Let's take you to the shelter, you'll probably find your parents there." He sped off with her in his hands with the world moving at a blur around him. He completely missed the two unconscious heroes in the background.

What Saitama had also not seen, however, was a pair of piercing, green eyes, that had been watching the entire scene far from above.

'Three years since I started training…' Saitama thought to himself while he mindlessly filling up his basket with groceries. A girl with chin-length brown hair with short bangs passed by him while staring at the completely reflective surface of his bald head, giggling to herself.

'Now I'm the hero I wanted to be, unbeatable and able to defeat any monster. So…what's wrong? Why do I feel so empty…?' He sighed, walking up to the cashier and ignoring the annoying brat pointing out at him and his baldness, alongside his hero jumpsuit.

"That will be 482 yen, sir." She spoke, staring expectantly at the caped man. Saitama put down a 500 yen coin without thinking too much of it, only for him to look up thoughtfully.

"Hang on a 'sec, I think I've got the 82 yen." He muttered, reaching into his simple green coin purse and grabbing the coins. Annoyingly, his hands jiggled alongside the contents of the purse, but that was a small setback. Deep into his yen-grabbing, Saitama didn't notice as every customer and employee alike fled the shop.

"Alright, I've got the change right he-" Saitama paused and looked up, noticing that the store was completely empty. He slowly turned his gaze to the walls, and didn't have any reaction as a foot the size of a city block moved by, ripping the roof and walls from the building. He looked over to the left with his eyes tracking the giant monster that was now casually swiping aside cities in the far distance. "I should probably deal with this and go back home…" He launched off towards the beefcake of a monster with his trademark emotionless expression, not before collecting his 582 yen and placing it back into his purse.

'582 yen is way too much to lose on groceries I didn't even get.' Saitama thought as he flew through the air at breakneck speeds. Behind him, he'd left a bewildered witness who had been hiding under one of the cashier's stations. It was the same girl who had laughed at the hobby hero just minutes ago, with her hand on a complex-looking phone-like device that had the insignia of an eagle spread-winged across it. Her eyes were completely wide as she watched the monster savagely beat down on the bald man she'd laughed at only seconds ago, creating a crater comparable to an asteroid impact. That was it. Surely he was dead.

Yet, her eyes ended up growing only wider at seeing him easily defeat it in a single punch, with not a single hint of damage on him.

"I must've imagined that from the stress of the job…" She muttered in a shaky voice, as she dialed up a number on the piece of technology. Even vacations were never vacations, especially when you worked in one of the most active branches of the Hero Association.

Another single punch and one accidentally destroyed city later, Saitama was on his way home, with the sun having completely vanished from view, replaced by the shimmering moon.

'Monsters and evil things in this world aren't going away.' Saitama thought, while walking through the slums of City Z. 'Nothing's changed since I became a hero.' He continued on aimlessly. 'I'm not sad that I haven't made a difference, but I've been bothered about something else entirely…' He noticed a small cat grooming itself, and stopped to kneel down and reached a hand out to the kitten. It reeled back and scampered off, leaving Saitama staring into blank space.

'Fear, love, nervousness, anger, hope, dread, panic…as the days go by, I can barely feel them. It feels like I've lost something essential to being human.' He paused, as some mechanical car monster stepped out, going on the usual monologue. It all droned right through Saitama's ears. 'Before I used to get all those emotions and more whenever I fought. But now…' He easily tore through the monster in a single effortless punch, leaving its' remains strewn over the road as he continued on internally. 'I feel nothing, because every problem is just instantly ended…with one punch.'

He sighed, and closed his eyes. "Eggs over rice sounds good for dinner…" He headed off into the quiet night.

Silently, Saitama stepped into his apartment, closing the door behind him.

'It's always the same thing now…'

His hands became busy at work washing the muck from the gloves of his outfit.

'I come home, completely uninjured, and just wash my gloves.'

He moved to the bath, soaking in the water and staring at the wall.

'Fighting monsters, I don't even feel like my heart's in it anymore.'

He worked on the simple dish of eggs over rice, hands fumbling a little bit to catch an egg that had almost dropped.

'Cooking eggs over rice is more of a challenge than fighting 'the strongest monster' every single week.'

After lazing around and watching some television, alongside dinner of course, Saitama turned off the light and tucked into his futon for the night.

'I just do this hero thing as a hobby, so it's fine as long as I get a kick out of it…but what happens when I can't even get that anymore?'

He thought back to his first fight of the day, seeing the unconscious heroes and saving the little girl. The little girl, at least…remembering her peaceful expression after he'd dropped her off at the shelter. He stuck around just to make sure she got to her parents and had watched the reunited family enjoy a small moment together. Things like that – they still slightly brought the corners of his mouth up, but it wasn't nearly enough to be called a smile. Even if they were moments he could no longer experience for himself.

'Doesn't matter. I'll leave all that complicated stuff to tomorrow's me. Time to get some shuteye.'

Saitama yawned, scratching his chest, and let himself drift off to sleep.

Hero Association Branch Z
Control Center
Nighttime

"You." A small girl with curly, green hair entered the Association HQ's control room. It was a large room, filled up to the brim with stations showing off holographic projections of cities, the statuses of heroes currently in and out of battle, monster bounties and current threat levels; a large array of information was portrayed on the screen. There were at least 15 people working in the center, including the Z-Branch's main operator, Naomi.

The surprise visitor, ignoring the shocked stares, called out to the man standing in the middle of the room like she was calling over a servant. He was an employee known not by his real name, but just by the moniker 'Bearded Worker', thanks to his one discernable feature – his beard. The girl in question was floating in the air, surrounded by a light green aura and wearing a long-sleeved form-fitting black dress, which had ends that somehow were kept floating and simultaneously held down by an invisible force. It showed just enough to reveal her slender legs.

"Pull up the video feed of the attack on City A, the one from two days ago, now." She spoke in an authoritative tone to the man, despite him technically being above her, as an employee of the association versus a hero.

"Y-Yes, Tornado." He replied without resistance, navigating through the records on his personal computer and clicking the file. He looked curiously to the floating hero, who was intensely watching the footage. It held a birds-eye view of the entire scene, and showed Lightning Max and Smile Man being soundly defeated by Vaccine Man, only for there to be a jump-cut to the monster's guts spilled all over the concrete. There stood an extra figure, however, a blonde man who had three scars over his eyes, staring silently down at the destruction with shopping bags in his hand.

"Originally we had just sent Lightning Max and Smile Man to calm the situation, but before we'd known it, they had been defeated. So-." He began, only for Tatsumaki, the Tornado, to shoot him an annoyed look.

"I know that already. I went to the scene, you idiot! What I want to know is what happened there…according to the association's drones." She clarified, folding her arms and leaning back, striking a rather sassy pose mid-air.

Bearded Worker laughed nervously and nodded.

"Right then, I'll get straight to it. As you can see, Mr. King seemed to be off duty and took care of the monster single-handedly! So fast that even our cameras could not properly register it, as well! It seems he did not even let go of his shopping bags, defeating the monster in a single attack!" Bearded Worker's face had changed quickly from nervousness to admiration, as he stared at the footage. Tatsumaki simply folded her arms.

"Hmph. You're acting like that's something special. Any S-Class hero worth their salt should be able to swat a fly like that off quite easily. I'd be more worried if King of all people actually struggled." She replied with a roll of her eyes. Bearded Worker sighed, causing her to throw him a nasty glare which quickly turned his head the next way.

"If that's all, I need to be getting back to the overlook of City A's repair. Excuse me." He bowed, only to be sent away with a dismissive shooing from Tatsumaki. For the life of him, he couldn't figure out why the Tornado of Terror of all people would want to review footage for what would be 'just' a demon level threat to her.

After Bearded Worker left to go over to other work stations, Tatsumaki just floated there, carefully and closely scrutinizing the footage with narrowed eyes. Especially at the part that was skipped over. Tatsumaki balled her fists, tempted to crush the worthless console, but left it, not after giving it a few cracks which caused Bearded Worker to quickly rush over with a helpless look on his face.

"Fine, then. That footage is worthless to me, anyways. What King could do in a few seconds, I could do instantly!" She folded her arms and flew her way out of the room, leaving everyone inside with many questions, but more or less focused on their own tasks.

Naomi, on the other hand, was left to stare at her own station, the information influx being easy to handle thanks to the downtime after the last threat. Her mind was on something different – an odd man she had seen on a trip to a supermarket the day before, when the city-destroying muscle monster had shown up. Again, King was said to be the winner, but she had been there, watching with her own two eyes..

While those in the Hero Association were assured of their results, both women had thoughts of their own. Particularly the Tornado of Terror, who continued to nonchalantly float through the corridors of the windowless building while gathering her thoughts.

'If I hadn't seen it for myself, I would've thought it was just King cleaning up another monster, too, but…' She frowned, growing increasingly frustrated at the mystery man who claimed to be a hero, yet was someone she couldn't even find in the lowest, useless dregs of C class. She'd seen his ridiculous, plain face, his shiny egg-like bald hair, and his stupid yellow jumpsuit, even heard his lacking introduction, which, at the very least, did not bring her to immediately shut him up for bragging, as most of the attention-seeking death wish types did. Yet, she hadn't even heard him say his own name, which annoyed her to no end.

A nameless 'hero', taking out a demon-level threat with an effortless single punch. 'Just who the hell is that baldy…' Wondered the Senritsu no Tatsumaki – the Tornado of Terror:

The Hero Association's current strongest hero.

I always thought that background characters deserved some more time. So I decided to give them names and personalities and even made one pretty plot-important. This could be considered 'OC' but I know the tag pushes some away so I didn't put that. Plus this is a homage to OPM, not a giant AU using OCs. What do you think will happen next chapter? Let's find out in the Second Punch, together!

Question of the Chapter: What's your favorite One Punch Man character?