The Metal Knight shuttle, the Icarus-X, was less of a spaceship and more of a heavily armored needle aimed at the heavens. It stood on the launchpad at the rebuilt Hero Association HQ, gleaming in the morning sun. Steam vented from its base. It looked fast. It looked dangerous.
"Safety check complete," Child Emperor announced over the comms, sitting in the cockpit alongside Dr. Bofoi (via drone). "Life support: green. Inertial dampeners: yellow (they might rattle). Coffee machine: surprisingly functional."
"Get on board," Saitama waved a hand at the team. "We're burning daylight."
Blue, the Neo Hero leader, stood by the ramp, looking at the craft skeptically. "This is primitive. My organization had grav-drives."
"Yeah, and your organization also put brain-worms in people," Garou reminded him, walking past and shouldering him roughly. "Shut up and get in the can."
The team consisted of:
Saitama (The Anomaly)
Genos (The Arsenal)
Fubuki (The Liaison)
Garou (The Monster)
Flashy Flash (The Ninja)
Atomic Samurai (The Swordsman)
King (The Moral Support/Victim)
Child Emperor (The Brains)
Blue (The Wildcard)
And, for reasons nobody quite understood, Pig God (who claimed the moon might be made of cheese and he wanted to verify).
"Launch in 10... 9..."
Saitama was buckled into the captain's seat again, this time holding a bag of snacks he'd pilfered from the break room. "Hey, King. Do spaceships have turbulence?"
"I think so," King whispered, his eyes shut tight. "I think the whole trip is turbulence."
"Launch!"
The Icarus-X didn't lift off gracefully. It exploded upwards. G-forces pinned everyone to their seats. Saitama's bag of chips burst, filling the zero-g cabin with floating potato flakes.
"My chips!" Saitama unbuckled.
"Sensei, sit down!" Genos yelled, pinned to his seat by 5 Gs. "The chips are compromised!"
Saitama floated through the cabin, gobbling chips out of the air like a Pac-Man. "5-second rule applies in space! Wait, does time work differently here?"
Flashy Flash watched him with narrow eyes. His movements... they aren't hindered by the acceleration. He's moving normally while we're crushed. Just how strong is his core?
Three hours later. Lunar Orbit.
The Moon hung in the viewport, grey and desolate.
"Entering the Dark Side," Child Emperor reported. "Switching to infrared."
The ship flew over the terminator line into darkness. Below, the lunar landscape changed. It wasn't just craters.
It was veins.
Massive, fossilized ridges ran across the surface, looking suspiciously like biological tissue turned to stone.
"There," Genos pointed. "The spinal ridge."
A mountain range that was unmistakably vertebrae stretched for hundreds of miles.
"Landing at the Cranial Impact Site," Bofoi's drone directed.
The ship touched down in a valley of grey dust. Silence. The vacuum of space pressed against the hull.
"Suits on," Fubuki ordered. She, Child Emperor, and King donned sleek spacesuits provided by Bofoi. The rest of the team—the monsters of physical endurance—opted for simple breathers or psychic bubbles.
Saitama stepped out onto the moon. He bounced slightly.
"One small step," he muttered. "One giant leap for... getting this over with."
Blue walked up beside him. He pulled a device from his suit. "My father's signature. It's close. Underground."
"Always underground," Atomic Samurai spat, his voice transmitting via throat-mic. "Don't aliens have penthouses?"
They found the entrance at the base of a "spinal" mountain. It wasn't a cave. It was a perfectly smooth, circular hole bored into the rock. The edges were vitrified—melted to glass.
"Someone drilled this," Genos scanned. "With a high-energy beam."
"Blast," Blue whispered. "That's his Gravity Knuckle residue."
They descended.
Inside the Moon.
It wasn't rock. It was a biomechanical nightmare. The walls were lined with strange, fleshy tubes that pulsed with a faint yellow light. It was warm. Humid.
"We are inside a living organism," Child Emperor confirmed, looking at his bio-scanner with horror. "The moon isn't an egg. It's a... cocoon."
"And it's close to hatching," Garou sniffed the air. "I smell him. God."
They walked for miles through the organic tunnels. Finally, they reached a central chamber. It was vast, lit by a massive, floating crystal in the center.
Trapped inside the crystal was a figure.
He wore scarred battle armor. His hair was grey and wild. He had sunglasses, cracked down the middle.
Blast.
But he wasn't alone. Standing around the crystal were five figures. They wore hooded robes covered in glowing runes.
"The Keepers," Blue hissed, drawing his weapon. "God's jailers."
One of the figures turned. He lowered his hood.
It was Empty Void, the former leader of the Ninja Village. But young. Regenerated. His eyes burned with cosmic fire.
"Welcome," Empty Void smiled. "To the Nursery."
"Father!" Blue screamed. He charged.
"Wait!" Saitama reached out.
Too late. Blue activated his suit's overdrive. He flew at the crystal, intending to break it.
Empty Void didn't move. He simply spoke a word.
"Kneel."
Gravity in the room shifted. Not down. But inward.
Blue was crushed. His suit crumpled. He slammed into the floor, screaming as his bones cracked under the weight of a dying star.
"Weakness runs in the blood," Empty Void sneered.
Flashy Flash moved. Light Speed Slash. He appeared behind Void, blade aimed at the neck.
Void caught the blade with two fingers. "I taught you everything you know, Flash. But I didn't teach you everything I know."
He twisted his fingers. Spatial distortion snapped the blade. He backhanded Flash, sending him flying into a wall of flesh.
Bang and Garou attacked together. Dual Dragon Slayer Fist.
Void sighed. He opened a dimensional rift in front of him. Their punch went into the rift... and came out behind them, hitting them in their own backs.
Thump. Thump. The masters fell.
In seconds, the strongest heroes of Earth were on the ground.
Saitama stood alone. He looked at the fallen team. He looked at Blast in the crystal. He looked at Empty Void.
"You guys rely on gimmicks too much," Saitama said, scratching his nose.
Empty Void turned to him. "The Anomaly. We have been waiting."
He gestured to the other four Keepers. They lowered their hoods.
A Cosmic Boros (resurrected by God).
A Cosmic Orochi.
A Cosmic Deep Sea King.
A Cosmic Carnage Kabuto.
All the greatest foes Saitama had faced, brought back, amplified, and enslaved.
"We studied your memories," Void said. "We rebuilt your greatest hits. But this time... the volume is turned up to infinity."
Cosmic Boros stepped forward. His armor was gone. He was pure energy, white-hot and raging.
Saitama sighed deeply.
"Retruns are usually for store credit," Saitama said. "But since you came all this way..."
He tightened his glove.
"I'll give you a punch in the face. On the house."
The battle for the moon began.
It wasn't a fight. It was a catastrophe.
Cosmic Boros fired a Collapsing Star Roaring Cannon. It was larger than Earth.
Saitama didn't counter with a serious punch. He countered with a Serious Sneeze.
ACHOO.
The shockwave blew the beam apart. It blew Boros apart. It blew a hole through the back of the moon cavern, venting atmosphere into space.
"One," Saitama counted.
Cosmic Kabuto charged, now in Asura Mode: Infinity. He moved so fast time stopped.
Saitama moved in stopped time. He appeared next to Kabuto. "You're buzzing. It's annoying."
Normal Slap.
Kabuto turned into paste on the wall. "Two."
Deep Sea King tried to spit acid. Saitama grabbed his tongue and tied it in a knot. Then he used the monster as a flail to hit Cosmic Orochi.
Wham. Wham. "Three. Four."
Saitama stood in the wreckage of the S-Class Nightmare Team.
He looked at Empty Void.
"Is that it?" Saitama asked. "I'm missing a coupon day for this."
Empty Void wasn't afraid. He was smiling.
"We weren't trying to win," Void whispered. "We were stalling."
He pointed at the crystal containing Blast.
"The seal... is broken."
CRACK.
The crystal shattered.
Blast fell out. He hit the ground, gasping.
But from the shattered crystal, something else leaked out. A yellow gas. A mist of pure power.
It swirled. It coalesced.
It entered Empty Void.
"God doesn't need a vessel anymore," Void's voice distorted, becoming the multi-tonal boom of the Entity.
Void's body ripped apart. Light poured out. He transformed. Growing. Expanding.
He became a being of pure cosmos. Stars in his skin. Nebulas in his eyes. He grew until his head brushed the ceiling of the cavern miles above.
GOD: MATERIALIZED.
He looked down at Saitama.
Saitama looked up. Way up.
He felt it. For the first time since his hair fell out.
His heart throbbed. Thump-thump.
His blood warmed.
His fist clenched instinctively.
"A wall," Saitama whispered. A small grin tugged at the corner of his mouth.
"I like breaking walls."
He crouched. The ground beneath him—the living flesh of the moon—vaporized instantly.
"Serious Series..."
God raised a hand the size of a country.
Saitama jumped.
"...Serious Uppercut."
The two forces collided.
And the Moon rang like a bell.