On Earth, the superheroes suddenly realized that life had gotten quiet.
Monsters hadn't appeared in ages. All that was left were super villains, super criminals, and ordinary criminals. Of course, the various nations weren't about to discard their heroes just yet—they still believed the Monster Association was watching from the shadows, and this was nothing but the calm before the storm.
Iron Man, Anthony Edward Stark, had hit a technical bottleneck with his armor. He could no longer see the road ahead. It felt like nano-armor was the end of the line for his Iron Man suits. After all, he hadn't come into contact with the Extremis virus or symbiotes. The only reason he'd managed nano-armor in the first place was because he'd been provoked by Zod. Aside from those specialized countermeasure suits, Tony Stark's most powerful armors would have been the symbiote armor and the Extremis armor. The All-New All-Different and the Iron Destroyer weren't in that conversation.
The other superheroes, meanwhile, were living the good life. They'd beat up a criminal now and then, reap endless cheers and fame, and romantic partners would come knocking one after another.
That said, the calm before the storm also left plenty of people uneasy. Nick Fury, for one, stayed on high alert, all while trying to root out the Monster Association's headquarters. Rather than sit around doing nothing and waiting for the enemy to come to them, it was better to locate the Monster Association's base and let the superheroes wipe them out in one go. Hell—nuke the place! After all, the Monster Association had a whole horde of Dragon-level and Demon-level monsters. The threat those Dragon and Demon levels posed didn't need any more explanation. Politicians and bureaucrats weren't idiots either. They were just as restless. The Monster Association was like a thorn buried deep in their hearts. If they didn't pull it out, what would happen if the Monster Association joined forces with a Saiyan invasion?
Except for a few utterly carefree individuals—like the newly inaugurated president: "America's meme lord, Twitter's Luo Yonghao, YouTube's Mukbang Lao Ba, New York's Wang Jingze, first human to land on the sun, first human to return from the sun, Son of the Sun, master of cosmology, virology king, debate genius, savior of America, king of spies, punk businessman, causality Patrick Star, economics SpongeBob, thousand-layer cake master chef, the generation's ultimate Know-It-All"—Teacher Trump.
Before he left, Zod forgot to tell them that the Monster Association's headquarters was actually beneath New York City. But then again, it was disaster-prone New York. One more Monster Association extermination battle wouldn't matter much. People would still live there anyway.
Right now, beneath New York City.
"The humans' Sword Bureau has been making some very pointed moves lately. They're frequently visiting major cities."
The leader of the Monster Association, Monster King Orochi, sat atop a giant footbath, surrounded by the monsters Zod had perfectly replicated. Some were humanoid but wrapped head to toe in bandages, the only exposed parts being black blade-like hands. There was a massive humanoid made of square black stone blocks. A man in noble attire with a pale face and faint bloodstains at the corner of his mouth. A big man with black, sinewy muscles and extra hands growing from his shoulders and ribs. A giant humanoid white radish with an expression of sheer terror. A bizarre monster dressed like a capsule, holding red and blue pill bottles the size of water bottles in both hands…
There were also monsters that hadn't yet appeared in the original storyline but were now folded into the Monster Association, so this Monster Association was far stronger than the one from the original plot.
The Sword Bureau had five S-class heroes, so the Monster Association naturally had to be beefed up to match—otherwise they might not be able to win.
At present, the Monster Association's Dragon-level monsters included: Skinny Bean Sprout, Old Man Bakuzan, Gouketsu, Black Sperm, Spotted Dog Pochi, Natural Water, Homeless Emperor, the five-headed monster under Boros, Psychic Octopus, Nyan, Ugly President, Gums, Reborn Phoenix Man, Haragiri of the Supersonic Draw, and Sword Mountain Rat. Sixteen Dragon-level monsters, plus a massive pile of Demon-level monsters. And if you counted Gyoro Gyoro and Monster King Orochi, that made eighteen Dragon-level monsters. Because of this, the monsters always believed their odds of victory were very high.
"They want to track us down, but they'd never imagine we're right under their noses," Black Sperm said arrogantly.
"Then why, after gathering so many powerful monsters, are we still hiding underground?" another monster grumbled.
"Fool. It's because there are humans among them who can match us. These five S-class heroes are the biggest obstacles," Gyoro Gyoro said, displaying five images.
The photos clearly showed Blonsky, Ben the Thing, Red Tank, Red Hulk, and Green Hulk. Strangely, for some reason, there was no photo of Iron Man Tony Stark.
"Wait, weren't there supposed to be six S-class heroes?" Homeless Emperor questioned.
"The remaining S-class hero, Anthony Edward Stark, is just a guy who relies on equipment. Send one Demon-level monster to ambush him when he isn't wearing that suit of armor, and he'll die without even being able to fight back," Gyoro Gyoro said dismissively.
After all, unlike Metal Knight or Drive Knight, whose true whereabouts were kept at the highest levels of secrecy, Tony Stark was completely exposed to the public. Even if the public didn't know which villa he slept in, all a monster had to do was tail him, carefully avoid those sentry robots and surveillance cameras, and they'd know exactly which villa Tony Stark spent the night in. A mere ordinary human—with a Demon-level monster making the move, he had absolutely no chance of survival.
"So you've already sent Demon-level monsters to kill him?" Gouketsu asked.
"Of course. I dispatched Cutting King, Insect God, and Wrestler Rhino—three Demon-level monsters—to attack him," Gyoro Gyoro replied.
Three Demon-level monsters against a single ordinary human—wasn't that a sure thing? And Gyoro Gyoro had also given orders in advance: don't get careless, and don't give Tony Stark a chance to put on his Iron Man suit.
Tony Stark never imagined he would become the target of monsters. The main reason was that all the previous monsters had been slapped together on the spot by Zod, and the way they'd shown up was always loud and flashy—wrecking things everywhere and drawing attention. This time, Zod had pre-made them. The monsters weren't stupid, and even if some were, not all of them were, so Tony Stark was in trouble.
When Cutting King sliced through his window, Tony was still in bed, holding Pepper Potts—whom he'd had such a hard time winning back—asleep. If Jarvis hadn't given a warning, and if the three Demon-level monsters hadn't known about Jarvis the AI and thus blown their cover, Tony would have had his head lopped off by Cutting King before he even knew what hit him.
"We're made! Move in, now!" Insect God barked at once.
/-\
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