BatKing

SPOILER WARNING! This article contains spoilers from the manga

BatKing
GENERAL
One Punch Man
Character	Metal Bat
Character	King
Canonical?	Fanon
Status of Relationship	Colleagues
IN FANDOM
Type (?)	Friendship
Also Known As	KingBat

1

BatKing is the friendship between Metal Bat and King from the One Punch Man fandom.

Canon

Metal Bat and King are fellow S-Class hero colleagues in the Hero Association. While they don't seem to otherwise hang out or speak much to each other, they do seem to get along well when working together. Still, Metal Bat is unaware of King's secret and assumes that King is as strong as everyone thinks he is.

Alien Conquerors Arc

Both Metal Bat and King were summoned to participate in the S-Class hero meeting about the "end of the world" prophecy. During this time they don't exchange any words or react to each other in any way. And when Boros and his Dark Matter Thieves attack, King stays back while Metal Bat joins Atomic Samurai, Bang, Iaian and Puri-Puri Prisoner in a fight against the alien conquerors.

Monster Association Arc

After Metal Bat escaped the hospital to go help the other heroes in a fight against the Monster Association, he runs into a huge, strange invisible object. Confused, he decides to walk around it to see how to get around it and accidentally comes across King and Tareo, as well as Pineapple, Mohican and Food Battler Futoshi, who came out of the invisible object and surprised him and King. It is revealed that the invisible object is just a sturdy, huge, tactical vehicle hidden by a quantum stealth shield which gives it a nice optical camouflage so it looks like it's invisible. After Waganma and Tareo's heartfelt reunion, which Metal Bat and King watch in content, King asks Metal Bat wasn't he hospitalized earlier to which the young hero answers that this whole Monster Association thing became this big because he messed up as a bodyguard and so he couldn't just relax in a hospital bed.

Soon Waganma worriedly asks that King and Metal Bat go help Child Emperor in the Monster Association base since he went there to save Tareo, but seems like Tareo never met him. Pineapple and Mohican also suddenly are on their knees, bowing down to Metal Bat and apologizing for failing to protect Waganma when the S-Class hero had entrusted the kid's safety to them during the monster raid a while ago. King and the young hero watch them, and Metal Bat then tells them to stand up since they shouldn't grovel in front of the children. He continues to tell them that a hero is at his strongest when he's got a debt to settle. At this, King seems to shamefully look down since he hasn't paid any of his debts.

Sekingar appears from the vehicle, injured, but manages to give them a peptalk about "stones and diamonds", in which he tells Mohican and Pineapple that stone is a stone while diamond is a diamond, but both can be as important doing the right thing in right places. Sekingar also tells Metal Bat and King to go help the other heroes since there isn't any confirmation about the defeat of the Monster Association cadres. Metal Bat seems to have gained some respect towards Sekingar, thanks to his peptalk, while King contemplates the meaning of it, thinking about doing the right thing in right place. The older S-Class hero then replies to Sekingar that he will do his best "as a stone", to which Metal Bat says that King is as humble as ever. He then pats King's back and tells him he is counting on him. The narrator then reveals how King laughed gently (faintly smiled) while his fear turned his eyes white.

Metal Bat then builds a slingshot from damaged cars' wheels, to the surprise of the other heroes. King is confused what he is doing and Metal Bat tells him that since the whole place is falling apart around them, they need to get around more easily so he built them a slingshot. The young hero then seems to calculate the distance and snatches King before he manages to escape. Scared, King holds tightly onto Metal Bat while they are launched hudreds of meters across the destroyed Z-City. They hit a Z-Batting Cage and drop down on to a nearby tree and then under it on to a bush. King lands on Metal Bat, but the younger hero is fine while King is recovering from the ordeal. Once they arrive near the Monster Association base, they separate.

Later, King manages to buy the rest of the heroes some time by simply showing up with his King Engine on which puts the Monster Association cadres on standstill for a moment. Metal Bat sees King and first tries to go help him as well with the monsters, but stops himself when he remembers that this is King so there shouldn't be nothing to be worried about. At one point, Metal Bat also incorrectly assumes that King defeated Evil Natural Water and Platinum Sperm when Garou woke up and defeated them instead in a flash, although it looked like King was the one to do it.

Metal Bat and King are also both present when Garou appears in his new monster form influenced by the "God" entity. And after Saitama defeats the young hero hunter, Metal Bat and King defend him from the heroes who want to beat him up.

Fanon

This section is in need of major improvement. Please help improve this article by editing it.

There are some in the One Punch Man fandom who noted Metal Bat and King's interaction during the Monster Association Arc and liked it as well. Some even like the possibility that there would be more in the future for them. However, not much fan content has been created about them at the moment.

Fandom

FAN FICTION

Metal Bat & King tag on AO3

TUMBLR

Metal Bat and King posts on Tumblr