Chapter 5: Showing Off!

Narrator's POV

"huh?"

"Is this guy for real?" A brunette girl spoke aloud.

"Does anyone even know who daredevil is?" Another student spoke.

Peter could have said something about him going on a small-time mission with daredevil, but he didn't wanna come off as someone who got special treatment or anything.

After about 30 seconds of letting the situation sink in, the students all stood up and wandered off to the locker rooms, they had to follow some signs on the walls since they haven't been at the school for a full day so far.

Stepping into the locker rooms was another thing that showed the teens that M.A was more like a regular high school than they initially thought.

A regular, super-rich high school for superheroes. Peter would make a sky-high reference but he felt that he was better than that.

"So, any of you guys know what the deal with that guy is? I've heard that all the teachers here are Heroes but I don't even know who that guy is." A tall asian boy spoke as he out on his PE uniform.

Peter was taking in the design of the uniform as he put it on, it was just a red tracksuit with white lines that resembled the letters M and A on it. He was expecting something cooler but he didn't show up to school to complain.

"I heard he's some underground hero that mainly operates in Hell's Kitchen. He's apparently blind but can see through his quirk or something freaky like that, he seems super hardcore."

"Wait, didn't he have a Netflix show? What kind of underground hero has a Netflix show?" Flash asked aloud.

"Yeah, it's kinda wei- WOAH, PETER! DUDE, ARE YOU OKAY?!" Pietro suddenly yelled out mid-sentence.

"huh?" The boy asked as he took off his undershirt.

All eyes of the locker room turned to see the brunette, and most were taken aback by the amount of scars he had on his torso.

Noticing this, Peter quickly scrambled to put on his PE shirt which sleeves were long enough to hide the scars on his upper arm.

"Dude, how'd you get like that? you got scars everywhere!" A boy with sunglasses exclaimed.

"Oh, uh, I used to do a bit of vigilante work for about a year as training for M.A, I was never that good at avoiding hits." He said as he chuckled awkwardly.

"Dude, that's sick."

A boy named Robbie Reyes narrowed his eyes at him from the corner of the room, he used to do vigilante work back in his Los Angeles neighborhood before Blaze showed up and 'took him under his wing', it was more like Robbie had too much of a presence to be ignored.

"Alright, we do not have time to dwell on his past adventures, for we must get finished changing." A blonde boy said in a calm and collected tone. Peter could feel the fortune cookie vibe coming off of this dude.

To be honest, the group could easily be described as a bit wacky, with everyone having some sort of gimmick. Peter felt as though he was the plainest out of the boys from what he could see so far.

"Yeah, we should hurry it up in here." A boy with sunglasses spoke up, making everyone begin to finish getting changed.

As the boys started to exit the changing room and walked towards the field, Peter couldn't help but feel anxious about having to showcase his abilities in front of others.

He knew it was stupid.

He knew very well that his skill set was more than on par with some pros out there.

But his class had guys who could destroy city streets and a smaller version of wolverine! how could he not be intimidated by that!?

He took a deep breath as they made it only to feel a firm hand on his shoulder. He turned around to see the same blonde boy from the locker room.

He was gonna call him... fortune cookie.

"You seem nervous, my friend," He said with a smile that just radiated tranquility, Peter didn't know why everyone in this school seemed like they were out of a comic book.

"Yeah, I guess?" He responded, the brunette consider himself good at reading people, but the boy talking to him was a complete enigma.

"I am sure your efforts won't be for naught, you must be confident in your abilities. Just because we have strong individuals among us, doesn't make you weak." The blonde boy said as they reached where the rest of the class was waiting.

'Weird guy...' Peter thought as he took a spot next to Clayton.

"I am sure you're wondering why I brought you to this field and how you will be testing out your abilities. Me and the teacher of 1-B decided to have a 'test' of sorts, you will be doing 8 physical tests and can use your quirks however you see fit." Daredevil started, the man walked forward and handed Peter... a softball.

"Parker," The man said in a rough tone.

"Uh, sir!" Peter perked up at being called on, he never realized how intimidating Daredevil was, he wondered if he could see his nervous expression.

"You got first place in the entrance exam, correct?" He asked.

"Oh, yeah, I did," Peter responded, he felt Clayton silently patted him on the back as a form of congratulations.

"How far could you throw a softball in middle school?" The man asked bluntly, his eyes staring right at Peter's.

"Like, 220 feet? I didn't really pay attention to it." Peter said, what kind of person remembers that type of stuff anyway?

"Step up to the circle, and pitch it using your quirk however you want." The hero said before he walked back to the spot he was standing at with a phone in his hand.

Peter gripped at ball right and walked towards the white circle in front of the group, he could feel the eyes of his classmates in the back of his skull, and for some reason, he could feel his spider-sense tingling.

...Wait, why was his Spider-Sense tingling?

"LOOK OUT!"

Peter felt the world move in slow motion, he looked over at his classmates who were looking to another side of the field with wide eyes. Daredevil was diving out of the way of a softball that glowed with some sort of red energy, a ball that was going straight for Peter.

His legs moved on pure instinct as he backflipped over the projectile, seeing it zip by as he was mid-air.

The world came back to a regular speed as his feet touched the ground. looking towards his classmates, some wore a surprised expression, but a person stuck out to him.

That person was none other than Pietro Maximoff, he looked mortified.

A silence fell onto the field as Peter got his heart rate under control, he followed the path the ball traveled and saw that it ended in a tree at the other end of the field.

Well, more like half a tree, since it was completely split in half, the ball was buried deep inside the tree behind it.

Peter had a feeling that wouldn't kill him, but he knew it'd probably hurt a decent amount, and he wasn't really looking into going to night nurse on the first day.

Peter followed the gaze of the class to the end of the field and saw what he could only assume was their sister class, 1-B

'Is that She-Hulk? oh man, I hope she isn't mad about that time I accidentally webbed her eyes! Wait, didn't I nearly just get severely injured?' He thought as his eyes focused on who was on the other end of that softball, and saw none other than Wanda Maximoff.

There were a lot of things going through Pietro's mind, things like amazement at how good Peter's reflexes were, excitement at the chance to finally cut loose and use his quirk, and uncomfortableness at how the girl with blonde and pink hair was looking at him.

But there was one emotion that trumped all others in his mind.

Pure and utter shock.

Shock at how his sister nearly injured his friend badly, he didn't want to think about what would've happened if someone got hit with that softball, but judging by the tree the ball hit, it wouldn't be pretty.

"What just happened?" Pietro was brought back to reality by someone speaking, it was another boy who he thinks is named luke.

The class watched She-Hulk leap off the ground and land in front of them, and starting to walk toward Peter.

"Kid, are you alright?" She asked as she knelt down to Peter's height level.

"Yeah, I'm fine. What was that?" Peter asked as he looked towards the 1-B students, who looked even more confused than they were.

"One of my student's quirk seemed to..." The heroine paused as she tried to look for the right word. "malfunction while she tried to pitch." She stated and then turned to daredevil.

"I'm sorry Matt, one of your students could have been injured. I'll make sure something like this doesn't happen again." after only receiving a quick nod and an 'understood' from the man without fear, she leaped back towards her class.

"I'm sorry for the interruption. Parker, pitch the ball" The man said as if nothing had happened, much to the class' confusion.

"Are we just gonna ignore what happened?" Kamala said aloud, getting the class to voice their agreement to what she said.

"You want to be heroes? How can you do so if one small accident will deter you from the task at hand?" He said in a stern voice, only getting silence as a response from the students.

"Parker" The man called out as he set his eyes on the phone.

Peter gripped the ball, planted his feet firmly on the ground, and took a deep breath. He pulled his arms back, closed his eyes, and threw it.

He expected it to go like, 300 feet, maybe 400. But when he heard gasps from his classmates, he realized one thing.

They couldn't see the ball anymore.

It took 3 seconds of silence before daredevil spoke up, and showed the phone to the group.

It read '2142 Feet' in blue letters on a black screen.

"Holy fuck." Peter thought aloud, he knew he was strong but not that strong, the boy didn't even know what to do with this new information.

"Dude, this is gonna be sick! We can finally go all out!" An asian boy exclaimed, his statement was followed by other teens displaying their eagerness to show off their quirks.

Daredevil only chuckled and motioned for Peter to hand him the ball, he looked over the group with a smirk on his masked face.

"I'm glad you are looking forward to going all out, but this is only the beginning of the hell you all will go through at this school, that's what 'excelsior' means." He said in a tone that sent shivers through most of their spines.

"Alexander, get up here!" He called out, signaling for the tests to continue.

Test 1: Softball Throw.

Peter got to sit back and finally see what his classmates were capable of, and to be honest? it was incredible!

There was this boy who literally turned into the hulk and threw the ball nearly 1 and a half miles! Even though he ripped his shirt apart, it was awesome!

Clayton shot the ball into the distance with a sonic blast, which was an incredible way of using his quirk by Peter's standards, he couldn't wait to see his support gear!

The last person who used the quirk in an interesting was had to be that one kid with the weird helmet, he gained some aura of energy and blasted the ball away. The only weird thing is that gave him this weird look once he saw that he got a longer distance without a flashy quirk.

Test 2: 50 Meter dash

Peter was gonna be running against that blonde and pink-haired girl who kept giving him these looks that reminded him of how black cat looked at him.

When it was time to go, Peter ran as fast as he could and got a respectable time of 4.43 seconds, but it was nothing compared to her time since she started teleporting through small stretches of the track, getting 3.57 seconds.

Peter could have sworn that helmet kid snickered when it was announced he got a worse time than her.

"Hey, good job out there! your quirk is super cool!" Peter congratulated her as they got back to the group.

"Thanks, cutie!" She said with a wink that sent a shiver down his spine.

The next interesting set of performances were the hulk kid, who leaped over the track in one jump, Kamala who made her legs super long so she got farther in each step, and the helmet kid who could apparently fly and kept giving peter a weird look.

Pietro finished the race in 2.01 seconds, that mysterious boy who boosted his speed with fire he summoned and a girl who phased through the ground and phased back up halfway through the track.

Test 3: Standing Long Jump

To be honest, Peter thought this test was kinda boring, the results were pretty much a repeat of the last test.

The only interesting things were that Pietro didn't so good since he didn't get a running start and that kitty Pryde girl apparently phased through air molecules to get less friction and more distance on her jump, which was just amazing to think about.

Test 4: Grip Strength

People with some sort of physical enhancement quirk were clearly at an advantage, Peter felt bad that it didn't favor some quirks but he couldn't do anything about it.

Peter and That hulk kid, whose name was Amadeus, accidentally destroyed the measuring device, which they quickly apologized to Daredevil for.

Kamala stretched her arm to 20 feet and wrapped it around the device for more pressure, Flash covered his arm in his symbiote for more strength and that mysterious kid wrapped some chains he summoned around it.

The helmet kid got a laughable 30 pounds displayed on the device, he seemed annoyed at the fact that Riri, who was effectively quirkless when it came to physical strength, had more grip on her than he did.

Test 5: Repeated Side Jumps.

This was one of the more straight forward tests, it didn't give the teens a chance to use their quirks creatively.

Pietro had the most amount simply due to the fact he did them so fast, with Peter and Amadeus close behind. That girl who teleported, whose name was Gwen, teleported side to side over and over again until she got tired, beating Peter and Amadeus for the 2nd spot behind pietro.

Test 6: Long Distance Run

Again, those who had physical enhancement quirks were at a clear advantage.

Pietro easily completed the 3 laps that had to do the fastest, followed by Peter, Amadeus, Helmet kid, Gwen, and Laura, who was apparently pretty fast.

Test 7: Seated Toe Touch

This test was dominated by Kamala, who didn't even have to sit to reach her toes since she could just stretch his arms.

Amadeus seemed to not do as good as he was previously since he wasn't that flexible.

Flash created tentacles with his symbiote, which was a thing he could do, apparently.

Peter, being the spectacular, friendly neighborhood spiderman that he was, found it easy to do the test since he was very flexible already.

Test 8: Sit-ups

This test was probably the most boring in Peter's opinion since no one could really use their quirks in cool ways.

Looking back at the tests, Peter felt a little bad that people who didn't have combat efficient quirks got kinda, screwed over? he didn't know if that was the right word.

The only interesting thing that happened is that the helmet guy, who he learned was named sam or something, kept glaring at him. It was super uncomfortable, what even was his problem?

Test Results.

Daredevil gathered everyone back at the field in which they did the ball throw, he noticed that most of them looked pretty exhausted after repeated use of their quirks, but he simply didn't care enough.

"Alright, I've watched you all closed during the tests, and need you all to understand you can't simply rely on your quirk alone" He shot a look at Sam, who just took off his helmet. "But overall, good job. These are the results." He tapped the phone in his hand, which displayed a holographic leader board.

1. Amadeus Cho
2. Peter Parker
3. Pietro Maximoff
4. Gwendolyn Poole
5. Laura Kinney
6. Eugene Thompson
7. Robbie Reyes
8. Kamala Khan
9. Samuel alexander
10. Luke Cage
11. Daniel Rand
12. Clayton Cole
13. Randy Bowen
14. Kitty Pryde
15. Riri Williams

The brunette was proud at the spot he'd gotten on the list, while he would have liked 1st place, he was fine with 2nd cause it meant he did well either way.

Peter turned his head to gauge the reaction of his classmates, most at the top were content with their placement, and those at the bottom looked disappointed yet determined to improve.

Peter noticed that Sam, who was going to be referred to as 'helmet boy' until Peter found a funnier name for him, was glaring at him, like really hard.

Part of him wanted to walk up and see what he wanted, but part of him also couldn't care less what his problem was.

After a second or 2, the disinterested part of him won.

"Alright, go back to the locker rooms and get changed back into your uniforms, you still got a full day ahead of you." Daredevil said as he started to walk back to their classroom.

"Yes, sir!" The class echoed as they began to move back into the building and towards the locker room.

"Hey, Pete! Wait up!" Pietro called out to the brunette, making him turn around while raising an eyebrow.

"Pietro? what's up? great job on the test by the way!" Peter congratulated him while flashing a smile.

A smile Pietro didn't give back.

Peter watched Pietro approach him without the energy he always had, looking at the ground and shifting in place.

"Look, man, I-I'm sorry. My sister could have seriously hurt you and I-" Pietro was cut off by Peter grabbing him by the shoulder and looking him in the eye.

"Dude, I could be mad at your sister for nearly splitting me in half, which im not mad about by the way, but that wouldn't make me mad at you." He said sternly

Pietro didn't respond, only looking at Peter in confusion.

Letting go of his shoulders, Peter gave him one last look and started walking away.

Pietro stood there, trying to digest the entire situation and Peter's response to it.

Peter stopped walking once he reached the entrance of the building, they were behind the rest of the group that was walking go the lockers.

He turned to see Pietro, meeting his eye, and said "Hey, you coming? we got a whole day ahead of us!"