The students were frightened and static, failing to understand how all those villains had managed to get into an M.A facility.
"So these are the ones who used the press to invade the school," Matt commented, finally realizing how it all happened. He continued to remove his clothes.
"Ummm, Mr. Murdock," asked Nico, looking on in confusion. "What're you-"
But her eyes widen in realization as the discarded clothes reveal a red, protective bodysuit underneath. Matt takes apart his walking stick, folding and storing it in a thigh holster. Lastly, he threw off his glasses and pulled a padded red mask up over his head. The horns on top said it all.
"He's Daredevil!?" A wave of shock and awe passed through the class, with the exception of Peter, who'd deduced his teacher's identity on the first day.
The hero turns his head slightly towards his students, "Now you know why I swore you all to secrecy." But he quickly turns his focus towards the unexpected arrivals.
After the robot emerged from the black haze, the fog quickly condensed on a person, or at least what appeared to be a person. A man with completely red skin, wearing a black suit with a red cloth in the front pocket. He was tall, with a thin face, black hair combed back and with a goatee without a mustache of the same color. He had a thin tail with a triangular tip and two curved swords attached to the waist. The man was more devil-like in appearance than the hero who used the moniker.
"The only real heroes I see are Daredevil and Danger," said the red man to his companion. He spoke with a German accent. "I'm perplexed, according to the itinerary we stole, Iron Man should be here too."
"He's not here? Such a pity, all that work to convince these people to come. Tsc, tsc, tsc..." The Goblin comments in a somewhat indifferent tone. "Still, no problem, just kill some kids and he'll show up..." He said, grinning darkly towards the students present at the entrance of the EDR.
At the top, near the entrance, with the students, both professional heroes were preparing for the inevitable confrontation. Daredevil removes his stick from the holster and separates the two halves, still connected by an elastic thread. Danger puts on the face portion of her helmet, which looked more like an iron mask.
- That day, we learned what professional heroes are really up against. The darkness they faced to keep us safe. We looked at those villains, and pure evil looked back. -
"What? Real villains? No way..." said Amadeus, nervously trying to mask fear with denial. "How did so many of them manage to get into such a safe M.A installation?"
"True," added Ava, the deputy representative of the room takes a step forward. "Danger, why aren't the alarms going off?"
"Good question," the heroine's voice was a little muffled by the mask, but her tone of concern was recognized anyway. "But I'm not sure..."
"Is the entire campus under attack? Or is this the only target?" Reyes asked in a strangely calm way. "Anyway, if the alarm sensors aren't ringing, then one of these villains has a Quirk that is masking their presence here. An attack at a location away from the main campus, at the time that a class would be taking place. They're stupid for invading, but they definitely planned this attack. Whatever it is, they must have a concrete goal in mind. The question is, what is it?"
"Danger, get them out of here and alert the main campus," Daredevil said to his colleague, referring to the students. He took a step forward towards the stairs, and consequently the villains. "If they have the ability to block our alarms, they're probably interfering with our communications too..."
"What will you do?" Peter asks his teacher worriedly. "I know you're good, but there's way too many! You can't face them alone!"
But the hero turned to the boy and gives a slight grin. "You don't become a pro by having just one trick up your sleeve," he said, turning to the crowd of villains with their guns drawn. "I'm counting on you, Danger."
The heroine nods as Daredevil propels himself forward, running a few meters, jumping up stairs, landing shortly after and running towards the group of villains. Peter stood at the top of the stairs, observe the confrontation and fearing the worst for his teacher.
"Don't worry," Peter saw Danger looking out as well. "Most people don't know the true nature of Murdock's Quirk."
"What do you mean?" Asked the boy.
At the foot of the stairs, some villains were already watching the demon-dressed hero running down the stairs towards them, and some were already taking certain steps.
"Artillery squad, ahead!" One of the villains calls out, seeing the approaching hero and raising his hands forward to prepare his Quirk.
"Didn't the folks at intel say it was just going to be Danger and Iron Man? Who the hell's this guy?" Asked a woman, also from artillery, who made her hair grow longer.
"I dunno," says another. "But if he thinks he can take to us, he's a dead man!
Getting closer and closer, Matthew lets out an ultrasonic hiss, like a bat's sonar, quickly having the sound waves surrounding his opponents and returning the image into his mind.
Three villains at the bottom of the stairs, racing hearts and adrenaline running faster than the others. Parts of their bodies pointed in my direction. They called themselves an artillery squad: so long-distance Quirks. They want to kill me, or at least stall, before I get to melee...
The demonically-dressed hero uses his Quirk in another way: whistling at an ultrasonic frequency that causes the liquid in the semicircular channels in his opponents' inner ear to move, causing vertigo.
"Ahhh! What's going on!?" The first villain grabs his head in pain. His vision starts to spin and loses his balance, unable to focus on the approaching hero anymore.
"I don't feel well..." Another one from the squad clutches his churning stomach. But he wouldn't have to worry about it for a long.
An extremely fast projectile is launched towards him, it hits his forehead and immediately the villain falls unconscious. The owner of the projectile then uses the momentum to wrap the stick with the string around the villain's neck at his side and with a tug, hits his head with the villain's at his side, making them both pass out. Daredevil then makes the stick return and re-attaches it to his twin while putting himself in a fighting position.
"Idiots! This is the pro hero Daredevil!" Exclaimed another. "He confuses your brain with a whistle, and can see everything around him!"
Matthew Murdock, Hero Name: Daredevil. Quirk; Ultrasonic. He's capable of producing sounds at specific and ultrasonic frequencies. He can detect them with enhanced senses, thus being able to perceive his surroundings and even disorient specific parts of the human brain.
"Confusion? I want to see if he can confuse me after a beating!" A villain yelled, running towards the hero. He had a Mutation Quirk, presenting four arms.
"You're right," Matt says as he manages to dodge consecutive blows, using ultrasound only to locate himself. "But guys like you are only a problem when they beat me, and that never happens!"
Daredevil dodges a few more blows, and uses a small opening from his opponent to hit his temple with the billy club, making him stagger slightly backwards. Then he quickly spins, throwing that piece of his weapon, wrapping around the villain's neck. The hero then pulls him close with a tug, and jumps, turning his torso for a direct kick to the side of his opponent's head, taking him out of the fight.
"Okay, who's next?" Asks the hero with a menacing aura about him."
"Ah, there goes the little devil, with his martial arts skills and intimidating air," the Goblin comments, when watching the pro fight against his pawns. "With his Quirk, he can observe everything at the same time and confuse the mind. Making difficult an initiative of someone or some proactivity..."
While the supposed leader and his two henchmen watch, Daredevil doesn't stop, making a villain who was about to use her Quirk have a horrible headache, distracting her enough that the hero hit her with another well located kick. At the same time, he attached his weapon to another's neck, and using consecutive strikes to make him pass out as well.
"The worst thing about dealing with pros, is when they meet your expectations," the young villain sighed, as if all that was just a nuisance for him.
From the top of the stairs, Peter can really recognize the skill of his class teacher, who fought and dodged in an almost superhuman way, he was literally a ninja. "Wow, he's really distracting them," Peter said, running towards the exit with the rest of the class.
But in the middle of the path, the same black and reddish mist that appeared before starts to rise from the ground, like a smoke machine. And that could only mean one thing: the red villain appears, rising from the mist, and placing himself between the group of students and their teacher, and their intended exit.
"I'm afraid there is no escape," he said in a serene and calm voice, as if negotiating something. "Guten tag, it is an immense pleasure to meet you. We are the League of Villains. I know this is a bit forward, but we decided to invite ourselves to this, 'paradise of justice', to say hello. This place is perfect for Iron Man, the Symbol of Peace, to take his last breath."
He looked around expectantly, "I thought he would be here today, but there is no sign of him. I suppose there must have been some kind of change in plans that we couldn't predict. But don't worry, you still have an important role to play."
Danger starts to quietly activate her Quirk, extending her mechanical fingers and connecting to EDR through an entrance to the floor. She starts to see and feel through the room, They must be confusing the system, she thinks to herself. But the defense system is still intact... But before she could activate any of the defenses, two of her students had already launched themselves at the enemy.
"YAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!!!!" Flash and Amadeus scream as they jump towards the villain. Flash raising his arms with black goo and the Cho transforming into his green form, both delivering strikes of immeasurable strength in the spot where the villain was simultaneously, causing a gust of wind, a tremor and rising from dust.
"Did you really think we would just let you monologue for the next hour?" Asked Amadeus, in a fighting position, prepared for whatever happens. But when the dust settles, everyone was surprised to see the villain intact, exactly where he was. He lightly brushed some dust off his shoulders, as if dealing with insects.
"Sehr gut! You certainly live up to your school's expectations, but you should be more careful children, or someone could get hurt..." He looks at them even more deeply, specifically the two ahead.
"You two!" Danger catches the attention of her students. "Get out of the way immediately!"
"I will spread you around this place, where you will meet my colleagues, along with your deaths!" He said, opening his arms. A huge amount of mist appears behind him and engulfs all the students, trapping them in a kind of mist capsule.
"Damn! What is this!?" Amadeus wonders when he feels the force of it, as if it were a storm. Pietro, on account of his Quirk, is the only one who can move fast enough, turning around and pushing his sister at his side, and another student out of that dome. The three fall to the ground. Wanda, Pietro and Luke, the third student, and they're are able to observe the dome of black and red mist that surrounded the group. While everyone inside tried to hold on and protect themselves in the best possible way against the villain's Quirk.
Peter was one of those who tried to protect himself from the torrent of mist, raising his arms in front of his face, not knowing exactly what the opponent's Quirk specifications were. Until he feels less and less force being exerted on him, as if the strength and speed of the fog was decreasing, but when he opened his eyes; he found himself in free fall.
"YAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!" He yells, quickly taking notice of the environment. Peter fell next to a building, unable to see details due to his speed. But his Spider Sense alerted him to danger, and he saw was a villain in a yellow outfit, waiting for him at the end of his fall.
"Nothing personal kid, but you need to die!" He calls out, smashing his fists together. There was some kind of tech on his hands, and he leaned back as if to throw a punch.
But the boy was faster, and had the advantage of his Quirk. Observing a window a few meters below him, he shot a web at the top of the opening and yanks it tight. At a certain point, the web pulls him and he's thrown into the window, escaping certain death by the fall and waiting villain. He hits the window with all his might, breaking it completely, falling and rolling into the building.
"That was close..." The boy said, getting up and dusting the dirt off while taking a roll of gauze from one of his pockets to bandage his arm. He looks around and through the broken window he came from. The place was very similar to the locations of the entrance exam and combat training, a gray, concrete building. But this one was messy, and full of random objects.
The boy then looks outside and sees the rest of the EDR. I'm still in here, that red guy before must have some kind of Quirk for creating portals... But the boy's thinking is interrupted when he hears a wood creaking from somewhere behind him.
Putting himself in a fighting position, with his fists raised, Peter crept slowly towards the noise, trying his best to be silent. But as he approaches the doorway to another room, when he's surprised by a recognizable blonde wearing a pink and white costume.
"AAAAAAAH!!!" Gwen screams as she runs toward Peter with her two katanas in hand, swinging them from side to side.
"Gwen!?" Peter exclaimed, narrowly dodging the girl's consecutive attacks.
"You're not taking me without a fight!!!" She screams louder like she hasn't heard her friend's voice.
"Gwen!!! It's me! Peter!" The boy tries to explain himself while moving backwards, this time needing less effort to dodge the girl's flailing sharp blades.
"You can't deceive me!!!" She exclaims even more frantically. Finally, Peter realized what was wrong: Gwen's mask was backwards down. In other words, she couldn't see anything. So she wasn't trusting Peter's voice and thus, fortunately, missing her attacks.
The boy made a quick movement and approached the girl when her arms were raised. He yanked her mask off so she could see again. Gwen's eyes widen, "Peter!!!" She exclaimed happily, dropping her swords and giving him a very tight hug.
"Yeah, that's what I was trying to say all along," he said, trying not to blush over the girl squeezing him, and gave her some friendly pats on the back. "T-Take it easy..."
"I was so alone, I didn't know if I could handle the loneliness," she said in a tearful voice.
"Gwen, we were all together a second ago," Peter replied, confused.
"I don't care," she said in a hushed voice, her face pressed to the boy's chest.
"And... done!" The pair hears a third voice in the room, quickly separating to see the little, slightly perverted artist of the class.
"Kei?" Peter asked, observing his colleague sitting on a box. His legs were crossed and his sketchbook sat on top of his legs. "How long have you been here?"
"Long enough," he replied, rubbing lightly on one of the pages and removed the remains with a breath. Kei shows his work to the duo, "What do you think? Isn't that a work of art?"
Peter, looking at the drawing, quickly turns away with his face completely red. The drawing was indeed very well done even if it was only with graphite, the different shades of gray, the proportions and the shading were professional level work.
The boy's problem was the drawing itself. What in reality was a friendly, comforting hug between Peter and Gwen, in Kei's eyes was something completely different. The scene was nearly the same, but with Peter's arms around the girl's waist, and her arms around his neck. Their uniforms were open and falling, revealing the blonde's shoulders and the boy's chest. The two depicted were staring deeply into each other's eyes with passion, as if this were the start of a love scene from a movie.
"Can you make my thighs a bit thicker?" Asks Gwen, in such an innocent way as if she hadn't really seen the drawing.
"I'm an artist," the boy replied. "I capture reality, I don't work miracles. Well, not in most ca-"
"OK! Enough!" Peter interrupts, his face still hot and reddish. Kei closed his notebook, a bit dejected. "I think we have more important things to worry about, don't we?
"Like what?" Gwen asked.
"Like the so-called 'League of Villains' that invaded our school and apparently wants to kill Iron Man!?" Said Peter sarcastically, trying to put common sense in the minds of his classmates.
"Okay, boring," she replied, sitting on the floor with a sullen face. "But know that I will not kiss you anymore."
"What!? But we didn't-! I-!" Peter was at a loss for words, not knowing how to deal with this girl, and blushing more than before. He rubs his face with his hands, exasperated over dealing with her.
Peter walks to the window to see how the situation was outside. There were at least twenty villains, all watching the window that he'd entered, as if they were waiting for them to leave there too.
"Ok, there's at least a couple dozen villains down below," he said. "It'll be tough getting out of here..."
"But why do we have to leave?" Kei asked. "Can't we just wait for the pros to arrive? Our classes just started, I don't think we'll be much of a match!"
"Maybe, but I think there's something more to it than just the invasion," Peter said, putting his hand on his chin while thinking. "I keep thinking about what the red villain said. They knew our schedule and who would be here. They must've gotten the school files while we were all stuck in the cafeteria. The teachers were busy trying to get the media out of the school grounds. Which means they were waiting for the perfect opportunity to attack, just like Reyes said they would."
"Oh, come on, it's Iron Man we're talking about!" Kei hopped down from the box. "When he appears, he'll show these guys who's boss!" He tries to choreograph karate blows to emphasize his points.
"Definitely, but..." Gwen starts to speak, looking up and putting her hand on her chin. "If they really prepared so much, it means that they might've found a way to kill him, right? And from what the devil said, I think we should worry more about not being captured and tortured to death," she finished, not realizing the weight of her words for little Kei.
"Hahaha, for sure. This is crazy..." he said, approaching Peter, pulling his shirt. "Saysthisiscrazysaysthiscrazy..." While Gwen kept trying to reason and Kei freaked out to some degree, Peter thought to himself about the whole situation.
Gwen might be right, if they're here for Iron Man, they must have a way to defeat him. They wouldn't have planned this attack if they hadn't. But why him? Because his very existence discourage villains and evil? Because he's the first and only Symbol of Hope and Justice?
Peter then remembers all the times the hero had encouraged him, all the times he had helped him, believed in him. And the image of Uncle Ben comes to mind. It doesn't matter, I don't care about motivations, I have to focus! I have to face this evil head on! Just like Uncle Ben taught me...
"With great powers, come great responsibilities," he said to his two classmates. The boy turns to them, pulling his mask out of his pocket, "If they can beat him, then we have to stop whatever these villains are up to. We have to work together and save him. Nobody at M.A knows what's going on here. It's up to us now! We have to be heroes!"
.
.
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Barber's Chair
• So in place of Kurogiri, we have Azazel, another teleporter with mannerisms closely matched to the original.
• Introduction to Kei here, in place of the much despised Mineta. While this version of the character has some similarly pervy tendencies, he does have his limitations and tends to mostly channel them into his art.
