The gauntlet sufficiently thrown down, everyone poured into the gate leading to the obstacle course proper and the first hurdle. However, as bodies frantically pressed against one another, elbows and knees flying every which way as tensions grew…
'Ah! The starting gate itself, it's…' Izuku's keen mind deduced the moment bodies began pressing against him and all his forward momentum ground to a halt.
'The first filter…' Todoroki thought, unknowingly finishing Izuku's train of thought.
Willing his right half to life, a sudden cold-front swept through the tunnel, the temperature dropping like a lead weight as the moisture in the air began to crystallize. As Shoto broke away from the pack, all those in his wake cried out angrily as they found their feet frozen to the ground.
"Yowch!"
"I'm all frozen!"
"Can't move!"
"So cold!"
"That bastard!"
'Sorry, but it's for the best that you all remain here,' Shoto thought as he ran.
"Too easy, Todoroki!" a familiar voice punctuated by explosions sounded out. "I ain't letting you get ahead that easy, half n' half!" Katsuki Bakugou shouted as he used his Quirk to fly above the rank and file, his fellow classmates using their own superhuman abilities to soar above the competition, passing through the first filter.
"I expected more from our class, but… more made it past than I thought there would…" Shoto thought to himself as he glanced over his shoulder.
"Good thinking, staying two steps ahead of us, Todoroki, but now it's my turn!" Mineta Minoru cried as he used his [Pop Off] to hop, skip, and jump his way towards him, his small stature giving him speed and agility in relation to their size that most of his peers lacked. "How about a taste of my ultimate technique, GRAPE RUUUS-"
Before the grape-headed teen could finish his declaration, a blocky blur of green suddenly swept in from nowhere and struck him in his exposed left flank, tears streaming from the teen's eyes as he was sent for a loop.
"Mineta!" Izuku cried in shock as the faux villains from the entrance exam began to appear where the track opened up.
"That's right folks! Every obstacle course needs obstacles!" Present Mic commentated enthusiastically. "And what better obstacle to start out with than… ROBO INFERNOOOOO!" he cried as the looming forms of a half-dozen Zero-Pointers began to amble towards them.
"It's the Zero-Pointers from the exam!"
"Seriously?! The Hero Course kids had to fight those?!"
"Too many… There's no way past!" various students began to cry out as they gave in to despair.
"So these are the faux villains they used for everyone else's test?" Shoto hummed as he observed the mounting wall of metal before him. Having gotten in on recommendation, this was the first time he'd ever beheld these mechanical entities.
"Where'd they even find the money for these…?" Momo Yaoyarozu questioned as she appraised the value of the exterior metal components alone, let alone the cost of their internal components, labor, and maintenance.
'Hmph… Kinda wished they'd prepared something a little more threatening…' Shoto hummed as the Zero-Pointers turned their attention toward the front-most target; himself. A massive mechanical hand bearing down towards him, once more Todoroki willed the moisture around him to chill, a crystallizing wave of ice sweeping across the ground and cradling the underside of the Zero-Pointers as he threw up his hand, stopping them in their tracks.
"He… He stopped 'em! We can get through that gap!" a hopeful student cried.
"Bad idea. I froze them in pretty unstable positions so they'd fall," Shoto said plainly as the ice entombing the Zero-Pointers began to crack until breaking entirely, an earth-shaking avalanche of steel closing off his own avenue.
"OH! 1-A's Todoroki busted through Robo Inferno and sabotaged his competitors in a single move! Talk about ice-cold!" Present Mic crooned as the dust began to settle.
"C'mon…! Think…! Think…!" Izuku cried to himself as his peers began to surmount this second obstacle in their own way, his own feet firmly on the ground as his peers soared. "How do I get past this?" he asked as his mind raced.
The next moment, a figure with shiny brown hair shot past him, zipping easily around the lesser faux villains and leaving an impressive cloud of dust in their wake.
"Uwah!? So fast?!" Izuku gawped. "But wait, if that isn't Iida, then who…?" he asked as the figure dove into the wreckage of the Zero-Pointers with reckless abandon. Limbs contorting, Izuku could only follow the figure for a few moments before before they squeezed into impossibly-tight and narrow spaces, following after Todoroki faster than those taking a more vertical approach.
*MHA*
After breezing through the second obstacle, Shoto Todoroki continued his jog through the Obstacle Race, assured that collapsing the off-balance Zero-Pointers would enable him a few extra minutes of breathing room before any sort of competition began to catch up.
However, that sentiment swiftly died in his mind as the sound of rushing air and rapid footsteps met his ears. Looking over his left shoulder, Shoto briefly glimpsed a flash of oily brown hair amidst the cone of dust that shot past him a moment later, leaving him sufficiently in it as the dust-maker continued to widen the gap between itself and he.
'Was that Iida?' Shoto thought as his leading position was stolen from him. 'No… Iida's never moved that fast, and even if he could, I couldn't hear his [Engine]. This has to be someone new. Someone with a significant speed advantage,' the teen thought as he picked up the pace.
While his combination of [Subzero] and [Hellfire] was indeed powerful, it didn't magically allow him to keep pace with those who had superior physical abilities. And it wasn't hard to believe that someone like that might slip between the cracks just because they couldn't destroy military-grade robots on-demand.
*MHA*
"Incredible! Shoto Todoroki whose lead has been largely uncontested… has just been left in the dust! Literally!" Present Mic crooned as one of the camera-bots picked up the sudden upset, a certain flame-faced second-place hero's beard flaring up in anger at said upset. "The current leaders of the pack are overwhelmingly from Class 1-A, but it looks like we've got a dark horse in this contest! So epic!"
'Class 1-A knows there's no time to hesitate,' Shota Aizawa ruminated as he watched the various feeds. 'They've been exposed to the outside world, up close and personal. They've had that fear planted in them, and they've endured it. Overcome it. Each has grown from that experience, and forgotten what it means to hesitate,' he though as his eyes turned to the "dark horse" of the Obstacle Course Race. 'However… The Sports Festival is exactly the kind of place where those who couldn't shine during the Entrance Exam are able to stand out in a way more-condusive to those whose Quirks aren't as flashy or destructive as their contemporaries,' he then thought as the gap between Todoroki and first place continued to widen.
"Aaalright, folks! It looks like our dark horse has reached the second obstacle! Fall and you're out! You'll have'ta crawl across if you want to make it!" Present Mic announced as the aerial drones revealed the next obstacle- "This is… THE FAAAAAAALL!" -, a collection of earthen pillars jutting out of a pitch-black abyss interconnected randomly by a series of tightropes. "Our dark horse is the first to make it, so how will he use the massive lead he has on his competition?"
At this, said "dark horse" regarded the obstacle before him, two thin strands of hair, now-revealed to be antennae, flickering as the wind howled between the earthen pillars. Memorizing the layout of the pillars and their respective tightropes, the oily-haired brunette pulled his shirt over his head as he stepped back once, twice, ten times…
Then turned around completely and ran off, his uniform shirt fluttering to the ground, much to the shock of announcer and spectators alike as he ran away from The Fall.
*MHA*
'Whoever that was that passed me a minute ago, his speed was nothing short of incredible,' Shoto found himself admitting as he jogged hastily towards the third obstacle. 'Huh? Is that…?'
Squinting his eyes in the morning sun, Shoto realized that the owner of the dust cloud from before was backtracking towards him, allowing the dual-wielder of [Subzero] and [Hellfire] to get a better look at the one who had completely eclipsed him moments before as they dug their heels into the ground and came to a stop next to him.
Clad in the same Yuuei Academy P.E. uniform as himself sans the shirt, the student was of average height with a lean muscular build, his face plain though leaning towards feminine, but not so-feminine they'd be mistaken for a girl. His shoulder-length hair glistened as though it were oiled, parted away from his face with a pair of foot-long antennae sticking out from atop his head.
Before Shoto could discern what kind of Mutant-Type Quirk his competitor possessed, they had taken a massive gulp of air before shooting off like a rocket from whence he came, twiceover leaving him in the dust.
'This is starting to get annoying…!' Todoroki grumbled to himself as he shook the dirt out of his uniform and hair.
*MHA*
"Holy cow! That General Course student is really booking!" Present Mic gawped as aforementioned student once again passed Todoroki, his speed nothing short of incredible as he left a cone of dust in his wake. "But wait… He isn't going to try and jump it, is he?!"
"Someone with such an advanced understanding of their Quirk wouldn't attempt to build that much speed back up unless they had a plan in mind," Aizawa stated as he monitored the feed. "However, speed like this could easily backfire. If he doesn't have the reflexes to match, he could just-as-easily run himself out-of-bounds."
"Well, it's a good thing we have adequate padding down there, otherwise it could be a bit of a splash zone!"
Everyone's eyes on the competitor as the camera-equipped aerial drones struggled to keep up, the amount of runway remaining before the edge of The Fall continued to shrink more and more with every passing second. Spectators sucking in a breath wondering whether or not the brown-haired student would fall in or not, their unspoken question was answered when a cloud of dust was kicked up at the very edge of the second obstacle, an errant gust of wind revealing a crater with two shoeprints in the bottom, their creator soaring through the air.
"Hm. It looks like discarding his shirt earlier was done to reduce drag and air resistance," Aizawa hummed.
"Glad he didn't take off his pants! This program's still PG-13!" Present Mic added.
The student nearing the zenith of his flight, the drones following after him were able to get a shot of his back, revealing two chitinous brown plates with a similar oily sheen to his hair. The next moment a pair of insectile wings folded out to full size, fluttering wildly.
"So he's an amazing bug-like Mutant," Present Mic hummed enthusiastically. "But it doesn't look like he has enough airtime left to clear The Fall in a single bound! Whatever will he do?" he asked with dramatic flair.
The brown-haired insect-like teen positioning both arms behind him in a way that Aizawa found reminiscent of Katsuki Bakugou when he used his [Explosion] as a mid-air booster rocket during the 50 Meter Dash, said teen inhaled a large breath of air as gravity began to take hold of him once more, his fluttering wings doing very little to save off the inevitable.
"Ultimate Move:…" the insect-like teen intoned as many pores in the palms of his hands began to dilate until they resembled twin circular vents. "Goki Thruster!" he called out, the vents in his hands releasing a loud engine-like hiss as he was suddenly shot forward with renewed energy, the far edge of The Fall growing closer and closer with each passing moment. Empty space swiftly rising up to meet him even with his added inertia, the teen leaned forward and positioned both palms beneath himself in a Hadoken-like pose, his wings retracting into his back as lines of throbbing veins snaked their way down his arms. "Goki Blast!"
"WHOA! Did he just do a Double Jump?!" Present Mic gawped as a much louder engine-like hiss erupted from the teen's palms, giving him the extra kick needed to clear The Fall in a single bound. "And like that, our dark horse has left another obstacle in the dust!" he announced as the competitor took a moment to catch his breath before ascending the stairs toward the final obstacle. "Alright folks, I know it feels a bit early compared to previous years, but it's time to announce the final barrier!"
" . . . Are you serious?" the oily-haired "dark horse" asked with a twitching brow -and antennae to match- as he beheld the sign that greeted him.
DANGER
MINES
"That's right! The third obstacle is a deadly Afghan Carpet, The MINEFIELD!" Present Mic announced as the "dark horse" beheld the expansive field before him, circular discs of recently-upturned earth revealing the location of aforementioned mines. "A quick glance is enough to reveal the mines' locations, so keep your eyes open and watch your step, new guy! We're all rooting for ya!"
"Well…" the oily-haired brunette hummed as he paused to catch his breath. "At least they made it kind of easy."
"I should probably mention, our mines don't pack a deadly punch, but… They're loud and flash-enough that you might need a change of underwear when it's all over!"
"Depending on the individual, of course," the bandage-muffled voice of Eraserhead commented.
"Fresh pants will be available to anyone who needs them afterwards!" Present Mic added.
"Remember what your mom told you… If you have time to think, you have time to move…" the oily-haired teen thought as he regarded the obstacle before him one more time. However, with his then-current vantage point, it was incredibly difficult to map out the far-side of the minefield from where he was standing. "Guess there's only one way around it then."
"Wait! Is he doing what I think he's doing?" Present Mic asked as the "dark horse" turned around and rounded the corner, backtracking towards The Fall, albeit at a more-sedate pace than before.
"Given what he's shown us, I wouldn't put it past him," Aizawa stated as the oily-haired teen backtracked until he had the stairs at the tail-end of The Fall at his back.
Looking over his shoulder to see that the runner-up, Shoto Todoroki, had yet to reach The Fall, the teen took his time filling his lungs with air time and time again, forcing the good air in and the bad air out as his skin breathed. Dropping down onto all fours, his toes digging into the dirt for lack of starting blocks, the crowd in the arena slowly grew silent, the tension mounting as, for a brief moment, you could almost hear a pin drop. However, that all changed when the ground at the teen's feet exploded underneath him, off like a shot once again as the crowd erupted into cheers at the show going on before them, the mass media utterly devouring the sudden upset of the entire Hero Course being summarily eclipsed like this by a complete unknown.
"Faster…! Faster…! Faster…! Faster…!" the brunette chanted as he continued to pick up speed, The Minefield growing closer and closer by the second as he poured on the blps. "MAX SPEED!" he roared out as he poured on a final burst of speed, diving into The Minefield headlong as fast as his legs could carry him.
The brunette crossing entire meters with every passing second, antennae drawn backwards from atop his head, a nearly-inaudible *Click* heralded a large plume of pink-tinged smoke as one of the mines went off, their detonator literally several steps ahead of them by the time the cloud reached its zenith.
To everyone's amazement this trend continued to hold, pink plumes of smoke belching upward into the air every few seconds but much too late to impede the one that set off the trigger, the brown-haired blur tearing a dusty contrail across The Minefield until he'd passed the last row of explosives, nothing left to bar him from absolute victory as he entered the final bottleneck, a near-perfect mirror of the first aside from the fact it was completely unoccupied.
"IIINCREDIBLLLLE!" Present Mic shouted as the brown-haired teen exploded from the darkness and into the light, meeting a typhoon of cheering spectators and adulation upon his arrival. "At a record-shattering four minutes and thirty seconds," he announced as the record-breaker unfurled his wings like parachutes on a fighter jet and unleashing concentrated jets of air from his palms right in front of him. "The absolutely undisputed winner of the Obstacle Course Race is…" he said pausing for effect. " . . . Genki Gokiburi of the General Course! What an UPSET!" he cried out, the audience exploding into cheers as the previous record of ten minutes and forty seconds was completely annihilated.
*MHA*
AN:
The MC's name, Genki Gokiburi, takes cues from both Stan Lee and Kosei Horikoshi's respective character-naming styles. From Stan Lee it's the fact that his Given and Family name both start with G, making it Alliterative. From Kosei Horikoshi, it's that his name is extremely indicative as to the nature of his Quirk.
The MC's Given name translates into words like Healthy, Robust, Energy, Vitality, Spirit, Vigor, Pep, Courage, Stamina, Vim, and Vigour depending on the Kanji, and any one of those words could be used to describe Genki's performance in the Obstacle Race.
Stan Lee, you led an incredible life, and while 95 years in of itself is nothing to scoff at, what you've created, what you've inspired -My Hero Academia included- will let you transcend Mistress Death and remain in the hearts of those your work has captivated even centuries after you're gone. I know that there are loads of "in honor of" stories in your name already, but this is more than a one-off. This story had been in the planning stages for a long time, but after you died, I decided to take cues from both yourself and Horikoshi -Izuku = Spier-Man, anyone?-, and rework the name so he was alliterative like Peter Parker (Spider-Man), Joey Jones (Hero Man), Dr. Doom (Fantastic Four), and so-on.
So Stan, if the life I live can even be 1% as-amazing as yours was… I think I'd be alright with that, and I'll see you soon in the next world in sixty, maybe seventy years depending on health choices and whether or not the government allows me to protect myself with firearms.
GO BEYOND!
EXCELSIOR!