I have returned, and it didn't take me a month this time.

Honestly, I don't have much to say. Reviews for last chapter were nice, I don't have any questions to ask you all, and there's not much to discuss. I do have something to say, but I'd rather hold it till the end of the chapter.

Anyway, the major angst from the last chapter is finished. We're done, thank god. There will be some angsty bits in this story's future, but they won't be anywhere near that… level.

Whatever, you all know what time it is now.

*Ahem*

Hello everybody. I have returned once again with my insufferable co-host to help you remember something you probably read 5 seconds ago. Helpful, right?

"Aw yeah baby! You knew I'd be back! What are we doing today nerd?"

I told you, my name is… right, I don't have a name. Aren the asshole was too lazy to give me one. I guess nerd is my name now. Great. So, according to the script, last chapter-

"Was so boring! Feelings? Crying? UGH! Come on Petey, I expected more cool stuff from you. The kiss at the end was kind of hot though."

… Screw it, he's right. Last chapter sucked. Nothing cool happened. 0 stars Aren, 0 stars.

"Recap's over people! Let's get back to that story now!"

Back To That Story:

"Let me see if I've got this right. Toga was crying because Spinner skipped the bloodiest scene in the movie, so to make her feel better, you let her drain all the blood in your arm?" Magne spoke in a deadpan tone, one eyebrow raised as she towered over Peter and Toga.

"Technically it was most of my blood, but yes." Peter corrected, twitching his right hand to show it could still be moved.

Discreetly, he sent a glance at Spinner and gave a quick nod, which the lizard man returned. Before entering the bar, Toga had asked Peter to not tell the others the exact details. She trusted them for the most part, but it was still a very personal moment the two of them had shared and she didn't feel like retelling her life story.

Spinner didn't know the details, but obviously knew Peter was lying. Still, he understood there had to be a reason for that, so with a stiff nod, Spinner confirmed Peter's words to Magne.

"Are you a fool?" Stain groaned, placing one hand on the countertop to pull himself off the ground. He had clearly just woken up. "Now one of your arms is disabled. With the amount of blood you've lost, you won't be back to your best for at least two weeks."

"Actually, it'll be more like a day at most. Faster healing, remember? Wouldn't be a very useful ability if I couldn't also replenish my blood at a faster rate." Peter used his good arm to lift up the limp one, showing that it had already begun to regain some of its color.

Not bothering to answer, Stain simply grunted and stalked off to one of the corner tables, slumping down at an empty table.

"So, what happens now young man?" Compress asked curiously, still wearing his casual clothing.
"I guess I'll just stay here. I can't go back to school and people will ask questions if I 'free' myself. The best choice would be to wait it out." Peter shrugged.

"Wait what out exactly? At what point can you walk back out of here like nothing happened? You'd still have to answer questions." Dabi pointed out from his own corner adjacent to Stain's.

That was the big question. It was obvious to Peter he couldn't leave. The question wasn't what to do in the current situation, it was what to do next? Did he wait for heroes to show up and "rescue" him? Then he'd have to keep them from arresting his friends, which couldn't be done without exposing himself, and then it would be back to square one. Actually, it'd be more like square zero at that point.

"I… don't know. I'm beginning to think there isn't a good way out of this." Peter admitted, hanging his head slightly.

"Have you considered the possibility of staying for good?" Spinner, still wearing the Iron Spider, asked innocently. "I mean, you didn't really plan on becoming like the other heroes anyway right? Sooner or later, your way of doing things would put you right back on the heroes' wanted list, so what's the harm really?"

Spinner raised a good point, but there was one problem.

"I didn't plan on being like the other heroes in this world, but it wouldn't hurt to at least get a hero license. Then I could do what I always do without having to worry about other heroes breathing down my neck all the time. It'd be simple staying here, sure, but only in the short term." Peter sighed.

The whole situation was screwed up. To make it worse, Peter didn't even have his improved Iron Spider. He figured the internship wouldn't call for the improved version, so he brought the original to conserve the new model's battery. So now he had a relatively outdated suit with an extremely low battery. At best, it would last a few more days before most of its systems shut down. It could still be worn of course, since the process of activating the nanobots didn't require power, but Peter would no longer have access to Karen, the spider legs, or the built in web shooters.

There was always the newer suit of course. It wasn't as high tech as the Iron Spiders, but at least it didn't need to be charged.

Still, it wasn't too bad just yet.

"I need to come up with a solution eventually, but not right now. There's no way this place will get found anytime soon with so little leading to it. I'll keep thinking of solutions, but for now, I may as well just enjoy the downtime." Peter glanced to his left, where Toga was sitting with a bright smile. "It can't be too bad to take a break every now and then."

The Hospital:

"Do you understand why I had Midoriya call you?" Todoroki asked.

He, Iida, and Midoriya were still confined to their hospital beds despite their protests that they were okay. Thankfully, they were allowed to keep their phones with them, which Todoroki had instructed to call Peter's friends with.

15 minutes later, Kirishima and Kaminari were at the hospital. They were able to get permission from the heroes they were interning with to visit their friends thanks to the hospital's close proximity to the agencies they were working at. They couldn't stay forever though. Within the day, they were expected back at their respective agencies to continue their work.

Ojiro and Mina hadn't been as lucky.

"I mean, kind of? You said it had something to do with Peter, and after what we saw on the news, we had to see what was going on." Kirishima spoke first.

"Right. To put it simply, we need manpower." Todoroki explained, earning tilted heads and confused looks. "We're going to look for Peter ourselves."

"WHAT!?" Kaminari shouted. Todoroki glared at him for the outburst, prompting a sheepish expression.

"You want us to look for Peter? But that's illegal. The pros are already handling it and we're just students. If they catch us looking for him, we'll be arrested." Kaminari explained to the dual-colored boy.

"Maybe. But does that really matter?"

"What?"

"What Todoroki means is that we shouldn't let the law stop us." Midoriya broke in. "Peter is our friend. Maybe the pros will find him just an hour from now and have him back safely, but can we really just wait for that? If one of us were missing, even if the whole country were looking for us, Peter would still be out there in a second looking for us himself."

Kaminari and Kirishima looked at Iida to hear his thoughts, but the bespectacled boy just nodded in agreement.

"While I do not condone breaking the law in any scenario… what Midoriya says is true. Besides, we are at UA to be heroes. A hero's job is to help anybody and everybody whenever possible. The law bars us from helping, but only if we let it. If one obstacle stops us from doing our job, can we call ourselves heroes?" Iida looked as if each word physically hurt him, but he never wavered.

Kaminari opened his mouth to speak again, but Kirishima beat him to it.

"Alright. Count me in."

"EH!?"

"Really!?"

"Well that was easier than expected." Todoroki deadpanned.

"Whoa, whoa, seriously dude? We're talking about the law here. Are you trying to get arrested?" Kaminari tried to reason with his spiky-haired friend.

"Nah, I'd rather not get arrested. I want to help because my bro would do the same thing for me. If some villain took me hostage, you'd better believe Peter would be right on his way to bail me out, like a real man." Kirishima clenched a fist as a single manly tear rolled down his face. Somehow, the random tear elicited no comment from the others.

"Well, that's one down. And you?" Todoroki asked the only blonde in the room.

"I-I… wait, why are you even agreeing to this? I'm not doubting that you want to be a hero, but since when do you care enough about Peter to do something like this for him? At the sports festival, you were practically trying to kill him." Kaminari deflected, pointing an accusatory finger at Todoroki, who didn't seem at all bothered.

That was actually a pretty good question. If he had been asked the same question two weeks ago, Todoroki would have laughed at the idea that he cared about one of his classmates enough to break the law for them. His goal wasn't to be friends with any of them, so why should he have bothered getting attached?

But, those two weeks had passed, and the heterochromatic teen's views had changed.

Peter was… an embarrassment. He made a joke out of every serious situation, acted like nothing was important, and he somehow managed to make a fool out of Todoroki in each of their encounters.

And that there was exactly why Todoroki cared.

Peter didn't try. Any fool who paid attention could see he had never tried his hardest at anything that happened in the past few months, yet he continued to rise far above the others. Just like Todoroki, he limited himself, but unlike him, Peter could get by, while Todoroki couldn't. Peter had proved that.

For so many years, his left side went unused. There was never any need for it, and Todoroki had no intention of allowing that to change.

Yet it had changed. For better or worse, Peter had absolutely demolished Todoroki. On their first day of hero training, at the sports festival, and at every single insignificant lesson they had in between, all while barely even trying.

It would be an understatement to call it a wake up call. It showed Todoroki his right side wouldn't always be enough. Whether he liked it or not, there would be times where his left side had to be used. What if someday out in the field, somebody died because of his refusal to use his full power?

There was another reason, though it was a bit less significant.

Despite himself, Todoroki respected Peter. To do so much while handicapping himself was impressive. And while he made jokes out of everything, it was clear Peter took things seriously when it was necessary. He knew when to stop clowning and be serious, which was more than could be said for a lot of people.

He refused to call Peter a friend, but it would be a lie to say he didn't mean slightly more to him than the rest of the class.

Smirking lightly to himself, Todoroki finally answered.

"I guess you could say I just want to help a classmate in need."

Kaminari still didn't look totally convinced. He liked Peter, he'd consider him one of his best friends, but risking jail time over something that was already being handled? It just seemed kind of pointless.

"Kaminari, I get why you don't want to do this, but this is an opportunity." Midoriya stated. When Kaminari said nothing, he continued.

"We're trying to be heroes, aren't we? In that case, we shouldn't even have to think about this. We can stay here and let somebody else handle it, or we can go out there and look for our friend. If we do it fast and don't attract too much attention to ourselves, nobody will even know what happened and nobody will be punished."

Kaminari looked at each of the room's occupants in turn, finding himself outnumbered. Turning his gaze to the ground for a few seconds, he finally groaned loudly and lifted his head once more.

"AGH, FINE! I'll help out, alright?" Kaminari could help but smile a little. "It'd be pretty lame of me if I didn't help out one of my best bros."

"So when do you guys get released?" Kirishima glanced at the clock, which read 11 AM. He had to be back at Fourth Kind's hero agency by 5.

"Officially? 6 PM." Todoroki responded as he threw off his blanket to reveal his nanobot container was attached to his shirt, Midoriya and Iida doing the same. "In actuality, right now."

(Hah! Bet you forgot they had those)!

(Shut up Deadpool, you're only allowed in the recaps of this story).

The 3 boys rose to their feet. Naturally, their costumes weren't in perfect condition, especially not Iida's, but they were far from non-functional.

"Iida, are you sure you're okay going with us. Your left hand is-"

"Is my concern Midoriya." Iida cut off the verdant teen. "I appreciate your concern, but Peter's well-being is far more important than my injury. The surgery went well enough and I already feel better, so please do not worry about me." As he spoke, Iida wildly tossed his arms around in his usual over the top gestures.

Though a bit unsure, Midoriya accepted the answer.

"Wait, won't people be suspicious when they see you guys missing?" Kirishima asked.

"Relax. Since we don't require urgent care, we aren't visited very frequently. We've got at least a few hours until somebody comes to our room, and we've already got an idea on how to locate Peter." Todoroki explained.

"R-right, but how do we get out of the hospital without you being seen?" Kaminari inquired.

"You know what the good thing is about big buildings?" Kaminari shook his head. "There are a lot of ways out and in." Not explaining further, Todoroki left the room, his classmates close behind.

At the moment, the hospital wasn't very densely populated, at least, their floor wasn't. Many of the rooms were empty, which meant there weren't many staff members walking around. The 5 boys made their way through the building quickly and quietly, and whenever somebody did appear, they ducked into the nearest room and waited for them to pass.

There was a close call where they ended up hiding inside an occupied room, but thankfully, the occupant was asleep in their bed.

Inwardly, Kaminari wondered why he and Kirishima were sneaking with them when they could simply sign out at the front desk, but it was kind of fun acting like a ninja, so he kept his thoughts to himself.

Eventually, the 5 of them ended up a crossroads of sorts. Two options lay before them.

"We can take the stairs, which will take longer, but we can always turn around if we hear somebody coming, though we could end up trapped on both sides. We can also take an elevator, though that runs the risk of encountering others when the doors open." Iida broke down the choices presenting themselves.

"I saw a window washing unit when we came in. We could go to the roof and ride that to the ground." Kaminari suggested.

"Right. The large, very noticeable metal platform will help us to sneak out unnoticed." Todoroki deadpanned at the blonde's stupidity.

"I saw we try our luck with the elevator. Kaminari and I can stand in front of you 3 and hide your faces when the doors open.

The group thought on it for a moment before finally agreeing. It was still risky, but their other options weren't any better.

Midoriya, Iida, and Todoroki hid behind a cleaning cart while Kaminari and Kirishima went over to the elevators and secured an empty one for the group. The escapees huddled together in the back while their friends stood in front of them, pulling out their phones in an effort to look inconspicuous.

The button was pushed and the elevator began its descent. Midoriya could feel himself growing more and more nervous the entire ride down to the first floor. Finally, the familiar ding sounded through the confined space. Taking a deep breath, Midoriya tried to make himself appear smaller as the doors slowly opened.

"... Nobody's here, we're clear." Kirishima informed them. "We have to sign out at the front desk or people will wonder where we went. Are you guys cool on your own?"

The escapees all nodded.

"We'll meet you behind the hospital in a few minutes."

Accepting the answer, their two rescuers left them alone and made their way to the front desk.

This would be the hardest part of escaping the hospital. The first floor was densely populated with workers and civilians alike. Getting out unseen was out of the question. Their objective was to get out without anybody recognizing them.

Todoroki narrowed his eyes, looking for a clear route from the elevator to one of the hospital's back doors.

"We'll never be totally clear and somebody will come for the elevators eventually. We need to move quickly, risks aside." Todoroki instructed.
The dual-colored teen lowered himself into a half-crouch, prepared to move forward at the drop of a hat. Midoriya and Iida both followed his lead.

Todoroki watched the milling crowd like a hawk, waiting for the perfect opportunity to dash forward. Finally, an opportunity presented itself.

A large group of people passed by, obstructing the elevators from the view of the front desk employees. Not wasting the opportunity, Todoroki shot out of the elevator, not quite running but hurrying as he moved along the wall towards the back of the building, his friends right behind him.

The boys continued moving forward, not meeting any resistance. No employees presented themselves, leaving the path clear.

Then, they saw it.

A single, dark grey door with a glowing, neon exit sign hanging above it.

"That's our exit."

Moving slightly faster, the boys continued making their way to the door leading to their freedom. Just when freedom seemed imminent, Todoroki stuck both his arms out, stopping the others from moving forwards. Quickly yet quietly, he grabbed them both by the arm and hurried around the nearest corner.

Two men, one with bright red hair and another with dark blue hair had stepped in front of the door, finishing whatever conversation they had just had. The red-haired man pushed the door open and leaned against it to hold it open. He and the blue-haired man were both carrying large cups of coffee. Apparently, they were on break.

"So, did you watch the game last night?" The bluenette asked.

"Yeah. Go red." His friend replied.

"Screw that, red sucks." [1]

"Oh, you've got to be fuc-"

"Language!" Iida reprimanded before Todoroki could finish speaking.

"S-so what now?" Midoriya asked nervously.

Iida looked around for a moment. There were no other exits in sight and looking for another one brought the risk of being caught. The only door nearby was a janitor's closet.

"Maybe there are uniforms in there. We can grab a trashcan and pretend we're taking the trash out." He suggested.
Midoriya nodded, making his way to the closet. While he shuffled around inside, Iida and Todoroki watched the two men blocking the exit. Midoriya returned a moment later.

"No uniforms, only hats." The verdant teen held out two grey hats with red and gold logos on them. "Maybe they won't think it's suspicious if we keep our heads down. Maybe they'll think our uniforms are being washed. But if they try to talk to us, what do we say? Could we tell them-"

With a face that positively radiated "are-you-serious" energy, Todoroki snatched one of the hats from Midoriya.

Leaning around the corner they were crouched behind, Todoroki angled his arm and tossed the hat down the hallway the two men emerged from.

The light, cloth hat barely made any sound when it hit the ground, but it was apparently enough for the two men. The redhead peered down the hall curiously before walking over to investigate the sound. A few seconds later, the escapees heard multiple voices shouting all at once.

"HEY, THERE ARE PATIENTS HERE!" The redhead's voice came from around the corner, prompting his blue-haired friend to drop his coffee and run over to help. [2]

"... I guess that works too." Midoriya blushed slightly. Todoroki just rolled his eyes and ran to the door, holding it open for the other two.

Now outside, the 3 of them ran around the building until they found Kirishima and Kaminari. Midoriya was about to greet them, but Kaminari cut him off.

"Hey guys? Remember when I suggested escaping on the roof and Todoroki looked at me like I was stupid? Weeelll…"

The blonde pointed to the wall next to him. There was a metal ladder there leading to the roof of the building. They could have easily climbed down to their current position without anybody outside or inside the building seeing them.

For just a brief moment, Todoroki looked genuinely pissed off, but he was quick to shove his anger down.

"Whatever. We'll use this to sneak back in later. Better than trying to get back in through the front lobby."

"So, where to now?" Kirishima asked.

"Now," Iida began, using his nanobots to form the helmet and armor of his costume. "We head back to the alley. We may have an idea to figure out where they took Peter, but we need to get back to the alley first."

"It's a few miles away, so we'd better get moving." Midoriya stated. Everybody in the group nodded. Together, the 5 boys ran off towards the place that would hopefully give them a lead.

A Creepy Rooftop, Near The Bar:

Aizawa was a fairly hard person to surprise, but right now, he could honestly say he felt shocked.

When he heard Peter was taken, it had struck him as odd, but not quite surprising. Given his carefree attitude, it was only a matter of time until something like this happened.

It also wasn't much of a surprise that there had been an easily traceable trail. Between Stain's known use of knives being the obvious cause of the many gouges in the buildings and rooftops leading directly out of the crime scene and the eyewitness reports of those who had seen "strange figures" jumping across buildings the previous night, the trail wasn't hard to pick up.

It was rather annoying continuing to follow it though, given the tininess of the marks left by the knives and the dwindling witnesses.

What surprised Aizawa was that it was taking so long to find his destination.

Given the Hosu incident, it seemed fair to assume that the villains who kidnapped Peter were based in or near Hosu. Add in the fact that they were likely injured and tired from fighting, they couldn't have made it far without at least taking a break. Yet there wasn't a single sign that they had settled down, and definitely nothing that would qualify for a proper hideout.

The shaggy man had been at this for nearly 6 hours now and he wasn't any closer to figuring out where Peter was.

Aizawa groaned in annoyance. For the fourth time that day, he had gone another two blocks without finding a single scratch on any buildings in the direction he had been searching. He had taken a wrong turn again.

Sighing deeply, Aizawa turned around and moved back to where he had discovered the last mark.

"Soon. Soon I'll pick up the trail and I'll find them."

Stain was a normal man in terms of physical ability. He may have been more fit than most, but his quirk didn't provide any sort of physical advancement. The only way he could have made the large jumps from building to building was by using his knives to hold on, and it seemed unlikely that the villain who had jacked Peter's suit carried both him and Peter. With any luck, Stain continued to leave a trail all the way to his base.

Aizawa just had to follow the marks.

The Crime Scene:

12:30.

That was the current time.
The small group of teenagers had slowly made their way back to the alley where everything had taken place the night before. It wasn't that the hospital was far away, it was just that they hadn't wanted to run the risk of being seen by anybody who would recognize them, so they had to move extremely slowly and go the wrong way several times to avoid detection by the heroes in the area.

Still, they finally made it, and in a stroke of absolute luck, nobody was there. The scene had plenty of police tape and signs posted everywhere, but there were no people. Either they had decided there was no need to continue investigating after so many hours, or they were simply on break. Either way, it didn't matter.

Ducking under the police tape, the 5 boys observed the demolished alley. There were scorch marks, flecks of blood, and still-melting blocks of ice scattered everywhere.

"So what exactly is the plan here?" Kaminari inquired.

"Well, Peter told us that each of our suits were designed with specific functions in mind, but he also told us that the nanobots could do whatever we wanted them to, like how when we think of a blade, the arms will form a blade. So what I'm thinking is… do you two have your suits?" Midoriya began, receiving nods after asking his question.

"Well, I wanted to know as much as I could about my suit, so I asked Peter before what the nanobots were made of. He said that they were all made mostly from carbide steel, just like his suit. Well, the villain who took him was wearing Peter's old suit."

"... Yeeeaaaahh?" Kaminari didn't even pretend to understand where this was going.
"After he told me that, I looked into carbide steel because I hadn't heard of it before. Apparently it isn't exactly a commonly used metal, so it's fair to assume our suits are the only things made of carbide steel in a big area. Also, just like other materials and chemicals, carbide steel leaves a faint signature in the air. So what I'm thinking is… if we can use our nanobots to make some kind of scanner that can locate those signatures…"

"We can follow them straight to the villain who stole Peter's suit." Iida finished.

"Okay, I can understand that, but how do we do that?" Kirishima asked.

"That's the problem. I doubt it's as simple as just thinking of a scanner to follow the signature, but-"

Midoriya stopped mid-sentence when the compartment on his chest began to release nanobots. They pooled together, forming a single structure about the size of a small Ipad before stopping. There was a small screen on the device, and through it, small blue "clouds" were visible in the air.

"..."

"..."

"..."

"..."

"... Are you fucking serious?" Todoroki questioned. Iida didn't even bother reprimanding him.

"I… guess it is that easy." Midoriya knew he should feel relieved, but it honestly felt kind of disappointing for it to be that simple.

The small group didn't know it, but elsewhere, there was a very annoying degenerate with regenerative capabilities who was bitching about bad writing.

"Who cares? This is good, isn't it?"

"I agree with Kaminari. We should simply be happy that we are able to save time with a simple solution." Iida smiled under his helmet.

The boys all did the same as Midoriya, creating small scanners to follow the carbide steel.

"If everything is in order then, shall we go?" Everybody nodded towards Iida. Together, the young heroes in training made their way to the first signature.

"Peter, I don't know what horrible things are happening to you right now, but I promise I'll do my best to save you. Just hold on a little longer."

The Bar:

A loud slam resounded through the bar, followed by a lone disappointed groan amid many cheers

"That's 5 wins for Peter." Spinner announced happily.

For the past few minutes, Peter had systematically destroyed the pride of everybody in the bar by crushing them at arm wrestling. The most recent victim? Magne.

The large woman rubbed her hand, muttering angrily for a few seconds before she grudgingly smiled.

"And here was me figuring you'd be easier to beat now that you've got to use your left hand." She said happily, clapping Peter on the back as she did so.

Peter flinched slightly at Magne's admittedly hard slap, but he smiled at her all the same.

"So, who's next?" Spinner had decided to act as the announcer for the unofficial event. His pride had already been shattered, though he recovered fairly quickly.

"I am. No, he is. No, I am." A strangely dark voice came from the corner. Every head in the bar turned to one of the corner tables. Somehow, despite the many lights scattered throughout the room, the entire corner was shrouded in darkness.

A leg stepped out of the darkness, followed by a man in a dark suit wearing… a tablecloth on his head.

The man raised both hands and grasped the tablecloth and tossed it aside dramatically, like a wrestler throwing his cape away.

"Twice? What're you doing man?" Peter questioned.

"Your reign of terror is over spider person! I don't want to fight him, he's scary! LET'S CRUSH HIM!" Twice rambled in a very… confusing manner, making his way to Peter's table as he did so.

Twice took a seat in front of Peter, placing one arm on the table. Peter did the same, clasping the man's hand with his own.

"You fool! You've activated my trap card!" Twice shouted dramatically. Out of the dark corner he had been sitting in previously came clones of the bar's occupants, though there were no clones of himself.

"Huh? H-hey wait, I'm pretty sure that's cheating." Peter stuttered as, one by one, each of the clones clasped a hand over Twice's.

"I don't see the problem." Dabi grinned wickedly. He was still feeling pretty salty about getting beaten by Peter. "You've got a strength quirk, so why shouldn't Twice use his to make things fair?"
"Now hold on, that's not exactly-"

"AND START!" Spinner shouted. Peter barely had time to react before multiple hands all pushed against his. He wasn't used to using his left hand as much as his right hand, so it was hard to catch himself.

It was admittedly a bit hard trying to hold on against so many hands. It only got worse when Peter felt a strong force pulling his hand down.

Whipping his head to the side, Peter saw Magne openly using her quirk to pull his hand down.

"OH COME ON! Now you're openly trying to help him win!" Peter complained. "Come on ref, do you not see this?!"
"Whatever do you mean? All I see is an interested fan enjoying the match." Spinner grinned at Peter. Apparently, he wasn't over having his pride destroyed.

Peter was struggling now. He was using his off hand, multiple sets of hands were pushing against his own, he was being dragged to the table by Magne's quirk, and he was still kind of reeling from the blood loss. His left hand was getting dangerously close to touching the table. Only sheer force of will kept him from losing.

"I'll bet you 5,000 yen he loses." Dabi held up a stack of money to Magne, who shook her head.
"I don't like betting against impossible odds. I'm not taking that bet. I'll gladly bet with you though." Magne placed her own stack of cash on top of Dabi's. The others did the same adding their own money in.

"Hey, come on. Betting's pointless if we all place money on the same guy. Nobody wants to bet on Peter?" Dabi griped.

"I'll do it!" Toga bounced over to Dabi and held up her own stack of money. Peter's totally got this."

"Hmm, alright then. Easy money for me." Dabi laughed.

Her bet placed, Toga happily skipped back to her seat. Strangely enough, Peter could swear he saw a pained expression flash across her face, but it was only for a brief moment, so he assumed he imagined it.

Everybody was staring at Peter, waiting for him to lose his hold and allow his hand to fall the extra two inches and touch the table. The pressure was strangely enormous given the unimportant situation. Even Stain was watching from his corner, though he was pretending to not care.

Despite this all, Peter smirked, which seemed to catch everybody off guard.

"What's so funny?" Mr. Compress asked curiously.

"Hey Twice… did you ever watch this really old movie... About a legendary hero who rose to the top of the underground arm wrestling world with his unbeatable secret technique?"

Everybody in the room looked lost except for Magne, who seemed to know what Peter was talking about, a look of horror on her face. Peter felt her strengthen her quirk, trying even harder to pull his hand down.

"If you've never heard of it… allow me to educate you." Peter strained himself even further, veins popping in his forehead, his face turning slightly red. "The technique… was called… OVER THE TOP!" Peter forced out all the strength he could muster, actually managing to push Twice and all the clones back.

"Damn it, no! I've got too much money riding on this!" Dabi half-shouted. Jumping out of his seat, he added his own hand to Twice's side, helping to push Peter's hand down. The others joined in, until the only ones not helping Twice were Toga, who was rooting for Peter, Magne, who was already using her quirk, and Stain, who watched with greater interest.

Peter continued to strain, dramatically groaning even though he wasn't really in pain.

"Over… the… TOP!" he shouted once more, pushing against Twice with renewed vigor. Little by little, Peter's hand returned to the middle position, then he began pushing Twice down to the side. Several tense seconds passed, then, finally, the match ended.

Peter slammed his arm down, Twice's hand contacting the side of the table.

He had lost.

"YEAH BABY!" Peter shouted happily.

His friends all looked on with shocked and dismayed expressions. All except for one exceptionally happy little vampire.
"I'll take these, thank you." Toga sang as she snatched the sizable pile of money from the table.

Twice continued to jump back and forth between laughing and congratulating Peter and crying. It was… odd, to say the least. But, that was Twice for you. Peter was used to his behavior by now, so it didn't bother him.

"I've still got to think of a way out of this, but if this is what I've got to look forward to, maybe staying here for now won't be too bad."

Don't you just love it when I reference movies nobody's ever heard of?

[1]: Reference anyone.

[2]: Once again, reference?

Anyway, like I said at the start of the chapter, I've got something important to talk about. Okay, it's not really important, but it's still something.

Do y'all remember way back like 20 chapters ago when I asked who you thought would win between Peter and All Might?

Well, I still get messages from people telling me who they think would win, but there's one I got yesterday that stuck out to me.

I'm not gonna name them, but this person claims All Might would win because, and I quote, "He's one of the strongest characters in all of fiction."

… I'm sorry but no.

If you think All Might would win, that's cool, but just… no.

The only reason I'm even mentioning this is because I've heard other people say this in the past and every time, I'm left thinking "Are… you new to anime?"

I get that All Might seems… well… all mighty, but he really isn't. The thing I've noticed with All Might is that most of the things he can do, he can do because of Horikoshi's detail.

Hear me out. Basically, think of all the characters in fiction who are physically stronger than All Might. Goku, Saitama, the Hulk, and a million others.

How many of them have changed the weather by punching?

Very few of them, right? But they're way stronger than All Might, that much is obvious. The Hulk pulled a planet back together and Saitama and Goku don't require any explanation, neither do the trillion other characters with super strength.

Yet they haven't pulled off a "weather-changing punch," have they?

Like I said, that's because of Horikoshi's attention to detail. He factored in the pressure from All Might's attacks and used them in a scientific fashion to explain him causing storms, tornadoes, and wind bursts by punching. Let's face it, the only reason every other strong character out there isn't doing the same is because the writers for their stories just didn't put in the details.

I don't hate All Might, but I really hate when people claim he's one of the strongest characters in fiction, especially since a billion other characters could do all the same things as him if the authors of their respective stories just added a bit more detail. Off the top of my head, I can name about a hundred characters from western and eastern animation who would clap All Might.

Heck, 90% of the cast from Naruto alone would body him.
I'm sorry for ranting, but this is just a topic I get kind of heated over.

Thanks for reading and remember to leave a review.

Aren signing off.