WIPEOUT

Pale faces stared out at the obstacle course laid out before them. A rickety wooden balancing beam overlooked an alligator and snake-infested pond, leading to a narrow path with boxing gloves on one side and crackling electric eels on the other. A series of narrow, slippery platforms, with crocodiles salivating open-mouthed beneath them, leading into a rock-wall that bent back until it ran parallel to the hiding spot of a shoal of piranha. From there, a lone rope led up to salvation, in the form of a giant, fluffy mattress.

Standing on an elevated platform on either side of the obstacle course were excited, giggling kindergartners, each armed with bows and blunt arrows.

"Now remember, kids," Aizawa called up to the children. "Anyone who knocks one of my students into the water gets ice cream."

"Ice cream!" the children roared, bloodthirst and savagery in their voices.

Sero gulped. "Uhm, Koda, my dearest friend, could you maybe convince the gators to leave us alone?"

Koda frantically shook his head. In a trembling voice, he whispered, "They're from Florida."

One gator heard him, smirked, and clamped its mouth shut with a startling snap. Its deep-bellied hiss sent shivers down every student's spine and made the kindergartners point and whoop with delight.

"We're so dead."

"And… begin!"

The starting area sank rapidly. With piranhas nipping at their heels, everyone sprinted out. Arrows flew, pelting the students as they raced through the first obstacle. Boxing gloves popped in and out at random intervals, bludgeoning the students towards a watery grave. Sato and Kirishima charged through, withstanding the blows, while Tsuyu and Hagakure nimbly dodged around them.

"How-" Hagakure ducked and asked, "Do they know where I am?"

"I gave them infrared cameras," Aizawa called out.

Once they reached the floating platforms, Ochako tapped herself and floated over, while Mineta made himself a springboard of spheres. As they flew through the air, the children concentrated a volley of arrows at them. Mineta escaped unscathed through sheer smallness, but Ochako got pelted with enough arrows to knock her off course. Crocodiles circled like vultures as she drifted lower and lower.

At the rock wall, Sero ignored the handholds entirely and looped tape around his hands. Shoji skittered up like a spider, Iida used his engines in spurts to spring upwards, and Kirishima taunted the kids, drawing all the arrows to him.

"Go on bros, I got this!" Kirishima shouted as arrows fell like rain.

One of the kids wheeled over a cannon. As he flew into the water, Kirishima shouted, "I don't got this!"

As Bakugo and Sato brawled over the rope, Yaoyorozu fired a grappling hook and climbed her own way up. Arrows pummeled her as the children fired everything at her in a desperate bid to stop her. One hand on the final platform, Momo shouted, "Never give up, never surrender!"

She raised her head above the platform. A grinning child pointed an arrow at her.

Momo gulped and said, "I surrender."

498

The real winner of this week's Wipeout challenge is Aizawa, who got to watch his students fight off a horde of Florida gators and armed children.