"Listen well, take one more step and I'll kill this family, okay?" A villain with a super strength Quirk said to the heroes he faced while he held a couple of adults and a little girl in his arms. "You don't want their blood on your hands, do you? So my demands-"
The villain looked like he was going to start demanding some things, but he suddenly froze, eyes wide, dropping the family that quickly ran away. He fell to his knees and then collapsed on the ground. This was all possible due to a huge metallic dart on his back. And a recognizable armored hero floating behind him with his arm outstretched.
"Take it easy guys, while I'm on patrol, there's nothing to worry about," he said, waving to families, heroes and pedestrians who applauded.
"Theft identified on the twenty-third with Seventh Avenue," Friday alerted and the hero flew off in that direction.
"Time for class, Tony!" Tony could hear the alarm that Pepper had programmed with her voice to warn him of the five minutes left until his afternoon class together with the Devil and Miss Robot.
"I'm gonna to be a bit late, but I think it's okay," he said. looking at some calculations of the armor. Energy was draining faster, he was slower than normal. It started after defeating Carnage the second time, while wearing the armor after the full time. The clock's ticking...
Back at M.A, it was already nearly one in the afternoon, meaning the beginning of the afternoon training class. "Today's training will be a bit different," said the blind man to his class. "You will have three instructors; myself, Iron Man and another faculty member watching you."
"Sir!" Azari raised a hand to get the teacher's attention, realizing too late how that bit was redundant. "What sort of training will we do?"
"Rescue," The teacher replied. "You'll be dealing with natural disasters, shipwrecks and the like."
"Rescue, eh? It seems today we have hard work ahead," Pietro comments.
"Totally!" Added Kamala, excitedly.
"A real hero's job, it's here that we separate the boys from the men!" Amadeus said, punching his palm. "I can't wait!!!"
"Cool, time to show off my skills in destroyed places!" Gwen put in, imagining the various possibilities.
"Settle down! I wasn't finished!" Matthew called out, bringing the attention of his students back. "Now then, you're free to use whatever you want. I know Iron Man got you excited about your costumes, but remember that you still don't know their full limitations and could potentially impede your capabilities. Finally, the training will be at a location outside the campus, so we'll take the bus. You have fifteen minutes to be in the parking lot. Dismissed."
He opened the compartments with the suitcases for anyone who wanted to use costumes.
Yes sir!" The class responded, as everyone got up to prepare for the short trip and training.
In the parking lot, all students had chosen to use their uniforms, as they wanted to get more and more used to them so they could know what to improve or modify. Well, all except one.
"Peter, you're wearing your gym clothes? Where's your costume?" Wanda asked, approaching her friend outside the bus as the students waited to enter.
"You saw how I looked after combat training," the boy recalled his destroyed suit and the various scratches and impacts on his body.
He now wore his red gym jumpsuit along with some protective clothing; gloves, boots, knee pads, elbow pads and a belt with pockets. He also left his sleeves rolled up in case he needed to shoot webs.
"I'm hoping it can be fixed. But in the meantime, I do still have this," Peter went on, and reached into his pocket to reveal his mask. "It's the only part I could salvage."
The two friends were then startled when they heard a shrill whistle, coming from none other than the Class President.
"Class 1-A, get together!" Azari shouted commands to his colleagues. "Using your respective desk numbers, form two lines so that we can occupy the bus efficiently!"
"Do you still think he's the best leader?" Gwen asked Danny as they approach the others.
"I'm sure he'll be fine," the boy replied, smiling and calm as he recognized Azari as being fit for the position.
Unfortunately, due to the open design of the bus, Azari's seating plan went downhill. Everyone went and sat in random spots, not respecting any type of sequence or numbering. But that wasn't all bad at all, as new combinations of people managed to talk and get to know each other better.
"I still think his Quirk gives him a lot of diversity of actions," Amadeus said to Peter, regarding Azari's power. "My 'Gamma Strength' is great for hitting stuff, but it's not all that impressive or versatile."
The boy flexed his already muscular arm and increased its size with his Quirk, turning it green in the process.
"Seriously? I think it's incredible!" Replied Peter, giving a fanboy vibe on his colleague's Quirk. "You're definitely pro material with a power like that!"
"Do you think so?" Amadeus queried. "It'd be easier for me to be a popular hero if I had a flashier Quirk. I don't wanna just be another Hulk..."
"Well, my Quirk's the perfect mix of strength and style!" Sam put in, with one leg on top of the other and his helmet on his lap, looking relaxed.
"But you've gotta admit that helmet looks pretty ridiculous," said Kamala, trying not to laugh at her classmate's attempt at looking cool.
"Well, if anyone here has what we might call 'Professional Quirks', it'd be Flash and Reyes," Amadeus mentioned the two boys sitting further down the bus. One stared out the window as the other slept, respectively.
"Yeah, true. But since Flash is such a moody jackass, he'll never be all that popular," commented Gwen, sitting next to Peter.
"WHAT'D YOU SAY, PINKY!?!?!?" Flash gets up from his seat, irritated and with a murderous glare. "I WILL MESS YOU UP, YOU HEAR ME?"
"See?" Gwen thumbed back at him, without an ounce of fear.
"You know, we all just met," said Pietro. "But the fact that everyone knows about your crap personality already says a lot."
This just made Flash angrier, "You will regret the day you enrolled in this school, Platinum!!!"
While the discussion was taking place, with Azari trying to calm Flash's nerves, Peter was going through a moment of euphoria. He was watching Flash, his longtime tormentor, and someone he used to greatly fear, being made fun of by the class. The boy was doing his best not to show his feelings on it, but he couldn't help but give a satisfied smile over the proceedings.
"Come on, stop fighting. It's not that funny!" Laura commented, her eyes sizing up Flash, while Wanda sat next to her curled up in the corner of fear for what the girl could do.
"Ok guys, enough confusion, we're here," announced the teacher at the moment the bus stopped.
Entering the facility, the class and its teacher are welcome by one of the other teachers at the school. She was the one responsible for the training wards; Kya Nakali, aka Danger.
"Hello everyone, I've been waiting for you!" Said the charismatic rescue heroine. She wore her malleable blue and silver iron armor, leaving only her face without the mask. She had dark skin, full lips, a thin face and dark brown curly hair in dreads that were also covered by iron.
Kya Nakali, Quirk: Technopathy. She has the ability to connect with electronic equipment and control it with her mind, but she is vulnerable when she controls something very big.
"Oh wow, it's The Cyber Heroine!" Peter said with animation in his voice. "Danger: the heroine who turned her car accident into the salvation of thousands of people in tragedies!"
"Right!? She's one of my favorite heroines!" Wanda was just as excited as her friend.
"The curves of the uniform, the Afro-Futurism," Kei comments, immediately opening his notebook and taking out a pencil. "My artistic and perverted instincts are screaming out together!"
"Dude, relax... " said Amadeus, a bit unnerved by the shorter boy.
"Come on, I'm looking forward to showing you what we have here," she turned to go further into the place, soon accompanied by the class.
The site itself is a huge dome, inside which was the "External Danger Room" or "EDR". The original Danger Room was one of M.A's facilities, and that was one of its aspects that focuses on disasters and rescue techniques. The space was insanely large, a small city could easily fit in there, and there were several areas with the most diverse equipment that simulated different types of disasters; shipwrecks, landslides, fire, train wrecks, a wind storm and other types of environments.
Danger acknowledged the surroundings, "When I first came up with the idea for these areas, it was meant to teach you about rescue, one of the most important tasks of a superhero."
"Shouldn't Stark be here by now?" Matthew approached his colleague and muttered to her, not wanting to attract the attention of the students. "Let me guess, he get stuck with an interview?"
"Actually, the situation's a bit worse, Kya replied, lowering her voice too. "Apparently he used his armor too much in the morning and had disengage it for safety reasons. Right now, he's resting in the teachers' room."
"I don't know why I'm surprised," Murdock sighed, rubbing his eyes under his glasses. "That man is the height of irresponsibility... But the two of us should be enough." He turns to his class, "Well, the clock's ticking. Might as well get started."
"Very well, but first let me just say a few things," she said, addressing the class, putting a more serious look on your face, "You probably know about my Quirk; 'Technopathy'."
"Yes, you're famous for coordinating construction machines in rescue efforts," commented Peter while Wanda nodded in agreement. She knew just as much about this heroine, after all.
"That's true, but know that I could just as easily kill someone with that power..." She spoke with a little more melancholy, looking at her hands for a moment before facing the group. "I know some of you must have Quirks that are considered dangerous."
"In our superhuman society, every Quirk is registered and regularly monitored, so we generally don't realize how dangerous a power can be. Please remember, that if you lose focus or make the wrong move, the consequences can be dire, even if you are trying to do something good, like saving someone."
She gestured to the homeroom teacher, "Thanks to Mr. Murdock's Quirks Test, you have a solid idea of your limits. And because of Iron Man's combat training, you've probably experienced a little bit of how dangerous your powers can be when used against others."
"Use those teachings during this class; today you will learn how to use your Quirks to save other people's lives. You won't use your powers to attack enemies or each other, just help. Because in the end, the role of a hero is to ensure the safety of others."
"Well, that's it for today, thanks for your attention," she concluded, returning to her more relaxed and fun way of speaking. This was followed by applause for the encouraging speech.
"Okay, now let's go-"
The class teacher began, but Peter didn't hear the rest. His Spider Sense began to go off, and quickly turned away from the class, walking a few feet away and gazing outward.
"Parker, is something wrong?" Asked Mr. Murdock, a bit confused. But then, he too noticed something was off about their general surroundings.
Suddenly, all the lights in the place went out, the difference wasn't striking because of the light outside. But it was a strange thing, and when everyone else noticed, near a fountain in the central part of the dome, an enormous amount of what appeared to be a black and red mist begins to appear.
As if in the blink of an eye, the mist expanded into a fog, covering part of the floor and from within, a man stepped through.
The most bizarre was that with all that situation, was the stranger's appearance. He had pale skin, long, pointed ears, and wore an orange, hooded cloak with a blue outfit underneath. All in all, he bore the appearance of a goblin.
He smiled darkly with pointed teeth at the students. Suddenly, from in the same mist, others started to emerge in the most varied costumes possible.
"Um, teach..?" Peter said nervously.
"Everyone, stay back!" Matt warned his class, stepping forward.
"Wait, what is that?" Amadeus verbalized what was going through everyone's mind. "Did the training start already?"
Peter shook his head, "No... This isn't part of it."
"He's right," Their teacher said, even more nervous when he detected some of the students leaning forward. He quickly began to remove his jacket, knowing exactly what was coming. "This is real, those are villains."
Finally, one last thing that emerged out of the fog; it looked like some kind of robot. But it was huge, almost three meters high, with a humanoid body and several black scales covering its body. On its face were two tiny shiny eyes, and unlike the others, it stops beside the first man to appear when he raised his hand, as if obeying him.
- We thought we would practice saving other people's lives that day, but when they showed up, we realized that we were the ones in danger. -
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Barber's Chair
• First look at our villains here! In the Og fanart, DuckLordEthan went with Ezekiel Stane, the son of Obediah Stane, the Iron Monger. But I figured since my interpretation is going in a different direction, I'd select a character that related a bit more to Spidey. As such, I decided to go with Hobgoblin.
• Much like the '90's animated series, I'm introducing Hobgoblin before an eventual Green Goblin.
