Back at the Main Area, Kei and Gwen hid behind a wall of rubble with the injured Daredevil. Kei had ripped off one of his sleeves and used it to put pressure on the hero's wound, while Gwen applied gauze wrapping and a tourniquet.
"I'm sure glad you carry a first aid kit in that belt," Kei said gratefully.
"Well, you cut yourself a few times with your own swords, you learn how to deal with stuff like this!" Gwen replied, happy to be of service.
Daredevil was barely conscious, but his senses were active enough that he could detect somebody coming. "Someone's here..." he said, in barely a whisper.
The two students pressed themselves against the side, hands over their own mouths. They listen closely as two voices chat.
"What's the word?" Asked one of them.
"We're going with 'Option E," said the other.
"Oh damn, really? What happened?" Asked the first voice.
"Who knows?" Replied the second, "But they're getting Phineas over to the robot, and we're getting the hell out of here."
"Wait, did I hear that right?" Kei asked, turning toward the villains, peering over the wall. "Are they really just leaving?"
"That's what it looks like..." Gwen replied in a serious way, without taking her eyes off the scene that was happening in front of her.
Kei stops for a moment, his eyes filling with tears of relief and he leapt in the direction of Gwen, with a less than noble way in mind to celebrate. "We're saved! And we don't need to fight!" He whispered/screamed.
But before he could even touch the girl, she extended her arm and stopped him mid-trajectory. His face made impact with her fist, preventing him from speaking or moving.
"I have a bad feeling about this," she said quietly, with a slight tremor in her voice, indicating that she was scared, something she had never shown before.
It is certainly strange that they'd want to retreat at this moment, even if the heroes are on their way... Daredevil thought, trying to understand the situation. Iron Man being the fastest teacher, he could certainly get there first, and wasn't their goal to kill him? Wouldn't that be their best chance? What was really going on?
"But before we go, let's leave something that is sure to break the Symbol of Hope. Let's destroy his pride!" One of them turned towards the hidden children and hero. He held out his arm, and it turned into hot lava. The intent was clear, he was going to melt away the barrier. "And let's make it hurt!"
But just inches from the wall, the villain froze, his dark smile is automatically transformed into a grimace of pain. His arm became normal and he brought his hands up to hold his head as he trembled.
"W-What the hell is t-this?!?" The other villain asked, gritting his teeth.
Behind the wall, the professional hero was using the last of his energy to activate his Quirk and give the villains a terrible headache. Daredevil had blood running down his face, and he couldn't focus on anything specific, but he pursed his lips to whistle, the effort was visibly beyond the limit he was exerting.
Seizing the moment, Gwen leapt over the wall, drawing her swords. Landing behind the villains, she whacks them on the side of their heads with the butts of her kashiras. The two heads smack into each other in comedic fashion and both fall to the ground unconscious.
"That was close," she said. "Thanks Mr. Devil!" Behind the wall, Matthew passed out completely.
"This is bad Gwen, he's getting worse!" Kei alerted his classmate, who came back over to check on them.
"I don't think we can risk moving him again," she said reluctantly.
"We'll have to wait here." Kei nodded, looking down at his unconscious teacher with trepidation.
Gogogogogogo!!! Peter swung as quickly as he could back out of the cityscape and toward the Entrance Zone. His thoughts were racing just as fast, worried about his classmates, and getting to the robot in time. He knew the villain's teleporter would need to find his scattered comrades to get them out. But he wasn't banking on Hobgoblin caring about his underlings.
In fact, the villain in question was over by the Sentinel, in the middle of an argument with another man he didn't recognize. The person in question appeared to have different tools in place of fingers on his hands.
"Look, I make tech like your glider and those silly pumpkin bombs," the man argued. "I've never built something as complicated as a giant, fighting robot! Let alone try and fix one with a fist through its head!" He indicated to the giant arm imbedded at the top.
"I'm not asking you to fix it, Phineas," Hobgoblin sighed condescendingly. "I'm telling you to blow it up! Surely a man of your intellect can manage that."
"I didn't create the thing, I don't know what wire connects to what!" Phineas replied, irritably.
"Look, the bomb's in this compartment," Hobgoblin rapped his knuckles against a sealed area of the robot's back. "All you need to do is crack it open, set a timer, and haul ass."
"But-"
He tried to argue, but Hobgoblin won't hear it. He grabbed the man by his shirt collar, "This is why we brought you on, Phineas, in case of situations like this. You're our in-house Tinkerer, now tinker!"
He shoved the man back over to the Sentinel. Phineas muttered obscenities under his breath as he used his Quirk to unscrew the back seal off.
Taking advantage of the small window of opportunity that intervention provided him, Peter leaps from the building wall towards his opponent, he needed to stop him before the bomb was armed. Firing a web at the villain's glider, he yanked it in order to increase his strength and get closer to him. The sudden force caught Hobgoblin off-guard and he fell off his glider.
"You again!?" Hobgoblin was furious at the constant interference of one kid.
"Sir, do you have a license to fly this thing?" Peter asked. "You're in a restricted airspace!"
The villain gave a sadistic grin, pressing the button on his glove again. His glider flew upwards, and Peter, still holding the web, was yanked along for the ride.
"Whooooaaaa!!!!" He yelled, as the glider flew him around in loops, twists, and drops. Peter thought he was gonna throw up when his Spider Sense went off. The glider was heading back towards the villain, who aimed his finger at the boy. Just as it started to glow, Peter let go of the web and dropped to the ground.
He rolled to take off centrifugal force and dodge the energy blast. Peter leapt up from the ground, throwing a punch as hard as he could at the Hobgoblin. But much to his shock, the villain caught his fist with a single gloved hand. He looked around the hand to grin at the boy.
"Heh, impressive!" Hobgoblin kicked Peter hard backwards, the impact cracking a few ribs. Peter cried out in pain as he slammed back against a building wall. Over by the Sentinel, Tinkerer gave a thumbs up to his boss, who gives a nod before turning back to his prey.
"You take after that teacher of yours, I see," the villain said. "Like Daredevil, you can't seem to just die and leave me alone! But no matter," Hobgoblin began to raise his hand, pointed finger out. "It's a problem easily remedied..."
Peter shut his eyes, he'd had the wind knocked out of him, and he was facing down a Quirk he couldn't dodge in time. This was it...
...Until suddenly, an explosion from above blew out a chunk of roof. It created a lot of smoke and debris, drawing the attention of not only the students nearby, but also the villains, who cease their attacks when they hear the commotion. And through the smoke, one can barely make out a figure dropping in, landing in a classic pose.
Heavy footsteps are heard, with mechanical sounds accompanying the movement. A red and gold armor is recognized and out of the dust, more than a hero, a symbol appeared, raising the morale of all students near the Entrance, bringing hope to their hearts.
- All of us, even our teachers, were afraid. The evil we faced had covered our hearts with fear. But the deeper the darkness around you, the brighter the light shines when a ray of hope appears! -
"I couldn't stop this nagging feeling that something wasn't right. Danger and Daredevil weren't answering my calls," he said, passing by his students as he spoke. "So I flew down, passing by the young Maximoff boy on the way. He told me what was going on!"
Tony reflects on everything that happened, if he hadn't acted like a hero in the morning, his students wouldn't have gone through this nightmare. His colleagues wouldn't be in bad shape now. But none of that mattered anymore, what he needed now was to reassure them, as a Symbol of Hope.
"But don't be afraid students, because I'm here now!" Iron Man spoke from inside his helmet, but his tone of voice was very different from usual, more serious than ever heard before. No doubt about it, he was mad.
.
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Barber's Chair
• More Spidey villains introduced, this time a couple more obscure ones: the Tinkerer and Molten Man!
• Some of the parts between Spidey and Hobgoblin are from different media. There's that famous comic cover of Green Goblin pulling an unmasked Spider-Man on his glider. And of course, Goblin catching the punch is a reference to the 2002 Rami movie.
