For a few seconds, neither team said anything. While it seemed almost instant, the two quartets weighed the whole situation. It was obvious they'd meet at some point; but while Peter's team had been running the whole time and dodging the other teams' various attacks against them, Reyes's team simply waited for the best time to strike.

They were the team with the second best score behind the 10 Million, boasting some of the most powerful students in 1-A, including the two entered on recommendation. They weren't to be messed with, no number of points was worth the risk. And of course, this had been previously thought out by the team's rider: Reyes. In addition to being extremely powerful, his tactical mind was extremely sharp, having hand picked his teammates based on their abilities to assemble the best team possible.


- Before the Battle of the Cavalry began, Reyes discussed the plan he put together for his three teammates, with each aspect taking into account the strengths of each.

"Pietro, you'll be our leader, responsible for mobility and acceleration." An obvious choice; Reyes had picked the platinum because he was the fastest on ground in the class, likely the school too, but there was a problem...

"Okay, but how are you going to keep up with me?" He asked, "It's not like we have skates so you can just use my speed."

"That's where Seol comes in..." Reyes replied, catching the attention of the Korean girl. "You'll be responsible for isolation and defense, as well as locomotion. Stay on my right side and create an icy path, so you and Daniel can slide and use Pietro's speed." While they had been rivals in the race, now they were partners and he believed in the girl's ability.

"And finally, Daniel," Danny turns around at the mention of his name. "You'll be on my left side, in the proximity defense and in the striking."

"..." The boy said nothing, just nodding.

"I'll be the rider," he finished. "And I'll use my chains as both offensive and defensive attacks."

"But, you have another power, don't you?" Pietro knew of a Pro Hero with a Quirk similar to the boy's.

"I do, but I promised myself I would never use it..." he said, looking up into the audience. A figure leaned against the wall up in the stands, at a distance it wasn't possible to observe many details, but the black leather outfit and flaming skull were hard to miss. -


"Come on! Pietro!" Back in the present, Robbie gave orders to his teammates and they shoot in the direction of Peter and his team. The boy gives the sprinter the go-ahead, who shoots at high speed. He addressed the others, "Seol, Daniel, get ready for the plan!"

"Right!" The girl responded, her right arm starts to create a thin layer of ice.

"Understood!" Danny said, and he starts to focus his Chi on his left leg.

"Watch it! Something's about to happen!" Peter warned his team, when saw other approach. Three more teams head towards them, Reyes wasn't the only one with plans to attack...

"Now!" Reyes yelled. He didn't want Peter to win, but he also didn't want others to keep him from the ten million points. This was the perfect opportunity to do that and end the competition at the same time.

Just as Reyes gave the command, Danny, using his "charged" leg, takes a step and stomps hard on the ground, making it split multidirectionally and launch a wave of energy and wind in all directions. Most of the teams nearby didn't expect this and receive a wave of concussive energy that makes them stop from dizziness.

The only team with defense for this was Peter's. Tyrone quickly tried to create a kind of wall with shadows and protect himself from the blast of energy. While Peter used the thrusters on the gauntlets to balance himself from the tremor. But what the group didn't expect was the shadow barrier to be taken down as soon as it came in contact with the blast, that wasn't good.

Right after Danny's destructive wave, Seol makes her play. Stretching out her arm and concentrating her power, ice forming under the team for mobility expands. Freezing bundles come out and head towards each of the nearby groups, freezing the feet of those in its path in place.

Finally, Reyes took advantage of the situation of pseudo paralysis imposed by his teammate and uses his chains to cleverly grab some bandanas while walking away. After he achieved that and was closer to Parker's team, Seol creates an ice barrier, trapping the two teams in a mini ice arena, where only one could emerge victorious.

"WOW!!! THIS MISERABLE KID IS A GENIUS!!! HIS IQ LEVEL IS OVER 9000!!!" Deadpool exclaimed, removing a device over his eye and crushing it in his hand.

"Not only that..." Matthew added, realizing what happened. "He saw Miss Hee use this same strategy during the race and realized that he could make use of it. He adapted this technique with Mr. Rand's shock wave to facilitate freezing."

"Nice analysis! As they say, the devil's in the details!" Deadpool winked at him.

Even with everything that happened to the other teams, Peter's team couldn't be worse off. They were completely surrounded by ice, escape would be difficult now they were now face to face with the most powerful group in the competition. Furthermore, they were in the middle of the game, they needed to buy time to be able to maintain themselves and move on to the next activity.

In an attempt to buy time, with the teams just staring at each other, Peter decided to act, pressing a combination of buttons on the gauntlet. This activates the side thrusters of the robotic glove which leaves his hand and launches it towards Reyes. The intent was to create a breach in their defense. But it didn't quite go to plan.

"Hee!" When he saw the projectile, and having considered this possibility, he shouts to the girl who extends her arm in the direction of the projectile. It gets covered by a thin layer of ice, making it slow down until approached Reyes. He caught it with his hand and tossed it aside to the ground.

"Hey! That's mine!" Riri complained, seeing a piece of her armor being thrown this way.

"Damn... they're tough. This'll be a problem..." Peter said, watching the boy effortlessly dismiss his efforts.

"And they are not our biggest problem," Tyrone said to Peter, not letting his opponents listen. "The energy of Rand's blast is similar to Tandy's. One more like that and I'll have no energy to stop attacks..."


- After Peter called Tyrone to join his team, he had a strategy session with him and the two girls. While Riri assembled her equipment and adjusted the boot on Wanda's leg, the team's rider passed each other's job on to the new member.

"And you'll be responsible for our long-distance defense; projectiles and stuff," Peter said, facing the taller boy. He listened to everything attentively, then let's put a short laugh.

"Hehehe..." Tyrone chuckled and turns to his classmate, seeing Peter look at him in confusion. "Oh! I'm not laughing at the plan, it's a great strategy. But it's interesting how you gave me the best function based on my Quirk..."

"How so?" Asked Peter.

"Well, my Quirk lets me access a dimension parallel to ours, a black dimension without light, lifeless and timeless. It's called 'Darkforce', feeds on the fears and hopelessness of all living creatures," Tyrone explained. "Using that, I am able to travel myself through that dimension, teleporting myself and bringing part of the energy here to use it as a defense."

"See, this dimension travels almost orbiting ours," he continued. "And night is the point where it's closest to us. At night I can teleport and release more of that energy with less effort, but it increases my hunger..."

Peter blinked, "Hunger?"

"Yeah, it's caused by the very supply of the dimension," Tyrone went on. "I need vital energy to survive. When it's daytime, my abilities are less powerful and require more effort to pull of, but, my hunger is controlled, and it won't drive me crazy."

"How do you resolve this hunger?" Peter asked, wishing he had a notebook to take all this information down.

"..." Tyrone turned around until he saw his friend Tandy, talking to Gwen and Kei and points to her. "Tandy's powers work like mine, but in an opposite way," he said. "Her dimension is made of light and energy, that's where she get the daggers from. The 'Lightforce', it's a dimension fueled by people's hopes. I'm able to feed off the daggers to remain stable. But for this competition, we'd better watch out for her."

"How come?" Peter's eyebrow went up, intrigued.

"Because it's daytime and my energy is lower," Tyrone finished. "Darkforce's power can be canceled out by contacting Lighforce energy out here. They both cancel each other out."

"Got it, does anyone else know this information?" Peter asked, wanting to be sure how much of an advantage they would have.

"Tandy obviously," Tyrone shrugged. "And I shared some things with Groot during the attack on EDR, since we were in the same place. But fortunately, he won't be a problem."


Things couldn't get any worse, or at least Peter and his team hoped it wouldn't. Wanda's boot was practically useless, so flying was almost impossible with only one side working. One of Peter's gauntlets was far off and unusable, diminished the functions of mobility. Finally, both Tyrone and Wanda were putting in a lot of effort using their powers, and Peter didn't know how long they would last.

With that in mind, one of Peter's only escapes was to try and think of a plan. It didn't have to be perfect, and since they were trapped by the ice, it was unlikely that other teams would come and try to steal from them. But that would likely only hold out for so long, Measuring his options, Peter came to a conclusion and with that an idea.

"I have a plan," the boy said to his teammates. "They don't know about Tyrone's lack of energy, let's use that and hold these 10 million with everything that we've got!"


- A few moments prior -

"Besides being the first place in the practical exam, weren't you also the boy who was captured by Carnage? You must tell me sometime, what it feels like to always be the victim..."

"..." Flash said nothing immediately, but an extraordinary hatred for that boy arose. His way, his words, his actions, all became blinded by hatred. "Alright then... we have a change of plans. Instead of stealing Parker's headband, we're destroying these damn extras first..." Flash became surrounded by a dark aura, his opponent simply smiled as if he found it amusing.

"Ok, Odinson. It's done, right? This is no time to be teasing the guy," one of the 1-B boy's team members tells him, not wanting to poke the bear. He was a boy of medium height, with dark skin and curly black hair.

"You're right, but what an unheroic thing I did..." Odinson said, feigning regret. "But be careful, goo boy. Haven't you heard of professional heroes who became villains due to revenge?"

"Ok Flash, this is not the time go nuts, we have to keep calm and get our bandana back," said Amadeus, trying to not to let Flash explode. But it was too late.

"Ragh!" With a howl, Flash slammed his right hand closed around his left, releasing his Quirk and covering both of his arms with black goo. "I am calm, can't you see?" Flash replied, sounding calm, but still with a psychotic manner. "Let's go Amadeus! After them!"

"Here we go!" Laura joins in the euphoria of Flash, and Amadeus can only sigh and try to give a comforting look to Kamala, who was doubtful about the plan.

"Oh good Lord..." Amadeus sighed, but moved anyway. Being in Hulk form, it was easier to launch himself forward with an impulse and keep at a good speed with the girls heading towards the opposing team.

"Take that!" When he gets close enough, Flash extends an arm covered by his Quirk, with a main objective of removing the bandanas.

What the 1-A boy's team didn't expect was the agility of the other team. When Flash was close, they took a few steps back, and at the perfect moment, avoid the attack completely. Flash and his team had to move a few feet before they can turn for another attack. This time the boy tries to be faster, and increased the size of his arm for an attacks For a second they stand still, but as soon as Flash caught up to them, his arm passes unharmed by them, undoing the spot where he touched, like a hologram image.

"What the-!?" Amadeus asked. They stop and observe the team a little further ahead, with their rider, Odinson, quickly undoing the image with a movement of his hands.

"What was that?" Kamala queried as Laura growled irritably.

"It's his Quirk..." Flash said, stopping his berserker way to think of a better plan.

Loki Odinson, Quirk: Trickery. He has the ability to create visually perfect illusions of himself and everything he touches, or even make things appear to have vanished. A true God of Mischief, if I may say so.

"Well! I suppose it was kind of obvious..." Loki said, further irritating his opponent. "You certainly have great skills for direct confrontations, but my Quirk is only for those who cultivate a little brainpower..."

"Grrr..." Flash's team tried to charge in their direction, but before they can get close, another team of 1-B members appeared. The team's rider extends her hand and forms an orange gas cloud that instantly covers Flash's team. While it doesn't suffocate them, it does prevent visibility.

"Thank you very much, Boleyn!" Loki sends a wink to the blonde girl who helped him, but she just rolls her eyes at the boy's action. "Ok Loki, we've done enough. We have enough to move on to the next stage," said the previous boy to the rider, and the team goes away

"We have to get out of here..." Amadeus coughed.I'm trying!" Kamala replied, using her Quirk to try to blow away the smoke. She made a giant hand and starts fanning, trying to shake off the gas, "But it doesn't seem to have much effect."

"Come on!! We're stuck with zero points!" Laura yelled angrily while Flash watched the silhouette of the opposing team move away. He hears Loki calling out to him.

"No hard feelings, right?" Loki called. "Remember, you were the one who provoked us. My friend Stryker said that you intended to defeat everyone, right?" His voice fades until he disappears, while Flash made a firm resolve. He wouldn't just win now, but he'd become the ultimate champion.

Even with everything going on between Flash and several members of class B, particularly Loki, both the audience and the narrators focused on the other end of the field and consequently on the action between Robbie and Peter's team.

"AND THIS BOY DOESN'T WANT JUST A PIECE OF CANDY! NO, HE WANTS THE WHOLE BOX!!!" Deadpool yelled, standing up and taking the microphone in his hands to speak. "OUR FRIENDLY GHOST DOESN'T JUST WANT TO WIN, BUT HE WANTS THAT BEAUTY (not the fourth row brunette); THE TEN MILLION BANDANA FROM THE SPIDER TEAM, AND HE WON'T REST UNTIL HE GETS IT!!!"

The two teams were at a distance and completely surrounded by the ice walls and boundary line of the field, preventing Peter's team from going further back; but they weren't unprepared. Using a certain bluff that took an amount of energy of each member. Tyrone had smoke exude from his back, and Wanda stopped using her Quirk on the pieces of armor.

Without the possibility of flight, mobility would not so restricted, and had concentrated on the pulsating red sphere in her hands, threateningly. Peter had his left arm gauntlet raised, also for defense, and it seemed to work to some extent. Reyes' team didn't advance. Two professional heroes in the audience looked at the situation differently.

"Nice kid! Bluffing until time's up, that's strategy too... " Peter's mentor thought, watching the confrontation through the mirrored glass of the teachers' cabin.

"He's taking advantage of your weakness... " Thinks the professional hero standing up against a wall. The man with a flaming skull in place of his head wore completely black clothes. Leather boots, dark jeans, a black T-shirt and a leather jacket with spikes on his shoulders and a chain wrapped around his chest. He watched the Reyes team closely.

Reyes knew they had little time to act. Peter was thinking strategically: by keeping his distance, Danny's skills wouldn't be useful and by always putting his team on their left side, Seol wouldn't be able to freeze them without hitting Pietro. And with all the defenses up, he didn't know if his chains would be enough... He needed an opening.

"Guys, we have less than 60 seconds!" Said Danny, looking at the screen with the time. "But I have a plan! Pietro, can you accelerate in the same way you did during the attack on EDR?"

Pietro nodded, remembering the move, "I can. But with the dirt ground, I'll have to make more effort to move. I might not be able to do it again."

"What's the plan?" Asked an interested Reyes.

"Just get ready to grab the bandanna!" Danny replied. "And Seol, you'll need to create the ice faster."

"Got it!" Said the girl, already concentrating her Quirk.

"Mercury..." Pietro starts to vibrate his legs, which momentarily become a blur. "BURST!!!"

As soon as the sprinter is ready, he takes off at a speed seen by few so far. His feet sink into the ground and pieces of earth escape the sole of his sneakers. He went so fast that the whole team becomes a blur for a milliseconds. And because he wants to, Danny is the only one who can hold on well enough, since Seol is practically dragged by the speed. Even so fast, Danny waits until the exact moment they were close to Peter's team. He then raised his left hand and focused his chi on his middle and thumb fingers...

At that moment, Peter's Spider Sense went off. "Watch out! They-" But it was too late. In a quick movement, Danny snaps his energized fingers. A slight wave of air and energy is dissipated. Peter could feel where they were coming from, but for a millisecond, he felt nothing, his Spider Sense seemed to stop working.

As soon as he regains general consciousness, even though this stupor lasted less than a millisecond, he could feel that he no longer wore the headband on his head. Peter looked back only to see Reyes' team braking, with the "horses" taking a deep breath, especially Pietro. Robbie with the 10 million point headband in his hands.

"MY SWEET BEA ARTHUR ABOVE!!! WHAT WAS THAT!? WERE THEY HOLDING OFF TO THE END?" Asked Deadpool as the audience cheered at the latest development.

After they stopped, everyone was so impressed with Pietro's speed. But what only Reyes could notice was Danny's snap, and he made a point of pointing this out; "What was that?" Robbie asked the blond teammate.

"A distraction..." said Danny, quickly looking at the other team, who stared back with disbelief. "A sumo technique, usually a clap, can divert the opponent's attention. Using my Chi, I managed to overload Parker's receivers for a brief moment," he stared at Peter with a more serious look, showing how much he was willing to win and improve.

"AND IN A HISTORICAL TURN OF EVENTS, TEAM REYES STEALS TEN MILLION AND TEAM SPIDER SUDDENLY HAS NOTHING!!!" At that moment, both Iron Man and the hero with the flaming skull react to the scene; the Number 1 broke into a sweat cold and the other just nodded his head satisfied.

With less than a minute left, Peter didn't have any option but to go after the headbands. "Danny can still drive us back with the energy," Tyrone said, worried he didn't have much energy left. "It's be better if we tried other teams..."

"We can't!" Peter replied with determination and fury. "We're stuck here and our only chance is to try and recover the ten million points!" The boy was right, they didn't have many ways to escape the ice nest and neither time. Even if they did, they didn't know who had the bandanas with the most points.

"Then let's go!" Wanda said, taking part of Peter's determination and propelling them forward with a burst of his Quirk. "Let's get our points back!" She looked at Peter with a face of determination the boy had only seen once; when she told him her reasoning for becoming a hero.

Wanda... Peter nodded and turns forward. He thinks of his other two teammates, who had trusted him up to that point, and agreed to his strategy and leadership as a rider. He must not disappoint them.

With the team moving forward, Peter raised his right arm, contracting and closing his middle and ring fingers. He was in a position to shoot his web and get the points back, Peter knew that everyone there had reason to win, but he refused to go down without a fight.

Seeing Peter's approach, something lights up inside of Reyes. In the moment, he doesn't seem to think much, just acting on instinct. Robbie raised his left arm with his forearm in front of his face. Flames start to burst from there, coming from other parts of his forearm, as if they were snakes concentrating on a fiery sphere in his palm. He waited for Peter to get closer to release his attack.


Shortly after Reyes' team got the 10 million points, on the other side of the arena the other teams were still struggling to get a spot in the top four. Some were simply comfortable with their position, waiting for time to run out without having to run after others.

"Second place, always second place..." Loki said, seeing the score with a sigh. There was nothing he could do in such a short time, so he'd have to accept the result.

"HEY YOU BASTARD!!! COME BACK HERE!!!" Loki heard the voice of the angry dog from 1-A coming from behind. He'd probably had managed to get rid of the gas.

"You don't give up, do you? Knowing when you are beaten is also important, and-" Loki lost his speech when he sees what happened.

What the 1-B boy expected was the boy's team heading towards him, but the boy activated his Quirk. Using his support companions, he stretched his limbs and literally catapults himself towards the opponent, like a lion on the attack.

"Not again..." Amadeus said, being used as support again and seeing Flash fly towards Loki and his team.

"Rogers!" Loki exclaimed, "Stop him!!"

"You don't have to tell me twice," the red-haired boy quickly extends his arm, creating the red and white shield. It appeared to be holographic and with a quick movement that he had trained for so long, launched it in the direction of the psychotic boy.

James Rogers, Quirk: Energy Shield. He can create a nearly indestructible energy shield, which can also be launched and bounce on certain surfaces.

The shield only appeared to be holographic, because Flash felt it hit his abdomen hard. Still in the air, the shield collides at high speed on his body, making him almost howl in pain. But holding it back and bending his body, he knew that in a short time he would fall due to his movements and the shield canceling each other out.

"Let's go, before he recovers!" Said James, as they left.

"Not so fast!" Before starting to fall and the opposing team left, Flash managed to throw the shield away and extend his arm of the black goo, stretching it enough to be able to grab some of the boy's bandanas from 1-B. He then starts to fall, but is held again by teammate Kamala, who holds him with her enlarged hand and brings him back to the team

"AND WITH THAT TOM CRUISE DOUBLE MANEUVER, TEAM THOMPSON IS NOW IN THE THIRD PLACE, KICKING TEAM ODINSON DOWN TO FOURTH!!!"

With the opening created by Flash, other teams of class B try to take advantage of the situation and steal Loki's last bandana, which was the only reason they were still in the fourth position. Both James and Loki continue to defend themselves; the red-head created more shields, launching and barring attacks and the black haired boy creating illusions for confusion.

"You'd better keep that bandana, Loki. It's the only thing guaranteeing that we'll be able to move on to the next stage," Rogers said sternly.

"I know that..." Loki replied irritably and gritting his teeth.

"I said to warn us the next time you were gonna jump!" Kamala said to Flash as she brings him back. She mumbles something in Urdu, cursing the boy as a "hollow head", but in the official language of Pakistan, he wouldn't know what it meant.

"Ok, now let's regroup," Amadeus tries again for a more peaceful tactic, but with no one to listen. "We're not done yet!" Flash said, holding Amadeus' head. "Let's become the irrefutable champions! After them!"

"The class 1-B strategy was very well thought out," the lawyer co-commentator said. "But they did not consider this aspect..."

"Come on, time to charge!," Flash had a strategy in mind. "Elastic girl, hold us!"

"It's Kamala, you jerk!" She scolded, but did as asked. She raised her arms and held everyone tightly, like a huge duct tape.

"Avocado, time to jump!" He now referred to Amadeus. "Amadeus man, it's not that difficult..." The boy flexed his knees, and used all of his training to jump up, with the route calculated to fall on the opposing team.

"Rogers!" Without needing to hear his name uttered by Loki, the red-head quickly concentrates his energy and formed a huge shield that touches the ground and covers his team completely, holding on for the impact.

"..the wild cards that are Class 1-A!" Finished Murdock.

"Argh!!" While the shield was extremely resistant, they didn't consider the Laura aspect. With her right hand's claws out on the way down, she tore the shield in half. Her bone claws sliding through the energy, aided by the fall and cutting it like cardboard.

Using the literal opening, Flash once again stretched out his arm with goo far enough to tear off the last bandanna around Loki's neck. This was his team's bandana, which pushed Flash's team into second place and left Loki's team biting the dust.

"WITH THE UNBRIDLED FURY OF A REAL NATURAL DISASTER, TEAM THOMPSON TAKES SECOND PLACE!!!"

"We did it..." Amadeus muttered in surprise. "We did it!"

"Uhuuuuuuu!" Kamala yelled excitedly as they move away from 1-B students.

"Good, now we can now focus on defense and-" Laura was interrupted once more.

"No!" Flash said to his team, not completely satisfied yet. "Let's go after Parker and Reyes..." The boy stared at the ice structure that isolated the two teams from the rest of the competition.


Inside the mini ice arena, Peter's team quickly approached the opponents, who had to rely only on Reyes for defense. With his arm ready to launch the web, Peter watched Reyes starting to focus fire on his palm. The boy had a notion that Reyes was capable of this power, but he'd never seen him use it, so he didn't know how powerful it was. But it didn't matter; his goal was not to face Reyes, but to distract him in order to create an opening.

As the bigger boy got close, he looked like he was about to launch a burst of flame. But Peter had been quicker; he shoots a web from his wrist and it sticks to Reyes' arm. And in a quick movement, holding the end of the web, Peter pulls it to the side, causing Reyes to lower his arm and break his concentration, thus extinguishing his flames.

At that moment, Robbie made the mistake of looking to to his arm, as if he is wondering what had happened. It seemed he hadn't intended to use that own power. Taking advantage of this momentary distraction, Peter moves in.

His opponent had the bandanas facing backwards, likely to hide their respective values. Because it was the last one they caught, Peter deduced that the 10 million would be the one at the top. With the same arm of the web beginning to concentrate blood in the wound hole and drain, he stretched towards Reyes' neck and grabs the bandanna at the top. Using the momentum generated by the movement of his team, he pulled it out.

"I got it!!!" Peter screamed and the crowd goes nuts.

"LOOK AT THAT!!! WITH 11 SECONDS REMAINING, TEAM SPIDER ONCE AGAIN GETS MORE POINTS!!!"

"Uh, Peter? Please tell me my eyes are deceiving me..." Peter heard Riri say nervously. He quickly looks back to see the the bandana in his hand. His eyes widen in shock. That was not the 10 million bandana, but only a measly 70 points!!!

"They tricked us!" He yelled, turning to Reyes' team. Of course, some of the smartest students were there. Figures they'd change the sequence so that it wasn't obvious where each bandana was.

"Come on Reyes, watch out! This one got too close!" Pietro yelled to his leader, who still seemed shocked by something.

"AND IN ANOTHER, TEAM SPIDER STILL HASN'T GOT ENOUGH TO PASS!!!" Deadpool announced, showing the score of Parker's team, now in sixth place with seventy points; it wasn't enough. "LET THE COUNTDOWN BEGIN!!!" And all the screens are replaced by a clock counting the final ten seconds.

"Tyrone!!!" Peter yelled and the boy obeys, using everything he has to spread his shadows in the hope that they will achieve something.

"Rand!" Reyes is faster, and Danny again energized his leg, quickly lowering it and breaking the ground. It launched the blast of force and energy in all directions. It wasn't as strong as the first time, but it was enough to ward off the shadows that quickly gathered near their feet.

At the same time, the ice wall is broken by a Flash with a murderous intent. He used the walls still standing to catapult himself from his team, who came further back, towards the teams of Robbie and Peter, not knowing who had the ten million points.

"Wanda!!! Riri!!!" Peter tries some more, they only had one chance, it was now or never. "Let's go!!!" Wanda exclaimed, using the rest of the energy in her Quirk to propel herself forward. Riri does as much as she can, activating the last propulsion charge in her boot to aid in the momentum.

"GHOSTY!!!" Flash screamed when he saw Peter's team heading towards Reyes, deducing that he is the one now with the 10 million point headband.

Not wasting energy, Reyes summons some chains and waited for the right moment to defend himself if necessary. He didn't want to risk a move and leave himself open to one of the two teams as they approached.

Peter. Flash. Reyes. The three members of this "triangle of rivals" drew closer until-

"TIME'S UP!!!" Deadpool screamed, moments before the teams met. "AND WITH THAT, THE SECOND ROUND OF EXTREME CHILD VIOLENCE COMES TO AN END!!!"

While the crowd went crazy for the action they just witnessed, the teenagers below react differently. Peter, who stretched out to reach, retracts his arm with an anguished expression. He'd failed his team...

Flash, on the other hand, was irritated by the end of the game and just lands, flexing his knees and picking himself up with his Quirk before making a sulky face and clenched fists.

"Flash, you okay?" Amadeus asked, back to his normal form.

"Obviously not, idiot..." Flash said quietly, the rest of his team don't even bother to approach.

"Damn..." For some reason unknown to others, Reyes descends from his position as a rider and looks at the ground with a kind of remorse. Certainly his team had won, there was no doubt. But for him, the bitter taste in his mouth was not of victory.

"ALRIGHT THEN, TIME TO CHECK WHAT THE FOUR TEAMS WHO WILL CONTINUE ON THIS CIRC- I mean, FESTIVAL!!!" Deadpool said, waiting to see the final tally before announcing the results.

"IN FIRST PLACE; TEAM REYES!!!"

"Wow, we won, but it seems for very little," Soel said, drying the cold sweat on her forehead with the back of her hand.

"Forgive me for my plan," said Danny. "I should have told you this strategy before. Especially to you Pietro, since it was you who did the most work."

"Hey man, all good!" Pietro responds, lightly hitting the blond boy on the shoulder. "We only won because of you, in my mind it was a valid risk," he said with a smile, relieving Danny a little.

"IN SECOND PLACE; TEAM THOMPSON!!!"

"Oof! Even if we didn't get first, we still managed to pass!" Said Kamala doing some stretches with her arms to avoid cramping.

"It would've been nice to have won, but second place isn't so bad," Laura replied, putting her hands on her waist and sheating her claws.

"Yeah? Tell him that..." Amadeus points to Flash, who looked at his open hands while flexing his fingers. His murderous look made it seem like he was trying to crush his enemies' heads with his bare hands. No one dared to approach

"IN THIRD PLACE; TEAM... STRYKER!? NOW THIS IS WHAT I CALL A WILD CARD!!!"

The team, with the boy in the General Studies class, was further away from the last confrontation, having remained silent during all this time. Now he'd come out in third. The leader of this group distanced himself from his companions; two members of class 1-A and one of class 1-B. It seemed that like Flash, he had made no effort to remember their names.

"Thank you very much for your services," he said, walking away from the three teenagers who now seemed to be seeing things differently.

Back with Peter's team, the group leader looked crestfallen as Riri helped him to remove the gauntlets properly, having already removed her boot and Wanda's. Not being too close with the boy, the girl from the Support class stepped away to pick up the other gauntlet that Seol and Reyes had frozen and knocked over.

Peter felt a hand on his shoulder and without turning around, he recognized who it was by the size being Tyrone. He'd probably had come to blame or bring words of encouragement to him, Peter wasn't sure what would be worse to hear.

"Parker," Tyrone said softly.

But Peter continued before he can say anything, "Look, I'm sorry Tyrone. I wasn't the leader you deserved and-"

"Parker!" Tyrone interrupts, speaking a little more sharply now. He holds Peter's shoulders so that he turns and looks him in the eye. Peter saw the smile on the boy's face and the same one pointing back, where Peter can see a Wanda with her arms behind her back, looking down and blushing.

"I know I should have spoken up before, but..." Wanda looks up and gazed at Peter with scarlet irises. She still had flushed cheeks, but now with a slight smile. "But I took this while you took the bandana from Reyes."

In the girl's hands was a bandana. But not just any bandana, the original bandana of the Reyes team, with almost 700 points combined. Which, according to Peter's calculations, would put them in-

"AND LAST, BUT SURELY NOT LEAST!!! IN FOURTH PLACE; TEAM SPIDER!!!"

After seeing everything the team went through, everyone in the audience burst out with happy shouting and celebration over what they'd been through. Peter emerged from his stupor, feeling physically and psychologically drained. He rushed towards Wanda and, with all barriers of shame being forgotten, puts his arms around the girl, hugging her tightly.

Wanda didn't know how to react, either from the news or from Peter's embrace. She even dropped her headband and she started to blush as she felt the boy's defined torso come in contact with hers. His strong arms wrapped around her waist, but something takes her out of her trance; something wet on her shoulder, Peter's tears leaked through his mask...

"Thank you..." He whispered to the girl, who just smiled back and hugged him back tightly. Tyrone had a slight smile as he watched the two, while Riri focused on trying to fix her gauntlet. But regardless, the four were very pleased with being able to move on to the next stage.

Reyes watched Parker and his team from a distance. He then looks back at his hand. He'd promised that he would never use that power, he would become a hero without that sort of help. But he saw that when he was cornered, it came out as a natural instinct, almost without any conscience. It was inside him, part of him, but he wouldn't let himself be shaken, he had a promise to keep after all.

Few noticed the man with the flaming skull leaving as soon as the end of the battle was announced. He naturally bore no expression, so nobody could tell what he was thinking.

"AND NOW IT'S TIME FOR OUR ONE HOUR COMMERCIAL BREAK!!! EVENTS LIKE THIS DON'T COME CHEAP! BRING OUT THE ADVERTISEMENTS!!!" Deadpool released everyone for the break, "Come on Matty, let's go get some lunch!"

"I'm fine, thanks," the lawyer responds before rolling out in his wheelchair. Deadpool shrugs and heads over to a Mexican themed concession stand.


Back with the students, many were disappointed that they couldn't move on to the next stage. But in most cases, friends spoke to each other after minutes of rivalry and tension.

"I'll tell you, I certainly didn't expect it..." Gwen said, carrying an unconscious Kei under her arm again. The boy was exhausted after the battle between the dinosaur and Fireclaw.

"Laura, congratulations on making it through!" Tandy walks over, politely congratulating the brunette.

"Thanks, but I admit that Flash did the most, that bastard..." She replied with irritation in her voice, but with a slight smile at the same time.

"Well, I'm sure that-" Tandy tries to speak, but something interrupts her.

"DANNY!!!" Dropping Kei on the ground and shooting forward at high speed, the blonde Gwen quickly jumped and holds on to her friend with all her might.

"Hello Gwen," the boy was already anticipated the reception, so he was content to caress the head of the girl who now murmured something incomprehensible in his chest.

"Danny that was incredible, I can't believe you kept that move to yourself this whole time!" Wanda said, excitedly able to talk to her friend again.

"Forgiveness for having used it against you, it was not my intention to deceive you," the boy said, bowing slightly as if asking for forgiveness. "But I just wanted to show my skills."

"You and Peter with all this business of being the best..." Wanda said, crossing his arms and pouting cheekily.

"Speaking of boys," Gwen leaps from Danny's arms, now looking at Wanda with a mischievous expression. "What was with that hug, eh Miss Maximoff? Or should I say, Mrs. Parker?"

"I-I-I-It's n-n-n-not what you're thinking!!!" Wanda blushing crimson, and tries to change the subject. Gwen couldn't resist, making fun of the two potential lovebirds was almost as good as Danny's pancakes; ALMOST!

"Hey, speaking of him," Danny interrupts the internal thoughts that Gwen seemed to be having over breakfast food. "Where is Parker?"

In a not-so-distant corner, at one of the entrances authorized only for staff and students, two boys faced each other from opposite sides of the corridor. Robbie was leaning against the wall, with his gray eyes and neutral expression. They focused in the direction of poor Peter, who took his mask off to look the boy in the eye.

"Well, you brought me here..." Peter said, being the first to speak up. "So now what? We don't have a ton of time and I wanna get some food."

"There's something I wanted to discuss in private, Araña," Reyes replied.


Within the arena, a certain hero in red and gold armor made his way downstairs towards the student's waiting room. Until he heard a sound that made him stop.

"Iron Man..." Said a voice. It wasn't really deep or thin, but somewhat distorted and definitely harsh. The hero turned to see Ghost Rider, in all his fiery glory.

"Hey Johnny, been a while," replied Iron Man.

The flaming skull said nothing in response.

"...Is there something I can do for you?" Iron Man asked, somewhat unsure.

At that moment, Ghost Rider powers down, the flames disappearing around his skull, regaining muscle and skin until it formed a middle-aged face. He had stubble, blue eyes, and blonde hair with coppery highlights.

"There's something I need to ask you, a favor," said the former stunt biker, a note of genuine concern in his voice.

.

.

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Barber's Chair

• A few more Class 1-B characters, Abigail Boylen aka Cloud 9, and James Rogers, as seen in the animated feature Next Avengers: Heroes of Tomorrow.

• Unlike the source material, these two top heroes get along somewhat. Or at the very least, Ghost Rider isn't as horrible a person as Endeavor was, and instead, is the one approaching Iron Man this time around.