That was the moment. The one-on-one battles, the most anticipated competition for those both watching and participating in the event. For the spectators, this was the real competition; high stakes bets were made, tensions were high, and the stadium shook with excitement.

It's clear that these emotions reached the 'normal' public more, since another part of the spectators were professional heroes. They'd be looking for promising potential heroes to intern in their agencies when it was time in a few weeks. Many had already participated in these types of tournaments back in their school days, and were looking for those who could match well with the characteristics of their agencies or their Quirks.

Now that moment had a completely different weight for the participants; each had their own purpose for being here. The 16 best students from the first year of M.A, no matter the specific objective, all wanted to reach the top. It didn't matter if it was wanting to be the best, or changing a course at school; the two boys about to face each other would be going all out.

"LADIES, GENTLEMAN, NON-BINARY FOLKS AND BEYOND, IT'S FINALLY TIME! THE EVENT YOU'VE ALL BEEN WAITING FOR! IT'S TIME TO BATTLEEEEE!!!!!" Deadpool stood in the middle of the arena with a microphone. The mercenary hero now wore a suit with a bow tie over his uniform and a gray wig over his mask, looking like a classic boxing announcer. He pointed to one side of the arena.

"IN THE BLUE CORNER, WE HAVE THE UNDERDOG FROM CLASS 1-A OF THIS EVENT. THE BOY WHO HAS EXCEEDED ALL EXPECTATIONS SO FAR. WEIGHING 3 TIMES MORE THAN THE WEBBING HE MAKES IN HIS BODY, WE HAVE 'THE SPIDER'!!!"

Peter walked up the steps to the arena, wearing his red mask. The crowd cheered wildly for him, and were this any other situation, the boy would've surely gotten stage fright from all the attention. Instead, his focus was solely on his opponent, walking up the opposite steps.

"AND IN THE RED CORNER, THE TRUE UNDERDOG FROM CLASS 1-C. HE'S SLITHERED HIS WAY INTO THE TOURNAMENT WITH HIS DIABOLICAL POWER TO PROVE HIMSELF WORTHY OF GREATER THINGS. HIS HEAD WEIGHS MORE THAN HIS BODY WITH ALL THOSE UNSOLVED ISSUES (TRUST ME I KNOW THE PAIN), WE HAVE JASON STRYKER!!!"

As the two boys approached each other to hear the final instructions before the fight, many watched fearfully at the start of the competition. The school's students had been placed in exclusive locations, divided by class. 1-A was in a location just above where Peter had left.

Wanda, Danny and Gwen were some of the most eager for the competition, but others were also anxiously awaiting its beginning. In the tunnel itself, Tony was still there, watching the pupil, and somewhat afraid that someone would see him if he tried to go back to the teachers' cabin now.

"The rules are simple!" The field judge announced to the two boys. "The fight ends if someone steps outside the limit, surrenders, or is unable to continue. Otherwise the fight will continue indefinitely, understood?"

"Yes ma'am..." Jason comments looking curious at his opponent.

"Yea!" Peter replied, trying his best not to look up and not face the boy.

"Good luck to you both, return to your corners," the heroine said. The two boys walked back to their corners as Professor Frost raised her arm, as if to indicate the beginning of a race.

"Begin!!" She called out, as Deadpool rung a boxing bell off to the side.

"Feeling the pressure?" Jason walked forward and starts talking to Peter. "That girl earlier, 'Tigress', she was going by. I'm sure she told you something like, 'defeat me for her', no?"

"... " Peter said nothing, he didn't want to start to answer and risk looking the boy in the eye. So looking down, he began walking towards him.

"She's kind of a big hypocrite, don't you think? If she really wanted to beat me, then she should've done it herself. Not hide behind a shield of 'honor' or whatever..." The boy kept asking questions, wanting Peter to lose his focus. And it was working.

"Grrrr..." Peter kept getting closer, he was stronger physically, it would be over in no time. He just had to keep calm and ignore the taunting.

"I thought she was a strong one," Jason shrugged. "But apparently she's just a frightened kitten, afraid to face things head on!"

That did it, "Don't talk about her like that-" Peter began to yell when he was close to the boy, but it was at that moment when everything fell apart.

Snap!!

Jason snapped his fingers, loud and close to Peter. Having his conscious barriers momentarily lowered by anger, he turns his head in the direction of the sound; the boy's right hand.

After catching Peter's eye, Jason quickly brought his hand close to his face. Peter followed the movement until he's looking at the boy's face, until his eyes were attracted by the unusual combination of colors in the boy's eyes.

"Got ya..." And with that, Jason activates his Quirk the second the opponent looks him in the eye.

"Dammit..." Ava said more to herself, as she watched Peter lift his head and look at Jason.

Peter suddenly stops, a short distance from Jason. He continued to stare into the boy's eyes as if in a kind of trance, until he shakes his head, stops looking at Jason, looks both ways and forwards, as if he was confused by something. Then, he looks back in the direction from which he came and starts walking in that direction; towards outside the arena.

"SPIDER'S WIGGING OUT! HE'S GIVING UP? JEEZ, WHAT A STUPID KID! HEY DUMBASS! YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO STAY INSIDE THE RING!"

Peter, on the other hand, was more confused than he could've imagined. All the thoughts surrounding the surface of his mind a few moments ago had simply evaporated. He saw different things than the rest of the spectators. Facing Jason, for a fraction of a second, in addition to having his thoughts evaporated, he found himself at the edge of the field. His feet almost touched the white line at the edge of the battle arena and stared at the tunnel from which entered.

Looking back, he can see his opponent, as well as the rest of the field. Peter thought he'd been teleported or something, picking up speed he starts running towards his opponent.

"I-I don't get this. Matt!" Deadpool yelled up to his co-announcer, removing his gray wig for a moment and turning off his microphone. The man in question ran his fingers over the small computer for the blind who was reading something. "What's your XLR-1964 Stark Industries Laptop for the Blind telling you? I can't get the narrative significance of this."

"I asked to get the files of those two..." Matthew said, not being able to see what was happening in the field, but having a certain idea. Like the good lawyer he was, he made a thorough investigation. "And I think this proves once more that the pratical admission exam is stupid and completely irrational."

"Irrational!?" Deadpool asked, looking frustrated. "Let me tell 'ya something, Mr. Chatolic Man! I know you can't see, it but robot destruction is AWESOME!!!"

"I really don't care..." said the lawyer dryly. "Mr. Stryker didn't pass the practical heroes admission test. But as he'd also applied for General Studies, he probably already considered that possibility. His Quirk is extremely powerful in the right situations, but since the exam was basically destroying 'villain robots', this gave a huge advantage to those with more offensive Quirks. Even though he's powerful, he had no chance..."

"Wow. Uh, that is...brutal?" Deadpool really doesn't know how to react. "This is public access right? Oh jeez..."

From the seats reserved for students, Peter's friends tried in any way to make him realize his mistake and get him back on track.

"Peter! Watch out, you're going out of bounds!" Wanda called with her hands close to her face, shouting to her friend.

"Hello!? It's the other way!" Gwen also tried to warn him, placing her hands around her mouth to increase the volume.

"..." Danny says nothing. While he too was concerned about his friend's performance, he felt that all this was useless.

"..." Flash was another who watched silently. He knew Parker was in a bad situation, but he had an annoying way of getting out of them at the last moment.

Further down with Iron Man, the hero scratched his goatee, worried as he watched the boy run towards the edge of the field. "What is this power?" Tony asked, impressed by the other boy's Quirk.

Jason Stryker, Quirk; Mind Bending. With a simple exchange of looks, he can change everything that a person perceives, be it visual, auditory, or even olfactory. A consequence of this power is the erasure of the target's recent and superficial memories, replacing them with new images and sensations.

Parker's certainly not among the strongest in the Heroes' Course, but he's certainly much stronger than Stryker, thought Murdock as he analyzed his student's chances. While he felt sorry for the situation of the boy in General Studies, he couldn't help but worry about one of his own students. But to be able to take advantage of this, he needs to get out of the trance, and that will be the real challenge. Either way, this fight will end quickly.

"Come on kid..." Tony said in a cold sweat, he watched his student getting closer and closer to the edge of the battlefield. A little more and he would be eliminated from the competition. "Snap out of this!"

But even though he tried to warn his pupil, Jason made a point of filtering out every sound from Peter's mind; nothing was going to warn him about what was going on. The only sound that came to his mind was shouting from the audience, as if excited for a confrontation. Meanwhile the real audience was silent, anxious over what was going to happen next.

"Sorry about this, nothing personal," Jason said aloud, but as his opponent couldn't hear him. It was more like he was talking to himself, "But I need to beat you if I want to become a hero too..."

In Peter's view, however, everything went smoothly. He ran towards his opponent, his brain didn't capture anything strange around him. He didn't find Deadpool's comments lacking, nor didn't he hear his friends or mentor. Well, at least the rational part couldn't.

Peter was approaching the middle of the arena when he felt a shiver go through his body. The same one feels when stepping in cold water, a shivering wave that makes all the hairs on the body stand on end in an instant. Peter stopped, not understanding exactly what happened to get goosebumps all over; a clear sign of his 'Spider Sense' firing.

But every time it meant an imminent attack, and looking around, Peter doesn't notice anything. Of course, in his head, he didn't know the boy's Quirk, so he couldn't risk it. So running his hand quickly over his arm to lowering the goose bumps, he walks again more slowly, experiencing the same chill sensation with each step. He'd forgotten the conversation he'd had with Ava before the fight.


A Few Minutes Prior

"So his Quirk lets him control what the other see?" Peter asked to be sure, thinking about all the implications of that Quirk. "Do I have any chance of beating him?"

"Honestly, it's unlikely. But not impossible..." Ava tells him, not for a second abandoning her more rational side. "Don't look him in the eye, this is how he connects with your mind and shuffles your senses. At least, that's what I realized he did to me..."

"What exactly happened?" Peter inquired.

"He made me see Azari inviting me to be part of his team," she said seriously, staring directly at Peter. This guy isn't stupid, he probably saw me talking to Azari before, and deduced that I would agree to battle with him. He's a great observer of these types of behavior, but luckily he won't have that advantage against you in battle."

"Yeah, real lucky- OUCH!" The boy's sarcastic quip is quickly interrupted by a chop to the head by his classmate, a punishment for his pessimism

"But there is a chance to get out of the trance. Right at the end of the Cavalry Battle, I bumped into someone and suddenly things went back to normal," she said with her hand on her chin, remembering the event

"Hmmmm, this is definitely good to know, but I won't have any help from outside luck in this situation," Peter usually tried not to be pessimistic, but in this situation it was really difficult.

"You're right..." she agreed with the boy, getting up from her chair in the 1-A break room. "Still, I hope I helped..."

"Oh it did help! Any information is better than nothing, right?" Peter said, scratching the back of his head, a little embarrassed.

"I have one last request," said Ava. "I know it's a little selfish on my part, but would you be able to beat him, and win for both of us?" She turns to the boy, but when she heard the words coming out of her mouth, she blushed slightly. "Can you try at least?"

"'Do, or do not, there is no try'..." Peter replied, making a joke as he altered his voice slightly to sound like a famous green alien.

"What?" Ava either didn't hear right or didn't understand the reference, Peter couldn't tell.

"Um, I-I said I'll do my best!" He said convincingly to the girl, who nodded and left the room.


Back in the present, Peter now took slower steps. He wasn't moving in slow motion, but he stopped at each step because the same sensation of chills dominating his body again. With each step, the wave raised all the hairs on his body was, becoming stronger.

It was here that Peter started to analyze the situation better; after all this time his opponent still hadn't moved or said anything. He couldn't hear any specific words, from the audience nor from his friends. Even Deadpool hadn't said anything yet. And while nothing happened, he would still be quick to make a joke. Something was wrong.

And in the middle of this moment of contemplation, something happens in the involuntary part of Peter's brain. And in a movement of pure blind instinct, his right arm rises and he shoots a web. The substance bursts from his forearm, making the hole and starting to bleed. The white web fires in the direction of his opponent, but the most impressive thing wasn't the fact that Jason didn't even dodge the attack. In fact, the web went through him completely, as if he were a kind of ghost.

And in the blink of an eye, Peter began to see other things; he found himself facing the tunnel from which he had previously come, but he was still on the battlefield. Looking down, he noticed his left foot raised, as if he was about to take a step out of the arena. He quickly turns and backs off, not remembering how he got there.

"AND WITHOUT ANY EXPLANATION, UTILIZING THE TRUE SUPREME POWER OF PROTAGONISM, OUR HERO IS BACK IN COMPETITION!!!" Deadpool exclaimed, seeing the boy stop and move away from the edge.

Looking around and listening to the audience cheer for the commentary, Peter's memories come back in an instant; both the ones lost before about his opponent's Quirk and the conversation he had with Ava before the battle. This whole time, he'd been in an illusion projected by Jason after Peter looked him in the eye; how stupid he had been!

"What!? But how..?" Peter overheard his opponent talking, likely because he didn't understand how Peter had questioned his illusion to managed to get out of it.

"Phew..." Ava breathed a sigh of relief, Peter was still in the competition.

"My heart can't take these things anymore," added Gwen exaggeratedly, but with Wanda and Danny agreeing. It had been a lot of pressure to watch that.

Peter starts to look back, trying to observe the situation, but then he froze, afraid that any change of vision, however brief, would return him to that illusory world again. In the beginning Jason had used a few tricks to make Peter look; he was got him pissed enough to lower his defenses and perception. And he used the finger snap to get his attention. Finally, the quick motion of his hand made him look into the boy's eyes, falling into the trap that almost made him lose.

Looking down, he noticed the web connected to his arm and a wall in the distance. There was a slight bit of blood staining the beginning of the web, then he gets a crazy idea. Snatching it from his arm and pulling it off the wall, Peter improvised a blindfold and passed the web in front of his mask lenses.

The sensation was strange, the web was cold and quite sticky, even through the mask. But this was necessary, without his vision, there was no way he could be trapped in illusion. He'd have to rely on his other senses to defeat the boy.

Turning in the direction of his opponent, Peter began to walk towards him. He had no perfect spatial perception like Mr. Murdock, but his 'Spider Sense' was already quite helpful. In fact, the teacher himself seemed to be running over the brain descriptions on his computer with great interest.

"This power of yours seems pretty useful, but it seems that's only the tip of the iceberg. I wonder why you didn't use them in the obstacle race..." Peter could hear his opponent speaking. It seemed he was reverting his strategy. "No wonder you're trying to be a hero, I'm actually jealous of you for having that power..."

"Believe it or not, I know how that feels," Peter replied, remembering his own position from not so long ago. It was safe for him to talk now, so long as he wasn't able to look in his opponent's eyes.

"What're you talking about?" Asked Jason. "You've been blessed with a useful power that lets you be a hero! Aren't you proud!?"

Of course I am, but this blessing had nothing to do with birth. It was a complete accident, Peter thought.

"Being born with my Quirk, my path to being a hero is much more difficult, but someone like you would never understand!" Jason said, bitterly.

"I understand, more than you can imagine..." Peter said, getting closer and closer to his opponent.

"That's ridiculous!!" His opponent exclaimed. "Your path is much simpler, you were born with a heroic Quirk, for you everything is easy!!!"

"Easy!? I've been nothing but lucky!! I could've never gotten this far without the help of others! And it's for them that I fight!!!" Peter exclaimed, rushing with all his strength to grab the opponent. But it's then where Jason's strategy becomes clear.

The moment Peter reached out to grab the boy and push him out of the arena, his opponent tries to deflect by taking a few steps to the side, screaming as he does. This was likely an attempt to distract Peter's remaining four senses, then deflect and push him out. However, he didn't count on young Parker's sixth sense of danger.

Noticing the boy's movement to his left, Parker quickly reached out, grabbing the boy's gym uniform and launched him towards the edge of the field with his increased strength.

Of course, he didn't have any very impressive strength compared to his other classmates, but it was enough to nearly throw him out. Jason rolled across the concrete floor, nearly crossing he the edge. Peter moved in to finish his plan, while Jason gets up to try to end it once and for all.

When he got close enough, Jason tried to use the fact that he was taller than his opponent to try and tear the webs off and try to force him to look into his eyes. Stopping him with a hand on his chest, he tries to grab the web with his right hand. But the boy quickly raised his own to hold him and prevent him from getting the web off.

"Grrrr!" Gritting his teeth in rage, Jason threw a punch in the area of Parker's nose, which was effective to some extent, as the boy staggered backwards a bit. His nose started to bleed under the mask.

But Jason didn't count on Peter's agility. Still holding his opponent's right arm, Peter took a few quick steps, maneuvering from front to behind the boy with heterochromatic eyes, and placed himself between Jason and the boundary line.

Holding his arm and using the momentum of his movement, he used his strength to throw his opponent over his shoulder and over the line, just as he had done with Flash during Fight Training. Hitting his back on the ground caused Jason to momentarily lose his breath before regaining it momentarily. With his opponent bleeding and tired inside the arena, the judge gave victory to 'The Spider', the crowd cheering him on. But in Jason's head, only one scene took place...


Jason was young, six or seven; it had been a few years since he'd discovered his Quirk. As a result, he'd been ignored by the family on his father's side, prejudiced folk who still believed that people with Quirks were sick, abnormal, mutants. A very outdated, but unfortunately still present way of thinking.

Thankfully, the boy had his mother, his private heroine. She was also Quirkless, but she loved to play with her son, watch movies or heroic actions on TV. All of this made his desire to be a hero grow, a hero for Marcy Stryker, his mother.

His father, William Stryker Jr. didn't abuse either him or his wife, but he was completely cold and ignorant, taking his post in the army as the greater priority. As such, he was never around on the important dates; birthdays, Christmases, and other celebrations. That's when Jason took action. In all these occasions, Jason used his Quirk to make his mother see his father coming home and spending the day with them. She always woke up the next day thinking it had been a dream, but Jason loved seeing his mother with a real smile on her face.

But one day, everything went downhill. His father arrived in the middle of one of those moments. Jason had to stop the illusion, and all those memories came back to Marcy. She realized how it had all been a lie. Now in depression, the woman had no choice but to leave that house and never come back...


Still on the ground, Jason relived the scene of his mother taking the suitcase and leaving. He had failed in his first attempt to be someone's hero, and now he had failed again.

In the bleachers of the part specified for class 1-A, several of Peter's colleagues were happy that the boy managed to win the battle. Three in particular were the overjoyed.

"He did it!" Wanda exclaimed, happy and relieved by her friend's victory.

"A card up his sleeve at the last moment, typical Parker style," Danny nods approvingly.

"WE ARE THE CHAMPIONS!!!" Gwen leap into the air, making people nearby look at her curiously regarding her behavior, but the class was already used to it

"He did that same judo move against you, didn't he?" Pietro grinned cheekily at Flash, teasing the boy.

"You'd better run, Platinum, before I get angry..." Flash threatened. But Pietro just laughed and went back to his place while the boy watched Parker with irritation. He's really aiming for the top now. How annoying, Flash thought.

After they shook hands in the arena, Peter was holding his injured arm, trying to stop the bleeding. His opponent, still with his head down, began to leave the field. But Peter didn't move, he knew exactly how Jason felt: impossible, without a chance in this world, no space between the stars.

So, quickly calling over, Peter asked the boy a simple, direct question; "Why do you want to be a hero?"

"..." Jason stopped in his tracks, raising his head slightly, but not turning back, "You can't shake what your heart wants, am I right?"

Peter completely agreed, he couldn't help it, his heart sometimes spoke so loudly that it seemed impossible to try anything else. "You might not want to hear this," Peter said. "But you were amazing today. And it's not just me who thinks that..."

"..." Jason turned to Peter, his green and blue eyes gazing at the boy, who with a soft smile on his face, just pointed to the stands. Jason followed in that direction, where several students of General Studies shouted Jason's name. Several heroes seemed to be talking about the boy's skills and potential; he'd certainly left an impression.

A slight smile grows on Jason's face, "Wait for me, Spider. This won't be the last time you saw me! I will become the best, and one day, I'll be at your level." "I'll be waiting..." Peter quietly replied, as he watched his opponent walk off back through the tunnel.

.

.

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Barber's Chair

• Bit of a different utilization of Jason's power. I'm basically going with a younger version from the X-2 movie.