"AND THIS IS IT, LADIES AND GENTLEMEN!!! THE MOMENT WE'VE ALL BEEN WAITING FOR!!! THE LAST BATTLE OF OUR SPORTS FESTIVAL!!! ONE WILL LEAVE A WINNER, AND THE OTHER WILL LEAVE HUMILIATED!!!" Deadpool yelled excitedly, jumping from side to side. Matthew just wanted to go home, and would've already left if it weren't for his students there. "WHAT HAPPENS NEXT COULD BE A FIGHT TO BE REMEMBERED!!! WE'RE TALKING ALI VS FRAZIER, HARRY VS VOLDEMORT, PERCY VS KRONOS, HICCUP VS ALVIN..."
Deadpool went on with their comparisons and references as Tyrone and Robbie head for the arena. Both were very focused and didn't look very nervous at all, at least not externally.
In the stands, all 18 classmates of the two boys watched on with mixed feelings. Some (just Flash in this case) were annoyed that it wasn't him down there. Others were interested in how the battle would go, but most were equally concerned for the two boys. The amount of power, techniques and cards up their respective sleeves were certainly immense.
"I'm worried..." Wanda said to her friends. "About what!? There is nothing to worry about!" Gwen replied, seeming not to understand where her friend's concern came from.
"Most of those who fought these two left with injuries," Wanda referring more specifically to Peter and the three who had faced Tyrone directly; Seol, Kamala and Amadeus. "Imagine what'll happen when the two face off!?"
"It's gonna be awesome!!!" Gwen said excitedly, munching on popcorn. "You two fought Reyes," put in Kei, indicating Danny and Peter. "What do you think?"
"Sure, 'fought'..." Peter replied sarcastically. His battle was more 'annoy Reyes and take a beating'. "He's definitely skilled, and has incredible control of his Quirk."
"Besides his powers," Danny added. "He has a very solid knowledge of boxing. His conditioning is almost perfect, all movements are fluid and very natural. I don't see how Tyrone could win..."
"I wouldn't count on it so much..." They look back to see Tandy, who'd come back and now sat between Seol and Nico. "Ty has some tricks of his own."
"Sorry about that," Danny said, getting up and bowing to the girl, "I meant no offense toward him." "Relax," Tandy replied calmly, which relieved Danny.
"You who seem to know him more than anyone else," Seol nudged her arm. "How do you think the fight will go?"
"Honestly, it could go either way..." she crossed her arms, looking at the two boys approaching down in the arena. "But one thing I do know; they're on more of an equal footing than you think."
"You and Tyrone are almost always together," Nico comments, watching the blonde. "You two dating or something?"
The directness of Minoru's question caught the attention of all the other members of Class 1-A. Some admired the courage to ask that out of the blue, others were interested in the answer. Some blushed, others were curious to see if the class already had a couple formed. Kei starts to raise his pencil and sketchbook, waiting for an answer to release his artistic instincts.
"No," Tandy said, equally direct. She wasn't surprised by the question, it was like they asked her what she'd eaten for lunch. "We do spend a lot of time together, but that's just because we've known each other since we were kids. He's basically the twin brother I've never had..."
Some reactions run through the group; mostly neutral, as the question had scared them. But as nothing changed the status quo of the room, nobody seemed to think much of it. Even Kei shrugged and put his notebook down, unable to funnel his artistic instinct into an image of the two.
Other reactions included Kamala flicking Nico for being so dry about it, and Pietro feeling strangely relieved by that situation, not knowing exactly why. "It's starting! It's starting!!" Gwen said excitedly, shifting the focus back to combat
Down in the arena, the two boys faced each other a few feet away from each other. Nothing else mattered, they both had a single goal in mind: to win. Both had already gone through a lot to be there, and at that moment they would give their all so that they could return home as the champion of the festival. No shouting, declaration or anything flashy is done by either boy until Emma Frost signaled the start of the fight.
Robbie wasted no time, invoking an iron chain and launching it at high speed towards Tyrone. But the expected happens; centimeters before being wrapped by the chain, the boy disappeared in a cloud of black smoke. The chain passed through the space the boy was in, but with nothing to grab.
Tyrone soon reappeared a few feet from his original position, and Reyes launched another chain. He begins a quick and direct onslaught, and the same occurs, with the his opponent disappearing as the chain passed harmlessly through the void.
It might appear that Robbie did not have a specific plan, which was partially true. But he did know one thing, Tyrone would always disappear and use distance to accumulate power before he got close and put his opponent in a kind of trance. It's what he'd done in the last three fights.
The big issue was that Robbie had no idea what was really going on in the minds of Tyrone victims. Seol and Kamala had been in a state of shock, while Amadeus lost control and became violent. So, his initial strategy would be to try to avoid his powers, if he managed to do that, then victory was guaranteed. But the big question was that he didn't know what would happen if he did get hit... until that moment.
With the sixth chain launching towards him, Tyrone realized that the amount of smoke coming from the Darkforce that surrounded his body should be enough to win that battle. He teleported, hopefully for the last time today, traveling through the shadows of the parallel dimension until he finds himself behind Robbie. The boy barely had time to turn around as the dark energy comes into contact with him. His eyes widened as visions went through his mind ...
Robbie was in his home; his first house to be more specific, where he'd grown up back in Los Angeles. It was the house where his life started to fall apart.
He was in one of the halls of the house, more specifically the one that contained his father's old office, but how did he know? He was looking at it, but something was wrong with his point of view. Robbie was looking at things from above, as if he'd grown up. But he doesn't have time to think about all the changes that seemed to have taken place in his body, because he hears a slight cry coming from behind him.
"...sniff..." A little boy, no older than six, was standing in the middle of the hall with his head down. He was sitting in a wheelchair. It was his brother, Gabe Reyes.
While pregnant with his younger brother, Juliana Reyes had a bad fall down the stairs that caused Gabe to be born with no motor control over his legs, meaning he was stuck in a wheelchair his entire life. After his parents' death in a car accident, Roberto was left on his own to raise his brother.
"..." Robbie tried to say something, but the words die in his throat when the little boy looks up. Gabe looked just like how he did as a child; he had a similarly shaped face, with dark and messy hair, but without the white tuft at the front. His skin was paler and his blu eyes were streaked with tears.
"IT'S YOUR FAULT!!! IT'S ALL YOUR FAULT!!! I HATE YOU!!! I WANT MOM AND DAD!!!" The boy shouts before suddenly fading away.
Reyes was more shaken by that comment than he expected, as everything around him starts to fade and disappear. He looks to the side and sees a mirror that shouldn't be there. But he doesn't see his face, not even an adult version or anything like that. There was only a flaming skull, with two empty holes in place of eyes...
The scene had changed; Reyes didn't recognize where he was now, but he was in an open field. The sun was setting on the horizon, which would make a beautiful scene, if it weren't for the corpses scattered on the ground.
Dozens of them, men, women, children, all scattered on the ground, dead and immobile. Closer to Reyes, he saw his classmates, all of them with charred body parts, chains piercing them, and several other injuries.
Robbie looked down, and finds himself with his arms and legs stuck to the ground for some reason. His latent powers weren't enough to free him and he was trapped. He felt weak, short of breath, with a throbbing in his chest. He'd used his Quirk a lot, but this was different, what was going on?
The two scenes are repeated in his head; his brother yelling at him and seeing his classmates dead. But then he understood; those were his biggest fears, the premeditated choices of his life. On the one hand, embrace the demon's power and become a monster like him. On the other hand, he could reject the power, and lose those he cares about because he was too stubborn. He didn't want any of that...
"BECOME THE HERO YOU WANT TO BE!!!"
Was that his brother? No, that was Parker's voice, everything he had said to Robbie in the fight was coming back. Even if kid the had a point, Robbie was afraid, afraid of becoming a bad person because of that.
"THAT POWER IS YOURS!!! IT'S A PART OF YOU, SO MAKE IT 100% YOURS!!!"
He was right, this was his power now, and he would be a hero with it. Robbie would not defined by that power, but he would use it as a tool...
...to become the hero he wanted to be.
For Tyrone, not even a second had passed. He'd managed to connect the dark energy to Reyes, who was now paralyzed. The goal was simple now, use the smoke to drag him off the field, guaranteeing him victory, as he had done until that moment. But suddenly, he was thrown backward by a pillar of fire.
Falling to the ground some distance away, Ty looks at his opponent and sees him taking a deep breath, still looking ahead, but now having his head and shoulders on fire. But the weirdest thing for Tyrone was that all the smoke he he had exuded with the teleporting was gone.
He looks at Robbie and saw a serious expression on his face. The boy began to walk towards him, with four chains coming out of his back and positioning themselves at his side. His hard transformed into his skull form, with dark holes and flames in the background instead of his eyes. One could cut the tension with a knife...
"Everybody was kung-fu fighting!!! Those guys were as fast as lighting!!!"
The noise of a cell phone ringtone disturbs the moment, and all the students of 1-A present in the stands turned towards Danny, who was trying to quickly, if somewhat embarrassedly, to find and answer it.
Because he wasn't very tech-savvy, it was Gwen who made the changes on his cell phone. It was obvious she was the one who chose the music for his ringtone. The boy was about to turn off his cell phone when he saw the person calling him. Something told him that he should answer.
Getting up, he excused himself and left the seating area, staring at the number that called him. His friends watched until he was out of sight. Finding himself in an empty hallway, Danny answered the call and put the phone to his ear.
"Hello? Misty?" Danny asked, having recognized the name of Orson's partner. Ironically enough, she was his first crush, her only being a few years older than him. But for her to call his number could only mean something important.
"Danny..." the boy heard her voice, but the way she spoke brought a bad feeling into Danny. "Something happened... with Orson."
Reyes tried to attack Tyrone with two chains. Now that he'd fully activated his full power, they were orange and shining, with incandescent by the heat being released. They launch themselves like snakes at Tyrone, but he teleports to the other side of the arena, placing himself as far away from Robbie as possible. The burning boy simply walks on while Tyrone prepared his final weapon.
Crouching down and placing his hands on the ground, Tyrone takes a deep breath and travels into the dark dimension and back. He repeats the process multiple times, the intervals between disappearing and reappearing began to decrease until they become almost nil. Each time he returned, he seemed to exude more and more smoke. He was sweating and breathing deeper and deeper, while his body seemed to overflow with black smoke as he prepared for his final blow.
Robbie, witnessing the show of power, stopped a few feet from Tyrone, seeing the amount of smoke building up. It started to rise like a wave about to break over him. The strategy was simple; release so much smoke, that the simple physical and psychological force would drag Reyes outside the area in a short time. And he couldn't let that happen.
Taking one of his chains in hand, and dismissing the others, the skull boy begins to rotate his arm with the incandescent chain, creating a circle in the air with it. Soon, fire spreads through the current and it starts to create a vortex of flames, in order to make a funnel for all that smoke.
While Tyrone was busy accumulating all that energy, Reyes had created a true hurricane of flames, which creates a vacuum that connected him to the black column that stretched upwards. The smoke is quickly attracted by the pressure difference and passes through the funnel, directly in the direction of Reyes, after the same has stopped turning the chain.
The boy then, with the smoke getting closer and closer and he opens his mouth, a place to destroy the smoke. The black mist quickly begins to enter the flaming skull, and as soon as it comes in contact with the flames, it evaporates, but by all appearances it looked like Reyes was eating the smoke.
Having managed to maintain the flow, Reyes proceeds to walk towards his opponent, the smoke created soon being attracted to the boy and being destroyed inside the burning skull. Tyrone even stops doing what he was doing, both because of tiredness and because of the proximity to the flames, which weaken his powers.
Having the smoke completely destroyed, Tyrone found himself without energy and, even on his knees, began to fall over backwards. Reyes, in a quick movement, grabs the boy's shirt, and placed Tyrone gently on the floor, so the unconscious boy doesn't hit his head.
"'Darkness' is unable to battle..." announced Professor Frost. "And with that, I declare Roberto Reyes as Champion of the M.A First Years Sports Festival!!!"
The audience went crazy. The screens announces Reyes as the great champion. He extinguished his flames and his skull returned to its normal state. He was breathing with a little difficulty, but the worst was the scenes that crossed his mind. He would choose none of those paths, he would forge his own.
Shortly thereafter, all first-year students had returned to the center of the field for the award ceremony. The arena had returned below the ground, leaving the field of synthetic grass with the earth rectangle in the center. Fireworks launched into the air, and several reporters were positioned near the assembled students.
Usually more would be expected from an award ceremony, but the school only rewarded those who finished the competition on the podium, and there was a very special reason for the majority to have the patience to stay there.
"The first year students completed all the events of the M.A Sports Festival," Professor Frost announced to the audience. "Finally, the time for the awards has come!"
The crowd went crazy again, as more fireworks explode overhead, having come from both the stadium and outside. Behind Professor Frost, a large iron podium rose from the floor, bringing with it the top three students; Robbie, Tyrone and Amadeus.
The first two seemed quite neutral in the situation, just looking ahead and to their friends, not paying much attention to the cameras, Amadeus was the only one who expressed any feelings, and he seemed slightly uncomfortable. The teacher turned to the reporters present.
"There would've been one last fight for the decision of the third place between 'Mr. Muscle' and 'The Fist'. Unfortunately the second had to leave due to personal matters, giving the third place to this young man..." She explained quickly to the professionals from the media.
"Sucks that Danny didn't get to fight for third place," Kei lamented, sitting on top of Groot's shoulders to see better ahead. "I am Groot..." The trenant boy nods in response.
"That's true," Peter replied to the smaller boy, remembering the conversation he had with the blonde before he left.
"Peter, I know this is unexpected, but I'm going to have to leave." Danny had asked to speak with Peter alone after the end of Reyes and Tyrone's fight. "A villain got Orson..."
"Oh no..." Peter was worried by the information. Of course, villains and heroes would normally be in conflict, but this was someone so close to his friend. "Will he be okay?"
"I don't have all the details yet, I have to go soon," Danny said with his head down. "And I would appreciate if you would keep this between us..." Peter didn't understand a why the boy would confide in him. Why not with Gwen, who'd known him the longest?
"You're likely wondering why I confided in you and not Gwen?" The blonde's question impressed Peter, "It's actually because of her. She's quite attached to Orson and I'd hate to burden her with the news so soon. Besides, she would insist on going with me, and..." Danny was silent for a moment, as if measuring his next words, "And depending on what happens... I don't think I can make her witness the worst... I have to do it myself."
"I understand..." After telling them all about what happened to Uncle Ben, Peter understood the feeling quite well. That must be why Danny had chosen him.
"Orson's technically my father, but he always made it clear that he was my sensei above all else. He's my greatest inspiration, one day I want to be just like him..."
Danny's words came back to Peter, and he silently prayed to whatever higher power was listening, that Orson would be fine, for Danny's sake.
"And now, to award the medals to our champions, only one person is ideal for the job..." The teacher said, pointing to the sky where a figure flew around until it was above the crowd.
"Friday, let's get this party started..." The armored hero said, wirelessly connecting to the stadium's speakers and playing AC/DC's Shoot to Thrill at full volume.
Everyone screamed with joy and excitement as the familiar red and gold armor flew to the ground at high speed. The music played in the background until the Number 1 Hero lands and stands up, raising his arms as the audience chanted his name; "Iron Man! Iron Man! Iron Man!"
Tony soon shifts his attention from the audience and cameras over to Frost, who was holding a briefcase with three medals. He first takes the bronze one and walks over to the boy in the third place.
"You went by 'Mr. Muscle,' I see. But I believe one day you'll earn the moniker of 'Hulk'! Congratulations, your fights were incredible to watch," the man said without taking off his helmet. He placed the third place medal around the boy's neck.
"Thank you sir..." But Amadeus didn't look too happy. "Whoa, whoa, what's the problem? What's biting you?" Tony asked, showing genuine concern for his student.
"It's just..." The boy starts, holding the medal in his hands and looking at it. "Two people gave up halfway, that's just why I'm here. I don't feel like I deserve this place..."
"Things often happen in ways we don't expect, and that sometimes helps us," the hero replied. "The most important thing is that you don't under-support or overestimate yourself in these situations. You admitting they're just events, call it luck if you want, it already shows that you have the potential to be a great hero."
Amadeus wasn't sure what to say, but a smile appeared on his face when he looks up, "Thank you, sir." Iron Man then took the silver medal, and heads for the second place winner; Tyrone.
"'Darkness', huh? You were great, kid, really surprised me a lot," the hero said, putting the medal around his neck. "There's still a lot of work ahead, you need to learn how to get out of situations without depending too much on your Quirk. But I'm sure you already have plans for that. I have no doubt you will become a great hero."
"Thank you sir!" The boy nods in agreement. He looks over the crowd soon finds Tandy. He shows her the medal from afar with a smile, she sends two thumbs up and applauds with the rest of the crowd.
"Young Reyes! The boy of the hour," Iron Man said to the boy, taking out the gold medal. "Let's be real, you were one of the favorites, so I can't say I'm too surprised to find you here.
"..." Reyes said nothing at the moment, just looking at his medal and staring at the floor with a deep sigh. A thought was troubling his mind; had he won or had his power won?
"You know, I'm glad you released that part of your power," Tony noticed the boy's expression and starts talking again. "It will certainly be very useful. Let's train together sometime, I'm sure you'll be a great hero!"
"Yes..." Reyes agreed, feeling a little better about himself and looked forward, puffing up his chest. He hoped his brother was watching.
"With that, I declare you, the Big Three of the Sports Festival!!!" Iron Man called out, turning to the crowd of students. "But just know, any one of you could be here. I want you to reflect on what you did today. You challenged each other, learned and climbed a little closer towards the goal of becoming professional heroes. Personally, I can't wait to witness first hand the progress of this next generation of heroes!!! One last little thing; come on everyone, say it with me!!!"
"EXCELSIOR!!!" The teacher, the students, and the audience excitedly shout the motto of the school, all very happy for the day.
- Your friend can also be a great opponent, that's what the Sports Festival showed us. We learned a lot about ourselves and each other. -
It was the end of the afternoon, after the awards ceremony there were some interviews. Photos were taken and some viewers even asked for autographs. But now that everyone was gone, the first-year classes were all meeting with their respective teachers, waiting to be dismissed. This meant that Class 1-A was back with Professor Murdock.
"You were great today, I'm very proud of you," he said, still in his wheelchair. "You have the next two days to rest, as it will be the Festival days for the Second and Third years. Take time to recover, I'm sure some of the professional heroes who watched you will want to recruit some of you. We'll take care of the forms and will notify you when you return. Now go home and rest, there'll be a lot to do when you get back."
"Yes sir!" The class says in unison, and everyone starts to get up and put their things away. Peter looks to the side, seeing Wanda get up from her desk. Making brief eye contact, she blushed and looked away slightly, a small smile on her face as she hurried out.
Peter couldn't get her kiss out of his head. Brief as it was, there was still a lingering sensation in his cheek. Was it a just moment of relief toward him? Or an indication of deeper feelings not yet addressed? Clearly this was something they would need to talk about at a later point.
The only empty desk prior to dismissal was Danny's. He'd tried to disguise Danny's sudden departure, saying that he didn't know much information and that he was just gone. The boy hated lying to his friends, but Danny made him promise that he wouldn't tell, and Peter would honor that promise.
- After that, the atmosphere of the school started to change. In more ways then one... -
