"Oh, who am I kidding? You all want to be heroes!" The teacher laughed while standing behind the podium, the class erupted in cheers and yells, quirks flew wildly around the room. Kids all around shot off fire or shone brightly, proudly displaying and using the incredible powers they were granted at birth.
Peter Benjamin Parker, a 14-year-old boy hailing from Queens, New York, sat at his desk in Aldera Junior High, his head propped up on his hand. He had moved to Musutafu, Japan once his uncle, Ben Parker, had received a job offer as a salesman at the Detnetrat corporation.
Sadly, his career at the lifestyle support item making company was ended shortly by some petty thug who just robbed a convenience store. Ben had been looking for Peter that day and just so happened to run into the business end of a pistol.
*BANG!!*
That deafening sound of the gun still echoed in the young boy's mind as if he had heard it yesterday. In truth, it had been more than 2 months ago.
And you might be asking, where was Peter at this time? Why had Ben been looking for him, which ultimately led to the man's untimely death?
The easy answer would be at an underground quirk fighting right to get extra cash. But for us to know exactly how and why the young brunette had been there, we'd have to flashback all the way back to good old U.S of A.
But to make a long story short, Peter Parker was the vigilante, Spider-Man. He'd been doing the whole thing for about 2 months now, starting right after his uncle's death.
He'd been born quirkless but someone had the bright idea to make a genetically altered spider which ended up biting him, which hurt a lot, by the way.
A couple of hours later, Peter's quirk factor had been somehow altered by the bite, giving him a brand new quirk he liked to call 'Spider'. It allowed him to stick to walls, sense danger around him, and gave him the proportional strength, speed, and reflexes of a spider. Cool, right?
Well, the thing was, Peter didn't want to be a hero when he discovered his powers. While most would assume anyone young who grew up in this hero infested society would want to go down the path of heroics.
Peter wasn't one of those people. The only time he actually did any hero work it was reluctantly or things he couldn't ignore.
Truth be told, he had always been more interested in science and technology. A career more among the lines of quirkology or support gear had always been up his alley. But to be able to get the things you'd need to study those subjects, you needed money.
So, what better way than to enter illegal, underground wrestling matches in which you could use your new-found abilities to make a quick buck, right? Too bad his career in wrestling in the streets of New York was cut short due to the whole 'Moving to Japan' thing.
Of course, Peter just went ahead and started doing wrestling matches in his new city, but was quickly found out by Ben and May since he has left a flyer advertising his upcoming match on his desk, having fallen asleep before he could hide it from them. An argument broke out, Peter ran away back to do the match and get paid, and came back to the sound of his uncle getting shot.
' With great power, comes great responsibility.'
Those were the man's last words before succumbing to the bullet wound. He died on the street, Peter holding him and crying under the night sky.
Suffice to say, he took those words to heart, said 'Screw a license, I got people to help!', skipped the whole hero school thing and became a vigilante full time. If you didn't count the slight insomnia, nightmares, and scars from near-death experiences, he'd been nailing it.
Most heroes thought of vigilante cases as beneath them, and most underground heroes who actually dealt with vigilantes were few and far between. So he'd been free to swing around the Musutafu streets and help out the little guy, free to be a friendly neighborhood Spider-Man.
While there had been some close calls, mostly with that one scarf-wearing hobo-looking guy who had chased him from time to time, it's been smooth sailing so far. Well, as smooth as an illegal hero career could go, anyway.
"Oi! Don't pair me in with these extras, teach! None of their quirks even compare to mine!" A cocky voice rang out from the back of the class, quickly being followed by small crackling sounds, bringing Peter back to reality.
Oh yeah, he was in school. He should've just skipped today to swing around or something, maybe then he shouldn't be anywhere near the school's number one superiority complex having hero candidate, Katsuki Bakugo.
The class erupted at the ash blond's comments, several students starting to complain and yell at the boy, the protest dying down once Bakugo gave a glare to those around him and let off small sparks from his palms.
"Oh, you and Parker are the only ones applying to UA, right? You guys do seem like the best hero candidates we got!" The teacher announced, looking at the career forms the class had submitted a week prior to today.
"Yeah! They're the strongest in our class!"
"Their quirks are awesome!"
"Isn't Parker like number one in our grade? No way he won't get in!"
Feeling a burning look of hatred at the back of his head, Peter nonchalantly turned around to meet the crimson eyes of Bakugo. Apparently, he had this idea that he should be the only one from their school to make it into UA or something. So Peter's sheer existence threw a wrench in his whole plan of being the best.
It felt weird being top of the food chain at school. Once he finally got his powers, he went and got his new quirk registered and started to excel and basically everything, not just studies. And with Japan's huge fascination with strong quirks and heroes, no one around him messed with him. Everyone except Bakugo, of course, but he wasn't very good at it.
Even though he was seen as being at the top, he didn't really like the attention. When he first showed up at the school he planned on staying low key and just getting by. But once quirks started to become a factor in the social hierarchy, the American couldn't lay low even if he tried.
And God as his witness, he tried.
Peter only smiled at the blonde, internally laughing at the rage visibly bubbling up inside the bit before turning back around. He could still feel that piercing glare and hear that animalistic growl the boy was giving him, how a guy like that was her material was a complete mystery to Peter.
Maybe Japan had different views on that type of stuff? They did let a guy like Endeavour become the number 2 hero, and that guy seemed like he sucked as a person.
"Oh, isn't our number 3 student also applying to UA? Is that right, Midoriya?"
The American winced at that sentence, he had only been in this school for less than a month, and he already knew what was about to happen.
"Pffft! Deku?! He's just a quirkless loser! No way he can be a hero!" Bakugo barked out a laugh, everyone in the class laughing along with him. Peter stole a glance at the freckled boy, he looked like he wanted to let the earth swallow him and not spit him back out. He couldn't blame him.
"Dude! How can such a worthless loser even hope to b-" A guy with long fingers began, before being cut off by a certain American.
"What the hell does it matter to you, man? If he wants to be a hero, then let him. He doesn't deserve to be talked down to every day." Peter said, the class going silent at the remark.
Overall, Peter had been the only one to not only not bully Midoriya, but interact with him as if he wasn't garbage. Seeing the way his classmate was treated made him sick, and it made him even sicker how teachers ignored how Bakugo was the main one doing it to not ruin his record.
The tension stayed in the air for a good minute, most taken aback by the act of someone standing up to the quirkless boy. That hateful glare at the back of Peter's head returned even stronger.
He could hear the blonde audibly snarling, it was something disturbing, in his opinion.
The sound of the bell ringing and the teacher awkwardly clearing his throat broke the silence, snapping everyone in the room back to reality. Peter was disgusted by how the man just let the outright harassment of Midoriya slip, even a blind guy could see the burns scars he got from Bakugo!
"A-Anyways, class is dismissed! I hope all of you have a great day!" The man stammered, picking up his things and quickly leaving the room. Peter could only scoff.
'What a joke…' He thought, beginning to rise from his seat and grabbing his backpack, he needed to get swinging as soon as possible.
Wait.
Midoriya, he needed to check on Midoriya. While he wouldn't consider them outright friends, he was kinda cool and crazy smart about quirks.
"Hey, man! You ok?" The brunette walked over to the freckled boy's desk, he flinched at being approached but visibly relaxed at seeing who it was. That was a good sign, right? He knew that people who were abused learning to warm up to new people was good. At least he thought it was.
"O-Oh! Parker-san! Tha-Thank you for that, I really ap-appreciate it." He stuttered, looking down with a small smile on his face.
Baby steps, Parker. Baby steps.
"No problem, man. Let me know if you need anything, alright? I'd stay and chat but I gotta get going, see ya!" He told him, saying the last part in English as he jogged out the classroom and school, heading to an alley down the streets to suit up.
He'd use a phone booth but there weren't any around, and it would've been way too obvious.
It would've been cool, though.
...
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