Whatever, he had one more obstacle before he was done with this.
Then he could just lay down.
Hopefully.
...
Peter could faintly hear Present Mic commentating on the other students, but it got to the point where he stopped listening to him.
His muscles burned, Peter gritting his teeth as he swiped sweat from his brow.
The adrenaline that was making him ignore the soreness in his everywhere must be starting to wear off cause man did he everywhere hurt right now.
Shaking off the pain, Peter continued to sprint across the clear stretch of the track until finally coming to what must be the next obstacle.
A long stretch of land covered in pinks circles with a sign that read 'Watch out! Mind Field!'
He couldn't help but roll his eyes, the boy groaned and decided to let Present Mic do the announcement.
Explosions followed by screaming and cursing reached his ears, the hairs on the back of his head standing on end just as Peter turned to see Bakugo less than 300 feet away from him and rapidly approaching with hatred in his eyes; closely behind him were Nejire, Rumi, Todoroki, Iida and Izuku with even more people coming from the chasm.
Alright, yeah, he was just gonna go.
Running ahead, Peter closed his eyes as he focused, letting his Spider-Sense map out his surroundings and guide his feet, the sound of the crowd exploding reached his ears as he kept running.
"Woah! Parker seems to have reached the final obstacle that is the minefield, rudely going on ahead before I explain it to the audience, and is simply running on it without activating any landmines!" Present Mic announced with the slightest hint of annoyance in his voice as the stadium cheered in excitement. "Care to explain this, mummy man!?"
Aizawa groaned in annoyance but explained either way,
Peter would always wonder about the type of relationship those two had.
"Parker's quirk not only gives him the proportional abilities of a spider, but also gives him a sixth sense that alerts him to both danger and the immediate area around him. He is simply using this to tell where the landmines are and letting it guide him on a safe path without having to slow down and look for them visually"
As if it wasn't deafening enough, the crowd exploded at his spider-sense's reveal, Peter was starting to wish he had brought earplugs with him.
"Well, you student sure does seems overpowered, huh, my favorite co-host?!" The blonde hero laughed loudly.
"Do not call my students that, they are simply using their abilities as best they can."
Part of Peter's heart warmed at that, who knew Aizawa cared after all?
Exhaustion started to creep up on him as the entrance to the stadium became visible in the distance, he pushed his legs to carry him faster ever as they burned.
He was so close.
The sound of screaming and explosions kept drawing nearer, his spider-sense ringing louder and louder as it approached.
Peter ignored it, he could see the finish line already.
His spider-sense began to blare out of nowhere, making him stop in his tracks while being careful to not step on a landmine, knowing he couldn't trust himself not to step on or if he were to keep moving through the blaring in his head.
Turning around, Peter's lenses widen at the sight of Bakugo sporting a feral grin while pulling back a sparking and scoring hand and Todoroki generating another glacier like the one from before.
They were both aiming at him.
Quickly Peter raised his arms over his face as the attacks inched closer, the conflicting temperatures making him both shiver and sweat at once.
He was so fucked.
Screaming, the crowd watched in horror as Peter guarded himself against the two teens while simply hoping for the best.
Yeah, he was incredibly fucked.
Once the attacks made contact, every single landmine in the area exploded into a cloud of pink-colored smoke, the two teens seemingly only pushed back a few dozen feet while Peter was sent flying forwards and to the side. He hit the ground with a dull thud as the smoke cleared, revealing him laying on his side by the side of the track.
He felt both hot and cold at once, he could see a few scorch marks on his shirt that somehow missed his jacket and a thin layer of frost around his arms; back at the track, he could see a huge crater where he once stood, the only thing in it being a glacier much smaller than the one from before.
"Oh, man! That looked like it hurt! Parker has just been hit with a combined attack from both Bakugo and Todoroki! Who knew these kids would go so far for first place!"
Peter could faintly hear the crowd call the two unsportsmanlike through the ringing in his ears. he tried to rise to his feet only to fall back down.
Ow.
That pain Peter felt before was nothing compared to what he felt now, the combination of the ice, the landmines, the explosions, and the fall was just short of the time he got shot in the side during patrols.
God, he was so tired.
Couldn't he just sit this one out?
Getting up to his feet, Peter watched as Bakugo and Todoroki not even give him a passing glance as they continued to race for first.
No way he was letting them screw him over like that.
No way in hell.
Leaping forward and landing carefully on the spots between landmines, Peter sprinted towards them while ignoring the screaming of his body and making sure to step carefully. The boy shot several webs at them before resorting to a new plan.
His lenses squinted as they focused on the landmines beside the two, the boy shooting thick balls of webbing at the pink-colored patches and making them explode right next to the two frontrunners, making them stagger.
As they tried to regain momentum, Peter switched from sprinting to simply leaping across the track while desperately trying to catch up as the two drew closer to the finish line.
He had a plan in mind, he just needed to get close.
Please let this work.
Jumping in a manner similar to Rumi, Peter drew closer and closer to the two teens just as they began to throw attacks back at him to get him to slow down, the boy narrowly dodging both the explosions and the barrages of ice that in turn set off more explosions.
He needed to get closer .
Peter couldn't afford to miss by shooting a web from far away.
Having to dodge both explosions and ice along with sensing where to land or step on the ground as to not get blown up was getting hard to do all at once.
While his spider-sense alerted him to the things going on around him, it was ultimately up to him to react to those things and act accordingly; having so much input from so many places at once was getting hard to keep track of, and the utter exhaustion he was feeling wasn't helping.
He was just so tired.
Good thing he only needed to be a little bit closer.
That would only take a little boost.
As the boy leaped. he purposely stepped on a landmine right behind him, using the blast to push his jump that much further. As the pink smoke exploded out of the ground, he could see the two teens ahead of him look up in both surprise and frustration as he sailed above them, twisting in mid-air to face them.
Peter held out his hands and concentrated just as he started to descend, both todoroki and Bakugo coming right towards him.
Showtime!
Shooting a web at their chest, Peter pulled them up to him and off the ground, taking advantage of the momentary shock to firmly grab them both by the shoulder and angle them slightly to the side.
Time seemed to slow down as Peter focused on the buzzing in his fingertips, letting his body become a circuit as the energy began to be guided and flowed to his hands.
A connection.
Peter grinned behind the mask.
Yellow lighting began to dance around his arms before concentrating on his hands, his grip on them tightening further as the electricity flowed throughout his whole body and left a soothing tingling on his skin.
The lightning began to jump from his fingers to their shoulders, energy inside his body simply begging to be released.
"Hey," Peter said, his grin growing wider as the energy continued to move through his body.
All it took was for him to break the circuit and let go.
*BOOM!*
An explosion of yellow lighting burst from his hands, shooting him forwards to the finishing and them back toward the edges of the track. As Peter flew he couldn't help but wince at the numbness in his hands and let his eyes droop as the exhaustion from both the race and using his venom blast started to sink in. He couldn't pass out now, he was almost there.
Sailing across the air, Peter heard the crowd erupt and Present Mic commentating on what just happened, he hoped that Aizawa was speechless cause of that. His eyes moved toward the edges of the track, Peter smiled at how Bakugo and Todoroki desperately tried to get up from the ground only for their muscles to not respond in anything but spasms and twitches.
Funny thing about electricity is that it makes muscles lock up.
Comes in handy in races like this, you know?
Sadly, he only had enough energy for a blast that would leave them locked up for 15 seconds or so, but it was more than enough.
He just won, anyway.
Peter crashed through the finish line, rolling to a stop and simply laying on the ground before eventually turning his tired body right-side-up, letting the sun rain down warmth onto him as the stadium around him cheered.
"What a finish, ladies, and gentlemen! 1-A's very own American wall-crawler, Peter Parker comes in at 1st place by the skin of his teeth and a brand new ability!" Roaring, the crowd chanted his name as Peter simply smiled, he turned his to the giant monitor on the side of the stadium that showed placements and smiled. "Did you know he could do that!?"
His name was in 1st place, with the screen quickly being updated to show Nejire come in 2nd, with Rumi and Iida coming in behind her and Izuku coming in 5th.
"No, no I did not. But believe me, I will be having a talk with him about withholding brand new developments of his quirk purely for the purpose of dramatic effect during a live event."
Peter winced at that, his nerves quickly being calmed by both the fact that Midnight announced a 1-hour break before the 2nd event and that Rumi, Nejire, and Izuku were standing before him.
"Hey, guys! I looked cool, right? I bet I looked cool." Peter gave a weak laugh at his three friends, Rumi rolling her eyes while Izuku and Nejire chuckled. "Also, could someone take me to recovery girl? I am in incredible pain and really need a nap.
The four stood silent for a second before Rumi kicked him in the shin hard enough to make him wince and walked away. Izuku quickly picked him up and placed him on his hoverboard, him and Nejire deciding to lead him to the infirmary.
Peter frowned lightly at how no one answered his question.
As he laid there, he turned to the screen to see Todoroki and Bakugo crossing the finish line at 46th and 47th place respectively, their muscles having been locked up for a bit longer than Peeter intended.
Well, at least they made It to the top 64, right?
He turned his head towards the entrance only to see them glaring at him with pure fury, with Bakugo throwing in a bit of hatred into his glare.
Yikes. Maybe they didn't feel the same.
Whatever, he could deal with that later.
After a nap.
As he started to slowly drift off, he couldn't help but hope Ben and May were proud.