Quirk Evaluation (part 1)

"Treat your friends as if hereafter they will become your enemies and your enemies as if they will become your friends" – Napoleon (misquoted)

Thursday, March 3rd, 2XXX

Aizawa flicked through the forms on his clipboard with apathetic eyes, the subject of his sleepless nights for the last week stared back at him. Such sleepless nights were once blamed on the villains he would have to subdue on his nightly patrols. But now he was a dedicated teacher, and an entirely different sort of troublemaker dominated his midnight hours: the high school teenager.

Exhibit A: one Peter B. Parker, a prime example of the trouble he endured because of his dedication to his job. This case was affectionately referred to as Headache #1. The first in an ongoing series currently numbering at four, though Aizawa expected his other sixteen students to receive their designations within the next two months.

Setting up Parker's schedule and clearing everything with the support course and foreign exchange committee over the last few days had been a hassle, or it would have been if he had bothered to do it himself. Instead he had shunted the paperwork onto Parker and made the kid do the legwork while Aizawa micromanaged.

Aizawa allowed a slight smirk to appear on his face as he set his clipboard aside and took a sip of his early morning coffee. It hadn't been truly necessary for him to subject Headache #1 to all that; in truth, Aizawa could have gotten the whole matter sorted over the course of an afternoon with the Principal's help, but Parker needed a task to occupy his time and room to reflect on his decisions.

Lesson one kid, if you're going to commit to stepping onto the path of the hero, then you better be willing to do it the right way, and that means going through all the trouble involved with getting onto the right path in the first place.

Aizawa considered this punishment adequate. And educational.

Of course with that off his plate, Aizawa had the time to conduct a bit of a background check. In this line of work you couldn't afford to do things halfway. Not only was Aizawa a pro-hero—one of the highest demand and heavily regulated occupations in the world—but he was personally charged with rearing the next generation of heroes at the most prestigious institution in the nation. For all intents and purposes, he was a shepherd and these were his sheep, a notion Aizawa took with deathly seriousness. He was going to guide and nurture them into becoming the best heroes they could be, come hell or high water, whether the kids liked it or not.

To that end Aizawa made it his business to become intimately familiar with each of his charges on a personal level. He would investigate their background, their goals, likes and dislikes, analyze their quirks, and identify their strengths and weaknesses. Then from there he would determine what they needed to work on most and provide them with the best individualized instruction possible.

After their meeting during the entrance exam fiasco, Headache #1 was first on that list. He needed to know what made the kid tick, and U.A. had no shortage of the resources needed to figure that out, and figure out he did…

≈*≈

Aizawa was up late the night before—or rather, much earlier that morning—pouring over everything U.A. had on file about Peter Parker, which wasn't much, seeing as he was a foreign exchange student and all. That meant the next step was to get in touch with Peter's contacts and go from there.

When the kid blew up at him earlier, he had mentioned an 'Uncle Ben' before he stormed out. Aizawa suspected someone close to Parker had died and he obviously felt guilty about the affair. That would not be abnormal behavior or circumstances, especially for U.A. students: many of their more dedicated students had similarly tragic backstories; it was a common trope for a reason. Aizawa supposed investigating that was as good a place as any to start.

Aizawa sorted through the files till he found what he was looking for. There we go, Legal Guardians, May and Benjamin Parker. He frowned. Why would he still be listed as his guardian? Peter made it sound like he died, or had at least left the family behind. And I know this information can't be more than a few months old. Maybe there are two Ben's? Guess that's another thing to ask about.

Aizawa dialed up the phone number.

"Hello, is this May Parker?" Aizawa asked, with no trace of a Japanese accent.

"It is. And who might this be? I'm afraid I don't recognize your number."

"This is Shouta Aizawa, a teacher at U.A. High School. Am I correct in assuming that you're the Legal Guardian of Peter Parker?"

"Oh, goodness, yes that's me. Is my Peter alright? He isn't hurt, is he? I just knew I shouldn't have sent him off to live in Japan alone. I mean he's only fifteen, and quirkless too."

Aizawa swore he could internally hear the sound of cracked glass as his tired, red eyes snapped open at that revelation. He took a moment to rub his eyes and let his hair fall back down, leaving a long pause at the other end of the line. "I'm sorry Mrs. Parker, could you please repeat that?"

"I was just saying that it was a mistake to send Peter away like this, oh I knew something was bound to happen."

"Right… Well Peter is perfectly fine, Ma'am, he's been working with me personally. I'm just checking in to see if there's anything I should know about Peter before school starts. As his teacher it's my responsibility to try to get to know my students as well as possible to attend to their needs."

"I see, thank heavens. I really shouldn't worry so much, Anna always tells me that it wouldn't do to get so worked up, but enough about me. You won't have any problems with Peter, he's the brightest, sweetest boy you'll meet."

"And what is your relation to the boy?"

"I'm his aunt."

"Forgive me if this is too personal, Mrs. Parker, but Peter's paperwork says he has another guardian named Benjamin Parker, am I correct in assuming this is your husband?"

The pause in her response and the lack of mirth in the voice that returned all but confirmed Aizawa's assessment. "Yes, Ben Parker was my husband, but I'm afraid you won't find him here. He passed away a few weeks ago. A few days before Peter left for Japan, in fact. I'm not surprised Peter didn't mention it to you, he didn't take the news well, felt so much responsibility for everything that he almost rejected your offer in order to comfort and support me here."

What? A few weeks ago? Not months, not years, weeks? I suppose that's why he's still listed as a guardian, Peter's application was submitted before his uncle's death.

That had left him puzzled. Aizawa would have assumed the event had been far less recent, acting as a pivotal turning point in Parker's life that planted the seed of heroism and led him to aspire to U.A. in the first place. But apparently Parker had an entirely different motivation for applying to the support course. It also didn't explain why the kid felt so guilty about it. Sure, it would be fresh on his mind, but it sounded like Parker had held himself accountable for the event. Survivor's guilt, perhaps? Or maybe something more gradual. Judging from Mrs. Parker's voice, his aunt and uncle must be pretty old. I could see a case where it fell on Peter to provide for the family and subsequently struggle to pay for his uncle's medical bills, slowly seeing his uncle deteriorate in what he saw as direct correlation to his failure to provide proper care. Yes, that could be it. Could also explain why he became interested in hero support. Not only is it well paying, but Parker also could've been motivated to create the equipment and materials to help his uncle live healthily and comfortably, especially if he couldn't afford to buy those things from someone else. But that doesn't explain why he would choose to pursue that career by leaving his country, and therefore his family, nor does it explain that comment Mrs. Parker made about him being quirkless––the mere thought of that reveal gave Aizawa a headache. I suppose it all comes down to the circumstances of his death. No use speculating until I know that.

"My condolences, Mrs. Parker. If I may ask, what happened exactly?"

"I'm not too sure of the details, it's not something I like thinking about. Peter went to school that morning, Ben went to work. And then, sometime in the afternoon, a crook shot him in the street. I didn't find out until the police came to the house that evening to tell me, Peter came home to the news a short time after the police arrived, and well, he wasn't quite the same the next few days. But enough with that. I'm sure you don't want to hear the dour moods of an old widow and her anxieties. However can I help you, Mr. Aizawa?"

The answer certainly left Aizawa unsatisfied on all accounts, but he didn't think he'd get much more from harping on the issue. "No, no, it's my fault for bringing up the topic. Let's talk about Peter. What do you know about his life as a student? Does he do well in class, is he known to be a troublemaker? These things are always a bit of a concern when we have a foreign exchange student that's not accustomed to the Japanese way of doing things you see."

When she spoke again, Aizawa heard a sharp note of pride return to her voice. "I assure you my nephew is the cream of the crop, Mr. Aizawa. Perfect grades, never sluffs, and all of his teachers have nothing but praise. And he's been studying Japanese since he was nine years old, you'll find him as fluent as all your other students. You will have no issues with him, and if he ever does give you any trouble, tell me right away and I'll set him straight. On Peter's end though… I do fear he may have some trouble making friends. He suffered his fair share of bullying at his last school because of his quirklessness. Not to say the students at U.A. are anything less than model citizens, but with it being a hero academy, I'm worried he might have trouble fitting in when surrounded by such powerful quirks, especially when he's also a foreigner."

Aizawa had to admit that hearing this sweet old lady worry about her young nephew's school troubles was starting to affect him. "I understand your concerns, Mrs. Parker. Allow me to personally assure you that I won't allow anything of the sort to happen under my watch. As the people responsible for raising the heroes of tomorrow, we at U.A. enforce the highest standards of behavior, myself in particular. I maintain zero tolerance for villainous behavior like bullying."

"I'm glad to hear it, I'm sure my nephew will be safe in your hands, Peter's lucky to have such a diligent teacher."

"In light of Peter's quirk status, as well as his status as a foreigner, I would like to know a little more about his family's quirk history, I don't imagine I can ask his parents, so can you tell me what you know about what kind of quirks his relatives have."

"Yes, Peter's parents, Richard and Mary, they died in a plane crash when Peter was very young. I'm afraid I won't be much help when it comes to their quirk history: I married into the family, you see. But I do know that none of the Parker's have had very flashy quirks. Ben and Richard were quite athletic in their youths. From what I recall, Richard had always been quicker on his feet, though never quite as strong as Ben was. There was little else to their quirks besides that. Both of their quirks severely atrophied in their twenties, and we never learned why, though both of them did their best to stay in shape despite that, even when it went against the doctors' orders. The process began before I had married Ben, in fact it was why his previous girlfriend left him and got with his best friend. I knew it was a touchy subject for him, so I didn't ask about it much. For Richard it happened about 5 years before Peter was born. As for Mary, I'm sorry, I never got the chance to know her too well. She married Richard only a couple years before they died and their work often took them out of the country, I think she was quirkless, so she never talked much about her quirk history anyway. I do recall someone mentioning once that one of her parents had a quirk though, a 1st generation transformation type, but still nothing impressive, the other parent I don't know about. Ben and Richard were only 2nd generation themselves. Peter was found to have the toe joint for quirklessness shortly before his parents died, we were all saddened by the news, but it wasn't much of a surprise considering his parents. I wish I could be of more help, Mr. Aizawa, but that's about all I know."

Aizawa's frown continued to sit stubbornly on his face. No answers, only more questions. "Thank you for your help, Mrs. Parker. Before I leave, have you been in contact with Peter recently?"

"Not much, no. It's been almost a week since he last called. From the few texts I've gotten it seems he's become very busy preparing for school, and more than a little stressed. Of course, I know you don't have anything to do with that." 

Aizawa grimaced, suddenly feeling targeted and rather guilty for unknowingly straining the relationship between a poor old lady and her only surviving family. "I'll make sure to remind Peter to call home more often."

"Thank you, he works himself too hard sometimes. But why do you ask? Has something happened with Peter?"

"Right, all things considered you probably aren't aware yet. What do you know about Peter's studies here at U.A.?"

"He was accepted into your foreign exchange program for your school's courses in hero support, was he not? Is that not still the case?"

"Yes and no. In addition to being entered into Dr. Connor's support course, Peter has decided to take extra classes with me in the heroics department. That's why I'm calling. As a pro hero myself, I wanted to know more about Peter and his motivations for pursuing a career as a licensed hero."

"HE DID WHAT!?!" Aizawa flinched and pulled the phone away from his ear. It was his own fault for being caught off-guard, such an eruption was to be expected. "I can't believe Peter hasn't mentioned anything of the sort to me, that young man is going to get an earful the next time I can get ahold of him! Oh, but where are my manners, I shan't shoot the messenger. Thank you for bringing this to my attention, Mr. Aizawa. And thank you for your service as well, I had no idea I was speaking with a pro-hero all this time. Still, I'm having a hard time wrapping my head around this. My meek and quirkless nephew training to become a pro-hero, I never would have thought he had any interest in such a thing. Are you sure that's why he chose to take those classes? I can see how having experience with the way heroes are trained would be useful when developing support items, maybe that's why."

"I'm quite certain. Your nephew is anything but meek, Mrs. Parker. At U.A. we hold an entrance exam for the tens of thousands of students that aspire to take our heroics course. This exam involves fighting against an army of faux villains in the form of dangerous robots. Students who have no interest in the heroics course don't need to take that exam. Peter did it anyway. Not only that, but your nephew got the highest score in the history of our institution, disabling every single robot in the exam."

May was gobsmacked at the revelation. "Wha- B-but he's quirkless! How could you even allow him to take such a dangerous exam!? And do you honestly expect me to believe a fifteen year old child defeated an entire army of robots? It sounds like the set up to a bad joke, and I'm not very fond of being made to play the fool, Mr. Aizawa."

Aizawa supposed he did play up the situation a little much, but he needed to see how she would react. 

"Normally we wouldn't allow it, but there are plenty of safeguards in place to ensure no harm comes to the students. And we were just as surprised as you to learn that one student managed to do something so unprecedented. He found a way to hack into the robots to make them fight each other before deactivating them all at once," he explained, assuaging her fears.

"I suppose that makes more sense, Peter has always been good with computers. Still, it is rather hard to believe that he would want to join a heroics course. I can hardly imagine how dangerous that career would be for someone with his disability, but I suppose there's nothing wrong with just taking the classes, especially at such a secure and prestigious school. Not that I could stop him anyhow, it must have been Ben's death that convinced him to change his mind, which means he's not going to give up on it now no matter what I say to him, Parker's just aren't like that, Ben was just the same way. I guess I'm just not yet ready to accept that he's already left the nest, but if this is the path he's chosen, then I couldn't be prouder of his decision, even if I am a little concerned. Oh, but why am I telling all of this to you anyway, excuse my rambling. Thank you for bringing all of this to my attention, Mr. Aizawa. I wish I could have been more helpful."

"It's no problem, Ma'am. As pro-heroes, being available to help is the least we can do, especially when it comes to showing gratitude for the parents of the next generation. Now if that's all, I have some more work I need to be getting back to."

"Just one last thing before you go."

"What is it?"

"Please look after Peter for me. Make sure he doesn't overwork himself or get into too much trouble. He needs to know he has good people like you supporting him, especially right now."

Aizawa paused. Even after years of hero work, these moments of heartfelt emotion still managed to overcome him. "...I'll do my best Mrs. Parker, you have my word," he finally replied before hanging up, unable to shake the feeling that he had just agreed to something that would end up leaving him way in over his head.

Well, I guess I didn't call him Headache #1 for nothing.

≈*≈

Recalling his mind back to the present, Aizawa scanned through the results of last night's background check with consternation at his inability to unravel the mystery that was Peter Parker.

The boy's family—both living and deceased—were good enough people. All highly regarded in their community for their work ethic and generosity, but nobody extraordinary either. According to Parker's old teachers, the boy himself was much the same: he was good humored, hard working, very intelligent, he kept his head down but was still decently ambitious, and to top it all off the boy was a bit of a misfit that was picked on for his quirk status (Aizawa would get back to that later). Even his recommendation from Oscorp seemed to only be the result of a close but unassuming friendship between Parker and the CEO's son;

'Peter was a good egg for sure,' his teachers had said, 'but I certainly wouldn't say he's hero course material.'

The report he had put together was damningly unobtrusive. There was nothing in Parker's background that would suggest at the behavior he displayed when he tore up the entrance exam. The feelings of guilt from his uncle's recent death were one thing, but different people interpret those feelings differently, and heroism is not the outlet one would expect from a case like Parker's. By all accounts, that shift in behavior had come out of nowhere.

Despite that, the change was still very real. Aizawa had seen it on his face: The fire in his eyes, the ardor for heroism he displayed; Aizawa had seen it on many faces, and those things didn't just come from nowhere. The before and after pictures showed completely different people, all the way down to the dorky glasses he apparently stopped wearing when he left America.

It was almost as if there was a piece missing in all this.

Well, there was no 'almost' about it. Aizawa knew there was something he wasn't being told, and he had a sneaking suspicion it had something to do with the boy's quirk.

Because Aizawa's most unexpected revelation by far had been that the boy was legally quirkless in America. The boy's teachers and the government workers he spoke to swore up and down about that, not to mention his aunt. Aizawa still didn't know what to think of it.

The Japanese Quirk Registry had Parker's quirk listed as "Simian." On paper it was perhaps the most pedestrian quirk Aizawa had ever seen. It might as well have been called "Homo Sapiens plus" for how unassuming the ability was:

Type: Mutant

Synopsis: confers the traits of monkeys and apes.

Abilities:

• enhanced strength

• enhanced dexterity

• heightened senses.

Additional notes: particular proficiency with jumping and climbing.

In light of this, while it was certainly curious that his quirk status was inconsistent, most people would still probably write it off as an understandable error, a simple misdiagnosis.

But which prognosis was in error? Were the Americans right in labeling him quirkless? Had Parker taken advantage of the loose standards Japan had for cataloging the quirks of foreign residents to forge a quirk for himself? A good enough athlete could certainly pull it off. Afterall, quirks were abnormal, but not necessarily superhuman. And if the reports of Parker being bullied for his quirklessness were to be believed, then the boy had plenty of motivation to do just that.

Even looking at Parker's performance in the entrance exam, one could be convinced that the boy was quirkless. Yes, Parker had gotten a record breaking score, but that was largely due to factors other than his physical abilities, Aizawa knew from his own training sessions with the robots that he himself could easily out do Parker's performance despite his quirk not affecting robots. And if Aizawa could do it while effectively quirkless, then Parker's performance was certainly attainable for a truly quirkless examinee.

With all that said, if Aizawa had only ever been told that Parker was quirkless, he'd have believed it. It wouldn't be the first time someone quirkless had attempted the exam afterall; heck, Parker wasn't even the only one in that situation this very year. Well... sort of. Aizawa would round on Headache #2 at a later date.

There was just one problem with the idea: Aizawa knew Parker had a quirk. He'd seen it first hand when he used erasure on the boy. The boy's sixth sense had reacted negatively and his strength was clearly sapped. Interestingly, despite being the most notable part of his quirk, the sixth sense was only tangentially noted on his quirk's profile. Then again, Parker himself didn't seem to fully understand the nebulously defined ability.

Now was it possible that Parker knew about Aizawa's quirk beforehand and was faking being under its effects? The idea made Aizawa grimace. He loathed to admit he couldn't outright dismiss the idea. Aizawa was pretty good at spotting when someone was or wasn't activating their quirk, especially when it came to identifying their tells. He liked to think so anyway, he had developed a pretty good eye for such things—literally. But that didn't mean he was infallible, he could think of a few actors good enough to fool him.

They had only been interacting regularly for a week, but Aizawa had grown rather fond of Headache #1. And if it turned out that Parker was concocting some big con, then so many things would cease to make sense: his behavior in the exam, his motives, personality, background. Aizawa could scarcely wrap his head around the possibility of it all being fake.

But it isn't impossible.

Which meant it was a possibility that Aizawa was forced to consider. And that aggravated Aizawa to no end.

Aizawa didn't want to dwell on such dour thoughts any longer than necessary.

Which led him to the other possibility, the comforting possibility, the possibility that made for such a suspiciously perfect alibi that it did very little to actually comfort him:

The possibility that Parker did have a quirk and that the Americans were wrong in labeling him as quirkless.

All the very same reasons that Aizawa admitted could convince him that the boy was quirkless despite all his evidence to the contrary, helped make it all the more unsurprising that Parker could be listed as quirkless in his country of origin. The primary way of diagnosing quirklessness, the extra toe joint, would return a perfect false positive for someone with a quirk like Parker's. And if there never arose any reason to doubt a childhood prognosis, the issue wouldn't be revisited, especially when such traits could so easily be attributed to mundane athleticism. One could even make the case that Peter had truly believed himself to be quirkless. And even if he didn't, there might still be incentive to not reveal his true quirk status. Aizawa recalled that some places in America offered disability and welfare benefits for the quirkless, something the Parker's would be very keen on receiving considering their family's lower class status. However, Japan had no such incentives, there was no question that on this side of the pond that Headache #1 would be better served by flaunting his quirk rather than hiding it.

There were problems with this theory too though. For one, if Parker had believed himself to be quirkless, then how did he come to find out he wasn't, and why wasn't anybody else aware of the discovery? Would Peter really hide that discovery from his aunt? Then again, he is a teenager, and teenagers tended to be hormone-addled bundles of secrets with little sense. And from what Aizawa had gathered from his teachers, Parker seemed like the anti-social sort of teenager to boot. 

Speaking of Parker's school life, Aizawa was surprised to find that the only subject he had flagging grades in was physical education. In the words of his gym coach (a hard bitten man named Stan), 'Peter's a nice kid, but he's a shrimpy nerd at the end of the day, and blind as a bat too. I remember I used to make him do the rope climb just to watch him fall on his rump. Hah! Good times.' 

Parker's quirk would certainly have allowed him to excel in that subject if he had a quirk but didn't know it, meaning that Parker was faking his lack of athleticism. The bullying was another point. Aizawa's first confrontation with Headache #1 after the entrance exam showed that Parker had no issue with standing up for himself. He should have had no problem getting the bullies off his back. So it had to be an act. Peter had to know he had a quirk and was just pretending to be a quirkless wimp.

But if the Parker's knew that Peter wasn't really quirkless, then that made Aizawa's conversation with May Parker sound very strange. She didn't seem to be aware of Peter's Simian quirk whatsoever and treated his quirkless status as the most obvious fact in the world, and she didn't seem to be putting on an act either. And if the Parker's were faking a disability, then wouldn't Peter and his aunt communicate with each other about their plan to reveal his quirk while living in Japan? 

Unless Peter was hiding his quirk from even them. Aizawa could see the disability benefits being the motive for keeping his quirk secret from his aunt and uncle, that way he could keep collecting the welfare money and spare them the guilt, that would keep them out of poverty so long as no one found out about Parker's quirk. But if that was the case, why would Peter come to Japan and reveal his quirk? That would leave his aunt alone without any welfare money, and that would be right after she lost her husband and any income he might have brought in. May Parker did mention that Peter almost rejected the offer to come to U.A. to stay and support her. But then there's the problem of why Peter would have applied for U.A. in the first place if they needed the money back home so badly, and why he would reveal his quirk when he got here if it was tantamount to confessing to welfare fraud?

Another problem with that theory was the glasses. If he was faking, why the glasses? Sure, the Clark Kent technique went a long way in selling the quirkless look, but it was excessive. Heightened senses was an explicit part of Parker's quirk, an ability that Aizawa could confirm easily enough from his interactions with Parker, so Aizawa doubted he actually needed glasses. Did his aunt and uncle know he didn't really need glasses? If not then prescription eye glasses would be a large and unnecessary medical expense. And after going through the trouble of getting a prescription, Parker would then need to go through the trouble of swapping out the lenses for fakes, otherwise Parker would harm his vision while wearing them. And he would also have to pretend to be blind while not wearing them. It just seemed like an extreme amount of effort for no good reason. His need for eyeglasses was even stated on his learner's permit. All that just to stop wearing them once he got to Japan? 

Then again, he could have just started wearing contact lenses Aizawa realized. Well that was a dead end, he thought.

He supposed he could just call May Parker again and ask about some of these things, like whether or not they received disability benefits on behalf of Peter's quirklessness, but that would sound unduly suspicious and she would probably clam up and stop talking to him. Plus, Aizawa really didn't want to be the one to break the news about Peter's quirk to her if he could avoid it, especially when he still didn't have the facts straight. The least he could do is give the courtesy of waiting until he heard Peter's side of the story and then encourage him to break the news himself.

"Uuurrr," Aizawa groaned, rubbing his temples. He was beginning to think he would never get to the bottom of this. There has to be some way to get this to work, he thought as he leaned back in his chair and stared up at the ceiling, electing to digest all the information, and allow his subconscious to work through the problem instead of actively obsessing over it.

His meditation was interrupted after a few minutes at the sound of someone new entering the teachers' lounge. 

" *yyaaawn* Oh, hey Aizawa-kun, I see you've been burning the candle at both ends… again."

Aizawa shifted his half-lidded eyes over to the emaciated man. "Toshinori. You're here early. Aren't you usually on patrol around this time?"

"Yep." All Might responded as he did some basic stretches before collapsing on the couch. "But the principal has insisted that I start taking it easy. My quirk levels plummeted another 4,000 AP last week, can you believe it?"

"4,000! Wasn't it just at 8,000? Your quirk levels just got cut in half, Toshinori. You went over your limit again, didn't you? How can you be so flippant about this? Nezu's right, you need to stop overexerting yourself all the time."

"Trust me Aizawa, no one's more frustrated about this than me. My time limit fell by a whole half hour. Been having a real rough week. But when you're a hero for a long time, your body just starts falling apart. You know how that goes."

Aizawa's features scrunched up as something occurred to him. He sat up straight and scanned through his notes again. As he was flipping through, one thing in-particular jumped out at him:

3rd generation quirk user; inherited paternally; history of early-onset quirk atrophy on father's side.

A new idea started forming in his head. A developmental disorder perhaps? Could Parker just be a late bloomer? Some quirks did undergo significant development that was delayed until puberty, such as quirk factors tied to one's reproductive organs that couldn't manifest until after adolescence for obvious reasons. Pubescent manifestation was pretty uncommon nowadays, but it happened more often in the early days of quirks when quirks were more mundane and could fly under the radar until the user developed more obvious traits. Today, not only were quirks much more potent, but children were routinely diagnosed and trained to control their quirks from a very early age, so such a thing was rare, and when it did happen, it was foreseen far in advance.

From what he had gathered, the Parker family was a prime example of mundane quirks that appeared only recently in their lineage. Add to that Peter's early diagnosis as quirkless, his introverted bookish nature, childhood trauma from his parents' death and constant bullying at school, the effects of poverty, and his family history for quirk atrophy, and it was entirely possible, if not very likely, that Parker did not have proper nutrition, exercise, and counseling growing up, stunting his growth physically and emotionally, which could have a serious negative effect on his quirk development.

But what could be the catalyst for such a sudden change in Parker's physiology? Oh- right, his Uncle's death. Kind of obvious in hindsight now that I think about it.

His mind went back to what May Parker had told him: 'I'm not surprised Peter didn't mention it to you, he didn't take the news well, felt so much responsibility for everything… he wasn't quite the same the next few days.'

Yeah, that would do it. Still, it would be good to get a second opinion.

"Toshinori, you have personal experience with quirk atrophy, mind shedding some light on something for me?"

"We've been over this, Aizawa. I don't like discussing my quirk, it's personal. Just forget I said anything."

"No, it's not that. It's about one of my students. They're listed as quirkless when I know that's not the case."

All Might went rigid for a second before responding. "Ah, I wouldn't pay it too much mind. You know how these things go with these middle school kids, their bodies are going through changes, late bloomers and all that," he said in a blasé tone, hoping Aizawa would buy the deflection.

"That's why I wanted your insight." Aizawa replied as he handed the clipboard with all his notes to the more experienced pro. "Peter Parker, one of our American exchange students. He's been legally quirkless his whole life. Not only that, everyone who knows the kid is adamant that just a few weeks ago he was a scrawny weakling. And yet in just a couple weeks he somehow gained the power and skills to break your record in the entrance exam."

All Might's brow furrowed, shading his blue eyes as they scanned the page. "You're right. That is a pretty big change. What do you think could have caused it?" Now that Toshinori knew this wasn't about Midoriya, he gave his full attention to solving the matter.

"Parker lives with his aunt and uncle, his only surviving family. A couple weeks ago his uncle was shot and killed by a gunman. Evidently he took the news pretty hard, his aunt noted a large shift in his personality immediately after the event. By all accounts, that's where the change started."

"Seems like some pretty major trauma, that kind of thing could definitely play a factor in sudden explosive quirk development. You said he was legally quirkless? America doesn't let just anyone claim something like that. I assume he has the extra toe joint?" All Might asked in reply. Though the question was mostly rhetorical. 

Considering his own special quirk status, Toshinori knew more about this topic than most, and much more than he let on. The simple fact of the matter was that people who develop quirks show signs from the moment they're born, long before the quirk itself develops. Even if those quirks wouldn't manifest until puberty, it would come as no surprise to anyone. You just can't hide what's in your DNA. They would still be missing the joint, and they would still have the X-gene. The unfortunate truth is that true late bloomers don't actually exist. It's a pipe dream, a comforting lie told to quirkless kids so as to not crush their dreams. Toshinori didn't agree with that approach, he didn't much like giving people false hope. Of course, it still made for a very convenient excuse when it came to hiding the true nature of One for All, so All Might kept his true feelings to himself. He had even encouraged Midoriya to claim he was a late bloomer if anyone got too suspicious for their own good. And that was precisely why All Might was skeptical of that explanation. 

"Yes, he does have the extra joint. But there's a certain… complication about that," Aizawa explained.

"Complication?"

"Parker has a mutant type quirk called Simian that gives him the traits of monkeys and apes, or so he claims." All Might frowned at hearing that, prompting Aizawa to nod in agreement. "My thoughts exactly. Basically, we have no reason to expect his anatomy to differ too greatly from that of a standard homo sapiens, in other words, a perfect false positive. And there's more than just that. His mother is the quirkless daughter of a 1st generation quirk user. His father is 2nd generation, but has significant history of chronic quirk atrophy. He's also impoverished, physically inactive, and likely suffers from childhood trauma."

That was all very convenient. Too convenient. "Have you confronted him about any of this yet? I'd sure like to hear what he has to say about all this," All Might inquired.

Aizawa shook his head. "No, not yet. I only found out about it due to the background check I did on him just last night. But he's meeting with me later today. I'll make sure to get a proper answer out of him then. What do you think in light of all this? From your own experience with quirk disorders, do you think it's at all possible that Parker's growth was stunted in his youth, and that his uncle's death was the trigger necessary for his quirk to finally start manifesting? I've gone through every other possible explanation I could think of, this is the only one that seems remotely possible to me."

All Might cupped his chin in his hand and looked down at the ground for a moment before turning back to Aizawa with his response, "I'm sorry, but I don't think we can rule anything out at this stage."

Aizawa sighed. "I understand."

All Might stood up and walked to the side of the teacher's lounge closest to the door. "I wouldn't worry about it too much, Aizawa-kun. I'm sure Young Parker has a perfectly normal explanation for all this," he stated, channeling his heroic bravado as he sought to put his colleague at ease. "It's probably no big deal, but even so… I'm gonna go inform the principal about all this, standard procedure and all that."

"You're right, Toshinori, I'm likely just overreacting. Like you said, it's probably no big deal."

Both of them were lying.

≈*≈

Peter got off the bus and looked up at the massive imposing building on the other side of the gates. Here he was again, back at U.A. High. 

Man, did it feel weird to finally be able to say that, Peter couldn't help but think as he walked through the doors of the school he used to only dream about attending. His school.

"Welcome to U.A. High!" a cheery voice called out. "How can I hel- oh, it's you," the receptionist's cheerful tone dropped as she realized who she was talking to.

"Yep… it's me," Peter said dully, trying to get this over with. "Look, do you know where Shouta Aizawa is? I have an appoint-"

"Parker, you're actually on schedule"—speak of the devil and he appears—"Come on, let's see if we can save us some time, Headache #1"

"Right- wait, what did you just say?"

"I said, 'let's see if we can save us some headache this time for once.'"

"Oh, that's… what I thought you said."

"Enough dilly dallying, follow me," Aizawa deflected as he made his way down the hall and motioned Peter to follow.

Peter jogged a little to catch up, "So what's the deal? What did you call me in for today?" he asked curiously.

"You'll see. We'll be there in just a second."

After a couple more minutes of walking, the pair arrived at the U.A. locker rooms.

"Here," Aizawa said as he handed Peter a blue tracksuit with the letters U.A. subtly patterned on it. "Put this on and meet me outside. We're going to be using the school field."

"We're having a gym class? But classes won't start for another month."

"It's more of an assessment, now hop to it."

Peter did as he was directed and soon found himself outside in the cold morning air in one of the school's empty track and field pitches.

"Okay, we're here, just the two of us, mind telling me what we're doing?"

"I'm going to be running you through a series of simple tests that I use to establish a baseline for all of my students: 50-meter dash, grip strength, ball throw, endurance run, that kind of thing. You're probably used to taking these kinds of tests in middle school, but there's a difference here, unlike normal schools that just want to get a handle on your level of physical health and fitness, the purpose of this is to assess the capabilities of your quirk."

Peter nodded in understanding. Truth be told, this was something that he was curious about as well. He hadn't yet had the chance to test the upper limits of his new powers in the few weeks since he got them. As a science nerd, he was itching to finally get his hands on some actual hard data on the transformation his body had undergone. But there was a slight problem with that. He already stood out way too much. He may not know the full extent of his abilities, but he knew they were way stronger than any fifteen year old's quirk had any right to be, his record breaking score in the entrance exam had been a testament to that, and he was holding back a lot at that time to avoid getting in trouble for public quirk use. Unfortunately that meant he would have to dial things down to the level he had shown during the entrance exam until the attention he was getting died down a little more. Wasn't too big of a deal though, the tests sounded easy enough and he could wait to measure his powers another day.

"Oh yeah, by the way, if you don't meet my standards, or I get the sense that you're holding back, then you're expelled."

"Woah, hold the phone! Expelled!?! You can't do that, the School year hasn't even started yet."

"U.A. is a lot more lenient than other schools, that's its selling point. We teachers have the authority to run our classes however we see fit."

"But I'm not even in your class, I'm in 1-H with Dr. Connors, shouldn't he have a say in this?"

"Of course he does, or he would if you were just a normal support course student. But if you're going to be taking lessons from me, and insisting that I leave a seat in my class empty and waiting for you, then you're going to have to live up to my expectations. There are plenty of other students who are ready and willing to fill that vacancy at a moment's notice, prove to me that you're the one who deserves it."

"I thought I already did. Top scorer in the entrance exam, remember?"

"You did do well in the entrance exam, however…" However? Where's he going with this? "In my personal opinion, the entrance exam is completely irrational."

Peter looked up at the pro-hero, slightly confused at that statement. "Well, no arguments there. Though it sure would have been nice to know that before we got into that big argument over it last week. But that's all over now, I passed the exam and earned my spot, so what's the problem?"

"Here's the point: I can't control who the school chooses to accept into its hero course; they can assign me any students they like. But we have a certain understanding you see, once they step foot in my class, they're under my authority. I have my own tests and standards when it comes to who I deem worthy to be in my class, and those who don't measure up, I reserve the right to expel. And that's especially true for support course students who are just sitting in on my course after skirting around the intended rules for the entrance exam." 

Peter grit his teeth. "Weren't you the one who encouraged me to take classes with the hero course in the first place?"

"Getting cold feet, Parker? Maybe I misjudged you. If you don't want to worry about the possibility of being expelled at a moment's notice then you can just stay in your lane and keep your head down in Dr. Connor's class. Your scholarship entitles you to that much. But if you want to be part of the greatest hero course in the world, then you better get used to giving 110% every day, Plus Ultra style. The choice is yours, that's why we're doing this a month before classes start instead of on the first day with the rest of my students. It's a professional courtesy to give you the chance to turn back before the point of no return."

Peter's clenched fists shook silently at his sides until his knuckles turned white. His hair covering his eyes as he stared at the ground.

Aizawa watched expectantly for a few moments but received no response. He sighed. "Alright, I'll go inform Dr. Connors and the Principal about your deci-"

"I'll do it!" I didn't come all this way for nothing. You want my best? Fine, I'll give you my best.

Aizawa paused for a half second before a rascally grin split his face and lit up his tired eyes. "Then let's get to work."

Test #1: 50-Meter Dash

"Sometime in the next minute a starting pistol will fire," Aizawa explained

Peter closed his eyes and waited, 23 seconds passed, and then: ≈*≈

BANG!

Peter's legs tensed reflexively in response to his spider-sense going off. Time slowed down as he pushed off the blocks and pumped his legs as fast as they could carry him, accelerating to a sprint at a moment's notice. He couldn't get to his full speed in just 50 meters, but between his powerful legs striking the ground with his full strength, his perfect equilibrium intuitively putting him into the optimal posture to push off the ground at just the right angle at full tilt, and his spider-stick to give him the extra bit of traction needed to efficiently translate all that force into forward momentum without slippage, he easily managed a score that no quirkless person could dream of.

"4.38 seconds!" The robot voice chirped out.

"Hmm." Aizawa hummed. Even for animal type mutant quirks that was a very impressive score, people almost never got below the 5 second mark, especially in High School. 

But those were civilian standards. People in the field of heroics were a whole different breed. People who spent serious effort to train their bodies and quirks to the limit were often superhuman in all areas, not just limited to the domain of their quirks. That was the inherent gap in potential between Homo Sapiens and Homo Superior, regardless of the quirk. Aizawa himself was a prime example, despite not having a physical quirk, Aizawa's own time at the 50-Meter was 4.81, much faster than the Homo Sapiens record. It was for this reason that quirkless people were considered incapable of becoming heroes. There were plenty of heroes with non-heroic quirks with niche specializations or who relied on support items, but they still had a baseline of physical ability that even the old olympic athletes couldn't match. 

Aizawa's purpose with these tests was to gather as much info on Parker's quirk as possible. Going into this he had three main theories:

1) That Parker was quirkless, but very good at hiding it. 

2) That Parker had a quirk

2a) And he knew it, but was good at hiding it.

2b) But he didn't know until recently.

3) He was a late bloomer of some sort (could contain elements of 2a or 2b depending on when the quirk fully developed).

Aizawa was already nearly certain that neither 1 or 2 was true, but he did his due diligence to properly falsify the hypotheses anyway. And already he was seeing results. If he needed any more proof that Parker wasn't a normal homo sapiens, this was it. It was still technically possible for him to be a homo superior with monosomic quirklessness or some other rare quirk disorder like the one Dr. Connors suffered from, but Aizawa doubted it, which meant that theory 1 was already thrown out the window.

"so-..." Aizawa noticed Headache #1 say something in his peripheral vision, but paid it no mind.

Instead Aizawa checked his clipboard. He had taken the liberty of accessing Parker's test scores from his old High School. Coincidentally he had taken a very similar fitness assessment only a couple months ago. Comparing the results had already proven to be illuminating. The 100-yard dash Parker had done back then had a time of 14.55 seconds. That kind of improvement in such a short amount of time simply wasn't realistic. He wouldn't say it was impossible, not when quirks were involved, but to say it was fishy was an understatement. If Parker had suffered from some rare quirk condition, he had evidently been miraculously cured in the intervening months. Either that, or he had been faking his quirklessness back then. Theories 2 and 3 were still on the table it seemed.

"Ar-. . . listen-..." 

Aizawa then pulled out his phone to check the more intricate data that was recorded from Parker's run. The time it took to cross the finish line wasn't the only thing they measured. There was also a high speed camera that scanned the examinee, and the starting blocks had pressure sensors to gauge the muscle tension, all to find the exact moment and force of the push off. The 50-Meter Dash was the first event for a reason. Out of all the events, if gave the best look at the examinee's body type. Their reaction time, cardiovascular health, coordination and range of motion, distribution of fast twitch and slow twitch muscle fibers, all valuable data to know going into the other tests.

Parker's data was unusual to say the least. First was his reaction time: 0.011 seconds from the ignition of the starting pistol. It was ten times faster than the quirkless record. But that's not what Aizawa cared about. What he cared about was that it just wasn't possible. Aizawa was 10 meters away when he fired the pistol, it would take 0.03 seconds for the sound to even reach Parker's ears. Another 0.01 seconds to reach his brain, 0.1 seconds to process, and another 0.01 for the signal to reach his muscles. It simply wasn't possible to react faster than 0.15 seconds in this situation. That meant Parker started moving before he heard anything. He anticipated the gun. That often happened with race car drivers who had mastered the rhythm and timing of the light turning green, but Parker had no indication when the gun would go off. In fact Aizawa had waited until Parker's muscles were more relaxed and his heart rate was stable before he pushed the button, he couldn't have anticipated it would have happened at that exact moment.

But the high speed cameras and pressure sensors confirmed it. There were a multitude of signals that all happened in perfect synchronization. His eyes opened, pupils immediately dilated to pinpricks, full body muscle contraction and piloerection, then his blood pressure and heart rate spiked to the anaerobic range immediately afterwards. An unmistakable unconscious reaction. It was perfect, too perfect. No one's heart rate went from resting to running for your life in just a couple seconds, normal people took at least ten seconds to rev up the engine, so to speak. Not Headache #1 it seemed. His body was a well oiled machine, all his systems perfectly integrated for maximum efficiency. He wasn't even winded afterwards, once he crossed the finish line his body seemingly returned to normal just as quickly as if nothing had happened.

"Hey… Aizawa…"

Even for a mutant type quirk it was pushing boundaries, there were hard biological limits to things like how fast an axon could fire. 

So how did he do it? Unless Parker's nervous system was completely inhuman under the hood (something he seriously doubted considering its simian nature) then the only answer was that sixth sense of his. It must have somehow alerted him to pistol firing long before the sound reached his ears. How it did that, Aizawa had no clue. Based on how Parker had described his sixth sense, maybe it was some kind of low level psychic power that allowed him to sense Aizawa's intent to push the button. After all, simians had the greatest brain power in the animal kingdom, so it wasn't too much of a stretch that his quirk also affected his mental abilities. 

But unlike the other mysteries surrounding Headache #1, this was one Aizawa was fine with placing into the category of bog-standard quirk nonsense. There were many quirks that made people question their understanding of the laws of physics, and while seemingly mundane on the surface, Parker's was now one of them. It made Aizawa wonder if this sense allowed Parker to react to something before it happened, i.e. could he move out of a bullet's path before the trigger was even pulled?

Regardless, that removed the 0.03 second sound delay from the equation, which also included the 0.01 seconds it took for the signal to go from the ear to cognitive processing. That still left the 0.1 seconds for his brain to process the information and the 0.01 for the signal to get to the muscles, a total of 0.11 seconds. Parker still managed a tenth of that time. Aizawa didn't think Parker's physical nerves were all that different from the norm, maybe slightly faster, so that just left the processing time. Aizawa could think of two possibilities, either Parker could process information at least a hundred times faster than the average person, or his sixth sense had cut out the middleman and was hard wired to his motor neurons to make him move on automatic reflex. Either one of those two things (and it could even be both) would translate into incredibly potent abilities. And U.A.'s handy little devices had automatically recorded all that information for him. How convenient.

"Yo, wha-..." Again, he noticed Headache #1 babbling about something, but tuned it out, instead turning his attention to his handheld device.

Aizawa moved down the list to look at Parker's other stats. His acceleration and impulse were both very impressive, he got to about 40 km/h before the end of the first second, though after the initial burst it seemed to get harder for him to pick up speed, ending the race at 56 km/h and still climbing. All in all, there wasn't enough data to determine the distribution of fast and slow-twitch muscle fibers, something that was always difficult to ascertain whenever super strength was involved.

"Hey! Earth to Aizawa?" Aizawa growled and looked up to see Headache #1 standing in front of him. "Come on, what's the hold up? What're we doing next? Hopefully something more challenging than a little sprint."

"Settle down, Parker. Just recording some notes. Now, head over to the gym, we've already wasted two and a half minutes dawdling. Show some hustle."

"You mean you wasted two and a half minutes dawdling" Peter grumbled as he shuffled towards the gym.

Aizawa couldn't help but chuckle. Yep, a real headache, no doubt about it.

Test #2: Grip Strength

Peter stood in the large domed gymnasium with a device that measured how tightly he could squeeze the handle. A dynamometer, huh? Seems pretty high grade too. This should be interesting. Wall crawling has shown just how much stronger my grip has gotten, even without using my spider-stick, but I haven't done much beyond crushing soda cans. I'm actually kinda excited to see just how strong I've gotten.

Peter clenched his fist around the handle, except-

*Bzzt- clatter*

He crushed it. Bits of plastic, metal and wire fell to the floor as the device shattered in his grasp. Crap, totally overdid it there, definitely gonna raise some eyebrows with a result like that. Ah man, I just didn't think my grip was that strong. Maybe Aizawa just gave me a flimsy dynamometer to test if I was holding back my strength? Yeah, that's gotta be it. Peter snuck a glance over in Aizawa's direction to see evident surprise plastered on his face. Yeah, definitely not a test.

Aizawa looked at the result with wide eyes. That thing was rated for 2 tons. Even pros with super strength capable of lifting 50 tons would struggle with that. Isometric muscle contraction just doesn't produce the same kind of force as isotonic contractions, especially considering the muscle groups involved. Deadlifts and squats can recruit major muscle groups to do the work, but hand strength doesn't have that privilege. There are only small muscle groups in the hands, it's all tendons and ligaments that connect things together, and those are focused on creating precise movements, they don't get much bigger or stronger, so you have to completely rely on the forearms to supply the force. That's why measuring grip strength is such a valuable indicator of overall health.

"I had you pegged as a monkey or a chimp. It seems you're more like the gorilla type of simian. But seeing as I can't have you destroying any more school equipment, it seems we'll have to measure your strength some other way."

"Uhh, sorry about that, I'll be more careful in the future," Peter apologized.

Aizawa just nodded to show his acknowledgement as he pulled his phone from his pocket and made a call. "Cementoss, this is Aizawa. I need you in Gym Gamma for a specialized training exercise… Yes, that's right… Understood… Thank you for your help, we'll be ready and waiting." He then turned to Parker, "Come on, we gotta go get set up."

"So what's this 'specialized training exercise' thing all about?" asked as they walked over to the gym's supply room before going to meet up with Cementoss.

"A way to measure your grip strength where you won't break anything. Instead of a crushing grip we're going to do a pinch grip exercise. All you have to do is not drop the ball."

"Seems simple enough."

Aizawa opened the door to the supply room and scanned around before he found what he was looking for. "Parker, you see those balls and chains over there?"

Peter walked over to see a series of chains and solid metal cannonballs of varying sizes. Going from the size of shot puts to wrecking balls with comically large chains to match, even the ones at the front had links bigger than his shoe. He examined them with a quizzical look as he held up a length of one of the chains. "What do we need these for? A demolition project?"

"You'll see. Grab a size-5 ball and size-20 chain. Two of each."

"What? Not strong enough to carry them yourself, Aizawa?" Peter quipped even as he obeyed. The ball wasn't too big, about the size of a small bowling ball, a little smaller than a volleyball. Just big enough that he couldn't quite wrap his fingers around it for a good grip, though he supposed that was probably the intent. The chain on the other hand was one of the comically large ones he noticed before. "Talk about a mismatch," he muttered as he attached one end of the chain to the ball, which looked more like a kettlebell because of how big the loop needed to be in order to accommodate the massive links. 

When they went back out to the main gym area, they saw a humanoid block of concrete waiting for them. Peter stopped in his tracks at the strange sight. "So I assume you're this Cementoss guy that Aizawa called? I wasn't expecting you to be soo…"

"Square?" Cementoss offered.

"No offense."

"None taken. You must be Peter Parker. Your Japanese is very good by the way, if it weren't for your slight American accent I wouldn't be able to tell you weren't a native speaker. As your soon-to-be Japanese teacher, I'm looking forward to working with you."

"It's an honor to meet you too Cementoss-sensei," Peter greeted with a bow. Though his smile was for a different reason than one would think: he appreciated Cementoss's reaction to his distinctive accent, because it was an accent only Peter Parker used, and used purposefully. Spider-Man didn't have any notable accent. It would be an issue if people heard Spider-Man speak with a foreign accent, and a bigger issue if Peter Parker sounded like Spider-Man. Hearing Cementoss confirm he was succeeding at creating as many subtle disqualifying distinctions as possible between himself and Spider-Man was comforting to hear.

"Hmm, well mannered too. I see why you've taken a shine to this one Aizawa. Now, what do you need me for?"

Well mannered? If only you knew, Aizawa inwardly groused, but outwardly he remained focused on the task at hand. "Hercules hold. We've got the chains, think you can provide the resistance, Cementoss?" he nodded and placed his hands on the ground.

Peter raised an eyebrow, "Hercules hold? Sounds pretty dramatic, what is it exactly?" he commented as he watched a large cement structure rise out of the ground.

"Normally the hercules hold involves standing between two large pillars and bearing their weight as they threaten to fall down and pull you apart, but that wouldn't allow us to increase the weight much. So, I'll use a simple pulley system instead. How much weight do you want, Aizawa-san?"

"Start with one ton on each side, we'll work our way up from there." He turned his attention over to Headache #1. "Go stand up on that central platform. You're going to attach those chains to those large concrete blocks. Then you just have to maintain your grip on the balls and stand in place without letting go, keep the blocks suspended in the air for as long as possible."

"Alright, but I think calling it the hercules hold is a bit of a misnomer. Yeah, Hercules was pretty strong and held up the sky for Atlas for a bit, but I don't remember him ever struggling between two pillars, clearly the mythological paragon of strength that you're looking for is Samson," Peter mused as he began walking up the concrete stairs that Cementoss had caused to emerge from the floor, leading him upto the elevated platform. 

On either side of the platform were the aforementioned large concrete blocks, each bigger than he was. Each had a small handle on top where the chain would attach. Between the blocks and the platform was a simple pulley system. The platform itself wasn't very fancy either. There was a small circular dais in the middle that was raised up a step from the rest of the platform—obviously the place he was meant to stand. On each side of the platform was a short wall with a hole in the middle, big enough to feed the chain through, but not big enough for the ball.

Peter dropped one of the chains on the dais and carried the other over to one of the walls. He pulled the chain through the hole before climbing up on top of the short wall and feeding it through the pulley system before jumping down onto the block to attach the end of the chain to the handle. He noticed that the chain had gone taut, and sure enough when he looked back he saw that the ball at the other end of the chain was caught against the wall, too big to fit through the hole. That meant the chain was just barely too short to reach the block.

"Hey, either of you guys got a big hook? The chain is too short to tie around the loop without one."

Aizawa answered his question by tossing him a pair of large carabiners.

"Thanks." Peter replied as he used the missing link to attach the chain, making it go taut. "It's the perfect length, I'm impressed you got the dimensions just right, Cementoss."

"I said I've done this before, didn't I?" he said as he smiled.

Peter repeated the process for the other side before going to stand on the dais in the middle of the platform, the wrecking balls protruding from the walls on either side of him, about five feet out of reach.

"Alright, anything else before we start, Aizawa-sensei?"

He shook his head in the negative. "Whenever you're ready. Let's start by seeing if you can lift one of the blocks. You already exerted over two tons of force when you broke that grip strength device, these blocks are only half that much, you should have no trouble pulling the chain out of the wall."

"Are you serious!? You mean to tell me that your dynamometer could withstand upto two tons of pressure? I would have sworn it was only built for a tenth of that, the thing felt like it was made of papier-mâché."

"Is this your first time testing your strength to this degree, Parker-san?" Cementoss asked curiously, a question that Aizawa silently thanked him for asking, if Aizawa had asked he feared it would have come off as interrogating him, something that would only cause Parker to clam up if he was trying to keep information about his quirk secret.

"Well, I've lifted up the back end of a car once. You don't exactly get many opportunities to cut loose more than that when you live in a big city and worry about causing damages. My full strength is still a mystery to me, but if what Aizawa said is true, then I shouldn't have a problem with this."

Peter placed his hand on the bowling ball sized mass of iron, his hand didn't even get halfway around the wrecking ball, meaning that he could barely curl his fingers enough to get any grip on it whatsoever. He pulled, but only got the ball about an inch away from the wall before he was stopped by the unyielding concrete weight, he was surprised by how how much resistance he felt, but then again he supposed that even someone with super strength would struggle to lift a ton if they could only use their fingertips, even if they would have no problem otherwise. It reminded him of a time a few days after he got his powers when he tried doing pull ups and handstand push ups using only a single finger. He had eventually got it down pat after some practice, but there was no question how much more difficult it was compared to the standard versions of the exercises, which had been effortless.

Peter pulled harder to try and lift the concrete block off the floor, but only succeeded in yanking his arm back as his fingers slipped off the smooth surface. He tried again, this time making sure to pinch the ball as best he could to keep a firm grip, even still it was much more difficult to keep his fingers from slipping. He began walking backwards, making his steps slow in order to keep his hand steady, though it did little to help. The chain links clumsily grinded through the pulleys, causing the ball to jerk around unevenly in his grip, something made worse when the concrete block began to sway slightly now that it was suspended in the air. Even so, this time he made it all the way to the dais, but when he went to put his foot on the raised step, his shoes slid half an inch on the smooth concrete and he once again lost his grip as the ball slipped through his fingers for the second time.

THUMP!

The one ton concrete block slammed back into the ground as the ball and chain was quickly reeled back into the wall, not unlike a tape measure would.

"Having trouble, Parker-san? I can reduce the weight if you'd like." Cementoss asked.

"No, it's alright. The weight isn't the issue, it's just a matter of keeping my concentration. I think I'm getting the hang of it." 

Aizawa watched as Parker took his socks and shoes off, presumably to get better traction with his monkey-like bare feet, before grabbing hold of the ball and trying again. The fact that Parker had been able to pull the chain out wall at all was a testament to his firm grip and sense of balance. Aizawa had no doubt that lifting the weight would have been light work for him if it weren't for the awkward hand hold and the need to walk backwards onto the dais. Aizawa had honestly expected Parker to grab it by the chain in order to pull it out, only switching grips when things were steady and the exercise truly began. Once he was standing on the dais, all he would have to do then is focus on holding the weight in place, no need to worry about exerting the effort to actively pull on it at that point. Afterall, the hercules hold was an exercise about endurance, not power.

Peter grabbed the ball for his third attempt, this time engaging his spider-stick to keep ahold of it as he walked back, doing the same with his feet to avoid sliding again. He had wanted to see how strong his grip was without relying on his ability to cling to things, but now that he had done so, he wanted to find the true limits of his grip without having to worry about dealing with the slippery ball as it jerked around unpredictably. Even so, he also didn't want to just let his arm hang limp while he relied entirely on his clinging ability to keep his hand glued to the ball. So he only engaged his spider-stick in the center of his palm at the small point where his hand was tangent to the ball on the spot opposite the force vector of the chain pulling the ball away from his hand. It was a failsafe that prevented him from accidentally letting go due to a sudden jerk of the chain, but still required him to use his natural grip strength in order to lift the block.

The stabilizing effect of using his spider-stick on his hand and feet suddenly made the task child's play. He didn't even have to walk backwards anymore. With this new arrangement he could comfortably shuffle sideways, allowing his arm to trail behind him as he walked right over the dais, and made his way over to the wall on the other side of the platform. Once he grabbed the other ball, it was easy to allow the weight of the first block to reel him back in as he shuffled onto the dais in the center of the platform, the weight of one block acting as a counter weight for the other.

Now with equal weight on both arms, he felt the almost pleasant sensation of his chest and shoulder muscles stretching out in response to being pulled in two directions. Noting in the back of his mind that if he were still quirkless that such a thing would almost surely have ripped his arms from their sockets. If not flat out tear him in half.

"Alright, now what?" Peter asked.

"Just hold that stance for as long as possible." Aizawa responded with his stopwatch already out and ticking.

"That should be easy enough. Better get comfortable, I might be here for a while." Peter replied as he shifted his stance to do just that. He even experimented with turning off his spider-stick now that he was settled in, and found he had no trouble maintaining his grip without its help. However, he quickly re-engaged it to prevent himself from accidentally dropping two tons of weight without warning.

A few moments passed. "Are you starting to feel any strain at all?" Aizawa inquired.

"Nope. They should make this into a yoga pose, it's really opening up my lungs. But it needs a fancier name. I shall call this new pose 'The Temple of Dagon.' Close your eyes, deep breath in," Peter squeezed his eyes shut and loudly inhaled in exaggerated fashion, "deep breath out… Namaste. Whew! Feels great, really invigorating. I feel like I could take on a thousand philistines and really let my hair down."

"Well that's sacrilegious," Cementoss stated dryly.

"What do you say we start increasing the weight? Let's work up to five tons on each side," Aizawa replied.

Cementoss complied, but even as the concrete blocks got bigger and heavier, Peter showed little sign of strain. "You're holding up five tons on each arm, how are you feeling?

"That all you got? I'm barely breaking a sweat up here." He taunted, but a noticeable bead of sweat rolled down the side of his face. Looks like I'm gonna have to actually start trying, Peter thought as he engaged his spider-stick on the tips of his fingers to avoid letting go. Some spiders can lift upto 200x their own body weight, if I have that same proportional strength, then considering my weight of 150 pounds, I should be able to lift around fifteen tons, that means I'm closing in on my theoretical limit here with five on each arm. Of course, I'm not lifting anything, just trying to keep my grip to stop it from falling, but that's not much easier. 

"Ten tons. But add the weight slowly." Aizawa ordered.

"Okay, now I'm starting to feel something," Peter announced as he began to feel some strain in his hands and wrists. Nothing painful, but it could result in a slight cramp if he had to hold it for another ten minutes. Reminded him of the time he stayed up all night writing a 5 page essay due the next morning, his hand was so sore the next morning that he had sworn his pencil had given him carpal tunnel.

"Do you need us to stop?" Aizawa asked. He really hadn't expected Parker to hold up past 5 tons, and that was already a mind boggling amount of weight for this exercise.

"No, keep going. I'm just getting started," Peter replied. Though the slight strain is his voice didn't go unnoticed by the two pros.

Peter began to grit his teeth. He was doing all he could to keep his muscles contracted. Just like how it was harder to do a pull up when idly dangling from the bar than it is if you start with your arms at a ninety degree angle, if he let himself get stretched out too much then his muscles wouldn't be able to pull back in. He tried to pull the wrecking balls closer together in order to maintain the slight bend in his elbows that allowed him to engage all the muscles in his arms, chest, and shoulders. 

However, as he pulled, he felt his finger tips begin to scrape as the balls grew farther apart. Unwilling to stretch his arms out farther, he instead engaged his spider-stick across the whole length of his fingers instead of just at the fingertips to prevent the balls from slipping out of his grasp. And soon after that, he engaged it across his whole hand, now relying entirely on his clinging ability to maintain his hold and reallocating all that strength he was using to pinch the ball between his fingers to instead try and tuck his elbows closer into his sides.

"We've now reached 10 tons on each side, how are you holding up?" Cementoss asked, looking up at the teen standing stoically upon the platform, head bowed and arms bulging from the strain.

Peter had succeeded in preventing his tight stance from being pulled apart, but this was no longer a test of his grip strength, he had reached that limit two tons ago. Now it was just a matter of how long he could keep his muscles tensed and flexed like this.

"*gasp* *grunt* M-more weight." Peter replied between gritted teeth as he let out a breath he didn't know he was holding. Gotta make sure to take careful, shallow breaths so that I don't accidentally disengage my chest and core muscles by breathing in too deeply, Peter noted as he grit his teeth again, nostrils flaring like a gorilla as he struggled to control his breaths.

Despite Parker's insistence Cementoss was still apprehensive. As the custodian of Gym Gamma, he knew what it looked like when students pushed themselves past their limits. "What do you think, Aizawa? Should we leave it here and see how long he lasts?"

Aizawa narrowed his eyes. This is getting outrageous, something isn't right here. There's no way this kid was anything close to quirkless two months ago. He's hiding something; I need to know his limits. "No, keep adding weight. Look at his hands, if he can still keep his grip with flat open palms like that then he's fine. Because of how the exercise is set up, he'll be forced to let go of the ball long before there's any risk of him tearing a muscle. It's not like we've tied him to the rack, he can let go at any time." Unbeknownst to him, Aizawa's analogy was closer to the truth than he thought. With Peter's hands practically glued to the iron balls thanks to his spider-stick, the idea that he was being stretched out on a rack like a medieval torture victim wasn't too far off.

Cementoss frowned. "Alright, I'll trust your judgment on this one. Increasing to twenty tons." More cement poured on the concrete blocks as they expanded to the size of pickup trucks.

Peter felt a sharp pain shear across his biceps and pectorals. He barely bit back a scream of pain, but the damage was already done: his stance was broken apart and his wingspan was stretched as wide as it would go. If he wasn't sticking his feet to the ground, then he would have been left suspended in air, strung up between the chains. In this position he could offer no resistance to being pulled apart. His strength had already reached its limit. Even still, he refused to let go. It was his durability that was being put to the test now. 

"We've passed fifteen tons," Cementoss commented.

I wonder what's stronger, the adhesive strength of my spider-stick or the tensile strength of my tendons and muscle fibers. Which would give out first, will my fingers be peeled from the ball, or would my arms be pulled from their sockets before that? Peter wondered in a bout of morbid curiosity. Of course, he would let go long before it came to that point, but he was becoming increasingly interested in the upper limits of his clinging ability. Out of all the new abilities his new quirk gave him, his spider-stick was the one he understood the least, even including his spider-sense. As far as he could tell he didn't secrete an adhesive—there was no residue and it didn't explain how he could turn the ability on and off at will anywhere on his body—and it didn't match what he had researched about how spiders climb walls. Right now each of his fingers was supporting several tons of force without issue. Even his web fluid wasn't that sticky. 

At the sound of his bones creaking from the strain, Peter returned his attention to the increasing weight that threatened to rip him in half. Not sure how much longer I can hold on. "What's the weight at?" Peter cried.

"We've just reached twen-"

SNAP

THUD!

The chain holding up the left block snapped, dropping the block to the ground with a thud. If Peter wasn't sticking his feet to the ground, he would have been thrown across the room by the right chain reeling him in, now that he didn't have the left block acting as a counter-weight to hold him place. But keeping his footing didn't mean he wasn't thrown off balance. He doubled over, bent ninety degrees at the waist as his arm was nearly yanked from his shoulder. He grabbed his right forearm with his now freed up left hand as he tried to stand up straight again. But even with both hands, he was too off balance to pull back the twenty ton weight trying to sweep him off his feet in the biggest match of tug of war Peter had ever seen. He gripped the iron ball as hard as he could, digging his fingertips in with a claw-like grip.

screeeech

THUD!

CRASH!

It had all happened a split-second after the chain snapped. Aizawa jumped up on the platform to assess the situation. Parker had somehow kept his footing and his grip on the second weight despite the extreme whiplash from the first one dropping. A feat that must have taken extreme levels of balance and body control to pull off. Aizawa turned his eyes to the balls and chains. The left one had simply dropped to the ground after its weak link had burst. The chain on the right had been reeled back through the pulley system so fast that the wrecking ball at the end had smashed straight through the short wall that had dispensed the chain. The ball now sat in a pile of rubble on the right side of the platform. Aizawa walked over to examine it, and his eyes widened when he saw 5 small trenches dug into the solid mass of iron. He whipped his head around in an instant and sure enough he saw iron shards on Parker's fingers. He sheared through solid iron with just the grip strength in his fingertips!

Peter was no less flabbergasted than the pro-hero as he looked at his hand. Well, guess that answers the question of what had the lower tensile strength. Apparently the answer was… iron. Yeah, wasn't expecting that one. He looked up to see Aizawa openly gaping at him with wide owl-like eyes.

Peter quickly hid his hand from view by pretending to scratch the back of his neck, causing the bits of iron to clatter to the ground. "Soo… Uh, do I pass the test? Hehe- he… he." He asked awkwardly as he tried to dispel the tension in the room.

Cementoss spoke up for the first time since the chain snapped. "Well you certainly held up better than the chain. Aizawa-san, what size chain did you use, by the way."

Aizawa quickly regained his composure upon being snapped out of his daze. "They were size-20 chains."

Cementoss nodded. "That means they're rated for no more than twenty tons, no wonder it snapped. Well Parker-san, it seems to me that Eraserhead here wasn't expecting you to be able to handle that much weight. Seeing as you clearly surpassed his expectations and went Plus Ultra, I would say that yes, you passed. Be proud, that was a total of forty tons, quite the accomplishment."

Aizawa nodded. "I've never had a student with that much grip strength before. I severely underestimated you. What do you say we get a number of your lifting strength too while we're at it?"

Peter sighed. Great, could I draw any more attention to myself? I can't really refuse though, I've still got six more of these tests that I need to ace if I don't want to get expelled. "Alright, but my upper body is pretty much dead now. I think I pulled a muscle or something too."

Cementoss glanced over to his fellow teacher and decided to throw Parker a bone and give him a break from Aizawa's often draconian methods. "Why don't you take him over to Recovery Girl for a check-up first. You did push him pretty hard there. It could be a problem if he ended up with tendonitis. You won't get accurate results if he's injured, and Recovery Girl will give you an earful if you make those injuries worse. I'll still be here once you get back."

Normally Aizawa would make his students complete all eight tests in one sitting. Afterall, real heroes didn't get the chance to call it quits in the middle of things. If they injured themselves, then they needed to deal with the consequences and learn how to overcome that drawback for the rest of the evaluation or else forfeit all the events they didn't take, which in his eyes was grounds for immediate expulsion. However, this hercules hold wasn't exactly one of the eight tests that Aizawa normally gave, and unlike what Headache #2 had done in the entrance exam against that zero pointer, it wasn't like Parker had injured himself due to reckless quirk use. He had only gotten into this situation because Aizawa had pushed him into it. Plus, Aizawa didn't need to ascertain whether or not Parker was ready for the hero course, that was just a logical deception he told Parker to prevent him from holding back. In reality, Aizawa's mind was already made up on that matter. What he actually needed was to get more information on Parker's quirk, and Cementoss was right about how an injury would interfere with that. Besides, having Recovery Girl perform a few tests could give valuable insight into Parker's physiology.

Aizawa nodded his agreement to Cementoss. "Good idea. Come on Parker, let's get you checked out."

≈*≈

The two leisurely walked the maze-like halls of U.A. as they made their way over to the nurse's office. 

. . ."So, how are your arms feeling?" Aizawa asked, breaking the silence.

"Huh? Oh. They're, um, they're fine. Just a little sore is all. Doesn't hurt much so long as I'm careful not to stretch it too far." Peter responded. The two still felt awkward around each other due to the stressful experiences surrounding their introduction and the exhausting week that followed. "Uh, thanks for asking." Peter added in an effort to prevent the awkward silence from reestablishing itself.

"As a teacher it's my responsibility to make sure my students are in their best condition. *cough* It's only logical." Aizawa dismissed.

Peter snickered at the slight fluster he caught from the usually inaffable teacher, a warm smile settling on his face. "You know what, Aizawa? You may come off as all crusty, but beneath it all you're actually a big softie, aren't you? You're alright in my book."

Aizawa let out a long grumbling sigh. "Simmer down, you're going to give me a headache. Besides, we're almost there."

Sure enough, after turning one last corner, the pair arrived at the door labeled Nurse's Office. "Wait here for a moment while I explain things to Recovery Girl," Aizawa said as he walked through the door.

"Aizawa-kun, what brings you to my office so bright and early? Your heroics and homeroom classes won't start for hours."

"I'm here on a pet project actually. I have an upcoming first year student I'm considering transferring to my class from the support course, so I've been putting him through my orientation…"—Aizawa proceeded to explain Parker's unique status to Recovery Girl—"...In light of all that, I'll need you to perform those tests to see what Parker's hiding under the hood."

Recovery Girl nodded. "I see, a quirkless boy suddenly becoming world class overnight, that certainly is quite the unique situation." She scanned Aizawa's reaction as she asked her next question, "Does anyone else know about the boy's peculiar status, by chance?"

Aizawa shook his head. "Not that I'm aware of. So far it's only me, All Might, and now you. Though All Might will be reporting all this to the principal as well."

"Good. It's best we keep it that way. News of abnormal quirks like these can cause quite the stir, and as the saying goes, you can't put the genie back in the bottle." If Recovery Girl didn't know that All Might had already used One for All, she would have suspected that to be the cause of the sudden change in Parker, but just because that possibility was ruled out didn't mean there weren't other esoteric means by which such a metamorphosis could have occurred. Though why one as unassuming as Peter Parker had become the epicenter for such things was a mystery she had yet to puzzle out. And something she would certainly be consulting with Toshinori about. But for now, she would have to focus on getting her own findings.

"Call the boy back in here, no point in leaving him to grow suspicious from waiting outside too long."

Aizawa nodded and went to bring Parker inside.

"Pleasure to meet you young man. Please, have a seat and tell me how you're feeling."

"Oh, we've met before actually."

Recovery Girl tilted her head at that. "Really? When would that have been?"

"At the entrance exam. I carried another examinee with a large tail over to you to be healed. Though I suppose that wasn't a very proper introduction. He's alright, isn't he? You were able to fully heal him, right?"

"Ah yes, I remember that patient, he had quite the number done on him. I was quite surprised to learn that you carried him from several battle centers away, to think you would be that same boy from back then. I'm happy to say that he made a full recovery, thanks in no small part to you getting him to me so quickly." 

"Well that's a relief." Peter sighed. 

"Indeed it is. Here, take some candies as a thank you," she said as grabbed an All Might pez dispenser from her desk and gave him a few of the small pieces of candy.

"Ooh, candy, far be it from me to say no to free food. Pleased to officially meet you as well. The name's Peter Parker. Mhm! Are these bananas flavored? Come to think of it, that kid's tail kinda looked like a squashed banana before you treated him, how's that for irony? Actually, on second thought, I think I've lost my appetite."

"Let's get to your check-up then. From what I've heard from Aizawa, that kind of exercise can be pretty grating on your nervous system. Try squeezing this stress ball a few times. Are you feeling any cramps, numbness, or weakness? Any chills or spasms?"

"Yeah, a little discomfort and soreness in my hands and wrists."

"Just a little?" she inquired as she prodded and pinched around his hands and forearms.

Peter nodded. "Just a little. But my biceps and pectorals are pretty sore."

Recovery Girl knitted her brow at that. "I would have expected the major muscle groups to be the areas experiencing the least strain comparatively. We'll do scans later. For now let's stay focused on the nervous system. I imagine that you would have had some difficulty breathing while you were up there. Any shortness of breath, disorientation, lightheadedness, or dizziness?"

"Now that you mention it, I never get dizzy or disoriented anymore. Though I did experience a little lightheadedness towards the end, but I'm completely fine now."

Recovery Girl released her grip on his wrist "Hmm. Well your pulse has long since returned to normal, so that's to be expected. Still, it's good to be thorough. Look at my finger." She grabbed a small flashlight and shined it in one eye, and then the other.

Peter obeyed and tracked the movement of her finger with his eyes as she moved it from side to side.

"Pupils are normal. Will you read off that eye chart on the wall over there for me."

"Sure thing. My eyesight is pretty good if I do say so myself." Peter replied as he turned his attention to the pyramid shaped chart of random letters tacked to the far wall. "The bottom row has the letters E, I, S, H, E. The next row up has the letters S, N, A, M. The middle row is L, I, N. The second from the top is O and B, and I think it comes as no surprise to any of us that the massive letter at the top there is a G."

Aizawa suppressed a smirk at the innocuous test Parker had unwittingly walked right into. You're right, that's some pretty good eyesight you got there Mr. Parker—Better than 20/20 even—and Recovery Girl just confirmed you're not wearing contacts. But something tells me that those big thick glasses you wore in every picture of you from America weren't just for show, and your family is too poor to afford lasik surgery, there's no way you would have done something like that right after your uncle's death. So just how did your eyesight miraculously improve all of a sudden? And more importantly, why did you lie about it? I hope you have a good answer prepared Headache #1.

"Excellent, now if you'll just lay back, we can take some scans, heal you up, and you'll be free to go."

A/N: This site has a length limit, so the chapter has been split in two parts.