Chapter 18: Chimeras & Phantoms II

Peter grinned back, ignoring the feeling of warmth that swirled in his chest at seeing her smile.

He'd figure that out later.

Probably.

"Let's do spectacular!"

...

The two stood there and watched the building with determination, Hado hopping from foot to foot while her hair swirled at the movement while Peter double-checked his web-shooters and rolled his shoulder in preparation.

Instead of a siren telling them to begin, the next thing they knew a blur suddenly appeared before them in a cloud of dust.

All Might gave them a small smile as he shoved something into their hands. "These are communicators and capture tape! Use them accordingly and I apologize for forgetting to give them to you! Good luck!"

Peter and Hado stared at the earpiece and the roll of tape in their hand before All Might dashed into the building at blinding speeds, loudly telling the other two students the same thing and dashing back toward the control room.

They stood in silence simply staring at the objects in their hand before they simply put on the communicators and put away the tape.

"He's… not that good at teaching, is he?" Hado gave a small laugh, Peter only nodded in agreement.

"Did you see him reading that 'Teaching for dummies' book in the control room?"

"Wait, seriously? I thought that was a joke that Nezu made! D-"

"YOU MAY ALL BEGIN! GOOD LUCK STUDENTS!"

All Might's voice blared in their ears, making the two wince.

Without hesitation, the two teens headed toward the side of the building and started to go up to the windows in their own ways; Hado flying up at a pace Peter could keep up with while Peter crawled along the wall.

It'd be faster if he was running up the wall instead but he was still working on that.

Who knows? Maybe he'd have it down if scarf man had arrested him a month later.

Was he still a bit bitter about that? Maybe.

Peter and Hado went up the outside of the building until reaching a window on the sixth floor, boarded up with old wooden planks and rusted nails just like every other window that wasn't in the front .

Man, UA really went all out on making this look like a villain hideout!

"Uh, Hado?" Peter crawled next to the window, turning back to face his partner who was floating beside him with a determined expression. "How do we wanna go into the building? Stealthy or loud?"

Once she heard what he said, the girl cupped her chin for a couple of seconds while giving a small hum.

Peter couldn't help but think that she looked like a puppy trying to act serious.

"Loud! If this was a real thing then it'd be good to lure villains away from the hostage, right? And we wouldn't be at too much of a disadvantage if we announce our position since you got that sixth sense thingy going on!" She responded, backing up away from the window and thrusting her hands forward while smiling.

Peter thought about what she said for a second.

It was not that bad of a reason, they couldn't possibly kill the hostage given the fact that it was an exercise, and luring Togata and Amajiki to them to take them out would make it go by that much faster.

Crawling to the side and away from the window they were by, Peter watched as small spirals of golden energy appeared at Hado's palms before growing in size and shooting forward at the window, pushing the girl back a couple of feet and destroying the window.

Man, he wished he had a flashy quirk like that.

His partner gave him a grin and a thumbs-up, he nodded and started to crawl into the building with her close behind. The room they were in was grey and barren of any sort of decoration, Peter guessed it'd be like that for the rest of the building.

Kinda reminded him of the old warehouses he would crash drug deals in.

Ah, good times.

Except for those 3 or 4 times that he got shot.

Those weren't good times.

At least he wasn't gonna be getting shot in the exercise.

Hopefully.

Silently, they walked out of the empty room and into the grey hallway, the corridors seeming to stretch endlessly before turning a corner.

"Hey, did All Might give us a floorplan or a map anything?" Peter asked, already crawling down the corridor's ceiling while Hado floated slightly behind.

"I … don't think so? He kinda just showed up 2 minutes before we started, gave us the tape and the comms, and dashed off!"

...

So they were just wandering around a maze of a 10 story building blindly while hoping to find the dummy?

Great.

Rolling his eyes, Peter simply continued crawling with Hado behind. "Guess we just have to wander around… At least I'm pretty sure they're on the 6th or 7th floor."

Two minutes passed by, the two had just finished searching the 6th floor and found absolutely nothing but more empty and grey rooms. The only thing good to come out of it was that they had found the stairs halfway through.

Peter had to admit.

This was kinda boring.

As the two went up the stairs that would lead them to the 7th floor, Peter couldn't help but feel slightly underwhelmed at the lack of actual combat going on, you know?

From what he knew of Amajiki, the guy probably wouldn't seek out a straight confrontation with them; Togata seemed like he would try to play it smart and sneak up on them.

"Hey, do you think they'll show up?" Hado asked, the girl idly floating by his side as they stepped foot on the 7th floor.

"To be honest? I don't even know. U was hoping they w-" As Pete turned to face her, a buzzing in the back of his skull stopped him mid-sentence.

Spinning back around, Peter's lenses narrowed at seeing a form phase through one of the walls and charge at them.

Flipping off of the ground, Peter stuck to the ceiling and used it as a springboard to charge at Togata, the boy panicking and phasing through the floor while letting Peter crash to the ground.

Alright.

That was… something.

Remember that plan where Peter could counter Togata with his spider-sense?

Yeah, he didn't account for the fact he physically could not hit him.

Guess he's figuring out that small detail on the fly.

"Woah! You alright?" Hado flew over to him and pulled him up to his feet, Peter shaking his head and rolling the shoulder he landed on.

Man, did he need to work on landing overall.

"Yeah, kinda didn't account for Tintin to go ghost mid-fight when planning, that's my bad," Peter said, completely ignoring the fact that his teammate didn't get his reference and started to look around.

Even with a strong quirk like that, Togata didn't seem like the kind of guy to just rush into the enemy alone.

That means…

Closing his eyes, Peter tapped in his spider-sense and tried to map out the area.

Down the hall from them and standing behind the corner stood someone, and Peter guessed it wasn't Togata

"Hado!" The masked teen pointed down the corridor, "Flush out the hallway!"

Hearing this, Hado thrust one hand forwards and shot a spiral of golden energy that enveloped the hall, creating a small explosion once it hit the end of the hall and filled it with smoke.

All there was left to do was wait to see who made the next move

Suddenly, his spider-sense rung just in time for him to pull Hado out of the way of a tentacle that burst through the smoke before it drew itself back into cover.

As the smoke cleared, Hado and Peter saw Amajiki standing there with his left hand transformed into a writhing pink tentacle and right hand a huge clamshell.

Two manifestations?

Man, Peter just keeps miscalculating today, doesn't he?

"Uh, Hado?"

"Yeah?"

Neither of them took their eyes off of Amajiki, the boy originally had a strong face but began to look more and more anxious the more they looked at him.

Peter dropped into a low crouch, fingers flexing and finding themselves hovering over the triggers of his web-shooters.

Oddly enough, he was getting a sense of nostalgia.

"Change of plans! Blast him but keep them small enough to not hit me!"

Hopping up and running on the wall of the wide corridor, Peter grinned at the panicking expression that Amajiki adopted at the fact that he was now in a 2-1 situation.

Peter flipped up to the ceiling and shot two web lines at his opponent, the boy rolling out of the way and beginning to charge at Hado with a look of hesitation.

Wait.

Was he getting… ignored?

...

Can you guys throw some power stones to elevate the ranking

...

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