Ultra Responsibility (My Hero Academia X Spider-Man Reader)

Issue 28 - What it Means to be a Hero

The wind was screaming past my ears, the train roof bucking under my feet like it wanted to throw me into traffic as a hobby.

Otto stood a few metres away, braced with two metal claws dug into the roof like anchors. The other two arms hovered above him, twitching, flexing, snapping open and shut like they were tasting the air. Ashido dangled behind him, held by one arm at the wrist, her shoes scraping sparks off the metal every time the train swayed.

I kept my hands open.

Not because I was calm, but because the second I clenched up, I knew I'd lunge. And if I lunged wrong, Otto would use her as a shield.

"Otto!" I shouted over the roar. "Put her down!"

He tilted his head, eyes wide and wild behind his goggles. He looked like a man who had convinced himself that gravity was optional.

"Progress doesn't ask permission!" he snapped, and then his arms moved.

They came for my head first. A pair of claws scissored down, aiming to pin me like an insect. I dropped flat, feeling the wind drag my suit against the roof, and the claws slammed together above me with a metallic crack that vibrated through my bones.

I rolled, sprang up, and the roof signposts flashed by like spears. I ducked under one, then another. Otto didn't duck. He didn't have to.

His arms did it for him, lifting him just enough, pushing him forward, turning him into a moving turret.

A line of overhead cables came up fast, a low stretch where the wires sagged close enough to shave a haircut off anyone standing too tall.

My Spider Sense screamed.

I hit the roof, slid on my stomach, and felt the cables whip over my back, close enough that the static prickled through the suit. Otto didn't slide. One arm punched down, using the roof like a springboard, lifting him up and over the cables with an ugly grace.

"Show off," I muttered, then immediately regretted wasting breath because the train barrelled past a billboard support.

"Your tricks are inefficient," he barked. "Your strength is wasted on pretending to be a hero."

"Pretending?" I shot back, twisting away from a claw that tried to spear my ribs. "Buddy, I'm doing this in a fur-collared suit on a train roof. If I were pretending, I'd pick something less humiliating!"

One of his arms swung down like a hammer.

I sprang backwards, and the claw smashed a maintenance panel, ripping it up. The metal sheet flung into the air, spinning like a saw blade.

I grabbed it with a web and snapped it aside before it could take Ashido's head off.

The steel frame loomed. Too low.

Tunnel mouth ahead, too, dark and hungry.

I sprinted, boots clanging, and fired a web at Otto's left shoulder. The line snapped tight. For half a second, I had leverage.

Then he yanked.

My feet left the roof. My stomach dropped. I flew toward him like a fish on a line, and the moment I was in range, he swung a metal arm sideways.

I twisted, but not enough.

The claw grazed my shoulder, and sparks exploded in my vision. Pain lit my nerves. I hit the roof hard, rolled, and somehow stayed on.

I pushed up, seeing Ashido's face again, her teeth clenched. She met my eyes, and even through the mask, I could feel the silent message.

Do something.