Chapter Two
It didn't take long for Spider-man to find where Rhino was-it may have been New York City, but that didn't mean a big cloud of dust went unnoticed.
Landing on a rooftop a block away, he took a moment to come up with a plan of attack.
There's definitely gonna be some debris, so I can do the whole 'Rhino charge and smash' thing or throw some at him, but from the news pictures, there are several people in the area, mainly people who have had to flee the building, so I'll have to be-
Suddenly, his spider-sense buzzed like a bee in a bonnet and, instinctively, he whipped round to where the 'danger' was coming from.
An apartment rooftop, three buildings away from the one he was stood on. Nothing unusual, but something about it was giving him a spider-headache. But what, there was nothing there? Although…
No, just the heat. Making me feel a bit woozy. One corner of the roof seemed to be blurred or misty. It was barely noticeable, but it still caught Spidey's eye.
Never mind. Back to business.
It didn't take long to find Rhino (again), as a roaring maniac as big as the Hulk, in a Rhino costume, isn't hard to spot. By now, almost all of whatever building it was, wasn't. He was looking through the wreckage and still standing rooms, frustration and anger covering his face.
He picked up a huge lump o' concrete and tossed it out of his way, without noticing the several people in its path. People fled from the soon-to-be landing site, except a young woman who just stared at the boulder in terror, unable to move. A split second before it would collide with her and break her bones like breakin' bones, there was a flash of red/blue that knocked into her instead. Safe.
"You okay?" Spidey asked the woman, now trembling for a different reason. "You can stop shaking, you're safe now."
Her voice trembled as much as she did. "He-he's c-coming! H-he's…"
Spider-man's head went haywire as the Rhino took a charged run in his direction. Jumping to the side with the lady in his arms, Spidey managed to dodge the bumbling buffoon's attack, landing him and his 'passenger' out of harm's way, and the Rhino's head into the nearest pile of rubble. As usual, Spidey thought.
As the grey-skinned goof struggled to pull his horn from out of the mess, our hero placed the woman gently on the ground and began to advance. To mock. And laugh.
"So, still falling for that one despite the fact that I've used the same technique every single time we fight! I mean, could you have less brain cells?" Normally, Peter used humor to distract himself from the danger but, this time, he genuinely found Rhino's repetitive nature just a tad amusing.
"Shut up, bug! I ain't got time f'r you! I've gotta find Pavlov!" Rhino was getting more infuriated the more he struggled. Slowly but surely, he was getting free. As usual.
"No, you've gotta find help, and not for getting free either. What you have got time for is education, and boy do you need it. Knowledge makes the man, that's what I always say! And there's a lot of learning to be done in jail."
Suddenly, Rhino tore his head away from the rubble. He glared at the webslinger, a sinister grin spreading across his face. "Learn this!"
Spider-sense seemed a pointless concept at that moment as the Rhino got to Spidey before he could react. Using his bulk as a weapon, he slammed into the webbed-wonder with the speed of a giant, Rhino-shaped super villain charging into a blue and red bug-man. Spider-man went flying across the debris piles, landing in the crowd and knocking over a few spectators in the process. Great, thought Peter, this is the part that will make the headlines!
Getting to his feet, it hit him. If I'm in the crowd, and Rhino's aiming for me, doesn't that mean-
Rhino's massive frame came running into sight from the other side of the mounds of rubble. Spidey needed to act fast. Moving to the front of the crowd, he launched one end of a web net to stick to the wall to the side of the crowd. It was a thick net, enough to stop a car at over seventy, but with an elastic framework. Then, pushing away from the wall, he stretched the net to stick to the wall of the opposite building, then to somewhere just past the Rhino. Unable to stop, the heavy hit man collided with the first part of the net. He rebounded off of it, heading into the second stretched section of the net with the first still stuck to him.
Not long after a nudge into the third, the Rhino realized he was trapped.
"Oh…bummer." He hung his head, disappointment filling his sorry face. Then he broke the bonds.
Throwing the webbing from himself, he swung one last fist in Spider-man's direction, knocking the webslinger into the wall, before running off toward wherever a Rhino in New York lives.
Spidey brushed the dust from his shoulders, turned to the crowd, and said "Ta-da!"
Then he heard the usual; NYPD sirens were sounding a block or two away, signaling that, finally, one of the officers had racked up the courage to take on an actual super villain.
"Love to stay and chat", Spider-man announced to his 'audience', "but I'm sure you can tell the cops about how I smashed up the building with my partner, Rhino. Hey, add something to the story if you want, like how I, together with Doc Ock and Roger Rabbit, planned to give cigarettes to school kids. You know, the usual!"
Spidey leaped onto the nearest rooftop, shot a webline in the direction of Times Square, and swung off into the concrete jungle.
Meanwhile, on the rooftop three buildings away from Rhino's wreckage, It sat and judged the show he had just seen performed. The reflexes of both fighters, the damage done, to damage avoided, all was important to Its study.
Deciding on the subject, the creature began to form a new study, one to follow the smaller, agile competitor.
This was far from the usual. This was the beginning of something new.