With the rest of the Queen going to the debate for the election, Peter decided he should sit it out. The city might need a hero, and he can't just walk out in the middle of the debate without raising suspicion. Sara also wanted to spend a little bit of time with him alone, the two of them were in the Arrow Cave, just doing a bit of training. Sara was trying his best to even land a hit on the boy while Peter wore a blindfold.
If you're wondering, the blindfold was his idea.
Peter ducked away from the swing that Sara used with a training stick. Peter then grabbed her elbow and pushed her away, causing Sara to spin and giving Peter an advantage. Taking advantage, he spun and punched Sara in the face, sending her toppling to the ground.
"Ow," Sara commented, feeling the part of her face he hit. "That actually hurt."
"Super strength. If I wasn't careful, I could have dislocated your jaw." Peter informed her as he rubbed his knuckle.
"Good to know," Sara commented as she just looked over Peter. "Man, has it really been six years?"
"I know." Peter understood her shock and confusion. "If you told me that day Oliver left, six years later I'd be standing here, I wouldn't know what to think."
"If someone told me, I wouldn't have gotten on that boat," Sara commented as she was starting to get tired. "I'm gonna call it a night, want me to give you a ride home?"
"Yeah, sure. I'm gonna go wipe down and change. I'll meet you out back." Peter said and Sara walked her way up the stairs.
"Got it," Sara confirmed as she closed the door.
As Peter started to cool down with a towel, his phone went off and he saw it was MJ. "Hey, what's up?"
"A prisoner transfer has been attacked by our old buddy, Rhino," MJ informs him with a sigh.
"Rhino? Thought I ripped him a new one weeks ago." Peter commented, remembering when the Symbiote ripped his horn off.
"Seems someone fixed him, now he's on another rampage," MJ replied in an annoyed tone.
Peter groaned as he knew he needed to get out there and take down the Rhino. Hanging up the phone, he quickly changed into his Spider-Man suit and made his way out of the cave.
The convoy was wrecked, with an entire side of the prison truck completely destroyed when Peter and Miles got there. Oliver and Sara were never going to make it even if they were gonna show up. When the two of them arrived, they got to work and webbed them to the ground or the truck to stop them.
"Okay, now where is our friend in the dumb armor?" Peter asks as they look around.
Their senses then went off and they turn to see their old friend sporting a new armor as on top of his normal attire he wore some strange red armor on top of it and his horns.
"Hello, tiny Spiders," Rhino tells them as he marched out of the woods. "I have been looking for you."
"Rhino," Peter said with a wave of his arms, looking over his new attire. "Nice red tint. Where'd you get it?"
"You like my new power? It's immune to your younger Spider's little zappy pops." Rhino said, referring to Miles' new power.
"Zappy pops?" Miles asked as he looked at Peter. "That referring to me?"
"No, he's referring to me," Peter said sarcastically.
Rhino then charged at the two of them, but they both ran over, leaping over Rhino and kicking him in the back, sending him into the trees and causing him to groan. When he turned back, his eyes started to glow as his whole suit started to charge up.
"Uh...what's he doing?" Miles asks his friend.
"I have no idea," Peter admitted as the charge kept growing. "But I have the feeling we're not gonna like it."
Then Rhino's suit sent off a shockwave, built up from all of the energy that he gained from hitting or being hit. That shockwave sent Peter and Miles flying through the forest and into the trees.
"Ow. I knew I wouldn't like it." Peter muttered to himself.
"He shot us through us hitting him?" Miles asked as he and Peter got up, looking towards Rhino as he got ready to charge. "How are we supposed to stop him?"
"I don't know, but we gotta run!" Peter said as the two of them started to swing through the forest, trying to come up with a plan.
Rhino charged after them, his suit building momentum and smashing into the trees was helping him with that. They needed to do something before he became too powerful to stop on their own. And they were the only two with the power to stop him.
"We have to do something. If he keeps this up, he'll become a nuclear bomb!" Miles said in worry.
Peter then started to look around, and immediately came up with an idea. "I have something. I need you to distract him."
"What are you planning?" Miles asks, getting a little worried.
"Something stupid," Peter muttered, jumping and grabbing onto Rhino. "Hey, Alexi, have you heard the one of the rhino crossing the forest?"
"Get off of me and fight me like a man!" Rhino cried, trying to pry the boy off, but Peter shot webbing in his eyes, blinding him so he could crawl around without being spotted.
"No thanks, I'm good fighting as a Spider-Man," Peter stated, getting Rhino to start running to chase Miles.
"Yeah, and it looks like you can't fight us even with your eyes!" Miles mocked, trying to get Rhino to chase after him.
Rhino started to gain speed, trying to catch up with Miles' taunts, whilst Peter was webbing him to keep him from getting too close. When they reached an edge near a cliff, they both jumped out of the way and allowed Rhino to finally see what was happening.
But by the time he had sight, it was too late for him to stop himself from plummeting off of the cliff. His cries of terror filled the air, he fell about five stories before hitting solid ground, releasing all of the energy at once. Peter and Miles landed on the ground and looked down at the villain and wondered if he was okay.
"We didn't kill him, did we?" Miles asked.
Peter was about to respond when they heard Rhino groan in pain.
"He's fine," Peter said with a sigh, getting back up. "I'll get back and see if I can find where any of the inmates went, call the zoo and tell them we found their Rhino."
Back in Starling City, the Arrow team was making their way back down the stairs to their base. They were trying to figure out what Slade's next move was on making a Super Soldier army. To do that, he would need a way to reproduce the serum inside of his blood. And to do that, he was going to need some form of help from someone.
"We need to stop Slade before he has the chance to make more of his soldier army," Oliver tells them. "I know him, he is not going to stop."
But when they looked into the labs, they were shocked when they saw that Slade was inside their hideout. He was standing in the middle of their labs (for who knows how long. Considering they were in the debate for the last few hours), waiting for them to return. As soon as he had the chance, Slade pulled out a gun and opened fire on the four of them.
Oliver jumped and pushed Felicity over the railing and dodged the bullets while Sara and Diggle ran up to be shielded. When he and Diggle got into a position, Diggle cuts off the lights and gave Sara an opening.
Sara ran in and wrapped her legs around his head, but it only ended with Slade throwing her across the room.
Diggle went in, picking up a gun and shooting him. But all the bullets were only bouncing off either him or the armor.
"You're wasting your bullets." Slade informed Diggle.
Oliver came in, grabbing one of the training sticks to fight his old friend. Slade grabbed one of his own and the two fought, like in the old days but ended with Deathstroke grabbing Oliver and slamming him to the ground.
"Don't forget who taught you how to fight." Slade reminded Oliver.
Then the power came back on, courtesy of Felicity, and at that moment, Slade was gone.
The next morning, Oliver was in the hospital when Peter ran in to check on him. Making his way through the hospital, he saw Oliver getting dressed after being discharged. It was easy to come up with a lie as there weren't any real injuries, they were only roughed up if anything.
And that made them wonder why he didn't take care of them there and then. He must have something planned he wants Oliver and his friends (I'm sorry!) to be alive to witness.
"Hey, you okay?" Peter asked as he ran in and saw his brother putting his shirt on.
"Me? Yeah, I'm fine." Oliver assured him. "Not the first time I've been tossed around."
"I can't believe it." Peter sighed, now seeing it. "Rhino was just a distraction."
"Yeah, I have a feeling this wasn't a coincidence." Oliver agreed with Peter on that one. "He wanted you out of the way."
"Why?" Peter asks. "I don't get why he's so scared of me."
"I think it's because he's scared of you," Oliver explains to him. "Your powers. I think you can rival him."
"Me?" Peter clarifies. "You and Sara, trained professionals, couldn't stop him."
"And you have enhanced abilities that have shown could rival his own," Oliver explained to Peter.
"I do?" Peter asks.
"I've seen you." Oliver reminded Peter, thinking back to everything he's done over the year. "You might be stronger than him."
"I couldn't even get that crate open." Peter reminded him.
"Didn't you have some alien creature attached to you?" Oliver reminded him.
"Oh yeah." Peter saw it's possible that the Venom (MJ nicknamed it) creature could've caused his full strength to be deflated. "I never really considered that a possibility."
"I'm gonna go check on Sara," Oliver said as he patted Peter on the shoulder. "I'll see you later."
"Yeah, sure." Peter guessed that he was okay. "I'll meet you back at the Arrow Cave."
"See ya," Oliver said and walked out of the room.
Peter and Oliver sneaked their way down the stairs and into the cave. Oliver still denies calling it that.
"Hey, you guys got back at perfect timing," Felicity tells them as they made their way down. "We found out what Slade took."
"Took?" Peter asks.
"Yeah, turns out he sent Rhino as a distraction for us to have the chance to come down here," Miles explained what they've been up to. "Rhino attacked that truck so we'd be out of the way, knew the debate was gonna keep Oliver and friends busy, so he could steal the skeleton key."
"We have a skeleton key?" Peter asks.
"It was left over from the Clock King," Oliver explained to him.
"Clock King?" Peter asks, feeling he missed something.
"It was during that whole thing with you fighting the Venom thing," Miles explains why he's never heard of him.
"And nobody told me?" Peter asks.
"It... wasn't important at the time," Oliver explains to him.
"Where's Roy?" Diggle wonders, feeling he should be here.
"I left him a message, couldn't get through," Felicity assured them. "He'll be here when he gets it."
"He needs a way to mass produce the serum, and he knows that we'll be keeping a better eye on the company after he already broke in," Oliver told them, wondering where he's going to go.
"And now with that skeleton key, he can get into anywhere and take anything he wants." Diggle was sorry to say.
"Where is the most cutting-edge technology housed in Starling City?" Oliver asks them.
"Oh, I actually know that one," Peter said, knowing this answer. "Anya talks about it all the time. STAR Labs facility just outside the city."
"He's right," Felicity confirmed as she pulled up the same knowledge.
"Then let's get going. We can't let him mass produce the serum." Oliver tells them all, getting them all into their suits.
They needed to stop Slade, or he will have an army of indestructible, and unstoppable, soldiers like the Rhino.
Nobody in their lives would be safe. Slade might not know Peter is Spider-Man, but he has ways of finding things out.
This needs to end here.
