CHAPTER FIFTEEN: Kingpin of Crime

PART FOUR: Battle Royale

Okay, let's evaluate what exactly is going on here.

There's me, hanging from the ceiling.

There's Daredevil, crouched into some kind of weird martial arts stance that looks like it hurts like hell, his staff broken down into two parts, glaring at the Enforcers.

There's the Enforcers, three tough-lookin' Asian guys who probably want to do terrible, unspeakable things to us.

There's Rhino, who stares at me, just as I stare back at him.

And there's a girl beside him who's actually kinda cute, as inappropriate as it is for me to be thinking that right now.

So, getting my head back into the game, I leap from the ceiling, fly over the heads of the Enforcers, and tackle Rhino to the ground.

"You fuckin' bastard! You murderer!" I yell as I pound his head into the ground.

I was so focused on beating on Rhino that I ended up ignoring my flaring danger sense. Before I knew it, a rope was lashed around my throat and pulling my head back. Looking back as best I could, I saw the guy with medium build, holding a whip as taut as he could and strangling me with it. Before I could react, his partner, who was as big as Rhino, grabbed me by the top of my head. The guy with the whip relaxed his grip, and it fell from my neck. Before I could react, the guy who had palmed my head like a basketball turned and slammed my face into the nearby wall. He let me go, and I dropped to a knee. That hurt...a lot.

Next thing I knew, I heard gunfire. Looking up, I saw Daredevil running toward the guy with the pistols, crouching low to avoid his shots. He tackled the guy with the guns, and they ended up taking the fight down the hall.

Oh, by the way, I can't remember any of these guys' silly codenames, hence the vague descriptions. So bare with me, okay?

Almost as if on cue, Rhino spoke up.

"Montana, Ox, hold him off while I get Tracy outta here," said Rhino. "But don't kill him! I owe this motherfucker!"

I watched as Rhino turned toward the girl, who didn't seem to be phased all that much by all the fighting going on.

"Fuck that," she said, almost surprising me. "I wanna watch the fight!"

"So your father can kill me for puttin' you in danger? Bring your hardheaded ass on!" said Rhino as he grabbed the girl by the arm. I reached out and snared his ankles with a web, tripping him and making him fall on his face.

"You're not going anywhere!" I said as I drug him along the carpet toward me.

Just then, I felt the buzzing at the back of my neck again. This time, I was smart enough to move. I jumped away just in time to dodge a punch by the big guy...um...Ox, yeah that's it. As soon as I landed, the other one...Missouri...? Minnesota...? Oh, right, Montana! Yeah, that guy...Montana snapped his whip at me, narrowly missing my head. Ox ran toward me and began to repeatedly throw haymakers at me. I ducked and dodged as best I could, figuring I could just tire him out. But the dude must have been on speed or something, 'cuz he didn't let up.

After a while, I heard the gunshots from down the hall getting closer. Daredevil backflipped into the room, then leapt up and kicked one of the other guy's guns out of his hand. What was his name? Oh, right. Fancy Dan.

Getting tired of constantly dodging punches, I finally raised my hand to block a punch. Much to my surprise, the Ox's punch actually pushed my arm back, almost making me punch myself in the chest. Actually, to be honest, my arm felt kind of numb after that. Shaking my hand until I could feel it again, I tightened my fist and hit him with a straight punch to the gut. He paused, grunted a little, then smiled. I just stared at him in awe.

"Yo...stop bullshittin'. You know that hurt!" I said.

Ox responded by headbutting me. I took a step back and then turned to Daredevil, who was trying to wrestle Fancy Dan's other gun out of his hand.

"Um...wanna switch?" I asked him.

He didn't answer. He just hit Dan in the crotch with his knee and then flipped him to the ground.

I turned back to Ox and hit him with a right cross to the face. I started hitting him with lefts and rights, and just as I thought I may have hurt him, I felt the sting of Montana's whip on my shoulder. Fancy Dan, who was still laying on the ground, fired at me from where he lay. I titled my head to the side to dodge the bullet, then leapt and tackled Montana to the ground. Just as soon as I knocked him down, I had to jump into the air to dodge another bullet. Even as I flew through the air, Ox ran toward me and rammed his shoulder into my gut. I ended up flying back out of the room. Turning in midair, I bounced off of the far wall and propelled myself back into the room, diving fists-first into Ox's stomach and knocking him down.

I did a handstand and flipped to my feet. As I landed, I saw that Rhino had managed to cut the webbing on his feet with a knife. As soon as he rose to his feet, Daredevil ran toward him and started to beat him on each side of his head with his clubs. Rhino punched him in the face, and they stood there trading punches.

I would like to point out that Daredevil should consider himself lucky. Me? I had all three Enforcers surrounding me.

Fancy Dan recovered his fallen pistol and fired two shots at me. I leaned back, bending almost completely backwards to avoid the bullets. I ended up vaulting onto my hands to avoid Montana's whip, and then I had to handspring back onto my feet to avoid Ox as he tried to punch me and ended up slamming his fist into the ground. I jumped and turned, kicking Ox and Montana in the face, and then kicking both of Fancy Dan's guns out of his hands before landing. Ox was stunned, and Montana was on the ground. But Dan...gotta give it to the little guy, he just ran toward me and started throwing punches and kicks.

The guy obviously had some skill, so I didn't want to waste too much time squaring off with him. He threw six sidekicks at me with his left leg without having to put it down once. When he tried to throw a seventh, I caught him by the ankle with my right hand. We stared at each other in silence for a second.

"Mind if I borrow you for a second?" I asked.

I turned toward Ox, almost dragging the right half of my body behind myself, and swung Fancy Dan at him like a sack of bricks. Apparently Ox wasn't too strong to be stunned by being beaten over the head with a human being. I grabbed Dan's other ankle and proceeded to swing him around like a rag doll, beating Ox about the head and shoulders until he dropped to a knee, and finally fell on the floor. He repeatedly tried to get up, and I repeatedly hit him with his partner.

"Stay down, you asshole! Stay down!" I demanded as I beat him into the floor.

After I struck Ox a good twelve times, both he and Fancy Dan were unconscious. I looked up to see Montana rising back to his feet. He snapped his whip at me again, which by the way was becoming increasingly annoying. I caught the whip, pulled him toward me, and punched him in the face. He was out like a light.

Daredevil and Rhino were still trading punches. With the Enforcers knocked out, the two of us could easily take down Rhino. I began to walk toward the two of them when I felt somebody grab my arm. I cocked my fist back and turned toward whoever had grabbed me. To my surprise, it was Tracy, the girl that Rhino was trying to get out of the room.

"Hi," she said somewhat cheerfully, "I'm Tracy."

"Uh...Spider-Man. 'Scuse me one sec."

I turned back toward Rhino and Daredevil, but she grabbed my arm again.

"Wait a second. I just wanna talk..." she said.

"What're you, nuts?"

She didn't respond. Well, not with words anyway. Actually, she pulled my mask up to my nose and planted a kiss on me. I was...stunned. Yeah, I guess that would be the word for it. I kinda stood there, wondering why exactly this girl was kissing me. I dunno exactly how long we were kissing. It wasn't like Tiffany had built a stopwatch into my glove or...

Oh shit! Tiffany!

I pulled the girl off of me and yanked my mask back down. She just smiled and winked at me, then took a step back and sat back down on the couch. I was still in a daze as I stared at her.

"A little help here!" Daredevil said, snapping me out of my daze.

I ran toward them, leapt into the air, and kicked Rhino in the chest. He took a step back, grunted, and ran back toward us, extending his arms and clotheslining us both to the ground. He grabbed me by my throat with both hands and lifted me into the air.

"You think you can get away with touching Mr. Talbert's daughter!" Rhino screamed at me

"Fuck you!" I screamed back as I punched him in between the eyes.

Rhino dropped me. I immediately began to punch him repeatedly in the face.

"You're not gonna get away with it this time, Rhino!"

I knocked him down with a right uppercut to the chin. As he tried to get back up, I wrapped both of my hands around his throat and slammed the back of his head into the floor.

"Die, bastard! Die! Die! Die!"

All I could see was red. I kept picturing Tiffany, standing at her father's grave. I kept picturing Rhino, walking the streets with that smug smile of his. I started to picture Osborn...and my mother...

Suddenly, I didn't see Rhino anymore. It was almost as if he had transformed. I looked down at him, and I saw the grotesque goblin creature that Osborn had become. I saw my mother's killer.

"You...you killed my mother..."

"What...what the fuck are you talkin' about...?" Rhino managed to choke out.

"You killed my mother! You bastard, you took my mother from me! You killed my mother!"

I became vaguely aware that Daredevil had grabbed me and was trying to pull me off of Rhino, but I didn't care. I continued to choke the life out of him. I can't explain what exactly happened to me. It was like I was hallucinating. I can say now, as I tell you this story, that it was Rhino I was choking, not Osborn. But something in the back of my mind...snapped. I had told myself repeatedly that I was over my mother's death. But here I was, picturing myself strangling Osborn when in reality it was Rhino.

"Spider-Man, stop!" Daredevil yelled.

"You killed her! You killed my mother!" I repeated.

The next thing I knew, I had been knocked to the ground by a blunt object to the head. I looked up to see Daredevil standing over me. I stood back up, and we stared at each other for a moment.

"Not like this," he said. "Not like this..."

I looked back down at Rhino. He was coughing up a lung. I wanted to finish what I had started. Instead, I grabbed him by the back of his shirt and flung him toward a wall. His body bounced off of the wall, and I sprayed webbing at him, pinning him back towards it and holding him in place.

"I want information on the Kingpin," I said as I came back to my senses.

"Fuck you!" he spat back.

Daredevil promptly smacked him across the face with his now re-attached staff.

"The Enforcers couldn't help you, Rhino. Now tell us what we want to know," said Daredevil.

"Fuck both of ya'll..." he said as blood poured from his mouth.

I cracked my knuckles and took a step toward him, but Daredevil grabbed me by the shoulder and stopped me.

"We're getting nowhere. He's too afraid of Kingpin to talk. We should go."

"No! He's gonna tell me everything he knows about the Kingpin!"

"He's not going to talk. I can tell. His heart skips a beat just thinking about the Kingpin. We have no choice but to leave this place. The cops are already on their way."

"But...what the hell did we come here for?"

"Look, let's...let's just get out of here."

You have no idea how pissed I was. We had expected to get some evidence against the Kingpin. Instead all we did was cause a big fight, and I couldn't even find any plausible reason to turn Rhino over to the cops. Truth be told, Daredevil and I were the ones who had committed a crime, not them. At least, not that night.

I looked down at the Enforcers, who were slowly beginning to regain consciousness. I watched as Daredevil walked back down the hallway, toward the window that I shattered. He jumped out of the window, leaving me behind with the Enforcers and Rhino. I started to walk toward the window, but I stopped when I heard Rhino speak.

"This ain't over...you know I'm gonna end up fuckin' you up for this..." said Rhino.

I turned partially and looked over my shoulder at Rhino.

"I'll be waiting. Don't disappoint me."

With that, I followed Daredevil and jumped out of the window.

Within a few minutes, we found ourselves standing on the roof of Sharon Baptist Church, the church I attended with Angel every Sunday. We both stared at the street in silence. After a few minutes, I broke the silence.

"We can't beat the Kingpin, can we?" I asked.

"Of course we can. But it's going to take planning and..."

"No," I cut him off. "We just can't beat him. A guy like that...there's no way we can get any real dirt on him. And kicking Rhino's ass didn't solve a goddamn thing..."

"One thing you have to remember: The Kingpin is not invincible. He can be taken down. But it's not going to be easy," said Daredevil.

I continued staring down at the street for awhile. I was distraught over the whole situation. It made me question why I even put the costume back on.

"Why do you do it?" I asked.

"Do what?"

"The whole costume thing. Your war against Kingpin. Why do you do it?"

"I do it because...I have great power. I squandered that power before. Now I'm trying to make up for what I did. What about you, Spider-Man?"

"I...I don't really know why I do this. It was kid's stuff at first. But I don't think I even have a real motivation to do this."

"Well, I hope you do find your motivation. For what it's worth, it was a pleasure working with you. If you want to continue the fight, do it. Don't let anything stop you from doing what you want to do," said Daredevil.

He stepped toward me and extended his hand. I was actually kind of surprised. I took it and returned the handshake.

"Good luck, Spider-Man."

I nodded and smiled a little under my mask.

"Good luck, Daredevil."

With that, Daredevil dove backwards off of the rooftop. He backflipped, fired the cord from his staff, and was gone in the blink of an eye. I was left alone with my thoughts on the rooftop. It had occurred to me that it was pretty late. It probably would be a good idea to get home before my dad blew a gasket. But there was somewhere I had to go first.

I took my time heading toward my destination. This wasn't something I was looking forward to doing, but it had to be done. I made my way to a familiar apartment building. Tapping on a window on the side of the building, I waited. After a few seconds, the window opened.

"Hey, Tif."

"Rob? Are you okay?" asked Tiffany.

"Yeah. Can I come in?"

Tiffany took a step back. I climbed in through the window and sat on her bed. Tiffany shut the window, closed the blinds, and sat next to me.

"What's wrong, Rob?" she asked.

I sighed and took off my mask, then I turned to look at her.

"What happened?" she asked.

"Tiffany, I'm so sorry...I couldn't do a thing...there's no dirt I can get on Rhino to get him convicted," I said.

I stared down at the floor. Tiffany stared at me for a few seconds, then she put her arms around me and pulled me toward her.

"Come here," she said as she hugged me. "You did what you could, Rob. You did more than anybody else would have. I appreciate everything you do for me, understand?"

"But I failed you..."

"Don't ever use that word with me, Rob. You never failed me. Do you understand?"

"Yeah..."

"Rob, look at me."

I slowly looked back up at her.

"I love you. No matter what happens, I love you and I always will. Okay?"

"Yeah. I understand..."

Tiffany kissed me on the cheek, and I smiled at her. I put my arms around her, and we sat quietly in each others' arms for a while.

"I guess now's as good a time as any to ask," I said. "Will you go to the prom with me?"

Tiffany laughed and kissed me again.

"Of course I will," she replied.

I turned toward Tiffany and kissed her. She returned the kiss, and as she did so, she started to remove the shirt to my costume. What happened next is...well...none of your damn business, really. You got enough of that in Chapter Seven, didn't you? Perverts...

In any case, it would be two hours before I went home. After climbing in through my window and changing my clothes, I walked down the hall to my dad's room and knocked on the door.

"Dad, are you awake?" I asked.

"Yeah. Come in, Rob," he replied.

I opened the door to my father's room and entered. He was sitting at the foot of his bed, watching TV.

"What's up, son?" he asked.

"Dad, I have a problem," I said. "Let's say you have the ability to help people, but you're not sure if you should do it or even how to go about it. How do you figure it out?"

My dad seemed to drift off into his thoughts for a second, then he looked at me.

"Son, have a seat," he said. I complied and sat in a nearby chair.

"Rob, have I ever told you about my Uncle Robert?"

"Once or twice."

"Well, Uncle Robert was my favorite uncle. My mother had three brothers, and Robert was the youngest of the siblings. When he was coming up, times were hard. Especially for a Black man. Well, their father ran out on them shortly after Robert was born. He said that he didn't want the responsibility of raising yet another child."

I leaned in and listened intently to my father's story.

"Well, my grandmother raised all of her children herself. My Uncle Willie was the oldest. He dropped out of school and worked odd jobs to support the family. My mother cleaned houses and babysat neighborhood children for money. Uncle Joe became an alcoholic and disappeared. Uncle Robert...he persevered. His mother always stressed the importance of education. She told him to make something of himself. So he did. He went to college and beat the odds. In spite of everything being stacked against him, my Uncle Robert, a Black man in that age, became a college professor. I was always so proud to call him my uncle. Few Black men could say they had done the same in that day and age. I sometimes thought Uncle Robert was the only Black college professor in the country, actually."

I nodded my head and smiled as I listened to my father's story.

"Well, shortly after Uncle Robert got the job, my grandmother died. The family had stuck together for so long, and none of them could make it on their own. Anybody would have expected Uncle Robert to move on with his life, but he did no such thing. He knew he was blessed, and he made sure to do the right thing. He supported the family and helped his siblings get back on their feet. He took care of his responsibilities."

"Sounds like a great guy," I said.

"Oh, he was. So, naturally, it broke my heart when my mother called and told me that Uncle Robert had died."

My father paused for a moment and wiped away a tear. Then he continued.

"He had been killed by a drunk driver. I tried so hard not to cry at my uncle's funeral, but I couldn't hold it in. I had never been so sad in all my life. But this...son, this is what helped me move on. I asked my mother at the funeral...I said, 'Mom, Uncle Robert became such a success...he had so much. He could have moved on and forgotten about the family. Anybody else would have. Why did Uncle Robert give so much of himself for the family?' And my mother looked me in the eye, and she said three words to me that have stuck with me to this day."

"What's that?" I asked.

"Power and responsibility."

My father looked me in the eye as he said these words. I could tell he wanted to stress this to me, just as his mother had done to him.

"I asked my mother what she meant. She said that she once asked Uncle Robert the same question, and he said, 'The Lord blessed me with great power. The power to protect and support my family. And with great power...comes great responsibility.' And I have never forgotten that since."

Hearing this, I suddenly felt...enlightened. Suddenly, everything made a little more sense.

"I named you after my Uncle Robert for a reason, son. I'm telling you this story because...well, because I know you'll grow up to be a great man just like my uncle. You asked if you should help if you're given the ability. The answer is yes, Robert. I'm passing onto you the same words that my uncle lived by: With great power comes great responsibility."

I couldn't help but smile at my father's words. What he said made perfect sense. It almost made the whole thing seem simple. I walked up to my dad and gave him a hug.

"Thanks, Dad. You really helped a lot," I said.

"What's this? I thought you were too macho to hug your old man," he said.

I walked to the door and glanced back at him.

"Nothing in the world would ever stop me from hugging my father," I said, and I closed the door.

I walked back to my room and lay on the bed. Staring at the ceiling, I thought back to the events of the day. It would be a long fight, but I would stick with it. I had the power. And with that power...came great responsibility.

END OF CHAPTER FIFTEEN