The mech dropped to all fours and launched a fierce charge straight at Captain Stacy.
“Look out!” Peter shouted, shooting a web-line to snag Captain Stacy and yanking him out of the way.
The mech brushed past them, smashing two police cars in its path.
“Are you alright?” Peter asked.
“I’m fine.
Thank you,” Captain Stacy said, still shaken.
Seeing his attack miss, Rhino leapt across the lanes and fled down another city street.
Peter immediately gave chase, shooting two web-lines onto the mech’s torso.
Rhino possessed immense strength, dragging Peter along through the heavy traffic.
Using the momentum, Peter swung onto the mech’s back and plastered web-fluid over the three cameras on its head.
“What did you do?!” Rhino roared.
“Just a little trick.” Peter adjusted his web-fluid to maximum tensile strength, wrapping it tightly around the mech’s legs.
Combined with the massive inertia and sudden drag, Rhino lost his balance instantly and slammed hard into the pavement.
Peter quickly sealed the mech’s weapon ports, then grabbed a heavy manhole cover from the roadside, swinging it like a guillotine blade down onto the cockpit glass.
“Stop!
You’re ruining everything!” Rhino bellowed.
“Just ruining your tin suit,” Peter sneered, pounding the glass again and again.
The bulletproof glass finally shattered, shards spraying inward and cutting the pilot’s face.
Peter reached in, found the emergency release lever, yanked it open, and hauled the pilot out.
“Who hired you?” Peter demanded, grabbing him by the collar.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about!” “You’re too stupid to even know how to properly pilot this tin can.
Who paid you?” “I really don’t know!
Don’t kill me!” Peter pointed at the bent manhole cover and the shattered armor.
“This glass could withstand a missile, and I smashed it to pieces while bending solid iron.
What do you think I’m going to do to you?” The driver nearly wet himself.
“He goes by ‘The Gentleman’!
He just told me a client needed something stolen, gave me money and the rig!
I really don’t know anything else!” “Where’s the hideout?” Trembling, the driver rattled off a Manhattan address.
Peter tossed him into the air and, at the last second, webbed him to a lamppost, leaving him dangling like a fly.
With the villain handled, Peter turned his attention to rescue work.
A car was pinning down a pedestrian.
Peter walked over, planted his feet, and lifted the car with his bare hands so bystanders could drag the injured person out.
Elsewhere, an overturned car caught fire; Peter shot webbing to douse the flames, tore off the door, and pulled out a trapped mother and her child.
The cleanup was far more exhausting than the fight.
He worked for a full hour, using web-fluid as temporary tourniquets and swinging the critically injured directly to hospitals.
By the time ambulances and the press finally arrived, Peter declined all interviews and launched a web-line, disappearing into the night.
Following the address, he tracked down a filthy hideout in Manhattan.
Slipping through a window and stepping past rooms piled with trash, he found a relatively clean office.
On the wall was a board detailed with heist plans.
Peter pulled out a micro-scanner and photographed the entire planning board.
On the desk lay night-vision goggles, a laser cutter, and an advanced decoder.
Swiping the night-vision goggles and the decoder, he backtracked out of the building.
Back at the Baxter Building laboratory, Reed happened to walk in.
“Is that a decoder?” Reed asked, recognizing it instantly.
Peter briefly explained the situation with the Rhino mech, and Reed stepped up to help right away.
He quickly cracked the low-level system and traced the manufacturing source.
A line of green text flashed across the screen: Oscorp Industries.
Peter’s brows furrowed tightly.
“Oscorp?” Reed rubbed his chin.
“I didn’t expect Norman Osborn to engage in corporate espionage.” “What do you mean?” “That Rhino armor was a prototype Hammer Industries built to compete with Iron Man.
Now that you’ve smashed it on the highway, Hammer’s stock is going to plunge.
If Osborn was behind this, he used you to do his dirty work—all to secure those military contracts.” Peter cursed under his breath.
It made total sense.
But what worried him even more was: if Hammer was building mechs, what was Oscorp working on?
Images of a green suit and a glider flashed through his mind, and he prayed Norman wouldn’t mutate anytime soon.
The next day, Spider-Man was once again the hot topic at school.
During history class, Flash obsessively played the video of Spider-Man smashing Rhino’s cockpit, bragging about how he took out the villain in under a minute.
Harry admitted that Spider-Man was pretty cool too.
Getting more excited as he spoke, Flash shoved his phone in front of almost the entire class, replaying the footage of Spider-Man tearing open the cockpit and pinning Rhino to the ground.
When Peter took his seat, Flash immediately spotted him.
“Hey, Parker!
See that?
That’s what a real hero looks like!” Peter rolled his eyes.
“I see it, Flash.” “Do you think he could beat Iron Man?” Harry asked.
“I don’t think so,” Kong said, shaking his head.
“Are you stupid?
Of course he can!” Flash shouted.
“Spider-Man is the coolest!
What’s Iron Man without his suit anyway?” “No, he couldn’t beat Tony Stark,” Felicia spoke up.
Peter glanced at her, and she flashed him a subtle smile.
“Are you crazy, Felicia?
Of course he can!” Flash argued defensively.
“Iron Man is cool, but take away his suit and what is he?” “Genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist,” Peter blurted out instinctively.
“Shut up, Parker,” Flash growled through gritted teeth.
Still unconvinced, Flash shoved the phone right in Peter’s face.
“Look at this!
He ended the fight in seconds.
If that’s not a hero, what is?” “It’s impressive, but that alone doesn’t make him a hero,” Peter said.
“What?!” Flash stared with wide eyes.
“Peter, you were dressed like him yesterday,” Harry said, looking at him confusedly.
“And now you’re saying he isn’t a hero?” “I didn’t say he wasn’t a hero.” Peter took the phone, swiped past the fight scene, and played the footage from the following hour of rescue efforts.
“I’m saying defeating Rhino isn’t *why* he’s a hero.
How long did that fight last?
A minute?
Sure, that was great, but look at what happens after.” The class watched the screen as Spider-Man went from car to car, pulling unconscious people out of burning wrecks and charging straight into the next hazard without stopping.
“See that?” Peter said calmly.
“He spent a full hour saving people.
He saved dozens of lives.
Being able to fight doesn’t make someone a hero, Flash.
Any show-off idiot can smash a machine.
But this—this is Spider-Man.
This is what makes him a hero.” The classroom fell silent.
Flash stared at the screen, lost in thought.
“Pretty mature, little tiger,” Felicia purred softly beside him.
Peter rolled his eyes.
“I still think ‘muscles’ sounds better.” “No, ‘little tiger’ is better.
When Red stops acting so aloof, I’ll have to thank her properly.” Felicia glanced over at Mary Jane, who was chatting with Liz.
Peter shrugged.
“That’s life.
Sorry for ruining our date yesterday, by the way.
I didn’t mean to.” “That wasn’t really a date, you know,” Felicia said with a laugh.
Peter smiled.
“Maybe we can have a real one sometime.” “I’d love that,” Felicia readily agreed.
Over the following week, Peter focused his energy on homework and street patrols.
On the rare occasion he had to rush injured citizens to the hospital, he exercised extreme caution—he even cut back on web-swinging mid-air, terrified of accidentally clipping a pedestrian.