18: Chapter 18 Military Industry Infighting

The mech landed on all fours, then suddenly accelerated, charging straight toward Captain Stacy.

"Watch out!" Peter yelled, shooting Webbing to wrap around Captain Stacy and yanking him away.

The mech grazed past them, smashing into two police cars.

"Are you okay?" Peter asked.

"I'm fine, thank you." Captain Stacy said, still shaken.

Seeing his attack miss, Rhino leaped over the lanes and fled toward the city streets on the other side.

Peter gave chase immediately, shooting two strands of Webbing to bind the mech's torso.

Rhino possessed immense strength, dragging him through the traffic at high speed.

Peter used the momentum to swing onto the mech's back, covering its three head cameras with Webbing.

"What did you do?!" Rhino roared.

"Just a little trick." Peter adjusted the Webbing to its maximum hardness, wrapping it around the mech's legs.

With the massive inertia and resistance, Rhino instantly lost his balance and crashed heavily to the ground.

Peter quickly sealed its weapon vents, then grabbed a nearby manhole cover, swinging it like a guillotine into the cockpit glass.

"Stop! You're destroying everything!" Rhino bellowed.

"Just destroying your tin can." Peter sneered, delivering blow after blow.

The bulletproof glass finally shattered, and shards of glass cut the pilot's face.

Peter found the emergency release lever, yanked it, and hauled the pilot out.

"Who hired you?" Peter grabbed him by the collar.

"I don't know what you're talking about!"

"You're so stupid you don't even know how to operate this tin suit. Who paid you?"

"I really don't know! Don't kill me!"

Peter pointed to the bent manhole cover and the shattered armor: "This glass can withstand missiles, yet I smashed it and bent the manhole cover in the process. What do you think I want to do to you?"

The pilot was terrified: "He calls himself 'The Gentleman'! He just told me the client needed to steal something, gave me money and a car! I really don't know anything else!"

"Where is the hideout?"

The pilot tremblingly gave an address in Manhattan.

Peter threw him into the air, and at the last second, used Webbing to stick him to a lamppost, hanging there like a fly.

After dealing with the villain, Peter turned to join the rescue effort.

A car had pinned a passerby. Peter walked over, braced his legs, and lifted the car with his bare hands, letting the bystanders drag the injured person out.

On the other side, an overturned car caught Fire. Peter shot Webbing to extinguish the flames, ripped off the car door, and pulled out the mother and child trapped inside.

Cleaning up was much more exhausting than fighting.

He worked for a full hour, using Webbing to stop bleeding for the injured and swinging the critically wounded directly to the hospital.

When ambulances and the media finally arrived, Peter refused the reporters' interviews and shot a line of Webbing, vanishing into the night.

He followed the address to a dirty, rundown hideout in Manhattan.

After climbing through a window and passing through a room filled with trash, he found a relatively clean office.

A board with detailed robbery plans was posted on the wall.

Peter took out a micro-scanner and photographed the entire planning board.

On the table were night-vision goggles, a laser cutter, and a high-end decoder.

He swiped the night-vision goggles and the decoder, then returned the way he came.

Returning to the Baxter Building lab, Reed happened to walk in.

"Is that a decoder?" Reed saw through it instantly.

Peter briefly explained the situation with the Rhino mech, and Reed immediately stepped in to help.

He quickly cracked the underlying system and traced the production source.

A line of green text popped up on the screen: Osborn Industries.

Peter furrowed his brows.

"Osborn?" Reed rubbed his chin, "I didn't expect Norman Osborn to stoop to industrial espionage."

"What do you mean?"

"That Rhino armor is a semi-finished product developed by Hammer Industries to compete with Iron Man. Now that you've smashed it on the highway, Hammer's stock price is bound to plummet. If Osborn did this, it's a case of using someone else's blade to kill; they're trying to secure a Military contract."

Peter cursed under his breath. It made sense.

But he was more worried about what Osborn was working on if Hammer was making mechs.

Images of a green suit and a glider flashed through his mind, and he prayed Norman wouldn't mutate so quickly.

The next day, Spider-Man was once again the topic of conversation at school.

In history class, Flash was fanatically playing the video of Peter smashing the Rhino cockpit, boasting about how he took down the villain in one minute.

Harry also admitted that Spider-Man was indeed very cool.

Flash became more and more excited as he spoke, practically shoving his phone in front of the whole class, repeatedly playing the footage of Spider-Man ripping open the cockpit and pinning Rhino to the ground.

Peter sat down at his desk, and Flash immediately spotted him: "Hey, Parker! See that? That's what a real hero is!"

Peter rolled his eyes: "I see it, Flash."

"Do you think he could beat Iron Man?" Harry asked.

"I don't think so." Kong shook his head.

"Are you stupid! Of course he can!" Flash shouted, "Spider-Man is the coolest! What is Iron Man without his suit?"

"No, he couldn't beat Tony Stark." Felicia spoke up.

Peter glanced at her, and she returned a smile.

"You're crazy, Felicia, of course he can!" Flash argued defiantly, "Iron Man is cool, but what does he have left after taking off the suit?"

"Genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist." Peter subconsciously recited the classic line.

"Shut up, Parker." Flash gritted his teeth.

Flash stubbornly shoved his phone into Peter's face: "Look! He ended the fight in a second, if that's not a hero, what is?"

"It's impressive, but that alone doesn't prove he's a hero." Peter said.

"What?!" Flash's eyes widened.

"Peter, you were even dressed like him yesterday," Harry looked at him, confused, "and now you're saying he's not a hero?"

"I didn't say he wasn't a hero." Peter took the phone, swiped past the fight footage, and played the clip of the hour-long rescue, "I'm just saying, taking down Rhino isn't why he's a hero. How long did that fight last? A minute? It was great, but look at what happened afterward."

The whole class watched as Spider-Man on the screen rescued people from car after car, pulling unconscious victims from burning vehicles, then rushing to the next emergency.

"See that?" Peter said calmly, "He spent an hour saving people, saving many lives. Being able to fight doesn't make you a hero, Flash. Any idiot who likes to show off can smash a machine. But this, this is what Spider-Man is; this is why he's a hero."

The class went quiet, and Flash stared at the screen, lost in thought.

"Pretty mature, Tiger." Felicia chuckled from the side.

Peter rolled his eyes: "I still think 'Muscle Man' sounds better."

"No, 'Tiger' is better. When Red stops acting cold, I'll have to thank her properly." Felicia turned to look at Mary Jane, who was chatting with Liz Allan.

Peter shrugged: "That's how things go. Sorry for interrupting our date yesterday; I didn't mean to."

"That didn't really count as a date, you know?" Felicia said with a smile.

Peter smiled: "Maybe we can have a real date later."

"Sure." Felicia readily agreed.

For the next week, Peter focused on his homework and street patrols.

Occasionally, when he encountered injured people who needed to be taken to the hospital, he was exceptionally restrained, even skipping swinging on Webbing in mid-air for fear of accidentally harming a passerby.