Rhino's Arc

Chapter 2 of 3

The tower stood dark against the sky. Rhino crouched in the alley with the other four. Guards moved behind the glass doors below the red sign. More stood on the roof. Doctor Octopus counted them with a tapping metal arm. "Twelve," he said. "Maybe more inside." Rhino stared at his own hands. In the rhino suit he stood two heads taller than any man. His shoulders filled the alley mouth. He could not slip past a single guard. "I can't sneak," he said. "They'll see me first." Green goblin grinned under his pink cap. "He's right. Big guy sneaks like a truck." He kicked a can. It rolled loud across the ground. "Should've stayed home." Rhino's jaw tightened. Vulture spread his green wings and hushed them both. "Quiet," the old man said. His beak turned toward the roof. "They watch the roof and the doors. Nothing else." Mysterio floated forward. His crystal ball head swirled with blue light. "Then let them see something," he said. He raised his green gloves. Green smoke poured from his hands and filled the alley. Inside the smoke Rhino saw shapes. Fake guards. Fake shadows running the wrong way. "I make them look at the front. You go through the back." Rhino saw the plan now. He was too big to hide. So they would not hide him. They would use him. "I don't run and hide," he said. "I break things." Doctor Octopus lifted a tentacle. "Then break the back wall. Loud. While Mysterio pulls their eyes forward. The noise inside covers the noise outside." Rhino liked that. He circled to the rear of the tower. Mysterio's smoke bloomed at the front doors. Shouts went up. Boots pounded toward the fake shapes. The roof guards leaned over to watch. Every eye pulled to the smoke. Rhino lowered his head and charged. The brick wall met his horn and folded. Dust and stone flew inward. He crashed into a dark office. Papers rained down. He stood tall in the hole he had made, chest heaving. Then a shape dropped from the ceiling. He hung upside down on a thread. Red and blue. A black spider on his chest. White eyes fixed on Rhino. Spiderman. The one Rhino had chased for a week. He was here. Right here. "Wow," Spiderman said. "You rang the doorbell with your face." Rhino froze. His heart slammed. The whole city he had searched, and the spider hung inches away. "You," Rhino said. But a siren screamed outside. Rhino's wall had tripped an alarm. Red light washed the room. Down the hall, boots thundered his way. Spiderman flipped upright and landed light. "That's my cue," he said. He shot a web at the ceiling and swung out the broken wall, into the dark. Rhino roared and grabbed at empty air. He was inside now. He had found the spider. But the whole tower knew where he stood, and the spider was already gone.