2 First Villain Fight and Meeting

A month passed as I slowly settled into being Spider-Man. I was pretty used to fighting common criminals, helping out the police while trying not to take away their job entirely. It helped that I couldn't be everywhere, so there were always places where the police worked without me. The people of New York were warming up to me, happy to get their own superhero.

Ganke had installed a software into the mask of my costume that had an interface that served a variety of purposes. The main one was that it allowed him to see what I see and communicate with me, linked to his laptop. I was currently on patrol, swinging around the city and seeing if anyone needed my help. It was as I was swinging that I got an alert from Ganke.

"Miles, there's a guy in a Rhino suit tearing his way through downtown." Ganke said.

"So not an ordinary criminal then." I replied while thinking about the Rhino of the other me's world. He had a lot of trouble dealing with Rhino, I didn't want to allow the amount of collateral damage that came from that fight to happen here.

"I'll handle it." I said and swung towards downtown. As I got closer, I could hear the sounds of car alarms and crashing. Swinging around a corner, I got my first view of the Rhino. He was different from the other me's Rhino. That one wore a giant mechanical suit, which was how he could do so much damage. The one in front of me wore a skin tight grey suit that looked like a Rhino skin, which seemed to not have any mechanical enhancements as he ran through cars.

'He's different. I can't expect the same things to work.' I thought as I swung down, landing in front of where the Rhino had stopped.

"What is this? Little spider has come to stop me." Rhino said.

"Aren't Rhinos endangered? Where'd you get the pelt?" I asked, trying to distract him long enough for the civilians around me to get clear.

"It does not matter. I will crush you like the bug you are." Rhino said and charged at me, arching his head down to have his horn pointed directly at me.

I shot a line to a nearby building, swinging up and around.

"Actually, spiders are arachnids." I said as I swung towards Rhino's exposed back. I had spent time lifting as much weight as I could find, slowly increasing my strength. I was a lot stronger than the Miles from my visions, and even the Peter from them as well.

Kicking Rhino's exposed back, he was sent crashing to the ground. I shot some webs to try to keep his arms down on the ground, but my spider-sense alerted me to a danger, so I jumped into the air, narrowly dodging a backhand from the Rhino.

"Seems little Spider has some strength to him. Doesn't make a difference." Rhino said as he got back up and looked at me. He reached next to him, grabbing a car and throwing it at me. I jumped out of the way of the car, but I heard a cry and looked behind me to see the car flying towards people trying to get out of the way.

'Damn it.' I thought as I shot two lines, pulling the car back towards me, narrowly stopping it from hitting people. I got an alert by my spider-sense when I pulled the car, but I couldn't turn around fast enough to stop myself from getting decked by Rhino, sending me flying into a nearby building wall.

'Ugh, damn he hits like a truck.' I shook the disorientation off and got up, looking at the Rhino.

'Got to put him down fast, before he harms more people.'

Shooting another web line, it attached to the Rhino, and I sent a venom blast through the web, shocking the Rhino.

"Agh" the Rhino cried out as he tore the line off of him. While he was disoriented, I swung towards him and delivered a venom blast-enhanced kick to his head, with my enhanced strength and shock combining to knock him out.

Standing over the Rhino I looked down at him.

'How many people did he kill? How many people could he have killed?' I thought as I charged up and even stronger venom blast, ready to shock him into oblivion.

"Miles stop, he's down." Ganke said to me.

"But he can come back. How many people have to get hurt when he escapes?" I asked, still having the blast charged.

"You can't kill everybody. He committed a crime, but he's nowhere near as bad as people like the Joker. I'm looking at reports, some people were injured, but no one was killed. You want to help make this city better, give second changes." Ganke said to me.

I hesitated, looking at the downed Rhino before dissipating the blast.

"Fine, I'll give second chances. But no third ones. He steps out of line again, I'm taking him down. Hard." I said to Ganke.

"If you really want to do that man, but just know it's going to change you." Ganke said, sounding unsure.

Leaning down to the Rhino, I whispered to him "You get one chance Rhino. Spend your time in prison, be a good Samaritan. You step out of line again, you'll never take another step."

I shot a lot of webs, securing the Rhino to the ground. The police walked towards me and I spoke to them.

"He's out. You should get him better restrained so he can't escape, I'm not sure how long he'll be out."

"You heard him, move. Thanks Spider-Man." the cop in the front said to the group.

"No problem." I responded.

I looked around to see the people around me looking at me and cheering. Shaking away my thoughts, I took a moment to just enjoy the appreciation, before shooting a web line and swinging away into the city.

The rest of the day was spent taking down minor crimes, with Ganke being oddly silent. With the day done, I swung back to my house and camouflaged myself, heading in the window. Inside, I found Ganke waiting for me. Changing out of my suit, I stopped cloaking myself, surprising him.

"Damn Miles, give a little warning next time." Ganke said, holding his chest.

"Ha, you'll never know." I replied.

Ganke calmed down and his face took on a serious one.

"Miles, you almost killed that guy today." he said, getting to the heart of the issue.

I sighed and walked over to my bed, sitting down and looking at him.

"You know I was there when my dad died. But what you don't know is that I saw the Joker moving to kill him. Superman was right there, but all he did was knock the Joker out. I don't know if he had some way to wake himself up or something, but he got right back up and killed my dad. If Superman had just finished it, or Batman had done it a long time ago, my dad and a lot of other people the Joker has killed would still be alive."

Ganke listened silently, allowing me to speak without interrupting.

"Miles, I understand where you're coming from. You want to stop anyone else from having to deal with what you had to, but you can't kill everyone." Ganke said.

I looked at him and could tell he was worried about me.

"You're right, I can't just kill anyone who commits a crime. I lost my head out there, you helped me calm down, but some people need to be put down. The Rhino doesn't deserve it yet, you were right about that, but there will be people I meet who deserve it and I won't hesitate." I said.

"If you want to do that, do that. I'll support you Miles, but I'm also going to keep you from going all the way down the path of no return." Ganke said, moving next to me and putting his hand on my shoulder.

"I appreciate it man, I do."

Ganke headed home after that, deciding not to stay for dinner. I ate dinner with my mom, just having a talk about our days. It was nice, peaceful. A good way to spend the night after the events of the day.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------POV Change Third Person

"Hey Robin, do you know why Batman called this meeting?" Kid Flash asked him as they stood in the cave with the rest of the team.

"I think it has to do with the new hero, that Spider-Man." Robin replied.

"Oh yeah, it was big news that he took down some guy dressed in a Rhino suit." Kid Flash said.

It was at this point that Batman appeared out of the Zeta Tube and walked towards the display screen. He pulled up video of Spider-Man's fight with the Rhino, allowing it to play on loop.

"Today, a villain going by the name 'Rhino' went on a rampage in downtown New York. Authorities were unable to handle it, when Spider-Man stepped in and took the Rhino down." Batman said.

"So what's the point of showing us this. I think a lot of us saw it on the news today." Kid Flash asked.

Artemis jabbed him in the side with her elbow to get him to not interrupt.

"I called you all here because I want you all to go to New York tomorrow and talk to Spider-Man." Batman said.

"Are we to invite him to the Team?" Aqualad asked.

"No, not right now. I think he would be more open to speaking to people around his age. I want you to interact with him, see what kind of person he is." Batman said.

"Is that the entire mission?" Aqualad asked.

"Yes, meet here tomorrow and head over to New York." Batman said, before leaving back through the Zeta Tube.

"Why does Batman seem so focused on Spider-Man?" M'gann asked.

"Batman's probably just worried about a new hero potentially putting people in danger." Robin said.

"I don't know, he's been doing pretty good work so far. I can't believe he's the same age as us, but he works on his own, without a mentor." Kid Flash said.

"Yeah, but maybe that's why Batman is worried. He doesn't have anyone to teach him. Wonder what kind of person he is though." Artemis said.

"We'll find out tomorrow." Aqualad said, dismissing the Team.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------The Next Day

I was swinging through the city, looking out for any crime to stop. Today was the last day of the weekend before I had to go back to school, so I wanted to get as much patrolling in as possible. Ganke wasn't watching me today, he had something to take care of with his family, so I was on my own.

I made short work of some guys who were robbing a bank and swung up on top of a building, standing on top and looking at the view.

'New York City, my city.' I thought.

"Nice work." was heard behind me. Turning around, I saw a group of teens in costumes.

"Huh, Robin, Aqualad, and Kid Flash. I don't know who the other three are, but what're you guys doing in New York?" I asked, surprised to see them here.

"Ha, how do you like that Artemis. He doesn't know who you are." Kid Flash said.

Artemis slapped her forehead and looked at Kid Flash. "You realize what our team's purpose is right? It's good that he doesn't know who I am."

Aqualad stepped forward, holding his hand out to me. "It is nice to meet you Spider-Man. The other are Miss Martian, Superboy, and Artemis."

I took his hand, giving him a strong handshake as I looked at the group.

"Well it's nice to meet you all, but what're you doing here?" I asked.

"We thought we'd check out the new guy, see what's up." Kid Flash said.

It was then that I got an alert that a gang fight was going on in Harlem.

"Well that's nice an all, but I've got to take care of something." I said and jumped off the roof, swinging in the direction of the fight.

"You've got to admit, that's pretty cool." I could hear Kid Flash say behind me as I left.

Quickly making my way to wear the fight was taking place, I could see two groups of people, one with purple shirts and one with yellow shirts in a stand off, with guns out. The police were surrounding them, but hadn't moved yet.

"Stand down and place your firearms on the ground." One of the cops said.

One guy instead swung his gun in the direction of the cop, moving to pull the trigger. I moved quickly, shooting a web to jam his gun, hurting his hand and making him drop it. While he was confused, I dropped down between the two gangs.

"Shit it's Spider-Man." One said.

"It doesn't matter, there's more of us. Take him down." Was heard from both sides at the same time as they all pointed their guns at me.

"Now you see me..." I said and camouflaged myself, moving around behind the purple side.

"Where'd he go?"

Taking out a new gadget I had designed that would spray webs in a wide radius, I rolled it into the middle of the group of purple gang members. It detonated, webbing up most of them, while leaving some stragglers free.

Uncloaking myself, I walked forward.

"You guys should surrender." I said.

"Fuck that, get him." Was heard by the rest of the purple gang. The orange side seemed content to wait for me to take out their rivals before making a move. That was their undoing as while they were watching me, the Team of sidekicks appeared behind them and made short of them, while I finished off the purple gang.

Looking at the Team, I gestured to a nearby rooftop and webbed up the people they had taken down, before swinging to the rooftop. It took a minute, but they made their way up to where I was as well.

"Thanks for the help I guess. Was there anything else you needed, I need to get on with my patrol." I said.

Aqualad hesitated for a minute, then said "We were wondering how you would feel about joining our team?"

I looked at the team before me, and said "I'll pass. I work better alone." I then shot a web, swinging off into the city, not waiting for a response.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------POV Change Third Person

"Why did you invite him even though it wasn't the mission?" Robin asked.

"Because, while he's good, I think he would benefit from formal training. I saw the way he fought, he doesn't have a trained fighting style." Aqualad said.

"Well it doesn't matter now, he rejected us." Kid Flash said.

"Time to report back to Batman." Artemis said.