Author: 1500 power stones for this week, and you will receive one bonus chapter! Last week we were only short of 100 ps! We can do this guys!
ᕙ(`▽´)ᕗ ᕙ(`▽´)ᕗ ᕙ(`▽´)ᕗ
*********************************
*DING*
Evacuation notices were sent to every civilian in the vicinity of the monster through Ryan's Disaster Apps.
Disaster level: Tiger ( Threats to a large number of people. Street level)
"I am Rhino!" Alexei yelled before he charged onto the upcoming traffic. An unlucky car that was in the direction of charge, became a target.
"Arghhh-" The unlucky passenger screamed as he jumped out of the car. Alexei rammed his body into the vehicle, with a force almost that of the Hulk. Not only that, he jumped on top of the car and stomped on it until it turned pancake.
The unlucky man – Roger Harrington, a teacher at Midtown High School, crawled out of the vicinity of his shattered car with all four of his limbs like cockroaches – doing all that so he could escape the monster's rampage.
"My…new car.."
He stood up and glanced at the new Knight hybrid he had bought after his salary was increased because of Ryan's effort – to pass the bill for increasing a teacher's salary. Tears pooled in his eyes as his insurance didn't cover the monster attack clause because he didn't think that was necessary.
The first responders arrived quickly and set up a perimeter. A blockade was created in a one-block radius, and SHIELD was notified of the monster attack.
"Shoot!" A police lieutenant ordered his team to bring the monster down. I.C.E.R (Incapacitating Cartridge Emitting Railguns) gun, Ryan's new donation that he donated for the police was used in this matter.
The ICER gun uses dendrotoxin to tranquilize the target, subduing them instantly. Using this weapon, the casualties produced by the police had decreased slightly to normal. When the usage will be widespread, then the casualties by a police shootout would decrease even more. Ryan got praised greatly by his future father-in-law as he created the gun.
Of course, SHIELD already procured a sample from the police weapon storage area. Ryan didn't mind SHIELD getting the technology. After all, it was supposed to be created by Agent Fitz-Simmons in the future.
"The bullets aren't working," an officer yelled with agitation.
The blast of blue toxins was popping around the Rhino, however, he couldn't be put down. His hide is too thick for the ICER to penetrate it, and his constitution was too tough to be influenced by the night-night gun. The policeman's action angered the beast who was enjoying himself with the toy car instead.
"STOP WITH THE LIGHT!" Rhino yelled and tried to attack the police. He rammed a police car close by with his horned head, making it roll upside down into the busy streets of New York, putting the car out of commission forever. He swung his newly made, thick arm toward a nearby female police officer who kept shooting at him even though the other police had run away.
"Ark-" the female officer was thrown away with tremendous force as she blocked the attack by putting her hand up as a guard. Her ribs were cracked from the impact, and she would lose all mobility in her arm if someone didn't help her in the healing process. Luckily for her, someone would interfere and save her later on.
"RHINO IS STRONG!"
At Rhino's state right now, he thought that he could even go against the Hulk. His brain's electrical neurons were misfiring as the beastly instinct to destroy and Alexei's human instincts were starting to merge.
The rhinoceros head he had was changing into his human face. The horn was pushed up from his nose to his forehead as his transformation was still ongoing. He had rhinoceros features – ears and horns, and human features – nose, mouth, and eyes.
"Where are the Avengers?"
The question was not only muttered by the police officers who were being swatted like flies by the Rhino but also in the minds of every pedestrian on the street.
Right at the moment where the female officer was going to crash into the hard wall – breaking her skull like a watermelon being hit by a hammer, her figure was stopped by… a card?
Carved with the 'Arresto Momentum' spell, the card helped stop the female officer from becoming a city mural by absorbing all of her kinetic energy. "W-wha-?"
Ignoring the stammering officer, the card flew back to its source, a person who was standing a hundred meters away from the scene.
"What happened?" Tony said as he was on his way. Flying hurriedly inside his Mark 7 suit, he was cruising among the skyscrapers of New York City with the enhanced aerial maneuver.
"The big guy wants to come out," Bruce said after he watched the footage of the monster. The Hulk inside of him would be very glad if he can fight the monster. Hulk wanted to smash after seeing the monster smash.
"Who opened a zoo in the middle of the streets?" The man with the card said loudly to catch the monster's attention.
The crowd could hear a mocking tone directed toward the beast. They turned their head toward the savior, expecting them to be someone they knew. But all they can see is a man in a purple suit with robotic armor underneath it, taunting the beast.
Investigating nearby, Ryan debuted as a street hero after some careful consideration. At that exact moment, his shadow clone had shown himself in the Knight Industry as Tim had called Ryan for a chat – to plan what they were going to do with Marcus.
He had a perfect alibi, but he had to use the bathroom excuse again.
"I am not a ZOO animal!" Alexsei said as he became unhinged again. Strong blasts of breath came out of his nose as he is preparing to charge at the suited man. 'The suit dared to mock him? The great Rhino?'
"You can't be telling me that when you charge at me like a bull," Ryan said casually as he dodged the animal's strike. Rhino tried to stop his momentum when he passed by Ryan, but he couldn't stop his feet and crashed into a wall.
"Pfft, what are you? Stupid?"
"I…AM…RHINOOOOOOO!!!!"
Alexei was frustrated as he kept getting teased by the man in front of him. He wanted to knock some stuff over, but the man was distracting him from doing his cause. Ryan had kept all of Rhino's attention on him while the injured police officers were evacuated.
"Does the Rhino have another name?" Ryan asked casually, even though the monster was approaching him. The ground shook as the Rhino charged toward the new guy. The onlookers were taking videos and pictures of the battle to post them on social media later on.
Rhino swung both his thick arms from the top and wanted to pummel Ryan's head. Bashing his face into his skull will become an excellent heart-soothing choice for the Rhino. "A..LEXEI!"
Ryan dodged the attack by jumping backward allowing the hammer fist of the Rhino to cause a massive shockwave, cracking the screens of the recording smartphones nearby. A massive spider-web-like crack appeared on the newly made road – almost making the DODC workers cry.
Sensing that the beast had lost all reasons, Ryan planned to keep the damage on the down low. Otherwise, he would be the one responsible for it as he is currently the head of DODC.
"Let me read your fate," Ryan took out a deck of cards, which completed his Tarot persona. He shuffled the card in front of Rhino, making the man pissed off. Rhino tried to swing his fist at Ryan, but the latter took out a card from his deck.
The card floated in front of Ryan and stopped the Rhino attack like it was nothing. The punch that can shatter a 30 inches thick wall was stopped with minimal effort.
"Oh no, it's the reversed Tower card! That means your drama is over," Ryan said mockingly as his emoticon face was showing a sarcastic expression.
"No one can stop the Rhino!"
The humanoid beast pummeled the card with a machine gun-like punch, however, the card didn't budge. The card glowed purple as it was charged with the kinetic energy coming from the humanoid beast's fist.
A mixture of Vibranium and Uru, the card that Ryan made can store kinetic energy. It was floating from the magical runes Ryan had crafted into his card deck. The Rhino was pissed as to why the card couldn't be destroyed. It floated quickly to block his every fist even when he changed the target to the man in the suit that was mocking him.
"Hmm, let me help."
Ryan thought that Rhino was so pathetic that he helped reverse the card, making it up right now instead of upside down. If the reversed card means that it is over, the upright card means that it will be unleashed.
Rhino hit the card without thinking, causing a purple color kinetic energy explosion reflected onto him.
*BOOM*
He shot a hundred meters backward from his spot, almost knocked out by the blast.
"You should have been careful, an upright tower means chaos," Ryan said mockingly toward the human beast.
Rhino shakes his head slightly to remove the dizziness he was feeling. At that moment, Ryan didn't allow him to recover. He takes out a card and throws it in the Rhino's direction.
"The sand pit… Well, you can guess the meaning," Tarot mumbles as the card thrown disintegrated the ground the Rhino is standing on, turning it into a sand pit. Using the disintegration spell, the card magic was changing the solid property of the road into a more liquid form. Rhino fell into the pit and was submerged until his upper chest.
"Aaaaaand, reverse…"
The sand pit reversed to its previous condition – becoming solid ground and trapping the Rhino in it.
The crowd cheered after seeing the beast couldn't move any longer. Ryan's emoticon display turned into an embarrassed one and he rubbed the back of his head with his right hand.
Of course, he was only faking it to show that he was a newly debuted hero. Rhino squirmed from his hold and tried to break free. At that time, Tony was already on the scene. Even SHIELD was now nearby, trying to take command of the first responders and pushing the member of the public away.
Not only were they trying to capture Rhino, but SHIELD also wanted to capture 'Tarot' as the man showed many mysterious capabilities.
"It's Iron Man, we are safe!!" A random die-hard fan yelled after Tony landed on the scene.
Ryan opened his arm and pointed to the captured Rhino with both of his palms.
'I am the one who saved you, so why did Tony get the rep?'
Not to mention, the crowd cheered as if they agreed with what the die-hard fan spouted without thinking.
'Where is fairness in this world?'
To add salt to his wound, Tony was waving at the crowd, making them cheer and applaud.
Seeing the sad emoticon on his face, Tony said to the unidentified individual, " You can become famous too. Follow me back to the Avenger tower and we will search for methods for you to get famous."
Tony decided to try and poach the new guy from SHIELD who he is sure was lying in wait. He wanted to bring the guy into the Avengers instead. The new tech does interest him, but he is more focused on the newbie's ability in controlling the situation.
From the beginning until the end, the Rhino was dancing inside Tarot's palm. This warrants tremendous respect from Tony and Bruce Banner who were looking at the scene from afar.
"Don't worry about me. I will be sure to climb up into the rankings by myself," Ryan muttered hurriedly and let out a purple smoke bomb.
"Son of a-" Tony is annoyed as the powdery smoke was interfering with his scanner, making him lose sight of the new guy. When the smoke cleared, on the road where Ryan used to stand, a graffiti-looking font of his name was drawn on the road.
"Tarot? Ahh, he did use tarot cards," Tony muttered to himself. He wasn't worried about losing the guy as he was sure he would meet him again. The attention seeker attribute that Tony saw in him won't let him be satisfied with just one appearance. He knew what an attention seeker looks like as he was one.
"Now for the zoo escapee," Tony muttered as he approached the squirming Rhino.
He knocked out the beast with a tranquilizer compound he and Banner had made for the Hulk – in case they needed it if Hulk lost control. Although Banner had been making spectacular progress with the Hulk, they still needed a contingency plan for when something went wrong.
"Noo…I need to (sleepy) Knock down…the…stufffff…"
Rhino slurred and he fell into a deep sleep. SHIELD's agents cordoned the area and got rid of all the witnesses. They got the priority to keep this matter under wraps from SHIELD's higher-level executives – mostly the Hydra's that were trading with Gwen's Uncle Raymond.
"Nope, this is the Avenger's arrest," Tony argued with the agents, causing trouble for the ones who were just following orders.
"Unless you got word from Captain America, you can't bring him away~" Tony said mockingly as he loaded the Rhino to a truck belonging to him.
He would bring the guy to a modified Stark base on the outskirts of the city. Previously, he got a message from Kai that said he had some patients with the same condition and he wanted to try and cure them.
Tony trusted Kai more in this matter. He knows that if SHIELD got the guy, he will be dead sooner or later once he gets dissected and his condition was studied. After all, a half-man half-rhino is rare even in this day and age.
…
"Hmm, Rhino's condition isn't the same as the others," Kai muttered as he was reading the report of the DNA analysis he made.
The other's genes are collapsing, but Rhino's gene had merged perfectly together, almost impossible for it to get split again. Well…almost.
"It'll take some time," Kai muttered to Tony who was waiting for him.
"That is great then, now that you're here, can we talk about my surgery?" Tony said while smiling, but inside he wasn't feeling the same way. He wanted to be with Pepper and the baby so they could be a legal family. He had been waiting too long now and Pepper already got a cute baby bump on her stomach.
"Using MediQuick, we can settle the surgery in a day. Just tell me when," Kai said to Tony. He did ask Tony to wait for a while as the sibling pair he has will be dead in a few days if he didn't find the cure.
"Wait, Fury is here. Go and hide," Tony said to Kai as he saw Fury breaching the front door with Natasha at his side. It seems that SHIELD is adamant about getting the rhinoceros.
"Why should I hide?" Kai asked in disbelief.
"Aren't you avoiding SHIELD?"
"What can they do here? Arrest me?"
Tony gives up after Kai wasn't bothered by Fury's presence.
Nick Fury entered the laboratory haughtily and almost stopped in his tracks after seeing Kai's figure there. If there was only Tony, he could still manipulate the guy.
"Mr. Vera, I had been searching for you for a while," Fury said, ignoring the Rhino in the room. He wanted to talk to Kai and fix their strained relationship. After all, Kai was too dangerous to be left alone without any eyes on him.
SHIELD had been searching for Kai's whereabouts with the excuse of wanting to help him. However, they couldn't find Kai's path no matter how hard they tried.
"Fuck off," Kai said without even looking in Furys' direction, shocking Tony and Natasha.
The tired doctor ignored the agents and focused back on reading Rhino's data.
The stunned Fury collected himself and changed his focus to Tony. At least Tony was more reasonable.
Natasha stared at Kai, but he didn't spare her a glance. Looking at the doctor's broad back, crushed her heart.
These days she has been throwing herself into work, as she keeps trying to make SHIELD better. Maybe one day, her effort could make Kai see SHIELD as a friend again – her along with it.
Fury notices that Kai isn't looking at Natasha, shaking his head subtly as he deleted a plan inside his mind to try to fix his relationship with the man by selling out Natasha.
Fury knows that the leak of Kai's identity was from SHIELD as he had been looking into the incident. He won't ever admit it to Kai, but he will try to repay the debt in other ways despite him wanting to monitor Kai.
Having an eye on things was his way of life. It won't change until he is dead.
"If you want to help him, we will leave this matter to you," Fury said, as if he had a say in the matter.
Tony glances at Kai, but seeing he was uninterested, he didn't continue with Fury's farce.
Ryan already got the framework ready for the Avengers and got the police commissioner to sign the paperwork allowing the Avengers to make a citizen arrest. Otherwise, Tony will already be charged with unlawful imprisonment.
"What did you find out about Alexei?" Tony asked.
Natasha walked forward and explained it to him. She expected Kai to come and listen, but Kai was more focused on studying the data.
Kai finished his early diagnosis and put the paper down on the table.
"Call me if you need me," Kai said to only Tony.
From the moment Fury and Natasha walked in, he didn't even acknowledge their existence.
He needed to get back to his base, as ALBUS notified him that the siblings had woken up.
"Sure, I'll update you on the matter," Tony replied easily.
Kai moved away steadily and exited the building riding a Harley Davidson motorcycle.
He headed to the hidden base after taking out several stealth drones from SHIELD that were following him. He stayed with his patients and keep studying the compound injected in them. It took until it was almost dusk before he stopped.
'Hey, Matt found a trace of the mercs,' Ryan notified Kai telepathically as he was retracing Alexei's steps before he turned into the monster. That was when Ava and Jessica notified him that Daredevil – in his new suit, had contacted them.
Ryan planned to solve the matter as fast as he can so that no more people will become part of the inhumane experiments. Little did he know that he would have dinner with the head of the entire operation he wanted to take down in just two days.
Standing on top of a building in the Manhattan outskirts area in his Tarot persona , he finally found the source of the dangerous superpower serum – or rather, the manufacturing place.
"Why can Murdock find it and I can't?"
He was greatly dissatisfied by this. He was searching for hours without any lead!
The culprit was incredibly shrewd that he didn't even show his face to the mercenaries Ryan found or the pair of superpower siblings.
"What kind of being am I up against?"
A worrying feeling starts to buds inside his heart as the precautions the culprit had made seemed to be specific against him.
"Is there someone who knows about my powers?"
He sighs before he shakes up his body to get his spirit back up.
"Not that it mattered anyway now," Ryan said as he jumped from the 100 meter tall building and landed smoothly on the ground.
There was a silhouette of a trio standing near his landing place. He walked slowly toward the team he was with for the evening. "'Sup guys!"
…
Alternate story:
Ryan was pulling out a card when Rhino charged toward him.
"Your fate is….. Blue Eyes White Dragon?"
He checked his card and found out that he had brought the wrong deck. He bought the Yu-Gi-Oh card instead of his tarot card.
"WAIT WAIT WAIT WAIT-" Ryan yelled at the charging Rhino. But it was too late.
"Urmph," He bit his tongue as he got hit with the tremendous force of the Rhino's strength. He fall flat on the wall and become a painting on the streets of New York.
************************************
JOIN MY DISCORD SERVER!
We Will Have Fun There!
https://discord.gg/jbCXZ2nQD8
For premium chapter, go to :
https://www.pa.treon.com/headpattingpiggy