"He's mine!"
It was arrogance, plain and simple.
The large, 6"5 man with a huge, muscular frame that would easily put him over the weight of five hundred pounds lumbered forwards. His form, clad in a grey suit shaped like a rhino, fusing with the skin of his face, Scott was able to see where the edges disappeared into the pinky skin colour of human flesh.
This man was Aleksei Sytsevich, the Rhino.
That was a figure Scott knew from Cyclops' memories and for good reason as well. There were very few people in the early days of the Golden Age of Heroes that had been able to match the Hulk in a contest of pure strength. Even though the strength of the green behemoth completely overwhelmed the Rhino in later years, there was no denying the strength Rhino possessed.
He was a heavy hitter, a powerhouse and one that in the early days, they were lucky had kept himself to Queens. The strength he possessed would have made him a serious threat to any hero out there, especially the X-Men in their early days with their inexperience, internal teenage conflicts and underdeveloped powers.
But, Scott did not worry as the man burst forwards, his large frame moving with a speed that shouldn't be possible for someone so big. Rarely though, did the conventional match with reality when it came to superpowers beings, they broke every meaning of the word.
Instead of turning and running, Scott instead in shifted his stance, the moment he turned his back, the fight would be over. Running was meaningless, there was no way he was going to be able to outrun Rhino and showing his back was paramount to suicide. No, if Scott wanted to survive this full frontal charge, he needed to move at just the right moment, to time everything perfectly, right down to a fraction of a second.
He had some leeway, of course, Rhino was hardly the most agile of beings and the fact Scott had not moved from his position yet meant that chances of him changing his trajectory were slim to none.
All this went through his head in a fraction of a second from the moment Rhino lowered his body forwards and rushed forwards, the next instance, Rhino was upon him. If he was anyone else, superpowered or not, the chances of Scott being able to pull this off were small. It required an immense understanding of trigonometry to be able to calculate everything in the smallest of time possible. Or, as was more commonly seen, incredible instincts that allowed one to move without conscious thought.
Scott possessed both.
Some would have suggested blocking it, but that was impossible for him.
Others would have said running, but again, that was impossible.
Scott had two options, he either avoided it or he struck back.
Both were good options if one did not ignore the second opponent that was standing there waiting, hands in his pockets and looking entirely disinterested by these events. Even if Scott did blast Rhino away, he needed to be able to see where Sandman was at all times.
Moving recklessly and striking first while a good idea on paper, left him exposed in a number of ways. If he failed to land a decisive blow on both of them straight away then they would become much more difficult to deal with. For now, it was better to study them both, analyse the way they moved and the way they fought, and then after gathering all that data, strike back.
As Rhino came upon him, horn thrusting forwards in an attempt to pierce through him, Scott was already in motion. He twisted his footing to the right, leaping backwards while leaning his body to the side, one hand moving out to push off the Rhino's large shoulder.
He landed, taking numerous steps back to regain his balance, seeing Rhino smash into the wall on the other side of the laboratory. Scott now seeing both Sandman and Rhino on two opposite ends of the lab, both in his peripherals.
Rhino was quick to turn and charge forwards once more, Scott already moving to avoid him once more just like a bullfighter, avoiding the charging beast of a man with deftness and grace. The man was predictable and simple in his charge, frustration making him even easier to avoid. Further aided by the instincts of Cyclops, Scott was able to almost able to focus entirely upon Sandman as his body moved on reflex.
Almost, but not quite.
However, that was more than enough.
Because the moment Sandman seemed to make a move, Scott was ready for him.
He, for the first time in the fight, turned his back upon the charging bull that was Rhino and rushed towards Sandman who burst into sand and met his charge head-on. The swirling storm of sand condensing into a singular pillar rushed him from the front while the raging Rhinocerous bore down upon him from behind.
When they clashed, Scott was crushed instantly.
Or, he would have been.
Planting one foot firmly upon the ground, Scott twisted his foot in and leapt to one side, rolling across the floor and turning as he came into a crouch. There, he saw both Sandman and Rhino clash against one another, both unstoppable forces meeting in the middle and neither one giving an inch.
They were powerful, but they were not only untrained in the use of their powers, they also could not work together and coordinate. A meaningless thing against a lesser fighter, but against Scott, it was something he intended to take advantage of and make them pay dearly for.
They would learn the hard way that power was not the determinator of a fight.
There was so much more to it than that and Scott had trained hard to ensure that as many of those factors would always be in his favour. Cyclops would have never fought against villains like these alone, not if he could help it, but Scott didn't intend to be Cyclops.
He intended to be something else, something better.
So, as Rhino was thrown back and Sandman burst apart, neither having won that clash, Scott prepared himself once more. He had one weakness he could use against them, it was time to find some more.
-X-
Slamming his fist down on the table in frustration, Norman ground his teeth together in anger as he shot up from his chair, glaring down at the screen in front of him in outrage. This was not what he had wanted to see, not what he had expected and it was just repeating itself over and over again as if taunting him.
He had invested a great deal of time, effort and money into developing weapons that could be used against Mutants. They were a threat to the governments and the people of the world, a race of superpowered beings that lived out there amongst them. People were terrified and politicians wanted not only a way to find them but to fight against Mutants.
Norman had invested heavily into turning Oscorp into the place where the governments of the world could find those weapons. The Sandman and Rhino projects were two ways in which he had sought to combat Mutants.
One created a suited that when bonded to the individuals gave them incredible strength, speed and durability to overwhelm any superpowered foe, Mutant or otherwise. It was a suit that had cost billions to develop and one that in the initial tests had surpassed all expectations.
As for Project Sandman, it was a project intended to give the user the ability to control sand. One that had then proven to turn the user themselves into sand itself, but possessed a more obvious weakness than Project Rhino such as water, but it possessed far more versatility. The sand could be hardened upon will and morphed into whatever inanimate object the user desired.
Similar to Project Rhino, it had surpassed all expectations in its tests, proving to be worth the money invested into it. Norman had been certain that with these two alone, he could bring in tens of billions of dollars into Oscorp. That wasn't even counting the Vulture Project run by Adrian Toomes, the Lizard Project run by Curtis Connor nor his own personal project focused on bringing about the super soldier serum.
Yet, a Mutant seemingly with no ability other than the projection of energy beams from his eyes was avoiding Project Rhino's charges with ease. Staying just out of reach at all times, ducking and weaving around his strikes, staying close and to his sides, never making himself an easy target to strike.
As for Project Sandman, he was being played like a puppet by the Mutant who used him against Project Rhino. By sticking close to him as he did, the Mutant forced Project Sandman strikes to miss and instead hit Project Rhino.
The two were being played for fools and he was watching it all unfold before his eyes. Not to mention that the police were outside, believing this to be a hostage situation and not storming the building. Norman intended to keep them out for as long as possible by having his guards pretending to be working as criminals who had stormed Oscorp working with the Mutant.
But that had not stopped the Spider-Man from infiltrating the building, he was on the fortieth floor and coming up for him. No doubt it was to help him and those "trapped" on the top floor and get them to safety from the Mutant attack.
However, his workers were still in the process of removing any incriminating evidence that could connect him to the Maggia or Kingpin in any way. They were also removing any traces of what Oscrop were really working on, or at the very least, encrypting them. But if the Spider-Man continued at his current rate, they would be nowhere near finished in time, he needed to slow them down.
"Otto." Norman snapped, the man jerking up shakily from where he was sat, having been typing away at a laptop. "Contact Toomes and tell him to release the prototype" They had been working on the flight suit long before Kingpin provided him with the Avenging Angel, they had been studying the vigilante for a long time. However, since having access to the Mutant himself, their progress had skyrocketed with numerous breakthroughs.
But after a moment's pause, Norman grit his teeth. "And release Project Goblin as well." That made Otto pause, he had already been in the process of contacting Adrian.
"But, he's still not stable." Otto argued, looking extremely worried at the prospect.
Norman slammed his fist on the table. "I don't care! Release him!" Things had been going so well recently, and now they were going so wrong, just like that, in the blink of an eye. Even if some things did get revealed, it didn't matter if he could prove that just one of his weapons worked.
Just one.
That was all it would take.
Then everything else would be meaningless for he would have already proven that his weapons had value and potential. Even if Project Rhino and Sandman continued to be failures, so long as Project Vulture or Goblin worked, then he would still have enough to pull in investors and gain government protection.
Then, where one succeeded, he could work on making the others successful too before working on even more. But just one, that's all he needed and even if it cost him everything, Norman was going to get one. Whether it be Spider-Man or the Mutant facing Rhino and Sandman, then it didn't matter. One would be defeated and he would gain a successful weapon in the process.
Even if cost him everything, it was a price he was willing to pay.
Everything else was meaningless.