Rivals

The police cruiser engine roared as the vehicle raced down the street, splashing rainy puddles on the way. Philip was in the driver's seat, Gabriel drove shotgun and Misty was in the back seat as a ride along. Philip had the window wipers at full speed and the high beams on to see where he was going since the rain had only gotten worse.

"It's only been a day since I've been here and shit is already hitting the fan." Misty remarked.

"I thought you liked the excitement." Philip smiled back at her through the rear view window.

"Focus on driving before the car starts hydroplaning and you get us killed."

"Alright alright. We'll be at Ryker's in no time."

"What crazy nut breaks into Ryker's Island?" Gabriel asked himself.

——

Scott Everett stood on the bridge that led in and out of Ryker's Island, the prison he just broke two prisoners out of with the help of Black Cat and Chameleon. Hovering in the air in front of him was his old enemy Hydro-Man, and seeing his face again lit a fire inside Scott. Suddenly the smart thing to do, to flee and get away before the cops come, went out the window. Scott wanted to fight.

"Get everyone out of here. I've got a score to settle." Scott told Felicia.

"You're out of your mind Spider."

"I know. Now go."

Felicia, ever the quick witted, looked over the edge of the bridge and lucky for her they were close to the coastline. Chameleon had driven so fast that they nearly cleared the bridge before Hydro intercepted them. Felicia knew that using the bridge to escape was a bad idea, the window of time where that would be doable had passed. Luckily she had a new plan.

"Follow me." Felicia beckoned the others.

Just then Scott jumped at Hydro-Man with enough force to crack the cement his feet stood on. Scott raised his fist to punch Hydro's head off, but the water hero glided out of the way and Scott's momentum sent him flying past his enemy without landing a hit.

"Nice try." Hydro mocked under his breath.

Then he felt a web stick to his back. Scott used the web to pull himself towards Hydro again and this time clocked him in the jaw. Both superhumans started hurdling to the ground, but were too distracted from hitting each other to notice that.

Meanwhile Felicia wrapped her metal whip around the bridge's guardrail and let the rest of it drop over the edge to make a rappel.

"Slide down, swim the rest of the way. We can make it to land."

"Girly, you know I hate swimming." Walter groaned.

"You like prison more?" She countered.

"Good point."

Walter slid down the rappel and dropped into the water. Valentina, Chameleon, and Doug followed after. Felicia was the last to leave, she glanced over to see Scott engaged in battle with the yellow hero. She was concerned for him, and considered helping but came to her senses. This time Scott risking his life to fight wasn't justified, and if he was willing to risk everything so be it but she won't.

"Bye Scott." She whispered to herself before she slid down as well.

In mid air the Tarantula and Hydro wrestled. Scott had a grip of Hydro-Man's right arm, but when he went to strike him again Hydro shot water in his face causing the attack to whiff. Before either of them could get off another attack they slammed into the jagged rocks that surrounded the coastline of the island. It wasn't a gentle fall either, both of them rolled down the jagged rocky hill taking bumps and scrapes on the way down. At the end of their fall both boys flopped onto the sandy beach and laid there writhing in pain.

"Ugh." Hydro groaned. "Do you just like hurting people?"

"No." Scott dug his fingers into the sand and forced himself back onto his feet. "I'm just paying you back for last time."

"You mean where you terrified that kid behind the cash register by pointing a gun at him?" Hydro shouted in frustration.

His arm transformed into a torrent of water, which he shaped into a massive fist and threw at Scott. Knowing the attack was coming Scott braced himself, getting slammed and thrown ten feet back by the force of the attack. He rolled across the sand disoriented.

"Come on Bug Face!" Hydro shouted. "What's your excuse for him! Huh?!"

"The gun wasn't real." Scott answered calmly. "But these ones are."

Scott pulled the two pistols he took from the truck guards out of his jacket pockets and fired them at Hydro, emptying both magazines. As a reflex, Hydro transformed his entire body into water allowing the bullets to pass through him without doing any damage. Once the guns clicked, signaling to him and Scott that they were empty, he transformed back into his human form.

Scott noticed that Hydro was out of breath. "The more water powers he uses the more tired he gets. Good to know."

Hydro-Man's heart raced, for a second he thought that he would die here. As he calmed down, he noticed the trickling of blood down his midsection. One of the bullets pierced his side, right above the hip, before he could shift his form. The reasonable thing to do would be to flee, seek medical attention and call it a day - but Hydro-Man's anger flared up and he threw caution out the window. He charged at Scott, readied a water fist and jumped in the air to crush him like the bug he is.

Scott slid on the sand like a baseball player, passing Hydro as he jumped, and pulled the hero's legs out from under him with a quick web. Hydro went from the offensive to slamming into the beach face first.

"How's the sand taste?" Scott jeered.

Scott ran to take advantage of the prone hero, but was kept away by a blast of water like a fire hose. Hydro shot up to his feet and ran at Scott, who was ready for him. Hydro attacked wildly with intention to kill, but barely managed to get a grazing hit on his opponent. When he transformed his arm into a wave to hit with, Scott took the opportunity to deck him with a right hook before he could do anything with it. Hydro stumbled back from the blow, his attack only hitting air, and screamed in anger and frustration.

"I'll kill you!" Hydro-Man swore, his voice pained and guttural.

"Not very hero-like of you." Scott teased.

In an instant Hydro-Man was consumed by water, growing twice his size and resembling a monster more than a man. He roared, sounding like Scott imagined a dinosaur would, and swung a giant claw at him. Scott was taken aback by what was happening and moved too slowly to avoid the attack, again he was launched across the beach. When he looked up from laying on the ground, Scott could see that the monster that used to be Hydro-Man was growing bigger by the moment.

"Oh no." He muttered to himself under his breath.

——

The cruiser pulled up at the scene of the crime, bright red and blue police lights shining and sirens blaring in the night. Gabriel, Misty and Philip stepped out of the car wearing heavy duty rain jackets. Ahead of them was a crashed vehicle with the doors open. The three officers aimed their pistols at the truck and cautiously stepped forward.

"Police!" Gabriel shouted. "Step out of the vehicle with your hands up!"

They got closer and examined the truck, in the back were two men in guard's uniforms that were bound and gagged.

"Shit." Philip cursed under his breath.

Gabriel hopped in the vehicle and began freeing them, while Philip reported on the radio what they found. Misty walked around examining the situation and saw a metal coil wrapped around the guardrail of the bridge.

"Tell nearby officers to check the coastlines! That's where they're at." Misty told Philip.

Then they all heard a sound from the other side of the bridge, it sounded like a roar. That was enough to make them pause. Misty crossed the bridge to the other side and saw it; a massive creature made of water on the beach. Philip followed behind her.

"Is that a kaiju?" He asked.

"It's a little small to be a kaiju Philip."

"Wait, is that…"

Both of them looked closer and saw a figure in all black with a jacket on desperately avoiding the slams of the water monster.

"Is that Huntsman?"

"I can't see with all this rain. Let's get a closer look." Misty said as she started looking for the fastest path down there.

"I'm sorry, what???" Philip exclaimed. "You're crazy if you think I'm coming with -"

Misty grabbed Philip's arm and dragged him.

"Agh!"

——

One punch from the sea monster that used to be Hydro-Man was enough to confirm the fact that Scott did not want to be hit again. If anything, he wasn't sure how much beating he even could take. His adrenaline was still kicking though, and that allowed him to dance around the creature's attacks for now.

It quickly became apparent to Scott how bad the situation was, since he was on a beach there was practically nothing for him to attach his webs onto. The other strategy he had, wait Hydro-Man out and let him use his powers to exhaustion, didn't seem to be an option anymore. In this form, Hydro wasn't tiring. It was probably the rain giving him juice. To make matters worse, the police were bound to show up eventually and even if Scott defeated this elemental he didn't know how to evade the police if they surrounded him here.

Scott tried shooting web balls at it, which didn't work. He snuck a couple punches and kicks in while dodging bone shattering slams from the beast, but his attacks felt like he was punching underwater. As Scott dashed past the elemental in mid air, it managed to grab onto his feet and pull him down. The creature slammed Scott into the sand with immense force, if the surface he was pounded into was any harder it likely would've snapped his neck. All Scott could see for a second was stars, his balance was thrown off and his body went numb. Worst of all the adrenaline was knocked out of him, and his body was weakening.

The monster grabbed Scott with a watery fist and raised him up into the air, the size of his hands were so big that Scott was completely submerged in them. Water filled his lungs, he tried to cough it out reflexively but it didn't work. He felt pressure in all directions keeping him from escaping the beast's grasp, he was drowning and needed to act quickly. Scott was also still recovering from being blinded by the power of the elemental's attack, but that gave him an idea.

"This might not work, but I've got nothing else left." Scott still had some tools gifted to him by Phineas, he reached into his jacket pocket for the last flash bang, he had on him and chucked it at the monster with all of his might. The object was small enough and thrown hard enough to break through the water pressure and fly through the air, landing inside the creature's head.

"Uh?" The elemental groaned.

The flashbang exploded inside the monster's head, which blinded and disoriented him enough to release his grasp of Scott. The wallcrawler plopped onto the sand like a fish and lifted his mask above his mouth to cough up the salty water. Despite the pain he was in, there was no time to waste. Scott ran across the sand and narrowly avoided a slam attack, but the force of the hand hitting the ground caused him to fall onto his back. It was now or never.

When Scott made a checklist of items he wanted from Phineas, one of them was a last case scenario option if he couldn't get through a lock. It was a liquid nitrogen grenade, designed to freeze an object and make it breakable. Scott grabbed it and threw it into the monster's chest as it reared its arm back to punch Scott with a finishing blow. The grenade exploded shooting the freezing nitrogen out.

The monster slammed its fist down on Scott, but midway through the attack it lost articulation in its arm, stopping the punch mere seconds before it would've connected. Unable to move, the creature watched as its head froze. Now was Scott's chance to defeat this thing. Then a voice called out.

"Hey!" Misty shouted. "Hands up!"

Scott turned and saw the pair of police officers pointing guns at him.

"I thought you'd be more concerned about the monster." Scott relied, the voice modulator was fried from all the water.

Luckily his mask was only lifted above his lips, exposing his chin and mouth but nothing else. Scott smiled innocently at the cops.

"Seems you've handled it." Misty countered.

"Not yet." Scott said with a smirk.

Scott aimed his web shooters at the frozen monster and fired, webbing onto the monster and pulling himself up and into the air with incredible speed. Philip tried to aim for a shot but Scott was difficult to track.

Scott flew towards the monster's head and kicked it as hard as he could, shattering it and turning the oversized ice statue into shards. Scott stuck another web to the bridge and swung underneath it, his feet grazing the water as he hung onto the web like a rope. At the end of his swing he let go and launched himself high enough to see the upper levels of skyscrapers.

"Woooo!" Scott cheered as he did a backflip.

He was free, despite all odds he made it out with his life and not behind bars. Now all that was left was to regroup and make sure everyone else did too.

——

Every active duty officer for miles was present at the scene in Ryker's Island. Pictures were taken inside and outside of the prison, investigators interviewed the two men who were bound in the truck, and each prisoner was accounted for. Misty sat on the entrance stairs to the prison facility, underneath an awning, holding a styrofoam cup of coffee and tapping it with her finger while listening to the rain pour. Jean DeWolff leaned on the wall behind her.

"Tonight is a shit show." DeWolff blurted out, her voice haggard.

"Tell me about it." Misty sighed. "Something's bothering me about these cases."

"What?"

"Vincent shut the security camera footage off, we assume to hide his criminal activities in his family's warehouse. The hospital's security camera footage was disabled during the fight and now we learn that they shut down all security functions here too."

"Think this Huntsman guy is a master hacker."

"Maybe, but he spoke to us. Seemed young, like a teenager."

"Makes sense. Kids these days are better with technology than you or I are."

"Or maybe we need to get the mayor to fund some improvements to our technology."

"You know the mayor is going to have a field day with this."

"Yes, I know Jean." Misty tightened her grip around the cup. "I just don't like us making sloppy mistakes."

Jean put a hand on Misty's shoulder, "Go get some rest Misty, my guys will handle it from here."

——

Scott was the first to arrive at the greenhouse, the designated meeting spot for everyone once the job was finished. He stepped inside a dark room and flicked on the lights. It was a bit eerie how lonely it was here. It made sense that he arrived first, but the realization that everyone could've been caught while he was settling a grudge match dawned on him. He didn't care much for Chameleon or his British accent speaking lady, but he was starting to grow fond of Felicia and was even considering asking her out. The idea of letting her get captured because he was so short sighted sent a chill down his spine.

In the greenhouse was Scott's backpack, he left it here with a change of clothes and some supplies. He took his now soaked costume off, laid it out to dry and changed into street clothes. His body ached from the fighting, so he sat on one of the couches and let himself sink into it. "Oh right, my phone."

Scott opened his phone and saw some texts from Darren, it had been a while since they spoke.

- Darren: Hey dude. U good? -

- Scott: Yea. Tired af. -

- Darren: gotcha. U coming home tonight? -

- Scott: I'll be out late. -

- Darren: ok. -

Scott heard the ding of the elevator behind him, and sure enough everyone piled out and into the greenhouse. Scott smiled.

"It's good to see you all well."

"I'll admit, we didn't think we'd see you at all tonight." Chameleon told him.

Everyone shuffled about the room winding down from the excitement, Felicia sat down on the couch next to Scott and closed her eyes.

"That went well, right?" Scott asked her,

"Scott." Felicia spoke with her eyes still closed. "We need to talk."