FIRST IMPRESSIONS
The battle between the Avengers and the Zodiac grows more intense by the second, especially when it came to Spidey, who still busy in dodge the lightning fast punches and kicks from the amphibious Pisces. Finally, after holding up his left arm to block Pisce's incoming left hook, the Web-Head attempts to fight back by throwing a right jab.
However, Pisces is just as fast to counter as he uses his right arm to Spidey's punch and push his fist outward, then spots the Web-Head throwing a left legged front kick and uses both of his hands to catch the young hero's foot. After stopping the attack Pisces makes his move by using all of his might to throwing Spidey up into the air.
Fortunately for Spidey, he saves himself by flipping backward in mid-air, then looks down to Pisces back in his sights, points both of his arms downward and shoots two web-lines at the hood amphibian. Sadly though, Pisces saw this attack coming his way, and was quick and agile enough to leap and flip backward, successfully dodging the webbing. After missing his target, Spidey stops shooting his webbing and lands safely on his feet on the sidewalk, staring down at Pisces, who by now has also landed safely and stood just a few feet away from the Wall-Crawler.
Pisces is the next to go on the offensive by leaning back and shooting out his sixteen feet long tongue, aiming for Spidey's masked face.
Seeing this different, if not unsightly attack coming his way, Spidey leans sideways to the left and narrowly dodges the tongue, which ends up hitting and shattering a display window of a nearby electronics store. The Wall-Crawler watched Pisces retract his tongue back into his mouth, feeling disgusted in the process. "Oh, dude! 'Tongue on the first date?" Not cool!" After delivering that quip to settle his nerves after witnessing the tongue attack, Spidey points his left hand at Pisces and shoots a web-line in an attempt to subdue him.
Pisces, on the other hand, sees this coming and leaps into the air to avoid the web-line and heads towards the Web-Head himself, intending to use both feet to stomp him into the pavement.
Spidey quickly flips backward to avoid getting squashed and upon landing on his feet, he gets in a defensive stance when he spotting Pisces rushing towards him. "Also, I hate to nitpick," said the Wall-Crawler as he held up his left arm to block and push away an incoming jab, then holds up his right arm to block a fierce hook. "But the tongue thing tells me that you're taking the whole 'frog thing' a little to far." The Web-Head later sees his hooded opponent throwing a left-handed middle punch and thus jumps and flips over him, allowing Pisces to pass underneath him.
Pisces, however, manages to stop himself at the last second, then looks over his right shoulder to see Spidey landing safely on his feet, then tries to attack him again by turning and throwing a left legged round kick.
Luckily though, Spidey felt the tingling of his spider-sense, thus prompting him to glance over his shoulder and see Pisces throwing the kick and quickly ducks underneath it, barely saving himself from being beheaded, if not knocked out. While crouching, the Web-Head looks up and sees Pisces continuing his assault by throwing a right-handed hammer blow, and thus holds up both of his arms in an 'X' fashion to block the attack, and thus pushes his opponent's fist upward as he stands back up. "And yeah, I know I shouldn't be one to talk, seeing as how I based my schtick on a spider," said the Web-Head. "But as far as the web part goes, I settle for shooting out of my wrists. You don't see me taking things literally by shooting it out of my..."
Suddenly, Pisces violently throws a left legged front kick, which Spidey easily with both hands. But as the Web-Head tosses his enemy's foot upward, Pisces uses this to his advantage by flipping backward and thus uses his right foot to perform a flip-kick, nailing the Web-Head in his chin and sending him flying up in the air.
Spidey manages to save himself by back-flipping in mid-air then uses his hands and feet to stick to a nearby lamp post. Afterward, he shakes his head to recover from the after-effects of the flip-kick and looks down at a Pisces, who has since landed on his feet and stands ready to strike again. "Man, aren't we touchy?"
Pisces, having had enough of the Web-Head's wisecracks, jumps up towards him and throws his left leg out in a thrust kick fashion, hoping to plow through his young opponent and snap him in two.
Spidey sees this attack coming and thus jumps off of the lamp post and ends up sticking to the wall on the right side and in the process, causes Pisces to kick off the top of the lamp post instead.
Even though he missed his target, Pisces does see Spidey stick to a nearby wall, and thus ricochets off of the lamp post and tires once again to finish him off, this time throwing both of his feet out in hopes of mule kicking him throw the wall itself.
As Spidey landed safely on the street, he turns, looks up and sees Pisces pulling his feet out of the hole that he made...while using the small suction cup-like pads in his fingertips to stick and climb up the wall, like a tree frog.
Something in which did not sit well with Spidey himself"Whoa, whoa, wait! Wall-Crawling?!" said Spidey in an appalled tone and successfully caught Pisce's attention. "First you go overboard with your own gimmick, now you want to try and steal mine?!"
Pisces, now more furious than ever, turns and gets ready to pounce and attack Spidey again.
Luckily, Spidey proves to be faster by pointing both of his hands out at Pisces and shoots two web-lines which not only hits his adversary in the chest, but he keeps firing until he encases him in a giant, ball-shaped web-cocoon, trapping him and taking out of the fight. "And here I was planning on telling you to 'stick around', but you don't even deserve that!"
Despite being trapped, Pisces decides to make one last attack at the Web-Head by leaning back and once again shoots out his tongue, with the intent of taking Spidey's head off.
Fortunately for Spidey, he spotted this and quickly points his right hand at the trapped Pisces and shoots a small web-ball which ends up hitting and covering the hooded villain's mouth. "Much like how I don't deserve to be grossed out by that wicked tongue of yours."
In another one-on-one confrontation, the Zodiac leader, Scorpio, was firing a laser blast from out of his Key-Barrel at Ms. Marvel, who blocks Scorpio's blast by firing one blast of her own from out of her right hand, thus engaging him in a somewhat energy tug-of-war with the hooded terrorist. While firing her blast, Ms. Marvel looks through the corner of her right eye to see Spidey webbing up Pisces and seemed somewhat annoyed when she heard his earlier banter. "And I thought Jan could be really chatty," she thought to herself, causing her to monetarily lose focus on Scorpio and thus allows him to strength his blast and was almost pushed off of her feet. After feeling the sudden jolt, as well as getting annoyed with herself for getting distracted, the female heroine strengthens her blast and pushes Scorpio's beam backward. Wanting to put an end to this so she can stop the fight to help her teammates, Ms. Marvel takes her left hand and fires another blast out of it, further increasing her attack and successfully pushes Scorpio's blast backward, and moments later, hits Scorpio himself, sending him flying backward and hitting a destroyed car spine-first in the process. Now seemingly victorious, Ms. Marvel hovers over to the fallen Scorpio, who is in a daze but miraculously is not seriously injured. "Now then, why don't you do us all a favor and..." Before Ms. Marvel could finish her sentence, she is suddenly stopped when a yellow streak comes out of nowhere and appears to strike the Avenger in the face, causing her to spiral in mid-air and crashing down hard on the pavement.
Spidey is alarmed of this by hearing Ms. Marvel's painful grunt and turns to where he heard it. After which, he felt his spider-sense go off, but unfortunately, could not react to it fast enough, for that same yellow streak appeared out of nowhere and stuck the Web-Slinger as well, knocking him off of his feet and into the sidewalk.
As it turns out, the yellow streak stops and reveals itself to be a hooded figured dressed in yellow and donning the Capricorn symbol on his chest, who then notices two of his teammates having problems of their own with two Avengers, namely Cancer receiving two repulser blasts from Iron Man, to Taurus having his right hook blocked by Thor, who then uses his hammer to swat the horned brute and sending him flying backward into the air and come crashing down hard into the ground. Knowing that he had to help his comrades, Capricorn speeds off and while running, he quickly picks up a steel rod broken off from parts of fallen debris and quickly swats Iron Man in the head, and while it didn't hurt him, it did stun him long enough to make him stop firing his blast and left himself wide open to Cancer, who turns and points his right shoulder at the disoriented Avenger and fires a spike from out of his shoulder pad and made a direct hit on the Shell-head in his chest plate, causing the spike to explode on impact and send the Armored Avenger flying backward into a car. Capricorn then made his way over to Thor and also whacks him into the head with the rod, which, like Iron Man, only stunned and confused the Thunder God.
As Thor stood there, wondering what just hit him, Taurus shakes off the effects of his godly opponent's last attack, then stands up, spirits towards Thor and rams his head into his mid-section, knowing the wind out of the Son of Odin and sending him hurling and crashing through a wall.
Meanwhile, as Spidey shook his head and worked his way back to his feet, he looks straight ahead to see Capricorn stopping and chuckling, no doubt pleased with how he helped his fellow Zodiac teammates deal with two of the founding Avengers. To make matters worse, the Web-Head sees the yellow hooded Zodiac member see him stand back up, and thus runs so fast, it appeared he just vanished out of sight. "Guy with super speed...great," thought the less than thrilled Spidey, then stood in a defensive stance. "Which means all I can do is wait...and let my spider-sense do its thing." Cautiously and patiently, Spidey stood ready until finally, he feels his spider-sense go wild, prompting him to turn and point both of his hands to the right and shoots a large ball of web from out of his wrists. This unusual tactic pays off, for the web web-ball suddenly hits and wraps around Capricorn's ankles binding his feet together and causing him to tumble down hard to the pavement. After subduing, Spidey shoots two more web-lines and hits both of Capricorn's entire body to the pavement, effectively immobilizing him. "Don't bother getting up, Speedy," the Web-Head told the downed Zodiac member, but then, through the corner of his left eye, sees something that fills him with shock and concern.
It was that of a dazed Ms. Marvel, being brought down to her knees by two hooded me wearing black and white and each with the Gemini symbol, and Scorpio standing in front of the kneeling female Avenger and with his gauntlet raised over his head. "As he did this, the Key barrel soon retracted back into his gauntlet and thus causing his entire hand to burn in a red, almost demonic fire. "That's quite a power you have there," said Scorpio, setting his sights on the still disoriented Ms. Marvel. "I look forward to taking it for my own and leaving you, as well as the rest of your friends, as lifeless husks!"
Upon seeing Ms. Marvel in danger, Spidey was just about to shoot another web-line and swing to her rescue, but suddenly stops when he hears a faint and strange 'whizzing' sound. As it turned out, the sound belonged to the circular red, white and blue shield of Captain America, which comes zooming out of nowhere and severs Scorpio's burning hand from off of his armored wrist, indicating that the gauntlet was some sort of robotic prosthetic. It later ricochets off of the left temple of the Gemini on the right side, then bounces off the top of the head of the left Gemini, causing them both to disappear and release their hold of Ms. Marvel.
Now free and beginning to stir, Ms. Marvel looks around confused as she looks from side to side to see the two Gemini's now gone, then looks straight ahead and past a clearly panicked Scorpio to see who helped her.
It was that of Captain America, who arrives on the scene on his motorcycle and holding up his right hand and catches his returning shield. "I hope this isn't a bad moment," he said with a small smile.
Ms. Marvel returns Cap's smile with one of her own. "I say the timing couldn't be better," she replied but then looks alerted when she notices Scorpio secretly bring back the laser barrel, forcing her to lunge forward and wrap her left arm around his neck, putting him in a chuckle hold.
However, while Ms. Marvel subdues Scorpio, another Zodiac member, Sagittarius, hops on top of the hood of a nearby abandoned car with bow in hand, then pulls one of his arrows from out of his back, takes aim at Ms. Marvel's head and fires an arrow in an attempt to both dispatch the female Warbird and save his leader.
But just before the arrow could hit the target, Ms. Marvel received help from another Avenger, this time being Hawkeye, who comes zooming in front of Ms. Marvel on his hovercycle with two trick arrows already drawn and fires both of them. The first arrow, which had a small explosive in its head, hits Sagittarius's arrow, causing them both to explode on impact. The other arrow, with a small built-in taser on the end, hits Sagittarius in the chest, electrocuting him and causing him to fall off the hood of the car and land hard on the pavement unconscious. After dealing with the Zodiac's archer, Hawkeye soon lands his hovercycle safely on the sidewalk and looks down at the unconscious Sagittarius. "And that's how a pro does it, pal," he said confidently, then turns to Ms. Marvel. "And you're welcome, by the way."
"Humble as always, Hawkeye," replied Ms. Marvel as she struggled to keep the squirming Scorpio contained.
Meanwhile, seeing Captain America arrive in person left the usual talkative Wall-Crawler speechless, causing him to momentarily freeze in awe. "Wow...nothing can possibly ruin a moment this cool," Spidey thought to himself, but suddenly brought back to reality when he feels his spider-sense tingle once more, thus prompting him to lean back to avoid an incoming fire blast. "Accept maybe that!"
Turns out, the fire blast came from that of Aries, who is constantly shooting his blast and missing his intended target, the Wasp, who flies around the Zodiac member in her shrunken, winged form and effortless avoids his blast with grace and agility. "Will you hold still?!" yelled the frustrated Aries before firing yet another blast.
The Wasp smiled when she heard the annoyed Aries ask her that, knowing that she has him so mad, he wasn't thinking straight and she had him right where she wanted him. "Sorry, but I'm not much for being, you know, burnt to a crisp." After avoiding another blast, the Wasp decided to finally end this by flying over Arie's head, then turns around, flies below and fires a sting blast into his left knee, forcing her hooded attacker to kneel down. As she made her way back around, the Wasp then grew back to human size and utilizes her training under Captain America by throwing a right legged round kick, nailing Aries in the head and knocking him out cold.
After dealing with Aries, Wasp looks around and notices her teammates, Thor and Iron Man, being dominated by Cancer and Taurus. Knowing that she has to act, the Wasp shrinks down and flies off to help her friends. Before she arrived, Wasp noticed a small crack in Cancer's chest plate and lets out a sigh as if disgusted. "Oh, this is DEFINITELY going to be worse for me then it will be him!" With that said, the size-altering founding Avenger shrinks even smaller and flies into the crack of Cancer's armor. Once inside the armor, the Wasp made her move by firing numerous blasts at Caner's upper body from inside his armor, causing him to hell and stagger aimlessly in pain.
As he struggled, Cancer moved his arms wildly and accidentally hits Taurus in the face, knocking him down to the ground and out cold. Seeing Cancer unintentionally knock Taurus down was strange for both Iron Man and Thor, but they nonetheless took advantage of this and soon get back up.
Seconds later, the Wasp flies out through the collar of Cancer's armor, giving the Zodiac member enough relief to kneel down. As he sat there wondering what just happened, the confused Cancer received another surprise when both Iron Man and Thor come rushing in and both deliver an uppercut, with their combined strength being powerful enough to send Cancer flying up high into the air and crashing onto the roof of a nearby abandoned cab.
After dealing with Cancer, the Wasp grows back to hand size and flies over to Iron Man and Thor, looking quite repulsed as she felt Cancer's perspiration all over her from flying around his armor. "Geez, you'd think these guys would put on some deodorant before suiting up!"
As Iron Man, Thor and Wasp stopped for a moment, Aries appears to be stirring and has the three Avengers in his sights. As such, he gets up on one knee, points his arm at them with the intent of shooting another fire blast and burn them alive. However, before he could fire the blast, Aries is stopped when a mysterious force strikes him in the face and knocks him back down to the ground. As it turned out, the forces is that of the shrunken form of Yellowjacket, who despite his small size, still possessed the strength of a full-sized man, which he uses to deliver a hard right hook to Aries' jaw, knocking him unconscious and out of the fight for good.
Wasp, as well as her teammates, heard Aries' grunt and turns to see Yellowjacket himself flying towards him, a sight which causes the Wasp herself to smile brightly. "Hank!"
Iron Man, however, did not appear to be so cheery about seeing his miniature, yellow and black-clad teammate who at one time would be happy to have around, a time when he wore the red and black uniform of the pacifist Ant-Man and before his transformation into the cocky and violent Yellowjacket. "Sure took your sweet time, Yellowjacket!"
"Sorry to keep you waiting, Stark," Yellowjacket responded with a sarcastic tone. "But it was working on something important."
This reply angers Iron Man so much, his face turns red behind his faceplate, as well as cause Wasp to look at Yellowjacket with worry. "Something important?!" yelled Iron Man. "You mean more important than a bunch of-" the Shell-head just barely catches himself from exploding. "You know what, never mind! This is something that can wait until we get back to the Mansion! Right now, let's just wrap this up!" With that order, Iron Man, along with Thor, Wasp, and Yellowjacket all rush over to where Cap and the other Avengers have gathered and subdued Scorpio.
Once he saw Iron Man and the rest of the Avengers arrive, Cap looks at Scorpio, who still struggles in vain to get out of Ms. Marvel's strong grip."It's over, Scorpio."
The struggling Scorpio looked through the corner of his eye to see Gemini starting to stir. "Yes, it is...for you! Gemini even the odds!"
Hearing his leader's order was enough to bring Gemini to refocus, thus prompting him to concentrate and create approximately twenty duplicates of himself.
With Ms. Marvel, as well as the rest of the Avengers, stood in complete worry, Scorpio takes the opportunity to head-butt his blond-haired captor in the face, forcing her to release her hold of him. Now free, Scorpio capitalizes by delivering a right legged back-kick to Ms. Marvel's abdomen, forcing her to stagger backward and be caught by Spidey. He then backs away into the safety of the many Gemini duplicates, which by now have circled around and surrounded the Avengers. Now seeing that he and his 'reinforcements' are now back in control, Scorpio pops out his laser barrel and points it at Cap. "Now then, let us..."
Suddenly, before a shot was fired, both the Avengers and what was left of the Zodiac are stopped by a loud, piercing noise, one that was powerful enough to shatter the windows of the buildings in the area.
Spidey, along with the rest of the Avengers and Zodiac, covered his ears in pain as he assumed what was causing the sound. "S-Sonic blasters?!" he asked while holding his ears tighter to try and muffle the sound, but not having much success. He then turns to address the one he thinks is causing it. "Great plan, Iron Man, but a little warning would've been nice."
"Yeah, and I would have..."Iron Man replied painfully then taps on his helmet, which activates a program in his helmet to successfully muggle the noise. "...if I was the one creating it!"
This news comes as a surprise to all of Iron Man's teammates, especially Thor, who looks at his armored comrade with disbelief. "But if not you, Iron Man, then who?"
Suddenly, on a rooftop and high above the two super-powered factions, the source of the sound is revealed. It was that of a man wearing armor similar to that of Iron Man's, but with a patriotic red, white and blue color scheme, and with two speaker-like devices on his shoulders which were producing the sound. And as it turns out, he's not alone, for a man wearing a white cowboy hat with a matching bandanna with a thunderbolt symbol covering the lower part of his face, as well as being dressed in golden western style clothing stands by the armor man's side via a small circular hoverboard and with a Colt revolver in his right hand. To make things more surprising, the large S.H.I.E.L.D. Helocarrior was floating right above the city.
Finally, it is here that the 'patriotic' armored man pressed a button on his right gauntlet to lower the sound waves so the Avengers could hear him say this. "That would be me."