ALLIES?

As if the sudden appearance of the Zodiac wasn't enough, the introduction of a mysterious an armored man with a patriotic color scheme, his western cowboy comrade, as well as the S.H.I.E.L.D. Helocarrier came as a total shock to both the Avengers and the Zodiac, and even with the volume turned down, they were still suffering from the painful sound coming from the armored man's sonic boosters. But out of all of the members of both super-powered teams, it was Iron Man who seemed to be most shocked and angered by seeing this stranger clad in red, white and blue armored similar to his, and for good reason. "The Iron Patriot armor?!" thought the Shellhead in disbelief, for he instantly recognized the armor in which he designed and built himself, but was saving it as a gift for Captain America should the day come that the Super Soldier would finally embrace modern technology.

Back in the air, the 'Iron Patriot' looked down, and upon seeing both members of the teams suffering, he could see the Gemini duplicates flickering in and out of existence and sees only one Gemini remaining solid and standing right next to Scorpio. As such, he uses his elbow to lightly tap his cowboy companion, and upon getting his attention, points to the two remaining Zodiac members below.

Once the cowboy saw his two targets, he pulls out his out revolver, took aim a single shot from each of the guns, where the bullets hit both Scorpio and the real Gemini with great accuracy, causing them both to fall to ground motionless. Once the real Gemini was down and out, his duplicates all vanished, as if they were being erased from existence.

With all members of the Zodiac were defeated and the threat finally stopped, the Iron Patriot presses a button on his right gauntlet which powers off his sonic blasters, finally stopping the piercing sound. After the devices retract back into his shoulders, the mysterious armored ma powers on his jet boots and began to hover a few inches off of the roof floor. The cowboy himself is not far behind, for after he twirls his guns back into his waist-side holsters, he jumps onto and grabs the Iron Patriot's shoulder and rides with him as he begins to lower down to the still surprised, as well as confused Avengers.

As Iron Man watched the Iron Patriot and his comrade hover down, he looked down at the two strangers with intense anger and upon standing up, begins breathing heavily and clenching both of his iron-plated fists.

Upon landing safely on the pavement, the Iron Patriot turns his attention to the still dumbfounded Avengers. "Avengers, glad to see you're all in one piece," he told them in a calm and almost unemotional tone. "Allow me to introduce myself..."

Suddenly, an irate Iron Man powers on his jet boots and speeds towards the red, white and blue colored stranger before he could finish his introduction, with the intention of tackling him and beating him senseless. Fortunately for the Patriot though, both Thor and Ms. Marvel see their armored leader charging towards their mysterious savior and are fast enough to dash forward, catch up to Iron Man and grab him and hold him back. A few minutes, Thor and Marvel receive more help in holding their leader back, for Spidey himself leaped and flipped over Iron Man and the two powerhouses, and upon landing on his feet and in between the Golden Avenger and Iron Patriot, turns and puts his hands on Iron Man's chest plate, pushing him and keeping him from attacking the Iron Patriot, but understandably, having a hard time doing so due to the strength of the Shell-head's armor. As for Iron Man himself, he gives the Patriot an 'evil glare' as he said this to him. "Don't bother," the angry Shell-head exclaimed, pointing his finger at him. "I already know what you're called, and that's 'thief'! That's MY tech you're wearing and I want to know how you got it!"

Cap, along with the rest of the Avengers, catches up to the Iron Man and the others and puts his hand on his enraged teammate's shoulder pad. "Easy, Tony," he told Iron calmly, then turned to face the Iron Patriot and his cowboy partner. "Look, it's not that we don't appreciate your help, but your attire does raise a few eyebrows. So please, finish telling us who you are."

"Thank you, Captain," replied the Patriot, maintaining his almost robotic demeanor and puts his hand on his own chest plate as if to be formal. "I am the Iron Patriot," he then stepped to the right side to present his cowboy teammate. "And this is the Two-Gun Kid."

The aptly named Two-Gun Kid took his turn in be formal by tipping his hate to the stunned Avengers. "Howdy."

With the introductions now out of the way, the Iron Patriot turns his attention back to Iron Man, who by that time seemed to have calmed down...for the most part, but it was enough to make Thor, Ms. Marvel, and Spidey release him. "And yes, Mr. Stark," said the Patriot. "This armor is based on your design. However, this armor, in particular, was manufactured by and is the property of S.H.I.E.L.D., so I personally haven't stolen anything."

"S.H.I.E.L.D., huh?" said the skeptic Iron Man, then scoffed and shook his head before saying this. "Right...more like property that S.H.I.E.L.D. stole from me!"

Suddenly, the Avengers are surprised by the appearance of another visitor. Only this time, it's that of a tall woman, with dark skin, short brown hair and wearing a S.H.I.E.L.D. blue jumpsuit and hovering down via a jet pack."Let's not start this again, Stark," she said in a stern tone and upon landing on the ground, looks right up to him with no fear. "Especially in light of the fact that the Iron Patriot has been a more proactive job with the armor then you have."

"Agent Maria Hill..." Iron Man addressed the female agent. "Now I'm starting to regret asking you out to dinner."

It was at this moment that a very concerned Spidey held up his hands in a 'T' fashion in between Iron Man and Maria to gain their attention. "Uh, time out! I hate to interrupt, but..." The Wall-Crawler then pointed his right thumb at the Two-Gun Kid. "...am I the only one who's just a little freaked out that Mr. Wild West over here," as he continued, Spidey pointed both of his hands at the fallen Scorpio and Gemini. "Just shot two people?! Bad people, sure, but people nonetheless?!"

The Wasp, sharing Spidey's suspicions, zips right into the Two-Gun Kid's masked face with her arms crossed. "Web-Heads's gotta point, 'partner'. Care to explain?"

"Oh, they ain't dead, little lady," replied the Two-Gun Kid with a professional but friendly manner, then pulls out one of his colt revolvers, opens the chamber and puts the bullets into his open palm. After spinning the gun back into his holster, he later picks up one of the bullets and presents it to Wasp, as well as the rest of the Avengers, shows the tip of the bullet having that of a small need. "These are actually tranquilizers, so they'll just be taking an hour-long nap, but will be wakin' up with one doozy of a hangover."

With the fact that non-lethal methods were used, the Iron Patriot steps in to explain what will happen to Scorpio and Gemini, as well as the rest of the Zodiac. "And by the time they do, they will be locked up in the Prison 42 in the Negative Zone."

At that moment, a still stern Maria Hill chimed in with her arms crossed and still glaring at the Avengers. "Which would have happened five minutes ago had all of you been part of the Superhuman Registration program that I told Stark about."

Hearing this caused a bit of unrest among the Avengers, especially Cap, who turns and looks at Iron Man with a stunned and confused expression. "Tony, what is she talking about?"

With a conflicted sigh, Iron Man turns to his Star Spangled teammate to answer him. "Well, you weren't there, Steve. The 'Skrull-you' was, but..." Seeing that he was digressing from the manner at hand, as well as seeing the anger build in Cap's eyes after being reminded of his Skrull impersonator doing such horrible things with his face, Iron Man continued his explanation. "Anyway, the Registration act that Hill is talking about is when the Avengers, as well as other heroes in the country, become S.H.I.E.L.D.'s government-controlled puppets," After explaining this to Cap, the Shell-Head turns his attention to the still negative, if not aggressive Maria Hill. "Of course, by the time Agent Hill here asked me that, Stark Tower was attacked by A.I.M. and we successfully fended them off, proving that we don't need to be S.H.I.E.L.D.'s lapdogs to defend against terrorist organizations, as well as other super-powered psychos on the planet."

"Well, that was then, Stark!" Maria replied, still maintaining her no-nonsense attitude as having a tad more irritation in her voice. "And even on that day, we were lucky and you know it!"

At this point, Iron Patriot decides to step in to avoid an argument. "And now, you can definitely use the vast resources that the Thunderbolts could provide."

Suddenly, Iron Man, as well as the rest of his teammates, is taken aback from the name that Patriot just uttered. "Thunderbolts...?"

Maria did not hesitate to step in and explain. "The first super-human team to be supervised by S.H.I.E.L.D., as well as the stepping stone of the Superhuman Registration Act once it becomes law."

The Two-Gun Kid, after finishing putting the bullets back in his revolver and placing it back into his holster, decides to help Maria by saying this. "And more importantly, we're a team that believes that if a man's a man, he honors his responsibilities. Somethin' that ya'll haven't bein' doin'"

No one was more surprised upon hearing the Two-Gun Kid's remark than Spidey, mostly because for the Web-Head, something about this masked cowboy seemed...familiar to him. "'Honor our responsibilities? I've heard that, and THAT accent before! Who is this guy?" Before Spidey could try and figure this out, he spots Ms. Marvel walking towards the Two-Gun Kid through the corner of his eye, as well as joining the Wasp, who by this time is floating into the cowboy's masked face.

And it's heard that Wasp is the one to make this point well known. "Uh, try to remember that there are TWO female super-heroines here!" she said feeling angry and offended. "Who, by the way, has long proven to be just as responsible as their male teammates!"

Ms. Marvel soon stepped in to help her tiny friend. "Not to mention more responsible to those who, oh I don't know, using some kind of sound blaster to nearly deafen everyone in this area with a sound blaster!" she said looking at the Patriot.

Before the Two-Gun Kid could respond, the Patriot himself stepped to explain his previous action. "Yes, that would be my doing, and I do apologize if it was painful, but I assure you, if I had them even louder, your heads would've started to combust and...well, let's just say things would've made a lot messier then it is now."

As the Patriot explained this, twenty to thirty small robots come out of nowhere and fly over to the broken windows. Each of them then projects a small needle from out of their servos, then squirt out a silver liquid out and onto the shards, and thus proceed to what appears to construct new glass to fill the windows.

Needless to say, the Avengers are completely stunned and confused when they saw these robots, and it is Spidey himself who says what his teammates were thinking. "Uh...what the heck are those?"

A question in which the Patriot quickly answered. "Repair Sentries. They're deployed after we've subdued a rouge meta-human and begin repairing the damage that occurred during battle."

The next Avenger to respond to these robots is that of Yellowjacket, who floats next to the Wasp, but looks on at these machines impressed. "Well, you guys seem to be ready for anything, aren't you?" he asked somewhat sarcastically, but hiding his admiration.

"Indeed we are, Dr. Pym," said the Iron Patriot. "And so can all of you..." Before he could finish, the Iron Patriot notices something past the Avengers that causes him to pause.

What he saw was that of Captain Stacy and some of his fellow officer standing completely stunned at what just transpired. Moments later, the veteran officer hears the sounds of news reporters come running in and thus quickly turns to order his officers. "Keep them back!" he yelled, and thus the officers followed his orders by keeping the reporters back and away from robots cleaning up the damage, as well as the Avengers while they continued their discussion with the Patriot and Hill.

Meanwhile, the Iron Patriot returns his attention to the Avengers. "But to show you that we're fair, we won't ask you to make a decision here and now. We'll give you twenty-four hours to think it over. Afterward, we will have an unveiling of the team outside the United Nations Building." Before continuing, he turns to Iron Man. "And Mr. Stark, you're more than welcome to attend, as well as have your answer by then." With that said, the Patriot powers on his jets and begins to hover a few inches off the ground. Seeing his armored partner is about to leave, the Two-Gun Kid soon hops on his shoulder to hitch a ride. With the Two-Gun kid in toe, the Patriot looks at the Avengers one last time. "Now, if you'll excuse us, Two-Gun Kid and Myself are needed for another mission. But we'll see you soon."

The Two-Gun Kid tips his hat the Avengers, being somewhat professional despite his disgust for them. "Y'all take care now!"

Moments later, the Patriot powers up his boots and with the Two-Gun Kid holding on, he zooms back up to the S.H.I.E.L.D. carrier, which by this time had thirty more S.H.I.E.L.D. agents with rocket packs lowering down.

As for Maria Hill herself, she looks up at the agents coming down and begins to give them orders. "Observe the Sentries progress!" she ordered her agents, then turns her attention to Iron Man and the Avengers. "And as for you, I suggest you disperse before I have you all arrested for destruction of public property."

The Wasp seems high offended by this comment, especially from a woman whom she once got along well with. "Destruction of property?!" she asked in shock."Didn't you see us rising our lives to-"

Suddenly, Cap quickly holds up his hand to cut Wasp of mid-sentence. "Wasp, it's all right," said the Star Spangled leader of the Avengers. "Besides, our job's done anyway."

Though still angry at what just transpired, Iron Man lets out a deep sigh to maintain his composure for the sake of the team. "Yeah, Cap's right, Avengers. Let's head back home." With that order, Iron Man powers on his rocket boots and hovers in the air as the rest of his began to disperse. But before departing, Iron Man looks down at Hill one final time. "And Hill, tell your 'Iron Patriot' that I'll see him at the U.N.!"

A stone face Maria gave the Armored Avenger no reply, only a dirty look.

As for Iron Man himself, he turned and flew off into the air, with the rest of the Avengers leaving the scene.

However, as Spidey shot a web-line and swung away from the scene, he can't help but feel troubled as he thought to himself. "I don't know what it is, but that cowboy reminds me of something I know. Something bad. Either way, I've got a feeling that this whole 'Thunderbolt' thing doesn't exactly feel right."