A DEADLY TASK

With great speed and timing, both Spidey and the Black Panther finally make it to where they heard the explosion in hopes of apprehending the would-be assassin, the Ringer, and his polka-dotted assailant, the Spot. But by the time they arrived, however, both heroes are somewhat speechless when they find that the two villains are stopped by the three costumed individuals who just a few moments ago, claimed to be heroes. After an awkward silence, it is the wide-eyed Spidey who breaks it by saying this. "Okay, I am SOOOO hoping that you three guys aren't in league with these two clowns and that you're going to now gang up on us!"

A chuckle came out of the caped man in the V-shaped mask as he heard the Web-Head's nervous remark. "It seems the Iron Patriot was right about you having a sense of humor, young man."

Spidey had a look of pure shock under his mask when he heard that name come out of this mysterious caped figure. "Iron Patriot?! You mean you guys are part of his 'Thunderbolts' team?!"

The Panther turned to Spidey looking completely flabbergasted. "Thunderbolts?! Is that not the team that you and the other Avengers met early this afternoon?"

As the heroes talk amongst themselves, the Spot secretly begins to create another black hole-like portal and thus grabs the Ringer's arm to try and make a break for it. At one point, the armored, winged man hovering in the sky sees the Spot trying to escape and soon holds up his right arm, which contains a built-in laser in his gauntlet and takes aim. "Oh no, you don't, polka-dots!" he said as he fired a thin laser from his gauntlet, which barely hits the Spot's shoulder, resulting in a flesh wound, but it was enough to make the Spot fall to the roof floor and hold his shoulder in pain, thus breaking concentration and making the portal disappear.

After seeing his partner get shot down, the fear-filled Ringer looked up, then desperately pulls out two rings from behind his belt and throws them at his two targets: the eight-foot tall giant and the hovering shooter, hitting them both and resulting in the eight-foot man to walk over the ledge and the winged man to flipped backward. Luckily, however, this did not keep the two Thunderbolts out for long, the winged man managed to stop flipping and retain control of himself in the air, while as the eight-foot man went off the ledge, he pressed a button on his belt buckle, which in turn causes his body to grow that of fifty feet tall, turning him into a true giant and saving him from falling splattering all over the pavement.

Upon seeing his two fellow Thunderbolts recover, the caped man let out a grunt of frustration, then turns to face both Spidey and the Panther. "I have no time to give explanation," he told them bluntly as he tightened the grip of his sword. "If you want to help us capture these two miscreants, fine, otherwise, you might want to stay out of the way!" With that said, the caped man turned his attention back to the Ringer and charged towards him.

The Ringer spots the caped coming his way and with expert timing, he pulled out and threw two more rings at this supposed caped hero.

However, the caped man quickly disposed of the villain's weapons with two masterful slashes, and upon approaching the villain himself, turns and delivers a left-legged round-kick, nailing the Ringer in the jaw and sending him down hard on the roof floor and out cold. "Hmph, hardly worth my time."

While lying on the roof floor, the Spot at first took a look at his shoulder to see how badly he was injured, and to his relief, he sees that he received nothing but a flesh wound. His relief is soon turned to fear when he sees the winged man flying down towards him, thus making him put his finger to his ear to use his com-link. "We could use a little help!" he said with urgency, and at that moment, he created another portal right in front of him, and moments later, the red and silver costumed villain who went by the name Chemestro runs out and fires a strange liquid from out of his blaster.

The winged man is shocked to see the liquid coming his way, and quickly holds up his right arm, which causes a collapsible metal shield to form out of his gauntlet and block the liquid, which begins to eat through the steel of the shield, revealing it to be acid.

As the winged man flies upward to dispose of the rapidly dissolving shield, Chemestro moves out of the way to make way to his comrade and another costumed villain. This time, a man in a white hood cloak with a blue jumpsuit, and a menacing skull mask jumps out while holding a bow and arrow. He then takes aim at the giant's face and fires an arrow, which while in mid-air, explodes in a huge flash of light, blinded the giant instantly.

Now sightless, the giant aimlessly walks backward into one of the building, causing debris to fall down to the fleeing pedestrians below.

Seeing the giant putting the people at risk is a horrifying sight for both Spidey and the Black Panther. Namely the Web-Head, his eyes with wide open with both fear and disbelief on how many people the giant endangered. "NOOOO!" screamed the Web-Head, with the Panther being just as stunned on how not only how the giant could be so undisciplined, that he could not only allow himself be defeated but how he could be very dangerous to innocent people. Nevertheless, Spidey was just about to leap in and try and save the civilians below but is stopped when he felt his spider-sense tingle, prompting him to duck and roll underneath a sword slash from the skull-faced man.

As for the skull-faced man, even though he missed the Web-Head, he pressed on with his attack by turning and throw a right legged spinning back heel kick at his new target, the Black Panther himself.

By pure instinct, the Panther leaned back to avoid the kick, but also saw the skull-faced man about to throw another sword slash, and thus held up his right hand in a knife-edged chop fashion and thus used his vibranium claws to block the blade. "So, you must be the Taskmaster?" he said while staring intently at his skull-faced opponent's eyes. "The assassin that as the ability to mimic other people's movements?"

"You've heard of me?" asked the aptly named Taskmaster, staring right back at the determined Panther. "I'm flattered, the great King of Wakanda is a big fan of my work!"

"Hardly," the Panther replied, sounding disgusted as he still pushed the blade. "I know you only through files given to me by my fellow Avengers. Files which also say that you are an extremely dangerous fugitive that e that escaped from the Cube and must be brought in immediately!"

This only made the Taskmaster chuckle in defiance, seeing this fight with the Black Panther as a challenge. "Well, that's just not going to happen," he told the Wakandan King. "And though I'm honored to be recognized by a king, this also means I have the honor of killing one!" With murderous intent in his mind, the Taskmaster pulled his sword back and thrusts it in a stabbing motion, aiming for the Panther's mid-section.

Luckily for the Panther, however, he jumps and flips over his cloaked attacker to avoid the attack.

Even after missing, the Taskmaster's luck continued to take a turn for the worse. For though the corner of his left eye, he sees the mysterious caped hero charging towards him with his sword raised over his head, as if he was going to chop the skull-faced assassin in half. Acting fast, the Taskmaster double clicks a secret button woven into his left glove, which caused a blue, metal shield to configure and cover the top of his hand. Afterward, he holds up his shielded left arm over his head and successfully blocks the caped man's sword attack. "Who the spotted hell are you?!" asked the shocked Taskmaster, "A musketeer Captain America rip-off?"

"I am Citizen V!" replied the caped swordsman, who then noticed the Panther drawing his claws to attack again with the still stunned Spidey looking on. "And with or without the assistance of the cat and the spider, you're coming with the Thunderbolts!"

For the Taskmaster, he grew only intrigued by this new challenge. "Really?" Moments later, he heard the rapid footsteps charging up behind him and as he turned to look over his shoulder, he saw the Wakandan King raising his right hand to throw another claw slash. As such, he uses his sword to quickly block the Panther's claws, thus finding himself in somewhat of a stalemate with his two masked enemies. "Well, sorry to spoil things for you, Mr. Citizen!" he said sarcastically. "But like I told the Panther, I don't see my imprisonment happening. Instead, I'm thinking about, oh say, getting away, but not before taking both of your heads as trophies!"

The Panther, undeterred by the Taskmaster's threat, still holds his enemy's blade at bay thanks to his claws. "That outcome seems unlikely!"

The Taskmaster himself only gives the Panther a smug smile behind his skull mask. "In that case, let me show you!" At that moment, the hooded assassin spins around in a circle, forcing both the Panther and the aptly named Citizen V to back away to avoid both the edge of his shield, as well as the sharp tip of his sword.

After staring at 'sword stand-off' in stunned silence, Spidey finally decided to aid the Panther, as well as the mysterious Citizen V and stood ready to shoot two web-lines to bind the Taskmaster. However, he is stopped when he feels his spider-sense tingle, this time being caused by more acid being fired by Chemestro, forcing him to hop backward to avoid the acid. "Hey!" said the Wall-Crawler upon landing and turning to the now stunned Chemestro. "Watch where your shooting that over-glorified super soaker!"

Chemestro himself lets out an aggravated grunt up hearing Spidey's quip, then takes aim and fires another acid shot at the Web-Slinger once again.

Seeing this attack coming, Spidey jumped up and flipped backward into the air to dodge the acid. While in mid-air, the Web-Head set his sights on Chemestro, then held up both of his hands in web-shooting form, and shot two web-balls out of his wrists. This unorthodox counterattack proved to be effective, for one web-ball hits and covers the barrel of Chemestro's gun, rendering the weapon useless. While the other hits the villain himself in his masked face, momentarily blinding him. Upon landing on the edge of the roof, Spidey shot two more web-lines, which made a direct hit on Chemestro's feet as he desperately tried to get the webbing off of his face. Now having the villain right where he wants him, Spidey jumps up in the air and yanked upward on his end of the lines, pulling Chemestro up into the air with him, and once the villain was close enough, the Web-Slinger curled his legs up into his chest and kicks Chemestro in his back, using him as a make-shift boost for him to flip backward as well as send his acid shooting opponent flying forward towards another rooftop nearby. Upon getting in a position to look forward, Spidey shoots more webbing from out of his wrists and created a wall of web between the two taller buildings, one in which the now loopy Chemestro lands and sticks to, taking him out of the fight.

Afterward, Spidey lands safely on the rooftop in a crouching position, he looked straight ahead Chemestro, who by now laid in a semi-conscious in the web-bed. "Don't go anywhere..." Spidey told the now taken care of villain, then turned to see the Panther still fighting Taskmaster, alongside Citizen V, and was just about to web-zip into the fray to assist his fellow Avenger.

By this time, however, the giant is seen blinking his eye as he slowly begins to regain his sight, and sees the Taskmaster fighting three heroes at once, and is now fuming on how he made 'the biggest hero of all' look like a fool. "You slimy little...!"

Meanwhile, the winged armored man had just removed the shield before the acid ate through his gauntlet and sees his enormous comrade stomping towards the roof where the heroes were, and most shocking of all, with his huge fist, raised over his head. "Atlas, no!"

The giant called Atlas didn't hear his flying teammate's warning, for he already threw his fist downward to smash everyone on the rooftop.

However, this action causes the Wall Crawler's spider-sense to kick in, causing him to look up to see the giant attacking, causing his eyes to grow open with fright. "LOOK OUT!"

Long before Spidey detected, a shocked Spot noticed it ahead of time, and thus created a black spot underneath him and vanished out of sight. As for the rest of the people on the roof, Spidey quickly web-zipped over to the right side, while the Panther, Citizen V, and the Taskmaster dashed to the left, thus clearing the way for Atlas' incoming fist, which smashes right through the center of the roof, splitting the building right down the center like a karate student chopping through layers of wood. Though they escaped Atlas' brutal assault, Spidey and the rest of the costumed individuals find themselves on the two rooftops on both sides of the now destroyed building they were once on, with Spidey landing in a crouched position on the right roof, while Panther and the others landing on the roof to the left. As for the unconscious Ringer, he miraculously is handing by one of his many rings on a small piece of steel, dangling like a Christmas ornament.

After Atlas' rash attack, the winged man soon hovered over to the seething giant's face to voice his opinions. "Nice way to avoid collateral damage, genius!"

Atlas, however, looks at the winged man, who by comparison, is like a buzzing mosquito to him. "You want collateral damage, fly-boy? Just keep talking!"

Back below, Citizen V looks up to see his comrades bickering and though he planned to have a 'little chat' with Atlas for his actions, he still kept his eye on the mission and thus decides to remind his fellow Thunderbolts of the task at hand. "Atlas! Mach IV!" he yelled, successfully getting their attention. "If you are done bickering, find and catch that polka-dotted teleporter before he gets away or brings more of his friends here!"

Hearing they're leader's orders, both Atlas and the winged man named Mach IV being to desperately look around for the Spot, who by this time is nowhere to be found.

Meanwhile, the Quinjet is starting to close in and from the cockpit, Cap and his teammates had just witnessed the enormous Atlas smash his fist through the building. Namely, Hawkeye, who looked on at the giant Thunderbolt with a raised eyebrow. "Okay, apparently Stark's shtick isn't the only one being stolen."

A very angry Yellowjacket hears Hawkeye's comment and couldn't agree with him more as he looked hard at Atlas, and more specifically, his belt. For its design reminded him of another prototype size-alternating device that 'Henry Pym' developed long ago. "You're not kidding, Burton," he said to his arrow shooting teammate, then gets up off of his chair, walked over to the Quinjet's side door and opened it. "I'll meet you guys at the battle! I'm gonna have myself a nice 'little chat' with our new big man." With that said, he jumped out of the Quinjet and flies off after Atlas.

Naturally, this causes great concern among Yellowjacket's teammates, most notably, the wide-eyed Wasp. "Hank, hold on!" she exclaimed but was too late when Yellowjacket jumped out. "Crap! I'll get him!" Moments later, she shrunk down to insect size and flew out the open door of the jet after her impulsive partner.

"Jan!" Cap yelled over his shoulder, only to see that she was long gone, and after frustrated grunt, turns to the Vision. "Vision, go after them!"

"Affirmative," Vision replied, and soon altered his body's density to change into his ghostly form and phased through the floorboard of the jet, then arrives below on the outside and flies after both Yellowjacket and Wasp.

With just him and Cap in the Quinjet, Hawkeye could only say this to the Super Soldier in his usual sarcastic tone. "Well, nice to see that things are running smoothly."

Cap only shook his head and let out an overwhelmed sigh as he silently through this to himself. "You and me both, Clint."