UNVEILING

It was quite a turnout in front of the United Nations Building, for numerous reporters, camera operators and photographers have gathered right in front of a newly made stage with microphones set up, all eagerly waiting for the promised unveiling of the supposed government sanctioned superhero team, the Thunderbolts. Among the many people there were that of Betty Brant, with a hand-sized tape recorder in hand, and Peter Parker, who is kneeling and setting up his camera to take pictures. "Man, I hate to be away from Aunt May," thought the troubled teen. "But aside from web-fluid, money for hospital bills aren't going to fall from the sky...even though it wouldn't hurt for it to happen more often when it comes to MY life!"

Betty noticed that Peter was looking entirely down as he prepared his camera, and naturally was quite worried. "Peter? Are you all right?"

"Huh?" said Peter, snapping out of his depression and quickly turned to his one-time crush. "Oh yeah, uh,...just setting up my camera. It's all set and ready to shoot!"

Betty had heard what happened to Peter's aunt and knew that he was using his over-eagerness to mask his turmoil, which made her heart sink. "You know, Peter, I know how to work a camera. If you need to be with your aunt..."

Suddenly, Betty's attempt to comfort Peter was cut short when she heard a smug male voice chimed in. "My, my, my, Brant! Did Jameson send you to get a cup of coffee?"

Hearing this voice caused Betty to cringe with aggravation, and thus slowly turned to see a man in his thirties looking thin and with balding red hair. "Hello, Dockery."

Peter was naturally confused, as well as a little scared, at seeing the calm and collected Betty agitated at the sight of this man, who appeared to be taking pleasure in getting under Betty's skin. Something to which Peter did not appreciate. "Uh, who?"

Before Betty could give Peter an answer, the man rudely chimed in to introduce himself. "Rupert Dockery, Daily Globe's top reporter, and someone that you and Ms. Brant can learn from."

Betty gave the arrogant Rupert a disgusted narrowed brow as she went to make her opinion known. "Yeah, if I wanted to learn how to write sleazy stories on celebrities at either their worst or most private moments sure. But, I'd much rather stick to plain old fashion journalism," as she continued, Betty momentarily looked away from Rupert and gazed back up on the stage, where two stagehands are now setting up the mountainous backdrop which showed the Thunderbolts symbol. "Not to mention find out just who in god's name these Thunderbolts are."

Rupert, clearly offended by how Betty just talked about his work, gives her a sneer. "Yeah, you and the rest of the world. But make no mistake, I can do it a hell of a lot better than you, or the rest of the hacks at the Bugle can!"

As Betty and Rupert began to bicker amongst themselves, Peter couldn't help but be completely baffled by this development. However, nothing surprised him more than what happened next, for he is soon taken away from Betty and Rupert's exchange when he heard the voice of a certain girl that he knew. One in which was a certain beautiful blonde with an even kinder spirit. "Peter...?"

Peter quickly turned around, and sure enough, he saw Gwen Stacy standing there, this time, while still wearing her white tennis shoes, she was dressed in a long-sleeved red shirt, fashionable black jeans, thanks to her shopping trips, as well as fashion advice, from Mary-Jane. She had let her flowing blonde down, and as before, she was wearing contacts as opposed to her glasses, which helped bring out her sky blue eyes, all in which captivated Peter even more. After all, he could face Venom, Kraven the Hunger, and even Galactus...but only Gwen Stacy, with her pure beauty and great mind, personality could genuinely make his heart race. "Uh, Gwen!" he exclaimed happily, then walked over to hug the girl he came to love, who just so happened to have the same idea. However, they soon remembered the current circumstances, and after a brief awkward pause, they agreed to shake hands. "So, uh...how is everything?"

"Oh, not bad," Gwen replied bashfully, with her face now bright red. "However, her meek but happy demeanor soon turned to saddened one. "MJ told me what happened to Aunt May. I'm so sorry."

Peter looked down briefly in despair. "Yeah...me too. Just like the first time, I wasn't there," he then looked back up at Gwen, trying to hold back tears. "But I'll make it up to her! Starting by taking pics that will hopefully pay the hospital bills so the doctors can keep her there and find out what's wrong with her so they can help her."

Gwen nodded at Peter's replied, for she knew that he meant every word when he said about wanting to help his sick aunt. However, she still hated to see the greatest guy she knows in so much pain, all in which made her ignore her shyness and wrap her arms around Peter's mid-section, hugging him with every fiber in her being.

Though Peter was surprised that this happened, he didn't mind it one bit, considering a pretty girl was squeezing him like a teddy bear. And once more, it was the girl of his dreams. As such, Peter used his left hand to hold the camera, all so he can use his right arm to keep Gwen back, feeling, real, pure comfort for the first time in hours.

In the middle of her arguing with Rupert, Betty turned and noticed Peter and Gwen hugging, and seeing Peter happy was enough to make her smile and ignore her news rival as he continued to berate her. Of in the distance, another person who spotted the two teens hugging was that of Captain George Stacy while was in the middle of coordinating his officers in not only providing security but also keeping back the pedestrians that were looking at the UN stage to see the conference. As a father, he wasn't too keen on her daughter dating boys, not to mention Harry Osborn, whom he suspected might be more harmful to Gwen than good. But in regards to Peter, he knew that he was a decent kid, one in which Gwen truly liked and maybe saw this as a sign that she would break things off with Harry and maybe go with a boy who, at the very least, he knew wouldn't cause her trouble. However, the pondering of his daughter's love life soon came to a halt when he saw two of his officers drinking conversing at the post, and thus refocused on his job and proceeded to walk towards them to remind them that they have a job to do.

Meanwhile, as Gwen continued to hold Peter close, she briefly let her emotions cloud her mind as she muttered this. "...I've missed you." Realizing her mistake, Gwen, her face now bright red, quickly backed away from the stunned Peter. "Hanging out! I miss all of us hanging out! You, me, Harry! All of us!"

"Uh, yeah, right!" Peter replied, also blushing wildly. "Hanging out...with Harry," The young man's sadness returned, but this time, when it came to Harry. Though he still loved him like a brother, he was still dating Gwen, and what was worse, were only still seeing each other because of a friend's father's passing. However, he also found Harry's absence a bit off-putting, seeing as how he'd thought he would be sticking to her like glue. "And speaking of which, where is Harry? Isn't he with you?"

"Well, he was," Gwen answered back, sounding just as confused. "But then he said that he had to leave to set up a 'big surprise,' then he just disappeared."

This left Peter feeling very worried and uncomfortable, knowing that whenever this usually happened, it meant that Harry was doing dangerous things, namely drinking the chemical known as the Greene. "Wow, that's weird," said Peter, trying to sound confused and trying to hide both his worry and suspicion over Harry's whereabouts.

Finally, the chattering among the reporters soon comes to a stop when they saw Victoria walking towards the podium and causing the photographers to start snapping their pictures and reporters to gather to the podium.

This, in turn, caught the attention of both Betty, Rupert, and Peter, knowing that it was time to go to work. And as Betty and Rupert sped off, Peter turned back to Gwen while holding up his camera. "Well, duty calls," he told her with a small smile. "I'll talk to you later, okay!"

"Okay, take care," Gwen replied as she let Peter go, and soon gave him a reluctant wave. Moments later, she walked over and was guided to a seat which was right next to the one reserved for the now missing Harry Osborn.

Meanwhile, both Betty and Rupert pushed and shoved their way to the front of the stage, while Peter found a nice clear spot and soon snapped pictures at the vigilant Victoria Hand.

"Hello ladies and gentlemen," Victoria told the reporters. "Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. Firstly, my name is Victoria Hand, and I am the government liaison of the Thunderbolts, a team sanctioned by S.H.I.E.L.D. and one that I'm sure all of you would know the full story of. However, we and the rest of the agency field feel that that's a story that can best be told by the Thunderbolts' leader himself, the Iron Patriot."

At that very moment, Victoria looked up as she took a step backward. As the confused crowd also looked up, they receive quite the surprise when they saw the Iron Patriot, who makes a grand entrance by flying in the air, then hovering down and landing right behind the podium, to which all of the photographers start snapping their pictures, which looked like a sea of flickering lights. Before addressing the crowd, the Patriot first wanted to show his professionalism by turning and addressing Victoria. "Thank you, Ms. Hand," said the Patriot, then turned to the reporters. "And thank you all for coming."

As Peter continued to snap pictures of the Iron Patriot, he couldn't help but feel that there was something...familiar with this armored stranger. Whether it was the way he spoke, or how he carried himself, the young man still had this nagging feeling that he's seen him before. Nevertheless, he went back to doing his job and continued with the pictures.

With the reporters now in the palm of his hand, the Patriot continued. "Now then, as Ms. Hand previously stated, I, along with my teammates, the Thunderbolts, are the first government-sanctioned superhero team that works for S.H.I.E.L.D to handle any threats that no one hero can face along. Yester, you may have noticed only a handful of us deal with such villains at the Zodiac, as well as the would-be assassins of the King of Wakanda, T'Challa. But, to be frank, what you saw was only the tip of the iceberg. For now, it is time for all of you to meet the 'whole family,' so to speak." Like a sideshow performer, the Iron Patriot held his right hand upward and to present the rest of his team. First, Altas appeared in his giant form, holding Citizen V and Two-Gun kid in his large right hand, all the while MACH IV comes zooming in via his winged jet pack and lands on the stage. Atlas soon began to shrink down to human size, and in the process, he safely puts Citizen V and Two-Gun Kid on the stage. However, as the Patriot pointed out, this was not the entire team. And sure enough, many more of the Thunderbolts make their entrance a large puff of smoke that would be seen in a magic show. And they were...

MAGUS: (the conjurer of the smoke, showing himself to be a man dressed in a full blue body suit and donning a brilliant white cape and wearing a white full head mask with an expressionless face)

THE SILVER SAMURAI: (a man clad in silver, Japanese armor with his katana sheathed and rested on his right side)

BATROC THE LEAPER: (another masked man with a 1920's mustache and wearing a purple and yellow jumpsuit)

SWORDSMAN: (a helmeted man who hide his face behind a gold, mirror faceplate, clad in a green and black body armor with a broadsword slung over his shoulder)

THE MOLTEN MAN: (a teenage, gold-skinned young man whom a shocked Peter knows quite well, folding his arms to appear intimidating.)

SKURGE THE EXECUTIONER: (a large, buckly, bald man in Norse style armor and with his battle-ax in hand)

and the BLACK WIDOW: YELENA BELOVA: (a blonde haired, attractive woman in her late twenties, dressed in a tight leather bodysuit and looking on at the stunned crowd with a smirk.)

Many more of the Thunderbolts begin to come down from the sky and on to the stage, and these members were...

SONGBIRD: (a young woman with bright pink hair, clad in a black and white jumpsuit and wearing golden shoulder pads with a collar that has a pink diamond on the front, namely where her voice box is located and through screaming, the gem produces pink energy that creates pink energy based butterfly wings, which she used to fly down to the stage.)

SURGE: (a masked man clad in an orange and yellow bodysuit, and lowers down to the stage via two streaks of electricity being produced from his hands.)

MOONSTONE: (a masked, blonde haired woman clad in a gold and silver bodysuit, using her ability to fly to come down to the sage.)

And last, but not least, THE SCARLET SPIDER, a small, lean masked man wearing a uniform that was almost identical to Spider-Man's, but with a red and black color scheme, and comes down to the stage by swinging down from a back, oily web-line.

The appearance of this 'Spider-Man' came as a big shock to a flabbergasted Peter. "WHAT?!" he thought to himself, staring at the Scarlet Spider in total disbelief. "These guys have their own Spider-Man?! It's one thing for that frog guy to take my wall-crawling dig, but...but how did they make their own Spider-Man? And for that matter, WHO did they get to be their own Spider-Man?"

With all of the Thunderbolts present and accounted for, the Iron Patriot continued in working for the already stunned crowd. "What you see before you are a team of extraordinary men and woman who can take on any threat. One in which is willing to work for you United States government and will protect you, the people, under accordance with the law. And speaking of law...that brings me to another matter regarding superheroes in our great country. For you see, we the Thunderbolts are also proud supporters of the proposed bill by S.H.I.E.L.D. director, Maria Hill, known as the Superhuman Registration Act, which when passed, will require all meta-humans who claim to be superheroes to be registered and trained by government officials, most notably S.H.I.E.L.D., as federal agents. Also, it's been noted that the superhero...' tradition' you could call it, known as the secret identity has been making people nervous and scared of the people they see people running around in costumes as well as using their great power, and frankly, that shouldn't be. As your heroes, we want you to put your trust and your faith us, and we know that a big part of gaining it is to show you that we have nothing to hide. As such, that Superhero Registration Act will require all masked heroes to reveal their identities to the public!"

This left everyone, from the reporters in attendance, to the bystanders watching, in complete shock, causing everyone to chatter amongst themselves in almost pure panic. It took nearly a full minute for them to calm down and allow the Patriot, who by now has his hands up in to get everyone's attention, to continue. "Now, now, I know this is quite a surprise. And yes, I know that some heroes will not quite agree with this measure. And to those heroes who might be watching, please know that this is for the best. Not just for your sake, and that the safety of your friends and loved ones will be under the full protection of S.H.I.E.L.D. once you register. And to show all of you how much faith we have in this bill, allow me to...how do I put this? Give you all a 'reintroduction." From that point on, the Thunderbolts all began to unmask and reveal themselves to the people present, and thus the Patriot himself names as they go:

For MAGUS, he removed his mask to reveal himself as Quentin Beck, otherwise known as the villain illusionist, Mysterio.

THE SILVER SAMURAI removed his helmet, to reveal himself to be Kenuichio Harada, a longtime member of the Yashida clan, one of Japan's most notorious Yakuza gangs.

BATROC also unmasked himself and showing the world the face of Georges Batroc, French mercenary for hire.

SWORDSMAN: pressed a button on his helmet to lift off the orange faceplate and reveal the face of Andreas Von Strucker, another infamous mercenary.

THE MOLTEN MAN, who this time held up a technically advanced bracelet on his right hand, pressed a button, which deactivated the nanobots in his system and revered back into his human form of a Hispanic teen, Mark Allan.

SKURE was already known to the public, but mostly as part of the super-villain team, the Masters of Evil.

YELENA BELOVA was not known to the public just now, mostly because of her part taking in many 'classified' mission.

Though SONGBIRD wore no mask, her real name was Melissa Joan Gold, and through a small holograph project from her left shoulder, she showed a digital image of her mugshot as the face painted villainess known as the Screaming Mimi.

SURGE also pressed a button on his hood, which at the moment caused his mask to turn transparent and show the electric based face of the mutated Max Dillon, otherwise known as the feared villain, Electro.

MOONSTONE took off her mask, revealing herself as Karla Sofen, a longtime thief and con artist.

ATLAS removed his hood, showing himself to be Eric Stephan Josten, a thief who mysteriously got a hold of Henry Pym's size-altering technology and previously went under the name Goliath.

MACH IV removed his helmet and showed himself as Abner Ronald Jenkins, who had long terrorized New York as the villain, the Beetle.

THE TWO-GUN KID removed both his cowboy hand and bandana mask to reveal himself as Jackson Brice, who at one point went under the alias Montana as part of the mercenary group called the Enforcers, but later went on as the villain known as the Shocker.

CITIZEN V soon removed his mask and was shown to be a clean cut and handsome blonde haired man known as John Watkins Jr., an English soldier.

And lastly, the SCARLET SPIDER revealed himself by allowing his mask to eerily flow down his head like water, as if it had a mind of its own, and surprised the entire crowd by revealing himself...as young Harry Osborn!

Out of all the people in attendance, it was Peter, Gwen, and George Stacy, who were the most shocked of all, looking at the liquid suited young man with wide open eyes. "HARRY?!" they thought in unison, for if Harry's experience with the Green wasn't nerve-racking enough, him being the aptly named Scarlet Spider certainly was.

The final Thunderbolt who still has his face hidden is that of the Iron Patriot, who soon turned to the still stunned crowd. "And as for me? Well, what's that old saying?" he said jokingly, then puts both of his hands on the sides of his helmet. "I, just like my teammates, am not only a superhero speaking on behalf of the bill..." as he continued, the Thunderbolts leader slowly began to remove his helmet, much to the anticipation of the reporters watching.

Moments later, the Thunderbolt removed his helmet, and naturally, left everyone wide-eyed and speechless. Among the stunned public was that of George Stacy, for what he saw easily topped seeing his daughter's boyfriend revealed himself as a knock-off Spider-Man. "You have..."

From her seat, a wide-eyed Gwen, like her father, felt seeing Harry on stage was just trumped by seeing the Patriot's real face. "...got to be..."

And as for Peter Parker, he was more surprised, as well as disturbed, upon gazing at the face that was underneath the Patriot's helmet. For the last time he saw this person, he, along with many people in the city, thought he was dead. "...kidding me!"

The unmasked placed his helmet on the podium, all so he can address the crowd as the smiling, widely known, and long thought dead business man...Norman Osborn! "I'm also a client."