EVENING THE ODDS
Upon returning to the Garden, Surge was greeted with a mixture of cheers and boos from a divided crowd. As he made his way to his comrades, they seemed to pave the way for him to come across the Patriot, who by this time had his arms crossed in a somewhat less than pleased posture. "I can't tell from your helmet covering your face," he told his armored leader. "But you don't seem to happy, Osborn."
The Patriot proved Surge right by letting out an annoyed grunt, and once more, his son was standing next to him, with his Scarlet Spider suit somehow making him allot more muscular than usual. "It seems you forgotten our little chat about your name problem."
This caused Surge to take a challenging step forward. "Hey, I won the match, didn't I?"
Naturally, the Scarlet Spider didn't take too kindly to Surge's act of disrespect and was just about to use suit's strength to knock him across the stage, only to stop himself from doing so when the Patriot gently placed his armored hand on the young man's chest, stopping him in his tracks.
After restraining his symbiote-powered son, the Patriot looked at the disobedient Surge with a glare. "Yes, you did, and I commend you for that. However, your little outburst may have just placed our image to the general public in serious jeopardy. An image we must keep positive if we plan to succeed. So, unless you want to be put back in Ravenscroft, I strongly suggest you do as you're told and play nice! Understood?"
Unbeknownst to everyone, Surge found the Patriot's stare quite intimidating. For only did he have enough power in S.H.I.E.L.D. to send him back to captivity as he said, but he also displayed enough brains and enough strength, with or without the armor, to take him on in a real fight. However, the Thunderbolt only masked his fears by trying to act tough. "Yeah, yeah, whatever," he told him in a sarcastic tone, then walk off, hoping that his 'performance' was enough to mask his pure fear from his teammates, as well as the Patriot himself.
Meanwhile, the announcer tried his best to keep things moving along by moving to the screen, which by this time showed the sixteenth final brackets, and more importantly, showed both Iron Fist and Surge's names being moved next to each other in the second match slot. "Well folks, it looks like the second match in the sixteenth-finals is sure to be 'electrifying'!" he said with excited vigor, as well as getting the crowds attention. "For we will be having Surge going toe to toe with the martial arts sensation, Iron Fist!"
Naturally, this news caused a massive pop from the crowd, but the Avengers themselves were nowhere near as happy, as they were still angry after what they saw what happened to their teammate, the Vision. The memory of how Surge dismantled him was still fresh in their minds, especially that of the two Heroes for Hire, Luke Cage, and Iron Fist, who both look at Surge from across the stage and both have cautioned looks on their faces. To which caused the usually calm and collected Luke to lean in towards Fist with a look of concern. "Watch your back when you go up against that punk, Fist."
"I will," Fist replied calmly but still staring intently at his destined opponent, then turned to his worrying friend with a smirk in hopes of getting his spirits up. "Besides, we've faced worse, haven't we?"
Luke answered his partner with a sly smirk. "Damn right! And for a lot less money, too!"
The Wasp, being probably the most worried of the Avengers, is the one who flew over to the announcer just as he was about to announce the next match, and grew to human size as she approached him. "Hey, wait!" she called out, getting the announcers attention. "Before you go and call out the next fight, where's the Vision?"
Though the announcer was a bit baffled by how Wasp just altered her size, he still nonetheless answered her. "Oh, well, according to tournament procedures, the eliminated participants are sent to the S.H.I.E.L.D. helocarrier.
This answer left the Wasp, and the rest of her fellow Avengers, in a state of pure shock and disbelief.
Meanwhile, up in the S.H.I.E.L.D. helocarrier, the heavily damaged and barely functioning Vision is hooked up to the computers in the helocarrier laboratory, where he was monitored by S.H.I.E.L.D. personnel, and what was just as unsettling...the android still moaned and twitched in pain.
Back in the Garden, the announcer tried his best to console the shocked Wasp. "But, don't worry, you have my word that he's in the best of care."
Wasp, not at all comforted by the announcer's words, as well as not entirely convinced, was just about to voice the announcer her rage regarding the matter of S.H.I.E.L.D. having their damaged teammate in their midst.
However, it is Iron Man quickly stepped right in front of her to try and hold her back. "Thank you, that helps a lot," he told the announcer, and after receiving a nod of acknowledgment from him, the Armored Avenger led the irate Wasp back to the Avengers's corner.
Once they made it back to their teammates, a very angry Wasp whispered this to Iron Man. "How is having Vision being in held by S.H.I.E.L.D. considered helping, Tony?" she hissed.
"Don't worry, Jan," Iron Man replied, trying to sound reassuring. "When I rebuilt Vision after our fight with Ultron, I added a little 'insurance' just in case he was captured." Seeing his how that answered only gave Wasp a more shocked look, causing her to think that she thought of him as a mere machine, the Shellhead held his hands up in defense. "He'll be fine, I promise! Besides, I already got something, or accurately someone, already helping us to try and even the odds and try to end this nightmare early, remember?"
Though she still hated the idea that they couldn't save Vision, Wasp knew that any crazy idea that Iron Man could conjure up usually worked, and with a reluctant sigh, gave him a nod. "Fine," she told him, anger remaining and thus walked off over to Ms. Marvel.
As for Spidey, he watched Wasp storm away from Iron Man with eyes wide open in fear. "Note to self: Do not get on her nerves."
As the rest of the Avengers talked amongst themselves, Luke Cage stood next to the second Ant-Man, Scott Lang, who appeared to stand there, almost robotic like. Something that disturbs Luke just a little. "Damn, that thing is creepy!"
Fist was also near the motionless Ant-Man and appeared to not be at all uncomfortable around it. "Well, if it makes you feel any better, I don't think it's programmed to hurt us," said Fist in a light-hearted tone, indicating that he, as well as Luke, know that what was standing in front of them was NOT their fellow Hero for Hire at all, but instead a life model decoy.
Meanwhile, inside the S.H.I.E.L.D. helocarrier, more specifically, Maria Hill's office, all seemed quiet while Maria herself was busy at the bridge. That is, until the REAL Ant-Man, in insect size and riding on the back of a winged ant, came flying in and lands on top of the office chair. As he hopped off of the flying ant, Ant-Man soon grew to back to human size and found himself sitting in the chair, and thus turned his attention to Maria's personal computer. Moments later, the size-altering former cat-burglar pulled out a flash drive from out of his belt and inserted into the computer's flash port.
Just as Ant-Man did this, the S.H.I.E.L.D. symbol screensaver disappeared and was replaced by a caption balloon 'WARNING: UNAUTHORIZED SOFTWARE DETECTED," which naturally scared the Hero for Hire. Moments later, however, the caption disappeared, and it changed to that of one saying "SOFTWARE APPROVED."
Naturally, Ant-Man let out a sigh of relief from such a brief scare and thus pressed a button on his helmet to activate its inner-com system. "Mr. Stark, this is Ant-Man, I'm downloading the files now."
Back at the Garden, Iron Man can see the S.H.I.E.L.D. files downloading into his systems from inside his helmet. "Seeing it now, Scott, and as soon as it's done, high tail it out of there and back to the Garden. Oh, and like I tell everybody, don't call me 'Mr. Stark', I'm a first name basis kind of guy."
"Uh...o-okay," Ant-Man replied on the other end, taken aback by Iron Man's somewhat eccentric but well-meaning demeanor. "Signing off now, Mr. Sta-I mean, Tony."
Hearing this reply only made Iron Man smirk behind his faceplate. "Glad to see you're catching on. Signing off." As the Armored Avenger ended his call with the second Ant-Man, he briefly turned to the man who not only in the past was his one of his most trusted friends, Hank Pym, the first Ant-Man, but now stood before him as Yellowjacket, making his smirk turn into a disappointed scowl. For he knew that this superhero change was that of a mental disorder, one that made Yellowjacket reckless and violent. So much so, that he was considering kicking him off of the team and having him committed for not just his sake, but for everyone else around him once the tournament was over. And while he knew that Wasp would hate him for it, he knew that deep down, she was just as scared of this 'new' Hank Pym, and hoped against hope that she would realize that and forgive him for this already heartbreaking decision.
Meanwhile, back on the center of the stage, the announcer goes back to doing his job in addressing the audience. "All right folks, let's keep things rolling with our next match-up! One in which pits the two teams 'sharpshooters!' For up next, we have the Avengers' daring archer, Hawkeye, taking on the Thunderbolts' rowdy gunslinger, The Two-Gun Kid!"
As the crowd went wild with that announcement, the smirking, as well as confident Hawkeye pulled out his retractable bow from out of his back and jerked it to open up and give it is arc shape and ready for battle. Afterward, he briefly turned to his teammates, and most notably, his former partner in S.H.I.E.L.D. as well as the original Black Widow, Natasha Romanov. "Don't wait up. This won't take long."
Though Natasha would usually advise him not to be too cocky, she knew that he would never listen to her, as well as anyone for that matter. As such, all she could do was let out a sigh and smile back at him. "Give him hell, Clint."
"That's the plan," Hawkeye told his old partner, and with a wink, he turned and walked over to the pad.
In the Thunderbolts corner, the Two-Gun Kid is seen loading bullets into one of his six-shooters, something that caught the eye of the still cautious Iron Patriot, especially since the team's 'not going too far' motto was now in jeopardy thanks to Surge's prior actions. "Brice, what I just told Surge, it goes double for you!"
"Not to worry, boss," Two Gun told his armored superior in reassurance as he held up one of his bullets. "I'll be using rubber bullets on Robin Hood over there. It'll help me take him down without killin' him."
Though he was glad to hear this, the Patriot still gave the confident Two-Gun a demeaning glare as he gave him this stern warning. "Well, for your sake, keep it that way!"
After he places the bullet in the last chamber, Two-Gun gave the gun a quick jerk to the side to close the chamber, then twirled it back into his holster. Afterward, Two-Gun tipped his hat to the Patriot, then turned and walked over to the teleportation pad, where Hawkeye was already standing and waiting.
With both participants now on the pads, both Hawkeye and the Two-Gun kid are soon transported out of the arena and over to another unknown location, somewhere on the planet.
After watching Hawkeye and Two-Gun disappear, Spidey still appeared to be troubled an in deep thought. "Don't get too cocky, Cupid," thought the Web-Head. "He may not be Shocker anymore, but Brice is still a pretty good shot with just about anything that can shoot." Moments later, Spidey briefly looked up and saw Gwen, still being watched by Victoria and grew more worried than before. "Great, it's bad enough that Aunt May's life is on the line, but now Gwen's is too! Also doesn't help that Osborn's got this whole tournament rigged in his favor! Can anyone else on this planet be having just as much, if not worse luck than mine right now?"
Elsewhere, in the warm sands and sunny skies of Galveston Beach in Texas, it seemed like all was quiet. From people sunbathing and playing volleyball on the beachside, many other people were sitting in the outside bar, all drinking beverages as they watched the Contest of Champions tournament on a large plasma TV.
One in which one enthusiastic Caucasian male college student tell this to his friend, an African American male as they got their drinks, two beer bottles. "Five bucks on cowboy," said the student as he took and sipped his bottle.
"Boy, you are crazy," replied the other student, then made this retort before sipping his drink. "Next round says Hawkeye wins."
Suddenly, the calm and fun feeling was disrupted when screams of fear were heard from afar, and before long, many more people started running from the beach in a panic. Sure enough, the cause of such chaos was that of the Green Goliath himself, the Hulk, who came speeding down from the sky and landing hard on the beach with a loud bang, causing sand to fly everywhere.
And as for the monster that threw him, the Red Hulk, he comes flying down from the sky as well, but was heading toward towards the fallen Hulk and soon threw a straight right punch.
However, the Hulk looked up and spotted his red-skinned opponent coming his way, and by pure instinct, held up his open right hand and caught the fist, stopping the attack. Growling in anger, the Hulk made his other hand into a fist, then landed a jab of his own into the Red Hulk's mouth, causing him to stagger away from the green-skinned powerhouse and allowing him to sit up. Once back on his feet, Hulk ran towards the dazed Red Hulk and delivered a hard right backfist, nailing his enemy in his left side of his mouth and sending face first into the sand. "You've hit a new low, Ross," said the seething Green Goliath. "Making a robot double of your own daughter just to get to me?"
After angrily spitting out blood, the Red Hulk looked up at the Hulk with venom in his yellow eyes. "For your information, that was not my idea! I considered using the image of my little girl as bait for a trap to be blasphemous..." As he explained, the Red Hulk secretly grabbed some sand into his right hand. "JUST AS YOU MENTIONING HER NAME!" Suddenly, the Red Hulk threw the sand right into the Hulk's eyes, blinding his old foe to stumble backward. Afterward, the Red Hulk stood up, charged in and delivered a hard right hook to the disoriented Hulk's face, followed by a left, until finally grabbing his shoulders and giving him a headbutt to his forehead.
Even though he took three punishing blows, the Hulk miraculously stayed on his feet, and thanks to his healing factor, regain his sight and saw that the Red Hulk was now running towards him and throwing a right hook, forcing him to hold up his right arm to block and fight back by throwing a left cross, where he succeeded in hitting the Red Hulk in the temple and causing him to take two steps back. Now in control, and not wanting to give his red-skinned enemy a chance to fight back, the Hulk ran in and went for a right hook.
Unfortunately for Jade Giant, however, the Red Hulk recovered quick enough to spot this attack and use his left hand to catch the fist. Now feeling frustrated that the Hulk was giving so much difficulty, he burst into flames and gave the Hulk a right legged front kick in the abdomen, followed by a left uppercut to his jaw, sending Hulk up into the air and landing hard on the sand spine first. The now flaming Red Hulk stood over his fallen enemy, smiling now that he had his old foe at his mercy.
As for the Hulk himself, he soon noticed that he was now sitting right next to a now abandoned speedboat that once belonged to one of the civilians that fled, and soon started to get an idea to use it as a weapon.
Meanwhile, the Red Hulk had raised both of his fists over his head and stood ready to pound the Hulk's head into the sand. "Well, I'll give that reach boy Osborn a pass this time," said the red-skinned monster, and causing Hulk to look up at him. "Because he gave me the chance to finish you once and for all!"
Acting fast, the Hulk soon grabbed the speed boat with his bare hands, and as he sat up, swung it right into his fiery opponent's face, causing it to explode on impact. And while this did not hurt the Red Hulk, it managed to put out his flames and stun him, giving the Hulk with the opening he needed to run in and give his crimson enemy a massive left hook, causing him to fall into the watery beach side. Now with a clear advantage, the Hulk hopped up, then landed right on top of the fallen Red Hulk and proceeded to punch him again and again. It wasn't long before the Red Hulk's face swelled up and was semi-conscious, and just as the Hulk was about to pound his right fist into his enemy's damaged face, he spotted something through the corner of his eye that made him stop.
It was that of a scared woman and her little boy, both of whom were watching the brawl from a safe distance away, but were right of both behemoths. And what hit the Hulk the hardest was that the boy was wearing a T-shirt with Captain America's shield on it, reminding the Hulk of the Super Soldier he so respected.
As such, the Hulk stopped his assault and looked down at the now unconscious Red Hulk, who by this time had already reverted to the human form of General Thunderbolt Ross. Knowing that his adversary was no longer a threat, the Hulk chose to remain the hero that Cap knew him to be by standing up, then grabs and picks up the out cold Ross and carried him over to the outside bar, where many of the staff and customers looked in pure horror and ran off as the Hulk came towards him. From then on, the Hulk gently placed Ross down the bar, then turned to look at the now petrified Latino male bartender. "Hey you, can you call an ambulance for this guy?"
"Uh...y-yes sir, I can do that!" replied the frightened man, then quickly made his way to the bar's phone to call 911.
As for the Hulk, he was annoyed that the bartender, as well as the rest of the customers, were still scared of him, but was happy that the fight was over with. Moments later, the Jade Giant caught a glimpse of the Plasma TV and saw the image of the Iron Patriot. "Hey, who's the guy who raided Stark's closet?"
While the rest of the onlookers were too scared to speak, the Hulk got his answer when the Patriot's image changed to that of the male news anchor, Robert Docker. "Well, it would appear that Norman Osborn, a.k.a., the Iron Patriot, is now back in the game as his fellow Thunderbolt, Surge, just attained a victory in England. However, he did so by destroying the Vision, a member of the Avengers."
"Osborn?" asked the confused Hulk, but soon remembered what Ross told him during their fight together. "Ross said that name just as he was about to pummel me."
As the Hulk contemplated, the astral form of Bruce Banner appeared by sitting on a bar stool and right next to his giant green counterpart. "Yeah, if I recall, he's also the owner of Oscorp, and weapons manufacturing company. But apparently, he died months ago."
This revelation only made the Hulk growled like an angry bear, now knowing the name of the man who sent Ross and the Abomination after him, and probably set up the explosion back in New Mexico. "Oh, he's about to be." said the Hulk as he pounded both of his massive fists together. "Because if he's the one putting me through this mess...HE'S THE ONE I'M GONNA SMASH!"