32ND FINALS: HAWKEYE VS. TWO-GUN KID

The place was of battle this time was that of Mexico City, Mexico, inside the large square that was the Zocalo, granted the same laser ropes to keep the Mexican people out of the battle station for their safety. With the particular space made for the combatants were special pillars, which either made the match more challenging or in the case of the participants, Hawkeye and Two-Gun Kid, provided them with cover as a fair chance to defend against their bullets and arrows. It wasn't long before Hawkeye and Two-Gun finally arrived at the Zocalo and in front of hundreds of the Mexican fans watching from the other side of the energy ropes, as well as the large floating halo-screen floating above them.

Hawkeye couldn't help but smirk a little upon seeing the cheering people, as well as look around the Zocalo landscape. "Mexico, huh?" the brash archer said to himself. "Well, too bad I can't stay long, 'cause I could sure go for a margarita when this is over."

At the moment, a Ref Bot floated in, and of course, showed the announcer's face on its screen. "Well, gentlemen, before we get started, I trust that both of you are using none lethal ammunition?"

Two-Gun answered this question by pulling out one of his guns and held it up for the Ref Bot. "Nothing but rubber bullets in these guns, hoss."

The announcer, seemingly convinced of Two-Gun's words, gave him a nod and mentally ordered the Ref Bot to hover over to Hawkeye, allowing the Thunderbolt to twirl his gun back into his holster. "And you, Hawkeye?"

Though he rolled his eyes in annoyance at first, Hawkeye nevertheless briefly placed his bow in his left hand, all so he could use his other hand to take his quiver off of his back to show the announcer his arrows. "Here, hurry up and see for yourself so we can get this over with."

As the Ref Bot moved closer so the announcer could inspect Hawkeye's arrows, Two-Gun looked at Hawkeye with a raised eyebrow and seemed amused by his irritation. "Well, ain't you tenacious," said the Thunderbolt with an almost taunting tone. "Little nervous on how I'm about to whip you in front of the whole world?"

Hawkeye turned to Two-Gun and gave him an annoyed, as well as unimpressed look. "Yeah, you wish, Buffalo Bill," he retorted. "I eat losers like you for breakfast."

Two Gun, however, only chuckled at the archer's words. "Oh, one of us is a loser all right, son, but it ain't be me. And in just a few minutes, I'll prove that."

The announcer could sense the tension between Hawkeye and Two-Gun Kid and thus took it as a sign to get things underway. "Yes, well, I've seen pretty much what I need to see," said the nervous announcer, who then mentally ordered the Ref Bot to back away from Hawkeye, which allowed him to place his quiver back onto his back. "Now, let's get this party started!" With that said, he commanded the Ref Bot to hover straight up into the air and caused cheers from the Mexican crowd as he said these words. "Fighters...BEGIN!"

Two-Gun wasted no time in making the first move by drawing out his guns and opening fire at Hawkeye, aiming for his belt buckle.

Hawkeye quickly sprinted to the left side to avoid the rubber bullets coming his way, and in the process, pulled out a taser arrow from his quiver, took aim and fired at Two-Gun's belt buckle.

Upon seeing the arrow, Two-Gun fired a shot and successfully destroyed the arrow before it could hit him. Moments later, the two skilled shooters hid behind two pillars, both to take cover. While hiding, Two-Gun leaned out to see Hawkeye loading another arrow, and took this moment to fire a shot, aiming for the archer's exposed shoulder to slow him down.

However, Hawkeye spotted this through the corner of his eye and once again took cover, allowing the rubber bullet to bounce off of the pillar instead. Afterward, the archer popped out behind the pillar with another taser arrow drawn, took aim and fired, this time hitting the Colt Revolver out of Two-Gun's hand, giving him a small shock in the process.

"Damn it!" barked Two-Gun, who then retaliated by firing a carefully aimed shot with his remaining gun. This time, however, the rubber bullets hit their mark with the first bullet Hawkeye's hand, causing him to release his bow and drop it to the floor. After disarming the Avenger, Two-Gun then aimed his belt buckle, but not before getting a few words out. "I do admire your skill, son," Two-Gun admitted somewhat begrudgingly. "But that still doesn't change the fact that you made the world's dumbest mistake in bringing a damn bow and arrow to a gunfight."

Even at a disadvantage, Hawkeye still gave Two-Gun a sly smile of defiance, as he did with all of his enemies. "Pal, if I had a dollar for every time I heard that I'd be as rich as Stark."

With a scoff, Two-Gun nonetheless fired one shot to end the match.

Luckily for Hawkeye, he was still quick enough on his feet and dashed to the right side, then with his right hand, he reached back and pulled out a boomerang arrow from his quiver, and threw it right at Two-Gun himself.

However, Two-Gun merely sidestepped to the left side, easily avoiding the arrow and allowing it to pass right by him. Even though the arrow missed its target, the boomerang arrow lived up to its namesake by turning around in mid-air and headed back over the gunslinger himself.

Sadly though, Two-Gun could hear the arrow's whizzing sound coming from behind, thus prompting him to spin around and shoot the arrow out of the sky before it could hit him. "Well, that was just pathetic." Suddenly, Two-Gun's moment of glory was short-lived, for another one of Hawkeye's arrows came flying out of nowhere and ended up hitting his right angle, whereupon impact, it caused a bolo to wrap around and tie his feet together, causing him to fall to the floor.

It was then revealed that the bolo arrow was fired by Hawkeye, who had just recovered his bow while Two-Gun wasn't looking. "Yeah, pathetic is a word that suits you all better, cowboy."

Now frustrated, but still holding on to his gun, Two-Gun let out an aggravated grunt as he rolled on his back and fired two shots at the recovered Hawkeye.

Fortunately for the archer though, he jumped up into the air to avoid the bullets, and as he flipped over Two-Gun, he pointed his bow and arrow downward and fired another taser arrow, which ended up hitting Two-Gun's belt buckle, and which in turned, caused the gunslinger to be consumed and frozen his place by the same yellow energy that covered the previous combatants the lost the previous matches.

After he landed safely on his feet, and with the Mexican people cheering on his victory, the Ref Bot hovered over to the victorious archer, with the announcer stating this to the already roaring crowd. "Here is your winner...Hawkeye!"

Hawkeye retracted his bow and placed it back in his belt, then turned and looked down at his fallen opponent. "Some gunslinger you turned out to be."

WINNER: HAWKEYE

Back in the Garden, everyone who supported the Thunderbolts stood in shock while others who helped the Avengers cheered for Hawkeye and his victory. Even the Avengers cheered for their teammate, all except the Black Panther, who nodded silently but was still proud of wise-cracking Archer. "Well done, my friend."

Another one of the Avengers impressed with Hawkeye's win was Spidey, despite the fact that he wasn't very fond of him at first. "Wow, nice to see that Hawkeye's aim is as sharp as his tongue," said the Web-Slinger. "Especially when it comes to guys like Shocker."

Cap heard Spidey's words and thus said this to the Web-Head. "Well, he's not the World's Greatest Marksman for nothing, Spider-Man."

Also pleased with how things were turning out for the Avengers was that of Iron Man, but his happiness increase when he soon received a message from J.A.R.V.I.S. via his helmet. "Sir, the download of S.H.I.E.L.D's files is complete."

"Great," Iron Man replied. "Now we just need to wait for two more things."

Meanwhile, in the S.H.I.E.L.D. helocarrior's lab, the still suffering torso of the Vision was still moaning in agony on the table, until finally, he stopped moving and his eyes dim black, becoming completely motionless and leaving the scientists baffled.

Back in the Garden, Iron Man looked inside his helmet and saw another download beside the S.H.I.E.L.D. files. It was that of a digital head that represented the data and consciousness of the Vision. "What...? Where am I?" asked the Vision. "Am I...am I inside a computer program?"

"Yeah, Vision," Iron Man replied, trying to break the news to the disembodied android gently. "One that's inside my armor."

"Your armor?" asked a confused Vision. "But how?"

"Osborn's supercharged goon destroyed your body," explained the Shell-head. "But don't worry, once we win this tournament, we'll get it, fix it and make you whole again."

Moments after trying to reassure the Vision, Iron Man received another message from J.A.R.V.I.S. "Indeed, but sir, if I may ask, what is the 'third' and final thing to what you are waiting for?"

Suddenly, Iron Man noticed something small, like that of a housefly, coming flying in, but thanks to the zooming-in system in his helmet, the Shell-Head knew what it was and smirked. "Well, not exactly a 'thing,' but a person."

And that person was that of Ant-Man, who came flying into the stadium by a winged ant and to the life model decoy, which was standing oddly by.

This caused Iron Man to press a button on his right gauntlet, which caused the life model decoy of Ant-Man to shrink down.

Once he saw his robotic double shrink down, Ant-Man jumped off the flying ant and begun to grow back to normal size, doing it so fast, that nobody noticed the switch...except of course for two people.

The first being that of Luke Cage, who just noticed the real Ant-Man's return. "About damn time."

The other being that of the original Ant-Man, Yellowjacket, who watched his successor walk towards Iron Man with envy, making him hate the Shell-Head for not coming to ask him for his help first.

As for Iron Man himself, he welcomed the Ant-Man back to the Garden. "Great work, Scott! But we're gonna have to pop the cork on the champagne later, your match is coming up next."

"On it!" Ant-Man replied with a smile, then quickly ran over to his fellow Heroes for Hire, Luke Cage and Iron Man, who by now were with the rest of the Avengers seeing Hawkeye's return.

Spidey watched as Ant-Man joined his fellow heroes, and was still somewhat bewildered by how he returned just a few minutes ago. "Okay, I know I'm the last person on the planet to think this, but man, did he make a weird entrance," thought the Web-Head, but as he turned to the screen, his eyes opened in shock when he saw who Ant-Man was fighting next. "Oh, no!"

Meanwhile, Hawkeye was basking in the phrase he was receiving from his teammates, and most notably, was happy to Natasha, the Black Widow, standing right in front of him. "Not bad, Mr. Barton," she told him in a somewhat playful and flirtatious manner.

"Really? Just not bad?" Hawkeye retorted with a smirk. "I was leaning towards 'brilliant.'"

Before the smiling Natasha could reply, she cut herself off when she, as well as everyone in the stadium, heard the announcer's voice.

"All right, New York!" said the announcer. "It's time to keep the action going as we move on to the next match! For up next, we have the Avengers' size-altering Ant-Man taking on the Thunderbolt's version of a certain Web-Slinger, the Scarlet Spider!"

This made the Wall-Crawler's heart sink, for his best friend was just about to fight one of his teammates, all the while wearing and being manipulated by the symbiotic suit that he was wearing on his body.

Also, hit hard by this announcer was that of Gwen Stacy, who heard this from the skybox along with Victoria Hand and was understandably worried. "Harry..."

Back on the platform, and in the Avengers camp, the second Ant-Man is seen receiving some 'pep talk' from Iron Fist. "All right, Scott," said Fist. "Do not underestimate your opponent, and remember, a true fighter fights with the mind!"

Luke seemed a bit annoyed with Fist's philosophical advice and decides to say this to the now confused Ant-Man. "I think what Mr. Miyagi over here is trying to say is good luck."

"Right, thanks guys," said a rather sheepish Ant-Man, then walked over to the Teleportation pad.

Back in the Thunderbolts corner, young Harry Osborn, wearing the Scarlet Spider, was just about to head off to the pad. However, he is briefly stopped by the Iron Patriot when he placed his hand on his shoulder. "Harry, I trust you will not disappoint me?" he asked, earning a nod from his symbiote wearing son. "Good, now go make your old man proud."

Smiling behind his symbiote composed mask, the Scarlet Spider gave the Patriot a nod, the proceeded over to the teleportation pad, more determined than ever to earn his father's respect.

Once the two combatants were on the pads, they were soon transported to another unknown location somewhere in the world for their match, which in the process, leaving Spidey to quietly pray that his old friend doesn't do anything that he would regret for the rest of his life.