PAINFUL STING OF LOST LOVE
Like his fellow Thunderbolts before him, the Scarlet Spider arrived back in the Garden and found himself greeted by the audience with a mixture of cheers and boos.
From the skybox, a smiling Victoria is applauding the returning Scarlet Spider, while Gwen just sat there in hushed silence. After clapping, Victoria noticed Gwen just sitting there looking worried and was quite puzzled. "Gwen, aren't you glad that you're boyfriend just won his match?"
"Huh?" Gwen asked, snapping out of her worried state and looked at Victoria with a small faint smile. "Oh, uh, yeah, I am! I'm just...speechless on how good he was. Very proud of him."
Victoria could see through the young girl's smile just by looking at her and knew that she wasn't telling the truth. Usually, a teenaged girl and her less than stable boyfriend would be none of her concern. But, even with the task by Norman Osborn himself to keep an eye on her an entertained for the sake of his son's sanity, she chose to smile at Gwen and humor her to try and not upset her. "Fair enough, after all, Harry's performance has me at a loss of words myself, and I see things like this daily."
"Yeah, well, that's Harry for you," said Gwen, trying to be pleasant so Victoria wouldn't catch on. "You never really know what to expect."
Victoria chuckled at that response, knowing that there was some truth to that. Suddenly, however, she felt her cellphone going off, indicating that one of the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents was calling her. "I'm sorry, Gwen, I have a call that I need to take."
"No, it's okay, go right ahead," Gwen replied in a friendly tone and watched as she got up from the chair and proceeded to the door, silently overjoyed that this might be her only chance to call her father.
But just before she left, Victoria pulled out a small, black box that had a flashing light and stuck it to the wall as she left the room.
The device was that of a signal jammer, all in which produced waves that distorted cellphone signals in a nearby area. A fact in which Gwen found out the hard way, for as she pulled out her phone, she could see that it read 'no service.' "What?" Gwen whispered to herself dumbfounded, then turned and looked out to the door with a worried look, knowing in her gut that Victoria was on to her.
As for Victoria herself, she was out in the hall and a good distance away from the room, more specifically, form the signal jammer so that she can answer her cellphone. "Hand here," she answered coldly, but her eyes grew full with shocked with what she heard next. "What?! What do you-" At that moment, Victoria had to stop herself from raising her voice, then went back to the call with an angry whisper. "What do you mean The Hulk past Ross?!" As she listened to the voice on the other end, Victoria let out a sigh to maintain her composure. "Well, what's the Hulk's current position? All right then, send Sterns!"
Meanwhile, back on the stage, the Scarlet Spider had returned to the Thunderbolts' corner, much to the dismay of Spidey, watching his troubled from the Avengers corner.
As for the announcer, he went back to performing his duty and addressing the audience. "Well folks, I'm pleased to say that we now have our third match for the 16th Finals!" At that moment, he directed everyone's attention to the screen, which showed the 16th Final brackets, and more specifically, the two news added in the third match slot. "In that, we now have the victorious Scarlet Spider going up against the Avengers' daring archer, Hawkeye!"
Hawkeye could only sneer after hearing this announcement. "Great, gotta fight someone who not only looks and moves like Parker but like him, is still going through puberty."
Spidey heard this, and naturally, being the troubled Scarlet Spider's best friend, took offense to bow carrying teammate's words and angrily walked towards him. "Hey, listen cupid-!"
Before a fight between the two heroes could occur, Cap soon stepped in between Spidey and Hawkeye and separated them. "Easy, you two!" he told them sternly. "We're fighting Thunderbolts, not each other!" As he continued, the Sentinel of Liberty turned his attention to Hawkeye. "And Clint, you know as well as I do that Peter's friend is just another victim in Osborn's scheme."
"Yeah, yeah, I know," Hawkeye replied irritably, then let out a sigh before turning to Spidey. "And don't worry, kid. When our match comes up, I'll try to stop your friend without hurting him...too badly."
"Thanks, that's comforting," Spidey answered replied with a sarcastic tone, but then turned and saw the Scarlet Spider standing in front of his armored father, and clinches his fist in anger and frustration. "You may have a lot of people, including your son, fooled into thinking you're a hero, Osborn," he thought. "But I still see you as the psychotic, heartless monster that you are! I will save Aunt May, Harry, and Gwen from your sick game, and I hope and pray that we get pitted against each other. Because I swear, on my soul, I will make you pay for all of this!"
Moments later, the screen switched back to the 32 Finals brackets, to which made the announcer retake the stage. "All right folks, we've had great matches from the guys, now it's time for the ladies to show their stuff! For in our next match-up, we have the Avengers size-changing Wasp taking on the Thunderbolts' energy constructing Songbird! Ladies, if you would please step up to the teleportation pads!"
Songbird heard the announcement, and she walked over to the teleportation pad, ignoring the lust filled eyes of her male comrades and struggling to maintain a professional demeanor.
As for the pint-sized Wasp, she too was just about fly to the teleportation pads, but she stopped she caught a brief glimpse of Yellowjacket and soon frowned...
...Which caused her to flashback to when she was in human size and in the lab of the Avengers Mansion, just hours before the tournament was set to begin, and was in the middle of a heated argument with an irate Yellowjacket with his way of 'handling' crime."What do you mean you won't help me?!" barked Yellowjacket. "Aren't you the one who said that we don't talk to villains, we just hit them? Well, that's I'm doing Jan! Only this time, I plan on hitting them so hard, they won't get back up again and hurt anyone!"
"That's NOT what we do, Hank!" Wasp shot back. "Geez, you're starting to sound like that Punisher guy on the news-"
The already angry Yellowjacket stepped into Wasp's face as he gave this remark. "Well, maybe he has the right idea!"
Wasp quickly took two steps back to create space between herself and Yellowjacket, as well as look at him with an aghast expression. "Are you even listening to yourself right now?!" she asked. "You're talking about crossing a line to which there's no coming back from! A line that the Hank Pym I knew would never cross."
"I'M NOT HANK!" snapped an enraged Yellowjacket upon hearing that name. "He was a useless, spineless worm who needed to be gone! And you what...I'm starting to realize that you're just as useless as he was!"
A wide-eyed Wasp was shocked to hear those words, as well as feeling like a knife had just been rammed into her heart. "What? What are you-?"
"I'm saying that I'm through arguing," Yellowjacket said coldly, then pointed his right index finger at Wasp, who appeared to be on the verge of tears. "And I'm through with you!" With that said, the callous Yellowjacket storm passed Wasp, and just as he made it to the door, he briefly reached in his belt to pull out the small box containing the engagement ring he planned to give to his now former partner, then looked at her one last time. "And to think, I was considering throwing my life away by asking you to be my partner for life!" With a look of pure disgust, Yellowjacket threw the box at Wasp's feet, then turned and walked out of the lab.
As for Wasp, she just dropped to her knees after getting her heart shattered. All of the punches and laser blasts she endured from all the villains she faced were now nothing compared to the pain that she was feeling now. And as she picked up the box to open to see the ring inside, it caused the tears to finally pour down, and all she could do was sob uncontrollably...
...Back in the present, Wasp reminiscing of that painful memory is brought to a halt when she heard Cap calling to her. "Wasp!"
"Huh? Yeah, Cap?" Wasp replied, snapping back to reality.
"I said, are you all right?" replied a concerned Cap, then pointed forward at the teleportation pads, and more specifically, the already waiting Songbird. "Your match is up next?
Shaking away the painful sting of lost love, Wasp looked at Cap with a determined expression. "Yeah, I'm fine, just got sidetracked. Don't worry; this match is in the bag." With that reply, the Wasp flew to over to the pads to begin her match.
However, this moment caused a worried Spidey to walk over to Cap. "Is she okay, Cap? She's acting like something's bothering her, and it's not the match."
"I agree," Cap replied with a reluctant tone, but then turned to the Web-Head to reassure him. "But you don't have to worry about Wasp, Spider-Man. She's always been able to shake off personal problems and focus on the task at hand."
Though he gave the Super-Soldier an understanding nod, Spidey was still worried as he turned and watched the Wasp turn back to human size to step onto the pad. "I sure hope so."
Meanwhile, as both female members of their respected teams stand ready to be teleported, Wasp pulled up her gloves, trying to 'get her head in the game.' "Okay Jan, get it together," she thought. "Sure, your heart's still shattered beyond repair..." At one point, the founding member of the Avengers briefly looked up at Songbird, who gave her a condescending glare. "But on the plus side, you know who to take it out on!"
With both Wasp and Songbird still locking eyes on one another, the pads activate and both combatants and transported out of the arena to parts unknown.