D.A.D.

Inside the sports box, Victoria is seen talking to what appeared to be a waitress, while Gwen was too preoccupied looking down at the platform below, and more specifically, the Scarlet Spider, the aggressive alter ego of her boyfriend, Harry Osborn. Ever since she saw Harry with the suit, Gwen grew more and more concerned about him, watching him become more aggressive and irritable, like a steroid consumed bodybuilder on the verge of going into roid rage. At first, Gwen feared that he might be taking the Greene again, but then remembered seeing all those times during Harry's match when the suit moved; she began to wonder if that it was that suit that was fueling his anger and making him a bit unstable. As Gwen contemplated more and more on Harry's costume, she looked down in the crowd and spotted Peter, who at this point seemed to be snapping pictures at the 'grand event' that was the Contest of Champions tournament. Upon getting her sights on him, Gwen couldn't help but feel her heartbreak little by little, even now of all times. For there he was, the boy she truly loved for years, and almost had the chance to finally embrace him in her arms and be with him at long last, but through sad circumstances, he was now further beyond her reach.

After Victoria told the waitress her order, which was a diet soda, she turned to Gwen to ask if she wanted anything and noticed her spaced out and looking out at the crowd, as opposed to the platform, where both teams were waiting for the Iron Patriot to return. "Gwen, do you want anything?"

"Huh?" said Gwen after being brought back to reality by hearing Victoria's voice and turned to her. "Oh, uh...no thanks, I'm fine."

Though Victoria was a bit suspicious of Gwen's odd behavior, she still smiled as she gave her a nod, then turned to face the waitress and dismissed her.

As for Gwen, just quietly sat there and waited for an opportunity to present itself so she can escape. But under the eye of someone as Victoria's caliber, it seemed impossible

Meanwhile, back on the platform, a flash of light occurred and formed into the returning, as well as victorious Iron Patriot, something in which made the Thunderbolt fans to cheer and the Avengers fans to boo. Once he stepped off the teleporter, he briefly turned to the remaining Avengers with a small smirk behind his faceplate. "Five down, seven to go," he thought to himself, then proceeded his way back to the Thunderbolts corner.

Elsewhere, inside the S.H.I.E.L.D. Helocarrier, Quake laid unconscious on a sleeping post inside one of the holding cells. Moments later, she slowly began to stir, and once she came to, she looked around her surroundings, soon realized who put her there. "Osborn," she thought with pure disdain. "That damn cheating coward!" As she looked through the electric door of her cell, she found not only her comrades that also lost their matches such as Ant-Man, Yellowjacket, Black Panther and Black Widow but was also surprised to see the defeated Thunderbolts such as Two-Gun Kid, Magus, and Batroc. In the hall, Quake also saw two S.H.I.E.L.D. agents guarding the prisoners who were also watching the tournament on a wall-mounted TV, all which led her to let out a worried sigh. "I guess it's up to Cap and the others now. I just hope whoever fights Osborn next has better luck than I did."

Back in the Garden, the Patriot was already with his fellow Thunderbolts, where the only one to show any enthusiasm for his victory was that of the Scarlet Spider. So much so, that the young man walked to his armored father to congratulate him, in another attempt to seek his approval. "All right, Dad," he said to him. "Way to show why you lead this time!"

"Of course," the Patriot told his son in his usual unemotional tone, then turned his attention to Citizen V. "And I'm hoping that a certain partner of mine was watching and now knows that I am not to be taken lightly."

Citizen V could only chuckle in response. "Your performance was...not bad, Norman. Not bad at all. But when my match comes next, I will show you how a REAL leader fights his battles."

As the Scarlet Spider growled in anger, which caused his suit to make his muscles bigger, as a result, the Patriot placed a hand on his angry son's shoulder, instantly calming him down. "We'll see, V," the Patriot told his sword-wielding comrade. "We'll see."

Over in the Avengers corner, the team is incredibly angry that they just lost another one of their own. Especially Cap, for even though he didn't show it, he always took the loss of comrades pretty hard, especially in his World War II days.

And it's here that a fuming Hawkeye made his thoughts known. "Damn it! Osborn screwed us again!"

Though Cap shared Hawkeye's frustration, he still walked over to him to try and reason with him, which was usually an almost futile effort when it came to the impossible archer. "Easy, Clint! Don't let that ruthless punk get to you and give him the satisfaction!"

Ms. Marvel heard Cap's words and thus decided to help strengthen the by walking over to Hawkeye and take part in talking him down. "Clint, Cap's right," she told the archer. "If we go ballistic, we're letting Osborn win in more ways than one. Keep you're cool."

Though still fuming, Hawkeye knew that deep down, both Ms. Marvel and Cap were right, and thus let out a long sigh of reluctance. "Fine."

Ms. Marvel was relieved that she and Cap were able to calm Hawkeye down a prevented him from doing something stupid like shooting an arrow at Osborn or any of his teammates. Moments later, however, the Warbird noticed that the Wasp and Spidey appeared to be all too focused at the screen, which was unusual, seeing is how they've been a little chatty. As such, this caused the concerned Ms. Marvel to walk up to her size-changing friend. "Uh, Jan, you plan on being Ms. 'Cheery Optimist' as you usually do?"

Suddenly, Iron Man appeared to be surprised to hear Ms. Marvel's question to the Wasp, and thus spoke up. "I'm sure she would, Carol," said the Shellhead. "Sue's just...as trying to stay focus and keep her head in the game to help take down Osborn and his flunkies." As he said this out loud, Iron Man was also using his right index finger to loudly tap on his right leg, namely that he explained the real reason Wasp was quiet through Morse code.

Something in which Ms. Marvel heard and understood, and upon realizing the secret message, her eyes grew wide, but she then nodded in acknowledgment. "Oh, right! Right, that's...that's good to know!" she answered, trying to make her 'shock' convincing enough to the people in the crowd watching, as well as the Thunderbolts themselves.

Iron Man let out a sigh of relief when he saw that Ms. Marvel understood the message, and though he wanted to tell the rest of his fellow Avengers, he had to keep quiet about it as to not alert the Thunderbolts, or at least until he knew that Gwen was safe. Forced to stay silent on the fact that it was not really Wasp and Spidey standing there, but in reality, they were holographic images projected from a mini-camera that the Armored Avenger recently installed in his armor.

As for the REAL Wasp and Spidey, they were off on a secret rescue mission to get Gwen Stay out of the supervision, or more accurately, imprisonment of Victoria Hand.

Back in the sports box, both Gwen and Victoria see the Patriot's return from his match. While Victoria seemed to be reserved and pleased, Gwen was silently disappointed in the armored leader of the Thunderbolts, for he not only took advantage of Quake's apparent seizure to win but also seems to be enabling his son's current aggressive behavior.

As Victoria watched her boss talk to the rest of the Thunderbolts from her seat, she turned to Gwen, still trying to keep her chipper demeanor around the young girl. "Well, Mr. Osborn put on quite a show, didn't he?"

"Yeah, I did," Gwen replied with a small smile, trying to mask her disgust in the Patriot's actions from his fight with Quake.

However, little did both Victoria and Gwen know, they were about to receive a surprise in the form of a small, disc-like device that Iron Man received came flying into the room and hovered right behind them, more specifically, Victoria. As the female agent was still focused on Gwen, a small compartment on top of the disc opened up, and out came a tiny, almost microscopic-sized lifeform that appeared to be that of a yellow and black pixie, which unsuspectingly flew over and arrived in front of a small spot behind the left side of Victoria's neck.

As for Victoria, she still kept her warm smile present as she talked to blonde teen right in front of her. "Well, from how he, as well as your boyfriend, won their matches, I'd say that you're..." Suddenly, Victoria gasped as she felt a sharp, stinging pain in the side of her neck. One in which was so powerful, it caused her to feel dizzy and drowsy, until seconds later, she let out a moan as she slumped into her chair and slipped into unconsciousness.

This shocked and worried Gwen, so much so that she even went so far as to come close to the sleeping Victoria and gently shake her. "Ms. Hand? Ms. Hand, are you all right?"

Moments later, the cause of Victoria's sudden dozing off soon revealed itself as the tiny 'pixie' flew away from the outcold Victoria, then grew into the normal, human-sized form of the Wasp, who gave Gwen with a welcoming, fun-loving grin. "Hi there."

The Avenger's sudden appearance came as a surprise to Gwen, who immediately jumped out of her seat. "What?! The Wasp?"

As if any of this wasn't startling enough, another small lifeform jumped out of the circular disc, and soon grew up to be that of Spidey, who looked at Gwen with an unsure smile behind his mask. "Hey Gwen," he said softly, speaking as Peter Parker rather than a masked superhero.

"Spider-Man?!" asked the now baffled Gwen, who looked back and forth at both Wasp and the Web-Head in disbelief. "What's going on?!" Gwen later turned her attention to the slumbering Victoria, and her confused expression turned to fear and worry. "Is she...?"

"She's fine," Wasp replied. "She'll just be napping for a while, thanks to my sting blast hitting a pressure point on her neck. One of the many cool things Cap taught me."

Though she was glad to have an explanation for Victoria's loss of consciousness, a still confused Gwen had one other question as she turned to the stage to see Spidey and Wasp holographic duplicates. "But if you two are here, then who are those two on the stage?"

It was here that Spidey decided to stand in and explain to the befuddled Gwen as he gently placed his right hand on her shoulder to get her attention. "Those are holograms that Iron Man's projecting from his armor." As he explained, Spidey could see Gwen becoming more confused than ever, and given what's been transpiring, he couldn't blame her. "They're to fool both the crowd and the Thunderbolts, all so Wasp and I can get you out of here and someplace safe."

This suddenly reminded Wasp of the next stage of the rescue plan, namely to pull out another small silver ball from out of her belt. "And so Victoria doesn't know that you're gone when she wakes up." She then pressed the button of the ball, then threw it into the seat to which Gwen was sitting on earlier. Moments later, small spider-like robots flowed out of the ball and puddled up into the chair like water, then piled up and formed into a human-sized, life-like replica of Gwen herself.

Something in which made the real Gwen gasp in horror. "What the hell is that?!"

Wasp saw that this made Gwen more than uncomfortable, and thus stepped in tell her. "New age nano-tech that can instantly create life model decoys," she told her gently. "Creepy, I know, but when Victoria comes to, it'll fool her, and she won't call a search for you."

Spidey, not knowing how long Victoria will stay out, soon stepped to encourage both ladies to start moving. "And on that note, Gwen, allow us real superheroes get you out of the building and someplace safe!"

This suddenly caused Gwen to shake her head and step away from Spidey and Wasp once they told her they had to leave. "What, no! I'm sorry, but no! I can't just leave! I can help you guys stop Mr. Osborn! In fact, I...I can get inside his computer database."

Normally for the Web-Head, Gwen's eagerness to help others in need was one of the many traits that he loved about her, but sadly, he knew that now was not the time for admiring the brave blonde, especially with her being in danger. "Look, Gwen, We appreciate that you want to help, but trust me, Iron Man's working on it!" This answered annoyed Gwen enough to make her give Spidey an expression to which she's most infamously known for from her friends and family, that being in which she crossed her arms and gave him both a narrow brow and a mean scowl which was known as 'The Look,' which she usually gave her friends whenever they said or did something that got under her skin. And though it was no longer as potent since she no longer wore glasses, it still made Spidey himself cower a little. "Oh man, not the Look!" he thought nervously. "Suddenly, taking a laser blast from Norman's old pumpkin bombs doesn't sound too bad right now."

Wasp couldn't help but snicker, she had given Hank, before his Yellowjacket days, a similar look when he had gotten too wrapped up in his work.

As for Gwen herself, once she saw that she had the timid Spidey's attention, she continued in her explanation. "If by working on it, you must mean he hasn't broken into the systems yet. Well, if that's the case, I can!" Gwen's serious expressed changed to a much softer one as she continued. "Because...I know the password."

This news came as an even bigger shock to both Spidey and Wasp. "WHAT?!" they exclaimed in unison, each of their eyes as wide as softballs as they look at Gwen in disbelief. "HOW?!"

Though taken aback by the bewildered reactions of the two Avengers, Gwen nevertheless began to tell them how she gained what could very well be a key element in stopping whatever scheme Osborn has cooked it. "It was right after Harry's dad first unveiled the Thunderbolts and made his challenge to all of you..."

...Gwen flashed back to the evening in which she and her father were invited to the Thunderbolts unveiling celebration party at the Oscorp headquarters building. While her father conversed with Norman, who was still in his Iron Patriot armor, minus his helmet, she wandered through the people, wearing another expensive dress, yet another gift from Harry, casually saying hello and smiling to numerous business people she didn't even know. However, she was really looking for Harry, and once she finally found him, he was still in his Scarlet Spider costume, but without the mask and sitting in front of a computer watching a video from the S.H.I.E.L.D. files of the symbiote reproducing itself. Gwen quickly walked behind a corner, trying her best to stay hidden, and watched as Harry came across an icon on the screen that said, "Please type in password to close program.' From then on, Gwen looked closer and watched Harry type in the keys D, A and D in that order and instantly memorizing her boyfriend's password.

After shutting off the computer, Harry sudden felt his suit move, as if it was trying to alert him. This caused the young man to quickly turn at high speed, like that of a cheetah, and spotted Gwen, startling her. "Gwen! What the hell?!"

"Sorry!" said Gwen, trying to act like wondered into him by accident. "I was wondering where you were because I haven't seen you since-"

"Can't you see that I'm busy?!" Harry barked, with the suit making him a little bit bigger and causing Gwen to step back defensively and looking a bit scared. "I mean, now that I'm in a big-time superhero team, I got a lot of things to do, and I can't afford to be-" Suddenly, Harry managed to stop himself and calm down, and thus causing the suit to shrink him back down a bit. "I'm-I'm sorry Gwen, it's just I've been so busy with all these new things I have to look at and, it's been kinda stressful."

Though Gwen was still concerned, as well as a little frightened by Harry's small outburst, she still walked over and grabbed both of his hands in comfort. "It's okay," she told him with a warm smile. "Come on; I'd feel a lot better if I had my superhero with me."

Since putting on the suit, Harry had been feeling tense for the past few hours, and seeing the beautiful smile of Gwen Stacy was enough to make him relax and thus couldn't help but give her a small smile back, for her innocence and almost angelic glance was enough to quell almost any raging beast. As such, he gave her and nod and followed her to greet the guests.

Gwen, though still giving Harry a loving glace, felt creeped out by his suit as well as how tense it was making him. As such, she silently prayed for her boyfriend not to let his costume not to make him take things too far as she decided to keep this knowledge to herself until there would be a moment where, for Harry's sake, it might come in handy...

..which led to that moment in the skybox in Madison Square Garden, where Gwen stood before a now baffled Spidey and Wasp after telling them her story. After a few moments of remaining silent, it was Spidey who finally spoke up. "You memorized a password just by watching someone type it into a keyboard?"

"Yeah, well...I guess you can say it's a hidden talent I have," Gwen replied somewhat sheepishly as she pulled her hair over her ear, a habit that usually occurred when she seemed nervous, but she later shook it off and returned to a more serious demeanor. "But one that I want to use to help you! Harry, especially!"

Wasp quickly puts her hands up to stop Gwen from talking to say this to her. "Okay, okay," she said with great urgency in her voice. "Just tell us, and we'll tell Iron Man, he'll know what to do with it!"

Suddenly, Wasp, Spidey, and Gwen received a shock when they heard the voice of Iron Man, which came from the floating circular disc. "Afraid it's not that simple, Jan."

Needless to say, this started everyone inside the sports box, and it was the wide-eyed Wasp who spoke first. "Tony?! she asked, looking at the disc in utter amazement. "You've been hearing us this whole time?!"

"Yeah, but not important," Iron Man replied on the other end. "As much as I'd like to use that password to hack into Osborn's computers, I can't. The reason being is that me and Cap's matches are coming up next and I need to run a diagnostic on my armor to get ready. Which also means I need to shut off your hologram doubles to do so. So you two need to get back here and fast! As for the girl, she'll have to go to Fury's safehouse and give the password to him."

As Gwen listened to this, she couldn't help but look dumbfounded. Not only was Iron Man calling from such a tiny device, but also hearing him talk about the S.H.I.E.L.D. director and his current hiding place. "What? Fury?"

It was here that Spidey stepped in and approached her with a more softer demeanor, hoping it'll convince her to go. "Yeah, Fury! He can help you with helping us!" As he continued, the concerned Web-Head took both of the girl's hands and looked at her with a more pleading expression. "Just...go, Gwen! Now! Please!"

Normally, Gwen would seem scared of a masked man grabbing her hands and would generally put the pepper spray that her father gave her to good use. But strangely, not this time, for the Web-Head's genuine concern and kindness somehow reminded her of the same warmth and innocence of Peter Parker. But why was it coming from Spidey of all people?

Suddenly, however, the awkward but quiet moment is put to an end when they heard the moan of the still sleeping Victoria, causing Gwen to shake her head and pull her hands out of Spidey's. "Okay, okay fine," she told the Web-Head, then turned her attention to Wasp. "So, what's the plan on getting me out of here?"

A smirking Wasp answered this by reaching over and grabbing the hovering disc. "Though this," she told Gwen as she presented her with the disc. "Just press the button on the top and let the disc do the rest."

Now more than ever, Gwen was confused about what Wasp meant and pointed at the disc. "You mean I just have to push that?" she asked, and upon pushing the button as instructed, the disc suddenly admitted an energy field which began to consume and shrink the girl instantly, causing her to yelp in fear. Once Gwen was ant-size and falling to the floor. As a result, the disc swooped in, open it's top hatch and caught the shrunken girl. Now with it's 'passenger,' the disc flew out of the room via air shaft and proceeded to take Gwen out of the arena and on to the safety of Fury's hideout.

For Spidey, he was just relieved that, for now at least, the girl he loved was out of harm's way and that he can now concentrate on helping his teammates win the tournament.

The Wasp, satisfied that she helped save one innocent life from this madness, turned to Spidey with a friendly smile. "Okay Web-Head, now that your friend is safe, let's get back to the stage so we can continue kicking some super-villain butt!"

Spidey, on the other hand, does not appear to be so optimistic. "Easy for you to say," he told the Wasp. "I mean, you can shrink and fly back without anybody noticing you. Me, not so much."

Wasp, still being chipper, reached behind her belt and pulled out a small bracelet, then placed it around the Wall-Crawler's wrist. "Temporary Pym Shrinker, a little something Hank cooked up whenever we had to get civilians out of harm's way. Just push the button once to shrink you down, then press it twice to grow back to normal size."

"Uh...okay," said the confused Spidey, "Here's hoping that it doesn't blow me up," The Web-Head then pushed the button on top of the bracelet, and suddenly, the bracelet wasted no time in shrinking Spidey down to size, causing him to scream in fear.

As for the smirking Wasp, she only shook her head, then flew down to pick up Spidey, who by this time was now on the floor. Like a hawk swooping in and picking up its pray, Wasp soon grabbed the shrunken Spidey and flew him into the air and out of the skybox, where she took the stunned Wall-Crawler back to the stage, with both of them too small for the crowd to notice them. As she felt Spidey cling on to her for dear life, the sizing altering Avenger couldn't help let out a small giggle. "Bug boy, if you're voted to stay on the team, it's going to be so much fun training you."

The scared Spidey could only say this in both fear and sarcasm as he still kept a firm grip around the Wasp's waist. "Oh, I can't wait!"