RECOVERY

The exhausted, sore, and bleeding Spidey is finally transported back to Madison Square Garden, with the crowd greeting him with a mixture of cheers and boos. "The loving public," muttered the Web-Head as he was still holding his chest, then stepped off of the platform and walked over to his fellow Avengers.

A worried, human-sized Wasp approaches the pain-ridden Web-Head. "My god," she said out of concern after seeing the claw marks on his chest. "Spidey, are you okay?"

"I'm fine," Spidey replied, trying to sound nonchalant, but was not doing a good job selling it by wincing in pain. "Trust me; this is just a scratch. I've been through a lot worse."

Suddenly, two men in short-sleeved, white scrubs with the S.H.I.E.L.D. symbol on their shoulders, as well as wearing rubber gloves, come rushing on to the stage and straight towards Spidey. "S.H.I.E.L.D. Medics," said one of them in an emotionless, almost robotic tone, no doubt one of the many agents that were 'influenced' by the nanite composed Carrion virus. The other medic then leaned n closer to Spidey and inspected the still bleeding claw marks on his chest. "I'm afraid this needs to treated immediately."

Spidey stepped back defensively, knowing that just by the way the medic was talking, he was under Patriot's thrall and was clearly not there to help him.

Moments later, however, Iron Man soon stepped in and placed his hand on Spidey's shoulder to get his attention. "It's okay, Spider-Man," he told the Web-Head. "You look like you could use some patching up. Go with them."

At first, Spidey couldn't believe what he just heard. He knew that Iron Man was well aware of the mind-controlled agents, and just seeing these two agents, in particular, were behaving was proof enough. But at the same time, the Wall-Crawler knew that Iron Man has been able to outsmart the cheating Patriot throughout this whole tournament secretly, and the fact that he helped him save Gwen was a great example. All in which made him place some trust in the Shell-Head in going with the medics. "Uh...yeah, sure," said Spidey, still feeling somewhat uneasy, but walked with the two medics off of the stage and behind the curtain.

This, in turn, caused the worried Wasp and Ms. Marvel to walk over and confront Iron Man, with Wasp looking the most annoyed by the Shell-Head's casual behavior. "Okay, I knew that you didn't just hand Spider-Man over to those two!"

Ms. Marvel is the next to step up, looking just as concerned as her size altering best friend. "And given the fact that those two sounded and acted like robots, I think it's safe to say that their part of Osborn's mind-controlled posse!"

Iron Man, keeping his calm and confident demeanor, answered his two female teammates with his hands raised somewhat defensively, "I know, I know," he told them, then secretly pulled a small circular disc that was used to save Gwen from out of his left gauntlet. "Which is why I got a plan to send the kid to get the real help that he needs. But Jan, we're going to need your help again to pull it off."

Wasp, now understanding Iron Man's real motive, felt relief but gave him a skeptic raised eyebrow. "Of course, you do."

As Iron Man explained his plan to Wasp and Ms. Marvel, the Living Weapon of K'un Lun, and Hero for Hire, Iron Fist, looked up at the brackets to see that his match is next, then looked at the Thunderbolts corner to see his upcoming opponent, Surge, staring right at him with his eyes sparking with electricity and looking like he wanted to fry him right then and there. "Such a troubled soul," said Fist, actually feeling pity for the supercharged Thunderbolt.

Luke, on the other hand, stood next to Fist while looking at Surge with a stone face, as if to show him that he was not intimidated. "Yeah, well, for the sake of us saving Scott and getting paid, that 'troubled soul' needs help by having some sense pounded into him." said the Power Man, then turned to look at his fellow Hero for Hire. "And you're the one that needs to give it to him, Fist."

Fist responded to his partner's remark by nodding in acknowledgment. Usually, he would disagree with his cynical nature, but in this case, he feared that he did have a point.

Meanwhile, just behind the stage, the two S.H.I.E.L.D. Medics were leading Spidey to a door marked 'Emergency Medical Staff.' Little did Spidey, or anyone else know, that behind the door was not a room filled with medical supplies, but instead was that of a hair with restraints and a huge container which had the liquid composed of millions of nanites that formed the Carrion Virus. The large container was also equipped with a large wire connected to a gun-like designed injector ready to administer the nanites into their intended host, Spidey himself, on orders by the Iron Patriot himself, being 'impressed' by his performance and could see having him be a part of S.H.I.E.L.D. would be an asset.

But just before they reached the door, the medics suddenly stiffened up and fell face-first on to the floor unconscious.

This surprised the Wall-Crawler as he looked down at the fallen medics, then looked at the door. "Okay, I've now gone from worried to officially freaked out."

Moments later, the cause of the medics passing out soon revealed itself to be that of the Wasp, who had shrunk to microscopic size and just like with Victoria Hand, used her sting blasts to strike the medics pressure points in their necks. She then grew to human size in front of the stunned Wall-Crawler. "Hey Web-Head," she told him with an optimistic smile, then held the small circular device in her hand and showed it to him. "What do you say we get you to some REAL help?"

Spidey, with a returning smile behind his mask, could only give the spunky Wasp this reply. "Nothing would make me happier."

With that said, the Wasp pressed the button on the disc, and both she and the pain-ridden Spidey shrunk down and are transported into the disc, which then flew into the ventilation shaft, then out of the building, heading towards Nick Fury's safe house.

Back on the platform, the announcer kept the show going, despite still being shaken from the events of the last match. "All right, folks, let's keep the action rolling!" he said on his microphone. "Let's see if our next match-up just as electrifying as the last one. For up next, we have the Avengers' martial arts master, Iron Fist, going up against the Thunderbolts' shocking member, Surge!"

After hearing his name called, Fist looked at Luke one last time, and the two Heroes for Hire give each other a fist bump, with the K'un Lun warrior knowing that this was Luke's silent way of wishing him the best of luck. Afterward, Fist proceeded to the teleportation pad to have his match.

Back in the Thunderbolts' corner, Surge is about to head over to the pad himself but is stopped by the Patriot. "Remember, 'Surge,'" he said in a demanding tone. "Your opponent, this time is NOT a robot! Beat him, not fry him!"

"Whatever," Surge replied somewhat aggravated, then proceeded to the other pad where Fist was standing by waiting.

Once both combatants were on the teleportation pads, they soon vanished out of sight to have their match on an unknown location.

In the Avengers corner, Iron Man looked over to the Wasp hologram his armor, then back over to the direction where he saw Wasp flew off to help Spidey. "Well, at least one of our wounded guys isn't part of Osborn's 'collection' back in the Helocarrier."

Meanwhile, back in Nick Fury's safe house, Nick and the rest of his fellow agents all wait for the injured Spidey's arrival. As the waited, Beast was tending to his other patient, the sleeping May Parker, and injected the antidote into her neck just as he did to Cap. And with both ill patients given the medicine they needed, all that was left now was to wait...and hope.

Seconds later, the disc finally flew into the room and soon enough, both Spidey and Wasp jumped out and grew back to human size. It was here that Nick and the others approached Spidey, who at this time was holding his chest. "We got another patient for you, Dr. McCoy!"

Hearing this, Beast gently stepped away from the still sleeping May and turned to the curtain. "I'm on my way," Beast called back, then ran over past the curtains and proceeded to make his way towards injured Web-Head.

At first, Spidey was a little shocked to saw Beast heading his way, but not too much. For not only was he aware of him and his fellow X-Men and their exploits, as well as worked with them a few times, he also saw weirder things since the beginning of his career as a superhero.

Finally, Beast made to Spidey and gently approached him. "Let's have a look at those cuts, young friend," he said in a gentle tone, applying his bedside manner.

As such, Spidey felt enough at ease with the furry X-Man that he remove his hands and allowed him to inspect the cuts. As he allowed Beast to look at the wound, he looked forward and saw Gwen walking up to him. "Gw...I-I mean, Ms. Stacy!" he said ecstatically, then tried to calm himself to try and not sound too happy to see her for the sake of trying to convince her that Spider-Man and Peter Parker were not the same person. "Glad to that you're...okay?" Spidey's pleased reaction soon turned to worry when he noticed Gwen with an annoyed expression.

"Yeah, I'm fine," Gwen told Spidey, irritability still present. "Glad to be here with such caring people. Especially since they're caring for your aunt!"

Even with Beast right in front of him, Spidey almost jumped right out of his boots when heard those words leave Gwen's lips. "S-She knows?! How could she?!" he thought in disbelief, then cleared his throat a little to try and maintain his confident demeanor. "I-I'm sorry, I don't know what you're talking about."

Upon hearing this answer, Gwen's annoyance turned to anger as she crossed her arms and narrowed her brow at him, giving him the infamous 'look.' "Don't you dare patronize me...Peter!"

At that moment, Peter felt his heart sink within his chest, and his jaw drop underneath, as Gwen did indeed found out who he was, and worst, angry at him for not telling her. "Oooh boy...!"