16TH FINALS: HAWKEYE VS. SCARLET SPIDER
The crowd inside the Garden cheered in anticipation for the next match-up. Especially Hawkeye, who pulled out his collapsed bow behind his back, and with one quick jerk, opened it up to get it ready for his match with the Scarlet Spider.
But before the archer could be on his way, he is briefly approached by Ms. Marvel. "Clint, remember to try and not rough him up too much," she told him. "Aside from being Spider-Man's friend, he's still a kid."
"Yeah, yeah, I know," Hawkeye replied irritably. "And don't worry, I'll try to go easy on him." Hawkeye turned his attention to the Scarlet Spider, he could see him seething, and his muscles strangely get bigger. A sight to which made the usually calm and cocky Hawkeye worry just a little bit. "Despite knowing that he won't give me the same luxury."
Meanwhile, in the Thunderbolts corner, the Iron Patriot approaches the Scarlet Spider, who by this time was already itching to get his hands on his soon to be opponent. "Harry," he said in a stern tone and succeeded in getting his son's attention, and in the process, caused his muscles to shrink back down to normal size. "I trust you remember not to be as headstrong as the rest of your teammates? If so, I would find that to be very...disappointing."
Just hearing the word 'disappointing,' from his father, caused the Scarlet Spider to revert from he anxious brute back to that of the insecure teenager who desperately sought his father's approval. "You don't have to worry about that, Dad!" he quickly told the Patriot. "I won't let you down!"
The Patriot responded by giving the nervous Scarlet Spider a nod, all the while still maintaining his emotionless expression behind his faceplate. "Then go and prove it, my boy," he told him as he briefly stepped away to reveal the teleportation pad. "Go and win like a true Osborn, and make me proud."
The Scarlet Spider gave his armored father a quick and enthusiastic nod in response, then headed over to the teleportation pad.
As for Hawkeye, he had also arrived on the pad, but masked his concern with a look of determination.
With both combatants accounted for, the pads activated and the Scarlet Spider and Hawkeye were transported to their designated battlefield...
...where this time, it's a stone platform on a mountain top in Sokovia. At the bottom of the mountain, many of the cheering native spectators witnessed the combatants arrived via the holoscreen floating above them.
Back up top, just the Ref Bot floated on to the platform; Hawkeye just looked around his surroundings with a somewhat disappointed look. "Why couldn't I fight somewhere nicer? Like Hawaii?"
The Scarlet Spider heard the archer's words and smirked behind his mask. "Well, I don't care where we are," he said in a confident tone, then allowed his masked smile to turn into a scowl. "Just as long as I get the chance to send a message to a certain backstabbing Web-Head by beating the crap out of you!"
However, this only made Hawkeye shake his head at the Scarlet Spider after hearing his cocky remark. "Great, another snot-nosed brat who's bitten off more than he can chew." The archer leaned his head from side to side to create popping noises. A method he usually showed to people that he was not intimidated. And thus showed it to his young, mentally unstable opponent with a parasitic suit."Which you need to learn a lesson in humility in the Hawkeye school of hard knocks!"
The Ref Bot soon floated in, with the concerned look of the announcer present and facing Hawkeye. "Well, just be sure that you're not too harsh in your teaching, all right Hawkeye?" he asked Hawkeye, earning him an irritated look from archer as he gave him a nod of acknowledgment. Afterward, he mentally commanded the Ref Bot to turn to the Scarlet Spider. "And I'm sure that you remember to keep things civil as well?"
Though the Scarlet Spider was aggravated at the announcer's nagging on 'playing nice,' he knew that his father was watching and thus gave the worried announcer a quick nod so he can start the match.
Once he got his answers from both combatants, the announcer commanded the Ref Bot to fly straight up into the air and provide the two heroes the room needed to fight. "BEGIN!"
Not wasting any time, Hawkeye quickly pulls an arrow out of his quiver and aims Scarlet Spider. "Class is in session!" he said confidently, then fired the arrow, with the arrowhead sparking with electricity in mid-air.
However, the Scarlet Spider saw this and leaned back sideways to the right to dodge it easily. Moments later, the young man mentally created a six-foot-long tentacle to come out of the back of his left hand as he stood up straight. A split second later, he whipped the tentacle to strike Hawkeye's belt buckle.
Luckily for Hawkeye though, he managed to save himself by dashing and rolling to the left side, narrowly dodging the tentacle.
The tip of the tentacle, however, soon transformed into that of a hook than buried itself into the platform floor, all in which allowed the Scarlet Spider to zip over to that spot. Once the Scarlet Spider landed on his feet, he looked to see the now kneeling Hawkeye facing him and shooting another electric arrow at the young man's belt buckle. However, the symbiote wearing teen countered this by throwing a red, goop-like ball from out of his right hand, which upon coming contact with the air, soon hardened as it made a spike-like shape and soon collided with the arrow. Both weapons ended up destroyed as a result.
A sight which left Hawkeye himself a little bit stunned. "Okay, so much for this being a walk in the park."
The Scarlet Spider sets his sights on the baffled Hawkeye and with an angry roar, charged towards him with the intent of tackling him to the ground.
Meanwhile, back at the Daily Bugle in the states, J. Jonah Jameson watched the match on a TV in his office, along with Robbie Robinson. Jonah had a huge grin from ear to ear as he watched the match. Mainly because Spidey was still tending to his injuries from his match against Wolverine and he's hoped that it would leave him too injured to come back into the tournament.
For Robbie, he couldn't help but look at his boss and friend with a suspicious-looking expression. "I take it you're enjoying the match, J.J.?"
"I sure as hell am now!" Jonah replied, grin still present. "For not only is that Wall-Crawling menace out of the game, but we now have a much BETTER Spider-Man holding his own against that Robin Hood wannabe!"
Robbie, however, seemed slightly worried with Jonah's overconfidence. "Well, first off, Spider-Man just left to treat his wounds from his last match, so as far as we know, he's still in this thing. And second, what makes you think that Osborn's son is any better?"
"Well, for starters he's on a team of weirdos that, at the very least, are on the government's watch," Jonah replied, then allowed a bitter scowl on his face to appear as remember another certain web-head, one that he knew all too well and was just sick to death of. "Unlike some other web-shooting menace who takes the law into his own hands, as well as Stark and his group of vigilantes!" At one point, Jonah seemed inspired by what he just said. "In fact, here's the next headline," he said as he held his hand up in the air to spell it out. " 'Thunderbolts 'avenge' the world by beating the Avengers!' Let's see the Globe try and top that!"
Robbie could only roll his eyes and let out a disappointed sigh, knowing that whenever Jonah was this passionate, including defaming Spidey, Iron Man, and The Avengers, there was no changing his mind. Still, as he went back to watching the match, Robbie still hoped that the REAL Spider-Man was all right.
Meanwhile, back in Nick Fury's safehouse, Peter, Gwen, and the rest of the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents that were not under Osborn's control were all watching the match on the big screen. For Gwen, she looked on in great concern as she watched the Scarlet Spider throw unforgiving punches at Hawkeye, who managed to deflect them by using his bow. "Harry..." she said quietly, seeing him growing more and more aggressive as he continued his assault on the archer, and growing more and more worried by how that suit appeared to be making him more unstable.
As for Peter, he looked just as fearful for his best friend becoming more and more vicious with every blow he threw at the defending Hawkeye. "So hoping that this doesn't end badly," Peter muttered quietly.
Nick heard Peter's fearful words and turned to him with a raised eyebrow. "Bad for Hawkeye, or bad for your friend?"
While still looking at the screen, Peter let out a sigh as he answered the S.H.I.E.L.D. Director. "Both."
Meanwhile, back in Sokovia, Hawkeye was still on the defensive in using his bow to block hard punches from the Scarlet Spider. It wasn't until Hawkeye held up his bow over his head in a horizontal fashion to block the Spider's incoming hammer blow did he finally retaliate by throwing a left legged front kick, nailing his teenage opponent in his chest and forcing him to stumble backward. The archer then reached back, pulled out another arrow, took aim and fired his arrow which while in mid-air, the arrowhead exploded, and a pair of twirling bolos pop out heading straight for the Scarlet Spider's legs in an attempted to trip him.
The Scarlet Spider saw this, however, and through concentration, he created a long blade out of his left hand and swung upward, slicing the bolos before they could even reach him. Then, with his right hand, he formed another tentacle and whipped it at Hawkeye once more.
Hawkeye spotted this, and instinctively held up his bow, which caused the tentacle to wrap around it.
But even with his whip attempted stopped, the Scarlet Spider did not let this stop him and thus used his symbiote enhanced strength to yank backward and in return, pull Hawkeye towards him, all the while winding up his bladed left hand to stab he archer's abdomen once he got close enough.
However, thanks to his years of combat training, Hawkeye waited for the right moment, then released his bow and flipped forward, placing both of his feet on to the Scarlet Spider's blade and used it as a boost to jump and flip over the symbiote wearing teen and landed behind him in a crouching position. From there, he performed a leg sweep, tripping the Scarlet Spider and taking him down to the ground. As he stood back up, Hawkeye simply held his right arm in the air and easily caught his bow.
As he lied on the ground, the Scarlet Spider, now angrier than ever, quickly sat up and performed leg sweep of his own.
Fortunately, the experienced Hawkeye anticipated this and avoided getting tripped by jumping and backflipped a couple of feet away from the Scarlet Spider himself. After landing, Hawkeye reached back and drew another arrow from his quiver just as his aggressive opponent stood back, then fired another arrow, aiming for the Scarlet Spider's masked face.
However, the recovered Scarlet Spider was just as quick on the defense, and with his right hand, easily caught the arrow with no effort. "Really, pal?" he asked. "This is the best you can do?" Suddenly, the arrowhead sprayed smoke right into the young man's face, causing him to stagger blindly.
"Yeah, well, I'm just full of surprises," Hawkeye retorted, then pulled out and fired another arrow, this time aiming for the Scarlet Spider's exposed belt buckle.
However, in the strangest and most unsettling of ways, the Scarlet Spider's symbiote suit somehow acted on its own by forming a tentacle out of his back which shot to the ride side and pulled him over in that direction, avoiding the arrow. Upon landing on that location, the Scarlet Spider went down on one knee, still suffering the effects of Hawkeye's smoke arrow.
Though Hawkeye found this a little off-putting, he still pulled out another bow, aimed lower at the belt buckle and fired.
However, thanks to his suit enhancing abilities, the Scarlet Spider actually heard the arrow flying through the air, and thus was enough to snap him back to reality and left him more enraged than ever on how a simple archer just embarrassed him in front of the world, and more importantly, his father. As such, the young man used his left hand to throw a backhand and swat the arrow before it could hit him. Then, in one of the most disturbing of tactics, he literally stretched his right arm out at Hawkeye and actually grabbed his head and pulled him. Once the struggling archer was face to face with him, the seeing Scarlet Spider wanted nothing more than to crush his skull like a Styrofoam cup right then and there. But upon catching a glimpse of the archer's belt buckle, he was reminded that he had a father to impress, thus turned his left hand into a fist, pulled it back and threw a straight punch, hitting and shattering it instantly. As the yellow energy began to consume his arrow firing opponent, the Scarlet Spider dropped Hawkeye, whereby the time he hit the platform, he was already completely frozen.
This action caused the Ref Bot to hover right next to the victorious team. "Ladies and gentlemen," said the announcer on the Ref Bot's screen. "Here is your winner, the Scarlet Spider!"
The Scarlet Spider relished the cheers from the Thunderbolts crowd, both from the Sokovian natives in the mountain below, and the crowd in Madison Square Garden via the Ref Bot's screen. But what he really cared about were two things. One, his father, whom he knew was watching and knew he must be proud of him. And the other was getting the opportunity to exact revenge on the one person who, in his mind, nearly took away his father and girlfriend — the person he once considered his brother but was now his most hated enemy: Peter Parker.
WINNER: THE SCARLET SPIDER