16TH FINALS: WASP VS. ATLAS

As the crowd roared with anticipation for the next match, Iron Man is standing there, secretly worrying where Wasp and Spidey were, knowing that he can't keep their holographic images up forever. Especially Wasp, since her match was up next. Suddenly, unbeknownst to anyone in the Garden, the real Wasp, in microscopic size, soon flew in and floated right inside the holographic image of herself, and thus used her Avengers ID card to contract Iron Man. "Hey Tony, I'm back."

Hearing the Wasp's voice inside his helmet caused Iron Man to let out a sigh of relief. "That's nice to hear," said the Shell-Head as he secretly pressed a button in his palm to deactivate the Wasp's hologram, just as the real Wasp began to grew back in human size and taking her digital image's place without the crowd even noticing. Once he saw his size altering teammate return, Iron Man himself gave her a small smirk. "Especially since you're match is up next."

The now human-sized Wasp first gave Iron Man a friendly nod, then looked straight ahead at the Thunderbolts' corner and spotted her opponent, Atlas, who gives a smile and wink to taunt her, something that almost made her gag and prompting her to give him a disgusted look. "Trust me," she told Iron Man while still staring at her upcoming opponent. "I wouldn't miss this for anything."

Iron Man took a moment to look around for a certain Web-Head who appeared to be missing. "So, I take it the kid stayed at the safehouse with Fury?"

Before Wasp could answer, Spidey himself was seen walking up to the stage after being dropped off at the point where Wasp picked him up, all so they would let the people believe that he has just returned from being treated by 'medics' backstage and waa greeted by a mixture of boos and cheers from the crowd. "That would be a no," Spidey replied lightheartedly, despite still being in pain from his fight with Wolverine. "Sitting out the action is never in the vocabulary of this web-swinging superhero. Besides, I've had paper cuts tougher than this."

Iron Man admired the Wall Crawler's dedication and felt his enthusiasm in such dire situations reminded him of himself at that age. But was still worried about him "Well, just be careful from here on out kid," he told him sternly.

Meanwhile, the announcer is seen working the crowd into a frenzy. "All right, folks! Let's move on to our next match-up! One in which is, shall we say, sure to epic in all shapes and sizes! For next we have the Avengers' small but strong Wasp taking on the Thunderbolts' giant powerhouse, Atlas!"

Wasp couldn't be happier to hear those words, for after enduring the stress of seeing all of her teammates lose and get capture, which even included Yellowjacket, she couldn't wait to take her frustrations out on Atlas.

But before the size altering founding Avenger to be off, Spidey decided to walk over to her. "Hey Wasp," he called to her, getting her attention. "Best of luck."

The Wasp gave the Wall-Crawler a wink and a smile as she replied. "Thanks, kid, but I'm used to beating up guys who are ten times bigger than me." As he turned forward, she set her sights back at Atlas and narrowed her brow at him. "And this jerk is no exception." With that said, the determined Wasp walked over to teleportation pad to once again fight for her team.

Meanwhile, back in the Thunderbolts' corner, Atlas watches Wasp step on to the pad with a cocky smile on his face. "And now, I step into the easiest match of this entire tournament."

This remark caused the Iron Patriot to walk up to Atlas and address him. "Careful, Josten," he warned. "If her match against Gold proved anything, it's that Wasp is a lot more than she seems."

"Hey, Songbird deserved to lose when she allowed herself to get beat by that puny rich girl," Atlas retorted with a chauvinistic tone. "But now, that hot little pixie is going up against a giant, one that's a hell of a lot better than her punk boyfriend! This'll be a snap!" The confident Atlas then proceeded to walk over to the teleportation pad, where Wasp was already waiting.

As for the Patriot himself, all he could do was let out an aggravated sigh as he watched Atlas step on to the pad, and wouldn't be the least bit surprised if the cocky giant lost his match. For since day one, he considered him to be no more than a thug who had more brawn than brains, the type of person that the Patriot always deemed to be expendable and not much of a real loss.

Meanwhile, with both fighters accounted for and with the crowd roaring in anticipation, Wasp and Atlas are instantly transported out of the Garden...

...and on to their battle station, which just so happened to be the Yanbaru forest in Okinawa, Japan!

For Wasp, the feeling of being in such a beautiful place was bittersweet. For she remembered being here before, but with Hank when he was studying the insect life here. A time in which Hank was kind, gentle and loving life in all it's forms, not the angry and violent vigilante that was Yellowjacket.

As for Atlas, he just continued to smirk, looking up and down at Wasp, admiring her beauty and hating he'd have to damage it. "Don't worry, babe," he told her. "I'll try to go easy on you."

When Wasp heard this, she soon shrank down to pixie size, flapping her wings to keep her airborne and changing both of her hands with energy. "Can't say I can do the same for you, big boy!"

It wasn't long before the Ref Bot floated in between the two size changers, with the announcer's face present, but looking a bit worried whether or not Wasp and Atlas would take things to far, just like the fighters before them. "Ready?" he asked, receiving nods from both Wasp and Atlas, and thus floated up high into the air to get things started. "BEGIN!"

Wasp wasted no time in attacking as she flew straight towards Atlas' belt buckle and fired stinger blasts at it.

Atlas, on the other hand, spotted this and dodged it by quickly moving to the left side to avoid the blasts and allow Wasp herself to pass right by him. Moments later, the Thunderbolt saw her spin around and try her attack again, but stopped that attack by using his right hand to catch her easily. "Give it up, babe!" Atlas told her confidently. "Thanks to Osborn providing tapes of your fights against Whirlwind, and other costumed losers, I've studied how you move in your shrunken form and know every move before you do!"

Wasp, having had enough with Atlas' cocky behavior, said this to him in defiance. "Yeah, well study this!" Suddenly, Wasp surprised her opponent by growing to him size to escape his grip and delivered a hard right legged knee strike to the Thunderbolt's face, sending him reeling backward. As she landed on her feet, the now fully-sized Avenger ran towards Atlas while he was still dazed, then gave him a mean right hook to his jaw, followed by a left uppercut.

Unfortunately, Atlas is able to recover quickly enough to see Wasp's punch and thus held up his left arm to block it, then threw a right cross of his own.

Luckily though, Wasp spotted this and ducked to avoid the punch, all the while passing underneath Atlas' right side and ending up behind him. After stopping herself, the founding Avenger looked over her right shoulder to see Atlas turning around and thus went for a right legged back kick, aiming for the Thunderbolts' belt buckle.

However, Atlas threw his right arm downward, to which he not only successfully blocked the kick but also pushed Wasp's foot outward.

But even with her kick deflected, Wasp continued to press on by spinning around and throwing a left back fist, to which Atlas himself easily blocked as well, Not wanting to give her opponent a chance to counter-attack, Wasp pulled her left fist back, then spun around and threw a right hook.

Feeling embarrassed on how Wasp was giving him so much trouble, Atlas held up his right arm to block the punch, then countered by using his left fist to throw a middle punch, hitting her right in the abdomen and literally knocking the wind out of her.

Thanks to the Ref Bot recording the fight, everyone around the world saw what Atlas had just done. Especially the spectators back in the Garden, where everyone, including the Thunderbolts fans, were left in shock and disgust at Atlas' brutal act.

But none more than the Avengers, more specifically, the wide-eyed Spidey and Ms. Marvel. "JAN!" they yelled in unison, scared for the Wasp's well being as they watch on the screen and see her hold her gut and on her knees searching for air.

As for the Thunderbolts themselves, they remained indifferent towards this, for as far as they were concerned, Atlas was doing what needed to be done to win this match for the team. The Iron Patriot, on the other hand, did not seem so forgiving. For he found Atlas' methods problematic in keeping up the team's positive image for the people they were trying to win over.

Back in Okinawa, as Wasp tried desperately to catch her breath, Atlas was now seething on how he was humiliated on how the size altering Avenger bested him in combat. As such, he decided to end this match by growing up to giant size, namely up to one hundred feet, then used his right hand to pick up the winded Wasp as if she was a toothpick. "I tried to be nice, hot stuff," he said angrily as he held Wasp in his hand that would show her belt buckle. "And after this, I was thinking of convincing Osborn to let me take you out and show a real good time, but now, you'll just have to be locked up with Pym!" With that said, he held up his left index finger and went to press Wasp's belt buckle to win the match. "I guess you two really do deserve each other!"

Hearing this snide comment manage to anger Wasp just enough to make her shake off the effects of that last attack, and as she looked up at Atlas with disdain, she quickly shrunk back to pixie size and flew out of Atlas' hand, causing him to poke his lift fingertip into his palm instead, causing him further irritation. "What you little-!"

The shrunken Wasp flew about the right side of Atlas' neck. Moments later, she dived downward and in the process, grew to human size. Once fully grown, the Avenger kicked both of her feet downward and plunged her heels into a specific pressure point in the Thunderbolt's neck, causing him extreme pain. After hitting that spot, Wasp quickly shrunk again and flew off just as the pain-ridden Atlas placed his hand on the spot she struck. Afterward, the founding Avenger flew down and headed towards the back of Atlas' right knee, and just like before, she grew to human size just as she reached a tender spot, then threw a right legged thrust kick, hitting that spot, and shrunk down and flew off just as Atlas began to go down on that knee and caused a massive earthquake in the surrounding area.

With Atlas in a kneeling position, the Wasp makes a U-turn and headed straight towards the giant Thunderbolts belt buckle. Upon returning to human size, she pulled both of her knees into her chest and let out a loud battle cry as she delivered a double legged mule kick, hitting Atlas' buckle with so much force, it caused it to crack.

It wasn't long before yellow energy came rushing out of the cracked buckle and surround Atlas, which in turn, caused him to shrink down. By the time he returned to human size, the defeated Thunderbolt is now completely in a frozen, kneeling position.

Once the fight was over, the Ref Bot waited until the human-sized Wasp landed on her feet before floating over and hovering right beside her. "And the winner is...the Wasp!"

Wasp was happy that she won, as well as grateful from the all the training Captain America gave her, but at the same time, she yearned for the one person she felt was truly wanted but feared she would never see again: Hank Pym. Seconds later, she turned and faced the frozen Atlas with a complete look of utter disgust; she knew that the way he fought her was probably the same way he treated women in general. "Well, you sure deserved THAT, creep!"

WINNER: THE WASP