HALF-TIME
A mixture of cheers and boos from the massive crowd filled the Garden. On the one hand, the Avengers fans were happy to see Iron Man victorious. While the fans rooting for the Thunderbolts were irate because they thought for sure that the Shellhead's bigger, stronger opponent, Titanium Man, would handle him no problem, but alas, were proven wrong.
But as the crowd gave their mixed reaction, the announcer came center stage with his right hand on his earpiece, as if receiving more instructions. As such, then turns his attention back to the crowd. "All right, folks, I've received word that Mr. Stark will not be teleporting here, mainly because he said he needed to switch armors because his current one is damaged! However, he said he will not be quitting the tournament and will be back stronger than ever! And it's a good thing too! Because The sixteen finals have now officially come to a close, and we can expect to see even more action as we gear up for...THE QUARTER FINALS!" This announcement the audience to let out an enthusiastic roar, all eager to see the next match up. Once he was pleased to see the audience riled up, the announcer held up his hand to get their attention. "But before we get to the action, we're going to have to take a short break and allow both teams to rest. But fear not folks, we have no intention of having you get bored. For as the Avengers and Thunderbolts recharge their batteries, we can enjoy our half-time entertainment!"
Over in the Avengers' corner, the Avengers themselves looked on in complete bewilderment. But no more so than Spidey, who appeared to be completely dumbfounded. "So, the battle between two superpowered teams gets a half-time show?" asked the Web-Head, sounding offended. "Great, nothing like capping off the image of seeing superheroes pound each other's brains in," as he continued, Spidey looked down at the slash marks on his chest. "Including a certain Web-Head nearly getting slashed to ribbons, then live music and dancing!"
Ms. Marvel rolled her eyes in annoyance upon hearing Spidey's words and thus walked over to him. "Chill, bug boy," she told him sternly. "True, this whole half-time show is a bad joke, but we do need to regroup. So, we might as well use this chance to rest up while we still can." Just as the Warbird said that she, as well as her remaining teammates, hear the familiar ringing sound of their Avengers ID cards, which prompted all of them to pull them out and see who was calling.
It turns out to be Iron Man, with the face of Tony Stark being the image that appeared on the team's I.D. cards and was calling from inside his armor, which despite the damages, he was using it to fly overseas back to America. "Avengers, I'm seeing the whole tournament going into half time through the satellite feed in my armor. Use this time to head back to the mansion."
Naturally, this kind of order from Iron Man confused the Avengers present, and it is Luke Cage who voices what he and his teammates are thinking. "Really, Stark? Don't you think that Osborn is going to expect that? For all we know, he might have your place wiretapped so he can see and hear what we're doing."
"Don't worry, Cage, I've got that covered." Iron Man replied calmly. "Now go, I'll meet you all there."
Though still initially confused, the Avengers knew that deep down, Iron Man always pulled through, being in previous battles and in winning his match with Titanium Man. All leading to them thinking that this course of action was probably for the best. And so, it is Ms. Marvel, albeit reluctantly, who replied to Tony's order. "Roger that, Stark, we're on our way. "
Spidey, however, seemed to be a little defensive about this decision. It wasn't that he didn't trust Tony, it's just that part of him didn't want to let the Scarlet Spider out of his sight. But just as he could look at his friend one final time, the Web-Head is surprised to see that both the Scarlet Spider and Surge are now gone and nowhere to be seen, and in their place was that of a smoking pad, which made the Wall-Crawler suspect that they must've used it to transport themselves out of the arena.
And it was here that Wasp noticed Spidey's stunned expression and thus caused her to walk up and put a concerned hand on his shoulder. "Hey, Web-Head? You okay?"
Spidey was startled when he felt Wasp's touch. "Huh?" the Web-Head answered back confused, and as he looked back at forth between Wasp and the place where the Scarlet Spider, was until he finally collected himself, and let out a small sigh of sadness. "Yeah, yeah, I'm fine."
Wasp knew all too well that Spidey was saddened that his friend was nowhere to be found, sympathized with him. "Hey, Harry's probably going somewhere to rest up, Pete," she told him as gently as possible. "Which is what we need to ourselves. Trust me; you'll have a better chance of saving him once you're rested."
A discouraged Spidey knew that Wasp had a point, and reluctantly gave her a nod. "You're right, I'm right behind you," he told the female Avenger. "Besides, after all this craziness, I could use a nap."
Ms. Marvel heard the Web-Slinger's words, and though he shared his sentiment, she knew that he, as well as her and the rest of the team, still had a job to do. "Don't get too comfortable, Web-boy," she told him in a stern town, then she, Spidey and the rest of the Avengers all proceeded to walk over to the stairway leading off of the stage.
The announcer watched the Avengers all leave the stage; the announcer then turned his attention back to the crowd. "All right, New York, as both teams rest up for the Quarter Finals, let's give a warm welcome for today's half time entertainment...THE IRON PATRIOTNETTES!" After giving those words, the announcer quickly ran off to the right side to exit the stage. Suddenly, pyro went off, and a large doorway opened in the center of that stage, and moments later, dancing music played. The Iron Patriotnettes, a group of beautiful women in USA bikinis, walk on to the platform and began dancing, all while receiving applause from the audience, or more accurately, the warm-blooded males in attendance.
Elsewhere, miles away from the States and in the clear skies, Iron Man is watching the Iron Patriotnettes dancing via the satellite feed in his helmet, and was quite annoyed, seeing that Norman had stolen his idea for his female dancers, the Ironnettes. "Very cute, Norman," Iron Man said bitterly, then mentally commanded his armor to shut off the feed and continued to race back to New York.
Meanwhile, back in the S.H.I.E.L.D. Helocarrior, the Scarlet Spider and Surge just arrived at the bridge after arriving on to the ship via teleportation pads built in the Thunderbolts corner back in the Garden.
It was long before Baron Zemo walked over and welcomed the two remaining Thunderbolts, with his hands behind his back and appearing calm and collected as always. "Well done, gentlemen," he told them, sounding pleased. "Unlike the rest of your fellow Thunderbolts, you have succeeded in winning your matches and bringing us a few steps closer to reaching our objective. There might be hope for you yet."
Surge just gave Zemo a skeptic look behind his mask, knowing that he was only half sincere.
As for the Scarlet Spider, he mentally commanded his 'mask' to crawl off of is head and stop at his neck, revealing the face of Harry Osborn, who at this point only sneered at Zemo. "Nice of you to notice," he told the former H.Y.D.R.A. leader, then looked around for the person he truly wanted to impress. "Where's Dad?"
Suddenly, as if on cue, Norman walked into the bridge, now wearing a newer, sleeker design of the Iron Patriot armor, minus his helmet. "Right here, son," he answered, causing Harry and everyone in the room to turn and face him. "And as you can see, I'm ready to re-enter the competition." Before continuing, Normon turned his attention to Zemo. "Speaking of which, I trust the battle stations for the Quarter Finals are ready as well?"
"Of course," Zemo replied optimistically. "Thanks to the resources of S.H.I.E.L.D., you are not the only one who is prepared, Norman."
As Norman and the rest of the remaining Thunderbolts conversed on the main bridge, they, nor the agents, noticed that they were being watched. For in cyberspace, the digitized version of the Vision is watching them through one of the agent's computer screens via a digital window. He appeared to look at Norman and the others with sheer disgust, knowing that they were using dirty tricks to win, and it was those dirty tricks that imprisoned most of his teammates. Moments later, he waves his right hand to create more icons that patched into the Helocarrier's surveillance cameras and showed the images of Hawkeye, Wasp, and the rest of the captive Avengers in their cells, which saddened the digitized android greatly. "Stay strong, my friends," said Vision. "We are coming," With that said, the Vision waved his left, which activated another icon that said 'sending data.' Meaning that he was now sending what files he found in the S.H.I.E.L.D. Helocarrier over to Tony Stark's personal database. All so he could not only help the Avengers that were locked up, but also help Iron Man and the rest of his teammates that were still free to win this tournament and stop Norman Osborn, and man to which viewed as someone who was just as hateful and twisted as Ultron...if not more so.