Chapter 3
THE FINALS: SPIDER-MAN VS. IRON PATRIOT, PT. 2
Back in Rome, Spidey found himself on the defensive, using his speed and reflexes to duck and dodge powerful punching from the Patriot.
Finally frustrated on how his punches missed the Web-Head, the Patriot bent down and threw a downward right hook, aiming for Spidey’s left knee and hoping to take away one of his legs to hinder his movement.
Luckily for Spidey though, he spotted this attack coming and thus jumped up to avoid the blow, then flipped forward and kicked both of his feet into the back of the Patriot’s head, causing the Thunderbolt himself to tumble forward as a result. Upon landing on his feet, Spidey spun around to see that the Patriot managed to stop himself from falling over on his feet and saw this as a much needed opening. As such, the Web-Slinger pointed both of his hands at the Patriot’s feet and shot two web-lines, intending to trip him.
However, the Patriot is once again saved by the mini-camera in his collar, which activated his armor’s ‘danger sense, and prompted him to power on his jet boots and fly into the air, causing Spidey’s webbing to hit the floor instead. Once he was in the air, the Patriot spun around, pointed his open left palm down at the Web-Head and fired a repulser blast at him, causing Spidey himself to jump in the air to dodge it. However, this was something that the armored leader of the Thunderbolts was hoping for, and with great quickness, threw his right hand forward and fired another repulser blast at Spidey while he was in mid-air.
The airborne Spidey saw this attacking coming with wide open eyes and in pure desperation, he shot two web-lines at the ground below and zipped downward, succeeding in avoiding the blast and allowing it to hit the protective force field and dissipate, which such shocked the fans sitting behind it.
As for the Patriot, he watched Spidey land safely on his feet, much to his frustration. He then flew downward towards the Web-Head, with the intent of pinning him down to the steel floor.
Fortunately for Spidey though, he was alerted of this thanks to his spider-sense tingling, and thus jumped over to the right side, causing the Patriot to pound his right hand into the floor, making a large dent in the process.
After letting out an aggravated grunt, the Patriot watched Spidey roll forward and stand back up through the corner of his right eye, then stood up, powered on his jet boots and flew straight into the air. Moments later, he sped down towards Spidey once again, this time pointing both his fist forward as he sped towards the Web-Head like a torpedo.
Spidey noticed the Thunderbolt coming towards him through the corner of his left eye, and to avoid both of his armored fists, he leaned all the way back, allowing the Patriot to fly over him and just barely dodged his fists. But the Web-Head did not stop there, however, for after landing his hands, he curled his legs into his chest and thrusted them upward, where he successfully planted both of his feet into the Patriot’s planted abdomen with enough force to make him flip forward un controllably and crash into the steel floor. After saving himself, Spidey performed a back-hand spring to land on his feet, then turned around to see the Patriot himself with his back turned and had managed to pull himself up into a kneeling position, but still holding his abdomen and appeared to be in pain. After what the elder Osborn for everything that he did to him, his aunt that he made sick, his best friend that happened to be his son that he turned into a monster, and the girl that he loved that he put in danger, Spidey couldn’t help but feel a small amount of satisfaction for the damage he gave his old enemy. But at the same time, he knew that he was still his best friend’s father and knew that he still had to hold back. Not to mention the fact that he has to constantly not to go to far in order to avoid ending up just as brutal as the Thunderbolt. As such, he felt that it was time to end this match, and thus shot two web-lines at a spot that was right in between him and the kneeling Patriot, then jumped up and pulled back hard on his end of the lines, propelling himself towards his downed enemy. Once he got close enough, Spidey flipped forward and kicked his feet forward, aiming for the Patriot’s shoulder blades and planning on pinning him down face first into the floor.
The pain-filled Patriot himself looked down and removed his hand from his aching abdomen and saw that Spidey’s kick had made a huge dint. Naturally, this left the Patriot stunned, as the scientist in him couldn’t help but be shocked on how Spidey’s legs could be so strong as to cause such damage. However, he was soon brought out of his bewilderment and back into reality when he felt his danger sense, which prompted him to quickly duck and allow Spidey himself to pass right over him.
Fortunately, Spidey was able to land safely on his feet, and not wanting to give the Patriot a chance to recover, he spun around, ran in and threw a right legged front kick, aiming for his faceplate.
Sadly, the Patriot was able to se this and thus used his hands to not only block the kick, but also push the Web-Head’s foot down to the floor.
Even with his previous attack stopped, Spidey still refused to give up, and once his right foot hit the floor, he used his ‘web-taped’ left fist to go for a left hook.
But just as before, the Patriot saw this attack and stopped this attack, this time by using his left hand to catch Spidey’s incoming fist, and with his armor enhancing his already enhanced strength thanks to the Greene in his system, crushed the Web-Head’s hand, causing the young man to scream in pain as he went down on one knee. This allowed the Patriot to stand back up on his feet, still crushing Spidey’s hand. “You’ll have to do better than that, bug!”
Even in feeling agonizing pain of the bones in his hand crushed like a Styrofoam cup, Spidey still tried to look for a weakness he can exploit to free himself. Sure enough, he found in the huge dent that he made in the Patriot’s abdomen from earlier. “Okay…” Spidey replied in a pain but confident tone, then clinched his right taped up fist and punched the dent hard. Thanks to using half of his spider-strength, as well as the strong webbing adding to the force of his blow, this move actually succeeded in hurting the Patriot enough to let out a grunt and inadvertently released the Wall-Crawler’s left hand. Now free, Spidey took a moment to shake his left hand, as well as being glad that he could feel no broken bones. Sadly, he had no time to enjoy such relief, for he set his sights back at the now bent down Patriot, made his left hand into a fist and nailed the Thunderbolt in his jaw-line as he stood back up on his feet, causing his armored, and now dazed opponent to stagger back a couple of steps. “That’s for Aunt May,” said Spidey, with anger building in his voice. Not wasting any time, the Web-Head dashed in and gave the disoriented Patriot right cross to the side of his faceplate. “That’s for Harry…!”
The Patriot, even with his helmet protecting his head, could still feel his head throbbing from Spidey’s powerful blows. But nevertheless, he shook off the pain and spotted the Web-Head going for another left uppercut, and thus held up his left arm to block the punch, then responded by throwing a right hook of his own.
Fortunately for Spidey, he easily spotted this and ducked, saving his head from being knocked off by the Patriot’s punch. While bent down, the Wall-Crawler chose a more unorthodox but effective way of striking back. Meaning he used his webbed taped right fist and threw a straight punched into the Patriot’s left knee, forcing the Thunderbolt to kneel down on that knee while leaving the right knee raised up. The Web-Head then capitalized on this by placing his left foot on the Patriot’s raised right knee, pushed himself up in the air, and with his web-covered right foot, threw a round kick and nailed the Thunderbolt in his head, sending him down on the floor faceplate first. After safely landing on both webbed up feet, Spidey looked down at the dazed Patriot and angrily pointed his right index finger at him as he told him this. “And THAT's for Gwen!”
The disoriented Patriot took a moment to shake his head to regain his senses, and once he did, could hear the people cheering for Spidey, and most notably, saw the Wall-Crawler standing over him and looking down on him. This caused the Patriot’s aggravation to grow into anger as he tried to grab both of Spidey’s ankles in an attempt to take him down.
However, Spidey was alerted of this thanks to his spider-sense, and thus jumped and flipped backward, avoiding the Patriot’s metal hands.
As he watched Spidey landed perfectly on his feet, the Patriot still refused to let off on his assault and thus mentally activated his jet boots and sped towards Spidey with his left fist cocked back, and once he was close enough, threw a left cross, to which the Wall-Crawler avoided by leaning all the way back. But even in missing Spidey’s head, the Patriot still pressed on as he took his right fist, raised it over his head and threw a hammer blow, intending to plow the Web-Slinger into the floor.
Seeing his armored enemy’s fist coming down with wide open eyes, Spidey held up both his webbed-up hands and caught the Patriot’s fist before it could even hit his body. However, despite stopping the attack, the impact was still so great, it caused great strain in both of the teen’s legs.
The Patriot only sneered at the young man as he continued to drive his fist down and overpower him. “Let me guess as to why you still keep fighting…and make things difficult for me,” said the Patriot. “You fight for your frail aunt? That worthless Stacy girl?! In other words, people who hinder your strength?”
Spidey heard the Patriot mention the two most important women in his life while still pushing his fist upward, and thus looked up at him with an angry glare. “That’s where you’re wrong, Gobby,” retorted the Web-Head. “The people I love don’t hinder my strength. They’re the source of it!” With that declaration, Spidey mustered up enough spider-strength to push not just his body back up, but also the Patriot’s fist away from him and caused the Thunderbolt himself to stagger backward. Now with enough space between him and his armored foe, Spidey rushed in and threw a left legged front kick.
However, the Patriot was just as fast to recover and upon seeing the Wall-Crawler throw his kick, he stopped it by using both hands to catch Spidey’s foot.
Desperate to get free, Spidey used his one standing leg to jump up and throw a right kick, with the target being the Patriot’s head in hopes of getting him to let go.
Unfortunately, the Patriot had this well scouted and ducked to avoid the kick, causing Spidey himself to land chest foot on to the floor. With the Web-Slinger’s foot still in his grasp, the Patriot made his move by throwing his young enemy’s foot upward, forcing Spidey to flip forward into the air. Once the Thunderbolt saw the red spider symbol in the airborne Spidey’s back, he took his left hand and delivered a hard palm strike at the symbol, and in the process, sent Spidey himself flying forward a few feet and landing chest first on to the floor. All which made the Patriot have a look of disappointment behind his faceplate as he walked towards the fallen Wall-Crawler. “Some source.”