Chapter 5
THE FINALS: SPIDER-MAN VS. IRON PATRIOT: PT. 3
Things continued to heat up in the championship match, as Spidey, despite feeling intense pain in his chest due to the claw marks being aggravated when he felt on to them, continued to press on as he used both of his web-taped hands to block two punches from the Patriot. Finally, after ducking to avoid an incoming right hook, Spidey passed underneath the Patriot’s right side, and once he ended up behind him, looked over his shoulder to see that the Thunderbolt himself has turned around and tries to slow him down by throwing a left legged back kick, aiming for the still visible dent in his opponent’s armored abdomen.
However, the Patriot threw his left arm downward and easily blocked the kick and push Spidey’s foot outward. Afterwards, the Thunderbolt saw the Web-Head throw a right legged round-kick, and thus held up his right arm and blocked that blow to protect his helmeted head. Quickly growing tired of being on the defensive, the Patriot fought back by throwing a left legged front kick.
Luckily for Spidey though, he managed to stop the kick by using both of his hands to grab the Patriot’s left foot, which in itself felt like catching a steal beam. But even in stopping this attack, Spidey knew that he was still not safe, as he was proven as he felt his spider-sense tingling. This compelled him to let go of his old foe’s foot and jumped up as the Patriot mentally commanded his boot to mentally commanded the rockets in the bottom of his boot and caused the Thunderbolt to fly backward. But even as he zoomed away from the airborne Web-Slinger, the Patriot did not want to give the young hero the chance to fight back. Thus, as he flew backward, he held up both of his hands, aimed at Spidey and shot two repulser blasts.
While in mid-air, Spidey saw this attack coming his way with wide open eyes and thus desperately tried a web move that he had been practicing for weeks but had not yet perfected. Meaning he held up both hands, shot webbing until he created a ‘web-shield’ and held it in front of his body. Moments later, the blasts hit the shield and while it was successful in blocking the Thunderbolt’s attack, the shield evaporated upon contact and sent Spidey flying back and landing spider first on to the steel floor.
The Patriot managed to stop himself by pointing both of his hands behind him, then fired two blast which caused him to come to a complete stop. Once his feet hit the ground, the Patriot mentally commanded his jet boots to activate, then hovered in the and looked down at the fallen Spidey, who at this point was wincing in pain.
High above the arena, the announcer, via the Ref Bot, saw Spidey on the floor and thus began the countdown, and as he did so, mentally commanded four large holoscreens that showed the numbers for the crowd to see and join in counting down with him. “One….two…three…”
As both the announcer and the Roman crowd counted Spidey down, the Patriot decided to make sure that the Web-Head stayed down. Meaning that he pointed both of his fists down at the fallen Spidey and fired four horseshoe shaped cuffs from out of the top of his gauntlets and towards the Wall-Crawler, each aimed for his wrists and ankles.
However, even with his back racked with pain, Spidey was once again alerted by his spider-sense and by pure instinct, sat up and rolled forward, successfully dodging the cuffs and causing them to hit and bury themselves into the steel floor instead. Once he ended up in a kneeling position, Spidey fought back by looking up at the Patriot, then pointed both of his hands at him and fired two web-lines.
The Patriot was too late to react against the two web-lines, for they both ended up hitting and sticking to him, with one line hitting his faceplate and the other hitting the Uni-star on his chest.
Upon making a direct hit, Spidey made his move by yanking down hard with his spider-strength, and in turn, pulled the Patriot down towards him. Once the Thunderbolt was close enough, the Web-Head jumped up, flipped forward and planted both of his feet into the Patriot’s shoulders, and more specifically, behind his collar, which shattered the built-in camera as the armored leader of the Thunderbolts flying forward.
As for Spidey himself, he landed safely on his feet, then spun around in a readied stance as he knew the Patriot could recover at any moment.
Sure enough, the Web-Head’s instincts were correct as the Patriot brought himself to a halt by pointing his palms downward and fired his repulsers, as well as powered on his jet boots. Though he managed later lowered himself to the floor, he still had the misfortune of having webbing covering his chest and faceplate.
Naturally, Spidey didn’t want to give his web-covered opponent a chance to attack again, and thus proceeded to run towards him.
Meanwhile, the blinded Patriot listened to the A.I. as he ripped the webbing off his chest plate. “WARNING,” said the A.I. “REAR-VIEW CAMERA IS HEAVLY DAMAGED. COUNTER SENSE IS NOW DEACTIVATED.”
This news caused the Patriot to sigh in annoyance. “Terrific,” he thought, but still chose to keep a calm head and not to let his emotions overtake him. A practice that has served him well, be it running his business or managing a team of meta-humans. “But on the bright side, I know that the Web-Head is coming after me now. Which gives me the opportunity to do this!” The Patriot then spun around and with a mental command, charged up the Uni-Star and fired a laser blast, which evaporated the webbing on his chest plate and headed straight towards Spidey himself.
Spidey saw this coming with his eye huge with shock and just barely dodged the blast by flipping sideways to the right in a corkscrew motion.
Though he missed, the Patriot kept on the assault by holding him his left arm, taking aim at the Web-Head as soon as he landed on his feet and fired another repulser blast.
Thanks to his spider-sense, Spidey easily anticipated this attack and avoided it by leaning sideways to the left. Upon standing up right, Spidey saw that the Patriot was already holding up his right hand, and seconds later, fire another blast. This in turn prompted the Web-Head to run forward, jump up and flip over the blast. Once he landed on his feet, Spidey felt his spider-sense tingle once again and instinctively looked straight ahead to see the Patriot was now dashing towards him and throwing a left hook. Acting fast, Spidey used his left hand to catch the Thunderbolt’s left fist, and thanks to the combination of his spider strength and web-tape, it did not result in any broken bones in his hand, but it still felt like he caught a cannon ball that was just shot out, which caused the Wall-Crawler some strain. Nevertheless, Spidey did not drop his guard, especially when he spotted the Patriot going for a right jab, and thus used his taped right hand to catch the armored fist and used his strength to push both armored fists outward as he tried to overpower the Patriot. “Well, I gotta say Gobby,” said the Web-Head as he struggled to push him down, no doubt because of both his opponent’s armor and the strength enhancing Greene still in his system. “You’re doing a fine job at using the armor you stole…and by fine job, I mean lousy.”
Obviously, this quip did not sit well with the Patriot, and with an annoyed growl, he pulled both of his fists out of Spidey’s hands and threw a right legged knee strike, aiming for the Web-Head’s abdomen.
Luckily though, Spidey was quick to respond by throwing both of his taped downward to block the knee strike. However, the force of the blow was so strong, it actually sent the Web-Head up seven feet into the air.
This, of course, allowed the Patriot to reach up with one hand to grab Spidey’s right ankle and slammed the Web-Head spine first into the steel floor with great force. Moments later, he tossed the Wall-Crawler eight feet away like he was a ragdoll.
Fortunately for Spidey though, he was able to flip in a corkscrew once again and safely landed on all fours, despite being in incredible pain from being slammed earlier, as he showed by holding his lower back with his right hand, all the while using his left hand to lift up the lower part of his mask and spit out blood. “Okay, think I struck a nerve,” he thought to himself sarcastically, and despite the fact that his back was killing him, as well as being afraid that one of the stitches in his chest had come undone, the Wall-Crawler still willed himself back up to his feet, and once he saw the Patriot walking towards him, got in a readied stance, albeit wincing in agony briefly. “But whether your flying around in armor or riding a giant bat-shaped glider dressed like a tree elf from hell, I’m still going to use every ounce of energy in my barely functioning body to bring you down Osborn! Or at least go down trying!”