Chapter 13
THE FINALS: SPIDER-MAN VS. IRON PATRIOT, PT.7
Battered, bruised and hurting more than he had ever been in the past, Spidey pressed on in his fight against the Patriot, much to the Roman crowd’s delight. At one point, the Web-Head threw a right uppercut, only for the Patriot to lean back and successfully dodge it. But even with that attack avoided, Spidey was just as nimble as he spotted the Patriot going for a left hook, which prompted the Web-Head to duck and narrowly avoid getting his head knocked off his shoulders. As he stood back up, Spidey is alerted by his spider-sense and anticipated the Patriot holding up his right palm, which he charged to fire a repulser blast into the Web-Slinger’s chest. As such, Spidey acted by using his right hand to grab the Patriot’s wrist and hold it upward, forcing his armored opponent to fire the blast in that direction instead. This left the Web-Head the opportunity needed to take his taped left fist and throw a stiff middle punch into the dent in the Patriot’s abdomen, causing the Thunderbolt to let out a pain-filled groan and bend over.
This provided the Wall-Crawler the opening he needed to jump and perform a flip-kick, nailing the Patriot in the chin and making him stagger aimlessly backward. While in mid-air, Spidey continued his attack by pointing both of his hands down, shot two web-lines that hit the dazed Patriot’s shoulders and zipped towards him, with the plan to give him a head scissors take down.
Unfortunately, just as the Wall-Crawler wrapped his legs around the Patriot’s shoulders, the Thunderbolt quickly countered by wrapping his arms underneath Spidey’s waist and drove the Web-Slinger down spine first into the steel floor.
As for Spidey, he groaned in agony was as his back took more abuse. However, he was brought out of his misery thanks to feeling his spider-sense, which prompted him to quickly roll to the left side and avoid the Patriot’s right foot before it could stomp into the young hero’s chest and ended up going through the floor instead. After rolling a least five feet away from the Patriot and ending up on his stomach, the pain ridden Spidey willed himself back up to his feet, while at the same time, placed both of his hands on his lower back and leaned all the way back, which resulted in a few loud pops to be heard and the Web-Head grunting and wincing as a result. “Yep, DEFINITELY going to be sore in the morning.”
The now seething Patriot pulled his foot from out of the floor when he heard Spidey’s words, then turned and narrowed his eyes at him. “Oh, you’re going to feel WORSE than that,” he said bitterly, then powered on his jet boots and sped towards the Wall-Crawler, with the intent to ram his shoulder into the Wall-Crawler and run him down.
Luckily though, Spidey’s life was once again saved by feeling the tingling of his spider-sense, thus side stepped to the right and avoided the Patriot’s charge.
However, the Patriot managed to stop himself from tumbling over, then spun around and to face Spidey again, then dashed towards him and threw a right hook.
Fortunately for Spidey, he had this attack well scouted and quickly ducked, narrowly avoiding the blow. Once he stood back up, the Web-Head responded by throwing a left legged front kick into the Patriot’s dented abdomen once again, and once the Thunderbolt was in a bent position, he immediately threw a right legged round kick, aiming for the Patriot’s helmeted head.
The Patriot, on the other hand, surprised the Web-Head by holding both arms to the right side to not only block the kick, but also grab his entire leg. Afterwards, he spun him around and threw him a few feet away like he was nothing.
While in the air, Spidey managed to look over his shoulder and could see that he was about to hit the forcefield that was protecting the audience from the action. As such, to save himself from such hard impact, as well as getting electrocuted, Spidey pointed both of his hands down, shot two web-lines at the steel floor and zipped downward, where he made a perfect landing on all fours, albeit aggravating his still present injuries and thus causing him more physical turmoil. So much so, that it was enough to almost make him black out, and he just barely shook his head to stay conscious at the last second. “Come on, Spidey,” he thought to himself. “Don’t even think of passing out now! Everyone is still depending on you to win this!” Suddenly, Spidey is brought out of his self pep-talk when he felt his spider-sense return, and thus forcing him to look up.
It was that of the now airborne Patriot, who by this time pointed both of his open almost down at Spidey and fired two repulser blasts, all which prompted the Wall-Crawler to jump and flip backward to avoid them.
Meanwhile, back on the bridge of the Helocarrier, Maria Hill, along with the rest of the agents, were beginning to stir, albeit still dazed and confused. “What…?” asked the stunned Maria, then mere seconds later, her stern and less than pleased demeanor returned. “Somebody better tell me what the hell just happened in ten seconds, or I’ll fire the first son of a-!”
Suddenly, it was Iron Man who answered her when he, along with the rest of the Avengers, all barged into the bridge. “Oh, not much,” Iron Man said nonchalantly. “Just us coming in to save your backside, as well as those of everyone here in S.H.I.E.L.D. The usual.”
The sight of Iron Man did not sit well with Maria, and thus made her instantly draw her side pistol and point it at him. “Agents draw your arms,” she ordered, which resulted in the rest of the agents that were standing back to draw their guns at Iron Man and the rest of the Avengers. “Stark, if you have any part of this-!”
It was here that Nick Fury made his surprise entrance and held up his hands to get the agents’ attention. “Stand down,” he yelled loudly, surprising the agents, but none more than Maria herself, who had not seen him in so long. The former S.H.I.E.L.D. director turned his attention to the still flabbergasted Maria herself. “Cool your jets, Hill. Stark isn’t the enemy here.”
“Director Fury?” Maria asked in disbelief, then shook her head and obeyed her superior by putting away her gun, so she could at least get some info on the current situation. “Agents stand down!” she ordered, and as the rest of the agents followed suit by putting their guns away, she looked at Nick himself. “But sir, what exactly is going on here?”
Nick normally would answer Maria but could see that Iron Man was walking over to the control board of the commander’s station and had to see what he was planning to do to stop the madness that Osborn brought S.H.I.E.L.D into. As such, he quickly turned to Sharon and appoint her as the person to give Maria an explanation. “Carter, fill her in,” he told the blonde agent, then followed Iron Man to the station where he once took command. “Stark, whatever you got to do to stop this, do it now!”
“I’d love to, Fury,” Iron Man replied as he looked at the screen and watched the final CoC match, growing worried for Spidey as he leapt to the right to avoid another one of the Patriot’s repulser blast. “But right now, that’s up to someone else.” With that said, the Shellhead went on to the one team member who could possibly put an end to the tournament and Osborn’s scheme…one who was literally and figuratively working on the inside. “Vision, the forcefield that surrounds the Colosseum, can you shut it down?”
Suddenly, the digitized head of the Vision appeared on the large screen, surprising the newly freed agents. However, he appeared to have a disappointed expression. “I’m afraid that is proving to be quite difficult,” the Vision head told Iron Man, then shrank itself and ended up on the left bottom corner of the screen, all to show the forcefield surrounding the Colosseum. “It would appear that Norman Osborn himself has keyed in a new passcode from his Iron Patriot armor. One that I am enable to encrypt and shut down the forcefield.”
This answer caused Iron Man to let out an aggravated sigh. “Great, no doubt Norman did this to show the whole world who’s the top dog by making an example out of whoever he faced in the final match.” With that said, Iron Man held up his right index finger, and with a mental command, a small, drive like device popped out of the tip, and drove it into the panel’s drive slot. “J.A.R.V.I.S., linked into S.H.I.E.L.D.’s databanks and see if you can lend Vision a hand, Gigabyte style.”
“At once, sir,” J.A.R.V.I.S., then loaded his program on the right side of the screen, which had the image of a glowing green circle, and thus aided Vision in cracking the Patriot’s code to bring down the forcefield surrounding the entire ancient amphitheater.
With both J.A.R.V.I.S. and Vision hard at work in trying to shut down the forcefield, the rest of the Avengers continued to watch match with great concern out of Spidey. Especially Wasp, who was even more worried as she watched him jump and flip backward to avoid getting pummeled the Patriot, who ended up punching the floor instead. “So now what?” asked the distressed Wasp. “We just stand here and watch Peter fight for his life? There’s no other way we can help him?”
It was here that Cap answered the Wasp as he continued to focus on watching the match. “For now, there’s only one thing we can do to help him, Jan,” said the Super Soldier in a serious but calm tone for the sake of keeping morale within his team and the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents on the bridge. “We believe in him.”
Meanwhile, back in Rome, Spidey was still on the defensive in using his speed, reflexes and spider-sense to duck and dodge every one of the Patriot’s punches. Finally after holding up his left arm to block an incoming hook, the Web-Head’s spider-sense tingled and alerted him to the Patriot about to use his right leg to throw a front kick, all which prompted Spidey to use his leg foot to kick the Patriot’s armored left shin, and thanks to both his spider strength and the webbing around his foot, it was strong enough to make the Thunderbolt go down on that knee. Now with the upper hand, Spidey clinched his right fist and went to nail the Patriot with a right hook, hoping that it would be strong enough to knock the faceplate off his helmet and leave his face exposed.
Unfortunately, the Patriot spotted this and responded by holding up his right arm to block the punch, and with his left hand, reached up and grabbed Spidey’s entire head, then proceeded to bury his armored fingertips into the Wall-Crawler’s skull as he slowly stood back up.
Spidey screamed in agony as he felt his skull slowly crack in the Patriot’s literal iron grip, and while the Thunderbolt hand covered the Web-Head’s left eye, his right eye was not, and he noticed the Patriot’s still visible dent in his abdomen. Now reminded of his enemy’s weak spot, the Wall-Crawler made a desperate move as he used his left leg to throw a right legged front kick, hitting the dent in succession.
This move appeared to have paid off, for it hurts the Patriot enough to make him stumble backward. However, as he did this, the Thunderbolt was still holding on to Spidey’s mask, and as he backed away, he inadvertently ripped off the left eye piece of the mask, revealing the Wall-Crawler’s heavily swollen left eye.
As Spidey rubbed his head in a vain attempt to quell his now pounding migraine, he was shocked when he felt his left eye piece now missing, and thus looked straight ahead to see that the Patriot was now holding it in his left hand, as well as having his right hand over his abdomen. “It’s a good thing you’re rich, Osborn,” said the agitated the Wall-Crawler, pointing his right finger at his armored foe. “Because you owe me a new mask!”
Needless to say, both Spidey’s remark and how the now ‘one eyed’ teen escaped from his hold had the Patriot seething. “I…owe you…NOTHING!” he roared, then threw the eyepiece down and rocketed towards the Web-Slinger in pure fury.
Fortunately for Spidey, he managed to jump and flipped over the charging Patriot just in time, and as he landed, he turned around and saw that the Patriot had spun around and fired a repulser from out of his right hand, which forced the Wall-Crawler to lean back sideways to the left in order to avoid it. While leaning, Spidey pointed his left hand at the Patriot and shot a web-line which made a direct hit on the Patriot’s left shoulder, then zipped towards his opponent and threw a left legged flying kick.
However, the Patriot proved to be just as quick and leaned back sideways to the right to dodge the kick and allowed Spidey himself to pass by him.
Though Spidey landed safely on his both of his feet, he instinctively turned around and saw the Patriot coming towards him and throwing a right hook. Naturally, Spidey ducked to avoid the punch, and se he popped up, he spotted the Thunderbolts’ leader go for a left cross, and thus used his left arm to block the punch. Afterwards, the Web-Head responded with a right uppercut to his armored enemy’s chin, one which was strong enough to make a visible dint in the low right corner of his faceplate.
Meanwhile, the match that was broadcasted worldwide was being shown to the people of New York Time Square, with the Avengers fans rooting for Spidey and the Thunderbolt fans rallying being the Patriot. But none were more invested in the match than Gwen Stacy, who was now practically glued to the television monitor of the police resting area and grew more and more scared for the Web-Head’s safety as he ducked to narrowly avoid getting his head taken off from the frustrated Patriot’s right cross. For Gwen, having Peter break things off with her was one thing, but to see him injured and putting himself in further harm against the psychopath that was Harry’s father caused her to be on edge.
Elsewhere in New York, more specifically, Nick Fury’s safehouse, Beast watched the match via the large screen, all with great concern a he watched Spidey hold up both of his hands in an ‘X’ fashion and threw downward to block the Patriot’s incoming left legged front kick.
However, unbeknownst to the furry X-Man, he was about to receive quite the shock…as May Parker had just woken up from her coma and was now walking around, albeit still a bit groggy. Finally, as she made her way to the screen, she briefly turned and saw Beast, shocking her enough to let out a loud scream.
Naturally, hearing May’s scream was enough to startle Beast and make him turn to see the terrified woman and was shocked to see her fully conscious. “M-Mrs. Parker!” said the flabbergasted X-Man as he watched her back into a nearby table, then quickly held up his hands in a peaceful manner to try and calm her down and assure her that he’s not a dangerous monster, as he’s often confused for given his appearance. “Please, calm down,” he told her gently. “I know I may not look it, but I assure you, that I won’t harm you. In fact, you’re in very safe place.”
May was in complete bewilderment that a creature of Beast’s stature would sound so intelligent and well spoken. In fact, it was that same sophisticated voice that she vaguely remembered hearing while in her unconscious state, and therefore just assumed that he was one of the doctors at her nearby hospital. Finally, after a few moments of pure fear induced silence, the petrified May finally tried to speak to the X-Man standing before her. “S-Safe place? W-Well, if this isn’t the hospital, then where am I?”
Glad to see that he had May’s attention, as well as happy that he didn’t give the poor woman a stroke, Beast gave a small smile as he went on to explain, all while keeping his distance so as not to scare her even more. “Well madam, you are currently in safehouse that’s-“
May didn’t listen to Beast’s explanation, for through the corner of her left eye, she spotted the screen that was showed the tournament, and more importantly, saw Spidey receiver a fierce right backfist to his masked face by the Patriot. All which made her run to the screen with fear and concern in her face. “PETER!”
Needless to say, hearing May call her masked nephew by his real name left Beast in disbelief. “She knows?!”
Back in Rome, Spidey was on the ground, shaking off the effects of the backfist when he noticed that he was underneath a shadow. As he looked up, he saw that the shadow belonged to that of the Patriot, who at this point wound up his left fist and tried to punch Spidey for a knockout blow, all which caused the Web-Head to roll underneath the Patriot’s right side in order to avoid the punch and make the Thunderbolt ram his fist through the steel floor instead. Once he ended up in a kneeling position and right behind the Patriot, Spidey quickly stood up, turned around and saw the now frustrated Patriot himself yank his fist from out of the floor. Not wanting to give him a chance to attack, the Web-Head pointed his left hand at him and shot a web-line, with the plan to zip towards him and kick him in the back of the head.
The Patriot, on the other hand, looked over his shoulder to see the web-line, and thus spun around and used his right hand to catch the line before it could touch him. A split second later, the Patriot pulled Spidey towards him, and wound up his left fist to give him a hard cross once the Web-Slinger got close enough.
Though his initial attack was turned against him, Spidey still didn’t let this mishap stop him. And once he was close enough, the nimble Web-Head threw a right legged round kick to swat the Patriot’s left fist away, then while in mid-air, turned and used his other leg to throw a spinning backheel kick, nailing the Patriot in the head so hard, it actually knocked off his faceplate, and thus reveal the face of Norman Osborn. After safely landing on all fours in a crouching position, Spidey looked up to see the now unmasked and disoriented Norman stagger aimlessly backward, and with his enemy’s face now exposed, saw this as the opening he needed and thus got up and rushed towards the Thunderbolt and throw a right cross.
Despite having his armor severely damaged and now without the protection of his faceplate, Norman still had the ‘Greene’ flowing through his veins, which helped recover quickly enough to see Spidey throwing a right cross and thus used his right hand to catch the Web-Head’s fist. Once he saw Spidey with his own two eyes instead of through his eye lenses, Norman felt sheer humiliation as to how the Wall-Crawler last attack took away his face plate, and in pure spite, began to crush his hand, causing enough pain to Spidey to bring him down to his knees. Moments later, the angry Norman then picked Spidey up by his right hand, and after placing his other hand on his young opponent’s left thigh, he powered up his jet boots, rocketed forward and rammed Spidey up against the forcefield, electrocuting the Web-Slinger and making him scream in pain.
This heinous act was seen back in Time Square, where it shocked the spectators watching on the big screen, but also terrified Gwen in seeing the boy she loved get tortured in such a way. “NO!”
Elsewhere, inside Nick Fury’s safehouse, May was just as frightened in seeing her nephew being shocked. “PETER!”
Back in the match, after shocking the Web-Head for a good long minute, Norman pulled Spidey away from the forcefield, then lifted him up over his head and threw him five feet away, where Spidey eventually landed hard on his chest, his body in pure agony and his back still smoking. Now in control, Norman than walked over to the fallen Spidey.
After suffering every punch, blast, and finally having large amounts of electricity surge though his body, Spidey barely had enough energy to even sit up. In fact, he could only barely lift his head up and see Norman walk up and stand over him, crossing his arms and looking down at him with contempt. From here, he felt that Norman was the true last man standing, the man who beat him. And as such, he allowed his face to drop to the floor, sadly accepting defeat.
High above the fight, the announcer saw Spidey down on the floor, and thus began the countdown. “One…Two…Three…”
For Norman, he found the countdown to be a sign that this long day was coming to an end and victory was close at hand. He also looked down downed Spidey with a look of somewhat disappointment. “Oh, you could’ve been so much more had you taken my offer, Mr. Parker,” he thought. “I suppose I’ll just have Warren have his fun with you in this ‘cloning project’ he spoke of to create new soldiers for S.H.I.E.L.D. But first, you’ll just have to serve as an example to what will happen to those who stand in my way in creating a newer, better world!”
As for Spidey himself, he just laid face down on the floor in shame, feeling hopeless and depressed on how he let himself get defeated Osborn, and more importantly how he let the Avengers, his friends and family down. “Face Parker, you blew it big time,” thought the sorrowful Wall-Crawler, waiting for the countdown to be over. “Gwen…Aunt May…I’m so sorry.” While waiting for the countdown to end, Spidey’s depression is soon turned to confusion when he heard the people chanting …
“Spider, Spider, Spider, Spider, Spider….!”
The chanting came from the Roman spectators, more specifically, the Avengers fans, all of whom watch the Wall-Crawler fought with not just great skill, but with such determination and strength and began their enthusiastic chanting in hopes that it would give him the will power to get back up.
Back in New York, the Avengers’ fans in Madison Square Garden also had a chant of their own…
“Spidey, Spidey, Spidey, Spidey, Spidey…!”
That same ‘Spidey’ chant was going around in Time Square, much to the surprise of some of the NYPD, as well as the delight of Captain George Stacy, who was glad to see that the people of New York finally saw Spidey as the hero he truly was.
A pleasantly surprised Gwen also heard the chanting from the police rest area and took a moment to look around the supportive crowd for confirmation. Just like her father, she was happy to see the people get behind Spidey as oppose to believing the trash that Jameson wrote about him in the Daily Bugle. Moments later, she quickly turned back the screen, with her worrying returning upon seeing Spidey still down on the floor. “Come on, Peter,” she thought. “You can’t let Osborn win! Especially since you have people that believe in you…just like I do! Get up!”
Meanwhile, in the Daily Bugle, both Jonah and Robbie were watching the match and heard the ‘Spider’ chants on TV, and more importantly, hearing the ‘Spidey’ chants outside the building and into the streets. Something that caused the irritable Jonah to let out a disgusted grunt. “Just perfect,” Jonah said annoyed. “Not only did that Wall-Crawling creep dupe some of the people in this town, but overseas too!”
Robbie ignored Jonah’s spiteful words, and instead concentrated on the screen and silently rooted for Spidey to get back up on his feet.
Back in Rome, the chanting was starting louder and louder, and began stir something within the surprised Spidey. As he looked around the Roman fans cheering for him, he noticed two people that caught his attention the most.
The first was that of a blonde-haired teenaged girl around his age, one that struck a sounding resemblance to Gwen, the girl that he had to let go for the sake of her safety…but still loved dearly. So much so, his mind was filled with memories of the good times he and Gwen shared, from working on school projects together, to hanging out at the coffee shop, and finally, that fateful Thanksgiving Day when she kissed him.
And the other was that of a woman in her fifties with a child that appeared to be her grandson…and she reminded him of his Aunt May, the woman who took the place of his deceased mother in raising him and loving him in every step of the way.
The memoires of the two women that Spidey loved the most was more than enough motivation for him to shake off the pain, as well as give him the willpower needed to get back into the fight. “Well, life sure has a funny way of telling you not give up!” thought the Web-Head as he placed both of his hands and on the floor and literally pushed himself up off the floor and sit up. “But I get it! I can’t let Gwen, Aunt May, or anyone else who believe in me down! For everyone’s sake, I’m stopping Osborn! Right here, right now!” As the Wall-Crawler began to slowly get up, the announcer quickly stopped the countdown, and sure enough, some of the Thunderbolts fans in the crowd soon began to become impressed with the Web-Head’s determination and soon joined in the ‘Spider’ chants.
This in turn left Norman completely dumbfounded and looked around the chanting crowd in pure bewilderment, as he could not believe how the people easily jumped to the fallen Web-Head’s side. Suddenly, through the corner of his left eye, Norman spotted the recovering, but still somewhat groggy Spidey was now back on his knees. As such, he placed his confusion aside and concentrate on winning the match, and thus through a downward left hook to knock Spidey out for good.
Fortunately, Spidey was brought out of dazed thanks to the tingling of his spider-sense, and thus used his left hand to quickly catch the fist. Afterwards, he looked back up at Norman, who then nervously pulled his right fist and desperately threw another hook. With anger in his good eye, Spidey easily caught the incoming fist with his other hand, and with his spider-strength, began to crush the gauntlets and caused them to short out, which resulted in the crowd to cheer louder. With fan support, as well as the need to save his loved ones and people around the world from the stunned Norman and his thugs, Spidey now had renewed vigor, which he used to jump up and deliver a flip kick to Norman’s chin, which knocked him loopy enough to make him stagger backward. Upon landing on his feet, the re-energized Spidey towards the disoriented Norman, then jumped up and throw a left legged round kick.
Despite taking such a hit, Norman saw the Web-Head’s kick and quickly ducked to avoid it. Once he stood back up, he allowed the Web-Head to land on his feet and turn to face him, all so he could hold up his open palms and try to fire two repulser blast. However, as he made the mental command, he was shocked to see that neither of his gauntlets fired, no doubt the result of Spidey squeezing them earlier. As a result, Norman made another desperate move by throwing a right legged front kick, and in the process, power on the boots jets as an improvised way of blasting the Web-Slinger.
However, Spidey easily anticipated this move and easily used both hands to catch the foot before it could reach his chest. Having had enough of Norman’s demented tournament, which resulted in the imprisonment of the Avengers, the insanity of his best friend, the sickness of his aunt, and the loss of the girl he loved, the Web-Head was now more determined than ever to end this madness, first by squeezing his boot, and just like he did to his gauntlets, made it short out. Then, while keeping a firm grip on his old enemy’s foot, Spidey angrily spun Norman around, then threw him six feet away.
Though he landed hard on the floor spine first, the armor still protected Norman from the impact well enough to allow him to roll on his back and on to his feet. From here, he made a mental command for his jet boots to power up in ditch effort to hover in the air and have a high ground advantage. However, much to his shock and horror, the jets in his right boot failed to power up, as the Wall-Crawler’s firm grip made it useless. And while his left boots were working, they barely got only a few inches off the floor. All which left Norman in complete, and almost crazed bewilderment. “No! Not like this,” screamed the wide eyed and delirious Norman, who was so far gone mentally, he spewed salvia out of his mouth as the more he shouted. “It can’t end like this! My plans are too perfect for me to lose now! I can’t lose! It can’t end this way! It can’t-!” Suddenly, Norman’s crazed tirade was put to a halt when a small ball of web covered his mouth, followed by a web-line stick to his chest plate.
Sure enough, a clearly fed up Spidey was revealed to be the shooter of those webs, all while holding on the web-line with his left hand. “Gobby, it can…” the Web-Head then used his right hand to shoot another line, which also made its mark on Norman’s chest plate. “AND IT WILL!!!!” With that said, Spidey yanked hard on his end of the lines and pulled Norman straight towards him. From there, the Web-Head jumped up and gave Norman a hard right uppercut to his jaw, which was strong enough to send him up into the air with him. From there, the airborne Spidey spun around, curled both knees into his chest and delivered a doubled legged mule kick, nailing the white star on Norman’s chest plate and with enough force that sent Norman Osborn, a man who terrorized New York as the Green Goblin, then led a team a villains masquerading as heroes as the Iron Patriot, flying backward and slamming his back up against the forcefield, electrocuting him in the process, with his screams muffled by the webbing over his mouth.
So much electricity surged through the armor, that it began to short out the circuitry and caused the Iron Patriot suit to burst into pieces, which revealed Norman wearing a black jumpsuit underneath as he felt chest first on to the floor in a complete daze, as well as the webbing over his mouth to fall apart upon impact.
As for Spidey himself, he performed a back-flip after delivering the mule kick and landed on his feet, but briefly struggled to maintain balance. He could feel the adrenaline already wearing off and both pain and fatigue return to plague his body once more. So much so, he could feel his legs get wobbly and concentrated all his energy into just standing up. “Come on, body!” thought the exhausted Web-Head. “If you can hold together while I lift up tons of steel and save Gwen from a sinking underground lair, you can hang in there for ten seconds and help me put Osborn away!”
High above the match, the announcer saw that Osborn was down, and soon began the countdown. “One...!”
All in which caused the Roman crowd to join in. “Two...!”
Spidey could see that Norman was moving and knowing how unpredictable he was with that Greene still in his system, he winced as he got into a readied stance and quietly counted down with the crowd. “Three...”
Back in the states, the countdown continued in New York, from the spectators in Madison Square Garden. “Four...!”
To the people watching in Time Square. “Five…!”
Including a heavily invested Gwen, who was glued to the monitor and ecstatic to see Spidey standing and Norman down. “Six...!”
Over in Nick Fury’s safehouse, the two remaining occupants watch the match intensely. From the furry X-Man Beast. “Seven...!”
To the worrisome May Parker. “Eight...!”
And finally, everyone on the bridge of the S.H.I.E.L.D. Helocarrior, from the freed agents, to the Avengers and Nick Fury’s Secret Warriors. “Nine...!”
Back in the Coliseum, Norman looked like he was about to push himself back up, which startled Spidey and caused him to stand ready. But seconds later, Norman just felt light headed which caused his eyes to roll to the back of his head as he finally passed out.
All which allowed the announcer and the Roman crowd to yell the one number everyone wanted to hear. “TEN!!!”
At that moment, the buzzer sounded all over the arena, which resulted in the crowd to cheer in celebration and the tired Spidey to drop to his knees in relief and smile in happiness. “Finally…it’s over!”
This in turned caused the announcer to mentally command the Ref Bot to hover down to the kneeling Spidey, and upon arrival, popped out its metal arm to grab Spidey’s left arm and gently raise it in victor. “Ladies and gentlemen,” said the announcer with his grinning face appearing on the screen. “Here is your winner, and champion….THE SPECTACULAR SPIDER-MAN!!!”
This announcement only caused the crowd in the Coliseum to roar with jubilation as the Wall-Crawler was declared the winner of not just this brutal match, but this whole tournament.
And such happiness didn’t stop at Rome, viewers all over the world, or at least the Avengers fans, all roared with applause. Especially back in the states, where the people in New York Times Square were all cheering in celebration like it was New Year’s Eve. And as George and his team tried to keep the masses under control, Gwen was also cheering loudly and happily, all while crying tears of joy in seeing Spidey finally defeated Norman. “Thank God!” she thought as tears of happiness streamed down her cheeks, then she gently placed her hands on the screen, more specifically, on the spot where Spidey was standing. “Now get your but back here, Peter Parker. Because like it or not, I’m not finished with you!”
Back in the safehouse, May was beyond ecstatic in seeing her nephew succeed, as she showed by hugging Beast tightly and jumping up and down! “He did it! He did it! My Peter did it!”
“Indeed!” replied a smiling Beast as he gently patted May’s back. He then looked back on the screen to see the tired and injured Spidey be helped up to his feet. And though he was still worried about his aggravated injuries, he was proud of the young man for being able to bring this insanity to an end.
Not everyone shared in the happiness of seeing Spidey win the tournament though. For back in the Daily Bugle, Jonah was seen, as well as heard, ranting and raving about what he saw happened. “SHENANIGANS!” Jonah roared as he stomped out of his office with his face red with rage. At one point, Jonah turned his attention to his new secretary, Irene Merryweather, and pointed his finger at her. “MERRY WEATHER! YOU HAVE TWO POINT THREE SECONDS TO GET ME ON THE PHONE WITH SOMEBODY WHO WORKS FOR THE DAMN GARDEN! THE WEB-HEAD NEEDS TO BE DRUG TESTED! HE MUST HAVE TAKEN SOME…SUPER STEROIDS OR WHAT TO BE ABLE TO BEAT THE PATRIOT! HE HAD TO!”
During Jonah’s verbal rampage, a very fearful Hottman sneaked right past his irate boss and made his way to Robbie, who was standing by the doorway of Jonah’s office and looked unsurprised at his boss and friend’s reaction. “So, um, I take it I should go down and tell the boys in the presses that ‘Iron Patriot wins’ is no longer the title on the banner headline?” asked Hoffman, secretly hoping that Jonah doesn’t turn around and make him the target of his wrath.
“‘Fraid so,” Robbie replied calmly, and as Hoffman nodded and high tailed it over to the elevator, Robbie briefly looked back at the TV in Jonah’s office and allowed a small smile as he saw Spidey on screen. “Way to go, Web-Head.”
Back on the S.H.I.E.L.D. Helocarrier, everyone on board the bridge, with the exception of Maria Hill, all cheered and applauded the victorious Spidey, with the Wasp, being Spidey’s biggest supporter, cheering the loudest. Later, the big screen showed the forcefield around the Colosseum disappear once the match was over.
This in turn caused a smiling Cap to approached Iron Man, who was still at the commander’s station and pulled his finger out of the port. “Looks like Spider-Man beat Vision and J.A.R.V.I.S. to the punch in shutting that thing down, Tony.”
“Yeah, I guess so,” Iron Man replied as he retracted the drive back into his finger. “But don’t let J.A.R.V.I.S. know, he’s very sensitive other people doing his job for him."
This caused the image of the big screen to change into the glowing green circle, which was J.A.R.V.I.S. making an appearance. “You’re so kind, sir,” he said with a hint of sarcasm in his voice.
Before answering, Iron Man briefly chuckled before looking up at his trusty A.I. “Hey, don’t feel bad buddy. Bright side is the kid left you available for another job I got in mind for you. You got access to the Helocarrier’s teleporters?”
Back in Rome, both the tired Spidey and the Roman crowd got another surprised when the Wall-Crawler himself suddenly vanished out of sight…
…then reappeared back in Madison Square Garden, on the stage and right in front of the large crowd cheering for the Web-Head. And if that wasn’t a big enough surprise, the Avengers themselves all appeared on stage, as well as a few medics to treat Spidey’s injuries. Before the medics could get to Spidey however, Iron Man walked over and raised his right hand and the Wasp happily hugging the Web-Slinger from behind.
Naturally, the sudden appearance of the Avengers came as a shock to the announcer, who was standing stage left. But nevertheless, he turned and gave a hand signal to two Iron Patriotnettes to walk to the stage with a large, gold trophy. Moments later, he ran out with his microphone in hand and addressed the crowd as the Patriotnettes handed the still astounded Spidey the trophy that he had just won. “Well, New York, we give you both your winning champion,” said the enthusiastic announcer, pointing the speechless Wall Crawler as he held the trophy with the Wasp. “And, in accordance to the agreement with S.H.I.E.L.D., we give you the team that is now ‘officially’ Earth’s Mightiest Heroes…THE AVENGERS!”
This announcement made the crowd roar in approval, as well as caused confetti to fall from the rafters, marking the Avengers victory as a celebration.
For Spidey, even as he held the trophy to Wasp and allowed the two medics to approach him, he was still in a state of disbelief, but at the same time, filled with joy and accomplishment. From stopping Norman from using S.H.I.E.L.D. for his own twisted purposes that would put the world in jeopardy, to finally freeing his teammates in the Avengers, a group of REAL heroes. But more importantly, he was being cheered and loved by the people of New York, after years of being hounded and labeled a ‘menace’ by the Bugle. All which made the Web-Head smile behind his mask.
Knowing that the medics would have to take Spidey away to treat him, Iron Man quickly placed his hand on the Wall Crawler’s shoulder to get his attention. “Enjoy this moment, kid. You’ve earned it!”
Still sporting a grin behind his mask, Spidey gave Iron Man and nod, then turned back to the crowd while letting out very small sigh that his aching ribs and slashed chest would allow. “Tony, you have no idea.”
WINNER AND CHAMPION: SPIDER-MAN