by Alex Irvine
All in good time. First, the Beyonder.
FORTY-EIGHT
AS SOON as Xavier lost contact with Spectrum, the entire team headed for the ship. They already knew something had gone haywire with Galactus’ attempt to feed on the energies of his World-Ship; following the direction of the energy flow across the sky, Reed was fairly certain Doom had something to do with it. Spectrum should have been in and out in an instant, faster than Doom could react— but she hadn’t made it.
Now they were on another rescue mission. If they were lucky, She-Hulk would be healed, and they could get her up to speed while they were at the base. They would need her if Doom had created some kind of new weapon.
Another possibility was that Doom had freed all of his villainous subordinates and She-Hulk was already dead. Reed didn’t allow himself to concentrate on that eventuality.
The ship was fast, and the trip didn’t take long. Magneto assisted, creating a groove in Battleworld’s magnetic field that accelerated them in the right direction. “Looking to atone for all the people you’ve killed?” Captain America said.
“I will not be judged by you, or anyone who has not seen firsthand the oppression of his own people,” Magneto said.
“I’ve heard that one before. Every murderer’s got an excuse.”
“Steve, with all due respect, this isn’t the time,” Reed said, loathe as he was to throw in his lot with the likes of Magneto.
“Normally I’d be first in line to gut this sonovabitch,” Wolverine interjected, gesturing in Magneto’s direction with a single extended claw. “We get back home, you and me can have us a little team-up. But here? Now? Shut the hell up. Even an ignorant brawler like me can see this is the last thing we need right now.”
Captain America glanced over at Logan. “I don’t think anyone was talking to you.”
“Whoa, guys—” Spider-Man started, but Wolverine already had his temper up. He got up and snapped out his remaining claws, ignoring his own advice.
“You got a problem, bub?” he asked.
Spider-Man quickly got between them before things could escalate. “Fellas, as much as I’d love to take bets on which of you would win a fight, maybe we could concentrate on saving the universe instead?” he suggested. “I mean, you can always take a rain check and pick this up later.”
“You need not intervene on my behalf, Logan,” Magneto said. “If Captain America and I have a dispute, we are more than capable of settling it ourselves. Yet I do find Spider-Man’s advice useful. Let us delay this for another time.”
Wolverine sat back down. “Spare us the white knights,” he said to no one in particular.
For a moment, Reed thought Captain America was going to react, but his soldier’s training took over. He bit his tongue and also took a seat. Reed relaxed a little. At least they wouldn’t be at each other’s throats before they found out what was waiting for them at Doombase.
A few minutes later, they arrived and found Doom’s underlings still in their cells—with the exception of Klaw, whose head they discovered on an upper level. “You’re too late, twist of fate, isn’t it great?” he said.
“Is he…okay like this?” Rogue asked, grimacing at the bloodless but undeniably creepy sight.
“He’s not in pain,” Xavier reassured her. He looked down at the head. “Too late for what?” he asked Klaw.
“Doom’s gone, gone, gone, to fight the Beyonder over yonder,” Klaw said. “Left you a little something, ing, if you look around it’ll be found not on the ground.”
That was how they discovered Spectrum. She was in her light form, but frozen in place, and none of them could figure out how to undo what Doom somehow had done. They could put their hands right through her—she was insubstantial, yet she could not move. She shimmered a little—like a hologram—at nearby energy fluctuations but otherwise did not react.
“Klaw, what happened here? Where’s the rest of you?” Reed asked.
“Spectrum snooped, Doom flew the coop, I’m sliced up and made into lenses, es, es,” Klaw babbled. “But none of it hurt because I can’t feel pain in my brain. I’m made from sound, ound. Ound!”
Reed persevered. “Doom went to fight the Beyonder? Did he interfere with Galactus?”
“He got the Power Cosmic, ic! And now he’s like an odd broad god.”
Reed left Klaw’s head on the table. He saw Klaw’s arms and legs on another table—except for one hand, which sat on a control console. Doom had outdone himself. He had intercepted the Power Cosmic and gone after the Beyonder.
“So we ought to be seeing Doom’s body falling out of the sky again pretty soon,” Cyclops said.
“I’m not so sure,” Reed said. “If we were counting on Galactus to take on the Beyonder, and now Doom has intercepted the Power Cosmic, it seems to me our odds haven’t changed all that much.”
A rumble passed through Doombase, toppling fixtures and bouncing instruments onto the floor. Klaw’s head rolled off its table. “Hey,” he said. “Hope I’m not in the way. Don’t want anyone to trip and slip, bust a lip.”
Another shock hit Doombase, much stronger this time. “Battleworld’s rocking and rolling,” Wasp said. “Just an earthquake, or…?”
“Nothing in or on Battleworld is just anything,” Xavier said. “The planet itself responds to the wills of everyone on it—the more powerful the being, the more powerful the response. This earthquake must mean that the battle between Doom and the Beyonder has begun.”
The third shock hit then, causing the ceiling to sag. When it had passed, Spider-Man called out from where he’d perched himself on a wall. “Maybe we ought to catch the show from outside, huh?”
FORTY-NINE
DOOM rode the irresistible wave of the Power Cosmic to the Beyonder’s portal—and through it, feeling the passage as little more than the brief resistance an ordinary mortal might have felt while pushing through a revolving door. Galactus had not been able to penetrate this far the last time. Doom exulted in the knowledge that he was more powerful now than Galactus had been—perhaps he was more powerful than Galactus had ever been, for when before had Galactus consumed the energies of his own World-Ship?
Light in colors that had never existed washed over Doom, and he felt the infinite spaces of the Beyonder’s realm.
Stop! You cannot approach me!
“Then you approach me,” Doom said. “Abase yourself before me! Grovel, and perhaps you will survive!”
The Beyonder made no response. Doom pressed forward, feeling resistance grow around him as the Beyonder altered the very fabric of his universe to impede Doom’s passage. Doom struck out with the Power Cosmic, tore through the Beyonder’s defenses, and forged on. He thought he could sense the Beyonder himself, emanating a field of pure will that bent reality to his wishes. Doom slowed and lashed out again. Each time he expended more of his power for lesser progress. He was the living embodiment of Zeno’s Paradox, eternally covering half of the distance to his goal. Still he forged ahead, keeping the last of his strength in reserve for the battle surely to come.
Then came the moment when he was halted. “No!” Doom cried out. “You will not stop me!” With all his strength, he struck at the barrier the Beyonder had erected, but it stood firm. He was now facing the Beyonder will to will, and Doom realized with mounting dread that he was not in the Beyonder’s realm at all. The Beyonder was the realm.
The Beyonder was this entire universe. He commanded it as he commanded his own mind. Doom had perceived a separation of mind and matter, but here such distinctions did not exist. He had pressed deeply, but not deeply enough to reach his goal—and simultaneously much too far to avoid the Beyonder’s retaliation.
And it came in an irresistible wave that set every particle of Doom’s body at war against itself. Doom survived only by focusing his entire consciousness on the speck of this reality that was Doom. But he did survive. He was torn apart, his body mangled and his mind nearly broken under the force of his agony. But he survived.
For a time, all was quiet. Doom hung, exhausted, in the endless realm. Then Doom sensed the Beyonder’s approach. No, he thought. This is not the time.
He reached back, agonized and terrified beyond pride, and sought help in the only place he imagined it might exist.
*
The earthquakes wracking Battleworld stilled; the heroes paused, too, waiting to see what was coming next. “Beware,” Xavier said. “A consciousness…”
“Holy moly. My spidey-sense is going bonkers,” Spider-Man added. “Whoever’s about to pay us a visit is nobody we want to mess with.”
A sliver of light appeared in the air at the center of the room, growing and coalescing into a human form—the form of Victor von Doom. He was not physically present, Xavier saw. His form was translucent and surrounded by a nimbus of energy similar in appearance to that which had flowed from the World-Ship of Galactus.
“I am Doom, but I am not as you knew me,” he said.
“That’s for sure,” Spider-Man said. Wasp shushed him.
“The Power Cosmic courses through me, and I have transcended mortality,” Doom went on. “Now I fight as your champion, for the Beyonder is the true enemy. He set us at each other’s throats for his amusement; to save ourselves, we must seal him away behind his portal…forever! I battle him now, and he quails before me—yet he is marshaling his strength for one final assault.”
Doom’s spectral figure reached out its arms to either side. “Lend to me your strength that I may crush the Beyonder once and for all. Who will join me? Whosoever does so will have might beyond measure, for they will partake of the Power Cosmic that radiates through this apparition of my body!”
“Don’t do it,” Captain America said. “There’s something he’s not telling us. Doom wouldn’t offer us some of the glory if he thought he could get it all himself. Reed, am I right?”
“I would say so,” Reed said.
“But you could be wrong,” Magneto said. “This is our chance to be certain!” He reached out; his fingers were within inches of Doom’s before Xavier called out.
“Erik, don’t!”
Magneto turned, and his eyes locked with Xavier’s. “Don’t,” Xavier said again. “Doom lies.”
“Doom is the only one of you who has understood this game!” Magneto held his hand just beyond Doom’s reach. The torment of the situation was plain on his face. He knew he could not trust Doom, no matter what he had said; he also knew that Doom might be telling the truth, and that lending his power to the struggle against the Beyonder might tip the scales.
“Doom understands only one thing, Erik: how to exploit weakness. If you touch him, he will drain your power as surely as he drained the Power Cosmic from Galactus,” Xavier said. “You will not survive that.”
“Xavier’s right. We can’t risk it,” Reed said. “I’ve known Victor since we were both still practically boys. He doesn’t share power.”
“Ignorant fools! Magneto, your powers could tip the balance. Do not tarry!” Doom stretched his hands ever farther. Magneto looked between Doom and Xavier, his face a tormented grimace.
“You want my guess? He’s getting his ass handed to him, and he needs our help,” said Ben Grimm.
Magneto held his position long enough that Xavier could hear the thoughts of some of the other heroes as they considered how they might prevent his fingertips from traveling those last few inches— but then he let his arm drop. “What matters Doom’s death if we are all to die in any event?” he asked wearily.
“No! Quickly!” Doom’s apparition cried out. It began to fade. “Cannot…maintain…”
Then it was gone.
*
The Beyonder waited for Doom to grasp the realization that he was alone. Then the onslaught began again. Now Doom no longer had any defense. He was beaten down, his powers nearly exhausted, his continued existence dependent on the Beyonder’s mercy. Energies akin to those shimmering at the boundary of the expanding universe an instant after the Big Bang assailed him, infused him, scoured his body and his mind. Only the Power Cosmic preserved him from utter annihilation.
When the storm of the Beyonder’s wrath had passed, Doom lay silent.
*
After some time, the physical wreckage of the human known as Victor von Doom was lifted up. Turned over, analyzed from a distance. Electrical stimulus applied to certain areas yielded a large number of recorded experiences. These, too, were analyzed, their interrelationships catalogued. The death of Victor von Doom’s mother and the subsequent capture of her spiritual essence by a demonic entity was noted with some interest—for this created desire in Victor von Doom. Her loss created a desire for control and revenge; knowledge of her captivity created a desire for atonement and salvation. The war between the two drove everything this human had ever done.
Desire…
There was more to be learned. The armored material encasing the physical form was removed and held close to the body, to preserve the model of its shape—the struggle had somewhat altered the body’s structure. One half of the body was left in its existing state. The other was examined in greater detail. Its layers were separated and explored. Different tissues were catalogued and samples recovered.
The last piece of the armor to be removed was the head covering.
*
Doom awoke as the ravaged skin of his face reacted to the freezing vacuum. His eyes opened and immediately filmed over with ice. He remained still despite his agony as the Beyonder vivisected him. The Power Cosmic preserved his consciousness, and he felt pressure along his bones, separating skin from muscle, isolating nerves and triggering them to see what response their signals provoked. There was no physical touch, no fingers that probed. Only terrible pain and the knowledge that his body was failing, whole pieces of it lost.
Doom knew that the Beyonder had been in his head. He knew also that the Beyonder, though invisible to his one remaining eye, was close.
Very close, in fact. Perhaps…close enough.
Death, too, was very close. A lesser man would have accepted it. Welcomed it. Victor von Doom did not just fight it. He scorned it. Death did not deserve him. He had survived the Power Cosmic. He had survived the Beyonder so far. He would continue to survive. He had one hand left and one eye. With the one eye he located his armor’s breastplate, hovering nearby. With the one hand he reached toward it.
The Beyonder did not stop him. The remnant Power Cosmic in his body made him as conscious of this dimension as of his own, and Doom registered curiosity like a slight torsion in the physical logic of this place. The Beyonder watched him reach out his hand as if he had never before seen a human do such a thing.
He who plays for the ultimate prize must risk the ultimate stakes. That, Beyonder, is my desire.
He felt the Beyonder’s surprise—and Doom smiled.
FIFTY
THE NEXT shock that hit Doombase threatened to bring down the entire structure. Doom’s apparition had interrupted the heroes mid-flight. “We have to get out of here! Now!” Rhodey shouted. Dust was thick enough that none of them could see across the room. Rhodey solved the problem by blasting a hole in the nearest exterior wall.
“Everyone! Outside!” Captain America pointed but headed in the opposite direction. “We’ve all got a better chance if we can get out of here!”
“What about you, Cap?” Reed called back.
“Go! I’ll follow in a minute. I have to get the prisoners out of their cells!”
“We have to get She-Hulk, too!” Spider-Man reminded him, making for the sick bay in the Thing’s wake.
Rhodey followed Cap down the maze of halls to the prison zone. The imprisoned villains started shouting at them as soon as they entered. Rhodey heard a crash from behind and turned to see Wolverine slashing open the cell doors.
“Glad you’re here,” Cap said.
“I wasn’t going to let these men die like rats in cages, no matter whose side they’re on,” Wolverine explained as he ripped open the
next door.
Cap agreed. “Even these men have rights.”
As debris rained down around them, Cap and Rhodey tore open other cell doors through a combination of brute strength, repulsor blasts, and Adamantium claws.
“I think that’s everyone,” Rhodey said. “Let’s get out of here.” He blasted another hole through the wall.
The villains ran for the breach, through which they could see daylight. Cap and Wolverine ran, too. Rhodey went with them, picking off stray bits of falling debris with his repulsors along the way.
They were outside and making tracks for the other side of the plain from Doombase when Battleworld rocked and the entire base sank into itself with a rumble. But the base wasn’t the only thing collapsing: All of Battleworld seemed to be tearing itself apart.
Cap did a head count. Doom’s people had split, but the Thing and Spider-Man had revived She-Hulk, and she was looking better. Everyone else was there. “We didn’t lose anyone?” Rhodey asked. He couldn’t believe it.
“Well…we haven’t seen Lockheed in a while,” Hawkeye said.
“I mean anyone human.”
“You explain to Katya how you didn’t care about Lockheed because he wasn’t human,” Colossus said.
“Hey, man, I didn’t say I didn’t care,” Rhodey said. “I just said I was taking about humans.”
Hawkeye was looking up at the sky. “Well, the earthquakes are done. But is anybody else seeing this?” he asked, pointing up.
The Beyonder’s crescent-shaped tear in the universe was gone— but a light emanated from where it had been. It accelerated toward Battleworld, growing as it fell.
“Be ready,” Captain America said. Rhodey hovered above the group, suit powered up, prepared for anything—except for what he saw. The light kept growing. By the time it reached the surface, it was a hundred feet wide and at least as tall. It remained in the air for a long moment, then seemed to bleed slowly into the ground before resolving itself into a gargantuan human form. Gradually, that human form became recognizable. Rhodey got a cold lump in the pit of his stomach. He didn’t mind fighting. He didn’t mind putting his life on the line for what he knew was right. But he didn’t want to die on Battleworld. He wanted to die on Earth. And judging from what he was seeing, that was no longer an option.