by Alex Irvine
Looming over them, the size of Galactus, was Victor von Doom.
“The Beyonder is dead,” he boomed. “The most powerful being in this universe…is Doom.”
The group gathered around Captain America. Reed and Xavier might have been their big brains, and Storm and Wasp might have been the nominal leaders of the X-Men and Avengers, but on the battlefield, people wanted to follow a soldier. Captain America was the soldier’s soldier among them. Rhodey knew that feeling. Usually, he was the soldier to whom everyone looked. But Cap had the experience here.
“This is going to be the fight of our lives, people,” Captain America said.
“Stay your hands, heroes,” Doom said. He began to shrink, stopping when he had reached his ordinary human size. “Absorbing the Beyonder’s energies spurred me to take on a physical size reflective of those mighty powers…but I will return to a more familiar scale that we may better converse. For you see, the Beyonder is destroyed, and Doom is reborn.” Doom paused. When he spoke again, Rhodey was startled to discover that he believed every word Doom was saying, and could feel the genuine emotion in Doom’s voice.
“The war is over,” Doom said.
FIFTY-ONE
HULK listened to Doom, but what he really wanted to do was smash the smugness out of him. The feeling got more intense when Doom removed his mask to reveal an unscarred, strikingly handsome face— well-coiffed brown hair, soulful brown eyes, impossibly square jaw. “The powers of both Galactus and the Beyonder are now mine,” he said. “You see one of the wishes I have been able to realize. I could destroy you all with a thought—and I suppose that is what you are expecting.”
“What are you waiting for?” Hulk said. “Try it.”
“Hulk, your anger is understandable. It would be a terrible blow to be conscious of losing one’s intellect. Yet your anger is also misplaced. Doom is not your enemy. Nor are the Beyonder and Galactus. Did you not hear? The war is over. I have won. Now I would speak to you for a moment—but only for a moment. Greater things beckon.”
“I just bet they do,” Ben Grimm said.
“Hey, if it gets us home, I’m all ears,” Spider-Man said.
Xavier stepped forward and pointed across the broken ground to where the villains were gathered on a hilltop, about fifty feet away. “Your former minions are not as willing to hear you out as we are, Doom,” he said. “Even now they plot against you.”
“Let them,” Doom said. “I have nothing to fear from them, or any other being.” He paused. “You, however—”
A sudden upheaval around them cut off whatever Doom would have said next. Hulk staggered as the ground under the heroes heaved and they were thrown violently upward. No, not thrown—tilted, as they soon discovered when they had to scramble for handholds to keep from skidding down a miles-long slab of Battleworld’s crust that abruptly had come to be standing on end. The howling passage of wind gave way to the wispier sounds of the high atmosphere, and Hulk’s ears popped painfully.
“Hey, I can see Denver,” Spider-Woman said.
“Yep, the view’s great,” Ben agreed. “Breathing’s not so good, though.”
“Quickly!” Reed said, taking charge. “Rhodes, you hang on to me and I’ll form a pouch. Everyone climb aboard unless you can fly.” Rogue, Magneto, Johnny Storm, and Thor leapt away from the now-vertical slab of crust. Reed caught as many of the others as he could. Wasp tried to fly, but the atmosphere was too thin this high up. Nightcrawler teleported down to catch her, reappearing a moment later in the stretched-out hollow of Reed’s torso.
“Hulk, the train’s leaving!” Johnny called out. Rhodey had hold of Reed’s hands and feet, which had twined themselves around his forearms.
“I can jump,” he said, with a downward glance.
Reconvene at Doombase, Xavier said to all of them. Hulk did not answer. He needed a minute to himself, or he was going to lose his temper. He very much desired the release of a blind rage, but he couldn’t allow himself to give in. Their fight wasn’t over yet. These were his friends. He repeated that over and over in his head as he fell. These are my friends.
But Doom’s people weren’t. Hulk looked down and wished he could fall faster.
FIFTY-TWO
YOU LIKE that?” Molecule Man screamed at the sky. The chunk of Battleworld’s crust was now vertical, with its upper point reaching the edge of space. “That’s what happens when you cross me!”
“Owie, what did you do?” Volcana said. Owen was so angry he didn’t even answer her. He knew it was rude—but darn it, sometimes you couldn’t be nice to everyone.
Riding the wave of his rage, he tore loose the ground on which he was standing and flew toward Doom. Behind him, he knew the rest of them were following on foot. They didn’t want to miss a fight between Molecule Man and the newly empowered Doctor Doom, and Owen would give them a fight.
After all they’d been through, all they’d done for Doom—he’d pulled off a stunt like this?! Confiding in the heroes? Siding with them over those who had faithfully carried out his bidding? No, Owen thought. It isn’t fair, and I’m not going to stand for it.
He landed next to Doom and stomped toward him. “Your new friends are gone, Doom. Now it’s just you and me—and pretty soon, it’s going to be just me.”
Doom just stood there, arms folded, letting him approach.
“You think I won’t do it?” Owen said. “I can. I wouldn’t have before, but now you made me mad enough that I don’t care. You have no idea what I’m capable of.”
“That is where you are wrong,” Doom said. “It is you who have no idea of your capabilities.”
Everything around them changed. The rocks vanished. The sky and clouds, too, and all of Owen’s friends. He and Doom stood in a field of…what? Owen looked around, unable to comprehend what he was seeing. “Behold,” Doom said. “These are the intertwining energies that form the foundations of all that is. The eternal flux that grants the universe life. All things are now known to Doom…and I give you this knowledge as a gift, Owen Reece. You have power over not just the visible world, but this realm as well.”
Doom’s gauntleted hand spread over Owen’s face, and at the five points of contact with Doom’s fingertips, Owen felt a shock that spread through his mind. “Every iota of matter in the cosmos answers to your whim—and that is true to the deepest quantum levels at which matter and energy are the same. There are no barriers to your power save those you yourself impose. Free your mind of self-doubt and self-loathing. Accept the majesty of your power…and fear no more.”
Owen felt his mind opening—no, being restored—as Doom’s vision shattered all of the internal walls and traps Owen had spent so many years unconsciously building. He knew and understood, at last!
Then Doom was gone. Owen stood alone on the edge of the cliff he had created when he catapulted the heroes into the farthest reaches of Battleworld’s atmosphere. “I…I can control organic molecules,” he said. “I can do anything.”
The rest of his team came running. “Molecule Man,” called Doctor Octopus. “What happened? You and Doom both vanished, but only you returned.”
“What?” Owen said. “No, you all disappeared. Doom and I…” He trailed off. There was no way to explain it to them. Volcana reached his side, and he looked up at her. “Never mind. It’s fine. We can get along without him. I know what to do. I’ll take care of us all now.”
“You?” Octopus said. “You? Surely not.”
“Hey, you saw what he did just now,” Absorbing Man cautioned. “You sure it’s a good idea to cross him? ’Cuz I don’t.”
Octopus looked around at the rest of them, gauging his support. Owen hoped the Doc didn’t want to fight, because then Owen would have to make Otto Octavius disappear. He didn’t want to do that.
“All right. Fine. You’re in charge,” Octopus said, seeing all eyes on Owen. “What do we do?”
“Well,” Owen said. “We need food and shelter, first. Then we can plan.”
&nbs
p; “We could go to my place,” Volcana said. “It’ll be a tight fit with all of us, but Denver’s a little bit of civilization. It would be good to see something familiar, wouldn’t it?”
“It would,” Owen agreed. “Denver it is.”
*
Things had deteriorated in Denver since Marsha Rosenberg had been there last—or maybe, she thought, she should’ve thought of it as the last time Marsha Rosenberg had ever been there. She was Volcana now. She looked on the people of Denver, ragged and desperate. The peace of the first few days had faded; now the citizens fought among themselves over dwindling resources and banded together only when they had to repel incursions from the creatures living in the swamps. Volcana felt little in the way of pity. She was different from them now. Their problems were not hers.
The entire group crowded into the living room of her apartment on Logan Street. She was sure it was the first time eleven people had ever been in her apartment at the same time, at least since she’d been living there. “I don’t have much to offer you,” she said. “There’s no power or water. Everything in the fridge is spoiled.” She was embarrassed at her inability to play host to her colleagues.
But Owen dismissed her concerns. “I can take care of that when we get hungry. Right now we should discuss our options.”
“Far as I can tell, there’s only one option,” Absorbing Man said. “The contest is over. Doom won. I don’t care about the Avengers or the rest of ’em. I just wanna go home.”
Sitting next to him, Titania nodded. “Me, too.”
“I think that’s how everyone feels,” Volcana said. “But how? We must be a really long way from Colorado.”
Owen smiled. “If you want to go home, then go home we shall.”
“Oh, yeah?” Absorbing Man said. “How?”
“You’ll see,” Owen said. Volcana got a little tingle of anticipation. She could see a change in Owen since his encounter with Doom. He was so confident, so sure of himself. It was a little scary, but his power was also intoxicating.
Owen got up and opened the sliding glass door that led out onto the balcony. “If you want to see, gather ’round.”
FIFTY-THREE
DOOMBASE lay mostly shattered, but one section of living quarters remained intact, connected by a large monitor room with functioning equipment. Reed knew they’d been lucky, and now the heroes gathered to plan their next step. “I cannot tell where Doom went,” Xavier said. “Psionic searches yield no trace of his presence.”
“We’re at a bit of an impasse,” Reed said. “Doom has won the game but abandoned his allies. They’ve gone to ground, and need no longer concern us.”
“I don’t think so,” Hulk growled. “They ran and hid so they could plan a sneak attack on us. We ought to find them and take them down for good. That’s the only way to be sure.”
“Hulk, you’re getting really unpleasant to be around,” Wasp said.
“This is an unpleasant place. You want better company, go back to Fifth Avenue,” Hulk snarled.
The base shook, and Reed saw everyone in the room exchange uneasy glances. “I thought we were done with earthquakes,” Rogue said. “I mean, they were all from Doom and the Beyonder and Galactus fighting, right? So what’s happening now?”
Reed was running the monitors through a series of regional scans. “Incredible,” he said, displaying a particular view on one of the large screens for all to see.
“That’s Denver!” Spider-Woman said.
It was indeed the city of Denver, protected by a shining dome as it tore loose from Battleworld’s surface. “Bugging out,” Ben Grimm said.
“Molecule Man’s doing, no doubt,” Reed surmised.
“It’s a good thing he didn’t decide to turn his powers on us,” Cyclops said. “If he can do that, we wouldn’t have had much of a chance.”
“I have friends there,” Spider-Woman said. “That’s my home. Isn’t there anything we can do? Magneto? Can someone…?”
“No,” Magneto said. “If I tried, the conflict with Molecule Man’s exertions would destroy the city. Also, though I am loath to admit this, I doubt my ability to succeed. What we are seeing is extraordinary power put to even more extraordinary use.”
“You’re not the only one of us from Denver,” Captain America said. “Molecule Man’s new girlfriend is from Denver, right? That’s where Doom went to get subjects. So he’s probably headed home.”
The domed city rose into space and grew smaller and smaller, lingering in the screen’s view like a star as it reflected the light of Battleworld’s sun. Then even that small reflection vanished.
“Terrific,” Spider-Man said. “We should have hitched a ride.”
“I’ll remind you that Molecule Man just tried to kill us all,” Reed said mildly. “Also, how does he know where he’s going?”
“He’ll probably just fold up the universe so Colorado comes to him,” She-Hulk said. “I mean, if he can do this, is there anything he can’t do?”
“I’m smelling some serious defeatism around here,” Johnny Storm said. “Listen to us, all marveling at what everyone else can do. What about the things we can do?”
“And what’re those, exactly, Torch?” the Thing countered. “We’re just a bunch of pawns here, especially now that Doom’s gone and turned himself into some kind of god.”
“Speak for yourself,” Magneto said. “I am no one’s pawn.”
“Okay. Enough. Look, let’s get some rest before we start bickering. We’ll think better in the morning,” Captain America said. “I’m calling it a night.” He turned and left the room.
*
The rest of the group straggled back to their quarters, and over that part of Battleworld fell a night unbroken by stars—except for a single small spark that glided toward Doombase, flitting along the broken walls until it found one particular window and floated inside. As it crossed the windowsill, Colossus flew out a nearby hangar door astride an airbike. He passed near enough to it that he might have seen it if his attention were not entirely focused elsewhere, but the spark remained undetected until it alit on the forehead of the nearest sleeping sentient being.
FIFTY-FOUR
UNABLE to sleep, Julia Carpenter went for a walk. She wandered the base alone, trying to clear her head, but she kept replaying the image of Denver as it lifted away into space and disappeared. Her home, gone. Could Molecule Man get it back to Earth? Did Earth even still exist, or had the Beyonder destroyed it? By killing the Beyonder, Doom might have ensured that they were all going to be stuck on Battleworld forever. Who else could undo what the Beyonder had done?
Maybe Doom himself could, but Julia wasn’t counting on him to do the right thing. She worried at the problem, trying to see a way through it, but she kept ending up with the exact same conclusion: They were all going to die here on Battleworld.
That was what she was thinking when she literally bumped into the Hulk as she came around a corner. She bounced off him and spun around. “Hey, excuse you,” she said, but he gave no sign that he had noticed. He just kept walking down the hall the way she had just come. She’d been wandering long enough that she was no longer exactly sure where they were in the surviving portion of Doombase.
“Hulk, listen, I know you’re having trouble, but that’s no reason to be a jerk to everyone. We’re all in this together,” she said, drawing level with him. It was good to know that she wasn’t the only insomniac on the team, and they had to be puzzling at the same problem. “I keep thinking about all those poor people in Denver…”
She looked at his face and saw that his eyes were only half-open, his jaw slack. He looked…well, he looked like he was sleepwalking. “Hulk,” she said. “Wake up.”
He just kept walking. Julia didn’t like this at all. He could do a lot of damage if she just let him lumber around the base. She ran ahead and conjured up a psionic web across the breadth of the hallway in front of him. Hulk walked into it and pushed. Hard. She held it against him for as long as she could
, but he was too strong. Her concentration failed, and he pushed through as if it had never been there.
Julia grabbed his arm. “Hulk, come on! Wake up!”
Without looking at her, he palmed the side of her head and shoved her to the floor.
Something happened then. Had she lost consciousness? She wasn’t sure. But the next time Julia was in full possession of her senses, she was standing in Doom’s laboratory. Klaw was gone. A brilliant light suddenly blazed on the other side of the room and words appeared on the wall, seemingly carved by an invisible hand.
When she saw what they said, Julia started yelling.
FIFTY-FIVE
SCOTT was among the first to hear Spider-Woman’s voice and locate her in Doctor Doom’s laboratory deep in the heart of Doombase. It was one of the few areas that had not suffered catastrophic damage in the quakes.
The first thing he saw was Spider-Woman gaping up at the wall. The second was Spectrum, standing next to Julia and asking what on earth she was yelling about.
The rest of the heroes arrived in twos and threes, and a confused babble broke out as they all tried to sort out what had happened. “Spectrum!” Scott said. “The last time we saw you, Doom had frozen you in your light form.”
“He did?” she asked. “The way it seems to me, I was just listening in on him a minute ago, and the next thing I knew Julia was yelling her head off.” She paused, then waved her hands excitedly. “Doom has the Power Cosmic! He must have mastered Galactus’ power.”
“Old news,” Ben Grimm said. “You’ve kinda been out of it for a while.”