by Alex Irvine
She felt Battleworld receding around her and sensed Asgard’s distant call. The Lizard’s animalistic life force spurred her forth, and she reached out; home was within her grasp.
SIXTY
DOOM started and sat upright. “Klaw!” he called out. Klaw ran to him.
“I nearly fell asleep, Klaw,” Doom said. “You must not let me fall asleep. If I sleep, I may lose control over my powers. If my subconscious mind were to take over, all reality might come to reflect the nature of my dreams…and would the universe survive that?”
“You might even accidentally revive the heroes,” Klaw said. Oddly, he spoke without the rhyming echoes and repetitions that had characterized his speech since Doom had reconstituted him on the Galactus’ World-Ship. “That could happen, right? If you let slip your grasp on your power, ower ower?”
“It is not beyond my power,” Doom mused. “Speak no more of it. I knew of their dissent, and I swatted them down before they could deign to approach. They are dead.”
“Until you bring them back, if you didn’t already.”
“You speak as if you wish to provoke me to annihilate you as well, Klaw,” Doom said.
“Oh, no no no, I’m just thinking.”
“I am in total control of the power, Klaw,” Doom said. “I know what I have done…and whom I have undone.”
“Well, sure, you bet, but there’s another way they might live,” Klaw said.
“You are a poor jester, if that is what you are attempting,” Doom said.
“Oh, but Doom! The jester is a memento mori! Mori, death, mortality! The king who dies, the death that doesn’t die, the last breath that comes to all, the final fall…”
“Enough! What is this other way? What do you imagine that Doom has not already considered?”
“Who can bring someone back to life?” Klaw asked. “You!”
“But I shall not.”
“The healer woman! From the village! Oh, she sees the solemn column of fire higher in the sky than the clouds. She runs—or flies! Yes! On the back of a dragon!—to the ruins, where she sees the dead and wishes to die herself…almost. Almost. Most of the heroes are ashes and pieces, but not Colossus. He’s steel, so there’s more of him left. Steel’s easier to heal when you’ve got the feel, and she’s got the feel for Colossus. It’s a love story! She gives up her life to bring him back! He’s crying but alive, and he knows what to do! He finds Reed Richards, whose plastic elastic body doesn’t shred so he’s not quite as dead as the rest of them. There’s medical gear. Colossus bestrides it! He puts Richards inside it…that’s two alive! How long until the rest rejoin them, Doom? That’s how it could be done!”
“Madness,” Doom said. “Impossible.”
“Nothing’s impossible for Doom!” Klaw cried out. “Maybe they’re on their way here to bend your ear about how you put the fear into them! You think?” “No!”
“Maybe that’s what you wanted, Doom! You don’t want to be alone! You need them! Maybe you helped them along!”
“I say enough of this fantasy!” Doom thundered. “You tell stories, Klaw, but what you forget is that I am in control of my powers. Nothing happens if I do not wish it!”
He could feel his confidence eroding even as his voice grew louder. Why had he not disintegrated Klaw—or at least robbed him of his ability to speak? He needed Klaw, yes, to keep him awake—but not at this cost. Not if Klaw was going to mock him, openly defy him—
“If you really wanted them dead, why all the fireworks?” Klaw taunted. “Why not atomize them? Why not just erase that part of Battleworld like it never was? You had to go with the big kaboom, but who was that show for, Doom? The only one watching was you— who knew!—and Zsaji—the only other person on Battleworld who could do something about it! You tell me, but that sounds like a guy who didn’t really want his enemies dead.”
“They are dead surely enough. I could reach out and know.”
“Then do it. Fire up the old omniscience! Go ahead!”
“I see your trick, Klaw. You wish me to use the power, knowing that to use the power might mean that your vision becomes a reality! But I will not permit this. They are dead. I will not be fooled into turning my powers to your bidding.” Yet Doom knew he had to release the power sooner or later, to refresh himself lest he drift into sleep and inadvertently bring Klaw’s story to life. All it would take was a moment of doubt. How many times had Doom been certain Reed Richards was dead?
“No,” he growled. “You will not undermine me. I am more intelligent than you by far, and I have already anticipated every development you could imagine. Think you that you surprise me with your little fable? Quite the contrary. All things are possible in this life…but only until I deny them possibility. And I have done that. Reed Richards is dead! The other heroes are dead!”
Klaw shrugged, with a small half-smile on his face—and at that moment Thor’s hammer blasted through the tower’s wall. Rocks smashed into the floor as it arced through the room. It made a full circle as Doom stood shocked.
“It…it happened! Did I do this, Klaw?”
“Hey, could be. You got a power leak, maybe. It’s…hey, Doom, your power is kind of…it’s running amok there! You better control it!” Doom felt that this was true, that he had begun to destabilize the structure of Battleworld—and all the billions of suns that had blinked back into existence without him knowing it. He was sunk so far inside his mind in an effort to contain the power that every interaction with the sensory universe threatened to unleash it.
Doom struggled to calm his thoughts, regulate his wild emotions. Slowly, he got the power under control. “Klaw…I very nearly destroyed this reality,” Doom said. “Maintaining a hold…it is more difficult than I had anticipated.”
“Hey, I can help, you bet. Drain a little of that power into me, and we’ll both be happier,” Klaw said. “Here.” He reached out a hand. Something was glittering within his eyes, as if some of Doom’s energy had spilled into his body already and lingered there. “I’m serious. You go and relax, get yourself together. I’ll destroy the heroes for you!”
Doom touched Klaw’s fingertip with his own, consciously in the style of Michelangelo. “Yes, Klaw. Go and remove this threat. Whether I created it or it happened as you suggested, they must be—”
“More!” Klaw shouted. “More!”
Doom pulled back. “Any more, and your solid-sound body would merge into another part of the electromagnetic spectrum. I wonder what melted sound looks like…yet I would prefer to find out when I might have more time to explore the result. Go, Klaw. I must compose myself and contain this power. Do as you have promised.”
“Oh, I will,” Klaw said.
SIXTY-ONE
THEY had opted for the direct approach. As Mjolnir returned to Thor’s outstretched hand, Steve Rogers could tell they’d gotten a reaction out of Doom. From within the tower, a brilliant radiance grew, spilling through windows from the ground level all the way up to where the tower’s walls were lost in the clouds above. “He knows we’re here,” Steve said.
“Thanks to Zsaji,” Colossus said. His face was set in an expression of vengeful fury completely unlike his usual demeanor. He’d fallen hard for the alien woman, Steve knew, and her death was hitting him equally hard. Colossus was notoriously slow to anger, but Zsaji’s sacrifice had gotten him there. Whatever Doom sent out to greet them, Colossus was going to meet it with angry steel—and Wasp would join him with every jolt of bioelectricity she could muster. She, too, was suffering over the death of the woman who had saved her life twice now.
“Gang, the ol’ spidey-sense is going into overdrive,” Spider-Man said. They were approaching the hole Mjolnir had broken through the wall. Just below it, another crevice was visible in the foundation, looking tiny against the mass of the tower though the crack stood twenty feet high.
Something moved inside, and Steve raised his shield over his head. It was broken, a jagged wedge blasted out of its perfect circle by the blast
from Doom that had killed them all—but he could still fight with it. “Keep going!” Steve called out. “Whatever comes out, hit it fast and hit it hard!”
What came out was a creature unlike any they had ever seen. It squeezed through the crevice and then grew to five times its initial size. The organism was vaguely humanoid, though it moved on four legs. A flat coat of red fur covered thickly muscled limbs that ended in fingernails each the size of Ben Grimm. Its mouth was jammed with blunt teeth and large enough to swallow any of them whole. Three eyes glared at the heroes. “Where the hell did that thing come from?” Ben wondered aloud.
It sure doesn’t look like a natural animal, Steve thought. It’s the kind of thing a mad scientist might cook up in a bad dream. “Just hit it!” Steve called out again.
Beyond it, Ulysses Klaw appeared in the crevice at the tower’s base. “An army of creatures is mine to command, but first…” He pointed the sonic projector that had replaced his right hand, and Ultron appeared. “There! Ultron, you are a bodyguard no more! Now you have your own army…at least as soon as I create them!”
“Ultron needs no army,” the robot said—but Klaw created one anyway, a motley horde of strange, animalistic creatures blinking into existence one after another. Some flew, some walked—all saw the heroes and moved in for the kill.
The heroes swung into action. Steve slowed the advance of a lumbering green monstrosity with a blow of his shield. It flew differently with the missing piece, and he had to run to recover it. Cyclops’ optic blast pierced a flying frog-like creature and dropped it squealing to the ground. Rogue shot through the space it had vacated and smashed another beast, all mouth and wings, into the tower wall. The Human Torch, Thor, Wasp, Storm, and Spectrum also battled the aerial threats, one of which was a robotic creature that Steve thought looked like what Ultron would be if he had been created by dragons instead of people.
On the ground, Colossus broke out of the grasp of a green monster trying to stuff him into its mouth. He climbed onto its head and pounded until it toppled, nearly catching Wasp, who zipped in and out of the battle dealing disabling shocks to the smaller creatures.
The Thing, grappling with a wiry blue creature that sprang on him from one side, abruptly began to change back to Ben Grimm. “No!” he cried out. “This ain’t happenin’! I won’t let it!”
And astonishingly, he hardened back into the Thing, shrugging off the creature as She-Hulk got close enough to finish it.
“You reversed the change, Ben!” she said. “I didn’t think you could do that.”
“It’s Battleworld, Jen. Look at me!” the Thing said, spreading his rocky hands with delight. “I can control it! Oh yeah, this is the best thing since kick the can!”
He charged back into the fray, dragging a giant dragonfly-like monster down to earth. He and She-Hulk beat it until it was still.
The Hulk was the first to reach Ultron, hammering the robot to the ground with a punch that should have scattered his parts across the broken landscape. But Ultron got up and returned the favor with an energy blast that hit Hulk in the calf. “Aaarrrgh, my leg!” Hulk roared, falling to the ground.
Spider-Woman, Wolverine, and Iron Man were there to help, blocking Ultron from getting close enough to inflict any more damage. Still, Ultron’s searing energy rays crackled across Rhodey’s armor. “Don’t let him touch you!” Wasp warned.
Steve couldn’t see where she was—but an ear-splitting electronic shriek cut through the battlefield tumult a moment later, and Ultron dropped limp to the ground. The Wasp appeared, returning to her normal size. “All it takes is one loose wire and the right kind of charge applied from the inside,” she said. “Thanks, Hulk! You opened up a little chink in the armor I could get through.”
Hulk was badly hurt. Steve had never seen him in that kind of pain—or in any pain, as far as he could remember. He groaned and tried to get up, but his leg wouldn’t take any weight.
From the crevice, Klaw kept spawning monsters, faster than the heroes could take them out. Steve knew they were going to lose if he couldn’t get inside the tower. He broke off from the fight and sprinted toward Klaw, who saw him coming. Cap ducked under a giant, green creature the size of the Hulk, but hairier, that had been sent flying through the combined efforts of Reed, Hawkeye, and Magneto.
“Captain America! You cannot pass me! I have power beyond your imagining. Klaw the Mighty! Klaw the Unbeata—oof!”
Klaw had kept talking while Steve got close enough to spring into a feet-first lunge that dropped him mid-boast. Too easy, Steve thought as he landed, rolled, and kept running. But everything else has been too hard so far. Maybe it all balanced out sooner or later.
SIXTY-TWO
XAVIER observed the battle, frustrated by his inability to do anything more because of the overspill of psionic energy from Doom’s tower. He experienced passing moments of sensation from all the members of the team. After Captain America disappeared inside—and Klaw followed shortly thereafter—he began to experience multiple simultaneous realities, as if the infinite possibilities of any moment were all achieving something like equivalent existence. They appeared and disappeared faster than he could track or understand them.
Spider-Man grappled with and subdued a demonic orange creature with hooked claws that could not penetrate his new suit— but he also hung limp and bloody from that same creature’s claws. Johnny Storm incinerated a thing like a walking shadow—but it also took in his fire and used its black energy to drain Johnny’s life, leaving his body to fall like a dying ember to earth. Nightcrawler flashed in and out of existence, striking too fast for Klaw’s monstrous creations to react—but Nightcrawler also lay dead, his body torn by the brutal fangs of one of those creations that anticipated where he would next appear. So, too, for all the heroes: a multiplicity of potential fates.
Xavier focused every mote of his psionic power and devoted it to holding reality steady. This reality, the one he knew himself to inhabit. He forced himself to think of reality as a single time stream—his time stream, from which all others were offshoots—and this he sought to preserve. He fought a mortal silent battle against the essence of Battleworld itself—carving away the millions of potential moments struggling to become real, the millions of momentary desires that Battleworld had the power to grant. He realized that Captain America was inside the tower pitted in a similar struggle against Doom, and that Doom himself was one source of this fragmentation of reality— but not the only source.
Klaw, thought Xavier—and in that moment he understood.
SIXTY-THREE
CAPTAIN AMERICA found Doom in the same place he’d been before, as if he had not moved. “Ah,” Doom said. “You of all my adversaries would be the one to survive this far.”
“It’s something I’m pretty good at,” Steve said.
Doom chuckled. “Indeed. ‘Pretty good.’ You charm me, Captain Rogers…but you are a mortal, facing down the powers of the infinite universe.”
“I don’t think so. I think I’m facing down a guy who bit off a hell of a lot more than he could chew…and he’s scared to death of it.”
“Scared?” Doom stood. “Do I look frightened to you?”
“It’s not about how you look. It’s about what you’re doing. We’re all still alive. If you’re omnipotent and you want us dead, why are we still breathing, Doom? If you weren’t scared, you wouldn’t have tried to kill us—and you damn sure wouldn’t have failed.”
“Enough! You will see what failure looks like,” Doom said. “I bring to bear the raw power of infinity, and you? You die, Avenger.”
There was a flash of light.
Steve Rogers found Doom exactly where he’d left him—a moment before? Seemed like it must have been longer than that. “No!” Doom cried out when he saw Steve. “You must die, and stay dead!”
There was a flash of light.
Steve Rogers found Doom exactly where he’d left him—only terrified, as if Steve had walked out of his worst nightmar
e. “This is it, Doom!” Steve charged, broken shield at the ready and his other hand balled into a fist.
“No!” Doom shouted—and he dropped into a heap, cowering at Steve’s feet. The trappings of the tower disappeared around them, and they stood alone in a void. Steve suddenly realized this fight wasn’t between him and Doom. It was much bigger.
“Listen!” Steve said. “You’re losing touch with reality! If you don’t control this, everything’s going to be destroyed! You can’t handle this power on your own. You need an anchor.” He reached out a hand. “Let me help you!”
Doom raised his head, and Steve saw abject terror on his face. The energies he contained were bleeding out of him, breaking free of the mortal vessel that could never have held them in check for long. The flow of energy began to coalesce above Doom’s head, and Steve saw another tendril of power reach out and touch the concentrated essence. His physical surroundings began to reappear. Steve looked over, tracing the new line of power, and saw it breaking its connection to Ulysses Klaw.
“Doom!” Klaw said. “The Beyonder, he did this to make you miss, to think wrong instead of strong, he used my guile all the while, I’ll— Doom, I’m sorry!”
The glowing orb of the Beyonder’s essence hovered above them, and Steve realized that the Beyonder had never been dead. He’d been weakened, maybe, and deprived of physical existence—but Battleworld was a piece of the Beyonder’s will. As long as it existed, how could the Beyonder die?
Doom’s body rose from the floor. “No no no,” Klaw babbled, rushing toward Doom as the Beyonder’s energy field enveloped them both. Steve stumbled back, trying to stay clear. “Master, master, I will not leave youuuuu—”
Without a sound, the light winked out. Doom and Klaw were gone. Steve Rogers stood alone in the Tower of Doom. He looked down at himself, making sure he was still real.