The Man with the Iron Mask
Tony Stark felt like his head was about to split, a dull pain seared in his skull and almost made him throw up. He fell to his knees and lifted his left hand to his temple. It was only when his metallic glove made contact with his mask that he realised that he was wearing his armour. Of course, I was in my lab… and then nothing, Tony thought and even this simple thought send spikes of pain through his brain. It almost feels like a hang-over… but I know that I haven't…
The Avenger's train of thought was interrupted when his eyes set on his glove… or rather a silver glove that did not belong to him but was nonetheless on his hand. Within seconds his headache receded and Tony looked up, the very sight before him confirmed his worst fears: A large emerald banner with a stylised D hung on the wall in front of him, there was no doubt – he was in Latveria, in Doctor Doom's throne room to be exact. Tony groaned, Doom – why does that guy even mess with me?
They had had a few encounters in the past and even briefly formed an alliance against Morgana Le Fey, but apart from that he had only met Doom on occasions like when he tried to kill the Avengers or to take over the world (not necessarily in that order). Why was he in Doom's castle, did the madman kidnap him for some experiments? Tony shuddered at the thought of it and ventured towards the huge windows, it was raining outside. But it was not the Latverian weather that interested the man, it was rather the dreadful reflection he was casting onto the windows: Tony saw Doom's armour and asked himself why the hell was he, Tony Stark aka Iron Man, wearing that armour?! Before he could muse on that matter he heard how the door behind him opened. Tony felt trapped, he hadn't had the time to figure out if the armour's weapons were functional or how to use them. But instead of an army of Doombots only a butler appeared, the man bowed deeply before addressing Tony.
"Lord Doom, the Red Skull has arrived."
The Avenger realised that he had to improvise since it seemed that at least the butler didn't know he wasn't talking to Doom. Right, time for my very first impression of Doom, shouldn't be too hard to copy his pompous babble. "Well, what are you waiting for, you old fool? Show him in!" Tony felt a pang of guilt immediately, damn, that was harsh.
The butler rose an eyebrow. "Are you alright, my lord? You seem… tense."
Tony was surprised that the man in front of him wasn't afraid and even dared to ask how he was doing. "Erm, yes, the Red Skull isn't exactly a welcome guest." Was that too hesitant? Surely Doom doesn't appreciate if his underlings question his mood. Strange…
"Of course, Lord Doom."
The man vanished and led the Red Skull into the throne room mere moments later. Tony felt a bit disgusted as soon as the saw the visage of Johann Schmidt. His skull-like red face made a strong contrast to his black clothes, of course he was wearing a long leather coat and jackboots. The butler denoted a bow and left.
"Doctor Doom, always a pleasure," said the Skull with a barely noticeable German accent. "Thank you for receiving me – after our last, ah, unfortunate encounter I was afraid that you would shoot me on sight."
Tony had no idea what incident the Skull was referring to and tried to cover that with a trademark Doom snarl: "That remains to be seen, Schmidt. Doom doesn't tolerate fools who are wasting his time!" Yes, that sounds about right, good thing that the mask is distorting my voice.
"I wouldn't be here if I weren't sure that you are interested in an alliance," continued the Skull and grinned in a creepy way.
Tony thought that it would add to his Doom-theatre if he turned around and clasped his hands behind his back – it's after all a classy super-villain pose! He gave his fellow villain his coldest stare and assumed the pose. "I'm listening, Schmidt."
"I offer you the opportunity to get rid of your enemies, once and for all," the Skull stepped next to Tony and exhaled, "ah, a beautiful view… it reminds me of Bavaria… but now back to business. I've recently acquired research data from South-African scientists; the Apartheid-regime was doing some research back in their time about biological weapons which would only target people with certain racial markers. Of course they lacked the scientific means to achieve their goal, but nowadays it's entirely possible."
Tony had never actually hated an opponent to the core of his being, not even Obadiah Stane, but the Red Skull was another story: he despised everything the Nazi stood for. He felt the urge to punch the Skull but realised that he had to play along, at least for now. I've to stop Schmidt before he can continue his crazy plans for genocide. "I… Doom can take care of his own enemies."
"Of course, Doctor, but consider this: where would the United States be without their, hm, subhumans? They are so degenerate that they even elected…"
"Spare me your speeches, Schmidt," interjected Tony before he could stop himself. "Doom is not interested in your political views, get to the point."
"The current viruses are designed to kill everybody except Aryans, but I could modify one strain to attack the X-Gene – imagine a world without those pesky mutants! The X-Men would be gone, as well as any other super-powered people who got their powers through enforced mutation."
Tony felt how his blood ran cold. "I doubt that you've got the necessary resources for this kind of enterprise, is that why you came to me?"
The Skull smiled yet again. "Keen as ever, Doctor, yes, although I've the research data I'm in dire need for a well-protected laboratory in a neutral country to finish the strain."
"I'm indeed interested in this particular project, I will accommodate you… but only if I can supervise the experiments." A perfect opportunity to play for time, in the meantime I should be able to contact the Avengers.
The Skull bowed, Tony was quite certain that it was meant in a mocking way. "Of course, you are the most accomplished scientist on earth, Doctor, your insights would be most useful." Wow, I bet Doom's and Schmidt's last fall-out had to do with his shoddy flattery! But on the other hand… Doom is probably irony-proof.
XXXXX
Victor von Doom had been quite certain that his day couldn't get any worse after he had had another bout with Merlin about the location of Excalibur, that wrinkled old crook had managed to defeat him with a rather slight magic spell – damn his eyes! But when Victor tried to teleport himself back to his castle (and to that undoubtedly aggravating meeting with the Red Skull) the wizard had somehow meddled with his magic and sent him instead to a rather unwelcome place: Avengers Tower, in the armour of Iron Man of all places! After the first irritation Victor realised that it was a golden opportunity to have a good look at Stark's tech and especially his armour. However, before he could study the specs of the newest Iron-Man-suit he was disturbed by Captain America. The blonde man entered without knocking and almost drew a curse from 'Iron Man'.
Calm down, V, this is not the place nor the time for a philippic, he took a deep breath and tried his best to impersonate Stark: "Hey, hm, pal – how's it hanging?" Rogers gave him a strange look, perhaps I should try a less colloquial tone?
"Have you been up all night with Reed? You're always a little distraught after pulling an all-nighter, working on your science-projects."
RICHARDS! Victor forced himself to answer in an even voice. "Yes, you know me all too well… Steve."
"Listen, I don't care what you do with Reed, but we have a meeting that started five minutes ago – move it!" Although the words seemed harsh Victor couldn't help registering that the Captain spoke with a certain fondness to him.
Victor followed Rogers into the conference room, the rest of the Avengers – Captain Marvel, Wasp and Hawkeye were already waiting for them. He nodded towards his 'teammates' and turned his attention to Captain America who was debriefing them on a past super-villain-crisis. But suddenly a blaring alarm went off and Spider-Man appeared on the large computer screen in the middle of the room.
"Morning, guys… ahem, could you help me out? Apparently the Green Goblin has teamed up with several B-Grade villains to finally kill me and while I keep dodging Paste Pot Pete's glue and Sandman's attacks I'm afraid that an innocent bystander might get hurt."
"Lure them into Central Park, Peter – we will be there shortly!" said Rogers and the Avengers sprang into action and ran to the Quinjet. Victor followed them, desperately trying to get the armour to work. Drat! I can't abstain – let's wrap this up quickly!
Luckily Victor managed to load the armour's specs during the flight and was able to operate the suit in an acceptable manner. I have to hand it to Stark – his design is elegant. And the way the solved the problem with the pushback of the repulsors is quite interesting, almost a pity that I can never tell him that.
They landed in the middle of the park and split up to find the villains as well as to make certain that no civilians were in danger. Victor felt that is was beneath him to do crowd control, but at the same time he was rather keen to explore more of Stark's designs… and actually using the suit would provide interesting insights. As he flew over Central Park he suddenly spotted the Green Goblin who was throwing a jack-o'lantern-bomb at Spider-Man who dodged the explosion with almost unbelievable skill. Victor made a mental note to himself to study Spider-Man's exceptional skills at some point. He aimed one of his repulsors at the Goblin but before he could take out Norman Osborn an enormous force simply punched him out of the sky, Victor was disorientated for a few seconds before he realised that he had just been hit by the Sandman's enlarged fist. Well, that's embarrassing – let's hope that nobody will ever learn that Doctor Doom has just been manhandled by an also-ran! Stark's proximity warning must be off-line… but now it's fixed. Victor saw that the Sandman rushing towards him, ready to deal the finishing blow. Victor sighted and simply used his heat-beam to melt the sand into glass and trapped the attacker in a solid form. At the same time he knocked Paste Pot Pete unconscious with a well-placed repulsor-blast from his left gauntlet.
He activated his boosters and rose into the air – he spotted the Green Goblin mere moments later, he was obviously looking for Spider Man, and Victor decided that he would end this farce now! But before Doom could take a shot the Goblin spun his glider around to face him:
"Ohhh, the great Iron Man! I'm shaking in my boots! Let's see what I've got in my little baggie for you…" The Goblin laughed shrilly and pulled several smaller bombs from his bag. "Catch!"
Victor almost snorted at the words of that lunatic, indeed, a few bombs would not even make a dent into Stark's armour, what a half-witted…then he realised that the Goblin hadn't aimed for him but rather a family that had desperately tried to run away from the fight. He reacted rather quickly and blasted the bombs in mid-air, only to discover that they were not only carrying low-yield explosives but also greenish gas. Not bad, any hero would be distracted by the gas – it will most likely kill the civilians, and for a fraction of a second he mused whether he should simply blast the Goblin and ignore the collateral damage, but he discarded the notion, bah, Doom can achieve both objectives. He flew towards the civilians and grabbed the parents and their child and flew them to security, away from the possibly deadly gas. Victor threw them roughly on the ground and returned to the Goblin, but in his absence Spider-Man had already defeated him – the villain was wrapped up in web and lay unconscious on the ground.
"Thanks for the assist, Tin Man!"
"You're welcome… Bug Boy." I really have to work on my witty remarks. A propos witty remarks, I wonder what Stark is up to?