Chapter 7: Doom and the Dark Knight

The Justice League and the Avengers headed toward Latveria after a few hours of debating on the plan. In the end, it was agreed that they would wait to strike as soon as Doctor Doom's plan was exposed, and so they were on their way. Once they arrived in the Eastern European nation, Superman took the liberty to forge a cave in the mountains where the heroes could wait for Batman to bring them the necessary information. To Hawkeye and Green Lantern, it seemed pointless to wait, but Lantern admitted that they needed to know what they were dealing with before striking.

Meanwhile, Batman had successfully made it into the capital city of Doomstadt. As he made his way toward Doctor Doom's castle dwelling, the Dark Knight mused on how shockingly comparable this Doctor Doom was to Lex Luthor. He was everything that Superman despised about Luthor: so arrogant that his country's capital was named for himself, enforcing martial law on his people even though they were not enslaved, using a puppet parliament to shield his true criminal colors from the rest of the world. It clearly spoke of a man who believed that he was entitled to ruling the world as if humanity needed to be subjugated.

Scoundrels like this are the worst of all criminals, mused the Dark Knight. At least they won't always run from the law.

Batman eventually made it to the peak where Doctor Doom's castle stood. He hacked every security camera at the front entrance and used his Bat-grapple to scale the wall. Then he vanished into the shadows and crept along, keeping well out of the sight of the armed guards. The Dark Knight quickly studied the area around him to learn the severity of this threat. The guards of the fortress wore protective suits that were armor-plated, and they all had laser rifles and hand blasters. The courtyard of the castle alone was also guarded by robot soldiers, and they looked as though they could give Batman himself a run for his money. There were men unloading deadly weapons from vans sporting a weird insignia resembling a skull with octopus tentacles, and there appeared to be parts for a much bigger device being unloaded from other vans.

"Time to observe the matter from the inside," said Batman to himself.

So saying, he used his Bat-grapple to swing up to the wall of the keep and then climbed onto the roof. Before any guard could see him, the Dark Knight found a hatch on one of the parapets and leapt into it. Once inside the castle, he hacked the motion sensors and infra-red cameras and then set the monitors on continuous loops. He decided to search in the castle laboratory first, and his search did provide some information. The lab computers indicated that Doctor Doom's latest plan for world domination would consist of a three-pronged attack, and the first prong was right here. His scientists had been experimenting with human cells, apparently infusing them with gamma radiation in an attempt to develop an army of super-soldiers with the Hulk's level of power.

"Batman to Captain America," he whispered into his comlink. "Our first course of countering Doctor Doom's plan will be his chemical plants. We have to prevent him from completing his new super-soldier project or there may not be enough strength among the world's militaries or even the Avengers to stop this threat. I'll download the data and then erase it from the computer here after I send it to you."

With that, he transmitted the data to the Avengers and his friends in the Justice League. He then deleted all the files in the chemical lab and took care to send a virus that would activate at every chemical plant conducting this dangerously unethical experiment. Upon checking a storage room, Batman discovered that Doctor Doom was also building new super-powerful missiles for his military to use against nations in and out of the European Union to coerce the governments of target nations to surrender before releasing his gamma-infused super-soldiers against them.

This lunatic would get along with Luthor quite well, I bet, Batman thought sourly. He contacted the Justice League and the Avengers once more and said, "We're also going to send some more of our forces against Doom's weapons factories and stop shipments of his new super-missiles from being positioned against any other countries. I'm also detecting multiple facilities producing mechanical replicas of Doctor Doom. If he uses them, they'll act as decoys to lure us away from catching the real villain. We have to take them all down."

He used a portable hacking device to reprogram the security cameras in the storage chambers to transmit the information to the other heroes, and after he shut them down again, Batman could search for the primary component of Doctor Doom's plan. He kept to the shadows and avoided contact with the guards as he worked his way to the upper levels. After a few minutes, Batman reached the main floor of the keep; Doctor Doom's throne room and the control center for his criminal operations.

What Batman saw here was as stunning as it was harrowing. A cannon-sized device resembling a particle accelerator mounted on a metal pedestal like some futuristic super-weapon was built there, and it was clearly wired to follow instructions from the various computer consoles now set up in this chamber. Batman walked to the mainframe computer and hacked this system as well. As he suspected, the machine was a particle-acceleration weapon designed to generate black holes, and it was modeled after what appeared to be an interdimensional portal device, which Batman correctly guessed was what had allowed the Avengers to be sent to the Earth where the Justice League resided.

"I don't know which is worse: the fact that this Doctor Doom is another megalomaniac, or the fact that he thinks he can handle this kind of power," Batman frowned.

A cold, vain voice from behind said, "Nothing under Heaven is beyond my right to claim."

Batman turned sharply as a pair of mechanical cuffs on retractable cables shot from the wall and enclosed around his hands from his wrists to his fingertips. Another pair of cuffs enclosed around his ankles, thus preventing him from escaping. Batman looked up to a catwalk and saw an armor-clad figure whose only accouterments were a green, hooded cape held in place by a brooch and a metallic mask that hid his face from view.

Batman was unfazed, and he said, "So you are Doctor Doom."

The armored tyrant replied with a smirk of cruel arrogance under his mask, "Yes. You look upon Victor von Doom, sole dictator of Latveria and soon to be the only ruler of the world. And you are…?"

Just like a tyrant to boast, grumbled Batman in his mind. Then he answered, "You may address me as Batman. And as for your gloat, you have a long way to go before that."

"I beg to differ, hero," smirked Doctor Doom. He gestured outward, revealing several guards armed with laser rifles. Batman registered the threat and waited for them to make the first move.

"I would prefer you to surrender, but you and the rest of your meddling heroes clearly do not know when you cannot win," Doom boasted. "Either way, I cannot allow you to interfere with my plans."

Batman scoffed mentally at the words of this villain and answered, "What you allow doesn't concern me. If you were really intelligent, you would know that no man has the right to steal freedom from another."

Doctor Doom scowled under his mask and replied, "My rule is necessary for all people, hero. A pity you won't be able to see it." He turned to his guards and said, "Kill him and be done with it."

With that, the guards primed their laser weapons and prepared to fire. However, Batman soon discovered that the cables for the cuffs could be stretched until they snapped back to prevent prisoners from escaping. As the first guard fired a beam of deadly energy, Batman's lightning-quick reflexes allowed him to sidestep the ray. Doctor Doom's guards continually fired on him, but every laser missed. When the next guard on Batman's right fired, the Dark Knight tried to put his encased hand in the way of the beam. In a blaze of red sparks, the cuff was blown apart, releasing Batman's right hand. In a flash, the dark-clad hero rendered the cuffs on his legs open with a Batarang and then freed his other hand, and then he used his Bat-grapple to get out of the keep.

Doctor Doom could hardly believe his eyes. No Avenger had escaped his entrapments with such ease. Not even Captain America. He turned to his dumbfounded guards and roared, "Stop him, you fools!"

Doom's guards hastily sounded the alarm and then tripped over themselves trying to leave the chamber, not simply to carry out Doctor Doom's orders, but to get away from the wrath of their leader. Meanwhile, Batman leapt from the roof of the keep and somersaulted to the next level of ground below it. He had gotten all he needed, and now it was time to execute the plan. But first, he had to deal with Doctor Doom's multitude of armed guards.

The goons were all attempting to use lethal force, but they were not prepared to deal with Batman's ingenuity. He used his cape as well as reflective Batarangs to repel laser fire from Doom's sinister agents and he easily disarmed those guards who were armed with hand-to-hand combat weapons. He punched, kicked, chopped, and used uppercuts at every weak spot he saw and used pressure point attacks on several of his opponents, and he reserved his Batarangs, grapples, and smoke bombs for distracting his opponents.

In only a few minutes, Batman made it to the gate through which he had entered- only to find hundreds of guards there and Doctor Doom himself. However, Batman used an X-ray analyzing device and found that the Doctor Doom before was one of the villain's Doom-Bot imposters.

"I don't have time for this," the Dark Knight frowned. With that, he used his Bat-grappling hook to get airborne, and the Doom-Bot went after him. But to the surprise of the guards, Batman only swung around and attached a mini-electromagnet to the robot's metallic body, and it shorted out instantly. Using another smokescreen distraction, Batman swung his way out of Doctor Doom's fortress and then escaped into the woods.

"Batman to Justice League and Avengers. I have successfully discovered Doctor Doom's newest plan for world domination. I'm sending you a signal now. Track my GPS and we'll rendezvous ASAP."


A/N: Here you go, everyone. Chapter 7 is up with Doctor Doom meeting the first Justice League member to penetrate his seemingly impenetrable castle fortress. When Chapter 8 comes, the real fun begins! Enjoy!