TMNTxMCU: Two Worlds Collide

by The-Man-in-Blue

A group of Marvel's biggest villains approach Shredder with a plan for world domination and the destruction of all who stand in their way. Universes: MCU (events/relationships altered slightly) and TMNT 2012 series (events altered slightly)

40. Avengers Assemble! Part 5

Chapter 40: Avengers Assemble! Part 5

Doom lowered down from the sky, energy crackling in his arms, purple lightning flashing all around him as the magic in his power gave him a violet glow from head to toe. Gone was his normal green vestige; in its place were robes white as snow, the white hood on his cape pulled up over a golden face mask. His belt was also golden, as were his cape clasps and traces of gold plating ran through his shiny metal armor. His new suit made his descent look almost angelic, but the power at his behest made it appear as those an ancient demon had arrived to destroy the Earth. His voice seemed to fill the air molecules, reverberating inside their skulls as he spoke with more power than mortal men could handle. "Don't be afraid, children. Victor von Doom is here. And I am going to take care of everything."

"Doom!" called Phil Coulson, stepping forward through the crowd of heroes until he was at the front. "As Director of S.H.I.E.L.D. I am placing you under arrest for crimes against mankind."

Doom set his feet on the ground as his descent ended, his eyes glaring daggers at Coulson from behind his mask. "I do not recognize your authority."

"And do you recognize your own crimes, Doom?" asked Shuri, with barely contained fury in his voice. "Can you count the numberless dead who have perished for your dreams? Can you tally the harm you have done to those you hate and those you love? You are a monster, Doom."

"My history is no different that Wakanda's," came Doom's reply. "I know what your people have done to survive, Princess. You speak of damage? Of death? What are they to kings and gods? They are the ephemeral by-products of destiny."

"Destiny?!" T'Challa and M'Baku had to step forward and stop Shuri from lunging at Doom. "Do you dare compare your endless schemes to battles fought to defend a nation?" the Wakandan regent yelled, struggling against the other two heroes who were holding her back.

"Your Highness, please!" M'Baku said, fighting against Shuri's efforts.

"Yes," Doom said simply, answering the question. "My methods are a means to an end, no different than pruning weeds in order to let an orchid flourish," Doom said. "Those who stand in the way of my vision oppose me because they fear me, but more than that they fear what I represent."

"Death and destruction?" asked Mister Fantastic. "Conquering?"

"Change," said Doom. "I despise the Avengers and the Fantastic Four because never once have they reined in their own self-righteous arrogance long enough to try and see what I see. Never once have they, or you, or any others asked me: why?" He stared at Leonardo, standing in the crowd of heroes. "Do you want to know?"

"Not really," Iron Man said. "But you've got this speech rehearsed, so you might as well tell us."

"Love," Doom said. "Measure my crimes against what mankind does to itself, and I am a saint. Racism. Plague. Starvation. Slavery. And wars upon wars. Homo sapiens are predators. It's what brought us down from the trees, and it's what will ultimately reduce us to a historical footnote in cosmic history."

He turned away, walking towards the window as he continued. "I am more than a scientist, more than the power-hungry despot that you heroes have painted me as. I am a sorcerer. I have looked into the future, I have seen how one violent action after another spins the world toward a future where all that remains of Earth is a burned out cinder. Every time I have looked into the future, that is what I have seen. Every time but one."

Doom spun his hands, and a large purple portal appeared in the air between them. Inside the portal Leo could see what looked like a futuristic civilization on the Earth. People lined up outside to receive vaccines, administered in a neat and orderly fashion by medical experts using some kind of syringe gun. Figures dressed in space suits loaded up rocket ships bound for Earth's orbit with supplies for refugee planets.

"In one possible future mankind becomes united," said Doom "Cures for all diseases are found. Global conflict ends. Hunger is abolished, education is universal, and no one goes without."

The picture abruptly changed to show a man cornering a woman in an alley, pushing her against the wall as he groped for the pearl necklace around her neck. Out of nowhere a Doombot appeared and put a hole in the man's chest with an arm laser cannon. "In that world, there are laws," Doom went on. "To break even the slightest of these is to suffer immediate and terminal punishment. After a while, no one would dare lay hands upon the innocent, or commit a crime of hate, or steal bread from the table of another. Ten thousand futures have I looked at. A hundred thousand. And in only one does mankind finally unite, and flourish, and survive."

The picture shifted yet again, showing Doom seated on a throne, wearing a fur-necked cape and holding some kind of chalice, flanked by an army of elite Doombots.

"And that future," Doom said, pausing for dramatic effect, "is Doomworld."

The heroes' heads were whirling with what Doom had said. It was Vision who spoke first. "You would slaughter millions?" the android asked. "You'd rewrite history? Wreck nations, let yourself be called a tyrant and murderer, all to satisfy your dream of one world under you?"

"I would," Doom said, answering without hesitation. "Because I know that this is the only path to salvation for all mankind. Everything I have ever done—my plots and plans and what some might call twisted excesses—all serve this one goal. You may disagree with my methods. But you cannot argue with my intent. Nor can you argue against the necessity of this singular future. A future in which the citizens of the world will lack for nothing. They shall have everything they need, everything they desire—"

"Except their freedom." It was Captain America's turn to step forward, staring at Doom with his jaw clenched. "A benevolent dictator is still a dictator. I don't know what makes you think we'll trust you, but even if your intentions are noble, the nations of the world won't just accept you as their ruler."

Doom chuckled. "Once I've proven myself, they will choose me."

"And what makes you think we will?" asked Wolverine, growling.

"You come here with your arms wide open, talking peace while the sky bleeds red," Black Panther added.

Doom regarded Wolverine and Black Panther with almost an air of sadness, as if regretfully disciplining petulant childs. "The Avengers, the X-Men, Wakanda—none of you pose a threat," he said. "You have already shown that, left to your own devices, you will destroy yourselves and each other. The Sokovia Accords, Killmonger's coup, and the X-Men's … adventures with the Dark Phoenix should be ample enough evidence of that."

Jean Grey abruptly turned away at the mention of the Dark Phoenix.

"Many of you other heroes, however," said Doom, "have shown nothing but bravery and loyalty to each other and to the betterment of humanity." His gaze travelled across the crowd of heroes, looking pointedly from Spider-Man, to Ant-Man and Wasp, before settling on the ninja turtles and their friends. "It is my hope that you will join me," said Doom. "And we can become a family. A force for the improvement of this Earth and all the other Earths we may encounter."

The heroes erupted in a hubbub of argument and disagreement with Doom's words, but Leo was hardly paying attention. Something Doom had said rang eerily similar to the words Thanos had told him, what felt like a lifetime ago, millions of light-years away. The Mad Titan's words crept back into his head: "Leonardo, all that you have been through and you still have not figured it out for yourself. That life is a cancer. All life is capable of is destruction and then unavoidable death. It gives, it tortures, and then takes itself away. This life punishes you at every turn. It has betrayed you since your mutation. The Earth is doomed to subjugation and annihilation."

"Leo?" asked Mikey, noticing his brother's paling complexion. "You okay, bro?"

"Those selfish, immature animals on that mudslide home planet of yours may have ruined the entire galaxy, but they have surely doomed themselves."

"Leo!" Donnie grabbed his brother's shoulders and shook him. "Snap out of it!"

Startled, Leo blinked rapidly, trying to clear his head. Could Doom be right? Could this be the only escape for humanity? Their only way to avoid the dread that Thanos had told him about?

"No one would care if Galactus himself ate that entire planet whole."

Nick Fury was addressing Doom directly. "People died during your conquest, Doom," he reminded them. "Hundreds of heroes died, and hundreds more died trying to save them. So what are we supposed to do? Embrace you and say, 'It's okay. I know you didn't mean it. You can lead the Avengers, and we'll just pretend you didn't murder people and destroy millions of lives'? Is that what we're supposed to do?"

"Yes," Doom said, with a maddening shrug. "After all, Stark had killed untold thousands with the weapons his company manufactured, and you made him an Avenger. Miss Romanoff is the Black Widow, queen of the Red Room—and a murderer. Mister Barnes was a terrorist for HYDRA. The Guardians of the Galaxy have a rap sheet so long it would take an entire book to list their crimes. And Wolverine, Ant-Man, Blade, and the Punisher all started out on the wrong side of the law, and frequently blur the moral line between right and wrong, but yet here they stand at your side. And how many times has one of you been possessed by an evil spirit? Or mind-controlled and forced to do things you would never do? To hurt people, to kill people, even people you loved?"

There was a pause as Doom's words sank in. His gaze travelled over the crowd of heroes, looking each of them in the eyes as he went on: "I'm not saying you should pretend it never happened. But I do think you should look at the whole picture. Whatever my crimes, I am asking you to trust my superior experience and intellect, and to help me save lives—and save the world—in more ways than they will ever know. The power to make and unmake reality is a power that I now possess. But have no fear. I intend to use my power to heal."

He raised a hand, and the heroes became engulfed in purple glows of energy as the injuries they had suffered in battle were healed magically. Their concussions disappeared, their internal organs repaired themselves, and their broken bones rejoined. Subsequent waves of relaxation overcame each of them, as if they were drifting into another world. Raph watched as the wound Shredder had given him with his own sai disappeared without a trace. As the glow disappeared, they shook their limbs and looked around, their bodies feeling light and free from pain and fatigue as if they had just woken up from a great night's sleep.

"I can make the blind see," said Doom, and as he spoke he stretched out his arm towards Daredevil. The hero gasped and fell to his knees, his arms going up over his eyes as he regained his vision, seeing again for the first time in decades.

"I can cure the afflicted," Doom continued, sweeping his arm towards Beast. The mutant began to shrink as blue hair fell from his body in clumps, and Hank McCoy stood before them, fully human again, without any mutant defect.

"And, if need be, I can raise the dead," added Doom, as a glowing purple swirling portal appeared behind him. From out of it floated the corpses of the heroes who had died during the assault. First came Captain Marvel, Storm, Scarlet Witch, Shuri, Okoye, and Lady Sif. Purple energy extended from Doom's outstretched hand to the hovering bodies. Their eyes snapped open and they gasped for air, as Doom lowered them to the ground before the other heroes.

Thor moved to Sif's side, but Leo got there first, wrapping his arms around her in a silent display of emotion as he fought back tears of relief. The heroes crowded around their resurrected friends and comrades, scarcely able to believe what they were seeing.

But Doom wasn't finished. The portal swirled again, and released three more corpses: Renet the time-wizard, G'Throkka the Salamandrian commander, and—to the turtle's surprise—their mutant friend Leatherhead. Doom released life-force into the three, and they too fell to the ground, eyes agape and chests heaving as they gulped in air as if they had been suffocating. "Renet!" Mikey said, running forward and throwing his arms around the girl, before he looked up and saw Leatherhead climbing unsteadily to his feet. "Leatherhead! Buddy!"

"My friends," Leatherhead said, groaning in pain and confusion. "What … has happened?"

"Good to see you again, Leatherhead," Slash said, going in for a hug with the alligator mutant. The turtles and the Mighty Mutanimals huddled up around Leatherhead and Renet, so distracted by their reunion that they didn't see the portal pulse one final time, releasing one final hero. But it was Scarlet Witch's scream that caught everyone's attention, a scream of joy that turned into a hacking sob as she rushed forward through the crowd, embracing her brother Pietro, Quicksilver, for the first time in years.

Doom gave them a moment to welcome the recently resurrected heroes back into their fold before he continued speaking. "I can give you everything you've ever wished for," he said, locking eyes with Iron Man. Inside the portal, Iron Man saw the faces of his parents, Howard and Maria, on the other side. His lips began to tremble. Could they see him? Did they know he was there?

He made a move towards the portal, but Doom closed his hand into a fist and the portal closed, swirling shut. "Or nothing at all," said Doom simply. "It's up to you."

"And all we'd have to do to receive these miracles is?" asked Banner.

"Accept them," Doom said.

"You mean, surrender," Thor said grimly.

His tone was fierce, but Doom seemed not to notice. "You may resist, if you wish," he said simply. "If your pride demands it. But you won't win. Nothing you have fought yet matches the power of vibranium enhanced by deep magic. And those who resist it will surely perish. So, will you accept my offer? Or will you fight and die?"

Iron Man stepped forward, retracting his suit's helmet and exposing his head so that he could stare at Doom as a man. "You're one of the greatest minds on the planet, Vic," he said, arms spread. "You treat your own citizens with kindness. I've been to Latveria. I've seen it. And yet you constantly bring harm to the rest of the world. You've attacked people from every continent. Every country. You murdered a lot of my friends. I have every reason to want to see you dead. But I'm asking you, in the name of peace and sanity, to stand down."

Doom scoffed, his arms crossed, unmoved by Stark's offer. "Peace and sanity?" he mocked. "Curious words from someone whose weapons business has spilled a river of blood in your time. It saddens me that even now you lack the insight to appreciate what I do, and why."

"You might believe that you are the only pathway to the salvation of mankind," Captain America said. "But I reject it. The future is not immutable. I reject any future in which you sit in judgement over the people of the world. We'll find another future. And we'll start that search, here and now."

"Hear, hear," said Thor, stepping up next to Captain America and Iron Man.

"Hear, hear," echoed Mister Fantastic, as the Fantastic Four took their place alongside the three Avengers.

The rest of the heroes stepped forward, many of them repeating "Hear, hear" as they stood in solidarity with the others, in open defiance of Doom.

Behind his mask, Doom smiled. He had expected some kind of grandiose challenge long before this, and it would hardly be a challenge to him now. He was weary of games. It was time to clear the board.

"So be it," he growled. As his eyes lit up with purple lightning, he began to grow, his magical abilities enhancing his size until he was almost thirty-five feet tall, as tall as a four-story building, towering over the rest of them. "Let's end this," he rumbled, his voice like thunder and his hands pulsing with violet energy.

"Avengers, assemble!" Captain America shouted, and they rushed Doom.

---

Kitsune led Stephen Strange through steadily narrowing streets until they reached a colossal temple in the center of the city. Armed creatures of all shape and size stood—some with spears, some with shields, and some with chained four-legged monsters on leashes—around the temple. The temple's outside was a dark maroon color, and its surface covered with indecipherable symbols from a language out of time.

"Here we are," Kitsune said. "Just like I promised." She stopped at the doorway to the temple, her fingers tracing its edge. "The Resolute Throne is just inside. One cannot enter twice, so I may not enter at all."

The doorway looked wide open as if anyone could just stroll right in, but Strange knew better. Such was the nature of magic. Kitsune called after him as he entered the temple: "I wish you good luck! And the good fortune to barter wisely."

The inside of the cube was a vast chamber of ramps and archways, with a ring of clearly magical pillars situated around a massive throne. Surrounding the throne was a semi-intricate puzzle constructed from some sort of scales. Seven small figures hovered at the base of the throne, only about five feet tall, each wearing a fully hooded cloak that covered their entire body so the only visible parts of them were fiery green eyes, glowing with a satanic flame.

On the throne sat a tall and slender red-scaled dragon with the shape of a man, bearing two arms and two legs. Large leathery bat-like wings stretched up the back of the throne, and a spiked tail lay between his two-toed feet. This was Kavaxas, leader of the mythical race of Demodragons. Evil magicians had summoned these demons in the past, to bring about tragedy and destruction to their worlds. Kavaxas was the most powerful of these Demodragons, hence his leadership of them. Strange would be treading on thin ice throughout their meeting.

"Mortal," Kavaxas hissed, in a slithery evil voice. "You are in the presence of Kavaxas, Lord of the Demodragons and ruler of the Netherworld. Take care, lest you fancy being burned to ash."

"I'm looking for—" Strange began.

"Yes," Kavaxas interrupted. "The throne. You do see the giant throne upon which I sit and not much else in the room, right?" He leaned forward, yellow reptilian eyes narrowing until all Strange could see was Kavaxas's slitted black pupils. "You are the third most disappointing Sorcerer Supreme I've ever met, Stephen. And this didn't end well for the other two." He leaned back on the throne. "Approach me."

Strange did so, casting a wary glance at the many glowing green eyes peering through holes in the walls at him. "How many other Sorcerers Supreme were there?" he asked.

"Oh, just the three," Kavaxas said dismissively. "But you're still breathing, you see? So … you're winning by default. You've come for power, yes?"

"I have," said Strange.

"It is a cleaner transaction than the other principalities I trade in," Kavaxas said, almost as if he were at the New York Stock Exchange. "That's good for you. The simpler the deal, the less chance for confusion. The problem is, with power the cost is high. And the payment cannot be deferred, transferred, or screwed with in any manner. If you owe, you owe."

"How much?" Strange asked.

"That depends on the proportions," Kavaxas said, holding up a four-fingered hand. "I deal in degrees of godhood. Man is whole and in full possession of his soul. This is my price. I barter by fifths, as this is the number of man." He glared at Strange. "For the slow and unlearned: if you want to have twenty percent of the power of a god, it will cost you one-fifth of your soul."

Strange said nothing, and Kavaxas raised an eyebrow. "So," he asked, leaning forward again, "are you selling your soul, Stephen?"

Without missing a beat, Strange answered. "I am."

Kavaxas grinned evilly as a low chanting began to fill the room, the mutters and whispers of a demonic ritual. The cultists at the base of his throne began to move from side to side, as others appeared from unseen passageways to pack the room. The Demodragon stood, stretching his arms and wings to their full wingspan dramatically. "How much of your soul do you sell this day?" he cried, his voice shaking the room they sat in, amplified so it sounded as though a thousand voices spoke at once.

Through it all, Strange never moved. Magic came at a cost, and the magician no longer cared.

"All of it."

---

"What do we do?" asked Raph. The turtles were crouching behind a large cluster of destroyed buildings, as the stronger heroes engaged the goliath, all-powerful version of Doom. "We can't just stand here, watching. We have to do something."

"On it!" Donnie said, turning to Metalhead. The rebuilt robot was pouring bullets into Doom's enlarged form, but stopped as Donnie approached it. "Metalhead, I need an intel server download on all things Victor von Doom."

Metalhead gave the purple turtle his signature thumbs-up before taking cover and connecting to the in-orbit satellite network over the Earth, searching the Internet for anything related to Doom. Donnie's T-Phone beeped, and he pulled it out, glancing down at it. Metalhead was re-routing all the information he found to Donnie's phone, as the screen read: VICTOR VON DOOM INTEL UPLOADING along with a crawling status bar showing how much of the upload was left.

"Upload faster," Donnie muttered, as an explosion nearby caused him to throw himself back into cover.

Meanwhile, the heroes were throwing everything they had at Doom without success. He might as well have been an enormous vibranium statue; bullets, missiles, even lasers seemed to just bounce off him without impact.

"Does the all-new, giant sized Doctor Doom have any weaknesses we can exploit?" Storm, as she hovered in front of Doom's gargantuan form, unleashing a lightning storm from the clouds above that seemed to melt into Doom's form as if he was absorbing the energy.

Mantis's antennae glowed a calming blue as she ran forward unnoticed and reached out, touching Doom's achilles heel just behind his ankle. As her fingers met the surface of his metallic boot, she threw her mental manipulation powers at Doom, meeting only a psychic wall of resistance. She groaned in pain as the effects of her failed attack hit her brain and she stumbled backwards. "His suit has psi-scramblers," she said. "Psionics are useless."

Loki had not yet moved from where Ghost Rider had left him. Still he knelt on the ground, invisible chains of guilt and shame weighing him down as if gravity had increased a thousandfold over his person. "Too much," he muttered softly, staring blankly at the ground underneath him. "Too many years. Far … far too many sins. Even gods were never meant to live this long."

"I say thee nay, brother!" Thor shouted, as he landed next to his brother after releasing a lightning bolt from Mjolnir at the giant Doom.

Loki looked up at his brother, his old expression of confident mischief gone. Indeed, Thor noticed Loki looked more undead than alive, his skin pale and gaunt against his face. "Thor," Loki gasped. "You were right. I should have left magic behind long ago."

"Too late for any such talk, brother," grunted Thor, grasping Loki's forearm and hauling the Asgardian to his feet. "Get up, Loki! I don't care how much you're hurting! Be a god! Hurl some Odinforce! Pick up that spear and use it!"

Loki glanced feebly at Gungnir, which lay at his feet. "Never should have lifted it in the first place," he groaned miserably. "Even now, after all these aeons, Odin is still right. Gods, what have I done?"

"Don't give me that unworthy crap!" Thor shouted, grabbing his brother by the shoulders and shaking him. "You think any of us are here at the end because we deserve to be? The worthy ones are all dead and gone! You and I, we're just the ornery old gods who are left."

Loki shook his head. "We cannot do it," he said, voice cracking. "We cannot beat Doom."

"Not with you on your knees, we can't," Thor said, a twinkle in his eye as he picked up Gungnir and handed it back to his brother. "Perhaps you were wrong to bring death to Midgard, Loki. Doesn't really matter right now. The only important thing now is we can't let Doom be the one to kill it. This mortal sorcerer doesn't get to write the final chapter of the Nine Realms. No matter what."

"Aye," Loki said. The color returned to his cheeks, and a small smile began to spread across his face as the effects of the Penance Stare wore off. He gripped Gungnir in his hand and smiled at his brother. "Go, Thor. I will finish this. I will drown him in my own blood if I must."

Thor smiled back, a tear leaking out of his eye at pride in his brother before he whirled Mjolnir and took to the sky once more.

Black Panther was climbing to his feet after a stomp from Doom's foot had released a shock wave that had knocked him and several others over. "Doom may feel like a god, but he is still a man," he said. "He is omnipotent, not invulnerable. And unless he puts the power of the vibranium back where it belongs, it will consume and destroy him."

"So how can we get him to put the power back?" asked Bucky Barnes, taking cover with April behind a hunk of concrete and occasionally popping out of cover to spray Doom's enormous figure with his machine gun.

"We can't," said April. "But Doctor Strange can." She shut her eyes, using her telepathic powers to focus on Strange's psychical being. "He's coming. If we can hold Doom until he gets here, that'll be our best shot."

"The minute Strange enters this dimension, Doom will sense it," Shinigami argued. "He'll know what we're doing. We'll need a distraction."

In the skies overhead, Falcon flew past Doom's head, strafing the villain with his twin machine guns. At Doom's current size, though, his SMGs were more like peashooters. "He's got the X-Men, Fantastic Four, and the Avengers crawling all over him," Falcon said as he flew past, narrowly avoiding a blast of purple magical energy from Doom's hand. "What's more distracting than that?"

Ant-Man, Wasp, and Hank Pym all stood a short distance away from the main fight, working together to use their suit's communicators and send waves of ants crawling up Doom's legs. "I am," Ant-Man said, stepping forward. "If I can grow to Doom's height—"

"No way," said Wasp, throwing out her hand to hold him back.

Ant-Man shrugged her off. "Hope, I can do this. I know I can."

"I'll go," Wasp said, starting to move forward towards Doom.

"I'm going," argued Ant-Man. He reached out and grabbed her forearm, flinching slightly when she whirled on him.

"You kids stay put," said Hank Pym, putting the helmet on his suit. "I'll distract Doom, while you give me cover with those ants."

"Dad, wait!" Wasp said, as Hank shrunk to the size of an ant before climbing on the back of a winged drone safari ant and taking to the sky. "What are you going to do?" She and Ant-Man went back to commanding the waves of ants crawling up Doom's leg, looking for any structural breach in his suit's armor to try and get inside.

Hank goaded the ant into flying higher, rising in the air straight for Doom's head. Doom was too busy fighting off the other heroes, as Captain Marvel unleashed a pair of cosmic energy blasts from each hand to hit him directly between the eyes on his helmet's faceplate. "Hope, the key to defeating any opponent is to get inside his head, do as much damage to his inner ear as possible, and then get out before he even knows what's happening," he explained.

Once Captain Marvel's attack had ceased, Hank landed the ant on Doom's mask, their tiny forms undetectable to the naked eye because of Doom's enlarged size. The ant crawled up the mask and inside Doom's suit through the eye hole, narrowly avoiding a missile barrage from Metalhead directed at the villain's faceplate. From there, Hank directed the ant inside Doom's ear canal, crawling through the tympanic membrane until he reached the inner ear.

As the heroes outside watched, Doom suddenly let out a loud cry of pain and clapped his hands to his ears, wobbling and stumbling onto one knee as he crashed through the side of his own garrison. Hank and his ant steed were running circles through the loop-shaped canals in his inner ear, disrupting the fluid and hairlike sensors that helped keep balance. Once they had done enough damage, Hank climbed back on the ant and they made their way out, crawling along the mask's surface to reach the eye hole and escape.

But Doom saw them this time, and when the ant had flown a sufficient distance away, he lunged, reaching out and clapping his hands together. There was a release of purple arcane energy and a clap of thunder as his hands closed around where Hank and the ant had been moments ago.

"Dad!" shouted Wasp, her helmet deconstructing and shrinking back inside her suit as she stared at the air where her father had been smashed between Doom's hands.

"No …" Ant-Man breathed. Hank Pym was gone. And it was his fault.

He had been the one to go to Germany, to Doomland, to recruit Hank. It was his fault Hank was even mixed up in this whole mess. Grief filled his brain, but only for a moment, as it was soon turned to white-hot anger and venom. His thumbs jammed the regulator on his suit as his helmet slid on over his head, enlarging him to Doom's height directly under the mad villain's nose, so that Doom didn't see the punch Ant-Man was throwing until it had caught him squarely in the jaw and sent him tumbling head-over-heels into the dirt.

"You killed him!" Ant-Man shouted, tackling Doom as he lay on the ground, his hands going for the villain's throat. "You killed Hank!"

"And I can just as easily do the same to you, boy," Doom growled. "So I suggest you rein in this tantrum of yours, before I lose my temper."

Ant-Man didn't see Doom's hands coursing with purple lightning until it was too late, and he let forth a massive blast of arcane energy that lifted Ant-Man off of him and sailing back into the air. Ant-Man shrunk as he was caught in the blast, returning to his human size, but the light from the explosion had been so bright that none of the other heroes could see where he had fallen.

"So, how many heroes will I have to kill today?" asked Doom, half to himself, as he started to get to his feet.

"Now!" shouted Storm, "while Doom's still disoriented!" Her body lit up by lightning, she flew over the fight towards Doom as the villain struggled to rise.

Thor flew alongside Storm, lightning crackling in the sky as he charged up Mjolnir. "You've chosen the wrong master and you've chosen the wrong battlefield!" shouted the God of Thunder. "And for that, I must smite you down with all the power at my command!"

Storm stopped abruptly and released a large gale of wind with a shout, forming a tornado as tall as Doom that stretched from the clouds to the ground in the blink of an eye. She hurled the wind formation at Doom, striking him in a blow across the chest that sent the villain stumbling back and opened him up to Thor's attack. The God of Thunder dropped from the sky, a cloud of lightning following him, and brought the magic hammer down against Doom's golden faceplate with all the force he could muster. He bounced, landed and turned back, astonished to see Mjolnir had not even dealt a single dent to the mask.

"Odin's eye," he whispered, realizing just how powerful Doom really was for the first time.

Doom turned his head to face him. "No one raises a hand against Victor von Doom," he snarled, bringing his fist down towards Thor. Thor braced himself for the impact, shutting his eyes as a massive boom filled his ears. He opened them to see Hulk standing over him, the green giant struggling to hold back Doom's enormous hand from splattering them both into paste.

Hulk roared as his knees began to buckle and his elbows began to bend, giving way to Doom's ever-increasing pressure. The effort became too much, and to Thor's horror he watched as his friend began to de-transform, his green skin turning a tan in hue as he morphed back into Bruce Banner.

The Thing charged forward, shoving his rocky orange form underneath Doom's fist to help just as Hulk collapsed, his massive form shrinking back into Bruce Banner. "I got ya, big guy!" he grunted.

"We are here to lend helping hand!" called Colossus, as he joined the Thing. The two of them strained hard against Doom's hand, but they still would have been crushed if not for a well-timed stream of flame to Doom's face by the Human Torch. Doom stepped back and swung at the flying Fantastic Four member, giving Thor the time to help Banner to his feet and get him back towards the other heroes.

Suddenly, the earth underneath their feet exploded as a column of fire pushed up from the earth, sending a shower of cinders and dirt clods into the air. As it rained down around them, the earth continued to shake,

"The ground!" shouted April. "It's quaking!"

"The ground isn't our problem, April!" said Black Widow, pointing up at the sky. The daylight had suddenly increased, almost twice as bright as it had been before, and taken on a much more sinister red color. It took April's eyes a few moments to adjust, but glancing up, she could still make out the outline of a ball of red flaming gas in their atmosphere before she had to look away from the sunlight.

"Is that a second sun, guys?" asked Mikey in disbelief.

"It's filling the sky!" said Spider-Man. "It'll melt the Earth!"

"We should live long enough," Bruce Banner said grimly. "Believe me, its gravity will wipe the planet clean first!"

Doctor Rockwell stared, mouth agape, at the red supergiant sun that Doom had created in their sky. "How . . . how can this be?" he stuttered. "It's inconceivable!"

"Only to a scientist, Doctor," said Mr. Fantastic. "You know the rules of the universe. Nothing's impossible to Doom. Not when he has unlimited power at his command!"

Captain America turned, barking orders. "Thor! Storm!" He pointed up at the sky. "See what you can do to contain the upheaval and keep us alive!"

The two weather-based heroes took off, flying at supersonic speed through the atmosphere towards the red sun. "The rest of us have to get to Doom, fast!" Cap said to the others.

---

The moment Strange uttered the words "All of it," Kavaxas stretched his hand down, a single outstretched index finger tapping Strange in the center of his forehead. He fell back, his mouth agape as hot green light poured from his mouth and eyes. Omnipotence itself flowed through him. He could feel it, the very blood in his veins bubbling and boiling with this raw, untamed power.

"All," Kavaxas boomed. "Everything. The godhead. Yours … if you could pay." He withdrew his hand from Strange's forehead, sitting back down on the throne. Strange's body lurched forward as a cloud of neon green matter escaped from his extended pointer finger, like a tongue of flame with a life of its own.

"No …" Strange gasped, weakened by the sudden loss of power unlimited. He reached limply for the roiling, squirming mass of light, but it rocketed away from him and disappeared as it collided with Kavaxas's hand. Strange sank to his knees, acrid smoke rising from his body. The ordeal had engraved a symbol on the ground beneath him in fiery letters, but he hardly noticed. "Why?" he asked, head bowed and hands outstretched as if in prayer, or supplication to this interdimensional power dispensing demon. "Why did you stop? I held it in my hands. The power to create, and destroy, worlds. Why?"

He raised his head, climbing to his feet as the exhaustion and numbness in his limbs gave way to a burning anger. "We had a deal," he growled, with barely concealed fury.

The hooded creatures who had been spying and then chanting had made themselves seen, crawling out of their holes in the wall and were now surrounding him. Their green eyes burned a hateful, spiteful glare at Strange from every direction he looked. It was the same green as the flaming mass that had escaped Strange during the failed power transfer. He could see sharp teeth bared in snarls from the closest of these cultic members.

"Deals are sealed with trust," said Kavaxas. "A surety that withstands the transaction. What do you call a deal where one side cannot meet the obligations?" He looked pointedly at Strange. "No deal at all."

The cultists pounced on Strange now, snarling and howling as they grabbed him and held him still while Kavaxas stepped off the throne and walked towards him. "Stephen Strange," the Demodragon said. "You are a debtor. Insolvent. A bankrupt liar."

Strange struggled violently against the cultists, whose grips were like handcuffs. They held him in place as Kavaxas illuminated the ground underneath Strange until it too was a vibrant neon green, and the symbol that had been burned there blazed an ebony black. "How could you offer your soul as payment, Sorcerer," Kavaxas asked him, "when you lack the full measure of one?"

It was the last thing Strange heard before he sunk through the floor and disappeared, returned from whence he had come.

---

Superheroes are not given to panic. It's sort of in their job description. And yet, as the very air over Wakanda became the color of fire, they wondered if this new sunrise, with this new sun Doom had summoned from nowhere, would be the last they ever saw.

Vision phased immaterial and merged with Captain Marvel, augmenting her already-titanic strength and damping her absorption power. Meanwhile, War Machine caught Doom's attention with waves of bullets and missiles, and Star-Lord and Cyclops kept his attention long enough to allow a moment's passage. The heroes dove out of the way as Captain Marvel, merged together with Vision, came flying through at near light-speed, striking Doom with a two-handed punch at terminal velocity.

Doom did not move an inch.

Instead, Captain Marvel flew backwards, the impact of her and Vision's combined attack sending the pair of them colliding into the remnants of a Wakandan building almost two hundred feet away. "You fools!" Doom shouted, laughing. "You are no physical match for me!"

Scarlet Witch stopped her attack on Doom and rushed to Vision's side. The android lay on the ground, a nasty hole ripped in his body and exposing the wires and advanced circuitry that lay underneath his skin. He tried to speak, but his system was shutting down, malfunctioning as it encountered error message after error message and scrambled itself trying to respond to them all.

"Wan-*zzkk*- Wanda…?" gasped Vision, his head moving erratically as he tried to identify the person approaching him.

"I'm here," Scarlet Witch said, sliding underneath him and pulling him up by his torso, holding him close to her. She didn't know the first thing about tech, but there were people here who did. She looked around frantically for Tony, or Rhodey, or anyone who might be able to help, before looking back down at Vision. "Don't try to talk," she said. "Your wounds—"

Vision cut her off. He could feel his systems shutting down one by one, and wanted to get his last words out to his lover before it was too late. "We have b-*zzzk*-been through -*zzzk*- much," he said, malfunctions cutting off his words with electronic beeps and noises, "but nothing like -*zzzk*- like this." He looked up at her, his head jerking with spasms, but his eyes never leaving her face. He was in pain, she could tell, and that made it worse, knowing he would die in pain, full of fear. But at least she would be here with him.

"Hold me to-*zzzk*-together, Wanda," Vision begged. "Hold -*zzzk*- me…"

His body went stiff as his eyes stopped moving, frozen open, locked with hers until she broke the gaze by shutting her eyes and tearfully rocking back and forth with the man—not a robot, not an android, the man—she loved in her arms.

Captain Marvel was faring slightly better than Vision. Nick Fury had rushed to her side when he'd seen her and Vision impact the wall of the crumbling building, checking for a pulse. She was unconscious, breathing irregular, but breathing nonetheless. She could take a pretty hard hit. He wasn't too worried. He glanced over at Scarlet Witch and couldn't help but feel a twinge of sorrow for the young woman.

Their plan had worked, however. Doom was struggling to maintain control over his powers, as his abilities had begun to overwhelm him. Although their attacks were doing no physical damage, it took an unbelievable amount of willpower to use the power at his command, and he was starting to falter. This was their chance, and they knew it.

Spider-Man bounced from rubble to rubble, firing strands of webbing at Doom's legs and wrapping them up in coats of sticky web, causing Doom to stumble and fall with his tripwires. Before Doom could try to unentangle himself, Iron Man flew over, unleashing a powerful blast from his suit's unibeam that struck Doom head-on. Inside the Model Prime suit, his AI relayed status updates. "Armor shields on full. Unibeam energy levels at 92 percent."

"T.A.D.A.S.H.I., find me a way to get through that armor," said Iron Man, maintaining his laser on Doom's body, not giving the villain any room to breathe. Doom had begun to shrink back to his normal size, the amount of energy it took to maintain his current enlarged form taking its toll.

"Scanning for known weaknesses in Doomtech designs," said T.A.D.A.S.H.I. "Unibeam energy levels at 77 percent."

As Doom lay on the ground, Iron Man's attack pummeling his form, he ran a status update on his magically-enhanced vibranium suit. It seemed Vision and Captain Marvel's combined attack had dealt a miniscule amount of damage to his armor, but it was hardly worth even calling a dent. And he had more pressing matters. Shrinking back to his original form had weakened the bonds between the vibranium molecules that made up his suit, destabilizing it in areas the magic could not bind the molecules together. His armor shield reserves were fluctuating, and his energy levels at twenty-two percent. He had to buy his suit time to recharge, and Stark wasn't helping. He readied one of the many Eldritch spells at his command, summoning a pair of purple fiery energy whips that lashed out from his forearms, wrapping themselves around his hands and flinging themselves at Iron Man.

The magical attack disrupted Iron Man's attack. The Unibeam's laser stopped, and his viewscreen clouded over with static. "Shields unable to defend against unknown energy source," T.A.D.A.S.H.I. reported, the AI's computer-generated voice garbled as Doom's magic offset the suit's electronics. "Danger. Evasive action required."

"We have to help him!" shouted Hawkeye, watching the battle but not close enough to help. He tried firing an arrow, but it was useless, dissolving against an invisible force barrier that Doom had generated around himself and Iron Man.

Hawkeye and Widow turned, spotting Bruce Banner taking cover behind a pile of crumbled building. He looked up, making eye contact, reading their silent plea in an instant. "Send me in," he said determinedly. He shut his eyes, concentrating, the familiar feeling of the gamma radiated cells in his bloodstream activating washing up his limbs and into his chest, and then …

And then they stopped, and the feeling disappeared. His eyes snapping open in confusion, he stared open-mouthed at Widow and Hawkeye, who were both just as confused as he was. "What happened?" asked Widow. "Where's the other guy?"

"I-I don't know," Banner stammered. "I can't get him to come out!"

"Can't get him to come out?" asked Hawkeye, puzzled. "Cause I thought you were always in control."

"Yeah, well, a lot's happened since New York," Banner said. "Hulk's a lot more selective about when he wants to show up. I'm not in the right headspace."

"Then we need someone to get you in the right headspace," said Widow. The trio turned towards Scarlet Witch, who knelt on the ground a short distance away, still cradling Vision's body. Hawkeye and Widow looked at each other and took a step back. It didn't feel right to interrupt her in this moment.

But Banner was desperate. He walked slowly over to Scarlet Witch. The woman rocked back and forth, eyes closed, in her own world, scarcely acknowledging his approach. "I can take him, Wanda. But you have to help," Banner pleaded. "You have to enter my brain telepathically and turn me—turn Banner—'off'."

She looked up at him with eyes empty, empty of any feeling or emotion. "Your human side?" she asked. "I can't."

"My control side," Banner clarified. "And you have to. Wanda, it's the only way."

"No," said Scarlet Witch firmly, her voice shaking. "No. I won't do it. I won't be responsible for another South Africa."

Banner flinched visibly at the mention of South Africa, where Scarlet Witch had forced him to turn into Hulk and destroy the city of Johannesburg under her mental manipulation. "Wanda, this wouldn't be like that," he said.

She turned on him, eyes fierce yet full of the guilt and remorse that she carried with her constantly. "I won't be part of another of your episodes, Doctor," she said. "I'm sorry. I've done enough damage to you and your life as it is."

She turned back away, focusing only on Vision's corpse and leaving Banner standing in silence. Defeated, he turned to leave, before a voice behind him said, "I'll do it."

Banner whirled to see the source of the sound, Jean Grey, standing a few feet away next to the recently-humanized Hank McCoy. "I'll reach into your mind," she said.

"Thank you," Banner said, rushing over. "Now, it's going to take a little more than shutting off the control switch. You have to take control, so I don't werewolf and go wild. But not too much control; you're not a puppeteer. You just steer me away from hurting the others and keep me focused only on Doom."

Jean placed a finger to her temple and shut her eyes, activating her mind control powers on Banner, reaching into his mind and dampening everything that was Bruce Banner. Banner, meanwhile, felt a sharp searing pain in his head, and dropped to his knees with his hands against his ears, yelling. Jean hesitated, and Banner felt the pressure in his head ease. He shook his head fiercely. "It's supposed to be painful!" he yelled. "Keep going!"

So she did, searching through the nooks and crannies of his mind, snuffing out any trace of Banner she could find within the mind, until there was nothing but gamma, green, giant, monster. "Banner?" she asked, uncertainly. "Banner, are you there?"

The only reply was a low growling noise. Jean opened her eyes to see an inhumanly muscular leg that disappeared inside a pair of stretchable pants that at this size looked more like shorts. Her gaze continued to travel up, past rippling abdomen muscles and sinewy arms and biceps, to a dark green face and blazing emerald eyes slightly covered by a messy tangle of black hair. The beast's skin shone as if it were carved marble, drool bubbling through its grit teeth as it glared fiercely at her, the throaty growl giving way to three words.

"Banner … is puny," Hulk said. "Hulk is the strongest one there is!"

He turned and charged, leaping into the air towards the battle between Iron Man and Doom. Iron Man was struggling to fight against Doom's magic, the Eldritch whips wrapped tightly around his suit.

"Unknown energy source corrupting armor energy flow," T.A.D.A.S.H.I. reported.

"Damn it!" Stark shouted, watching his suit's systems shut down before his eyes. "He's got me with the magic."

"Armor shield level at 7 percent," said T.A.D.A.S.H.I.. "Danger. Evasive action required."

Doom increased the Eldritch magic at his command, power surging through the whips and over the surface of Iron Man's suit. "I've learned so much since last we battled," he taunted, watching as Iron Man's struggles of resistance became slower and slower, as his armor started to shut off.

"Systems failing," T.A.D.A.S.H.I. warned, as Tony's viewscreen shut off and his world went dark, save for the blinking red system failure notices that were stacking up. "Reboot required. Armor shields down."

Since his viewscreen had been switched off, he was getting no visual feed from outside the suit, which meant he didn't see the Hulk falling through the air towards the both of them. But neither Stark nor Doom missed the noise, the noise of a beast bellowing with fury. Hulk landed a few feet away from both of them, the impact creating a shock wave as his feet hit the ground that knocked both Stark and Doom off of their feet.

"Armor shields failed," T.A.D.A.S.H.I. reminded him, as the viewscreen before Tony's eyes lit up with static. "Reboot required."

The viewscreen cleared just in time for Iron Man to see Hulk deal Doom a powerful punch, with the same force as if Doom had just been hit by two Saturn IV NASA rockets to the torso. Hulk kept up the assault, charging after Doom and slamming him head-first into the ground.

"It's working!" shouted Slash. "The Hulk's got him on the ropes! Let's go!" He led the Mighty Mutanimals in a charge towards the two combatants, followed by the rest of the heroes. Metalhead, meanwhile, had moved to Iron Man's side, helping to drag the immobile suit to safety.

As he was dragged behind a column of rock, an alert appeared on his viewscreen. "Incoming file download from Metalhead," T.A.D.A.S.H.I. said. "Doomtech God Emperor Suit 342 open. Intel upload pending."

"I'm wearing the suit, and you still need the password?" asked Iron Man, groaning as Metalhead propped him up against the column.

"No," said T.A.D.A.S.H.I. "Interface corruption detected."

"Interface corruption?" echoed Iron Man in confusion.

"Database and power cell corruption detected," said T.A.D.A.S.H.I. Iron Man couldn't tell, but the AI's voice sounded grim. "Systems failure. Reboot required."

"Reboot then!" Iron Man snapped, the unmoving suit feeling more and more like a cage every second.

By now Doom had managed to get his feet back under him, and saw the other heroes charging him. He could barely hold back the Hulk, and would stand little chance if they all rushed him now. So he conjured up a psionic cyclone using his magical power, winds whipping in a circle around he and the Hulk at over 130 miles an hour.

This bought him the time he needed to fight the Hulk. Every blow unleashed by the green giant unfettered even more of Doom's might. The rest of the heroes were busy braving the hurricane to reach their foe, safely concealed in the storm's eye. They pooled their powers, putting aside old rivalries and rekindling old feelings.

Scarlet Witch was starting to feel herself being swept away by the powerful winds that had appeared from nowhere, even as she clung tightly to Vision's remains, refusing to abandon him. There was a flash of blue and white, and suddenly Pietro was there, hand oustretched, the mischievous expression she remembered so well on her face. "Wanda, my sister," he called, raising his voice over the rushing winds, "hold to me!"

It was only then that she released Vision and reached out to take his hand, scarcely allowing herself to believe he was real, expecting him to fade into dust at any moment and for her to wake up. But he was real, and carrying his sister in arms he sped off, feet moving at a blur to pierce the hurricane winds and reach Doom and the Hulk.

"Call me nuts," grunted Jean Grey as she pushed forward through the gale alongside Wolverine, "but I think we can do this."

Wolverine unsheathed his claws and sliced at a large chunk of shrapnel blowing towards them, sending it flying harmlessly away. "Okay, you're nuts."

The turtles had taken cover with Splinter, April, Metalhead and Casey, seeking shelter inside a half-exploded building from the cloud of dust and debris that was sweeping over the battlefield outside. Donnie checked his T-Phone as it beeped, displaying a notification. VICTOR VON DOOM INTEL UPLOADED.

Metalhead's analysis had worked. Donnie scrolled through the files, pulling up one regarding Doom's current "God Emperor" armor. As he read it, his eyes widened. "Guys!" he said. "Metalhead managed to download the schematics for Doom's new suit. It's structurally impenetrable …" He scanned the files. " … except, the vibranium component of the suit means it's still vulnerable to other vibranium weaponry!"

"So what are you saying, dude?" asked Mikey. "If we have weapons made from the same stuff as the Latverian Scourge's armor, that's the only way we can defeat him?"

"Wait," said Casey. "The Latverian Scourge?"

"Yeah," Mikey said. "'Doctor Doom' just sounded so basic, Doctor Name-enstein had to come to the rescue with a super awesome makeover."

"Woah," Casey said. "That's … that's actually kinda wicked, Mike."

"It is?" Mikey asked, beaming. He shook his head as if clearing it. "I mean, heck yeah it is! Doc Name-enstein never misses."

"And to answer your question, Mikey, yes, that's the only way we get inside the suit," Donnie said.

"Ain't that fantastic," grumbled Raph. "And where are we gonna find a vibranium weapon in all this wreckage?"

Leo wordlessly held up a two-foot blade in his hand. His three brothers stared open-mouthed at him. "Where'd you get that?" asked Raph.

"One of Shredder's blades," Leo answered. "The ones that he shot at us out of his gauntlets."

The blade was more like one big knife. Donnie took it and held it up for Metalhead to analyze. The rebuilt robot's eyes blinked, transmitting the data to Donnie's T-Phone. "It's a vibranium-steel-iron alloy," Donnie said. "It should have enough vibranium in it to get through Doom's suit and do some damage."

"The Latverian Scourge," Mikey corrected.

"My sons," Splinter said, shouting over the noise of the winds as they picked up. "You have been given a gift. An opportunity to bring the evil that has cursed this planet for this past decade. Will you fulfill your duty now, as the universe has tasked you?"

Holding the blade in his hand, Leo felt like King Arthur, as he turned to face his three brothers. "We'll stand together even in life and death," said the blue turtle, gripping the blade in his hand.

"Probably death," Donnie said.

"Death for sure," Raph said. "But we'll go down swinging. High three."

The four of them met, hands raised in a high three, joined by Metalhead, Casey, and April. And then they all stepped out from behind cover and started running towards the others, pushing hard to fight their way through the hurricane winds.

Man, mutant, or god, nothing would stand in the path of the heroes. Forward they strode, and some of them flew, knowing with growing certainty that this was their last battle, and comforted only by the knowledge that there was no better way to go than beside old friends.

---

"I am damned," Doctor Strange sighed, fingers tracing the symbol emblazoned on the cover of the Scroll of the Demodragons. He stood at the desk in his study, the trademark round window behind him casting contrasting lines of light and shadow over his form. "And worse than that," he continued, turning around to face the window, "somewhere along the way I have become lost." He paused, turning to Wong, who stood in his study with him. "Tell me, Wong. If I am lost, and lacking both time and means … then what hope do I have for a redemption?"

There was a long pause, and Wong let out a long sigh, studying his friend's face. Strange had been through an ordeal in whatever dimension he had been to. Finally he said slowly, "We do work for many reasons. I think, for a season, you have chosen to walk this world and others with your eyes closed. And now, you ask me, how can I continue if I have become blind?" He put his hand on Strange's shoulder comfortingly. "Open your eyes, my friend. See the things that I know are real, and believe to be true."

"And what are those?" Strange asked.

Wong smiled. "You, Stephen." He reached forward, tapping Strange's chest. "Somewhere in there you are still a good man."

Strange smiled, a smile that quickly turned grim. "Then let the sliver of what I was be enough," he said, shuffling through the ancient books and manuscripts, "as all I see before me now is the abyss."

His hands found what he was looking for, a book of the deep magic, primordial magic that had been around since the existence of the world. There were many worlds, and worlds between worlds, and many, ever-changing, varied and eternal creatures that abided in them. His fingertips traced the image of one such creature on the pages in front of him, an unfixed, mutating, indestructible creature.

"And what lives there," Strange muttered, "which will live through me." Wong quickly left the room as Strange began to commit the dark spell to memory. Wisps of black energy, of pure evil, extended from the book's pages to probe his mind.

There was no time for any second thoughts. He could sense it: he was needed in Wakanda.

---

The air rang with atomic thunder. For miles in every direction, windows shattered and ground trembled. There was fear in every heart, save for two: Hulk and Doctor Doom. "You cannot win, you genetic freak!" Doom shouted, unleashing a powerful ray of purple magical energy that slowed Hulk's advance and sent the beast crashing into a pile of concrete blocks that had once been a building. "Judgement has already been passed. None of you will survive the coming of Doom. No one is worthy!"

He walked slowly towards the pile of rubble the Hulk was buried under. "Look at you," he jeered. "Powerful. Reckless and dangerous. The perfect embodiment of what seems to be the trait you 'heroes' share. You're all out of control. Like some corrupted force of nature."

Hulk exploded out from underneath the rubble and stone, unleashing a furious bellow. "Hulk not out of control!" he roared, leaping on Doom and flattening the sorcerer with a large green fist. "Hulk not nature!"

The gamma-charged beast continued to bash and batter Doom, his blows unrelenting, each one sending a tremor through the ground around them. "The madder Hulk gets, the stronger Hulk gets!" Hulk howled. "And Hulk is angry!"

Hulk brought his fist down one last time, to be met with Doom's own fist, charged with arcane magic. There was a blinding flash of light and a powerful shockwave outward that sent all of the heroes tumbling. They climbed to their feet after a few seconds, billowy clouds of dust rippling from where Hulk and Doom had stood a few seconds before, their eyes adjusting after the massive flash.

"What was that?" asked War Machine.

"Huh?" shouted Gamora, her ears still ringing from the explosion.

"I heard you," called Spider-Man, shaking his head. "It sounded like a nuclear blast at ground zero! This way!"

They quickly brushed themselves off, rushing towards a huge crater in the ground where Doom and the Hulk had been moments before. At the bottom of the crater was the Hulk, lying dead or unconscious—they didn't know which—facedown in the dirt and rubble of the battle. Doctor Doom walked over him, making a point to step on the green giant's back as he stared up at the heroes from out of the crater. "I should thank you," Doom said, standing to face the few heroes who remained. "By throwing yourselves at me with such fervor, you've only given me more power. More illumination. More white light flooding my soul. Making my mind one with the creator's, and burning away my sins and imperfections."

As he spoke, violet lightning began to spark between his fingers, travelling over his body in waves and restoring him with renewed power. "Doom!" T'Challa called. "Let it go. The power of the vibranium will kill you!"

"I will … not be corrupted," Doom grunted, straining as his strength was multiplied by the combined power of vibranium and arcane magic, as the lightning sparked over his clothes. "I am not … weak … like you." He stood at full height, confronting the Wakandan king. "You are stronger than you were, T'Challa, but you do not learn. I have won this war. I have earned the right to vibranium just as you have lost it."

Doom stretched his arms forward, psychically searching the heroes for anything with even a trace amount of vibranium before summoning it to his person. Cap's shield. The blade that Leo had been carrying. Pieces of War Machine's armor. Shuri's gauntlets. Okoye's spear. The Black Panther suit was literally ripped, molecule by molecule, from T'Challa's body, leaving him standing in a body glove without a single weapon. The summoned vibranium weapons floated in front of Doom before he sent them flying behind him, as they clattered against the ground, scattering out of sight in the dust and rubble.

"You've squandered it, hoarded it, taken it for granted," Doom shouted, pointing an accusatory finger at the now de-suited T'Challa. "You peddle it in fragments and yet boast of its benefits. At least I have a purpose for it. A nobler and more generous purpose than any that have come from Wakanda in ten thousand years. For ten thousand years your culture has been defined by it. Your history, your pride, your technology. Even your honor depends on it. A metal. A rock that fell from space." He threw his head back and laughed in contempt. "You don't even know what you'd be without it."

The sound of mechanical gears shifting filled their ears as from over the hill marched V-Series Doombots, the last of Doom's robots that his Wakandan garrison had been able to manufacture before the Foot Clan soldiers operating it had abandoned ship and fled. It was enough to give them pause, several hundred vibranium-armored robots that had their fighting styles downloaded as schematics. "Heroes!" Doom shouted, amplifying his voice for all to hear. "You are surrounded. Your army is decimated. Make peace with your gods now, for this is your final hour. But know that I, Doctor Doom, am not completely without mercy. I shall give you all warriors' deaths. Now prepare yourselves!"

He raised his hand, and the heroes circled up back-to-back as the Doombots filled in shoulder to shoulder, marching steadily towards them. The ring of steel around them began to draw tighter—only fifty feet between them and the Doombots—and they all steadied themselves, ready to fall but to fall fighting for what they believed in.

April's head shot up just then. "He's here," she told the others, a smile spreading slowly across her face. The rest of the heroes looked around, wondering just what April was talking about. Everywhere they looked, there was nothing but Doombots.

There was a loud hissing noise as the ground before them began to light up, like someone was heating it with an enormous match from underneath. They stepped back as a column of otherworldly flame rose high into the orange-grey sky, fizzling out as suddenly as it had appeared. Standing in the center of where it had been, surrounded by an arcane symbol burned into the very dirt under their feet, was Doctor Strange. The Sorcerer Supreme's entire body was lit up—glowing, almost—a hellish sort of red.

"Welcome back, Doctor!" April said, smiling in relief. "You're just in time."

Strange opened his eyes, eyes that blazed a pure white in their center and a blood red at the edges of the eyeball, giving them a neon appearance. He looked directly at April and spoke in an ancient tongue, a tongue none of them knew or understood, but one that chilled them to their very bones. They could feel its power, its evil.

Rocket Raccoon finally broke the silence. "Well. Don't you look like a guy who's just had an experience?"

"I advise you all, stand back," Strange said, words of advice spoken with the tone of a warning. The heroes withdrew, scrambling back to take cover from whatever unspeakable power Strange had brought to the battle. Likewise, Doom's V-Series Doombots pulled back, standing about a hundred feet behind their controller. Strange and Doom stood face-to-face in the clearing of rubble, looking like the generals of two armies meeting on the field for diplomacy talks.

"Well, well," Doom said, looking Strange up and down. "This one has power but does not guard his mind. Within I see a poisoned heart. I see twisted thoughts. And plans. Dark plans. I see your weapon."

"Then you know what it does," Strange shot back. "And what I am willing to breach this dimension with to stop you."

"You do not need an All-Seeing Eye to understand what has happened here today, sorcerer," Doom shouted. "Virtue cannot be bartered. Yes, I may do evil things for a greater good. That is an acceptable price. But the unthinkable? The very idea is unspeakable and must not be uttered. So I shall say to you other things."

There was a pause. Then Strange began to repeat two phrases, from the earlier tongue that he had first spoken when he arrived. "K'ooth ul d'ayn. Yool d'ayn hat Whuurl."

Doom fired a blast of magical power from his hand at Strange. The Sorcerer Supreme did not move, did not blink, did not make a sound as the wave of energy flew towards him. Instead he stared, and the wave stopped a few inches from his face, unable to progress any further in the face of Strange's own power.

A hole began to appear in Strange's forehead, almost like a third eye was growing, as skin and bone shrank away to reveal another pocket of red glowing energy. "Do you know these words, charlatan?" Strange asked, his voice no longer sounding like his own. "Of course you don't."

Unable to be contained any longer, Doom's energy wave exploded, sending Doom flying backwards and bouncing across the ground. Strange walked confidently towards him through the smoke. "You don't even have the gift, do you?"

Doom crouched low, firing blast after blast of his magic at Strange. Each one seemed to phase through the magician's body, knocking him back only slightly, slowing him but never stopping him. "I would wager you've spent most of your life acquiring your items of power," Strange growled. "At best, you're a curator. But I think we both know you're just a thief."

He gave Doom a backhanded slap that sent the warlord sprawling. "Would you like to see real power?" Strange asked. "Would you like to see what the art really costs?" The seam in his forehead lit up with his eyes as he chanted again: "K'ooth ul d'ayn. Yoo d'ayn hat Whurrl."

A portal lit up in the air above them, a swirling cloud of purple spirals with a white center. Tentacles began stretching from the center, long blackish tendrils that snaked their way to the surface of the Earth. They surrounded Doom, their tips wrapping themselves around his arms, a particularly thick one constricting his waist as they lifted him into the air back towards the portal.

"What is this?" Doom shouted, emitting a magical pulse of energy that coursed up the tentacles into whatever monstrosity lay on the other side of the portal. He began grabbing and tearing at the tendrils with a superhuman strength, freeing himself and falling to the ground. "What have you done, sorcerer?" he yelled at Strange. "What have you done?"

Strange stood engulfed in a column of fire, his hands moving rhythmically as if he were a puppet on strings as he controlled the tentacles reaching down from the skies. "Given all I had left," he said, his reply trembling as the power inside him amplified his volume to that of a deity—though whether a light or dark deity, the heroes were not sure. "I have sacrificed what little remained. All to destroy you and save my friends."

"You, your friends, your worlds!" Doom roared, raising his hands. "All shall die with you!" Bursts of purple electrical energy exploded off him in bolts. It felt like the whole planet was shaking. His power was incredible, as he fought back against both Strange and his interdimensional ally.

The heroes stood watching the spectacle, slack-jawed and with arms at their side, scarcely believing what was happening in front of their eyes. "My god," said Doctor Rockwell, watching the titanic battle unfold before them.

"I think not," said Splinter. "This has very little to do with God. Or even gods. We are in a much darker place now."

"I didn't know Strange was capable of something like this," Cap said to himself.

"What in Khonshu's moons is that?" asked Moon Knight.

"Quoggoth," Renet answered quietly. All eyes turned to the young time-wizard as she explained: "An aeons-old Eldritch god from beyond the veil of time and space. He is a nigh-omnipotent demonic creature just as powerful as the one who created him. I don't know what Strange was thinking summoning him. The amount of power it must take to bend Quoggoth to his will—"

Everyone else was watching the battle, or the monster, but April was focused solely on Strange. The Sorcerer Supreme's third eye had taken over most of his forehead, spreading and stretching the skin. His two human eyes were bloodshot, the veins inside exposed with the effort it took him to maintain control. Blood vessels in the eye burst, and thin lines of crimson began to trickle from Strange's eye sockets and down his cheeks. His mouth was twisted, teeth exposed in a grin of insanity.

"Oh, Doctor," April sighed softly, sadly. "What have you become?"

Their fixation on the battle between the two sorcerers was cut short as Doom activated his V-Series Doombots remotely, and the robots advanced on the heroes. All their focus was now on driving back the uber-strong Doombots, without a single piece of vibranium among them. And so their efforts were even stronger, their attacks even more fierce.

---

Quicksilver ran through at superhuman speed across the battlefield, his enhanced momentum dismantling numerous Doombots as he collided with them and sent their parts flying. He was able to think, act, move, and perceive the battle around him in seconds, which meant he saw one of Quoggoth's long thick purple tentacles sweeping over his head for him and was able to avoid it, so that the tentacle wrapped itself around an unlucky Doombot instead. Lifting it miles into the air in moments, the tentacle constricted, crushing the Doombot with a loud crack and sending a puff of purple smoke and the smell of corrupted electrical wiring hissed upwards from inside its coils.

Quicksilver came to a stop near his sister, who was using her telepathy to lift a Doombot's arm and fire its repulsors into other Doombots around her, also using the Doombot's oversized body as a robotic shield covering her from the return fire. "Do we have any idea if what the wizard is doing is going to save Earth?" Quicksilver shouted, pointing at the massive portal in the sky with tentacles snaking from it. "Or anything at all?"

The V-Series Doombot shook violently as red psychic energy coursed over its plating as Scarlet Witch ripped it apart and send vibranium chunks flying in all directions, embedding themselves in the other Doombots like shreds of shrapnel. "I don't know how we could," she said breathlessly, looking up at the sky. "That monster is—"

"No." Punisher rolled in between them, having just tossed a handful of grenades at a pair of Doombots and sent them flying behind him in a rather impressive explosion. "It's not the monster that should concern you." He raised his arm, pointing a finger at the Sorcerer Supreme. "It's the doctor."

Doctor Strange stood at the base of the longest and thickets of Quoggoth's tendrils, a massive tentacle with the circumference of a redwood tree that stretched from the center of the portal and buried itself in the earth. His hands were making erratic gestures, his fingers twitching as if in a neural breakdown. His eyes had rolled back into his head, showing pupiless sockets of orange light. Only the eye in his forehead blazed, stretching to unbelievable width and girth until it was almost popping out of the socket it had created itself. His lips were parted, teeth bared as if screaming in agony, and he appeared to be clawing violently at the Eye of Agamotto suspended on his neck. "We have to stop him," grunted Punisher, reloading his weapon. "He's completely out of control."

It was true. Strange was losing his grip on Quoggoth, whose attention was now divided between the larger battle of Doombots and heroes as well as Doom. Thick dark tendrils snaked their way through the air, wrapping themselves around Doombots and crushing them like soda cans. Poor Pigeon Pete was snagged from the air and vaporized by whatever deep magic Quoggoth had in its power. Quoggoth's energy caused the pigeon mutant to age significantly in a matter of seconds; his skin and flesh turned to dust and his body exploded in a cloud of lavender smoke, leaving behind only blackened mutated bones.

In addition to avoiding Quoggoth's fury, they were very preoccupied by the Doombots. With the heroes' fighting styles downloaded into their control matrices, they knew the heroes' moves almost before they made them. This made it much easier to defend and counterattack, and without vibranium weapons to pierce the robots' hulls, the heroes were running out of options.

But the Doombots were only focused on the heroes. That was what they had been programmed to do.

So it was a slight surprise to Doom when Loki appeared before him, brandishing Gungnir in both hands, draped in his Asgardian livery, daring to challenge the god that Victor von Doom had become after being bested and subdued by petty superheroes and heroines.

"Victor!" Loki called, an arrogant sneer on his face. "It is time we talked, you and I. About time, and space, and reality, and all in between."

"Loki." Doom snorted contemptuously. "You face the most powerful Doom that has ever existed. Whelp. You have no hope of matching me, let alone slowing me down."

The two magicians stood, Loki the master of mischief, and Doom the lord of tech and a powerful magical manipulator in his own right. Quoggoth's tentacles wriggled and coursed through the sky above them, the creature emitting earth-rattling howls as it became ever more free of Strange's control and tried to break the barrier and enter their realm.

It was Loki who moved first, firing a powerful stream of Odinforce energy from Gungnir's tip at Doom. The magical energy was met by Doom's own arcane power, purple streams of fire colliding and clashing with green ones. "Fall, damn you!" Loki shouted, as he increased the power and forced Doom to take a step back.

"There is not enough power left in the universe to stand against Doom!" Doom shouted, swinging his other fist forward in a motion that sent an invisible wave of force crashing into Loki. "Let alone at the behest of an Asgardian turncoat!"

Loki rolled backwards from the attack, landing in a crouching position. He raised his head, and Doom caught sight of that infuriating smirk. "I have been at this a long time, Victor," Loki said tauntingly. "You're still raw when it comes to playing god, aren't you?"

He whirled the sceptre over his head and swung, releasing a powerful crescent wave of energy that caught Doom head-on. Doom shouted as it was his turn to go flying, crashing on his back into the ground a short distance away.

Loki shut his eyes and muttered a prayer under his breath, his words carried by the wind. "Father. Mother. Brother. Please believe me. I did not mean for any of this to happen. If you can hear me, hear my plea. Give me this one chance. Let me save Midgard. Let me cast out the power of my imaginings against he who would attack the honor of the Nine Realms."

In a flash the Casket of Ancient Winters had appeared in Loki's hands, and he opened the mystical artifact. His skin turned blue and his eyes turned the color of ripe tomatoes as the box in his hands unleashed the wrath of a thousand winters. The snowstorm that engulfed the two magicians was the size of a hurricane, sucking up chunks of rubble and turning them into frozen meteors. Loki had never erupted with so much godly power before. It was almost enough to make him smile.

Doom was frozen where he stood, turned to a solid chunk of ice and frozen matter that could only emit low guttural groans. Without missing a beat, Loki flung Gungnir like a spear, the weapon's tip striking Doom's frozen form with all the force the Asgardian could muster. There was a sound like breaking glass as Doom shattered, crumbling into a thousand shards of white ice. Gungnir buried itself in the ground, surrounded by a pile of pieces that had once been Doom.

Loki blinked in surprise. It couldn't be that easy.

And he was right. It wouldn't be.

The chunks of ice began to melt almost instantly, forming a large puddle of milky=white liquid that a gooey figure began to emerge from. Doom stepped out of the puddle, completely whole and as he had been before, thick white slime dripping off of his armor. "That hurt," he said furiously, and Loki had a mere second to react as Doom flung his fist forward and blasted him with a stream of violet fire. Loki barely raised a force field in time, a blue gleaming bubble whose surface burned and melted in the face of Doom's attack.

"But pain often brings clarity, Loki," Doom said. "I see you now. You have my full attention."

The flames ceased, and Loki dropped the force field, twirling Gungnir before lowering its point directly at Doom. "Good," he said, grinning mischievously. "Then let's get started."

"No," said Doom. "Let us finish this. And do so as gods."

---

Cap was fighting hand-to-hand against a Doombot when Quoggoth attacked from above, sweeping him off his feet with a vicious swipe from one of its tentacles. Cap went flying, crashing into the ground. He struggled to rise, turning his head and spotting Loki and Doom battling it out in the distance. Doom threw an arcane-charged punch at Loki that sent the Asgardian's head snapping back in a puff of indigo flame, but Loki swiftly swung the butt of Gungnir at Doom, stopping the sorcerer's attack to parry the Asgardian's blow.

In another time, Cap never would have believed his eyes. But everybody could change, he guessed.

His eyes glanced at Doctor Strange, who stood where he had been standing since he had brought this power to their dimension. Feet apart, arms at his side, fists clenched, eternally chanting "K'ooth ul d'ayn. Yool d'ayn hat Whuurl" over and over again. If it was some sort of command to Quoggoth, it wasn't working; the eldritch monster's tentacles were almost exclusively targeting the heroes now.

He saw Blade the vampire hunter swept off his feet by a long tentacle, lifted high into the air and wrapped around like a python constricting its prey. Blade was being squeezed hard enough for the veins in his forehead to bulge out, blood trickling from his mouth as he screamed through grit teeth. There was a puff of smoke as he aged in a moment, turning into a charred skeleton the same way Pigeon Pete had as he exploded from the inside out.

Blade wasn't the only one. Tigra was lifted off of the back of a Doombot she was clawing at, struggling furiously as Quoggoth constricted her with one of its vine-like tendrils. She continued to kick and scream until she too had been burnt to a crisp, the flesh turned to dust on her bones and wisping away in the wind along with the thin purple veil of smoke.

Ursa Major, the hulking bear member of the Russian superhero team the Winter Guard, was charging through the melee towards the Red Guardian, who was being dragged away by one of Quoggoth's tentacles. "Alexei!" Ursa Major shouted, shoving aside a pair of Doombots as he reached his team leader, clamping a clawed paw down on the tentacle wrapped tightly around Red Guardian's torso.

Red Guardian groaned as Quoggoth began to squeeze, feeling his ribs start to crack under the pressure. "You … you were right, Mikhail," he said in pain. "I was wrong. If it all ends this badly, I should have lived bett—aargghh!"

His words were cut off as Quoggoth increased the tightness around his torso and shattered his ribcage. Quoggoth's eldritch powers began to take their effect, as he began to age before Ursa Major's eyes.

"No … comrade … no …" Ursa Major breathed. Then he blinked. "NO!" he roared, sinking teeth into the thick vine-like tentacle wrapped around his comrade, tearing and ripping at eldritch flesh blindly in a rage until he had severed the girthy tendril from the larger creature. Somewhere in the skies above them there was a loud shriek, and the torn tentacle withdrew back into the portal, leaving Ursa Major with a mouthful of oozing eldritch meat and the Red Guardian, weakened but still alive. The rest of the Winter Guard moved quickly to Ursa Major's side. Ursa Major picked the Red Guardian up in his paws and moved him to safety, with Crimson Dynamo and Darkstar surrounding him and providing covering fire from the Doombots closing in.

Cap spotted the Invisible Woman narrowly dodge a Doombot that Quoggoth had tossed wantonly into the air. The metal mass still managed to hit her and sent her rolling a few feet away from Cap. Cap ran to her side, checking her pulse before trying to jar her back to full consciousness. "Sue!" he said, shaking her. "Listen to me. It's up to you to save everyone."

Invisible Woman stirred, shaking her head. She was still dazed from the blow the tumbling Doombot had given her. "What?" she asked in confusion.

"I know what I have to do," said Cap. "And I need your guys's cooperation." He looked around. "All of the psychic supers. I need you to put a force field around all of us, on my signal. And no matter what happens out there, you can't lower the force field until we get that monster back where it came from."

Without waiting for Invisible Woman's reply, he raised his finger to his earpiece and shouted a command. "All heroes, fall back to my position! Now!" As the surviving heroes scrambled to respond, bringing the wounded with them, Cap turned and charged up the hill towards Iron Man, who was lying still frozen in his suit of armor, propped up against one of the few columns of rubble that still stood in the wreckage of the Golden City.

"Stark," he said when he reached the top of the hill, and Iron Man's head managed to turn to face him. "Can you get that repulsor online?"

"Yeah," Iron Man said. "What's the plan?"

"Captain Marvel is out, and Thor and Storm are in space," Cap said grimly. "We need a big hitter to push Quoggoth back through that portal. But first, you're going to take out Strange temporarily. Nothing harmful, just put him to sleep."

"A short-frequency pulse should do it," Iron Man said. "Maybe." He ran a quick diagnostic. "The suit is still rebooting and we don't have time to wait for a full charge. T, I'm gonna have to go solo on this one, buddy."

"See you on the other side, boss," came T.A.D.A.S.H.I.'s reply.

Tony then ordered his suit's nanotech back into the housing unit strapped into his chest. Red and gold particles streamed from his head to his toes, all retreating into the arc-reactor-shaped pod that he wore on the front of his white tank top, now wearing no Iron Man armor except for the right repulsor and gauntlet. As he got to work prepping the piece of armor, the other heroes had made it back to the top of the hill, bringing those who had been wounded in battle behind them. They all made their stand around Cap.

Cap turned, catching Quicksilver's eye. "Pietro," he said. "You still fast?"

"Faster than ever, Captain," Quicksilver answered.

"Tony, Jean and I need a lift," said Cap. "On my go, get all three of us as close to Doctor Strange as you can. We need some real speed, Pietro."

Quicksilver shot Cap a cocky grin. "Trust me, Captain. You'll never see it coming."

Cap smiled grimly at Quicksilver's banter as the heroes huddled up, standing back-to-back at the top of the hill. The Doombots marched up the hill towards them, and in the skies above Quoggoth's massive tentacles flew through the air, bearing down on them with unnatural shrieking noises.

Cap glanced at Tony and Quicksilver, who each confirmed they were ready by nodding their heads. "Now, Susan!" Cap shouted. "Now, Quicksilver!"

Invisible Woman unleashed a protective spherical shield of psionic force over the top of the hill. The barrier was so thick, with so much of Invisible Woman's power behind it, that it manifested itself as a shield of visible light that they could all see.

Quoggoth wasn't willing to go easy on them, and it unleashed its tendrils to try and pierce the shield. The shield held, as Quoggoth continued pounding tentacle after tentacle against the barrier. Invisible Woman struggled, and the shield began to grow smaller. The heroes huddled lower to the ground as the shield continued to shrink. Invisible Woman yelled in fury as she was pushed back by the force of the attacks.

The shield above their heads took on a sudden red coloration as Scarlet Witch took her place alongside the Invisible Woman, her eyes blazing red, scarlet wisps of energy dancing around her fingers as she stood with hands raised towards the shield dome over them.

And she was not alone. Quake threw her own arms upwards, creating a forcefield layer inside the dome of vibrating air molecules. Wonder Man was beside her, tangibilizing his internal energy into an outer layer of protective force energy around the bubble the heroes were huddled under. Darkstar, the Winter Guard member, projected the Darkforce into the bubble that surrounded them. Reinforced now by the power of five separate super heroes, the shield grew larger once again.

Enraged, Quoggoth's tentacles rushed at the shield, pushing harder and harder, battering against the field with the force of a thousand thousand tons. But the five heroes used the might of their power to form the shield, pushing back against Quoggoth with all their strength. Quoggoth turned its attention to the hapless Doombots, who had all been left outside the force field, its tentacles ripping through the robots and crushing them or otherwise tearing them to pieces.

Quicksilver had rushed Cap, Tony, and Jean Grey all out from underneath the shield before it had finished forming, running each one of them towards Doctor Strange one at a time. Now the four of them about twenty feet away from Strange, watching him convulse like a man possessed. Maybe he was.

"What other option do we have?" asked Tony.

"AAAAHH!" Strange yelled, this howl a break from the repetitive chant he had been shouting to keep control of Quoggoth. That was a bad sign.

"None," Cap said grimly. "Okay, here's the plan. Tony, hit Strange with a small blast and knock him out. Jean, the moment Strange hits the dirt, you need to unleash everything you've got on that monster."

"The rest of you better keep your distance, then," said Jean Grey rather grimly.

Cap turned to Quicksilver. "Pietro, I need you to get Cap and Tony out of the range of Jean's powers. They're vulnerable. Your job is to keep them safe. No matter what, I don't want you to leave their side."

"Got it," Quicksilver said, starting to turn away but stopping when Cap clapped a hand to his shoulder. The Brooklyn soldier stared the Sokovian native in the eye, and Quicksilver noticed Cap's expression, as if he were saying goodbye to a friend he wouldn't see again for a very long time. "What about you?"

"You've been given a second chance," Cap told him, as if he hadn't heard Quicksilver's question. "Don't waste it. Don't throw it away. Promise me you won't."

"I won't," Quicksilver answered, unsure of what Cap was referring to. "You have my word."

Cap smiled and nodded, though his smile looked more like a grimace. "Stark, you good to go?" he called.

"Yeah," Tony said, aiming his right arm at Strange. "Power steady."

"Then, fire."

The second Cap gave the order, Tony fired, the bolt of blue energy striking Doctor Strange directly in the center of the third eye in his forehead. The crimson light engulfing him and coming out of his eyes and mouth was extinguished in a heartbeat, and Strange's eyes rolled back in his head as he fell to the ground. There were a pair of blue flashes, and Tony and Strange were gone, carried away by Quicksilver.

Jean stepped forward, staring up at the mass of tentacles that were coming out of the portal above them. Her eyes lit up with a fiery glow, a more intense glow than Strange's had been. Fiery veins began to bulge from her skin, spreading across her face and the rest of her body. She opened her mouth and screamed, and as she screamed there was a burst of fire as she released the power of the Phoenix Force. The flaming outline of a large bird of prey lit up the area around her, atomizing the nearby rocks and ground and turning it into fine grains of sand.

Quoggoth had been stunned by the sudden transfer of power after it had been freed from Strange's influence, and now with its full power turned its attention to this mortal flea who dared to stand before it. Tentacles flung themselves down angrily from the portal towards Jean. Not a single tentacle reached her. She bombarded the portal and the tendrils stretching from it with streams of the Phoenix's power, vaporizing the tentacles with cosmic fire. Any tentacles that got too close to her disintegrated instantly, as the full extent of Jean's powers manifested themselves.

The heroes protected within the force field bubble watched as Quoggoth's tentacles moved from breaking the shield to attacking Jean. There was a horrible screech as each one melted away, fizzling in the face of the Phoenix Force. Quoggoth began to flee, the tentacles retracting through the portal.

But the Phoenix Force would not be content with merely driving this ancient power away. It was bent on destroying it, the challenger that had tried much and failed. So Jean took off, using her telekinesis to project herself through the air. The heroes below stood frozen, staring after Jean as she soared through the air and disappeared through the portal after the eldritch creature.

After a few moments, Invisible Woman and the others released the force field, and they all looked to the portal Quoggoth had retreated into and Jean Grey had flown inside. It looked much less stable than before, streaks of violet lightning erupting from out of the portal to strike the ground around them. Horrible sounds came through, sounds of some great beast moaning, or roaring, in extreme pain. The noises felt as if it were shaking them to their core, as if they might come apart at their joints from the vibrations.

On the other side of the portal, Jean Grey found herself in a realm between realms, filled with asteroids tumbling aimlessly through a space not bound by time. She was face to face with the massive being that was Quoggoth. It was like an octopus, with a thousand eyes from which stretched too many tentacles to count. The creature released a bellow in some long-dead tongue, furious with Grey for defying it.

But Grey would not back down. Here, outside of the realm of the Earth, there was nothing she could harm except that which needed to be harmed. No other heroes. Just her and Quoggoth. And so she let go, any mental restraints evaporating at a moment's thought, unleashing the power within her.

The Phoenix Raptor stretched for miles, a firebird the size of a hurricane. Its talons burned hot enough to melt stars. No longer was she Jean Grey, or even the Phoenix. She had become a thing made solely of fire and fury.

And fire and fury was all that awaited Quoggoth.

---

Quicksilver had carried Tony and Strange behind a low rise, shielding them from the power of the Phoenix Force. Tony peeked his head over the edge, looking up at the portal. He had a moment's flashback to his own encounter with portals, falling out of the New York sky during the Chitauri invasion, before turning to Strange. "How's the doc?" he asked.

"Unconscious, but alive," said Quicksilver. "He'll most likely come around in a few moments."

Tony's head swung back and forth, looking around frantically. "Wait. Where's Rogers?"

---

"Stop!" Loki shouted, as he used Gungnir to deflect the magical energy coming from Doom's gauntlets. Doom did not obey Loki's command; rather, he pressed his attack, pouring more effort into his assault. "Just, stop," called Loki again, his legs starting to buckle. "This is madness, Doom. You're not a god. One day, you'll die."

"Oh?" asked Doom. Now he lowered his arms, ceasing the magical attack and giving Loki a chance to breathe. "The story of Doom can end, you say?"

"Yes," Loki panted.

Doom's eyes narrowed as if he was smiling behind his mask. "Then I'm a better story than you. You're beaten on your own ground, little god. You're mine."

He rushed towards Loki, grabbing the Asgardian's wrists and lifting the spear over his head. This opened him up to a vicious backhand from Doom that loosed his grip on Gungnir and sent him stumbling back against a larger rock. He grunted as he hit the rock, and Doom, now in possession of Gungnir, whirled the weapon in his hand and thrust its point forward.

The spear ripped through Loki's torso.

Doom sneered at Loki, at the shock and pain written all over the man's face. How pathetic. One of his most trusted generals, reduced to a Benedict Arnold. "Yes," he said mockingly. "The pain is unfortunate. But that's what it's come to, hasn't it?"

He leaned in closer, watching the blood bubbling at the Asgardian's lips. "You fight and claw and bite for another breath. But it won't do you any good. Not against me. I've watched you. How you fight, how you think. And you?" Doom threw his head back and laughed. "You have no idea what you're facing."

Loki looked up from the spear in his stomach into Doom's face, meeting the man's gaze with his own piercing blue one. "You're wrong," he said, coughing up a lungful of blood. "I may not know you. But I've seen your kind: flawed men feigning nobility. I have walked that road, Doom. And found it to be fruitless and miserable. Any pain I feel is out of pity." He bowed his head. "I feel sorry for you. And the wretched end you must have waiting for you."

His body began to shimmer, and then before Doom knew it, he was gone, disappearing in a haze of golden-green. Doom stared at the point of Gungnir, buried in the rock where Loki—a mere illusion—had been moments earlier. In a rage he threw the spear to the ground, furious at the fact that he had, like so many others, fallen for a bit of Asgardian mischief.

And yet, despite his anger, he could not help but smile. "You remain Loki, Loki."

A faceless voice floated over the air as if carried by the wind. "I'll take that as a compliment."

"And that," Doom said, "is why you are Loki."

Ah, well. It had been a slight challenge, pitting Asgard's greatest sorcerer against Earth's mightiest magician. But now it was over. Loki had fled, the cowardly dog. Doom would burn the rest of the heroes into nothingness now. Not even their ashes deserved to lie upon the ground.

They could cast as many stones as they liked. Strange was unconscious, his ordeal with the Eldritch putting him in no position to contest Doom. The name of Doom was all that would matter, from now until the end of—

A low metallic whistling noise caught Doom's ear a second before something crashed into the crook of his neck. The clang of metal on metal filled the air as Doom's head snapped to the side at an unnatural angle. Rage overtaking him, he whirled to face Captain America, the First Avenger, standing a few feet away. The shield magnetically attached back to his arm as he put his hands up in a boxing stance, ready to fight. "Is there any meat under all that magic and metal?" he asked. "Asking for a friend. And by friend, I mean my shield."

"How dare you," Doom snarled, shaking with pure burning malice, shocked at Captain America's bravado. Loki had been beaten by him, why did this mortal think he stood any better of a chance?

Cap smiled, which only served to make Doom angrier. "Haven't you been paying attention, Doom? I dare quite a bit. I dared to choose between living and dying for millions. And now I'll choose for you too."

Cap dashed forward, throwing the shield again. Doom raised his hands and blocked this throw, and the vibranium shield clattered to the ground. Cap had reached Doom now, and threw a punch that caught the mad villain off guard. "You've murdered millions of people," Cap said, not slowing down with his punches, the super soldier serum fueling his attack in the protection of the others. "Humans. Mutants. Heroes. Villains. It made no difference to you."

He'd watched Loki get stabbed, then been relieved when it had been an illusion. And Loki was more powerful than he could ever hope to be. But he had no choice. He would never stop fighting. And he wasn't fighting for himself, if he ever had been. He was fighting for Doctor Strange. For the Avengers. For the rest of the heroes here today. And for anyone and everyone who couldn't fight for themselves. He was doing what he could, because he was the only one who could.

Just keep him off Strange. Keep him off the others. Focus on me, Doom.

"You think you're God?" Cap asked, taunting Doom now. "That you'll destroy the Earth and make it over in your image? I got news for you. If you're God, then God is dead!"

Suddenly Cap's limbs froze in paralysis as Doom grabbed him telepathically and flung him over his head into a pile of rubble. "I won't be judged by someone less than a man, and no more than a lab experiment," Doom snarled. Now it was his turn to attack, and attack he did, with a ferocity Cap had never seen in an opponent before. It was taking every skill he knew just to stay alive.

Cap could feel himself slowing down, his legs becoming stiff and leaden. But he couldn't give in to the pain. He had to keep fighting, harder than he ever had before. He threw a backhanded smack with his shield hand that snapped Doom's head backwards, following it up with a punch to Doom's midsection. Doom stopped Cap's attack in its tracks as the warlord threw his own punch, his fist charged with purple electricity, that knocked Cap into the air and sent him flying head over heels.

Doom was on top of Cap before he could recover, lifting the man by his lapels so his face was inches away from Doom's own. " 'You've murdered millions of people'," Doom said, echoing Cap's own words, repeating his statement back to him. He shook his head. "The way you people talk about your lives. Like they mean something. 'You've murdered millions of people'. I am the greatest man I know, but compared to my purpose, I'm nothing. Just as you are nothing. Am I the only man here with the courage of his convictions? Or am I the only one with conviction at all? These lines you won't cross, these things you won't do—they shame you."

He turned Cap's head, so the two of them were looking out at the crowd of heroes who were watching the portal in the sky, growing ever more unstable by the second. "How dare any of you put yourself," Doom snarled, "your damn morals, above the lives of every living thing? The truth is, you people aren't worth that, and neither am I. Our lives are a pittance. A petty, small, nothing. Shame you won't be around to watch as I do what none of you could."

Doom stopped his monologue by throwing Cap into the ground below him with enough force that Cap sank a few inches into the earth. Doom reached up to feel the chip of metal on his face. When Cap had thrown his shield, the attack had chipped off a piece of Doom's weathered suit of armor. Doom almost smiled out of respect. "You have dared much, and won much," he told Cap as the man lay below him in the dirt. "For you alone have managed to hurt me. But you cannot prevail against my might. None of you can."

Cap had dealt with would-be tyrants like Doom all his life. Small men trying to make up for their inadequacies. Sooner or later, they always fell. When heroes united, when the people rose up and realized they weren't alone, dictators fell. Even if they lost some people along the way, they would win. Even though Cap knew he would die here today, he also knew Doom was going down with him. And he was fine with that. Let the rest of them live. Cap knew he didn't belong here anyway. He was a soldier out of time, and with every passing year more of his past disappeared behind him.

He might be tougher to kill than most, but he had never had any illusions about being immortal. He'd always known that someday it would be his time. Almost every morning he woke up and wondered if this would be the day some Nazi or another would finally figure out how to put him down once and for all. He'd imagined it happening all sorts of ways, each one more painful than the last.

It was funny how your mind wandered when you were so close to death you could smell it coming. His mind went to his parents, Sarah and Joseph Rogers. Mom and Dad, you can't hear me, but I love you so much. Peggy … apart for so long, and together for so short a time. I'm sorry I missed our dance. Faces flew past his eyes at the speed of light. Bucky … Tony … Peter … Sam … Natasha … all the people I loved … forgive me for leaving you like I did … understand why … please, understand why …

No. Focus. Get up, soldier. You're not done yet.

He struggled to his feet, lashing out blindly at Doom and lunging for him. One hand went around Doom's throat as the other reared back, clenched into a fist as he threw another punch. Doom grabbed the hand around his neck and squeezed hard, crushing Cap's left hand into mush. Cap cried out in pain as the bones in his hand shattered, and he fell to his knees with Doom still holding his fist.

"And now, we're done," said Doom. "And what have you gained, Rogers? Nothing." He struck Cap with a haymaker to the chin, and Cap's head jerked violently to the side. He caught a glimpse of a pair of teeth—his teeth, he realized—flying out of his mouth from the force of the blow.

"Yes, you tested me," Doom growled, punching Cap's face again and again, his grip on the man's shattered left hand preventing him from moving or getting away. "Reduced me to this wanton physical violence. But I remain Doom, and you, something beneath me."

He let go of Cap's hand, and the man flopped limply to the ground. Doom looked down at his own hands, covered in Cap's blood, and felt sorely tempted to wipe them off on his white cape. He stared down in pure contempt at Cap's body. "A lesser. A fool who doesn't know that he's beaten. A smiling fool who … who …"

He paused, narrowing his eyes and looking closer. There was no mistake. Cap was smiling through a bloody mouthful of broken teeth. "Wait. Why are you smiling at me, Rogers?"

Cap rolled over onto his back, looking up at Doom, grinning from ear to ear. The man's face looked as if it had been rubbed against a cheese grater from Doom's punches. His nose was broken and bleeding, and blood filled his mouth as well. His uniform was ripped and torn in places, and the internal injuries had to be substantial. And yet, he dared to smile at Doom.

"B-because I was biding time," he stammered, choking on his own blood. "And you're going to … to lose." Doom's face went to a blur as details faded into opaqueness, like he was looking at everything from underwater. As tears filled his eyes—though whether of joy or sorrow he wasn't sure—he closed his eyes, feeling them leak between his shut eyelids and drip down the sides of his face. "It d-doesn't matter . . . how strong you are . . ." he gasped, any strength he had left going to these final words. "I'll find a w-way to stop y-you. I'll f-find a way. I . . . I can do this all day."

Doom leaned in close to Cap. Even though they were mortal enemies, he had to respect the man's unwavering tenacity. "Given time, I almost believe you could," he said softly. "But this ends for you, Captain. Now."

He brought his foot down viciously against Cap's neck. There was a sickening crack, and then Cap's head rolled loosely to the side, his eyes staring blankly at nothing as the light faded from them. The muscles in his body, carrying hundreds of years' worth of burdens, of pain and struggle, finally relaxed forever.

Captain America was dead.

But that smile, that damned smile, was still there.

Doom's wrath was volcanic. He had been thwarted before by Captain America's kind, but the thought of encountering such bravado here, when he so clearly had the upper hand, the powers of god incarnate, blinded him with such rage that he played directly into Doctor Strange's trap.

For in his fury, the warlord had ignored a magician's craftiest skill. Sleight of hand.

Doom was struck by a fiery blast from behind which blew him away from Captain America's dead body and into a column of rubble. He got to his feet almost immediately. "Who dares strike me?" he screamed. "Another pitiful hero?"

"No." Doctor Strange stepped through the cloud of dust, glowing orange tao mandalas around both hand and the Eye of Agamotto talisman open hanging from his neck, the Time Stone shining an emerald green inside. "You really don't have any imagination, do you?" Strange asked, his eyes blazing with the same fiery energy as before.

"If you did …" a voice said from behind him. Doom turned to see an impossible sight: Doctor Strange standing where only moments before Doom himself had been thrown into the pillar. The doctor fired another blast of energy from his hands, catching Doom in the shoulder. Doom shouted and spun from the force of the blow.

"… you'd realize that with a Time Stone …" Now Strange was on his right, impossibly fast, firing another energy blast that he was too slow to avoid completely. The fiery shot grazed his chest, sending him stumbling back into another attack from Strange coming from his rear. How was this possible? Strange was moving at speeds impossible to any, even a sorcerer.

The attacks were picking up in speed as Strange kept reappearing and disappearing, faster and faster, almost faster than Doom's eye could track. He was hit simultaneously by three bolts of Strange's mystic energy, two from each side and one from the front, and the shot forced him to his knees. They kept coming, one after another, relentless in their assault. And Strange's voice was ever present, only growing louder and louder, more intense. "… a single combatant stands no chance when surrounded by an army!"

Dozens of copies of Doctor Strange surrounded Doctor Doom, each one blasting him with these new otherworldly powers that Strange had come to possess. Were they illusions? Doom could not tell; the pain he was suffering was too great for him to even think. His body was engulfed in a fiery, excrutiatingly painful blaze, suffocating him, forcing him to scream insanely and hysterically as everything that made Doctor Doom was burnt away by the purifying fire of Strange's new power. The loud, desperate shout coming from Doom's mouth blended into a final agonized scream of flesh and metal, as the pure energetic power grew and grew until finally it was too much to be contained, a symphony of power building to a mighty crescendo.

With a roar loud enough to swallow the world, in an explosion of heat and pure-white light, the area around Doom and Strange combusted and sent the heroes flying into the air. Many of them hit the ground and felt the aftereffects of whiplash kick in, the force of their landing knocking the air from their lungs and snapping their heads back. The energy ripped through their beings, into their minds, through each and every atom, causing them to collectively scream in pain. They were all funnels, conduits, as more energy poured into them and funneled through them than could be contained in an entire solar system. What remained of the Golden City was completely engulfed under a massive mushroom cloud that rose into the air.

---

"Are we dead?" Tony asked, coughing. Everywhere he looked, all he could see was a dense cloud of dust. It covered everything, so thick it stuck to his skin like glue.

"I'm not," said Shinigami, stumbling towards him. "But if you are, can I have the $12,469,876,718 in your bank account?"

Tony glanced suspiciously at Shinigami, looking her up and down. "How do you know exactly how much money I have?"

"Lucky guess," Shinigami shrugged before walking off through the dust.

The heroes pushed forwards, trying to find their way through the thickening dust clouds. "Blood of the Panther God," W'Kabi breathed, fanning his hand in front of his face trying to clear his vision. "I see neither friend nor foe!"

"Look beyond the settling dust, W'Kabi!" Okoye cried, pointing. They all followed the Wakandan warrior' finger to a figure wrapped in red lying on the ground. "There he is!"

It was Doctor Strange, his Cloak of Levitation wrapped around him and shielding him from the blast. As they all ran down the hill towards him, the cloak relaxed, sliding off of Strange's body and onto the ground.

"Unnnhh …" Strange mumbled, sitting up with a hand to his head.

"Odin's beard, what was that?" asked Sif.

"You had no illusion spell—" Mister Fantastic said.

"Not mirages," a voice came from behind them, as Renet pushed her way through the crowd. As a time wizard, she had recognized what Strange had done. "A time loop," she explained. "It was all him. Looping through time. Striking, then jumping back. And again. And again, until he started to overlap."

Strange collapsed into her arms, struggling to recover. "I knew … I knew no one spell would be enough to defeat him …" he said, chest heaving as he gulped in great lungfuls of air. " … but a dozen, all at once … that meant victory." He looked around at the faces staring back at him, faces that were a melting pot of emotions, from anger to relief and everything in between. "I gave all that I had to bring that monster here, and I failed you. Many died on my account. I … I'm sorry."

He slumped back into Renet's arms with exhaustion.

Quill grinned broadly. "You're kidding, right?" He clapped Strange on the shoulder. "You were a rock star out there, facial hair bro!"

Strange glared at him, as did many of the other heroes. Fury pushed his way through the crowd. "Debts we can settle later," he said. "For now, let's all take a deep sigh. We did it."

But Fury's call for celebration would soon come to bite him back as they found Captain America's body.

For that split-second, the world held its breath.

To defeat the greatest threat the world had known, Captain America had sacrificed himself to give Doctor Strange an opening, and scorch Doom's presence from the very earth.

Humanity's brightest had faded from existence after making the noblest sacrifice of all. He had given of himself, so that the world might live.

And he had not been the only one.

---

Hank awoke in the dirt, partially buried underneath several clods of crusted clay. He shook his head to clear it as his suit ran a diagnostic. Bad idea; a migraine-level pain shot through his head. At least everything seemed to be in working order with his suit. The helmet was picking up voices outside, people talking.

"Poor Hank."

"Is there anything you can do?"

"I'm afraid it's too late." That one sounded like the magician.

"Don't say that." That was Hope, he'd recognize that voice anywhere. And she was on the verge of crying. "Please, don't say that …"

"Guys, I'm here," Hank said, thrashing to free himself from the dirt he was buried under. He climbed to his feet, walking towards the rest of the heroes. They were all huddled up, with their backs turned toward him. "I'm okay, Hope," he said again.

He stumbled into the circle, and when he saw what the rest of them were staring at his voice caught in his throat. He hardly heard the others' surprise and relief to see him alive. All he could see was his daughter Hope, and Doctor Strange, knelt beside the bruised and battered body of—

"Oh, my god," he whispered under his breath. "Scott …"

Scott Lang was still alive but fading fast. The internal injuries that Doctor Doom had given him were taking their toll. Hope held him in her arms, staring down at him. "Everything will be all right, Scott," she said, her voice breaking as tears rushed to her eyes. "We're going to get you out of here—"

Scott shook his head. "It's too late." He coughed as the internal injuries Doom had given him finished taking their toll. "Look," he gasped, reaching up and holding Hope's hand in his own, "I'm just gonna go see Maggie and Cassie again, all right?" He smiled sadly. "I've been looking forward to that … for a long time."

He looked up, seeing tears begin to trickle down Hope's cheeks. He tried to reach for them, to wipe them off with his hand, but the effort was too much and he sank back down into Hope's arms, gasping for breath. Looking behind her, he spotted Hank, and a smile spread over his face. "Hank," he called faintly, and Hank pushed through the crowd towards him.

"I'm here, Scott," the old man said, fighting hard to keep from crying. "I'm here."

"You made it," Scott said. "I thought … you died."

Hank shook his head, afraid he would break down if he said another word. Scott seemed comforted by the sight of his mentor and father figure, as if now he could die in peace. "You and Hope make the world a better place," he said. "Things have been screwed up for long enough."

A choking sob escaped Hope's throat as she watched Scott fading away in her arms. Every breath he took was a ragged, tearing wheeze, as if his lungs were filling up with fluid. He let out a gasp and said, "I'm gonna miss … I'm gonna miss you both, Hope." He nodded, smiling as any feeling of pain left his body and he relaxed. "Yeah … I'm gonna …"

And then his head went back, his eyes closing one final time. "Scott?!" Hope asked, the tone of the word rising in pitch until it had turned into a long, muffled cry of despair as she held Scott Lang's dead body close to her, crying into his shoulder as she rocked back and forth.

---

The battle was over.

The day had been saved.

The war had been won.

And for the first time in a long time, no one was sure what to do.

Doctor Octopus and the Foot Clan had fled. Quoggoth had been killed, or retreated back to its dimension by Jean Grey. Doom was gone. Loki had willingly submitted to Thor. Now it was time to play clean-up.

Black Panther was organizing rescue efforts to comb the wreckage of the Golden City, and save any of those who had been left behind in the rubble. There weren't many salvageable buildings; the battle here had pretty much destroyed the entire city. But Wakanda would rebuild, as it always did.

Wakanda would also learn from what had happened here. Already a monument had been built at the outskirts of the city, on the road into the main gates. Doombot scraps had been piled up against a large flagstone, and on the flagstone letters had been painted in alien blood. The makeshift sign gave a grisly warning to all who would ever look upon it, reading "THIS IS WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU INVADE WAKANDA."

As Director of S.H.I.E.L.D., Coulson had called in a few of his assets to help out, working off-the-record to provide medical aid and food and shelter for those who needed it. All of the superheroes had been immediately subjected to med-checks, and the ones that passed went right back out to help with search-and-rescue. They'd done so of their own volition. Others who were more fatigued or injured, like Red Guardian or Doctor Strange, stayed aboard the Helicarrier to be attended to by medical personnel.

There had been a thought brewing in the back of their heads, that when Doom died all those who he'd brought back would die with him. But that was not the case. Everyone that Doom had resurrected was still here, and probably here to stay.

Leo had taken a break from the search and rescue to meditate. Splinter had recommended they all do so. He walked through the barren and desolate landscape, trying to get far enough away from the hustle and bustle of the salvage efforts by the other heroes.

He walked out far enough that the city behind him was partially eclipsed by the dust that was starting to settle over everything. Thor and Storm had managed to neutralize the second sun that Doom had magically spawned, and the orange glow that filled the sky had long since turned to the same grayish black that colored everything.

Leo's foot struck something, and he jerked his foot back in pain, rubbing a stubbed toe. A glint in the dirt beneath him, and he sifted through layers of silt before uncovering a metal faceplate. Holding it up in front of him, he recognized it immediately: it was Doom's suit's faceplate, and all that remained of the mad doctor himself. Leo glanced over it, noting the large chink missing from the side of the faceplate, as if a piece had been broken off.

What was it Doom had said? Humans' predatory nature was what would bring about their destruction. That was one of the same things Thanos had said. All life could do was destroy, and then it brought about death.

Life only destroyed if it chose to. Leo had seen that firsthand. The Kraang, Shredder, creatures made of pure evil and hatred, seeking nothing but death and destruction of everyone and everything. Even Doom, pledging his ulterior motives, had tried to kill many of them. He'd killed Captain America, and Scott Lang. He had chosen to do that.

And the heroes who had stood up to him had chosen something different. To stand up for what was right. To give their lives, their time, their very existences to making the world a better place. That's what he and his brothers did every day. That was how Splinter had taught them.

Life wasn't just death and destruction.

Life was whatever they made it. Life was the consequences of the decisions each of them chose to make.

And he would lead his brothers into choosing right, every single time.

"You know, Doom," Leo said, half to himself and half to the faceplate in his hand. "You're right about many things. About me, and about my friends, and about the Earth. We have let ourselves to be corrupted, weakened by the same thing that gives us our strength. We all share guilt with you. We've let this world become crippled in its divisions. But if there's one thing I've learned, it's that honor doesn't come from a thing. It comes from inside. From courage and from the strength to make hard choices."

He glanced up at the sky and added: "I don't know what my future is, or what will become of our planet. But I do know that the Earth will find its courage and it, too, will rise to stand tall and more powerful than ever. And we will do it with honor."

Setting the faceplate down, he sat on the ground and began to meditate.

---

Author's Note: Hey, readers!

I hope you're all enjoying the book so far, and had fun reading. I've had a lot of fun writing, especially these past couple of chapters. Sorry for the length, but I just felt like I couldn't make the final battle any shorter!

Another apology for the deaths in the fanfic. I killed off Cap because I wanted to try a little experiment with how Endgame would have been like if Cap had died instead of Tony. That's what the next chapters are going to be dealing with: an alternate future for the MCU. Sorry if I pissed anyone off with the deaths, but I hope I made the sacrifices dramatic enough for you guys. And I hope bringing Quicksilver and Leatherhead back was enough to make up for it!

Now, that being said, we are done with the main story arc of the fanfic, but I've got plans for about ten more chapters. The turtles are in for a big surprise when they get back to New York City ... not only that, but Doc Ock is still on the loose. However, if you guys have had enough, I can't blame you for wanting to stop keeping up with the fanfic.

But, I will keep posting, for any people who want to see how this all ends. And I'm gonna resolve Leo and Sif's romance, too. Don't you worry.

Much love, thanks for all the reads and reviews, and I'll see you at the end of this!