The myriad forces for Earth launched themselves at the Skrulls; all the while the true battle was joined in the heavens above.
Skrull marines and doombots opened fire at each other in the stands, but they were little more than observers to this battle. Perhaps the survivors of that fight would be able to assist their betters when they had won their firefights.
The Super-Skrulls in the grounds launched themselves forwards as Queen Vernake's retinue vaulted over the edge of the box into the arena, or took to the skies seeking their foes.
Likewise, Doom's cohort leapt forwards into the melee, each of the deadly warriors selecting an adversary to battle.
For their parts, Doom and Veranke stood back while their servants clashed. Doom called upon his sorcerous might; his eyes blazed with a sickly rust-coloured glow as violet streams of energy flared from his gauntlets as he summoned The Nameless Ones from the void. Outnumbered as he was, he beckoned as many of the creatures into the battle as he could.
The inky monsters unfolded themselves from shadows, leaping upon the Super-Skrulls as they battled with the mutants and super-humans As they did so, Skrulls with magical talents, drawn from their own traditions, exorcized the creatures with searing light as their cohorts focused on their mundane foes.
Carol, Medusa, and Rhodes had launched themselves at Veranke and her retinue.
Carol found herself in combat with several of the elite aliens, dodging the claws of the X-Skrull as she fired photonic blasts at the Avenger-Skrull.
Medusa went straight for the Defensatrix-Skrull with unrestrained fury, not even hesitating as she singled her out for combat. Doom had to wonder if that was the Skrull involved in her husband's death.
At the same time, Rhodes had been taking a line directly at Queen Veranke when Iron Man came from an unexpected angle, smashing the cyborg into the dust.
Rhodes shook his head as he picked himself up from the dirt. His proximity alarm hadn't triggered for some reason, but he didn't have time to think about that at the moment. He scrambled up, his Gatling-gun following his head movements as he scanned for targets-
"Rhodey-" came a familiar voice behind him.
He twisted around. Hovering a few meters away from him was Iron Man. Or at least some version of Iron Man. Still, hearing Tony's voice gave him pause.
"Rhodey, what the hell are you doing?" Tony said.
He snapped up his weapons at the hovering man, but he couldn't quite pull the trigger at that moment. He knew Tony was still alive, and for the all the differences, it appeared that he was right in front of him.
"Tony...is that you?" he asked, keeping his guns trained on him.
"Sure is, buddy. If this was a trick, some Skrull would probably be trying to pull your head off while you're distracted," Tony answered in an all-too familiar manner. He landed gently as he cut his thrusters.
Rhodes lowered his weapons slowly as the fighting around him drifted off. He fully expected to have go break his old friend out of Stark tower after this was done; they'd be able to deal with Doom once Tony recovered.
He let his arms drift down as he tried to process this. As he did so, he remembered that…this 'Tony' had intercepted him just a few moments ago.
"Bullshit. You wouldn't be fighting for the Skrulls," he replied as he resumed aiming.
"Rhodey…I've accepted change-" Tony answered slowly, flicking up his faceplate. "Besides, you're fighting side-by-side with Doctor Doom! You don't think he's manipulating you? That bastards always up to something."
Rhodes was dismayed at all this; the revelation of his Skrullified friend shook him as he struggled to find words to explain what he thought was obvious. "No...what happened to you, Tony? We can't let the Skrulls win..." he stammered, with all the ease of explaining why the ocean was blue. His plan that seemed so solid a few minutes ago suddenly didn't seem so sensible.
"Look man, the Skrulls already won-" Tony said, shaking his head. "I tried my best to stop them, but I can also admit when I'm wrong. They put an end to all the horrible shit we spent our lives fighting. They're here to heal us," he said, pointing at his alien face.
"They've messed with your head! You aren't thinking clearly!" he retorted defiantly.
"I've never seen things more clearly, Rhodey. Now, I've been advocating for you-"
He angrily interrupted, "What!? Advocating for me? The Skrulls have tried to kill me!"
"The people you killed were defending themselves. I'm the one who kept the Empire from launching a manhunt for you and bringing you back in a box of scraps and ash!" Tony said, pointing at himself. "You're my best friend, and I've done everything I could to give you a chance. But now it's time to choose, and from where I'm standing it's a pretty easy choice!"
"They invaded us, Tony. They've conquered everything we've known. I can't..."
Tony pointed at Doom as he continued "So you'll join that murderous psychopath over your friend?" More demonic creatures pulled themselves from the ground in front of Doom, seeming to underscore Tony's point.
Rhodes was entirely unsure of what he should do, and he felt himself freeze for what felt like a long time
Tony's faceplate slammed down and his eyes blazed with celadon brightness. "Fine."
Tony leapt forwards abruptly as his thrusters propelled him. Rhodes was knocked onto his back foot as he was explosively shoulder checked. Before he could recover, a jet-assisted windmill kick from Tony sent him sprawling into the sand.
He rolled away without looking up, trying getting some space. He raised his guns and let a volley of machine gun fire from his wrists, his shoulder Gatling-cannon adding to the barrage.
A wrist mounted energy shield materialized in front of Tony and the rounds vaporized with small 'hisses' as they hit the shield. A repulsor beam the caught Rhodes, setting of alarms in his helmet as his shields were split by the beam. Yellow icons lit up on his HUD as his reactor pumped more power into his shields.
"Shit!" he cursed to himself as he leapt into the air. He wouldn't be able to take many more hits like that. Whatever happened to Tony, he certainly seemed to have recovered his fighting skills. Small panels opened on his shoulders, and he fired a barrage of micro-rockets at his friend.
Tony skillfully fired a series of short repulsor blasts, cutting down the incoming rockets. Even still, a few managed to hit him, knocking him down. Rhodes fired his shoulder cannon into the smoke. He was still trying to come up with a new plan; he didn't want to kill his friend, and he may be able to disable him, but he was fighting just to stay alive. Maybe he could damage Tony's armour enough that he could use his technopathic powers to cut his reactor...
A series of beams fired out from the clearing smoke, and he jinked to avoid the repulsors. He twisted his trajectory, coming down with his fist cocked.
Tony dodged and Rhodes felt his fist sail through the air. He was caught by surprise as Tony grappled the overextended arm. Servos whined as the two suits struggled for a moment, but Tony had the leverage, and Rhodes heard a terrible crack as his elbow hyperextended and the joint gave away. His cyborg physiology told him he was in great pain, but he chose not to experience it at the moment. A second later, he was spinning as he felt Tony fling into the dust again.
He was pushing himself onto his knees when he felt Tony grab him from behind. One hand pushed his head to the side as the other hand gripped the barrel of the Gatling- gun, and he felt Tony pull.
He bent his good arm back over his head, blindly firing his submachine gun into Tony's face as he felt a wrenching at his shoulder as Tony tried to tear the cannon off.
"This isn't what I wanted, Rhodey," Tony said, exertion dripping from his voice.
Red and yellow icons filled his HUD as his armour protested the forces tearing it apart. He fired his thrusters, and the pair skidded along the ground before he got the angle, and they took to the air. He still couldn't quite shake Tony off as he felt something painfully tear in his shoulder.
"Don't do-" he choked out through gritted teeth.
"Everything you've ever had, I gave to you! Including this-!" Tony yelled, finally tearing the cannon off in a shower of sparks and oil.
Agony struck through him like lightning. His armour was heavily integrated into his physiology, and something important to his organic portions had torn with the forces. This time he couldn't disregard the pain. Through the aching haze, he dimly felt as Tony pushed him away.
He turned around, knowing it was all too slow, and tried to raise his good arm and put up some fight. As he turned, he saw the arc reactor in Tony's chest brighten. A moment later, his vision was filled with light as the unibeam caught him at point blank range.
Doom looked up from his sorceries as Stark's unibeam caught Colonel Rhodes. The man was silhouetted in the blue energy beam for a moment, before his smoking form fell towards the ground.
"James!" Carol cried out.
He saw her knock the X-Skrull to the ground with an overhead punch before she took flight to try and catch the falling cyborg. The Skrull's hand shot out and grabbed her by the ankle, flinging her to the ground as the alien recovered. She let a cry of pain as the silvery alien stabbed a wicked claw through her collarbone, pinning her to the ground.
Doom watched impassively as Rhodes landed in a smoking heap. He wasn't moving, and it appeared this was the end of the Warmachine.
It was nice when loose-ends tied themselves up.
It had been a gamble to not inform Colonel Rhodes about Stark, but Doom suspected their alliance was coming near its end. Rhodes was a skilled and deadly fighter, but finding out his oldest friend had betrayed them would be enough to distract him. That Stark saved Doom the effort of delivering the death blow was a heart-warming end to that issue.
Still, it wouldn't do to let the loss of a pawn go unanswered.
Stark was still hovering for the moment. Whether he was pensive about his erstwhile friend or was taking stock of the unfolding battle, Doom could not guess. He took aim at Stark and fired a particle beam from his gauntlet. He hit his target square, and Stark tumbled downwards.
The other benefit of Rhodes' sacrifice was wearing down Stark. The unibeam, while highly powerful, drained a large portion of his power reserves. Combined with the power draw for the shields, Doom estimated Stark was at about fifty-percent capacity at the moment, and he did not intend to let his old rival recover. The last time they fought, Stark had developed technologies that gave him a significant edge, and the dishonorable provincial had led a surprise attack on Doom's homeland.
There were many things the old Director of SHIELD needed to answer for.
Stark quickly recovered himself, search for what hit him. Doom fired another heavy particle beam, but this time it was dodged. A barrage of emerald beams followed it, with Stark desperately twisting between them. He levelled an arm at Doom and fired a cluster of crackling missiles from his wrist. Doom's systems blared out an alarm as it detected the disrupters acquiring him as a target. He gave a dismissive wave as he released a pulse of electrical interference, causing the shield-disrupting projectiles to sputter and clatter to the ground.
Doom braced himself as he saw Stark turn and charge him from the air. He fired a beam from his right gauntlet, but Stark cut his thrusters and barrel rolled under the humming particles. Too-late Doom realized he missed, but before he could react, Stark was within arm's reach. A thruster empowered uppercut knocked his head back, but he was able to raise his guard, and he caught the follow-up punch on his forearm.
At this close, Doom could see the chips and carbon-scoring on Stark's armour from his previous battle. He punched him just below the xyphoid process, where his abdominal armour linked with his thicker chest plate. The shields took the brunt of the force, but it did slow him down. He caught one of Stark's wrists in his grip and pulled his other hand back to punch the man. Stark caught the punch in his palm, and for a moment the two men were locked in a stalemate, armour servos whining as they sought to overpower each other.
The last time they were caught in such an embrace, Doom had to rely on his magical aptitudes to survive as Starks armour overwhelmed his own. After a year of diligent effort, this time would be different.
ARMOUR SHILEDS AT 110%
WARNING – INTERFEARACE CAUSING SHIELD DRAIN
His computers sounded their alarms as Stark shunted his power to his own shields. Coronas of green energy lashed and crackled off the two as they matched their technological prowess.
He disregarded the chirping of his computers as his shields precipitously drained. Such a battle was crude affair, with the measure of victory going to the one with greater power output, but Doom' knew the matter was in his favor. He fired his mask lasers; the yellow beams scored grooves into Stark's plate as they found weaknesses in his depleting shielding.
Elation bloomed in him as he felt his victory approach. Stark tried pulling away as he realized he was overmatched, but Doom wouldn't release his grip.
"You degenerate, vice-ridden drunkard-" Doom hissed, feeling forearm plates begin to buckle in his iron grip. "Everything that has come to pass was borne from your failure." Energy arced up Stark's arms as his shields failed, and smoke drifted up from the gaps in his armour.
Doom saw the glow in Stark's reactor build as he charged a last-ditch unibeam.
Lightning-quick, he released his grip, and delivered an energized strike to the center of Stark's chest plate. Without his shields, the punch landed, cracking the outer case of the reactor and smashing the focusing aperture. Bright light flared out as the built-up energies dissipated and grounded themselves. The reactor winked out as Stark went limp and fell to his knees, his armour abruptly encumbering him with its unpowered weight.
Doom stepped back for a moment before he placed the sole of his sabbaton on Starks chest and pushed him onto his back. He realized that the fighting around him had stopped as the participants watched the climatic duel. He looked down at the fallen Iron Man with disgust.
"You, of all people, were uplifted to defend mankind; an ideal of the profane society that has led us to subjugation," Doom said, leaning over and gripping Stark's face plate. He tore if off, and smoke wafted from the new opening his armour. One of Stark's eyes was swollen shut, and green blood dripped down his ridged chin. To Stark's credit, he fixed him with his remaining eye, giving a defiant glare.
Doom pulled back his gauntlet, baleful energies crackling across it, "For your crimes against humanity, Doom renders judgement upon you."
He punched downwards, feeling a slight mush as his servo-assisted strength pulped Stark's skull. A half-second later, he fired his particle beam, and Stark's armour exploded from within, vaporizing the traitor.