Chapter One:
Reed had always been calm, collected, and analytical under pressure. He was seldom one for irrational emotional outbursts of any kind, especially when he was in danger. Now though, as he saw his daughter embracing his oldest and deadliest enemy, and worse, calling him father, that calm rationality evaporated like a drop of water poured into a roaring fire. Reed did not speak so much as let out an inarticulate sound of rage as he rushed towards Doom, one hand rearing back and seeming to melt, then reform into a spiked mallet.
Doom watched, and if he felt any concern behind that metal mask, it did not show in his voice. "Restrain him, Valerie. Gently." Valerie nodded, and stepped between them, raising one hand. All at once, Reed felt himself run into an invisible barrier. Almost immediately, he recognized the feel of it. That then, was how Valerie had seemed to fight with an invisible weapon. She had inherited her mother's powers. She was hardly likely to be as experienced with them, however, and Reed had sparred with Sue more than verbally. He stretched the surface of his hand until he could feel the entire force field, a perfect hemisphere around him. There were none of the imperfections he had been hoping for, but he had calmed himself enough by this point to try an alternate method.
He snapped his hand back to its original shape, and struck a point in the barrier with nearly all his force. A normal man's fist would have shattered at the blow, but his elastic bones allowed him to deliver it without any such trouble. Without stopping to check the effect on Valerie, he struck another point on the barrier, and then a third. He continued, in a careful pattern, before delivering the final blow, with his entire strength behind it. As if from a distance, he heard Valerie's cry as the feedback from the carefully placed blows caught up to her. She collapsed, but Doom caught her before she hit the ground.
"That was a mistake," he said, the cold fury in his voice cutting the air like a naked blade. He lowered Valerie to the ground, and came forward, not quickly, not slowly. If the years had affected Doom as they by all rights should have, his armor more than compensated for it. Reed swung at Doom, who caught his wrist without breaking stride and delivered an electric shock. Reed lost all control over his muscles, and practically melted into a formless shape on the ground. His last sight was of Doom standing over him, raising one hand. Then there was nothing.
--
When Reed awoke he was lying on something soft and warm- a mattress, he suspected. He was also no longer a sort of solid puddle. Before opening his eyes, he ran through a mental checklist. He seemed to be uninjured, except for a faint ache from the dog creatures' acidic saliva. Experimentally, he tried stretching his fingers. Nothing happened. Reed nodded to himself. It was not the first time Doom had contrived some device to rob the Fantastic Four of their powers. Only then did he open his eyes, to find that he was indeed lying on a bed, and a luxurious one at that.
The first thing he noticed when he did open his eyes was the general opulence of his surroundings. That was his cue in the game Doom was playing then. Doom would act as though Reed was his honored guest, at least until his trap was sprung, and perhaps even afterwards. That was good in some ways, as it would give him a while in which he was not actively fighting for his life to try and discover what was happening. It was bad in that it meant Doom had some other plan for him, rarely a good thing.
The second thing he noticed was the man sitting in a chair at the end of the bed, patiently watching him. There was something familiar about the man, but Reed couldn't place him immediately. He soon realized, however, that the problem was trying to think of someone who looked like this man, who couldn't have been more than thirty. Mentally, he subtracted roughly twenty years, and blinked at the small child that resulted. "Kristoff?"
"Still as astute as ever," Kristoff said, "But then, I suppose it has not been so long for you. Now, as undoubtedly have noticed, your powers are not working. I am not going to explain the mechanism to you, for the simple reason that I fully believe you'd be capable of finding a way to counter it, but I will tell you this much- I am capable of returning your powers to you, if we should come to an equitable agreement. Now, I imagine you have any number of questions for me. Ask away, and I will answer any that would not be treasonous."
"Twenty years have passed since I went into that room," Reed said. "How?" He was fairly certain he knew already, but he had to be certain if he was going to find a way of doing anything about it. Besides, it would hardly hurt for Kristoff to underestimate. And surely enough Kristoff looked somewhat surprised at the question.
"Time travel, of course," he replied. "The safest way, for all involved, to keep you out of the way for twenty years. Father had had time travel technology for years, even then, and so, when he decided to remove you from the board, it was the obvious choice."
"When he decided to remove me from the board," Reed said, musing. "Why then? As you said, he had access to transtemporal technology a long time before he decided to use it. Why should he have only chosen to use it then?"
"Until then," said Kristoff seriously, rising and taking a few steps away from Reed before turning to face him. "He had needed you. You always had an honored place in Father's plans, Richards. You were the measure he tested himself against, the foe who forced him to better himself. Father could never have been a normal man, but without you, he would not have been transcendent."
Reed let the odd choice of words pass. "Then why would he temporally dislocate me when he did? What changed, that he no longer needed me to test himself against?" As he spoke, Reed took note of a large device on Kristoff's wrist. It was much too large to be a watch, especially taking into account twenty further years of miniaturization. Nor did it appear to be any sort of directed energy weapon. Reed continued examining it as Kristoff answered.
"Father was ready to enter the next stage of his preparations, and by the same merit that had made you a worthy foe to pit himself against, you were an unacceptable threat to his consolidation of power. You should feel flattered, Richards. You were the only man he considered such a threat."
Reed shook his head. "Can I have a moment, please?" He asked. "To… adjust to this, I suppose." Kristoff nodded, rose, and left, and Reed immediately went to work.
--
"Report, my son," said Doom, sitting upon a throne carved from the living rock of Mount Diablo. A dozen images flashed on the inside of the lenses of his helmet, allowing him to control everything from the price of tea in the East Asian Administrative Region, to the weather in Australia, to the positioning of forces light years away. In one screen, Kristoff sat straight, looking, for all the world, like a schoolboy called upon to recite a lesson.
"He is beginning to understand his situation, Father," Kristoff said, "Though he has by no means accepted it yet."
"You understand what is required next?" Doom asked. "No, of course you do. You are my son. Nevertheless, remember, he must believe that he is acting of his own free will." Kristoff nodded, and turned to go, but Doom spoke again. "Kristoff- be cautious. He is a formidable foe, now, having nothing to lose, more than ever." Kristoff nodded again, and deactivated the communications window.
--
Once Kristoff was gone, the first thing Reed had done was find the camera he was sure was watching him. It was larger than he had expected, but then, it was bound to be far from the only one. Still, it had the circuitry he needed. The lamp, a large brass affair, provided the casing, and some more circuitry, as well, after some hurried MacGyvering, as a power supply via the wall socket.
When Kristoff walked through the door, Reed was ready, and a beam of energy crackled out from the newly made weapon, and struck him in the wrist. As Reed had expected, the suit of high-tech armor contained therein expanded out slightly. Enough to encumber Kristoff, but not enough to offer any serious protection. Reed dropped the lamp and attacked. Kristoff was in the prime of his life, and obviously an expert hand to hand combatant. Still, he was handicapped by the partially extended armor, and he had just received an unhealthy dose of electricity. Reed was able to throw him off balance and move out the door past him.
To his surprise, he found he knew where he was. It was a castle Doom had acquired in Symkaria, one Reed had been in several times before over the years of conflict with Doom. He immediately set out at a dead run for what he was almost certain was the exit. It wasn't long before there was someone pursuing him. Several someones, in fact, judging by the sounds, although Reed didn't waste his energy looking back.
He needed a way out, and quickly. Then, suddenly, he had it. If only Doom or Kristoff hadn't taken it! He reached into an inside pocket of his suit, and, sure enough, there it was. A small rod, carved with runic text. Thor had given it to him some time ago, saying to break it if he ever needed sanctuary in Asgard. He snapped it now and disappeared in a blinding flash of lightning and crash of thunder.
When his vision cleared, he continued blinking, hoping that what he saw was only a hallucination, brought about by his considerable stress. There was no such luck. Before him, the walls of might Asgard, home of the Norse Gods, were crumbled, and the city laid waste.