A/N: Hello again, friends, and welcome to Chapter Twelve! Sorry this chapter is a bit longer than the others so far, but there's lots of ass-kicking going on, and I was really into writing it! Please review, (I really don't want to hands-and-knees beg, but I will if that's what it takes) it's incredibly helpful to the writing process. Thanks for reading and your support!
Disclaimer: All characters owned by Marvel.
Chapter Twelve
"I don't suppose we could talk this out over a couple drinks?" Spider-Man said, slowly backing away from the army before him. The Kang robot reached behind itself and pulled a massive energy cannon out of a purple portal. The Thor clone spun its hammer in its hand before silently throwing itself forward and swinging the hammer down, making to squash the spider.
"Really? Not even a 'For Doom!' or something?" Spider-Man said as he flipped away, trying to put some distance between himself and Doom's forces. "At least the real Thor knows who he's fighting for!" He swung back into the half of the room that appeared to be more scrapyard, dodging shots from the hundreds of robots chasing him. The giant Doom head was following his movements, and he had to be sure to keep the glowing green eye where it couldn't see him. The specialized robots were following, but they looked sluggish. It had evidently been some time since they had been activated. Doom had most likely completed his upgrades, then left them alone until they were needed.
At the moment, it was about the only advantage Peter could think of.
He didn't even want to imagine how this fight would be going differently if he hadn't gotten rid of the Spider-Slayer so quickly. Though he certainly hadn't been planning to fight Thor today.
OK, Pete, let's think. It's not really Thor, it's a cyborg clone. That means the hammer isn't legit, and the electricity it generates has to come from within itself. Battery powered. Could be a couple of gigajoules in there, but still, a limit. He dodged as his Spider-Sense warned him of an incoming blast from "Kang's" shoulder cannon. As for this one, it looks like it can't time travel itself, but it can pull weapons out of time, just like Kang does. Hmmm… might have to save him for last. If I can get him to pull the right thing…
His thoughts were interrupted as "Thor" caught him in the chest with its hammer, slamming him into the wall. The stones crumbled away as the weapon flew back to its master, who floated silently in front of Spider-Man. "You know, quiet Thor is creepy Thor," Spider-Man said, gripping the sides of the hole and flipping himself onto the wall. In response, the clone raised its hammer and fired electricity at the wall crawler, who was forced to leap down into the sea of Doombots waiting on the floor.
"Man, I gotta tell you, this is the worst sausage fest I've ever seen," he said, smashing two robots' heads together. "And I've been to parties with Johnny Storm." Webbing the two robots together, he started swinging them around his head, careening them into more of their comrades. I guess the lucky thing is, there's so many of them, they keep getting in each other's way. They don't have any room to shoot, so they're just trying to beat me down. The robot flail cleared him a small section of floor, just enough for "Ultron" to fly overhead and try to fry him with its chest laser. He leapt up and punched the robot in the face, only to feel his knuckles pop against the adamantium shell.
Rather than fall, Spider-Man stuck to the robot's head and flipped onto its back, wrapped his arms around it in a full Nelson, and, with a cry, pushed down with all his strength. The chest laser continued firing, but Spider-Man was now in control of its destination. Doombots roasted on the ground, and he managed to pull the beam onto the Sentinel remains before "Kang" collided with him, knocking him off. The robot landed several punches to Spider-Man's face as they fell, cracking the left lens of his mask. "Hey, chump change, you know what you can't do that I can't do either?" Spider-Man said, flipping onto the robot's back, pulling on its wrists and shoving his feet down. "Fly."
They crashed to the ground, Spider-Man riding the robot down like a skateboard. A large gash scraped through the floor, but Peter didn't waste any time waiting to see if he'd finished the Kang-bot or not. He flipped off during the slide and bounced off the wall, swinging back toward the tubes.
If I'm right, I might have a way to stop Doom's piecemeal Ultron. If not, I'll probably get myself killed.
He ran through the tubes, dodging more laser fire, until he found what he was looking for. The runes glowed in the metal skeleton, but the machine itself wasn't moving. Doom apparently wasn't finished with it yet. Designed to stop Wolverine, eh? Pretty sure that means damaging adamantium in one way or another. He smashed the tube and started lifting the skeleton, just in time for "Thor" to slam both him and the machine through the other side of the tube and into the back wall.
The metal was cold against the left side of his face, where his mask had torn from the glass. But the claws inside his left bicep were surprisingly warm. He thought he screamed, but he couldn't be sure. "Thor" gripped the back of his head and started smashing it into the wall. Peter felt his nose break on the first hit, the cheekbone where the Kang-bot had hit him shatter on the second. By the third, he was losing consciousness. Carol… Carol, I'm so sorry…
"Thor" pulled him back and threw him to the ground, the claws ripping out of his arm. The pain snapped him back to reality, just as the clone was bringing the hammer down toward his head. He rolled his torso to the side and placed his left foot on the fingers around the handle, sticking to them; he put the inside of his right foot on the backside of the clone's elbow, and once both were in place, he started pulling with the right and pushing with the left. The joint resisted for a moment, then gave a metallic groan as the proportionate strength of a spider snapped the lower arm free.
Spider-Man rolled back under the swinging limb and looked up into the clone's face; there was no indication of pain, only a registration that the hand holding his hammer was no longer under his control. In the roll, Peter grabbed the hammer, smacking the cyborg in the face with it as he crossed onto his back. "Thor" flew back into the rune-covered machine, then fell to its back. Instantly webs covered it from head to toe, and the clone struggled to break free. Spider-Man stood over the abomination, holding its hammer in his hand; blood dripping from his fingertips, running down the exposed side of his face. "You know, I kind of feel bad about this," he said, "I mean, I've got clones myself. But in this case, I think Thor would approve."
He brought the hammer down on "Thor's" face until it stopped struggling. The face was still mostly intact, though there were some places where the cybernetics beneath were visible. Peter was certain he hadn't killed it. After all, it was the clone of a god; he wasn't even sure if he could kill it at all. But it stopped moving, and for now, that was enough for him.
His Spider-Sense rang out, and he jumped away just in time for the Ultron-bot to miss flying into him. The robot turned around to fly at him again, and Peter made a quick web slingshot between two of the tubes. He pulled the skeleton into it and positioned the arms so that the claws were facing forward. "I'd call this a Fastball Special, but it's more like 'David and Goliath'… also, this thing's not Wolverine, so screw it," he said, letting go of the webs.
The skeleton flew at the Ultron robot faster than it could react, and the claws stabbed into its chest and head. If there could have been a robotic face of surprise, Peter was sure he would've just seen it. The lights blinked out of the machine's eyes, and it crashed to the ground.
Peter breathed for what felt like the first time in hours. His left arm was ached, and blood spurted out of the three holes whenever he flexed the muscle. He webbed what he hoped was a sufficient bandage over the wound and turned around, only to be faced with what remained of the Doombot army and the Kang-bot. "Guys," he said, his hands on his knees, "Can we take five? Maybe ten? How 'bout an hour?"
The Doombots raised their palms and started firing, and the Kang-bot pulled another massive energy cannon out of the time-stream. Spider-Man leapt high, and realized he'd completely forgotten about the giant head hanging from the ceiling, which was now looking directly at him. The one working eye glowed with green energy, preparing to fire a massive beam at him. "No!" he said, "My name's not Alderaan, I swear!" He fired a web line and pulled himself to the right, just as the eye unleashed its energy. The heat seared the soles of his boots, and he suddenly had an idea. Swinging toward the head, he dodged more shots from "Kang" and the Doombots until he found himself directly beneath the giant skull.
He leapt into the hole in the bottom, between the tubes leading inside, and scrambled into the head before the sentries could hit his legs. "Good God," he said, now able to see the small, glowing apparatus that was wired into the machine. "He's powering this thing with a Cosmic Cube." The Cube was one of the smaller ones, which most likely meant it was only useful as a self-sustaining power source rather than an object that could completely alter reality. Well, I was just hoping to use the eye laser, but now… maybe if I overload the Cube's containment unit, it could cause an explosion. One that could be contained to this room, or it might destroy half of Latveria. I'm not sure. The Cosmic Cube's energy output wasn't something I covered in Empire State University's physics department.
Regardless, he didn't see any other way out of the situation, so Peter started flipping switches, turning off safeties, cranking output settings to maximum, shutting off valves. He closed the vents leading outside, hoping the extra heat buildup would make the boom that much more forceful. The problem, of course, was that he had no way of setting a timer or detonator, which meant that the potentially castle-shattering explosion was just going to happen when it happened, with no warning.
He dropped out of the head (the thought of which made him both want to giggle and go take an infinite shower) and found himself surrounded by the Doombots, with "Kang" in their center. Suddenly he was back in high school, and Flash Thompson was about to kick his butt for his lunch money. Except this time Flash could pull any weapon he wanted out of time and the change was coming out of Peter's neck.
"Man, this whole circle thing feels really familiar," he said, pointing upward, "But this thing could explode any second and take half the castle with it. Do you guys wanna risk it?"
If he had been dealing with human guards, they would have started panicking and tripping over each other trying to get to the exit. As it was, they stood their ground, their palms all upraised to fire at him. Peter himself was about to try to swing away, a joke on the edge of his tongue, when the Kang-bot held up a set of papers before throwing them on the ground between Spider-Man and itself.
The files!
The pages weren't enough to be everything, but if Doom had destroyed Carol's historical file, then the rest were either Cap's file or Peter and Fletcher's notes on the Vita Rays. Either way, Peter needed those papers.
Funny how getting stabbed and nearly smashed to death by an eerily silent Thor clone could make a man forget his priorities.
Spider-Man and "Kang" started circling each other. The robot reached into two purple portals and pulled out the hard-light version of Cap's shield and the Black Knight's sword, of all things. Peter kept circling until he was certain the doorway was directly behind him. A low rumbling had been growing steadily stronger at the base of his neck, and as the Doombots weren't charging their blasters to fire, he knew that could mean only one thing.
So he webbed the pages and ran. Or, more specifically, he webbed the pages and started swinging for the exit. "Sorry! I know you wanted that big showdown, but I frankly don't have the time!" His Spider-Sense blared out once, and he dodged the robot's shield throw, caught the disc on a web-line, and sent it flying back at its owner, who was too slow to catch it. "Kang's" head came flying off, and the weapons disappeared back into the time-stream. The Doombots started firing at Peter, but by now the low rumbling had switched into high gear, turning his head into a video game controller. He swung out through the giant door, amazed that not one of those robots had thought to close it. Just goes to show: robots are great at following orders, but completely suck at improv.
He pushed a button on the console and the door slowly started shifting, but Peter could feel it wasn't going to be fast enough. He ran around to the front of the door and pushed, the vibrations in his neck now shaking his entire head. The pistons clicking into place as he managed to get the door shut was satisfying, though, as was the "whump" that ran through the dungeon from the Cube's explosion.
He paused a moment to catch his breath; the adrenaline of the fight was starting to wane, and his arm was really killing him, now, as was his face. He started flipping through the pages he'd recovered as a distraction, and found them to be his personal notes. He wanted to toss them in frustration. They were useless without the formula.
Doom.
XXXXXX
"So why capture me, Doom?" Steve asked, sitting against the side of the wall where Doom had practically discarded him to fix the damaged tech in his gauntlet. "Why not just kill me outright?"
A dull sound passed beneath them, but Doom didn't seem to pay it any mind. Steve was worried about Peter. If he'd walked into as big a trap as Doom claimed he had, Steve wasn't sure Peter could make it out alive. Then again, Steve was in a pretty bad way himself, at the moment. He cursed himself; he should've known better than to come in without backup, without at least telling someone they were leaving, so there would be a rescue plan if things went south. Now he was captured, and worse, he could've gotten Peter killed.
"You know what I've taken, just as well as I do," Doom said, not looking up from his work. "Why do you think I've taken you?"
Steve scoffed, and the action caused him to choke a bit on the blood in his throat. "Is that all this is about? Just another dictator looking for an army of super soldiers? And here I'd thought the world had changed since my day."
Clicking sounds echoed through the chamber as Doom tightened something on his wrist. Watching him reminded Steve of watching Tony work on one of his suits, but if, somehow, Doom could make turning a screw sinister, he managed it. "Do not be so foolish as to compare Doom to your old enemies, Captain," Doom said. "I have no interest in armies."
"So what, then?"
Doom rose and walked over to Steve, gripping him by the shirt and lifting him into a standing position. "Quite simply, Captain, this is about perfection."
Carrying Steve in one hand, Doom walked back up the steps to his throne, next to which sat the shield. Doom deposited Steve on the steps and sat, facing out. "Consider: Doom is already the smartest person on Earth, despite Richards's claims to the contrary," he said. "And, though for some unknown reason I am overlooked for it, I am gifted enough in the Mystic Arts to be Sorcerer Supreme. Physically, however," he paused, some of his fingertips resting against his metal mask. "Physically I am… flawed."
Steve tried to push himself up, to get moving somehow, but the pain in his chest simply wouldn't allow it. The best he could manage was to crawl a bit closer to his shield.
"Now, however, I have both pieces of the puzzle in place," Doom continued. "With you alive, I have an endless supply of the Super Soldier Serum to test and improve upon, and, once I have perfected my version, I now have the radiation necessary to accelerate it."
Doom looked down at Steve, who had crawled up the stairs enough to rest his face against the star in the center of his shield. "Unless you somehow still expect your friend Spider-Man to survive?"
Steve stared up at Doom, and managed to push himself up onto his knees. His brow furrowed, and the dried blood on his forehead cracked in the few wrinkles. "Let me tell you something about Spider-Man, Doom," he said. Doom sat back against the throne, as though listening to a child recite its favorite nursery rhyme. "He may not be the strongest, or the most powerful, or the most gifted…"
Pushing the pain aside, Steve started to stand, picking up the shield as he did so. Doom sat forward in his throne now, readying himself for further resistance from the Captain. "But he has more heart, more character, and more courage than anyone I've ever met." Steve stood at his full height now, defiant in Doom's shadow, as the villain stood as well. "So you can do whatever you want to yourself to try to become 'perfect,'"
Taking a step forward, Steve stood inches away from Doom, nose to nose with him. "But he will always be a better man than you."
Doom lashed out in rage, and Steve was barely able to bring the shield to bear in time to prevent himself from being incinerated. "You dare?!" Doom screamed, the force of his blast sending Cap flying all the way back down the steps; as he crashed to the floor, Steve screamed in agony. He patted his chest and could feel several of his ribs floating freely, now. Doom rushed down the stairs and grabbed Cap by the shirt, slamming him into a column. The shield fell to the floor, ignored. "You dare compare Doom to some insignificant whelp? Spider-Man is nothing!" Doom threw Steve to the ground and stomped down on his face, snapping Steve's nose. "He's not even competition for your bloodstain beneath my boot heel!"
"Oh, I don't know, Vicky," came a voice from behind him.
Doom turned in time to see a pair of red boots swinging at him before they collided with his face, sending him flying into the wall.
Spider-Man stood between Doom and Cap, ready to defend his friend. "I tend to think I have a leg up on the competition. Get it? 'Leg up?' I'm Spider-Man. Spiders have eight legs? No? Nothing? My comedy is lost on you people."
Doom roared, rising from the floor. "Spdier-Man!" he said, firing a blast from his gauntlet. "I don't know how you survived the vault, but you will not leave this castle alive!" Spider-Man leaped over Doom's energy beam, firing two web-lines into the columns and sling-shooting himself into Doom. The impact threw Doom back into the wall, this time creating a small hole. Spider-Man turned and started running back to Steve, but Doom uttered the command phrase, and dozens of laser cannons appeared from the walls.
His Spider-Sense rang, and Peter jumped up to avoid the laser fire from the new cannons, but Doom caught him and midair and sent him flying into a statue. He quickly stood and charged at Doom, and their fight began in earnest.
Steve crawled his way over to his shield, and watched in amazement as Peter dodged more fire than he'd ever seen the man avoid before, as well as holding his own against Doom in hand to hand. However, Steve looked up and saw one of the statues charging its eyes to fire at Peter. Thinking quickly, Steve picked up the shield and hurled it with all his might. "Spider-Man!"
Peter turned in midair in time for three things to happen at once: he dodged a blast of cannon fire from the wall, saw Cap's shield flying beneath him and caught it with a web-line, and his Spider-Sense blared, warning him of something about to shoot him from behind. Pulling the shield around, he placed it between himself and the blast, then spun around, swinging the shield with him, and struck Doom in the face, sending him flying back. Landing, Peter looked at the shield, now resting on his left arm, and the web-line attached to it, and his science brain started doing a little dance. If Peter could've imagined his brain twerking, it would be twerking.
"Oh, Doom," he said. "This is gonna hurt."