A/N: Hello again, friends, and welcome to Chapter Thirteen! I have been working toward this chapter since the beginning, and I hope you guys enjoy reading it. Please read and review, I would really appreciate it, and of course, thank you in advance!

Disclaimer: All characters owned by Marvel.

Chapter Thirteen

Doctor Doom rose from the wreckage of the turret he'd flown into. He focused, concentrating his energy, and spoke a few words, pouring mystic energy into them. The circular blue glyphs appeared again on the floor, walls, and ceiling, this time visible only to their master, and beneath the metal mask, he smiled.

Spider-Man was in the air, dodging more shots from the remaining statues. He threw the shield at one, then immediately fired a web-line after it, catching the disc on its return bounce from destroying the statue's head. Twisting in the air, Spider-Man pulled on the web, swinging the shield around and exploding the heads of the six statues left standing behind him. As he landed on the side of one of the columns, his Spider-Sense warned him of a shot incoming from the last statue. He pulled hard on the web, bringing the shield back to himself, and caught it just as the energy blast was about to hit him. The vibranium absorbed the impact, and he leapt off the statue, keeping the shield in front of him. Spider-Man careened into the sentry's head, and the stone shattered around him.

It had taken about three seconds.

Doom stepped out of the scrap metal surrounding him and stared at the wall-crawler. "You will pay for the destruction you have wrought on my home, Spider-Man," Doom said.

"Jeez, Vicky," Spider-Man said, leaping down from the sparking remains of the statue. "That's a lot of stuff you've got me paying for." He held out his hand and started counting on his fingers. "That time I kicked you outside Horizon Labs, now all this stuff in your house. We're really gonna have to work out some kind of financing, here."

"Be silent!" Doom shouted, firing a blast from his gauntlet.

In response, Spider-Man blocked it with the shield, sending the energy into the ceiling. Several bricks fell to the ground, bursting to dust.

The room was silent for a few quick heartbeats.

The turrets in the walls resumed their assault on Spider-Man, and he flipped out of the way, blocking several in the process. Doom fired at him as well, but every time Peter managed to deflect them with the shield.

Ok, Pete, let's even up the odds a bit.

He leapt onto the left wall, bouncing his way up between the wall and the columns. The shield flew out, Peter pulling on his web to scrape it along the very carefully ordered and symmetrical turrets. "Hey, thanks for putting all these in a straight line, Vicky," he said. "I don't think I'd be able to smash so many at once otherwise."

Doom howled in rage from the floor, and fired more shots from his gauntlets. Peter simply jumped out of the way, landing on the wall next to the smoking guns he'd just destroyed. His Spider-Sense tried to warn him about the glyph, but it was too slow. Doom clapped his palms together, and his gauntlets glowed with magical blue energy. The wall erupted outward behind Peter, electricity surging through his body as though it were made of copper. His makeshift bandage burned away from the wound in his left arm, and he fell to the floor, convulsing.

Doom walked over and kicked the shield away from him, then stomped his heel down on the holes in Spider-Man's arm. Peter screamed, the sound tearing from his throat. The pain only intensified as Doom ground the metal heel into the muscle, and Peter was still too stunned from the electric trap to try to resist.

"Such arrogance," Doom said. "To think you could come into my home and take that which is rightfully mine." He lifted his foot and kicked Spider-Man in the face, shattering the left lens of his mask. Doom reached down and lifted Peter up by the neck. "Why so desperate, Spider-Man? The Captain, I can understand, in fact I planned upon, by why you? Your rage when I took the formula, the speed with which you arrived here…"

Peter could see the cogs turning in Doom's head, now, but it was like they were diseased, covered in grime and filth. He didn't want those next words to come from someone like Doom, but he couldn't stop it. "You knew what Parker was working on, didn't you? A cure for Captain Marvel."

He tried desperately to get his arms to work, or his legs, or even his fingers, just to get something to shut Doom's mouth. He had no right to talk about Carol, to even mention her name.

"You love her." Doom said. He looked in Peter's exposed eye for a moment, and it was all he needed. "Yes. It all makes so much sense, now." Doom raised his fist, and it glowed with energy, ready to fire into Peter's head. "Take solace in this, Spider-Man. You will not be alive to witness her agonizing death as her body rips itself apart from within."

"AAARRGH!" Steve shouted, hurling the shield at Doom's outstretched arm, striking him in the elbow. The impact caused Doom to drop Peter, who fell and rolled to the side, trying to put some distance between himself and Doom. The villain turned and fired his charged shot at Steve, who barely managed to dodge in time. Steve cried out as he ducked behind a column, forced to somersault to avoid Doom's fire.

Peter looked up to see the shield falling back down from where it had ricocheted off Doom's armor. With an effort of willpower, he forced himself to stand, then bent his legs and shot into the air, firing a web at the shield on the way. As soon as the webbing struck the metal, Peter spun his body, pulling the disc around and into Doom's back.

Doom flew across the room, crashing into one of the statues. The base exploded, collapsing the statue and sending a cloud of dust through the throne room. The rumbles of the crashing sentry echoed like thunder, and the dust dimmed the light in the room, giving it the appearance of an early morning fog. When it settled, the stone effigy laid on its side, a massive crack running down the center of the mask. Doom pulled himself out of the rubble, his armor dented and sparking in some of the joints, his eyes filled with murderous rage. "Spider-Man!" he shouted, his hands glowing with magical energy.

Peter stood in front of the steps that led up to the throne, the shield resting now on his left arm, his own blood running down his fingers and dripping off the rounded edge. In his right hand, he held what remained of his research: the formula, and the original files on Project Rebirth. During the statue's collapse, he had found them underneath the throne, assuming, correctly, that Doom would want them as close to himself as possible.

Doom stared at Spider-Man, the fury of the mystic forces swirling around his hands shaking his arms. "You will release those papers," Doom said, "Now."

In response, Peter held the files in the air and threw them on the ground, the snapping sound echoing through the chamber. Dust scattered around his feet like ripples in a pond.

The pair charged at each other, the blue lights trailing from Doom's fingertips, leaving an eerie glow on the cracked face of the statue behind him.

Magical energy exploded against the shield as Doom brought his fist down. Peter stuck his feet to the ground so as to avoid being thrown back by the force, and the vibranium absorbed the energy of the attack. Reacting quickly, Peter dodged Doom's next strike, leaping into the air and bouncing up one of the columns. Doom turned and fired a beam from his gauntlet, but Spider-Man blocked it, immediately spinning himself around and releasing the shield on a web-line. Doom barely had enough time to raise his right hand in defense before Peter pulled the shield into it.

The gauntlet shattered. Pieces of the metal rained onto the floor, none of which Doom could have placed as having once been part of his armor. Instead they looked like the scrap metal left behind at construction yards, charred black and terribly misshapen. All that remained on Doom's hand was the nano-fiber weave he wore to protect his skin from the armor.

Peter swung the shield around again, attacking from the air, but Doom jumped out of the way. His Spider-Sense rang out as Doom landed and fired a shot from his remaining gauntlet, and Peter pulled the shield back in to block the attack. Once the energy dissipated, he swung the shield back out again, intending to catch Doom in the legs, but Doom again dodged. Calling on the mystic energies, Doom launched lightning at his adversary, bringing the room to blinding brightness for split seconds.

Spider-Man weaved his way through the electricity, and landed in front of Doom. The dictator didn't have enough time to change his position before Peter slammed into his chest, sending them both flying into the fallen statue. Peter sprang up first, leaping back into the air and off the wall, into the shadows of the ceiling.

The villain stood slowly, pulling himself up on the side of the statue. "What troubles you, Spider-Man?" Doom asked, looking up into the darkness. "You no longer jest. Has Doom finally ended your constant blather?"

"Yes." Spider-Man's voice came from the darkness as the shield flew into Doom's knee, destroying the armor and bending his right leg backwards.

For the first time in a very long while, Doctor Doom cried out in pain.

The shield did not relent, striking the other gauntlet, shattering it as well. Doom rose and again pulled himself up, resting against the side of his own cracked face. Using magic, he lifted the broken stone, riding that half of his head into the air. His fingers charged with more of the magical lightning, and he turned toward his throne. "If Doom will not have perfection, then he will see his enemies denied as well!"

But when Doom's eyes traced down the stairs he saw nothing but dust. And remembered that Spider-Man was not alone.

"Captain!" he screamed, turning around to search for Steve. Instead, Doom was met with Spider-Man flying toward him in the air, twisting, far too late to meet the shield coming toward him with any kind of resistance.

The lightning lanced out of Doom's fingertips, but Peter avoided it, and slashed the shield across the villain's chest, leaving a massive gash in his armor and throwing him toward his throne.

Doom hit the stairs hard, his life only saved by his undamaged helmet and back armor. As Doom slid down the steps, Peter's feet slammed down on his chest. Doom coughed in response, his head launching upwards, and it was all the opportunity Peter needed. Turning the shield upside down, Peter jammed the rounded edge underneath the opening around Doom's mouth and stomped down on the other end with his foot. The concave surface rolled down Doom's chin, crushing his jaw with a satisfactory crack, and snapping the mask into the air. Peter caught it in his right hand as it fell and crushed it before letting it clink down the stairs to the floor.

Peter dropped the shield and slammed his fist into Victor Von Doom's face, heard the crunch of Doom's nose breaking. And he kept going. God, he'd wasted so much time here, Carol could be gone by the time they got back, she could be gone by now, and it was all Doom's fault, if he hadn't stolen the research, if he hadn't run to Latveria, if he hadn't…

He didn't realize he'd been screaming until Steve was holding him back.

"Spider-Man!" Steve shouted at him, pulling with all the strength he could muster. Peter held his hand high over his head, staring into the darkness, until he felt the wetness dripping onto the exposed side of his face. Blood was seeping freely through his clenched fingers, and only then did Peter look down at his handiwork.

Doom's face was an engorged mess. There was little that could be made out as individual features, and the entire surface was covered in a sheen of blood. Looking at his knuckles, Peter realized some of the blood was his own.

"He's out, son," Steve said. "It's over."

Peter's hands were shaking. He pulled off one of his gloves, checked Doom for a pulse and found one. That calmed him a bit, and he sat back on his haunches. "Steve," he said, "I'm so sorry."

Cap placed a hand on his shoulder. "You don't have to apologize to me, son," he said. "After all, I'm the one who told you to take it out on his face."

Peter smiled and gave a short laugh. He reached over and picked up the shield. "I guess you want this back now?" he asked.

"You hold onto it," Steve replied. "Just in case we run into anything else."

Standing, Peter strapped the shield onto his back like he'd seen Cap do so many times. "I suppose we should get going," he said.

They started walking down the stairs toward the front door, slowly, Steve's arm over Peter's shoulders for support. As they opened the massive wooden doors, Peter took one glance back at the throne, where Doom should have been laying. But the villain was gone.

They walked through the castle, all the way back to the window they'd used to get in, without incident. "Are you gonna be ok to climb down, or do you need me to carry you?" Peter asked.

"I think I'll be fine," Steve said, sitting himself on the window sill. Peter lowered a web down to the ground, and Steve repelled down the wall, slowly, Peter crawling down the side next to him. When they reached the ground, Peter helped Steve off the wall, and they started walking back toward the Quinjet.

"Thank you," Peter said after a few moments. "Thank you for stopping me. I don't know that I would have."

"Yes, you would," Steve said without hesitation. "I know you, Peter. You're no killer."

They walked for a while more in silence before Peter asked, "Then why did you need to stop me in the first place?"

Steve shrugged his shoulders. "You were wasting time. We've got to get back home." Peter was going to nod his agreement before Steve added, "So you can tell Carol the truth."

Spider-Man was about to open his mouth when his Spider-Sense blared, and he was forced to shove Steve down into the bushes to avoid a green energy blast. Steve cried out a bit, but rolled through the pain, lying flat on his stomach and elbows. Peter pulled the shield off his back and attached a web-line to it, then jumped into the trees, slowly making his way up the rest of the hill. As he crested the top, Peter looked down to see a contingent of Doombots surrounding what remained of their Quinjet, which had evidently been destroyed not long after they'd first arrived, as the fire had already been extinguished, and the smoke cleared.

Ok, Pete, now what?

XXXXXX

"Dammit, dammit, dammit," Tony said, rushing his way through the tower, Jessica right on his heels. He was considering armoring up, but knew that by this time it would be too late. He punched the numbers into the keypad and placed his eye over the scanner, then walked into the room. Confirming his suspicions, he ran his fingers through his hair. "If I ever wanted a drink before," he mumbled, running back out and into the common room, where the rest of the Avengers were waiting. "Will you people just, on principle, please stop stealing my goddamn planes?"

XXXXXX

The Doombots were giving Peter some trouble. Steve was too injured to help out, and the effects of the blood loss were starting to wear on him. Not to mention that he was pretty sure his adrenal glands were wrung dry. But even though they had no way of getting back home, he was not about to give up. Carol needed him.

His Spider-Sense rang out, and he turned to see that a Doombot had gotten the drop on him. He was getting too slow, too tired, and this was going to hurt.

Instead, Peter saw a bright yellow flash, and the Doombot's head was suddenly gone. In his haze, he heard shouting, and turned toward the source to find the most beautifully horrifying sight he'd ever seen.

Carol Danvers, in her full Captain Marvel uniform (which hung loosely on her) was standing in the open doorway of a cloaked Quinjet, looking like death and firing photon blasts out of her hands at the Doombots. When she saw Peter looking at her, she smiled, and Peter could have sworn that the sun setting behind her rose just a bit higher over the horizon.

"Do you guys need a lift?"