Doom had ordered the suit into his dining hall, which was why Tony was now sitting on one end of a ridiculously long dining table, looking at Victor von Doom sipping champagne and listening to a Brahms violin quartet performed by a group of Latverians that looked rather terrified.

Doom smiled. „Are you enjoying the music, Iron Man? Would it heighten your musical enjoyment to share a glass of this 1897 Moët & Chandon with me?"

Tony sighed. „You know what, Doomy? Flirting works better if at least one of the parties involved isn't a nutcase in a tin suit. Also, I would at least have expected a concert by you on the organ. Please, do me the favour and tick some more cliché-movie-supervillain boxes."

Tony knew that his nonchalance was kind of ticking Doom off, but he couldn't help himself. This was really getting on his nerves. And no one had reacted to Doom's recorded message. What the hell was going on? Where the Avengers and the FF so busy they hadn't even seen it yet? Or was something more important happening at the moment, something that kept them from coming to his aid?

Doom also seemed to be getting progressively testier. He wasn't used to being kept waiting, that one. Now, however, he just raised his hand and signalled a servant to fill another glass with Champagne and put it in front of Tony. The Brahms piece went into the Adagio. Oh no.

Doom sneered. „You know what, Stark? I liked what I saw in those glimpses into your mind. So many jokes, yet such suicidal sadness. Drink."

Without his volition, his hand gripped the glass and put it to the mouth slit of the helmet. Nonononono. It was tilted and Tony tried to keep his mouth shut as the liquid entered the mask. It went into his nose, filled up the limited space in the helmet, streaming down his face, and it didn't stop... He sputtered, tasted the Champagne on his tongue, and it made him want to puke - until suddenly, the glass was lowered again. Tony heaved, staring across the table at Doom, who was obviously enjoying the show (God, the sounds he must have made...).

„Well, this was enjoyable. Now, I shall go and check whether Richards has finally, finally, decided to come to the aid of his dear friend... Or should he not care enough after all?"

When Doom had left, Tony was still sitting stock still (to be fair, it wasn't as if he had much of a choice). The bastard. The musicians had stopped playing and were whispering amongst themselves. However, a few minutes later the suit suddenly stood up. Well, damn, it actually really hurt if he tried to hold against it, his body being encased in tons of metal alloy with more strength than any human could ever muster. What the hell was Doom up to now...

He walked down a dark flight of chairs, past portraits of Doom in various regal poses (and people told him he was narcissistic), until what looked like the door to a cell. It opened automatically in front of him and when he stepped inside he saw a skinny woman cowering before him. Before he had any time to register anything else, the suit lifted his right arm and he blasted the woman right into her heart with his repulsors.

She fell to the ground instantly, and the silence that followed was deafening. Tony felt disconnected, as if he were floating somewhere above his body. He was vaguely aware of the voice modulator of the suit being turned on and uttering some words that he couldn't make out through the haze that seemed to envelop him. He felt tears on his cheeks, but he didn't make a sound. Maybe he was in shock, he thought dimly. Suddenly, he heard Doom's maniacal laughter in his ears.

„How did you like that, Stark? Does it remind you of some of the things you have done while drunk? Well, you are drunk now, so there isn't much of a difference, I suppose. We shall have a good time together. Thank you for your services, Iron Man."

Tony felt hot anger boiling up, and he started to shout at Doom: „FUCK YOU! You're just a piece of..." Doom shocked him again, the pain would have brought him down on his knees, but since the suit didn't move he almost blacked out while still standing.

„Mind your manners, Stark. Aren't you going to make a witty remark? No joke?" Doom sounded like he was about to laugh again. Tony felt sick, he relived the moment he had killed the woman over and over again, he wanted to scream, he wanted to beat Doom into a pulp, he wanted to throw up, but he or rather his suit just stood there waiting for Doom's next order. Never in his entire life had Tony felt more useless. The bitter agony of failure swept over him as Tony struggled to consolidate his thoughts: Think Stark, you have to find a way out of this! You can wallow in self-pity AFTER you've kicked Doom's tin-plated ass!

„You WILL regret this, Doom! I swear!"

„A pity, until now you haven't given in to melodrama – how boring. You made jokes about super-villain-clichés earlier, but I assure you that those super-hero-lectures about justice and simplistic morality are much more overused."

Tony gritted his teeth and remained silent, he didn't have time for this, he had to regain control over his armour again and make all of this stop. Doom had apparently lost interest in him, he just turned around and left the cell.

xxXXxx

„Richards, you have chosen to ignore my last message. As I am merciful, I have decided to let you know this way that I've captured one of your... precious comrades in arms," said Dr. Doom in a haughty way. „Iron Man not only tried to invade my beloved Latveria, but he also failed miserably."

Carol couldn't believe what she was hearing, Tony was with them! Why would Doom call to sneer if he wasn't absolutely sure that it was indeed Tony Stark he'd captured? Seemingly Reed thought along the same lines.

„Victor", Richards began, „what kind of ruse is this? You can't possibly have cap..."

„Do not try my patience, Richards! Don't you dare mock me!" Doom sounded agitated, and an agitated Doom was always bad.

Cap stepped in: „Doom, I don't know what you're up to, but we know for a fact that Iron Man isn't your prisoner."

Doom laughed. „Hmmm, interesting, lying or incompetent? No matter, you will pay for your insolence!" And with that the call ended. Carol was worried and turned to Steve.

„What was this about? How can Doom possibly believe that he has Tony?" Before Cap could answer, a second transmission came in, it was from Doom and it showed a cell, possibly in Doom's castle.

„It's a live feed," said Reed.

They saw a skinny woman crouching in one corner. When she noticed that she was being filmed, she shouted something in Latverian.

Suddenly Iron Man, or at least someone in an Iron Man armour stepped into the picture. Carol watched in horror as the man in the armour lifted his right arm and killed the woman in front of him without hesitation. Then he turned toward the camera and said calmly: „All hail Doom!" Suddenly Doom appeared.

„The death of this woman is on your conscience, this is your punishment for doubting Doom! If you wish to avoid further bloodshed I recommend that you try to stop my new ally!"

He laughed. Carol had seldom heard Victor von Doom laughing and it was unsettling to hear it.

Cap cursed under his breath. „Damn it, it is an obvious trap, but we have to spring it. We need to wake Tony and ask him if he's missing an armour. If we are truly to fight that thing we have to know it's specs."

„We should keep Tony out of it," protested Carol, „he is sick! Certainly there is another way to ascertain if armour is missing."

„Well, I could use my codes to connect with the servers in Tony's lab, Jarvis should be able to give us the desired information." Carol was mildly surprised, she hadn't been aware that Richards had even those codes, he and Tony were apparently a lot closer than she had imagined. Cap just nodded and Reed set up the connection.

A few minutes later they had the confirmation, two suits of the newest generation weren't in the armoury, and since one of them lay in the next room it meant that Doom had access to Tony's state of the art technology.

„Strange, isn't it?" remarked Carol. „Doom has Tony's tech and not Tony himself, why does he want to make us believe that he holds Tony prisoner?"

„It is, but either way we have to get the suit back, otherwise the media will destroy the Avengers – we have a drunk Tony and an out of control armour, nobody would believe us even if we told the truth: They will believe that Tony did kill that woman and that he committed all future crimes Doom incites by using the armour."

Carol nodded. It would indeed be a disaster that could cost the Avengers their legitimacy. „So, what do you suggest? Reed, can you access the specs of the suit via Jarvis so that we have a chance of stopping it and keeping Tony out of it?"

Reed turned to the holographic screen again. A few seconds later, the full specs of the model in question were downloaded into his mainframe. „Yes, no problem. If Victor uses the automatic fighting mode, we shouldn't face any particular problems. And neither himself nor anyone else will be able to learn to pilot the Iron Man with anything close to Tony's prowess in such a short time."

Steve nodded tersely. „So we call in some reinforcements to make sure, transport Tony to Avengers tower where he'll stay sedated for the near future, and leave for Latveria immediately."

„I agree, Captain, we have to leave Tony out of this, with the unstable behaviour he has displayed recently we'd both run the danger of having him act in an unpredictable manner and worsening his state. However, I would suggest transporting him to the Baxter Building, where I can instruct H.E.R.B.I.E to take care of him and he doesn't have access to Jarvis, should he wake up. This will ensure his compliance", Reed said.

Carol stared at him for a second, still surprised at the cold, professional leader-persona he had assumed since sedating Tony. For the first time she understood why he was the respected leader of a superhero group as opposed to just some wacky professor.

Cap clenched his jaw, but apparently he couldn't find fault with what Reed had said, even though he had surely tried his hardest. „Agreed. Let's get to it."

xxXXxx

Tony had no choice but to follow Doom into his throne room. Everything was clad in green banners with a stylised „D" on it. Doom sat on the massive metallic throne; as he came closer Tony realised that it was made out of components from Doombots. Doom initiated a holographic computer terminal and displayed a map, two little green points could be seen.

„It seems that your so-called friends have decided to come for you, Stark," Doom sneered and pointed at the green points on the map. Tony realised with horror that Doom had lured his friends into coming to Latveria. Suddenly everything fell into place, so Doom hadn't just tortured him by making him kill the latverian woman, but he seemingly also used it to compel the Avengers into springing into action even though they probably knew that it was a set up!

„I suggest you greet your comrades accordingly, Stark," said Doom.

„So you want them to kill me, is that it, Doom?"

„Au contraire, my dear Iron Man. I want you to kill them. You have never unleashed the full power of your suit, haven't you? You were always afraid to actually hurt anybody. I saw into your mind, I saw you holding back when beating up Rogers, full of sentimentality. What would happen if somebody would unleash you, I wonder?"

Tony knew that Doom was right, his armour was indeed a lethal weapon, he had given up his occupation as arms manufacturer and tried, so help him god, he had tried to build devices to propagate peace, but the simple, brutal truth was: He had actually build the most destructive weapon of all. His armour walked towards the terrace adjoining the throne room, and Tony had only one hope left: that Doom hadn't figured out how to utilise the armour to its fullest extent.

As soon as he had stepped on the terrace Doom joined him. „Latveria is a beautiful country, isn't it?"

Tony saw the forests, the mountains the small rivers running through the countryside, and on any other day he might actually have agreed with Doom. But the prospect of having to fight against his friends in combination with what he had been made to do and the wine he could still taste on his lips set up his stomach, he thought that he was going to throw up. Calm down, he told himself, and said: „A pity that I can't smell the beautiful latverian flowers, Vic, oh wait.." And with that he vomited into his suit. Everything seemed to turn around him.

At least he had designed his suit to drain any fluids that were inside it – thankfully it was still working and soon the armour was cleansed.

„Bah, pathetic," snorted Doom, „but now to the main event..."

Tony felt how the thrusters were activated, despite the cool interior of his suit he felt how sweat started to run down his face. Then he flew off to kill and maim at Doom's bidding.

At first, though, nothing happened for quite a while. Which made perfect sense, Tony reflected, as whoever it was who came to save him (Steve? Reed? God, please no) would take a while to get to Latveria, even at supersonic speed in a Quinjet. Doom had made the suit land in the town square and switched off his end of the communication device. So Tony just stood there and looked at the Latverians, at first scuttling away in fear, then curiously edging closer, in the end laughing and knocking on his helmet and taking pictures of themselves with an inert Iron Man. At some point, though, an elderly woman seemed to make a comment about Doom that he couldn't understand (so the automatic translator was disabled too), and suddenly the suit sprang into action. It raised his right arm – Tony tried to resist, but God, the pain – and aimed a repulsor on her, firing but missing her by an inch. The woman stared in shock as the voice of the Iron Man (that Tony had come to think of as his voice) made a declaration in Latverian that Tony didn't get either, but it was surely full of „bow down before the glory of Doom, all hail Doom"-s and the like, Tony thought bitterly (the bastard).

Suddenly, Tony heard a noise that he recognised well, and sure enough, a few seconds later the Latverian crowd was dispersing in fear as a Quinjet was descending into the square. Out jumped Cap, Ben Grimm, Hawkeye, Wasp, Invisible Woman, Carol and Reed. For a short moment, they stood around uncertainly, looking at the suit. Tony swallowed. „Doom, please. Don't make me do this."

Instead of an answer, he just heard a snicker. And then all hell broke loose.

Janet flew towards him at breath-taking speed as Clint deployed one of his shocker-arrows. Tony – or rather his armour – deflected the arrow with ease, raising a defensive field, while shooting repulsor blasts at Janet. At first he missed, Janet approached, all the while bombarding him with her venom stings, but as she was only a few inches from his face, getting ready for a further shrinking, no doubt – of course he knew all her moves, as did his armour – the suit deployed a refractory chest beam that hurled her into the nearest house. Tony screamed inside the suit as he saw her fall down unconsciously, or worse.

„JAAN, NOOOO!"

But of course no one could hear him; instead the modulator switched on and he heard ‚his' voice say: „That is how Doom deals with annoying bugs." Classy, Doom, Tony thought, teeth clenched.

At the announcement, Clint's face contorted in fury. „Doom, you lousy bastard. You think you have the right to abuse Tony's tech for your own twisted agenda?!"

Wait a moment, Tony's tech? It wasn't just his tech... But before Tony could devote any further thought to the matter, Clint was upon him, kicking his helmet. What was that? Clint knew very well that kicking a tin suit wasn't the most effective course of action...

Suddenly, though, Tony felt white-hot pain coursing through his veins as the shocker that Clint must now have affixed to his suit directly did its work. He saw black dots swimming in his vision and heard himself scream. So Doom must have deactivated the dampeners and shock absorbers on his suit, the ones that usually made sure that the pain from such an attack would be negligible. Well, now it wasn't, thank you very much.

However, the armour wasn't bothered in the slightest by its wearer's anguish. He heard a sickening crunch as the suit's fist connected with Clint's head, who of course hadn't been able to factor in the superhuman reaction times of his tech.

Clint fell down, and Tony heard himself scream even louder as Doom aimed his repulsor on his fallen comrade.

„Noooo, please, nooo!"

He was screaming himself hoarse. But all to no avail – he fired and Clint didn't move anymore.

Tony felt hot tears running down his cheeks.

How could...

Clint...

In his ear, he heard Doom's laughter.

A vibration that shook him to his very core brought him back to the present, and with it, a fight that he was still excelling at against his will. Cap's shield had banged against the protective field that the suit had raised, and he saw Sue, eyebrows tightly drawn together, manifesting a force field that he could barely deflect. It felt like a fist squeezing his head, even in the armour (God, being on Sue's bad side really wasn't enjoyable, he thought, trying and failing to lighten his own mood). Reed was nowhere to be seen, neither were Ben or Carol (maybe recharging her energy in the upper atmosphere?). Sue grimaced and he felt his force field flicker, for a second.

At that precise moment he felt something or someone crushing his head in an enormous fist. Tony screamed, the pain was overwhelming, he blacked out for a moment, and when he came to again Ben was stomping on him. Yes, quite literally stomping (good old Hulk-moves). He felt some of his ribs shatter. „Ben, please..." He couldn't scream anymore, and he felt something wet and warm on his tongue (blood?).

In his ear, he heard Doom sneer: „Well, well, Iron Man, it seems your comrades aren't exactly intent on not harming you. Have you become such a burden to them that they prefer getting rid of you?" Tony heard a pathetic whimper escaping his own mouth as his clavicle was broken. God, was Ben really trying to kill him?

But again, his suit was tougher than its wearer (the irony). Tony felt the thrusters activate (ouch, that hurt too, so probably a broken leg too, and damn Doom for also deactivating the emergency anti-pain measures he had equipped the suit with). He pushed his legs up against Ben's massive frame and discharged. Ben staggered back, caught off guard. At that moment, the armour (damn his own battle registry) drew Ben in, as if to embrace him, activated the Hulkbuster-beam and shot him off into the upper atmosphere.

Tony saw the surprised look on his face as he disappeared into the distance, no doubt to suffocate or freeze to death in the stratosphere should no one get him back. No.

But Tony had no time to linger on Ben's fate, Steve threw his shield at him, the armour simply caught it with its enhanced battle protocols and threw it right back towards him. The sheer force knocked Cap off his feet and Tony sincerely hoped that this would knock him out and thereby take him out of the battle before his suit could do further harm. But with almost incredible agility Cap got back on his feet and ran towards him.

„STEVE! Stay away, the unibeam is about to..." But before he could finish the sentence his armour had charged up and shot at Cap, who barely managed to deflect the potentially lethal beam. Suddenly a powerful force stamped him into the ground and for a moment Tony thought that Ben had returned, but the armour readings showed that it was Sue who was grinding him into the mud.

„Interesting, isn't it?" chimed Doom in, „The real powerhouse of the Fantastic Four is Susan Richards, ah, shall we take her out? Richards will suffer the sweetest agonies... how delicious."

„Doom, STOP IT! You've proven that you are superior, let them..." begged Tony.

„Of course I'm superior, Stark."

During their conversation the suit had hammered on Sue's force field, the brute force generated a feedback which had given her a strong nosebleed. She let up but a moment, but it was enough for the battle protocols installed into the armour, it spun around its own axis and shot repulsor blasts at the remaining opponents. Suddenly it stopped and aimed a blast directly at Cap's shield, it got reflected and caught Sue off guard – the shot hit her sideways in the back and with a cry she went down.

Tony cursed loudly at Doom. Suddenly a proximity warning flashed across Tony's display and the suit initiated evasive action, but it was slightly too slow, it got partly caught in an orange beam that made Tony scream as every fibre in his body seemed to be torn apart. Tony almost blacked out, but on the edge of his consciousness he realised that Reed, who hadn't participated in the fight so far had possibly built a negative-cannon to literally pulverise his suit. Hadn't the suit pulled up its shields he would have been killed. Within a fraction of a second the battle protocol had found Reed who was standing next to the jet and aimed for another shot.

„Let's see how the so-called Mr. Fantastic handles a battery of grenades," sniggered Doom as the suit deployed several mini-grenades which flew towards Reed. Tony wanted to scream, he wanted to yell but his voice deserted him and he could only watch how Reed used his elastic abilities to literally slither away from the attack.

Before Tony could ascertain that his friend was unharmed Cap was on top of him, hammering his indestructible shield on Tony's helmet. The pain in his head, in his very brain was so excruciating that he threw up again. When a particularly violent blow hit him, Tony felt himself being drawn into the darkness at the edge of his mind. Finally.

But before he was fully gone, he felt something being rammed into his leg. As he inhaled sharply, the fog of unconsciousness all of a sudden gone from his mind, he heard Doom's voice in his ear, deceptively sweet: "Now, now, Stark, you didn't think I'd let you slip out that easily? After all, your suit is so neatly equipped with a variety of drugs, and adrenaline does wonder in cases such as yours…"

Tony wanted to scream, every fibre in his body burned with pain that he was now even more acutely aware of, he felt that he was being torn apart… But the armour itself was almost unharmed and simply grabbed Cap by his throat.

„Oh, that would also be too easy, wouldn't it, Stark? I've seen your memories of the Civil War..." With these words the suit released Cap, who immediately regained his composure and started to beat up the suit – and Tony – without holding back. Under the barrage of hits Tony felt how a few more of his ribs broke, he started to cough up blood.

„Did you know that Stark always held back when he was fighting you, Captain?" asked Doom via Tony's voice modulator. Steve looked up in surprise, the armour just took hold of his right arm and broke it, the dry noise of a crackling bone sent chills down Tony's spine. But before the suit could harm Cap further a yellow lightning descended from the sky.