Carol was absorbing solar energy up in the stratosphere when her commlink activated itself.

„Carol! The Iron Man suit just blew Ben into orbit!" Steve yelled. „Get him!"

She tracked Ben's signal and flew towards him, the armour had hit him with a supercharged blast and he had already left the upper stratosphere when she reached him. Carol grabbed his torso.

„Ben! Are you alright?" But he didn't answer, she couldn't be sure if he was just unconscious from the thin air or if... No, Ben was too tough! But if the armour was strong enough to outplay a seasoned hero like Ben Grimm it meant that the others were in trouble. Damn! She had hoped that she would have more time to charge, but she had to go back to Steve and end it before anybody got hurt! Carol flew straight to the jet – perhaps Reed could take care of Ben.

As soon as she drew closer to the battlefield her worst presumptions were confirmed: Hawkeye was lying on the ground, deep burn marks all over his body, Janet was nowhere to be seen. She touched down next to the Quinjet and let Ben down. Sue was also defeated, apparently shot, Reed who was also injured and had his uniform almost ripped off his body – Richards could be injured? That was news to her – slowly crawled towards his wife. It took Carol only seconds to analyse the situation and to realise that the rogue Iron Man suit was about to bash Steve's head in.

„NO!" she yelled and flew to the armour at what felt like light speed, she grabbed it and it let Steve go. Her hand dug deep into the metal as she was dragging the armour away from her friend. Carol charged her hands with the last remaining bit of solar power, she would crush this tin can into a pulp! But right before she was about to utterly destroy the armour she heard something... a weak, yet familiar voice...

„Carol... please stop!"

Tony! She heard Tony's voice! But how was this possible? Tony was in New York, wasn't he? Was this some ruse by Doom?

For the first time, she studied the suit below her in detail. She flinched when she realised that there was blood seeping out of the side of the chest piece, blood obviously belonging to someone inside it. And she heard someone's ragged breathing.

„Tony?"

A faint voice replied: „God, you can hear me… yes Carol… Doom is controlling my suit… Hasn't he told you…"

Carol let go of the neckpiece of the armour in absolute shock. Oh my God, she had almost killed Tony, ripped him apart! But how…

Before she had time for further reflection, she heard the unibeam come to life. A massive discharge sent her flying into the next wall. Damn it.

While she was still trying to get her head together enough to get up, the armour was suddenly upon her. Carol felt the rest of her solar power seethe in her fingers. But Tony was in the suit, she couldn't simply hit him with it! Oh God, how the armour must jostle him, when he was obviously injured, bleeding out…

The armour gripped her by her neck. She heard Tony's voice again.

„Carol, please, please take me out… I can't do this, I can't kill my friends, I…" His voice faltered.

Carol felt tears running down her cheeks as she lifted her hands to send the last of her energy up into the roof of the building they were in. She couldn't hit him directly, she wouldn't.

Carol heard Tony groan in pain as the debris hit the suit. Doom must have done something to its shielding, normally, Tony wouldn't even flinch at something like that…

But the suit wasn't bothered. It simply kept at her neck. Carol started seeing black spots and desperately sent a last, weak discharge of energy into the helmet, which only resulted in a another scream from Tony.

Then she passed out.

xxXXxx

When Tony woke up, his head felt like he'd been run over by a truck. Well, it was comforting to know that at least some things in life always stayed the same, no matter what universe he was in.

He carefully turned his head to look around. He was in a lab, full of high-tech equipment, on a stretcher and hooked up to some creepy-looking equipment. A tube went from his arm to a bag full of some dodgy-looking yellow goo. How lovely.

When he turned his head further, he saw what looked like a portal and a blond lad sitting next to it, his back turned to Tony, looking through some glossy magazine.

No. Nonononono. This was Johnny Storm, he knew that head. That maniac Richards had actually brought him into the Baxter building… No.

Tony desperately tried to fight the rising panic attack, reminding himself of the fact that this wasn't his Richards, everything was okay. This wasn't the guy who had spent an hour killing him slowly and painfully, all the while monologuing away about his inferiority complex and plans for world dominion. This Richards was perfectly normal (ok, he had a rather loose definition of the word 'normal'), he was this world's Tony's friend, he would never hurt him that way. (Then again, a little voice in his head said, he had inoculated him against his will while he had been sleeping, so maybe he was only one step away from being a supervillain as well…)

The heart monitor he was hooked up to had started going crazy, upping the volume in pace with his racing pulse. And suddenly, the blond lad turned around.

„Hey, you're awake! Why are you awake?"

He frowned and came over to the stretcher. In a heartbeat, Tony had sprung to his feet (this wasn't worse than his more or less constant hangover, no, it really wasn't, ouch). He almost pulled over the monitor he was hooked up to in doing so.

Johnny took a quick step forwards, catching it, then looking at Tony curiously.

„Hey Stark, good to see you awake. Actually, no, you should be sleeping, man, Reed is going to kill me."

He turned to the monitor and started fiddling with the controls. Just as he uttered a quiet „well, shit, should have paid better attention" under his breath, Tony hit him over the head with the fire extinguisher affixed to the wall beside him. He went down like a stone.

Ok, so maybe that hadn't been the best idea ever, Tony thought nervously. Overreaction, Stark, get a grip! Not your world! But at least now he should be free of the great 'care' that his (or other-Tony's) friends here had bestowed upon him. So much for spending a few nice days in a universe where some of your friends are actually still alive, Tony thought bitterly. Escapism, woo!

Speaking of which, he should get out of here. It being the Baxter building had one distinctive advantage: there would certainly be a dimensional portal somewhere that he could use to get back to his own world. Actually, Tony was surprised that his counterpart from this world hadn't yet done the same. Him being, well, him, essentially, he should easily be bright enough to find a dimensional gate somewhere and use it correctly…

Hope he's okay and hasn't met my world's Reed, Tony thought; well, that would be quite something, the psychopath would probably be really happy about having another brain to cut into! And other-Tony wouldn't know to beware of him!

Calm down, Tony, Reed's in prison, Tony told himself, getting up after checking Johnny Storms vitals (all perfectly normal, he would probably wake up again soon) and walking towards the portal that he had been sitting beside.

Well, okay, this was close, but not it, Tony decided after a few check-ups. Definitely a portal into the negative zone. Haha, this Richards had a portal into the negative zone in his tower. What could possibly go wrong. God, so maybe all the different Reeds had a certain proneness for craziness.

As Tony turned to leave the lab, he realised that he was sealed in. Damn it. Tony sighed and went to what was certainly Reed's work terminal. He started up the systems and was pleasantly surprised to have the voice of an A. I. greet him.

„This is H.E.R.B.I.E. Identification please."

Tony hesitated, then decided to go with the truth (for now). „Tony Stark".

There was a slight pause. „Tony Stark voiceprint and DNA match complete. Mr. Stark, you have been locked out of the systems of the Baxter building."

Tony grinned. „So that means I at some point had access to the systems?"

„Yes, Mr. Stark."

Perfect. Tony opened the terminal, short wired some circuits, effectively silencing H.E.R.B.I.E (sorry), started typing furiously, and after a while he had actually managed to find the log of his Baxter building profile. He had even had some of his own lab equipment here at some point, apparently, and designed an earlier iteration of his suit in the labs of this building…

Tony frowned. This world's Tony and this world's Reed must have had a very good relationship, if other-Tony was anything like him at all, paranoid about his tech and so on (and he seriously couldn't imagine anything else, otherwise, he wouldn't really be like him at all, would he, and the safeguards he'd had to bypass at Stark tower told a different story). Otherwise the guy would never have worked on his own stuff here. He smiled bitterly. Oh well, he had really gotten the lucky pass when it came to iterations of Reed Richards to put up with, it seemed. There was a slight churning of guilt in his stomach at how he had treated this world's Reed earlier.

A few more minutes passed, and with the help of his old log Tony had bypassed all the security algorithms that Richards had put in place and reactivated his (or other-Tony's) security clearance. The algorithms were very elegant, he had to give him that – but then again, Tony had always been the slightly better coder than Reed, also in their own universe.

He went on to unlock the lab door and started a query for unusual dimensional activity that should lead him right to the portal. But then he hesitated. Before he left, he felt he had to find the suit that Carol, Steve and Richards had taken from him. He quickly typed in another command. The systems immediately alerted him to a cupboard in the sub-basement, right next to where other-Tony apparently kept his equipment.

Tony went to get the suit and put it on immediately, sighing with contentment at the feeling of the cold metal on his skin. That was better. Now they could come and try to dope him up some more…

Speaking of which, he was feeling better; Richards must have inoculated him with something to dissipate the horrible withdrawal symptoms he had suffered earlier. However, he was more than looking forward to a glass of Whiskey, once back home…

He re-entered the lab and heard the program he had started up beeping furiously. Tony went over to the terminal, certain that it would show him the location of the dimensional portal he was sure existed in the Baxter Building. But it didn't. Or actually, it didn't just show the portal in the Baxter building. He frowned.

The second signal that had alerted the program came from… Latveria. Doom. Oh God, not that guy on top of everything else. Even though he was pretending to be a 'good guy' now, Tony was sure that that was only an act and keeping a close eye on him… Then again, given that this Richards was apparently a good guy, maybe this Doom was too? Maybe they were great friends and he could go over for some tea (and by tea, he meant Whiskey, God, he really missed his Whiskey)? And nicely ask whether he could have a quick stab at Doom's interdimensional portal, while he's there, should the one in the Baxter building turn out not to work?

He quickly switched to the personal database of Richards, and ok, no, not a good guy, shame. And there was unusual interdimensional activity going on where he was right now… Could it be that this world's Tony had found his way back, but had inadvertently landed in Latveria, coming through Doom's portal? That could be baaaad, looking at the record of this Doom-dude…

Tony searched through some more logs tagged with Doom, then switched to the newest entry. A video. Tony watched it.

When he was done, his mouth was set in a serious line. Daaaamn, not good at all, then. A quick cross-reference with the database of the Avengers that he had remote access to confirmed that Steve had apparently taken a whole team of people to go and 'defeat' this Iron Man. Given that they must think they have him safe and sound in New York, they could only assume that Doom was up to no good with an empty armour… And fight it accordingly.

Tony sighed and brushed through his hair. Okay, he had to do something. If something happened to this world's Tony, it would be his fault. He couldn't take that risk, he had fucked up enough for a lifetime over in his own universe, failing to protect the people he should have protected... Tony shook his head as if to chase away an annoying fly. Stop the self-pity, Stark, you have other things to do!

He tried to contact both the FF and the Avengers over their respective networks, but it yielded no results. Damn it, either their communication devices got damaged in the fighting that had in all probability already started, or Doom had somehow induced a dead zone around them. So he couldn't let them know from NYC that they were actually fighting their friend, and prevent worse things from happening.

Off to Latveria then, what a beautiful extended holiday.

Only, about that Whiskey… Tony quickly imputed some other variables and was led to Storm's room, as was obvious from the various posters of rock stars on the walls. He opened a promising cabinet and immediately saw a bottle of the golden fluid. For one moment, he hesitated, thinking about the fact that this world's Tony was apparently sober. Well, that sucked for him, Tony decided, what a boring loser, took a generous sip (or five), closed the helmet and flew off.

xxXXxx

"Carol!" screamed Tony. He could only watch in horror as the suit slowly strangled his friend to death.

"I've always admired her spirit," said Doom with a rather chipper voice, "too bad that she got in your way, Iron Man. One could surmise that her spirit as well as her neck are about to be broken." Tony had always pictured himself to be a kind, even gentle man, but now he experienced such a strong hatred against Doom that he would've killed this fucking psycho, had he only the chance!

"She is quite resilient, isn't she?" continued Doom. Tony gave in to the despair, there was nothing he could do… he would kill his friends, all was his fault – why hadn't he built better defences against the likes of Doom? Before he could muse further on his failings his suit issued a general warning of an incoming attack. Tony saw how Reed, although visibly injured, moved his stretched hand with incredible speed towards him.

"Reed! Stop me!"

Richards grabbed his arms with his elastic arm and hand and as he retracted his limbs Tony realised that his friend had applied small EMP-Bombs onto his armour. Within a fraction of a second a numbing pain shoot through his arms, and the suit partly lost power, enough to release Carol from his grip. She fell on the ground – hopefully still alive. Tony knew of course that it was only a matter of moments before his suit rebooted and shouted (does my voice modulator still work?): "Reed! It's me – Tony – shut me down, NOW!" Richards had wrapped himself around the armour and was fiddling on a small device when he looked up in shock.

"TONY? My god… I didn't know… How…"

"Doom is controlling the suit! The security-codes won't work anymore – kill me now before…" But Tony couldn't finish the sentence, the armour had powered up again and simply shook off Reed by sending an electric pulse through his exterior. Reed screamed and slithered away from Tony.

"Oh, I'm going to enjoy this," whispered Doom into Tony's ear, which was almost creepier than his manic laughter before. The armour shot several times with the repulsors, always missing Reed by centimetres – Doom was playing with him.

"Reed! For God's sake, defend yourself!" Tony wanted to scream and holler, but the pain and his exhaustion and desperation made him barely whisper what he wanted to shout. "Take the negative cannon, Reed! Kill me!"

Suddenly Tony felt as if a powerful force literally pulled his feet away from under him, with a heavy sound he fell onto the muddy ground. Only as the suit struggled to get up again Tony realised that Reed had wrapped one of his hands around his legs and tried to hold him down.

"Reed! You cannot hold me! You have to…" Tony said, again he wanted to shout, but all he managed was a hoarse whisper. He knew Reed, despite his encounters with hostile beings he was always hesitant when it came to brute force – but so help him Einstein – brute force was necessary. (Reed is too soft… I have to rile him up).

As Richards struggled again with his device and at the same time tried to entangle the suit enough to gain precious time Tony said what he knew would drive his friend over the edge: "Reed, listen to me! Doom will make me kill Sue, and he won't stop there! Do you understand? Kill me now or I will maim Sue!"

Something in Reed's face changed, it wasn't anger or fear as far as Tony could tell. He raised his hand and transmorphed it into a giant spiked Morningstar.

Tony closed his eyes, but the expected hit never came… he opened his eyes again, Reed still held his arm high, tears running down his cheeks. This very moment Tony knew that he couldn't go through with it. It was over.

"Richards is weak as expected – I've given him enough time, wouldn't you think, Stark?" Tony registered how the unibeam charged up.

"Reed! The unibeam – strike now!"

"I can't!"

The unibeam hit Reed right in the chest, no sound left his lips as he slowly fell down, his arms and legs went limp. His face expressed a mixture of pain and, strangely enough, relief.

"Well, that was disappointing, I expected more of a fight," said Doom, sounding indeed somewhat bored. "Ah well, shall we proceed to the murder then? I'm expecting a delegation in about a half an hour, allow me to make quick work of these push-overs."

Tony felt tears streaming down his face as the suit slowly advanced on the fallen figure before him. No… He couldn't… Not Reed too…