Hey, everybody. Back with another chapter. Hope you like this one.
Let's get to it.
mmat: The next story in the MACU after this one will be an Oliver/Natasha one, and will introduce another new hero.
Stand with Ward and Queen: He is a skilled sorcerer, so he might, but I found no evidence of it from the comics. However, in this, he mind controlled Morris thanks to tech provided by Thawne.
UltraPhantom: They have their codenames by now. But, since Barry and the Four are friends and know each other more personally by now, so they don't refer to each other by codenames. But, the public does call them by their codenames at this point.
Aragorn II Elessar: You may be right the "superior" remark. I wouldn't be surprised if Doctor Doom could beat Reverse Flash in a fight.
AWESOME1356: You have a good point about Wanda. But, I liked the idea of that reunion scene too much to pass up, so I tried to include reasoning for them staying apart so long. As for your question, yes, each of the remaining phases will have a final, large conclusion against a major villain. I will confirm, given I've already introduced him and kind of stated it, that the villain of Phase 2's conclusion story will be Kang the Conqueror. Phase 4 will end with my version of Crisis. However, I won't share who will be the final villain of Phase 3, but it will be another fan favorite.
Chapter 8- Dr. Doom
Barry takes a seat in Reed's lab at the top of the Baxter Building. After they disposed of the remains of the robots, just to make sure nobody else could get their hands on the technology, the group had headed up to the lab to talk about what had happened the last few hours.
"So, who is this Victor von Doom?" Barry asks Reed.
Reed sighs a bit before he begins to talk, "Victor comes from the country Latveria. He had a very hard life when he was young, but was incredibly intelligent. When he became an adult, he came to the US to attend a university, and that's where we met. He and I used to be friends, but Victor also saw me as a rival to his genius, and always wanted to outperform me. From the day I first met him, he had an incredible ego."
"During our last year of graduate school, Victor designed a machine that he said could generate specific radiation that would be able to replicate the effects of the Super Soldier Serum given to Captain America. He thought, if it worked, it would make him financially successful for the rest of his life. However, his calculations were just a few small decimals off. I tried to warn Victor, but he didn't believe me. He insisted that he was right, and went ahead to carry out the explosion. Unfortunately, I was right, and the machine exploded, wounding Victor. He recovered, but he was left with a bad scar on his face."
"Victor went on to graduate, but his reputation was tarnished by what happened with the machine. For whatever reason, he blamed me for it. After that, he seemed to make it his goal in life to discredit me. Since then, he's tried multiple times to discredit me, while building up his own power. He developed a suit of armor that he wears constantly that grants him extensive abilities. A number of years ago, he led a revolution that overthrew the ruler of Latveria, and he took control of the government himself."
Everybody is quiet for a few moments before Barry asks, "So, he's done stuff like this before?"
"No. He's never tried to kill me before, although I'm personally surprised he hasn't. But, I think it's because of our powers now that he sees us as a real threat to him. And now that he knows we're friends with you, that only increases the threat we pose to him in his eyes," Reed responds.
"Well, that makes sense why he's working with Thawne," Barry says.
"Who's Thawne?" Sue asks.
"Oh, forgot we hadn't told you yet. So, when I got to Berlin, I found a note in Morris' hotel room, which guided me to a warehouse in Berlin. When I got there, there was someone waiting for me. Eobard Thawne. The Reverse Flash," Barry responds.
"The Reverse Flash?" Ben asks.
"Yeah. His story is…complicated. But I'll try and make it simpler," Barry says. He pauses for a second, then says, "Thawne comes from the future. In his time, he idolized me. He wanted to become the Flash. So, he researched me, and replicated the process that gave me my powers. And it worked. He became a speedster too. However, when he began using his powers of time travel…"
"Wait, time travel?!" Reed interrupts.
I smile slightly. "Oh, yeah. One of my powers is that if I run fast enough, I can travel through time," Barry says.
Reed looks at Barry in amazement before he says, "Okay, I'm gonna have a lot of questions for you about your powers once this is over, but go on."
Barry smiles a bit before looking serious again as he continues, "When he began to use his powers to travel through time, he said that he discovered that he was never meant to be the Flash. He was always meant be my greatest enemy. Because of that, he became my greatest enemy. He travelled through time, and we fought each other many times throughout time."
"After many fights between us, Thawne finally learned my name. Future me pursued him and they fought in the future. Thawne travelled back in time to 2000 to kill my younger self to stop me from ever becoming the Flash, and my future self followed him. I was 11 at the time. They fought in my childhood home, and my younger self got my younger self out of the house. Thawne, in anger, and thinking a personal tragedy might stop me from becoming the Flash…he killed my mom."
The Four look at Barry in shock. For once, Johnny's usual cocky smirk is gone as he looks at Barry.
Barry is quiet for several moments before he says, "Thawne then tried to escape back to the future. But, his time jump and fight with my future self drained his powers, leaving him trapped in 2000. He realized in order to get back to his time, he needed the Flash. So, he killed a scientist named Harrison Wells and took his identity. Years later, he constructed a particle accelerator, meant to be explode when it was activated. When it exploded, the radiation and dark matter thrown out caused me to gain my powers."
"As I learned how to use my powers, I finally ran into Thawne as the Reverse Flash. We fought several times until finally, his ancestor, Eddie Thawne, killed himself to erase Eobard from existence. The Reverse Flash we were fighting was erased…but Thawne didn't go away forever."
"What do you mean?" Reed asks, confused.
"Because Thawne was a speedster, the Speed Force protected an earlier version of Thawne. It's what's called timeline remnant. I ran into Thawne again months after we first beat him. Then, months later, after another speedster killed my father, I travelled back in time to save my mom. This created an alternate timeline called Flashpoint where my parents were alive, and Reverse Flash was my prisoner. However, when I realized I made a mistake, I tried to repair the timeline, and in the process, created another time remnant of Thawne."
"Now, from hereon out, I only know from others. Apparently, in the original timeline, the Avengers never reversed the Decimation or defeated Thanos. In that timeline, I disappeared about a year after the Decimation. And a few years later, Thawne showed up again, and he was defeated and imprisoned. Apparently, when the Avengers defeated Thanos, with the help of heroes from the future, it caused the future in which Thawne was imprisoned to vanish, allowing Thawne to escape into the Speed Force and survive. Now, apparently, he came here, and is apparently working with Doom to destroy me," Barry says.
Everyone is quiet, digesting what I just told them. Finally, Reed speaks up and says, "Well. This is bad. Doctor Doom and a speedster. This could be a disaster. But I wonder what Victor's plan is. He wouldn't be working with Thawne unless he could get something out of it for himself."
Barry then speaks up. "I have an idea. What if I go do a recon of Doom's palace? I can get in there without being seen, and maybe I can find something that will tell us what Doom is planning," he says.
Reed looks concerned. "I don't know about this, Barry. If Doom is working with Thawne, he's bound to understand how speedsters work by now. I can't imagine he wouldn't have prepared some defenses against you," Reed says.
"Probably. But we need to know what he's planning. Plus, I doubt Doom would be able to catch me," Barry says with a smile. He then stands up and pulls out his extrapolator.
"Are you sure about this, Barry?" Reed says.
"I think I'll be fine. If I'm not back in half an hour, then something went wrong. But, I'll be fine. Don't worry," Barry says. He then activates the extrapolator and steps through the breach.
(Latveria)
Barry emerges from the breach, then scans his surroundings. Sure enough, he's emerged in the middle of a grove of trees, not far from Doctor Doom's palace.
Barry examines the palace for a moment before he says to himself, "Hopefully, this will be quick."
Barry then takes off, racing up to the palace and up one of the towers, where he phases through one of the windows. Barry then speeds down through the palace, racing into rooms to see if there is anything of interest in them before racing on.
Finally, Barry races into what looks like a laboratory. As soon as he enters, Barry sees a massive machine right in the center of the room.
Barry races down to get a closer look at it. But, right as he gets close to the machine, without warning, an electric field suddenly springs out of the floor, trapping Barry. Then, a machine raises out of the ground and shoots something that wraps around Barry's neck.
Barry looks at the electric field that has him trapped. He tries phasing, but realizes a second later that the device around his neck is meant to suppress his powers.
Suddenly, the electric field releases him, and Barry falls to his knees. A second later, he hears the sound of heavy, metal boots thudding against the ground.
"Thawne was right. You are arrogant," a deep, echoing voice says.
Barry slowly turns around. Walking slowly into the room is Doctor Doom. He's wearing a thick suit of metal armor, with a green cloak around him. The mask over his face is very intimidating. More than that, he exudes an aura of power.
Doom slowly walks up to him. He stands over Barry for a moment before he says, "You came here because you thought you could stop me. I almost wish you could live to realize your folly. Sadly, you will not. Once I have what I wish from you, Thawne will finally get his wish. Until then…good night." Doom then punches Barry right in the face, knocking him unconscious.
And there we go. Hope you liked that.
So, I decided to try and keep Doctor Doom's origin story relatively similar to what it was in the comics. Obviously, it was a little different, but it followed kind of the same lines.
So, we have finally been introduced to Doom. I hope you all look forward to seeing more of him in this series. Also, as for who plays Doom, I imagine him portrayed by Keanu Reeves. Now, I'm open to changing that if you guys think otherwise, but, for the moment, imagine Keanu Reeves playing Doom.
Also, on the topic of actors, I have decided on Ben Affleck for Hydro Man.
Alright. We only have two chapters left. I know, it's a short story, but I couldn't come up with enough plot to keep this going for too many chapters.
Next chapter will be the showdown with Doom and Thawne. Hope you're excited for it. Until it's up, please leave a review, and stay tuned!