High in orbit above Battleworld, the last remains of the enormous World-Ship are transformed into a swelling nimbus of raw energy which billowed in the void. And in the centre of that seething energy cloud, Galactus prepared to drink deep of the awesome Power Cosmic around him, which would enable him to emerge as the sole victor of the Secret Wars. It seemed that he would, at long last, be rid of the monstrous hunger that had driven him to devour so many countless worlds...
But then, without warning, some force ripped that very energy away from him! Galactus was allowed only one brief moment of surprise, before he lapsed into a dormant state, drifting helplessly through the black void like a broken doll, as all his power was drawn down to the very planet he had been about to consume!
Back on the top of the mountain, the heroes were somewhat surprised to find they were all still alive, and even more astounded when they realised that all that energy they saw in the sky was rushing down to Battleworld.
"What's going on?" asked Spider-Woman.
"I-I'm not sure," stammered Mr Fantastic, as taken aback as the rest of them.
Seeing the direction that the energy was moving, an astounded Captain America pointed with his finger. "Look! It's moving right towards Doombase!"
"What? But how?" exclaimed the Crimson Spider, unsure what to make of their latest reprieve from certain death.
"This can't be Doctor Doom's doing!" said the Human Torch disbelievingly, as he flew about in the air, along with some of the other heroes capable of flying. "We left him imprisoned with the other bad guys!"
"Who else then, Torch?" pointed out Rogue.
"We'll soon see," said Captain America. "Captain Marvel! Go reconnoiter! Fast!"
"On my way at the speed of light, Cap!" said Marvel, as she transformed her body to pure electromagnetic radiation and soared towards Doombase in the blink of an eye.
"Well, whatever happened, it's stopped Galactus from devouring us all," sighed the Crimson Spider. "That's some consolation, right?"
"I guess," said Spider-Woman. "But I'd sure like to know what Doom is up to."
"I shall make telepathic contact with Captain Marvel and link her mind to Reed Richards," said Professor X. "That will allow him to see what is happening through her eyes."
"Good, because we need to know exactly what it is we are dealing with here," said Captain America.
Both Professor X and Mr Fantastic closed their eyes and concentrated, as Xavier made telepathic connection with Captain Marvel, while everyone around remained quiet and held their breath, not daring to say a word that could potentially break the concentration of the two men. For several long minutes, they all stood there, as whatever Captain Marvel saw was relayed directly to Reed, who was the best qualified to interpret the meaning and significance of whatever strange events were currently happening at Doombase.
Then, quite abruptly, Xavier and Richard's eyes snapped open, the both of them looking alarmed.
"Somethings's wrong!" exclaimed the Professor. "The mind-link has been cut off!"
"That's not good!" said Reed gravely. "Captain Marvel's in trouble!"
Captain America reacted like lightning. "Quick! To the X-Men's ship!"
They all raced down the mountain with all possible speed to the ship that the X-men had arrived in, but to their dismay, they saw its engines had been crushed by some falling boulders from the fight with Galactus, rendering it impossible for the ship to take-off on its own.
"Blast! This ship isn't going anywhere!" said Cyclops.
"And ours was wrecked too!" groaned the Hulk. "Now what are we going to do?"
"There's still the shuttle that Hawkeye, Captain Marvel and I came in," Spider-Woman began to suggest. "But that's only big enough to carry four of us."
"Right!" said Captain America. "Those of you who can travel fast, head for Doombase and aid Captain Marvel. Take whatever action against Doom you deem necessary. Thor will be in command. The rest of us will have to catch up as best we can..."
"No! Wait!" Magneto suddenly interrupted, having examined the hull of the damaged ship carefully. "It is not necessary to divide our forces! Everyone into this ship!"
"I see what Magneto is thinking!" said Professor X, catching on fast. "Please do as he says."
There was no time to argue, and soon, everyone was onboard and gathered in the darkened main cabin.
"This thing's really dead," reported Cyclops, after he examined the controls. 'Even the lights are out. Every power cell was smashed!"
"No matter! I am the power!" proclaimed Magneto, as he stood in the centre of the room and raised his hands, exerting his magnetic powers over the entire ship. There came a loud rumble, and the stricken craft suddenly lifted off the rocky terrain, before it began flying off towards Doombase.
"It's moving! We're airborne!" said Reed in fascination.
"Unbelievable!" said an amazed Iron Man.
"After all we've seen lately?" laughed the Wasp. "Are you kidding?"
"Wow! This crate never flew this fast under its own power! Right Cyke?" remarked Nightcrawler.
"Hard to tell, Nightcrawler," said Cyclops.
Even Captain America was impressed by Magneto's powers of magnetism here. "Amazing! You certainly look like you've managed to live up to your own hype, Magneto."
"I gather, Captain America, that you would have preferred that I fail!" snorted Magneto, his concentration not waving even for a split-second. "Or was that remark, perhaps, intended to be a 'well done', for which I should humbly thank you."
"Never mind the ego stroking!" cut in Spider-Woman, who was still worried about what might be happening at Doombase. "Perhaps someone tell the rest of us just what is going on? What did you and the Professor see through Captain Marvel's eyes, Reed?"
"Some kind of fantastic machine with giant lenses, undoubtably built by Doom himself," said Richards seriously. "Somehow, he was able to use it to seize all of Galactus' power and draw it into himself! He now seemingly has the power to change the structure of reality itself by the power of thought alone, and his senses have become greater than that of any human being. That's how he was able to detect Captain Marvel, while she was spying on him."
"So now Doctor Doom's got the power of Galactus and become the second most powerful being in the universe?!" gulped the Human Torch. "Ah man, and just when I thought things couldn't get any worse!"
"So now what? Doom becomes the emperor of the whole darn universe?" asked Hawkeye.
"Perhaps," said Richards slowly. "But I have a worrying feeling that Doom may have something even more dangerous planned..."
Thanks to Magneto and his powers, it took the heroes mere minutes to reach Doombase, and soon, they were all charging once again through the outside wall, bracing themselves for anything. But a little to their surprise, they found no resistance waiting for them.
"He's gone! Doom is no longer within this structure!" reported Professor X, having scanned the base with his mental powers.
Captain America turned to Spider-Woman, the Human Torch and Nightcrawler. "Check on the other prisoners! Quick!"
Following Caps' command like trained soldiers, the three heroes raced to the cells many levels below, where they saw, to their relief, that all bar two of the cells were open and unoccupied.
"Everybody's still bottled up, except Doom, of course," said the Human Torch. "But I don't see Klaw anywhere."
"Well, we better start searching," said Spider-Woman, as she crawled along the walls and made sure all the cells were still locked tight. "Strange. I wonder why Doom let Klaw out and not the others?"
"Spider-Woman, I think Professor X might be able to trace Klaw telepathically," suggested Nightcrawler practically.
"Great! That would help narrow our search down considerably," said Spider-Woman. "Let's get back to the others upstairs then. It might help us find Captain Marvel too."
They quickly returned to Captain America and reported that all prisoners, except for Doom and Klaw, were accounted for. As Nightcrawler had said, Professor X was able to locate Klaw with his powers, and they soon all gathered in the lab, searching for any clue as to what happened to Captain Marvel. But as Crimson Spider scaled along the walls and reached a support beam, she was shocked to find...
"Wha-What on...? Ohh!" she cried in horror, as she stared at what seemed to be a holographic projection of a still female figure, standing on the ledge. Although the flickering, almost-transparent features were a bit hard to make out, the shape of the frozen woman was all too recognisable.
"What is it, Crimson Spider?" called Mr Fantastic on the ground below her.
"It's Captain Marvel! She's... There's something wrong!" called a wide-eyed Crimson Spider, as everyone on the floor gather around and looked up, dismayed to see what had happened to Monica Rambeau.
"Doom must have forcibly changed her to her light form," realised Reed. "And frozen her that way! She's become a living hologram!"
"You're right about the lady of light! Light! Ite, ite, ite..." came a voice from a nearby table. "No wonder they call you Mister Fantastic!"
Spider-Woman turned around to the table and yelped in surprise as she saw that the voice had come from a disembodied head lying on its side, grinning manically at them all.
"Yikes! What the hell is that?" she spluttered.
"Klaw! Or... a piece of him, anyway," said Captain America.
Reed picked up Klaw's decapitated head thoughtfully. "Hmm! I would guess that Doom sliced away most of your body and used it to make the energy-lenses for his power-absorbing device. Correct?"
Klaw grinned in confirmation. "It didn't hurt at all, because I'm made of solid sound! Sound! Ound! Ound Ound!"
"You mean... you willingly let Doom chop you into little bits?" said Spider-Woman in revulsion. "Mister, you are sick!"
Captain America came over to question Klaw. "Where is Doom? What is he up to?"
KRAKABOOOM!
There came a sudden, violent tremor, so powerful that the whole building shook, and the heroes were momentarily lifted off their feet and sent tumbling across the chamber!
"Holee mother of pearl!" yelled the Thing, as they all quickly scrambled back to their feet, staggered by how powerful the earthquake was.
Seeming not to notice the tremor, Klaw cheerfully answered Cap's questions. "Doom? Oh, he'll be right back! He's off using some gadget in his chestplate to steal all the Beyonder's power and conquer him!"
Captain America was horrified to hear this, as was everyone-else. "The Beyonder?! He must be insane!"
Klaw chuckled. "Maybe that's why we get along!"
As the heroes were taking in this terrifying news, Doom was already flying through the blackness of space, his damaged armour replaced with a more technologically advanced version, and his whole body bursting with raw energy as he reached the dazzling rift through which the Beyonder had been observing the Secret Wars.
"Stop!" came the voice of the Beyonder from within the rift. "You cannot approach me!"
"Then approach me, coward!" boomed Doom, as he forced his way through the portal and prepared for battle, perhaps the greatest battle in the history of the entire universe! "On your knees, if you have knees! Come! Cringe before your master! Grovel before Doom!"
Back on Battleworld, the aftershocks of the duel that had begun between the titanic Doom and the all-powerful Beyonder were felt all too painfully. The entire planet was shaking violently, the ground starting to crack and split apart, and the mighty fortress of Doombase, which could withstand a direct hit from an H-Bomb, was beginning to shake to pieces!
"There's the Beyonder's portal," said Reed as he managed to get one of the monitor screens working and trained the projected image onto the bright rift, which looked like a scar cutting through the black void. "Definitely the source of the disturbance! Shockwaves emanating from there are causing upheavals in the very fabric of the time-space continuum for a hundred cubic parsecs! Only violent movement of energy on an unimaginably gargantuan scale could cause this! They're firing force-bolts at each other, perhaps..."
"Oh man!" gasped Crimson Spider. "I know that we suggested earlier that a direct fight with the Beyonder would be a bad thing, but this is all even worse than we imagined!"
Despite the growing chaos around them all, Captain America was managing to keep his head straight through all this. "Spider-Woman! Thing! Get down to the sickbay and bring She-Hulk up here! I've got a feeling we're going to need every single hand soon, wounded or not!"
"Yes sir!" called Spider-Woman, as she darted along the shaking walls, the Thing running alongside her. It took just a few minutes for them to get to the sickbay, and soon, a still dazed She-Hulk was out of the cell-regenerative cubicle and being carried in the Thing's arms, as they raced back to the lab.
Suddenly, there came another violent shockwave, causing the Thing to stumble and lose his hold on She-Hulk, who fell out of his arms. Luckily, Spider-Woman was able to leap forward and catch the jade-skinned beauty in time before she hit the splintering floor.
"Phew! Good thing I'm fast!" breathed Spider-Woman, who took over carrying She-Hulk. "The last thing She-Hulk needs is being dropped on her head right now!"
"Aw, I knew you wuz gonna catch her," muttered the Thing, as they re-entered the lab, to see that the shockwave had brought part of the ceiling down and knocked everyone to the ground again. Most of the dazed heroes were unhurt, but Reed's stretched body was trapped underneath a huge piece of masonry!
"Hey! Reed! Holee...!" cried the Thing, as he raced over and quickly lifted the huge chunk of debris off Richards' near-flattened body, his ability to change shape being the one thing that saved him from something that would have crushed an ordinary human to death.
"C-can't catch my... breath..." Reed strained to say, as the Thing and the Human Torch rushed over to his side. Luckily, Richards was not too badly hurt, but the wind had been knocked right out of him.
Seeing that Reed was already being attended to, Spider-Woman gently laid She-Hulk on the ground and checked her over. "She-Hulk's still weak, but okay, I think! She'll be on her feet again after she rests a while more."
"That's good to hear," said the Crimson Spider, who was standing by the monitors with the Hulk. "So, what's on the TV, Hulk?"
"Worldwide destruction, I'm afraid! She-Hulk's condition, and ours too, may soon be academic!" said Banner, as the monitors flicked through scenes all over Battleworld, showing the terrific spread of devastation caused by whatever was happening in space.
A worried-looking Colossus abruptly came over to join them. "Hulk! Please, can you focus on the village we once occupied?"
"Certainly," said the Hulk, changing the scene so it now gave them a good view of the village, which now had various fires spreading through it. "Looks like they've fared no better than the rest of the world!"
Crawling across the wall to join them, Spider-Woman was alarmed to see that an injured Zsaji was on the screen, being carried by two of her people away from the fires. "Oh no! Poor Zsaji! I sure hope she and her people are okay!"
"As do I," said Colossus, a look of worry and conflict on his face, his heart torn at being unable to aid the woman who had unknowingly captured his heart.
KABOOOOM!
"Another shock!" cried Captain America, as they were violently knocked off their feet again. "The worst yet! Stay alert for falling debris! Colossus! Iron Man! Thor! Stand by to brace walls, and shield the more vulnerable!"
It seemed like the whole place was at any moment going to tumble down like a house of cards, as shrieking winds protested the agony of a planet battered and distorted by forces beyond comprehension, while in space, the sun that Battleworld orbited around seemed on the verge of being blown out like a candle!
Then, quite suddenly, the violent shaking stopped and a stillness swept through the fabric of reality, a trough between waves of chaos.
"Say, now what's going on?" asked Wolverine, as the remains of Doombase shivered and settled.
"Everyone, beware!" called Professor X. "I sense someone, or something, approaching! Something... awesome!"
"I know what you mean, Professor!" said Spider-Woman, her head ringing like the clappers. "My spider-sense is going bonkers! Whoever's coming is super dangerous, and that's for sure!"
Sure enough, there came a flash in the centre of the lab, and the glowing image of Doom materialised before them all.
"Greetings!" spoke the projection of Doom, who stood proudly before the circle of heroes formed around him. "I am Doctor Doom! Though I am far more than the being you once knew! Indeed I have transcended mortality. And yet, I am your champion, fighting for you sakes! I am about to crush the Beyonder! The Beyonder, in his cosmic arrogance, abducted us all and brought us here to do battle for his amusement! 'Slay your enemies' he said. But in truth, he is the real enemy! While he can reach us, our universe is not safe from his manipulations! He must be utterly defeated and sealed beyond the portal forever... or be destroyed!"
Spider-Woman and the Crimson Spider exchanged a confused and uncertain look with each other. There was arguably some sense in what Doom was saying. The Beyonder had at the very least proved himself as being as amoral as he was powerful, with little regard for the welfare of the inhabitants of this universe. He may well be the biggest threat there is. And yet, Doom was known to be a power-hungry tyrant, responsible for many deaths, so how could they trust him to save the universe? Which side should they support in this battle?
"In the name of all who exist in our universe, I, Doom, have dared to attack the Beyonder!" continued the image before his captivated audience. "The battle has gone well. Even now, the Beyonder cringes in terror, marshalling his failing strength against my final assault! Hence, this lull in the strife, which has allowed me to appear to you and offer you the chance to share in my glorious conquest."
Doom reached out an open hand and offered it to them all. "Lend me your power! Hasten his certain defeat! Come! Who will join me against our common foe? You have but to touch my hand! Who shall be first? To him, after our victory, I shall grant power beyond measure, with which to further his noble purposes, of course! You know I speak the truth! You feel it, do you not? Come!"
For a very long moment, all the transfixed heroes seemed tempted to lend their aid, and Magneto was the first to step forward, reaching out to grasp Doom's spectral hand, when...
"Hold it!" cried Spider-Woman urgently, as she somehow found the willpower to break free of Doom's hypnotic hold, her words making Magneto hesitate in the process. "How can we possibly trust Doom, after all he's done in the past? Magneto, you told us you fight to stop your fellow mutants from being oppressed, right? Well, Doom is known to be the biggest oppressor there is on Earth, of humans and mutants alike! How do you know he won't become an even bigger tyrant than before, maybe even greater than the Beyonder himself?"
Spider-Woman's sharp words made the Master of Magnetism tremble on the brink, his eyes finding Xavier's, and in that seemingly endless split-second of hesitation...
"No!" cried the suddenly fading projection of Doom. "C-cannot maintain..."
The next moment, he was gone, and everyone looked around in a daze, feeling like they had come out of a stupor.
"What came over us?" said Hawkeye in bewilderment. "For a moment there, I was actually tempted to help that tin-plated rat!"
"We were all tempted, Hawkeye!" said Captain America. "I suspect Doom was exerting some sort of mental control, and maybe Magneto got the biggest dose! But Spider-Woman's words managed to break us out of it!"
"But... What if Doom is right, Cap?" asked Crimson Spider uncertainly. "What if the Beyonder is the one we should be all standing against?"
"I don't know the answer to that, Crimson Spider," said Captain America grimly. "Everything Spider-Woman said was true, but we have no idea what's really going on out there. It's possible we may regret not helping Doom!"
Several long minutes past, and everyone stood in silence, waiting tensely for the conclusion of the biggest clash of titans there has ever been. Just as some of the heroes were starting to think that the worst was over...
KRAKABOOOM!
"Another shock!" cried Wolverine, as the base rocked again, and the ceiling began collapsing all around them.
"The biggest yet!" said the Human Torch, as he and several other heroes managed to destroy some of the falling debris falling towards them. "The whole place is coming down!"
"Everybody out!" bellowed Captain America, over the deafening noise of the base crashing down around them. "No matter how bad it is there, it's better than here! This place is going from shelter to tomb in a hurry!"
They all rushed out as fast as they could, except for Cap and Wolverine, who first acted to free the prisoners from their cells, unwilling to let even villains like them die. As whole sections of the fort collapsed, the freed villains made their escape, while the gathered heroes regrouped on a rocky hill overlooking Doombase.
"At least we got out of that place in one piece!" sighed the Wasp, as Captain America and Wolverine rejoined them.
"Yeah, but this planet is just about to shake itself into space gravel," said the Hulk gravely. "And then where will we be?
"Part o' that great driveway in the sky, I s' poze!" said the Thing dryly, as the whole patchwork world continued to be torn apart by the seams all around them.
Then, all at once, the tremors stopped again! In the blink of an eye, the planet had become calm and quiet, taking everyone by surprise.
"Hey! It... It stopped!" said the Human Torch.
"What gives?" said Spider-Woman, her heart still pounding fast. "What does it all mean?"
Looking up at the sky, Hawkeye suddenly spotted a pulsing light heading their way, its shape becoming larger and brighter as it drew closer and closer.
"Look! Up there!" he cried, pointing at the light with his finger.
"That light! What is it?" asked Rogue, although she already knew none of them had an answer to that question.
"It's coming closer!" said Thor, grasping his hammer tightly.
"Be ready for anything!" commanded Captain America, rallying them all for battle.
"Cap, you're something else, man?" said Hawkeye in both admiration and irritation. "Don't your jaw ever go slack? Aren't you ever just too flabbergasted to shout orders?"
"Quiet Hawkeye," snapped Rogers, as the intense light got larger and larger, and something began to form inside of it. "Stand ready! It's almost on top of us!"
A few seconds later, the light dissipated and as the heroes saw what had formed inside, they all gasped with horror, as a recognisable figure towered over them, so gigantic in size he made Galactus and all the tallest buildings on Earth look tiny in comparison.
"The Beyonder is dead!" boomed the mountainous armoured individual in total triumph. "Now, the supreme being in the universe... is DOOM!"
Aghast, Spider-Woman looked to Captain America. "C-Cap! My gosh, Cap... Now what?"
Even now, Captain America did not waver in the face of this seemingly terrible turn of events, and that was all the encouragement the heroes needed. "This is going to be the biggest fight of our lives! On my command, attack! And don't stop... Don't let up... No matter what! We must find a way... We will find a way to win! Ready...!"
"Hold! Stay your hand, Captain America!" said Doom, his voice almost deafening them. "Absorbing the Beyonder's vast energies caused my form to swell to enormous proportions. But I am what I wish to be now! Let me, then, return to human proportions so that we may more easily speak... Face to face!"
With that statement, Doom began to shrink in size back to his original human height, and as he did so, he whipped off his metal mask, revealing not the hideously scarred features he had hidden for so many years, but the face of a handsome man, the man he had been before the incident that had disfigured him so horrifically.
"First, know you these things," said the newly-restored and now omnipotent Victor von Doom calmly, without any malice in his voice. "The Beyonder no longer exists... And Doom has been reborn! Thus, have two evils come to an end! The is no enemy to fight! The war is over!"
NEXT TIME: TRANSFIGURATIONS