He had been through this before, he knew he had but it was such a long time ago that he could barely remember it, but he knew almost by instinct what he needed to do and he plunged himself in, using his powers and resources to guide him, finding his way through the maze of reality, trusting to the powers above that he would arrive where he needed to.

The Crossroads of Infinity was not for the unwise traveller, nor was it a hazard free journey and as he moved through it, he watched as a myriad number of worlds passed him, and he was guided by instinct to find the one he needed, the one that would set him back on his path to save that world, and put an end to the force that threatened the multiverse itself.

Reality after reality flickered by and then he felt it, the instinct to stop and without w rod he willed himself to stay where he was, and the magics he wielded combined with the quasi-cosmic forces as he reached out, heading for the place most familiar to him, the place he classed as home and he was forcibly ejected from the Crossroads and he plummeted to Earth, uncontrolled, and he could feel himself being drawn closer to something else and as he fully materialised in this reality he could feel himself bathed in cosmic fire, his clothing being ruined an in a cacophony of light he regained his proper state with a resounding noise that echoed.

The pain was great and he let himself enter a meditative state to regain his strength. He had made it, and soon the endgame would begin.


SCHRASKCKSKSK!!!

The echoing thud of an arrival drew Hellios over to investigate who or what it was that had arrived, bringing the attention of dozens of Doombots and, more than that, revealing the small strike force that had entered Latveria with the intent of stopping Victor Von Doom and his power-mad schemes, but in case this was a trap by the dictator he alone would have the best chance of dealing with it.

Or perhaps Darkstar he mused but the rift was destabilising her powers and her darkness cover over the strike force being disrupted, she might have become vulnerable, so it was done now and he looked down at the figure. He could see the man was normally a man of fine clothing, but it had been ruined and his face was scarred and not recognisable as a face.

"It could be Doom," said Hellios to himself as he wondered how badly the man was scarred behind the mask, "but then why are the Doombots that interested. And why is there no armour?" Then his covering failed and his normal form was available to be seen by everyone in the immediate area.

"INTRUDER!" said a voice and Hellios could see the Doombots had him and the others surrounded. "YOU HAVE VIOLATE THE SOVEREIGN SOIL OF LATVERIA AND DESECRATED THE WILL OF DOOM! FOR THIS YOU WILL ALL DIE!"

"Not today!" Hellios said and unleashed his solar blasts, his eyes and hands sending fire at the nearest robots, but the others poured it on against him and even Hellios was put under pressure from the attack, but he was not alone in the fight and he was quickly joined by Sandman, Honey Lemon and Union Jack as Darkstar worked to regain her focus and her powers. 

William Baker had not been in action properly since his fight with Spider-Man where he had managed to free himself of the conditioning of the Wizard, but he was eager to prove he had not lost his touch and his lower arms and hands formed to become a hammer and mace, made of compacted sand and the blows he reigned down were like concrete blocks being hurled at the robots, but they fought back with their powers as well, hitting him with gauntlet blasts in an effort to destabilise his silicon based body and he fought to keep himself in tact. He had been destabilised before and pulling himself back together was one of the most painful things he had ever been through.

"There's too many!" said Union Jack as the Doombots kept on coming and coming. "It's as if we're in a Terminator film..." he muttered as he used whatever weapons he had, but they were having little to no effect on the enemies, and Honey Lemon was only being protected by a force field generator she managed to pull out of her utility belt and she knew it was weakening.

"LAYNIA!" she called out to the fifth member of the strike force, but Darkstar shook her head. The rift had somehow sent a ripple effect across the dimensional spectrum and she was having difficulty focusing herself. The Darkforce had undergone changes since the rebirth and she was still getting used to the new aspects of her abilities, and she just knew that using them would cause more problems than it would solve. Whoever the stranger was, he had damned them all, and maybe the very world by his arrival.


Victor Von Doom sat in his palace, watching events on his monitors. He knew that there had been some kind of dimensional incursion halfway between the Latverian and Symkarian borders, with readings off the scale. If he did not know better he would swear that it had been caused by the Crossroads of Infinity, but there were anomalous readings that did not make sense, though they did seem familiar. With the state of play as it was he had sent in a cadre of Doombots to investigate but he was not getting anything from them, other than they were in a battle of some kind.

Doom was not pleased that he was unable to see what was going on and he was doing what he could to rectify things. However he was more pleased by what was occurring in America. SHIELD had sent in a small force to deal with the prototype sentinels he had stored there, accompanied by Captain America and Iron Man and he knew that twelve of them had been activated and he was watching as the heroes were scattered by the Sentinels and it seemed as if they were thoroughly defeated until the arrival of a two of the X-Men, and on closer inspection of the scene he recognised the SHIELD agents as X-Force, who had suffered their own problems at the hand of the so-called Shadow King.

Doom was aware of the psionic mutant and he was preparing a response to the forces the creature was gathering. The sentinels were a first step in that plan, as was the super-weapon. The Shadow King would not be another Onslaught, and Doom still remembered the affront caused by that upstart mutant. Defeating him almost cost him his life, and the lives of his enemies. Richards was his to destroy and his alone and nobody would cheat Doom of that pleasure. Once he had dealt with his unruly neighbours, and ensured the United Nations were put in their place, then he would deal with Ahmal Farouk.

It had taken some effort to find that information out, but now he went back to the matter at hand. He had to find out what was going on within his country's own borders. The dimensional rift was something he had not counted on and nothing on his machinery had predicted him. 

Dr Doom did not like surprises and if someone were to interfere in his plans he would make them pay, and then he received a flickering image, masked greatly by the static and then it was gone, but Doom had seen enough. It was one of the United Nations heroes, he was certain. A lesson was needed and he pinpointed the remaining heroes of Excalibur and activated the sentinels on the Latverian border. They had made the first move, but he would make the last.


Silver Sable was in the Symkarian war room, watching things as her hopes went with the small strike force who had gone in to take out Doom's offensive capabilities as alarms sounded.

"FATHER!" she cried and Ernst Sablinova entered the room. Across the board they could see selected sentinels start to come to life and he was closely followed by G W Bridge and they all knew the strike team had been found and were now most likely dead.

"God!" said Bridge as he looked at what was going on and where Excalibur were in relation to the sentinels that had been activated. USAgent was in Hungary, Savitar was in Croatia, Hauptmann had been moved to Serbia and Armory was in Romania and the sentinels were on top of them.

"They have a number of Wild Pack operatives with them," said Silver, "but I'm not sure it'll be enough."

"If they don't have those devices that your man made, it won't," said Bridge. "Get Sabra back here, I need her to be my eyes and ears in here while I take Armory in to action." Ernst nodded and sent word to get Ruth Bat-Seraph in here and quickly. What they were all hoping, all praying, was that Doom did not unleash the weapon on Symkaria again. An unnatural smoke still came from the obliterated town of Feasalburg and no matter what happened there was nothing they could do quell the plume.

"Let's see how good you things really are," Bridge said to himself as Armory was unleashed upon the enemy sentinel. The mobile combat armour flew up in to the air, plouging at the sentinel that quickly fired an energy burst at the attacker, but Armory was only halted, not destroyed. Forge had ensured that when this suit version of Armory was constructed that it was more durable than the last one had been. It had survived a bout with a Hellios super solider and so a sentinel was next in the league.

There was minor damage to Armory, but nothing that couldn't be ignored until it was recalled and the suit unleashed it's arsenal of weapons on the robot before it and the sentinel staggered and fell back, damaged but as it did so several more sentinels came to life.

"Oh this isn't good," said Bridge as the unit weaved between the two death machines. Armory was all that stood between the sentinels and the Wild Pack operatives on the ground who were hopefully getting a good show from what was going on and he wondered just how the rest of Excalibur were getting on. This was not good. Not good at all.


"Fuck this," muttered USAgent as he leapt and danced as a sentinel tried to grab him after pouring on an energy blasts that he had only just caught with the energy shield and he shook his head in annoyance. It appeared that the main plan had failed and now they were in trouble.

"What are you waiting for!" he shouted at the Wild Pack members. "Shoot it!" The sentinel was avoiding the Wild Pack for the moment as it focused it's efforts on the destruction of John Walker and the Wild Pack opened fire with their weapons. "Where's someone with a rocket launcher when you need one?" Walker muttered as the bullets bounced of the sentinel's hide and then Walker stumbled and a giant hand reached down to grab him and he closed his eyes, knowing it was pretty much over for him but the pain didn't come and he opened his eyes to see a shield wedged in it's way.

"I know that shield," Walker said as someone stood over ho,

"Don't just sit there, move!" a familiar voice shouted and Walker got out of the way and the other man dodged as well, leaving the shield behind.

"I'm guessing you want that back, eh Lemar?" said John, seeing his old friend and partner Battlestar.

"Can't stay out of trouble, can you John?" Lemar Hoskins quipped back as the former Captain America and Bucky were reunited.

"Savin' yer employer's necks," said USAgent as he scrambled to his feet.

"Then watch this," said Battlestar and his shield seemingly exploded in a massive of fire and molten metal, trashing the arm of the sentinel and the shield itself fell to the floor. "Gotta love adamantium."

"Oh yeah," said USAgent as the Wild Pack started to fire at the exposed systems. "Together?" Battlestar nodded and the two men charged the sentinel and knocked in to the floor and the machine stopped moving.

"Just like old times," said Battlestar.

"Let's see what we do when the next one comes along," Agent said. 


Savitar smiled as he fired his energy blasts at the sentinels, slagging them as they came to him, sending a cascade effect on the nearby one, knocking them down. He was getting a work out that was certain, as he flew and swooped and fired and tried to avoid being killed by giant fists and death rays. The training that Jim Hammond had given him had paid off and he was almost as good with his abilities as the original Human Torch

When it came down to it he was enjoying himself and that was good enough, but it was a question of how long he could keep this pace and he wondered how his lesser powered compatriots were doing and as he wondered he was swatted by a metal giant and he fell to the floor, and he knew he was hurt. He could taste blood in his mouth and he felt wrong.

"Stupid, stupid idiot," he cursed himself as he tried to stand and hoped he would be able to do so before the sentinel killed him...


"We're so screwed," said Union Jack as the Doombots advanced and he knew that there was nothing they could do. Hellios was shielding them from one side and Honey Lemon the other but both of them had their physiological and technological limits respectively. Sandman was doing what he could, but he too was being worn down and Darkstar's powers were unstable.

"It was good working with you," said Hellios, as the sweat poured from his face and he knew he couldn't take much more of this punishment and then a voice shouted a command.

"SI KHOHAIMO MAY PATSHIVALO SAR O TSHATSHIMO!" The Doombots all froze in place and the man who had fallen from the sky smiled. "Interesting."

"How did you do that?" asked Hellios, amazed at what had just happened.

"Every thing that is created by Doom can be controlled by Doom," he said. "And I am Doom."

"I don't understand," said Sandman. "If you're Doom then why aren't you trying to kill us?"

"Because I am not the Doom you are expecting, William Baker," he said and he gestured at the rags that clothed him and they were transformed in to clothes more suited the man who was Victor Von Doom, royal blue and deep red, with gold trim, as well as a splendid cape. "I do not know what is occurring here, but there are more pressing issues at hand."

"That's the Eye of Agamotto," said Union Jack, looking at him. "Who are you?"

"I am Doom, and that is all you need," he said. 

"Well, thank you," said Hellios, "your intervention was well timed."

"Naturally," Doom replied.

"However we still have to stop the Doom we were expecting. His actions will lead to a war that will devastate the world."

"That cannot be allowed," said Doom. "I will not allow it, as there is much to be done as the fate of this world and this very reality is at stake."

"Interesting," said Honey Lemon, as she scanned him with another device pulled from her belt. "You seem to be a cross-dimensional analogue version of our own Victor von Doom."

"Yes," said Doom. "My counterpart does not realise what is at stake here. I will make him understand what is going on."

"What makes you think he will listen to you?" Union Jack asked and Doom smiled.

"He will have no choice in the matter..." He looked over to Darkstar and he motioned at her. "The imbalance is restored, Ms Petrova."

"Thank you," she said. "But I am married now."

"Congratulations," Doom said as he turned away and placed his hand on the closest Doombot and it whirred to life. "First we need safe passage through Latveria, and these will provide an excellent distraction."

"You can control them with just a touch?"

"Nanoids within my bloodstream have given me a powerful cyber-neural interface," Doom said.

"So that's yes," said Union Jack and Honey Lemon. Doom ignored them and the Doombots started to march away heading in the direction of Doomstadt.

"What do we do now?" asked Sandman.

"Stand before me," Doom commanded and the others obeyed the instruction, albeit with some hesitation. "Prepare yourselves!" Then he swirled his cape about them and then and Doom and the quintet of heroes were gone.


The atmosphere within the United Nations was tense, as the Secretary General watched what was going on. Somehow it had deteriorated from what he had hoped and now it seemed as if his plans were on the verge of being overthrown by one lone ragged gypsy despot.

Victor Von Doom's weapons of destruction had been a good distraction against what was going on, and the Secretary General had believed that his Excalibur strike force would have proven more effective against the madman, but it had not proven so. In fact it seemed that whatever they had done had made things invariably worse and he could feel that something had happened in Latveria that had throw the rising in to chaos and that meant he would have to take matters in to his own hands. 

He picked up the telephone and put a call in to the United Nations Undersecretary for Department of Peacekeeping Operations. As he waited for an answer he focused a small fraction of his own eldritch powers and someone picked up the other line.

"This is the Secretary General. Authorise Sword Strike."

"Sir, I can't do that without the permission of either the Security Council, or the General Assembly. They need to authorise action against Latveria. You cannot do that yourself." The secretary general scowled. His usage of his power was too subtle and that meant he wasn't having the desired effect. He didn't want to alert mystics who may be in the area but he had no choice. He had already bested Strange, so anyone else who interfered would be a mere annoyance.

"This is the Secretary General. Authorise Sword Strike." His repeated sentence this time had the power to the tone.

"Acknowledged, sir," came the reply and the telephone went dead. There would be questions asked about this, he knew it, but as the Under Secretary was soon to be found hanged for taking matters in to his own hands, it wasn't going to be too much of a problem.


"I don't believe it," said Agent 13 as she watched in amazement as they started to turn the tide of the battle.

"It's amazing what a few extra hands can do," said Captain America, giving her that smile that she reminded her that he wasn't quite from the same time that she was, the smile that nobody else could give, the smile she adored. Since the timely arrival of Siryn and Banshee seemed to have added something to the fight. While Cap was the more experienced fighter, the two former X-Men had the experience fighting sentinels and they were working well. 

Siryn was working towards finding the frequency needed to block the control signal on the sentinels and allow Marcus Raven to take control of the robots and end the fight as well as the threat to the USA that Doom currently posed. As she did that Banshee was working to expose the weak spots in the sentinels and the others caught on quickly. 

Iron Man and Maverick had better luck with their energy blasts and Cap was better able to utilise his shield, using it to ricochet across and do some serious damage and though they were still outnumbered, they were holding their own against the robots, and that was all Cap believed they needed.

"How are we doing?" he called over to Iron Man as he did a roll towards his fellow Avengers, catching his shield as it bounced off a wall and returned to him.

"We're getting there," Iron Man replied. "Forge is looking at things for us and we're getting close to hitting the right frequency. He's examining the sentinels through a visual link via the armours sensors. He knows what their power frequency is, but the control one is a little more intricate."

"Okay," said Cap.

"There is another problem though," Iron Man said. "I took some damage earlier and the link's not going to last much longer. Simply put..."

"We're running out of time," Cap replied. "Figures."

"You'll never win," called the head of the Doombot they had encountered earlier. It had been taunting them all the way through the fight, but there had been a lot of noise and there had been nobody listening, but now they were too close not to hear it.

"The real Doom doesn't talk this much," muttered Iron Man, wondering what the head was using for power and if he could adapt it for the armour at some point. After they finished this, he'd take a look but they went back to work. 

"Sonic dampening field in progress," the sentinel said and unleashed an energy sphere that surrounded Siryn and her sonic scream died. Another sentinel did the same and fired it towards Banshee, but he ducked out of it's way and it missed him.

"The sentinels are trying to adapt to our powers," he said. "It's recognised them as a power it can contain."

"Why's it not done that on us?" Maverick called.

"Because your power reserves is finite, as is Iron Man's and they don't think of strong men as a threat," he answered looking at Cap and then at Lydia. "Or women."

"And Marcus can't affect them quite just yet..." said North. "We'll keep them off you," he said. "You'll have to continue what Terry was doing."

"On it," said Sean. "Where were you up to?" Iron Man sent out a sonic pulse and Sean matched it and away he went.


"GOD!" cried one of the Wild Pack members as he watched as Hauptmann went to work on the sentinels, and the German member of Excalibur moved quickly, his skills as a soccer player coming in to their own here as the sentinel tried to stop him, firing energy blasts. "How does he do that, Gallo?" 

"It's very impressive, Blossomil," Gallo answered, "but he's just one man and sooner or later he's going to get himself in to trouble."

"I think that might be now," Marino said to his friends. "He's just been caught by the blast of the sentinel."

Hauptmann was indeed on the floor, near a crater where a high energy beam had certainly made an impact and the hero was on his back, almost dazed.

"He'll get up," said Gallo. "I know it."

"I hope so," said Marino. "Look!" The sentinel that was attacking him was trying to step on him and as the foot came down, Hauptmann fired an energy blast upwards and the foot was held in position.

"YES!" said Blossomil, his fist clenched in triumph, but the sentinel was not finished and it thrust his foot down on to the hero and the impact of the foot coming down sent a reverberation that shook them all.

"My God," said Gallo, in horror. Luckily it would have been so swift the hero would not have felt anything, or so he thought and as the sentinel turned it's attention towards the Wild Pack, the strike force wondered what they would be able to do against the monsters. They needed heavy weapons but they were on route. It had been difficult to get sanctions to use them in any of the countries that were being defended, as their respective governments were cagey, but as soon as they heard the sentinels were active they relented.

However they knew it would be too late but the sentinel stopped what it was doing and they wondered what was wrong and then the giant robot was lifted in to the air and it crashed down, sending a shockwave. Hauptmann stood, his ability to absorb kinetic energy saving him from being crushed as he willed the power to protect himself, to revitalise his body as the weight came down and it had pushed him in to the earth and with a supreme effort he had lifted the machine off him.

"Now that was impressive," said Gallo. "However, I don't think he'll be able to do it again."

"He won't need to," said Blossomil. "Look at that!" Coming towards them, soaring through the skies were fighter planes. The United Nations were going to work and they'd sent in aircraft. There had been a state of alert, but there had been no time to arrange anything like what was going on now. There would have been too much debate, but here they were and the fighter planes started to attack the sentinels, who in turn began to fight back.

"Wow," said Marino, and the others were forced to agree.


"You're not going to believe this," said Bridge as he looked on as he saw the aircraft go to work through the scanners on Armory. "We've just got reinforcements."

"Reinforcements?" said Silver and then they saw the radar scans as the aircraft came on the viewer. "Can it be?"

"It is," said Bridge. "Finally the UN are doing something." Missiles were flying, impacting against the sentinels and Bridge was awestruck by what was going on. Usually restricted to flyovers and patrolling the pilots were relishing their task at hand and they were proving just how good they actually were.

"The United Nations just declared war on Latveria," he said. "This is amazing."

"You forget something," said Ernst and Bridge turned his attention to the old soldier, unsure of what he meant.

"Doom's solar weapon." Ernst's tone reminded everyone of what had been forgotten, that the sentinels were defensive tools and the true offensive power of Victor Von Doom was in the middle of Latveria. "All he has to do is target Washington, or New York, or anywhere he chooses, and the tide of battle is turned against us and he will be merciless in actions."

"Then hopefully our team in Latveria are able to do something," said Bridge. "Otherwise the full might of the world military will be unleashed." He didn't have to add that if that happened then World War 3 would have officially begun.


"FOOLS!" Doom raged as he watched. "They dare to attack Doom, they think their pitiful attempts at war will be able to defeat me. I will level this world and from it's ashes I will rebuild it!"

"I don't think so!" said a voice and Doom turned to see a small strike-force of five figures had just appeared in the middle of his war room.

"Impossible," he breathed. There was no way the vaunted HERMES teleportation system would have been able to penetrate Latveria, yet for them to just appear like this had no other logical explanation.

"It's over, Von Doom!" Hellios said. "Surrender now, pull back your forces and we will be able to stop this before it goes too far."

"Impudence!" said Doom. "You children shall not stop me."

"Try us," said Sandman and he and Hellios went forward, but Victor Von Doom was not to be trifled with in his own fortress and he threw a metallic ball Sandman that exploded on contact with him and instantly he started to turn the sand in to glass, causing intense pain to course through Baker and at the same time Hellios threw a punch but Doom grabbed the man's hand as it came at him.

"I'm stronger than your armour," said the Greek hero.

"Quite possible," said Doom, "however you will not engage me in a simple brawl. If I wanted that I would hunt down Benjamin Grimm and you are no Benjamin Grimm." The gauntlets discharged another energy burst and Hellios' cried out in pain as his hands were seared by the energy, bypassing his invulnerability.

"I paid very close attention to what happened at the European Commission," Doom said as Hellios fell to his knees, shock starting to set in at the degree of the burns he had suffered. "Super soldiers are very rarely super enough, and Grecian science is no match for the genius that is Doom!"

"And you are no match for the Darkforce!" said Darkstar as she gripped the Latverian monarch in a bubble of the otherworldly energy, containing him in a seemingly infinite world of cold and dark. Darkstar smiled. She had bested the Queen Invisible and now she had bested her lover, the fabled Doctor Doom. "He is contained," she said, as Honey Lemon sprayed something on to Hellios' hands and the Greek's pain eased.

"He needs medical attention," said Nyoko. "I have eased his pain, but..." Darkstar's scream cut her off as the Darkforce bubble exploded, and the feedback from such a happening affected her as if she had been punched in the stomach. 

"You have simply delayed the inevitable!" said Doom, hovering in the air, looking at her. "The Darkforce is a powerful tool, but I have experimented on enough to know it's limitations, especially now." 

"You are a great man," said Honey Lemon, her tone a mixture of awe and anger. "Such a shame you have wasted your talents."

"Doom wastes nothing," he said and pressed something on his upper arm, and Honey Lemon found herself being held in a static energy field, unable to move. "I know you to be a woman of great intellectual capacity, Miss Anda. Though you will not survive this encounter with your better, I may be able to preserve your brain so that you can serve me."

"You'll have to go through me," said Union Jack, standing in front of her, blocking Doom's path to her.

"Really?" said Doom, a thin smile behind his mask. "You are less of a threat to me than your compatriot USAgent. You are outclassed, little man."

"Maybe," said Union Jack, "but I promise you I will go down fighting." His main goal was to buy some time for Darkstar to recover and then to see how Doom fared in a second bout with her.

"No," said Doom, folding his arms, "you will not." Several red spots appeared on Union Jack and he knew laser sights when he saw them. He knew he could take some punishment from weapons fire, but he was not invulnerable. Out of the corner of his eye he could see that Darkstar was slowly getting to her feet and he knew that it would be worth it and he moved towards Doom, but he had underestimated the man and the laser sights were for actual lasers that fired, burning through his body armour, slicing in to him as if he were made of butter and he collapsed to the floor, pain coursing through him and he was unable to move any of limbs in any way.

"NO!" cried Honey Lemon as she saw what had happened to her friend and she knew from the way he was lying on the ground that he had been severely wounded, worse than Hellios had been, perhaps permanently crippled.

"Yes," said Doom. "Now, for Mrs Gryzlov, I think." He looked at her as she stood. "It's over."

"You will not do that again," she said.

"I will not have to," said Doom. "Your mutant abilities have been turned off. You can no longer access the Darkforce and therefore you are no longer a threat." He shot her with an energy blast, slamming her in to the wall and she slumped down blood pouring from her nose. "Or even capable of sustaining your own life."

"You are a butcher!" Honey Lemon shouted.

"We are at war, my dear," said Doom, his tone cold. "You invaded my country, attacked me in my own home and now you complain that I show you no mercy? Mercy is something I have no place for, and I will end this war as quickly as the United Nations started it." He moved to the console and programmed the system and the computer image showed the heart of New York. "It is time to wipe away with that archaic bunch of bureaucrats, as well the so-called heroes who populate the city." 

"Please, I beg you," Honey Lemon pleaded with him, but Doom ignored her and pressed the fire button and tears strolled down her cheek. 

"It is done," he said, looking at her. "Now, your brain..."

"It is far from done," said a voice and Doom looked towards the doorway to see a man standing there, a cowl covering his face, but he thought he knew the voice from somewhere. Whoever it was that had gained entry had bypassed the DNA entry system, the outside defences and knew the codes for entry.

"Impressive," said Doom. "I did not believe anyone could gain entrance to this room, besides myself."

"They could not," replied the hooded figure. "Only Doom could do such a thing, as only Doom could disable your solar weapon with such skill that it fooled you in to thinking it still worked." He cast the cowl aside. "Only Doom."

"Fascinating," said Doom, seeing a younger version of his own face before him, scarred differently, but it was his face, exposed, with no armour of any kind around him. "It was the Crossroads of Infinity I detected. You are another version of myself. A younger version, to be certain."

"Indeed," said Doom, facing his other self. "Though I am older than you could imagine."

"Then you must know the futility of opposing me," said Doom.

"I was just thinking the same thing," Doom replied, and both men knew there would be a battle between them and only one of them would prevail. 


"Got it!" said Iron Man, as Forge confirmed they had the signal frequency. "Give it everything you've got!" he shouted and Sean opened his throat and unleashed his sonic power and the sentinels seemed to freeze in place as they were no longer able consult their main programming and Maverick gestured to Marcus Raven who hit them with his psionic powers, accessing their systems, reactivating the pathways that Onslaught had used to operate but it wasn't enough.

"I'm not getting through, it had to be electromagnetics and psionics combined," Marcus said. "I can't get to the core!"

"Can we use a harmonic resonance or something to alter their programmes?" asked Siryn, freed as soon as the sentinels lost control.

"I know there are theories about it, that sounds can be broadcast as a binary code that can be translated but I've never seen a practical application," Iron Man shouted back, unable to block the ambient sound being produced and he knew that the armour was having difficulties. 

"You will never gain control of my sentinels," the head of the Doombot said. "The power of Doom is absolute." Iron Man looked at the head of the Doombot and fired a repulsor blast at it and it exploded in a shower of sparks.

"I've got it!" said Forge. "All you need to do is get to the Doombot and..." The signal was lost as the armour systems finally began to collapse.

"DAMN!" Stark cursed and he hoped whatever Forge had seen in the workings of the Doombot was evident to himself. "What did you see..."

"What?" shouted Cap, wondering how much longer Banshee could keep it up, but Siryn was ahead of him and she joined her father in the cry

"Forge saw something in the Doombot," said Iron Man. "I just need to figure it out..." What had the head of the Doombot and the body got in common that they could use. "The command codes..." Stark looked at the fallen robotic Doom replica, but he knew the armour wasn't working properly to interface with the system. He had to do this the old fashioned way and he took a deep breath. First Rumiko, now X-Force. He disengaged the armour systems, the seals unlocked and the metallic shell opened and he stepped out.

"Bloody hell," said Maverick, as he and Lydia watched as Stark went to work on the Doombot, free of the confines of the amrour and they saw the true genius of the man at work as his fingers moved up and down the body and then he pressed something and a thin beam of light was sent out.

"I'm in," said Marcus. "I've got control."

"Tell them to send a feedback pulse," said Stark. "Back to the source. Better yet, access my mind." Without the armour's psi-dampner shielding him, Raven entered the head of Tony Stark and used the knowledge in the man's head to programme the sentinels. Then Stark got back in to his armour and Iron Man was back in action. 

"Everyone out!" he said and the team started to run without hesitation as the sentinels started to hum as they began to overload and a moment or so after they were out of the cave there was an almighty explosion.

"I'll call SHIELD, get a crew down here," said Agent 13 as the others looked at Iron Man.

"Well," said Maverick.

"Well," said Iron Man.

"Your secret's safe with us," Lydia said.

"Thank you," Stark said. "Still the price was more than worth it."

"What did you do?" asked Captain America.

"We sent a signal to Doom's orbital satellites, and caused them to shut down, crippling his global surveillance and operational capabilities for some time." Stark sounded pleased. "He'll be back to full capacity one day, but we've done him some serious damage today."

"And we'll be waiting," said Cap. "Good work people." 

Sean looked at Siryn. "You did well, love," he said. "I think you'll be better."

"Thanks," she said, hugging at her father. "For everything." Sean nodded, thinking that it might be the last time she ever said that, however today was a day for celebration. It wasn't every day you got one over on Doctor Doom.


Doom fired energy weapons towards the other man. The defences of the castle did not work against his enemy, probably disabled by him. His armour was all he had to work with but it would be enough, especially as the man had no armour at all but as the energy approached, Doom waved it away and it redirected, and he could see that the man was using magic.

More than that he had the Eye of Agamotto as the clasp around his cape, and Doom knew the other man was powerful in his own right and that was why he did not wear armour.

"You are magician," said Doom.

"I am the Sorcerer Supreme," Doom answered.

"I have bested Strange," the Latverian monarch boasted.

"You will not best me," the Sorcerer said, no boast intended and power crackled from his fingertips as eldritch power met cold fusion energy creating a light show that that Honey Lemon had no choice but to watch in fearful awe as the two aspects of Doom battled, one a true mystic, one a man of pure science. 

Clarke's third law said that any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic, and it was often though the reverse was true and it was certainly being shown here but the other Doom was fighting for more than domination of a world, he was fighting for a reality and that gave him the edge and as the Doom's clashed with one another, weapons were fired and magic dispelled them and Honey Lemon realised something. 

There was only ever going to be on winner and this was a show designed not only to defeat Doom, but to educate him that there were other things out there and the Crimson Bands of Cytorrak bound the armoured Doom, and the battle was over.

"You are done," said the sorcerer, but the monarch still struggled.

"I can and will escape from these bonds. I have magical skills of my own."

"I know," Doom said, "however I do not believe you deserve death. Once, long ago, perhaps I would have killed you, but I have learnt the fortitudes of mercy. Remember." He put his finger to the forehead of Doom's metal faceplate, using magic to show him a vision of the future where Doom had battled a version of himself and made a promise that he would never become a creature such as that. Merlin had said he would not remember that timeline, but the Doom of 2099 had seen things with the technology of the Watcher. Then the Latverian monarch's head lolled and he was unconscious.

"My people," said Honey Lemon, pleading with the wizard to save her friends and Doom nodded.

"All will be dealt with," said Doom as he worked the console and freed her from the field. "And I have permanently disabled the super weapon, so it will never threaten the world again." He looked at his other self and shook his head. "How young, how foolish, I once was. Your HERMES system is operational," he said as he cast spells to restore the wounded and injured heroes, bringing them back to their full selves. "We must go straight to New York."

"What's going on?" Union Jack said, thinking how incredible the magic was, and how he really needed to speak to Brian about it when he returned to the UK, but Doom's next words made him wonder if that would ever happen again.

"More than you can possibly imagine. We must save all that exists."





There are lies more believable than the truth