Marvel: Merchant Days

"Bruce!"

"You guys don't have much time! I can barely keep it stable as is!"

Sparks were flying everywhere in the expansive lab. Bruce's head kept ducking in reflex as the sparks and blown fuses continued their frenzy.

Things were scattered all over the place and there were cracks everywhere. Some of the walls and protective panes had broken down. The culprit of the chaos hovered over a miniature particle accelerator in the middle of the lab.

A portal.

A heavily destabilized one from the looks of its haphazard form. Even the accelerator under it looked like it was minutes away from blowing up.

"Shit!" Bruce covered his head as he ran to the other end of the lab and pulled a lever.

"Reed! I've rerouted the energy strain through the building to balance the Touschek Effect. You guys have 10 minutes to get out before the portal closes!"

"We'll try."

Wasn't that reassuring.

This was not what Bruce thought he would be doing with his Saturday morning. Sue had barely managed to send a SOS to the Tower before JARVIS registered a heavy energy drain through the Baxter Building that cut off the city's energy. He also reported an influx of Gravitons and spatial displacement originating from the building.

They arrived to Reed's destroyed lab and the Fantastic Four's disappearance with the only culprit being the destabilizing portal.

He stayed behind to stabilize the portal while the rest of the team – which was simply Tony and Thor – went through to rescue the family.

The only good news was that they found the heroes. The bad news was that they were having a hard time getting out.

He felt his static run over his skin as he stood in front of the portal. Whatever dimension was on the other side was definitely not a conducive environment. Or a relaxation spot for that matter.

The running timer did little for his peace of mind and neither did the burnt cable that dropped down from the ceiling.

"This isn't so bad," those sounded less like believable words and more like a coping mantra. "I've been in more stressful situations."

True, but not exactly comforting.

Bruce wasn't allowed to worry himself and the crumbling lab did not get the chance to exacerbate his stress levels further as something else did it for him.

"What now?"

He scrambled to the monitor and tapped furiously at the keyboard to know what was causing the breaching alarm.

Someone had entered the building and was mowing through the building's security measures with ease.

"Who is… oh no.." Bruce stepped back from the monitor with horror in his face as it showed him the armored intruder.

The greyish green armor was entirely different and it had likely gone through major modifications, but the dark green cape and hood did not mistake the identity.

"Guys! We have a problem!" He yelled.

"So do we!" Johnny's voice yelled back through the intercom.

"Doom is here!"

"What?!"

A green glow covered the wall and smoothly opened a hole in it which Doom calmly walked through.

Oh, he looked very different. The armor was entirely different but there was definitely that Doom-touch to it.

The symbols carved into the armor were glowing ominously with green sparks.

"I won't let you touch this portal."

There was a serious look on his face as he stood in front of the portal with his hands spread wide. There was no fear, hesitation or nervousness to show – only strict determination.

"Step aside."

The shivers barely had the time to travel down his spine before he found himself being shoved to the side as Doom simply walked into the portal.

"Oh shit! Shit!" He crusted when he saw the green glow that was now wrapped around the accelerator. "Guys, he's coming to you!"

He didn't get a reply but he hoped they got his message.

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The battle with Annihilus was a completely unwanted affair on the Fantastic Four's part but the thing with tyrannical ambitious entities was that they lacked the fundamental understanding of the concept of free will.

The Negative Zone was a completely new discovery and while it might have been partially unintended on Reed's part, it was completely intentional on Annihilus' part.

He had been all but eager to invade and conquer the new dimension but Reed's quick thinking by scrambling the portal's locked coordinates when Annihilus tried and failed to enslave Sue had given him and his team just enough time to make a mad dash towards keeping Annihilus away from earth.

Obviously a fight would ensue after that.

The Cosmic Control Rod was the monkey paw of all monkey paws. It ensured that as long as Annihilus was connected to it, their failure, while prolonged, was inevitable.

Luckily for them, Sue's SOS had made it to the Avengers and their timely arrival gave Reed his much needed breathing space to come up with a viable solution.

The arrival of the Avengers both gave the Fantastic Four good footing as well as increased the stakes as Annihilus upped the ante on the ridiculousness he could dish out.

Johnny, Ben, Tony and Thor faced the brunt of Annihilus' onslaught, as well as helping protect Reed and Sue who were roughshodding a breakout plan, while also fighting off the waves of Annihilus' forces.

The small success they had in momentarily cutting off Annihilus' link to the Cosmic Control Rod didn't last as the conqueror wrestled back his control and became more cautious. The good thing was that it pointed them in a positive direction.

"Any moment now, Reed!" he heard Tony exclaim through the comms but he remained silent as he focused on configuring the device in his hand.

He keyed it to disrupt the energy field around the Cosmic Control Rod and render it inactive for however temporary it would last. Hopefully it would last long enough for them to either separate Annihilus from the artifact or kill him off and escape.

"Johnny!"

The burning man zipped towards them at his sister's shout and grabbed the device from Reed's hands as he flew towards Annihilus.

Annihilus saw this and rushed at Johnny but Thor got in his way and brought down his enlarged hammer with a rain of lightning that stalled the armored insectoid as the sky darkened.

"You shall not pass." Thor's eyes glowed as he charged up a torrent of enraged lightning.

Annihilus seeing this as well as Johnny's arrival, charged up a massive wave of negatively attuned energy.

A wave of thick disruptive energy propagated outwards as Johnny blew up the device as soon as he got into Annihilus' range.

The moment the device activated, a basin of lightning fell down on Annihilus from the sky as Thor fired a stream of condensed corded lightning with his hammer at Annihilus, who also released his hold on the dark energy he was gathering.

Three things happened simultaneously.

First, the disruptor caused Annihilus to lose control of the energy he gathered which caused it to grow rampant as it exploded outward indiscriminately.

And then Thor's lightning fell.

Hundreds of meters were erased from the collision of the convent of energies with Thor and Johnny being caught in the white light of the explosion.

Lastly, it caused the wave of Annihilus' forces to grow frenzied and rush, wave after wave, into the newly formed crater.

"Let's get out of here!" Tony shouted into the comms after confirming that Johnny and Thor unsurprisingly survived being caught in the aftermath.

So also did Annihilus, hence his impatience.

As they were retreating, a green comet streaked across the red sky and shot towards Annihilus.

"Victor is going for the rod!"

"Johnny wait!"

Doom landed in the eye of the crater that was now a hive of Annihilus' frenzied Annihilation Wave.

"We have to go now!"

"We can't let Victor take the rod!"

"He'll be unstoppable!"

Their haste to leave the Negative Zone was logical and understandable, but they also knew how dangerous it would be if an artifact of such power were to fall into the hands of Victor von Doom.

Safety and their last chance to return home was what they would risk if they were to go back. And go back they did.

Doom was surrounded on all sides by a sea of monsters that were trying to get close to him, as well as an approaching group of heroes, and still he remained unperturbed.

"Foul cretin."

"Who are you?!"

"Your reckoning, wastrel."

He ignored the rasping Annihilus and brought his hands together to make a hand sign. His index and pinky fingers folded inwards in a curl while his middle and ring fingers held straight and pressed together at his fingertips.

Idly, he agreed that 200 meters was enough, as the grace of his mercy spared the approaching heroes this particular cruelty.

"Malevolent Shrine."

It was hardly anything that anyone, except for an ignorant fool, would ever call a 'divine technique'. But he admitted it had its uses in clearing out the rabble.

The domain expanded for 200 meters as a throne and shrine of skulls and bones appeared behind him.

The Negative Zone thrived in the negative aspects of existence, even energy, which only made the domain flourish more.

An indiscriminate assault of slashes – Cleave and Dismantle, both for targets with and without cursed energy – shredded everything in the 200 meters radius to dust particles.

Doom tilted his head ever so slightly to regard the giant monsters flying into the open barrier.

Annihilus who was in front of him, even though he was rapidly losing the powers he'd gotten from the Cosmic Control Rod, still managed to survive the brunt of domain as a bloody heap, though for how long remained uncertain.

Magic flowed from Doom like a typhoon as a heart of fire wrapped around his fingers.

"Open."

The furnace opened.

A catatonic reaction brewed as the flames roused in Doom's hands.

Everything that was touched by the slashes of the domain carried in its fine particles traces of Doom's magic. In the 200 meter radius, the true meaning of a domain expansion was shown.

Every trace of slashes took on the explosive properties of the flames in his hand.

The frenzied beasts that were still rushing into the dead zone could only screech in torment as they died to either disintegrating slashes or the atmosphere turning thermobaric.

At the release of the flames, every single particle in the domain exploded instantly with extreme temperatures that generated shockwaves, as well as intense decompression and pressurization that vaporized everything in the domain.

Even Annihilus.

Apart from the Cosmic Control Rod, nothing remained. Not even their burnt corpse or blood splatters. Everything was fundamentally erased.

The rod slowly rose from the ground into his hand.

"It is said to pick your battles wisely—"

His hand swung to the side and grabbed the Human Torch by the neck, abruptly halting his dynamic entry.

Johnny's flames intensified but Doom disregarded it and tightened his grip around the neck.

"Surrender the rod and let him go." The crack of thunder was not exactly subtle but Doom ignored it altogether.

"Hands in the air, Timmy Turner."

"You do not want this battle."

The heroes, in the folly of their arrogance, surrounded him.

"—and this shows you're simply fools."

He threw Johnny away with a blast of green energy and turned to face Thor and Stark who jumped to the attack.

The lightning washed harmlessly over the modified Preator Suit as he reached out and simply grabbed Thor's wrist to the godling's foolish surprise, and decked him across the face with his other hand covered in green magic.

Thor's surprise turned to numb shock as he bled from his brows, nose and lips. Another punch sent him tumbling away from Doom's presence.

Doom stopped the repulsor blast from Iron Man with the back of his hand. A flash of intense green hit Tony's eyes like a deluge of illusions only for him to find himself out of the air and lying on the ground with Doom's foot on his chest.

He could do nothing as Doom crushed his Arc Reactor with his heel and forced his suit to switch to its secondary source to restore mobility and keep him alive.

"I bore of this." Doom said as he arrested the Thing's momentum by wrapping him in a cocoon of green infernal chains that sprouted from the ground with every step he took.

Thor and Johnny were already on him. Sue was trying to halt his movements while Reed unimpressively dangled on over.

One second it was like the gravity of the Negative Zone increased and the next second it pushed outward from Doom like a dome and sent the heroes flying, and subsequently pressing Iron Man deeper into the ground under him.

He ignored Thor, who was the only one that barely managed to resist the force by skidding a few steps back, and looked up to the dreary sky of the dimension.

His dimension.

There were some pretenders on his lands that thought themselves kings and rulers. He would deal with them as was his right. Perhaps this place might serve as the cradle to advance his ward on her lessons.

Better yet, he would delegate to her the duty of bringing the usurpers of this dimension to their knees, or relieving them of their heads if they so choose.

"W-what… do you need the Cosmic Control Rod for, Victor?" Sue asked as she pushed herself to stand.

He looked at her.

A breach opened between them and he left through it without giving her an answer.

"What's that thing doing?" Ben groaned as he walked towards Sue while holding his head.

By the time they turned to the breach that was still open after Doom's exit, it compressed into itself before spreading out in a concussive wave that engulfed all of them.

"Holy! You guys are alright." They opened their eyes to Reed's destroyed lab and a very relieved Bruce.

"I thought the worst when the portal suddenly closed. Wait—what happened to Doom?"

The worry grew as he took in the expression on their faces as well as their responsive silence.

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A/N: Writing Doom this time around was easy and I didn't have to pinch my brain to explain why and how he could do what he was doing. I could pretty much bullshit his way to anything and I'll still be like 'yeah, Doom definitely could'. No wonder the authors like getting him to constant absurdities. It's definitely fun.

(At least unless they need the heroes to have an unreasonable win tally under their belt.)

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