Post by DiscipleofBob on Mar 16, 2015 18:30:09 GMT -5
Fantastic Four #6:
Flight of Doom
By Adrini and DiscipleofBob
Flight of Doom
By Adrini and DiscipleofBob
Victor Von Doom worked without rest. The conditions were poor. While not as cramped as the tunnels, the air in the cavern was still just as stale. Mining lamps provided little illumination, reflecting off the giant blue ice crystal before him. Harvey and his entourage of lurkers were gone, but the reason for their absence was the furthest thing from Victor's mind. Where they were, how far underground he was, it was all irrelevant. The cold numbed only his senses, not the pain. The pain that had to be pushed to the back of his mind in order to continue the immediate research.
His equipment was unsuitable for the task at hand. Most of it was damaged, salvaged from the crash. What little equipment Harvey had was decades out of date. The findings were too vague, a series of undefined numbers. Everything was a mathematical equation that divided by zero.
Even after he, one of the greatest minds on earth, spent... how long was it? Minutes? Hours? Days? With no sunlight and what was probably a slight concussion, the passage of time was impossible to measure. It seemed like forever, and even with all this time, Victor knew even less about the enigma in the ice than when he started.
"What are you?!" Victor shouted in frustration at the crystal. "One of Reed's experiments? Are you like Harvey and his mole men? Another experiment of mad science conducted under my company's name, behind my back? What else are you all keeping from me?!"
Victor waited in vain for a reply. The only sounds in the cavern were his desperate echoes. "Or are you something else entirely? Something beyond Reed? Beyond Pym? Beyond me even?"
"Was it you? Were you the reason my space station crashed? Or were you the reason we survived?" Again, the enigma before him remained silent, as if enough interrogation would earn a reply from the crystal.
"WHAT ARE YOU?!?!" Victor shouted at the top of his burning lungs. His breathing quickened. His heart pounded his chest. The pain intensified. His vision blurred. And still he was no closer to an answer, even when he finally collapsed to the cold stone floor and blacked out.
"Ben, status! Did something hit us?"
"Can't tell. I'm gettin' too much interference!"
"Radiation's interfering with our systems. A lot of it!"
"Johnny, get the radiation shields up now!"
Victor opened his eyes to find himself back on the Future Foundation. The events were still fresh in his mind, even if now he could only see them in a blue tint, the figures involved remaining stationary, their figures blurred out to barely humanoid forms. Despite the explosions and fires, everything was as cold as the cavern floor.
"Damn it, the system's jammed!"
"We're losing altitude! Johnny, I need you back at your station now!"
"We need to implement emergency crash-landing protocols!"
"I'm calculating our angle of reentry. Adjusting thrusters."
The voices echoed around him. Reed. Ben. Johnny. Sue. Even his own. All trying desperately to stop what Victor knew to be inevitable. But why were they falling? What had failed? What had changed? What was new?
His presence? His shuttle? Was he the reason everyone's lives were in danger? The reason for his scarred, disfigured, pained face?
The events slowly progressed frame by frame, like each individual image of a film reel. No motion, but slowly moving forward in time just the same.
"We've got leaks! I'm patchin' em up now!"
"We're entering the atmosphere!"
"Radiation levels are still spiking! We won't make it!"
The radiation. Did the station's shielding fail during the descent? Did it originate from one of the experiments during a breach? Or was it something else altogether?
Now was Victor's chance. He couldn't change the past, couldn't save the station and prevent this horrible fate from befalling those he cared about, but he could look around. Be observant. Find details he missed before, although perhaps his own perception would be skewed. For all he knew he could be hallucinating, remembering details that weren't there.
Like the humanoid figure, bathed in light and breaching the hull. That wasn't what happened. It wasn't there during the actual events. Or was it? The same figure that lay dormant in ice before him in the waking world was presented before him. No ice. Just bathed in supernatural light, presenting Victor with a silhouette, just enough to obscure the vital details Victor needed. All the answers were right before him, and all he needed to do was reach out. So close now...
One hand yanked his shoulder from behind. Another grabbed his forearm. An arm wrapped around his waist. All pulled him back from the silhouette bathed in light. Victor tried to resist, thrashing to set himself free, but the arms pulled him away from all the answers, pulled him back into the fire, the pain, and finally the cold.
Victor's eyes shot open. His hand reached for the throat of his assailant, banging her against the steel wall.
"Victor, please, it's me!" the woman choked out.
A few seconds of hyperventilating and Victor started to recognize his surroundings. The stone of the cavern walls was gone, replaced by the metal interior of one of his company's transport jets. The slight rumbling told him they were in the air. A cotton stretcher was flipped over behind him, where he presumably had just recently awoken. The black leather straps had been ripped apart. Some of the frayed ends were singed with light wisps of smoke rising from them.
The woman before him was Lucia Von Bardas, his vice president, his personal confidant since as long as he could remember, his friend, and slowly suffocating under his frenzied grip.
"Lucia!" Victor had to mentally force his hand to release her neck. She collapsed in a coughing fit to regain her air. Victor collapsed out of physical and mental exhaustion. "I... I'm sorry. I didn't know-"
"It's all right. You're safe now," Lucia interrupted, dismissing the blind attack entirely. "We're on our way back to Central City. Everything's going to be just fine."
"No, no it's not." Victor almost wanted to cry, but he wasn't sure he was physically able. A blessing in disguise, as he'd rather not show any more vulnerability than he had to, even in front of close friends. As if he had any dignity left. "It crashed, Lucia. The whole station. It just... fell."
"One step at a time. I know it can't be easy for you, but you need to try to relax. Sit down. Take a deep breath. A lot has happened, and if you try to take it in all at once, you'll be overwhelmed."
"The station! The wreckage! What was found..." It was difficult to focus on a single issue. Everything was of the utmost, life-threatening, world-changing importance. Victor didn't know where to start.
Lucia couldn't make sense of Victor's words, but endeavored to assure him everything would be taken care of just the same. "I made sure to bring only our most trustworthy people. They're salvaging every scrap that Elder guy found. We're taking all necessary precautions, but moving quickly. The last thing we want is a bunch of government bureaucrats claim all our hard work as 'evidence.' We're heading back to the states while a second transport is loading everything they can find."
"Reed and Johnny! They were being kept in that cave! And Sue and Ben hadn't been found yet!"
Lucia shook her head. "Not anymore. They were last sighted on the road towards Montreal. All four of them. Though some of the news reports are strange, to say the least."
"Sue's alive?! They're all alive?!" Lucia nodded. At least one of his impossible problems had been solved. One problem down, an infinity to go. "The man who saved me, Dr. Elder was his name. Does he work for us?"
"Technically. I honestly didn't even know about his work myself. Apparently his project and the funding it runs on originated in the seventies from one of the companies Von Doom Industries took over."
"Make sure he's rewarded. If it weren't for him I'd be dead."
"Absolutely. I will make sure he gets everything he deserves." At this point, Lucia was taking notes on a small personal tablet, at this point the most advanced product of its kind, and years ahead of any other company's work. "Victor, what happened up there? What do you remember?"
Victor clutched his head in pain, wracking his brain to try to remember the traumatic event. "My shuttle had just docked. I met with Reed. Then the others. Only Reed was happy to see me, if you can imagine."
"Of course. Even after everything you went through with that woman she still places all the blame on you, and has everyone else convinced that you're the one at fault." Victor shot a glare, and Lucia instantly recanted. "I'm sorry, that was out of line. What happened next?"
"Then, alarms started going off. The station was descending. We couldn't figure out why. We were too busy trying to stay in orbit, until..." He strained to remember the rest, but at this point his memory gradually faded into obscurity. "Then I woke up like this in a cave with Dr. Elder watching over me. I have no idea how any of us survived."
Lucia's expression softened. Try as she might to remain strong and professional, Victor's near-death experience hit her hard as well. Trying to empathize with Victor, to imagine herself in such an ordeal, was impossible. His pain was her weakness. His death would have been her failure. "When we get back to the city, we'll get you to our top doctors."
She reached for his bandaged face, but Victor recoiled, grabbing her by the wrist. "What are you doing?"
"Forgive me, I just want to see how bad the damage is so I know what to tell the doctors." After some hesitation, Victor silently nodded. Lucia was probably the only person on the planet whom he would allow such a thing. In front of someone like Reed or even Sue, to show such a weakness would be unacceptable. Only Lucia had seen him at his most vulnerable.
Victor winced as Lucia slowly and gently moved the bandages. He tried to avert his gaze, but couldn't help but notice the look of shock and horror Lucia gave, even if it was only for a split second before Lucia recovered her composure enough to mask her emotions. That it was enough for the normally stone-faced woman to break even that much told Victor all he needed.
Lucia wasted no time furiously typing away at her tablet. "I'll start making calls. You'll have the best trauma and burn specialists. I have some contacts who can put us in touch with a good cosmetic surgeons."
"What?! No!" Victor shouted.
"Victor, you need skin grafts!"
"And look like some cross between a coked up celebrity and Phantom of the Opera? No! I am Victor Von Doom! Not some tabloid rag's victim of the month!" Despite her protests, Victor couldn't help but stand up and pace around the room. His mind raced a mile a minute. "No. I'll get natural treatment. Take as long as possible to heal naturally. I'll just stay out of the public eye until I'm presentable again."
"With all respect, Victor, I don't think that will be possible. The crash was heavily, and I mean HEAVILY publicized. There's going to be an official investigation at the very least. And I don't think I can hide the fact that you went up there yourself for much longer, not with all this heat. We're talking very public grand juries. Not to mention the shareholders are going to want an explanation to put it lightly."
"If I go in front of a camera right now, I'll be ruined. They'll just see some scarred freak." Victor's mind was made up. His objectives were clear, despite Lucia's warnings. "What are our options?"
"Aside from fleeing the country until this blows over, not much," Lucia sighed.
"Then that's what we'll do."
Lucia's eyes widened. "Victor, I know I'm not known for it, but that was sarcasm."
"Can you make it happen?" For anyone else, it would be an order. With Lucia, it was a desperate request made to the only person Victor could trust and the only person who could get the job done.
Lucia took a deep breath and put away her tablet, running through dozens of scenarios and possibilities in her head. It was her job to be more paranoid for Victor's sake, to have contingencies for any and every scenario. Even for circumstances as outlandish as these, she knew exactly what to do. "Once Reed the others get back and tell everyone what happened, there will be a full investigation, but until then, you haven't been officially 'found' so there's no reason you need to stay in the country. I can arrange things, but Victor, what about all the other company projects? Without you there, the shareholders won't hesitate to sell our projects to the highest bidder. Both to pay for the cost of the crash and to line their own pockets."
"Richards and Pym will be there."
"They're scientists, not businessmen. I don't think they'll be able to stand up to the board without your name to back them up. We can grab whatever we can before we leave. The legality of doing so is sketchy at best, but until an official investigation is launched there isn't much to stop you."
Victor nodded, following along. "How long until we can leave the country?"
"Once we get back, less than 24 hours. The sooner we leave the better, especially once Reed Richards gets back, things become a lot more complicated. The focus of any official agencies will shift from search and rescue to figuring out who to blame. Your only chance is to be out of the country by then. I'll make the arrangements. Victor, when we get back, whatever you do, don't trust anyone. I have a few men who are absolutely loyal to you, but a lot of people within the company are only in it for the money and will be bought out if we let them."
"I'll die before I let the vultures have their way with the company I built from nothing."
"No one's dying today, Victor. Not as long as you leave everything to me."
Harvey Elder knew the tunnels like the back of his soiled, grimy hand. Even so, the trek through the winding labyrinth took hours. It had been years since the last time he had to move solely on his own. His short stubby legs weren't built for this kind of hike. With the staff, he had an army of creatures at his beck and call, and the earth moved for him. Without it, he was just an old, squat dwarf, alone underground.
The surface was every bit as harsh as he remembered. Glaring sunlight rays seemed to burn his skin on contact. Everyone and everything was bigger than him. In the tunnels he was safe, his entire world condensed to a ceiling he could reach. Outside was a world that treated him like garbage, mocked him like the lowest of scum. Outside he was the bottom of the food chain. It was an endless world of possibilities stretched beyond the horizon, all of it trying to squash him beneath its heel.
Before, he was worm food. Then, he commanded an army. Now, he was worm food again.
Occasionally he called out for his Moloid subjects, but there was no response. No eyes staring from the darkness. No skittering noises from the tunnels. No sounds of moving earth. His home had been turned into a mausoleum.
Harvey told himself all he had to do was reach Doom. Despite his failure, maybe Doom would take pity, help him get back what was lost, or at least show some mercy. Doom was his only hope, ironically enough.
"Victor? Vic? You there?! I could use some help!" He was nearing the chamber he had left Doom, and he doubted with such a discovery Doom would stray far.
Again, no answer. Harvey made his way into the cavern to find nothing. Victor was gone. The frozen specimen was gone. Most of the salvage was gone. Even most of his original equipment, gone. "No. NO! NO!" Harvey scrambled around the area as best he could. With some of his original equipment he could survive, perhaps find his Moloids again, start from scratch. The staff had certainly helped his expedition immensely, but when he started he was on his own wits, and he would be so again, if only not everything had been taken.
Tools were missing. Computer consoles were empty husks, every important part ripped out and every bit of data scrubbed clean. The crystal and the apparatus he'd rigged up to contain it were gone, torn from the ground.
It was so quiet, even the nearby electronic hum of something turning itself on was enough to grab Harvey's attention. A small LED light glowed faintly on top of one of the consoles. Being his only clue, Harvey hobbled over to see a blurry picture of one of the few people of his recent memory. "Miss Von Bardas! Is that you?"
"It's me," she replied.
"It's terrible. Victor's gone. All the salvage is gone. Every-"
"While you were gone, my people arrived and cleaned up," Lucia interrupted.
"Oh... That's good. I thought someone else might've gotten to him first." Harvey thought better than to mention some of his original equipment that was taken as well. Without Doom under his care, Harvey became keenly aware how much his value had dropped. "Are you sending anyone back for me? I could really use some help here."
"Mr. Von Doom wished me to express his personal gratitude. However, we won't be needing your services anymore."
No. He refused to believe it. His only hope for survival was brushing him off. Even if it was the same as everyone else, all Harvey could do was plead and negotiate for help. "I did everything you asked!"
"You did nothing!" The normally cold and professional voice from the other end instantly warped with rage and disgust. Suddenly Harvey realized Von Doom wasn't the one to be afraid of. "I ordered you to contain the situation so my people could work damage control. Instead you have a highly public, televised brawl! You had one job, and I can't imagine how you could have screwed it up more spectacularly!"
Harvey cowered away from the console, momentarily forgetting it was just a picture. "Fortunately, I still have one use for you."
The growing, distant rumbling started to draw Harvey's attention. He didn’t have the same connection to the earth without the staff. Otherwise he might have picked up on it sooner. He thought might it have been the return of his Moloid friends, but the gun-mounted flashlights and marching of military boots quickly told the real story. But it was already too late. They came from every tunnel he could possibly escape from. "What have you done?!"
"Crashing space stations. Missing scientists. Monsters attacking from underground. Billions in property damage. Your capture by proper authorities will help relieve some of the pressure."
"You can't do this! I'll talk! I'll-"
"Do what? Say that the strange, deformed creature leading an army of underground mole creatures is working for one of the most influential business leaders in the world? Von Doom Industries has no record I'm sure you can find some tinfoil-hat wearing nutjob who might believe you. If they ever let you see the light of day again. Don't worry. SHIELD prisons typically run deep. I'm sure you'll feel right at home."
"This isn't over, Bardas! You think you can just put me down like the rest of the world?! I'll show you! I'll show you all! You, Doom, those four assholes, everyone! One day you'll all pay for this!" Heavily armed men in black filled the cavern and surrounded Harvey, who was already completely helpless to defend himself.
"Good bye, Mr. Elder. Consider any relationship you might have had with this company or the outside world to officially never have existed." With the same cold professionalism as always, the console switched off for the last time.
Victor arrived back at his company's headquarters in the dead of night. There was no fanfare or official welcome, just as Lucia had promised. His right hand was off making other arrangements for personnel and transportation. His only prerogative was to gather as much data off of the company servers before they left, to make sure the top secret projects of his company weren't sold off to the first buyer at the shareholders' earliest convenience. Any number of governments, corporations, or terrorists would have paid top dollar for any one of the company's projects. Even if they weren't weaponized, other less scrupulous scientists could find a way to exploit their discoveries.
He landed on the roof, the credentials of his craft assuring the personnel that this was just another routine stop. A few guards stood at the top to greet him. Lucia's men, and between them and his own clearance and knowledge of the security system, would ensure that there wouldn't be any detours or awkward encounters.
Fortunately his office was of course near the top floor, and from his personal computer he could access every bit of data on the company servers. Downloading would take hours, hours that he didn't want to risk leaving his office unwatched, but he had the time, or at least he hoped.
He gathered what little things he could. There would not be an opportunity to stop by his private high-rise apartment. Most of his private estate would be in the hands of his lawyers, who, despite their prowess, with his absence and little leg to stand on, might not be able to keep it safe. He wouldn't be able to see Central City for a long while at least. Although he'd never had a strong fondness for the city, Victor found himself starting to miss it already.
He tried to think of all the friends he'd miss, but when he really thought about it, the only true friend he had was Reed. Ben had treated him with the same suspicion from day one, despite Victor's attempts to extend and olive branch. Johnny had never really warmed up to Victor, even when he was still with Sue. His social life was nonexistent, what with the constant strain of running his company. Pym and Van Dyne had always regarded him as more of a boss than a colleague. Everyone else was either an employee or a necessary political ally. The only person left was Lucia. Part caretaker, part sister, part vice president. As long as Victor had known her, she had always maintained a certain level of personal distance, but in any venture, always had his back. Even now, she was the only person he could truly rely on.
The hours passed both faster and longer than Victor could have imagined. The download finished, and Victor and his escort hurried their way back up to the waiting aircraft. Both of them.
"Victor!"
On the roof of Von Doom Industries, just as he was about to leave for good, Reed Richards, looking a little banged up but otherwise no worse for wear, stepped out of the second aircraft and approached Victor.
The guards reflexively raised their weapons, and Victor frantically stepped in front of them. "What are you doing? Lower your weapons!" Fortunately the guards complied, though Reed was now less anxious to run over to Victor's position.
"Victor! You're alive! I'm so relieved. For a while I was certain you hadn't survived the crash!"
"As was I. It's good to see you, even with the extenuating circumstances." Despite their genuine mutual relief, both geniuses kept a respectable distance. Victor simply didn't want to be seen in this state, but as for Reed's apprehension, Victor could only speculate. A lot had transpired, and while Victor wanted to trust his best and only friend, Lucia's warning was fresh in his mind. "Sue. Johnny. Ben. Is everyone all right?"
"For the most part, yes, but there are some unexpected changes. We need to talk, Victor. A lot has happened. First the crash, then Dr. Elder and the Moloids, and... Were you in any way transformed after the crash? The four of us were. I'm unsure of how or why. We need to run tests, all five of us, to be certain that we're all okay."
As Victor expected. It was a reasonable action for Reed to take, but not one that Victor could afford in his state and with his urgency. "Reed, I’m sorry, but I can't."
"Victor? What's wrong? Why won't you look me in the eye?"
"Please, Reed, not like this. I don't want to be remembered in this state."
"What's going on?"
"I have to leave for a while, Reed. It's the only way to protect your... our work. Protect the company. Protect us." Victor knew it was selfish for him to retreat and leave Reed to what would likely be significant scrutiny, the U.S. government, the shareholders, and any number of people who would try to take advantage of his company's apparent weakness.
"I understand these are tumultuous times, Victor, but leaving? Under these conditions? Victor, we need to work together. There are too many questions-"
"Questions for which I don't have the answers!" Victor shouted, his emotions finally rising to the surface. "It's different for you, Reed! You would be content to be holed up in a basement as long as you had the equipment to continue your work as a scientist, but I represent... No, I AM the company that funds your endeavors. My face is on billboards telling the world about Reed Richards's newest scientific discovery and how it can change everyone's lives. Our success is based on what face I can present to the world!" Victor finally turned to look Reed in the eye. His face, still wrapped in bandages except for weary, crazed eyes. Even covered, small traces of the scarring beneath traced around the few exposed areas of the skin. "Does this look like the face of success?!"
Instead of horror or disgust, Reed shook his head in sympathy. "Victor. I don't care about any of that."
Reed was trying to understand. Victor appreciated the effort, but knew it would be impossible for Reed to truly know his mind. Reed spent his life studying and mastering universal scientific laws, that once understood, provided an easy answer to all of life's questions. But that outlook when applied to the rest of life was naïve. He couldn't possibly understand why Victor had to leave, and why doing so would be the best course of action for all. "Well, I do."
"We need you here, Victor."
"Get out of my way."
"As your friend, I can't." Reed had imposed himself between Victor and the aircraft.
His guards had raised their weapons, but once again Victor motioned them down. "You won't stop me, Reed. You can't stop me." He marched forward, ignoring Reed's attempt to block his path.
"I can do a lot more than you'd think," Reed said as one of his hands literally stretched out to grab Victor by the shoulder.
Whether it was the sudden hand on his shoulder or the radically unusual length and rubbery consistency Reed's arm displayed, Victor was caught off-guard. Before he could swat the offending appendage away, or Reed could try to further restrain him, a bright light erupted from his body. Whatever the energy was, it fired into Reed's torso, blasting him clear across the roof.
Victor was too stunned to react. Reed's body soared across the rooftop in a wobbly mess of blue noodles. For a moment, it looked as if Reed had been splattered into pieces, his body being discombobulated into a mess no normal human body could support. Victor thought Reed was dead, and by his own hand, for while he couldn't explain the strange energy, he could still feel it coursing through his nerves. His hand was still faintly glowing, feeling like a smoking gun, while Reed was falling beyond the edge of the roof.
Even if Victor had the presence of mind to save Reed, he couldn't trust himself to do so. His very touch could do even worse.
If it all seemed too surreal to Victor, the next parts were impossible. Reed collided with a safety net that wasn't there before he could fall potentially to his death. Sue, Johnny, and an orange hulking figure suddenly appeared out of thin air. They were all yelling, partially cries for Reed and threats at him, but they were all drowned out by the perception of time.
Johnny was suddenly on fire and flying in the air. The guards drew their weapons again, only this time Victor was still too shocked to stop them. Bullets flew past Victor, only striking against the orange golem that shielded the others as it charged forward. Fireballs from the now circling comet hit the guards' guns.
With no weapons, the guards tried to act as human shields, but they were tossed aside like rag dolls by the large orange thing charging towards him. Its rocky hand wrapped around Victor's neck and slammed him against the roof access door. "I always knew you were scum from the day I met ya," the creature said in an all-too familiar voice.
"B-Ben?" Victor stammered.
"What, don't ya recognize me?" it responded with what Victor could only assume was a grin. "That's what I get workin' fer a name like Doom."
Victor's mind snapped back to reality as he locked eyes with the orange rock monster.
"This is yer fault. I don't know how yet, but I know it is. And I'll make sure ya get every bit o' what's comin' to ya. And ya ain't got a pretty face or Reed backin' ya up to save ya now."
"One chance, Grimm. Let go," Victor said with a suddenly cold confidence that made Ben briefly wince with uncertainty.
"Ya ain't never scared me before, Doom. What makes ya think-" Another blast of energy shot from Victor's hands. This time it was controlled and precise. Still the force was enough to send the several ton Ben flying, though he hit the ground well before he could have fallen off the edge.
Johnny, fully immolated, wasted no time soaring in like a jet zeroing in on his target, throwing fireball after fireball at Victor, but without looking, Victor raised one hand caught and immediately extinguished each blast through will alone. Johnny tried to swoop away but was pulled in by an unseen force. Victor caught Johnny with his outstretched hand and Johnny's flames instantly vanished. He casually dropped the boy without looking.
Only one left between him and his freedom. "I'm sorry you have to remember me this way. I hope someday I can at least earn back your respect, if not your love. I don't want to hurt you, Sue, but if you don't get out of my way, I'll have to do something I'll regret."
Sue's glare narrowed, but even putting on a brave face her fear was still visible. "It's amazing. All this time, the wedding, the miscarriage, the divorce, and this is the first time I see the real you."
Ten minutes ago, those words along would have enough to devastate Victor beyond recovery. Although he was deeply hurt, the pain was buried. What little of his face could be read remained cold. He said nothing, and though Sue tried to stand in his way, through sheer force of will she stepped aside.
Victor's presence seemed to turn the air into a weight, keeping everyone else rooted where they stood. Only until Victor's aircraft had vanished into the night sky could they even begin to move.
Things would never be the same again. Victor's friends. His company. His life. Chances were none of them could ever possibly get back for normal again. He lost nearly everything, but at the same time, Victor counted his gains, resolving to one day get everything that he lost back, no matter the cost.
To be continued...