118 CHAPTER 117 - ANNOYING POLITICS
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[Victor von Doom POV]
Under the security of his heavily fortified castle, Doom sat silently on his throne and watched the holographic screen in front of him flicker through images and news outlets.
While others might not see it for what it was, Doom was no fool. He easily noticed when the course of the world took an abrupt hit and suddenly shifted, and while he had no idea as to why that had happened, all it took him was a few minutes of research for him to identify the people, or groups of people that benefited from it.
The most notable ones were the mutants and while Doom had no opinions on the newly evolved race, save a few outstanding ones, the fact that they benefited the most was a very glaring hole for suspicion.
Since everything started when the Vice President was killed live, the state had first tried to blame it on mutants who could control people's minds but that was quickly shot down when over twenty scientists, even Tony Stark and Reed Richards, confirmed that there was no evidence of their brain being tampered with in any way.
Still Doom was suspicious.
With that suspicion, he kept his eyes on the following events that followed the murder and now, over two months after, he could very well say that someone with some sort of ability was involved and he was 99% sure that one of a few organizations and groups were involved.
Xavier's mutants, Erik Lensherr's Brotherhood, the Hellfire Club or someone from it given that it got attacked by the Avengers shortly after the incident, and lastly the Avengers.
It wasn't that much of a complicated web for him to see given his intelligence, he after all is Doom. Very few things existed in the known universe that he couldn't comprehend.
"With this intricate plan of yours, Doom wonders what it is that you aim to achieve."
He had a few things in mind but something else caught his attention.
The increase in efficiency of heroes all across the country.
"A centralized power of super-powered individuals. With a force like that, very few things cannot be accomplished…"
He waved his hand and reclined back into his throne, snorting as he understood what this hidden power was trying to do. Even though it was the peak of naiveté and foolishness.
"After all, no one under the earth's sky is more fit to rule the world than Doom."
He lazily turned his head to the side and spoke with disregard in his tone. "Are you done watching this monarch? Such pitiful efforts can not fool Doom's eyes."
His words elicited an amused laugh as the air blurred in a mirage and revealed Selene in all her dark glory.
"Selene Gallio."
"As always, it's such a pleasure to see you, my dear. How has the monarchy been for the last decade?" She said casually as she looked around the room with her lips twisted in disapproval. "I never understood your fondness for such gloomy spaces."
"Cease your pleasantries there, Selene Gallio. The only reason I haven't destroyed this pitiful conjuration of yours is my last respect for you as a fellow monarch." His eyes glared at her under the cold surface of his enchanted mask.
"What brings you to my castle?"
Instead of answering him despite his obvious threat to her, she waved her hand and the visuals of the throne room changed.
An illusion.
Doom didn't spare a glance at the illusion around him and kept staring at Selene and she took the cue and finally explained her reason for disturbing his peace.
"The Avengers. Some of their members have caught my interest and I thought since we're friends, well more than that if my memory serves me right, I decided to help you out as well." She said with an easy going smile as she took a seat in the air.
The two of them watched the battle between Selene and the duo of Vision and Wanda.
Doom had been watching with mild interest but a flicker passed through his eyes as he saw the Mind Stone.
"You already know it's an Infinity Stone, the Mind Stone to be specific, and they gave it to a computer. It's funny how stupid humans remain even after thousands of years." She spoke with amusement in her tone, laced with apparent disdain – one that Doom silently mirrored.
"And the reason for this?" The illusion shattered as Doom spoke, his eyes trained on Selene's conjuration.
She shook her head, this time with the light smile gone from her face. "Don't play ignorant, Victor. Anyone can play ignorant but not you. As for my reasons, while oblivious to you, I'll still say it: help me in destroying them and the Mind Stone is yours."
Doom intertwined his fingers and bent forward to look at Selene with a hundred thoughts going through his head.
He could more or less tell what Selene wanted but not the reason for her requesting his help to get it. "Why solicit my help? You can take care of the Avengers and that little witch if you wanted, so why do you need my help?"
She snorted and covered one of her eyes with her hand before a frown crept into her perfect face. "My divination shows me nothing when it concerns her and it's slowly hazing my sights on the computer and the speedster. Even if I'm confident in taking them both, the combined might of an Infinity Stone and magic is not something I'm eager to fight against blindly."
"Reassurance."
"Cooperation." She said. "You get what you want and I get what I want. This way we don't have to stand against the other if I were to take the stone when I defeat both of them."
Doom said nothing after that and the two just stared at the other before Doom waves his hand and the conjuration of Selene forcefully dissipates.
Her reasons for telling him this were very obvious as soon as she showed him the Mind Stone.
Even if he refused to help her, she already made him know that should she go alone and fight against them, she'd take the Infinity Stone and by then he'd have no hope of getting it back.
As if anyone would ever give away an Infinity Stone willingly.
"Doom is a pawn of no one, Selene Gallio. If Doom wants the Infinity Stone, Doom will get the Infinity Stone. Even if he has to trample over your husk to get it."
°°°°°°°
[Vision POV]
"I feel like we've been having a lot of these meetings recently." I remarked as I took my seat in the small round conference table where the other members of the Avengers were seated, except for Banner because he hated these things. Dude just wants to remain a scientist and deal with life as a normal person, at least as much normal as he could be.
"We wouldn't have if not for the stunt you pulled. I still don't know why we let you go ahead with that." Tony snorted as he shot me a heated stink eye.
I think I feel a little sorry for him since he was the one who always stood in front of us whenever we had a scuffle with the government, in this case the UN leaders.
"Trust?" It was the most logical reasoning I could come up with but the complicated look on most of their faces told me that wasn't it.
"Heh, I wouldn't trust you with my saved game data, much less the country." Tony said and devolved into a tirade of complaints while everyone kept quiet and let him burn out his frustrations.
"Damn, I needed that."
"Since Tony is finally with us, I think we should get started. Some of us are busy after all." Steve remarked and gave Tony his cue to start since he was the one who called it instead of just sending an update.
"No matter how uncomfortable I was, still am, with Vision's actions, I can't doubt that the results are more positive than we expected but the question remains: what are the Avengers doing now?" Tony summarized and then looked at Natasha to take over.
"Fury is not pleased with how obscure our recent actions have been. Even if we escaped the Accords, the concerns about the Avengers and it's growing influence are sort of valid, at least if you look at it from the point of view of the leaders from other countries." She said.
Well, it's not as if I expected everyone to just leave us be after everything. All it did was give us a lot more wiggle room, point in case with all the military raids on mutants we stopped, but I guess the leaders of the world still are cautious of us.
I scratched my head in reflex since I don't really want to deal with headache, a figure of speech but still a pain regardless. "So they are making a few concessions to the Accords?"
"Yes, but we still need to assuage the fears of the other leaders and, oh God…" Tony scratched his head in irritation.
"What else Tony?" Steve pressed as he saw how Tony was behaving.
Tony huffed and his irritation spiked even higher. "They also want to talk about an insurance policy for public damages in the event that a fight involving us takes place in their country."
Ouch.
Now I understand why he's irritated. They are looking for ways to dig into Tony's wealth and his company, Stark Industries.
