Issue 37: Trials of Merlin Part VIII

Peter turned to Johnny and said, "So any plans? Mine involves chucking his ass into the Negative Zone and locking him in some random location."

"Not a bad idea," Reed said still fuming over Doom's presence. 

Peter had never seen him so worried before, and it worried him a little. He had seen versions of the guy that went off the handle. It was not a pretty sight. 

Mr. Fantastic looked at the Baxter Building and thought of Sue, he then turned back to Doom and said, "Go home Doom! I won't allow you to mess with my family anymore, if you come back again, I won't show you any mercy!"

"Reed!" Peter shouted, "I know you're worried, but you should never say that again, you're going to a father soon, and that means you're going to be that child's role model, you have to lead by example. I don't like Doom either, but you should never give up what makes you a Hero!"

Reed was shocked and then felt deeply disappointed in himself, all the rage and worry building up seemed to fade away as his senses returned to Peter and said, "Thank you Spider-Man, I have a plan!"

Reed then quickly explained himself in hushed tones.

"So I just have to keep him busy!?"

"10 Minutes Spider-Man, Johhny can you handle it?" Reed asked.

"We got this bro, go do what you have to do!" Johnny shouted as his flames turned white, "I can maintain my Super Nova form for 3 hours now, bring it on Doom."

Peter looked at his hands and said, "Well then, I guess it's time to go a bit old school now!" Peter webbed up his hands making a pair web band around his knuckles. He then charged alongside Johnny as they took the fight into the air. 

"Hey Fury, how's that back-up coming?" 

"Need to stall as long as you can, the Avengers have been notified, I'm in the middle of turning Doom's Diplomatic Immunity status into Enemy of the State. You did good kid, now just hang on." Fury replied.

"I'm taking the fight over the Hudson River, tell the Avenger's to meet me there," Peter responded.

Peter then leapt into action and charged Doom alongside Johnny. Doom shot green beams of magic at Peter, but thanks to his trusty Spider-Sense he dodged them all and pulled Johnny aside with a jerk of his webbing whenever he was about to be hit. 

Peter zipped in front of him and raised his fist into the air sending him flying upward for Johnny to tackle him in the gut and send him flying off towards the Hudson Bridge.

Peter blasted off beside him and when Doom was ready to strike Johnny Peter activated his Nova Burst through boosters while Webbing Doom's face and chest. He then shot off ahead of Johnny, carrying the villain behind him. 

Spider-Man flexed his muscles as stalled in the air to meet with his target that was quickly catching up. Once he was close enough, Peter punched once, raising his fist high in the air, and collided with the bottom of Victor's chin.

The blow launched Doom out past the Hudson Bridge, but Peter kept up and started fighting him over the river.

After getting hit multiple times, Doom expanded his Magical shield and destroyed Peter's webbing again while he shouted in anger, "GO TO HELL, FOUL CREATIN!" 

The villain created a giant triangle of magical energy over their heads that glowed with nefarious intent. 

However, when Spider-Man's web hit it, the magical energy from the spell dispersed and caused Doom's eyes twitched as he shouted, "Insolent bug!"

"Aww…come on, Doomer Van Doomington! I thought you were one of the smart ones!"

Johnny shot Doom in the back sending flying into the water as he floated next to Peter and said, "He's an Arachnid."

"Hey, only I can make that bad joke!" Peter said as he webbed Doom in the back of the head and lifted him into Johnny's attacks.

The Human Torch shot dozens of fire beams into Doom before the villain created a sphere of energy around Johnny and blasted him towards the city. 

It didn't take his trusty Spider-senses to know that Johnny had been turned into a bomb that would destroy a part of the city as he saw the teenager rapidly increasing in luminosity.

Thinking quickly, he webbed the sphere and watched as the shell he made around Johnny began to crack and crumble. Before it could blow, he pulled it back and threw it at Doom's face. However, in doing this, he opened himself up for an attack. 

His Spidey sense shot off as moved to the side, but he was too slow. A beam of energy shot through his stomach and caused Peter yelled out in pain as he started falling towards the river.

Doom raised his hand to stop Johnny, but the Human Torch had other plans. He focused all his energy into his legs and fist before breaking through the spell and punching Doom down towards Spider-Man.

While falling, Peter Webbed up Doom's face and pulled his head into his feet, hitting him as hard as he could.

Doom's head snapped back with a loud crack. 

As he grunted out in Pain, Doom reached out for Peter and was shot in the side of the face by a beam of energy that wasn't from Johnny.

"Hey kid, did you miss me?"

"Iron Man!" Peter shouted happy to see another friendly face.

A lightning Bolt crashed down, on top of Doom making him yell out.

"Spider-Man it is good to see you again!"

"Thor!" Peter yelled out.

A shield flew out of the sky and bounced off of Doom's mask revealing his scared face.

"Wow! Now that's a face only a mother could love." Peter said as he looked over to see Captain America wearing one of Tony's suits. 

It looked like the iron-patriot armor with the red, blue colors being most prominent and with a white star on his chest. Captain America looked to Peter and asked, "Everything okay here, Spider-Man?!" 

"Fan-Fuckingtastic...Nice suit!" Peter gave a salute with the wrong hand.

"Language...and it's a special occasion. After all, I can't fly," Steve replied.

While Doom was falling towards the water, he suddenly felt Peter start to web him back up.

The villain quickly destroyed the webbing by raising his hand and slammed them together. A green wave of Magic erupted from every part of his body, sending the heroes flying back.

While Peter was being hurled through the air, he raised his arms and shot out dozens of web lines out towards his target. 

The webbing counteracted the wild and unrefined spell, slowly breaking it down until Peter saw his opening.

Two more weblines shot out and he finally got ahold of Doom before he pulled himself over and punched him in the face. 

Of course, Doom was no push over. He countered by punching back with enough force to destroy a small building. 

Peter dodged, rolled over his arm and wrapped his legs around his neck before flinging him towards Thor's hammer swing.

Johnny jumped in on the action and aimed his fire alongside Thor's powerful divine bolt.

The hammer and the superheated fire slammed into Doom in unison. The blast exploded with a great force that shook the surrounding space and made the villain scream out in pain. 

Captain America shield-bashed Doom's back while Tony barraged him with a halo of laser-guided missiles. 

With his frustration reaching its peak, Doom raised his arms and shouted as a giant Pillar of raw Magic energy that shot them through the air. 

Peter felt every bone in his body creaking from the concussive force. Since it was an attack powered by magic, he worried whether or not his allies would survive such a blow. However, upon seeing that Tony and Captain America's suits only slightly damaged by the attack, Peter knew that Iron Man must have used the M-Titan organic Webbing compound to upgrade his suits defenses.

As he regained control, Peter floated next to everyone and said, "If you can keep him from destroying my webbing, I'm sure I can seal his magic. That is, if I can tie him up with enough of it."

Two large cannons with large spinneret legs at the tip of the barrel appeared around his arms, and he filled them up with his Organic Webbing, the rest of the Hero's jumped into action.

"Check it out, I'm Mega Man! Even got my own W-Buster!" Peter shouted as they started attacking Doom from all sides.

While he prepared to launch an attack, Iron-Man used his repulsor blasts with Johnny's fire. Captain America struck the villain with every opportunity he was granted, and Thor hit him with lightning and raw strength that seemed to have the greatest effect even managing to hurt Doom severely on numerous occasions.

Peter raised his hand as two large web lines shot out of the web-cannons. As soon as it hit Doom, he felt his magic control drop significantly, he tried to break it but this time thanks to the aid from his friends constantly hitting him, Doom couldn't so much as muster a single spell. 

Spider-Man continued to wrap Doom up in the thick strands of webbing and could hear him cursing vehemently at the foes in front of him throughout the whole process.

Just as Peter managed to seal Doom up in a cocoon of his organic webbing, he threw them on top of the Huston Bridge and leaned in close to put his ear near the cacoon.

"What was that?" Peter asked as he held his hand up. He could only hear his muffled screams and every other word, and they were most certainly not nice words.

"The potty mouth on you. You're lucky I don't have a bar of soap on me. Well don't you worry, where we plan on sending you, no one will ever have to deal with it again."

Peter looked over to see that Reed approaching. The Fantastic Hero stretched over to them carrying a box that was similar to the one he had when Peter captured the Insectoids.

"Toss him here!" Reed shouted.

Peter nodded his head before grabbing the ball of Doom and throwing it towards Reed.

Mr. Fantastic hit a switch on the box, causing a portal to open before the villain fell into the pocket dimension."

Reed! Just in time!" Peter shouted.

"Quick, Spider-Man, get him back to the lab!" Reed shouted at fellow hero.

Peter grabbed the box and shot himself towards the Baxter building. As he passed by Reed, he heard him shout.

"Sue's waiting by the Dimensional Transference Device, that box won't hold Doom for long."

Peter accelerated as fast as he could, as he reached the saw the Baxter building in sight, the box began to shake and chip away, Peter didn't wait as he flew up to the room where the Portal to the Negative Zone was opened and waiting for him. 

"Good to see you again Sue. I guess we can say sue long to this guy," Peter said as he chucked the box into the portal, and watched as the Invisible Woman started to close it.

"That not the Negative Zone,"

"No, it was the Void Realm. As far as we can tell, there is nothing in this extra dimensional space," Sue replied, "Oh, and that sue joke was lame."

As the portal shrunk Doom broke out of his constraints and charged towards Spiderman.

"Oh shit!" Peter franticly placed his hand out and webbed Doom with an Organic Web Cannon shot. 

He hit his mark, webbing a line to the villain's chest sending him flying back. 

"You're grounded Doom. You've been a very bad boy. Hopefully, you'll learn your lesson in there."

"Damn you Spider-Man!" Doom shouted as the portal closed.

Peter fell over on his back, "Okay! Doom down, Avengers. He's been banished to the Void Zone. However, something tells me he'll be back some day. We need to prepare Anti-Doom strategies for when that happens."

The intercom in his helmet came on and Tony's voice came through, "Please tell me you're joking, I don't want to have to do that again. Anyways, what the hell was up with that guy?

"Magic happend, Tony. Freaking Magic," Peter replied.

"It looks like we still have to clean up." Captain America said through the com.

"I don't suppose we're in trouble for exiling the King of Latveria to the Microcosm?" Peter asked.

Fury came back on, "Not a chance, Latveria revoked their allegiance to Doom to avoid a war. They've had no other choice but to back down and chose a new ruler."

"That's good news. Even if he does come back, he can't pull that Diplomatic Immunity B.S again. Now we can justifiably beat the gravel off of him until he's out of American Soil…get it? Gravel? Soil? Because his skin is deformed?" Peter added.

"Door, there," Johnny pointed to the exit.

"Seriously you think that guy is coming back?" Tony asked with a nervous expression.

"You can't keep a baddie like Doom down forever, and he is most definitely one of the most powerful villains in the world. Do you see him staying put in the Void Zone forever?"

"Good point, kid! I'll start thinking of some countermeasures," Tony said as he started helping clean up Doom's mess. 

Peter joined in on the clean up as well. Thankfully, they managed to keep damage to the city down to a minimum. However, Peter wasn't exactly in tip top condition. He was still aching from having two giant holes in his body. It had healed but the soreness was apparent.

"Doom's magic is really something else, and he isn't even as powerful as he could be." Peter thought of the Doom who killed the entire Marvel Universe.

Nothing could stand in the way of that variation of Doom. Even before he had the Infinity Stones, he managed to kill every hero on earth that fought against him, and not to mention every alien or god-like being that was an enemy of the human race in the universe.

After cleaning up the mess he thanked the Avengers again and headed off back to the Sanctum. After reaching the house, he walked in and dragged his feet all the way to his room that Strange and Wong had prepared for him.

He laid down and passed out. While he slept, across the city Eddie Brock hovering over a microscope he smiled and jumped up, "Success! The Parasite is growing!" 

Brock pulled up his test papers and began marking down his results when he picked up and placed the sample in a vial and stored it in his locker. After packing up he had a chipper expression on his face as he made his way to the door.

Suddenly, a glass beaker fell over, the sound of slithering could be heard, and the lights in the room started to flicker.

"Who's there!?" Eddie shouted, but no one answered.

Eddie tried to reach for his locker when a black ooze fell on his arm, "What the?"

Venom started to fuse with Eddie when he felt the darkness inside him and shouted, "You're not my Eddie! Too much darkness, so much filth." 

The Symbiote freaked out and shot its tendrils across the room destroying most of the lab. Eddie wearing the suit was freaking out as Venom tried to separate itself from him, but whether it liked it or not, Eddie was a near perfect match to Venom's own Brock, which only sped up their merger. 

While they Symbiote struggled to free itself, they busted through the campus wall, ran out into the city while lightning crashed to the distant landscape, and it started to rain.

As he vanished from view, the red Symbiote that Eddie had made slowly crawled out of the containment locker and started crawling towards Riker's Prison, as if it was searching for part of itself.