Chapter 39

Reed Richards was a beaten man.

The power-suppressing collar around his neck, something of his own design, kept him from using his cosmic-derived stretching abilities, all to keep him contained while awaiting his turn to have his miscaluations and foolishness revealed to the world. Waiting here in this tiny cell in an empty corner of The Raft, a prison populated with the same people he'd spent a lifetime locking in here. The irony was not lost on him. At any rate, the collar was an afterthought, anyone who'd ever met Reed Richards knew that his superpowers were the least dangerous part of him, and there was little they could do to lock up his mind anymore than they already had.

They need'nt have bothered.

Doctor Doom couldn't break him. Galactus couldn't break him. Mephisto himself couldn't break him. But this? Being put on show in front of the whole world, having his dark secrets put on display, exposing him not as a hero or a scientist or even a family man, but an arrogant fool? This, this was as close to the edge as he had ever gotten.

Here in this cell, there was nothing to occupy his mind with other than regrets and what ifs, things he should have done different, people he should have listened to. Should've, could've, would've...

His misery was interrupted by a familiar voice.

"Somehow, I had hoped my victory would have been more glamorous than this."

Reeds head snapped up, his eyes meeting the transluscent, blue figure standing in front of him. "Victor?! How..?"

"Don't strain your inferior mind trying to grasp it, Richards. It's astral projection, the puny wards the Americans put on your prison wouldn't keep out an apprentice party magician, much less a sorceror of Doom's stature."

Richards glared at the ghostly image of his lifelong enemy "Come to gloat, Victor? I'm surprised you bothered, it must be driving you even further into madness knowing that it wasn't you who managed to defeat me."

To his surprise, Doom began to laugh, the sound echoing through his mask "It's true, part of me is furious at being denied my rightful place as your destroyer. To think, Doom's glory, stolen by a mutant upstart?! UNACCEPTABLE!" Doom stilled himself "But yet, another part of me cannot help but see the poetry in your fall from grace. After all, if this mutant wanted to, he could simply have turned you to dust with a look, but instead, he let you destroy yourself! All he had to do was show the world what I've always known, that behind your claims to genius, you're nothing but a liar and a fraud!"

Reed sighed "Victor, is this about your machine-"

"IT IS ABOUT EVERYTHING, RICHARDS!!" Doom screamed, losing his calm demenour "Throughout our entire rivarly, you have claimed yourself my moral superior, calling yourself a "hero", gaining the love of the entire world through your posturing and bragging! But as Doom always knew, you were a far worse man than me."

Reed stood, anger beginning to build "After everything you've done, all the people you've hurt, you really think you're a better person than me, Victor? Perhaps I've made mistakes, mistakes I'm going to pay for, but you are a monster. A monster who thinks his atrocities are justified because he's the one doing them!"

"Perhaps" Doom said, straightening back up "Perhaps Doom is a monster. But as you're about to find out, the world despises fallen heroes far more than monsters they already know!"

"If I could just make the court understand-"

"Then you will just be an even bigger fool if you think you can persuade the rabble with your second-rate calculations. That's just one flaw of many, Richards! You've never understood that the world does not care what your math says, even if you happen to get it right which is rare in of itself! You think your allies you betrayed will ever forgive you because you thought it was the lesser evil? You think your WIFE will?!"

"Don't you dare bring Sue into this!" Reed snarled, his fist halfway through a punch before he realized the futility of the gesture. Doom just laughed cruelly at the display.

"Ah yes, Susan Storm, a lovely creature, one you never did deserve. Out of all your idiocy, I think you destroying your own marriage with her is by far the most delectable. Perhaps now that she's seen what you really are, she'll be more anemable to my own proposal."

"She'll never love you, Victor. Never!"

"It's ironic, really. Out of all the enemies you've made in your life, the worst one turned out to be yourself, because no one else, not even Doom, could have ruined you any worse than you already have. I was still considering just killing you before the trial started, but looking at you now, I can't imagine a worse hell than the one you've made for yourself. Enjoy the rest of your life, Richards."

The blue figure flickered out, leaving him alone in his cell once more. Reed slumped back down on the bed, resuming counting the minutes away as he awaited his fate.

...

In the bowels of Castle Doom, an armored figure stepped out of the magic circle, extinguishing the candles around him as he moved, the magics he'd been using dissipating around him.

"Have you indulged in petty gloating long enough, Doom?" Prince Namor said, standing from the chair he had been lounging in while Doom had been busy terrorizing old enemies halfway across the world. "In case you've forgotten, there are bigger issues at stake than satisfying your ego."

"Don't test me, Namor, Doom knows perfectly well what's at stake here. Have you recieved a response from the others yet?"

Namor scoffed "if you can call it that. The Hood just laughed at our emissary, and said there are easier ways to commit suicide than going after the mutant if that was our end goal. We'll never get Frost with us, she'll never go against him now that he resurrected her clone spawn. As for Osborn..." Namor stayed silent for a moment "...apparently he's indisposed for the forseeable future."

"Unfortunate. What of Loki?"

"He was always difficult to find even at the best of times, but ever since Thor disappeared, he's gone without a trace. The only availible member of our initial list is Taskmaster, and that will not be close to enough if we are to neutralize Ginnungagap."

"Nevermind, it is of no big consequence. We are far from the only ones the mutant has angered in his rampage across the planet, there are others who consider his existance a hindrance. Or even an outright insult."

Namor thought for a moment "I do belive we have one prime candidate. Apocalypse never could stand sharing his title."