Sky above the Maryland Institute

Doom sits across from a massive humanoid creature aboard a helicopter,"Do you have a name?" The creature looked to him,"I am Damos, Son of Thanos."

Damos saw the curious look in Doom's eye,"The prison you freed me from was intended for my father who sent me here in search of his precious infinity gems. I made the mistake of under estimating Sinister."

Doom nodded,"Are you a man of your word?" Damos kept eye contact,"In return for my freedom, I will aide your vengeance. I would warn you to keep your end."

Geofront, New Zealand the next day

Doom's helicopter flies above as Damos leapt out. He laughed as the guards emptied their guns on him and he charged. More guards ran out as Damos began his slaughter. They were as gnats fighting a bear. Robotic sentries were called in. Damos was caught off guard for a moment when he was hit by a plasma blast. He was enraged and began hurling the guards at the machines. They were programmed to protect all human life so in their scramble to save the guards Damos attacked tearing them limb from limb as Doom landed.

Doom opened the gates of the fortress and headed in as Damos continued his extermination of the Shield agents. Doom made his way to the control center and switched on a PA system that could be heard throughout the Island, "This island is no longer the property of Shield, if you would like to avoid slaughter I suggest you evacuate immediately."

The Shield agents and their families grabbed what they could carry and loaded up transports as quickly as possible. Within 4 hours the Island was Doom's.

New Latveria one day later

Augustus Holland is listening to an odd report when a view screen popped on with an emergency message.

5 minutes later Holland burst into Colonel Danver's office,"Carol, we've got problems." She looked up at Holland,"I'm busy, can it wait?" She could tell by Holland's face it was urgent so she told him to continue,"Those Doom cult zealots you had locked up are gone. All of them along with a bout a hundred or so we hadn't got to yet. On top of that, we lost the Geofront, I was told some monster showed up and started killing and they had to abandon the place."

Carol pulled up a screen to see a view of the Geofront, all they saw was clear sky.

Geofront

Doom stands in the control center surrounded by his minions, Damos stood beside him as he spoke,"Those buffoons had no idea what this place is capable of, to think I wasted so much effort for the ingrates. The teleporters look untouched, I'll have to show them the true potential of my work."

Doom switched on the comm,"Are my thrusters clear?" A voice answered,"Yes my lord." Doom then addressed the bridge,"Activate cloak and set a course for Antarctica, I need to pick something up."

Damos stood at the edge of the floating island and stared at a camera positioning to view the island.

Live news feed NYC

A reporter stands in front of a camera, "Presidential candidate Victor Dominic is holding a rally today on same street where just 3 weeks ago a riot rocked the city. He's coming to the stage now the cheers are deafening. His Anti-Ferrum platform has taken the nation by storm."

As Victor started to speak a bullet tore through his skull to the horror of the crowd.

Maryland Institute

Sinister watches a monitor,"Right on schedule." He then asked a lab tech to go find Doom to give a progress report but the lab tech told him,"He left about 2 hours ago."

New York Iron Hall

Sanders rushes down a hall to Helfitta's office. As he enters he watches as Victor Dominic dies on national TV. Colonel Bendis cheers as Sanders enters, "What did you do you Starking Moron?" The Colonel and the General looked at Sander's as the Colonel answered,"I just took out a threat to the Iron Army." Sanders looked at him,"No you just did exactly what they wanted you to do, You gave the Anti-Ferrum cause a martyr."

Helfitta stood up,"What do you mean?" The whole thing has been a set up. He's been pumping millions into some charitable funds that don't exist. They all sound like humanitarian aid on paper but everyone of them lead right back to a guy named Essex."

Helfitta sighs,"Nathaniel Essex?" Saunders looks up,"Yeah."

Maryland Institute a view screen come on showing Doom in full armor, "Sinister, as a thank you for your kind service I leave you with some warning, the Iron army will be coming for you, soon. I've left you a little gift on T floor. Have a nice day."

Sanders' apartment

Rob is on a comm,"They're on their way to Maryland." On the other end of the line, Doom speaks,"You've done well." Sanders smiles, "Thank you my lord."

Maryland Institute T floor

Sinister enters the room angrily but stops when he sees the room empty. His assistant asks,"Is there supposed to be something in here?" Sinister looks down,"Yes there most definitely should be. Doom may have just killed the world."

As the elevator hits the ground floor the doors open to a lobby full of Iron soldiers Sinister shakes his head,"I don't have time for this." He takes out a small device and hits a button destroying them all as he walks to a phone leaving a message at the Supreme Commander's office,"He's still on Earth and He's loose."

NYPD 5th precinct Manhattan

General Falcon Helfitta marches in behind Colonel John Bendis and a couple of Iron Soldiers. The General walks up to the desk of Det. Rob Sanders," You're coming with me." Sanders grabs his jacket and follows the General.

Sanders joined the General on a transport, as they sat down Helfitta handed Sanders a data pad. Sanders stares at the General's metal hand a bit put off, Helfitta shrugs,"Temporary replacement, we have more important things to focus on."

Sanders clears his throat,"What can I do for you sir?" Helfitta leans back, "I read the reports, the work involved is far beyond Bendis' capabilities. He tells me you've discovered Shield involvement."

Sanders shook his head, "I don't think Shield did it." Colonel Bendis interrupted, "But what about the tattoos?" Helfitta glared at him,"Did I give you permission to speak?" Bendis backed up as Sanders continued, "Its a false lead, but they want you to know its a red herring. It's like they're daring you to come after them. I've read up on your Shield files and there's not one mention of a tattoo logo on them."

Helfitta stopped him, "How did you get our Shield files?" Sanders shrugs, "I know a guy. Oh have you guys checked the sub net." Helfitta looked confused,"The what?" Sanders was surprised," The Sub net, its an online network that lets people run shows without having to go through the censors, I thought you guys would have it monitored or something considering how often the Spiders and the Thor cult use it to share info. Footage from the riot is already all over it. Everyone in the country has probably seen it by now. The edit used is not helping."

Helfitta gave a hateful stare to Bendis,"How did our investigative branch miss that?" Bendis was staring very intently at his shoes as Sanders started again,"I have a suspect." The General's attention was back on Sanders,"Who?"

Sanders sat up, "Victor Dominic, he's trying to run for president on an Anti-Ferrum platform and 3 days after he announces his candidacy we get a riot made to look like it was instigated by the Iron army. From what I've gathered the guy has really deep pockets which he'd need for access to cloners." Bendis replied,"What cloners?" Sanders answered, "The 200 people who started the protests that caused the riot are all hollow clones, crime bosses use them every now and then they don't have any minds of their own and can be programmed like a computer to do what ever you want, suicide bombs, extra hands in a robbery that you don't have to pay, or in this case hold signs and chant while waiting for who ever hijacked your armor to slaughter them."

Helfitta gave Bendis another hateful glare, "Sanders, you just earned yourself a new job. Bendis, meet your new boss." Bendis was pissed,"But sir, I've...." Helfitta swatted Bendis to the floor, "In 2 minutes he's given me 3 times the amount of intel you have in your entire career."

Sanders looked at the General,"You guys got dental?"

Maryland institute

Doom watches as his new political ad airs using scenes from the recent riot to attack the sitting president and Ferrum. He looks to Sinister, "I've been checking in on the sub net, it appears the riot has caused a great deal of questions to be raised, I'm assuming someone has made the connection back to Dominic by now. From this point on he has no private life, I've scheduled as many public engagements as possible." Sinister shakes his head,"Is that wise?" Doom looks up Martyrs don't get quiet deaths."

Maryland Institute

Sinister switches on a view screen as Doom enters,"Are the Dominic supporters in place?" Sinister nodded, " I made you a nice cross section, various heights, weights, ages and ethnicity. I even threw in some children for effect." Doom steps to the screen,"You are a showman."

Sinister types on a key pad, "We lucked out there seems to be a Thor cult rally going on about 3 blocks from our demonstration, could be useful."

Doom activated his comm, "Lash, are we ready?

Time square NYC

Lash sits on a pipe just beneath a man hole cover as he answers his comm, " good to go." Doom replies over the comm, "Light the fuse."

Above 200 people marched to the middle of the street with signs with various anti Ferrum slogans on them and started chanting. The cult of Thor were chanting just as loudly a block over as the Iron soldiers flew in to disburse the crowd. The field leader shouted, "You are engaging in an illegal protest return to your homes or you will be arrested." The crowd booed as 40 Iron soldiers on the street circled the crowd. One of the soldiers in the air moved next to the field leader, "This'll be over in a second."

Below Lash speaks in to his comm, "Go." One of the people in the crowd shoved one of the armored Creeds and the Creed blew a hole in his chest with his repulser. A voice shot out from the crowd,"Oh my god they killed my son." One of the crowd hurled a brick at a soldier as the crowd erupted in violence. The soldiers in the air joined the ones on the ground. Lash made his way into a space between buildings as this went on. The field leader was alone in the air and began an order, "Hold yo..........." A carbonadium tendril yanked him out of the air and Lash grabbed him by the throat,"Shhh." he then snapped his neck and dropped off the roof.

The cult of Thor joined the other protesters as the Iron soldiers opened fire. The people hurled anything they could grab at the soldiers as more and more people joined the rioting crowd.

Maryland Institute

Doom looked over to Sinister, "The wailing mother was a nice touch." Sinister grinned, "It would have seemed odd if all they could do was chant." Doom looked back to screen, "Did you remember to mark a few of them?" Sinister nodded.

Manhattan

Within 2 hours the whole island of Manhattan was in chaos. the upper class fled as their high rises were set on fire. The riot raged on all through the night and into the afternoon of the next day when the Iron soldiers finally restored order.

The regular police were brought in to try to maintain order and a Detective Rob Sanders was helping some beat cops check alleys when he discovered a large pile of discarded armor. He radioed for backup, "You may want to bring some of the tin men too, they might want to see this."

City Morg 3 hours later

Det. Sanders enters along with an Iron army Colonel, "These guys here are the problem. No records, I mean at all. No criminal, medical, tax, nothing. We could explain it away if it were one or two but 200 people with no kind of ID or records in this day and age, Highly unlikely. Oh and there's this symbol that has been found on a couple dozen of them."

Sanders lifts the arm of one of the mail corpses and there is a logo tattooed on his forearm, "I know I've seen it before but I just can't place it." The Colonel's eyes narrowed as Sanders continued, "Add that to the pile of armor we found in that alley and the half naked Iron soldier we found spread out among the dead and we got a conspiracy. Seems like someone wanted to start a riot, like they wanted to discredit you guys. Thing is they actually did a pretty good job. 400 civilians died so no matter how you spin it some people are going to refuse to believe you guys weren't in the wrong here."

The Colonel stands over the tattooed man as he ordered the medical examiners out, "Ungrateful pricks." Sanders looks over to him,"Who?" The Colonel raised the arm,"This is a Shield logo."

In the corner of the room a tiny robotic fly hangs on the wall unnoticed.

Maryland Institute

Sinister chuckles, "mission accomplished." Doom stands behind him,"I sent the footage to every news out let on the continent, I saved some of the more choice bits for my next advertisement." Sinister nods,"Phase 2?" Doom nods back.

Televisions all across America

An ominous voice plays over a scene of Iron soldiers marching, "The President claims that the Iron army is good for us." A montage of Iron soldiers committing acts of violence and suppression as the voice continues, "He claims the Ferrum is good for our economy." A montage of small business being shut down as Ferrum owned businesses are shown to be prosperous, "Lies from a man clearly in the pocket of big business."

The voice lightens, "Victor Dominic says, 'No More' to a Ferrum run government. As President he promises to show big business that they don't rule the nation." The camera pans on to a room where Victor Dominic is sitting on a couch,"I'm Victor Dominic and I approve this message."

The voice returns "Paid for by the People for Dominic."

Maryland Institute, Annapolis

Sinister stares at the screen with an evil smile, " Genius."

In New Latveria

Holland turns on a view screen, "Carol, you should see this." She turns as she's getting dressed and watches,"There are less obvious ways to announce you're suicidal."

Ferrum HQ

The Chairman's personal assistant stares dumbfounded at the screen, "Should I call the Chairman?" A man by the water cooler looks over,"Do you really want to be the messenger for that?"

Maryland Institute

Doom enters the room talking, "From this point on I'll take any important meetings and debates but any photo op, or interview in non secure locations will be taken by the clone." Sinister looks back, "Do you really think he'll let you become President?" Doom shakes his head,"Of course not, odds are there will be a bullet in that clone by the end of the month. But that's hardly the point."

Sinister nodded,"Might I say you do a very convincing American accent." Doom shrugs,"Is this the man you told me about?" Lash sits at a table looking on at Doom, "I'm at your service so long as the doctor needs me to be." Doom walks over to him,"How to you feel about making Iron soldiers look stupid on national television?" Lash smiles.

NYC 2 days later.

2 Iron soldiers march down the street on routine patrol as they pass an alley 2 tendrils shoot out and drag them in. Lash yanks their helmets off and breaks their necks as 2 Creeds of similar height to the soldiers drop down from a fire escape and begin stripping the armor off them.

The armored Creeds march out of the alley and into the streets. Lash and several other Creeds disappear over roof tops to repeat this process else where in the city until half of the street patrol in Manhattan had been replaced by Creeds.

As the last Creed suits up Lash turns on his comm, "All right kitties, lets start a riot."

NYC Sewer 2 years ago

Splinter was in his room and the other turtles were out leaving Don, Beast and Forge alone to set up the lab. Beast picked up a small device Don had built and looked it over curiously, "What is this?" Don looked up from a mass of wiring,"Oh,that doesn't work, I was attempting to make a teleportation device but I couldn't get it to work. I didn't really expect it to, given that I got all my parts from a junk yard."

Forge took it and was lost in thought for a second,then he pulled it apart and started rearranging some parts. The group became completely distracted standing around the device. Forge nodded, "I think it'll work if I just adjust this and boost the power......" A bright light enveloped them but they seemed not to notice until they heard a roar. The 3 turned in unison as Don pointed, "Is that a T-Rex?" Beast looked back,"I believe it is, we should probably run now."

The 3 sprinted away only to run into a group of raptors on the hunt. One leapt at Beast who swatted it away as the group ran in another direction. The raptors gave up the chase when the T-rex arrived but by then Don, Forge and Beast had escaped up a tree. Don looked around and was surprised to see a squirrel climbing the tree across from them, "Guys, where are we?" Beast looked over and saw the squirrel and he and Forge looked at each other and in unison,"Ah, The Savage Land."

Don looked confused,"The what?" Beast explained,"Its an artificial rain forest in the heart of Antarctica. Its home to many formerly extinct creatures there are even a few civilizations of people down here."

Once they'd determined it was safe to come down Forge pulled a small device from one of the pouches on his belt that produced a holographic map of the area,"We have a friend here who may have some tools that could help us finish the transporter so we can get back to New York."

They walked for a few miles until they came upon a village. Beast called out to a person passing by,"Do you know where we can find Ka-Zar?" They pointed them to a hut at the edge of the village. When they arrived Ka-Zar greeted them, "Hello Dr. McCoy, Forge and I don't believe I've met your friend." Don reached out his hand,"Donatello."

Forge looked at him, "You wouldn't happen to have a tool box would you?" Ka-Zar waved them inside.

As Forge finished up the repairs on the device screams were heard. Ka-Zar jumped to his feet and the 3 followed him out. The Sabre toothed cat Zabu roared as they exited and Ka-Zar looked to the sky," Klantorr." Humanoid reptilian creatures swooped down from the sky grabbing people. Ka-Zar and Zabu ran toward the village with Beast and Don close behind.

As one swooped down Zabu pounced on it, driving it to the ground. Don found one attempting to catch a small child. He delivered a flying kick to its face and swatted it away with his bo. Beast was caught by one but proved a bit stronger as he forced its hand away using the other hand as a pivot to kick the creature in the head and jumped away.

Forge stepped out of the hut and pointed the transport device at the creatures in the sky and flipped a switch. There was a flash of light and all but 3 of the creatures that were conscious were gone. The last 3 quickly grabbed their fallen comrades and retreated since the were now vastly out numbered.

The village thanked the group as they gathered around Forge who was adjusting the settings on the transporter. They said good bye and were then enveloped in light and sent back to the turtles lair about 10 feet from the floor. They dropped down in front of Splinter and the other 3 turtles who had surprised looks.

(Read @Time_Phantom Wide Awake before this)

Maryland Institute Annapolis

Victor Von Doom wakes in a cold sweat on a cot in an exam room. He looks around and sees Dr. Essex sitting in the corner staring at a data pad, "Sinister, where am I?" Essex looks up, "Its about time you woke up."

He explained, "Project Wide Awake had you dropped into a hell dimension, luckily the current leadership owes me favors. Hellstorm brought you to me and I went to work." Sinister tossed Doom a hand mirror.

Doom brought it up to his face and was shocked, "My face? You've restored my original face." Sinister grinned, "Body too, I cloned your original body and transferred your mind to it." Doom was curious, "Why?"

Sinister stood up, "Three reasons, 1. There is not one living person on Earth whose ever seen your true face, we can't even find a photo of you beyond the age of 12, 2. Your relationship with Ferrum has made you a terrific distraction which has until recently allowed me the level of freedom required for my research and finally using a direct genetic match made the transfer process so much easier."

Sinister tossed him some clothing, "One of my assistants will show you to your room for the night, I will explain the situation further when I return."

5 hours later

Essex walks into a lab and sees Doom finishing something with a machine, "Busy?" Doom doesn't look at him, "Just removing your genetic control system from my body, the fifth redundancy was somewhat tricky but the rest could use some improvements." Sinister shrugged, "Had to give it a try." Doom turned,"I would have been offended if you hadn't."

Sinister pointed to the door," I have something to show you, your current body is actually the second clone of you." As they entered another room Doom saw his body in a 3 piece suit and tie staring blankly at him. Sinister smiled, "Allow me to introduce the Governor of Maryland Victor Dominick, I made him as a bit of a joke several years ago, virtually mindless and being controlled by nanites of my own design. I've been using him to run the state without having to deal with the mundane politics. This is your new secret identity for the time being."

Doom glared at him, "Do you really expect me to volunteer to be your pawn?" Sinister shook his head,"I was thinking of this as a mutually beneficial arrangement, you'll get your vengeance, I'll get that buffoon to focus his attention else where while I do my work." Doom replied, "So Stryfe and I continue to play cat and mouse so he doesn't notice the snake in the grass?" Sinister grinned,"Exactly."

Doom nodded, "So who is responsible for what happened to my country? If Stryfe could've done it he wouldn't have waited so long." Sinister nodded,"Little Ms. Marvel has decided to start playing our game. Shall we show her how its done properly?"

(To be continued)

Castle Doom, Latveria 2028

A man stares in horror at his hands,"What did you do to me?" Doom stands above him, "I did what any one would do to an unruly dog, I curbed you."

He looked up in fear,"I'm human now?" Doom stepped closer, "Not quite, but you are far closer to human than to what you were. There is a price for meddling in the affairs of Doom." He then motioned for guards to enter, "I want an example made of him, find a tree nearest to our western border and nail him to it."

1 week later

An elderly man is driving along an old dirt road in the northwestern forest of Latveria and notices a man hanging from a tree looking half starved and dehydrated. The man stops and grabbed a pair of pliers from a tool box in the back of his truck and uses them to remove the nails from the hung man's wrists and feet and then helps him to the truck asking in Russian, "What is your name?" He sees a book laying on the seat between them by John Steinbeck and says, "My name is John."

1 year later Berlin, Germany

John sits on a street corner staring at his feet when a stops in front of him and asks in German,"Hey man, how would you like to make some money?" John looks up, "I don't swing that way buddy." The man shakes his head, "Trust me if I was looking for that I wouldn't need to pay, and frankly I could do better." John laughs as he stands up, "You got a name?" The man grins,"Not at the moment." John nods.

Later that night

The mysterious man tells John,"All you have to do is walk in and drop off this case, I'll pay you when you come out." John strolls into the air port and heads toward the drop location and leaves the case as several men with guns surround him, One man yells at him,"On the floor." John rolls his eyes and starts to walk away when one of them grabs his arm to stop him. He looks him in the eyes,"You sure you want to do this?" The man looks into his eyes and hesitates.

John drove his thumb into the man's eye and takes his gun putting 2 bullets in the man who'd ordered him to the floor and causing a panic in the airport, in the commotion one of the gunmen sneaks away from the rest of the group with the case as John disappears in the crowd. An hour later he sits at a table across from the man who sent him into the air port,"You owe me some money." The man looked shocked, "Wasn't really expecting you to make it back."

John nodded,"I knew that before I went in, you're still going to pay me though." The man paid him then introduced himself, "I am Lars Tiboldt, and you are?" He answered,"John." As he took a cigarette from Lars' pack on the table.

For the next few years John made a name for himself throughout Europe as a man who could get things done, he left when Doom started gathering nations and forming New Latveria. He quickly became their go to man for eliminating problems that needed to be taken out quietly. Eventually Meeting the Chairman of Ferrum in person.

(This story picks up in @batkevin74 European Assassination Division and will be elaborated on in the future)

The Sol System near Mars

Hal set the ship on auto pilot as the crew explored the ship. They found full barracks big enough to house a few dozen soldiers along with many private quarters for various officers. Each member chose a room and dropped off their things. They moved on to an observation deck, Abomination stared off at the stars like a child. 7 and Hal went down to the engineering section to familiarize themselves with it.

Dal and Fry went to get accustomed to the weapons. David, Sam and Molly found a kitchen but were worried when they couldn't find any food storage when the Professor chimed in over a P.A., "The ship is equipped with food replication technology. Ferrum found it would be much more efficient if the ship didn't need to stop to restock food and drink supplies." Sam looked at the machine, "Sounds a bit like Star Trek to me." The Professor chimed in again, "It is programmed with more than 5 million recipes."

As the crew gathered on the bridge they assessed the situation 7 began, "This ship is an amalgamation of the work of several of the greatest minds Earth has to offer, along with the Shi' Ar, Kree and even Skrull tech. It will take some time to figure it all out but the ship's computer has been very helpful." The computer chimed in,"I would prefer it if you called me Professor." 7 started to say something but David cut him off, "The Professor controls our air and food supply so I suggest we call him what ever he likes." The rest of the crew agreed.

Dal added, "We're equipped with some top of the line weapons, We have one of the most powerful cannons I've ever seen on a cruiser and the side arms are impressive. We are well protected even if something manages to penetrate our external shielding the ship itself should be impervious to standard fighters so as long as we don't encounter any war ships we should be fine."

Hal finished up the meeting, "This is home for the time being, we're a small crew which means more work for everyone. Get some rest while you can we have a long road ahead."

Maryland Institute, Annapolis

Ed Gold and a young lab tech named Bill Smith wait outside an elevator. Bill is looking over a cart he'd brought with him to make sure everything Dr. Essex had requested was there, "What's on T floor? I've never seen it on any order forms or building schematics." Ed looks over to him,"No one but Essex knows for sure, he'll make us wear neural inhibitors in there and will more than likely do short term memory wipe on our way back. I know I've been down there 4 times but I couldn't tell you what I saw if I wanted to."

The door opened with Essex standing inside as Smith and Gold rolled the cart in. Essex entered a code into a wall pad and the elevator went down for what seemed like an hour in silence. When the doors opened Smith and Gold were surprised to see a massive mostly empty room. In the center there was a large humanoid creature shackled at the hands and feet. His mouth was muzzled and he was surrounded by 4 large plasma cannons aimed at him and set to fire if any of the shackles are opened. He glared at Essex with rage filled eyes as he pulled the cart over and lifted a large empty syringe tipped with an adamantium needle.

Sinister ordered Gold to activate a machine as he loaded the syringe into it and had Smith switch on the monitoring equipment. The machine inserted the needle into his arm having a little trouble breaking the skin. Sinister then turned on a pump that pulled a few quarts of blood out. He then ordered Smith to grab a stool and do a routine check to ensure the shackles and power inhibitor were working properly. When the young lab tech reached for the inhibitor the creature smashed his head into the young man's forehead killing him instantly to Ed's horror.

Sinister waved Ed on to finish the check as he spoke,"I know being held captive by a lowly Earthling like me must enrage you but lets be civil here." Sinister's hand hung above a button. Ed nervously finished his work as Sinister tossed the body of the young lab tech in a chute leading to an incinerator and beckoned Gold to follow him. The 2 entered the elevator as Ed looked back fearfully. As the doors closed Ed had a blank expression then looked to Sinister," Don't you usually bring 2 techs with you to T floor? " Sinister grinned ,"You do such a good job around here, I figured you could handle it on your own."