Latveria
Victor von Doom stood alone on a balcony of black steel, cloak unmoving despite the mountain winds.
Below him, Latveria slept orderly, loyal, perfect.
Above his gauntlet, holograms and mystic sigils overlapped: satellite imagery, quantum probability graphs, thaumaturgical soul-readings.
At the center of all of them was Derrick.
"Fascinating," Doom said calmly.
He watched Derrick's battle data replay frame by frame: momentum spikes, gravity distortions, lightning compression, divine genetic integration.
Doom's eyes narrowed not in fear, but in calculation.
"You are neither god nor monster," Doom murmured.
"You are an engine of evolution without direction."
He turned, metal fingers tracing a glowing sigil etched into the air.
"Prepare the armor," Doom ordered. "Phase-magic shielding. Viral null-fields. And awaken the Latverian Continuum Anchor."
The Doombots bowed as one.
Doom smiled faintly.
"If the universe insists on birthing a devourer…"
"Then Doom will decide what it devours."
Elsewhere
Mr. Sinister's real laboratory did not exist in any official dimension.
It was hidden inside an alien containment field scavenged from a dead Shi'ar black site.
At its center floated a single sample.
Derrick's DNA.
Encased in a dimensional prism, constantly phasing, never fully present in any one reality.
Sinister clapped slowly, delighted.
"Ohhh, you beautiful thing," he crooned.
Around him, clones dozens of Essex variants worked in perfect synchronization, analyzing, dissecting, simulating.
"One absorbs gods." "One adapts faster than magic." "And one" Sinister leaned closer "doesn't realize he's left fingerprints everywhere."
A clone spoke up. "Containment probability?"
Sinister smiled wider.
"Low," he admitted. "But influence?" His eyes gleamed. "Guaranteed."
He turned toward a hologram showing Derrick's recent path.
"Let Doom have his little confrontation," Sinister said lightly. "While gods posture… I prepare the backup plan."
The prism pulsed.
Something inside it twitched as if it knew what was happening .
Yellowstone National Park
The forest was quiet again.
Steam curled from geysers. Wildlife stayed hidden.
Derrick stood near a scorched clearing, body still recalibrating after the Asgardian fusion. Every breath felt denser. More weight behind motion. More resistance to forces that once burned him easily.
Then
Reality flinched
The air grew heavy with ozone and old magic.
Derrick turned just as a figure stepped forward from a vertical seam of green light.
Doctor Doom.
No grand entrance. No theatrics.
Just presence.
"You adapt quickly," Doom said, voice calm, metallic, absolute. "But not quickly enough to hide from Doom ."
Derrick's eyes narrowed, viral senses flaring.
Threat assessment: extreme.
"Victor von Doom," Derrick said evenly. "Ruler. Scientist. Sorcerer." A pause. "super Ego problem ."
Doom chuckled softly.
"You flatter yourself if you believe I am here to fight you."
He raised one gauntleted hand not in threat, but declaration.
"I am here to define and control you ."
The ground around Doom shimmered, runic pylons phasing into existence, forming a wide containment grid that didn't attack Derrick's body but anchored the space around him.
Teleportation resisted.
Gravity stiffened.
Derrick felt it immediately.
Dimensional suppression detected.
"Impressive," Derrick admitted.
Doom nodded once. "Of course it is."
He stepped closer.
"You consume blindly," Doom continued. "You anger gods. Demons and Empires." "And yet you lack purpose beyond growth."
Derrick smiled faintly. "Growth is my purpose."
Doom's eyes burned green.
"No," he said sharply. "Growth without direction is entropy."
He gestured toward Derrick.
"You are a weapon the cosmos has not learned how to aim." "And that," Doom said coldly, "is unacceptable."
The containment field tightened not crushing but measuring.
Doom studied the readings in silence.
Finally, he spoke again.
"I offer you something none of them will." "Structure." "Information." "And a universe that survives your ascent."
Derrick tilted his head.
"And if I refuse?"
Doom's cloak billowed as arcane energy flared around his armor.
"Then," Doom said calmly, "I test how much of you is truly unstoppable."
"You overestimate yourself due to your high intelligence " Derrick said smiling..
The geysers around them erupted simultaneously.
Two apex predators.
One battlefield.
And neither believed the other was leaving unchanged.