Dr. Doom

Shieldfreeden

Night turned to day as the Sun rose from under the horizon and the sky began to turn to a warm orange. This orange light shone directly into the room which the armor-clad dictator sat in. The dust made out a rough outline of the convection currents nature naturally made, visible only due to the rays of the Sun. Said rays also allowed the rest of the room to become visible, which had almost anything a guest would need for accommodations.

A neatly made bed sat against the middle of the wall, creating a "U" shaped path throughout the rest of the room. A rug laid under the bed which was uniform and matched the red of the blanket. There were three pillows on each side of the bed and laying on top of one another, each increasing in size the closer to the bed it laid. The velvet blanket was vermilion red, which complimented the brown walls. These same walls also included a cream-colored trim which were sculpted in a way that Doom thought looked like a deviation of a cove trim.

Against the wall opposite to the door of the room was a desk fitted with the essential quill, inkwell filled with ink, and plenty of spare paper. Next to it was a shelf halfway full of books, the same shelf which Doom acquired the book in his hand. This book was as much for leisure as it was for learning what it was the people of this world read for fun. Since his arrival, Victor hadn't the time for much recreational reading, so being able to simply sit down and relax was something he thought would feel refreshing. It wasn't so.

His mind often began to wander towards his theories and others' theories and experimentation in dimensional transportation. The juvenile mystical arts which Stephen Strange was so fond of or the Microverse were the two that came to mind. He scoffed at the first idea, knowing that if Victor's knowledge of the mystical arts couldn't get him out of the world, Dr. Strange would be in an even greater disposition. As for the latter, so little was known about the Microverse that the dictator questioned if it could even help in this scenario and Victor didn't want to waste his time getting through the Time Travelers to find out.

He shut his book with a sigh, slowly rising from his seat and placing the book back where he had found it.

It matters not, I suppose. Victor reasoned mentally, If what the king said was true, that in defeating the Waves of Calamity I may return home and defeat Reed Richards, my time here might not be a total waste.

He marched towards the entrance of the room, swinging the door open and meeting the guard that escorted him around town yesterday. The man jumped, pulling his hand which was gestured to knock on the door. He took a step back and bowed his head with his right arm strapped over his chest.

"When you are ready, my lord, the Queen of Melromarc has arrived and the council will be preparing for their meeting shortly. Do you wish for me to fetch your companion?"

"There will be no need." The man nodded towards the hall, which was cause for the man to turn in the same direction. Through a door on the other side of the hall, Raphtalia stepped out, already prepared to leave. Victor returned to the escort, "Lead the way, guardsman."

The soldier stood straight with a quick, "Yes, my lord." He followed his order and soon the two were on their way towards the government building.

It didn't take long for them to arrive. By the time they set foot on the property the orange of the Sun had turned to yellow and the sky was now mostly a yellow turning to a light blue the closer the Sun reached the apex of the sky. Carriages were being pulled to the front of the building where the noble representatives made their way inside the building from the steps. One of the assistants of the council took notice of Doom and his party before making his approach towards the building on his own. The escort excused himself and both Dr. Doom and Raphtalia made their own way towards the steps.

"Ah, the lord of Siltvelt." A woman's voice emerged from behind as the duo began making their way towards the government building. As they turned, the eyes of Doom met the eyes of the queen of Melromarc, Mirellia Q. Melromarc. She met him with a gentle smile and bowed in a curtsy, picking up her purple dress and rising slowly after. "I'm very happy to make your acquaintance."

Dr. Doom never let his scowl leave his face, though it was only visible through his eyes. "If you're attempting to present yourself as an ally to Doom, cease your ill-attempt of treachery. Your daughter and husband already revealed their true intentions."

"I understand your hesitation to trust me, truly. I want to express my humblest apologies for the treachery my family has treated you to." The woman placed her hands in front of herself, entangling her fingers in a plea. "If you will hear me, I wish to express myself firsthand as the true ruler of Melromarc."

"Are you ordering Victor Von Doom like a servant?"

"No, my lord. These are my wishes alone; you may do as you wish." She lowered her head, closing her eyes, "I want to make things right between our nations and between our relations with the Shield Hero."

The dictator paused for a moment before turning to the queen fully, marching down the steps. He stopped as he came side-by-side with her. "The council will wait, and I will grant you permission to speak to me in private, Mirellia Melromarc." He turned to her again, meeting her eyes with his own, "For your own sake, you had better not be wasting my precious time."

Raphtalia

Ryute Village

Raphtalia and Dr. Doom made their way towards the village once more with their filolial. The biggest surprise to the tanuki girl was the fact the bird stood at the same height as her master. The growth that was possible in two days' time was incredible! Though something was egging the back of her head.

Perceptive as ever, Victor noticed. "My dear, if you have something to say then do so." He demanded as they reached the stables. He picked up a brush which laid on a stool inside the stable to tend to her feathers so they were nice and clean.

"I was just wondering what you would be naming her."

He didn't answer for a second, focusing on making sure her feathers were perfectly clean. He eventually turned to the bird, looking at her in the eyes. "She is a smart one, Raphtalia. One such as this claims her own name."

"She might be a smart creature, but I don't think she can exactly communicate what she wants her name to be."

He glared back at the demi-human, his grown evident through his mask. "You know Doom does not tolerate mockery, girl! It would be best for you to mind your tongue." The bird behind him joined him in glaring at her, as if to repeat his words back at her. This only added to her frustration. Doom turned back to the filolial, "Doom understood what he said, and I meant it. She will choose her own name."

Raphtalia wanted to retaliate but instead she held her tongue by her master's request. "Yes, Dr. Doom." She replied, though with reluctancy.

Sometimes, Raphtalia wished she could read his mind. Not because she believed he was wrong but because he always seemed to know something everyone else didn't. When it was someone else being targeted, she had to admit it was amusing. But now, saying a filolial could communicate their name was just ridiculous! So why he insisted on the bird being able to was beyond her.

With very rare exceptions to the norm, however, he was able to prove how correct he was. So, to Raphtalia, it didn't make so much of a difference whether he was transparent with her. Especially when he has had the people's best interests in mind thus far. Even with the tanuki girl herself, he seemed to have her best interests in mind. That didn't stop her from being annoyed at the way she had to pester him to get even just the first word of the page he was on.

Those thoughts were put on pause when she caught the sound of a few shouts outside. They began to rise in volume before one of the town's children, a boy with orange hair and a small bandage on his cheek, stopped at the stable doors.

"Lord Doom! Come quickly!"

Raphtalia turned to her master, who already began marching towards the boy. She, the filolial, and the boy followed behind the Shield Hero towards the front gates of the town. As they got close, the tanuki girl could only sigh in contempt as she saw who it was.

The Hero of the Lance, Motoyasu, sat atop a small dragon next to Malty Melromarc who was on her own dragon. Behind them were a group of guards who had their own dragons. Each of the steeds were covered in somewhat crude armor to what was to her and Doom's standards of protection.

As they approached, some of the villagers at the back of the crowd took notice of Victor and stepped aside. The rest of the crowd followed suit, giving him a clear path between him and the guardsmen. Before he reached the group, he turned to the boy who was still gripping his cape, picking him up and gently handing him over to his mother. Victor turned back to Motoyasu, picking up his own cape and raising his chin.

"You've got some nerve being in Melromarc territory, Doom. If that even is you, that is." Motoyasu pointed to the armored man with the blade of his spear, "What the hell are you doing here?"

Victor didn't waiver, "I think that is my place to ask you, Hero of the Lance. What are you doing to cause your own people to be distraught so?"

"If you must know," the princess replied, opening a scroll, "It has been decreed that this village have a toll placed upon any who enter or leave this village."

"A toll!" An elderly woman exclaimed, stepping forward with a cane to keep her balance, "The merchants who enter and leave this village are our own. As we are now, if this tax is placed we will only lose money!"

"You dare question the laws of the castle?" Malty recoiled, placing her hand on her hilt.

"Questioning and following are the same here. We question and you kill us as punishment, we follow and we kill ourselves over time due to economic collapse!" The elder explained, slamming the cane against the dirt ground. "This is not reasonable!"

The princess drew her sword and reeled it back with a frown drawn on her face, "I should strike you where you stand, old hag!" Dr. Doom stepped in front of the old woman, arms crossing in front of him and eyes glued to the Princess'. She pushed forward anyways, going straight for the armored man's throat. She was stopped, however, by Raphtalia's blade, both swords interlocking and stopping at each other's hilts. The princess' scowl creased further, "Get out of my way you damned demi-human!"

"Lay a finger on my lord and I'll show you how damned a demi-human can be." Raphtalia growled, her composure being tested by the princess.

Malty was about to respond, but Motoyasu placed his lance on top of theirs, getting their attention. "Let's not get worked up, girls. There's no need to be mean just because of what people are born as."

If Raphtalia was hearing right, it seemed like the Spear Hero just defended her as a demi-human! She, for one, was almost relieved to hear that even if she knew it was for weird reasons.

The Princess wasn't so relieved. "Motoyasu, why are you defending her?"

"What's gotten into you, Malty?" He asked with an eyebrow raised, "I just think a fight breaking out right now isn't the best option, it definitely shouldn't be the first pick this time. So, can we put our weapons away for a sec?"

It was reluctant on both parties, but both women pulled their weapons back. Raphtalia sidestepped to her master's side, though her guard was up just in case either of them tried anything again. The Spear Hero moved forward on his steed, coming face to face with Dr. Doom.

"Look, Victor. This whole process is complicated, and I know at the moment it seems like we're hurting the people here. But this is something the King signed off on and I believe he has the best interests of his people at heart. You could take a page out of that book some time." Motoyasu forced a smile, "This is Melromarc business, so I'm just saying to stay out of this so we don't have any more issues than we already have with each other. Unless, of course, you plan on creating an altercation between our nations and our allies."

Raphtalia stepped back as Motoyasu finished his reply. Specifically, she began backing up when the younger man commanded something of her master. The one thing she learned in the time she's traveled with him was that you do NOT order Victor Von Doom to do anything! Then to threaten him after the order is basically a death sentence in his book. As she stepped back, the crowd of the village also stepped away from the cloaked man. The filolial was even following suit with Raphtalia, placing herself behind the tanuki girl and out of direct sight from the ruler of Siltvelt.

"You order Doom around, do you?" The armored man began, placing his hands behind his back, "Let's settle this with a more democratic method this time…" Victor turned around, facing the people of Ryute village. "As I understand it, the Melromarc guards were the ones to attack your homes and lives, in turn producing more damage than what even the other-worldly invaders would have done under my watch. They incinerate your village, and then they mandate you to hand them all your finances! Should you, who have suffered such trauma, such catastrophe, remain submissive towards outright tyranny who would only offer you more anguish when what you all needed was a helping hand, no, simply time to get back on your own two feet?"

"I offer an alternative prospect for you all." Doom announced, gesturing to them with open arms, "Dr. Victor Von Doom asked this of you as Siltvelt, NOT Melromarc, supplied relief during the Wave of Calamity and helped you to rebuild and improve what was lost; the only thing I asked in return was for you to exalt my name! Now, Doom offers his aid again. Your protections and needs will be met with absolute certainty as I promised the rest of Siltvelt's citizens, with only one request for you in return." The crowd was close again, listening intently to the armored man, the ruler of Siltvelt, to heed his wishes, "You will serve me with absolute dominion under the banner of Doctor Victor Von Doom!"

The armored man turned back to the Spear Hero and the Princess, the latter of whom was scowling down at him with a smile. "A nice little speech, but the people of Melromarc know what's best for-."

"Doom!"

Raphtalia turned back, meeting the small, higher pitched voice that interrupted Malty. It was the boy that fetched them earlier with a fist raised in the air above his mother's head. He had a smile on his face looking square at the woman's eyes.

"Doom! Doom! Doom!" He continued chanting, gaining support from others in the crowd. They kept chanting, the number of fists rising in the air increasing with each chant! By the time every villager's fist was in the air, the chants volume had increased and combined into a higher caliber than one person could achieve. All of it was directed at the Melromarc soldiers.

The guards' flustering shadowed the reactions of the Princess and the Spear Hero. Malty tried to retaliate against the noise with her own voice, but it was in vain as her voice failed to be heard to even Raphtalia despite her being right in front of her as she stood proudly beside her master.

Dr. Doom raised his fist in the air, the chanting stopping instantaneously.

"It seems, Princess Melromarc, the people have spoken." Victor spoke, representing their voices.

She began laughing, shaking her head, "You think that means anything? They're still in our nation's borders, you idiot! That means they are Melromarc's regardless of what they say."

Victor raised a hand, snapping his fingers. Raphtalia looked up to the sky, catching the green flashes of drones and Doombots being spawned from Siltvelt's army and into the village. The robots marched forward, some with cannons as their left hands and the vague resemblance to Doom. Others looked closer to the original man, though the cloak and shield he had on his main robots were nowhere to be seen. The small militia quickly surrounded the Spear Hero and Princess' posse with the only opening for them being the exit of the village. Raphtalia reclaimed the grip of her sword to point it at the Princess, a smirk finding its way on her face, "I believe my entourage disagrees with that assessment. Ryute Village belongs to Siltvelt now, as per the request of her people."

Malty's steed stepped back a little as she stood in awe of the newly spawned warriors before turning her attention back to the Shield Hero. "Do you even realize what you're saying? Invading territory and seizing land is treason. You will create war throughout the continent!"

"Then let there be war." Doom began. From his eyes and the fingertips of his gauntlets, green energy in the form of mist began seething out and rising into the atmosphere. He pointed at the posse with his open hand, lightning sparking between his fingers and licking the metal of each appendage, "You will come to know why Doom is fated to reign supreme in this world!"

Dr. Doom

Shieldfreeden

The two leaders finally sat down at the table, being granted full privacy from the owners of the restaurant. The establishment was grand, with fine sculptures resembling that of the Cardinal Heroes of the past placed occasionally around the walls. Placed on the walls were animal heads of the world, some which resembled animals of Victor's world and others that only existed in this world. Between some of the game was paintings of wars and victorious scenes which all combined the theme of the establishment. The atmosphere was very reminiscent of the Asgardian's Valhalla as described by Loki from time to time when the topic arrived between the two. A feast in which the targeted audience would be proud warriors!

The tables of which were spaced out graciously enough to allow private conversations to prosper. However, for discussions as dire as this, the two leaders requested that the entire restaurant be emptied and only a wine bottle to be placed on their table. The staff were to have no further interactions with the guests and would wait until they both left to collect their leftovers and reopen for the typical workday. Dr. Doom was skeptical of this, but the Queen reassured him with a smile.

"I understand your doubt, my lord. However, the men and women of Shieldfreeden are accustomed to private conversations such as this. You have nothing to fear of the staff." She began to pour Dr. Doom's glass before pouring her own wine. Once she placed the bottle down, she took a respectable drink out of her own bottle and returned to Victor, "Combine that with your companion guarding the front door, the only better privacy would be within church confessionals."

The leader of Siltvelt took hold of his own glass of wine for a sip, placing it down immediately after. "I assume your urgency to speak with me revolves around your family's obsession with creating a blight against my name."

She nodded, her smile fading, "As is the reason you're in Shieldfreeden, I presume."

"Indeed. May I call you by name?" The woman nodded and so Victor continued, "Mirellia, I gave your husband and your first child two chances of introspection and they spat in my face both times. My patience is limited, and I have granted them far more than their fair share of it."

"I understand the only reason they were allowed one of those chances was because of my second daughter, the one I've chosen for the crown."

Doom nodded, "Melty Melromarc, wasn't it? She requested her father be spared and so I had her promise to keep him and her sister in line. In the end, that promise bared no fruit."

Mirellia's eyes widened, she leaned forward and took hold of Victor's hands, "My lord, I beg of you not to hold Melty responsible for them. You may punish me if you must, but I plead you to show mercy towards Melty!"

Victor calmly placed a hand on hers, "I will not place a hand on your second daughter, rest assured."

The queen sighed in relief as she returned to her own seat and tried to regain her composure with a napkin to wipe her brow.

He replied to her plea, "You care greatly for your second of kin but not the first."

"Indeed." Her shoulders slumped with a nod of her head. "Melty is… She has always been more sensible than both her sister and my husband. She's also, as it would happen, my favorite. That's one of the things Aultcray and I agree on. Malty on the other hand has had her set of issues."

"Still, you would not even attempt to save the rest of your family from the punishments I might deal?"

"It simply is not my place, Lord Doom." She turned her head towards the front of the restaurant, peering out the window as the people went about their day. "Just like you, the rest of the nations are demanding reparations for their misdeeds. As I have been informed of your knowledge of this predicament, there was a treaty formed between all the nations on this continent which outlined the order in which the Cardinal Heroes would be summoned. My fool of a husband with the association of my daughter broke that treaty and planned to use that as political artillery of sorts." She turned back to the armored man, her eyes firm in what she said, "I believe they will regain their composure with the knowledge that the Shield Hero dealt what punishment he felt appropriate of the two as well as some compensation for the difficulties he had to face during the time in which he was forced to carry those burdens."

"Ryute Village."

"Excuse me, my lord?"

"A small village which was under my protection during this world's second Wave of Calamity." Victor brought out a small projection disk, placing it on the table between the two of them. It burst to life, allowing the hologram of a screen to share what was visible through the lens of a drone present at the site. The construction drones were already beginning new plans to better the defenses and adding electricity to the homes of the people. The queen simply stared in awe of it. "There was a complication between your daughter, the Spear Hero, and the people there when a tax had been placed on them shortly after the invasion. Promptly, one of my machines had convinced the humble citizens to relinquish their citizenship to me."

"Your machines convinced my people? It's as if you mean to say your creations have sentience." She shook her head, "Never mind that. If my people accepted your terms of their own free will, I have no problem issuing the deed to Ryute Village's property to Siltvelt, my lord. Besides, from the sounds of it they might not accept Melromarc as their kingdom so soon after such an incident." The last word was expressed like a sigh which reeked of disappointment. "You will have your property and I will overlook all activity already evidently underway."

The Latverian nodded to acknowledge his request being met. He took hold of his wine again and consumed a longer draught before taking his projection disk from the table and disabling it before placing it back in its place. The queen refilled his glass to where it was at the beginning of their conversation. She smiled towards him, taking hold of her wine and raising it to mouth level.

"Overall, I have been nothing but impressed with you, my lord. I never predicted someone of your stature would be any of the Cardinal Heroes, and the Hero of the Shield, no less." She took a sip of her wine before returning to the conversation, "I am curious of how you convinced the previous lord of Siltvelt to turn over his power to you. The young man isn't known for being the most reasonable of rulers."

Victor's glare aimed at Mirellia, "I sought to convince him to aid me, to simply concede governance of his army to me. Predictably, he refused my demands and cast his soldiers upon me."

Mirellia calmly closed her eyes, "Did you kill him then?"

"Not before I put him to work in the Siltvelt mines." Victor answered, swirling his wine in a circle. "Is that something which would disturb you?"

She shook her head, "What's done is done, and so long as the other nations recognize the improvement of Siltvelt they more than likely will overlook it. Faubley being a potential exception."

This earned a chuckle from the man. The queen opened her eyes, meeting his glare. "Faubley amounts to naught more than a roach beneath my boot. If they wish to contest Doom, it shall be the repulsive king's mortality he wagers. His land will be mine by forfeit."

"You certainly are headstrong, lord Doom." The woman raised an eyebrow before leaning forward and placing her head on her hands. "Though you may consider this a pester, I almost think you wish to conquer all the nations for yourself. Do you genuinely believe you have the ability to take over and rule the whole continent on your own?"

Victor stared down the woman, placing his wine down at the table. "I will not halt at this continent, Mirellia. If necessity demands, I will take control over this whole world and beyond in order to achieve my goals!"

The queen sat in what would have looked calm if it weren't for the force she used to grip her wine glass. It was the first time Victor felt someone took his declarations seriously. She understood her situation clearly, that if he decided it was necessary, he had the motivation and the abilities to take control over every single one of the seven kingdoms!

"If I might ask, why is it you haven't already started towards that goal?"

"My dear Queen of Melromarc, have you forgotten already?" The woman frowned for a second before her eyes opened wide again to the realization, "You have accepted to gift me Ryute Village. Thus, I have already began my expansion!"

"You have bested me it seems, Lord Doom." The Queen smiled with a small giggle. She nodded, placing her hands on her lap, "I know we have a few things to settle still, but I do genuinely hope Siltvelt and Melromarc's relationship can be reconciled. I would much rather have a resourceful ruler such as yourself as an ally rather than an enemy."

"Indeed," the Latverian replied with a nod, "To have a composed woman such as yourself as an ally shall make Siltvelt and Melromarc an undisputed force in this world."

Victor smiled behind his mask as he lifted his glass, tilting towards Mirellia, "To celebrate our hopes to better the lives of our people and the hopes of strengthening the bonds between our nations, a toast!"

The queen took hold of her glass, finally allowing her eyes to show relief after the stress. She raised her glass, "I hope this means we can add the avoidance of war between our nations, as well."

The armored man nodded before their glasses tapped each other, "So long as more complications do not arise, war has been suspended. Although, your other champions will need to be dealt with before we can truly consider each other allies."

Mirellia's smile returned, "Not a worry, when I return to Melromarc I will be sure to set the Cardinal Heroes straight, Victor. I hope they can avoid your machines long enough to make the transition easier for when I return to Melromarc."

Both leaders finally took the drink to finalize their toasts.

Raphtalia

Ryute Village

The Sun was just beginning to set now. No more guards returned from Melromarc's castle since the Spear Hero and the Princess left the village with their posse. By now, the defenses were to the point where if they had decided to attack the village or the surrounding forests, they would be fired upon and either killed or captured by the drones. Beyond that, the Doombots were set on patrols with weaponry which turned even the toughest of armor to nothing but dust and molten metal. Thus, the people would be safe and could sleep knowing that it would take an actual army to make it through their defenses.

Even then, with Dr. Doom and Raphtalia still within the perimeter of Ryute Village, the opposition would be dealt with swiftly!

Currently, the people of the village were busy placing wood in stacks in the center of town to make an altar. As a celebration of their liberation from Melromarc and them becoming subjects of Siltvelt, they asked her master if they could put on an event. He allowed it without hesitation, earning a few gleeful shrieks from the children. The filolial joined the children with a peep of her own, following the kids as they ran to play and spread the news.

Where is the filolial anyways? Raphtalia looked through the crowd for the children. Oddly, they didn't seem to be in the center of town. She turned her head around, trying to catch a glimpse of one of the boys trying to hit each other with sticks or the girls yelling and chasing after the boys. However, there wasn't much of a sign of them anywhere. Panic began to set in on the demi-human.

She had to take a deep breath to calm herself down. Raphtalia rose from her tree stump seat and began to explore the village to look for the children.

They're just hiding somewhere to avoid helping in making the altar, that's it!

This was the working hypothesis, but the more she looked between buildings and inside the restored structures, the hypothesis becoming a theory seemed more and more difficult to manage. Eventually, she had searched the whole village for the children, including the crop fields. They weren't in town.

Oh, no. No, no, no, no, no! This can't be happening. What happened to all the drones watching the perimeter?! What am I going to tell their parents?! What am I going to tell Dr. Doom-?

The Saucer Ship came to mind immediately! She hadn't checked it, yet! In a mad dash with sweat forming on her forehead, she made her way towards their airship. Unfortunately, the ship was landed on top of a hill, which simply winded her as she reached them top when it was combined with her scrambling to find the kids in town.

When she reached the top, she had to take a second to catch her breath. Before she could look up, a familiar voice gave her immediate relief.

"Hey, it's big sister, Raphtalia!" The boy with the orange hair and the bandage grinned next to all the other children. "Why are you all sweaty? Were you training or something?"

She shook her head with a smile, just barely regaining her composure. "No, I was just looking for Lord Doom's filolial. Do you kids know where she is?"

One of the girls, one with black hair and bright blue eyes, perked up, "You mean Filo?"

"Filo?"

"Yes, Filo." Dr. Doom marched out of the Saucer Ship down the steps. In his right arm was a new child, one that she didn't recognize from the village's children. She had long blonde hair and big and bright blue eyes which complimented her pale skin which was covered by Dr. Doom's cape and hood. Her master continued, "This girl is the filolial we purchased just days ago."

Raphtalia almost thought her master was joking. Unfortunately, the tone of his voice made it clear he wasn't. More importantly, however, "You named her Filo?" She couldn't maintain her disbelief.

This time, however, the scowl came from the village children. The boy with the orange hair being the representative, "Hey, no fair! We came up with the name!"

That made sense to Raphtalia that the kids would name her something so simple. However, what didn't make sense was, "And you decided to go with that name, Dr. Doom?"

The blonde replied in his stead, "I chose it! Doesn't it sound fun?" She explained, grinning ear to ear.

Raphtalia looked to Victor, dumb stricken. He simply chuckled, "I did say she would claim her own name, did I not?"

For once, she really wished he would break his own words.

I just want to say thank you for all the support you guys have given for this series. Even with unreasonably large gaps between chapters being published, I still get great reviews and a surprisingly large amount of people reading. For this story specifically, I kind of lost some steam for it some time ago because I was trying to think about how to transition this and some of my other stories into something of their own, because I realized that I'm actually kinda bad at doing that. I want to make sure my stories are as awesome as they can be and that means I need to figure out what plot points are absolutely necessary and which plots points are malleable or even able to be discarded. I won't bore you with the details but I do want to reply and answer reviews, so thanks for reading my stories and hopefully I can do better in the future!

Btw what I'm seeing often from reviews has born some consensus: Itsuki fucking sucks lol

L: I'm not gonna lie, when I was writing this I didn't even realize that some of the things you suggested were basically exactly what I had decided to do. Great minds think alike, I suppose.

Doom King of Latveria: Yeah, sorry for getting your hopes up about returning to the story and then immediately falling off the face of the Earth again. I've tried thinking about if I should have other Marvel characters in this, and I know a few ways I could do it, but I don't think I'm too invested in that idea as it , I'll keep it in consideration. As for his age, I think that would be about where I'd place him. Bottom line is that he is definitely older than the Cardinal Heroes and closer to the age of Aultcray and Mirellia. Personally, I don't think it's too unreasonable to consider Victor, after ruling Latveria for years and being one of the smartest humans on Earth, would be capable of getting a small army of robots to help him exponentially increase the rate he can create more robots for both construction and destruction. With the reasoning for teleporting the robots, he can teleport people where he wants so why couldn't he do it to tech? Overall, I hope you liked this chapter.

GREAT CELESTIAL-DRAGON: It is a bit weird, I will admit, how the heroes all think the world is just a game. I sum that up to them being dumb kids and not having too much common sense nor any experience with dimension hopping like Victor does. Without something to give them a wake up call, their delusions run rampant.

GrapeFanta: It's a fanfiction made for fun, so as long as it's comprehensive and you're enjoying it, that's a win!

Jajo Camello: I think a few people would disagree with you on grammatical errors, but I think they're sparse enough to get by. I just hate it when I catch something wrong in the middle of something that's supposed to be hyped as hell. I'm glad you're enjoying the story and I can't lie when I say your opinion on shipping gave me a decent idea, so thanks!

Tsunashi777: Unfortunately, I haven't read the light novel and I really feel I should because it seems like there's a lot more perspective and world building with it. Not sure if it would be helpful or harmful for creativity but fun either way.

Toby860: The same thing that happens when he leaves Latveria, Doombots with his personality will resume control and everything continues without Doom himself. The dude thinks of it all.

myafroatemydog: Ew, I don't think so. I didn't even think it worked that well in the anime or whatnot because she was mentally still like a child.

Rufus T. Serenity: We stan Dr. Doom in this house.

Anyways, that's really all I've got for the reviews I felt I needed to respond to, and I hope I'll stay on task enough to bring the next chapter to you within a reasonable time frame. I also plan on updating the cover of this story, but I'm still sketching it out on my computer so I hope it will be up before I get the next chapter up.