Chapter 46: Infighting

Although he couldn't see his face, Reed knew who this was.

"Victor…"

Victor, also known as Doctor Doom, looked down at Mr Fantastic as he despised him "Surprised to see me? Who else than me would form this team of… gentlemen."

Dr Doom's opinion about his teammates was obvious, but the others did not say anything as they went on with their fight.

The members of the Fantastic Four were split up and each fighting strong foes that would need the four of them to defeat. Johnny against Super Skrull, Ben against Dragon Man and Susan against Mole Man's monsters and Diablo.

Reed stretched out his fist toward Dr Doom, and Doom waved his hand as a mystical shield appeared in front of him. Doom then clenched his fist as the earth around Reed imitated the gesture, trying to imprison Reed.

Mr Fantastic hurriedly escaped by inflating and shrinking his body quickly, and extended his foot above Dr Doom before letting it fall in the form of a huge anvil. Dr Doom conjured another shield, but while he wasn't looking Reed's hand grabbed his ankle and slammed him into the ground.

Then, before Victor could recover from the stun, Reed threw him as far away as possible before rushing toward the others. He extended both arms and grabbed both Ben and Sue while jumping toward Johnny, and the four were once again reunited.

The villains fighting each member were ready to pounce on them, but before they could a bunch of portals appeared around them, and led robots into surrounding the four.

Doom appeared from one of the portals, a little dirtied from the short fight earlier, and said "There is no need to fight, you have no chance against us."

Johnny sneered at that and sent a flying fire fist at Doom, but before it could reach him it was stopped by a forcefield. On the side, Super Skrull smiled as his skin morphed to become… a replica of Susan.

The four then felt something constrict them as they became unable to move, Super Skrull had used a powerful force field to keep them in place.

The four tried to wiggle, but as Ben, the strongest of the four, tried getting out, Susan and Johnny cried out in pain, prompting him to stop. Super Skrull jeered at them "If you try to move out then I tighten it. You can try something else. Human Torch, why don't you go Flame On?"

Johnny glared at Super Skrull, but did nothing. He didn't want to burn them.

Diablo, who had an unknown potion in his hands, asked Doctor Doom "Let's kill them. With them gone, there won't be anyone left to annoy us."

Doom scoffed "You moron, what's the point of simply killing them?"

"Who are you calling a moron Hitler?" Diablo frowned and insulted Doom back.

Doom sharply turned his head toward Diablo and questioned "What did you say?"

"And you're deaf at th…"

Diablo didn't get to finish what he had to say though as Doom punched him in the face, sending him flying. He then turned back toward the four, but before he could say anything a potion flew his way.

Doom formed the same mystical shield as earlier, and stopped the potion, but as the potion exploded a mist exploded out and went around the shield.

Doom hurriedly retreated, but the gas fell onto the nearby Dragon Man, who stood unmoving. A layer of frost quickly appeared on Dragon Man, who was being turned into an ice statue.

"Move!"

At the command, Dragon moved away, but his movements were stiff. Super Skrull sighed seeing the fight and turned his attention back toward the Fantastic Four as he said "I guess I couldn't expect more from backwater barbarians like you, who can barely leave your own planet… I'm a soldier, and a soldier kills. Goodbye."

The force constricting the Fantastic Four quickly started constricting as Susan and Johnny cried out in pain once again. Super Skrull's fist also lit up, prepared to shower the four in flames.

But before he could do so, a white thing was sent flying into Super Skrull's face. He didn't react in time as it hit him, and although it did not hurt him, the white thing revealed itself to be a sticky web that covered his face.

He tried to get it off, but it was firmly stuck to his face, and so he was unable to see the red and blue kid jumping toward him, and kicking his face with a kick.

This was obviously Spider-Man, who used his full power as he kicked the alien away. The powerful kick stunned Super Skrull and broke his concentration, erasing the forcefield holding the Fantastic Four.

Right as it disappeared, Spider-Man used another set of web to grab onto the four and retreated alongside with them, avoiding the attacks from the Mole Man's monsters.

Doom and Diablo also stopped fighting seeing their foes had been saved, and Doom sent a last look promising pain at Diablo before looking at the new variant. He did not recognize him, but he knew the power needed to send Super Skrull flying and stun him was nothing to scoff at.

Peter, who had just saved the Fantastic Four, asked them "Are you okay?"

Johnny was the first to reply "That was so cool man! You came flying in and kicked him in the face! You're Spider-Man, right?!"

Peter scratched his head and bashfully replied "I didn't think you guys knew about me, you are much bigger than me."

Ben patted his shoulder and reassured him "You saved us kid."

Susan and Reed nodded and offered "Want to team up?"

As he said that, green portals appeared all around them and Doom's wrathful voice sounded out "DOOM always has to do things HIMSELF!"

Out of the portals came a legion of robots, who rushed toward the Fantastic Four and Spider-Man. Peter smiled toward the four and replied "Please."

The five smiled at each other, but as they were about to face the legions of Doom, many of the robots started exploding. At the same time, a figure flew overhead and blasted as many robots, while they tried to shoot back, but he was going too fast for them to aim well.

The flying figure landed next to the group, and Peter exclaimed "Iron Man!"

The figure, Iron Man, replied "That would be me. You are making quite a big mess for your arrival."

The Fantastic Four nodded with some exasperation, and Iron Man said "I will take care of as many robots as I can, can you handle the rest?"

Mr Fantastic sighed "As best as we can… Good luck."

Iron Man nodded and flew off, and a good part of the robots stopped blasting at Susan's barrier and flew off after Iron Man.

Susan then looked at Spider-Man and warned him "I'll count to three, and you will jump out. Ready?"

Peter was really sure he would be able to avoid the blasts of the robots, even with their reduced numbers, but he nodded nonetheless.

Susan counted down, and as she reached 'one' she suddenly extended her shield and slammed it into the robots. Because of the huge area it had to cover, it wasn't as strong as it could be, but it was enough to push them back, and stop their shooting for a few seconds.

Peter jumped in and began smashing the robots.

Recently, Edward had focused on training Peter in simple martial arts, and Peter always felt it was unnecessary as it wasn't the way he fought. He would rather learn to control his strength better or use his environment better.

However, now that he had to fight in the middle of Central Park, where he could barely use his webs and had to stay on the ground, he understood the purpose of the training.

With agile steps and powerful, sharp blows, he destroyed the robots one by one. Peter quickly left the encirclement of robots and headed for one of the villains, the one with the potions, Diablo.

A few seconds earlier, while Peter was fighting the robots, Reed led the team "Ben, go help Spider-Man fight Diablo and draw in Mole Man's attention. Johnny, take on Dragon Man and use your mobility to bring the fight to Ben, and try your best to make him fight Mole Man's monsters."

The two nodded and left, and Reed looked at Sue as he said "Victor and Super Skrull, the two strongest of our foes… We can't hope to win against them together, nor on our own, so we must stall for as long as we can. Victor despises me and won't kill me without seeing me suffer. But…"

Susan quickly stopped him though and reassured him "I can take care of Super Skrull, go on."

Reed nodded, but left toward Doom clearly disturbed. Susan then glanced at Super Skrull, who looked ready to pounce on Spider-Man, so she wasn't left any time to hesitate as she conjured a forcefield behind Super Skrull and slammed into his back, sending him flying toward her.

Super Skrull turned his body into fiery plasma as he flew up and then remained stationary in the air as he looked at the Invisible Girl.

"Susan Storm, also known as the Invisible Girl. Capable of light manipulation and creating psionic fields… Do you know what prompted my creation?"

Susan looked at Super Skrull with some measure of shock as the alien soldier never spoke much, but he was being unusually talkative today. However, she had to admit she was curious.

But Super Skrull did not forget his mission as he flew toward Susan, some of his body parts turning into stone from the plasma form as he said "Those countrymen of mine you found and forced to flee, they weren't the first to come to this planet."

Susan's eyes widened in shock as she created a forcefield in Super Skrull's path, and created a second smaller one below it.

Super Skrulls smashed into the first forcefield with force, but only cracked it as Susan had made an especially strong one. While Super Skrull gathered his force to break the shield, he continued his explanation.

"But among all the resistance we encountered, you four were the most… memorable. So our great empire's scientists decided to give your powers to an individual…"

He punched the barrier, and it shattered into pieces as he finished his sentence "Me."

But before he could move he suddenly felt a sharp pain in his abdomen, and as he looked down he saw a hole in his abdomen.

Clutching his wound, he continued "That was smart. Keeping me immobile to focus long enough to fire a small but devastating forcefield. Unfortunately for you, your heart is weak and you didn't go for mine."

Susan frowned and clasped her hands, forming two forcefields and squashing Super Skrull in them as she replied "Mercy is not a weakness."

Super Skrull broke the two forcefields, and punched toward Susan with his fists, sending two forcefield smashing toward her.

She created a protective one, and the two sides entered a stalemate as they both focused on overpowering the other's forcefield.

Super Skrull still decided to explain though "When your group's powers were invested onto me, the scientists did not have much trouble to replicate the powers of the other three, and even strengthen them."

"But you… You, Susan Storm, they struggled. The invisible part was apparently easy, but those forcefields… There's something different about them. They don't seem to be of the same nature as the other powers, nor does it seem to be one of your races' mutations. Tell me, what is this power that even us could replicate a poor copy of?"

Susan clenched her teeth as she pushed her forcefield and destroyed Super Skrull's with force, and slammed it into him before she replied, her face a little pale and her nose bleeding "I don't know… but what I do know is that you understand nothing of my powers."

Super Skrull flew into the air and slammed into the snowy grass, before finally being stopped by a tree. He got up while holding his injury, and his whole body turned into plasma as he said "It was my mistake making my body solid. If I turn myself completely into plasma, can you even injure me?"

Susan frowned as she knew the answer was no. Her attacks were physical in essence, and they had already tested, sometimes against their will, that physical objects, if not burned to ashes, would pass through Johnny's body while in plasma form.

She still formed a dome around him though as it didn't mean he could simply ignore them, they would simply not be able to pierce through him as she did earlier.

On the other hand, because he was only using the Human Torch's power though, Super Skrull had to take longer to destroy her forcefield, which was the initial goal.