Chapter 47: Teamwork

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While Susan fought against the Super Skrull, Spider-Man jumped onto Diablo. The later tried to throw several bottles at him, but Spider-Man grabbed them with his webs and sent them back toward Diablo.

A series of explosions took place all around Diablo, who grunted something Peter couldn't understand, and the next moment he jumped as his spider sense warned him something was incoming.

And just as he jumped, he saw a giant monster fly through his earlier position to crash into Diablo, who cursed in old Spanish.

Peter looked back and saw the Thing apologize to him "Sorry kid, didn't mean to send it to you."

Peter smiled awkwardly and replied "Sure, it's alright!"

Ben punched another one of the monsters while shouting his catchphrase 'It's clobberin time!' and informed him "We have to work together to take care of those monsters and Diablo, the one who throws potions."

Peter nodded and fired a web at a monster behind the Thing and pulled it over to him as he punched it with no reservation. Usually, he controls his punches so he wouldn't kill those he fought, but here he had no such worries as those monsters were strong enough to resist his punches.

It felt quite liberating to use all his strength for once. Moreover, because of their great size, the monsters allowed him to use his webs much more skilfully and granted him a greater mobility.

As for Diablo, he quickly understood Spider-Man could counter his potion easily with his great mobility and webs, so he decided to focus on the Thing.

He took out a couple of potions and signalled a nearby monster at the hidden Mole Man, who looked at him in confusion but still nodded.

The monster stopped moving, and Diablo began smearing it's body with his potions, and when his two potions were finished he jumped on top of the monster and led him forward with Mole Man's help.

Ben, who saw Diablo approach on top of one of the monsters, grabbed a nearby monster by it's neck and used his great strength to throw it toward Diablo.

Diablo didn't panic in the slightest though as the monster he was on raised it's claw and slashed at the incoming monster, and shockingly cut it in two!

The monsters were all rather equal in terms of power, so for this monster to instant kill another monster showed how potent Diablo's strange potions were.

Ben wasn't scared of the beast though, and seeing the incoming monster he took three steps forward to create his own momentum and punched at the beast.

Rock fist against deadly claw… and the winner was the rock fist. The monster was sent flying backwards while only white scratches appeared on Ben's fist. The monster crashed into the ground several times, but it quickly stopped and got up with no trace of injury on it's body other than a broken claw.

Diablo's first potion had sharpened it's claws, and his second strengthened it's defence, hence why it didn't seem injured. However, speaking of Diablo, Ben was alarmed to not see the later anywhere, but before he could spot him a potion fell at his feet.

It produced a great explosion which engulfed Ben not in fire, but instead in ice, forming a strange stationary blizzard.

Peter, seeing the Thing quickly getting frozen inside and being less and less able to move, tried to grab him with a web to get him out of there, but Mole Man had all his monsters block the path between Peter and Ben, stopping him from reaching the Thing.

But as Peter was racking his mind on finding a solution, he once again felt something was being sent his way. Dodging to the side, he saw another of the villains, Dragon Man, on the ground, burnt marks all of it's skin.

Peter looked up to see the Human Torch smiling at him in apology. Did they have something against him or something?

Despite his growing suspicion over the group, Peter was relieved to see the Human Torch arrive.

Johnny blasted his flames at the blizzard in full force, quickly freeing Ben. And just for the kick of it, he blasted his flames a few seconds too long, burning Ben a little, making him yelp in pain "JOHNNY! THAT'S ENOUGH FIRE!"

Johnny flew higher with a laugh as he took in the battlefield. He then yelled "Ben, I brought Dragon Man over for you!"

He then descended onto Mole Man's monsters, searching for the man himself while Peter swung away in Diablo's direction. The alchemist knew throwing potions at the agile hero was useless, and instead threw two potions to his feet, realizing at the same time he didn't have many potions left.

The first potion to hit the ground was quickly absorbed by the ground, and a figure made of mud quickly appeared in front of him. It was an earth golem.

As for the second potion, it created a mist which encompassed both the golem and Diablo, but did not seem to do anything to them.

Peter wanted to go for Diablo first, but the earth golem got in the way and smashed it's big fist toward him. Peter fired a web onto a nearby monster and pulled hard enough to change his trajectory mid air, allowing him to dodge the fist, before kicking the golem in the face.

With Peter's great power, his foot went right through the golem's head, destroying it, but it didn't go down as it seemingly didn't need a head.

But as Peter was about to hit it once again, he suddenly felt danger all around him. As he looked around for the source of the danger, he saw Diablo had left the gas, and was throwing a match stick toward them.

Peter had kept his breath while in the gas in fear it was a poison or a paralysing agent, but he now understood it was none of that.

He jumped away, leaving the gas, but the match stick arrived nearly at the same time and produced a great explosion as it came in contact with the gas.

The explosion drew everyone's gazes to it, and they all saw a figure was sent flying through the smoke, before crashing into a tree.

Diablo, seeing the figure, clicked his tongue and said to the nearby hidden Mole Man "Tough bug, I thought it would be blown to ashes."

"Arachnoid, not a bug." Mole Man corrected as he too looked at Spider-Man in interest.

Peter's costume was greatly burned and missed some parts, but thanks to his spider sense he jumped out ahead of time and wasn't caught in the middle of the explosion.

Peter also showed great resilience as he got up. He was feeling dizzy and the lower part of his body was burned in some place, but he still got up.

Johnny, who had been searching for Mole Man, also saw him as he glanced at Diablo, and bolted toward him. Mole Man had actually been spotted by Johnny a few times already, but he would always burrow into the ground and escape to another spot.

So this time, before even arriving, he sent down a shower of fire all around Mole Man, turning the earth hotter and hotter.

Mole Man tried going down, but the monster excavating the ground whined in pain as it burned itself. Mole Man hurriedly commanded it to dig, which it did despite the pain, but that moment of hesitation was enough for Johnny to catch him.

He slammed into the monster, burning it's side and finally stopping it.

Mole Man, who was on top of it, felt hotter than ever being so close to the Human Torch, but he still swung his staff at the hero.

Johnny didn't feel any danger from Mole Man himself, but he was proved wrong as Mole Man's staff hit him in the shoulder.

The hit didn't hurt much, but Johnny suddenly felt himself get heavier. Johnny tried to get away, but Mole Man hit him a few more times, making him even heavier.

He flew out of the hole, but he barely flew a few meters in the air before falling down to the ground. He didn't understand how Mole man did it, but he got so heavy he couldn't even fly.

Angry at the attack, Johnny opened his palm toward the hole in the ground and let out a great deal of flames.

Mole Man, who was still inside the hole and trying to get out, cried out in pain as he was being burned by the flames, but managed to get out even faster thanks to the pain.

Johnny, despite being angry, was no murderer, so he quickly stopped his flames since Mole Man was out of combat. He looked at Spider-Man, and saw him fighting monsters standing between him and Diablo.

As for Ben, he was facing Dragon Man. The two fought with their fists, punching each other to oblivion. Dragon Man was also able to breath out fire, which it tried using against Ben, but the flames did nothing to Ben.

Ben's skin was extremely durable, his strength impressive and his will indomitable, but the Dragon Man was an android with a single command. Hence, as the two sides were getting injured, Ben was growing weaker and exhausted, while Dragon Man kept punching, no matter how injured it was getting.

While on this side one villain had been brought down, there remained two and the three heroes were injured and exhausted.

On the other side, Susan's situation with Super Skrull was clear, and although she was stalling for time, she was getting paler every second, and blood was dripping from her nose.

As for Mr Fantastic, he had no chance against Doom. His elasticity didn't help him much as Doom's powerful sorcery skills were cornering him. Actually, he could have killed him a long time ago, but just as Reed had thought, Doom wanted to see his enemy suffer.

The situation could change at any moment though, and the keys were actually in Diablo, the Alchemical genius.

He had used all of his potions, except for one, and Spider-Man was getting closer and closer. He knew that if the hero managed to get close to him, then he would lose.

Taking out his last potion, he hesitated for a while as he really didn't want to use it, but the situation was getting out of hand.

But as he was hesitating, he was suddenly blasted.

Iron Man, who had left with a large part of the robots, had returned, and the first thing he did was to blast Diablo. The potion the villain had been holding fell to the ground, and… did nothing.

Diablo, who had been blasted away, straight out passed out as he saw this. The reason he was hesitating to use it wasn't because it was too dangerous, but because he wasn't sure if it even worked!

The appearance of Iron Man changed the whole battlefield as he began blasting Dragon Man from the air, and both Johnny and Spider-Man took care of the remaining monsters.

Doom, seeing this, knew something had to be done, so he looked at the nearby Super Skrull and said "I will take care of Susan too, go take care of the others."

Super Skrull raised an eyebrow at Doom's order and replied "Who do you think you are to talk to me this way?"

Doom grunted "Do we have time for this?"

Super Skrull scoffed, and took a look at the Invisible Girl. He said "She will soon die, I will take care of the others once I'm done with her."

As he said that, he flew above her and created a pillar of flames from above, falling toward Susan.

She created another forcefield above her, and although it stopped the flames, they didn't stop coming down, and as she kept the forcefield up, not only was her nose bleeding, but her eyes and ears were bleeding too.

After a few seconds, as Dragon Man was getting on his last leg, Super Skrull finally stopped his assault, and Susan's forcefield was broken. She was looking haggard, and tilting left and right, hardly staying on her feet.

Super Skrull clenched his fist, gathering a powerful flame as he was ready to burn her into cinders. However, nearly at the same time, both Reed and Doom, who were fighting against each other, yelled "Don't you dare touch her!"

The shouts brought the attention of the others, and Johnny flew into a rage seeing his sister about to die. However, the heaviness hadn't left him and he couldn't take the skies.

Seeing everyone's state only made Super Skrull smirk though as he said "You seem to forget my mission is to weaken Earth's defences. You can die now."

"Not if I'm here."

As Super Skrull was in the process of smashing down a flaming fist onto the Invisible Girl, a portal opened next to her, and a man came out of it.

Wearing a white and blue outfit which covered his entire body, he was holding an inert… Doom by the throat.

The question in everyone's mind now was, how did two Dr Doom appear in the same place at the same time?