Chain 198: Marvel Magic

Chain 198: Marvel Magic

Location: Doomstadt, Latveria
Age: 12
Identity: Human, Genius (Drop-In)
Drawbacks: [+1000] Mutated Stomach, Axis, Kid Jumper, Jumpersleep, To Love In Hell

[Free]      Superior Science
[200/2000]  Who Deserves To Rule?
[700/2000]  I Found It Beneath Me
[1100/2000] Your Immortal Soul
[Free]      A Word Is Bond
[Free]      JUMPER SPEAKS
[1200/2000] They Will Prosper
[1500/2000] THE POWER IS JUMPER'S!
[1800/2000] Science And Sorcery
[2000/2000] A Very Different Thing
[Free]      Cloak
[Free]      Time-Shift Bomb

"I have come," I said to the armor-clad man standing in front of me. The large room was empty, not another soul there but for myself and and the unmistakable figure.

"Indeed, creature, but you have yet to say who you and why you are here," he answered, arms crossed, already dismissing my childlike appearance. "Doom has better things to do than waste time with idle conversation. Come."

I bowed my head momentarily, before I followed behind him. "You requested my presence a very long time ago from my perspective," I answered. "Along with some detailed notes that I shall do my best to follow. You may not have met me, yet, though I looked a few years older than I do now, and was far more human then. I am quite confident that this is the appropriate universe, and you are the one who helped me in my hour of need, or rather who will help me. In return, I am to help you and speak truth at all times in your presence. Considering the aid you gave me at the time was instrumental in saving that world... I find it a well-bargained trade, even if I could not argue otherwise."

Victor Von Doom snorted in amusement behind his iron mask. "Help? You? You choose a child's appearance to try to set me at ease. What help would I have of you?"

"While I can shift shapes, this was not my choice, to be honest," I told him, glancing around the room and admiring Castle Doom's interior as we made our way through the corridors, heading toward his laboratories. "My entry into a universe sometimes changes me. This was one of those cases. That and the fact that I have an inexplicably urge to eat Thor's hammer, and that my thousand faithful have already gone into the world but I feel their minds have been changed from how they typically are as well. Though they remain faithful and will deliver the necessary items here to Doomstadt."

"As you say," came his skeptical response as we entered a particular lab, which seemed to have both technological and magical tokens present. He indicated for me to stand in a particular location; clearly a containment area. "And what is it that you wish of me in return?"

"We will have some mutual interests," I responded, stepping there with little hesitation. "You will, according to this note, contain me here until Halloween and things run their course. Annoying, but... necessary." A barrier snapped into existence around me, confirming as much. "On that day... divine magic from another plane will temporarily borrow your mind to run my body there, before returning it no worse for the wear. My role is to make sure this temporal loop works as it should. After that... well, you tell me what you want me to do and I'll aid you, within reason. Not against Richards, that's too personal for me to cheapen your victory, but quite nearly anything else."

He merely shook his head as he listened. "Is there anything else you wish to beg of Doom?"

I chuckled, giving a shake of my head as I waved a hand, generating a comfortable chair to sit in within the containment field around me. "No, not beg. I'd be more interested in being a partner for the duration of my stay - I'll not impede you, but I'd be interested in learning what you'd be willing to teach when the time comes. Either way, I'm doing this because I agreed to the terms you dictated, otherwise I would have walked through the bindings here. I'm not bound by this universe's laws as demons and such creatures are," I told him, smiling. "But I fully intend to stab Mephisto in the face before I leave this universe, because he took someone that belongs to me and I refuse to let my companion be trapped for long. As I said... I believe we will have some mutual interests."

"And if your offer is declined?"

I met his gaze, unflinching. "Then I politely take my leave. I have walked shoulder to shoulder with gods, Doctor; demons do not frighten me. I will merely find a quiet spot to open a hole into Hell, step through, then rip and tear until it is done. It would not be the first time I have done such a thing, but frankly... who else would have the stones to walk into Hell and strike down the Devil, but Victor Von Doom?"

"Who else indeed," he mused thoughtfully, before pivoting on his heel. As he walked out, he told me, "If you speak truth, we will confer further. Until then you will be confined here."

It is fortunate that Halloween was not long from my arrival. Things went as expected; an irate Doom had many words with me afterward, and then the groundwork was laid.

My stay ended before the world did, fortunately, because I don't think Latverion would have been a place I would have enjoyed, but I was true to my word. The power gained by killing demons who tried to stop us, the power gained by striking down Mephisto with the prismatic saber, that was new. Demona was... surprisingly subdued when we brought her out. I would have thought she would have been spitting nails or would have cut a deal with Mephisto, but she was honestly traumatized by the whole ordeal. Doom took his mother's soul as well, of course, and I aided him in safely anchoring it to the material plane.

Beyond that... I largely stayed uninvolved. It worked as well as one would hope, though most did not know my role as Doom's aide de camp, instead seeing me largely battling with demons in various locales. It seems, after all, that striding into Hell with Doom makes you a target, since Doom was well-known enough to not be charged at by every idiotic excuse for a demon.

Of course, this course of events also put me in some interesting positions to throw more monkey wrenches in things before I leave.

"Oh, hey! You're Peter Parker, right?"
>"Oh for- this is a hospital! A private room! Could you NOT? Get out!"
"Sorry, man, it's just - your aunt over there got shot by some asshole, right?"
>"What's it to you?"
"Oh, not much, I just wanted to do a thing real quick." I snapped my fingers, "Bam, your aunt's got another three-ish years to live before she passes on peacefully in her sleep and reunites with your uncle in the afterlife."
>"Buddy, that's one messed up joke-"
"She'll wake up in about two minutes, as hale and hearty as a woman her age could. Give Stephen Strange my regards when he comes around in a half hour. Oh, hey, before I go, you want me to put the genie back in the bottle with your secret identity, since Tony's a moron and I'm legally obligated to punch him in the jaw?"
>"Legally OBLIGATED- wait, how the hell-?"
"Oh right, I didn't introduce myself, my name's Crux and I'm the guy that facefucked Mephisto with a chainsaw, otherwise he'd be here making the offer, but I play for the other team. And kid, you have enough good karma to ask for a few favors. The local cosmic powers are assholes, but there's nothing wrong with doing an end-run around them."
>"Are you serious? What are you... what?"
"Oh, your aunt's going to wake up here in about thirty seconds, Pete. I'll leave you my card. Also, when you're done here, call MJ, she's about three weeks pregnant."
>"WHAT?"
"Yeah. May Parker. She'll take after her dad, too, so there's that. Huh, guess if she's going to have a secret identity I'll have to give you yours back too. Anyways, I'll leave you to it, tell Tony I'll punch him out on live television tomorrow."

And thus Spider-Man giving out his secret identity was retconned with a combination of stolen demon magic and epic level obliviations.

Also I punched Tony Stark on live television the next day, then gave him a dossier showing that the damn whole thing was a Hydra ploy. His attitude did a complete 180 and he arranged for everything to be quietly dropped before he admitted he was wrong, teamed up with Captain America, and cleaned house. Also, turns out Maria Hill was Hydra. Who'd've thunk it, the pile of evidence used to convict her in absentia was pretty overwhelming. That, or maybe spy agencies can't afford their leaders to go on power trips for petty reasons and alienate their own.

That was, all in all, a much more satisfying way to end the whole Civil War bullshit.