27 [ Fenris ] Women always try to ruin everything.

  So there I was with the brothers Korchei, ready to throw down with the Fantastic Four, plus one.

  That one being the She-Hulk, but then of course Reed Richards just had to interrupt the good part with all the talking.

  Holding up his huge stretched out hand, he stepped in front of the rest of the heroes. “We don’t need to fight, I detected the single from your translocation on our way to Latveria, and we just have some questions.”

  The Thing took a few steps forward, even as he sighed. I can understand that. The man loves a good fight as much as I do, but he has been doing this for a long time. Getting into it with yet another young punk, knowing that even if he wins, the punches will still hurt, and the soreness from the bruises has been taking longer and longer to go away as he aged.

  Still, he steps up. That’s what heroes do.

  “Don’t bother Stretch. Palookas like him only speak one language.”

  Then someone else speaks up. For a moment I thought it was She-Hulk as it was a woman’s voice and the giant green woman was coming up behind the two men raising her hand to say something.

  But it was not her that interrupted, instead an almost tiny figure walked around the towering green woman, the stretched out scientist, and the sheer bulk of the Thing as the Torch circled in the air above us.

  Susan Richards looked up the steps at me, right into my eyes, and I saw the pain of a mother, of a woman… feeling whatever someone feels when their very identity has been treated like a toy.

  Doom. I’m glad for what you did, it gave me another chance to live, but as for how you did it?

  I have no respect for you, in any shape, way, or form.

  Dropping my fists down, I slowly walked down the steps until I stopped and flopped down backwards onto my butt, leaving my face level with her.

  With a sigh, I removed my black Blood Iron mask and looked at her with my own face.

  “I am so sorry that this happened… that this was done to you. But I will not apologize for my existence, and I don’t think it would be right for anyone to ask little Apex to do so either.”

  Her eyes watered. “Is it true? Is he mine… and…”

  I held my hands out toward her, I think almost pleadingly, and Grimm threw out his hand to stop Richards from moving forward at us to do who knows what. I doubt even he knows.

  What do you do, what do you feel when your greatest enemy, your bitter rival, had made a child in a tube with your wife’s stolen DNA along with his own?

  Walters stepped up beside the invisible woman, her green fist clenched. “Answer her.”

  I looked down and raised my hands to grip the sides of my head as my men stirred on the steps above me. “I don’t know. I only know he made me from Titania. But the others…” I looked up at the two women. “They almost have to be… they would have to have come from exactly who would think Doom would have used.”

  Slowly standing, I looked down at the two women. “They are also my brothers and sisters, my younger brothers and sisters. Whatever you intend for them…” I set my mask onto my face with an audible snap, as the speakers built into the mask played a recording of a dramatic hissing sound.

  “I dare you to try on Iron Tsar first.”

  There, is a Doom speaking in the second person. They know what that means.

  No argueing, no discussion. The line is drawn.

  I stand between them, and whatever plans they have for my family. Doom himself not included.

  The Thing tensed up while Richards looked to his wife. She-Hulk faced me, half ready to fight, but looking all shook up and unbalanced. Definitely not in any sort of mental shape for a fight.

  The Invisible Woman set her foot on the first step, then the next as she slowly walked up to stand right in front of me.

  Then she reached out to take my right hand that I had raised into a fist in both of hers. Her tiny little hands were warm, but both of them together could barely cover my knuckles.

  “I will tell him he is family. And that while I can barely bear the idea of how he came to be, I will not blame him for existing, and I welcome the chance to meet him.”

  She squeezed my hands as best she could, “And I hope the woman who you were made from welcomes you as family as well.”

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  Sighing, I let my head drop as I cleared my throat from all the moisture in the air down here. Yes, that’s the reason I feel something deep in my throat making it hard to breathe. “I still want to fight all of you. But I don’t think you need to deal with that right now.”

  Susan Richards gave me a sad smile. “Of course, you want to fight. I’ve met Titania.” Stepping away from me, she turned her back and began walking the rest of the way down the stairs. “Jen, let’s get something to drink while the boys get in their cardio. This is his debut.”

  I beamed at her. Apex’s mother gets it. Such a nice woman.

  Also, did not want to fight her while she was upset. The woman once mentioned to Doom that she could pop all of his armor right off of his body. I imagine she knew the implication that she could just as easily blow the flesh off of the man’s bones.

  Not mine, I have powers, but still… She could make a little tiny invisible bubble of force appear in my aorta or a blood vessel in my brain. I don’t think either would kill me, or even do me any permanent harm, but it would suck. Ha.

  She-Hulk looked back and forth between Sue Richards and me, before throwing up her hands and giving me a questioning look. “That girl in Latvaria? Is she really mine?”

  I threw my hands out to the side and shrugged. “I doubt Victor Von Doom would have made a kid with your cousin.” Then I struck up a boxer’s pose. “Banner’s DNA is a bit unstable.”

  Walters used the word “Mine”, so at least the woman is considering laying claim to my sister. I approve of that and will try not to send her to meet Iris with bruises on her face.

  She glared at me, then turned and walked away. I took a half step after and yelled, “Hey!” but she just threw up both of her hands to wave me away from over her shoulders. “No. I am not punching Mary’s kid until I talk to her. Not happening.”

  Then it was me, the Brothers Korchei, Mr. Fantastic, the Thing, and the Human torch floating in the air above as we all waited around not looking at each other as the She-Hulk hustled to catch up with the Invisible Woman.

  Then the Thing turned around, looked at me, and shrugged. “Well, I don’t have a problem hitting you. It’s clobbering time!” Then he rushed up the steps at me.

  Right into a tangle of steel rebar and cement from the steps exploding upwards from under his feet as I used the Magnetic field produced from the Magneto power simulators still strapped onto my arms to rip up all the metal below me.

  The Thing’s feet got caught up in the twisted steel rods and he fell over the sheer bulk of the broken steps onto his knees, allowing me to leap down the steps to plant a full falcon punch right into his face.

  “HA! You got that right comrade!”

  Above me, the Torch threw a wave of flames into the pulse of frozen water pellets fired at him from Chekov in the Elbrus suit, as Mr Fantastic stretched himself out to catch the missiles being fired at their Fantastic car by Pavel just before he began racing at high speed down the steps in the Smerch armor to take out the scientist's feet while he was still off balance.

  “Oh no you don’t” Only to have his ankle caught by the Thing as Pavel ran past us, even as Grimm and me tumbled down the steps,

  The stone skinned man had somehow reached out to catch my minion even as the two of us were rolling down the steps punching at each other. I guess experience counts. That and Pavel sucks at fighting.

  Grabbing ahold of Thing’s right lower leg as he lay tangled up with the Smerch armor, I got to my feet and began to first drag, then spin the Thing around me in the air by the ankle. I was pretty sure he was just a slight bit stronger than me, but I was plenty strong enough to get his sheer weight into the air, and once spinning him around I thought it would be too hard for Grimm to bend up to hit me before I sent him flying back into the lobby of the Aegis Hotel.

  After all, the place was already wrecked, so why damage any of the other places around here? Like the cafe that the Invisible Woman and She-Hulk were sitting at getting coffee poured for them. I didn’t want to interrupt two of my sibling bio-mom’s drinks, and by sending Grimm flying into the hotel I might even get to hit Lady Deathstrike.

  Helping other men meet and hit on women. That’s what Bros do. Ha!

  But the Thing had never let go of Pavel, who was now spinning around in the air around me even further out, still gripped by Grimm at the ankle.

  At least until the Thing swung Pavel around to smack me with the Smerch Armor. Knocking me off my feet and sending all three of us in different directions as explosions and bursts of flames indicated that Richards and Storm were fighting the other three brothers up at the top of the stairs.

  Stairs which now had the contents of a wheeled laundry baskets, dining cart, and a large sack spilling down in a wild tumble of high tech weapons and gadgets.

  “My stuff!”

  I stood up and faced down Grimm who was brushing some dust off of his shoulders. Pointing at him, I shouted. “You will pay for this old man. So says IRON TSAR!”

  Oops. He looked a little hurt at the old man comment, then pissed off as he beckoned me at him with one hand. “Old… Man? Bring it baby Doom.”

  Best day ever! Ha!

  The rest of the fight does not go so well, me and Grimm have a great time trying to beat the crap out of each other, but in meer moments Richards does something with a quickly assembled device which makes all the brother’s half melted powered armor seize up, and then I take a blast of flames from behind me.

  I took a step back from the Thing to glare at Storm who gave me a bemused look. “What the heck? Reed, something stopped my flames?”

  I held my hand up flat at Grimm, who stopped in surprise from where he had been stepping up to grab at me. “Back in one moment old timer.” He grumbled but waited as I walked up to stand below Storm with one finger raised and waving in the air. “Bad! Bad Hero! If my armor sensed enough heat to activate to block your flames, then you were going too hot for someone making their debut. You had no way of knowing how much little or how much fire could hurt me. What if I burned like a normal guy? You could have killed me.”

  Grimm sounded off behind me. “He’s got you there hot head.”

  Storm began to sputter out his protests, but just then the ping of a timer went off in my mask. Looking around I could see my men, somehow now moving again, quietly gathering up a few handfuls of my stolen goods.

  Ah well. Know when to fold them, hold them, walk away, and to run.

  I turned and bowed to the Thing. “Alas, sweet prince I must bid you a do.” And yes I meant to pronounce it like that. Can’t sound tough when you’re all erute. “We can play another time, but my guys probably all have second degree burns because someone thought shooting fire at guys in metal suits was fair…” I shot a glare at the Human Torch who threw his hands out in protest. “But now we must go.”

  The Ouroboros spell circle I had left various LMDs, Strange’s for one, finishing with several hundred cans of drab Soviet industrial spray paint I had found in the base wasn’t quite up to teleport people to any destination on Earth and beyond, not yet, not without the adamantium I needed to make miles of deeply cut inscriptions in stone in a practical amount of time. But it was up to teleporting a few people with linked up sigels carved into the interior of their armor to it.

  With magic, which Richards would not be able to track.

  I laughed, “Ha!” as the Thing faded from my sight even as he tried to reach out to grab me and the five of us found ourselves standing between the mouth and tail of my great spell.

  Helping the brothers out of their armor, Chekov opened the side panel on the still intact leg of his suit and then held up the bag holding Lady Deathstrike's frozen severed hand with all five of my adamantium claws, or rather chisels, on it.

  Even though I had lost most of the rest of the things I had gathered up from the assassin cartel, I still had the very thing I had gone there for and had left the Four to clean up the mess.

  I love it when a plan comes together. Iron Tsar 1, Fantastic Four 0.

  Ha!