Fantastic Four and the Transformers (CONT)

by Chris McFeely

CHAPTER THREE

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TIME AND TIME AGAIN

In a small village in Eastern Europe, a cockerel crowed loudly, rousing a man from his sleep. Moving to the window of his exquisitely decorated bedroom, the man observed the bird, perched on a fence, about a hundred yards away. Reaching for what seemed to be a glove that lay on his bedside table, the man slipped it on, and pointed at the cockerel. A thin yellow beam of light lanced from the finger the man pointed with, neatly slicing the cockerel’s head off. It slumped from its position on the fence, its feathers slightly charred from the beam. The man turned from the window, to be greeted with a sharp rap upon the huge oak door that barred the way to his room.

“ENTER!” he barked, with a strange accent - a hint of German, but also almost British in its refinery. His command was immediately received, and the door swung open. Two bizarre beings stepped into the room with a stiff gait. Their were faces devoid of emotion, connected to bodies coloured with purple and white armour. Their garish appearance did not affect the man - he encountered them every day.

“Good morning, excellency,” one said, in an electrical voice. It bowed, at exactly the same time as the other. The man did not respond - he never did.

“Attend me,” the man said, moving into the light. His skin was swathed in bandages, covering every inch of his body, leaving only room for his eyes.

“Yes excellency,” the two beings replied in unison. They swiftly set about removing the bandages from the man’s person, replacing them with more covering, similar to the glove he had donned moments ago. With a clunk, the man slid the last piece of the mechanical armour into place - a threatening looking mask which totally obscured his features. The two servants held out a dark green cloak, which the man took and pulled on, slipping the hood over his masked head.

“Dismiss,” the man ordered. The two beings silently turned on their heels and left the man alone. He stepped back to the window, and looked out across the town. His town. His country. Latveria. One of the last remaining totalitarian monarchies in all of the world, with one man who lorded over all its inhabitants. This man. He rubbed his chin with a finger. There was something about today...that would be different. He could feel it. Today would be a good day...for the man known as Doctor Doom.

Doctor Doom marched down the main spiral staircase in his huge castle, at the heart of Latveria’s capital city, Doomstadt, renamed by the good doctor when he finalised his take-over all those years ago. His metallic armour clanged and echoed as it struck the polished marble. Pushing open another of the wooden doors which decorated all the corridors, he entered his laboratory. Stabbing a few buttons on a computer console, Doom grinned at what he saw amongst the digital information on the mini-screen.

“Computer!” he ordered, instructing his voice activated creation, “3-D projection - datatracks 201 through 346.” With a hum, a huge holographic globe appeared on a small dais in the middle of the room. The computer scanned the requested data, and pinpointed the spot on the globe its master was referring to. A red light blinked over Manhattan island. “Genetic scan of designated location,” Doom continued.

“Acknowledged,” the computer replied in a soft female voice. “Scan shows presence of: Richards, Reed - Storm, Susan - Storm, Johnny - Grimm, Benjamin J - the genetic signature of the being Spider-Man is present. Two unidentifiable units detected.” The computer paused. “Error. Chronal anomaly has occurred. Unit Spider-Man’s signature is only one detectable.”

“Excellent,” Doom chuckled menacingly. “They’re time-travelling. Computer - download destination of the chronal displacement. Send the information to the time platform.”

As the computer obeyed his commands, Doom stepped onto a large yellow rectangle on the ground - what he affectionately referred to as his time platform, capable of transcending the gap between times . “Initiate program,” Doom commanded. Slowly, the rectangle began to rise up, over his feet, over his torso, and as it did so, he began to disappear with it. With an evil cackle, Doom was gone, hurled into the future, fully prepared to stop the Fantastic Four once and for all.