Doctor Doom, Here To Fix Moonstone's Mess

There was no knock. The door simply opened. Sue Storm, fist embedded in her aching slit, did not look up. Did not hear the silent hiss of gas that cushioned an armored step. Her eyes fluttered, and she fell unconscious to the ground before she even realized something had changed.

Doctor Doom, his green cape gathered over one arm, surveyed the room. Moonstone, blood oozing from her nose. Sue Storm, caught in an obscene posture. The room had been wrecked by the brief battle. In seconds, he calculated the extant of the damage, the nature of Sue Storm's suspicions and the extent of Moonstone's manipulations. The simple solution would be a trip back in time, to prevent this from occurring.

His gaze lingered on the Invisible Woman's hand. He would never have believed that the staid and stalwart Susan Storm-Richards could be reduced to such self-defilement. Moonstone's manipulations had, the Latverian monarch admitted to himself, achieved some results. It would be a pity to see such promising progress undone.

Doom raised his hand and snapped his fingers.

Loyal Latverians swept in past him, their faces covered by masks. Moonstone and Sue Storm were picked up and conveyed down the hall to the elevator; at the press of a button, the "wall" on the other side of the elevator opened to reveal an identical hallway, at the end of which was an identical room.

With great care, the unconscious women were redressed in civilian clothes. The blood was wiped from Moonstone's face, the broken nose reset. Doom himself stood before the Invisible Woman and raised his hand in a mystic gesture, forefinger and pinkie extended. The words he spoke invoked ancient gods and principalities that governed memory. Not enough to still Sue Storm's suspicions—only to let her memories of the last few hours fade.

He turned to Karla Sofen. A crushed capsule beneath her nose brought her back to wakefulness. Her eyes widened as she saw the armored figure loom over her, and the panic turned to confusion as she saw the pristine room, the unconscious Sue Storm once more in the chair.

"She will awaken in a few moments," Doctor Doom said. "She will remember nothing of the last few hours. Her suspicions of you remain, but so will your mental manipulations. Which are...promising. So now, before she wakes, we must concoct some way to allay those suspicions."

Karla reached for her nose, then stopped. It hurt as though she had taken a freight train to the face. Yet touching it would not help.

"Okay," she said. "New plan."