To Make Reed Richards Suffer

In Doomstadt, the monarch of Latveria stared through the Doombot's eyes, into the pleading gaze of a woman, a heroine, wife, and mother who had whored herself to a mutant pig-man. Betrayed her marriage, her family, her principles. Not just for sexual pleasure alone, but the biochemical subjugation that Porkum represented.

Doctor Doom knew this. He had come to terms with the cost of his partnership with Porkum the moment he had accepted the disgusting pig-man's offer. Doom knew the cost of his vengeance was Sue Storm's dignity, her family, everything she held dear. It had been an acceptable price.

Yet he also knew that by addressing her in this way, he had provided an opening. A chance for her to salvage something of her life, before Porkum turned her inside out, into a burned-out pornstar husk of herself. It had been a carefully calculated statement.

The Doombot took Sue's arm and guided her away, far from Porkum's hearing.

"To make Reed Richards suffer," Doom said. "To destroy his life. Everything he has built. Every joy in his life."

Sue Storm's bottom lip quivered. She knew the history. The accident at the university. Doom's disgrace. How he blamed Reed. Now, she found herself a casualty of that obsessive vendetta.

"It will destroy the children," she said softly. "Franklin. Valeria."

Doom had predicted this counter-thrust. It was Sue Storm's only real weapon. Her hope that Doom had a soft spot for her children. That it might inspire mercy in him.

Exactly as he had planned.

"The children do not need to suffer," he said. "You do not need to suffer. It is only Richards I care to hurt. You are only being targeted because of him. He is the ultimate cause of your suffering."

Sue Storm saw the truth of it. She leaned on the Doombot's arm. Her knees wobbled. The box of bonbons heavy in her hand.

"If," she said, her voice hollow. "If I wasn't married to Reed..."

"I could provide medical treatment, to handle the addiction to Porkum's secretions," Doom said. "And the videos would never see the light of day. Your reputation would remain intact. Your body and mind would be healed. On this, you have the word of Doom."

It was a bitter conflict in her mind. All she had to do to save herself and her family was to break it apart completely. To divorce Reed Richards.

"He'll be back soon," she said.

"He may be delayed," Doom said. "If legal proceedings are begun soon."

That was when Sue Storm knew, that Doctor Doom had been behind this all along. Porkum, the wound in her leg, Reed and the others traveling through the dimensions, isolating her. She realized the depth of the trap she had stumbled into. Porkum's jizz squelched between her toes with each step, but all she really felt was the hollow opening in her chest. The dread certainty that Doom had presented her with a single choice...and God help her, she knew what she had to pick.