IV: Counteroffensives

The well of souls took on a much darker meaning after Misato completed her transformation into Doctor Doom. Once a holding tank for spares for the Dummy Plug System, now they were a holding pattern for new soldiers and greatly expanded to increase production.

Beyond the massive tanks and complex conveyor system that raised cloned soldiers at the rate of nearly 200 a day (taking each soldier a week to go from cloned embryo to ready for training and conditioning), Doom stood over the wounded body of one of her soldiers.

Whiplash wanted to be here but was placed in charge of Hong Kong for the time being until Doom could find an administrator to take over for the General. The girl risked her life to save her sisters and was repaid with a cowardly tactic that served only to infuriate Doom. And so, Doom being the vindictive sort, decided she would give the Chinese something to truly fear.

Nearby a tank full of molten metal was waiting. Neural anesthetics were pumped into the cylinder that Mara lie within just before her genes underwent resequencing. This was an expensive process that required immense amounts of power and raw proteins to complete. For this reason, members of the Doom Guard were much rarer than standard soldiers.

Doom watched as her body began to regenerate at last. The burns disappeared slowly and her arm and leg began to regrow themselves. It had taken Doom several months of work just to find the proper gene sequence for the regeneration effect to work, even with Connor's research. But she had it available to her by the time she began truly ramping up clone production nearly six months ago. Unfortunately, in order to keep the lizard DNA out of the equation, just like everything else connected to the Doom Guard, there was a great expense in both energy and material.

Once regeneration was completed, a series of needles punctured her skin going all the way to her bones. Moments later the tank behind Doom could be seen slowly emptying, although only about a few centimeters of the liquid metal was consumed. She watched the girl's vitals and smiled as she realized the girl was taking the treatment easily.

Ten minutes later Mara was waking up covered in a sheet but wearing nothing. Her head turned towards the door where Doom stood with her hands behind her back, waiting patiently. Mara slowly sat up, holding the sheet against her body.

"Lieutenant Mara, reporting for duty," she said.

"No, Lieutenant… you are no longer such a low rank. Such a rank is unbefitting a member of the Doom Guard."

Mara looked at herself, realizing she wasn't really different but noticed in the mirror to her right that her hair had become darker, and her eyes seemed alight with energy. She clenched her right hand, hearing the bones popping and cracking as she did so. With a little concentration she extended a set of razor sharp adamantium blades from the tips of her fingers. The needle-point blades glistened in the light and she could make out the way they seemed to be sectioned, and realized that somehow they telescoped into the bones in her fingers themselves. It was a weapon given to her by her mistress, and one she would use to get revenge upon those that sought to harm her and her sisters with such dishonorable tactics.

"You, like the rest of my Doom Guard hold the title of 'Lady', and now possess the Military Rank of Lieutenant General. General Whiplash expressed her utmost confidence in you and wanted you to come back to her unit once you were healed and ready for combat again."

That made Mara happy. She retracted her claws and turned her attention back to Doom. "When do I leave?"

"As soon as you are ready," Doom commanded. "She will need your assistance in quelling the population of Hong Kong."

"Then I shouldn't keep her waiting," Mara replied. "So, since I am a member of the Doom Guard now, do I get a cool codename as well?"

Doom chuckled. "I actually hadn't thought of one. Any ideas?"

Mara smiled evilly. "As a matter of fact, I do. Lady Deathstrike."

The city of Kobayashi acted as one of the primary cashes of weapons and equipment for Doom's Military. The foundries in Tokyo-3 were hard at work pumping out material, but locations such as this were necessary as holding places before the equipment was shipped to the front. It was one of nearly a dozen such cashes spread throughout Japan. With Doom Infantry needed abroad, most positions like these were filled by the JSSDF.

On top of the building, a lookout walked the top platform keeping his eyes on the surrounding terrain. For a moment, he thought she saw something but was unable to determine what it was. He fumbled though his backpack before he managed to find his binoculars and looked out over the terrain. Though he thought he saw a glint, he couldn't make out where it was. Moments later he was dead; his mind artificially expanded by a .408 caliber bullet passing through the front of his skull and out the back.

With the lookout disabled the two men on ground level by the main doors of the weapons cache had no oversight. One was yanked upwards by a sudden web line while the other was grabbed round the head by a mechanical pincer at the end of an equally mechanical tentacle. Two cracking sounds later, their bodies were dropped to the floor. Spiderman dropped down as Doc Ock lowered herself to the ground.

"That was unpleasant," Spiderman immediately commented.

"These men would not hesitate to kill us, Spiderman," Doctor Octopus replied. "This is war, don't forget that."

"I don't have to like it," he replied.

"Freeze!" came a voice from behind them.

They turned around to see a man holding an AR-15. Seconds later he had a hole and a black tentacle where his heart used to be. As he fell to the ground, Venom walked over the body.

"You're welcome," Venom stated.

"I hate that all this death is necessary," Spiderman commented again as Doctor Octopus planted her two lower tentacles into the ground and grabbed the main doors with her upper ones.

"As do we," Venom admitted. "But the doctor is right. We can't afford mercy right now. All we need is one person we knock out to get back up and shoot us in the back and it's all over."

Spiderman simply nodded then ran though the opening in the doors as soon as they opened. Alarms sounded as he did so.

"He has two minutes tops," Doctor Octopus stated flatly.

"The infantry are already on the move," Domino reported over the radio. "They'll be there in less than five minutes."

"Roger that," Spiderman replied as he ran over to a box of grenades. Using web balls he launched the grenades onto nearby boxes and supports sticking them to just about everything he could. Then he launched a series of small web-lines onto each and every one of the rings of these grenades.

"Hurry up!" Doctor Octopus demanded.

"Almost done," Spiderman replied. "Jeeze you'd think we were in a rush or something."

As soon as the last one was attached he ran out of the room holding all of the web-lines in his hands.

"Time to go," he stated as he passed Venom and Doc Ock. Together the three ran. About 20 feet later, the rings on the grenades were pulled nearly simultaneously followed by the sounds of the cascading arming levers hitting the ground all over the building.

Three seconds later, the building was a fireball. With all the ordnance inside, it wouldn't stop exploding for nearly 10 minutes.

Lilith watched as her mother fumed over the report of the Kobayashi incident.

"I shouldn't have given him such a generous head start," Doctor Doom concluded, her mask currently off as she read the report.

"Don't blame yourself, mama-san," Lilith offered. "You loved him didn't you?"

"I still do," she replied. "But now he's not just a wayward soul, he's becoming a threat. His success has stirred up the resistance here at home, inciting the ones who don't believe in the cause to rise up. I now have to step up my defense of the home land. Pyro and White Queen will need to come back to coordinate security here.

"It may be time to explore other options," Lilith offered. "If we have slow down the campaign, other countries will have more time to prepare, which will cost more lives later."

"Indeed," the mad leader replied. "I think I have an idea of how to keep them off balance that doesn't require me to use my own troops. It's risky, but I think the risk is worth it."

"What did you have in mind?"

Doom turned towards her as she grabbed her mask. "I need to take a trip to Germany."

The next day, Carnage watched the troops continue to meander about in the over glorified prison around her. Asuka was in an induced sleep now for over a year, yet she still seemed serene and almost fragile within the tube. Her hair had gotten much longer, but no one would risk going in the tube to take care of such things as hair growth or her nails for that matter. Carnage's nearly liquid body had wrapped itself around parts of Asuka's body, hiding it form the lecherous guards who would dare sneak a peek at what the redhead had to offer.

Suddenly she heard an explosion. The main doors came flying off their hinges on the level above. The guards suddenly stirred into action but were slow to respond as the air was suddenly filled with bullets. An all-female army, fully armored from head to toe and wielding advanced looking assault rifles and other weapons proceeded to easily mow down all of the troops inside the base.

Carnage watched as Doctor Doom entered the room and lifted off as a vectored flight unit built into the back of her armor beneath her cloak activated. She landed in front of the cylinder where Carnage watched with interest. Withdrawing a syringe, she injected something into one of the inlets for the LCL and waited a few moments. Then she began to turn down the sedative level.

Asuka's eyes twitched slightly as they slowly opened.

"Back with us now?" came the mechanical sounding voice.

"Wer bist du?" she asked. [Who are you?]

"Speak Japanese, Asuka, I know you can," Doom immediately replied. "My name is Victoria Von Doom. But you knew me by another name once."

"Is that so?" Asuka questioned weakly.

Doom pulled her hood down before removing her mask. Instantly Asuka's face turned to fury as Carnage tried to slam herself into the glass to get at Misato.

"Still pissed off I see," Misato replied.

"You put us here!" Asuka hissed.

"You didn't give me much choice," Misato replied calmly. "But now I have a use for you."

"No thank you, Gendo," Asuka hissed.

Misato's eyes twitched at the name and calmly hit a button on her left wrist. Asuka's world suddenly turned into pain as her entire body was wracked with sonic energy. She screamed, and her symbiote did as well. Not a single member of the Doom Infantry around them made any sign of this affecting them at all.

"Would you like to rephrase that?"

"What did you do to us?!" Asuka cried, partially severed from her symbiote a moment as Carnage recovered her connection.

"To Carnage, nothing. The fluid I injected before waking you up contained nanites that crawled into your body and set up a hive near your heart. These nanites were hard at work as you were waking up installing sonic disruptors inside your body at key locations. Also, I should warn you that the hive contains concentrated Thermite, enough to incinerate a small structure, so more than enough to rid the world of your presence once and for all. The nanties are designed to monitor your functions to make sure you don't try to create more like you and to react automatically if they detect any sign of disobedience."

"You bitch," Asuka hissed. "You were my guardian! How could you do this to me?!"

"You tried to kill my ward!" Misato nearly screamed at her with enough ferocity that even she flinched. "You are a monster… difficult to control but I have brought you to heel none-the-less. Here your life had no meaning. I sent you here to languish until I could figure out how to rip that symbiote out of you."

Asuka looked at Misato, realizing much had changed in the last year.

"Part of me still loves you, Asuka. But make no mistake… I am not your guardian, or your mother figure. To you I am your mistress, and you will obey me if you want to be free of your prison. This is how it will work. I have begun a campaign of world domination using the technology I have acquired. You will have the freedom to act as you will outside of my directly controlled territories while you wait for further orders from me. Obey me, and don't attack anyone within my territory without authorization and you'll live a long and happy life as the human eating bitch that you are. Disobey or show any signs of rebellion, and I light your ass on fire, and then try to make something useful out of the ashes."

We'll be no better than slaves, Carnage warned.

'I know… we don't have a choice now. Misato has us where she wants us… what happened to her, I wonder.'

I have a feeling we'll find out soon enough. On the bright side, maybe we'll get another shot at revenge after all.

"Alright, Misato… you have me."

Without ceremony, she put her helmet back on and raised her hood. She then placed her left hand on the glass and a sound like a high pitched burst went off causing Asuka to squint a moment, then all sight of the outside suddenly went away as the glass turned into a mass of cracks and suddenly exploded outwards. Asuka tumbled out, barely missing the jagged glass at the bottom of the tube and started to retch up LCL. Within moments the sedative was gone from her body allowing her to awaken fully. As she stood up, the Carnage symbiote covered her body, returning her to her true monstrous form.

"Where do you want us," Carnage asked.

"The Soviet Union for now," Doom replied. "I have control over Japan, Korea, Vietnam, most of the Philippines, New Guinea, Thailand, and about 20% of Southeastern China."

"You've been busy," Carnage noted. "Mind if we grab a few bites on the way?"

"Not at all. Knock yourself out, just leave my troops alone."

Without another word Carnage leapt upon the wall and skittered up it to the roof were she pulled herself though the skylight and to freedom.

"Still a bit disturbing to watch after all this time," Doom mused.

Washington D.C. remained the primary capital of Cartigan's empire. As he sat in the oval office he mused that Doom was getting far too powerful for her own good. His forces were already pushing into South America, with Brazil likely to fall within the week, yet in just about a week Doom herself managed to take over a good portion of Southeast Asia.

The biggest problem he saw so far was that he didn't have a counter for the Evagelions. In a way he was happy that the new conventional units were not the unstoppable juggernauts the original ones were, but these mass produced machines of death were going to be enough of a problem as it was. His scientists were working hard to figure out how to deal with the problem.

"Lord Cartigan," one of his aides said as he entered the office. "Someone here to see you. He says he has a proposition for you."

"Oh?"Cartigan replied. "This should prove interesting, let him in."

The man entering wore a business suit, sported a heavy gray beard, and was very bald. He carried a briefcase with him that had an odd looking lock on it.

"What can I do for you, mister…" Cartigan led.

"Stane," he replied. "Obadiah Stane. I'm currently in control of Kirishima Heavy Industries. With the rise of Doctor Doom, our offices have moved much of their assets to the States. I know you have an Evangelion problem, Mister Cartigan, and I have a potential solution to your problem."

Without another word he opened the complex lock on his briefcase and produced a black folder, handing it to Cartigan. The blue-eyed devil opened the folder and gazed at its contents.

"Trident Mk III," he said aloud as he read the material.

"As fast as Japan's units, with nearly twice the fire power. Modular design allows for unlimited combinations of equipment to fulfil any combat role you could possibly need. Each is powered by a specialized high energy particle engine that seldom needs refueling. Its armor is about 30% thicker than that of the EVAs."

"Impressive, Mister Stane."

"I paid attention when they were using one of our facilities to build the original prototypes of the EVA Mk II units. Though they made refinements since then, the basic designs are virtually identical. So I designed the Trident Mk III to be its counter in every way. Able to outrun, outgun, and outlast. With all the problems NERV has been experiencing over the past few years, they haven't had much of a chance to refine what they created. I on the other hand used these years to prepare for just this instance."

Cartigan closed the folder. "How long until you can go into full production?"

"I have six combat ready units currently; my current facilities can only produce one or two a month, but with this country's facilities we could do a lot better."

"I'll have a few factories assigned to you. Let me know what you need to get them ready for full production."

"You got it."

Doom returned home that night to the sound of Air Raid sirens in the city going off. She watched as the buildings began to drop into the ground. Aircraft took off from the nearby air field and EVA's armed with anti-air weaponry took to the field around the armored buildings that remained above the ground. Bombs began to drop on the city as retaliatory fire brust forth from ground level.

Doctor Doom focused her eyes into the darkness and noted that several of the aircraft were B1 Lancers.

"Cartigan," she hissed. She quickly made her way below ground and into the Geofront. The battle was still raging topside when she reached NERV Central.

"Are you okay?" Lilith asked as soon as she came in. The girl hobbled over to Doctor Doom receiving a hug for her trouble.

"I am fine, Lilith." She looked towards The White Queen who was standing by the window to the Geofront watching the computer.

"The battle will end in about ten minutes," she reported. "Damage has been minimal."

"Cartigan thought he could slow me down with this attack. He must be worried about the progress we've made."

"My thinking as well," The White Queen affirmed.

"Emma, please make sure the recovery goes smoothly, we're still having issues keeping the peace after the Kobayashi incident."

"Leave it to me, and don't worry about the rebels… Pyro has that figured out. They are vastly the minority of people in Japan. Your own people refuse to stand for their shenanigans. "

"It figures there would still be some dissidents despite everything I've done for them," Doom noted.

"Ungrateful savages," Lilith noted. "You've made this one of the most powerful nations on Earth, if not the most powerful. Why can't they be happy with prosperity?"

"Stupidity, mostly," the White Queen commented.

Doom walked over to the window of the Geofront, the sheer number of armor layers above them guaranteed that no one down here could hear the battle raging on the surface. But the screen on Doom's desk told the story well; EVAs belching fire into the sky, missiles and rockets flying to and fro, dogfights over the city, destroyed planes falling into Tokyo Bay, and the occasional surface explosion that didn't seem to strike anything important.

"Humanity has a bad habit of clinging to the familiar, despite how much of an improvement progress is."

"True enough," The White Queen agreed. "I better get top side. The battle will be over soon, and I have a lot of work to do." Turning with a flourish, her cloak kicked up and Lilith watched how elegant she looked as she walked.

Once she was proud of her "hoof", but watching The White Queen walk like that reminded her of just how flawed she was. She knew her mother loved her unconditionally, but pondered if there was anything her mother could do for her. After all, she created Deathstrike, who was almost dead when she arrived. But Lilith was smart enough to know her situation was very different as her DNA was fundamentally flawed, and it would be much more difficult to repair. Still, she thought she might soon have the courage to ask her if they could try.

Enough is enough…

I've been patient… I've been merciful…

No more… Cartigan needs to learn his place, and one way or another I will remind him that Doom comes to all eventually… The morning after the attack on Tokyo-3, I officially declared war on the Cartiganinan Regime. The speech was delivered to a crowd of thousands outside the surface palace, to thunderous applause. But now I will fight a war on two fronts… three if you count the continued existence of the resistance and Spiderman.

Shinji… I have to defeat him… But how will I find him?

The Machiavellian Minds, concoct their wicked designs,

They think they're standing on the side of destiny

Constricting freedom again, they've wrought the ultimate sin,

And make pariahs of the sons of liberty

And in the name of their god, they wage their war and applaud,

The deadly dogma that controls society

Who fucking gave you the right, to spread perpetual night?

Your holy rationales have never made sense to me