Chapter Text
Valeria Richards stepped onto the teleportation pad in the Baxter Building, and after a slight jolt, she found herself in Latveria. Doomstadt to be exact, the home of Doctor Doom, the man who was the self-proclaimed mortal enemy of her father, Reed Richards, and one of the single greatest threats the world had ever faced.
Or, as Valeria knew it, the castle was the home of Uncle Doom, her self-proclaimed godfather. Life is funny sometimes isn’t it?
Within moments of the young girl arriving on the castle grounds, she was met by a squadron of soldiers with high tech weapons(which Valeria noted looked a tad bit outdated), led by a smiling man in his mid-twenties with a full beard.
“Back already Valeria?” The man asked with a smile. “Do your parents know about this?”
“My parents know I need my space sometimes, Kristoff.” Valeria said, returning the smile. Kristoff was adopted by Uncle Doom as a child and named the monarch’s ward and heir to his throne. Contrary to what most people thought, the father and son were complete opposites. Even though Kristoff could be a cold blooded killer when needed, his personality was significantly warmer than Doom’s.
“You live in a skyscraper, Little Doom. I can’t imagine it's hard to find space there if you need it.” Kristoff snorted. “Little Doom” was the nickname he gave Valeria after he had found her and Doom holed up in the library reading quietly, and finding out from the servants that neither had spoken in 5 hours.
Valeria held back a grin. She claimed to hate the nickname but secretly loved it. “I’ve earned enough trust to have a long leash. Besides, have you forgotten that I’m already one of the smartest people on the planet?”
“Intelligence isn’t everything, kid, Take your father for example. Richards is an idiot for allowing you to have as much freedom as you do.” Kristoff’s smile faltered and he shook his head, but then he regained his mood. “ Enough of that for now. This is a happy occasion! I’ll have the cooks prepare a feast for dinner.”
Kristoff began to lead her to the castle. “Doom is in the study again, you remember where that is?”
“Of course.” Valeria snorted. “How is he today?”
“In a mood.” Kristoff sighed.
“Isn’t he always?”
“No, this is worse than usual.You see that mess there?” Kristoff pointed in the direction of the main city, and Valeria noticed that several of the buildings were riddled with damages. “A couple of idiots from AIM raided a warehouse of Doom Tech-”
“What did they get?” Valeria interrupted, “How long ago was this, if you can give me a list of what was taken, I might be able to program a few satellites to pinpoint their energy signature-”
“Relex Little Doom, we got 'em. Doombots were on the scene within minutes and made short work of them.” Kristoff laughed but then his smile faltered again. “But they did get one last dig in before we finished them off. They put a virus into the mainframe.”
“How bad?”
“Honestly it could be worse, the virus didn’t affect the software relating to the weapons systems, so we don’t have to worry about any rogue nuclear warheads getting launched. But it did affect the bots set aside specifically for infrastructure repairs. Stuff like building maintenance, farm work, etc, is all being done without the robotic assistance that Latverians have become used to. “Kristoff laughed again. “Doom saved face by claiming that he allowed the virus to go through because he wanted to “toughen up the people so they don’t forget the iron in their veins”. But between you and me, he is pissed. So tread carefully.”
“He won’t do anything to me, out of the two of us he likes me best, remember?” Valeria smiled smugly.
“Uh-huh.” Kristoff wanted to deny it, but it was most likely true. “Only because you’re as crazy as he is, kid.”
Valeria’s smile faltered a little, but this went unnoticed by Kristoff.
****
Earlier this week
The Baxter Building
Valeria sat under the telescope in her father’s lab working on her project for school. The Future Foundation was unlike any other school in the country, in the whole world even, but there were still boring, antiquated projects that needed to be done. The project her father assigned was to study and analyze every part of one of the great space faring empires and give a report to the class. Bently got the Shi’ar Imperium(lucky punk), the Moloids got the Badoon(all kinds of unfair, their culture is remarkably similar to the Badoon) just to name a few, and it went that way throughout the class until Valeria was assigned the Kree Empire.
As far as empires go, the Kree weren’t a bad choice. Their culture was fascinating and they had a rich history to mine for information, it was the assignment itself that Valeria chafed at. The Future Foundation was supposed to be a school where they learned how to change the world, and here they were making a report like normal kids in school.
“Such bullshit.” The 9 year old mutters to herself. But then she heard the lab doors open and so she quieted down.
“What's the verdict Dr. Richards?” A man asked as he walked into the lab. Valeria peered over and saw that it was Captain America.
“The data chip you brought was remarkably fascinating, but I’m afraid it was nothing that I haven’t seen before.” Valeria’s father Mr.Fanstastic said, as he brought the captain over to his work bench.
“So you can crack it?”
“Already done.” Mr.Fantastic said kindly. “You now have a backdoor into Hydra’s servers until they change the codes again. I trust you and S.H.I.E.L.D will use this window wisly.”
“We intend to.” Captain America nodded. The scene was actually quite nice, just two old friends helping each other out, perfectly at ease in each other’s presence. Until Valeria made the mistake of accidentally bumping into some of her equipment, then the old soldier sprang into action. Pulling out his shield and getting into a defensive stance. “Who’s there?”
“Wait! Wait, its just me!” Valeria cried as she scrambled out from under the telescope.
“Captain, stand down.” Mr.Fantastic soothed. “It's my daughter Valeria, working on her school project.”
“Oh, sorry Ms. Richards.” Captain America said politely, as he sheathed his shield. It was a strange sight to see one of the most idolized men in the world look embarrassed, but here he was. “I didn’t mean anything by it, just nerves you know?”
“I know, it's okay Mr.Rogers. My Uncle Johnny acted the same way after he got back from the Negative Zone.” Valeria said, earning a proud look from her father. The old man was always pushing her to work on her compassion, ugh. “What data are you working on?”
“Oh, you don’t need to worry about that-” the Captain began, but he was cut off.
“S.H.E.I.L.D retrieved a cache of Hydra data cards and they hired me to crack it.” Mr.Fantastic cut in. “Simple stuff really, nothing interesting.”
“That was classified information Richards.” Captain America said, glaring at the scientist.
“Have you ever been around kids Steven?” Mr.Fantastic asked. “If you make something a secret, then it becomes infinitely more interesting. This way Valeria knows it's nothing that should concern her, and she’ll probably forget about it by tonight.” He then went full dad mode and looked down at his daughter. “Mostly because she is going to go back to working on her project like she should have been doing all alone.”
“Father, I am working on the project!” Valeria protested.
“It was due yesterday Valeria.”
“The project is a waste of time.” Valeria snapped. “To get all that information we would just need to hack the S.H.E.I.L.D servers again-”
“What do you mean again?” Captain America asked, but he was promptly ignored by the two Richards.
“As I was saying before I was interrupted,” Valeria glared at the Captain. “I would just need to hack the servers and relay all the information I learned. Is that what this school is now? Rote memorization? I thought we were learning how to change the world?”
“Nothing is better than first hand analysis.” Mr. Fantastic defended. “You're right, part of the project is memorization, but that is why you have to give a report to the class. You’re summarizing a culture in your own words.”
“As I said, it's a complete waste of time!”
“If it's such a waste of time what you were doing in here then?”
“I was-” Valeria was about to fire back, but she then became very aware that Captain America was in the room. “I was…Nothing, I was doing nothing.”
Neither adult bought that line, but Mr.Fantastic broke the silence first. “Were you working on something that Uncle Doom would approve of?”
“Uncle Doom?” Captain America asked, but he was once again ignored.
Valeria looked down at her feet. “...yes”
“Can I see what it is?” Mr. Fantastic asked. Without saying anything Val sent a link to her notes, and her father checked it in his smart watch. Mr.Fanstastic took one look at it, then glared down at his daughter. “Go to your room, we’ll talk about this later.”
Valeria ran out of the lab, but before she left she heard this conversation between the two men.
“Uncle Doom?”
“Valeria is very close with Victor, the two of them get along famously.”
“That madman gets along with an elementary schooler? How is that possible?”
“They…understand each other. They share similar mindsets.”
“Similar mindsets huh…Is she dangerous like he is?’
Valeria stopped in her tracks outside the lab, and waited to hear what her father would say.
“...no. Not yet anyway.”
Tears welled up in Valeria’s eyes and she ran off.
****
Doomstadt
Now
Valeria Richards walked through Castle Doom until she came to the study and stepped inside. As always, Boris, Doom’s faithful companion greeted her as she walked through the door.
“Ah, Mistress Valeria. It's a pleasure to see you again.” The Old Man said with a kind smile.
“It's great to see you again as well Boris.” Valeria once again returned the smile. As she did it, she briefly wondered why she felt more comfortable here, surrounded by notorious killers, than she did at home sometimes, but she pushed those thoughts away. This was her happy place, and she wasn't going to spoil it by worrying about stuff like that. “Is he here?”
“Yes, in the back of the study, let me go alert him of your arrival.” Boris walked off into the study, and after a few short moments he walked back out and said, “He’s ready for you.”
“Thanks Boris.” Valeria said, and then walked inside the study, where she found Doom, outfitted head to toe in his armor, standing in front of a holographic projector, staring intently at a piece of code.
“Hey Uncle Doom, is that the code for the Doombots that you need to fix?”
Without turning around, Doom grunted. “Kristoff talks too much, this is none of your concern.”
“Nonsense, I’m here I might as well help.” Valeria replied. She then took out her smartwatch, downloaded the code, and after a few seconds it too was holographically displayed from the watch. The girl then began to tinker with it as Doom turned around to look at her.
“Valeria, you did not come all this way to fiddle with a piece of code. If you wanted to do that, you would have stayed in that ridiculous school that Richards runs. Why are you here?”
“No reason, Uncle Doom.”
“Child, Doom is not lied to in his own home, and Doom does not repeat himself.”
“My father and I had a fight about a school project a couple of days ago.” Valeria sighed
“What type of project?” Doom questioned
“I have to analyze the Kree Empire’s history and culture then create a report for the class.”
“A ridiculous waste of time.” Doom shook his head. “If you needed surface level information like that than you could just hack into S.H.E.I.L.D servers like everyone else.”
“Thank you!” Valeria threw her hands in the air in exasperation. “But no one said anything like that. Even Bently fell in line like everyone else. So, in an act of rebellion, I made my own project.”
“Which is?”
“Nothing important.” Valeria muttered, suddenly becoming very focused on the code she was working on.
Doom looked once more at his goddaughter, and waited for her to speak. This is the moment where the differences between “Uncle Doom” and Valeria’s other parental figures became apparent. Uncle Johnny would have made a joke to try and cheer her up, forgetting all about the problem in the process. Uncle Ben would have punched her on the shoulder and given her space, thinking he was overstepping his bounds by helping too much. While her parents would simply keep pressing until they forcibly pulled the truth out of their daughter. But not Uncle Doom, he simply starred and waited.
After a full minute, Valeria broke. “Father did not like the direction I went with my project.”
“Which was?”
Wordlessly, Valeria typed some codes into her watch, and something new was displayed on Doom’s holographic projector. It was an exhaustive and very long report titled “Peace in our Time: How to subjugate and conquer the Kree Empire”.
Doom looked at the monitor and made a noise that Valeria knew as him laughing, and when he turned to look at his goddaughter, she could tell he was smiling under his mask. “You truly are a remarkable child aren’t you?”
“So…” Valeria looked up from coding. “I’m assuming you approve?”
“Of course Valeria, you turned away from Richard’s foolishness and produced something useful and practical.”
For some reason that Doom couldn't understand, his praise seemed to make Valeria feel worse, as her face visibly dropped at his words. So he tried something different.
“Summarize your report child. Doom does not have time to read through all of this.”
“I’m busy decoding this.” Valeria grunted
“Is multitasking too laborious for you? Is your vaunted intelligence only capable of doing one thing at a time?”
Valeria let out a big sigh and began speaking. “Well, as far as space faring empires go, the Kree are relatively weak. They possess no abilities beyond normal Kree biology, which is superior to normal humans, but not anything to write home about in the broader galactic context. What gives them an edge and makes them so formidable is the sheer amount of resources they possess. Take the modern day Kree, they sustained staggering losses during the Annihilation Wave, the Phalanx Conquest, and the recent War of Kings, but they still have one of the largest and strongest militaries in the universe.”
“Excellent, you understand your enemies strengths as well as his weaknesses.” Doom commended, “Now how do you undermine them?”
“The obvious answer is to weaken them before humanity ever starts to fight them. But this leaves multiple different routes to take.” Valeria answered, putting the code down and excitedly talking to Uncle Doom. “The obvious choice is to maneuver them into a war with another empire. The Shi’ar Imperium would make short work of them, but they have been unpredictable lately after Gladiator became Majester.”
“Foolish Strontian.” Doom scoffed. “Content to sit back and let galactic events pass him by.”
“I don’t think he is letting events pass him by, I think he is trying to consolidate his power.” Valeria defended, playing devil’s advocate for no other reason than the fact that she quite liked Gladiator. She had caught a transmission of the speech he made whenever he assumed the throne and thought it was inspiring. All about honor and how sometimes hard choices and sacrifices have to be made for the greater good.
“No, Doom is consolidating his power.” Doom corrected, shaking his head. “Latveria is beset by enemies at all sides and looked upon with distrust by the world powers. Doom must be prepared for whenever the West attempts another coup. But the Shi’ar Imperium is one of the most formidable fighting forces the universe has ever seen. Their combined military might could hold back Galactus himself for days. They are not “consolidating their power”, they are hiding. Hiding from themselves and their rightful place in the universe. Gladiator does not think himself worthy of the throne he sits in, so he is biding his time until a successor appears.”
“Fine, but we’re getting off topic.” Valeria snapped. “As I was saying, maneuvering the Kree into an interstellar war does have some drawbacks. The chosen combatant would have to be strong enough to equal or surpass the Kree, but this means that if they ever found out that humans ,or “Terrans”, used them to do their dirty work then the mystery empire would turn its wrath on us. So we would have two empires to deal with, and personally, even with our heroes I don’t think we could win against the Shi’ar.”
“What about the Skrulls?” Doom asked.
“What about the Skrulls, they've been decimated for years.” Valeria shook her head. “If after years of planning they couldn't conquer earth, then how are they supposed to take on the Kree in their diminished state?”
“The Kree and Skrulls have been sworn enemies for longer than humanity has existed.” Doom countered. “You can be forgiven for not knowing this because of your age, but spite is one of the greatest motivators in the universe. If you can sufficiently motivate the Skrulls, then they could go toe to toe with the Kree, even in their diminished state.”
“Arlight, I’ll consider the Skrulls. But now I think we should move onto option two.”
“Which is?”
“Instigating a civil war.” Valeria replied. “The Kree are extremely unified, borderline zealot-like in their devotion to the empire, but even they have rebellions from time to time. Are you familiar with House Fiyero?”
Doom glared at her.
“My mistake, of course you are.” Valeria laughed. “As you remember during the Annihilation Wave, House Fiyero, the house of commerce, seized power and assassinated The Supreme Intelligence. Ronan the Accuser has since expunged the leaders of the house, and the Supreme Intelligence has been reborn, but bad blood still remains in the empire. If we can assassinate the Supreme Intelligence and pin it on House Fiyero then that would lead to a civil war and sufficiently weaken the Kree.”
“The plan has potential…You might also consider instigating a race war between the blue skinned Kree and the light skinned Kree that Captain Mar-vel hailed from.” Doom began to pace the room. “But it doesn't solve the threat of the Kree. How do you plan on conquering them outright?”
“The strategy is very long, and complex, but a simplified version is that in the chaos after the Kree Civil War, impossible to verify details about humanity’s role in the Supreme Intelligence’s assassination would be leaked to some of the Kree’s fringe groups. Those groups would rise to power the same way they always do during times of crisis, and they would invade Earth.”
Doom “laughed” again. “Child, you want Earth to be invaded?”
“An all out invasion from the Kree would unite all of humanities’ considerable resources.” Valeria answered. “Metahumans, Mutants, Humans, Eternals, Mythological Beings, and magic users, not to mention organizations like S.H.I.E.L.D and Hydra would all step up to defend our home. If we could unite under one banner then we should be a match for the weakened Kree. Plus, if the Kree attacked first then we would gain sympathy in the eyes of the galactic community and make our take over legitimate.”
Doom was silent for a moment. “You are a remarkable child Valeria. Only someone of Doom’s caliber could have thought of a plan like that at such a young age.”
Valeria smiled again, but then the smile faded and she went back to coding.
****
Valeria’s relationship with Uncle Doom has always been a popular topic amongst her peers. At first most people are worried about her safety, fearing Doom’s well deserved reputation and thinking he has some cruel plan worked out. But once everyone is convinced that the monarch of Latveria has nothing planned their concern turns into curiosity. Why would a remorseless killer befriend a little girl? Why would Reed Richard’s sworn enemy proclaim himself the godfather to the man’s daughter? Why would the most prideful and vain man on Earth view an elementary schooler as his equal, whenever he considers literal gods to be beneath him?
This also leads to questions about Valeria. How could she feel safe and comfortable next to a man like that? She is a genius, so she knows everything that man has done, every cruel deed and action, so why does she feel safe around him? Why does she understand him?
Valeria’s family in particular doesn’t like how close she is with the tyrant. Ben Grimm finds it creepy, Johnny Storm is still convinced it's just a really long and elaborate prank by the kids, while Sue keeps her opinion to herself since she knows how Valeria views her godfather. But Valeria has always thought her father understood on some level. Even on their worst days, after Dr.Doom committed some of his most heinous acts. Mr.Fantastic always refers to his enemy as “Victor” and tries to barter for peace before having to fight. The only comment Richards has ever made about the unique friendship is that whenever Valeria is acting particularly calloused, or needlessly closed off, he asks her if “Uncle Doom would approve of her behavior”. A question intended to show her the error of her ways, to let her know the lonely path that an approach like that leads one down.
Which brings us back down to the question of why does Valeria understand Doom? Why has she never been scared of his presence, and why does she feel like he is a kindred spirit? After the conversation in the lab, Valeria set out to answer that question for herself, so she hacked into her father’s files and downloaded everything she could find on Victor Von Doom. She found every deed, every cruel act committed, and the motivations that Doom used to justify his actions. Valeria sorted through the information for hours, and realized with a sinking feeling that she understood everything he did, and that given the choice, Valeria would probably do the same thing in his shoes.
Valeria wondered what that said about her.
****
Doomstadt
Now
After spending a few hours in the study, it was time for dinner and Doom led Valeria to the dining hall where they ate in silence. But it was not their usual , comfortable silence, this was something
different. This silence reeked of secrets, like someone was hiding something. Which was something Doom could not stand for.
"What is wrong Valeria?” Doom asked.
“Nothing is wrong Uncle Doom.” Valeria grunted.
“Child…”Doom’s voice had a warning tone to it. “Do you remember what I said earlier?”
“Yes…“Doom does not repeat himself”,” Valeria rolled her eyes. “Like you would do anything to me anyway.”
Doom clenched his fist under the table, more out of anger that she was right than her tone. “Possibly, but you don’t want to find out for sure do you?”
Valeria picked at her food with her fork, deep in thought, until she finally spoke. “Uncle Doom, do you think we’re good people?”
“Depends. What do you mean by good?”
“Morally good people.” Valeria clarified.
“Bah.” Doom waved his hand dismissively “Morality is a cage imposed on lesser men to keep them in line. It has no hold over people like us. Pay it no thought.”
“You can’t mean that.” Valeria objected. “ You define yourself by your honor, you would die before you broke your word. How is that different from morality?”
“Doom is a king, Valeria. The strength of Doom’s word and character reflects on Latveria. The same way that any king’s virtue is meaningless if his people are in danger. A king does not concern himself with being a good man, just his people’s well being.” Doom explained. “As Doom said, morality is a cage, a cage that we have grown out of. Don’t concern yourself with it. Do what must be done, the world and those who would judge you be damned.”
“Uncle Doom you realize that I’m not a king right?” Valeria interjected. “I’m not even royalty.”
“Aren’t you?” Doom asked. “You're one of Richard’s brood, the daughter of two of the most well known metahumans on the planet. Due to your father’s habit of sticking his nose in other people’s
business, he has acquired a reputation across the universe as the man to turn to when one is out of options. Even the World Eater himself has come to Richards for help…” Doom muttered something unintelligible under his breath but then continued speaking. “Because Franklin will have other responsibilities, you will be your father’s heir, it will become your responsibility to shepherd this foolish universe. If that is not royalty then what is?”
“Still doesn’t answer the question if we’re good people or not.” Valeria pointed out. “Just gives us an excuse to not think about it.”
“Doom is Doom, you are a Richards, morality is for lesser beings not us. Why does this concern you so much?” Doom asked. “Were you upset by a peer’s comment? Did your little friend, the clone of the wizard, call you a bad person?”
“Bentley?” Valeria asked “No, he didn’t say anything. Besides, why would I care what he thinks?”
“Well…” For once Doom looked at a loss for words. “You are approaching a certain age…certain feelings may began to-”
“Ew, gross Uncle Doom, you sound like Uncle Johnny!” Valeria stuck her tongue out in disgust. “It's nothing like that…I was just curious, and all the research I did seemed to make things worse.”
“Worse how?” Doom leaned forward on the table and put his knuckles under his chin.
“Well for my research I looked through all the information we had on you…and I found out what happened to my namesake.”
The last comment hung in the air between them. Years earlier, a truly desperate Sue Storm had asked Doom to deliver Valeria as a baby, because her husband Reed Richard was absent on some idiotic quest. Doom successfully delivered the girl and his only demand was that he get to name the child. He chose Valeria as a way to honor his first love, the girl he loved as a boy, and the woman he killed as a man in exchange for greater mystical power.
“What was your opinion of what happened to her?” Doom asked carefully.
“By every conceivable standard what you did was…” Valeria began, never taking her eyes off her uncle. “monstrous, cruel, the actions of evil incarnate and yet for some reason…”
“For some reason what?” Doom pressed.
“I understood.” Valeria awsnerd finally, eyes cast down on the table. “I understood…You sacrificed the woman you loved to demons as a way to gain more power. It was a stupid, senseless act but…it had to be done. It needed to be done. If I was in your place, I would want to say I wouldn't make the same choice, but…I know I would.”
Valeria was on a roll now, pacing the room and waving her arms about. “I don’t understand Uncle Doom, my family is known for their compassion, but for some reason I just think with logic. I weigh the costs, determine if the losses were necessary to the greater goal, and only then make the decision. Sometimes when we’re saving people I just do it because I know my parents would be disappointed, not because of any actual concern for the people’s well being.” Valeria shook her head. “Did I tell you that Father called my plan to take over the Kree horrifying. Horrifying Uncle Doom, even though it is completely necessary! I just don’t understand…are we bad people…am I?”
Doom was silent for a moment, then he spoke. “Eat Valeria, your food is getting cold.”
Valeria let out a sigh of disappointment, then nodded her head and returned to her chair. The rest of the dinner was conducted in silence.
****
After dinner and Valeria went to bed, Doom stood in front of his computer and readied himself to do the hardest thing he might ever have to do.
“Computer, call…Him.” Doom spoke to the machine and it began establishing a connection to another computer halfway around the world.
Within moments, the concerned face of Reed Richards appeared on Doom’s computer. “Victor? Why are you calling me? Is something wrong with Valeria?”
“Calm yourself Richards, nothing is wrong.” Doom crossed his arms. “We just have something to discuss.”
“Okay, what's the topic of discussion?”
“My goddaughter has become concerned with the topic of morality.”
“Morality?” Richards frowned “Has she been working ahead on her schoolwork again? We’re not scheduled to go over Ethics until next month.”
“Not the concept of morality you reprobate. She is concerned with individual morality, her morality.” Doom sighed. “Valeria has apparently started to get self-conscious about the similarities between us and is questioning whether or not she is a good person. We discussed the subject during dinner.”
“What did you say?”
“The truth.” Doom answered immediately “ I told her that good and evil are concepts for lesser beings, and that they should have no sway over here.”
“That didn’t help.” Richards snorted
Doom’s temper flared at the snort.“Watch your tone Richards, have you forgotten that I am holding your youngest child prisoner?”
“Victor, she’s not your prisoner. She is a little girl having a sleepover at her “Uncle Doom’s” house. Besides, even if she wasn't and we were fighting again like in the old days, you wouldn't harm a single
hair on that girl's head.” Richards smiled. “Hate me all you want, but I will never believe you see Valeria as anything less than your surrogate niece.”
“...We’re getting off topic Richards.” Doom snapped. “Valeria is too young to be worrying about topics like this. Intelligence like ours is a burden that few can bear, she is too young to struggle with it alone.”
“Intelligence like ours” Richards asked with a smile
“Mine and Valeria’s.” Doom sighed. “Don’t flatter yourself, reprobate.”
“My mistake.” Richards shook his head to hide his smile. “May I ask why you are calling me then if your intellect surpasses mine by such a large degree?”
“Because…” Doom started “My first attempt at fixing the problem was unsuccessful. Before I give it another attempt, I wanted to know what you would do in my stead…so that I can avoid whatever monumental mistake you would have made of course.”
The smile that Richards gave him made Doom want to obliterate everything in a five mile radius. But he calmed himself down.
“Alright then Victor,” Richards began, “Here’s what I would do…”
***
“Wake up Valeria.” Doom said as he burst into the guest room. “We’re leaving.”
“Uncle Doom?” Valeria blinked herself awake. “What's going on?”
“Wake up, we’re leaving.” Doom snapped “I will not say it again.” He then turned and walked out the room.
Valeria shrugged and then followed Uncle Doom down the hallway. Without saying a word of explanation, or even looking back to see if she was following him, Doom stalked through the castle until he arrived in the hangar.
“Get in.” Doom grunted, and pointed at a nearby hovercraft.
Valeria shrugged once again and got inside the hovercraft. For all the talk about how intelligent she was, the girl was still only 9, so she was not awake enough to ask questions or protest in any way.
The duo flew in silence for 10 minutes until they were hovering over a nearby town. Once it stopped, Valeria turned to her uncle.
“Why are we here?”
“Use your eyes child.” Doom said and pointed down towards the town.
Valeria looked over the edge of the hovercraft and several doom bots hard at work repairing the town. The repairs were already well underway, and judging by the pace they were going, everything should be fixed by nightfall.
“You got the doom bots fixed!” Valeria exclaimed.
“I did nothing.” Doom corrected. “Your tinkering with the code earlier today did all of the heavy lifting to isolate and destroy the virus that was attacking my bots. The Doom Bots are functional again and repairing the town because of what you did.”
Valeria smiled at Doom. “I’m assuming this is your version of a pep talk, Uncle Doom?”
“Perhaps.” Doom said. “You spoke earlier about the concept of morality, and where you stand. While I personally don’t understand your interest in the subject, I do think you are missing the point on a few things. Morality is defined more by actions than it is by feelings. You may understand and empathize with the things that I have done, but you have not done them yourself. So you are blameless in that regard. With that out of the way, let's focus on what you have done. You and your family have saved this world more times than can be countered. Your inventions and innovations have saved lives and made the world a better place, like your work with the doom bots today.” Doom gestured to the doom bots at work to prove his point. “Doom stands by what he said Valeria, morality is a cage for lesser beings, a prison of one's own making. But if you are going to put yourself in a prison, you must understand the laws that you must have broken. You have not killed, never acted on any thoughts or plans that, as your idiotic father says, “Uncle Doom would approve of”, and the good you have done far outweighs any bad that you might have done. By all accounts you are a “good person”, if not a great one. Rid yourself of these foolish thoughts.”
“That might have been the nicest thing you’ve ever said to me.” Valeria grinned.
“Nonsense, Doom is always kind and unlimited in his affection” The monarch crossed his arms. “Is this foolishness over?”
“Sure.” Valeria laughed “For the record, I think you're a good person too Uncle Doom.”
“Bah, Doom is beyond such labels, Doom simply is.”
Valeria snickers again, then sprouts a devilish grin on her face. “You know Uncle Doom, we never did get to finish the conversation we were having at dinner.”
“What are you talking about, we just finished the conversation we had earlier at dinner.”
“No, we finished the main topic, not the brief tangent you went down.” Valeria smiled. “What were you saying about Bentley?”
“I don’t recall saying anything of the sort.” Doom snapped.
“Yes, you do.” Valeria laughed, “You were turning so red, your helmet was actually starting to heat up.”
“Child, regulate your tone, this conversation is improper!”
“Come on Uncle Doom, lighten up. I want to hear about your version of the “birds and the bees”, keep going with your explanatio-”
Without warning Doom snapped his fingers, and Valeria found herself and everything that she brought with her to Doomstadt magically teleported into the living room of the Baxter Building. Interrupting a poker game between her father and Uncle Ben and Uncle Johnny.
“Hey squirt, back already?” Ben asked
“Oh yeah, right.” Johnny laughed, still convinced that Valeria’s trips to see Doom were a practical joke. “How was “Latveria”, Val?”
Valeria made eye contact with her father, and the two shared a smile. “Same old, same old. Uncle Doom says hi.”