Doom's countless Doombots and the thousands of Wakandan warriors bolted toward each other before clashing together in the middle.
The frontline of the Wakandan army projected shields in front of themselves, using them to cover the riflemen behind them as they used their Vibranium-powered blasters to demolish the Doombots in front of them.
The Invisible Woman floated above them, using her energy-projecting abilities to lock the Doombots in place and block some of their blasts from getting through. This made it easy for the archers, gunners, and the Human Torch to rain hell on them with their energy blasts.
After shooting multiple flame blasts from his hands, the Human Torch flew down and began flying through the Doombots, creating human-sized holes through all of them, melting them from the inside out, and decommissioning them with ease.
"Sue! Cylinder!" The Human Torch shouted. Knowing exactly what her brother meant due to their team synergy, the Invisible Woman formed a cylinder-shaped barrier above a group of a hundred Doombots before Johnny charged himself up in the air and flew into the force field from above it.
Sue closed the top, allowing the Human Torch to go wild, heating up his body as he flew in circles around the Doombots. As if they were in a sun-powered oven, the Doombots began to melt before Johnny cooled himself down and his sister lowered her barrier.
Those with melee weapons or abilities, including the two Black Panthers, Mr. Fantastic, and the Thing, all ran around the shields and into the fray, ready to destroy any Doombot they could get their hands on.
Both Black Panthers used their speed and agility, combined with their Vibranium claws to slice through the Doombots as if they were nothing more than wax statues. The two had been training in secret together, practicing ways for the two to synergize on the field if the time had ever come.
They were so deep within the horde, the two panthers found themselves surrounded by Doombots, all firing at them with their rifles. Both panthers simply absorbed the damage using their suits as they stood back to back until they both took off in separate directions.
Shuri was a bit quicker than T'Challa, using her agile nature to jump from one Doombot to the next, slicing their heads off with ease. On the opposite side, T'Challa used his more powerful nature to decimate the robots with power punches and kicks, pouncing from one Doombot to another while ripping their heads off and insides out with his bare hands.
"Brother!" Shuri yelled, gathering her brother's attention as she began twirling a Doombot around her by the legs like a wrestler, wiping out the surrounding Doombots before throwing it at her brother. With his claws extended, T'Challa ripped a hole through the Doombot before grabbing him by the wrist and using his gun to mow down those around him.
Once the Doombot was out of ammo, T'Challa kicked an approaching Doombot in the face, sending it to Shuri who was soaring in the air before she axe kicked it back to the ground, sending it into a small wave of Doombots.
"Ready, Shuri!?" T'Challa yelled, leaping up in the air and grabbing his sister's hand. "Ready, Brother!" She replied before T'Challa threw her like a missile into a crowd of Doombots, allowing her to release the kinetic energy built up in her suit from being attacked so many times.
πΎπππππ!
A yellow energy blast destroyed the Doombots in an instant, sending them flying backward as they broke down into nothing more than scrap metal. King T'Challa was surrounded by a group of his own before releasing a purple energy blast himself, completely annihilating anything in his path.
Not too far away from them, the Thing and Reed Richards stood side by side, destroying the Doombots with power punches from their fists. The Thing, having strength that rivals the Hulk, did nothing more than throw powerful punches at the Doombots, either dismantling them in one strike or sending them into other Doombots like a bowling ball into pins.
Beside him, Reed had his fists elongated into massive hammers, both being bigger than Ben Grimm's entire body. Mr. Fantastic used his massive fists to completely decimate any Doombots in his path, reducing them to junk.
Namor, however, was working alone as the Wakandan-Atlantean army fought on around him. Using his trident, the King of the sea sliced his way through Doombots, while also shooting beams from it at them, reducing them to dust.
One of the Doombots shot the King of Atlantis, however, this shot seemingly did nothing but annoy the Atlantean as he approached the Doombot with anger in his steps. The Doombot kept firing at him, however, Namor shrugged off the bullets entirely before using his fist to punch a hole through the Doombot with ease before tossing him to the side.
Meanwhile, more Doombots began pouring through the barrier in droves, almost as if they were just spawning from thin air. This didn't matter to the heroes as they continued to hack, slash, bash, and clobber their way through the Doombots like they were nothing.
Five minutes passed...
Then ten.
Then twenty.
Until minutes and the battle was still going. Though the warriors were still fighting, they were only human and they were becoming fatigued. Perhaps this was Doom's plan, waiting for the heroes to become fatigued before finally showing his face to them.
Regardless, the heroes continued to fight on, though in a less organized fashion.
Back to back, both kings stood with their weapons drawn, both breathing heavily as the Doombots just kept coming. "How are you holding up, King Namor?" T'Challa asked, breathing heavily as he used his Vibranium claws to cut through a few Doombots.
Namor was exhausted. Despite being able to breathe outside of water, unlike his people, he still needed water in order to keep going after a long time on the surface. He could barely speak, replying to T'Challa as he blocked a few lasers before shooting one of his own at a duo of Doombots. "I could use some water... But I can still fight."
Both kings looked around the battlefield, seeing that their people were beginning to fall. The superhumans were still fighting, sure, but the regular soldiers had already reached their limits, dropping like flies left and right as the Doombots became more of a threat in numbers.
Shuri tried her best to protect the army after seeing them getting dropped, but she could only do so much with the energy she had left.
The army that was once in the thousands was now down to a few hundred, and things were not looking to get any better.
Sue had overexerted herself with her force fields, nearly running out of steam as she used her energy projection to crush and toss away Doombots. Johnny hated showing fatigue, so he was still going full speed ahead to hide the fact that exhaustion was creeping up on him. Reed was tired too, his massive hammer hands now shrunken down to the size of two basketballs.
Ben Grimm still had some fight in him, punching his way through the horde with his immense strength. However, the sheer amount of Doombots were beginning to overwhelm him, targeting him as a threat and dogpiling him. Their weapons weren't really harming him, but his stamina was lowering.
This continued on for ten more minutes as the warriors' numbers kept reducing, as well as their energy.
Darkness soon shrouded the entire battlefield as if the sun had been blotted out from the sky. The warriors looked up, their expressions all shifting to that of defeat as a massive ship filled the entire sky. It was absolutely massive, being as large as a skyscraper as it hung in the sky.
In the thousands, more Doombots began falling from the sky like fallen stars, landing in front of the barrier before pouring in like thousands of ants.
"Brother? What are you going to do..." Shuri asked, breathing heavily beside T'Challa. The Black Panther was speechless, having quietly begun to lose hope in his own mind. However, he wasn't going to quit just yet.
"We fight..." he said, standing back up straight and wincing due to his exhaustion.
However, before T'Challa could take another step...
ππ¦ returned...
ππππ!
A blue streak zipped past the king, leaving a benevolent, cobalt trail of electricity behind him. T'Challa and Shuri looked at each other, smiling beneath their masks before saying in unison, "He's back!"
The blue streak ran past the Future Foundation, lifting everyone back up on their feet and electrocuting the enemies surrounding Ben Grimm before continuing to flicker forward. The Future Foundation all looked at each other with wide eyes, thinking the same thing without saying a word to each other.
Namor, kneeling with his trident in his hand, looked back as the blue streak approached him before disappearing just as fast as it had appeared. The king looked back down at his hand, before shouting, "What!?" as his trident was once again stolen from him by the blue streak.
The blue glimmer of hope continued forward until it neared the opening in the barrier before it lept in the air, taking the form of a man. Not just any man, but Spider-Man, wearing his costume with a new black and gold Wakandan-inspired design. His mask and shoulders were gold, matching the trident in his hands, as was the Wakandan-styled spider on his chest. The rest of the costume was black with minor gold accents and trimmings on it.
He wanted to truly represent his newfound Wakandan blood, while also being a symbol of hope for his Wakandan people. This was his heritage and he was proud to exhibit it.
Holding the Trident of Neptune in the air with both hands, Spider-Man enveloped it in his blue Godspeed energy before bashing it down onto the ground, creating a massive electric explosion that eliminated hundreds of Doombots with that one single attack.
With the Atlantean spear in his hand, Spider-Man stood tall as his body and lenses shone brightly with Godspeed energy. He'd never felt so amazing in his life. Perhaps it was due to the Heart-Shaped Herb he had consumed finally having changed his body, Shuri's capsule, or maybe both things working together, but Spider-Man's strength felt more potent than ever before.
Beneath the Wakandan royal palace, Valeria woke up, leaning up in a panic as her brother held her hand. "Valeria! You're okay!" he told her, hugging her tightly as if he thought she would never wake up again.
Valeria looked around to see that she was in a massive bunker filled with countless Wakandans, all fearing for their lives, holding on to their family members.
"Come to me, Valeria." Doom's voice echoed through her mind, horrifying, yet entrancing her. She was prepared to finally meet the man himself and get answers. 'I need to get out of here...' Valeria thought, looking down at her own two hands and remembering that she had powers now. So far, she knew that she could shoot energy blasts, turn invisible, and teleport. It was just a matter of how at that point.
Many cards were still at play.
Spider-Man's newfound strength.
Doom's whereabouts and his true power.
The number of Doombots that remained.
Valeria and her new powers.
And even the other Richards child, Franklin Richards, who still hadn't awakened his abilities yet.