Doctor Doom had always been one of the most dangerous supervillains in existence.
In some ways, his threat to the universe was even greater than Thanos himself.
At the end of the day, Thanos was merely a madman trying to sacrifice half the universe's life in order to please both himself and Lady Death.
But Doctor Doom—this technomagical control freak who mastered both science and sorcery—genuinely wanted to hold the entire world in the palm of his hand so that everything would operate exactly according to his will.
From Reed Richards' description, in the future timeline Doctor Doom had already purged every opposing force in the universe.
And now he had begun extending his reach into the multiverse itself.
One of his greatest weapons was that endless army of nanomachines.
Those robots could self-program at incredible speeds, imitate any ability, and were nearly indestructible...
Hearing all of this made Joey—who had only managed to relax in this universe for less than a single day—feel completely numb inside.
"...I understand now. But there are still some technical details I need to confirm."
Joey floated downward and picked up the Amazo core he had dropped earlier after being elbowed away by the Thing.
He held it out toward Reed Richards, making one final desperate attempt to deny reality.
"The robots you're describing... the ones capable of adaptive self-programming and copying superpowers..."
"They wouldn't happen to work on technology similar to this thing, would they?"
"How did you get that...?!"
The moment Reed saw the Amazo core—its internal structure already transformed after making contact with Joey—his exhausted face changed dramatically.
"So the Book of the Vishanti's divination spell wasn't wrong after all!"
Joey still refused to give up.
His voice rose nearly an octave as he pressed Reed for answers.
"Reed... please don't tell me those robots are also made out of vibranium."
"I see now."
Reed carefully observed Joey's expression.
"You're not an unrelated bystander."
"You're not Doctor Doom... but you know who the future Doctor Doom is, don't you?"
"Then who exactly are you?"
How was Joey supposed to answer that?
At this point, even he didn't know anymore.
All he could manage was a bitter smile.
"I'm just someone passing through your world... someone who grabbed onto the only lifeline available and came here seeking help."
What else could he possibly say?
That he was the person who had inspired Tony Stark?
The one who handed Tony the knowledge and physical samples needed to create an army of Amazo robots years ahead of schedule?
That he was the indirect cause behind the destruction of Reed's universe and the catastrophe consuming the multiverse?
"He hasn't come into contact with this technology yet... has he?"
Reed pieced everything together through Joey's reactions and words.
The historical point in time revealed by the divination had been real all along.
Joey truly had come from the exact origin point where the Doom Robot Army would eventually be born.
And even more shocking:
This technology had not originally belonged to Doctor Doom.
"Please," Reed said urgently.
"You absolutely cannot—"
Joey immediately cut him off.
"You're about to tell me I can't give him this Amazo core technology, right?"
"But what if I have no choice?!"
One year.
That was all the time he had.
Without rapidly expanding his forces through Amazo technology, how was his universe supposed to survive the coming war?
How could they fight off the Kryptonians? The Green Lantern Corps? The coming Blackest Night?
Maybe the future Doctor Doom wasn't truly evil.
Maybe all he brought to the multiverse was a new order.
...No.
No, that wouldn't work.
Joey realized he couldn't even convince himself of that.
If the future Doctor Doom really was Tony Stark, then the moment he exterminated the Avengers and annihilated New York City indiscriminately...
The word order no longer applied.
That was unquestionably a catastrophe.
So which universe should he choose?
His own? Or Tony's?
The dilemma twisted inside Joey like a knife.
Why was it that even after becoming Superman, he still had to face impossible trolley problems like this?
When would his power finally become great enough to simply stop the damn trolley entirely?
There had to be another way...
As Joey sank deeper into frustrated thought, torn between sacrificing one universe or another, Reed Richards—whose desperate gamble had already failed completely—actually began seeing the situation more clearly.
Realizing this, Reed interrupted Joey's spiraling thoughts.
"No. That's not what I meant."
"The moment I came into contact with you—a person from the past—the birth of the robot army became a fixed historical event."
"It can't be prevented anymore."
"Don't forget the grandfather paradox."
"You were the one who brought it up earlier."
The so-called grandfather paradox was one of the simplest and most famous causal paradoxes involving time travel.
Long ago, when Joey first attempted time travel in order to save his parents, he had gone out of his way to avoid triggering such a paradox.
Because even he had no idea what kind of consequences it might bring to his adoptive parents...
Or to the universe itself.
The paradox itself was simple.
A man travels back through time and kills his grandfather before his father is ever born. Without a grandfather, there would be no father. Without a father, there would be no him.
Which meant he would never have existed in the first place.
And that raised the obvious question:
If he never existed, then how could he possibly travel back in time to kill his grandfather?
That was the exact problem Reed Richards was facing now.
He absolutely could not stop the birth of the Doom robot army.
Because if that future robot army had never existed, then Reed never would have used the Book of the Vishanti to perform the divination spell, nor would he have traveled through time to meet Joey.
And if those events never happened—then what exactly erased the robot army from existence in the first place?
That was the terrifying complexity of time travel.
Especially because Reed hadn't opened a parallel universe style time gate this time.
This was true temporal travel within the original universe itself.
Fortunately, the Fantastic Four had nothing left to lose.
No matter how dangerous this gamble was, they were willing to take it.
The gray-white paradox space around them was becoming increasingly unstable.
Both sides were already beginning to return to their respective timelines.
And once the Fantastic Four returned to their own era, only one option would remain:
Gather the surviving resistance forces and fight Doctor Doom to the death.
A battle they would lose with absolute certainty—unless someone was willing to offer a tiny bit of help.
Enough to buy Reed and the others a sliver of hope.
"You have to give him this technology…" Reed said.
"But you can't just hand it over to him…"
Crack…
The gray-white world around them began splintering apart.
"Please, Joey."
Reed's body was already beginning to fragment as the paradox timeline collapsed around them.
"I can tell from your eyes," Reed said quietly, "that you're a true hero."
The entire paradox dimension was disintegrating now.
Their figures faded gradually from the impossible space no one should have been able to reach.
And Reed Richards left Joey with one final plea.
"For the sake of this universe… and the countless universes of the future…"
"Please do exactly as I said."
—
"Jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the way~"
Humming a childish Christmas tune, Tony climbed out of what he proudly referred to as his cheapest car—an Audi R8.
He rode the elevator from the underground garage straight into the living room, then dramatically pulled something out from behind his back.
"Ta-da! Look what I brought you!"
But instead of the reaction he expected, he was met with silence.
Tony blinked.
Then he hurried forward and finally spotted Joey collapsed on the couch in the corner of the room.
Tony waved the object in front of him again.
"Hey!"
Only after calming himself down from the deeply unpleasant encounter with the Fantastic Four did Joey finally realize what Tony was showing him.
Two bouquets of metallic blue roses.
Just by looking at them, Joey already knew exactly what Tony had done without even needing super vision to examine the atomic structure.
"You turned all that Vibranium into a bunch of completely useless roses?!"
When it came to wasting money, Tony's genius was every bit as terrifying as his scientific talent.
That palm-sized chunk of raw Vibranium had enough value to demolish and rebuild Tony's beachfront mansion ten times over.
And Tony had used it to forge a handful of exquisitely crafted metallic roses.
"You dare say my invention is useless?!"
Tony immediately shook one of the bouquets dramatically.
Because of Vibranium's natural sensitivity to vibrations and sound waves, the roses trembled softly in the moving air, producing deep, mellow harmonics like a cello.
"Just watch," Tony declared proudly. "Once I give these to Pepper, I guarantee she won't roll her eyes at me even once for at least a month!"
"This is a form of art that most people spend their entire lives failing to understand. You should take note, my friend."
Tony had prepared two bouquets for a reason.
"Catch."
Joey caught the second bouquet Tony tossed toward him.
Of course he understood immediately.
This one was meant for him and Starfire.
—
Lying quietly on the couch, Joey stared down at the metallic roses in his arms.
The conflict inside him was impossible to describe.
Looking at Tony Stark grinning proudly while holding a bouquet of Vibranium roses, Joey simply could not connect this version of Tony with the future Doctor Doom Reed Richards had described—the man who would slaughter every superhero and opposition force in existence.
Everything happening around him only made the turmoil in his heart worse.
Tony noticed immediately.
"What's with that expression?"
Tony had always been frighteningly observant.
That exhausted, burdened, deeply troubled expression on Joey's face was one Tony knew all too well.
Before Joey had arrived in this universe, he had worn that exact same expression every single day back in his own.
"Two hours ago you were still in a great mood," Tony said. "Don't tell me you've been here less than a day and you're already starting to miss your home universe's daily beatings."
Normally Joey would've snapped back instantly.
But this time he said nothing.
Tony took the silence as proof that the crises threatening Joey's universe were weighing heavily on him.
He sighed softly.
Then he stepped forward and placed a hand on Joey's shoulder.
"Listen," Tony said patiently, "I know you think the safety of your Earth—hell, your entire universe—is resting on your shoulders."
"And yeah, that kind of pressure would crush anybody."
"But stop worrying so much."
Tony's voice became calmer.
"We still have plenty of time."
"I swear on the name of Tony Stark… and Iron Man…"
"We're going to save your universe together."
"And one last thing—"
Tony finally hauled the still-distracted Joey off the couch with considerable effort and physically shoved him toward the window.
"Get your ass off my couch, out of my apartment, and go enjoy Christmas!"