[center][img]https://i.imgur.com/ZfvPPwT.png[/img][/center]
[b]Castle Doom, Latveria[/b]

[color=#ffffff]Reed Richards awoke to the sound of screaming. There was a throbbing pain in his head that made it difficult to think and almost impossible to see. But he didn’t need to see to know who the screams belonged to. It was Sue. He tried to call out to her but found his mouth was bound shut. Some kind of inhibitor stopped him from using his powers. Was it Darkseid? Had that murderer wearing Superman’s skin caught them? Before his brain could make sense of his surroundings, a voice like nails on a chalkboard addressed him.[/color]

[color=#c27ba0]“Welcome to the world of the living, Doctor Richards.”[/color]

[color=#ffffff]Reed’s sight began to return to him as a figure approached him. It was a man in his fifties clad in formal Latverian clothes. His knee-length overcoat was a deep shade of pink with black trim. Thin grey side-parted hair sat atop a head wrapped in skin lacking in colour and life. His lips were so thin that they were appeared but another wrinkle etched into his face. Reed could tell from his cold eyes that the man had administered an ungodly amount of pain in his life.[/color]

[color=#c27ba0]“Of course,”[/color][color=#ffffff] the man smiled as he removed the metallic gag in Reed’s mouth. [/color][color=#c27ba0]“How foolish of me.”[/color]

[color=#ffffff]Exhausted, his mind still reeling from their journey through time, Reed could muster only one question. [/color][color=#3d85c6]“What is this place?”[/color]

[color=#c27ba0]“Come now, Doctor Richards, don’t play the buffoon. You are the smartest man alive, are you not? Is that not what your government told us when they fired you into the depths of space?”[/color]

[color=#ffffff]Each word that left the man’s mouth felt like it was rending flesh from Reed’s skin. A sickening draught swept through the chamber and carried the scent of dried blood with it. Richards looked about the room in an attempt to piece together what was happening – and where Ben, Johnny and Sue were being held.[/color]

[color=#c27ba0]“It would seem I have you at a disadvantage,”[/color][color=#ffffff] the man grinned. [/color][color=#c27ba0]“Perhaps a show of good faith on my part will make this process less painful for you than it was for your compatriots.”[/color]

[color=#ffffff]One of the man’s thin hands wrapped around Reed’s mouth like a vice. His thin rakelike nails were so sharp that they almost broke the skin.[/color]

[color=#c27ba0]“My name is Clyde Wyncham. The citizens of Latveria have developed something of an affectionate nickname for me – they call me the Marquis of Death, if you can believe it. I assure you it is well-earned. For two decades, I have brought stability to Latveria on behalf of the von Bardas family by any means necessary, and I intend to continue to do so until the day of my death.”[/color]

[color=#3d85c6]“Von Bardas?”[/color][color=#ffffff] Reed murmured as he tried to make sense of the statement. [/color][color=#3d85c6]“Lucia von Bardas?”[/color]

[color=#ffffff]To the best of Richards’ knowledge von Bardas was a world-renown human rights lawyer that taught at the University of North Carolina. She been an outspoken critic of Doom’s tyrannical rule in Latveria for as long as Reed could remember.[/color]

[color=#c27ba0]“A shame,”[/color][color=#ffffff] Wyncham uttered. [/color][color=#c27ba0]“I had hoped that a man of your intellect would see the sense in cooperating.”[/color]

[color=#ffffff]Richards spotted a glint of metal as Wyncham unsheathed a scalpel from one of his pockets. Before Reed had a chance to protest the Marquis had forced it beneath one of his fingernails. The super scientist let out a scream not unlike the one he had heard from Sue. Wyncham dragged the scalpel side to side to cause maximum damage.[/color]

[color=#c27ba0]“The boy, Jonathan, was the first to break. It never fails to amaze how easily a man’s bravado and bravery melts away once one is subjected to a great deal of pain.”[/color]

[color=#ffffff]The scalpel slid out from beneath Reed’s fingernail and he let out a relieved sigh. Wyncham secured his bound hand against the brick wall of the torture chamber as he prepared to pry beneath a different fingernail. For the briefest of moments the cold provided Reed with comfort. Then the searing pain resumed.[/color]

[color=#c27ba0]“The golem proved to be difficult to restrain but one does not maintain order in a country such as Latveria without contingencies for even the most unlikely of eventualities. Wouldn’t you agree, Doctor Richards?”[/color]

[color=#ffffff]The scientist’s screams rang out again. This time the Marquis dug deeper than he had before, making sure to twist the blade around, causing Reed’s nail to lift away from the skin almost to breaking point. The thin smile deepened with each primal scream that left Reed’s lungs.[/color]

[color=#3d85c6]“Stop this,”[/color][color=#ffffff] Reed groaned. [/color][color=#3d85c6]“This is madness, Wyncham.”[/color]

[color=#ffffff]Wyncham offered no quarter and instead reached for another of Reed’s trembling fingers.[/color]

[color=#c27ba0]“The woman, Susan, held out the longest. Such willpower buried beneath such a beautiful visage – I must admit that I was surprised. To have an operative with such conviction, such strength, is quite the boon for your government.”[/color]

[color=#ffffff]Reed bit down suddenly as the scalpel made its way beneath his fingernail again. His teeth caught the side of the inside of his cheek and the taste of blood flooded through. It slipped through his lips and down his chin, much to the delight of Wyncham, as the Marquis continued about his work.[/color]

[color=#ffffff]Finally Wyncham drew the scalpel away and stepped back to observe Richards. Reed was a sweaty, simpering mess, but showed no signs of passing out. There was too much at stake. He had to find some way out. Even as the pain washed over him he reminded himself what had driven the four of them on their expedition.[/color]

[color=#ffffff]Darkseid.[/color]

[color=#ffffff]Wyncham’s torture was as nothing next to the pain that Darkseid and the forces of Apokolips were going to unleash onto the world. Friends and foe alike would be enslaved, entire countries would be scoured from the Earth, and all would lay broken before Darkseid in less than twelve months. He could not break. The fate of the world rested on it.[/color]

[color=#ffffff]Wyncham wiped the blood from Reed’s chin with a smile. [/color][color=#c27ba0]“You need only admit to what your compatriots would not, Doctor Richards, and this all ends.”[/color]

[color=#ffffff]His brow soaked through with sweat, Reed looked up at the Marquis defiantly.[/color]

[color=#3d85c6]“Admit to what?”[/color][color=#ffffff] Richards called out. [/color][color=#3d85c6]“You haven’t even asked me a question, you madman.”[/color]

[color=#ffffff]Clyde stopped in his tracks, taken aback by the charge, and then nodded as if he agreed with Reed’s assessment. He slipped the scalpel into one of the pockets of his overcoat, cleared his throat, and then deployed his grating voice once again.[/color]

[color=#c27ba0]“I name you as an assassin, Reed Richards, sent here on behalf of your capitalist paymasters in the United States government to depose Lucia von Bardas and aid the would-be usurper D-”[/color]

[color=#ffffff]An explosion above ground shook the castle to its very foundations. Wyncham staggered and used a nearby table of surgical tools to brace his fall. He muttered a silent profanity as several of the tools lodged themselves into his hand and arm. The sound of gunshots above ground led the Marquis to yank the blades free from his arm. Reed noticed that the gashes they had created did not bleed.[/color]

[color=#ffffff]“The castle is under attack, Marquis,” a guard called from the other side of the portcullis that secured the room.[/color]

[color=#ffffff]Wyncham sighed and signalled to him to raise it.[/color]

[color=#c27ba0]“Guard the prisoners with your life,”[/color][color=#ffffff] Wyncham instructed him. [/color][color=#c27ba0]“They are more valuable to the future of the Kingdom than a thousand castles.”[/color]

[color=#ffffff]With that the Marquis disappeared down one of the draughty castle’s many corridors and the guard pointed his weapon in the prisoner’s direction. He was a boy, no more than seventeen from the look of his youthful features, and Reed could tell by the way his hands were shaking that he had never once fired the weapon in his hands.[/color]

[color=#3d85c6]“Let me out of here and I can help you,”[/color][color=#ffffff] Reed appealed to him.[/color][color=#3d85c6] “I don’t know what kind of bizarre scheme Doom has pulled this time, but I’ve beaten him before and I can beat him again.”[/color]

[color=#ffffff]The boy shook his head in disgust. “One more word from you, assassin, and I will send you home to your family in a b-”[/color]

[color=#ffffff]Before he had a chance to finish his sentence there was a loud thudding noise. The boy fell to the floor in a heap and a determined looking Sue Storm appeared as if from nothing. Her face with caked with blood but she seemed to have her wits about her – and, more importantly, her powers were working.[/color]

[color=#9fc5e8]“Please tell me that you know what’s going on here,”[/color][color=#ffffff] she said with a pained smile. [/color][color=#9fc5e8]“Because I don’t have the first clue.”[/color]

[color=#ffffff]Reed shook his head as his fiance broke the binds around his wrists and the inhibitor wrapped around his neck. Almost instantly Reed could feel the life flooding back into his. He stretched out his hands, the broken, bloody fingernails screaming with pain as he did it, until he regained the use of his fingers.[/color]

[color=#ffffff]There was another explosion above them and fragments of stone and dust showered them.[/color]

[color=#3d85c6]“Let’s worry about freeing Ben and Johnny first and we can work out the rest afterwards. Something tells me this place isn’t going to be standing for much longer.”[/color]