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Doctor Victor Von Doom stood at the peak of the Chrysler building, looking down upon the city of New York. His gaze was on the Baxter Building specifically. That flawed monument towering over the city, holding liars and traitors. They weren't working out how to save humanity. They were clearly focused on stopping him, Doom, once and for all.

It was a good thing he had his own plan to counter them. Something he could use to destroy the 'Fantastic Four' once and for all.

Well, to destroy Reed Richards. The others could die too though, just by association. They'd thwarted his plans seventeen too many times. No more.

He'd recently stumbled upon a little spell that harnessed the power of negativity. One's negative thoughts could build a dark energy within whatever object was imbued with the spell.

Doom took it a step further. He improved the spell—doubled its output. Unfortunately, that came with the caveat of allowing positive emotions to influence the device too, but no matter. He'd been certain that his hatred of Richards would have been enough to power the devices he set up around the Baxter building. He'd picked out the Chrysler building, the Empire State building, the Rockefeller Center.

He needed four conduits to amplify the power, however. So, he timed his attack. When they erected that garish beacon of joy and 'Christmas spirit' in Times Square, he had his plan in place.

That massive tree would be the location of his final conduit. With everything set up, Doom had connected himself to the machine. He thought of Reed Richards and his stupid face. How inferior Richards was to him. How he didn't deserve to be happy because Doom had more PHD's than him so clearly Doom was superior. How Doom absolutely had more friends than Richards.

But it wasn't enough. For some inconceivable reason, his hatred wasn't quite enough to power the machine.

So, he thought about that 'goddess' Amaterasu as well.

The power output dropped.

He would either have to fire an under-powered attack at Richards-

No, he wouldn't even tolerate the idea of it. Nothing but the best, most powerful attack for his sworn enemy, his nemesis, his antithesis, his inferior former acquaintance whom he absolutely was not jealous of.

Doom didn't get jealous. People were jealous of Doom.

With his hatred of Richards clearly not being measured properly (which was no fault of his own, the original spell creators must have messed up somewhere), Doom needed a different plan. He needed another source of negativity and hatred that might be powerful enough to rival his own. He couldn't exactly kill people, that would lead to fewer negative thoughts if everyone died. He needed a different approach.

Well, he could kill the heroes. Not the good ones though, the ones that really helped people. He'd kill Amaterasu, Thor, and the Hulk though. False gods or threats to humanity that needed to be put down.

As Doom looked down upon the city, he noticed something. Something that should have been obvious to him in the first place.

Curse Richards for employing his distraction tactics.

The people were celebrating. Celebrating the holidays that they clearly knew nothing about and didn't give a modicum of respect to. They knew nothing about the true meaning of the celebration, and spent it collecting trinkets and gleaming baubles to display.

It was the perfect plan.

He'd take them all. Make them miserable. Take away their celebrations and keep everyone alive. The misery from the loss of their holiday would surely be enough when combined with his deep-seated hatred for Richards.

He would need more than just himself to accomplish this, however. He could absolutely do this alone, but then he wouldn't be able to keep an eye on Richards.

Good thing Doom was always prepared.

~{O}~{O}~{O}~

"Hulk want to be Santa!" The green giant stomped a foot on the ground, causing several people nearby to stagger.

"No, Hulk, we already discussed this. I am to be Saint Nicholas on the Eve of Christmas. You were meant to be him on the day before," Thor explained. "Today is the eve."

"No! You talk with Banner, you not talk with Hulk!" The Hulk dropped the massive bag of presents to the ground and crossed his arms. "No one ever talk with Hulk," he pouted. At least, he seemed to be pouting. It was impossible to tell with the massive wall of white fluff on his face.

"Wh- Oh, I…" Thor stammered, looking around at the crowd watching the proceedings. "Lady Amaterasu, could you assist me?"

A muffled bark of affirmation sounded from the Hulk's beard. With a wriggle and a rather ungraceful flop, Amaterasu freed herself from the hammock holding her. She landed on the concrete and rolled several times, before coming to a stop sprawled out on the ground.

Snickers followed from the children present.

Hulk gave a startled noise and brought his hands up to his face, hiding the fact that his beard had just ran away. He didn't want to ruin the illusion for the children—his disguise was flawless after all!

Amaterasu leapt to all fours and shook herself off, sending whatever snow that managed to collect on the New York streets (spoiler alert, it's not a lot) in a cloud outward. Somehow Ammy made more snow than she'd displaced.

She continued to shake herself out, and the snow falling from her coat began to pile up. It covered her paws, then her legs, and then in less than a minute a ten-foot pile of snow had formed around the Goddess of the Sun.

Children, never having seen so much in real life, charged toward the pile. They jumped in without hesitation, vanishing into the white powder with glee. In seconds snowballs started flying about the place and distracted children and adults alike.

Children, because 'holy crap this was exciting'. Adults, because 'oh my God magic dog cocaine, Timmy get out of there'.

With the observers sufficiently distracted by the snow—that somehow continued to grow—Amaterasu wriggled herself out of the pile and tumbled down the slope. Miraculously, children and adults were all avoided in her fall, though one poor teenager who seemed a little too into dark clothing wound up getting clipped by Ammy and sent sprawling in the snow.

And then jumped by children.

And pelted with snowballs.

What fun!

While the teen struggled to fight off a smile, children, snowballs, and laughter all at the same time, Amaterasu trotted up to Thor and the Hulk. Both powerhouses were distracted by the chaos unfolding, and by the way Hulk's eyes kept shifting between Thor and the snow, there was little doubt he was doing his best to avoid punting the God of Thunder into the snow.

The devious grin that showed his teeth hinted that he would have loved to do it though.

Ever the chaotic peacekeeper, Amaterasu plopped herself down before the duo and looked between them. Back and forth. From the Hulk to Thor.

"Awoof."

"Wh- I- that is not fair! I believed Banner would pass the plan along to Hulk," Thor protested. He waved a hand toward the green rage monster in a way that would make even the most baffled and outraged holiday shoppers unable to get the Object of Parental Love ™ the day before Christmas proud. "It is not unreasonable to believe!"

The Hulk laughed victoriously, for he was right. No one discussed with him. Only Puny Banner.

His joy was short lived.

"Bwuff."

"What!? I refuse!"

"Hulk not share!"

Amaterasu narrowed her eyes. The two powerhouses of the Avengers, literally able to destroy entire cities with little effort if they chose to, balked.

Thor weighed his options. Argue that he should be the only Saint Nicholas on this day of the Avengers that chose to participate, all because of an agreement prior… Or contest the Goddess of the Sun.

The Hulk was in much the same position. He really wanted to be Santa. But he didn't want to make the puppy upset. Ever the upstanding person and one to not linger on things too long, Hulk conceded.

"…Hulk share." The huff he gave would have leveled a group of children if they were close enough.

"I suppose we could share the role," Thor grumbled.

And just like that, the issue was solved. Ammy christened the two Red Santa and Green Santa. Thor was Green Santa, and Hulk was Red Santa. She didn't want to make them think she was naming them based on their appearances after all, and using numbers would just make a problem of superiority.

Now that the issue of who got to be Santa was resolved, Amaterasu turned around.

And quickly realized she'd forgotten to stop powering the ink sigil that was making snow. The pile towered high into the air, starting to rival surrounding buildings in size. Times Square was starting to look more and more like a ski-hill with every passing moment.

The Goddess of the Sun barked out an apology and ended the snow creation. She also lopped the top off the pile and caused it to explode into a shower of snow when she found children and adults trying to climb to the top. She ended that little adventure thirty feet in the air.

With all the issues resolved, Amaterasu turned around, ready to return to her designated position as the Hulk's facial hair for the next few hours.

Well, she had planned to.

She didn't plan for Doctor Doom to swoop down from the skies above and slam into Thor. The two tumbled across the ground and crashed into the pile of snow, causing civilians to scream and scatter. Another Doom shot down from up above, careening toward Amaterasu.

So, it wasn't Doom himself, but his Doom Bots. Thankfully they were just a touch less narcissistic, even if they were programmed to spout out lines about "meeting your Doom" and other such narcissistic things.

Amaterasu glanced up and flexed her will on reality, watching the Doom Bot come to a halt. This only confirmed they were robots—Dr. Doom had a counter for this. A lazy swipe of her tail drew a line right down the middle of the robot.

The Goddess of the Sun yawned as reality bent to her will and cleaved the robot in half, the two hunks of metal burying themselves into the concrete at her sides.

The Doom Bot that caught her from behind was completely unexpected though. Amaterasu gave a startled yelp and was swept up in that iron-tight grip. She glanced down, spotting nearly a dozen robots assaulting the Hulk, swooping down to pepper him with shots of magic and then zip away. She was already too far to tell her favourite green bean not to chase them.

Angry roars and terrified screams echoed through the city.

Amaterasu, while she could easily escape, chose not to. It was easier to put up with the robot flying her out over the city, especially when she could look down at what was happening.

It looked like the Chitauri invasion all over again. There was considerably less destruction and fire though. Instead, the robots flew about the place carrying…

Christmas trees.

Giant candy canes and other ornaments were held in the grip of the robots, who zipped across the city, gathering whatever they could. They broke through apartment building windows in pairs, and then started hurling whatever festive items they could out the windows. Other bots swept in and caught the presents and decorations (and in several hilarious cases, stale fruitcake, which hit the bots with the force of a semitruck and sent them spiralling to the streets below) before shooting out over the sea with them.

Amaterasu watched in complete confusion as each robot dropped their spoils of war into the ocean, before wheeling around to the city once more.

What in the world was going on? And why was this Doombot carrying her to the top of the Chrysler building?

"Yes, that's right, Amaterasu! Cower in the face of the Legion of Doom!"

Amaterasu's eye twitched. She turned to regard her second-least favourite man-in-metal (Rhodey was first, that evil bacon thief) and rolled her eyes, looking at Victor Von Doom with all the contempt she could muster.

Admittedly, it wasn't a lot. As far as she could tell, no one was being hurt. It was just… weird.

"What's the matter, is the inevitability of your Doom too much to handle? You're speechless-"

"Boof."

"You take that back! Doom does not need a breath mint!"

"Grrruff."

"You leave the egg and pickle sandwiches out of this, they are delicious. Doom has the most refined tastebuds."

"Wuff…"

"That is right! Cower in the face of Doom's refined palate!" The man laughed for entirely too long, a drawn out, obnoxious evil laugh that honestly belonged in a cartoon. If the whole Evil Villain Trying to Take Over the World ™ thing didn't work out, he'd make a killing as a voice actor.

Oh, he was still monologuing. Classic Victor Von Doom, that silly little guy.

Amaterasu had enough of this nonsense. She was supposed to be helping people have a great day, and doubling as the Hulk's luxurious facial hair. There was no time to exchange pleasantries with her on and off rival who was oddly infatuated with Reed Richards.

And he's still talking.

"- and I will make sure you shall never revel in the pleasantries of cooked meats when I am God-King of the Earth!"

Amaterasu blinked.

It was one thing to attack her, and Thor, and the Hulk. It was somewhat passable to terrorize the streets of New York and steal everyone's holiday items. Heck, she could even put up with a little wanton destruction, she would fix it anyway.

But threatening meat? Threatening bacon?

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Amaterasu took that very personally—he was now her least-favourite metal-man. Doom had threatened his last threat. It was time to hilariously and utterly ruin all of his plans in a spectacular fashion that would cause the man to run back to Latveria and turn off cable television and internet access for two months.

A tilt of her head, a shift of her gaze, landed her eyes on where the Doombots were disposing of decorations and presents and food.

She flicked her tail.

A sheet of ice washed over the bay and out to sea, freezing waves in place, and extending outward for entirely too long. Doom had stopped talking by this point, and the duo watched in silence as the ice froze over a rather significant portion of the visible ocean, including the rivers.

Doombots flew overhead and continued to deposit the items they'd snatched from the civilians, already starting to create a pile upon the ice.

"You are astonishingly annoying," Doom growled.

"Arr," she agreed.

"You will now meet your Doom."

Amaterasu shook her head. No, she wasn't.

"You are about to die."

She shook her head again.

"It will be slow and painful."

And again.

"Really, it will hurt a lot. It will be excruciating. The amount of pain you will be in is indescribable."

It was times like this that Amaterasu knew that Doom probably wasn't evil, he was just petty. And lonely. Poor guy was probably alone in his castle because he terrified everyone but the most stubborn super-powered individuals away.

Amaterasu swore she'd heard this story somewhere before. Some villain that lived up high somewhere with a distaste for socializing. The colour green seemed to be their favourite, and they had a problem with people being happy for some reason. They both tried to steal Christmas and

That settled it.

Doom was indeed a Mean One.

Ammy was going to fix that. Step one: stop this weird semi-invasion. Step two: … she was still working on it.

Amaterasu focused and flexed her power. The raging inferno within responded to her will and exploded outward, shredding the Doombot and catching the real Doom off guard. He hastily threw up a barrier of magic to defend against the blast, and another that seemed to be protecting a machine of some kind near him.

Interesting. She should break that next!

"Gah! You mongrel! Fall to the Legions of Doom!"

Victor Von Doom pushed both of his hands out toward her, using some kind of move that would look at home in a specific copywritten space-themed franchise with invisible forces. The magic impacted Amaterasu hard and sent her careening off the Chrysler building at a speed that would have impressed Quicksilver.

Ammy whipped through the air, uncontrolled in her rush over and between the buildings of New York City.

"Greetings, Lady Amaterasu!" Thor said as she flew past him, the God of Thunder flying through the air with his hammer. He swung his weapon and launched a streak of lightning across the sky, impacting several Doombots at once.

He'd be fine.

"Hi, puppy!" Hulk greeted at the apex of his jump. In his arms were five struggling Doombots that-

Crunch!

Hulk squeezed his arms to his chest and turned them all into nothing more than expensive modern art.

Hulk fell away from her and she continued her horizontal flight across the city. Perhaps Doom had nullified gravity on her. That would be rather inconvenient. She'd need to do something fancy if that happened.

Fortunately, she wouldn't have to.

Thick webs of white fluid [Stop it] shot toward her, managing to cling to Amaterasu and curve her travel in a sharp arc downward. She rocketed toward the ground at a frightening speed, but she wasn't worried. Fall damage wasn't real. Not to her at least.

Fully expecting to hit the ground, Amaterasu was not expecting the webbing clinging to her to catch on a street light. The web tightened and she suddenly shot around, physics doing its best to disorient her. Now she was going the opposite direction!

Her flight was cut short when she hit someone solid, the catcher staggering back a few steps after catching a white furry baseball nearly as big as himself. The catchee was quite fine, if a little dizzy, her vision spinning rapidly.

"Ammy! Are you running away again? I told Fury he needed to make his fence taller."

Amaterasu closed her eyes and shook her head—and ignored the rattling sound that came with the motion—and looked up at the mask of Spider Man.

"Wurf!" Ammy greeted, lunging forward to drag her tongue across one of those large lenses that looked like eyes.

He may have a Spider Sense but he definitely didn't have Wolf Sense. That's how that worked, right?

"Ack! Again? You leave smears all over them, you fluffy gremlin," he laughed, not at all upset.

Spidey dumped Amaterasu to the ground, letting her land in an extremely dignified and elegant manner, and definitely not in a flail of limbs and fur. Ammy got to her paws and shook herself off, absolutely not using her magic to throw a wave of snow at Spiderman. She wasn't that petty. Definitely not.

"Hey! That's cold! I didn't have time to put on my thermal underwear," Spiderman huffed. He extracted himself from the snow and brushed himself off. A flick of the wrist caused webs to wrap around her muzzle.

Amaterasu crossed her eyes and scrunched up her face, trying to use her paws to scrape off the offending super-strength silly string. She backed herself up, staggering around, slowly making progress in extracting herself from the webbing.

"So, what's up with the Doombots, Snowball? I was having dinner with my aunt when one of them smashed through the window and tackled the tree through the wall. I know some people are crazy about the holidays, but wow."

Amaterasu, finally having managed to peel the spiderwebs off her face, sat down and fixed Spiderman with a firm look.

"Arf!"

…

"I dunno why I thought it would work this time. Still nothing. Must have spiders in my ears." He facepalmed himself hard enough for the sound to echo, that superstrength making it more effective. "Alright, well, we've gotta find a way to end this before someone gets hurt."

Amaterasu agreed. So, like they'd practiced, Amaterasu stepped closer to Spidey and stood upright, planting her large paws on his shoulders.

"Awoof."

"Oh! You sure? Last time was a little explodey."

Ammy nodded.

"Alright, well, you asked for it." Spiderman reached down to grab Amaterasu and heft her up above his head. He turned around and looked into the air, facing the swarms of Doombots that clouded the New York skyline. "Here we go, the Ammy Fastball Special-"

She cut him off with a sharp bark and a growl.

"Look if you have a better name for it, we'll play charades to figure it out. Anyway, here we go!"

And he threw her.

Amaterasu gave a cry of joy and excitement as she was hurled through the air, up and over the tops of the buildings, and given a clear view of the chaotic swarm in the air. So, she did what she always did.

Froze time and made reality her bitch.

A swipe of her tail-brush streaked across the sky. And then another one, and another.

By this point the whole world knew of Ammy—multiple worlds. Her power continued to grow with each person helped, so now she essentially had free reign of her abilities and the world around her.

For good measure, Ammy glanced around, looking for-

She found Thor! Perfect. She made sure to really analyze the face he was making mid swing, enjoying the absolutely silly expression on his face. She would definitely be showing this off in an illusion to all the other Avengers when she had the chance.

For now, she dragged her tail from Thor's hammer and across the sky. Perspective magic was cheating, and Amaterasu made sure to make full use of it. She very carefully and accurately worked the brush in a single line across every single Doombot she could see, stringing between them with enough ink to make a tattoo parlor weep in envy.

Amaterasu took a breath and allowed the world to flow normally.

Instantly, multiple reality-rending slashes ripped across the skyline, shearing their way through the Doombots like paper, causing them to explode in a shower of metal. The ones that escaped her Power Strikes met an unfortunate fate at the hands of Thor's magic lightning, boosted by the Goddess of the Sun.

Electricity zipped across the sky, jumping from one robot to the next in sharp jolts that crossed across the skyline, one end to the other to catch as many Doombots with every strike. It looked like a web of electricity erupted over the sky, incinerating any of the Legion of Doom that managed to get caught, leaving nothing but tiny flakes of metal that harmlessly peppered the city below.

There were still more Doombots flying around, but they dropped from the hundreds to maybe a few tens.

Amaterasu came to the peak in her arc, and jumped, pushing off the very air to go a little higher. She drifted forward, elegantly stepping onto the roof of a building, scattering gravel beneath her paws.

For some reason, the Doombots stopped their attack. Maybe it was a power surge through their network from Ammy and Thor. Maybe it was a commend from Doom to retreat back toward him. Maybe they'd leaked all their oil in terror after Amaterasu-

Oh, no, they were gathering near the Chrysler building, it was probably the second one.

She cast her gaze up toward where she'd seen Victor Von Doom, eyes narrowed. There was a flicker of something dark, evil, malicious, that shot from the Chrysler building and to three other spots. It bounced around them, faster and faster, growing in speed and density with every pass.

An attempted Power Strike did nothing, there was some kind of barrier around them, fuelled by whatever that substance was. She could probably take out the buildings they were attached to, but… that was a tad excessive, and didn't guarantee any fixes.

Thor landed beside Amaterasu in a spray of gravel, kicking some dust into Amaterasu's face. She sneezed, and sent the God of Thunder a side-eye.

Spiderman landed on the roof a moment later, landing much more gracefully. Ammy gave him a little greeting bark.

Hulk slammed into the roof, holding two struggling Doombots in his hands. His impact was so hard that he cratered the roof beneath his feet, sending him to the floor below.

Just more things to fix.

A ball of sparking metal flew out of the hole and fell to the roof, and Hulk pulled himself from the hole, grumbling to himself.

Somehow, both Thor and Hulk had managed to keep their Santa outfits on. They looked a little beat up, and had holes, but a little swish of Ammy's tail fixed that. It was fitting that Santa was saving Christmas from some green super villain.

With a little huff, an illusion beard poofed into existence on Hulk's face, and the little squeal of excitement from the terrifying lover of wanton destruction was actually a little cute. Especially when he shot his hands up to run his fingers through that massive white beard.

"So, what's the plan?" Spiderman turned toward the others. "Are the four of us going to just pinball him around? That suit's pretty tough."

Thor hefted his hammer higher at that, and Hulk smacked a fist into his palm so hard that a small shockwave blew away some dust. It had the added benefit of making his beard ripple, which only made his smile grow.

"Wurf." Ammy commented.

"She is correct, we need to stop that machine. I believe-"

"Thor! Hulk! Amaterasu! You are no heroes!" Doom shouted from the building, his words amplified by the Legion of Doom, all those robots acting as speakers. "Two false gods and a violent science mistake cannot be the heroes this world needs. You will meet your Doom here and now!"

"Hey, what about me?!" Spiderman shouted up to him.

…

"Doom does not know you. You will die by associating with these creatures."

Spiderman reeled back, as if he'd been slapped. "What?" He turned to the others, gesturing wildly. "Wade lied to me… Wilsoooon!" He shouted to the sky.

Thor clapped a hand on his shoulder, giving him several consolidating pats. Hulk did the same, and sent both Thor and Spidey staggering forward on the roof.

"Doombots! Richards still has not come out of his cave. Attack the building if you must. Cause chaos outside the building, so Richards will look Doom in the eye while he dies!"

The remaining Doombots jolted forward, streaking toward the Baxter building in a flurry of activity.

"Wait, he's looking for Mr. Richards?" Spidey balked, and then shouted up to Doom. "Uh, hey buddy! Mr. Richards-"

"There is no reasoning with that maniac. You and Amaterasu must stop Doom and than machine. Hulk and I shall take on the remaining robots and meet you atop the building."

"Hulk smash?" the green man asked, hopeful. Amaterasu barked an affirmative, and his grin was so wide is was visible through the massive white beard.

The Hulk stepped forward and without a word of warning, scooped up Amaterasu under the chest with one hand. He wheeled around and then whipped Amaterasu straight toward Doom. The other two on the roof stood, stunned, watching Amaterasu streak across the sky with a trailing "Awoooo!"

The thunderous impact of Amaterasu slamming into Doctor Doom spurred the others into action. Thor and Hulk leapt into battle, and Spidey began the comparitavely slow run and swinging toward the building.

"He didn't even ask if I wanted to be thrown," he grumbled. "Friggen magic dogs and hammer gods. I'm adding Spidey Glider to the list of things I need to make."

Amaterasu slammed into Victor Von Doom in an explosion of fur, metal, magic, and expletives. The duo tumbled across the platform Doom had created, end over end, grappling with each other.

Doom finally managed to get beneath Amaterasu and kicked her off of him with both legs, sending her flying over the edge and into the city. Well, he would have. She jumped off the air, ending her flight, and landed on the platform without any wasted time.

The duo faced off with one another, circling around. Curiously, Doom placed himself between the machine and Amaterasu, keeping her from gaining a line of sight on it.

"Stand down and accept your defeat, Amaterasu. You cannot win against Doom."

"Bork."

"It is not silly! Referring to one's Doom is incredibly intimidating."

Amaterasu figured it was the magic, super-strength, insane intelligence, and hatred of most things that made him intimidating, and not his silly name puns. She wasn't going to admit that to him though, Victor already had a big enough head.

"Doom's head is of perfectly normal size!" he yelled.

Oops, she'd said that out loud.

Ammy prepared herself to charge at Doom and make her way to the machine to destroy it, when she managed to spot Spiderman climbing up over the edge, behind Doom.

New plan. Distraction.

"Awurf," Ammy snorted. "Boof."

"How dare you! Your magic is paltry to Doom's knowledge." He huffed and stood upright. "The only reason you still live is because I allow it."

"Arf!"

"Because Doom allows it! Doom does not make mistakes!"

"Wuff."

"Green is a perfectly acceptable colour!"

Amaterasu sat herself down, watching Victor working his fingers in arcane and intricate ways. She waited patiently for the attack.

A beam of pure crackling energy shot toward Amaterau at light-speed, shredding atoms and nullifying them into nothingness. Ammy teleported herself to the side, avoiding the attack entirely. She kept herself looking neutral, if bored, and managed a pretty convincing yawn.

"Coward, fleeing from your Doom!"

Spiderman, meanwhile, was tinkering away with the machine. Ammy had to keep her eyes off of him, though holding in the laughter at watching him start chucking swinging at the barrier on the machine was rather hilarious.

"Dammit! How does this thing work?" Spiderman asked. He whirled around a moment later. "Uh, oops."

Doctor Doom slowly turned around, hands balled into fists at his side. A pulse of magic rolled off of him, making his cape flow in a rather cinematic way.

Amaterasu leaned around Doom and looked at the hero with a squint.

"Hey you two! What, uh, what… are you doing up here? This is kinda my thing and you're not even a little convinced are you?"

"Doom is not."

"Wuff."

"Yeah, I thought so." Spiderman paused, looking at the two. He turned his head suddenly, and pointed out to the city. "Look, a distraction!"

Amaterasu turned to look. Doom did not. The sigh that left Spiderman was quite impressive, enough so that it might have rivaled Amaterasu's wind magic. If, you know, she wasn't the Goddess of the Sun power boosted by many planets and stars. The sigh was more comparable to a fart in the wind than anything—noticeable and gone just as fast.

Out of ideas, Spiderman casually raised a hand and shot webs at Doom's face. The man growled and staggered back, his hands coming up to grab at the webbing.

The step back was his fatal mistake. Ammy was there. So was a magic slick of ice. Conveniently enough, so were Thor and Hulk, who had finished shredding the Doombots to pieces.

Victor Von Doom, the perfect genius, sorcerer, mechanic, and a variety of other titles, tripped backward over Amaterasu. He tried to regain his balance, only to slip and slide backward on the ice Amaterasu had set up.

Right into the waiting arms of Thor and Hulk. The two grabbed Doom's arms and held them out at his side in a firm, crushing grip. While Thor had to use two hands and visibly struggled, Hulk held his arm in one hand with a grin.

"Release Doom at once you- mphbfft!" Hulk's other hand clamped down over Doom's face, muffling the man.

"Hulk shush," he said with a grin.

"Appreciated big guy!" Spiderman gave two thumbs up to Hulk. "Okay! Magic machine! Whatcha think super pup?"

Amaterasu padded right up beside the barrier, blinked, and then leaned forward and licked it. She scrunched up her muzzle. It tasted angry. She communicated as much to the others. Well, to Thor. Hulk would have liked angry.

"That may be an emotionally powered spell," Thor spoke up. "I am not familiar, but Mother referred to them occasionally."

"Great!" Spidey turned to Thor. "Uh, how do we stop it?"

"You will need something of-"

Doom managed to wrench his head away from the Hulk's hand, and Spiderman's webbing went with it.

"You cannot stop it! The spell is modified! It is fueled by Doom's hatred, there is no counter to-"

"You need happy and positive feelings to stop it." Thor finished.

"Wh- No! No you don't! It's unstoppable! Doom decrees it so- mmfftbph." Hulk's hand slapped over the man's face again, his metal mask disappearing under a meaty green palm.

"Positive feelings, hey?" Spiderman blinked, and looked down at Amaterasu.

She was idly wagging, looking up at Spiderman innocently. She cocked her head and gave him a big doggy grin.

He picked her up and promptly stuffed her into the machine.

The reaction was instant. As in, the machine overloaded on happiness and exploded. The positivity rebounded toward the other conduits, causing them to explode as well. Doom's struggling grew even more violent, and his shouting was almost audible beneath Hulk's hand.

Spiderman stepped up toward Doom, and awkwardly coughed, stopping the man's violent rage, and drew attention from everyone else.

"Hey, uh, Mr. Doom guy? I hate to tell you this, but Mr. Richards isn't here."

…

"He, uh, left about a week ago with the rest of the Four. Said something about needing a vacation."

…

"He gave me the keys to the building. I locked it up for the holidays about two days ago."

…

"Uh, so, sorry about that. I tried to tell you earlier, but you were a little, uh, Doom-happy."

…

Victor Von Doom went limp in the arms of Hulk and Thor. The two released their grip on the man, and watched him fall to his knees. He raised both arms, looked to the sky, and screamed.

"RICHAAARRRRDS!"

Meanwhile on an island in the Caribbean…

Reed Richards sneezed, causing the desert he'd been enjoying to spill across his lap. He gave a sigh, and started up the process of cleaning up, much to the amusement of the rest of the Four.

Despite the brief spill, he was enjoying this little vacation. His team deserved it. They'd worked hard and all that money they'd been saving wasn't really going anywhere. The trip was a treat for them all.

One can only save the world and stop Latverian dictators so many times before needing a break.

~{O}~{O}~{O}~

"Happy Santa Day!" Hulk exclaimed.

"Merry Christmas, everyone!" Spiderman waved to the children in Times Square.

"May your holidays be merry!" Thor cheered.

"Awoof!" Amaterasu added, her tail a blur.

…

Amaterasu nudged the man beside her.

"… Doom will spare you for- Ow!" Amaterasu stomped on his foot. "Doom wishes you a Merry Christmas…"

Nick Fury stared at the scene before him, unable to process everything. He'd seen some shit, but this was something else. Hulk was handing out whole trees from an absolute mountain of gifts and decorations. Amaterasu was parading children around on her back or leading them about in small circles while their parents gathered their things. Thor stood at the base of the pile, handing things off.

Spiderman stood beside Doctor Doom, watching him closely.

And Doom was handing out gifts to the children, muttering under his breath the whole time.

"Fido. What the fu-" Fury paused and glanced at the children. "What the fudge is going on?"

"Bork!" Ammy replied, her tail wagging wildly enough to knock several children into the piles of snow.

"Lady Amaterasu says 'punishment'." Thor supplied. "She said it worked in a movie with another green Mean One. I am curious about this story."

Fury blinked once. Twice. He slowly sat down upon a wooden rocking horse, planted his elbows on his knees, leaned forward, and laced his fingers together.

"Lord, I ask for your forgiveness. I cannot handle these shenanigans any longer. Please, spare me. Or strike me down. Either works."

Thor, Amaterasu, and Doom turned to face him, electricity flickering across their forms.

Fury made a hasty exit.

----------------------------------------