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Issue #16 June 2010	"The Challenge" Part 2 of 4 Written By David Golightly

PREVIOUSLY IN FANTASTIC FOUR:

With the Fantastic Four returned to Earth, they promptly smashed Doom’s castle in Latveria and supposedly killed the evil tyrant. They’ve changed, their powers making them like unto gods, and have journeyed to Monster Island to answer Doom’s challenge from beyond the grave: battle sixteen of their deadliest foes!

The armored Wizard, garbed in his purple-clad vestments, hovered above the Fantastic Four on his gravity discs. He sneered, knowing that he finally had the chance to eradicate the planet of the four heroes that had plagued him over the years. He shared that sneer with nearly two dozen other villains, some he had known as colleagues and some he had never met before today.

Dragon Man, Annihilus, and the Super-Skrull all circled around the Wizard in the air. The Fantastic Four looked up at them from the sunken pit in which they stood, created by the Mole Man’s enslaved creature, both of whom stood on the edge of the pit looking in. On other side of the pit, itching with anticipation, stood Diablo, Hydro-Man, Titannia, Klaw, and the Constrictor. Opposite them stirred the insane Trapster, Attuma, the Puppet Master, the Mad Thinker and his Awesome Android, the Absorbing Man, and finally the Red Ghost and his Super-Apes.

Sixteen of the most powerful villains on the planet, along with their avatars of power such as the Super-Apes, the Android, and the Mole Man’s vile subterranean creature. Doom had spared no expense when collecting this contingent of evil, even if the motivation behind their gathering was to kill the pseudo-Fantastic Four that briefly took the place of the original heroes. The return of Richards and his family made this trial all the more sweet.

“You look different, Grimm,” Crusher Creel, the incredible Absorbing Man, said. He swung his steel wrecking ball around in a slow loop, absentmindedly absorbing the properties of the metal into his body. “Put on a little weight, have ya?”

“You look different, too, Creel,” the now massive Thing replied. Since their sudden return to Earth, Ben Grimm had nearly doubled in size, his once smooth orange hide now sharp and jagged stone. “Put on a little stupid, have ya?”

Reed Richards calmly looked at the villains, turning once fully around. He nodded to the floating Human Torch over him and then looked at his wife and friend beside him. “Our priority is to find Doom’s WMD and take control of it,” he said. “Dispatch these annoyances quickly and move on. I don’t want to waste anymore time then we have to.”

“Ha!” the Red Ghost scoffed. “Richards has gone mad! Annoyances? Perhaps he does not understand the gravity of the situation.”

“I’d be happy to explain it to him,” the Wizard responded, and the battle was joined.

A thin plasma laser burst from the Wingless Wizard’s right glove, slicing into the packed Earth that was the floor of the pit. The Four dispersed instantly, dividing up their efforts to tackle a grouping of villains each.

JOHNNY

The Human Torch roared between the aerial villains, drawing the Wizard’s fire. Dragon Man launched a lance of flame at the youngest member of the Four, trailing behind the flying hero. Annihilus screeched in incomprehensible challenge and took off after Johnny Storm, with Dragon Man and the Wizard in tow.

“Catch me if you can, suckers!” Johnny yelled over his shoulder.

His cosmically fueled fire surrounded his body, completely engulfing him. It burned through his muscles and tendons, changing him. Once it liquefied his bones he became much more than a Human Torch. While he had complete mastery over fire before, now he had become fire itself.

The thin streak of flame zipped through the sky at an alarming rate, zigzagging through the clouds like a will ‘o wisp. Dragon Man roared, adding his noise to Annihilus’ screech.

“Don’t break out of the formation!” the Wizard ordered, but his enraged partners were too focused on keeping up with the blazing streak of fire in the sky to heed his remarks. “Blasted oafs!”

The streak of flame zipped behind a cloud and entered the puff of white condensation. Regaining his bodily form, Johnny extended his arms and expelled enough heat to charge the ions floating within the cloud.

Dragon Man burst into the cloud, mindlessly thrashing about for the Human Torch. As soon as his metal body entered the now thick and heavy cloud, its conducive metal skin provided the connection necessary for a lance of heat lightning to strike.

Johnny laughed and added his own flame to the electrical strike, melting off the arms of the robotic foe. Dragon Man was instantly charred to a crisp and plummeted from the sky like so much refuse.

Annihilus charged into the cloud, tackling Johnny around the waste. “Such tricks won’t work on the master of the Negative Zone, boy!”

A few stray arcs of electricity tried to latch onto them as they shot out of the cloud, but Annihilus’ armor provided enough insulation to protect him. The conqueror’s powerful arms gripped Johnny around the waste, attempting the choke the life out of him.

Johnny reacted by reverting back into a purely amorphous form, allowing his cosmic fire to whirl all around Annihilus. He thrashed wildly and sliced at the air with his claws, but Annihilus was powerless against the living firestorm that had ensnared him.

“That bulky armor is going to be your prison, ugly,” Johnny’s bodiless voice said. “Check this out!”

The Human Torch’s flame entered the cracks in Annihilus’ armor, searing and fusing the pieces shut. Welding it from the inside out, he melted the armor into a single, solid piece, exiting out of the mouth opening before also searing it shut.

Unable to move, including flap his wings, Annihilus dropped like a stone to the awaiting island below.

Johnny reformed his face long enough to smirk at the dropping villain, who was now as much of a threat as a paperweight. His enjoyment was short-lived, however, as the Wizard’s plasma laser fire soon ripped through his swirling flame.

“I’ll split you apart, atom by atom!” the Wizard hollered as he tossed several gravity discs at the Human Torch.

The rapid bend in gravity momentarily dispersed Johnny’s flame, but he quickly reformed himself and swirled out of the discs’ range. Whipping behind the Wizard and catching him in a choke hold, Johnny said, “Tough noggies, Wiz.”

Spinning once to build momentum, Johnny launched the Wizard into his own gravity discs. The Wizard there between the discs, suspended by the ripping forces around him. He screamed in agony as the opposing discs tried to pull him in three directions.

“Lucky for you I’m in a good mood today,” Johnny said, “otherwise I might leave you hanging there.”

Johnny unleashed a blast of pure cosmic fire, knocking the Wizard out of the gravity trap and sending him crashing back down to the island. He landed with a soft thud, again making Johnny smile.

SUE

“I’d be happy to explain it to him,” the Wizard responded, and the battle was joined.

A thin plasma laser burst from the Wingless Wizard’s right glove, slicing into the packed Earth that was the floor of the pit. The Four dispersed instantly, dividing up their efforts to tackle a grouping of villains each.

The Invisible Woman flashed a wall of force into place at the edge of the pit and gave it a mental shove. The wall, erected in front of five of the flanking villains, dug into the landscape and bulldozed them all back the length of two football fields.

Stepping onto an invisible platform, Sue hovered up out of the pit and flew off after them, bending the light around her to erase herself from the visible spectrum. Gaining speed as she went, she soon saw the regrouping villains picking themselves up again in a clearing.

Diablo and Hydro-Man were already back on their feet, while Titannia, Klaw, and Constrictor were still entangled amongst themselves. Still invisible, Sue phased her body out of sync with reality, allowing solid matter to now pass through her transparent state as easily as light. Her new power set made her invisible on any level of detection, meaning that no matter what the villains would never see her coming.

Diablo looked left and right, trying to see any clue that would show him where his prey was. He stumbled back as a phantom struck him on the chin and then again in the gut, forcing him to double over.

“It’s that see-through bitch,” Hydro-Man said. “I’ll weigh her down with a riptide that makes drowning seem like a day at the beach.”

Hydro-Man expanded his body until it was a wall of flowing water, reaching as high as the treetops. He screamed as he moved forward, a living tidal wave. He only made it a dozen feet before smashing against the wall that Sue had erected.

“Sorry,” she said. “You’re probably the least threatening one, water-boy.”

Forming bubbles out of bent light, Sue quickly contained the tidal wave that comprised the essence of Hydro-Man’s body, splitting him up into several globes of hovering liquid.

“Find her!” Diablo ordered. “She’s around here somewhere! Just cut the whole jungle down and you’re bound to hit her!”

Constrictor began to lash wildly with his adamantium tendrils, slicing through fauna effortlessly. His metal whips cut down a half dozen trees in seconds, and would have done the same to the Invisible Woman if not for her recently acquired intangibility.

Using the contained bubbles of Hydro-Man’s water like cannonballs, Sue slung the spheres at the villains, pulverizing them. Titannia had just collected herself when two of the spheres smashed both sides of her head, knocking her unconscious instantly. Klaw vibrated his sonic emitter in an attempt to shatter Sue’s concentration, but the soundwaves passed harmlessly through her body as she commanded the spheres to smash into his face.

“Gonna rip you open!” Constrictor screamed as he wildly sliced through the jungle terrain.

“What you see is what you get,” Sue replied as she forced another sphere to strike Constrictor on the back of his head.

Diablo began to actually shake in his boots. He slowly backed up against a tree, his eyes strafing the jungle clearing to see some sign of his opponent. Throughout all the years that he had taken on the Fantastic Four, he had never once seen them cut down an enemy so ruthlessly. Frankly, it scared him, and it was starting to regret taking Doom up on his offer.

Something reached out from behind him and he panicked. A pair of arms wrapped around his throat, cutting off his air supply. The Invisible Woman stepped out from inside the tree and walked around in front of Diablo. He watched her form a smile as the invisible constructs around his throat made him black out.

As he faded into unconsciousness, he saw the Invisible Woman command the multiple spheres containing Hydro-Man to randomly disperse about the island, effectively rendering his fellow villain inert. It would take weeks before he could reform, if he could reform at all.

BEN

“I’d be happy to explain it to him,” the Wizard responded, and the battle was joined.

A thin plasma laser burst from the Wingless Wizard’s right glove, slicing into the packed Earth that was the floor of the pit. The Four dispersed instantly, dividing up their efforts to tackle a grouping of villains each.

The Red Ghost commanded his Super-Apes to leap into the pit and dog pile onto of the ever-lovin’, blue-eyed Thing. The three enhanced simians pounded on the rocky hide of Ben Grimm, mercilessly thrashing the hero with everything they had.

Out of the corner of his eye he saw Reed slip out of the pit and trade blows with some of the other gathered villains. Not that he was concerned with Mr. Fantastic’s abilities, but he was glad that the big brain was now out of his way, giving him room to stretch out a bit.

The massive Thing flexed his rock-covered muscles and shot his arms out, tossing the simians against the walls of the pit. “That all ya got?” he hollered as he charged the closest ape and slammed his fist into its face.

The ape smashed back against the wall again and fell down at his feet. A quick glance over his shoulder told him that the other two apes were recovering, but a quick flash of irritation from his right side distracted him from closing the gap.

“I’ve waited many years to disintegrate you, Grimm!” the now invisible Red Ghost stated from somewhere in the pit. “Regardless of your new mutation I’ll see you dead this day!”

The Red Ghost fired his ray beam at the Thing again, but the red flash of light merely splashed against his orange hide and dissipated. “Might want to crank up the voltage on that gizmo, Red,” the Thing said. “Aunt Petunia has a whole new nephew.”

The Thing faced the direction that the Red Ghost’s beam had come from and took in a deep breath. He smashed his open palms together as hard as he could, mimicking a move he had seen the Hulk do a hundred times before. The resulting shockwave not only shoved the Red Ghost against the pit wall hard enough to knock him out, switching off his invisibility in the process, but it also caught up the other two Super-Apes and delivered them a similar blow.

Ben turned just in time to see a wrecking ball crash down into his face. He stumbled back, more from surprise than actual pain. He shook the cobwebs out of the corner of his eyes and saw the Absorbing Man charging him from across the pit, swinging his wrecking ball and screaming an unintelligible battle cry.

As he charged, Crusher Creel’s Caucasian skin began to tint and morph until it looked exactly like the wrecking ball he so wildly swung over his head. True to his name he had absorbed the properties of the deadly weapon, making him nearly invulnerable.

Deciding to test that theory, the Thing decked the charging villain with a right haymaker that could have leveled a city block. The Absorbing Man went sailing through the air, out of the pit, and across the vast ocean surrounding Monster Island. In an instant he was out of sight and out of mind, sure to eventually sink into the depths of the icy waters.

The Thing cracked his knuckles and chuckled. He hadn’t had much of a chance to let loose since returning to Earth and it felt good to pull out all the stops. Sure, he was still holding back, but only just a little. No need to kill everyone off while he could still use them for batting practice.

Something chopped at his knee and forced it to buckle out. He fell into a kneeling position just as another chop smacked his other knee out from under him. He tossed a look over his shoulder to see one of the Super-Apes, he had no idea which one it was known as, cocking back a fist and getting ready to let it fly into his face.

What struck him next, instead of a hairy fist, was insight. The ape’s eyes were closed. It was unconscious, but it was still moving. Behind it the other two apes were moving closer to him in quick, blocky movements.

“I would ask how my daughter has been,” the Puppet Master called down from the lip of the pit, “but when I’m through with you, you won’t be able to even remember Alicia’s name!”

Clay marionettes, shaped to look like the three Super-Apes, danced in front of the bald Puppet Master. Just as he moved the marionette, so did the simians mimic his movements. The closest of the trio punched the Thing in the jaw, but Ben only heard the bones in its hand crack and fracture.

“I am so sick of you buttin’ inta my life,” the Thing said as he grabbed the Super-Ape. He leaned back and tossed the rag doll simian directly at the Puppet Master, knocking him back and away from his marionettes.

All three Super-Apes fell to the ground again, lifeless. The Thing got up off the ground, leapt out of the pit, and stomped over to the Puppet Master. “When I’m through with you, baldy—”

The Puppet Master threw up his hands in defeat. He stared up at the Thing from where he lay on the ground, his ankle now sprained from the fall and unable to get up. “No! Please! I beg you! Mercy. Mercy!”

“Should have thought of that before you decided to throw in with the wrong crowd.”

REED

“I’d be happy to explain it to him,” the Wizard responded, and the battle was joined.

A thin plasma laser burst from the Wingless Wizard’s right glove, slicing into the packed Earth that was the floor of the pit. The Four dispersed instantly, dividing up their efforts to tackle a grouping of villains each.

With Johnny in the air, Reed trusted that those villains would be accounted for. He tossed a look over his shoulder and saw his wife invisibly sweep a contingent of enemies off into the jungle. Ben, beside him in the pit, was roaring a challenge to the rest, and the Red Ghost graciously obliged him by sending his Super-Apes into the fray.

Mr. Fantastic elongated his body and extended one foot up onto the lip of the pit, allowing him to simply step out of the trap. He stood a few feet away from the Mole Man and his pet creature, both of which were visibly seething with anger.

“You’re finally going to die, Richards,” the Mole Man said. He gripped his staff tightly, as if nervous. “Doom promised us your death.”

“Doom is dead,” Reed shot back coldly. “You’ll be seeing him soon enough, I think.”

The Mole Man gestured with his staff and the monstrous creature, born on Monster Island and whipped into submission by the blind scientist, leapt at Reed. Mr. Fantastic moved fluidly around the clumsy charge, making his body like elastic. His arms stretched out like whips, he slashed at the creature and struck its back, slicing open the bare flesh there.

Moving with snake-like speed, Reed slipped a stretched arm underneath the Mole Man and wrapped it around his calf. He upended the master of the underworld, slamming his head into the ground and busting open a gash on his scalp.

The Mole Man’s creature swung about to retaliate, but Mr. Fantastic lashed him down again, this time striking him across the face.

Attuma hefted his axe and charged the leader of the Four, cutting through the air with his blade as well as his Atlantean battle cry. Mr. Fantastic slung his extended arm around the warrior, looping his stretched appendage again and again. Attuma, out of his element and in a state of confusion due to recent squabbles with the Avengers*, struggled against the confining arms of Mr. Fantastic.

* [Check out AVENGERS…is this the real Attuma? – D]

“Say cheese!” the vicious Trapster hollered with glee as he raised his glue gun. A thick wad of goo coated both Attuma and Reed’s arm holding him in the air. “Slip out of that, Richards!”

Reed shot the Trapster a look of contempt. “Easily,” he replied. “Now that I have complete control over my molecular structure at the atomic level, I can simply shake the adhesive free from between the atoms.”

The Trapster watched in astonishment as Mr. Fantastic spun in place, acting as the center of a centrifuge with Attuma caught at the end of the lever. The hardening glue slopped off in huge chunks and once it was completely gone Reed released his grip on Attuma, sending him head over heels crashing into the Trapster.

The Mole Man’s creature roared and charged again, but Reed wrapped his entire body around both of the monster’s legs, ensnaring it. It stumbled and tripped, smacking its jaw off of the ground with a sickening sound. Reed loosened his grip just enough to sling his arm around the creature’s throat, pulling back and choking it. The creature went limp as it passed out from lack of oxygen and Reed untangled himself from the its legs and throat.

“I see you’ve become quite the brawler, Richards,” the Mad Thinker said from atop the shoulder of his Awesome Android. “I admit, watching you and your kin revert to your base fighting prowess…it’s enlightening. Of course, this obviously means that your mental balance has been disheveled. Obviously.”

“Only an arrogant bastard like you would assume something as obvious,” Reed shot back.

With a nod and a polite smile, the Mad Thinker tapped his Awesome Android on the head. The Android lumbered forward, its fists smashing down around Reed, threatening to smother him in gray synthetic flesh.

Reed easily slipped in and out of the blows, and after a half dozen strikes he wrapped himself around both of the Android’s wrists, using his own body like handcuffs.

Thinning out a portion of his body, Reed cut into the Android’s wrists, severing its hands completely off up to the forearm. With complete control over his own body, Reed had stretched his body as thin as a single molecule, enabling him to cut into the automaton with ease.

Sliding up the Android’s arms and wrapping around the torso, Reed repeated the process until the robot was no more then a pile of scrap that had been sliced into ribbons.

The Mad Thinker had been cast aside during the altercation, and watched with amazement before seeing Reed reform himself into his normal shape. With bulged eyes and an inability to comprehend just how Reed how done it, the Mad Thinker stuttered as he ran off to seek cover in the jungle.

Reed smirked, content at the uselessly of his enemies. For too long in his career had he catered to their well-being, but no longer. Thanks to the changes he and the rest of the team had undergone they were no unstoppable.

“You think highly of yourself,” a voice from overhead said.

Reed looked up to see the Super-Skrull staring back down at him. “As you’ve done for years,” he replied. “We’ve evolved beyond what we once were. You don’t stand a chance against us now. I’ll grant you leave unless you wish to test us, as per Doom’s orders.”

“I didn’t come here because of Doom,” the Skrull responded. “He provided the opportunity, but I came to see you for myself. Skrull intelligence reports indicated that our enemies recently held you aboard their flagship.* Upon your return I thought it necessary that I see what you had to gain from allying yourself with that Kree scum.”

* [Check out past issues of FF to see where they were – D]

A lick of flame shot passed the Super-Skrull, reforming itself into the Human Torch. The pair stared each other down for a moment before Johnny said, “Leave now or get scorched.”

The Super-Skrull laughed. “You want to test your flame to mine, boy?”

“Too much talkin’,” the Thing said from below. “Not enough ass-kickin’. Suzie!”

The Invisible Woman, who had returned from her own challenge, nodded and created a sphere of invisible force in Ben Grimm’s open palm. The Thing launched it like a missle, where it struck the Super-Skrull just after he converted his own body to solid rock.

“Your powers are outdated,” Reed said as he stretched his body up to meet the warping Super-Skrull’s own stretching body.

Their arms lashed back and both, deflecting each other’s blows. The Human Torch swept in, blazing around the Super-Skrull with intense heat and flame, powerful enough to scorch the skin off of the alien soldier.

The Super-Skrull tried to back away, but Mr. Fantastic held him in place, supported by one of the Invisible Woman’s platforms. The Thing crouched low and sprung up, jabbing his fist directly into the Skrull’s jaw, then following it up with a devastating blow with his other fist before his arcing trajectory took him too far down.

The Super-Skrull was catapulted back down to the island, forming a crater upon impact. The Four surrounded him, looking down at their fallen archenemy.

“Eventually the Skrull empire will fall,” Reed said. “Once we finish our objective you and your kind will be wiped from the face of the universe.”

---- 4 ----

“Why can’t we go with you, Mr. Lang?”

Scott Lang picked his helmet up off the counter in Reed Richards’ laboratory in the Baxter Building and held it like a football. He turned to look at the child who had spoken to him, Franklin, and said, “I think you and sister had enough adventure already.”

“But it’s our family you’re talking about!” Franklin exclaimed. “They would come for me!”

“Franklin…” Scott hesitated. He didn’t know how much he should say to the young boy. Could he freely admit that he didn’t think that the Fantastic Four that had come back from space was his family? Regardless of the positive DNA test that Machine Man had run, there was something wrong with them. They weren’t acting like themselves at all.

The main door to the lab slid open before Scott could finish deciding how to explain the situation to the child. Nova, her cosmically fueled essence blanketed by an air of caution, stood there looking in with distraught.

“Scott!” she said. “Switch on any news channel!”

“What’s going on?”

“Just do it!” she replied as she trotted into the room.

Scott quickly flicked the holographic interface control on the lab console, switching on the large overhanging display and turning it to a network news station. In the center of the screen was the Fantastic Four, which made Franklin smile. Scott, however, frowned once he saw the text scrolling along the bottom of the screen.

It read: FANTASTIC FOUR ISSUE ULTIMATIUM.

“The volume!” she declared. “X-51 caught part of the segment in the lounge. I came to find you as soon as I could. Turn up the volume!”

Scott did so and almost wished he hadn’t.

“—are establishing our new base of operations here on Monster Island,” said Mr. Fantastic. “Due to the doomsday weapon we recovered here, and the recent global catastrophe that we easily averted, the Four will soon be issuing decrees that must be followed to the letter. Failure to acknowledge our commands for the betterment of mankind will result in us switching on the WMD, solidifying the Earth’s core, and rendering all life on the planet inert.”

---- 4 ----

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